Читать книгу The Edgar Cayce Handbook for Health Through Drugless Therapy - Harold J. Reilly - Страница 12

Although hundreds of books have been written about Edgar Cayce, for some of you this may be the first introduction to the man who has been called the “sleeping prophet of Virginia Beach,” “America’s most mysterious man,” “religious seer,” and medical telepathist or clairvoyant.

Many of his contemporaries knew the “waking” Edgar Cayce as a gifted professional photographer. Others (predominantly children) admired him as a warm and friendly Sunday school teacher. His family knew him as a wonderful husband and father. However, the “sleeping” Edgar Cayce was an entirely different figure—a psychic known to thousands of people from all walks of life who had cause to be grateful for his help. Indeed, many of them believed that he alone had either saved or changed their lives when all seemed lost. The “sleeping” Edgar Cayce was a medical diagnostician, a prophet, and a devoted proponent of the Bible.

Even as a child on a farm near Hopkinsville, Kentucky, where he was born on March 18, 1877, Edgar Cayce displayed powers of perception which seemed to extend beyond the normal range of the five senses. At the age of six or seven he told his parents that he was able to see and talk to “visions,” sometimes of relatives who had recently died. His parents attributed this to the overactive imagination of a lonely child who had been influenced by the dramatic language of the revival meetings that were popular in that section of the country. Later, by sleeping with his head on his schoolbooks, he developed some form of photographic memory that helped him advance rapidly in the country school. This gift faded, however, and Edgar was only able to complete the seventh grade before he had to go to work.

By the age of twenty-one he had become the salesman for a wholesale stationery company. At this time he developed a gradual paralysis of the throat muscles, which threatened to cause the loss of his voice. When doctors were unable to find a physical cause for this condition, hypnosis was tried but failed to have any permanent effect. As a last resort Edgar asked a friend to help him reenter the same kind of hypnotic sleep that had enabled him to memorize his schoolbooks as a child. His friend gave him the necessary suggestion and, once he was in a self-induced trance, Edgar came to grips with his own problem. Speaking from an unconscious state, he recommended medication and manipulative therapy, which successfully restored his voice and repaired his system.

One of the young M.D.s, Dr. Wesley Ketchum, submitted a report on this unorthodox procedure to a clinical research society in Boston. On October 9, 1910, The New York Times carried two pages of headlines and pictures. From that day on troubled people from all over the country sought help from the “wonder man.”

—Introduction

A group of physicians from Hopkinsville and Bowling Green, Kentucky, took advantage of his unique talent to diagnose their own patients. They soon discovered that Cayce needed to be given only the name and address of a patient, wherever he was, to be able to tune in telepathically to that individual’s mind and body as easily as if they were both in the same room. He needed no other information regarding any patient.

One of the young M.D.s, Dr. Wesley Ketchum, submitted a report on this unorthodox procedure to a clinical research society in Boston. On October 9, 1910, The New York Times carried two pages of headlines and pictures. From that day on troubled people from all over the country sought help from the “wonder man.”

When Edgar Cayce died on January 3, 1945, in Virginia Beach, Virginia, he left documented stenographic records of the telepathic clairvoyant statements he had given for more than 6,000 different people over a period of forty-three years. The Association for Research and Enlightenment, Inc. (the A.R.E.), a psychical research society, was formed by Cayce in 1931 to preserve and research this data. Its library in Virginia Beach contains copies of 14,145 of Edgar Cayce’s psychic readings, stenographically recorded. Of this number 9,541, or about 67 percent, describe the physical disabilities of several thousand persons and suggest treatment for their ailments.

For a great many physicians, medical studies of treatment patterns for a number of major physical diseases seemed to suggest the advisability of testing Edgar Cayce’s theories. With this in mind, the physical readings have been made available to a clinic in Phoenix, Arizona. Through written reports and conferences, information on results of treatments have been made available to M.D.s and osteopaths.

The Edgar Cayce readings constitute one of the largest and most impressive records of psychic perception ever to emanate from a single individual. Together with their relevant records, correspondence, and reports, they have been cross-indexed under thousands of subject headings and placed at the disposal of psychologists, physicians, students, writers, and investigators who still come, in increasing numbers, to examine them.

The A.R.E. continues to make the information available in its library, through distribution of The Complete Edgar Cayce Readings on CD-ROM, on its Web site (www.edgarcayce.org), and through its many publications. The organization also initiates investigation and experiments into the readings and promotes conferences, seminars, and lectures.

Dr. Harold J. Reilly’s forty-five years of clinical experience with the readings constitute an invaluable addition to the record.