The Essential Edgar Cayce (19 page)

Digestive forces again are disturbed or upset at times, nervously; but organically, as for their balance, as a coordinant tendency through the system, very good. And when such corrections are made, we would find these disturbing reactions would be overcome.

As to the activity of the spleen, the pancreas, the liver, the gall duct area: When foods are assimilated, these organs function for or in producing the juices or fluids that act upon elements in the foods that are assimilated in an acid and alkaline content from the stomach itself. With these hindrances, there becomes at times the tendency for these to become acid.

Hence through the alimentary canal disturbances arise at times; but these are reflex, as we find, as may be indicated, rather than being organic or even functional in these portions of the system.

Then, in meeting the needs of these conditions,
as we find:

First we would begin with the use of the hydrotherapy activity that would not only give periods for specific exercise but
at
such periods have a massage and an adjustment in those
particular
areas indicated; that is, the upper dorsal, specifically in the 3rd and 2nd, coordinant with the cervical area, to the base of the brain.

Also we would add with same an electrical vibration as a portion of such treatments.

And we will find the bodily functionings, the muscular forces, the whole general outlook, will be brought to a normal force in this body, [1120].

Ready for questions.

Q
What type of electrical treatment should be given?

A
Either the violet ray or the
alternating
current of a sinusoidal vibration that is
hand
applied.

Q
Should these adjustments be made osteopathically or chiropractically, or just how?

A
As indicated, in the proper regulated hydrotherapist treatment we have the masseurs that would make such an adjustment when these are taken.

Use these as at intervals; once a week, or twice a week one week, once a week the next week, twice a week the next week, then once a week; and then whenever there are those tendencies for the tiredness or sluggishness through the activity of the liver or the eliminations, or pains to the head or even a heaviness there.

And, as we find, we will keep the body fit.

Q
These treatments will relieve the tiredness?

A
This, as we have indicated, is what these are for! When we remove those pressures that cause these conditions, then we remove that feeling, see?

Q
What treatment should be used for the scalp?

A
The electrical treatment with the violet ray for this particular body, we find, would be the
most
beneficial.

Q
Will this prevent the hair falling out?

A
As indicated, there have been those tendencies for the superficial and the deeper circulations to be disturbed. They are breaking away, they are not coordinating. A stimulation to any portion of the body for greater activity, by not too much but as using the comb of such a hand violet ray machine through the hair and head, will make for such stimulation as to make more growth of the hair and also a better growth of the hair.

Q
What about general exercise, golf and tennis?

A
Well, he’ll find his golf stroke will improve a great deal if he will remove this pressure between the shoulders as indicated!

These, to be sure (the exercise), are helpful conditions.

Do these.

We are through for the present.

BODY-MIND-SPIRIT HEALING

Fatigue, frequent emotionally upset, loss of interest in life: these are common complaints today. In fact, chronic fatigue syndrome is one of the most mystifying ailments of our time. Are these symptoms caused by an undetected virus? Or might the origins be more complex?

Reading 1189-2 provides an interesting slant on chronic fatigue, a condition that was already known more than sixty years ago but didn’t receive the publicity it does now. A twenty-four-year-old woman sought clairvoyant advice from Edgar Cayce about some all-too-familiar-sounding symptoms. Dispirited, she had lost her sense of drive and ambition. She was melancholic, drained of creative energy, bordering on an emotional breakdown. She also had several other unnamed physical complaints. The woman submitted this question to Cayce: “How may I best overcome the spells of emotional hysteria which interfere so seriously with my work?”

As we might expect, Cayce diagnosed the condition from a holistic point of view and recommended steps to promote balanced healing. Of special interest is what was causing it all. Her high ideals somehow always brought a sense of profound disappointment that troubled her soul. Other people failed to measure up, and, due to her overly sensitive nature, a feeling of rebellion was stirred up inside her. That rage caused imbalances in her body and hence her ailments.

It’s a paradox of the human condition that high ideals can make us vulnerable. When we expect a lot—from ourselves or from someone else—we increase the likelihood that things are going to come up short. The flavor of this irony is found in Luke 12:48 (“To whom much has been given, much will be expected”), the psychology of Carl Jung (“The brighter the light, the darker the shadows”), or any number of other sources. All these insights say that the closer we come to the Ultimate, the more severe the test will be, the more vulnerable we are.

How did the reading counsel the woman to work through her own healing? What might Cayce advise today for a similar condition?

First, he counseled, pay attention to your ideals. Clarify your values. Make sure you are rooted in something more than just the material reality of this world. Anchor yourself in the reality of the invisible world, in that which is timeless.

Next, recognize that disappointment can easily be your own projection onto other people. We’re bound to be disillusioned by others, true, but the paralyzing disappointment suggests something else is going on just beneath the surface. No doubt you have some very good reasons for feeling let down, but that the letdown should be so devastating, Cayce suggests, is because “you have been disappointing.” The woman somehow had become so disconnected from her own ideals that she failed to apply them to herself in her interaction with other people.

The reading is very specific about how the woman’s loss of solidarity with her ideals had happened, and could happen to us. She was inclined to “accede to wishes or desires of others, [in order] to hold or keep their respect.” Her sense of direction in life—what psychologists would call one’s
locus of control
—resided outside herself. This very displacement led to disappointment in herself (perhaps unconsciously so), which, in turn, led to disappointment in others and melancholic dispiritedness, which led to a chain-reaction loss of drive, fatigue, and near breakdown.

Edgar Cayce’s reading holds out great hope for turning the woman’s condition around. It required working at several levels concurrently. First was getting in touch with the
living
quality of her ideal, emphasizing vibrancy, activity, and a sense of being alive: “. . . a
living
God, a
living
hope, a
living
faith—an
activative
experience!” Disappointment, despair, and depression make the spirit sluggish; what’s needed is movement and purposeful activity.

Cayce’s second recommendation was to stimulate well-being. For the woman, a drugless approach was emphasized, although today someone with similar symptoms might choose one of the newer medications, a psychotropic drug, especially if the symptoms are deemed psychological. Cayce proposed hydrotherapy and “electrical” therapy, the latter apparently referring to one of the then novel low-voltage devices described by him in other readings and
not
harsh electroshock treatment.

Third, Cayce asked her to use her free will to achieve some disciplined, balanced rhythms to her day: “. . . let the body make out a schedule for itself.” A certain amount of time was to be devoted each day to improving her attitude about her relationship to God, a certain amount of time improving interpersonal relationships, and a certain amount to physical exercise
and
relaxation. Anyone willing to make some choices and formulate a plan such as this and then put it into action is bound to see some results. And no doubt a big part of the therapy is having control over one’s life.

Overall, we can appreciate this reading because it deals not only with a common, contemporary issue but also because it’s such a fine example of Edgar Cayce’s holistic approach to healing. While so much of what is called
holistic
is really just a collection of nontraditional remedies, here we see insightful, coherent treatment that truly deals with the body, mind, and spirit.

THE READING

✜
THIS PSYCHIC READING, 1189-2,
WAS GIVEN BY EDGAR CAYCE ON JUNE 7, 1938.
The conductor was Gertrude Cayce.

EC:
Yes, we have the body, [1189].

Now as we find, in considering the particular disturbances which exist with this body—and these with the view of bringing normalcy and a revivifying of purposes, desires or ambitions—the body
whole
must be taken into consideration; that is, the physical, the mental, and the spiritual attributes of the body.

For while each of the phases of a body-development is met within its own environ or phase, there are experiences which arise within a body—as we find within this body—when all of these must be considered as they coordinate or cooperate one with another.

And as is then to be understood, these
must
coordinate and cooperate—body, mind, soul—if there is to be the best reaction in the physical, mental or spiritual.

Hence the injunction—from the spiritual aspects, and O that every soul would gain the concept, know and be conscious within—that “The Lord Thy God Is
One!
”

Now with this body we find there has been an exceeding upset in the ideals of the body-mind; coming from disappointments in individuals and in the reaction to that which is the ideal of the entity within itself.

And being of a supersensitive nature, it has (the mental)
rebelled
at these conditions.

Now the expressions of these reactions are within the
physical
forces of the body.

Hence we have been gradually on the border of a nervous breakdown, as it would be called by most pathologists or psychologists.

Yet through the emotions these have produced, as we find,
definite
reactions in the physical forces of the body; as related to the nervous system, both cerebrospinal and sympathetic. And those areas that find greater distress are where the cerebrospinal and the sympathetic or imaginative centers coordinate with the physical reactions of the body.

Hence we have had periods of uncontrollable melancholy. We have had periods of the uncontrollable overflow of the ducts that express emotions; inability of perfect assimilation—which immediately upsets the metabolism of the whole physical body.

These then, as we find, are both pathological and psychological conditions that disturb the equilibrium of the body.

These are not as faults, these are not as conditions that may not be corrected; yet—from the very nature of their affectation through the emotions—both the physical
and
the mental are to be taken into consideration in giving counsel or advice for corrective forces for this body.

First:

Who
is to say as to what must be any individual’s ideal? But know, O Soul, that it must be founded in spiritual, unseen, everlasting things!

What are these?

Faith, hope, love; without thought of self.

For when self or the own ego becomes disappointed, know that you have been disappointing
in
your relationships to that which produces or may produce same.

Not that it is always necessary to accede to wishes or desires of others, to hold or keep their respect, love, hope or faith. But know in
whom
as well as in what you believe! And if thy faith is founded in the spiritual, the Creative, the constructive forces, it brings peace and harmony.

Then let thy heart, thy mind, determine within itself.

See and be in that attitude as given of old; letting others do as they will or may, but for thee ye will cleave to a
living
God, a
living
hope, a
living
faith—an
activative
experience!

Thus, as ye do this, the other things may pass.

As you find, there has been created an inactivative force—other than repellent—between the sympathetic nervous system and the judgments; or the cerebrospinal nerve reaction of positive fact or nature.

Hence as we will find, change of scene and of environment will be well.

But
first
we would have the low electrical forces that would
attune
the bodily forces to coordinate one with another.

Then also we would have the hydrotherapy and the electrical forces.

Do not
resort to drug of
any
nature. For upon same as to bring those appetites that would become—the vibrations of the mental and spiritual will only rebel, or so feed upon same as to bring those appetites that would become—to the mental and spiritual forces of the entity—repellent in their end.

Work and associate with those influences or forces wherein there is help being lent or given to others. This will also create an atmosphere, an attitude for the body mentally and physically that will be constructive.