You have asked a busy man to help you with your illness. The purpose of this study is to prepare you to make the most of his assistance. Like the twenty-five thousand others who have asked for physical readings in the last forty years, you may have heard that he performs near miracles in diagnosing and suggesting treatments for ailments beyond hope. And yet -- like most of the others -- you may find when you have finished with your own reading that the true miracle has come in the growth of your own understanding.

    That very growth of understanding, that larger comprehension of the source of our strength, is the unfolding theme of this study.

    Then first, what are these readings? How are they given, to be so remarkably effective? Their history is the life-story of the channel through which they are given -- a tall energetic man now in his sixties, named Edgar Cayce. And if you have not read his fine biography by Thomas Sugrue, There Is A River, you might well lay down this paper to do so. You will need to digest the book before getting your reading. For when you know the story of the first reading -- given for Mr. Cayce himself, when you know about the Dietrich baby and Mrs. Cayce's recovery from tuberculosis, when you have read about the cases of the priest in Canada and the girl in Dayton, when you have lived through the growth of this work, your interest will have been tested. You will then be quite sure whether you wish to take all the steps expected of you as a "member of a research organization": sending us a history of your case when you receive your reading, carrying out its treatments in full, and mailing us reports on the progress of your condition.

    If you decide to continue, then you will be wishing you could come to Virginia Beach for your reading. We wish you could, too. In years past Mr. Cayce had leisure, and somehow most everyone found a way to talk with him about their reading. That is the best kind of preparation, personal and satisfying, because you can ask questions and sense the integrity of what and whom you are dealing with. Perhaps you would come to Virginia Beach on a Tuesday evening when Mr. Cayce is teaching his Bible class, and realize from the start the deeply spiritual -- rather than spiritualistic -- quality of his work.

    But things have changed. Probably, you, like most others, must have your reading while hundreds of miles away. Mr. Cayce's "super-conscious mind" will not lose any details by having to hunt you up in Los Angeles or Bar Harbor or Tampa or Lansing. But you yourself may lose the experience of having touched "infinity" while you heard your own reading, if -- like most of the hundreds who daily write, wire and 'phone for aid -- you cannot be at the Beach for your appointment.

    Here you would walk into his sunny study at ten-thirty in the morning or three-thirty in the afternoon and pick out one of the less squeaky chairs. There would be Mrs. Cayce, smiling as she puzzled over the pronunciation of names in the day's appointments, getting ready to "take" the readings. And Gladys Davis would settle herself with a precious steno notebook, laughing in her radiant way while helping you feel at ease. There is a moment of quiet which you guess is for prayer and then it will have started, for Mrs. Cayce is giving the physical reading suggestion to her husband who has stretched out and quietly gone to sleep.

    "Now you will have before you the individuals as I name them to you. In the order as I name them you will go over the body carefully, examine it thoroughly, and tell me the conditions you find at the present time, giving the cause of existing conditions, also suggestions for help and relief of the body, answering questions as may be asked."

    Mr. Cayce repeats the suggestion in a slow, thoughtful tone, and then after a pause speaks decisively of you, "Yes, we have the body, _____________________ present in this room." It is a moment few people forget.

    Now it becomes clear why -- if one cannot be at Virginia Beach -- it is so important to keep the appointment in exactly the place arranged beforehand, and to keep it in prayer and meditation. For Mr. Cayce actually goes to one's body in a physical reading. In an undertone he names the state, then the town, then the street address, occasionally commenting as he goes:

    #3471-P-1. "Illinois -- Chicago -- Cregier Avenue -- yes, that's where the trees are."

    Then it would be you he has in focus next. Experience has taught us that it makes the reading harder for him if you are doing something else at the time -- having just made the appointment to "give this fellow Cayce a fling and see what he's worth." Would you expect a physician to trail you around your home to make his diagnosis, or to find the answer to his questions while you potter with someone else? It is no surprise to hear at the beginning of a reading for a man in Wyoming:

    #3601-P-1. "Come back here and sit down."

    Or to an individual in Alaska:

    #3531-P-1. "Hurry up and get through talking."

    And to a man in his private apartment in New York City:

    #2524-S-2. "It is better to keep quiet than even try to read."

    Meanwhile, as Mr. Cayce lies there speaking in his quiet, firm voice, you are surely wondering where on earth, or out of earth, all this information comes from. It is clear that the clinical-sounding diagnosis proceeds from your self, because the things he describes feel like you, act like you, look like you -- those pains in the head, the catch in the lower abdomen, the occasional swelling of the knee joints -- you know them all too well. But how does this man get to your body and know what to look for; how can he pick out the root of the trouble more swiftly and surely than an x-ray? The readings explain that the source of this diagnosis is actually ourselves, and that it is accomplished not so much by Mr. Cayce great skill as by our own sincere seeking:

    #254-143. "When an individual seeks for personal or bodily aid, the source is part and parcel of that individual, and is read by and through the real desire of the seeker himself."

    #254-1640. "Who knows better than the individuals themselves that which has hindered them from being physically, mentally and spiritually in accord with the divine that IS life manifested in the body?"

    Anyway, what is clear is that this diagnosis, coming from a man lying calmly still with his eyes closed, goes through your whole body, and that while it stops long enough to describe how you feel and where you hurt, it goes right on to the main job: what causes your trouble. The reading always deals with the roots of an ailment; which is why, or example, many insanity cases may hardly touch on the brain but describe in detail an injury to the coccyx.

    Is such a diagnosis thorough? It may all go by in such swift, technical language that you can only be thankful Miss Davis gets it noted down. But we who have worked with these readings for years can tell you what we have learned. The diagnosis in a physical reading gives every bit of necessary information about the causes of one's trouble. And it is as individual as your own body. Here are same partial examples of diagnosis which show their wide variation:

    #3526-P-1. (Deafness) "The pathological conditions have been brought about, as we find, from a catarrhal disturbance through head, in the antrum and in the areas about the ear where such disturbing congestions have been produced as to cause prolopsus of the Eustachian tubes. These have gradually drained the oils or fluids, as it were, in the inner ear. And there has been brought about this inability of discerning sound."

    #3525-P-1. ( Blood Pressure) "Then, these are the conditions as we find them with this body: the blood supply is high in pressure. This is produced in greater part by pressures that exist in the transverse and descending colon, and by too much flesh for the body functionings -- as through the abdominal areas. These are the sources, then, of the disturbance -- obesity, the plethoric conditions in colon, and the effects they produce upon the general system."

    #3606-P-1. (Loss of Mental Control) "As we find, there are disturbances that are gradually becoming more and more aggravating to the physical and mental activates of the body. These are very definite as to their sources. In times back, just before puberty, the body had an accident on skates and the end of the spine -- the coccyx first segment -- was injured. From this, as there come the menstrual periods, disturbances arose and reflexes to the medulla oblongata have been uncontrolled. These, then, are not in the form of spasms, but the loss of control of the reflexes of the body, To be sure, these occur the more often closer to the menstrual periods; thus in a manner they are associated or connected with some."

    #3400-P-2. (Migraine Headaches) "Yes, Here we find some complication -- the beginning of migraine headaches. Most of these, as in this case, begin from congestion in the colon. These cause toxic conditions to make pressures on the sympathetic nerve centers and on the cerebrospinal system. And these pressures cause the violent headaches, and almost irrational activities at times. These, as we find, should respond to colonic irrigations. But first we would x-ray the colon, and we will find areas in the ascending colon and a portion of the transverse colon where there are fecal forces that are as cakes."

    #3539-P-1 (Neuritis) "In the activities through the body, through first cold, the congestion, a catarrhal condition has formed about the gall duct and liver. This has prevented proper flow of the secretions that aid in assimilating fats, especially, and proteins and such things. This has gradually put a strain on the body, with the poor eliminations, until we have at times extreme neuritic conditions through various portions of the body; at times in hands, in shoulders, but the more severe in the pains through the chest. These are still neuritic. For these are affecting the pleura of the lung itself, from
poisons or toxic conditions around the aorta artery."

    It is clear that the diagnosis often includes a description of one's aches and pains, about which there can be no fooling:

    #3535-P-1. (Anemia) "In the red blood supply there is indicated a deficiency in red blood cealls numbering nearly twenty million. There is the inability of proper activity in structural portions, then, and the lack of supply of lymph. That is: he doesn't rest as well as he used to! The circulation isn't as good -- gets cold in the extremities and the like. The energies in the lymph to supply leucocytes tend to make those weaknesses wherein if there is any long activity of walking, any undo exercise - especially as of raising the hands above the head or the like, the body has to rest because of shortness of breath and the feeling that all the middle portion of the body is being drained out."

    Such a diagnosis is priceless because there is no question about its accuracy; twenty thousand other cases certify it. Perhaps the nearest symbol of their reliability is the occasional letter Mr. Cayce receives from a hospital or clinic thanking him for his fine diagnosis of a patient just admitted and enclosing "the usual diagnostician's fee"! It is difficult to explain to those institutions that Mr. Cayce has often never met the individual diagnosed.

    But to be told what is wrong with your system is not enough. You want to know what to do about it. So the reading goes right on to suggest treatments. Describing the kinds of treatments the readings suggest amounts to discussing the many types of human healing. This information is no respecter of degrees and titles, nor of school's of healing, nor of labels on bottles, nor of names for diseases. Each person gets the suggestions he needs. In your case this may require the services of an M. D., but more likely those of an osteopath. Or you may need a neuropath, or a homeopath, or a physiotherapist; possibly a hypnotist, perhaps a minister. If you can handle the treatments yourself, you will not be sent to anyone.

    The physician, of whatever school, may be told what he would find in x-ray or blood tests, or which spinal adjustments to make, or what dosage to give, or how many colonic rinses will be necessary. Is the reading correct in these suggestions? Well, one doesn't give instructions to thousands for forty years -- instructions in minute detail -- without either getting into a great deal of trouble or a great many requests for help! The answer is that our daily mail bulges with requests for readings, and that numbers, of these requests are from the very physicians who have administered readings in the past.

    What will your reading tell you and your physician to do? The effective measures suggested are so varied that all one can say in summary is that they usually employ simple materials. As a rule, several types of treatment are to be used together in each case. However, in the following cases only one of the suggested treatments has been extracted for an example:

    #3482-P-1. (Tuberculosis) "Also prepare a gallon and a half oak keg, charred inside -- do have it charred. In this would be put two vents, one for the inhaling of the fumes from pure Apple Brandy. Hence this vent should not enter the brandy, as only the gas from the brandy should be inhaled from the keg into the lung. This would be done once a day, or twice, or whenever there is felt the need of some. This is healing for the lung."

    #3274-P- I. (Diabetes) "Do use the Jerusalem Artichoke at least once a week in the diet, but only cooked in its own juices -- or mix the juices in which it is cooked with the bulk of the artichoke. That is, cook it in Patapar paper."

    #3431-P-1. (Loss of Muscular Control) "Begin with the use of the low Wet Cell Appliance carrying into the body vibratorially the Chloride of Gold, in the proportions of one grain of Chloride of Gold Sodium to each ounce of Distilled Water -- and use at least three ounces.  The large nickel plate, through which the Gold Solution passes vibratorially to the body, should be attached to the umbilical and lacteal duct plexus -- which on this body will be four fingers from the navel center to the right and three fingers up from that point. The small copper plate would be attached to the 9th dorsal."

    #3426-P-1. (Coccyx Injury) "After at least four or five of the corrections hove been made -- not before, we would begin using for one hour each day the Radio-Active Appliance to equalize distribution of energies through the body. Use such periods for deep meditation

    #3601-P-1. (Skin Growth) "Use this mud as pocks along the spine, along the neck -- the whole spinal area and the frontal portion of the body at just about the heart area.''

    #3428-4-1. (Nervous Incoordination) "At least once a week we would have a general hydrotherapy treatment, including first a mild cabinet I sweat followed by a needle shower, and then a massage using this combination of oils:
    Olive Oil (heated)..... 2 ounces
    Tincture of Myrrh ...2 ounces
    Calamus Oil................ 10 drops
    Massage these oils into the spine itself, also in the areas especially of the ribs, around each rib, around the breast-bone or sternum, around the collar-bone, especially over the areas of the 9th dorsal, 11th dorsal and 12th, and throughout the sacral areas."

    #3482-P-1. (Respiratory Disorder) "If there is a change in climatic conditions, go where it is warmer but higher. Where there is pine and such environs would be well, such as near Asheville -- but rather than in a colony be in the country."

    #3539-P-1. (Neuritis) "Then begin with good osteopathic adjustments, giving special reference to the 5th and 6th dorsal and throughout the sacral area. The 3rd cervical also should be partially adjusted, not at each treatment -- but a relaxing treatment one time, and an adjustment the next time. Have five or six of these."

    Such extracts present a view of the range and types of treatments suggested. Where do the suggestions come from? The readings themselves have an explanation of these "suggestions for help and relief" in their insistence that Mr. Cayce serves as but a "channel" through which an individual sincerely seeking may obtain help. Which prompts us to ask -- if Mr. Cayce is but the channel, where does the information come from? The readings remind us that the Bible speaks of being "willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord" (II Corinthians 5:8). One has only to witness a reading to be convinced that Mr. Cayce is in a very real way "absent from the body." And the readings then confirm our surmise that the information necessary to help individuals does come from a Universal Consciousness, from the universal wisdom of the Creative Forces, or -- as we usually say -- God.

    #254-164. "First, then, in dealing with the whys and wherefores of the fact that the greater portion of that which has been given has proven beneficial to others in correcting and meeting the ills in their physical being -- let's turn for the moment to the individual entity, Edgar Cayce.

    "Consider the fact that there was first his study, meditation and prayer upon His Word, which brought that desire, that hope, that purpose to give self as a channel through which help might come to those who would in Him seek for the betterment of their physical forces and conditions. Then consider his vision, the spoken word: "ASK! WHAT SEEKEST THOU? WHAT DESIREST THOU TO DO?" Then: "THY PRAYER HAS BEEN HEARD." The desire was that there might be the ability to help others who were ill -- especially children.

    "As to a discourse upon the sources of the information for human ills, then, and how or why such may be helpful to others: First there are those influences that arise in the minds of those who hear of such. Then there is set in motion DESIRE, PURPOSE, AIM. Those that seek, then, attune themselves to that promise which was made to this entity, Edgar Cayce. The entity when in that state, that condition, when the physical self is laid aside, becomes a channel. Then only SPIRIT-MIND, as may attune itself with the purpose of the seeker, may give that which may be helpful ...
    "From whence comes the individual entity's ability to cope with the problems?
    "Are ye not all children of God? Are ye not co-creators with Him? Have ye not been with Him from the beginning! Is there any knowledge, wisdom or understanding withheld if ye have attuned thyself to that Creative Force which made the worlds and all the forces manifested in some? Thinkest thou that the arm of God is ever short with thee because thou hast erred? 'Though ye be afar off, though ye be in the uttermost parts, if ye call I will HEAR and answer speedily' Thinkest thou that He speakest of another, or to thee? Open thy mind, thy heart, thy purpose to thy God and His purpose with thee.
    "As to why this or that type of information may be indicated to individuals through this channel ... An individual who understands the pathology of a physical body is taken where he is, and is supplied that information which if applied in that condition existent will be helpful in his relationship to that which he worships."

    It seems a breath-taking assumption that the information given in your own reading can in part come directly from the all-comprehending consciousness of God. But how else might one explain such a tremendous depth of knowledge? The readings may on occasion tell an individual about the doctor who has just moved in down the street from his home and not even hung out his shingle. Or tell a woman in Baltimore that raw milk can be obtained within two blocks of her house. Or tell a lieutenant in Texas that there are three Elliott machines in Austin. Or tell a man that he can get the right mud for his skin either in Kentucky or in the northwest cow posture of his own ranch in Wyoming. To summarize this unusual explanation of the source of the information which suggests treatments in these physical readings we may say:

    #254-164. "Hence those who seek in sincerity, in hope, in purpose, to KNOW, receive -- only to the measure that they manifest their hope, their belief, their desire, in a God-purpose through a promise made to a man."

    Do the readings always provide a remedy for a disease, one asks in willingness to be further startled? They answer in terms of the Bible:

    II Peter 3:9. "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some man count slackness; but is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."

    I Corinthians 10:13. ".. God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."

    And the readings do suggest treatments for every condition for which one may seek help. However, one may have gone so for along in life without dealing with the disease that only relief may be achieved, and not complete recovery. As in this case:

    #3516-P-1. "We find here a life well spent, yet there is the desire and purpose to hold onto same -- even under the distresses of general disintegration. The body and soul are here being held together by the will, and by the prayers of others. There may be help if there is still held that desire for life and activity. There is no healing of that which is spent. There may be ease."

    But even that ease is very real. In this case it came from the use of ultraviolet light through a green glass:

    "This would be over those areas of the ribs, in the back, that there may be a greater flow and formation of the elements in the blood to create greater quantities of leukocytes in body blood plasm. For as the body wastes there is the greater necessity for more of the plasm that may cause coagulation in affected areas. Use the ultra-violet light with the green glass for at least a minute, once a day ..."

    But, you say, if we can attune ourselves to God through such readings for information about our diseases, why not just get cured at the same time and be done with it? The answer seems to be that we have to meet diseases, for reasons, for our own growth. If the healing were done for us, if we had to exert no effort of understanding, achieve no realization of the source of our strength, what would be our soul's gain? We would have well bodies but keep our troubled souls. For the readings, along with their marvelous accuracy and helpfulness, propound a hard teaching -- "All sickness is sin." They recognize, of course, many expressions of sin, which they see basically as selfishness. The source of one's trouble may be just the sin of resentment:

    #1523-P-9. "For there have arisen the acute conditions not only from physical reactions but mental conditions that have been as resentments, which have been builded into the mental forces of the body. There are the physical effects upon organ centers ... now finding reflexes in various portions of the body. These are indicated in the reactions from the toxic conditions of a cold, as well as the poison from gum conditions that have settled in joints, as in hips, shoulders, head and neck."

    Or the sin which causes a disease may be of the other end of the scale, reflecting mistakes of a past life to be met now, in what the readings call "karma." This individual, for example, is losing the power of voluntary movement:

    #3485-P-1. "For here we have an individual entity meeting its own self -- in the conditions in regard to the movements of the body, the locomotories, the nerve endings, the muscular forces. What ye demanded of others ye must pay yourself! Every soul should remember not to demand of others more than ye are willing to give, for ye will pay -- and, as most, through thy gills!"

    But the problem of karma in disease is another study in itself. We may simply summarize the readings' concept of the causation of disease in the following words:

    #3395-L- I . "Q. Is the ill health which I have been experiencing the past years the result of mistakes of a past life or is it due to something amiss in the present life?"

    "A. Both. For there is the law of the material, there is the law of the mental, there is the low of the spiritual. But whatever is brought into materiality is first conceived in spirit. Hence, as we have indicated, all illness is sin, not necessarily of the moment, as man counts time, but as part of the whole experience."

    #254-114. "For all disease is sin. Then what is necessary is to eliminate sin in the lives of individuals. It requires oft the use of mechanical means of various forms, it is true; because that entity, that soul, is in that consciousness, and not in the consciousness that the Lord thy God is One."

    At about this point in explaining to people the probable contents of the reading they are going to get, we usually hear an earnest reminder, "This is all interesting and informative, but, you know, all I want in my reading is just to be told how to get well." And that is exactly why we are asking you to read this study. YOUR reading may be one which tells you that to get well you must first set your house in order, getting your ideals straight, knowing why you live, knowing in Whom you believe. As this one did:

    #3359-P-1. Begin with the spiritual attitude. First know in self what ye believe about spiritual things. Know who is the author of thy faith. As was given by the lawgiver, don't look somewhere else. Don't call on heaven, until you have set your own heart and mind aright. For lo, thy redeemer liveth in thine own activity. As ye find in self the manner in which ye would treat others, ye will find in self help, physically and mentally. This will change thy whole outlook on the purpose of life...

    "Find that, and ye will begin then with the correct attitude... Don't commence taking these medicines we suggest first. If it takes six months or a year to get yourself spiritually correct, don't take a dose of the medicine until you are spiritually correct. It will do you more harm than it will good."

    It is to prepare you for such suggestions for treatment (or to warn you away!) that we ask you to study a bit before your reading. If you wish to get rid of an itch or cramps or headaches by simply paying a man in Virginia Beach to do it for you, now is the time to stop. If you are unwilling to face yourself and see what you really look like, turn back now. For your reading may well say:

    #3400-P-1: "Are you living the purposeful life that you would have others to see? This is not a questioning of you. The question is already in yourself. For each soul gives account for deeds done in the earth. To whom do they account? The divine within their own selves! And then do you wonder that you have aches and pains, troubles and worries? You are meeting your own self."

    Even if your reading does not say that, the very experience of having a reading is likely to make you take a long look at yourself from a new perspective. Be very sure before proceeding further that you are willing to do something about what you learn. Or you may be worse off than when you began:

    #2828-P5. "The information will not do it for you. Did the Lord prevent Abel from being slain? Did He prevent Cain from slaying? Did He not say, 'It is in thine own self to do'? So it is with individuals who may be warned or directed. It is within yourself to do or not to do."

    #3433-P-1 . "Q. If carefully followed, how long should it take for this treatment of my leg to have effect?"
    "A. A year or two years or seventy years -- what's the difference! Is it building to use the time for constructive activities or for the gratification of self? If it is for the gratification of self, you'd better let it alone. If it is to be for constructive influences in the lives of others, begin. But begin by praying about it and making the promises -- then do keep the promises to your Maker."

    By now, by the time you have mused this far on the contents of these readings, Mr. Cayce will have come to that part of every reading when he says, "Ready for questions." These are the questions about your condition which you have written on your appointment slip. As a rule, most of them -- if they refer to your chief trouble -- are answered in the main part of the reading, and Mrs. Cayce simply checks them off. Occasionally one has the experience of hearing these questions taken up and answered in the exact order in which they are written, before Mrs. Cayce has a chance to ask them! The prime value of these questions is in the detail which they secure on the original source or the special treatment of an ailment, even though all the necessary information is given in the body of the reading. But while this "larger consciousness" has your body in focus, it is also possible to to ask about other conditions, from baldness to your period of receptivity. It is a reassuring part of a physical reading to be able to ask questions you have formulated about your own physical condition. The measure of the answers you will receive is again shaped by the sincerity and purpose of your asking.

    As Mr. Cayce wakens from his unusual nap he will probably ask his wife sleepily, "Did you get it?" The reading is over. Your body has been in the focus of a consciousness a good deal bigger than it has often faced. You may feel a bit worn out, perhaps, but in some way cleansed and lifted by the experience.

    It is time -- if you were sincere in asking for the reading -- for you to take Miss Davis' transcript of it and begin doing everything the reading suggests, in just exactly the manner it describes. We cannot urge you strongly enough not to do just this part for a week, taking a couple of doses of that, skipping the other because it must be sent for, and postponing something else. As one reading humorously remarked:

    #3429-P-1. 4 "These disturbances may be eliminated, as we find . But if you do it haphazardly, you will get only haphazard results You must be consistent (and what woman is consistent!) you must be persistent (and most women are persistent!). Do be consistent and persistent in the use of those suggestions we will make, and we will correct these disturbances with this body."

    Nor should you start out and fizzle, unless you choose to suffer:

    #3433-P-1. ". fume baths . Glyco-Thymoline packs ... massages ... osteopathic corrections . Gold administered vibratorially . Unless all will be done, don't begin any of it!"

    In other words, do not ask for a reading unless you are mighty sure you will use it!

    The task of securing a physician's cooperation and collecting the materials recommended is not always an easy one. Happily, the experience of having the some treatments and materials turn up often in many years helps us to direct you to the people and articles you need. You will begin the treatments, looking for instant improvement, wondering, questioning, worrying .... The readings must often remind us all to have faith -- faith in promises like these:

    John 16:23. "Verily, verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, He will give it you."

    Matthew 21:22. "And all things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive."

    Then if questions arise after a few weeks or months that you cannot honestly answer, ask for a check reading, to see if you are properly administering the treatments. But don't ask for one if you haven't done what has been suggested:

    #3381-P-2. "As we find, there has been little or nothing done about what has been given the body. The reading itself won't help. It is the application consistently, persistently, conscientiously, prayerfully, that will help the body."

    We have seen how a physical reading is secured, here at Virginia Beach. We have considered what a physical reading is likely to contain. And now, finally, suppose we ask this question -- why is a physical reading given?

    To get you well? In part. But well for what? You may apply, inhale, eat, relax, sweat and be adjusted all you wish, but unless you want to get well for a good purpose, you may as well stay sick. As the readings put it:

    #1807-P-6. "Do use the period of treatments as the period of prayer and meditation. Do keep the attitude of body-mind in those of more creative influences. Not only be good, be good for something! Do think of others - not altogether of self, but as to how the body may contribute most to that which is not only pleasure, but of creative forces and influences in the lives of others - also! This will change the general attitude, and if the applications are made, we will find better accord and better coordination for the body."

    Indeed, out of the long experience of securing and applying readings, we would say that you cannot get well physically, unless you make some progress spiritually:

    #3439-P-1. "A gentle massage to quiet the body would be well, with prayer -- and not by those who do not live what they pray.

    Do not merely pray that John will be well, but well for what? Do not pray for the body to be well for what it can do for itself, but to be well for those whom he has aided and also hindered."

    #3480-P-1. "For if ye would be forgiven, if ye would be healed, ye must forgive others, ye must heal others, in mind as well as in body."

    These documents never weary of stressing the spiritual element in recovery from illness. Indeed about seventy-five per cent of the thousands of physical readings contain religious and spiritual truths to be applied right along with high-colonics, glyco-packs, massages and apple diets. One individual, to take an unusual example, had colitis and cancer of the rectum, so severe that the reading said, "... operative measures will immediately make of the entity an invalid.. Rather, one chance in a million of its ever being on its feet again, with untold suffering." And yet this is what the information recommended:

    #3388-P-1. "All of these have been a strain and a drain on the system; yet the diet, with the mental and spiritual attitudes, has helped. Do not disregard these attitudes -- keep them -- they will be worth more to the mind and soul than all the medicine, that may be applied ... the greater help may come through the holding of the correct attitude. Not that there should be a denial of the condition existing, but the continual affirming and the relying on, and the realization of the ability of the Christ consciousness to make whole.
    "If this is seen and applied in the life by dealing with others, there may come help. Not by bragging, not by boasting, not by denying, but rather by edifying all with whom the body comes in contact, and then living day by day in those things and in those ways that the spirit, or seed of the spirit of truth is manifested.
    "Be patient, be gentle, be kind. Do not find fault with others. Be longsuffering with those who despitefully use you, and you will find that these attitudes will continue to bring greater help to the body. Do these things if the body wants to live the longer. Do those if he wants to have less pain to live the longer. If he wants to be very scientific materially, forget it!"

    And it further appears -- as many a parent knows - that no matter how ill you are, the desire to be able to forget your tired, aching body in the service of others can do more to heal you than all the attachments, doses, tappings and thumpings, rubs and sympathy others can supply. Begin to look out for someone else, and your body begins to look out for itself:

    #3421-P-1. ". causing the inability for rest or even a concerted activity -- unless the body finds itself needed for someone else. Then the body finds, as this occurs, the disturbance is retarded, or it fades -- in the attempts of the body to exercise itself in help for others."

    Thus, you see, the purpose, the why of a physical reading is a good deal more than simply to get you well. You might say -- as one girl did -- "it woke me up to a lot of things." And you may indeed find "a lot of things" when you can answer in your own heart the one question the readings most frequently ask -- taken from 103rd Psalm "Who healeth all thy diseases?"

    #3511-P-1. " For who healeth all thy diseases? It will require then that there be such an attitude in mind, in purpose, in hope, and in relationship to others, that each cell of the body may become attuned to the divine within. Each call must become expectant, that there may be the renewing, the revivifying of the relationships that the soul-entity bears to the Creative Forces!"

    #3384-P-2. "For all healing, mental or material, is attuning each atom forces to the awareness of the divine of the body, each reflex of the brain that lies within each atom, each cell of the body

    Is it any wonder, then, that the readings tell people to get acquainted with some of the ideas of Christian Science and Unity?

    #3430-P-1. "We find the better association would be with a nurse or a constant companion, almost all the while -- or in regular periods, at least; one such as a student of Unity, or Christian Science. You see, these groups have something on the church that the church has left out ordinarily. They trust in the divinity of the Christ, wholly set as a central theme of the mind. And this is needed in this particular entity individually, so that the personality may take on -- not the extremes of either -- but the universality of the Christ-consciousness in the individuality and personality of this entity.

    "Pathologically there are lesions in the lacteal duct area and in the 1st, 2nd, and a portion of the 3rd cervicals. These need physical applications. To be sure, such applications would be contrary to the teachings of either of these groups, yet if there would be help there must be the consideration of all phases. Remember, the Christ in person used water, clay, spittle and other ingredients for application in physical conditions. These groups would do well to learn this, or at least those who act as healers."

    And it is any wonder that the readings so often send us to the Bible for strength in meeting our distresses?

    #3512-P-1 . "Do not begin the physical applications until the spiritual body has been renewed. Begin with this: Read the 30th chapter of Deuteronomy, knowing that it is meant for self. Read Exodus 19:5. Then study, know by heart, but most of all by application personally, the 14th, 15th, 16th, and 17th of John. Apply it; not just as theory, but in the hopes, in the words, in the acts, in the wishes, in the desires of the body."

    For the readings remind us that our bodies are the temples of the living God, to be cared for with healthy respect and understood in that larger perspective:

    #3492-P-1. "For thy body is the Temple of the Living God. Use it as such ... Sacrifice therein thine own appetites and offer to Him those praises, those honors due for that which He has given to thee ... We would make these material applications we have given thee. But don't do it until you have prayed very oft, or it will do more harm than good!"

    #3545-L-1. "As these lessons are learned, there may come healing even where physically there is apparently no help. For the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Yet spirit and mind may build the flesh to beauty, to health, even when wracked with pain.
    "For when man has learned that the physician must be the physician to the soul as well as to the body, he will have begun to find the meaning that the Great Physician gave to His ministry in the earth. As He indicated, which is easier to say -- 'Son, thy sins be forgiven thee,' or 'Rise, take up thy bed and walk'?
    "LEARN the meaning of such!"

    Perhaps you have some time to wait before you got your reading. Part of that time might well be spent in considering these ideas about the source of strength, the source of the health you seek. If it seems long before your turn -- well, have you prayed? Prayed just to recover, or to be able to serve? Has your praying been so full of asking that you have not had time to listen for the voice, that small voice, which guides, which reminds, which comforts, which points the way?

    You came seeking one who could do miracles. Yet the readings tell us that the miracle is really in the seeking, in your own heart and its new purposes. You have asked a busy man to help you with your illness. He will serve you. And you will be helped, if -- IF you are seeking the aid of God.

    #254-164. " The results through the years speak for themselves. As to whether there has been a remitting of human ills. This has come to those who have in their seeking, put God first."