In 1943, Edgar Cayce received a letter from a woman asking for a physical reading for her four-year-old daughter. The mother described the child as being high strung and nervous. She wrote that, sometimes after taking her afternoon nap, the child “awakes in a lost, distraught frame of mind, [w]rings her hands and cries ceaselessly. It seems to be a sort of seizure or fit. I am very quiet with her and in about a half hour she becomes normal again, and she doesn't seem to have any recollection of what troubled her.”

Cayce nailed the cause of the child’s distress right away. It was a quick return. She had reincarnated too quickly and was carrying over memories and fears from a former life during World War II, less than nine months before her present birth.

For, here we have a quick return - from fear, to fear through fear. [The child should] be kept away from fear, away from loud noises, darkness, the scream of sirens, the shouts of individuals...

For, the entity was only just coming to that awareness of [the] beauty of associations, of friendships, of the beautiful outdoors, nature, flowers, birds, and of God's manifestations...and then the tramping of feet, the shouts of arms, brought destructive forces.

The entity then was only a year to two years older than in the present experience [and] finds the world such a turmoil...in its dreams, its visions...Then...in the name Theresa Schwalendal, was on the coasts of Lorraine [France]. The entity only passed out and then in less than nine months again entered a material world.

Edgar Cayce reading 3162-1

The reading closed by telling the parents how to heal the child’s trauma and promised a blessing to many people.

Be patient. Do not scold. Do not speak harshly. Do not fret nor condemn...But do tell [her] daily of the love that Jesus had for little children, of peace and harmony; never those stories such of the witch, never those as of fearfulness of any great punishment; but love, patience. This do, and we will find a great, a wonderful soul, that has come again to bless many.

Edgar Cayce reading 3162-1

Because life in the earth is so very challenging, the Cayce readings state that the longer the time period that we spend out of the earth in the nonphysical dimensions between lifetimes, the greater our progress tends to be. Souls who rush back to reincarnate quickly are often making it more difficult on themselves.

For oft, the longer the periods between the earthly sojourns the greater has been - or may be - the development of the soul entity to that which EACH soul IS to attain through its appearances among men.

Edgar Cayce reading 1486-1

Even Edgar Cayce wondered about his next lifetime. When he asked about his next incarnation, he was told:

As to when - it may be perhaps a hundred, two hundred, three hundred, a thousand years - as you may count time in the present. This may not be given. For how gave He? The day no man knoweth, ONLY the Father in heaven knoweth it...

Edgar Cayce reading 294-189