No-Brainer Keys to Keeping Our Smarts
Keeping the Beat: Help for Skipping Hearts
Taking the Punch out of Rheumatism and Neuritis
Damage Control for Cold Sores and Shingles
The Case of the Elusive Singing Lapis
Essential Oils: More than Just a Pretty Fragrance
Allergies: All in the Body-Mind
Hypochondria: When It IS All in the Mind
Closing the Door to Spirit Possession
A Prescription for Healthy Living
Author’s Note and Acknowledgments
If these chapters look familiar to some of you, it is because each one first appeared as an article in the Heritage Store’s newsletter (Virginia Beach, VA) between the years 2004 and 2010. As a group they are a distillation of forty years of researching the Edgar Cayce readings and writing about their perspective on health topics, in particular. The monthly contributions have allowed me to present this amazing material in an accessible fashion and at the same time let the readings themselves have the last word. In some instances I have been able to go into more depth than ever before and to delve into some truly fascinating tangents.
I am especially grateful to Tom Johnson for giving me unprecedented free rein with topics, to my husband Jim Baraff for constantly reinforcing the thought form of a book, to Michael Reidy for being both fan and production angel, to MaryAnna Keller for providing faithful support and computer wizardry, and of course, to Edgar Cayce for continuing to inspire us all with a spiritually grounded vision of true health.
Please note: when you see this configuration {word} in a Cayce quote, it means that the author has supplied a word to make the reference more specific to her point.
Dietary Matters
Collagen: The Glue That Holds Us Together
Remember the silly old song that goes “The old gray mare, she ain’t what she used to be”? Now we can make a well-educated guess about that elderly nag’s problem. Chances are she was losing her reserves of collagen—a term used to define both the multiple types of connective tissue that keep the body from dissolving into a shapeless mass and the protein-packed supplement found on store shelves.
Though the word collagen may be new to some, the substance itself has been part of our diets since our prehistoric forbears kissed their fruitarian diets goodbye. Meat and poultry are primary sources of collagen protein. It is in meat broths, in particular, (remember Mom’s for-what-ails-you chicken soup?) that we encounter a highly nourishing form of collagen known as gelatin. Yes, those clear supplement capsules and the rainbow-colored undulating dessert that “there’s always room for” come from the same source. Beside the Jell-O packages and the plain gelatin sold at most supermarkets, one can find gelatin mixtures for strengthening brittle nails—a use that’s been recognized for over fifty years!
It turns out that gelatin—a sticky, rather tasteless powder typically derived from cow hides—is a super source of the two most abundant types of collagen in the human body: Types I and III. For those who have studied the Cayce material on diet and health, the mention of gelatin should ring some very large bells. A look at the readings on raw vegetables, in particular, reveals that at least one out of ten specifically recommend gelatin as an accompaniment:
In building up the body with foods, preferably have a great deal of raw vegetables for this body, as lettuce, celery, carrots, watercress. All would be taken raw, with dressing, and oft with gelatin. These {vegetables} should be grated, or cut very fine, or even ground, but do preserve all of the juices with them when these are prepared in this manner in the gelatin.
5394-1
The readings seem to regard gelatin as a type of catalyst that helps the body to access or utilize nutrients from the diet:
It isn’t the vitamin content {in gelatin} but it is ability to work with the activities of the glands, causing the glands to take from that absorbed or digested the vitamins that would not be active if there is not sufficient gelatin in the body. See, there may be mixed with any chemical that which makes the rest of the system susceptible or able to call from the system that needed. It becomes then, as it were, “sensitive” to conditions. Without it there is not that sensitivity.
849-75
Gelatin’s extraordinary catalyzing capacity, which seems to stem from its rich amino acid content, has been recognized for some time. As health writers James and Phyllis Balch point out: “The enzymes and hormones that catalyze and regulate all body processes are proteins. Proteins help to regulate the body’s water balance and maintain the proper internal pH. They assist in the exchange of nutrients between the intercellular fluids and the tissues, blood, and lymph.”1
As we know, proteins are made up of chains of amino