Bro, Harmon Hartzell (1919-1997)

Professor of philosophy and religion and specialist in parapsychological aspects of religious life, including meditation, faith-healing, mystical experience, and conversion. He was born December 14, 1919, in Nanking, China to missionary parents. He studied at Williams College and the University of Chicago (B.A.); he pursued graduate education at St. Olaf College, Harvard Divinity School, and the University of Chicago Divinity School (Ph.D.). He was ordained a minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in 1943.

Bro served as associate professor of religion and psychology, George Williams College, Chicago, Illinois (1949-55), and held various academic positions and developed experimental programs. He was W. Earl Ledden Associate Professor of Religion and director of Institute for Religious Education at Syracuse University, New York (1956-59) and director of the Institute for Research in Psychology and Religion (1960-65). He has written widely on psychological and pastoral counseling issues. With his wife, Reverend June Avis (Larson), Bro directed the Pilgrim Institute for the study of contemporary spirituality.

Bro's friendship with Edgar Cayce led to his long relation-ship with the Association for Research and Enlightenment (ARE). His doctoral thesis, The Charisma of the Seer, examined the life and work of Cayce. Bro has been a frequent speaker at the ARE and has written a number of books on the Cayce material, including Edgar Cayce on Dreams (1968), Dreams in a Life of Prayer: The Approach of Edgar Cayce (1970), Edgar Cayce on Religion and Psychic Experience (1970), and A Seer Out of Season: The Life of Edgar Cayce (1989).

Bro died on September 13, 1997, in Hyannis, Massachusetts.

Sources:

Bro, Harmon Hartzell. Begin a New Life: The Approach of Edgar Cayce. New York: Harper & Row, 1971.

——. Dreams in a Life of Prayer: The Approach of Edgar Cayce. New York: Paperback Library, 1970.

——. Edgar Cayce on Dreams. New York: Castle Books, 1968.

——. Edgar Cayce on Religion and Psychic Experience. New York: Paperback Library, 1970.

——. High Play; Turning on without Drugs. New York: Coward-McCann, 1970.

——. A Seer Out of Season: The Life of Edgar Cayce. New York: New American Library, 1989.