Then, the entity remained true to that teaching, and brought many to the knowledge of God that is within every human physical being that seeks to know how same manifests through the individual.
341-19
Literally hundreds of pages of follow-up reports and file notations make this one of the most extensive cases documented in the Cayce files. After attending Washington and Lee University and working as a librarian, [341] became manager of a psychical and spiritual research organization. Married in his thirties, he and his wife had a small son before he was called to serve in the military during World War II. After the war, he resumed his duties as manager of a research organization. Eventually, he and his wife had another son.
Because of his speaking abilities and his love for church work, he was made a church deacon in 1947 and would serve as a guest speaker in many churches throughout the rest of his life. In addition to his work as manager of the research organization, he did extensive lecture work throughout the country during the 1950s through the 1970s. At the same time, he was very active in his community, in his church, and as a leader in the Boy Scouts.
Because of his involvement with psychic ability, by the 1960s he had become a leading figure in the field of parapsychology. His lecture engagements expanded to become international in scope, and in 1964 his first book regarding parapsychology and the unconscious was published. That same year he was chosen as the leading citizen in his city. His work in lecturing, writing, speaking, and managing the research association continued until his death in 1982.
Anna
Luke 2:36-38Case 15211
Mentioned in the New Testament, Anna is regarded as a saintly woman who was married for only seven years before becoming a widow for the next seventy-seven years. Though elderly, she spent her time in the temple, praying and fasting and waiting for the coming of the Messiah. Known as a prophetess, when Mary and Joseph presented the baby Jesus at the temple, Anna announced publicly that Jesus was the Messiah and the fulfillment of all God’s promises. She thanked God that she had lived long enough to see that prophecy fulfilled.
In 1938, parents of a one-week-old baby girl were told that their daughter had been Anna. The reading stated that their child was extremely determined and would always have its own way. To their amazement, the parents were also told that in addition to Anna, their baby had lived two additional lives of notoriety: one as Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII after he divorced Catherine of Aragon and broke with the Roman Catholic Church, and the other as Hannah, mother of the prophet Samuel. (See also “Hannah.”)
Before that we find the entity was in the land and period when there were those expectancies for the coming of the Lord, the Master, the promise of those influences in the experience of men!
The entity then was the prophetess Anna, that waited in the temple and held and blessed Him in the days when there was according to the law the presenting of, the purifying of the Mother by the material and the spiritual law of the people in that experience.
The entity gained throughout that experience, though suffering in body, suffering in many of those things that arise from those activities in a materialistic world of a spiritual-minded individual given to a purpose and a cause that is in the spiritual and mental sense to be the source of redemption for the great numbers rather than the few.
1521-1
In addition to her intuition, in her incarnation in Palestine she had acquired a personal awareness of the presence of God. In ancient Egypt she had been with her present father and had assisted him in a rebellion against those in power. The parents were encouraged to develop their daughter’s spiritual interests and were told that the child’s present direction would be entirely dependent upon the guidance and upbringing she received.
Although raised in a Catholic home, her father, a writer of some reputation, had a great deal of frustration with many aspects of his religion. [1521]’s parents later obtained physical readings for their daughter on a variety of childhood ailments, including an unusual amount of hair that grew across the back of the child’s neck and shoulders. As she grew to adulthood, [1521] maintained an interest in spirituality and would study both Catholicism and Judaism (her husband’s religion).
At one point, [1521] became a very successful newspaper reporter. One of the last reports on file states that she and her husband had two sons and that she had just been accepted to law school.
Apsafar
Luke 2:7Case 1196
Although not named in the Bible, Edgar Cayce stated that the owner of the inn to whom Joseph and the expectant mother had come for shelter was named Apsafar. (He was also given the name Abel-Tean, which may be accounted for by the fact that during this time rich with Roman, Hebrew, and Arabic customs many individuals possessed more than one name.) Rather than being cruel and turning the couple aside because there were no more rooms, as is related in the Bible, Cayce stated that Apsafar was actually an Essene who had been advised by the Essene leaders that Joseph and Mary would arrive. In order to protect the couple (and keep them from “the rabble” who had already taken up residence in the inn), Apsafar directed them to the very place of safety that had already been prepared for them.
In 1936, a fifty-eight-year-old railway commercial agent contacted Edgar Cayce about a health condition. In all, he would receive more than a dozen physical readings about his stiff joints, his problems with eliminations, and the pains in his abdomen. The condition would later be diagnosed as cholecystitis. When he obtained a life reading, he was told that he possessed high mental abilities and was swayed by both duty and sentiment. An emotionally passionate individual, he could be quick to anger but was just as quick to forgive. His life reading provided a number of past-life experiences.
During the time of the American Revolution, [1196] had served as a quartermaster for stores and supplies. Extremely helpful to his fellow soldiers, at the time he had also shown kindness and fellowship to any enemy that had been captured and held. He was encouraged to continue this manner of dealing with people which was best phrased as, “As ye do it unto these, the least of thy brethren, ye do it unto me.” Previously, in France, he had assisted individuals in his capacity as one who planned routes, roads, and excursions into surrounding territories, often bringing “greater convenience” to isolated places. In an earlier life, he had been a leader of caravans involved with exchanging goods between Egyptian and Persian lands. In another incarnation in Egypt, he had also served in the capacity of counselor.
His previous lives had caused him to love travel, to desire to open up lines of communications among peoples, and to provide individuals with greater conveniences and material things in their home. He was told that he had been the innkeeper to whom Joseph and Mary had come when she was about to give birth:
Much of that as has been recorded as we find is not so well, nor in keeping with that the entity did then—as Apsafar; who was of the Essenes, though of a Jewish descent, though a combination of the Jewish and the Grecian.
For the entity then made a study of those peoples, knew of those things that had been foretold by the teachers of the Essenes, and made all preparations as near in keeping with what had been foretold as possible.
1196-2
During that same incarnation, Apsafar had often served as a counselor to those who sought advice regarding how to best deal with the various groups and political influences of the time. In that experience, his present wife had also been his daughter and she had been among the first to see the baby Jesus. Finally, [1196] was told that his talents in the present lay in communications or commerce and trade. He could excel in the line of imports and have a tremendous influence in the lives of many people.
After the reading, Mr. [1196] reported, “It is very, very interesting.