Article Excerpt from Venture Inward, a publication of the Association for Research and Enlightenment, the legacy of famed American psychic Edgar Cayce ~ November/December 2004

By Lauren Thibodeau, Ph.D.

"To fulfill that purpose for which an entity, a being, has manifested in matter is the greater service that can possibly be rendered."  -- Edgar Cayce, 1391-1

We are here for a purpose.  Learning to open ourselves to understanding what that purpose is requires much from us as the journey through life.  But along the way, we are fortunate to have many tools to support us as we travel.  One of the most important tools is intuition.

Underneath intuition lies the instinctual fighter flight response and coded into all of us.  This instinct is basic to our survival.  It's a tool that helps us to understand our purpose on earth, and endeavor to fulfill it. Instinct guides us away from danger, keeping us on the path that only humans can experience: a walk in the earthly world.

Intuition evolves from instinct.  Intuition is the stem which grows from the roots of instinct which is expressed in many forms -- sensory, visual, auditory, gut/body based and mixed, in large part through the senses.  Intuition is inborn -- a tool to use on the journey toward fulfillment.

Knowing is the flower that grows from that intuitive stem.  Carefully tended intuition grows into Knowing, which can surprise you with the many and varied ways it blooms in your life. But rather than let it surprise you I encourage you, as did Edgar Cayce, to tend to your intuition and grow it into that blossom of Knowing.  This is done through living with conscious awareness, and building meditation and reflection into your life.

The journey into your Inner Wisdom, into your Knowing Self, includes periods of active engagement (the conscious-awareness piece) and periods of rest (the meditation-and-reflection pieces), much like a bulb that winters in a state of hibernation, only to bloom in the spring.  Even when you feel that nothing much is happening in your spiritual development, rest assured that just like a bulb which gathers strength underground you are developing spiritually; it's an infinite and ongoing process.  You can't get it "wrong," but through focused attention (think of it as "Miracle-Gro" for the Spirit!), you can get far better results much more quickly.

"Let the body-mind continuing the attitude of seeking for the spiritual awakening.  No that each experience in this material plane is, if used in a constructive manner, for soul developments!"  -- Edgar Cayce, 1445-1

Edgar Cayce clearly understood the principle of seeking spiritual growth.  He also understood the balance, the Abbot and flow, between the earthly world and the spiritual world.  He repeatedly noted that soul development is the result of experience here.  Cayce's suggestion that we use our earthly experiences in a constructive manner is one reason I chose to write about how to better develop a constructive approach to examining life experiences and consciously developing the soul's potential.

End of excerpt.  Entire article, with illustration, appears in VENTURE INWARD November/December 2004.