February is Edgar Cayce Month

One from my writing blog:


In my latest installment of Commonwealth Curiosities, I'm layin' down the lowdown on "sleeping prophet" Edgar Cayce, whose birthday is celebrated every February at the Pennyroyal Area Museum in Hopkinsville, KY. Check out the new issue of Kentucky Monthly magazine at your local bookseller, or even better yet - subscribe!

Post-Tornado Rainbow

Yesterday I thought it was just a typical windy Autumn morning while I was sitting in the Middletown Starbucks. What I didn't know was that most of Kentucky was on a tornado watch, that a tornado had been spotted just over the river in Indiana, and another one had overturned a semi-truck on the Watterson.

Meanwhile, in Scott County, a forming funnel cloud was caught on video, and in Hopkinsville, one tore the roof off a storage building. That may or may not be the same one witnessed by National Weather Service spotters near Pembroke, and then in Dunmor in Muhlenberg County. An enormous tree in Berea toppled in the storm, narrowly missing an entire apartment complex. In Middlesboro, the mall was damaged and the power was knocked out.

To my surprise, one of the baristas came to the center of the room and announced, "uh, everybody, your attention please, we've just been informed that funnel clouds have been seen in Anchorage, so I'm going to have to ask you all to move away from the glass windows and to the rear of the building, for your safety."

And so we all migrated to the back, everyone suddenly intently tapping at their laptops and handhelds, and within seconds, we were all sharing info with each other that we'd gleaned. One guy instantly had a real-time animation from the NWS on his laptop full-screen, and was showing us how it was estimated to be moving at 80MPH and thus would be past us very quickly. It wasn't that long ago that we'd all be huddled around a radio, listening for the latest wire-service news update from the DJ, but now, every citizen with wi-fi internet access is instantly better informed than even that radio DJ of yesteryear.

Though the tornadic front did indeed swiftly pass, the rainstorm on its coattails continued for hours more. But when it was over and blue sky began to peek out from the cloud cover, I caught an odd rainbow that only existed over a portion of very specific clouds - when those clouds shifted, so did the rainbow, and when that cloud system rolled away, the rainbow was gone. Though my eye saw an evenly ordered full spectrum in it, my camera surprisingly did not - at least, not as clearly.

Edgar Cayce

There have been many self-proclaimed psychics over the last century, but none so interesting as Kentucky's Edgar Cayce, the "sleeping prophet" from Beverly, KY just outside of Hopkinsville. Totally lacking the razzle-dazzle showmanship of your garden-variety professional psychics (which almost always turn out to be frauds), Cayce was a very reluctant psychic - once word got around about his powers, they had to practically drag him kicking and screaming into using them.

There were indicators early on that Cayce had the psychic "shining" gift as a child, and he gradually became famous in adulthood for his ability to go into hypnotic trance states. During these, he essentially browsed the so-called "Akashic Records" and spouted remedies for diseases and solutions for problems. He became so in demand for these readings, that by the end of his life, he was giving eight readings a day and his appointment book was full for two years in advance. Unlike other psychics and spiritualists who gave vague, open-ended, non-specific advice, Cayce channeled accurate recipes for home-remedy treatments that worked. But because of his strict upbringing in the Disciples of Christ church, he had great misgivings and anxiety about whether what he was doing was sacreligious. But as long as his channeled cures worked, he reckoned he must be doing the Lord's work by helping people, despite the unusual methodology.


As the years passed, however, Cayce gradually began to accept more and more of the "New Age" (though no one called it that back then) concepts associated with his trance readings, to the point where he went the other direction off the deep end, some assert. He began to embrace Egyptian mysticism, astral projection, communication with the dead, aura reading, reincarnation, karma, astrology, and channeled wisdom from a supernatural civilization on the lost continent of Atlantis. These super-Atlanteans, he proclaimed, also populated ancient Egypt and pre-Columbian America. He began to espouse a radical reinterpretation of Christianity that alienated many of his original devotees, much in the same manner as the Kentucky faith healer William Branham was doing contemporaneously.

Cayce also began to speak of a cosmic conspiracy regarding an evil interdimensional secret society called the "Sons of Belial", who supposedly turned Earth's prehistoric early hominids into slaves. Cayce claimed that in a past life, he helped the forces of goodness free the apes from the aliens. He also claimed that he had once been an Egyptian priest named "Ra Ta" who was a master healer presiding over something called the "Temple of Sacrifice" and the legendary "Hall of Records" purportedly hidden beneath the Sphinx (as well as two branch locations in Bimini and Mexico).


And in between our past lives, said Cayce, our souls go on tour in space, visiting the other planets of our solar system. The planets may seen uninhabited to the naked eye but are actually densely populated by other-dimensional beings that we cannot perceive. (However, Cayce's cosmology didn't mention what modern science now knows - that our solar system is far bigger than it was thought to be, and that there are hundreds of thousands of planets, both major and minor, in it.)

Further, Cayce taught that an alien civilization on the planets of Arcturus is one of the most advanced in this galaxy. He described it a "fifth-dimensional civilization that is a prototype of Earth's future". From this, an entire army of spinoff UFO religions devoted to the Arcturians sprouted in the subsequent century, with many post-Cayce wannabe-channelers claiming to be Arcturians themselves, such as Commander Theda.


Cayce finally died of exhaustion in 1945, but his voluminous teachings are kept alive by the Association for Research and Enlightenment in Virginia Beach. Alas, there's very little tribute paid him here in his home state by Kentuckians, save for an exhibit at the Pennyroyal Area Museum and my own painting of him with a two-headed calf.

Hopkinsville Hoofer Mistaken for Suicidal Swan-diver

From the Kentucky New Era:

Jeremy Johnson said he was dancing on the top rail of a bridge in Hopkinsville, but drivers below thought he was going to jump and called police.

Johnson's job is to advertise Quizno's by dancing on the roadside near the Pennyrile Parkway while holding a sign for the sub shop. The Kentucky New Era quoted Johnson saying he was taking a break Saturday and was rolling a cigarette when drivers honked and waved at him.

Johnson said he lighted his cigarette and started dancing on the rail in response.

Police didn't join in the dance. They cited him for disorderly conduct.

Square Deal Grocery

The Hopkinsville Nostalgia site, frequently a source of inspiration to me, has some nice old photos (circa 1950s and 1960s) of Square Deal Grocery in Hopkinsville.

400 Mile Yard Sale Across Kentucky

I live for yard sales, flea markets, junk stores, auctions, trading posts, antique malls, and such. And in this economy, "secondary market" stuff is quickly becoming primary.

So it should come as no surprise that you'll find me somewhere in all the hubbub of the 400 Mile Yard Sale across Kentucky.

The sale follows Highway 68 (though there's always plenty more yard sales going on in the periphery each year) from Maysville to Paducah and hitting all points in between - including Paris, Lexington, Nicholasville, Wilmore, Harrodsburg, Danville, Gravel Switch, Lebanon, Campbellsville, Glasgow, Bowling Green, Cadiz, Hopkinsville, and Benton. Yee-haw!


(By the way, Catclaw Theatre is having a yard sale this weekend at 2107 Lakeland Road in the Anchorage area of Louisville. Come on down and say howdy! And if you can't make it, make a donation!)

Frogland

A number of online directories list something called "CC Range", that hosts something "Frogland", that purports to be a miniature golf course in Hopkinsville. Scour the web as I may, I can't seem to find any detailed information or photographs.

Soon as it gets warmer, can you say "road trip"?

I did check Google Maps, and sure enough, I can see what clearly appears to be a miniature golf course, although I was kinda hoping for enormous towering fiberglas frog statues, Gatlinburg-style. I don't see any evidence of such on the aerial view, alas.

Heaven's Gate in Hopkinsville

Remember the Heaven's Gate people? In 1997, thirty-nine members of this UFO-worshipping group committed mass suicide, dressed in black and wearing their hair in buzz cuts. They killed themselves off in shifts, using a combination death-trifecta of pills, alcohol and suffocation.

Their leader was Marshall Herff Applewhite, a former music professor from Texas. In the months leading up to their mass suicide, several Heaven's Gate members, including Applewhite himself, castrated themselves, in preparation for a spacecraft that was scheduled to pick up their souls after death and take them to a higher plane of existence. Seems to me that if you're a sentient disembodied soul, you're already on a higher plane of existence and don't need a spaceship, but hey, it's their religion, not mine.

But did you know that Applewhite had previously already made headlines in Kentucky - in 1973? From the Kentucky New Era newspaper, March 1, 2002:

It seems that Applewhite, before he became famous, and a companion -- presumably Bonnie Lu Nettles, the woman who introduced him to the world of metaphysical studies -- made a one-day pilgrimage to Hopkinsville on Oct. 9, 1973, to visit Edgar Cayce's grave at Riverside Cemetery.

While here, they checked into the old Holiday Inn on Fort Campbell Boulevard, now the Econo Lodge, where they managed to make a lasting impression.

At the time of the 1973 visit, there had been quite a bit of publicity about psychic David Bubar's claim that he received an "angel message" from Cayce, directing him to establish a mountain-top healing center near Hopkinsville.

Interestingly, news reports of the day indicated that Bubar, of Memphis, received his instructions from Cayce's spirit on Sept. 8 of that year while also staying at Hopkinsville's Holiday Inn.

Applewhite's visit to the community caught the attention of the late Joe Dorris, who wrote about it in his "Watching The Parade" column, published on Oct. 19, 1973.

Dorris' Applewhite column -- based on an interview with Chip Miles of the Holiday Inn -- had been saved all these years by Johnson, who stumbled across it and made the Heaven's Gate connection several months after the cult's 1997 mass suicide.

In the column, Miles recounted how a mysterious couple, without a car and no luggage, showed up at the Holiday Inn and asked for a room.

The man's driver's license identified him as M.H. Applewhite, 42, and he told the desk clerk that he and the woman were from Texas.

When a maid went to clean their room the next morning, she found the guests had vanished, skipping town without paying the $20 motel bill.

Left behind was a two-page note that suggested the man and woman were not from this world.

The note read:

"From occupants of 47.

"Dear Sir: Thank you for permitting us accommodations in your inn. It would be impossible to explain to you who we are, where we come from, and who we represent. If we tried, you would not believe us.

"We exist in another dimension, which does not allow for the use of currency. We are on the planet for a few more months and our mission is for good.

"It would be useless for people to attempt to treat us as they would their own or to bring us harm, for it would result only in their death. This note is true and certainly not to be understood as threatening but as thanks for accommodations.

"This information should be kept in the strictest of confidence for your best interests. You will be rewarded well for your cooperation."

Miles, although out $20, had some fun with the odd encounter, according to Dorris' column.

On the Holiday Inn marquee, he changed the wording from the traditional "The Nation's Innkeeper" to "Innkeeper Of The Universe."

"It was probably worth the publicity we got out of it," Miles said, with a laugh, while recalling the incident after he was asked about it earlier this week.

Now, more than 28 years later, Miles said he still remembers the purported space travelers and the note they left for him.

However, Miles said he had forgotten that the stranger from the Lone Star state signed his name M.H. Applewhite on the motel's guest register. As a result, he never made the connection to the Heaven's Gate mass suicide when it occurred about 23½ years after the two Texans visited Hopkinsville.

"I'll be darned. I just never put all that together," Miles said.

About two years after seeing Hopkinsville, Applewhite and Nettles made national headlines when, claiming to be space aliens, they reportedly convinced a group of 20 people from Waldport, Ore., to leave their homes and move to Colorado to meet up with a space ship that was supposed to take them to a far-off planet.

Pennyroyal Area Museum

The Pennyroyal Area Museum in Hopkinsville has many different exhibits and goodies, but it's their Edgar Cayce section that interests us most. Among the many curious items there, they keep Cayce's desk on display along with his typewriter, as if awaiting his return....


Other attractions at the Pennyroyal Area Museum include exhibits on the Night Riders, the Trail of Tears, and Jefferson Davis. Find it at 217 E 9th Street in Hopkinsville.

Win One Dead Body!

Pictured above is part of an advertisement for "Dr. Satan's Shrieks In The Night Show", a Girdler-esque live spook show that took place in Hopkinsville, KY in the 1960s. Among the odd features of the attraction, they promise you will see "dead painter Van Gogh materialize" and "the posing apparation of Marilyn Monroe". But most curious of all, a drawing was held and "one real dead body" was given away to some lucky contestant.

Another interesting horror-show attraction in Hopkinsville was "Kirma's Ghost Party", pictured below.