Rub Out Mosquitoes
Many massage oils were described in the Cayce readings;
perhaps this is because massage was given as a therapeutic modality more
often than any other type of therapy. From Quebec, Canada, comes
an interesting story about one of these massage mixtures:
"I would like to tell you about a discovery I
made, just by coincidence. Last summer ... I used to prepare the
solution prescribed by Edgar Cayce, a beauty aid for the skin (the peanut
oil, olive oil, rosewater and lanolin mixture). Since I have a sensitive
skin towards sunburns, I prepared it and used it as a suntan lotion all
over my body ...
"We used to spend the weekends in the Laurentian
hills, north of Montreal. The mountains are very beautiful, except
for the unbelievable amount of black flies and mosquitoes. Needless
to say, they manage to destroy any hopes of a trouble-free sunbathe Within
minutes we were beleaguered by literally thousands of them. Everyone
in our group was bitten awfully except a friend and myself ... (we used
the lotion) ... Not one bite. This news might not be important to
city dwellers, but ... "
I would agree with my Canadian friend that those
susceptible to insect bites might find this adaptation of the massage mixture
beneficial. The exact formula, taken from reading 1968-7, is: peanut
oil, 6 ounces; olive oil, 2 ounces; rosewater, 2 ounces; and lanolin (dissolved),
1 tablespoonful.
[Note: The preceding case report was written by William McGarey, M.
D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, May, 1975, Volume 10,
No. 3, page 128, Copyright © by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia
Beach, VA.]
Back to top
Packs for the Back
A low back problem of 40 years' standing was aggravated
when a patient lifted a box of rocks. She went to her doctor and
received some manipulative relief. She continues: "but by November
the pain had not left - in fact was getting worse. I would have to
wake up in order to turn over in bed - with the help of my hands.
Sitting was always painful - especially riding in a car. I decided
to use the castor oil pack with the treating pad, which I did for one to
three hours every night for a week. By the end of the week, the pain
was gone and has never returned. The castor oil left me wondrously
pain-free and flexible for the first time in years."
[Note: The preceding case report was written by William McGarey, M.
D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, May, 1975, Volume 10,
No. 3, page 131, Copyright © by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia
Beach, VA.]
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Packs for Sprains and Pains
In nearly twenty years of association with the concepts
of healing and regeneration found in the Cayce readings, my experience
tells me that all people should have the opportunity to bring about healing
for themselves or for others. This can be done by prayer, of course,
which is usually not dramatic, even though it is effective. Utilizing
the same concept that all healing comes from within the body, the opportunity
might come through application of a castor oil pack or vinegar and salt,
or some such remedy that often is not only dramatic in its effectiveness
but also satisfies that desire for healing. Such a thing happened
to a Kansas City woman whose five-year-old boy stepped on a nail and developed
typical red streaks of cellulitis. Her story needs no amplification:
"First, believe me, when it comes to my children's
health, I am not in the least likely to take chances, so do not think I
acted impulsively or took any unusual chances. It started on a Sunday
morning when my five-year-old complained that his foot hurt and he had
some red streaks on his ankle. I took his temperature, and it was
normal, but his foot, where he had stepped on a nail the previous day,
was now quite red. There were also two or three streaks raised like
welts, almost to his knee. I had never seen blood-poisoning streaks
before, but I was sure that it was indeed blood poisoning, though my husband
didn't think so.
"I decided to try the Cayce castor oil packs and
heat and would give it no longer than four hours. If he was running
a temperature or was worse in any way by that time, I would call the doctor.
I had used the packs for bruises and swelling but never for anything this
serious before. I put the pack on and wrapped an elastic bandage
around it, then fastened the beating pad around that and made him sit and
keep his foot elevated. At the end of four hours, the red streaks
were definitely fading and the swelling had disappeared. The pain
was nearly gone also, and there was no temperature elevation. I left
the pack on with heat the rest of the day, then that night took off the
heating pad, leaving the pack in place.
"By the next morning, the foot looked completely
normal, and when my boy stepped on it, there was no pain. I watched
him carefully for several days, but the symptoms never came back, and everything
was great. No shots or pills and no doctor bill or hospital bill,
and it cleared up so fast. I have since used it for the same type
of infection with the same results."
This enterprising woman used the same castor oil
packs for sprains and bruises, bumps and that sort of thing; for infected
finger nails and even poison ivy. She told us also how she used the
salt and vinegar pack on her 16-year-old boy who severely sprained his
ankle.
"I melted the salt with the hot vinegar and made
a poultice and plastered the foot thickly with it and then wrapped it with
old sheet strips. I left the poultice on until it was completely
dried and started to flake off. His foot was much better that night
and by the next day he was walking nearly normally and by the end of the
week he was active, doing everything except jumping and running."
Then she adds her own philosophical
observation, which I think is a fascinating bit of home-spun truth:
"It's a funny thing, though. In working
with my kids, the ones that believe it will help are helped. The
one daughter who does not believe in home remedies and faith healing, the
salt and vinegar did not help her sprain even though all other factors
were the same."
[Note: The preceding case report was written by William McGarey, M.
D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, July, 1975, Volume
10, No. 4, page 174, Copyright © by the Edgar Cayce Foundation,
Virginia Beach, VA.]
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Thrombophlebitis
Thrombophlebitis of the leg was an occasion in our
family to use some of the concepts developed in the Edgar Cayce material.
The physician is told to "heal thyself." So my wife Gladys and I went to
"work on her left great saphenous vein when it became inflamed recently.
There was tenderness, moderate to severe pain, palpable thrombus but no
edema. Inflammation appeared and coursed up over the medial aspect
of the knee; five to six inches of the structure were clinically involved. The
symptoms started one evening, worsened during the night, and therapy began midmorning
the next day.
Treatment in this case was: (1) light,
high-vitamin diet with forced fluids; (2) castor oil pack over the affected
area held in place with Ace bandage; (3) increased vitamin intake (probably
not necessary if #1 is followed); and (4) the healing hands of a friend.
Diet, in our opinion, is a valuable therapeutic tool
in every illness, diet especially in an acute condition. The castor
oil pack has always been the most important of these treatments, and we
have used it over the years in similar cases.
Her response was quite remarkable, as in some of
our prior experiences with superficial thrombophlebitis. The pack
was applied during the day on the first and second day. By the time
24 hours had passed, there was no redness, no pain, and only a faint residual
of tenderness. In 36 hours, there were no remaining symptoms or abnormal
findings; the patient was well; there was no recurrence.
The usual response to conventional therapy (elastic
bandage and an anti-inflammatory agent) is relief of pain and swelling
in five to seven days. If not resolved by then, vascular surgery
is often recommended; the excision of the affected veins can then hasten
a cure and prevent deep extension of' the thrombus and possible pulmonary
embolism. Nothing is mentioned in articles or texts about the importance
of dietary principles in either preventing or treating a thrombophlebitis. And
certainly castor oil packs have not yet evolved into the medical literature.
[Note: The preceding case report was written by William McGarey, M.
D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, September, 1975, Volume
10, No. 5, page 222, Copyright © by the Edgar Cayce Foundation,
Virginia Beach, VA.] Back to top
Concrete Example
of Castor Oil Use
Mabel Alford related a castor oil story during our
week's program on Home and Marriage in Virginia Beach last year.
A longtime A.R.E. member, she has attended many workshops and read widely
in the Cayce material. Though she is experienced in taking care of
herself', this time she forgot for a while. About a year ago, she
was mixing up cement and neglected to put gloves on, thinking that it was
not really necessary. No problem doing the work that morning, but
later on in the afternoon, her hands started to hurt. As the pain
grew more severe, the skin started to peel off in places. She took
some aspirin that night, but couldn't sleep because of the pain.
She tried soaking her hands in aspirin water, but that didn't help.
Finally, in the wee hours of the morning, she remembered castor oil.
She actually dipped her hands in the oil, put on stocking gloves and then,
when she got back into bed, slept like a baby.
Prior to using the castor oil, her
hands were stiff and the tissues edematous, and she had visions of not being
able to work the next week. (She is a check-out clerk at a supermarket.)
But when she took the gloves off the next morning., there was no pain, no
swelling, and she round no problems in using her fingers and hands at work.
[Note: The preceding case report was written by William McGarey, M.
D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, September, 1975, Volume
10, No. 5, page 223, Copyright © by the Edgar Cayce Foundation,
Virginia Beach, VA.]
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Pterygium, Cysts, Epilepsy,
etc.
From Dr. Mayo Hotten comes the report that lie has
used castor oil packs over the eyes in two cases to reduce the inflammation
of pterygium - perhaps sufficiently to prevent surgery. Then I received
a report recently about a twenty-four-year-old housewife who, when she
underwent a routine examination, was found to have a golf-ball-sized cyst
on her left ovary. She was scheduled for a return visit, but in the
meantime applied castor oil packs to her lower abdomen for one hour each
day, four days each week. She noticed that she received a very welcome
relief from the menstrual cramps she had suffered with for such a long
time. When she was again examined for the cyst, it had disappeared
entirely.
Another story, of interest to parents, is the case
of a year-old boy who could not find relief after five to six months of
chronic diarrhea. I told his parents about the use of castor oil
packs, and the possibility of using Glyco-Thymoline packs also. They
recently wrote me that their young son, now twenty-two months, has no problems
with his G.I. tract - it cleared up completely on just the castor oil packs. They also told me about a friend of theirs who has
had almost complete remission of his epileptic seizures by regularly massaging
his right upper abdominal area with a mixture of peanut oil and olive oil,
and taking small dosages of olive oil by mouth.
Oil has a healing quality, apparently, that cannot
be matched or really duplicated. I receive so many spontaneous communications
from A.R.E. people from all over the country who have used these simple
therapy ideas advantageously. The following quotation about application
of oils is an example:
"Within our groups here, we have had quite a few
successes using castor oil - my husband has removed a very dark mole from
the tip of his nose and is now working on another one on his forehead.
One of our young men has been using the oils (castor, lanolin, peanut)
on a scald mark which he suffered at the age of three years, and this has
been developing new skin from the center out since he first started using
the mixture about four months ago! I, myself, had tremendous success using
castor oil while in the hospital for surgery. I came down with a
cold that was making my eyes water so badly I couldn't see. After
using it just one night - with the nurse standing there watching me to
make sure I wouldn't drink it! - the cold was gone, and by morning there
was not one single trace of my ever having it. Prayers are always used
when any of us apply the oils, so we can vouch for the results on a Cayce
treatment level!"
[Note: The preceding report was written by William McGarey, M. D. and
is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, November, 1972, Volume 7,
No. 6, page 285, Copyright © by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia
Beach, VA.]
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Post-Operative Wound
Healing
Bob McTammany is a surgeon in Shillington, Pennsylvania.
He told me the following story about a post-vaginal hysterectomy patient
who developed a febrile course and a large pelvic abscess which improved
on antibiotics and proteolytic enzymes, although a 10 x 10 cm mass remained.
She refused further surgery, and after several weeks of malaise, fever,
low abdominal tenderness and pain, and no general improvement, she was
then convinced that she should begin application of castor oil packs, used
one hour daily. She improved remarkably symptom-wise, and examination
in one month showed almost complete resolution of the pelvic abscess.
Bob feels that these packs might be beneficial to post-operative patients
in order to improve wound-healing and reduce the incidence of infection.
[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and
is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, May, 1972, Volume 7, No. 3,
page 185, Copyright © by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia
Beach, VA.]
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Minimal Brain Damage
Ernie Pecci, whose special concern is mental retardation,
was one of the outstanding lecturers at the latest symposium. At
his two Multipurpose Centers near Oakland, California, he has been working
with castor oil packs applied to the abdomen. A recent letter from
him states, in part: "In what I would call a major breakthrough, a University
of California medical researcher wants to conduct some research studies
on the use of the castor oil packs based upon our previous success.
They are especially interested in investigating my hypothesis that 'minimal
brain damage' is really an endocrine dysfunction which might be helped
with the use of the castor oil packs. They have set up an elaborate
EEG monitoring system which can be linked to computers which would indicate
whether learning is really enhanced after treatment."
[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and
is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, May, 1972, Volume 7, No. 3,
page 185, Copyright © by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia
Beach, VA.]
Back to top
Palpitation and Castor
Oil Packs
An A.R.E. member in Irvington, New Jersey, wrote
that he had had palpitation of the heart which had not responded to any
treatment. He used hot castor oil packs over his abdomen three days
each week for an hour and a half. Every third day he took one teaspoonful
of olive oil. This therapy was continued for four weeks and the symptoms
cleared up for eleven months, recurring when he underwent some psychological
shock. Then, after another four weeks of therapy, the symptoms disappeared
again, and have been absent for over a year now.
[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and
is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, May, 1972, Volume 7, No. 3,
page 185, Copyright © by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia
Beach, VA.] Back to top
Castor Oil
Stories: Nausea, Tumors, Cuts
Three stories about castor Oil used in as many different
ways. A letter from an old friend who has been reading the material
from the A.R.E. for many years: she writes about her husband who "was very
ill in the hospital for two months - taken because of continuous nausea
and vomiting. [He had a large mass removed from his lung, his hiatal hernia
re-done, but no one could find the cause for the continued nausea and vomiting
. . . To make a long story short, he came home from the hospital still
having the same symptoms vomiting, nausea.
"All of a sudden the idea of castor oil packs
occurred to me. After all, the medical profession wasn't able to
help him. After two packs she began to bet better! Blessings
on Cayce! Now he is practically like himself except for tiring easily."
Five months they continued the packs. Persistence! And
results!
Secondly, a letter from another woman who applied
information on her own: "I thought you might be interested in hearing that
my mother had a lump near her vagina. We applied castor oil and camphorated
oil. In three weeks, it reduced in size from the size of a walnut
to the size of a pea; in five weeks it was gone, and has not returned."
Thirdly, a patient of mine who had cut his right
ankle on a piece of glass had it repaired at the Emergency Room of Scottsdale
Baptist hospital, but there was such extreme hyperesthesia and pain that
the 17-year-old football player had to use crutches to get around.
I saw him three days later, and at that point his entire ankle hurt, and
the wound was painful to the touch. It was not infected, but I felt
that the nerve supply in that area had been injured and possibly a ligamentous
laceration had produced the extreme symptoms. In all event, he was
instructed how to use castor oil packs over the wound. He felt markedly
better two days later and was able to go without crutches. Sutures
were removed at seven days, and he was back playing football six days after
that. Instead of hyperesthesia distal to the wound area, there was
now just a bit of numbness. Bob was told to continue massaging the
area with the oil until the numbness was gone.
[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and
is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, May, 1972, Volume 7, No. 3,
page 108, Copyright © 1972 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia
Beach, VA.]
Back to top
Healing Arthritis - Peanut
Oil and Castor Oil
Biochemical bases of understanding the functioning
of the human body may have been adequate for the mind of the physician
for many years here in the western part of the world, but it can no longer
stand the test of experience, reason, and pure logic. For instance,
how can oil achieve a healing effect? Witness these two stories,
both of which deal with arthritis:
From Pittsburgh, Pa., I quote this: "In reading Jess
Stearn's Edgar Cayce, the Sleeping Prophet, I noted with much interest
his references to arthritis and the use of pure peanut oil. As a
rheumatoid arthritic I have found it to be of great benefit to my condition.
After using peanut oil as a massaging oil for several years, I have to
agree with Cayce's belief that it not only lubricates but heals as well.
I am sure that had I known about the oil in this use I would have been
spared much misery. Why isn't the use of peanut oil to reduce joint
inflammation and pain in arthritis better known? Does the medical
profession spurn it as a home remedy?"
From California: "Mother had arthritis so bad she
was committed to the hospital. She was there for two weeks and released
with no apparent help. The arthritis was centered in her fingers
which were doubled back in her palms - she didn't think she would be able
to open up her fingers again. Father brought her home and started
a treatment of hot castor oil - rubbing her hands, arms, and shoulders
and legs three times a day. Within a period of three to four months
her condition improved to the extent she could walk, use her arms, and
her hands straightened out and today she is completely cured. She
was 76 years old when she was at her worst and is now 81."
[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and
is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, May, 1972, Volume 7, No. 3,
page 109, Copyright © 1972 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia
Beach, VA.]
Back to top
Castor Oil Packs and Hoarseness
A 12-year-old boy found that he became hoarse.
When instructing his school chums at the street crossing, and his teacher
called this situation to his mother's attention. It was found that
the hoarseness was only temporary: after sleeping through the night, the
boy would awake the next day with his hoarseness gone; however, any strain
on his voice became sufficient irritation to cause it to reoccur.
His parents became concerned, and took him to an ear-nose-throat specialist,
who did a laryngoscopy and found two large nodules on the vocal cords.
Mother was well versed in the value of castor oil packs, so she put off
any thought of surgery (the condition was not thought to be cancer) and
applied packs to the neck three days in a row, left the treatment off for
two days, and then repeated it. This regimen was continued for three
months. The hoarseness gradually disappeared, and there were no symptoms
when the packs were discontinued. A year later, the throat was re-examined
by the same specialist, and all that was found was some minimal scar tissue
- no nodules, no irritation. Three years afterward, there still were
no symptoms.
[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and
is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, July, 1977, Volume 12, No.
4, page 177, Copyright © 1977 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia
Beach, VA.]
Back to top
Castor Oil Stories:
Allergic to Animals
One of our correspondents, Barbara Deal of Dundas,
Ontario, Canada, has been struggling with an allergy problem in her oldest
son, who has also had asthmatic bronchitis. She writes:
"I might tell you of the amazing success I have
had in treating this allergic child with castor oil. He has been
allergic to animals, and if he comes in contact with dogs, cats, etc.,
his eyes will swell and itch. If left untreated, this reaction worsens
until it is a full-fledged asthmatic attack. However, I now immediately
wash hands and face, apply castor oil directly onto the eyelids and surrounding
areas, and within half an hour, there is no sign of a reaction. Needless
to say, not one of the doctors, nurses or lay people to whom I have suggested
this treatment has taken me seriously."
Barbara's story reminds me of the Biblical injunction
that the wisdom of God is foolishness to man. And castor oil seems
so foolish! Perhaps it was one of God's children who named the plant
the "Palma Christi" back in the Middle Ages.
[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and
is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, September, 1980, Volume 15,
No. 5, page 244, Copyright © 1980 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia
Beach, VA.] Back to top
Sun and Castor Oil
Swimming, chlorinated water and August sunshine in
Arizona combined to inactivate Beth Grady, one of the Clinic children.
She was not even up to eating Mexican food-a delicacy in this area.
Her skin was red, her cheeks bright pink, her eyes watering while showing
up the colors of the flag. She was miserable. Her mother, who
is an R.N. and assistant director of our Temple Beautiful Program, proceeded
to rub her down with castor oil from head to foot that evening, even dropping
some of the oil in her eyes with an eyedropper, and put her to bed. By
morning, her eyes were clear, there was no pain, the skin had turned to a light
brown color - and Beth was back to normal!
[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and
is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, September, 1980, Volume 15,
No. 5, page 245, Copyright © 1980 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia
Beach, VA.]
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Castor Oil for Ear Infection
Alice Riddle exercised her ingenuity in using castor
oil by inventing a small wool-flannel pad that folded over onto her earlobe.
She soaked the pad in castor oil and held it in place with an earring that
clips on from below. Three days of this, and the earlobe was clear
of infection.
[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and
is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, March, 1979, Volume 14, No.
2, page 83, Copyright © 1979 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia
Beach, VA.]
Back to top
Castor Oil for Tinnitus
W. Lindsay Jacob, a psychiatrist . recently
called and told us this story: A patient of his had tinnitus for over three
years-so severe that it prevented her from working, and so baffling in
its nature that her doctors sent her to a psychiatrist. Lindsay had
heard how castor oil drops have really worked a variety of magical tricks
with allergies, and suspected an allergy as the culprit in this frustrated
patient. He started her on castor oil drops (6-8 each morning) on
her tongue, followed by a glass of water. He was greatly excited
at the response. After only four weeks, the tinnitus had completely
disappeared and the patient was back at work.
[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and
is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, March, 1979, Volume 14, No.
2, page 83, Copyright © 1979 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia
Beach, VA.] Back to top
Wound Healing
Recently a boy about fifteen years old appeared in
my office on crutches, about forty-eight hours after he had had a laceration
of his right ankle sutured in one of the emergency rooms. It was
a small laceration, about a half-inch long, but it hurt him so much he
could not put his weight on his foot. The wound was healing nicely,
with no sign of infection, but it was extremely tender to the touch.
I assumed, since there was no tendon involvement, that there had been involvement
of nerve tissue to an undue degree. The boy was instructed to keep
a soft pad of cloth saturated with castor oil on the wound overnight for
the next few nights, kept in place with an elastic bandage. The pain
was nearly gone in twenty-four hours, absent in forty-eight hours, and
he was playing football (against orders) in seventy-two hours - before
the sutures were removed.
[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and
is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, January, 1973, Volume 8, No.
1, page 46, Copyright © 1973 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia
Beach, VA.] Back to top
Hyperactivity
After a period of therapy, a little boy who could
not be kept out of trouble in the examining room on his first visit lost
his hyperactivity and became a strong proponent for castor oil packs.
His father used them on his tummy while he watched television. For
almost a year, he would not do without a pack for a single day, and the
changes in activity were remarkable enough that he was presented to a symposium
of doctors as a case in point.
This little boy was first seen at six years of age,
in February, 1967, because of being so very thin, with a poor appetite,
severe abdominal pains and severe emotional upsets and temper tantrums.
He had a history of severe upper respiratory infections until he was two
years old and had had many antibiotic shots. At the time of examination,
he was unable to sit still at any time and was continually active.
After two months on the castor oil packs, he was
sitting quietly and turning the pages of a book in the consultation room.
The mother reported that the abdominal pains were much better. He
was eating well and sleeping well and was more normal in every way although
he was still having temper tantrums. He looked forward to taking
the packs because they seemed to relax him. He was seen monthly throughout 1967. He continued
to progress and gain weight during the rest of the year, and in June, 1968,
his weight was up to forty-seven pounds, and he was continuing with the
castor oil packs. He was not seen during 1968 and 1969 because he
was doing so well.
When I last saw him in January, 1971, his weight
was up to sixty-four and one-half pounds. He had had no colds or infection
during this whole year. He had not needed castor oil packs.
He was doing so well in school that he was in the top reading group in
his school. He had many friends, and during the Summer of 1970 he
had been on the swim team and won seven ribbons. He seemed to be
very well adjusted at that time. His mother stated that once in a
while he would have a stomach-ache and would begin to feel a little out
of sorts and would ask for his castor oil pack.
In another case, a speech therapist wrote: "After
reading one of your medical bulletins, I suggested to the mother of a student
of mine (chronic hyperkinetic brain syndrome, age three, also epileptic)
that she rub castor oil on the child for a half hour before naps and bedtime.
Site reports that after three days the child still has difficulty in getting
to sleep, but that now she sings herself to sleep instead of' the whining-crying
and that although she still awakens during the night, she sings instead
of crying." The oil, of course, was massaged into the abdominal area.
Our January symposium two years ago centered on this
distressing problem. Now comes a report from James Satterfield (Behavior
Today, July 3, 1972) that hyperkinetic children apparently have an immature
nervous system. This was shown by the EEG blips evoked by auditory
stimuli, which were fewer in number and of less amplitude than those in
the control group. Satterfield, a psychiatrist, studied thirty-one hyperactive
children between the ages of six and nine, and twenty-one normal controls.
This is of interest to us, perhaps, because of the
concept that the body can be returned to normal, in balance, in development,
in function, and because the primary therapy we have been working with
in the problem of hyperactivity is castor oil packs applied to the abdomen. The
theory behind this is that such a vibratory influence in some manner causes this
central portion of the autonomic nervous system to bring about a coordination
and equalization within the body which would then promote a more rapid maturation
of the nervous system than would otherwise be expected.
[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and
is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, March, 1973, Volume 8, No.
2, page 86, Copyright © 1973 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia
Beach, VA.] Back to top
Castor
Oil Stories: Calcium Deposits and Eye Irritation
A woman from Minnesota wrote recently that Cayce
"often had suggested castor oil, and I decided to try it for removing a
calcium deposit lump on my foot. My doctor had suggested surgery
... I rubbed it once daily for about ten minutes, and within three
weeks it was completely gone! Later I decided to try the same treatment
again on a large wart on my forehead. It took about four weeks for
that to disappear."
Another correspondent, writing from Ontario, Canada,
decided to use castor oil locally for an intense irritation of the tissues
surrounding the eyes. "At first," she wrote, "I tried putting the
saturated pads in position oil the closed eyelids for several minutes,
and was sufficiently encouraged by the results to decide oil an overnight
application, with a light. bandage to hold the pads in position. The complete
success of the experiment was remarkable, dispelling not only the irritation
but the general lassitude that accompanied the condition.
[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and
is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, May, 1973, Volume 8, No. 3,
page 132, Copyright © 1973 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia
Beach, VA.]
Back to top
The Palma Christi
The Palma Christi - the Palm of Christ - is the name
given during the Middle Ages to the common castor oil plant. No one
knows exactly why it was so named. But it's interesting to consider
the importance of symbols and the place symbology plays in the lives of
men.
Was it just coincidence when our son, David, told
us one morning that he had had a dream that Jesus put his hand on his back,
and his back got better? David had fallen on the sharp edge of a
step just before going to bed; the blow had been so severe we were apprehensive
about a possible fracture of a vertebra. It hurt him so much, at
eight years of age, that nothing helped except to keep him quiet. We placed
a castor oil pack on his injured part and he slept on the floor beside us that
night, very restless until about four o'clock a.m., when he suddenly quieted
down and went soundly to sleep. When he awakened and told us the dream, we examined
his back. It was fully normal in all respects. There was no
pain, no aching, no sign of injury. David was well. What did
the job? Was it imagination? Was it only the soothing of the
oil pack? Was it a vibratory effect? Was it a spiritual healing?
Certainly my medical experience of more than twenty years told me that
there Should have been some very painful muscles and bones in the morning
at the very least. How does healing come about anyway?
Garth Nicholson, who heads the Electron Microscopy
Laboratory of the Salk Institute in LaJolla, California, grows cultures
of normal and cancer cells in his laboratory. He reports that one of the
lectins which they have purified "from toxic local wild castor plants in
the marsh regions of San Diego County . . . can kill cancer cells at concentrations
at which normal cells are not affected." The process apparently is related
to the ability of the protein to agglutinate apparently is related to the
ability of the protein to agglutinate cancer cells and destroy them by
a process operating at the cell membrane structural level. By this time, no story about the castor bean plant
would surprise me - I've heard too much about its healing power as found
in the oil extracted from the beans. But let's consider man's place
in the larger scheme of things, for healing of the body is the potential
of every human being. And we should know our nature better - then,
perhaps, we might know more about how a lectin destroys the cancer cell,
how an oil pack might ease an injury or an illness.
The readings relate illness and health to error and
right action; this concept is superimposed on a cosmic plan that places
man in the center of things, with a spiritual origin and a spiritual destiny.
Space, time and patience become important concepts to contend with and
work with.
As has been given, error or separation began before
there appeared what we know as the Earth, the Heavens; or before Space
was manifested.
This becomes hard to conceive in the finite mind;
as does the finite mind fail to grasp the lack of or no time. Yet
out of Time, Space, Patience, is it possible for the consciousness of the
finite to know the infinite.
Hence, then, the interpretations of Spirit as
it manifests to the sons of men must follow closely what we have chosen
as Holy Writ.
Before this began (this not as history but as
the basis of the interpretation), we have had how one Amilius with that
projection of self brought into being the awareness of desires as related
to relationships with the beings - or matter - about.
Hence there began what is now known as the correlating,
or the cohesive activity, or the relativity of matter as it relates to
what becomes positive and negative.
Remember, negative is only error. (262-115)
The human body and its mystery is like space and
its infinitude, like the atom and its vastness, for we understand none
of these with our finite minds - even as we understand God only partially
and our own spiritual nature with limited vision. But all of these
mysteries help us understand that healing of the body might well come to
us in many forms, for we indeed do not know what we are - not yet!
Thus the lowly castor bean plant,
which someone called the Palma Christi, may have many secrets locked within
its nature which could be a healing influence when its full potential is
discovered.
[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and
is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, September, 1973, Volume 8,
No. 5, page 221, Copyright © 1973 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia
Beach, VA.]
Back to top
Childbirth and Castor Oil
One of our correspondents, who has
been an active A.R.E. member for many years, wrote about his experience with
castor oil packs as an adjunct to childbirth. He reports that his wife "used
the castor oil packs during labor with our second child, and she very strongly
feels that it was responsible for the brief delivery - four hours as opposed
to twenty-seven hours labor with our first child. Furthermore, we
have given the newborn castor oil rubs daily and find her to be a
most remarkable baby in her disposition and also very alert."
[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and
is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, September, 1973, Volume 8,
No. 5, page 222, Copyright © 1973 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia
Beach, VA.]
Back to top
Castor
Oil Stories: Snoring and Skin Cancer
Experiences people have had with the oil of the Palma
Christi - or castor oil - are always interesting and informative, and continue
to provide us with more insights into how the body really does heal itself.
From a Study Group member in California comes an account of a unique application
of castor oil packs. Melodie's parents had a large degree of difficulty
centering around the snoring of the male member of the species. It
seems that everything had been tried. Her parents had even gone to
separate rooms so that sleeping would be better. But this is her
story:
"My parents are both sleeping better now, thanks
to the castor oil pack. My mother has insisted that my dad wear a
pack every night for the last two weeks (pack with heating pad 1 hour -
then just the pack all night).
"Now instead of her being kept awake by loud, gutteral,
choking snores and frequent angry outcries/yelling originating from nightly
dreams of fighting, she is occasionally awakened by the most soft, whimsical
giggling coming from the original offender - my dad! And the snoring
has ceased totally! Mom also reports an enhanced sense of humor,
a very affectionate husband and a spirit of cooperation that just won't
quit."
Another castor oil story comes from Boulder, Colorado.
Linda had been encouraged to attempt a bit of personal research after reading
an article entitled "Research Is Often a Singular Affair." This is her
story:
"I had a skin cancer on my nose, near my right eye.
It has disappeared after three days of applying castor oil first, then
sprinkling baking soda over the spot! I had had the cancer two years,
trying every natural method I had read or heard about. Previously
I tried a mixture of castor oil with a small amount of baking soda, but
with no success."
However, she tried a slightly different method and
it worked! Research is indeed a singular affair, isn't it? And so
often successful.
[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and
is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, November, 1983, Volume 18,
No. 6, page 262, Copyright © 1983 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia
Beach, VA.]
Back to top
Castor Oil Stories:
Bee Sting and Arthritis
Stephen Hasman tells the story of his brother being
stung by a bee in Ohio. He came into the house with "goose bumps"
on his arm, the evidence of the bee sting showing clearly. It was
already sore and the swelling had become markedly evident. Stephen,
who has had much experience with castor oil, got out his bottle and placed
just one drop "on the welt which had an open puncture on it." In less than
ten minutes, his brother reported that the soreness had gone and the swelling
for the most part had subsided. After supper, there were no complaints.
His brother's wife was asked why they didn't have castor oil in their home.
From Kentucky comes another report
dealing with this same oil being used for arthritis:
"Since the early 1970s when I first obtained your
book, Edgar Cayce and the Palma Christi, I have been experimenting with
castor oil. I have also been reading The A.R.E. Journal to see if
my results are the same as others.
"My brother-in-law was scheduled for an operation
on his finger (the one next to his forefinger) to scrape off the crystals
that had formed there and that were giving him a lot of pain. His
mother suggested he check with me on the castor oil, and I told him I didn't
think it would help as the finger was really in bad shape. However,
as it turned out, he had quite a herd of cattle and was unable to have
the operation as scheduled, so used the castor oil anyway - just rubbed
it on, he said. Two weeks later he visited his doctor who told him,
'Well, it's gone."' Another story from the same source:
"I have a lady friend and neighbor in her late
80s who called me one day. The two middle fingers of her hand were
locked and had been for years. Her thumb was twice its regular size,
and the little finger and forefinger were giving her so much pain she was
crying and couldn't use them. I stressed to her that it would not
be possible to unlock the fingers or correct the thumb, but based on the
results of my brother-in-law, we might be able to save the other two fingers
- or at least stop the pain. She didn't have a bathtub, so we got
a container for a foot bath and used a pound or so of Epsom salts in which
I asked her to bathe her feet for half an hour each evening, all the time
pressing, rubbing or flexing her feet (simply to keep her hands in the
solution). I told her then to wrap the hands in castor oil for the
evening and place a castor oil pack on her stomach with a heating pad. She
called a couple of days later saying that the fingers had stopped paining and
she was continuing treatment.
"I know a couple of other people who were bothered
with crystals, so I thought it would be interesting to take a picture of
her hands since no one would believe it without the pictures. So
I borrowed a camera and went over no later than two weeks after she had
started treatments. To my immense surprise, she had those two fingers
unlocked and was making a quilt. She said she used the foot bath
with water as hot as she could stand it for the time I stressed, then put
the castor oil pack on her stomach with a heating pad and wrapped her hands
with castor oil cloths, put on rubber gloves, took her magnifying glass
and a book to bed with her and alternated her hands on the heating pad
the rest of the evening. No pain in the other fingers, thumb greatly
improved, fingers still working okay and she still works on the quilting. Whenever
they begin to ache, she just gives them a repeat treatment."
Quite amazing, isn't it? Some
of these stories definitely touch new areas in healing.
[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and
is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, November, 1982, Volume 17,
No. 6, page 279, Copyright © 1982 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia
Beach, VA.]
Back to top
Knee Pain
I am not sure whether the following story has a near
relative in the Cayce data or if it was simply an adaptation of a specific
therapy treatment. The story comes from Esther Spearrin, who has
attended A.R.E. conferences at Seabeck (near Seattle) for many years:
"I had my knee operated on after an injury and,
because a piece of the bone was broken right at the knee joint, surgery
was done to 'hold the piece from falling into the knee joint.' According
to my orthopedic doctor, I had one bolt, two pins and wires inserted into
my leg just at the knee joint or just above the knee joint to hold these
together while they healed. They healed well and there was no trouble
until I came to Seabeck in 1974. Then I noticed that the knee began
hurting so that I could not walk upstairs without pain. I had debated
before about buying a gallon of castor oil to use in packs, etc.
Now I had to do so. After purchasing the oil I applied a cloth saturated
with the castor oil over my knee, put plastic over that, and then a dry
cloth wrapped around the knee to keep it in place overnight. I did
this just a couple of times, and the rest of the week at Seabeck I had
no trouble. Even now, after several years, no more difficulty has
been experienced with the injury of the knee."
[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and
is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, March, 1980, Volume 15, No.
2, page 49, Copyright © 1980 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia
Beach, VA.]
Back to top
Torn Muscle Fiber
A report about castor oil packs and their use in
the course of human illness and health: Arno Erath developed a leg problem
while exercising; it was diagnosed as a torn muscle fiber in the left leg.
He writes:
"After a checkup in the hospital, the doctor told
me that I had to stay in bed for three days or more, and it would take
about three weeks until I would be able to walk normally again. This
I did not like at all. So I went home and did the following: Right
on the spot of the sharp pain, I applied Musterol (obtained from the U.S.A.).
In addition to this, I put a castor oil pack on the leg, well bandaged. Every
four hours I changed the pack.
"The result was astonishing! I felt the
pain vanishing by the hour. After one day, I was able to walk slowly. After
three days there was still some tension left, yet I could walk just as if
nothing had happened."
Thanks, Arno, for the story. It has remained
somewhat of a mystery as to why so many people enjoy making false prophecies
out of the prognoses of their doctors. I guess it must be the joy
of seeing their own bodies beat the odds as quoted by the physical body's
best-qualified odds-makers.
[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and
is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, May, 1980, Volume 15, No.
3, page 146, Copyright © 1980 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia
Beach, VA.] Back to top
Otitis Media in a One-Year-Old
Child
Children, as a rule, are more subject to infectious
diseases than adults. The following story comes from my correspondence
with a registered nurse, Peggy, whose baby developed ear trouble at the
age of nine months. Her pediatrician prescribed antibiotics and a
decongestant. One month's treatment left the infant with fluid behind
the left tympanum and a residual inflammation. A change of decongestants
for another month left the other ear more inflamed, a condition which brought
about a further change of decongestants. If the ears had not cleared
in another three weeks, drainage tubes would have to be inserted by an
otologist. It was at this point that our correspondence began. Drawing
on my experience in the field of healing and my familiarity with the Cayce material,
I wrote as follows: "Briefly, I think these things might be helpful
as far as your baby is concerned. I would try to get her on a very
alkaline diet. This is a bit difficult for a one-year-old baby, but
I think it would be important. Then castor oil drops in the ears
at bedtime and early in the morning; Glyco-Thymoline packs to the neck
for half an hour or so once a day, with packs going around to include the
cervical glands. She should have lots of Vitamin C-1 think you can
get this in liquid form now - and high dosages of this would be helpful.
"Massages to the upper back for 15 to 20 minutes
each day gently would be a good thing and castor oil packs to the abdomen. This
should also be done once a day for about an hour, and I would use the heating
pad.
"Don't forget that the laying on of hands by those
that love the child are part of the whole process of healing, and as involved
in the healing profession as you are, you are probably already doing that
sort of thing. The thing I would suggest is to have your daughter
lie on your lap as she goes to sleep - in taking her afternoon nap or whatever
- and hold your hands on her head behind the ears almost encompassing the
ears. She might not like to have her ears covered with your hands,
but if she doesn't mind that would be good. Then just let yourself
be a channel of healing and let the energy flow through your body and onto
the ears themselves.
"Doing these things over a period
of time would be very helpful, I'm sure."
It was two months before I heard what had happened
to the wee girl. Her mother answered for her at that point and expressed
the daughter's approval of the therapy program. Here is her letter: "The baby is fine now; her ears have cleared up
completely. Just before I received your letter, I had started giving
her increased doses of Vitamin C, rubbing some castor oil over her abdominal
area at night, and saturating the front of her diaper with castor oil as
well. However, I did not use heat. I also gave her a little
Glyco-Thymoline occasionally by mouth because I felt she had a tendency
to be acid. As soon as I received your letter, I began adding your
suggestions to these treatments. When I took her back to the doctor
a few days later, he was surprised to find that her ears had cleared up
completely. Her improvement was especially disconcerting to him since
she had refused his prescribed medicine since her last visit to his office.
Thank you for your time and information. Our love and blessings."
Thank you, Peggy, for your report. I just wonder
if you thought of those things to do on your own all by yourself, or did
you read my mind; or perhaps was I doing a mind-reading job on you?
After all the thousands of readings Cayce gave in which he obviously communicated
with other people's minds, I have given up trying to figure who thought
of what first - or are we all psychic?
Seeing how Peggy's little girl responded to her touch,
her concern, and some of the ancient applications that have been for the
most part discarded by modem medical practices, I recalled what Charles
Mayo of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, is reported to have said:
"The drugless healer is one of the best things that has come into the life
of the present." Might we not put Peggy into the classification of a drugless
healer? I think so.
[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and
is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, July, 1979, Volume 14, No.
4, page 167, Copyright © 1979 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia
Beach, VA.] Back to top
Scleroderma and Polycythemia
Vera
Castor oil packs are used frequently in our treatment
of individuals afflicted with this serious condition. The packs are
helpful in a variety of ways, one of them being that they soften the skin
locally where they are applied. From the many readings Cayce gave
for people with this condition, I found that more than once he offered
the suggestion that the skin should be washed with bicarbonate of soda
prior to applying the flannel packs saturated with castor oil. Since
the soda does an excellent job of cleansing the skin after the packs are
removed (it is one of the few substances that will cut the oil itself),
I figured that its use may have some relationship to the removal of toxins
from the skin before the packs; thus the toxins would not be carried into
the body by the heat and the oil.
Last summer, one of our scleroderma patients used
the packs on his abdomen while he stayed at our out-patient residence,
and he forgot to take one of them with him when he left. Marguerite
Haugen, director of the O.P.R., thought she would just wash it out and
send it to him. When she opened it up, there were black marks scattered
across the entire pack, and these marks did not disappear when the pack
was washed.
Another patient of ours found her packs turning black
after just a few treatments. This patient had polycythemia vera,
a condition in which there is a serious overproduction of red blood cells.
She needed to have blood removed from her system regularly. The full
therapy Cayce suggested was not implemented, but with just the use of the
packs and infrared lamp treatments, her trips to the hospital to have blood
removed became less frequent.
It would be interesting to discover if the heat and
the castor oil actually "drive" materials from the skin into the deeper
regions of the body. Indeed the patient, experiencing the unusual
events often related to disease, remains our richest source of information
about what is going on in this wonderful creation called the human body.
[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and
is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, July, 1979, Volume 14, No.
5, page 208, Copyright © 1979 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia
Beach, VA.]
Back to top
Massage
and Castor Oil for Arthritis and Bee Stings
From the A.R.E. Dallas Council Newsletter comes the
following story. Bob Linscott had apparently been having severe arthritic
symptoms for years and, at the same time, was severely allergic to bee,
wasp and yellow jacket venom - to the point that he became a hospital emergency
patient each time he was stung. The residual would last for days.
At least this was his history. Here is his story:
"I am 62 years of age, weigh 220, stand 6 feet tall.
All my life I've worked hard. The last seven or eight years have
been pretty bad. I've been unable to put on my socks or tie my shoes.
I could not move my arm to scratch my back. In other words, no matter
what, I could not move without pain, because my body was so stiff.
I had cramps at night. My wife Wanda was trained by Emmaline Barker
to give massages. After the third massage I caught myself turning
my neck to look back - something I had not done in five years. Today
I am free from pain and do everything - including climbing a 40-foot ladder
all day.
"On July 11th I was stung by three yellow jackets.
I told the men working with me that rather than rushing me to the hospital
as they normally would, to rush me the castor oil from my truck (I carry
it with me). They did and I rubbed it on the bites, then sat down
to meditate. As I did, I felt the pain, itch and poison start flowing
from the upper part of my leg and down and out my toes! Today is
July 12th, and I worked all day. I feel great-just fine. Thank
God, the A.R.E. and Emmaline!"
[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D.
and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, November, 1979, Volume
14, No. 6, page 262, Copyright © 1979 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation,
Virginia Beach, VA.]
Back to top
Veterinarian
Not many suggestions from the readings
were directed toward the healing of animals, but no ingenious human being
will let his beloved pet suffer if he has any idea of how to relieve his
discomfort. Four stories have come to my attention, all from
patients who have been working with their own bodies at a creative level
of healing. Three of these, incidentally, deal with that most common
treatment in our experience: castor oil packs. The other comes from
a woman who grew up on a farm where she was in charge of the horses.
An old friend of the family was a vet who often came to visit her. He would
talk to Sarah, giving her little jewels of wisdom about the care of horses.
One day Sarah had a headache, and the vet told her that if she would lay
her head on the side of the horse, her headache would go away. It
did. The old vet told her, too, that if a horse cut itself on a barbed-wire
fence, the scar from the injury would produce gray hair if nothing were
done about it. But, he informed her, if she would bathe that cut
in castor oil every day until it healed, the hair would grow back in its
natural color. Sarah discovered that this application always worked,
and she found it interesting that castor oil was of as much value to her
animals as it had often been to herself.
Another story deals with a lesion on a dog's back.
The lesion grew rather rapidly and did not respond to any cleansing or
ointments applied to the troubled spot. Grace, the dog's owner, thought
about taking her dog to a vet, but she decided to try using castor oil
first. She immediately started applying the oil liberally to the
diseased area, which had grown to be almost three inches in diameter.
Results came rapidly. The next morning the dog no longer scratched
at the lesion, and within three days the healing process had become clearly
evident. After a few more days the therapy was no longer needed,
and the dog's hair had grown back.
Not many of you own a duck, so you will probably
not have the opportunity to treat one; but you may find this duck story
interesting. It comes from Mary and Art, both A.R.E. members, who
moved north and became part-time farmers. Gradually they stocked
their farm with many animals, including some ducks. One day Mary
noticed that one of their ducks was walking with a limp (a duck limp?).
Investigation showed a growth and a swelling on the middle toe of one of
the duck's feet. The growth had become quite large, and the new farmers
were concerned about it. Mary had many times used castor oil herself
for a variety of problems; so she fashioned a ducksfoot glove, soaked it
with castor oil, placed it on the ailing foot and covered it with plastic.
The treatment was administered twice a day for three days, each application
lasting an hour or two. Finally the swelling decreased markedly and
no more therapy was needed. Within a few days the foot was normal
again.
[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and
is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, March, 1977, Volume 12, No.
2, page 81, Copyright © 1977 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia
Beach, VA.]
Back to top
Overcoming Wilderness Hazards
Every first aid kit, in the estimation of one cooperating
doctor, should contain a small bottle of castor oil, some Band-Aids, a
castor oil pack and the willingness to fast. He did not explain how
that willingness would be packed with the rest of the items, but he did
tell me why he was strongly in favor of including all four.
It seems that he went out into the relative wilderness
with his wife, who shortly developed a severe bout of nausea and vomiting.
His examination led him to diagnose her condition as coming from overeating
and the change in living conditions, from a "virus," or from a cleansing
resulting from a period of meditation in which she felt especially close
to the Indians who had lived in that area. It looked like things
were in a bad way, since he had not brought any medications along with
him, and they were miles from a pharmacy. Then he remembered his
castor oil pack. This was applied with tenderness and compassion,
and there was certainly a degree of healing in that attitude. The
willingness to fast was already in hand (You should have seen her look
at any food offered her), and her recovery was on the way. She stopped
vomiting and in 24 hours was fired up and ready to go again.
Then her physician husband used his fingers to test
a heating element to see if it was on or off. His fingers were slower
than the heating element in transmitting the message, and the pads of his
right middle and index fingers were burned. He had that little bottle
of castor oil handy, however. The fingers were doused in the castor
oil immediately, and after an hour Band-Aids, also wet with castor oil,
were applied to both fingers. The pain subsided almost at once.
He confided that he put fingernail pressure on the nerve centers (which
I determined were also acupuncture points) of his hand and wrist just proximal
to the burned fingers. The next morning his fingers showed no real
sign of the burns, although blisters had already started to form and the
seared tissue where his fingers had touched the hot element was obvious.
So, with this story in hand, I determined
that I would also include these four little items in my first aid kit every
time I departed from close contact with civilization.
[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and
is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, March, 1977, Volume 12, No.
2, page 85, Copyright © 1977 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia
Beach, VA.] Back to top
Castor Oil for Drug Overdose
The use of castor oil in treating drug overdose is
perhaps the latest therapeutic triumph registered by the plant, which the
imaginative people of the Middle Ages called the Palma Christi. It
has been reported from Canada (by Dr. Michael Diamond) and from the University
of Medicine in Miami, Florida, that individuals who have attempted suicide
by taking large overdoses of drugs are being given quantities of castor
oil greatly exceeding the ounce or two usually taken as a cathartic or
for inducing labor in pregnant women. Nearly a pint is administered
twice a day, and patients who were comatose and expected to remain so for
four or five days recovered in 24 hours. Some physicians believe
that the castor oil absorbs the drugs, quickly removing them from the system.
Thus the harmful effects of the body's prolonged exposure to drugs are
prevented. Some doctors add charcoal tablets to the castor oil; this
acts as a detoxifying agent and enhances the curative effect. This
treatment could well save the lives of many who have taken large drug overdoses.
[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and
is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, March, 1977, Volume 12, No.
2, page 86, Copyright © 1977 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia
Beach, VA.]
Back to top
Castor Oil's
Age-Old Qualities (Facial Neuralgia)
From the Journal of the American Medical Association,
April 21, 1900, comes a communication by a Dr. Harold Moyer of Chicago
about our old friend, castor oil. Dr. Moyer was interested in the
treatment of facial neuralgia - which gave even more trouble in those days
than it does today. Dr. A. J. Ochsner had called Moyer's attention
to the use of castor oil after he noticed it mentioned in a German medical
journal.
Two ounces of castor oil, given daily by mouth over
a period of six to twelve days, produced "brilliant" results in at least
13 consecutive cases from Ochsner's surgical clinic at Rush Medical College.
Moyer subsequently used the same approach on 15 cases over the two years
following his contact with Ochsner. Of the seven cases observed,
only five were facial neuralgia, the other two being brachial problems.
Results for the most part were highly gratifying. One such case was
that of a 37-year-old man whose facial neuralgia had lasted for six months.
At the end of one week's treatment with daily ingested castor oil, the
pain had disappeared completely; no recurrence reported. Strange
substance, this oil from the seed of the Racinus cotizinunis! One
wonders why, in the Middle Ages, someone called this plant the Palm of
Christ or Palma Christi.
In the Cayce readings, it was recommended only several
times to be given orally, rather than externally in pack form. However,
Cayce once remarked that those who have a castor oil consciousness should
take castor oil. I might mention that Dr. Moyer added a few drops
of the essence of anise to each pint of castor oil - to make it less offensive
- and gave his patients the oil well mixed in with Dogshead ale!
[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D.
and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, September, 1977, Volume
12, No. 5, page 231, Copyright © 1977 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation,
Virginia Beach, VA.]
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Hair Growth with Castor Oil
Castor oil has a way of taking us from the ideals
and goals of the present back to the reality of the healing process.
That venerable oil from the castor bean has had a specific use in Venezuela
among several old mothers, who are sometimes engaged in instructing young
mothers. One such old mother visited her daughter in Phoenix and
noted how her five-month-old grandson had practically no hair at all.
She started immediately to massage his head with the oil 20 minutes before
his daily shampoo. It was no time before the boy had a healthy head
of hair. I have not yet tried that on my bald spot, but I'm thinking
about it.
[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and
is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, November, 1977, Volume 12,
No. 6, page 272, Copyright © 1977 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia
Beach, VA.]
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Dermatology and the Readings
The covering of the human body is at the same time
necessary, convenient, the largest organ of the body, and most likely the
site of the most numerous difficulties - probably because it is on the
outside. Perhaps the fact that its troubles can be seen accounts
for the large number of circulating files on a variety of skin conditions
which have been compiled at the A.R.E. Whatever the reason, warts, moles
and various types of unidentified skin "growths" are self-treated by members
of the A.R.E. and are subsequently reported to me. I have no way
of knowing how many failures at self-treatment end up in the doctor's office
for therapy, but I suspect - from my own experience in recommending these
simple procedures - that it is not too many.
One member tells about a large mole which was located
on his neck right where the collar rubbed. He used castor oil on
a band-aid and, with repeated applications, it started to shrink.
"I kept up the swabbing," he reports. "Then, by the end of the second
week, it was very dry with a thin strand holding on. A few days later
it fell off and hasn't since come back."
Another intrepid soul had a plantar wart on each
foot. He took the suggestions of the readings and used hydrochloric
acid on the warts, but they only grew larger. Then, while visiting
in Virginia Beach, he did some research in the readings and found suggestions
about spirits of camphor and sodium bicarbonate. After two weeks
of daily treatment to the warts, which were by then an inch in diameter,
they were almost gone.
The man also had a 3/16 inch conical-shaped skin
lesion, which I think must have been all epithelioma, located on his left
cheek. He used the same combination lie had used oil tile plantar
wart, and the growth receded but did not disappear. When he stopped
the treatment, tile growth reappeared. He then "tried soaking baking
soda with castor oil," he reports, "using band-aids to hold the mixture
to the skin. The growths subsided in about two weeks, to one tiny
hard spot. I continued to apply the castor oil-soda mixture as a
massage, without Band-Aids, for about two months and eventually the skin
became normal."
From the circulating file on Skin: Moles and Warts comes this interesting
observation:
Q. What should I do about the more oil my neck, on which the doctor
put some acid for removal?
A. Not anything in the present. As those properties
suggested begin to take effect, and there are the adjustments in the circulation,
we find that these will gradually take away the conditions.
We would keep same soft with a little of an equal
combination of Mutton Tallow (melted), Spirits of Turpentine and Spirits
of Camphor; not so much put on the area of the mole itself as the area
about it, so that it will be absorbed by the effect of the properties through
the radiation, see? (2426-1)
You should read these files - they are extremely
interesting. Sometimes, as much philosphy and basic spiritual truth
are found here as in any of the life readings or elsewhere in the readings.
And the files are continually being updated and upgraded.
[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and
is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, January, 1974, Volume 9, No.
1, page 36, Copyright © 1974 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia
Beach, VA.]
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Castor Oil and Animals
A Virginia veterinarian related to me some of his
experiences with the suggestions from the Cayce material. It seems
that many doctors start off with the use of castor oil locally because
it is so simple and is always so effective. It seems that vets occasionally
come in contact with raccoons, and 'coons often bite resulting most of
the time in an infection. The bite is also painful. Well, my
friend, Dr. Helberg, found that he could best treat such a bite by warming
castor oil in a pan and putting his finger in the warm castor oil.
The pain goes away immediately, and the finger heals quickly. How
long in the warm castor oil? Perhaps 15 - 30 minutes. (I have
myself found that the ordinary southwestern scratches - cactus puncture
wounds, etc. - respond quickly to liberal application of castor oil locally.)
But the most fascinating story that comes from the
field of animal medicine, as recounted by Dr. Helberg, is one dealing with
a goat. It happened that the doctor was called to see this nanny-goat
because of a mastitis. When he looked at her, he saw that one quarter
of the udder was black and blue. This is a serious prognostic sign,
and the goat is usually dead within the next 18 to 24 hours. He used Terramycin
and cortisone anyhow, but the farmer wanted to know what else he could
do. He was told to bring the goat inside, to keep her warm, then
put a castor oil pack on the affected udder with a hearing pad and leave
it in place 30 minutes. Then he was to repeat this in three hours.
The next day, the doctor got a call from the farmer - the goat was running
around normally, healthy and apparently completely recovered.
[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and
is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, January, 1974, Volume 9, No.
1, page 37, Copyright © 1974 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia
Beach, VA.]
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Therapy for Epilepsy
This report is from an A.R.E. member who has been
working with a cooperating doctor. Her daughter, age nine, had been
diagnosed as epileptic four years ago. The girl has been on Dilantin
since then and complained about stomachaches, fuzziness in the right foot;
she was nervous, cried often and tended toward panic in tense situations.
For two months she was given regular castor oil packs,
massages, manipulations, and fairly strict dietary regimen. Her teacher
said that she was "a changed person from the beginning of the year." She
was considerably more relaxed and had a happy attitude; she no longer had
the nightmares which once plagued her and her color was better. Her
stomachaches and fuzziness in the foot were gone. In spite of the fact that she is still on Dilantin,
the changes in awareness, general health and symptomatology speak highly
of what had been done for this young lady in just a period of two months.
The parents are continuing with the treatments - for a long enough period
of time, it is hoped, that full healing can come about.
[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and
is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, May, 1974, Volume 9, No. 3,
page 128, Copyright © 1974 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia
Beach, VA.]
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Relief From Suffering
A researcher tells the story of a 33-year-old woman
who developed terminal cancer two years after a radical mastectomy.
Her therapy had included surgery, radiation, cobalt and betatron treatments,
and chemotherapy involving 5FU. Her condition became more serious:
she developed peptic ulcers, elimination problems, and abdominal distention.
She became disoriented and out of touch with reality. After hospitalization,
she was started on castor oil packs over the entire abdomen. Her
urinary tract started working again, and the distention gradually subsided.
She was still impacted, but on the fourth day she started having some bowel
activity. On the fifth day, she had tier first regular bowel movement
in weeks. Her hallucinations cleared up, her vision improved considerably,
and she was able to go home from the hospital.
Castor oil packs did not clear up the malignancy
we call cancer, but it did aid the sensorium in this woman and brought
about a significant improvement of the eliminations. The packs have
done something very worthwhile in the total experience of an individual
who is preparing to enter the other side of life through the birth that
we call death.
[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D.
and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, July, 1974, Volume 9,
No. 4, page 175, Copyright © 1974 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia
Beach, VA.]
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Castor Oil
Stories: Ear and Nail Problems
A 12-year-old boy, whose hearing had been impaired
for several years due to fluid in the middle ear, was told he would need
surgery to remove the fluid. His parents, having read much about
Cayce's use of the castor oil packs, placed packs on both cheek areas -
between the nose and the ear - for half an hour every other night. Three
weeks later, they took their boy to the same physician, who examined his ears
again and found them both normal, with no need for surgery.
A 20-year-old woman from the West Indies had what
must be classified as a mixed bacterial-fungus infection under the nail
of the right forefinger. For four years, it had grown more and more
serious, until the nail became very thick, the end of the finger tender,
and a greenish-yellow exudate, which had a foul odor, came from the nail.
For nearly four months, the girl's mother placed a pad of cotton soaked
with castor oil around the tip of the finger and bandaged it in place every
night. The infection disappeared, the nail grew in normally. and
now she claims it is the strongest and best nail she has.
This mother, whose daughter responded so well to
the use of castor oil on her finger, used the same treatment for a bunion
on her big toe - rubbing it with castor oil three times a day and sleeping
with a pad placed over it at night. In three weeks, the swelling
was gone. Whenever it starts to flare up again, she treats it the
same way with the same results. She may have the gout, rather than
a bunion, but she is controlling it in a very simplified and economical
manner.
What happened to this woman is an illustration of
what is prevalent in our country at the present time. She found that
there was a simple way of bringing healing to the body, and she became
a crusader: she wanted to cure everyone with castor oil packs. Her
76-year-old friend fell off the top of a stepladder and developed a bad
pain in his back. This woman suggested that he put hot packs on his
back. After two days of applications, he felt no more pain; after
three days, he was swimming and carrying on his usual exercises.
That was just the beginning! Another friend's
father also hurt his back - suggestion there, too, brought relief in short
order. While she was talking about this to her friend, another woman
overheard them talking. They struck up a conversation, and it developed
that she, too, had suffered from backaches for a long time. Three
weeks after that, she reported to my correspondent that since she had been
using the packs, her backaches were a thing of the past.
No remedy works all the time, as any physician will
tell you. This is also true, of course, with castor oil. Quite
recently, I had a letter from a Study Group member who had suggested the
castor oil treatment for a friend of hers who had what she called "ugly,
misshapen fingernails and toenails caused by what she calls 'fungus.' "
After using pads soaked with castor oil on her fingers every night for
six weeks, she reported that: (1) She had removed some of the growth which
had detached itself in a dry form from the finger; (2) when bleeding developed
under the nail in the cuticle area, she had stopped using the packs; and
(3) when she stopped, the skin on the back and in the palms of her hands
became cracked, dry and black. The black was like the black smudge
from newspaper print.
We have seen packs used for a time on chronically
debilitated individuals; sometimes these packs developed the black smudge
like our correspondent described. We have never been able to determine
why this came about. I have never heard of a case where such blackness
developed on the skin, but it does illustrate that even simple remedies
sometimes do not work. One must conclude that those who write letters
are more wont to tell us of their successes than of their failures; even
so, there still remains a wide variety of conditions that do respond to
simple therapy with castor oil packs.
[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and
is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, September, 1974, Volume 9,
No. 5, page 218, Copyright © 1974 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia
Beach, VA.]
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Warts
On the matter of warts ... Bob Brewer says: "I always
use castor oil as an aid to the elimination of warts. I use the electric
needle on the wart itself, and then during the entire healing period, a
castor oil soaked band-aid is used." He has had no recurrences. Bob
Forbis, on the other hand, had a different story. He speaks from
his experiences as a dermatologist in San Diego. He tells me that:
"Warts are driving me right up the wall! I have been handing out
the castor oil and the castor oil-beeswax (90%-10%) ointment to a large
number of patients with a variety of different results. The thing
that keeps you going is the once-in-a-while good result on any kind of
a wart - flat, plantar, condyloma iccuminata, or ordinary vulgar warts.
The problem is that I just don't consider the percentage of good results
above the placebo level of success." This reminds me of the report in the
British Medical Journal about the physician who "bought" warts from little
people. The kids loved it - the doctor paid them sixpence for a wart
and told them that it would be gone in three days. And it was.
His suggestion was strong medicine. I have tried this, using dimes,
but have had no success. On the other hand, my own percentage of
wart treatment with castor oil is about fifty percent. Perhaps my
patients have a stronger castor oil consciousness.
[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D.
and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, July, 1971, Volume 6,
No. 4, page 164, Copyright © 1971 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia
Beach, VA.]
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Castor
Oil With Camphorated Oil for Lesions
Castor oil ... again comes into the spotlight, along
with Camphorated oil. Harvey Rose, a GP from Sacramento, California,
sent us the following report:
"With regards to the skin ... a man about 68 years
old had a mean-looking lesion on his ear which was probably an early squamous
cell carcinoma; biopsy was not done. This lesion had been present
for years. The patient has had basal cell carcinoma removed from
the area of the left ear somewhat near this particular lesion. At
any rate, after two weeks of the castor oil and camphorated oil, the lesion
disappeared and has not recurred. The treatment was started in December
of 1969.
"Another patient, a woman of 61, had a lesion
inside her ear in the external auditory meatus, which was rough and scaly,
and she used the castor oil-camphorated oil. The lesion disappeared
and has maintained its absence after about three weeks of treatment.
No recurrence since April 22. This lesion had been bleeding a bit,
and this I think makes the result with the oil combination even more dramatic."
[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D.
and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, July, 1971, Volume 6,
No. 4, page 165, Copyright © 1971 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia
Beach, VA.]
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Stories of Healing
The Week at Asilomar was Productive ... especially
in regard to healing concepts. I'm sure all of you have seen and
heard of many different types of healing, so these might be to you an old
story. But they were interesting to me in the very fascination of
the variety of ways in which healing can come to the human body.
It almost makes one think that all healing is in reality from One Source. Here
are just a few:
A 55-year-old-woman who was in one
of my classes sprained her ankle - not severely, but painfully, and badly
enough to make her limp with her sore extremity through the afternoon classes
and dinner.
That evening, for an hour and a half, she (of her
own accord) wrapped her ankle in a castor oil pack with a heating pad applied
over the pack. Then, when she went to bed, she just pinned a towel
around the pack after removing the heating pad. The next morning
I saw her hiking around the Asilomar grounds, enjoying the scenery - no
limp, no pain, and as I found out afterward, no swelling or residual symptoms
from the sprain.
Burns can be very distressing. Another Asilomar
registrant told me how she had slipped in her kitchen, and in reaching
out to keep from falling, she pressed the back of her right hand against
the red-hot heating element on one of the burners of her stove. It
sizzled somewhat, apparently. My friend believes in the healing power
of the mind, but put her hand in cold water anyway. She refused to
look at her fingers, but her husband didn't like their looks. It
was bedtime, and she placed her hand in ice water at bedside. After
a bit, she said, she realized that faith in the healing power within was
not consistent with ice water, so she chose the former, letting the ice
treatment go by the boards. She used no bandage, slept well. In the
morning, there was only a very slight trace of a scar where the burn had been.
One of the young men who has grown up in the home
of ARE members and has consequently been at Asilomar many years had had
a lot of success using castor oil locally. Thus, when he smashed
his finger in Gina Cerminara's car door, he wasn't at all perturbed.
In spite of Gina's insistence that he get immediate medical attention,
he said - "Castor oil will take care of it." He wrapped a piece of flannel
cloth soaked in castor oil around the finger and left it on all night long,
with plastic covering the soaked member. In the morning, the finger
was indeed normal in all respects except for a slight skin scratch which
was not quite healed.
The fourth story deals with a man who told me about
a severely disabling bursitis which had plagued him for months. He
had no relief from various medical doctors' efforts. About that time,
lie started reading about Karma and how it shows tip in various physical
problems. He went to sleep one night and in a dream - or a vision
lie asked: "Is this condition karmic in origin?" There came a voice in
answer: "No - lift up your arms!" At that point lie awoke and found both
of his arms lifted high over his head - a position he had been unable to
assume consciously for months - and he has had no problem with the bursitis
since.
[Note: The preceding report was provided by William McGarey, M. D. and
is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, July, 1971, Volume 6, No.
4, page 165, Copyright © 1971 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia
Beach, VA.]
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More Castor Oil Stories
Any first aid kit should contain a generous supply
of castor oil.
Each time I gather the ripe dates in my back yard,
I'm left with one or two pinpricks from the sharp guardians of this fruit. Castor
oil, applied liberally to the injured areas, has always brought healing to the
skin without developing infection.
One of our boys stepped on a three-pronged metal
hanger (used for peg-boards) and punctured the sole of his foot rather
deeply in two places. A sloppy castor oil pack, applied after the
bleeding had stopped, was kept in place until healing was almost completed
matter of just a few days. The pain eased up immediately upon application
of the pack and on the second day weight was put on the injured foot. Healing
progressed, and the length of time for it certainly decreased.
From the supplement to reading 2966-1, the following
story explores further the healing abilities of the castor oil pack, this
time being placed on the abdomen. An A.R.E. member, having read this
particular reading, wrote in a report about her own use of the pack:
"I used the castor oil packs for a fibroid tumor
on my uterus. I used three thicknesses of flannel with the oil, and
a heating pad three or four nights a week. I started about 9:30 p.m.
and would read until sleepy, then turn out the lights and heating pad at
the same time. Leaving the flannel and heating pad in place, I would
sleep until ready to turn over (about 1:00 a.m.) and then remove everything.
This continued about six months. At my next yearly checkup the doctor
said [the fibroid] had disappeared."
Still another castor oil story concerns a woman known
to bleed heavily during any kind of surgical procedure. She needed
to have some osseous surgery from a periodontist, and there was no option
that she could see to the procedure. So she went ahead with the dental
surgery, but bled a great deal that day, all night, and the next morning. She
had been vomiting and the side of her tongue was raw and painful.
Next morning she came to the Clinic and her symptoms
were put under control. She was instructed to place a castor oil
pack on the side of her face where the surgery had been performed. She
applied the pack every night for the next two weeks. (There had been much extravasation
of blood and subsequent ecchymosis.) But let her tell the story, since it was
her jaw:
"On the late afternoon of the 19th [the day following
the surgery], I went to Dr. Watkins' office. He took out the dressing
and the huge blood clots and put a pink 'plaster cast' over my teeth and
gums.
"A week and two days later I had another appointment.
His assistant removed the 'cast' and the stitches. When the doctor
walked in the door, I said, 'Well, it's all over! 'He said,'No, I'm afraid
not. I'll have to put another coat of dressing on.' Well, I was terribly
disappointed. But when he looked into my mouth, he couldn't get over
how fast it had healed and said that he wouldn't have to put any more dressing
on. He told me to keep it all very clean, use warm salt water, and
call him immediately if it began to swell.
"Everything went along quite well and I went for
my next appointment a week later. He said it was fine and had healed
beautifully. Then I said, 'You seemed surprised, when I was here
last week, that I had healed so fast.' He said, 'I certainly was, because
normally for this type of surgery it takes a month to heal. I usually
have to put on a coat of dressing three times.' Then we discussed my bleeding
heavily and that normally I heal slower than most, having had transfusions
in the past.
"Then I told him about the castor
oil pack and how I used it every time I lay down for a nap, or at night."
[Note: The preceding report was provided by William
McGarey, M. D. and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, May, 1984,
Volume 19, No. 3, page 126, Copyright © 1984 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation,
Virginia Beach, VA.]
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Edgar
Cayce Health Database-