Edgar Cayce
Edgar Cayce (March 18, 1877 – January 3, 1945) was an American mystic who allegedly possessed the ability to answer questions on subjects as varied as healing, reincarnation, wars, Atlantis and future events while in a trance. These answers came to be known as “life readings of the entity” and were usually delivered to individuals while Cayce was hypnotized. This ability gave him the nickname “The Sleeping Prophet”. Cayce founded a nonprofit organization, the Association for Research and Enlightenment that included a hospital and a university.
He is credited as being the father of holistic medicine and the most documented psychic of the 20th century. Hundreds of books have been written about him and his life readings for individuals. Though Cayce himself was a member of the Disciples of Christ and lived before the emergence of the New Age Movement, some consider him the true founder and a principal source of its most characteristic beliefs.
Cayce became a celebrity toward the end of his life, and he believed the publicity given to his prophecies overshadowed the more important parts of his work, such as healing the sick and studying religion.
Adhesive tape, stuck together and pulled apart, simulated the sound of a man’s or woman’s skin being ripped off. Pulling the leg off a frozen chicken gave the illusion of an arm being torn out of its socket. A raw egg dropped on a plate stood in for an eye being gouged; poured corn syrup for flowing blood; cleavered cabbages and cantalopes for beheadings; snapped pencils and spareribs for broken fingers and bones. The sound of a hand crushed? A lemon, laid on an anvil, smashed with a hammer.
Karloff’s 1939 classic Son of Frankenstein. An innovative writer for the medium of radio, Wyllis Cooper worked on other notable shows such as The Empire Builders, Quiet Please, Campbell’s Playhouse, The Army Hour, and Whitehall 1212. One of the first old time radio shows to develop the medium of radio with distinct sound effects and dramas, Lights Out truly set the bar for other radio dramas of the time due entirely to its gore and strangeness.