A.R.E. Health & Rejuvenation Research Center

ANECDOTAL CASE REPORTS

This section contains anecdotal case reports on a variety of problems. Click on a topic to view case reports on that subject.

Dan Ginder, an A.R.E. member, writes, "Using castor oil to help control allergies was most helpful. By putting a few drops in my coffee on awakening, my hay fever didn't seem as irritating as normal. But I forgot to do it until after the season started (about late August through September). Next year, I'll try taking the castor oil a month beforehand - and perhaps I can avoid hay fever altogether."

Using five drops of castor oil in the morning as an aid to allergies was brought to our attention by Valentine Birds, one of our cooperating doctors, who had obtained the information from one of his medical friends from India.

[Note: The preceding case report was written by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, July, 1978, Volume 13, No. 4, page 174, Copyright © 1978 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Cat bites are difficult to treat and are frequent problems facing patients and physicians alike. Some time ago, I treated one such problem with castor oil packs, kept on continuously - without heat - for 16 to 20 hours daily; I also included the usual therapies. The hand and wrist cleared up remarkably and quickly - much more so than I had observed in my past experiences. Since then, whenever we receive minor puncture wounds from our palm trees or other desert-type vegetation, we rub castor oil into the skin several times a day; this therapy has produced excellent responses. Not one infection has occurred when we use the castor oil. Once or twice, after a couple of days, we have had to take out a piece of the vegetation that had imbedded itself in the tissues; but no infection was present, and rapid healing resulted.

Our youngest son David brought home a rat, whose career as a laboratory animal had ended. He took good care of the rat, but at our annual New Year's party, someone tipped over Zorba's cage. She was not wild, but scared at all the humans putting out their hands to catch her. Gladys, my wife, was on the spot. She picked Zorba up to place her back in her cage. Zorba, however, still suffering from an adrenal fear response, reached around and bit Gladys on the finger. The important part of the event was that castor oil, rubbed into the rat bite for the next two days, caused the wound to heal painlessly without complication. This incident illustrates how we have used this oil - derived from the bean of the Ricinus communis - on puncture wounds, bites, minor cuts, and bruises, and found it highly successful for achieving excellent results.

[Note: The preceding case reports were written by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, March, 1978, Volume 13, No. 2, page 84, Copyright © 1978 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

The Thorntons in Ohio reiterate information already found' in the Cayce readings on the nature of healing and the response of the body's cells to the consciousness, vibration, or influence of a "healing" agent. Castor oil has an antifungal effect (this we know from published laboratory research). It also has an eliminatory (cleansing) effect, as evidenced by its most common usage. We have observed clinically how the vitality of cells is upgraded by the application of castor oil, perhaps from its cleansing effect, which frees the cells to function more vibrantly. We postulate that the effect of this oil from the bean of the Ricinus corninunis acts to stimulate the lymphatic drainage of the area being treated.

Mrs. Thornton reports that during her last two months of pregnancy she massaged her abdomen nightly with castor oil; she attributes to this activity the fact that she had no stretch marks at all after her pregnancy was ended. The child born from this pregnancy then received some of the same treatment. The castor oil "works very well on his bottom when any redness appears."

Then Mr. Thornton smashed his finger. The family therapy, applied overnight, brought relief from pain and absorption of much of the blood.

From South Africa comes another castor oil story. Hazel Tops, on a visit in the U.S., just by chance (!) boarded an American Airlines flight in Dallas bound for Phoenix; also, just by chance (!), Gladys and I were changing flights in Dallas on our way home from Nashville. Jim Dixon, another old friend, brought Hazel up to gate number 13, and there the four of us met with hugs and exclamations of delight. After the reunion was adequately appreciated, Hazel told us about her youngest daughter, who had stepped on a rusty pin. When she saw her daughter's foot, there were two red streaks emerging from the puncture wound site in the sole of the foot and extending up just past the ankle. It was too late for the doctor, so a sloppy castor oil pack was applied and kept in place all night. In the morning, the pain and tenderness were gone, the red streaks had disappeared, and the patient was well. Castor oil does it again!

[Note: The preceding case reports were written by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, November, 1978, Volume 13, No. 6, page 269, Copyright © 1978 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Castor oil applied locally has been reported to clear up a multitude of conditions. One of my patients had a pigmented mole in the inguinal area. After I discovered it, she did not show up again for some time. When I saw her next she told me she had applied castor oil to the mole for two weeks and it disappeared. I checked, and it was no longer there.

An A.R.E. member applied castor oil to an acorn-sized tumor of the chest wall diagnosed as a lipoma. Three weeks later, after daily application, the "lipoma" spontaneously opened. A thick, cheesy, white material exuded from the cyst-obviously a sebaceous one-and in a few days the lesion had healed.

An enthusiastic reader of the Bulletin was injured in an automobile accident, with a possible rupture of the spleen. Castor oil packs for four days brought a report from the doctor, who told her to "keep on with whatever it is you're doing ... it's working!" She tells of unlikely uses for castor oil, applied locally, to treat chest colds, ear infections, and baldness (!). She has used the castor oil packs in her family for migraine headaches, which is one of the uses Cayce actually did mention in the readings.

By the way, the acorn-sized tumor of the chest wall mentioned earlier was a veterinary problem - her dog is still happy!

[Note: The preceding case reports were written by William McGarey, M. D. and are excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, March, 1976, Volume 11, No. 2, page 92, Copyright © 1976 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Healing is everybody's business or, at least, so thought the ten-year-old son of a laboratory technician, who corresponds with us. This is the story again of castor oil. It seems that Mike is the center on their football squad, and he really loves to play. His brother accidentally dealt him a low blow when he slammed a truck door shut on the index and middle fingers of Mike's right hand. Mike had a most important football game scheduled six days later, and his right hand plays a vital part in such a contest. His mother continues the story:

"At the hospital, his hand was sprinted and we were told he would not be able to participate in sports for three weeks at the earliest. Mike insisted that he use the castor oil packs 24 hours after the injury. The fingers were cut and had some infection in them. That boy soaked his own fingers in warm water for 20 minutes and applied the castor oil therapy himself. I returned from night school and he told me what he had done. He continued his own treatment for three more days @nd he played in that important football game. I had taped his fingers for protection, but no splints were allowed. By the following week, he was completely healed. I never thought his fingers would look right again - but today they are as if they had never been injured."

[Note: The preceding case report was written by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, November, 1976, Volume 6, No. 2, page 272, Copyright © 1976 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Pain in the terminal cancer patient is perhaps the most feared complication of neoplastic diseases in the human being. One wonders where the pain actually originates-for pain is perhaps the most difficult symptom to pin down and the least understood. Methods of cancer therapy derived from unorthodox sources seem to produce some help in this direction. In my own experience with cancer patients who were too far advanced with the disease to be helped by any of the therapies available, I have seen one traditional aid bring much relief from pain during the terminal days. Quite recently, a 62-year-old man developed a cancer of the brain. By the time he came under medical observation, it was quite advanced; then, a second malignancy was discovered in the wall of the bladder. Weight loss had come rapidly, and the only therapy offered him was chemotherapy. When the family consulted us, the patient was terminal, in bed and obviously had not long to go. He was advised to use castor oil packs on the abdomen. He had not used any pain medication up to that point, and remained pain-free until twenty-four hours before he passed away. Then he developed some pain in one flank. The castor oil pack was applied locally there, too, and he became comfortable once again.

An earlier instance of the use of these packs came nearly twenty years ago, when I was called upon to care for a woman who had a large abdominal cancer which was far advanced when I first saw her. She had become unable to care for herself. She refused surgery of any kind and went into a rest home, since she had no living relatives. There she received coffee enemas and abdominal castor oil packs daily for the next forty days, until her death. She had no pain at any time. One wonders if these cases - and I'm sure I am not alone in observing this - are simply coincidences, or does a soothing application with particular vibrations bring about a reaction in the autonomic nervous system of the lymphatic system which eliminates the situation that causes pain? At times there seem to be more cases that deviate from the rule than there are ones that obey it.

[Note: The preceding case report was written by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, May, 1976, Volume 11, No. 3, page 137, Copyright © 1976 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

I have seen castor oil packs placed around an injured ankle relieve pain that had persisted for days after the repair of a laceration. Thus it was not with a great deal of surprise that I read the results of therapy applied by one A.R.E. member to her child. Isaac (Mrs. Bell's tree-climbing-aged son) fell fifteen feet from a tree he had almost conquered and struck the ground with his hip. His family doctor recommended hot tub soaks; and his mother supplemented the treatment with one of the Cayce remedies for muscular sprains. However, repeated efforts in this direction brought only swollen tissues. The following afternoon, and again that night, a castor oil pack was applied with a heating pad; the next morning Isaac was up and ready for Monday morning school. There was no swelling and very little tenderness. After school the tenderness was gone, and Isaac had forgotten that he had failed in his effort to fly.

[Note: The preceding case report was written by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, November, 1976, Volume 11, No. 6, page 272, Copyright © 1976 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

A 41-year-old woman had been having breast trouble for six years. She had been nursing her 2 1/2-year-old child for nearly two years, but since last October he had been weaned. Since then she has had twinges of pain, which her doctor felt were related to her cysts. In consulting with us, she felt she would like to use the therapies found in the Cayce material, so we suggested gentle, but firm massages of the breast, starting at the nipple and moving in a circular manner towards the outer part of the breast. This should last approximately five minutes. One night, she used cocoa butter, the next night Iodex ointment.

After one week of this therapy, the pain disappeared and has not recurred, even during her menstrual period. She thinks the cysts have decreased in size, "but it may be just wishful thinking. At any rate, after my next check-up, I'll have the doctor's opinion. I have also had group prayers and have prayed myself I have resumed jogging (at least a mile a day). Just thought you might like to know the additional factors. Be that as it may - the modes may be various, but the source of healing is always God."

[Note: The preceding case report was written by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, March, 1978, Volume 13, No. 2, page 83, Copyright © 1978 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

We recently received a letter from an A.R.E. friend of ours whose son (six years old) took a nasty spill on his bike. Her written story is an excellent report on what happened with Rowan:
"He had a 'goose egg' partially over his right temple and surrounding area. I checked his eyes, and they seemed to focus all right. I asked him if he wanted to go to church or stay home. He opted to go to church ... but instead of going to his class, he stayed with me, head in my lap. When we got home he complained of not feeling well, and vomited. In talking to him, I discovered he couldn't remember what had happened from the time he fell off his bike until sometime on the way to church. I was very concerned by this time-felt he must have a minor concussion. I put a castor oil pack on the bruise and around his head, and asked him to lie down, and remain comparatively quiet. If I recall correctly, in about an hour and a half he was asking for something to eat, playing a game on the bed with his sister-and when I checked the swelling, it was all gone. I removed the pack, and he got up. That night I put it back on until morning. No repercussions that I could see."

The therapy? It consisted of a mother's concern, youth's ability to recuperate, and castor oil. And don't underestimate any one of the three.

[Note: The preceding case report was written by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, March, 1976, Volume 11, No. 6, page 276, Copyright © 1976 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

The ear benefits from local administrations of castor oil, as this report from a longtime A.R.E. member indicates. The story is told here in the subject's own words, so that her appreciation of the Cayce material can be understood.

". ..Four years ago I had my ears pierced. They became infected and stayed that way for some time. I spent a small fortune on doctors and medicine. I finally remembered the castor oil and used it several times a day - and in three days' time my ears were completely healed and I've had no trouble with them since.

"My sister used warm castor oil drops in her ears after doctors had told her that her hearing had been impaired by having a shotgun go off close to her. She had a 50% hearing loss and a loud ringing in her ears. Since she began using the castor oil drops, her hearing has improved and the ringing has almost stopped. I am looking forward to a long association with the A.R.E." No wonder!

[Note: The preceding case reports were written by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, July, 1978, Volume 13, No. 4, page 172, Copyright © 1978 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Jerrie Welch, an A.R.E. member, wrote us from a village in Lampan, Thailand, about a little 11-year-old girl who developed jaundice, later diagnosed as hepatitis. She was sent home from school at once and apparently given antibiotics, but her condition worsened. On the seventh day, she was severely jaundiced, weak and quite ill. Here is Jerrie's story:

"Not being sure of the time needed for the packs to be effective, I told the mother to massage her daughter's abdomen with very warm castor oil for 10 to 15 minutes, then apply the hot packs for an hour at a time, twice a day, for 3 to 4 days. I stressed keeping the packs hot and massaging the liver area. At the fifth day I returned and found the girl energetically playing with her friends. Her strength had returned, although her eyes still had a little yellow cast to them."

The doctor in the city saw her a bit later and pronounced her well and ready to go back to school.

In addition to the castor oil packs, infectious hepatitis reacts well with a strong supportive dietary regimen. One of the most pleasing responses occurred in the case of a 59-year-old man, who developed hepatitis in the guise of intestinal flu. On his second visit to the Clinic, it became obvious that our original diagnosis was incorrect, and infectious hepatitis was verified by laboratory findings. Because of the distention and discomfort of his abdomen - which brought him to the Clinic in the first place - he had already started castor oil packs on our recommendation. And thus on his second visit he was feeling somewhat better. We found his liver to be enlarged 2-3 fingerbreadths down from the rib margin. The diet prescribed consisted mostly of clear liquids and was very low in starch and protein. On the fifth day he was started on a blender mix prepared from water, unsweetened frozen fruit, protein powder and yeast powder. Fish was added then to his diet. Each day a clinical improvement in his condition was reported. His laboratory findings ranged from a high on the second day to a normalization of all reports on the 28th day. The SGPT was the last to return to normal, moving from a high of 755 on the first test to 40 on the final test. The icterus disappeared rapidly; the total bilirubin in the blood returned to normal on the 15th day. On the 19th day the patient felt well enough to return to work.

His diet remained light, high in vegetables and fruits. The only proteins were fish, fowl and lamb, supplemented with the blender mix. Castor oil packs continued over a three-month period, given daily the first three weeks and thrice weekly thereafter. This case indeed responded well to the treatments.

[Note: The preceding case reports were written by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, July, 1978, Volume 13, No. 4, page 173, Copyright © 1978 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

About 10 years ago, at the age of 27, I suddenly lost the sight in my left eye due to optic neuritis. I went to three ophthalmologists including the head neuro-ophthalmologist at NYU hospital. I was offered only steroids as a treatment, which I was afraid to take because my body is extremely sensitive, and I was concerned about the side effects.

Fortunately, a family friend told my mother to get me to a chiropractor immediately. I was a member of the Edgar Cayce organization," The Association for Research and Enlightenment," and I was aware that Cayce recommended chiropractic adjustments for all sorts of ailments, and that the A.R.E. had a listing of chiropractic members. I decided that I wanted to be treated by a chiropractor who would treat me with theCayce remedies for blindness.

I called the A.R.E. And was given the name of Dr. John Pagano in Englewood Cliffs, NJ. I called him immediately, and he told me to come over right away. My mother agreed to drive me to his office, although she had always been skeptical about my interest in the Cayce readings.

When we met Dr. Pagano, he told me that he had successfully treated a woman the previous year, who had been blind in both eyes for several months due to optic neuritis. Dr. Pagano told me that he could make me no promises, but he would treat me the same way he had treated her, according to the Edgar Cayce readings.

The first thing he did was to take an x-ray of my neck. When the x-ray developed, he was excited to find that the deviation shown in the x- ray of my neck proved to be identical to the deviation in his previous patient's neck. He suspected that my spine was pressing on the optic nerve and cutting off the circulation.

Dr. Pagano massaged my neck with his hands and then with an electrical massager to increase the circulation to the area. He then adjusted my neck in the area that Cayce said affects blindness. When I got home, I made a phone call to the other woman whom he had helped. She was very encouraging. I told her that the three doctors I had seen were pessimistic about my prognosis. She told me not to worry, she had been told by experts that she would probably never see again.

Later that evening, I was excited to find that my sight had begun to return. After a week of adjustments, my sight was completely restored. I went back to one of the ophthalmologists I had seen, and told her what had happened. She examined me and said, "It's amazing -- you're cured!" I have never had a recurrence of the problem. Neither has Dr. Pagano's first optic neuritis patient.

Since then, Dr. Pagano has treated several more (optic neuritis, and otherwise) visually impaired patients, with varying degrees of success.

I believe that the adjustments were what helped me the most, but Dr. Pagano also had me try the following Edgar Cayce recommendations:

While sitting up straight, gently roll your head over to the left side as if to touch your left shoulder. Slowly bring it back up and over to the right side. Repeat this several times. Roll your head forward and backward several times in the same manner. Then slowly roll your head to the right, forward, left and backward several times (in a circle). Then roll it in reverse order several times.

Make a paste of potato skin peelings from thick-skinned potatoes. Include a little of the pulp. Place over your closed eyes for approximately 20 minutes. This helps to reduce eye strain.

Buy a bag of organic carrots. Grate them into a gelatin mixture as if making jello. Be sure to include the top portion of the carrots, including the greens if possible. It is better to use the unflavored jello, because you don't want to pollute your body with sugar and artificial coloring. (See Healthy Diet). Cayce said that gelatin helps the body to assimilate vitamins and minerals 6 times better than it would otherwise do, and that the Vitamin A will be carried directly to the optic nerve.

Soak two cotton balls in a 50/50 mixture of gylcothymoline and water. Gently squeeze them out and place over each closed eye for approximately 30 minutes.

Roll a towel into a tight cylindrical roll. Lie down with your neck stretched over it. Make sure it's big enough to allow the arch of your neck to stretch out over it.

Place one drop of pure cold-pressed castor oil in each eye before sleep. (Cayce also recommended this for cataracts.)

In general, Cayce recommended eating whole grain cereals or citrus fruits in the morning - but never at the same meal. He suggested they be alternated from day to day. At noon he recommended fresh raw vegetable salads, including many different types of vegetables, and soups or broths with whole grain brown bread. For dinner, one should eat "a well coordinated vegetable diet, with three vegetables above the ground to one below the ground. Sea food, fowl or lamb; not other types of meats." (Please see the Cayce files on diet for more in depth information on the subject.)

Cayce stressed the importance of the mind and "right thinking" in any healing process.

[NOTE: The above information was used with the permission of the author who has provided this information on her web site at: http://www2.cybernex.net/~coraino/blind.html]

Dr. Gladys McGarey has been caring for a little girl whom she delivered herself. Coming into this environment was apparently not very acceptable to this particular soul, for she has been a thumb-sucker for months now. (Perhaps she wants to return to that more favorable environment which people who have died and come back have described.) Some months ago little Christy developed a colony of warts on that particular thumb. This "happens to most every individual in those periods of the change that comes about for glandular reaction; and it is the effect of the localizing of centers that attempt to grow - as they do!" (487-22)

There are many kinds of treatment that can be used for warts. I've written a medical commentary on this subject in the Circulating File on Skin: Moles and Warts, available to A.R.E. members. On the basis of this commentary, Gladys applied castor oil time after time on Christy's thumb, all to no avail. Recently, her parents brought her into the Clinic for a recheck on her general health, and the warts were practically gone. What happened? Her father told a story about how his mother used to take a potato slice, rub it on his own warts when he was a child, then bury the potato out in the yard when no one was watching. Within a few days, Christy's warts started disappearing; now they are almost gone.

It reminded me of one method used by Cayce - aside from his practice of rubbing the warts himself and making them disappear. This recommendation was given to [1206], a 12-year-old girl:

For this body-the body itself (alone, not with others) should take a broom straw, measure each wart - press them as wide as they will; not to make them sore but to measure them, at least two to three ways. Cut each straw to fit the length. Then bury these - the straws - where no one knows excepting the self, and the very mental attitude will take away the wart! (1206-6)

In the January 1977 issue of Consultant, Gordon Sauer, adjunct professor of dermatology at the University of Kansas School of Medicine, makes this suggestion: ". . . apply a drop or two of castor oil on the wart and cover it with adhesive tape ... leave the tape on for 24 hours and ... reapply oil and tape daily until the wart is gone. [The patient] need not keep the tape dry ... do this for 8 weeks, or until the wart is gone."

Another method, reported in the British Medical Journal, described one doctor's way of removing warts from gullible four-, five-, or six-year-olds. Pay them sixpence for each wart. It worked. But the price has probably gone up by now!

[Note: The preceding case report was written by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, January, 1978, Volume 13, No. 1, page 34, Copyright © 1978 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Pain syndromes create some problems for the average patient; sometimes the pain becomes intolerable. One such patient went through all the traditional methods to relieve a pain that had settled in her neck and shoulder. Manipulations did no good, so she went to a neurologist but found no real relief. After a number of unsuccessful attempts at diagnosis and therapy, she was referred to us for acupuncture. Little relief was obtained even after a number of treatments. The patient later developed a severe pneumonia. Being treated at home, she recounted that she was coughing a great deal, which apparently accentuated the pain in her neck. She lay there, massaging her neck on the right side where most of her pain was concentrated. Suddenly, while massaging the area, she heard a loud crack. Since that time, she has experienced no more pain in her neck or shoulder. She was able to go back to work typing and has remained pain-free since then.

When one reflects on how often manipulative procedures were suggested in the Cayce readings, it does not seem strange that a "lesion" might be corrected by the patient herself during a time when the body muscles would be relaxed, allowing for correction of the subluxation-if that is what it really is. Another patient of ours had been afflicted with a seizure problem. She was caring for her six-week-old baby one day, bending over the crib and lifting him out, when she suddenly felt a "crack" in her spine. It wasn't painful, and she felt somewhat better when she straightened up. After that occurrence, there were no more seizures. This fits in, of course, with the epilepsy causation theory found in the Cayce readings. He attributed many cases to an osteopathic type of lesion.

[Note: The preceding case reports were written by William McGarey, M. D. and are excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, March, 1976, Volume 11, No. 2, page 94, Copyright © 1976 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

A recurrent peptic ulcer is often difficult to treat adequately, perhaps because of fixed emotional and attitudinal responses or deeply set pathological changes. But sometimes the response to therapy is highly satisfactory, and not only the patient but also the physician is happy about the outcome of the case. Thanks to S. J. Meda, one of our referral doctors, one such case study can be given here. Dr. Meda reports that a 37-year-old man had been treated for a bleeding peptic ulcer (proven by x ray) about three years ago. After a full two-and-a-half years of remission, the symptoms recurred and continued intermittently with moderate severity for a period of four to five months. There were no real significant physical findings-just indigestion, discomfort and "gas."

The therapy in this case revolved around some of the simplified suggestions in the Cayce material dealing with diet. Dr. Meda suggested a diet of fresh vegetables, yogurt, bran, grapes, milk, and lots of water; the patient was advised to avoid refined sugar and flour, carbonated beverages and fried foods. He was also instructed to use saffron tea before meals.

The patient's response was highly satisfactory. His symptoms abated entirely after four days, and there has been no recurrence up to the time of this report.

[Note: The preceding case report was written by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, September, 1976, Volume 11, No. 5, page 230, Copyright © 1976 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Mongolism is one of the subjects covered in the Edgar Cayce readings. The file on Mongolism: Children, Abnormal, available on loan to A.R.E. members, was borrowed by one of the members recently. Apparently she could not find a doctor who would work with her on the problem which was manifested in the person of her new-born child. This is her story:

"You asked how this file has helped-our baby is a Downs Syndrome, and for the first six months of his life we massaged him nightly with equal parts of olive, peanut and castor oils. We are now taking him twice weekly to an A.R.E. cooperating chiropractor for the Cayce recommended adjustments. We are much encouraged-the baby is alert, responsive-his appetite and eliminations have improved-he's stronger physically and his gift to us on his first birthday (8/29/75) was to clap hands when we asked him to do 'patty cake.' We are grateful to Him for His 'amazing grace.' "

[Note: The preceding case report was written by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, November, 1976, Volume 11, No. 6, page 275, Copyright © 1976 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Application of enzymes is what one might call the use of a potato poultice placed over the eyes. We have had considerable experience in using these poultices with patients who have a variety of eye problems. And, if you have ever made up such a poultice, you are probably aware that the potato, when properly scraped (and not peeled), is loaded with enzymes that are released from the cells of the tuber.

The following is an extract of a letter from one of our correspondents, who writes:
"You may be interested to know that I have been using the potato poultice on my eyes, off and on, for several years, and my ophthalmologist (to whom I go every two years for a reading-glasses check) looked at me quizzically the last two times and said that my left eye was 'getting younger.' This last time he said that the right eye was only a very little bit worse, so I remembered that you instructed someone in the A.R.E. some time back not to peel the potato, so now I use the outside scrapings with the peeling on my right eye (as though perhaps you were thinking of some aid from the potassium).

"I can tell the difference in my eyes (not overnight, of course - no one should expect this) in reading price tags and also in watching TV, as it used to seem as if some 'hindrance' was in the middle of my right eye. It is there no more. I'm 64, and my eyes seem much better than my friends'."

A poultice such as this is made by taking an ordinary raw baking potato, washing it, then scraping it with a kitchen knife - not peeling, but scraping it - until you have a small pile of mushy material. Divide it into two small mounds, separated so that the cloth it has been prepared on can then be taken up by both hands and the potato applied directly onto the closed eyelids. Lean the head backward, recline in a chair and relax for 15-20 minutes. The poultice provides a very soothing application for the eyes. The enzymes released by the scraping can enhance the lymphatic and circulatory activity in and around the eye, all of which spells increased eye function. Thanks for the story, Mrs. Weir.

[Note: The preceding case report was written by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, January, 1981, Volume 16, No. 1, page 47, Copyright © 1981 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Certainly, if awareness of creative forces is the healing element in exercise, foods, medicine or surgery, then anything which will bring that awareness to the body prior to the onset of any disease process will prevent it. Indeed, it is the unawareness, the lack of consciousness of the Divine, which - in the final analysis - is the cause of disease, according to the readings.

Let me quote from a letter received several years ago from Sally Schaefer. It tells a simple story in itself, a story of infection, pain and possible incapacity - all prevented (in little ways, to be sure). At the same time it is a story of how aiding the body's physiological processes can bring it quick healing and save the sufferer not only problems but money that would otherwise have been expended on doctors or hospitals.

"Shortly after my initial introduction to Edgar Cayce, during a weekend visit to my folks, the subject of home remedies, and castor oil in particular, emerged. I made no comment about my use of it, but rather pressed my dad, who reported that as a youth (50 or so years ago) he and his family applied it to a bleeding wart on one of their mules. They kept the bottle in the barn and made the application a part of the daily chores. He said it took a long time but that the wart healed and eventually hair grew over the spot.

". . I have discovered that just a little castor oil, rubbed on with the finger, on a beginning pimple or small boil, prevents it from forming; or if I'm a little late in treating, it very often disappears without coming to a head and draining on the skin surface. I suggested this to my nieces, along with a better diet, and it has worked for them also.

"Approximately two months ago, I crashed into some wooden bleachers while playing volleyball. Before the evening game ended, I had an egg-sized swelling on my leg, just below the knee, in addition to the surface abrasion. After bathing, I soaked four layers of flannel, approximately 4" square, and tied this in place with an old nylon stocking. Next morning - no swelling, no signs of a bruise, no pain. I removed the dressing, and by noon I felt pain. By 2 o'clock, there was renewed swelling and signs of discoloration. I hurried home after school and immediately applied another castor oil dressing. In one hour, pain and swelling were gone, despite continued use of my leg. By the next morning, only faint discoloration defined the bruise, which surrounded the impact area and also trailed downward about one inch wide along the shin bone for about four inches. I continued the dressings for the next three evenings and through the nights.

"I never did get a real bruise - to the amazement of the other teachers who wouldn't believe I had used only castor oil. (Fact is, they couldn't believe I had used castor oil!) The area never swelled again. And the abrasion healed quickly."

Prevention and cure are often born of the same measures, and there is not only wisdom, but also billions of dollars in health care being weighed in the scales as we consider what the New Age medicine would consist of.

[Note: The preceding case report was written by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, March, 1981, Volume 16, No. 2, page 92, Copyright © 1981 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Referral doctors working with the Cayce readings have a variety of experiences, some of them drawn from their patients' lack of definitive past improvement. (One of my doctor friends calls these patients the "Mayo Clinic rejects.") Such an opportunity was given to Louis Mancuso, D. O., and his patient Jim Wagner.

Jim apparently had been bitten on the heel by a brown recluse spider, had consulted three doctors and had been in the emergency room of two hospitals over a five-and-a-half-week period. He had received three different diagnoses (the last one being correct), had been given directions to soak his foot, had received eight antibiotic shots and had taken 112 500-mg. antibiotic tablets. The severe pain had subsided, the inflammation had left, but the swelling was worse at the end of the five-and-a-half weeks than it was at the beginning. Though he was able to put his foot on the ground instead of in an elevated position, he walked with a cane. This was his past history when he consulted Dr. Mancuso.

Therapy suggested? Twice a day, sprinkle Epsom salts on the foot, cover with a damp cloth and leave for 20 minutes; massage the leg downward from the knee with castor oil, allowing the coating of oil to remain an hour or so after the massage; and apply zinc oxide as a paste over the foot overnight (wrapping it to protect bedclothes).

Jim continues his story: "After the first use of Epsom salts, a carbuncle appeared around the toe area, about three inches from the original bite. With the second and following applications of Epsom salts, it ulcerated and began to run. I did the salts and castor oil treatment several times a day, and the zinc oxide at night for three days. The morning after the first day, the swelling abated dramatically. The second morning, I threw away the cane and walked easily. The third day, the foot was normal, the stiffness gone. The healing was complete."

The most interesting part of the whole story - at least to me was that there is no description in the readings for treating such a spider bite. The doctor developed this highly successful therapy program out of his experience in medical practice and his knowledge of the concepts in the Cayce readings. And the patient, of course, was the beneficiary.

[Note: The preceding case report was written by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, May, 1981, Volume 16, No. 3, page 138, Copyright © 1981 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Castor oil packs seem to make a positive difference in a variety of conditions of human illness. Sometimes it doesn't make sense that these packs, applied in different places on the body, bring a healing influence to sore throats, pilonidal cysts, contusions and abrasions. But the following stories tell how patients and doctors have made effective use of this product of the Racinus communis plant:

"I had just begun coming out of a period of chronic sore throats which followed a bronchopneumonia-type syndrome that had been called, among other things, the Hong Kong flu. This was after two years of winter spells that left me bedfast every other weekend. I did not believe I would survive another year. After reading The Sleeping Prophet and just prior to the hay fever season, I began the back adjustments and used the inhalant recommended in the readings. The results were remarkable. I was still having regular bouts with sore throats, so one night I decided to try the heated castor oil pack on the abdomen. In 15 minutes the sore throat suddenly evaporated in what felt like a rush of running water. The next evening my wife came down with the same symptoms and applied the treatment with identical results." (Gene Jacobson)

"The patient is a 26-year-old male with a five-year history of episodic flareups of a painful pilonidal cyst. It was never larger than an olive until the last week of October, 1975, when it reached the size of an egg. Sitting and walking became more difficult. He finally went for medical help and was scheduled for surgery on the 29th of November.

"I was visited by his mother who is my patient. She asked if there were anything I could suggest to relieve the pain since the doctor had only given him antibiotics. I recommended applying a four-inch gauze pad saturated in castor oil with a heating pad on high heat for one hour before bedtime. His wife was to give him a five-minute digital massage two inches from the border of the cyst, working in a circular motion towards the cyst but not directly on it. This was done and repeated the following morning. At 4 p.m. Sunday the pain returned, and his wife applied another compress. Within minutes he felt relief. The cyst opened and began to drain.

"He reported to his doctor on Monday for the scheduled surgery, but indicated that since the cyst was draining he wanted to cancel the surgery and let nature take its course. The doctor insisted that the sac had to be removed, but the patient refused.

"Within one week the cyst was down to the size of a pea, the smallest it had been in five years. He reported that with the first application he was able to sleep for the first time in ten days; now the cyst is barely palpable. He was instructed to continue the hot castor oil compresses for one additional week after cessation of the drainage." (Dr. Al Giaquinto)

"I have used the castor oil packs for a variety of conditions, from open abrasions to strained muscles, and all with great success. I have even converted my skeptical husband to the castor oil packs following an incident with our son. He had somehow managed to get his hand smashed between two rocks, not breaking any bones, but badly abrased and contused. Against my medical training and my husband's, we applied a warm castor oil pack to the hand. The next morning the results were dramatic. The swelling had completely subsided and the healing had occurred at an incredible rate. By the third day healing was complete... The remarkable thing other than the healing was the absence of pain after an hour following the application of the pack." (Georgia Van Wormer)

[Note: The preceding case reports were written by William McGarey, M. D. and are excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, September, 1981, Volume 16, No. 5, page 229, Copyright © 1981 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Jim Wilson, A.R.E. Vancouver, B. C., Council Chairman, gave us an added tip for curing jet lag. Drink a full glass of water or orange juice one hour before the Right and repeat it every hour during the flight. No alcohol, just water or orange juice. Jim says it may drive the hostesses crazy, but never mind. He found, to his delight, "even after being awake close on to 24 hours on the first day in Europe," he felt no mental or physical effects whatsoever-just as if the flight had never happened. He did note that the first three days after the flight the night tended to be the waking hours. In his "P. S." he suggested sitting on the plane near the "wash room."

I'd be interested in knowing how one would get along using both Jim's suggestion plus the cupful of baking soda and Epsom salts in a tub of warm water at the end of the flight (described in the Sept. 1978 issue of The A.R.E. Journal). If any of you have the opportunity to experiment with these, please let me know the results.

[Note: The preceding case report was written by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, September, 1981, Volume 16, No. 5, page 231, Copyright © 1981 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

One of the benefits of an A.R.E. membership is borrowing the Circulating Files, which, incidentally, contain a world of good information. Use of the information in them by the membership has produced some hard-to-believe stories. However, when one considers healing as originating from changes in consciousness through body, mind or spirit, then the occurrences don't seem so strange. The following letter exemplifies this kind of story:

"Thank you for sending the requested preliminary report on the arthritis (rheumatoid) study ... The report was interesting to me for a special reason - in March of 1976, I was diagnosed (blood tests and all) as having rheumatoid arthritis and gout. I immediately wrote for the Circulating File and began very seriously working toward the changes needed (without realizing that you at the Clinic were doing the same thing for patients at the Clinic - same time). I've been persistent and consistent.

"This year at my annual physical checkup, the doctor noticed there are no more symptoms, and wanted to run another set of blood tests ('arthritis profile,' I think he called it). He was very impressed and called me a few days later to say that the results of the tests were quite negative - no sign of any rheumatoid arthritis or any arthritic - related diseases at all. He said, 'Whatever you're doing, keep doing it.' I know I was led to working in the right direction toward eliminating detrimental things in my life (attitudes, diet, etc.) and in building up the more positive aspects which I've known all along, but had become in a stressful rut, and had neglected at times. Anyhow, thanks again.. ."

[Note: The preceding case report was written by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, September, 1981, Volume 16, No. 6, page 231, Copyright © 1981 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

The healing influence of the oil of the Racinus communis has been documented thousands of times now, and the following stories just amplify the documentation.

Swelling of the left middle finger between the interphalangeal joints bothered Edna Atkins, but she fussed along with the swelling for many weeks before actually getting down to the business of treating the finger. She had heard how good castor oil was for a variety of ailments but had just never tried it. She related the following: "I finally got out some oil one evening while watching TV and just rubbed it around the second joint a while. I did this two evenings, leaving it on when I went to bed. The third night I was again going to rub the joint, but could not find the spot any longer. I couldn't even be sure which hand or finger it was, as there was no sign of swelling or difference between any fingers any longer!" She didn't even know the diagnosis, but the cure was great!

From an unrecognized source - a nutrition columnist - the following account was sent in: "Recently a reader asked for help in treating granulated eyelids. I had this condition so bad that all my eyelashes fell out. The doctor's medication did not do any good. My grandmother suggested that I rub castor oil on my eyelashes at night. After one month, my eyelashes began to grow back, very thick and long. I am now 26 years old and use the oil treatment once a week. People ask me how I got such long, dark eyelashes. I tell them and most of them laugh at me. But I know it works."

Lastly, an A.R.E. member developed a growth in the corner of his eye, with surgery apparently just around the other corner. "I gently massaged it every night for five minutes with castor oil. After about three or four months, it did not get bigger - but did not disappear. In the back of my mind I remembered a Cayce reading that suggested some bicarbonate of soda with the castor oil. Thought it worth a try. After the massage, I put a tiny dab of bicarbonate of soda on the growth. The growth got very irritated and sore for a few days, fell off, and never returned again. Did not even leave a scar. I have tried same treatment for brown patches on my face. Castor oil with bicarb of soda. Same thing happened: got sore for a few days and then the brown patches completely disappeared."

Cayce remarked about someone having a castor oil consciousness. This man had a castor oil/bicarbonate of soda consciousness. And it worked.

[Note: The preceding case report was written by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, November, 1981, Volume 16, No.7, page 287, Copyright © 1981 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

The 19th Temple Beautiful Program here at the Clinic produced responses that can only be attributed to the working of the Divine in the lives of His, created entities. Our senior member in this group came to the 17-day experience at the insistence of his son and accompanied by his loving wife. He was almost doubled over with pain, needed help in walking and could not manage more than 15 or 20 steps without stopping to sit down. He also suffered from debility and insomnia due to post-operative results of a prostate condition. He came, he said, praying for a miracle."

When he left, his color was healthy, he stood up straight, his pain was gone, he was sleeping well, his sense of humor had returned, and, he reported, "I received that miracle I was praying for." Balance of body functions, massages, manipulations, prayers, visualizations, guided imageries, etc., spelled the difference. Not a miracle from one point of view; but from another, who is to argue?

[Note: The preceding case report was written by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, November, 1981, Volume 16, No. 7, page 288, Copyright © 1981 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Ever since we left Virginia Beach, I have had in mind putting down on paper, as you requested - the story of my mother [5009], and the polyps and the almonds, so here goes:

In July 1957, my mother was operated on for a malignant mass in the intestines. The surgeon removed a segment of bowel to which was attached a polyp, as well as the mass. He told my brother and me that he would have liked to have removed also a further segment on which two or three more polyps (benign, of course) were located but he feared she could not have stood that much nerve shock. He said he wished to watch closely by x-ray the polyps every three months. Subsequently, I urged Mother - as soon as she was out of the hospital - to eat several raw almonds a day - whether she believed in them or not (and although she tends to discount and negate a lot she was scared enough to heed me!). In three months the x-ray pictures showed the remaining polyps "somewhat smaller" - the doctor reported. In another three months the doctor said he couldn't discern any polyps at all in the x-ray pictures and was so pleased that he changed her periodic x-ray pictures from every three months to every six months. In another year - he changed to x-ray photos only once yearly. It has almost been 31/2 years now since her surgery and there has been no return of any trouble or of any polyps (and her last x-ray photos were of her entire body-torso as well as abdominal region). So, this is a good report for "the almond."

[Note: The preceding report was recorded by William A. McGarey, M.D. and is excerpted from the Physician's Reference Notebook, Copyright © 1968 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Castor Oil stories continue to be an almost daily occurrence in our experience. One of our patients who has used castor oil packs rather extensively became concerned about his landlord, who is a widower and who was diagnosed after a stroke as having high blood pressure and a large abdominal aortic aneurysm. He was in constant pain from it, and the medicines he obtained from the medical center where he was treated only seemed to make him worse. The advocate of castor oil packs finally convinced his friend to try using the packs on his abdomen in spite of the fact that the landlord couldn't understand how in the world something like that would have any effect.

After less than a week of using the packs, the pain had subsided so much that the landlord waxed enthusiastic. He waxed so much, in fact, that he started buying castor oil by the gallon. He purchased several yards of wool flannel and rigged up his bed like no prescription I have ever given. Over the mattress cover, he placed a large plastic cover. Then came several layers of flannel - then two more layers of flannel, then a blanket on top of that. The room was always heated, even while the landlord slept. Then he poured castor oil on the flannel over the entire bed and climbed in between the several layers of wool flannel. Every day he would add some castor oil to the bed, and apparently when the whole setup became too old to be of value, he would discard the blanket, the flannel, etc., and bring in some new materials.

The story would just be humorous - even if true, which it is - if he derived no significant benefits from the treatments. He didn't even wipe off the oil from the skin when he got up in the morning. Truly a monumental experiment for one man. But the experimenter still continues to see his doctor regularly, tells him what he is doing, and feels better than he has in years. Now he is able to do his gardening, do the carpentering needed around his place, and recently even climbed up on the roof to fix a leak. His physical condition is better; his blood pressure apparently is improved; and he has a new life in front of him.

He did his own personal research project after reading much about the use of castor oil as given in the Cayce readings in the booklet, Edgar Cayce and the Palma Christi. Healings of the body indeed may come about in many ways and manners.

[Note: The preceding case report was written by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, November, 1975, Volume 10, No. 6, page 275, Copyright © 1975 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

An alcoholic for more than 20 years is the description one of our correspondents gave herself in a research report which she submitted recently. But she used castor oil packs on her abdomen for an entirely different reason four years ago. It seemed that she had developed a severe abdominal pain. She did not consult her doctor, so her own diagnosis of "probably an intestinal disorder" will have to suffice, no matter how inadequate. She reports that her pain lessened a little each day, as she applied the packs on a twice daily routine. An apparent constipation was thoroughly corrected on the second day, but she continued the packs for a period of two weeks.

The most remarkable result of her own little adventure in consciousness, however, is the real point of this story. She adds as a postscript to her report that "Since the day I first used oil packs, I have not touched a drop of liquor - nor have I had the desire to do so. I was an alcoholic for more than 20 years. I used to drink myself to sleep every single night."

My question is: What is it that happens to people that makes a simple act of healing turn their lives into a new channel of living? Why should applications of castor oil packs rival Alcoholics Anonymous in this particular event in time and space? Life offers us a multitude of unanswered questions, doesn't it?

[Note: The preceding case report was written by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, November, 1975, Volume 10, No. 6, page 276, Copyright © 1975 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Castor oil can be used in a variety of ways. Hemet Pathak, M.D., brings us this story from his native India: five drops of castor oil each morning, taken on an empty stomach in a little juice or water, is often beneficial therapy for allergic manifestations in the G. I. tract, as well as with skin and naso-pharyngeal allergies. This type of therapy has its roots in Indian herbal therapy, with which Dr. Pathak is an expert. The anti-allergenic nature of castor oil used in this manner was discovered accidentally in a man who was highly sensitive to penicillin. He had been on the castor oil for another reason when he was given penicillin by someone who did not know of his allergy. When he realized what he had been given, he was frightened - but nothing happened. The allergy was gone. An unofficial report of some 140 cases has been made, with highly encouraging responses being noted.

Dr. Pathak and Valentine Birds, M.D., reported in a letter that they have used two to five drops of castor oil orally on a daily basis, both with and without castor oil packs on the abdomen, and have noted encouraging results in the allergies of children. Further, they have noted that a single cathartic dose of castor oil given immediately after an accident when a whiplash type of injury is incurred often reduces the severity of the pain in the spinal musculature. They follow this up with osteopathic techniques, castor oil packs, pressure techniques and acupuncture as the situation warrants, and have found these patients respond in a more satisfactory manner.

The use of the cathartic, of course, is a fundamental concept in the physiologic suggestions in the Cayce material. When an accident or an illness creates more toxins or waste products of any kind in the body, it is helpful to rid the body of them as quickly as possible.

[Note: The preceding case report was written by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, January, 1975, Volume 10, No. 1, page 37, Copyright © 1975 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Emphysema and charred oak kegs do go together, strange as it may seem. My story is a combination of a case history and some extracts from the readings which give a great deal of insight into the physiology of the disease (and healing) processes in tuberculosis and cancer.

One of my favorite patients is afflicted with emphysema. In October of 1968 I started him using inhalations from a charred oak keg filled part way with apple brandy. He works as an inspector and drives a lot every day, and ran into trouble with his boss who said his car smelled like a well-kept brewery. Sir Boss insisted on a letter from me saying that my patient was smelling the fumes and not consuming the liquid.

The fumes had their effect, however, for it soon developed that while they were not particularly curing the patient of emphysema, they were apparently keeping him free from respiratory infections. Correspondence with the head of a national distillery confirmed that the fumes where the brandy was aged did, in fact, keep an employee there free from any type of respiratory infections over a period of many, many years.

Recently I had the opportunity to check up on my number one example of inhalation therapy a la Cayce, and found that he has not been subject to infections of the respiratory tract for the last five and a half years. He did have the flu once, but it was a generalized thing and did not affect his lungs or throat to any degree. I did a bit of research on this particular type of therapy (which Cayce suggested for nearly every case of tuberculosis) and found some extracts which I think you will find interesting:

Prepare a charred oak keg, about a gallon and a half to two gallon keg. If a gallon and a half, put in same three-fourths gallon of Pure Apple Brandy.
This keg should be so prepared that there would be two small openings in one end. One would act only as a vent when inhaling the fumes of the evaporated Brandy into the throat and lungs from the other opening, which would be prepared with a small tube - either of rubber or metal, or glass - that will not touch the brandy, but open into the vacuum above same, so that the fumes from the brandy may be inhaled two or three times a day. This should be kept where it will evaporate more quickly than ordinarily; not so much heat as to cause too great an evaporation, but where there is sufficient to create something more than the ordinary evaporation. Keep the vents tightly corked when not in use. (2978-1)

Inhale these fumes 2 or 3 times a day. In the beginning, do not inhale too much. Do inhale it, do not swallow it. While it will not hurt to swallow it, it is not as helpful to the body. The gas will not only act as an antiseptic, but will, with the properties that should be increased in the body, aid the change in the circulation, aiding these chemicals in their proper proportion to the body assimilation and the body activity, or the whole of the digestive forces, and eliminate the cause of infection in the lungs proper, and we will find it will gradually heal those areas where at present there are openings, though not a great deal of live tubercle, but the adhesions as have been indicated are the more irritating for deep breathing. (5097-1)

In discussing the problems found most commonly in tuberculosis, Cayce suggests that the basic findings are a systemic alkalosis (more accurately, portions of the body being too alkaline), and a problem with assimilation of foodstuffs into a circulatory system that lacks a proper activity in the pulmonary system itself, mostly due to the acid-alkaline balance. There is much more to his discussion relative to etiology and physiology, but this is a glimpse.

    The natural effect of any infection through the pulmonary system is to destroy the activity of that production between the blood flow as related to the acid and alkalinity of the system.
    Hence we find that in those systems where there is the excess of destructive tissue in the pulmonary system, there is a lack of the hydrochloric acid in portions of the system.
    Hence these properties are added in a manner in which there is the effectiveness through the intestinal system, and the assimilating system; so that we will have less reinfection in the blood stream, see? . . .
    These properties, then, become effective in any system where there are the infections, or reinfections - as of tubercular or cancerous natures. However, there are the needs for other lobules that are prepared for conditions where there is a segregation. The opposite effect exists in a system, of course, with tuberculosis and cancer. For one is a separation, the other is a segregation.   (1548-2)

[Note: The preceding case report was written by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, March, 1975, Volume 10, No. 2, page 81, Copyright © 1975 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

One of our correspondents reported the use of castor oil as an antiallergic therapy. She has a severe allergy to sugar and caffeine and when she takes in these foods, she reacts with "itching, running, scaling of the eyelids, red, inflamed and bloodshot eyes, and microscopic 'bumps' under . . . top eyelids." About three years ago she added to this list a twitching of both eyelids occurring five to ten times daily. Strong corticosteroid ointments for the eyes could not control the twitching, although it did help the other symptoms.

She had read about castor oil and its benefits, but would not try it until she read Edgar Cayce and the Palma Christi. Rubbing the castor oil on her upper and lower eyelids, the allergic victim found relief. On the sixth day of treatment, the twitching stopped. True, it recurs if she overloads her body with chocolate, for instance, but now she uses the castor oil daily and is not troubled with the problem.

[Note: The preceding case report was written by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, March, 1975, Volume 10, No. 2, page 84, Copyright © 1975 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

A.R.E. members call us often with a variety of problems. One such woman, a 57-year-old diabetic, was losing her sight due to retinal hemorrhages that were resistant to therapy. Her vision had become so bad that she had to quit work. She confided to me (as she probably had not to her doctor) that she had not followed her diet, and felt quite discouraged. I emphasized that a constructive diet needs to be followed persistently and consistently, and told her how to use a potato poultice. She was to take a raw potato (like one uses for baking) and after washing, scrape - not peel - the potato onto a piece of cloth until there is a little mound of mushy material large enough to separate into two parts. Lifting the cloth with both hands, the mounds of potato peel were to be placed on the closed lids of both eyes. This is left in place for fifteen to thirty minutes, and then the dried material is washed off with boric acid water. She was to do this once a day, while paying strict attention to her diet.

Three months later she wrote me that she had followed the suggestions exactly, and had been on the prayer list at Virginia Beach for the three months. She had just returned to work, and was very happy. One eye was much improved, and she said (with a twinkle in her eye?) that the other eye "needs a little more potatoes."

Pinworms in man are caused by a genus of nematode called Enterobius vermicularis. They are considered to be parasites. I thought you would be interested in what the psychic view of pinworms is - at least from the standpoint of the source of information which Edgar Cayce was able to tap.

Q. How did the trouble of pinworms originate, or what caused it?
A. Milk! You see, in every individual there is within the intestinal tract that matter which produces a form of intestinal worm. This is in everyone. But with a particular diet where the milk has any bacillus, it will gradually cause these to increase, and they oftentimes develop or multiply rapidly; and then they may disappear, if there is taken raw, green food.
Q. Would you change the kind of milk she drinks?
A. It isn't so much the change in the kind of milk that is needed. Either add the raw, green foods as indicated, or give those properties as would eliminate the sources of same. But it is better, if it is practical, to induce the body to eat lettuce and celery and carrots - even a small amount. One leaf of lettuce will destroy a thousand worms. (2015-10)

[Note: The preceding case report was written by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, May, 1975, Volume 10, No. 3, page 127, Copyright © 1975 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Many massage oils were described in the Cayce readings; perhaps this is because massage was given as a therapeutic modality more often than any other type of therapy. From Quebec, Canada, comes an interesting story about one of these massage mixtures:

"I would like to tell you about a discovery I made, just by coincidence. Last summer ... I used to prepare the solution prescribed by Edgar Cayce, a beauty aid for the skin (the peanut oil, olive oil, rosewater and lanolin mixture). Since I have a sensitive skin towards sunburns, I prepared it and used it as a suntan lotion all over my body ...

"We used to spend the weekends in the Laurentian hills, north of Montreal. The mountains are very beautiful, except for the unbelievable amount of black flies and mosquitoes. Needless to say, they manage to destroy any hopes of a trouble-free sunbathe Within minutes we were beleaguered by literally thousands of them. Everyone in our group was bitten awfully except a friend and myself ... (we used the lotion) ... Not one bite. This news might not be important to city dwellers, but ... "

I would agree with my Canadian friend that those susceptible to insect bites might find this adaptation of the massage mixture beneficial. The exact formula, taken from reading 1968-7, is: peanut oil, 6 ounces; olive oil, 2 ounces; rosewater, 2 ounces; and lanolin (dissolved), 1 tablespoonful.

[Note: The preceding case report was written by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, May, 1975, Volume 10, No. 3, page 128, Copyright © 1975 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Many years ago coffee became a way of life in my habit patterns. I was certainly not alone. My older brother influenced me in discontinuing sugar, and when I read a research report from Ireland nearly two decades ago - then found this substantiated in the readings - I also stopped using cream in my coffee. Now I'm a black-coffee drinker. Many of you may have heard that Cayce was against cream in coffee, but I suspect few of you have ever read anything from his material that discussed sugar as it relates to the great American drink. The following extract may be quite interesting to you.

Coffee, fresh - without cream, is a food. In excess, with cream or with quantity of sugar, it becomes as a poison, or hard for a digestive system - if taken in excess. This may be taken in moderation. (684-1)

Once again, the moderating influence found so consistently in the readings becomes evident. It's not that a thing is always bad or good. Rather, there is a place for almost everything. Moderation in diet as in activities is to be searched for and attained. It makes even cream in the coffee all right. (Although I still won't use it.)

[Note: The preceding case report was written by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, May, 1975, Volume 10, No. 3, page 129, Copyright © 1975 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Arthritis is a problem of eliminations according to the line of thinking expressed in the Edgar Cayce material. I received a bit of information that I'd like to pass on to you that came from a woman who was it longtime arthritis sufferer:

"I was not taking any medication for arthritis, even though I have had this disease for over ten years.

"I recently started drinking olive oil. I took approximately six tablespoons a day (during the day) for two weeks, then I took one tablespoon a day for two weeks. The pain in every joint was gone. I stopped this procedure, feeling maybe the arthritis may have been arrested, as some cases do.

"After three weeks, the pain started to return. I knew it must be the olive oil so I started taking three tablespoons a day for one week then discontinuing dosage. After two weeks, the pain was only slight but returning. I took only three tablespoons just one day a week. All I take now is three tablespoons for one day, and it lasts one week and no pain for this period."

This kind of therapy was never suggested in the readings - although olive oil was given as being beneficial to the liver and to the entire body in its activity. Cayce rather suggested a course of therapy which was multilevel in its approach, working on things such as epsom salts baths, proper diet, Atomidine, manipulations, etc. But a person's ingenuity allows for adaptation of techniques which often bring about interesting results.

A low back problem of 40 years' standing was aggravated when a patient lifted a box of rocks. She went to her doctor and received some manipulative relief. She continues: "but by November the pain had not left - in fact was getting worse. I would have to wake up in order to turn over in bed - with the help of my hands. Sitting was always painful - especially riding in a car. I decided to use the castor oil pack with the treating pad, which I did for one to three hours every night for a week. By the end of the week, the pain was gone and has never returned. The castor oil left me wondrously pain-free and flexible for the first time in years."

[Note: The preceding case report was written by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, May, 1975, Volume 10, No. 3, page 131, Copyright © 1975 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

A dentist in Oregon, who knew nothing about Ipsab, treated an A.R.E. member early this year for what he diagnosed as pyorrhea. When the patient got no relief from the discomfort of her inflamed gums, she wrote for the circulating file on pyorrhea. She finally got some Ipsab from Virginia Beach and started using that on her gums. After one week, she reports: "My gums cleared up some and the swelling went down. Another week of use, they were no longer sore or red and at this time [after three weeks] they are in good shape."

Ipsab was tested by a practicing Virginia dentist in a double-blind study involving 39 patients. 'The results were statistically significant and showed very good to excellent results in one out of three test patients while only one out of 17 control patients was found in this category. An interesting study!

Dental problems are not limited to pyorrhea nor their treatment to Ipsab, although the latter is amazingly efficacious in a variety of dental problems. Another A.R.E. member sought a solution to the problem of a tooth with an infected root that showed troubles on X-ray. He was not eager to have it extracted, so he used a bit of creative ingenuity and adapted some of the ideas he had read about in the Cayce material. Twice a day, he would swab the gums around the tooth with Atomidine. Then he took a pledget of cotton saturated with castor oil and placed it between the gum and the cheek. Against his face, then, he placed a heating pad and lay down on a couch to rest for an hour. Twice daily he repeated this routine. After two weeks, the gums around the tooth became swollen and tender - this subsided during the next few days, and at the end of three weeks, the swelling was gone, and the soreness was easing up. After the fourth week, the tenderness and the swelling were clearly absent. He was able to chew with the tooth and there was no sign of trouble. He has not had it X-rayed, but it "feels" cured. I don't have a dental opinion on this, obviously, but it occurs to me that there is a possibility that the root nerve to the tooth might be dead at this point. Time will tell the story, but the patient has a functioning tooth, which he considers to be better than no tooth at all. I would not argue the point.

[Note: The preceding case report was written by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, July, 1975, Volume 10, No. 4, page 170, Copyright © 1975 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Gelatin is important as a food tending to lower blood cholesterol, according to Dr. William Strain of the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. It was nearly ten years ago that he told the story of gelatin and vanadium, a trace mineral. It seems that this unlikely substance not only inhibits in a very normal way the formation of cholesterol in the human body, but it is a factor in preventing tooth decay; it helps to regulate the manner in which various fats are used in the body; and it is apparently part of the controlling biochemical mechanism in the utilization of amino acids. Dr. Strain suggested giving a heaping teaspoonful of gelatin before each meal in an attempt to lower the blood cholesterol. (Today's Living, July, 1974)

In the Edgar Cayce readings gelatin was recommended for people who had a variety of complaints: arthritis, anemia, kidney problems, "incoordination between assimilations and eliminations," problems with lymph, poor circulation, Parkinsonism, general debilitation and multiple sclerosis, to mention just a few. Cayce suggested that raw vegetables be prepared with gelatin frequently, for the better health of the body. He also recommended the use of half a teaspoonful of gelatin dissolved in warm water, used as a drink once or twice a day. 'The readings indicated that gelatin provided "vitamin forces" (849-74). In the next reading given this man, the vitamin effect was explained:

It isn't the vitamin content but it is ability to work with the activities of the glands, causing the glands to take from that absorbed or digested the vitamins that would not be active if there is not sufficient gelatin in the body. See, there may be mixed with any chemical that which makes the rest of the system susceptible or able to call from the system that needed. It becomes then, as it were, "sensitive to conditions." (849-75)

Cayce's recommendations vary from the usual medical directions. He told one woman (1695-2) that a quarter of a teaspoonful of gelatin each day would strengthen the body, but that she should not start the gelatin until the "glands are purified." This woman was bothered with incoordinations and a tendency toward anemia. Perhaps manipulations in her case would have been the proper thing to do first - or a series of Atomidine drops first, with a basic diet. To a man who was bothered with arthritis, Cayce suggested that gelatin would tend to develop muscle, tendon and nerve tissue, and should be used regularly. Knox gelatin was specified in the readings. It was not to be Jello, but rather plain gelatin. Vanadium was never mentioned, but it is interesting that chemical activity was discussed, and one wonders if this might not indeed be an electrochemical aid to the body. One more extract is interesting:

Also every day we would take gelatin as an aid to the quick pick-up for energy, aiding the system - from the assimilation of this, with the chemical changes in the body - in creating those activities through the assimilating and glandular force for the energies that create corpuscle tissue in body. This we would take about a third of a teaspoonful ... stirred in a glass of cold water each day. If this is taken around two or three o'clock in the afternoon it will aid the more. (2737-1)

[Note: The preceding case report was written by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, July, 1975, Volume 10, No. 4, page 171, Copyright © 1975 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

In nearly twenty years of association with the concepts of healing and regeneration found in the Cayce readings, my experience tells me that all people should have the opportunity to bring about healing for themselves or for others. This can be done by prayer, of course, which is usually not dramatic, even though it is effective. Utilizing the same concept that all healing comes from within the body, the opportunity might come through application of a castor oil pack or vinegar and salt, or some such remedy that often is not only dramatic in its effectiveness but also satisfies that desire for healing. Such a thing happened to a Kansas City woman whose five-year-old boy stepped on a nail and developed typical red streaks of cellulitis. Her story needs no amplification:

"First, believe me, when it comes to my children's health, I am not in the least likely to take chances, so do not think I acted impulsively or took any unusual chances. It started on a Sunday morning when my five-year-old complained that his foot hurt and he had some red streaks on his ankle. I took his temperature, and it was normal, but his foot, where he had stepped on a nail the previous day, was now quite red. There were also two or three streaks raised like welts, almost to his knee. I had never seen blood-poisoning streaks before, but I was sure that it was indeed blood poisoning, though my husband didn't think so.

"I decided to try the Cayce castor oil packs and heat and would give it no longer than four hours. If he was running a temperature or was worse in any way by that time, I would call the doctor. I had used the packs for bruises and swelling but never for anything this serious before. I put the pack on and wrapped an elastic bandage around it, then fastened the beating pad around that and made him sit and keep his foot elevated. At the end of four hours, the red streaks were definitely fading and the swelling had disappeared. The pain was nearly gone also, and there was no temperature elevation. I left the pack on with heat the rest of the day, then that night took off the heating pad, leaving the pack in place.

"By the next morning, the foot looked completely normal, and when my boy stepped on it, there was no pain. I watched him carefully for several days, but the symptoms never came back, and everything was great. No shots or pills and no doctor bill or hospital bill, and it cleared up so fast. I have since used it for the same type of infection with the same results."

This enterprising woman used the same castor oil packs for sprains and bruises, bumps and that sort of thing; for infected finger nails and even poison ivy. She told us also how she used the salt and vinegar pack on her 16-year-old boy who severely sprained his ankle.

"I melted the salt with the hot vinegar and made a poultice and plastered the foot thickly with it and then wrapped it with old sheet strips. I left the poultice on until it was completely dried and started to flake off. His foot was much better that night and by the next day he was walking nearly normally and by the end of the week he was active, doing everything except jumping and running."

Then she adds her own philosophical observation, which I think is a fascinating bit of home-spun truth:

"It's a funny thing, though. In working with my kids, the ones that believe it will help are helped. The one daughter who does not believe in home remedies and faith healing, the salt and vinegar did not help her sprain even though all other factors were the same."

[Note: The preceding case report was written by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, July, 1975, Volume 10, No. 4, page 174, Copyright © 1975 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

A story of healing comes from a very active A.R.E. member in middle America. In the prayer and healing group to which he belongs, they have recently used the laying on of hands when asked to do so and have had some definite reports of success. One woman had been told after an examination by her doctor that she had a probable cancer of the breast and that a biopsy should be done to rule out this major problem. My correspondent was asked to be the one to "channel" the healing energy from the group to the subject. "I felt the creative energies passing through (had placed my right hand on her forehead and the left hand on the neck at approximately the thyroid gland). "There was much heat, not only in the hands but throughout the whole body. She felt the energies enter and felt the heat. Each member of the group said they felt the flow of the energy ... when she went for another examination at the hospital on Monday (the next day), she was examined by four doctors. The lump had decreased in size to about tile size of a very small pea, and it was decided that there was no reason to perform the biopsy at all. The doctors were puzzled and asked what had happened. She told them about the laying on of hands. You can imagine the consternation. One, a woman doctor, followed our friend out of the examination room and confided that she had always been able to 'see' a patient's illness before there was a physical examination but had never told anyone because she thought they'd think she had flipped her lid."

It's too bad that such occurrences are not more widely accepted, but it is good, on the other hand, that they are being reported and that more doctors are becoming aware of their reality.

[Note: The preceding case report was written by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, July, 1975, Volume 10, No. 4, page 175, Copyright © 1975 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Thrombophlebitis of the leg was an occasion in our family to use some of the concepts developed in the Edgar Cayce material. The physician is told to "heal thyself." So my wife Gladys and I went to "work on her left great saphenous vein when it became inflamed recently. There was tenderness, moderate to severe pain, palpable thrombus but no edema. Inflammation appeared and coursed up over the medial aspect of the knee; five to six inches of the structure were clinically involved. The symptoms started one evening, worsened during the night, and therapy began midmorning the next day.

Treatment in this case was: (1) light, high-vitamin diet with forced fluids; (2) castor oil pack over the affected area held in place with Ace bandage; (3) increased vitamin intake (probably not necessary if #1 is followed); and (4) the healing hands of a friend.

Diet, in our opinion, is a valuable therapeutic tool in every illness, diet especially in an acute condition. The castor oil pack has always been the most important of these treatments, and we have used it over the years in similar cases.

Her response was quite remarkable, as in some of our prior experiences with superficial thrombophlebitis. The pack was applied during the day on the first and second day. By the time 24 hours had passed, there was no redness, no pain, and only a faint residual of tenderness. In 36 hours, there were no remaining symptoms or abnormal findings; the patient was well; there was no recurrence.

The usual response to conventional therapy (elastic bandage and an anti-inflammatory agent) is relief of pain and swelling in five to seven days. If not resolved by then, vascular surgery is often recommended; the excision of the affected veins can then hasten a cure and prevent deep extension of' the thrombus and possible pulmonary embolism. Nothing is mentioned in articles or texts about the importance of dietary principles in either preventing or treating a thrombophlebitis. And certainly castor oil packs have not yet evolved into the medical literature.

[Note: The preceding case report was written by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, September, 1975, Volume 10, No. 5, page 222, Copyright © 1975 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Mabel Alford related a castor oil story during our week's program on Home and Marriage in Virginia Beach last year. A longtime A.R.E. member, she has attended many workshops and read widely in the Cayce material. Though she is experienced in taking care of herself', this time she forgot for a while. About a year ago, she was mixing up cement and neglected to put gloves on, thinking that it was not really necessary. No problem doing the work that morning, but later on in the afternoon, her hands started to hurt. As the pain grew more severe, the skin started to peel off in places. She took some aspirin that night, but couldn't sleep because of the pain. She tried soaking her hands in aspirin water, but that didn't help. Finally, in the wee hours of the morning, she remembered castor oil. She actually dipped her hands in the oil, put on stocking gloves and then, when she got back into bed, slept like a baby.

Prior to using the castor oil, her hands were stiff and the tissues edematous, and she had visions of not being able to work the next week. (She is a check-out clerk at a supermarket.) But when she took the gloves off the next morning., there was no pain, no swelling, and she round no problems in using her fingers and hands at work.

[Note: The preceding case report was written by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, September, 1975, Volume 10, No. 5, page 223, Copyright © 1975 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

From Dr. Mayo Hotten comes the report that lie has used castor oil packs over the eyes in two cases to reduce the inflammation of pterygium - perhaps sufficiently to prevent surgery. Then I received a report recently about a twenty-four-year-old housewife who, when she underwent a routine examination, was found to have a golf-ball-sized cyst on her left ovary. She was scheduled for a return visit, but in the meantime applied castor oil packs to her lower abdomen for one hour each day, four days each week. She noticed that she received a very welcome relief from the menstrual cramps she had suffered with for such a long time. When she was again examined for the cyst, it had disappeared entirely.

Another story, of interest to parents, is the case of a year-old boy who could not find relief after five to six months of chronic diarrhea. I told his parents about the use of castor oil packs, and the possibility of using Glyco-Thymoline packs also. They recently wrote me that their young son, now twenty-two months, has no problems with his G.I. tract - it cleared up completely on just the castor oil packs.

They also told me about a friend of theirs who has had almost complete remission of his epileptic seizures by regularly massaging his right upper abdominal area with a mixture of peanut oil and olive oil, and taking small dosages of olive oil by mouth.

Oil has a healing quality, apparently, that cannot be matched or really duplicated. I receive so many spontaneous communications from A.R.E. people from all over the country who have used these simple therapy ideas advantageously. The following quotation about application of oils is an example:

"Within our groups here, we have had quite a few successes using castor oil - my husband has removed a very dark mole from the tip of his nose and is now working on another one on his forehead. One of our young men has been using the oils (castor, lanolin, peanut) on a scald mark which he suffered at the age of three years, and this has been developing new skin from the center out since he first started using the mixture about four months ago! I, myself, had tremendous success using castor oil while in the hospital for surgery. I came down with a cold that was making my eyes water so badly I couldn't see. After using it just one night - with the nurse standing there watching me to make sure I wouldn't drink it! - the cold was gone, and by morning there was not one single trace of my ever having it. Prayers are always used when any of us apply the oils, so we can vouch for the results on a Cayce treatment level!"

[Note: The preceding report was written by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, November, 1972, Volume 7, No. 6, page 285, Copyright © 1972 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

All who have been associated closely with the A.R.E. know of the importance of dreams. Cayce instructed all to study their dreams as a source of much wisdom, containing direction of a physical, mental and spiritual nature. Recently I was given a dream report and thought you would be interested to see how one who is conversant with her dreams used the information in a constructive manner. Her story follows.

"During the last week of May, 1972, I committed myself to a strenuous calesthenic program which, through overexertion, resulted in a great deal of pain in the lower abdomen to the extent that I felt unable to stand up altogether straight, and the pain seemed localized in the region of the bladder and uterus. I was in this condition for several days and was about to consider going to my doctor, when I had the following dream, which occurred on June 1, 1972:

"In the dream I felt I was transported away to another dimension or plane. I found myself in a doctor's office, on an examining table, being examined by a very nice old man in white coat and with a gray goatee. (He resembled a kindly Edward G. Robinson in appearance.) I was consulting him about the abdominal pain. He gave me an examination and told me that everything was all right, but that I SHOULD use a castor oil pack. Since I come from a family which has produced four doctors, all of whom have always been very 'standard' in their treatments, I just laughed and said something to the effect that I didn't think I'd go for one of those things. The doctor told me to go ahead and give it a try anyway and then handed me a flannelette square. Just as he was telling me where to apply the pack, I woke up. I decided to give it a try, but couldn't remember whether he said to place it over the liver or over the pelvis. I took it up with my Study Group, and they suggested placing it over the entire abdomen. I didn't have any flannelette on hand, so used several old soft wash cloths, and had the electric heating pad turned to high. I used the pack for an hour a day for three days, and while using it, I either read the Bible, thought good thoughts, or read some Edgar Cayce books.

"After one treatment, I noticed considerable improvement in my condition. After two treatments, all pain and discomfort had vanished. I used the third treatment for good luck. I am happy to report that there has been no recurrence of the pain, and my general health is excellent."

[Note: The preceding report was written by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, November, 1972, Volume 7, No. 6, page 286, Copyright © 1972 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Iron-deficiency anemia is thought to be due to lack of iron, as the name would imply. The lack of iron, however, often is simply in the blood stream, not necessarily in the diet. Two stories illustrate this point:

The first case was a 63-year-old woman who had a hemoglobin of 9.3 grams prior to treatment with iron medication. After nearly two months of therapy, her hemoglobin went up to 9.5 grains, but she had developed a skin rash. I felt that this, was due to the iron, so I stopped it, and, with an eye toward cleaning out the toxins in the body, suggested that she take an ounce of castor oil, repeating the procedure in four days. She did as I directed and continued until she came to see me six weeks later. It made her feel so good, she said, and her rash was gone. I did another hemoglobin before starting her on iron again. This time it was 13.4 grams - so I forgot about the iron.

The other case was a woman in her late fifties who had anemia and a moderate hypothyroidism. When she came to me she had a hemoglobin of 11.5 grams. I did not start her on iron (I rarely do, since there is plenty of iron in the diet if the body will absorb it), but I did recommend a couple of changes in diet and, because she had a sore back, started her on infrared lamp treatments for thirty minutes three times a week. The next time I saw her, some four weeks later, her energy was higher and she felt much better. Her hemoglobin was up to 13.9 grams.

[Note: The preceding report was written by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, July, 1972, Volume 7, No. 4, page 285, Copyright © 1972 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Last January, at the medical symposium here in Phoenix, Dr. Harvey Rose discussed his work with local application of Atomidine, then Glyco-Thymoline, for the treatment of canker sores in the mouth. I requested some response from those of you who have had the opportunity to use this apparently very efficacious treatment. Dr. Ernie Poole obliged recently, and I quote most of his letter:

"In your recent bulletin you ask if anyone had used Atomidine and Glyco-Thymoline on canker sores . . . I have used it quite extensively since the Phoenix conference with really quite fantastic results. I must admit I have not kept a statistical survey of same primarily because the treatment works. It may be of interest to you, going a bit further in extending the use of Glyco-Thymoline, that I have been using it on refractory cases of vaginitis with equally outstanding results. Several of these cases had been treated with Mycostatin, vaginal suppositories, Flagyl and gentian violet, etc. In desperation I used Glyco-Thymoline on a few of these, knowing that the mucous membranes of mouth and vagina are the same. The relief it gave was almost immediate and to date long lasting. I have not used Atomidine in these cases."

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, July, 1972, Volume 7, No. 4, page 234, Copyright © 1972 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

A patient of Mike MacCaffery in Tucson wrote us about his response to Mike's prescription for psoriasis. The prescription was from the readings, and included the following procedure: (1) rochelle salts, sulfur, cream of tarter - one teaspoon of water daily; (2) follow with yellow saffron tea (a pinch in cup of boiling water, steep thirty minutes); (3) elm bark H₂0, three times a week in the morning; (4) eliminate sweets, fats and pastries, eat fresh fruits and vegetables; (5) saffron and mullein teas; (6) Cuticura ointment and Resinol ointment daily. Mike's patient was, in his own words, "cured" and was very happy about the results, thanking both Mike and the Edgar Cayce Foundation.

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, July, 1972, Volume 7, No. 4, page 235, Copyright © 1972 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

A few months ago, I heard from a correspondent of mine in Detroit who had been afflicted with a dermatitis of the palm of her hand for some twelve years. After reading Jess Stearn's book, Edgar Cayce, The Sleeping Prophet, she decided to use witch hazel on it in the manner described therein. She reported "great improvement" with just two weeks of this treatment. Hamamelis virginiana is a small shrub, the leaves and bark of which are Used to make witch hazel. There are two forms of the medication, alcoholic and non-alcoholic. Witch hazel has been used internally for dysentery, but is most often used as an astringent or as a wash for burns, bruises, skin irritations and other forms of external inflammation. It has also been used for sore mouths and inflamed eyes. We repeat simple things are often the best!

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, May, 1972, Volume 7, No. 3, page 184, Copyright © 1972 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Twelve-year-old Kathy's parents took her to dermatologists at Wayne County General Hospital in Michigan when her psoriasis had failed to improve after three months of ultraviolet ray treatments, bath oils, and a special sun lamp for her scalp. Under a new regimen consisting of sun lamp, ointments and Baker's P. & S. oil, she improved slightly for a while and then, during this four-month period, the lesions multiplied and worsened. Kathy's parents, using Fred Lansford's medical commentary in the psoriasis circulating file, then put her on the diet that Cayce prescribed. Peanut oil was applied locally on the worst of the lesions and on the scalp, and camomile, saffron, mullein and elm teas were used. In two weeks she began to improve. After a year's therapy, Kathy's problem has cleared up, with the exception of two very small spots on her scalp, which also seem to be disappearing.

These seem to respond well to local applications of Atomidine, followed by Glyco-Thymoline. Dr. Harvey Rose reported on his enlarging file of such cases at the January symposium. Our business manager benefited from the information and found that the lesion on his tongue cleared up within three days.

Bob McTammany is a surgeon in Shillington, Pennsylvania. He told me the following story about a post-vaginal hysterectomy patient who developed a febrile course and a large pelvic abscess which improved on antibiotics and proteolytic enzymes, although a 10 x 10 cm mass remained. She refused further surgery, and after several weeks of malaise, fever, low abdominal tenderness and pain, and no general improvement, she was then convinced that she should begin application of castor oil packs, used one hour daily. She improved remarkably symptom-wise, and examination in one month showed almost complete resolution of the pelvic abscess. Bob feels that these packs might be beneficial to post-operative patients in order to improve wound-healing and reduce the incidence of infection.

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, May, 1972, Volume 7, No. 3, page 185, Copyright © 1972 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Ernie Pecci, whose special concern is mental retardation, was one of the outstanding lecturers at the latest symposium. At his two Multipurpose Centers near Oakland, California, he has been working with castor oil packs applied to the abdomen. A recent letter from him states, in part: "In what I would call a major breakthrough, a University of California medical researcher wants to conduct some research studies on the use of the castor oil packs based upon our previous success. They are especially interested in investigating my hypothesis that 'minimal brain damage' is really an endocrine dysfunction which might be helped with the use of the castor oil packs. They have set up an elaborate EEG monitoring system which can be linked to computers which would indicate whether learning is really enhanced after treatment."

An A.R.E. member in Irvington, New Jersey, wrote that he had had palpitation of the heart which had not responded to any treatment. He used hot castor oil packs over his abdomen three days each week for an hour and a half. Every third day he took one teaspoonful of olive oil. This therapy was continued for four weeks and the symptoms cleared up for eleven months, recurring when he underwent some psychological shock. Then, after another four weeks of therapy, the symptoms disappeared again, and have been absent for over a year now.

Three stories about castor Oil used in as many different ways. A letter from an old friend who has been reading the material from the A.R.E. for many years: she writes about her husband who "was very ill in the hospital for two months - taken because of continuous nausea and vomiting. [He had a large mass removed from his lung, his hiatal hernia re-done, but no one could find the cause for the continued nausea and vomiting . . . To make a long story short, he came home from the hospital still having the same symptoms vomiting, nausea.

"All of a sudden the idea of castor oil packs occurred to me. After all, the medical profession wasn't able to help him. After two packs she began to bet better! Blessings on Cayce! Now he is practically like himself except for tiring easily." Five months they continued the packs. Persistence! And results!

Secondly, a letter from another woman who applied information on her own: "I thought you might be interested in hearing that my mother had a lump near her vagina. We applied castor oil and camphorated oil. In three weeks, it reduced in size from the size of a walnut to the size of a pea; in five weeks it was gone, and has not returned."

Thirdly, a patient of mine who had cut his right ankle on a piece of glass had it repaired at the Emergency Room of Scottsdale Baptist hospital, but there was such extreme hyperesthesia and pain that the 17-year-old football player had to use crutches to get around. I saw him three days later, and at that point his entire ankle hurt, and the wound was painful to the touch. It was not infected, but I felt that the nerve supply in that area had been injured and possibly a ligamentous laceration had produced the extreme symptoms. In all event, he was instructed how to use castor oil packs over the wound. He felt markedly better two days later and was able to go without crutches. Sutures were removed at seven days, and he was back playing football six days after that. Instead of hyperesthesia distal to the wound area, there was now just a bit of numbness. Bob was told to continue massaging the area with the oil until the numbness was gone.

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, May, 1972, Volume 7, No. 3, page 108, Copyright © 1972 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Biochemical bases of understanding the functioning of the human body may have been adequate for the mind of the physician for many years here in the western part of the world, but it can no longer stand the test of experience, reason, and pure logic. For instance, how can oil achieve a healing effect? Witness these two stories, both of which deal with arthritis:

From Pittsburgh, Pa., I quote this: "In reading Jess Stearn's Edgar Cayce, the Sleeping Prophet, I noted with much interest his references to arthritis and the use of pure peanut oil. As a rheumatoid arthritic I have found it to be of great benefit to my condition. After using peanut oil as a massaging oil for several years, I have to agree with Cayce's belief that it not only lubricates but heals as well. I am sure that had I known about the oil in this use I would have been spared much misery. Why isn't the use of peanut oil to reduce joint inflammation and pain in arthritis better known? Does the medical profession spurn it as a home remedy?"

From California: "Mother had arthritis so bad she was committed to the hospital. She was there for two weeks and released with no apparent help. The arthritis was centered in her fingers which were doubled back in her palms - she didn't think she would be able to open up her fingers again. Father brought her home and started a treatment of hot castor oil - rubbing her hands, arms, and shoulders and legs three times a day. Within a period of three to four months her condition improved to the extent she could walk, use her arms, and her hands straightened out and today she is completely cured. She was 76 years old when she was at her worst and is now 81."

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, May, 1972, Volume 7, No. 3, page 109, Copyright © 1972 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

This was the case of a 78-year-old man who consulted our office in 1967 and died of a ruptured aortic aneurysm in July of 1971. In 1959, he developed an abdominal mass, was surgically explored and diagnosed as having a small abdominal aneurysm, but also a lymphosarcoma. He took the "grape cure," and the mass disappeared, and he was apparently clear of the disease. However, in 1964, he developed an adenocarcinoma of the prostate. He had continued on dietary measures, but now became more strict, and was started on stilbestrol therapy also. Under our care for four years, he was given a multitude of supportive procedures to do. The mass in the abdomen reappeared, the prostate needed some special care from a urologist, and dietary measures were continued. Finally, he was admitted to the hospital with upper abdominal pain and the subsequent rupture of the aneurysm brought about his death.

Here are two fascinating points about this man. First, his autopsy revealed that there was adenocarcinoma of the prostate with extension to the pelvic organs including the rectum and with metastases to the lungs, and hilar lymph nodes. There was also the presence of malignant lymphosarcoma in almost all the organs of the body if you recall the history, the prostate cancer lasted at least seven years from the point at which diagnosis was made; and there was found at surgery a lymphosarcoma some twelve years prior to the man's death. It was apparently stopped with dietary means, but here was a man living with two malignancies for at least seven years, perhaps even longer, and he died from another cause.

The patient in question followed strictly a dietary regime over a long, long period of time, and his wife was indeed a helpmeet for him in aiding him day after day, investigating new things which might be done to help, and generally giving him the idea that he did not need to give up. This tells a story about the relationship between disease and the human spirit.

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, May, 1972, Volume 7, No. 3, page 111, Copyright © 1972 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

One of our cooperating doctors told me about a 63-year-old woman who is fortunate that she can take trips around the world with her husband. They travel usually by boat, as they have lots of time and don't like to hurry. She has had the problem, however, of urinary frequency which makes her first concern (no matter where they stop on their world trips) the location and availability of the restroom. She was unable even to sit through a church service without leaving at least once to empty her bladder. After her last trip, she complained about this in her visit to the doctor. He told her about riding a bicycle and its advantages of apparently correcting the parasympathetic outflow from the sacral plexus, at least to some extent. She bought a bike and has been riding it ever since. Now she has absolutely no trouble with her bladder, and furthermore, can play 18 holes of golf without even looking for the place.

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, May, 1972, Volume 7, No. 3, page 113, Copyright © 1972 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Sometimes at the Clinic we find it very important to treat a person where he is, improvising from our own experience and knowledge of physiology what should be used as therapy. Cayce, for instance, seldom suggested potato poultices for cataracts. He did recommend them for blepharitis, however, and they are usually highly effective in treating this eye condition, commonly called a "stye."

The potato, when used as described in the following extract, produces an enzyme, which in turn facilitates the lymphatic flow through the eye and its supporting structures; this action provides better elimination-the primary factor needed to remove any buildup of material from the interior of the eye. Cayce explained the application as follows:

Each three hours (during the waking day, see?) there should be a dressing placed on the eye (with it closed, see?) of scraped Irish potato (old - not new ones, see?). This scraped very fine and placed over same, making a cake or covering of same of about one-half inch thick. (20-1)

Our 80-year-old patient, seeking to improve her physical body without undergoing the difficulties of surgery, wanted something to use that she could apply herself, since she lived alone. She was told to use these potato poultices on her eyes twice a week. She was also doing the head and neck exercises, which are very beneficial for all conditions affecting the senses. For her sinuses, whicli had caused her some trouble, she was given Glyco-Thymoline pads.

She followed the directions to the letter and was very persistent, consistent, and patient in her approach. Eye examinations about a year and three months later revealed that the cataracts were still there, but they obviously had not progressed. However, her vision had improved. A letter of the same date tells her story better, because it is the experience of one person who did something helpful for her body; it expresses the joy and hope and realization of the nature of life that can come from seeing a response that is truly meaningful:

"I have an appointment with you in about two weeks, but I couldn't wait to tell you the good news - I'm back to wearing my glasses again - they seem to be almost perfect! Now, I can read with both eyes, instead of one. I had abandoned the glasses a year and a half ago, as I had so much trouble focusing with them. After taking your treatments with the grated raw potato, and the Glyco-Thymoline compresses, my sight seemed to improve enough so that I could carry on. I realized my eyes were getting better and better, but did not think to try my glasses until last Sunday. Of course, this gives me much more confidence in driving, which I had been somewhat reluctant about, especially on the crowded highways. I am praising God and blessing you . . . "

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, May, 1977, Volume 12, No. 3, page 133, Copyright © 1977 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

The Edgar Cayce readings helped me to heal my rheumatoid arthritis almost 30 years ago. When I first discovered I was sick I was still attending college, I lived on a junk food diet and already had a history of physical problems. One day in a bookstore I bent down to look at books on a lower shelf and my right knee popped. A visit to the doctor revealed that I had arthritis.

For eight years the pain grew steadily worse until I was virtually crippled. My knees were so tender that the sensation when they accidentally touched was excruciating. I consulted four different doctors without improvement, and became really alarmed when they proposed scraping the bone and draining out the fluid with long needles. Another family member had tried this and it was not effective. I was in unrelenting pain 24 hours every day.

During this time I continued to seek healing, prompted by an inner voice, which kept telling me " The body is meant to be well". On one occasion I even attended a service by a famous healer, but was not one of those who were healed. I also read some books about health but they were simply not convincing. Although I had full medical coverage through my job with McDonnell Douglas, I did not choose to have joint replacement as the doctors suggested. Instead, I kept searching for a less invasive, less painful cure.

One day in 1967, I was on pain pills, shopping in the dime store, when I found myself drawn to a copy of "There is a River" by Thomas Sugrue. Actually I stood in line with the book, decided I didn't need it, put it back and left the store, but the title kept flashing through my head until I drove back two weeks later and bought it. When I got home I started an all-night reading session. I had to stop the next morning to report to work. I went to work that day following a sleepless night but it was worth it, because finally I had some real hope. Although I knew Edgar Cayce was no longer alive, I decided to follow the case history on arthritis which was included in the back of the book. It was my firm belief that "If it works for one body, it will work for another body."

The first treatment was to purify my body for 30 days by eating right. This meant no sugar, starch, alcohol, red meat, pork or fried foods and NEVER ANY PRESERVATIVES. I ate primarily turkey, chicken, fish, fresh fruits and vegetables and whole wheat bread. At first, until my body could handle raw foods, I ate cooked vegetables. Cabbage and bananas were also to be avoided in this program. Lamb was allowed but I don't like it so I passed on lamb. Although I did not adhere to this diet perfectly, I knew it was helping my body to change, cell by cell.

After 30 days of purifying the bloodstream through diet, I began taking Epsom salts baths once a week, using five pounds to a tub of water as hot as I could stand. I would soak in the bath for 35 minutes, rubbing my sore joints. After rinsing with fresh water, I would spread a plastic sheet on my bed and then sit on this while I massaged my joints with peanut oil. Then I would go to rest or sleep.

The next part of the treatment, Atomidine dosage, was more difficult because first I had to find the Atomidine. At that time, "There is a River" did not have an address for the A.R.E. and when I located them, they were slow to respond. Through A.R.E. I obtained an address for a Virginia Beach pharmacy which served as a supplier. Finally I obtained my Atomidine, and devised a dosage cycle which suited me but was somewhat different from the one suggested in the reading. I took one drop of Atomidine in a glass of water each morning for five days, then off for five days. Then I resumed one drop for five days then off for five days. I continued this cycle for about a year and a half.

Finding a person who did colonics was equally challenging, as none of the doctors or hospitals I questioned had any information on the subject. I was eventually given the address of someone who agreed to give me a colonic once a month. This woman was 70 years old but looked half her age, and had once had arthritis herself. At the age of seventeen she was practically doubled over with pain so severe she couldn't bear to be touched. She happened to see an ad for a lecture by the well-known nutritionist, Dr. Jensen, who claimed to have a cure for arthritis. He was persuaded to undertake her treatment, which consisted primarily of juice fasts and colonics. After she was cured, she devoted her life to giving colonics herself.

My other Cayce recommendation was to have a spinal adjustment twice a week. I found a wonderful chiropractor who included some massage as a part of the treatment.

During this time I was often discouraged, especially at first. I would look in the mirror and cry because there was no visible progress. But as the months went by I began to improve, slowly but surely, and cell by cell. After a year and a half I was free of pain, except for an ache in my fingers when rain was due, which I thought I could live with. Finally, I was attending the annual A.R.E. Conference in Asilomar, California, when I discovered it had rained during the night and I had felt no symptoms. I knew then I was healed at the deepest cellular level.

Since that time my arthritis has not returned despite decades of stress on my fingers caused by my typing job. I used to be an atheist, but once I started getting well I decided that if Cayce was right about the care of the body, he was probably correct about other things as well. This prompted me to pull out "There is a River" again and read the Philosophy Section in the back of the book. I decided to join the A.R.E. and am now a Life Member. I thank God and Edgar Cayce every day for my healing. I hate to think of the painful physical life I would have lived without Cayce's reading. I was crippled for eight years with rheumatoid arthritis (which is the most deforming) and I have been healed for 26 years. Cayce not only enabled me to heal the body but he led me to God and to mental and spiritual healing as well. Today I am learning the current rage: country line dancing! Country line dancing would not be possible for me today if it were not for Cayce having laid down his life daily to make mine livable and fun.

[NOTE: The preceding story was submitted to David McMillin on November 15, 1998 by the author, Loretta G.]

Glyco-Thymoline is suggested in the Cayce readings for a variety of conditions in the human body, but nowhere, according to Bob Clapp (A.R.E. Membership Director), was it recommended for burns. Yet the ingenuity of an A.R. E. member provided us with an interesting story and with evidence that there are many ways to bring healing to the body. From Burton, Michigan, comes this account:

"I first discovered it (using Glyco-Thymoline for burns] when I wits fixing a fire in our fireplace and picked up a stick that had red hot coals on one side. This kind of burn was like a match burn (no blister). I happened to have a little dish of Glyco-Thymoline for sunburn, so I dabbed some on and it cooled right away. In a few moments it heated up again, so I repeated. In about half an hour I could stop treatment, and the next day there was barely a trace, no scab-then or later-and no pain.

"Shortly after, I was splattered with cooking grease. Again the treatment with Glyco-Thymoline, with the same spectacular results. This was all the more convincing because one small burn went unnoticed because of the pain of the main burn-and the next day the treated burn had nearly disappeared while the other little burn had a big blister on it and took a week or so to clear up."

Since these two incidents, our researcher reports that she has used the same regimen on many occasions, with uniform success. The relief of pain and the speeding up of the healing process seem, in her experience, to go together. She feels that some adaptation of this use of Glyco-Thymoline could be explored beneficially in the case of severe burns - even to the extent of suspending the affected part in a bath of the medication, perhaps under pressure.

Burn therapy is a field in itself, and there is little likelihood that such simple treatment will make headway in burn centers. At the A.R. E. Clinic, we have little exposure to patients with burns, but some of you in the field might find this information useful.

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, July, 1977, Volume 12, No. 4, page 176, Copyright © 1977 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

A 12-year-old boy found that he became hoarse. When instructing his school chums at the street crossing, and his teacher called this situation to his mother's attention. It was found that the hoarseness was only temporary: after sleeping through the night, the boy would awake the next day with his hoarseness gone; however, any strain on his voice became sufficient irritation to cause it to reoccur. His parents became concerned, and took him to an ear-nose-throat specialist, who did a laryngoscopy and found two large nodules on the vocal cords. Mother was well versed in the value of castor oil packs, so she put off any thought of surgery (the condition was not thought to be cancer) and applied packs to the neck three days in a row, left the treatment off for two days, and then repeated it. This regimen was continued for three months. The hoarseness gradually disappeared, and there were no symptoms when the packs were discontinued. A year later, the throat was re-examined by the same specialist, and all that was found was some minimal scar tissue - no nodules, no irritation. Three years afterward, there still were no symptoms.

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, July, 1977, Volume 12, No. 4, page 177, Copyright © 1977 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Narcolepsy is uncommon but not rare in the experiences of physicians. It can be caused by structural lesions, which affect the nervous system and cause excessive sleepiness. The "primary" syndrome, whose cause according to medical textbooks is unknown, ranges from somewhat embarrassing episodes of drowsiness during lectures or after-dinner conversations to severe sleepiness in which subjects spend nearly the entire day drifting in and out of sleep. When a pattern has been established early in life, it often continues without let-up throughout the person's normal life, unless treated with stimulants to prevent sleep. This therapy is not always successful and has its own set of side-effects.

In the Cayce material, at least one type of narcolepsy seemed to originate partially from a glandular disturbance. The following extract presents the case of a 30-year-old woman:

Q. Sleepiness?
A. This comes from the fagging of the nerves and muscular forces; and we will find there will be corrections in these directions as the general health is improved, and as this slowing of circulation to the superficial portion of body is corrected.
Q. Is the recent appearance of the sleepy feeling from the same cause as that when I was 17, when I slept practically one whole summer?
A. Partially; though then it was more acute than it has reached in the present. Glandular disturbance and slowing of superficial circulation, with the lack of carrying energies to the locomotories of the body.
Q. Is this akin to sleeping sickness?
A. Yes, it might be said to be a double-first cousin! (2769-1)

Some time ago, a 40-year-old woman was examined at the A. R. E. Clinic for what had been diagnosed as narcolepsy of four years' duration. She had been experiencing cataleptic seizures (a trancelike condition of the body, with rigidity of the muscles) when she laughed vigorously. These seizures had been occurring for three years before her arrival at the Clinic. A variety of stimulants had kept her going, but did not really keep her awake. Acupuncture treatments were unsuccessful.

We designed her treatment around the concept that this disease was in reality caused by a glandular imbalance, as Cayce had suggested. (It's interesting that the catalepsy occurs when the patient laughs. This is emotion, isn't it?) The patient was started on Atomidine, with gradually increasing dosages. Over the next month she began taking ten drops daily, five days a week, besides using castor oil packs, doing walking exercises and some yoga.

Response? Her catalepsy stopped immediately and she rapidly developed a normal energy pattern. Four months after starting the treatment she reported that she had not felt as good and as full of energy since her children were small (about 12 to 15 years ago); also she was able to work normally without tiring. The Cayce readings imply that Atomidine is valuable in treating a glandular deficiency; our response was indeed interesting.

Baby care is many things, but most problems related to it are solved through judicious use of common sense and following some simple suggestions. A Circulating File on Baby Care is available from the A.R.E. Membership Department, and many members have used the suggestions found in it in caring for their own children. One example of such research at the grass-roots level comes from Cleveland:

"Becoming A.R.E. members just recently, my husband and I for the first time really worked with the physical readings. . . Well, I'm very happy to announce that in following a reading from the Baby Care series (General), I used Carbolated Vaseline for my three-month-old daughter's facial skin irritation. She breaks out on the face, I feel, from just the irritation of milk she has spit tip, which gets on the face. This vaseline cleared up her face within 24 hours, and I now use it as a preventive measure to protect her skin. I suggested this treatment to my sister-in-law, who used the vaseline also on her daughter who had a severe case of diaper rash. Her daughter was helped, too. I had used various types of baby creams before the Carbolated Vaseline and none of them helped."

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, July, 1977, Volume 12, No. 4, page 179, Copyright © 1977 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Several years ago, Fred showed up at the A.R.E. Clinic with a three-month history of swelling and redness in his right foot and ankle, and recent development of back pain. He had been tested for rheumatoid arthritis and the latex test returned positive. Fred was 65. Aside from these ailments, he had been in excellent health.

His regimen of therapy followed very closely the suggestions given in the readings and in the Circulating File on arthritis: Atomidine in a cyclic series, Epsom salts baths each week, fullbody massages (at the (Clinic) followed by local peanut oil massages on his foot and ankle each night before retiring, visualization techniques, and a diet especially for sufferers of arthritis.

His response was rapid. In two months the swelling was gone, there was no discomfort or stiffness, and, to all intents and purposes, he was well.

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, March, 1983, Volume 18, No. 2, page 85, Copyright © 1983 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

MS is a disease of remissions and exacerbations; it leaves the patient debilitated one time, restored nearly to normal the next time. It is believed that the electrical lack of coherence created by the nerves' myelin sheaths causes this vacillation. The sheaths are affected by the disease. They apparently get better, then become worse again. For the proper transmission of impulses it is necessary that the myelin sheaths remain intact.

Many individuals with MS arrive at the Clinic. All of them at least once while they are here, see Dr. Ray Bjork. Often, Ray will bring his wife Mabel into the consultation room, for they have worked together on this problem for more than 20 years, ever since Ray was stricken with MS and had to quit active practice. He and Mabel followed the concepts and therapies in the Cayce readings, and he improved enough so that he could return to work at the Clinic. He still sees patients for consultation even though he is in his mid 70s.

At one time Ray had a phone conversation with one of his patients. Here's an extract from Barbara's letter that tells a story I thought you would like to read:

"As I said on the phone, Bruce has had no MS attacks in a year and a half (he had been having them once to twice yearly) and has learned to listen to what his body is telling him. When he's tired, he knows it's time to quit and not press on. He follows a low-fat diet (Swank diet) and recently learned that his cholesterol reading is 130 - not bad!

"We both really find the image of your glorying expression and your wife's wonderful attitude most helpful in dealing with MS. We have fond memories of our time with you in Phoenix.

"Bruce found his introduction to the techniques of meditation (while in Phoenix) particularly valuable. He has learned to combine his time with the wet cell appliance with meditation. This has markedly changed his life in many ways. Your wonderful letter makes us realize that you have a deep faith in God's healing power, as we do."

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, March, 1980, Volume 15, No. 2, page 94, Copyright © 1980 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Fred (from Ottowa, Ontario) came home from afour-daybusinesstripwithacoldandwhathe also called the flu. Then he remembered an article called "Balance - An End to the Common Cold" in The A.R.E. Journal. (Nov., 1976) That same afternoon, a member of his Study Group told him about using baking soda in hot water to help get rid of the cold. (His mother had also always recommended this treatment.)

So he took 1/2 teaspoonful of baking soda in a large mug of hot water and sipped it slowly until gone. Once every hour he did this until he went to bed. Altogether he consumed five mugs of water and 2 1/2 teaspoonsful of baking soda. The next day, when he awakened, he started out with the familiar mugful of soda water every two hours, and went to a meeting that evening. No more cold or flu, but he felt weak. He drank lots of fluids and orange juice that day. The next day, he worked half a day, took the soda water morning and evening. The day after that, he was feeling great and fully up to par.

But a strange, unexpected happening occurred. For four months, he had been sorely distressed by excessive sweating through the groin area, improper and "spasmodic" urination, and incomplete emptying of the bladder. Now, four months after the beginning of these symptoms and while experiencing the exhilaration of recovery from the severe cold, he realized that all these urinary troubles had completely disappeared. And, in the six months following, there has been no recurrence. Balance! Cayce said in his readings that with proper acid-alkaline balance, one could not get a cold. But Fred discovered that there are other advantages to be derived from a balanced body.

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, March, 1980, Volume 15, No. 2, page 95, Copyright © 1980 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

One of our correspondents, Barbara Deal of Dundas, Ontario, Canada, has been struggling with an allergy problem in her oldest son, who has also had asthmatic bronchitis. She writes:

"I might tell you of the amazing success I have had in treating this allergic child with castor oil. He has been allergic to animals, and if he comes in contact with dogs, cats, etc., his eyes will swell and itch. If left untreated, this reaction worsens until it is a full-fledged asthmatic attack. However, I now immediately wash hands and face, apply castor oil directly onto the eyelids and surrounding areas, and within half an hour, there is no sign of a reaction. Needless to say, not one of the doctors, nurses or lay people to whom I have suggested this treatment has taken me seriously."

Barbara's story reminds me of the Biblical injunction that the wisdom of God is foolishness to man. And castor oil seems so foolish! Perhaps it was one of God's children who named the plant the "Palma Christi" back in the Middle Ages.

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, September, 1980, Volume 15, No. 5, page 244, Copyright © 1980 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Swimming, chlorinated water and August sunshine in Arizona combined to inactivate Beth Grady, one of the Clinic children. She was not even up to eating Mexican food-a delicacy in this area. Her skin was red, her cheeks bright pink, her eyes watering while showing up the colors of the flag. She was miserable. Her mother, who is an R.N. and assistant director of our Temple Beautiful Program, proceeded to rub her down with castor oil from head to foot that evening, even dropping some of the oil in her eyes with an eyedropper, and put her to bed. By morning, her eyes were clear, there was no pain, the skin had turned to a light brown color - and Beth was back to normal!

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, September, 1980, Volume 15, No. 5, page 245, Copyright © 1980 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Alice Riddle exercised her ingenuity in using castor oil by inventing a small wool-flannel pad that folded over onto her earlobe. She soaked the pad in castor oil and held it in place with an earring that clips on from below. Three days of this, and the earlobe was clear of infection.

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, March, 1979, Volume 14, No. 2, page 83, Copyright © 1979 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

W. Lindsay Jacob, a psychiatrist . recently called and told us this story: A patient of his had tinnitus for over three years-so severe that it prevented her from working, and so baffling in its nature that her doctors sent her to a psychiatrist. Lindsay had heard how castor oil drops have really worked a variety of magical tricks with allergies, and suspected an allergy as the culprit in this frustrated patient. He started her on castor oil drops (6-8 each morning) on her tongue, followed by a glass of water. He was greatly excited at the response. After only four weeks, the tinnitus had completely disappeared and the patient was back at work.

One of my older patients was out on the job when lie noted a canker sore starting on the mucus membrane of his lower lip. He could hardly wait to get back home and put on some of that "evil tasting stuff you gave me." It was applied eight hours after the appearance of the canker sore, when it was really blooming, and again in half an hour. One hour later, when he started to use it again, the sore had disappeared. "That stuff" was what Cayce called Ipsab, which was discussed in an article in the previous (November) Journal.

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, January, 1973, Volume 8, No. 1, page 42, Copyright © 1973 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

A report from the father of a nineteen-year-old girl: "'Today is the 244th treatment. Fourteen months. I am using the castor oil packs and the wet cell appliance ... As I mentioned to you in previous letters, she had no reaction whatsoever for eight months of treatments. At eight months she was able to lift her leg six to eight inches off the floor. Since last March I have had her walking on ten-foot long walking bars. Her record is seven hundred feet. No one holds her. She is now trying to turn around by herself at the end of the bars ... She can now dial the telephone by herself from a written number and talks very intelligently. She is very much improved mentally. You would not believe that two years ago she had an IQ of forty. She is now learning to read in school. To sum it all up - she is improving slow but sure."

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, January, 1973, Volume 8, No. 1, page 43, Copyright © 1973 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

A fifty-year-old woman came to the Clinic some time ago as a hypothyroid patient, taking at the time two grains of thyroid a day. Her physical findings and laboratory workup were not really remarkable. She had been unable to think with agility and clarity and alertness most of' her life, having been found to have a depressed thyroid as a child. When she tried to go to college after finishing high school, she flunked out. She had always worked at jobs that required physical rather than mental ability.

Now she wanted to go back to college, and was afraid that she would not be able to make it. The Cayce readings implied many times that iodine was essential to the balanced functioning of the internal endocrine glands of the body. Because this was obviously a thyroid deficiency, if nothing else, and also because Cayce suggested that the imaginative forces of the body were associated with the functioning of the autonomic nervous system, which is so intricately related to the endocrine system - and, in addition, because man is created in the image of God and should share at least some of his mental potential, this woman was started on Atomidine in cyclic doses, only two drops at most, and not taking anything over the weekends, after using the iodine during the weekdays. Her thyroid was discontinued. The results:

1945                College attempted                      Failed
1970 (Aug.)     Atomidine therapy started           Passed: Ds & Cs
1970-71          1st semester college                    Dean's List
1971                2nd semester college                  Mostly As

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, January, 1973, Volume 8, No. 1, page 44, Copyright © 1973 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

A sixty-eight-year-old man was seen one year ago with a semi-rigid spine due to advanced hypertrophic arthritis. He could rotate his head right and left perhaps only five degrees either way, and his entire spine was limited drastically in all directions of movement. For one solid year, his wife used an electric massager on his upper spine and neck, ten minutes each night before he went to bed. This was every single night without a miss. Now, he has thirty degree rotation in each direction and can even look around over his shoulder. And his spine is much looser. The body can absorb calcium, and function of severely calcified vertebrae can be restored!

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, January, 1973, Volume 8, No. 1, page 45, Copyright © 1973 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

For over fourteen years, Dr. Ray Bjork has treated his multiple sclerosis with injections of My-B-Den and B-12 and vitamins by mouth. Since March, 1969, he has followed the therapy suggested in the Cayce readings for the treatment of MS. Some of the changes he has noticed since then are increased stamina, firmer and stronger muscles, improved skin texture and better circulation. He has reduced the dosages of the My-B-Den and vitamins to one-third of what it used to be. This has been done gradually, and with time he expects to eliminate them entirely.

Dr. Bjork wrote: "My stamina and energy are better. I can stand and converse with people much is I used to. I stand and take my shower, whereas for years I always sat in the shower. While these may not seem much to a lot of people, they are important changes in the life of an MS patient.

After noting his own progress, he then started a number of' MS patients on the therapy program. He reports about one of his patients: "When she started, she couldn't write. The headaches were bad, and now she doesn't have them nearly as bad. She's making more progress in walking. She has to use her walker, but is doing better." These are not cures, but they are encouraging early reports on a long, long therapy program.

A forty-six-year-old female, first seen in the Clinic in November, 1970, complained of pain in her right upper quadrant which had been present for approximately sixteen years. It had started after she had been through a bad spell with peritonitis. Her findings: tenderness at McBurney's point with no rigidity; thickened left labia minora; uterus enlarged, with a myoma the size of a hen's egg on right fundus; chronic phlebitis in left leg. She was placed on a rehabilitative program of (1) castor oil packs over lower abdomen three times a week (three days in succession), (2) head and neck exercises daily, and (3) light massage with a Cayce oil combination to the left leg each night before retiring. Results: three months later, pelvic examination revealed no further evidence of a fibroid; the uterus was normal size and non-tender; the abdomen was no longer giving the patient any trouble and was non-tender; the abdomen was no longer giving the patient any trouble and was non-tender; the labia had not changed, and the left leg has improved somewhat with the use of the massage. The woman had been extremely persistent in keeping up with the treatments as directed.

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, January, 1973, Volume 8, No. 1, page 46, Copyright © 1973 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Recently a boy about fifteen years old appeared in my office on crutches, about forty-eight hours after he had had a laceration of his right ankle sutured in one of the emergency rooms. It was a small laceration, about a half-inch long, but it hurt him so much he could not put his weight on his foot. The wound was healing nicely, with no sign of infection, but it was extremely tender to the touch. I assumed, since there was no tendon involvement, that there had been involvement of nerve tissue to an undue degree. The boy was instructed to keep a soft pad of cloth saturated with castor oil on the wound overnight for the next few nights, kept in place with an elastic bandage. The pain was nearly gone in twenty-four hours, absent in forty-eight hours, and he was playing football (against orders) in seventy-two hours - before the sutures were removed.

After a period of therapy, a little boy who could not be kept out of trouble in the examining room on his first visit lost his hyperactivity and became a strong proponent for castor oil packs. His father used them on his tummy while he watched television. For almost a year, he would not do without a pack for a single day, and the changes in activity were remarkable enough that he was presented to a symposium of doctors as a case in point.

This little boy was first seen at six years of age, in February, 1967, because of being so very thin, with a poor appetite, severe abdominal pains and severe emotional upsets and temper tantrums. He had a history of severe upper respiratory infections until he was two years old and had had many antibiotic shots. At the time of examination, he was unable to sit still at any time and was continually active.

After two months on the castor oil packs, he was sitting quietly and turning the pages of a book in the consultation room. The mother reported that the abdominal pains were much better. He was eating well and sleeping well and was more normal in every way although he was still having temper tantrums. He looked forward to taking the packs because they seemed to relax him.

He was seen monthly throughout 1967. He continued to progress and gain weight during the rest of the year, and in June, 1968, his weight was up to forty-seven pounds, and he was continuing with the castor oil packs. He was not seen during 1968 and 1969 because he was doing so well.

When I last saw him in January, 1971, his weight was up to sixty-four and one-half pounds. He had had no colds or infection during this whole year. He had not needed castor oil packs. He was doing so well in school that he was in the top reading group in his school. He had many friends, and during the Summer of 1970 he had been on the swim team and won seven ribbons. He seemed to be very well adjusted at that time. His mother stated that once in a while he would have a stomach-ache and would begin to feel a little out of sorts and would ask for his castor oil pack.

In another case, a speech therapist wrote: "After reading one of your medical bulletins, I suggested to the mother of a student of mine (chronic hyperkinetic brain syndrome, age three, also epileptic) that she rub castor oil on the child for a half hour before naps and bedtime. Site reports that after three days the child still has difficulty in getting to sleep, but that now she sings herself to sleep instead of' the whining-crying and that although she still awakens during the night, she sings instead of crying." The oil, of course, was massaged into the abdominal area.

Our January symposium two years ago centered on this distressing problem. Now comes a report from James Satterfield (Behavior Today, July 3, 1972) that hyperkinetic children apparently have an immature nervous system. This was shown by the EEG blips evoked by auditory stimuli, which were fewer in number and of less amplitude than those in the control group. Satterfield, a psychiatrist, studied thirty-one hyperactive children between the ages of six and nine, and twenty-one normal controls.

This is of interest to us, perhaps, because of the concept that the body can be returned to normal, in balance, in development, in function, and because the primary therapy we have been working with in the problem of hyperactivity is castor oil packs applied to the abdomen. The theory behind this is that such a vibratory influence in some manner causes this central portion of the autonomic nervous system to bring about a coordination and equalization within the body which would then promote a more rapid maturation of the nervous system than would otherwise be expected.

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, March, 1973, Volume 8, No. 2, page 86, Copyright © 1973 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Ibsab has lots of uses ... but May Hotten, D.O. tells us of a "new " one. One of his patients started his granddaughter on Ibsab rubs, with a Q-tip, for troubles in teething. It was highly successful, taking away the pain and irritation. Apparently, it also helped the parents to sleep at night!

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, March, 1973, Volume 8, No. 2, page 89, Copyright © 1973 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

David is currently hearing his twenty-first birthday. We received a report from his mother several months ago and will be seeing him again shortly, but his story is illustrative of the manner in which the body can be assisted in rebuilding parts of itself and correcting conditions which look otherwise permanent.

When David was born, his prognosis was guarded from the very first. At birth, he needed prolonged resuscitation, his cry was weak and retarded, his color was gray, and his breathing was labored. He was recognized to have central nervous system damage of an undetermined origin. The delivery was complicated by a face presentation, and it was later believed that the damage came from anoxia during the birth process.

David's parents kept working with him, doing all they could. The story is too long to tell here, but when he was given a thorough neurological examination five years ago, the diagnoses were: (1) organic brain syndrome, (2) diffuse cerebral atrophy, (3) bilateral nerve deafness, and (4) psychomotor retardation.

He was then placed on the patterning program developed by Dr. Spitz, which was continued over the next three and a half years. He was brought to the Clinic three years ago. The parents started using regular massage treatments and the radio-active appliance with gold chloride in the solution jar four days each week. He was given a special diet.

His I.Q. went from 70 to 110 during the first two years he was on the patterning program, but there were troubles in schooling. He was working at the second to fourth grade level in a class for deaf children five years ago. But last June, little more than four years after the parents started all this work with David, he graduated from high school. During the past seven months, his name has been on the prayer list at the Clinic, and during David's massages an affirmation has been used.

His mother, in telling the story, reminds the prayer group of two Bible selections: Psalm 32:8, "I will counsel you with my eye upon you," and Psalm 37:25, "I have been young, and now and old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging bread."

This is her story: "Dave graduated from high school this June with a B-plus average report card and a small scholarship, defense bond, from the National Association of the Deaf. Two bonds were given out of a class of twenty-one seniors. Dave was also awarded four outstanding achievement certificates during the year. We could hardly believe our ears when his teacher stated: 'We'll all miss Dave - he is the most helpful student'; 'We wish we had fifty Daves'; 'he can always come live with me'; 'I wish I had a classroom of Daves.' These comments came spontaneously from his teachers. We also observed how lovingly his teachers and other adult workers identified with him. We never believed in our fondest wishes that Dave would not only be rescued, but so honored. It wasn't too many years ago that one of his teachers gave him all D grades and stated that we should take him out of school, that he would never read or do anything well. That is past now and will remain there."

From the multitude of readings Cayce gave about children who were brain injured or retarded, there was always the admonition that those who were given care over this child be loving and prayerful as they sought to bring him back to a normal condition. And they were always instructed to be patient, persistent and consistent in all that they did for him. David's parents succeeded. He needs still more care, but the big hurdle has been overcome.

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, May, 1973, Volume 8, No. 3, page 131, Copyright © 1973 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

A woman from Minnesota wrote recently that Cayce "often had suggested castor oil, and I decided to try it for removing a calcium deposit lump on my foot. My doctor had suggested surgery ... I rubbed it once daily for about ten minutes, and within three weeks it was completely gone! Later I decided to try the same treatment again on a large wart on my forehead. It took about four weeks for that to disappear."

Another correspondent, writing from Ontario, Canada, decided to use castor oil locally for an intense irritation of the tissues surrounding the eyes. "At first," she wrote, "I tried putting the saturated pads in position oil the closed eyelids for several minutes, and was sufficiently encouraged by the results to decide oil an overnight application, with a light. bandage to hold the pads in position. The complete success of the experiment was remarkable, dispelling not only the irritation but the general lassitude that accompanied the condition.

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, May, 1973, Volume 8, No. 3, page 132, Copyright © 1973 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

The A.R.E. Clinic has an active prayer healing program. The study groups in this area are given a list each month of those who have asked to be put on the healing list. The list is reworked each month.

One woman who has been an A.R.E. member for many years and who is a patient at the Clinic recently asked to be put on the prayer list. She had been in an accident nearly a year ago and barely managed to come out of it with her life. Her recovery over the months, however, has been very encouraging. She had a problem with her vision, however, which had never cleared up. She did not know beforehand that the healing list even existed, so she asked that her name be added. tier problem was that she saw double all the time, one visual image being higher than the other unless she cocked her head to one side. She could not read, sew or drive. One week after the name was placed on the list she came into the Clinic, reporting to her doctor that suddenly one morning her vision was normal when she awakened and has been good ever since.

As we ponder why these things happen, it is well to look at some of the things Cayce had to say about group healing and how it may act in a person's life.

    As negative and positive forces are manifest, and as negative and positive forces in nature manifest in the various forms of vibratory forces that motivate healing forces, these then naturally become as a magnified force of the basic influence and principle that manifests.
    Yet the power is found as Within, and it is poured out in group for the healing of many ...
In the application in the present, then, mind not high things; condescend rather to things of low estate. Humble thyself as one to another, as ye did through those experiences, and so manifest in Him - how that the king even of kings suffered wine those that would betray even His fellowman.
    So in these applications, Hold fast to that love that He gave, and ye will find peace and harmony, much strength and much power that is gained only in humbling of self and self's own emotions, self's own self!   (688-4)

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, July, 1973, Volume 8, No. 4, page 174, Copyright © 1973 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

The "tennis elbow" syndrome afflicts more people than just those that swing a tennis racket. It becomes part of the clinical picture in a variety of individuals. Not too long ago, one of our non-medical correspondents wrote about his experiences:

"I have just turned sixty-eight and am considered extremely healthy for my age. (I can run a mile in a little over five minutes.) However, there are times when I feel much older. Not long ago my elbows pained so badly that I was unable to use a pen or pencil. The doctors diagnosed it as tennis elbow. In reading the life of David Kahn ... I ran across a remedy for arthritis and, being at a point where I was snatching at straws, I used a portion of the remedy specified with most gratifying results. It consisted of soaking the elbows in a very hot solution of Epsom salts, massaging the painful area with peanut oil, applying a peanut oil pack and heat pads for a couple of hours. Just two such treatments, and I regained the full use of my arms in every respect."

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, July, 1973, Volume 8, No. 4, page 175, Copyright © 1973 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

The Palma Christi - the Palm of Christ - is the name given during the Middle Ages to the common castor oil plant. No one knows exactly why it was so named. But it's interesting to consider the importance of symbols and the place symbology plays in the lives of men.

Was it just coincidence when our son, David, told us one morning that he had had a dream that Jesus put his hand on his back, and his back got better? David had fallen on the sharp edge of a step just before going to bed; the blow had been so severe we were apprehensive about a possible fracture of a vertebra. It hurt him so much, at eight years of age, that nothing helped except to keep him quiet. We placed a castor oil pack on his injured part and he slept on the floor beside us that night, very restless until about four o'clock a.m., when he suddenly quieted down and went soundly to sleep.

When he awakened and told us the dream, we examined his back. It was fully normal in all respects. There was no pain, no aching, no sign of injury. David was well. What did the job? Was it imagination? Was it only the soothing of the oil pack? Was it a vibratory effect? Was it a spiritual healing? Certainly my medical experience of more than twenty years told me that there Should have been some very painful muscles and bones in the morning at the very least. How does healing come about anyway?

Garth Nicholson, who heads the Electron Microscopy Laboratory of the Salk Institute in LaJolla, California, grows cultures of normal and cancer cells in his laboratory. He reports that one of the lectins which they have purified "from toxic local wild castor plants in the marsh regions of San Diego County . . . can kill cancer cells at concentrations at which normal cells are not affected." The process apparently is related to the ability of the protein to agglutinate apparently is related to the ability of the protein to agglutinate cancer cells and destroy them by a process operating at the cell membrane structural level.

By this time, no story about the castor bean plant would surprise me - I've heard too much about its healing power as found in the oil extracted from the beans. But let's consider man's place in the larger scheme of things, for healing of the body is the potential of every human being. And we should know our nature better - then, perhaps, we might know more about how a lectin destroys the cancer cell, how an oil pack might ease an injury or an illness.

The readings relate illness and health to error and right action; this concept is superimposed on a cosmic plan that places man in the center of things, with a spiritual origin and a spiritual destiny. Space, time and patience become important concepts to contend with and work with.

    As has been given, error or separation began before there appeared what we know as the Earth, the Heavens; or before Space was manifested.
    This becomes hard to conceive in the finite mind; as does the finite mind fail to grasp the lack of or no time. Yet out of Time, Space, Patience, is it possible for the consciousness of the finite to know the infinite.
    Hence, then, the interpretations of Spirit as it manifests to the sons of men must follow closely what we have chosen as Holy Writ.
    Before this began (this not as history but as the basis of the interpretation), we have had how one Amilius with that projection of self brought into being the awareness of desires as related to relationships with the beings - or matter - about.
    Hence there began what is now known as the correlating, or the cohesive activity, or the relativity of matter as it relates to what becomes positive and negative.
    Remember, negative is only error. (262-115)

The human body and its mystery is like space and its infinitude, like the atom and its vastness, for we understand none of these with our finite minds - even as we understand God only partially and our own spiritual nature with limited vision. But all of these mysteries help us understand that healing of the body might well come to us in many forms, for we indeed do not know what we are - not yet!

Thus the lowly castor bean plant, which someone called the Palma Christi, may have many secrets locked within its nature which could be a healing influence when its full potential is discovered.

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, September, 1973, Volume 8, No. 5, page 221, Copyright © 1973 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

One of our correspondents, who has been an active A.R.E. member for many years, wrote about his experience with castor oil packs as an adjunct to childbirth. He reports that his wife "used the castor oil packs during labor with our second child, and she very strongly feels that it was responsible for the brief delivery - four hours as opposed to twenty-seven hours labor with our first child. Furthermore, we have given the newborn castor oil rubs daily and find her to be a most remarkable baby in her disposition and also very alert."

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, September, 1973, Volume 8, No. 5, page 222, Copyright © 1973 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

A 58-year-old Oklahoma woman tells the story of how her skin cancers bothered her constantly for more than 15 years, until she started applying one of the Cayce remedies for such problems. Her face was the site of the trouble. She stayed out of the sun or wore a wide-brimmed hat to shade the sun from her skin. But when she discovered what to do, things began to change. Here is her story:

"There was a tiny bump on my forehead which never healed. It formed a scab, it came off, bled a little, formed another scab, ad infinitum. I finally mixed 2 teaspoonsful of castor oil with 1 teaspoonful of baking soda and placed some of this on the irritated place, covering it with a Band-Aid. In three days, the irritation disappeared from sight but not from touch. I could still feel it. At the end of two more days treating it like this, it was gone and has not recurred."

The skin is an organ that has always fascinated me. It can be the skin we love to touch, or it can be disfigured and hence repel us. It is known to have a great deal of resistance to disease, but researchers don't really know why. In acupuncture, millions of unsterilized needles have punctured the skin, yet it is rare indeed that any skin infection is reported. I have never seen any in my practice; however, some treatments have had a minimum of sterilization.

It has been reported in these pages that castor oil used on puncture wounds has had consistently excellent responses. Since castor oil tends to increase locally the activity of the lymph, it appears that the Cayce readings saw immunological responses coming from the skin itself by the use of castor oil.

Recently some research on the skin indicated that four minor categories of cells are interspersed among the major cell groups within the skin layer. These four are: melanocytes; the Merkel cells, which are probably related to the mechanical sensing ability of the skin; the Langerhans cells, involved in the body's immune responses; and the lymphocytes, which interact with the Langerhans. The Langerhans cells originate in the bone marrow and play a pivotal role in signaling the immune system that the body is under attack from foreigners. That signal is then transmitted to the lymphocytes, and the response is to remove the foreign material.

The researchers, R.E. Billingham and J.W. Streilein of the University of Texas, explain that the epidermis (the outermost layer of skin) may now be considered similar to the blood in several important ways, the immune response being perhaps the most important.

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, September, 1983, Volume 18, No. 5, page 221, Copyright © 1983 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Experiences people have had with the oil of the Palma Christi - or castor oil - are always interesting and informative, and continue to provide us with more insights into how the body really does heal itself. From a Study Group member in California comes an account of a unique application of castor oil packs. Melodie's parents had a large degree of difficulty centering around the snoring of the male member of the species. It seems that everything had been tried. Her parents had even gone to separate rooms so that sleeping would be better. But this is her story:

"My parents are both sleeping better now, thanks to the castor oil pack. My mother has insisted that my dad wear a pack every night for the last two weeks (pack with heating pad 1 hour - then just the pack all night).

"Now instead of her being kept awake by loud, gutteral, choking snores and frequent angry outcries/yelling originating from nightly dreams of fighting, she is occasionally awakened by the most soft, whimsical giggling coming from the original offender - my dad! And the snoring has ceased totally! Mom also reports an enhanced sense of humor, a very affectionate husband and a spirit of cooperation that just won't quit."

Another castor oil story comes from Boulder, Colorado. Linda had been encouraged to attempt a bit of personal research after reading an article entitled "Research Is Often a Singular Affair." This is her story:

"I had a skin cancer on my nose, near my right eye. It has disappeared after three days of applying castor oil first, then sprinkling baking soda over the spot! I had had the cancer two years, trying every natural method I had read or heard about. Previously I tried a mixture of castor oil with a small amount of baking soda, but with no success."

However, she tried a slightly different method and it worked! Research is indeed a singular affair, isn't it? And so often successful.

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, November, 1983, Volume 18, No. 6, page 262, Copyright © 1983 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

William Michael Donato tells a fascinating story about his experience with a lipoma. "In 1975," he relates, "I noticed a growth on my back. Concerned, I visited my family physician, who told me that the lump on my spine was a 'fatty tumor,' and hence benign. He said that the only reason for removing it would be for cosmetic purposes. I had more or less resigned myself to an operation in a few months. I had read what the Edgar Cayce readings had said about almonds ["...those who would eat two to three almonds each day need never fear cancer." (1158-31)] and thought that I really didn't have anything to lose since the tumor seemed to be getting bigger. In profile, it reminded me of a goose egg.

"I started eating almonds at breakfast until I was eating 40 a day every day. After a while, it didn't seem to be getting any bigger. After seven to nine months (approximately) I thought the tumor looked a little smaller. My mother confirmed it. It kept on shrinking. To all intents and purposes, it was gone in a few months more. I sometimes find it difficult even to find the area where it was.

"During this time the only additions to my life style were the almonds and, sometimes, grape juice. Grape juice was also mentioned in one of the readings (or grape products, preferably Concord grapes). The tumor seemed to shrink a little faster when I was using both."

Thanks, William Michael, for adding your experience to these pages so that others may share in that bit of triumph that always comes with overcoming a difficulty in the body.

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, May, 1982, Volume 17, No. 3, page 131, Copyright © 1982 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

A Spanish lady who writes English much like I write Spanish, recently expressed her gratitude for her improved scalp and hair condition, thanks to crude oil. She writes: "I truly appreciate your information and let you know I order crude oil for my hair and use from June, and lose hair loss but have new hair. This is the first days stop lose. Please accept my apologies for the delay I let you know. (I write Spanish.)" Thanks, Rosa, for your thoughtful note.

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, July, 1982, Volume 17, No. 4, page 179, Copyright © 1982 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

One of the values of research at the personal level is the realization by the individual that something real has happened within his own experience, and that he has produced data that, once shared, may be meaningful and helpful to other people. Ian Dorian, an A.R.E. member from St. Louis, shared this bit of information with me and I'm passing it on, because it may stimulate in some of you who read these pages a desire to see if such effects in the human body can come about in your own experiences. This research deals with the use of castor oil packs.

Ian has been afflicted recurrently with acute tonsillitis. He began using castor oil packs around his throat and found that one hour-long treatment produced excellent results. Five times he repeated this and now, for the past five-and-a-half years, he has had no recurrence of the tonsil infection.

Being an enterprising soul, Ian sought out a niece and a friend-both of whom had laryngitis-and suggested this kind of treatment. The results? "Excellent." In another instance, his wife developed a uterine infection, which became the object of further research. Three times he had her apply a castor oil pack on her lower abdomen for 1 to 11/2 hours. The results? The same. Perhaps Ian's enthusiasm colors the outcome a bit, but perhaps his desire for good results brings that healing energy that one does not always find readily available. Whatever the full story -whether it be the Racinus communis and its oil, the pure desire for healing, or the vibratory healing quality generated by our correspondent - the outcome, in the eyes of the individuals involved, was healing of the human body. Perhaps that's what it's all about.

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, September, 1982, Volume 17, No. 5, page 224, Copyright © 1982 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Stephen Hasman tells the story of his brother being stung by a bee in Ohio. He came into the house with "goose bumps" on his arm, the evidence of the bee sting showing clearly. It was already sore and the swelling had become markedly evident. Stephen, who has had much experience with castor oil, got out his bottle and placed just one drop "on the welt which had an open puncture on it." In less than ten minutes, his brother reported that the soreness had gone and the swelling for the most part had subsided. After supper, there were no complaints. His brother's wife was asked why they didn't have castor oil in their home.

From Kentucky comes another report dealing with this same oil being used for arthritis:

"Since the early 1970s when I first obtained your book, Edgar Cayce and the Palma Christi, I have been experimenting with castor oil. I have also been reading The A.R.E. Journal to see if my results are the same as others.

"My brother-in-law was scheduled for an operation on his finger (the one next to his forefinger) to scrape off the crystals that had formed there and that were giving him a lot of pain. His mother suggested he check with me on the castor oil, and I told him I didn't think it would help as the finger was really in bad shape. However, as it turned out, he had quite a herd of cattle and was unable to have the operation as scheduled, so used the castor oil anyway - just rubbed it on, he said. Two weeks later he visited his doctor who told him, 'Well, it's gone."' Another story from the same source:

"I have a lady friend and neighbor in her late 80s who called me one day. The two middle fingers of her hand were locked and had been for years. Her thumb was twice its regular size, and the little finger and forefinger were giving her so much pain she was crying and couldn't use them. I stressed to her that it would not be possible to unlock the fingers or correct the thumb, but based on the results of my brother-in-law, we might be able to save the other two fingers - or at least stop the pain. She didn't have a bathtub, so we got a container for a foot bath and used a pound or so of Epsom salts in which I asked her to bathe her feet for half an hour each evening, all the time pressing, rubbing or flexing her feet (simply to keep her hands in the solution). I told her then to wrap the hands in castor oil for the evening and place a castor oil pack on her stomach with a heating pad. She called a couple of days later saying that the fingers had stopped paining and she was continuing treatment.

"I know a couple of other people who were bothered with crystals, so I thought it would be interesting to take a picture of her hands since no one would believe it without the pictures. So I borrowed a camera and went over no later than two weeks after she had started treatments. To my immense surprise, she had those two fingers unlocked and was making a quilt. She said she used the foot bath with water as hot as she could stand it for the time I stressed, then put the castor oil pack on her stomach with a heating pad and wrapped her hands with castor oil cloths, put on rubber gloves, took her magnifying glass and a book to bed with her and alternated her hands on the heating pad the rest of the evening. No pain in the other fingers, thumb greatly improved, fingers still working okay and she still works on the quilting. Whenever they begin to ache, she just gives them a repeat treatment."

Quite amazing, isn't it? Some of these stories definitely touch new areas in healing.

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, November, 1982, Volume 17, No. 6, page 279, Copyright © 1982 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

We receive many letters telling the story of triumph over a problem by using something that simply upgrades the body's physiology and presto! the disease exists no longer. Simple, isn't it, but difficult to subject to present-day research standards since the human body remains a mystery, the human mind and soul even more of a mystery, and disease remains still a result of abnormal body physiology. All these defy research in one way or another.

This particular story involves a mouthwash (which has a venerable history of uses other than simply a mouthwash) that overcomes a disease process which medicine is unable to deal with successfully. Perhaps because of an altered pH factor induced in the vagina - who can prove what it might be? Here is the woman's story:

"My daughter came to San Francisco to visit me because she needed to see a gynecologist about a long-neglected vaginal infection. The doctor took one look at her and told her he was sorry, but that she not only had an infection, but she also had Herpes and that he could not treat the vaginal infection or even examine her until the Herpes blisters had cleared up. As to when that could be, he could not say, because as yet there is no proven medical treatment for Herpes.

"Being very depressed, my daughter asked her evangelical Christian friends if she could go to church with them and if they would pray for her. That night, upon her return, she opened the bathroom medicine cabinet and saw my Glyco-Thymoline on the shelf. Reading the label, she saw that one of its uses was as a douche, and so felt it would be safe to dilute it to douche strength and use it to wash the area. At the time, she said it felt soothing, and much to her surprise by the next morning the Herpes blisters had noticeably begun to dry. Using this method three times a day, within three days the blisters had dried and she was able to go to the gynecologist for her examination and treatment, and in due course her original vaginal infection also responded to the doctor's medication."

Fascinating, isn't it, the way the body heals itself. Perhaps, if the woman's daughter had alternated the Glyco-Thymoline with Atomidine douches after the herpes had cleared up, the vaginal infection would have done the same. Thanks, R.G., for your story - you have helped the cause of healing!

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, November, 1982, Volume 17, No. 6, page 281, Copyright © 1982 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

I am not sure whether the following story has a near relative in the Cayce data or if it was simply an adaptation of a specific therapy treatment. The story comes from Esther Spearrin, who has attended A.R.E. conferences at Seabeck (near Seattle) for many years:

"I had my knee operated on after an injury and, because a piece of the bone was broken right at the knee joint, surgery was done to 'hold the piece from falling into the knee joint.' According to my orthopedic doctor, I had one bolt, two pins and wires inserted into my leg just at the knee joint or just above the knee joint to hold these together while they healed. They healed well and there was no trouble until I came to Seabeck in 1974. Then I noticed that the knee began hurting so that I could not walk upstairs without pain. I had debated before about buying a gallon of castor oil to use in packs, etc. Now I had to do so. After purchasing the oil I applied a cloth saturated with the castor oil over my knee, put plastic over that, and then a dry cloth wrapped around the knee to keep it in place overnight. I did this just a couple of times, and the rest of the week at Seabeck I had no trouble. Even now, after several years, no more difficulty has been experienced with the injury of the knee."

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, March, 1980, Volume 15, No. 2, page 49, Copyright © 1980 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

A report about castor oil packs and their use in the course of human illness and health: Arno Erath developed a leg problem while exercising; it was diagnosed as a torn muscle fiber in the left leg. He writes:

"After a checkup in the hospital, the doctor told me that I had to stay in bed for three days or more, and it would take about three weeks until I would be able to walk normally again. This I did not like at all. So I went home and did the following: Right on the spot of the sharp pain, I applied Musterol (obtained from the U.S.A.). In addition to this, I put a castor oil pack on the leg, well bandaged. Every four hours I changed the pack.

"The result was astonishing! I felt the pain vanishing by the hour. After one day, I was able to walk slowly. After three days there was still some tension left, yet I could walk just as if nothing had happened."

Thanks, Arno, for the story. It has remained somewhat of a mystery as to why so many people enjoy making false prophecies out of the prognoses of their doctors. I guess it must be the joy of seeing their own bodies beat the odds as quoted by the physical body's best-qualified odds-makers.

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, May, 1980, Volume 15, No. 3, page 146, Copyright © 1980 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Recently, a 27-year-old woman came to the A.R.E. Clinic with fever, enlarged lymph nodes in the cervical neck region, and a throat so sore she could hardly swallow. She was eight months' pregnant at the time, and, with the headache, appeared to have symptoms of sinusitis, also. She was not given any antibiotics, but was placed on a liquid diet and told to use a GlycoThymoline pack over the sinuses. She misunderstood the directions and used the pack instead around her neck, covering the enlarged glands. The pack was applied all during the night, and in the morning the throat was normal and the lymph-node swelling was gone. Four days later she still had no signs of the problem.

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, May, 1979, Volume 14, No. 3, page 121, Copyright © 1979 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Children, as a rule, are more subject to infectious diseases than adults. The following story comes from my correspondence with a registered nurse, Peggy, whose baby developed ear trouble at the age of nine months. Her pediatrician prescribed antibiotics and a decongestant. One month's treatment left the infant with fluid behind the left tympanum and a residual inflammation. A change of decongestants for another month left the other ear more inflamed, a condition which brought about a further change of decongestants. If the ears had not cleared in another three weeks, drainage tubes would have to be inserted by an otologist. It was at this point that our correspondence began. Drawing on my experience in the field of healing and my familiarity with the Cayce material, I wrote as follows:

"Briefly, I think these things might be helpful as far as your baby is concerned. I would try to get her on a very alkaline diet. This is a bit difficult for a one-year-old baby, but I think it would be important. Then castor oil drops in the ears at bedtime and early in the morning; Glyco-Thymoline packs to the neck for half an hour or so once a day, with packs going around to include the cervical glands. She should have lots of Vitamin C-1 think you can get this in liquid form now - and high dosages of this would be helpful.

"Massages to the upper back for 15 to 20 minutes each day gently would be a good thing and castor oil packs to the abdomen. This should also be done once a day for about an hour, and I would use the heating pad.

"Don't forget that the laying on of hands by those that love the child are part of the whole process of healing, and as involved in the healing profession as you are, you are probably already doing that sort of thing. The thing I would suggest is to have your daughter lie on your lap as she goes to sleep - in taking her afternoon nap or whatever - and hold your hands on her head behind the ears almost encompassing the ears. She might not like to have her ears covered with your hands, but if she doesn't mind that would be good. Then just let yourself be a channel of healing and let the energy flow through your body and onto the ears themselves.

It was two months before I heard what had happened to the wee girl. Her mother answered for her at that point and expressed the daughter's approval of the therapy program. Here is her letter:

"The baby is fine now; her ears have cleared up completely. Just before I received your letter, I had started giving her increased doses of Vitamin C, rubbing some castor oil over her abdominal area at night, and saturating the front of her diaper with castor oil as well. However, I did not use heat. I also gave her a little Glyco-Thymoline occasionally by mouth because I felt she had a tendency to be acid. As soon as I received your letter, I began adding your suggestions to these treatments. When I took her back to the doctor a few days later, he was surprised to find that her ears had cleared up completely. Her improvement was especially disconcerting to him since she had refused his prescribed medicine since her last visit to his office. Thank you for your time and information. Our love and blessings."

Thank you, Peggy, for your report. I just wonder if you thought of those things to do on your own all by yourself, or did you read my mind; or perhaps was I doing a mind-reading job on you? After all the thousands of readings Cayce gave in which he obviously communicated with other people's minds, I have given up trying to figure who thought of what first - or are we all psychic?

Seeing how Peggy's little girl responded to her touch, her concern, and some of the ancient applications that have been for the most part discarded by modem medical practices, I recalled what Charles Mayo of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, is reported to have said: "The drugless healer is one of the best things that has come into the life of the present." Might we not put Peggy into the classification of a drugless healer? I think so.

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, July, 1979, Volume 14, No. 4, page 167, Copyright © 1979 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Castor oil packs are used frequently in our treatment of individuals afflicted with this serious condition. The packs are helpful in a variety of ways, one of them being that they soften the skin locally where they are applied. From the many readings Cayce gave for people with this condition, I found that more than once he offered the suggestion that the skin should be washed with bicarbonate of soda prior to applying the flannel packs saturated with castor oil. Since the soda does an excellent job of cleansing the skin after the packs are removed (it is one of the few substances that will cut the oil itself), I figured that its use may have some relationship to the removal of toxins from the skin before the packs; thus the toxins would not be carried into the body by the heat and the oil.

Last summer, one of our scleroderma patients used the packs on his abdomen while he stayed at our out-patient residence, and he forgot to take one of them with him when he left. Marguerite Haugen, director of the O.P.R., thought she would just wash it out and send it to him. When she opened it up, there were black marks scattered across the entire pack, and these marks did not disappear when the pack was washed.

Another patient of ours found her packs turning black after just a few treatments. This patient had polycythemia vera, a condition in which there is a serious overproduction of red blood cells. She needed to have blood removed from her system regularly. The full therapy Cayce suggested was not implemented, but with just the use of the packs and infrared lamp treatments, her trips to the hospital to have blood removed became less frequent.

It would be interesting to discover if the heat and the castor oil actually "drive" materials from the skin into the deeper regions of the body. Indeed the patient, experiencing the unusual events often related to disease, remains our richest source of information about what is going on in this wonderful creation called the human body.

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, July, 1979, Volume 14, No. 5, page 208, Copyright © 1979 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

You may remember my recounting in this column about a method of possibly relieving jet lag? (See Sept., 1978, A.R.E. Journal.) Well, Nydia Delvalle read about it and utilized the information very practically. Here is her story:

"I left Panama on September 19 at 8 p.m. and arrived in Frankfurt the next day at 1 1 a.m. (5 p.m. Germany time). All in all it was about 2 hours later when I got to where I was going and was able to fill a bathtub with warm water and add the epsom salts and sodium bicarbonate I had brought with me. I soaked for 20 minutes (nearly fell asleep) and was very careful not to cross either my arms or my legs over my body. I went to bed shortly thereafter, slept my normal 8 hours and got up in the morning ready for breakfast as though I had been living here all my life. I was so normal I even had my usual bowel movement after breakfast.

"This is quite a different story from previous trips abroad, when I had been disoriented for about 5 days or maybe more, until my system became accustomed to the new time schedule."

So, after a fifteen-hour flight, a simple procedure and a good night's sleep, Nydia was normalized and her pineal was working as usual in her new location.

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, July, 1979, Volume 14, No. 5, page 211, Copyright © 1979 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

From the A.R.E. Dallas Council Newsletter comes the following story. Bob Linscott had apparently been having severe arthritic symptoms for years and, at the same time, was severely allergic to bee, wasp and yellow jacket venom - to the point that he became a hospital emergency patient each time he was stung. The residual would last for days. At least this was his history. Here is his story:

"I am 62 years of age, weigh 220, stand 6 feet tall. All my life I've worked hard. The last seven or eight years have been pretty bad. I've been unable to put on my socks or tie my shoes. I could not move my arm to scratch my back. In other words, no matter what, I could not move without pain, because my body was so stiff. I had cramps at night. My wife Wanda was trained by Emmaline Barker to give massages. After the third massage I caught myself turning my neck to look back - something I had not done in five years. Today I am free from pain and do everything - including climbing a 40-foot ladder all day.

"On July 11th I was stung by three yellow jackets. I told the men working with me that rather than rushing me to the hospital as they normally would, to rush me the castor oil from my truck (I carry it with me). They did and I rubbed it on the bites, then sat down to meditate. As I did, I felt the pain, itch and poison start flowing from the upper part of my leg and down and out my toes! Today is July 12th, and I worked all day. I feel great-just fine. Thank God, the A.R.E. and Emmaline!"

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, November, 1979, Volume 14, No. 6, page 262, Copyright © 1979 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Not many suggestions from the readings were directed toward the healing of animals, but no ingenious human being will let his beloved pet suffer if he has any idea of how to relieve his discomfort.

Four stories have come to my attention, all from patients who have been working with their own bodies at a creative level of healing. Three of these, incidentally, deal with that most common treatment in our experience: castor oil packs. The other comes from a woman who grew up on a farm where she was in charge of the horses. An old friend of the family was a vet who often came to visit her. He would talk to Sarah, giving her little jewels of wisdom about the care of horses. One day Sarah had a headache, and the vet told her that if she would lay her head on the side of the horse, her headache would go away. It did. The old vet told her, too, that if a horse cut itself on a barbed-wire fence, the scar from the injury would produce gray hair if nothing were done about it. But, he informed her, if she would bathe that cut in castor oil every day until it healed, the hair would grow back in its natural color. Sarah discovered that this application always worked, and she found it interesting that castor oil was of as much value to her animals as it had often been to herself.

Another story deals with a lesion on a dog's back. The lesion grew rather rapidly and did not respond to any cleansing or ointments applied to the troubled spot. Grace, the dog's owner, thought about taking her dog to a vet, but she decided to try using castor oil first. She immediately started applying the oil liberally to the diseased area, which had grown to be almost three inches in diameter. Results came rapidly. The next morning the dog no longer scratched at the lesion, and within three days the healing process had become clearly evident. After a few more days the therapy was no longer needed, and the dog's hair had grown back.

Not many of you own a duck, so you will probably not have the opportunity to treat one; but you may find this duck story interesting. It comes from Mary and Art, both A.R.E. members, who moved north and became part-time farmers. Gradually they stocked their farm with many animals, including some ducks. One day Mary noticed that one of their ducks was walking with a limp (a duck limp?). Investigation showed a growth and a swelling on the middle toe of one of the duck's feet. The growth had become quite large, and the new farmers were concerned about it. Mary had many times used castor oil herself for a variety of problems; so she fashioned a ducksfoot glove, soaked it with castor oil, placed it on the ailing foot and covered it with plastic. The treatment was administered twice a day for three days, each application lasting an hour or two. Finally the swelling decreased markedly and no more therapy was needed. Within a few days the foot was normal again.

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, March, 1977, Volume 12, No. 2, page 81, Copyright © 1977 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Every first aid kit, in the estimation of one cooperating doctor, should contain a small bottle of castor oil, some Band-Aids, a castor oil pack and the willingness to fast. He did not explain how that willingness would be packed with the rest of the items, but he did tell me why he was strongly in favor of including all four.

It seems that he went out into the relative wilderness with his wife, who shortly developed a severe bout of nausea and vomiting. His examination led him to diagnose her condition as coming from overeating and the change in living conditions, from a "virus," or from a cleansing resulting from a period of meditation in which she felt especially close to the Indians who had lived in that area. It looked like things were in a bad way, since he had not brought any medications along with him, and they were miles from a pharmacy. Then he remembered his castor oil pack. This was applied with tenderness and compassion, and there was certainly a degree of healing in that attitude. The willingness to fast was already in hand (You should have seen her look at any food offered her), and her recovery was on the way. She stopped vomiting and in 24 hours was fired up and ready to go again.

Then her physician husband used his fingers to test a heating element to see if it was on or off. His fingers were slower than the heating element in transmitting the message, and the pads of his right middle and index fingers were burned. He had that little bottle of castor oil handy, however. The fingers were doused in the castor oil immediately, and after an hour Band-Aids, also wet with castor oil, were applied to both fingers. The pain subsided almost at once. He confided that he put fingernail pressure on the nerve centers (which I determined were also acupuncture points) of his hand and wrist just proximal to the burned fingers. The next morning his fingers showed no real sign of the burns, although blisters had already started to form and the seared tissue where his fingers had touched the hot element was obvious.

So, with this story in hand, I determined that I would also include these four little items in my first aid kit every time I departed from close contact with civilization.

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, March, 1977, Volume 12, No. 2, page 85, Copyright © 1977 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

The use of castor oil in treating drug overdose is perhaps the latest therapeutic triumph registered by the plant, which the imaginative people of the Middle Ages called the Palma Christi. It has been reported from Canada (by Dr. Michael Diamond) and from the University of Medicine in Miami, Florida, that individuals who have attempted suicide by taking large overdoses of drugs are being given quantities of castor oil greatly exceeding the ounce or two usually taken as a cathartic or for inducing labor in pregnant women. Nearly a pint is administered twice a day, and patients who were comatose and expected to remain so for four or five days recovered in 24 hours. Some physicians believe that the castor oil absorbs the drugs, quickly removing them from the system. Thus the harmful effects of the body's prolonged exposure to drugs are prevented. Some doctors add charcoal tablets to the castor oil; this acts as a detoxifying agent and enhances the curative effect. This treatment could well save the lives of many who have taken large drug overdoses.

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, March, 1977, Volume 12, No. 2, page 86, Copyright © 1977 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

For speakers with sore throats or for teachers, preachers or mothers who call children to dinner-Cayce suggested a remedy. This therapy was actually offered to a questioner who found that his throat was a bit "foggy" whenever he began a lecture. The rather simple instructions could be followed by anyone desirous of the same sort of results.

. Beat the white of an egg very stiff, add a little sugar (very little), and the juice of half a lemon. Stir this, and take about half the quantity just before there is to be the lecture. After such a lecture, take the rest. This should create a clearing influence for the mucous membranes of throat, larynx and also contribute to betterment of purifying all the passages through which there are the activities of air as well as foods. (3011-2)

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, September, 1977, Volume 12, No. 5, page 230, Copyright © 1977 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

From the Journal of the American Medical Association, April 21, 1900, comes a communication by a Dr. Harold Moyer of Chicago about our old friend, castor oil. Dr. Moyer was interested in the treatment of facial neuralgia - which gave even more trouble in those days than it does today. Dr. A. J. Ochsner had called Moyer's attention to the use of castor oil after he noticed it mentioned in a German medical journal.

Two ounces of castor oil, given daily by mouth over a period of six to twelve days, produced "brilliant" results in at least 13 consecutive cases from Ochsner's surgical clinic at Rush Medical College. Moyer subsequently used the same approach on 15 cases over the two years following his contact with Ochsner. Of the seven cases observed, only five were facial neuralgia, the other two being brachial problems. Results for the most part were highly gratifying. One such case was that of a 37-year-old man whose facial neuralgia had lasted for six months. At the end of one week's treatment with daily ingested castor oil, the pain had disappeared completely; no recurrence reported. Strange substance, this oil from the seed of the Racinus cotizinunis! One wonders why, in the Middle Ages, someone called this plant the Palm of Christ or Palma Christi.

In the Cayce readings, it was recommended only several times to be given orally, rather than externally in pack form. However, Cayce once remarked that those who have a castor oil consciousness should take castor oil. I might mention that Dr. Moyer added a few drops of the essence of anise to each pint of castor oil - to make it less offensive - and gave his patients the oil well mixed in with Dogshead ale!

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, September, 1977, Volume 12, No. 5, page 231, Copyright © 1977 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Muscular dystrophy is one of today's puzzles in the medical field. The cause is not readily apparent and treatment is not really aimed at curing; rather, the patient seeks a certain degree of rehabilitation, and some effort is made to stem the progress of the disease.

One of our out-of-town patients was recently at the Clinic for an extended stay. Though wheelchair-bound, she had a tremendously buoyant attitude and constructive frame of mind. These qualities always bode well for any patient - from what we've experienced. Pat rapidly improved under the care of the therapy department, with the help of biofeedback, psychotherapy, and the use of several suggestions made for this condition from the Cayce readings. She has done well in the interim since her visit here.

An interesting aspect of this case, however, was the note written by her mother about an illness Pat had suffered as a child, an illness which she thinks may have contributed in a major manner to the development of her muscular dystrophy. She had read in one issue of the Medical Research Bulletin about the manner in which enemas might influence the activity of the Peyer's patches and bring about a serious breakdown of the body forces. The reading below was the one that affected her so strongly, and she thought that it might indeed give a clue to the real cause of her daughter's illness:

For the excess use of salines to flush or to cleanse the colon has reduced in blood more of that which causes that plasm. Thus the inabilities or those centers, whose patches through which there are the areas of lymph circulation, are such as to cause ofttimes a state of disintegration. In these patches, then, there is a lack of sufficient globular forces to cause the coagulation in the flow of the lymph, or that portion of same which is the leukocyte, or the sticky portion in the blood is not sufficient to make perfect contact between sympathetic and cerebrospinal activities of the body. (294-212)

This reading brought to the mother's mind "that Pat had many saline enemas as a small child. When she was approximately three-and-a-half years old she developed a high fever (I 05'). She went into a coma. The treatment given to break the fever, which did not respond to all efforts, was the saline enema every few hours.

"This became a routine treatment for Pat as the fevers became recurring ones once a month until her small body was nothing but skin over bones. No diagnosis was ever reached regarding the fevers although we had taken her to a specialist in the city. My own conclusion was that it could have been undulant fever. For at that time our town milk supply came from a farm and milk was not pasteurized."

The reading, [294-212] given by Cayce late in 1944, was one directed for the benefit of his own physical body. However, the statements still stand; yet one has no way of knowing just what effects may result from the frequent use of these enemas and how they relate indirectly to the function of the Peyer's patches. Much is still unknown to us about this human body of ours.

The story of Pat's early illness and further reflections on the nature of the body led me to a Cayce quotation which has to do with the body but, in this instance, the body of Jesus. We must look at all aspects of what the phvsical body might be until the time comes for each of us to know what it really is, in its entirety.

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, November, 1977, Volume 12, No. 6, page 268, Copyright © 1977 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Some time ago, I received a letter from Frank and Dorothy Oswald, two A. R.E. members who attended a meeting in Virginia Beach. Following is an extract from their letter:

"We heard you at the Beach a year ago last summer. My husband was the one with a broken collarbone. As soon as we arrived home, we started the salt, vinegar, myrrii, olive oil treatment. The bone specialist at the next visit (a month from that time) said,'I've neverseen a collarbone heal that fast in an adult."'

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, November, 1977, Volume 12, No. 6, page 270, Copyright © 1977 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Castor oil has a way of taking us from the ideals and goals of the present back to the reality of the healing process. That venerable oil from the castor bean has had a specific use in Venezuela among several old mothers, who are sometimes engaged in instructing young mothers. One such old mother visited her daughter in Phoenix and noted how her five-month-old grandson had practically no hair at all. She started immediately to massage his head with the oil 20 minutes before his daily shampoo. It was no time before the boy had a healthy head of hair. I have not yet tried that on my bald spot, but I'm thinking about it.

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, November, 1977, Volume 12, No. 6, page 272, Copyright © 1977 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

More and more, it seems to me, the healing process is really often a single move designed to restore a balance once again to the human body. Our visit to Virginia Beach ill June during Congress Week provided an example of just this kind of' healing - for one only needs to repair a Single function at times, or add a single element to the environment of' the individuate to bring about hearing.

One of the Congress delegates came to the Beach with his wife and four-month-old baby girl. Along toward the middle of the week, the young mother brought the little child Lip to our room, and my wife, Gladys, and I checked her over - for the baby had developed a fever, was restless, and vomited once, and was refusing her feeding. We found early signs of an upper respiratory infection, but nothing else, and we reminded the mother that the Cayce readings often warned that if t body, were to become over-acid in its reaction it would be more subject to colds and respiratory infections and such. We put eight drops of Glyco-Thymoline in a glass, the mother added two ounces of' water and gave it to the baby at once. The response was remarkable. In fifteen minutes the little girl perked up and the fever disappeared; shortly thereafter she took a nap, and for the rest of the week she was entirely normal and healthy.

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, January, 1974, Volume 9, No. 1, page 35, Copyright © 1974 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

The covering of the human body is at the same time necessary, convenient, the largest organ of the body, and most likely the site of the most numerous difficulties - probably because it is on the outside. Perhaps the fact that its troubles can be seen accounts for the large number of circulating files on a variety of skin conditions which have been compiled at the A.R.E. Whatever the reason, warts, moles and various types of unidentified skin "growths" are self-treated by members of the A.R.E. and are subsequently reported to me. I have no way of knowing how many failures at self-treatment end up in the doctor's office for therapy, but I suspect - from my own experience in recommending these simple procedures - that it is not too many.

One member tells about a large mole which was located on his neck right where the collar rubbed. He used castor oil on a band-aid and, with repeated applications, it started to shrink. "I kept up the swabbing," he reports. "Then, by the end of the second week, it was very dry with a thin strand holding on. A few days later it fell off and hasn't since come back."

Another intrepid soul had a plantar wart on each foot. He took the suggestions of the readings and used hydrochloric acid on the warts, but they only grew larger. Then, while visiting in Virginia Beach, he did some research in the readings and found suggestions about spirits of camphor and sodium bicarbonate. After two weeks of daily treatment to the warts, which were by then an inch in diameter, they were almost gone.

The man also had a 3/16 inch conical-shaped skin lesion, which I think must have been all epithelioma, located on his left cheek. He used the same combination lie had used oil tile plantar wart, and the growth receded but did not disappear. When he stopped the treatment, tile growth reappeared. He then "tried soaking baking soda with castor oil," he reports, "using band-aids to hold the mixture to the skin. The growths subsided in about two weeks, to one tiny hard spot. I continued to apply the castor oil-soda mixture as a massage, without Band-Aids, for about two months and eventually the skin became normal."

From the circulating file on Skin: Moles and Warts comes this interesting observation:

Q. What should I do about the more oil my neck, on which the doctor put some acid for removal?
A. Not anything in the present. As those properties suggested begin to take effect, and there are the adjustments in the circulation, we find that these will gradually take away the conditions.
We would keep same soft with a little of an equal combination of Mutton Tallow (melted), Spirits of Turpentine and Spirits of Camphor; not so much put on the area of the mole itself as the area about it, so that it will be absorbed by the effect of the properties through the radiation, see? (2426-1)

You should read these files - they are extremely interesting. Sometimes, as much philosphy and basic spiritual truth are found here as in any of the life readings or elsewhere in the readings. And the files are continually being updated and upgraded.

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, January, 1974, Volume 9, No. 1, page 36, Copyright © 1974 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

A Virginia veterinarian related to me some of his experiences with the suggestions from the Cayce material. It seems that many doctors start off with the use of castor oil locally because it is so simple and is always so effective. It seems that vets occasionally come in contact with raccoons, and `coons often bite resulting most of the time in an infection. The bite is also painful. Well, my friend, Dr. Helberg, found that he could best treat such a bite by warming castor oil in a pan and putting his finger in the warm castor oil. The pain goes away immediately, and the finger heals quickly. How long in the warm castor oil? Perhaps 15 - 30 minutes. (I have myself found that the ordinary southwestern scratches - cactus puncture wounds, etc. - respond quickly to liberal application of castor oil locally.)

But the most fascinating story that comes from the field of animal medicine, as recounted by Dr. Helberg, is one dealing with a goat. It happened that the doctor was called to see this nanny-goat because of a mastitis. When he looked at her, he saw that one quarter of the udder was black and blue. This is a serious prognostic sign, and the goat is usually dead within the next 18 to 24 hours. He used Terramycin and cortisone anyhow, but the farmer wanted to know what else he could do. He was told to bring the goat inside, to keep her warm, then put a castor oil pack on the affected udder with a hearing pad and leave it in place 30 minutes. Then he was to repeat this in three hours. The next day, the doctor got a call from the farmer - the goat was running around normally, healthy and apparently completely recovered.

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, January, 1974, Volume 9, No. 1, page 37, Copyright © 1974 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

The patient is the fountainhead of research, according to an editorial in the Journal of the Medical Society of New Jersey. To me, this means we should never desert the patient when we are looking for instruction - or research - or evidence - or enlightenment.

"I will begin by telling you how I first started getting sick. In the 1950s, I developed rheumatoid arthritis and the doctors put me on Butazolidin. However, even though I used this drug, my health continued to fail. Several years later, I began to have trouble with my eyes. I went to the doctor, but he couldn't find anything wrong with them. Finally, in 1960, I woke up one morning and couldn't see out of one of my eyes. I went again to the doctor, and again he could not find anything wrong, but he prescribed Cortisone. Cortisone has very bad side effects, and for me has especially bad side effects. I developed glaucoma. Instead of taking me off the Cortisone, the doctors gave me eye drops to control the glaucoma. Even though I was using Cortisone, they feared that they were going to have to remove my eye. They also feared the inflammation spreading to the other eye. Eventually, they did have to take me off the Cortisone and when they did the glaucoma disappeared.

"My health continued to fail and in 1962 I was hospitalized. The doctors diagnosed tuberculosis of the right lung and a disease called toxoplasmosis, which caused my eye trouble, This disease also damages the central nervous system. They decided to put me on isonizes [isoniazid?] , a tuberculin drug, and para aminosalicyclic acid. They also gave me sulfa drugs for the toxoplasmosis. I took these drugs for about two years, but my health didn't improve; as a matter of fact, I grew weaker as time went on. During this period of time I was unable to do much reading because of my poor vision, but I did read one book called There Is A River. To this day, I do not know where this book came from or where it went, but it made a great impression on me ...

"In 1965 I had gotten much worse, and the doctors put me into the hospital again. They found out that I had tuberculosis of both kidneys and the voice box, and more drugs were prescribed. I was already on isonizes, para aminosalicyclic acid and tranquilizers, and in addition to these drugs they put me on streptomycin and cycloserine. Isonizes has terrible side effects. It causes hallucinations. At that time I used to have my own little LSD trips in the bedroom. I thought I was going crazy because I did not know that the drug was causing these hallucinations. It also affected my equilibrium and the middle ear. I would lose my balance and was unable to stand up. When I would turn my head from side to side, the whole room would spin. As time went on, I developed heart trouble and liver damage and the doctors prescribed digitalis besides all the other drugs. It was during this period that I wrote to the publisher concerning the book about Edgar Cayce.

"In the spring of 1966, my doctor took a chest X-ray and it was found that the tuberculin lesion of my lung had doubled in size from the year before. Despite the fact that I was on all of these drugs, it was obvious that I was getting increasingly worse. The trouble had started with my lungs and traveled to my kidneys and voice box. The condition with my right eye had traveled to the cornea of my left eye. The eye specialists that I had visited felt that I would eventually go blind with this condition.

"Every time I closed my eyes during this period, I would see death. That may sound odd to you, but that is what happened. Sometimes I would fear going to sleep or closing my eyes to take a nap because invariably when I did death would be there grinning at tire. It was a terrible experience, not knowing which would come first, death or blindness. I knew that whatever the doctors were doing for me was wrong. It might have been right for some people, but not for me.

"This was in August, 1966. One day my husband came home and I saw the expression on his face. He had been to the doctor and was told that I would soon die. They had done all they could for me. I thought all night long, and the next day, when he went to work, I got down on my knees, and I laid my hands upon the bed, and I said: 'Father, here I am. I have no one else to turn to. Will you please help me? You don't have to heal me. I really do not expect it. Just tell me what to do. Just show me what to do, and I'll do it myself.' I got up and I sat on the side of the bed for awhile and something just as clear as if you were speaking to me right now said: 'Throw all of your drugs away.' Well, that's what I did. I went into the kitchen and threw away every one of the drugs, even the digitalis. I went back to the bedroom, and I waited for my husband to come home. I waited for the earthquake to take place. He came home, and I heard him in the kitchen rummaging around in the garbage can. He then came into the bedroom and said: 'What's the matter with you? Are you out of your mind? Don't you know you'll die if you don't take the drugs?' He said a few other things which I can't repeat here. I told him that if I do take the drugs I'll die. I knew this just as sure as I knew anything in my life. He then called the doctor, and the doctor in turn called me and said: 'What's the matter with you, are you crazy? Don't you know you have to take the drugs or you'll die?' Then I asked him: 'If I do take the drugs, will I live?' He said: 'No, I can't tell you that.' I said: 'Well, don't bother me. This is what I decided to do, and this is what I'm going to do.' I waited for the direction, and it came. I didn't understand direction the way it is now spoken of in our Search for God groups, but believe me it was working. I think because I prayed sincerely to God that He did direct me. I had to fight my husband, the doctor, and my friends. They all thought that I had lost my mind because of all the strain I had been through. But I was like a rock. I said: 'No, I'm not taking the drugs.' I just sat there waiting because I knew something was going to happen. I didn't know what. I didn't have the faintest idea what would happen, but after four or five days I received a letter from Virginia Beach acknowledging my interest in a Search for God group and in joining the Association for Research and Enlightenment. I answered their letter immediately and told them that I was desperately ill with tuberculosis. I sent my membership fee and asked them if they would send me the folder on tuberculosis. A week later I received the literature and immediately began to read it. Edgar Cayce's language, as you know, is difficult to understand, but somehow I managed. The first week I had written down everything he suggested. I told my husband that I needed a charred oak keg. He said: 'What in the name of heaven do you want that for?' I said: 'I have to fill it halfway with apple brandy and breathe this deep into my lungs.' My husband just shook his head. He thought I had picked up some book by some quack and was getting suckered into something. However, he did humor me. He did start looking all over for a charred oak keg, but it wasn't easy to find. He finally found the keg in a little Italian section in Brooklyn. Now we needed pure apple brandy which wasn't easy to find either, since most apple brandies have a grape base. We had to have an apple brandy made from scratch. (I began the Cayce treatment in September, 1966.) Then I had to find a chiropractor. I did not know any chiropractor, so I looked in the yellow pages and again I think God was guiding me. I found a doctor ... who was familiar with the Edgar Cayce literature and agreed to use the method on me.

"Edgar Cayce had recommended Calcios and Acigest, two medicines used for tuberculosis. Calcios is ground-up chicken bones and marrow. The particular company that manufactured both Acigest and Calcios no longer manufactured Acigest. I wrote for the Calcios and received it, but I was at a loss as to where I might find the Acigest. I don't know how I found out that Acigest was diluted hydrochloric acid in some form. I went to my doctor and said I needed diluted hydrochloric acid. He said: 'What do you need that for?' He thought I was crazy and wouldn't give me the prescription for it. I got nervous and began to cry until he finally gave me the prescription. Now I was well on my way. Edgar Cayce's readings in the Circulating File also recommended that I stay outside in the shade when the sun was shining and try to do a little walking. In the beginning I wasn't able to do any walking, but gradually I got to the point where I could. Part of the treatment also included high colonics and massages with peanut oil and olive oil. This was just the treatment for tuberculosis. Don't forget that I was in great pain with the arthritis and suffering with my eyes, liver, lungs and kidneys.

"After having spent a great deal of time in hospitals and numerous consultations, I was never advised to follow a special diet. Eat a regular diet they told me. Edgar Cayce emphasized that I must eat a great deal of vegetables, especially leafy green vegetables and salads, drink a lot of orange juice and eat only whole wheat bread products, drink egg nogs and beef juice and eat only lamb, chicken and fish. I was absolutely not to be allowed beef, pork or sweets.

"In February, 1967, 1 went to ... my family doctor. He took X-rays of my lungs. He called me up the next day and told me he could not even find a scar on my lungs. When my husband came home, I told him what the doctor had said. My husband, needless to say, was shocked because I was still very weak. My attitude had changed. I used to cry every day of my life; now I was optimistic, enthusiastic and full of bounce. There was just something about this treatment that did this for you. My husband, however, called the doctor and asked him to take the new X-rays to the hospital and compare them to the others. My doctor did this and called in a consultant to verify his findings. The results were the same - no scar tissue. He then tested my blood. When the results of this test proved negative, he put me in the hospital in April 1967, for a complete and thorough examination. They started a series of tests. They put dye in my blood stream and took X-rays of my kidneys that way. They also took blood tests and urine tests every day. They did a cystoscope on my kidneys and took X-rays while they were doing that. After a week, the doctor came into my room with the results of the tests. He sat down on the chair and said: 'I don't believe this, but you are well.' And he just shook his head. I said: 'I know, I know,' but he didn't talk any more. lie just got up and walked out. I think the shock was too much for him. I have not taken any drugs since and my heart, for all intents and purposes, is all right. I have no evidence of arthritis. I am still blind in my right eye, but now I no longer have any trouble with my left, so whatever this disease was, it also subsided. It took me some time to get my strength back. As a matter of fact, I think I am still getting it back, but nevertheless you can see that I am not sick."

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, March, 1974, Volume 9, No. 2, page 78, Copyright © 1974 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

A fifteen-year-old girl was taken to Marian Brockway, a cooperating doctor, with a serious skin problem associated with constant pruritis; she had been under the care of various specialists her entire life. Her therapy program included a strict diet avoiding meats, milk, dairy products, cereals, starches and sweets. She was given saffron tea regularly, and was treated with manipulations. Three months showed no improvement. The parents, at the suggestion of their doctor, called the A.R.E. Clinic. We suggested the addition of elm water (slippery elm bark in water). Another five months passed with several flare-ups, but then a gradual improvement was noted. Now, after another year of continuing the same regimen, the mother writes that "our daughter is now able to lead an almost normal life and is so much improved."

In the circulating file on Skin: Pruritis (Itching), there are several readings on the problem this young lady was experiencing. One man had been suffering constant, severe itching for many weeks. The causes were enumerated as a thinning of the walls of the jejunum due to lack of proper "reactions," and the resultant condition was contamination of the blood supply as it coursed through the walls of the small intestine. This in turn brought about a disturbed circulation and a subcutaneous irritation interpreted as itching. In other words, it was a problem with eliminations. For this person a dietary regimen, small quantities of olive oil by month, local applications, and osteopathic adjustments were recommended (437-7). In another reading, the first two paragraphs explain a causation of itching. This twenty-four-year-old man complained of intractable itching most of the time.

As we find, there are those disturbances in the chemical processes of the body through the lack of proper eliminations or drainages being set tip through the whole system, so that poisons which should be carried off through the alimentary canal, or through the activity of the kidneys and bladder are at times eliminated through the respiratory system.
These, by those activities through the body cause chemical changes; and these have been made for pressures in the segments along the spine where minor lesions have formed, especially in the areas from the first of the dorsals, or first the third cervical, then through the upper dorsal and the area of the ninth dorsal ... (5157-1)

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, March, 1974, Volume 9, No. 2, page 81, Copyright © 1974 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

This report concerns a 54-year-old woman. with a ten-week history of a pustular edematous skin condition of the extremities. Her case was presented at the January symposium, and the story exemplifies the approach toward rehabilitation of the body that might be taken if both physician and patient are mentally structured in a constructive manner and cooperative toward a healing regimen.

This woman had been treated unsuccessfully with penicillin and hydrocortisone cream prior to her being seen by a member of the Cooperating Doctors' Program. Subjective symptoms at the time of examination included severe pruritis, expecially of both feet and hands, severe pain on walking, probably secondary to lesions on the feet, complaint of cold areas, rather hypersensitive to temperature changes, especially on both feet. On physical examination, it was noted that 65 % of the left foot was cyanotic superficially; the skin was edematous from approximately the medial malleolus including the entire anterior section of the left foot. In addition, the foot was covered with pustular lesions ranging in size from one centimeter to three centimeters in diameter. Numerous areas over her body, especially on the hands and feet, were noted to have marks of irritation probably secondary to the pruritic nature of the lesions.

The patient was placed on the general basic diet, given mullein tea twice daily, given weekly colonics and a massage of half peanut oil and half olive oil twice weekly. Ray's Ointment was applied to all the lesions twice during the day. In the evening and morning, bands and feet were soaked in epsom salts baths followed by castor oil packs with heat, and the castor oil packs remained on throughout the night.

The patient's foot was markedly less edematous and cyanotic on her next visit, one week later. There was a remarkable absence of any pustular or prurient lesions on the hands and feet, and the pruritis had subsided substantially. The patient was told to continue with the previous recommendations.

She was again seen six days later, at which time her improvement was subjectively estimated at 90%. At this time, her left foot was mildly cyanotic in only 30 % of the area which had previously been affected. All pustular lesions were gone. Her hands had improved remarkably, and the dermatitis that was generalized previous to this had now been reduced to a few sparse areas of only a few square centimeters on the thighs and arms.

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, May, 1974, Volume 9, No. 3, page 125, Copyright © 1974 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Simple remedies are still important. Catherine W.R. Smith is a cooperating M.D. from Abingdon, Virginia, who heard Harvey Rose talk about the Atomidine/Glyco-Thymoline combination for therapy in aphthous ulcers. She recently reported to me her own experience with similar simple applications. A dermatitis (probably of the dermatophytosis class) between the toes was cleared up completely after two daily applications first of Atomidine, then of Glyco-Thymoline. In another instance, a very painful hangnail was cured by two successive small castor oil pack applications.

A man with warts was receiving Hyfrecator treatments at the Clinic but he immediately regrew the warts. His son had been urging him to try castor oil on them, but the patient reflected a bit, remembered how we had talked about iodine as a curative agent, and decided to use Tincture of Iodine on the warts. He treated them just a few times, simply applying the iodine to the tops of the warts. Before he realized it, they bad disappeared.

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, May, 1974, Volume 9, No. 3, page 126, Copyright © 1974 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

This report is from an A.R.E. member who has been working with a cooperating doctor. Her daughter, age nine, had been diagnosed as epileptic four years ago. The girl has been on Dilantin since then and complained about stomachaches, fuzziness in the right foot; she was nervous, cried often and tended toward panic in tense situations.

For two months she was given regular castor oil packs, massages, manipulations, and fairly strict dietary regimen. Her teacher said that she was "a changed person from the beginning of the year." She was considerably more relaxed and had a happy attitude; she no longer had the nightmares which once plagued her and her color was better. Her stomachaches and fuzziness in the foot were gone.

In spite of the fact that she is still on Dilantin, the changes in awareness, general health and symptomatology speak highly of what had been done for this young lady in just a period of two months. The parents are continuing with the treatments - for a long enough period of time, it is hoped, that full healing can come about.

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, May, 1974, Volume 9, No. 3, page 128, Copyright © 1974 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Grape juice was suggested in the Cayce material for many reasons. It has a type of sugar in it, apparently, that does not metabolize in such a way that it makes one obese. Thus, we suggest for those patients who want to lose weight that they drink four ounces of a mixture (half-and-half) of grape juice and water prior to each meal. This satisfies the appetite to some extent and may be beneficial for the intestinal tract.

However, when grape juice is carried a bit further in the processing, it becomes wine. One of our patients, who is now in her sixties, tells us a story about wine unlike any that we've heard before. As a two-year-old, Lucy could not walk nor stand without assistance. We don't know exactly what her diagnosis was, but it was potentially permanently disabling and certainly had something to do with a congenital hip deformity. Her mother apparently heard from someone that hot red wine applied to the extremities was what the child needed. She applied hot compresses - hot wine poultices - to her daughter's legs, thighs and hips every day for a year. I checked her legs recently and they are as straight and solid as any I've seen. Her mother used what was at hand, and healing followed.

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, July, 1974, Volume 9, No. 4, page 174, Copyright © 1974 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

A researcher tells the story of a 33-year-old woman who developed terminal cancer two years after a radical mastectomy. Her therapy had included surgery, radiation, cobalt and betatron treatments, and chemotherapy involving 5FU. Her condition became more serious: she developed peptic ulcers, elimination problems, and abdominal distention. She became disoriented and out of touch with reality. After hospitalization, she was started on castor oil packs over the entire abdomen. Her urinary tract started working again, and the distention gradually subsided. She was still impacted, but on the fourth day she started having some bowel activity. On the fifth day, she had tier first regular bowel movement in weeks. Her hallucinations cleared up, her vision improved considerably, and she was able to go home from the hospital.

Castor oil packs did not clear up the malignancy we call cancer, but it did aid the sensorium in this woman and brought about a significant improvement of the eliminations. The packs have done something very worthwhile in the total experience of an individual who is preparing to enter the other side of life through the birth that we call death.

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, July, 1974, Volume 9, No. 4, page 175, Copyright © 1974 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

A 12-year-old boy, whose hearing had been impaired for several years due to fluid in the middle ear, was told he would need surgery to remove the fluid. His parents, having read much about Cayce's use of the castor oil packs, placed packs on both cheek areas - between the nose and the ear - for half an hour every other night. Three weeks later, they took their boy to the same physician, who examined his ears again and found them both normal, with no need for surgery.

A 20-year-old woman from the West Indies had what must be classified as a mixed bacterial-fungus infection under the nail of the right forefinger. For four years, it had grown more and more serious, until the nail became very thick, the end of the finger tender, and a greenish-yellow exudate, which had a foul odor, came from the nail. For nearly four months, the girl's mother placed a pad of cotton soaked with castor oil around the tip of the finger and bandaged it in place every night. The infection disappeared, the nail grew in normally. and now she claims it is the strongest and best nail she has.

This mother, whose daughter responded so well to the use of castor oil on her finger, used the same treatment for a bunion on her big toe - rubbing it with castor oil three times a day and sleeping with a pad placed over it at night. In three weeks, the swelling was gone. Whenever it starts to flare up again, she treats it the same way with the same results. She may have the gout, rather than a bunion, but she is controlling it in a very simplified and economical manner.

What happened to this woman is an illustration of what is prevalent in our country at the present time. She found that there was a simple way of bringing healing to the body, and she became a crusader: she wanted to cure everyone with castor oil packs. Her 76-year-old friend fell off the top of a stepladder and developed a bad pain in his back. This woman suggested that he put hot packs on his back. After two days of applications, he felt no more pain; after three days, he was swimming and carrying on his usual exercises.

That was just the beginning! Another friend's father also hurt his back - suggestion there, too, brought relief in short order. While she was talking about this to her friend, another woman overheard them talking. They struck up a conversation, and it developed that she, too, had suffered from backaches for a long time. Three weeks after that, she reported to my correspondent that since she had been using the packs, her backaches were a thing of the past.

No remedy works all the time, as any physician will tell you. This is also true, of course, with castor oil. Quite recently, I had a letter from a Study Group member who had suggested the castor oil treatment for a friend of hers who had what she called "ugly, misshapen fingernails and toenails caused by what she calls 'fungus.' " After using pads soaked with castor oil on her fingers every night for six weeks, she reported that: (1) She had removed some of the growth which had detached itself in a dry form from the finger; (2) when bleeding developed under the nail in the cuticle area, she had stopped using the packs; and (3) when she stopped, the skin on the back and in the palms of her hands became cracked, dry and black. The black was like the black smudge from newspaper print.

We have seen packs used for a time on chronically debilitated individuals; sometimes these packs developed the black smudge like our correspondent described. We have never been able to determine why this came about. I have never heard of a case where such blackness developed on the skin, but it does illustrate that even simple remedies sometimes do not work. One must conclude that those who write letters are more wont to tell us of their successes than of their failures; even so, there still remains a wide variety of conditions that do respond to simple therapy with castor oil packs.

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, September, 1974, Volume 9, No. 5, page 218, Copyright © 1974 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Prayer and healing have been evidenced throughout the centuries as having a cause-and-effect relationship. You may have read about Collipp's work as chief of pediatrics at Nassau County Medical Center in New York. He has shown experimentally that one group of 10 leukemia patients who were prayed for during a 15-month period showed a survival rate of 70% while a group of eight controls managed only a 25% rate over the same period of time. In the practice of medicine, one occasionally comes across individual case studies that give the same message, often with more dramatic impact than can be accomplished by statistics. We had one such case recently, not with leukemia or cancer, but with an obstetric patient.

This young lady had consulted a psychic during her pregnancy and had been told that her baby was going to have great difficulty during the first few minutes of life outside the uterus, perhaps not even surviving. That such advice was given was unfortunate, whether it be true or completely unfounded. It certainly is not consistent with the type of information given in the Cayce readings. Perhaps this was the cause of the girl's slow entry into labor. She had early pains during the late evening, then went out of labor until next morning. Then she was having contractions every four or five minutes, but there was no progress. The contractions slowed down again, and consultation was requested by the physician in charge. Several Study Groups were notified and asked to put the patient on their healing prayer list. One such group held a special healing prayer and meditation for her at 8:00 p.m. that evening. The consultant, who was mentally prepared to induce labor at this point, walked into the labor room of the hospital at 8:15 p.m. The nurses told him that the patient had just had two one-minute contractions and was apparently in active labor. She went ahead and delivered in two hours without further assistance. The baby was a beautiful child. There was no problem, either immediately postpartum or in the ensuing months. Cayce had something specific to say about how healing can come when a group gathers together like this to bring healing - or in the event of a single person doing the same thing:

. the body-physical is an atomic structure ... If in the atomic forces there becomes an overbalancing, an injury, a happening, an accident, there are certain atomic forces destroyed or others increased ... When a body ... has so attuned or raised its own vibrations sufficiently, it may - by the motion of the spoken word - awaken the activity of the emotions to such an extent as to revivify, resuscitate or to change the rotary force or influence or the atomic forces iii the activity of the structural portion, or the vital forces of a body, in such a way and manner as to set it again in motion. Thus does spiritual or psychic influence ... bring healing ... (281-24)

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, September, 1974, Volume 9, No. 5, page 220, Copyright © 1974 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

There is a wide variety of healing substances in this world of ours, and their wide applicability is probably often never even imagined. Glyco-Thymoline, for instance, has found most of' its use in our office as the substance which can saturate a soft flannel cloth which can then be placed over the face, covering the areas of the sinuses, then a piece of plastic and then a heating pad. This in place for half an hour does wonders most of the time for sinusitis of the most bothersome type.

But Bob Forbis, San Diego dermatologist, relates the following story: "I have to tell you about a patient of mine who for years has been struggling with sore throats which resisted every kind of therapy. There is no telling how much she has spent on allergy tests, cultures, and a variety of medications. She was told this was due to Monilia. At one point I treated her for a Monilial paronychia, but I hadn't seen her for years when she called and asked to come in so I could take a culture or do something. Over the phone I told her (what the heck, it couldn't hurt) to gargle with Glyco-Thymoline. Two days later when she appeared the sore throat had cleared up and examination revealed an apparently normal throat. Now she is trying Glyco douches for the vaginitis which apparently goes with this. Time will tell if it lasts. A man with tinea versicolor has been trying the Glyco too as suggested in an earlier letter, and seems to be clearing as well as would be expected on conventional therapy. We have photos but they don't show the change too well because so far it is only a lack of the fine scale. There is also less fluoresence."

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, July, 1971, Volume 6, No. 4, page 163, Copyright © 1971 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

On the matter of warts ... Bob Brewer says: "I always use castor oil as an aid to the elimination of warts. I use the electric needle on the wart itself, and then during the entire healing period, a castor oil soaked band-aid is used." He has had no recurrences. Bob Forbis, on the other hand, had a different story. He speaks from his experiences as a dermatologist in San Diego. He tells me that: "Warts are driving me right up the wall! I have been handing out the castor oil and the castor oil-beeswax (90%-10%) ointment to a large number of patients with a variety of different results. The thing that keeps you going is the once-in-a-while good result on any kind of a wart - flat, plantar, condyloma iccuminata, or ordinary vulgar warts. The problem is that I just don't consider the percentage of good results above the placebo level of success." This reminds me of the report in the British Medical Journal about the physician who "bought" warts from little people. The kids loved it - the doctor paid them sixpence for a wart and told them that it would be gone in three days. And it was. His suggestion was strong medicine. I have tried this, using dimes, but have had no success. On the other hand, my own percentage of wart treatment with castor oil is about fifty percent. Perhaps my patients have a stronger castor oil consciousness.

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, July, 1971, Volume 6, No. 4, page 164, Copyright © 1971 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

Castor oil ... again comes into the spotlight, along with Camphorated oil. Harvey Rose, a GP from Sacramento, California, sent us the following report:

"With regards to the skin ... a man about 68 years old had a mean-looking lesion on his ear which was probably an early squamous cell carcinoma; biopsy was not done. This lesion had been present for years. The patient has had basal cell carcinoma removed from the area of the left ear somewhat near this particular lesion. At any rate, after two weeks of the castor oil and camphorated oil, the lesion disappeared and has not recurred. The treatment was started in December of 1969.

"Another patient, a woman of 61, had a lesion inside her ear in the external auditory meatus, which was rough and scaly, and she used the castor oil-camphorated oil. The lesion disappeared and has maintained its absence after about three weeks of treatment. No recurrence since April 22. This lesion had been bleeding a bit, and this I think makes the result with the oil combination even more dramatic."

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, July, 1971, Volume 6, No. 4, page 165, Copyright © 1971 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]

The Week at Asilomar was Productive ... especially in regard to healing concepts. I'm sure all of you have seen and heard of many different types of healing, so these might be to you an old story. But they were interesting to me in the very fascination of the variety of ways in which healing can come to the human body. It almost makes one think that all healing is in reality from One Source. Here are just a few:

A 55-year-old-woman who was in one of my classes sprained her ankle - not severely, but painfully, and badly enough to make her limp with her sore extremity through the afternoon classes and dinner.

That evening, for an hour and a half, she (of her own accord) wrapped her ankle in a castor oil pack with a heating pad applied over the pack. Then, when she went to bed, she just pinned a towel around the pack after removing the heating pad. The next morning I saw her hiking around the Asilomar grounds, enjoying the scenery - no limp, no pain, and as I found out afterward, no swelling or residual symptoms from the sprain.

Burns can be very distressing. Another Asilomar registrant told me how she had slipped in her kitchen, and in reaching out to keep from falling, she pressed the back of her right hand against the red-hot heating element on one of the burners of her stove. It sizzled somewhat, apparently. My friend believes in the healing power of the mind, but put her hand in cold water anyway. She refused to look at her fingers, but her husband didn't like their looks. It was bedtime, and she placed her hand in ice water at bedside. After a bit, she said, she realized that faith in the healing power within was not consistent with ice water, so she chose the former, letting the ice treatment go by the boards. She used no bandage, slept well. In the morning, there was only a very slight trace of a scar where the burn had been.

One of the young men who has grown up in the home of ARE members and has consequently been at Asilomar many years had had a lot of success using castor oil locally. Thus, when he smashed his finger in Gina Cerminara's car door, he wasn't at all perturbed. In spite of Gina's insistence that he get immediate medical attention, he said - "Castor oil will take care of it." He wrapped a piece of flannel cloth soaked in castor oil around the finger and left it on all night long, with plastic covering the soaked member. In the morning, the finger was indeed normal in all respects except for a slight skin scratch which was not quite healed.

The fourth story deals with a man who told me about a severely disabling bursitis which had plagued him for months. He had no relief from various medical doctors' efforts. About that time, lie started reading about Karma and how it shows tip in various physical problems. He went to sleep one night and in a dream - or a vision lie asked: "Is this condition karmic in origin?" There came a voice in answer: "No - lift up your arms!" At that point lie awoke and found both of his arms lifted high over his head - a position he had been unable to assume consciously for months - and he has had no problem with the bursitis since.

Each time I gather the ripe dates in my back yard, I'm left with one or two pinpricks from the sharp guardians of this fruit. Castor oil, applied liberally to the injured areas, has always brought healing to the skin without developing infection.

One of our boys stepped on a three-pronged metal hanger (used for peg-boards) and punctured the sole of his foot rather deeply in two places. A sloppy castor oil pack, applied after the bleeding had stopped, was kept in place until healing was almost completed matter of just a few days. The pain eased up immediately upon application of the pack and on the second day weight was put on the injured foot. Healing progressed, and the length of time for it certainly decreased.

From the supplement to reading 2966-1, the following story explores further the healing abilities of the castor oil pack, this time being placed on the abdomen. An A.R.E. member, having read this particular reading, wrote in a report about her own use of the pack:

"I used the castor oil packs for a fibroid tumor on my uterus. I used three thicknesses of flannel with the oil, and a heating pad three or four nights a week. I started about 9:30 p.m. and would read until sleepy, then turn out the lights and heating pad at the same time. Leaving the flannel and heating pad in place, I would sleep until ready to turn over (about 1:00 a.m.) and then remove everything. This continued about six months. At my next yearly checkup the doctor said [the fibroid] had disappeared."

Still another castor oil story concerns a woman known to bleed heavily during any kind of surgical procedure. She needed to have some osseous surgery from a periodontist, and there was no option that she could see to the procedure. So she went ahead with the dental surgery, but bled a great deal that day, all night, and the next morning. She had been vomiting and the side of her tongue was raw and painful.

Next morning she came to the Clinic and her symptoms were put under control. She was instructed to place a castor oil pack on the side of her face where the surgery had been performed. She applied the pack every night for the next two weeks. (There had been much extravasation of blood and subsequent ecchymosis.) But let her tell the story, since it was her jaw:

"On the late afternoon of the 19th [the day following the surgery], I went to Dr. Watkins' office. He took out the dressing and the huge blood clots and put a pink 'plaster cast' over my teeth and gums.

"A week and two days later I had another appointment. His assistant removed the 'cast' and the stitches. When the doctor walked in the door, I said, 'Well, it's all over! `He said,'No, I'm afraid not. I'll have to put another coat of dressing on.' Well, I was terribly disappointed. But when he looked into my mouth, he couldn't get over how fast it had healed and said that he wouldn't have to put any more dressing on. He told me to keep it all very clean, use warm salt water, and call him immediately if it began to swell.

"Everything went along quite well and I went for my next appointment a week later. He said it was fine and had healed beautifully. Then I said, 'You seemed surprised, when I was here last week, that I had healed so fast.' He said, 'I certainly was, because normally for this type of surgery it takes a month to heal. I usually have to put on a coat of dressing three times.' Then we discussed my bleeding heavily and that normally I heal slower than most, having had transfusions in the past.

"Then I told him about the castor oil pack and how I used it every time I lay down for a nap, or at night."

[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, May, 1984, Volume 19, No. 3, page 126, Copyright © 1984 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]