Judging by the response to writings, reports, venue visits and local seasonal tours offered each year, residents of Bowling Green and Warren County are interested in the occult, the paranormal and out-of-this-world experiences, particularly those relating to our area. Halloween feeds this interest with its accents on ghosts, witches, haunted houses and dancing skeletons. In fact, Gallup News Services polls reveals such interest is on the increase as over half the population believes in psychic or spiritual healing and extrasensory perception, though fewer people believe in such things as possession by the devil, haunted houses, ghosts, telepathy, extraterrestrial beings visiting the earth, and clairvoyance. These beliefs are as old as mankind itself. The unknown and unexplained events feed the paranormal factor. Usually sometimes in a year, individuals will talk the talk on this subject and usually conclude with the thought, “I wonder?”
Historical records reveal the names of many individuals claiming knowledge of these topics and/or experiences in the occult. To southern Kentuckians, one such man’s experiences are well documented, so Edgar Cayce is a familiar name to many residents.
Edgar Cayce was born on March 18, 1877 on a farm near Beverly, Kentucky, a small town between Hopkinsville and the Kentucky-Tennessee border. Edgar was one of six children of farmers Leslie Burr Cayce and Carrie Elizabeth. During his early years of childhood, nothing unusual happened to him, only he believed he saw the ghost of his well-loved grandfather after the latter’s interment. A more significant experience was at age ten when he was brought into the church. He became a prolific reader of the Bible, reading it six times from cover to cover as a youngster (later years, the total was sixty times or more). It was a day in the woods alone when he said he was visited by a spiritual being, a woman with wings who asked for his wants. He answered, “To help people.”
Hopkinsville became the new home of the Cayce family on a December day in 1893.
Edgar attended local schools there until the ninth grade, the highest level at that time for working-class families. Later he revealed what made him the top scholar of his class. He related that while preparing for a math test, he fell asleep and the woman with wings told him to sleep with his head on the book. Edgar said he did and on awaking he understood everything in the book and could recite it. Ever after he did all his studying this way.
Edgar Cayce was a deeply religious man. He attended the Disciples of Christ church regularly, taught Sunday school and promoted missionary recruitment. It was during these years he would hear voices of departed loved ones, speak to angels and would usually view people with auras around them. Always he questioned the validity and meaning of these happenings as being spiritual.
Before Mr. Cayce embarked on his years of clairvoyant experiences for which he is most remembered, he came to Bowling Green seeking employment. In 1902 he was employed at L. D. Potter’s bookstore on State Street. During his work there he developed a card game called “Pit” or “Board of Trade” – based on capturing the wheat market on the New York Board of Trade. He joined the Christian Church, married Gertrude Evans of Hopkinsville, and rejoiced in the birth of Hugh Lynn, the first of three sons (Milton Porter and Edgar Evans). While here in this city he grew a keen interest in photography. He began his own photo studio in 1906. When his College Street shop burned, he moved to 932½ State Street and expanded his staff to three assistants. His photo work was impressive and popular. The Green and Gold, a literary magazine of the Business University and Potter’s College, proclaimed, “There is no use talking, the pictures that come from Cayce’s are the finest ever made.” The photo included with this article attests to his ability.
The Cayce family remained living in Bowling Green for almost eight years. So far, no records have surfaced of his out-of-this-world experiences locally, although he is listed as speaker at local groups. Following his return to Hopkinsville, Edgar worked for a time with the H. P. Tresslar photography firm. Meanwhile, his clairvoyant activities increased as he agonized about the faith healings. A 1920 newspaper article brought more demands on his self-proclaimed faith healings. He claimed the ability to channel his higher self in a trance-like state. In this stage he would seek answers on a variety of subjects people requested for help or solutions to problems. His words spoken while in this stage were recorded first by his wife and then by others. In his lifetime, it is said he gave more than 14,000 psychic readings while in this hypnotic trance. He was often referred to as The Sleeping Prophet or as American Self-Proclaimed Faith Healer.
In 1925, the Cayce family settled in Virginia Beach, Virginia where he established a hospital in 1928 and continued his legacy by establishing the Association for Research and Enlightenment in 1931. Through the years, Cayce’s alleged abilities had been challenged by science reporters and others as fake or nonexistent. Yet it was difficult to ignore readings dealing with lost items, afterlife, diagnoses of illnesses proven to be correct, dream interpretations and a host of other requests he honored. He was never subjected to proper testing by known authorities.
Edgar Casey died in Virginia Beach on January 3, 1945 and was laid to rest in Riverside Cemetery in Hopkinsville. Displays in the Museum of Historic Hopkinsville will enable a visitor to walk in the footsteps of Edgar Cayce.
Doubter, believer, skeptic, follower, observer, participant or simply someone just not interested, whatever the reader’s reaction to the paranormal experiences, we can say with confidence what an old-timer once said, “One day it may all be revealed.”
-by Mary Alice Oliver
About the Author: Mary Alice Oliver is a Bowling Green native who is a 1950 graduate of Bowling Green High School. She retired from Warren County Schools after 40 years in education. Visiting familiar sites, researching historical records and sharing memories with friends are her passions.
