(Post on June 19, 2013 by David McMillin)
Electrotherapy is a fundamental modality in the health readings of Edgar Cayce. Cayce's explanation of the importance of electricity in healing is that the body itself is an intricate electrical system. Illness is often associated with imbalances or incoordination in the energy patterns of the body. Treatment is aimed at correcting imbalance in the body so that the body's own natural healing processes can bring coordination and regeneration to the system.
Since many forms of electrotherapy were available during Edgar Cayce's career as a psychic diagnostician, he made use of a wide variety of commercial appliances and devices. Yet by far, he most often recommended two appliances which were not part of mainstream medical practice. In fact, the commercial manufacture and distribution of the Radial Appliance and Wet Cell Battery were initiated and sustained through the information provided in the Cayce material itself.
Although the Radial Appliance looks like a battery, and was occasionally referred to as such in the readings, Edgar Cayce insisted that it produces no electrical energy of it own. He said that it acts more like a magnet that draws energy from one part of the body and redistributes it to other parts.
On the other hand, the Wet Cell is definitely an electrochemical battery that produces a measurable direct current (DC) output. However, the strength of the battery is quite low and tends to coincide with the electrical current on the human skin. As with the Radial Appliance, Cayce said that the Wet Cell Battery works with the "low" form of electrical energy or life force of the body.
Although either of these appliances can be used “plain” and attached to the body with metal disks connected with wires, solution jars containing medicinal agents were also commonly prescribed. Solutions of Gold, silver, iodine, and camphor were by far the most frequently recommended compounds suggested for use. Since these solutions are toxic when taken orally, only the “vibrations” of the solutions were said to be carried into the body, reducing the risk of toxicity.
The relevance to our research on the seat of the soul is these appliances, when connected with solutions jars, were most often attached to the primary spinal centers associated with the pineal system. Here is an exemplary reading that discusses this association:
The small plate would be attached to three different centers alternately. The Appliance would be used for thirty minutes each day; one day attaching the small plate to the 3rd cervical, the next day to the 9th dorsal, and the next day to the 4th lumbar. Be sure to rotate the attachments in this order. These are the three centers through which there is activity of the kundalini forces that act as suggestions to the spiritual forces for distribution through the seven centers of the body. (3676-1)
In the readings, the term “pineal center” (567-1) is used to designate these “great centers” (480-44). Note that the kundalini energy flows through these same great centers for distribution to other centers within the hierarchy of the body-soul connection. Thus this form of Cayce electrotherapy is somehow based on the pineal system with regard to anatomical centers and physiological energy flow.
There is one other aspect to the vibrational energy patterns associated with these appliances when using vibratory solutions. The large plate said to be transmitting the vibration into the body is typically attached to the “lacteal duct” or “umbilical center” just to the right and usually a little above the navel. This assimilating vibrational center can be traced back to the embryo and fetus when the body was originally created in the mother’s womb.
These therapeutic modalities seem to function by putting the system into the same energy patterns that were utilized to develop the embryo in the womb. For example, the spinal and abdominal centers where the wet cell anodes are attached to the body correlate with the energy patterns associated with the early development of the embryo as described in the readings.
In essence, it is the life force energy that is channeled via the glandular and nervous systems that is responsible for creating and healing the body. As the readings often noted, all healing is ultimately spiritual in nature. Hopefully, researching the anatomy and physiology of the glandular and nervous systems of the body-soul connection may lead to improved therapeutic efficacy when using these appliances.
The Radial Appliance and Wet Cell Battery – This book by Doug Richards and David McMillin lays out the basic principles and techniques for building and using these appliances.