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      3

      EDGAR CAYCE—THE GREATEST MEDICAL INTUITIVE

      

The first major book on the abilities of Edgar Cayce was written in 1931, There is a River by Thomas Sugrue, originally copyrighted in 1942 by Ault, Rinehart, and Winston. My own copy is the 50th Anniversary Issue printed in 1981. Sugrue actually first met Edgar Cayce in 1927 and spent the summers of 1929, 1930, and 1931 interviewing Cayce every day and examining materials from the files. But the story that is so appropriate, even today, is that told in chapter one of a stranger appearing in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, in January 1912. A professor from Harvard, Dr. Hugo Munsterberg was arrogant and insulting, despite his impressive M.D. and Ph.D. degrees! At that time, for the previous year there had been stories appearing in news media about “Edgar Cayce— Psychic Diagnostician.” Edgar Cayce's mother-in-law was quoted as saying, “Well, you've got to expect that sort of thing from Yankees. They don't know any better, poor souls.” Fortunately, during the time that the arrogant Munsterberg was visiting Cayce, Dr. Ketchum, the first licensed physician to work with Cayce, also came in for one of the “readings.” It appears that watching the effect of that one reading actually noticeably changed Munsterberg. Nevertheless, Dr. Ketchum was received even less graciously by his fellow physicians.

      Dr. Wesley H. Ketchum was a homeopathic physician. He was an M.D. but his specialty was homeopathy. At the time, homeopaths were generally at least reasonably well accepted in this country, but not by other physicians! Interestingly, at the time Ketchum first visited Edgar Cayce, Ketchum himself thought he had appendicitis and his physicians thought so. Cayce, on the other hand, recommended a spinal adjustment by an osteopath. In fact, Ketchum's original impression was that Cayce was a fake; however, he went to the osteopath that Cayce had recommended. After the osteopathic treatment, Ketchum is quoted as saying to Edgar, “You are not a fake. I have just been a damned fool.” Ketchum went on to report on some of his excellent patient results and even had a paper of his presented in Boston at the American Society for Clinical Research.

      Shortly after that, Gertrude Cayce, Edgar's wife, became very ill with tuberculosis. Physicians had given up “hope” and Cayce recommended heroin, which other M.D.s would not prescribe, but Dr. Ketchum wrote the prescription and, perhaps most importantly, Cayce recommended inhaling the fumes of apple brandy placed in a charred keg. And, of course, although it was almost miraculous, Gertrude truly recovered from a disease that should have led to her death.

      During his entire career, which lasted until 1945 at the time of his death, Cayce delivered more than fourteen thousand readings, of which more than nine thousand were related to the treatment of diseases or related to health itself.

      Of significant interest is that Cayce helped Dr. Ketchum treat a patient who had severe malnutrition from “too much hominy and grits.” Cayce's recommendation of a well-balanced diet with plenty of green vegetables worked beautifully. This was well before we knew about B vitamins! Numerous cases with individual details are well described in both There is a River and another of the bestselling books about Cayce, Edgar Cayce –The Sleeping Prophet by Jess Stearn. Among the scores of books about Cayce, another of the most interesting is The Outer Limits of Edgar Cayce's Power by Edgar Evans Cayce and Hugh Lynn Cayce, Harper and Row 1971. More than nine thousand medically related readings were done for more than five thousand people. Some individuals had more than one reading (more than 50,000 pages and about 200,000 different topics covered).

      In a small survey for their book, the authors report that, out of seventy-six readings for which they could find outcomes, 14.8 percent were negative and 65, or 85.5 percent, were positive. They stated, “Assuming that the ratio of positive to negative results remains the same in the cases not reported and applying the random survey to the 14,246 readings on file, Cayce's accuracy of 85 percent compares favorably to that of modern physicians.” Interestingly, there have been studies showing that the average physician, with a patient's history and physical exam, is about 80 percent accurate!

      Shortly after returning from my 1972 visit to the A.R.E., one of our Appaloosa horses had a severe cut around the entire foot just above the hoof. At the time, it was winter and the veterinarian felt that the horse should be put down because it would be impossible to heal. I suggested instead that we should use a castor oil pack. To make a long story short, the horse recovered totally and our veterinarian, thereafter, was likely to recommend castor oil packs in such situations! In the ensuing thirty-seven years, I have recommended castor oil packs numerous times, and in the 1980s, a study was done at George Washington University on the effectiveness of castor oil packs on the abdomen in healthy people. Application of a castor oil pack to the abdomen for one hour yielded statistically significant results with a very objective test of immune function. To me, if Cayce had recommended nothing else in his entire career, his contribution of castor oil packs is one of his greatest and most useful “discoveries.”

      The late Dr. William McGarey of the A.R.E. Clinic in Phoenix has written extensively on the clinical results of castor oil packs. These include the following:

      • Five drops of castor oil orally each morning to control allergies.

      • Puncture wounds, cuts, and bruises heal rapidly when rubbed with castor oil.

      • Prevention of pregnancy stretch marks when abdomens are rubbed with castor oil during the last two months of pregnancy.

      • Rapid healing of a sprained ankle rubbed overnight in castor oil.

      • Marked