I have always trusted my body to pretty much heal itself , to warn me when I’m out of balance and could become ill, to get me where I’m going, and to gather the energy I need for specific tasks. I think that my trust of my body came from an incarnation in Egypt where Mr. Cayce said I taught the care of the body in the Temple Beautiful and probably witnessed the priest Ra-Ta rejuvenate his body after years of exile.

The body is intricately designed and extremely inventive whenever it responds to illness or trauma. I remember some research my husband, Harmon, reported on some 30 years ago. Someone had a serious injury to the eye and doctors explained how nearby tissue had moved in to help do the work of the injured and missing tissue and healed it.

At the 2014 A.R.E. Member Congress (an annual conference held at A.R.E.’s Virginia Beach headquarters), Sidney Kirkpatrick brought to the stage a man who had tuberculosis (TB) in his youth and spent years in sanitariums. Back in the 1920s and ‘30s, people with TB were treated as lepers, because the disease is very contagious and there was no cure. They went to the sanitariums to die. This patient, George, had heard of Edgar Cayce, gotten a reading, and started to use the same charred oak keg that was prescribed for Gertrude Cayce (when she had TB). He didn’t tell anyone about this, not even his family.

Later, an x-ray had shown George’s lungs were healed of TB and that his right lung had grown larger to handle the work of the left lung, which had become useless. Somehow, Sidney found George and arranged for him to come to the A.R.E. Congress to tell his story of healing.

Many Christians have for centuries been afraid of the body and its instincts and some even view the body as evil. Some religions teach that bodies, especially female bodies, have to be fully covered.

Edgar Cayce’s view of the body shocked people living in the ‘20s, ‘30s, and ‘40s. He said over and over again that the body is God’s gift to us, and we should treat it with the utmost respect—as the “temple of God,” which Jesus had said over 2,000 years ago.

This we should take seriously, because if we view the body as God’s temple, we will treat it differently. We will watch what we put into our bodies, we will watch what comes out of our mouths, and we will lead as balanced a life as possible—making a place for work, for laughter, and play; for music and the arts; for nature; and for reaching out to others in selfless service.

Nearly every temple, church, or mosque has a place for music and artworks. Edgar was an artist, an award-winning photographer. Although not trained in music, he had much to say about the positive influence music can have on people. As he was preparing to cross over, he heard heavenly music: the music of the spheres. The rapture on his face must have been beautiful to see. It was a final blessing on his life of dedicated service to God.

The holy emblem displayed at the center of a church, temple or mosque, signifies the focus, the ideal, the deep prayer and longing of the soul for connection with the Holy One. The body helps us make this connection with its endocrine gland centers. Every church, temple, or mosque has pads for us to kneel on. As I get down on my knees, I offer my mind, body, and spirit to God. Edgar’s term for God was often “the Creative Forces.” I love this name for God, because it suggests God’s creativity is in me too. I actually join my creativity with God’s creativity, and together we produce something wonderful.

So we are body, mind, and spirit. One is not less than the other. All three aspects of us must work together to bring us closer to God.

When my granddaughter Katie was four, she took her first plane ride. I asked her how she enjoyed her flight. She said, “Oh, Gramma, the plane went up and up and up and pretty soon I was right next to God!” That’s what the physical, glandular parts of our bodies can do for us if we learn to train the body to be still and cooperative, the mind to be quiet and focused, and the spirit to be free and guided by the Holy One.

Spirit that uses matter, (the body as temple), that uses every influence in the earth’s environ for the glory of the Creative Forces, partakes of and is a part of the universal consciousness.

--Edgar Cayce reading 3508-1

A.R.E. members can see the video of Sidney’s A.R.E. Congress presentation at Edgarcayce.org/members. He is a featured presenter at the June 2015 Congress in Virginia Beach. His new book, written with Nancy Kirkpatrick, True Tales from the Edgar Cayce Archives will be released in May, 2015.

Excerpt from June Bro's The Art of Living from the Oct-Dec 2014 issue of Venture Inward magazine available to A.R.E. members at Edgarcayce.org/members.