Edgar Evans recounts how his father discovered his abilities as a child by sleeping on a spelling book and absorbing its contents, then later cured his own voice loss through self-induced hypnosis. He shares the story of his own severe childhood burn, which his father diagnosed and treated through a reading that allowed full recovery. The discussion turns to Atlantis, a subject Edgar Evans researched extensively by compiling hundreds of his father's life readings into the book Edgar Cayce on Atlantis. He notes that archaeological discoveries, satellite imaging of the Nile's ancient westward course, and radiocarbon dating have repeatedly confirmed details his father described decades earlier.
Art asks about the Hall of Records beneath the Sphinx, earth change prophecies, and whether anyone today matches his father's abilities. Edgar Evans replies simply that his brother searched the world and never found anyone with a comparable track record.
Key Moments
The first reading - Cayce cures his own lost voice: Edgar Evans recounts how his father, working in a bookstore, lost his voice; under self-induced hypnosis he diagnosed throat congestion, turned red, coughed up blood, and woke up able to talk. Dr. Ketchum then asked him to read for patients.
14,000 readings - 60% medical diagnoses: Edgar Evans confirms the canonical numbers: over 14,000 readings in his father's lifetime, roughly 60% of them physical-condition diagnoses, with copies kept on file at the Association for Research and Enlightenment in Virginia Beach.
Edgar Evans' burned-leg reading at age seven: His own first vivid experience: a spark from the fireplace lit his flannel pajamas, severely burning his left leg. His father gave a reading prescribing onion-keen washes and rubs to keep the skin from contracting; he later played football, basketball, and baseball.
The reading that warned it would kill him: After 'There Is a River' made Cayce famous, demand exploded - phone calls in the night, mail trucks of requests. He went from one or two readings a day to as many as ten, had a breakdown, and his own reading warned: continue and you'll kill yourself. He continued.
Cayce flees Hopkinsville after stock-tip readings: When questioners began slipping in horse-race and stock-market questions during physical readings, Cayce woke with headaches and noises. Furious, he moved his family from Hopkinsville to Selma, Alabama, opened a photographic studio, and quit giving readings.