Who is Edgar Cayce?

Edgar Cayce was born in 1877 and died in 1945. His life might have been unremarkable except for a gift he possessed, a gift he himself did not understand. Cayce was what in his lifetime was called a clairvoyant, a word you don’t hear as much now. Since his death he has been called a psychic, a mystic, and a prophet. But in his own day, he was just a man born into the rural community of Hopkinsville, Kentucky who tried to make a living as a bookstore clerk and later as a studio photographer.

He'd had one remarkable event as a lad that gave a hint of what was to come. When he suffered a head injury, he had spoken in his sleep and given information on how to make a poultice that he said would cure the injury. His parents made the poultice and it did heal his injury. Later, as a young man, he had repeatedly lost his voice until he was unable to talk except in a whisper. This got so bad it left him unable to work and despondent, since he wanted to get married. A hypnotist heard about his condition and offered to cure Edgar for a fee, but the man's repeated attempts did not solve the problem. In the hypnotized state, Edgar would speak normally, but when he awakened, his voice would be the same squeaky whisper. The hypnotist finally gave up, the fee uncollected.

Discovering His Ability

A local man named Layne who had always wanted to be a doctor, was an amateur hypnotist. He heard about the failure of the other hypnotist and felt he could do better and offered to try hypnosis again. The other hypnotist had said Edgar resisted going into the third stage, a deep sleep where hypnotic suggestion could take root. Layne discovered that Edgar could easily put himself into this deep sleep and once in this trance-like state, he felt Edgar could locate the cause of his inability to speak normally. Edgar explained that he could always put himself into a deep trance. He did so and explained the problem and said the solution was to increase the circulation to the affected area for a short time. The onlookers observed an area of his thoat become pink, then red. Edgar then told the hypnotist to suggest that the circulation return to normal and that the body awaken. The hypnotist did as Edgar said and Edgar woke up and spoke normally; his problem was fixed.

Edgar was delighted just to have his life back and looked forward to marrying his beloved Gertrude. But Layne saw in Edgar’s ability something unusual that could benefit others. He convinced Edgar that he should use this ability to help other people. Edgar was ever-suspicious of his own talent and agreed, but said he would not take any money for doing it, despite the fact that he had been unable to amass enough money to buy a house for Gertrude; they finally got married anyhow and lived in a rooming house. The whole story of Edgar’s problems and his ability to diagnose in a trance had been in the local papers and many people wanted his services. Layne began booking appointments and Edgar would go into trance and state a cause and potential cure for each ailment. He later stopped working with Layne, who he never quite trusted.

The Medical Cures

In these sessions, Edgar would go into trance and begin by saying “We have the body…” then go on to state where the problem was in the body and how it could be fixed. The cures he suggested in trance were remedies known in his own time. He would sometimes tell them to see a particular practitioner, at times an osteopath or chiropractor, other times a medical doctor. Sometimes his cures sounded ridiculous, like the time he told a woman to eat a raw lemon with salt each day. Her doctor had told her she needed an operation, but in three weeks of the lemon and salt routine she was cured. His record of successes grew and so did his fame. But he still refused to take money for what he did since he said he did not know how he did it.

He accomplished several famous cures, one of a five-year-old girl, the daughter of a prominent citizen of Hopkinsville, who had been given up as mentally defective and unable to speak. Cayce saw that her problems stemmed from an old injury and described the treatment she needed. This treatment worked and the girl spoke to her parents and began developing normally. Another famous cure was his own son, Hugh Lynn, whose eyes had been badly injured in an accident with flash powder at Cayce’s photographic studio. Doctors said he would never see, but Cayce went into a trance and said Hugh Lynn needed to be kept in the dark for ten days with compresses of tannic acid applied to his eyes. This sounded pretty weird, but the Cayces tried it and Hugh Lynn had his eye sight fully restored.

The Life Readings

Edgar Cayce eventually gave what came to be known as “life readings” where instead of diagnosing a physical problem, he talked about the person’s life. He would use the same technique, a deep trance, and in this state answer questions and offer information about the person whose life he was “reading.” In all, he gave over 2500 of these readings. Everything said in these sessions would be written down by someone in attandance. For most of the years in which he did these life readings, the person who did this recording was a woman named Gladys who believed in Edgar and became as part of their family. In these life readings, he began telling people of their past lives, and he frequently told people they had lived before in a place called Atlantis. It is these life readings that are of the most interest today. Through these readings and a number of “special readings” given on specific topics in his later years, a picture emerges of mankind’s past. It is this material that has made the unusual ability of Edgar Cayce of interest to seekers.

How did Edgar Cayce do what he did? Could he see into the past, or was he tapping into the memories and knowledge of those for whom he did readings? Cayce himself was a devout Christian with no prior belief in reincarnation, but his readings indicated that people had multiple lives. Cayce’s first biographer, Thomas Sugrue (who had been a roommate to Hugh Lynn Cayce in college), speculated on the source of this discovery of past lives. He said such a belief is basic to a mature civilization and notes it is found in the older religions. “…preexistence,” he explains “is a theory for mature minds and subtle imaginations; among simple egos it causes fear, despair, and social stagnation.” Sugrue suggested that once we could get past the idea of linear time, we could think of these many lives as aspects of the same entity, actually existing together.

The Association for Research and Enlightenment

An organization called The Association for Research and Enlightenment (ARE) has preserved all the readings of Edgar Cayce. This organization has done a great deal of investigation and research, trying to confirm what Cayce said in his readings. They have also published many books that examine or deal with the ideas expressed in the Cayce readings. The organization is located in Virginia Beach where the Cayces lived; his children and grandchildren have been involved with this organization, but it also has many members whose lives were touched by Cayce or who have read of him in several good biographies (There is a River by Thomas Sugrue, The Sleeping Prophet by Jess Stearn, Edgar Cayce: Mystery Man of Miracles by Joseph Millard).

Although Cayce has been called a prophet, he had no such vision of himself. His work emphasized personal development and understanding and he remained a Christian throughout his life. He always referred to Jesus as “the Prince of Peace.” His family resisted any attempt to deify this man who, throughout his life, struggled just to make a living. Biographer Joseph Millard describes one time when Edgar, Gertrude and Gladys were down to their last thirteen cents. A knock came at the door where they were staying and Edgar figured it was the landlord about to evict them for non-payment of the rent. Instead it was a man wanting an urgent reading for someone who was ill; he gave Edgar $25. The story of Edgar Cayce's life is a story of ups and downs, with plenty of hard times. His gift helped many people, but did not spare his family from hardships or the scorn of the skeptical.

As the readings took up most of his time, he did take money ($25 per reading was his standard fee, if people could afford it), but the idea of actually profiting from helping people, especially when the source of help was so mysterious, always bothered him. He at times felt like a failure because he never seemed to achieve any stability, but he had many people who believed in him. He finished his life in Virginia Beach, an old man who was partially paralyzed and weary. He died in his comfortable chair, watching a beautiful sunset. He had predicted his own death, declaring that on January 3, 1945 he would “be healed.” It was then that Edgar Cayce departed this plane. He would never have liked being called a prophet. He just wanted to use his gift to help others.

The Concepts in the Life Readings

Here are the most interesting and controversial of the ideas in Edgar Cayce’s life readings:

Atlantis -- Atlantis existed as an advanced civilization over a very long period of time. There were three breakups of the Atlantean land, with the last being the final demise of their culture. The three time-periods seem to be about 50,000 years ago, then again at 28,000 years ago, and finally at about 10,000 years ago. There was considerable warning this last time and many Atlanteans went to Egypt or South America to found new civilizations. Atlantis was located in the Atlantic ocean and parts of Bimini may have been part of Atlantis.

The Hall of Records -- The Atlanteans who went to Egypt and helped begin the known Egyptian culture brought with them records of their former homeland. These records are buried in a chamber somewhere under the Great Sphynx. The ARE has sponsored research in Egypt in an attempt to find the Hall of Records. Egyptologist Mark Lehner was sponsored by the ARE in order to gain goodwill for the organization in Egypt and in hopes the Egyptian government would permit a search for a chamber near the sphynx. Even Egyptian Antiquities Cheif Zahi Hawass has taken money from the ARE to further his education.

Reincarnation -- Cayce’s life readings always included information on past lives. The actions taken in these past lives were shown to be affecting the current life. A person might be crippled, for instance, because they had caused someone else to be crippled in a previous life. This is the law of karma. Cayce referred to the people he was reading as “entities” and to incarnations as “in this plane.” His readings clearly reveal another plane of life where entities exist between lives on earth.

Man’s Origins -- Cayce tells us neither the creationists nor the evolutionists have it right. He says the races of man appeared simultaneously in different parts of the earth. Man’s true nature is spirit, but spiritual entities chose to become material and enter into this plane. Cayce called them “thought forms.” In the beginnings of Atlantis, man was androgynous, both male and female. Entities did not all have the human form; some had animal forms or appendages. Gradually, these disappeared and man took on his present human form.

The Akashic Record-- Everything that has ever happened is contained in a "record" that exists somewhere in the spirit world and can be accessed; this was the source of Cayce's information about the past

Ancient Technology-- We are not the first technical society. Atlantis had sources of great power and many people misused the power. Their vehicles, which could operate in the air or in water, were powered from a large crystal. They may have had nuclear power (Cayce’s descriptions of technology are clumsy and ambiguous; he gave the readings in the years before the development of nuclear power).

More Information About the Spirit World

Edgar Cayce concentrated on helping people who wanted to know about themselves — how they acquired the problems and tendencies they had in this life, but his answers reveal that the souls of people have existed long before this life and will continue to exist after this life. What can we learn about the world of spirit? See my articles on Spiritism, information revealed to Allan Kardec, and about Life After Death, as revealed in the books of four authors.

Books

My Life as a Seer: The Lost Memoirs -- actual memoirs and notes of Edgar Cayce

Mysteries of Atlantis Revisited:
The Century's Greatest Psychic Confronts One of the World's Oldest Mysteries by Edgar Evans Cayce (Edgar's youngest son )

Edgar Cayce: The Sleeping Prophet by Jess Stearn

Story of Edgar Cayce: There Is a River by Thomas Sugrue

Many Mansions: The Edgar Cayce Story on Reincarnation (Signet) by Gina Cerminaria

Edgar Cayce: An American Prophet by Stanley D. Kirkpatrick

More books available from The Association for Research and Enlightenment (ARE)