Pod Insights So Supernatural MYSTICAL: Edgar Cayce and the Akashic Records About this episode In the early 1900s, Edgar Cayce claimed he was able to heal sick patients by tapping into something called the Akashic Records—a metaphysical archive of every soul’s thoughts, emotions, actions, and past experiences—in this life and the last. Some say that Edgar’s abilities were nothing more than a hoax—but others point to his predictions of the future as evidence he was the real deal.
Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:02 Speaker 00 I think most of us are seeking some way to better ourselves. Whether that's a new workout routine, a healthier diet, religion, or therapy, there are tons of paths to self-improvement. And what's nice is that in this day and age, we can use a handy little tool called the internet to help us with that, right? But there's one thing we can't Google, no matter how hard we try, and that's specific information about us. And no, I don't mean our blood type or our personality type. I mean information about our souls, who we might have been in past lives, assuming they exist, and what we're each destined to do, destined to become.
0:46 Speaker 00 Though that doesn't mean that information doesn't exist at all. According to many new age philosophers, there's a sort of spiritual search engine out there. An infinite library containing every single detail about your soul, where it's been, who it was, and what other souls it's interacted with in the past, present, and future. And if you're gifted enough, you can access it to make incredible, informed decisions about your life, like finding deeper self-awareness, healing past traumas, and understanding your purpose. By the way, this isn't just some hypothetical. A man named Edgar Cayce supposedly accessed it
1:30 Speaker 00 to cure a lot of people's ailments in the early 1900s, both spiritual and physical. Which is why today, I tasked Rasha and Yvette with seeing whether this was just some elaborate hoax or if this was something society should be funneling a lot more research into. I'm Ashley Flowers, and this is So Supernatural.
2:24 Rasha Pecoraro? Welcome back. I'm Rasha Pecoraro.
2:27 Yvette Gentile? And I'm Yvette Gentile. And today, we're telling the story of Edgar Cayce, a man who could supposedly heal people with his psychic powers. Back in the late 1800s and early 1900s, all sorts of patients came to him. They were suffering from various ailments, from arthritis to serious burns to life-threatening conditions like cancer. In some cases, they didn't know what was wrong, only that they were sick. But reportedly, Edgar could help them too, even in cases that had doctors completely stumped.
3:08 Rasha Pecoraro? I wish that we knew a psychic, a medium, someone like this today, because life is full of unsolved mysteries, which is especially true when it comes to health and wellness. I mean, Yvette, lately, you've been going through some unknown health issues. And it has been so scary watching you go to endless medical appointments, trying out all these different treatments.
3:35 Yvette Gentile? Yeah, you know, Gino and I just got back from Europe. And I came back and I had all of these stomach problems. And I have been to, like you just said, every single doctor that you can imagine, had every single test, CT scan, ultrasound, everything. Ended up taking antibiotics, ended up in emergency with doctors saying that it's this, and then another doctor saying it's that. So getting, you know, two conflicting stories is, it's so frustrating. And I just have to say, in the United States, 11% of people receive a misdiagnosis in, you know, all different type of medical situations.
4:18 Yvette Gentile? I have to be, and I think all of us have to be our own advocate for our own body, to find those answers, right? And I can only imagine like how difficult these situations were a century or two ago, when medical technology was nowhere near what it is today, particularly in a small town like Beverly, Kentucky.
4:40 Rasha Pecoraro? That's where Edgar Cayce was born in the year 1877. His mom and dad were very religious. His dad ran a dry goods store in town, and they brought Edgar to church every Sunday morning. And at home, they made sure that he prayed on the regular. By the time Edgar was 10 years old, his favorite book was the Bible. He read it constantly, cover to cover. This set Edgar apart from the other boys in town who weren't as obsessed with religion. But it wasn't the only way he stood out. For one, Edgar always seemed to have imaginary friends around him.
5:22 Rasha Pecoraro? Anytime his parents or other adults asked about these imaginary friends, he told them elaborate stories about how they were the ghosts of people who had recently passed away. Edgar even claimed that one of the spirits was his departed grandfather. He said his grandpa liked to talk to him about the afterlife. Each time Edgar mentioned something like this, his parents just chalked it up to an overactive imagination. They didn't believe in ghosts, and they certainly didn't believe their son could speak to the dead. But Edgar knew the truth, and his gifts only seemed to get stronger from there.
6:03 Yvette Gentile? One day, when Edgar's about 13 years old, he's out in the woods, reading his Bible like always, when he hears footsteps behind him. He looks up and he sees the most beautiful woman approaching. He doesn't recognize her, but he notices she has these huge wings sprouting from her back. That's when Edgar realizes he's looking at an angel. Then the woman stops and asks Edgar a question. If he could have anything on earth, what would he want the most? And he says, "He just wants to help other people." And right after those words come out of his mouth, the woman disappears.
6:50 Yvette Gentile? Edgar believes he just had this holy experience and that God is going to grant his wish.
6:59 Rasha Pecoraro? The problem is that Edgar is still just a teenager. He doesn't know how to change the world. He doesn't even know how to get through the average school day. See, even though Edgar's a bookworm who loves reading the Bible, he's always struggled to learn anything that's not related to religion. He gets bad grades and he barely passes each year. Every night, his dad goes over his homework to try and help him. Though one evening, he gets completely fed up with Edgar and storms out of the room. I've done this one too many times with my daughter. Edgar doesn't know what to do without his dad's help.
7:41 Rasha Pecoraro? But as soon as Edgar's alone, he hears a voice in his head. It's the angel from the woods. She tells Edgar not to stress about his schoolwork. Instead, he should just take a nap. So that's what he does. He lays his head down on his textbook, closes his eyes and dozes off. When Edgar's dad comes back into the room, he wakes up wanting to know why he was sleeping when he was supposed to be studying. But calmly and confidently, Edgar rattles off all the answers to his homework assignment and everything he says is correct. Somehow, he absorbed the knowledge while he was dreaming.
8:26 Rasha Pecoraro? And from that day on, he never struggles with his grades again. Anytime Edgar doesn't understand something, he just takes a nap, which reminds me so much of what my sister Yvette always does. When in doubt, she sleeps, right? You sleep.
8:44 Yvette Gentile? This is really a true statement. Like whenever I was going through any type of problems or issues, even when I was younger and even to this day, I'll just go to sleep. I mean, I wish I could lay on a book and learn everything like Edgar does, but it was very soothing to me to just go into a deep sleep.
9:03 Rasha Pecoraro? Yeah, totally. Sleep can be so healing. So each time Edgar wakes up from one of these naps, he has all the knowledge he needs. And like you said, Yvette, I think we all wish we could do this and go to sleep and wake up and all of our problems are solved, right?
9:20 Yvette Gentile? Yeah, totally. So, fast forward to the summer of 1892. Edgar is 15 years old. He's in the eighth grade and he's still not very popular. He's still talking to people nobody else can see. And he swears that he can learn whatever his books say simply by falling to sleep on them. Of course, his classmates don't believe him and they pick on him because of it. But all poor Edgar wants is for the other kids to like him. So one day toward the end of the school year, he gets his chance when they invite him to play ball during recess. Edgar leaps at the opportunity. Except, once he joins the game,
10:05 Yvette Gentile? the other boys start teasing him again. They yell things like, "How about sleeping on our lessons for us?" I mean, it's humiliating, but Edgar knows that if he shows how bothered he really is, the others will just bully him even more. So he pretends not to hear them and focuses on the game. Which, you know, works for a little while. But at one point, someone chucks a ball really hard right at his back and it hits Edgar with enough force to knock him over. Now, Edgar didn't see who threw the ball. He doesn't know if they were actually trying to hurt him or if it was, you know, an accident.
10:48 Yvette Gentile? All he knows is that right after he falls, the bell rings and everyone needs to head back to class. Then, for the rest of the school day, Edgar starts acting really weird. He's usually a very attentive student, but that day, he keeps getting distracted, laughing at inappropriate times, and generally being disruptive. By the time school's out, his behavior is even stranger. Instead of walking straight home, he runs to a mud puddle and rolls around in it. He then wanders into the road when a car is passing, and it's a miracle he doesn't get hit.
11:32 Yvette Gentile? When he gets home, instead of doing his chores, he grabs a hot pan of beans off the stove with his bare hands. Then he throws it in the grass outside. And his attitude is even more out of character during dinner. Edgar starts making these weird comments and throwing his food. His dad orders him to go straight to bed, and he listens, climbing right under the covers. But once Edgar falls asleep, something really bizarre happens. When his father comes back to check on him, Edgar is talking in his sleep. He says that he's been acting weird all afternoon because the ball hit him right near the spine.
12:18 Yvette Gentile? And he's not seriously hurt, but he is in shock. Edgar also says in his sleep-talking state that he'll be okay if his parents make a warm salve with herbs, onion, and cornmeal. Then spread it against the base of his skull. Like, what? Keep in mind that Edgar is not a doctor or a medical professional. He is just a fifteen-year-old boy who hasn't even started high school yet. There is no way possible he should be able to diagnose himself with shock or even know how to treat it. But his parents figure there's no harm in doing what he says, so they make the concoction, put it on his head,
13:03 Yvette Gentile? and leave it there all night. The next morning, Edgar's back to normal. No more weird outburst or inappropriate behavior. It's like he really did tell them how to cure him. Wild, right?
13:20 Rasha Pecoraro? I was literally just about to say that, so wild.
13:23 Yvette Gentile? Now, from Edgar's perspective, this is the second time he's done something incredible while he was asleep. First, he learned everything from his school lesson in a dream, and now he's cured an injury. Add in that visit from the angel, and Edgar comes to one shocking conclusion: God has given him amazing powers. Which to Edgar means that he might not only be able to heal himself, he believes it's his calling to help heal other people too.
14:04 Yvette Gentile? In the 1890s, teenager Edgar Casey discovers that he can perform incredible feats while he's asleep.
14:13 Yvette Gentile? He can learn information from books he's never read, and he can heal his body after an injury. As soon as he realizes this, Edgar announces that he's done with school. God has other plans for him. It's worth noting that his parents are barely making ends meet, and Edgar can help them more by earning money than he can by sitting in a classroom all day. So they support his decision to leave school as long as he works. So later on, he becomes a door-to-door salesman. But he's only working the gig for a little while before he gets a bad case of laryngitis, and he loses his voice permanently.
14:56 Yvette Gentile? Now, that's horrible, especially door-to-door. Like, you know you need to be talking, so that's the end of that job. The weird thing is that Edgar goes to see every doctor he can find: general practitioners, throat specialists, I mean, you name it. And none of them can identify anything physically wrong with him. He should be able to talk. He just can't. But without a diagnosis, Edgar can't treat it either. And this time, it doesn't seem like he discovers a cure in his sleep, which means his career as a salesman is pretty much over. So he pivots to a new field, and he decides to become a photographer.
15:42 Rasha Pecoraro? Then, one day in 1901, when Edgar's 24 years old, a traveling hypnotist comes to town. And this is a big deal. There are a lot of performers at the time who incorporate hypnotism into their shows. You've probably been to a performance where a hypnotist makes someone quack like a duck or believe they're a pop star singing onstage. Turns out, there were shows just like this in the late 1800s, too. Now, I don't know the exact date when this particular hypnotist comes to town, but I do know he's going by the name Hart the Laugh King. But he's not just doing hypnosis for laughs.
16:25 Rasha Pecoraro? Hart's pretty interested in studying the other ways that hypnosis can be used. In particular, he believes he can cure all kinds of different diseases with it, even though he's not a trained doctor or a therapist. While he's in town, he overhears some people talking about Edgar and how sad it is that he can't speak and no one knows what's wrong with him. Hart figures this is exactly the kind of condition that he can treat. So he asks the locals to introduce him to Edgar. Once they meet, Hart tells Edgar he probably still has the physical ability to speak.
17:07 Rasha Pecoraro? He just has some emotional barrier that's stopping him. So Hart offers to hypnotize Edgar. He'll help him get over whatever psychological block is in his way. If the hypnotism works, Hart will charge Edgar $200, which, by the way, adjusted for inflation, is the equivalent of about $7,000 today. Now Edgar does not have that kind of money, but the hypnotist promises he'll only charge him if he's able to heal him. If the treatment doesn't work, it'll be free. Those terms are just too good to refuse, so Edgar gives it a shot.
17:53 Yvette Gentile? So he and Hart meet up at the local doctor's office. That way, the physician can presumably keep an eye on Edgar and make sure the hypnosis is actually working or not. Hart tells Edgar to sit on a soft comfy chair. Hart grabs something shiny, I'm not sure exactly what it is, but he starts waving it back and forth in front of Edgar's face. Then he repeats, "You're going to sleep now, to sleep, to sleep, sleep." In other words, he's acting exactly like a stereotypical hypnotist from an old cartoon. But his methods work.
18:37 Yvette Gentile? Edgar goes under. And then while he's hypnotized, he talks. And he talks a lot. And his voice isn't even hoarse. Unfortunately, nobody writes down what he says, but his specific words are less important than the fact that Edgar is speaking at all. Hart wakes him up, announces he's cured, and tells Edgar to say how he feels. But now that he's conscious, Edgar can't speak. At best, he can only force out a few strained words. So Hart hypnotizes Edgar again. Like before, Edgar speaks clearly and easily. But when Hart wakes him up again, he's lost his voice.
19:22 Yvette Gentile? The rest of the afternoon goes by like that. Every time he's under, Edgar can talk perfectly. But as soon as he regains consciousness, he's speechless again. Eventually, Hart gets fed up and announces that he can't help Edgar after all. He's just given up. He's, "The man is just like, I'm done." But Edgar's not discouraged. He's excited that he was able to speak while he was hypnotized. He figures this might be the key to a cure. He just needs to work with someone who's more patient than Hart. In fact, Edgar decides that he should learn how to hypnotize himself
20:06 Yvette Gentile? to see if he can treat his throat issues on his own.
20:10 Rasha Pecoraro? It takes months, but on March 31st, 1901, Edgar is ready. Once again, he invites a medical professional over to his house to watch and intervene if necessary. But this time, the observer isn't an ordinary doctor. They're another trained hypnotist. Edgar feels pretty good about his ability to pull himself into a trance and to wake himself up. But this is all new to him and experimental. So it makes sense that he'd want an expert around just in case. Well, that day Edgar successfully hypnotizes himself.
20:52 Rasha Pecoraro? He falls into a deep sleep and starts talking out loud. Edgar's dad, who's also there watching, writes everything down, which is how we know that Edgar says, quote, "We can see the body in the normal state. This body is unable to speak due to a partial paralysis of the inferior muscles of the vocal cords," end quote. And then he runs through a diagnosis that's too technical to get into here. It would literally boggle my brain. But the gist is that the problem with Edgar's voice isn't physical. It's psychological, just like Hart suspected.
21:35 Rasha Pecoraro? Turns out Edgar's been under a lot of stress and his anxiety is stopping the blood from getting to his vocal cords. That's why he can't speak. Edgar also says that while he's under hypnosis, he can actually control his circulatory system. So he's going to increase the blood flow to his throat and then he'll be cured. And while the doctor watches over the next few minutes, this flush spreads across Edgar's face and neck, like there really is a bunch of blood flowing towards them. Then finally Edgar says, quote, "It is all right now. The condition is removed."
22:19 Rasha Pecoraro? Right afterwards Edgar opens his eyes, takes a deep breath, and speaks perfectly. He really did cure himself while under hypnosis.
22:33 Yvette Gentile? Okay, so I have to be a little bit of the devil's advocate. To be honest, at first, when we were researching this topic, I thought Edgar had to be faking it. Like, maybe he was able to talk the whole time and he just pretended that hypnosis, like, really healed him. But then, I did a deep dive online, and it turns out Edgar's condition is real. It's called psychological aphonia, which is a fancy word for when you're so stressed out that you lose the ability to speak. Most people treat it by going to traditional therapy, but maybe hypnotherapy works too.
23:17 Rasha Pecoraro? Well, Edgar's miraculous recovery gets him thinking. If he can treat himself, he might be able to help other people with their medical problems. So he starts reaching out to some friends and acquaintances in town. At first, Edgar offers to help them with little things, like aches and pains and some other issues. Each time someone accepts his help, he sets up a time to meet with the patient. Then he lays down, goes into a hypnotic state, and diagnoses what's wrong with them and how to fix it. He doesn't have to give his client a medical exam or even touch them. In fact, sometimes he doesn't even see them.
24:02 Rasha Pecoraro? He'll get a letter in the mail from someone who describes their symptoms. Then he enters a trance to help them from afar. Just imagine, it's like an early 20th century version of telehealth or Zoom for doctors. Only Edgar calls these sessions readings.
24:22 Yvette Gentile? He begins seeing his first patients in 1902, when he's just 25 years old. And before you know it, word is spreading across town, then the state, then the country. Edgar Cayce is a miracle healer, because he's right a lot of the time. Sometimes, his diagnoses are different from what trained doctors and surgeons have said. But when his patients take Edgar's advice, most of the time, they get better. And we could go on for literal hours talking about all the miraculous recoveries and medical mysteries Edgar solves.
25:02 Yvette Gentile? Seriously, if you guys go online, you will see tons of documented cases all about Edgar and his patients. For example, in the spring of 1911, when Edgar is 34 years old, his wife Gertrude is diagnosed with tuberculosis, also known as TB. At this time, TB is a disease that has no reliable cure. Other than rest, a good diet, and isolation, there's no known treatment either. All of Gertrude's doctors agree that she's not going to get better, and it's a lost cause. But Edgar loves his wife.
25:42 Yvette Gentile? They've been married for eight years, and he's been a miracle healer for almost a decade now. So he figures there has to be something that he can do. Right after she gets her diagnosis, literally just a few minutes later, he gives her a reading. And while he's under, he learns Gertrude's TB can be cured. She doesn't have to take expensive medicines or receive complicated painful remedies. And let me just say, before I tell you what the cure is, hands down, do not try this at home.
26:20 Yvette Gentile? Edgar says that Gertrude just has to take some heroin capsules and clean out her lungs by breathing in the fumes from a barrel of brandy. Now, yes, you are probably thinking this is absurd, and you are right.
26:39 Rasha Pecoraro? Right.
26:40 Yvette Gentile? You can't cure a serious infection by taking heroin and sniffing brandy. Except, in 2021, a team of medical researchers found that you can, sort of. TB is a lung infection primarily, though it can attack other parts of the body, too. And their research proved that inhalers full of antibiotics could treat it. And let's not forget that alcohol is a disinfectant that can kill bacteria. So inhaling its fumes might help keep the disease at bay. Maybe long enough for Gertrude's body to fight it off on her own.
27:24 Yvette Gentile? To be clear, with advances in medical science, there are a lot of remedies for TB today. Ones that are way more effective than breathing in alcohol vapor and taking heroin pills, let's just say that. But while we know that now, nobody knew that back then. Most doctors tried to treat TB with diet and exercise, which of course, isn't as effective as medication, inhaled or otherwise. So in 1911, Gertrude listens to Edgar's advice. And her recovery is, let's just say it's really slow. It takes her months to be strong enough to get out of bed.
28:08 Yvette Gentile? But by January of the following year, it's clear that his treatment worked. Gertrude is better.
28:17 Rasha Pecoraro? And his career is full of miracles just like this. Take this one from 1909. That's when Edgar determined that one of his patients had an infected appendix. This patient had already seen a ton of doctors, and they all told him he needed an operation to fix the infection. But Edgar says the patient can cure it by talking to an osteopath. Basically, an osteopath is like a chiropractor, but they physically manipulate different parts of the whole body, rather than just the back. The patient is skeptical, but he wants to avoid surgery. So he sees the osteopath, gets a treatment,
28:59 Rasha Pecoraro? and it ends up curing the infection, no operation needed. Edgar also treats a young girl with arthritis, getting rid of her pain for good. And he advises another woman with chronic fatigue to stop using a certain hair removal product. She ends up following his advice and immediately feels better. Later, it came out that the product that she was using gives people lead poisoning.
29:30 Yvette Gentile? Edgar heals so many people that on October 9th, 1910, he gets a write-up in the New York Times. The article runs with the headline, "A Illiterate Man Becomes Doctor When Hypnotized", which is such a misleading way of putting it. Edgar's not illiterate, he loves to read. It sounds like the newspaper is exaggerating to make the story seem even more sensational than it already is.
30:00 Rasha Pecoraro? Which papers love to do.
30:01 Yvette Gentile? Of course they do. Still, the point is that people are wowed. This guy with almost no education is doing inexplicable things, all while he's asleep. People keep asking the same question. How does Edgar do all of this? Where does the power come from? And Edgar always gives the same answer. When he's unconscious and under hypnosis, he's able to tap into something bigger than himself. Edgar even has a name for it. The Akashic Record.
30:38 Rasha Pecoraro? It's basically a spiritual search engine. But instead of typing a question into Google, you can use the Akashic Record to look up details about your soul's health, wellness, and history. It's kind of a bit difficult to understand, but here's the gist of how it works. Imagine that every single thing you do in your life gets recorded. Like there are cameras filming your every move. And that footage is all stored by the universe itself. If someone ever accesses that footage, like Edgar does during his readings, they can watch a 100% accurate recording of your entire life.
31:23 Rasha Pecoraro? Not only does it show what you did and how you did it, it also perfectly captures what you were thinking and feeling too. And it gets the thoughts and emotions from everyone else around you at that time. For example, let's say that one time, you snapped at a friend or a sister because you were stressed and overwhelmed. Not like any of us have ever done that, right, Yvette?
31:51 Yvette Gentile? Oh, no, us? No.
31:54 Rasha Pecoraro? Never. Well, the Akashic Record will record the unkind things you said, and they'll also capture how your words made your friend or your sister feel. But they'll also note that you didn't mean to hurt them and your intentions weren't bad. Basically, the Akashic Record has all of the context from every single angle.
32:21 Yvette Gentile? It's like the universe's computer database, basically, is what that's saying, right?
32:27 Rasha Pecoraro? Right.
32:27 Yvette Gentile? As for what the Akashic Record has to do with physical illness, well, I'm sure that almost everybody knows stress can literally make you sick. But according to Edgar, so can bad behavior, unkind thoughts, actions, and life choices that take you further away from your destiny. Basically, we are all meant to live a certain way, to connect with specific people and to find ways to help and support one another. If you do something that's rude or mean or puts you on a path that you're not meant to be on, that can make you physically ill. So when Edgar goes into his hypnotic trances, he basically speed watches
33:12 Yvette Gentile? his patient's life as it's recorded in the Akashic Record. He identifies the times and places where they went wrong. And when he gives his diagnosis, he doesn't only share physical remedies. He gives people advice on how to live a better life spiritually, mentally, and emotionally as well. But pretty soon, Edgar's abilities will go beyond anything he knew was possible when he starts tapping into people's past lives.
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35:12 Yvette Gentile? In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Edgar Cayce claimed that he could cure people's illnesses. He hypnotized himself and used his psychic powers to learn what was making them sick through a system called the Akashic Records, or otherwise, the universe's computer database. He did this for years. And on October 11, 1923, 46-year-old Edgar does a reading for a man named Arthur Lammers. Now, unlike Edgar's other patients, Arthur isn't sick. He isn't asking Edgar to diagnose him with anything or to cure him.
35:56 Yvette Gentile? But Arthur is intrigued by the stories he's heard about the Akashic Record. So he
36:02 Rasha Pecoraro? Wants to learn more about life's big questions. Things like, does God exist? What happens after we die? Do we really have souls? That day Edgar goes into a trance to try and help Arthur. And while he's under hypnosis, something new happens. Edgar taps into Arthur's past, but not in this life. In the ones he's lived before. He tells Arthur that he used to be a monk. And that Arthur's soul has lived, died, and been reincarnated twice already. Currently, he's on his third identity.
36:44 Rasha Pecoraro? For the record, this is the first time that Edgar has ever referenced reincarnation in any of his trances. And when Edgar comes out of the trance, he's stunned by his own words. As a devout Christian, he's never really believed in past lives before. And yet, here the evidence is, in black and white. Over the next week, he does several more sessions with Arthur. He learns that we live again and again, hopefully becoming better versions of ourselves, until we're ready to move on to the afterlife.
37:22 Rasha Pecoraro? He puts it like this, quote, "God is essentially love and the universe is completely orderly." In other words, he's saying if we're equally loving and equally orderly, we get to have a divine reward in paradise.
37:38 Yvette Gentile? According to Edgar, the problem is that human beings have free will. Which means we have the power to do things that aren't loving and that might upset the order of the universe. If we do that, and then we die, our souls are burdened with the weight of all the things we've done wrong. Thanks to sessions with Arthur, Edgar understands that these past mistakes and bad decisions can make us sick in our next life, too. So when he reviews the past in the Akashic Record, he starts looking at the person's mistakes and bad choices from previous existences,
38:23 Yvette Gentile? things that they aren't even aware of yet.
38:27 Rasha Pecoraro? Needless to say, these claims are pretty wild. Edgar's most devoted followers believe the things he says, but plenty of other people assume he's a con artist or even a fraud. In fact, in November of 1931, Edgar travels to New York to see a patient there. His wife Gertrude joins him on that particular trip. But at the time, fortune telling is illegal in the state of New York. Only Edgar doesn't see himself as a fortune teller. He thinks he's a good Christian man who's doing God's work. So in his mind, that law shouldn't apply to him.
39:10 Rasha Pecoraro? Unfortunately for Edgar, though, the police don't agree. On November 7th, they arrest both him and Gertrude and hold them in a New York City jail cell.
39:22 Rasha Pecoraro? Eventually, though, a judge throws out the charge. Because he agrees with Edgar, whatever he's doing, it's not fortune telling. But that's not the end of Edgar's legal troubles. Four years later, Edgar is seeing a patient in Detroit. Once again, Edgar gets arrested, this time for practicing medicine without a license. And I do have to point out the irony here, that in one state Edgar's work is too mystical and too supernatural, and in another, it's too medical. It seems it doesn't matter how he markets his services, someone is going to have a problem with it. The Detroit arrest ends in a conviction,
40:08 Rasha Pecoraro? but the courts go easy on Edgar, and the sentence is literally just a slap on the wrist. He has to go on probation, but he doesn't spend any time in jail or pay any fines. But before long, breaking the law is the least of his worries. Because in one session, he even learns some critical information about himself.
40:32 Yvette Gentile? I don't know the exact date or context for the reading, but apparently during one of Edgar's trances, he announces his work is taking a physical toll on his body. I mean, you have to imagine, helping all these people, right? Doing this day in and day out, that has to take a toll on his spirit and his body.
40:53 Rasha Pecoraro? Pass away on him in some way.
40:56 Yvette Gentile? Yeah, yeah. So as long as he keeps his readings to no more than five a day, they say that he should be fine. But if he does more than that, it's going to cost him. The problem is that there are so many people who want his help. And because he thinks it's his mission to help others, he can't bring himself to say no to anyone. So every day, he books appointment after appointment, far more than the five that he's supposed to do. And the more he works, the weaker he becomes.
41:33 Yvette Gentile? Sadly, by the fall of 1944, it all catches up with the 67-year-old Edgar. He has a stroke in September. While he does survive, his health takes a sharp turn for the worse. After three months of decline, Edgar Casey dies on January 3rd, 1945.
41:56 Rasha Pecoraro? A lot of Edgar's followers fear his teachings will die along with him. Except, that's not what happens. Instead, the New Age movement kicks off in the 1960s. Spiritual leaders start drawing from Edgar's teachings about reincarnation and psychic powers. Some historians write about his life, spreading his ideas even further. And before you know it, there's a huge religious movement completely aligned with Edgar's beliefs. Meaning Edgar's philosophy lives on.
42:35 Yvette Gentile? But so do his critics. A lot of people doubt Edgar's claims, which is why a huge question still persists to this day. Was Edgar Cayce a miracle healer, or was he a fraud? Look, Edgar saw a lot of patients throughout his lifetime. Approximately 14,000 of them in fact. And most of his instructions boil down to this. Eat a healthy diet, get exercise, sleep eight hours a night, and avoid stress. Okay, which is good advice, but there's nothing mystical about that. You don't need supernatural powers to know someone with a mild cold should eat better and get some rest.
43:20 Yvette Gentile? But it became a problem when he saw patients with much more serious illnesses. Because there were times when he gave diagnoses and treatments that were wrong. He regularly prescribed beef broth to treat deadly diseases like cancer. And instead of seeking real medical help, many of his patients got sicker. Or they only recovered after they finally sought help from more traditional doctors.
43:48 Yvette Gentile? Many of Edgar's followers refused to admit he ever made mistakes, even after he'd given an incorrect diagnosis. Instead, they said the problem was with the patient, that they didn't have an open mind or a pure heart, and their bad attitudes were interfering with his abilities. Which, okay, is a pretty convenient excuse, if you ask me.
44:13 Rasha Pecoraro? Okay, you do raise some really good points. But, the question becomes, what was in it for Edgar? Because, believe it or not, he regularly refused to charge many of his patients. His fear was that low-income people might not get the support they needed otherwise. And because of that, Edgar went completely broke. He spent so much time giving free readings that he wasn't making enough to cover his own bills. Plus, one analysis done by pro casey writers randomly selected 150 cases where Edgar had given a reading.
44:55 Rasha Pecoraro? Then, they counted how many of his sessions led to the patient recovering, and how many ended up with the person getting worse. They found that Edgar was only wrong in 11 of those cases, or 7.3% of the time. For context, licensed doctors today, just like Yvette said at the very top of the episode, they give misdiagnoses about 11% of the time.
45:25 Yvette Gentile? But when a writer with the Skeptical Inquirer went through those records, they found something a bit different. That the placebo effect was taking place. And the placebo effect is basically when a person's physical or mental health appears to improve after taking a dummy treatment. So, like a sugar pill or something else with no therapeutic value. The Skeptical Inquirer determined that Edgar's success rate was only around 23%, meaning, 77% of the time, he was just offering a placebo.
46:04 Rasha Pecoraro? Still though, Edgar had enough success that a lot of people believed he was a miracle worker. Especially because sometimes Edgar learned other kinds of information in his visions. Not just details about people's health or their past lives, but details about the future. In 1925, Edgar warned that a stock market crash was coming. He said his followers could prepare for it by making smart investments ahead of time. He also said they'd need to save up enough to last them for nine years. Because after that point, the economy would get back to normal.
46:45 Rasha Pecoraro? Sure enough, the market did crash five years after he made his prediction in 1929. This kicked off the Great Depression, which lasted a little over nine years until 1939. Shortly afterward, Edgar made another prediction about the new chancellor of Germany, Adolf Hitler. Edgar predicted that Hitler would not leave office until a horrible war broke out.
47:14 Rasha Pecoraro? Turns out, Germany, Austria, and Japan were allied during World War II. But they didn't officially join forces until 1940, five years after Edgar gave his prediction.
47:30 Yvette Gentile? At the end of the day, I don't know if it matters if people thought whether Edgar was faking it or if he had supernatural powers. Lots of people came to him with problems and he fixed them. He made them feel better. To be clear, I'm not at all endorsing fraudulent doctors. You should always, always talk to a trained medical professional if you're dealing with a serious illness. But at the same time, there's nothing wrong with speaking to someone who tells you to take care of yourself, to be nice to people, and spend your time doing things that are truly fulfilling. Edgar really seemed like he just wanted to help people, and that's commendable.
48:15 Yvette Gentile? And according to him, each of us also has a purpose, something that will help us be true to ourselves in a deep, meaningful, spiritual way. If we can find our calling and follow it, we can all achieve greater levels of self-awareness.
48:37 Yvette Gentile? And when we learn to accept ourselves, we learn to accept others in this life and every single one we live after it.
48:59 Rasha Pecoraro? This is So Supernatural, an AudioChuck original, produced by Crime House. You can connect with us on Instagram at @SoSupernaturalPod and visit our website at sosupernaturalpodcast.com. Join Yvette and me next Friday for an all-new episode.
49:19 Rasha Pecoraro? I think Chuck would approve.
49:24 Speaker 03 I've been having a hard time trying to explain what Midnight Burger is. How about I let them give it a shot?
49:30 Speaker 04 Your podcast is amazing.
49:32 Speaker 05 It's such an amazing show altogether.
49:34 Speaker 06 You guys have actively ruined all other audio dramas for me.
49:37 Speaker 05 You can't get people to understand the humaning that happens in this damn show. Keep doing what you're doing, because it's awesome.
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