I T IS A TIME in the earth when people everywhere seek to know more of the mysteries of the mind, the soul, said my grandfather, Edgar Cayce, from an unconscious trance from which he demonstrated a remarkable gift for clairvoyance.
His words are prophetic even today, as more and more Americans in these unsettled times are turning to psychic explanations for daily events. For example, according to a national survey by the National Opinion Research Council nearly half of American adults today believe they have been in contact with someone who has died, a figure twice that of ten years ago. Two-thirds of all adults say they have had an ESP experience; ten years ago that figure was only one-half.
Every culture throughout history has made note of its own members gifted powers beyond the five senses. These rare individuals held special interest because they seemed able to provide solutions to lifes pressing problems. America in the twentieth century is no exception.
Edgar Cayce was perhaps the most famous and most carefully documented psychic of our time. He began to use his unusual abilities when he was a young man, and from then on for over forty years he would, usually twice a day, lie on a couch, go into a sleeplike state, and respond to questions. Over fourteen thousand of these discourses, called readings, were carefully transcribed by his secretary and preserved by the Edgar Cayce Foundation in Virginia Beach, Virginia. These psychic readings continue to provide inspiration, insight, and help with healing to tens of thousands of people.
Having only an eighth-grade education, Edgar Cayce lived a plain and simple life by the worlds standards. As early as his childhood in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, however, he sensed that he had psychic ability. While alone one day he had a vision of a woman who told him he would have unusual power to help people. He also related experiences of seeing dead relatives. Once, while struggling with school lessons, he slept on his spelling book and awakened knowing the entire contents of the book.
As a young man he experimented with hypnosis to treat a recurring throat problem that caused him to lose his speech. He discovered that under hypnosis he could diagnose and describe treatments for the physical ailments of others, often without knowing or seeing the person with the ailment. People began to ask him other sorts of questions, and he found himself able to answer these as well.
In 1910 the New York Times published a two-page story with pictures about Edgar Cayces psychic ability as described by a young physician, Wesley Ketchum, to a clinical research society in Boston. From that time on people from all over the country with every conceivable question sought his help.
In addition to his unusual talents, Cayce was a deeply religious man who taught Sunday school all of his adult life and read the entire Bible once for every year that he lived. He always tried to attune himself to Gods will by studying the Scriptures and maintaining a rich prayer life, as well as by trying to be of service to those who came seeking help. He used his talents only for helpful purposes. Cayces simplicity and humility and his commitment to doing good in the world continue to attract people to the story of his life and work and to the far-reaching information he gave.
In this series we hope to provide the reader with insights in the search for understanding and meaning in life. Each book in the series explores its subject from the viewpoint of the Edgar Cayce readings and compares the perspectives of other metaphysical literature and of current scientific thought. The interested reader needs no prior knowledge of the Cayce information. When one of the Edgar Cayce readings is quoted, the identifying number of that reading is included for those who may wish to read the full text. Each volume includes suggestions for further study.
This book, Awakening Your Psychic Powers by Henry Reed, Ph.D., elaborates on a theme Edgar Cayce often mentioned, that each of us has psychic ability that we can learn to use profitably. Dr. Reed, formerly a member of the staff of the Association for Research and Enlightenment, is highly qualified to write on this subject. Formerly a teacher at Princeton University, Dr. Reed is a lecturer, writer, licensed psychologist with a private practice, and a professor at Atlantic University. I feel confident you will find his comprehensive approach an awakening experience.
Charles Thomas Cayce, Ph.D.
President
Association for Research and Enlightenment
T HE PSYCHIC IS REAL. This book invites you to awaken your psychic awareness, and provides a perspective from which it can develop.
I have based this book on the insights Edgar Cayce received in psychic trance, and the way he incorporated those insights into his daily life. Cayce would not ask you to take these ideas on faith. He would ask you to test the validity of this material in your own life, use what proves constructive, and discard the rest.
As a former university professor, I am accustomed to discussing theory before dealing with practice. Part I is therefore devoted to exploring some universal concepts that serve to explain the nature of reality, and how psychic awareness is a natural part of that reality. Part II discusses some of the more common psychic experiences and how to evoke themthrough intuition, dreams, meditation, and hypnosis. Part III probes the role of the body, mind, and soul in psychic awareness. Finally, Part IV presents some experiments for you to try in your adventure into this exciting realm, and discusses the ultimate purpose of psychic awareness.
As I wrote this book, I kept hearing these words repeated in the back of my mind: See it, feel it, touch it, taste it, smell it, believe it, live it. If this book helps you become so aware of the psychic that you can make it real in your life, then its mission has been accomplished.
In this effort, I have to thank those people whose earlier efforts explaining the meaning and significance of Edgar Cayces trance readings made this book possible: Harmon Bro, Hugh Lynn Cayce, Everett Irion, Herbert Puryear, and Mark Thurston. I also appreciate the untiring editorial efforts of A. Robert Smith, who has cared very much that this book be easy for you to read. And for making sure that all the examples and explanations are worth reading, I have to thank my wife, Veronica Lyn.
A long line of people, reaching at least as far back as Pythagoras and moving up through the names above, are very interested in your becoming psychic. The psychic has been real to them and theyve helped me try to make it real for you.