The Essential Edgar Cayce (34 page)

In another lifetime, she was the victim of an abusive medieval custom—one of the most powerfully shaping memories she had to face. When her then husband went off to the Crusades, he locked her in a chastity belt. She was deeply distressed and vengefully angry. “This brought periods of disturbing forces of many natures; the determining to sometime, somewhere, be free, and to ‘get even.’ ” And who was this Crusader? He was none other than her current husband, now impotent, now potentially very vulnerable to her affairs.

The woman’s past life effect on the current situation vividly makes a point: Sexuality is the one thing in life that brings to bear all the key ingredients that make up the human soul. But it’s not only the place we readily get into trouble; it’s also where we can just as readily make great strides. The woman had to deal with the frustration of being married to a man who was impotent; she also had to wrestle with her own urges to act on her emotional and sexual needs. These needs were the challenges about which she was starting to make important choices.

The woman had resisted any temptation to “get back” at her husband. She was very discreet and made sure that she didn’t flaunt her extramarital experiences hurtfully. On the other hand, she wasn’t sure that she could live without sex. But she knew that she didn’t want to hurt her husband while working out her own needs. She even explored alternatives: Just before turning to Cayce, she spent an intense period trying to raise the kundalini energy inside her up another level through daily meditation, but the results had been only partially satisfying.

So should the woman resume the affair with her married lover? Edgar Cayce was rather direct in his advice: “Keep self unspotted from the world.” He may have been so direct because she herself had said she felt strongly against having sex with a married man. Cayce added a further bit of cryptic advice: “As to what the conduct should be, let it never be for the only emotional satisfaction—but creative in its nature.” Perhaps the woman could find a way to be involved with this man in a way that primarily engaged her creativity—for example, attending the symphony or taking a painting class together. But no doubt that would have been difficult.

In response to the woman’s question about finding a bachelor to fulfill her desires, Cayce left her considerably more room to make choices. “Such questions as these can only be answered in what is thy ideal. . . . There is no condemnation in those who DO such for helpful forces, but if for personal, selfish gratification, it is sin.” In essence, he was encouraging her to make sure that the motive of love (“helpful forces”) was the directing influence.

The story further continued to unfold. The woman requested two more readings, and she kept up a correspondence with Edgar Cayce for several years, apparently heeding his advice about avoiding further entanglement with her former lover. She did stay with her husband, but whether she pursued an affair with a bachelor isn’t revealed.

What can we learn from a story like this? Few of us have ever faced a situation personally quite like hers. But if Cayce’s philosophy is sound, we all
do
face
some
type of soul-engaging challenge when it comes to our sexuality. It’s a universal condition: “There is no soul but what the sex life becomes the greater influence in life.”

What must be remembered, however, is that sexuality leaves us with a wide array of free choices. Reading 911-2 goes on to say that this sexual influence
doesn’t
always mean “gratification in the physical act.” Whenever we’re
creative,
we engage the forces that are closely related to sexuality.

Edgar Cayce encouraged people to always remember that there is a force behind the creative polarity of masculine-feminine. Sexuality enhances growth of the soul
if
our deepest motive is to find the
oneness
of all life. We miss the mark if we make the other person into the object of our longing only.

While sexuality is where we’re most likely to encounter selfishness, dominance, fear, or just plain self-doubt, it’s also where we feel the creative forces most intensely. Cayce saw sexuality as the arena where we have the best chance to make the greatest strides in growth. This is where we can uncover the fundamental oneness of all energy. This is where we can create new life.

Sexuality is where the immediacy of spiritual energies is revealed in our physical bodies. Sexual expression is so powerful because it’s the movement of the creative force, the kundalini, through the spiritual centers. All seven centers are involved, but, as discussed earlier, the effects are especially felt in the intense awakening of the reproductive glands, which relate to personal security and physical survival, just as they ensure the survival of the species; and in the cells of Leydig, located in the reproductive and adrenal glands, and linked to the masculine-feminine balance.

The altered state of consciousness accompanying sexual ecstasy is similar to what may be experienced as the kundalini moves up through the other spiritual centers. If we keep in mind that
ecstasy
means “to be taken outside of ourselves,” then we recognize how the experience of sexual ecstasy is truly a spiritual one. That’s why Cayce said sex involves exercising the highest emotions a physical body can experience; he referred to sex as “the highest vibrations that are experienced in the material world” (911-5).

Edgar Cayce’s advice about sexuality has a universal quality. It’s natural for us to desire and need to experience the highest emotions possible physically. Sexuality is bound to be a profound influence in our lives one way or another. And because the creative polarity of the masculine-feminine is so strong, sexuality intensely challenges our mind and free will.

Whether or not we can recall any of our own past lives, Cayce reasons that sexual experiences are recorded in our souls and have a bearing on our current outlook and behavior. So do the values and ideals we’ve chosen in this lifetime. The message from the readings is simply this: Our sexuality is basic to who we are, and it is unavoidably involved in the challenges and growth potential of our spiritual lives.

APPENDIX 4

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES

BIOGRAPHIES

A. Robert Smith, ed.,
Edgar Cayce, My Life as a Seer: The Lost Memoirs
(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997). Edgar Cayce wrote very little himself, although his diary and journals have been edited into this autobiographical volume.

Charles Thomas Cayce and Jeanette Thomas, eds.,
The Work of Edgar Cayce as Seen Through His Letters
(Virginia Beach, Va.: ARE Press, 2000). A selection of his letters was edited by his grandson and the administrator of the Edgar Cayce Foundation, the organization that serves as the legal custodian of the Edgar Cayce readings. These letters give the flavor of how difficult Cayce’s personal life often grew, especially during the Depression years. The letters also demonstrate how Cayce sometimes continued to counsel and help people, even after they had received their readings from him.

Sidney Kirkpatrick,
Edgar Cayce: An American Prophet
(New York: Riverhead Books, 2000). This extremely well-researched and -documented book is also the most recent biography and now stands as the most authoritative.

Thomas Sugrue,
There Is a River
(New York: Holt, 1943). Published while Edgar Cayce was still alive, the book was authored by a well-known newspaper writer and friend of the Cayce family. For decades, it stood as the definitive biography, but perhaps it suffers from not dealing adequately with some of the darker sides of the Cayce story, especially the difficulties surrounding organizations that tried to grow around Cayce’s work. One noteworthy aspect of this book is the lengthy appendix, a comprehensive chapter-length statement of the philosophy found in Cayce’s teachings.

Harmon Bro,
A Seer Out of Season
(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1989). This noteworthy biography was written by a scholar, minister, and psychotherapist who knew Cayce personally and who was very skilled in describing the context in which Cayce’s work can be seen for modern life.

Jess Stearn,
Edgar Cayce: The Sleeping Prophet
(Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1967). A best-selling overview of Edgar Cayce’s life story and the prominent topics in his readings, it was Stearn’s book that helped launch widespread interest in Cayce’s work. Although dated in some respects, it is still worth reading as a classic among Cayce biographies.

THE TEACHINGS

Harold Reilly and Ruth Hagy Brod,
The Edgar Cayce Handbook for Health Through Drugless Therapy
(New York: Macmillan, 1975). This is the most comprehensive and usable book about Cayce’s health maintenance ideas. Dr. Reilly is widely respected as the one who played the pivotal role in systematizing the health maintenance recommendations of Edgar Cayce.

K. Paul Johnson,
Edgar Cayce in Context
(Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1998). A scholarly analysis of Edgar Cayce’s teachings arranged according to the four roles that he played in his work: holistic health adviser, Christian theosopher, clairvoyant time traveler, and esoteric psychologist. It is among the most significant books written about Cayce in recent years.

Bruce McArthur,
Your Life: Why It Is the Way It Is and What You Can Do About It
(Virginia Beach, Va.: ARE Press, 1993). Edgar Cayce emphasized how certain universal laws govern life, and this book covers the fundamentals of how they work.

Mark Thurston and Christopher Fazel,
The Edgar Cayce Handbook for Creating Your Future
(New York: Ballantine, 1992). An effective primer that describes the twenty-four most important ideas in Edgar Cayce’s philosophy and psychology of the soul.

OTHER RESOURCES

The Association for Research and Enlightenment (ARE) is a membership and research organization found by Edgar Cayce in 1931, and it continues to offer educational programs, books and magazines through the ARE Press, and Cayce-oriented health services. Learn more about ARE by visiting
www.edgarcayce.org
.

Atlantic University, the school cofounded by Edgar Cayce, offers an extensive array of classes, most of which can be taken through distance learning. Visit their online catalog at
www.atlanticuniv.edu
.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A Search for God.
Bks. 1 and 2. Virginia Beach, Va.: ARE Press, 1942.

Beyerstein, Dale. “Edgar Cayce: The ‘Prophet’ Who ‘Slept’ His Way to the Top.”
Skeptical Inquirer
20 (1) (January 1996): 32-37.

Bro, Harmon.
A Seer Out of Season.
New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1989.

Callan, J. P. “Holistic Health or Holistic Hoax?”
Journal of the American Medical Association
241 (11) (1979): 1156.

Frankl, Viktor.
Man’s Search for Meaning.
Boston: Beacon Press, 1959.

Johnson, K. Paul.
Edgar Cayce in Context.
Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998.

Jung, C. G.
The Collected Works of C. G. Jung.
Vol. 6,
Psychological Types.
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1971.

May, Gerald.
Will and Spirit.
New York: Harper and Row, 1983.

Mein, Eric.
Keys to Health.
New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1989.

Puryear, Herbert.
The Edgar Cayce Primer.
New York: Bantam, 1982.

Quest, Linda.
The Politics of Hope.
Virginia Beach, Va.: ARE Press, 1971.

———.
Peace by Choice.
Virginia Beach, Va.: ARE Press, 1974.

Reed, Henry.
Your Mind.
Virginia Beach, Va.: ARE Press, 1989.

Reilly, Harold, and Ruth Hagy Brod.
The Edgar Cayce Handbook for Health Through Drugless Therapy.
New York: Macmillan, 1975.

Smith, A. Robert, ed.
Edgar Cayce, My Life as a Seer: The Lost Memoirs.
New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997.

Schoch, Robert M.
Voyages of the Pyramid Builders.
New York: Tarcher/ Penguin, 2003.

Stearn, Jess.
Edgar Cayce: The Sleeping Prophet.
Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1967.

Sugrue, Thomas.
There Is a River.
New York: Holt, 1943.

INDEX

Adrenals

Affirmation

Aggression

Akashic Records

Alimentary canal

All is one

American incarnations

Aspiration

Assimilation

Association for Research and Enlightenment (ARE)

Association of National Investigators (ANI)

Astrology

Atlantic University

Atlantis

Attunement

Autonomic nervous system

Balance

Blood supply

Body-mind-spirit

healing

links

Reading 1189-2

Body systems

Reading 1120-2

Bro, Harmon

Bro, Marguerite

Brotherhood

Caecum

California

Canada

Case numbers

Cayce, Carrie

Cayce, Edgar.
See also
Readings

after death

as agent of personal change

and astrology

body-mind-spirit healing

body system coordination

childhood

clairvoyant view of Jesus

as creator of new cultural myth

dealing with change

Esoteric Christianity

good and evil

holistic healing advice

last years of

laws of living

legacy of

marriage

meditation

mission of the soul

new order in world affairs

pattern for living

personality and individuality

personal relationship with Christ