title: Edgar Cayce: An American Prophet
author/editor: Sidney D. Kirkpatrick
reviewed by: June
EDGAR CAYCE: AN AMERICAN PROPHET
This well- researched biography by Sidney D. Kirkpatrick is reputed to be the best on the famous seer.
Edgar Cayce, Jr. was born in 1877 to a family of tobacco farmers in Kentucky. As a child he began having visions. Al-though he didn't fully understand his psychic gift, he found he could use it to help others.
His readings, which were received while Cayce was in trance, were mostly medically intuitive. As he used his gift, his powers expanded to include almost any subject. There seemed to be no limit to the depth and scope of the information he received. Despite having only an eighth grade education, he came to know and advise many influential and well-known people.
For much of his life, Cayce's gift was exploited by opportunists whose object was financial gain. He became involved in several partnerships; one of which was the fruitless search for oil in Texas.
Another was with the Blumenthal brothers. They were New York stockbrokers who used Edgar's readings to increase their earnings in the stock market. They ignored his advice in 1929 and lost most of their wealth when the market crashed. They blamed Cayce for their losses and were bitter and vengeful in the aftermath. While the Blumenthals had garnered enormous profits, Cayce and his family lived in near poverty for most of his life. Throughout this time, he continually cautioned his partners in these ventures. He told them they must all work in the spirit of cooperation, and for the good of all.
Another partnership, which was formed to find lost treasure in the Caribbean, also failed for lack of cooperation among its principals. Although treasure was not found, the readings gave an exact geographical location of the lost continent of Atlantis. The information given in the life readings also suggested,
...that the future destiny of the United States and the world, was in the h ands of those who had once been entrusted with the welfare of Atlantis. Their failure to abide by God's laws had resulted in the destruction of the then civilized world, and those same souls would now, in America, be karmically tested again. (Page 374)
In the latter part of his life, Cayce gave psychic readings on past lives and reincarnation. He was a devout man all his life and when he began to receive information about reincarnation he was reticent to share it. He thought the concept of living more than one earthly life was, "the work of the devil." Eventually he became convinced however, that many of his family members and close associates had known each other and interacted with him in prior lifetimes.
After Cayce's death in 1945, his descendents have carried on his work through the Association for Research and Enlightenment.
June says: "Cayce was certainly ahead of his time. Scientists are beginning to investigate and validate some of the material he was given. I was absorbed in this book and I plan to read more about Cayce's work."