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There is a River: The Story of Edgar Cayce

(Collector's Library of the Unknown)

Thomas Joseph Sugrue,

Edgar Cayce (Contributor)

4.26 · Rating details · 1,923 ratings · 101 reviews

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most impor ...more

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Published May 1st 2003 by A.R.E. Press (Association of Research & Enlightenment)

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Jun 06, 2012 David Seals rated it it was amazing

When my generation, born in the latter 1940s, somehow blew our minds by the 1960s and challenged some of our parents' ideas about civil rights, war, religion, education, and even medicine, the books and astonishing insights of somebody named Edgar Cayce were just another among many new possibilities for us to discover. The bookstores and the streets were exploding with marches and ideas, music, art, cosmic consciousness for peace and love. It was a wonderful and heady and terrible time of assas ...more

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Jul 05, 2010 Bret rated it it was amazing

This book has helped me through a difficult period. The extent and pace of change in my life has overwhelmed me as I prepare to enter a new career and thus a new way of living. Money and charity have pulled from opposite ends of my soul throughout my life and finally, I think I found the line of work I am meant to do.

Edgar Cayce's story is one of an ordinary man who, through some stroke of predestination, spoke about extraordinary mysteries while in a sleeping trance. In an era where frauds lik ...more

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Sep 15, 2014 Dave Thompson rated it it was amazing

I'll bet there are a lot of Christians out there who reject the idea of reincarnation or any other type of alternative afterlife theories with the idea that it's counter to the all mighty Bible. Those people need to read about Edgar Cayce, who found a way to align his Christian faith with the physical experiences he could not deny.

I won't try any harder to sell this idea, but if you'll take your head out of the sand and accept that maybe, just maybe something might be true that wasn't written 20 ...more

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Aug 06, 2011 Judy Vasseur rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Fascinating. Edgar Cayce had a gift which he used to alleviate suffering and restore health in thousands of people. A devout Christian, not educated in medicine, he had the ability to make contact, through his subconscious, with an articulate source of healing knowledge. The details, medical terminology, and results were overseen and approved by learned doctors of the day.

“The Readings”, which could be done from any distance as long as the name and address of the person was given, treated the b Fascinating. Edgar Cayce had a gift which he used to alleviate suffering and restore health in thousands of people. A devout Christian, not educated in medicine, he had the ability to make contact, through his subconscious, with an articulate source of healing knowledge. The details, medical terminology, and results were overseen and approved by learned doctors of the day.

“The Readings”, which could be done from any distance as long as the name and address of the person was given, treated the body as a linked system and the detailed therapies involved medicines, massage, and diet. The diagnoses were astoundingly accurate. People were cured. “Yes, we have the body.....”

Established medicine then and now can in itself cause harm and will ignore the entire bodily system as it offers a pill or injection from a profiteering industry for an isolated symptom or sick organ. The Readings would often catch doctors in their mistakes, preventing harmful surgeries, or demanding surgery when none was thought necessary. All chillingly accurate. It’s important to note that these Readings made use of advanced anatomical and medical terminology and that Edgar Cayce himself had no medical training. How he could, in a trance, know these things is mind boggling.

Now is a good time to again spout out my favorite statistic: Total number of medical errors and deaths equals six jumbo jets crashing every day. And yet somehow that medical establishment had/has credibility and a clairvoyant was/is viewed as a stunt or trick.

As I read many case histories that are recorded in this book, they are all sensible and detailed, making use of complicated medical knowledge, and were given with the sole intent of helping the individual examined and NOT INTENDED FOR PROFIT.

These were the days before fast food and the obesity epidemic in America, yet directives included: eat no hog meat or white bread. Fish is good, red meats not so good. Add to the diet olive oil, grape juice, vegetables, fruits. Get exercise and fresh air.

Every day I see in the newspapers the results of stupid tests and trials still trying to debate the harmful/helpful effects of diet and exercise upon health. I suspect they are organized and paid for by the highly profitable drug industries. People, behold the humble grape. The humble carrot. Spinach leaf. Human touch. Faith in God. ...more

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Nov 21, 2012 Jean rated it it was amazing

Excellent. I am familiar with Cayce, but the book gives concrete examples, especially when Cayce is shocked to find out about reincarnation. He goes back to his Bible and finds scripture to support that truth.

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Apr 11, 2013 Michelle rated it it was amazing

I am not sure if this is the same edition I read. I loved this book. Edgar Cayce's story confirmed so much of what I already believed. ...more

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Feb 18, 2017 Mary rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This was an amazing book to me, about a humble man who devoted his mind to Source/God.

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Mar 05, 2017 Irene rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: own-a-copy, bio-auto-bio, curiosity, lady-in-waiting

Deep. Not done yet though. 7/11

Left me feeling as if I were needing a more diverse explanation of his readings. 7/22

Very interesting start for me though.

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May 05, 2020 Gina Faber rated it it was amazing

I grew up in Virginia Beach, where there was always an underlying whisper about ARE and Edgar Cayce. As the daughter of a Catholic family, curiosity about this man and his "cult" were not encouraged. I ran across this book when I was searching for a different book with the same title, and I decided to give it a read.

I very much enjoyed it, and came away feeling like he was not a fraud, but that he had gifts which the people of his time (and even our time) have no way to explain. Those kinds of p ...more

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Jul 25, 2017 Will rated it it was amazing

Shelves: mandatory-read, greatest-of-all-time, non-fiction, biblical-thriller, metaphysical

SUBJECTIVE READER REVIEW WITH PLOT SPOILERS

I will openly state that, other than the Holy Bible, this book has transformed my understanding of our human universe more than any other. Without a doubt, the most compelling and indispensable read anyone can imagine.

Back in 1993, we were paying for having won the Cold War by enduring the very painful base closure and realignment process--the peace dividend. At the time I performed a very challenging, important and self-fulfilling job in the Charlest SUBJECTIVE READER REVIEW WITH PLOT SPOILERS

I will openly state that, other than the Holy Bible, this book has transformed my understanding of our human universe more than any other. Without a doubt, the most compelling and indispensable read anyone can imagine.

Back in 1993, we were paying for having won the Cold War by enduring the very painful base closure and realignment process--the peace dividend. At the time I performed a very challenging, important and self-fulfilling job in the Charleston Naval Shipyard. In March 1993, the announcement was made by the Commission that Charleston's shipyard, along with 32 other major defense installations would be closed. My reaction was not good, and I went into what I now understand to be a state of depression, what with my raison d'etre pulled out from under me. I was sulking in my office several weeks later when a friend stopped in, saw my very unusual glumness and suggested I read the story of Edgar Cayce. Talk about owing a person the true karmic debt, Paul Ammon was reminded of that little suggestion for the rest of his natural life, may God bless his soul.

So I made the most important book purchase of my life and began reading. The first 120 pages or so were so boring that I nearly didn't endure it. Just for simplicity, I'll explain how Edgar Cayce delivered his messages of clairvoyance. He would enter a trance state and a moderator would ask him questions dealing with medical cures outside the boundaries of early 20th century medical thresholds. One day the moderator asked Cayce in a trance state, 'What is the nature of the human soul?' The revelations that Cayce brought forth from that simple question staggered mainstream human consciousness.

To summarize an incredibly complex and comprehensive response, Edgar Cayce in the trance state accessing information otherwise not available, stated that the human soul does not perish with the body at death, but returns to the afterlife where it remains until 'recycled' as another human's soul via reincarnation. Of course there were many aspects affecting this process, including free will choices made by individuals and the implications these choices had on karma. The raison d'etre of individual souls was to become more Christ-like until they were suitably advanced to be in the presence of God.

Just to take this out of its context and view my own apparent misfortune as life-as-we-know-it cataclysmic suddenly put things in perspective. Lost job or not, I had other reasons for getting out of bed every morning, and my attitude about life improved remarkably.

There were some interesting inconstancies regarding Cayce's access to 'the akashic record' and having his readings recorded and disseminated. Edgar Cayce was a devout Christian man who was a pillar of his church. This part of his readings tended to run counter to every precept of organized religion in the universe perhaps other than Hinduism and Buddhism. The potential veracity of the information he brought forth was immediately subjected to every form of disproval. Interestingly enough, of the literally hundreds of readings he did for individuals with incurable diseases, if they strictly followed the treatment advice from his readings they all immediately improved and most were cured. He also brought forth that Jesus did, in fact, exist and live as recorded in the Bible, the declaration of which immediately put the Christian religious leadership under intense scrutiny regards reincarnation and karma.

My reaction to these readings was somewhat analytical; if all the incurable's were cured and the existence of Jesus some 2000 years ago was 'seconded' by a living human, Cayce must have been accessing 'the purest form of truth.' These facts granted Edgar Cayce unlimited credibility so far as I was concerned, so I accepted his pronouncements from 'the akashic record' as fact. I know; what's the akashic record that Cayce was accessing in his trance state? He was asked this question by the moderator early on in the readings and responded, 'All thoughts of all humans who had ever lived existed as the akashic record.' He described it as a 'continuum' that he was able to access. So the cures to diseases came from past instances of humans encountering similar symptoms.

So to sum up my review of Thomas Sugrue's book published 72 years ago, I cannot imagine a human being who would not benefit from the insight proclaimed in this book. Predictably, Cayce's readings were so powerful and ubiquitous that a group called the Association for Research and Enlightenment, or ARE, formed to better consolidate and categorize the readings. These readings and subsequent modern day parlance explanations made by literally hundreds of Cayce scholars are resident at the group's Virginia Beach, Virginia, headquarters. So get the book, read it and absorb it; it sure solved clinical depression for me! ...more

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Dec 14, 2016 Rob Kristoffersen rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Edgar Cayce is often portrayed with myth and wonder when he is mentioned in books and on various Television specials. That he could fall asleep and diagnose a person of all their ailments, recommending treatments, and read past lives is a remarkable thing. That science couldn't debunk him is something else entirely. I first heard of Cayce, as I did for most of the remarkable phenomena that amazes me, through Unsolved Mysteries. Hosted by Robert Stack, the show delved into various crimes, people ...more

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Dec 30, 2015 Bryan rated it really liked it

took a while to get good, but once it did it was very interesting. it was sort of similar to the books of another psychic, carl jung (particularly 'memories, dreams, reflections'). my only complain was that i wished the author would have focused a little more on the readings edgar cayce gave on the nature of reality and the evolution of the soul, rather than diagnosing medical conditions. very interesting regardless. ...more

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Feb 04, 2008 Edgar Cayce rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: anyone interested in learning about Edgar Cayce

Shelves: a-r-e-press

The complete biography of Edgar Cayce covers not only his fascinating life and the phenomenal information that came through his psychic readings, but it also provides hope to anyone suffering from illness or despair of heart and spirit.

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Sep 08, 2017 Sean Reeves rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I found this an engrossing biography, although it might be more accurately termed a hagiography. The reading of this book also introduced me to De Puysegur who, in the late eighteenth century, was able to induce a sleeping trance in a person by the name of Victor Race who could then diagnose physical ailments in the same way that Edgar Cayce could. By the early nineteenth century, many individuals emerged all over Europe who could provide trance diagnoses and the phenomenon came to be called "so ...more

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Aug 18, 2018 Cecilia rated it liked it · review of another edition

I wanted to like this more. The concept is so fascinating to me but the narrative became redundant in places. Certainly a fascinating man and story, didn’t particularly like the writing though. Some of my favorite was in the philosophy at the end of the book. “ Every person’s life is shaped to some extent by karma: his own, that of his associates and loved ones, that of his nation and race, and that of the world itself. But these, singly or together are not greater than free well. It is what the ...more

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Jul 16, 2017 Lauren Thyme rated it it was amazing

It was the first time I heard the words past lives and reincarnation. I had been calling them my other lives but didn't know there were words for them.

Bless my Aunt Edna who gave me this book to read when I was 9. ...more

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Jul 08, 2017 Nancy rated it really liked it

This was a very good book. I learned that so many concepts that we consider "new"have been around for almost 100 years. ...more

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Jul 18, 2017 Kathy Nissen rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Awesome read

Couldn't put the Book down! Amazing account of an even more amazing man. Edgar Cayce was a dream come true for the ill. We need more like him today. ...more

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Jul 29, 2017 J rated it it was amazing

Shelves: happiness, meaning-purpose, 2017-books-read, metaphysics

Amazing and enlightening.

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Jun 23, 2018 Bert Hopkins rated it really liked it

Shelves: thought-provoking-books, consciousness

The book was good but a bit tedious. If you are interested in Edgar Cayce reading it is worth your time.

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Aug 04, 2018 Shanna rated it it was amazing

Shelves: biography, historical, religious-spiritual, non-fiction, holistic

Absolutely riveting. I could barely put it down. Excellent read, really leaves you thinking.

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Dec 16, 2018 Julia rated it it was amazing

I loved this book! Such a great read on this awesome man!

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May 12, 2019 Merideth Noel rated it it was amazing

Such resonance.

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Sep 27, 2020 Beth Parker rated it it was amazing

Don't waste your time visiting the Edgar Cayce museum in Virginia, read this book instead. ...more

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May 15, 2021 Amy rated it liked it · review of another edition

Fascinating man.

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Jun 26, 2021 Stephen Tubbs rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks, autobiography, o

He didn't charge. A good man. ...more

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Jul 27, 2021 Rita rated it it was amazing

Shelves: thomas-sugrue

The Biography of the S;eeping Prophet, and the most-Documented Psychic of Modern Times

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Jul 16, 2017 Nicole Northrup rated it liked it

This story is interesting and peculiar. The writing itself is quite dated as it was written in the 1930s.
Worth a read.

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Jul 15, 2009 Kitap rated it liked it · review of another edition

I had heard of Edgar Cayce before, mainly because I shelved so many books by or about him in my years as a bookseller. It was only recently, though, as I was browsing through one of the Stranger than... books by the late Frank Edwards that I came across a brief biography of Edgar Cayce and learned more about his mysterious diagnoses given while unconscious. I remembered that I had this book, one of the Time-Life Collector's Library of the Unknown reprints, on my shelf and so I dug in.

For the mos I had heard of Edgar Cayce before, mainly because I shelved so many books by or about him in my years as a bookseller. It was only recently, though, as I was browsing through one of the Stranger than... books by the late Frank Edwards that I came across a brief biography of Edgar Cayce and learned more about his mysterious diagnoses given while unconscious. I remembered that I had this book, one of the Time-Life Collector's Library of the Unknown reprints, on my shelf and so I dug in.

For the most part, the prose was easy to read and written in a straightforward, familiar style, so that I felt like I was seeing the events of Cayce's life as they happened. The book begins like a normal biography, discussing early romances, jobs, family incidents, etc., with very little to indicate how strange Mr. Cayce's life would become. Around 1/3 of the way through the book, we discover, along with young Edgar, that he can memorize written materials just by sleeping on them. He also discovers that he has miraculous powers to diagnose illnesses and prescribe cures for people he has never met, all while unconscious. (In his waking life, Mr. Cayce was very modestly educated, and was as surprised as anyone at the ideas and language that came from his unconscious form.) The way that this section of the book reads, you would imagine that Cayce's cures were always successful and that skeptics were fools.

The book begins to drag after the second half, though, for a variety of reasons. First, Cayce could never actually put his powers to any real end. Every attempt to establish a multidisciplinary hospital to implement and research his unconscious revelations, as was his dream, came to an unsuccessful conclusion. This is fairly anticlimactic and does not make for a very "heroic" story. Second, one of his benefactors, a man quite interested in matters occult, began to ask Cayce more arcane questions, and so the revelations began to drift into, to me, less interesting areas-the typical new age stuff about Atlantis, reincarnation, soul mates, etc. Finally, it became more apparent to me, based on the later, more thoroughly documented cases, that Cayce's "miraculous" cures might not have been as amazing as they seemed in the earlier chapters; the earlier cures seemed more amazing simply because the way in which they were recorded and related was more "oh gosh" and less stringent. (In other words, as he gets older and more jaded, even his cures seem less special and miraculous. Maybe this was the writer's intention.)

The conclusion of the book was, for me, the worst part. It is divided into two appendix-like sections. In the first section, the author tries to systematically describe Cayce's philosophy. Boring. Too much like the Ascended Master stuff that I find hard to swallow. Maybe it is true. Maybe not. Whenever I read this stuff, I just get the feeling that I am listening to some pedantic, New England minister lecturing on matters that were expressed much more interestingly 2,000 years ago by Hindus and Buddhists. The second section in the conclusion recounts six case studies from the Cayce files, and these are interesting only for those who want to see how difficult to understand Cayce's medical diagnoses could be, due to the odd structure of his language and the outdated medical terminology.

It was a quick read, except for those two concluding sections, so if you are at all interested, I highly recommend reading it. As for what it means, though, I really have no clue. And I don't plan on re-reading it to find out, though the pretty Time-Life book will remain on my shelf as decoration.
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Jun 21, 2012 Marsha rated it liked it

I liked this book except I found at times it was confusing or in some areas it was too vague, or too dry. Perhaps because the book was originally published in 1942, that was the style of the day. Today, perhaps in our expectations, we request a faster, smoother read.

However, I did learn a lot about Edgar Cayce, who was born March 18, 1877. As a little boy in a small town in Kentucky, Cayce requested a copy of the Bible so he could read it. His fascination of the Bible at such a young age, made h I liked this book except I found at times it was confusing or in some areas it was too vague, or too dry. Perhaps because the book was originally published in 1942, that was the style of the day. Today, perhaps in our expectations, we request a faster, smoother read.

However, I did learn a lot about Edgar Cayce, who was born March 18, 1877. As a little boy in a small town in Kentucky, Cayce requested a copy of the Bible so he could read it. His fascination of the Bible at such a young age, made him stand out and people would charmingly nickname him “Old Man.”

Cayce was a terrible student. Yet, he figured out that if he slept with his text books under his head, only then could he recall what he needed to know for school. This was quite bizarre and no one could understand it. But, it also contributed to his uniqueness.

Neighbors and friends who were ill would ask Cayce to come to them as Cayce could come up with a cure while he was sleeping. He would go to sleep and when he woke up, he would tell these folks what to do to cure the illnesses. Desperate for help, his listeners would try his solutions and more often than not, there would be successful results

As a young man, Cayce worked at various retail stores, including in a bookstore. He asked the owner if he could work there because he felt it was the best bookstore around. Cayce was hard working at his jobs and responsible.

At one point in his young life, he lost the ability to speak. He was therefore not able to work and this discouraged him a great deal. However, he decided to take up the trade of photography, which he could do without a voice.

A local hypnotist, Al Lance, offered to help Cayce restore his voice. He did help Cayce, but there were relapses wherein Cayce would lose his voice again. After his voice did return, Lance helped Cayce to offer his sleep trances to the general public, which made Cayce popular. He was wavering whether his special talent was the work of God or the work of the Devil.

Cayce married and had sons. His wife helped him in his photography business. He helped his own son at one time. His son had experienced an eye injury during an explosion and the doctors wanted to remove the eye. Cayce offered to do his trance to see if there was some cure as he did not want the doctors to remove his son’s eye. After his sleep, he awoke and offered a compound solution to be placed on the eye area and to continue this for a few days. After a few days, his son’s eye started getting better and thus it was not removed.

He moved to Texas for a short time. While in Texas, his fame exceeded. People paid him to give them readings.

Cayce also believed in reincarnation and this too left him conflicted as it is not accepted in Christianity. In this book there was discussion about this subject and I found it very interesting. It is an argument to ponder

By 1925, Cayce felt instructed while in a trance that he to move with his family to Virginia Beach, Virginia, and that was what he did. While in Virginia Beach, he inquired funding and sponsorship, and founded the Cayce Hospital. He also established a nonprofit organization entitled the Association for Research and Enlightenment.

...more

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