The Readings’ Approach to Health

      The information from the readings on health includes simple suggestions about what each of us can do to stay well. The nature of many of these recommendations indicates that Cayce’s understanding of healthcare was really ahead of its time. These basic health principles include such items as: maintaining a well-balanced diet, the need for regular exercise, the role of attitudes and emotions in achieving and maintaining good health, the importance of relaxation and recreation as part of a balanced lifestyle, and the desirability of keeping the physical body cleansed—both on the inside and on the outside. Cayce’s approach to staying well had its roots in health maintenance and preventive medicine rather than simply the treatment of illnesses as they arose. He was one of the first individuals in the Western Hemisphere to recommend a nutritious diet consisting mainly of vegetables, fish, and fowl, plus sufficient water each day to promote internal cleansing. Cayce recommended these guidelines and others while much of the country had a diet consisting of great quantities of red meat and starches. Yet Cayce’s contribution to health and physical well-being was not limited simply to proper diet and regular exercise.

      Decades ago, he emphasized the importance that attitudes and emotions play in personal well-being. In support of this idea, clinical medicine has discovered how positive attitudes enhance the healing process. Both Cayce and modern medicine agree that humor and joy play key roles in facilitating wellness. It has also been found that certain kinds of negative attitudes or stresses can lead to illness. For example, Cayce’s readings suggest that persistent anger—conscious or unconscious—may play a part in the onset of disease.

      The Cayce information on health offers important insights into how each of us can stay well. The readings make recommendations for a variety of health concerns—from acne, diet, hemorrhoids, longevity, and warts to arthritis, cancer, epilepsy, mental illness, and psoriasis. Nearly every condition that existed between the turn of the century and 1945—whether it was childbirth, fractures, or a vitamin deficiency—is represented in the files of the Cayce material. Interestingly enough, modern-day research has found that many of the recommended treatments given decades ago by the sleeping Cayce to specific individuals seem to be applicable today on a much wider scale. The information on psoriasis and scleroderma are two of the most notable examples. For both of these diseases, the Cayce regimen involves specific dietary changes, particular spinal adjustments, and other natural remedies and procedures. In recent years, following the Cayce program has helped hundreds of people with these two ailments.

      The readings were given between 1901 and 1944, and many were ahead of their time in foreseeing future approaches to healthcare. In addition to insights into energy medicine, the role of attitudes and emotions, and the effects of prayer and spiritual healing, Cayce often saw advances in the way we treat “dis-ease.” For example, in 1927 he stated that, “The day may yet arrive when one may take a drop of blood and diagnose the condition of any physical body,” (283-2) and certainly today this is commonplace.

      Cayce also saw total health as involving coordination among the physical, mental, and spiritual components of life. Any complete approach to health needed to consider an individual’s entire being rather than simply the illness. Because of this concept it has been said that the beginnings of present-day holistic health started from the readings