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Edgar
Cayce’s Legacy: Virginia’s
Psychic Phenomena
In
one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays,
Denmark’s prince muses on the paranormal. “There
are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than
are dreamt of in your philosophy,” Hamlet tells
his friend after encountering his murdered
father’s ghost. Four hundred years later, there
are still those who passionately adhere to this
notion. In Virginia, they can find evidence for
their beliefs at two institutions – the
headquarters of Edgar Cayce’s Association
for Research and Enlightenment in Virginia Beach
and the Division
of Personality Studies on the grounds of the
University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
The
former houses more than 14,000 “readings” given
by Cayce, a seer, mystic or clairvoyant (depending
on the term you prefer), on subjects ranging from
holistic health to reincarnation and the existence
of the mythical submerged city of Atlantis. It is
only one of 25 Edgar Cayce Centers throughout the
globe and is visited annually by thousands of his
followers, as well as the curious.
Cayce
settled on Virginia Beach as a result of his
“readings” or visions, which were always given
while he was in a trance. At the height of his
popularity in 1925, he and his followers wanted to
establish an institution that would survive him.
Possible locations included Chicago, Ill. and
Dayton, Ohio. In "There Is a River"
by Thomas Sugrue, originally published in 1943, the
author explains that Cayce’s readings vetoed the
other two sites. Instead, they directed him to
Virginia Beach because the readings indicated it was
better for his health and psychic abilities to live
near large bodies of water. Also, it was better that
psychic readings be carried on over and near water
and that individuals travel over water to receive
them.
Two
years after moving to Virginia Beach, Cayce
established the Association of National
Investigators in 1927 and a year later, the Cayce
Hospital was established with 60 beds. It was
designed to explore the effectiveness of the
holistic healing cures Cayce experienced in his
trance readings. In 1930, Atlantic University was
established to train those interested in Cayce’s
theories. However, a year later both the ANI and the
hospital faltered due in part to the Depression and
conflicts among donors. Atlantic University closed
soon after. The Association for Research and
Enlightenment replaced the ANI and in 1932 held its
first congress with 16 attendees. It has survived to
this day. (See Wikipedia
-- Edgar Cayce.)
Cayce’s
popularity grew during subsequent years and after
his death in 1945. By 1955, the University of
Chicago accepted the first dissertation on the
psychic, entitled "Charisma of the Seer,"
by Harmon H. Bro.
The
bulk of Cayce’s readings – more than 9,000 –
were physical readings and this is where his legacy
resonates most strongly, among the growing number of
those who believe in the mind-body approach to
health. Cayce seemed to have a fairly realistic
approach to his gift, though, urging those who came
to him to take away only what seemed relevant to
their situation. He fretted that individuals
who consulted him during the last two decades of his
life in Virginia Beach were much more interested in
“life readings,” which often dealt with
reincarnation than the “physical readings” that
he felt more confident about.
There
are, of course, skeptics who point to incorrect
prophecies and the fact that any evidence of the
success of his healings and predictions is anecdotal
and not scientifically rigorous. But whatever their
beliefs, critics and believers alike concur that
Cayce sincerely believed in his powers and his
intentions were altruistic. In fact, his death is
attributed to overwork. A 1943 article in Coronet
magazine, a national publication, resulted in
increased requests for his readings. To satisfy this
demand, he began giving eight a day, which finally
affected his health. He died of a stroke on January
3, 1945.
About
160 miles northwest, on the UVa campus, a small
group of researchers in the Division of Personality
Studies in the Department of Psychiatry apply
scientific rigor to some of the phenomena Cayce only
experienced in his trances. The division is best
known for the work of its founder – Dr. Ian
Stevenson -- on children who claim to experience
previous lives. He has traveled around the globe
investigating such cases, and has written hundreds
of articles and a number of books. His latest book,
"European Cases of the Reincarnation Type,"
was reviewed in the April 2005 issue of the American
Journal of Psychiatry (American Journal of
Psychiatry).
Dr.
Stevenson founded the division in 1967 when he
resigned as chair of the Department of Psychiatry at
UVa and became the new department’s director, as
well as the Chester F. Carlson Professor of
Psychiatry. He remained in the position for the next
35 years. DOPS is one of only a dozen or so
university-based research units that investigate
similar paranormal phenomena. Others are located at
Princeton University, the University of Arizona, the
University of Edinburgh in Scotland and the
University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
In
1997, a Washington Post editor, Tom Shroder,
traveled with Dr. Stevenson through India, Lebanon
and the U.S. as he investigated children who seemed
to remember past lives. Shroder related his
experiences in a book, "Old Souls: The
Scientific Evidence for Past Lives." In one
case in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, a
child named Joseph remembered his dead uncle’s
life in more detail than seemed possible. He called
his grandmother “Mom,” and spoke of incidents in
his uncle’s life as if he had experienced them. As
a child he always insisted on buying shoes that were
too big for him. “I know I wear a size eight,”
he would tell his mother. His uncle wore that shoe
size.
Schroder began his travels with Dr. Stevenson as a
skeptic and was still uncertain how to interpret
what he experienced, but believed the many cases he
saw with Stevenson were not the result of fraud,
coincidence, delusion or any normal explanations.
In
addition to Dr. Stevenson’s research area, the
11-member staff at the DOPS, which includes
psychiatrists and clinical psychologists, studies
other apparent paranormal phenomena, such as
near-death experiences (NDEs); out-of-body
experiences (OBEs); apparitions and after-death
communications; and deathbed visions.
The
department takes its research seriously and in a
link on its Web site, Who We Aren't, is sensitive to
the ghostbuster stereotypes that haunt such
research. The staff does not conduct phone
interviews from the media or students, or offer
recommendations of psychics or hypnotists who
specialize in past-life regression.
The
department does, however, invite individuals to
participate in the University of Virginia Study of
Unusual Experiences (DOPS Research). It’s
unfortunate Hamlet didn’t have such an
opportunity. He might have met a more pleasant end.
NEXT:
Don’t Cry Fowl: Virginia’s Feathered Friends
November 28, 2005
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