Of the more than 14,000 readings given by Edgar Cayce over a forty-three-year period, approximately 2,000 deal with the subject of reincarnation. From Cayce’s perspective, each of us goes through a series of lifetimes for the express purpose of soul growth and development. In that process, the soul is given opportunities and experiences which will best enable the individual to fulfill the purpose for which he or she incarnated. In the language of the readings, the individual is given whatever conditions are needed, “to meet the needs of that to make the entity at an at oneness with the Creative Energy.” (254-32)

The readings on reincarnation were given to individuals in order to help them understand soul strengths and weaknesses, as well as their own potentials and challenges. As Cayce entered his trance state, he was given a specific suggestion that enabled him to access the necessary information for a “life reading,” which dealt with the soul’s history. That suggestion was as follows:

“You will have before you the life existence in the earth plane (giving name, date, where) and the earthly existence of this entity in that of (giving name and place of the earthly sojourn) and you will give a biographical life of the entity in that day and plane of earthly existence, from entrance and how into the earth’s plane and the entity’s departure, giving the development or retarding points in such an existence.”

254-22

Cayce’s response to that suggestion would provide the individual with a historical timeline of her or his incarnations, lessons learned, as well as any faults or patterns that had been acquired and needed to be overcome in the present.

Critics of reincarnation often point out that everyone believes she or he was a Cleopatra, a George Washington, or some famous personage from the annals of history. Whatever happened to all of the common people? Where are all the farmers, the housewives, the peasants, the prisoners, or the uneducated masses that made up the bulk of history’s population? Although the Cayce readings did give a number of famous identities from the past, the majority of the life readings are filled with names of individuals who were everyday people. In fact, of the more than 10,000 names given in past-life readings, less than 2 percent are identifiable as “famous” and approximately half of that number are characters from the Bible.

For those individuals who are certain that they were someone famous from the past, it’s important to point out a commonly overlooked aspect of the “famous person syndrome.” Oftentimes, individuals are drawn to others because they are responding to patterns of human experience and behavior. Very often, a person in the present resonates to someone from the past, not because he or she was that person but because the historical figure represents or corresponds to something in the individual’s present lifetime. Another possibility is that a person’s present-day connection with a past-life identity is not because the person was that individual, but rather because the present-day person was once familiar with that famous individual. One example from the readings is the case of a forty-seven-year-old man, [1151], who was convinced he was the reincarnation of President James A. Garfield. Another psychic had even confirmed this connection. However, Cayce stated in reading 1151-4 that the individual had simply been a very close associate of Garfield’s and not the president himself.

Regardless of an individual’s present circumstance, Cayce believed that each lifetime could be a purposeful experience. To be sure, the soul takes with it all memories, talents, and shortcomings acquired in previous experiences, but the present—and how an individual responds to experiences in the here and now—is much more important than anything that went before. The past merely provides a framework of potentials and probabilities. From the readings’ perspective, one purpose for delving into the history of an entity was simply as a means of discovering the continuity of the soul.

With the premise that we might somehow glimpse aspects of this continuity by reviewing the soul histories of others, this volume presents an overview of those readings that identified the individual as having some notoriety at some point in history. It does not include case histories for biblical personages or those individuals for whom no contemporary reference or verification is available; nor does it include identities for those individuals who were related to or simply associated with a famous person; only those individuals who were given notable identities themselves have been included.

FAMOUS PEOPLE MENTIONED

Achilles

ca. Twelfth Century B.C.

Case 900

According to Greek mythology, Achilles was the bravest, strongest, and most competent Greek hero of the Trojan War. When he was an infant, every part of his body (except for the heel

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