A BRIEF STORY ABOUT EDGAR CAYCE
by John Van Auken

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Edgar Cayce (pronounced, KAY-see) was born on a farm near Hopkinsville, Kentucky, on March 18, 1877. As a child, he displayed unusual powers of perception. At the age of six, he told his parents that he could see and talk with "visions," sometimes of relatives who had recently died, and even angels. He could also sleep with his head on his schoolbooks and awake with a photographic recall of their contents, even sighting the page upon which the answer appeared. However, after completing seventh grade, he left school -- which was not unusual for boys at that time.

When he was twenty-one, he developed a paralysis of the throat muscles which caused him to lose his voice. When doctors were unable to find a physical cause for this condition, Edgar Cayce asked a friend to help him re-enter the same kind of hypnotic sleep that had enabled him to memorize his schoolbooks as a child. The friend gave him the necessary suggestions and, once he was in this trance state, Cayce spoke clearly and directly without any difficulty. He instructed the "hypnotist" to give him a suggestion to increase the bloodflow to his throat; when the suggestion was given, Cayce's throat turned blood red. Then, while still under hypnosis, Cayce recommended some specific medication and manipulative therapy which would aid in restoring his voice completely.

On subsequent occasions, Cayce would go into the hypnotic state to diagnose and prescribe healing for others, with much success. Doctors around Hopkinsville and Bowling Green, Kentucky, took advantage of Cayce's unique talent to diagnose their patients. They soon discovered that all Cayce needed was the name and address of a patient to "tune in" telepathically to that individual's mind and body. The patient didn't have to be near Cayce, he could tune-in to them wherever they were.

When one of the young M.D.s working with Cayce submitted a report on his strange abilities to a clinical research society in Boston, the reactions were amazing. On October 9, 1910, The New York Times carried two pages of headlines and pictures. From then on, people from all over the country sought the "sleeping prophet," as he was to become known.

The routine he used for conducting a trance-diagnosis was to recline on a couch, hands folded across his solar-plexus, and breathe deeply. Eventually, his eyelids would begin fluttering and his breathing would become deep and rhythmical. This was the signal to the conductor (usually his wife, Gertrude) to make verbal contact with Cayce's subconscious by giving a suggestion. Unless this procedure was timed to synchronize with his fluttering eyelids and the change in his breathing, Cayce would proceed beyond his trance state and simply fall fast asleep. However, once the suggestion was made, Cayce would proceed to describe the patient as though he or she were sitting right next to him, his mind functioning much as an x-ray scanner, seeing into every organ of their body. When he was finished, he would say, "Ready for questions." However, in many cases his mind would have already anticipated the patient's questions, answering them during the main session. Eventually, he would say, "We are through for the present," whereupon the conductor would give the suggestion to return to normal consciousness.

If this procedure were in any way violated, Cayce would be in serious personal danger. On one occasion, he remained in a trance state for three days and had actually been given up for dead by the attending doctors.

At each session, a stenographer (usually Gladys Davis Turner, his long-time personal secretary) would record everything Cayce said. Sometimes, during a trance session, Cayce would even correct the stenographer's spelling. It was as though his mind were in touch with everything around him and beyond.

Each client was identified with a number to keep their names private. For example, hypnotic material for Edgar Cayce is filed under the number 294. His first "reading," as they were called, would be numbered 294-1, and each subsequent reading would increase the dash number (294-2, 294-3 ,and so on). Some numbers refer to groups of people, such as the Study Group, 262; and some numbers refer to specific research or guidance readings, such as the 254 series, containing the Work readings dealing with the overall work of the organization that grew up around him, and the 364 and 996 series containing the readings on Atlantis.

It was August 10, 1923 before anyone thought to ask the "sleeping" Cayce for insights beyond physical health -- questions about life, death and human destiny. In a small hotel room in Dayton, Ohio, Arthur Lammers asked the first set of philosophical questions that were to lead to an entirely new way of using Cayce's strange abilities. It was during this line of questioning that Cayce first began to talk about reincarnation as though it were as real and natural as the functionings of a physical body. This shocked and challenged Cayce and his family. They were deeply religious people, doing this work to help others because that's what their Christian faith taught. Reincarnation was not part of their reality. Yet, the healings and help continued to come. So, the Cayce family continued with the physical material, but cautiously reflected on the strange philosophical material. Ultimately, the Cayce's began to accept the ideas, though not as "reincarnation," per se. Edgar Cayce preferred to call it, "The Continuity of Life." As a child, he began to read the Bible from front to back, and did so for every year of his life. He felt that it did contain much evidence that life, the true life in the Spirit, is continual.

Eventually, Edgar Cayce, following advice from his own readings, moved to Virginia Beach, Virginia, and set up a hospital where he continued to conduct his "Physical Readings" for the health of others. But he also continued this new line of readings called "Life Readings." From 1925 through 1944, he conducted some 2500 of these Life Readings, describing the past lives of individuals as casually as if everyone understood reincarnation were a reality. Such subjects as deep-seated fears, mental blocks, vocational talents, innate urges and abilities, marriage difficulties, child training, etc., were examined in the light of what the readings called the "karmic patterns" resulting from previous lives spent by the individual's soul on the earth plane.

When he died on January 3, 1945, in Virginia Beach, he left well over 14,000 documented stenographic records of the telepathic-clairvoyant readings he had given for more than 6,000 different people over a period of forty-three years.

The readings constitute one of the largest and most impressive records of psychic perception. Together with their relevant records, correspondence and reports, they have been cross-indexed under thousands of subject headings and placed at the disposal of doctors, psychologists, students, writers and investigators who still come to examine them. Of course, they are also available to the general public in topical books or complete volumes of the readings, as well as on CD ROM for PC and MacIntosh computers.

A organization, the Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.), was founded in 1932 as an open-membership research society, it continues to initiate and support investigation and experimentation, and conducts conferences, seminars and lectures. The A.R.E. also has the largest and finest library of parapsychological and metaphysical books in the world. The Edgar Cayce Foundation was founded to index, catalog, and preserve his work. Both organizations are headquartered in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

READING AND INTERPRETING HIS MATERIAL

Edgar Cayce's readings do present some difficulties in interpretation and understanding. First, they are somewhat difficult to read, mostly due to their syntax and the presence of archaic or biblical terms and style. They are written records of a verbal presentation, a process that occasionally does not carry the full intent that was expressed, and punctuation can significantly change the meaning or intent of the voiced statement. Also, most of the readings were given to specific people with uniquely personal perspectives and prejudices on the topics being discussed, and therefore, the responses were slanted to fit the seeker's perspective. For example, in a reading for one person, Cayce recommends one marriage for life, to another he recommends never getting married and to a third he encourages him to marry at least twice. In the few cases where a reading was purposefully for broader presentation to many people, even the masses, the "sleeping" Cayce was still somewhat at the mercy and wisdom of the those directing the session and asking the questions. Nevertheless, Cayce and his wife Gertrude and their assistant Gladys were very conscientious people, always seeking to be exact and true to the original intent of the reading. As I indicated earlier, the "sleeping" Cayce would occasionally stop his direct discourse to give an aside comment to the stenographer about the way she was recording the material, correcting spelling or giving a clarifying explanation of something he had just said. Finally, because some of Cayce's readings cover so many points within one sentence or paragraph, it can be difficult to determine which one he is referring to when the sentences or paragraphs are so complex. Despite all of this, with practice, one can become familiar enough with the syntax, terms and "thys," "thees," and "thous"; a repetitive use of the word "that"; and the complex thought pattern, that one can learn to read and understand Cayce’s readings.

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