Edgar Cayce

Cayce, the son of a businessman, was born in March 1877 in Kentucky.  Raised in a devoutly Christian household, Cayce was a quiet man who made his living as a photographer – a career he maintained into his mid 40s. 

In his early 20s a session of hypnosis induced by a friend in an effort to cure Cayce’s laryngitis opened the door to altered state channeling that would become Cayce’s claim to fame in years to come.  Neighbors learned of the session and asked him to perform readings for them.  Over the course of the next decade he performed occasional readings with a focus on physical healing of the subjects. 

Cayce would enter a state of self-hypnosis, or an altered dream state, while reclining with his hands resting on his abdomen.  He spoke quickly and clearly, often discussing complex medical processes to heal acute and chronic diseases. 

In 1923 theosophist Arthur Lammers encouraged Cayce to travel to Ohio and conduct a series of private readings in which he focused on past life experiences and Akashic records.  The success of the trip encouraged Cayce to give up photography and pursue altered state readings full-time. 

It has been said that Cayce agonized over the legitimization of his psychic work and wondered whether his readings and healings were at odd with the dynamics of Christianity.  Traditional religion was an important part of his daily life, serving as a Sunday school teacher and missionary leader well into his later years.

Edgar Cayce’s readings were not limited to medical diagnoses, psychic healing and reincarnation, but included some broad reaching theories about Atlantis and prophecies such as the sinking of substantial parts California – especially San Francisco and Los Angeles – and a shift in the earth’s axis that would impose dramatic consequences on the earth such as complete climate change in the equator and at the earth’s poles. 

Since the time he decided to undertake psychic readings and healings full-time he received copious numbers of requests for assistance.  He pushed himself to perform as many readings each day as possible, but he related a warning that if he did not limit his readings to no more than two per day he would die.  But he couldn’t turn people away.  In his last session he predicted his own death and funeral.  That night he suffered a massive stroke and died the next day. 

Cayce founded the Association for Research and Enlightenment (ARE) in 1932, which made it possible to document and catalog a body of work that continued until Cayce’s death in 1945.  Over the course of his 43-year career he performed nearly 15,000 readings for more than 6,000 individuals, most of which concerned health and medical issues.  His readings have been the focus of many books, the most famous of which is Edgar Cayce:  The Sleeping Prophet by Jess Stern.