Edgar Cayce (1877-1945) had one of the most remarkable psychic gifts that have been recognised during the past 150 years. He was able to put himself into a hypnotic sleep and, when the names and locations of sick people were given to him, he could diagnose their conditions accurately and prescribe the means by which they could be cured. Often the treatments were simple, homely recipes or applications but they seemingly rarely failed to bring about an improvement of the conditions when they were given as prescribed. Cayce was born in Christian County in Kentucky of farming stock and right from early childhood he was endowed with ‘second sight’, the ability to be aware of the spiritual world and to access all sorts of information normally unavailable to ordinary folk. Thus he could ‘sleep on’ a publishers catalogue by putting it under his pillow at night and in the morning would know all the details of the books contained in it. He was also deeply religious, knowing the Bible well, and had the ambition to become a preacher or a doctor, but there was never enough money to undertake the training.

It seemed that he was destined to become a psychic healer because, every time as a young man he tried to forget his gifts and lead a normal life in a ‘straight’ job, strange things happened to prevent him from following his wishes. For example, at one time he got a good job as an insurance salesman but, within days, he had completely lost his voice and, for the rest of his life, he never entirely recovered the ability to speak fully and clearly.

Eventually circumstances led him to discover the technique of entering a hypnotic sleep and, on prompting with the name of a patient, to diagnose their illness and prescribe a remedy for it. For forty years afterwards he regularly followed this routine for thousands of patients; no matter where the individuals were in the world, Cayce’s gift enabled him to subconsciously contact them, diagnose their problems and offer a treatment. He also answered questions about the patients which provided further useful information about their conditions and general lifestyle. For many years the information requested from Cayce related specifically to physical illnesses but eventually he began to widen his scope. It appeared that the ‘higher source’ from which he obtained his information about individual’s problems was almost unlimited. As he was prompted by wider and wider questioning he was able to speak with authority on an enormous range of subjects of a philosophical, spiritual and factual nature.

Right from the start careful notes were taken of all Cayce’s "readings" and these were typed up and filed as a record of what had transpired. Over the 40 years of his work more than 30,000 readings were obtained and these were stored in an archive at the Association for Research and Enlightenment (ARE), at Virginia Beach, Virginia, which he founded. Since his death an enormous amount of work has been undertaken on these records by the ARE and many books have been produced distilling the wisdom and information that Edgar Cayce subconsciously produced over many years of fruitful work. The topics covered by these books include the paranormal world, reincarnation and past lives and dream interpretation.

Several biographies of Edgar Cayce have been written describing both his life story and the application and outcome of his extraordinary gifts. Among these are:

Millard, Joseph (1961). Edgar Cayce. Man of miracles.
Neville Spearman, London.

Sugrue, Thomas (1967). There is a River: The story of Edgar Cayce. Dell Publishing Co., New York. ISBN 0-440-38680-2.

Stearn, Jess (1974). The Sleeping Prophet: an examination of the work of Edgar Cayce. Frederick Muller. ISBN 0-584-00266-1. (Originally published in 1967 by Doubleday, New York).

Smith, Robert A. (1997). The Lost Memoirs of Edgar Cayce. Life as a seer. A.R.E. Press, Virginia Beach. ISBN 0-876043-93-7.

Bro, Harmon H. (1989). Edgar Cayce. A seer out of season. Aquarian Press, Wellingborough. ISBN 0-85030-937-9. (Originally published in 1989 by New American Library, New York).

This is probably the definitive biography of Edgar Cayce. Dr. Bro worked for a year with Cayce in 1944 and using the information he gained from this time, together with many hundreds of interviews with the family, friends and associates of Cayce, he produced an in-depth account of his life and work.

A number of books on specific subjects have been compiled from the Edgar Cayce records. Some of those which are pertinent to the subject of survival are:

Agee, Doris (1989) edited by Hugh Lynn Cayce. Edgar Cayce on ESP. Aquarian Press, Wellingborough.

Langley, Noel (1989) edited by Hugh Lynn Cayce. Edgar Cayce on Reincarnation. Aquarian Press, Wellingborough.
(Originally published in 1967 by Warner Books, New York).

Smith, Robert C. (1990) edited by Charles Thomas Cayce.
Edgar Cayce on Remembering Your Past Lives.
Aquarian Press, Wellingborough. Originally published in 1989).

The literature on the life and work of Edgar Cayce is enormous; more than 200 books are listed in the U.S. Library of Congress catalogue. The selection given above is only a small fraction of the available material.

On to section 5. The Experiences and Accounts of Mediums and Sensitives