his home when the professor arrived. He was shown into a small sitting room adjacent to where the readings were given. After everyone was gathered, Münsterberg then proceeded to interrogate Edgar, his father, and Ketchum. The partners answered his questions, and he was shown a file of readings and accompanying testimonials from patients.
Eventually, Edgar’s morning appointment arrived. August Boehme had come from his home in Newport, Kentucky, and hadn’t told Ketchum or anyone at the office why he had requested the reading. Edgar and Boehme chatted for only a few moments before Edgar lay down on the couch, put himself into trance, and proceeded to give a reading. Leslie stood beside the couch while Ketchum and Boehme sat in chairs adjacent to Cayce. Münsterberg chose a seat beside the door where he could best view the proceedings.
Cayce gave a typical reading. He reported on Boehme’s body from head to toe, pointing out problem areas—he was suffering from a stomach disorder which resulted in chronic malnutrition—and made suggestions for how his condition could be treated. When Cayce came out of the trance, Münsterberg resumed questioning Edgar and Ketchum, and now Boehme. He asked Boehme about how much Edgar knew of his condition before the reading.
“Nothing whatever,” Boehme answered. “I never saw him before in my whole life. I have only read something about him in the paper. I’ve been a sufferer for a long time with no results, so I came to see him, only arrived this morning.”
Münsterberg asked Boehme if he was convinced by the reading. “I certainly am!” Boehme announced.
For the next five days Münsterberg interviewed other recipients of Cayce’s readings. Professor Charles Dietrich, who impressed Münsterberg most, was the former Christian County Superintendent of Schools as well as being the best-educated and most-respected resident of Hopkinsville. In 1902, Cayce’s trance counsel had cured Dietrich’s six-year-old daughter Aime of mental illness. Over tea in the family’s house, Dietrich’s wife Minnie discussed their daughter’s condition and presented Münsterberg with extensive medical records prepared by specialists. Aime herself, who was soon to attend college, may have entertained Münsterberg with a piano recital. Münsterberg also interviewed George Dalton, the wealthy building contractor who had consulted Cayce about his compound leg fracture, and had received the treatment in which nails were used to set the fracture. Dalton not only provided Münsterberg personal witness to the veracity of Cayce’s reading, but he also had X-ray proof of the procedure.
Carrie House, now a hospital nurse, related her equally compelling story of how Edgar had saved her son. Three-year-old Tommy House, who played at Münsterberg’s feet while Carrie related what had happened, was living proof. She also shared with him the story of how Gertrude had resisted the readings and had done all she could to convince Edgar to stop giving them until, on her death bed, a reading had saved her life. Carrie, and now Gertrude, had absolute confidence in Edgar’s ability, though she, and later Gertrude, would confide to Münsterberg that they had doubts about Dr. Ketchum’s integrity and others whom, Carrie said, were prone to take advantage of Edgar. His was a gift from God, not to be exploited or traded upon. Yet increasingly, this was what, after Al Layne’s departure, physician researchers were doing. If they weren’t jabbing needles into Edgar to test that he was, in fact, in trance, they were obtaining horse racing tips and clues to help them find buried treasure. One group had, without permission from the Salter family, dug up the backyard at The Hill. As Edgar couldn’t remember a thing he did or said when in trance, he was as the mercy of the conductor of the readings.
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