Sidney D. Kirkpatrick, a New York Times bestselling writer, presents the definitive biography of the father of the New Age and harbinger of alternative medicine: a mesmerizing chronicle of healings and prophesies by the psychic who introduced the modern world to the connection between mind, body, and spirit.

Edgar Cayce, born in 1877 in rural Kentucky and educated only through the eighth grade, is one of the greatest healers of our time. In a trance so deep that he was twice declared clinically dead, Cayce prescribed treatments combining innovative technology with holistic medicine that resulted in full cures more than 90 percent of the time. Cayce could perform readings without even being in the presence of patients - he simply needed to know their names. From this “sleeping” state, he could also preview the future and describe the past, as well as converse in any language. He advised housewives, corporate executives, Harry Houdini, Marilyn Monroe, and secretly (it is believed) President Woodrow Wilson.

The groundbreaking information Cayce provided on health food, natural medicines, reincarnation, dreams, and the healing power of the human body have spawned entire industries. He founded a university devoted to psychic research. He built the first hospital devoted exclusively to alternative medicine. And his standing-room-only lectures became an inspiration to public figures from Albert Einstein to John Lennon to Steven Spielberg.

The first researcher to have unlimited access to thousands of pages of documentation, including transcripts of nearly every trance session, Sidney D. Kirkpatrick has written the definitive biography of a simple man with a complex gift - a man who was freakish yet ordinary, powerful yet selfless, legendary yet inscrutable until now.