Читать книгу The Oil That Heals - William A. McGarey M.D. - Страница 7

There is no Zealot like the nonbeliever who has seen the light. I suppose I fit that description when it comes to castor oil. As a child, I had too many distasteful encounters with a concoction my mother made by adding a liberal dose of castor oil to my orange juice and making sure that I forced it down. I hated the taste, and for years afterward avoided orange juice because of the unpleasant association.

Today, thanks to having been enlightened by Dr. William A. McGarey, I’m a true believer that we can enjoy the health benefits of “the oil that heals” without drinking a drop of it. Consequently, I keep a bottle of it close at hand and use it often. Castor oil often seems miraculous, for who would expect so many beneficial medicinal effects—everything from preventing abdominal surgery to dissolving gallstones and eliminating warts—from a common, inexpensive lubricant, used mostly today for industrial purposes.

In describing cases of magical recoveries by his patients who applied castor oil, Dr. Bill reminds me of a New Eng-land doctor who years ago proclaimed the health benefits of drinking water laced with honey and vinegar. It is so simple and inexpensive, one wonders why all doctors don’t recommend it.

But Dr. Bill does much more here than tell poignant success stories of sick people who got well by applying the oil he often recommends. He offers us a basic education about the healing process itself—a process misunderstood by those who believe that it is the doctor or the drug, or both, that heals us. Not so, says the author, based on his long experience as a family physician. Healing is a natural God-given function of the body, in collaboration with the mind and spirit. Disease or a failure to heal signals a dysfunction in one or all systems.

Dr. McGarey, a true medical pioneer, has shown great courage in betting his professional reputation on this concept, which he learned from studying and testing the concepts found in the Edgar Cayce readings, because it is very disturbing to many elements of the health care community. Many mainstream practitioners scoff at this “unscientific” theory—although it is one that is much more widely accepted today than when Dr. McGarey began practicing it over twenty years ago at the A.R.E. Clinic he founded in Phoenix, Arizona. Many patients reject this concept of healing because they would rather believe they are the victim of an external cause than take personal responsibility for their condition. And the “disease-care industry,” as Dr. C. Norman Shealy describes the hospital-health insurance business, finds this concept threatening. It could reduce health problems if we learn to give our body-mind-spirit all the natural advantages needed to promote self-healing. Dr. Bill is doing his very best to teach us how.

While some health practitioners may regard “the oil that heals” as just another “snake oil” or placebo, readers will learn that Dr. McGarey’s clinical research has demonstrated that the application of castor oil externally to the abdomen can increase significantly the total lymphocyte count, thus strengthening the body’s immune system. The results of this preliminary testing at the A.R.E. Clinic, financed by a grant from the Fetzer Foundation, should be enough to justify much greater research into the healing mechanism triggered by castor oil.

Meanwhile, Dr. Bill continues to do what he feels called to do, a humble healer with a noble mission that is served well by this valuable book. It is a worthy addition to any library, as a primer for understanding the growing awareness of “energy medicine” and as a handy reference for when to use the oil for many minor ailments and serious dysfunctions. For as a country doctor he quotes once said, “Castor oil will leave the body in better condition than it found it.”

That’s a sound prescription for us all.

A. Robert Smith

Editor

Venture Inward magazine