By Eric Vandenbroeck
and co-workers
Strictly speaking,
Jesus belongs to the previous part
(on history). However, for Cayce, this is the history of an entirely different
order, owing to the intense spiritual meaning with which it is charged. Cayce's
elaborations on the New Testament accounts are no less spiritually suggestive
than his incorporation of those accounts. His identification of Jesus' soul's
earlier incarnations ties the Bible together with other Cayce material in a
manner illustrative of the workings of karma. His descriptions of the Essenes
of Mount Carmel hold that group up as an ideal for others who would clear a
path for Christ. His mention of Jesus's studies in Egypt, Persia, and India
suggests the essential compatibility of Eastern and Western religions. Finally,
his Christology makes the Christ spirit not only an ideal toward which to
aspire but a living presence that guides all those who "name the
name."
A. Jesus's past lives
According to Cayce,
Jesus and Adam were different incarnations of the same soul, including Eve and
the Virgin Mary (Jesus's twin soul). Thus was Jesus able to atone for the
"sin of Adam."
Q. When did the
knowledge come to Jesus that he was to be the Savior of the world?
A. When he fell in
Eden. [2067-7]
Many other characters
from the Old Testament were also incarnations of Jesus, to the extent that the
entire Christian Bible becomes part of the story of his long struggle to attain
Christhood:
Q. Please give the
important re-incarnations of Adam in the world's history.
A. At the beginning
as Amilius, as Adam, as Melchizedek, as Zend, as Ur.
as Asaph, as Jesus--Joseph--Jesus. Then, like that coming into the world in the
second coming .... [364-7]
The stories of the
primordial redeemer figure Amilius and the biblical
Adam are difficult to disentangle. Essentially, "Amilius"
(also spelled "Amelius") is the name by
which Cayce refers to the Jesusentitty before
he adopts a physical body (corresponding to Genesis 1), whereas
"Adam" refers to the same entity after he took on a
material form (corresponding to Genesis 2). The first wave of souls (known as
"the sons of men") became entrapped in the earth plane accidentally,
through their misuse of free will. These events gave rise to legends of the
fall of the angels. The second wave ("the sons of God") consisted of
those souls led by Amilius-the Jesus-entity--who
voluntarily became entrapped to assist the first wave. This they accomplished
by steering the process of physical evolution to create more appropriate
physical forms for these souls. Cayce places Amilius
on Atlantis but says that he did not physically incarnate until the human
physical form had been created. At this time, the Genesis accounts of Adam and
Eve begin. The location of the Garden of Eden is variously given as the
"Caucasian and Carpathian" (364-13), or "between the Euphrates,
or...the Red Sea, the Dead Sea" (1179-2)-in any case, not Atlantis.
Confusingly, Cayce sometimes uses the word "Adam" to refer to the
entire group of souls that accompanied the Jesus-entity
incarnation into the earth plane, who incarnated as the five races on five
separate continents (e.g., 900-227). Eventually, like Adam, the Jesus-entity
joined his twin soul in allowing himself to be seduced by materiality himself,
as symbolized by his acceptance of the forbidden fruit. The other sons of God
followed suit, and as a result, were moved to express their materiality by interbreeding
with the "daughters of men" (cf. Genesis 6:2). In this light,
humanity's banishment from the Garden of Eden was actually a great blessing
since death, reincarnation, and karma are all designed to draw our attention
away from materiality and toward our true nature. If the reader wonders where
Cayce came up with the name "Amilius," or
why a disembodied entity in Atlantis should have been given a Latinate name, it
bears mentioning that history knows of one Amelius
who was a minor neo-Platonist philosopher of the
third century A.D. This Amelius was a pupil of
Plotinus, a teacher of Porphyry, and the author of a long-lost forty-volume
work against one Zostrianos the Gnostic. Ironically,
given the Caycean Amelius's connection with Atlantis,
his namesake interpreted Plato's Atlantis myth as astronomical symbolism rather
than straight history. (310)
As with Adam and Eve,
Cayce interprets the biblical references to Enoch (364-8) and Melchizedek
literally as reliable accounts of historical figures. Interestingly, these two
incarnations are also attributed to Jesus by "Visel,
the Goddess of Wisdom. or the Holy Breath" as she commands Dowling to
write the Aquarian Gospel:
Write full the story
of The Christ who built upon the Solid Rock of yonder circle of the sun- the
Christ who men have known as Enoch the Initiate... And you may write the story
of Melchizedec, the Christ who lived when Abraham
lived.... (311)
Melchizedek (the
"king of Salem" and "priest of the highest God" who shares
bread and wine with Abraham in Genesis 14: 18-20) is mentioned both in the Dead
Sea Scrolls (I I Q Melch)
and the Nag Hammadi codices (NEC IX 1), where he appears as a cosmic angelic
figure. Possibly similar to the risen Christ. Hebrews 5:10 calls Jesus "a
high priest after the order of Melchizedek," perhaps in an attempt to
explain how Jesus could be a priestly messiah without being a Levite. According
to Cayce, Melchizedek wrote the Book of Job, which contains many mysterious
passages that Cayce liked. "For, as the sons of God came together to
reason, as recorded by Job, "WHO recorded same? The Son of Man!
Melchizedek wrote Job!" (262-55).
Enoch, too, has a
distinguished literary history encompassing several pseudepigraphical
works as well as some Kabbalistic writings, in addition to his brief mention in
Genesis 5:18-24 (which concludes, "And Enoch walked with God: and he was
not, for God took him"). These describe the fall of the angels into
materiality, take the title character on several heavenly voyages, reveal to
him the future up to the time of the messiah, and teach him about such
traditional topics as angelology and the divine throne-chariot. Ethiopic Enoch
introduces Enoch to a messianic figure referred to as "the Son of
Man," The proto-Kabbalistic (Hebrew) Apocalypse of Enoch shows
him transfigured into the angel Metatron. In the canonical New Testament, Enoch
is mentioned in Hebrews 11:5 and Jude 14-15. The latter passage apparently
quoting from the pseudepigraphical Enochian
literature (thereby lending it a certain legitimacy in the eyes of someone like
Cayce, who is committed to the reliability of the Christian Bible).
" Hermes"
of the Cayce readings probably belongs in the same company as Melchizedek and
Enoch, although he is not a biblical figure. In any case, Cayce never
specifically names him as a previous incarnation of Jesus. (312) The readings
have him design and build the Great Pyramid (5748-5) under the direction of Ra
Ta. Apart from the Cayce readings, a connection between Hermes and Egypt is
also found in the Hellenistic writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, which
are of Egyptian provenance. In the first book, Hermes is referred to as Poimandres, the "shepherd of men." In
another curious Christian parallel, he says, "the Word which came forth
from the Light is the Son of God" (1,6). Here, Hermes teaches that human
nature consists of such divine elements as Nature, Light, Mind, and Life: and
that by recognizing them, we may return to the invisible, immaterial world of
Truth. During the Renaissance, the newly-translated philosophy of the
Hellenistic Hermetic literature mixed freely with astrology, alchemy, Kabbalah,
and magic, so that "Hermeticism" eventually came to mean a kind of
occult tore. In Freemasonry and Theosophy, this was combined with a revival of
interest in ancient Egypt. For example, the 1607 Inigo Jones document traces
Masonic tore to the children of the antediluvian patriarch Lamech by Hermes
Trismegistus, who recorded the fraternity's wisdom on obelisks and pyramids for
posterity.
"Ur" is
elsewhere said to be "rather a land, a place, a city" that somehow
guided or influenced Jesus, rather than an actual person (564-9). Outside of
the Cayce readings, of course, "Ur of the Chaldees" is remembered
primarily as the native city of Abraham (Genesis 11:31).
Perhaps the syllable
sounded more mysterious as the result of its German meaning
("primordial").
Cayce identifies
"Zend" (also spelled "Zen," "Zan,"
"Sen." or "San") as the father of Zoroaster (991-1) and as
a source of inspiration for the Zend-Avesta (288-29).
Actually, the word Zend in Zend-Avesta means
"commentary "(313), and in any case, the work by that name is a
relatively late Middle Persian commentary on the Avesta.
Also, in reality, Zoroaster's father was Pourushaspa,
of the clan Spitaman. (314) It would appear that
despite the sleeping Cayce's fascination with ancient Iran, he did not actually
know very much about that country but based his readings on a fantasized
version of it inspired by the Book of Esther and Matthew's story of the Magi. Interestingly,
in his gospel commentaries, Steiner makes one of the Jesus children (the
"Solomon Jesus" from Matthew) an incarnation of Zarathustra. Anyway,
according to the readings, Zend was the son of Uhjltd
(a previous incarnation of Cayce) and Ilya (Gladys Davis), a Croesus niece.
Together they had defied their Icing to found a Silk Route oasis called Toaz or Is-Shlan-doen (which he translates as "the City in the Hills
and the Plains"),(315) just southwest of the present-day Shushtar in western Iran. Besides Zend, Uhjldt
and Ilya also had a daughter named Uldha and a son
named Ujndt.
Turning to the
remaining biblical characters, the story of Joseph would have appealed to Cayce
for its Egyptian location, its endorsement of dream guidance, and Joseph's escape
from the pit (anticipating Jesus's resurrection). The appeal of Joshua (who is
not listed in the passage above, cf. 5749-14) is more difficult to account for,
given his notorious genocidal tendencies. (316) Cayce saw Joshua as a member of
a family which had produced many adept spiritual counselors (1737); and also as
a scribe for Moses, who psychically dictated much of the material from the
books traditionally attributed to him (e.g., 5023-2). thus explaining how he
could have managed to include such details as creating the universe and his own
death. The readings give little information about Asaph, the music director,
and seer who served under David and Solomon. Jeshua
(an incarnation of Jesus not listed above), the high priest who helped organize
the return from exile and the rebuilding of the temple (as recounted in the
books of Ezra and Nehemiah) (317), is claimed by Cayce to have compiled and
translated the books of the Bible (5023-2). If these characters (as Cayce
describes them) have anything in common, it is their role as psychic
revelators.
Note that
"Joshua," "Jeshua," and
"Jesus" are really the same name. The name "Jesus" is a
Latinization of the Aramaic Jeshua or
Yeshua, which is taken from the Hebrew Yehoshua, or
Joshua. (Jesus was thus named after the Old Testament hero.) So Cayce has
assigned the soul-entity Jesus the same name for three separate incarnations!
Eddy had noted the connection between the names "Jesus" and
"Joshua" in Science and Health; (318) Cayce elsewhere
reports that his Essene school registered Jesus under the name of "Jeshua" (2067-7).
As for the Second
Coming, Cayce sometimes interprets this as an internal, psychic event within
the individual seeker (as in his commentary on the Book of Revelation) and
sometimes as the actual return of Jesus Christ in particular. In discussing the
massive geological changes predicted for this century, he adds that "these
will begin in those periods from '58 to '98. when these will be proclaimed as
the periods when His light will be seen in the clouds" (3976-15). While
this passage might be interpreted psychologically, elsewhere, Cayce insists
that Jesus will return in the flesh (5749-4). As it happens, early
twentieth-century Kentucky was the scene of great premillennialist excitement (although
the Disciples of Christ were largely postmillennialism), and several of the
Cayce readings imply a premillennialist perspective. For example:
As given, for a
thousand years, he will walk and talk with men of every clime. Then in groups,
in masses, they shall reign of the first resurrection for a thousand years, for
this will be when the changes materially come. [364-8]
Although Cayce gives
the year date of the "entrance of the Messiah into this period--1998"
(5748-5), he also admits that no one knows the exact time of the Second Coming,
since it cannot occur "until His enemies--and the earth-are wholly in
subjection to His will, His powers" (57491). Strictly speaking, this will
not be a future incarnation since Jesus has already transcended the necessity
of reincarnating.
B. Jesus the Essene
The readings claim
that Mary, Joseph, and Jesus were affiliated with an Essene community based on
Mount Carmel, which was a continuation of a "school of the prophets"
begun by Elijah, Elisha, Samuel, and ultimately Melchizedek (254-109). The
Essenes are not mentioned in the Bible--Cayce's generation would have known
about them from Josephus, Philo, and Pliny, the Elder. While the word
"Essene" is never used in the Qumran texts (a.k.a. the Dead Sea
Scrolls), most scholars accept that the Qumran sectarians were either identical
or closely related Essenes of the classical authors. Nevertheless, the Dead Sea
Scrolls were not discovered until 1947, so they could not have influenced
Cayce. (319) According to the Cayce material, the Essenes were an
esoterically-inclined religious community consisting of both Jews and Gentiles,
men and women. whose purpose was to prepare for the coming of the messiah. The
word "Essene," we are told, means "expectancy" (254-109).
(Scholars have advanced several theories about the origins of the Essenes'
name, though never this one.) Following Josephus' observation that the Essenes
were known for fortune-telling, Cayce has them spending their time recording
experiences of "the supernatural or out of the ordinary experiences;
whether in dreams, visions, voices, or whatnot" (1472-1). The Essenes were
"students of what ye would call astrology, numerology, phrenology, and
those phases of the study of the return of individuals, or incarnation…."
(5749-8).
Apart from the
glaringly anachronistic reference to phrenology, how accurate is Cayce's
description of the Essenes in light of the Qumran material? The scrolls give
the impression of an authoritarian, highly regimented community intent on
controlling every aspect of its members' lives. The Manual of
Discipline specifies that members were to turn over all money and
property to the community after a year's probation and lists a bewildering
variety of offenses that merit lengthy punishment or expulsion. The Qumran
sectarians were located at about a four-hour walk from the nearest town
(Jericho), probably out of a desire to "be separated from all the men of
error who walk in the ways of wickedness. (320) The sect's theology stressed
the dichotomy of good and evil--in members' personal lives, in the
half-mythical conflict between the "Teacher of Righteousness" and the
"Wicked Priest," in the separation of the Qumran sect from the
outside world, and an anticipated final war between the sons of light and the
army of Belial (from the War Scroll). It may be that the members of the Qumran
community were not typical of Essenes elsewhere and that more liberal Essene
groups (it would certainly be hard to imagine more conservative ones)
congregated in the towns and cities. As for the Jesus connection, James
Charlesworth has edited a good introductory volume on the problem of Jesus'
relationship to the Qumran sect. (321) In brief, the scholarly consensus seems
to be that there are many intriguing points of similarity between Jesus and the
Qumran community; the differences are just as profound. For example, the Qumran
sectarians would certainly not have approved of Jesus' relatively relaxed moral
standards (e.g., enjoying the company of prostitutes and tax collectors).
However, similar groups elsewhere may have been more understanding. Also, an
equally impressive roster of similarities could be mustered on behalf of
competing interpretations making Jesus into a proto-Pharisee, Zealot, Cynic
sage, folk magician, or a lapsed follower of John the Baptist.
The idea that Jesus
was an Essene date back to the German enlightenment. and came from rationalists
who sought to deny the authority of traditional Christian doctrine. As early as
1717, one Humphrey Prideaux mentions the idea in
connection with the Deists. In 1800, there appeared a four-volume Jesus novel
by Karl Heinrich Venturini, speculating that Joseph
of Aramathea, Nicodemus, and Jesus were Essenes.
Jesus's disciples, however, were not fully initiated and therefore
misunderstand his message. Venturini's fictional plot
was seriously advanced by Karl Friedrich Bahrdt
(1741-1792), a professor of Halle, Prussia, who named the Masons as the
Essenes' modern continuation. (322)
Several occult
gospels confirmed that Jesus had been a member of the Essenes and the Great
White Brotherhood. Typical themes include:
For example, there
is The Crucifixion of Jesus, by an Eye-Witness, of
unknown authorship (first published in 1849). This work was supposedly copied
in translation from a Latin manuscript in a Greek monastery in Alexandria.
Goodspeed traces it back to nineteenth-century German Masonic circles. (323)
According to The Crucifixion of Jesus, John
the Baptist was an Essene, and Jesus also joined that order. White-robed
Essenes were mistaken for angels during the annunciation to Mary; made
arrangements for the flight into Egypt (cf. Cayce reading 1010); and later
supervised the resurrection, which was actually accomplished through the
Essenes' advanced healing arts. Cayce largely adopts the perspective of
the Aquarian Gospel and H. Spencer Lewis about the Essenes.
The 4quarian Gospel portrays the Essenes as cosmopolitan types
with contacts as far afield as Egypt, Greece, Persia, India, China, and Tibet.
Cayce, like Dowling, identifies the Essenes with the Great White Brotherhood:
Q. Were the Essenes
called at various times and places Nazarites, School of the Prophets, Hasidees, Therapeutae, Nazarenes, and a branch of the Great
White Brotherhood, starting in Egypt and taking as members Gentiles and Jews
alike?
A. In general, yes.
Specifically, not altogether.
They were known at
times as some of these, or the Nazarites were a branch or THOUGHT of same, see?
Just as in the present, any denomination by name is a branch of the Christian-
Protestant faith, see? ... The movement was NOT an Egyptian one, though ADOPTED
by those in another period--or earlier, and made a part of the whole movement.
They took Jews and Gentiles alike as members-yes. [254-109]
The question appears
to have been inspired by Lewis's account, which discusses nearly all of the
groups named. There the Essenes are described as a Palestinian branch of the
Great White Brotherhood in Egypt. One branch was located at Ein Gedi, the other
(like Cayce's Essenes) at Mount Carmel. Their purpose was to prepare for the
coming of the messiah. (324) Meanwhile, like Cayce, the Aquarian
Gospel asserts that "Joseph was an upright man, and a devoted
Essenes" (1: 12). and that Jesus received his education and mission from
this order. Lewis makes the same claims. Again like Cayce (but unlike Notovitch and the Enlightenment rationalists), Dowling
affirms all of the traditional miracles, and then some-Mary was 'indeed a
virgin; Jesus really did rise from the dead. Meanwhile, Lewis seems to affirm
the Virgin Birth (which, like Cayce, he interprets in New Thought terms) and
the miracles of Jesus but subscribes to the "swoon" theory in which
he did not really die on the cross.
Cayce says that, due
to her great virtue, Mary was chosen by the Essenes for intensive spiritual
training in preparation for the conception of the messiah. Mary's election as
the mother of the Messiah occurs during a special ceremony in the temple at
Mount Carmel, in which an angel leads her by the hand to the altar:
Q. How long was the
preparation in progress before Mary was chosen?
A. Three years.
Q. In what manner was
she chosen?
A. As they walked up
the steps! [5749-7]
Q. How old was Mary
at the time she was chosen?
A. Four, and as ye
would call, between twelve and thirteen when designated as the one chosen by
the angel on the stair. [5749-8]
In the
apocryphal Infancy Gospel of James, or Protevangelion
Jacob, Mary is presented to the Lord at the age of three when
her father Joachim "set her on the third step of the altar, and the Lord
God gave grace to her ... and she received food from the hand of an
angel."(325) Cayce (254-109) and the Protevangelion agree
that Joseph was chosen as her husband by lot. They also agree that Joseph was
much older than Mary. Cayce (5749-7) gives their ages at the time of their
marriage as thirty-six and sixteen, respectively. Meanwhile, the Prorevangelion states that Joseph was a
widower. Although different versions disagree as to Mary's age. the most common
figure is sixteen.(326) Finally. Cayce (587. 1152), the Protevangelion. and the Aquarian
Gospel (3:3) agree that Jesus was born in a cave. Lewis affirms all of
these details as well, probably under the influence of Dowling.
C. Jesus's world tour
According to Cayce,
at age sixteen, the young Jesus returned abroad ("returned" because
Matthew's account of the flight into Egypt) to begin his education-first a
brief trip back to Egypt, then three years in India, and finally a year in
Persia. The idea of Jesus traveling to these exotic places obviously appeals to
those steeped in Theosophical lore, who interpret his teachings along the lines
of doctrines taken from Eastern religions.
Here, after the
period again of presentation at the temple, when there were those questionings
among the groups of the leaders, the entity then was sent first again--into
Egypt for only a short period, and then into India. and then into what is now
Persia.
Hence in all the ways of the teachers, the entity was trained.
From Persia, he was
called to Judea at the death of Joseph and then into Egypt to complete his
preparation as a teacher.
He was with John, the
Messenger, during the portion of the training there in Egypt.
Then to Capernaum, Cana, and those periods of the first preparation in the land
of the nativity.
According to Mark, John, Matthew, and Luke, these in their order record most of
the material experiences of the Master. [5749-7]
The notion that Jesus
had spent his "lost years" wandering Asia by no means originated with
Cayce. Its first proponent seems to have been the Russian war correspondent
Nicholas Notovitch (1858-c. 1916), who describes his
travels in British India in work entitled La Vie Inconnue de
Jesus-Christ (The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ),published in 1894.
According to that work, in 1887, Notovitch was
supposedly told by the unnamed "chief lama" of Hemis
monastery (located about 40 kilometers south of Leh,
Ladakh) that their library contained records of a visit to Ladakh by Jesus in
ancient times. Shortly after his departure, Notovitch
fractured his knee in an equestrian accident, which he regarded as the perfect
excuse to return to Hemis for an extended stay.
There, the chief lama finally relented to his earnest requests to examine the
manuscripts in question. These were two large bound volumes in Tibetan, which Notovitch duly copied down--in translation. through his
interpreter--as The Life of Saint Issa: Best of the Sons of Men.
Purportedly the
account of traders returning to Ladakh from Israel in the first century A.D.
the text begins by summarizing the exodus of the Jews from Egypt, Israel's
lapse into sin during the prophetic period, and the subsequent Roman
occupation. But God has mercy on one poor couple (Mary and Joseph), whom he
rewards by giving them a son, Issa (the Qu’anic name
for Jesus). All is well until the boy turns thirteen and the parents arrange a
marriage for him. Issa
... left the parental
house in secret, departed from Jerusalem, and with the merchants set
out towards Sind, with the object of perfecting himself in the divine word and
studying the great Buddhas' laws. [IV. 12- 13] (327)
At fourteen, he
traveled across northern Sind, the Punjab, and Rajputana, where he encountered
the "erring worshippers of Jaine" (V. 2-3
). Then he spent six years in Juggernaut, in Orissa, where he studied the Vedas
and learned the art of exorcism and intercessory prayer. True to form, during
his stay there, Issa rebuked Brahmin priests for upholding the caste system;
violated custom by giving teachings to the lower castes (V. 6-11); rejected the
authority of the Vedas and Puranas (V. 12); denied the Trimurti and
the incarnation of Para-Brahma as Vishnu, Shiva, and other gods (V, 14);
belittled idolatry (V, 20-21); and barely escaped with his life. In Nepal, he
grew proficient in Pali and spent six years studying Buddhist sutras. After
that, he returned to Rajputana and made his way westward, pausing along the way
to condemn human and animal immolation (VII. 14), sun-worship (VIII, 9), the
dualism of good and evil (VIII. 15), and the Zoroastrian priesthood (VIII,
20-22). The Zoroastrian priests responded by seizing him by night and
abandoning him to the wilderness, hoping in vain that wild beasts would devour
him.
Issa made his way
back to Palestine at the age of twenty-nine, the point at which the gospel
narratives resume. No miracles are reported--earlier (VII, 5). Issa had rebuked
those who demanded miracles for failing to recognize that nature is full of
such. The only really new element is his lengthy, spirited discourse on the
dignity of woman, which begins: "Respect woman, for she is the mother of
the universe, and the truth of all divine creation lies in her" (XII, 10).
Issa appears critical of the temple priesthood but respectful of the Roman
authorities. Curiously, Pilate is presented as the villain, whereas the Jewish
priests and elders attempt to protect Issa. The priests and elders, not Pilate,
wash their hands to demonstrate their nonresponsibility
for his execution. (Notovitch was the son of a
rabbi.) In this version, Issa does not rise from the dead. Rather, Pilate moves
his body to forestall an insurrection, hence the empty tomb.
Shortly after the
book's publication, several critical of Notovitch
appeared in a journal called The Nineteenth Century. The first
(published in October 1894) was authored by Friedrich Max Müller, who did not
actually visit Hemis to investigate. The second
(April 1896) was a report by one J. Archibald Douglass. a teacher in Agra who
did make the trip to Ladakh. According to Douglass, the abbot of Hemis revealed in an interview that no one answering to Notovitch's description had been there (although evidence
in favor of Notovitch later surfaced); that he knew
nothing of the many esoteric subjects which his counterpart in Notovitch's book had expounded upon (and it must be
admitted that Notovitch does have his chief lama say
many things which seem quite out of character); and that in all his years as a
monk, the abbot had never heard of any Tibetan work mentioning Jesus. When
asked to comment on Notovitch's story, the abbot
responded with the statement, "Sun, sun, sun, manna mi dug,"
which is allegedly Tibetan for "Lies, lies, lies. nothing but lies!"
(In fact it is certainly not Tibetan and, as Kersten points out, it does not
appear to represent any recognizable Asian language, although it is conceivable
that Douglass simply wrote it down the way he thought he heard it.) A number of
other travelers were later to claim first-hand knowledge of the Issa
manuscripts, but their testimony has not been sufficient to dispel skepticism.
In case anyone is still inclined to believe the Issa manuscript,
I would point out that the supposed history of the text does not seem very well
thought through (why would first-century traders from Israel include the bulk
of the Old Testament as a part of their account of Issa's life?), and that its
author makes a number of historical and cultural errors (the Jain religion is
not named after a god called "Jaine"; Pali
is not the language of Nepal) consistent with the suggestion that he is a
nineteenth-century European.
The tale of Jesus's
journey across Asia grew with successive retellings. For example, the Oahspe Gospel sends him on a
camel-caravan to the Caucasus region but stops far short of India (Jesus
travels to Britain instead). Cayce's account is much closer to that given
in Aquarian Gospel, which is much more heavily dependent upon Notovitch. According to Dowling, Jesus' travels begin when
Hillel, after their meeting in the temple, is so impressed that he recommends
him to an Indian prince named Ravanna, who becomes
his patron and accompanies him (with his parents
permission) to Jagannath. Jesus' itinerary after that is much the same as in Notovitch but with a few added excursions-- Benares, "Kapivastu" (probably Kapilivastu),
Lhasa (where he spends time in a Tibetan temple learning to read ancient
manuscripts from the sage " Meng-ste, "
whose name sounds like that of Meng-tse, a.k.a.
Mencius), Leh, Kashmir, Lahore, Sind, Persepolis
(where he visits the tombs of the Three Wise Men). Ur of Chaldea, Babylon,
Nazareth, Athens, Delphi (where he pays his respects to the oracle), and
Heliopolis (where he is given a series of initiations culminating in a degree called
"THE CHRIST"). John the Baptist also gets initiated in Egypt, just as
he does in the Cayce readings (5748-5). Lewis's account(328) reads like an
abridged version of Dowling's.
Disregarding the
inherently ridiculous parts of the story, of which there are many, could Jesus
really have visited India? Trade did flourish along Jesus's route, as indicated
by Cayce, Dowling, and Notovitch. Although few
travelers would go the entire distance, Jesus's neo-contemporary Apollonius of Tyana is said to have journeyed to India, where he studied
the philosophy of the "gymnosophists." Even so, the fact that the
trip was theoretically possible for Jesus does not mean that
it actually happened; the crucial question is whether there is any convincing
evidence of his journey. Unfortunately, the earliest texts containing the story
are from the nineteenth century--far too late to be of any practical value. An
alternative approach is to demonstrate Indian influences on early Christianity,
using only those historical sources generally regarded as admissible. Gruber
and Kersten attempt this and propose quite a several intriguing textual,
philosophical, and iconographic parallels. (329) At the same time, just India
and later Palestine both gave rise to texts containing some similar-sounding
ideas, which does not mean that Jesus carried those ideas from India to
Palestine. Other possibilities include proverbs and stories passing from person
to person along the trade routes, Indian travelers spreading their traditional
lore in the Near East, or the great minds thinking alike.
D. Cayce's Christology
Like the majority of
the Metaphysical writers, Cayce makes a distinction between Jesus and Christ.
In brief, Christhood is the goal that all of us should strive for; Jesus was
simply the first person to achieve it, our "elder brother," as it
were, and the pattern for our own spiritual growth. Mary Baker Eddy
distinguishes between Jesus and Christ in Science and Health (330), although
she does not urge us to seek Christhood for ourselves as practically all of the
New Thought writers do. Syncretic teachers tended to accept this interpretation
of Christhood, perhaps because it resonated well with the concept of Buddhahood
and encouraged a mystical, inner-directed perspective. For example, in the
following passage from The Aquarian Gospel,Jesus is addressing the Silent
Brotherhood:
You know that all my
life was one great drama for the sons of men; a pattern for the sons of men. I
lived to show the possibilities of men.
What I have done all men can do, and what I am all men shall be. [178: 45, 46]
In the New Thought
movement, Jesus is seen as a great exemplar who shows how we may become aware
of universal laws to rise above the restrictions imposed by them and return to
consciousness of our oneness with the infinite. divine mind. For example. Troward says that the Bible is
a teaching based upon
Law, spiritual and mental, fully recognizing that no effect can be produced
without the operation of an adequate cause, and Christ is set before us both as
explaining the causes and exhibiting the full measure of the effects. (331)
Just as Christ
fulfilled the Law, so can we-in fact, that is the whole point of Jesus'
teaching. Similarly, Cayce has "this then being the law of God made
manifest. (that] He becomes the Law by manifesting same before
man; and thus-as man. even as ye-becomes one with the Father" (1158-12).
Readings in this vein could easily be multiplied. As a result of Jesus' triumph
over "flesh and temptation," Cayce's Jesus became the first of
those that overcame death in the body, enabling Him to illuminate so, to
revivify that body to take it up again, even when those fluids of the body had
been drained away by the nail holes in His hands and by the spear piercing His
side. [1152- 1]
Thus, even physical
reality will yield before the spirit-but only when the conditions of the laws
relating to these have been met.
Of those writers who
accepted the principle that Jesus was the first person to achieve Christhood,
only a few address the problem of just where this leaves other great founders
of religions (such as the Buddha, who lived long before the historical Jesus).
For example, Spalding:
The Masters accept
that Buddha represents the Way to Enlightenment, but they clearly set forth
that Christ IS Enlightenment, or a state of consciousness for which we are all
seeking--the Christ light of every individual; therefore, the light of every
child born into the world. (332)
Although Cayce's
system is unapologetically Christocentric, non-Christian religions are
nevertheless respected up to a point. For Cayce, the Christ spirit constitutes
the impelling force and core of truth behind all religions that teach that
"God is One":
Q. What part did
Jesus play in any of His reincarnations in developing the basic teachings of
the following religions and philosophies? First, Buddhism.
A. This is just one.
Q. Mohammedanism,
Confucianism, Shintoism, Brahmanism, Platonism, Judaism.
A. As has been
indicated, the entity--as an entity--influenced either directly or indirectly
all those forms of philosophy or religious thought that taught God was One...
In all of these, then, there is that same impelling spirit... whether this is
directing one of the Confucius' thought, Brahman thought, Buddha thought,
Mohammedan thought, these areas teachers or representatives.... [364-9]
As the passage may
suggest, despite Cayce's lip service to non-Christian religions, there is no
reason to think that he knew very much about them, apart from such snippets as
he might have picked up from Theosophy or (in the case of Judaism) the Old
Testament. In fact, the readings abound with such howlers as Cayce's naming
of Cato II as the title of a book by Confucius (900-14). Also,
Cayce's suggestion that the Christ spirit ties at the core of all religions is
likely to be regarded by non-Christians as tasteless and naive, though surely
well-intentioned.
In any case, the
readings describe non-Christian religions as "stepping stones" to
"knowledge of the Son":
Q. Is the faith of
man in Buddha or Mohammed equal in the effect on his soul to the faith in Jesus
Christ?
A. As He gave, he
that receiveth a prophet in the NAME of a prophet
RECEIVES the prophet's reward or that ABILITY that that individual spiritual
force M.AY manifest in the individual's life... Hence, as we find, each in
their respective spheres is but stepping-stones to that which may awaken in the
individual the knowledge of the Son in their lives. [262-14]
Since the Christ
spirit does not seem to be limited to the religion which bears its name, there
is considerable ambiguity as to whether Cayce sees Christianity as an
improvement upon other religions. Elsewhere we find him describing Christ
"Not as ONLY one [path], but THE only one: For, as He gave, 'He that
climbs up any other way is a thief and a robber'" (364-9). However, this
too is ambiguous since it is unclear whether Cayce means for us to become
followers of Christ in the narrow sense of identification with Christianity or
merely in the larger sense of manifesting the Christ spirit (however
understood) in our lives. As evidence for the more narrow interpretation,
recall that Cayce warned many inquirers not to shirk their heritage as
Christians by converting to Eastern religions or occult groups and remained an
outspoken supporter of Christian missionary work overseas. In effect, the
readings encourage religious conversions in one direction only.
Even this would be
quite a liberal theory by turn-of-the-century Protestant standards, however,
since the heathen not only escape damnation but are treated identically with
Christians by the laws of karma. The key benefit provided by Christianity would
appear to be its dissemination of the teachings of Jesus, which are helpful but
not necessary to salvation. We may further surmise that although other
religions possess authentic teachings of the Christ spirit, Christianity
represents a purer distillation of this message. Otherwise, Cayce would have
regarded all religions equally. In any case, Cayce's practice of affirming the
centrality of Christ alongside the worth of all world religions is anticipated
by Freemasonry as well as most New Thought denominations.
Following is the overview
of the other parts in this major case study whereby underneath you will see the
footnotes in reference to the above section:
Cayce's ability
(whatever its nature) to effortlessly absorb books' contents makes it seem
inevitable that Cayce would have attempted to acquire religious knowledge in
this way. The day after he arrived in Hopkinsville, Cayce searched for a
town-based job and found one with E.H. Hopper & Son Bookstore, which from
1874 to 1913 also housed Hopkinsville's collection of public library books.
There "seemed to be something appealing" about the bookstore, and
Cayce recalls that "the several years I remained there seemed to be the
stepping stones: yea. even the door to life itself." without explaining
why, continue in Edgar Cayce's Secret, Part 1.
Robert Smith claimed
that if Cayce did meet President Wilson, however, he was never told of
this and suggested that he had confused Wilson with a cousin of the
president's for whom Cayce did, in fact, give readings. Also, several of
Cayce's partners and associates in the several oil ventures were clearly
promoters of dubious character. The question must be asked whether Cayce
himself should be considered one as well rather than simply as an innocent pawn
of others, as ARE literature suggests. That Cayce no less than Kahn was an
active participant in what came to be known simply as "the
proposition" is illustrated by his travels to "New Orleans, Jackson,
Memphis, Denver, all over Texas, St. Louis, Chicago. Indianapolis, Cincinnati-
Washington, New York, Philadelphia, Florida.," as well as Columbus. Kansas
City, Pittsburgh, and New York City. In any case, what began as a search
for oil and then for oil investors around 1922 blurred into a direct search for
hospital donors. Allies in Birmingham, New York, and Chicago all indicated a
willingness to raise money for the venture, provided it would be located in
their respective cities. The readings, however, indicated the Norfolk area,
apparently for spiritual and karmic reasons, continue in Edgar Cayce's Secret, Part 2.
Attempts to pinpoint
Cayce's religious heritage are inevitably contentious given the strong feelings
of so many people who seek to claim (or reject) him as a representative of
their own beliefs. Christian-oriented Cayceans such
as Bro stress the Christian basis of his teachings while asleep and active
church life while awake over the objections of Christian opponents of Cayce, who
emphasize his many departures from mainstream Christian doctrine. New Agers
note Cayce's use of language and ideas consistent with various Western esoteric
traditions; simultaneously, Christian-oriented Cayceans point
to his efforts to distance himself from Spiritualism and occultism. There is
something to be said in favor of all of these perspectives. I propose to call
Cayce a syncretizer since this brings out
the diversity of his sources and suggests fruitful link's with other
turn-of-the-century syncretizers.- In 1906,
a test was arranged for Cayce in which he would give a reading for a patient
chosen for him before a large audience of visiting physicians. However, when
the reading proved accurate, members of the audience stormed up to him while he
still lay in a trance and began conducting impromptu tests to see if he really
was under hypnosis. One doctor peeled back one of his fingernails, while
another stuck a hatpin through his face-common stunts in stage hypnosis at the
time. Cayce did not flinch but later awoke in great pain. As a result of this
experience, he resolved to stop trying to convince skeptics and give readings
only for those who genuinely wanted his help. To Cayceans,
the incident illustrates the limitations of a formal scientific or scholarly
approach to the readings, continue in Edgar Cayce's Secret, Part 3.
The usual approach to
the readings also ignores the passage of time. Readings from different decades
are quoted alongside one another typically (due to the nature of the ARE's
citation style for readings extracts) with no indication of when they were
delivered. Yet, a certain evolution can be observed in the content and tone of
the readings over the five decades of Cayce's psychic career, which becomes
lost whenever readings from different periods are lumped together the
indiscriminately.-The chronic problem is that those aspects of Cayce which
manage to find their way into popular publication are those which match the
needs and mores of the Cayce movement. These are often arbitrarily or
ideologically chosen, continue in Edgar Cayce's Secret, Part 4.
In the course of
surveying the history and teachings of the Cayce movement, it is easy to lose
sight of the experience of its participants. After all, Cayceans are typically less interested in studying the
origins of their institutions than in contemplating the possibility of deeper
levels to the universe and themselves or in changing their lives to reflect
more of spiritual orientation. How these aspirations are expressed are
numerous, continue in Edgar Cayce's Secret, Part 5.
Today, the ARE's
request that study groups collect contributions seems to be practiced regularly
when not disregarded altogether. Of the groups I have attended, only the one at
ARE headquarters solicited donations each week, with one dollar appearing to be
the standard per capita contribution.- A democratic ARE (to
the extent that such a thing is even conceivable) might easily prove even more
anti-intellectual and personality-driven than its present incarnation. At the
same time, the example of the Swedenborg Foundation demonstrates that it is
possible to combine academic respectability (recent monographs have dealt with
D.T. Suzuki. Henri Corbin and Kant) with at least nominal democratic safeguards
(e.g., proxy voting). A key difference is that the various Swedenborgian
churches are institutionally separate from the Swedenborg Foundation- whereas
the ARE combines both of these functions and many more, continue in Edgar Cayce's Secret, Part 6.
Some leave when they
do not find their vision reflected, complaining about the politics of Virginia
Beach. Others accommodate themselves to a framework with which they are not
entirely comfortable or become outspoken in their attempts to change the
organization. The ARE leadership presently
incorporates several distinct visions--some complementary, some not. The
organization is sufficiently decentralized to keep these visions in a sort of
equilibrium based partially on inertia (once a given program is started, it
will probably be continued) and partially because most Cayceans have
multiple interests concerning the readings. However, skeptical or scholarly
approaches are definitely a minority interest within the ARE. They are almost
wholly unrepresented within those functions that have the greatest capacity for
influencing the Caycean masses (e.g., study groups, publishing, or
conferences). -An object of ARE charity really a public relations activity, a
disguised form of product development, or an expression of a liberal
theological identity (against those Southern Protestant denominations that are
perceived as anti-scientific). Inquiries into the source question have lacked
the necessary connections for the first category, are not particularly
well-suited to the second or third, and work at cross-purposes to the fourth by
giving comfort to the ARE's enemies. The result is that Cayce's research has
proceeded for half a century now without much appreciation of the Cayce
movement's forebears, continue in Edgar Cayce's Secret, Part 7.
Edgar
Cayce's readings are full of Masonic allusions- Cayce refers to
Jesus's initiation through a series of degrees in Egypt. Besides the obviously
Masonic concepts of initiation and degrees, turn-of-the-century Freemasonry
often wrapped biblical themes in ancient Egyptian motifs, following the pattern
set by Cagliostro. In addition, Cayce sees geometry as containing deep
spiritual insights, a quintessentially Masonic notion. The letter "G"
in the Masonic symbol is sometimes said to stand for "geometry,"
although American Masons usually interpret it as standing for "God."
The Royal Arch degree, known as the "Knight of East and West," even
uses the symbolism of the Book of Revelation in an initiatory context, as does
Cayce, continue in Edgar Cayce's
Secret, Part 8.
During his lifetime,
Cayce was widely assumed to have some connection with Spiritualism, as
illustrated by this 1930 headline from the Baltimore Sun: "Spiritualist
Research Aim of Atlantic University." (177) Observers of Cayce had
good reason to associate him with Spiritualism, since Cayce's practice of
medical clairvoyance was known from the Spiritualist movement (Edgar Cayce
would also subsequently claim to have become a reader of the “Akashic
Records"), continue in Edgar Cayce's Secret, Part 9.
Like Blavatsky,
Cayce, too would report being visited by a being wearing white robes and a
turban. Several of Cayce's friends had an interest in Theosophy, including
Arthur Lammers and Morton Blumenthal, and while awake, Cayce spoke before at
least one Theosophical Society meeting (in Birmingham, Alabama), continue
in Edgar Cayce's Secret, Part 10.
The Cayce readings
refer to New Thought denominations from time to time; 3063-1 recommends
"Divine Science, Unity, or Christian Science; provided they do not require
that the body be kept from making those administrations for the physical and
mental self." Except for Christian Science, Cayce appears to regard these
movements favorably, without any of the qualifications which inevitably accompany
his praise of other religious movements such as Spiritualism or Theosophy.
Today, ARE functions bear more than a passing resemblance to New Thought
services, and many ARE conferences and retreats are held in Unity churches and
the like. A retreat jointly sponsored by Unity and ARE was held at Unity
Village in 1996 after several previous ARE events. (Charles Thomas Cayce met
his eventual wife, Leslie Goodman Cayce, at just such an occasion.) The ARE
Library has acquired the Metaphysical Society of San Francisco, established by
Homes of Truth founder Annie Rix Militz, continue
in Edgar Cayce's Secret, Part 11.
The outlines of the
"proto-New Age" should be clear enough now. Around the turn of the
century, several spiritual leaders and movements whose teachings mixed themes
from Spiritualism, Theosophy. New Thought, and alternative health. They
emphasized reincarnation, astrology, and psychic phenomena and spoke of
Atlantis, ancient Egypt, the Essenes- and Jesus's Journey to India. They
endorsed alternative health practices (often naturopathic ones). They accepted
a view of human anatomy which merged the chakras and nadis of Indian lore with the glandular
and nervous systems of the Western fore. Many (though by no means all)
'incorporated racist or anti-Semitic beliefs into their spiritual systems. It
is here that we should take for Cayce's closest theological relatives.-Despite
Cayce's reluctance to endorse it, the teachings
of The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus, continue in Edgar Cayce's Secret, Part 12.
Cayce's psychological
or spiritual interpretation of the fourth dimension and the explanation was
given, consistent with Ouspensky's explanation
in Tertium Organum. Although Cayce's division of human nature
and the universe into three levels seems natural, it represents a departure
from most other Western esoteric traditions and comes closest to that of Rudolf
Steiner, continue in Edgar Cayce's
Secret, Part 13.
Apart from pulp
fiction which, as we described, also led to Scientology, there is an earlier precursor that also might
have inspired the ancient astronaut theory first popularized by the "Occult
Science" of H.P. Blavatsky, who wrote in her widely sold book "The
Secret Doctrine" (which claimed to reveal "the origin and evolution
of the universe and humanity itself") that already during the time of
"Atlantis" there were flying machines and that knowledge of such
machines "was passed on" to later generations in India. Similarly, the
founder of today's top-rated Waldorf schools Rudolf Steiner, also claimed that
the Atlanteans had aircraft that
had steering mechanisms by which they could rise above mountain ranges.
In the perpetual
motion milieu, frauds who have appealed to occultist thinking have abounded.
For example, from 1873 until he died in 1898, John E. W. Keely of Philadelphia
promoted a mysterious motor that ran on "etheric force" derived from
the "disintegration of water." He raised millions from financiers and
the public for his company on the strength of his demonstrations of such
phenomena as musical notes causing weights to rise and fall. Of these
performances, which had a kinship to séances, he remarked, "I am always a
good deal disturbed when I begin one of these exhibitions, for sometimes if an
unsympathetic person is present, the machines will not work." Theosophists
of the age admired him for combining "the intuitions of the seer with the
practical knowledge of mechanics."
Rudolf Steiner firmly
believed in and confirmed his own so-called clairvoyance the reality of the
Keely phenomena to next claim to e able to
duplicate Keely through his own Clairvoyantly as described in the article
"From the Keely engine to the Strader machine. Except
as Wouter Haanegraaf clearly
demonstrated, Steiner's clairvoyance was based on 'imaginative
fantasy.' Continue in Edgar Cayce's Secret, Part 14.
310. Pauly's Realencyclopaedie, entry for "Amelius."
311. Levi H.
Dowling, Aquarian Gospel, p. 15.
312. 281-10 states that
the Jesus-entity incarnated as a contemporary of Ra Ta. Since the readings'
Hermes is by far the most interesting and mysterious figure from this period
for whom no twentieth-century Incarnation was ever assigned, many Cayceans have concluded that Hermes was a previous
Incarnation of Jesus.
313. Mary
Boyce, Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices, p. 94.
314. Ibid., p. 17.
315. Genesis 19: 29
refers to the destruction of Sodom and "all the cities of the plain."
Perhaps this (or Proust's appropriation) is the inspiration for Cayce's name
for his Persian city.
316. Glenn Sandurfur (Lives of the Master, p. 110 ff) ventures
the intriguing observation that the respective careers of Jesus and Joshua
followed remarkably similar geographic paths. with memorable stops at
Jericho/the Jordan. Hazor/Capernaum. and Aijalon/Emmaus.
(However, Jesus, unlike Joshua, did not shy away from entering Jerusalem.) Sandurfur explains that Jesus met his previous karma by
performing healings in those very places where Joshua had been killed. Such a
link may have occurred to Cayce as well. However, in cold reality, such
parallels might be better explained as the result of the gospel writers trying
(consciously or otherwise) to fit Jesus into the patterns of previous culture-heroes.
317. In line with his
speculations about Jesus' fulfillment of Joshua's karma. Glenn Sandurfur (Lives of the Master, p. 129) notes
that whereas Jeshua made a point of rejecting Samaritan
generosity (towards the rebuilding of the temple). Jesus centered a parable
around it.
318. Mary Baker
Eddy, Science, and Health,p. [t.k.]
319. Cayceans (e.g., Jeffrey Furst
in Edgar Cayce's Story of Jesus, p. 30) often hall the
readings' description of a community of Essenes near the Dead Sea (1391-1) as a
successful prophecy. In fact. Cayce's wording is ambiguous, and in any case,
the Dead Sea location is given by Pliny. Cayceans
also point to the fact that the readings claim (correctly, in light of Qumran)
that the Essenes admitted women, whereas the ancients say they did not.
However, Josephus knew of a sect of marrying Essenes.
320. Manual
of Discipline, in Willis Barnstone, The
Other Bible, p. 214.
321. James
Charlesworth, Jesus, and the Dead Sea Scrolls.
322. Per Beskow, Strange Tales About Jesus: A Sunny of
Unfamiliar Gospels, pp. 47-48).
323. Ibid., p. 49:
also Edgar Goodspeed, Strange New Gospels, p. 21.
324. H. Spencer
Lewis, Mystical Life of Jesus, pp. 25, 27, 41.
325. In Willis Barnstone, The Other Bible, pp. 385-92.
326. Ibid., p. 392 n.
1.
327. In Elizabeth
Clare Prophet, The Lost Years of Jesus, pp. 196-97.
328. H. Spencer
Lewis, Mystical Life of Jesus, pp. 180-183.
329. Elmar Gruber and
Holger Kersten, The Oriqinal Jesus: The
Buddhist Sources of Christianity.
330. Mary Baker
Eddy, Science, and Health, chapter 11, p. 33, statement
XII.
331. Thomas Troward, The Edinburgh and Dore Lectures On Mental
Science, p. 167.
332. Baird T.
Spalding, Life and Teachings of the Masters of the Far East, vol.
I. p. 7.
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