Summer’s song is coming along! During this time of the year, we all feel a need for renewal, the desire to clean out many of the spaces around us and to tend to growing gardens. This desire for renewal and new growth can also be applied to our internal environment, to planting new, healthy patterns in our lives. What would the collective health of our society look like if we all set aside time to routinely take care of our inner physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual spaces?
According to Edgar Cayce, we should be spending time every month taking care of ourselves: “At least one week out of each month should be spent in beautifying, preserving, rectifying the body—if the body would keep young, in mind, in body, in purpose. This doesn’t mean that the entity should spend a whole week at nothing else. Choose three days out of some week in each month . . . and have the general hydrotherapy treatments, including massage, lights, and all the treatments that are in that nature of beautifying, and keeping the whole of the body-force young.” (3420-1) These treatments were primarily focused on increasing the body’s natural eliminations while promoting relaxation to help the body assimilate (absorb) nutrients. According to the readings, if we can maintain this balance, we have the strong potential to live for a very long time. “Would the assimilations and eliminations be kept nearer normal in the human family, the days of life might be extended to whatever period desired.” (311-4)
After years of practice and experience working with the Cayce readings, the legendary Dr. Harold Reilly put together a series of treatments we now refer to as “The Cayce Cleanse.” This cleanse is a four-hour treatment that begins with an hour-long, heated castor oil pack over the abdomen and a foot-reflexology massage. The next hour involves a colon hydrotherapy treatment, using the baking soda/salt solution in the first waters, and finishes with Glyco-Thymoline (Alkacare) in the last waters. Next is a 30-minute steam bath, with a selection of Cayce-based essential oils to make a fume bath, followed by a brief shower and finishing with a 90-minute massage and a clay facial. These treatments continues to be offered at the A.R.E. Health Center and Spa, where I’ve witnessed and myself experienced the healing effect of the combined therapies.
Cayce recommended Castor Oil Pack therapy for many conditions, including to help the body’s eliminations : “We would apply the Castor Oil Packs regularly; that is, about three days a week for an hour each day for three to four weeks. Thus we may eliminate the sources of this disturbance (acne), eliminating the bad taste, the tendency for bad breath, the tendency for tired achy feelings, things not tasting just right.” (5092-1) If you’re not able to get a professional colonic, home enemas can be used, since Cayce said that “everybody—should take an internal bath occasionally, as well as an external one. They would all be better off if they would.” (440-2) Instead of purchasing a steam cabinet, you can also use hot baths (with Epsom salts), hot showers, or saunas, adding essential oils as desired. Right after a bath, shower, or sauna, grab a bottle of good massage oil (Cayce typically recommended peanut or olive oil) and give yourself or a loved one a good massage! According to Cayce, “The why of massage should be considered: Inactivity causes many of those portions along the spine from which impulses are received to the various organs to be lax, or taut . . . The massage aids the ganglia to receive impulses from the nerve forces as it aids circulation.” (1456-4) Imagine a society in which citizens regularly received complimentary cleansing treatments, massages, and therapies to help us stay young and beautiful!
From a holistic perspective, we also want to routinely clean out negative mental thought patterns and attitudes about ourselves and others. For, “The body renews itself according to the mental attitude it holds toward ideals, and in the light of the application of relationships to others. And this applies as well in the relationships of self.” (2081-2) It is very important that we consistently plant new ideals and remain mindful of how we think about and treat others, as the energetic vibration created by our thoughts will directly influence every cell in our body. So be sure to set clear ideals with positive intention behind them as make good cleansing treatments on a regular basis a part of your life!