In accordance with Abraham Maslow's pyramid (above), there is a need to be nourished by adequate food on several levels and to attain to harmony of such levels too. To simplify:

• Gross, physical food, like minerals, is just one sort of food.
• Have you catered to your emotional needs?
• Have you secured food for thought?
• And what about food for spirit so you can grow in spirit?

This is part of a holistic view on nourishment for health on several levels. Cayce tells the body stores influences and forces from without and with the correct firing or fuel has the ability to create "that which is able to sustain, . . . regenerate the activities of the body (1334-1)."

A key point: There is more food to ingest than food for the body. If you miss good music in the illustration, I suggest you place it among friends and family (level 3), where it does many a good turn. It goes well with sexual intimacy too, depending of the kind of music, the kind of sex, and much else.

Make Decent Ideas Your Own: Think of Them

As for ideas, they may be made your own by a process that shows basic likeness to eating.

1. You sniff on ideas. Some smell like roses, others otherwise.
2. Pick some ideas or works you feel for, for some reason or other.
3. You start to salivate with expectation of a "good book" to get into, or of "great trains of ideas" in it, for example.
4. You start to chew on sides to the book - headings, illustrations, figures, and so on. In other words, you browse.
5. If you decide not to spit out or vomit the ideas you have started to digest by chewing on them, you start to swallow in fit doses, after adding saliva of your own, often hard-won experiences to the theories or descriptions you come across. Or maybe you gulp down ideas with some milk - trusting in your stomack.
6. Ideas have entered your stomack. You have not vomited yet. Then, assisted by the acid of care, the stomack starts to knead and tumble the received ideas around, and prepare them for further digestion.
7. Then you "meet" and welcome the ingested, stomack-treated food by letting portions of it enter the intestines, where bile and other digestive juices decompose it into smaller units that are easy to handle.
8. On a cellular level the body seeks the things its wants or finds attractive, and they enter the blood stream. The rest is passed on as solids and a rinsed liquid to make the soil fruitful.

The process of digesting ideas has been elucidated. The organism seeks to make the best out of the food it gets to, on the levels spoken of by Maslow, Rudolf Steiner, and many others. A human is not just a body. It is fine to get plenty of good food for the body. After a period of stable supplies in that way, some dormant desires or embryos may call on your attention: You feel a need to draw, to make music, to meditate, og so on. It helps to be well fed and reasonably sheltered through the seasons and sheltered from the bullets of others, but "it does not have to end there". That is, human development should manifest itself on the inner levels too, maybe in time, maybe at first.

Speaking of food again, the "things" that make you pleased and satisfied are hopefully good food, good for you, good for sound development of body, mind and spirit. There are subdivisions of that, again.

You may or may not recognise sides to yourself or nearest friends by the schemes and surveys of development by such as:

1. Erik H. Erikson's developmental survey. It relates to id development throughout life, and takes of from Freud's famous theory of stages - the five stages of libido development that Freud talks of, are incorporated in Erikson's larger scheme.
2. Carl G. Jung's notes on the individuation process.
3. Gordon Allport's ideas about proprium.
4. Carl R. Rogers views on a fully functioning person.
5. Gurdieff's old stages of men.
6. Eric Berne's Transactional Analysis, TA, which also takes off from Freud in some ways.
7. Abraham Maslow's theories about self-actualisers.
8. Certain parts of Mahayana Buddhism.

A sound perspective is worth much. The combined thoughts and theories of these men may give you that. What is more, the value of decent theories - words - is to show there is a direction to find and develop along: It points inward at some point. There are certain stages of inner development talked of in such as Mahayana Buddhism. Daniel Goleman has presented a clarifying map of inner development according to Mahayana Buddhism in a book. (1975).

Theories are not needed a lot, though. A tree grows by itself, if nourishment is provided, just as the body does. It is the same with some sides to the mind too. Interests and desires may be whims, or they camouflage deeper, growing needs. It helps to follow up your interests reasonably, seasonably and carefully. By that you may get educated too. What is more, the personality develops this way too. That is the essence of Gordon Allport's findings (1966), and "good Latin" today as well, for a good finding lasts for lifetimes to come.

Sleeptalker Views

Would you trust what someone talks about in deep sleep? It depends on what person it is and what is told. Edgar Cayce was a sleeptalker. He went to sleep, and persons asked him many questions. The answers were written down and numbered. He lived the dream of many: to sleep on the job. There are many books about him and how he did it, and many thematic collections of sayings from the sleeptalker to different persons.

Dr. William A. McGarey (2002) is quoted below:

People are different. "Edgar Cayce saw each person as a unit of energy in the earth, a creation of Universal Forces . . . distinct from every other being on the face of the earth, and who deserves to be treated as such. Thus, his suggestions were always a bit different for each seeker who came to him for help." [xiii]

People are born over and over. "Cayce recognized each of us as eternal beings, created in a spiritual dimension in the image of the Creator, and then born over and over again into the earth in a pattern recognized as reincarnation." [xx]

A better state should be sought out. "One's life purpose was often pointed out . . . while Cayce was offering a diet to help the physical body recover a better state of health. But he recalled . . . our life here . . . is an opportunity to make headway back to [one's] Source [somehow]. [xx]

Time and space are deeply needed to help some and teach others. "Cayce . . . saw the human being as an entity in time and space, with illnesses coming about because of lessons the individual needed to learn. Or because of failing to obey the laws of function of the human body or perhaps the laws of the universe itself. Or of the mind. Or even of the spirit." [11]

Cayce Hints

General guidelines or quite general guidelines are in some Cayce Readings also. You may wonder why in some cases. It should be possible to find out. At the back of many counsels lie concerns about acidity in the body - acids ingested and/or produced by starches combined with other sorts of food. As for many other pieces of Cayce advice, there is concern for keeping the vitamins of foods intact, and getting minerals the natural way - through the food.

An almond a day is much more in accord with keeping the doctor away . . . than apples. - Edgar Cayce, Reading 3180-3

Apples should only be eaten when cooked; preferable roasted. - Edgar Cayce, Reading 935-1

Avoid too much combinations of starches. - Edgar Cayce, Reading 2732-1

Be mindful that the foods taken are those of the non-acid producing in the system. Beware, then, of meats to any great extent. - Edgar Cayce, Reading 4172-1

Beware of all fried foods. - Edgar Cayce, Reading 926-1

Chocolates that are plain, not those of any brand that carry corn starches should be taken. - Edgar Cayce, Reading 487-11

Cook in granite (enameled ironware), or better in Patapar paper. - Edgar Cayce, Reading 1196-7 [Parchment paper is also used to cook en papillote, a technique where food is steamed or cooked within closed pouches made from parchment paper. (WP, "Parchment paper") . . . 379-10

Do not eat foods prepared in aluminum at all ... especially tomatoes or greens of any character or kind. - Edgar Cayce, Reading 2423-1

Do not eat like a canary and expect to do manual labor. - Edgar Cayce, Reading 341-31

Even milk or water should be chewed two to three times before taken into the stomach. - Edgar Cayce, Reading 808-3

[F]arming should be, not so much the main activity, but sufficient to meet the needs of its own household, . . . and the products that are to be preserved, canned, or made into such as to supply not merely for the moment but through season to season. Fruits, small fruits, vegetables, meats, fish and the like. - Edgar Cayce, Reading 2301-2

(Have) fruits and vegetables . . . - Edgar Cayce, Reading 826-14

(Have) sufficient of sweets to form sufficient alcohol for the system. 487-11

Have vegetables that are fresh and especially those grown in the vicinity where the body resides. - Edgar Cayce, Reading 2-14 Milk, whether it is the dry or the pasteurized or raw, is near to the perfect combination of forces for human consumption. - Edgar Cayce, Reading 1703-2

Ices - as fruit ices or sherbet - may be taken. (Obesity) - Edgar Cayce, Reading 2315-1

Keep away from too much greases . . . rather use the lean portions and those (meats) that will make for body-building forces throughout. - Edgar Cayce, Reading 303-11

Nuts are good, but do not combine same with meats. Let them take the place of same. Filberts and almonds are preferable. - Edgar Cayce, Reading 1151-2

Olive oil in small quantities is . . . good . . . 846-1

Oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruit are well . . . unless starches, as especially form cereals, are taken at the same meal. 1334-2

[P]otatoes or the peelings of same with meats are preferable to eating bread with meats see? - Edgar Cayce, Reading 340-32

[P]referable use the sea salt entirely. - Edgar Cayce, Reading 1586-1

Oysters should never be taken with whiskey. 2853-1

Q. Are tomatoes good?

(Cayce:) This depends . . . If they are . . . taken alone with a little salt, very good. - Edgar Cayce, Reading 257-210

Q. How much water should the body drink daily?

(Cayce:) Six to eight tumblers or glasses full. - Edgar Cayce, Reading 1131-2

[S]mall quantities of breads with sweets are alright . . . whole wheat bread! - Edgar Cayce, Reading 416-9

[Soft drinks are alright] . . . for very few bodies. - Edgar Cayce, Reading 2157-2

Soy Bean bread is wholesome for certain characters and conditions; provided the body is to be out in the open, very active, fiery or dictatorial, then eat Soy Bean bread! 340-31

([S]tainless steel) is the best [for cooking], except enamel. 379-10

Starches naturally are inclined for acid reaction. But a normal diet is about twenty percent acid to eighty percent alkaline-producing. - Edgar Cayce, Reading 1523-3

Tea . . . with lemon it is preferable. - Edgar Cayce, Reading 850-2

Tea is more harmful than coffee. 303-2

(Tomatoes) should not be eaten with meats. - Edgar Cayce, Reading 379-10

The cereals should carry an over amount of vitamins E, D, A, and B; E and D especially. 1131-2

[T]hose who lead the sedentary life or the non-active life can't go on sweets or too much starches. - Edgar Cayce, Reading 798-1

Use fruits that are not artificially ripened, even though it is necessary to use those that are canned. 509-2

Whenever there is a great anxiety or stress, . . . use the easily assimilated foods . . . and never fried foods. - Edgar Cayce, Reading 1724-1