 is already compromised in GAPS patients. On top
of that, to deal with the sugar onslaught, the body has to use available min
erals, vitamins and enzymes at an alarming rate, finishing up being
depleted of these vital substances. For example, to metabolise only one
molecule of sugar the body requires around 56 molecules of magnesium.
Consumption of sugar is a major reason for widespread magnesium defi
ciency in our modern society leading to high blood pressure, neurological,
immune and many other problems. A GAPS patient is already deficient in
magnesium and many other vital nutrients and should not have sugar in
any form. Cakes, sweets, and other confectioneries are made with sugar
and wheat, as the main ingredients, plus lots of chemicals like colours,
preservatives, flavourings, etc. It goes without saying that they should be
out of the diet (with or without gluten).
Soft drinks are a major source of sugar in our modern diets, not to men
tion all the chemical additives. A can of soda can contain from 5 to 10 tea
spoons of sugar. Fruit juices are full of processed fruit sugars and moulds.
Unless freshly pressed, they should not be in your diet either. Aspartame, a
sugar replacement in so-called "diet" drinks, has been found to be carcinogenic and neurotoxic and most definitely should be avoided by
GAPS children and adults.
Sugar and wheat are so insidious that it can be very hard to find any
processed food on the supermarket shelves without sugar and wheat.
To summarise, any GAPS patient, be it autistic, schizophrenic, hyper
active, dyslexic, asthmatic, etc., should have no processed foods at all in
his/her diet. All foods should be bought fresh, as close to the way Nature
made them as possible, and prepared at home. A digestive tract is a long
tube. What you fill that tube with has a direct effect on its well being. A
GAPS digestive system is damaged and very sensitive. You cannot trust any
food manufacturer to fill it in. You have to fill your GAPS child's (or GAPS
adult's in your care) digestive system yourself by freshly cooked nourishing
food, where you are in control and in charge of what the exact ingredients
are and how they are processed.
No Soya, please!
Soya is a very big business, particularly in the USA. A large percent of the
industry uses genetically modified soya. Soya is cheap to produce and fol
lowing some research showing that it can be beneficial for menopausal
women, the whole market has exploded with soya products. It can be
found in many processed foods, margarines, salad dressings and sauces,
breads, biscuits, pizza, baby food, children's snacks, sweets, cakes, vege
tarian products, dairy replacements, infant milk formulas, etc. Is there a
problem with that? Let us have a look at some facts.
1. The benefits to menopausal women, seen in Japan and other eastern
cultures are due to the form in which soy is traditionally used: as a
whole bean or fermented as a soy sauce, tofu, miso and tempeh. The
form in which soya is used in the west is called soy protein isolate.
How is it made? After removing the fibre with an alkaline solution the
soybeans are put into large aluminium tanks with an acid wash. Acid
makes the soybeans to absorb aluminium, which will remain in the
end product. Aluminium has been linked to dementia and Alzheimer's
disease and indeed there has been a lot of publicity recently linking
soy consumption with these mental disorders. After the aluminium-
acid wash the beans are treated with many other chemicals including
nitrates, which have been implicated in cancer development. The end
product is an almost tasteless powder, easy to use and add to any food. Up to 60% of processed foods including soya milk and soya infant
formulas contain this powder.
2. Soya is a natural goitrogen. What does it mean? It means that soya has
an ability to impair iodine absorption and reduce thyroid function.
Due to various toxins found in GAPS patients they are, almost without
exception, hypothyroid, which means that their thyroid function is
already impaired. Low thyroid function has very serious implications
for a growing child, including abnormalities in brain development
and maturation. Having soya in the diet will reduce the child's thyroid
function even further.
3. Soya beans have a very high concentration of phytates, These are sub
stances, found in all grains as well, particularly in their bran. Phytates
have a great ability to bind to minerals and not allow them to be
absorbed, particularly calcium, magnesium, iron and zinc. We already
know that GAPS children and adults are deficient in these vital min
erals. Adding soy to their diet would make these deficiencies even
worse.
4. Great Plains Laboratory, which have performed allergy testing on a
large number of autistic children, found that almost every child had
extremely high allergies to soy. Based on their experience the head of
the laboratory Dr W. Shaw directly advises against the use of soy in
autistic children.
5. Soy has gained its popularity as a treatment for menopause because it
contains natural oestrogens or phytoestogens. These substances may
be useful for menopausal women, but not for small children. There is
a growing concern among health professionals on the amount of phy
toestogens infants and small children might be getting from soya milk
and infant formulas. Again, due to toxicity in their bodies the whole
hormonal balance is already upset in GAPS children. Adding another
interference in the form of phytoestogens does not seem like a good
idea.
What about soy in the natural traditional form as a soy sauce, tofu, tempeh,
etc.? It is very common among people with Candida overgrowth to be aller
gic to fermented foods. Traditional soy products are fermented. So,
whichever way you look at soya it is best to be avoided by GAPS patients. A letter from a parent (23 November 2003)
Walker was 3V 2 years old [when he] was diagnosed with moderate-severe autism and
dyspraxia. He was non-verbal and the specialists were telling us that he may never speak.
We followed the advice of researchers and put him on a strict gluten/casein (gf/cf) free
diet. We did have success with this, but felt there was more that could be done. It wasn't
until I consulted with you about a nutritional plan for Walker that I realised we had a long
way to go in terms of eating healthy and healing Walker's gut! The ironic thing was that
we always considered ourfamily as being relatively health-conscious. Upon analysing our
diet, I quickly realised that we had fallen into the trap of eating nothing but processed,
chemically-treated, convenience food. We began to follow your advice by eating foods in
their natural, raw state and saw almost immediate changes in Walker. Within a few
weeks, Walker spoke his first sentence and the rest is history!
The nutritional advice you gave us was invaluable to Walker's recovery.
I use the word "recovery" here because as of today, my son (who is now 5 years old)
is attending mainstream school and has many friends. In fact, he's a social butterfly! He
is learning at a normal rate and his autism and dyspraxia are almost undetectable!!
Anyone who knew Walker 2 years ago cannot believe the "transformation" which has
taken place. How could a boy who was completely emotionless and cut off from the
world be the same boy he is today? It's just amazing.
When I talk to people about "diet and nutrition" today, they don't quite understand
how food can affect a person in that way. After all, it is quite difficult for someone who
hasn't seen what we've seen to fully comprehend his miracle in its entirety!
Although there are many books written on special diets for children with autism, ADD,
ADHD, etc., (and I've read them all) I haven't come across one that is similar to the nutri
tional advice you suggested for Walker. In fact, I've found many of these books suggest
ing foods that I know would actually cause Walker great harm. The older research that
specifically talks about a strict gf/cf diet is just the tip of the iceberg... there is much
more to this story! I get very frustrated when I see many families following this advice
and buying "processed" gf/cf products that contain many other harmful ingredients.
These are often the same parents who are elated to discover that Diet Coke and potato
crisps are gf/cf and go out and buy them in bulk!! Ugh!
Holly Branch, mother of Walker
Surrey, UK 2. THE APPROPRIATE
DIET FOR GAP SYNDROME
We have concentrated on some diet aspects in the previous chapter. Now,
let us discuss, what is the right diet for GAPS people.
GAP Syndrome essentially is a digestive disorder and should be treated
as such. There is no need to re-invent the wheel when it comes to designing
a diet for digestive disorders. There is a diet already invented, a


 to keep the B-vitamins in balance, since we
use fairly large amounts of B3 and B12?
A:  Dr. Gerson states in his book ( A Cancer Therapy—Results of 50 Cases, Appendix II, P.
418), that patients were damaged when he administered Vitamins B1 and B6 to them. The
Gerson protocol with its huge number of juices and fresh foods is very well balanced and has no
need for supplements.
Copyright © Charlotte Gerson, 2007.  All rights reserved.
This material may not be reproduced in any medium, print or electronic without prior written permission from the author.Page 154Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.comQ: When can organic soy products be introduced into the diet?
A: The short answer is never. Soy products of all kinds (tofu, flour, sauce, etc.) contain a
substance that blocks absorption of nutrients, besides having a high fat content. A great deal
of research material has proven the toxicity of soy, even when grown organically. The hype
claiming soy’s usefulness in preventing breast cancer has turned out to be unsubstantiated and
the opposite of truth: soy is likely to stimulate malignancy.
Q: Proper food combining, not mixing starch and fruit, is supposed to be healthy. Why isn’t it
used on the Therapy?
A: Food combining is probably useful if applied to the average American diet, which is high
in animal proteins and sodium (salt). Since all Gerson foods are vegetarian and all vegetables
contain a certain amount of starch, it is neither necessary nor possible to separate those two
substances.
Q: Why not supplement Vitamins C and E, which help to boost the immune system? Surely
one glass of orange juice a day isn’t enough?
A: It is a general misconception that only orange juice contains Vitamin C. Not so. The juices
used in the Gerson program are richer in Vitamin C than orange juice, and patients consume
them in huge quantities every day. Raw salads and fruit increase the intake even further. Dr.
Gerson himself insisted that no additional vitamins should be given to patients. Besides, we
have found that pharmaceutically produced synthetic vitamins and minerals are poorly absorbed
and can even be harmful.
Q: Potatoes and tomatoes both belong to the deadly nightshade family and are banned from
many dietary regimes. Why are they the most used foods on the Therapy?
A: They are not! The most used items are carrots, apples and greens for juicing. Potatoes are
extremely nutritious, high in potassium as well as in protein, and easily digestible (much more
so than rice). Tomatoes are also valuable, as they contain vitamins and minerals, including
lycopene, a powerful anti-oxidant that has been extensively researched in recent years and is
reputed to boost immune competence. Other vegetables belonging to the nightshade family,
such as green peppers and eggplants, are also used in the diet and have never shown any toxic
effects.
Q: How many flare-ups or healing reactions can a patient normally expect?
A:  There is no ‘normal’ number for these. The body produces them as long as it needs to heal!
Copyright © Charlotte Gerson, 2007.  All rights reserved.
This material may not be reproduced in any medium, print or electronic without prior written permission from the author.Page 155Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.comAs a rule, the first healing reaction sets in some 6-8 days after starting the intensive treatment.
The second one comes usually after about 6 weeks, and the third, which is often the most
severe one, is generally observed after three to three-and-a-half months. In patients pre-treated
with chemotherapy we further expect a so-called chemo reaction after some six months on the
therapy. But these timings are not fixed and only suggest that the patient can expect healing
reactions at certain intervals, which can vary widely in individual cases.
Q: Are headaches a good sign?
A: Certainly not. They may be a symptom of flare-ups, when the body is releasing its overload
of toxins. In that case an additional coffee enema should be taken, to speed up the process of
detoxification. In some rare cases the toxicity is so high that an enema does not relieve the
headache. If so, one or more additional enemas are needed. In almost all patients, as healing
progresses, headaches disappear forever, even if they had been a problem for many years.
If headaches recur after the therapy has ended, the chances are that exposure to toxins or
unsuitable foods has occurred and must be avoided in future.
Q: When do patients begin to feel better and have more energy?
A: Almost all patients, including extremely ill ones, feel better after the fi rst week on the
therapy. Pain diminishes, appetite returns, sleep improves; in some cases even tumors recede
or become softer. All this adds up to a great psychological boost; it also signals the moment
when the patient has to be warned about an impending healing reaction, bringing with it days
of feeling not well. A true rise in energy may occur in three to six months, depending on the
age and condition of the patient. At that point it is most important that the patient continues to
rest and doesn’t launch into multiple activities! The new energy must be used for healing and
nothing else. There will be plenty of time later to build muscles and make up for lost exercise
time. Trying to do so too soon can result in a serious setback.
.
Q:  How much of their increasing energy can Gerson patients use for exercise? Surely they
needn’t save it all up for healing?
A: It all depends on the patient’s condition, but it’s wise to use great caution in all cases. To
start with the worst scenario, for the terminally ill patient total complete rest, i.e., no exercise,
is essential in the first few months. Such patients frequently experience a decline in energy after
arriving at the Gerson hospital and assume that this is due to the lack of (animal) protein. Of
course this is not correct—Gerson food is high in easily assimilated plant-based proteins, which
amply cover the patients’ nutritional needs.
The initial weakness is caused by the various healing processes: the release of toxins from
the body tissues, and the destruction of tumor tissue that circulates through the blood stream
before being excreted. Clearly, the body is working flat out to start healing itself and needs every
Copyright © Charlotte Gerson, 2007.  All rights reserved.
This material may not be reproduced in any medium, print or electronic without prior written permission from the author.Page 156Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.comounce of energy it can muster. In such patients with advanced disease exercise should be entirely
banned for at least three to five months. After the sixth month the patients normally experience a
surge of energy. But at that point it is more important than ever to limit exercise, for misusing the
newfound energy would seriously curtail the continuing healing process.
 We suggest no more than five-minute walks to start with, and only in mild weather, i.e., not
in summer heat, nor braving winter blasts of icy wind! After 3-4 weeks exercise can be cautiously
increased to 10 minutes. It’s also possible to start using a mini-trampoline, but only to the extent
of raising and lowering the heels a summer heat, nor braving winter blasts of icy wind! After 3-4
weeks exercise can be cautiously increased to 10 minutes. It is also possible to start using a mini-
trampoline, but only to the extent of raising and lowering the heels a dozen times without moving
the body, and later do a little stationary walking.
 Recovering patients can gradually step up their exercise program, with the proviso that if
they become seriously tired and unable to recover after a rest, the duration of the exercise must
immediately be reduced to the last level that was comfortable. Gentle Hatha Yoga exercises can
also be tried. But however well the patient feels, it is never wise to abandon healing in favour of
exercise. After complete recovery it is easy to rebuild muscle strength.
Q: Why is it so important for patients to avoid getting a cold? Surely even mild fl u won’t do
us much harm?
A: We have to assume that patients who have developed cancer have a seriously damaged,
weakened immune system. If it weren’t so, there could be no cancer! With the intensive Gerson
Therapy the immune system will be restored in time. However, that time could well mean a
whole year, and until then colds and flu, caused by viral infection, remain dangerous, since the
recovering immune system is not able to deal with them easily.
 Furthermore, viruses invade healthy cells and change their genes in the same manner as
cancer tends to change the genetic structure of normal cells. These changed genes are called
oncogenes. If the patient contracts a viral invasion before the immune system is sufficiently
restored, a dangerous, even potentially life-threatening situation arises, which must be treated
with ozonation, extra immune boosters, possibly selenium, and more. Therefore prevention is
obviously vastly preferable. Don’t allow anyone, especially children with colds or flu anywhere
near the patient! CAUTION: even if the patient recovers well from a cold or flu, it is possible that
tumor tissue recurs and grows.
Q: I know that


ative factor for fibrocystic disease and breast cancer. In fact, one of the most
common treatments in conventional medicine for fibrocystic disease is to use birth control pills to suppress the ovaries and lower
the amount of circulating estrogen in the body.
As repeated hormonal cycles progress, oftentimes the fibrocystic changes in the breast will worsen. The breasts can become
chronically inflamed and hardened. Many women suffer terribly with this illness.
Dietary factors can also worsen fibrocystic breast disease. Caffeine and foods that contain trans-fatty acids can exacerbate
fibrocystic breast disease. Eliminating caffeine and eating foods rich in healthy fats, including essential fatty acids, will help alleviate
many of the complaints of fibrocystic breast disease.
Also, vitamin and mineral supplementation can alleviate this condition. Both vitamin E and vitamin A have both been shown in
studies to improve fibrocystic breasts.
Iodine has also been shown to be extremely effective in treating and preventing fibrocystic breasts.
23
 In fact, iodine has
been
the most researched mineral in treating fibrocystic breast disease.
MaryAnn, age 45, works as a nurse at a local hospital. MaryAnn suffered from fibrocystic breast disease for over 15
years. She said, “My breasts feel like two rocks. I can’t do aerobics or exercise heavily because the bouncing causes
tremendous pain.” MaryAnn was going to a specialized cystic breast clinic at the University of Michigan. Frequently, she
was having breast cysts drained, only to have them reappear a short time later. Dietary changes, including removing the
caffeine did help somewhat. MaryAnn was so miserable she was contemplating a bilateral mastectomy. MaryAnn was
found to be severely iodine deficient (iodine challenge test showed 27% excretion with normal levels >90%). She was
treated with Iodoral
®
 50mg per day and within one month had a dramatic change in her condition. She called me on the
phone and reported, “Dr. Brownstein, I was at the University of Michigan clinic yesterday and the doctor told me he
thought my breasts weren’t mine. The two rocks I had are now soft and normal feeling. All of the cysts are gone and all of
the pain is gone. This has been a miracle for me. I can’t believe one nutrient could have such a positive impact on my
life.”
New 5
th
 Edition update on MaryAnn: MaryAnn comes into my office twice per year for routine care. She recently
reported, “I
am feeling fabulous since I started taking iodine. My mammograms are now normal.” MaryAnn has no signs
of fibrocystic breast disease as long as she takes iodine.
Darlene, at age 39, suffered from fibrocystic breast disease for over five years. “Sometimes I am absolutely
miserable. I cannot stand anything touching my breasts. It feels like there is a tourniquet around them,” she said.
Darlene’s symptoms would get worse around her menses. She said, “My husband knows not to get within five feet of me.
If I bump into anything, I feel like crying.” Darlene was told to alter her diet and give up caffeine and chocolate, which
did help some of her symptoms. “The change in the diet did help, but I was still miserable,” she claimed. When I checked
Darlene’s iodine levels, her iodine-loading tests showed a 50% excretion (normal is 90%). After two weeks of
supplementing with an iodine/iodide combination (Iodoral
®
), Darlene’s condition rapidly improved. “I just woke up one
morning and I wasn’t in pain. I could not believe it. I feel like I have been given my life back,” she said. In addition, the
iodine significantly improved her energy and mood levels. Darlene says, “I can’t believe how much better I feel.”
MaryAnn and Darlene’s cases are typical of many with fibrocystic breast disease. Usually, the improvement in fibrocystic
symptoms occurs rapidly when there is an iodine-deficient state present.
THYROID DISEASE, IODINE, AND CANCER
For well over 100 years, iodine deficiency has been associated with a swelling of the thyroid or goiter. Goiter has also been
associated with cancers of the breast, stomach, esophagus, ovaries, and uterus.
24

25

26
 My colleague, Jorge Flechas, M.D.,
reports a “definite increase in the incidence of breast cancer, stomach cancer, ovarian cancer, and thyroid cancer with the
presence of iodine deficiency.”
27
 I have seen similar results in my practice.
BREAST CANCER AND HYPOTHYROIDISM
Because breast cancer is occurring at epidemic rates, it is important to discuss this topic again. The relationship between
hypothyroidism and breast cancer has been reported for over 100 years. In fact, the first reported connection between these two
illnesses was mentioned in 1896. Although there has not been a consensus opinion on the relationship between breast cancer and
hypothyroidism, many researchers feel there is a direct connection.
Researchers have found that hypothyroidism is much more common in women with breast cancer.
28

29
 Other researchers
have found that the use of thyroid hormones may cause a higher incidence of breast cancer.
30
 Although there has been a great
controversy in medicine on verifying the relationship
between hypothyroidism and breast cancer, my experience has shown thatthere is a connection.
It is known that hypothyroidism predisposes one to a poorly functioning immune system. This can set the stage for serious
illnesses such as cancer. One would think that the treatment of hypothyroidism with thyroid hormone would improve the condition
of breast cancer, since it should improve the functioning of the immune system. However, this has not been shown to be the case
in some studies. In fact, some studies point to an exacerbation of breast cancer when thyroid hormones are used to treat a
hypothyroid condition.
One study found that hypothyroid women who took thyroid hormone had a 50% increased risk of breast cancer.
31
Furthermore, as compared to women who were taking thyroid hormone for less than 15 years, the same researchers reported a
200% increased risk of breast cancer in women who were taking thyroid hormone for more than 15 years. The results of this
study are illustrated in
Figure 16
,
page 168
.
32
WHY WOULD THE TREATMENT OF HYPOTHYROIDISM RESULT IN AN INCREASED RISK OF BREAST
CANCER? THE IODINE CONNECTION
When hypothyroidism is present, the body is in a hypometabolic state. In other words, all bodily functions slowdown and the
consequences of this state include cold extremities, dry skin, fatigue, brain fog and weight gain.

Figure 16: Increased Risk of Breast Cancer the Longer Women Took Thyroid Hormone
When thyroid hormone is ingested, it results in an increased metabolic state which reverses all of the above conditions.
ATP is the body’s “high octane” energy source. Thyroid hormone utilizes ATP to increase the body’s metabolic rate. This
increased metabolism helps the body produce more heat, lose weight, overcome fatigue, etc. If thyroid hormone is given to an
iodine-deficient patient, the increased metabolic rate due to thyroid hormone will actually increase the body’s need for iodine as
well as decreasing the ability of the cells of the body to concentrate iodine.
Iodine uptake by the cells is an energy dependent process which requires ATP. Thyroid hormones use the energy available for
the synthesis of ATP to produce heat. This effect lowers the available ATP for cellular uptake of iodine by the target cells. If
there
are lowered ATP levels in the body, the target cells have a more difficult time concentrating iodine.
Finally, if a hypothyroid condition is treated with thyroid hormone and there is also iodine deficiency present, the use of
thyroid hormone will exacerbate an iodine-deficient condition. In other words, if you treat with thyroid hormone without first
correcting for iodine deficiency, you will increase the body’s need for iodine and worsen the iodine-deficient problem that is
already present.
The only logical explanation that ties the treatment of hypothyroidism with an increased risk of developing breast cancer
would be the presence of an iodine deficiency.
In simpler terms, thyroid hormones introduced into the body will raise the body’s need for iodine. The breasts, like the thyroid
gland, have an advanced system for absorbing and storing iodine. When there is iodine deficiency, the breasts and the thyroid
gland enlarge to compensate for that deficiency. In both cases, iodine deficiency induces hyperplasia, which is a precancerous
lesion. This will set the stage for thyroid and breast diseases, including cancer of the thyroid gland and the breasts.
If iodine deficiency is present, the use of thyroid hormone supplementation without first correcting (or simultaneously
correcting) the iodine deficit will exacerbate the body’s deficit of
iodine. The result of this can be an increase in disorders caused
by iodine deficiency such as cancers of the breast and thyroid.
THE BREASTS AND IODINE
The therapeutic use of iodine in treating breast cancer was first described in the medical literature in 1896.
33
 There is a direct
relationship between breast cancer (as well as goiter) and regions of the world where iodine


ily,	and
she	first	became	aware	of	angels	at	a	birthday	party	when	she	was	three	or
four.	“My	mother	turned	off	the	lights	so	I	could	blow	out	the	candles	on	my
cake.	I	looked	around	and	noticed	these	people	standing	around	the	edge	of
the	room.	They	weren’t	there	when	the
lights
	were	on.	I	pointed	to	them,	only
to	discover	that	nobody	else	could	see	them.	But	I	remember	that	they	made
me	feel	very	happy.”
Lily’s	first	encounter	was	the	most	physical	one.	After	her	motherdiscouraged	her	from	seeing	“people”	where	there	were	none,	they	quickly
disappeared.	Lily	was	still	aware	of	their	presence,	however,	and	as	she	grew
up	she	learned	to	adapt	to	this	presence.	Eventually	“the	guys,”	as	she	called
them,	became	images	she	could	see	when	she	closed	her	eyes,	and	voices	she
could	hear	when	she	asked	questions.
“They	weren’t	constant	voices,”	she	says.	“I	never	considered	them
hallucinations.	I	had	to	consciously	call	on	the	guys,	and	when	I	did	I	felt	a
comfort,	a	guiding	wisdom.	I	know	most	people	don’t	make	contact	with	their
own	guides,	but	I	can	see	theirs,	too.	We	all	have	them.”
This	ability,	which	the	rishis	would	say	belongs	in	the	world	of
“consciousness	filled	with	subtle	objects,”	came	and	went	in	Lily’s	life.	A
great	deal	seemed	to	depend	on	where	she	found	herself.	Right	after	college
she	had	a	brief	marriage	to	a	man	who	discouraged	Lily	from	contacting	“the
guys,”	and	after	their	divorce	Lily	held	an	office	manager’s	job	for	fifteen
years	that	needed	little	inner	guidance.	But	eventually	she	was	led	to	think
about	the	issue	of	healing.
“The	guys	told	me	that	I	could	heal	people	emotionally,	and	that	they’d
help.	At	first	this	made	me	nervous.	But	I	kept	noticing	how	painful	it	is	for
many	people	when	they	are	faced	with	their	old	wounds.	The	guys	told	me	it
didn’t	have	to	be	that	way.	They	would	show	me	how	to	move	the	trapped
energies	of	pain	and	trauma.	I	could	learn	to	do	this	without	the	person	feeling
anything	stressful.	That	appealed	to	me	deeply.”
By	the	time	she	turned	forty,	Lily	had	begun	her	healing	work	in	earnest.
She	started	out	with	friends	with	whom	she	could	freely	talk	about	“the
guys.”	As	the	work	deepened,	she	began	to	use	the	phrase	“higher	guides	and
angels”	to	fit	what	she	saw.
“I’m	a	conventional	person	in	many	ways.	When	I’m	not	tuning	in	to	the
level	where	I	do	my	work,	my	life	is	completely	ordinary.	It	took	me	years	to
think	of	the	guys	as	angels,	but	then	they	showed	me	the	archangel	Michael.	I
brought	in	the	presence	of	Christ	to	help	me.	I	tell	people	that	they	are
energetically	connected	to	God.	It’s	become	very	natural	now	because	I	can
see	everything	I	talk	about.”
Outside	the	boundaries	of	the	reality,	on	which	we	generally	agree,	people
like	Lily	exist	and	always	have.	Lily	brings	us	to	a	critical	point	in	our
investigations.	It	doesn’t	matter	if	we	try	to	settle	the	argument	over	whether
angels	are	real	or	unreal,	whether	they	are	here	on	earth	or	far	away	in
heaven.	Our	own	consciousness	regulates	what	is	real	and	unreal;	we	have
stepped	into	our	own	projection.	If	that	projection	consists	of	physical	objects
only,	to	the	exclusion	of	subtle	objects,	it’s	nevertheless	a	self-creation.	You
and	I	exist	not	as	observer,	or	observed	or	the	process	of	observation	but	all
three	at	once.	To	deny	this	is	to	deny	our	wholeness,	and	the	power	that	is	our
birthright.“I	have	various	ways	of	seeing	people,”	Lily	says.	“I	see	them	physically,
but	even	then	I	sense	their	energy.	When	I	go	inside,	I	see	their	energy	as	a
field	of	light	around	them.	That’s	the	basic	reality,	but	if	I	ask	to,	I	can	also
see	their	angels	and	other	etheric	beings.	Some	of	these	are	very	negative.
They’ve	been	drawn	to	the	person	by	negative	beliefs.	I	can	see	people	as
they	were	in	other	lifetimes,	and	to	a	limited	extent	I	can	see	them	in	the
future.	It’s	all	very	fluid,	but	it’s	all	accessible.”
Twenty	years	ago	I	knew	no	one	with	subtle	sight	like	Lily;	now	I’ve	met
many	of	them.	Each	has	learned	to	ignore	the	boundary	that	society	sets
between	one	level	of	life	and	another.	At	the	soul	level	we	are	free	to	do
whatever	we	want	with	the	potential	given	to	us.	Angels	are	not	absolutes;
they	have	changed	over	history	as	human	imagination	has	changed.	This
creative	project	of	ours	goes	back	millennia,	and	it	continues	to	this	day.
When	you	die,	how	much	of	what	happens	will	be	your	choice	and	how
much	will	be	left	to	outside	forces?	Lily	herself	is	clear	about	this.	She	and
“the	guys”	could	work	together	without	interruption	by	physical	death.	In	this
way	Lily	is	doing	consciously	what	we	are	all	doing	unconsciously.	Thanks	to
the	devata	effect,	we
are
	the	process	of	creation.	Through	us,	gods,	angels,
and	souls	come	in	and	out	of	being.	Lily	says,	“When	I	started	out	on	this
work	a	lot	of	my	vocabulary	was	Christian,	because	from	early	on	I	felt	very
close	to	Jesus.	Then	I	began	to	experience	him	as	the	Christ	presence,	without
any	picture	in	my	head.	I	discovered	that	there	was	an	esoteric	name	for	the
universal	Christ,	which	is	Sananda,	and	the	guys	told	me	I	could	use	that
when	I	wanted	to	relate	to	the	cosmic	Christ.	Now	even	Sananda	has	become
more	abstract,	like	a	field	of	compassionate	light.”
I	asked	Lily	what	might	come	next	for	her.
“That’s	the	big	question,	isn’t	it?	At	some	level	I	know	I	don’t	really	need
the	guys.	They’re	just	aspects	of	myself.	If	I	wanted	to,	I	could	just	ask
myself	what	needs	to	be	done	and	rely	on	my	own	abilities.	That’s	the	next
stage.”
If	she	knows	it	is	all	herself,	I	asked,	what	keeps	her	from	moving	on	to
the	next	stage	right	now?
“Habit,	maybe	some	residual	fear	that	I	haven’t	faced.	You’ve	got	to
remember,	the	guys	have	been	with	me	all	my	life.	I	imagine	I’ll	hold	on	to
them	until	I’m	comfortable	enough	to	be	on	my	own.”
We	are	all	at	some	stage	of	taking	responsibility	for	participating	in
creation.	Gods	and	goddesses,	angels	and	etheric	beings	exist	because	they
have	been	draw


 andyour mind is going to create thoughts to release the built-up energies. You
commit to being okay with this process. This attitude of acceptance is very
different from suppressing the emotions and thoughts or letting yourself get
lost in them. Just honor what the heart is doing and learn to sit back and
relax behind it. Emotions can become like a breeze blowing across your face
—nothing to do except experience the experience.
Appreciate the work your heart is doing to push out the samskaras you
have collected over the years. Your heart will do the work—all  you need to
do is allow the purification to take place. At first, it’s not easy to relax in the
face of what you’ve spent your life avoiding. But it is certainly worth it
because the reward is love, freedom, and constant inspiration. After all,
you’ve already been through so much pain for so little gain.
The bottom line is that you’re a beautiful being. You’re a being of great
love, light, and inspiration. You are made in the image of God. The god who
created the whole universe exists inside of you, but you don’t realize that.
You’re lost thinking that the world outside has to be a certain way for you to
be okay. This is the human  predicament, and nothing is going to
meaningfully change until you learn to live from a deeper place. To get out
of this predicam ent, you’ve got some work to do, and the work is on
yourself. To quote Rumi, the great thirteenth-century Persian poet,
“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise,
so I am changing myself.”PART VII:
Learning to Let GoChapter 30.
Techniques for Freeing Yourself
Logically, it doesn’ t make sense  to store inside of you the experiences that
bothered you the most. If you do that, you will build your own internal
house of horrors and will struggle to be comfortable inside. This is the root
cause of all anxiety, tension, and psychological disturbances. This cannot be
fixed until you deal with it at its root. As long as you are holding inside of
you that which bothered you ten or twenty years ago, you are going to
suffer.
Once your intent is to use every moment of your life to free yourself,
the question becomes how to do that. Believe it or not, your sincere intent to
be free is more important than any technique you can use. You’re in there,
and if you understand these teachings, you realize you don’t want blockages
in there. They make life extremely difficult. So you commit to letting them
go. Traditionally, there are some powerful techniques for freeing yourself
during your everyday life, and we will discuss three of them in very broad
terms.
The first technique is called positive thinking. Yogananda used to teach
that every time you have a negative thought, replace it with a positive one.
This is a very basic and useful technique for bringing about change. It is
based on the two types of thoughts we discussed earlier: those created
willfully and those that happen automatically. If you notice your mind
giving you a hard time while you’re driving—those are automatically
generated thoug hts. You are not purposely creating them. Now try purposely
creating positive  thoughts about the situation. If the person in front of you is
driving much slower than the speed limit, you might say inside your mind,
“Wow. What an opportunity to relax. I can’t be in a rush becaus e the person
in front of me won’ t let me. I guess it’s time to watch my breath, calm
down, and learn to enjoy the experience.” You’re welcome to do that ineveryday life. You’re not fighting with your mind or pushin g away the
negative thoughts. You’re simply replacing the automatically generated
thoughts with willfully created  ones. Don’ t fight, just replace. It doesn’ t
matter if the negative thoughts continue in the background; just focus on the
positive though ts you are willfully creating. Over time, your willfully
created thoughts will replace the automatically generated ones. This is a
very healthy thing to do. Simply apply your will to offset or neutralize the
effect of your samskaras. Over time, this will develop a more positive mind,
which is a much nicer environment to live in.
The next technique is very traditional and is broadly referre d to as
mantra.  In the most general sense, “mantra” means training your mind to
repeat a simple word or phrase  over and over until it gets stuck in your
mind. Just like a song can get stuck in your mind, a mantra can get stuck in
your mind. We all experience that our minds can work in layers. You can be
paying attention to someone speaking, and there can still be thoughts going
on “in the back of your mind.” Your mind is so brilliant it can multitask. It
can create thoughts at multiple levels, and you can be aware of these layers
simultaneously. Mantra is offering you a layer of mind that is always there
—balanced, pleasant, a safe place to rest. As the mantra effortlessly goes on
in the backgroun d, it gives you the choice of which layer of mind you want
to focus on. When the habitual thoughts come up from your samskaras, you
don’t have to fight with them or even replace them. You just shift your
consciousness onto the mantra. With positive thinking, you are continually
using your will to neutralize negative thoughts with positive  ones. With
mantra, you are simply using your will to shift the focus of your
consciousness from the samskara-generated thoughts to the mantra.
Mantra is a gift. It’s like a built-in vacation. If you do the work
necessary to instill the mantra in a layer of your mind, it will change your
life. First off, the mantra does not have to be a traditional Sanskrit mantra
like Om Namah Shivaya or Om Mani Padme Hum.  It can be a name or word
for God, like Jesus, Adonai, or Allah. In fact, a very powerful mantra is
simply God, God, God.  If all these seem too religious for you, a great thing
to have going in your mind is: I’m alwa ys fine, I’m always fine, I’m always
fine. How nice woul d it be to be reminded of any of these throughout your
day?
It is not difficult to instill the mantra in your mind—all it takes is
repetition. You can start practicing mantra during the time you put asideeach morning and evening for your spiritual practices. Even just fifteen
minutes will go a long way. A good technique is to tie the mantra to your
breath going in and out. Then during the day, come back to it whenever
certain events occur. For example, you could say a few repetitions of the
mantra before you pick up the phone and after you put it down.  It just takes
a mome nt, and you are making a major investment in becoming a more
conscious, cente red being. Do it whenever you get into or out of your car, as
well as when you enter or leave your house or office. No one will even
notice. It is just a moment’ s pause that will change everything over time.
Before you eat, say the mantra. If you are eating by yourself, you can have
fun inwardly repeating the mantra while you chew your food. Make it a
game—how many recurring events in your everyday life can you set up to
remind you to practice the mantra? Here’ s a good use of your smartphone:
set up a repeatin g reminder to do the mantra. Over time, you will train your
mind to always have the mantra going on in the background during your
daily life.
Even if you have done this work on yourself, a fateful day will
inevitably arrive. Something will happen and your emotions or thoughts will
start to get upset. You’ll be on the verge of losing it, but the mantra will
catch your attention just enough to give you the choice—go down or go up.
You immediately shift your awareness off the mess and onto the mantra, and
your life changes. The mantra does not stop you from having constructive
thoughts; it just sits there as a safety net to catch you if you start to fall.
When you have some time to actually rest back into the mantra, you will
become filled with peace and well-being. It’s like a vacation from the
personal mind. How would you like it if the moment you sat down, tension
and stress melted away as you fell back into the lap of the mantra? All this
is available to you—free of charge. Just be willing to make the investment
in yourself. Notice that with mantra you are learning to surrender the hold
that the personal mind has on you.
The final technique we will discuss for freeing yourself from yourself
is generally termed witness consciousness,  and it includes the powerful
practice of relaxing and releasin g. Witness consciousness is deeper than the
other techniques because, in the end, it doesn’ t require working with the
mind. Positive thinking involve s creating positive thoughts to replace the
negative ones. Mantra involves creating a layer of mind that provides a
peaceful and steady environmen t for rising above the lower layers. Witnessconsciousness is simply noticing that you are noticing what the mind is
doing. You don’t need to interact with the mind.


ems
all sins and opens the door to Heaven. That’s as direct as it gets.
On the other hand, a lifetime can be spent by a Tibetan Buddhist
monk or a devout Hindu reno uncing the world for a forest  ashram
or a mountain  cave. This ch oice presents the prospect of a long,
difficult inward journey.
In this book I’ve been de scribing the simplest and most
powerful (I believe) version of a shortcut, which is to exchange
illusion for reality. I define direct  a s easy, effici ent, and natural.
There is no need for anythin g arduous and filled with obs tacles. I
insist on a path  that is painless, because I’ve seen too much of the
opposite. Some people spend years in frustration and
disappointment struggling to reach some spiritual goal that
remains just out of reach. What baffles people is that the whole
spiritual project gets tangled  up in misguided ideas and doomed
expectations. Let me list the pitfalls one is most likely to
encounter:
1. Mistaking the goal for some kind of self-improvement,
shedding your old imperfect self for a shiny new one.
2. Assuming that you already know what the goal is.
3. Hoping that higher consciousness will solve all your
problems.
4. Struggling and striving to get somewhere fast.
5. Following a cut-and-dried method, usually a method
backed by some famous spiritual authority.
6. Hoping to be looked upon with respect, reverence, or
devotion as a higher being.7. Being tossed around by the ups and downs of
momentary successes and failures.
I doubt that anyone who has honestly undertaken an inner
journey is immune to some  or all of these pitfalls. There is an
enormous gap between where you find yourself today (totally
dependent on the active mind ) and the reality you need to unveil.
It’s not waking up that is painful but the pitfalls. They are created
by the ego-personality, which thinks, mistakenly, that it deserves
its share of the goodies that are about to fall from the sky.
If you focus o n your experience here and now, the e go is
irrelevant, and many distractions can be avoided. Think about
parenting. Parents go through all kinds of troubles, worries,
everyday crises, and argumen ts with their children, but without a
doubt th ey know they love them. On the direct path you co nstantly
reinforce your purpose, which keeps the distractions at b ay. The
ancient Vedas declare that everyone is defined by their deepest
desires. Desire  leads to thou ghts, thoughts to words and actions,
actions to the fulfillment of desire. So in a very basic way, desire is
all you need. I f your deepest desire is to wake up, to esc ape the
illusion, to unveil reality, and  in the end to know who yo u really
are, the message gets through. Your deepest desire activates a level
of awareness that will get you to the goal.
Strange as it sounds, the dir ect path is valid only if it lea ds to
the plac e wher e you already a re. Each of us is already a co nscious,
creative being We are already in the state of wholeness, despite
our allegiance to mental constructs that impose all kinds of
limitations on us. The only change that’s needed is a shift of
identity, and yet no change is  more earthshaking. Once you realize
that you are whole, the transformation from human to
metahuman has occurred.
N a t u r e ’ s  H i d d e n  M e s s a g eWhat makes us whole alread y is that Nature is whole, and we
are par t of Nature. Such reasoning is totally sound, but it is hard
for man y people to accept. M odern physics holds that the universe
operates as a whole, each subatomic particle woven into the
cosmic fabric. But the method of science is to subdivide Nature
into smaller and smaller increments, and as the investigation
arrives at finer levels of exis tence, wholeness is lost from view.
This is more than a technical glitch. A crucial question is at stake.
Does the whole control the parts, or is it the reverse—there is no
whole e xcept f or an accumulation of parts? A new car is a whole
thing; we see it as one image and refer to it with one word. But just
as easily we ca n see a car the way a garage mechanic do es, as a
collection of parts: carburetor, driveshaft, transmission, and so on.
With lit tle or no effort, your m ind can shift from one view point to
the other.
The sam e hold s true for how you see yourself. In the mirror you
appear as a whole thing, a body; you refer to yourself by on e word,
your na me. Bu t if you sudde nly feel acute pain in the region of
your appendix,  you rush to the doctor—a kind of garage mechanic
for tissu es and organs—and you become a collection of parts. You
have the option to see yourself as whole or as a collection of parts.
When we come right down t o it, what is wholeness, any way?
It’s har d to imagine a more  baffling question. But without an
answer, living in wholeness is impossible. Fortunately, Nature
presents some inescapable clues, going back to the first
appearance of life on Earth. Life began 3.8 billion years ago when
RNA appeared and had the a bility to divide and replicate itself; a
billion years later, cells with outer membranes appeared on the
scene; j ump ahead another billion years or more and sing le-celled
organisms evolved into multicelled organisms.
The leap to multicelled organisms wasn’t due to physical
necessity—it was a creative breakthrough, and an astounding one.
For almost three billion years, single-celled organisms were
thriving, muta ting into new species on an endless conveyor belt
(which is still running at mid-ocean, where millions, perhaps
billions, of undiscovered single-celled creatures ride on its
surface). Life forms restric ted to single cells, or even more
primitive bacte ria and viruses, vastly outnumber, by far more than100 to 1, mult icelled life forms. DNA had achieved the ability to
fend off  enviro nmental hazar ds and laughed at death. The  trillions
of amoebas, blue-green algae, and simple fungi populating the
Earth to day are  clones of one  ancestor—it died as a physical object
but is nearly immortal as a package of knowledge inside DNA.
With su ch a successful enter prise showing no signs of wa ning,
there was no r eason to risk multicelled life, except for one: the
sheer exuberance of creativity. The basic challenge of creating
multicelled life  was how to reproduce a complex organism whose
moving parts aren’t the same. The task was like handing someone
the han dlebars of a racing bike and asking for the whole b ike to be
built from it, w ith the added c hallenge that no one had ever seen a
whole bike before. In your body, two stem cells might sit in
suspended animation for months or years, mixed in with fully
formed cells. When a stem cell is triggered into activity, it
specifically turns into a blood, brain, liver, or skin cel l, not a
generic human cell. The last generic cells in human development
disappeared in the womb by the fifth week of pregnancy, when a
ball of generic cells (the zyg ote) proceeded to the stage of the
embryo.
The early embryo doesn’t look anything like a mini–human
body, b ut its blobby pink ap pearance is deceptive. As the zygote
emerged from a single fertiliz ed egg, and then went from two cells
to four,  eight, sixteen, and so on, DNA was biding its tim e. With
precise timing, new instruct ions were sent out that altered the
destiny of the e mbryo, pushin g it closer to human form. Each new
cell was given its own separa te identity, through a bewilderingly
complex set of chemical signals that is even more remarkable than
DNA alone. We are far from being able to explain how a cell
understands w hat to do, but we know the general outline. In the
coming weeks of embryonic development not only will a brain cell
become differe nt from a liver  cell, but each brain cell travels to a
specific location, hooks up with similar cells that have made the
same journey, and undertake s a joint enterprise: creating a brain.
The same for each liver cell.
This process, known as “cell differentiation,” has been minutely
studied. It’s fascinating to observe so-called neuronal migration as
nascent brain cells, starting from their birthplace, are providedwith slick pathways to slide a long so that each reaches th e region
of th e brain th at needs to develop into vision, the fight- or-flight
response, emotions, higher thought, and so on. (I’m giving a
simplified picture, since neu ronal migration is multista ged and
extremely com plex.) To all ap pearances, a cell is a squishy bag of
water a nd


throughout	the	food,	not	just	the	part	you	cut	off.	In	general,
susceptible	products	such	as	fresh	berries	must	be	purchased	in	season,	freshly
harvested	from	local	growers;	otherwise	they	are	too	old	and	too	moldy—even	if
you	cannot	see	the	mold.	I	observe	people	in	my	local	health	food	store
purchasing	a	basket	of	“fresh”	berries	that	already	have	visible	mold.	Obviously,
they	have	no	idea	of	how	poisonous	that	is.
One	type	of	mold	that	grows	on	grains	and	nuts	(particularly	corn,	peanuts,
walnuts	and	pistachios)	produces	a	mycotoxin	called	aflatoxin,	which	is	known
to	cause	cancer.	Although	our	government	tries	to	regulate	aflatoxin	levels,
highly	contaminated	crops	are	constantly	finding	their	way	into	our	food	supply.
The	chilling	reality	is	that	aflatoxin	is	most	commonly	found	in	some	of	the
foods	that	we	most	frequently	feed	to	our	children—corn	flakes,	other	corn
products,	peanuts	and	peanut	butter.
Some	Cooking	Methods	Can	Create	Toxins
Once	we	obtain	high-quality	foods,	we	still	must	prepare	them	properly.	The
first	step	in	nontoxic	food	preparation	is	to	wash	or	peel	foods	in	order	to
remove	agricultural	chemicals,	bacteria	and	molds.	Waxed	foods	(such	as	most
cucumbers,	eggplant,	turnips	and	apples)	definitely	should	be	peeled,	becausethe	wax	often	is	covering	surface	residues	of	pesticides	and	fungicides	that	are
applied	before	the	wax	is	applied;	also,	questions	abound	about	the	safety	of
some	of	the	waxes.	For	foods	that	cannot	be	peeled,	washing	under	running
water	for	a	minute	or	two	does	a	relatively	good	cleaning	job;	using	a	pure,
liquid	castile	soap	(a	mild	soap	made	from	olive	oil	and	sodium	hydroxide)
cleans	even	better.	For	foods	like	lettuce,	discard	the	outer	layers	and	wash	the
leaves	separately.	Rinsing	briefly	in	a	vinegar	solution	lowers	bacteria	levels.
Few	people	are	going	to	eat	100	percent	of	their	diet	raw	(I	eat	about	80
percent	of	mine	raw),	but	whenever	you	choose	to	eat	a	raw	food	in	place	of	a
highly	cooked	or	processed	one,	you	obtain	better	nutrition	and	less	toxic
exposure.	Cook	foods	lightly.	Ideally,	food	should	not	be	cooked	at	temperatures
higher	than	boiling	water	or	steam.	Foods	change	fundamentally	when	they	are
cooked;	they	can	become	more	toxic,	less	nutritious	and	even	more	difficult	to
digest.
Avoid	browned	or	charred	foods,	which	are	highly	toxic.
Unfortunately,
many	Americans	have	developed	a	taste	for	charbroiled,	toasted	or	barbecued
foods,	which	develop	mutagens	that	contribute	to	cancer.
When	food	is	heated	above	375	degrees	(as	it	usually	is	in	toasting,	frying,
grilling,	broiling	and	barbecuing),	a	number	of	toxic	compounds	can	be
produced,	including	heterocyclic	aromatic	amines	(HAAs).	HAAs	are	among	the
most	powerful	carcinogens	ever	discovered,	and	even	minute	amounts	of	them
can	damage	your	DNA.
The	rule	of	thumb	is	that	the	higher	the	temperature	and	the	longer	the
cooking	time,	the	more	HAAs	are	formed.	Thus,	medium	rare	is	safer	than	well
done,	and	blackened	foods	are	absolutely	not	acceptable.	If	ever	I	am	served
food	that	is	black,	I	cut	off	the	blackened	parts.	Even	toast	is	dangerous.
Experiments	at	Lawrence	Livermore	Laboratory	showed	that	a	well-toasted
piece	of	bread	had	20	percent	of	the	cancer-causing	activity	of	a	well-done
hamburger.	Dosage	and	frequency	are	the	problems;	many	people	eat	several
slices	of	toasted	bread	or	bagel	every	morning	for	breakfast,	which	is	like	laying
out	a	welcome	mat	for	cancer.
Microwaves:	A	Fast	Track	to	Trouble
Cooking	food	is	not	a	good	idea,	especially	at	high	temperatures,	but	cooking
in	microwave	ovens	may	be	even	worse.	While	not	browning	or	blackening	food
like	conventional	cooking,	microwaving	changes	the	chemistry	of	food
fundamentally,	lowering	nutritional	content	and	producing	unique	toxins.	A	lot
more	goes	on	inside	a	microwave	than	just	making	things	hot.	Microwaves“zap”	food	with	enormous	amounts	of	energy—enough	to	break	apart	water
molecules	and	cause	them	to	react	with	the	food	in	ways	they	would	not	do
otherwise.	These	reactions	create	a	lot	of	strange,	new	molecules	that	are
unnatural	to	the	human	body;	some	of	them	are	toxic	and	carcinogenic.	Research
in	Switzerland,	the	former	Soviet	Union	and	the	United	States	all	suggest	that
eating	microwaved	food	may	promote	certain	types	of	cancers,	hormone
imbalances,	lymphatic	disorders,	digestive	disorders,	immune	and	blood
abnormalities,	emotional	problems,	permanent	brain	damage,	and	even	heart
disease.
In	1992,	at	the	Swiss	Federal	Institute	of	Technology,	volunteers	who	ate
microwaved	food	experienced	decreased	hemoglobin	content	of	their	blood	and
an	increased	white	cell	count.	Thus,	microwaved	food	decreases	the	amount	of
oxygen	available	to	our	cells	and	stresses	the	immune	system.	Also,	microwaves
have	been	demonstrated	to	damage	nutrients.	Research	at	the	Institute	of	Radio
Technology	at	Kinsk,	in	the	former	Soviet	Union,	found	that	microwaves	reduce
the	nutritional	content	of	food	by	60	to	90	percent.	When	reheating	food,	use	the
stovetop	or	oven.	Modern	foods	are	already	nutrient	deficient.	Why	make	them
worse	by	using	a	microwave?
Use	the	right	cookware.	The	best	pots	and	pans	are	those	made	of	glass	or
ceramics	such	as	Corning	Ware.	Other	materials	interact	with	foods	and
introduce	some	level	of	toxins	into	the	food.	Stainless	steel	contains	nickel—
both	an	allergen	and	a	carcinogen.	A	study	in	the
Journal	of	the	American
Dietetic	Association
found	that	toxic	chemicals	from	stainless	steel	pots,
including	nickel,	iron	and	chromium,	enter	food	during	cooking.	Aluminum—
from	pots,	pans	and	aluminum	foil—is	another	toxic	contaminant.	Teflon
coatings	on	cookware	also	present	problems,	especially	when	such	cookware	is
heated	to	higher	temperatures.
Of	course,	not	all	meals	come	from	your	own	kitchen.	Americans	eat	an
enormous	percentage	of	food	at	restaurants.	Making	optimal	food	choices	when
eating	at	restaurants	is	almost	impossible.	However,	with	care	in	menu	selection,
you	can	usually	do	fairly	well.	As	a	rule	of	thumb,	upscale	restaurants	usually
have	fresher	and	better	prepared	foods,	while	fast-food	restaurant	offerings	are
more	toxic	and	less	nutritious.	Many	restaurants	do	not	even	“cook”	for	you;
they	merely	serve	prepared	and	processed


 modern
Greenlanders. Dent. Rec., 58:191, 1938.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 17
ONE ORIGIN OF PHYSICAL DEFORMITIES
FACES are classified on the basis of physical characteristics and appearances which identify
them as having a common ancestry. The constant reproduction of ancestral patterns constitutes
one of the fundamental laws of heredity. We are concerned here with the divergences from the
normal course of reproduction.
    The precision with which Nature reproduces widely distributed racial stocks demonstrates how
deeply seated and controlling are the Mendelian laws. In Fig. 98 may be seen four young men of
the Melanesian race born on four different islands. They have never seen each other, yet they look7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 182/250like brothers. Similarly, in Fig. 99 are shown four Polynesian girls. Here again they look so much
alike that they might readily be taken for sisters. Yet, they live in four different groups of Polynesian
islands; the Hawaiian, the Samoan, the Tahitian, and the Rarotongan.
FIG. 98. These four Melanesian boys born on different
islands look like brothers but are not blood relations. They
illustrate the role of heredity in reproducing racial type.
Heredity, however, can only operate normally when the germ
cells have not been injured.
7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 183/25099. These four Polynesian girls live on different islands and
are not related though they look like sisters. They record
their racial type by undisturbed heredity.
    The blending of different racial stocks produces typical characteristics of either or both ancestral
patterns. When, however, marked divergences appear without mixing of racial stocks, the result is
not due to heredity, but occurs in spite of heredity. In the previous chapters, I have shown that in
the modernized groups of various primitive racial stocks, ccrtain individuals developed marked
changes in facial and dental arch form from the racial pattern. We are interested to know the
nature of the forces responsible for this distortion of the ancestral pattern. In a study of 1,276
skulls of the ancient civilizations of Peru, I did not find one with a typical divergence from normal
such as we find in modern whites or in children of primitive racial stocks after the parents have
adopted the foods of our modern civilization. It is important that we study this phase in further
detail.
    In Fig. 100 are shown two Indian fathers and their sons, whom we studied in Peru. The father
and son shown above lived at Talara, in a highly modernized Indian colony. The father worked in
the oil fields on the coast. This district is an arid desert into which practically all food has to be
shipped for the large colony engaged in the oil industry. The father was born while his parents were
using the native foods of the coast, including an abundance of sea foods. The son was born to his
parents after they had adopted the foods of modern civilization. The father and son shown below,
lived in the high Sierras. The father is an Indian descendant of the Incas and was born while his
parents were living on the native dietary of the high plateau country, near Cuzco. After the
adoption of the modern foods by the parents, the son shown to the right was born. It is important
to keep in mind that the marked change in these fathers and sons has occurred in the first
generation after the parents have adopted the white man's foods, and has occurred in spite of
heredity.7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 184/250FIG. 100. Disturbed heredity. Above, father a primitive
coastal Indian of Peru with normal facial and dental arch
development. Son at right presents distortions of both facial
and dental arch form. Below, father a primitive Andean
Indian with excellent facial and dental arch form. His son at
right has not reproduced the racial pattern. Both sons are full
blood.
    In Fig. 101 above is shown a Wakamba father in central Africa, a man who is working for the
railroad company which contributed largely to the food supply for the laborers. The boy shown at
the right was born after the parents had adopted the imported foods. In the lower picture, in Fig.
101, is seen a Fiji Islander and his son. The father was born to parents living on the native foods,
and his son was born after the adoption of the white man's foods. All these are typical cases of the
inhibition of Nature's normal procedure. We have additional data which indicate that our problem
is associated with a progressive lowering of reproductive capacity on the part of one or both of the
parents.7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 185/250FIG. 101. Disturbed heredity. Above, the father is a primitive
Wakamba of Central Africa. His son at right has not
reproduced the tribal pattern. Below, the father presents the
typical Fijian primitive facial and dental arch form. His son at
right has a narrowed arch and change in facial form. Both
sons are full blood.
    In photographing the members of modernized families, regardless of racial stocks, we frequently
find that changes in facial expression appear in the younger members of the family. This change in
facial contour within a family does not occur in the primitive races, while on their native dietary.
    In contrast with this we see, in Fig. 102, two sisters and two brothers. In each pair there is a
marked change in the facial form of the younger. The arches and the nostrils of the younger child
are narrower and there is a marked lack of development in both the middle and lower thirds of the
face.
7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 186/250FIG. 102. Disturbed heredity. Quichua Indians. Note the
marked change in shape of the face and dental arches of the
younger sister at the right. Also of the younger brother at
the right. These families demonstrate a lowering of
reproductive capacity of the parents with the later born
children.
    Very striking illustrations of this progressive degeneration in the children of a given family were
found among the modernized aborigines of Australia. Two views of brothers are shown in Fig. 103
(upper). The father and mother of these two boys were born in the Bush. They were living, when
photographed, in one of the reservations, on the imported modern foods which were provided by
the government. This is also illustrated in the lower photograph. Note the marked
underdevelopment of the middle third of the face of the girl.
FIG. 103. Disturbed heredity. These children are Australian
Aborigines. Note the marked change in facial and dental arch
form in the younger child at the right in both families. This is
depressed reproductive capacity of the parents.
7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 187/250depressed reproductive capacity of the parents.
    Striking instances were frequently seen among the modernized Maori of New Zealand. Two
sisters presenting two extremes of facial form are shown in the upper section of Fig. 104. The girl
to the left is the older. She has the typical tribal pattern which has been completely lost in her
younger sister to the right.
FIG. 104. Above, two Maori girls in New Zealand and below,
two white girls in Peru. Note the facial change in the girls at
the right compared with their older sisters.
    If the change in facial form were the result of racial admixture, we should not have the types of
deformity patterns that these cases show. Indeed, in the same family we should not find several
different deformity patterns. The lack of development downward of the upper anterior incisors and
the bone supporting them is illustrated for the younger child, in Fig. 103 lower right. It will be noted
that when this girl's molar teeth are in contact her front teeth still miss occluding by a considerable
distance.
    Members of the white race are affected in a similar manner. In Fig. 104 (lower) are shown two
sisters; the younger to the right reveals strikingly the lack of development of the middle and lower
third of the face. The fact that this condition so frequently shows a progressively severe injury in7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 188/250the younger members of the family is a matter of great importance in tracing the causative factors.
It is important to keep in mind that when the injury shows in the face of the young child it becomes
worse when the adult face forms. This increase in deformity occurs at the time of the development
of the permanent dentition, at from ten to fourteen years of age.
    In the islands north of Australia where contact with modern civilization is just being made, the
adult individuals showed a constant reproduction of the tribal pattern, while those born since
contact was made, had


 source of satisfaction. We hold that the source ofaddiction is a search for satisfaction. Alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs cause
untold damage, but their users derive some kind of pleasure from them, or
at least relief from the massive stress that they would otherwise feel.
Addicts maintai n their habits for want of a way out. Bouts of guilt, shame,
remorse, and self-accusation do very little to help.
But by exposing their minds to a greater source of satisfac tion, the
natural tendency would be to head away from the addiction, because the
greater satisfaction is more appealing. Support for this new view  has existed
for almost twenty years. Going back many years, studies in the United
States and Europe have repeate dly shown that when addicted people are
taught to meditate, their level of anxiety decreases, pulling down with it
their use of alcohol, cigarettes, and other drugs. If the addiction  is caught at
an early stage, a large proportion of subjects will stop abusing  substances
altogether. This is a very important point, because the early stage is where
most cures are possible.
By removing the distractions of stress, meditation renews the nervous
system’ s memory of balance. Repeated meditation, day after day, jogs the
memory again and again, until in time the cells return to a normal state,
exchanging their abnormal receptors for a more normal pattern. Once the
pathways of intelligence are repaired, the cells will automatically select the
body’ s healthy signals, as once they automatically accepted the distorted
ones. The circle broken by addiction has been repaired.
The various studies on meditation and addiction have led to the following
findings:
In 1972, physiologist Robert Keith Wallace and coworkers surveyed
1,860 meditators, mainly college students, about their use of all kinds
of drugs. After they began to meditate, the number of drug abusers
dropped significantly in all categories (marijuana, narcotics,
barbiturates, hallucinogens, and amphetamines). The longer the
students practiced meditation, the less their dependence on drugs, until
after twenty-one months, most had stopped abusing altogether.Marijuana was still used “very rarely” by 12 percent of the group; all
other categories were in the range of 1 percent to 4 percent.
A 1974 study on marijuana compared meditators with nonmeditators
and found that after one to three months of meditation, about half of
the meditators had decreased or stopped their use of the drug; by
comparison, less than one-sixth of the nonmeditators had stopped
using marijuana or decreased its use. These results improved
dramatically the longer meditation continued. Among two-year
meditators, 92 percent decreased their use of marijuana and 77 percent
gave it up entirely. A similar study found the same results with alcohol.
A high-school and college study asked 150 meditators and 1 10 controls
about their drug history and found significant decreases in marijuana,
wine, beer, and hard liquor in the meditators, while no decreases
occurred among the nonmeditators.
All of these findings were based on people who had had no involvement
in any sort of rehabilitation program. No one asked them to quit, followed
their progress, or rewarded them for abstaining. Most important, no one was
selected for having any motivat ion to abstain; indeed, in a college or high-
school environment, the pressure comes in the opposite direction, from
peers who abuse alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs. The decreases across the
board suggest that simply by reducing stress and anxiety and raising the
level of inner satisfaction, one can motivate addicts to stop their habits.
A stricter test of this principle occurs in institutions. A number of studies
have focused on the use of meditation among prisoners, who have little or
no motivation to quit their addictions. An overview of five such studies
found that the results were signi ficant enough to warrant placing meditation
in prisons as a major treatment for drug abuse. A study in Germany looked
at seventy-six drug abusers who enrolled in a drug rehabilitatio n program.
After twelve months of meditating, decreases were found in all classes of
drugs, including heroin, barbiturates, and amphetamines, which are among
the hardest habits to kick.By their very nature, statistical studies tend to be faceless. I like to return
to indivi dual stories, such as the one a veteran counselor in New York told
me. He had been seeing a teenage girl who had started to drink before she
was 12 and was severely alcoholic by the time she turned 15. She proved
extremely resistant to all conventional rehabilitation, and in the end, after
months of frustration, the counselor had to admit defeat. Just as he was
releasing her from his program, he happened to remark, “Why don’t you try
meditating?” She showed some interest, but he was not able to follow up
the case.
Some years later he noticed an attractive young mother in a local
shopping center. With a start, he realized that it was the same girl, but now
looking happy and even radiant walking her 2-year -old daughter. He went
up to congratulate her.
“What happene d to you?” he asked. As it turned out, she had begun
meditation soon  after dropping out of rehabilitation and stopped drinking on
her own within a few months. She credited the meditation, which she still
practiced, for saving her from deep addiction and probably for saving her
life. The counselor has since then incorporated meditation into his work,
starting many other addicts along the same road.
ADDICTION AND THE DOSHAS
All this indicate s that there is a self-correcting mechanism inside the
addict that can be triggered simply by allowing his mind to contact it. You
can also see this mechanism at work in terms of the doshas. People who
smoke or drink to excess, or who use drugs, have conditioned themselves
away from the body’ s natural desire for balance. In the beginning, the
ability to control their impulses may be fairly unimpaired; at this stage,
addicted people believe that they are still in control of their habit.
Then ensues a period, lasting months or years, when all three doshas
become chronically aggravated. Every addiction has its own profile of
symptoms, but among chronic abusers we have always found that Pitta isgrossly aggravated, giving rise to irrational moods of violence, flushed skin,
abnormal sweating and thirst, and various digestive disorders, among other
things.
Vata dosha seems particularly crucial, because its imbalance is
responsible for impulsive behav ior. When Vata is severely aggravated, any
impulse to drink or to smoke a cigarette or to take a fix has to be obeyed. As
impulse control starts to deterior ate, a huge amount of guilt is built up, since
the addicted person identifies with his lack of control. Not knowing that he
is following the command of Vata (as we all do, but in healthier forms), the
addicted person sees only that his resolutions to quit are failing miserably.
In essence, Vata dosha itself is addicted. The stages of this addiction
resemble those for any impairment of the central nervous system. That is
why a hand tremor that is due to lack of sleep, Parkinson’ s disease, mental
illness, or alcoholism all look basically the same to the untrained eye. Vata
will generally go through the following stages of decline:
Mild imbalance: restless, scatter ed thoughts; increase of worries; easily
startled; loss of memory and concentration; absence of inner fr eshness
Moderate imbalance: insomnia; loss of physical coordination; tremor in
hands; anxiety, nervousness; loss of appetite; disconnected thinking;
passing feelings of physical weakness and hollowness
Serious imbalance: chronic insomnia; impair ed perception (things look
distant and unreal); uncontr ollable shaking of head and hands; no appetite;
apathy, general loss of all desir es; delusions and hallucinations
At the very end of an alcohol or drug addiction, Vata is often so out of
control that the symptoms are practically indistinguishable from mental
illness. A termin al alcoholic in the throes of DTs and a schizo phrenic are
both examples of Vata taken to its furthest limits.
The early and middle stages of addiction are the most treatable, because
the body can be guided to rebalance itself. The catch-22 of all addictions is
that the same symptoms of distress are caused by the habit and by stoppingthe habit. This makes perfect sense once you look at Vata dosha, which has
become trained to accept the presence of the drug. As soon as the nicotine
or alcohol is withdrawn, Vata tries to shake off its bad training and return to
normal. When it heads back into balance, however, which requires throwing
off excess Vata buildup, the body is more Vata than ever, hence the
trembling, insomnia, and anxiety that accompany withdrawal.
When the nervous system has become chemically unbalanced, Vata has
no anchor, no normal daily rhythm of rest and activity to stabilize the
hundreds of other body rhythms that must be coordinated in a healthy
person. Regular  meditation provides the stability of deep rest alternating
with activity. That is why peop le in the early stages of cigarette smoking
and drug use find that they can drop their habits with no ef fort at all.
GIVING UP  CIG


	the	percentage	of
calories	from	fat.
To	get	out	of	a	strict	numbers-based	mentality,	think	visually:	a	whole
avocado,	a	tablespoon	or	two	of	chia	or	flaxseeds,	and	a	bit	of	coconut	oil	used
when	cooking	your	dinner	are	great	ways	you	can	get	your	daily	fat	in.	As	a
guideline,	15	to	30	percent	of	your	diet	should	come	from	healthy	fats.	This
might	sound	broad,	but	this	is	where	some	individual	customization	based	on
your	constitution	comes	into	play.
In
Ayurveda,	different	body	types	are	categorized	into	what	your	main
dosha
type	is:
Kapha,	Vata
,	or
Pitta
.	If	you	are
Vata
,	for	instance,	and	tend	to	be	more
thin	and	willowy,	you	might	do	better	with	a	higher	ratio	of	fats	in	your	diet.	If
you	have	a	stocky
Kapha
-based	frame	and	tend	to	put	on	weight	more	easily,
you	might	feel	more	balanced	and	be	better	able	to	manage	your	weight	at	the
lower	end	of	this	ratio.
Pitta
	types,	which	have	a	medium,	well-built,	and	strong
frame,	are	advised	to	avoid	oily	and	fried	foods,	as	oil	is	believed	to	contribute
to	the	naturally	fiery	nature	of
Pitta
s,	and	to	consume	moderate	levels	of	fat
overall.
Whether	you	subscribe	to	the
dosha
	theory	or	not,	you	can	still	intuit	your
body	type	and	what	works	best	for	you.	Listen	to	your	body,	notice	how	you
feel,	experiment	with	different	levels	of	healthy	fat	(primarily	from	all	whole-
food,	plant-based	sources),	and	determine	the	best	specific	ratio	for	you.
CARBOHYDRATES
Carbohydrates	provide	energy	for	your	muscles,	brain,	and	central	nervous
system.	In	fact,	the	human	brain	depends	exclusively	on	carbohydrates	for	its
energy.	If	you	feel	you	are	in	a	brain	fog	or	easily	become	irritated	or	testy	(let’s
be	honest!),	it	might	be	because	you	aren’t	eating	enough	of	the	right	form	of
carbohydrates.	Read	on.
HIGH
FRUCTOSE	VS.
CRYSTALLINE	FRUCTOSE
Thankfully,	the	media	has	caught	on	to	the	fact	that
high	fructose	corn	syrup,	the
main	ingredient	in	most	soft	drinks	around	the	world,	is	a	big	health	and	beauty	no-
no	(not	that	its	consumption	has	been	curtailed	much	by	the	bad	press).	This	is	a
highly	processed	liquid	that	puts	a	big	burden	on	your	liver
18
	and	metabolizes	to
fat
very	quickly.	The	fact	that	it	is	liquid	and	absorbed	virtually	instantly	into	your	body
only	magnifies	its	harmful	qualities.	Sure,	a	small	amount	of	fructose	occurs
naturally	in	fruits	and	vegetables,	but	these	whole	foods	are	vital	sources	of
beauty	fiber	and	nutrients,	and	they	don’t	provide	enough	fructose	to	causeconcern,	as	noted	by
Diabetes	Care
.
19
But	what	about	crystalline	fructose?	It	has	a	sort	of	mysterious	name	that	hasn’t
been	demonized	in	the	public—at	least	not	yet.	But	if	you	start	to	poke	around,	you
will	see	it	listed	as	an	ingredient	in	popular	“health	drinks,”	such	as	various	flavored
waters	and	certain	sports	drinks.	What’s	scary	is	that	crystalline	fructose	contains
an	even	higher	percentage	of	fructose	than	high	fructose	corn	syrup.	That’s	right,
higher.	High	fructose	corn	syrup	(HFCS)	is	made	from	cornstarch	(read:	cheap	to
manufacture),	which	consists	entirely	of	glucose.	After	the	starch	is	extracted,	it
goes	through	processing	with	enzymes	that	convert	some	of	the	glucose	into
fructose.	Depending	on	the	exact	processing	mechanisms,	HFCS	can	contain	42,
55,	or	up	to	90	percent	fructose.	Additional	processing	crystallizes	the	syrup,	and
upon	drying	you	have—voilà!—crystalline	fructose	at	a	shocking	99	to	100	percent
pure	fructose.
Of	course	this	is	great	for	food	manufacturers,	as	a	nearly	pure-fructose
sweetener	is	up	to	20	percent	sweeter	than	sucrose,
20
	meaning	they	can	save
money	on	sweeteners.	If	you	happen	to	pick	up	a	packaged	food	or	beverage	that
includes	crystalline	fructose	on	its	ingredient	list,	put	it	right	back	down.
Research	has	found	that	eating	carbohydrates	increases	serotonin	release.
21
As	you	probably	know,	serotonin	elevates	your	mood,	helps	you	feel	balanced,
and	regulates	your	appetite,	especially	in	terms	of	helping	you	feel	satiated.
Normal	serotonin	levels	are	also	important	for	regular,	healthy	sleep	patterns.
22
This	may	explain	why	someone	who	drastically	cuts	carbs	from	their	diet	gets
really	grumpy	or	moody.	Emotional	imbalance	can	often	be	a	serious	hint	of	a
dietary	imbalance.
Let’s	go	back	to	ancient	teachings	for	a	moment:
Traditional	Chinese
Medicine	and
Ayurveda	both	recommend	carbohydrate	consumption	for
nourishment	by	way	of	grains,	root	vegetables,	and	seasonal	fruit,	which	are	all
prized	in	both	systems	for	their	healing,	balancing,	and	health-elevating
properties.	According	to	Ayurveda,	a	high	protein	diet	without	grains	will
create	a	“doshic”	imbalance	and	increase
Pitta
.	A
Pitta
	imbalance	can	manifest
in	“excess	fire,”	which	can	exhibit	personality-wise	as	irritability,	grumpiness,
impatience,	and	anger—qualities	not	conducive	to	beauty	and	peace.	If	you	try
to	eat	super-low-carb,	you	may	find	your	sweet	cravings	getting	out	of	control	as
your	body	naturally	seeks	the	carbohydrates	we	were	designed	to	consume.
When	people	try	to	restrict	carbohydrates	to	lose	weight,	they	break	down
fat
incompletely,	producing	a	by-product	called	ketones.	The	buildup	of	ketones
can	cause	an	imbalance	that	leads	to	excessive	acid	production,
23
	which	can	lead
to	acidosis	in	your	body.	Diets	that	are	excessively	low	in	carbohydrates	can
help	you	lose	weight,	at	least	temporarily,	but	can	also	lead	to	fatigue,
dehydration,
constipation,	and	bad	breath.There	are	basically	three	types	of	carbohydrates,	and	they	are	certainly	not
equal	when	it	comes	to	their	impact	on	your	beauty.
1.
Simple	and	Refined	Carbohydrates
These	carbohydrates	are	broken	down	very	quickly	in	your	system	and	can
create	a	surge	in	blood	sugar	levels	and	insulin	release.	A	major	intake	of
refined	carbohydrates,	which	is	epidemic	in	modern	America,	can	lead	to
chronic	inflammation,
24
	and	such	inflammation	produces	enzymes	that	break
down	collagen	and	elastin,	which	can	create	or	exacerbate	wrinkles,	contribute
to	sagging	skin,	and	severely	age	your	skin.
25
	Excessive	sugar	can	also	lead	to	the
overgrowth	of	“bad”	bacteria	in
your	mouth	and	intestinal	tract,	providing	a
potential	breeding	ground


 body gathered impurity becomes proportionately more difficult when organic imperfections are present. In the
normally developed adult body chronic disease or drugs may produce like effects, but h ere vital organs are of full dimension, and
results are shown, not in arrested development, but wholly in structural tissue -change.

Whenever, because of organs functionally incapacitated for any reason, the products of food and tissue waste cannot be eva cuated
through proper channels, general poisoning of the blood stream occurs. The resulting condition is known as auto -intoxication, or
toxemia, referred to previously as a state of unbalance when both secretion and excretion are checked and the blood is s urcharged
with waste to the degree of developing a crisis or acute disease. This state gives rise in the subject to manifestations that  may
become alarming. The brain may be affected to the extent of mild delirium, hiccoughs persistent in character may occ ur, or the
patient may sink into stupor; and there are other forms which the symptoms may take that will cause distress. In a fast that has
been correctly approached toxemia so intense in degree can never arise. But if, as happens when inexperienced direct ion is given,
food is discontinued abruptly, accessories are omitted, and no preparatory period of dieting is observed, symptoms as mention ed
are apt to be manifested. Even when all essentials are correctly followed, slight toxemia may be present in cases that are fasting,
when these are sufferers from chronic functional disease or from some structural organic defect. But, if the subject has been
prepared for the period of abstinence in the manner heretofore described, and, if the hygienic accessories of tr eatment are
consistently employed, symptoms that are distressing are not likely to occur.

The presence of toxins in the body is for the most part attributable to inability of the eliminative organs to perform their work. For
some cause or other the latte r do not dispose of waste in amount sufficient to balance intake or production. When difficulty is
encountered in disposing of the refuse produced progressively during a fast, lack of eliminative power is its causation, and this
arises from nerve force imp eded through impingement of vertebrae, from structural organic defect, from lesions caused by
previous drugging, or from waste production so extreme that even normal organs are unable to cope with it.

The physician who holds the concept that disease and cure are a unity is not at all concerned with the presence or absence of the
various toxins, nor by the symptoms in evidence, save as they act as indices of the functioning ability of vital organs. If t he latter
are in normal structural condition, the prod ucts of food in excess of need may interfere with function because of simple congestion,
which we have seen is easily relieved. But the vital parts of the human body are in many instances structurally defective thr ough
drug dosage or through food stimulati on, and these organs may in consequence be brought into action only by the administration
of additional drugs or by further stimulus. In these circumstances elimination can take place only abnormally, with in all ca ses but
partial removal of body waste. In  treating disease by natural methods the character of the toxin is not considered excepting in so
far as it is an indication of the severity of illness, and the thought paramount concerns the condition of the organs involve d, with
their ability to function, rather than with the nature of the circulating poison.

The toxication or poisoning that results from absorption of certain products of metabolism has been said sometimes to cause
delirium in the subject. This phenomenon, because it has infrequently bee n observed while a fast was in progress, has given rise to
the contention that protracted abstinence from food occasions insanity. Nothing can be further from truth, for, when toxic
elimination has been successfully accomplished, when the system is fully a nd physiologically purified, mentality is at maximum;
and, on the other hand, cases displaying mental aberration to toxemia caused by overfeeding are speedily brought to sanity wh en
food is denied. In fact, extreme auto -intoxication occurs more frequently when the subject is feeding than when he is fasting, and
an overfed system is productive of poisons the effects of which upon mentality are more serious and more lasting than are tho se of
stimulants or narcotics.

Wounds and broken bones are healed and un ited by natural processes, and it is only through the operation of the latter that cures
may be achieved. The fast and its accessories are not in themselves "processes", as the term is here used. Their office is th at of the
removal of obstacles that lie in  the paths of action invariably pursued by nature in effecting her purpose of systemic cleansing, of
casting out of the body the poisons that are the source of its disease. As a result of restoration of function that follows a  successful
fast instances do occur where organic structural break -down is arrested and the organ is again placed in functioning condition, but
these instances are exceptional. However, undertaking a fast in the hope that it in itself will succeed in overcoming to the point of
recovery  serious structural organic defects, wounds, and broken bones, is to hope for an absurdity. In these circumstances the
benefits that accrue from the application of the method are proportioned to the degree of the power of the organ or of the ti ssue
involve d to recover itself.

Death during a fast cannot occur unless there is organic disease, and not then unless the organ or organs affected are in suc h
degenerated state as not to permit of repair; and it is conclusively demonstrated that in a scientifically  directed fast, although death
in the conditions cited cannot be averted, yet because of organic labor lessened, life is prolonged for days or weeks, and di stress
Page 33 of  72 and pain, if present, are much alleviated.

The differentiation between starvation and fasti ng is made herein upon the basis that starvation occurs in consequence of food
being denied to a system that is in need of sustenance, and that fasting consists in intentional abstinence from food by a sy stem in
disease, a system which in consequence of it s physical unbalance is not only without desire for nutriment, but which in reality is in
no need of it until its organism is purified and again in condition to perform its functions normally. The distinction stated  may be
admitted, yet the fact is not alt ered that the two processes are in essence largely identical. But it has been observed that, deposited
within the body, lies a reserve store of aliment, and it is also to be observed that this reserve is not in the main utilized  for tissue
rebuilding, but is in most part intended at all times for the support and maintenance of the nervous system; and it is only when this
supply of nerve sustenance is exhausted or prevented from serving its purpose that starvation occurs. Because of the possibil ity of
these happenings in disease, the body may starve though it is well fed, for often in instances of overfeeding there is mal -
assimilation, often an essential organ is rendered functionally incapable through congestion, in consequence of which the ner vous
system is  hindered from consuming its necessary nourishment since the channels of supply are obstructed. Hence it should be
apparent that in functional disease during a fast starvation can begin only when fasting ends --at the disappearance of disease, at the
return  of hunger.

Whether we regard the vital principle, the animating force of the animal body, as an entity or, as modern science would have it, as
the result of chemical transformations, it must be agreed that, during a fast whatever tissue construction occ urs happens in
consequence of nutriment supplied from the reserve noted above, and this Dr. E. H. Dewey termed "Nature's bill of fare for th e
sick." Deprived of food, the subject then must subsist upon this menu, details of which have already been given in  the table quoted
from Yeo's Physiology, a table which shows the estimated losses of the several tissues of the body in cases of starvation. During
periods of abstinence from food the organism then subsists upon itself, and loss of body weight must occur. Directly this loss is
due to the elimination, first, of the waste that caused disease, and, next and continuously with the other, of the refuse pro duced by
catabolism or cell destruction. The dominant process in action at this time is that of expulsion of diseaseproducing matter, and it is
obvious that the latter is at no point available for the repair of tissue, and that, held within the system, it acts not only  obstructively
in the avenues of vitality, but that it also toxically vitiates function. This is  true of all refuse retained in the organism at any time,
for this material, because of delay in expulsion, is rendered harmful through putrefactive changes.

The points of difficulty related heretofore are in a sense technical in character, but there are  objections which embody personal
opinion and prejudice that at times develop into serious obstacles. While fasting for the relief of disease has been known an d
practiced individually in all countries of the world from prehistoric times, it was never advan ced in any land to the point where it
could be regarded as a distinct system of therapeutics until the decade beginning about fifty years ago. Its rise from sporad ic
application to the dignity of a school occurred about that time in the United States,


 of it b y asking him what it would be like if he
heard someone else’s voice talking in there. We laughed,
and life went on.
But not my  life. My life didn’t just “go on.” In my life,
nothing would ever be the s ame again. I didn’t have to
try to maintain this awareness. It was who I was now. I
was the being who was watc hing the incessant flow of
thoughts pass through the mind. From the same seat of
awareness, I watched the  ever-shifting current of
emotions pass through the heart. When I showered, I
saw what that voice had to s ay while I was supposed to
be washing my body. If I was talking to someone, I
watched as that voice figured out what to say next—
instead of listening to what t he other person was saying.
If I went to class, I watched my mind play the game of
trying to think ahead of the professor to see if it could
figure o ut where he was going with the lecture. Needless
to say, it did n ot take long be fore this newly found voice
inside m y head really started to annoy me. It was like
sitting next to someone in a movie theater who never,
ever stops talking.
As I observed that voice, something deep inside my
being ju st wanted it to shut up. What would it be like if it
stopped? I began to long for silence inside. Within days
of that first experience, my life’s patterns began to
change. When friends came over to socialize, I no longer
enjoyed the scene. I wanted t o quiet my mind, and social
activities didn’t help. I began to excuse myself and go out
to t he woods near our hous e. I would sit down on theground amid the trees and tell that voice to shut up. Of
course, it didn’t work. Nothin g seemed to work. I found
that I could change the topic  it talked about, but I could
not get it to just stop talking for any length of time. My
yearning for inner silence bec ame a passion. I knew what
it w as li ke to watch the voice. What I didn’t know is what
it would  be like if the voice totally stopped. And what I
never co uld have imagined was the life-changing journey
on which I was about to embark.2.
G e t t i n g  t o  K n o w  M e
E ven in my yo uth, I loved t o figure out how things
worked. So it was inevitable that my analytical mind
would become fascinated by  trying to understand my
relationship to  the voice inside my head. Before I could
enjoy this intellectual fascination, however, I had to get
over the fact that the personal mind was driving me
crazy. E very tim e I saw somet hing, that voice made some
comment about it: I like it… ; I do n’t like it… ; I’m not
comfortable with this… ; This reminds me of …As I
became more and more accustomed to watching all this,
a few question s naturally arose. First, why is this voice
talking all the time? If I see something, I’m instantly
aware of seeing it. Why doe s the voice have to tell me
that I see it and how I feel about it?
Here comes Mary. I don’t feel like seeing her
today. I hope she doesn’t see me.
I know what I see and I know what I feel. After all, I’m
the one in here seeing and feeling. Why does it have to
get vocalized in my mind?
Another questi on that arose was who am I who keeps
noticing all this mental activity? Who am I who can just
watch thoughts come up with a complete sense of
detachment?
I now had two driving forces awaken inside regarding
this new ly foun d voice in my head. One was the desire to
shut it up and the other was the pure fascination and
yearning to understand what  that voice was and where it
came from.I me ntioned that prior to this  inner awakening, my life
was pretty ordinary. I only say that in comparison to
what m y life became. I became a driven human being. I
wanted to know about the vo ice I had discovered, and I
wanted to know who I was—the one inside experiencing
all o f th is. I began to spend h ours on end in the graduate
school l ibrary. But I was not in the economics section; I
was in the psy chology section. There was no way that
others had not noticed this vo ice talking inside. It was so
prevalent that you couldn’t miss it. I scanned through
Freud trying to find the answers to my questions. I read
book after book, but I found  no direct reference to the
voice talking inside—not to mention any reference to the
one who is aware that the voice is talking.
In thos e days, I would talk about the voice to anyone
who would listen. They all must have thought I was
crazy. I remember one encounter with my very reserved,
highly c ultured Spanish professor. I ran into him one day
between classes and excitedl y told him that I had come
to u nderstand what it meant to be fluent in a language. I
explained to him that there was this voice inside your
head th at talks  to you about virtually everything—what
you like  and dislike, what you’re supposed to be doing
right now, and what you’ve done wrong in the past. If
that inner voice could speak in Spanish and you
immediately understood what it was saying, then you
were fluent in Spanish. If, however, the Spanish words
made no sense to you until you did the mental work of
translating them so that the voice would repeat them in
English, then you were not fluent in Spanish. It made
perfect sense—to me. I told him that if I were majoring in
language studies, I would do my doctoral dissertation on
that premise. Needless to say, my Spanish professor gave
me a very odd look, said something very polite, and went
on his way.
I d idn’t  care what he thought. I was on an exploration,
a journey of learning beyond anything I could haveimagined. Every day I was learning so much about
myself. I couldn’t believe the amount of self-
consciousness and fear bein g expressed through that
voice. I t was so obvious that  the person I was watching
inside c ared a great deal about what people thought of
him. This was especially true  of people I knew well. The
voice told me what to say  and what not to say. It
complained inc essantly when  something was not the way
it wanted. If a conversation w ith a friend en ded with the
slightest discord or disagreement, the conversation
would k eep going on inside m y head. I would watch the
voice wishfully  imagine how t he conversation could have
ended on a dif ferent note. I could see how much fear of
rejection and nonacceptance were being expressed
through that mental dialogu e. It was overwhelming at
times, b ut I never lost the perspective of watching a voice
talking inside.  It was obvi ous it wasn’t me; it was
something I was watching.
Imagine if you woke up one  day and a cacophony of
noise was all a round you. You wanted it to stop, but you
had no idea how to stop it. That is the effect the voice
was hav ing on me. One thing was perfectly clear: that
voice had always talked befor e. But I had been so lost in
it th at I  never noticed it as se parate from me. It was like
a fish not know ing it is in water until it gets out. One leap
into the  air and the fish instantly realizes, “There’s a
body of  water down there, an d that is where I’ve always
been. But now I see that I can get out.”
I did n’t like the voice of the m ind talking all the time.
It was just like an irritating n oise that I really wanted to
stop. Bu t it didn’t. For now I w as stuck with it. As it turns
out, however, I had not yet begun to fight.3.
T h e  P i l l a r s  o f  Z e n
M onths w ent by and I was still on my own with my inner
exploration. L ittle did I know that help was about to
arrive unexpectedly.
I had a classma te in my doctoral program named Mark
Waldman. He  was a bright  young man and an avid
reader on a broad range of subjects. Like everyone else,
Mark had heard me talking about my interest in the
voice. O ne day he brought m e a book he thought might
help. The book was entitled  Three Pillars of Zen,  by
Philip Kapleau.
I knew absolutely nothing about Zen Buddhism. I was
an intellectual who didn’t give religious matters a second
thought. I was brought up Je wish, but not very much so.
By the time I r eached college, religion played no part in
my life. If yo u had asked me if I was an atheist, I
probably would  have