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.
The following is a condensation of one patient’s story:
“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 aminosalicylic 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 aminosalicylic 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 nog 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 l 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.”
[† March, 1974, Volume 9, No. 2, page 78, Copyright © 1974 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]
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