DATE: Tuesday, September 23, 1997           TAG: 9709230259

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY PAUL CLANCY, staff writer 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   69 lines

BEACH'S SPIRITUAL EDUCATION CENTERS DECIDE TO GO THEIR SEPARATE WAYSARE AND ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY SPRANG FROM THE SAME VISION, BUT FORESEE DIFFERENT FUTURES.

A deep division over how to carry out the teachings of one of the world's best-known mystical thinkers has led to a parting of the ways between the Association for Research and Enlightenment and Atlantic University.

Leaders of the association and the graduate school, both founded by psychic Edgar Cayce, said Monday that the school will move its office and classes to a new location away from the ARE complex in the city's North End. The move will take place Oct. 1.

``We feel like it's a rebirth for us,'' said university chairman Frederick Kolb. ``They've agreed to let us loose and make our own way.''

At the same time, ARE officials said the association will soon begin its own new education programs, with courses in developing intuitive skills and finding fulfil-ling careers.

Atlantic University offers a graduate degree in ``transpersonal studies,'' to about 300 students, most of whom take courses by correspondence. About 30 live in the area and have gone to classes at the educational building on 67th Street and Atlantic Avenue.

The new space will be at the Little Neck Office Park next to the Norfolk State University-Old Dominion University Higher Education Center on Little Neck Road.

Kolb said ``quite a number'' of students were expected to return, although a ``small group'' had not been heard from. ``We don't know what they're going to do,'' he said.

Atlantic was to be a full-fledged university when it was founded in 1930, but the Depression caused it to close its doors a few years later. It was reborn in 1985 as a graduate program in studies that include cosmic influences in life and the universe.

Cayce was a small-town Kentucky photographer who developed a gift for diagnosing illnesses while in a deep trance, followers say. He was considered a seer and mystic. One of his trances led him to establishing the ARE headquarters in Virginia Beach.

But in recent years, the separate Atlantic University board of trustees wanted to move the school toward the mainstream, seeking accreditation with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

ARE's trustees said the school would either have to change its plans or pursue its mission at another location.

``We wish we could have convinced the AU board to go along with us, but they wanted to teach Psychology 101,'' said ARE executive director John Van Auken.

Charles Thomas Cayce, a grandson of Edgar Cayce and president of the Edgar Cayce Foundation, said, ``We are disappointed, but we feel it will be best for both organizations.''

Van Auken said ARE will go ahead with its plans to begin two new educational programs under Mark Thurston, a longtime ARE educator.

One will be a school of intuitive sciences, teaching students how to find ``guidance from within themselves.''

The second, a life purpose institute, would guide students to careers that are ``most deeply fulfilling.''

Van Auken said he did not know how soon the new programs would begin or whether they would offer graduate degrees.

Existing students, he said, should continue their degree programs at Atlantic University.

Although Kolb expressed optimism about the university's future, there seemed some uncertainty about how the program would carry on.

``We're going to teach some courses, even if it means we're going to have to get some new professors,'' he said. He did not elaborate.

``At this point, we don't even want to think about not making it,'' he added. KEYWORDS: EDGAR CAYCE FOUNDATION

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