There Is a River

by Thomas Sugrue

  “He lived to be a very old man,” Hugh Lynn said. “He was eighty-four when he died. This was his first book, but he wrote many more. They are out of print and their author seems to have been forgotten except by students of psychic phenomena and a small group of enthusiasts. But I understand the group is growing. Perhaps Andrew is in for a revival.”

  Edgar went back to the steel engraving, staring at it.

  “How did he do it?” he asked. “How often did he give his readings?”

  “Twice a day,” Hugh Lynn said. “He used a magnetizer: that is, his conductor made passes at him; and he lay on his side while talking. Otherwise there seems to have been no difference between his method and yours.”

  Edgar closed the book and ran his fingers over the worn, black cover. On the edge of the binding, in gold letters, was the legend, “Revelations & C. By A. J. Davis The Clairvoyant.”

  Almost a hundred years ago some men had hoped to change the world with Davis and this book. Now the book was a collector’s item, and Davis, though he had lived long, written much, and healed many, was all but forgotten.

  “Well, at least you are not alone,” Hugh Lynn said. “You have Andrew and Victor the shepherd boy, and hundreds of others whose cases have been recorded. But Andrew is most important, for the scientists will have to pay attention when they find that another man did precisely what you are doing, right here in America.”

  Edgar shook his head.

  “If you had this fellow and Victor the shepherd boy and me lined up in the same room,” he said, “and we all gave readings on the same case and agreed, and a doctor whom the scientists trusted went with them to the bedside of the sick man, and made a diagnosis, and said we were right, do you know what would happen? The scientists would hang the doctor as a fraud and a fake and run us out of town.”

  He handed the book to Hugh Lynn and went back to his fishing.

  “Let Andrew and Victor and me rest in peace,” he said.

  —

  In the fall of 1935, Edgar Evans Cayce entered Duke University to take up the study of electrical engineering. Edgar and Hugh Lynn drove him to Durham, North Carolina, and while there went to see Dr. J. B. Rhine of the Department of Psychology, who was then conducting his famous experiments in telepathy. They found him a pleasant person; he seemed interested in their story.

  The following March, Dr. Lucian H. Warner, acting as a special investigator for Duke, spent a week at the beach, listening to readings and getting a few himself. He was enthusiastic, and because of his report Dr. Rhine in April secured a reading for his small daughter. He reported that the diagnosis did not seem to fit her condition, and his interest cooled.

  In June, Dr. Warner arranged for a series of readings to be given for Dr. Gardner Murphy of the Department of Psychology of Columbia University in New York. The subjects were to be examined in New York while readings were given on them at the beach. The names and addresses were to be sent to the beach by special delivery letter, leaving New York the day before the reading.

  Two letters were sent; two readings were given. Meanwhile Dr. Warner was taken ill and the work was turned over to one of Dr. Murphy’s assistants, who sent no letters and made no reports on the readings given.

  “I told you so,” Edgar said to Hugh Lynn.

  Several of Dr. Warner’s readings were on telepathy. He asked for a theory, and the information said it was a matter of soul development; that communication took place when two minds reached a state of consciousness above time and space. In such cases both perceived the same thing, with their subconscious minds—their individualities. One took it from his conscious mind; the other perceived it and transmitted it to his conscious mind. Some were good receivers and poor senders, some were good senders and poor receivers. People attuned through love and understanding transmitted thoughts to one another without conscious knowledge of it.

  Pathologically, the information explained, there were “eugenics” that produced in the blood plasm vibratory rates that made reception and sending possible.

  “What would be the pulse rate, the heartbeat, the vibratory forces of the body-influence itself?

  “Those in which the ratio of cycles about each of the red corpuscles is one to three. Those whose body-vibratory forces are 877⁄10. Those having a pulse rate ranging the normal of 72 to 786⁄10.”

  In December, 1935, the family had another brush with the law. They were visiting in Detroit, and Edgar gave a reading for one of his hosts’ friends. The reading was for a little girl, but the girl’s father had not been consulted in the matter. It was a violation of the Association’s bylaws, in fact, but the desire to help the child overcame this obstacle. The reading was given to the father, who took it to a doctor. The doctor disagreed on the treatment outlined; the father then went to the police. The family was arrested for practicing medicine without a license.

  The letter of the law had, in fact, been violated, but the law was reluctant in its prosecution. The charges against the other participants were dropped, Edgar was found guilty, and paroled in custody of himself. There was no sentence or fine.

  The year 1935 was a lamentable one for the Cayces. In April, Gertrude’s mother, Mrs. Evans, died. In November, Health Home Remedies was incorporated by some of the New York members of the Association. Its function was twofold: to make available to members the mechanical appliances suggested so often in readings, and to manufacture and attempt to market nationally some of the remedies which over a period of years the information had specified for certain troubles. An office was opened in Norfolk and Tommy House was made manager.

  The remedies selected for experimentation were Ipsab, a specific for bleeding gums and pyorrhoea, and Tim, an ointment for hemorrhoids. Readings were taken to perfect commercial formulae for these, and Tommy took the products to doctors and dentists for testing. He built wet cell and radioactive appliances for people for whom they were prescribed by readings, and kept reports on the results.

  It was uphill work, and trouble came from an unexpected source. People receiving first physical readings which suggested the use of one or more of the products of Health Home Remedies were inclined to suspect that it was all a racket—Health Home Remedies had all the appearance of a company set up to sell things recommended by the readings, at a profit to itself and the Association.

  Tommy discovered that the dental and medical organizations were in no hurry to give their approval to Ipsab and Tim, despite the long list of successful cases he had compiled. The corporation’s funds dwindled; it sank into inactivity. The office was abandoned; Health Home Remedies became a sore subject with Hugh Lynn, who found himself forced to become a carpenter and chemist, building appliances for those who had to have them.

  The cellar of the Cayce house became a laboratory. Tommy, who was preparing to return to Hopkinsville, showed his cousin how to build the batteries.

  “The ingredients in this wet cell appliance cost a little over $18,” he said. “By the time you’ve shipped it, the cost is $19. If you get paid, the price is $20. You get a dollar, maybe, for your labor.”

  “No wonder the corporation went broke,” Hugh Lynn said.

  “Most people complain about the price,” Tommy said. “They say it’s too high. I explain that we only make a few appliances, as a convenience to members, and the ingredients are expensive when bought in small quantities.”

  “What do they say to that?” Hugh Lynn asked.

  “They say the price is too high,” Tommy said.

  Hugh Lynn picked up a hammer.

  “We’re learning,” he said.

  “Learning what?” Tommy said.

  “Not to make mistakes,” Hugh Lynn said.

  He swung the hammer and hit one of his fingers.

  —

  The years whirled on. Hugh Lynn’s files bulged with case histories, parallel studies in psychic phenomena, and research
readings given for the study groups. Still the scientists showed no interest. Those who came to discuss, to argue, to learn were those already convinced of clairvoyance, of reincarnation, of karma. Some of these were psychologists by profession; a few were psychiatrists; but they were careful to keep such private beliefs out of their professional theory and practice.

  “The time isn’t ready for people as a whole to believe such things,” Hugh Lynn told his father one day. “But I’m convinced that it will arrive before too long. Our job is to be ready for it.”

  Edgar agreed. “When the time comes, they will approach us,” he said. “But remember this. We don’t want people marching in here and saying, ‘All right. I’m ready. Prove this thing to me.’ We want people who come in humility and with good manners and say, ‘I’d like to know what this is all about. Will you teach me?’ Our job is to have something ready for those people.”

  Gradually Hugh Lynn realized that the best evidence of the consistency of the readings lay in the records of families whose members for many years had used Edgar as a family doctor. Frank Mohr’s family was one of these: his niece, her husband, and their child had all had readings. Dave Kahn’s family was another. His mother was kept alive, active, and without pain for seventeen years after the readings—which prescribed her treatments all this time—had agreed with the doctors that she was suffering from an incurable disease. Dave’s sisters and brothers, their children and his, all were treated by readings. When Dave’s youngest son fell and thrust the blades of a pair of scissors into his eye, the readings outlined treatments that were accurately and successfully followed, so that the cataract which formed was absorbed.

  Perhaps the best family record was that of the Houses—Carrie, Dr. House, and Tommy. Since the collapse of Health Home Remedies, Tommy had lived in Hopkinsville. He married a Virginia Beach girl, and a daughter, Caroline, was born to them in September, 1939. When Caroline was scarcely a year old she pulled a pan of boiling water from the stove and emptied it over herself. Tommy telephoned Edgar, and an emergency reading was given immediately. The treatments were followed and Caroline escaped without a scar and without damage to her eye, which at first seemed badly affected.

  When she was almost two, Caroline began to stammer and had consistent trouble in digesting her food. A reading said she had been slightly injured in a fall: there was pressure in the area of the second, third, and fourth cervicals. Osteopathic treatments, massage, diet, and an eliminant were prescribed. On September 30, 1941, Tommy wrote to Edgar:

  “Just a note to tell you that we received Caroline’s reading and have started the treatments. Dr. B——has had some trouble getting Caroline to be still long enough to give her a complete treatment, but nevertheless she is responding nicely thus far. Her stuttering is very much improved, but she is still bothered with a bronchial condition which causes considerable coughing. Her general condition has improved a lot.”

  Another valuable source of evidence was the daily mail. An average day’s mail, chosen at random from the files for September, 1941, produced letters from the following:

  A young woman, in Washington, D.C., who was cured by the readings of lead poisoning caused by a depilatory (since removed from the market by the Bureau of Pure Foods and Drugs). She had been overworking, felt tired, and asked for a check reading.

  A woman in Pittsburgh who became interested in the work because of her studies of symbology. She obtained a physical reading and was writing to check up on the connections for a mechanical appliance, to be certain she had made them correctly.

  The mother of a girl in Dayton, Ohio, who was cured of a complicated attack of arthritis, the treatments lasting five years. The mother, taking treatments for a certain ailment, reported general progress, but the recurrence of a specific pain. She quoted a letter from her daughter, who, away on a vacation, was frightened by a snake and “jumped at least eight feet.” She also asked for a reading for her own mother, a woman of eighty.

  The wife of a naval officer who met Edgar while she was living in Norfolk, and who had had some readings. Now living in New London she wrote to say she had formed a study group there and wanted a physical reading for a friend.

  A young lady in New Hampshire, who verified an appointment for a physical reading. She sent the name and address of the doctor who had agreed to cooperate in giving the treatments.

  A man in Darien, Connecticut, whose daughter had received a check reading a few days before. He reported that she was out of pain and improving rapidly.

  A man in Washington, D.C., who asked for a copy of the Congress Bulletin. His mother, for whom physical readings had been given, was feeling better.

  A young woman in Boston, Massachusetts, whose Life Reading had caused her to change careers, to her happiness. She asked for a Life Reading for a younger brother, who “is all mixed up.”

  A man in Delaware, Ohio, who had been referred to Edgar by a certain doctor. He asked for a physical reading for his wife. A couple in New York, who, on the verge of divorce, decided to give marriage another chance after a joint reading. They announced that a baby was on the way.

  A woman in Roanoke, Virginia, who had received her first physical reading. She reported her pleasure at the diagnosis. She had been suffering for years; the reading promised relief.

  A lady in Guilford, Connecticut, who asked for literature concerning the work.

  A man in Youngstown, Ohio, who canceled an appointment for a physical reading and set a new date.

  There was also a telegram from Dave Kahn, saying that he was in Washington on business and would be at the beach next day for a visit.

  The daily mail was Edgar’s particular delight. It was proof to him that “here a little, there a little, thought upon thought, line upon line, stone upon stone,” his work did not fail and that, as a reading once told him, “Every sincere try is counted to you for righteousness.” This, with the work of the Association, which makes it possible for those who are interested to participate in a spiritual labor, was the answer to his dreams: the city of healing had arisen, but it was built by hearts, not hands. He understood that.

  —

  The activities of the Association remained, in accordance with the plan adopted in 1931, unostentatious and unpublicized, even to the meetings of the congress. Members raised a building fund for an office, library and vault, and these were erected in 1940, but they were incorporated into a single unit which was added to the Cayce residence, and there was not even a sign to guide the visitor to them.

  The new building was a monument to the sincerity of the study groups and the perseverance of the family in its effort to justify the readings. It was paid for by small contributions: nickels, dimes, and quarters, piling up over a long period of time. Some of the groups contributed their dues; other groups voted, as individuals, to give a percentage of their salaries and wages over a certain period of time. Edgar worked as a carpenter on the job; he hung the doors and windows, painted the exterior and interior, and laid the walk leading to the entrance.

  In the library the local groups held their meetings. One of these, which gathered on Tuesday nights, studied the Bible, with Edgar as teacher. It began with six students and soon increased to thirty.

  The Association had an average membership of between five and six hundred. There was a turnover of about half of these from year to year; the other half remained as a solid basis for the Association’s research work: an audience for the case studies, pamphlets, bulletins, and the Congress Bulletin, a combined yearbook and record of the speeches and readings given at the annual meetings. There was a mailing list of several thousand people who were interested in anything that pertained to Edgar. They never forgot him, apparently. Hugh Lynn discovered that among the six hundred readings during a certain year, forty-three were for people whose first reading had been obtained five years previously, thirteen were for people whose first reading had been obtained ten years pr
eviously, six were for people whose first reading had been obtained fifteen years previously, and eight were for people whose first reading had been obtained twenty years previously.

  One day late in the summer of 1941, Edgar received a telephone call from a man in New York. He did not recognize either the voice or the name.

  “I’m the fellow in the bank in Dayton, who lent you a hundred dollars in 1924,” the man said. “Remember me now?”

  “Very well,” Edgar said.

  “I’m not after the money,” the man said. “You paid that. But I’m in trouble, and I want a reading.”

  Members of the Association were drawn from all of the Protestant churches; from the Roman, Greek, Syrian, and Armenian Catholic churches; from the ranks of Theosophy, Christian Science, and Spiritualism; and from many of the Oriental religions. Acceptance of the readings, of course, implied acceptance of Christianity, since the dominant note of all philosophical and moral disquisitions by the readings is the Christ pattern as the ideal of mankind.

  “If it makes you a better member of your church, then it’s good; if it takes you away from your church, it’s bad,” Edgar told a new member of one of the study groups, who asked him whether a belief in the readings would affect her position as a member of one of the Protestant churches.

  Hugh Lynn’s program had not been entirely fulfilled. To complete his evidence he needed sponsored readings on specific diseases and conditions, taking them generally, without reference to a particular patient. The budget of the Association was so small that there was no margin for a series of readings on cancer, old age, heart ailments, asthma, etc. The readings were to be sold to maintain sufficient income; only by selling such a series to a sponsor could it be got. There were sponsors available, but in view of the hopelessness of the task of convincing doctors that a remedy suggested by the readings might be efficacious, they preferred to investigate such subjects as the life of Christ before His ministry, the symbology of the Book of Revelation, and the story of the world before history began.