Chapter 2

MOVING INTO ACTION

The class philosopher, Henri has no use for pseudo-intellectuals. He enjoys life, death, adventure, and beauty. Included in his future plans are hypnosis, travel, and writing. Ashby High School Yearbook, 1964 Watatic 1964, the Ashby High School yearbook, had it right. After two years of regression experiments I knew where my life was going and what the next adventure would be. I had taken all the courses I could take and read all the books I could read. For instance, in high school I devoured books about Franz Anton Mesmer, the father of hypnotism.(1) Now I needed more, and the only place to get it was the Edgar Cayce Foundation in Virginia Beach, VA, home of the Association for Research and Enlightenment (ARE).(2)
I sold or gave away almost all my possessions - my record albums and recording equipment, even my car. (This paring down was to become a pattern marking periods of major change and growth.) I lingered in Massachusetts until Thanksgiving, so I could spend the holiday with my family. Then, taking only traveling clothes and my tapes, notes, and transcripts of regression sessions, along with the money I had saved by working weekends and evenings in an apple orchard, I got on a bus for "college." I matriculated, unannounced, one December night in 1964. I didn't have a plan; I didn't even know where I could sleep. I did know one thing; I needed to learn more about past life regression work.

My technique as a hypnotist had improved, and I had kept accurate transcripts and case studies. I was acquainted - barely - with Edgar Cayce; I had read about him in the Bridey Murphy book. I knew he was America's preeminent psychic, and that he had conducted "readings," or discourses, given in a self-induced hypnotic sleep. I knew that he was a recognized source of documented past life information, and although he did not conduct "regressions," he did speak of people's past lives.(3) I also knew the name of his son. I had been impressed by one of Hugh Lynn Cayce's taped lectures on reincarnation. So when I got to Virginia Beach I looked up Hugh Lynn's address in the telephone book, cadged a ride to his house, and rang his bell. "Here I am," I announced. "I've been doing past life regressions. I have tapes and transcripts. Teach me." Or words to that effect.
It was evening. Hugh Lynn and his wife, Sally, were just leaving for a dinner engagement. Instead of laughing at this a naive, brash teenager on their doorstep, they kindly arranged for me to stay at the ARE headquarters building, where I could also study. The next day I had the first of many talks with Hugh Lynn. He seemed interested in my work and asked me to give a talk and demonstration to a large group of the members, but I had sense enough to know I wasn't ready. Years later I was to give speeches and workshops at ARE; now, I was a student. I was full of doubts and questions. I had tried to ignore them, but they would not go away. What could past life study teach? What could be gained from knowledge of the unconscious mind? Where was I going and how? Did people think I was crazy for pursuing this "stuff?" Was I wasting my time and money? Did people want to know about past lives? Sometimes I doubted it. I wondered, "What am I doing this for? What do I do with this information, anyway? Is it all just wishful thinking? What if it is real? Will we have to return again and again and again until we get our lives "right?"

In 1964, the Cayce Foundation headquarters were in a big white building that had been donated by Cayce supporters as a hospital that used procedures in the Cayce readings to heal. The building is a Virginia Beach landmark, perched high on a hill overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. In 1964 it contained offices, a small rack of books for sale, and a library that housed thousands of books on topics that paralleled the Cayce readings. It was and is one of the most important libraries in the world in parapsychology. In addition, the library contained all 14,253 readings, cross-referenced for anyone to read and study. The upper floors of the building had a number of rooms where members of ARE could stay while doing research and study. Hugh Lynn kindly arranged quarters for me there. An adjacent building housed a print shop and an auditorium for conferences. (Since then, the guest rooms have been turned into offices; the library has been moved to a new library/conference center; the single rack of books has grown into a large and active bookstore. The presses are still rolling and computers help ARE keep in touch with a membership of more than 65,000.)

The Cayce Readings

The more than 14,000 Cayce readings are a fascinating but difficult study. The technical language and vocabulary were far beyond my high school comprehension. Also, the flow of subconscious psychic channeled material was a whole new world for me. I could not just sit and read it as I would a story book. It was hard even to understand most sentences. I am good reader, but the material was very deep and unfamiliar, and it has a complicated syntax. I also read just about every book in the library on hypnosis and age regression experiments. I averaged about one book per day, reading late into the night, during the month I stayed at ARE.

Here are some of the key questions I explored. Can we remember past lives? I answer, "Yes, we can recall past lives." But if I could prove it absolutely there would be no need for this book. Reincarnation, which is what we are talking about, would be accepted by everyone - or almost everyone, as almost everyone now accepts that the world is round. We use electricity every day, but no one can define it. We fall in love, and who can define that? We accept many beliefs we cannot prove, and that does not affect their reality. Here is a parable from Kahlil Gibran that illustrates my point.

OTHER SEAS
A fish said to another fish, "Above this sea of ours there is another sea, with creatures swimming in it - and they live there even as we live here." The fish replied, "Pure fancy! Pure fancy! When you know that everything that leaves our sea by even an inch, and stays out of it, dies. What proof have you of other lives in other seas?" *

Are we making it all up? I remembered my youth and the Santa Claus myth that all adults seemed to be in conspiracy to protect. I wanted real answers. I did not want fairy tales.
So in the library I read books by other serious researchers who had done regression work that paralleled my experiments. Answers began to unfold slowly. There was no great flash of light nor instant revelation; it was not like that. But slowly, bit by bit, things fit together. Some things did not fit well and I put them aside. As it turned out, it took a few more years of living, learning, and growing before I proved to my own satisfaction that people just didn't make up past lives.
Meanwhile, I delved for the answers in the Cayce readings.(4) In his conscious state Cayce was very wary of reincarnation. In his subconscious state he was an outspoken advocate. He said that in past lives we "find talents and strengths" (Readings 30222-1 and 2002-1) and that our recollection "brings peace that passeth understanding to inner turmoils" (105-1). The readings said that recall is for "soul development" (2121-2); it "helps others and brings them comfort" (764-1); and, most important, that the recall itself "brings awareness of the continuity of life" (1641-1).(5)
These were fine explanations of the advantages of understanding past lives. But I could not find anything by Cayce that said we could prove their existence to anyone but ourselves. This dilemma led to my biggest question. What role does imagination play in past life recall experiences? In past life exploration, many people worry that their experiences are "only imagination." At times, I suspect this is so. Nevertheless, further research may reveal that even simple imagination may have strong messages embedded in symbols, as in nighttime dreams. Cayce suggests that imagination is the avenue to the visual faculty of the mind. My own experiments suggested that hypnosis enhances the image part of the mind; that is, people who could consciously visualize, imagine, or daydream seemed to be better subjects for hypnosis. Years later I was to understand the reason for this: hypnosis stimulates and enhances right brain activity and visualization is a right brain activity.

There is a definite link between the part of the mind that stores and retrieves images and past life work. The processing of visual information is one function of the mind; we do this all the time when we recall anything from our experience. The creation of visual fantasy is another function of the mind; we do this whenever we daydream. The functions are separate and distinct, but they are often confused. Fantasy is fantasy. Retrieval of a stored image, whether the image is conscious or unconscious, is retrieval of a stored image. But there is a fuzzy border between the two. That overlap is what causes confusion in many people - thinking that all images are fantasy. For instance, consider two Walt Disney movies. Real-story, true-event "imagination" would be like the movie, 'The Living Desert', while fantasy- imagination would be like 'Fantasia'.

My own regression experiments had shown me that most people recalled events through scenes, pictures, and images, though the other senses can trigger recall of past memories. A few subjects said they "heard" the information in their minds and repeated it. A few others said they "felt" or "sensed" the information that came forward. One said she "smelled the ocean," and much of her recall was triggered by her sense of smell. But for most the image facility was the key or the doorway to the past life memory. Most of their recall was of images and scenes, and because they had not consciously "seen" these images before, I could understand that some thought of it, or mislabeled it, as imagination. But this imagination stayed with them long after the session. With time comes the realization of what is valid and meaningful.

Time separates the wheat from the chaff in past life recall; the impressions that last for a long time are more meaningful than passing flights of fantasy. When I searched the Cayce readings on this question I discovered an entirely new link of the imagination with past life study. Cayce said, "The ability to imagine other places [is] because of the past there" (379-3). I responded to this statement with a surge of enlightenment. The imagination is not in conflict or opposed to past life memory; it is a helpful tool. "So that's why my subjects can describe a particular place or time period so vividly," I thought. "Because it is actually remembered from their own past!" People are always so quiet in libraries, but I wanted to shout for joy when I found this nugget. In fact, Cayce told a person specifically to "Use your imagination to fill in details of past life" (1468-1).
A reading told another person, "Turn to the mirror of life and ask yourself, `What do you suppose was served as supper then?'" (1179-2). Another person was told, "Visions and odors harken back to past life in the desert" (2662- 1). (This reminded me of the woman who started her regression by smelling the ocean.)

What are the warnings about recalling our past lives? Cayce said, "Beware unless you are balanced in purpose" (5399-2).(6) Also, "Don't abuse the talent for recall" (340-15) and "don't dwell on it, rather abide in love" (1608-1). One person was cautioned that past life exploration could cause him to be "side tracked" from his present life (3360-1). I heartily agree. My concern was not that a person would get "stuck" in the past, because that has never happened in my experience (7), but that someone might dwell on the past or, worse, take it too seriously.

I was beginning to realize that we are given a series of lives specifically to be able to start anew that we are born again to be free of the past, not sentenced by it. Insight and self-knowledge of our pasts can bring benefit, sometimes can help us change and grow. But the past is past. The readings encourage people to study themselves and their past lives and caution only of the "abuse" of recall. I had faith that if my intent was unconditional love in helping others there was nothing to be afraid of.

Why can't everyone recall past lives? In one reading, Cayce said, "Doubt" (1152-9). To me, that summed it up in a neat one-word package. But really, there are many more factors than that. Some people are afraid of what they will uncover. Some people still think hypnosis is like a truth serum that will cause them to blurt out some deep secret (they won't unless they want to). Perhaps a bigger block than either of these is over-anxiousness. Some people are too eager and try to rush the process. The best subjects are neither too apprehensive nor too zealous. The qualities I value most are honest skepticism and an open and honest mind that is willing to accept new experience.

What are other recall techniques? If using the imagination can help recapture past life experience, are there other methods? Looking into water, a mirror, a crystal ball, or one's own mind can be good tools for meditation. But a more practical method to enhance past life recall is to study the time period. The readings told one person, "Study Grecian period to recall lifetime there" (1732-2). Another person was told, "Study geography, scenery, windmills, etc., will give the person proof of experience there in Holland" (114-1). Another was told, "Study and vision monuments to recall Egyptian experience"(311-2). When I read this material in the ARE library, I wondered how many people already subconsciously study a certain era or place because of their earlier ties there.
The readings gave sound advice; anyone can get insight into themselves by studying times and places that deeply interest them. To me, this gave clues to why some friends only read a certain era of history and others studied only certain places. And the opposite: Why some people dislike a particular time or place - because of negative experiences, perhaps? One young woman I had recently regressed had had a sad and tragic life in China. After the session, she confided that she hated Chinese food and disliked everything Chinese. In her present life she had no ties whatsoever to the Orient.

Travel can also help us get in touch with past lives, Cayce said. He told one person, "Travels to Williamsburg will stimulate recall [of] lifetime there with present husband" (578-2). To another, "Travel to Jamestown and the sense of familiarity what will come over them" (268-3). One person was told to "travel to Palestine to recall both the crusade experience and earlier" (341-8). Another: "Sit on the sands [anywhere] and remember Persia" (1837-1). And: "Travel to coastal areas of Connecticut to recall early settlement there" (1825-1). The readings even suggested travel and activity combined to reexperience events: "Go to the fort on the August moon and listen to your voice which was raised there" (3377-1).

Many readings recommend meditation. Cayce suggested meditation "to recall details of life in Jerusalem" (853-8 and 1486-2). For another he recommended "Entering into the silence for the visions that may be brought from the Grecian experiences" (858-1). I loved the suggestions for travel. I took the advice and launched a new career of extensive travel. Studying was a nice, passive approach to past lives. Actual travel to other lands suited me better. There are feelings and vibrations that can only be lived; I do not find them in books. Little did I realize it then, but I was destined to fill a number of passports and to live in and travel to many countries.

I love travel and recommend it as an exciting, if sometimes difficult, method of stimulating inner experience. Reading is a memory stimulant, Cayce said. Among the many books he recommended were historical novels and several books of the Bible, such as the stories of John the Baptist and Mary Magdalene and the first chapters of Acts. What about dreams of past lives? The Cayce readings said, "Dreams recall past lives" (5569-1). People were told that dreams recall major events in other lives - Egyptian, American Indian, and Roman, for example. The study of our dreams, along with daily prayer and meditation, is one of the main paths on the road to the spiritual, according to the readings. My Days at ARE Soon after my arrival at ARE I started my personal dream journal. I put a notebook and pen by my bed. Before retiring I gave myself a suggestion to recall my dreams and write them down immediately upon awakening.
There were many people, both staff and visitors, to help me interpret them (dreams are symbols that must be translated into words and ideas.) There are many kinds of dreams, I learned: Dreams to relieve stress, sexual dreams, dreams of fear, dreams of flying and occasionally dreams of past lives. Some dreams have personal meanings that apply only to ourselves. Studying my dreams was fun and I achieved some new past life insights, but to me this method was more haphazard than a guided regression. The dreams that have the most significance are recurring dreams. A Cayce reading explained, "A recurring dream validates past life information" (2072- 1).
The recurrence of a dream definitely means a message is trying to reach the dreamer. To me, a recurring dream (even, or especially, a frightening one) needs to be discussed, explored, looked at, studied, meditated upon or prayed about in order that its message be fully understood. If the message is from a past life, a combination of dream analysis and regression can help understand the memory. The link between dreams and other lifetimes is not yet fully understood, but I thing it is clear that dreams and daydreams are a key to unlocking the mystery of the subconscious.
Carl G. Jung said, "The unconscious helps by communicating things to us, or making figurative allusions. It has other ways, too, of informing us of things which by all logic we could not possibly know. Consider synchronistic phenomena, premonitions, and dreams that come true." **

Many Kinds of Education

My mind was filling with ideas and inspiration. I read almost a book a day, studied the readings, recorded my dreams. To balance so much mental exercise, I did yoga exercises in my room. I washed my clothes in the bathroom in the evening and hung them to dry near the radiator. I cooked my meals in the kitchen (everyone cooked for himself) and shared many a stimulating conversation with staff and visitors at mealtimes. I walked on the beach. Virginia Beach was then quite open, with ample dunes to explore. The years have brought in more hotels and condominiums. But the spirit of ARE has remained the same - there are usually sensitive souls around to share sparkling conversation and experiences.

In fact, the biggest benefit I received at the Foundation in the mid-1960s was the meetings with other seeking people. In daily conversation with people living or working at the Cayce Foundation I began to see honest minds with valid questions. These were not carnival psychics but real people with real experiences. Not only had Cayce questioned what this work was all about, but those after him did also. I was not alone with my questions. The ARE confirmed my research and gave substantiation to my work. I was excited by the readings and realized I was not alone; I was not "weird." People were there to study Cayce's information on holistic health.
Some came to test their extrasensory perception. Many came to study the prehistoric past, others to look into the future. People came from all over the world with searching minds and most found the answers they craved. Even skeptics were welcome and many broadened their views. The Cayce material taught me that I could now look at life in a much fuller way. The information broadened my horizons and confirmed my own research that there is continuity to life. It now seemed that five or six lifetimes was no more miraculous than just one. To hear honest and sincere people discussing their previous lives as openly as talking about last year's trip to Europe was comforting.

South and North

I stayed at Virginia Beach another month working at the home of an author and movie producer who was writing a book on the legendary continent of Atlantis. As the weather got colder I felt the call of warm, sunny beaches. Staff members at the ARE gave me the names of a Florida chiropractor husband and wife team who were active in using hypnotherapy. Taking a bus to the Interstate, I started hitchhiking. Within two minutes (and I am not exaggerating) I got a ride all the way to Miami Beach, my destination.
My hosts were a delightful couple; they introduced me to my very first psychics. Naively, until now I had believed that Cayce was unique in psychic channeling. In Florida I received my first psychic reading. The psychic did not know anything about me, nor I about him, but after meeting for just a few minutes he began to give me an abundance of information that was totally correct and then predictions that later proved to be correct. Later I had my first palm reading, an impressive one. Before I left, the chiropractor guided me through the deepest and best session of hypnosis I had experienced until then. In New England there had been no one to work with me to guide me as a subject. I had experienced good sessions by using pre-recorded tapes and made a couple of tapes myself, but this was my first "live" session of hypnosis.

Traveling back north in the spring I was in Norfolk, VA, and ran out of cash. I had an out of state personal check that I kept for emergency use, but because it was a weekend no bank was open. A sign on a bar said "checks cashed," and although I was too young to drink I went in and explained my situation. The bartender asked for my local address, but I had none. He asked if I knew anyone locally; I did not. He said, "I would like to cash this for you, but I can't." I said, "Well, I was staying at the Cayce Foundation a few months ago; it`s about 20 miles away." His face lighted up and he said, "Well, then, of course I'll cash it for you." I thought he was kidding. But he told me to sign it, and counted out the cash. "They're all real good people over there," he said. Or something close to that; I was so full of appreciation I still don't recall his exact words. To me this experience explains better than almost anything else what the Cayce Foundation is all about.

The Cayce material taught me a great deal; the Cayce philosophy and way of life, with its motto, "That we may make manifest the love of God and man," taught me even more. I believed I could gain still more understanding of soul development, and the way to do it was clear: Do the work.
I could whole-heartedly welcome the field of inner exploration. If I did the work, went in and explored, if I was willing to take the steps, the answers would come. If I was willing to learn, if I had patience, if I was determined to understand the secrets of the mind, what the mind is, and what my purpose and spiritual destiny were, then I would have to do the work. Other people might misunderstand or reject this type of search. That could not be my attitude. I would search. If I was hurt or others were hurt, then I would put it down and stop. But if I could gain understanding and knowledge and realization of self ... if I could know myself through the exploration of past lives ... if I could attain insight, then that's the course I had to follow. To dive in. To search. To learn.

Notes to Chapter 2

(1) Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815), Austrian physician. He believed that "animal magnetism," a mysterious inner fluid, had healing properties. It could sometimes be transferred from person to person by touch, inducing a sleeplike state from which the patients awoke cured or much improved. Mesmerism was discredited by the hostile 18th Century medical establishment and Mesmer died in obscurity, but some doctors continued to experiment and improve his techniques. One was a Scottish physician, Dr. James Braid, working in the 1840s, who coined the word hypnosis, from the Greek root, hypnos (sleep). Interest in hypnosis reawakened in the late 19th Century and has continued until today.

(2) "Three organizations have been created to express and promote the worthy ideals which were articulated through Edgar Cayce: The Association for Research and Englightenment; The Edgar Cayce Foundation; and Atlantic University," according to James C. Windsor, Ed.D., president of the last two. The Association (ARE) is "an open membership organization dedicated to making available to all interested persons the readings of Edgar Cayce, and related materials and experiences, through publications, lectures, conferences, home study, group study and specialized programs." The Foundation serves "as the custodian of the Edgar Cayce readings and related materials," which it makes available to researchers and organizations. It also maintains a collection of books and journals in parapsychology, comparative religion, and mysticism. Atlantic University, which reopened in 1985, offers a Master of Arts in Transpersonal Studies, emphasizing "the integration of body, mind and spirit; and of Eatern and Western thought." Residential and independent study courses are offered.

(3) According to the ARE, "Edgar Cayce (1877-1945) manifested one of the truly remarkable psychic talents of all time. Widely known today through the scores of books published about his work, he was able to enter a deep state of meditation and give accurate and helpful information on a virtually unlimited range of subjects. The transcripts of this psychically given information are called `readings.' For many years the information requested of Edgar Cayce related mainly to physical ills. The repeated accuracy of his diagnoses and the effectiveness of the sometimes unorthodox treatments he prescribed made him a medical phenomenon. The fact that he needed only the name and current location of an individual anywhere in the world in order to give a careful diagnosis of the physical condition compounded the mystery. Eventually the scope of his work expanded to include information and advice on thousands of subjects, including mental and spiritual counsel, metaphysics, parapsychology, religion, and prophecy of personal and world events."

(4) The Cayce readings are arranged numerically. The first number is the one assigned to a person who received a reading, for confidentiality, and the second number is that of the reading given this person. Thus Reading 914-44 refers to a person, Cayce himself, and to the 44th reading for which he was the subject.

(5) The first mention of past lives is usually said to have occurred on Aug. 10, 1923. However, it has recently been discovered that there is an earlier one, on April 22, 1911, when his secretary, Gladys Davis, made a notation in Reading 4841-1. This reference, being so unexpected and about a topic unknown to those present, must have slipped by without anyone's remarking it or understanding its significance.

(6) I heartily agree with the Cayce admonition ("Beware unless you are balanced in purpose"). If you are a balanced person, and your purpose is balanced with your ideals, you can gain great insight from past life exploration. But if you seriously need psychological or psychiatric help, believing that the solution to your problems lies only in your past life experiences may be a serious mistake.

(7) No serious or professional hypnotist would allow a subject to get "stuck" in the past. It has never happened to me, nor have I ever heard of such a case. I do have one undocumented story about a stage entertainer who undertook a successful past life experiment, but did not properly close the door to the subconscious memories at the end of the session. The subject functioned normally but was disoriented for a few days after the experience.

*Gibran, Kahlil. The Forerunner: His Parables and Poems. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1961.
**Jung, Carl. Memories, Dreams, Reflections. New York: Vintage Books, 1965. p. 302.