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Title: Religion and Spirituality/Reincarnation - Edgar Cayce and reincarnation An essay by J. Gordon Melton analyzing materials left behind by Edgar Cayce in his readings and consultations with people about reincarnation.
End_of_Life_Transcripts Exploring death in America from a reincarnation perspective.

L__Ron_Hubbard_on_Past_Lives He notes his theories on reincarnation and its effects on our lives now.

Multiple_Mortalities_and_Godhood Group of resource links about reincarnation and some views about use of alphabets and numbers as numeric symbols in religious texts.

Past-Life_Interpretations__We_need_all_of_them Titus Rivas explains not everything studied in scholarly reincarnation research can be covered by one single hypothesis. He discusses interpretations from normal and abnormal psychology as well as par

Preparation_for_Reincarnation Eva Broch Pierrakos discusses life plans and the process of reincarnation. Pathwork Guide Lecture, no. 34.

The_Question_of_Reincarnation_(First_Spiritualist_Temple) Article on various human beliefs concerning life and death, including reincarnation.


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untitled Edgar Cayce and Reincarnation: Past Life Readings as ReligiousSymbologyJ. Gordon Melton J. Gordon Melton is the author of numerous scholarly articles and books on New Religious Movements (NRM's), and is the editor of several standard reference works including the Encyclopedia of American Religions. Dr. Melton heads the Institute for the Study of American Religion in Santa Barbara, and is frequently approached by the media for his perspective on alternative religious movements. He earned his Ph.D. in religion from Northwestern University, and is a United Methodist minister. This article originally appeared in Syzygy: Journal of Alternative Religion and Culture (vol. 3 no. 1-2, 1994), and is based on a paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion at Virginia Beach, Virginia on Nov. 9-11, 1990.When Edgar Cayce (1877-1945) died, he left behind a unique resource, complete transcriptsof over 1600 readings he had given in the last decades of his life to the hundredsof people who came to him for help and advice. Subsequently, under the leadershipof his son Hugh Lynn Cayce, the Association for Research and Enlightenment (ARE)and the Edgar Cayce Foundation mobilized thousands of people to explore and studythe transcripts which were cross-indexed and proved the inspiration for numerousbooks which have attempted systematically to present the information and teachingsscattered in bits and pieces haphazardly through the readings. Thus by compilingthe many life readings on Atlantis, ARE writers developed a coherent picture of whatCayce taught about that lost continent.In more recent years, the publication and spread of the Cayce literature became amajor factor in the emergence of what is loosely termed the New Age Movement. Forexample, one can trace the speculation on crystal power which has emerged as sucha prominent teaching among New Age groups directly to the compilation into a bookletof Cayce's rather meager and scattered references to crystals in the readings.Among the major themes in the readings are several other key New Age concerns includingalternative health (possibly the most explored material in the Cayce readings), astrology(the least explored in relation to the significant amount of attention Cayce devotedto it), and reincarnation. Reincarnation, as developed in the hundreds of past-lifereadings given by Cayce, could be seen as the single most prominent concern of theCayce materials. For over thirty years, Cayce went into trance and offered peopleinformation on "previous lives lived in planet earth" while interpretingtheir significance for present existence. These life readings, along with readingswhich specifically asked for elaboration on the material given in the life readings,presented a cosmic metaphysics which many have accepted and used for guidance intheir lives. (1) The importance of the reincarnation theme in the Cayce readingshas taken on added dimensions in this present generation with over 20 percent ofthe American public now professing a belief in reincarnation.The emergence of reincarnation and Cayce's past life readingsThe idea of reincarnation and the possibility of exploring past lives did not justsuddenly emerge in the Cayce readings. Cayce demonstrated his psychic talents onmany occasions and had gained some reputation nationally. That fame brought ArthurLammers to his door. Lammers, a wealthy printer from Dayton, Ohio, walked into Cayce'sSelma, Alabama studio in 1921. He is described by Cayce biographers as a man interestedin and a deep student of metaphysics, the occult, esoteric astrology, and Easternreligion. Tibet, Theosophy, and the Great White Brotherhood were his intellectualplayground. Initially, Lammers questioned Cayce about these matters only to handlethe skepticism of the Bible-believing Christian that Cayce then was.In November 1923, Lammers paid for Cayce to come from Selma to Dayton, Ohio, alongwith his wife Gertrude. Lammers supplied a stenographer while Cayce gave two readingsa day for a week. It was at the end of the third of these readings that the famousquote concerning Lammers appeared: "Third appearance on this plane--He was amonk." In between readings there were extensive conversations on Lammers' favoritesubjects. The final reading consisted of three life readings (the first of many thatCayce would later give)--for Lammers, Cayce and a third participant. As a resultof the readings and conversations with Lammers, Cayce became quite familiar withthe Theosophical cosmology which began to fit conveniently into his other psychicwork. Beginning during the week in Dayton, the role of past lives assumed an ever-increasingprominence in Cayce's psychic work and his readings, often under the questioningof those present when he went into trance, enlarged upon themes first mentioned inthe past life readings.Researching the Cayce materialWhile encouraging this vast amount of writing concerning the Cayce readings, theARE has offered little encouragement to what might be termed scholarly treatmentsof Cayce and his readings. The material remains virgin territory to the intellectualhistorian ready to discover the many elements of metaphysical/occult thought whichCayce, largely unknowingly, synthesized into the teachings now lodged within thereadings. We are completely lacking data of a social scientific nature. Sociologistshave neither collected data on the current membership of the ARE or attempted touse the tools of the social sciences in examining the highly quantifiable materialCayce left behind. The motivation to examine critically the Cayce readings is providedboth by the extraordinary claims made by the ARE leadership for Cayce's abilities,as well as the continuing popularity of Cayce's teachings.Also, while much of the Cayce material is purely metaphysical speculation and henceprimarily a matter of faith, the readings do make a number of claims concerning manypoints of prehistory and medical advice which are subject to at least some levelof independent verification. Reincarnation is an area in which the metaphysical assertionsand the more mundane verifiable claims overlap. Thus individuals may adhere to thebasically Theosophical worldview of the readings on purely philosophical grounds(primarily a solution to the problem of evil in the concept of karma). However, manyARE members were initially attracted to the readings and now support their acceptanceof the metaphysical perspective because of the claims of the confirmed accuracy ofthe more mundane material in the readings concerning historical events or medicaladvice, only a miniscule part of which have ever been subjected to critical scholarlyscrutiny.One major discouragement to scholarly research is the very bulk of the Cayce records,which consist of the verbatim transcripts from several decades of readings. To makesense of the records a substantial number would have to be read and analyzed.The ARE has, to be sure, conducted some important research as attempts to gain someexternal validation of the teachings. Researchers have asked how the Cayce materialconforms to independently verifiable data from other areas of knowledge. Such attemptsfollow closely the pattern set in The Search For Bridey Murphy as attemptswere made to track down the truth of Bridey Murphy's previous existence and gatherany information about her life in Ireland. (2) Parallel research with the Cayce materialhas centered upon information gleaned from the life readings, especially claims aboutAtlantis and the Holy Land in the time of Jesus. One researcher, following the BrideyMurphy pattern, tracked the evidence of a possible return of nineteenth-century feminist/ prohibitionist Frances Willard. (3)Attempts to verify the Cayce material in this manner have always followed a fairlyconsistent pattern. Much general data has a high correlation, while specific datais neither falsifiable nor verifiable due to lack of records. (Such proved true inBridey Murphy's case also.) (4) Such a lack of specifics is most evident in the Atlantismaterial. No single relic of Atlantis exists, though it remains a speculative possibility.There is no record of one Ra Ta, a priest of Egypt and a major recurring characterin the Cayce life readings, yet there is also no list of Egyptian priests to checkit against. The evidence is consistently inconclusive.Research has also sought to highlight discovered patterns of internal consistencywithin the Cayce readings. Does it present an internal wholeness in its philosophyand content, which in spite of its speculative nature is a reasonable and satisfyingapproach to life? The philosophy and worldview found in the readings and articulatedthrough ARE literature has proved satisfactory to many but, for those who lack aprevious interest in Theosophical or Eastern worldviews, is of no particular interest.After all, numerous other psychics have "channeled" a consistent workablespeculative cosmology and ethic. The metaphysical speculations become interestingprimarily because of the independently-verifiable material on such topics as healing,Atlantis, and past lives.A variety of ways could be suggested to test the Cayce material. However, in spiteof its name, with a few rare exceptions the Association for Research and Enlightenmenthas demonstrated little interest in, and on occasion even discouraged, "research"in the commonly-understood sense of that term. Rather it has behaved in ways moreconsistent with what we generally think of as a "religious" organization.It has devoted its energies to evangelical (spreading the teachings of Edgar Cayce),organizational (recruiting individuals into study groups), and educational activities(through seminars emphasizing the spiritual, metaphysical and practical life-situationimplications of the teachings). It has even encouraged several major apologetic volumesto handle the problem of those incidents in which Cayce 's psychic abilities undeniablyfailed him. (5)Understanding Cayce essentially as a religious teacher (and mythmaker), and the Associationfor Research and Enlightenment as a religious body, suggests a way to move beyonda mere exposition of Cayce's teachings, and at the same time resolve some of theproblems in the readings which arise as soon as they are taken literally as presentingeither historical or scientific information. Thus laying aside for the moment theimmediate question of the factual nature of Cayce's assertions concerning, for example,ancient history or modern medicine, this paper focuses upon the elements of the readingswhich have emerged as religious symbols and attempts to suggest to manner in whichthese symbols function.The great majority of Cayce's readings were for individuals and included (besidesan astrological reading) the delineation of (usually) four past lives, each of whichwas having some karmic effect in the present. As one begins to read a sample of thelife readings it is soon evident that the number of different settings of the pastlives presented in Cayce is relatively small. That is, in giving readings to hisclients, Cayce chose from a limited number of points in time and places in the world--whatI have termed a time-culture slot. Further reading reveals not only a repetitionof particular time-culture slots, but of actual content, so that after a cursoryreading of several past-life accounts one could begin to predict the content. Whena person is told that s/he once lived in, for example, ancient Rome, the reader wouldknow immediately what effect that life will have on the person presently. The time-cultureslots function as basic symbols to carry the message of the readings.The high level of repetition in the life readings makes them ideal subjects for aquantitative approach, and quantifying elements of the readings proved immenselyuseful in uncovering the underlying patterns within the readings and thus revealingsome of the symbology employed by Cayce. The quantifying effort began with a countof the total number of past incarnations discussed in the Cayce transcripts and thena selection of a smaller sample for closer scrutiny. Patterns--the basic dataThe ARE's efforts to cross-index the Cayce readings greatly assisted in the processof dealing with the material in a quantitative way. Figure 1 is a table of incarnations.(6) It shows the locations of all the incarnations noted in the life readings. (ColumnB shows the number of incarnations in the life readings numbered 1400 to 1599, whichwere used as a representative sample.)Figure 1 Egypt America (Settler) (Revolution) (Other) Persia Atlantis New Testament Old Testament (Ezra) (Nebuchadnezzar) (Other) Rome England France Greece Crusades India Peru Gobi Scandanavia Troy German Yucatan Spain All Others _________ Total Total 1300 + 1200 + 600 + 500 + 500 + 400 + 400 + 300 + 250 + 250 + 139 97 79 73 74 52 52 41 34 173 _______ 6517 Sample 60 64 (31) (19) (14) 31 19 36 19 (9) (3) (7) 16 13 23 8 14 2 0 9 3 0 1 4 1 5 ______ 316 The figures were taken from the index card file at the ARE Library. Those numbersbelow 150 are exact counts. Those above 150 are approximations made by measuringthe thickness of the index cards. They are not exact but close enough for this study.By time-culture slot is meant the particular place and moment in time and historythat an incarnation takes place. Cayce's readings show an extremely limited numberof time-culture slots. For example the largest number of incarnations are listedfor Egypt, but they do not cover Egypt's whole history. They are limited to the Egyptduring the time Ra Ta was the main priest. The second entry shows a slight variationin the time-culture slot in that these incarnations vary over America's pre-colonialhistory, but always represent the incarnated person as a settler. The remaining time-cultureslots are presented in descending order: Persia during the time of Uhjldt, etc.There was one difficulty in quantifying the material, in that some countries arementioned only in connection with another country. Thus, Peru and the Yucatan aresignificant as locations for incarnation only as places to which Atlanteans migratedwhen their home was destroyed. Some Grecian incarnations relate to Uhjldt's rulein Persia. Thus, a mere fifteen time-culture slots account for approximately 90 percentof all the incarnations which Cayce recounted. Also of note, Cayce asserted thatthe most recent incarnation mentioned of each sitter was, in almost all cases inwhich it was mentioned, in America.The basic symbols of the life readings are the time-culture slots which provide thesettings for the particular incarnation and message that incarnation was said tocontain. As shall be seen, the variety of messages given in relation to a time-cultureslot is also equally limited.The sampleThe task of covering the life readings of over 1600 individuals would be a monumentalone, both statistically and in terms of the time consumed in study. The possibilityof giving statistical consideration to the whole of the material is open only tosomeone who is capable of a lengthy stay at Virginia Beach, which has not been possiblefor this author.In lieu of a general survey, a more modest project was conceived. A representativesample consisting of all life readings between # 1400 and # 1599 was selected tobe quantified. Singled out for special consideration were the Atlantean and Egyptianincarnations.Results of this survey indicate that the sample followed the overall pattern of thereadings' incarnations. It was from these incarnations that some of the patternsin Figure 1 emerged. First, American incarnations were discovered to be divided threeways: those identified as settlers in some part of colonial America, those who tookpart in the Revolutionary War, and others who include a number involved in eitherthe Gold Rush of 1849 or the New England witchcraft trials. Secondly, the Old Testamentreferences are primarily from two eras, the time in which Ezra and Nehemiah rebuiltthe Wall of Jerusalem and the time of Nebuchadnezzar.Noticeably absent from the life readings are references to incarnations outside ofthe mainstream of Western cultural history (less than 100 out of 6,516) includingneglect of Africa south of the Sahara, China, Russia and Latin America.Since the vocation followed during the past incarnations was a noticeable, consistentbit of information in the life readings, it was singled out as an item of interest.Because the largest number came from the Ra Ta period of Egypt, and because of thepaucity of published material on this era, it was used as an illustration.The general picture of Egypt presented in the readings is of a time of a civil warin which the pharoah's brother revolted but was defeated. Egypt was the recipientof immigrants from Atlantis. Much of the real power was in the hands of Ra Ta thehigh priest (Edgar Cayce in a former life) who ran the Temple Beautiful and the Templeof Sacrifice. Ra Ta attempted to "organize religious practices and bring thepeople to the idea of the one creative principle through the symbology of the sunand the continuance of individual life." (8) Of the people who supposedly survivedfrom this era to seek a Cayce reading, they roughly fall into three categories aspictured below in Figure 2.Figure 2 Ra Ta Incarnations Total in sample King's household (Prince/princess) Temple (Priestess) Other (Hospital) (Granaries) Number 60 20 (6) 23 (4) 14 (4) (3) Percentage 33 % (10 %) 38 % (6 %) 23 % (6 %) (5 %) The sample indicates that over three-fourths of these incarnations were either ofthe king's household, ruling officials and royalty, or temple workers. Of the remaining23 percent two occupations, hospital work and being in charge of granaries took uphalf. In the relatively small sample three people are designated as the ruler overthe granaries. (9) The designated vocation also served as a symbol and people withthe same vocations were given essentially the same information. For example, peoplewho were told that they were priests in their Egyptian incarnation would also betold that they had educational abilities and would find present happiness in an activitythat included instructing others.Beyond the general vocational patterns, a more important pattern of repetition occurswhen two individuals are given the same exact reading. This happened more than once.Just in the representative sample three different men were told that they were theruler of the granaries in Ra Ta's Egypt. (No count is available as to how many othertimes this happened.) Significantly, in several occasions two people were specificallyidentified as a particular person. The subject of reading # 1432 was identified asthe woman taken in ery in the famous biblical story. # 295 was also identifiedas this personage. Two different people were identified as the central figure inthe biblical story of the rich young ruler (# 2677 and # 1416). These patterns indicatethe symbolic nature of the material in the life readings.Further illustration of vocational material came from the most publicized segmentof incarnations, those concerned with Atlantis. To give added information, all referencesin chapter three of the popular book Edgar Cayce on Atlantis were added tothe sample. A picture of Atlantis according to Cayce can be found in this book. Theseincarnations are listed in Figure 3.Figure 3Total number of Atlantean incarnations--500+ Total in samples Prince(ss) and ruler Priest or temple official Technicial Other Unknown Chapter 3 47 9 10 14 8 6 # 1400-1599 19 6 6 2 3 2 Total 67 15 16 16 11 8 Percentage ------ 23 % 24 % 24 % 17 % 12 % In Atlantis as in Egypt, there is a large number of rulers and priests, though thesignificantly large number of technicians and engineers manifest a difference fromEgypt. Little or no recognition in the literature published by previous writers onCayce is given to the vast percentage of references to royalty in the Atlantean readings.In like measure, the writers on Cayce and Atlantis seem to have missed the connectionbetween the vocation and the repetition of what is said to different people who receivedthe readings. (10)Patterns of deviationEven though 90 percent of the incarnations fit into fifteen time-culture slots, atotal of 537 (out of 6516) do not fit. In the sample 23 of these deviating incarnationsappear (out of 316). The question was asked, is there some reason for the variation?Unfortunately for the researcher there is a cloak of anonymity thrown around thosepeople whose readings are on file. (This anonymity, though frustrating, is a necessityfor the protection of those who sought a reading.) Because of the anonymous natureof the material, the search for patterns ended almost before it began. However, fromthe little bit of biographical data given (date and place of birth), one correlationappeared so often that it could not be ignored. Where there was a deviation in thetime-culture slot pattern, it was often related to the place of birth of the individual(which may account for the large number of American incarnations). In the representativesample # 1476 has a Polish incarnation, and was born in Poland in this life. Theother Polish incarnation was for # 1869, who in this life was born in Warsaw. Manyof the Norwegian (and "Scandinavian") incarnations are of Norwegian birth(or in one case of Norwegian ancestry). Numbers 1431, 1437, and 1450 are such cases.The Norwegian incarnations are in most cases also related to either Eric the Redor Lief Erickson--the only Norwegians of which most Americans have even heard.While a biography of each person who got a life reading would be a researcher's delight,at least one pattern of deviation relative to the present life of the sitter wasrevealed. Deviating incarnations are tied to the present birthplace of the individual.The deviating incarnations revealed the symbolic nature of the first life Cayce tendedto note in giving a life reading. It occurred in the land in which the client wasborn in this life.Glamorization of the pastAs a by-product of reading over a hundred of the past-life readings in order to quantifythem, one further reflection emerged from the study. It is quite common in the psychiccommunity for psychics to receive mediumistic revelations from the famous. Theserevelations have most often come through mediums supposedly channeling from famouspersonages. This author has known numerous mediums who regularly channeled from thelikes of Elvis Presley, Martin Luther King, Albert Schweitzer, and Gandhi. Thereis a noticeable attempt to enhance the medium by an association with the famous.Since Cayce was not a traditional medium and hence did not contact spirit entities,this process is absent.However, there is present in Cayce material a similar occurrence in the enhancementof the subjects for whom life readings were given by either identifying them or associatingthem with famous personages in past incarnations. This process began with the veryfirst life reading in which Lammers was identified with Hector (of the Trojan War).A more recent instance was a young woman who was identified with Frances Willardand about whom a book was written. There are, of course, several hundred readingswhich identified people as being among the very elite few mentioned in the Bible.One might expect a famous person or two to appear in the over 6000 incarnations,but the process becomes suspect when there are so many. The number of the famousis further highlighted by the percentage of royalty and other elites (priests, generals,etc.) in the readings--as high as 50 percent in some time-culture slots.Conclusion: Toward a new way to understand the Cayce materialReincarnation scenarios offer a rather dramatic setting in which to place an otherwisemundane psychic reading. Cayce's adoption of reincarnation and past lives as thereligious symbols through which advice and counsel was offered to his clients alsoprovides some insight into the development of his talents. Once Lammers' ideas werelodged within that part of Cayce which came to the fore when he was in trance, theywere allowed to expand and grow. Elaboration on the material was continually encouragedby the entranced Cayce being questioned on specific issues by those who were presentfor his reading sessions.The understanding of the reincarnation material as symbolic, not literal, does muchto explain the repetition in the Cayce readings. When Cayce clairvoyantly pickedup certain data about present conditions of the sitter (either psychically or fromreadily-available information), such data would be translated symbolically into acertain time-culture slot. A foreign birth was translated into a previous incarnationin that land. The symbolic understanding also explains why the fifteen time-cultureslots concentrated on ones relatively well-known to the average American in the earlytwentieth century. Cayce was using those eras about which he had been taught by hispublic school education, church school, and the Theosophist Lammers. Thus Americanpioneers, the Crusaders, the fall of Troy, Old Testament times, Jesus' era, mysticEgypt and occult Atlantis all appear. Even the Essene material is directly derivativeof two occult best-sellers--The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ, by LeviH. Dowling; and The Mystical Life of Jesus, by Rosicrucian author H. SpencerLewis. (12)The reincarnation material functions as a convenient tool to self-awareness, a factbeing exploited by a number of present-day counselors. (13) By highlighting factsabout a sitter through a reincarnation symbol one can, to many people, reveal self-truthin a way that is acceptable to the conscious ego. The insight about the sitter'sstate is accepted as true, and because the self is picking up a strain from a pastlife, the self is responsible for the situation and bears the responsibility forovercoming it. At the same time, since the cause of the situation is from a pastlife it comes as an intruder into this individual existence. The conscious self (thepersonality?) is not responsible, and thus can resign itself to paying a karmic debt.This modest study does suggest several needed areas of further research. A full quantifiedsurvey of the life readings touching on the several other elements besides vocationwould, of course, provide valuable information as well as confirmation of the symbolicnature of the readings. Secondly, a search for like patterns in the astrologicaland medical readings should also prove fruitful. The medical readings especiallyneed to be subjected to some critical review as they have become the source for abroad program of medical advice to ARE members and friends.Finally, a study of the sources of the material which elaborate on certain time-cultureslots could prove most enlightening. A study initiated contemporaneously with thework being reported upon in this paper has found that the material on the Essenesin the Cayce readings also has mundane sources, namely some popular turn-of-the-centurypsychic books. The furtherance of studies of the extensive Cayce records will haveas a long-term payoff not only an understanding of this one important psychic figure,but will also make a major contribution to our understanding of the process by whicha public psychic operates.Endnotes1. Cayce, unlike many of his professional psychic contemporaries, did not go intotrance in order to contact spirits. Rather, in trance, he was able to read what wastermed the akashic records (an idea derived from Hindu thought), believed to be acosmic record bank of data on all past events. Information on Cayce, life readings,and the cosmology can be found in the several general works on Cayce, the best ofwhich are Thomas Sugrue's There is a River (New York: Dell Books, 1967) andHugh Lynn Cayce's Venture Inward (New York: Harper & Row, 1967). Bothare in easily-obtainable paperback editions.2. The Search for Bridey Murphy, by Morey Bernstein (New York: Doubleday &Co., 1956).3. The Return of Frances Willard, by Jeffrey Furst (New York: Coward, McCann& Geoghegan, 1971).4. Cf. the symposium on the Bridey Murphy case in Tomorrow vol. 4 no. 4 (Summer1956), pp. 4-49.5. See Edgar Evans Cayce and Hugh Lynn Cayce, The Outer Limits of Edgar Cayce'sPower (New York: Harper & Row, 1971) and Lytle Robinson, Is It True WhatThey Say About Edgar Cayce? (New York: Berkley Books, 1979).6. By "incarnation" is meant a reference to one particular past life aboutwhich a person is told. In the average Cayce reading four previous incarnations orpast lives are recounted.7. The major item on Egypt is a booklet by Mark Lehner, The Egyptian Heritage(Virginia Beach, VA: ARE Press, 1974, 1981). Cayce's life as Ra Ta is covered inW.H. Church, Many Happy Returns: The Lives of Edgar Cayce (New York: Harper& Row, 1984).8. Life reading # 294-153.9. Life reading # 1442-1; # 1574-1; # 1587-1.10. Though large numbers of the Atlantean royalty's readings are quoted in EdgarEvans Cayce's Edgar Cayce on Atlantis (New York: Paperback Library, 1968),almost no reference to their subjects' princely states is made (a fact which accountsfor the large number of eclipses in the text). Also, the Atlantean random sample(from # 1400-1500) indicates a much higher percentage of royalty and religious functionariesthan the quotes from chapter three of Edgar Evans Cayce's book. This additional factwould tend to call into question the reliability of Edgar Cayce on Atlantisas a source for understanding the actual content of the Edgar Cayce material.11. The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ, by Levi H. Dowling (Los Angeles:Leo W. Dowling, 1911). This volume has been frequently reprinted.12. The Mystical Life of Jesus, by H. Spencer Lewis (San Jose, CA: AMORC:1929).13. Cf. Morris Netherton and Nancy Shiffrin, Past Lives Therapy (New York:Avon Books, 1978); Edith Fiore, You Have Been Here Before (New York: Coward,McCann & Geoghegan, 1978), and Denys Kelsey and Joan Grant, Many Life Times(Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., 1967).14. This study should not be interpreted as an attack on a belief in reincarnationin general, merely as a suggestion that basing a belief in reincarnation on the Caycematerial is basing a significant part of one's worldview on weak ground. This studysays nothing about a belief in reincarnation based on other research--hypnotism (whichhas its own problems), the remembered past-life research of Ian Stevenson, and thetestimony of spirit entities through mediums. Each of these methodologies must riseor fall on its own.Copyright Syzygy: Journal of Alternative Religion and Culture 3 (1-2): 1994.
 

An

essay

by

J.

Gordon

Melton

analyzing

materials

left

behind

by

Edgar

Cayce

in

his

readings

and

consultations

with

people

about

reincarnation.

http://www.ciis.edu/cayce/melton.html

Edgar Cayce and reincarnation 2008 December

dvd rental

dvd


An essay by J. Gordon Melton analyzing materials left behind by Edgar Cayce in his readings and consultations with people about reincarnation.

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