8, 1941):
As an inhalant we would use the fume from Apple Brandy. Do not drink the brandy, but inhale the fumes from same. Prepare this in a keg—a charred oak keg—so that the fumes may be inhaled; having two holes in one end, but so that they may be kept tightly corked except when being used—and open when there is the inhaling of the fumes from the Brandy. Put half a gallon of Apple Brandy—not Applejack—in about a gallon container. Keep where it will be easy for the evaporation to take place, or for the gases to form in the space above the Brandy, you see. When the fumes are inhaled, it will act not only as a purifier for the throat, bronchi and lungs, but will be a stimulation to the circulation. Use this at least once or twice each day. Do not attempt to inhale too much in the beginning, or it will be inclined to produce too much intoxication for the body.
2448-1
For an adult female with scarred lungs, some hemorrhaging, and tuberculosis tendencies (reading given on March 2, 1922):
Take a three gallon keg, oak that is charred or what is known as whiskey keg, we would put one gallon of apple brandy in this. This is sealed or corked, then set on end and placed close to a heat, where this heat will cause gas to collect in upper portion of the keg. Connect a tube to this and inhale the gas in the larynx and lungs, three or four times a day. Inhale it as would smoke, you see, into mouth, through larynx and in lungs. The first time this is done do not take too much or it will produce intoxication to the sensories. It will carry the healing properties.
3354-1
For a twenty-eight-year-old woman suffering with moderately advanced tuberculosis for six and one-half years (reading given on March 27, 1944):
Also begin inhaling the fumes from pure apple brandy in a charred oak keg, prepared with two vents in one end. This should be redistilled brandy. Do not swallow the fumes into the stomach but inhale into the lungs. Do not let the inhalations be too heavy in the beginning, else we may cause some disturbance to the coughing and the raw area in the left lung, as well as sore areas in the trachea on the right side. But as these fumes are inhaled, they will cause the destruction of active tissue and, if the other properties are added, the sputum will soon become negative and less active.
4024-1
TESTIMONIALS/RESULTS
In the “Reports” section of the readings not many testimonials are found. Most of the correspondence deals with questions on where to obtain the keg or the apple brandy. Yet scattered throughout are comments on the efficacy of the keg, especially for tuberculosis, that were reported back to Cayce and his small staff. One such comment comes from a letter dated August 17, 1943, from Mrs. [2395], who received only one reading three years earlier:
“It looks like I am always sending out an S.O.S. to you. Do you suppose you could get me any pure Apple Brandy out there and send it to me! I can’t get any here {in Kentucky}, and with Hay Fever just around the corner I would like very much to be prepared to fight it . . . As you may probably remember, in your reading of November 8, 1940, you prescribed the Apple Brandy to be inhaled from a charred oak keg and I feel that it was very beneficial . . . ”
2395-1, Report #7
Cayce wrote a few days later that due to war conditions it was impossible to obtain the brandy.
Perhaps the most well-known account of the keg’s use comes from the Cayce family itself. Gertrude, Edgar’s wife, distraught after the death of her almost two-month-old son, Milton Porter, stopped eating and spent much of her time in bed. Two months later she was coughing up blood. The diagnosis: tuberculosis, a disease that had previously claimed the life of her brother. Her eventual reading in 1911 contained, among other suggestions, the remedy of inhaling brandy fumes from a charred oak keg. Gertrude followed the suggestions, and her lungs eventually became less congestive. It was a slow process, but finally Gertrude was healed.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
In March 2000, the Heritage Store in Virginia Beach, VA, sent out a brief questionnaire to people who had purchased a charred oak keg within the last few years. Twenty-nine individuals responded. While the majority of recommendations from the Cayce readings concerned those with tuberculosis or TB tendencies—with a few cases of asthma, pleurisy, and various lung problems—a wider range of respiratory ailments was noted by the survey responders: bronchiectasis, bronchitis, chronic cough, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, colds, congestion, emphysema, fibrosis, nasal drip, pneumonia, sarcoidosis, and smoker’s lung. Several even used it to help quit smoking and others to achieve better athletic performance.
In rating their success with the keg, consistency of use seemed to be the main factor influencing a better outcome; those individuals using it on a regular basis reported good or better results.
Some of the differences noted by the survey participants included: coughing less often, breathing more easily, and experiencing a decrease in the number of colds and respiratory infections, the loosening up of congestion, as well as the alleviation of pain. One individual, taking oxygen for emphysema and chronic bronchitis, commented that inhaling from the keg “loosens mucus to cough up, expel; medicates lung and bronchi, keeping down infections.”
Remedial use of the keg was found to be effective at the onset of congestion to help cough up mucus, when losing one’s voice, and to open breathing passages. Another individual, susceptible to colds, noted: “I took so many antibiotics that I became allergic to two of them, so the charred oak keg was always a rescue mission for me.” Two respondents commented that the keg helped reduce their desire to smoke; one mentioned taking a whiff from the keg each time the urge to light up arose. Another used it “to enhance oxygen intake for extreme sports training.”
With proper care and use, the keg can be a healing influence on the lungs. One excerpt succinctly stated: “Keep the keg. This is as life itself . . . ” (1548-4)
Coffee Foot Bath
Foot baths are one of the most useful and easily applied hydrotherapies. Requiring only a minimal amount of equipment, the foot bath can be accomplished while seated on a chair, a sofa, or on the edge of the bathtub. A foot tub may be purchased, but one may use any basin or pan that is waterproof and encloses the feet comfortably.
Eleven individuals were given this very specific kind of foot bath: it is made with used coffee grounds that are boiled just prior to the bath, letting the solution cool a bit before soaking the feet in the warm mixture. This mild tannic acid solution, derived from coffee, has beneficial effects, according to the readings, when applied externally.
Tannin or tannic acid is a yellowish astringent solution whose designation is generic for a wide assortment of vegetable products that are used to tan raw hides, converting them into leather—hence its name. Tannic acid is responsible for coffee’s sharp, bitter taste, as well as for causing stained teeth and cups. When drunk, it has been recognized for its harmful effects such as inhibiting the body’s absorption of calcium and B vitamins, causing heartburn, acid reflux, and indigestion, interacting with a wide range of medications—reducing their effectiveness—and in large doses causing cancer in animals. Yet its application externally, as mentioned previously, has important and useful benefits.
INDICATIONS
Cold and congestion; heaviness in throat, head, and feet; need for better rest; peeling skin on feet; poor
