I grew up in a small conservative Southern Missionary Baptist community in north Alabama, so I didn't believe in reincarnation until 1984 while I was working with the USCG in Mobile, Alabama, and a coworker loaned me a book entitled "Many Lives, Many Mansions" about reincarnation. It says that Edgar Cayce was a young boy growing up in Kentucky who had strong psychic powers. He learned he could heal people by going into a trance and consulting medical advisors on how to heal a patient in his room, and he was very successful, so news spread around the country and lots of sick people started coming to him to be healed.
One day he was in a trance trying to heal a patient when the patient asked him why he was going through so many disasters. Cayce replied, "In your last life, you did this and that, so now you're being punished for that behavior." It was the first time Cayce had ever said anything about reincarnation, so everyone in the room were surprised.
While Cayce was in a trance, he learned from some experts that everyone lives several lives until they have learned everything they need to learn in order to advance maybe to life on another planet. The news spread quickly, and people started visited him to learn more about reincarnation. I have a book about Edgar Cayce and previously had the book entitled "Many Lives, Many Mansions" but it was stolen from me. Sorry, I have to leave. Best wishes to everyone! Jean Jones