Article Excerpt from Personal Spirituality, a publication of the Association for Research and Enlightenment, the legacy of famed American psychic Edgar Cayce ~ October 2004

By Lauren Thibodeau, Ph.D.

Sometimes knowing what's right and doing what's right don't equate.

Standing up for what's right takes courage.  And like most people, there are many times when I wish I had more of that powerful, cathartic kind of courage.  Remembering Edgar Cayce’s wise admonish men's, "Don't just be good, be good for something" has provided that extra boost of courage at times when knowing what's right and doing what's right didn't equate because I feared the negative consequences which would surely affect me.

Years ago I was hired to manage several departments for a public park district.  My boss began to make requests that I thought were unethical.  She wanted me to create and backdate purchase orders, for example, to cover invoices that needed to be paid.

I knew what she asked of me was wrong, despite her reasonable explanations.  And I knew if I did one thing, she'd want more.  And that's what I took the stand.  I chose to be good for something.  I told her I wouldn't do it.

For the next year she repeatedly attempted to have me fired for refusing to collaborate with are no-bid scheme to award contracts to her friends (one of whom she later married).  Through the worst times, I remembered the taxpayers who deserved better.  I thought about the workers who weren't as fortunate as me, who couldn't speak out.  Taking a public stand wouldn't be easy.  I knew it was right to speak out, but was doing good worth it?  Would anything really change?  I doubted it.

I recalled Cayce's advice, Be good for something.  My courage rose and I called an investigative reporter.  I gave him an inside scoop.  I went on the record.  I took a stand.  It was wrenchingly painful.

The episode caused me enough emotional distress that I sought a psychologist.  I hired a lawyer to help me as I prepared to resign.  I accepted another job for much less pay.  Because my business career had been ruined, I also signed on for graduate school in a different field from my MBA: counseling.

Just as I turned in my resignation, a former boss was fired and prosecuted for her crimes.  On the second day of my new job, the scandal hit the front page of the state's largest newspaper and stayed there for days.  It turned out that my new boss had taken a stand on a matter of ethics more than once, so we bonded, like hurricane survivors.

And maybe best of all the entire experience and doing good by speaking out served as the push I needed to pursue my doctorate, and claim of my true calling as an intuitive.  I am now unafraid to do good even when it hurts.  Because in the end I always when far more than I may lose.