Theos-Talk Archives (July 1997 Message tl00356)

Gisele wrote (re Blavatsky, Roerich, Bailey, Churchward, etc.):

..the ones who obtained their information independently and
are in agreement must be correct.  Would you disagree?

Having just finished my book on Cayce, I'm free to participate
in the list a bit more.  First off, some background so you'll
know where I'm coming from.  The book appraises Cayce's
readings in four categories, which I call Holistic Health
Advisor, Christian Theosopher, Clairvoyant Time Traveler, and
Esoteric Psychologist.  I evaluate the readings both in context
of current contemporary knowledge (now) and their cultural background and
relevant similar sources.  The gist of my findings is that the
medical, psychological and spiritual advice in the readings
holds up quite well to scrutiny, but the historical and
predictive material illustrates how unreliable trance-generated
information can be.

It is simply wrongheaded to think of Cayce, Blavatsky,
Donnelly, et al as coming up with their Atlantis material
*independently* of one another.  It can be clearly demonstrated
that much of Cayce on Atlantis comes from "Phylos," HPB,
Donnelly and some others.  He originates fairly little and
mostly elaborates on other people's stuff-- and in places talks
of it (in readings I mean) in a very equivocal way, saying it's
all legendary.(!)

This does not mean that Cayce read books by all these figures--
he apparently did not read much occult literature.  Even when
he can be shown to have read such books, there are always
readings recipients who can be seen to know them much more
thoroughly than Cayce.  Rather, he acquired understanding of
their contents through correspondence, conversation, and maybe
ESP too, with reading playing a small part.

My conclusion: much of the material in the readings good and
bad is derived from the minds of the readings recipients.  With
dozens of Theosophists and occultists getting readings, all
their preoccupations made it into the Cayce corpus: root races,
Atlantis, Lemuria, etc.  There were more New Thought disciples,
Christian Scientists, and Unity members than Theosophists among
those who got readings.  So there's more in them about "mental
healing" than most other subjects.

Please remember that Cayce explicitly says the akashic records
are not some absolute storehouse of truth in some objective
location somewhere.  He says quite clearly that they are *in
the persons* for whom he does the readings.  It's their minds
and souls he's reading, not some objectively accurate source of
truth.  Which means all the nutty theories a bunch of 1930s-40s
seekers might have entertained are part of his database.
Including, most notoriously, the idea that Hitler would be good
for Germany (quickly retracted by 1935), and such wild claims
as that the Yucatan pyramids are many thousands of years old
and built by Atlantean migrants.

I admit the possibility that Plato's story of Atlantis might be
based on a true story.  But the Cayce/Donnelly/Blavatsky etc.
legend of a huge continent spanning the Atlantic with a highly
advanced technological sophistication 10,000 B.C. is fictional.  
However, it's quite interesting that many of the alleged
technological wonders of Atlantis in Cayce's readings did not
exist during his lifetime, but came into being afterwards.
Laser surgery, domed power plants with the power to destroy the
environment, and several other supposedly Atlantean
descriptions actually look like *precognition imagining that it
is retrocognition.*

Lots of people resonate to the legends of Atlantis, dream or
imagine past lives there, and take this as proof.  But there
are also people who believe in alien abductions, ritual satanic
child abuse, and all manner of things on the basis of
supposedly "independent" testimony that in fact is not so.
Rather, it's due to contagion of weird theories through highly
suggestible minds IMO.

Finally, I'll just say about Hancock and Bauval that my
intuition tells me their stuff is a crock, and the
Egyptologists are quite right to dismiss it.  Hancock has gone
off the deep end making wild accusations about conspiracy
theories involving the A.R.E. and the Egyptian government,
which indicates how his mind works.