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[[File:Edgar-cayce.jpg|right|260px|thumb|Rudolf Steiner]]
'''Edgar Cayce''' (1877-1945) was an American psychic and author, known as the "sleeping prophet." By the time of his death he had amassed a record of more than 14,300 clairvoyant readings for people across the nation, with many of the sessions captured by his secretary of twenty-two years, Gladys Davis. He left 9.000 medical diagnoses to the Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.), a nonprofit organization still active in Virginia Beach, Virginia, which he founded in 1931. In the 1920s, Cayce’s trance readings expanded beyond medicine to include “life readings”, in which he explored a person’s inner conflicts and needs. He employed references to astrology, karma, reincarnation, and number symbolism. He also expounded on global prophecies, climate or geological changes, and the lost history of mythical cultures, such as Atlantis and Lemuria. He had no recollection of any of this when he awoke from his sessions. He was a devout Christian and it was therefore hard for him to read the transcripts. <ref> Thomas Sugrue. There is a River: The Story of Edgar Cayce. (New York, NY: Penguin Group, 1942), p. 2, p. 19</ref>
'''Edgar Cayce''' (1877-1945) was an American psychic and author, known as the "sleeping prophet." By the time of his death he had amassed a record of more than 14,300 clairvoyant readings for people across the nation, with many of the sessions captured by his secretary of twenty-two years, Gladys Davis. He left 9.000 medical diagnoses to the Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.), a nonprofit organization still active in Virginia Beach, Virginia, which he founded in 1931. In the 1920s, Cayce’s trance readings expanded beyond medicine to include “life readings”, in which he explored a person’s inner conflicts and needs. He employed references to astrology, karma, reincarnation, and number symbolism. He also expounded on global prophecies, climate or geological changes, and the lost history of mythical cultures, such as Atlantis and Lemuria. He had no recollection of any of this when he awoke from his sessions. He was a devout Christian and it was therefore hard for him to read the transcripts. <ref> Thomas Sugrue. There is a River: The Story of Edgar Cayce. (New York, NY: Penguin Group, 1942), p. 2, p. 19</ref>



Revision as of 02:45, 15 July 2018

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Rudolf Steiner

Edgar Cayce (1877-1945) was an American psychic and author, known as the "sleeping prophet." By the time of his death he had amassed a record of more than 14,300 clairvoyant readings for people across the nation, with many of the sessions captured by his secretary of twenty-two years, Gladys Davis. He left 9.000 medical diagnoses to the Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.), a nonprofit organization still active in Virginia Beach, Virginia, which he founded in 1931. In the 1920s, Cayce’s trance readings expanded beyond medicine to include “life readings”, in which he explored a person’s inner conflicts and needs. He employed references to astrology, karma, reincarnation, and number symbolism. He also expounded on global prophecies, climate or geological changes, and the lost history of mythical cultures, such as Atlantis and Lemuria. He had no recollection of any of this when he awoke from his sessions. He was a devout Christian and it was therefore hard for him to read the transcripts. [1]

Early life

Edgar Cayce was born on March 18, 1877, near Beverly, south of Hopkinsville, Kentucky to the farmers Leslie Burr Cayce and Carrie Elizabeth (née Majo), one of six children. As a child he often played with his imaginary friends (“play folk”) or communicated with his deceased grandfather. [2] His father also realized one day that Edgar Cayce had the ability to memorize the content of a book simply by sleeping on it but found it hard to focus in school. [3]. He felt closest to his mother and a deep love for her because she never laughed at him and he felt comfortable sharing his thoughts with her. [4].

When he was young, he got quite attached to the Bible and resolved to read it once for every year of his life. He also worked at the sexton at the church. [5]. In May 1889, while reading the Bible in his hut in the woods near a creek, he saw a woman with wings who told him that his prayers were answered and asked him what he wanted most of all. Even though he was frightened, he said that he wanted to help others, especially sick children. [6]. One day he got injured at the spine in school and told his parents exactly what he needed overnight to be healed and it worked. [7]

He attended school until he was 16 years of age and then started to work for his uncle in the fields. [8]


Career as a psychic

Involvement with Theosophical Society

Edgar Cayce was a member of the American Theosophical Society for about two years. He was admitted to membership in the Birmingham, Alabama Lodge on December 6, 1922, sponsored by Mrs. Gladys Dillman and Mrs. Lucy Coonley.[9]

Theosophists and spiritualists were always fascinated by Cayce, and the Theosophical Press and Theosophical Publishing House distributed many books about his prophecies. The Union Index of Theosophical Periodicals lists 21 articles about Cayce, and the psychic was mentioned in numerous other articles. Joseph Millard's book Mystery Man of Miracles was very influential to Dr. Shafica Karagulla, who worked with Theosophical Society in America president Dora van Gelder Kunz, as they studied clairvoyant healing.[10]

Over the years, numerous lodge programs of the Theosophical Society in America have centered on books about Cayce's life and teachings. His son, Hugh Lynn Cayce, represented the A.R.E. in lectures at Theosophical Society lodges. For example, he spoke at the Washington, D.C. Lodge in June, 1951; Herakles Lodge in Chicago in 1956; St. Louis in 1958; Orlando in 1964; Ft. Wayne in 1970.[11] Another son, Charles Thomas Cayce, gave a seminar, "Unlocking the Mysteries in Your Dreams," in Minneapolis in 1983.[12] The Miami, Florida Lodge offered a set of three lectures and four classes under the supervision of A.R.E. members in 1953.[13]

The TSA also shared lecturers with Cayce's organization. The A.R.E. invited Dora van Gelder Kunz to conduct at workshop in Virginia Beach on July 16-29, 1986.[14] Several Theosophists wrote important books about Edgar Cayce, including Gina Cerminara and K. Paul Johnson.

Pioneering work

Cayce was a significant pioneer in many disciplines that have gained widespread acceptance since his death:

  • The value of dreams as a tool for self-understanding and guidance. He saw dreams as a safe and reliable work to explore one’s own soul.
  • The importance of meditation as a spiritual discipline. He evolved an approach that was easy to apply to the Judeo-Christian world.
  • A perspective on reincarnation, karma, and grace that is potentially acceptable to the Jude-Christian world. He presents reincarnation as an inescapable reality of how the universe operates. Karma can be softened by the influences of grace available to all souls.
  • An approach to astrology that recognizes past lives and the influence of the planets, especially with regard to helping people find a sense of purpose in life. He used the influence of the planets as a way of describing innate temperament and its impact upon the personality and aptitude.
  • [15]

    The Essence of the Cayce Philosophy

    1) Everything is connected – all is one: Once we perceive this unity it is our challenge to apply this understanding as practical mystics.

    2) Life is purposeful: Each of us is born with a personal mission, a “soul-purpose”. There is an aspect of service to soul-purpose.

    3) Approach life as an adventure: Life is meant to be a playful search for the truth; it is research in the broadest sense of the word.

    4) Be noncompetitive: show compassion: Nothing takes us away quicker from the sense of oneness, and therefore from our own soul-purpose, than the drive for competitiveness. Compassion is the capacity to be present for another person and experience how we are all really the same. It is a matter of feeling with another person, not taking responsibility for that person but being responsible and responsive to that person.

    5) Take responsibility for yourself: Help is available but no one else can fix things for us. Ultimately each soul is accountable for itself. The principle of self-responsibility is a cornerstone of Edgar Cayce recommendations.

    6) Look ahead rather the back: The present and the future cannot be understood outside the context of the past but in essence he was saying to always look ahead and never back and understand that you are going to come back again. We should make choices that will help create the best possible results in the next lifetime.

    7) Changing anything starts with an ideal: Motives, purposes, and ideals are the center of Cayce’s psychology. If we want to change anything in life we have to start at the motivational level.

    8) All time is one time: Sometimes we get hints about the deeper mysteries of time (e.g. a precognitive dream). If we pay close attention to our inner lives, we might find clues that time is more complex than we think.

    9) Success cannot be measured by material standards: Measuring success, especially in terms of one’s soul, is elusive because we cannot use the same standards for measuring the internal and external life.

    10) Courage is essential to any spiritual growth: High aspirations and ideals are not enough, we have to do something with them.

    11) Evil is real and comes in many forms:

    a) A lack of awareness – a deficit in conscious awareness

    b) Extremism – we need to watch for our own tendency to go to extremes

    c) Aggression and invasion – all human relations have the potential for these forms of evil

    d) Transformation – stay engaged with anything ungodly and keep working to transform it

    e) Rebellion and willfulness – we choose every day how to respond to evil; the focus is on our behavior – are we going against the impulse to bring the spirit into the material world.

    12) Learn to stand up for yourself; learn to say no when it is needed: It is similar to self-assertion and setting boundaries. [16]

    Additional resources

    • Association for Research and Enlightenment website.
    • Cerminara, Gina. Many Mansions: The Edgar Cayce Story on Reincarnation. New York: Signet Books, 1950, 1990.
    • Johnson, K. Paul. Edgar Cayce in Context: The Readings: Truth and Fiction. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 1998. Suny Series in Western Esoteric Traditions.
    • Kirkpatrick, Sidney D. An American Prophet, New York: Riverhead Books, 2000.
    • Kittler, Glenn D. Edgar Cayce on the Dead Sea Scrolls, New York: Warner Books, 1970.
    • Puryear, Herbert B. The Edgar Cayce Primer: Discovering The Path to Self-Transformation, New York: Bantam Books, 1982.
    • Stearn, Jess. The Sleeping Prophet, New York: Bantam Books, 1967. This was a bestselling book.
    • Sugrue, Thomas. There Is a River, Virginia Beach, Virginia: A.R.E. Press, 2003.
    • Todeschi, Kevin. Edgar Cayce on the Akashic Records. Virginia Beach, Virginia: A.R.E. Press, 1998.
    • Todeschi, Kevin and Henry Reed. Contemporary Cayce: A Complete Exploration Using Today’s Science and Philosophy. Virginia Beach, Virginia: A.R.E. Press, 2014.

    Notes

    1. Thomas Sugrue. There is a River: The Story of Edgar Cayce. (New York, NY: Penguin Group, 1942), p. 2, p. 19
    2. Thomas Sugrue. There is a River: The Story of Edgar Cayce. (New York, NY: Penguin Group, 1942), p. 71, p. 53-54
    3. Thomas Sugrue. There is a River: The Story of Edgar Cayce. (New York, NY: Penguin Group, 1942), p. 36-37; p. 55-56; p. 61-63
    4. Thomas Sugrue. There is a River: The Story of Edgar Cayce. (New York, NY: Penguin Group, 1942), p. 54-55; p. 101
    5. Thomas Sugrue. There is a River: The Story of Edgar Cayce. (New York, NY: Penguin Group, 1942), p. 56-58
    6. Thomas Sugrue. There is a River: The Story of Edgar Cayce. (New York, NY: Penguin Group, 1942), p. 56-60
    7. Thomas Sugrue. There is a River: The Story of Edgar Cayce. (New York, NY: Penguin Group, 1942), p. 65-66
    8. Thomas Sugrue. There is a River: The Story of Edgar Cayce. (New York, NY: Penguin Group, 1942), p. 67
    9. Membership Ledger Cards Roll 2. Theosophical Society in America Archives.
    10. Mary Scott, "A Renaissance of the Spirit" The Quest 1.1 (October, 1988), 16-18.
    11. As reported in "Branch Activities" in various issues of The American Theosophist.
    12. Anonymous, "Branch Activities" The American Theosophist 71.11 (December, 1983), 434.
    13. Anonymous, "Lodge Activities" The American Theosophist 41.3 (March, 1953), 60.
    14. Anonymous, "News and Notes" The American Theosophist 74.6 (June, 1986), 218
    15. Mark Thurston, Ph.D. The Essential Edgar Cayce. (New York, NY. Penguin Group), p. 4
    16. Mark Thurston, Ph.D. The Essential Edgar Cayce. (New York, NY. Penguin Group), p. 18-31