10/30/43 [
3308]'s letter:
Mr. Edgar Cayce
Virginia Beach, Virginia
Dear Mr. Cayce:
Thank you for that amazing Life Reading. This is indeed
worth much to me; it can not be evaluated in dollars and
cents.
A golden thread of amazing truth runs through the Life
Reading - there is an INNER current of Truth. But I do
believe it is colored somewhat by your own subconscious mind.
What I say is not offered in criticism. It is only an
attempt to analyze it.
Actually, I think that one should not get merely one Life
Reading but more and more until the thread of one's life is
thoroughly clarified. In my own case, I feel the need of a
Life Reading again. I object to the delay in getting another
reading. I also hesitate because of financial reasons. But
when you get time to answer please advise us as to the
nearest dates that might be open.
I think I personally made a mistake in not asking for a
clarification for a specific purpose. That is, I should have
asked you to go into more details as to previous incarnations
on earth or I should have confined myself to specific
questions regarding my present problems.
The objection I find to this life reading, so far as I am
personally concerned, is that it was merely too vague. The
way it seemed to me was that your soul, or my soul, or the
Cosmic Soul groped for the truth regarding me, but failed to
get it in its entirety or failed to present it other than
vaguely.
I have no doubt that there is such a thing as the Akashic
Record, but I am not certain that your soul reached that
record. The way this thing FEELS is that you simply went
back psychically along the subliminal mind through that
thread of my life running back, picking up the fragments here
and there. But I do not believe that the work was
interpreted as clearly as it should have been.
Your own subconscious mind, I feel certain, mixed MY record
too much with your own theological views. That is quite
natural; it would be natural for you to color it yourself,
for your life has been devoted to theological things.
Please do not misunderstand me - I love God and The Master
possibly as much as you do, but I do this in my own
individual way, and I am inclined to believe that God wants
us to worship him as conscience dictates and not as some
theologian tells us.
The most serious criticism though - if I could force myself
to criticize the record, which I assure you I can not do - is
the vagueness of the clarification as well as the answers.
For instance, you speak in the record that I - the entity -
have not followed the urgings back of me. The explanation is
far from clear. I do not know whether I have done right or
whether I have done wrong. For instance, if I had followed
the promptings of my soul I would have been a poet or at
least I think that perhaps I might have been.
Then I asked you the specific question as to whether I was
helping others by praying for them - trying to love and pray
them out of their difficulties. I wanted to know
specifically as to whether my consultants were being helped
to solve their problems and your answer was that I could only
sow the seeds and God gave the answer if at all.
I know this perhaps more than you do. I know that I of my
own power give no help. I know that all power is in God.
Your answer was not the answer at all I needed. I wanted to
know whether God answered my prayers when I asked him to help
others and your answer was that God answers prayer. This
leads me to believe that the Cosmic Forces are not as wise -
or contact is not as accurate - as they might be because the
question in my heart ought to have been wisely and
intelligently answered.
Then I asked you HOW can I smooth the way to help others and
your answer is that I should be ordained as a minister "if
some of the things I teach are not evilly spoken of." That
is not the answer. Or is it? I can be ordained as a
minister probably in some New Thought church. But how would
that help me? How would that protect me? I assume that the
answer was given to show a way of protection. I am not
gifted at all to become a minister. That is, minister of an
orthodox church. But it might be possible for me to
affiliate with some of the churches outside the pale of
orthodoxy. Most of those who pray professionally have in
some way got the word "Reverend" tacked to their names. But
is this not compromising with evil, or even with the
superficial, for the sake of gain, which you so strongly urge
one not to do. If becoming a minister or being ordained as a
minister would give me the protection I crave that I can
honestly and truthfully serve humanly I would surely do it.
I want you to know, Mr. Cayce, that none of this is in
criticism. I am just writing to be honest with myself as
well as you. My soul seems to go down into such things more
deeply than others because my soul, I assure you, wants to
know more about the facts of life and how to solve the
problems - of course, my soul already knows and I may be only
referring to the conscious side of self.
My first reaction to the reading, aside from the vagueness
and the theological coloring, was the fact that not a word
was said about the good side of me. Nothing about my years
and years of struggle; nothing about the sacrifice of self
for others (in fact, it is apparent that the reading thinks
there is too much EGO), but nothing was said about my
traveling according to my light and giving myself without
stint for the benefit of others. Or do we need to know the
best things about ourselves - our faith, our courage, our
unselfishness?
It was a wonderful thing you gave me. I wish I had more Life
Readings.
Faithfully, [
3308]
11/18/43 EC's letter:
Mr. [
3308]
..., Miss.
Dear Mr. [
3308]:
I have yours of the 30th. Am glad you found something that
possibly may be worthwhile in your life reading. You may be
entirely correct, but if I felt that there was anything of my
own subconscious self in the information given, I assure you,
I would never give another life reading. We have found by
experience that if one wants to give the whole thread or
trend of the life experience and whole period, as it is given
to each appearance given, will make a much clearer picture,
for it gives of course the circumstances under which the life
was lived, and yet we have found in many hundreds of cases
where this has been done in its entirety, still the same
thread running through the whole group of readings.
Of course, the information is not given longer than an hour
and one half, and apparently, there is so much to be said and
whatever may be the care that is given me at that time, it
cuts it off. We have had many instances where from questions
individuals have asked have required two and three periods.
Of course, the life reading as is given in general, is quite
sketchy. It only gives intermation, but I am sure if an
individual studies same and meditates on it as they should,
they will get a very clear picture. Even in the sketchy
periods that are given - or at least that is the experience
of thousands of people who have had these readings. Out of
possibly the twenty one or twenty two thousand readings
[2100--2200 Life Readings?] we have given, there has only
been three at the most that have not said it is the most
enlightening paper that they ever had, or something very akin
to that. I don't think you will find it vague if you will
attempt to make any practical application of that suggested
to you. Then you will find that it grows upon you.
Sometime ago we had quite an experience on the sources of the
records. Of course, I am not going to argue with you about
it. Possibly you have forgotten more than I'll ever know
about such things, but I can only tell you as the experience
thousands of people have had with the information and are
following many for the period of eighteen to twenty years and
seeing what it did in people's lives. That is of course the
real value.
You certainly do not mean to imply that the information told
you how you are to love God, for this, I am sure, is a
personal thing, and it can only mean to us that we may use in
our daily life, and that He can mean to any of us. No one
has a particular hold on God, for it is just as the Master
said, "Who is my mother, my sister, my brother - he that
doeth the will of the Father, the same is my mother, my
sister, my brother."
No, I don't think you know any better than I that none of us
can do much help. It is only the answer of the spirit of God
that is within the individual. That I know, by 66 years of
experience and observation. God answers your prayers only as
the information gave you, as you live it in your own life.
That is all He can answer. It is all you can know. Whether
that shoe fits or not, is up to you.
Of course, as to the answer as to how you might apply
yourself and the reply that you should be an ordained
minister. As I interpret it, your opinion of what a minister
should be is such that you would have your way of thinking,
wouldn't you? For you want to be honest with yourself, for
if you want to be honest with others, you have to be honest
with yourself, as well as others so, it may be the answer.
Not that it would tack the word "Reverend" on to your name,
other than as you lived the life that you would be revered by
anyone.
I thank you for your criticism, but let us both be honest
with ourselves. No one, I don't believe, has a right to
judge others, and the readings have never judged anyone. Can
you show me any place where the Master did? He merely told
them what was the Way of Life and then lived it. I hope I
will never go beyond the pattern He set.
Thanks a lot for your letter, and I just hope it may prove to
be as much help in your life as many others tell us such has
been for them.
Sincerely, Edgar Cayce [EC/vw]
11/22/43 [
3308]'s letter:
Mr. Edgar Cayce
Virginia Beach, Virginia
Dear Mr. Cayce:
Thank you for your kind letter. I have no doubt that
additional readings are always necessary to bring about more
complete clarification. Even if this is done thee is always
the possibility of misinterpreting by the one who receives
the information and probably the medium of the Cosmic
expression.
Your readings are of extreme value. I can easily believe
that if one had access to the twenty-one or more thousand
readings that one would have a vast store of knowledge that
would prove of vast benefit not simply to the one receiving
the readings but for the person who analyzed all.
Truth is what I want and I care not where it takes me. Truth
is without limit. Yours is undoubtedly a part of it - an
important part, but certainly not all, because I know there
are a thousand ways to God. And our beliefs are always more
or less colored by the medium in which we work. If I had an
criticism to offer - and I have none - it is the feeling that
your findings are more or less colored by the old theology
regarding man and God. You have worked in that medium all
your life. Your findings surely are colored by that medium
to some extent.
There is another thing, if readings come from the Cosmic
Record - and I believe that they do and not from the
subconscious mind - who are what is it that does the
interpreting? Surely, it could not be the Cosmic Record
since analysis or even advice is beyond its ken.
[
3308]
11/26/43 EC's letter:
Mr. [
3308]
Dear Mr. [
3308]
Replying to yours of the 22nd, thank you very much. I think
most of us find if we will really analyze our beliefs and
faith, if we attempt to magnify our differences, rather than
to hunt for the things that we agree on, and let the
differences take care of themselves by our activities in the
direction that we really know, most of us will be better off.
My experience points the work is something like this. God is
one. Whether we take Him as our individual Heavenly Father,
or a universal consciousness. If you seek information and I
lay aside my own physical consciousness, your own
God-consciousness may speak through me, and not me alone,
anybody. I do not hold to such a consciousness as to get
self first, for the first Commandment is "Thou shall have no
God before me", and that, very much like really interpreting
in our lives, God is one, for the whole of whatever purpose
we may attempt. By the results, ye are known. Little man
can do accept sow the seed of truth. The spirit of the one
universal force of God does the work, for it is the gift of
God to those who are in sincerity and truth seeking the work.
This may be all out of the question for you, for as I said,
doubtless, you have forgotten more than I'll ever know, but
that is the way it seems to me in my own experience.
Thanking you, and hoping to hear from you from time to time,
I am,
Sincerely, Edgar Cayce
2/23/44 Mr. [
3308] requested an appointment for a Physical
Rdg. Appointment was later cancelled due to EC's illness and
death.
Edgar Cayce Readings © 1971, 1993, 1994, 1995 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation