The A.R.E. Media Room

Once I felt that I had taken enough notes from the transcripts of Edgar Cayce's readings collected at the library of the Association for Research and Enlightenment, I relaxed and spoke with the librarian from time to time. The librarian I liked was the one who knew what I had come to A.R.E. for and didn't ask me if I needed help every time I walked in, as the others always seemed to do. I would still come back and read other transcripts, but I varied my visits from then on.

One day I was talking with the librarian (sorry, I do not remember her name) and she mentioned that there were eleven named storms. She said something strange was happening with the weather. I did not fathom the significance of these statements. I expected unusual weather. I had witnessed the change in weather patterns over the years. We can only deal with the weather as it happens, I thought.

The librarian pointed out that there was a media room attached to the library. I guess she noticed that I hadn't spent time in there. She said that she met the guy who made the "Master Teacher" tapes. She said he was a nice guy and left a bunch of tapes for the library. Wasn't this the guy who was a party to the litigation over the copyright to A Course in Miracles? I realized that I wasn't absolutely sure and let it go. I agreed to watch a tape of "Master Teacher."

Walking into the media room felt a bit like I was walking into a time warp. Perhaps there were remnants of ancient Atlantis in the room that found their way in through Cayce's readings. The equipment was decades old, and so was most of the media. There were rows of metal shelves. The shelves held tapes - audio cassettes and VHS and some even older style tapes and a few CDs and DVDs. Many of the tapes I'd heard or had in my own collection years before. The were some Ken Wapnick tapes, some Marianne Williamson tapes, and most of these I had heard before. There were sets of Nightingale-Conant tapes. There were some movies on VHS.

The VHS tape of "Master Teacher" was set up for me and the viewing was on a 13-inch TV. I became aware that I had seen a minute or two of "Master Teacher" on the internet. I did not like his voice at all, but on the librarian's recommendation, I thought I'd give the tape a chance. A chance for what, I didn't know, but I watched about 15 minutes of the tape before stopping the playback. His approach didn't appeal to me. Clearly, he did appeal to some as he apparently had acquired an audience for his approach.

I put the tape back in its case and back on the shelf next to the many others like it. I looked around for something else to watch since the VHS tape machine and TV were up and running. i was the only one in the media room and I think I had the only set up that was going to work that day.

There was a tape of a Ken Wapnick talk that I would have liked to have watched again. I couldn't remember the name of the talk, but I thought I recognized it on the shelf. It was one I had on audio cassette, on VHS, and as a printed transcript. His best talk, I thought.1 But I wanted to find something I hadn't seen before.

Matter of Heart

I noticed the documentary of Jung's life, Matter of Heart. I had watched that documentary several times before and it is really wonderful. Next to it was a video tape of an interview with Jung. This video is what I chose to watch next. This was a beautiful interview. An man, obviously familiar with Jung's work, asked Jung relevant questions and let Jung complete his answer before speaking again. It was the highlight of the my day in the media room at the A.R.E. Library.

Parts of the interview I watched that day are included on the Matter of Heart documentary, but it was not the 1959 BBC "Face to Face" interview that I've included below for reference (this is also on the Matter of Heart video).

1. 1. Perhaps this is as good a time as any to explain something. At one time, during the 1980's, I had quite a large collection of Course related tapes, audio and video. Ken tapes, Marianne tapes, Course documentary tapes, Louise Hay tapes, etc. In the early 1990's I went to a party in Boulder, Colorado. Someone at the party mentioned A Course in Miracles. I had a large bag full of these Course tapes. The next day, I thought I'd bring the bag of tapes over and loan them to the people living at this house. Months later, I heard that the people were moving out of the house and I went back to get the bag of tapes back, but no one there knew what I was talking about. So, my collection of specifically Course related tapes is disbursed and I'm sure they found places to be of use to others. I'd heard them all. I have a pretty good memory. And now, there is youtube, lol!