Theos-Talk Archives (February 2005 Message tt00153)

--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, Murray Stentiford <opt-mas@s...> 
wrote:
> From what I've seen, his readings with an occult component
> were not all for people versed in those subjects. 

No, he definitely became a proponent and propagator of such 
doctrines. But his early exposure to them can usually be attributed 
to environmental influences. 

So although this is
> a possibility for those cases, it cannot hold for all of them.
> 
Right. Once the readings evolved a system, new readings built on the 
whole.

> > Hence he "found what he was looking for" not in confirmation of
> > his personal beliefs but rather those of his counselees.
> 
> As an assertion, this is undermined by what I said just above. Did
> you or anybody you know of, do research to clarify to what extent
> his findings were already held in the mind of his clients?
> 
Three sources to consider and one website. My book Edgar Cayce in 
Context 

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?
userid=Je0k4wtAC8&sourceid=00393694016172650885&bfdate=02%2D07%
2D2005+07%3A30%3A46&isbn=0791439062&itm=1

is based on research on the readings and the Cayce correspondence as 
well as published sources and interviews with people important in his 
later life. My study is literary/historical and shows how different 
topics and ideas emerge in the readings as Cayce meets new people. 
But SUNY was planning to publish another book about Cayce more 
skeptical on his source question, decided not to, and is now up on 
the web at ? The author David Bell is not cited and I do not know 
his location or whether the publication is authorized by him. 

Here is the site with his book:

http://sociologyesoscience.com/index.html

They've added a lot of new material so I can't immediately find the 
article but it should still be there.

Cayce would read the readings after he came out of trance, so the new 
content would feed back into the growing system Cayce would expound 
in trance. Melton's study linked below shows this relationship from 
the POV of the readings, whereas I had traced them mainly in the 
correspondence. It shows clearly that Cayce is much less versed in 
the occult topics that become central to the readings than his more 
influential supporters and sponsors. The readings are like a pot-
luck supper where everyone brought a different dish: 
Anthroposophists, Theosophists, Gurdjieffians, Christian Scientists, 
Baha'is, Catholics, Jews...

> > Whether there was anything paranormal about this is an open
> > question.
> 
> And it needs to remain open. But a question that few seem to ask,
> is whether a thought form was built up by Cayce's combined
> readings, and to what extent that thought form was derived from
> existing bodies of thought in fields like Atlantis, reincarnation,
> karma etc etc.

Something was built up all right, and it informs the New Age movement 
to a tremendous extent. But I'm reluctant to use "thought form" when 
we now have "meme complexes."

> > I've never heard anything about Hodson that suggests conscious
> > deception, unlike CWL. But like Cayce, even with the best of
> > conscious intentions he could certainly be self-deceived and
> > subject to ideological influences.
> 
> What evidence to you have for this with respect to Cayce?

The voluminous historical misinformation in them that coincides 
precisely to legends entertained by people getting readings.

Bell put together a webzine but only a couple of issues are 
available. It has an interview I did with Mae St. Clair, a review by 
David Lane of my Cayce book that takes a very skeptical view of 
paranormal claims, and articles by several others in addition to the 
Melton study mentioned above.

Cheers,

Paul

http://www.ciis.edu/cayce/