Читать книгу Edgar Cayce A Seer Out of Season - Harmon Hartzell Bro - Страница 36

The word out went alongside portions of my notes on each day’s readings, standing for elimination as a basic health process. Here the principle seemed to be, “We are what we release” and how we do it, whether grudgingly, patiently, or sporadically, as well as what we deeply mean in the process, by acting in a spirit of trust or of hoarding.

By promptly attending to elimination of wastes and toxins in the ailments that came before his far-seeing vision, Cayce affirmed the body as a self-maintaining, self-restoring system. If alien or stress-producing substances or drosses could be removed, the body would begin to set itself in order—provided that vital processes were not critically damaged and needed nutrients and stimulants were supplied. This was one reason he turned first, in the sequence of examinations in his medical counsel, to circulation, just as physicians routinely got blood workups. For the circulation carried off much of what needed eliminating, whether through kidneys, respiration, or perspiration. Cayce placed more emphasis than many physicians, however, on circulation of the lymphatic system, seeing it as a complete delivery operation for servicing organs and tissues. To foster healthy discharges through circulation, he often recommended massage and sometimes baths or sweats, as well as manipulative therapy to realign skeletal-muscular structures and release cramped or knotted muscles. Readings exhibited a whole array of exercises for parts of the body, as well as for circulation, tonus, and organ support. (The time would come, decades later, when several million Cayce readers contributed to the interest in jogging that would change the shape of American daily routines.)

Cayce in trance attended to actual wastes and poisons just as carefully as he attended to the carriers of what must be eliminated. There were special compounds to stimulate and cleanse the liver and other organs, including the use of fumes from brandy in a charred oak keg for cleansing lungs. There were special cleansing diets, such as eating nothing but apples for three days, followed by a small portion of olive oil. More basically, he counseled that everyone should drink six to eight glasses of water each day, facilitating kidney and bladder elimination processes. One procedure that applied especially to elimination and lymphatic circulation was used in a number of ways: castor oil applied externally in flannel packs under heat for an hour. Later research would show the impact of this unusual substance, with a centuries-old reputation as the Palma Christi, or palm of Christ,²⁹ on the complex chemistry of the immune system.

Among the substances which the readings frequently singled out to be eliminated were residues of medications which had turned into burdens on the body—as even excessive vitamins could do. But often, of course, the gastrointestinal tract required central attention as an avenue for elimination not only for obvious constipation or colitis, but for lesser studied effects of caked fecal matter adhering in patches to the sides of the colon. To Cayce’s vision this material could generate poisons in the bloodstream that resulted in a range of deleterious effects, including migraine headaches. He counseled laxatives in dosages and periods tailored to individual needs, advising alternating mineral and vegetable types so that the body would not become dependent on one or the other. Fasts and special diets aimed at improving gastrointestinal operation were not uncommon, and the use of high colonic irrigations to thoroughly cleanse the bowel from time to time were almost a Cayce trademark.

The general pattern in the readings was careful and slow action, however, not violent purgings, as the campaign for elimination was interfaced with restoring natural capacities of the body to fight disease and rebuild tissue. Fletcher’s Castoria, for example, often appeared as a recommended laxative, but in surprisingly small, “broken” doses given frequently over several hours or a day. This was a compound (one of several) on which readings had shown instant keeping-up with the manufacture, since the trance noted at once when the makers changed the formula slightly, and insisted on adding supplements to restore the needed properties. Yet other compounds were abruptly dropped when changed.