“There is always aid that can be brought to the healing process by the adoption of a properly designed diet. The diet, then, becomes the first line of defense.”
Edgar Cayce Readings
(2986-1)
A TRUE STORY
Cancer of the rectum is not a pleasant thing to discover in your body. Left unattended, it can, of course, destroy the body. Surgery is the most obvious approach to correcting the problem. Years ago, when Isabelle was diagnosed as having a rectal cancer, the therapy proposed was an abdominal-perineal resection. This means that the entire rectum and part of the colon would be re-moved and a colostomy would be created on the abdominal wall.
Isabelle, in her mid-fifties, was a registered nurse and knew what all this meant—and she didn’t want surgery. She was well informed about the Edgar Cayce material and wanted to undergo a treatment that was in tune with his suggestions. She chose a therapy program at the A.R.E. Clinic that extended over a period of nearly eighteen months. When the program was completed, her surgeon removed the shrunken bit of tissue locally—what was left of the cancer—and her body was whole again. In the years afterward, no sign of cancer recurred.
The therapy program included therapeutic massages, colonics, violet ray treatments, counseling, biofeedback, and regular medical evaluation, but the one thing I recall most
vividly was the diet. In the Cayce readings on cancer, one suggestion was to eat fresh green leafy vegetables. Isabelle followed such a diet, eating nothing but green salads for nearly nine months. She lost about twenty pounds during the first couple of months, then stabilized and stayed at a constant weight. Later on, fruit was gradually added to her diet until the surgeon pronounced her cured. What brought the cure? Mainly the diet, but the various therapies, her attitudes of constructive belief, and the prayers others offered, all contributed their part.
Our bodies are surely tremendous creations. Getting rid of a cancer is not simply removal of the group of cells that are apparently causing the difficulty. It means correcting the basic cause of the problem—whether it be attitudes, circulation, neurology, acid-alkaline balance, or whatever—and changing the physiology of the body so that it functions constructively, not in a destructive manner to bring death to the body. This is the manner in which Cayce saw the “forces” within the body acting, always related to emotions, stresses, attitudes, and the belief patterns of the unconscious mind.
From the point at which conception occurs until the human being is a grown adult, the body fulfills a genetic pattern. For our purposes here, we will explore Edgar Cayce’s interpretation of genetic patterns, for in his unconscious state, Cayce apparently tapped universal sources of information.
The Nature of Your Body
The very first thing that occurs in conception is that the sperm and the egg join forces. A globular nucleus is formed, which is the beginning of the pineal gland. From that beginning, there is a kind of a force field created, or—as Cayce called it—an aerial, which extends from the nucleus and creates the central area from which the rest of the body gradually develops.
The external, timeless body is really an energy complex of a finer vibration around which the atoms of this dimension are congregated to form you or me.
The fully formed body, then, is a structure of energy. For what is an atom, really, but potential energy? The body is a manifestation of duality, since each atom has positive and negative charges. And the body is primarily an electrical creation, with each movement, each breath becoming an electrical manifestation through the nervous system and the various tissues of the body.
In a number of the readings, Cayce suggested, that electricity was, in the earth, a manifestation of God, or Creative Force— not God, but the manifestation of God:
“Know then that the Force in nature that is called electrical or electricity is that same force ye worship as Creative or God in action!” (1299-1)
“. . . whatever electricity is to man, that’s what the power of God is. Man may in the material world use God-Force, God-Power or electricity, to do man’s work or to destroy man himself.”
Edgar Cayce Readings
(3618-1)
If this is true, while those forces of Creation are moving through us, the various parts of ourselves are conscious of that movement, at least to some degree. For the cells of our bodies—even the atoms comprising those cells—have their own type of consciousness. Each one of us is really, then, in a relationship with universal forces and with every atom of our bodies. Through the Forces of Creation, we are also in touch, at some level, with all people throughout the earth—and probably with those in other dimensions too.
The parts of our bodies, then, that bring us life—the internal organs and systems that can well be called the life support systems— all have their own degree of consciousness and must work cooperatively and in coordination with each other, in order that perfect health should come about.
That means that the organs of elimination—the lungs, the kidneys, the skin, and the liver/intestinal tract—must be coordinated in their activity. The lungs and the upper intestinal tract are part of the assimilatory system, and they must also coordinate their activities. The internal secreting glands (the endocrines) also affect each other through their nervous system attachments, their hormones placed into the bloodstream, and, undoubtedly, through their own areas of consciousness, much as it is with the other organs and systems.
It is extremely fortunate for us, in our present state of development, that all of these things work fairly well, even if they are only given half an opportunity to do so, for it would be difficult to live a normal life if we had to direct the beating of the heart with our conscious minds. Think of it a moment, and you will appreciate the manner in which this wonderful body of ours works to keep us alive and healthy. We do indeed need to cooperate with the efforts that are found within.
The lymphatic system, under the direction of the thymus gland, one of the endocrine organs, is our protective system. If it is up to par at any given time, for instance, you will not be subject to catching a cold or acquiring any infection. This is the immune system. Our lymphatics naturally do become depressed at times, mostly because of stresses, but often because of what we have been feeding our bodies.
The diet, then, plays an important part in our health. Because every part of the body has a pH—that is, an acidity or an alkalinity, a hydrogen ion concentration—it is important to keep the body in its normal acid-alkaline balance. This is probably no easier to accomplish constantly than it is to keep harmony all the time in a family, for all parts of the body have their own electrical and acid-alkaline nature and their own consciousness.
“Think of it a moment, and you will appreciate the manner in which this wonderful body of ours works to keep us alive and healthy.” (2986-1)
Edgar Cayce Readings
When food is metabolized it creates within the functioning parts of the life support system a reaction that is acid or alkaline—or, we might say, a specific pH (hydrogen-ion concentration) that is either high (alkaline) or low (acid). Cayce saw foods having their effect on portions of the body because of their acid-alkaline balance or because the foods did not combine well within the body and caused drosses or acids or poisons in the body. Thus his comments about the proper diet were to a large extent associated with these two qualities—the acid-alkaline balance and food combinations. The following readings exemplify the manner in which he treats these questions:
(Q) Any advice regarding the diet?
(A) As indicated, keep to those that are more alkaline than acid. Those that are naturally easily assimilated, and that make for increase in the lymph and the blood flow . . .” (642-1)“The lower portion of the intestinal system should be kept, then, nearer in the state of non-acidity, or alkaline. Keep those food values, those medicinal properties, that tend to produce for the system a nearer equalized condition in this respect. Foods entering should be alkaline in reaction. When acted upon by gastric juices they become acid, but should be alkaline reaction in the lower digestion.” (294-113)
Edgar Cayce Readings
Vegetables and fruits, with few exceptions, are alkaline-reacting, while meats, starches, and sugars are generally acid-reacting.
Defending the Body with Food
In the eighties a new specialty was born in the field of medicine called psychoneuroimmunology—the study and application of the information linking the mind, the nervous system, and the immune system together. It is well understood in this field that the mind and all that encompasses the mind, attitudes, and emotions work directly or indirectly with the thymus system (the lymphatic-immune system) to either aid or harass the body and its ability to stay healthy—or to overcome a disease process. The nervous system is always intricately involved in this procedure, for it registers input through the senses that “make” one angry or sad, happy or fearful, according to the habit patterns of emotion that have been stored up, as in a computer, within the unconscious mind of the perceiver.
It is understood in physiology that the lymphatic stream is normally alkaline. Thus, the defenses of the body are usually up to par when the immune system is balanced in regard to the acid-alkaline ratio within the body. It is then that the lymphocytes, monocytes, and neutrophils are at their best in fighting off invaders—and in rebuilding the body. Foods play a key role in protecting the body from illness, in that they can either aid in rebuilding the body, or they can create the acids, drosses, and poisons that create more of a problem than solving the existing difficulty.
However, in researching the Cayce readings, one comes to the same conclusion that is reached in practicing medicine or simply living life: All problems cannot be solved with food or by special diets. In the same manner, a positive frame of mind—positive thinking—cannot be a cure-all.
In my own discipline, the field of medicine, it has long been the approach to illness that not much really can be done until the diagnosis is made. Then the proper medication can be given and the individual can be healed. Next to nothing is said currently in our medical schools about how attitudes and emotional problems, poor diet practices, and long-standing belief patterns, along with lifestyles and environmental difficulties, really form the basic causative factors for most diseases. These realities must be addressed more definitively in order to gain what might be called true healing of the human body.
With that said, no matter what the cause of a problem or what the training of a therapist might be, there is always aid that can be brought to the healing process by the adoption of a properly designed diet. The diet, then, becomes the first line of defense. How do we use it as an aid?
Most importantly, according to the information in the Cayce readings, one should avoid poor combinations of foods and then adopt a proper balance of 80 percent alkaline to 20 percent acid content in the foods.
From the readings, the understanding of why these two factors are so important can only be gleaned in bits and pieces. Cayce never gave a discourse on the subject, but he told a little here, a little there—and the picture starts to unfold.
The next selections help us out in this regard, for they seem to indicate that proper conditions of acidity or alkalinity existing in the small intestine and the proper food combinations have a great deal to do with the first steps in assimilating of foodstuffs. And those foods, broken down properly, then need to be carried through the blood and lymph vessels to reach all those areas where rebuilding of cells comes about. This is happening all the time in our bodies—it becomes the essence of regeneration of all the tissues of our bodies:
“(Q) What would be the most appropriate vegetables or foods to build up my blood supply so as to maintain the same pressure throughout?”
Edgar Cayce Readings
(A) As indicated, those that make for the keeping of a normal balance in the acids and alkalines of the system. Study just a bit the vegetables and the general food values of all foods; as to how they react to the body . . . for we would find at times there are various conditions and various foods that produce, under the stress and strain of activity, a varied effect . . . When the body is under stress or strain by being tired, overactive, and then would eat heavy foods—as cabbage boiled with meat—these would produce acidity; yet cabbage without the meats would produce an alkaline reaction under the same conditions! The same would be true if there were fried foods such as fried potatoes eaten, when there is a little cold or the body has gotten exceedingly cold or damp, these would produce (if fried) an acid, and become hard upon the system; while the same taken as mashed or as roasted with other foods would react differently.” (1411-2)
It will be found to be helpful, then, that the diets be not too much starch nor too much of the sweets or a combination of these. Proteins, citrus fruits, those activities that make for keeping an alkalinity would be well; or about eighty percent of alkaline-reacting foods to twenty percent of the acids. To be sure, ordinarily proteins are considered acid-reacting. But the activities of proteins in the system, when not taken with starch, bring the necessity of the hydrochloric activity in their digestive forces. So when proteins such as from fish, fowl or lamb are taken, their final reaction through the lower portions of the duodenum becomes nearer to a normal balance of alkalinity. For alkalinity begins with the glands themselves of the mouth. Then with the entrance to the stomach we have a combination of lacteals and hydrochlorics, dependent of course—upon the nature of the foods or more so the combinations of same.
“So, then, for this particular body, light wines or champagne or those of that nature would be helpful to add a bit of an alcoholic content with the food; that there may be kept those tendencies for a better elimination, a better coordination through those activities in the alimentary canal as well as the gastric flows from the pancreas, the liver and the spleen, as well as the activity of the gall duct for the lacteals’ assimilation.” (920-8)
Edgar Cayce Readings
If the body can be given the proper balance and combination of foods needed (we should probably call them “energies” after they have gone through the early steps of digestion and assimilation, then the defense of the body—the immune system—might be built up to act in a manner better meeting its potential. This means protection for the body from most illnesses and aid in overcoming most problems that affect it.
Reprint by permission from Venture Inward 2023, Virginia Beach, VA
Written by William A. McGarey, M.D.
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