6/22/44 Mr. [
2998]'s remarks to A.R.E. Congress:
"Harmon said this morning, the ideas that are expressed, and
the various talks given during the congress represent merely
the experiences of the speakers and not necessarily the views
of the Association. So, I want you to distinctly understand,
that I speak from experience, and that my views, however
right, or however wrong, are right to me and are of some
benefit to me, too, but may not be of any benefit whatsoever
to you.
"I became acquainted with Edgar Cayce through, There is a
River. A very good friend of mine, a congregational minister
in ... asked me to take a book and read it with the idea in
mind of reviewing it. I read this book with a great deal of
interest, and after I had read it, I said, 'Here is the man,
who has said it. These other men have approximated the
message, but here is the man, who puts all the meat of a
coconut into a pecan, in the way that the average man can
take it and use it.' That night after I had finished the
book I wrote a letter to Edgar Cayce. I was amazed at the
promptness of his reply. I thought, 'Well, now here's a man,
who is a world figure, but he will answer letters and does it
promptly, and that is something I don't always do.'
"When I gave my review, possibly fifty or sixty people were
out to hear it. Our church is very liberal. There were a
few, who didn't relish the idea of reincarnation, but were
silenced when a lawyer, who was present stated that it was an
accepted fact in the church during the 4th and 5th centuries.
To the truth of this assertion the minister testified. I
told the congregation that I was going to get a reading, that
I had an appointment already. Everybody jumped up and said,
'As soon as you do, come and tell us about it.'
"In my approach to the work, I have to start at the bottom.
I asked for a physical reading. I have never been sick in my
life. Of course I have had headaches and had my good and bad
days, everyone does. Anyway, I got the reading [2998-1], and
he told me more about how I felt than I could have explained
to him, and I could experience the same sensations as I read
his report on my condition. He said, 'There has been a
subluxation of your spinal column and this condition has been
present for a long number of years,' and it had done this to
my stomach and this to something else and all these things
had combined to form this and that condition, which he went
on to explain in medical terminology. He said one thing that
was very significant. You have a subluxation of your second
dorsal and sixth lumbar. I may have gotten my lumbars and
dorsals all mixed up, but you get the idea. He was specific.
"So when I read that I said, 'Well anybody can say that a man
who has a headache possibly has a maladjustment of his spinal
cord, and possibly everyone can have something wrong with his
spinal cord. Look at the osteopaths and chiropractors making
a living, but he has really stuck his neck out, when he says
the 6th is wrong and the 2nd is wrong, and he uses the term
subluxation.
"I picked out a pretty good chiropractor. He was supposed
to be the best. He charged the most, anyway. I took this
reading along in my pocket, and went down to this fellow and
said, 'I want you to give me an examination.' He said, 'All
right, what's the matter?' I told him, 'Nothing.' Then he
said, 'You are taking up my time, I have a lot of people
waiting for me and I should get to them, because they do have
aches and pains.' I said, 'Well you give examinations, don't
you?' He said, 'Yes.' I told him that I was willing to pay
for one. 'What is your purpose?' he asked. I told him I
wanted to see if there was anything wrong with my backbone.
He finally said that he would give me an examination, so I
lay down and he went over me and then said, 'Yes, you have a
little something wrong there.' Did you ever have this happen
to you and did you ever have a sick headache, etc., and in
other words he went over the whole thing Edgar Cayce had
reported. I said, 'Yes, what does that lead to?' He told me
that I had a subluxation of the second dorsal. 'You don't
mean it!' I said. 'Yes,' he replied. 'Is there anything
else wrong?' I asked. He said there was not. 'Are you
sure?' I insisted. 'I've got an idea there is something else
wrong. You run up and down there once more.' He did and
said, 'Yes, you have something else wrong, the sixth lumbar
has a subluxation.'
"I went to an osteopath. I don't know why I didn't think of
him in the first place as he is a friend of mine. There, I
was close-mouthed as a clam. I said, 'Do you want to make
a fee?' He said that he did. 'Well, go over my back and see
what is wrong.' He said, 'Your second and sixth have
subluxations.' I showed him this diagnosis and he was very
curious about it, and to some extent baffled; so he called
in his father, who is his partner, and the two of them
looked it over. They said, 'We are going to treat you and
see if this thing is right.'
"After the physical check up, and after my report back to
Reverend Wingfell's congregation on my physical condition,
etc., I already had those two orthodox people. I decided
I would have a life reading, so I immediately signed up for
a life reading for myself, a physical reading for my wife,
and a life reading for each of our children.
"Now it happens that our two children are adopted. There is
terrible shock that comes to the child, when he realizes at
first that daddy and mommy are not his flesh and blood. The
only and best way, that we can see of circumventing this, of
course, is to use the doctrine of reincarnation. It is of
tremendous importance to me to be able to accept
reincarnation. I have not had any personal experience that
makes this belief my own. I hope to have it some day, so
that it can actually be a part of me; but as far as my mind
is concerned, my ability to reason is concerned; as far as
my belief in a Creator, Who is in all respects just, I accept
reincarnation; and so we will have the privilege of telling
our children that the actual physical parents served the
purpose of furnishing a physical vehicle for their souls;
that once this vehicle has been furnished, just as when the
production genius in Detroit has completed an automobile,
then the function of those parents in regard to them, ceases.
"Reincarnation to many means the conquest of fear, mankind's
greatest enemy, the enemy that prevents mankind from being
as effective as God intended him to be. If we have conquered
the great fear, the fear of death, which comes to all who
really, actually, truthfully, accept reincarnation, then we
can proceed to conquer these minor fears, that plague and
beset us every day of our lives."
1/22/45 [
2998]'s letter to Gertrude Cayce:
Mrs. Edgar Cayce
Association for Research and Enlightenment, Inc.
Virginia Beach, Virginia
Dear Mrs. Cayce:
It was Tuesday after Mr. Cayce passed that I learned the sad
news. I immediately telephoned Riley Simmons who told me
that he has sent a wire the previous Thursday, but this wire
never did reach me. I knew that the Boss was seriously sick,
but I always had the feeling he would recover. The shock of
his passing was a great one for me, as I had the feeling that
there would be many more years of work here for him. Of
course, there now remains the work, together with the
challenge to others to carry it on.
As you know, I have only known you and the Boss for a year.
I will never forget that January day in 1944 when I walked
into the office and met him and the rest of you. Prior to
that time he and I had exchanged letters, and I felt so close
to him even through correspondence that when I first met him,
I experienced the warm feeling of renewal of an old
friendship rather than the beginning of a new one. Without
Tom Sugrue's book, I would have never known the Boss, and if
I had never know the Boss, I would have missed one of the
profoundest influences in my life. There are at least a
half-dozen who influenced my life and prepared my mind for
the Boss' message, but his influence has been the profoundest
and most blessed of all the rest.
I suppose that of all the lessons I learned from him, the
greatest is my present belief in the ultimate invincibility
of love and patience. His messages stand before me
constantly. For the past year there has not passed a day but
what I have thanked God for having known Edgar Cayce. I feel
quite sure that everybody who knew him had the same feeling,
and I know it was not unique with me, but I always believed
there was a warm and strange bond between him and me. He has
given my life a new horizon; he has given me as a lawyer a
new professional dimension in which to operate; he has made
me believe that man can solve all problems with God's help,
and that joy and victory, and not despair and defeat, is
man's eternal heritage.
As the Boss has helped me, I share my love for him with you.
I hope that you will always count me as one of your friends,
and if ever I can be of any service to you in any capacity
at any time, you must call upon me and let me prove it.
With kindest personal regards, I am
Most gratefully and sincerely your friend, [
2998]
See subsequent correspondence and notations under
2998-1
and
2998-3.
11/11/75 GD's note: We are all so indebted to [
2998].
He has indeed been a friend in need and deed and, I know,
without him - as without Hugh Lynn - the A.R.E. would not
be what it is today.
11/14/75 Mr. [
2998]'s letter to GD: "My work with you,
Hugh Lynn and the others in A.R.E. has been the greatest
thing in my life."
Edgar Cayce Readings © 1971, 1993, 1994, 1995 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation