Which specific earthquakes or tsunamis did Edgar Cayce allegedly forecast for the 21st century?
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Executive summary
Edgar Cayce’s published “earth changes” forecasts for the modern era include repeated, specific claims about major earthquakes and tsunamis affecting California, Japan, parts of the U.S. Gulf/Atlantic coasts and other regions — for example, inundation of western U.S. lowlands after West Coast quakes and a prediction that “the greater portion of Japan must go into the sea” [1] [2]. Cayce’s organization and many secondary summaries tie those items to warnings about Vesuvius or Mont Pelée eruptions followed three months later by major earthquakes on California’s southern coast that would inundate lands from Utah toward southern Nevada [1].
1. The core Cayce “earth changes” theme: tectonics, pole shifts and inundation
Cayce coined and popularized the phrase “earth changes” to describe a suite of cataclysmic events — stronger earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, melting poles and even a pole shift — that would dramatically alter coastlines and political-geographic reality in the 20th and 21st centuries [3]. Sources that collect his readings and later interpretations list predicted outcomes such as the submergence or destruction of major U.S. cities (New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco), the partial sinking of Japan and instantaneous changes across northern Europe [2] [4]. These are presented in Cayce-related literature as concrete geographic consequences rather than abstract metaphors [2].
2. Specific earthquake/tsunami items cited by Cayce advocates
Cayce-related organizations and commentators repeatedly point to several specific scenarios: (a) eruptions of long‑quiet volcanoes such as Vesuvius or Mont Pelée would precede, by about three months, major earthquakes along California’s southern coast that would inundate lands from Utah to southern Nevada [1]; (b) a catastrophic earthquake or series of quakes could cause large parts of Japan to “go into the sea,” with attendant tsunami risk across the Pacific [2] [5]; and (c) wide regional inundations along U.S. Gulf and Atlantic coasts, with some inland river- and delta-changing events, are also attributed to Cayce’s readings by enthusiasts [4].
3. How these specifics are presented by Cayce’s institutions vs. popular summaries
The Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.), the organization that preserves Cayce’s readings, highlights the volcano‑then‑California sequence and maps numerous regions “to watch” for Cayce’s prophesied changes; their materials cite specific reading numbers and locations [1] [6]. Popular compilations and fringe websites restate those same items more emphatically — adding language about cities being “destroyed” or whole nations “going into the sea” — but rely on the same handful of readings and interpretive overlays [2] [4].
4. Timing, conditionality and interpretive caveats in the readings
Many modern commentators note Cayce often prefaced forecasts with conditional language — “if things stayed the same” — implying outcomes could change with human action or spiritual development [7]. Some books and sites that analyze the readings emphasize that Cayce gave date ranges or symbolic timelines (e.g., clusters of activity between 1958 and 1998 in some interpretations), and that followers have reinterpreted timing into the 21st century [3] [8]. Available sources do not provide a single, neatly dated list of 21st‑century quakes Cayce named; instead, the record offers geographic scenarios and conditional sequences [1] [3].
5. Evidence, verification and reporting context
Secondary sources point out that Cayce’s “earth changes” tradition has been adopted and reinterpreted by New Age writers and enthusiasts; some observers note a history of failed or unverified predictions [3] [9]. Mainstream geology and investigative reporting treat many dramatic phrasing points (California “falling into the sea,” instantaneous disappearance of regions) as metaphorical or incorrect in literal form, and caution that Cayce’s texts require heavy interpretive work to translate into testable forecasts [10]. The A.R.E. frames Cayce’s material as spiritually and symbolically meaningful even when literal fulfillment is contested [6].
6. What’s not in the provided reporting
Available sources do not supply a consolidated list of named earthquakes or tsunamis in the 21st century that Cayce explicitly forecast with calendar dates; they also do not show Cayce predicting specific modern 21st‑century events like the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami or the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami by name in the materials provided here (not found in current reporting). Where modern writers connect Cayce to recent disasters, those links are interpretive or retrospective rather than quoting a uniquely dated, specific Cayce prediction [7] [5].
Conclusion — how to read these claims now
Cayce’s corpus repeatedly singles out West Coast earthquakes, inundation of coastal U.S. lands, and catastrophic changes to Japan as major “earth change” scenarios; proponents point to specific volcano‑earthquake sequences and geographic consequences [1] [2]. At the same time, the record in the provided sources shows those claims live inside an interpretive tradition with conditional language, variable dating, and heavy symbolic framing — meaning literal, testable 21st‑century earthquake/tsunami predictions from Cayce are presented more as potential scenarios than as precise, dated forecasts [3] [7].