Edgar Cayce (March 18, 1877 – January 3, 1945) was an American man known for having special abilities. He claimed to be able to diagnose illnesses and suggest treatments while sleeping. During thousands of recorded sessions, Cayce answered questions about healing, reincarnation, dreams, the afterlife, past lives, nutrition, Atlantis, and future events. Cayce stated he was a faithful Christian and did not believe in communicating with spirits. He is considered a key figure in the New Age movement and a major source of many of its beliefs.

In 1931, Cayce created a non-profit group called the Association for Research and Enlightenment. In 1942, a well-known and supportive biography titled There Is a River was written by journalist Thomas Sugrue.

Background

Cayce was influenced by many different traditions and sources. During the Second Great Awakening, Thomas and Alexander Campbell started the Disciples of Christ, a church that aimed to return to the original teachings and practices of Christianity. Cayce was raised in this group.

Mesmerism inspired Phineas Parkhurst Quimby to create the New Thought Movement, which encouraged the use of medical clairvoyants. One of Quimby's patients, Mary Baker Eddy, later started her own religious movement called Christian Science. Spiritualism influenced Helena Blavatsky, who founded Theosophy. Blavatsky wrote about topics such as reincarnation, Atlantis, root races, and the Akashic Records.

Homeopathy and Osteopathy were types of alternative medicine that were not based on scientific evidence during Cayce's time. Cayce first believed his healing was due to the care of an osteopath, and later worked with one.

Life

Edgar Cayce first gained local attention for losing his voice but being able to speak during hypnosis. At first, he said his voice returned on its own without explanation. Later, he gave credit to a local osteopath for helping him regain his voice. The osteopath hired Cayce as a medical clairvoyant who could supposedly diagnose patients from a distance using supernatural methods. After going bankrupt, Cayce returned to his role as a medical clairvoyant and worked with homeopath Wesley Ketchum. In 1910, Ketchum’s description of Cayce’s readings was published in a widely reprinted article in the New York Times. After a disagreement with Ketchum, Cayce moved to Selma, Alabama. A partnership with printer Arthur Lammers led Cayce to Dayton, Ohio. The later years of his life were spent in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where he managed an institute he created.

An October 10, 1922, article in the Birmingham Post-Herald reported that Cayce had given 8,056 readings up to that point. He later recorded between 13,000 and 14,000 additional readings. Other abilities linked to Cayce included astral projection, prophecy, mediumship, access to the Akashic records, Book of Life, seeing auras, astrology, and interpreting dreams.

Cayce was born on March 18, 1877, in Christian County, Kentucky. His parents, Carrie Elizabeth (born Major) and Leslie Burr Cayce, were farmers and had six children. Cayce was raised in the Disciples of Christ religious group.

In December 1893, the Cayce family moved to Hopkinsville, Kentucky, where they lived at 705 West Seventh Street. Cayce completed an eighth-grade education, but his schooling ended in ninth grade because his family could not afford further education.

On March 14, 1897, Cayce became engaged to Gertrude Evans. In September, news reported that Cayce had accepted a job with John P. Morton and left for Louisville. He began an apprenticeship at a photography studio in Hopkinsville and became skilled in that trade.

In February 1900, a stage hypnotist named Hart performed in Hopkinsville. He returned to the town in 1903. Years later, Hart was said to have hypnotized Cayce to help restore his voice.

According to a 1901 newspaper account, on April 18, 1900, Cayce lost his voice and could only speak in whispers. This condition forced him to leave his job as a salesman and work in photography instead. In May 1900, local papers reported that Cayce could only speak above a whisper except when hypnotized, when his voice returned. In June, news stated that Cayce was attending business college in Louisville. On February 12, 1901, papers reported that Cayce awoke with his voice suddenly and inexplicably recovered.

In April 1902, Cayce wrote a public statement giving credit to "Osteopath and Electro-Magnetical Doctor" A.C. Layne for curing his voice.

In May 1902, Cayce found work at a bookstore in Bowling Green, Kentucky. He returned to Hopkinsville to visit his parents in September. The following January, he returned to the town for his sister’s wedding.

Cayce married Gertrude Evans on June 17, 1903, and she moved to Bowling Green. By June 24, newspapers reported that Cayce entered a trance to help diagnose a patient who was not physically present. Cayce denied being a spiritualist, stating he was an active member of the Christian Church. A 1904 article noted that Cayce refused to charge for his medical readings. In 1904, Cayce claimed he created 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 shared information about Cayce’s trance readings with professionals at a boarding house (one of whom was a magistrate and journalist), and state medical officials forced him to close his practice. He left to earn osteopathic qualifications in Franklin.

Cayce and a relative opened a photography studio in Bowling Green, but it burned down on December 25, 1906. His first son was born on March 16, 1907, and another fire destroyed the studio later that year. In January 1908, Cayce asked the Nashville Banner newspaper about the phase of the moon at a specific time in 1864. In 1908, Cayce declared bankruptcy.

Wesley Harrington Ketchum was born on November 11, 1878, in Lisbon, Ohio, to Saunders C. Ketchum and Bertha Bennett. He 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. In 1913, Ketchum moved to Honolulu, Hawaii, via San Francisco, and started a new practice. He returned to California in 1918 and worked in Palo Alto until the 1950s. Ketchum retired to southern California around 1963 and settled 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 received increasing public attention for his medical readings. On October 9, 1910, The New York Times published a story titled "Illiterate Man Becomes a Doctor When Hypnotized" about Cayce.

On October 20, 1910, local papers in Hopkinsville announced Cayce’s return to town, with his father managing the "business end" of his hypnotic readings as part of a stock company they had created. In November 19

Legacy

Gina Cerminara wrote the 1950 book Many Mansions, which discusses the work of Edgar Cayce. In 1963, psychic Ruth Montgomery shared Cayce's predictions about disasters, which she called a "polar shift." In 1967, journalist Jess Stearn wrote a biography of Cayce titled The Sleeping Prophet. A book about Cayce and Atlantis was published in 1968. In 1968, Curt Gentry wrote a novel titled The Last Days of the Late, Great State of California, which described a major earthquake in California that Cayce had predicted in 1941.

In 1970, David Kahn's book My Life With Edgar Cayce was published after his death. That same year, a book about Cayce's interpretations of the Dead Sea Scrolls was released. In 1971, Cayce's two sons, Edgar Evans Cayce and Hugh Lynn Cayce, wrote a book titled The Outer Limits of Edgar Cayce's Power. In 1974, Cayce's predictions were included in a book called California Superquake: 1975-77. In 1978, Cayce's followers said they worked with the Stanford Research Institute, a group that studies psychic phenomena and is not connected to Stanford University. In the 1980s, New Age author Lori Toye promoted a map called "I Am America," inspired by Cayce's predictions about changes on Earth.

Religious historian Mitch Horowitz says Cayce helped spread important ideas in New Age spirituality, especially the belief that all religions share common values. In 2019, he wrote: "Cayce's teachings combined Christian moral ideas with beliefs about karma and reincarnation from Hindu and Buddhist traditions, as well as the idea that humans are connected to the Divine. Cayce also connected these ideas to the belief that the mind has the power to shape the world."

Reception and controversy

Cayce promoted unproven historical ideas in his trance readings, such as the existence of lost lands like Lemuria, Mu, and Atlantis, and the discredited theory of polygenism. During many trance sessions, he changed the way he described the history of life on Earth. One of Cayce's controversial ideas was polygenism, which claimed that five human groups (white, black, red, brown, and yellow) were created separately and at the same time in different parts of the world. He believed in aliens and Atlantis, stating that "the red race developed in Atlantis and its development was rapid." He also claimed that "soul-entities" on Earth mixed with animals to create beings like giants, who were as tall as 12 feet (3.7 meters). Cayce predicted "Earth Changes," which included major events like a polar shift that would cause Atlantis to rise from the ocean.

In his 2003 book The Skeptic's Dictionary, philosopher Robert Todd Carroll wrote that Cayce was responsible for some of the less serious ideas about Atlantis. Carroll mentioned Cayce's belief in a large crystal on Atlantis that could harness energy from the sun, as well as his claim that the United States would rediscover a death ray used on Atlantis in 1958.

In the 1930s, Cayce incorrectly predicted that North America would face major destruction, saying cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco would be destroyed before New York. He also claimed the Second Coming of Christ would happen in 1998.

Scientists and skeptics argue that Cayce's reported psychic abilities were not real or were made up. Evidence for his claimed clairvoyance came from newspaper reports, personal statements, and books, not from scientific testing that can be checked by others. Martin Gardner wrote that many of Cayce's trance descriptions were based on ideas from books he had read, including works by Carl Jung, P. D. Ouspensky, and Helena Blavatsky. Gardner said Cayce's trance readings included small pieces of information from occult books, mixed with some new ideas from his own mind.

Michael Shermer wrote in Why People Believe Weird Things (1997) that Cayce had limited formal education and learned much by reading widely. He used this knowledge to create detailed stories. Shermer noted that Cayce often imagined talking to angels and saw visions of his deceased grandfather as a child. Magician James Randi said Cayce often used phrases like "I feel that" and "perhaps" to avoid making strong claims. Investigator Joe Nickell also criticized Cayce's group, the Association for Research and Enlightenment, for supporting unscientific ideas.

Health experts criticize Cayce's unusual medical treatments, such as his promotion of unscientific diets and homeopathic remedies, which they call quackery. Science writer Karen Stollznow wrote that Cayce supported the unscientific ideas of food combining and the alkaline diet. He believed people should eat 80% of their food from sources that make the body more alkaline. He also claimed certain foods should not be eaten together, such as milk with citrus fruits, coffee with cream or milk, or sugary foods with starchy foods. Cayce also believed that even healthy foods could harm the body if a person had a negative mood.

Timeline

• 1901 – Reported losing his voice
• 1902 – Moved to Bowling Green
• 1903 – Married Gertrude Evans on June 17
• 1904 – Opened a photography studio in Bowling Green
• 1909 – Moved to Alabama
• 1910 – The New York Times published an article about Cayce titled "Illiterate Man Becomes a Doctor When Hypnotized"
• 1910 – Returned to Hopkinsville to work as a medical clairvoyant
• 1911 – Reported having his voice restored through his own medical clairvoyance
• 1912 – Moved to Selma, Alabama, to work with the Cayce Petroleum Company. He also traveled on a national lecture tour to find oil in Texas
• 1917 – The Association of National Investigators Inc. (ANI) was founded in May
• 1923 – Met Arthur Lammers
• 1925 – Moved to Virginia Beach in September
• 1929 – Cayce Hospital opened in February
• 1930 – Atlantic University was chartered in May
• 1931 – The ANI, hospital, and university collapsed
• 1931 – The Association for Research and Enlightenment Inc. was established
• 1935 – Cayce, his wife, and son were arrested in Detroit. Cayce was convicted of practicing medicine without a license and given probation
• 1942 – Cayce’s biography There Is a River was published in December
• 1943 – An article titled "Miracle Man of Virginia Beach" about Cayce was published in the September issue of Coronet
• 1944 – Cayce suffered a stroke in September
• 1945 – Cayce died on January 3
• 1999 – Cayce’s autobiography My Life as a Seer; The Lost Memoirs was published posthumously.