Overview Edgar Cayce first achieved local notoriety for having lost his voice yet being able to speak during
hypnosis. Other abilities attributed to Cayce include
astral projection,
prophecy,
mediumship, access to the
Akashic records,
Book of Life, and seeing
auras,
astrology and
dreamwork.
Early life in Kentucky Cayce was born on March 18, 1877, in
Christian County, Kentucky. His parents, Carrie Elizabeth (
née Major) and Leslie Burr Cayce, were
farmers and the parents of six children. Cayce was raised in the
Disciples of Christ. In December 1893, the Cayce family moved to
Hopkinsville, Kentucky, where they lived at 705 West Seventh, on the southeast corner of Seventh and Young Streets. Cayce received an eighth-grade education. Cayce's education ended in ninth grade because his family could not afford the cost. On March 14, 1897, Cayce became engaged to Gertrude Evans. In September, papers announced Cayce had taken a position with John P. Morton and left for
Louisville. He began an apprenticeship at the photography studio of W. R. Bowles in Hopkinsville and became proficient in his trade.
Loss of voice In February 1900,
Hart the Laugh King, a stage hypnotist, performed in Hopkinsville. He would return to Hopkinsville in 1903. Decades later, Hart would be named as having hypnotized Cayce in an attempt to restore his voice. According to a 1901 newspaper account, on the night of April 18, 1900, Cayce lost his voice and was unable to speak above a whisper. The condition reportedly forced him to leave his job as a salesman for work in photography instead. In May 1900, the local paper reported that Cayce had been unable to speak above a whisper except when under hypnosis, when his voice returned. In June, papers reported Cayce was attending business college in Louisville. On February 12, 1901, papers reported Cayce had awoken with his voice spontaneously and inexplicably recovered.
Relationship with Al Layne The following year, in April 1902, Cayce authored a public endorsement that attributed his cured voice to the treatment of "Osteopath and Electro-Magnetical Doctor" A.C. Layne. In May 1902, Cayce got a job in a bookshop in
Bowling Green, Kentucky. He returned to Hopkinsville to visit his parents in September. The following January, he returned to the town to attend his sister's wedding. Cayce married Gertrude Evans on June 17, 1903, and she moved to Bowling Green. By June 24, newspapers published stories of Cayce going into a trance to help Lane diagnose a patient who was not physically present. Cayce denied being a spiritualist, saying he was an active member of the Christian Church. An article from 1904 mentions Cayce's refusal to charge for medical readings. In 1904, Cayce claimed he had developed the card game
Pit and sent it to
Parker Brothers. Cayce and his wife had three children: Hugh Lynn Cayce (1907–1982), Milton Porter Cayce (1911–1911), and Edgar Evans Cayce (1918–2013). Layne revealed the trance reading activity to the professionals at the boarding house (one of whom was a
magistrate and
journalist), and the state medical authorities forced him to close his practice. He left to acquire osteopathic qualifications in
Franklin. Cayce and a relative opened a
photographic studio in Bowling Green, the studio burned down on December 25, 1906. His first son was born on March 16, 1907, and later that year, a second fire burned down the studio once again. In January 1908, he authored a query to the Nashville Banner newspaper about the
phase of the moon at a certain time in 1864. In 1908, Cayce declared bankruptcy.
Relationship with Wesley Ketchum Wesley Harrington Ketchum was born in
Lisbon, Ohio, on November 11, 1878, to Saunders C. Ketchum and Bertha Bennett and was the oldest of seven children. He graduated from the Cleveland College of Homeopathic Medicine in 1904, and practiced medicine in
Hopkinsville, Kentucky until 1912. Ketchum went to
Honolulu, Hawaii via
San Francisco in 1913 and opened a new practice. He returned to
California in 1918 and established an office in
Palo Alto, practicing there until the 1950s. Ketchum retired to southern California around 1963, settling in
San Marino. In 1964, Ketchum wrote
The Discovery of Edgar Cayce, published by the
A.R.E. Press. Ketchum was a homeopath who worked with Cayce from 1910 to 1912. After declaring bankruptcy, Cayce found work at the H. P. Tresslar photography firm. In the fall of 1910, Cayce became the subject of increasing publicity for his medical readings. On October 9, 1910, Cayce was profiled by
The New York Times in a story titled "Illiterate Man Becomes a Doctor When Hypnotized". In November 1910, Cayce's photography studio was advertised in the local paper. In 1911, the Kansas City Post reported that Layne had supposedly cured Cayce of an ailment by consulting Cayce's own reading while under hypnosis. On January 17, 1911, Cayce and his father gave a public demonstration at a suite in Louisville's
Seelbach Hotel. In June, a
Nashville newspaper advertised Cayce's readings. In 1911, Cayce was briefly mentioned in an
encyclopedia. In 1912, Cayce and his father
filed suit for $28,000 in damages against A.D. Noe Sr. and Jr. who had been under contract to assist in the medical clairvoyant practice. On March 28, Cayce's second child was born; however, the baby died on May 17. Gertrude later became ill with
tuberculosis. According to Cayce's account, he discovered in 1912 that Ketchum had
gambled with their earnings. As a result, Cayce quit the company immediately and returned to the Tresslar photography firm in Selma, Alabama. In March 1913, the
Evansville Courier and Press covered a
breach of contract lawsuit involving Cayce's business under the headline
Occult Powers Go Bankrupt - Suit for Breach of Contract Grows out of Peculiar Medical Diagnosis.
Selma period (1912–1923) On July 31, 1912, Cayce was elected as an officer of a Sunday School organization in Selma. In February 1915, local papers reported Cayce's voice had returned after three months of silence. On February 8, 1917, an event in
New York was held supposedly receiving a telepathic message from Cayce, who was in Alabama. In 1920, Cayce's claims were published along with a suggestion that he would soon host
Arthur Conan Doyle. Cayce's increasing popularity attracted
entrepreneurs who wanted to use his reported clairvoyance. Although he was reluctant to help them, he was persuaded to give readings; this left him dissatisfied with himself. A cotton
merchant offered him a hundred dollars a day for readings about the cotton market but, despite his poor finances, Cayce refused the merchant's offer. Some people wanted to know where to hunt for treasure, and others wanted to know the outcome of horse races. From 1920 to 1922, Cayce participated in attempts to use psychic powers to drill oil wells in
San Saba, Texas. In May 1921, Texas papers announced plans for the Cayce Petroleum Company to begin drilling about six miles north of San Saba. In June 1922, Cayce advertised free baby picture day at his studio in Selma. On October 10, 1922, Cayce was profiled about his medical clairvoyance. On October 18, papers reported Cayce had addressed a local writers group, covering topics like reincarnation and evolution of the soul. That month, Cayce addressed the Birmingham Theosophical Society. In November, he gave a talk to a Birmingham women's group. A local paper ran a statement by the "friends of Edgar Cayce" mentioning plans for a hospital in Birmingham. In September 1923 he hired Gladys Davis, who would serve as his secretary for the next two decades, transcribing his readings in
shorthand. By October, he was associated with the "Cayce Institute of Psychic Research".
Arthur Lammers and Dayton, Ohio, period Arthur Lammers, a wealthy printer and student of
metaphysics, persuaded Cayce to give readings on philosophical subjects in 1923. He told Cayce that in his trance state, he spoke about Lammers' past lives and
reincarnation (in which Lammers believed). Reincarnation was a popular contemporary subject, but is not an accepted part of
Christian doctrine. Because of this, Cayce questioned his
stenographer about what he said in his trance state and remained unconvinced. He challenged Lammers' statement that he had validated
astrology and reincarnation: :Cayce: I said all that? ... I couldn't have said all that in one reading. :Lammers: No. But you confirmed it. You see, I have been studying metaphysics for years, and I was able by a few questions, by the facts you gave, to check what is right and what is wrong with a whole lot of the stuff I've been reading. The important thing is that the basic system which runs through all the
religions, is backed up by you. Cayce's stenographer recorded the following: :In this we see the plan of development of those individuals set upon this plane, meaning the ability to enter again into the presence of the Creator and become a full part of that creation. :Insofar as this entity is concerned, this is the third appearance on this plane, and before this one, as the monk. We see glimpses in the life of the entity now as were shown in the monk, in this mode of living. The body is only the vehicle ever of that spirit and soul that waft through all times and ever remain the same. Cayce was unconvinced that he had been referring to reincarnation, but Lammers believed that the reading "open[ed] up the door" and continued to share his beliefs and knowledge with him. Lammers seemed intent upon convincing Cayce, because he felt that the reading confirmed his own strongly held beliefs. Lammers asked Cayce to come to
Dayton, Ohio to pursue metaphysical truth via the readings, and Cayce eventually agreed. Cayce produced considerable metaphysical information in Dayton, which he tried to reconcile with
Christianity. Lammers, who wanted to determine the purpose of Cayce's clairvoyant readings, wanted to put up money for an
organization supporting Cayce's healing methods. Cayce decided to accept the work, and asked his family to join him in Dayton as soon as possible. By the time the Cayce family arrived near the end of 1923, however, Lammers was in financial difficulties. At this time, Cayce directed himself to readings centered around health. The remedies reportedly channeled often involved
electrotherapy,
ultraviolet light,
diet,
massage, less mental work and more relaxation. They were noticed by the
American Medical Association, and Cayce felt that it was time to legitimize his operations with the aid of licensed medical practitioners. He reported that in a trance in 1925, "the voice" advised him to move to
Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Blumenthal as patron (1926–1931) By 1925, Cayce was a professional psychic with a small staff of employees and volunteers. Cayce's readings increasingly had
occult or esoteric themes. Morton Blumenthal (who worked at the
New York Stock Exchange with his trader brother) became interested in the readings, shared Cayce's outlook, and offered to finance his vision; Blumenthal bought the Cayces a house in
Virginia Beach. The Association of National Investigations was incorporated in
Virginia on May 6, 1927. Blumenthal was the president, and his brother and several others were vice presidents. Cayce was
secretary and
treasurer, and Gladys was assistant secretary. To protect against prosecution, anyone requesting a reading was required to join the association and agree that they were participating in an experiment in psychic research. Moseley Brown, head of the psychology department at
Washington and Lee University, became convinced of the readings and joined the association in early 1928. In August 1928, Edgar Cayce was listed as bible class teacher affiliated with the local
presbyterian church. On October 11, 1928, the dedication ceremony of the
hospital complex was held. The complex contained a
lecture hall,
library, vault for storage of the readings, and
offices for researchers. There was also a large living room, a 12-car
garage, servants' quarters, and a
tennis court. It contained "the largest
lawn, in fact the only lawn, between the
Cavalier and
Cape Henry". Its first patient was admitted the following day. The facility enabled checking and rechecking the remedies, Cayce's goal. There were consistent remedies for many
illnesses (regardless of the patient), and Cayce hoped to produce a
compendium for use by the medical profession. Shankar A. Bhisey, a
chemist who also used "clairvoyant knowledge" to produce medicines, collaborated with Cayce to produce
atomidine. The ''raison d'être'' for the cures was the "
assimilation of needed properties through the
digestive system, from food taken into the body ... [All treatments, including all
schools and types of treatment, were given in order to establish] the proper
equilibrium of the assimilating system."
Salt packs,
poultices, hot
compresses,
chromotherapy,
magnetism, vibrator treatment,
massage, osteopathic manipulation,
dental therapy,
colonics,
enemas,
antiseptics,
inhalants,
homeopathy,
essential oils, and
mud baths were prescribed. Substances included
oils, salts,
herbs,
iodine,
witch hazel, magnesia,
bismuth,
alcohol, castoria,
lactated pepsin,
turpentine,
charcoal,
animated ash,
soda,
cream of tartar, aconite,
laudanum,
camphor, and
gold solution. These were prescribed to overcome conditions that prevented proper
digestion and assimilation of needed
nutrients from the prescribed diet. The aim of the readings was to produce a healthy body, removing the cause of a specific
ailment. Readings would indicate if the patient's recovery was problematic. There was a months-long waiting list. Blumenthal and Brown had ambitious plans for a
university dwarfing the hospital and a "parallel service for the mind and spirit", rivaling other universities in respectability. The university was scheduled to open on September 22, 1930. On September 16, Blumenthal called a meeting of the association and took over the hospital to curb expenses. He ended his support of the university after the first semester, and closed the association on February 26, 1931. Cayce removed the files of his readings from the hospital and brought them home. During the
Depression, Cayce turned his attention to spiritual teachings. In 1931, his friends and family asked him how they could become psychic. In response, Cayce created "study groups" and developed spiritual lessons over the subsequent eleven years. In his altered state, Cayce relayed to the groups that the purpose of life is not to become psychic but to become a more spiritually aware and loving person. Study group number one was told that they could "bring light to a waiting world", and the lessons would still be studied in a hundred years. The readings were now about
dreams,
coincidence (synchronicity), developing
intuition, the
Akashic records,
astrology,
past-life relationships,
soul mates and other esoteric subjects.
Association for Research and Enlightenment (ARE) On June 6, 1931, 61 people attended a meeting to carry on Cayce's work and form the
Association for Research and Enlightenment (ARE). In July, the new
non-profit association was incorporated. Cayce returned his house to Blumenthal and bought another. In 1931, Cayce promoted a
quack medicine formulation called Atomidine or
nascent iodine. People seeking a reading from Cayce were asked to join the ARE. This helped insulate Cayce from charges of
fortune-telling, which was
illegal in some
U.S. states, as he was not directly charging a
fee for his services but receiving a
salary from the member-supported ARE. Apart from supporting Cayce and his staff, a major emphasis of the early ARE was the encouragement of small groups devoted to spiritual study,
prayer, and
meditation. In November 1931, Cayce, wife Gertrude and secretary Gladys Davis were arrested for "pretending to tell fortunes." When charges were dismissed, papers noted that Cayce's readings included tales of ancient civilizations, including
Ancient Egypt,
El Dorado, and
Atlantis; Cayces' readings described
Bimini island as a mountaintop of Atlantis. In February 1932, Cayce gave a public lecture on the "Lost Continent of Atlantis". The association's first annual
congress was held in June 1932. Speakers discussed metaphysical and psychic subjects, and Cayce performed public readings.
Earth changes From 1932 to 1936, Cayce predicted that the year 1936 would be a year of cataclysmic changes. In February 1933, Cayce predicted that
San Francisco would be destroyed by
earthquake in 1936. In April 1935, he lectured in the
District of Columbia. In 1935, they were again arrested, this time in
Detroit for
practicing medicine without a license; Cayce was given
probation. In March 1936, Cayce reported a
dream: I had been born again in 2100 A.D. in
Nebraska. The sea apparently covered all of the western part of the country, as the city where I lived was on the coast. The family name was a strange one. At an early age as a child I declared myself to be Edgar Cayce who had lived 200 years before. Scientists, men with long beards, little hair, and thick glasses, were called in to observe me. They decided to visit the places where I said I had been born, lived, and worked in
Kentucky,
Alabama,
New York,
Michigan, and
Virginia. Taking me with them the group of scientists visited these places in a long, cigar-shaped metal flying ship which moved at a high speed. Water covered part of Alabama.
Norfolk, Virginia, had become an immense
seaport. New York had been destroyed either by
war or an immense earthquake and was being rebuilt. Industries were scattered over the countryside. Most of the houses were built of glass. Many records of my work as Edgar Cayce were discovered and collected. The group returned to Nebraska, taking the records with them to study... These changes in the earth will come to pass, for the time and times and half times are at an end, and there begins those periods for the readjustments.
Research library Cayce's son Hugh Lynn proposed that they develop a library of research into the phenomena exhibited by his father and sponsor study groups, with Cayce doing two readings a day. The association accepted this, and Hugh Lynn began publishing a monthly bulletin for association members. The bulletin contained readings on general-interest subjects, interesting cases, book reviews on psychic subjects, health hints from readings, and news about psychic phenomena in other fields. Hugh Lynn continued to build files of case histories, parallel studies in psychic phenomena, and research readings for the study groups. Association activities remained simple. Members raised funds for an office, library and vault, which they added to the Cayce residence in 1940–41. Association membership averaged 500 to 600, with the annual turnover about 50 percent. The other half was a solid basis for research, an audience for case studies,
pamphlets, and bulletins, including the congress bulletin, which was a
yearbook and record of congress events. A
mailing list of several thousand served people who remained interested in Cayce's activities. Members were drawn from a wide variety of
Christian denominations,
theosophy,
Christian Science, and
Spiritualism. ARE did not oppose any religious organization. Both sons served in the
military during
World War II, and both married: Hugh Lynn in 1941, and Edgar Evans in 1942.
1942 biography In March 1942,
Thomas Sugrue's published
There is a River, the only
biography written during Cayce's lifetime. As a result, popular interest in Cayce increased.
Angelic visitation According to the
book, in May 1889, while reading the
Bible in his
hut in the
woods, a young Cayce 'saw' a
woman with wings who told him that his
prayers were answered, and asked him what he wanted most of all. He was frightened, but he said that most of all he wanted to help others, especially sick children. He decided he would like to be a
missionary. ====
Sleep-learning==== According to the book, the next night, after a complaint from the school teacher, his father ruthlessly tested him for spelling, eventually knocking him out of his chair with exasperation. At that point, Cayce 'heard' the voice of the lady who had appeared the day before. She told him that if he could sleep a little 'they' could help him. He begged for a rest and put his head on the spelling book. When his father came back into the room and woke him up, he knew all the answers. In fact, he could repeat anything in the book. His father thought he had been fooling before and knocked him out of the chair again. Eventually, Cayce used all his school books that way. By 1892, the teacher regarded Cayce as his best student. On being questioned, Cayce told the teacher that he saw pictures of the pages in the books. His father became proud of this accomplishment and spread it around, resulting in Cayce becoming "different" from his peers. ====First
self-healing==== According to the book, shortly after this, Cayce exhibited an ability to diagnose in his sleep. He was struck on the base of the spine by a ball in a school game, after which he began to act very strangely, and eventually was put to bed. He went to sleep and diagnosed the cure, which his family prepared and which cured him as he slept. However, this ability was not demonstrated again for several years.
Voice restored According to Sugrue's text, local hypnotist Al Layne offered to help Cayce regain his voice. When Layne put Cayce into trance, Cayce communicated vocally. Cayce told Layne to give him (Cayce) a suggestion to increase
blood circulation to his throat. Layne gave the suggestion; Cayce's throat reportedly turned bright red, and after 20 minutes Cayce (still in a trance) declared the treatment over. On awakening, his voice was said to have remained normal. Relapses occurred, but were reportedly corrected by Layne until the cure was eventually permanent. Layne asked Cayce to describe Layne's ailments and suggest cures, and reportedly found the results accurate and effective. Layne considered Cayce's ability clairvoyance, and suggested that he offer his psychic diagnostic service to the public. Cayce was reluctant, since he had no idea what he was prescribing while asleep and did not know if his remedies were safe. He told Layne that he did not want to know anything about a patient, since it was not relevant. He agreed on the condition that readings would be free, and specified that if the readings ever hurt anyone, he would never do another. He began, with Layne's help, to offer free treatments to the townspeople. Layne described Cayce's method as "...a self-imposed hypnotic trance which induces clairvoyance". Reports of Cayce's work appeared in newspapers, which prompted a number of postal inquiries. Cayce said that he could work as effectively with a letter from an individual as with a person present in the room. Given a person's name and location, Cayce claimed that he could diagnose the physical and mental conditions of what he called "the entity" and provide a remedy. Cayce was still reticent and worried, because "one dead patient was all he needed to become a murderer". His fiancée agreed, and few people knew what he was doing. Hypnotic subjects were commonly believed to be susceptible to insanity or poor physical health.
Final years Cayce attained further national prominence in 1943 after the publication of "Miracle Man of
Virginia Beach" in
Coronet magazine. From June 1943 to June 1944, Cayce did 1,385 readings. In August 1944, Cayce collapsed. When he took a reading on his situation, he was instructed to rest until he was well or dead. He and Gertrude went to the
Virginia mountains, where he had a
stroke in September. He died on January 3, 1945, at age 67. Cayce was buried in Riverside Cemetery in
Hopkinsville, Kentucky. His wife Gertrude died three months later.
1999 posthumous publication Approximately half a century after Cayce's death it was discovered he had written an autobiographic memoir about his life. The memoir was compiled and edited by A. Robert Smith and published by St. Martin's Press under the title
My Life as a Seer: The Lost Memoirs. This memoir was later made available in e-book form by Macmillan Publishers. It can be viewed in the Internet Archive. ==Legacy==