Book Notes: There Is a River (Biography of Edgar Cayce)

[A Voice from the Mountains]

There Is a River
by Thomas Sugrue (1942)

This book is a biography of Edgar Cayce. It chronicles his life from a young child, and how he discovered his gift of trance mediumship as a means for diagnosing and treating others of all sorts of ailments, all the way to his death in 1945. While the book is primarily about Cayce himself and the work he did as a healer in his own right, it does touch on channeling Cayce did, guided by others, on subjects about which he knew nothing in his normal waking state (as with his medical sessions), regarding reincarnation, ancient history, and other metaphysical subjects. It is on these subjects that I have recorded notes from this book.


The Solar System “is a cycle of experiences for the soul.” The planets “represent focal points for the…environments in which the dimensions can express and materialize themselves.” This, the 3rd dimension's focal point (Earth), is a “laboratory” for the “whole system” because free will is only completely dominant here. Elsewhere, the soul has a more direct influence in our experiences.

The subconscious serves as a memory or record of all our life experiences. The conscious mind is the record of the experiences of this current life. Thoughts go from the conscious mind “to the imaginative, or introspective, mind, which is seated in the pineal gland.” There, they are compared to what has been experienced previously, then passed on to “the subconscious, or soul mind, which is seated, with its spirit, just above the heart.”

Stars represent soul patterns, not experiences; “They are like the races – patterns of temperament, personality, etc.” Even moreso, how the individual soul's life experiences have related to the constellations & the patterns they represent. Arcturus as the next stop on the soul's journey after our Solar System.

There are references to the following as being valuable sources of information: Enneads of Plotinus; mysteries of Eleusis, Bacchus, Mithras & Osiris; “lost keys” of Freemasonry; Hindu samadhi; Saracen mathematics; the Tetragrammaton. Reincarnation was expunged by the early church.

Fence rail laid on the wane of the Moon will sink into the ground, & bacon from a hog killed during the wane will shrivel as it's fried. [This is "folk wisdom" common to the Appalachian region where Cayce was native, used to illustrate subtle effects of the Moon.] The Moon being known for other subtle effects.

In the Jewish tradition, there is an inner teaching/theology taught to initiates in the priestly line (Kabbalah, etc.), & an outer teaching taught to the masses which is simplified. In the 3rd chapter of John, Jesus suggests that Nicodemus, a “master of Israel,” should already know his teachings.

Lying North-to-South (head lying North) facilitated Cayce's readings as a “matter of polarity.”

Clairvoyance becomes more pronounced as awareness shifts away from the physical body (space-time) to the subconscious/superconscious.

Andrew Jackson Davis, “the Poughkeepsie Seer,” was a sort of precursor to Cayce in America; he wrote the book, The Principles of Nature, Her Divine Revelation, and a Voice to Mankind.

A genesis (creation myth) given by the readings is similar in substance to Gnostic versions. Souls were eventually propelled/ejected from identity with God to experience free will & develop over time until their actions again exactly mirrored God's will & they fully realized their unity with God & the rest of creation: that all is of God's spirit. The symbology of the crucifix is of submitting fully to God's will as an individual; of existing as God in an individual soul/body. The “revolt of the angels” was the process whereby all created souls eventually lost their awareness of being one with all & assumed individuality, in the very beginning. Souls roam through the cosmos as individuals separated from God. When they come into contact with solar systems, they can become entrapped by the allure of the various experiences until they learn to get along just as well with what they have desired as without it. This indicates a rediscovery of the richness of the soul itself & its direct connection to God.

In the case of our Solar System, there are 8 planets representing 8 dimensions into which spiritual energy focuses, representing the entire consciousness of our system. Earth represents the 3rd dimension & was created as an expression of divine mind, complete with its own plan & evolution, plants, animals, and natural beauty. Souls expressed themselves through mixing with the seas, forests, plants & animals. The mingling with the animals led to the creation of “thought forms” & imitations of the creator through “playing.” This resulted in a “stream of mind” drawing souls into its current & into physical bodies which had been created. There were strange mixtures of animals from which come fables of centaurs, cyclops, etc. Souls are androgynous but began incarnating as male & female in imitation of the animals in order to allow the isolation of positive & negative relations to energy exchanges of the soul (positive: initiating, impregnating, thrusting forward; negative: receiving, nourishing, ejecting). [Note that these are not judgmental terms, but simple descriptions of relative energy exchanges in the same way as the terms “positive” and “negative” are used in relation to electromagnetic forces. Such systematization can be found in many esoteric schools of thought.] The complete soul enjoys a balance of both. Souls then selected anthropoid apes for transformation into a physical vessel of the soul capable of the complexities of language, civilization, tool-making, etc. These apes were “influenced” externally by souls before they were ready to begin incarnating into their bodies as individuals. This seems to imply a group-soul amongst animal communities.

So souls were already once-removed from awareness of God/unity with the development of free will; now souls are twice-removed as they incarnate into physical bodies, with experiences filtered by the “conscious mind”/physical sensory inputs to the brain, in order to experience this physical realm. There are countless other ways of experiencing individuality throughout the rest of the cosmos; part of this “game” on Earth is feeling removed from other individual souls.

At the advent of humanity there were 5 “pure races”: the white race in the Caucasus, Carpathians & Persia; the yellow race in the present-day Gobi Desert; the black race in the Sudan & upper west Africa; the red race in Atlantis; and the brown race in the Andes. At the time, the Pacific Coast of South America was the west coast of “Lemuria”; the Atlantic seaboard was the lowlands of Atlantis; Persia & the Caucasus were “rich” lands – the “Garden of Eden”; the Mississippi basin was part of the oceans; the Nile emptied into the Atlantic; the Sahara was fertile, & the poles “as we know them today” were tropical & sub-tropical.

“Only when the body was no longer a hindrance to the free expression of the soul would the cycle of earth be finished.” Each atom of the body is also a “world in itself,” & is influenced by (a “reflection” of) the “soul's pattern.” The story of Adam & Eve is explained as the point when “the serpent” introduced the knowledge that ended mankind's animal-like blissful ignorance in the physical form. When the conscious & “subconscious” merge, the atomic structure of the body can be controlled by the soul so that it's just as free in the body as out of it, & the soul can bring the “earth cycle” to a close & go on to new things. Perfection in the other dimensions of the system is also required for this. Christ, who “fostered” the human race, had completed such a cycle before returning to God as a co-creator. He incarnated “from time to time” to teach & lead mankind, as Enoch, Melchizedek, Joseph, Joshua, Jeshua (“the scribe of Enoch who rewrote the Bible”), & finally, Jesus.

Free will & predestination (karma) co-exist, as the ability to “draw the sword from the stone,” & as probabilities established by karmic debts, respectively.

[PurpleLama]

http://www.edgarcaycebooksblog.com/e...osophy-part-1/
http://www.edgarcaycebooksblog.com/a...osophy-part-2/

[vilcabamba]

Thank you. My confusion is with Jordan Maxwell's information vs information from let's say Edgar Cayce. Jordan Maxwell thinks that Jesus didn't exist as the bible story of Jesus is a repeat of many different stories throughout history. I have nothing to gain/ lose from this debate. But i do think Jesus did exist. I just wonder why the bible story of Jesus does have so much astrotheology references or sun worshiping references and why this story has been repeated throughout ancient times using different main characters is an enigma to me. But i do think Edgar Cayce is right that he did exist as a master teacher

[A Voice from the Mountains]

Maxwell and Cayce are probably both right on some level on that question. The Romans are probably why there was so much Sun-worship inserted into early Christianity, since Rome was very pagan and continued to be even after Constantine. Even though Constantine supposedly converted to Christianity after over a hundred years of intense Roman persecution of Christians, he also had himself worshipped as God on Earth so you see how that went. Cayce's readings seem to emphasize the Kabbalah on the Jewish side and what sounds like Gnosticism on the Greek side, and there was some definite history behind the sudden proliferation of Gnostic sects and texts, and the Romans hounded them terribly.

[PurpleLama]

I don't recall a mention of either kaballah or Gnosticism in the Cayce readings. Rather, the readings support a universal order of things, bits and pieces of which might be found in either the Greek or Hebrew mysticism.

[A Voice from the Mountains]

When Cayce mentioned Jesus' teachings and his interactions with the Pharisees he suggested that the Jews had a secret set of teachings that the head Pharisees should have already known, and that Jesus alluded to this in the New Testament. I don't recall if he used the word "Kabbalah" but that would be the obvious candidate for the body of knowledge.

As far as Gnosticism, I've read a reasonable sampling of Gnostic literature and from the notes I took above (which I took probably a year or two ago, so the book is not still fresh in my memory) a "genesis" is described by Cayce that fits with the symbolism and general content of a typical Gnostic genesis. By "genesis" I mean a creation story. In Gnostic texts this is often described as elements interacting in various ways, as in maybe first there's darkness, and then the darkness separates to have a mirror image of itself below, and this mirror image is like water, and then smoke comes from the water and a flame appears. This is a typical kind of Gnostic genesis that you'll find in many ancient texts, though the exact descriptions change.

[Wind]

Sync! I've just been reading books based on Edgar Cayce's readings and I have this one too! They're so exciting. Also I just finished Graham Hancock's Fingerprints of the Gods, our past is so much more interesting than people could ever believe. Civilization is only 7000 years old? Now give me a break!

I also highly recommend Paul Brunton's books like A Search in Secret Egypt.

[conk]

Is David Wilcock the reincarnation of Mr. Cayce?

[Wind]

Posted by conk (here)
Is David Wilcock the reincarnation of Mr. Cayce?

Some believe so, but I have my suspicions. I've heard that Cayce's relatives don't think so.

[conk]

Posted by Wind (here)

Posted by conk (here)
Is David Wilcock the reincarnation of Mr. Cayce?

Some believe so, but I have my suspicions. I've heard that Cayce's relatives don't think so.

I'm about half way through a book that contends he is, with some interesting connections. Much speculation and a few facts. It seems that the A.R.E. has embraced Wilcock to some degree.

[Wind]

Posted by conk (here)
It seems that the A.R.E. has embraced Wilcock to some degree.

That's news to me, I thought that it was just the opposite way around. Though I have heard about the Wynn Free's book. To me it was a bit funny when David Wilcock compared some of his familys photos to Cayce's family photos and said that he looked similiar to Cayce, but I thought that it was a bit too far fetched. When the soul reincarnates to another body, what are the odds that it would have similar physical features? If I have understood correctly, Cayce was mostly a humble Christian when Wilcock has always focused on being the limelight while doing business. He's always been a great researcher though. I think he's not so famous anymore since the 2012 train has passed.

Edgar Cayce had once a prophetic dream about his next incarnation, he said:

"I had been born again in 2100 A.D. in Nebraska. The sea apparently covered all of the western part of the country, as the city where I lived was on the coast. The family name was a strange one. At an early age as a child I declared myself to be Edgar Cayce who had lived 200 years before. Scientists, men with long beads, little hair, and thick glasses, were called in to observe me. They decided to visit the places where I said I had been born, lived, and worked in Kentucky, Alabama, New York, Michigan, and Virginia.

[conk]

Posted by Wind (here)

Posted by conk (here)
It seems that the A.R.E. has embraced Wilcock to some degree.

That's news to me, I thought that it was just the opposite way around. Though I have heard about the Wynn Free's book. To me it was a bit funny when David Wilcock compared some of his familys photos to Cayce's family photos and said that he looked similiar to Cayce, but I thought that it was a bit too far fetched. When the soul reincarnates to another body, what are the odds that it would have similar physical features?

Edgar Cayce had once a prophetic dream about his next incarnation, he said:

"I had been born again in 2100 A.D. in Nebraska. The sea apparently covered all of the western part of the country, as the city where I lived was on the coast. The family name was a strange one. At an early age as a child I declared myself to be Edgar Cayce who had lived 200 years before. Scientists, men with long beads, little hair, and thick glasses, were called in to observe me. They decided to visit the places where I said I had been born, lived, and worked in Kentucky, Alabama, New York, Michigan, and Virginia.

Sorry, I went back to the book and it seems that the idea of the ARE accepting Wilcock is merely Wilcock's perception of the early days and perhaps not fact.

[Roisin]

I grew up with this book (There Is A River). My parents used to have Edgar Cayce meetings once a month too for many years at our house -- that is until my mom started freaking out due to a number of anomalous incidents that occurred during that time where she then surmised that they were connected to those meetings (and, er, me, lol). She eventually became a born again christian which I believe came about due to her fear of the unknown.

[A Voice from the Mountains]

Posted by Wind (here)
Also I just finished Graham Hancock's Fingerprints of the Gods, our past is so much more interesting than people could ever believe.

I'm in the process of taking notes on this book too, but it's very thick as I'm sure you're aware.