In short, while in these trances, and while the patient is not in his presence, Cayce seems to look the body through and through and describe the anatomy to the minutest particular, and if there is any derangement, or any diseased or abnormal condition, he can point it out.
Cayce remembers nothing he has said when he comes out of the trance, and it is all a perfect blank to him. He does not pretend to account for his extraordinary power, does not understand it in the least, and is not using it to make money. Further tests will be made by our physicians who are deeply puzzled over Cayce’s strange powers. Mr. Cayce formerly lived at Hopkinsville but has been here for several years.
During the ensuing years my father left the bookstore, became a photographer and opened his own studio. Interest in the readings increased. Edgar and the doctors avoided publicity. Two disastrous fires destroyed the photographic business. Edgar and Gertrude returned to Hopkinsville in 1909 with me, their two-year-old son.
One of the doctors who had visited Edgar in Bowling Green was Wesley H. Ketchum. On September 30, 1910, the following story was reported from Boston:
Marvel Doctor DiscoveredIlliterate Youth in Hypnotic ConditionDoes Wonders, Says Physician[Special to the Record-Herald]
Boston, Sept. 29.—A remarkable story of an illiterate young man living near Hopkinsville, Ky., who, while in a self-imposed hypnotic condition, is a physician of great power, was told in a paper prepared by Dr. Wesley H. Ketchum of Hopkinsville, which was read at the annual meeting of the American Association of Clinical Research here today.
According to Dr. Ketchum the “illiterate,” whose name is not divulged, while in a state of autohypnosis drops into medical phraseology with the familiarity of a skilled medical man.
Dr. Ketchum says he has taken several patients to the young man, who diagnosed their cases correctly. He says he took to him the daughter of a prominent Cincinnati man whose case had been pronounced by several physicians as hopeless. The “illiterate” went into a trance, prescribed a course of treatment, and in three months, according to Dr. Ketchum, she was entirely well.
The Association was so impressed with Dr. Ketchum’s statements that a committee probably will be chosen to investigate the “marvel.”
Selections from The New York Times story of October 9, 1910, follow:
Illiterate Man Becomes a Doctor When Hypnotized
Strange Power Shown by Edgar Cayce Puzzles Physicians
The medical fraternity of the country is taking a lively interest in the strange power said to be possessed by Edgar Cayce of Hopkinsville, Ky., to diagnose difficult diseases while in a semiconscious state, though he has not the slightest knowledge of medicine when not in this condition.
During a visit to California last summer Dr. W.H. Ketchum, who was attending a meeting of the National Society of Homeopathic Physicians, had occasion to mention the young man’s case and was invited to discuss it at a banquet attended by about thirty-five of the doctors of the Greek letter fraternity given at Pasadena.
Dr. Ketchum made a speech of considerable length, giving an explanation of the strange psychic powers manifested by Cayce during the last four years, during which time he has been more or less under his observation. He had stimulated such interest among those present at the National Society’s meeting that one of the leading Boston medical men who heard his speech invited Dr. Ketchum to prepare a paper as a part of the program of the September meeting of the American Society of Clinical Research. Dr. Ketchum sent the paper, but did not go to Boston. The paper was read by Henry E. Harrower, M.D., of Chicago, a contributor to the Journal of the American Medical Association, published in Chicago. Its presentation created a sensation, and almost before Dr. Ketchum knew that the paper had been given to the press he was deluged with letters and telegrams inquiring about the strange case.
It is well enough to add that Dr. Wesley H. Ketchum is a reputable physician of high standing and successful practice in the homeopathic school of medicine. He possesses a classical education, is by nature of a scientific turn, and is a graduate of one of the leading medical institutions of the country. He is vouched for by orthodox physicians in both Kentucky and Ohio, in both of which states he is well known. In Hopkinsville, where his home is, no physician of any school stands higher, though he is still a young man on the shady side of Dr. Osler’s deadline of 40.
Dr. Ketchum wishes it distinctly understood that his presentation of the subject is purely ethical, and that he attempts no explanation of what must be classed as mysterious mental phenomena.
Dr. Ketchum is not the only physician who has had opportunity to observe the workings of Mr. Cayce’s subconscious mind. For nearly ten years his strange power has been known to local physicians of all the recognized schools. An explanation of the case is best understood from Dr. Ketchum’s description in his paper read in Boston a few days ago, which follows:
“About four years ago I made the acquaintance of a young man 28 years old, who had the reputation of being a ‘freak.’ They said he told wonderful truths while he was asleep. I, being interested, immediately began to investigate, and as I was ‘from Missouri,’ had to be shown.
“And truly, when it comes to anything psychical, every layman is a disbeliever from the start, and most of our chosen profession will not accept anything of a psychic nature, hypnotism, mesmerism, or whatnot, unless vouched for by some M.D. away up in the profession and one whose orthodox standing is unquestioned.
“My subject simply lies down and folds his arms, and by autosuggestion goes to sleep. While in this sleep, which to all intents and purposes is a natural sleep, his objective mind is completely inactive and only his subjective is working.
“By suggestion he becomes unconscious to pain of any sort, and, strange to say, his best work is done when he is seemingly ‘dead to the world.’
“I next give him the name of my subject and the exact location of same, and in a few minutes he begins to talk as clearly and distinctly as anyone. He usually goes into minute detail in diagnosing a case, and especially if it be a very serious case.
“His language is usually of the best, and his psychologic terms and description of the nervous anatomy would do credit to any professor of nervous anatomy, and there is no faltering in his speech and all his statements are clear and concise. He handles the most complex ‘jaw breakers’ with as much ease as any Boston physician, which to me is quite wonderful, in view of the fact that while in his normal state he is an illiterate man, especially along the line of medicine, surgery, or pharmacy, of which he knows nothing.
“After going into a diagnosis and giving name, address, etiology, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of a case, he is awakened by the suggestion that he will see this person no more, and in a few minutes he will awake. Upon questioning him, he knows absolutely nothing that he said, or whose case he was talking about. I have used him in about 100 cases, and to date have never known of any errors in diagnosis, except in two cases where he described a child in each case by the same name and who resided in the same house as the one wanted. He simply described the wrong person.
“Now this description, although rather short, is no myth, but a firm reality. The regular profession scoff at anything reliable coming from this source, because the majority of them are in a rut and have never taken to anything not strictly orthodox.
“The cases I have used him in have, in the main, been the rounds before coming to my attention, and in six important cases which had been diagnosed as strictly surgical he stated that no such condition existed, and outlined treatment which was followed with gratifying results in every case.
“One case, a little girl, daughter of a gentleman prominent in the American Book Company of Cincinnati, had been diagnosed by the best men in the Central States as incurable. One