In 1931 Edgar Cayce, the Kentucky psychic whose trance readings drew thousands to Virginia Beach, founds the Association for Research and Enlightenment to preserve and study his readings. The association keeps the archive, publishes the readings on reincarnation, Atlantis, and healing, and becomes one of the New Age movement's oldest standing institutions.
Tagged: New Age
The Event
- Date
- 1931 (exact)
- Era
- The Esoteric Preparation; Standard periodization of New Age history
- Location
- Virginia Beach; today Virginia Beach, Virginia
- Traditions
- New Age Spirituality
- Streams
- New Age
- Key figures
- Edgar Cayce
- Key texts
- The Edgar Cayce Readings
Primary Sources
- The founding documents of the Association for Research and Enlightenment, Virginia Beach, 1931.
Secondary Sources
- Hanegraaff, Wouter J. New Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought. Leiden: Brill, 1996.
- Heelas, Paul. The New Age Movement. Oxford: Blackwell, 1996.
- York, Michael. The Emerging Network: A Sociology of the New Age and Neo-Pagan Movements. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 1995.
Provenance: HIST-1469; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-30.
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Jane Roberts's Seth Speaks
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Ram Dass's Be Here Now
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The Esalen Institute is founded
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World View
New Age Spirituality
New Age spirituality is an eclectic search for the divine within: through healing, meditation, and ancient wisdom, each person awakens to their own sacred power.