Reading 3684-1

TEXT OF READING 3684-1 M 56

Text

Date: 2/21/1944 Sex: M Age: 56 ReadingID: 11188

This Psychic Reading given by Edgar Cayce at the office of the Association, Arctic Crescent, Virginia Beach, Va., this 21st day of February, 1944, in accordance with request made by the self - Mr. [3684], new Associate Member of the Ass”n for Research and Enlightenment, Inc.

[Edgar Cayce; Gladys Davis, Conductor and Steno. (Notes read to and transcribed by Jeanette Fitch.)]

Time of Reading 10:55 to 11:15 A. M. Eastern War Time. …, California.

1. GD: You will go over this body carefully, examine it thoroughly, and tell me the conditions you find at the present time; giving the cause of the existing conditions, also suggestions for help and relief of this body; answering the questions, as I ask them:

2. EC: Yes. As we find, there are disturbances with this body - physical, mental, spiritual. For while a very material-minded individual might say that “bad luck” had come to the body, we find that nothing happens by chance. For each soul is as precious in the sight of the Creative Forces or God as another - just as a mother doesn’t have her love changed for another, no matter how many children there may be - unless she’s a foolish mother. For God is not a respecter of persons. And when an individual, as this, through conditions brought about physically, has sudden collapses by the breaking of cells as to cause paralysis to portions of the body, while it is pathological, it is also psychological, it is partly karma. Then, if there will be a release of the physical conditions that are at present useless, there must be a change of attitude towards spiritual and mental things. For mind is the builder. There have been periods when the mind has been hindered, as might be expressed, or “touched”. Yet these are not wholly through experiences of the entity in the present.

3. Just because there has been the breaking of cellular force in the brain, so that reflexes are not possible in the body at present, does not indicate that these need necessarily to remain so.

4. For the body renews itself, every atom, in seven years. How have ye lived for the last seven? And then the seven before? What would ye do with thy mind and thy body if they were wholly restored to normalcy in this experience? Would these be put to the use of gratifying thine own appetites as at first? Will these be used for the magnifying of the appreciation of the love to the infinite? For who healeth all thy diseases? If ye think it is the doctor or the surgeon, who is thy doctor? Is his life different from your own? Life itself, comes from the infinite. There ye must begin if ye would have healing for this body, not merely by saying, “Yes, I believe Jesus was the Son of God - yes, I believe He died that I might have an advocate with the Father.”

5. Yes, this also - but what are ye doing about it? Are ye living like that? Do ye treat thy brother, thy neighbor, thy friend, thy foe, as though this were true? For no matter what ye say, the manner in which ye treat thy fellow man is the answer to what ye really believe. For the manner in which ye treat thy neighbor is the manner in which ye are treating thy Maker. And be not deceived, God is not mocked; whatsoever a man soweth that must he also reap.

6. Then, kick not against the pricks, because ye are meeting thine own self.

7. When ye have righted thy mind to the correct thinking as to the Creative Forces and what they may bring to thee, study Exodus 19:5. Know that it means you - YOU! Then pattern thy life in that manner.

8. Turn then to John 14, 15, 16, 17 and know that it is to thee He speaks, not merely to those who were physically present. For the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, and without Him, the speaker there, Jesus, as ye call Him, the light - as He is in the mind and soul of individual entities - without Him, there is no way to the Father. He speaks to thee, “Ask in my name”. “Love ye one another” is His last command - pure, simple; not possessive, but love that casteth out fear, that putteth the heart, the mind, the soul at ease and not in doubt and in fear.

9. When ye have done this, then apply mechanically, the low Wet Cell Appliance carrying gold (that is the basis of nerve centers in a physical body) through the low electrical vibration created by static electrical forces in the use of chemicals in same. Thus we may renew the body as the changes come about.

10. The Gold Solution would be prepared in the proportions of one grain Chloride of Gold Sodium to each ounce of distilled water. Use three ounces of the Solution. Renew the Solution every fifteen days. Change the chemicals for charging the Appliance every thirty days.

11. Do not leave the Appliance connected when not in use. Keep the attachment plates very clean. Polish them with emery paper before attaching and when removing from the body. Do take the connections out of the Gold Solution when not in use, else it will be necessary to change the Solution very often. But connect to the Solution twenty minutes before attaching to the body.

12. Use the Appliance each day for thirty minutes. The small plate would be attached to the 9th dorsal plexus. The larger plate, through which the Gold Solution passes vibratorially, would be attached to the umbilical and lacteal duct center, on this body the width of two fingers from the navel center directly to the right and four fingers up from that point.

13. Follow each of these applications with a massage, using cocoa butter. Always massage away from the brain center toward the 9th dorsal. Then begin at the lower portion of the spine and massage towards the 9th dorsal. This massage is not to be hurried through with.

14. Don’t be weary in welldoing. If it requires years, give years - but give a service and a praise continually to God, if ye would have life. For as He gave, and gives to every individual entity who seeks His face, “I came that ye might have life and have it more abundantly.”

15. But grow first in grace, in knowledge and then apply the mechanical sources for the healing and correcting of the body.

16. No, climatic conditions will not change the body, unless ye change in mind. These are very well - but what ye need is a change of mental attitude, and then - do the first things first - and then apply the mechanical applications.

17. Be consistent, be persistent.

18. Ready for questions.

19. We are through with this reading.

Copy to Self - Air Mail ” ” Ass’n file ” ” Loose-leaf book in Library under case number for indexing cerebral thrombosis

(See extra sheet of directions [which was enclosed] to be sent to Mr. A. M. Godfrey, 2709 Lafayette Blvd., Norfolk, Va., for preparing the Wet Cell Appliance to be used in this individual case. Also article explaining theory of this Appliance.)

Reports

Reports & Follow-up

R1. 3/4/44 [3684]‘s letter:

Mr. Edgar Cayce, Virginia Beach, Va.

Dear Mr. Cayce:

I want to take this opportunity to thank you from the innermost core of my heart for having taken time out to give me a reading. I have received the transcript of the proceedings under trance and while some of it puzzles me, the fact that with a change of mental attitude and the appliance which was recommended gives me an outlook for recovery and usefulness in the not-too-distant future.

I have, however, inquired of several doctors and osteopaths where to locate exactly the ninth dorsal plexus, and so far received only vague answers. Most of them have not heard of it. Is it by any chance a plexus lying near or above the ninth dorsal vertebrae? If you could find a moment to spare I wish you tell me exactly.

I have written to your friend Mr. Godfrey, asking him to send the wet cell appliance if you so recommend doing at this time.

The urgency of Exodus 19:5 appeals to me tremendously and gives me occasion for good cheer. St. John 14, 15, 16 & 17 too give me much to think over and I know that in time the particular message to be conveyed to me personally will be received. I am still puzzled as to whether the message is admonitory or corrective. In either case I feel humbled and contrite for any unintentional misuse of my psychological factors in the past.

I still hope you will find an opportunity to give me a life reading. I have asked for such a reading several times, but to date, due to your extreme preoccupation with matters of perhaps greater importance I have had no reply. For what you have already done for me I am extremely grateful and pleased and can only call God’s blessings upon you. I seem so helpless to do much else. With deep affection and the hope that at some near-future I will be able to do something tangible, I am,

Sincerely, humbly and eternally yours, [3684]

R2. 3/10/44 GD’s note: Wrote him card, telling him 9th dorsal vertebrae IS the same as 9th dorsal plexus, also saying we would write him soon making appt. for Life Rdg.

R3. 4/30/44 [3684]‘s letter:

Dear Mr. Cayce:

Mr. […] will forward this to you along with his request of one of your readings. Mr. […] is a personal friend of mine of many years standing and I can vouch for his integrity and the high quality of his spiritual background. We belong to a group of earnest and sincere questers after truth, and I’m sure he will measure up to the standard you require in order to give a satisfactory reading. Mr. […] will tell you that he has a bowel trouble of long standing that he would like to have you help him clear up. We are taking these measures in order to eliminate the waste of precious time, and to hope for as early a date for a reading as it possible with your overworked calendar.

As for myself I am progressing toward recovery in such splendid strides that sometimes I catch my breath, but always stand in awe and reverence of the miracle worked in me through your intercedence and co-operation. My gratitude knows no bounds, and my prayers are with you.

Humbly and devotedly yours, [3684]

R4. 6/29/44 [3684]‘s letter to EC:

Dear Mr. Cayce:

This is a note reporting my progress, and enclosing a cashier’s check for $20.00 to cover the life reading set for November 22. Last February when you gave me my physical reading I spent the early hours of the morning in prayer and meditation, when unaccountably at the moment you started the reading I fell sound asleep and as unaccountably woke at the exact moment the reading was over.

After the wet cell low vibration appliance came to me about the first of April I immediately felt the beneficial results of treatments. As I said in my last letter to you I found myself improving by leaps and bounds. I find myself somewhat handicapped, however, in having my back massaged. I have only my good wife to do that for me and since she must of necessity be the breadwinner for some time yet, she frequently comes home so deadly fatigued that I send her straightway to bed to recuperate.

I speak of all this improvement on my part in the past tense, because several weeks ago when a party of nine of us were on our way one Sunday morning to hear Krishnamurti speak, a tire blew out, killed one of our party and injured more or less seriously six others, myself included. Since then, with only minor injuries, I have suffered from shock. My blood-pressure rose some forty points and I seem to be experiencing all the symptoms I had before my stroke fifteen months ago. My blood pressure had returned practically to normal prior to the accident. It is with regard to this my present condition that I was wondering if you did not think advisable for me to be submitted to a check-up reading at your earliest convenience. I am continuing with the wet-cell treatments and perhaps in time may return to the state of convalescence I enjoyed before the mishap. Knowing full well how busy you are and what the demands upon your time must be I leave this matter of a check-up reading entirely in your hands. I am so grateful to a merciful God for having brought your Christlike gifts to my attention and benefit that I sincerely hesitate to call on you for a further reading and will leave this matter entirely to your discretion and convenience.

With your answer please include copies of your mimeographed booklets Life Readings and Physical readings and I will remit the money upon receipt, along with any required fee in the likelihood of a check-up reading. I have such implicit faith in your gifted ability and feel so keenly the merits of your unparalleled work that I would I were in the position of endowing your institution without any strings attached. As it is I can only wholeheartedly recommend your works to my many friends and by proxy, as it were, pass on your good Samaritan altruism as a living example of the Grace by which you are employed. God bless you and keep you.

Devotedly and humbly yours, [3684]

R5. 8/9/44 Friend Mr. Wm. P. Wise’s letter: “Mr. [3684] continues to improve tho he had a setback because of a severe shake-up in an automobile accident in which one of the occupants of the car was killed.”

R6. 9/26/44 Friend Mrs. Carrol Reed’s letter: “Mr. [3684] seems to be getting along nicely.”

R7. 11/16/44 [3684]‘s letter to EC:

Dear Mr. Cayce:

I have before me your letter of March 30, 1944 in which you state that the appointment for my life reading has been set for Wednesday afternoon, November 22, 1944, EWT, between 3.30 and 4.30.

Having received no recent confirmation of this reading I do not know whether you are sufficiently well to carry out your appointment, but in the event you plan to give me a reading here are a few questions:

1. What can I do best to help my fellow-mortals for their spiritual welfare.
2. I have of necessity returned in a small way to bookselling; should I continue, or are any of the several other lines of endeavor in which I am efficient more suitable to the well-being of my fellows and myself?
3. I SEEM to be at a standstill in the progress of my convalescence. Am I overtaxing my system with my activities?

Heaven bless you. Whether you give me a reading or not I trust you are well enough to carry on, and that your days in the land thy Lord God giveth thee will be many.

Sincerely, [3684]

R8. 11/22/44 GD’s letter to [3684]:

Dear Mr. [3684]:-

Due to Mr. Cayce’s continued illness we are unable to get your reading on Nov. 22, 1944. In consideration for his health, Mr. Cayce will not return to work for some months. For this reason we are unable to offer you another appointment at this time. If you still wish to have a reading, let us hear from you in six to eight months, at which time your request will be given its proper consideration, in light of your previous contact with us.

In view of the above, we are returning your membership fee in the amount of $20.00. If you again apply for a reading, do not send the membership fee until three weeks before your appointment date.

It is our hope that you will keep in touch with us through subscribing to our Monthly Bulletin, which carries news of the Association activities and extracts from readings, or our Weekly Letter, which consists solely of extracts from the readings. We will send you either of these for six dollars a year or both for twelve dollars a year.

Financial aid through gifts, whether small or large, constitutes a fund which makes it possible for us to carry on the research work, so that we may develop our publications in order to help all who are not fortunate enough to have their individual reading.

Appreciating your interest and hoping we may soon hear from you in regard to some phase of our Publications and Research Program, I am

Sincerely, [signed] Gladys Davis, Secretary, ASS’N FOR RESEARCH AND ENLIGHTENMENT, INC.

Encl. Ck. $20.00. Kindly bear in mind that this manner of taking care of our correspondence is necessary in order to meet present financial needs. Thank you!

The indications are that Mr. Cayce will not return home for several months in consideration for his health.

R9. 7/31/51 Reply to Questionnaire [by someone at his address]: “Died Dec. 14, 1949.”

Background

Background

B1. 8/24/43 [3684]‘s letter to EC:

Mr. Edgar Cayce, Virginia City, Virginia

Dear Sir:-

It is with some trepidation that I write to you and ask you for assistance. You must be called upon to help people in all sorts of distress and I am wondering if you will find time to give me a bit of advice. It is understood that I will gladly remunerate you for whatever you may ask. If you will give me a reading you will of course learn that last March I had a stroke. However, I am beset with spells of dizziness to the extent that I am utterly useless member of society. My position is being held open for me indefinitely, but I should much rather not have to return to it. I am an artist by vocation and feel that I should do something about it in a professional way. Your advice, or that of your blessed guides, will clear up a great difficulty for me.

Trusting sincerely that you may be able to spare the time to help me, and with God’s peace and blessings, I am

Humbly and gratefully yours, [3684]

B2. 9/5/43 EC sent form letter.

B3. 9/14/43 [3684]‘s letter to EC:

Mr. Edgar Cayce, Virginia Beach, Va.

Dear Mr. Cayce:-

Your kindly letter of September 6th, for which I had been patiently waiting, on hand. You say, “we have found through many years of experience that the degree of help obtained is in direct proportion to the understanding and right attitude of those seeking help.”

This I can readily understand. But I am somewhat at a loss to convey to you in what manner I have the right attitude or the understanding to merit your cooperation, unless I lightly touch upon some high-lights of my past. In doing this I must call upon all my resources of understatement in order that I may not convey to you any idea of conceit on any part.

For the last twenty years, while a bookseller, I have had the sincere desire to be of service and help my fellow beings. My bookshop, instead of business establishment, became more or less a refuge for sick souls who came to me for advice, encouragement, and a better outlook on life. None, so far as I know, left my shop but for the better. It got so at last that I gave away almost as many books as I sold, with the natural consequence that I was forced out of business.

It was through the bookshop that I got in touch with the now internationally known Paul Brunton, who with his own lips appointed himself my spiritual adviser or guru. Since the start of the war I have lost track of Mr. Brunton who is somewhere in India for the British government so for the present I must forego any communication with him.

But last March I suffered stroke, from which I am very slowly convalescing. A week or two after the stroke I discovered that what had for the most part been a modest, humble, intellectual and rational desire to work with things of the spirit, had resolved itself into experience. Something happened. I was the same, but a changed man. I had risen to heights of now perspectives and plumbed revelatory depths. I seemed to carry all the burdens and sins of the world. I knew my fellows were not vicious or sinful, but only belovedly stupid. I knew also that each and every one of us is in essence eternally perfect, only our awareness of that sublime fact is clouded over with a veil of ignorance, which sooner or later will suddenly be torn from our eyes and reveal us as we truly are - Sons of God. I alternately laughed and wept for months, sometimes in the same breath, over this timeless, ageless eternal revelation.

More than ever do I want to be of help to my fellow man. But I am now a cripple. I know only myself is responsible for the stroke. I know the laws of karma, and I have to pay the piper. I sit at home alone twelve hours a day and grow somewhat restive occasionally. It’s a case of physician cure thyself, and so I turn to you in my dilemma for assistance. It will take another year in the course of nature to restore me to normal I know. At present I am nominally a civil service employee of the navy. My position is being held open for me indefinitely. By avocation I am a designer and sculptor. I do not want to return to my job when I get well. I am torn between helping in some way my fellows and designing. I want to get well and normal again. I want to do the thing I am best fitted for, not for any selfish motives, but for the good of others. I have no desire to earn much money - I have no ambition for power, nor do I hanker in any way to shine in the public eye.

Therefore I turn to you and ask you for a reading. How can I get better? What shall I do with my future? Do you require a deposit? What are your terms? As I’ve wanted nothing else in life I want your help. I have been once or twice to reliable mediums, but I have always closed the circuit, and they could do nothing with me. I will leave myself open as a book for your guides to read and you to report on to me. A few have warned me to beware of another racket, but my heart tells me intuitively, mystically, that I can trust you all the way.

I have order the book, “There is a River”, and I enclose a dollar bill for a copy of your “A Search For God”. You must excuse the many errors in this letter as I cannot type very fast and must let the mistakes accumulate. This writing has require the better part of four hours.

In some way I feel that our paths are destined to cross and perhaps meet. I felt the same way about the author of “The Wisdom of the Overself”, and it came to pass. He was my guest for awhile.

If there is any way in God’s world I can cooperate with you I will be only too glad to do so. Say the word and whatever is in my power to do I will do. I call down sincerely and tenderly the Peace and Blessings of God on you, and may your days be long on the earth which the Lord Thy God giveth you.

Humbly and gratefully yours, [3684]

B4. 10/4/43 [3684]‘s letter to EC:

Dear Mr. Cayce:-

Your letter of recent date arrived, but I have waited a week for what you promised “under separate cover”. Since time is the essence of my condition, and since I am patiently this minute awaiting a friend’s arrival who will take me for a week’s stay in the back-country, I must take time by the forelock to tell you that I WILL join your association whenever the necessary blanks arrive and that I want you to put my name on your list for a reading, immediately.

Since I don’t seem to be improving in any way I was wondering if it would be asking too much to have you put me on your emergency list. If I were to wait a year for a reading I’ll most likely be crippled for life or out of the body entirely. But, of course, I will have to leave this entirely to your kind offices. Whatever the fees are, or any additional dues required, I will forward them to you by money-order as soon as I am apprised of the amount required.

I have received and am reading your “A Search for God”, and I have received from my jobber “There is a River”, which I am also reading. I am pleased with both copies, especially “A Search for God”, which I believe to be the first and perhaps only book that gives a technique and discipline from the Christian angle that offers illumination for hungry and searching students. I have read and studied and practiced a great deal of the Buddhistic, Hindu, Sufistic and Taoistic methods but never yet have come across anything quite so luminous as your little book. I know I shall treasure it. As for “There is a River”, I never cease to marvel at the intolerance, stupidity and ignorance of otherwise well-balanced people who cannot, or will not, accept any evidence of God’s power or purpose except that which they can feel with their fingers and visibly see with their eyes.

Since you are working by the Grace of God, and it is by Grace of God that you are to give me a reading I cannot assume the arrogance of dictating to or unduly urging you to place me on your emergency list, but if any way it were humanly possible to do so I would consider it privilege and honor for you to do so, not to mention the physical hazards which I am undergoing. May you for many years to come continue to pour out good to that portion of humanity who come as little children through that God-given gift of yours.

Faithfully and humbly yours, [3684]

B5. 1/20/44 [3684]‘s letter to EC:

Dear Mr. Cayce:

According to your correspondence with me you will be giving me a reading at 10.30, your time, February 21, 1944. I am still badly in need of that reading and I am presuming nothing has come up to unsettle this schedule. And so at your request I am submitting a number of questions about my health, and on the above stated date I will be found in bed at … Avenue, …, California, in deep meditation and prayer.

Some of the questions that occur to me follow:

1. Would a change of climate be beneficial to my condition?
2. Can you suggest a locale, if you suggest such a change?
3. Would a change of diet make for any improvement in my condition?
4. If so, what should I eat and what should I avoid eating? Particularly, what should I avoid eating.
5. Will smoking four or five cigarettes a day be harmful? i.e., retard my complete recovery.
6. If I faithfully follow your advice will I ever fully recover, or am I destined to be an invalid and a burden to my family?
7. Have I really had a cerebral thrombosis, or has there been a blood clot somewhere in my system other than the brain? I ask, because there seems to be considerable dispute among my doctors on this point, and I would like to have it cleared up.
8. If there is nothing to be done to hasten my recovery how long, in the course of nature, will nature require to insure return to normal? Approximately, of course.
9. I am terribly emotional since I had the stroke. Is this a natural consequence, or should I use an unusual amount of will-power to overcome this condition?
10. I have a doctor who will prescribe anything you suggest. Is there anything special you want me to tell him?
11. In short what must I do to get well again? Please inform me if there are any vital questions left unsaid, and please advise me accordingly.

I believe implicitly in the powers that aid you in answering these questions, and I look forward to the time when your letter will give me more hope. In tears I pray for your welfare and the furtherance of your efforts to help humanity. Humbly, gratefully and sincerely, I am yours, [3684]

Mentioned Entities

Grace, Soul, Wet Cell, Gold Chloride, Massage Therapy, Meditation, Prayer, Search for God Study Groups, Thomas Sugrue, Virginia Beach, A.R.E. (Association for Research and Enlightenment), California, Creative Forces, Destiny, Entity (Cayce Term), Exodus, Gladys Davis, Healing, India, Jesus Christ

Source: The Complete Edgar Cayce Readings, A.R.E. CD-ROM (2006). Reading 3684-1, ReadingID 11188.