University of Virginia Library

Hypnotic 'Channel Of God' Sought Spiritual Balance

By CHUCK REEDY

Attending a lecture
sponsored by the Campus
Association for Research and
Enlightenment (CARE), I
frankly expected to witness an
evangelical sort of revival, for
the subject of the presentation
was Edgar Cayce. Without
sounding anticlimactic, I confess
to having been profoundly
impressed by what I learned.

Edgar Cayce, if he is but
half the man his followers
claim him to be, is an unique
phenomenon worthy of
extensive discourse. Born in
the 1870's, he was a
professional photographer who
spent most of his life in
Virginia Beach. He lost his
voice shortly after his thirtieth
birthday. Following
unsuccessful medical
treatments, Cayce turned in
desperation to hypnosis in an
attempt to restore his voice.

The experiment was
successful, if not incredible.
Cayce not only could speak,
but he discovered an ability to
correctly answer, while in a
hypnotic sleep, questions
about medical and technical
problems. His solutions were
proven accurate not only
concerning problems with
known answers, but also for
those with no known remedies.

Proper Terminology

Cayce's proper use of
medical and technical
terminology in his hypnotic
commentaries was astounding,
but not nearly so much as the
fact that his cures and
solutions were accurate.
However, the greatest of
Cayce's contributions, at least
in the eyes of his followers,
rests in his spiritual readings. A
deeply religious Christian,
Cayce saw himself as a
"channel of God" as he
became more aware of his
powers.

Cayce was not a pretentious
man, nor did he consider
himself a prophet elevated
above other men. His mind was
acutely aware of the power of
his subconscious to review, in
totality, all of the accumulated
knowledge of all men of all
times.

The subconscious of Edgar
Cayce may be compared to an
expansive synthesizer or
computer that could make
rapid combinations of
centuries of available data to
construct answers to any
problem. The crucial point
here is that human experience
and its relation with a Supreme
Being is part of the immense
data to which he had access
while under hypnosis.

Ideal Moral Life

Cayce, then, was able to
prescribe an ideal moral life
elaborating on the attainments,
revelations, thoughts, and
experiences that were the
products of millenniums of
human spirituality. He
suggested how contemporary
man might best aspire to moral
perfection. From these
spiritual readings comes a
compact and coherent
philosophy of life on earth, in
God.

The nucleus of Cayce's
commentaries is balance. "Man
looks within to find himself;
man is spiritual with a mind
and body.... The best way to
come to know God and self is
in a balanced life," he said.

The balance Cayce describes
is threefold: mental, physical,
and spiritual. Sickness and evil
are the result of error, and
error causes imbalance. The
only true error, that root from
which all imbalance flows, is
selfishness. The remedy to
error is restoration of balance
through physical or mental
means.

An important corollary in
Cayce's ideology is the law of
God. The law of God, simply
but inspiring enough, is love.

Men cannot presume to
break God's law, but can only
destroy themselves in trying.

A second major point
concerns meditation,
embodying an understanding
that the body is a
manifestation of the soul.
Cayce's teachings dictate that
each soul has a body, rather
than each body having a soul.
Meditation then is a quiet,
inward listening. One must
listen to God speak to each one
of us.

All we know of God must
come through the self. Man
cannot learn of God through
what he hears, but must "tune
himself in" to the harmony of
God. The mind is a builder.
After hearing God in
meditation, the mind builds a
pattern of life upon what it has
learned.

Cayce envisions that this
new building process tears
down old pre-existent patterns,
and allows the self to see things
as they truly are, and not as
personal biases perceive them.
Meditation frees men from the
past, and makes them
responsive to the will of God.

The goal of meditation,
oddly enough, parallels that of
Jewish Merkabah mysticism in
the early Christian Era. The
mediator hopes to see a vision
of God– the self before the
throne of God.

The self must be content
with nothing less than
"walking with God." In
meditation, as in mysticism,
the soul unites with God, but
in the former it is a unity of
consciousness, whereas the
latter implies a literal union.

As a parenthetical point of
interest, there is some
discourse in Cayce's readings
concerning the presence of
invisible creatures that only
some, presumably balanced
selves, can see. Conscious
meditation also involves a
belief in reincarnation.

The depth of his religious
fervor is reflected in the ritual
of Cayce's preparation for
meditation. He would first lie
down, close his eyes, and begin
to pray, with the purpose of
attuning his conscious to Jesus.
He would then meditate until
his eyelids flicked, a signal that
his "hypnotic sleep" had
begun.

Analyze Life Pattern

Suggestions and questions
were then offered, and he
would begin the recitation in
response. Cayce gave two types
of readings: physical readings,
which diagnosed medical or
technical problems, and
spiritual readings, which
"analyzed" the life pattern of a
particular individual, or
articulated proper modes of
spirituality.

CARE is devoted not to
Edgar Cayce the man, but to
the formula for a balanced
moral life that can be derived
from his over 14,000 recorded
readings. Following Cayce's
death in 1945, these readings
were filed with the Edgar
Cayce Foundation.

There is a large network of
Search for God encounter
groups that meet regularly and
discuss Cayce's readings and
their approach to life.

Perhaps the spiritual
mentors upon whom we
pattern our religious lives can
rationally be proven charlatans.
If, however, their "artificial"
feats inspire their followers to
lead productive, moral lives,
and discover a profound sense
of inward spirituality, these
false mentors have done no
wrong.

Edgar Cayce:

'The Only True Error Is Selfishness'