When we were kids, we all used to pretend. When there’s nothing better to do than let your imagination run wild, why be restricted by reality? We could be a superhero one minute, a professional wrestler the next and then maybe a psychic.

Most of us have to give up these fantasies at some point. Some don’t. A (prophet? psychic?) named Edgar Cayce was featured on the History Channel recently, and I was amazed. Apparently, Cayce, who lived from 1877-1945, could answer questions posed to him while he lay on a couch in a self-induced trance.

And Cayce answered any question posed to him. Given a name and a person’s location, Cayce could offer a diagnosis and treatment for any health-related problem though he had only a 9th-grade education. Cayce also answered questions about the location of oil, told of historical events about which no records existed, and made predictions about future events.

Cayce missed on several occasions, of course, but the number and detail of his readings has made him the most renowned (clairvoyant? seer?) ever. That was all good and well, but what really shocked me was learning that Cayce lived in nearby Selma for a while.

Some of the more interesting things that Cayce related were about the existence of Atlantis, an ancient civilization mentioned in writings by Plato. Cayce told about the location of Atlantis and said records about it would be uncovered underneath the Sphinx in Egypt. Let’s start digging.

Now, Cayce may have been nothing more than a phony, and I may be wasting my time (and yours) by writing a column about him. But Cayce may have offered evidence for something many of us would like to believe: There’s more to the human mind than what we use every day.

If not, and if Cayce was a quack, well I can still pretend, right?