Résurgences
Réapparition à l'air libre, sous forme de grosse source, de l'eau absorbée par des cavités souterraines.
Lyon, 29 Juin 1900, 8, rue du Peyrat, dans le 2e arrondissement.
"Learn the LAW; that ye reap what ye sow! The manner in which ye measure to others, it will be measured to thee again! That is an unchangeable law! Then, live the law; be the law, as respecting such…"
Miscellaneous Karmic Relationships
Yet oft, as we find here, individuals, again and again, are drawn together that there may be the meeting in the experience of each that which will make them aware of wherein they, as individuals (individual entity and soul), have erred respecting experiences in materiality or soul-life even. For the soul lives on …
693-3
An underlying premise in the Edgar Cayce readings is that individuals who have a strong emotional feeling toward one another— positively or negatively—generally have karmic memory that constantly influences their present relationship. In other words, oftentimes people respond to one another with greater depth of emotion than might seem appropriate to an objective observer because those individuals are not only responding to an incident in the present but, in all likelihood, to other experiences that have ever occurred between them throughout all time and space. In spite of these past-life memories and the subsequent influences they have, however, Cayce was adamant in maintaining that free will remained the strongest influence in any given relationship because, although there may be negative patterns and inclinations that exist at an unconscious level, those “impulses” do not need to be reenergized or given power in the present.
The importance of free will was emphasized in a reading, for a woman in her forties who was a strong supporter of Edgar Cayce and his work. She was extremely close to her nieces and nephews, for whom she obtained readings. One of her nephews was thirteen at the time of his reading and the aunt and nephew apparently wavered between a very amicable relationship and one in which each seemed to be a source of irritation to the other. When the question was asked in the boy’s reading as to whether they would be closely associated throughout his life or end up separating, Cayce responded that the answer was not set; instead, it had to do with the use of their will in the present: “This depends to be sure upon the activities … No life, no individual is set! It is not a line; it deviates. For the will of each may change the relationships.” (1235-1)
Cayce went on to explain that the greatest source of their connection was the karmic memory from a lifetime in Rome in which the two had been friends. During that experience, the nephew had often provided guidance that his present-day aunt depended upon. In the present, their roles had been reversed and the aunt now found herself in the role of guiding the youth, especially in terms of his spiritual direction. Apparently, the conflict existed because not only did the nephew now find himself in a subservient position but at a subconscious level the aunt realized that she could no longer turn to her former friend for help, as she had done in the past. When the question was asked as to whether or not the relationship had the potential to be beneficial for the youth in the present, Cayce again turned the answer over to the application of individual will: “Depends upon the application again. Everything in the experience depends upon the application. How wilt thou use thy opportunities? if for weal or for woe? These are not set!”
The readings also repeat that there is an underlying purposefulness behind every relationship and experience encountered by a soul. For example, during the course of a reading given to a thirty-five-year-old musician interested in past lives, work prospects and his personal relationships, Cayce stated that wherever an individual found himself or herself in the present is an opportunity to be a meaningful experience:
Yet, let the entity know that it is not by chance that it has entered this experience at this time, but the life is a purposeful experience; and the place in which it finds itself in the present is that from which it may use the present abilities, the present faults, the present failures—yea, the present virtues— in fulfilling that purpose for which the soul manifests in the material or three-dimensional plane.
2421-2
On another occasion, a forty-one-year-old woman interested in the karmic connection between herself and her daughter was told: “It is true for the entity, and for most individual souls manifesting in the earth, that nothing, no meeting comes by chance. These are a design or a pattern. These patterns, however, are laid out by the individual entity. For there are laws.” (2620-2)
Edgar Cayce frequently emphasized the lawfulness of karma by paraphrasing a line from the New Testament: “ … for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” (Galatians 6:7) For example, when a fifty-six-year-old woman had questions about the karmic relationships between herself and various family members, she was told: “Learn the law; that ye reap what ye sow! The manner in which ye measure to others, it will be measured to thee again! That is an unchangeable law! Then, live the law; be the law, as respecting such.” (2185-1)
Along the same lines, a thirty-eight-year-old member of the U.S Treasury Department’s Secret Service was reminded:
… each soul meets that it—the soul—has built in the experiences.
For the law of the universe, the law of a merciful Father, remaineth ever. Though there may be turmoils within the earth, though there may be confusions in the elements about the earth, the law remains that what ye sow ye reap, what ye sow ye must meet.
1205-1
A fifty-six-year-old investment counsellor apparently having problems at work was reminded that his experience was simply a lawful recompense for his own actions in a previous life. In other words, he was simply meeting himself:
The entity took advantage of a group. Hence expect a group to take advantage of thee! For what ye measure, it must be, it will be measured to thee. For ye must pay every whit that ye measure to others. And this applies in the future as well as in the past. Do you wonder that your life is in such a mess!
3063-1
As stated previously, rather than being some type of a punishment or a debt, the karmic memory that enables people to “meet” themselves in their experiences and relationships is ultimately the means through which individuals grow, develop and become more in alignment with their Creator. Oftentimes, that growth entails learning how to love unconditionally—whether it's the love of self or love of others. The contemporary story of Hiromi Martin is one such example:
Hiromi admits that for a long time she didn’t understand her karmic relationship with her mother-in-law or the lesson that each had been attempting to learn. She was born in Asia, and her own parents immigrated first to Holland and then to the United States. During World War II, her father had spent four years as a POW in a Japanese prison camp. When she became an adult, Hiromi married a United States citizen, a Caucasian. Although close to her husband, she always had a very challenging time with her mother-in-law, who came across as being prejudice about Hiromi’s nationality. To make matters worse, because of a series of life events, her mother-in-law lived with her and her husband for over twenty years.
According to Hiromi, her mother-in-law was mean, critical, insulting, and prone to frequent yelling: “For a number of years, I thought I was the cause of the way she treated me, and it was devastating.” For years she waited on the woman’s every demand: “I felt like an indentured slave whose servitude would never be up.” The situation went on for seventeen years, causing Hiromi to become despondent: “I wallowed in feelings of selfishness and despair and I ignored my need to love myself and take care of my health.” In the seventeenth year, she developed cancer and became convinced that her attitude and hopelessness had depleted her immune system and allowed the cancer to manifest. Hiromi became determined that she would not allow herself to die from the situation.
In addition to following the treatment recommended by her doctor, Hiromi eventually went to a psychic and asked what past-life experience was most affecting her situation in the present. The response was that she had once been an Egyptian slave serving a cruel and arrogant master—eventually, she had escaped the situation and was able to live a happy life with a family of her own. It did not take a stretch of the imagination to realize that the master she had once served and despised had returned as her present-day mother-in-law. It is only now that Hiromi realizes the lessons that each had tried to teach the other:
She tried to teach me the very hard lesson of self-worth and the fact that I didn’t need her approval. She needed to learn from me that people of a different colour or race are no different than herself—no one is any better or any worse than anyone else. In time, I learned patience and self-worth. I even learned to love myself.
Hiromi did all the right things and she quickly regained her health and her peace of mind. Within a couple of years, her entire life had changed—her children grew up and left home, she made a new life for herself and no longer felt like the “victim” she had once been. It was only after she had transformed her relationship with her mother-in-law that the elder woman passed on. Rather than dreading their next encounter, Hiromi now thinks of their karmic memory with a different attitude: “I never again want to repeat the history we have had. I no longer have the need to be challenged in order to love myself or to feel my self-worth through another’s approval or acceptance. Because I have changed, I hope our next meeting will be one of mutual love and acceptance.”
The story of Phyllis Lambert is also one that entails its share of personal challenges. One of the earliest challenges concerned her boyfriend, Paul, whom she describes as follows:
Paul was my brother’s best friend. He was always a part of our family. Paul and I dated through high school and said that we would get married. His father was a plumber and he planned to follow in his father’s footsteps but first, he wanted to serve his military time. He enlisted in the army. He was killed six weeks after his arrival in Vietnam.
Paul’s death was devastating but Phyllis got on with her life as best as she could. She married someone else at eighteen but divorced at nineteen. She spent two years hitchhiking across the country before marrying again at twenty-three. She had two sons before getting her second divorce at twenty-five. She married again at thirty and divorced three years later. After that, she dated a number of men but avoided any kind of real commitment. For a long time, it seemed like her life was out of control: “I was single, working full-time, drinking, raising two sons, sleeping with anyone who asked, and using recreational drugs (cocaine and grass).” When her life seemed at its lowest point, Phyllis had a dream that changed everything:
It seems that there was a highway. No cars, no trucks, just people walking … The road was bordered on each side with green grass running into the valley … I was enjoying the walk. Off in the distance, the trees were so pretty and so tempting that I started to walk in that direction. As I wandered towards the forest, a man came out. He wore blue jeans, a red plaid shirt and tennis shoes. He had dark hair and glasses. As we came closer to each other, I realized that this was Paul. But Paul was dead—killed years ago in Vietnam!
I was so happy to see him, tears welled into my eyes and my heart exploded with happiness. I ran toward him and just stared for a minute. He looked just like he always had, only older and more mature. He had the same rosy cheeks and the same habit of pushing his glasses up his nose with his index finger. I held him and felt the warmth of his body and smelled the familiar smell that was his alone. I cried from happiness and never questioned why he was there …
I wanted so much to stay with Paul, to be in his presence, to talk to him about all of the things that had happened in my life, but he told me I needed to leave. He said that my sons needed me, but he promised that he would be at the end of this road later and we would have forever to talk.
I remember crying, yet feeling so safe and secure and peaceful within myself. It was like getting a breath of clean, cool air after a hot, humid day. Paul told me to hurry and he turned and walked back into the trees. I wanted to follow, but I was torn between him and my boys. But Paul did say that he would be at the end of the road, and I trusted him. I turned and headed back in the direction that I had come.
After she awoke, Phyllis’ life was never the same. She is convinced that the dream became a turning point and enabled her to start getting her life in order. She eventually earned an associate’s degree in accounting to help her in her career. She focused on raising her sons, and she also became involved in a spiritual discussion group. Eventually, she began having a series of dreams and past-life experiences that convinced her that she had been a “saloon girl” in the 1800s. During a past-life reverie, she got the sense that she had been abandoned by her parents at the age of fifteen in southern Canada and had ended up working in a saloon in Montana as a means of supporting herself. She now realizes that after Paul’s death she had picked up a past-life pattern that was connected to her present-day karmic struggles with men:
I understand that each man I’ve had a relationship with may well be connected to that lifetime in Montana, and other lives as well. I’m aware of a pattern of not trusting men, on insisting that I maintain my “freedom” and independence. I finally understand that some of these patterns don’t have to be repeated.
Phyllis is certain that her relationship with Paul was the continuation of a relationship they had shared in the past and will undoubtedly share in the future. The concept of reincarnation has also helped her transform some of her more challenging relationships:
I know this isn’t the end of who I am, and that what I learn and experience will come with me in future lives—it’s an ongoing process for us all. I also know that people I deal with today are some of those with whom I’ve interacted in the past, and will no doubt contend with in the future. This can be comfort as well as a motivation to change a situation today.
In another contemporary example, Lois Holmes describes how past-life recall enabled her to overcome an overeating problem, understand why she had such an affinity to various minorities and realize where her strong connection to her granddaughter came from. Now in her seventies, Lois admits that all of her life she had a problem with her weight and overeating—a problem that is also shared by her granddaughter. Although a Caucasian woman herself, while growing up she often resented white people for their racial prejudice:
I always felt that I was born into the wrong family. Nobody was like me—they didn’t think like me. I loved them, and they loved me but we were so very different in our thinking especially about religion and race. I have always felt a strong connection for the “underdog,” no matter who the person was or what colour he or she happened to be. I have always felt a strong connection to Native Americans, African Americans, and people from India … this was all very different than my upbringing.
After Lois became interested in reincarnation, she had a past-life experience in which she saw herself living in India as a member of the lower class: “I saw myself as a resident of India and I also saw that my present-day granddaughter, with whom I am very close, was my beloved younger sister.” During the experience, Lois realized that both she and her younger sister had starved in that lifetime. When it was over, the past-life memory became the impetus she needed to overcome her overeating problem: “I was able to see why I overate in this lifetime. As a result, I have stopped overeating since that recall experience.” She was also able to see how being a member of one of India’s lower classes enabled her to have an affinity with individuals who were the “underdog” or of a minority. When asked if there was anything she would like to say to family members about her experience, Lois responded:
I would like to talk to my mother, my dad, my sister, and my brothers—all of who have passed over … I would like to tell them all of the things that I have experienced, and how understanding reincarnation has been such a light in my life— answering so many questions. While alive, they would have thought my ideas heresy and even blasphemy. They could not understand why I liked black people or why I was so liberal. I have told my remaining family about my experiences, and at least most of them have seemed pretty open to the ideas I have to share.
A less positive example of karmic memory and being unwilling or unable to work through it is evidenced in the story of two women who were told in their Cayce readings of a strong past-life connection with Edgar Cayce himself. Donna Vincenze was from Virginia Beach, Virginia, and sometimes volunteered to work in Cayce’s office; Magdalena Capputto was somewhat of a socialite, who lived in New York City and saw Cayce when he was there on business. Although the two did not know each other personally, both women had been told that they had once had a very close personal relationship with Cayce during the same past life. According to Magdalena’s readings, she had been married to Edgar Cayce when he essentially kept what amounted to a Roman mistress; Donna was told that she had been that mistress. One day Magdalene decided to make a trip to Virginia Beach, and Edgar Cayce decided it would make for an interesting experiment to see what would happen when the two women finally met for the very first time. It was Donna who eventually made the following report for the Cayce archives:
Mr Cayce told me that Mrs Capputto was coming to Va. Beach and that he would be most interested in seeing us meet … He told me that he had not told her about me—at least he had not identified me, and that when I met her—I would know but she would not. He seemed interested in what her reaction would be to me. It interested me that he did not seem concerned about how I might react to her.
As I recall she arrived on a Monday or Tuesday — of the week — I do not recall what month, but I do remember the weather was very nice. The first time I met her, we picked her up to take her to the Tuesday Night Bible Meeting. Mrs Cayce, Gladys, Mr Cayce, Mrs Capputto and I were the only ones in the car — Actually I do not know what I expected to feel, but I can tell you that I was very surprised to find that I felt very sure of my position — as related to Mr Cayce and Mrs Capputto, but the unexpected thing was that I felt very flirtatious. She had planned to stay at the Beach two weeks — but checked out the next day and went back to N.Y. After Mr Cayce had seen her in N.Y. he told (when he came home) that she explained that she was so upset by my presence that she just had to go home.
1523-16 Report File
A contemporary example of almost reliving karmic memory from the past is told in the story of Alicia Albertson who broke off her three-year relationship with her boyfriend, Rick. Alicia admits that even though she initiated the break-up, she was still upset, as she had often contemplated the possibility of marrying Rick. As Alicia recalls, “Even upon our first meeting and all along the way, I just knew that this was an important relationship for us.”
Part of the problem had been the fact that Rick seemed to have a “cruel and distant streak” that made life miserable. Even though Alicia realized that the break-up was for the best, she obtained a reincarnation regression tape by Brian Weiss and tried to get at the heart of her connection. The regression enabled her to see the karmic memory that had led to their relationship in the present:
I very clearly saw myself in 1800s France. I was the wife of a very wealthy man, who was older than I. I could see that he had dark hair and a beard. He was also very cruel and harsh. As a result, I hated my life but I had no way out. I did not have the upper hand or any income of my own. I was desperate to break away but I didn’t know how I could. When I looked closely at my husband’s face in the reverie, I realized that it was Rick.
When the reverie was over, Alicia understood that her three-year relationship with Rick had been the opportunity to re-script what she had been unable to change in the past. She also found it interesting that in this life she had had the “upper hand” all along: she was seven years older than Rick, she was the one that had been formally educated, and her career had been the more financially rewarding.
Peggy McGrath tells an even more positive example of healing a past-life memory through the use of the will. As background information, Peggy was born in Ireland more than seventy years ago to a Catholic mother and a Protestant father. At the time it was unthinkable that a Catholic would marry a Protestant, and placing Peggy with her maternal grandmother solved the dilemma of her illegitimate birth. She was essentially abandoned by her birthparents—her mother was sent off to England to pursue a nursing career and her father was shipped to India as part of the British government’s police presence. She never met either her mother or father, as her birth had somehow “shamed” them and they felt forced to completely alter the course of their lives. However, Peggy’s grandmother adored her and she had a wonderful upbringing.
Peggy moved to the United States in the 1940s to pursue an education. Eventually, she married and had children of her own. In time, her children married and had their own children. She was delighted when the time came for her to become a grandmother. Her joy was shortlived, however, when it became apparent that her granddaughter— though only an infant—did not want to be around her: “For whatever reason, she just didn’t feel comfortable with me.” Because she had always been popular with children, Peggy couldn’t understand what the problem was but regardless of how she spoke to, cuddled or held her granddaughter, the baby’s attitude did not change. The child did not like her or want to be around her. One night, however, Peggy had a dream that seemed to answer where the problem had originated:
I was riding a merry-go-round with my favourite aunt, who I knew was deceased, but in the dream, she was alive and well. All at once, the merry-go-round started going backwards and I realized it was moving back in time. I turned and noticed that my granddaughter was sitting near my aunt and as the merry-go-round continued its journey back in time my granddaughter became my mother. As my mother, she spoke happily with my aunt. My aunt looked at me to make certain I had gotten the message—that this woman who had been forced to change her life because of my birth was now my granddaughter—and when it was clear I understood, my aunt got off at the next stop. I was left alone on the merry-go-round with my mother.
Upon awakening, Peggy knew that she had to heal the relationship with her granddaughter/mother. Immediately, she started praying for their relationship and for their ability to forgive one another. She also worked with meditation. Almost like a silent affirmation, in her mind, she began thanking her mother for all of the good things that the woman had been instrumental in bringing to her life. Peggy even thanked her mother for life itself. The approach seemed to work, for gradually, her granddaughter began to change. As Peggy recalls:
By the time my granddaughter was a toddler, she insisted on coming to visit with me and staying overnight with me. Any of her tiny problems were brought specifically to me to be solved. As the years passed, anything I ever gave to her became like a special treasure in her eyes, even to this day. When she grew up, I found it especially interesting that she chose her previous career of nursing. This time she took it a step further and became a neo-natal nurse, as though she wanted to make certain that she could help take care of little children, as she had to leave one behind the last time around. She simply adores children.
Peggy states that without the dream, she and her granddaughter might have gone through life ignoring each other, never healing the situation from the past.
Another example of personal healing is evidenced in the past-life story of Nadine Brockman. According to Nadine, it was during a hypnotic regression that she came to the realization that two lifelong personal phobias and her favourite aunt’s inability to have children were all connected to the same experience—an experience in which she and her aunt had last been together. Nadine states that throughout her life she has been afraid of two things: having another person touch her head and travelling any distance away from her home:
As far back as I can remember, I hated anyone touching my head or combing my hair. I even refused to go to the beauty shop—preferring instead to cut my own hair. In terms of travel, anytime I had to go somewhere I developed some kind of a sickness: severe dizziness, head colds, middle ear infections, etc.
In part because of her phobias, Nadine eventually went to a regression therapist to see about the possibility of being hypnotized and regressed as a means of being healed of both problems. The results she experienced ended up being instantaneous:
I saw myself as a three-year-old girl, living near the beach in Sweden. My mother in that lifetime was my childless aunt from the present. One evening I wanted to go out to play but my mother told me it was too late and I needed to go to bed. I was very unhappy with her response, so when she was not looking I saw myself sneak out of the house and run out to the beach to play.
As early evening turned to darkness, I became scared. I was lost. I saw a light atop some rocks so I began climbing what amounted to a cliff. Unfortunately, when I was up quite a ways, I ended up falling off the cliff and smashing my head on the rocks below.
The scene changed and I could see my mother (now aunt) holding me and weeping over me, crying aloud, “I will never have children again.”
The experience proved to be very emotional for Nadine. While still in the regression she started crying and saying, “It’s all my fault, it’s all my fault.” The hypnotist reassured her by gently repeating that she had only been a child and had never meant for the tragedy to happen. Still, it really affected her to see her now-aunt in such pain: “I’m closer to her than even my own mother!”
In the end, however, the experience proved to be helpful and healing. Today, it doesn’t bother Nadine to have someone else touch her hair and she no longer gets sick when travelling. Not only have the concepts of reincarnation and karma enabled Nadine to make strides in her personal growth and development but she is convinced that they hold the same promise for everyone:
We have the opportunity to stretch and reach our soul’s potentials. There is a Higher Power, a Source, within each and every one of us. If only people would try to accept life’s challenges, to understand that there is a reason for everything. We are solely responsible for creating our reality.
An interesting example of family karma created and played out within the same hundred-year period is told by Angela Anderson. According to Angela, her story began when she was a young girl on a train with her mother travelling from California to Oklahoma. The ride seemed fine until her mother tried to take her from the passenger car to the dining car. Between cars, the noise of the wheels on the tracks was so loud that Angela began to scream and cry until her mother took her back to the passenger car. From that time on Angela had an irrational fear of trains. As she grew older, she noticed other idiosyncrasies developing such as disgust for the sound of the German language and an irrational fear that as a mother she herself would lose a child.
Time passed and eventually, Angela married a police officer, became a nurse and had two children: a boy and a girl. Her children were wonderful. Her son liked to draw and seemed especially interested in drawing cars. In addition to her duties as a nurse, she and her husband both taught Baptist Sunday school. For the most part, her life was very good. However, one night she had a terrifying dream:
I felt during the dream as though I was awake and this was real. I heard the screen door open and looked up into the face of a man standing beside me. The streetlight shone on his face. He was dressed all in black from his feet to his head. Only his face, hair and hands were not covered. His eyes were black and slanted and they had the evilest look I had ever seen. I knew he meant to kill me. I tried to scream and punch my husband but could not make a sound nor could I move a muscle. I was filled with terror. The man stepped toward me and my terror became worse.
Angela forced herself to awaken and was unable to go back to sleep. Still terrified, she was certain that she had seen the face of death. Her husband tried to reassure her that everything was okay, but Angela became convinced that something horrible was about to happen. Her fears proved prophetic one week later when her husband was involved in a car accident with another car while riding with their fifteen-year-old son. Their son was killed instantly and her husband was left a cripple, retaining only the use of one arm. The crash resulted in her husband’s onslaught of epilepsy as well as a struggle with severe depression. He also felt guilty for not being able to avoid the accident. Angela herself became very bitter over the loss of their son. For a time it seemed that her husband might not survive his own injuries. At the very least, his work as a police officer was over. Their life as a family was horribly altered and seemed almost impossible to deal with. In addition to all this tragedy, for some reason, Angela had an intense fear of her daughter being raped and often told friends, “I would rather be raped myself than have my daughter raped.” The intervention of two people helped to turn Angela’s life around. The doctor who saved her husband’s life was from India. In addition to helping her husband, the doctor tried to comfort Angela. He encouraged her and told her that in his opinion, “the soul changes bodies like the body changes clothes.” His words opened her mind to an entirely new philosophy and according to Angela, “Thus began my current journey toward wisdom and enlightenment.” The second individual was a friend and a hypnotherapist who agreed to hypnotize Angela to see if she could discover why this tragedy was a part of her life’s experience. To her amazement, while under hypnosis Angela remembered exact details of a past life that seemed to explain the karmic reason behind the tragedy:
I remembered a life in Poland when I was a Polish Jew named Claude Rainey. I had a jewellery store and a watch repair shop on a corner. My wife was named Edith (I knew she had returned as my daughter in this life) and my son was named Reuben (I knew he had returned as my son). The year was 1943.
In my memory, we heard the Nazis coming and all of us went into hiding. I hid behind a showcase inside a wall where money and jewellery were hidden. I could see through a tiny crack in the wall. The Nazis found Reuben and beat, kicked, and stomped him to death. They also found Edith and took turns raping her before they killed her. I did nothing to try and stop them. By the time the Nazis found me, there was blood everywhere. Since I was strong, I was sent by train to Bergen-Belzen [a Nazi concentration camp]. I knew that my husband in this life had been a member of the SS at the camp and had been killed during the war. Later I was sent by train to Auschwitz, where I was murdered.
The experience explained many things: Angela’s fear of trains, her fear of losing a child, her fear about her daughter being raped, her feelings about the German language, even her husband’s own injuries seemed to be in recompense for his actions in Nazi Germany.
Since that experience, Angela has come to grips with her son’s death. She has even forgiven the man who caused the accident. Because of the events in her life and the people who helped her gain a new understanding, her philosophy has changed to the point where she now believes, “The soul cannot escape itself.” She is convinced that her life’s experiences have been purposeful and that the individuals who helped her to change her philosophy were not sent by accident. Twenty years have passed since the accident, and although she still misses her son, she is convinced that he has returned to her family. She is now a grandmother and amazingly her grandson is like her son “in every way.” His personality, his appearance and his interaction with family members remind Angela of the son she lost. She adds, “He even draws cars almost identical to those our son used to draw!”
Certainly, past-life experiences influence present-day relationships. As a demonstration of how Cayce’s clients experienced this lawful meeting of karmic memory in their own lives, some examples from the files follow:
A sixty-four-year-old woman inquired about her past-life relationship with her son-in-law, an individual whose purposes she often questioned and yet she generally felt very close to him, sometimes even feeling “of one mind.” Her reading stated that she had been closely associated with him as a friend on at least two different occasions: in Egypt during the rise of the Hebrew Joseph from prisoner to second-in-command of the country, and also during the second breaking up of the continent of Atlantis. During these experiences, the two friends often found occasion to debate one another. In the present, she was counselled to be a source of encouragement to him in terms of his own spiritual and mental development—a role she had apparently served in their previous experiences together. (2612-1)
A thirty-year-old man who had become extremely interested in the Edgar Cayce information was told that in one of his past lives he had been alive at the time of Jesus. During that lifetime he had been married to a woman that doubted Jesus was, in fact, the long-awaited Messiah, as she preferred instead to cling to her traditional religious upbringing. When the man inquired if he presently knew the woman who had once been his wife, Cayce replied in the affirmative—his wife then had returned as his mother-in-law. Interestingly enough, the woman had retained her sceptical and disbelieving nature regarding the Edgar Cayce information with which both her daughter and son-in-law had become involved. (137-121)
A childless woman was extremely close to her nephew, a toddler. She often had occasion to take him to the beach and frequently strangers would stop and comment on what a beautiful child she had. She never corrected them, allowing them to imagine that the boy was her child. She felt unconditional love for the boy and he seemed to have the same feelings for her in return. When the woman’s brother and wife moved out of state, taking her nephew with them, she was heartbroken. She longed for the boy’s visits, which mainly corresponded to family occasions and holidays. When asked about the past-life connection between the two, Edgar Cayce stated that the boy had been the woman’s son during a lifetime in Palestine. Their closeness was a continuation from that experience, and in the present, their relationship was such that they would be a “prop one to the other” throughout their lives. (1990-3)
The grandmother of a fourteen-year-old boy was told that the boy’s condition—an incoordination of the sensory system and the brain, causing the child to be unable to speak—was the result of karma. However, it was not simply the boy’s karma: Both the child and those responsible for him were apparently meeting the memory of a previous experience when they had been together. This joint responsibility was described as follows: “Thus the condition is karmic in its reaction … for the body is meeting itself; but so must those responsible for this entity meet themselves.” (4013-1)
Later, in the course of a reading for the grandmother, this karmic connection was further clarified. It seems that the grandmother and others had once been employed in temple service in Jerusalem but had become subject to harsh edicts and strict measures governing the affairs of all individuals during the reign of Nehemiah, a ruler who helped to rebuild the walls of the city. Some individuals became so angered by Nehemiah’s dictatorial control that they swore vengeance upon him. Cayce reminded the family: “And he who swears vengeance pays even unto the last farthing. So it brought developments, retardments, for when there is jealousy, hate, things that do not make the soul of man free, these bring retardments to an individual in his activities in the earth.” (5177-1) On other occasions, Cayce reminded people that regardless of what other individuals had done to them hate was not an option, as there were serious karmic ramifications to hating someone else: “And the soul that holds resentment owes the soul to whom it is held, much!” (1298-1)
During a reading given to a fifty-eight-year-old grandmother, the woman inquired about her past-life connection to her grandchildren (a boy and a girl). She also wanted to know why she felt more love and concern for her grandson than she did for her granddaughter. Cayce explained that in one of her most recent incarnations her two grandchildren had been her close friends. The boy had frequently sought out her guidance and opinion, whereas the girl had been much more self-sufficient. These friendships from the past had resulted in them all being drawn back together in the present. In terms of why she felt so much more concern for one over the other, Cayce replied:
… there was the ability of the one to be self-sufficient— which brings an indifference; while the seeking for counsel, for help, or for instruction in the other, naturally brings the greater feeling of response. For, it is a universal and a divine law that like begets like. So, in the present experience, while there is loving—yet in the one, it might be truly called loving indifference, while in the other it is love that is truly a creative, growing experience in the activities of each.
1472-13
Due to the death of her brother’s wife, a forty-one-year-old woman ended up with the responsibility of raising her brother’s daughter—her own niece. She essentially became the girl’s mother. When she asked about her connection to the child in a past-life reading from Edgar Cayce, the explanation was that she was simply picking up her relationship with the girl from an Egyptian experience when her niece had been her daughter. (2011-3)
Sometimes the karma of family relationships entails individuals incarnating back into the same family. For example, the Cayce readings state that Edgar Cayce’s own grandfather eventually reincarnated into the family as Cayce’s grandson. (2824-1) In a similar manner, Paula Woodruff states that a karmic connection she has with the past is with one of her own relatives. In fact, she is convinced that she and her husband are the return of her own great-grandmother and great-grandfather. The awareness came to her after her mother died and Paula inherited all of her mother's mementoes and personal property. Among the belongings was an enormous chest filled with family pictures of numerous generations—people she knew as well as people she had never even seen. There were wedding pictures and portraits she hadn’t known existed. One day, she was sorting through them when a friend came to visit and began looking through the pictures with her:
My friend lifted a portrait and was taken aback by the fact that one of the older pictures looked exactly like my husband! It was a picture of my great-grandfather, whom I had never seen before. When I saw the picture, it was overwhelming! He looked exactly like my husband except for the fact that my great-grandfather appeared to have a scar on his left temple.
Later, when I had the opportunity to show others the portrait, they were as amazed as my friend and I had been. There was no doubt that my husband had been my great-grandfather! As we looked through the pictures we came across a picture of a woman who was short and round, and appeared to look very much like me—the writing on the back identified the woman as my great-grandmother. I knew then and there that my husband and I had returned to the very same family.
Finally, the story of Pearl Davenport suggests that there are often connections individuals possess that may not have yet surfaced but wait until the time is right. Pearl says that her experiences have led her to believe that “we are all connected in ways that we never imagined before.” One of her most memorable examples concerned a doctor that she had no conscious knowledge of. They met because, as she was being wheeled into the emergency room, “His name just rolled off my tongue and I asked for him.”
After her stay in the hospital, Pearl repeatedly found herself thinking about the doctor just when he was in the midst of traumas or personal problems. Whenever he came to mind, she would call: “Whenever he needed someone, I was there—a tragedy in his life, problems with his son, the death of a close friend, a divorce, etc. I just seemed to show up exactly when he needed someone to talk to.” Rather than having some kind of sexual attraction or connection, Pearl describes their relationship as follows: “I always felt responsible for him.” One night she had an intense vision that made her wonder if she was going crazy:
I was driving to work in the dark on one of the most heavily travelled roads in our area, and yet I seemed to be the only one there. When I looked up at the sky, I saw the sky turn to the colour of blue velvet and the stars began to appear like diamonds. Suddenly, I saw the hands of God open up my chest and place a heart inside of me and told me to: “Keep it safe for another time.” I knew that this heart belonged to my physician-friend.
The next day she contacted a talented psychic she knew to inquire what her past-life relationship had been with the doctor. The woman told her that the doctor had been her son and—without knowing of her feelings or their connection—stated that the overriding attraction was that, “You feel responsible for this man.” Once the relationship was explained, Pearl no longer felt crazy; it was as if a big burden had been removed and everything began to make sense:
What I have learned is that life is really very simple. We are all connected. Ultimately, we choose our lives and our lessons. The various lifetimes that a soul has is like the pieces of a huge quilt, all woven together—never-ending, just continuing to weave its way through various experiences and relationships.
Perhaps one of the most helpful concepts contained within the Edgar Cayce files dealing with the karma of family relationships is that these experiences are purposeful for all concerned. Individuals grow through their relationships with others. To be sure, sometimes that growth can be extremely challenging but, regardless of where or with whom a person finds herself or himself; that experience is simply a lawful response to the past, enabling the individual to meet something in self in the present.
Individuals that have a strong emotional connection to one another are inevitably connected by karmic memory; however, what is done with that memory remains a matter of free will and choice. Although life’s feelings, challenges and relationships are often predicated by the past, they do not predetermine the future. In fact, part of the lawfulness of karma and reincarnation is that eventually, each soul will come to love all others in the same way that the Creator loves all of us—unconditionally. With this in mind, all relationships are ultimately the means through which the soul learns to love self, one another, and God, and, as Cayce once told a group of individuals studying the application of spiritual principles: “‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, thy mind, thy soul; thy neighbour as thyself.’ For this is the whole law, the whole law.” (262-100)
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