Post by boo on Jan 5, 2008 1:07:24 GMT -5
Edgar Cayce made his name in the first half of this century in America as a psychic healer; perhaps the greatest that the United States ever produced. During his lifetime he was credited with assisting thousands of people suffering from all manner of ailments. But there was also a lesser known aspect to Cayce's psychic revelations. Occasionally while in a self-induced trance, Cayce would speak of events to come. He predicted the First and Second World War, the independence of India and the 1929 stockmarket crash. He also predicted, fifteen years before the event, the creation of the State of Israel. His most disturbing predictions, however, concern vast geographical upheavals which by the year 1998 will result in the destruction of New York, the disappearance of most of Japan, and a cataclysmic change in Northern Europe.
There are many myths and legends surrounding Cayce: that an angel appeared to him when he was 13 and asked him what his greatest desire was (Cayce allegedly told the angel that his greatest desire was to help people); that he could absorb the contents of a book by putting it under his pillow while he slept; that he passed spelling tests by using clairvoyance; that he was illiterate and uneducated.
Cayce was born on 18 March 1877, on a farm near Hopkinsville, Kentucky. He came from an old, conservative family, and as a child developed what became a lifelong interest in the Bible and the Church. His outlook was undoubtedly influenced by the Christian revivalist meetings which were popular at the time in that part of the country. At the age of seven or eight Edgar was sitting in a wooded clearing reading the Bible when he saw what he described as a bright vision of a winged figure clothed in white. The vision asked the child what he wanted in life, and Edgar responded that he wished to help others. The next day, so the story goes, Edgar was having difficulty learning his spelling homework. In his mind he heard the voice of his vision telling him to sleep that he might be helped. The boy did as he was told, laying his head on his spelling book. A little later he awoke to find he knew the spelling of every word.
This story is perhaps the more incredible because Edgar Cayce was not a good student. Later in life, he would become renowned for the learned manner in which he spoke while in a trance. But in his conscious, waking state, he appeared to his contemporaries as a quiet, humble, self-effacing man, somewhat unschooled, and deeply religious.
Even though Cayce didn't have a formal education much beyond grammar school, he was a voracious reader, worked in bookstores, and was especially fond of occult and osteopathic literature. (Osteopathy, in his day, was primitive and akin to naturopathy and folk medicine.) He was in contact with and assisted by people with various medical backgrounds. Even so, many of his readings would probably only make sense to an osteopath of his day. Martin Gardner cites Cayce's reading of Cayce's own wife as an example. The woman was suffering from tuberculosis:
.... from the head, pains along through the body from the second, fifth and sixth dorsals, and from the first and second lumbar...tie-ups here, floating lesions, or lateral lesions, in the muscular and nerve fibers which supply the lower end of the lung and the diaphragm...in conjunction with the sympathetic nerve of the solar plexus, coming in conjunction with the solar plexus at the end of the stomach.... (Gardner 1957: 217)
The fact that Cayce mentions the lung is taken by his followers as evidence of a correct diagnosis; it counts as a psychic "hit." But what about the incorrect diagnoses: dorsals, lumbar, floating lesions, solar plexus and stomach? Why aren't those counted as diagnostic misses? And why did Cayce recommend osteopathic treatment for people with tuberculosis, epilepsy and cancer?
In addition to osteopathy, Cayce was knowledgeable of homeopathy and naturopathy. He was the first to recommend laetrile as a cancer cure. (Laetrile contains cyanide and is known to be ineffective for cancer.) He also recommended "oil of smoke" for a leg sore; "peach-tree poultice" for convulsions; "bedbug juice" for dropsy; and "fumes of apple brandy from a charred keg" for tuberculosis.
At the age of fifteen, Edgar suffered an accident a school. He was struck on the back of his neck by a baseball. The boy went into a semi-stupor, and while in that state, told his parents to prepare a special poultice and apply it to the nape of his neck, at the base of his brain. To appease their son, his parents did as they were told, and in the morning, the boy was completely recovered. Followers of Cayce say this was his very first health reading.
There are many myths and legends surrounding Cayce: that an angel appeared to him when he was 13 and asked him what his greatest desire was (Cayce allegedly told the angel that his greatest desire was to help people); that he could absorb the contents of a book by putting it under his pillow while he slept; that he passed spelling tests by using clairvoyance; that he was illiterate and uneducated.
Cayce was born on 18 March 1877, on a farm near Hopkinsville, Kentucky. He came from an old, conservative family, and as a child developed what became a lifelong interest in the Bible and the Church. His outlook was undoubtedly influenced by the Christian revivalist meetings which were popular at the time in that part of the country. At the age of seven or eight Edgar was sitting in a wooded clearing reading the Bible when he saw what he described as a bright vision of a winged figure clothed in white. The vision asked the child what he wanted in life, and Edgar responded that he wished to help others. The next day, so the story goes, Edgar was having difficulty learning his spelling homework. In his mind he heard the voice of his vision telling him to sleep that he might be helped. The boy did as he was told, laying his head on his spelling book. A little later he awoke to find he knew the spelling of every word.
This story is perhaps the more incredible because Edgar Cayce was not a good student. Later in life, he would become renowned for the learned manner in which he spoke while in a trance. But in his conscious, waking state, he appeared to his contemporaries as a quiet, humble, self-effacing man, somewhat unschooled, and deeply religious.
Even though Cayce didn't have a formal education much beyond grammar school, he was a voracious reader, worked in bookstores, and was especially fond of occult and osteopathic literature. (Osteopathy, in his day, was primitive and akin to naturopathy and folk medicine.) He was in contact with and assisted by people with various medical backgrounds. Even so, many of his readings would probably only make sense to an osteopath of his day. Martin Gardner cites Cayce's reading of Cayce's own wife as an example. The woman was suffering from tuberculosis:
.... from the head, pains along through the body from the second, fifth and sixth dorsals, and from the first and second lumbar...tie-ups here, floating lesions, or lateral lesions, in the muscular and nerve fibers which supply the lower end of the lung and the diaphragm...in conjunction with the sympathetic nerve of the solar plexus, coming in conjunction with the solar plexus at the end of the stomach.... (Gardner 1957: 217)
The fact that Cayce mentions the lung is taken by his followers as evidence of a correct diagnosis; it counts as a psychic "hit." But what about the incorrect diagnoses: dorsals, lumbar, floating lesions, solar plexus and stomach? Why aren't those counted as diagnostic misses? And why did Cayce recommend osteopathic treatment for people with tuberculosis, epilepsy and cancer?
In addition to osteopathy, Cayce was knowledgeable of homeopathy and naturopathy. He was the first to recommend laetrile as a cancer cure. (Laetrile contains cyanide and is known to be ineffective for cancer.) He also recommended "oil of smoke" for a leg sore; "peach-tree poultice" for convulsions; "bedbug juice" for dropsy; and "fumes of apple brandy from a charred keg" for tuberculosis.
At the age of fifteen, Edgar suffered an accident a school. He was struck on the back of his neck by a baseball. The boy went into a semi-stupor, and while in that state, told his parents to prepare a special poultice and apply it to the nape of his neck, at the base of his brain. To appease their son, his parents did as they were told, and in the morning, the boy was completely recovered. Followers of Cayce say this was his very first health reading.