One of the most fascinating and intellectually intriguing personalities I’ve encountered in my long years of exploring mysterious and unexplained phenomena was an American psychic, mystic and prophet named Edgar Cayce. He was born on a farm in Kentucky in 1877 and died in 1945.

What makes Cayce unique is his strange but extraordinary ability to go into a trance-like or altered state of consciousness, and discuss intelligently almost any topic asked him (such as science, philosophy, religion and medicine) while in that sleep-like state.

In his waking state, he had absolutely no knowledge of any of these topics, having finished only the equivalent of an 8th-grade education.

Psychic readings

I first read about Cayce (pronounced (Kay-see) in the mid- 1970s, when I began to be interested in exploring psychic phenomena and other mysteries of the human mind. I was immediately drawn to his unpretentious psychic readings.

He would go into a sleep-like state and begin answering questions from any interested individual.

In the beginning he would  give advice only on medical matters, such as the diagnosis and treatment of illness of total strangers. Given only the name and address of a person, Edgar Cayce would describe the nature of his/her illness, even how it was acquired, then give suggestions on how to treat it, often with great success.

He was once accused of practicing medicine without a license and was investigated by two Harvard medical doctors who, however, came back convinced that Cayce was no quack doctor, nor was he fooling people.

Later, his psychic readings included almost any topic under the sun, from arthritis to warts, and from Atlantis to mysticism.  Much later, his nonmedical topics were called Life Readings. He was the first to use and define the term “soul mate” in the 1930s.

Medical diagnosis

When he died, he left over 14,000 psychic readings, most of which consisted of medical diagnosis and treatments, which are still being collated and studied by an organization he established called the Association for Research and Enlightenment, based in Virginia Beach, United States.

I was one of the first to establish the Edgar Cayce Study Group in the Philippines in the mid-’70s. The other group was by a young businessman, Victor Chua, who later lived abroad.

I had the rare opportunity to meet Cayce’s son, Hugh Lynn Cayce, when he visited the Philippines, also in the mid-’70s. He was then the head of the Edgar Cayce Foundation.

When Hugh Lynn died in 1982, a brother of his took over the foundation.

Our Edgar Cayce Study Group, with only seven core members, met religiously every Sunday in the house of Narzalina Lim, who became tourism undersecretary of the Cory Aquino administration. The objective of the study group was to develop the members’ knowledge of the spiritual world, and develop their psychic and healing abilities based on the Edgar Cayce readings.

Cayce’s prodigious knowledge of almost every conceivable topic way beyond his normal conscious mental capacity astounded and confounded medical people, scientists, philosophers and even skeptics.

When asked where he obtained such knowledge, Cayce mentioned two main sources— namely, the Akashic Record and the individual’s subconscious mind.

Cayce explained that the Akashic Record contained information written “in the skein of time and space.”

In the mystical traditions of the East, the “Akasha” is the ultimate substance of the universe where “everything that a person has ever thought of or done is permanently recorded,” and which could be accessed by a highly developed psychic.

Man’s subconscious mind contains an individual’s knowledge of past, present and future events which he may not be aware of in his conscious state.

To one who can read the Akashic Record, nothing can be kept hidden, not even his deepest personal secrets. 

This is probably what Jesus Christ meant when he said in the Bible: “Everything hidden will be revealed.”

The next Basic ESP and Intuition Development Seminar will be held on July 25-26, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Room 308, Prince Plaza I, Legazpi Sreet, Legazpi Village, Greenbelt, Makati City. For details or reservations, please call tel.  8107245 or 0998-9886292.