The second half of Edgar Cayce's story would see more extraordinary experiences layered over an ordinary and humble man's life. Even more unimaginable for his tastes was the non-medical information that would later come through him. Though mostly remaining uncertain about the medical advice he'd been dispensing while in his sleep-like state, his answers to metaphysical questions distressed him, as they conflicted with his traditional Christian beliefs. While suffering personal hardship and tragedy, Cayce was now also troubled by concepts his mediumship had introduced to him and would continue seeking philosophical reconciliation into his later years, which he would finally achieve. But what remained constant throughout was Cayce's passion for helping others, and combined with the ever-increasing requests for treatment, it ironically wore down his health and shortened his life. If we examine the Cayce phenomenon logically, there are several considerations. If you believe it's impossible for a transcendental intelligence to exist, then Cayce was able to spend decades espousing folk remedies and comments on esoteric metaphysics, which he had merely picked up from voracious reading. Some would view that as quite a trick for an average man with limited education. If you believe an intelligence outside our physical reality could exist, then what is the nature of this force that communicated through him? Who or what was it exactly, what are the mechanics of the process, and could it be trusted? If omniscient, why did it seem to work with some subjects and not as well with others? On the other hand, if Cayce was a total fraud, would he have not been found out years ago? Was it all just a fault of human nature that so many claimed relief for their ailments, growing his popularity to global levels, and why are his readings still studied to this day? While Cayce and his supporters attempted to conduct formal case studies for the treatments, the conditions for the experiments would not be rigorous or controlled enough to convince the scientific community. Harder still would be to prove any veracity for his metaphysical teachings. However, there may be one thing all sides can agree on, and that's Edgar Cayce's overall message to the world. Rather than self-aggrandizement, his message was one of encouraging love and acceptance of our fellow human beings; of spiritual and personal growth, all of us united in universal truth, regardless of creed or culture. Hopefully, that would be one "reading" of our shared condition that would be hard to argue against.

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