THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 4, 1995 TAG: 9502030115
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY EARL SWIFT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 170 lines
A JANUARY EARTHQUAKE rips Kobe, Japan, and the world is bombarded with images from the disaster's maw - thousands dead, hundreds of thousands homeless, disease rampant among the survivors.
Another quake jolts Colombia two days later, felling buildings and killing eight. Aftershocks ripple through the countryside around Bogota. Floodwaters inundate California, and still another temblor rattles the Pacific Northwest. Floods also cover parts of Western Europe.
It can make a body nervous, all this nature run amok. Especially seeing as how this is 1995 - five years from the millennium's end, which is a date on the calendar that any New Ager will tell you means trouble.
Bad things are supposed to happen then: More major quakes, deadly floods, and man-made torments. The end of the world as we know it.
But fear not.
Hampton Roads might be built on flood-prone swamp inches above sea level. It's been a top-priority nuclear missile target. A hurricane could erase it in the space of a day. Still, the future for Norfolk and Virginia Beach looks bright, according to the area's most renowned sage.
That would be Edgar Cayce, the ``sleeping prophet'' who moved to the Beach in 1925 on the advice of his own psychic readings. Cayce foresaw a dire future for New York City and Japan, as well as the eventual disappearance of the United States west of Nebraska.
His readings predict no such fate for his adopted home, however. Asked about the future of Virginia Beach while in a 1932 trance, Cayce replied that ``of all the resorts that are in the East Coast, Virginia Beach will be the first and the longest-lasting. . . .''
``Hence,'' he concluded, ``. . . the future is good.''
Edgar Cayce was a down-to-earth sort while he was awake. He was lousy with money. He was an avid gardener and cook and looked forward to leading his Sunday school class. He bowled.
But once he loosened his tie and shoelaces and stretched out, Cayce grew a bit more complex. He entered a trancelike state from which, it's said, he was able to decipher the past and future. During these sessions, he gave what came to be called ``readings,'' answering questions that were posed to him. Among other things, he prescribed home medical treatments never before concocted. He spoke about Jesus.
Between 1923 and his death in 1945, he gave more than 14,000 readings, all of them dutifully transcribed by a secretary and now shelved at the Oceanfront headquarters of the Association for Research and Enlightenment, a combination school, clinic and research outfit inspired by Cayce's work.
Two-thirds of the readings center on medical problems. Of the remainder, only 17 dwelt on big changes to the planet - the 1929 stock market crash, the outbreak of World War II, the re-emergence of Atlantis and a bunch of sudden and gradual alterations to existing land masses.
``In the next few years, lands will appear in the Atlantic as well as in the Pacific. And what is the coastline now of many a land will be the bed of the ocean,'' he predicted in one such reading. ``Portions of the now East Coast of New York, or New York City itself, will in the main disappear . . . while the southern portions of Carolina, Georgia - these will disappear.''
Not surprisingly, the scary 17 are the readings most often quoted. They contrast sharply with 1,219 others that mention Hampton Roads and 59 that offer local prophecies.
Asked about business opportunities in Hampton Roads during a July 1936 reading, Cayce answered that they ``eventually will be almost unlimited,'' that the area would boom beginning in 1939 - which it did, as America prepared for war.
``It must ever remain more or less a recreational center, more than a commercial center,'' he added, before telling his client that moving to Virginia Beach would be ``very good advice, very good counsel and very good sense.''
In a February 1926 session, Cayce predicted that ``with the building of the central portion or business section, and with the building of year-round resorts, there will be the joining of many enterprises that will make this, Virginia Beach, Virginia, an exceptional place, see?''
``What portions of Virginia Beach will build the faster?'' his client asked.
``That from 40th and 50th street to the southernmost end at present,'' Cayce replied, ``and then extending along the Norfolk Boulevard, see?'' Today, we know that thoroughfare as Virginia Beach Boulevard.
He was, of course, right on the money. Bear in mind that in 1926, the Oceanfront was little more than a lonesome scattering of cottages.
Norfolk's maritime industries fared well in the readings. Asked what changes were in store for the city in April 1932, Cayce answered, ``(nothing) other than would eventually become more beneficial - in a port and the like.''
Three months later, he amplified this vision, saying: ``With the years that are to come, conditions that are to arise, as we find, eventually - and this within the next 30 years - Norfolk, with its environs, is to be the chief port on the East Coast, this not excepting Philadelphia or New York.''
Viewed as a unit, the region's ports have, in fact, become just that.
A dream Cayce reported having in March 1936 suggested that even greater growth may lie in the future. In his dream, he was reborn in the year 2158 in Nebraska, which by then was on a seacoast. While still a child, he declared that he'd lived 200 years before. That earned him the attention of scientists and trips to his 20th century homes.
In his dream of the future, he said that ``water covered part of Alabama. Norfolk, Virginia, had become an immense seaport. New York had been destroyed either by war or earthquake and was being rebuilt.''
All this foreseen growth made Cayce a popular consultant to land developers - among them Jacob Laskin, for whose family the road is named. About 700 of Cayce's readings were business-related, and many centered on money-making opportunities in Hampton Roads.
``After this season, will it pay to keep the Beach Club and Hotel open?'' one client asked.
``As we find, beginning with the coming season - that is, next year - these will be all on the upgrade, rather than the tendency of lagging behind,'' Cayce told him.
Another client asked whether he considered the Oceanfront's old Arlington Hotel ``a good investment for quick turnover.''
``If it may be purchased for less than 40, yes,'' Cayce replied.
``At what price could I buy it?'' the man asked.
``As indicated,'' Cayce said, ``if it's less than $40,000, (it would) be a good investment.''
Even without his forecasts of economic well-being, the outlook for Hampton Roads was positive in Cayce's entranced eyes. When the rest of the world was undergoing physical upheaval, he said, the region ``will be among the safety lands, as will be portions of what is now Ohio, Indiana and Illinois and much of the eastern portion of Canada. . . .
``Virginia Beach or the area is much safer as a definite place,'' he added.
Asked in December 1943 whether a client had been wise to move to Norfolk, Cayce assured him: ``It's a mighty good place, and a safe place when turmoils are to arise. . . . This is a good area to stick to.''
``Virginia Beach is to be safe, then?'' another client asked in August 1941. Replied Cayce: ``It is the center - and the only seaport and center - of the White Brotherhood.''
Other readings suggest the White Brotherhood is a group of unseen, intelligent spirits. Why they would need a seaport isn't clear, but the implication is that their presence is a plus.
Does this mean we should be on the phone, urging our relatives out West to move to Virginia Beach?
Maybe yes, maybe no. A good many of Cayce's modern students believe the future he foresaw was not inalterable: Human spirituality can head off disaster and invite peace and prosperity.
``He said a lot in his readings that the future is not set,'' said Rob Grant, coordinator of public information at ARE. ``We can change it as we go.''
Earthquakes may be spawned by plate tectonics, and ``plate tectonics are going to happen,'' said ARE spokeswoman Nancy Pohle, ``but if we believe the readings, they may be something we can affect.''
Kevin Todeschi, ARE's communications director, agreed, saying, ``The readings also say that 10 people can save a city, and 50 people can save the world.''
What that suggests, they said, is that if New Yorkers were to get their act together, the Big Apple is not necessarily doomed. Similarly, if Los Angeles follows a righteous path, its inhabitants won't be treading water a thousand miles off the coast of Nebraska.
Besides, the ARE people say, some of Cayce's predictions probably weren't literal. The seer detected vibes rather than specific incidents.
``When he says that the greater portion of Japan must fall into the sea, my sense is that Japan is going to suffer a tremendous financial collapse because Japan has put all its faith in money,'' Todeschi said.
``None of the three of us are moving to Japan,'' he added, laughing, ``just to hedge our bets.''
As for predictions that the millennium will mark the end of the same-old, same-old - well, for those, you'll have to rely on the crop of latter-day doomsayers that has sprung up in recent years. Cayce saw no significance in the year 2000.
``What about His second coming?'' a client asked in June 1932.
Cayce answered, ``The time, no one knows.'' ILLUSTRATION: STAFF FILE PHOTO
Edgar Cayce stands in front of the building on Atlantic Avenue in
Virginia Beach that for a time served as a hospital and later was
headquarters for his Association for Research and Enlightenment.
by CNB