Cayce, Edgar

Cayce, Edgar (kās), 1877–1945, American folk healer, b. Hopkinsville, Ky. A popularizer of the idea of reincarnation, he was active as a "psychic diagnostician" between 1901 and 1944, performing thousands of "life readings." He wandered across the United States, spreading his ideas, before settling in Virginia Beach, Va. in 1925, where he established the Cayce Hospital (1928) and the Association for Research and Enlightenment (1931). His works have enjoyed a renewal among adherents of New Age spirituality.

Bibliography

See W. H. Church, Many Happy Returns: The Lives of Edgar Cayce (1984); H. L. Cayce, ed., The Edgar Cayce Collection (1986); H. H. Bro, A Seer Out of Season (1989).

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Cayce, Edgar

(born March 18, 1877, near Hopkinsville, Ky., U.S.—died Jan. 3, 1945, Virginia Beach, Va.) U.S. faith healer. He received little formal education. He began his cures in the 1920s, often accomplishing them long-distance. In 1925 he settled in Virginia Beach, Va., where he established a hospital (1928) and the Association for Research and Enlightenment (1931). He also made prophecies (including of the destruction of New York City and California) and claimed to be able to recall past lives. He believed in the existence of a great civilization in Atlantis some 12,000 years ago.

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Cayce, Edgar (1877–1945) psychic medium; born near Hopkinsville, Ky. He had little education and went into photography. He had a nervous collapse at age 19 and began to experience visions and "receive" messages prescribing ways to heal other people. Over a period of 40 years, he performed "life readings" for and diagnosed over 30,000 people; essential to his therapy was his belief that everyone has had previous existences, some going back thousands of years to Atlantis. Many of his reports were transcribed and preserved by the Association for Research and Enlightenment in Virginia Beach, Va.; these and Cayce were largely forgotten until publicized by best-selling books in the 1960s.