When I first discovered the Edgar Cayce organization at Virginia Beach in 1978, my one overwhelming interest was health related information. This highly focused approach to the spiritual community stemmed from a life-long problem with my digestive and elimination systems. Visits to numerous doctors over the preceding 30 years had produced some benefits but nothing that resembled a complete cure. The only medications of real long-term benefit were the enzymatic digestant tablets that I had been using for several years. These tablets allowed me to cope with the problem but did not cure it. In addition, I seemed to have become dependent on them, which was of some growing concern.
I plunged into the Cayce material and read everything I could find in both his readings and in the marvelous library and book store at that location. For six months I made numerous trips to Virginia Beach from my home in nearby Richmond. I filled several notebooks with ideas from the Cayce readings, bought numerous books and read everything possible on digestive problems. While some of these were of help, a complete cure still eluded me. Little did I realize that I was looking to outside sources for help, when the true answer lay within self and would be revealed in my dreams many years later.
My first dream on diet and nutrition came in mid-1979. Like many similar dreams to follow it was relatively short, had clearcut symbols and was readily understood.
I go through a cafeteria line and get scrambled eggs and ham which I put on the table. I turn my back for a moment and a waiter takes my plate and throws it in the garbage.
It was obvious that this food combination was not suitable for me and ham was eliminated from my diet.
Beef was the subject of several dreams over the years. The most compelling dream on this subject came in mid-1983.
I am in a foreign country and start to cross a wide boulevard. The meanest man I have ever known in real life comes up to me and offers me a big juicy steak.
If the meanest man in the world wanted me to eat steak during the transition I was making, it couldn't possibly be good for me. Other dreams on beef advised me to avoid soups at lunch as they contained minor amounts of beef. Eliminating the soups stopped the distress and bloated feelings after lunch.
One of the things that did not get checked in my many visits to physicians was food allergies. My dreams provided early warnings of this although I did not understand the allergy part at first. The first dream hint of food allergies came in a dream in late 1983. In that dream I was shown doing childish things like eating ice cream and popcorn. I had known for some time that corn was difficult to digest, but did not get the connection with ice cream. Several years later 1 was tested for food allergies for the first time and found I was truly allergic to corn. I also discovered that most ice creams on the market had been reformulated to contain corn syrup instead of sugar. My dreams were trying to warn me of this in advance by linking these two foods.
Subsequent and more extensive tests in 1985 showed that I was allergic to corn, beef and a number of other foods. The people who did the allergy work were convinced that I had a yeast infection. The diet which they recommended was highly restrictive and contained a large number of special preparations that could only be obtained at special food stores. They gave me directions to the food stores and told me I would get a discount if I mentioned their name and used their forms to order the food additives.
That night my dream channel came on loud and clear with three dreams telling me to avoid all of this. The first dream showed everything they wanted me to take being passed through undigested. The second dream had me in the wrong church, singing the wrong song, from the wrong book. The third dream that night had me involved in some business transaction that was too "commercial" in nature. I rapidly decided to pay attention to the foods I was allergic to and completely ignore the complex diet for yeast infections.
Numerous dreams helped me to focus on specific foods that were healthy for me. Seafood and chicken were frequently mentioned. In one dream from mid-1985 I was shown a cat arching its back and jumping over a fence two times higher than normal to get crab meat. This one seemed to be telling me that sea food was good for my back and I should double my efforts to eat it. This theme was repeated two months later in the following dream:
I am working in a seafood store in a port city selling seafood hand over fist, and shrimp are most popular. Suddenly demand for shrimp doubles and we have to rebuild the ship's cargo bay to hold more shrimp.
Again, I was told in a rather clear way to eat more seafood. The fact that this dream took place in a port city suggested fresh seafood.
Salads and vegetables were also recommended in several dreams. In a typical dream from early 1985 I go into a cafeteria and sit down with a lady friend. She immediately offers me soup, salad, and vegetables to eat. Here my intuitive self is offering me good foods. This was followed by a very short dream only two weeks later when I came to the table to eat and was given two salads. In a later dream I go into a cafeteria with two serving lines and go through the one with salads first before going to the line with the main courses.
Milk was featured in my dreams before allergy tests told me to avoid it. In the first one of these, I am eating yogurt for breakfast. I drop the yogurt on my trousers and make a big mess. In a second dream, I get on a train and find that I have to drink milk. I am told that I am allergic to the milk and there is nothing to do about it until I depart. I am directed to "get off the milk train".
Alcohol appeared in several dreams. In the first one of these I am being poisoned by something in my stomach. I go over to the sink and cough up some red fluid that is not blood. I knew immediately that it was time to stop drinking red wine. In mid 1986 I did a dream incubation and asked for dream guidance on health. I was rewarded with the following dream:
I take an older man to a barber shop and pour him a drink. The first glass of white wine is very good. Then I pour him a second drink. I pour and pour and pour, but no matter how I mix it the second drink never tastes anywhere near as good as the first one.
This I understood to mean that one glass of white wine was okay, but not to ever touch a second one.
Dream guidance accelerated in 1986 when lucid dreaming became more pronounced in my life. One dream sequence from February, 1986 contained 16 dreams. During the latter parts, I was able to enter the dream and ask for information on specific subjects. The tenth dream in that sequence dealt with my questions on foods. As each food was mentioned, I went into my kitchen and was given an appropriate picture. Good foods were shown in abundance. Oranges and bananas were piled high on the counter. Onions covered the entire floor. Other inuits and vegetables filled my refrigerator to overflowing. I appeared with huge clumps of grapes in each hand and carrots were shown going through the juicer. Radishes were shown in a huge pile. Red meat was attached to a rocket and flew out the window along with peanuts and cottage cheese. Two small apples rolled off the kitchen counter and down the garbage disposal. The symbols were all easily understood.
"Dreams are the menu from which we choose our life course." From a dream by Will Phillips
In another long lucid dream from mid-1987, a wise old Chinaman comes into my dreams to provide assistance. When I ask him about foods, he takes me into the kitchen. First he picks up my food plate and scrapes off one third of it and replaces it with rice. This I understand to mean quit eating potatoes and start eating rice. Then, as we walk through the kitchen, all of my Chinese cookbooks, wok, steamer, cans of oriental soup and vegetables come off the shelves and line themselves up ready to use. This was an obvious message to eat oriental foods.
Throughout all of this time period, starting from 1979, I readily accepted these dream messages and put them into effect, for I remained highly anxious to improve my digestive and elimination problems. While all of them produced some benefit, and some were highly effective, none of them produced the cure I longed for. That cure was finally given in a single dream in early October, 1987. That dream, again, like earlier health dreams, was quite specific and direct.
I go to an outdoor food festival and there is a world famous expert there. The crowd around him is so huge that I cannot get close enough to hear anything. Then there is an event with a lightly flamed food basket. It is called "Flaming the Onion" because when it is turned over the foods come out and there is an onion on top. People approach it cautiously, but I go right up to eat. It's not quite dinner time and I do not have my enzymatic tablets, but finally decide to eat anyway. I take several pieces of onion and some thin crusty pita bread with blueberries on top. I am the only one that is eating with great gusto.
The first part of this dream was obviously telling me to avoid the advice of experts. The second part was both delightful and shocking. I was delighted to be told what three foods to eat. However, it was quite a shock to be told that I could stop taking the enzymatic tablets that I had been dependent on for the past 12 years.
My previous dream guidance had been so reliable that I decided to put this one to an immediate test. I stocked up on blueberries, onions and pita bread and rapidly found ways to incorporate them into my meal plans. The results were fairly rapid in materializing. After two weeks I discarded two of my digestive aids and began to cut back on the enzymatics themselves. After three weeks I eliminated all of the digestants and have been totally free of them ever since. And thus did 40 years of digestive distress vanish with the information from one dream.
Some you may wonder if this dream prescription will work for others with digestive and elimination problems. This is of course an unanswered question. I can only suggest that you either meditate on it or incubate a dream to see if it might be appropriate.
Others might also inquire if 10 years of dream work is not a long time to pursue such a health problem. To answer this question I turn back to a quote from the Cayce readings. In one instance an impatient client asked the sleeping prophet how long a particular health recommendation would have to be applied to get a cure. From his trance state, the voice of ancient wisdom replied with this message: "A day, a week, a month, a year. What does it matter as long as the lesson is learned?" What lessons have I learned along this path? Perhaps the most important is that this is a loving universe and there is a universal mind that contains the answers to all questions. My own way to access this information just happens to be through dreams.