Edgar Cayce

Edgar Cayce was a 20th-century American whose practice centred on entering a self-induced trance state from which he would respond, at length, to questions put by attendants. These sessions — known as readings — addressed subjects ranging from medical diagnosis to theology, with Cayce reporting little conscious recall of what was said once he returned to waking. Over several decades, the transcribed sessions accumulated into one of the largest bodies of recorded material of its kind, attracting attention from people seeking health guidance as well as those drawn to its wider metaphysical claims.

The readings ranged across three principal areas: physical health, offering diagnostic assessments and dietary guidance for individual conditions; questions of past lives and reincarnation; and accounts of ancient civilisations, principally Atlantis, alongside detailed commentary on the life of Jesus. Published works drawn from the transcripts — including collections on diet and health and a commentary on the Book of Revelation — extended the material into book form, making it accessible to readers without direct access to the archive. The resulting body of work is among the most extensively documented in its tradition.

The Association for Research and Enlightenment holds the archive and has kept the readings in active circulation for close to a century. It publishes collections, maintains a programme of events, and supports an ongoing community of practitioners and researchers engaging with the material. Works attributed to Cayce, or compiled from his readings, remain in print and are available through the Association's collections and through general booksellers. The archive — preserved, indexed, and made publicly accessible — stands as an unusually thorough record of one practitioner's sustained output across health, history, and scriptural interpretation.