Exploring Reincarnation: Edgar Cayce's Psychic Insights, Near-Death Experiences, and Afterlife Mysteries

Prepare to be captivated as we explore the mysteries of reincarnation and the afterlife with our incredible guest, Stephen Hawley Martin. Together, we'll unravel the enigmatic life of Edgar Cayce, the "sleeping prophet," whose astounding psychic abilities have left an indelible mark through the Association for Research and Enlightenment. You'll hear tales of Cayce's surreal readings and exceptional talent in accessing the Akashic records, complemented by insights from his son, Edgar Evans Cayce, who sheds light on his father's unique gifts.

In a chilling narrative, we recount the discovery of a hidden skeleton in a French chateau, leading to the cessation of eerie disturbances, and relate this to theories about spirits unaware of their death. This segues into Pam Reynolds' profound near-death experience during brain surgery, which provides a compelling look at the intersection of consciousness and physical demise. The conversation extends to astral projection, mystical experiences, and groundbreaking research from the University of Virginia documenting children's memories of past lives, challenging our understanding of consciousness and existence.

We also venture into thought-provoking discussions on how the belief in reincarnation could influence our environmental responsibilities, examining various cultural perspectives on the afterlife. From exploring life lessons and karma to delving into different afterlife beliefs, we offer you a comprehensive journey through spiritual realms. For a lighter moment, I share a clean joke from a Secret Service interview, showcasing the humor that adds levity to our deep explorations. Join us for an unforgettable episode filled with intrigue, insights, and fascinating stories.

Chapters

• 0:14 Debunking Myths and Revealing Truth
• 15:18 Exploring Near-Death Experiences
• 25:24 Exploring Consciousness and Reincarnation
• 40:02 Exploring Edgar Cayce and Reincarnation
• 50:59 Reincarnation and Earth Preservation
• 1:02:34 Exploring Afterlife Perspectives
• 1:09:23 Assassination Attempt Joke and Flip-Flops

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:14

The Discerning the Unknown Podcast Debunking Myth and revealing truth.

Speaker 2: 0:34

Your host is Ryan Peterson.

Speaker 3: 0:51

You're gonna like this. Here's Ryan Peterson.

Speaker 3: 1:24

I know, like I said last time, that intro is too long, I'm going to shorten it. I tried to do that myself and produce it myself, and I'm just learning the whole video editing thing right now. I've got somebody teaching me so I'll get there. This is show number three of Discerning the Unknown. I am Ryan Peterson and we're going to have fun with this one. Today we're going to talk I love talking about reincarnation. We're going to talk about reincarnation. We're going to talk about Edgar Cayce.

Speaker 3: 1:55

If you're not familiar with Edgar Cayce, then watch us today. You're going to be fascinated with the guy. He was known as the sleeping prophet. He was alive in the 30s. He's passed now, but he has the Association for Research and Enlightenment. You can still go visit that place.

Speaker 3: 2:12

Today we're going to talk about Edgar Cayce a lot with my guest, stephen Hawley Martin. So there's a couple of things I want to mention about upcoming guests, because I've been putting together a good list of guests that I want to have on the show, now that I'm doing a podcast for the first time and basically interviewing authors and interesting people again, which I haven't done in years. It's since 2006, really, when I was on real radio in the broadcasting business, but I'm able to make contact with some of these people and book them for the show. My original thought was I want to debunk myths, I want to stop the spread of fake news, I want to bring research to you, to set all of us straight about a lot of good information. I still have a fascination with the paranormal, so we're going to talk about that a lot. But some of these myths and conspiracy theories, like the moon landing, I'll just tell you straight out if you think the moon landing was a hoax, then you're going to want to watch this show because we'll set you straight. If you think 9-11 was an inside job, we will set you straight. I'll have a guest coming up on that. We'll talk about the JFK assassination. Of course there's theories and things coming up about the Donald Trump assassination attempt. So there will be if there aren't already there will be conspiracy theories about that and we'll talk about all of it. We'll talk about what's realistic and what is just hooey. So be sure you take a look at the website it's discerningtheunknowncom. And take a look at the Facebook page as well. That is Facebook at Discerning, the unknown podcast.

Speaker 3: 4:06

Um, but uh, I, I guess I've coming I have coming up in a little while is, uh, is Neil Laird. He's a very successful producer of a lot of history channel shows Um it it basically, with the exception of ancient aliens. If you've seen some of these shows that, uh, oh, that looks cool, ancient, something, ancient mysterious creatures or ancient abandoned or ancient history shows like that on the History Channel, chances are. Neil Laird has produced it Very successful. He's been on the History Channel. He produces for the Discovery Channel, national Geographic, so he's going to be fun coming up in about a week or so.

Speaker 3: 4:48

And then, completely on a whim, I emailed Dr Zahi Hawass. He is very possibly the most famous archaeologist in the world. He is the most famous Egyptologist in the world, so we're going to talk about ancient Egypt. We're going to talk about the pyramids. If you know who Zahi Hawass is, dr Zahi Hawass, then take a look. I've got him coming on the show and you'll be able to chat or text with questions to him, as you will with today's guest.

Speaker 3: 5:22

His name is Stephen Hawley Martin or Steve Martin. I'm sure he's heard all those jokes so I won't go there but he's a former principal of the ad agency that created the Geico Gecko and that's saying Virginia is for lovers. You've heard of that. He's a publisher, he's an editor, he's an author, he's a ghostwriter. Chances are, if you want a book published, if you want help with that, this is the guy who can help you out. See, I'm not only informing you, I'm giving you help on a possible career. So that's why you need to watch Discerning the Unknown. He's the editor and publisher of the Oakley Press. It's a traditional book publisher and he's also author of more than three dozen books, including six business titles under his own name and five novels Very successful.

Speaker 3: 6:14

He's listed in who's who in America, the only three-time winner of the Walker Diver Book Award. He's won twice for fiction and once for nonfiction. He's won one prize for visionary fiction from Independent Publisher Magazine, first prize for nonfiction from USA Book News and a bronze medal for visionary fiction from Reader's Favorite Book Reviews. He is a writer, he's a professional, he's successful and I'm so glad to have him on the show. Stephen Hawley-Martin Stephen. How are you? I'm doing great, brian. I'm glad to have him on the show. Stephen Hawley Martin Stephen, how are you?

Speaker 2: 6:45

I'm doing great, Brian. I'm glad to be here.

Speaker 3: 6:48

Thank you. As I said, I'm looking at your website and it's shmartincom and so many books there that we're going to have a fun time talking. I almost don't know where to start, but, like you said before we started. Everything kind of ties in together, so so what are some of those things? Let's start there with with what you say. Everything always ties together, like what that you've researched what all ties together and how?

Speaker 2: 7:20

Well, you know, ryan, I grew up as a in a family that was kind of very materialistic, in the sense that they went along with the traditional science that the only thing that exists is matter. And you know, what you ought to do is get a good education, go out and make a lot of money and buy stuff, I mean. So, out of college, I went to work for an ad agency in Baltimore and I was lived in an apartment with two by Franz Kafka, you know, which is kind of an irony, because that night was when my metamorphosis began. I heard people coming into the apartment downstairs. We lived in an old, big old townhouse in Baltimore, you know, it's right up against the street, you know, and it's got three floors and we had two floors of that house and I heard these people coming in and a party going on downstairs, and so I was about 25 years old.

Speaker 2: 8:39

This was back in the 70s. I'm an old guy now, but I decided, even though I felt horrible, I was going to get up and go downstairs and see what was going on and I did put on some clothes and, you know, of course people were drinking, and this being the 70s, and I know you're a former policeman. But there were people passing on a funny cigarette and I took a couple puffs of that. I drank some scotch and I suddenly started just feeling horrible. Really just couldn't hardly stand up. But I did manage to make it back upstairs.

Speaker 2: 9:11

I flopped down on my bed. It felt like the bed was spinning and I felt this pressure and all of a sudden it was like something went pop and everything was quiet again and calm and I realized I was looking at the ceiling, the little cracks and stuff. There was a townhouse, probably built in the 19th century, and I sort of turned and looked and there was my body down on the bed, looking like roadkill. And it occurred to me right then whoa's me down there. But I'm up here and up until that point, being raised the way I was, I thought I was my body. Well, it didn't last very long. I somehow got back into my body, woke up the next morning but I I, you know I couldn't get that out of my mind. My consciousness me was out of my body. So I started trying to find out what really was going on and I joined the Rosicrucian. Society.

Speaker 2: 10:18

If you know them, they're a society of mystics who study metaphysics, and it's not a religion, it's more, it's approaches from a scientific point of view, and on and on. But long story short, I've learned a great deal about metaphysics and I have interviewed over a hundred people. When I had a radio show podcast radio it's called a radio show and I have interviewed over 100 people when I had a radio show podcast radio it was called a radio show, but it was on the Internet. I have interviewed quantum physicists, people who are studying the paranormal in a scientific way, who are studying psychics and whether they can really communicate with the other side All of this from a scientific standpoint. I've interviewed people from the University of Virginia the Division of Perceptual Studies, they call it that have been studying children's memories of past lives and near-death experiences and all kinds of phenomena to do with consciousness for about 60, over 60 years, 62 years we've been studying, been that long and they've got a wealth of data. So anyway, I say it all tall ties together, because one of the conclusions that I have come to is one that is Is Really kind of what mystics say, and that is that all is one. There is one consciousness, that we are all part of. We each have our little piece of it. We're kind of like sparks in this giant dream that the Giant consciousness is having. You can call it God if you want, or you could call it the tao, which is what they call it in the east, but and this checks out with the research that I've done uh, actually, you know the true nature.

Speaker 2: 12:22

Reality has been known for over a hundred years. Max Planck, who was the guy who came up with quantum theory, won a Nobel Prize in 1918 because of his research in quantum physics. He said that he could not, we could not, talking about him and his staff and so forth. Studying this could not get beyond consciousness. That consciousness, in effect, is the ground of being, of all. That is which really goes along with Einstein who said you know, e equals mc squared. In other words, words, energy equals mass times, the speed of light squared. Everything is energy and it's conscious energy. There have been other quantum physicists who say say that the reality is really like a giant dream that we're all part of.

Speaker 2: 13:19

We're characters in the dream. Everything is connected, all is one. So that's kind of where I come out with it all, and I'd be happy to talk about any aspect of that that you want to.

Speaker 3: 13:33

I know you cover it all, so, yeah, this will be fun.

Speaker 3: 13:36

Well, just with what you said in the last 11 minutes there it pops so many topics into my head, of course reincarnation and energy.

Speaker 3: 13:48

And when I think of reincarnation, I've bought into reincarnation more and more the last several years. And because of that and because I think whether it's our soul or our energy or what whatever it is, goes into another body, maybe after a certain amount of time, maybe I don't know yet, maybe immediately, I don't know um, but that kind of has uh made me stop thinking that ghosts are real, maybe with the exception and here's my, my theory, completely unscientific, but just in my head but a place, say, like Gettysburg. Maybe the energy and emotion there is so thick that some kind of energy or memory can show up somehow to somebody who's sensitive to something like that. Otherwise, I don't think it's a ghost, because people have seen things at Gettysburg, that's, you know, they've been saying that since 1865. And so maybe it's not necessarily a ghost who knows they're walking around Gettysburg. Maybe it's not necessarily a ghost who knows they're walking around Gettysburg, but the energy maybe of that soldier or person who was killed there and just still in that realm maybe. What do you think of that?

Speaker 2: 15:17

I think it's absolutely, quite possible. Let me tell you a story that was told to me. My first wife was French and we used to go to France every summer for two or three weeks. She'd stay the whole summer and I'd go whatever vacation I had from the advertising agency. But we had some friends there that had inherited this large old house. It was called a chateau, which means castle in French. It was just a really big house, probably been there for hundreds of years at least, probably built in the 16th or 17th century.

Speaker 2: 15:50

And he had inherited this house and had made money in the stock market and was fixing it up and he'd go out. He and his wife would go out there on weekends and you know, see what was going on with the renovation of the place. And my wife and I went to visit them there one summer, quite a long time ago, it was probably 35, 40 years ago. But uh, he told me that when they were first in the house they would, at night, when they were going to sleep, they would hear, or it was, you know, it felt like they were hearing someone screaming for help, and this went on. And if you woke up in the middle of the night, you know, and was kind of half awake he would hear it, and this went on night after night until finally he he went down into the cellar I guess there was a wine cellar in this whole place and he was looking around because he thought that was where it must be coming from.

Speaker 2: 16:55

It just didn't make any sense, though, and he saw this one wall that looked a little newer than the other ones, so he got the workmen who were upstairs doing their thing to come down and tear that wall down, and they tore the wall down and, lo and behold, behind the wall was a skeleton, and they took the skeleton.

Speaker 2: 17:19

Who knows how long he'd been there it could have been a hundred years, or it could have been 50 years, who knows but they took the skeleton, they gave it a Christian burial, and the night noises stopped after my and already was. This guy's name was already Henry. Henry said it was his theory that the guy was popped on the head, taken down to the cellar, brickedicked up behind that wall, and then he came to and he was yelling for help, and nobody came, and he eventually died. But he didn't know that he was dead and he'd been down there screaming for help ever since and when Henri and his wife were very close to being asleep at that kind of stage that twilight zone stage is when they could hear it. So there you go. I think it's perfectly possible that there's some soldiers who were charging up in Pickett's Charge, I guess, who got blown away by a cannon fire or a musket fire, and they are still running up that hill because they don't know they're dead.

Speaker 3: 18:31

Hmm, hmm, yeah. Well, I think the theories are just fun to think about. We'll never know, but maybe you do because you've done the research. So how have you done this research? I mean, I think of that old movie, flatliners. You know, you can't necessarily, you know, watch someone die and then plan on bringing them back and see what they experienced. How do you study that? How do you study that? How do you research?

Speaker 2: 19:03

that. Well, there, you know, nowadays with the internet, there are all kinds of ways to get information and research. One, uh. When you said flatliners, it reminded me of the story of pam reynolds. Pam reynolds, uh, was.

Speaker 2: 19:21

This took place about 30 years ago, I think it was. She was 35 years old at the time and she had started getting dizzy, dizzy spells. And they did a cat scan, or what did they do, on their brain. They saw that there were two aneurysms down near the base of her brain, near the where it enters where it enters fine. And those aneurysms were inoperable in that if they, you know, cut open her head to go in and try to fix them, they'd have to go through the brain to get to them. And so what they? It was quite obvious that she was gonna die soon as one of those aneurysms pop. You, you know, an aneurysm is like a balloon vein or artery that has gotten enlarged, and it's like a balloon that's getting bigger and it's going to pop. So what they did? The surgeons decided the only way to have a chance of her survival was to operate, but they would have to drain the blood out of her head in her body.

Speaker 2: 20:33

So they took her into the operating room they drained the blood out of the I guess it's the femoral artery down near your crotch, your thigh, and they kept it, you know, warm and they lowered her body temperature, which she was actually dead then. I mean, they had her, you know, they had EKGs on her and all that. There was no brain activity at all. She was a good diver, and that enabled them to open up her skull, go in there, move the brain aside and of course, the aneurysm, with no blood flowing, collapsed, and so they were able to fix it, fix both of them and put her all back together. Well, pam Reynolds says that she heard this drilling sound and then suddenly she, like I did in my experience, popped out of her body and viewed what was going on as though she were sitting on the surgeon's shoulder, and she described what was going on both from the standpoint of the equipment that the doctor was using. She said he had something that looked like a drill before the operation. She'd heard that they were going to use a saw and it didn't look like a saw to her. So she described all this. She also just said what the nurses and doctors were saying, repeated, was able to repeat their words and she said that she felt a tug and as though it was like going over a bump in a car you know where you kind of get a lift. And she turned and saw this tunnel like thing and light, and she felt drawn toward it. And she said, when she started moving that direction she could hear her grandmother calling to her. Her grandmother was deceased but had a very, you know, unique voice and she went up through the tunnel and arrived at this white kind of place uh, white with no shadows, kind of light and her grandmother was there. Her, an uncle that she had been close to, had actually taught her how to play the guitar, was there. She met with them, she talked with them. She said what is, you know, what is the light? That's God's breath or something like that.

Speaker 2: 22:58

Anyway, she spent some time with them and then her uncle said it's time for you to go back and she said I don't want to go back, I like it here. He said come on, you've got. She had young children, you got children. She said the children will be around. He said come on, you've got to go back and he sort of took her and then went back down the tunnel.

Speaker 2: 23:19

She saw her body lying on the gurney there and it was. She didn't want to get in because it was. It was a good dad, it was a good, but you know, the doctors took the. By that time it pumped the blood back into her and they took the those what I don't know what you call them. It was electric shock things that she said. When that happened it was like she plunged into it and she was back into her body.

Speaker 2: 23:45

But she was able to describe all this, the equipment the doctors used, what they were saying and all of it was accurate. And the doctors were interviewed. They confirmed that. What she said was you know, there was no way from a traditional scientific point of view that she could have done that, but she did so that there's a video on youtube. If anybody wants to watch it, they can go on youtube and put pam reynolds uh, near-death experience or something. I'm sure they'll be able to find where she's interviewed and the doctors are interviewed and you know, if you are a doubter after you see that, it's gonna be hard for you to be so what is the difference then between something like that where you're floating out of your body?

Speaker 3: 24:41

well, I think maybe I'm answering my own question, because the the difference might be. At one point you might be dead, but I'm thinking of astral projection. Now, what you described earlier, you know you might have been under the influence, you might have been hallucinating. In her case, you know you described a brain symptom or a brain abnormality. Maybe, I think a science person would say well, that's, that's the reason, those are the reasons, right there um, she was dead and the brain was not working the ekg wasn't going click, click, click okay so all right that that.

Speaker 3: 25:17

Yeah, I don't know how is this the doctors confirmed that yeah, yeah. So do you think? Then early on were you astral projecting, you know I don't know what I was.

Speaker 2: 25:30

All I know is that I popped out of my body. I didn't stay out. I could have. If I'd been dead and stayed dead, I'd probably be haunting that house in Baltimore still. You know, did I probably be haunting that house in Baltimore still? You know, you know it is.

Speaker 2: 25:54

I've had another experience. It was what we called a mystical experience of mystery. I was meditating. This was after I've done all my Rosicrucian stuff and everything else. I was really into all this sort of thing and I was meditating and I felt like I'm my mind merged with the infinite mind and I felt all this love and that all was one. And whatever I thought about I knew all the answers to. I didn't bring them back with me, which I had, but so that was the thing that confirmed it to me more so, just the experience of that, more so than all these other things I've studied.

Speaker 2: 26:40

But, for example, the University of Virginia, as I said earlier on, has been studying children's memories of past lives. Ian Stevenson wrote his first book. He was the one who did a lot of that research at the University of Virginia. He wrote his first book in the mid-1960s, so that was 60 years ago and they've got over 2,500 cases in their records of children who recall past lives and they've researched them and they say that 1,700 plus of those 2,500 are solved, in the sense that they found an individual that the child described that fit the description in terms of names, location, occupation, spouse, the different things that he or she recalled, checked out. So 1,700 out of 2,500 that have been researched.

Speaker 2: 27:42

It's hard to argue with reincarnation and something's got to go on between incarnations, whether you're a ghost or you go back to your soul group or you're like Pam Reynolds and you go visit your relatives and hang around with them. You know, whatever, there's got to be time between. Now. The children's memories of past lives are, I think, an exception because most of those kids died an unusual death. They were either murdered or they were in an accident or in war.

Speaker 2: 28:26

He interviewed a number of people who had been said they had been Japanese soldiers and soldiers in Thailand during World War II, and the difference is is that those people probably didn't spend much time on the death that the child recalled and his next birth was only 15 months and nine of those had to be, you know, in his mother's belly. So according to the Rosicrucians who studied this and Rosicrucians go back, they say, thousands of years to ancient Egypt and they have been around at least long enough for Benjamin Franklin to have been one. He was a Rosicrucian and he believed in reincarnation. But the Rosicrucians say that the average birth to birth length of time is 140 years, that if you live 70 years and die, that you're going to spend 70 years on average or normally, until you're born again, so that 15 months is an unusual situation.

Speaker 2: 29:51

Also on the University of Virginia research, 22% of those children had birthmarks that coincided with the wound that they received when they were killed, like one gentleman who was shot when he was riding his bicycle. He was a school teacher riding his bicycle to school was shot in the forehead. This child had a round birthmark on his forehead and at the back of his head the exit wound was like a big splatter where the bullet came out.

Speaker 2: 30:29

And you know, you can buy Ian Stephenson's book and see pictures of this. You might even be able to see it on the website of the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia, called DOPS D-O-P-S for short. So anyway, yeah, there's a life between lives, and I guess we're all going to find out about it?

Speaker 3: 30:52

Well, eventually we will. We can think about it in the meantime. But, yeah, there's a lot of theories. Well, and when you talk about birthmarks, I think since I was 12 years old, every time I saw Mikhail Gorbachev, that's what I thought this guy died in a previous life. This guy got shot in the head? Yeah, probably did. But you brought up University of Virginia and I did want to talk about that in your book and talking with Stephen Hawley Martin here. He's got several books, but one is you Are Eternal. Infinite Tomorrows Await you. And you talk in the book about a lecture in India in 2011. Dr Bruce Grayson gave a professor of psychiatry at the University of Virginia and he studied consciousness. He said brains do not actually create consciousness. I read that and I thought well then, what does?

Speaker 2: 31:58

yeah, well, let me just I'll speak to that. Consciousness just is. Consciousness is the ground of being. My consciousness and your consciousness and the viewers out there, their consciousnesses are all the same consciousness. We think we're different and separate because we have memories from birth that have been built up since birth and they're our own, and also we have a subconscious mind or soul that contains all the memories of the many lives we've. Mind or soul, it contains all the memories of the many lives we've we've had before. So we feel that we're separate, but the consciousness, consciousness is the medium, uh, of the mind, and brains don't create it, it just is.

Speaker 2: 32:48

And what brains do? Brains are receivers of consciousness, like you might compare them to a cell phone or a radio that picks up the vibrations and turns them into sound. Well, that's, the brain picks up your consciousness and it of course, has an effect on your consciousness. Obviously, if you get popped on the head or smoke marijuana or whatever you're gonna, you're gonna change your consciousness because your brain is is affected by that, whatever it is that you did, the alcohol or the cannabis. So, yeah, that is the conclusion that the University of Virginia, as I said, after 60 years of study, has come to. That is the conclusion that the University of Virginia, as I said, after 60 years of study, has come to, and that is, the brain doesn't create it, it just receives it and integrates it with your body. Your whole body is really conscious.

Speaker 2: 33:46

Some of your memories are probably not well, actually no memories are in the brain. Memories are somewhere else. Edgar casey would say, all memories are in the akashic records, which is what he was able to access and that's as a psychic. He was able to answer people's questions and so forth, because he he was able to do that. Edgar casey, by the way. Fascinating, by the way, fascinating character, by the way, stephen on the screen there is still with me. Actually, mine is with a PH. If anybody wants to Google me, use the S-T-E-P-H. The rest of it's fine and that's the right website.

Speaker 3: 34:27

Thank you, thank you for putting it up Now, when you're talking about moving from one life to the other. That's another theory that I've kind of had. Do we always? For example, of course we're in the 21st century, now we're in the early 2000s. Does that mean assuming I reincarnate, for whatever reason I need to, I will reincarnate into what we would consider our future today? Or could it be that, because I ask this, because we know some people are just they're said to be ahead of their time, because we know some people are just they're said to be ahead of their time, they have knowledge that beyond their years? Where did they get this knowledge? From Nikola Tesla, edison? You know these geniuses? Is it possible that you know? If we don't remember anything? Could I go back into you know with maybe a fraction of the knowledge? Could I go back into the 1800s and regain some of that knowledge? Live a life back then still thinking, well, things have to be better than this. I can improve the world. Is that possible? Or do we do it in sequence?

Speaker 2: 35:50

well, this is a really uh a question that a lot of people have contemplated, and I'm not sure I mean. It seems logical that we, we would. It would be sequential, the idea of uh back to the future, where you've got different futures based on things that happen. But according to quantum physics and there is that this dimension has time in it this three-dimensional reality we're in is actually four dimensions height, depth, width and time. But time does not exist in other dimensions. So when you're on the other side that's why that guy could be behind the wall of the basement or the cellar of that chateau for 100 years and still be screaming for help he didn't experience time. The soldier running up the picket's charge and still be screaming for help, he didn't experience time. The soldier running up the picket's charge he got his head blown off isn't experiencing time. He's doing the same thing over and over because there is no time. That being the case, that being the case, ryan, theoretically all your lives are happening at the same time. Eternity means no time, no beginning, no, in it's all one, everything is one. So that's hard to get your mind around, but that's what the quantum physicist guys tell me and it makes sense when you think about someone like there is a probable. You know, edgar Cayce got into this a little bit too and I was fortunate to actually interview his son, who was still alive at that time. He was 95 years old but he was very sharp and who sat in on many of the readings that Edgar Cayce did, and he said that, as far as Edgar Cayce's predictions for the future, that he was able to see all that but things could change his way of explaining was as long as things keep going on the way they are, that will be the future. But they can you can change most people don't.

Speaker 2: 38:32

There are people who another guy I interviewed, his name is skip atwater was in charge of the remote viewing for the us army for a number of years.

Speaker 2: 38:45

So they had a spy group that used psychics to see what the Russians were doing during the Cold War in the Eastern Bloc countries, and one of the difficulties they had, he told me, was figuring out when something was happening, because they'd have to find a marker somewhere, because you something could have happened a long time ago, or something what was going to happen in the future, and they couldn't tell which was which, or something is happening now. So they had to find a clock or a calendar or something to figure out when whatever it was they were watching was happening. And there was one guy I think his name was Ingo Swann who did some remote viewing and he went to this particular place and drew a picture of a water tower and then when he went there the water tower wasn't there. But he did some research and the water tower had been torn down 30 years before. So what he was seeing was 30 years ago. So anyway, it's all pretty mind-blowing, but it's very interesting anyway.

Speaker 3: 40:02

So we've got to mention Edgar Cayce. He's another one I'm fascinated with. There are a lot of. Someday I want to talk to you about all the psychics you've interviewed and some psychics that I've interviewed and stories about them, Because really with psychics I don't know.

Speaker 3: 40:21

I don't know. It's tough to say. I think some people are talented, but I don't know what they're talented at, whether they're charlatans or whether they have a gift. I just don't know. That's why we need people like you to research and study that. But Edgar Cayce probably the most famous psychic of all time, the sleeping prophet. Give us a little bit of background on who Edgar Cayce was, what he said and how do we know he was right and how do we know he was right?

Speaker 2: 40:57

Well, edgar Cayce lived from 1877 to 1945. He was, as you said, known at that time as the sleeping prophet. He, for over 20 years, did two psychic readings a day. People would get in touch with him, send him letters. Most of his readings had to do with illnesses that doctors weren't able to cure, and he would somehow be able to survey an individual's body and where he was sitting in Virginia Beach. I'm in Richmond, virginia, and I've been down to the Association for Research and Enlightenment a number of times. I've interviewed the executive director of that and others, including Edgar Casey's son, edgar Evans Casey, and so he would give them a cure. So he's also known as the father of what is it, and he grew up on a farm. He always had some these kind of psychic abilities. He could see little you know, fairies and things in the forest and all that he was able to. His father bragged on him. He was able to sleep on a book, have it under his pillow and then know everything that was in the book the next day. I've tried that.

Speaker 3: 42:37

It doesn't work for me.

Speaker 2: 42:38

Right, but what happened is he got laryngitis. He was a photographer by trade when he was at the top, but he got laryngitis and could only speak in a whisper. And he went to a vaudeville show, back in, I guess, in the early 20s before that, where there was a hypnotist who would get people up on stage and he would hypnotize them and have them do things you know You've heard about that probably. Well, edgar Cayce, when he hypnotized, he was able to talk, okay. And so his doctor who'd been trying to help him, cure him, said well, why don't you try that? Try hypnotizing yourself. So, anyway, he was able to put himself into hypnotic trance and explain how to overcome this problem of laryngitis which he'd had for almost a year, and he was able to cure himself. Well, other people started coming to him and asking him to do it for them. They had medical issues the thing that is Edgar Cayce, even though most of his he did.

Speaker 2: 43:53

There are 14,000 plus readings. Every one of them was taken down by stenographer and typed up in the library through the Association for Research and Enlightenment in Virginia Beach. Right now you can actually buy them on a CD or some sort of a file if you want to search them. But he had so many successes that's why he was able to. For example, what I read about was that he had told someone that they needed to get this particular drug that was no longer manufactured. And the guy said, well, where can I find it? And he said, well, there's a. This is while he's in this trance that he put himself into morning and afternoon every day for I don't know how many years. There's a drugstore on such and such a street in such and such a town in Tennessee and it's on such and such a shelf and it's behind such and such Oil and smoke Oil and smoke and they found it.

Speaker 3: 44:59

It was there. Yeah, I've read that story. In fact, I think they went once, didn't they? And they had to come back to Edgar Cayce and he said no, you looked in the wrong place. It's something like that. I always remembered that. I don't know if it was in the Edgar Cayce Primer or there is a River, but that was one of the first stories I remember and thinking I got to read more about this guy. It was Oil of Smoke.

Speaker 2: 45:26

Yeah, well, as I said, I interviewed his son, edgar Evans Cayce, who talked about his dad and he said most of the readings. He was able to somehow see the person's body and what was wrong with them if they had a physical ailment. But he was also able to go to what it's now called Akashic records, which is the memory. It's kind of like I guess it was Carl Jung who said there's a universal consciousness, it's sort of the memory of all human beings, I suppose and somehow get the information. That's sort of like a huge hard drive with lots of information Google, you know, it's a good, it's Google for, but in the 1920s and he's able to access.

Speaker 2: 46:14

So he said that, for example, one time he had this appointment for a guy who had some physical problem he wanted help with and when Edgar Cayce went into the trance his son was in the room with some other people and Edgar Cayce said he's not here yet, he's on a bus. The guy he was doing this reading for was in New York City and he's on a bus and he's coming across town and it's taking a while. He'll be here soon. So he laid there for about 10 or 15 minutes and he said, oh, he's arrived and he went into the reading.

Speaker 3: 46:59

So I mean, this guy was amazing well, he talked a lot about the benefits of castor oil. What, uh, what can we do with castor oil?

Speaker 2: 47:10

well, I remember castor oil from a kid. Being a kid, I never took it. I think it makes you throw up. So if you got it, if you got a little food poisoning or something that's working on your stomach, you get rid of it, but it's kind of you know, you're going to have to vomit. That's what I think it causes.

Speaker 2: 47:30

So yeah, I mean, edgar Cayce was an amazing guy and he was a staunch Christian. He was a Sunday school teacher at a Presbyterian church but he was ostracized by his congregation and so forth when it came out that he talked about reincarnation, because people would have problems, that would be what have stemmed, would have stemmed from a previous life. So when he was in this trance, uh, he would say, well, the reason you have this phobia of snakes is because you were killed by a snake in life. So and so when you were living such a touch of place. And so when Edgar Cayce started coming out with the reincarnation stuff, because he was a staunch Christian, he stopped giving readings for a while and he read the Bible through and came to the conclusion after reading it with the idea that reincarnation must be real. He saw that it really is all through the Bible. It's just not called reincarnation, it's called resurrection or whatever.

Speaker 2: 48:42

But, for example, jesus' disciples. Jesus asked them once who do people say I am? And his disciples said well, some people think you're John the Baptist, but others think you're Elijah. Well, elijah lived 400 years before Jesus. So if he was Elijah, he would have had to have been Elijah reincarnated. And that's what some people thought.

Speaker 2: 49:12

So people around that time took reincarnation for granted, there are many other examples like that, like the time that Jesus heals the blind man and his disciples say well, was it his parents or the man himself? And the man was born blind? Was it his parents or the man himself who sinned to cause the blindness, to cause blindness? And if it had been the man himself, he'd have had to have sinned in a previous life because he was born blind. So there are other examples like that.

Speaker 3: 49:44

In fact I had that written down and that's uh. That is another thing. And, by the way, folks were talking about uh, about reincarnation, and edgar casey, how, how, all of it, uh, all of it is one, uh, discerning the unknown is the is the name of the show, and discerningtheunknowncom. But you say at the you Are Eternal book that we know. In the Bible it says you must be born again. I mean, that seems to settle it for me. You know, people have interpretations of what that means. But there's really reincarnation. Doesn't, like you said, doesn't seem to conflict with Christianity or what Jesus taught.

Speaker 2: 50:24

Well, you know why it was taken out of the. I don't know if I said that in that book, but the. Emperor Justinian, and I think it was 553,. There was a meeting of the Pope and bishops and he insisted, forced them to take Christianity out of the canon, and so you can blame it on the emperor Justinian. The pope didn't want to do it, but some people believed, and Christians believed in reincarnation for 500 years before it was taken out.

Speaker 3: 50:59

I really think that we hear so much, we talk so much today in today's society about preserving our earth. And you know, from when I was young, it was the hole in the ozone layer. Now it's the melting of the ice caps and the water rising and global warming or whatever it's called this week, but it's all the climate change and I really think if more of us would accept the notion of reincarnation, I think a lot of people when we say, preserve the earth for your grandchildren and your grandchildren's grandchildren, I think a lot of people as humans, we're kind of selfish minded and we cannot think ahead that far. And I think if we were to say, preserve the Earth because you're going to come back and it's going to directly affect you, maybe in 50 years or less, then you're going to want to be living on a planet that's not going to flood and kill us all. It's for you, Maybe not somebody three, four, five generations down the road.

Speaker 2: 52:11

I really think if we could get that notion across, people may buy into reincarnation a little more, yeah, I suppose. So I mean, I thought about that too, the idea of coming back. But you know, you don't know when and where you're going to come back.

Speaker 3: 52:31

That's part of the fun of thinking about all of it. So you, you had said um that with the children who who have passed, um, it was kind of the average about 15 months um by the time, by the time they they came back, and nine months months were probably after conception. That brings up a whole other issue of does the soul choose a parent and immediately go in at the time of conception, or is that body born and then the soul chooses afterwards, chooses afterwards, or what time does that happen?

Speaker 2: 53:03

well, that's a good question and I think the you know the answer that I've come to talking to lots of people is that, no, yes, you do typically choose your parents. Earth is a school and you come here to learn and evolve. The whole creation is all about evolution. Just look around we started out as one-celled animals in the sea and now we're the pinnacle of life on this planet. But it all came through evolution and that's what's going on, and each birth is typically planned beforehand for you to come here and either learn something specific or you may have a particular mission you're on to carry out, or you might be trying to settle karma that you've built up with some other soul. So you know, people say well, why would I choose this abusing father?

Speaker 2: 54:04

Well, I talked to a lady yesterday, or I guess it was last week, who grew up in an abusive home, but the reason she chose that was that she had Karma, she had this, she was attached to these two people and the only way that she could break that attachment was to was to come in, be their child and eventually forgive them, and for them to forgive her, which is she's now in her 60s, which is it did happen. So she realized because she remembered she's one of these psychic-type people who remembers past lives. That's why she came and that's what happened. But she was older before it all came back to her. So you come in to earth school for a reason, and it could be like that to settle, it could be to learn something, it could be to do something, uh, and you do choose your parents.

Speaker 2: 55:10

Now, when do you come into the body? According to edgar casey, it's either right before birth or it could be just after birth. So you hang around the mother as a spirit while she's pregnant, you know, but you don't actually enter the body until toward the end of it. So that, but I don't, you know. That's what people tell me. I'm not saying that, I know that for a fact.

Speaker 3: 55:47

Um, do you think we always stay in the same family group?

Speaker 2: 55:49

or uh soul group I've heard it called. I think that there are people and who are important to you and in your life that are probably a part of your soul group. You may have uh gotten together with somebody before birth who you may have gotten together with somebody before birth who said you know, this time I'll be your mother, or this time I'll be your father, and you know you play this role and you know it's sort of a setup.

Speaker 2: 56:12

I'm not saying everybody around you is part of your soul group, but probably the ones who are important to you, either in a good way or a bad way, are part of your soul.

Speaker 3: 56:26

They're there to teach you lessons and for you to teach them. Sure, it makes sense, you know, when you put it that way, that maybe people who've helped us through this life, we still need to learn something in the next life. So we rely on some of those people who we were comfortable with before to help us a little bit in this one, and then do people come in. Maybe we'll help us in the next one. I mean, it just seems like it's a constantly evolving chain.

Speaker 2: 56:51

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you know, one of the things that we all most of us go through is that veil of forgetting, and people say, well, why don't I remember my past lives? Well, if you knew why you were here from day one, then what you're supposed to do it'd be sort of like having the answers to the test before the test is given. You know, you've got to cheat, you, you've got to do it. It's got to do the hard way. You've got to do it the hard way in order for it to stick.

Speaker 2: 57:23

You got to go through, you got to fit in. If, if, if you're one of these people that keeps attracting the same sort of person who's abusive, or keeps doing the same sort of things and getting in the same kind of trouble, you ought to realize you're gonna. You're gonna keep meeting those challenges one they're very similar, one after the other until you finally get it right. And then you, you ought to realize you're gonna keep meeting those challenges, one very similar, one after the other, until you finally get it right, and then you can put it behind you.

Speaker 3: 57:53

So if we're not supposed to know our past lives in our current life, that brings up hypnosis and past life regression. Is that a little bit of cheating or does that help us along to figure out what we're?

Speaker 2: 58:07

going to be doing. I have remembered three of my past lives as an adult Not the entire life, but episodes out of them, sort of like deja vu kind of feeling. One was when I was in France and I was up in a small plane with a guy and he turned the control. He said here you fly a plane. I've never flown a plane before, but when I took the controls I thought, gosh, I know how to do this. And then it came flooding back to me that I'd been a pilot in World War II. It was shot down, so you know. And then another one was when I was a military officer a Russian military officer in the Napoleonic Wars, and was killed in a battle. I mean, I remember that it was like, oh my gosh, something triggered something. That's the one. The ones I remember were triggered by something. It just brought it back to me. Third one was when I was like a monk or holy man, and I remember that it's funny, but I tend to remember the deaths from those three lives.

Speaker 3: 59:27

Interesting. Now I think here's probably an easy one for you. But whenever reincarnation is brought up and people who want to believe that they were reincarnated, we always hear the people who were Cleop that they were reincarnated. We always hear the people who were Cleopatra, cleopatra or they were, you know, they were somebody incredibly famous and you know. First of all, I say to that there were, I think, about seven Cleopatras. So that's one thing. You may have been any of the seven, maybe not the most famous, but why does that happen? Could somebody who believes that maybe have known Cleopatra in the past? What's the connection there?

Speaker 2: 1:00:11

You know, I don't know, maybe they're just pulling your leg, I don't know. I haven't met too many people who thought they were somebody famous. I haven't met too many people who thought they were somebody famous. I did meet someone who says that he was around during the time of Jesus and saw Jesus, experienced Jesus but he wasn't Jesus and he wasn't one of his disciples, he was just some ordinary guy. So I suppose that's possible. I don't know.

Speaker 3: 1:00:43

I would think that would be most of us. We're probably regular people now. We were probably regular people then. Yeah right, so we've got to talk about your best-selling book, that's Afterlife, the Whole Truth. Tell me about that.

Speaker 2: 1:01:01

Well, that book is actually two books that I wrote, that I put together in one volume afterlife, the whole truth, which gives a lot of the science that backs up the idea that we are eternal, that we do have an afterlife and a between life, and then the other book, the second book in that one volume is speculation and from psychics and so forth, about what the afterlife is, is like some information, like from from emmanuel sweden, who lived back in the 18th century and apparently was a psychic and was able to go back and forth between this dimension and the other dimensions, and he talks about the different levels of what we would call heaven and hell, and so, yeah, it starts out with trying to convince you that, yes, there is an afterlife. You are eternal. And then it goes into speculation about what you can expect when you cross over.

Speaker 3: 1:02:16

So and that raises a question too If there's an afterlife, if we are always constantly coming back trying to improve and, by the way, I think we could have another hour-long conversation if we come back on this planet or another, Maybe we'll save that for next time. But does that mean there is or is not a heaven, Maybe in your view, or heaven or hell? If we're always coming back, do we ever reach that stage?

Speaker 2: 1:02:44

Well, as Jesus said, in my Father's house there are many rooms, and I believe that is true. I believe that there are probably thousands of different. You know, if you're a Buddhist, your afterlife experience is not going to be the same as if you're a Southern Baptist Christian. I think that everybody goes to a place where they belong and feel comfortable, so that's got to mean that there are many. I guess there is a heaven, but there are many, many rhythms, many aspects, and what you experience is not going to necessarily be what somebody else experiences. According to Swedenborg, there are there were seven levels, and Earth would be sort of like the one in the middle where we've got good and we've got evil. And you know, I think there are many more than seven, but there definitely, it's not just one place that you go. I'm sure of that.

Speaker 3: 1:03:55

The part of why I wanted to do this show is, first of all, when people say I've done the research, one of the first questions I ask is oh, I'd love to read it sometime. Where is it published? And that's why I for sure wanted to have you as a guest, because you've got the whole page right there, shmartincom, where all of these bestselling books you've done the research you can tell us. Some of it inspires us to think, of course, and that's what I think we need to do.

Speaker 3: 1:04:27

But a lot of the reason I I did the show is because so many times we see people getting their news and information from facebook memes and and that that in my view, that's almost dangerous. But I got to tell you I saw a Facebook meme along these lines recently and it said and it was one of these where you know unknown facts, little known facts or scientific facts, something like that and it said scientists believe that when you die, your brain for a short time can actually know your dad. I should have made it, made a picture and put it up, but I know I've seen it more than once. Can that possibly be true, if?

Speaker 2: 1:05:20

the brain is dead isn't the brain dead.

Speaker 2: 1:05:24

What I think is that the moment that you die, you're out of your body and you're no longer feeling any pain, and people who have had near-death experiences whether they were in an automobile accident or had a heart attack or whatever it was that's been that, that's their experience. So they pop out just like I have Reynolds with the heaven or head open up, fix those aneurysms. So you know, I'm also. I've got a great quote from Woody Allen who said and this is the way I feel about it I'm not afraid of death, I just don't want to be there when it happens.

Speaker 3: 1:06:08

Yeah, and I've heard people say you know just before it happens that you know they don't feel the pain they're pulled out. You know milliseconds before the event, you know whether it's a crashing, whether it's a. You know milliseconds before the event, you know whether it's a crashing, whether it's a, whatever that might be, I'd hope for yeah, yeah, that'd be, that'd be helpful.

Speaker 3: 1:06:37

it's a good thing we can't really remember pain, because you know we remember that into the next life. Then we'd always be worried about that again. So Stephen Hawley-Martin is my guest, stephen, just so much more we could talk about. I think we're going to have to do it again, but let everybody know where we can get more information on you, where we can get your books. And actually you helped create the Geico Gecko.

Speaker 2: 1:07:03

That's amazing. Well, you know, it was because the people Geico stands for government employee insurance company, government employees insurance company and people can pronounce it. They call it Gecko. You know, when we started advertising it, so the geico, gecko was kind of a memory device to you know, to get them to remember how to pronounce. So it worked and it really still.

Speaker 3: 1:07:32

He's still around it absolutely, it's effective. Yeah, it's still got commercials. How long has it been now? How long has has?

Speaker 2: 1:07:39

that game been, yeah, I would say 20, almost 30 years. Sure, yeah, excellent, the way you've got it up there in the screen shmartincom or slash home, it goes right to the fiction and nonfiction books that I've written. Or if you just go to the regular website, look up at the menu and you'll see fiction and nonfiction. Click on that and any click on any one of the covers and it'll take you to the page on Amazon where you can find out more about the book. Read the reviews, decide whether you want to buy.

Speaker 3: 1:08:13

Wonderful, Wonderful. Uh, Steven, it's been fascinating. Uh, thank you so much. This has given us a.

Speaker 2: 1:08:19

I think it's given us all a lot to think about well, I've enjoyed it, ryan, and I appreciate you having me on thank you.

Speaker 3: 1:08:26

Thank you very much. This was fun. So, uh, again, uh, stephen holly martin, folks and uh, take a look at a web. At his website it's shm uh, shmartincom for uh information, what he's done and and maybe even what he could do for you. Take a good look at the website. There's a lot of good information on there, books that I think you're going to be fascinated with, and just so many good things that we could talk about. So one thing before I go. I wanted to give you a little bit more information about the show and some guests coming up. Neil Laird is one. He's a producer on the History Channel. I put some information up on the Facebook page. That's at thefacebookcom, discerning the Unknown podcast. And then Dr Zahi Hawass is probably one of the world's most famous archaeologists. He's going to be on the show in a little while.

Speaker 3: 1:09:23

And I said on the first show, I got away from this on the last show, which was the second one, today's being the third, but I said on occasion, I want to give some kind of my own personal story, observation or joke, and this, I'll admit this is a bad one. And today, being July 17th, and we all know what happened over the weekend there was an assassination attempt. But I don't necessarily think it's too soon and this is one of those clean jokes that I prefer to tell, but I thought it was interesting. I saw an interview with a Secret Service agent just recently. He was talking about the incident, of course, and he said that as a Secret Service agent, he finally got to say in his career something that he has always wanted to say this past weekend at the assassination attempt and what he finally got to say was Donald duck. So if that's going to be a very old joke very soon, so if you hear it again, remember you heard it here first.

Speaker 3: 1:10:38

So visit Discer. Discerning the unknowncom. I am Ryan Peterson member. As always, men should not wear flip-flops. Uh, we'll do it again. I'll. Uh, we'll talk later on.