A door is a movable barrier between spaces that can be opened to give access or closed to provide privacy or security. Metaphorically doors are useful symbols for defining the transition between states of consciousness.
For example, Aldous Huxley’s 1954 book “The Doors of Perception” relates his experiences when taking the psychoactive drug mescaline. Mescaline is the principal active agent in the psychedelic cactus peyote traditionally used in native-American ceremonies.
Just as Huxley borrowed from native-American rituals for his chemistry experiment in consciousness, the title of his book was also borrowed from a work by the mystical, artist and poet William Blake in his poem, “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.” Thus we have the association of mystical, altered states of consciousness with brain chemistry that can unlock the doors of perception – a widely sought after transcendent experience in western societies during the 1960s.
Huxley had the advantage of having studied the world’s great religious traditions prior to his adventures with the holy cactus. His work “The Perennial Philosophy” is a classic in the field of comparative religions and well worth the read for anyone seeking the commonality of mystical experience in the great religious traditions throughout history.
Huxley hypothesized that the brain functions like a plumbing valve, the function of which is to remain closed. When the brain becomes injured, diseased, or chemically altered, the valve can become opened or inoperable allowing access to the unseen realms of spirit.
The essential point to be made here is that there is apparently a closed door in our consciousness. The door can be opened by altering our brain chemistry by various traditional rituals, ceremonies, and spiritual practices such as meditation and yoga – OR by the blunt force of chemistry, if so desired.
One of the most dramatic uses of the door as a transcendent symbol can be found in the Revelation of John as documented in the last book of the Christian bible. Rather than interpreting John’s vision as an apocalyptic description of the end of the world, the Cayce readings view it simply as a description of the inner process of enlightment that John experienced while in deep meditation in his cave on the Mediterranean isle of Patmos.
The fourth chapter of the Revelation begins with a door opening in the sky to reveal a fantastic heavenly throne room. John says that immediately he was in spirit, meaning that he had altered his consciousness – allowing him to pass through the door and be present in the throne room. Edgar Cayce’s interpretation of this amazing spectacle is that it represents the anatomy and physiology of the body during mystical states such as John was experiencing.
The throne room that John envisions is in the brain. The twenty-four elders represent the twenty-four cranial nerves. If we turn the brain over we can see the twelve pair of cranial nerves that come out of the brain stem. Likewise the pineal and pituitary glands in the brain are identified as key spiritual centers activated during mystical states.
This biological perspective of the Revelation may seem a little peculiar to those familiar with the apocalyptic interpretation typically associated with John’s vision, but the Cayce readings take it even further by recommending the use of Gray’s Anatomy as a resource while studying the Revelation.
In many of Cayce’s readings that discuss spiritual attunement during deep meditation, the concept of a doorway in consciousness is further explained at the physical level. Not only is there an open door in the brain, there is a closed door lower in the body in a mysterious gland called the lyden or Leydig. Lyden is the meaning – closed door – while Leydig refers to the man who discovered the gland.
Franz Leydig discovered the Leydig gland in 1892. This tiny ball of tissue about the size of a small pea is located between the reproductive and urinary tracts in both males and females and is not to be confused with the cells of Leydig also discovered in by Franz Leydig in 1850. The readings state that this Leydig gland at the base of the torso and the pineal gland in the brain function as the “seat of the soul” in the human body, with the Leydig the closed door and the pineal as the open door.
Certainly the question arises as to why the door to higher consciousness is closed in the first place. And what can we expect when the door is opened?
Let us begin with the question of the closed door. Perhaps the door is closed because to have it opened by default would be too much of a distraction. We might become side-tracked as we try to attend to the lessons we are working out in our schoolroom on planet earth. If we were constantly bombarded by extrasensory perception of the unseen realities in which we are immersed – the multidimensional realities that we have mentioned in previous lessons – it could be too much information to process, leaving us dazed and confused, at best.
Perhaps the door is closed to provide us with a separate sense of self – a bit of sacred space and privacy. One of the common features of mystical experiences is the dissolving of boundaries and the sense or awareness of connection to everything. This can be a wondrous experience, but do we want it all the time? Is a world without any boundaries necessarily the optimal arrangement for personal or soul development? Perhaps not.
Maybe the closed door merely signifies the barriers in consciousness that we have erected by selfishness in rebellion to God. Maybe it represents a form of exile like Adam and Eve being banished from the garden in the Genesis account. This biblical view of the closed door is consistent with the Christian image of Jesus standing at the closed door, knocking.
Interpretation of a symbol is a highly personal matter. What does the closed door symbolize to you? Your answer will help you to understand yourself at this point in your soul development. And your interpretation will probably change as you grow in understanding. Cayce’s assertion that the closed door is part of our anatomy and physiology at the physical level seems to suggest that it serves a useful purpose at this stage of human evolution.
Like the closed door, the symbol of the open door can be rich with personal meaning. For some, the open door represents the entrance to throne room of the Kingdom of heaven within each person, much as it did in John’s revelation.
Another common interpretation is the doorway to the inner temple – the sacred place within your consciousness where you go to commune with the divine within. The Cayce readings typically described this by comparison with the Hebrew temple in Jerusalem described in the bible with its outer court, inner court, and holy of holies. This is the inner meeting place within consciousness that is accessed during deep meditation or during mystical experiences.
Regardless of whatever specific meaning you might assign to the symbol of the open door, its purpose is the same. It opens to the path of universal or God consciousness, also called Christ consciousness in the Cayce readings.