Edgar Cayce on the Past Lives of Jesus Christ
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Edgar Cayce
(pronounced "Kay-see") was a simple Sunday
School teacher who, over the span of his
lifetime (1877-1945), had more near-death
experiences than anyone ever documented.
Cayce learned at a young age that when he
was hypnotized, he could leave his body
and journey into the afterlife realms.
His self-induced
out-of-body experiences were identical to
near-death experiences.
Cayce made over 14,000 otherworldly journeys
in his life and the information he gained
from these journeys has astounded people
all over the world. Part of Cayce's revelations
deal with the many reincarnations of the
Christ soul which is the subject of this
article.
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1.
Introduction to Cayce's Revelations of the Christ |
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The system
of metaphysical thought which emerges from the Cayce material
can be described as a
"Christianized" version of the mystery
religions of ancient Egypt,
Chaldea, Persia, India, and Greece. It fits Christ into the
mystical tradition of one God for all people, and places Christ
in his proper place, at the apex of the philosophical structure
- the capstone of the pyramid.
Cayce was a fundamentalist Christian
who was raised in strict nineteenth century Bible tradition.
When he discovered that his subconscious information declared
the ancient mystic religions to be true and acclaimed Jesus
as their crowning glory, he suffered the greatest mental and
emotional shock of his life. Cayce had only a seventh grade
education and consciously knew nothing of what he said while
in a deep trance-like state. He was only versed in the Bible
and had no high school or college background of any kind. Up
until his revelations, Cayce had never heard of the mystery
religions. Yet the Cayce material agrees with everything about
them that is known to be authentic. He spoke at length on
Christian Gnosticism
well before the Gnostic writings were discovered after his death.
Cayce affirmed that Christian Gnosticism is the type of Christianity
that was taught by Jesus. Much of the information from Cayce
has solved some of the greatest mysteries of humanity, some
of which were later
validated after the discoveries of
the Dead Sea Scrolls and
the early Christian writings discovered in Egypt.
Cayce's
descriptions of the Essenes of Mount Carmel reveal the religious
sect to be an ideal for others who would prepare the way for
the Second Coming of Christ. Cayce's revelations of Jesus' so-called "lost
years" as a youth studying in Egypt, Persia, and India
suggest an important
compatibility of between the eastern
and western religions.
Cayce's Christology also makes the Christ soul not only an ideal
and pattern toward which everyone should aspire, but a living
presence to guide people toward "at-one-ment"
with God - the perfect divine-human unity which Jesus attained.
According
to the Cayce material, Jesus and Adam were different incarnations
of the same Christ soul. Eve and the Virgin Mary (Jesus' twin
soul) were also different incarnations of the same soul. This
karmic connection between Adam and Jesus explains why Jesus
was able to pay the "karmic debt" by atoning for the
"sin of Adam." This Adam-Jesus connection can be seen in
the following excerpt from the Cayce readings:
Question:
"When did the knowledge come to Jesus that he was
to be the Savior of the world?" |
Cayce:
"When he fell in Eden." [2067-7] |
According to Cayce,
many other personalities from the Old Testament and history
were also incarnations of Jesus. The Cayce material describes
the entire Christian Bible as part of the story of Jesus' long
struggle to attain "Christhood" and provide humanity
a pattern to do the same.
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2.
The Incarnations of Jesus According to Cayce |
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The following is a list of the
incarnations of Jesus according to Cayce. Note that
all these incarnations of Jesus, as Cayce describes
them, have in common their role as psychic revelators:
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Amilius |
Amilius was the first expression
of Divine Mind (the
Logos); the Christ-soul before his incarnation into
a physical body (corresponding to
Genesis 1).
He was the entity Cayce identified as living in the
lost civilization of
Atlantis who redirected the process of human evolution
by creating a more appropriate physical form for the
influx of souls to incarnate into rather than incarnating
into the ape-like human form which souls had entangled
themselves in. The first wave of souls (known as "the
sons of men") became entrapped in the physical plane
accidentally through their misuse of free will. These
events gave rise to the legend of the "fall
of the angels." The second wave ("the
sons of God") consisted of those souls led by Amilius
(the Christ-soul) who voluntarily became entrapped in
flesh as Adam in order to assist the first wave.
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Adam |
Adam was the first "son of
man" and "son of God"; the Christ-soul after his incarnation
into a physical body (corresponding to
Genesis 2).
Cayce sometimes used the word "Adam" to refer to the
entire group of souls which had accompanied the Christ-soul's
incarnation into the Earth realm. These "Adams" incarnated
as the five races on five separate continents. Eventually,
the Christ-soul, as Adam, joined his twin soul (the
Eve-Virgin
Mary soul) by allowing himself to be seduced by
materiality as symbolized by his acceptance of the forbidden
fruit. The other "sons of God" followed suit and, as
a result, interbred with the "daughters
of men" (Genesis
6:2). In this light, humanity's banishment from
"the Garden of Eden" was actually a great blessing,
because death, reincarnation, and karma are all designed
to teach us to move away from materiality and toward
our true nature.
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Enoch |
Enoch is mentioned
in several pseudepigraphal works (The
Book of Enoch,
2 Enoch, and
3 Enoch) as well as some Kabbalistic writings, in
addition to his brief mention in
Genesis 5:18-24 which concludes, "And Enoch walked
with God: and he was not, for God took him." The Book
of Enoch describes the
fall of the "Watchers" into materiality and Enoch's
heavenly sojourns as well as his transfiguration into
the angel
Metatron. It is revealed to him the future up to
the time of the messiah as well. Enoch also learns about
the hierarchy of the angelic realm and the
divine "throne-chariot" of Ezekiel. The Book of
Enoch introduces a messianic figure referred to as "the
Son of Man." In the canonical New Testament, Enoch
is mentioned in
Hebrews 11:5 and
Jude 14-15. The passage in Jude quotes directly
from the pseudepigaphal Book of Enoch which shows the
author of
Jude, the brother of Jesus, considered the Book
of Enoch to be sacred scripture.
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Hermes |
"Hermes" of the
Cayce readings is the one who designed and build the
Great Pyramid under the direction of Ra Ta. There is
another historical connection between a "Hermes" and
Egypt which is found in the Hellenistic writings attributed
to
Hermes Trismegistus - the sage who began the
Hermetic tradition. Hermes is also referred to in
the
Poimandres, as the "shepherd of men" who teaches
that "the Word which came forth from the Light is the
Son of God." Accordingly, Hermes also taught that human
nature consists of such divine elements as Nature, Light,
Mind, and Life; and that by recognizing them we may
return to the invisible, immaterial world of Truth.
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Melchizedek |
Melchizedek was the "king of Salem" and "priest
of the most high God" who shares bread and wine with
Abraham in
Genesis 14: 18-20.) He is also mentioned both in
the Dead Sea Scrolls (11QMelch)
and the
Melchizedek Nag Hammadi codex where he appears as
a cosmic angelic figure, the risen Christ.
Hebrews 5:8-10 calls Jesus "a high priest after
the order of Melchizedek," which explains how Jesus
was a priestly Messiah without being a
Levite. According to Cayce, Melchizedek wrote the
Book of Job, which contains many mysterious passages
that Cayce liked. Cayce once said, "For, as the sons
of God came together to reason, as recorded by Job,
"WHO recorded same? The Son of Man! Melchizedek wrote
Job!."
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Joseph |
Joseph was the son of
Jacob who became the Prince of Egypt. The story
of Joseph appealed to Cayce, not only for its Egyptian
location, but its endorsement of dream guidance and
also for Joseph's escape from the pit (anticipating
Jesus' resurrection). In fact there are many parallels
between the life of Joseph and Jesus.
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Joshua |
Joshua was the warrior who led the Israelites into
the Promised Land. However, this incarnation of the
Christ-soul is more difficult to account for given
his military campaigns described in the Bible. Jesus'
suffering on the cross would certainly have paid his
karmic debt for this transgression as well. But Cayce
also saw Joshua as a member of a family which had produced
many highly-skilled spiritual counselors. One of Joshua's
roles was as a scribe for Moses who psychically dictated
much of the material from the books traditionally attributed
to him. This explains how Joshua could have remembered
to include such details as the creation of the universe
and his own death.
Hebrews 4:8-10 identifies
Jesus as a better Joshua, as Joshua led Israel into
the rest of Canaan, but Jesus leads the people of God
into "God's rest," salvation. Among the early
Church Fathers, Joshua is considered a type of Jesus
Christ.
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Asaph |
The Cayce readings give little information about Asaph
except that he was the music director and seer who served
under
David and
Solomon. |
Jeshua |
Jeshua (Joshua)
was the high priest who helped organize the return from
exile and the rebuilding of the temple (as recounted
in the books of
Ezra and
Nehemiah) and who is claimed by Cayce to have compiled
and translated the books of the Bible
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Zend |
Cayce identified
"Zend" (also spelled "Zen", "Zan", "Sen" or "San") as
the father of
Zoroaster, the founder of the
Zoroastrian religion (of
Magi fame), and the source of inspiration for the
Avesta, the sacred Zoroastrian scriptures. However,
the word "Zend" in Zend-Avesta means "commentary" and,
in reality Zoroaster's father was named Pourushaspa.
It appears the sleeping Cayce was inspired by the
Book of Esther and
Matthew's story of the Magi to base this "Zend"
personality upon. Of interest is the fact that it was
during the
Israelites exile in Babylon when Judaism (and then
Gnosticism, Christianity and Islam) incorporated the
Zoroastrian theological system of
monotheism, the
Messiah, the dualistic
struggle between good and evil,
light and
darkness,
angels and
demons, heaven and hell,
God and
Satan, the
Last Judgment and the
Resurrection of the Dead.
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Jesus |
Jesus was the man who attained
complete "at-one-ment" and human-divine unity and therefore
became "the
Christ." Note that
"Joshua", "Jeshua", and "Jesus" are really the same
name. The name "Jesus" is a Latinization of the Aramaic
"Jeshua" or "Yeshua" which is in turn taken from the
Hebrew "Yehoshua" or "Joshua." So the name "Jesus" refers
to many heroes in the Hebrew Bible. Cayce therefore
assigned the soul-entity Jesus the same name for three
separate incarnations. Cayce also revealed that the
Jesus of the New Testament was registered by his
Essene school under the name of "Jeshua."
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The Christ-soul
will walk the Earth again as the Messiah foretold by
the Hebrew prophets in order to usher in the so-called "Throne
of David" (i.e., the kingdom of heaven) on Earth
as revealed in
Revelation 11:15. Cayce sometimes interpreted the
Second Coming of Christ as being
an internal, psychic event within the individual seeker
(as in his commentary on the Book of Revelation), and
sometimes as the actual return of Jesus Christ in particular.
In discussing
the massive geological changes predicted for the
"last days," he adds that "these will begin in those
periods from 1958 to 1998. when these will be proclaimed
as the periods when His light will be seen in the clouds."
While this passage might be interpreted psychologically,
elsewhere Cayce insists that Jesus will return in the
flesh and rule for one thousand years as mentioned in
Revelation 20:1-3. During this thousand-year time
period, Cayce states that souls from the lower afterlife
realms will not be permitted to reincarnate in order
to establish the kingdom of God on Earth. Afterward,
when the kingdom of God is established, souls from the
lower afterlife realms will be permitted to reincarnate.
According to Cayce, "As given, for a thousand years
he will walk and talk with men of every clime. Then
in groups, in masses, and then they shall reign of the
first resurrection for a thousand years; for this will
be when the changes materially come." Although Cayce
gives the year date of the "entrance of the Messiah
into this period as 1998," he also admits that no one
knows the exact time of the Second Coming, since it
cannot occur "until His enemies (and the Earth) are
wholly in subjection to His will, His powers." A future
incarnation of Jesus into flesh may not be necessary
because Jesus has already transcended the necessity
of reincarnating through his obedience of going to the
cross.
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According
to Cayce, the "fall
of man" was an event
recorded symbolically in Genesis where souls from heaven first
descended to the Earth plane to began incarnating as humans.
The first wave of souls to incarnate (known in the Bible as
"the sons of men") became entrapped in the Earth plane accidentally,
through their misuse of free will. These events gave rise to
legends of the "fall of the angels" and to mythical
beasts of the kind described in J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord
of the Rings."
The second wave of incarnations (known
in the Bible as "the sons of God") consisted of those souls
led by Amilius - the Christ soul - who voluntarily became entrapped
in order to assist the first wave of trapped souls. They accomplished
this by steering the process of physical evolution in a way
that created more appropriate physical forms for these souls.
Cayce places Amilius on
Atlantis,
but says that he did not physically incarnate until the human
physical form had been created, at which time the Genesis accounts
of Adam and Eve begin. Cayce sometimes used the word "Adam"
to also refer to the entire group of souls which had accompanied
the Christ soul into incarnating into the Earth plane and who
incarnated as the five races of humanity on five separate continents.
Adam (as the Christ soul) joined his
twin soul Eve in allowing himself to be seduced by materiality
himself. This is symbolized by his acceptance of "the forbidden
fruit." The other sons of God followed his lead and incarnated,
and as a result were moved to express their materiality by interbreeding
with the "daughters of men" (Genesis
6:1-2) who were the homo
sapiens that evolved from ape-men according to Darwin's theory
of evolution. According to the Cayce material and Christian
Gnosticism, their banishment from the Garden of Eden was actually
a great blessing because death and reincarnation are designed
to draw our attention away from materiality and the flesh, and
toward our true spiritual nature.
Cayce also identified
Melchizedek
as an incarnation of the Jesus-entity. Melchizedek was the "king
of Salem" and "priest of the most high God" who shares bread
and wine with Abraham in
Genesis 14:18-20.
Melchizedek is also mentioned both in the
Dead Sea Scrolls
(I I Q Melch) and the
Nag Hammadi codices
(NEC IX 1), where he appears as a cosmic angelic figure similar
to the risen Christ. Hebrews 5:10 refers to Jesus "a high
priest after the order of Melchizedek." According to Cayce,
Melchizedek wrote the Book of Job which contains many unusual
verses that Cayce would often quote from while in trance. For
example, Cayce stated, "For, as the sons of God came together
to reason, as recorded by Job, "WHO recorded same? The
Son of Man! Melchizedek wrote Job!"
Cayce also identified the Biblical
personality named
Enoch
to be a Jesus-entity incarnate. Enoch is described in
several pseudepigraphal writings
as well as some
Kabbalistic writings.
The modern Bible has a brief mention of Enoch:
"And Enoch walked with God:
and he was not, for God took him." (Genesis 5:18-24)
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The Books
of Enoch describe the fall of the angels into materiality -
the beginning of the incarnation of souls from heaven. It also
describes Enoch's several heavenly journeys where it is revealed
to him the future up until the time of the Messiah. Enoch is
also taught traditional topics as angelology and the divine
throne-chariot. The
Ethiopic Enoch
introduces Enoch to a messianic figure referred to as "the Son
of Man." The Hebrew scripture known as "Apocalypse of Enoch"
describes Enoch transfigured into an angel named Metatron. In
the New Testament, Enoch is mentioned in
Hebrews 11:5
and
Jude 14-15,
with the latter passage apparently quoting from the pseudepigaphal
Enochian literature. The fact that the Bible itself quotes from
the Book of Enoch is evidence that Cayce was correct about the
book being a valid source for higher spiritual knowledge.
Cayce also identified the Biblical
personality named
Joseph
(son of Jacob) as an incarnation of the Jesus-entity soul. Accordingly,
Joseph's escape from the pit was not only a literal event, but
a symbolic anticipation of Jesus' resurrection. Cayce's identification
of Joshua, the notorious genocidal leader of Israel in the Old
Testament, as an incarnation of the Jesus-entity is a little
more difficult to believe. But Cayce viewed Joshua's claim to
fame as being the scribe for Moses who "psychically" dictated
much of what is attributed to Moses. This interesting bit of
information explains how "Moses" wrote about his own death.
Another Biblical personality named by Cayce to be a Jesus-entity
incarnate is the high priest named Jeshua who helped organize
the return from exile and the rebuilding of the temple (see
Ezra and Nehemiah). According to Cayce, this Jeshua is the one
who compiled and translated the books of the Bible. In essence,
Cayce identifies all these Biblical personalities to be psychic
revelators.
An interesting fact is that "Joshua",
"Jeshua", and "Jesus" are really the same name. The name "Jesus"
is a Latin version of the Aramaic name Jeshua or "Yeshua." And
Yeshua is Hebrew for Joshua or "Yehoshua." Thus, Cayce has assigned
the soul-entity Jesus to be incarnations of the three Biblical
characters having the same name. Cayce also mentions that Jesus
was an
Essene
who was registered by his Essene school under the name of "Jeshua".
Concerning the so-called "Second Coming"
of Christ (which is really not the second, but many) Cayce sometimes
interpreted it to be an internal spiritual and psychic event
within the individual (see
Cayce on the Book of Revelation).
On other occasions, Cayce interpreted it to be an actual return
of Jesus Christ in physical form. When Cayce gave
his prophecies
about the massive geological changes predicted to being around
2000 AD, he stated that:
"These will
begin in those periods from '58 to '98 when these
will be proclaimed as the periods when His light
will be seen in the clouds" [Cayce Reading 3976-15].
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This reading from Cayce suggests that
Jesus will appear in the sky and return to Earth in bodily form.
Cayce stated that Jesus will walk the Earth again:
"As given,
for a thousand years he will walk and talk with
men of every clime. Then in groups, in masses, and
then they shall reign of the first resurrection
for a thousand years; for this will be when the
changes materially come." [Cayce Reading 364-8]
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Cayce gave the year of the "entrance
of the Messiah into this period -1998." [Cayce Reading 5748-5]
He also mentions that no one knows the exact day of event because
it cannot occur "until His enemies - and the Earth - are wholly
in subjection to His will, His powers." [Cayce Reading 5749-1].
So this suggests that Jesus return will not be a future incarnation
in the flesh since Jesus has already transcended the need to
reincarnate.
Two years
after Cayce's death in 1945, the
Dead Sea Scrolls
were discovered in Qumran. This remarkable archeological discovery
revealed a large amount of information about a religious sect
around the time of Jesus referred to as the Essenes and affirmed
information provided by Cayce. The word "Essene" is never used
in the Dead Sea Scrolls but most scholars accept that the Qumran
sect was either identical or closely related to the Essenes
of the classical authors such as
Josephus
and Pliny. According to Cayce, Jesus was an Essene along with
Mary and Joseph who was affiliated with an Essene community
based on Mount Carmel which was a continuation of a "school
of the prophets" begun by Elijah, Elisha, Samuel, and Melchizedek.
Cayce described the Essenes as an pious religious community
of men and women whose purpose was to prepare the way for the
coming of the Messiah. Archeology does not reveal the meaning
behind the word "Essene" but Cayce mentioned that it means "expectancy."
According to Josephus, the Essenes were known for divination
(foretelling the future) which agrees with Cayce's descriptions
of them spending their time recording experiences of "the supernatural
or out of the ordinary experiences; whether in dreams, visions,
voices, or what not" (1472-1). Cayce also mentioned that the
Essenes were students of astrology, numerology, and reincarnation.
The Dead Sea Scrolls describe the
Essenes as an authoritarian, highly disciplined community that
controlled every facet of member's lives. They had to give all
their money and property over to the community after a year's
probation. Their theology stressed a good versus evil duality.
It also describes
a conflict between a "Teacher of Righteousness,"
a "Wicked Priest," and "the Liar."
They separated themselves from the outside world in an anticipated
final war between the sons of light and the sons of darkness.
As for the Jesus connection to the Essenes, scholars believe
the idea of Jesus being an Essene does not fit the personality
and teachings of Jesus despite the many interesting similarities
between Jesus and the Qumran community. For example, scholars
believe the Essenes wouldn't have approved of Jesus' bending
of the moral standards such as associating himself with prostitutes
and tax collectors. It is also believed that John the Baptist
was an Essene because of the similarities between himself and
the Essene community.
According to Cayce, Jesus' mother
Mary was chosen by the Essenes at the age of four to begin intensive
spiritual training lasting three years in preparation for the
conception of the Messiah. Her election as the mother of the
Messiah occurs during a special ceremony in the temple at Mount
Carmel in which an angel leads her by the hand to the altar.
Remarkably, this Cayce reading agrees with an apocryphal book
entitled the
Infancy Gospel of James
where Mary is presented to the Lord at the age of three when
her father Joachim "set her on the third step of the altar,
and the Lord God gave grace to her ... and she received food
from the hand of an angel." (325) Cayce and the Infancy
Gospel of James agree that Joseph was chosen to be Mary's husband
by lot. They also agree that Joseph was much older than Mary.
Cayce gives their ages at the time of their marriage as thirty-six
and sixteen, respectively. Cayce and the Infancy Gospel of James
agree that Jesus was born in a cave.
According to Cayce, Jesus was sixteen
years old when his education about the ways of the ancient teachers
began. First, he traveled to Egypt where, as an infant, Jesus
was taken after his birth by his parents to flee Herod as the
Gospel of Matthew states. After spending time learning in Egypt,
Jesus spent three years in India and finally a year in Persia.
The idea that Jesus had spent his
"lost years" wandering Asia did not originate with Cayce. Its
first proponent seems to have been the Russian war correspondent
Nicholas Notovitch
(1858-1916), who described his travels in British India in a
book entitled "The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ" published in
1894. According to his book, Notovitch was told by the "chief
lama" of a monastery that their library contained records of
a visit by Jesus in ancient times. The chief lama finally relented
to Notovitch's requests to examine the records. From two large
bound volumes written in Tibetan, Notovitch translated them
through his interpreter as "The Life of Saint Issa: Best of
the Sons of Men."
The text begins
by summarizing the exodus of the Jews from Egypt, Israel's lapse
into sin during the prophetic period, and the subsequent Roman
occupation. But God has mercy on one poor couple (Mary and Joseph),
whom he rewards by giving them a son, Issa (which is the Qu'anic
name for Jesus). All is well until the boy turns thirteen and
the parents arrange a marriage for him. Issa "... left the parental
house in secret, departed from Jerusalem, and with the merchants
set out towards Sind, with the object of perfecting himself
in the divine word and of studying the laws of the great Buddhas.
[IV. 12- 13]
At fourteen,
he encountered the "erring worshippers of Jaine" a reference
to Jainism. Then he spent six years studying the Vedas and learned
the art of exorcism and intercessory prayer. Issa rebuked Brahmin
priests for upholding the caste system. Issa also would violate
their customs by giving teachings to the lower castes. He is
seen rejecting the authority of the Vedas and Puranas, denying
the Trimurti and the incarnation of Brahma as Vishnu, Shiva,
and other gods. It is written that Issa belittled idolatry and
barely escaped India with his life. In Nepal, he grew proficient
in Pali and spent six years studying Buddhist sutras. He condemned
human and animal sacrifices, sun-worship, the dualism of good
and evil, and the Zoroastrian priesthood. The Zoroastrian priests
seized him and abandoned him to the wilderness to be devoured
by wild beasts but he escapes anyway.
Cayce made
a distinction between
Jesus and "the Christ."
He said that "Christhood" is the goal which every human should
strive for. Jesus was simply the first evolved human to attain
it. Cayce referred to Jesus as our "elder brother" and "the
pattern" for our own spiritual growth. The Bible states that
Christ fulfilled the law and, according to Cayce, so can we.
That is the entire purpose of Jesus' teaching. Cayce wrote:
"The
law of God made manifest [that] He becomes the law
by manifesting same before man; and thus - as man,
even as you becomes one with the Father" [Cayce
Reading 1158-12].
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Because of Jesus' triumph over "flesh
and temptation", Jesus "became the first of those that overcame
death in the body, enabling Him to so illuminate, to so revivify
that body as to take it up again, even when those fluids of
the body had been drained away by the nail holes in His hands
and by the spear piercing His side." [Cayce Reading 1152-1].
In essence,
Cayce described the Christ soul as the impelling force and core
of truth behind all religions that teach that "God is One."
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"I and my
Father are one. Then they took up stones
again to stone him. Jesus answered them,
Many good works have I shown you from
my Father; for which of these do you
stone me? They answered him, saying,
For a good work we stone you not; but
for blasphemy; and because that you,
being a man, make yourself God. Jesus
answered them, "Is it not written
in your law: I said 'you are gods?"
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John 10:30-34, Jesus quoting
Psalm 82:6 to defend his teaching
that God dwells within all human beings.
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