Edgar Cayce Reading (3976-15)

It was afternoon the following day by the time I had dressed and finished a late breakfast of fresh cantaloupe and orange blossom honey. Like all the food offered to me, I found these simple dishes more delicious and satisfying than any of the foods that I had been accustomed to. The doctor's son, James, had already shown me their herb and vegetable garden and pointed out the fruit and nut trees which provided all the food for the household. He said that the quality of the soil which produced the food one ate was considered a crucially important factor. In striving to maintain normal health and blood condition for normal functioning of the mind, the part played by fresh raw foods was vital. I already knew that "normal" to James meant very superior in my terms. The taste of the food was, according to James, the test for the quality and mineral content. The quality of their food, he said, was the result of years of carefully planned effort toward properly conditioning the soil. I was thinking about these things while I relaxed in the early afternoon sunshine. Even the porch chair under me had caught my attention because it was comfortable and yet designed to hold one in excellent sitting posture. About this time, Dr. Karoll came out and sat down beside me as though he had nothing more important to do than to make conversation with me.

"How are you feeling today, David?"

"Stronger, but I've been going through a terrible mental struggle."

"Perhaps you would like to tell me about it, David."

"After we retired last night I couldn't sleep. I kept going over the questions you raised in my mind. It seems to me that I may be experiencing a strange dream which I cannot distinguish from reality. Last night I felt I was going mad...as though my mind had created an illusion that had overpowered all my normal senses. Sitting here in the sunlight with your delicious food under my belt is forcing me to think my impossible delusions are real. I can't convince myself that I'm experiencing an hallucination and my logic denies that a terrible hoax is being played on me...you're too kind and considerate to me for that, and you have surely saved my life, even if I don't understand the circumstances."

Dr. Karoll looked seriously at me for a moment. "I'm sorry I didn't have the judgment to speak more carefully to you about your age, David. It's difficult to place oneself in another's shoes. I've been trying to imagine the impact of my words had I been in your position and I'm beginning to appreciate what a stable and strong personality you are to have gone through last evening as you did."

I looked at the doctor's face very closely to see his expression. "I'm glad to hear you make that comment for it gives me more confidence in my sanity." With this remark I began asking questions to clear away some of the inconsistencies which were troubling me.

"Dr. Karoll, how can it be that we are located close to Asheville, yet the climate is semi-tropical. The vegetation includes types of plants like your citrus trees which could only survive a mild winter."

"Why, I'd forgotten about the climate change since your times. It is no wonder that you couldn't accept my statement about our proximity to Asheville without skepticism."

"Climate change? I don't understand how that could take place."

"Well, David, you see, there was a cataclysmic change in earth around the turn of the century which altered our coastline and made North America fall into the semi-tropical zone. The thin outer crust of the earth shifted upon the inner core, much as the skin of an orange broken loose from the inner portion might slip out of position. The axis of the poles of the earth remained in line with the North Star, but the outer shell moved so that the geographical location of the poles is different."

"Shift of the poles! Incredible!"

"Yes...yes, it was."

"No wonder I couldn't recognize these mountains!"

"Again, let me apologize, David, for my failure to realize that you would see these changes and, also, for underestimating your faculties for logical thinking. We, today, are inclined to think that the people who were your contemporaries must have been exceedingly dull of mind. Such a prejudiced point of view on my part put me off guard." He paused thoughtfully, "You were apparently offended when I asked where you lived. Of course, I was trying to ease your mind about my ignorance of Asheville's location. Now I see why you felt that your answer could have no meaning to me. Asheville is uninhabited and still an area which is blighted with concrete, brick, asphalt and steel. The abused land where the city stood hasn't been restored but that's a project to be undertaken by our people."

"Hmmm!..., blighted is the right word." I paused as visions of its slums, highways, business areas and polluted streams came to mind, then spoke again, "Perhaps, Dr. Karoll, you can clear up another question and help me to shake this suspicion of an overpowering hallucination, for I well know that a powerful hypnotic suggestion can produce all the sensory experiences to go with the illusion suggested. Can you recall any historical event which would explain how three men living in three different cities could have been prevented from awakening me from my suspended animation trance? They had agreed to remain apart until three months were up. Then, whether they had heard from Bill Darch or not, they were to come to the mountain chamber to release me themselves, if necessary. This was to prevent the unlikely chance that a freak accident could overtake all four of them when they were together. I wanted to eliminate the remotest possibility that my suspended animation trance might be indefinitely extended."

The doctor was silent for a few moments. I hoped that he was a good scholar of history for we were speaking of an event which would have taken place in 1985, a hundred and eighteen years before. I thought I might help him to remember by mentioning some of the things that would be recorded in a history of that time.

"Was there a nuclear war?" I asked.

"No, not then."

"Was there some great natural catastrophe?"

"Nothing to affect this area."

"Could there have been some kind of plague or germ warfare?"

"Not at that time. However, let me think; the year was 1984, wasn't it?"

"Yes, it would have been the fall of the year that I should have been released."

"Yes, yes, of course,...that was several months after the American government had called in the silver from the people...all silver...tableware...everything...anyone who did not turn in their silver possessions was accused of hoarding, a criminal offense."

"Why, that's true, but what could that have to do with the question?"