Cayce, Hugh Lynn (1907-1982)

Son of psychic Edgar Cayce (1877-1945) and president for many years of the Association for Research and Enlightenment (ARE). He was born on March 16, 1907, at Bowling Green, Kentucky. He grew up in Kentucky and Alabama, where his father worked as a photographer. His childhood was marked by one event that particularly influenced his life: He burned his eyes severely, and his father went against medical advice and would not allow the doctors to remove one of the eyes. The eye was saved and Hugh Lynn recovered completely.

He moved with his family to Virginia Beach in 1925. After graduating from high school, he entered Norfolk Business College and in 1926 began four years at Washington and Lee University. While there he met Thomas Segrue. Through Segrue, who was enthusiastic about his father's work, Hugh Lynn gained a new appreciation for what had become commonplace in his family. In 1929 the two began a periodical, The New Tomorrow, which centered upon Cayce's psychic readings. Later, Segrue would write one of the early biographies of Edgar Cayce, There is a River (1942).

After graduating from college, Cayce went to work for the ARE. He helped build the organization through the 1930s, but then went into the army during World War II. Both his parents died while he was in Europe, and when he returned the ARE was failing as a business. He soon set about reviving it and developing a program to replace the readings that were no longer available. His major resource was the library of transcripts of readings that Edgar Cayce gave during the last two decades of his life. Research on these readings began with indexing and cross-referencing them, followed by publication of excerpts from the readings on various topics.

Growth of the ARE was slow until 1966-67 when Cayce and Jess Stern published biographical studies of his father. These books became unexpected successes and led to a series of books on Cayce's teachings that appeared over the next decade, including The Edgar Cayce Reader (1969), a two-volume collection of excerpts from his readings compiled by Hugh Lynn. The association experienced rapid growth during that period.

Cayce led the foundation until 1976, when he was forced into semiretirement by a heart attack. His son Charles Thomas Cayce succeeded him as president of the ARE, and Hugh Lynn became chairman of the board. During his semiretirement Cayce was able to write several more books. He died July 4, 1982.

Sources:

Cayce, Hugh Lynn. Earth Changes Update. Virginia Beach, Va.: ARE Press, 1980.

——. Faces of Fear. New York: Berkeley Books, 1980.

——. The Jesus I Knew. Virginia Beach, Va.: ARE Press, 1984.

——. Venture Inward. New York: Paperback Library, 1966.

Smith, A. Robert. Hugh Lynn Cayce: About My Father's Business. Norfolk, Va.: Donning, 1988.