"The spirit is life. The mind is the builder. The physical is the result."......“Mind is indeed the Builder . ..what is held in the act of mental vision becomes a reality in the material experience. We are gradually builded to that image created within our own mental being.”
Man's origin was as spirit, not a physical body. These souls projected themselves into matter, probably for their own diversion. Through the use of his creative powers for selfish purposes, man became entangled in matter and materiality to such an extent that he nearly forgot his divine origin and nature. ― Edgar Cayce
Edgar Cayce: Healer and Spiritual Leader
Edgar Cayce (1877-1945) was a documented psychic who was
active roughly from 1925 to 1945. Edgar Cayce was phenomenal. He cured eight
people of epilepsy in an age and during a time when there were no medicines for
epilepsy, much less cures. He spoke in languages he had no conscious knowledge
of (an inspirational illustration of speaking in tongues). And as the notable
parapsychologist Stephan Schwartz points out, he was remote viewing before
remote viewers had come to being. Now, I admit I cherry picked Edgar Cayce and
found these illustrations which I believe are the most striking – and thus
significant – but in all things the wheat must be separated from the chaff.
Edgar Cayce was called the “Sleeping Prophet” because he would answer questions about the future, or the past, or about a person’s illnesses and physiological status while he was in a trance. Cayce gave these unconscious ‘readings’ for people who requested help or had metaphysical questions. He would quickly and easily go into a trance after lying down on a couch and loosening his tie and collar. He would be asked questions while he was in a trance, and his answers would be recorded by his lifelong secretary, Gladys Davis. He turned out to be gifted with an ability to help find cures for people, many of whom were judged by ‘modern’ medicine (modern at the time that is) to be incurable.
Personally, what impressed me about Edgar Cayce were the pictures I saw of cures of psoriasis when I first visited the ARE center in Virginia Beach, Virginia. There were three different sets of pictures with before treatment and after treatment pictures. Psoriasis is a very unsightly, and somewhat repulsive skin disorder. My first wife, Marci, had this disease. She went to specialist after specialist trying to find a cure. She went to three or four specialists and even had gold treatments but nothing seemed to help. I could see from the photos that there was a vast improvement from the before to after pictures. So, I was very favorably impressed.
An article by Natalie Reid in the 1996 November-December ARE publication Venture Inward described a joint psoriasis-healing conference between the Meridian Institute and A.R.E. (volume 12, no 6 issue) Nine people attended the group which first met in November 1995 and ran until March 1996. The results were impressive. Using Cayce’s readings and cures as a basis, four of the nine people were cured. As Schwartz points out Edgar Cayce was the first into holistic healing and natural remedies. Diet was one of his hot buttons. The article notes, “Our 76-year-old Australian belle, Merle, also healed almost completely, after suffering from “head-to-toe” psoriasis. Her one flare-up came four to six weeks after she had eaten oysters, but disappeared soon thereafter.” (p.2) “One of the most dramatic reports comes from Betty, whose psoriasis disappeared entirely within a short time of returning home.” (p.2) What is remarkable is that the author emphasizes the spiritual transformation that took place during the groups’ activity. No one has actually done a complete systematic study of Cayce, but I feel safe in saying Edgar Cayce did in fact help large numbers of people and I’m sure spirituality was a formidable weapon in his arsenal.
Edgar Cayce was born on March 18, 1877, near Hopkinsville, Kentucky. While Edgar was one of six children of Carrie and Leslie Cayce who were farmers, people noticed Edgar was a bit different. Edgar had ‘imaginary’ friends. His belief in the 'little folk' persisted until a girl his age who was a very close friend died. Edgar also reportedly talked with his dead grandfather, whose death he had personally witnessed and perhaps traumatized him. Edgar was taken to church at age ten, and he began his lifelong obsession with reading the Bible. Every year from then on, Edgar Cayce read the bible cover to cover. Later, after the founding of ARE (Association for Research and Enlightenment), he wrote In Search of God which was meant to be the ‘bible’ of ARE study groups. His book, In Search of God, is both challenging and inspirational, and has a somewhat unique view of different aspects of God.
According to the Cayce legend, as a young child Edgar spoke with a winged angel who shone brightly like a brilliant and blinding light. The angel told Edgar that his prayers had been answered and he would have the gift to heal and help other people as he so passionately desired. Another story about Edgar Cayce tells how, when he had extremely difficulties learning at school, his frustrated father, Leslie Cayce, put Cayce to the test. After being harshly treated Edgar asked for a break to rest, and went to sleep with the book under his head. He woke and suddenly had the ability to recite his lessons and seemed to know everything in the book. His clairvoyant ability actually didn’t surface until he lost his voice while selling insurance with his father. A hypnotist named Hart happened to hear of Edgar’s problem. Hart hypnotized him and Edgar Cayce recovered his voice but only while he was under hypnosis. Later, Al Layne, a local hypnotist chanced upon the idea of hypnotizing Cayce and then asking Cayce how to cure himself. It was interesting, under hypnosis Cayce spoke in the plural “we” form, and recommended increasing blood flow to his throat/voice box. Layne made that suggestion and it was aid his throat turned beet red from the flow of blood.
Al Layne then asked Cayce to describe Layne’s own physiological state and suggest remedies, which Layne found to be appropriate. Layne tried to talk the young Edgar Cayce into offering his services as a healer. Cayce was reluctant for several reasons. Because Cayce was in a trance and was unconscious during those times, he had no idea what he was saying was right and had no idea if the remedies would work. Newspapers, because Cayce’s story was so unusual, printed stories of Cayce’s cures so Cayce became famous.
1, Edgar Cayce: Analysis of Cures of Epileptics
Curing epileptics prior to the 1970’s when some effective medications became available was nothing short of miraculous. Even today, the outlook for epileptics is far from rosy. In only 70% of epileptics can seizures be controlled by medication. In those cases diet, neuro-stimulation, and brain surgery are employed. The causes of the majority of seizures is unknown though trauma, brain injury, spinal chord infection, stroke, brain tumors, infections of the brain are known to cause seizures. 80% of the cases of epilepsy occur in developed countries. Some scientists believe that is due to the increase of bodily trauma in developed countries, and worldwide, in 2015, there were about 39 million cases of epilepsy. The disease has been around since the origins of time, and a record of a case of epilepsy was found in an ancient Mesopotamian language, Akkadian, dating to around 2000 BC. Many ancient Greeks regarded epilepsy as a “sacred” disease. Some believe Julius Caesar may have been an epileptic because of 4 documented experiences which resembled epileptic seizures occurred. While all cases of epilepsy do not occur over an entire lifetime, and with modern medication some people improve to the point where no treatment is required, generally, epilepsy is viewed as incurable. “Even with today's medication, epilepsy CANNOT be cured.” (Patricia O. Shafer, RN, MN | Joseph I. Sirven, MD on 7/2013) I should emphasize that in Cayce’s day and age, a very crude sedative was the only medication available. Also, it is noteworthy that Cayce was strong on diet and diet is used by some doctors in dealing with some specific cases of epilepsy.
Perhaps the most incredible case Edgar Cayce ever encountered was the case of the Dietrich child. In fact, because newspapers did publish the remarkable story of the Dietrich child, Edgar Cayce immediately became a sensation. In 1902, Cayce had just begun to gain a reputation as a healer. Aimee Dietrich was a six year old child who had become nearly catatonic since she had been beset by seizures at the age of two after an attack of La Grippe (influenza, flu). She now had as many as twenty seizures a day. Her growth as a child had ceased at age 2 and her intellectual functions had degenerated. She couldn’t recognize her father or mother. The Dietrich’s had taken their daughter Aimee to five different doctors. None of them knew what Aimee’s problem was and viewed her case a a hopeless case. In absolute desperation they asked for the help of Edgar Cayce since they had heard that Edgar Cayce had healed some people somewhat miraculously.
At the request of the father, Edgar Cayce went to the home of the Dietrich’s on December 12, 1902, and gave a “reading” while in a trance. “When he awakened, Mrs. Dietrich was weeping.” (p. 177 river) Edgar Cayce’s reading indicated that just before she caught the grippe, she had “slipped and struck the end of her spine while getting out of the carriage,” and the infection had settled in her spine causing the seizures. While for the most part the causes of epilepsy are largely unknown, one of the specific causes listed is infections of the spine. Developed countries have more incidence of epilepsy and it is believed traumatic injuries and infection are the reason.
Cayce prescribed osteopathic manipulations for the spine. Within a week Aimee called her mother and father by name and asked for her doll by name. (p.118 river)In his sworn affidavit of October 8, 1910, Mr. Dietrich states that Cayce “outlined to Dr. A. C. Layne [D.O.], now of Griffin, GA, how to proceed to cure her. Dr. Layne treated her accordingly, every day for three weeks….Her mind began to clear up about the eighth day and within three months she was in perfect health, and is so to this day.” (p.213 Epilepsy) A letter from Lois Freeman, Aimee’s sister said, “Aimee L Dietrich, 6 years old, pronounced a hopeless case of epilepsy, improved rapidly after a reading by Edgar Cayce and treatment by Dr. A. C. Layne. In three weeks time she was able to sit up in a chair and cut out pictures. She entered school the following year, attending schools in Hopkinsville and Winchester, KY.” Sometime in 1917 or 1918 Aimee had some seizures. “She became interested in Christian Science and had a healing experience.” (p. 214 Epilepsy)
Edgar Cayce cured seven other people out of a total of 105 cases that he had in his lifetime. Except for Edgar Cayce’s cured patients, to my knowledge are the only cured epileptics during his age. But it is known that in freak cases, children have actually grown out of having seizures and a few people have a few seizures then no more, but that again is a very small percentage. Offhand I would think the odds of cures in that day and age might be somewhere around one in ten thousand and at worst one in 1,000. Taking odds of a cure at one in one hundred would be extremely conservative. If the probability of curing a single patient is 1/100, then the probability of curing 7 out of 100 would be: C(100, 7) * (1/100)^7 * (99/100)^93 = 0.000062862, which would be 6.2862 over 100,000. That would be highly significant.
Now, Aimee Dietrich’s case was remarkable. Healing a child that was nearly catatonic is simply unheard of. It just never happens. The odds of curing a girl who was basically catatonic and considered a hopeless case by all the other doctors would be highly unlikely. In my mind it is a miracle by any standards. Personally I would say affecting a cure in her case would be the equivalent of winning the mega million lottery which has odds of winning of 1 in 258,890,850,000. So, I feel safe in judging the chances the equivalent of winning the pick 4 lottery with odds of 1 in 10,0000. That would give the overall odds of curing Cayce’s epileptic cases of .000000062862.
The question of the placebo effect being a major factor and being therefore responsible for Cayce’s cures of epilepsy came up as an issue, so I would like to address that issue. In Aimee Dietrich’s case the placebo effect could not have been a factor. Aimee had no awareness of what was going on so she could not have even thought that a cure was being affected. For the placebo effect to be effective one at least must have at least a minimal awareness that one is taking medicine or undergoing therapy that could affect a cure. I did search the internet for placebo effect as regards epilepsy. The websites indicated that the placebo effect will lessen the frequency of seizures. There was no indication, nor even a hint, that the placebo effect could actually affect a complete cure in any way. So, it would have been impossible for the placebo effect to have been a factor in Edgar Cayce’s cures, especially since cures were unknown at those times and absent even in modern medicine.
2, Edgar Cayce readings given in foreign languages
Case 373: (Edgar Cayce numbered the cases to protect the names and privacy of the people)
On July 1933, Edgar Cayce gave a reading for 373 (373-1) which went as follows: “Eck Platzchen! Ich Machen! Ich Machen! Kindlein! Kindlein! Ich Spreche Deutsch! Ach Lieber! Ich Spreche Deutsch! Ach Lieber! Nin!” Peter Schultz translated them as “Little corner spot [place]! I make little one speech! I speak German! Oh, my! I speak German! Oh, my! No!” I asked my son who is a novice at the German language and he remarked it sounded like pidgin German. The man (373) thought they were simply exclamations, possibly by his grandparents at his birth.
Case 4591:
Reading 4591-1 was given on January 27, 1918, for a man living in the valley of mount Pellegino. When Cayce began to speak in Italian while in a trance, the secretary rushed out to a nearby Italian fruit dealer to get his help. The Italian merchant translated most of what Cayce said and made some longhand notes which were later sent out for translation. A twist in the story is that Cayce apparently spoke in a specific dialect of Italian called Genovese. A fair amount of the words were pretty technical (it’s rather amazing that Cayce not only knew these technical words since he had only a high school education but could speak them in Italian. There is a story of Cayce, anxious to understand what he said while in a trance asked to see the dictation and when he read the dictation of the reading, couldn’t understand any of the medical terms). The reading was about 3/4 of a page long.
Some Conclusions
Edgar Cayce did not know either German or Italian. So what are the odds of being able to give an entire reading in Italian? It is flat out impossible so technically the odds would be one over infinity. If you gave it odds of the equivalent of winning a mega-million lottery, those odds multiplied by the odds of curing eight cases of epilepsy would be astronomical. You could figure all other 14,300 readings as mistakes and still have a phenomenal number. Although Edgar Cayce was human and fallible, the only possible conclusion is that the results of Edgar Cayce are scientifically highly significant.
Nonlocal consciousness: Remote Viewing
Schwartz believes Edgar Cayce readings are the first evidence of nonlocal consciousness. In an article he cites a couple of Edgar Cayce readings to illustrate his point:
1. “Cayce Observation
‘He’s not here yet….he’s still on a bus……a wonderful smell of flowers….’
Feedback Report
’At the time the Reading was scheduled he was stuck on the bus….We had just opened his window and the smell of jasmine filled the room.’”
2. “Cayce Observation
’Yes, we have the body….quite a lot of body…lovely pajamas….’
Feedback Report
‘She is quite overweight, although how Cayce knew I cannot guess. She had on her new pajamas, with which she was very pleased.’” (Thru Time p.23)
In the literature about Edgar Cayce authors often note that Edgar Cayce frequently described the physical environment of the subject on detail and very accurately. In one case Cayce precisely described the office a person was in which included all the furniture. In another case Cayce described the paintings on the wall in the hallway of the house the person was in. Schwartz made note of the “smell of flowers” in the first case he cited and concluded that remote viewing involves all the senses. It would seem clear, since the sense of perception of smell was involved that at least this particular instance involved mental telepathy. Russell Targ, a scientist in remote viewing, seems to lean on akashic records as an explanation as opposed to mental telepathy. In Edgar Cayce readings it would seem likely his readings involved a synthesis of the senses.
Content Copyrighted Charles E Peck Jr. Copyright © 2020
References and Footnotes
Profile of Dr. James Doty: https://profiles.stanford.edu/james-doty
The Center for Compassion And Altruism Research And Education: http://ccare.stanford.edu/
John Bargh, PhD:
http://bargh.socialpsychology.org/
Viktor Frankl:
http://www.viktor-frankl.com/
Dr. Paul Wong:
http://www.drpaulwong.com/
Dr Amit Sood Mindfulness:
https://www.mindfulleader.org/amit-sood
Keith Karren – Body, Mind, Spirit:
http://pgrpdf.abhappybooks.com/mind-body-health-keith-j-karren-ph-d-pdf-5716009.pdf