by Ray Bjork, M.D.

Note: The following report was presented to the Third Annual Symposium of the Medical Research Division of the Edgar Cayce Foundation in Phoenix, Arizona, on January 11, 1970.

Multiple sclerosis, commonly called MS, means “many scars.” MS is one of the most widespread degenerative diseases of the central nervous system (brain, spinal cord). It is acute or chronic, usually slowly progressive, occasionally remittent. Pathologically, it is characterized by scattered patches of destruction of the fatty covering of the nerves called myelin sheath. Frequently it follows a course of exacerbations (increase in severity of symptoms) and remissions (decrease or abatement of symptoms.) Exacerbations may occur at intervals of weeks, months or years. Some have remissions for as long as twenty-five years.

Some patients rapidly become incapacitated and completely disabled. Average duration of life has been considered to be ten to fifteen years following onset of the disease, but many now live much longer. Often MS is referred to as a disease “scattered in time and space.” It is the common crippler of young men and women, usually attacking them in their prime of life. In two-thirds of the cases, it occurs between the ages of 20 and 40. Rarely does it occur before the age of 10 or after 50.

There is slightly higher incidence among women. Some reports indicate about 60% female patients and 40% male patients. It appears to be more common in northern latitudes, but the reason for this is not understood. No relationship to cold weather has been demonstrated. Prevalence is roughly 40 to 60 per 100,000 in the north in contrast to 10 to 13 per 100,000 in the south. It is estimated that there are 500,000 cases in the United States. Without the myelin sheath, the nerve impulses or body signals go wrong. Destruction of the myelin sheath (demyelinization) causes either the complete stoppage of nerve impulses, thus producing paralysis of the parts of the body supplied by these nerves, or impulses pass through the affected nerves so weakened or altered that the parts of the body supplied by these nerves function in disturbed fashion. Scattered destruction of the fatty sheath accounts for the partial impairment of the body functions. Preservation of the nerve fibre (axis cylinder) explains the possibility of remission. When both the fatty sheath and the axis cylinder of a nerve are destroyed, impaired body function becomes permanent. Paralysis occurs late in the disease. Chronicity is a distinguishing feature of the disease.

Scattered throughout the nervous system are areas of myelin. Myelin is a fatty, protective sheath which may be likened to the insulation on electric wire, without which nerve impulses may be short circuited resulting in loss of power. The destroyed myelin is replaced by scars which are first soft, then in time become more dense and destructive. The scar at first may only impair the transmission of message from nerve center to muscle. Later the formation of other scars, resulting from subsequent attacks, leads to greater disability. Multiple sclerosis is not a killer, and life expectancy for most patients is not much less than the average. It is the progressive crippling caused by MS that creates personal and social problems.

Victims may be ambulatory, ambulatory with aids (such as a cane, crutches, or leg braces), wheelchair bound, or bed-ridden – depending on the extent of the nerve damage. Due to the remissions which characterize MS, patients have found it possible to walk again after a long dependency on crutches or wheelchair. Such symptom disappearances are usually temporary, although some experience a stabilization of the disease, a condition which may continue for some time.

In addition to the United States and Canada, Australia and the countries of northern Europe report a high incidence of MS; the incidence is low in the Orient, Africa, northern South America, Caribbean and Mediterranean.¹ Sex, race, occupation, urban or rural living are not factors; MS occurs equally in all. It is not a venereal disease and is not contagious. MS is not hereditary. It may be that a predisposition is passed along but until the cause is learned, it won’t be known why one of a family is more vulnerable than the other members. More than one case in a family has been known to occur. It is not a mental disease. MS’ers may experience emotional disturbances and personality changes, but these are not necessarily imposed by the disease.

Scientific Research and Etiology of MS

After 100 years of observation and study the cause of multiple sclerosis is still unknown. Many things are dependent upon discovery of the cause: early diagnosis, effective treatment and control, cure and rehabilitation for future victims, arrest and remission of symptoms, rehabilitation. The disease has never in any given patient proved to be the result of a specific cause, nor has the disease, as it exists in man, ever been experimentally reproduced in animals.

There are many theories. Some are based on the similarity of MS to other diseases, some on the response of patients to certain environmental factors, some on examinations of blood, some on affected tissues and cells revealed through autopsies. Some of these hypotheses are:

(1) That a virus or spirochete may be the cause.

(2) That MS has an infectious origin.

(3) That it is due to a metabolic disturbance or defect.

(4) That loss or inactivation of enzymes necessary to myelin formation or replacement is the reason.

(5) That blood clotting, or venule spasm or some imbalance in the blood is the source.

(6) That allergens are to blame.

(7) That some unidentified poison is the agent.

These and others have been probed and reinvestigated. None has been proved. Advances in our knowledge of the geographic distribution of MS may well be a most important and recent development. Observations throughout the world have been reported by researchers in various places. Alfred R. Shotin, Melbourne, Australia, reported a study of the geographic distribution of MS the world over. In this analysis, he suggests the environmental factor. He believes the dietary habits of man seem to correlate with the geography of the disease. He speculates that the susceptibility to MS is the intolerance to gluten (the protein of wheat and other grains) and this may be an inherited characteristic. This hypothesis conforms with criteria laid down by some neurologists and epidemiologists.

This knowledge has held the attention of Dr. Roy L. Swank² who directs research at the University of Oregon Medical School and Clinics. These findings have been scrutinized for possible meaning. Experiments to test the suggested significance of these observations have been, and are being made. If this analysis is correct, the concept of intestinal origin of this perplexing disease may provide a pathway to its solution.

There will be seen a rather interesting correlation between these findings and the statements that Edgar Cayce made relating to the inability of the body to absorb gold and this in turn bringing about the pathology which provides the disease which we call multiple sclerosis. This will be discussed more extensively later on in the paper.

Prognosis

The course of MS is variable and may be classified as follows:

(1) In rare cases, a sudden, severe course may lead to death in six to twelve weeks.

(2) In other patients one sees a fairly rapid downhill course terminating in death in five to ten years. These patients usually have a number of recurrent, rather severe episodes with intervals of relative recovery during the first two years, but are then left with increasing difficulties (following successive periods of worsening) often not living a year or two after becoming bed-ridden.

(3) In some patients, the course is characterized by relatively minor attacks of brief duration (days, weeks) separated by periods free of symptoms (months, years) and followed by slowly, insidiously progressing disabilities. This may lead, after ten to twenty years, to some degree of chronic disability such as weakness in an arm or leg, which may not materially shorten life.

(4) In some patients, the course is characterized by gradually developing loss of the ability to move and a slow, steady downward progression, with fluctuations in the symptoms too slight to be called a relapse or remission. Onset later in life is more apt to be followed by this type of course and in general has a poorer prognosis than the remittent type beginning before the age of 25 years.

(5) In infrequent patients, the few widely spaced attacks early in life are never followed by subsequent recurrence or by progressive disability, the disease presumably remaining quiescent throughout the balance of a normal life span.

In general, MS is a disease of the nerves, not of the muscles. However, all muscular activity (contractions, relaxations) are controlled by nerve impulses. Muscles are made stronger and bigger by exercise. Nerve energy is restored by rest. Thus the MS’er (MS patient) has to adjust his daily life so as to do a little standing, a little walking and sitting. It is not good to sit in a chair or lie in bed all the time. After prolonged sitting in a chair or lying in bed one loses the ability to use his legs. It is most important to conserve energy. The MS’er has none to spare or waste.

Certain factors seem to bring on relapses:

1. poor health;
2. generalized infections;
3. illness with fever;
4. too much exertion or undue fatigue
5. injuries;
6. allergic diseases; and
7. emotional disturbances (tensions, worries).

At the present time there are no specific agents for the treatment of multiple sclerosis. However, we feel that every MS’er may benefit to some degree from the skillful use of those modalities which are well understood, economical, widely available, and encompass a wide range of safety.³

In addition to the wide variety of physical therapy techniques which the physician may find at his disposal in caring for the multiple sclerosis patient, a new dimension is added when one looks at some of the concepts of causation and therapy that are spelled out in the readings given on this disease by Edgar Cayce.

Etiology and Mechanism of Pathologic Physiology Suggested by the Readings

The basic biochemical process stated in reading 907 was that MS was the result of a lack of gold upsetting the normal balance of metabolism which caused a glandular imbalance and in turn resulted in a hormonal deficiency or imbalance. This hormone was said to be necessary for the proper functioning of the nerves.

Multiple Sclerosis in the Cayce Readings

The reason for lack of gold was tied to a defect in the assimilating system (probably digestive system) which in turn was kept in proper working order by the proper hormonal balance from the glands. (Assimilation – the transformation of food into living tissue; constructive metabolism.) Because the glands were in turn dependent upon the proper amount of gold in the system, this would lead to a circular feedback relationship between gold, glands, assimilating system.

Thus, according to the readings, MS is not caused simply from a lack of gold in the diet, but perhaps from a lack of the capacity of the digestive system to assimilate gold or perhaps inability of the body to use the gold assimilated. In reading 907: “What glands are involved?” The answer was given: “Those about the liver and the gall duct.”

The only endocrine glands in that anatomical neighborhood are: (1) Islets of Langerhans in the pancreas and possibly (2) the adrenals. Perhaps the lymph nodes around the liver and gall duct are indicated, but no specific hormone-producing function is known for them.

In reading 1623 and 1031, the liver, pancreas and spleen are mentioned as if they were “glands.” The liver was said to enable the other glands to function normally, presumably by the production of a substance which affected the glands. (3275) In 1031 a thyroid and liver balance was described. In 2564 the adrenals were mentioned in regard to the effects of mental attitude upon them. The readings are not clear as to the exact relation of the liver to pathologic process in MS. In 907 the excretory function of the liver is mentioned as an aid in the assimilation of food in cooperation with the pancreas. See also 1623 and 3907. This would presumably be the production of bile which aids in the digestion of fats which are absorbed in the small intestine through the lacteals.

Other readings implied there were glands within the liver itself (2983, 3306). In 5238 one lobe of the liver was said to have softened, and in 2997 a whitening in the liver was described. Thus, the exact relationship of the liver, glands in the liver, and the other glands remains unclear.

However, the glandular disturbances which the readings indicated in a general way to be caused by an imbalance between the digestive system, the amount of gold in the body and the liver was repeatedly described by the readings as the direct link in the malfunctioning of the nervous system in MS. The missing substance from the glands was supposed to be a nutrient to nerve tissue and the nerves were repeatedly said to lack a proper balance of nerve energy or “stamina.” ( 1031, 1865, 2983)

In 907 a lack of nervous energy caused a poison to form in certain nerve cells and then the other surrounding cells are poisoned, resulting in a pulling apart and elongation of originally round cells.

The hormonal lack was said to cause a breakdown of the cellular forces in the nerve walls. This breakdown of nerve “walls” coupled with the description in 907 of wasting away or dissolving of the nerves could be taken as a description of the pathological loss of myelin sheath or white matter of MS. There was not a mention of this specific term in the reading. The lack of gray matter was mentioned in 3626.

Pathologically, there is damage of both the “white” myelin sheath and “gray” axon in the disease, although demyelination is usually more common and occurs first as the pathology of MS the lack of myelin is most obvious in the spinal cord and brain.

In summary of the theory of the etiology and pathologic physiology of MS as presented by Edgar Cayce, it must be said that:

1. Balance or equilibrium between the organs and systems were emphasized.
2. Some factors which are not part of the current medical knowledge about the disease were mentioned.
3. Glandular imbalance caused the lack of hormonal system which acted to form a poison which was responsible for the pathological process in the brain and spinal cord.
4. The glandular imbalance was caused by a lack of gold and by lack of a substance produced in the liver. All of these factors were to be interrelated by the proper functioning of the assimilative system.
5. A genetic factor was mentioned.
6. An infectious agent was explicitly denied.

Treatment

1. Use of low voltage wet cell battery carrying the “vibration” of gold to the body.
2. Massage.
3. Diet.

“Atomic effect” of gold, as seen in the readings, is needed to establish the balance in certain glands that might produce those hormones which are essential to the maintenance and proper rebuilding of normal nerve tissue. This is not ingested, not injected, but vibratorily applied by the battery, followed by massage. A diet which follows most of the concepts of diet in the readings is suggested.

Treatment for MS has to be of long duration – from three to seven years, usually. Of importance iscompleteness, continuity, consistency, hopeful mental attitude by the patient and by those who give the treatments.

Much of this material has been worked up in a report for the Association for Research and Enlightenment by Walter Pahnke, M.D. I am drawing, to some extent, from his information which can be found in the circulating files.

I am currently working with a number of MS patients as part of the research program of the Edgar Cayce Foundation. Because of the long, extended nature of the disease, no preliminary report can be given, but we can be assured that a beginning has been made researching into this very difficult condition.

References

1. McAlpine, D.; Lumsden, C.E.; Acheson, E.D.; Multiple Sclerosis; Baltimore; The Williams and Wilkins Company; 1965

2. Swank, R.L.; A Bio-Chemical Basis of Multiple Sclerosis; American Lecture Series Publication No 417; Springfield, Illinois; Charles C. Thomas, Pub.; 1961.

3. Alexander, L.; Berkeley, A.W.; Alexander, A.M.; Multiple Sclerosis Prognosis and Treatment; Gantt, W.H., Ed.; Springfield, Illinois; Charles C. Thomas, Pub.; American Lecture Series Publication No. 405; 1961.

[Note: The preceding report was written by Ray Bjork, M.D., and is excerpted from The A.R.E. Journal, March, 1971, Volume 6, No. 2, page 53, Copyright © 1971 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]  

Appendix

Reading No. 907-1: The Etiology of Multiple Sclerosis

1. GC: You will have before you the request from Dr. Charles G. Taylor of … St., New York, N.Y., for a research reading on the disease known as Multiple Sclerosis. You will consider the following statement from Dr. Taylor: “The material pathology of Multiple Sclerosis is a disease of nerve fibres in the spinal cord and brain. The insulating sheaths of these fibres are evidently attacked by some destructive agent which causes them to ‘melt away’ and be replaced by fibrous tissue.” Please answer the following questions.
2. EC: In giving the true pathological condition, as we find this condition of the spinal cord and of the brain is rather the result of conditions which arise in the assimilating system from the lack of a balance in the hormones of the blood supply.
3. And it is then a nerve condition, but IMPOVERISHED from the lack of this condition in the bloodstream, or the glandular forces as supply from the system those elements necessary to give the elasticity or that activity which is necessary.
4. Then this is the source, and the condition in the spinal cord and brain is the effect of that called Multiple Sclerosis.
5. The condition, of course, in each individual may be said to be a law unto itself. This, to be sure, is dependent upon that influence from which the activity of the first cell is taken in a body or entity.
6. Now as the nerve system is that channel through which the atomic energies, or electronic atomic energies pass for activity, there is then the lack of certain elements within the system and in the abilities of the body to produce through the activity of the assimilating system that of GOLD.
7. Ready for questions.
8. (Q) Is this condition produced by an unbalanced diet, or functional failure of glands?    (A) A combination! For as has just been indicated, in determining the factor as to whether this is a glandular or a diet condition, there must be the HISTORY of the case itself considered, and the effect there has been upon the parentage as to the sufficient amount of the cellular force ABOUT each of those atomic forces as go to make up the first cell – or the first fetus itself.
9. (Q) If it is a case of unbalanced foods, what should be added?
   (A) This depends upon the progress of it. But as has been indicated, it is then the effect of gold – the atomic effect of gold that should be added to the system.
10. (Q) Which glands are involved?
    (A) Those about the liver and gall duct.
11. (Q) What is the nature of the process of the breaking down of the sheaths of these nerve fibres?
    (A) Nerve fibre is both positive and negative, or both white and gray matter, as it passes through the activity of the system. When there is a deficiency of that which supplies to the negative or positive force, there is a drain then that begins upon the system. And as there is the lack of those elements that give stamina or energy to the activity of that portion, it begins first then in those forms of a drain or strain and these GRADUALLY then take away or they dissolve, or their cells instead of being round in their nature become elongated and gradually pull apart. Thus the system attempting to build resistance from same causes the losing of the use of any of the energies necessary to replenish same.
    It’s a WASTING away.
12. (Q) Describe the original process which begins in the liver and gall bladder area.
    (A) The cellular force here, or the glandular activity, draws from the spleen, pancreas and the juices or the excretory functioning of the liver, in the activity of assimilation with the drainage forces from the lacteals.
    This then, lacking in the energies, gradually builds conditions that become hardening forces; which form in that connection between the gall duct itself AND the activity to the larger glands in their assimilation such that a hardening of that portion begins.
    Then these gradually act upon the nerve system; by first, as it were, the loss of memory for the moment, then the conditions that may be set up either in the lower portion of the spinal cord or that about the brush end, and those activities gradually increase until they affect or move along the cord itself (in a portion of same) to the brain. And these begin then in the activity upon the use of various portions of the system.
13. (Q) Is any outside agent or germ involved in this process?
    (A) We do not find it so. Rather is it the lack of keeping the proper balance about each cell in its division as it increases in its activity.
14. (Q) Is this a lack of nerve energy to this particular cell, or a poison which is forming and attacks?
    (A) A poison, naturally. The lack of there being sufficient [nerve energy] makes for a poison to other cells about the original, or the central forces of such activity.
15. (Q) What can be done to prevent this disease?
    (A) Keeping a nominal balance of those things in the system that make for keeping the normal balance of the elements or the metals for the system.
       Most of these may be tested especially from the spermatozoa.
16. (Q) What is meant by that last statement, – please explain?
    (A) The reproductive glands first become noticed, as to the lack of those elements for reproduction. Then when these are discovered, – a lacking in these, – there would be the addition then of the gold necessary.
17. (Q) Is this best to be given vibratorially, or taken internally?
    (A) Vibratorially is always better for ANY that is a preventive or a destructive force to those influences from within a cellular activity.
18. (Q) What general steps should be taken in curing it?
    (A) As has been indicated, or may be drawn from an analysis of that just indicated, there should be the proper distribution. This, of course, depends upon very much the advanced stage of the condition. This is presupposing that it’s taken with the first symptoms, see? or the beginning of sterility, or the inactivity from the system as it may be called. The adding then of those vibratory forces as combined with the elements in the diet would be to make for sufficient of gold, silver and iron in the bloodstream.
19. (Q) What suggestions may be given now as to further research readings on this subject through this channel? And explain for Dr. Taylor’s benefit the source of the information given here.
    (A) This may be taken by first the examinations of that as we have just indicated, and as to how it checks with those conditions existent in the varying stages of that which has been called Multiple Sclerosis. Then those questions relative to the conditions as they advance, or the effect which has been and is created in the various stages upon individual cases. Then there may be asked for that as would clarify same in the mind of one desirous of making application of information that might be given.
       Sources – the universal consciousness.
20.  We are through for the present.