4/13/43 Statement prepared reporting on EC readings to date;
read 6/43:
We look back and evaluate the past few years of our
association with Mr. Cayce and the organization which
sponsors his work: Perhaps no part of our lives has been so
important and valuable to us as that which has been gained
from the Readings given through Mr. Cayce, beginning with
our first experience, that of my own Physical Reading.
From the time of my birth until four years of age, I was
almost totally blind. During my boyhood, I went through a
series of operations by noted specialists, who needled small
portions of cataracts from my eyes with each operation.
Having cut away as much as they could, without injuring the
sight, the doctors said that they had done all they could for
me and that I would have to rely on glasses for any further
improvement. However, I never lost hope and always felt that
some means would be found in the future that would answer my
prayers for improved vision.
Some years ago a series of radio programs dealing with
various psychic experiences in a dramatized form, "Mysteries
of the Mind", were broadcasted. Upon writing in for further
information, I received a copy of a little pamphlet, telling
something of the work of Edgar Cayce and the Association. I
immediately obtained a Physical Reading. [
1861-1]
The reading gave a brief history of my eye trouble
and diagnosed its cause, then gave suggestions for its
correction. It stated that certain pressures in the spine
were causing an impingement upon the nerves of the eyes,
hindering the normal activity of the optic nerve, shortening
the vision and emaciating some of the matter of the eye
itself. It was suggested that I go to two doctors in New
York for osteopathic and electrical treatments. Immediately
following these treatments I found that I had gained the use
of my left eye for reading purposes. Until then I had been
entirely dependent upon my right eye for reading. Treatments
from a Norfolk osteopath, use of violet ray, massage, and
vitamins, as suggested in later readings are assisting the
improvement. Control of the eye muscles has become almost
normal; the general physical health has improved one-hundred
percent; susceptibility to colds is lower than it has ever
been throughout my lifetime. It might be interesting to note
that X-Ray photographs, taken after the first reading had
been received, verified, exactly, the trouble in the spinal
column.
Several months after my first physical reading I had an
opportunity to prove the accuracy of this type of reading
beyond any possible doubt. An epidemic of what was thought
to be intestinal influenza caught up with me and finally put
me abed. I wired for a reading and received the suggestions
for treatment by wire. [
1861-3]
Upon following these suggestions my recovery was so speedy
that I was back at my work three days later and did not
suffer the usual long period of weakness that is common
to this illness.
For a number of years my wife had been suffering from poor
digestion and elimination and was unable to eat a variety of
foods, all of which, seriously undermined her health. Her
first physical reading gave the primary cause as subluxations
in various regions of the spinal column. This verified,
incidentally, the results of examinations by two osteopaths
made previous to getting the reading, but of which Mr.
Cayce knew nothing. Osteopathic adjustments, hydrotherapy
treatments, massage, and various other measures have caused
marked improvement in her general health and she is now able
to eat normally.
The Physical Readings proved to be of such inestimable value
to us that we soon obtained our Life Readings as well as our
Mental and Spiritual Readings. These, perhaps, more than
anything else, have helped us to discover and explore
somewhat that which is involved in the enigmatical old saw,
"Know Thyself" - those obscure and intricate parts of our
personalities, minds, and souls. Why are we as we are? Why
do we have certain innate urges or abilities, expressed, or
even, sometimes, repressed; why do we have certain desires,
or attractions or repulsions to others? Isn't there often a
deeper meaning about some of these things than we can find in
our daily lives to explain them? Couldn't they be karmic and
brought over from another incarnation? The Life Readings had
something to say! Broadening they have been: placing before
us, in brief form, those progressions or retrogressions we
had made in past lives lived upon this earth, These became,
to us, as a foundation for this lifetime; they helped us
understand ourselves and one another; they helped us find our
purposes, our abilities, and our weaknesses; they gave us a
different understanding and attitude toward all mankind.
Through my wife's reading she was enabled to find more
happiness and freedom for expression in the home than
she had found in the business world.
My own deep love of music and ability to play the violin were
innate urges, I found, from a Persian incarnation. While
an innate desire to discuss the War between the States and
defend the cause of the South, and to "live" in the history
of those times, when reading it, were from fighting in the
Civil War during an incarnation previous to this. Railroads,
trains, everything connected with them, hold a fascination
for me that was somewhat more satisfactorily explained when I
discovered I had been a railroad man in that life, also. It
was the Life Reading that supplied the link as to why I was
suffering with the present eye condition for something I had
done in the past.
We found that the bonds that tied relationships or
attractions of people to one another may have begun far back
in the years when we lived before, It was satisfying to know
this was not the end, then, nor the beginning.
To my wife and myself the Life Readings have been a most
satisfactory and unquestionable proof of re-incarnation, and
they have given a far deeper meaning to life, its beauties,
its sufferings.
But perhaps this latter expression of value can be applied
even more aptly to the value of those readings called "Mental
and Spiritual". We are faced daily with so many attitudes
of mind, so many adjustments to make to life and its events.
What should we hold to, what is firm, what is sure-footing;
are we right, are we wrong in our attitudes; is there a God,
a Son, Christ, who really lived? These were the things the
Mental and Spiritual Readings tried to help us understand.
And in the practical application of those advices given has
come a satisfaction in finding that "they work." Both my
wife and I have sought for years in philosophy, metaphysics,
and psychical phenomena the answers to many questions of life
and existence. Philosophy and metaphysics can lead one into
the ideal, the speculative, and often it is hard to reconcile
the breach between it and the natural, normal, everyday
things of life. This is not so of the Readings. We find
them practical, applicable to our every day life, for,
apparent throughout all of the readings is the attempt to
bring people to normalcy, to balance, to well-being, yet
always to that communion and companionship with God that He
has promised to all who will but love Him and seek Him.
With these experiences, then, we can only feel that the
readings have proven themselves.
So has one other! For through the many years of personal
contact now, the quality of the high aims and purposes, the
character of utter sincerity, integrity and humbleness of one
other stands out. He has proven himself also. He says there
is no need to eulogize HIS character for what he has given
us, "The Book (Bible) speaks for itself." - He has sent us
back searching, pondering, that "Book". It has been good for
us! He and the Readings have made us understand and apply it
better.
6/16/43 See
1861-16.
Edgar Cayce Readings © 1971, 1993, 1994, 1995 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation