FAQ File (With Links)

This journal is intended mainly for people who already have certain basic knowledge about Edgar Cayce and would appreciate new or deeper perspectives on familiar topics. "Newbies" may find the following information and links to be of use. Please send me any other questions you may have, and if I don't get swamped I'll do my best to answer them. Also, if you have any suggestions about the text of the answers, or want me to put up your Cayce-related link, please contact me (David Bell).

Q1. Who was Edgar Cayce?
Q2. What are some books by or about Edgar Cayce?
Q3. What is the name of the Edgar Cayce organization?
Q4. Is there anybody out there today who gives psychic readings like Edgar Cayce?

Q1. Who was Edgar Cayce?

A1. Edgar Cayce (1877-1945) was an American psychic who gave medical and spiritual "readings" while apparently in a trance state. He was born in Beverly, Kentucky and died in Virginia Beach, Virginia; and is usually cited in connection with his teachings on such subjects as holistic health, reincarnation, psychic experience, and an alternative interpretation of Christianity. For fairly standard overviews of Cayce in more depth, click here or here.

On examination, the question "Who was Edgar Cayce?" is far more sophisticated than it might appear, and is one of the subjects which this journal is designed to address. A conservative wing of the Cayce movement (including both dissidents and ARE allies) prefers to emphasize Cayce's Christian connections--daily Bible reading, Sunday school teaching, prison visitation, support for missionary work, etc. Meanwhile, a liberal wing of the Cayce movement (including some dissidents as well as ARE allies, plus many outsiders) is more oriented toward the New Age movement, and accordingly emphasizes Cayce's connection to Eastern religions, Western esoteric traditions, psi research and transpersonal psychology, alternative health, and other subjects associated with this milieu. Still more possibilitites could be named, and the issue is usually presented as one of emphasis rather than mutually exclusive choices.

Less amenable to harmonizing are the questions of whether Cayce's psychic abilities were genuine, and to what extent his information is reliable. While believers of all stripes are generally prepared to admit some error on the sleeping Cayce's part (including predictions of earth-changes and the Second Coming for 1998), their skeptical opponents doubt the truth of psychic claims in general, including those made on behalf of Cayce. Cayce's Christian opponents often agree with the skeptics, but sometimes concede the existence of Cayce's abilities without accepting their spiritual reliability. (Some, for example, suggest that his abilities were demonic in origin.) The "source question," which focuses on similarities between Cayce's teachings and those of certain alternative religious movements of his day, is also gaining attention. All of these perspectives will be represented in the journal in coming issues, and with luck will become enduring voices in a continuing discussion.

Q2. What are some books by or about Edgar Cayce?

A2. The ARE sells a CD-ROM containing the entire text of Cayce's readings plus search engines for (at this writing) about two hundred dollars. While indispensible to the researcher, few would recommend it as an introductory work. More manageable readings extracts (often organized by topic) may be encountered in just about any Cayce book or periodical. B. Ernest Frejer's Edgar Cayce Companion (see review) is the best single-volume printed collection of topical extracts from the readings.

It is sometimes said that the waking Cayce did not write anything. This is an exaggeration--the CD-ROM contains much correspondence, and there are also typed or dictated lectures, memoirs, and diaries to consider. A. Robert Smith has edited some of these into The Lost Memoirs (see review), which might be described as an assisted autobiography
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No complete listing of Cayce material has ever been done, and only a pedant would want one. For a lengthy catalogue of several hundred Cayce books (in multiple languages), consult Jean-Jacques Surbeck's "Edgar Cayce Books International Database." In most cases books may be ordered right off the site. Visitors to the ARE Library may consult Anita Daskam's listing (ask at the desk), or examine the ARE's collection of audiotapes (including one by Cayce) and Cayce periodicals. My own forthcoming opus, Edgar Cayce's Bookshelf, contains a lengthy annotated bibliography which may be a good introduction (although the book itself is mainly about the source question).

The main Cayce biographies are Thomas Sugrue's There Is a River (1943) and Harmon Bro's Seer Out of Season (1989). Both are quite readable; neither is altogether reliable. All self-respecting Cayce fans are eagerly anticipating the publication of Sidney Kirkpatrick's Cayce biography, The Open Door (forthcoming from Putnam). Hugh Lynn Cayce and Edgar Evans Cayce (Cayce's sons) jointly authored The Outer Limits of Edgar Cayce's Power, on instances in which Cayce's abilities seemed to fail him.

For introductions to Cayce's teachings, dozens of books might be mentioned. Herbert Puryear's Edgar Cayce Primer is a good introduction to some basic Caycean ideas. K. Paul Johnson's Edgar Cayce in Context (see review) is a more academic treatment.

Turning to the Cayce movement, A. Robert Smith's biography of Cayce's son Hugh Lynn Cayce, About My Father's Business, of necessity also describes the history of the ARE. For some reason Harmon H. Bro's doctoral dissertation, Charisma of the Seer: A Study In the Phenomenology of Religious Leadership (1955, based on research conducted in 1943-44) has never been published despite the fact that it is one of the highest-quality Cayce writings in existence. No exploration of the Cayce movement would be complete without some perusal of the ARE magazine Venture Inward, or the basic study group text A Search for God (2 vols).

For more specific subjects such as alternative health, the Bible and Christianity, reincarnation, meditation, ESP, etc., please be aware that there will usually be at least one book devoted to it, although the quality may not always be what one would wish.

Q3. What is the name of the Edgar Cayce organization?

A3. There are several. This journal is not affiliated with any of them, although their involvement is of course welcomed. Note that except for the Logos Center, none of the following consider themselves to be a church or religion in their own right despite their obviously distinct spiritual perspectives.

The Association for Research and Enlightenment (ARE) is easily the largest Cayce organization, with some 30,000 members at this writing. Headquartered in Virginia Beach, Virginia, it has a center and library which is open to tourists. The ARE is an open-membership organization which assists members in investigating and applying Cayce's teachings. Major emphases include book and magazine publishing, conferences, and small study groups.

The Edgar Cayce Foundation (ECF) is closely allied with the ARE and has an identical board of trustees. The ECF has a research and archival role, and is distinguished from the ARE mainly for reasons of legal convenience. The ECF has copyrighted the Edgar Cayce readings, the legitimacy of which claim some of the dissidents hotly dispute.

Atlantic University (located at Virginia Beach) is now once again governed by the ARE / ECF board. It offers unaccredited masters degrees in transpersonal studies, mostly by correspondence.

The Glad Helpers are an intercessory prayer group based in ARE headquarters at Virginia Beach. They coordinate prayers and prayer requests, especially for healing.

The (Harold) Reilly School of Massotherapy is also located on the ARE's premises, and teaches a particular style of massage recommended by Cayce.

The ARE Clinic (William MacGarey) of Scottsdale, Arizona offers--in addition to regular holistic family services--an intensive, residential "Temple Beautiful" program emphasizing attitudinal and lifestyle changes.

The Scottsdale (Arizona) Holistic Medical Group (Gladys Taylor MacGarey) is another holistic family health clinic, with somewhat less emphasis on Cayce.

The Logos Center (Anne and Herbert Puryear) is a New Age church, bookstore, and healing center based in Scottsdale, Arizona. Cayce is one of several influences on its theology.

The Pilgrim Institute (June Avis Bro and Pamela Bro-Benetz) is headquartered near Milwaukee. Its mission is in transition in the wake of the death of its co-founder, Harmon Bro. Cayce is one of several core interests of its members. Please e-mail June Bro at JABro@Excel.net.

The Heritage Store is a New Age bookstore and holistic health supplier based in Virginia Beach.

The Meridian Institute is a group of ARE-affiliated researchers devoted to testing Cayce's medical readings.


Q4. Is there anybody out there today who gives psychic readings like Edgar Cayce?

A4. There are too many claimants to list them all, and any attempt to single some of them out as more reliable than others would be difficult to justify (although your editor is tempted to make an exception for J.R. "Bob" Dobbs, who offers instant enlightenment for a buck). Get thee to the Yellow Pages, the Internet, or a New Age bookstore. If you're smart enough to have found this site, you're smart enough to find a psychic, and also to be appropriately careful with your money and major life-decisions--a point stressed by believers and skeptics alike.