Window on Eurasia: Russians Find an American Prophet They Can Believe In

Paul Goble

Baku, January 12 – Russians reacted angrily when Andrew Kuchins, an American specialist, recently laid out a nightmare scenario for their country – see, among others, http://www.apn.ru/publications/article18872 -- but now some of them have found an earlier American seer whose predictions they very much want to believe in.
That prophet is Edgar Cayce (1877-1945), who is remembered in the U.S. mostly if at all for his writings about the “lost continent” of Atlantis. But as Komsomol’skaya Pravda pointed out this week, the American seer predicted a bright future for Russia in the 21st century as the leader of a new non-communist USSR.
And even more to the liking of some, he also predicted more than half a century ago that the east coast of the United States would be submerged as a result of global warming, a development that would significantly detract from that country’s ability to challenge Russia (http://www.kp.ru/daily/24029.4/93145).
Cayce, who worked at various times as a unlicensed doctor, hypnotist, and photographer, won a following first for his medical cures and psychic readings and then for his numerous books. Later, his fame was spread by the even more enthusiastic reports of his followers.
One of the places Cayce wrote the most about, Komsomol’skaya Pravda pointed out, was Russia. And because so many of his predictions for that country in the 20th century, it suggested, Russians should pay close attention to what he said would happen there in the 21st.
Among Cayce’s predictions concerning Russia in the last century were the following: He said there would be two world wars in the 20th century, he said that the world would go into an economic crisis in 1929. And he said that “communists would lose their power” in Russia before that century ended.
With regard to Russia in the current century, Cayce wrote that having liberated itself from communism, that country would fall into a deep crisis, one from which it would escape “thanks to friendship with a people on whose money is written ‘We Believe in God,’” a clear reference to the inscription “In God We Trust” on the American dollar.
But this post-communist crisis, Cayce predicted, would not last long. And “out of [the new, post-communist] Russia hope will come into the world. Not from the communists or the Bolsheviks but from free Russia,” thanks “above all” to “the religious development” of the Russian people.
As that takes place, Cayce predicted, “those people who have close relations [with Russia] will begin to live better,” and Russia itself will take the lead in establishing “the organization of life [not just within its own borders] but across the entire world.”
One of Cayce’s predictions for the future, Komsomol’skaya Pravda suggested, experts “only a few years ago” would have “considered entirely fantastic” but now looks as if it could happen. The American prophet said that he foresaw Russia taking the lead in laying the foundation for “the rebirth of the Soviet Union after 2010.”
Like the Slavic seer Vanga with whom the Moscow paper compares him, Cayce clearly believed that “Russia will again become a great empire.” Moreover, because of global warming, the eastern portion of the United States will be inundated, rendering that country less of a challenge to the new Russia.
Cayce promised his readers that he would be back to check on the accuracy of his predictions, telling them that he would be born again in the U.S. state of Nebraska in 2100. At that time, he said, those affected by his predictions , including the Russians, would be able to hold him fully accountable.
Many Americans still buy copies of Cayce’s prophecies, but few scholars take him seriously. Indeed, in a transparent effort to appear balanced, Komsomol’skaya Pravda interviewed a skeptical American scholar. But by so doing, it implicitly suggested that it couldn’t find someone equally skeptical in Russia.