Edgar Cayce on Mastering Your Spiritual Growth. Kevin J Todeschi

Another case in point is that of Alice Young, a fifty-four-year-old widow who was told that she had been a dance hall girl in the Old West—involved in many of the same activities as Debbie—and yet her intent had been vastly different. At the time, her life had been one of severe hardships, and she had to resort to working in saloons for her own survival. Even though she was persecuted by some members of the community for her line of work, she never held a grudge or had pity for herself. Instead, she continued to be patient with those who spoke unkindly of her. In that incarnation, Alice had seen her activities as her best means of being of service to others. In many respects, that lifetime had been a helpful experience in her overall soul’s journey. The reading informed her that, even now, she could travel to the places she had once lived and would recall within her inner being some of her life experiences by simply hearing the sounds of the water or the rushing of the wind.

      In terms of soul retrogression, however, Alice also had lived a lifetime in the Bordeaux region of France. In that experience, her husband essentially abandoned her in order to take part in a military conflict. According to the readings, that experience had brought her much shame, hardship, and personal doubt. At a soul level, she had lost because of frequently losing faith and hope. The one benefit from that experience was that she had gained an inner prompting to rely upon herself and had learned patience in the process.

      Alice was informed that her present-life experience could surpass any of those that had gone before. Apparently, she now excelled in her ability to love, to make friends, and to learn to understand others rather than judging them. Because she was given to good works and being of service to others, Cayce told her that her very presence could emanate a healing influence in the lives of all those with whom she came in contact (823-1).

      The continuity of a soul’s individuality from one lifetime to another was expressed to a forty-one-year-old researcher who was told that the soul is literally eternal. From this perspective, there is really no such thing as death. What humankind perceives as death is simply a process through which the soul changes in consciousness from the material realm to the spiritual. The man was told that in his most recent experience, he had been among a group of warriors who had attacked the Inca Indians. Although he was not interested in simply destroying and overtaking the people of the land, his counsel had been overruled and he had witnessed the horror and barbaric warfare that resulted. Because life experiences remain at a soul level, Cayce told him that he still possessed a deep-seated fear of what individuals can do when prompted by personal aggrandizement and selfish motives. Although the experience had been deeply troubling, it had also led to a soul longing to become a champion of hope and equality among all peoples. That same drive remained within him.

      Previous to his Inca experience, he had been an early explorer who had sailed the seas to help map some of the known lands for the Roman Empire. From that experience, he maintained a deep desire to be associated with and working for the government to which he belonged. In the present, he was encouraged to continue to work with the ideal that had often been a part of his personal reflections regarding soul equality. Apparently, that ideal had often been pondered in biblical terms: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” He was assured that each soul truly has a duty to all others. He was counseled to look for channels of service in which he could use his research abilities in a constructive way for others and to bring to their awareness an appreciation of their blessings in everyday life (2147-1).

      In a very real sense, the Cayce cosmology sees life as a process in which each person is given the opportunity to overcome failures that have been a part of that soul’s history. Those failures are not simply erased, providing the soul with a clean slate. Instead, the soul must face former difficulties and inclinations in a manner that gives the person the opportunity to make a better choice in the present. An example is David Peters, who was thirty-three when he obtained a life reading.

      Although David had a responsible job as a restaurant manager, he told Edgar Cayce that he was just getting his life back together because of a troubled past. Evidently, from a very early age, he often felt in conflict and competition with others. From David’s perspective, it appeared others frequently had more advantages and more material possessions than he. In time, he desired to possess what he believed was rightfully his. When he was a young man, that desire had led to a criminal record. By his own admission, he was just now trying to stay on the proper road because of “God and [the] people who have faith in me.”

      Cayce told David that his desire to possess things that belonged to others had long been a part of his soul history. Previously, he had been a soldier of fortune who had turned to plunder as a way of acquiring things that were beautiful and valuable. According to the reading, this activity had caused “discomfort and disturbances that are still a part of thy being.” Although his soul history included a lifetime in the Holy Land where he had consecrated his life to the service of God, in an even earlier incarnation he had sought to misuse those same spiritual principles for the acquisition of material things and the gratification of his own carnal desires. He was reminded: “And as ye feed those desires mentally, physically, so they grow.” This tendency for selfishness had to be overcome.

      This then must be the first consideration of the entity: Know that just as ye are a part of a family, ye are part of a city, a part of the law, a part of the country, a part of the universe.

      And unless one is as considerate of others as there is the desire for others to be considerate of self, in that whole relationship, there come turmoils and strifes . . .

      Then, study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman not ashamed of thy daily life. Though ye may be in need of those things that would bring the pleasures as some ye see about you, provide the needs of thy body in love and in justice and in mercy; for the silver and the gold are the Lord’s, and those that love Him shall not beg bread.

      Know thy ideal, then, and not as to what others are to do for you as the ideal, but what ye would do for others—in the manner ye would have them do it unto you!

      Thus ye may know the face of hope, of love, of brotherly kindness, of mercy.

      And do it all in patience; for God is the God of patience. 1977-1

      David was told that if he continued to keep his life on track, the selfishness that had long been a part of his soul history would be eradicated and great opportunities would inevitably come his way.

      Another example of negative soul tendencies being carried from one lifetime into the next is the story of a twenty-three-year-old man who was advised that his intense desire for the opposite sex had often led to his downfall. In one of his previous lives, he had been a trumpeter at the walls of the Holy City of Jerusalem and had gained because of his pursuit of service to others. He had lost, however, because of his intense interest in physical pleasures. His pursuit of physical beauty had also been prominent in a Roman experience when he had been a gladiator and extremely proud of his physical prowess and strength.

      According to his reading, he had been involved in “places of amusement of every nature” during the Gold Rush, when he had gained a great deal of material wealth and had been very helpful to other miners. He had been extremely lonely, however, and had apparently sought out frequent female companionship. Throughout many of his incarnations, his thoughts toward women were basically self-serving. In the present, Cayce encouraged him to continue his innate interest in being of service to others, for that was also a part of his soul being. In terms of women, he was advised to completely change his approach: “Treat every man’s sister as ye would have thy sister treated! Treat every woman as ye think of thy mother!” (1881-1)

      A Jewish woman with racial prejudice in the present was told that her bias against people who were not like herself had originated in the Old West when she had been a pioneer and had experienced hardships due to conflicts with the Indian natives. She was told that her present life experience would draw to her circumstances and events that would enable her to overcome this prejudice (as well as some of her other shortcomings) and enable her to realize and appreciate what others had to offer in their respective influence (1192-5).

      Because patience had been lost in some of his previous experiences, a thirty-nine-year-old Christian Scientist was told that one of the primary purposes