(Posted on July 19, 2013 by David McMillin)
[NOTE: While serving as mentor for an online version of "A Search For God" study group and working on the "Know Thyself" lesson, a class member asked about a quote in "The Physical Body" section: "Each organ has its individual functions and desires which are in themselves holy." The group member wanted additional information on the meaning of what our organs desire. Although my reply attempts to tie the explanation into that lesson (Know Thyself), the meaning of desire at the physical level of the body is also addressed from the standpoint of desire as a spiritual attribute (the holiness of desire) in the biology of the body. – David McMillin]
You have asked a deep question and I will do my best to give you an answer that will make sense.
It is important to realize that the "A Search For God" books were written by individuals in a study group based on readings given by Edgar Cayce. Only in a couple of instances did Edgar Cayce essentially dictate text to be used in the lessons. The process was for Edgar Cayce to provide a series of readings that laid out an outline of key points for each lesson and the group members were to pray, meditate, and apply the concepts in their daily lives. Then they were to write up a text based on their application. Then Cayce critiqued what they had written. The process had the effect of "keeping it real." But this also led to a lot of questions by group that Cayce had to address.
The phrase that you are asking about was such a question and it originated from paragraph 5 of reading 262-8. It was a long, complex paragraph – so complex that the group had to come back and ask for an explanation in reading 262-10. The entranced Cayce apparently picked up on their confusion, because he concluded paragraph 19 with this comment:
To some the explanation is worse than that first given! But study self in the light of that which is given in knowing self. (262-10)
I get a chuckle out of that one – Cayce did have sense of humor while in trance! But it also points out how complex the topic is. So keep that in mind as I give you my interpretation of what Cayce was trying to communicate to them.
1. Cooperation - Each organ of the body must do its job and cooperate with the other organs.
There is, then, the physical body with its physical attributes. The various members must function one with another in the lesson of cooperation, and would one member war against another then disorder must naturally ensue. (262-8)
Cayce actually made the reference to "cooperation" to tie this lesson in with previous one (see 262-8, paragraph 4). He did that a lot in the 262 series of readings – connected the lessons together to get a sense of the sequence and progression.
2. Desire - Desire is a spiritual attribute and as such manifests energy and movement which is life or lifeforce in the body ("spirit is the life"). As a spiritual manifestation, it is sacred or holy. We are speaking of the low electrical energy that is synonymous with that called God or Creative Energy in the body. We will look more closely at Desire in a future lesson dedicated to that subject. With regard to physiology, it is simply the energy that drives an organ to fulfill its function. It involves feedback from the sensory system to keep it coordinating and cooperating with the rest of the body. Thus the functioning of an organ is a manifestation of spirit – spirit made flesh. By understanding the body, we can know about ourselves as spiritual beings.
3. Karma - Paragraph 5 of reading 262-8 also brings in another aspect of the biology of self by pointing out:
... for not only do these show forth that which IS magnified in a single appearance or experience, but of the whole impressions as have been received through those varied experiences of that entity. (262-8)
He is referring to past lives and how past life information gets encoded into our physiology so that we can meet our karma. This is a big part of "know thyself," to be sure. And as quoted in one of the exercises for this lesson:
Karma is cause oft of hereditary conditions so called. Then indeed does the soul inherit that it has builded in its experience with its fellow man in material relationships." (3313-1)
The organs of the body reflect one's soul history. It may even be that some of the desire patterns that the organs are fulfilling reflect the soul history of the "entity." Yet another layer to knowing thyself.
These are some of the key points that I surmise from these particular readings. You can go look at the readings themselves and see if this makes sense to you, and if not, ask more questions, if you dare. But like Cayce, the explanation I provide may be worse than the original phrase that tickled your mind in the first place!! – Best wishes, Dave
If you would like to read the original sources that I quoted above to get a sense of context (and also an awareness of just how complex this information is), here are the relevant excerpts:
Each organ has its individual functions and desires which are in themselves holy. ("Know Thyself" lesson, "The Physical Body" section)
4. As this should be a practical lesson in the study of self first, then let each consider the factors within self that must reason with, or reason from, those factors from without. There is, then, the physical body with its physical attributes. The various members must function one with another in the lesson of cooperation, and would one member war against another then disorder must naturally ensue.
5. There are, then, the organs and their functionings of the physical or natural body, that have their individual desires that are taken into consideration when the body functions in its physical sense as a unit of creative forces that are manifesting in a material world in the body with its senses, that make known to the physical body those magnified desires or natures of that physical body. These are registered in the activities of the physical body in such a way and manner as to stamp upon the very face of the body that which has been magnified through its own physical senses. These senses are but attunements within a physical body, each vibrating according to the training of, or elements of concentration by the physical forces of the body as pertaining to attunements of the development of that, of which the physical body is a MATERIAL representation; for not only do these show forth that which IS magnified in a single appearance or experience, but of the whole impressions as have been received through those varied experiences of that entity; the registering being in the soul of the entity, the same as in the material sense it is in the physiognomy of the individual upon which the activities of that environ in which the entity has placed itself, by its attunement to the various elements about that entity. In the same sense these elements, then, are made up of the PHYSICAL body, the MENTAL body, the SPIRITUAL body, each with their attributes and associations and connections that must all work in unison in much the same manner as the organs of the physical body must ATTUNE themselves in their ratio or relative active forces with a normal physical functioning body. This lesson! (262-5)
19. (Q) Please explain more fully the following: [GC: Reading last half of first page in lesson of December 27, 1931, 262-8.]
(A) That is as itself. The confusion that comes to those seeking the expansion of it is the relative relation of the physical body as a unit, yet a portion of the whole. The entity or soul body and its experiences that it may receive, in the clarifying of that which is builded by an entity as it passes from plane to plane. Let's begin with that which was given by Him, "Not that which entereth into a man defileth him, but that which cometh forth. Many are as whitened sepulchres, beautiful without but within full of dead men's bones!" This is referring to the activities of a physical being, but taking into consideration the activities of a physical body, a mental body, AND spiritual body. One that lives to gratify the desires of the fleshly body ALONE may be beautiful without (and often is!), but within is as of those foul, that make for the belittling of the soul - for it must become corruption, and that able to be given out by such an one then is that which brings for that, in its seed, that makes for discord, corruption, disorder. Such an entity, such a soul, passing in - as the tree falls, so must it lie, and the whole shall be paid EVERY WHIT! "My word shall NOT pass away." The soul, the entity, goes to meet that it has builded in that atmosphere, that surrounding, that environ, that vibration it has created or builded for itself; not in the material, but in the spiritual, the universal plane. Then again it enters in the physical plane for the experimenting, or developing, or magnifying, or showing forth that it may build. Just as given in the illustration, that each functioning of the organs of the physical body is dependent one upon another, and - as was given - who finds fault that the hand is not the eye, or the head that it is not the foot, or the comely part that is not the uncomely, and the like? All must be made in attune, in accord, that the WHOLE may be saved, rather than that a portion should suffer through that it may build in this activity through the world. See? This may be clarified most with individuals taking their own EXPERIENCES in the various spheres that brought from one to another position, element, understanding, and meet each as they find in that environ, that surrounding, that which must bring that knowledge of the whole, that "the Father and I ARE one." For the physical body, the mental body, the spiritual body, to rebel, is as for the foot to REBEL that it is not the head, or the hand; or as for the organs to rebel because they have become POISONED by that which UNSEEMINGLY has been fed the body for its sustenance. See? To some the explanation is worse than that first given! But study self in the light of that which is given in knowing self. (262-10)