This Psychic Reading given by Edgar Cayce at the office of the Association, Arctic Crescent, Virginia Beach, Va., this 19th day of May, 1943, in accordance with request made by the self - Mrs. [3010], new Associate Member of the Ass'n for Research & Enlightenment, Inc., recommended by the book THERE IS A RIVER.

Present: Edgar Cayce; Gertrude Cayce, Conductor; Gladys Davis, Steno.

TEXT

1. GC: You will go over this body carefully, examine it thoroughly, and tell me the conditions you find at the present time; giving the cause of the existing conditions, also suggestions for help and relief of this body; answering the questions, as I ask them:
2. EC: Yes, we have the body here, [3010].
3. As we find, there are disturbing conditions that prevent the better physical functioning through the body. These, we find, are the result - or the after effects - of intestinal flu. And the disturbance is through the alimentary canal, especially as related to those areas across the abdomen, in line with the colon itself.
4. The administrations that have been made have at times aided, and then apparently they lose their effect.
5. The administrations in stimulating the centers along the spinal system, for instance, aided for the time being and then apparently produced a more severe attack - occasionally.
6. These are conditions as we find them with this body.
7. The blood supply, owing to the upset condition, indicates there is a lack of the proper amount of the hormones or the coagulating forces, as to bring sufficient quantity or activity of leucocyte in the area of affectation. This, we find, is because of the very nature or character of the disturbance. Not that there is any inflammatory condition other than an irritated condition, rather, in the lymph and emunctory circulation along the exterior areas of the channel or canal.
8. The nerve forces, naturally, are the involved areas.
9. If the administrations osteopathically were of a relaxing nature, and not a stimulating treatment, - and there were those properties taken internally to alleviate, or to supply sufficient quantity of the elements in the system for beneficial conditions, - we may have bettered conditions.
10. Other than at times a little temperature, we do not find this existent; and the tired, languidness that would naturally occur from such. And any overtaxation, either physically or mentally, brings on a condition. These do not last all the time, but are rather of the nature in which the body finds they are PRESENT - with the anxiety of a disturbance being caused through the body.
11. The medicinal properties to be taken internally, then, we would prepare in this manner:
12. To 1 1/2 ounces of Wild Ginseng add sufficient water to make a fusion of at least 4 ounces. To this 4 ounces of the fusion, add - in the order named:

    Wild Ginger (fusion)..............1/2 ounce,
Tincture of Valerian..............1/2 ounce,
Grain Alcohol, as preservative......1 ounce.

13. The dosage of this would be two teaspoonsful twice each day.
14. Have the osteopathic adjustments, but of a relaxing and not of a stimulating nature, about twice a week - until the whole quantity of the fusion is taken, see? These treatments should be only of a RELAXING nature, and should include the whole of the spinal area - especially, of course, the lower portion of the dorsals - or from the 4th dorsal down to the 9th or 10th.
15. In the matter of the diet, - not too much of roughage in the food values. Cereals, predigested foods, fish, fowl or lamb, and vegetables; but not too much of roughage - or food for bulk.
16. Do take occasionally half a teaspoonful of Milk of Bismuth, with three to six drops of Elixir of Lactated Pepsin, in half a glass of water. That's only when there is the feeling of too much fullness in the abdomen after a meal.
17. Beware of too much sweets.
18. Do not take carbonated drinks of any kind.
19. Do exercise in the open.
20. Ready for questions.
21. (Q) Will this treatment correct the condition so I will be able to sleep at night without the aid of sedatives?
    (A) It should correct the condition so as to make near to normal reactions for the body.
22. We are through with this Reading.

    Two copies to Self (one for Physician)
    Copy to Ass'n file
    (Show your osteopath, or tell him, the part relating to the type of treatment needed.
    If you experience trouble finding a druggist who can prepare the Wild Ginseng compound, you may order it from our local druggist who has such crude drugs in stock: Meredith Drug Co., 17th St., Virginia Beach, Va.)

BACKGROUND

1. 4/01/43 [3010]'s letter:
   "In 1933 I had a severe case of flu, which left me rather shattered, and fair game for the doctors for years. I gradually built back to general health; but the thing that bothered me then, and still does, is an abdominal pain which is more or less variable but generally too much of a hurt to let me sleep. You would not, likely, be interested in all the things the doctors have done to me - they have all been honest physicians, and somewhat helpful. They worried over my adrenal and thyroid glands, gave me violet ray treatments and massage, tried out drugs. My present physician has been my adviser and friend for many years - he believes that "medicine is an art and not a science" and thinks doctors should admit it when they don't know. He is about out of ideas for me, though he is not at all giving up. He x-rays my insides from time to time. Late in 1938 he reluctantly sent me to a conservative surgeon who thought an exploratory operation was justified. It was done, and they found about 2 ft. of my transverse colon pinned rigid with adhesions. These were cleared away, and my bowel seems to be functioning normally again. It still tends to be too hurried, we assume from the habit developed during those many years when it had to work up enough speed to get through the stiff part. My tendency, in other words, is not at all toward constipation.
   "During these years most of my life has changed very much more than the discomfort has. I was the first daughter in my parents' home - then I was seeing them through their final illnesses and deaths. I lived alone a few years, and in 1940 made a very happy and, as it turned out, very brief marriage. My husband fell dead that fall. I had been warmly accepted as 'mother' by his 3 lovely children, so I have gone on being their parent to the best of my ability. I am now 54. My belated parenthood will be for a short time - the oldest boy has been in the army a year, and is just 23; the next one will go this summer, no doubt. Their sister [...] is 17. These people are Catholic and I am not, but it has not seemed to make any difference, in our closeness or understanding. I respect their church, and they equally respect my knowledge of the Bible (which is, admittedly, much less than yours) and of religious history.
   "Through these various years I have had periods of taking sedatives to sleep - not opiates which I can't seem to take - which admittedly reduce my energy somewhat, and shorter periods of doing without, and the reduction of energy by sleepless nights. I am inclined to hurt all the time, but I notice it more at night when I have more time to. It is inclined to be worse when I am lying flat. If I am very busy and do too much, the nerve pain fires up and hurts a lot, so that I seem to have to watch out for fatigue. In recent years the pain is inclined to express itself in my back below the waist, also. "Save for this one silly thing I am by now in excellent health. I do have a good deal of responsibility and a fair amount to do. The doctor's current theme is that he wants me to be able to cut down the sedative, and mine is that I want the pain to shut up so I CAN use less sedative. It sometimes has grown less, but this has been a winter when it was rather worse.
   "Because of my parental job - which I take quite seriously, because these folks need me now - I might not be able to get in any complicated treatments, if such are indicated, until later in the spring (our oldest is just coming home on a furlough, too). If I should go to an osteopath I would be glad to have you recommend one here if you know one. My doctor doubtless would if I asked him to, but your own contact might be most successful. I have not as yet spoken of this request to you, to my doctor, because I haven't seen him for a week or so. He and I are on a rather amiable basis of following either his advice or mine, and I shouldn't think he would object to this, though he does have some philosophic limitations of mind. (He has a keener mind than mine, but my feeling is that he has fewer religious convictions.)
   "Both my mother and my grandmother were considerably interested in psychic matters, so that, though I am not myself either very curious or very gifted in this field, it is not a strange one to me - and I don't need to be convinced. Your gift seems to me to be a beautiful and God-given one."
2. 4/09/43 [3010]'s letter:
   "I did not mean that my doctor would not cooperate. I think he will. I meant only that it is likely to be a relatively unfamiliar field to him, and that he is not an osteopath. I have meant to ask him if I should not try a good osteopath - we have tried so many ideas - but have thought I might now better wait for your reading, for your advice would be so much more to the point than our gropings. I shall enlist his aid, of course. He knows the limitations of his own excellent ability, and he wants me to be well even if he can't bring it about himself. I have not seen him since I read the book, THERE IS A RIVER."
3. 4/27/43 [3010]'s letter:
   "I have been puzzled as to how to analyze my questions, and though I now have them about thought out, I wonder if it would be better to send them a little later, say a week ahead of the reading date. Perhaps part of my reason for that is that I thought maybe an osteopath could help me some anyway, and asked my doctor if he cared to recommend one. He thought it a good idea, and did. The osteopath has been preoccupied with one spot in my lower back, and has thought he could help it. So far I think he has, a little, though the last treatment made me feel rather more tired than less. (Might have been part of the improvement, of course.) In any event, I would be a little clearer about how much he has done in another week. So that, if it is not out of harmony with your habit in these things, I'll write out my questions so that you would get them say by the 12th. (The osteopath is one Dr. Blakeslee.)
   "I am truly appreciative of your finding time to include me in your readings at such an early date, and I have great hopes of getting the guidance that will enable me to gain back enough health to be a more useful citizen than I am now."
4. 5/13/43 [3010]'s letter:
   "May I say that I have talked over your reading for me with my doctor and he is ready to collaborate in any way."
   1. Can I overcome this abdominal discomfort which I have had for so many years, at least enough to be able to sleep at night without the aid of sedatives. 2. My more recent backache and tendency to be too tired - are these part of the same trouble or from some different cause? 3. Am I overlooking any physical ailment in my concentration on my lower back and bowel area? In other words, is some other difficulty going on that may contribute to this, and that we have failed to notice? 4. Is my recent turn to an osteopath the right idea? 5. Can I somehow win back to normal energy and less exhausting pain (so that I can be well enough to do all that I should be doing)?

REPORTS

1. 5/25/43 [3010]'s letter:
   Dear Mr. Cayce,
   The copies of my reading and your note came yesterday. I have taken the reading to my doctor, who is eager to have me follow the advice exactly - as, of course, I am myself. I will write you people for the drug prescribed because he thinks you could supply it better than he can. I am about to get this copy to the osteopath. I suspect the advice for soothing treatments comes at a time he has been busy giving me stimulating ones - anyway they have not been making me feel better. I'll let you know the progress I make as soon as I get started - that is, get the drug, and some of the osteopathic treatments indicated.
   The suggestions should be simple enough to carry out.
   Yours most gratefully, [3010]
2. 6/18/43 [3010]'s letter:
   Dear Mr. Cayce,
   Thank you for your letter of the 14th. No the medicine has not yet come. I have wondered whether to write them, but I realize that everyone is short-handed and slower than they would be normally. I spoke to my doctor about getting it here, but his unwillingness to try was based on the word "fusion." He says he wouldn't know what proportions were meant in the fusion; and he'd rather not chance getting them as you had not meant.
   I am minded to quote a Pennsylvania Dutch yarn, about my health. The tale went that a body could not be buried until someone had said a kind word about the departed. The neighbors were gathered around after the death of a greatly disliked man, and the silence became awkward as no one could think of a good word for him. Finally one man contributed, "Well, I can say dis for him. He was not always so mean as he was sometimes." That is the way with my long-standing ailment. The last of May and early June I was over-busy, with various necessary house chores and the conclusion of the children's school year, and I felt tough. This week they are away on an outing with their uncle, and I have snatched the time to rest a great deal. So I don't feel "so mean," right now, "as I do sometimes." The osteopath, who is busily reading my copy of "There is a River," feels that he can cure me and that I have begun to make progress. I had a treatment today and got this optimistic report. (I think he is concerned with his end of the job, and doesn't care when I get the medicine.)
   Anyhow, I'll improve I think. Yours appreciatively, [3010]
3. 6/21/43 EC's letter:
   Mrs. [3010] ..., Indiana
   Dear Mrs. [3010]
   Received your letter dated June 18 and am so glad that you have noticed a slight improvement. That is very encouraging and I am sure when you receive the medicine and do everything as indicated, you will feel a lot better. We will inquire and try to find out from the druggist how soon he will be able to send the medicine to you.
   I enjoyed the "tale" that you told - It really helps to receive a letter like this once in awhile. We receive so many pitiful letters every day for appointments and a waiting list up until December. I have often wished that I were ten people and then could help more people than I do, but never wished it as much as I do now.
   Hope to hear from you again as to your improvement, I am,
   Sincerely yours, Edgar Cayce
   [per M. A. Poss]
4. 8/17/43 [3010]'s letter:
   Dear Mr. Cayce,
   Your kind note of June 21 (good gracious, that far back?) has remained unanswered, because still I thought that medicine which I ordered from your druggist would come along. You spoke of inquiring into it, and I settled back in the confidence that it would now be all right. My doctor wondered if they could not get the grain alcohol in the prescription - said he couldn't.
   Meantime I am going on with the osteopath, who seems to be confident that he can fix me up. Sometimes he seems to aggravate the discomfort, though I realize that may be necessary, sometimes he soothes it. He thinks I show improvement. As long as he thinks he can help I'm glad enough to have him do so. My own awareness of improvement is not as yet anything like acute.
   I feel as if I were one that didn't carry out your instructions. But I have as to the osteopath, the drug matter seems to be a sort of blank wall. I don't know what to do about it. I do hope you are not overtaxed yourself in your great work. I'm afraid that book about moved the whole country in on you.
   Yours with appreciation, [3010]
5. 8/21/43 EC's letter:
   Mrs. [3010] ..., Indiana
   Dear Mrs. [3010]
   Thank you very much for yours of the 17th. I have wondered often just how you were getting along. I do not understand just why you haven't heard from the local druggist. I will inquire again and see what I can learn here. We have often wished that we could have somebody who is reliable to attend to these compounds. While this druggist has done very well, of course the conditions and the war has made it very difficult. And they have gotten to be so independent because they have more business than they can attend to; it makes it difficult.
   I do hope that you will keep up with the osteopathic treatments, but I feel that if you had this compound, it would clear up that colitis condition very shortly.
   Thank you very much for letting us help you and I do hope that we may yet prove to be of a real service.
   Let us hear from you again from time to time.
   Sincerely, Edgar Cayce
6. 12/15/43 [3010]'s letter:
   ..., Ind.
   Dear Mr. Cayce,
   Goodness, I haven't written to you since August, but you have seemed so very busy. I guess I am one of your less successful cases, the medicine I tried to get never did come: I have continued the osteopathic treatments with some success. Another angle developed in the late summer when a bump developed in the rear of my lower jaw and presently headed up and oozed pus. This seems to have been a first class abscess where I had had a tooth pulled many years ago. We could know nothing about it till it revealed itself, and we have no idea how long I have had it. I have hopes that presently, with this pus out of my system, I'll be better. A specialist dug out the abscess in mid-September. I have recently indulged in the light flu which is going around, to my disgust, but am almost caught up again.
7. 12/21/43 EC's letter:
   Mrs. [3010] ..., Ind.
   Dear Mrs. [3010]
   Thanks very much for yours of the 15th. The card is very lovely! Both the design and the verse, and I appreciate your thought so much.
   Sorry indeed to know you haven't gotten much better results from your reading. Though you know, I am sure you haven't given it the full course. I don't understand why we haven't been able to get all of the things for you as was suggested. I know it is possible to get it because others have gotten it, even since it was suggested for you, in other parts of the country. We have never been able though to have any one individual designated as the one who would prepare these compounds. Hope we can do this very soon.
   Hoping you keep up the osteopathic adjustments, but this is only part of the treatment. Do let us hear from you from time to time - and with every good wish, and season greetings, I am,
   Sincerely, Edgar Cayce EC/c
8. 3/15/44 [3010]'s letter:
   Mrs. [3010] ..., Indiana
   Mrs. Mary L. Wirsing, Secretary, Association for Research and Enlightenment, Inc. Virginia Beach, Va.
   Dear Mrs. Wirsing,
   Apropos of the membership card you sent me recently, and the comment in the last bulletin that we should report from time to time after a reading, perhaps I should lay out my point of view before you. I HAVE written Mr. Cayce, from time to time, and always received gracious, friendly answers. I don't see how he possibly gets done all that he must do, and rather have hated to burden him with further letters.
   I had a physical reading last May. I approached the whole thing with the utmost reverence and desire to cooperate, and I still think Mr. Cayce has a great gift. However the reading was a sharp disappointment to my doctor, for it offered no suggestions that presented any angles new to us. It advised osteopathy, which I had begun earlier in the spring, and the use of a medical compound which I seemed to be advised to send for to Virginia Beach. At my doctor's advice I sent at once, even air mail, so as to waste no time. It has never been sent; and I have had no response at all about it, save some worrying on the part of Mr. Cayce to whom I presented that problem. He promised to look into it, he was still discontented about it when I wrote him at Christmas. But I don't see how I can remedy the matter, I did as I was directed to, and I have been offered no alternative suggestions.
   Meantime this fall revealed a very long-continued abscess in my jaw which there was no way of our knowing about till it had eventually tunnelled up through the bone and opened. Also I came to the conclusion that my metatarsal arches were drooping, and the osteopath, when I pointed them out to him, said they WERE sagging; and he is working on them. He says they must have been that way a long time, and I myself realize they have probably been wrong at least a year. Both of these defects are bound to have contributed to my abdominal discomfort and ill health, but neither was hinted at in my reading.
   I am not particularly better than I was when the reading was made. Some improvement from the osteopathic treatments in the summer was set back this winter when I went in for a case of flu. I have hardly had time for the whole improvement after the clearing out of the abscess; and my transverse arches, though better, are not yet perfect. So I am still hopeful of reaching better health.
   However, as you can see, I don't feel that the reading did much for me. I have great respect for all you are doing, and I admire and marvel at Mr. Cayce. But I just turned out to be the odd one, as to the reading, it was never my philosophy to withhold giving unless I got in return, but I don't see any reason for retaining my active membership. I cannot help you with hopeful reports of gains made, and I'm afraid my own return to perfect health will be just a general answer to my own prayers. It has all been an interesting, even if not helpful, contact with the association.
   Very sincerely, Mrs. [3010]

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