Reading 254-116

TEXT OF READING 254-116

Text

Date: 8/28/1944 Sex: M ReadingID: 1254

This Psychic Reading given by Edgar Cayce at the office of the Association, Arctic Crescent, Virginia Beach, Va., this 28th day of August, 1944, in accordance with request made by those present.

[Edgar Cayce; Gertrude Cayce, Conductor; Gladys Davis & Jean Fitch, Stenos.]

Time of Reading Set bet. 3:30 and 4:30 P. M. Eastern War Time.

1. GC: You will have before you the work of the Ass’n for Research and Enlightenment, Inc., Virginia Beach, Va., especially in reference to the Building Fund recently started for the purpose of erecting another building, or annex, where the work as a whole might be carried on more efficiently and on a much more extensive scale. You will consider the letter drafted by Mrs. Ethel Clyde, a copy of which I hold in my hand, and advise if it would be well to send this to all our members. If so, what amount should be specified as the goal? Should anything else be added? You will answer the questions which may be asked:

2. EC: In considering the work of the Association for Research and Enlightenment there are many phases of same which need consideration. As we have oft indicated the publications should be first. This department is receiving some consideration. It is not yet altogether set as to the best plans.

3. As for the research, to many this is the most important part. To be sure, many papers, many pamphlets should come out of the research. Under present circumstances there is not sufficient room for this to be carried on for the work of the readings, the filing, the compiling of that necessary which may be drawn from the data - there is not sufficient room. Then the building fund is to be considered. To be sure this is hardly plausible in its entirety until cessation of war activities - and you will have cessation before the snow flies even in Russia!

4. The manner of the letter is very good provided it is handled entirely from the office or home of Mrs. Clyde. Then, let her send envelopes to be addressed - and the amount set at 15,000, with those requests from 1 up, the present amount being already near $500. This fund is to be kept separate and sent, as indicated, to the Secretary (or Treasurer) of the Building Fund, see?

5. (Q) How often should the Building Fund Treasurer [Beatrice Seay] report in the Bulletin the amount reached? (A) At least once every two months or whenever there is the request for same. The ones to whom letters or the envelopes are addressed should be culled by Miss Davis.

6. (Q) How should it be determined which members should receive the letter? (A) All who have asked for membership and especially those who have indicated benefits derived. Those who are interested the greater in other phases should be among the ones indicated, that they may have the opportunity.

7. We are through.

Copy to Mrs. Clyde ” ” Ass’n file ” for indexing

Reports

Reports & Follow-up

R1. 8/29/44 EC gave three more physical readings.

R2. 8/30/44 EC left for Roanoke, Virginia, for a rest.

R3. 9/17/44 EC gave the next and final reading on himself. See 294-212.

R4. GD’s note: Trustees and Executive Committee Minutes, with correspondence to and from trustees, reflect activities of EC work following EC’s death. Also the file copy of publications in date sequence are revealing.

R5. 10/19/44 EC’s ltr. to Members of the Board: [Used also under 294-212 Reports.]

HOTEL PATRICK HENRY Roanoke, VA

TO MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE ASS’N FOR RESEARCH AND ENLIGHTENMENT, INC., TO BE READ AT THE MEETING Oct. 21, 1944

Friends and loved ones:

It seems that exceptional circumstances have made it necessary for this special meeting. God in His wisdom has seen fit that I not be present. Yet you know I am with you in spirit and purpose, when that purpose is to serve our fellow man - in love, patience, longsuffering, bearing one another’s burdens.

We all have fallen short of the glory which we may indeed manifest in the Christ.

I’m glad to say I am feeling better. Through His love and mercy I may be able to return to the work very soon. Even in the last reading, when everything seemed so awfully dark, He promised to be with me. We have much work to do. Let us be sure that it is for the glory of God and not to the glory of any man.

At this time I am asking, and have asked, Miss Gladys to be my personal representative. She knows my personal wishes, as well as the faults and failures of each of us - as we have tried to be of a service through this channel.

I do not feel that there are a great many drastic changes to be made just now, until Hugh Lynn can return to act as Manager of the Association, which we trust by His grace will be in not too distant future.

I would like to have the Executive Committee, whoever is elected, to appoint Miss Gladys as Treasurer - or Assistant Treasurer - for each of the funds or accounts to be set up.

She should have been given this authority long ago. It was through my own negligence that this was not done.

If it seems best to make other drastic changes, please do so. And above everything, may peace, harmony, love, with the purpose of the Association at heart, be the rule in this meeting.

God bless you all.

Sincerely, [signed] Edgar Cayce EC:GD

TO EXPEDITE MAIL DELIVERY PLEASE ADDRESS US ROANOKE 9, VIRGINIA

R6. 12/44 VOL. XIII. 3

B U L L E T I N

ASSOCIATION FOR RESEARCH AND ENLIGHTENMENT, INCORPORATED Virginia Beach, Virginia

“Man’s search for truth is his search for God.”

Members of the Association will be glad to hear that Mr. Cayce, after having been away from Virginia Beach for three months, is again at home. Although not able to give readings, he is definitely improving under the treatment outlined in his last reading of September 17th. [294-212] As this treatment is almost identical with that suggested in other readings for conditions of a similar nature, we are assured that this is the correct procedure. His Christmas message to you, which follows, speaks for itself. [See also 294-212 Reports.]

COMING HOME By Edgar Cayce

Unless you have experienced the sorrow of being away from home, lonely and confused as to what to do, spiritually, mentally, materially, you cannot know what a hunger it creates.

But I am at home now and, I believe, doing better, though my strength seems slow returning. The most joyous Christmas I could have would be the answer to my prayer that I may be used as a channel to help others. The promise given in my last reading, “Ye have many helpers,” is being proven each day in more ways than one.

I have every expectation that my prayer will be answered, by His grace and mercy, if I remain faithful in thought and purpose to the trust which has been placed in me.

Let each of you be very diligent in your prayers for me and with me. Remember, we must each live as we pray, if our prayer would be effectual.

If the world is to have the wonderful Christmas gift it should have at this season, we must all pray earnestly for peace and manifest it in our own lives.

God bless each and every one of you. This I ask in the name of Jesus, the Christ.

[GD’s note: He dictated this to me in a whisper.]

R7. 1/2/45 Scene at Edgar’s bedside which GD witnessed, the night before he died: [1/2-3/45 See also 294-212 Reports.]

On the evening of January 2, 1945, Gertrude, standing by the hospital bed, was getting ready to tell Edgar good-night and get some rest while Gladys took over until the nurse would arrive for the midnight shift. She reached over and kissed him. He said, “You know I love you, don’t you?” She nodded, and he asked, “HOW do you know?”

“Oh, I just know”, she said, with her dear little smile.

“I don’t see how you can tell - but I do love you.” Reflecting, he continued, “you know, when you love someone you sacrifice for ‘em, and what have I ever sacrificed because I love you?”

This bedside scene was so beautiful that it made Gladys cry, and does even now when she thinks of it, because she understood so well how Gertrude had stood by him and put his wishes always above her own when it came to the good of “the work”. Gladys knew how much they each had suffered through the years, and how hard it was for them because of their different manners of expression. But the readings had indicated that love knows no barriers; that when there is the same spiritual ideal in marriage all material obstacles can become steppingstones.

The next evening, about the same time, on January 3, 1945 Edgar Cayce died, at 7:15 P.M. There must have been a most beautiful sunset that evening, because the golden glow out of Edgar’s southeast bedroom window made it appear that the sun was setting in that direction instead of on the west side of the house.

Three months later, at sunrise on a BEAUTIFUL EASTER SUNDAY, April 1, 1945, GERTRUDE ALSO DIED IN VIRGINIA BEACH AND WAS BURIED IN HOPKINSVILLE NEXT TO EDGAR.

[See details re Gertrude’s illness and passing in Mary Ellen Carter’s book, MY YEARS WITH EDGAR CAYCE, The Story of Gladys Davis Turner, especially pp.130-132 of the hardback, Harper & Row, c 1972 by Mary Ellen Carter and Gladys Davis Turner.]

R8. 1/45 VOL. XIII. 4

B U L L E T I N

ASSOCIATION FOR RESEARCH AND ENLIGHTENMENT, INCORPORATED Virginia Beach, Virginia

“Man’s search for truth is his search for God.”

EDGAR CAYCE, 1877-1945 [Editorial by Thomas Sugrue] [See also 294-212 Reports.]

Edgar Cayce passed from this life on January third at 7:15 o’clock in the evening, at his home on Arctic Crescent, Virginia Beach, Virginia. Funeral services were conducted at the residence on Friday morning, January 5th, by the Rev. Jos. B. Clower, former pastor of the local Presbyterian Church, and in his native town of Hopkinsville, Kentucky, on Monday morning, January 8th, by the Rev. Monroe G. Schuster, pastor of the First Christian Church.

He had been ill since August 1944, when the strain of overwork pressed him down to a sick bed. For more than a year he had worked under unbelievable handicaps. His son, the manager of the Association for Research and Enlightenment, Hugh Lynn Cayce, entered the Armed Services. At the same time an unprecedented number of requests for readings came to Virginia Beach. Often there were more than 500 letters in the daily mail. The library, which had seemed so large when first built, was jammed with stenographers working at correspondence. Mr. Cayce himself examined every letter, and worked late into the night dictating answers.

During the morning and afternoon periods he gave not two but from eight to twelve readings. Still he could fulfill but a small portion of the applications. The others, with their tales of misfortune and suffering, weighed heavily on him. For the first time in his long life of service he could not help everyone of his fellows who asked for aid. He worked harder and harder, but the appointments ran on and on, until they were more than a year ahead of him.

His own diagnosis, given in a reading last September was that he had reached a point of complete nervous exhaustion. From this he did not recover.

As this is written the shock of his passing is so deep that even the most glib tongues are stilled. Once a person came to know Edgar Cayce, he thereafter could not imagine a world without him, without his readings, without his personality, his friendliness, his simple and complete Christianity. The roll of those he served is long. How many he reached through his readings, through his sixty years of Bible teaching, is incalculable. His only ambition was that after his death even more people be reached and given whatever in the readings was good and helpful.

That is the first reaction to his death - that faith must be kept with him, and his work continued. It is symbolic that his own passing was brought about largely by the change in his work; that is, he could no longer give all the readings which were requested of him, and the necessity for giving to people the information of general use in the readings was growing each day.

Now that he is gone this will become the whole of the work, and as it proceeds the real stature of Edgar Cayce will be revealed. Truly he fulfilled the Christian ideal; he laid down his life for his friends. He was a great man. We shall not see his like again.

R9. 2/15/45 GD’s Letter to those A.R.E. members having appointments cancelled:

This letter is a sad one. As you probably know, Edgar Cayce passed from this life on January 3, 1945, after an illness of several months. His death brought to an end the kind of wonderful service he was able to give others - these psychic readings with which he has helped thousands, since the first one in Hopkinsville, Ky., back in 1901. Your appointment, which was to have been on a certain date during the coming months, cannot now be kept, of course.

We of the staff of the Association, who have worked with Mr. Cayce for so many years, know how deeply this will disappoint you. We know how much you had looked forward to your reading. We were also looking forward to helping you.

Now we want to straighten out our account with you. When you applied for Associate membership you promptly sent us your contribution which was to be applied to the particular phase of research involved in obtaining and transcribing your reading. We want to be just as prompt about sending it back. If you will just check the enclosed slip and return to us, we will mail you a check at once. Be sure we have your correct address.

You might look over the enclosed publication list. If there are any of our books or pamphlets that you want now, check them off of the slip you are returning and we will deduct that amount from the check we are to send you.

There is one more thing about your money. It did not secure the reading that you wanted. But it might STILL do a lot of good. You see, Mr. Cayce left behind him about fifteen thousand detailed readings which are filed in our vault here along with case histories. Information in these files is priceless. It covers all kinds of diseases; it deals with vocational guidance; it offers facts on historical periods - the range of this information is as wide as human problems are wide. But because we have all been so eager to get more and more readings from Mr. Cayce, we have hardly touched this information. It has not been indexed yet. Now it has suddenly become our only resource, and everyone seems to want to turn to it.

That is the basic task of the Association: to extract, organize and publish the material in these files. We must begin at once with the data on some of these “incurable” diseases. And we must continue working with material in all the areas covered by the readings, until they are carefully compiled and published. It is a long, slow job to summarize the work of a lifetime like Mr. Cayce’s. You may wish to help.

People are writing, wiring, calling, and even coming in person, to tell us here in Virginia Beach that they DO want to help. One woman in Illinois said it very simply: “Keep the money I sent. I want it to help carry on this work. God bless you.” It may be that you feel the same way. If you do

• and we have been happily surprised so many times this past month! - please check that part of the enclosed blank suggesting you will retain your Associate Membership and you will be contributing in a real way to the Association’s pioneer study of psychic individuals’ phenomena.

It goes without saying that the trustees and the staff of the Association will be grateful for such a memorial to Mr. Cayce’s work.

And whatever you decide to do, we want you to keep in touch with us. You may want even to subscribe to the BULLETIN, as it reports on the progress of research into files of the readings; presents articles, stories of personal psychic experiences, book reviews, and keeps you posted on publications and meetings of the Association.

You may want to subscribe to that unusual little digest called WEEKLY READINGS EXTRACTS, ONE SET OF THE MOST INTERESTING EXTRACTS OUT OF EACH WEEK’S RESEARCH. As your interest in the Association grows, you may some day wish to become an Active Member with added responsibility and participation which this kind of sustaining membership involves.

Send us back the enclosed sheet marked with your instructions.

Let me say again that we share your disappointment in not receiving your reading. We know you are sharing our personal sorrow.

Sincerely, [Signed] Dorothy Gladys Davis, Secretary ASSOCIATION FOR RESEARCH AND ENLIGHTENMENT, INCORPORATED

To the ASSOCIATION FOR RESEARCH AND ENLIGHTENMENT, INCORPORATED:

In regard to the amount I have deposited with you, I would like to do the following, as I have checked:

( ) Return the money to me in full.

( ) Deduct the publications I have checked and send them to me with the balance.

( ) Accept the amount which I have on deposit with you as a contribution to the work of the Association, in which I wish to keep an Associate Membership waiving claim to a reading but desiring to further the program of the Association as it presents to others that which has been found helpful.

I would like to make these comments: and suggestions:

PERIODICALS

MONTHLY BULLETIN - carrying news of the Association activities - $2.50 yr.

WEEKLY READINGS EXTRACTS - consisting solely of extracts from readings of Edgar Cayce-----------------------------$5.00 yr.

DIARY-LETTER (weekly) to members--------------------$3.00 yr.

PHYSICAL CASE STUDIES

Complete reports on cases of individuals helped by informa- tion secured in Physical Readings. Each study------$ .25 APPENDICITIS - ARTHRITIS - THE COMMON COLD - EPILEPSY - INTESTINAL FEVER - SCLERODERMA - STREPTOCOCCUS INFECTION

MIMEOGRAPHED BOOKLETS

ONENESS OF ALL FORCE - A compilation of extracts presenting the basic philosophy of Edgar Cayce’s readings-------$ .25

CHILD TRAINING - A compilation of several readings---$ .25 BOOKS

A SEARCH FOR GOD - Discourses based on readings of Edgar Cayce pertaining to the spiritual laws of the universe and their practical application, compiled by Department of Study Groups of the Association (Postage 4 cents)----------$1.50

THERE IS A RIVER - The Story of Edgar Cayce - a biography by Thomas Sugrue, published by Henry Holt and Company (Postage 10 cents)--------------------------------------------$3.00

PRINTED BOOKLETS

MEDITATION - A compilation of information given through Edgar Cayce concerning the importance and technique of meditation. (This booklet is the first chapter in the book A SEARCH FOR GOD.)------------------------------------------------$ .25

THE ESSENES - An interpretation of the Essene group, drawing on historical material and some of Mr. Cayce’s readings concerning the preparation for the birth of Jesus. Unusual information on the most important period in history, compiled by Enid Severy Smith, Ph.D.--------------------------$ .35

EGYPT IN THE DAY OF THE HIGH PRIEST, by Millicent Horton -----------------------------------------------------$ .50

AURAS - An Essay On the Meaning of Color, by Edgar Cayce. This was written last August while Mr. Cayce was visiting Mr. Thomas Sugrue in Florida. It was the very last thing he put his hand to doing. The booklet gives his interpretation of the colors of the spectrum and tells many of his experiences in reading auras. The editor has written a preface for the booklet, telling of its inception, how it was written, and giving a sketch of Mr. Cayce as he appeared in those last days - a sort of final note to the biography -----------------------------------------------------$ .35

R10. 4/45 VOL. XIII. 7 $2.50 a year 25 cents a copy

B U L L E T I N

ASSOCIATION FOR RESEARCH AND ENLIGHTENMENT, INCORPORATED Virginia Beach, Virginia

“Man’s search for truth is his search for God.” [Editorial by Thomas Sugrue] [See also 294-212 Reports.]

GERTRUDE EVANS CAYCE 1880 - 1945 On Easter Sunday morning at 7:15 o’clock, in her home on Arctic Crescent, Virginia Beach, Virginia, Gertrude Evans Cayce passed away. She was buried at Hopkinsville, Kentucky, in the family plot which three months before had been opened to receive her husband.

Thus ended the love story of Gertrude Evans and Edgar Cayce. It began on a hot summer day in the early eighteen-nineties, in Hopkinsville, where the Cayce family had come to live from their farm in south Christian County. Edgar was working in the local book store. One day a family friend, Miss Ethel Duke, drove up in a horse and buggy and called him outside. In the carriage with her was a pretty young girl. “I want you to meet a cousin of mine,” Ethel said to Edgar. “This is Miss Gertrude Evans. Gertrude this is Edgar Cayce.”

That was the beginning. He went to a lawn party at Gertrude’s home the next week. Soon he was visiting at the Hill regularly. They became engaged, and on Wednesday, June 17th, 1903, they were married. Through the years they worked together, and it was Mrs. Cayce who sat beside her husband, acting as conductor, during most of the 15,000 readings which he gave during his long career as one of the world’s great psychics.

Everyone who knew Mr. Cayce was amazed by his strange power, but those who were privileged to know the man personally, and to observe the family life which surrounded him, came eventually to be as equally impressed by the phenomenon of a home which seemed to achieve the ideal which every person cherishes for this sacred institution. There is no doubt that the Cayce family life was unique and inspiring. Not only was there complete harmony between the four members of the family - Gertrude, Edgar and their two sons, Hugh Lynn and Edgar Evans - but they had a genius for absorbing friends and visitors into the group in such a way that a stranger felt at home almost instantly. Many families are closely knit, but usually in such cases the members present a united front against outsiders. The opposite was true of the Cayces. A friend of any one of them was friend of all four. Their home was always big enough for one more friend, one more visitor.

Probably this is explained by the fact that individually and collectively they tried to live Christianity. They never gave lip service to an ideal; they carried it out in deed. But the guiding genius of this organized friendliness was Mrs. Cayce. She loved her home above all things, but she conceived it to be a place of rest and comfort and refuge for not only her family, but for anyone who needed these precious blessings.

Her youngest son, Captain Edgar Evans Cayce, was with her when she passed. Her oldest son, Sergeant Hugh Lynn Cayce, was at his post of duty with General Patton’s army in Germany.

R11. 9/24/45 See IMG’s letter to Rudolph Johnson giving details re. office activities, Harmon Bro, Gina Cerminara, Matt Kurtz.

R12. 11/45 HLC returned to Virginia Beach after being overseas two years.

R13. Throughout ‘45 and ‘46 GD’s and HLC’s letters to David and Lucille Kahn indicate how the planning of the A.R.E. work is continuing.

R14. 4/17/46 See HLC’s letter to DEK re. forming the E.C.F., asking his opinion, stating plans.

R15. 7/1/46 See HLC’s letter to DEK re. E.C.F. plans presented at A.R.E. Congress.

R16. 12/10/46 HLC’s ltr. to A.R.E. Members - in re E.C.F.:

Virginia Beach, Va.

THE EDGAR CAYCE FOUNDATION

A report from Hugh Lynn Cayce

To: Members of the Association

In January 1946, shortly after my return from overseas, I began talking with Trustees and other members of the Association regarding the creation of a department, to be known as the Edgar Cayce Foundation, which would insure the systematic preserving, indexing and extracting of the readings. This, everyone agreed, was the very heart of our future activities - the key to the services we are capable of rendering.

In the discussions which ensued, it was agreed that ultimately a separate benevolent corporation be formed for this work; for, it was felt, many people not interested in taking an active part in the Association work would want to help in preserving and preparing for use the readings which helped so many people. It was considered wise also to seek endowment funds for this work on a long-range program, as the complete indexing, microfilming, copying, extracting, etc., would require time, skilled technical help and equipment.

We have proceeded to develop these plans and I believe you will be gratified with the results to date:

1. Theron Helms, Douglas Johnston and Rudolph Johnson have worked with me in preparing a set of corporation papers designed to create the cooperative, benevolent organization which can integrate its activities with the Association and the Publishing Company.

I like to think of these three - the Association, the Publishing Company and the Foundation - as the mind, body, and soul of our over-all program to make full use of the records and the inspiration of Edgar Cayce’s work which basically was the bringing to men everywhere a greater awareness of their real nature and purpose here.

2. From a few members of the Association sufficient funds have been provided to make it possible for one individual to begin spending full time on the indexing and extracting. It is recognized that other technical and clerical help will later be needed. But it has been thought wise to spend several months in developing a systematic plan for this work which can be shown to all who may be interested in preserving and using these records.

Gladys Davis, who knows more about the history and content of the readings than anyone living today, has been freed from all other routine duties so that she can begin working exclusively with the reading files. This necessitated many changes which I will explain later.

3. Plans have been set in motion to hold in New York City, early in 1947, a Foundation meeting at which this work will be fully discussed. Among those with whom the plans for this meeting have been discussed, who will take part in it and in the activity stemming from it, are: Thomas Sugrue, Margaret Hall, Harold J. Reilly, William F. Mitchell, Douglas T. Johnston, David E. Kahn, Dr. Frank P. Dobbins, Dr. Morton Singer and Mrs. Julia Chandler.

In relieving Gladys Davis of her many duties with the Association and the Publishing Company, it has been necessary to divide the work. In close cooperation with the Executive Committee the following steps have been taken:

Theron Helms has accepted the position of treasurer of the Association. He will continue to handle the books of the Association and the Publishing Company. Mr. Helms has been interested in the Association for many years. He has already rendered magnificent service (and I use this term advisedly) in keeping the records. He is practically giving his services gratis to aid in furthering the work. We are fortunate, I feel, in having his cooperation. The Executive Committee and Trustees, who have worked with him through the past three critical years, are fully in accord with his thorough, clearcut, sound, business-like approach to our financial requirements.

This letter also allows me to introduce Miss Dorothy V. Morrisette, the new membership secretary of the Association, who is now handling the clerical work in the office and the details of both the Publishing Company accounts and the Association membership activities. Dorothy (as a matter of interest to you) had her first reading in 1938. In all she had five physical readings and three life readings. From time to time she has given her services gratis in assisting us to get reports and in handling special clerical jobs for the Association. Dorothy has had years of stenographic and general business experience. She has undertaken her work with us at a salary far below that which can command in the business world. Here, too, we are fortunate in securing such skilled assistance. She will work directly with Theron Helms in handling all of the financial records.

Just what will this mean to you as a member of the Association:

1. The work of indexing and extracting (which has been going on bit by bit for years) will go forward systematically and more rapidly. This will mean more material for articles, research papers, lectures, etc., and thus more information for you from the records left by Edgar Cayce.

2. Gradually better individual extracting service can be rendered on the basis of the member’s requests.

3. There will be more thorough, efficient handling of the membership records - more prompt answers to your questions and better membership services.

4. The handling of the whole financial structure of our organization will be more efficient. Clear, accurate records and reports are essential to orderly development of this phase of our work.

5. An extension of our publications, health service, lectures and group study will be possible, as I am able to devote more time and effort to the much needed organization work in these fields.

Early in 1947, we will present the Foundation program to you in a complete form.

As you know from recent reports, the Association growth depends on its membership expansion. If you have not renewed your membership you will soon be getting a reminder from the office. (These notices will go out regularly beginning the first of the year.)

Consider changing from an Associate status to an Active member. Remember that our work is not only what we give you, but what you help us give others who are seeking.

Christmas greetings and best wishes!

Sincerely yours, [signed] Hugh Lynn Cayce

R17. 12/10/46 DIARY LETTER by GD:

ASSOCIATION FOR RESEARCH and ENLIGHTENMENT, Incorporated Virginia Beach, Virginia 320 Arctic Circle (at 14th St.) Phone 954

We are expecting Dr. and Mrs. Harold J. Reilly tomorrow night; they are stopping on their way from N. Y. to Florida just as they did last year. (See DL 8/16/46)

CAYCE HOUSE inmates will turn out en masse on Thursday morning to eat breakfast with our distinguished guests before they start on their journey.

Usually these days we each go our own way so far as food and drink are concerned. After the hectic summer boarding house arrangement we decided enough was enough and that we each would wait on ourselves completely by merely sharing the kitchen privileges. This plan has worked out very well except that now and then one of us leaves our stuff lying around and somebody else uses it. We each have a shelf in the refrigerator and in the pantry with our name on it! If we don’t put our things back where they belong it usually becomes public property, after a half-hearted attempt has been made, of course, to find the owner. For instance, the other day somebody asked, “Whose jar of honey is that?” I rushed to the rescue by answering, “Why, that’s Mrs. B’s honey.”

The nickname has stuck; nobody says Mrs. Brandenburger.

LYDIA left Saturday morning for Middle Haddam, Conn., where she expects to spend the winter with her friend Mrs. Wiard. She says she will see us in January at the N.Y. meeting. I miss her terribly.

VISITORS Mr. and Mrs. Simon Kasdin and younger daughter Nancy, from Morristown, N.J., spent several days with us recently. (See DL 9/20/46) Simon writes:

“I chafe under the necessity of the ordinary obligations of life and count the days until I can return to Va. Beach…I have been made District Commissioner by the Rosicrucians, and have again taken up my old obsession - building houses - which, together with my law practice, Sunday School class, mystic studies and lodge memberships, keeps me quite busy. I still get most pleasure out of building houses - I wish EC were here, he might tell me why.”

On one of the visits Simon expects to build a cabinet under our kitchen sink. This is another little job that Mrs. Cayce had planned to get done some day.

ATTENTION NEW YORK! Thomas Sugrue’s next lecture, sponsored by the New York Study Group of the Ass’n, will be held on THURSDAY, DECEMBER 19th, 8:15 P.M., at Willkie Memorial Hall, 20 West 40th St. His subject: THE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS. Bring your friends.

ADVISORY BOARD OF PHYSICIANS A letter just came from a member of the N.Y. Group saying: “Was very interested personally in your last WRE [Weekly Readings Extracts], as I am nearsighted. Do you have the name and address of a N.Y. osteopath who is familiar with Mr. Cayce’s work? I would deeply appreciate having it.”

Our August 1946 Bulletin carried a list of physicians who had expressed their willingness to cooperate in making use of the information in the physical readings. At that time Dr. Dobbins was still in the U.S. Army. The above question reminds us that we have not made the announcement of his return to his practice in the NEW YORK AREA: Dr. Frank P. Dobbins, 196 Richmond Ave., Port Richmond 2, Staten Island, N.Y. Dr. Dobbins has handled over 100 cases of people who went to him with physical readings. Two of those were serious eye disturbances which completely cleared with following the treatment advised in the readings. (DL’s 8/19-30/46)

Dr. Dobbins was the first to get us started on the plan of seeking reports from individual doctors as to their findings in following the readings. It is great to have him back to help in our research program. Members in the N.Y. area who wish to have contact with a doctor familiar with the terminology of the readings are indeed fortunate in being able to have access to Dr. Dobbins.

TIR [THERE IS A RIVER] Simon Kasdin continues: “My friend just sold, with my assistance, his 1st dozen copies of TIR. He is Scotch by heredity…Among the purchasers was a Catholic priest, Episcopalian minister, Jewish rabbi, and a Negro doctor.”

MEMBERSHIPS All of the Association literature and the books for sale by the Publishing Company will be available at the open meeting of the N. Y. Study Group. Much interest has been aroused in the Ass’n activities by the open meetings in N.Y. and other places.

We were pleasantly surprised to have a fat letter from the DAYTON GROUP enclosing SIX new membership applications. Bob Zindorf wrote, “For some reason or other I’ve run out of applications. Can you send more?”

That’s the kind of cooperation that makes for real expansion of the entire Ass’n program.

“Are we going to have reminders when our dues are due?” asks Margueritte Bro. “YES, MA’AM!” answers GD. Dorothy is the good little gremlin. (See Hugh Lynn’s letter re: the E.C.F. in 254-116, Par. R16.) She is our new Membership Secretary. Although I still remain the Secretary of the Association, gradually my duties are being switched to Dorothy. It will be possible for me to continue the DL’s and to attend all Ass’n Board Meetings in order to keep a record of the minutes; otherwise my entire time will very shortly now be devoted entirely to the EDGAR CAYCE FOUNDATION’S job of INDEXING. So you’ll be hearing much about this from now on. Of course I’ll still read all of the letters before they are filed and in that way gather material for the DL’s, but the many detailed duties will now be concerned with the indexing and extracting. Of course I don’t have to tell you that I love this job above all others. I consider it an honor and a privilege to spend the rest of my life, as Eric Olsen expresses it, “a termite in the files of the readings.”

WRE’S “are really swell” writes M. Bro. “Harmon and June arrived last night and will be here for 7 wks. while Harmon gets ready to take his comprehensive exams at Harvard.”

Love and bye now. GD

R18. 1/16/47 See DEK’s letter to HLC.

R19. 7/13/47 See HLC’s letter to DEK re. open meeting at Freedom House in N.Y.C. to discuss the E.C.F. plans.

R20. 3/21/49 See HLC’s letter to Mr. & Mrs. Milton W. Harrison re. professional fund-raising effort to get the readings microfilmed.

R21. 10/15/50 See 11/50 SL, “Chronology of Life & Work of EC and A.R.E.” In 1950 Gina Cerminara’s book MANY MANSIONS was published. In 1952 A SEARCH FOR GOD, Book II was published (Book I in 1942)

R22. 3/56 A.R.E. Headquarters moved from Arctic Crescent (14th St.) to original Cayce Hospital site, now 215-67th Street.

R23. In 1957 Gina Cerminara’s book THE WORLD WITHIN was published.

R24. See Date Sequence file of Publications and publicity in vault.

R25. 2/78 See GD’s History/Perspectives/Suggestions on E.C.F. and A.R.E., for years 1931-1946, under 254-57 Reports.

R26. 3/20/78 GDT’s note:

What is a work reading?

The term “Work Readings” refers to a special series of 116 readings concerned primarily with the work of Edgar Cayce. Most of these were requested by Edgar Cayce himself or, in later years, by Hugh Lynn Cayce as Manager of A.R.E. The series begins with 254-1 on 2/13/11 and ends with 254-116 on 8/28/44.

See booklet HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE EDGAR CAYCE WORK READINGS compiled by Robert A. Adriance, c Edgar Cayce Foundation 1968, 4th printing A.R.E. Press 1976.

Actually, the information in this special series [254] is only a small part, though an important part, of that given on Edgar Cayce’s work. To make a thorough study of it would require researching in chronological order all the cases listed in OVER FIVE FEET of index cards entitled WORK:E.C.: etc., etc., etc., [with subheadings A.N.I. to World Affairs].

R27. 4/25/78 GDT’s note: [See also 294-212 Reports.]

(Q) How did Edgar Cayce die? (A) From 2/23/44 through 3/13/44 Edgar Cayce was ill, bordering on pneumonia. He asked his family doctor, Dr. Robert Woodhouse, to try the new sulfa drug on him. It was a mistake. His heart became enlarged, with fluid on the lungs. 8/25/44 He wrote Mrs. [1770] “such a pain through heart and chest”. On 8/30/44 he and Mrs. Cayce left Va. Beach for Roanoke for a rest. His right hand was affected so that he couldn’t any longer use his little typewriter to peck out personal letters; no strength in his fingers. On 9/17/44 in Roanoke he gave the last reading, for himself. GD came up for it and Dr. Henry George III. It described general debilitation, the using up of all his energies without replenishing them. A week later he had a stroke and became partially paralyzed.

On 11/21/44 Edgar Evans Cayce (just home on leave from long duty overseas) got his father back home via new Va. Beach ambulance (Rescue Squad) with Dr. C. W. Irvin going up to come back with him in the ambulance.

Edgar Cayce was a pitiful sight coming in on the stretcher, so weak he couldn’t speak above a whisper - and weeping - so glad to be home but heartbroken to be in such a fix.

On 12/19/44 Dr. Henry George III came and consulted with Drs. Robt. Woodhouse and Waller Taylor. They advised that if EC would not go to the hospital they would have to bring the hospital to him; 24 hr. nursing service; oxygen; digitalis; sufficient atropine or belladonna to dry him up; blood count; blood urea; blood phosphorus; cardiograph; chest x-ray; etc., etc., etc. “Don’t give him anything that is apt to strangle him. I think the real danger is in him strangling to death.” Hospital bed; etc., etc.

At 12:01 A.M. on 1/1/45 GD, who had the night shift, said

• as they heard the horns blowing - “Happy New Year - we’re going places and do things in 1945.” He said “Same to you
• maybe - maybe - if the Lord is willing.”

On 1/2/45 in late P.M. a beautiful deathbed scene and conversation between Edgar and Gertrude was witnessed by GD as GC was getting ready to leave her duty and GD was coming on duty for the night. [See under 294-8, Par. R25, and also Par. R7 above.]

At 5:50 P.M. on 1/3/45 Dr. Woodhouse said all had been done that could be done. His sister Annie brought him up some oyster stew, which he had known beforehand that she was making for him. He took 2-3 sips of it. 7:15 P.M. he stopped breathing.

[See also under MY YEARS WITH EDGAR CAYCE, Chapter 10.]

[Above was briefed further in 5/1/78 A.R.E. Staff Bulletin.]

R28. 2/22/79 [GD’s note: Today, 2/22/79, is Gertrude’s 99th birthday!] GD’s list of old published articles to consider in possible anthology on EDGAR AND GERTRUDE CAYCE AS WE KNEW THEM: [See also 294-212 Reports.]

1/45 EDGAR CAYCE, 1877 - 1945 - Editorial by Thomas Sugrue

• 1/45 A.R.E. Bulletin

4/45 GERTRUDE EVANS CAYCE - 1880 - 1945 - Editorial by Thomas Sugrue - 4/45 A.R.E. Bulletin

9/64 EDGAR & GERTRUDE CAYCE AS I KNEW THEM - by Gladys Davis Turner - 9/64 Searchlight

1929-1941 Edgar Cayce’s approximately 45 lectures given consciously (not in a “reading”), some published bimonthly in Virginia Beach News in 1931, some later re-published in the little book WHAT I BELIEVE (c1946-1974 E.C.F.) and some that have not been published at all, though a few have been printed or reprinted in back issues of THE SEARCHLIGHT now out of print. (Vault Archives)

1923-1944 Edgar Cayce’s correspondence - umpteen loose-leaf volumes of GD’s so-far selected letters from which nuggets on EDGAR CAYCE THE MAN can be drawn, aside from his psychic work. - (GD’s office) (His letters are full of references to Gertrude and each of the boys, as well as to his close friends and associates.)

1912-1944 EDGAR CAYCE AS WE KNEW HIM - by Hugh Lynn Cayce, 2nd chapter of THE OUTER LIMITS OF EDGAR CAYCE’S POWER - ‘71 Paperback

1923-1945 MY YEARS WITH EDGAR CAYCE - MEC & GDT - ‘72 Paperback

2/46 EDGAR CAYCE’S STUDY OF THE BIBLE by Hugh Lynn Cayce

• 2/46 Searchlight

5/57 THE BIBLE AND YOU by GDT - 5/57 Searchlight

1915-1944 EDGAR CAYCE’S DREAMS - Library Series - DREAMS & DREAMING 8/76

1939-1944 EC’S TUESDAY NIGHT BIBLE CLASS MINUTES - (Krajenke’s bks) - Archives

12/77 HLC’s still unpublished article - A PSYCHIC’S WIFE - (Ask him!)

6/48 A.R.E. Bulletin - Edgar Cayce as a Religious Figure - Bro. - O/P

10/51 Searchlight - Edgar Cayce - The Man & His Work - L.J.S. Gray - O/P

P.S. There are also many tapes to be transcribed, made of interviews with those people who knew Edgar Cayce.

2/22/79:

Copy to Hugh Lynn Cayce ” ” Charles Thomas Cayce ” ” Jim & Phyllis Embelton ” ” Ken Skidmore ” ” Kitty Brittell ” ” Gail Cayce

R29. GD’s note: Today, 2/5/85, Dr. Robert J. Jeffries told me that he has found the tapes he made of interviews with Hugh Lynn and me, during the last two years of Hugh Lynn’s life, in which he asked us to tell everything we could remember about Edgar and Gertrude, as far back as we could remember. [Hugh Lynn wanted me to be present because he thought I could remind him of things which he might not remember.]

R30. 12/10/80 HLC’s ltr. to A.R.E. Members:

ASSOCIATION FOR RESEARCH AND ENLIGHTENMENT INCORPORATED Atlantic Avenue at 67th Street P.O. Box 595 Virginia Beach, Virginia 23451

Office of the Cable:CAYCE CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD Telephone:(804) 428-3588

Dear Members,

This is just a report on my present status. Perhaps I pushed a little too hard - perhaps it was Egyptian karma - perhaps my body was just saying “slow down.” Here’s what happened.

Sally and I enjoyed two beautiful weeks with the A.R.E. Hawaiian conference/tour. We then flew to San Francisco, rested overnight, and on to New York where we rested that night and the next day. That evening we flew to Cairo with almost 100 A.R.E. members. We had personally looked forward to this trip; it had been planned very carefully.

On the plane I began to have severe pains in my left side in the kidney area. Dr. Rudolph Wilhelm, one of the Egypt tour participants, gave me medicine that relieved the pain. The group went to the hotel near the Cairo airport to prepare for their week’s trip on the Nile. After a very disturbing night, the doctor insisted that Sally and I return to the U.S. immediately. He put us on the first flight out of Cairo, and we were back in Virginia Beach that night.

I went immediately into Bayside Hospital, and after scans, X-rays, etc., they removed my left kidney on Friday, November 21. Everything has gone wonderfully. I was well enough to briefly attend the December 6 Open House arranged for my book, FACES OF FEAR, and to thank the people who had participated in and attended the program.

One of the most beautiful notes I received in the hospital was from a 12-year-old boy who wrote, “I’m so sorry to hear you have lost your kidney. You won’t be able to play football. That’s all they told me I couldn’t do when I found out I had only one.” He and I may just start an A.R.E. one-kidney club. I’ve discovered many people who are doing very well with just one.

I wish especially to thank all of you for your calls, cards, flowers, food, and especially your prayers. I expect to be in the office next week for a few hours a day.

With love to every single one of you and best wishes for a Happy New Year,

[signed] Hugh Lynn Cayce

R31. 11/17/81 Questions to GDT:

TO: GLADYS DAVIS TURNER

DATE: November 16, 1981

Gladys dear, could you tell me the number of people who were members in the following years: 1931, 1943, 1945.

I would appreciate getting this information very much for PRESS.

[…] - Membership Dept.

R32. 11/17/81 GDT note to […] - Membership Dept.

Approximately 115 members signed up by July 1931.

Approximately 1000 in 9/43 after THERE IS A RIVER came out in 11/42.

2000 mbrs. in 1/45 as result of book & Coronet [CORONET ARTICLE “MIRACLE MAN”]. When returning membership fees for rdgs. not gotten, after EC’s death on 1/3/45, there remained around 300 hard core members who remained with us.

[signed] Gladys Davis Turner

Background

Background

B1. 8/28/44 Just preceding this last reading on the EC work, see 294-211 advice re. his health, rest, and conduct of the work.

Mentioned Entities

A.R.E. (Association for Research and Enlightenment), Gertrude Cayce, Thomas Sugrue, Virginia Beach, Gladys Davis, Hugh Lynn Cayce, Gina Cerminara, Ideal, New York City, Purpose, Hopkinsville, Prayer, Search for God Study Groups, Book of Job, Jesus Christ, Dreams, Edgar Evans Cayce, Egypt, Aura, David Kahn

Source: The Complete Edgar Cayce Readings, A.R.E. CD-ROM (2006). Reading 254-116, ReadingID 1254.