the larger body of readings, Ketchum became aware of the Source as a distinct personality or being with many human characteristics. However “all knowing” the Source might be, it could also be abrupt, disliked what it considered inane questions, and demonstrated what could only be characterized as a wry sense of humor. This became more evident in the years to come. Asked how a person should overcome worrying, the Source simply said, “Quit worrying!” A woman, wanting to know if wearing glasses, as Cayce had recommended, was really necessary, was told, “The body really needs glasses, else we wouldn’t have said it!” When a patient asked if a medication should be rubbed on the outside, he was simply told: “You can’t rub it on the inside!”
The Source sounded so “human” to Ketchum that the physician concluded that the voice speaking through Cayce was not a separate entity but Edgar’s higher unconscious self. He disputed what Carrie House believed—that a heavenly presence took over when Cayce went into trance—maintaining that Cayce’s spirit was free to communicate with other spirits when he lost consciousness. Although subsequent readings suggested that there was clearly much truth in this theory, Ketchum himself later admitted that whatever happened was far more complicated than Cayce’s spirit reaching out into the universe. This was, however, a good starting point.
Ketchum also suspected that Cayce’s subconscious mind could travel to the physical location of the patient. During one reading, Cayce remarked on the color of a patient’s pajamas and on another occasion mentioned a particularly handsome tree in her yard.
There were, however, limits to what Cayce could do. The Source, for example, would sometimes come right out and say that this information wasn’t to be shared, while at other times Cayce seemed to be able to peer at will right inside a person without interference. From this, Ketchum suspected that the individuals receiving the readings could somehow block Cayce’s examination of their bodies. Motivation on the part of the patient requesting the reading clearly factored into the equation, as Ketchum obtained the best results when a person genuinely wanted help for the reasons that he had stated. Moreover, information that would hurt or harm someone would simply not be given. Further, and all the more extraordinary, the Source would only make recommendations that a person was capable of undertaking given their logistical or financial means. If a trip to the Mayo Brothers Hospital in Minnesota was out of the question, the Source seemed to find a solution closer to home, even if it meant having to instruct a local physician on how to perform the treatment.
Just as the number of readings grew, Edgar himself was slowly beginning to understand some of the dynamics involved in giving them. He also began to take an interest in the medical side of the business. He seemed to genuinely want to know how the recommended treatments worked, though he and Ketchum, too, at times, were a long way from understanding them. However, as both Cayce and Ketchum discovered, the challenge was not obtaining helpful information from the Source but in finding medical practitioners willing to apply the treatments. All too often a patient’s personal physician simply dismissed a reading as beneath his consideration. Ketchum could treat the patients coming to Hopkinsville, but the vast majority lived outside of Kentucky and couldn’t reasonably be expected to take up residence in Hopkinsville while the treatments—sometimes lasting months—were conducted. This realization was foremost on his mind when Frank Mohr, a successful businessman whose three-and-a-half-year-old niece was cured of polio, offered to build a hospital where the treatments could be performed exactly as recommended.
Noe and Ketchum also liked the idea. However, they believed they should be compensated for “developing” and “publicizing” Edgar’s abilities. Their general understanding with Mohr, agreed to in principle, stipulated that Noe and Ketchum would receive a modest share of all proceeds from the hospital and that Noe would receive compensation from patients or their families taking long-term residence in the hotel.
Based on their verbal understanding, Mohr surveyed and cleared land in Nortonville, Kentucky, and a team of laborers poured the foundation for the hospital. Problems, however, soon arose. Noe and Ketchum kept coming up with one reason after another for not signing a formal contract. They had apparently decided to stall negotiations, holding out for a greater share of profits, or so it appeared to Mohr. Then, in the midst of heated arguments on the matter, Mohr injured his back. Edgar gave an emergency diagnosis. His health could be restored, the Source indicated, but unless certain corrective measures were taken, injury to his spine would gradually produce uric acid poisoning and would result in blindness.
Mohr and his doctors believed the diagnosis to be absurd. Ketchum, either not wishing to appear foolish to his peers or secretly desiring to drive a wedge between Mohr and Cayce, laughed along with Mohr’s doctors. How could a curvature of the spine cause blindness? Mohr didn’t know whom to trust. Suspecting some kind of fraud, he went to court, and the hospital project never progressed beyond the foundation, still visible today. He also eventually went blind.
Adding to the stress weighing on Edgar and Gertrude’s shoulders, she gave birth to another child, Milton Porter, on March 28, 1911. Edgar was so preoccupied with Noe and Ketchum and two separate civil suits which would arise from the falling out between Mohr and Ketchum that he did not pay close enough attention to the situation at home. Milton Porter was not receiving enough nourishment from his mother’s milk. A wet nurse was brought in, but by this time the child was ill with whooping cough and then colitis. Edgar gave a reading as he had done for Tommy House Jr., but the Source held out no hope for a recovery. Milton Porter’s death certificate states that he died on May 17, one month and twenty days after his birth.
The stress nearly ended the Cayce marriage. Edgar faulted himself for not giving a reading sooner. Part of the reason was that he had indeed had been too preoccupied with his business affairs. However, it was also true that Gertrude was still upset with him giving readings, and as he also admitted, she hadn’t wanted him to give readings for their immediate family members. Gertrude, too, must have felt responsible for not having taken proper care of the child.
Gravestone of 1½ month old Milton Porter Cayce.
Just as had been the case when Edgar suffered from laryngitis, Gertrude stopped eating and took to bed. She might well have been suffering from depression similar to Edgar’s own mother on the birth and subsequent death of her second child. But also true, the following July, she began coughing up blood. The diagnosis was tuberculosis, which at that time was considered incurable.
Edgar volunteered to give a reading immediately, but Gertrude was still resisting. Despite the help Edgar had provided to her nephew Tommy House, Gertrude still didn’t like the business of his giving readings and didn’t want their lives to revolve around them. To her way of thinking, the only way to make her point was to stand her ground by asserting what little control she had over the situation.
Edgar tried and failed to convince her to have a reading. Ketchum, too, made an attempt, but his pleas for her to receive trance counsel were ineffectual, perhaps even aggravating an already tense situation. Gertrude may also have considered him one of the root causes to Milton Porter’s death. Had her husband not been preoccupied by the court battle with Mohr and the discord among the partners, her husband would have been on hand to help.
Edgar wasn’t about to sit back and watch Gertrude die as Milton Porter had. Who intervened is not clear. Edgar may have prevailed in speaking with her. Carrie may have demanded she have a reading. No doubt Dr. House also encouraged her, as he was one of two of her consulting physicians. All that is known is that she finally agreed to have a reading after both her physicians and a tuberculosis specialist brought in from Louisville declared her to be on her deathbed.
Edgar lay down in bed beside her and with Ketchum conducting, began the reading. Outside on the porch and in the street were gathered those who loved Gertrude and prayed for her recovery. Her pastor had called his congregation together, and hand in hand with others who loved and supported Gertrude, they formed what was described a human chain around the front of the house while the reading was given.
Cayce—in trance—outlined treatments that included osteopathic adjustments for her back, inhalation of spirits