The Journal of Cayce Studies is an on-line, semiannual academic journal devoted to the life, teachings, and legacy of the American psychic Edgar Cayce. The journal is independent of any Cayce organization, and is open to everyone regardless of belief or unbelief. Formal governance structures have yet to be established, but all interested scholars are encouraged to contact the editor with a view to participating.

Progress Report

Hello everybody, and welcome to the second issue of the Journal of Cayce Studies. If you haven't seen the first issue yet, it is still available for your perusal in the archives.

Thanks to everyone who e-mailed with comments, inquiries, or the occasional revelatory pronouncement. One question stumped me, and so I hereby put out the call to Cayce trivia buffs everywhere: "Whatever happened to Arthur Lammers?"

If anyone has substantive criticism to make of a particular article or review, I would be pleased to add a scholarly letters page for that sort of thing.

For less formal discussion of Cayce and related topics, please check out the Edgar Cayce Message Board, or join the Cayce list-serve discussion group (e-mail kent@cadence.com).

Based on the contents of the first issue, several people assumed that the journal would be solely concerned with historical approaches to Cayce. This issue is something of a change of pace, with articles analyzing specific aspects of Cayce's teachings in often unfamiliar ways. I hope that future issues will include other methodologies as well, such as psychological or sociological ones. I can even envision formal scientific research being organized as a cooperative effort between skeptics and believers, if cost-effective yet credible test procedures can be designed to the satisfaction of both sides. One day, perhaps...

I am particularly pleased and privileged to include an interview with Mae Gimbert St. Clair by K. Paul Johnson. Ms. St. Clair worked for Edgar Cayce starting in 1938, and has remained with the ARE more or less continuously over the years. As a first hand-observer of Cayce and ARE history, she enjoys first-hand knowledge of people and events the rest of us can only try to reconstruct. She is also a charming lady who has helped me and many thousands of other people in her capacity as research librarian. I recall her sharing with me her intuition that 1998 would be the year her story finally found a wider audience, and sure enough, that was the year she gave this interview.

I would like to say something about the long-term prospects for this journal. While I feel it has the potential to become a viable ongoing source of Cayce scholarship, there is also a substantial possibility that it will wither and die through lack of support. Your participation will make the difference between a continuing supply of issues like this every six months, or a hasty conversion to an "occasional papers" format (i.e. no longer a periodical) shortly after the millennium.

So far the contents have been almost entirely solicited by me, but I can't keep this up forever, nor is it good for the journal. I need people to start coming to me with material instead of vice versa. There ought to be enough scholars out there who are interested in Cayce to sustain a journal like this. If you think the project is worthwhile--or for that matter, if you think it is in need of fundamental changes--then we need you to contribute your talents and guidance.

What kind of help am I asking for? To begin with, we need academic articles. Formal qualifications such as degrees are irrelevant for this purpose--what matters is the paper you write, not the paper on your wall. If you are wondering whether a particular topic or approach would be suitable, please feel free to discuss it with me. As a handy guide, ask yourself: Would the paper contribute something new to the discussion of Cayce, or improve upon existing studies? And would those who disagree with your ideology (skeptics, believers, etc.) nevertheless find your article worthwhile?

We also need book reviews, by people who are genuine experts in some aspect of the books they are reviewing. And if anyone would like to take my place as editor either temporarily or permanently, that too is possible. E-mail me and we'll talk.

Finally, we need academic types who are interested in serving on the journal's board. Please let me know if you are willing to do this. Ideally all fifty (or however many) credentialed Cayce scholars out there would leap to volunteer out of love for the field. So far, however, only a few of you have come forward. Yes, the journal is new, everyone is busy, I'm not quite to everyone's taste, and I haven't figured out exactly how the governance thing would actually work. But we need you anyway--if you care about Cayce scholarship and would like to have a viable ongoing forum for it, it may be some time before a similar opportunity arises. Let's make this work.

I'm afraid that my criteria in the last issue for who would count as an "academic" for this purpose (basically, possession of either a doctorate or an academic position) was confusing and maybe a little off-putting. I meant well. You see, the normal procedure would be for me to just pick people for the editorial board. I had hoped to open up the process by stipulating that anyone who met certain reasonably objective qualifications--regardless of ideology, regardless of their relationship with me--would be entitled as a matter of right to participate in governance. I'm aware that in reality it's more of a chore than a right, but please bear with me and help if you can.

My idea was that once a board was formed, other deserving persons without these formal qualifications could then be voted in as a means of honoring their contribution to the study of Cayce. In any case, those criteria were meant to apply only to participation in governance, not to articles or reviews. I am certainly aware that some of the best writing on Cayce has come from people well outside of academia.

If you are willing to help, but you don't feel you can do any of the above, e-mail me anyway. (Techies especially!) No, I won't ask you for money or put you on a mailing list. And if you have contacts in any of the Cayce groups or organizations, or other appropriate venues, please do what you can to spread the word about us.

For those who are wondering about The Unknown Cayce, my (projected) edited book of essays based on articles from this journal, I have not yet found a willing publisher. I'll keep trying, though.

Namaste and enjoy!

--David Bell