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Title: Edgar Cayce: An American Prophet by Sidney D. Kirkpatrick ISBN: 1-57322-896-6 Publisher: Riverhead Books Pub. Date: 06 November, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.49 (43 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: AMERICA'S SEER
Comment: Edgar Cayce, one of America's well known clairvoyants, is given a thorough examination in this new biography by Sidney Kirkpatrick. Gone is the myth and legend of the man who has captured the hearts and minds of many New Age adherents. In its place, the reader is given an objective overview of this fascinating man whose mystical powers still baffle those of us today. Just who was this Edgar Cayce? What impact if any did he have on the lives of others and of our nation? While reading this book you will be astounded with the answers.
Journey with the author to Hopkinsville, Kentucky where the Cayce clan and related kin provide the foundation for this young seer. We find a family of tobacco growers, misfits and others who share some strange gifts that are known but kept under wraps. Into this environment comes Edgar Cayce who grows up in a conventional lifestyle of his time. Known as a quiet boy and prone to day dreaming there isn't anything extra ordinary about this child.
Kirkpatrick humanizes Cayce. We see the various facets of his life. He has a inferiority complex, a deep love of the Bible, struggles with his gift and is artistic. Cayce struggles throughout his lifetime to help others. We also meet the celeberties, entrepreneurs and government officials who also take an interest in Cayce. Their motivations in using this young man are not always pure or in the best interest of Cayce and the work he is called to do.
I found it fascinating to read the interviews from the entities that possess Cayce's body and give out advice. Even in the written word their presence is frightening and powerful. It is amusing to hear one of them chastise Cayce for not following its advice and its annoyance in answering the "stupid" questions of people who just don't get what is said.
The book also looks at the loves in Cayce's life most notably his relationship with Gladys Davis, his secretary, and a woman he met during his engagement with his fiance. You find a complex man tied up in some strange love triangles. This is an enjoyable work which puts him in the context of his time and also focuses on the investigation of spiritualism, clairvoyance and other mysterious phenomena of the day. You get a clearer historical perspective of what were the attitudes of the day. Oddly enough Cayce was praised and reviled during his day. America was both repelled and attracted to this seer.
Edgar Cayce:An American Prophet is insightful, funny and historical in its presentation of a figure who led an unconventional life during the early 20th century. You will enjoy his story and gain a better perspective on the life of America's greatest Clairvoyant.
Rating: 5
Summary: I just love this book
Comment: Edgar Cayce was an absolutely amazing person and I can't believe the life of sacrifice he led. What a blessing for us--and so many of us are blind to it--to have this prophet live in our country--in our state--in our times. It is almost like having Jesus Christ return but nobody recognize it. He led an extraordinary life--a fascinating life--as did the people around him. A true legend to be told and Sidney Kirkpatrick does a superb job of telling it. I can't wait to see the movie!!
Rating: 3
Summary: I Do Not Bear A Message: I Am The Message
Comment: Sidney R. Kirkpatrick's Edgar Cayce: An American Prophet methodically considers the facts in the life of a man whose story may be the best documented Fortean case study in modern history. Kirkpatrick writes well, and has clearly immersed himself in his subject.
Considering that Cayce's personal history ostensibly involved dowsing, ancestors with unusual powers, a lifelong relationship with fairies ("little folk"), visitations from message - bearing, heaven - sent angels, mysterious turbaned men who disappear after uttering cryptic warnings, devastating, unexplainable fires, remarkable medical diagnoses given while in a trance state, accurate prophesies about the future, unaccountable knowledge of past events in the lives of strangers, ghosts, and shadowy government conspiracies, Cayce's abilities, encounters, and experiences were extraordinary indeed. Kirkpatrick takes the reader on a cautious, careful trip through the first half of Cayce's life in the American South and Midwest, supporting his case with persuasive evidence gathered from a variety of respected sources over a period of decades. However, Kirkpatrick occasionally seems too willing to accept Cayce's more unusual experiences at face value, and offers little in the way of skepticism, disbelief, or alternative explanations; for instance, the role that multiple family tragedies and serious head injuries may have played in Cayce's childhood experiences and later development go almost completely unexamined. Therefore, the book has Cayce's stamp upon it rather than Kirkpatrick's: from time to time Kirkpatrick seems more like a mild - mannered Cayce apologist than he does an unbiased, objective biographer.
For discriminating readers, the real problem with both Cayce's story and Kirkpatrick's biography comes in the later half of Cayce's life, when people began asking 'the Source' - the voice which responded to questions put to Cayce while in trance - about astrology, reincarnation, and death. As in most of the 'New Age' channeling cases of the eighties, suddenly Edgar, his family, and seemingly everyone they know has been a notorious historical figure at some point in their karmic cycle, a Helen of Troy, a Hector, an Achilles, or a Queen of England, a Pharaoh, or an apostle of Jesus Christ: no fishwives or shoemakers here. Cayce's young son, according to the Source, has been both a Pharaoh and one of Christ's apostles; Cayce's attractive, hard working young assistant, Gladys Davis, has been not only a British queen, but, as such, was also Cayce's own royal mother. With this lengthy series of revelations, Cayce's and Kirkpatrick's credibility quickly wilts, as the Source's claims become increasingly overextended, outlandish, and absurd. Readers may find themselves listlessly awaiting their own favorite historical figure to mthe, be it Diana of Nemi, Bishop Pontopippidan, Genghis Khan, Ponce de Leon, Cromwell, Major Andre, or Catherine the Great.
Sadly, Cayce, his family, and his followers whole - heartedly embraced the Source's pronouncements concerning their past lives, love affairs, and relationships. As Cayce and many of those around him were financially destitute, barely educated, and often hungry, Kirkpatrick should have thoroughly considered what needs these attractive grandiosities may have filled, and how these compensatory beliefs affected their individual and collective psyches. Cayce and his friends and followers were almost all fervent Christians -- Cayce was a biblical scholar and lecturer -- but clearly they all desperately needed something greater and closer to home to believe in. It's not difficult to understand why Cayce had so many followers: not only did he medically heal hundreds of people during his lifetime, but the Source's metaphysical doctrine continually emphasized the universe as a wholly benevolent place, one composed of a rich, intricate fabric of meaning, spiritual guidance, and continuous second chances. In the Source's cosmology, there is no such thing as genuine evil, but only pathology, vulnerability, misunderstanding, guilt, and a world of imperfect souls struggling towards the Godhead.
Ultimately, there is enough hard evidence to make a case for the validity of much of the otherwise inexplicable anomalous phenomena in the first half of Cayce's existence. Due to the substantial documentation, many of the events in Cayce's life can be used as Fortean test cases to establish standards by which the other paranormal phenomena can be judged and weighted. As the lives of Carl Jung, Hilda Doolitle, and William Butler Yeats attest, subjective experience -- especially concerning paranormal phenomena -- should never be mocked or dismissed out of hand. However, some Fortean phenomena, such as the notorious events believed to have occurred throughout the life of science fiction writer Philip K. Dick, appear to be the product of delusion, mental illness, or any number of other psychological factors, many of which are presently little understood, when compared to the Cayce evidence.
Edgar Cayce: An American Prophet will make an interesting object lesson for Forteans, including as it does detailed, well - supported information about the wide range of paranormal phenomena which dominated Cayce's life. Harry Houdini, Nicolas Telsa, Thomas Edison, and an American president also make brief appearances. Readers who credit all of Cayce's metaphysical divinations may also want to read the late Joe Fisher's harrowing The Siren Call of Hungry Ghosts (2001) for another perspective on the validity and dangers of surrendering the human will to 'channeled' 'spirit guides' and the presumed souls of the dead.
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Title: The Edgar Cayce Remedies by WILLIAM A. MCGAREY ISBN: 0553274279 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 June, 1983 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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Title: Edgar Cayce's Story of Jesus by Jeffrey Furst ISBN: 0425103277 Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group Pub. Date: 01 May, 1991 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Edgar Cayce the Sleeping Prophet by Jess Stearn ISBN: 0553260855 Publisher: Bantam Books Pub. Date: 01 February, 1990 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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Title: My Life As a Seer: The Lost Memoirs by Edgar Cayce, Edward Cayce, A. Robert Smith ISBN: 0312971443 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 01 February, 2002 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The Edgar Cayce Encyclopedia of Healing (Edgar Cayce) by Reba Ann Karp ISBN: 0446608416 Publisher: Warner Books Pub. Date: 01 September, 1999 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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