(Posted on August 7, 2013 by David McMillin)
[NOTE: While serving as mentor for an online version of "A Search For God" study group and working on the Destiny of the Body lesson, a class member was curious about the meaning of a question raised by [341] during the original 262 series of readings upon which the ASFG material was developed. Here is my reply. – David McMillin]
You've raised a fascinating and important question. [341] was Hugh Lynn Cayce, Edgar's eldest son. The tendency to be persistent in questioning does seem to have been a pattern for him, as you have noted in this case. The intent of the original question in 262-77 and the follow-up in 262-82 seem to be targeting the same general issue that you have raised with regard to the TV documentary portraying people suffering from genetic disorders. It relates to karma and heredity in relation to the Destiny of the Body on an individual basis.
(Q) [341]: Please explain the relation of heredity and the destiny of the physical body within man's control.
(A) This would rather come in body as related to DESTINY. Let's don't get ahead; we've got to have MIND yet! Mind builds for the body; both physical and the soul, and the body is of the hereditary influences through the relativity of activity of soul and mind. Comprehend? (262-77)
(Q) [341]: Please explain heredity in relation to the Destiny of the Body. Do we draw to our bodies the same atomic structures used in other bodies?
(A) This is rather confusing in its questioning. There is a compliance with those things, ever, set as immutable laws. LIKE BEGETS LIKE! Heredity, then, is the association of that within the minds, the bodies, the atomical structural forces of a union which hath drawn for its OWN development as well as for that which comes AS an activity of a unison of purpose. Hence we have a choice, yet the CHOICE of that as we have built; for as the tree falleth so shall it lie. If the blind lead the blind BOTH shall fall into the ditch.But He, the Lord, the Master, the Maker, maketh the paths straight to those, for those, that seek to have HIM lead the way. (262-82)
"LIKE BEGETS LIKE." That is the basis for what is commonly called karma as well as genetics. We have covered this in a previous lesson (The Cross and Crown: ASFG I). We live in a cause and effect world. We have will and can make choices, but our range of choices is based on that which we have built in the past – "for the tree falleth so shall it lie." So at an individual level, the Destiny of the Body includes meeting the conditions that we have created in the past. These are the lessons that we must learn. There is a "purpose" – "for its [the soul's] OWN development." This is carried through in the atomic structure of the body (genetic material) that is built by the Mind. Reading 262-82 encourages us to meet our karma gracefully as a matter of "choice," relying on the Lord to lead the way.
Although the questions from the 262 readings that you have cited are based on hypothetical or conceptual questions raised by Hugh Lynn Cayce, there are many other readings that address this important issue at a personal, practical level for persons who were meeting themselves through karmic conditions. Here are a couple of excerpts that might provide some additional insight on your question:
Thus we find this entity - as each entity - is in the present the result of that the entity has applied of Creative influences and forces in every phase of its experience. Thus it makes for that called by some karma, by others racial hereditary forces. And thus environment and hereditary forces (as are accepted) are in their reality the activities of the MIND of the entity in its choices through the experiences in the material, in the mental, in the spiritual planes. (1796-1)
As we find, conditions are such that there may be a staying of the disturbances, but these activities are of the consuming [cancerous] nature. If there is the desire, there may be used the influences that we might suggest - though these will not heal, or remove causes. For, as has been indicated oft, causes may be karma. 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)
So karmic conditions involving heredity is part of the Destiny of the Body at the individual level with regard to the process of soul development. Thus the physical body is purified, raised in its vibration, and eventually restored to the celestial form from which it descended. That is the Destiny of the Body.
Meeting karmic conditions from a spiritual perspective as an Opportunity for growth is a matter of CHOICE. Therein lies the Destiny of the Soul, that we will consider in the next lesson. Blessings, Dave