A Seer Out of Season

Discussion Post I Submitted for my Atlantic University TP5000 Course – May 29, 2019

In Harmon Hartzell Bro’s Edgar Cayce: A Seer out of Season, the authorprovides a detailed look at how much suffering Cayce endures in his life.  It’s truly remarkable that he maintains his calling given all he encounters.  One such difficult patch occurs in his mid-twenties when he moves to Bowling Green, Ohio.  Bro describes this as a time when Cayce “stepped into the world of professional people, businessmen, and community leaders” (1989, p. 321). This period is certainly a learning experience for him and it is fraught with hardships, which set the tone for the rest of his life.

While in Bowling Green, according to the timeline found in Bro’s book, he works in Potter’s bookstore, gives reading in the dramatic Dietrich case, and marries Gertrude Evans when he’s 26.  He forms a partnership and opens two photographic studios, both of which burn down within a month of each other leaving him in significant debt.  He also has a bad experience with his physicians who try to manipulate and take advantage of his remarkable gifts, a recurring pattern in his life (1989, p. 495-496).

Bro summarizes Cayce’s Bowling Green experience as follows: “He had made scores of friends but none who shared his spiritual perspective…Faculty people and scientists had been fascinated with his now lost ability, but they had offered him no fellowship no community.  Bankers and business leaders thought they might use him – that was all” (1989, 344).  Although he now has Gertrude, his life partner, he limps out of Bowling Green badly in debt, and with his gifts seemingly lost.  Certainly a dark time for the Sleeping Prophet.  

While Cayce learns a number of lessons from this experience, and a novel can be written on just his Bowling Green time alone, what struck me is a point Bro makes at the end of this chapter.  The author notes that Cayce “had learned detachment when he walked away from it all” (1989, 344).

Detachment is an important development for spiritual growth. It is a gift that God provides those who are struggling to meet him so that they don’t become overwhelmed by what happens in the material world.  It also allows the sufferer to fully examine the impact that tragedy has on their life, and how they can grow from it.  The most valuable lessons we learn in life come through trials and tribulations, and Cayce’s Bowling Green experience, while tremendously difficult, teaches him a great deal.  As Bro notes, Cacye “might have lost his gift, but he was beginning to gain himself” (1989, 344).

References

Bro, H. H. (1989).  A seer out of season: The life of history’s greatest psychic.  A.R.E. Press: Virginia Beach, Virginia.