Editing Edgar Cayce (section)

===Blumenthal as patron: 1926–1931 ===
[[File:Cayce Hospital.jpg|thumb|alt=Large white building with many steps and blue awnings|The Cayce Hospital in 2006]]
By 1925, Cayce was a professional psychic with a small staff of employees and volunteers.{{sfn|Miller|1995|page=354}} Cayce's readings increasingly had [[occult]] or esoteric themes.<ref>Sugrue 2003, ch. 20.</ref> Morton Blumenthal (who worked at the New York Stock Exchange with his trader brother) became interested in the readings, shared Cayce's outlook, and offered to finance his vision; Blumenthal bought the Cayces a house in [[Virginia Beach]].{{sfn|Sugrue|2003|pages=267–268}}

The Association of National Investigations was incorporated in [[Virginia]] on May 6, 1927. Blumenthal was the president, and his brother and several others were vice presidents. Cayce was secretary and treasurer, and Gladys was assistant secretary. To protect against prosecution, anyone requesting a reading was required to join the association and agree that they were participating in an experiment in psychic research. Moseley Brown, head of the psychology department at [[Washington and Lee University]], became convinced of the readings and joined the association in early 1928.{{sfn|Sugrue|2003|pages=274–277}}

In August 1928, Edgar Cayce was listed as bible class teacher affiliated with the local presbyterian church.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-virginian-pilot-dr-edgar-cayce-of-f/155769934/ |title=Dr. Edgar Cayce of First Presbysterian Virginia Beach |newspaper=The Virginian-Pilot |date=18 August 1928 |page=6 }}</ref>
On October 11, 1928, the dedication ceremony of the hospital complex was held. The complex contained a lecture hall, library, vault for storage of the readings, and offices for researchers. There was also a large living room, a 12-car garage, servants' quarters, and a tennis court. It contained "the largest lawn, in fact the only lawn, between the Cavalier and Cape Henry". Its first patient was admitted the following day.{{sfn|Sugrue|2003|pages=281–285}}

The facility enabled checking and rechecking the remedies, Cayce's goal. There were consistent remedies for many illnesses (regardless of the patient), and Cayce hoped to produce a [[compendium]] for use by the medical profession. Shankar A. Bhisey, a chemist who also used "clairvoyant knowledge" to produce medicines, collaborated with Cayce to produce [[Nascent iodine (dietary supplement)|atomidine]].{{sfn|Sugrue|2003|pages=285–288}}

The ''raison d'être'' for the cures was the "assimilation of needed properties through the digestive system, from food taken into the body&nbsp;... [All treatments, including all schools and types of treatment, were given in order to establish] the proper equilibrium of the assimilating system."{{sfn|Sugrue|2003|pages=290–291}} Salt packs, [[poultice]]s, hot [[Dressing (medical)|compresses]], [[chromotherapy]], magnetism, vibrator treatment, massage, osteopathic manipulation, dental therapy, colonics, enemas, antiseptics, inhalants, homeopathy, essential oils, and mud baths were prescribed. Substances included oils, salts, herbs, iodine, witch hazel, magnesia, bismuth, alcohol, castoria, lactated pepsin, turpentine, charcoal, animated ash, soda, cream of tartar, aconite, laudanum, camphor, and [[Gold#Medicine|gold solution]]. These were prescribed to overcome conditions that prevented proper digestion and assimilation of needed nutrients from the prescribed diet. The aim of the readings was to produce a healthy body, removing the cause of a specific ailment. Readings would indicate if the patient's recovery was problematic.{{sfn|Sugrue|2003|pages=290–300}}

There was a months-long waiting list.{{sfn|Sugrue|2003|pages=295, 300}} Blumenthal and Brown had ambitious plans for a university dwarfing the hospital and a "parallel service for the mind and spirit", rivaling other universities in respectability. The university was scheduled to open on September 22, 1930. On September 16, Blumenthal called a meeting of the association and took over the hospital to curb expenses. He ended his support of the university after the first semester, and closed the association on February 26, 1931. Cayce removed the files of his readings from the hospital and brought them home.{{sfn|Sugrue|2003|pages=309–316}}

During the [[Great Depression in the United States|Depression]], Cayce turned his attention to spiritual teachings. In 1931, his friends and family asked him how they could become psychic. Out of this apparently-simple question came an eleven-year discourse which led to the creation of "study groups". In his altered state, Cayce relayed to the groups that the purpose of life is not to become psychic, but to become a more spiritually-aware and loving person. Study group number one was told that they could "bring light to a waiting world", and the lessons would still be studied in a hundred years. The readings were now about dreams, coincidence (synchronicity), developing intuition, the [[Akashic records]], astrology, past-life relationships, soul mates and other esoteric subjects.