Edgar Cayce (1877-1945) was born in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. He was reared as a Christian and even taught at Sunday school. He considered becoming a minister, but a lack of both education and funds prevented him from taking this course. The story goes that at the age of around 20, Cayce (pronounced KC) lost his voice and through self-hypnosis cured himself. He eventually found that he could cure others while in a trance and eventually his fame spread to such an extent that he was reported in the New York Times on 9^th October 1910.

In due course, Cayce’s trances were producing prophetic utterances or ‘readings’, that produced ideas totally at variance with his Christian upbringing, such as reincarnation and contact with the dead. During his lifetime over 14,000 ‘readings’ were recorded. In 1931 the Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.) was founded by Cayce to manage a depository of his ‘readings’. Cayce also claimed to be the reincarnation of an ancient Egyptian priest Ra-Ta!

Towards the end of 1944, Cayce became very ill and on New Year’s Day, 1945 he ‘prophesied’ that he would be miraculously healed of his illness. He died three days later. Arguably, an even more disappointing prognostication was his claim that Jesus Christ would come again in 1998. The Cayce Petroleum Company was another failure in the 1920s when Cayce and his associates unsuccessfully searched for the ‘Mother Pool’ of oil in Texas based on some of his ‘readings’.

Robert Bauval in his Secret Chamber^[859] reveals that Cayce seemed to have had a photographic memory and worked for up to fifteen years in a bookstore in Bowling Green, Kentucky, where, no doubt, he had access to the works of Donnelly, Steiner, Blavatsky and others^[p158]. Over many years, his readings have frequently employed terminology and phrases from identifiable theosophical and other sources, a fact that cannot be ignored. David Bell wrote his Ph.D. dissertation, Edgar Cayce’s Bookshelf, on the sources that influenced his ‘readings’⁽ⁿ⁾.

His Reading 364-1^(e) reveals quite clearly that he was acquainted with theosophical literature as well as other works of fiction such as A Dweller on Two Planets. It is, therefore, a clear possibility that this familiarity may have influenced his subconscious and his later prognostications.

Some of those ‘readings’ related to Atlantis and have been published in various books and websites, while a separate volume, Edgar Cayce on Atlantis ^[0917] by his youngest son Edgar Evans Cayce contains all relevant utterances. The entire book is now available online^(l).

He is most famously known for his claim that Atlantis would rise again in 1968 or 1969. Dr Mason Valentine discovered the so-called Bimini Road.  A suggestion that this underwater feature had been known to members of A.R.E., years before its ‘discovery’, has been made by Picknett & Prince in The Stargate Conspiracy^[705].

John Gribbin, the British science writer has imaginatively suggested^[1029.91] that “if Cayce was indeed perceiving the future during his psychic trance, what he ‘received’ was a distorted version of the newspaper accounts of this story, which he duly reported in his own words in 1940.” On a more scientific note Gribbin explains (p.93) that “we can say beyond that Atlantis will not rise again from the Atlantic floor – there is no continental crust there to rise”.

K. Paul Johnson has written Edgar Cayce in Context^[690], a well-balanced book that investigates in detail Cayce and his prognostications. In 1922, Cayce gave a lecture to the Birmingham Theosophical Society. Johnson relates how one Arthur Lammers, a theosophist, stayed with Cayce in 1923 for several weeks, during which sojourn, it appears that Theosophy was extensively discussed. Around the same time, Cayce was developing a friendship with one Morton Blumenthal, also an ardent theosophist. Coincidentally, it was in 1923 that some of Cayce’s ‘readings’ began to display great similarities with some of the views expressed in Madame Blavatsky’s ‘revelations’. A further interesting fact is that Alexander Strath-Gordon met Edgar Cayce on a number of occasions in the 1920s prompting speculation that he may have ‘influenced’ some of Cayce’s Atlantis readings, an idea that must be considered a possibility.

Cayce added that the Atlanteans discovered electricity and also had ships and aircraft powered by a mysterious form of energy crystal. He tells us that these flying machines were made of elephant skins! (Reading 364-6)^(f) and that they could also travel through water! 

With all this technology at their disposal, it is incredible that they could have lost a war with anyone, particularly the relatively primitive Athenians. The 17th-century fictional work of Sir Francis Bacon, The New Atlantis, contains many references to advanced technology not realised until the last century. An encounter with this widely available work could easily have coloured any ‘readings’ while in a trance.  Therefore, it would appear that there is sufficient evidence to suggest the possibility of ‘contamination’ of Cayce’s subconscious to throw doubt on the possible value of any of his ’readings’, without impugning the honesty of Edgar Cayce himself. Since the much-quoted prophecy of ‘Atlantis rising’ in the late ’60s is quite possibly the result of such contamination, it cannot be considered as evidence of anything. The Bimini Road itself is still the subject of controversy. He also told us that China would be Christianised by 1968!

Cayce was also wrong regarding other historical details^(d), such as the date of the biblical Exodus, which he declared to be 5500 BC (reading 470-22)^(g), an error of about 4,000 years!

William B. Stoecker has written an article, which is highly critical of Cayce’s work^(b). Nevertheless, it must be conceded that in one respect Cayce did offer one remarkable suggestion which claims that the Atlantean survivors fled to a number of locations (i) The Pyrenees – Home to the Basques (ii) Morocco – Berber country (iii) Egypt and (iv) North America – forming the Iroquois Nation. Coincidentally, the Berbers, Basques and Iroquois all share a specific DNA type^(a).

In 2001, A.R.E. published Edgar Cayce’s Atlantis and Lemuria ^[106] by Frank Joseph. In turn, William Hutton wrote a review of Cayce’s offering, in which he concluded that “The foregoing review, while not comprehensive, shows that there is enough material in the book that is contentious, confusing or downright erroneous that almost anyone familiar with the relevant Cayce readings is prompted to ask, ‘How did this book come to be printed under the A.R.E.’s imprimatur?’ Why wasn’t the manuscript sent out to one or more competent reviewers for critical evaluation prior to being edited?”

Unfortunately, Plato is hardly mentioned at all by Cayce except for a brief reference to “the few lines given by Plato.” (Reading 364-1)^(g).

Michael Mandeville published three volumes on the life and work of Cayce. He calculated that Cayce’s accuracy is consistently within an 85%-92% range. In an article published in Atlantis Rising magazine^(m), he is quoted to have said that “Given the general accuracy of Cayce’s statements and the decisiveness with which his scenario for the period can be shown to be on target there is little reason to doubt that a catastrophic shift (25-27 degrees) in the location of the poles will occur during the period 2000-2001. I personally believe it will most likely occur in the year 2009.”  Now (2022), many uneventful years later I think a comment is unnecessary.

James Randi in an excerpt^(o) from his 1979 book Flim-Flam offers a debunking of Cayce that should be read by all open-minded people.>Jason Colavito has been a constant critic of Cayce’s irrational utterances^(p). In August 2023, Colavito felt obliged to resume his critique of Cayce’s work following the showing of S19E15 of the American Ancient Aliens TV series. Understandably, Colavito is completely unimpressed by both Cayce and the Ancient Aliens production, describing the latter as a series from which “fortunately, no one has to worry about any truth coming out lt”^(q).<

There is also the report that David Wilcock, the conspiracy theorist, claimed to be the reincarnation of Edgar Cayce and wished to have a position in A.R.E., where he would also offer ‘readings’. He was questioned by Cayce’s son and grandson “for a little over an hour and quickly realized that he couldn’t answer a single question. They felt he was full of crap within minutes but to give him a fair chance they entertained him by asking him the questions that Cayce prepared while still alive to test the people who would come forward claiming to be his reincarnation.”⁽ⁱ⁾ This daft idea was given further promotion by Wynn Free in The Reincarnation of Edgar Cayce. ^[1678], which was written with Wilcock.

Another communication with the deceased Cayce is claimed by Leonard Farra^(j). Forty years ago, in an article in Nature magazine Eugene A. Shinn and Marshall McKusick described Cayce followers as members of ‘a cult’!^(k)

^(a) Evidence of Atlantis (archive.org)

^(b) https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/column.php?id=177247

^(c) See: https://christophervolpe.blogspot.ie/2010/09/imagining-atlantis.html#links

^(d) See: https://web.archive.org/web/20160926210640/https://talc.site88.net/intro.htm

^(e) https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/esp_cayce_3.htm

^(f) https://phantho.de/files/html/reading__364-6.htm

^(g) See: Archive 2913

^(h) https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/esp_cayce_3.htm

⁽ⁱ⁾ https://www.quora.com/Is-David-Wilcock-really-the-reincarnation-of-Edgar-Cayce

^(j) https://web.archive.org/web/20161116110258if_/http://www.messagetoeagle.com/farraatlantis.php#.WCw86Clxepo

^(k) https://www.academia.edu/12724731/Bahamian_Atlantis_reconsidered

^(l) https://www.theosophy.world/sites/default/files/ebooks/edgar_cayce_on_atlantis_1988.pdf

^(m) Atlantis Rising magazine #22 p.25  http://www.pdfarchive.info/index.php?pages/At

⁽ⁿ⁾ https://www.proquest.com/openview/d2a0a6fa9f13b7a809553ebc09a8eea7/1?cbl=18750&diss=y&pq-origsite=gscholar [Edgar Cayce’s Bookshelf]

^(o) https://skepticalinquirer.org/1979/10/edgar-cayce-the-slipping-prophet/

^(p) https://www.jasoncolavito.com/apps/search?q=Edgar+Cayce *

^(q) Review of Ancient Aliens S19E15: “Edgar Cayce: The Sleeping Prophet” – JASON COLAVITO *