By Eric Vandenbroeck
and co-workers
Spiritualism and psychic research
Nineteenth-century
Spiritualism introduced the world to séances, ouija
boards, table tippings, mediums, spirit guides, and
psychic powers. The field of parapsychology also has its roots in this movement
since organizations like the Society for Psychical Research grew out of a
desire to test the spirits, as it were. While the relationship between these
two camps was often adversarial, I propose to view them as symbiotic since they
served to popularize the same set of religious notions.
Although many of the
phenomena associated with Spiritualism are quite ancient, modern Spiritualism
represents the nineteenth-century convergence of several earlier occult
strands. One of these strands is Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), a Swedish
mining engineer and parliamentarian who published on such varied subjects as
mathematics, astronomy, physics. Chemistry, physiology, mechanics. Economics
and foreign policy. In 1744, Swedenborg began recording (in Latin) a series of
theological works based on visions that had initially come to him during a
lengthy coma. These describe the inhabitants of heaven, hell, and the spirit
world: set forth an allegorical interpretation of the Bible: and give a
detailed system of correspondences between the physical and spiritual realms.
Swedenborg's revelations won him a following not so much within the Swedish
Lutheran church (whose authorities were generally unreceptive) but in the
Netherlands. England and the United States. The Church of the New Jerusalem,
founded after Swedenborg's death, is based on his teachings. His influence is
much wider than that- however, and extends not only to a long list of
eighteenth-and nineteenth-century luminaries (e.g., Blake, Coleridge, Kant,
Emerson, Henry James, Sr.) but essentially permeated the whole of the Mesmerist
and Spiritualist movements. For example. Swedenborgianism
appears to have been the most immediate inspiration for the central
Spiritualist idea of peering into "the other side" and relaying
information about it to people in this world.
Another strand was
the work of Austrian physician Franz Anton Mesmer (17334-1815), whose theory
of magnetism animale ("animating
magnetism," but usually translated as
"animal magnetism") led to the first experiments with hypnosis,
hence the term "mesmerism." According to Mesmer, there is a subtle
fluid or ether that permeates all space and serves as a medium for psychic
communication. By manipulating this ether, it is possible to heal diseases or
place a subject in a trance state. Mesmer accomplished this by using hands or a
special wand, with which he would make "magnetic passes" over the
patient's supine body. Later he discovered that the technique could make his
subjects involuntarily dance or perform other amusing stunts while
somnambulistic. Mesmer's patron, the Marquis de Puysegur, found that a young shepherd named Victor,
when "magnetized," was capable of speaking with vastly greater
intelligence than he possessed while awake. On being roused from the trance,
however, Victor remembered nothing. Even more intriguingly, while entranced,
Victor could also respond to unspoken mental commands. After a halt in research
necessitated by the French Revolution, nineteenth-century magnetists
turned their attention to the "higher phenomena" made possible by
their art- including telepathy, clairvoyance, telekinesis, stigmata, apportation, and prophecy. Of especial interest to students
of Cayce are the phenomena of "traveling clairvoyance" (or remote
seeing) and "medical clairvoyance" (in which the subject diagnoses
ailments and prescribes cures, usually consisting of folk remedies). Under the
Swedenborgian influence, magnetists also contacted
disembodied spirits, both human and nonhuman, through their trance subjects.
Mesmerism even came to be successfully employed in surgery instead of
anesthesia. At this point, around the 1830s, Mesmerism gained a following in
the United States through the lectures and demonstrations
of Charles Poyen and his subject, Cynthia Gleason, in New England. Whereas
in Europe. Mesmerism had been approached primarily as a scientific phenomenon.
In the United States, Poyen's showmanship transformed Mesmerism into a means of
popular entertainment. Although the theoretical basis for Mesmer’s work came to
be superseded by psychological explanations by the turn of the century,
magnetism and hypnosis remained connected in the popular understanding well
after the demise of Mesmerism per se. (Al Layne's card read
"osteopath and magnetic healer.") The presumed occult properties of
magnetism were echoed by the sleeping Cayce, who accordingly advised his waking
counterpart to lie with his body-oriented north-to-south while giving
readings--Cayce's head would be pointed north for a physical reading, and south
for a life reading (294- 133).
The origins of the
American Spiritualist craze are usually traced to the 1846 poltergeist style
"rappings" associated with the sisters
Margaretta and Kate Fox of Hydesville. New York (near
Newark). At the time the noises started, the sisters were fifteen and twelve,
respectively. The Fox family began to hear mysterious pounding or knocking,
whereupon the sisters contrived to communicate with the invisible source using
a simple code. It then surfaced that their visitor was the unnamed spirit of a
peddler who had supposedly been murdered by a house's previous occupant, a
blacksmith named John C. Bell. As more and more living humans turned up at the
Fox household to observe the rappings (including
Bell, who came to protest his innocence), the Foxes decided to separate their
daughters. Kate was sent to live with a third sister. Leah, who was between
marriages at the time. The rappings then shifted to
Leah's house, with more and more spirits
clamoring to speak to their living friends and relatives through the new
"spiritual telegraph" (this only a few years after Morse had invented
the real telegraph). The reunited Fox sisters--organized by Leah--began
charging money for their séances and even went on tour (so to speak) to other
parts of New York. Repeated efforts to expose the phenomena as fraudulent were
unsuccessful until the girls themselves finally broke down and confessed to
having made the mysterious noises themselves by snapping their toe joints.
Still later, however, the confessions were retracted.
The Hydesville rappings were by no
means the first American encounter with the spirit world. For example, between
1837 and 1844, several Shaker communities--whose
founder. Mother Ann Lee combined Swedenborgian metaphysics with
communitarianism and millenarian expectations--experienced visitations from
angels and spirits of the dead, which would cause them to whirl around and jerk
their bodies wildly until they collapsed in a heap. (This behavior calls to
mind similar practices from Christian revival meetings.) War parties of
invisible Indians would whoop through the Shaker villages at night, and any
humans possessed by them would behave in a manner befitting uncontrolled
savages--even to the point of threatening to violate celibacy, a primary Shaker
lifestyle requirement. Before the phenomena faded, Shaker communities from
upstate New York to Kentucky were experiencing phenomena ranging from
glossolalia to demonic possession and writing books dictated from the spirit
world. Yet, these phenomena failed to spread much beyond the Shaker
communities. What is significant about the Hydesville
rappings in contrast to other outbreaks of
Spiritualist-type activity is not the phenomena themselves (which were
unoriginal) or the resulting spiritual teachings (which were dreadfully
pedestrian), but their fame. Whereas the Shaker phenomena disappeared
spontaneously, the Hydesville visitations inspired
mediums on several continents to begin conducting seances. These mediums would
bring their own occult background to the table, hence the influence of
Swedenborg and Mesmer. It is important to remember that Spiritualism is
essentially an unorganized, grass-roots movement lacking any effective means of
ensuring dogmatic conformity so that mediums enjoy enormous freedom to say and
do whatever their patrons will support.
Among the most
immediately influential of these new mediums was the "Poughkeepsie seer" Andrew Jackson Davis
(1826-1910). whose psychic career actually began slightly before the Hydesville rappings. That Cayce
was aware of Davis is attested by Cayce's son Hugh Lynn. who notes extensive
similarities between their methods. (169) In 1843, Davis, a poorly-educated
teenage shoe store clerk, was inspired by the visit of "phrenomagnetist"(170)
J. Stanley Grimes to try Mesmerism for himself, enlisting a local tailor named
Levingston to act as a conductor. Davis turned out to be quite gifted at
traveling clairvoyance and medical clairvoyance, and the two men quit their
regular jobs to follow this new calling. A few months later, Davis underwent a
powerful visionary experience in which the shades of Galen and Swedenborg
appeared to him. as if to commission him for some great spiritual task. Shortly
afterward, Davis announced while entranced that he would begin delivering a
series of psychic revelations. These were published in 1847 as The Principles of Nature, Her Divine Revelations, and a Voice to Mankind. Along
the way, Davis fired Levingston, replacing him with a professional magnetist named S. Silas Lyon. and engaged Universalist
pastor William Fishbough to take dictation.
The book's long title
merges the headings for its three parts. The first part (The Principles
of Nature) describes the progressive evolution of the oceanic.
Luminous "Positive Mind" or "Great Forces"(171) to bring
forth the universe, then life, then humanity. After death, humans can continue
to advance until they reach the seventh celestial sphere, representing unity
with the Divine Mind. The second part (Nature's Divine
Revelations) constitutes a commentary on spiritual history from the
Old Testament to the nineteenth century. Davis seeks to defend the Bible
against those who would read superstition into it. (172) To that end, he denies
the divinity of Christ and rejects the sanctity of the Bible. The third part (A
Voice to Mankind) consists of social criticism. Davis condemns the
stratification of his society, preferring instead a more egalitarian. Fourieristic order. Lawyers, doctors, and clergy members
come under particularly scathing treatment. Cooperatives and credit unions are
favored, however, and Davis expresses sympathy for the plight of women.
A visiting biblical
scholar named George Bush attested to the sleeping Davis'
mastery of Hebrew, linguistics, geology, archaeology, mythology, and other
subjects. His promotion of Davis' Principles
of Nature was largely responsible for bringing it to the attention of
literary reviewers. However, Bush (who was a
Swedenborgian) later criticized Davis for denying the existence of the
Swedenborgian hell in favor of a Universalist scheme. Much of the attraction of
the book stemmed from the fact that its author was supposedly semi-literate.
(Davis had only read one book--a novel--that he would admit to). Less
charitable minds have discerned in its literary influences from scientific
books of the time, contemporary newspapers, and the writings of Swedenborg.
(173)
Besides Davis, some
other mediums became famous in the wake of the Hydesville
rappings. For example, Daniel Dunglas Home
(who was active in the 1850s) could produce rappings,
relay messages from the departed, levitate tables, summon handwritten letters
from the spirit world, hold hot coals in his bare hands, elongate his body by
nearly a foot, and make invisible hands play tunes on a visible accordian. On one occasion Home floated out of a window
seventy feet above street level, then returned by way of another window. More
influential was his practice of emitting the spirit-substance
"ectoplasm" from his body. (174) In investigating Home's phenomena, the
chemist William Crookes became convinced of its genuineness.
While initially,
Spiritualist communications came mainly from spirits of dead relatives, some
mediums (perhaps responding to market stimuli) took to relaying messages from
sources that were perceived as more exalted or exotic. Among these were
American Indian princesses.
Hindu sages, and such
worthies as George Washington or Socrates. One particularly ubiquitous spirit,
John King, assisted mediums all over the country, including
Madame Blavatsky. Early Theosophists began claiming to communicate with a
higher source of information(175) than the Spiritualists, namely the Masters of
the Great White Brotherhood. Spiritualists were quick to add the Masters to
their repertoire. By the 1920s, many Spiritualist mediums had even accepted
reincarnation, although at first glance the two afterlife
theories might appear to be incompatible. With the fresh example
of The Book of Mormon (1827) before them, quite a few mediums
began receiving messages from quasi-biblical sources. This resulted in such
works as The Oahspe
Gospel (1882). A Dweller on Two Planers (1899),
and The Aquarian Gospel (1907). Another less biblical
but equally successful dictated work was The Berry Book (1937).
At present, Spiritualist mediums are often difficult to distinguish from
trance-channelers. They are as likely to communicate with angels, space aliens,
or other cosmic entities as with spirits of the dead. Although it often goes
unrecognized, such syncretism has ling been typical
of Spiritualism.
The waking Cayce
distanced himself from Spiritualism on the grounds that Spiritualist sources
are less lofty than "universal" ones. In a 1933 lecture he
put it this way:
Some people think
that the information coming through me is given by some departed personality
who wants to communicate with them, or some benevolent spirit or physician from
the other side. This may sometimes be the case though in general I am not a
"medium" in that sense of the term. However, if a person comes
seeking that kind of contact and information, I believe he receives it....
So I believe that if
the source is not wavered by the desires of the individual seeking the reading,
it will be from the universal. Of course, if an individual's desire is very
intense to communicate with Grandpa, Uncle, or some great soul, the contact is
directed that way, and that becomes the source. Do not think that I am
discrediting those who seek in that way. If you're willing to receive what
Uncle Joe has to say. that's what you get. "What you ask you receive"
is a two-edged sword. It cuts both Ways. (176)
The sleeping Cayce's
attitude toward Spiritualism is more ambiguous. While the readings generally
take the truth of Spiritualist phenomena for granted, seekers are usually
warned not to become distracted from higher spiritual purposes. In that sense,
mediumship represents an unhealthy fascination with phenomena instead of more
exalted objects of religious devotion such as God, inspiring Cayce to
characterize Spiritualism as "that which comprehends rather only the
result, than the source" (5756-11). Even so, Cayce allows that
communication between the living and the dead may often be spiritually beneficial
(e.g. 136-48). However, here he Is, thinking of communications received during
dreams rather than seances.
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").
In addition. Cayce had many contacts with followers of Spiritualism. and even
dabbled in it himself on occasion. Some aspects of his teachings suggest a
Spiritualist influence. For example. the waking Cayce described his experiences
while entranced as follows:
I see myself as a
tiny dot out of my physical body, which lies inert before me. I find myself
oppressed by darkness, and there is a feeling of terrific loneliness....
Suddenly, I am conscious of a white beam of light. As this tiny dot, I move
upward following the light- knowing I must follow it or be lost.
As I move along this
path of light, I gradually become conscious of various levels upon which there
is movement. Upon the first levels, there are vague, horrible shapes-grotesque
forms such as one sees in nightmares. As I pass on, there begin to appear on
either side misshapen forms of a human being. Some parts of the is body
magnified.
Again there is a
change, and I become conscious of gray hooded forms moving downward. Gradually
these become lighter in color. Then the direction changes. and these forms move
upward--and the color of the robes grows rapidly lighter.
Next, there begin to
appear on either side vague outlines of houses, walls, trees, etc., but
everything is motionless. As I pass on, there is more light and movement in
what appear to be normal cities and towns. With the growth of movement, I
become conscious of sounds--at first indistinct rumblings, then music, lau, and birds' singing birds. There is more and more
light; the colors become very beautiful: a blending of sound and color.
Quite suddenly, I
come upon a hall of records. It is a hall without walls, without a ceiling; but
I am conscious of seeing an old man who hands me a large book--a record of the
individual for whom I seek Information. (178)
Several important
Spiritualist themes are included within this passage. Cayce first describes
what it is like to exit the physical body, a perennial Spiritualist concern,
then alludes to phantasms and robed figures of various descriptions. The
penultimate paragraph resembles Spiritualist accounts of Summerland, a heavenly
paradise where some departed souls dwell.
While awake Cayce met
a number of mediums. most notably Eileen Garrett (1893- 1970), whose spirit
guide was an Arab with the unlikely name of Uvani (or
Ouvani). In 1934 Cayce and Garrett exchanged
readings. The sleeping Cayce cautiously praised Garrett's work (507- 1). Uvani for his part suggested that Cayce would benefit from
the assistance of a spirit guide of his own and that a suitable guide (named Hallaliel) had volunteered his services. After consulting
with his closest followers, Cayce declined the offer, preferring instead to
contact the divine without any intermediary except Christ. Nevertheless, the
sleeping Cayce did relay a further message from Hallaliel,
apparently spontaneously (3976-15). Other readings allude to the presence of
disembodied entities, including Ouspensky (136-59), a
guardian angel named Demetrius (33 11-6), a student of Zoroaster named Zorain (311-10), George V of England (877-7), and
"Lamech, Confucius, Tamah, Halaliel,
Hebe, Ra, Ra Ta, John" (5756- 10).
Although Cayce did
not usually allow discarnate entities to speak through him, there were
exceptions. The following selection depicts Cayce's side of a conversation with
spirits of the dead, which intruded--seemingly spontaneously-- into the course
of an ordinary reading. No reason was ever offered as to why this occurred.
Notice the marked change in style from Cayce's other readings. Some
here would speak with those who are present if they desire to communicate
with them.
GC [Gertrude Cayce]:
We desire to have at this time that which would be given. (long pause)
EC: Don't all speak
at once. [pause] Yes. I knew you would be waiting. though. Yes? Haven't found
him before? All together now, huh? Uncle Porter, too? He was able to ease it
right away, huh? Who? Dr. House? No. Oh, no--no. she
is alright. Yes. LOTS better. Isn't giving any trouble now. Haven't you seen
her? Why, where have you been? Oh. She is in another change? How long will they
stay there? Oh, they don't count time like that. Oh, you do have 'em. Well, those must be pretty now, if they are all growing
like that. Yes? Yes. I'll tell her about'em. Tell
Gertrude you are all together now. huh?
(5756-13)]
Sometimes Cayce
channeled figures from the Bible--for example, "John" (5749-4), or
"Michael, Lord of the Way" (presumably the archangel). Michael
interrupted readings on several occasions to admonish Cayce's companions to
cease their divisiveness and rally behind Cayce:
BOW THINE HEADS, YE
CHILDREN OF MEN! FOR I, MICHAEL, LORD OF THE WAY, WOULD SPEAK WITH THEE! YE
GENERATION OF VIPERS. YE ADULTEROUS GENERATION, BE WARNED!
THERE IS TODAY BEFORE
THEE GOOD AND EVIL, CHOOSE THOU WHOM YE WILL SERVE!
WALK IN THE WAY OF
THE LORD! OR ELSE THERE WILL COME THAT SUDDEN RECKONING, AS YE HAVE SEEN!
BOW THINE HEADS, YE
WHO ARE UNGRACIOUS, UNREPENTANT! FOR THE GLORY OF THE LORD IS AT HAND!
THE OPPORTUNITY IS
BEFORE THEE! ACCEPT OR REJECT!
But don't be PIGS!
[294-208]
The most exalted
being ever to be channeled by Cayce is apparently meant to be Jesus:
Q. Might I receive at
this time a message from the Master?
A. Come, mine
daughter, mine sister. In choosing me, as I have chosen you, there comes that
beauty of oneness in knowing the way that brings to others peace, joy,
happiness, in DOING HIS will; for he that seeks to do HIS will may IN me have
that peace, that joy, that understanding, that gives to each in their
RESPECTIVE spheres their needs, their desires, as their desires are in me. Be
faithful then, even as thou wert faithful THEN. [993]
The readings refer to
Jesus in the first person on several other occasions, thereby implying that
Jesus served as the trance source for these readings as well.
A number of
scientists and scholars took it upon themselves to investigate Spiritualism.
The London Society for Psychical Research (SPR) was founded in 1882, and its
American counterpart shortly thereafter. William James, who served as president
of the former branch and was an active member of the latter, investigated a
medium named Lenora Piper beginning in 1885. Piper and her spirit control Phinuit, he discovered, were able to reveal information
about people's dead relatives, which Piper could not possibly have known
through natural means. James' lifelong interest in psychic subjects informs
much of the 1901 lectures published as The Varieties of Religious
Experience (which focuses on the phenomenology of spiritual or
mystical experiences). Bro reports that Rhine met Edgar Cayce at Duke, and that
Rhine sent Lucien Warner to Virginia Beach to study him. (179)
The possibility of
eliciting psychic abilities from a hypnotized subject continued to arouse
popular and scholarly interest at the turn of the century. Thomson Jay Hudson,
the author of The Law of Psychic Phenomena (1893), framed his
explanation for the phenomenon as follows: The human mind consists of
"objective" and "subjective" aspects. The objective mind is
the part which makes use of reason, The senses, and materiality and corresponds
to the ordinary conscious state. The subjective mind. by contrast, is nonsensory, intuitive, not bound to the body, forgets
nothing, and possesses amazing powers:
It sees without the
use of the natural organs of vision, and in this, as in many other grades. or
degrees. of the hypnotic state, can be made, apparently, to leave the body, and
travel to distant lands and bring back intelligence, oftentimes of the most
exact and truthful character. It also has the power to read the thoughts of
others, even to the minutest details, to read the contents of sealed envelopes
and closed books. In short, it is the subjective mind that possesses what is
popularly designated as clairvoyant power and the ability to apprehend the
thoughts of others without the aid of ordinary, objective means of
communication. (180)
Elsewhere, Hudson
identifies the subjective mind with soul or spirit. and sees it as
"partaking of the nature and attributes of the Divine Mind." (181)
The sleeping Cayce endorsed the views of Hudson's Law of Psychic
Phenomena by name (254-48, 254-633, 5746-7), and elsewhere resorted to
Hudson's terminology by way of explaining the nature of his gift.
In contrast to his
cautious attitude toward Spiritualism, the sleeping Cayce supports
parapsychological research without qualification, to the point of urging that the ARE engage in it (e.g., 257-20). Morton Blumenthal led
an ARE course that included Hudson's Law of Psychic Phenomena, James' Varieties
of Religious Experience, Ouspensky's Tertium
Organum, and Bergson's Creative Evolution Mind
Energy (report of 1800-15) on its reading list. At one point, Hugh Lynn
contemplated studying parapsychology as a graduate student, and in the 1930s,
hosted a radio show on parapsychology called "Mysteries of the Mind,"
on which Lucien Warner appeared as a guest. (182) The allure of psychic powers
has always been an important part of the ARE's appeal. although the
organization stresses the cultivation of personal psychic experiences as guides
along the spiritual path, rather than scientific res, it is ordinarily
understood.
Nineteenth-century
research into hypnosis and parapsychology was an important if generally
unacknowledged influence on early psychoanalysis. Although Freud appears to
have viewed such subjects with suspicion-perhaps as threats to the acceptance
of psychology as a scientific discipline--Jung was fascinated by them and
reported several paranormal experiences in his writings. In 1931, at his
hospital in Virginia Beach, the waking Cayce gave a lecture entitled "
Psycho- Analysis." (In previous weeks he had spoken on mental healing and
psychic phenomena.) The contents of this lecture suggest that Cayce knew little
about Freud. Here Cayce criticizes Freud's interpretation of dream symbolism as
too shallow, since it does not take into account the possibility that dreams
might represent past-life memories. Jung, too, criticized Freud's
interpretation of symbolism from myths and dreams as too shallow. though not
for the same reasons that Cayce cites. I see no good reason to suppose that
Cayce was Influenced by Jung, who was then relatively obscure. The sleeping
Cayce (e.g. 1402-2) makes the same distinction between "personality"
and "individuality" that Jung does. but this by itself is not very
strong evidence that Cayce was acquainted with Jung's work. (183) Also, there
is no mention in the Cayce readings of archetypes (except as an alternate name
for the aura charts of Nancy Lansdale, unless "patterns" are accepted
as a functional equivalent as some suggest), alchemical symbolism. the
individuation process, or other central Jungian notions. The case could be made
that Cayce taught something like Jung's collective unconscious. While the idea
of a universal mind is found in numerous nineteenth- and early
twentieth-century theories. Cayce joins Jung in pointing to such unconscious
activity as dreams as the primary gateway to experience this realm. Jungians
will also appreciate Cayce's description of God as both "within and
without" (1158-12): his exhortion to "find
self" (1401-1) or "crucify" the self (57492): and his
description of Christ as the point where "extremes meet" (2449-1).
Despite crucial differences between the two systems. (184) Jung has become
quite influential among Cayce writers, and his ideas are probably better represented
within the curriculum of Atlantic University than those of Cayce.
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.
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.
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. Yet Several occult gospels confirmed that
Jesus had been a member of the Essenes and the Great White Brotherhood.
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. But as
we pointed out early on is seen to
be a fraud. Continue in Edgar Cayce's Secret, Part 15.
169. Thomas
Sugrue, There Is a River, p. 289.
170. Following
founder Franz Joseph Gall, phrenologists purport to analyze personality by
measuring the bumps on a person's head. Phrenology was quite popular in the
nineteenth century, and many practitioners of Mesmerism hastened to incorporate
the new science into their theory and praxis--hence the term "phrenomagnetism."
171. Andrew Jackson
Davis, The Principles of Nature, Her Divine Revelations, and A Voice To
Mankind, p. 40. par. 14.
172. Ibid., p. 116.
par. 42).
173. Slater
Brown, The Heyday of Spiritualism, p. 100.
174. For those whose
exposure to ectoplasm is limited to the Ghostbusters movies.
It must be said that photographs of the substance make it look very much like
white bedsheets. In fact. the modern depictions of sheet-draped ghosts in
cartoons and Halloween costumes may be traced to the Spiritualist movement. in
which white bedsheets appear to have served as rudimentary special-effects
devices (unless Caspar is wearing a stylized shroud).
175. Theosophists did
not condemn all Spiritualist activity as fraudulent (as one might expect given
the difficulty of reconciling belief in ghosts with the theory of
reincarnation). but denied that the entities with which Spiritualist mediums
communicated were in fact human spirits. Instead, they were said to be the mere
astral shells of the departed. discarded along with their physical bodies and
hardly worthy of being contacted.
176. Edgar Cayce,
"What is a Reading," in Jeffrey Furst, Edgar
Cayce's Story of Jesus,p.
16.
177. Harmon
Bro, A Seer Out of Season, p. 373.
178. In Jeffrey Furst, Edgar Cayce's Story of Jesus, pp. 53-54.
179. Harmon
Bro, A Seer Out of Season, p. 398.
180. Thomason Jay
Hudson, The Law of Psychic Phenomena, pp. 29-30.
181. Ibid., p. 208.
182. A. Robert
Smith, About My Father's Business, p. 119.
183. For example, the
distinction is found in Jung's "Die Beziehungen zwischen dem Ich und dem Unbewussten"
("The Relations Between the Ego and the Unconscious"), first
published in 1928. However, it is also found in H.P. Blavatsky's Key to
Theosophy,p.
1 and Ernest Holmes' Science of Mind, pp.332-334.
184. For example,
Cayce accepts that God, the soul, reincarnation, and psychic phenomena have a
reality which is independent of our thoughts about them. Jung is ambiguous
about such things, and in any case his system does not presuppose the literal,
physical existence of an archetypal image. Despite superficial resemblances,
Cayce's concept of "meeting self" (through karma) is very different
from Jung's concept of integrating the shadow, and Cayce does not emphasize
either a conjunctio of male
and female elements or mandala imagery. Their respective approaches to myth are
also worlds apart.
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