causedby
insufficientsleeporfromhavingbrokennights.
EMOTIONAL/MENTALSYMPTOMS
Violentlyangry.Anxious.Depressed.Fearfulof
death.Irritable.Sensitivetonoise;topain.Sluggish.
Tantrums.Unforgiving.
Thesepeoplefeelanxiousanddepressed,especiallyin
theevenings.Theyhavealotofanxietyabouttheir
healthandmaywellconsultdoctorafterdoctorin
ordertofindoutwhatiswrong,notbelievingthe
diagnoses,particularly iftheyaretoldtheyarenot
seriously ill.
Theyoftenbecomesickinthefirstinstancebecause
theyhaveaveryunforgivingstreakandfeelanenor-
mousamountofangertowardsthosewhohave
offendedthem.Theymayusetheword'hate'when
describingtheobjectoftheirderision.Theirangercan
explodeandcausethemtoswearandtremble.They
are(inthisunforgivingstate)notmovedbyapologies
andcarrythishatredaroundwiththem.Thiseats
awayatthemlikeanacid,andtheythenbecome
sensitive.
Theymaythrowthemselvesintotheirworkand
thenbecomewornoutmentallyandswingtothe
oppositeextremeofnotwantingtoworkatall.Inthis
statetheybecomeover-sensitive tonoise,especially
shrillnoises,whichwillmakethemjump.
PHYSICALCOMPLAINTS
Commoncold
SymptomsNasalcatarrh:bloody;burning;dirty
yellow;thin;wateryinthefreshair.
Worseforfreshair;atnight.
Thenoseisblockedandfeelssoreandbruisedand
sensitivetotouch.Theremaybeulcersinthenostrils.
Earache
SymptomsCracklinginearswhenchewing.Pains
splinter-like;throbbing.Withsymptomsofsore
throat(seebelow).
Worseonrightside,forswallowing.
Thepainsareusuallysplinter-likeandthehearing
becomesacute-moresensitivethannormal.
INTERNALMATERIAMEDICA Nuxvomica(Nux-v.) •123
Exhaustion
SymptomsNervous.
Worseafterpassingastool;forwalking.
Causesdiarrhoea;lossofsleep;nursingthesick.
Thisweaknessresultsfromlossofsleepandaccom-
paniesorfollowsanattackofdiarrhoea. Itisworse
afterpassingastoolorfortakingawalk.
Eyeinflammation
SymptomsIn
swollen.
Itisimportanttotakegeneralsymptoms-suchas
chillinessandsmellyurine-intoaccount,aswellas
thesore,waterveves.Piles
SymptomsPains:burning;splinter-like. Piles:
bleeding;large.
Worseafterastool.
Thepainsmaylastforonetotwohours,evenaftera
softstool.
Sorethroat
FlatulenceSymptomsPains:burning;pressing;raw;splinter-
infants.Eyeswatering.Eyelids like;stitching;spreadingtoear.Tonsils:swollen;
ulcerated.
Worseforswallowing.
Thepainsaresevere-itfeelsasifsomethingsharp
werestuckinthethroat-andthevextendtotheearon
swallowing.Swallowing isextremelydifficult;even
tinyamountsoffoodseemtolodgeinthethroat.
SymptomsWind:smellv;obstructed(difficulttoex-
pel).
Headache
SymptomsHeadfeelsconstricted.Pains:spreading
toeyes;inbones;recurringatregularintervals;
pressing.
Worseforjarringmovement;formovement;atnight;
fornoise;forpressure;onwaking;forwalking.
Thisisasevereheadachethatisworseatnight.The
bonesofthefacearesore,andtheslightestpressure,
eventhatofahat,makesitworse(theheadfeels
constricted,asifitwerebandageduptightly)The
pressingpainsintheheadextendtotheeyeswhich
alsofeelsore.Theymaycomeandgosuddenly(see
GeneralSymptoms); iftheydo,thismayfollowa
pattern,forexampletheheadachemayreturnevery
eveningornight.
Insomnia
SymptomsDreamsanxious.Sleepunrefreshing.
Worseafter2a.m.
Thepersonwakesaround2a.m.andisunabletoget
backtosleep.
Jointpain
SymptomsPains:inbones;inlegs;splinter-like;
stitching;tearing.
Worseatnight.
Mouthulcers
SymptomsUlcers:onedgesoftongue;painful.
Thesearepainfululcersorpimplesontheedgeofthe
tongue.Thereisanincreaseofsalivainthemouth,
andthegumsmayalsobleedeasily.Thebreathisvery
smelly.Thrush(genital)
SymptomsDischarge:burning;smelly;itching;thin.
NUXVOMICA(Nux-v.)
Familyname:Loganiaceae
Commonnames:poisonnut;Quakerbuttons;semen
strvchnos
124•Nuxvomica(Nux-v.) INTERNALMATERIAMEDICA
Nuxvomicaseedsareproducedbyalargeevergreen
treenativetocertainpartsofIndia,Burma,Thailand,
ChinaandNorthernAustralia. Itproducessmall,un-
pleasant-smelling flowers,andbeautifulorange-
colouredfruitthesizeoflargeapples,whichcontaina
softwhitejelly-likepulpandfiveseedscoveredinsoft
hairs;theseseedshavenosmellbuttasteextremely
bitterowingtothestrychninecontainedinthem.
Theplantwasknownasthe'Vomitingnut'andwas
thoughttohavelimitedmedicinalvalueonaccountof
theseeds'poisonousnature,althoughinGermany it
wasusedasanantidotetotheplague,totreatworms,
mania,rabies,hysteria,rheumatismandgout.
Asapoison,smalldosespromotetheappetite,aid
digestionandincreasethefrequencyofurination.
Largerdosescauselossofappetite,anincreasedsen-
sitivitygenerally,depression,anxiety,disordered
muscularsystemwithtrembling,rigidityorstiffness
ofthelimbsandstaggeringwhenwalking.Stilllarger
dosescauseconvulsionsanddeathfromasphyxia
(suffocation).
Theseedsarepowderedfinelyinaheatedmortar
andtrituratedwithsugarofmilk.
GENERALSYMPTOMS
Catchescoldseasily.Complaintsfrom:getting
chilled;cold,drywind.Likesspicyfood.Pains
cramping.Senseofsmellacute.Sweat:hot;
one-sided;smellySymptomsright-sided.Taste:
mouthtastesbitter;sourinthemorning.
Betterforheat;forlyingdown;forsittingdown;for
hotdrinks.
Worseafterdrinkingalcohol/coffee; aftereatingcold
food;fortobacco;forcold;cold,dryweather;cold
wind;freshair;forlossofsleep;duringthemorning;
inthewinter;touch;forbeinguncovered;forwalking.
Theseareextremelychillyindividualswhohatethe
coldinanyshapeorform;theycatchcoldeasily,
especially ifexposedtodraughtsorafterbecoming
chilled,andtheyhatedry,windyweather.Theyare
alwaysbetterforwarmthandifsickwillnotwantany
partoftheirbodiestobeuncovered;theybecomeso
sensitivetocoldthattheslightestdraughtunderthe
bedclotheswillupsetthem.Alltheywanttodowhen
sickistositorliedownandkeepwarm-thisiswhat
helps.
Nuxvomicaisusefulforallsortsofdisturbancesthat
followover-indulgence infood,alcohol,coffeeor
tobacco.Oncesick,anyfurtherindulgenceswillmake
themworse,buttheyfindithardtostopandwilloften
carryondrinkingandsmokinginspiteoffeeling
ghastly.
Morningsaretheirworsttimeofday,especially
afteradisturbednight,whichisnotunusual.They
willbeirritableandfeelgenerallyattheirworstthen.Losingsleepalwaysaffectsthem.TheNuxvomica
motherwithanewbabyhasanawfultime.
EMOTIONAL/MENTALSYMPTOMS
Angry:violently;whenhastoanswer.Complaints
fromanger;angerwithanxiety.Concentrationpoor.
Excitable.Impatient.Impulsive.Irritable.
Quarrelsome.Sensitive:generally;torudeness;to
light;tomusic;tonoise.Spiteful.Stubborn.Tidy.
Nuxvomicatypesareself-indulgentworkaholics!They
overdoeverything:theyworktoohard,stayouttoo
late,takenoexercise,eattoomuchrichfood,drinktoo
muchalcohol,becometoowounduptosleepandthen
consumevastquantitiesofcoffeeinorderto


opening to love, appreciation and gratitude. The presence of
unconditional love will lead you to the ground of yourself, where
manifesting your desires becomes possible.
Begin and end each day with an expression of gratitude and thanks-
giving. Every morning when you awake you have been given the gift
of a sunrise and twenty-four hours to live. This is a precious gift.
You have the wonderful opportunity to take this day and live joy-
ously, with appreciation for everything that you encounter.
Take in a deep breath and be grateful for this exhilarating experi-
ence of breathing in life and love. Similarly, end your day with an
expression of love, and a repetition of the word for peace, Shalom.
That word combines the sounds of manifestation and that which
has manifested for you.
Be aware of the need to be grateful for the suffering and struggles
that are part of the fabric of your life. Sometimes it is easy to simply
be angry at.your suffering rather than to know that it is the catalyst
for your searching and awakening.
Your ability to know the power of kindness and love most likely
grew out of some darkness and pain in your past. Without those
experiences you would still be stuck. Addictions teach the elixir of
purity. Anger teaches the ecstasy of love. Ingratitude teaches the
need for gratitude. Hoarding teaches the pleasure of giving. Your
own pain taught you how to be more present and loving with
others.
Your chicken pox taught you how to avoid it later in life, by
giving you the opportunity to build up antibodies in your immune
system. Life gives exams! Be grateful for those exams rather than
critical of them.
156
Manifest Your Destiny
Remember, it is the nature of thought to increase. The more your
thoughts are centered on what is missing, the more deficient you
feel and the more complaints you will utter. Similarly, the more you
practice gratitude, the more you are thankful and appreciative of all
that life provides and the more you feed your experience of abun-
dance and love. The more you practice it, even in small ways, the
more abundant you will feel, and, ultimately, the more you will
attract to yourself as well.
One of the things I have been doing for years is giving an expression
of thanks to God whenever I find a coin, regardless of its denomina-
tion. The coin is a symbol to me of the prosperity that has been put
right in my path. I have found that I receive coins almost every single
day of my life. A dime here, a penny there, a nickel on the pavement.
They show up regularly, almost as a reminder to me of all that has
manifested in my life. I simply pick up the coin and say, “Thank you,
God. I know you are working in my life and I am grateful for this sym-
bol.” Each time I receive a coin in this manner, I am reminded to
extend the favor in some form of generosity to others. It is in generos-
ity and service to others that our gratitude will ultimately extend itself.
GENEROSITY AND SERVICE: THE FINAL STEP IN
MANIFESTATION
The natural extension of being grateful is the development of a
generous heart. Perfect generosity is a willingness to give of yourself
and all that you have manifested without any expectation of a return.
You may find it paradoxical that the final phase of manifesting your
heart’s desire is to generously share what you receive and to move
your attention away from what you have asked to manifest. However,
if you review all of the previous principles of spiritual manifestation,
you will see that this is consistent.
157
WAYNE W. DYER
Manifesting is about connecting to the universal spirit, which is
infinite and abundant in supply. It is not about seeing neediness in
yourself, but is rather about feeling complete with that radiant abun-
dance. It is not about craving and demanding. It is concerned with
unconditional love and attracting that abundant love to your individ-
ual life. As long as you are in your physical body, you will have
desires. There is nothing to be ashamed of or feel nonspiritual about.
Your body and the physical needs of your material self can and will be
met with abundant gifts providing that you follow these nine princi-
ples and do not let your ego take back being in charge of your life.
When you feel the presence of that abundance, your feeling of
gratitude will push you in the direction of generosity. It is in the
expression of your generosity that you will feel most connected to
the unconditional love of the universal spirit. The more you feel a
desire to share what you receive unconditionally, the more you will
experience it flowing into your life.
GENEROSITY AND SELF-LIBERATION
Generosity is helpful for your own liberation in that it teaches you
about the inner quality of letting go. Letting go and releasing your
attachments are the most freeing things you can do to liberate your-
self from the ego. A need to hang onto the things and money that you
receive arises out of an inner sense of incompleteness. Practicing
generosity aligns you with your sense of completeness and love.
Generosity for the sake of liberating yourself from your ego
extends to more than simply sharing your material possessions.
Generosity includes offering kindness, care, love and nurturing
where it is needed. Furthermore, the spirit of generosity can and
does ultimately relate to how we treat ourselves. If you have a gener-
ous heart that has no qualms about giving, you will treat yourself lov-
ingly and will nurture yourself without feeling any sense of guilt.
158
Manifest Your Destiny
When you can give freely, as an unconditional act of love, with no
expectations, you experience what I call total freedom. You relin-
quish the hold of your self-absorbed ego, which encourages you to
believe in limitation and competition. This ability to give without
conditions is also an acknowledgment that whatever has manifested
into your life has come from an infinite supply and that you can
never experience a scarcity consciousness because you know that you
are a part of the infinite supply.
GIVING AND RECEIVING: THE WAY THE UNIVERSE WORKS
Every single time that you take in a breath and then exhale, you
are engaged in a process of giving and receiving that is vital to the
material and spiritual world. With each inhalation you take in the
oxygen and nitrogen that you must have in order to exist, and with
each exhalation you send back the carbon dioxide that supplies the
entire plant world. The cycle of generous giving and receiving is
exactly the same as the very act of breathing.
Look around you and notice how everything in our universe is a
result of giving and receiving. The entire food chain represents a giv-
ing of life and a taking of life, and then a giving back in an endless
cycle of material manifestation. The worms that the bird eats, and
the droppings from the bird, and the eating of the bird, and the recy-
cling of the meat of the bird, and on and on it goes.
There is no place for any of it to go other than here in this uni-
verse. It does not leave and then reenter. It is all simply a process of
giving and receiving different forms of energy. The iron in your
bloodstream is a part of the finite supply of iron that will return in
another form after your departure from the physical world, perhaps
in the wings of a bat. You give of your iron supply and you take from
the same supply. Giving and receiving are a natural function of life.
The natural flow of giving and receiving can be stopped by
159
WAYNE W. DYER
stinginess and hoarding. The process works in the same way on the
spiritual level. You send out love and kindness and it returns to you
tenfold. The old saying, “What goes around, comes around,” is
much more than a pithy homily. It is a fact of the universe at all lev-
els of awareness. In fact, it is what this whole business of manifest-
ing is all about. |
You put out loving energy to connect to that which you desire and
it returns to you. It is a giving and receiving action. You can, however,
interfere with this natural progression of give and take by selfishly
hanging onto that which manifests in your material world, and stop-
ping the flow of energy that brings abundance. This scarcity con-
sciousness is the work of the ego, which always feels incomplete
because it is convinced that it is separate from God.
CULTIVATING AN ATTITUDE OF GENEROSITY
Here are a few suggestions for putting generosity into your mani-
festation practice to keep the natural flow of giving and receiving
moving in your life.
Recognize that this is a way of being that definitely can be devel-
oped. You may have convinced yourself that giving is impossible
because you have too little for yourself. If you are not generous
when it is difficult, you will not be generous when it is easy.
Generosity is a function of the heart, not the wallet.
You can give of yourself, you can share what little you do have
with those who are needier, you can tithe to those who provide you
with spiritual food and ask nothing in return. A generous heart


 not be
gathered from the wild.
Parts Used Aerial parts.
Constituents Sundew contains naphthaquinones,
enzymes, flavonoids, and volatile oil. The
naphthaquinones are antimicrobial, antispasmodic,
and also cough-suppressing.
History & Folklore In the 16th and 17th
centuries, sundew was thought to be a remedy
for melancholy. In his Irish Herbal  (1735), K’Eogh
advised using sundew to “eat away rotten sores.”
Medicinal Actions & Uses Sundew is of
greatest value in the treatment of spasmodic chest
conditions such as whooping cough, bronchial
asthma, and asthma. In relaxing the muscles of the
respiratory tract, the plant eases breathing, relieves
wheezing, and lessens the spasms of whooping
cough. Commonly mixed with thyme in a syrup,
sundew is a helpful remedy for coughs in children.
The herb is also prescribed for gastric problems.
Teasel  was traditionally used to treat warts and fistulas.
Drosera rotundifolia
(Droseraceae)
Sundew
Description Evergreen, insectivorous perennial
growing to 6 in (15 cm). Has small white flowers.
The hinged, spoon-shaped leaves edged with spines
secrete a sticky fluid (“sundew”), which traps
insects. They are digested when the leaf closes. Echium vulgare (Boraginaceae)
Viper’s Bugloss
Description Abundantly hairy perennial growing
up to 3 ft (1 m). Has narrow prickly leaves and pink
to violet clusters of flowers in dense spikes.
Habitat & Cultivation Native to Europe,
viper’s bugloss is commonly found on uncultivated
land, by roadsides, and in low-lying and coastal
regions. The flowering tops are gathered in
late summer.
Parts Used Flowering tops.
Constituents Viper’s bugloss contains
pyrrolizidine alkaloids, allantoin, alkannins, and
mucilage. In isolation, pyrrolizidine alkaloids are
toxic to the liver. The alkannins are antimicrobial
and allantoin helps wounds to heal.Dorstenia contrajerva (Urticaceae)
Contrayerva
Description Stemless perennial herb growing
to 1 ft (30 cm). Has palm-shaped leaves and long-
stalked greenish flowers.
Habitat & Cultivation Native to Central
and South America and the Caribbean islands,
contrayerva is generally gathered from the wild.
Part Used Rhizome.
History & Folklore Contrayerva means
“antidote” in Spanish, indicating its traditional use
in the treatment of poisoning and venomous bites.
The herb was employed in Mayan and Aztec
medicine for a variety of purposes, including as
a poultice to draw pus.
Medicinal Actions & Uses Contrayerva
rhizome is considered aromatic, stimulant, and
sweat-inducing. Occasionally used in the early
stages of serious fevers such as typhoid, it is also
given for gastrointestinal problems such as
diarrhea and dysentery. There is no scientific
substantiation of its reputation as an antidote.
Related Species D. convexa, native to Zaire, is
used as a wound healer; D. klainei  is used in tropical
Africa as a gargle.
US_202-223_Digitalis_lutea_Iris_versicolor.indd   203 26/02/16   12:47 pm
204
other medicinal plantsEclipta prostrata
History & Folklore As its name suggests,
viper’s bugloss was once considered a preventative
and remedy for viper bite. In his 1656 The Art of Simpling, herbalist William Coles described the plant: “its stalks all to be speckled like a snake or viper, and is a most singular remedy against poison and the sting of scorpions.” Four years earlier, the English herbalist Nicholas Culpeper had praised its action against “the biting of vipers.”
Medicinal Actions & Uses In many respects,
viper’s bugloss is similar to borage (Borago officinalis, p. 179), in that both herbs have a sweat-inducing and diuretic effect if taken internally. Viper’s bugloss has also been taken to treat chest conditions, as its mucilage soothes dry coughs and encourages expectoration. The significant mucilage content in viper’s bugloss has also proved helpful in treating skin conditions. Prepared in a poultice or plaster,  it is an effective balm for boils and carbuncles. In recent times, this herb has fallen out of use, due partly to lack of interest in its medicinal potential, and partly to its pyrrolizidine alkaloids, which in isolation are toxic. Viper’s bugloss may be safely used externally on unbroken skin.
 RCaution Do not take internally.Embelia ribes (Myrsinaceae)
Embelia
Description Climber with short, elliptical leaves,
white or white-green flowers, and round red or black fruits.
Habitat & Cultivation Native to India and
Southeast Asia, embelia grows in hilly regions.  The fruit is harvested when ripe.
Part Used Fruit.
Constituents Embelia contains naphthaquinones,
including embelin. Embelin stimulates the production of estrogen and progesterone, and it may have a contraceptive effect.
Medicinal Actions & Uses Embelia has
been used in Asia as a home remedy for expelling worms. The herb is also diuretic and relieves flatulence, and is used for indigestion, colic, constipation, and debility.
 QCautions Use only under professional
supervision. Do not take during pregnancy.
Trailing eclipta is taken in India and China to stop premature
graying of the hair.Eclipta prostrata syn. E. alba
(Asteraceae)
Trailing Eclipta
Description Multi-branched annual growing
to 2 ft (60 cm). Has lance-shaped leaves and
white flowers.
Habitat & Cultivation Trailing eclipta is
native to Africa, Asia, and Australia. It is now found
throughout the tropics, being particularly common in India, China, and Queensland and New South Wales in Australia. It is harvested in early autumn.
Parts Used  Aerial parts.
Constituents Trailing eclipta contains
triterpenoid saponins, including ecliptine and  alpha-terthienylmethanol, isoflavonoids,  and phytosterols.
Viper’s bugloss makes a
soothing poultice for treating boils and carbuncles. Emblica officinalis
(Euphorbiaceae)
Indian Gooseberry
Description Deciduous tree with feathery
leaves, pale green flowers, and round pale green
or yellow fruit. Also known as amla.
Habitat & Cultivation Indian gooseberry
grows in China, India, and Southeast Asia and is widely cultivated for its fruit.
Part Used Fruit.
Constituents Indian gooseberry contains
tannins, polyphenols, flavonoids, a fixed oil, and  a volatile oil.
History & Folklore The Indian gooseberry
features in a 7th-century Ayurvedic medical text. The sage Muni Chyawan reputedly restored his vitality with this fruit.
Medicinal Actions & Uses The astringent
Indian gooseberry is given to allay the effects of aging and to restore the organs. In Ayurvedic medicine, the fruit juice is given to strengthen
the pancreas of diabetics. It is one of the three herbs in the classic Ayurvedic herbal formula known as “Triphala.”
Research Recent research suggests that Indian
gooseberry might have a remarkably wide range of potential medicinal benefits. A study in Kerala, India, showed that it may have protective activity against liver cancer. Other studies indicate potential anti-inflammatory and fever-inhibiting effects, and a cholesterol-lowering action.
A study undertaken in Bombay concluded that
the fruit might prove useful in the treatment of acute pancreatitis. History & Folklore Trailing eclipta is first
mentioned in herbal literature in the Chinese
Tang Materia Medica of 659 ce. The herb contains a black pigment that has been used to color the hair in India, and mothers wash babies’ heads in a decoction of the leaves to encourage hair growth. It is also used as an ink for tattooing. The leaves
are also eaten as a vegetable.
Medicinal Actions & Uses Trailing eclipta has
remarkably similar uses in Ayurvedic and Chinese herbal medicine. In both of these traditions, a decoction is used to invigorate the liver, to prevent premature graying of the hair, and to staunch bleeding, especially from the uterus. In the Chinese tradition, the herb is considered a yin tonic;
in Ayurvedic medicine it is thought to prevent aging. In the Caribbean, the juice is sometimes taken for asthma and bronchitis. Trailing eclipta
is also used there as a treatment for enlarged glands, as well as for dizziness, vertigo, and
blurred vision.
Research Several laboratory experiments
have shown that eclipta regulates enzyme levels within the liver and exerts a protective activity
on it.
US_


wee n all individuals. But sleep is
universal; it abolishes all differences. Sleep is the same in plants,
animals and men; in rich and poor, in wise and foolish, in poet
and peasant.
The differences between individuals consist of the
differences in the activity of their respective cerebro-spinal
systems. It is the cerebro-spinal system which regulates
individuality and personality. During sleep this activity stops and
the differences between individuals are consequently removed.
The organo-vegetative system presides over the organism while
sleep is in progress. It is this which is responsible for all
unconscious activities of the organism, while the cerebro-spinal
system directs all our conscious activities. The organo-vegetative
system governs the beating of the heart and the various processes
of metabolism, while the cerebro-spinal system controls attention,
intelligence, association of ideas, memory, etc. The former
system is the executive organ of all the natural laws and forces in
every organism, while the latter is the director of the individual's
actions. When a man is awake, he makes many deviations from
the natural laws, but when he is asleep he obeys them wholly.
The results of these deviations (fatigue, weakness and the toxins of disease) are repaired by sleep at night when harmony with the
laws of Nature is restored. It is, therefore, impossible to live
without sleep. Prolonged fasting, on the other hand, is perfectly
possible, and often beneficial. Such is the explanation of sleep
from a physiological standpoint, as given by Zoroaster in the
Avesta between seven and eight thousand years ago.
Contemporary official science does not, however, look at sleep in
this fashion.
While a poisoned organism cannot dispense with sleep for
long, a completely healthy and clean one can manage without it
for many days. Conversely, a very overintoxicated organism may
sleep for weeks or months on end. There are many examples to
be found of these phenomena in antiquity, in the Middle Ages
and at the present day. Reports are occasionally given in the
newspapers of persons whom doctors are unable to wake up.
In the Avesta Zoroaster also tells us the significance of sleep
for a detoxicated and pure organism. Where there are no toxins
present, there can naturally be no elimination of them. Sleep,
then, has quite another significance. Instead of repairing the
organism, it improves its vitality. While the right food effects a
quantitative improvement of it, sleep leads to an improvement in
quality. It is a rule that in a!l the vital functions qualitative
changes arc more important than quantitative.
During sleep there is an absence of pain. It is for this reason
that artificial sleep is created for performing surgical operations.
It has been shown experimentally that the organism when asleep
can resist poison and that death from poison w hile sleep actually
lasts is impossible. It only occurs on waking. This great power of
sleep was observed by various peoples of antiquity.
It is not uncommon to find our problems solved during
sleep. The diaries of scientists and writers often relate that they
always invented or composed at night or in the morning after
sleep. So sleep is a source of knowledge— in addition to the
usual ones. It brings the organism into contact with quite different
forces to those which influence it during the day. In the daytime it
is in contact with harder, inferior forces; it is in contact with finer
and higher forces during sleep.
During the day the solar rays are predominant and are the
strongest as the daylight half of the globe is turned towards the
sun. The sun's rays are strong and stimulate corporeal, physical
activity in the organism. At night, on the other hand, the
influence of the sun's rays is weak, and the cosmic radiations, of
which the source is more distant than the sun and which are of
superior quality, become predominant. These cosmic radiations
come from a direction opposite to that where the sun now is and
are not counteracted at night by its rays. Their source is very
distant— even in the ultra-galac tic systems of universal space.
These higher cosmic radiations influence the higher activities of
the organism—activities that are finer and more imponderable
than those of the daytime. It is thus that sleep comes to represent
another source of knowledge.
The more detoxicated an organism is, the more capable is it
of establishing contact with the higher radiations during the night.
"When an organism is poisoned, all its forces are paralysed by the
elimination which must take place during sleep. In a healthy organism, however, all its forces are liberated and it is capable of
effeccting contact with and recei ving the higher radiations.
Antiquity provides us with numerous examples of superior
revelations. The explanation of these phenomena must be sought
in the laws of the Universe and of Nature. All the great teachers
and thinkers of antiquity led very sober lives, lives of great
simplicity and harmony. In consequence, they were extremely
healthy and free from toxins. It was not mere chance that they,
and not other people, received these higher revelations. The
knowledge they received was na tural; there was nothing mystic
about it. Simply their organisms had developed certain capacities
lacked by those of others.
Sleep, then, represents a higher source of knowledge for the
detoxicated, while for the intoxicated it is merely a means of
detoxication. For a majority it represents a process of
physiological reparation, while for a small aristocracy of will and
intelligence sleep represents the psychological perfection of the
individual. For the intoxicated, sl eep is at best only a fragmentary
source of knowledge, which will always remain incomplete and
one-sided. And a one-sided improvement always leads to
disequilibrium. There is a close affinity between genius and
madness. Onesided geniuses are mad as well as geniuses, while
every-sided geniuses are supermen. According to Lombroso,
eighty or ninety per cent of geniuses are one-sided and mad,
while only ten per cent can be ca lled complete. The majority had
sick unbalanced organisms; only a small minority had complete,
equilibrated organisms. Zoro aster, the author of the Avesta, was a
complete genius, Omar Khayyam was incomplete. Plato and
Pythagoras were complete; Pl otinus and Philo incomplete.
It is impossible to lay down dogmatically the amount of
sleep required. It depends on the degree of intoxication of each
individual. In order to establish the quantity of sleep necessary,
one must first go through a process of detoxication and see how
much sleep is needed at the end.  So much for the physiological
aspects of the question.
On the psychological side we  find a certain correlation
between our waking and our sleeping life. When a person is
unable to satisfy his inner needs and tendencies during the day,
the repressed and unsatisfied tendencies remain in the
unconscious and cause dreams at night. According to Freud,
dreams are a satisfaction of sexua l tendencies repressed by social
or other external factors. In th e conception of Adler, where there
is a sense of inferiority or failure in life, the opposite tendency
will be manifested in dreams. Thus the poor will dream that they
are rich. Naturally the process is not so simple as this in reality.
An entirely healthy person, on the other hand, has no dreams.
(They can be provoked by over-eating.)
Equilibrium consists of harmony between the tendencies of
an individual and his environmen t. Dreams are always a warning
of an unbalanced organism or consciousness. Sleep without
dreams, on the other hand, becomes an enrichment of the ideas
and consciousness. The practical psychological consideration is
that attention should be paid to one's thoughts, ideas and
sentiments before going to sleep, since the latter's quality and
content is influenced strongly by the thoughts and sentiments entertained prior to sleeping. If we go to sleep with harmonious
thoughts, our sleep will be a source of energy, harmony and
knowledge. In harmonious thoughts, on the contrary, are sources
of inharmony. Sleep supervening on such thoughts fails to bring
refreshment to the sleeper, who wakes with a feeling of fatigue
and lethargy next morning.
If, before sleeping, the energies  are directed towards certain
objectives, the conscious forces ar oused will be transformed into
unconscious forces during sleep, with the result that in the course
of the night the objectives will progressively be attained. The
morning will find the goal reached automatically. On the other
hand, if we go to bed with a fear  of certain things, the fear will
paralyse our psychological capa cities and forces, lowering our
resistance and causing the danger to arrive more quickly. Fear
attracts the danger of which one is afraid. We should bo afraid of
nothing except of being afraid.
The process of eliminating fear consists of two processes.
The first is an intellectual proce ss and consists of a close analysis
of the thing feared. The danger is not a real one; it is only real in
the imagination. In death, for instance, as Thomas d'Aquinas
pointed out, it is the pomp and circumstance of death that terrifies
us rather than death itself. Death is perfectly natural. But we


 level. The tests and the x-rays, leave out what’ s most
important: our story, our aspir ations, our fears and our chal lenges, our
hopes and our dreams for our life.
The more we accept the system  as it is, the more we normaliz e it. In that
sense, we normalize pain and  suf fering. W e have created t he medical
system that we have today by being complacent and following its
development blindly and faithfully. Don’ t learn how to live with your
illness without giving it your all  to heal it. Y ou deserve better. It  is never too
late. W e are ali ve until we tak e our last breath! Let’ s not die before our
death! W e were born to heal, not to suf fer.
Imagine the ener gy and the time we will spare if we are not so vested in our
illnesses. W e could be immersed in creating something beautiful, learning
and cont ributing to the world. W hen we connect with our true Essence, we
heal. This deep connection no urishes us, and our soul, and  we fill up
emotionally. Then our life and our eating simply become a reflection of that
experience inside.Can you think beyond your illness? What may your lif e look like
without it?C H A P T E R  1 5F o o d  i s  O u r  M e d i c i n e
A yurvedic food is distinguished by the fact that it puts a lot of dif ferent food
items on  your plate, of fering a v ariety of tastes, textures, aromas and colors
and this is something that is carried over into all aspects of Indian food
generally. It truly is a feast for the senses. In fact, it is quite a feat to
navigate your way around the meal and it is simply not possible if you are
distracted, or even using equipm ent. The eating experience demands your
total presence. What’ s’ more, eating with your hands allows you to taste
many di f ferent i tems simultaneo usly and to feel the food, its tex ture, and its
temperature. It engages your oth er senses, as well. It compels you to notice
the colo rs and the dif ferent tast es and aromas put before you. All of one’ s
senses and ener gies are turned inward to help digest and absorb the food.
This satisfies the inner Self, and eliminates the need to eat continuously.
Healing is no dif ferent; it asks that we dig in.
On a more scie ntific side, joining the fingers together to pick up food
triggers the most therapeutic and  sensitive point in the center of your palm.
This rele ases lif e force ener gy to  the entire body, enlivening yo ur body and
senses for deeper enjoyment and fulfillment.
Another distinguishing factor of A yurvedic/Indian dining customs is the
practice of sitting cross-legged on the floor during a meal. Y o u may have
seen at least a picture of that at some point. This isn’ t due to poverty,
although poverty certainly exists in India. There is wisdom behind this
tradition: sitting cross-legged on the floor means we put pres sure on our
stomach each time we lean forward to take another bite. This makes us
notice w hen our  stomach is starting to feel full. W e start to burp once our
stomach is three-quarters full and this signals that we are happily full and at
the s atisfaction point. Eating an ything more would fall into the category of
“overeating.” Sitting completely upright on a chair acts to suppress this
natural sign from our body’ s innate intelligence.
Gr owing up in India, I sat on the floor to eat mor e often than not, and I
have carried that habit with me  into my adult life simply because I derivemor e enjoyment fr om eating while seated on the floor.
Whether you eat with your hands or not, and whether you sit on the floor or
at a tabl e, the point is to draw your attention to the immense inn ate wisdom
of your body. Enjoying your food is a must for complete satis faction and
nourishment on all levels. Regar dless of how much progress we  have made
in m any areas of our lives, the i nnate wisdom of our bodies rem ains, and to
undermine, or try to “outsmart” it will only impede our progress in ways
that we may not foresee today.
Gaining fulfillm ent or satisfaction from any area of our life requires our
presence. T o be fully present to  anything, we must slow down. This is an
issue tha t confu ses many of us  today. W e equate slowing dow n to being
idle, wasting time or feeling less important. The fact of the matter is this:
time moves at th e same rate all the time. How time appears to p ass for each
individual is a re sult of their ow n perception, and it’ s a direct result of their
state of mind. W hen our mind speeds up, time speeds up. An d when our
mind slows down, time slows down. When we are mentally rushing, it only
feels like we are accomplishing more; it isn’ t true. W e actually are less
productive and more frantic and therefore always catching up to the time
that seem ingly won’ t stop. So, if you want to slow time, slow  your mind.
Sit and pay att ention to your breath for one minute and n otice what
happens. Healing on any level is not rushed or scheduled, it has its own
timing but it requires that we slow down to notice it when it happens.
Slowing down to enjoy your foo d will awaken you to the blessing that it is,
and that subtle a wareness deepens the nourishment and fulfillm ent it of fers.
When we can allow food to fulfill these basic needs, we feel full on many
levels and we can stop looking to other unhealthy ways to find that
fulfillment. Whe n we don’ t have time to cook and eat, there ma y be a need
to evaluate our priorities.
A fe w years ago, I visited my si ster in Pune, India. Ar ound lun ch time one
day, I walked outside at the pa rking level of her building. I noticed many
cars and  bicycle s making their way in to the parking lot, a sur e sign that
people wer e coming home for  lunch. I could hear the sound of dishes
clattering in kitchens and I could smell the ar omas of food in the air. Ther ewas som ething very comforting about this: I could feel the  ener gy of
slowing down to honour something important: eating.
When we gulp o ur lunch down in a smoothie, or race through a meal while
distractedly paying attention to something else, it may seem like progress,
but is it really? I always equate progress to waking up to the  innate and
ancient wisdom we can all acce ss that will allow us to better o ur lives and
our heal th. Fors aking our health in the name of progress or s uccess isn’ t
worth much.
Our real hunger is for love, com fort, joy, satisfaction and fulfillment. Food
is a med ium of expression for all of those vital aspects of what we seek in
life. It is up to us to extract the real nutrients from our meal s simply by
shifting our attitude, by slowing down, and by taking the time th at is needed
to nurtu re ourselves. What we experience through eating will be infused
into the other areas of our lives. Food is love. Nothing says “ I love you”
more than a meal that we cook for ourselves or someone else. W e feel the
love in the comfort, warmth and satisfaction when we eat. When we can
allow our ego to shatter and surrender to what simply is, love is all that
remains. W e heal!
S U P P O R T I N G  O U R  L I F E  E N E R G Y
No celebration anywhere in the world is complete witho ut food. It
heightens every experience and  makes it memorable, and we never for get
the aromas in our kitchen du ring holidays and special events. These
memories support our life ener gy. Celebrations in general are about people,
connections, sharing and community and the food we serve at these times
represents a powerful magnet that brings people together. Sharing is a big
part of togetherness—when we like something, we immediately want
someone we love to try it. Sharing helps us grow and build connections
together. So, if someone asks you to try something, say yes so you can share
in their experience.
What if we brought a little cele bration into our meals more of ten? It does
not need to be an elaborate ef fort: celebration requires only our presence.
Intention and mindfulness can  make every meal more “gourmet” andspecial. Attentio n takes as muc h time as inattention. It takes just as much
time to slow down as it does to hurry up. T ry it sometime and see what you
think.
Anything can heal if used for th at purpose and intention. A “m iracle food”
can turn into p oison if used inappropriately or consumed by  the wrong


 was perfe ct in its
own wa y. Without the unstoppable urge to create, there was no
reason for primitive life to leave its very secure comfort zone.
Self-creation is a strong clue that consciousness needs nothing
outside itself to keep expanding endlessly. In time, Homo sapiens
rushed through another door, the one that opened to self-
awareness. We can do anything with our potential that we want to,
but no matter how civilizat ion changes, it is impossible to be
human withou t being aware. The only question is the d egree of
awareness we choose to emb race. Metahuman is closer than we
imagine, being just a higher degree of awareness.
Awareness and existence ar e uncreated. That’s the simplest
formulation of  the truth. Bein g uncreated means they simply are.
Without having to give a reason, needing no creation story, the
primal setup for being human is that we are here. We exist
because consci ousness exists.  Of all the secrets of metareality, this
one tak es the longest to sink in. At first glance, existence i s a non-issue. Nobody in a college de bating society like the Oxford Union
will arg ue the case for nonex istence. There would be no debating
societies if we didn’t exist—the point seems silly, even childish.
But if being he re is enough to bring about everything in creation
through a conscious process, that  is big news.
Existence and consciousness  cannot be separated. They don’t
just belong together, like hea t and fire or water and wetness. They
are the same th ing. Descartes  famously declared Cogito ergo sum,
“I think, there fore I am.” It’s  more accurate to say the reverse: I
am, therefore I think.
Either way, however, seeking a cause-and-effect relations hip is
chop lo gic. To exist and to th ink are the same thing. One  doesn’t
cause the other. Failing t o see this fact has led to many
misconceptions. For example, if you insist that the mind needs a
cause, y ou are stuck giving it a creation story. If you are a modern
secular person, you are soon trapped in the mistake of believing
that the brain created the mind. To a developmental psychologist,
there i s no doubt that t he brain creates the mind, and
neuroscience c oncurs. As creation stories go, this one is bolstered
by phy siology, but childhood development also offers enough
evidence to blow the story apart.
T h e  E x p a n d i n g  B r a i n
If we look at th e last stages of the fetus’s life in the womb, the
brain is  the main focus of development, the last organ to acquire
its final configuration—but th at won’t happen yet. At the moment
of birth, the infant brain is exploding with untapped growth
potential. The biggest part of the human brain is the cerebrum,
responsible for thinking and other higher functions, and evolution
has given babies a huge cerebrum to begin with, one reason that a
newborn’s hea d is so large, at the limits of what can pass  though
the birth canal. In a normal fetus carried to term, the last
trimester sees the brain roughly tripling in weight, from 3.5
ounces at the end of the second trimester to 10.6 ounces at birth.In a  sense, all babies are born prematurely, entering a “fo urth
trimester” the day they are born, because the brain keep s up its
accelerated gro wth outside the womb. In the first three m onths of
life, a newborn’s brain grow s by as much as 1 percent a day,
expanding by 64 percent in the first ninety days, after which the
growth rate shrinks to an average of 0.4 percent a day. Du ring the
rapid-growth p hase, 60 percent of the energy consumed by a baby
is used by the brain. The lar ge-scale or macro view shows that a
newborn already has all the brain cells needed for a lifetime—in
fact, too many. A newborn’s b rain cells number around twice what
an a dult has, even though the  newborn brain weighs half a s much.
As it grows to full size, which takes three years, the baby brain
thins ou t its weaker connect ions (a process technically known as
“synaptic prun ing”). It’s like sorting through an attic filled to the
rafters with things you need and junk you can do without.
Here w e begin to see the mystery of uniqueness, be cause
synaptic pruni ng is different for each baby. The brain somehow
disposes of what will not be needed for that one individual. A
musical prodigy who needs phenomenal motor skills to play the
piano at a vir tuoso level may not need advanced math ematical
ability or articulate language skills. A sculptor with a  highly
developed ability to envision  objects in three-dimension al space
may wi nd up without the relationship skills to find the right
spouse. The combinations are endless, and, to match th em, the
brain’s quadri llion synaptic  connections are just enough. Yet
clearly a brain cell has no for eknowledge that it will be ne eded or
not nee ded, according to events far in the future. Synaptic pruning
isn’t ran dom. It only makes sense that a higher perspectiv e that is
beyond time must be managing the process.
For example, a study by researchers at the University of
Washington found that speci fic areas of the brain that control the
physical aspec ts of speech (Broca’s area and the cerebellum) are
activated in seven-month-olds in advance of learning to speak.
This is evidenc e of looking a head to the future and throwing the
necessary brain switches in advance. A seven-month-old baby
doesn’t know that she will on e day speak, but Homo sapiens  does,
because we are a species of consciousness. Our speciescommunicates through the spoken word, and just about every
baby has inherited that ability.
This is different from inheriting the physical need to exchange
baby tee th for adult teeth, wh ich is linked to the growth of the jaw,
or th e n eed to go through puberty, which makes it possible to pass
on our genes through sexua l reproduction. Speech is a mental
acquisition, a prime tool for knowing what someone else is
thinking.
If unde rstanding the brain would allow us to understand the
mind, w e’d be  far ahead of the game. Yet the notion that “brain
creates mind” has always been a fallacy. For a cell to know
anything, it cannot get that knowledge from atoms and mo lecules.
Atoms and molecules don’t know that speech will be necessary.
Only consciousness affords a valid explanation, because
consciousness is the knowing element in every cell, every life form,
and every person.
Because we live in the golden age of neuroscience, you would
think th at som eday there would be a user’s manual for the mind.
But tha t day will never come. Our view is blocked by the mistake
of eq uating mind and brain. Even the fact that the brain co ntains a
quadrillion con nections is meaningless in terms of mind, just as
measuring every frequency of visible light would be meaningless
to explain how Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa. Life
would be meaningless if the  brain were in charge, beca use the
brain itself is meaningless. The mystique that surrounds it,
ascribing thoughts, feelings, and sensations to clumps of neurons,
has no  basis. If a neuroscientist went around saying, “That
quarterback is  out of his brain” or “I’d like to buy a house, but I
just can’t make up my brain,” no one would deny that mind  is the
word intended.
It’s very difficult, however, to pry neuroscientists from their
belief th at “brain creates mind.” In the emergency room, an EEG
reveals when the victim of a  fatal car accident is brain- dead, at
which p oint th ere is no min d left. Isn’t it obvious that the mind
lived there, beneath the hard shell of the skull? Not at all. Imagine
that you  had never seen a player piano and knew nothin g about
how one works. You walk into a music room, and a piano isplaying “The Blue Danube Waltz” by itself. You can see the keys
going up and down, the hammers striking the strings.
How w ould y ou know if there was an invisible p ianist
performing this magical act? There’s no way to tell. On the other
hand, it seems irrational to jump to the conclusion that the piano
is playing itself. The instrument’s raw materials—wood, steel, felt,
and ivo ry—can be studied down to the atomic level. Nowhere will
you find a tale nt for music. Y et in neuroscience and everyday life,
we say that the brain, which is also a physical instrument, thinks,
feels, sees, and does everythin g else that happens in the mind. We
make t his assumption without the slightest proof that the raw
materials inside a cell—basically hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, and
nitrogen—can


ensitive	to	cortisol	and	store	excess	energy
there.
26
Another	hormone	affected	by
sleep	is	called	HGH,	or	human	growth
hormone.	This	is	an	important	hormone	for	beauty	because	it	helps	your	skin
grow	thicker,	healthier,	and	more	elastic	or	pliable	in	texture,	which	further
helps	to	protect	against	wrinkling.	Natural	production	of	HGH	also	helps	with
muscle	building	and	tissue	repair.	Unfortunately,	disturbed	sleep	can	inhibit
your	natural	production	of	HGH.
27
	This	can	make	it	more	difficult	for	your
body	to	build	lean	muscle	and	resilient,	youthful	skin.
WEAKENED
IMMUNE	SYSTEM
A	growing	body	of	research	is	finding	a	strong	relationship	between	sleep	and
immunity.
28
	Increasing	evidence	shows	that	inadequate	sleep	leads	to	a
weakened	immune	response.
29
	Sleep	may	help	facilitate	the	redistribution	of	T-
cells	to	lymph	nodes.
30
	T-cells	are	a	vital	part	of	our	immune	system	that	help
maintain	our	wellness	and	vitality,	and	the	more	efficiently	they	travel	through
the	lymphatic	system,	the	better.	Since	our	entire	population	appears	to	be
suffering	from	a	sleep	deficit,	our	immunity	must	be	reduced	across	thepopulation	as	a	whole.	Can	you	imagine	the	health	implications	for	our	entire
society	if	we	all	slept	better?	The	entire	health	of	the	community	would	be
bolstered,	and	health-care	costs	might	be	dramatically	reduced!	But	this	very
much	has	to	start	with	you.
Getting	sick	isn’t	just	inconvenient	or	annoying;	it	can	also	be	aging.	Some
theorize	that	diseases	and	routine	illnesses	like	the	common	cold	can	actually
create	free	radicals	in	your	body.
31
	When	these	sicknesses	occur,	your	immune
system	creates	free	radicals	on	purpose	to	help	neutralize	harmful	viruses	and
bacteria.	But	those	free	radicals	also	create	cellular	damage	and	contribute	to
the	visible	effects	of	aging.	In	other	words,	minimizing	and	avoiding	getting
sick	isn’t	just	to	benefit	your	health;	it	can	be	another	powerful	tool	in	your
anti-aging	arsenal.
SLUGGISH	DETOXIFICATION
Sleep	gives	your	body	the	rest	it	needs	to	perform	its	vital	functions,	such	as
detoxification.	It	is	therefore	critical	to	help	promote	optimal	detoxification
and	clear	metabolic	waste	from	your	system.
32
	As	you	know,	the	more	detoxed
and	cleansed	your	internal	body	is,	the	more	beautiful	you	will	become.
POOR	PERFORMANCE
It’s	well	established	that
sleep	improves	your	performance	and	alertness.
33
When	you	sleep	more,	you’ll	drive	more	safely,	and	your	memory	will	improve,
too.
34
	Reduced	sleep	means	you	aren’t	able	to	perform	at	your	highest	potential
for	all	tasks	in	life.	If	you	aren’t	able	to	feel	as	present	and	alert	at	work,	when
working	on	your	creative	pursuits,	while	playing	with	your	children,	or	during
your	workouts,	it’s	very	frustrating	and	reflects	a	diminishing	quality	of	your
life.
ANXIETY	AND
DEPRESSION
Poor	sleep	can	also	contribute	to	worsening	anxiety.
35
	In	a	parallel	fashion,
insomnia,	the	extreme	end	of	bad	sleep,	may	be	a	risk	factor	for	full-blown
anxiety	disorders.
36
	On	the	opposite	end	of	the	spectrum,	when	you	feel	fully
rested	and	consistently	get	enough	sleep,	it’s	easier	to	feel	calm	and	present.
Calmness	helps	you	deal	better	with	stressors	in	life,	and	as	we	discussed	earlier,
dealing	with	stress	better	helps	delay	aging	all	around.
For	someone	suffering	from	depression,	bad	and	irregular	sleep	is	often	part
of	the	disorder.	In	fact,	some	recent	therapies	focus	on	loss	of	good	sleep	as	the
first	sign	that	a	bout	of	depression	may	soon	occur.	This	onset	can	be	avertedby	paying	close	attention	to	good	sleep	before	the	depression	actually	hits.	Is
good	sleep	a	preventive	for	depression?	That’s	not	agreed	upon,	but	it’s
definitely	worth	trying	to	incorporate.
PERMANENT
BRAIN	DAMAGE
An	aging	brain	leads	to	less	vitality	overall,	and	vitality	is	a	big	component	of
being	your	most	Radically	Beautiful.	Researchers	at
Duke-NUS	Graduate
Medical	School	Singapore	(Duke–National	University	of	Singapore)	found	a
relationship	between	the	fewer	hours	of	sleep	adults	get	and	accelerated	aging	in
the	brain.
37
Most	of	us	presume	that	a	few	nights	of	missed	sleep	are	not	a	big	deal.	We
think	we	can	recover	by	getting	more	sleep	in	the	future.	But	a	study	from
researchers	at	the
University	of	Pennsylvania	found	otherwise.
38
	The	lead
researcher,
Sigrid	Veasey,	MD,	notes,	“This	is	the	first	report	that	sleep	loss	can
actually	result	in	a	loss	of	neurons.”
39
	She	continues,	“No	one	really	thought
that	the	brain	could	be	irreversibly	injured	from	sleep	loss.	In	general,	we’ve
always	assumed	full	recovery	of	cognition	following	short-	and	long-term	sleep
loss.	But	some	of	the	research	in	humans	has	shown	that	attention	span	and
several	other	aspects	of	cognition	may	not	normalize	even	with	three	days	of
recovery	sleep,	raising	the	question	of	lasting	injury	in	the	brain.”
40
	Whoa…now
this	is	a	pretty	strong	reason	not	to	put	off	sleep!
Sleep	deprivation	is	considered	a	constant	stressor	to	your	system	and	has
been	shown	in	some	research	to	reduce	the	capacity	for	learning	and	memory.
Reducing	sleep	deprivation	is	even	hypothesized	to	help	prevent	or	slow	the
progression	of	Alzheimer’s	disease.
41
	Of	course,	the	sharper	and	more	alert	your
brain	is,	the	more	powerful	and	confident	in	your	beauty	you	will	be.
All	of	these	findings	help	us	to	understand	how	the	most	basic	of	nature’s
rhythms	contributes	to	every	aspect	of	life.	But	please	don’t	be	alarmed.	This
shift	was	not	meant	to	frighten	you	with	the	disastrous	effects	of	getting	too
little	sleep,	but	rather	to	open	your	eyes	to	all	of	the	benefits	you’ll	soon	see
from	getting	more,	better	quality	sleep.	In	the	next	shift,	you’ll	learn	how	to
tune	in	to	your	body’s	natural	rhythms	in	order	to	achieve	Peak	Beauty	Sleep.SHIFT	11:
Tune	In	to	Your
Body’s
Natural
Rhythms
Nature’s	Timetable
Being	more	in	tune	with	our	natural	rhythms	aligns	us	to	nature’s	power	and
beauty.	It’s	easy	to	think	of	nature’s	power	in	a	dramatic	flash	of	lightning	or	in
the	heat	of	the	sun,	but	equal	to	this	power	is	the	strength	of	rejuvenation.	We
need	to	harness	this	power	to	retract	and	go	inward	in	order	to	have	the	most
effective,	deep	sleep	that	fuels	our	creative	power	and	allows	our	natural	beauty
to	fully	shine	through.
Radical	Beauty	is	about	living	in	harmony	with	nature’s	inherent	wisdom.
From	a	sleep	perspective,	this	means	that	the	more	in	tune	you	are	with	natural
light,	the	better.	This


 was a gradual uphill run for
almost seventee n of the twenty -six miles. After fifteen miles I
knew that I was in serious trouble. The heat and uphill runnin g
were beginning to take their toll. Runners were dropping out.
Some were on the side of the road, vomiting, and many, victims
of heat exhaustion, were being placed in Red Cross ambulances.
I could feel myself getting queasy, and for the first time in my
running career, I stopped in the middle of a race and had to lie
down and give in to nausea and vomiting. I would stay on the
ground, drink a quart or so of water, and then get back up and run
a few more miles, and then be back on the ground. By the twenty-
one-mile mark I was at a point of physical exhaustion that I hadnever experienced before. I was shaking and vomiting green bile,
but unab le to fathom that I had flown all the way to Greece to
accomplish something that I had dreamed about for years and was
not able to finish the race.
I simply  could not let that thought into my consciousness. I
contemplated what it would be like to fly back to the Unite d
States and then look back at this moment and see what bene fit
there was in it for me. I could not get that picture as I lay on the
street five miles outside the city of Athens, with people coming to
my aid, telling me to get into the ambulance for the ride back to
the Olympic Stadium. So I stayed in the moment, and asked
myself what blessing or opportunity there was in this. I put my
suffering aside and genuinely asked myself if I really wanted to
go back home without having completed what I had set out to do.
Could I somehow reach down inside myself and find the will
(through thought) to run for five more miles?
Something came over me at that moment that I can only
describe as a miracle. I felt that I was lying there in the heat and
vomit to see if I had the inner courage to do what seeme d
impossible at that moment. Five more miles at that mome nt
seemed like five hundred. Yet I saw with my thoughts that I could
use that situation as a blessing and truly grow as a human being
by transcending my physical condition. My physical insides
literally changed. I went from weakness to strength in a moment,
the mom ent when I gave myself  permission to see the opportunity
to discover how much strength I could draw on. I righted myse lf,
told the ambulance attendants  to help someone else, and I
proceeded toward the finish line five miles ahead.
As I entered Athens, I realized that my troubles were not over.
The streets had not been blocked off, and so we were required to
run down the highway on the lane markers with cars drivin g
alongside us, and policemen trying to keep the automobiles away
from the runners. The fume s were the worst I had ever
experienced in my life. Cars were changing lanes right in front of
runners, the drivers ignoring the pleadings of the policemen
attempting to direct traffic. It was growing hotter by the momen t.
Yet, with each new obstacle, my resolve seemed to intensify, andmy legs stopped cramping and quivering. I was getting stronger,
not weaker.
I finished that race. I finished despite having spent almost thirty
minutes on the ground. I finished in the top third overall, whic h
was my highest finish ever, even though it was my slowest time.
But the time was insignificant.  So too were the cheers and the
medals we received. I had learn ed something very valuable about
myself, and I did not have to wait several years to know what the
blessing was in the suf fering.
This short verse  from raymond ng’s reflections from the soul
sums up my thoughts nicely:
Out of mud the lovely lotus blossoms,
Out of trials something higher vies
When we can seize that higher something in the moment, we are
advancing along  the path towa rd that third and ultimate stage
wherein pure synchronicity lies, and where we take a much more
active role in co-creating our world.
Stage Three: Pure synchr onicity. If Stage One of enlightenment is
to notice with the benefit of hindsight that every obstacle is an
opportunity, and Stage Two is to catch ourselves as the obstacle
appears, noticing the blessing as it is happening, you are probably
wondering, “What else is there?” The answer is difficult to
comprehend for those who cannot see anything beyond their
form. For the third and highest  stage of enlightenment gives us
the choice of thought at its purest. It offers the possibility of
thought experienced without intermediary, material, so-calle d
causes. It is synchronicity in context with the notion that we are
thought, and that thoughts reside both within and outside us.
In this stage of enlightenment we are able to see the obstacles
on the horizon as simply “events” which we have a choice about.
At this stage we do not need to create or become caught up in theobstacles to have the learning experience. The negative-sounding
“obstacle” is replaced by the more neutral term “event.” I believe
that today, at this point of my development, I do not need to get
so sick running a marathon to experience my Self in thought as I
did in the Greek Marathon. I can be with that strength or essence
or Self in though t if I so choose. I can know that aspect of myse lf
without having to go through an obstacle or event. And, yes, in
this third stage, the lotus blossom can bloom in thought without
needing the mud to create it.
The divine part of ourselves which I have labeled thought and
God is a force in the universe which we are capable of tuning in
to if we believe  in it and if we are willing. In the purest stage of
synchronicity we have a choice about experiencing thought in
form or in pure thought. We get an intuitive sense that to act or
continue acting in a certain way is creating a forthcoming event.
Inner intuition tells us that we are heading toward this situation
and we sense we have a choice  about whether or not we need to
go down this road again. In pure synchronicity we are able to
bypass the experience in form by having the thought without the
need to play it out in form. It is literally getting out in front of it
rather than learning from it through hindsight or in the prese nt
moment. When we permit thought its synchronized flow, its
passage as part of the perfectio n, without resistance or denial, it
flows through naturally without need to manifest externally.

Recently my wife and I were considering purchasing a new home which
was under construction. We liked everything about it and planned to sign a
contract. Then both of us had an intuitive feeling that there were  difficulties
down the road if we made such a commitment. We have come to trust those
inner signals, and so we decided, simply on the basis of our intuition, not to
enter into an agreement with the builder. At previous times  in our life
together we have made some decisions that turned out to be costly. Here we
were at least at Stage Two, knowing that we had lessons to learn. The
blessing in those obstacles turne d out to be that we learned to trust our inner
signals and avoid unpleasant outcomes in the future.That third stage of enlightenmen t, in which my wife and I are able to get
out in front of ourselves and have choice about an impending event, occurs
regularly when we are in disagreement. We can both see such events
coming, and we are willing to look ahead and live out, in our thoughts, the
consequences of acting in certain ways. A great deal of suffering is
eliminated by contacting the obstacle in thought only and then removing the
need to translate it into form.
Utilizing though t to write the script for ourselves in form is a marvelous
stage to get to in life. Here, in partnership with our inner selves, we can
write the script for our outer selves in the most loving way imaginable. We
can live in that graceful dimens ion of formless thought almost exclusively,
programming for the form all that it needs to experience in its self-
actualizing process. At the same time, having learned some lessons through
traumas, we do not need to keep repeating them.
In Stage One we find the Krishnamurti dialogue with the man who was
experiencing painful suffering over the loss of his wife. Let us look now at
the next segment of that conversation:
There must be suffering as long as there is no understanding of
the ways of the self; and the ways of the self are to be discovere d
only in the action of relationship.
“But my relationship has come to an end.”
There is no end to relationship. There may be the end of a
particular relatio nship; but relationship can never end. To be is to
be relate d, and nothing can live in isolation. Though we try to
isolate ourselves through a particular relationship, such isolatio n
will inevitably breed sorrow. Sorrow is the process of isolation.
“Can life ever be what it has been?”
Can the joy of yesterday ever be repeated today? The desire for
repetition arises  only when there is no joy today; when today is
empty, we look to the past or to the future


 temperature at
Ahmedabad was 111° F. To 122° F.ln such hot weather she had an
attack a: a strong asthmatic fit. In the afternoon of 9 june, she felt
much d~scomfort. I called my son Shashikant (her husband) and
aske~ h1m to rub urine on his wife's breast. After half an hour of
rub~mg ~he uneasiness disappeared. On seeing this, 1 decided to
begm unne treatment on her. It may be mentioned here, a urine
massage should be done by a family member if possible. As a
matter of fact, besides the physical advantages of massage, the ASTHMA: 99
matter of fact, besides the physical advantages of massage, the
patient is also benefited by the enthusiasm and sympathy of the
person giving massage. So I ask my son to spare some time from his
business and devote it for his wife's massaging. He readily agreed to
this.
Kumudben has no disgust of urine. There fore 1Oth June, she ·
started taking auto-urine once a day in the morining. From 14th
june, she started the fast also. Nevertheless, in order to maintain her
strength, I gave her 8 oz. of water of dates twice a day, i.e., in the
morning and evening, for the first two days. For two days, i.e. 16th
and 17th june, she had loose motions about seven-eight times and
along with motions phlegm passed out. As a result, her stomach,
abdomen and bowels were cleared. The motions ceased on 17th
juen. On 18th morning vomiting started and much viscous phlegm
passed out. As the number of vomits increased, more and more
rei ief was felt. In the evening of 19th, vomiting also ceased. The
continous vomiting for two days, cleared phlegm from her breast,
lungs and sides. What would happen now? On the 20th morning,
she started sneezing. The result was soon noticed. The old and new
phlegm sticking to the upper part of the throat began to separate
and come out through the mouth. The sneezing continued the
whole day and stopped of itself in the eveing. On the 21st
afternoon Kumud said that she felt she was all right and the terrible
asthma was rooted out. On the 22nd morining she broke her eight
days' fast. She took some water of dates in the morning, chiku,
papaw and juice of pomegranate)n the afternoon and lentil soup in
the evening. In this way she took fruit and liquid diet only for two
days. From 26th june, she began taking simple and easily digestible
diet.
She was thus free from her asthma. Her weight decreased from
140 lb. to 120 lb. and she felt some vigour and vitality in her body.
Her skin became soft and bright. Two rainy and winter seasons
have passed but she did not have any attack whatsoever. She is now
free from any fear of attack of asthma. In spite of that she is always 100 : AUTO-URINE THERAPY
ready to fightthe disease.
Nature is most powerful. All the medicines of the world are
worthless compared to her. The doctors all over the world do not
fully understand her mysteries. With her grace and co-operation,
~the world can become a happy place to live in. Going against her
renders the world a dreary desert.
2. Asthma of Bombay: A doctor in Bombay came to know the
successful treatment of my daughter-in-law. He wrote to me, 11There
is nothing strange in this. You have cured an ordinary asthma. 1 shall
admit the efficacy of your treatment if it can successfully cure the
asthma of Bombay as well.11 This doctor was correct in his
statement. The asthma of the patients in Bombay becomes almost
incurable. It develops due to moisture in the atmosphere and persists
till death.
"The doctor had been a witness to the miserable plight of an
asthma patient who in spite of drugging for a long time could not be
cured. I did not wish to do anything to meet the challenge. But
fortunately I received an encouraging letter from Bombay which 1
could not even dream of. I reproduce it here in short:
Madhukar Gopal Date (lndubaug No. 2, Sanmill Lane, Lower
Parel, Bombay 12) wrote to me on 13-12-1959 :
111 have gone through your book Manavamutra. 1 undertook
treatment prescribed in it to cure my asthma and am pleased to say
~hat I have got a new life after a fast on auto-urine for 8 days. My age
IS 45 years. I was found of exercise from the very beginning.
Consequently my physique was very strong and robust. When 1 was
a youth of 25 I used to sleep for an hour during the mid-day. After
sl~ep, usually there used to be coughing and some phlegm along
w1th blood came out. I was indifferent to this. This much 1
re~ember that I had been constitutionally phlegmatic from the very
childhood. Gradually cough increased. Many treatments were tried
out but with no avail. In course of time, the disease assumed the
form of asthma, I became extremely careful to take all preventive ASTHMA: 101
measures. But asthma haunted me like a ghost and I was totally
disappointed.11
11Meanwhile; my dear friend and neighbour Shri Khetsibhai Malsi
Savala gave me a copy of your book to read. I read it twice and
gathered confidence. I started drinking urine once every morning
and continued for a month. There was no improvement at all and I
was again disappointed. Thereafter I decided to fast for eight days
which I bec;an on 1 8-11-'59. I used to drink entire urine passed
during the day and night. The urine that was collected before the
fast was used to be rubbed by my wife. She used to warm it and
rub it on my whole body. twice a day, devoting 1 112 hours to each
rubbing. Four days passed but no motion or other results were
noticed. I got worried. On the 5th day, I took an enema of boi'led
neem-leaves water; but only water came out without any waste
with it. The treatment however was continued. I expected vomiting
but during 8 day's fast, there was neither vomiting nor loose
motions, nor sneezing. I broke the.fast on the 9th day, i.e. on
26-11-59. Before fast I weighed 135 lb. and after it 116 lb.
"The same day I consulted my doctor. He examined carefully
and reported that there was no phlegm in my body. He was further
pleased to know about urine treatment and assured me that if
asthma would not recur within three or four.months, he would
advise this treatment to others.
11God has really bestowed us with the unique gift and I advise
everybody to adopt it with conviction and to get all the benefits out
of it.
"During the period of my fast, a number of friends visited me.
They related a number of recollections concerning urine therapy.
Some of them I reproduce here.
111. An ascetic disclosed that his physique was the result of
regular drinking of urine.
112. A Jain monk could keep his birght appearance and health by
drinking of auto-urine during the fasts. 102 : AUTO-URINE THERAPY
"3. Naga ascetics did the same to preserve their sound health.
"4. A goonda used to have a good deal of beating and being
beaten. Still his body does not bear any effect of being beaten. The
application of auto-urine was the surest remedy for that."
After two years I saw Shri Madhukar in Bombay. He was a
robust, cheerful and healthy man, free from any ailment.
3. Asthma of Ten Years : Shri Chaturbhai, an inhabitant of
Mogari, Dist. Kaira, has deep faith in urine therapy. By this natural
and simple treatment, he successfully cured four members of his
family. This success story of urine treatment spread in Anand and
adjoining villages. Dr. Prabhudas Patel of Karamsad is my relative.
He told me that under his guidance an old man of sixty was relieved
of asthma of ten years by urine treatment.
4. Important Instructions : During the urine fasts, the appetite of
the patient gose down. Therefore it is desirable that the appetite of
the patient should be increased gradually. But patient who fasts for
a long time is naturally seized with strong desire to eat more than
necessary. He is likely to demand large quantity of juice of fruits
and lentil soup. That causes indigestion. The excessive food that is
undigested causes phlegm and he again gets asthma. Unfortunately,
if the patient is not sensible enough to understand the real cause, he
blames


	field	can	be	seen	to	glow;	the	minuscule	electric
charge	given	off	by
neurons
	as	they	fire	is	also	measurable.	If	being	conscious
creates	an	energy	field,	can	an	energy	field	display	consciousness?	You	would
think	that	since	the	brain	depends	on	electrical	signals,	it	would	be	affected	by
the	murky	soup	of	radio,	television,	microwave,	and	many	other
electromagnetic	emissions	that	surround	us.	Apparently	this	isn’t	true.
Parapsychology	researchers	have	gone	so	far	as	to	isolate	subjects	with
psychic	abilities	in	Faraday	cages	that	block	all	electromagnetic	energy
without	altering	their	abilities	to	see	at	a	distance	or	exhibit	other	psychic
phenomena.	The	case	of	“remote	viewing”	is	especially	intriguing	because	so
much	credible	work	has	been	done	in	this	field.
Many	experiments	have	been	conducted	in	remote	viewing,	commonly
called	clairvoyance,	but	one	of	the	most	notable	took	place	at	Stanford
University,	where	scientists	built	a	machine	called	a	SQUID,	or
superconducting	quantum	interference	device.	It’s	enough	for	us	to	know	that
this	device,	which	measures	the	activity	of	subatomic	particles,	specifically
quarks,	is	very	well	shielded	from	all	outside	magnetic	forces.	This	shielding
begins	with	layers	of	copper	and	aluminum,	but	to	fully	ensure	that	no	outside
force	can	affect	the	mechanism,	exotic	metals	wrap	the	inner	core.
In	1972	a	SQUID	was	installed	in	the	basement	of	a	laboratory	at
Stanford,	apparently	doing	nothing	except	tracing	out	the	same	hill-and-valley
S-curve	on	a	length	of	graph	paper.	This	curve	represented	the	constant
magnetic	field	of	the	Earth;	if	a	quark	passed	through	the	field	the	machine
would	register	it	with	changes	in	the	pattern	being	drawn.	A	young	laser
physicist	named	Hal	Puthoff	(later	to	become	a	noted	quantum	theorist)
decided	that	aside	from	its	main	use,	the	SQUID	would	make	a	perfect	test	of
psychic	powers.	Very	few	people,	including	the	scientists	at	Sanford,	knew
the	inner	workings	of	the	machine.
A	letter	Puthoff	wrote	in	search	of	a	psychic	who	would	take	up	the
challenge	drew	a	response	from	Ingo	Swann,	a	New	York	artist
with
	psychic
abilities.	Swann	was	flown	to	California	without	being	told	in	advance	about
either	the	test	or	the	SQUID.	When	he	first	saw	it,	he	seemed	a	bit	put	off.	Buthe	agreed	to	“look”	inside	the	machine,	and	as	he	did,	the	S-curve	on	the
graph	paper	changed	pattern—something	it	almost	never	did—only	to	go
back	to	its	normal	functioning	as	soon	as	Swann	stopped	paying	attention	to
it.
A	startled	Puthoff	asked	him	to	repeat	this,	so	for	forty-five	seconds
Swann	concentrated	upon	seeing	the	inside	of	the	machine,	and	for	exactly
that	interval	the	recording	device	drew	a	new	pattern,	a	long	plateau	on	the
paper	instead	of	hills	and	valleys.	Swann	then	drew	a	sketch	of	what	he	saw
as	the	inner	workings	of	the	SQUID,	and	when	these	were	checked	with	an
expert,	they	perfectly	matched	the	actual	construction.	Swann	was	vague
about	how	he	had	changed	the	magnetic	input	that	the	machine	was	built	to
measure.	It	turned	out	that	if	he	merely	thought	about	the	SQUID,	not	trying
to	change	it	at	all,	the	recording	device	showed	alterations	in	the	surrounding
magnetic	field.
P
EOPLE	WHO	ARE
	skeptical	of	psychic	abilities	ignore	countless	studies
demonstrating	that	ordinary	thought	can	actually	affect	the	world.	This	is
particularly	important	if	mind	is	a	field.
I	once	participated	in	a	controlled
experiment	in	which	a	subject	sitting	in	an	isolated	room	(the	sender)	would
intermittently	look	at	a	visual	image,	while	I	(the	receiver)	would	press	a
button	every	time	I	sensed	that	this	was	happening.	My	accuracy,	like	most
people’s,	was	far	above	average.	(The	British	biologist	Rupert	Sheldrake,	who
more	than	anyone	has	tried	to	explain	how	mind	extends	beyond	the	body,	has
done	similar	experiments.	He	has	tested,	for	example,	whether	we	can
actually	sense	when	someone	is	staring	at	us	behind	our	backs.	Those
experiments	have	shown	a	greater	than	random	outcome	as	well.)
In	a	long	series	of	experiments	in	the	Sixties,	an	FBI	expert	named	Cleve
Backster	hooked	plants	up	to	polygraphs,	knowing	that	lie	detectors	work	by
measuring	changes	of	moisture	on	the	skin	surface.	In	his	own	words,	here’s
what	happened	next.
Then	at	thirteen	minutes,	fifty-five	seconds	chart	time,	the
imagery	entered	my	mind	of	burning	the	leaf	I	was	testing.	I
didn’t	verbalize,	I	didn’t	touch	the	plant,	I	didn’t	touch	the
equipment.	The	only	new	thing	that	could	have	been	a	stimulus
for	the	plant	was	the	mental	image.	Yet	the	plant	went	wild.
The	pen	jumped	right	off	the	top	of	the	chart.
This	first	startling	observation	in	February	1966	led	to	a	host	of	follow-
ups	as	Backster	measured	responses	to	cigarette	smoke,	negative	thoughts,
and	strong	emotions;	it	turned	out	that	houseplants	register	how	people	feel
around	them.	The	most	remarkable	finding,	perhaps,	was	that	if	Backsterhooked	up	a	pair	of	plants	and	injured	one	plant	in	a	separate	room,	the	other
plant	registered	the	same	disturbance	in	electrical	activity	as	if	it	had	been
injured	itself.	The	polygraph	needle	jumped	even	though	the	two	plants	had
no	physical	connection,	and	it	kept	jumping	even	when	the	plants	were
separated	by	a	greater	distance.	One	can’t	help	but	be	reminded	of	the	various
studies	in	which	identical	twins	sense	what	is	happening	to	each	other	at	a
distance,	to	the	point	that	one	particular	twin	knew	the	instant	his	brother	was
electrocuted	climbing	a	telephone	pole	and	testified	to	actually	feeling	the
pain	himself.	Are	human	twins	paired	through	the	same	complementarity	that
bonds	electrons	in	deep	space?
To	say	that	consciousness	is	a	field	creates	only	the	outline	of	a	proof.
Nobody	has	accounted	for	the	gap,	and	without	that,	consciousness	remains
totally	mysterious;	in	fact,	so	do	fields.	The	gap	is	the	empty	space	between
events;	it	contains	nothing	but	itself,	and
yet
	it	seems	that	everything	comes
out	of	it.	When	we	look	at	DNA	we	are	told	by	geneticists	that	life	emerges
not	from	the	bits	of	amino	acids	strung	on	the	double	helix,	but	from	the
space	between	them.	These	spaces	are	little	understood,	but	they	play	a
mysterious	role	in	the	sequence	of	genes.	In	physical	terms	the	DNA	of
gorillas	and	humans	differs	by	less	than	1%;	the	gaps	between	visible	matter
create	the	unbridgeable	gulf	between	gorillas	and	humans.	In	the	gap	the
source	of	consciousness	must	be	revealed.
Sat	Chit	Ananda


nal liquid level should be the marked level.
It may be slightly higher as herb paste swells while making the ghee.
Signs to Watch at the End
Fragrance of the herbs become apparent.
e herb paste can be rolled into the form of wick.
e herb paste when put on re does not make sound.
First there will be froth. Nearing to the end of ghee making, the froth
disappears.
In the mid, the total paste + liquid becomes one dirty looking mix.
Nearing to the end, ghee gets clearly separated from the paste.
In the mid, the total paste + liquid becomes one dirty looking mix.
Nearing to the end, ghee gets clearly separated from the paste.
Vartivat – the kalka inside the ghee can be easily rolled into the form
of a wick.
Shabdaheena – when the kalka is put on re, it does not produce any
sound.
Phenashanthi – the foam disappears
Gandha varna Rasa (taste) Utpatti – there will be good aroma, colour
and taste in the ghee.
Precautions
Do not start heating ghee rst and then add kashaya. If ghee starts
boiling and then you add Kashaya, it may explode.
Use moderate heat.•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
1.Constant stirring – both while making kashaya and the ghee
Use wide mouthed vessel for quicker evaporation
Be alert at the end stage
After ghee is ready, lter the ghee soon after it is made.
Number of Days for Ghee Preparation
Making Kashaya and then making ghee may not get completed in one
day time.
Ayurveda also recommends making the ghee in 2 o r more days.
So, rst day make kashayam. en get the ghee + paste into vessel. Add
Kashayam to it.
Heat it till it starts boiling. Stop heating. Close the vessel with a lid.
Next day continue heating and nish it.
Some Rules
If only a herb name is mentioned for ghee preparation, en kalka of
the same drugs is put & 4 times of water is also added.
Eg: ghee prepared with ginger is useful in digestion.
is means, ginger paste + ghee + water
Types of Ghee Preparation
ree types:
Mridu Paaka – Soft – water in the kalka no water in ghee.
e kalka will be very soft to touch & will have little moisture in it.
One can manage to prepare Varti. Wick is soft and does not hold2.
3.
•
•
•shape.
Useful for Nasya
Madhyama Paaka – medium – no water in kalka and no water in
ghee. Wick is rm and strong – useful for all practical purposes. e
kalka will be soft & devoid of moisture. Perfect Varti can be prepared
Khara Paaka – rough, burnt, hard – wick of kalka turns powdery,
granular. – Useful for Abhyanga only.
Sneha kalka will be hard totally devoid of moisture. Varti turns hard but gets
the shape.
Time Duration to Prepare Herbal Ghees
If milk is there in formula, then nish ghee making in 2 d ays
If juice extract (swarasa) – 3 days
If buttermilk, fermented liquids – 5 days
If roots and climbers – 1 2 days
If rice, gra ins and meat – 1 day
Shelf Life, Dosage & Adjuvant
16 months.
1 Pala (48 grams).
Lukewarm water.
Example:
Ashwagandha ghee to improve immunity in children
Arjuna ghee for cardiac healthOnce the Ghee is Filtered, Can e Paste Be Reused In Any Way?
e paste is heated for 1–2 days. All its medicinal values are transferred into
the ghee medium. So, that paste is waste.
Reference: Sharangdhara Samhita Madhyama Khanda 9th chapter.1.
2.69. Ayurvedic Cardiac Tonic
– Home Remedy for Heart
Support
Y
Ayurveda explains in detail about functions of heart and ways to promote
heart health. Ayurveda explains an herb called – Arjuna as a superior remedy,
which acts as cardiac tonic. is herb is found as an ingredient in most of the
cardiac supportive herbal supplements and Ayurvedic medicines. Let us learn a
home remedy using this herb.
Ayurveda for Heart –
is home remedy for heart is prepared in claried butter (ghee) base. Here,
the herb arjuna (Terminalia arjuna) is processed in the medium of ghee. e
herbal ghee prepared based on Ayurveda principles is known as Ghritam. We
are preparing Ghritam with Arjuna, hence this ghee preparation is called as
Arjuna Ghritam. It is a traditional Ayurvedic product. Let us learn how to
prepare it.
Step 1
First prepare a Kashayam of Arjuna. For this purpose, following ingredients are
taken.
Arjuna – 40 g (coarse or ne powder)
water – 640 ml
Arjuna powder is added with water in the said proportion, taken in an wide
mouth vessel, boiled in mild re while stirring continuously, reduced to 160ml, ltered. is is Arjuna Kashayam
Step 2
Take Arjuna kashayam – 160 ml
Ghee – 40 grams
Arjuna powder – 10 grams
(Arjuna powder: Ghee: kashayam = 1:4:16 r atio)
Boil this mixture in mild heat till all the moisture is lost. Watch for the nal
signs when ghee is completely made. and stop it at that precise point.
Filter it when it is hot. Finally you should get 30–40 m l of product.
Arjuna ghritam is ready.
Advantage: is product contains both the water and fat soluble
phytochemicals of the herb Arjuna.
Dose: Remember that this tutorial is only for education purpose. It is always
better to take this Ghritam under professional advice. As a general rule, those
who wish to have a strong heart, it is advised by Ayurvedic doctors in a dose of
1–3 grams daily, in the morning, before food.
It is advised to take half a cup of warm water after taking this ghee, for easy
digestion.
Benets
Ayurveda explains the benet of this ghee as “Hrudya” – which carries the
meanings such as – good for heart and supports and promotes heart function.1.
2.
3.
4.70. Ghee Home Remedy for
Dry Cough
Y
is remedy contains only two ingredients other than ghee. It is prepared as
per the traditional Ayurvedic Ghrita preparation.
What You Need?
Ghee – 50 ml
Water – 400 ml
Guduchi (Giloy – Indian Tinospora) – 25 g rams
Kantakari (Solanum xanthocarpum) – 25 g rams
e preparation involves 2 steps.
Step 1. Preparation of Herbal Decoction –
25 Grams each of Giloy and Kantakari powders are added to 400 m l of water.
It is boiled till 100 ml of Kashayam (water decoction) is prepared. e
decoction is ltered.
Step 2. Preparation of Herbal Ghee –
50 Grams Ghee is taken in a wide mouthed vessel.
e above water decoction is added to the ghee.Half to one tablespoon of ne powders of each of Giloy (Tinospora) and
Kantakari are added to the ghee.
is mixture is boiled in mild re till all the moisture content from the
vessel is evaporated.
At the end, loss of total moisture is conrmed by putting the ghee on re. If
there is no sound of water, then it indicates that the process is complete.
At this point, heating is stopped and it is ltered to obtain herbal ghee.
Shelf Life – Once prepared, this ghee can be stored in an air tight container
for up to one year.
Dose –
is ghee, half a teaspoon once or twice a day, before food, is administered.
Hot water is advised after taking ghee.
It can be taken for a period of one month.
Benets –
Both Giloy and Kantakari are very eﬀective against cough and respiratory tract
infection.
Giloy is known for its immune boosting and anti inammatory eﬀects.
is herbal ghee is useful for people suﬀering from dry cough for a long period
of time.
Side Eﬀects and Precautions –
People with diabetes and high


0g); Cholesterol 0mg; Sodium 72mg;
Carbohydrate 24g (Dietary Fiber 3g); Protein 2g.
Tip: You can use raw carrots if you want, but cooked carrots make
a smoother drink.
Tip: Garnish with orange slices if you wish. The ice may be
omitted if you want.
N o - j i t o
Prep time: About 4 min • Blending time: 1 min • Yield: 2 servings
Ingr edients1 avocado
1 stalk celery
1 apple
2 cups fresh or 1 cup frozen spinach
3/4 cup fresh carrot juice
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
2 to 4 fresh mint leaves for garnish (optional)
Dir ections
1 Cut the avocado in half, remove the stone, and peel. Cut the
avocado and celery into chunks.
2 Peel the apple (if not organic) and cut into quarters. Remove
the core and seeds.
3 Chop the spinach if using frozen.
4 Combine the carrot juice, lime juice, spinach, celery, avocado,
apple, and chopped mint in the blender container.
5 Secure the lid on the container.
6 Starting on a low speed and gradually easing toward high, blend
the ingredients for 45 seconds or until smooth and there are no
visible pieces of vegetable in the mixture.
7 Pour the smoothie into 2 glasses, garnish with fresh mint leaves
(if using), and enjoy!
Per serving: Calories 215 (From Fat 117); Fat 13g (Saturated 3g); Cholesterol 0mg; Sodium 97mg;
Carbohydrate 27g (Dietary Fiber 11g); Protein 5g.
Vary It! This makes a thick smoothie. You can thin it by using 1
cup carrot juice or by using 1/2 avocado.R e d  V e l v e t
Prep time: About 4 min • Blending time: 1 min • Yield: 4 servings
Ingr edients
1/2 avocado
1/2 red pepper
1 apple
2 small beets, lightly steamed
1 cup almond milk
2 ounces vodka, light rum, or gin
1/4 cup cashews or macadamia nuts
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 to 2 tablespoons honey (or to taste)
1 cup frozen strawberries
Dir ections
1 Cut the avocado and red pepper into chunks.
2 Peel the apple (if not organic) and cut into quarters. Remove
the core and seeds.
3 Peel the beets and cut into chunks.
4 Combine the almond milk, alcohol, avocado, pepper, apple,
beets, nuts, cocoa powder, and honey in the blender container.
5 Secure the lid on the container.
6 Starting on a low speed and gradually easing toward high, blend
the ingredients for 45 seconds or until smooth and there are no
visible pieces of vegetable in the mixture.7 Add frozen strawberries and pulse for 30 seconds or until
blended into the mixture.
8 Pour the smoothie into 4 glasses, and enjoy!
Per serving: Calories 206 (From Fat 77); Fat 9g (Saturated 2g); Cholesterol 0mg; Sodium 73mg;
Carbohydrate 25g (Dietary Fiber 6g); Protein 4g.
Vary It! The avocado makes this a thick drink. You can omit it for
a thinner smoothie.
G r a p e  C o c k t a i l
Prep time: About 4 min • Blending time: 1 min • Yield: 2 servings
Ingr edients
1/2 avocado
1 cup grape juice
1 cup blueberries
2 cups chopped red cabbage
1 cup frozen red grapes
2 ounces vodka, light rum, or gin
Dir ections
1 Peel and cut the ﬂesh of the avocado into chunks. Tightly wrap
and refrigerate the remaining half.
2 Combine the grape juice, avocado, blueberries, and cabbage in
the blender container.
3 Secure the lid on the container.
4 Starting on a low speed and gradually easing toward high, blend
the ingredients for 45 seconds or until smooth and there are no
visible pieces of vegetable in the mixture.5 Add frozen grapes and pulse for 30 seconds or until blended
into the mixture.
6 Pour the smoothie into 2 glasses, add 1 ounce of alcohol to
each glass, stir, and enjoy!
Per serving: Calories 320 (From Fat 65); Fat 7g (Saturated 1g); Cholesterol 0mg; Sodium 52mg;
Carbohydrate 99g (Dietary Fiber 16g); Protein 7g.
Vary It! Ice thickens and chills smoothies. Add 1/2 cup crushed ice
in Step 5 if desired.
C r è m e  d e  C o c a o
Prep time: About 4 min • Blending time: 1 min • Yield: 2 servings
Ingr edients
1/2 avocado
1 cup coconut cream or coconut milk
2 cups chopped green cabbage, lightly steamed
1 cup frozen green grapes
2 ounces vodka, light rum, or gin
Dir ections
1 Peel and cut the ﬂesh of the avocado into chunks.
2 Combine the coconut cream or milk, avocado, and cabbage in
the blender container.
3 Secure the lid on the container.
4 Starting on a low speed and gradually easing toward high, blend
the ingredients for 45 seconds or until smooth and there are no
visible pieces of vegetable in the mixture.5 Add the frozen grapes and pulse for 30 seconds or until blended
into the mixture.
6 Pour the smoothie into 2 glasses, clean the container and lid.
7 Add 1 ounce of alcohol to each glass, stir, and enjoy!
Per serving: Calories 493 (From Fat 298); Fat 33g (Saturated 25g); Cholesterol 0mg; Sodium 89mg;
Carbohydrate 34g (Dietary Fiber 9g); Protein 7g.
Vary It! Ice thickens and chills smoothies. Add 1/2 cup crushed ice
in Step 5 if desired.
C u c u m b e r  G i n
Prep time: About 4 min • Blending time: 1 min • Yield: 2 servings
Ingr edients
1 cup tonic water
2 cups chopped cucumber
2 ounces vodka, light rum, or gin
1 cup frozen green grapes
Dir ections
1 Combine the tonic water, cucumber, and alcohol in the blender
container.
2 Secure the lid on the container.
3 Starting on a low speed and gradually easing toward high, blend
the ingredients for 45 seconds or until smooth and there are no
visible pieces of vegetable in the mixture.
4 Add the frozen grapes and pulse for 30 seconds or until blended
into the mixture.5 Pour the smoothie into 2 glasses, and enjoy!
Per serving: Calories 180 (From Fat 6); Fat 1g (Saturated 0g); Cholesterol 0mg; Sodium 9mg;
Carbohydrate 28g (Dietary Fiber 2g); Protein 1g.
Vary It! Ice thickens and chills smoothies. Add 1/4 cup crushed ice
in Step 4 if desired.Chapter 17
Dairy Smoothies
In This Chapter
 Starting your day off with a calcium-rich drink
 Making your midday meal a milky one
 Deciding on decadent dessert and party drinks
Recipes in This Chapter
 Cashew Butter and Strawberries
 Orange Cow
 Berry Cheesy
 Breakfast Muesli
 Borscht
 Creamy Tomato Soup
▶ Chicken Salad
 S’mores-ies
 Grasshopper Pie
 Lemon Chiffon Cake
 Crème Cassis
 Café au Lait
 Crème de Banane
 Orange Cream
This chapter is all about using milk and dairy products in
smoothies. If you’re lactose intolerant, you may want to skipahead to the next chapter because every one of the drinks in
this chapter is made with milk or products derived from milk.
Because they’re made from milk, dairy products — cheese,
yogurt, ice cream, cream, crème fraîche, sour cream, and
buttermilk — are good sources of calcium and protein. Dairy
products aren’t limited to cow’s milk; they include products
from all the various animal milk sources, such as sheep and
goat.
 Why add dairy products to your smoothies? Because
they’re a great way to increase your calcium and protein
intake while you’re getting your fruits and vegetables.
Br eakfast and Snack Smoothies
For vitamin- and mineral-enriched breakfast and snack
smoothies, choose your milk or milk product and get blending.
Because of the protein in milk and milk products, dairy
smoothies have staying power, which makes them perfect in the
morning for breakfast or midmorning snacks.
 Try making these recipes in the morning for breakfast
and then bring the remaining serving to work as a
midmorning snack. Be sure to ﬁll the glass jar or container
as close to the top as possible to reduce exposure to air.
Cover tightly and keep in the refrigerator until you’re ready
to enjoy it on your midmorning break, while all your co-
workers are loading up on bagels, donuts, and vending-
machine food. You can use any of the types of liquid milk in these
smoothies: whole, 2 percent, 1 percent, or