This Psychic Reading given by Edgar Cayce at the office of the Association, Arctic Crescent, Virginia Beach, Va., this 28th day of June, 1935, in accordance with request made by those present, during the Fourth Annual Congress of the Ass'n for Research & Enlightenment, Inc.

Present: Edgar Cayce; Gertrude Cayce, Conductor; Gladys Davis, Steno. A. K. Swartz, Frank Dobbins, Bhagat Singh Thind, Florence Edmonds, Edith Edmonds, Hugh Lynn Cayce, L. B. Cayce, Helen Ellington, Ruth LeNoir, Anna E. Hendley, Anne Penn, Myrtle Demaio, Josephine L. B. MacSherry, Edith Fox, Edna B. Harrell, Abbie Kemp, Alice Harris, Nellye Twiddy, and others.

TEXT

1. GC: You will have before you the general condition of juvenile delinquency in this country, with special reference to Norfolk, Va., and vicinity as example. You will give a discourse on this subject suggesting the most feasible plan and method for meeting this problem. You will answer the questions as presented by [...], Norfolk, Va., present in this room.
2. EC: [After repeating suggestion in an undertone] Yes, we have the question of juvenile delinquency and those problems that confront the individuals so affected; also those conditions in the environs of Norfolk in particular.
3. In giving a discussion of such a subject, many are the approaches that may be had in considering even the cause - and MORE in the help that may be given.
4. Much has been given on many phases of those studies presented through these sources, and through similar channels, as to what takes place in that condition when a soul enters the earth for an experience; and those conditions that make for the entering of this or that type for the experience in a particular environment.
5. Hence we may say that to Norfolk and its environs there are those conditions, those vibrations created by the activity, by the thought, by the manner in which individuals AS individuals, as groups, as officers administering the laws in every nature have created by THEIR activity in relationships to their fellow man.
6. For, what is the law concerning the judgment of man in his relationships to his source of life, activity, power, motivative forces?
7. What hath He said? That all force, all power, comes from Him the UNIVERSAL Force or Power. Then, how are ye to be judged? "As ye do it unto thy fellow man, ye do it unto me."
8. Then, those in authority, those in power, those in the positions of trust, those in every walk of life make for the adding to or taking from the energies, the powers, the motivative influence in - what?
9. The Mind of each soul as represented in a body, IS the Builder. And through those years when there is the molding of the motivative influences in the experience of an individual does it act upon those that ARE susceptible to influence.
10. Who, then, is susceptible? Those in their juvenile years.
11. So, not only those in the home have their influence; not only those in the school; not only the associates of an individual; but those in authority, those in power, those to whom the father, the mother, may look for their daily sustenance, for their protection in their home, for their guiding in their spiritual life, for their understanding in their mental life.
12. ALL have their influence and create the environment that makes for the adding to or the taking from the delinquency of ANY individual in its associations through any particular experience.
13. For the WILL of an individual is the MOTIVATIVE force; that is, that which makes for the choice which is made by the individual under this or that circumstance, this or that experience.
14. And if there is the force or influence in the high place that shows or is spoken of as questioning, or if there is a question mark put after the name of the minister, the lawyer, the doctor, the politician, the judge, the jury, the father or the mother, it but creates in the MIND of the individuals that which impresses and leads and directs.
15. And what is the greater force? The PRESS! It spreads before those that think, that which makes for the activities that are heralded in such a fashion or manner as to make for the building up or the destroying of that influence in such a community, such an environ, such a surrounding. Thus it adds the greater influence to that created in the surrounding that makes for the delinquency in the individual.
16. So, we might go on and on in this manner, giving as to what adds to or takes from the condition. Yet, as is EVER the case, it it the problem of what is to be done about same.
17. Let us make a specific illustration, that we may better comprehend what is the fault - and where:
18. The individual soul, then, enters the earth plane in a home where there is the acceptance of the general rule of its position in society here or there, in the environment of the ordinary home. And the life of this or that of its associates, its parents, is almost above reproach (For none exist that may not be reproached, or reproach themselves); but the ordinary. Yet in that which is written, spoken, acted by the individual's environments, there is seen the response to that which has been builded in the soul through its experiences in the earth.
19. And this is either added to or taken from. It is taken from when there is faultfinding, petty jealousies; the consideration of the aggrandizement of the exercising of the elements and influences in the body-forces, in sex, in taking what may add to its ability to satisfy the cravings of what has been builded by the entity.
20. Then, what may be that which may be even helpful to individuals? For it must come to the INDIVIDUAL problems, and the addition of that in the experience of one here and there. For it is line upon line, precept upon precept, as He has given; here a little, there a little. For the knowledge of the Creative Force is a GROWTH in the experience of the SOUL, of the Mind, of the Body, that gives expression of that as entertained there.
21. Hence, those that would be helpful, know the problems in the Soul!
22. And then educate those that may be chosen to, in their experience, meet with such individuals that which has been their problem. For the more oft are the girls or boys in their teens, in their younger years, misdirected when they are only attempting to give SOUL-expression of that which MOVES them! Those that are ground in their OWN subtle selves to THEIR idea, without an ideal, MISCONSTRUE the individual or child's intent and purpose.
23. Hence, only an educational man that is in heart, mind and body ground in the principles, "As ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them," and "As ye do it unto the least of these, ye do it unto me," may begin in Norfolk or vicinity - or in ANY environ - that which may meet such a need; or may call for that as will answer.
24. "Yea," ye say, "Why have the various organizations not met those needs? They flourish; they are aided and directed by godly men."
25. What, then, is the trouble?
26. Those in authority - not only in the organization but in the political, in the state, in this or that office - have FAILED! not only to help the individual in his formative years, but have failed the child - and will be held responsible!
27. Ready for questions.
28. (Q) Do the average social workers, including probation officers, realize that they are working with individual souls? Do they work with that as a foremost thought?
    (A) Not the average one. Rather has the position first been that of the placing OF some one, as it were, for a job; than the developing or giving of such positions to those giving their hearts, minds, souls, bodies, as a service. It is the more often just filling a job!
    Rather then should it be that those filling such positions should be those that are not only trained but who have dedicated their lives, their minds, their bodies, to the service of such.
29. (Q) Much is said about the prevention of juvenile delinquency and adult crime. That which is being done at the present time is ascertaining the cause of delinquency and prescribe treatment. What, if anything, is being done in the field of prevention?
    (A) Not until they begin at the BASIC root of same, and that is delinquency in high places.
    Yet, as indicated, this is a matter of education; and of those in authority being first trained in that field of activity, with their minds and bodies dedicated to the service of their fellow man.
30. (Q) We are educating our children in public and high schools and colleges to equip them intelligently for their activities in the commercial world. Should we not equip them some knowledge as to how to live?
    (A) As we have said, when there is the study of the activities of the SPIRIT upon the minds of the young, in their formative years, as there has been studied the variation in the triad and the sextette, it will make the proper setting for a UNIVERSAL as well as a real individual advancement in civilization.
    For the study of man is Man! The study of the motivating force of Life itself, then (or the spirit and soul), is to study same; NOT the effects; not that which has been the outcome, but what has caused same.
31. (Q) Is it not true that more changes could be made in our present plan of education? In what direction?
    (A) As indicated. Know from what the soul has come in its experience. In THAT direction. For, as may be seen in the material world, when one has heard from what section of the country, or from what school or from what walk of life one has come, it may be well judged as to what that individual thinks!
    So, when it is known what have been the problems of a delinquent, what have been the trials and the turmoils in the inner self, THEN it may be known how to meet them!
    This discussion may be carried further. We are through for the present.

Edgar Cayce Readings © 1971, 1993, 1994, 1995 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation