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When you get a massage, what happens? Too many benefits to mention here. Nevertheless, here's a few:
- RENEWAL: (physical and mental)
- PAIN MANAGEMENT: (in cancer, for example)
- FASTER HEALING: (stimulates overall healing processes of body)
- DEVELOPMENT: (massage used on underdeveloped infants born to drug-addicted mothers helped them to grow faster than non-massaged neonates)
NUTRITION: (facilitates digestion and assimilation to cells--a basic tenet of hundreds of Cayce readings)
WHITE CELLS: (animal & human studies show massage increases immune cells)
ADJUSTMENT: (helps chiropractic adjustments and can provide "secondary adjustments" by which joints adjust as muscles are properly manipulated)
JANITORIAL: (one of the very best ways to detox our cells, which are contaminated with toxins from the foods we eat, medicines we take, the air we breathe, and the subtle, but dangerous, levels of metals and pesticides we ingest).
The list of benefits is longer than this article, especially if we include some of the physiological and mental benefits discussed in various Cayce readings. As science continues to investigate the benefits of Massage Therapy (today's fastest growing health field), we'll be learning much more about this "first-form" of healing. We may never know all that our earliest ancestors knew, as they administered their unique forms of manual therapy in caves, sweat lodges, or temples in Atlantis.
Cayce gave MANY readings wherein one or more forms of massage was PRESCRIBED as a major player in the healing process even in the rarest and most resistant forms of disease. For instance, in the case of David Attkinson, one of the few persons in recorded medical history to recover from Lou Gehrig's disease (wasting away of motor-nerve tracks), Cayce prescribed massage for a half-hour each day along with diet change, body adjustments, daily use of the "wet cell battery", attitude changes, and prayer. Attkinson recovered from the impossible in about a year. His story is in Hope Springs Eternal (A.R.E. Press, 1999).
What is amazing about Cayce and massage is that he went beyond what most medical doctors (including many in our own times) have assumed about how much appropriate massage can aid us in the healing process. For example, Cayce was indicating Massage Therapy for certain CANCER cases. Up to this very time in history, it has been thought that massage of a cancer patient would just about kill him or her: It would supposedly spread the cancer cells through lymph, etc. But, why then are we (Licensed Therapists) being used more and more in major cancer centers, including New York's Columbia Presbertarian Hospital, as well as at the Olympus of cancer care: Sloan Kettering, located just 40 blocks north of our A.R.E. Center here in New York? The old theories are going by the wayside as oncology is inadvertently validating Cayce .
Aside from helping many cancer patients,
Massage bears similarities to the primary powers
found in the ancient herb, Ginseng!
Aside from helping many cancer patients, Massage bears similarities to the primary powers found in the ancient herb, Ginseng! What? -- No, "Ginseng" didn't just jump from my head into this page. There's a reason for the apparent leap from out of the blue. Not only does this herb have to do with this article about the power of massage (keep reading!), but it is one of the best "adaptogenic" herbs in which Chinese healers have placed their trust for many millennia. "Adapto-genic" simply means an agent that helps strengthen/tone and heal the WHOLE body. And, massage, we might say, is also adaptogenic (affects the system as a whole), though not for the same reasons as the revered Chinese herb of vitality and longevity.
Ginseng is one of the best "adaptogenic" herbs that helps bring vitality to the system as a whole. Interestingly, science has recently found that this ancient herb, used in China to lengthen lives and increase sexual potency, (1) reduces the possibility of cancer, (2) not only reduced tumor sizes, but also cut off blood supplies(angeogenesis) to the tumors! (3) facilitates the production of fibroblast cells which slow down the normal death-rate of "ground substance," the viscous flu-id between body cells.. May we not conclude that this is like-ly to have some role in keeping our basic "fluid mediums" healthy, allowing us to live longer? Cayce mentioned Ginseng in some readings and it is included in "Formula 636." Originally prescribed by Cayce for a case of colitis, it was found to actually increase energy and sense of wellbeing. Many persons now take it as a kind of "spring tonic."
I've come to think that ginseng plus massage can be a combination that will not only reinforce the immune system, but will be likely to strengthen your energy as well as length-en your life. But, what you do in terms of "being good for something" (the healing attitude often prescribed by Cayce in the physical readings), will fill in the "quality element" needed for a numerically lengthened life-span. That is, a life likely to be prolonged -- thanks to simple and inexpensive things, like ginseng and at least an occasional "healthy rub."
[Note: Persons with high blood pressure, post-menopausal, or pregnant women are advised to consult their doctors before taking ginseng or having a massage (especially "deep work"). You might also consider consulting a professional herbalist or nutritionist (or nutritionally trained doctor) for specific advice on the use of ginseng, a powerful herb that does many good things-- just as massage does.
Charles Hayes, MA, ATR, LMT is a graduate of the Reilly School of Massage in Virginia. He practices massage at the A.R.E. of New York Center.
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