1/29/39 GD's note: While Mr. [
1151] and Mrs. [
1158] were
visiting Mr. & Mrs. Cayce this time, Edgar Cayce told them
the childhood experiences which are recorded here. I took
it down and typed it up:
EC's True Story of "Eddie's" childhood:
A TRUE STORY [from Edgar Cayce's childhood, as dictated to
GD in 1938]
"Come, Eddie. Don't you wish to help Auntie gather some
greens for dinner? I think I saw some lovely wild mustard,
as I came through the field from Uncle Jim's the other
evening."
As the boy and his aunt went through the lot by the barn,
where many unusual things had happened to Eddie - or so he
thought, he began to speak to his aunt about them.
"Auntie, I love to play in that barn, I have just lots of
fun there!"
"Fun? Fun?" asked the aunt. "What is fun? You are not old
enough to know what fun is, are you? What is so funny about
the old barn?"
"Well," said the boy, that is where Grandpa used to keep his
tobacco, that he got so much money for. There is the old
beam they used to prize the tobacco with. It is fun to go
there and see the pole go up and down, and hear someone cry,
'Up! Down! Up! Down! Up! Down!' And there is a blue jay
with a nest there; I saw her building it this morning. And
there is one speckled egg in the nest already. I saw a wren
also, looking at the horn Grandpa used to call the boys with,
from the field."
"But," said the aunt, "they haven't prized tobacco there in
a long time! and you never saw tobacco prized anyway, I'm
sure."
"Yes I have!" said the boy. "I see Grandpa there every day
when I go there to play, and besides there are a lot of
little boys and girls that come there to play with me,
and they can climb all over the barn and tell me what is
on every pole in the barn!"
"Eddie, you shouldn't let your imagination run away with you
like that! You are just imagining things! Don't you know
it is wicked to tell stories?"
"What is being wicked, Auntie? I play with the children,
that I know; and I see Grandpa, and he talks to me - as he
has talked to the colored men who prize tobacco. What is
wicked? I see it, and it is great fun for me! What is being
wicked? Is that wicked, because I see them and say I see
them?"
"If you saw them it would be alright," said the aunt, "but
they are not there. Your grandfather has been dead for six
years now, and dead people do not prize tobacco. So, to say
that you do see them is wicked. I will have to speak to your
mother about that."
"Oh, but Mother sees the children too!" said the boy. "She
just hasn't been here when Grandpa was prizing tobacco."
"I don't believe it! and you are just a bad boy that likes
to imagine things! I will speak to your mother. She must
not humor you in all this tomfoolery!"
But they went on to the field and found plenty of nice wild
mustard, and gathered a basket full. Coming back toward
the barn the aunt asked the boy again,
"Why do you say it is fun to play in the old barn?"
"Because," said the boy, "I have so many to play with there,
and Grandpa is great fun. He tells me a lot of funny stories
of what happened before the war, and during the war and
afterward."
"Are you sure it is your grandfather?"
"Of course it is Grandpa! I have felt his chin whiskers,
and that is the way I used to tell him from Grandma when it
was dark."
"You are certainly a strange child," said the aunt. "I will
have a talk with your mother. This thing must not go on,
else everyone will know you have gone beside yourself. It
gives me the creeps to hear you talk like that!"
"Carrie," said the aunt that evening, as the boy was out at
play, "what is this Eddie says about you seeing children
playing with him in the barn? There are no children that
live anywhere near here! You'd better take that child to
the doctor! I think he is just out of his mind! He is not
normal, some way!
"But Lou, I have seen the children Eddie speaks of. They
can't harm him, I am sure."
"Whose children are they?"
"I do not know. They seem very nice, and I think Eddie is
having an experience such as we read of, but think can never
come to us. I am praying about it, Lou, and I am sure no
harm can come of it."
"But what about his saying that he see and talks with his
Grandpa. You know that is out of the question, and what will
the neighbors say if they hear about all this foolishness?
You need to give that boy a good thrashing, and stop all
this fairy business or whatever you choose to call it!"
"Lou, I couldn't whip him for that! because he is sure he
sees all this, and I have seen the children myself. It is
not just imagination. I do not know what it is, but I simply
can't whip him for such as that. I just wish there was some
way Eddie could go to church, study his Bible, and learn what
this is all about."
"Tommyrot!" said Lou. "You don't mean to tell me you think
this foolishness is of God! It is more like the Devil, if
you don't mind my saying so, and certainly no good can come
of such a thing! You had better take the child to the
doctor. They will have nothing to do with him an any
church, I can assure you!"
But the aunt was married that summer and went to the eastern
part of the State to live, and didn't see Eddie for several
years.
The next January Eddie's mother asked him if he would like to
go to Sunday School. So he began to go. The lesson was the
first of Genesis, the creation, - and Eddie found it very
interesting, in fact, all absorbing. He asked his father
to procure a book for him that had the whole story in it.
A few weeks later the Bible was procured, - the gift of a
book dealer to whom the father told the story.
Eddie began to read, and the more he read the more sure he
became that these happenings in the barn were real and not
foolish. Yet, as others questioned him, the more of a
recluse he became.
That year Eddie with his family moved to a little house in
the edge of a wood, - one with a great variety of vegetation.
There were large oaks, hickory, white oak, poplar and beech
in timer wood; hazelnuts, pawpaw, and many other fruit and
nut trees. Eddie became acquainted with all the beautiful
dells and glades in that wood, and built himself a retreat
in a very pretty spot, - a quarter of a mile from the house.
There he kept his Bible, and read it every day; reading and
re-reading many portions of it.
After a few months of study, one afternoon he had an
experience of this nature. He had been reading of the vision
of Manoah, for he loved the story of Samson. Suddenly there
was a humming sound outside, and a bright light filled the
little place where Eddie sat. A figure appeared, all in
white, bright as the noonday light, and spoke, saying:
"YOUR PRAYERS HAVE BEEN HEARD! WHAT WOULD YOU ASK OF ME,
THAT I MAY GIVE IT TO YOU?"
"Just that I may be helpful to others," answered Eddie,
"especially to children who are ill; and that I may love
my fellow man."
The figure disappeared.
In school next day Eddie missed his lessons as usual, and
had to remain to write the word "cabin" five hundred times
on the blackboard. When he got home that evening his father
was waiting for him. Eddie studied his lessons that evening,
but seemed unable to concentrate. Around eleven o'clock he
had the first experience of hearing the voice within, and it
recalled the voice of the visitor of the afternoon before.
It said, "Sleep, and we may help you."
Eddie asked his father to let him sleep five minutes. He
slept, and at the end of the time he knew every word in that
particular spelling book.
2/21/39 [
1151]'s letter to EC:
Dear Edgar Cayce:
Thank you so much for the beautiful expression continued
in your message on the occasion of my fiftieth anniversary.
[
1158] has graciously bound this anniversary message in a
golden anniversary book, so it will continue to inspire me
through the years, for I must "keep thy promises to thyself,
thy neighbor and to thy God."
With kindest regards to you and yours, I am, as always
Sincerely yours, [
1151]
Mr. Edgar Cayce,
Virginia Beach, Virginia
P.S. I loved your "small boy story." [See Par. R1 above.]
3/03/39 Mr. [
1151] obtained his next Business Rdg. -
1151-22.
