2) revitalize, and (3) replenish.
PURIFY
Y our ski n reflects the purity of your entire body. The principles of a healthy
diet, nutritional supplementation, and detoxification will pay their rewards
in the quality of your skin. In addition to generally healthy lifestyle choices,
you mu st carefu lly clean your skin once or twice daily to re move local
toxins that block your skin pores and predispose you to infections.
It is generally best to avoid soap s that contain harsh deter gents and to use
natural cleansers. A yurveda recommends the use of herbal cleansing
powders that remove toxins an d excessive oils while reestablishing acid-
base bal ance. An  easily mixed f ormula that you can make at home includes
equal parts dried chickpea flour,  dry milk powder, nutmeg, lemo n peel, and
ground c oriander. Use about half a teaspoon with water to make a paste and
gently a pply it to your moistened face. As it begins to dry, rinse of f the
powder.If you wish to e xperiment with traditional A yurvedic cleansing herbs, try
adding neem, manjistha, or sandalwood powder. A basic principle regarding
the cleansing product is not to u se anything on your skin that you wouldn’ t
be comfortable putting into your stomach.
Moist herbalize d steam treatments are also helpful in opening clogged
pores an d releas ing toxins. Once a week, treat yourself to a f acial steam
bath to which you add a few drops of essential oil. Lavender, juniper,
rosemary, ber gamot, or sage all have purifying ef fects on the body.
REVIT ALIZE
The second step to reverse the appearance of aging is skin re vitalization.
Stimulating the collagen fibers that support the skin can improve its tone
and appe arance. Many modern skin care products contain natural acids that
stimulate the cells that produce collagen, such as glycolic acid, azelaic acid,
and lactic acid. Skin care produ cts with these acids in higher concentration
will cause some peeling and should be used under the supervision of a
skilled s kin care specialist. Milder revitalizing treatments can be applied at
home using readily available natural products.
Y ogurt, lemon juice, and grape fruit juice can have a mild stimulating
ef fect. Fresh yogurt can be applied directly to your skin and left on for five
minutes before rinsing. Dilute le mon juice or grapefruit juice with an equal
part of aloe vera juice and apply to the skin. Leave on for two minutes and
then rinse. If your skin is oily, you can do this every day. If your skin tends
to be dry or reactive, dilute the  solution further and use every  second or
third day.
REPLENISHAfter cleansing and revitalizing, the skin needs to be replenished. Use a
pure veg etable or nut oil to which a few drops of an essential flo wer or herb
oil has been add ed. T ry mixing almond, jojoba, avocado, or sunflower oil
with ros e, lavender, sandalwood, jasmine, geranium, or lemon essential oils.
Apply a small a mount and allow it to be absorbed naturally. Use more if
your skin is on the dry side. Sou rce books on natural beauty ca re are listed
in the references for this chapter.
SUN PROTECTION
Always use sunscreen when you  are outdoors. Ultraviolet radiation leads to
collagen damage, wrinkling, and skin cancer. Prevention is much better than
cure, so be awa re of the potentially damaging ef fects of sun on your skin.
This is particularly important if you live in a hot climate or at higher
altitudes. T each your children to use sunscreen to prevent unnecessary skin
problems later in their lives.
Every day in every way,
I am incr easing my mental and physical capacity.
My Biostat is set at a healthy ____ years of age.
I look and feel a healthy ____ years old.
I am r eversing my biological age:
By changing my per ception of my body, its aging and time;
Thr ough two kinds of deep r est—r estful awar eness and  r estful sleep;
By nurturing my body thr ough healthy foods;
By using nutritional complements wisely;
By enhancing mind/body integration;
Thr ough exer cise; andBy eliminating toxins fr om my life.
9
Y ou Can Reverse Y our
Biological Age by Cultivating
Flexibility and Creativity
in Consciousness

ACTION STEP # 8
I am  r eversing my biological ag e by cultivating flexibility and  cr eativity in
my consciousness.
I put flexibility into practice by:
Learning to let go when things don’ t seem to go my way.
Practicing the wisdom of uncertainty—not being attached to outcome
and letting go of the need to control.
Learning to for give by relinquishing grievances, resent ments,and
r egr ets.
I put cr eativity into practice by:
Learning the nine-step cr eative r esponse.Applying the cr eative r esponse to all the challenges and/or problems in
my life.
Helping others to solve their problems by teaching them the cr eative
r esponse.
Aging is associated with rigidity and decay.
Y outh is associated with flexibility and cr eativity.
Both flexibility and cr eativity ar e learned behaviors.
By cultivating flexibility and cr eativity in consciousness,
you r enew yourself in every moment and
r everse the aging pr ocess.
An ancient V edic aphorism says,
“Infinite flexibility and cr eativity
ar e the secr ets to immortality.”

Y ou can reverse your biological  age by cultivating flexibility an d creativity
in c onsciousnes s. When we consider growing older we usually think of
becoming less flexible and cre ative. Our language of aging reflects this
view. W e use expressions like “Y ou can’ t teach an old dog new  tricks,” or“I’m too old to change,” or “He’ s just too set in his ways.” In b oth modern
and V edic sciences, the loss of flexibility and creativity is a result of
increasing inertia, entropy, and disorder in the body/mind system.
According to V edic theory there  are three fundamental forces a t work in
the universe: Sattwa, Rajas, and T amas. Sattwa is the force of creativity,
evolution, and transformation. T amas is the force of stability, resistance, and
inertia. Rajas is the tension between the forces of creativity and inertia. As
children and adolescents we are dominated by change, flexibility, and
creativity and have a preponder ance of natural Sattwa. Our bra ins and our
behavior reflect our tremendous  capability to expand, adapt, transform, and
evolve and our willingness and  desire to experience and learn new things.
As adult s we see the rise of Rajas. This is a result of the everyday stresses
of life and our attachment to outcomes, as we seek to prove ourselves in the
world. A s we age we become increasingly concerned about s ecurity and
stability and T amas begins to predominate. This stability is refl ected in our
behaviors and in the connections between the neurons in our brains.
Stability leads to stagnation, s tagnation leads to decay, decay leads to
disorder and entropy, and ultimately to death.
Death i s the soul’ s response to the loss of flexibility. When your
physiology has lost the flexibi lity and creativity to further i ntegrate the
ener gy and information of your life experiences, the soul goes into
incubation. Acc ording to V edic wisdom, when the soul needs t o digest the
experiences of a lifetime, it first incubates and then takes a qu antum leap
into a new context and a new body/mind. In Eastern wisdom traditions this
is the process of reincarnation—incarnating into a new life experience.
Rather than waiting for death to take a quantum leap into a new life
experience, why  not take the quantum leap while you are alive? This way
you can incarnate (literally reincarnate) on an ongoing basis. This requires
learning two basic and fundamental behavior patterns: (1) flexibility, which
comes from letting go, and (2) cr eativity, which involves intention,
incubation, and incarnation. By learning to incorporate flexibility and
creativity as your evolving behavioral pattern, you will master on a daily
basis wh at most  people have to  literally die for—to incarnate a nd create anew bod y/ mind. Let’ s explore t hese two qualities that are the foundation of
eternal youth.
By cultivating flexibility and cr eativity in consciousness,
you r enew yourself in every moment and r everse the
aging pr ocess.

Flexibility
The essence of flexibility is  the willingness to let go. Surveys of
centenarians (people who have lived at least one hundred years ) often ask,
“What d o you believe are the reasons that account for your long and healthy
life? Is it your d iet? Have you been exercising your whole life? Have you
avoided tobacco? Do you drink alcohol?” The intent of these questions, of
course, is to identify common principles that could help us all live longer,
healthier lives. Surprisingly, none of these questions clearly reveals the
secret to longevity. The


 sunflower oil, is healthier for the heart than, say, butter; they don’t stop to wonder just
how the golden liquid oil had become snow white and solid….) Hydrogenated fat is cheap, has
no flavor and secures any product a long shelf life, hence its popularity in the food industry.
However, recently evidence has piled up to show that far from protecting the heart, Transfats
actually damage it, are essentially toxic, cause obesity and have even been linked to some forms
Copyright © Charlotte Gerson, 2007.  All rights reserved.
This material may not be reproduced in any medium, print or electronic without prior written permission from the author.Page 3 8Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.comof cancer. A long-term study carried out at the Harvard School of Public Health on 18,555 healthy
women trying to get pregnant found that for every 2% increase in the amount of calories a woman
got from Transfats, her risk of infertility increased by 73%. The British Transfat expert Dr. Alex
Richardson commented, “Transfats shouldn’t be in our diet. They are toxic and have no known
health benefits and many known health risks.” The World Health Organization has recently urged
consumers to exclude Transfats from their food intake, and in Britain all the leading supermarket
chains have pledged to ban hydrogenated oils from their own-brand foods and drinks as fast as
possible
 The Harvard School of Public Health has estimated that at least 30,000 people and more,
probably 100,000 die every year in the US from cardiovascular disease, caused by eating HVOs
found in most convenience foods. The American nutritionist Mary Enig has stated that Transfats
disrupt the cellular function of the body, weakening its power to expel wastes and toxins. This
opens the door to heart disease, diabetes, cancer, poor immunity and obesity.
 The good news is, that since January 2006, under US Government regulations food
manufacturers must state the amount of Transfats contained in their products. Some of them have
already started to remove Transfats from their output. And the British Soil Association, flagship
of the organic movement in the UK, has recently declared that all additives, including Transfats,
MSG and aspartame are absolutely banned from all organic products.
The only way to exclude these and countless other harmful additives from one’s diet is to
avoid all manufactured foods, and take the more labor-intensive but health-restoring path of
eating only fresh organic natural foods, and limit restaurant meals to rare occasions.
 But additive-filled junk food doesn’t just harm the body: it is also a powerful trigger for anti-
social behavior. Researchers both in California and in England have run experiments in prisons
housing young male criminals, giving them supplements containing vitamins, minerals and
essential fatty acids over several months, and monitoring their behavior. In both countries minor
offences dropped by 33%, and serious ones, including violence, by 37-38% 6.  Take those findings
out of the prison setting and it becomes obvious that much anti-social behavior in society can be
ascribed directly to harmful toxic food additives—yet another powerful argument for avoiding
junk foods of all kinds.
Fluoride
Among the factors undermining the body’s defenses this substance deserves special attention,
because while exorbitant dental health claims are made for it by commercial interests, in fact it is
a dangerous poison, an industrial waste containing small amounts of lead, mercury, beryllium and
arsenic. The official reason why the US Government promotes the compulsory addition of fluoride
to drinking water is to improve children’s dental health, which, as common sense recognizes, is
not undermined by shortage of fluoride, but by an unhealthy diet, insufficient dental hygiene and
Copyright © Charlotte Gerson, 2007.  All rights reserved.
This material may not be reproduced in any medium, print or electronic without prior written permission from the author.Page 3 9Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.comtoo many sweets. According to some experts, fluoride only protects the teeth of children up to
the age of 5. Since that age group makes out only a small percentage of the population, it seems
indefensible to force this highly controversial chemical onto everybody, irrespective of their age
and dental condition.
        Moreover, there is evidence to show that fluoridation does not lastingly improve children’s
dental health. On the other hand it causes fluorosis to one in every eight children, resulting in
mottled, discoloured teeth. In the US, according to figures released in 2003, despite fluoridation
more than half of children aged 6-8 and two-thirds of all 15-year-olds suffer from dental decay.
And there is worse to come. It is claimed that the prolonged intake of fluoride can be linked to
increased risk of cancers, hip fractures, osteoporosis, kidney trouble and even birth defects. The
late Dr Dean Burk, who had worked for more than 30 years as chief chemist at the US National
Cancer Institute (NCI), declared, “Fluoride causes more human cancer deaths, and causes it
faster, than any other chemical.”  Following a 17-year study, the NCI found that as fluoridation
increased, so did oral cancer, and also osteosarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer, in young men.
The rate of increase in those two cancers has been established as 33-50, viz. 70%.
        Despite the NCI study’s conclusions, the pro-fluoride camp is doing its utmost to hide
and deny the harmful effects of the chemical. One such attempt led to an uproar among scientists
in 2006, when it transpired that Professor Chester Douglass of the Harvard Dental School had
kept secret the findings of his graduate student Elise Bassin for four years. In her 2001 thesis
Bassin discussed the association between fluoride and cancer, particularly osteosarcoma —bone
cancer—in young males. When her findings were finally published in May 2006 and the truth
came out to general consternation among researchers, Harvard exonerated Professor Douglass
from any wrongdoing and conflict of interest, although he is widely known to be a paid consultant
for the toothpaste industry, which is a major user of fluoride. Up to 500 letters of protest have been
sent to Harvard’s President Bok, among them a blistering one from Professor Samuel Epstein,
Chairman of the Cancer Prevention Coalition, demanding “a full and watertight explanation of
this extraordinary action.” At the time of writing the issue has not been resolved.
        This story is just one of many examples showing how assiduously vested interests fight
to protect their profitable products, even at the risk of endangering public health. To guess the
truth about the claimed harmlessness of fluoride, we only have to read the warning on any tube
of commercial toothpaste: “Keep out of the reach of children less than 6 years of age. If more
than used for brushing is accidentally swallowed, get medical help or contact a Poison Control
Center. Children 2-6 years: use only a pea-sized amount and supervise child’s brushing and
rinsing to minimize swallowing.”
        Many brands of toothpaste, infant formulas and commercially prepared beverages use
fluoridated water. Great care must be taken to avoid them all.
Copyright © Charlotte Gerson, 2007.  All rights reserved.
This material may not be reproduced in any medium, print or electronic without prior written permission from the author.Page 4 0Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.comNicotine and Alcohol
 The health ravages caused by smoking have been widely known for a long time, yet the habit
persists. Smokers use cigarettes either as a stimulant or as an aid to relaxation. In either case
the desired effect wears off quickly and has to be renewed, hence the self-destructive routine of
chain-smoking
 The main active ingredient of tobacco is nicotine, authoritatively described as “one of the
most toxic and addictive of all poisons that acts as swiftly as cyanide.”7
Yet nicotine is not the only toxic product of smoking. The tars produced by the burning
process line the lungs and eventually cause emphysema and cancer. Smokers tend to assume
that they are only damaging their lungs. However, the poisons contained in cigarettes pervade
the entire organism, damaging all organs. Bladder cancer, for instance,  occurs more frequently
among smokers than abstainers. There is also the detrimental effect of the well-documented
“second-hand smoke” on the smoker’s family and workmates. What may appear to many even
today as an acceptable social habit is in fact a serious attack on our natural defenses.
 The same applies to alcohol, which ideally should only be consumed occasionally, and in
small amounts. If consumed in excess, alcohol can lead to chronic alcoholism. It is poisonous to
the brain and even more so to the liver, can cause gastritis, pancreatitis, seizures and delirium. In
extreme cases it leads to cirrhosis of the liver and death. Since the liver is a key organ, it is easy
to see how its destruction by uncontrolled drinking undermines the entire or ganism.
Cosmetics
Compared to heavily toxic substances, such as nicotine and alcohol, cosmetics may seem
somewhat out of place on our black list. After all, they have been used to enhance


 or belief that you  al-
ready are  or have  that which you  desire  is the  only means by which to ex -
perience your desires. No limitation is imposed  on that  which you  can
have except your failure  to assume  possession of the  quality or thing  de-
sired.
How the Law Works
The law of identical harvest or cause  and effect is impersonal and  can be
used to bring  into your experience anything  you can conceive.  Since cre -
ation is finished, every possible  state already exists. Your fusion with a
particular  state (imagining  with feeling  what you  would experience were
you in that state)  causes that state  to be projected  on your screen of
space. This law cannot be  changed  or broken and  always reproduces in
your outer  world the  exact duplicate  of any belief you  consent to as true.
If you  would  change  your world, you  must change  your beliefs. Since con -
sciousness is the  only cause, you  cannot blame  others for the  conditions
which presently exist nor can fate  or chance be  the cause  of that  which
you are now experiencing. Nothing  can alter  the course  of events in your
life except a  change  in your own consciousness. Whatever  is appearing  in
your world  now, although  it appears real and  an unalterable  fact, is a  re-
flection of previous activity in your own   consciousness. Therefore, a
change  in consciousness will reflect that change  in the  future  just as sure -
ly as past beliefs reflect the  present.
Man is pure  formless consciousness and  that which he  conceives himself
to be is an illusion or reflection of the  particular  ideas he  holds true. These
illusions exist only so long  as man focuses his attention upon them and
gives them life.
The conscious mind  forms beliefs and  opinions from the  evidence of the
senses or the  perceived  outer  world. The  creative  power  within each of us
More Free Books Law of Attraction Havenaccepts as true  that which the  conscious mind  impresses upon it. Your
creative  power  takes those  ideas, which are thought of with feeling, and
projects them in your outer  world. It is important to remember  that not
all thoughts are  creative.  Only those  which are  believed  to be true or
which are  joined  with feeling  create  the circumstances and  events that
you will encounter.
Therefore, emotions such as anger, fear, love  or joy are  creative. You
must guard  the emotions which you  allow to enter  your consciousness
just as you  would  discriminate  in allowing  a stranger  into your home. You
cannot allow  negative  emotions to fill your mind  without suffering the
consequences of experiencing  the state with which those  emotions are
joined. Fear of loss brings loss into your world. You  could  take every out -
ward precaution to guard  against loss, but if you  fear loss, you  will most
certainly experience it  in your affairs. Feelings of love  and joy create  hap-
py events and  loving  relationships. Feeling  abundant brings riches into
your life.  A person who is unloving  or suspicious and  feels that others take
advantage of him, draws to himself that which he  believes. No matter
what he  does externally, his relationships with others  will reflect that
which he  accepts as true. He may want a  loving  relationship  but he  can
draw to himself only that which he  is conscious of being.
Like literally does attract like.  As within, so without. Consciousness is real -
ity and  that which is perceived  by our senses and  appears so real is but
the shadow  of that which we believe  ourselves and  the world  to be.
Conscious Use of the Law
At this time, I’m going  to talk  about who I am and  what I am doing. If
that sounds ego  centered, it is. There  have been 66  books written about
who I am. I’m going  to quote some  statements from a  few of those
books. You  have heard  many of these  quotes but didn’t realize that they
were talking  about the  being  that I am. The  first quote  is taken from
the Book of Exodus. Here, Moses is talking  to God  and he said, “When I
go back  to the people, who shall I say has sent me?”  The voice answers,
“Tell them I am has sent me  unto you. That is my name forever and the
name  I shall be  known by throughout all  generations.”  The Ten Command -
ments state,  “Thou  shalt not use  the name  of the  Lord thy God  in vain.”
“Shalt not”  is a command. “Shalt not”  means you  must not. It means that
under  no circumstances must you  do it. That name  is I AM.
Now, first of all, we have  all forgotten His name.  We say, “I am”  hundreds
of times a  day and we don’t know  we are  using  the name  of God. Second -
ly, we  try to break  the Commandment all day long. We  pay no attention to
what we  say following  “I AM.”  When  we say, “I AM”  and follow  it with
something we  would  not like  in our world, we  are using  the Name  of
the Lord – but not in vain. The  Bible states we  cannot use  the Name  in
vain. Nothing  we say preceded  by “I AM”  is in vain. That’s his Name. It is
More Free Books Law of Attraction HavenGod Himself and because  it is God, it is creative.  God gave us Himself. He
is “I AM”  and that is who I am. I can never  forget that I am. I may forget
who I am or where  I am but I can never  forget   that I exist.
Whenever  I say “I AM”,  I AM [is] creating  something. Prayer  is believing
that we  have  already received  that which we  ask. When I say, “I am,”  I
am attaching  my awareness of being  to something. Now, you  can lie and
not believe  what you  are saying, but you  cannot believe  something  about
“I am”  and not create  it. We  are creating  morning, noon, and   night by
our “I am”  statements. If you  say, “I don’t feel well”  and you believe  it,
you are perpetuating  illness in your life.  You must change  those  state-
ments to “I feel wonderful.”   We were taught, “Let the  weak man say, ‘I
am strong.’”  But, you  can’t say it like  a parrot. We  have to pray (say I
am), believing  that it is true,  and then we  will receive.
First, we must be  like the Watchman at the  Gate.  We must watch every
thought that  contains I Am. If you  are observant, you  will see that you
have created  every circumstance and  experience of your life.
Another  important word  to watch is “if.”  The conscious mind  is very subtle
in expressing doubt (Satan or the  Devil). We  may be  able to keep  our
minds focused  on what we  want by using  positive  “I” statements. If we
are not careful, we  may let a  little “If” sneak  in without recognizing  its im -
plication. We  could  say, “I feel wonderful”  but then follow  it with “If the
pain continues, however, I will see a  doctor on Tuesday.”  “If’s” are always
followed  by something  negative  and that is simply doubt creeping  in to
steal the  good seed we have  sown. Remove  the word “if” from your vo -
cabulary, as it is not productive  of that  which you  would  like to reap. “If”
puts everything  in the  past or future  tense, and  I always experience what
I believe  I am. I am is not future  tense. Getting  well is not being  well. I
must believe  that I am already what I want to be.
Remember, “Every word  that goeth forth from my mouth shall not return
unto me  void.”   Do you  believe  it? “In the  beginning  was the  Word, and
the Word was with God, and  the Word  was God.”  What’s his Name? I Am.
So, begin to monitor every word  (I AM) that you  say. Do you  see a  pat-
tern? Don’t the  circumstances of your life  reflect what you  have been say -
ing? You  have been misusing  the creative  power  that is God  (I AM). Now
that you  are aware  of


	visitor.
When	she	entered	the	kitchen	her	mother	was	crying.	The	little	girl	asked
why,	and	her	mother	said	that	there	had	been	a	sudden	death	in	the	family.	It
was	the	cousin	from	Chicago,	who	had	died	that	morning.	Did	the	girl	see	her
cousin	as	a	vision,	a	premonition,	or	merely	as	a	coincidental	act	of
imagination?	As	she	tells	the	story,	she	saw	her	cousin	“for	real.”	Yet	what	do
we	mean	by	“for	real”	except	that	something	is	convincing?	This	encounter
with	a	departed	relative	can	be	judged	as	either	hallucinatory	or	deeply
spiritual,	depending	not	on	the	event	itself	but	on	who	is	looking	at	it.In	the	afterlife	a	person	wakes	up	from	one	extremely	convincing
perspective—physical	existence—and	faces	the	possibility	of	freedom.
Akasha	isn’t	any	particular	perspective;	it’s	a	wide	open	playing	field	waiting
for	players	to	enter	it.	Who	will	the	players	be?
They	could	be	the	same	players	we	are	already	used	to.
They	could	be	players	we	have	imagined	and	are	eager	to	see.
They	could	be	otherworldly	beings.
They	could	be	emanations	of	ourselves.
They	could	be	embodiments	of	abstract	ideas.
In	world	culture	all	these	variations	have	been	reported.	Christian	heaven
is	a	specific	Akashic	play,	a	drama	of	redemption	with	otherworldly	beings	in
it,	along	with	familiar	people	from	the	past	and	an	abstraction	that	we	call
God.	To	the	extent	that	all	these	images	materialize	in	the	mind,	a	dying
Christian	accepts	that	she	has	arrived	in	heaven.	Vedanta	says	that	the	deeper
truth	is	that	the	dying	person	has	arrived	in	a	creative	space,	Akasha,	which
produces	whatever	is	wanted.
But	how	does	a	person	know	what	he	wants?	The	answer	gets
complicated.	Let’s	take	it	back	down	to	earth	and	ask	the	same	question.	How
do	you	know	what	you	want	right	now?	Until	your	next	desire	appears,	you
won’t	know.	It’s	certain	that	you	will	want	something,
because
	the	mind	is	a
continuous	stream	of	desires.	However,	this	doesn’t	make	the	mind
predictable.	You	may	be	a	creature	of	habit	who	always	wants	two	scrambled
eggs	for	breakfast,	while	I	may	be	restless	and	want	a	different	breakfast
every	day.	Both	of	us	could	be	thrown	out	of	our	accustomed	pattern	by	a
sudden	stress,	such	as	having	a	death	in	the	family,	losing	our	jobs,	being
diagnosed	with	heart	trouble.	Suddenly	we	aren’t	hungry;	our	minds	want	to
grieve,	not	eat.	The	unpredictable	tug-of-war	between	old	patterns	and	new
situations	makes	it	impossible	to	pin	down	desire.
In	the	same	way,	Akasha	is	elusive	because	it’s	so	open-ended;	it’s	as
unpredictable	as	a	dream	and	just	as	convincing.	Even	so,	the	Akashic	field
can	be	navigated.	In	fact,	it	must	be	navigated	if	we	are	to	take	advantage	of
the	creative	leap	that	the	afterlife	opens	up.
Navigating	the	Field
We	have	a	chance	to	open	up	the	possibilities	beyond	what	our	culture	has
conditioned	us	to	believe.	One	experience	can’t	fit	everyone.	Our	eyes
continue	to	see	what	they	expect,	even	when	we	use	the	eyes	of	the	soul,	but
the	Akashic	field	isn’t	a	swirl	of	random	images.	It	is	more	structured	than	a
dream;	it	has	a	kind	of	invisible	landscape.	The	structure	of	Akasha	cannot	bedescribed	in	physical	terms,	yet	if	we	look	inside	ourselves,	the	seemingly
random	flow	of	our	minds	also	obeys	a	kind	of	invisible	structure.
Let’s	say	someone	walks	up	to	you	and	greets	you	by	name.	The	person	is
smiling;	there’s	an	expectant	look	on	her	face.	How	do	you	come	up	with	a
response?	Your	mind	does	several	things	at	once.	It	consults	its	stored	picture
files	for	familiar	faces.	It	looks	for	a	name	to	attach	to	the	right	face.	If	neither
can	be	found	immediately,	the	mind	doesn’t	feel	stymied	yet—it	has	backup
resources.	It	rummages	through	faces	that	could	fit	this	person	but	are
younger	or	fuzzily	recorded.	It	tosses	up	sample	names	that	might	jog	your
memory.	It
runs
	through	recent	events	that	this	apparent	stranger	may	have
played	a	part	in.	If	all	this	doesn’t	work,	the	mind	starts	thinking	of	what	to
say	to	cover	up	your	memory	lapse.
We’re	all	familiar	with	such	situations,	and	we	are	so	accustomed	to
matching	names	and	faces	that	we	don’t	marvel	at	how	astonishing	the	whole
process	is.	Not	only	can	the	mind	Google	itself	for	information	with
incredible	swiftness,	it	performs	multiple	operations	with	backup	plans	if	they
fail.	This	implies	an	amazingly	complex	but	invisible	structure.
In	the	afterlife	the	same	structure	continues	to	exist.	In	near-death
experiences	the	dying	person,	suddenly	confronted	with	an	unknown
situation,	searches	inside	for	familiar	landmarks:	deceased	relatives,
recognizable	voices,	a	divine	light,	the	presence	of	a	fatherly	(or	motherly)
God.	In	other	words,	we	all	have	a	built-in	map	that	we	consult.	This	map
prepares	us	to	convert	any	unknown	experience	into	something	meaningful.
(As	I	was	writing	this	chapter	a	TV	special	about	heaven	came	on,	and	one
woman	being	interviewed	was	certain	that	she	had	been	to	heaven.	Her	near-
death	experience	occurred	when	she	was	giving	birth,	had	a	crisis,	and	fell
briefly	into	a	coma.	Describe	heaven,	the	interviewer	said.	The	woman’s	face
grew	rapturous	at	the	memory.	She	described	an	endless	stairway	going	up	to
the	sky,	and	along	the	stairway	happy	animals	pranced	around.	She	added	that
the	blue	of	the	sky	was	like	no	color	that	could	be	found	on	earth.	To	me,	she
chose	to	interpret	her	experience	by	drawing	from	a	scrapbook	of	childhood
images.)
Psychologists	have	conducted	experiments	that	illustrate	how	we
automatically	create	meaning.	In	one,	a	group	of	subjects	sits	in	a	room	before
a	tape	recorder.	They	are	told	to	listen	to	a	tape	of	someone	talking	and	to	take
notes	on	what’s	being	said	as	best	they	can.	They	are	also	told	that	the	voice
on	the	tape	will	be	very	soft,	since	the	experiment	is	testing	how	well	the
brain	can	register	the	faintest	spoken	words.
The	tape	is	turned	on	and	is	barely	audible.	The	subjects	crane	forward
and	take	their	notes,	which	are	then	collected.	What	they	haven’t	been	told	is
that	the	voice	is	speaking	nonsense.	Only	random	words	are	coming	out	of	the
machine.	Yet	each	subject	will	take	notes	that	make	sense,	because	anexpectation	of	hearing	meaningful	words	leads	to	the
creation


 in life, when something touches you to the core of your
being. No way this rattlesnake is going all the way in there. You don’t have
to think about it. Resistance is simply a natural response to something that’s
not comfortable. Y ou try to keep it at a distance.
Have you ever kept something at a distance in there? Perhaps
something some one said that hurt you in the past, maybe an awkward stage
you went through when you were young, or even a terrible divorce. Ofcourse you have, but that doesn’ t mean the event didn’ t happen. It wouldn’ t
be in there if it hadn’ t already happened. You can’t stop the event from
having happened, but you don’t have to let it all the way in. Mind is a big
place. There’ s plenty of room between where the experience is first imaged
in your mind and where you actually fully experience it. You can use will to
keep the mental  image at a distance from you. This is a very primal act of
resistance.
Now that you have resisted experiencing the rattlesnake, and let the
rest of the moment pass throug h, here comes a butterfly. It lands on you,
which is such a beautiful experience that you naturally focus on it. When it
starts to fly off, you don’t want it to go away, so you use your will to hold
on to the mental  image. This is what Buddhists call clinging. You can’t hold
on to the butterfly itself because it flew away. So you try to hold on to the
mental thought pattern of the butterfly. You push away what it was like to
experience the rattlesnake and you cling to what it was like to experience
the butterfly. Neither of these mental patterns can finish their natural
journey through  the mind. Not only do you lose out on fully experiencing
them to the depth of your being,  you are also left with these mental patterns
stuck in your mind. Neither rattlesnake nor butterfly remain before you, but
they are left as patterns in the mind’s energy field. Such is the power of like
and dislike.
Both clinging and resisting keep the mental renderings in your mind.
This is very important to understand. Experiential mind was meant to be
like a clear TV screen: it renders the image being sent to it. But now you’ve
held on to imag es that are no longer being generated by the outside world.
They got stuck in your mind as mental patterns, and as a resul t, you’re out
of harmony with reality. You were in there experiencing the gift of reality;
now you are also experiencing the patterns you held on to in your mind.
These patterns in your mind are totally different from the patte rns in other
people’ s minds. Each person’ s trapped mental patterns are unique and very
personal. They come from how we interacted with our past experiences.
Since we’ve all had different past experiences, and interacted with them
differently, the impressions held in our minds are totally different. This is
the birth of the personal mind.
The problem is: reality is not personal. As you’ve already seen, we
didn’ t create this world. We are simply experiencing the miracle  of creation
unfolding aroun d us. Yes, there are rattlesnakes and butterflies in the world,along with lots of other things.  But now there are RATTLESNAKES and
BUTTERFLIES in your mind, even when they are not actually in front of
you. Now that you’ve held these leftover mental impressions in your mind,
reality has to compete with them for your attention. Your ability to fully
focus on the outer world is going to be hindered by the constan t distraction
of these inner impressions.Chapter 13.
Fall from the Garden
Resistance is the beginning  of what can be considered the fall from the
garden. You were just fine being aware of this awesome, everchanging
creation. It presented constant gifts of experiences for you to learn and grow
from. Take the gift of music. When you are deeply absorbed in music, there
are no stray thoughts, only the music effortlessly coming in and feeding the
depth of your being. You can be raised to the state of ecstasy while listening
to music. When the mind is clear, everything comes in that way. You are
either in a heave nly state experiencing what is pouring into you, or you are
deeply absorbed in the inner stillness of your being. You have returned to
the garden—everything is ef fortlessly beautiful.
Once you hold on to rattlesnakes and butterflies in your mind, you are
unable to stay in that pure state of consciousness. These two mental patterns
have become powerfully charged objects that draw your attention toward
them. When the mind was clear, what attracted your consciousness was the
rendering of the outside world as it passed through. This rendering was very
entertaining and fulfilling, but since you had nothing going with it, it just
came and went. In contrast, the powerfully charged objects you have held in
your mind do not come and go. The world in front of you comes and goes,
but these mental objects remain because you are holding them in your mind.
Furthermore, since they are differentiated as more important than the rest,
your consciousness becomes more distracted by these mental objects.
Everything is no longer equal, and this creates a major problem. Next
thing you know, you’re walking down the road, and there’ s a rope. But the
rope no longer feels the same as it would have before you saw the
rattlesnake. The rope reminds you of the rattlesnake. What does “reminds
you of” mean? It’s not a rattlesnake; it’s a rope. Nonetheless, when the rope
comes in, consci ousness now has a choice: pay full attention to the rope thatcame in, or be distracted by the negative rattlesnake image stuck in your
mind. The mind will immediate ly join these two mental objects together as
one, and you will get scared. Scared by a rope? Y es, terrified by a rope.
A similar thing happens with the image of the butterfly stuck in your
mind. After the butterfly flies away, you’re still focusing on the image in
your mind. You’re still feeling good about it and trying to hold on to it, even
though it is no longer part of your here-and-now reality. Then something
new comes in from the outside, like a person walking by. Your mind may be
rendering this new image perfectly, but your consciousness is not fully
seeing it. Your consciousness is still distracted by the butterfly  image that
got left in your mind. It used to be that the moment in front of you was the
experience you were having inside. Now you have a preference— you would
rather experience the mental image of the butterfly than the reality in front
of you. There has become a whole new world for consciousness to focus on
—the world you built in your mind. That world does not match the reality of
creation. That inner world is your own personal creation made out of the
mental objects you didn’ t let pass through. That’ s what those images in your
mind represent: things that happened in the past that you willfully kept in
your mind. As we shall see, these impressions are the initial seeds that
eventually grew into the self-concept or personal self.
To see this more clearly, let’s once again look at the example of a flat-
screen TV. When the first plasm a screens came out, they had “afterimages.”
Manufacturers warned that if you paused an image for too long, it would
actually burn a shadow of the image into the plasma screen. When the show
continued, the old image would  still be there. Would you enjoy watching
TV like that? You’ve finished the news, but when you turn on a movie the
afterimage of the newscaster is still superimposed on top of your movie.
That’ s exactly what is happenin g with the butterfly and the rattlesnake. You
can no longer clearly see what is going on in front of you becau se you have
these other images on the screen of your mind. You’ve messed up your
screen. You didn’ t mean to. It seemed innocent to push exper iences aside
when you didn’ t find them pleasant. Where do you think they went when
you resisted them? They got stored as lasting impressions in your mind.
It is worth looking at the effect of these leftover images in slow
motion. In the beginning, the miracle of creation took place. It created form
that is coming in through your senses so you can experience it. Apparently,
at some point you didn’ t like certain vibrations, so you pushed them awaywhen they rende red inside. That willful resistance caused them to stay in the
mind. This is where personal comes from. We said earlier that nothing is
really personal. But you have chosen to fill the sanctity of your mind with
frozen images from your past. These impressions will stay in your mind and
will pull your consciousness toward them. You now have a limited and
biased view of reality that will distort all of your experiences for the rest of
your life. That is the power of the personal mind.
So far we have only focused on the rattlesnake you resisted and the
butterfly you clung to. Those alone are sufficient to distort your experience
of reality. But be honest with yourself: How many of these charged
impressions


ingly
small incident can trigger a major alarm. In Love’s Executioner, a
1989 book by Stanford psychiatry professor Irvin Yalom, the
author describes a middle-aged woman he calls Elva who had been
the victim of a  purse snatching outside a restaurant. The crime
was ran dom, and while she lost $300, there was nothing else in
the purse that couldn’t be replaced. Most people would feel the
shock of such an assault and then move on. But Elva couldn’t:
“Along with her purse and h er three hundred dollars, an illusion
was snatched away from Elva—the illusion of specialness.”
Having lived a life of relative  privilege, Elva assumed that she
was imm une from this kind of disruption—she kept repeating, “I
never thought it would happe n to me.” But it had, and the loss of
illusion exacted a terrible price:
The robbery changed everything. Gone was the coziness,
the softness in her life; gone was the safety. Her home
had always beckoned her w ith its cushions, gardens,
comforters, and deep carpets. Now she saw locks, doors,
burglar alarms, and telephones.Elva was constantly anxious, and time didn’t make her feel that
her life was ret urning to normal. As Yalom explains it, “H er world
view wa s fractured…She had lost her belief in benevolence, in her
personal invulnerability. She felt stripped, ordinary, unprotected.”
Being the victim of a crime shatters personal boundaries,
because the crime is a personal invasion. Here, Elva couldn’t
repair her boundaries. She went into an existential tailspin,
haunted by the ultimate threa t: death. It wasn’t a fear she h ad ever
confronted, an d yet death h ad touched her intimately when her
husband died.  It was a loss she had never really come to grips
with, an d it became the key i ssue that Yalom worked with her on
in therapy.
Elva turned out to be an extra ordinary patient, and in time “she
moved from a position of forsakenness to one of trust,” a change
Yalom conside rs not just tr ansformative but redemptive. Elva,
who once thought she had cr eated the perfect story, learned how
to be aware  of death without fearing it.
It’s futile to believe that you can create a perfect story, which is
most pe ople’s notion of a per fect life. Stories are always intruded
upon by unwelcome events. And stories become tangled webs even
when they seem to be wor king out well, because unconscious
forces—anxiety, depression, anger, jealousy, loneliness—can erupt
at any time. A lthough Yalom doesn’t use the term fail-safe, one
can see that Elva’s sense of being safe and protected was a
psychological f ail-safe. It had served her well for a long tim e, until
she discovered how flimsy and unreliable it actually was.
All of us have c reated our own version of personal fail-safes. As
with most mental constructs,  we often don’t realize what we have
done, and sometimes the mechanism seems to be so unconscious
that it is totally out of our control. Phobias are a good e xample.
People who are afraid of spiders will not physically be able to
touch even a small, harmless one. If they reach out and attempt to
touch o ne, fear  will arise, gro wing more extreme as the hand gets
closer. The next stage is viol ent trembling, a cold sweat, signs of
panic, and the feeling of being about to faint.
Phobias offer perverse evidence about the creativity of
consciousness, because anxiety can focus on anything. At thewebsite The Phobia List, yo u can find a catalog in alphabetical
order o f the phobias specified in the psychiatric literature. A total
number isn’t given—new references are constantly being added—
but under the letter A alone there are sixty-five entries, in cluding
aulophobia  ( fea r of flutes). Not every letter is this full; under G,
for example, there are only nineteen phobias listed, including
seemingly silly ones, like geniophobia  ( fear of chins ) and quite
serious ones like genophobia, a fear of sex. No consensus exists for
why ph obias ap pear, although psychiatrically they are cat egorized
as a form of anxiety diso rder, the common element being
excessive fear. Besides specific phobias, there are social phobias
that involve situations where  the person is afraid of what other
people think, and a whole c lass of agoraphobias, where people
grow panicky because they feel they are in a situation they cannot
escape.
People suffering from phobias did not necessarily have a bad
experience with the object they fear—they generally have n’t—but
they will go to great lengths to avoid the object once the phobia
has em erged. Phobias seem strange to anyone not suffering from
one, in part b ecause avoiding the feared object or situation can
lead to odd be havior, as with agoraphobes, whose fear of open
spaces p revents them from leaving the house for years at a time. It
is also strange that fear—whi ch puts mind and body on high alert
and is an effective protection when actual danger arises—turns
counterproductive in phobias. Being on high alert because you
hear a flute or see a chin has no survival value whatsoever.
Yet the normal  fail-safes that we hardly notice have a breaking
point, and when it is reached, severe dislocation occurs. Going
into sho ck, for example, renders the victim of an auto accident,
fire, or crime utterly helple ss. The dazed look and ina bility to
make decision s that are sym ptoms of shock could be see n as the
opposite of fight-or-flight. In fight-or-flight, a flow of stress
hormones is released, and under their influence, the lower brain is
totally i n charge—a soldier running from battle in a panic cannot
consciously will himself not to flee until the burst of adrenaline
subsides and the higher brain can once more make conscious
decisions. (We  can see the same response in a trivial situation, like
being sh own an  illusion by a street magician. When he gue sses theright ca rd or pulls a quarter f rom behind someone’s ear, it is quite
common for the person to ju mp back or turn away in alarm—the
lower brain is reacting to the  trick as if it were a threat.) Shock is
involuntary and would seem to have no self-protection value.
Gathered together, these various fail-safes are essential to the
self-model, the  view of realit y that tells you what is real for you.
No doubt personal reality has its quirks, and no two people inhabit
the same self-model. But, collectively, we share virtual reality,
with its universally accepted  features of time, space, matter, and
energy. These features are so ingrained that we feel “at home” as
long as space, time, matter, and energy don’t go hayw ire. But
knowing that these are ment al constructs isn’t about reality going
haywire. It’s about acquiring self-awareness, which alone can tell
us what is really going on.
B u y i n g  I n,  O p t i n g  O u t
No single individual created the human experience of space,
time, matter, and energy—they were created in our collective
consciousness, which goes ba ck as far as the emergence of Homo
sapiens  an d certainly before that. We cannot follow a trail o f
footprints that will retrace the steps that gave humans self-
awareness, which is our species’s unique feature. Our genes
contain the evidence of every life form, including bacteria, that
contributed to our physical makeup, but there are no physical
traces to tell us how our ancestors experienced their lives.
Our species’s most importa nt inheritance is invisible. We
connect with this legacy in early childhood, absorbing the whole
virtual-reality setup. Once a young child learns that time exists,
the rule s of time soon follow, and then there is no turning back. To
give an analogy, once you learn to read at age six or seven, you
cannot return to the state of illiteracy. Letters on a page cannot
turn back into meaningless black marks. Likewise, once you and
your brain have adapted to the rules of time, it wou ld seem
impossible to live as if time didn’t exist. A day, an hour, a  minute,a s econd—this dissection of life into bits of time is what T. S. Eliot
lamented in another poem, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.”
Time has become Prufrock’s psychological enemy.
For I have known them all already, known them all:
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.
Making a habit of dividing li fe into units of time doesn’t m ean
that hu man time is more rea l than another version. We have no
idea of how other species of  consciousness experience time and
space. Does the lumbering Galapagos tortoise feel it is moving
slow


materials,	and	to	regulate	the	passage	of	materials	in	and	out	of	the	park.	Inside
the	park	are	powerhouses	designed	to	make	the	energy	necessary	to	keep	the
park	working.	These	powerhouses,	in	turn,	require	fuel,	oxygen	and	other
essentials	on	a	round-the-clock	basis	in	order	to	do	their	jobs.
Also	inside	the	park	are	different	factories	and	manufacturing	plants	that
require	a	continuous	supply	of	energy	and	raw	materials	in	order	to	meet	their
daily	quota	of	finished	products.	Coordinating	all	these	activities	are	computer
and	communication	systems	that	regulate	the	delivery	of	raw	materials	and	the
removal	of	wastes,	as	well	as	the	production,	storage	and	distribution	of	finished
products.	All	of	these	systems	are	based	upon	a	set	of	design	blueprints
containing	all	the	information	necessary	to	build	a	new	park.
You	have	just	toured	the	human	cell.	Each	cell	has	a	wall—	the	membrane—
whose	purpose	is	to	keep	out	toxins,	bacteria,	viruses	and	other	harmful
substances,	while	still	allowing	nutrients	to	reach	inside	where	they	are	needed.
The	membrane	also	prevents	healthy	and	necessary	substances	from	leaking	out
of	the	cell,	while	still	allowing	waste	products	to	be	excreted.	Powerhouses	in
the	cell	create	energy	and	manufacturing	plants	make	the	finished	products	your
body	needs,	such	as	neurotransmitters,	hormones	and	antibodies.	Your	cells	also
have	electrical	and	communication	systems	that	help	to	keep	everything	working
in	balance.	Cells	have	many	important	jobs	to	perform	during	every	second	of
every	day;	anything	that	interferes	with	these	tasks	is	a	threat	to	health.
Every	day	hundreds	of	billions	of	cells	need	to	be	replaced.	Building	a	new
cell	requires	a	long	list	of	raw	materials,	similar	to	building	a	new	car	or	a
computer.	If	even	one	part	is	missing,	the	product	will	be	defective,	and	if	many
parts	are	missing,	malfunction	is	guaranteed.	As	each	new	cell	is	created,	you	are
choosing	either	health	or	disease,	depending	on	whether	the	new	cells	you	are
building	are	healthy	or	not.
You	make	this	choice	when	you	order	at	a	fast-food	drive-up	window,	when
you	stay	up	too	late,	when	you	spray	cleaning	products	around	your	house,	when
you	take	your	daily	vitamin	supplement	or	when	you	choose	to	take	no
supplements.	Making	a	single	bad	choice	here	and	there	is	generally	not	a
problem,	but	when	you	consistently	make	bad	choices,	daily	living	can	wear
down	your	tissues	faster	than	they	can	be	repaired	or	replaced.Building	and	Operating	Healthy	Cells
To	be	healthy,	each	day	old	cells	must	be	replaced	with	new	ones	and	each
must	perform	all	of	its	intended	functions.	Do	you	know	what	raw	materials	you
need	to	build	healthy	cells?	Are	you	eating	the	right	foods—foods	whose
calories	are	packed	with	the	building	blocks	required	to	make	healthy	new	cells?
Does	anyone	really	believe	it	is	possible	to	build	healthy	cells	from	coffee,
donuts,	white	bread,	pasta,	potato	chips,	french	fries	and	ice	cream?	How	many
of	the	raw	materials	necessary	to	build	and	operate	healthy	cells	do	these	foods
contain?	The	answer	is	not	many,	which	is	one	reason	that	we	have	so	much
disease.
A	chronic	shortage	of	vitamins,	minerals,	water,	oxygen	or	other	nutrients
causes	your	cells	to	malfunction.	You	may	be	unaware	this	malfunction	is
happening,	particularly	at	the	early	stages,	but	a	chronic	shortage	of	even	one
nutrient	eventually	makes	you	sick.	When	shortages	are	chronic,	the	body	stops
repairing	and	self-regulating;	cells	then	deteriorate	into	a	diseased	state	or	die.
Building	healthy	cells	starts	in	a	mother’s	womb.	If	an	embryo	suffers	from	a
shortage	of	building	materials	or	the	presence	of	toxins,	a	child	born	with	birth
defects	may	be	the	result.	During	pregnancy,	certain	parts	of	the	fetus	are	being
constructed	during	specific	weeks—such	as	the	brain	and	nervous	system,	the
circulatory	system	and	the	digestive	system.	If	essential	raw	materials	are
unavailable	at	that	crucial	time	or	toxins	are	present,	any	of	these	systems	can	be
affected,	perhaps	manifested	as	heart	defects,	digestive	problems,	lower	I.Q.,
attention	deficit	disorders	and	so	on.	We’re	not	talking	about	genetic	defects
here,	but	defects	that	result	from	building	a	baby	in	an	unhealthy	environment.
In	extreme	situations,	the	construction	process	simply	shuts	down	and	the	fetus
is	naturally	aborted—an	ever-increasing	occurrence	in	our	society.
A	newborn	baby’s	health	is	the	product	of	the	genetic	material	from	the
parents
and
the	supply	of	building	materials	and	presence	of	toxins	(from	the
mother)	during	gestation.	People	wrongly	assume	that	genetics	by	itself	explains
the	health	or	disease	of	their	child.	Congenital	defects	(those	present	at	birth)	are
not	necessarily	the	result	of	genetics.	For	example,	the	December	2001	issue	of
Lancet
reported	a	study	regarding	supplemental	vitamins	taken	during
pregnancy.	Mothers	who	had	taken	both	folic	acid	and	iron	supplements	during
pregnancy	gave	birth	to	children	who	were	60	percent	less	likely	to	develop	the
most	common	form	of	childhood	leukemia.	Eating	right	is	especially	important
for	expecting	moms.	Like	any	disease,	leukemia	doesn’t	“just	happen.”	The
quality	of	the	cells,	tissues	and	systems	a	baby	is	born	with	has	a	lifelong	effect.
Whether	caused	by	nutritional	deficiency	or	toxic	exposure,	trouble	can	beginwhen	your	cell	factories	are	supposed	to	be	making	something	but	are	not
making	enough	or	have	shut	down.	If	cell	factories	are	unable	to	make	sufficient
antibodies,	we	become	susceptible	to	infections.	When	cell	factories	cannot
make	sufficient	neurotransmitters,	mental	function	suffers.	(Neurotransmitters
are	chemicals	generated	by	nerve	cells	that	send	information	throughout	the
nervous	system,	allowing	us	to	think,	learn	and	remember.)	When	unable	to
make	sufficient	hormones,	communications	and	self-regulation	are	disrupted.
Hormones	are	chemicals	produced	by	specialized	cells	that	travel	through	the
blood	and	lymph	systems	to	bring	messages	to	other	parts	of	the	body.	Blood
sugar	level,	for	instance,	is	balanced	primarily	by	two	hormones,	both	produced
by	specialized	cells	in	the	pancreas.
Although	each	cell	is	a	living	entity	unto	itself,	bodily	systems	can	only	be
regulated	and	controlled	when	cells	are	able	to	communicate	effectively	with
each	other.
Impaired	cellular	communications	is	one	of	the	most	basic	common
denominators	of	disease,	no	matter	how	the	disease	happened	or	what	it	is
called.
Cellular	communication	and	feedback	systems	regulate	everything	from
body	temperature	to	immunity	to	movement.	When	these	systems	break	down
gradually,	as	they	often	do	in	disease,	we	may	not	notice.	We	are	more	familiar
with	sudden	and	severe	breakdowns


 Australia we found that those living near the sea were using animal life
from that source liberally, together with the native plants and animals of the land. They have not
cultivated the land plants during their primitive life. In the interior, they use freely the wild animal
life, particularly wallaby, kangaroo, small animals and rodents. All of the edible parts, including the
walls of the viscera and internal organs are eaten.
    The native Maori in New Zealand, used large quantities of foods from the sea, wherever these
were available. Even in the inland food depots, mutton birds were still available in large quantities.
These birds were captured just before they left the nests. They developed in the rockeries about
the coast, chiefly on the extreme southern coast of the South Island. At this stage, the flesh is very
tender and very fat from the gorging that has been provided by their parent. The value of this food
for the treatment of tuberculosis was being heralded quite widely in both Australia and New
Zealand. In the primitive state of the islands large quantities of land birds were available and
because of the fertility of the soil and favorable climate, vegetables and fruits grew abundantly in
the wild. Large quantities of fern root were used. Where groups of the Maori race were found
isolated sufficiently from contact with modern civilization and its foods to be dependent largely on
the native foods, they selected with precision certain shell-fish because of their unique nutritive
value.
    A splendid illustration of the primitive Maori instinct or wisdom regarding the value of sea foods
was shown in an experience we had while making examinations in a native school on the east coast
of the North Islands. I was impressed with the fact that the children in the school gave very little
evidence of having active dental caries. I asked the teacher what the children brought from their
homes to eat at their midday lunch, since most of them had to come too great a distance to return
at noon. I was told that they brought no lunch but that when school was dismissed at noon the
children rushed for the beach where, while part of the group prepared bonfires, the others stripped
and dived into the sea, and brought up a large species of lobster. The lobsters were promptly
roasted on the coals and devoured with great relish. Other sea foods are pictured in Fig. 74.
    The native diet of the tribes living in the islands north of Australia consisted of liberal quantities
of sea foods. These were eaten with a variety of plant roots and greens, together with fruits which
grew abundantly in that favorable climate. Few places in the world have so favorable a quantity of
food for sea-animal life as these waters which provide the richest pearl fisheries in the world. This
is evidence of the enormous quantity of shell-fish that develop there. Here, as off the east coast of
Australia, are to be found some of the largest shell-fish of the world. It was a common occurrence7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 158/250to see these shells being used by natives for such purposes as water storage and for bath tubs of a
size approximately that of a wash tub. Australia and New Zealand are near enough to the Antarctic
ice cap to have their shores bathed with currents coming from the ice fields, currents which abound
in food for sea animals. The great barrier reef off the east coast of Australia extends north to within
a few leagues of New Guinea. Murray Island is near the north end of this barrier. The fish in the
water at times form such a dense mass that they can be scooped into the boats directly from the
sea. Fishermen wading out in the surf and throwing their spears into the schools of fish usually
impale one or several.
    The incidence of tooth decay on this island was less than one per cent of all of the teeth
examined. Another important sea food in these waters was dugong, referred to as sea cow in
northern waters. This animal is very highly prized but is becoming scarce. We found its meat very
much like lamb. It lives on the vegetation of the sea floor in shallow water. As we flew over the
bays of Eastern Australia going northward in search of colonies of native Aborigines, we could see
these sea animals pasturing in the clear water among the ocean plants.
    During these investigations of primitive races, I have been impressed with the superior quality of
the human stock developed by Nature wherever a liberal source of sea foods existed. These zones
of abundant marine life were largely in the wake of the ocean currents drifting from the ice fields of
the poles. The Humboldt Current is probably the most liberal carrier of marine life of any of the
ocean currents. It leaves the ice field of the Antarctic and bathes the west coast of South America
from its southern tip nearly to the equator, where the coast line changes direction and the
Humboldt Current is deflected out into the ocean. It meets here a warm current coming down from
the coast of Central America, Panama and Columbia. If the superb physiques that Nature has
established among the Maori of New Zealand, the Malays of the Islands north of Australia, the
Gaelics of the Outer Hebrides and the natives on several of the archipelagos of the Pacific, owe
their superior physical development to sea foods, we should expect to find that the tribes which
have had contact with the great Humboldt Current food would also have superb physiques.
Unfortunately, very little has been known of the ancient cultures that have developed along the
coast of Chile and Peru. It has been reported that of all the Indian tribes of South America, those
in Patagonia were the most stalwart. While the west coast of Peru is bathed by the Humboldt
Current with its nearly inexhaustible supply of human nutrition, the lands bordering that shore are
among the most desolate deserts of the world. The zone between the Andes Mountains and the
coast for approximately a thousand miles is utterly barren, consisting of moving sand dunes and
jagged promontories. Practically the only break in this waterless, treeless desert is to be found in
the few ribbons of water that trickle down from the melting snows of the Andes Coastal Range.
This coast has no rainy seasons. Any vegetation grown, now or in the past thousands of years, has
had to be watered from the limited supply afforded by these rivers which seem so insignificant
when compared with the vastness of the territory. These river bottoms contain the alluvial deposits
from the Andes and are very rich when watered. It has been only by means of gigantic engineering
undertakings that the water from these rivers has been carried through great irrigation ditches,
sometimes fifty to a hundred miles long for the purpose of making it possible to utilize these river
bottom lands for agriculture.
   In many of the primitive tribes living by the sea we found emphasis on the value of fish eggs and
on some animal forms for insuring a high physical development of growing children, particularly of
girls, and a high perfection of offspring through a reinforcement of the mother's nutrition. It is also
important to note that in several of the primitive tribes studied there has been a consciousness that
not only the mother should have special nutrition, but also the father. In this group very great value
was placed upon a product obtained from a sea form known locally as the angelote or angel fish,
which in classification is between a skate and a shark. The young of the angelota are born alive,
ready for free swimming and capable of foraging for themselves immediately at birth. Twenty to
thirty young are born in one litter. The eggs of the female before fertilization are about one inch in
diameter, slightly oval but nearly spherical. They are used as food by all, but the special food
product for men is a pair of glands obtained from the male. These glands weigh up to a pound
each, when they are dried. They have a recognized value among the natives for treating cases of7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 159/250tuberculosis, especially for controlling lung hemorrhages. The sea foods were used in conjunction
with the land plants and fruits raised by means of irrigation in the river valleys. Together these
foods provided adequate nutrition for maintaining high physical excellence.
    In Chapter 13 I have discussed the probable order of these ancient cultures and the possible
extent of their duration. Very little is known of their origin. Evidence has recently been discovered
in Panama indicating that both the wealth and the culture of Peru were carried northward by
maritime conquerors and that the cultures of Central America, including the Maya culture may have
had their origins in these ancient cultures of Peru.
    While the coastal area of Peru saw the development of many magnificent cultures through past
ages, the highlands of Peru also have left much evidence of superior attainments and wisdom. The
two great Indian linguistic groups of the Andean highlands of today are the Aymara of Southern
Peru and Bolivia and the Quichus of central and northern Peru. The Aymara are credited with
being the descendants of the Tauhuanocan culture which preceded the Incan culture in the
highlands. The Quichu are credited with being the descendants of the Incan culture which had its
zenith just prior to the coming of the Spaniards. In Chapter 14 I have shown photographs of these
racial stocks as they are found today in the Andean Sierras. It may be possible that in former times
the vast


 and cancer are the result of
more than one dosha becoming unbalanced. Once one dosha is disturbed,
the others will follow suit unless balance is restored. Although different in
severity, colds and asthma are linked in Ayurveda, because they often
involve Vata going out of balance first, followed by Kapha aggravation.
Knowing the dosha that usually leads the pack (it is usually Vata) helps you
to correct the imbalance as soon  as possible. When you see someone who isangry and anxious at the same  time, a typical combination in high-stress
situations, you quickly recognize that Vata has gone out of balance and led
Pitta after it.
You will notice that some of the symptoms of dosha imba lance are
mental. This is an important fact. Your mind first detects imbalances in the
body. Since a balanced body makes the mind alert, clear, sensitive, and
happy, its absence causes these qualities to decline. When they do,
something has gone wrong with a dosha. By standards accepted in our
society, you can be normal without being happy. Ayurveda argues that this
is not nature’ s standard of health, however; unhappiness indicates that
action is needed now to avoid disease in the future.
THE SUBTLE SOURCE OF  DISEASE
Recently we saw a woman who had under gone a mastectomy for breast
cancer; the surgery had been successful, and she was considered out of
danger. A complication arose, however. She returned to her surgeon
repeatedly, complaining of pain.
“I can’ t find anything wrong,” he said.
“But I really am feeling this pain all the time,” she insisted.
“As far as medicine is concerned,” he replied, “your pain doesn’ t exist.”
Feeling extreme ly frustrated, the woman was advised by a friend to go
for an Ayurvedic consultation. On examination it was determined that she
was a Kapha type, which ordinarily predicts very good health. But the
traumas her body had been subje cted to during her illness had led to a gross
imbalance of Vata dosha. Her medical history showed that since her surgery
she had compla ined repeatedly to her doctors, not just of pain but of not
being able to sleep well. Her profile of Vata symptoms was very clear,
particularly when you consider that any wound such as major surgery
drastically aggravates Vata dosha.It was explained to her that although doctors tend to look for gross
physical causes behind every pain, there are countless patients like her who
were responding to pain caused by imbalanced Vata. Although linked to the
body, Vata is a separate, subtler part of the whole mind body system.
She was put on a program to balance her Vata—something that should be
done for every postoperative patient— including a special diet, rest, and
meditation. In short order her pain was reduced to tolerable  limits, her
insomnia cleared up, and her constant anxiety disappeared. A skeptic might
contend that “phantom pain” was at work here, a mysterious phenomenon
that is often seen in amputees. But the subjective experience of pain is all
that really matters, not its name.  Using the doshas to explore a new level of
reality proves extremely helpful in making sense of otherwise inexplicable
illness.
A good example is peptic ulcers. There is recent evidence that in the vast
majority of cases, the presence of bacteria called Helicobacter pylori is
associated with stomach ulcers. Eradicating this germ with antib iotics cures
the ulcer in more than 90 percent of cases. Therefore, the current medical
model considers stomach ulcers to be an infectious disease.
This would seem simple enough except for the fact that almost half of the
world’ s populati on harbors Helicobacter  pylori in their digestive tract, but
only 10 to 20 percent develop peptic ulcer diseases. Therefore,  we have to
ask why most people with these bacteria do not get an ulcer. From an
Ayurvedic perspective the answer is that individuals have different
responses to challenges from the environment, based upon their doshas.
According to Ayurveda, the typical ulcer victim is a textboo k case of
Pitta imbalance. When you look up Pitta aggravation, you find the same
constellation of symptoms that af flicts an ulcer patient.
Symptoms of Pitta ImbalanceInflammation of digestive tract
Excess gastric juice
Anger, hostility, tension
Burning sensation in digestive tract
Excess acidity in body

This list reads like a guidebook to getting an ulcer, but it is actually a
guide to what happens before the ulcer occurs. Since the doshas can be a
little out of balance or a lot, a Pitta imbalance does not guarantee that a
peptic ulcer is about to appear. However, in people who have strong Pitta
natures, ulcers are a common complaint, possibly because the way Pitta
people deal with stress leads to changes in their stomach acid secretion and
weakness in their immune systems. Preventing Pitta imbalances in the first
place, using Ayurvedic diet, exercise, meditation, and so forth may help
maintain the healthy defenses necessary to avoid an ulcer.
Let’s take note of a potentially sensitive point here. To participate in a
disease is not to cause it. If you go out into the cold without your hat and
coat, you may catch a cold. If that happens, your heedless actions played
their part, even though a microb iologist would be right to assert that you did
not cause  your cold—a virus did. In Ayurveda, more responsibility is being
put on your shoulders, on your ability to learn about your own dosha
makeup. I am not saying, “Whe n you get right down to it, you caused your
cancer, your heart attack, your case of AIDS.” But I do feel that you are not
separate from these diseases; in fact, being an active particip ant is what
saves us from being helpless victims.
In Ayurveda, we don’t tend to talk much about germs, which are basically
well understood in the West already. What is poorly understood are “host
defenses.” This is where knowi ng your own doshas really pays off. If you
expose yourself  directly to cold viruses, your chance of actually coming
down with a cold is only about 1 in 8. Why? Because your inner state of
balance is the deciding factor. Keeping your doshas healthy makes all the
difference.In the following pages you will find a comprehensive description of
imbalance, dosha by dosha. Then, in chapter 5, we’ll explore the Ayurvedic
techniques for restoring balance in the most natural, comfortable way.
HOW  THE DOSHAS GET  UNBALANCED
The dosha that is most likely to go out of balance is the one that
dominates your body type, meaning that Vatas should be careful about
aggravating their Vata, Pittas their Pitta, and so on. If you are a two-dosha
type, both doshas are possible candidates for causing problems. However,
in everyone the most active dosha is always Vata. It leads to the majority of
short-term probl ems, particularly if they are stress-related. (See chapter 5,
“Restoring the Balance,” for more about the role Vata plays as “king” of the
doshas.)
The typical signs of dosha imba lance are given here, along with some of
the most common conditions that cause them.
Vata Imbalance
By nature a Vata person is cheer ful, enthusiastic, and resilient in the face
of life’s everyday challenges. If you are a Vata type and have retained these
qualities, you are very likely in balance. It is undeniable, however, that
Vatas do not generally enjoy the best health. In childhood or adolescence
they begin to have various problems: unexplained aches and pains,
occasional sleeplessness, or a pronounced tendency to be worried and
nervous.
In time, if these early signs are not heeded, Vatas become the most
common visitors to doctors’  waiting rooms, accounting for the huge number
of prescriptions written for sleeping pills, tranquilizers, and pain relievers.
One would be justified in saying that the most common disorder in America
is Vata aggravation. Not that American life is solely to blame; Ayurveda
holds that Vata dosha causes twice the complaints as Pitta, and Pitta twicethe number as Kapha. Typical Vata complaints of headache, backache,
insomnia, menstrual cramps, and low-level anxiety or depression are
considered symptoms of the “worried well” by many doctors. However,
they are very real, stubborn problems that need to be addressed by bringing
Vata back into balance.
Other scenes from life also present a picture of classic Vata imbalance.
One is the picture of old age, a time when Vata increases in everyone. Aging
badly can bring out the worst signs of Vata aggravation: the person shrivels
into a bag of skin and bones; he no longer enjoys eating and has trouble
digesting his food; his mind wanders and becomes forgetful; he spends
long, lonely nights without being able to sleep. None of these things is
caused by Vata; they are cause d by Vata imbalance and there fore can be
prevented.
Another picture is that of grief. People who have


	status,	and	where	you	live.	If	you	are	looking	for	a	goal	number	to	try	to	plan
around,	a	very	general	recommendation	is	to	take	your	weight	in	pounds	and
divide	that	in	two,	and	that’s	around	how	many	ounces	of	water	you	need	per	day.
For	instance,	if	you	weigh	140	pounds,	then	you	need	around	70	ounces	of	water
per	day.	Monitor	your	urine	and	make	sure	it	stays	clear	or	pale	yellow,	and	always
avoid	getting	to	the	point	of	extreme	thirst	before	having	more	water.
Be	sure	to	also	keep	some	room	temperature	water	on	your	desk,	in	your	purse,
or	in	your	car.	If	you	drink	smoothies	or	green	juice,	you	are	getting	some	hydration
through	those	sources.	Juicy	fruits	and	veggies	like	cucumbers	and	celery	are	also
good	sources	of	hydration.	If	you	drink	alcohol,	which	is	dehydrating,	increase	your
water	intake	the	next	day	and	make	sure	to	drink	plenty	of	water	while	actually
imbibing	(as	well	as	before	and	afterward!).Bloating	is	more	than	unpleasant;	it’s	a	sign	that	your
digestion	has	been
compromised	in	some	way.	Luckily,	there	are	many	Radical	Beauty
recommendations	to	help	you	reduce	bloat	once	and	for	all.	The	tips	below	will
help	increase	your	digestive	power;	alleviate
constipation	and	irregular,
uncomfortable,	or	incomplete	elimination;	banish	bloat	once	and	for	all;	and
amplify	your	energy.	All	of	this	can	contribute	to	the	unfolding	of	your	own
natural	beauty’s	expression.
Radical	Action	Steps	to	Improve	Your
Digestion
and	Banish	Bloat
Now	that	you	know	how	important	good	digestion	is	to	your	beauty,	here	are
the	most	effective	steps	you	can	take	to	improve	it.
PROBIOTICS
A	high-quality	probiotic	supplement	will	help	balance	the	bacteria	in	your	gut
and	promote	better	digestion.	When	choosing	a	supplement,	remember	that	it’s
not	all	about	numbers;	don’t	look	just	for	the	highest	culture	counts	on	the
label.	Instead,	look	for	a	product	with	the	widest	array	of	soil-based	organisms
(SBOs),	which	are	the	types	of	bacteria	that	can	fully	survive	your	stomach	acid
and	take	up	long-term	residence	in	your	gut.	This	paves	the	way	for	continuing
gut	health	and	beauty.	A	formula	containing	both	prebiotics	and	probiotics	is
also	great,	as	the	prebiotics	serve	as	the	“food”	to	help	nourish	the	probiotics	in
your	gut.
FIBER
To	increase	your	fiber,	eat	more	veggies	in	general	and	include	them	at	all
meals,	as
only
	plant	foods	contain	fiber	(while	meat	and	dairy	do	not).	It’s	also
important	to	diversify.	The	bacteria	that	digest	your	food,	known	as	intestinal
flora,	consume	the	fiber	that	we	cannot	digest.	There	are	between	500	and	2,000
species	of	these	microorganisms	in	the	digestive	tract,	and	they	feed	on	all
manner	of	fiber.	Variety	is	therefore	essential,	covering	the	entire	plant
kingdom	in	your	diet,	which
means	fiber	from	whole	grains,	fruits,	and
vegetables.	To	maximize	the	effect	of	any	fiber,	use	the	whole	food;	choose
whole	fruits	over	straight	fruit	juice,	for	instance.	Buy	brown	rice	in	place	of
white,	and	choose	steel-cut	oatmeal	over	sugary,	processed	cereals.	This	natural
diversity	is	much	healthier	for	you	than	commercial	fiber	supplements.	Careshould	be	taken	with	the	rough	bran	in	bran-rich	cereals,	however,	since	it	can
scrape	against	the	intestinal	wall	and	even	injure	it.	See
this	page
	for	tips	to
increase	your	fiber	intake	while	avoiding	excessive	gassiness.
HOT	WATER
Drinking	hot	water	in	the	morning	(with	some	lemon	squeezed	in)	can
encourage	your	bowels	to	let	go	and	allow	for	more	efficient	elimination.	This
morning	practice	contributes	to	good
hydration,	which,	as	noted	earlier,	is
really	important.	It’s	also	a	good	idea	to	get	up	earlier.	Your	gut	does	not
respond	well	to	being	rushed,	so	allow	for	ample	bathroom	time	after	drinking
your	hot	water	to	let	your	body	relax	and	do	its	thing!
AVOID	HARD-TO-DIGEST	FOODS
Processed	foods,	fried	foods,	and	dairy	are	particularly	hard	on	your	digestive
system.
The	more	detoxified	your	body	is,	the	more
beautiful	you	become.
TIME	YOUR	MEALS	WISELY
Try	waiting	at	least	3	hours	between	meals	instead	of	constantly	grazing	during
the	day.	This	allows	the	foods	in	your	system	to	digest	more	fully.
Bloat	(see
this	page
)	may	be	compounded	if	your	digestive	system	is	constantly	full	of
food,	and	you	pile	more	and	more	food	that	doesn’t	have	enough	time	to	digest
on	top.	Also	try	simplifying	your	meals	by	using	fewer	components.
USE
SPICES	STRATEGICALLY
Boost	sluggish	digestion,	or
agni
	in	Ayerveda,	with	spices	like	turmeric,	cumin,
black	pepper,	and	ginger.	You	can	sprinkle	these	spices	into	stir-fries,	soups,	and
salad	dressings,	or	try	adding	them	to	hot	water	and	make	your	own	spice	tea.
TRY	A
MAGNESIUM-OXYGEN	SUPPLEMENT	(LIKE	DETOXY	+)
This	nonlaxative,	non-habit-forming	aid	helps	clear	out	accumulated	waste	in
your	system.
Constipation	and	waste	buildup	may	also	contribute	to
bloating.
TAKE
DIGESTIVE	ENZYMES	BEFORE	MEALS
These	are	capsules	you	can	take	to	help	your	food	break	down	more	efficientlyand	support	better	digestion	and	assimilation.	There	are	various	kinds	of
enzymes	included	in	various	formulations,	but	in	a	nutshell,	proteases	break
down	proteins,	lipases	break	down
fats,	and	amylases	break	down
carbohydrates.
AVOID
FIZZY	BEVERAGES
The	carbon	dioxide	that	makes
soda	and	even	plain	seltzer	bubbly	can	cause	or
exacerbate	bloating.
STEAM	YOUR	VEGGIES
If	your	system	is	rebuilding,	try
steaming	your	veggies	instead	of	eating	them
raw.	This	can	help	break	down	the	fiber	and	make	them	easier	to	digest.
EAT	MORE	SLOWLY	AND	DON’T	OVEREAT
The	latter	probably	seems	quite	obvious,	but	if	you	scarf	down	your	lunch	while
hunched	over	your	computer	or	lap	up	a	huge	plate	of	food	in	record	time	as
soon	as	you	get	home	after	a	long	workday	(maybe	because	you	skipped	lunch),
you	may	find	that	eating	quickly	has	a	sneaky	way	of	contributing	to
overeating.
Slow	down	your	consumption	and	you’ll	leave	the	space	in	your
stomach	needed	to	break	down	foods,	which	can	help	abate	bloating.
LIMIT	THE	AMOUNT	OF	DENSE
FAT	IN	EACH	MEAL
Fat	takes	longer	to	digest	than	protein	or	carbohydrates	and	can	make


 determining
systemic condition, tests of blood pressure are valuable, and they should frequently be made during treatment. One of the  salutary
consequences obtained by means of a fast is that blood pressure, like temperature and pulse, is uniformly brought to normal f or the
individual. This is an invariable result whether register be lower or higher than average when treatment begins. B ut the same
notation must again be made that was commented upon when temperature and pulse were under discussion: tabulated average
register cannot be regarded as fixed for differing organisms, since variations both above and below standard occur that cann ot be
attributed in every instance to disease. In this, as in other respects, each individual possesses a norm of his own. It may b e stated,
however, that, when systemic cleansing is accomplished, this norm is usually lower in register than the previous ta bulated
standard. In the matured body, with but little differences noted as age increases, a general normal in blood pressure ranges about
120 for the systolic, with about 80 as the diastolic register. This of course supposes the subject to be subsisting u pon non -
stimulative food material.

CHAPTER IX
DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED IN FASTING

DRUGS CAUSE ORGANIC TROUBLES:
SCIENTISTS QUOTED ON FASTING:
AUTO -INTOXICATION

ONE of the most serious obstacles to general acceptance of the fast as a therapeutic me asure by both the public and the medical
profession is the innate subconscious element of fear engendered by orthodox dicta that nourishment must be supplied lest vit ality
fail. Man must eat, sick or well, "to keep up strength." The degree to which this co nception is fallacious may be gathered from the
text; yet very recently medical science has "discovered" the efficacy of "short fasts" in the treatment of diabetes and in th e
reduction of obesity. Prediction is made that eventually all of the information g athered upon the therapeusis of the fast by those
who, like the author, have devoted years of service to the task, will be adopted and claimed as original by the dominant cult.

It is unfortunate that enthusiasm produced by the beneficial effects of perso nal trial of abstinence from food for the relief of
Page 31 of  72 disease has caused the recipients of these benefits to rush into print, detailing their experiences and advising other suffer ers to go
and do likewise. In greater part the articles and books referred to h ave been written by men incompetent of understanding more
than the mere results obtained in their own individual cases; and the consequences of such ill advised essays into unfamiliar  fields
are obvious. Regardless of the rationale of the method, and ignor ant of the physiological changes that the administration of a fast
involves, other inexperienced hands undertake the treatment without guidance, with the result that in many instances harm to the
patient succeeds, with consequent unmerited adverse criticis m of the method.

In the milder instances of functional illness no possible harm can result when food is omitted for one or for several days, p rovided
the needful aids to elimination are employed. But protracted fasting in the absence of skilful, scientif ic guidance is, as indicated,
fraught with the probability of injury to one who has the temerity to undertake the experience acting upon his own impulse.

If human bodies continued to exist from birth in the usually normal organic condition they then poss ess, the fast applied when
functional disturbance occurs in all probability would proceed to its logical end without difficulty. But, through constant w rong
living, through chronic abuse of the vital processes, through lowered muscular tone and consequent impedence of nerve force, and
through the effects of symptomatic suppression by drug dosage, the average adult acquires defects in organic structure.

In infancy, when functional disease develops, a drug is given for the suppression of the symptom, and vi rtually always
nourishment is supplied. Two errors in treatment are here noted --the administration of a substance reputed to possess properties
that will remedy, that is, suppress, the symptom leaving the cause of the disturbance to take care of itself; an d the ingestion of food
by an organism which, because of disease, is incapable of digesting the same. The results are that in many instances the chil dren
die; in others, functional paralysis of portions of the alimentary tract is caused; in still others, t he resistive powers of the infant are
such as to permit it to survive, despite both dosage and the administration of food. Yet in the latter event harm rather than  benefit
derives, and, since the evil is done during the growing period, retardation of organ ic development occurs, and in future years
disease symptoms arise at the points affected in infancy.

Careful observation of thousands of fasting subjects gives proof that a scientifically conducted fast will result in the corr ection of
all ailments that are functional in cause, but that it can never, either through the effects of itself or of its auxiliaries, wholly
overcome organic defects. However, the fast will do this --it will uncover the condition of the system, and, if defects or deficiencies
exist,  it will cause their nature to be clearly displayed. It is in effect an infallible diagnostic expedient.

One whose organs are functionally equal to the requirements of elimination undergoes a period of abstinence from food with no
severe distressing symp toms. And, when unusual manifestations occur, it is virtually certain that in some degree defects in
organism lie within the body. Post mortem examination of subjects who died while a fast was in progress has given convincing
evidence upon this point, and it has further demonstrated that in these cases death would have happened whether the patient were
fasting or feeding. To this may be added the observation that, because of lessened organic labor, life in the instances refer red to
was for a time prolonged.  But there are cases in whom distressing symptoms appear as results of organic deficiency which has not
yet progressed to an incurable state. These cases may, under proper guidance, hope for relief that may prove permanent.

A drug with regard to its effe cts upon the animal body may be said to be any substance that will influence metabolism --the
continuous process by which living cells undergo chemical change. Hence a drug also influences the functioning of the vital
organs. According to this definition fo ods, even though they be excellent in quality and reasonable in quantity, react as drugs upon
the organism. That is to say, food both influences metabolism and the functioning of the vital organs. But food is not necess arily
poisonous in its effects as are  all substances ordinarily classified as drugs; yet it is easily seen that, if taken in too great quantity, if
not properly combined, if ingested when hunger is absent or when emotion is aroused, or if it be unwholesome in quality, food  will
act as poison upon tissue and upon organic function. In like manner substances formed within the body from the process of tissue
waste may act as do drugs upon living cells. This occurs when elimination is inadequate, and hence arise the auto -toxins, through
the effects  of which systemic resistance, that is, immunity from disease, is reduced, and the way opened for the large group of so -
called infectious maladies.

It cannot be fairly assumed that, upon dissecting a body after death, lesions that are present in any orga n are due solely to previous
drugging. Where two such agencies as disease and drugs have been simultaneously acting upon a living organism, it is difficul t, in
the absence of a standard, to decide whether a specific result is due to one, or to the other, o r to both. But it is a significant fact
that, in every instance of death occurring during a fast as recorded in the writer's experience, each of the subjects, with b ut a single
exception, had been drugged in early life, and that the effects of this dosage upon vital organs and tissue, as shown in arrested
development and in structural change, were precisely such as could and would have been caused by an active poison.
Preponderance of evidence gathered from the findings of these autopsies makes for the pres ence at some period previous to death
of some toxic substance, some active noxious agent, that permanently and harmfully affected tissue structure.

The constant use of drugs to suppress the symptoms of disease in the growing child not only lowers physica l resistance but it also
retards the development of the vital organs, which in some instances suffer permanent deformation. Yet, despite this handicap, the
framework of the body eventually reaches normal adult dimension. The disparity presented by organs i n whole or in part nearly
Page 32 of  72 infantile in size functioning in a body adult in proportion necessarily causes forms of distress that will assuredly end in c hronic
disease, since the undersized organs are not equal to the demands made upon them. The process that  is predominant when a fast is
in progress is that of elimination, and it is easy to understand that, in a body in which, for instance, portions of the inte stinal tract
are under dimension, or in which one or other of the organs of special function is stru cturally imperfect, the labor of ridding the
system of accumulated waste is beyond the ability of the organism perfectly to accomplish. Therefore, to the degree in which
organic defects exist is determined the severity of the struggle with disease. In othe r words, the effort which is being made to east
out from the


. What I
didn’t tell him was that the last time I rode I was twelve,
and it was at s ummer camp with an English saddle. He
then di d the most unexpected thing. He handed me the
reins to his ho rse and pointed to an open field. This was
no time or place to be timid. I stuck my sandal into the
stirrup and swung myself int o the saddle, just as though
I kn ew what I was doing. I had always thought it would
be wild to gallop a horse across an open field. Somehow
that dr eam was about to be  realized in the middle of
Mexico where I knew absolutely nobody. I got used to
the hor se while some of the villagers gathered to watch,
and then I rod e like the wind across an expansive field. I
was really flying high, very exhilarated compared to the
strict Zen discipline to which I had been holding myself.
I s pent a few more hours discussing American life with
some very inquisitive villagers and then began to bid
them farewell. I was invited to stay for dinner, but it was
time for my evening practices. I remembered that my
friend h ad told me that the y were not allowed to fish
even th ough they were struggling for food. I went to my
van and pulled out the large  supply of brown rice and
dried b eans I had stored under the backseat. I handed
them all over to the women preparing the food. The
women were so appreciative that it almost made me cry.
This stuff meant nothing to me and so much to them.
This was another one of life’s  lessons I never forgot: the
joy of helping people.Before I drove off, they all surrounded my van to say
good-bye. I had lived in sil ence and solitude with no
human contact for almost a month—now I was a
celebrity. How  did this hap pen? To me there was no
doubt a bout how it happened—I had let go of myself and
something very  special had followed. I was willing to face
loneliness and fear and not gr ab for relief. Yet something
happened on its own, withou t my doing it or even asking
for it. The seeds of a gre at experiment were being
planted. Was it possible that life had more to give us
than we could ever take for ourselves?8.
U n e x p e c t e d  I n s p i r a t i o n
I  had grown a lot through my experiences in Mexico.
Learning to embrace life as it unfolded around me was
new to me, and  the results had been very freeing. By the
time I returned to Gainesvil le my heart and my mind
were m uch mo re at peace. Pr oblem was—I had no place
to live. My last residence had been in the woods by the
lime pit east of town, so I returned to that secluded
setting and lived there in my van. All I needed in my life
was solitude, the discipline of my ever-increasing
practices, and a minimal amount of food.
I realized that the probability of finishing my doctoral
degree was rapidly decreasing. I only had a few courses
left, but  then there were the qualifying exams as well as
the dissertatio n. Nothing was left in me that wanted to
be an economics professor. I wanted to explore inside,
deep inside. The depths of my meditations were all I
cared about.
The chairman of the Department of Economics, Dr.
Goffman, was like a father to  me. I loved and respected
him a great d eal, and he encouraged me to finish my
degree. He thought I was jus t going through a phase in
my you th, and  I would come  out of it soon. He kept me
on my fellows hip and pushed me to at least finish my
coursework. Out of respect for him, I would drive into
town periodically and go to class—but not very often.
I would eventually learn that everything in life has
something to teach you and that it is all for your growth.
But I was not ready to see that yet. To me, there was my
meditation, and then there was everything else. Though Idefinitely wasn ’t seeing my sc hoolwork as relevant to my
inner growth, I had a very illuminating experience
associated with one of my courses.
The professor of the course was a respected economist
and not  at all the liberal typ e. I missed a lot of classes,
and wh en I did show up, I was barefooted and in jeans. I
doubt t hat I was his favorite  student. One day he asked
me if I actually expected to receive a good grade in the
course. He explained that I  had put out just enough
effort to  do well on the exams, but my absences and lack
of p articipation  in class did not provide the basis for a
high gra de. I knew we had a f inal paper left to write, so I
told him  I would put extra effort into that paper, and I’d
appreciate it if he would ba se my grade solely on my
exams and the quality of tha t paper. He said he would
take it into consideration.
The tim e came  to write the final paper for the course. I
knew m y mental state was no t conducive to going to the
library and trying to learn en ough to write a great paper.
I ha d been meditating a lot, and my mind was very still.
No way was I going to spend days researching and
thinking about the topic. I would have to find a different
method if I was going to write this paper.
One evening, I gathered up a bunch of writing pads
and a few pens. After med itation, I lit the kerosene
lantern and sat at the fold-out table in my van. I began
by t elling myself that I really didn’t care what grade I got
in the class sin ce I probably wouldn’t finish my degree
anyway. This removed any mental or emotional pressure.
I t hen told mys elf to just start  writing whatever I thought
about the topic. I had no b ooks to refer to, just the
natural logic of a clear, unp ressured mind. I began to
write an d thoughts began to flow. I did not worry about
what I was wri ting or second-guess my thoughts. It was
very mu ch like meditation. I kept my personal self out of
it completely and just let unbridled inspiration flow.At s ome point in the process, a flash of inspiration
welled u p insid e of me. I went from not knowing what I
was going to do with the paper to knowing exactly what I
was going to w rite. It was as  though a cloud of knowing
instantly form ed back behind the quiet mind. It
happened as fast and pow erful as a flash of lightning. At
first, no thoughts were involved. It was more of a feeling,
just a definitive knowing that I now knew where the
paper was going and how to get there. Then the thoughts
began to form. They came slowly at first, then they
poured into my mind. I still  had to pull them together
into a logical flow, but the seeds were all there. It was an
amazing process to watch.
I wrote and I wrote. Notepad after notepad became
filled with a totally logical pre sentation that began with a
premise, laid out its argument, and ended with a
conclusion. Along the way, there were graphs to present
logical relationships, and there were references to facts I
had previously read or heard in class. These facts would
need to be polished and footnoted later, so I simply left
space fo r them and kept on writing what was created in
my mind. I sto pped for nothing. There was no worrying
or judgment of good or bad; I  just allowed the process to
unfold.
When artists create a work, they first get the
inspiration, an d then they bring it down to the physical
plane. That process is exactly what happened to me that
night alone in my van. The inspiration for the entire
paper c ame all at once, and then my mind digested it and
gave it form. Instead of a sculpture, a painting, or a
symphony, my  work of art was an economic treatise. It
came from where art comes  from, but the medium of
expression wa s logical thinking instead of marble or
paint. I had no idea where that spark of inspiration came
from. I only kn ew that in the flash of a moment, I had all
the material I needed to write a doctoral-level paper.I to ok the nex t few days to clean up the rough draft,
type it, and tu rn it in. The final typed paper was over
thirty pages long. Not only did I receive an A for that
course, but when my professor returned my paper, he
asked me if I would consider doing my dissertation
under him. I was humbled. As evidenced from this
recounting forty years later, the experience that night
had a profound effect on me. I had clearly seen the
difference between creative inspiration and logical
thought. I knew where thoughts came from, but where
did inspiration  come from? It came from a much deeper
place t han where I witnessed the