Three Edgars

By Douglas Bonar

I’d like to introduce you to three people who truly influenced my life trajectory and whose writings I’ve found relevant to a broader evolutionary context, in sync with my writing on the emerging story of oneness, wholeness and interbeing.  To me, they all offer hope for the future of humanity.  Via a mixture of pure chance, synchronicity and intent, I was introduced to them, and I intuited that they had important information about the emerging story. Only now, at my “ripe age” am I understanding the significance of their contributions.  I continue to be inspired and learn from them. 

Across the last century, three amazing thinkers named Edgar — Edgar Cayce, Edgar Mitchell, and Edgar Cahn — opened doorways into what it means to be fully human. They lived in different locations in the country (United States), worked in different domains, and spoke to different audiences, yet their contributions form a coherent arc. Together, they describe a lineage of insight about consciousness, human potential, and the structures of society that either suppress or unleash that potential.

Full disclosure.  I’m writing this with the aid of AI.  I use Co-Pilot.  I’m aware of controversies surrounding this technology, and I’m trying to use it wisely, morally, and with due discernment. I submit that my questions posed to the tool function as the guiding light of this musing, and I acknowledge that I’m sometimes blown away by the value of the automated replies.

Edgar Cayce (1887 – 1945) gave us an embodied dimension of human consciousness. Edgar Mitchell gave us a cosmic dimension. Edgar Cahn gave us the civic dimension. Taken together, they offer a blueprint for conscious evolution — not as abstraction, but as a lived, social, and actionable reality.

I must note here that I recently finished reading Bruce Lipton’s newest book, Beyond Darwin.  He emphasizes the significance of conscious evolution as a path forward in the pursuit of justice, peace and collective awakening. He notes that “… Darwinian success is motivated by the greed that drives the ‘success’ of the 1 percent.  In contrast, the profound insight offered by conscious evolution is that evolution is not based on the behavior of individuals.  Instead, it is predicated on the integration and influence of the whole community and how they relate to the harmony of the biosphere.”   I believe that the three Edgars provided me with the impetus for personal transformation as well as the deep yearning for “global mind change” and planetary transformation.  It is about the evolution of consciousness – not just my consciousness, but the collective consciousness. 

I’ve written about conscious evolution in past articles.  One of my mentors, Barbara Marx Hubbard, wrote the book of this name: Conscious Evolution.  It is my belief that this is our superpower and innate gift in addressing the polycrisis facing humanity. The Edgars demonstrated in their own unique ways the evolutionary potential that is emerging.  My upcoming course on the emerging story details an understanding of this evolutionary narrative, how to embody it, and how to activate it in pursuit of “the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible.” 

I first encountered the writings of Edgar Cayce fifty years ago.  I was influenced by peers who were truly more curious and enlightened than I was at the time.  I had recently returned from Vietnam and was living with my new bride in Miami.  She and her friends were reading The Sleeping Prophet by Hugh Lynn Cayce, Edgar’s son.  I was seeking career direction and personal development in dealing with my acquired addictions.  I read the book and engaged in many discussions about the content.  My career direction became clearer, and my healing was beginning as I opened up to human potential. 

Known as the “sleeping prophet,” Cayce offered thousands of readings that blended medical intuition, spiritual insight, and psychological guidance. Whether one interprets his work literally or symbolically, Cayce’s legacy is clear: he embodied what it looks like when the noetic dimension becomes functional in everyday life.

Cayce’s readings suggested that the human mind can access information beyond the five senses; that the body is responsive to consciousness, intention, and emotional coherence; that healing is a multidimensional process involving spirit, mind, and body; and that human beings are not isolated individuals but expressions of a larger, evolving soul-field.

I remember thinking back then, “Wow!”  If he’s capable of this, what are we, as humans, capable of?!  What am I capable of?!  In my current writing on emergence, it’s not just about understanding oneness, wholeness and interbeing, it's about embodying and activating this budding potential.  Cayce demonstrated the embodiment.  Following my discharge from the military, my fascination led me to declare my community college major – psychology.  Per AI, Cayce’s contribution is the embodiment of possibility: He showed that intuition can be practical, not merely inspirational; that consciousness can access information that transforms lives; and he modeled a form of service rooted in compassion, humility, and attunement. This remains a guiding light for my work. 

Approximately 25 years later, I encountered Edgar Mitchell (1930 – 2016).  By this time, I had an undergraduate degree in psychology, and two graduate degrees in the field of counseling.  I was licensed as a Mental Health Counselor and was employed as a multidisciplinary consultant on cases of child abuse and neglect.  I was attending a New Thought spiritual community and thoroughly invested in conscious evolution.  My graduate thesis, published in 1983, was on the use of transpersonal counseling in a prison setting.

When astronaut Edgar Mitchell returned from the moon in 1971, he experienced something that would change the trajectory of his life and eventually the cultural conversation about consciousness. As he watched the Earth suspended in the blackness of space, he felt a sudden, overwhelming sense of unity — a direct knowing that everything is interconnected. This was not a belief, not a philosophy, but a noetic experience: a moment of knowledge through direct inner perception.  This is the essence of grokking wholeness. It is a deep experiential knowledge beyond cognition. 

Mitchell founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) to study precisely this kind of knowing. He insisted that consciousness was not an epiphenomenon of the brain but a fundamental aspect of reality. His work helped legitimize the scientific study of intuition, interconnectedness, and non‑local mind. I first met Edgar Mitchell when The Connection Partners, founded by Sharon Joy Kleitsch, brought him to town for the launch of the Suncoast Community IONS (SCIONS) group.  Sharon Joy facilitated the group until 2010 when I took over for the next ten years.  Dr. Mitchell lived in Florida and occasionally attended our meetings as a speaker.  I attended his funeral with Sharon Joy and Bob Staretz in West Palm Beach in 2016.

Mitchell gave us the map of the noetic landscape — the understanding that human consciousness is far more expansive than we had been taught, and that this expansiveness was not mystical fantasy but a natural human capacity. The IONS map of transformation takes us from the noetic experience of oneness to finding a practice to help foster the experience, and then transcending identity from Me to We.  In the final arc of the transformational spiral, we bring our awareness of interconnectedness to the community and in service to humanity. We are one and connected, with each other, a living earth, and the nous – the intelligent universe known by many names.  This understanding is the path to global mind change and world peace according to the IONS map and, again, in synch with my intuitive knowing.  The map provides a framework for my course in the emerging story. 

If Mitchell mapped the field and Cayce embodied it, Edgar Cahn asked the essential question: What good is expanded consciousness if it does not transform society?  To me, this is liberation theology in action.  As a self-proclaimed Bodhisattva, I believe we are incarnated to serve humanity and help relieve suffering.  Edgar Cahn was a pillar of this movement. 

Edgar Cahn (1935 – 2022), a civil rights lawyer and the founder of Time Banking, understood that the deepest crises of modern life — inequality, isolation, and the devaluation of human beings — are not technical problems but relational ones. They arise from a worldview that treats people as expendable and measures value only in monetary terms.

Time Banking was Cahn’s radical intervention. It is built on a simple principle: every human being has value, and every hour of contribution is worth one hour of anyone else’s contribution. In other words, dignity is not earned; it is inherent.

I met Edgar Cahn when The Connection Partners (predominantly, Marie Nelson) invited him to St. Petersburg, FL to introduce Time Banking in the state.  I’m still proud to show off his book, which he autographed, entitled No More Throw Away People.  As I wrote above, the emerging story is not only about a cognitive understanding of our interconnectedness.  Rather, it is about embodying it (the noetic experience) and then activating it to bring back to the community.  This for me is consistent with the path of the Bodhisattva.  This is the path to end suffering.  When I joined Time Banking, little did I know the power behind the ideal. I just thought it an easy and affordable way to get my house painted.  I now understand that the Time Bank, if widely applied, has the potential to be the infrastructure, or mycelial network, to weather a possible economic collapse of the current monetary system.  A large piece of my life’s purpose is now promoting this alternate economy.

I invite anyone reading this musing to explore the writing about Edgar Cayce, the IONS website (noetic.org), and Time Banking to ascertain if there is a network near you.  If not, consider starting one.  You are also invited to join the Tampa Bay Time Bank and the St. Pete Time Bank.  You are invited to join my Oneness and Social Justice groups within each of the local time banks.  It is my intention that people will earn Time Bank hours for attending nonpartisan social justice events and get hours for attending my Emerging Story course when it is launched. 

I end this musing with a prayer.  It is a prayer of higher good, for all beings.  Called the Metta Meditation in Buddhism, I simplify it to the following: May all beings be happy.  May all beings know peace.  The three Edgars paved the way for me to not only experience joy and inner peace, but to offer it to others.  My life has meaning and purpose thanks to these three great influencers.