This article is to celebrate the birthdays of two presidents, Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, to honor all past US presidents, to reflect upon the personal philosophy our new president, Barack Obama and to offer him our support.

Just yesterday, president Obama was quoted paraphrasing  Macbeth while attending the re-opening ceremony of the Ford Theatre in celebration of Abe Lincoln’s 200 birthday. President Obama took the proverbial beating as apparently quoting Macbeth is considered an omen and precursor for bad things to come.

Bad things to come?  Does Obama believe in omens? Wonder if First Lady Michelle Obama seeks the counsel of psychics?  If you recall, it has been rumored that many presidents and First Ladies have occasionally referred to psychics to predict the future, forewarn omens and to foretell prophecies. Perhaps one of the best known psychics is Edgar Cayce.

The Philosophies of Edgar Cayce and Barack Obama: Are there Parallelisms?

In looking at the meteoric rise of Mr. Obama to cult status as leader of a world superpower and president of the US, one may refer to Edgar Cayce’s use and advocacy of channeling to find and express one’s higher self. Ways in which Mr. Obama may have channeled the positive energy of the universe to propel to astronomical heights are markedly apparent.

For instance, Cayce, as reported in the book, Channeling Your Higher Self  espoused the following theories:

1. We can save our planet.
2. We need to remember our innate abilities and power.
3. Spirits and our deceased loved ones remind us of our powers.
4. We create our own reality through love, choice and the power to change.
5. We are loved.
6. We can awaken the profound power of love within ourselves.
7. We must dream, to remember them and to value their creative powers.

In glancing at the titles of Mr. Obama’s best sellers alone, The Audacity of Hope and Dreams of My Father, we glimpse into a philosophy striking similar to those of Edgar Cayce some 50 odd years ago.

Channeling Our Higher Selves

How do we as mere mortals, lacking connections to money men, influential political consultants and accomplished mentors channel our higher selves? In the midst of all the negative newscasts of declining home values, stagnant wages, job loss, increasing health insurance costs and college tuition… How might we, the mere commoner, the average Jane or Joe channel our higher selves?  In the chaos of spirit numbing reality shows, addictive American Idol, Dancing with the Wolves television programming, how do we pierce through the ignorance and see the wisdom? We can see clearly our true nature in the mist and fog presented by the disbeliever, naysayer, the pessimistic and the overly critical by utilizing the following methods.

The Human Being- A Channel of Divine Energy

According to Cayce, you can activate your personal channel of divine energy by:
1. Listening to your intuition.
2. Listening to that small, still voice that signifies One Spirit, One Energy that unites all creation.

Tuning into Your Personal Channel

Since we all have a personal channel of divine energy, we must learn how to turn into the right frequency, tune into the channels for greater acuity,  listen to the message, have the courage and self confidence to act upon the message, and to believe once the energy has been in force (put into play) that Thy will be done.

Cayce, as reported in the book,  felt that we could do all of the above in this manner.

1. Always express love and empathy toward your fellow man.
2. The strength of one’s intuition will be directly proportional to your need to know something (a crisis, threat, impending death, danger, etc).
3. That small, still voice is usually the first thing/impulse you hear or feel before your big brain and ego kicks in to influence you.
4. Your intuition is consistent with your highest ideals and values.
5. The best way to strengthen your intuition is to honor it and use it.
6. Spend time in nature.

To go a step further, Cayce postulates that dreams serve as our divine energy channel. We have the channel available to us to use when we are awake too, but the problem is that there are so many interferences and distractions from external stimuli that we fail to turn to the divine frequency. Additionally, our internal thought processes and ego keep us from utilizing our intuition and instead we second guess ourselves when we have a premonition, gut feeling or instinct to do or not to do something.

Dreams

If you are interested in learning more about turning into your divine channel through the dream frequency, Cayce suggests these advantages.

Dreams,
1. Offer real experiences in the spiritual dimension.
2. Provide a reading of our current life.
3. Provide us with a way to contact God.
4. Are inspirational and teach us lessons.
5. Can be creative and present solutions to our problems.
6. Can be psychic and help us see into the future.

If you are a little more skeptical about the validity of the dream argument, Cayce proposed that our intuition is the vocal presentation of our guardian angel. The angel has no free will of its own, but serves only the will of God. During the day, when we are awake we experience our guardian angel through intuition, that small, still voice. The closer we are to our guardian angel and the greater the probability that we will act upon our intuition the closer we will come to God and to realizing our higher selves.

Christ Consciousness

In addition to Cayce’s unyielding stance that everyone regardless of income, educational level, race, age and sex has access to the divine energy, Cayce recommended that we find an ideal from which to aspire. For some it could be Christ, the Buddha, a Goddess, etc. Someone, Spirit, or Saint that embodies something that awakens deep perfect love, harmony and peace within you.

The more we think like, act like our ideal; we become our ideal. We no longer think or act in ways that will cause harm to us or others. This leads us to Cayce’s viewpoint on sin. Cayce presented that sin is something that causes its own punishment. One suffers when one sins. Not after death, but now. We can create our own hell right here on earth.

The fictional character, Yoda of the Star Wars movies, by George Lucas says: “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” To follow one’s Christ Consciousness or Christ ideal is to use antidotes to counter the human ego. For instance replace fear with love; feelings of separation to your ideal with oneness; and feelings of isolation and loneliness by reaching out to your fellow man, and so on.

The Mask

Cayce put forth that the personality is nothing but a mask worn, a social convention used by man to appease, please and to look good in the eyes of others. This mask not only shields our true selves from others, it hides our true nature from ourselves. Cayce stressed the authenticity of the individual. He suggested that in channeling one’s higher self, the mask is discarded. We become more confident in expressing, living and being that which we truly are.

Once we peel away the mask, we will discover our unique soul. A soul or spirit that has the unlimited capacity, the infinite ability to love without stopping, to forgive without regrets, to create with without exhaustion or feeling burnout and to give from a bottomless reservoir of resources.

The Home is Where Heaven is

We’ve heard that a home is a man’s castle. An adjunct to Cayce’s belief that one could create one’s own heaven or hell here on earth right now, in this moment; Cayce maintained that our home is the model and our closest experience on earth to a heavenly home.

As outsiders peeking into the lives of our new president and his family, many have commented about the open affection, tenderness and love expressed  in an unabashed even brazen way. One can only hope that these public snapshots are more than displays but represent realistic and an on-going documentary of ways in which we all might declare our love for our family.

Conclusion

So this week when we take the time to honor our past and current presidents we are strengthened by their courage. We may also see how Mr. Obama may have selected to live his life according to the motto embraced by Edgar Cayce himself, “Love is a law unto itself. It is a channel of miracles because it can transcend the law of cause and effect. It can break the rules.”

Dr. Mead, PhD, MBA, MA http://www.ishareknowledge.com/ is a consultant specializing in human behavior, school and social psychology. She can be contacted at: tonya@ishareknowledge.com

For additional reflections on Edgar Cayce, go to http://ishareknowledge.com/2008/02/09/the-wonderous-works-of-edgar-cayce.aspx