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healing
April 2009 
Allergies, all in the body/mind
CayceUser
Edgar Cayce On Health...
ALLERGIES: ALL IN THE BODY-MIND
BY CAROL BARAFF
From hay fever and asthma to eczema and hives, allergic reactions are never pleasant, although they can be many other things, including mild, severe, escalating, exasperating, embarrassing, scary, painful or even fatal in their extreme. All stem from a hyper-sensitivity to some type of irritant. Contributing factors are so diverse that those who suspect others of overreacting could easily be right, or totally wrong.
Respiratory allergies can be chronic as in some cases of asthma, seasonal like hay fever, or intermittent depending on the amount of dust, smoke, pet dander or other factors in the environment. The irritants that lead to skin reactions can be external (contact dermatitis) or internal (food allergies), or sometimes both. All of these can be coped with, but wouldn't it be life changing if they didn't have to be? The Edgar Cayce readings offer that hope.
Then as now, the precipitating causes of allergies in these readings were all over the map. Offending items included beer, fur, household pets, feathers, odors, dust, flowers, pollen, plants, lint, specific foods, food combinations, tobacco smoke, dye, paint fumes, weather, wool, sprays, chemicals, noises, sunlight, metals, colors, negative vibrations and even certain suggestions! Today we would add medications, bites, stings, food additives, and environmental toxins.
The first step in treatment remains to remove the irritants from the body's vicinity, or the body from the vicinity if necessary, while symptoms ease. Some of the changes thus entailed might be unwelcome, or even rather drastic. Those who are aggravating their symptoms with the wrong foods or harmful combinations need to cut it out. At least one person with alarming intestinal reactions to beer and certain foods was advised to find another beverage:
As has been indicated, the body-through the alimentary canal-is allergic to malt, and those foods, and especially of drink, as beer, tend to cause a greater flow of the lymph through those areas when such are taken (257-204).
Children are not exempt from dietary and other restrictions. A youngster with a sweet tooth who was itching for a feline or canine friend could easily be told to Leave off your dogs and cats, and don't eat chocolate (3053-1).
Environmental exposure is often work-related, and at least one man whose skin was reacting to aluminum dust was told to change jobs. Advice for those with hay fever varied with its severity, ranging from a complete change of environment to simply being careful around the garden for a while:
And in the activities, avoid working with some of the flowers. Avoid any of those that throw off pollen at this particular time
(1541-12).
Although avoidance and medication will reliably bring symptomatic relief, they have their limitations. In Cayce's view, allergies are signs of imbalance, and the symptoms are apt to worsen over time. Proper treatment begins with an understanding of how these sensitivities originate, for, as one reading put it: The pressures come from the external effect, to be sure, but the causes are internal (3330-1).
A major factor in the development of allergies is an excess of toxins in the intestinal system. This is probably to be expected in cases of food sensitivities.
(Q) What can be done to conquer the many allergies to certain fruits and vegetables that I am afflicted with? Is the cause psychological?
(A) Cleanse the system! These arise from toxic conditions through the alimentary canal (3356-2).
One contributing factor or even central cause of this toxicity is an overly acidic intestinal system. Acid-forming foods and combinations will put extra strain on an already taxed digestion. The result is a reaction to the offending foods:
(Q) Are there any specific things to which he is allergic?
(A) As long as there is kept too much acid in the system, or those foods or combinations that produce acid, he will be allergic-of course-to those things that are in the nature tending to make this acidity (32-1-1).
An eventual result of intestinal imbalance is the slowing of blood and lymph circulation. This impairs the body's ability to deal with poor food choices and other irritants:
Not precautious enough about the diet, and we have again a great deal of the humor that comes with the fuzziness that occurs in the lymph circulation at this season of the year, unless those precautions are taken and there is not the activity in those things with which the body works at times, to which the body becomes allergic... These allergies come from an irritation to the superficial circulation and lack of coordination of these with the alimentary canal (1541-12).
In the present the blood supply, while very good, is-through the lymph circulation-acting as an irritant to the soft tissue of nasal passages. Hence the throat and eyes suffer because of too great a flow of lymph, and the excitement apparent in the olfactory nerves of the face and head tissue.
These, as generally termed, are subject to inflammation by conditions to which the body becomes allergic at certain seasons or cycles of body change; these produce a great irritation (3180-1).
Nervous system imbalance can also be a primary or contributing factor in the development of allergies:
The pathological effect is being created by the reflex or sympathetic conditions in the functioning, or lack of functioning and coordination, of the cerebrospinal, sympathetic and vegetative with sensory organisms
(5196-1).
A self-consciousness of the lymph patches or spots where there is connection or association with centers along the cerebrospinal system (3224-1)
Regardless of the cause and effect sequence, allergy symptoms can be viewed as excessive reactions to irritants by a body in a weakened state:
(Q) Am I allergic to dust, and does it cause my colds?
(A) Who isn't? All of these are just part of the general debilitation-the inability of the circulation, because of these disturbances, to call into play, as it were, sufficient of the leucocytes to destroy dust. Or any sufficiently strong odors are just as harmful to the body as dust (3644-1).
But this is the association more than it is the organic condition. However, it can be just as severe as if the body sticks its nose in the dust barrel or dust can! For, these are disturbances in the sensory system and in the glands of the body
(3556-1).
While the majority of allergies in the readings were regarded as physical in nature, a good number were partially, or even mostly, psychological. Consider Cayce's responses to the parents of two asthmatic children:
(Q) Is there any particular thing to which he is allergic?
(A) Mostly to himself and his family (2755-2)!
And thus the body apparently becomes allergic to many of the conditions about the body, but it is just as allergic to a suggestion as it is to types of food (5292-1).
Without downplaying the seriousness of the symptoms or the importance of physical treatments, the readings went to great lengths to ensure that psychological aspects were also considered:
(Q) Am I allergic to certain foods?
(A) If you can imagine it, you can be allergic to most any thing, if you want to (3268-2)!
(Q) Is there such a thing as allergy?
(A) This is rather a fad. To be sure individuals may become allergic to certain conditions because of excess of certain elements in the body. But these are rather exaggerated oft (3172-2).
(Q) Is any of this trouble due to allergy?
(A) Some of it is due to allergy, but what is allergy? These are the effects of the imagination upon any influences that may react upon the olfactory or the sympathetic nerves (3400-2).
(Q) Am I allergic to any substances?
(A) Did you ever consider what is meant by being allergic? Most of it is in your imagination! Do you imagine things? Then you are allergic to it (3586-1).
There are pathological conditions, but there is more psychological. Psychological doesn't mean that the body is crazy, by any means, but has set ideas (5211-1).
Of the variety of recommendations for individuals with allergies, many of those found in the readings were indirect. Their purpose was to strengthen, cleanse and coordinate body systems so any irritants which arose would simply be-less irritating. Known allergens would of course be avoided during this critical time with the understanding that this might not be necessary down the road.
The first order of business was often to speed the removal of toxins and congestion from the intestinal system. The importance of internal cleansing measures cannot be overestimated:
If we will cleanse the system, as we find, we should bring better conditions (3400-2).
There needs to be better co-ordination in eliminations (1541-12).
There are some pollens and odors (more odors with this body) that are offensive, and thus the body is allergic to them. But these also will disappear if there is better circulation created and if the poisons are eliminated from the system (3586-1).
The types of internal cleansing measures mentioned included enemas, colonics, mineral preparations like Eno salts, herbal preparations such as ragweed and tonic formulas, and abdominal castor oil packs. In close concert with these was an effort to sweeten the digestion and in some cases soothe irritated intestinal walls. Supporting an alkaline, easily digested diet were prescriptions such as saffron tea, mullein tea, elm water and pepsin.
As would be expected, corrective dietary measures can be a treatment in themselves. Typical injunctions were to include more green vegetables, fresh juices, yellow foods and meat juices, and to stick to the lighter proteins. Most warnings concerned meat fats, fried foods, sweets, starches, beer and raw apples. Specific combinations, such as seafood with sweets or acidic foods, were sometimes vetoed as well.
Another frequent recommendation was osteopathic manipulation to improve the flow of nerve impulses and in some cases correct extremely long-standing imbalances. Spinal realignment boosts the circulation and also helps the channels of elimination to work more smoothly:
These will relieve-if the adjustments are given to set up better drainages (1541-12).
To reduce respiratory system congestion and promote expectoration, an alcohol based inhalant was often suggested. The usual topical applications for skin rashes and hives were Glyco-Thymoline and the Ray's products. Massage, hydrotherapy and electro-therapy were part of many treatments.
A number of comments addressed allergy injections, which promote desensitization by introducing tiny amounts of the offending substance into the system. These were found to be sometimes helpful, sometimes harmful and usually avoidable:
To be sure, there may be given those elements hypodermically that will react upon the body, but common reasoning should indicate that such is not as effective as would be nature's reproduction of itself in the body forces...Of course, if it is the desire to try to take shortcuts and you are too lazy to work, then do it (3234-2)!
(Q) Are the injections necessary this year to relieve hay fever?
(A) This could be said, yes, and it could be said, no.. It is not necessary if following through or if the period is spent in some other environ.
(Q) When will the hay fever condition pass so no further injection will be necessary?
(A) This again depends upon how these are carried through and where they are carried through. For if there is built the body-consciousness that nothing else will do-nothing will do (3436-3)!
We find that there are better ways than the administration of hypodermics. These are good at times. But why put more poison as to set up other conditions that later will be hard to combat, when there has been caused-as it would in this body if kept up-disturbance in the abdominal as well as lung area
(3556-1).
Finally, the helpfulness of positive suggestion and a constructive attitude cannot be overemphasized:
And know they will not affect you unless you let them (386-3)!
Keep the right attitude, and do keep sweet (1541-12).
With the continuing of those things that attune the body to nature, and the suggestions that attune the body to truth, to consciousness, we will break down the allergies (3125-2)
Do these and we will correct these conditions. But let the change begin primarily in the mental attitude.... If the body continues to worry over conditions that have arisen or that may arise, this will prevent any of the applications from helping (3556-1).
The overriding message here is one of hope and promise. Freedom from allergies is within our grasp. Is it time to adopt a cat yet?
Reviewed by QCU 02 FEB 09 DRW
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The Heritage Center is known throughout the Hampton Roads area for its unique offerings of bodywork modalities based on the holistic practices prescribed by Edgar Cayce in his readings. 
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