Edgar Cayce Readings Concerning the Origins of Mankind

Edgar Cayce is perhaps the most well-known and renowned psychic to have ever practiced. Up until his death in 1945, he conducted thousands of Readings for people who sought his advice on health matters, primarily, but also with concerns relating to reincarnation and the discovery of one's true path in life. His responses to these latter kinds of questions produced, almost incidentally, a body of knowledge about the ancient history of mankind and its origins.

Cayce placed the original home of humankind in Atlantis, a place that is more legend than fact to most people. This is not the only area where his vision clashes with the one upheld by popular science, either; for his words contradict the Darwinian concept of evolution and assert that mankind not only developed independently of the animals, but actually inhabited the Earth first in spirit before "clothing" itself in flesh.

In several Readings, he emphasized that the state of the physical plane in those ancient days - and the activities taking place upon it - would be hard to envision for anyone living in the present. Unfortunately, none of his subjects ever asked for specific dates - and few were offered up when the Medium was in his trance state - so we can't know for sure the year B.C. when humans first appeared on the Earth according to Cayce (some have postulated that it was some 50,000 years ago). He does say that they first touched the material world in spirit, not in physical bodies, and that they projected themselves into materiality essentially for the joy of it. They were acting out of curiosity, perhaps seeking diversion.

Apparently there was an evolutionary process already taking place on the Earth that these souls infringed upon. Cayce describes how spiritual man became gradually enamored of the world of form, almost hypnotized by the experience of the senses. There was a long period when humans could choose to be "in materiality" or out of it; but as time went on, and their fixation with the material world grew, many lost this ability. It was at this point, Cayce said, that the cycle of reincarnation began as the soul of man became tied to the physical world.

When once things had progressed to this state, man was so entangled in matter that he nearly forgot his divine nature and origins. Around this time, two "factions" of humankind developed. One, known as the Children of the Law of One, sought to remember the life of the spirit and their connection with the creator. "Preparations were made," Cayce said in one of his Readings, "for the advent of the souls of men to be brought to their relationship with God." The other faction, known as the Children of Belial, used their creative powers for selfish purposes, were heedless of the effects of their actions on other living things, and forgot entirely about the spiritual world from whence they'd come. According to Cayce, their avarice was responsible for the catastrophes that eventually destroyed Atlantis.