Edgar Cayce

Edgar Cayce (March 18, 1877 – January 3, 1945), (the surname is pronounced like "Casey") is generally remembered as an American psychic who gave trance discourses on subjects like astrology, reincarnation, and Atlantis. He may have been the source for the idea that California would fall into the ocean (though he never said exactly this). Although Cayce lived before the emergence of the New Age movement, he remains a major influence on its teachings.

The Readings

Edgar Cayce gave over 14,000 "readings" during a period of 43 years (1901 to 1944). These are trance discourses which Cayce revealed while in a hypnotic or "sleeping" state. While "awake" he claimed generally not to remember what he had said while "asleep". The readings themselves explain that the unconscious mind has access to information which the conscious mind does not -- a common theory about hypnosis in Cayce's time. Most records come from the period after 1925, when his secretary Gladys Davis recorded the readings, and his wife Gertrude Evans Cayce "conducted" (guided) the readings.

Related Topics:
1901 - 1944 - Hypnotic - Unconscious - Conscious - 1925

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The readings are customarily divided into the following categories:

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Physical Readings: 9,603 extant readings.

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Otherwise known as "health readings" in which (typically) a patient would be diagnosed and a cure prescribed. For some reason Cayce needed to be told the patient's physical location, though this might easily be in another city or state (in the case of patients inquiring by letter). Cayce lore describes various incidental examples of clairvoyance in the course of Cayce's psychically "searching" for the patient.

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Life Readings: 1,920 extant readings

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In a life reading, Cayce describes the client's present physical, emotional and mental condition in terms of past life experience. Most inquirers were assigned past lives from about twelve main "periods" including Atlantis, ancient Egypt at the time of "Ra Ta", ancient Persia, Palestine at the time of Christ, and colonial America. A number of people were told of famous past lives. Cayce's son Hugh Lynn, for example, was told that he was the apostle Andrew.

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Business Readings: 747 extant readings.

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Cayce occasionally gave business readings including advice on business partners, the stock market, business models, etc.

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Dream Readings: 630 extant readings.

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Edgar Cayce encouraged everyone to interpret and use his or her own dreams in day-to-day life. A dream reading involved Cayce interpreting the dreams of clients. As he did with readings on many subjects, Cayce would often interrupt the person reading the dream and give an interpretation before the dream had been completely read. He would sometimes fill in parts of dreams that the dreamer had supposedly forgotten. Unlike Jungian or Freudian dream interpretation, Cayce did not emphasize highly the importance of symbols. He said that every individual has his or her own unique symbols. Cayce claimed that in dreams people could receive valuable insight into their own lives and that the insight was always of use to the dreamer. Besides regular daily insight into one's life, he claimed people could communicate with loved ones dead or alive, remember past life experiences, see a possible future and experience many other psychic phenomena. He stated that these paranormal abilities were something anyone could learn.

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Mental and Spiritual Readings: 450 extant readings

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These readings were often short and were Cayce's favorite type of reading when not in his supposed trance state. They focused on what a individual could do to achieve a better mental/spiritual life.

Related Topics:
Mental - Spiritual

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Other Readings: 954 extant readings

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Other Readings are miscellaneous subject matter that does not fit into an above category. The subject matter included missing persons, buried treasure, readings given to a spiritual development group, psychic abilities, auras, prophecy, structure of reality, geology and many other topics.

Related Topics:
Aura - Prophecy - Geology

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Cayce readings are usually referenced using a numeric tag in which the first number is a code representing the recipient (most of their identities remain secret), while the second counts which reading it is, in the case of a person who receives more than one. 5749-14 for example is the fourteenth reading given for person # 5749 (whose assigned number is essentially arbitrary).

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