Theos-Talk Archives (November 1997 Message tl00073)

Thanks to Judith, Lorraine and Johanna for comments on the
dreams I reported.  In response to your comments:

Judith, you're too generous.  I certainly can't *always* not
react negatively to negativity.  But Johanna asks what happened
in this particular case, and it was a deja vu and intense
recognition that I was *right back where I had been two years
ago* feeling the same feelings about the same people, because
*their* attitudes hadn't changed.  Whereas these two years for
me had been spent immersed in the readings, and my attitude had
changed a lot, so why was I suddenly back in the old very
uncomfortable spot, arguing with the same people?  And simply
seeing that broke the spell.  The message "Why do you care what
we think?" provided a necessary jolt, since the answer was "for
no good reason."

Upon reflection, I came up with a sort of psychic explanation
for why I'd suddenly be obsessed with Theosophy, reactions to
my books about it, etc., after two years of getting away from
all that.  It was that suddenly there were scores or hundreds
of new people reading that book in its new edition, and the
psychic impact of all that attention being directed my way
(even from India) stirred all those embers of hurt feelings
from the past.  Plus, perhaps at some level I was aware (the
dream indicated so) that the longest and strongest attack on
the work was about to be unleashed, further awakening "sleeping
dogs."

Becoming an author creates major ego problems for anyone, I'd
think, because suddenly all these strangers are reacting to
their image of you, which really packs a wallop if it's a
strongly negative image.  Which it is with readers whose belief
systems are challenged by what you write.  But, as Lorraine
says, we can free ourselves from the cycle of negative
reactivity.

Oh-- the new book, just typeset, will be out in late spring or
early summer.  It's called Edgar Cayce in Context, subtitled
The Readings: Truth and Fiction.  I don't really think A.R.E.
people are inclined to get bent out of shape by the idea that
there are mistakes in the readings; after all Hugh Lynn and
Edgar Evans Cayce wrote a book devoted entirely to the subject
of such mistakes!  Whereas Theosophists can regard it as
"fighting words" if you suggest that anything Blavatsky ever
said was wrong.

BTW-- sneak preview of the book: although I find the readings
very valuable and reliable in a number of areas, there's a
peculiar pattern discernable in many cases where they conflict
with science and history.  It appears that overwhelmingly this
kind of mistake parrots the contents of books read *not by Cayce but by the
recipients of readings*.  So when he made a trance connection
with someone he "downloaded" if you will the misinformation in
their minds as well as truths about them and the subjects that
interested them.  That's my hypothesis anyhow (one of many.)
Hope that's not "fighting words" to many folks.

Cheers,
Paul