my history (written in 2002)

I own a shop called "Temple Beautiful" which sells Cayce products in Tokyo (moved to Yokohama, in 2010). I could not imagine that I would be a shop owner until it's opening day. I just followed a path in front of me and it lead me to where I'm standing now.

I was introduced to Edgar Cayce by my brother who is the president of Edgar Cayce Center in Japan now. He was so moved by the book "Many Mansions" and sent a copy to our parents house when I was in high school. I suppose that many people are aware of this story that this book changed his life. In fact, every time I read this book I find it moving. But to me, reincarnation was not "the shocking fact" then. It is because I was always interested in spiritual matters and wondering philosophical questions such as "why was I born to be me?" since I was in kindergarten. So I secretly accepted reincarnation as a natural providence among the family who were exclusively materialistic. Even when I mentioned this to my parents, they just laughed at me. But I believed that this must be the truth in my heart. Therefore, reading "Many Mansions" did not change my view of life much and I was thinking to myself that "The reportages by Katsuichi Honda (Japanese journalist) are much more shocking!".

Personally, I started to get into the 'spiritual world' in my 20s when I had friends who were open to these topics. Though I would talk about the invisible world, I thought it is outrageous to make living out of it since my brother who disappointed my parents by dropping out of the stable government work to translate Cayce books, I felt that I had to have a secure regular job. What a laudable sister I was!

I started to be more interested in Cayce when I began applying Cayce remedies such as the castor oil pack, oil massage, diet and so on. This was also recommended to me by my brother. It was at a cafe in Yokohama that he told me about Cayce remedies for the first time. So I asked him to send me some castor oil and massage oil then I received them a few days later.

I became so into these Cayce remedies.
I have the nature of wanting to try everything, and this greasy, relaxing, whole sensation of using oil interested me. Every night I massaged myself with a compound of olive oil and peanut oil and went to bed covered with oil.

But when these oils from my brother ran out, I had to find them by myself. It was quite difficult since it was before the Italian cuisine boom, so I had to go to imported grocery stores by changing trains 3 times. For the castor oil, I had to go around on foot to many pharmacies. Because I was petite, some pharmacists would sarcastically say that "Someone so thin as yourself does not need castor oil!". Then to my disappointment I discovered that the pharmacies' castor oil was not the same quality as what Cayce recommended. As I carried the heavy oil bottles home, I wished for someone to start a shop for Cayce remedies.

At that time in Tokyo, there were several spiritual seminars starting to be held, and I attended some of them with my friends. They were all interesting as a topic but I could not relate to the people who were already involved. Even though I was interested in the New Age movement, I felt something was not quite right. In there, Cayce's physical readings fitted like a missing piece of a puzzle. Naturally, I departed from the New Age scene.

In May 1995, the first A. R. E. tour was held by Tama publishing company. Since my brother told me this kind of tour will be his first and the last, I decided to take a vacation from work and attend the tour. This changed my later life dramatically. I was shocked by how A. R. E. was involving experts of parapsychology, archaeology, and medicine to verify Cayce's readings. There were no mysterious gurus.

Our flight delayed and arrived after midnight at the hotel. On top of that, the following day we had lectures all day till 9 p.m., starting with Dr. William McGarey (very important!) at 8 a.m. It was a tough schedule.

Although most of us were falling asleep due to jet lag and the unfamiliar sound of interpreted lectures, I was so excited to receive academic Cayce lectures and stayed awake through all of them. (This is something I am proud of to this day). I had this uplifting feeling for my entire stay at A. R. E. and it was a joy of my spirit. It did not disappear till I came back to Japan.

There were many stories on this tour, and I'd like to recall two of them.

There were two sisters who had a little psychic ability in this group. This is a story they told me. On our last day, we had a farewell meeting at A. R. E. Various people greeted us as we sat on our seats. Then (according to them) the spirit of Cayce appeared and he put a seed like thing into the hand of all of us. Of course we could not see Cayce and returned to Japan without noticing anything… The 50 tour members should know how their seeds bloomed after they came home. Because this tour lead to the founding of the Edgar Cayce Center in Japan, so one big flower had bloomed for sure.

The second story is about my future.
On the tour we had lectures by various Cayce experts and we were given a guided meditation for "finding our treasures". The guidance was such that our consciousness goes through an imaginary woods, then flies across the sky and jumps into a pond and finds a treasure box to see what is inside. After this lecture, tour members were telling each other that "My treasure was a heart-shaped rose quarts", "I found a crystal ball", "It was a beautiful diamond".

Among all the romantic objects, I was too embarrassed to say anything about my treasure because it was simple and unexpected. I was quite upset then, but 2 years later I realize it was truly my treasure.

What I saw in the box were neatly stored nameplates (like those on an entrance of a country house, which is made with thick piece of wood)! Of course my conscious body went through the box to see if there was anything else, but there were only nameplates.

I was upset for a while that my treasure was not lovely like rose quarts. But about two years later, when I started to work at the Cayce Center in Japan typing member's names into the computer system and began making a customers list for Temple Beautiful, I realized what those nameplates meant.

In the autumn of the year we went on the tour, three lecturers came from A. R. E. to Japan and seminars were held in Yamanashi　prefecture.

When this happened, A. R. E. suggested to us that we form a center to pass the Cayce readings on to Japanese people. Thus the Cayce center in Japan was founded in Cayce's birthday week the following year. I'm sure that other people will have other stories to add to the before and after of the foundation of the center, so I'll leave that to them for the details.

For me, participation in activities of the Cayce Center was like going to school. This is because I had a dream just before the foundation of the center.

In this dream, I was on a trip and carrying large suitcases in both hands. I bumped into Dr. Henry Reed and a large gray-haired American lady. They were on their way to a graduation ceremony of a school and they told me to join them, so I did. They sat in VIP seats and I sat in an ordinary passenger seat at the rear. The graduation went smoothly and then a welcome ceremony started. It turned out to be a primary school and small children marched in. Then the principal, in his speech stated that "During the time you are at this school, everyone is like your family." Apparently they don't have class changes throughout the six years, so I thought to myself "What a pity that they have to stick with the same people for six years. They'll make friends but not with everyone". As we all danced after the ceremony, I woke up.

When I woke up, I felt that this dream was indicating that I was going to be involved in the Cayce center's work for six years and it will be like a school for my spirit and that it's not all fun stuff. As a matter of fact, I left the center's work after five years but I feel that the amount of work I did was equivalent to six years' worth. I assumed I could skip a year and graduated.

At the time when the center was founded, I still had a daytime job. So I went to the center for two hours after work to help them doing simple things like checking their answering machine since nobody was attending during the day, and sending information and such.

Eventually the weight of the center work became heavier since I wanted to do my best for what I started. After two years I quit my job and worked mainly at the center. I chose the center over my career as an office worker due to my nature being such that I cannot help working hard once I'm involved. This made my parents disappointed just like my brother did.

The center's activity became more stable. I was living off my brother so I had nothing to worry about even though the center paid me hardly anything. As I started to think that I could carry on this easy way of living, my brother decided to get married.

Out of the blue, I had to become financially independent. I had to choose whether to pass my center work to someone else and return to my hometown in Hiroshima, or find a job in Tokyo, or work for myself. My parents were expecting to have me home naturally, but I was suddenly inspired to start my own office to spread Cayce's remedies. Soon I rented an apartment which I lived in and used as an office.

I named it "Temple Beautiful". Thus I instantly became an entrepreneur. I was wishing for someone to start a shop for Cayce remedies I finally realized that I should be the one. But I had no savings since I was living off my brother. There were no funds but debts to my parents and friends. I had nothing but drive and energy.

It became impossible to go to the center everyday, so I redirected the center's phone line to my apartment office. By doing this, I could receive calls to the center and did their admin work at home, and on my days off. I went to the center to work on necessary things. I was continuously working everyday apart from sleeping time, since I was still doing the most of the center's work and I had so much to do for my office. However it was fun to be able to work on what I loved.

After a while I started to feel exhausted mentally and physically from doing all the work and also from having troubles and discord among the staff. I decided to leave the center in 1998. I think the decision served the center well since they could reform and refresh, and myself so that I could spend more time on my work.

We have relocated to Setagaya, Tokyo, and it is open as a shop which carries mostly Cayce products (available by mail-order). Actually, this relocation was also quite dramatic. To put it briefly, my therapist friend consulted an astrologist about a location to start a clinic, and I ended up moving into the same building. Again, it was settled without my will or plans and I felt like what I just rode on the wind.

We organize seminars by doctors of holistic and Cayce remedies whom we invite from the United States, as well as sell products. One seminar we held with Dr. Gladys McGarey lead to translating and publishing her book this spring, and I believe this is another bloomed flower from the seed Cayce gave us.

It feels strange that I was just a fan of Cayce's remedies, but without my noticing it I became the person to spread it. I could not keep my interest in anything for a long time before, but I can with Cayce remedies for some reason. I could continue because what I found was what I loved. I think that it blossomed because it is what I love.

The first two years after I started Temple Beautiful, my parents (who were very sad for two of their children to have abnormal jobs) asked me when I will quit to find a normal job. Though they became our biggest supporters since then, they realized through helping me with seminars with Dr. John Pagano and Dr. McGarey that the Cayce readings are helping not only me but so many other people and it is bringing joy.

I have many things to learn for my business, since I started without any preparation. But I'd like to keep on helping to spread Cayce's remedies at my own pace.

And lastly, I'd like to share my favorite story.

Soon after I started Temple Beautiful, I was told by the local Chamber of Commerse and Industry to submit documents describing my business. One of the questions asked about "… group" which I did not understand. So I called and asked one of the Cayce center members, Mr. Masaki Kobayashi in Shizuoka who is a certified public accountant. He said to me that "I think this means financial group such as Mitsubishi or Sumitomo, but God is your boss. You can't really write your boss is God and you belong to the Cayce group, so just leave it blank".

Don't you think that "God is the boss and you belong to the Cayce group" sounds wonderful? I often think of these words as an admonition.

Naoko Mitsuda
TempleBeautiful Ltd.