Edgar Cayce ( March 18, 1877 )
The life cycle 124875
Important years of life
1900 1
1901 2
1903 4
1907 8
1915 7
1922 5
1927 1
1928 2
1930 4
1934 8
1942 7
January 3, 1945 = 1949 = 23 = 5
In 1900, Cayce formed a business partnership with his father to sell Woodmen of the World Insurance; however, in March he was struck by severe laryngitis that resulted in a complete loss of speech. Unable to work, he lived at home with his parents for almost a year. He then decided to take up the trade of photography, an occupation that would exert less strain on his voice. He began an apprenticeship at the photography studio of W. R. Bowles in Hopkinsville, and eventually became quite talented in his trade
In 1901, a traveling stage hypnotist and entertainer named Hart, who referred to himself as “The Laugh Man”, was performing at the Hopkinsville Opera House. Hart heard about Cayce’s condition and offered to attempt a cure. Cayce accepted his offer, and the experiment was conducted in the office of Dr. Manning Brown, the local throat specialist. Cayce’s voice allegedly returned while in a hypnotic trance but disappeared on awakening. Hart tried a posthypnotic suggestion that the voice would continue to function after the trance, but this proved unsuccessful.[16][17]
Since Hart had appointments at other cities, he could not continue his hypnotic treatments of Cayce, but admitted he had failed because Cayce would not go into the third stage of hypnosis to take a suggestion. A New York hypnotist, Dr Quackenboss, found the same impediment but, after returning to New York, suggested that Cayce should be prompted to take over his own case while in the second stage of hypnosis. The only local hypnotist, Al Layne, offered to help Cayce restore his voice.[18] Layne suggested that Cayce describe the nature of his condition and cure while in a hypnotic trance.[16] Cayce described his own ailment from a first-person plural point of view: “we” instead of the singular “I”.[16] In subsequent sessions, when Cayce wanted to indicate that the connection was made to the “entity” of the person that was requesting the reading, he would generally start off with, “We have the body.” According to the reading for the “entity” of Cayce, his voice loss was due to psychological paralysis, and could be corrected by increasing the blood flow to the voice box. Layne suggested that the blood flow be increased and Cayce’s face supposedly became flushed with blood, and both his chest and throat turned bright red.[16] After 20 minutes, Cayce, still in a trance, declared the treatment over. On awakening, his voice was alleged to have remained normal. Apparently, relapses occurred, but were said to have been corrected by Layne in the same way, and eventually the cure was said to be permanent.
Layne had read of similar hypnotic cures by the Marquis de Puységur, a follower of Franz Mesmer, and was keen to explore the limits of the healing knowledge involved with the trance voice.[19] He asked Cayce to describe Layne’s own ailments and suggest cures, and reportedly found the results both accurate and effective. Layne regarded the ability as clairvoyance. Layne suggested that Cayce offer his trance healing to the public. Cayce was reluctant as he had no idea what he was prescribing while asleep, and whether the remedies were safe. He also told Layne he himself did not want to know anything about the patient as it was not relevant. He finally agreed, on the condition that readings would be free. 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.”[20] Reports of Cayce’s work appeared in the newspapers, which inspired many postal inquiries.[21] Cayce stated he could work just as effectively using a letter from the individual as with the person being present in the room. Given only the person’s name and location, Cayce said he could diagnose the physical and mental conditions of what he termed “the entity,” and then provide a remedy. Cayce was still reticent and worried, as “one dead patient was all he needed to become a murderer”. His fiancee, Gertrude Evans, agreed with him. Few people knew what he was up to. There was a common belief at the time that subjects of hypnosis eventually went insane, or at least that their health suffered.[22] Cayce soon became famous, and people from around the world sought his advice through correspondence.
After the death of Cayce the Association continued the work of classifying and cross referring the over 14,000 files of readings that had been taken throughout Cayce’s lifetime from March 31, 1901 to September 17, 1944. The results of these have been disseminated through the Associations publications with the members as the recipients of this material
Cayce became engaged to Gertrude Evans on March 14, 1897, and they married on June 17, 1903. They had three children: Hugh Lynn Cayce (March 16, 1907 – July 4, 1982), Milton Porter Cayce (March 28, 1911 – May 17, 1911), and Edgar Evans Cayce (February 9, 1918 – February 15, 2013)
In 1906 and 1907 fires burned down his two photographic studios leading to bankruptcy. [Between the 2 fires his first son was born March 16, 1907 However he became debt free by 1909, although stone broke, and ready to start again. In 1907, Outstanding diagnostic successes in the family helped his confidence, He again refused an offer to go into business, this time with a homeopath, a Dr Wesley H. Ketchum from Hopkinsville, introduced by his father. He found a job at the H. P. Tressler photography firm.
Until September 1923, his readings were not systematically recorded or preserved. However, an article published in the Birmingham Post-Herald on October 10, 1922, quotes Cayce as saying that he had given 8,056 readings as of that date and it is known that he gave approximately 13,000–14,000 readings after that date. A total of 14,306 are available at the A.R.E. Cayce headquarters in Virginia Beach and on an online member-only section along with background information, correspondence, and follow-up documentation.
…On May 6, 1927 the Association of National Investigations was incorporated in the state of Virginia. This would manage building the hospital and a scientific study of the readings. Morton was president and his brother and several others were vice presidents. Cayce was secretary and treasurer, and Gladys was assistant secretary. To protect against legal prosecution, the rules required any person requesting a reading to become a member of the Association and agree they were participating in an experiment in psychic research
…Cayce’s mature period, in which he created the several institutions that survived him, can be considered to have started in 1925. By this time he was a professional psychic with a small number of employees and volunteers. The readings increasingly came to involve occult or esoteric themes.
Money was extremely scarce, but help came from interested persons. The idea of an association and a hospital was mooted again, but the readings insisted on Virginia Beach, not suiting most of the people. Gertrude Cayce began to conduct all the readings. Morton Blumenthal, a young man who worked in the stock exchange in New York with his trader brother, became very interested in the readings, shared Cayce’s outlook, and offered to finance the vision in the right spirit. He bought them a house at Virginia Beach.
On May 6, 1927 the Association of National Investigations was incorporated in the state of Virginia. This would manage building the hospital and a scientific study of the readings. Morton was president and his brother and several others were vice presidents. Cayce was secretary and treasurer, and Gladys was assistant secretary. To protect against legal prosecution, the rules required any person requesting a reading to become a member of the Association and agree they were participating in an experiment in psychic research. Early in 1928, Dr Moseley Brown, head of the psychology dept at Washington and Lee University, became convinced of the readings and joined the Association.
On October 11, 1928, the dedication ceremonies for the hospital complex were held. It contained a lecture hall, library, vault for storage of the readings, and offices for research workers. 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.” The first patient was admitted the next day.
…There was a waiting list of months ahead. Blumenthal and Dr. Brown went ahead with ambitious plans for a university as a supplement to the hospital and a “parallel service for the mind and spirit”. In fact, it was to dwarf the hospital and rival other universities in respectability before psychic studies would begin. It was to open on September 22, 1930. On September 16 Blumenthal called a meeting of the Association resulting in his ownership of the hospital to curb expenses. After the first semester he ceased his support of the university, and on February 26, 1931 closed down the Association. Cayce removed the files of the readings from the hospital and took them home…
Both sons entered the forces during the war. They both married, Hugh Lynn in 1941 and Edgar Evans in 1942…