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The year 1998, that has figured so prominently in Edgar
Cayce’s prophecies, has now gained added significance. It
marks the initiation of his work into the mainstream. For
one thing, during 1998 the A&E Network aired its Edgar
Cayce biography on television. It was also the beginning of
scholarly recognition of Edgar Cayce, something for which
people have been waiting many years. The appearance of the
book, Edgar Cayce in Context: The Readings: Truth and
Fiction (State University of New York Press) by K. Paul
Johnson, marks a turning point in the history of the Cayce
story. It should be required reading of all A.R.E. members,
who may then wish to discuss the mission statement of their
organization, perhaps to include continuing the process that
Johnson has started.
Written in a supportive style by a person partial to
Cayce, Johnson’s scholarly evaluation of Cayce is
educational, inspiring, and sobering. The author is a
historian whose previous book, The Masters Revealed:
Madame Blavatsky and the Myth of the Great White Lodge,
was received with some acclaim. He discusses with historical
perspective the main areas of Cayce’s
contribution--holistic health, esoteric Christianity,
spiritual psychology, and far history. There are some
specific claims put forth by Cayce that have been, or can at
some time be, validated or invalidated, and Mr. Johnson
compiles this information--that’s the "truth or
fiction" part of the book. It probably doesn’t
contain enough of the former to satisfy "Cayce
believers." The other part of the book, the
"context," has really made me think about what it
means to be a "Cayce believer" and what a
"believer" can reasonably expect, or hope for,
relative to those beliefs, from a scholarly evaluation of
Cayce’s work. Belief in the man competes for attention
with belief in the ideas he championed--that tension seems
to be part of the history of the Cayce story.
It is in the nature of the scientific enterprise to
quibble with any assertion. Certainly the assertion that
Edgar Cayce was a psychic is a target for quibbling,
especially to people who doubt the reality of ESP. The
assertion that Cayce was creative, bringing forth new ideas
that had made no previous appearance in history, is also
subject to doubt. Any assertion that a particular medical
treatment that Cayce might have suggested is an effective
treatment, or that it’s efficacy proves the validity of
Cayce’s assertions about the principles of health and
illness, these are also easy targets for skepticism.
Unfortunately, most of these assertions are easier to doubt
than to prove. Johnson does what he can with the facts at
hand, but his efforts instead prove the difficulty of
evaluating the most popular assertions made about Cayce.
Perhaps more constructive is his attempt to link the
ideas that Cayce articulated with the history of ideas. In
the classic Cayce biography, There is a River, Thomas
Sugrue introduces Cayce’s story as a "chapter in the
history of hypnosis." We see how Cayce responded to the
opportunity that transpersonal hypnosis provides. That
perspective has the advantage of stimulating others to see
what they can accomplish through hypnosis, an endeavor that
Cayce himself encouraged. In Johnson’s treatment, Cayce’s
story is placed within the context of theosophy ("a
gnosis that has bearing, not only on the salvific relations
the individual maintains with the divine world, but also on
the nature of God Himself, or of divine persons, and on the
natural universe, the origin of that universe, the hidden
structures that constitute it in its actual state, its
relationship to mankind, and its final ends," to quote
Antoine Faivre, the leading academic scholar of esoteric
spirituality). The author identifies Cayce as "the
premier Christian theosopher of the twentieth century in the
English speaking world."
What Cayce brought forward from his transpersonal
hypnotic state has been an innovative theosophy, probably
the most influential we’ve had, and which bridged the
older theosophies with the modern "New Age"
thinking. Cayce’s linking of spirituality with
psychological processes, and the state of the physical
health with the condition of the psyche, makes his a
particularly practical spirituality. These are facts that
the author realizes and reflects in his analysis.
In painting the larger picture, the history of human
thought and experimentation relative to the question of
divine/human interaction as it manifests in human
experience, Johnson’s book suggests that such seminal
figures as Edgar Cayce and Carl Jung have inspired us to
re-evaluate our self-image and recognize our potential as
companion co-creators with the life force. Although it is
human nature to hero worship an inspiring role model, there
comes a time when we have to recognize the hero within. No
amount of amazing feats by Mr. Cayce, even validated by
science or scholarship, will substitute for our own efforts
to bring forth our own versions of enlightenment. Such
efforts will be the validation of his work that I believe
Mr. Cayce most cherished.
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