Rebirth and the Western Buddhist - Khamkoo

Observational Evidence for the Fact of Rebirth 31
tion and karma, apparently contrary to his Catholic convictions,
deeply shocked Cayce when he awoke from
trance, but he continued his work when persuaded that
nothing in the Bible actually contradicted it. From 1923 to
his death in 1945, he gave some 2500 "life readings," in
which he was specifically asked to describe the karmic
forces operating in an individual and the past lives in
which they were created. Such readings on newborn
infants accurately predicted their character traits and
aptitudes, as did those on adults, and accounted for them
plausibly by way of the past-life experiences. They were
found helpful by those who followed the advices. The
readings were always consistent with each other-.readings
on the same individual taken years apart agreed
exactly, and background information on particular times
and places always agreed between different readings,
and was also consistent with historical records where
these exist. Sometimes Cayce indicated where records of
a previous existence could be found, and these were
confirmed. Life readings on Cayce himself indicated that
he had been a high priest in Egypt, with great occult
powers, who fell through self-will and sensuality. His
present life was an opportunity to redeem his past errors
by serving human beings selflessly; which, indeed, he
did, by all accounts. 66
While much of the information in Cayce's life-readings
is quite comparable with what can be gained through
hypnotic regression of the subject, it has greater depth
because of Cayce's direct insight into karma. It is noticeable
that the past lives mentioned by Cayce are, on
average, more ancient than those selected in hypnotherapy
or found by the Desjardins' students; and while the
latter illustrate a rather obvious aspect of karma, the
tendency of mental habits to continue from one life to the
next, Cayce is concerned also with the karmas that determine
physical characteristics of the body, such as being