This Psychic Reading given by Edgar Cayce at his office, 115 West 35th Street, Virginia Beach, Va., this 20th day of November, 1929, in accordance with request made by self - [5661].

Present: Edgar Cayce; Mrs. Cayce, Conductor; Gladys Davis, Steno. Mrs. H. F. Sullivan and L. B. Cayce.

TEXT

1. EC: We have the body here, [5661]. Now, we would find many conditions as are interesting and unusual as regarding this body, the body's surroundings, the body's attitude towards individuals and toward self, and there be many that have been associated with this entity in varied capacities as have to do with the SOURCES through which the entity seeks that for the physical for the spiritual understanding of self.
2. In the physical, we find there are conditions material that hinder in the better physical functioning of the body. These are of rather the subtle nature, but specific in their character; yet CAUSING IN the physical conditions that have been treated rather than the CAUSE of that disturbing the physical functioning.
3. These are conditions and that which may correct them, as we find them with this body, [5661].
4. IN THE BLOOD SUPPLY, this rather changeable, for the character of the disturbance, as given, is of a toxic nature, and affects the circulation in different ways and manners. At times the blood carrying so much of a toxic disturbance as to hinder the circulation in extremities, and leaving there such effects as cause to the body distresses, as is seen in the feet, in arms, and in hands at times. These are EFFECTS and NOT causes. While in the feet, with the body's weight, this has produced a condition that tends towards that of leaving the tendons so relaxed as to produce disturbances. With the proper CORRECTIONS in the physical body, and with precautions taken as to the style and shape of footwear, and the supports as necessary both for ankle, heel and front arch, these may be relieved entirely. Be careful in this direction.
5. With the removal of that CAUSING the distress, those conditions existent in the heart's functioning, or the pressure as produced there at times, these conditions in the throat, bronchia and the head, will be relieved permanently. The use of an antiseptic as an inhalant or spray, that is ALKALIN in its reaction, will MATERIALLY aid in this direction - for the body controls self mentally in many reactions in the system.
6. IN THE NERVE SYSTEM, this suffers under the stresses as are created in the body, as seen in lower limbs, in the activity of the locomotion - especially along the sciatic nerve line, also in those conditions as produce irritation through the pelvic organs. These are SYMPATHETIC, NOT causes, and with the removal OF those conditions PRODUCING same we will find these will disappear.
7. IN THE FUNCTIONING OF THE ORGANS THEMSELVES, in that strain produced in the organs of the sensory system, this comes from the pressure as produced from those toxic effects in the system, as is seen in throat, mouth, the cavities of the face, the eyes. These are REFLEXES, not as causes. The CAUSES, then, arising from that condition existent in the colon proper. Here we find the effects of NOT a whole prolapsus, but a TENDENCY of same, and with the removal OF these disturbing forces as accumulate through accumulations of the feces in same, from which the toxic forces arise, we will find that bettered conditions will come to the system. These we would remove by the irrigation or high enemas in such a manner as to cleanse the lower system, being mindful that these are NOT done to the extent as to DESTROY the activity of the lymphatic circulation THROUGH same, but LEAVING rather when such is used - which should be at least, at first, once each week for three to four weeks, then every other week for two months - leaving in same some of those oils as will be ASSIMILATED by the system itself, or a combination of pure olive oil and of RUSSIAN white oil. These will be as a lubricant and as food values for the system. We would also use those of the ALKALIN antiseptic in the last wash before the oil is used.
8. We would be mindful of the diet. Do not overtax the system with too much of the acid producing foods, but rather a well BALANCED diet, with the TENDENCY to the alkalin. Little meats, and little grease. No foods that are fried should be eaten by THIS body, whether in that rendered from animal fats or vegetable, but rather vegetable oils on the salads or green vegetables taken.
9. This, as we find, would materially aid and would bring about the near normal condition for this body of [5661].
10. In the mental application of self towards individuals and conditions in the life, let that be the ruling factor of serve in every direction for others - for there may be found that all conditions in earth are as high priced as the service rendered, and only God and good is free. THAT hinders no one - while position, power, self, often blinds one to the GOOD that may be accomplished in the efforts of the body mental, the body physical, or the body spiritual. Love one another, even as perfect love casteth out fear. Fear no man. Rather let the fear of thy God DIRECT thy ways. Keep thy paths straight, and keep thy skirts from reproach. Let not thy good be evil spoken of. Ready for questions.
11. (Q) What particular kind, style or make of shoe should the body wear?
    (A) This as outlined, precautions for the WEIGHT as would assist in strengthening the ankle and in protecting the frontal arch. Correct the pressures as produce same, and conditions will disappear.
12. (Q) Is the pressure in the colon that referred to?
    (A) Disturbance in the colon and the pressure in the locomotories, as given.
13. (Q) Does that also cause the pain in the lower part of back and stiffness in joints and muscles.
    (A) To be sure, from which the radiation comes! This is the lumbar and sacral region. Well that, EACH day, the MASSAGE be given to RESTRAIN the system and to equalize the whole of the circulation. Following the enemas, or irrigations, the SWEATS should be taken - but beware of taking cold after same - see? We are through for the present.

    Copy to Self
    Copy to Ass'n office
    Copy to Cayce Hospital

BACKGROUND

1. 9/09/29 Letter: "...I want to ask about some very annoying pains in the lower part of the back and a stiffness in the joints and muscles. Foot comfort I have not known for ages as the longitudinal and transverse arches have both fallen. I want to know what kind of shoes to wear. Please give matrimonial advice re friend..."
2. 11/13/29 Letter: "...I want advice about pains in lower back, stiffness in muscles. Of late my left arm at elbow is quite uncomfortable and I am awaiting this reading before consulting a physician. I asked in my first letter information about the kind of shoe to wear. I have tried a number. The shoes people say my weight and my occupation which requires so much standing are so much against me. My hearing and vision are neither up to normal. We can't expect too much but I want to do all I can to keep fit. I do get so tired and sometimes my drowsiness gets hold of me to such an extent I can not do my work. It just sweeps down over me and I am overcome by it. I have always been more or less subject to this.
   "Then advise me about matrimony with a friend I referred to... He is not yet divorced yet he claims he is free and that only psychic people can understand. By law he is bound but says his freedom will be granted as soon as he is able to furnish her a financial support. They still occupy same room though he says their relation is more that of mother and son. She is a fine lady. I can not understand it all. He says she does and will do anything for his happiness. That she has known his attitude toward her long before he met me. He says in eyes of men only she is the wife in the eyes of God I am. Will we not get an answer through you saying what is what? I don't think happiness and blessing could come to us if she is to be deprived of a life time mate. ...In your reply which he is expecting to see please do not refer to anything I have said except paragraph marked. I am sure it will all be give you in my reading. I want the truth, no matter how hard it hits either one and will be glad for him to see it. He has a married son with three children. He says his family - adults - all know and respect his wishes. My family can not recognize any justice in his actions and think he should wait until such time as he is free. I am looking forward to your help, Lord knows I need it..."

REPORTS

1. 2/08/30 Letter: "...I honestly don't know how to explain the situation unless I go into very personal details which I know you will regard as you do all things - entirely confidential. I do not even want them to go through your office. I was so eager for your reading, feeling surely your spirit contact would reveal my dilemma and show me the way out. I have been under such a strain until I am more nervous than I want to admit, but others do not detect it very much.
   "Mr. [...], while still sleeping at the apartment in the room with his wife, because of shortage of room, seems to be no nearer a separation than at any time in the past. Thank God, he isn't, for surely there must be a great change or I do not see anything of happiness in the future for us. He maintains the stand that because he says we are one in sight of God, that I should so feel and act in presence of others, especially my family. I told you how my mother naturally opposes. Once they met here and had a talk, she told him very emphatically that she felt he had worked on my sympathy until he got my consent for this future alliance and that I'd suffer everything before admitting my own feelings in this matter. She asked him to go home to his wife and take away this stigma he's placing on my life and my home. Of course he refused. Honestly, sometimes I believe he thinks he is Jesus Christ of this era. I never believed a mortal could love himself so much. He wants to domineer my life and influence my faults. He'll say 'I want you to be yourself' and in the next breath try to show me how perverted my ideas are.
   "Now comes the question. How did he gain such head way that I can not handle the situation? Simply because I am such a weak-kneed creature, that my sympathy was my down fall. He told me that on two previous occasions they had papers already for divorce, once his relatives persuaded him to give it up for son's sake, next time because she was taken very ill and she would have been very much alone had he left then.
   "She must be a fine character and is from all I know, to put up with all this, but she says she will drop out for his happiness.
   "I can't reason with him nor could the good Lord Himself. He has an alibi for everything. He is a bundle of intensity, temperamental, so sensitive until every word must be weighed or he is offended, generally putting on an entirely different construction. Worse still, things I least foresee, or intend to bring unhappiness, will throw him in a fit of anger and this leads to intoxication. About every few weeks he goes into one of these spells, his last he wandered out in that heavy snow, fell, sprained his ankle, lost his glasses, came in here, used the most abusive language and finally I called his wife at his request to tell her he was here and persuaded him to take a taxi home. He was so under the influence he fell several times between door and taxi. He threatens to take his life, then his and mine, then after the wild anger wears off, disclaims any knowledge of it and says he had a brainstorm. I'll say he did.
   "Just here, he phones saying it has become so tense there that his wife and son say some decision must be reached tomorrow, that they cannot go on this way, nor do I blame them. I asked Mrs. [...] while he was on one of his tyraids once if she and I could not have a talk. She courteously evaded an answer by diverting the conversation in another channel.
   "Now why have I not answered your letters? Only because he pesters the very soul out of me. I asked that my mail be sent to school ... Junior High School ... the request was disregarded. He gets hold of almost any mail here. We know no privacy. He is so much at home that there is no limit to what he does. I feel all to blame for allowing him to get the upper hand but he can not be reasoned with. He is impossible.
   "On the other hand, to be fair to him, he believes I am his God-given mate. He is genuinely sincere. I know he has no thought of any other woman, will to the Lord he could become interested in another if he isn't satisfied with his wife.
   "I wish I could send you some of the articles he writes to Unity Magazines. Yet, how are they to know, the publishers? He must be a dual person. And write! Almost daily I get special delivery letters or telegrams, letters a mile long. I beg him not to write. I never have any time alone except when God mercifully lets me sleep, say from eleven or eleven-thirty to six A.M. He even has ignored me by hanging around night school. Never considers the reflection on me when the public knows he is married.
   "Mother says I'm killing her and she will never step in my door again while he comes here. And what does he say? 'Why, it's just as well she doesn't, if she is so narrow.' Then he would say he would cut off his right arm if it would help her. My son thinks he is nutty. He stands by loyally but says he can't for the life of him see why I don't rid myself of him once and for all. But I don't seem to have the backbone to do anything. I simply lost my nerve.
   "He was not willing I write you unless he could word the letter. He wants to supervise everything. He watches the mail. He wants to know from whom every phone call comes. He suspects everyone. He is insanely jealous, even of my own son. "Behold my helplessness. I thought your reading would be the solution. It gave no help but almost broke me up with the disappointment. It matters not what I eat or suffer physically while this terrible mental conflict is on. Can't you make this an emergency case, make me a reading, if I have not forfeited my opportunity? Tell me what to do. If you feel it is best for him to see it, have it written so it will not show I have unfolded my heart to you as to no creature living and only you, your wife and stenographer must know. I shall be in the house all day tomorrow... If these keeps on I know I shall break mentally. I can't stand it. He will very probably be here all day. A rare treat to have a Saturday P.M. alone today.
   "Will arrange for mother's and son's readings later. Finance is hard right now. Heartaching and dumbfounding. I have begged Mr. [...] to have a reading with you but he is doing practically no business and he simply postpones it by saying he isn't ready. Now if you make the emergency reading you know where I am, and if it is possible to write it so he can see all that will work to our good and have any confidential part, send to school, please. Don't send at all if it is to come here for he will surely find it.
   "Your strong help is urged. He has phoned again and the voice is thick - I know the sound..."
2. 2/13/30 GD's letter to [5661]:
   Dear Mrs. [5661]:
   As you said yourself, in your letter of the 8th, I think you truly have lost your nerve. You have gotten it into your head, or have let someone else get it into your head, that you are weak and incapable of resistance. This is not so. "Where there is a will there is a way". If your will has become weak, it is because you have failed to exercise it in the proper manner. In the beginning, each individual was given a free will, which either leads the individual back to or away from God.
   Your reading said: "Fear no man. Rather let the fear of thy God DIRECT thy ways. Keep thy paths straight, and keep thy skirts from reproach. Let not thy good be evil spoken of."
   Now that sounds like it is being given to you individually, doesn't it? It doesn't seem to take into consideration that you are being trodden down by another will higher than your own, but is admonishing you to use your own will in the right direction - for, "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap". That means woman too. If you are not strong enough to stand up for your own ideals and purposes, then you will gradually lose your own individuality - which would be letting yourself be led AWAY FROM God. If you really WANT to be rid of this man, then get rid of him! "Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, BELIEVING, that will I grant unto you". "Lo, I am with you always - if ye love me, keep my commandments". No individual is weak with His power behind him, and it is yours for the asking.
   I would suggest that you carry out the suggestions for your physical health, which were given in your reading. The body is the temple of the living God, and should be kept physically fit, in order to manifest the better. Everything looks dark to one with a body packed with poisons. Clean the temple, and the light will shine through. We all oftentimes let the physical body become a stumbling block, instead of a channel through which the mental and spiritual should manifest.
   This may seem like a rather stiff sermon to you, but I am writing this way because I feel it is exactly what you need. To "snap out of it", in other words. It would be useless to give another reading, with your present attitude. No matter how many beautiful truths could be given, it would do no good unless you acted upon them. "This day I have set before you good and evil. Choose THOU whom thou will serve, God or mammon". No other individual can be responsible for the deeds you do. You have been given a free will. Use it! and use it in the PROPER direction. How will you know the proper direction? Listen to that small voice from within. "Let thy spirit bear witness with my spirit, whether ye be the sons of God or not". If you are so bound about by material things that you cannot hear the tiny voice, then it is time to clean the temple and make it transparent, so that the light may shine through to direct thy paths.
   Let me hear from you again, won't you? Please read over again what I have written, which seems to me to apply to you directly, and let it SINK IN. Then act in accordance with the inspiration which should come to you. "Let thy light so shine, that others - seeing thee - may rejoice and glorify God, the Father".
   Sincerely, GD
3. 2/19/30 [5661]'s Letter: "...Your very bracing letter came this morning, and I thank you for the very practical sermon.
   "Yes, I am snapping out of it. I had gone so far in despair, the pendulum had to swing back. Pouring out my heart to you as I had never done to another in my life caused the rebound. It was like getting rid of the poison. I have always kept a thing like that pinned up in my own heart. For once, I made a confession. "Mrs. [...] and I had several very satisfactory talks. She helped solve the problem by yanking him up. I told her I was desperate and could not stand anymore. So she just very tactfully and diplomatically stepped in and got everybody on level ground again. He does not know she and I talked, nor does she want him to.
   "He has signed a pledge with both of us as witnesses to his (I hold the written pledge) never to touch an intoxicating drink again as long as - to use his words - I do not 'throw him over.' He seems to be bracing up and trying to make amends. I shall try again to have faith. If she can be big enough to help through it all I must try. Now it's up to him.
   "He does not know that I wrote or that I have asked you to write to school. He said last night he would write you today a letter and wants me to sign it. I don't know what his plan is. Thank you for your good advice. I will start at once on my reading and it's suggestions I have already partly carried out..."
4. 4/07/30 Letter: "...Truly large bodies move slowly. I seem to find more to do than I can get done in the time I have.
   "Our friend about whom I wrote you refused to comply with my request until things became so tense, I finally called in the police at last I'm keeping him from the house...
   "I am following my treatments and have been very much helped..."
5. 11/07/30 Letter: "...This will seem like a long ways from the past, but it will be a familiar one.
   "Since last April there have been many anxious days. Our friend still clings to the hope. But unless he learns self control he will never get anywhere. He is like a refractory child when he can't have his own way.
   "All I can say is that if we do our part, leave the rest in divine hands, and have faith, all will turn out for the best...
   "Now please if you can make a reading for my son [5660]...
   "In my reading I want you to go into this love affair I wrote you all about before and I also want advice along health lines again. Make it a little more specific, please, because before I thought it might have been less general. Please understand that that is not meant as a complaint. Shoes to wear, that is, I had hoped you could name a particular brand of shoes. I am still trying to find something comfortable. The doctors say the tissues of the feet are weak...
   "Our friend has been in bed for a week, in a very run down condition and with a heavy cough..."
6. 11/19/30 Letter submitted questions for her son's reading [5660-1] and her own: "...Is [...] to be in my life anymore? (Mentally he seems GONE to all the family. Now he seems to be getting back into his own a little more each day.) If he gets out is he safe? (He has been subject to brainstorms when there is opposition to what he thinks right.) I have advanced him money borrowed on my home. As far as I can see he is at rock bottom. Will he get on top and be able to repay? I know that he wants to and hopes to do so. If he gets well, how can I protect myself and yet not cause him a crash by admitting I see no future for us? Anything else along this line would be appreciated. If someone else is in room when you make reading, other than your father, your wife and secretary, please do not call out his name in full..."
7. 11/21/30 EC gave the Physical Rdgs. for her son [5660].
8. 11/25/30 EC gave her second reading, 5661-2.

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