The Edgar Cayce Handbook for Health Through Drugless Therapy

Zolotow was a little surprised. “How do you know she uses dumbbells or does anything at all for the bosom?” he countered.

“Well, you just take my word for it and assume she does and ask her,” I insisted. “I’ll bet you anything you want that she does, and if I win you will have to stick with me until I put fifty pounds on you.”

Here I would like to remind you of Edgar Cayce’s important admonition about taking time out to tend the body:

Posture

Recently a mass circulation weekly newspaper carried a feature asking a prominent male television star what would be the first thing he would notice about a young woman who would be waiting for him at the airport to escort him to the local CBS television station.

“I think there’s nothing lovelier than to see a woman walking tall as though she had the whole world in the palm of her hand,” the star replied.

I agree that true beauty announces itself with good posture. Posture proclaims to the world your own psychological image of yourself, and the world is all too ready to take you at your own slumping word and assist you in every way to realize the image of failure. Conversely, if you stand tall and carry yourself like a queen, the world will treat you like one.

Habits of good posture are best started in childhood. Correction of poor posture is especially important when the child has been subject to illness, malnutrition, or emotional setbacks. When any such weaknesses are corrected, or at least minimized, encourage the growing child to walk high, stand high, and sit high. (It might start him or her thinking high.) It will be a positive factor in a growing body, mind, and spirit.

In Chapter 7, I discussed the subject of posture at some length and in the same chapter you will find the exercises that will help you achieve a regal posture. (See exercise numbers on page 275 of this chapter.)

Next we come to the figure contours. It would be foolish and impossible to lay down a rule of so many inches for your bust, waist, hips, legs, and arms, for we are somewhat restricted by the type of body we were born with. We have tried to give you some measurement guides for various figure types in Chapter 12 on weight control. However, busts can be enlarged, waists and hips and legs whittled, and height increased for a more harmonious whole. Kathleen Henderson of the Barbizon School of Modeling says that the ideal standard of proportions is that bust and hips should be the same; for a model’s proportions, the waist needs to be ten to twelve inches smaller. For the average woman, eight inches smaller for the waist is quite adequate.

If you are overweight, you will have to begin an overall reducing program, cutting back on food and increasing exercise before working on your reshaping and recontouring.

Redesigning Figures

It is possible to increase or decrease any part of the figure, except the head. (I disregard figurative references to swelled heads and the like.) With most people, the body is extremely adaptable to physiological and psychological change. It is this adaptability mechanism that has enabled the human race to inhabit almost all parts of the world from the arctic wastes to the equatorial jungle.

Naturally, radical changes in figures take more time than minor changes, and in some individuals the changes take place more rapidly than in others. Also, the time factor of change is affected by the emotional, physiological, and psychological makeup of the different individuals. But change can be made with knowledge and perseverance.

If you try hard enough, you can even develop a bad figure from exercise. Let me explain this statement.

To start with, too much exercise with the same rhythm, too much practice of the same exercise movements, makes for bulges and bulk in the limbs that are thus exercised. Many ice skaters, for example, develop bulges, muscle, and fat in their legs. Dancers have the same problem. They are executing the same movements in the same rhythm for hours at a time. It perhaps makes for functional perfection in certain movements of dancing and skating, but it has little effect in creating a good figure. In fact, I know of many skaters and dancers who have a tendency to accentuate a bad figure with too much practice of regimented-type movements. This will cause an increase of bulk in legs already too heavy. I have also seen many dancers who have (and are continuing to accentuate) a lordosis, or exaggerated lower-back curvature, of the spine.

After fifty-five years of checking the figures of thousands of men and women, I am of the opinion that given time, intelligent cooperation, and a persevering spirit it is possible to improve or even change radically any type of figure. I can’t guarantee making great changes in the length of your arms or legs, but I can lengthen your waistline or increase the line of the neck. From head to foot it is possible to increase or decrease any part of the anatomy by knowledge and perseverance.

Spot Reducing and Development

There are a few important principles to learn and remember when attempting to recontour your body. The same exercises can reduce you—or help you gain weight; can reduce a part of the body—or increase its measurements. It all depends on the speed and rhythm.

1. If you do exercises very rapidly, you have a tendency to increase the bulk of muscle above the movement. If you move your arms rapidly, you tighten up the muscles in the shoulders and increase the bulk (consisting of hard fat and muscles) in the shoulders. If you move legs rapidly, you increase the bulk of the upper thigh and buttocks.

Dr. Reilly Remembers Sonja Henie

Among my fond memories, the figure problem of Sonja Henie, the great skating star, comes to mind. Her weight was 138 pounds; her height, five feet two inches; and all was a mass of solid bunchy muscles. When she first came to me, she had tried in every way to reduce. She said, “I do six to eight hours of hard skating practice every day and my muscles grow bigger and bigger. You must do something for me.” I learned that this young lady had a lucrative movie contract, which made it imperative that she slim down—and quickly. This was an interesting challenge. Here was a person whose diet was fairly normal, who exercised practically all day, yet still had a weight and figure problem. From past experience and knowledge, I could see we had two basic factors to contend with. The natural fat-contour deposits that normally differentiate the female from the male, and musculature that had responded to the natural movement economy of the body, were piling on more shortened muscles to be used in a regimented, repetitious, limited set of movements. While some of these movements were necessary for perfection, too many resulted in a heavy, unbalanced figure.

The first procedure was to limit the amount of skating practice and to substitute all-around exercise such as special stretching and leg movements given while lying on the back, side, and abdomen (see Chapter 7). General calisthenics for the entire body were advised. As time was important and our skater had many pressing professional appearances contracted for, we worked out a two-a-day special massage schedule. At midday a general invigorating tonic massage was given. A second treatment was given at night after the last performance. For the evening treatment I taught my masseuse some special manipulative techniques that are given with the person lying in a tub of warm water. This is to relax completely all the tense and fatigued muscles; it helps to speed up the elimination of toxins, to drain the lymphatic circulation, and to strip the muscles long and loose. These procedures, combined with the special exercises, produced a highly satisfactory result. The young skater reduced to 104 pounds and lost all the large, ugly, unsightly bulges in her calves and legs. Her flexibility and endurance were greatly increased, and more than forty years later, the skill, artistry, and figure of Sonja Henie are remembered and rank her among the top artists of the world.

3. Another point to remember is that you must relax the muscles completely between the movements of the exercise and then contract them. The pause and relaxation gives you a double action. If you hold the muscles contracted between movements, you get only one-half the action.

8. To increase the size of any part of the body, exercises must be performed very slowly, with complete relaxation between movements.

9. Check with your physician for a possible cardiovascular condition, for hiatus or other hernias, or other cautionary parameters.

Exercise Guide for Refiguring Your Figure

Massage, combined with exercise, can help to enlarge or reduce the bust. For each respective goal, therefore, we have listed a valuable massage aid inherited from Edgar Cayce.

EXERCISE: If one is seeking to enlarge the bust, it is helpful to begin by stretching and expanding the chest frame:

Lie flat on the floor, bend your knees up, keeping the feet flat on floor. Lift your buttocks and chest frame up, keeping your head on floor; rest your weight on the shoulders, and hold to the count of six. Then lower to the starting position. Repeat three to six times in the beginning. Increase to twelve.

Also increase practice of the Push-Pull exercise: Chapter 7, V6 (Fig. 15). Work up to twenty-four times twice daily.

Circle the arms with palms up and thumbs back—start with a backward motion, doing it slowly, starting with twelve and increasing by two a week until you are doing it about twenty-four to thirty times.

EXERCISE: If a large bust contains a great deal of fat, the Windmill exercise (V10-Fig. 19), combined with the following massage and the general shoulder, arm, and back exercises in Chapter 7, can be helpful in normalizing the size without the use of dumbbells.

The Rest of the Body

Check your posture against the wall as instructed in Chapter 7, p. 115, and then place a book on your head and walk around the room balancing the book on your head. As you improve, use a heavier book or a paper cup filled with nuts and bolts as described under “Posture,” p. 149, then a glass half-filled with water. When you can move easily without spilling the water, use a pitcher of water. If you have ever seen pictures of women in developing societies carrying water or large loads of laundry, kindling, or produce on their heads, you must have noticed their graceful carriage.

The main trouble with women’s posture is that they have a tendency, when trying to achieve a better posture, to thrust their chins up and forward to improve the jaw line. This places a great strain on the cervical spine. Note the posture of a West Point or other military school cadet. The chin is pulled in and back. This may produce a double or triple chin, but this can be eliminated with the facial exercises that follow. Balancing something on your head will make you hold your head in the correct position.

The shoulder and arm exercises in Chapter 7 can correct round shoulders: see V4A, Shoulder Shrug; V4B, Shoulder Circles; V5, Arm Circles (Fig. 14); V6, Push-Pull (Fig. 15); V7A and B, Frame-Up (Figs. 16A and B); and Windmill, V10 (Fig. 19).

Do: The Pelvic Tilt, H12A and B (Figs. 21A and B); Elbow-Knee Kiss, H13A (Fig. 22); Double Elbow-Knee Kiss, H13B (Fig. 23).

It is impossible to have good posture without a strong spine and back and feet to support the body weight, so practice the following:

The exercises in Chapters 6 and 7; the Cayce cat crawl and the head-and-neck exercises in Chapter 7 (Figs. 3A, B, C, and D); and the back exercises in Chapter 7: H25, Back Leg Lift (Fig. 40); H26A, Arm and Shoulder Lift (Fig. 41); H26B, Everything-Up Lift (Fig. 42); and H27, Reverse Back Bend (Fig. 43).

The foot exercises in Chapter 7: H28, Ankle Circles; H29, Ankles Aweigh; H30, Ankle Stretch (Fig. 44); H31, Tendon Stretch (Fig. 45); H32A, Charlie Chaplin Walk (Fig. 46); H32B, Pigeon-Toed Walk (Fig. 47); H32C, variation; H33, Foot Roll; H34, Pick-Up; and H35, Toe Wiggle.

Point Stretching, V11 (Fig. 20); Hallelujah, V8 (Fig. 17); and Indian Rope Trick, V9 (Fig. 18).

V4A, Shoulder Shrug; V4B, Shoulder Circles; V5, Arm Circles (Fig. 14); V6, Push-Pull (Fig. 15); V7A, Frame-Up (Figs. 16A and B); V7B, variation; V8, Hallelujah (Fig. 17); V9, Indian Rope Trick (Fig. 18); V10, Windmill (Fig. 19).

The important thing to remember is that movement that lifts the waist up from the rib cage tends to slim the waist. This is why the Point Stretching is so important. It will not only increase your height but also whittle your waist down by inches.

The Horizontal Abdominals, H12A and B, Pelvic Tilt (Figs. 21A and B); Elbow-Knee Kiss, H13A and B, and Double Elbow-Knee Kiss (Figs. 22 and 23); Knee-Over Twist, H14A, B, and C; Double Knee-Over Twist, variation (Figs. 24, 25, and 26); and Sit-Back, H15 (Fig. 27).

When these exercises have been mastered and the number of times performed daily increased to twenty-four, you may add the following two exercises:

1. Lie on floor face up. Place legs on small hassock or stool, raising them from floor. Then extend arms and hands full length over head; sit up and touch toes and then return to original position and rest. Start with three or four times, increase by two a week until you can do twelve. (If there is any back pain when you try this exercise, do not use it.)

2. The Victory V. Sit on floor. Raise both legs and arms until your body forms a V and rock back and forth. This is also good for the legs and back as well as the abdomen.

Percussion massage is very useful in reducing hips. If you do not have a willing relative or friend to beat your hips, you can do so yourself by forming a fist and beating and kneading fat on hips. Also practice some wall-beating—hitting the fattest bumps against the wall.

All the exercises in Chapter 7, performed while lying on the side, will help to reduce hips.

Standing Kick, T1 (Fig. 7); Heel-Toe Leg Circles, 2 variations H16A, B, and C (Figs. 28, 29, 30, and 31); Leg Raise and Double Leg Raise, H17A and B (Figs. 32 and 33); Double Leg Circles, H18 (Fig. 34); Scissors, H19; Side Leg Raise and Back Leg Raise, H20A and B (Fig. 35); Double Leg Side Raise, H21 (Fig. 36); Side Knee-Chin Kiss and Double Side Knee-Chin Kiss, H22A and B (Figs. 37 and 38); Side Leg Circles and Double Side Leg Circles, H23A and B; and Side Scissors, H24A and B (Fig. 39).

This is the hardest place of all to keep youthful and firm, for it must resist a strong gravitational pull that causes it to have a crepey, drooping appearance.

For this you will need a medicine ball of about four to six pounds in weight, or a hassock.

Sit on a straight chair, preferably one with side arms. Sit well forward, place the medicine ball or hassock between your thighs and then holding it tightly with the thigh muscles, raise and lower legs. Use the arms of the chair and your own arms to find maximum leverage. Begin by doing this exercise six times twice a day and increase by two a week until you are doing twenty-four movements, twice a day, for lovely, firm, slender thighs.

If you have a problem with heavy calves, avoid skipping rope and bicycle riding. These have a tendency to develop large calf muscles.

The leg exercises in Chapter 7, particularly those that change the position of the heel and toe, if performed carefully with great emphasis on the change can stretch and elongate the calf muscles, resulting in a slimmer, more graceful line.

Heel-Toe Leg Circles, 2 variations, H16A, B, and C (Figs. 28, 29, 30, and 31); Leg Raise and Double Leg Rise, H17A and B (Figs. 32 and 33); Double Leg Circles, H18 (Fig. 34); Scissors, H19; Side Leg Raise and Back Leg Raise, H20A and B (Fig. 35); Double Leg Side Raise, H21 (Fig. 36); Side Knee-Chin Kiss and Double Side Knee-Chin Kiss, H22A and B (Figs. 37 and 38); Side Leg Circles and Double Side Leg Circles, H23A and B; and Side Scissors, H24A and B (Fig. 39).

Use the same as above plus the special ankle exercises: Ankle Circles, H28; Ankles Aweigh, H29; Ankle Stretch, H30 (Fig. 44); Tendon Stretch, H31 (Fig. 45); and the Charlie Chaplin Walk, Pigeon-Toed Walk, and variation, H32A, B, and C (Figs. 46 and 47).

A special exercise that is particularly good for draining edema from ankles and legs and for helping varicose veins is performed in this way:

Lie on the back on either the floor or a hard bed. Support the head and shoulders with pillows. Bend the knees and grasp the legs just above the ankles.

Open the thighs as wide as possible and support arms on open thighs, which will help push them more widely apart; hold them there. Then rotate the ankles, first clockwise, and then counterclockwise. Move the feet up and down, up and down. The wider apart the thighs, the more benefit from the exercise, for the main arteries and veins in the groin are thus opened and circulation increased to the legs.

The Fanny Walk (H36) and the Fanny Bounce (H37), Chapter 7, p. 136. Also use the percussion massage, similar to that prescribed for hips.

Exercising the Face

The only way to alter the facial features that you were born with is through plastic surgery, and increasing numbers of young girls and boys as well as age-battling men and women are going this route to correct nature’s errors. Certainly the growing skill of plastic surgeons is a great blessing where there is serious deformity from burns, accidents, and war-created injuries.

However, the most commonly performed cosmetic surgery—the face lift—can be postponed or avoided entirely with a program of good nutrition, general exercise, massage, hydrotherapy, and special facial exercises. The face, like every other part of the body, is made up of bones, blood vessels, connective tissue, fat, nerves, and voluntary muscles (twenty-six). When the muscles become flabby, the face droops, sags, and ages. Negative thoughts and poor circulation accelerate the appearance of lines, wrinkles, blemishes, and muddy color, while poor elimination will not only produce blackheads, pimples, and dry or oily skin, but is one of the chief causes of major skin diseases.

Marjorie Craig, who for years has guided the beauty and exercise program at Elizabeth Arden’s, says in her excellent book, Face-Saving Exercises,² “A firm face is the symbol of youth, but a firm face need not be the property solely of the young. If muscles of the body can be brought back to tone—and they can be—so can muscles of the face and by the same means: exercise.”

Cayce and I go further and say that spirit, serenity, and positive thinking as well as good health can be reflected in your face.

Toning, conditioning, and exercising the face can be done best by “making faces,” blowing up balloons, and using the Cayce head-and-neck exercises.

This exercise, which I use primarily for asthma, emphysema, and other respiratory problems, is an excellent facial exercise for keeping cheeks firm, eliminating telltale squirrel pouches, and keeping the muscles around the lips elastic.

Try to follow balloon-blowing, which purses the lips, with grinning and smiling, which stretches the muscles in the opposite direction.

The Nonsurgical Face Lift

We have inherited an unexpected beauty bonus from Cayce, which we have found is an excellent nonsurgical face lift.

The following procedure was recommended to a sixty-seven-year-old man for a dropped palate—a not unusual complaint found in the aging. However, Miss Billings used it on her seventy-year-old mother for a palate complaint and found that a fringe benefit was a rejuvenated appearance of her entire face. It certainly seems to correct middle-age sag.

The man, Case 3632-1, had asked, “What is the cause of the cough and what treatment will relieve it?”

Cayce replied, “Tie up a piece of hair in the center of the head. Keep it tied up like a wig. Tie this tighter each day. Every three days, make it a little bit tighter, a little bit tighter; it’ll soon stop the cough and raise the palate.”

It will also raise your entire face—giving you a face lift.

Wink one eye and hold hard and then the other. Show contempt or disbelief by twisting mouth to one side while winking the eye on the same side; then do the same on the other side. Laugh out loud: Ha, ha, ha.

For Mouth: Use the Cayce head-and-neck exercises. Stretch the lips over the teeth and pull out widely in a grin. Stretch hard.

Do as singers do and practice the vowels going up and down the scale singing as loudly as you can (also benefits cheeks).