New Cayce resources: useful, not ideal

B. Ernest Frejer (compiler). The Edgar Cayce Companion: A Comprehensive Treatise of the Edgar Cayce Readings. Virginia Beach: ARE Press, 1995.

A. Robert Smith (compiler and editor). The Lost Memoirs of Edgar Cayce: Life As a Seer. Virginia Beach: ARE Press, 1997.

Reviewed by David Bell

I will discuss these books together, since their virtues and flaws are so similar. From the perspective of a Cayce researcher, the impulse which led their creation was an admirable one. Basic information about Cayce's life and teachings needs to be made available as a foundation for any subsequent interpretative work. With respect to Cayce's life, none of the existing biographies can be regarded as definitive or even altogether trustworthy (although Sidney D. Kirkpatrick's forthcoming opus, The Open Door, will in all likelihood be both), and several autobiographical accounts by Cayce himself have heretofore been available mainly to those fortunate persons who have somehow stumbled across them. As for Cayce's teachings, while the CD-ROM collection achieves a certain comprehensiveness by its very nature, its search engines cannot provide broad overviews of the specific topics (Atlantis, reincarnation, etc.) that so many Cayce books address, let alone sketch Cayce's thought in general. Therefore books like these fill a real need.

Notice that I said "books like these" rather than "these books." The reason is that despite the fact that I am glad to have both of them and find them useful, from a researcher's perspective they are almost but not quite what should have been done. Use them, but with caution. Specifically, I would urge researchers not to quote from them in material for publication without checking them against Cayce's real memoirs (and other ancilliary material) or the Cayce CD-ROM, whichever is appropriate.

B. Ernest Frejer calls his book a "treatise," but in fact it is a 450-pp. collection of topically-organized extracts from the readings. As such it combines the function of books like the Creation Trilogy (Eula Allen) or Edgar Cayce's Story of Jesus (Jeffrey Furst), which tend to be consulted more for the readings extracts which they reproduce than for any insights of their author/compilers; and compendiums like the "Black Book" (Gladys Davis Turner & Mae Gimbert St. Clair, Individual Reference File) which aspire to comprehensiveness rather than topicality. Where the Black Book contains such entries as "Animals, Prehistoric", "Baldness", "Introverts (Suppression)", and "Possession" (of the demonic variety)--but not "Jesus", "Christ", or "Ideals"--Frejer's version corrects this admirably well. Almost every well-known Cayce topic is represented--the ARE might consider giving this to its new members rather than the Black Book. Furthermore Frejer has also managed to include many of the specific statements which Cayce fans may remember and wish to locate. I personally have found myself using Frejer's compendium in lieu of at least ten other Cayce books which I had formerly been wont to consult.

But there is a catch: the readings extracts are not quoted entirely accurately. This flaw is hardly unique in Cayce literature--in fact, I would urge that no printed Cayce book be trusted in this respect. At the same time it is disappointing that such a well-organized and useful work, which could have achieved accuracy without any loss of function or marketability, was instead published in its present form. How bad is the situation? In order to answer this I compared the CD-ROM text with the first full extract on pages 30, 60, 90, etc. of Frejer's book (for a total of fourteen extracts, many of them very short). All of the extracts made at least minor, nit-picking kinds of alterations. Typical examples include changing exclamation points to periods; moving commas around and changing semicolons to commas; eliminating paragraphing; knocking off the first few words of a sentence, and concealing that this was done by capitalizing the first word of the new sentence; or making other changes in capitalization. Somewhat more seriously Frejer changes "my left foot" to "my foot" in 3125-1 (p. 90); "the" to "that" in 5755-1 (p. 150), "dis-ease" to "disease" in 1010-17 (p. 260), "consciousness of the Christ-within" to "consciousness of the Christ--within" in 2533-8 (p. 230); and "Any who seek knowledge" to "And who seek knowledge" in 254-16 (p. 350). Three out of the fourteen inspected extracts make major unannounced omissions: a dozen words in 3431-1 (p. 290), nine words in 364-11 (p. 320), and not one but two unadvertised omissions in 877-26 (p. 380) excising first one paragraph and then three paragraphs plus two questions!

In Frejer's defense, since Cayce dictated his readings orally it might be claimed that changing a comma to a semicolon or making changes to capitalization or paragraphing would not really be inaccurate. Other changes may possibly reflect variant editions of the CD-ROM, although this is only speculation. All this raises the methodological question, Where is the "text" of Cayce? Is it to be identified with his spoken words (insofar as these can be reconstructed), or with the typed readings files, or with publications in popular paperbacks and A Search For God, or with the (latest) CD-ROM version? Frejer does not tell us what his methodology is with respect to recontructing Cayce's "text" (or for that matter, for selecting extracts), and the suspicion arises that he might not have one. Perhaps he considered ease of reading or the flow of devotional topics more important that strict accuracy; if so, he does not tell us that either. I understand that the ECF (which basically accepts the readings files as normative) now takes a more active role in preventing this sort of thing.

Of course, the practice of relying on readings extracts divorced of their contexts is also a serious methodological sin--not for Frejer, who could hardly have assembled such a book without doing so, but for lazy researchers who might be tempted to use such extracts by themselves. Of the passages which I surveyed, 1010-17 according to Frejer (p. 260) states that "Individuals may radiate, by their spiritual selves, health, life, that vibration which is destructive to disease." The reader may be interested to know that this originally came in the context of discussion about the luminosity of Christ. Another reading, 254-17 (p. 350) is an exhortation to seek knowledge, coupled with a warning not to abuse it. In fact it is taken from Cayce's reply to a question by Morton Blumenthal, in the context of intense discussion on how to institutionalize the Cayce work.

I don't want to be too hard on Frejer. As I said, I found the book useful, and was actually surprised by how much of it was accurate considering that it was typed in and not simply downloaded from the CD-ROM. Finagle knows that own book will probably have at least one mistake in it (and yes, my warning not to trust printed books applies to mine as well). I repeat: use Frejer's book but check it against the CD-ROM, for context as well as precise wording.

A. Robert Smith is the author of an excellent biography of Hugh Lynn Cayce (which is consequently an excellent history of the ARE), About My Father's Business. He is also the founding editor of Venture Inward, which I regard as a shameless ARE propaganda organ. (No doubt other people find it inspired and life-changing.) Smith's new book, The Lost Memoirs of Edgar Cayce, combines the historian's urges which led him to write the Hugh Lynn biography, with a certain damn-the-academics approach which also arguably characterizes his editorship of Venture Inward.

Its provocative title notwithstanding, The Lost Memoirs is not the secret Cayce diary of tabloid fame. It is framed as an autobiography, despite Smith's vital role in cutting and pasting Cayce's prose (along with other sources) into a more readable and marketable book-length narrative. In his introduction Smith compares his role to that of the publisher who organized Gandhi's fragmentary accounts of his life into The Story of My Experiments With Truth. I would rather compare Smith's role to that of Matthew or Luke, who apparently both incorporated Q (i.e. a hypothetical collection of "sayings of Jesus") into an essentially Markan narrative in such a way as to fit the liturgical needs and ideological emphases of late first-century Christians. I suppose that the Christians who are happy to have the gospels outweigh the Jesus scholars who would rather have had the unedited sayings source. Of course it would have been even better if both could have been preserved, a principle which I think is equally applicable to Cayce's memoirs now. I propose waiting a respectable length of time for Smith's book to sell, and then to make available (perhaps in these pages) the unstreamlined version of Cayce's memoirs just as he wrote them. Now that the ARE has successfully propagated the work of the sleeping Cayce, substantially free of well-meaning glosses and alterations, it should do the same with respect to the writings of the waking Cayce.

The waking Cayce wrote three substantial accounts of his life. One of them, which I refer to as the 95-pp. memoirs, bears the title Edgar Cayce's Memoirs: 1877 to 1924 and is undated. Another, which I call the 47-pp. memoirs, is the one with the unorthodox spelling and third-person singular narration (intriguing, since the readings speak in the same voice). It bears a 1938 year date, and a marginal note from Gladys Davis explaining that Cayce typed it himself. This memoir covers the period from Cayce's early childhood to around 1904. A third account by Cayce is the 1935 article entitled "My Life and Work," which may be consulted in Edgar Cayce's Story of Jesus (Jeffrey Furst). It was sent to inquirers who requested a reading from Cayce. In the first part of Lost Memoirs Smith incorporates the whole of the 95-pp. memoirs (with minor grammatical changes, or connecting sentences added); and intersperses anecdotes from the 47-pp. memoirs (changed to first-person singular and standard English spelling and grammar) at the appropriate place chronologically. Smith also makes use of a memoir written by Cayce's father, Leslie Burr Cayce (which is placed in italics to distinguish it from Edgar's accounts) and assorted correspondence. Part II of Lost Memoirs begins the period not covered by Cayce's memoirs, the period when the first Cayce institutions emerged. I cannot tell where Smith has drawn the bulk of pp. 147-208, and he does give any sources notes.

Smith includes much additional material. Chapter 23 at the end of Part II reprints one of Cayce's two attempts to keep a diary (the 1938 version). Part III begins with six lectures which Cayce gave while awake. Appendix A contains the first life readings from the Dayton period. Smith also incorporates a number of Cayce-related writings by others: several contemporary newspaper articles; Thomas Sugrue's editorial for the first issue of The New Tomorrow, the short-lived ANI periodical (pp. 190-191); photos of Cayce, his family, and associates; the ANI charter and promotional material (Appendix D); a speech by William Mosely Brown dedicating the Cayce Hospital (Appendix E): minutes of the first ARE meeting (Appendix F); two articles by Margueritte Harmon Bro (Harmon's mother) for religious magazines (Appendix G); and Smith's own skeptical analysis of Harmon Bro's claim that Cayce gave a reading for Woodrow Wilson (Appendix C). While much of this material has appeared in other Cayce literature, much has not; either way Smith has done us a service in disseminating it more widely.

Although Smith eschews source notes he does provide a number of content notes, and these are generally helpful. Occasionally they are misleading or ideologically motivated. For example Smith writes that "Edgar's great desire was to help his fellow man, not especially to make money" (p. 174). This is controversial, and in any case would require the services of a time-traveling telepath to establish. In a footnote Smith gives the titles of several Cayce books on dreams, but studiously avoids mentioning Harmon Bro's several volumes on the subject. Elsewhere Smith asserts that Cayce held liberal racial views in order to explain away Cayce's trance declaration, "It is a Negro, we can't help" (p. 75 n. 5). In fact other readings confirm that this was a longstanding policy of Cayce's. When asked why black people could not be given readings, Cayce claimed that this was "For the same reason that it would be impossible to teach a dog to talk" (3744-1). Cayce does not seem to have a consistent view on race--some readings are liberal, some such as this one are as racist as they could possibly be, and I am unable to discern any obvious pattern such as a change of heart over time. Perhaps Cayce told his inquirers what he thought they wanted to hear. In any case Smith deserves credit for including this and other passages that would tend to embarrass devout Cayceans.

Civil War buffs may wonder about Cayce's recollection that the father of his teacher, Professor Thom (not Thomb or Thoms), was "a captain on the Merrimack, when it fought the Monitor at Hampton Roads, and it is said that he visioned or dreamt the manner of armoring the Merrimack and as a consequence had its sides covered with armor plate" (p. 17). According to Christian County historian William T. Turner, Thom's father--Reuben Triplett Thom, Jr.--was not the captain of that vessel but the commander of a company of Confederate marines who were stationed on the Merrimac. (Actually the ship is properly referred to as the Merrimac before being encased in iron, and as the Virginia afterwards, e.g. during the battle at Hampton Roads, but the older name stuck.)

So far I have focused on Frejer's and Smith's contributions to their respective projects rather than those of Cayce, an approach which risks subordinating content to form. Since any verdict on Cayce's views as expressed in Frejer would be nearly indistinguishable from a verdict on the readings as a whole, I will simply say that Frejer's compilation captures Cayce's flaws as well as his achievements, and ought to be broadly acceptable to skeptics as well as believers. In the case of the memoirs, the waking Cayce is a wonderful storyteller and quite a shrewd portrayer of human character. His "writings" are really oral literature since most were dictated, and are especially engaging when the reader imagines them being spoken aloud. Even the 47-pp. memoirs (which Cayce typed) reads best in this way. In this case I actually prefer the unedited version, with all its misspellings and grammatical lapses, for stylistic as well as historical reasons. As for Cayce's lectures, while it is important that Cayce people study them, I can't say that I find them particularly interesting--ideas which take on a certain depth and sense of mystery in the readings, often fall flat when addressed to a more general audience. It seems that Cayce's personal example and attempt to help individual people are as much a part of his charm as his various notions about spirituality or whatnot. These are aspects which Cayce the storyteller captures, but with which Cayce the lecturer has less success.