Narcolepsy

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.

[† July, 1977, Volume 12, No. 4, page 177, Copyright © 1977 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]