Article printed in the Virginia-Pilot, July 4, 1982:
HUGH LYNN CAYCE DIES; NOTED PSYCHIC'S SON
VIRGINIA BEACH - Hugh Lynn Cayce, reknown lecturer, author,
psychic research leader and board chairman of the Association
of Research and Enlightenment here, has died at the age of
75.
Cayce was instrumental in the development and growth of the
association, founded in 1931 by his father, noted psychic
Edgar Cayce. The ARE now has about 40,000 members around
the world.
Cayce's death Sunday ended a bout with cancer, according to
ARE spokeswoman Gladys Davis Turner.
Known for his kindness, intellect and energy, Cayce lectured
throughout the world on such subjects as psychic research,
dream analysis, meditation and personal spiritual
development. He was instrumental in developing widespread
recognition and acceptance of psychic phenomena and research.
Cayce was a member of the First Presbyterian Church of
Virginia Beach where he served as an elder, Sunday school
superintendent and Scoutmaster of Troop 60.
Because of his active community role - he served as the
city's recreation director at the start of World War II and
established recreation centers for servicemen here before
going to war himself - Cayce was named the 1964 Virginia
Beach First Citizen.
Cayce is survived by his wife, the former Sally Taylor of
North Carolina; his brother, Edgar E. Cayce; two sons,
Charles Thomas Cayce, a psychologist and president of ARE,
and Greg Cayce, a real estate agent; and two grandchildren,
all of Virginia Beach.
He was born in 1907 in Bowling Green, Ky., and spent most of
his youth in Selma, Ala.
There Cayce had his first experience with his father's
psychic abilities as the result of an accident in the elder
Cayce's photographic studio. A tray of flash powder exploded
in young Cayce's face, and doctors feared he would be
permanently blinded. However, his father, famed for his
psychic "readings" while he was under self-induced hypnotic
trance, successfully prescribed treatment for the boy and his
sight was restored.
Cayce graduated from Motaine Park Preparatory School in
Dayton, Ohio, in 1925, and later that year moved with his
family to Virginia Beach. His father had envisioned Virginia
Beach as the best place for establishing a healing and
learning center based on his psychic gifts.
Hugh Lynn Cayce attended Norfolk Business College, and
graduated from Washington and Lee University with a
psychology major. He worked as a librarian at Atlantic
College, the educational center founded by Edgar Cayce here.
Both the college and the hospital Cayce founded in the 1920's
failed following the 1929 stock market crash.
He then served as business manager of the new Association
for Research and Enlightenment.
He was responsible for adding the ARE's three-story library
located at the corner of 67th and Atlantic Avenue here. The
facility houses more than 15,000 Edgar Cayce readings as well
as a thorough collection of psychic research texts and
related materials.
Cayce edited and authored many of the association's
publications for many years. One of his most widely-read
booklets is "God's Other Door," a study of life after death
based on his father's readings. During the 1930's he hosted
a weekly Mutual Network radio program in New York called
"Mysteries of the Mind."
In 1964 Cayce received critical praise for his first book,
"Venture Inward," published by Harper & Row. He later
published "The Other Limits of Edgar Cayce's Power" with his
brother, Edgar Evans Cayce, which explored both the successes
and limits of their father's work.
Cayce's most recent book, "Faces of Fear," reviewed the
causes of both fear and anxiety in the content of Edgar
Cayce's readings.
Cayce felt that of all the subjects on which his father gave
readings, health was the most important. He said Edgar was
the "father of holism."
"What Dad did was deal with the whole person. He was dealing
with the effects of the mind and emotions on the body. Many
ailments can be attributed to the mind, not the body. Hate,
anger, frustration, stress - all these things can wear the
body down and literally destroy tissue," Hugh Lynn Cayce once
said.
During a recent interview Cayce cited the importance of
nature, referring to the spiritual joy he experienced during
his daily two-mile walks along the oceanfront:
"When it's deserted and quiet, as it is at times, you can
feel pretty close to nature, to God, to creative energy.
Those are things we should all seek to come back to."
7/14/82 The Virginian-Pilot article written by Robert Smith:
HUGH LYNN CAYCE
When Edgar Cayce, the famous Virginia Beach clairvoyant, died
in 1945, his Association for Research and Enlightenment
almost expired with him. But then Hugh Lynn Cayce, his
eldest son, returned from war service with General Patton's
command in Europe, determined to preserve his father's work
by encouraging research into the thousands of trance readings
Edgar Cayce had given on such disparate topics as human
health, future calamities and the nature of eternity.
Hugh Lynn Cayce built the A.R.E. into an international
organization that will survive his own death last week at 75.
His life as author, lecturer, Presbyterian churchman and Boy
Scout leader serve as benchmarks of his capacity for orthodox
leadership, which was recognized in 1964 when he was named
First Citizen of Virginia Beach.
Much of this work, however, was quite unorthodox, in
meditation, dream analysis and metaphysics, which contributed
to the human-potential movement in this country. It
necessitated his sailing against winds of public doubt most
of his life. In braving skepticism, he was never an
exhibitionist and claimed no special psychic gifts. If he
was something of a zealot of a New Age, he was also an
inspiring, captivating human being of this age.
Like his father, he lived unpretentiously, was deeply devoted
to his family and to helping young people even while globe-
trotting as an untiring investigator of psychic phenomena.
For a man with such an unconventional legacy, Hugh Lynn's
formula for life was most conventional - love for one's
fellow man. His father's clairvoyance, offering no higher
vision, had confirmed that this was how life is to be lived.
7/83 A.R.E. Journal Article HUGH LYNN CAYCE AS A COUNSELOR,
by Robert Grant:
IN RESPONSE TO A REQUEST MADE IN THE A.R.E. NEWS (MARCH,
1983) FOR ACCOUNTS OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCES WITH HUGH LYNN
CAYCE, THE FOLLOWING WAS SENT IN BY ROBERT GRANT, WHO IS
PRESENTLY STATIONED IN NORFOLK, VIRGINIA.
During a rather difficult period in my life, a period of
transition, I had encountered Hugh Lynn Cayce only through
his books, VENTURE INWARD and FACES OF FEAR. His knowledge
and compassion for others I seemed to have felt. I longed to
go to Virginia that I might have the opportunity to meet this
man. Little did I know that the events of the following year
would bring me to Virginia, and to meet and counsel with
Hugh Lynn.
I arrived in Norfolk in July of 1981, my ideal being to work
more closely with the A.R.E. and to get more involved as a
student and eventually as a speaker. I was still going
through quite a bit of inner "earth changes," and it got to
the point where I thought to seek professional help. Along
with this thought came the idea to write Hugh Lynn. Maybe
he could provide me with some information on books or his
own personal insights to my situation.
I wrote a detailed letter, and I expected a response but not
quite so quickly. Within three days I received a letter.
It was handwritten and said, "Dear Bob, My secretary is in
Egypt, hence this written note. Let's talk. Set up an
appointment next week on a day that would be convenient for
you. Also here is my work and home telephone number. See
you soon, Hugh Lynn."
I was, needless to say, astounded. I set up an appointment,
and it was a beginning for me, a real beginning of
understanding. I saw him from November of 1981 until March
of 1982. He was very informal and seemed to be very much on
my "wavelength." I was 20 at the time, and I thought that
maybe there would be some difficulty in communication because
of our ages. There was none. He shared his personal
experiences, his insights and his studies with me. He showed
me that my situation was karmic in nature and shed light upon
a subject I never thought I would find any answers to. He
made me laugh, he enabled me to see the lighter side and the
humor of my situation. He taught me that a destructive force
in the earth plane is one of guilt, that any act is never as
harmful as the guilt that we tend to beat ourselves with.
Keeping in mind that "mind is the builder," I asked, "Well,
since thoughts are things, what does guilt build?" "FEAR!"
he replied. And this was the beginning of tearing down
some very old inhibiting walls I had built within myself.
One of the gifts he gave to me was helping me to overcome
fear, and I know that many others have also been helped by
his insights concerning this emotion.
The seeds he planted within me will grow and blossom through
and beyond this lifetime. During one of our last sessions
together, I sincerely thanked him for the time he took with
me to help me. He grinned at me and said, "Thank you for the
opportunity!"
He did more than just counsel me; he became my friend. I am
more than assured that in his service for others, he shed
light on many lives, the lives of people who felt themselves
somewhat unworthy. He taught me that this unworthiness is a
myth, that we all are equal in the sight of God. And hearing
it from him I began to feel that for the first time. I
consider myself blessed for the opportunity to come to know
and share my thoughts with such an enlightened and caring
soul. Hugh Lynn Cayce is a sincere light to a changing
world.
8/31/83 GD's note: This was a dream Hugh Lynn had in March
1977 in the Virginia Beach General Hospital following a
heart attack. When he "came to" in the hospital he recalled
this vivid dream: He was surrounded by his parents and
loved ones who had passed on, including all those who had
been active in "the work", both those who had passed on and
all of those here on earth now active in it, including
members of the staff, etc., all board members and those
supporting the organization locally and throughout the
world. They assured him that they were "with him", that
the work would go on. Morton Blumenthal spoke up saying,
"Hugh Lynn, we are all with you; it's like money in the
bank - you can draw on it." Hugh Lynn later told Morton's
brother Edwin about this dream, and he was pleased.
[Edwin also passed on
1/23/80.]
Edgar Cayce Readings © 1971, 1993, 1994, 1995 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation