Birth Dates of Notable Kentuckians: March 18, 1877 - Edgar Cayce

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From the Kentucky Encyclopedia -

Edgar Cayce, clairvoyant and psychic diagnostician, was born on March 18, 1877, to Leslie B. and Carrie (Major) Cayce in Beverly, seven miles south of Hopkinsville, Kentucky. He attended Hopkinsville schools and from 1894 worked in Hopkinsville hardware, dry-goods, and bookstores before going to Louisville to work for J.P. Morgan & Co. bookstore in 1898. In 1900, after studying briefly at a Louisville business college, he joined his father in selling insurance for Woodmen of the World in Hopkinsville. In 1902, he found work as a photographer in Bowling Green , where he entered into a partnership, Cayce Studio, with Frank J. Potter in 1904; after losing two studios to fire, he moved to Gadsden, Alabama, and then back to Hopkinsville to establish a studio there. Photography seems to have remained his principal occupation until about 1914, but during these years his reputation as a clairvoyant began to grow and to spread beyond Hopkinsville . In 1910, a Hopkinsville physician, Wesley H. Ketchum, spoke about Cayce's unusual powers at a meeting of the American Association of Clinical Research in Boston.

Cayce is described as a quiet, religious man, with none of the eccentricities sometimes associated with psychic practitioners. According to contemporary accounts, Cayce, when in a trance and informed of the name or description of the subject (who need not be present), spoke knowledgeably of medical conditions and suggested treatments that included medications, spinal manipulations, electrotherapies, special diets, and herbs. He frequently used medical and pharmaceutical terms unfamiliar to the waking Cayce, and was afterward not conscious of a single word he had said while in the trance state. Although he received little attention from the medical profession, he was consulted at times by physicians.

In 1912, Cayce again left Hopkinsville for Alabama and settled in Selma, where he concentrated on photography. Two years later he traveled to Lexington, Kentucky, to give a "reading" for the Delaney family; there he met David Kahn, who would become his principal supporter. Cayce moved to Dayton, Ohio, in 1923, and two years later settled in Virginia Beach, Virginia, for the rest of his life. With others, Kahn organized the Association of National Investigators in 1927 in Virginia Beach. Although Cayce himself is said to have sought no financial gain from his abilities, in 1928 the Association was able to build the Cayce Hospital to accommodate Cayce's efforts and to engage in general psychic research. They lost the hospital during the Great Depression. Kahn and other Cayce supporters reorganized in 1931 and created the Association for Research and Enlightenment, which operated out of Cayce's home. In 1956, some years after Cayce's death, the associates bought back the Cayce Hospital to continue psychic research; the Virginia Beach operation of the Edgar Cayce Foundation in 1992 encompassed a city block and had a $7- million annual budget.

It is estimated that Cayce gave over 16,000 psychic readings between 1901 and 1944. There are copies of 14,263 readings, going back to 1910, in the Edgar Cayce Foundation archives; most were recorded directly or compiled from older records by Gladys Davis, who became Cayce's secretary in 1923. In the early 1980s, it was reported that several physician-staffed Cayce clinics were in operation in various locations, using treatment plans derived from Cayce's records.

Cayce was married on June 17, 1903, in Hopkinsville to the former Gertrude Evans, who closely assisted him in his endeavors. They had three sons: Milton Porter, who died in infancy, Hugh Lynn, and Edgar Evans. Cayce died in his home in Virginia Beach on January 3, 1945, and his wife died April 1, 1945. They are buried in Riverside Cemetery in Hopkinsville.

Selected Sources from UK Libraries:

Sugrue, Thomas. There Is a River; the Story of Edgar Cayce. New York: Holt, 1942. Print.

BF1027.C3 S8 1945, Young Library -- Books - 3rd Floor

 

Johnson, K. Paul, and NetLibrary, Inc. Edgar Cayce in Context the Readings, Truth and Fiction. Albany, N.Y.: State U of New York, 1998. Print. SUNY Ser. in Western Esoteric Traditions.

Netlibrary E-book - See Internet Resources

 

Cayce, Edgar, and A. Robert Smith. My Life as a Seer : The Lost Memoirs. New York: St. Martin's, 1999. Print.

BF1027.C3 A3 1999, Young Library -- Books - 3rd Floor