Table of Contents
OTHER BOOKS BY MARK THURSTON
Twelve Positive Habits of Spiritually Centered People
(COAUTHOR)
Edgar Cayces Guide to Spirituality for Busy People
Synchronicity as Spiritual Guidance
Millennium Prophecies
The Edgar Cayce Handbook for Creating
Your Future (COAUTHOR)
Soul-Purpose: Discovering and Fulfilling Your Destiny
Dreams: Tonights Answers for Tomorrows Questions
Paradox of Free Will
The Inner Power of Silence
Discovering Your Souls Purpose
How to Interpret Your Dreams
Face to Face
(COAUTHOR)
Understand and Develop Your ESP
Experiments in Practical Spirituality
Experiments in a Search for God
Meditation and the Mind of Man
(COAUTHOR)
This book is dedicated to Hugh Lynn Cayce,
eldest son of Edgar and Gertrude Cayce.
From 1968 until his passing in 1982, Hugh Lynn
was a treasured teacher, mentor, friend,
and professional colleague who was
the most valuable person in my
life for understanding the
principles in his fathers
remarkable teachings.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I wish to thank several individuals who have been instrumental in helping to shape the ideas in this book. In addition to Hugh Lynn Cayce, I am grateful to Gladys Davis Turner, Edgar Evans Cayce, Mae St. Clair, Mary Elizabeth Lynch, Harmon Bro, Herbert Puryear, Richard Drummond, Richard Otto, Linda Quest, Scott Sparrow, Henry Reed, Christopher Fazel, Charles Thomas Cayce, Paul Johnson, Kevin Todeschi, and Stuart Dean.
My thanks also go to Mitch Horowitz, executive editor at Tarcher/Penguin, for his support, enthusiasm, creative insight, and professionalism in helping bring this project to fruition; thanks also to Tarcher/ Penguin publisher Joel Fotinos for his support of the project; and to Tony Davis for his excellent copy-editing.
INTRODUCTION
THE LIFE AND THOUGHT OF EDGAR CAYCE
Edgar Cayce was one of the most remarkable and mysterious men of the twentieth century. Sometimes called the Sleeping Prophet or the Miracle Man of Virginia Beach, he was stuck with taglines that more often than not reflected the sensationalistic side of his work rather than its real depth and meaning. At the core, Cayce was a Christian mystic philosopher and an intuitive healer. For the forty-three years of his adult life, he taught by delivering discourses, or by giving readings while in a prayer-induced trance, which were transcribed by a secretary or family member because he could recall nothing once the twenty- to forty-five-minute sessions were over.
The sheer volume of Edgar Cayces output is immense. There are some 14,306 transcripts in existence today, both in print and, since the early 1990s, electronic format. Two-thirds of his readings offer holistic recommendations for treating specific physical ailments and diseases, due to the fact that he began his career as a medical intuitive and throughout his life most of those who sought him out requested readings of a medical nature; all of his biographers, in fact, provide fascinating anecdotal evidence of the success of these prescriptive readings (see appendix 4, Recommended Resources, page 276). The remaining third of Cayces work focused on spiritual growth, dream interpretation, ancient civilizations, reincarnation, life purpose, and the many pragmatic issues of trying to integrate body, mind, and spirit into daily life, including such everyday issues as parenting and even business practices.
Although The Essential Edgar Cayce is fundamentally about his teachings and philosophy, it is important to know something about the man as well. Cayces ideas were often shaped by thing about the man as well. Cayces ideas were often shaped by his personal beliefs and by the difficult times in which he lived, including the Great Depression and two world wars. As editor and commentator for this book, I should begin by noting that I never met Edgar Cayce; he died in 1945, five years before I was born. But for more than thirty years I have worked professionally for the two organizations he cofounded, and I have spent countless hours with dozens of individuals who knew him and worked with him directly, including his two sons, Hugh Lynn and Edgar Evans, and his secretary, Gladys Davis Turner. Thanks to their memories of him, I feel I have garnered at least my own personal understanding of what this man was like and the bedrock from which his extraordinary teachings sprang. I personally have applied many of the readings to my everyday life, including his recommendations for maintaining health through nutrition, massage, and various home remedies. I have also been helped greatly by Cayces suggestions for practical spiritual disciplinesmeditation, dream interpretation, developing intuition, to name just a few.
Before looking into the details of Edgar Cayces life, lets consider briefly how the man and his work are viewed in the early twenty-first century, which differs according to the audience. Here are three groups that have been intrigued by his work.
For those interested in holistic health, Cayce is generally revered as a pioneer of the body-mind-spirit approach to healing. Yet many people today view his understanding of the human body and his recommendations as antiquated. He was doing the best with what he had, they might argue, but surely we know so much more now that it hardly seems worthwhile studying him closely. Others see things differently; they assert that we are only just beginning to understand Cayce and his natural approach to healing.
Another audience is in the field of parapsychologythe scientific study of psychic ability. They have long been puzzled about what to do with Cayce, even while he was still alive. While the anecdotal evidence for his gift was almost overwhelming, there were no carefully controlled double-blind experiments conducted to test his skills. And so he remains an awkward figure for parapsychologists, someone who has caused millions to look at the possibilities of the psychic yet who has no scientifically proven ability.
A still larger audience is made up of those in the so-called New Age movement. They are seeking meaning, purpose, and direction in life in ways that have taken them outside of mainstream religion. How is Cayce seen and understood by these nontraditional seekers? Unfortunately, many have an image of him as prognosticator. Their seeking is largely a matter of trying to find out what will make them feel safer in this troubled world. And so what catches their eye is the ubiquitous newsstand tabloid with Cayces picture on the front announcing some heretofore unknown prophecy about the year ahead. For them, he is another Nostradamus. Unseen by them are his teachings about health, spirituality, and responsible living.
But there is another audience of seekers who have seen past this superficial take on Edgar Cayce. For them, his teachings become a stimulus to look at their lives in a whole new way, to see their own religious traditions in a new light, to recognize new pathways to spirituality open to them, to generally rethink what life is all about. Its a worldview that recognizes the capacity of each individual to make an intuitive connection with the spiritual world, even exploring such concepts as reincarnation. In fact, Cayce was a significant pioneer in the many disciplines that have gained widespread acceptance in the decades since his death. Among these approaches: