 or foods and food supplements
derived from the wrong parts of plants, like their sugars, their oils (some of
which we solidify and convert to trans fats! ), and their refined flours
without their outer bran layers. Then we add salt to produce unhealthy
products that find their way to store shelves as convenience foods. As a result, we’ve been getting fatter and suf fering from an ever -
increasing number and variety of ailments and life-threatening diseases. America now has the highest per capita health care costs in the world, while
ignoring its 48 million citizens who lack medical insurance. Consuming the
right kind of plant-based foods can go a long way toward solving not only
our own personal health concerns, but our society’ s ills as well. There is
simply nothing that can so profoundly af fect our healing as eating fruits and
vegetables. How can we drive this message home? That is where Rip Esselstyn
comes in. What a story he has to tell! It’ s personal, it’ s inspiring, and it’ s
lifesaving. A world-class athlete and a firefighter, Rip managed to convert a
firehouse full of committed meat eaters to a plant-based diet, and in the
process improved everything from their weight to their blood pressure and
cholesterol. From there he branched out to a pilot group of fifty-eight
volunteers, all of whom achieved the same stunning results as the
firefighters—an average weight loss of ten pounds and a dramatic decline in
cholesterol—in a mere four weeks.Best of all, those who completed the program reported feeling so much
better—with improvements to conditions such as kidney stones,
constipation, and low ener gy—that few felt tempted to resume their old way
of eating. I am not surprised by Rip’ s accomplishments and motivations. He comes
from an extraordinary line of medical men and women. The Esselstyns and
the Criles (his mother ’s side) have served the public good for generations,
and they know as much about medicine as any family in America. I find it
fascinating that Rip, representing the first generation of the mer ger of these
two brilliant medical families, has chosen to share his experiences in what I
believe to be the most important health message to come upon the public
horizon in many years. I first met Rip in 1991 at a medical conference or ganized and hosted by
his famous father, Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr., who was sharing for the
first time his dramatic results on reversing and curing heart disease. He
boldly named the conference “The First National Conference on the
Elimination of Coronary Heart Disease” and had invited other researchers
to present our own findings. Rip was only able to attend part of the
conference, because of a prior commitment to compete in the Escape from
Alcatraz Triathlon, but he had stopped by to get a sense of what his father
and others were doing. I met Rip on three other occasions while I was
lecturing in Austin, Texas. On one of those occasions, he introduced me to
his Engine 2 firehouse buddies, and I sensed a remarkable story emer ging
that is now being told in these pages. I have spent five decades working as an experimental research scientist
in the field of diet and health. I believe in the message that Rip Esslestyn is
advocating and that his father and other clinicians have been adopting with
great success in their clinics. I was not drawn to this view by any particular
ideology but because of the experimental research done in my laboratory
(mostly at Cornell University). Our findings were often challenging, even
difficult to accept at times, because my background, both personally and
professionally, ran counter to what I was seeing. I was raised on a dairy
farm, milking cows, and my family lived of f the land. As our evidence accumulated, it became ever more impressive. John
McDougall, MD, for years has been treating people, with great success, for
a variety of illnesses with the plant-based diet that Rip recommends in this
book. Recently, he and other physicians have cured most Type 2 diabeticsand, in many cases, have greatly reduced insulin needs even for Type 1
patients. Rip’ s father, Caldwell B. Esslestyn, Jr., MD, reverses and even
cures advanced heart disease with this diet. Roy Swank, MD, followed
multiple sclerosis patients for thirty-four years, using very much this same
type of diet, and concluded that “about 95 percent of MS patients
[diagnosed early], remained only mildly disabled for about thirty years.”
I have been lecturing extensively around the country and have heard
from many cancer patients that they believe that they are cured or at least
are in remission because of using a plant-based diet. This belief is borne out
by the findings in our extensive experimental animal studies, in which we
could turn on and of f cancer development by relatively modest nutritional
means, using a model of this same diet. Obesity can be controlled, migraine
headaches reduced, arthritic conditions alleviated—the list goes on and on. The idea that Rip Esselstyn elaborates in this book is “spot-on,” as my
associates across the big pond say. I predict that this book will be as ef fective as any on the market in
conveying an exceptionally important health message in a most personal
way. Just read it, and you will see what I mean. T. Colin Campbell, PhD
Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry
Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
Co-author (with Thomas M. Campbell II) of The China
Study  (2005)
OceanofPDF.comPART I
The E2 Diet
OceanofPDF.com1
ENGINE 2
The evening of January 5, 2000, was bitterly cold, a night no one in
the Austin, Texas, Fire Department will soon for get. At the time I was
working at Central Station, the city’ s largest. Central was called “The
Animal House” because we firefighters were notorious for our bizarre
antics, from launching water balloons at passersby from the second-story
rooftop to breaking rookies down until they burst into tears. There were no
barriers and no boundaries. The weather was bad when we went to bed in the firehouse dorm that
night, but by early morning it was worse: A freezing rain was falling, and
temperatures were heading toward record lows. Then, at 4:20 a.m., a heavy
box alarm sounded. (The word “box” refers to a home; a regular box alarm
signals that a single-family house is on fire, but when a heavy box alarm
sounds, it means a fire at a lar ger building, such as an apartment complex.) Just as at the start of an athletic competition, all my senses went into
overdrive—my heart rate jumped, my stomach churned, my mind raced. Normally I’d leap right out of bed, jump into my bunker pants, and pull up
my suspenders, but because I was going to be driving this shift, I had only
enough time to stumble into my station pants and cotton shirt before sliding
down the eighteen-foot brass fire pole. I was also preparing for the worst. The real burners generally occur
between midnight and 6 a.m., when people have gone to sleep but a
stovetop is left burning, an electrical wire shorts out, or a smoldering
cigarette butt ignites. The fire turned out to be at the Lake Shore Apartments, two-and-a-half
miles from the station. Sirens blaring, we pulled up to the scene, the thirdengine in. (Each arriving engine has a specific duty. The first engine attacks
the fire, the second backs up the first, and the third hooks up to a hydrant to
bring an unlimited supply of water to the first.) Just as we were arriving, we heard a radio message from Engine 22,
announcing that they had put out the fire. For a moment we relaxed, and
from where we stood, looking up at the building’ s second-floor balcony, the
problem seemed to be nothing more than a little hibachi fire. Then my good friend, fellow Engine 1 firefighter Josh Miller, said, “Rip,
put your bunker gear on.” I didn’ t understand why he’d told me that,
because things seemed to be under control. Perhaps he’d had a premonition
—all firefighters have them—so I listened, scuttled around to the driver ’s
side compartment, and donned my full gear. Sure enough, moments later that little fire exploded into enormous
flames—lar ger than I had ever seen. They climbed up the side of the
building, curled onto its top, and engulfed the roof. Scared and nervous, I approached the fire, my pulse pounding. The next
few minutes were a blur; time warps under severe pressure. I remember that
a firefighter named Alphonso Dellert, known as Ax, stepped in front of me,
and as he did, I heard the kind of bloodcurdling screams you hear only in
movies: “Help me, I’m burning up!” I wasn’ t sure I’d heard correctly, but
then the cry came again: “Help me, I’m burning!”
I sensed this scream was coming from the apartment with the balcony—
but how could someone still be alive inside that inferno? The flames were
rising even higher and their radiant heat was overwhelming, even from two


 leafy green vegetables, berries, whole grains, lentils,
beans, herbs, and spices. Since t he A yurvedic Kapha dosha governs the area
of the chest, a Kapha-pacifyin g diet is especially beneficial if you have
heart dis ease, high blood pressure, or respiratory illnesses. Y ou can learn
more about all A yurvedic diets i n my first book, The Wheel of Healing with
A yurveda: An Easy Guide to a Healthy Lifestyle. Y OGA  A SANAS AND  P RANA Y AMA  E XERCISES T O  H EAL THE
F OUR TH  C HAKRA
All yoga  breath ing techniques are good for the fourth chakra, as each one
enables you to b reathe more fully. One simple breath I enjoy is what I call
the four -count breath. T o view a video demo of these exer cises, go towww.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>
Q: What is the main theme of the third chakra, according to the author?,
A: The main theme of the third chakra is about honoring who you truly are and owning your personal power.
Q: What is the author's perspective on the ego?,
A: The author believes that the ego is an integral part of who we are, and it's essential to understand and balance it.
Q: What is the significance of the third chakra in the development of the individual?,
A: The third chakra is crucial in the development of the individual, as it helps us define our sense of self and personal power.
Q: What is the author's view on the concept of love?,
A: The author emphasizes the importance of selfless love and unconditional love, which is a higher frequency and more profound than the lower forms of love.
Q: What is the author's advice for healing the heart and moving forward?,
A: The author suggests that healing the heart and moving forward requires forgiveness and the ability to choose peace, rather than reacting with anger or hatred.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>One spr ing during Lent while I was living in France, I decided  to take
on a project that created a lot of discomfort in me. I wanted to do something
good for others during the forty days prior to Easter instead of the
traditional practice of giving up chocolate or sweets. In Aix-en-Provence,
France, near where I lived, the re were a lot of homeless people. Most of
them we re illega l immigrants, or gypsies, as the French called them. I made
the d ecision to p ack lunches every W ednesday during Lent and  to go seek
out hom eless in dividuals in the city and give them the bagged lunches. In
addition, I decided to take my three-year -old son with me. Coming from
suburbia in the United States, I wasn’ t accustomed to homeles s people or
comfortable arou nd them. I mad e the decision to put myself into discomfort
to help other people. I didn’ t fee l it was enough to give money or donate to
a food bank. I needed to be on the streets and spontaneously giving and
interacting with those less fortunate than I. It was the best thin g, I believe,
and the most dif ficult thing I’ve ever done.At first,  the homeless people I encountered were very skeptical of my
kindness. The French, in general, don’ t have a habit of taking kindly to
homeless people. They have so cial systems in place that can give even a
homeless person  a monthly source of income. However, as I  mentioned,
most of these pe ople were illegal immigrants and therefore no t eligible to
receive such aid. In the beginn ing I had to ur ge some of the homeless
people t o accept my lunches, especially those with children. But as time
went on, they received me with  open arms. I adapted to make e xtra for the
homeless childr en with their p arents or to include a little toy or plush
animal. Seeing them would usually bring me to tears. Some W ednesdays I
would get nervous because I d idn’ t want to go out there and face them. Other ti mes the  weather was b ad and I just didn’ t want to ge t out of my
comfort zone to fulfill the promi se I had made to myself and Go d. But I did. The level of com passion I achieved during that project was un matched by
anything else I’ve experienced. I believe the reason I was able to achieve
that level, at th at moment, was because I pushed myself to the edge of
discomfort. I learned: the grea ter the self-sacrifice, the greater the inner
reward. I do n’ t mention this story to p at myself on the back. Except for my
family, most people have no idea I ever did this. I tell this story to
demonstrate that you can heal your heart through acts of compassion. It
doesn’ t have to b e as big as making lunches for the homeless. Y ou can of fer
someone a smile, a joke, or a warm hug. Y ou can give a person the gift of
your ful l attentio n by turning of f your phone when you’re with him or her. If you know yo ur friend or fam ily member has had a rough day, you can
ask, “Is there anything I can do for you?” Then do it. A wareness of others’ suf fering and a desire to alleviate their pain are all
it takes. ANAHA T A GUIDED MEDIT A TION
Sit c omfortably  and close your eyes. Bring your awareness to  your
heart center, your source of lov e and compassion. Imagine, think, or
feel an emerald green color radiating from your heart. This sparkling
green li ght is shining outward in every direction. Breathe into thisspace, a nd feel the circumference of the light surrounding your heart
getting w ider and wider. Feel the  balance between physical matter and
spirit here. Feel yourself grounded and open and awakened to spirit at
the same time. Now that you’re aware of your radiating, compassionate light
moving out of your body and into the world, bring your attention back
to your heart ce nter. Search within your heart for any discomfort that
resides there. If you find any, s end the discomfort flowers and then
escort it away from your he art. As you’re escorting away the
discomfort, whi ch can come di sguised as hurt, shame, blame, anger,
or lack of for giveness, thank it for its message and let it know that it
can go now. Re peat this with every source of discomfort that comes
up i n your hear t center, until y ou’re only left with light and ease of
breath. Y ou will know when you have let everything go because your
heart will feel l ighter, as if a lar ge weight has been lifted of f your
chest. Feel how easy it is to breathe now. Now tha t your heart is clear, feel flooded with unconditional lov e.
Allow th is love to flow in and fill your heart space. Feel the w armth
and expansiven ess of this love. Allow yourself to receive. Allow
yourself to feel vulnerable and open to this great love, of which you
are worthy. Y ou are becoming a vessel of love with each and every
breath. Love flows to you and through you. Y ou become a conduit for
this love, and as  this love fills every cell of your body, you feel lighter
and mor e joyful. Y our joyfulness radiates throughout your being. Y ou
may eve n find yourself smiling for no apparent reason. Let it b e as it
is, for this is the state of love. At this moment you may even  feel a
tingling sensation pulsating through your body. This is normal, as you
have raised the vibrational fre quency of your being. Sit wit h this
sensation. It’ s here, and you can always access it whenever you desire. Y ou can sit in this silent meditation for as long as you like before
opening your eyes and slowly returning to activity. T o enhance the
vibrations, chant the mantra sound YUM  three times. E NERGY -B ODY  H EALING WITH  G EMS AND  C OLORSAs m entioned earlier, the color for the fourth chakra is emerald green. Y ou
can wear this color or keep it in your awareness while healing your heart. Rose qu artz is the most beautiful and ef fective stone for bringing love
and compassion  into your life. Keep a rose quartz stone with you
throughout the day. If you can, wear the stone close to your hea rt. Y ou can
even get a rose quartz in the shape of a heart to remind you of healing each
time you hold it. Fourth Chakra Mindfulness Ideas to Ponder
1. I am ready to release hurt from my heart and for give everyone who
has harmed me, including myself. 2. I am open to giving and receiv ing love and know I am worthy of
love. 3. I fe el compassion toward others, especially those whom I don’ t
understand. 4. I a m a v essel of God’ s love, transporting unconditional acceptan ce to
all who need it.T5  T H E  T H R O A T  C H A


 witness to the drama rather than an
engaged participant. The observer has begun to put a slight distance
between itself and the observed. The second step is the stilling of the mind. This is not achieved by force
or indeed by any action at all. Doing anything is the opposite of being still. Because we have spent our whole lives in activity, non-doing is extremely
unfamiliar. Most of the time it occurs by accident—out of the blue, one
notices that the stream of consciousness has ceased, like turning  off a water
tap. Sexual activity is so often associated with ecstasy because it is one of
the few times that most people can be fully distracted from their minds. Whether a person tries to make it happen or not, what creates stillness in the
mind is simply that the observer  is able to continue to stand apart for longer
than a moment. Gaining some distance between the observer and the observed is so rare
that the second stage of ecstasy occurs quite infrequently. For most of us the
excursions away  from mental activity last only a few seconds. But if we
manage to achieve the second stage, stillness takes on a surprising aspect. Our attention reveals to us that silence has its own dynamism. The still
mind, though devoid of thoughts, quivers and vibrates all the same. There is
a kind of trembling anticipation  that can go one of two ways. Either a new
thought will be born to bring back the internal dialogue or the faint
trembling of silence will lead to even deeper silence. Poised here at the edge of ecstasy, you cannot make your mind choose
one way over the other. Even people who have experienced silent mind
many times, such as in prolonged practice of meditation, do not go past the
front room of silence at will. But if the mind chooses to plunge into deeper
silence, the third stage has been reached. This deeper silence doesn’ t quiver;it cannot be disturbed by even the faintest activity. One experiences it like
the softest black velvet or the deepest dark cave. Anyone who has come this
far is now truly “standing outsid e. ” Of course it would be just as accurate to
say that you are standing inside, because inside and outside have lost their
difference. Y ou are merely there where ecstasy is. The fourth and final stage requires nothing new on your part—once your
attention has been captured by deep silence, the inner transformation is
complete. What ever is to happ en next dawns of its own accord. One is
brought face to face with pure Being, pure awareness, pure joy. In ancient
Sanskrit terms, sat chit ananda,  eternal bliss consciousness, reveals itself. A
Christian saint might call the same experience “the face of God. ” The poet
of the Song of Solomon put it in lover ’s terms:
My eyes are radiant with your spirit;
my nostrils fill with your fragrance. My ears delight in your music,
and my face is covered with your dew. But these are images only. The fact that ecstasy exists is the promise that
kindles our faith on the path to love; tastes of it are the water that refreshes
our quest. We take faith from those living masters who have reached the
goal. They stand apart from us, yet they are clothed in the same flesh and
bones; they move, act, breathe, and live as the rest of us do. Only secretly,
in their realized  souls, do they know with utter certainty that, like the two
birds in the tree, they are Self while we are self. I often turn to a few pages of dialogue between an Indian discip le and his
master that bring this contrast to life for me. The disciple is resisting the
idea that there is anything beyond the world of the senses. He is the
questioner; the answerer is the South Indian master Sri Nisar gadatta
Maharaj:
Q: Is your world full of things and people as is mine. A: No, it is full of myself. Q: But do you see and hear as we do. A: Yes, I appear to see and hear and talk and act, but to me it just happens,
as to you digestion or perspiration happens. Q: If you are the world, how can you be conscious of it. A: Cons ciousness and the world appear and disappear together, hence they
are two aspects of the same state. As long as the mind is there, your
body and the world are there. Your world is mind-made, subjective,
enclosed within the mind, fragmentary, temporary, personal, hanging on
the thread of memory. Q: So is yours. A: Oh, no. I live in a world of realities, while yours is of imagi nings. Your
world is personal, private, unsha reable, intimately your own. Nobody can
enter it, see as you see, hear as you hear, feel your emotions and think
your thoughts. In your world you are truly alone, enclosed in your ever-
changing dream, which you take for life. My world is an open world,
common to all, accessible to all. In my world there is communit y, insight,
love, and real quality; the individual is the totality. All are one, and
the One is all. As many times as I have read this passage over the years, it never fails to
move me at a level deeper than emotion or memory or even insight. I feel
brought face to face with the real, and I stand in awe of a person who can
say of the mate rial world that it is the merest speck fleeting through his
mind. But it is also heartening to realize that such great masters began as
ordinary people. The only difference between them and any one of us is that
the masters set foot on the path,  beginning the journey of soul- making that
leaves time behind. Eventually  the path ends, and the foundation of our
world, which stands upon mem ory and mind, crumbles, leaving a new
world of unimaginable realness. Understandably, Maharaj’ s disciple was
intensely curiou s about what this new world is like, but his master could
only answer him from a place beyond words:
Q: How do you know that you are in the supreme state. A: Because I am in it. It is the only natural state. Q: Can you describe it. A: Only by negation, as uncaused, independent, unrelated, undivided,
uncomposed, unshakeable, unquestionable, unreachable by effort. And yet my state is supremel y actual, therefore possible, realizable,
attainable. There may be those who would find this a discouraging description,
riddled with paradox. How can the unreachable be reached or the
indescribable be real. I can only turn to those arrows of light that hurtle at
us from that world, the moment s of ecstasy that quiet all doubt and still all
questionings. It takes a long time before such experiences born in the
deepest silence can be translat ed into time and space. A life filled with
chaos is extreme ly difficult to fill with ecstasy. While you are caught in the
ecstatic moment, however, all of reality seems like a miracle. The very root
of the word miracle  reminds us that it derives from the Latin mirar e, “to
behold with rapt attention. ” No better definition of ecstasy has ever been
given. To those  who have gained entry  to ecstasy there is no reason to ask for
more. No transformation is as all-embracing, and after returning to the
everyday world,  the great gift seems to be not the intensity of remembered
joy but the revelation of truth. One moment of genuine ecstasy removes a
lifetime of doubts—you realize once and for all that spirit is real. You know
from firsthand experience that you are the divine essence. In that sense
ecstasy is the most immediate and yet the most far off of experiences. It is
immediate because it is unden iable; it is distant because it will take a
lifetime to secure ecstasy as a permanent reality. Fortunately this journey,
itself creates ecstasy, being the path to love. OceanofPDF. comLOVING  PRACTICE
Cultivating Inspiration
ONE OF THE most beautiful proofs of ecstasy is delivered in a moment of
inspiration. I have already discussed signals from spirit which hint at a
reality beyond that perceived by the five senses. But inspirati on is much
more than a hint—when you feel inspired you find yourself thrust into a
world where ordinary objects and events are full of light, as if illuminated
from within. This inner light is truth, and when we suddenly see the truth,
we gain insight, clarity, and objectivity. Insight enables you to know your own heart. Clarity enables you to accept without illusions. Objectivity enables you to view any person or situation with compassion. At triumphant moments when you say to yourself, “That was really
inspired,” all three qualities come together, and the feeling  of that union is
ecstasy. Sadly, most people do not attain even a few of these qualities until
late in life, when the maturation of experience allows the obstacles to
inspiration, particularly fantasy, projection, and judgment, to fall away. Even then moments of inspiratio n may be rare. But the root word of inspir e
means “to breathe in,” which implies that inspiration should be a simple
thing—as natur al as breathing. When we say that someone has been
inspired to write a love poem, we


 My mind went back to
that moment many times, and I found that the memory triggered a
dierent awareness in me. I can only compare it to meditation: Iwas in a place pain couldn’t reach. I had a sense of oating and of
great calmness. “Sometimes the nurse would  be packing my knee wound, which
was very uncomfortable physically. I would see her doing it, and the
signal of pain registered, but instead of stinging my mind, so to
speak, it made me feel inten se—what. —not exactly pleasure but a
sensation hard to name, intensely sweet, very intimate. It was pain
turning to tingling joy. Every time that happened, I would wonder
at it and be very glad. ”
Once he slipped into this privileged state of awareness, Ray could
divorce himsel f from his pain for hours at a time. Signicantly, he
had practiced meditation since he was eighteen, virtually all of his
adult life, and was familiar with settled states of awarenes s. He soon
showed that he was doing much more than evading pain. His sister
writes, “When  I rst saw the surgical wound around Ray’s right
knee, I was frightened at how much muscle they had been forced to
remove. Despite the grafts, there was nothing visible but tendon,
and when we returned to Seattle, several specialists advised that
muscle tissue be brought around from the back of his leg for a new
graft. “That meant major surgery, and Ray’s doctor decided to postpone
it. Keeping the tendon exposed raised the chance of infect ion, but he
wanted to wait and see for another month. In that time, Ray healed
himself amazin gly. We dressed his knee twice a day and showered it
with loving attention. (Ray would say afterwards that he could lie
back and literally feel this attention being soaked up by his body. ) Ray meditated a great deal and was up and around, tendin g the new
colts and enjoying his life to the full. “When his doctors saw him four weeks later, they were in a state
of disbelief. New muscle had started to come up around the tendon
spontaneously, appearing in every gap, and new skin was rapidly
advancing to cover it. ”
Muscle regeneration is a highly uncertain process, and there is no
guarantee that it will occur at all if the damage is this extensive. One would certainly not predict the rapid granulation of new tissue
that appeared in Ray’s destroyed knee. With undisguised wonder,one of his doctors exclaimed, “I don’t know why, but you’re a great
healer, Ray. ” No further surgery was required. Much has been written about what makes certain people heal
better and faster than others. Ray embodied many of the most
desirable quali ties. He had the courage to get up out of his hospital
bed and walk on his leg within days after his accident. When his
arm had to be amputated, he immediately learned to tie his shoes
with one hand. He unhesitatingly and hungrily accepted love when
it was oered by his family and friends. These are rare qualities of
heart and mind. Although every doctor has seen such patients, “great healers”
have proved to be too rare and too individual to study as a class. Therefore, we do not really know their secret. I believe  that what
makes such people extraord inary is not anything they do: it is
something they are. We all are. That is, we all have the certainty that we exist. A
clever debater can make you doubt almost anything you ever
believed in, but not this. “I am” lies at the core of every  person, a
rock-solid certainty he has no reason to doubt. Unless you are caught in a tortured dilemma like Hamlet, to be or
not to be is not the question. Existence comes as inevitably as being
born. Strangely, some people  take more advantage of this state than
others. They do not do more or feel more or think more. Somehow,
like light passing through a crystal-clear lens, life comes through
them clearer, brighter, and sharper than through people who exist
dully. This fact has not been lost on psychiatry, though it is seen from
the opposite end. Very few people come to therapy exhibiting
clarity. They come feeling extremely needy and dependent, or
feeling so much anxiety that they can barely face up to the ordinary
challenges of existence. Sometimes they are so depressed that
nothing in their lives, howev er vivid and moving, registers as more
than a gray smudge. In all these cases, something has gone wrong,
not just in thinking and feeling, but in being. They have lost the gift
for living. The Feeling of Specialness
Where does the gift come from. In Ray’s case, it seems to express
itself rst and foremost as a bedrock sense of security: “I was sure
from the rst that I was going to recover. There’s no expla ining why
—it was like a secret I shared with God. I called it a gift because
there are no real words to describe it. I was given a chance to
remake myself. I didn’t know how to do that, only that it was going
to happen and nothing could stand in its way. ”
By now almost everyone has read accounts of the brief near-death
experiences that occur to thousands of people every year. The
details change from story to story, but a common theme is the
sudden descent of a complete sense of security. People who come
back to life after their hearts stop beating frequently report that as
they “went into the light” or hovered above their bodies looking
down on themselves, they felt completely protected. Often this
feeling lingers  when they reluctantly take up the burden of their
bodies once more. They now nd it dicult to worry about the
things one is supposed to worry about, especially dying. It may be
that this is how we are meant to feel even without the near-death
experience. To be may not be a choice, but the way you feel about it certainly
is. Some people grow up nurturing a secret feeling that they are
somehow special. They feel guarded by providence, although they
may not reveal such a reckless belief to others. Dr. Irvin Yalom
writes about one such woman who believed in her specialness for
years, only to come out of it quite traumatically: she was deeply
shaken one day when she became the victim of a purse-snatcher in a
restaurant parking lot. Yalom writes, “Most of all, the robbery illuminated her
ordinariness, her ‘I never thought it could happen to me’ reecting
the loss of belief in her personal specialness. ” He is not referring to
any special talents or gifts that this woman possessed. It is highly
rational for people to prize that kind of specialness. But we also
have an irratio nal sense of specialness, Yalom asserts, which serves
as “one of our chief methods  of denying death. ” However, far fromdeeming it a valuable trait, psychiatrists tend to regard this way of
feeling special as undesirable, and when the woman came to Yalom
for treatment, his chief focus was to bring her to terms with her
ordinariness. This meant that he had to strip away her sense of
feeling protected against death. Here we are confronted with the ambiguous role of the psyche’s
need for self-pr otection. To feel safe from death is not something we
can easily do without; on the other hand, if the fear of death is
being forcibly suppressed in the depths of our subconscious, it could
be spreading underground terror that we ignore at our peril. As
Yalom goes on to say, “The part of our mind whose task it is to
mollify death terror genera tes the irrational belief that we are
invulnerable—that unpleasant things like aging and death may be
the lot of others but not our lot, that we exist beyond law, beyond
human and biological destiny. ”
I grant that it is a worthwhi le goal to dispel delusions and even
more worthwh ile to rid the mind of hidden fear, but beyond the
goal of mental  health lies the goal of freedom. Where is freedom to
begin if not in “that sense of specialness, of being charme d, of being
the exception, of being eternally protected” that psychiatry wants to
stamp out. All of these feelings are ones that Yalom labels as self-
deceptions. However, to think that they are illusions may itself be a
greater illusion—or so the yogis declare. The starting point for Yoga is just this sense of being special or
charmed or protected. Witho ut it, the only sane course in life would
be to come to terms with the solid, sensible world before our eyes,
complete with its burden of pain, aging, and death. At best one
would put up an “ironica l struggle,” in a famous phrase by
Montaigne, ghting the enemy who is destined to win from the rst
moment of combat. Many people, perhaps all, would leap at the chance to feel special
again, but their conditioning atly closes o that possibility. Lawrence LeShan is a highly regarded psychologist who more than
thirty years ago pioneered the startling theory that cancer has a


margarine. Composition of Oils
  Saturated  Monosaturated  Unsaturated
Butter  66% 30% 4%
Coconut Oil  87% 6% 2%
Cottonseed Oil  26% 18% 52%
Olive Oil  13% 74% 8%
Palm Oil  49% 37% 9%
Soybean Oil  14% 24% 58%
Sunflower Oil  4% 8% 83%
Safflower Oil  3% 5% 87%
Sesame Oil  5% 9% 80%
Peanut Oil  6% 12% 76%
Corn Oil  3% 7% 84%

This is a major and serious misunderstanding. First of all, margarine is almost indigestible, chemically very much like shortening –
an artificially saturated or hydrogenated vegetable fat. Hydrogenated fats can't be properly broken down by the body's digest ive
enzymes, adding to the body's toxic load. Margarine, bei ng a chemically -treated vegetable oil with artificial yellow color and
artificial flavorings to make it seem like butter, also releases free radicals in the body that accelerate ageing. So, to avo id the
dangers of eating cholesterol -containing butter, peop le eat something far worse for them. There are severe inconsistencies with the entire "cholesterol -is-evil" theory. Ethnic groups like the Danes, who eat enormous
quantities of cholesterol -containing foods, have little circulatory disease. Actually, the li ver itself produces cholesterol; it's
presence in the blood is an important part of the body chemistry. Cholesterol only becomes a problem because of deranged body
chemistry due to the kind of overall malnutrition Americans usually experience on their junk  food diets. Avoiding cholesterol in
foods does little good, but eating a low -fat, low -sugar, complex -carbohydrate (whole foods) diet high in minerals does lower blood
cholesterol enormously. Actually, high quality fresh (not rancid) butter in moderate qu antities is about the finest fat a person could eat. But high quality
butter is almost unobtainable. First of all, it has to be raw, made from unpasteurized cream. Second, butter can contain very  high
levels of fat -soluble vitamins, but doesn't have to. Vi tamin -rich butter's color is naturally bright yellow, almost orange. This color
does not come from a test tube. Pale yellow butter as is found in the commercial trade was probably almost white before it wa s
artificially tinted. Butter from grass -pastured c ows naturally changes from yellow -orange to white and back again through the year
as the seasons change. Spring grass, growing in the most intense sunlight of the year contains very high levels of chlorophyl l and
vitamins. Cows eating this grass put high l evels of vitamins A and D into their cream, evidenced by the orange color of vitamin A. By July, natural butter has degraded to medium -yellow in color. By August, it is pale yellow. Industrial dairy cows fed exclusively
on hay or artificial, processed feed s (lacking in these vitamins), produce butterfat that is almost white. I prefer to obtain my butter from a neighbor who has several dairy cows grazing on fertile bottom land pasture. We always fre eze a
year's supply in late spring when butter is at its be st. Interestingly, that is also the time of year when my neighbor gets the most
production from her cows and is most willing to part with 25 pounds of extra butter. In general, fats are poor foods that should be avoided. Their ratio of nutrition to calori es is absolutely the worst of all food types,
except perhaps for pure white sugar, which is all calories and absolutely no nutrition (this is also true for other forms of sugar. Honey, too, contains almost no nutrition. ). Gram for gram, fats contain many m ore calories than do sugars or starches. Yet gram
for gram, fats contain virtually no nutrition except for small quantities of essential fatty acids. The perverse reason people like to eat fats is that they are very hard to digest and greatly slow the dige stive action of the stomach. Another way of saying that is that they have a very high satiety value. Fats make a person feel full for a long time because their
presence in the stomach makes it churn and churn and churn. Fats coat proteins and starches and delay their digestion, often
causing them to begin fermenting (starches) or putrefying (proteins) in the digestive tract. The best fats contain high levels of monosaturated vegetable oils that have never been exposed to heat or chemicals –like virgin
olive oil. Use small quantities of olive oil for salad dressing. Monosaturated fats also have far less tendency to go rancid than a ny
other type. Vegetable oils with high proportions of unsaturated fats, the kind that all the authorities push because they con tain no
cholesterol, go rancid rapidly upon very brief exposure to air. The danger here is that rancidity in vegetable oil is virtual ly
unnoticeable. Rancid animal fat on the other hand, smells "off. " Eating rancid oil is a sure -fire way to accelerate ageing,  invite
degenerative conditions in general, and enhance the likelihood of cancer. I recommend that you use only high -quality virgin olive
oil, the only generally -available fat that is largely monosaturated. (Pearson and Shaw, 1983)
When you buy vegetable o il, even olive oil, get small bottles so you use them up before the oil has much time being exposed to air
(as you use the oil air fills the bottle) or, if you buy olive oil in a large can to save money, immediately upon opening it,  transfer
the oil to pin t jars filled to the very brim to exclude virtually all air, and seal the jars securely. In either case, keep now -opened, in -
use small bottles of oil in the refrigerator because rancidity is simply the combination of oil with oxygen from the air and this
chemical reaction is accelerated at warmer temperatures and slowed greatly at cold ones. Chemical reactions typically double in speed with every 10 degrees C. increase in temperature. So oil goes rancid about six t imes
faster at normal room temperature than  it does in the fridge. If you'll think about the implications of this data you'll see there are
two powerful reasons not to fry food. One, the food is coated with oil and gains in satiety value at the expense of becoming
relatively indigestible and produc tive of toxemia. Secondly, if frying occurs at 150 degrees Centigrade and normal room
temperature is 20 degrees Centigrade, then oil goes rancid 2 to the 13th power faster in the frying pan, or about 8,200 times  faster. Heating oil for only ten minutes in a hot skillet induces as much rancidity as about 6 weeks of sitting open and exposed to air at
room temperature. Think about that the next time you're tempted to eat something from a fast food restaurant where the hot fa t in
the deep fryer has been reactin g with oxygen all day, or even for several days. Back to butter, where we started. If you must have something traditionally northern European on your bread, you are far bette r off
to use butter, not margarine. However, Mediterranean peoples traditionally d ip their bread in high -quality extra -virgin olive oil that
smells and tastes like olives. It’s delicious, why not try it. But best yet, put low -sugar fruit preserves on your toast or develop a
taste for dry toast. Probably the finest use for butter is melt ed over steamed vegetables. This way only small quantities are needed
and the fat goes on something that is otherwise very easy to digest so its presence will not produce as many toxins in the di gestive
tract. Milk, Meat, And Other Protein Foods
Speaking of butter, how about milk. The dairy lobby is very powerful in North America. Its political clout and campaign
contributions have the governments of both the United States and especially that of Canada eating out of its hand (literally),
providing the dair y industry with price supports. Because of these price supports, in Canada cheese costs half again more than it
does in the United States. The dairy lobby is also very cozy with the medical profession so licensed nutritionists constantly
bombard us with "d rink milk" and "cheese is good for you" propaganda. And people naturally like dairy foods. They taste good and are fat -rich with a high satiety value. Dairy makes you feel full for a
long time. Dairy is also high in protein; protein is hard to digest and this too keeps one feeling full for a long time. But many
people, especially those from cultures who traditionally (genetically) didn't have dairy cows, particularly Africans, Asians and
Jews, just do not produce the enzymes necessary to digest cows milk. Some individuals belonging to these groups can digest goats
milk. Some can't digest any kind except human breast milk. And some can digest fermented milk products like yogurt and kiefer. Whenever one eats a protein food that is not fully digestible, it put refies in the digestive tract, with all the bad consequences
previously described. But no one, absolutely no one can fully


 so that, when the source of secondary "infection” is removed,
the symptoms temporarily clear up. This is heralded as a great victory for
science. Recurrence too
frequently vitiates the victory. There have been so many kinds of treatment for arthritis that it would be needless to try to
enumerate all of them. It can only be said that none of them have proved satisfactory. Spas, springs,
water cures, mud, salt, soap baths, sulphur baths, hot baths, electro-therapy, packs, drugs,
nostrums, and serums have all had their day and have been found wanting. Some of them have
afforded temporary relief in many instances; none has been more than a palliative. To get well and remain well of rheumatism, lumbago, muscular rheumatism, inflammatory
rheumatism, gout, arthritis, no matter what form it may assume, the sufferer must discontinue all
enervating habits and learn his limitations and respect them. Every normal habit indulged to satiety
and every abnormal habit produces disease. Here is the origin of every so-called disease. The end
is chronic disease and premature death. Until we learn to recognize the fact that symptoms are the result of toxic saturation and learn the
source of the intoxication, we are left with nothing we can do for the sick except provide a brief
and questionable palliation. The man who can offer his patient nothing more than an
anodyne
 or a
sedative
 can do much harm but he can do no good. To be truly effective the care of the arthritic case should be directed at the removal of the cause
of the disease. To give drugs, whether aspirin, cortisone or other of the drugs now in use for
arthritis, which are intended to do nothing more than provide the patient with brief periods of
relief from pain, is to remove no cause. Although most of these drugs are given to “relieve” the
pain, it is asserted that cortisone temporarily relieves some of the other symptoms, but it does not
go beyond palliation, while it does build a more difficult condition to remedy. The body has remarkable recuperative powers and it often succeeds in restoring health in spite
of the remedies. It can do a much better and more speedy job if the remedies and the causes that
have built the disease are removed. The body must be given an opportunity to eliminate its toxic
accumulation by means of a fast and then an opportunity to alter its blood chemistry by means of a
more or less radical change in the plan of eating. This done, the results will be surprising. We do not restore normal nutrition by removing the effects of impaired nutrition. The proposal
to cut into the arthritic joints and scrape away the deposits of lime is but a proposal to try another
means of spectacular palliation. Even if it could be successfully done, it would be but a short time
95until more deposits would take the place of those scraped away. The cutting and the scraping
would have to be done all over again. Nothing can more certainly or more rapidly alter the state of the nutrition of the body than a fast. No other means at our disposal brings about a more rapid change in the chemistry of the body,
especially of its fluids and secretions. Fasting relieves the pains of arthritis, for example, more
effectively than drugs and does it without risk or harm. The duration of the fast in arthritis will have to depend on individual circumstances and should
never be undertaken except under the personal supervision of one who is thoroughly familiar with
the techniques of fasting. It is customary to advise the arthritic to exercise the affected joints to prevent these from
becoming fixed. It is asserted that this stays the development of ankylosis or bony union. However
much truth there may be in this claim, the forced activity tends to aggravate the inflammation and
intensify the pain. I find it better to let the affected joint rest until fasting has enabled the body to
remove the deposits and infiltrations from the joint and to clear up the inflammation. In this way
the stiff joint spontaneously limbers up and may be used without pain. The vast majority of patients with arthritis whom I have been called upon to care for have been
in advanced stages of chronic disease. They have all had months to years of the usual forms of
treatment, including the removal of several “foci of infection,” and they have still suffered. Indeed,
their history shows that they have grown progressively worse under such forms of treatment. They
have been in pain. They were deformed. They were more or less helpless. Why? I repeat: the
primary cause of their suffering had been neglected. Recovery from chronic arthritis is a slow evolution out of a state of ill health and into a state of
biochemical dependability. It involves many factors—age, weight, extent of the disease, its
duration, degrees of joint destruction, the amount of ankylosis, previous habits of living and eating,
the amount of nerve energy in reserve, the character of complications that exist (such as heart
disease), the occupation, disposition and environment of the patient. All of these factors determine
the extent of recovery possible and the rapidity with which recovery can take place. Chief among the requirements of recovery is a willingness and determination to carry out all
instructions. Those who cheat and who balk at restrictions and rules are less likely to achieve the
return of good health. An absolute minimum of sugar and starches should be included in the diet. Self-control, self-denial, many restrictions, a dogged determination to get well, even if the
restrictions are sometimes irksome and the progress discouraging, help in recovery. 9623
Peptic Ulcer
When, on July 28, 1939, William J. Mayo, M.D., the last of the two brothers who established the
famous Mayo clinic, died, the press carried the story that he died of a sub-acute perforating ulcer,
an abdominal ailment he had specialized in treating. Said one dispatch: “Stricken shortly after he
returned from a winter vacation in the southwest, Dr. Will underwent a stomach operation at the
clinic last April and never fully recovered.”
It was but a few years after Dr. Mayo’s death when it was announced from this same clinic that
operation for ulcer is not good treatment. While operations are still being performed for ulcers,
they are not performed so frequently as formerly. It is no unusual thing for a specialist to die of the disease in which he specializes. That they
“take their own medicine” attests to their sincerity; that they cannot protect themselves reveals that
the knowledge they possess is not dependable. A man may be a leading surgeon and not know the
cause of the peptic ulcer, and endurated (hardened) pylorus, the fibroid tumor, the gallstone or
kidney stone that he cuts out. This is a very unsatisfactory situation; without a knowledge of cause,
the specialists is working in the dark. The symptoms of “diseases of the stomach" are many—and often not nearly so clear-cut as the
layman may imagine. It is true there are a few more or less “fixed symptoms” of stomach ulcer—pain, tenderness at
the pit of the stomach, vomiting and hemorrhage, but these may also be symptoms of cancer or they
may be present in less serious diseases of the stomach. For these reasons diagnosis of ulcer from
the symptoms alone is very difficult. X-ray and fluoroscopic examinations are made to confirm the
examiner's suspicions, but it is only in exceptionally pronounced cases that this means can prove
anything conclusively. The fact is that the X-ray often indicates ulcer where no ulcer exists and often fails to reveal an
ulcer where one does. Falsely called an “executive's disease,” peptic ulcer is said to kill 11,000 persons a year in this
country, through hemorrhage and complications. Thirteen million Americans are said to have
peptic ulcer. It may be open to serious doubt that there are that many executives in the nation. Abuses in eating, drinking, smoking, sex, the emotions, and in other facets of living are the most
likely causes. Tilden says that “the sexually enervated are slow to reproduce tissue. Ulcers refuse
to heal; infections slowly, but surely, take place; chronic diseases are uncontrollable.” In the
sexually abused there is laid the groundwork for the evolution of many diseases. The prevailing concept is that peptic ulcer, that is, ulcer of the lower end of the esophagus, the
stomach and of the upper end of the duodenum, is due to the action of the gastric juice (the
hydrochloric acid and pepsin) of the stomach digesting and corroding the walls of these parts of
the digestive tube. As the food is carried below the duodenum, bile and other juices render the
content alkaline, so that there is no action of the pepsin and hydrochloric acid, hence no peptic
ulcers below the duodenum. This concept is far from being as certain as some believe. The membrane of the stomach is
chemically non-corrosive. For untold ages the lining of these organs has been in contact with the
digestive juices and this juice has been digesting the toughest protein foods that man has eaten and,
97normally, throughout all this time, the gastric juice has not digested the delicate lining of the
stomach, esophagus and duodenum. To say that suddenly the acid and pepsin of the stomach digests and corrodes the lining of these
organs and let the matter


 and "Miley-bright". The next summer we would have a different teacher who would
give us the same lessons over again. I did manage somehow to get
ahead in the speller as far as 'inc omprehensibility.' I mastered it so
well I could spell down the school on Friday afternoons. I got ahead in
reading, also, through McGuffey's 5th. The best teacher who ever came there was old Bill Jenkins. He
was known as a shiftless fellow and an alcoholic; but when I was in
the second reader, he taught us how to read out loud in a manner I
never forgot—how long to pause for comma, semicolon and period, to
give rising inflection for a question and how to scan poetry. I can
recall going to winter school only two terms. I left school at 17 and
did not go back until I was 23 years old. Just about the time I was
ready to leave school somebody started a drive to raise money for a
new school house. My father gave the largest donation, a tidy sum for
those days, forty dollars. When I was a small boy, I developed a curiosity concerning the
world, however it is put together and what makes it tick. Now in my
84th year, I have that same curiosity. On the home farm, when my
father had a particularly tedious job for his boys to do, he would
always say to them: "Don't take George along. He will be asking so
many questions that you never will get anything done." Until I had grown up, the home fa rm was about the only world I
knew. Maybe once every fall I would go with my father when he took
a wagon load of cotton to market at Talladega, 25 miles away. That
was a 3 day journey, one day going by mule team, a day in town and a
day driving home with the things we had bought. It was a memorable
day at our house when we got our first brass lamp and mother got her first cook stove. When I visited Mo unt Vernon (Virginia) the home of
Washington some years back, the k itchen fireplace reminded me of
mother's cooking outfit when I was a boy. The chains on which the
pots were strung to cook Farmer  Washington's dinner were still
hanging there. The Heard farm was more level than the average for the Alabama
uplands, but rocky and stumpy. We cultivated cotton mostly with the
hoe and bulltongue plow. Crabgrass, weeds, briars and bushes grew
fast. The soil was thin and poor. It to ok several acres to produce a bale
of cotton. As a growing boy I dreamed a lot of the big world outside. I
wanted to do great things, but I had only vague ideas as to what I'd
make of myself. One day when my oldest brother and I were hoeing in
a particularly rough spot, I suddenly said to him: "Fayette, I never,
never would make my home in such a country as this." But, not
knowing what else to do, I stayed on for 10 years after that. CHAPTER 2. I STRIKE OUT ON MY WAY
 When I was 19, going on 20 years old, I suddenly decided to visit
my brother Fayette, who lived at Baleyton, Cullman County, about
100 miles north of the old home farm. For some years I had nursed the
urge to better myse lf. Now I had got the idea into my head that my
oldest brother, who had a family and a farm of his own could help me
get a start. Anyhow, I could stay at his house until I had found myself
a job. It was before daylight on January 2, 1887, that I left home to
catch the train at Talladega. A younger brother hauled me to the
railroad depot, 25-miles away, in a two-wheel cart. As I sat in the
waiting room, I heard a telephone ring for the first time in my life. Fascinated, I watched the station agent talk into a box on the wall:
"Number 10, going north, on time." For my first journey out into the world, I had only the fourteen
dollars that my cotton patch had brought me. But when he came to tell
me goodby, my father slipped a five -dollar bill into my hand. Then my
mother came and said to me: "George, I want to hear from you, but I
want always to hear good news." I have never to this day forgotten or lost sight of those words. As long as she lived I kept one purpose in
mind: to make my life yield good news for my mother. So I left home in the winter dawn, wearing the tight-fitting coat
and britches mother had made for me of homespun jeans. I wore
heavy brogan shoes, their soles covered solid with big-headed tacks. I
lugged a heavy cardboard satchel that held all my belongings. I had
never in my life rode a train before. The cars seemed just to glide
along as if I were riding on air. Al l that day I watched the country roll
past the car window, brown fields, grazing cattle and farm cabins, but
mostly pine woods. It was 2 o'clock in the morning when the train got
to Cullman. I found a hotel room for twenty-five cents. The next morning about sun up a livery stableman came around. "Where do you want to go, sonny?" he asked me. "How much would you charge to
take me to Fayette Heard's house eighteen miles from here on the road
to Baleyton?" "That would cost you a dollar and a half." "I" believe I could walk the 18-miles in a day," I told him. "The
dollar and a half would be good wages for me." So I had my breakfast and struck out on the big road to Baleyton,
lugging my bag. After 60 odd years, that 18 mile walk on a January
day seems about as hard a day's work as I have ever done. I followed
the narrow winding white sandy and mostly level wagon road across
hollows and mostly through wild country where scraggy blackjack and
post oak with tall pines grew. All day long I met up with just one
fellow traveler by the name of Andy  Cash. I sat down by the road to
eat the cheese and crackers I had bought for lunch. I had never tasted
cheese and crackers before. To a tired and hungry boy they were like
food for a king. As I sat there a man rode up on a black mule, headed
toward Cullman. "Where are you going, young feller?" he asked me. "I'm on my way to Fayette Heard's house," I told him. "He's my
brother." "Why, I know Fayette Heard. He's my neighbor. You have a
good long piece to walk yet, sonny." I trudged on with my satchel getting heavier all the time. It had
been dark a long time before I re ached Brother Fayette's house. A few
days later that same mule rider, came over and hired me for $10 a
month and board. My new job was to help around the grist mill, cotton gin and saw mill. Between times I would do general farm work. My day began at 4 o'clock in the morning. I had to chop wood and draw
water to keep the boiler going till dark. At 8 o'clock I would shut
down the mill and trudge home to supper dead tired. But that tough
schedule lasted only till the ginning was done. Mostly on the farm my
work was lighter, but there were da ys all through the year when we
would run the mill to saw lumber or grind corn. CHAPTER 3. IN WHICH I BREAK INTO SOCIETY
 As I soon learned, friendly people lived in the neighborhood
where I worked. Socially, they accepted the hired man as an equal. Where everybody worked with their hands, a man was judged for
what he was, not by what he did for a living. There was a church close by and I got an invitation to Sunday School. Before I went, my
employer took me to town and I bought my first full suit of store
clothes. So I felt dressed up and important. At first, I was terribly
bashful; but as I got acquainted with the young people I mustered
enough courage to sing with them. In all my 20-years, I had never once gone with a girl. But at
church a certain fine-looking miss, about 18-years old, with light
brown hair and sparkling brown eyes, plump, ruddy complexioned and
decked out in gingham, had caught my eye. I wondered why she
always came to Sunday School so far behind her family. One Sunday
afternoon, all dressed up in my new suit, I was idly carving the bark
on a giant pine that stood by the big road. All of a sudden that same
young miss, Ida Ogletree was her name, came along. I had not spoken
a single word to her. She stopped and asked me what I was carving. "Oh, it's nothing," I answered diffidently. My new suit made me strangely bold. The first thing I knew I
was asking Ida why she always came late to Sunday School. Then I
discovered that


 be
a last resort. Don’t Leave It Until It’ s T oo Late
According to American research, 95 percent of head circumference growth
for the average North American  white child takes place by the age of nine. Development of  the lower jaw, however, continues until approximately the
age of eighteen. Based on these observations, for correct craniofacial growth to take
place, early intervention with  nasal breathing and tongue posture is
essential. The negative ef fects of mouth breathing on the stru cture of the
jaws and face will have the most impact when they occur before  puberty, so
there is only a  brief window of opportunity to avoid the need for
orthodontic treatment and significant changes in a child’ s facial structure. My daughter is three years old. She first began to breathe occa sionally
through her mouth at the age o f eight months during teething, and since
then I have been encouraging her to breathe through her nose. I set an
example by breathing through m y own nose all the time, and congratulate
her any time she has her mout h closed. As we live in the co untryside, Ioften comment that Charlie the  donkey breathes through his nose, as does
Snowball the cat. Such clever animals! Genetically, ther e would be a high likelihood for my daughter  to be a
mouth breather as both my wif e and I had severe respiratory complaints
while growing up. The earlier you begin to encourage your children to
breathe through their nose and e nsure the correct positioning of the tongue,
the bett er. Not only might yo u help them avoid orthodontic treatment
altogether, but the shape of their face, their general health, and their
athleticism will be significantly influenced during these fe w short  years. Even genetic predispositions can be minimized when the right action and
behavior is enshrined. A few years ago I wrote a self-help book for children, teenagers, and
parents entitled Buteyko Meets Dr. Mew: Buteyko Method for Childr en and
T eenagers  about the craniofacial changes associated with mouth breathing. I
put extensive amounts of resear ch into the subject and included  many peer -
reviewed paper s and studies to support my claims. Most parents are
shocked when they realize that crooked teeth, narrow faces, lar ge noses, and
undeveloped jaws can be avoided if a child is simply encouraged to breathe
through his or her nose. Not only is sports performance a f fected, but
lifelong health! W e cannot be dispassionate about the impac t of mouth
breathing on the development of our children. The detrimental e f fects that I
suf fered from a childhood of br eathing through my mouth needn’ t happen
to anyone else, armed with the knowledge we have about the benefits of
nasal breathing.CHAPTER 14
E x e r c i s e  a s  i f  Y o u r  L i f e  D e p e n d s  o n  I t
F or two million years we survived without supermarkets, convenience
stores, microwa ves, or McDonald’ s. In the past, in order to feed ourselves
and our families, muscle move ment was required to collect berries and
vegetation or to track down an  animal—often over several days—until it
collapsed from exhaustion. Compare that to today’ s couch  potato lifestyle—do you know many
people w ho could adequately feed themselves if there was no food available
for conv enient purchase? One thing is for sure—a major shif t of attitude
would b e required. In order to eat, we would have to perform regular and
sustained physic al exercise, something that the human body is built for and
thrives u pon. W hy should we st op it now, simply because hunti ng our own
food is no longer necessary? And while it might be too late f or many of us to become elite athletes,
we can still enj oy and derive considerable benefit from regular physical
exercise. Even if you have lived a relatively sedentary life until now, you
can dev elop your fitness slowly and steadily and bring about positive
changes to your health. There is a great feeling of self-esteem and
accomplishment when we get up of f our backsides or move away from the
computer. If you exercise for an hour per day, five times per week, for just a
few weeks, you will experience a remarkable dif ference in your sleep
quality, mood, and state of health. Despite the advances of med ical science, the diseases of modern
civilization cont inue to increase, and it could be ar gued that we  are passing
responsibility for our health to pharmaceutical companies rather than
making changes to our lifestyle and diet to prevent illness in the first place.Each year, more and more people are developing asthma, heart disease,
diabetes, high blood pressure, an d cancer. Not only that, but new “diseases”
are being invented all the time—and some might say it’ s because the market
conditions and share prices of b ig pharmaceutical companies dictate a need
for n ew markets and ever -increa sing sales. W e may be living longer, but at
the expense of consuming vast quantities of medication as soon as we
approach fifty or sixty years of age. A far better option to help prevent the
onset of diseases—and one that involves no toxicity or expense—is to take
a reg ular fast wa lk or jog. If you haven’ t exercised regularly before, please
pay a visit to your physician to get the all clear before starting. One thi ng that pretty much all health professionals agree o n is the
importance of regular physical exercise, taken within our limits. Dozens of
studies over the last few years have shown that regular physi cal exercise
provides many health benefits, including a reduced risk of cardiovascular
disease, cancer, and diabetes. Studies as far back as the 1950s have investigated the relationship
between regular physical exercise and cardiovascular health. One of the
earliest w as conducted by Dr. Jeremy Morris, who studied the incidence of
heart att acks in 31,000 transport workers. Morris found that bus conductors,
who spent most of their day climbing up and down the stairs of double-
decker buses, averaging betwee n 500 and 700 steps per day, h ad reduced
incidences of heart disease than their bus-driving counterparts, who spent
90 p ercent of t heir day sitting down. Not only this, but he art disease
developed by the bus conductors tended to present later in life and was less
likely to be fatal. The same study was replicated using over 100,000 postal workers, and
once again it was found that those who spent their day on foot or cycling
while delivering  the mail had fewer incidences of heart disease compared to
workers in sedentary occupations such as telephonists, civil service
executives, and clerks. Dr. Mor ris’ s findings are just as relevant today as
sixty years ago, and since more and more of us spend our working day
behind a desk, there is an increased need to perform regu lar physical
exercise. Even more important is that we perform this exercise within our
own personal limits. The bes t way to ensure that w e exercise within our capabilities is by
nasal breathing,  and an importa nt consideration is the length of time youcan com fortably hold your breath, or your BOL T measurement. When your
BOL T s core is less than 20 seco nds, your breathing volume will be greater
than what your body requires, resulting in a risk of overbreat hing during
physical exerci se. All breathing should be through the nose when
performing phys ical exercise so as not to increase breathing v olume even
further. When your BOL T score is grea ter than 20 seconds, it’ s fine for you to
breathe through  the mouth during exercise for brief periods of time. However, it is o nly when your BOL T score is greater than 30 seconds that
intense physical exercise can be performed without undue risk of
overbreathing. T he goal for seri ous athletes, of course, is to attain a BOL T
score of 40 seconds. Only with a high BOL T score of 40 seconds is breathing volu me at a
normal level. Anything less indicates habitual overbreathing. And while it
would b e a normal expectation f or athletes to possess a high BOL T score, in
reality this is s eldom the case. I have measured the BOL T scores of
hundreds of athletes, ranging fro m weekend warriors to elite Ol ympic-level
athletes, and guess what? The v ast majority of BOL T measurements were
less than 20 seco nds. Some, in f act, have been less than 10 seconds, as low
as any person with severe asthm a. It is shocking to think of th e stress that
such overbreathing is placing on the body during intense physical exercise,
so a nyone serious about exercis e should aim to reduce their breathing and
increase their BOL T score. Like any  change  to your routine, the best way to determine the benefits
of reduc ed breat hing, nasal breathing, and a higher BOL T score is to put the
Oxygen Advant age program


 caused by vitamin deficiencies. Senility and many mental disordersfall in this category. Many old people live on extremely deficient diets comprisedlargely of devitalized starches, sugars, and fats, partly because many do not havegood enough teeth to chew vegetables and other high roughage foods, and theydo not have the energy it takes to prepare more nourishing foods. Virtually all oldpeople have deficiency diseases. As vital force inevitably declines with age, thequantity and quality of digestive enzymes decreases, then the ability to breakdownand extract soluble nutrients from food is diminished, frequently leading to seriousdeficiencies. These deficiencies are inevitably misdiagnosed as disease or aging. Suppose a body needs 30 milligrams a day of niacin to not develop pellagra,
but to be fully healthy, needs 500 milligrams daily. If that body receives 50milligrams per day from a vitamin pill, to the medical doctor it could not possiblybe deficient in this vitamin. However, over time, the insidious subclinical deficiencymay degrade some other system and produce a different disease, such as colitis. But the medical doctor sees no relationship. Let me give you an actual example. Medical researchers studying vitamin B
5 or pantothenic acid noticed that it could,
in what seemed to be megadoses (compared to the minimum daily requirement)largely reverse certain degenerative effects of aging. These researchers weremeasuring endurance in rats as it decreased through the aging process. How theymade this measurement may appear to some readers to be heartless, but the bestway to gauge the endurance of a rat is to toss it into a five gallon bucket of coldwater and see how long it swims before it drowns. Under these conditions, theresearcher can be absolutely confident that the rat does its very best to stay alive. Young healthy rats can swim for 45 minutes in 50° Fahrenheit water before
drowning. Old rats can only last about 15 minutes. And old rats swim differently,less efficiently, with their lower bodies more or less vertical, sort of dog paddling. But when old rats were fed pantothenic acid at a very high dose for a few weeksbefore the test, they swam 45 minutes too. And swam more efficiently, like theyoung rats did. More interestingly, their coats changed color (the gray went away)and improved in texture; they began to appear like young rats. And the rats onmegadoses of B 5 lived lot longer—25 to 33 percent longer than rats not on largedoses of B
5. Does that mean “megadoses” of B 5 have an unknown drug-like
effect. Or does that mean the real nutritional requirement for B 5 is a lot higher
than most people think. I believe the second choice is correct. To give you anidea of how much B
5 the old rats were given in human terms, the FDA says the
minimum daily requirement for B 5 is about 10 milligrams but if humans took as
much B 5 as the rats, they would take about 750 milligrams per day. Incidentally, I
figure I am as worthy as any lab rat and take over 500 milligrams daily. My point is that there is a big difference between preventing a gross vitamin
deficiency disease, and using vitamins to create optimum functioning. Any sickperson or anyone with a health complaint needs to improve their overallfunctioning in any way that won’t be harmful over the long term. Vitamin therapycan be an amazingly effective adjunct to dietary reform and detoxification. Some of the earlier natural hygienists were opposed to using vitamins. However, these doctors lived in an era when the food supply was better, whenmass human degeneration had not proceeded as far as it has today. From theirperspective, it was possible to obtain all the nutrition one needed from food. Inour time this is unlikely unless a person knowingly and intelligently producesvirtually all their own food on a highly fertile soil body whose fertility is maintainedand adjusted with a conscious intent to maximize the nutritive content of the food. Unfortunately, ignorance of the degraded nature of industrial food seems toextend to otherwise admirable natural healing methods such as Macrobiotics andhomeopathy because these disciplines also downplay any need for foodsupplementation. Vitamins For Young Persons And Children
Young healthy people from weaning through their thirties should also take
nutritional supplements even though young people usually feel so good that theyfind it impossible to conceive that anything could harm them or that they evercould become seriously sick or actually die. I know this is true because Iremember my own youth and besides, why else would young people so glibly ridemotorcycles or, after only a few months of brainwashing, charge up a hill into thebarrel of a machine gun. Or have unsafe sex in this age of multiple venerealdiseases. Until they get a little sense, vitamin supplements help to counteract theirinevitable and unpreventable use of recreational foods. Vitamins are the cheapestlong life and health insurance plan now available. Parents are generally verysurprised at the thought that even their children need nutritional supplements; very
few healthy children receive them. A few are given extra vitamin C when acutely
ill, when they have colds or communicable diseases such as chicken pox. Young people require a low dose supplement compared to those of us middle-
aged or older, but it should be a broad formula with the full range of vitamins andminerals. Some of the best products I have found over 25 years of research andexperimentation with young people are Douglas Cooper’s “Basic Formula” (lowdose and excellent for children) and “Super T Formula” (double the dose of BasicFormula, therefore better for adolescents and young adults), also from DouglasCooper Company; Bronson’s “Vitamin and Mineral Formula for Active Men andWomen” and Bronson’s “Insurance Formula. ” “Vitamin 75 Plus;” and “Formula2” from Now Natural Foods are also good and less costly. Healthy very small children who will swallow pills can take these same
products at half the recommended dose. If they won’t swallow pills the pills canbe blended into a fruit smoothie or finely crushed and then stirred into applesauce. There are also “Children’s Chewable Multi-Vitamins + Iron” (1-5 yearsold) from Douglas Cooper that contains no minerals except iron, Bronson’s“Chewable Vitamins” (make sure it is the one for small children, Bronson makesseveral types of chewables) and a liquid vitamin product from Bronson calledMultivitamin Drops for Infants. These will be a little more costly than cutting pillsin half. There is also an extraordinarily high quality multivitamin/mineral formula for
children called “Children’s Formula Life Extension Mix” from Prolongevity, Ltd. (the Life Extension Foundation), it is in tablet form, and slightly more expensive. I hope that my book will be around for several generations. The businesses
whose vitamin products I recommend will not likely exist in twenty years. Evensooner than that the product names and details of the formulations will almostcertainly be altered. So, for future readers discovering this book in a library ordusty shelve of a used book store, if I, at my current level of understanding, weremanufacturing a childrens and young adults vitamin formula myself, this is what it
would contain. Any commercial formulation within 25 percent of these figures plus
or minus would probably be fine as long as the vitamins in the pills were of highquality. Vitamin C 500 mg B
1 30 mg
Vitamin E 50 iu B 2 30 mg
Vitamin A 500 iu B 3 niacinamide 100 mg
Vitamin D 25 iu B 5 50 mg
Magnesium 100 mg B 6 30 mg
Calcium 400 mg B 12 30 mcg
Selenium 10 mcg Chromium 20 mcgManganese 2 mcg Biotin 30 mg
Zinc 5 mg Iodine (as kelp) 5 mg
PABA 20 mg Bioflavinoids 100 mg
Vitamins For An Older Healthy Person
Someone who is beyond 35 to 40 years of age should still feel good almost all
of the time. That is how life should be. But enjoying well-being does not mean thatno dietary supplementation is called for. The onset of middle age is theappropriate time to begin working on continuing to feel well for as long aspossible. Just like a car, if you take very good care of it from the beginning, it islikely to run smoothly for many years into the future. If on the other hand youdrive it hard and fast with a lot of deferred maintenance you will probably have totrade it in on a new one after a very few years. Most people in their 70s and olderwho are struggling with many uncomfortable symptoms and low energy lament, “ifI’d only known I was going to live so long I would have taken better care ofmyself. ” But at that point it is too late for the old donkey; time for a trade in. Gerontologists refer to combating the aging process as “squaring the curve. ”
We arrive at the peak of our physical function at about age eighteen. How highthat peak level is depends on a person’s genetic endowment, the quality of thestart they received through their mother’s nutritional reserves, and the quality oftheir childhood nutrition and life experience. From that peak our function begins todrop. The rate of drop is not uniform, but is a cascade where each bit ofdeterioration creates more deterioration, accelerating the rate of deterioration. Ifvarious aging experiences were graphed, they would make curves like those onthe


 means surrendering the little mind to the big
mind, and remembering that your purpose will be revealed in the same way
that you were revealed. Purpose, too, is birthed from creativeness, kindness,
love, and receptivity to an endlessly abundant world. Keep this connection
pure, and you’ll be guided in all of your actions. It’s not fatalism to say that if it’s meant to be, then it can’t be stopped. This is having faith in the power of intention, which originated you and is
within you. When you’re aligned with your originating Source, then this
same Source will aid you in creating the life of your choice. Then, what
happens feels exactly as if it was meant to be. And that’s because it is! You
always have a choice in how to align yourself. If you stay focused on
making demands on the universe, you’ll feel as if demands are being placed
on you in your life. Stay focused on lovingly asking, How may I use my
innate talents and desire to serve? and the universe will respond with the
identical energy by asking you, How may I serve you? Step 4: Ignore what anyone else tells you about your purpose. Regardless of what anyone might say to you, the truth about your feeling
purposeful is that only you can know it, and if you don’t feel it in that inner
place where a burning desire resides, it isn’t your purpose. Your relatives
and friends may attempt to convince you that what they feel is your destiny. They may see talents that they think will help you make a great living, or
they may want you to follow in their footsteps because they think you’ll be
happy doing what they’ve done for a lifetime. Your skill at mathematics or
decorating or fixing electronic equipment might indicate a high aptitude for
a given pursuit—but in the end, if you don’t feel it, nothing can make it
resonate with you. Your purpose is between you and your Source, and the closer you get to
what that field of intention looks and acts like, the more you’ll know that
you’re being purposefully guided. You might have zero measurable
aptitudes and skills in a given area, yet feel inwardly drawn to doing it. Forget the aptitude-test results, forget the absence of skills or know-how,
and most important, ignore the opinions of others and listen to your heart. Step 5: Remember that the all-creating field of intention will work on
your behalf. Albert Einstein is credited with saying that the most important
decision we ever make is whether we believe we live in a friendly universe
or a hostile universe. It’s imperative that you know that the all-creating field
of intention is friendly and will work with you as long as you see it that
way. The universe supports life; it flows freely to all and is endlessly
abundant. Why choose to look at it in any other way? All of the problems
we face are created by our belief that we’re separate from God and each
other, leading us to be in a state of conflict. This state of conflict creates a
counterforce causing millions of humans to be confused about their
purpose. Know that the universe is always willing to work with you on your
behalf, and that you’re always in a friendly, rather than hostile, world. Step 6: Study and replicate the lives of people who’ve known their
purpose. Whom do you admire the most? I urge you to read biographies of
these people and explore how they lived and what motivated them to stay
on purpose when obstacles surfaced. I’ve always been fascinated by Saul of
Tarsus (later called St. Paul), whose letters and teachings became the source
of a major portion of the New Testament. Taylor Caldwell wrote a definitive
fictional account of St. Paul’s life called Great Lion of God, which inspired
me enormously. I was also deeply touched by the purposeful manner in
which St. Francis of Assisi lived his life as exemplified in the novel St.
Francis, by Nikos Kazantzakis. I make it a point to use my free time to read
about people who are models for purposeful living, and I encourage you to
do the same. Step 7: Act as if you’re living the life you were intended to live, even
if you feel confused about this thing called purpose. Invite into your life
every day whatever it might be that makes you feel closer to God and brings
you a sense of joy. View the events you consider obstacles as perfect
opportunities to test your resolve and find your purpose. Treat everything
from a broken fingernail to an illness to the loss of a job to a geographical
move as an opportunity to get away from your familiar routine and move to
purpose. By acting as if you’re on purpose and treating the hurdles as
friendly reminders to trust in what you feel deeply within you, you’ll be
fulfilling your own intention to be a purposeful person. Step 8: Meditate to stay on purpose. Use the technique of Japa, which I
mentioned earlier, and focus your inner attention on asking your Source to
guide you in fulfilling your destiny. This letter from Matthew McQuaid
describes the exciting results of meditating to stay on purpose:
Dear Dr. Dyer,
My wife, Michelle, is pregnant by a miracle—a miracle
manifest from Spirit using all of your suggestions. For five
years, Michelle and I were challenged by infertility. You nameit, we tried it. None of the expensive and sophisticated
treatments worked. The doctors had given up. Our own faith
was tested over and over with each failed treatment cycle. Our
doctor managed to freeze embryos from earlier cycles of
treatment. Throughout the years, over 50 embryos had been
transferred to Michelle’s uterus. The odds of a frozen embryo
successfully initiating pregnancy in our case were close to zero. As you know, zero is a word not found in the spiritual
vocabulary. One precious frozen embryo, surviving minus 250
degrees for six months, has taken up a new home in Michelle’s
womb. She is now in her second trimester. Okay, “So what,” you might say. “I get letters like this every
day.” However, this letter contains proof of God. A tiny drop of
protoplasm, as you have so eloquently written on many
occasions, a physical mass of cells alive with the future pull of a
human being, turned on in a laboratory, then turned off in a
freezer. All molecular motion and biochemical processes halted,
suspended. Yet, the essence of being was there prior to freezing. Where did the spiritual essence go while frozen? The cells were
turned on, then turned off, but the spiritual essence had to
prevail despite the physical state of the cells. The frequency of
vibration of the frozen cells was low, but the vibrational
frequency of its spirit must be beyond measure. The essence of
the being had to reside outside of the physical plane or mass of
cells. It couldn’t go anywhere except to the realm of spirit,
where it waited. It waited to thaw and manifest into a being it
always has been. I hope you find this story as compelling as I
do, as nothing less than a miracle. An example of spirit in body,
rather then a body with a spirit. And now for the million-dollar question. Could this one
embryo survive such hostile frozen conditions and still
manifestbecause I practiced the Japa mediation? Just because I
opened my mouth and said, “Aaaahhh”? I had a knowing, no
question about it. Japa meditation and surrendering to infinite
patience are daily practices. During my quiet moments, I cansmell this baby. Michelle will thank me for my conviction and
faith during the dark times. I praise your work for guiding me. Thank you. Now, nothing is impossible for me. When I compare
what I have manifested now in Michelle’s womb to anything else
I might desire, the process is without effort. After you truly
surrender, everything you could ever want just seems to show
up, right on schedule. The next amazing manifestation will be to
help other infertile couples realize their dreams. Somehow, I
will help those who feel there is no hope. Sincerely,
Matthew McQuaid
Many people have written to me about their success with staying on
purpose through the practice of Japa meditation. I’m deeply touched by the
power of intention when I read about people who use Japa to help achieve a
pregnancy, which they felt was their divine mission. I particularly like
Matthew’s decision to use this experience to help other infertile couples. Step 9: Keep your thoughts and feelings in harmony with your
actions. The surest way to realize your purpose is to eliminate any conflict
or dissonance that exists between what you’re thinking and feeling and how
you’re living your days. If you’re in disharmony, you activate ego-
dominated attitudes of fear of failure, or disappointing others, which
distance you from your purpose. Your actions need to be in harmony with
your thoughts. Trust in those thoughts that harmonize, and be willing to act
upon them. Refuse to see yourself as inauthentic or cowardly, because those
thoughts will keep you from acting on what you know you were meant to
be. Take daily steps to bring your thoughts and feeling of your grand heroic
mission into harmony with both your daily activities and of course, with
that ever-present field of intention. Being in harmony with God’s will is the
highest state of purpose you can attain


typically experiences, is due to a bit of a mix up between the systems
that help us create balance-vision, touch, and the vestibular system. The vestibular system is a part of your inner ear containing fluid that
flows around in reaction to movement, stimulating special cells located
around it. When your brain gets different messages from your eyes and
your vestibular system, such key components for our body to determine
its position in space and direction, you get motion sick. Unfortunately,
there isn’t a whole lot of medication that can help motion sickness. It usually just makes you drowsy, and may make you feel even more
nauseous. Speaking broadly, you might break motion sickness (M.S.) into 3 general categories. M.S. caused by motion that is felt but not seen: An example would be
riding in a car. Y our eyes are seeing mainly the non-moving interior of
the car, while the vestibular system picks up on all the bumps and turns. This is why reading a book is so miserable in a car, as looking at the
still page causes even more confusion. Being in a room on a ship with
no windows is another example, as is flying in an airplane. The mix-up
between the two sends a befuddling message to your brain. M.S. caused by motion that is seen but not felt: Such as might be
experienced during movies and video games. The eyes are picking up
on a lot of motion, but your body is still. M.S. caused by motions that are seen and felt but don’t quite match
up: Say you ride in a car going over a bumpy road very slowly. Y ou
get jolted and bounced around a lot, but your eyes don’t see the
right amount of motion to correspond. The result is, again, confusion
between the systems, and ultimately you wind up feeling sick. This disagreement between what your eyes see and what the vestibular
system senses, no matter what causes it, results in feelings of motion
sickness. An interesting hypothesis as to why this happens is that it
is possibly the brain’s response to perceived neurotoxins. The part of
the brain that responds to motion sickness is the same part that picks
up on toxins and poison. When your vestibular system says “we’re
moving” but the brain also gets a message from the eyes that says
“we’re still” its response is to assume there is some sort of hallucination
taking place. The next logical assumption would be that this is because
of an ingested poison or toxin, and its attempts to rid the body of
this perceived threat makes you end up feeling really crummy and
sometimes getting sick to your stomach. While mainly speculation, it’s
still interesting.Motion Sickness
-If you are feeling sick because of
motion you feel but don’t see, focus
on something in the distance, which
may help your eyes catch up with
your body on the fact that you are,
indeed, moving. -If riding in a car, sit up in the
passenger’s seat. This may help
because your eyes pick up on more
motion with the windshield directly
in front of you and the windows on
either side, or possibly because you
get jolted around less in the front
rather than the back of the car. -Stay calm. Thinking about or
anticipating being sick can make you
sick, so try breathing deep through
your nose and don’t focus on the
thought or worry of feeling ill. Even if
you feel a twinge of nausea, try not to
have a mental breakdown in fear of
getting sick. -If you’re on a boat, try to stay on the
deck. Doing so will help confirm that
you are moving, making it easier for
your body and brain to figure out
disconnect it’s going through. When
you are in your room, lie down and
close your eyes, breathing deeply. Acupressure
-In Chinese medicine there is
“cun” (pronounced “soon”), a
traditional Chinese unit of length
relative to a person’s body. Using
it, acupuncturists (this includes
acupressure) are able to locate exact
points on a person’s body. Generally
speaking, P6 is located 2 inches
below the crease of the wrist. If you
wanted to try and be exact, you could
measure it out in cun. Of course, this
would mean you have to learn how
to measure cun first, and I find it just
as effective to follow the general
guidelines. Anti-Motion Sickness Spritz
-I find the feeling of cool water really
helps with nausea, but if you wanted
to simplify this remedy, or simply
extend its shelf life, you could use
purely essential oils blended with
your carrier and use as a rub. This will
last as long as your carrier oil does,
when stored appropriately in a cool
dark place. 115Copyright 2014 everydayroots.comTips & TroubleshootingAcupressure is like acupuncture, but you don’t have to whip out needles and poke yourself (therefore greatly
disturbing the person sitting next to you on the plane.) With acupressure you simply apply pressure to certain
trigger points on the body that are thought to relate to varying sensations, such as nausea or pain. The point
used here is called P6, the 6th point on the pericardium pathway in Chinese medicine, found on the inside of
your wrist. The pericardium pathway passes through your chest, your diaphragm, and into your abdomen. It also
passes through the stomach, which makes it ideal for calming a turbulent tummy and feelings of nausea.Acupressure
1. To relieve nausea caused by motion sickness, press your thumb against the inside of your wrist, between
the 2 tendons, about 3 finger widths below the base of your palm. Y ou may experience relief, or you may
need to hold the pressure for up to 2 or 3 minutes. Relax, and take deep breaths. There is “travel sickness”
bands designed to do the same thing, but this is an easy (and free) approach. 116Copyright 2014 everydayroots.com Motion SicknessDirectionsI would argue that aromatherapy is one of the best ways to combat nausea, whether it’s caused by motion
sickness or something else (assuming the body does not actually need to actually rid itself of anything.) The
scents can help relax the mind and body and clear your senses. It grounds you, but in a very gentle and
refreshing way. This blend of oils will help calm your nerves, and reduce nausea and dizziness.Anti-Motion Sickness Spray
-A small mister bottle
-1 tablespoon any liquid oil
-5 drops of peppermint oil
-3 drops of lime oil
-5 drops of lavender oil
-1 drop of ginger oil1. Mix essential oils with your carrier oil in your little mister bottle
2. Add water to fill it the rest of the way and shake vigorously before
every use. Spritz a little on your wrists, neck, and just above your navel. Use your fingertips to apply to temples as well if you like. 117Copyright 2014 everydayroots.com Motion SicknessY ou will need… DirectionsI know I say it a lot, but ginger really is the cure-all when it comes to stomach upset and nausea, whether it’s
caused by the flu or motion sickness. If you are prone to feeling sick during travel, keep fresh ginger root on
hand at all times whenever going by air, car, or boat. Sure, you might get a few odd looks on the plane if people
see you nibbling on a root, but it’s better than getting sick any day.Nibble Fresh Ginger Root
-About an inch of fresh ginger
root, peeled or unpeeled1. At the first sign of motion sickness (or just before it starts) nibble the
ginger root, slowly. Y ou don’t have to chow down and consume a lot, but
just chewing and getting a little bit of the juice/flavor/scent really helps. 118Copyright 2014 everydayroots.com Motion SicknessY ou will need… DirectionsNausea, put quite mildly, is a terrible feeling. Whether it proceeds getting sick to your stomach, or just hovers
around on its own, that queasy sensation we can all relate to makes enjoying life, or even just living life,
difficult to go about. Many things can cause nausea, from pregnancy to the stomach flu to various medications. Sometimes it’s a good thing, like when you’ve eaten something bad that your body needs to get rid of, but many
times it’s also just plain uncomfortable. Figuring out the source of your nausea, if possible, is the best way to
cure it. If you have a migraine, address the headache, if you have food poisoning, let yourself get sick, and so
on. Many times though we’re helpless to remove the reason for feeling nauseous, if we can even figure it out,
which is where these remedies will come in handy.Nausea
119Copyright 2014 everydayroots.comWhile it may not sound very appetizing rice water acts as a demulcent, which basically means that it forms a
soothing film over a mucous membrane. In this case the membrane in the stomach is being protected. It relieves
any irritation and inflammation of the lining of the stomach (called gastritis.) Gastritis can cause stomach upset,
and yes, nausea, so if you have