discovery that the man was interested in theater. She mentioned her small part in the production of Laugh Clown Laugh, starring Lionel Barrymore. The gentleman promised to see her performance. As it turned out, he was John Corbin, chief drama critic for the New York Times.
After one of the play’s performances, Rose received a note backstage from another man named Bryant Goodman. Mutual friends had asked that he look her up. She found him engaging and invited him to join her and her sister for dinner. Although Bryant had seemed normal enough back at the theatre, during their dinner conversation he started talking about mysticism, past lives, and a psychic friend of his back in Dayton, Ohio, named Edgar Cayce. Although she loved discussions of religion and philosophy, up until that night Rose had never even heard of reincarnation and she wondered to herself, “What in the world have I picked up here?” Still, she and her sister found Bryant fascinating, even though she couldn’t possibly believe every word he said.
Time passed, and after Laugh Clown Laugh closed, a complimentary letter about her performance from John Corbin opened the next set of doors and she was cast as the female lead in Sancho Panza. She continued to see Bryant. She felt drawn to him. He was interesting, a talented businessman, and fun to be around. However, she still couldn’t bring herself to believe all that he talked about. Much of his conversation included wild tales of this Edgar Cayce who reportedly could diagnose illnesses while asleep as well as provide insightful business advice (which Bryant claimed he relied heavily upon). Bryant also believed that Cayce could somehow see how the events and relationships of former lives had an ongoing influence upon the present. For Rose, none of these tales were stories she relished discussing with her family when she talked about the man she was seeing.
Eventually, the Sancho Panza company went on the road and one of the cities on tour happened to be Dayton. At Bryant’s insistence, Rose invited Edgar Cayce and his wife, Gertrude, to see the play so that she could meet them. As it turned out, the Cayces loved the play, and Rose asked if she could watch Cayce’s own work with his psychic readings. The next day Rose witnessed her first reading, given for a five-year-old child who was having difficulties keeping any food down; for some reason the child began to regurgitate after every meal. The little girl was slowly starving to death. The doctors had tried everything they knew without success, so the parents had finally turned to Edgar Cayce for help.
Just as had been described to her, Cayce put himself to sleep on the couch. His wife gave him the suggestion that he would be able to examine the child while in his trance state. Told to “find” the little girl who was in the house (although not in the same room with the adults), it was not long before he began talking, opening with “Yes, we have the body.” As soon as he began speaking, Edgar Cayce’s secretary started writing down everything he said.
Rose watched the process with a great deal of skepticism. She couldn’t believe that an individual could somehow tune in to another person’s physical problem (let alone see something as far-fetched as a past life). Still, the Cayces took their work very seriously and the little girl’s parents seemed to take his every word as gospel. Edgar Cayce discussed what was wrong with the child and recommended such things as a complete change of diet, consisting chiefly of very ripe bananas, and some physical therapies. Although Rose had often heard about this man’s work, seeing it firsthand made her feel a little ridiculous.
The longer she listened, the more irritated Rose became. This man wasn’t a doctor; by all accounts he had never finished high school. He had made no physical examination of the child, nor did he plan to. Gertrude had stated that her husband had no medical background or training. At the very least, Rose felt that this man was practicing medicine without a license. What if he recommended something that would kill the child? The thought both alarmed and outraged her. Still, the group watched and listened to the sleeping Cayce without question.
When the reading was over, Rose left the house as courteously as she could. After all, she was an actress. However, she was mad at the Cayces and disgusted with Bryant for believing in the whole business. To her relief, a few weeks later she heard from the child’s parents and was surprised to discover that their daughter had completely recovered. The little girl was finally able to keep down normal food; Cayce’s reading had apparently been successful. It was for that reason that Rose began to wonder if Bryant had been right about Cayce after all.
By the spring of 1926, the cast of Sancho Panza was back in New York. Although a success, the tour was finished and the play was over. Rose was having a hard time finding her next role. Nothing seemed just right. She began to question what she wanted to do with acting. At the same time, Bryant had begun asking her to marry him. She loved him and was unmistakably drawn to him, but did she really want to forsake the theater for home and cooking and babies? Because of the demands of each possibility, it didn’t appear to her that she could pursue both successfully. Sometimes the idea of marriage was appealing, but on other occasions nothing could have interested her less. At other times, the spotlight of the theatre was wonderful, and yet the satisfaction of it wasn’t totally fulfilling or lasting. For the first time ever, Rose found that she didn’t know what to do with her life.
In part, to help her with her direction, Bryant suggested a life reading from Edgar Cayce. By this time, supported with the backing of some very influential New York business people, the Cayces had moved to Virginia Beach to establish a hospital for his work. Having heard even more success stories of what this man was somehow able to accomplish, Rose agreed to the reading.
To make the business of the readings seem even more incredulous, Rose learned that her reading would be done while the Cayces were in Virginia Beach and she and Bryant remained in New York. Apparently, Edgar Cayce didn’t even need to be in the same city with Rose in order to tune in to her.
When the reading finally came, she was amazed by its accuracy. Any remaining doubts she had about the man or his abilities quickly disappeared. She wrote the Cayces to tell them that the information was more than just helpful and interesting. Without knowing her life story or her current dilemma, somehow the sleeping Cayce had perfectly analyzed her character, feelings, and talents. Rose was very impressed. Immediately, she requested readings on behalf of other members of her family.
Rose’s reading told her that she could make a success of herself in music, literature, art, the stage, or the home. Edgar Cayce briefly discussed lives she had lived in early America, England, Germany, the Holy Land, and Greece. She had developed her appreciation for music in Germany, where she had been a singer and close to a renowned composer. There, she had shared her love of music with many others. Her talent of acting had been best expressed during her lifetime in Greece when she had been of beautiful stature and had given the people much enjoyment in her various roles. Her love of philosophy was traced to Chaldea where she had once worked in the temples. From the same period, she had also developed an innate love for home and family. Repeatedly, Cayce explained how present-day talents and feelings could be traced to her former appearances in the earth.
Cayce told her that if she remained an actress, within the year she would again have a great new role that satisfied her outlet for expression. In fact, he assured her that her career would reach even greater heights somewhere between the ages of twenty-eight and thirty. He told her that she could also make a success of the home; however, at this point in her life, she could not excel in both directions. She needed to choose. He did not advise her on which direction to take, only that the choice needed to be made. Her attraction to Bryant was because of various connections they had experienced in the past. They had known each other in different roles in early America, England, and the Holy Land.
Later, Bryant obtained his own reading from Edgar Cayce. He asked what would be the result of a marriage between himself and Rose. Cayce replied, “What they make it!” To be more specific, Bryant asked: “Is this girl the type and quality of womanhood best suited to this man for a successful life?” The answer came: “May be made so in each. No one is suited exactly in the beginning, unless it has been fore-ordained through the ages of the mating of each.” Again, Bryant tried to obtain the response he was looking for. He asked: “Will they be perfectly happy always . . . ?” Cayce stated:
No, they will not always be happy, but these may be always made content. Contentment and happiness are different elements,