Sidney D. Kirkpatrick Edgar Cayce An American Prophet Riverhead Books 2000 ISBN 1.57322.139.2 Hoofdstuk 2 Little Friends and Little Anna The most pressing question that occupied his interest concerned prayer. Edgar couldn't understand how a person could call himself a true disciple of the Lord if he talked and talked to God and He didn't answer. Edgar fully expected and believed God would, and should, answer anyone who sincerely asked something of Him. It was this belief that undoubtedly led to what Edgar later described as the single most profound experience of his childhood: a visit by an angel. This incident occurred in 1889, by which time Edgar and his family had moved to yet another house. The 'cottage,' or 'little house in the woods,' as Edgar later described this home, was located a short walk down a dirt road from the site of the old homestead and had been built the previous summer by Leslie with the help of his brothers. Edgar liked this home better than any of the others because it stood in the midst of a grassy meadow full of wildflowers and herbs and was surrounded on three sides by a stand of hickory, ash, elm, maple, poplar, and dogwood trees. Edgar selected a quiet spot under a gnarled willow tree a few hundred feet behind the house to build a retreat out of a crude canopy of saplings and vines covered with bark. Adjacent to the willow was a natural spring, which Leslie later tapped for water to save himself from digging a well. Beside the spring grew violets, jack-in-thepulpits, crocuses, and jonquils. Edgar, who prided himself on learning all the names of plants and flowers in Beverly, was quite excited the morning he found a mandrake plant mentioned in the Bible. Edgar spent many hours in his new retreat. His primary activities were reading from the Bible, praying to God, and watching the squirrels, birds, and other animals that came to drink out of the spring. (36) Many accounts of Edgar's childhood state that it was here, under the willow tree, that an angel appeared, causing Edgar to have the revelation that was the inspiration for his later career. Edgar himself, however, said that the angel appeared to him in his bedroom, after he had spent a long day reading his Bible in the woods and asking himself how he could be of service to the Lord. He had eaten dinner and, as usual, went to bed after helping his mother with the chores. His sisters were fast asleep in beds adjacent to his own when he suddenly awoke in the night and perceived what he described as a powerful light coming through the doorway. "I felt as if I were being lifted up," Edgar later wrote. "A glorious light as of the rising morning sun seemed to fill the whole room, and a figure appeared at the foot of my bed. I was sure it was my mother and called [out], but she didn't answer. For the moment I was frightened, climbed out of bed, and went to my mother's room. No, she hadn't called. Almost immediately, after I returned to my couch, the figure came again. Then it seemed all gloriously bright - an angel, or what, I knew not, but gently, patiently, it said: 'Thy prayers are heard. You will have your wish. Remain faithful. Be true to yourself. Help the sick, the afflicted.' " Edgar slept very little that night. Once the vision had faded, he rushed outside to his favorite tree, and through its branches the moon seemed to shine more brightly than he had ever seen it. He knelt beside the tree and thanked God for answering his prayers. In the morning, as the sun began to rise, he awoke to find himself still sitting under the tree. A squirrel came down from one of the branches and searched for nuts in Edgar's pocket. Edgar felt a sudden sense of joy and release, as if the mysteries of his early childhood had come into sharp focus. It was at that moment that Edgar believed he had obtained his first true insight into the life that lay ahead of him. He would be doing 'God's work,' though exactly what he was to do, and how he was to prepare himself were questions he hadn't yet begun to address. (37) Hoofdstuk 3 In the Company of Angels Edgar didn't immediately tell his mother and father about the angel. To have done so would surely have raised questions similar to those asked him by his Aunt Lou. And even if he had felt up to facing an interrogation at home, and the one that would inevitably have followed at Liberty Church, he didn't feel he had the skills to convey the intense personal nature of his vision or to avoid public mockery and skepticism. "I had no way of knowing which was more real," he later confessed, "the vision of the lady or the pillow I rested my head upon." More than three years would elapse before he summoned the courage to tell anyone about the angel's visit, and many more years passed before he was able to understand his vision in the broader context of his early childhood experiences. Ultimately, Edgar concluded that he, like his grandfather, had been born with special abilities, that as a youth he frequently had glimpsed a reality that could not normally be perceived through the five senses, and that the greatest challenge he faced during his early years was to translate what he perceived into something meaningful to his adolescent mind. (38) The fact that the angel in his bedroom bore a striking resemblance to an illustration in his aunt's Bible didn't invalidate the experience or make its message less meaningful; it was merely the means for a young child - steeped in Christian mysticism - to experience what Edgar, as an adult, would sometimes experience when he entered a trance. The fact that Edgar had what was later perceived to be psychic talents was becoming more apparent to him with each new year. A highly reported example occurred in 1890 when he was at the Beverly Academy and his Uncle Lucian was his teacher. All previous accounts place this event as occurring the morning after Edgar experienced his angelic vision. Documentary evidence, however, suggests that the incident took place a year later, when Edgar was thirteen. By Edgar's own admission, he was already quite 'dull' and 'backward' at school. He couldn't seem to concentrate on his lessons. "The voice of my uncle Lucian seemed very far away," Edgar later wrote. "The voice of the angel was quite near." (39) Hoofdstuk 6 The Young Lady from the Hill Two incidents occurred, however, that gave everyone reason for concern. The first took place late one Sunday evening when Edgar was dozing off in one of the arm chairs in the parlor. The last thing that Gertrude remembered telling him was that he should go to sleep. This is apparently just what he did, only he didn't wake up that night or the next morning. Nothing anyone did to try to wake him seemed to do any good. He appeared to be in some kind of a coma. It was well into the next day when Gertrude, out of sheer frustration and concern, 'ordered' him to wake up. He immediately opened his eyes and stretched, not realizing anything unusual had taken place. A second incident occurred at the Cayce family home on Seventh Street. As Edgar later told the story, he and an old school friend had just returned home from one of Sam Jones's revival meetings at the Tabernacle. His friend was expecting Edgar to share his bedroom with him when they realized that a houseful of Cayce relatives had unexpectedly dropped in from Beverly and were spending the night. Edgar's room had been requisitioned for the visitors and there was no place for him or his friend to sleep. Edgar lost his temper. This was his room and he was paying the lion's share of the rent on the house. In the ensuing uproar, Leslie and Edgar had a few cross words and Edgar's friend slipped out of the house unnoticed. Edgar fell asleep later that night on the sofa in the living room. Edgar himself couldn't say whether or not his mental state had anything to do with the events that later transpired, but this has long been the assumption. Apparently he went to sleep without undressing, except for his shoes and coat. Then, not long after the house had quieted down, the sofa that Edgar was sleeping on burst into flames. The smoke and fire woke him up. Edgar dashed outside and rolled in the snow, putting out his burning clothes, and then hauled the sofa out the front door to extinguish its flames, too. Since Edgar had not been smoking, nor had the sofa been near anything hot, the cause of the fire remained a mystery. There were, of course, various possible explanations: Edgar had done something in his sleep to cause the fire, a hot coal had shot out of the stove at the other end of the room and rolled under the couch, or one of the visitors from Beverly had been smoking and accidentally left a burning cigarette between the cushions. The trouble with all of these scenarios was that the fire hadn't started under the couch or between the cushions. (70) The evidence suggested that the fire had started in Edgar's clothes. Family members apparently didn't give the matter much thought. The fire had been put out, and that was all. At The Hill, however, the incident was much discussed and took on considerable importance. Carrie and Gertrude, like others who came to know Edgar intimately, had become aware that unusual or unexplained things frequently happened around him. More often than not, these things occurred when Edgar was angry or upset. Papers would fly off desks as if an invisible breeze had blown through the room. Books sometimes would fall off shelves. The Seventh-Street fire would be the first of four inexplicable fires involving Edgar. (71) Hoofdstuk 9 A Child in Need Layne was of the belief that it was Edgar Cayce himself who was doing the diagnosing, or perhaps more accurately, Edgar's 'higher self.' Later experiments would not entirely support this conclusion, but rather would suggest that it wasn't only Edgar's higher self doing the diagnosing, but that his higher self was the conduit or channel for someone or something else. The Source, as Layne began to call Edgar's 'higher self', used language that wasn't in Edgar's regular vocabulary and seemed to have its own distinctive personality and sense of humor. At one point during a trance reading the Source was reported to have commented on the poor behavior of a patient's pet, and at another time paused to mention the lovely view from the subject's window and the fact - later substantiated by the patient - that a rooster was crowing in the yard. (97) Hoofdstuk 10 Mind is the Builder The team of doctors also experimented with Cayce's apparent ability to cure himself of his speech difficulties. In trance, Cayce was asked to explain how the circulation in his body was changed merely by a command or a suggestion from the person conducting the reading. Cayce reportedly lectured the team of doctors on the power of mind over body. As Cayce - in trance - would state in thousands of later readings: "Mind is the builder ... the physical is the result." The Source, as Layne and now Blackburn had begun to refer to Cayce's 'higher self,' had the power of mind control and was the controlling factor in one of the fundamentallaws of nature: that material conditions in the body can be a direct outgrowth of the thoughts of the individual. A person could, by establishing control over his or her own thoughts, heal or even feasibly harm him or herself. "Every thought is a deed," Cayce said in trance. "What is held in mind largely determines the content of the experience." (117) Fascinated by the results of this experiment, Edgar himself decided to do some experimentation. His receptionist at the State Street studio, a young woman who was also a trained musician, assisted him unawares. In response to a question Edgar posed to her, she gave Edgar the names of two people in Bowling Green who would not normally visit the studio. Edgar lay down as if going into trance, but instead concentrated for a period of thirty minutes as hard as he could on the two people, trying to mentally force them to come to him. Each of them allegedly arrived at the studio. The first man came the same day that Edgar concentrated on him, and the second arrived the following morning. Edgar's assistant, unaware of the experiment, was mystified and asked the first visitor why he had come. The man reportedly sat on the edge of Edgar's desk and admitted that he didn't know or didn't remember. In the years ahead, Edgar conducted similar experiments, and also helped other people to develop their own powers of mental telepathy. The conclusion that he eventually came to was that everyone had the same ability to affect people's behavior as he did. They just didn't take the time to practice using it. The only difference was that Edgar seemed to have been born with the talent, a subject that would be discussed at length in later readings. However, just because someone was born or developed the talent on their own didn't make it right. Edgar cautioned everyone that mental telepathy was 'dangerous business' and that trying to use 'thought' as a means to control another individual was morally wrong. "The very thing you would control in another individual," he cautioned people, "will be the thing that will destroy you. It will become your Frankenstein." (119) There were two interesting things about this reading: the Source implied that, by taking certain measures, disaster could be avoided. In other words, the future was not preordained - it could be altered. The reading also suggested the existence of something like karma, a theme that would reappear in Cayce's reading more and more in later years: the man who refused the information provided would suffer for not acting on it. (122) At first glance, an account of Cayce 'levitating' would appear to be nothing more than tabloid sensationalism, for at no time before or after this incident was Cayce ever reported to have risen into the air. And yet, all other reports by Blackburn and his committee are consistent with the generally accepted facts of Cayce's alleged psychic powers. An incident that occurred some years later, during a November 1933 reading, witnessed by thirty-five people, might provide a clue that could unravel this mystery. During this reading, one of Cayce's friends leaned over to hand the conductor a list of questions. As he did so, his hand passed over the sleeping psychic's solar plexus. The instant that the hand had crossed his body, Cayce stopped talking and jerked up from the couch into an upright position. A witness described what she saw: "[It looked as if Cayce was] being propelled [upward] by an unseen lever or pulley, without unfolding his hands from his solar plexus or using them in any way to rise to his feet." (122) Because of this experience, investigators learned that when anything passed directly over Cayce's body in the area of his head or stomach during a reading it had the effect of interrupting the reading, as if an unseen cord between Cayce and the Source had been severed, preventing any further connection. But it also could result in an involuntary contraction of Cayce's stomach muscles, the equivalent of him being punched in the solar plexus. Cayce's sudden movement upward when Blackburn put out his hand in the midst of the reading must have seemed like levitation to the startled doctor. (123) The topic of interest to Edison - like Tesla - was the possible connections between electricity and psychic phenomena. Tesla's interest in the subject was legendary, for he himself claimed to have received inspiration from his 'higher self,' not unlike that received by Edgar Cayce. (123) Through dreams and visions, Tesla received mental pictures of blueprints and other technical data, which included innovations he made on high-frequency electrical transmission and wireless communications. He viewed his role as an inventor as merely tapping into his own imagination and turning what he saw in visions into a physical reality. Tesla's one-time partner, Edison, did not ascribe his inventions to any such help from 'above.' And yet, the fact that Edison developed a keen interest in psychic phenomena and electricity is also well documented, as were his comments to associates concerning his intent to build a device to measure the electrical vibrations emanating from people engaged in psychic activity. Edison's interest in building such a device may well have been the result of his meeting with Cayce. The fact that Cayce, in trance, addressed this same subject at length with two other inventors - Tim Brown, a Dayton engineer who helped to found Delco, and Mitchell Hastings, a pioneer of FM radio at NBC and later an electrical engineer at IBM - is evidence that the Source was not only capable of addressing this topic, but believed that it could provide an important avenue or bridge for raising the consciousness of inventors seeking to understand the relationship between science and spirituality, which according to the Source, were the same thing. "Electricity is at the heart of all life," Cayce, in trance, would frequently tell these inventors. "Electricity is life." In one particularly fascinating exchange between Cayce and Hastings, the Source would describe the physical universe as consisting of mind, matter, and energy, which were all said to be various forms of electrical vibration. The Source stated unequivocally that every phenomenon was a manifestation of the vibrations emitted by these three elements, and that Hastings must understand that a vast range of frequencies existed on or about the earth that were as yet undetectable by modern scientific equipment. The origin of all electricity, or the 'first great vibration,' was God's creation of the universe, which was described as a cosmic blast that started everything in motion and created matter itself. On a smaller scale, man could manifest the same Divine power as a creator or co-creator of their personal universe. "That ... [mind, matter, and energy] are inseparable I do not believe," the Source told Mitchell Hastings, "for energy is the mind seeking to find expression - the seeking is the energy, and that expressed is the matter." In keeping with this philosophy, Cayce, in trance, would tell both Hastings and Brown that devices could be made to measure 'thought forms,' much like meters were made to measure volts and amperage. (124) All Cayce said about the meeting was that he and the 'electrical wizard' had a difference of opinion regarding the nature of a man's soul. Edison was a firm believer that such a thing as a 'soul' didn't exist, that it was purely a cultural ideal. Edison did, however, believe that much more research needed to be conducted on the subject. "When we see the entire world seeking, seeking, seeking, there must be something [to it]," Edison was quoted by Cayce as having told him. "I am convinced that when scientists go to work at studying God, just as they have undertaken to study how to make great conveniences for mankind, we will learn something about the soul - if there is one." (125) Hoofdstuk 11 Final Days in Bowling Green Dickey made one more attempt to persuade Edgar that easy money could be made using his psychic gifts. He talked Edgar into giving a reading on the races at Latona. In the course of a test reading, Cayce was alleged to have correctly named six winners in seven races. The only race in which he hadn't called a winner was one that Cayce - in trance - had said was fixed and couldn't be called. Dickey was so excited by the success of the experiment that they took the train to Cincinnati and went to the races. Dickey put up the front money. This time the reading indicated that only four out of the seven races that day were not already fixed. Dickey bet and won in each instance. Edgar's share of the take was enough to get him out of debt. But the price he paid was higher than he or Dickey could have imagined. The trance readings could be a Pandora's box for anyone who chose to ignore the advice, take the information lightly, or use it in ways that were not in accord with its 'purposes' and 'ideals.' Two months after giving the Latona readings, Dickey went on a temporary two-year leave from his activities at the university to undergo psychiatric therapy. Edgar also suffered, but the price he paid was not apparent until a short time later when he tried to give a reading for Hugh Evans, Gertrude's brother, who had checked into a hospital in Texas with tuberculosis. Edgar was unable to go into trance. Dr. House repeatedly attempted to guide Edgar into trance and obtain a reading, as did Lynn Evans, John Blackburn, and Al Layne. But no matter how hard they tried, Edgar either developed a migraine headache or fell asleep. He couldn't give a reading for Hugh Evans, nor could he help anyone else who came to him, no matter how genuine their need. The Source had become silent. To Edgar, this was a clear message that he was being punished for putting his own and others' material concerns above the greater spiritual good that could come through the readings. Just as he had come to believe that he had earlier lost his voice by not following the directives of his childhood angel, he now believed that he had squandered 'God's gifts' by putting them to the wrong use. And besides the obvious impact the Latona racetrack readings had had on his ability to go into trance, there was the more subtle impact that the readings had had on his and Gertrude's personal lives. "I realized that the attempt to use such information for speculative interests had brought a sudden, definite change in my whole being," Edgar wrote. "I realized that my likes and dislikes had changed. My associations that I sought were different." (136) In other words, by using the readings for speculative purposes he was becoming more like the people requesting such readings. (137) Hoofdstuk 12 The Discovery of Edgar Cayce Despite the esoteric language in wich this massage was presented - using terms such as the 'inner conscience,' 'ethereal body,' and 'subconscious mind' - it sounded like good old-fashioned business advice. And although offering material benefits was clearly a necessity in developing the practical business aspects of the partnership, the most important aspect of this reading was the suggestion that the ultimate purpose of "the work" was not to provide diagnostic insights to aid physicians or bring about miraculous cures, but to help people 'open' their minds and accept the truth of the 'ethereal' or 'spiritual world.' It is no doubt for this reason that the Source then offered an important clue to the future success or failure of the work. The reading ended with the statement: "The minute we gain credence and give credit to ourselves we lose it all." The transcripts of this reading, reported to be the first fully documented trance session dedicated specifically to the work, were quite telling. Cayce or the Source - responded to questions posed by Leslie in highly spiritual or esoteric terms, while Leslie persisted in talking dollars and cents and asking practical questions about who should pay for publicity, stationery, and other costs. It appears that the Source was trying to force Leslie and the others to view their partnership in a nonmaterial way, or at least to envision the work as it manifested itself in both material and nonmaterial dimensions, and to acknowledge that one dimension acts upon another. The language that Cayce used was difficult to understand, and it is doubtful that Leslie, Ketchum, Noe, or even Edgar himself comprehended its full meaning, let alone the potential consequence of ignoring its greater spiritual message. (149) Hoofdstuk 13 The Psychic Partnership In the first few months of the partnership, Ketchum became aware of the Source as a distinct personality or being, with many human characteristics, which included, at times, poor grammar and an almost childlike appreciation and wonder when visiting new places and examining new patients. However 'all-knowing' that the Source might be, it could also be short - or long - winded, disliked what it considered inane or sloppy questions, and had a highly developed sense of humor. Examples were numerous. Asked once about how a person should overcome worrying, the Source simply said "Quit worrying!" Asked for advice for a particular doctor in charge of an operation, Cayce said, "They wouldn't take the advice if you gave it." A woman, wanting to know if wearing glasses - as Cayce had recommended - was really necessary, was told: "The body really needs glasses, else we wouldn't have said it!" To a man worried about becoming bald, Cayce stated: "Don't worry too much about this ... Brains and hair don't grow very well together - at times anyway." When a patient asked if a medication should be rubbed on the outside he was simply told: "You can't rub it on the inside." Ketchum believed that because the Source sounded so 'human' that it was none other than Cayce's subconscious mind tapping into a vast database of information. He believed that a heavenly presence didn't take over when Cayce went into trance, but rather Cayce's spirit was free to communicate with other spirits when he lost consciousness. Although subsequent readings suggested that there was clearly much truth in this theory, Ketchum himself later admitted that whatever happened was far more complicated than "Cayce's spirit reaching out into the universe." This was, however, a good starting point. As would be demonstrated on numerous occasions in the future, Cayce's 'higher self' may indeed 'retrieve' information, but there were also many instances when a 'heavenly presence' interceded or guided trance sessions and would sometimes actually introduce itself to the conductor. Ketchum also became certain that Cayce's subconscious mind could travel to the physical location of the patient. There were so many references to the actual surroundings of the individual for whom he was doing the reading and details, such as weather conditions at a particular location, that no other explanation seemed possible. During one reading, Cayce remarked on the color of a patient's pajamas, and on another occasion, appeared to pause on the way into another patient's house to mention that she had a particularly beautiful tree in her yard. Remarks such as these naturally led Ketchum to believe that Cayce wasn't just seeing the surroundings through the eyes of the patient, but was acting as a disembodied mind having an out-of-body experience. (157) The fact that readings would end abruptly whenever anything was passed over Cayce's body provided evidence to Ketchum that this disembodied mind Ketchum was also interested in where Cayce's subconscious mind went to retrieve the information when the Source did come through. The destination was apparently determined by the type of questions that the conductor asked and the degree to which the subject was willing to accept the information given. And as Ketchum realized, the process of 'communing' with another person's subconscious mind was not always easily accomplished. Cayce - in trance - would sometimes come right out and say that this information wasn't to be shared. At other times Cayce seemed to be able to peer at will right inside a person without interference, which suggested that individuals themselves could block Cayce's examination of their bodies. Ketchum felt sure that a patient's motivation was a key factor in the equation - both on a conscious and an unconscious level. The times when Ketchum got the best results from Cayce was when a person genuinely wanted help for the reasons that they had stated and when ultimately the person receiving the information had good intentions. A person saying one thing and thinking something different resulted in a miscommunication. Information that would hurt or harm someone would simply not be given. Ketchum, like others who conducted or listened to readings, was also interested in knowing if other people could leave their bodies and go to different places. Cayce said they could and did. "Each and every soul leaves the body as it rests in sleep," he said in a later reading. (158) "As to how this may be used constructively - this would be like answering how could one use one's voice for constructive purposes." Hoofdstuk 16 Trial by Fire Many of the people from their church, including Alf and Roger Butler, and the pastor, Reverend D. P. Taylor, had been congregating at the studio and were there to join Edgar and Gertrude in prayer before Edgar went into trance. Reflecting back on how he felt at that moment, Edgar said that there was energy in the room like never before. He said it was like 'electricity.' (187) Hoofdstuk 24 Divine Law For Shroyer as well as Edgar, the tragedy again highlighted the need for a hospital where patients like the three - year - old Darling child could receive constant attention and care. By this time the subject of building a hospital had also come to the attention of Shroyer's employer, Arthur Lammers, a middle - aged business tycoon who had made his fortune in Chicago and who now owned a large printing and photo-engraving company in Dayton that published a Baptist newspaper. At Lammers's request, Cayce gave the first in a series of readings - not only on investment opportunities for the Penn-Tenn Company, which Lammers was interested in buying into - but on how best to use Cayce's 'psychic powers' and establish an institution or foundation to study them. Although the amount of time Cayce would personally spend with Lammers was quite short and the readings conducted at his request numbered less than ten, their short partnership forever altered the scope and substance of the work. However reluctant Edgar was to probe the Source with questions beyond the scope of his medical and business interests, he was flattered by the way Arthur and his wife, Zelda, embraced him and his ideals, and intrigued by their knowledge of Eastern philosophy and metaphysics. (253) They not only read and studied the books and teachings of Madame Blavatsky and other Theosophists, they held seances in their own home - a sprawling Victorian mansion with stained-glass windows, a giant pipe organ, and an extensive library of esoteric books and manuscripts on such subjects as medieval alchemy, yoga, and astrology. It is believed that Edgar attended at least one seance at the Lammers home, although no record of what transpired remains. A short, clean-shaven man with a square face and the well-muscled build of a heavyweight prize fighter, Lammers wanted answers to life's most important questions: the purpose of man's existence on earth and what to expect after death. And like Ketchum before him, Lammers also wanted to know about the source of Edgar's information, and what exactly happened when Edgar went into trance. Lammers put these and other questions to Cayce in two trance sessions held in June 1923 at the Phillips Hotel. More readings in this series, all of which were conducted by Shroyer, took place in early October and November, and the last reading of this series was done on Valentine's Day, 1924. The first question put to Cayce dealt with his ability to obtain and communicate psychic information. As Cayce had previously said in a reading for Ketchum, the 'state' in which he gave psychic information was under 'subjugation' of the 'subconscious mind.' The human body was described as a 'trinity,' composed of the physical body, the mental or conscious mind, and the spirit, which was described as the subconscious or 'mind of the soul force.' The spirit, the Source said, could not be 'seen' or revealed unless the physical and mental mind were subjugated. In other words, when Edgar Cayce went into a trance state, his physical body and conscious mind did not interfere with his subconscious mind or 'soul forces.' As a natural extension of this question, Lammers asked exactly what the 'soul' was, and whether it ever dies. The Source replied that the soul was "that which the Maker gave to every entity or individual in the beginning, and which is seeking the home again or place of the Maker ... [The soul] may be banished from the Maker, [but] not [by] death." He went on to say that the subconscious mind was only one attribute of the soul, and that there were other influences or Divine laws that governed or directed the soul in I its path back to the Maker. Asked what kinds of questions should be put to Cayce while in trance, the Source answered: "Only those that are in accord with spiritual and soul forces and laws." According to the Source, the proper questions should consist of those that lead to relief from pain or suffering as long as they are not at the expense or detriment of another individual. (254) The Source was then queried as to whether the information given while in trance was always correct. The response provided an interesting insight to the frequent references the Source had made over the years to the concept that 'mind is the builder,' and also had a direct bearing on the Texas readings. The Source said: "Edgar Cayce is in the state of being guided by the individual who makes the suggestions, and so long as the suggestions are in accord and the mind of the individual is kept in accord [the information will be correct]." In other words, the Source was saying that what was held in the mind of the person conducting the reading and the person requesting the help or information would largely determine the result. The Source illustrated this same point by comparing the effects of the inquirer on the reading to the effects that water can have on a partially submerged object: "Any object ... projected into water appears bent, just so with the reflection from suggestions to the subconscious [mind]." The Source further said that the intent of those making the inquiry didn't just affect the quality of the reading, it sometimes determined whether any information came through at all. This explained why the Source sometimes ended a reading by saying, "We are through," just as a session was getting started. Cayce - in trance - said: "[The correct information was] being deflected ... by question or environment as to cause the distress to the connection between the conscious and the subconscious." As it was revealed later in this same series of readings, the Source was directed by 'God's laws,' or 'Divine Laws,' which could neither be ignored or put aside. While a person breaking man's laws only suffers the consequence if she or he gets caught, when breaking God's laws, he or she always gets caught. Cayce - in trance - had to be asked the right question for the right reason. Perhaps the most important of the laws cited was the "law of love," which the Source said "no man should cast aside." Put most simply, the Source said: "Love is Law, Law is Love. God is Love. Love is God." This amounted to the same thing as "the gift of giving" without "hope of reward or pay," or serving others. In answer to the question of whether or not the readings should be used for purposes other than for assistance of curing human ills, the Source highlighted how they had to adhere to the 'law of love.' The Source said that all information obtained psychically should not be used for selfish purposes, but "may be, should be, used and given to the world." The Source suggested that people should seek an understanding of that Divine law of love in their lives and act accordingly. "The use of psychic force by any individual is only using of that spiritual law that makes one free, but not freedom to take advantage," the Source said. (255) Another reading stressed the importance of understanding that God is the creator and law - giver, not man: "Remember first that all force that is granted ... comes from the all-giving force of the God of the Universe and not from the 'self' ... for by taking that [force], no one can change any law. Only by the compliance of that law may it be made or diverted to their individual use of self ... [through man's power of free will] for with the [free] will man may either adhere [to] or contradict the Divine law." Further practical questions were posed to Cayce regarding how to conduct future readings. The Source said that only one person at a time should put questions to him in a trance state, and that for best results, the person should have a certain polarity. "The body," Cayce said, in trance, "is made of both the opposite, or positive and negative poles. The body is not complete without the whole or both ... [The ideal condition exists when there is] the perfect union in all forces, whether of the physical, mental, material, soul, or spirit [each with both positive and negative polarity]. Linden Shroyer was clearly following Cayce's train of thought. He next asked the Source who would be the best person to conduct the readings. The Source replied that the sex of the conductor didn't make any difference, just the polarity and intent of the conductor. Edgar was described as being positive. Hence, it was best that a person who was negatively charged put the questions to him. Information continued to pour out of Cayce. Like Ketchum before him, Lammers wanted to know if it was possible for anyone other than Edgar Cayce to accomplish the kind of psychic work he was doing. The answer was an unequivocal yes. "All can do it," the response came. The determining factor was the degree of 'development' on the part of the individual in question. "As to the degree of the development, only the law of concentration through subjugation [is] brought out into play and [one] only need[s] the opportunity of [his] self-expression." Lammers also asked if it was possible for Edgar Cayce to communicate with people who had passed into the spirit world. The response was affirmative. In the first known reading to make clear reference to what happens when a person dies, the Source said: "The spirit of all that have passed from the physical plane remain about the plane until their development carries them onward or are returned for their development here ... There are thousands about us here at present." When asked how Edgar Cayce should use his psychic talents to do the most good, the Source gave another astonishing response. (256) It is difficult to determine how much the answer was understood by Lammers or the others, but it was clear in retrospect that the Source was introducing what would become the most discussed aspect of the Dayton readings: soul development "through reincarnation." "[Edgar Cayce is able to give trance advice] under the laws of the governing force as ... given to this individual [through] eight generations [of soul development]," the Source said. Finally, Cayce was asked if the time was right to start an institution through which all future readings would be conducted. "Very good," the reply came. "The time is nigh!" (257) Although earlier readings had revealed Tex Rice's personal difficulties, Edgar couldn't fathom why the Source hadn't warned him that Rice was a criminal. In retrospect, Edgar eventually came to the conclusion that the 'failure' of the readings to predict someone's behavior was not a result of any lack of insight or 'development' on the part of the Source, but a matter of the inexorable influence of an individual's free will. Free willdescribed in the Lammers readings as the supreme Gift from God to man - ultimately determined an individual's fate. No one, not even God, could conclusively predict events shaped by the free will of an individual, or the collective will of groups of individuals. (258) Hoofdstuk 26 Ruled by Jupiter The concept of astrology was not entirely new to Edgar and Gertrude. Despite at times feigning ignorance of such a distinctly 'nontraditional' Christian subject, they both knew more about astrology than they had previously been willing to admit. Astrology had been the subject of a reading conducted four and a half years earlier, before the oil years, when Edgar was working full-time as a photographer in Selma. This earlier astrological reading had come about as an indirect result of a request made by the same D. M. Thrash who had piqued Edgar's interest in doing oil readings. In 1919, Thrash wrote Edgar asking for his birth date in order to have his horoscope cast. Early the next year, Edgar and Gertrude received several communications from astrologers telling them that on a particular date - March 19, 1919 - Cayce would be able to give a reading of "more interest to mankind" than any other reading he would be able to give during that year. Although Edgar did give a reading on that date, with Gertrude conducting and two trusted friends to witness the reading and take notes, the startling contents of that reading were not revealed to Thrash or to anyone else until Edgar met with Lammers in Dayton. The reason is not hard to understand. (270) Astrology, like the principle of reincarnation, was a subject that challenged Edgar and Gertrude's deep-seated Christian beliefs. To discuss it openly would have opened doors that could not easily be closed. As Lammers later discovered, the first question put to Cayce in trance on March 19, 1919, was much like the one Ketchum had put to him back in Hopkinsville in 1909: " ... You will tell us how the psychic work is accomplished through this body ... " Cayce, in trance, once again stated that "in this [trance] state the conscious mind is under subjugation of the subconscious mind or soul mind ... It obtains its information from ... other subconscious minds ... or minds that have passed into the Beyond ... What is known to one subconscious mind or soul is known to another, whether conscious of the fact or not." The consistency between this response and the one given to Dr. Ketchum nine years earlier must have been reassuring to both Edgar and Gertrude. However, Gertrude's next question took them into an entirely new area of investigation. Given that an astrologer had indicated that this day would be an important one, and perhaps intending to put the question of astrology to rest once and for all, Gertrude asked if the planets have anything to do with the ruling of the destiny of men. Cayce replied: "They do." Edgar then went on to expand upon the subject: "In the beginning, as our own planet, Earth, was set in motion, the placing of other planets began the ruling of the destiny of all matter as created, just as the division of waters was and is ruled by the moon in its path about the Earth ... The strongest power in the destiny of man is the sun ... then the closer planets ... at the time of the birth of the individual." Here, and for the first of many, many times, Cayce - in trance - admonished: "But let it be understood here, [that] no action of any planet or any of the phases of the sun, moon, or any of the heavenly bodies surpass the rule of man's individual willpower." Cayce then went on to provide an example of astrological influences by elucidating Edgar's own chart. "As in this body here [Edgar Cayce] born March 18, 1877, three minutes past three o'clock, with the sun descending, on the wane, the moon in the opposite side of the Earth - [the] old moon Uranus at its zenith, hence the body is 'ultra' in its actions ... Hence [there is] no middle ground for this body: [he is] very good or very bad, very religious or very wicked, very rich or always losing, very much in love or hate, very much given to good works or always doing wrong ... As to the forces of this body [Edgar Cayce], the 'psychical' is obtained through action of Uranus and of Neptune, always it has been to this body and always will ... just saved financially and spiritually by the action of great amount of water ... This body will either be very rich or very poor." (271) Edgar reported being quite impressed by the horoscope she gave him, for it was similar to that of the previous reading he had given on himself on March 19, 1919. And as Edgar later reported, much of what she said would later "prove to be true." There was only one thing about the horoscope that he found disturbing. "Resign yourself never to achieve [complete] success or to be [materially] happy," she told him. Exactly when Lammers first broached the subject of astrological readings with Edgar is not clear. All that is known for certain is that on October 11, 1923, within just three days of Edgar's return to Dayton, he gave his first tailor-made 'horoscope' reading for Lammers. (272) Linden Shroyer conducted the reading at the Phillips Hotel, just as he had during Edgar's visit in June. Shroyer's exact words were not recorded, but it can be assumed that he asked about the astrological influences that acted upon Arthur Lammers. The Source didn't hesitate in answering the questions. In trance, Cayce described Lammers as "one of strong body, yet gross with the force of a secular nature," one of "strong will and self-reliant," and "one whose destiny lies in success nearer the middle portion of his life on this plane." Cayce went on to say that Lammers was "ruled by Jupiter" with "Venus in the eleventh House," and that he was well "balanced" to deal with individuals whose birthday comes in March - as did Edgar Cayce's. This latest reading again supported the concept that the stars and planets influenced human behavior. To Lammers, already a great believer in astrology, this would have come as no surprise. For many other people around Edgar, however, the concept of astrology would have been difficult, if not impossible, to grasp and accept. But according to the Source, the study of astrology had been around a very long time. When asked who were the first people in the world to use astrology, Cayce responded: "Many, many thousands of years ago. The first record [is] that recorded in Job, who lived before Moses ... " (273) In another reading for Lammers, the Source challenged skeptics who would dismiss the notion of astrology by posing a question: "Astronomy is considered a science and astrology [is thought to be] foolishness. [But] who is correct? One holds that because of the position of the earth, the sun, the planets - they are balanced one with another in some manner, some formyet that they have nothing to do with man's life or ... the emotions of the 'physical being' in the earth. Then why and how do the effects of the sun ... influence [life on earth] and not affect [man and] man's emotions?" In yet another session, for a twenty-year-old woman who came to Cayce for a physical reading, the Source stated that not only do the planets affect an individual's emotions, but that the moon affects the physical body: "The sympathetic nervous system has much to do with the changes of the lunar conditions." However basic Cayce's pronouncements might have appeared to Lammers, the information about astrology that ultimately came through Cayce was a great deal more complex than even Evangeline Adams could have anticipated. (273) As would later become apparent, not only did the power of a person's free will play the most prominent role in determining how their life unfolded, it was next to impossible for anyone without the gifts that Cayce possessed to accurately describe an individual's personality traits, tendencies, talents, weaknesses, and future challenges based solely upon his or her birtdate and hour of delivery. There were, at the least, other complicating factors to be considered. For example, in many astrological readings that Cayce was later to give, the Source suggested that the 'soul' of a newborn sometimes arrived into the body at a time different from the physical birth of the child. In some instances, that arrival was considerably earlier than the birth, other times it was much later. In a reading done for an eighteen-year-old student, Cayce said: "There was ... thirty to thirty-five minutes difference in birth physical and birth spiritual." Another reading, given for a college student, highlighted the difficulties that such a difference could produce: "The spiritual and physical birth varied [a] little, there was the physical under one sign and the spiritual under another. Hence the doubts that often arise, from an astrological view." In most horoscope readings, Cayce emphasized the specific influence that various planets exerted on the individual. The role of the constellations, however, such as Cancer, Leo, or Virgo, was considered relatively insignificant. Thus the Cayce readings suggested that the signs of the zodiac do not playas fundamental a role in one's astrological influences as generally believed, in sharp contrast to the popular approach, which says that the 'sign' a person is born under is the main determining factor in shaping an individual's personality. In a reading given for a thirty-three-year old salesman, Cayce explicitly stated: "As to those influences of the constellations ... in the life of this entity, these are merely the 'wavering' influences in the life, and not those directing forces ever present in the inner soul of this entity. These we find in opposition to much that is at present taught or given in the earth plane." Yet another complication that arises in the readings for students of astrology was revealed in comments that Cayce made suggesting that there were flaws in the Egyptian system of astrology, which is most prevalently used. The 'tropical' or Egyptian system of astrology which was most commonly used by astrologers such as Evangeline Adams, is almost thirty degrees different from the 'sidereal' or Persian system advocated by Cayce, which then, as now, was the less popular means of casting astrological charts. To further complicate matters for astrology students, Cayce asserted that the influence of the planets was not necessarily what was popularly understood by most astrologers. As in standard astrology, Mars was associated by Cayce with high energy and anger, but the Source consistently emphasized the planet's 'internal' influence rather than the 'external' behavior by which it is popularly understood by most astrologers. For an eight-year-old girl born in Norfolk, Virginia, the Source warned: "Be angry but sin not." (274) In a reading for a thirty-nine-year-old housewife, also under the Mars in fluence, Cayce stated: "Righteous anger is a virtue. He that has no temper is very weak. But he who controls not his temper is much worse." Here, as elsewhere in the astrological readings, constructive growth through control of the human will was being highlighted. Perhaps the greatest anomaly in Cayce's astrological information was his view of the influence of the planet Saturn. The ringed planet has historically represented a love of tradition and an opposition to change. In contrast, the key words that Cayce related to Saturn were 'sudden' or 'violent' change. "In Saturn we find the sudden or violent changes - those influences and environs that do not grow, as it were, but are sudden by that of change of circumstances materially, or by activities ... of others." While most people might look upon Saturn as a negative or malevolent influence, Cayce went on to encourage his subject in the same reading by adding: "These are testing periods of thy endurance, of thy patience, of thy love of truth, harmony, and the spirit that faileth not." Again, constructive growth through control of the human will was the defining factor. Uranus, in traditional astrology, has been described as the planet of insight, mysticism, originality, and change. The readings support the mystical aspect, but distinguish this from spirituality and suggest its influence is one of extremes: "[At] times very beautiful in character - at other [times] very ugly." In another reading he said: "The entity ... finds periods when it is ... to the mountaintops and again at the depths of despair." In a third, Cayce said: "There will also be periods when ... the entity would be called lucky at any game of chance, yet there will be also periods when ... it would be practically impossible for the entity to gain through games of chance." Like Uranus, Neptune - which is linked to water - was also related to mysticism. "From Neptune we find that being close to waters ... is very well ... and this also gives those abilities of the mystic." This theme was repeated in a second reading for an individual purported to be under the influence of Neptune, for whom Cayce said: "Dwelling near large bodies of water ... will be the natural elements for the development giving rise to ... mystic abilities." Given this mystical connection evident in Uranus and Neptune, it is not surprising that these two planets figured prominently in Edgar's own 1919 horoscope reading. Pluto was not actually discovered until 1930, seven years after Cayce did his first horoscope reading. But prior to its discovery and subsequent naming, Cayce made reference to a planet that he called Septimus, which was clearly a reference to Pluto, whose influence astrologers have not been able to agree upon. (275) In a reading that Cayce gave for a Jewish businessman, he suggested that Septimus had an adverse or challenging influence, but was ultimately for constructive growth: "These make for that influence as has been of sudden changes in ... relationships as respecting those of kinship and ... physical or business relations. Yet these adversities may be used or applied in the experience of the entity as stepping - stones for soul's development." The readings Edgar began with Lammers, like hundreds of others that would later become known as 'life readings,' suggested the very complex nature and difficulty of charting astrological influences. But the greatest challenges, and the most significant revelations were still to come. Cayce's astrological readings, like those of regular astrologers, discussed the influence planets have on the human beings. However, no professional astrologers - not even Evangeline Adams - discussed why they have an influence. The answer that the Source gave was perhaps the strangest and most difficult aspect of any of the readings and would have shocked even the most veteran of astrologers. In the fourth Cayce reading on astrology, conducted by Shroyer, the Source stated that the "influence as is given by many of those [professional astrologers] in ... the earth plane is defective [in that] many of the forces of each [planet] are felt more through the experience by the entity's 'sojourn' upon those planets." Cayce would again make reference to this in a later reading for a thirty-year-old secretary: "It should be understood ... that the sojourning of the soul in that 'environ,' rather than the position [of the planet] makes for the greater influence in the experience of an entity or body in any given plane ... As we have indicated, it is not so much that an entity is influenced because the Moon is in Aquarius ... but rather because those positions in the heavens are from the entity having been in that sojourn as a soul ... not as a physical body as known in the Earth, but as a body adaptable to the environs of Jupiter: for there's life there - not as known in Earth!" By these and other life readings, the Source appeared to be suggesting that the soul of an individual could actually 'reside' on another planet and, as Cayce later elucidated, 'in other dimensions.' This additional information helped to clarify some of what the Source had said in the first readings for Lammers, back in October. In response to the question of whether or not the soul ever dies, Cayce said: "May be banished from the Maker, [but] not [by] death." The next question for the Source was what it meant by banishment of a soul from its Maker, and why an "entity" or individual might chose to be "banished." The Source answered: "out his own salvation ... the entity or individual banished itself, or its soul [from Earth to Saturn]." (276) The message coming through Cayce suggested that the planet Saturn was a place not unlike the Roman Catholic vision of purgatory. In these and other astrological readings, the greater truth suggested by the trance information was made clear. The purpose of an individual's sojourn on various planets, including Earth, was a means to an end: to prepare an individual, through 'soul development,' to meet the Creator. Edgar and others naturally desired to know how 'sojourns' on different planets affected man. A later reading would provide an important insight, which would later be discussed at length: "Each planetary influence vibrates at a different rate ... An entity entering that influence enters that vibration, not necessary that he change[s], but it is by the grace of God that he may." In a second reading, Cayce described this influence in another way: "The shadows of those things from the sojourns of this entity in Mercury [influence] the very relationships and activity of the entity ... Just as the entity's attending this or that ... place of learning, would make for a parlance peculiar unto itself. Even though individuals may study the same line of thought, one attending Harvard, another Yale, another ... the University of Arizona, they each would carry with them the vibrations created by their very activity in those environs." In another reading, Cayce explained how these sojourns could bring about variations in people, despite their common family, heritage, or the environment in which they lived: "The sojourn of a soul in its environ about the Earth, or in this solar system, gives the factors that are often found in individuals ... that are of the same parentage, in the same environ. Yet one might be a genius and the other a fool." Vibration, Cayce would point out later, determines the 'environment' that exists on another planet or in another dimension, in much the same way as it governs color, sound, and the 'substance' of matter on Earth. "For it is not strange that music, color, vibration are all a part of the planets, just as the planets are a part and a pattern of the whole universe." According to Cayce, ultimately, an individual's task was to use his or her free will to return to God, the Father. "First there is the spirit, then soul ... then mind with its various modifications and with its various incentives, with its various ramifications ... and the will, the balance in the forces that may make all or lose all [Man must pass] through all the stages of development until the will is lost in Him and he becomes one with the Father." As Edgar well knew, this, in a large sense, was the same message as put forth in the Lord's Prayer, that "Thy will be done." (277) Hoofdstuk 27 A Monk in his Third Appearance First, the Source provided Gladys with a description of various planetary influences, foremost among them that of Venus, Mercury, and Mars. He then gave a long list of Gladys's gifts and virtues, including this description: "One in whom there will be, in the future, little of the earthly ills for itself, though one that will lend much to the assistance in the earthly ills of others." He also said: "One who, with others, will draw much of the more beautiful things of the earth plane about them, and one to whom all obstacles become the stepping-stones for higher development in this present earth plane." Unlike previous readings, which had provided a few single sentences regarding past lives, Gladys was given three paragraphs on each of her former incarnations. Her past lives numbered four and included a stint in the court of Louis the XV, when she was a member of the royal family and had been seduced by the Duke of York, bearing him a child. Before that she had incarnations in Persia, Egypt, and at one time lived in the house of the ruler of a place called "Alta," which existed - according to the Source - "ten thousand years before the Prince of Peace came." The information revealed in this reading brought to light the importance of past - life experiences in contributing to the emotional responses, the trusts and the distrusts, likes and dislikes of the current incarnation. For instance, in reference to Gladys's life among the French royalty, the Source said: "The first change came in the seventeenth year of the life ... with the meeting and betrothal of this individual to that of the Duke of York [which] brought to the individual that in the inmost soul of the distrust of ... the opposite sex, and the body then became an inmate of the confined walls, where the rest of [her] life was spent, and only lived to the age in years then of thirty." About her time in Persia, the Source added: "[Gladys] was taken by the invading forces ... and in this [she now has] the aversion to those cutting instruments, for in that manner the bodily destruction came." Gladys was quite stunned by the reading. As strange as it seemed, the Source had said things she intuitively knew to be true. She did have a fear of being cut, and in fact had been afraid of knives since she was a small child. Her little brother had discovered this fear and taunted her with sharp instruments, chasing her all over the house with them. She couldn't bear to use even a kitchen knife, and if she did, she invariably cut herself. Gladys also, it would be revealed, had a fear of men. (282) Edgar would continue to give one or two physical readings a day. And while Edgar and Gertrude had still not done their own life readings, Shroyer and others were already stepping up for more. A reading given for George Klingensmith revealed that he was "one whose moral forces are beyond reproach." An incarnation during the reign of Louis XV - which was, coincidentally, at the same time as Gladys Davis's - and his life during the Trojan wars, were described in minute detail. Knowing that he had lived other lives too, Klingensmith must have been disappointed to have the reading suddenly end with "We are through for the present." In closing, however, the Source indicated that Klingensmith indeed had other incarnations that were perhaps equally or more relevant to his current life situation, but that these, the Source said, could not be disclosed: "[We] are forbidden here to give more at present." The Source clearly stated that there was actually much more that could be told to Klingensmith, but as Edgar himself would soon learn, the determining factor for when the information would be disclosed lay not only with the Source, but with the recipient of the life reading. In other words, "When the student is ready, the lesson will be taught." Finally, on December 5, 1923, Gertrude summoned the courage to request her own life reading. During this - her fifth documented reading - the Source said that Gertrude's 'soul' had waited several hours after her birth to enter her physical body. Though her mother had technically given birth in the early morning, Gertrude's soul was alleged not to have entered her body until late afternoon. Edgar apparently found this point quite humorous and later chided Gertrude by saying that she had waited until the last possible moment to incarnate because she knew "what a hard time she had ahead of her." At age forty-three, Gertrude must have been pleased to hear the Source's next statement, that "the greater force in this life, and the greater understanding, will come in the later days upon this plane." However, any joy she received at being given this information would have been dulled by the remark that followed. "There will be three good years ... [possibly] four, [when] ... the greater blessings will be upon this life in this present plane." The Source went on to spend a disproportionately large amount of time explaining astrological influences upon her, and then briefly listed three previous lives. Her most recent incarnation was in the French courts, when Charles II lived in exile, and Louis XIV was still a child. As revealed in a follow-up reading, her name had been Lurline, and she was involved in many court-related intrigues as a royal courtesan. Before that, Gertrude lived in ancient Greece, and prior to that, "in the land of the Nomads in the [Egyptian] hill country" during the rein of the first pharaohs. In a followup reading these "nomads in the hill country" were said to be Bedouins, and she was described as a beautiful dancer. (284) Hoofdstuk 28 Karmic Debt and the First Cause There was one question asked during this series that seemed most pressing to Hugh Lynn: why is reincarnation necessary at all? The Source answered at some length: "Man's consciousness ... is gained through [what] he, man, does about the knowledge of [what] he is, in relation to that from which he came and toward which he is going," the Source said. "Hence, in man's analysis and understanding of himself, it is as well to know from whence he came as to know whither he is going." The Source also made it clear that the knowledge gained through life readings is not the same as specific memories from previous incarnations. According to the Source, our forgetfulness of our previous lives is by design, not only for the purpose of maintaining 'free will' but for our own protection, because the conscious memories from earlier incarnations could potentially become a great burden. The "memory" that a person takes with him into a subsequent incarnation is more in the form of a lesson that has been learned, or remains to be learned. Unless that 'lesson' makes for a better person, it has no lasting value. This is what the Source referred to as 'karma,' or the impact that one incarnation has on another. As Hugh Lynn sought to communicate to those who studied the life readings, karma was simply subconscious memory, and not a matter of Divine punishment as popularly understood by many believers in reincarnation. "It [is simply] cause and effect ... simply internal memory," Hugh Lynn said. "People always thought you had karma with somebody [But] karma doesn't exist between people ... You don't have karma with other people. You have a memory about [the experience]. But [their memory] may be quite different from yours. They may have gotten over it ... and made it into a good relationship." The point that the Source repeatedly stressed was that karma, and man's knowledge of it, has a purpose. "To find that ye only lived, died, and were buried under the cherry tree in Grandmother's garden does not make thee one whit better neighbor, citizen, mother, or father!" the Source said. "But to know that ye spoke unkindly and suffered for it, and in the present may correct it by being righteous - that is worthwhile!" (289) Implicit throughout all of the life readings was the understanding that a soul, through its God given capacity of 'free will,' literally chooses the conditions or environment that it is born into. In other words, a soul chooses how to make peace, or free itself of its 'karmic debt.' And just as an individual soul 'chooses' the time and place to re-enter the earthly plane, specific choices are made regarding family, genetics, physical attributes, and personality. The Source compared bloodlines and family to a 'river' through which an entity travels as it selects the approximate conditions or challenges to be faced. The concept of family genealogy as a kind of cosmic river held great personal attraction to Edgar himself, for his favorite passage in the Bible was in Psalms 46, which reads, in part: "There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God." To Hugh Lynn, like Edgar, the central message being communicated was that life has purpose and direction, and that reincarnation could only be understood in the context of where man came from and where he is goingfrom the 'First Cause' or God, and back to God. The primary object of all human experience, the Source said, was to become a worthy companion to God. The great world around us is a matter of our own creation, and it allows us to see where we stand in our journey back to God. Again, the Source stressed the concept of mind as the builder, referring to the good that can come from focusing on God and God's creation, and the harm that results from a preoccupation with earthly evils such as violence, carnal desire, and materialism. This would be especially true, the Source added, for children and young adults, whose natural tendency to see God in the world can easily be subverted by materialism and consumerism, which for many are the customary rites of passage into adulthood. "The mind is the builder ever, whether in the spirit or in the flesh," the Source said. "If one's mind is filled with those things that bespeak of the spirit, then one becomes spiritual-minded ... Envy, strife, selfishness, greediness, avarice, are the children of man! Long-suffering, kindness, brotherly love, good deeds, are the children of the spirit." Furthermore, the Source suggested that the only sure method of stepping off the seemingly interminable wheel of birth and rebirth was to follow the example of Jesus Christ, who, according to the Source, was the first person to make the transition back to God, the 'Creator.' In this context, the Source highlighted the Biblical teaching that Christ died on the cross to save mankind. He lived and died - the Source said - to provide a living example of man's route back to God. "He is the way, that light ever ready," the Source said. The route back, the Source said, involves making one's will the same as the will of the Father, as Jesus did on the cross. Although He had the power to save Himself, He showed His faith by leaving His fate in God's hands. (290) It is in connection to this concept that Cayce would quote Jesus as teaching: "If ye would have life, give life" - a more specific version of "you reap what you sow," and "what we do unto others, we truly do unto ourselves." As difficult as it was for Edgar to accept the notion of reincarnation, he knew from his years of Bible study that it answered many theological questions, not the least of which was the often-quoted passages about being 'born again.' After making his own study of reincarnation and the Bible, Edgar finally concluded that it contained several specific references to the subject of karma and past lives. One such example was in the Gospel of John, when the disciples asked Christ about a man who had been born blind. The disciples wanted to know whether the blindness had been brought on by the man himself, or his parents. As Edgar pointed out in a lecture he later gave, "It wouldn't have been possible for the man to have sinned in this life [and] be born blind. They [the disciples] must have believed that the man lived before, else they wouldn't have asked such a question." Another reference Edgar cited was in the Gospel of Matthew, when Jesus, Peter, James, and John came down from the Mount of Transfiguration, where they had seen Moses and Elijah. Peter and John, questioning an earlier prophecy about the coming Messiah, asked why the scribes had said that Elijah must come first. Jesus replied: "Elijah is come already, and they knew him not. Then the disciples understood that He spake unto them of John the Baptist." The Source later supported Edgar's interpretation of this passage in a reading given to a forty-six-year-old housewife from Akron, Ohio, by making specific reference to John the Baptist's previous life as Elijah. A logical question that came to Edgar's mind was why the subject of reincarnation did not appear in Christian theology. The Source answered this question in a reading given about Gnosticism, a doctrine practiced by an early sect of the Christian church. In this reading the Source said that reincarnation was a commonly accepted belief until early church leaders began to develop "set rules," which were, according to the Source, "attempts to take shortcuts." The concept of personal responsibility disturbed the Christian fathers because of the degree of culpability it placed on an individual. If man himself had chosen the circumstances of his life, he couldn't claim to be the victim of bad luck, since it was his own actions, thoughts, and attitudes - as developed in previous incarnations - that were holding him back. But this change in church doctrine was, the Source implies, shortsighted. This same reading pointed out, "There are [no shortcuts] in Christianity!" As Hugh Lynn, like Edgar, would become intimately aware, the vast majority of life readings and their accompanying physical readings suggested that karma was at the root of the challenges a person faced. (291) In a reading conducted in 1944 for a twelve-year-old child suffering from asthma, the Source said: "one doesn't press the life out of others without at times seeming to have same pressed out of self." Perhaps the most interesting example of karmic debt belonged to a woman who came to Cayce suffering from gonorrhea. In her life reading, the Source said she had once been a prostitute in Yokohama, and that in her present incarnation she had been infected by the same strain of venereal disease she had knowingly passed on to countless sailors a century and a half earlier. Emotional disturbances were also explained by karma, as evidenced by a reading Cayce gave for an eighteen-year-old girl who had an unusual fear of darkness. The Source said: "The experiences in the dungeon in which thou wert plunged [creates this fear]." Often, in cases of karmic conditions, the Source recommended developing one's faith both in one's self and in God, before embarking on any physical treatment. In a reading for a forty-seven-year-old woman suffering from glaucoma, the Source said: "Hence the general health has much to do with the condition [but] karma has much more ... Thy opportunities and purposes, as with each soul, are only ... opportunities for thee. Use them to the glory of God and not to the willful disobedience in any manner." In another reading, given for a thirty-seven-year-old New Jersey housewife suffering from arthritis and constipation, the Source advised that before medicines should be given, "first there must be a change in the mental attitude of the body. There must be eradicated that of any judgment or of condemnation on the part of self as respecting self or any associated with the body." Ridiculing another person's life situation was not only seen as wrong by the Source, but as a source of bad karma and poor health in future incarnations. The readings revealed situations in which a person faced challenges he had ridiculed in others in a past life. In a reading for a seventeen-year-old student, the Source said: "Oft did the entity laugh at those less nimble of activity, owing to their heaviness in body. Hence do we find the entity not only meeting same in the present from a physical angle - obesity - but there are the necessities of it being worked out by diet as well as outdoor activity." In another instance, a young man who felt challenged by his homosexuality sought a physical reading he believed might explain his current life situation. The origins of his 'challenge' showed up in a life reading. He had been a political cartoonist in an earlier French incarnation and had made fun of prominent people known or suspected to be homosexual. (292) The question naturally arose in regard to these readings whether all serious ailments or afflictions were the result of past-life experiences. In answer to this question, the Source repeatedly stated that very little happens by chance, whether physical conditions or associations with others: "It is never by chance but as with all things in this material world, there are causes and effects," the Source told a fifty-year-old man from Durham, North Carolina. "To be sure, at times there may be what might be called accidents. But these too, in a causation world, have their cause and effect." However, the Source did acknowledge that occasionally, "accidents happen in creation, as well as in individuals' lives! Peculiar statement here, but true!" An example of such a nonkarmic accident was that of a nurse who apparently hadn't washed her hands properly before handling an infant who later developed hearing - related problems. The Source said, "a sad condition, and not a result of karma, but an accident." Another example was that of a nurse who accidentally dropped a child who subsequently developed spinal injuries. Even when the Source said there was no previous karma involved in a particular life situation, cause and effect still applied. This was the case for a schoolteacher who asked whether or not she should undergo surgery. The Source said: "Unless something is done about the [current] conditions [your physical problems] may occur again! It is not the paying for karmic debts of other experiences ... as the lack of conformity to the laws as pertaining to health." Frustrating as it must have been for this schoolteacher to be told that the ultimate responsibility for her life situation was hers, the Source described a means by which an individual might overcome her challenges through the act of 'forgiveness.' This, in a larger sense, was what Cayce believed Christ had accomplished in his life on earth. Another reading made the point more directly: "Karmic influences must ever be met, but He has prepared the way that takes them upon Himself ... as ye trust in Him ... for karmic forces are [such that] what is meted must be met." Here, the Source seemed to be saying that although there is no way for a person to avoid his karmic debts, one can meet life's challenges by viewing them as stepping-stones to greater spiritual growth, and by forgiving the mistakes of others. According to the Source, it was only to the degree that a person forgives others their mistakes, that his own would be forgiven. "It is only as ye forgive [that] the Christ is able to forgive thee," the Source said in a reading in 1944. "Forgive, if ye would be forgiven." Hugh Lynn, like his father, eventually came to believe that it is only in the context of karma that Jesus' healing powers could best be understood, for in the karmic sense, Jesus truly did heal people of their illnesses by "forgiving their sins," particularly those people born with whatever condition they suffered from. (293) And almost the very last words Christ uttered on the cross"Forgive them Lord, for they know not what they do " - takes on a new meaning, especially in the light of the biblical teaching that says, "He is the way." To Edgar and other students of the life readings, the message was clear: people reap what they sow. If a person is judgmental and hateful, he will reap judgment and hate. If he acts with forgiveness and patience, his life will be filled with forgiveness and patience. Although the focus in many of the readings was on what might be termed 'bad karma,' the Source devoted a greater number of readings to what might be called 'good karma,' or talents, abilities, and attitudes that were earned as a result of having successfully met challenges in previous life experiences. A good person would be given 'greater responsibilities,' which came in the form of wealth, station in life, good health, physique, or highly developed abilities and talents. The Source described these earthly blessings as 'responsibilities' because they too were karmic and had to be used in a manner that was in keeping with the 'First Cause' or Divine purpose. This subject was addressed in a reading for a thirty-eight-year-old business executive, to whom the Source said: "Ye may find - as this world's goods increase in thy hands ... they will not and do not become burdens to thy conscience nor separate thee from thy home or thy fellow man. But rather is the opportunity to serve thy Maker. Ye have earned that right for much of this world's goods." In a reading for a thirty-year-old secretary, the Source said: "[You] have earned [harmonious companionship] for ye have practiced peace first within self, and the ability to make peace with others." In this same reading, however, the Source stressed the need for this individual not to take her blessings for granted. "[Be careful not to] talk too much! And these [present blessings] will ever stand the entity in good stead, to attain, to gain whatever may be the desire or the [soul's] purpose [Adopt the attitude] of 'live and let live,' and of helping the other fellow, [and] ye will keep those [previous life] experiences inviolate, and there will be harmony in this [present] experience." As Edgar's own life reading would later reveal to him, his most special blessing - his ability to communicate on a psychic level - was a direct result of his soul development' in previous lifetimes. The one incarnation in which he made the most development in this regard was a lifetime in which he had been wounded, and through his power of self-will, put aside his 'carnal mind' to heal his own body. However, as this same reading revealed, his present situation was determined by more than his personal karma. By virtue of his special task in life, Edgar, like many others who obtained life readings for themselves, drew to himself people and groups of people with whom he had previously associated in prior incarnations. (294) According to the Source, groups of people could incarnate together to work out individual karma or complete some long-term 'good' that had been started in previous incarnations. As Edgar gradually became aware while conducting the first series of life readings, the people in close contact with him invariably knew one another in Egypt many thousands of years earlier, which was where the work had truly begun. Not everyone in Edgar's life was with him in other 'group' incarnations. In many instances people were drawn to him because of 'personal' karma that needed to be worked out. A woman whom Edgar had treated poorly in a previous incarnation was saved from certain death by a reading he provided. In this case, as in many others, Dave Kahn acted as a kind intermediary through which someone who might otherwise not have crossed Edgar's path sought and received help. And Edgar, in doing these readings, was able to erase bad karma resulting from his poor treatment of these individuals in previous life experiences. It is interesting to note, in this regard, that Dave Kahn, according to his own life readings, did not participate in the work in Edgar's earlier incarnations and had not played the sort of role that Gertrude, Gladys, and others had in Cayce's "river of life." The 'karmic' purpose of Dave Kahn's participation in Edgar's current life seems to have been as an agent through whom Edgar, on a personal level, was able to right injustices he had committed in previous incarnations. Kahn had played just such a role in Desdemona and Luling, where he had acted as the contact point through which the various oilmen sought or received Cayce's help. It is ironic - given the fact that recipients of physical readings as far back as Hopkinsville and Bowling Green were admonished to "look within themselves" for the source of their life challenges, or to "make peace with God" and "study the scriptures" if they wished to become physically well - that another full decade elapsed before Edgar Cayce himself became personally convinced of the message being put forth in the Dayton life readings. To a young college student who asked Cayce - in trance - what would convince him of reincarnation, the Source replied quite simply: "An experience." It was just such an 'experience' that ultimately convinced Edgar. In the course of conducting life and physical readings for Cayce Jones, the infant son of Edgar's best friends in Selma, the Source not only provided answers to questions regarding the subject's physical and mental well-being, but had this to say to Edgar on a personal level: "Here you may have proof [of reincarnation] Let your mother see the child, she will recognize him as he will her." (295) The reference was to Thomas Cayce, Edgar's late younger brother, who one of the life readings stated had been reincarnated as Cayce Jones, and who would, in the present incarnation, allegedly manifest great psychic abilities. As Edgar remembered, ten-day-old Thomas Cayce had died in his mother's arms, and this had been a source of much grief for which Edgar and his mother had sought solace in prayer. In the reading for Jones, the Source suggested that if Carrie Cayce was introduced to the child, she would recognize him as her own from his previous incarnation. Unfortunately, Edgar didn't act upon the information in 1925 when Cayce Jones's life reading was given. A few months later Carrie died, and Edgar regretted not having put mother and 'son' together to see what might happen. But then, in 1927, Edgar visited Selma and spent an afternoon with the Jones family. On the way to their house from the train station, Cayce Jones's mother, Alva, and her husband, Lamar, told Edgar about their "very peculiar child," now 2 1/2 years old. According to Alva, her son - who had been named after Edgar - was claiming that he was not a member of their family. "He insists he does not belong to us, [and] is only visiting us until his folks come for him," she told Edgar. "He will have nothing to do with strangers, calls us by our names, Mr. Jones and Mrs. Jones, and his sisters and brothers by their name." When Edgar arrived at the Jones's home, he was introduced to young Cayce Jones. Edgar described the child as "lovely" and "normal in every way" and was surprised when the young boy would not greet or come near him. He merely watched Edgar intently from a distance, saying nothing. All of sudden he then rushed over to embrace Edgar. The child's face became radiant. "Brother!" he announced. At once, the child began to beg Edgar to take him home, pleading with Edgar that he belonged in the Cayce family, not with the Jones's. Little Cayce Jones was so distraught at the prospect of not leaving with him that Edgar had to wait until the child was asleep before he could leave the Jones's house. Edgar did not see Cayce Jones for the next eight years, thinking that were he to do so, there might be serious repercussions to the child's relationship with his parents. Then, when he did return, Alva Jones related a curious phenomenon that was creating a great strain on their family life. She told Edgar that her ten-year-old child would not go alone into the house that they had recently moved into, nor would he enter his bedroom or their bathroom unless accompanied by a parent. This proved to be quite a problem, for one of the parents had to constantly accompany the ten-year-old. When Alva asked her son what the problem was, he reportedly replied: "You would not understand." (296) Lamar and Alva Jones asked Edgar to look into the matter and talk to their son. Edgar obliged. It soon became apparent to him that the ten-year old child had begun to manifest the psychic abilities foretold in his first life reading. Cayce Jones told Edgar what he was reluctant to tell his parents: that he believed that the ghost of someone who had died in the house had remained behind to haunt its present occupants. Cayce Jones was 'picking up' psychic vibrations, and it disturbed him to be in the house alone. In discussions with Edgar about the 'ghost,' the problem was solved. The child had only to take a living thing into the room with him, such as a caged bird or potted plant, to offset the vibrations of the ghostly presence. As Edgar later reported in a letter to a friend, the child confirmed what both he and the child knew in their hearts to be true. "[A bird or a flower has] life, and Life is God. And when He is ... [present] nothing can harm." Helping the young boy overcome his fear of the house, however, was a great deal easier than convincing the child to remain with the Jones family. When Edgar was about to leave the Jones's house to return to his own home, the young boy appeared at the door with his belongings packed in a suitcase. He demanded to be taken "home." As Edgar later said of the incident, "this wasn't proof [of reincarnation] to anyone [in a scientific way], but [it was] mighty meaningful to me!" (297) Hoofdstuk 33 The Life of Christ Cayce's readings had already suggested the exalted position with which the Source viewed the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. References to the 'Lowly Nazarene,' the 'Master,' and the 'Prince of Peace' appeared thousands of times during trance sessions, in ways that suggested that the readings' recipients should aspire to a greater understanding of God. Now that Morton Blumenthal's curiosity had been piqued by his own life reading, he naturally wanted to know if Jesus the man actually existed, and if the accepted details of his life as put forth in the Bible were accurate. The fact that Morton Blumenthal - a Jew - first raised the subject, made the search for the historical Jesus all the more unusual. To Edgar's relief, rarely did the contents of what became known as the Jesus readings - nor the hundreds of life readings that were later conducted for people purported to have played a role in the events of the early Christian Church - overtly contradict what appeared in the Bible. More often than not these readings added clarity and a deeper, more three-dimensional picture of the life and times of Jesus Christ. However, like so much else that came through in trance, the readings on Jesus also challenged anyone who studied them. (327) Perhaps the most intriguing information that came through Cayce concerned the preparation for His birth, a topic on which the Bible provides few details. In a particularly fascinating discourse on biblical history, the Source suggested that preparations for the coming of the Messiah were underway four hundred years before the birth of Jesus. According to Cayce, the group of people who were 'preparing the way,' and in whose midst Jesus was eventually born, were the Essenes, or the 'Brotherhood.' Cayce described them as "a [noncelibate] religious order within Jewry," whose primary function was as record keepers, interpreters of the prophecies, and channels for the Messiah to come. According to the readings, because of their belief in astrology, numerology, and reincarnation, they were also generally viewed by the greater Jewish population as rebels and radicals. For modern historians, the Essenes have long been an enigma, primarily because there is little mention of the sect's existence after the birth of Jesus. Much of what is now known about the Essenes comes from the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were discovered in Qumran in 1947, more than a decade after Cayce first discussed the Essenes and two years after his death. The Dead Sea Scrolls, which are generally believed to have been authored by the Essenes, ultimately created more confusion about who the Essenes were. However, the information revealed by the scrolls bears a striking similarity to the descriptions from Cayce's readings, and provides the single most compelling evidence that the biblical history as presented by Cayce might indeed be true. Although historians and the Cayce readings are in agreement that the Essenes were a Jewish sect, the Source went quite a bit farther in describing the makeup of the community. "They took Jews and Gentiles alike as members [as they did both men and women]," Cayce said. "This was the beginning of the period where women were considered as equals with the men in their activities, in their abilities to formulate, to live, to be channels. They joined by dedication ... a [matter of] free will." Perhaps most surprising of Cayce's claims was that the head of the Essenes at the time of Jesus' birth was a woman named Judy, who "had the experience of hearing voices and communication with the divine - voices, dreams, signs, symbols." The Source went on to say that Judy's birth was foretold by an angel who appeared before her mother and father. "That the entity was a daughter, rather than being a male, brought some disturbance [and] confusion, but was a decision from the powers on 'high,' and gave the first demonstration of woman's place in the affairs and associations of man, for [like] the teachings of Jesus [this] released woman from that bondage to which she had been held since the ideas of man conceived from the fall of Eve." (328) It appears from the readings that Judy, who broke tradition by becoming the female head of this sect, also had the 'Divine' responsibility for recording and compiling much of what is now found in the Old Testament and in the ancient documents that comprise the Dead Sea Scrolls. According to the Source, the Essenes "labored in the preserving of records of His activities as the Child [and] the activities of the [Magi]. Judy had been the prophetess, the healer, the writer, the recorder." As this last reading would suggest, and the next would confirm, the Magi, who had come out of the East in search of the newborn Messiah, had actually been in contact with the Essenes even before His birth. The Magi were described as soothsayers, astrologers, interpreters of dreams and of palms, and also "those that were seekers for the truth, for [the coming Messiah]." Not only did the Essenes devote themselves spiritually to the coming Messiah, but according to the Source, they took practical steps to bring about the event when their own astrological calculations, and those of the Magi, indicated that the arrival of the 'Promised One' was fast approaching. This was a time, according to the Source, when the Essene sages earnestly began studying the teachings of Persia, India, Greece, Egypt, and the Hebrews. According to Cayce, the study took place on Mount Carmel, near Galilee, and not far from Nazareth. "Thus in [Mount] Carmel, where the priests of this faith were, there were [twelve] maidens chosen that were dedicated to this purpose [as potential channels for the Messiah]." The twelve maidens were purported to be selected from "all of those who chose to give those that were perfect in body and in mind for the service." As stated in other readings, the parents of these maidens were all hopeful that their daughter would be ultimately chosen. It was Mary, the entity who Cayce described as "an Aquarius - in its perception [and] perfection," who had been given by her mother at age "four," and "between twelve and thirteen [was] the one chosen." Mary, like the other virgins, was put into training according to Essene tradition, which included "chastity, purity, love, patience, endurance - all of [ which] would be termed by many in the present as persecutions, but [were] tests for physical and mental strength ... These were kept balanced according to that which had been first set by Aran and Ra Ta." Although the point may have been initially lost on Morton and Edgar, here was not only a description of the education of the mother of Jesus, but the first of many references to the role that Ra Ta-Edgar Cayce, in a previous incarnationplayed in 'preparing the way.' According to the readings, Mary had been in serious preparation for three years before she was chosen by an angel to be the mother of the Messiah. (329) The selection was made on "the temple steps [when the] maidens [were] going to the altar for prayer ... . As they mounted the steps, all were bathed in the morning sun, which not only made a beautiful picture but clothed all as in purple and gold. As Mary reached the top step [there was] thunder and lightning, and the [Angel Gabriel] led the way, taking the child [Mary] by the hand." The Source confirmed that Jesus was immaculately conceived and stated that Mary herself was also divinely conceived, though in a somewhat different fashion. Like Edgar Cayce and Gladys Davis, Mary and her son Jesus were described as 'twin souls' or 'soul mates' separated at some early and as yet undefined period during Earth's 'indwelling.' Asked to explain the nature of Jesus' conception, the Source said: "The immaculate conception is the physical and mental ... attuned to spirit as to be quickened by same [Many will] say 'Impossible!' They say that it isn't in compliance with the natural law. [But] it is a natural law, as has been indicated by the projection of mind into matter ... . Neither Mary nor Jesus had a human father. They were one soul." According to Cayce, once the teenage Mary was established as the future mother of the Messiah, the Essenes quickly sought to find her a husband. A thirty - six - year - old widower named Joseph was chosen, and the wedding, I which was performed in the temple at Carmel, "followed the regular ritual ... not ... in the Jewish temple but rather in the general meeting place of the Essenes." The Angel Gabriel again appeared in a vision and blessed the union. Mary then became pregnant. As described in the Bible, the readings said Mary joined Joseph in Nazareth after the wedding, and "from [Nazareth] they went to Bethlehem to be taxed, or to register." The Source went an to fill in many new details: "Mary and Joseph's arrival [into Bethlehem] was in the evening ... the weather was cool, and there were crowds on the way ... from the hills of Judea." In another reading, the Source said: "In the evening ... the specter of His star in the evening sky brought awe and wonder to all who beheld [it]. At twilight, Joseph approached the inn that was filled with those who had also journeyed there on their way to be polled for the tax ... required by the Roman law ... Both Joseph and Mary were members of the [radical] sect ... and thus they were questioned by those not only in the political but in the religious authority in the cities. Then there was the answer by the innkeeper, 'No room in the inn,' especially for such an occasion. Laughter and jeers followed at the sight of the elderly man with the beautiful girl, his wife heavy with child." (330) Regarding the innkeeper, who has been generally portrayed as heartless, Cayce provided an interesting detail: "Much of that as has been recorded as we find is not ... in keeping with [what] the [innkeeper] did [His name was] Apsafar, who was of the Essenes [He] knew of those things that had been foretold by the teachers ... and made all preparations as near in keeping with what had been foretold." Apsafar therefore sent Mary and Joseph to a grotto behind the stables to protect them from the Romans, where according to the Source, the Child was born. "[Just as the midnight hour came] the star appeared that made the wonderment to the shepherds ... All were in awe as the brightness of His star appeared and shone, as the music of the spheres brought that joyful choir, 'Peace on Earth! Good will to men of Good Faith.' All felt the vibrations and saw a great light - not only the shepherds above that stable but those in the inn as well. To be sure, those conditions were later to be dispelled by the doubters who told the people that they had been overcome with wine." The Magi, according to the reading, arrived at the grotto where the child was born through their own purported psychic powers and visions, carrying with them gifts that represented - in the metaphysical sense - the three phases of man's experience in materiality: gold, the material; frankincense, the ether or ethereal; and myrrh, the healing force. Although the Bible story suggests that after the Magi visited them the Holy family left Bethlehem almost immediately, Cayce asserted that Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus remained in Bethlehem for twenty-nine days. As described in the Bible, en route to visiting the newborn Messiah, the Magi had stopped to visit with Herod and inquire of him the whereabouts of the infant Messiah. Cayce pointed out that visiting Herod, who was only second or third in command, instead of the Romans who were in charge, might appear to be a strange choice on the part of the Magi. The Source went on to say that this was orchestrated by Judy, who knew that Herod, a despot, would react violently to the news of the new King of the Jews, and would thus fulfill another Old Testament prophecy, of "Rachel weeping for her children." This suggested that the fulfillment of prophecies and the Essene practice of record keeping were actually one and the same; to provide evidence to seekers that Jesus was the Messiah, and to chronicle the life that he would live. Just as the readings dedicated to the life of Jesus provided interesting insights into the arrival of the 'New King,' hundreds of life readings conducted by Cayce over the next two decades described other important events of the life of Christ from the perspective of participants in His story. A particularly insightful life reading was given for a woman purported to have been Herod's third wife. (331) According to this reading, Thesea, as she was known in her earlier incarnation, was fourteen years old when she was wed to Herod, who reportedly had chosen her not only for beauty and education, but because of the political influence that her family had with the priests in power. Caiaphus, the high priest in the Bible who presided at the trial of Jesus, was her brother-in-law and was described by Cayce as making "overtures to Herod in his proclaiming the closer relationship to the Roman rule." Thesea, according to the Source, was horrified by her husband's edict to kill the infants of Jerusalem and disassociated herself from his activities and later, like the Essenes, suffered great physical and mental cruelty at his hands. As the story was related, Thesea became a secret informant for the Essenes, conversed with the Magi, and took on the task of chronicling what happened. Her writings, like Judy's, were purportedly part of the records destroyed in the Alexandrian library, and a portion of those records, in some form, is also said to still exist in the Vatican library. Herod's persecution forced the Holy Family to leave for Egypt, but before their departure, Judy appointed a girl named Josie - one of the twelve consecrated virgins - to become the handmaiden to Mary and Joseph. The journey took them "through portions of Palestine, from Nazareth to the borders of Egypt," the Source said. "Do not understand that there was only Joseph, Mary, Josie, and the child, for there were other [Essene] groups that preceded and followed [them for their] protection." Regarding the "four years, six months, three days" that the family reportedly would spend in Egypt, the Source noted that Jesus had already begun to manifest the gifts later ascribed to him in the Bible. The "garments worn about the Child" were said to have healing properties, "for the body being perfect radiated that which was health, life itself." Cayce also stated that Jesus was not consciously able to perform "miracles" until he was twelve, when he stayed to converse with the rabbi in Jerusalem. According to the readings, the family's return from Egypt was made to Capernaum - not Nazareth as stated in Matthew - and was done not only for political reasons, owing to the death of Herod, but for the continuing education of Jesus: "That there might be the ministry or teaching [to Jesus] that was to be a part of the Brotherhood - supervised in that period by Judy." Though nothing is said in the New Testament about Jesus between the time he was a twelve-year-old child in the temple in Jerusalem, and when He was a thirty-year-old man about to begin his ministry, the Cayce readings chronicle Jesus' life in this period, alleging that he went to Persia, India, Syria, and Egypt to complete his education. In India, Jesus was purported to have studied the "cleansings of the body as related to preparation for strength in the physical as well as in the mental man." (332) Apparently these teachings represented forms of fasting and meditation, practices meant to purify one's body, thoughts, and actions. Jesus was also said to have studied in Benares - a holy Hindu city - where he learned "teachings ... combined from the Essene schools, but ... not true Essene doctrine as practiced by the Jewish and semi-Jewish associations in Carmel." Jesus returned home and after His father's funeral was reported to have accompanied the man who would become John the Baptist "into Egypt for the completion of His preparation as a teacher." It was in Egypt, Cayce said, that "both [John and Jesus] became the initiates in the pyramid ... [studying] what you would today call [the law of one]." Cayce added that "these [aspects of Jesus' education] should not be looked upon by students as unnatural conditions," suggesting, perhaps, that anyone preparing for ministry in the Essene community would have undertaken such an education. Cayce also made reference to "the passing of the tests [in Egypt] by those who were of the Essene group, as they entered into the service." For these tests, Jesus was in Heliopolis - a now ruined city outside of Cairo, not to be confused with the modern city with the same name. Heliopolis, which means 'city of the sun,' was the center of sun worship in the pre-Christian Egyptian civilization and had also been known as the 'City of Ra' - another reference to the deified Ra Ta named in Edgar's life readings. The reason the Essenes chose this spot, as Cayce stated in another reading, was that "the unifying of the teachings of many lands was brought together in Egypt [under the law of one]." Cayce - in trance - said that the Bible does not tell of Jesus' youth and education because there were few, if any, supporting records: "All of those that existed were destroyed - that is, the originals - with the activities in Alexandria [although] there are some that have been forged manuscripts." Exactly what Cayce meant by 'forged' is not clear, but what he may have been referring to were adulterated copies of the originals. Cayce asserted that "Mary and Joseph took up normal married life about ten years after the birth of Jesus, when Jesus went to be taught by priests." They then had three children. According to the readings, Jesus was twelve when Mary gave birth to James. The next year, when Jesus began His studies in foreign lands, Ruth was born in Capernaum and then Jude was born. Although this information varies from the Bible, which refers to brothers James, Judas, Simon, and Joses as well as unnamed sisters, some historians assert that the siblings mentioned in the Bible were not Mary's, but Joseph's from a previous marriage, which would have been in keeping with Cayce's account of events. (333) There is very little in the readings about James, who Cayce confirmed was the head of the Christian church in Jerusalem after Jesus' death: "James was exalted to the position of the leader because the honor was to Jesus ... to whom all honor and all glory are due." However, Cayce also asserted something that modern scholars dispute, that James, the brother of the Lord, and 'James the Less,' as referred to in the Bible, were one and the same person. The Source yielded much more information about Jesus' sister, Ruth, who is not specifically mentioned in the Bible. Information on her comes through a life reading given for a forty-six-year-old wife of a labormanagement mediator and the daughter of a man who, at the time, was one of the wealthiest and most influential men in America, and purported in the readings to have been Augustus Caesar in a previous incarnation. Ruth was said to have reached young adulthood when the Jewish people were questioning the veracity of the events relating to Jesus' birth. Despite the difficulties that arose when her brother returned to Egypt to complete his training, Ruth would eventually support Jesus and recognize Him as the Messiah. And after Jesus' death, she aided their brother James in heading the church and in convincing their younger brother Jude of the truth of Jesus' resurrection. Jude was described by Cayce as 'faltering much' in his early adulthood. On a few occasions, Cayce offered a physical description of Jesus as a young man, sometimes including interesting details: "The Master's hair is 'most red,' inclined to be curly in portions, yet not feminine or weak - strong with heavy piercing eyes that are blue or steel-gray. His weight would be at least a hundred and seventy pounds. Long tapering fingers, nails well kept. Long nail, though, on the left little finger." Cayce confirmed that the first recorded miracle performed by the Master was when He turned water into wine at a wedding. According to the readings, the bride, named Mary, was a close relative of His mother, Mary, whom the Bible refers to as the 'other Mary.' Cayce described the miracle: "The day was fine and the evening fair, with a full moon. There was more and more wine drinking and more hilarity, and the dance - which was done in circles ... The wine ran low. Mary, remembering how, upon their return from Egypt, food had been mysteriously provided when they got waylaid, was convinced that here might be an opportunity to experience such an increase again, especially with her son returning a man, starting upon His mission." In what Cayce described as one of the rare instances where Jesus performed miracles among his own kindred people, the water was changed into wine "as it was poured out of the jugs." (334) According to the Gospels, not long after this miracle, John the Baptist had been imprisoned by Herod for publicly condemning Herod for taking his brother's wife - or, as Cayce put it, "because John had spoken against that which answered to the aggrandizing of a fleshly lust." Although the Bible speaks of the death of only John the Baptist, according to Cayce, Roael Zebedee, the groom at the wedding and the elder brother of James and John the beloved, was also among these followers who would suffer persecution and death. Although Luke's Gospel has Jesus returning home from the desert to Nazareth and then going on to Capernaum, according to Cayce, Jesus went straight home to Capernaum. Upon His return, on the first Sabbath, He went into the synagogue, and His sister Ruth "for the first time heard in the synagogue His first utterances, as to the prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the teachings of the lesser prophets." On her way home from this meeting, Ruth met her future husband, a thirty-year-old Roman tax assessor named Philo as. Ruth was described as not only beautiful but "active in those conditions that were accorded to those peoples in the less fortunate circumstances, which became part of the interests of this Roman." The two were introduced by the physician Luke, the apostle. Once Ruth got over her shyness with Philoas, the Source said she began to resent the advice given by her mother, who was unsure of the wisdom of her daughter's relationship. Ruth persisted in seeing Philoas because in her mind, "he bespoke of greater knowledge of the needs of human experience than that held to either by the Essenes or the orthodox Jewish people." Philoas' job put him into contact with many of the Master's followers, including Judy, the head of the Essenes, and many of the apostles. He was said to have eventually obtained the records that had been gathered by Judy in Carmel and delivered them to Alexandria. When Passover came, Jesus went to Jerusalem, where many people had already heard tales of His activities. One of these was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, who according to John 3:2, "came to Jesus by night" to talk with Him and ask Him questions. An interesting point that Cayce made was that Nicodemus was married to an Essene named Martha. As a Pharisee, Nicodemus was never able to fully accept his wife's group, but he did accept his wife, I in keeping with the Essene tenets, as a partner rather than as chattel. As told in the Gospel of John, when Jesus left Judea to return home to Galilee, He stopped en route in a city called Sychar in Samaria. This is where He met the woman at the well - who according to Cayce was named Jodie whom Jesus impressed with His intimate knowledge of her past. Jesus knew, for instance, that she had had five husbands. What's not recorded in the Bible is that Jodie and her sisters brought many new followers to Jesus since they were the family of a high - ranking nobleman. (335) Jesus' visit that day went a long way toward developing a huge following in Samaria. As Cayce would say, "The teachings of the man of Nazareth of these peoples began with this household." The Bible says that Jesus and His disciples traveled throughout Galilee teaching and healing. In regard to these healings, Cayce said, "There were many instances where individual healings by the Master were ... instantaneous, as ... when he said [to a man who was] sick of palsy, 'Son, thy sins be forgiven thee' ... The recognition was that sin had caused the physical disturbance." Cayce noted that healing through forgiveness, described both in his cherished Bible and in the readings, could certainly be construed as an argument for the existence of karma. About the healing of Mary Magdalene, Cayce had some very interesting things to say. Information about her came through a life reading done for Gladys's cousin, Mildred Davis, who would later join the work in Virginia Beach, and who, in a previous incarnation, had been Mary Magdalene. In contrast to popular opinion, Cayce said that this woman was the person described as Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus. A courtesan to the Romans, twenty-three-year-old Mary Magdalene was said by the Source to have been separated from her family in Bethany and became established in a brothel. As a lucrative sideline, she also traded on information she obtained as a paid companion to influential clients. According to the readings, when a crowd of people brought Mary Magdalene to Jesus, requesting that she be stoned for her many acts of adultery, Jesus bent over and wrote in the sand. Exactly what he wrote is not mentioned in the Bible. The reason, according to the Source, was that the words that Jesus wrote in the sand miraculously appeared differently to each person who read them. Each person reading the message read of the sins that he himself had committed. It is no small wonder, then, that the crowd immediately dispersed. There was not one - according to Cayce - but two incidents in which a woman accused of adultery was brought to Jesus. This may account for variations in the stories told in the Gospels. The incident included in the Bible, in which Jesus said, "He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first," was described in the readings as that of a woman caught in the act of adultery with a Roman soldier. While Mary Magdalene had seven 'devils' to be cast out, this girl was guilty only of self-indulgence. In this instance, too, Jesus stooped and wrote in the sand. This time he wrote "Medi, Medici, Cui," which was translated by the Source as an expression of mercy and not sacrifice. Jesus' raising of Lazarus, according to the Source, was the event that completely convinced Ruth and Philoas of His identity as the Messiah. (336) According to Cayce, Lazarus had died of typhoid fever before Jesus raised him from the dead. One of the things that impressed onlookers most, when Jesus arrived four days after Lazarus's death, was that "He wept with those of His friends, in the face of criticism [for coming late and] in the company of the great and near great." This experience, Cayce said, "brought about change, which made for a new life, a new understanding, a new conception of ... God among the children of men." Cayce confirmed that the raising of Lazarus was also the last straw in the minds of high priests who then began to plot His death in earnest. Like so many figures in the New Testament, no mention is made as to what finally became of Lazarus, although it does state that the high priests plotted his death, too. What is most interesting to note is that Lazarus, like nearly every person identified in the life readings as being healed by Jesus, allegedly developed healing abilities in that lifetime, and also in later incarnations. The man who had been Lazarus was said by the Source to be reborn in 1875 as Fredoon Birdi, in Puna, India, to Persian parents. Biographical sources independent of the life readings support such a claim: Dr. Fredoon Birdi, born in Puna, India, was a well-respected naturopathic healer in St. Petersburg, Florida. Among the other 'early Christians' reincarnated in Edgar's generation were several 'Holy' women, many of whom were described in the readings as having once dedicated themselves to Jesus and His work. These women included Mary and her sister Martha, His own mother, and Maipah, the wife of Jarius, whose daughter was raised from the dead. The Source described these reincarnated souls as having traveled from place to place in advance of Jesus and His disciples, seeing to their needs and establishing 'places of refuge' for those people who had been healed by Jesus and who desired to become teachers or ministers of the Master. Aware of their danger after the raising of Lazarus, Jesus and His followers withdrew "unto a country near to the wilderness." It was here, as described in the Bible, that a rich young ruler came to Jesus asking how to inherit eternal life. Jesus replied that he should give up his possessions and follow Him. The young man went away. Cayce's readings said this man's name was Nicholas, referring to him as "that one about whom much speculation has been in the minds of many ... But remember ... the Master loved the young man ... He hath not willed that any soul should perish. And the entity did just that. He came, later, and followed." As Jesus prepared Himself to return to Jerusalem, where many of his enemies lay in wait, according to Cayce, there was "much disturbance among the disciples who were of Galilee and those who were of the Judean ministry." (337) Cayce suggested that people from all over had heard of Jesus and had come to Jerusalem in the hope of seeing Him and witnessing His works. The Source noted that when Jesus entered Jerusalem, there was a "crowd of people, especially the little ones. For, though man would have most believe that there were great throngs, they were mostly women and children." Despite the glorious arrival of Jesus, much of the crowd was apparently disappointed "when that mighty force, that glorious creature, that mighty man among men was not proclaimed 'King.' And He seemed to exert so little of that necessary material application of a glorious power and might over those things in man's experience of sickness, of doubt, of fear!" Perhaps the most startling revelation to come out of the Jesus readings was Cayce's description of the Last Supper. The description didn't appear in the same form as the vast majority of the Jesus material, but was given at the end of a follow - up medical reading when Cayce refused Gertrude's command to wake up from trance. Without being asked, Cayce reported what he was "seeing," - which turned out to be nothing less than the Last Supper, witnessed, it seemed, in first person. In trance, Cayce spoke in a stream of conscious that surprised and delighted both Gertrude and Gladys as they gradually understood what it was that was being described: "see what they had for supper: boiled fish, rice, with leeks, wine, and [bread]. The ... robe of the Master was not white, but pearl gray ... the gift of Nicodemus to the Lord. The better looking of the twelve ... was Judas, while the younger was John - oval face, dark hair, smooth face [the] only one with the short hair ... The Master ... merry even in the hour of trial! ... Judas departs. The last is given of the wine and loaf ... Lays aside His robe, which is all of one piece - girds the towel about His waist ... is dressed with linen that is blue and white. Rolls back the folds, kneels first before John, James, then to Peter - who refuses. Then the dissertation as to 'He that would be the greatest would be servant of all.' ... And now comes 'It is finished.' They sing the ninety-first Psalm ... He is the musician as well, for He uses the harp ... " Here, the reading, if indeed it could be considered one, ended. But there was far more information to come in another reading. Cayce, in trance, said that the most difficult time for Jesus was not the trial or even the crucifixion, but "those periods in the garden ... the seeming indifference and the feeling of the loss of one in whom trust and hope had been given." In another reading, Cayce said that "the real test was [with] the realization that He had met every test and yet must know the pang of death." But Cayce also stated: "Remember, He even made the joke as He walked to the garden to be betrayed ... He looked with love upon His disciple that denied Him." (338) While in the Bible, Judas Iscariot is depicted as turning in Jesus for the reward offered, the readings suggest that Judas was trying to force Jesus to "assert Himself as a king and bring in His kingdom." According to the Source, there were many who believed that if Jesus was the Messiah, He would deliver them from their enemies, and more specifically, their Roman occupiers and the burdens of their taxation. They were expecting a material deliverance, rather than a spiritual deliverance. Judas was apparently hoping to speed the process by forcing Jesus to save himself. While in the Bible, Pontius Pilate's wife appeals to him that no harm should come to 'that just man,' the reason offered is that she has had a dream. Cayce suggeted another reason, that Jesus had healed Pontius Pilate's son of epilepsy. Nevertheless, Pilate washed his hands of the affair and handed Jesus over to the crowds. Cayce's readings confirmed many of the details of Jesus' death on the cross. References were made to the sky darkening, earthquakes, and the tearing of the veil in the temple. Cayce said that Martha, Nicodemus's wife, was on Mother Mary's right hand during the crucifixion, while the other Mary was at her left. Two of the original twelve consecrated maidens were also there, along with many followers as the Romans attempted to disperse the crowds. According to Cayce, the 'rich young ruler,' Nicholas, who had turned away when he had been instructed by Jesus to give up all he owned, was instrumental in prompting "Nicodemus to seek the Lord [and] those that cared for the body when it was placed in a new tomb yet unused." Once Jesus' body had been taken down, several of the women present prepared the spices and wrapped His head. A woman reportedly named Veronicani, a follower of John the Baptist, and whose son would become the first Christian martyr, bathed the Lord's face. Ruth was not present for the trial or the crucifixion - she was with her new husband, who had been called back to Rome just before the trial. They returned, however, the day after the crucifixion and were reportedly with the others on the mount when Jesus reappeared three days later. The Source said that many people - even those close to the Holy Family - now felt doubts that Jesus had been the Messiah, wondering if His mother, Mary, had somehow become confused about the events of her son's life. Given the amazing miracles that Cayce confirmed, and that many others had apparently witnessed them, highlighted for Edgar and others who studied the readings just how subjective these experiences must have seemed for the people of the times. Just as today, it was all too easy to talk someone into distrusting their own eyes and ears. (339) The Cayce readings suggested that most, if not all, of the women present at the crucifixion were also present on resurrection morning, when many doubters became disciples. The Bible tells of two disciples meeting up with Christ on a walk to Emmaus, shortly after the resurrection, giving only one name, that of Cleopas. Cayce described Cleopas as a Jewish man from Capernaum who collected taxes for the Romans and whose daughter would eventually become a deaconess in the church in Laodicea. According to Cayce, there were actually three disciples on the road to Emmaus that day. The second disciple, Cayce said, was Philoas, Ruth's husband, and the third was Luke - "the beloved physician who was both a Roman and a Jew and of those same provinces in the Grecian rule that were under the Roman authorities." In another reading, Luke of Cyrenia was described as "the young physician that never finished and never practiced, yet was known as the physician [who was] close to the brother-inlaw of Pilate." Cayce confirmed the various meetings cited in the Bible between the resurrected Christ and his disciples, and affirmed that for forty days after the resurrection, Jesus would talk often with the disciples but also with many others in Galilee. In another reading, Cayce said that the ascension occurred fifty days after the resurrection, and Jesus was seen by as many as five thousand people. The years following Jesus' death and resurrection would produce many tales of heroism and martyrdom, persecution and discrimination. Philoas, Jesus' brother-in-law, through His reports to Rome, would prove to be highly influential in having Pilate recalled and having him replaced by a Roman leader who was more sympathetic to the new teachings of Jesus and His disciples. Later he would be instrumental in saving some of the church leaders from death sentences, granting them exile instead. Another who would help the cause of Christianity was Cornelius, the converted Roman ruler of Caesarea. Over the years, the information that came through Cayce about Jesus, His followers, and the early Christian church was enough to fill several volumes. How many historians have consulted this material is unknown. But for Edgar, Gertrude, and Gladys, who shared a deep feeling of love and reverence for the Master, the Jesus readings - which grew in depth and scope on an almost daily basis - became a means to better understand the often confusing lessons taught in the Bible, and perhaps more important, became the catalyst for a greater and more intimate relationship with their Maker. For Morton Blumenthal, the Jesus readings were enough to bring about a cathartic experience. Formerly a practicing Jew, Morton would convert to Catholicism. He would also devote his considerable financial skills to lifting Cayce out of poverty and building the hospital dedicated to his healing arts. (340) Hoofdstuk 35 Dreams and Reincarnation At the beginning of the reading to interpret these two dreams, the Source castigated Edgar for not being more mindful of the importance of dreams. "For as has been given," the reading stated, "often there is presented to every normal body ... those conditions through the subconscious forces of the sleeping state wherein truths are given, visions are seen of things to be warned of [or] that will be advantageous to the body, physically, mentally, morally, spiritually, and financially ... Pay more attention to the dream of each and everyone [connected to the work]!" Implicit in this response was the suggestion that all people had the capacity to interpret and act on subliminal communications. "All have the power," Cayce - in trance - said repeatedly. (355) Cayce's dream readings suggested that dreams were to be interpreted through signs, direct messages, and symbols, all of which were derived from an indelible record registered in the subconscious mind of the dreamer and composed of everything that the dreamer had seen, read, heard, imagined, or experienced in their present life or previous lives. In other words, the language and imagery of an individual's dreams were derived from his personal soul record, and as such, spoke only to that person. The dream's message however, came from a higher self, or the higher selves of others. According to the Source, messages could come from the grocery clerk at the market down the street, deceased family members, or Divine communications sent to protect or guide an individual. Understanding the message was only a matter of keeping the channel open, or recognizing that it existed in the first place. "Happy may he be that is able to say they have been spoken to through the dream or vision," Cayce - in trance - would say. Apart from the dream's message, the Source identified nearly two hundred different symbols that often had one particular meaning. An arrow, for example, was a portent of an incoming message. A baby or newborn child represented a new business venture or activity. Blood represented the physical forces of the body itself and was indicative of the individual's health. Fire represented fear, and hair was the reasoning process. Ultimately, however, all symbols represented what the dreamer made of them, for the relevance of a vineyard to one person, could be the same as a school classroom to another. (356) Premonitions of the birth of a son first appeared to Adeline in a dream she had on June 29, 1925, in which a 'weak-minded' boy or child appeared to her, and a reading was conducted on July 1. Cayce, in trance, cautioned her to be extremely careful about controlling her thoughts, for the projection of those thoughts would be translated into the physical: by dwelling upon negative thoughts she mi