This Psychic Reading given by Edgar Cayce at his home on Arctic Crescent, Virginia Beach, Va., this 27th day of October, 1937, in accordance with request made by the Glad Helpers. Present:

Present: Edgar Cayce; Gertrude Cayce, Conductor; Gladys Davis, Steno. Florence & Edith Edmonds, Esther Wynne, Hannah Miller, Helen Ellington, Margaret Wilkins, Ruth LeNoir, Myrtle Demaio, Alice Harris, Ruth Denney and Hugh Lynn Cayce.

TEXT

1. GC: You will give at this time a discourse on the endocrine glands of the human organism, discussing their functions in relation to physical body and their relations to the mental and spiritual forces.
2. EC: Yes, we have the activity of the endocrine system, as may be described from this body here. A discourse, to be of help or aid, may not be finished under fifteen or twenty series; for this is the system whereby or in which dispositions, characters, natures and races all have their source.
3. Little of course is as yet known or recorded as to the activities of same. For these are being discovered, or rediscovered by man in his search for the anatomical structure of the human body; and are continuing to be found. Hence, as is the natural thing, they are not present in a dead body.
4. Hence those influences or opportunities that have been given to man under varied circumstances from the study of the anatomical structure in a way or means or manner in which they may be observed; namely, through the Digestive System (and even about this very little is known). For only this one portion in the animal kingdom and in the history of medicine has been studied by observation.
5. So in the study of the glandular systems that work within the glands or the organs, or the active forces of a physical body, these become then only those that may be seen or observed as from an INDIVIDUAL activity; and thus are only RELATIVE - or may be correlated to others as they may be observed in that which is produced within same.
6. For as has been indicated in some manners, some activities, there is an activity within the system produced by anger, fear, mirth, joy, or any of those active forces, that produces through the glandular secretion those activities that flow into the whole of the system. Such an activity then is of this endocrine system, and only has been observed in very remote manners, or just here and there. Only the more recently has this activity received that consideration from the specialist in ANY activity in the relationships to the human body.
7. And as has been indicated by those who are possibly leading the whole of the revolutionary activities as related to these, in making for the visibility even of the circulatory system, there is to be considered ever the whole activity; not as separating them one from another but the whole anatomical structure must be considered EVER as a whole.
8. Then we would give - to be as brief as possible in this short period, though for you to be aware or gain much it will take eight to ten to fifteen such periods for a really INSTRUCTIVE influence:
9. What are the activities of the glands? Most every organ of the body may be considered a gland, or at least there must be within the functioning activity of each portion - as the eye, the ear, the nose, the brain itself, the neck, the trachea, the bronchi, the lungs, the heart, the liver, the spleen, the pancreas - that which enables it to perform its duty in taking FROM the system that which enables it to REPRODUCE itself! That is the functioning of the glands!
10. Not as a whole only, but as individual well as the whole.
11. Hence there is then in the system that activity of the soul, that is the gift of the Creator to man. It may be easily seen, then, how very closely the glands are associated with reproduction, degeneration, regeneration; and this throughout - not only the physical forces of the body but the mental body and the soul body.
12. The glandular forces then are ever akin to the sources from which, through which, the soul dwells within the body.
13. As an illustration - for this may be very brief for this particular period, but that you may grasp an inkling even of what you have begun:
14. Let us consider the Race question. Why in the mixture of races is there in the third and then the tenth generation a reverting to first principles? (Remember, we are speaking only from the physical reaction.)
15. Because that period is required for the cycle of activity in the glandular force of reproduction to reassert itself. How is it given in our Word? That the sins of the fathers are visited unto the children of the third and fourth generation, even to the tenth. This is not saying that the results are seen only in the bodily functions of the descendants, as is ordinarily implied; but that the essence of the message is given to the individual respecting the activity of which he may or must eventually be well aware in his own being. That is, what effect does it have upon you to even get mad, to laugh, to cry, to be sorrowful? All of these activities affect not only yourself, your relationships to your fellow man, but your next experience in the earth!
16. This is indicated in this particular body which lies here, through which the information is being given - you call him Cayce; John would be better!
17. There are those very influences as used or manifested in those periods of activity in indulgences, as we have indicated, which have magnified such activity of the glandular system. Hence in the present actions as related to the physical forces of the body these make for a continual warring - against those influences or activities within the system.
18. This same reverting to first causes may be seen in others, when there has been the self-indulgence in any manner. Hence as you may see about you, and which is coming to pass: Why is the race of the people in America growing taller and taller. The exercising of the glandular forces as related to the activity that produces within the system the extension of the physical structural forces of the body! Fast rather than thinking! The glories of self rather than the glories of God!
19. Monstrosities or giants or such active forces are the results from the glandular secretions produced in the system - and these show themselves again and again.
20. This does not necessitate, as you see from viewing of same, that the parents of such be monstrosities themselves, but that they have in their union made possible the expression of that which HAS made for the extravagant use of the individual's influences in his own experiences in the earth!
21. Then we find the endocrine system - not glands but system - is that which is disseminated throughout the whole of the body, as related to the physical forces of same; and may be studied or may be followed in their relationship not only to the physical structural forces of the body but to what we call hereditary and environmental forces and how they may be expected to react upon the system.
22. And if these are considered in their proper relationships at those periods during conception and during those formative periods, the application of these may be made in such a way and manner as to make - as the Romans did - a beautiful, lovely body; yet the life may be as of Satan itself!
23. We are through for the present.

BACKGROUND

1. Subject of 281-38 - "Glad Helpers."
2. See 281-16, 281-28 through 281-37 on interpretation of The Book of Revelation.

REPORTS

1. 9/25/40 See another series on Glands beginning with 281-46.

Edgar Cayce Readings © 1971, 1993, 1994, 1995 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation