Edgar Cayce and the Association for Research and Enlightenment

By: Dr. John Ankerberg / Dr. John Weldon; ©2000

A brief look at the background and teachings associated with the late Edgar Cayce and his trance readings.

 

Edgar Cayce and the Association for Research and Enlightenment

(from Encyclopedia of Cults and New Religions, Harvest House, 1999)

INFO AT A GLANCE

Name: The Association for Research and Enlightenment (ARE) was founded in 1931 “to preserve, research and disseminate the psychic work of Edgar Cayce.”

Founder: Edgar Cayce (1877-1945).

Source of authority: The trance readings of Edgar Cayce’s alleged unconscious mind. These are often claimed to have originated from “the akashic records,” purportedly a storehouse of universal knowledge which many occultists cite as a source of inspiration.

Claim: The revelations of Edgar Cayce represent one of the most significant psychic phenomena of our time.

Occult dynamics: Spiritistic revelations and various occult practices, e.g., astrology.

Key literature: The Circulating Files (only ARE members can obtain the nearly 400 topi­cally arranged transcripts of the Cayce Trance readings); the ARE Journal and Newslet­ter; New Millennium Journal; Venture Inward magazines; A Search for God (2 Vols.); The Edgar Cayce Library (topically organized volumes of the Cayce readings—e.g., Vol. 6 is The Early Christian Epoch); and the multi-volume Individual Reference File. These last two are continually expanding.

Attitude toward Christianity: Rejecting.

Quote:

Q. “How should we present the [Edgar Cayce] work to one in orthodox faith?”

A. … “If they are satisfied in their own mire, or their own vomit, then do not disturb.” (Edgar Cayce Reading 254-87).

DOCTRINAL SUMMARY

God: A pantheistic, impersonal force.

Jesus: A man who attained Christ consciousness.

(The) Christ: A state of higher (occult) consciousness.

Trinity: Reinterpreted as e.g., Time, Space and Patience.

Man: Part of God.

Fall: The fall occurred in heaven, not on the earth, and man fell “into matter,” not sin. Mat­ter and spirit are “opposed” to one another. When preexisting spirits fell into matter they lost their spiritual understanding and awareness of their divinity.

Sin: Error (e.g., not recognizing or appropriating one’s deity). “Sin” is more a defect in awareness than violation of a moral standard.

Salvation: Salvation is through knowledge, not faith, and involves the attainment of higher consciousness and realization of one’s divinity.

Satan: A symbol of “evil.”

Second coming: The subjective experience within each person of the internal coming of “the Christ”

Bible: One of many holy books, interpreted symbolically.

Death: A spiritual advancement

Heaven and Hell: Inward states of consciousness or good or bad experiences in life.