Step XIII Of My Spiritual Journey: In Which I Refuse To Fast
I can tell you right off the bat that fasting is not for me.
It's just not my thing. My one and only attempt at a fast involved the Master Cleanse, which is a fancy name for a creative concoction of hot water, lemon, paprika, and maple syrup. I lasted five hours before my stomach staged a coup and I found myself chowing down a Big Mac. 'Nuff said. But honestly, I'm nowhere near a level of spirituality where fasting would be at all beneficial, and really, I have no interest in crash-dieting under a pretense of spirituality and lastly, the idea of yogarexia makes me feel stabby.
I thought about doing one of those diary of a fast-type posts, but they're always the same. Either you're miserable and cheat and spend a self-indulgent 800 words discussing your coffee-withdrawal headache, or you're energized and clear and spend a self-indulgent 800 words discussing the regularity of your bowel movements. (You can probably guess which one I'd be.)
Nonetheless, fasting is an important topic. Nearly every religion, from Christianity to Buddhism to Baha'i has some form of fasting. Sikhism is probably the only major / organized religion to actively discourage fasting as a spiritual task. And this is my point, really. No one I know actually fasts as a spiritual endeavor. I mean, half my office fasts, but let me tell you, they're not trying to find god, they're trying to find their way into size 2 pants. The only person I've ever known to fast religiously was my Muslim friend in high-school who observed Ramadan because his parents said so.
The fast guru 'round these parts is Jill Pettijohn, known to most as Donna Karan's weight-loss leader and famous for her five-day, hand-delivered juice cleanses. But Jill does not come cheap: a five-day cleanse will run you $410. At six juices a day, that works out to about $15 a juice. As far as I'm concerned, for $15 a pop, those bad boys better be topped with foie gras and come with a side of a dozen Tatamagouche oysters, thank you very much. Alternately, for the big spenders out there, you can treat yourself to the Mandarin Oriental's "Healthy Cleansing Package", which runs anywhere from $3,550 to $6,750 and includes a two-night hotel stay, a two-hour spa treatment, and a full two-days worth of cleansing juices. But hey, anything in the name of spirituality, right?
But even spiritually, fasting is a little strange to me. It's supposed to be the ultimate sign of self-sacrifice, the definitive form of self-control. And yet the whole point of it is to release control - control of the material world, of earthly needs. So, let's get this straight. In order to relinquish control, you have to be utterly in control? Hmmm. But then again, this is spirituality, and what would spirituality be without inherent contradiction? If it was simply straight-forward, we'd all be a levitating, meditating, Dalai Lama-esque community of love.
Maybe it's the Catholic in me, but I see fasting as a form of penance. You know, repent thy sins and Lent and all that. Or, in my world: "I should not have eaten the entire pint of Ben & Jerry's Cinnamon Buns ice cream so I hereby swear to eat only broccoli for the next 24 hours." (Which, let's be honest, never happens.) The bottom line? Moderation is key, people!
According to Wikipedia, there is one form of fasting that is considered not only "extremely spiritual" but also "highly credible." It's a Jainist form of dying called santhara in which a person who is aware of and entirely prepared for their death ceases to eat or drink. It is a declaration that the person is finished with this world and ready to leave. Now, that's a bold statement. And as far as I'm concerned, a pretty good reason for fasting. If you're going to go out, you may as well go out with a bang.
And on that note, I'm out. But with a small post script. I'm curious about you, dear readers. What's your experience with fasting? Do you fast? Spiritually, or to fit into that vintage cocktail dress you paid too much for? Any particular methods? Or, do you think fasting is as much of a scam as I do? Let me hear it - that's what the comments are for!
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I am with you Verena ...."everything in moderation!" However one of your comments spoke about the emotional attachements we have to food and that is the only reason I would consider doing a fast. I am certainly addicted to sugar, specifically hershey's chocolate, so I am seriously considering doing the master cleanse just to see if perhaps i am emotionally attached to sugar. Or perhaps I will try the above mentioned cleanse with palm syrup. Anyways that being said...off I go to find something to eat!
In my experience fasting is neither a fad or a scam. A good juice fast, which includes juices of fresh organic fuits, in the morning , and green drinks of juiced vegetables at mid-day and supper time for three days on two days off for a period of a month with shrink your stomach, help you regain your taste buds, cut your craving for sugar, and give your internal organs a well needed rest. Of course, there is the residual benefit of loosing some weight, but that is secondary. After you have done this, you will rediscover the feeling of true hunger at meal times, a real appreciate for the flavor and texture of pure, fresh fruits and vegetables, and will be more mindful of what you put in your body. Contrary to what you might think you feel more energetic not less, and after the first three day fast you will be amazed how satisfying drinking your dinner can be. This has been my experience on the way to adopting a vegan diet. Since I have I have ceased to experience heartburn or acid reflux. As for the spiritual part ,I suggest you learn to meditate. That will give you more peace and tranquility. Fasting has little or nothing to do with raising your level of consciousness.
You are so right! I juice-fast periodically. It feels wonderful. People should not reject it out of hand without ever trying it. After a short time, your digestive system is at rest and there is almost no hunger. My longest juice-fast was 18 days. The only hard part was getting started.
Verena I am with you - fasting is not for me. If I go without food for more than five hours (sleeping not included) I become quite cranky, no idea how someone could go for multiple days sans food especially when continuing to lead their normal daily life.
Verena,
One point you seem to be missing in all of this is that the practice of 'spirituality" is about trying to acquire and experience ecstatic states. These are referred to here in the West as nonordinary realities, altered states of consciousness, etc. The purpose is to commune with the spiritual realms and their occupants.
What you and others seem to have missed in this exchange is that Fasting is an aescetic practice that will stimulate nonordinary states of reality in the form of dreams and visions. Whenever one is engaging this practice one begins with a purification, for fasters that means a slowdown in volume of food and a focus on cleansing foods. Then the fast itself with the attendant altered states... then the assimilation of the experience afterword. Fasting is a tool, like entheogens and sometimes used in combination with them, to achieve an ecstatic state.
Spirituality has an attendant morality and ethic but that is not the practice itself. You can be virtuous to the point of stupidity and still not experience the spiritual realm. The West has forgotten it and replaced it with behavior modification and wishful thinking. As I say in the post downthread, there is no spiritual connecting practice in Western culture beyond prayer - and most people practice that in the most superficial way possible. The root of all religious practice is to experience the Divine within. IF your practice isn't taking you there, then you need to review what you are doing and try harder.
Fasting is not really a discipline by itself unless you are masochistic. It has a purpose beyond simply resting your colon and balancing blood suger vs insulin production. It will be MISERABLE if you don't do if for a purpose.
Again, the reason that you are going through all of this is to acheive a connection with the Divine within you. That requires focus, concentration and will. You can take on other modalities to enhance this. You can try yoga, trance dancing, drumming, fasting, breath work as well as or in conjunction with ancient entheogenic substances to acheive these states. And it is far different from a happy weekend mushroom trip. It is serious business done with respect and an understanding of why you are doing it.
So review the reasons for engaging the topic of spirituality in your life and understand just how profound the process is.
The shamanic initiation is at the heart of all spiritual practices, without exception. It lies at the root of human connection to the Divine. It is a process of ego destruction followed by an integration into the world at a profoundly deeper level. To fast or do anything else without the intensive focus on making that connection is to miss the purpose for the practice.
end of lecture.
Good Luck!!
I believe the fasting-spiritual connection is the idea that the books of mythology needed another "sin". Thus, eating and its enjoyment.
From my non-scientific research it seems that the "fasting" gig has been leveraged by pentecostal and other similar evangelical types, especially them mega televangelicals.
An interesting observation is that my spouse got "sold" some cleanser by someone in a bible study gig. After draining our bank account on such sugar water, she then cleansed out the bacteria that synthesized B12 vitamins that are essential for the body parts to keep doing their thing. So, now with regular shots of B12 everything is nice except that some permanent damage to some mental body parts has made her have some hard core prayer and glossolaliacal experiences. Which further enhances her feelings of religiosity.
Speaking about religiosity, it seems that a nation's religiosity in inversely proportional to its per capita GDP. The only nation that appears to fall out of this relationship, is our good old USA. Now, it does seem interesting that we are a somewhat obese nation that only in America can sugar water and "diet" type stuff can be a multi-billion dollar industry to tap into our high per capita GDP.
Anyhow, we now also have a nation that tends to have a lot of allergies to everything. So, we have essentially killed all our "good" bacteria with all those anti-bacterial products.
So, now we may be approaching the probiotics frenzy which will further tap into our high per capita GDP.
So, so now we have the spiritual linkage of fasting, per capita GDP and bacteria.
ahh, the beauty of evolution and bacteria.
As soon as someone says "I believe" in regard to spiritual life, it's obvious he's over his head. Either you know or you don't know, and "I believe" means you don't know.
In the matter of religiousity and the GDP, however, you've got it exactly. The goal of religion is economic development and sense gratification, as in "Give us our daily bread." Religion increases when these are lacking, and when these needs are mostly fulfilled, religion declines.
Therefore Krishna says in Bhagavad-gita 18.66, sarva dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja, aham tvam sarva papebhyo moksayisyami ma sucah, "Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender to Me. I will deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear."
Spiritual life begins at that point.
Hi Verena, enjoying your blog...
I hope my narrative will help you understand that fasting and control isn't a discipline in and of itself, it is an aspect of awareness that manifests as you dedicate fully to a practice. You aren't learning superhuman control of your hunger reflex... you are aligning your mind and body with what it needs vs what you believe it needs. As you purge off and simplify your diet and your attachments, it becomes easier to control yourself.
About a year ago I switched my diet to simply stir fried vegies, salads, occasional bits of fish or chicken, soy milk... and a little coffe cause I like it. No bread, no pasta, no fatty anything.
After a few months of enjoying it I noticed that the foods I used to crave like pastries and such had lost their allure. A hamburger like the one above holds no attaction. In fact, I retreat from such thngs immediately.
Last Thanksgiving somebody gave me a pumpkin pie and whipped cream which I ate... and immediately my body said "no way, pal" and there was nothing good about it.
I do fast, usually two days per week. I just drink water. But it is part of a larger lifestyle choice.
I am a free diver by practice with a strong martial arts background so I train lightly on fast days but I breath-hold dive every day. And the breath work combined with the deep diving (often between 100 and 150ft) is a truly meditative discipline.
On most days I have students now, and seem to be acquiring a small following of people who see the potential in this practice.... it is very educational for me to work with others and watch them grow.
One of the exercises we do, after some dedicated breath hold training to gain control of the breathing reflex (a worth study and easier than you might think) is to dive to 75ft or so and sit on the sand and still ourselves. I usually do this with one person on top watching the one on the bottom, for safety of course.
I learned as I engaged this level of practice that gaining control of my cravings and anxieties is much easier than it ever was. I understand why I am doing it and the reward is in a relaxed mindset and meditative states(nonordinary, altered or transpersonal) that are easy to attain. I use a pranayama style breathing to augment the diving and it slows the heartrate and respiration very quickly...
Another benefit is that I am very aware and alert.
So when cravings arise, it is usually for something that my body needs rather than wants. And when I want to control my food intake,it isn't difficult because I am doing it constantly anyway.
I do eat for fuel and anticipate caloric needs.
On a related note, I found a wonderful video that you (and anyone who reads this) might want to acquire and sit through regarding the roots of meditative practices and their purposes.
Entheogen: Awakening the Divine Within
http://entheogen.tv/index.php
Very useful in explorations such as the one you are undertaking.
Good luck, Verena, and thank you for sharing. This is a very important part of life that many only think about occasionally if at all.
Hey, lungfish is a diver. Makes sense. When I was a kid, one of my favorite pastimes was going in the deep end of the swimming pool, blowing out my air, and sitting on the bottom as long as I could. It often made the adults nervous.
I tried to watch your video, but my internet at home is too slow (26.4kbps dialup), at work it's blocked, and my BlackBerry doesn't do flash video. Can you tell me about it? As I understand it, entheogen means a psychoactive substance that gives the sense of communing with God, such as _Salvia divinorum_. Is that what it's about?
Also, I wonder how you got a 551-word comment on here. Perhaps they raised the limit or scrapped it?
Hi Pandu,
Yes, I became a breath hold diver about 4 years ago and moved here to Hawaii to engage it as a spiritual practice...Perhaps you noticed the shift in consciousness that comes from repeated, long submersions.... science calls this the Mammalian diving reflex. I use it to dive with dolphins and other beings on a daily basis and can induce it at will.
The term "entheogen" was coined in 1979 and generally refers to plant based, dmt bearing, psychoactive substances though not always. Salvio Divinorum is from Mexico and is chewed - and can be acquired on the net, both seeds and leaves. Other entheogens include cannabis, psylociben mushrooms, ayahausca as well as LSD, MDMA and DMT. These are often used in shamanic cultures for communing with nature and, in the shamanic tradition, for facilitating contact with nonordinary realms and their occupants. However, the techniques for doing this WITHOUT psychogenic substances also include dancing, breath work, yoga and other practices like fasting. The use of these substances and practices should be managed very carefully and in a non-recreational manner as part of a spiritual quest.
Western culture since Decartes has acted on the principle that there is no spiritual realm accept the one that the church tells you about and has all but eliminated spiritual practice to some behavioral modification and wishful thinking. There is no solid Western tradition that embraces the ecstatic practices. There is no Catholic yoga, or kungfu, or Sufi dancing, etc...
The video is a discussion by people like Stanislav Grof, Terrance McKenna, Barbara Hubbard and other people with extensive experience in consciousness research and really provides a basis for a western mind to understand the core of the shamanic tradition which lies at the root of all religions. There is a list of terms in the glossary section of the webpage which are very helpful and the film itself explores those terms specifically and in detail.
What Verena and others have missed in this exchange is that Fasting is an aescetic practice that will stimulate nonordinary states of reality in the form of dreams and visions. Whenever one is engaging this practice one begins with a purification, for fasters that means a slowdown in volume of food and a focus on cleansing foods. Then the fast itself with the attendant altered states... then the assimilation of the experience afterword. Fasting is a tool, like entheogens, sometimes used in combination with them, to achieve an ecstatic state.
On another note, breath hold training can be dangerous and the blackouts are usually instantaneous and without warning so one should be very careful when training alone. I do it but I follow some very strict rules...
So Verena, now you know what aspects of spirituality really get Americans talking - bashing scientology and food(or the lack thereof)!
I think I will move on to fasting right after I get lotus position down. On the other hand though, I've recently been forced to experience life with little to no food, and I'm seeing the light of moderation. And vegetables. Turns out they are also important.
There is something just so satisfying about a mcdonalds/whitespot feast though. Or the unparalleled kraft dinner, hot dogs and tater tots.
Wow, I think this is a great article with great comments too. I love it when people explore fasting, the Master Cleanse and spirituality. It’s such an interesting and important topic.
First, I want to disclose my bias. I am the owner of the Neera Super Cleanse www.neerasupercleanse.comm), an improved version of the Master Cleanse. We replace the maple syrup with palm syrup which is a much more nutritious syrup. It costs more, but makes the diet significantly easier. Over the years I have talked with hundreds of people who did the diet with maple syrup, really struggled, and then tried it again with our syrup and they breezed right through the cleanse. It makes the diet so much easier. Perhaps if you want to try the diet again Verena, we can set you up with some of our syrup.
Second, there are a growing number of scientific studies that have demonstrated that periodic fasting decreases the chances of developing many types of illness. Recent studies at UC Berkeley, the National Institute of Aging, Louisiana State University and others show that periodic fasting decreases the chance of developing diabetes, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and some types of cancer. Fasting and low calorie diets are also the only proven methods of increasing lifespan. If you are interested in more information, we listed these studies on our news page at www.neerasupercleanse.com/pages/news.asp
Finally, I just wanted to say a little something about the spirituality of fasting. I think fasting can be spiritually very powerful because you gain a deeper perspective about yourself during a fast. During a fast, I have found that for most people going without food isn’t the hardest part, it’s overcoming the emotional and mental attachments to food that is difficult. Most of us aren’t even aware of these attachments until we try to overcome them. But when we do face and overcome them we become more empowered and free. We gain a deeper understanding of ourselves and a stronger ability to control our desires and attachments rather than letting them control us. In a spiritual sense this helps you to realize that, “I am not my attachments and addictions.” This can be so very liberating and quite profound. This has been my experience anyway.
If you have any questions for me please let me know.
Sincerely Yours,
Charlie Rebich
"In a spiritual sense this helps you to realize that, 'I am not my attachments and addictions.'"
Yes; fasting is something like gentle practice for dying.
"As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewilderd by such a change." - Krishna, Bhagavad-gita 2.13
Fasting is somewhat sobering in that sense.
I remember in my 20's doing fasts. One was 48 hours and I played baseball on the second day at a company picnic. I should have been weak but my coordination and reflexes seemed to kick up a notch. I was the dominant player which was not my usual level of play. Fasting will make you high and it is not that hard after the first 15- 24 hours. I have noted that like a one day sleep deprivation fasting can enhance performance.
I have fasted for 3 days about three times in my life. It is fascinated. East some oatmeal or bananas as the last meal before the fast. The third day I was actually feeling more energized. I think of it as rest for you digestive system. I haven't had the will power to do it lately.
For me, fasting is associated with preparing for a blood test or surgery...
I have been there and done that too many times. It's not the kind of pattern you want to keep repeating. Be well and stay away from doctors if you can. They are like auto mechanics. They keep finding parts to replace.
As a Jew, the first thing that comes to my mind when I hear the word fasting is Yom Kippur (the big day o' repentance in the Jewish calendar where Jews traditionally fast).
I actually wrote a post about Yom Kippur, guilt, and healthy cheating in a fast called "The Juice that Saved Yom Kippur" over at The Jew & The Carrot blog:
http://jcarrot.org/the-juice-that-saved-yom-kippur/
In other news, I recently went to Jill Pettijohn's vegan restaurant in Cobble Hill Brooklyn and was shocked at the sallow cheeked, sullen (and actually kind of rude) people who worked there. Maybe someone needs to remind them that fasts are supposed to be temporary...
Verena, if you eat properly, there is no need for fasting. And, btw, what gives with the "eek, a mouse," picture on your Blog?
I've only fasted once, during high school our youth group had a 24 hour 'lockin' where we didn't eat to raise our awareness of hunger in the world. We played games, had talks etc., but no food. We broke the fast at the end with pizza, best food I ever ate, although I was surprised that I didn't eat that much--thought I'd have to make up for lost time, but no my stomach was satisfied with the usual amount. It was a great experience, think we all appreciated food a bit more, and could empathize a bit with those who have no choice but to go without.
I don't think of fasting as tied to spirituality per se, I'm Lutheran and grew up with the idea of giving something up for Lent. Often it was a food item, but I don't even do that now. For me spirituality is about a relationship with God, and abstaining from food doesn't bring me closer to God. More power to those for whom it does, although anorexics have taught us that controlling food intake is often not a spiritual enterprise but rather a suicidal one.
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