But as his work continued and his fame grew, requests began coming in from a variety of people in widely scattered environments, and concepts such as reincarnation and astrology began appearing in his discourses.
Cayce, who never recalled a word he spoke in trance, was troubled by the presence of these unorthodox concepts. For a long time he debated if he should continue giving readings. Yet the conflict was finally resolved. “No one seemed to be getting hurt,” he observed, “and the readings are still doing good.” Thus, God’s Love was still working in mysterious ways its wonders to perform. And it caused Edgar Cayce to think, to study the readings, and to discuss them with those who were close to him. As Cayce matured and developed, his unconscious statements became fully integrated into his conscious philosophy.
Although a lifelong Bible class teacher, his Tuesday Night class, coming at the end of his life, represents some of his most developed perceptions.
The Bible was not studied as a history or past fact. The lives of the Bible characters and the conditions which surrounded them were studied as relative conditions, stages of development, or planes of consciousness which were applicable in the present. Not only were the great accomplishments studied, but also the faults and failures, in order to make the Bible characters more real and understandable.
The main objective of the study was to gain a better concept of the Bible and its personal relationship to each individual, and to determine which truths were applicable in daily life.
No claim is made that the Bible class quotes reflect the actual words spoken by Edgar Cayce. Indeed, what was recorded was often the consensus of opinion following a group discussion over which Cayce presided. In presenting these quotes, I have felt free to edit and rework the material in order to present it as succinctly as possible.
It was Edgar Cayce’s intention to review all the material upon completion of the study and make any necessary additions or changes before allowing publication. He died before the study reached its conclusion. Thus, the Bible notes have never been widely circulated.
Edgar Cayce taught a Bible class almost all his life. The notes that appear in this preface and the appendix come from a yearlong series of talks (Jan 4, 1939-Jan 2, 1940) requested by members of the original A Search for God study group. The request to Mr. Cayce was to compare lessons emerging from the study group readings (the 262 series) that were dedicated to spiritual development with the wisdom he found in his much loved Bible. He agreed, stating his purpose would be to make the truths practical for the group and for all those who seek to apply them. They are meant for us, as well.
Gladys Davis, Edgar Cayce’s lifelong secretary, recorded each of the talks in this series. Rather than being verbatim, like the trance readings were, these transcriptions preserve the ideas and wisdom he shared, and also give us the flavor of the man as a conscious and enlightened teacher.
(Note: some editorial liberties have been taken with the existing notes for a fuller, more organic presentation of the insights and spiritual philosophy he expressed. RWK.)
A Way of Looking at the Scripture—and Seeing Ourselves in It
(Notes from Edgar Cayce’s Bible Class)
The story of the Bible all through is the story of a human body. Each character then representing some characteristic of a body—each phase of an existence or consciousness is depicted in some one or another character and so on so the whole thing is our own selves depicted for us in the lives of others.
Let us not think of the characters, in our study of the Bible, as merely historical figures, but rather as individuals who passed through an experience not unlike our own.
Through the Old Testament characters we may see the individual developing through various stages to reach the perfection which Christ represents in our lives. We see ourselves in such characters evolving from purely materialistic through the mental into the spiritual life as shown in Christ—in whom we may completely know ourselves to be what we are and what we shall be, by His grace.
When we measure the Old Testament characters by the standard of the Christ, we see many faults and shortcomings; but we must remember that they were only developing toward the Christ Consciousness, just as we are today, and they did not have the Christ Pattern fully outlined for them as we have now.
Their lives were also of a very complex nature, as is ours today. An example is in the parable of Lazarus and Dives (Luke 16:19-25) When the leper Lazarus died, he went to Abraham’s bosom. We can’t conceive of this being literal. It must be a consciousness or an experience through which the individual soul passes. Abraham represents faith. We must have faith, but faith must be part of our experience before we know we have faith. Similarly we find that other characters represent various portions of our own development, characteristics, we might say, that are within our own natures.
Unless we as individuals can experience that which is written in the Bible is ourselves, we cannot say we believe what is says.
From Genesis to The Revelation—an Overview
For students of the Edgar Cayce readings, the two key books of the Bible are Genesis and The Revelation. “Unless you understand The Revelation,” Cayce once said, “you can’t understand the Bible. And you can’t understand The Revelation until you understand Genesis.”
In The Beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1)
Genesis begins with a simple premise. God is Spirit, and Life both in the heavens and of the earth, in all its phases and expressions, is a manifestation of that power.
God is. God was. He ever shall be. With God there is no beginning.
Then, to what does “The Beginning” refer?
The earth is just one aspect of God’s total creativity. Our planet is just a mote in our solar system, and our solar system is a speck in a larger system, which in turn is only a part of something even greater—a universe within universes!
“The Beginning” is not a description of God’s first creative act, nor even of His most important. “The Beginning” describes that creation in which Man—God’s child—finds himself.
According to Edgar Cayce, the purpose of Genesis was to keep in the mind of man a memory of “The Beginning.”
. . . for as is seen, that as is given [in Genesis] is the presentation of a teacher of a peoples that separated for that definite purpose of keeping alive in the minds, the hearts, the soul-minds of entities, that there may be seen their closer relationships to the divine influences of Creative Forces, that brought into being all that appertains to man’s indwelling as man in the form of flesh in this material world.
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Additional information in the Cayce readings states the substance of Genesis was drawn from extant, ancient manuscripts, and from information Moses obtained while in deep states of meditation. Other references indicate Joshua, Moses’ aide, possessed psychic powers and assisted in the interpretation of both the psychic and historical materials.
Moses, as the author of Genesis, was attempting to give an all-inclusive description of Creation and the place man had in it.
Genesis affirms Man was created in the Image of God, which the readings interpreted to be the soul, not the physical body. Man, according to Edgar Cayce, was first a celestial being in a spiritual world. Only through a Fall, a rebellion in heaven, did man become a material being. The spiritual estate was lost to the flesh.
Moses was recounting the evolution of God’s Spirit in the earth, telling the story in a highly condensed, symbolic language through which the finite mind of the Israelites could grasp an understanding of infinite happenings.
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