 very effec
tive diet with a more than 6o-year excellent record of helping people with
all sorts of digestive disorders, including such devastating ones as Crohn's
disease and ulcerative colitis. This diet is called Specific Carbohydrate Diet
or SCD for short.
SCD was invented by a renowned American paediatrician Dr Sidney
Valentine Haas in the first half of the 20th century. Those were the good old
days, when doctors used to treat their patients with diet and natural
methods. Carrying on with the work of his colleagues Drs L. Emmett Holt,
Cristian Herter and John Howland, Dr Haas has spent many years
researching the effects of diet on celiac disease and other digestive disor
ders. He and his colleagues found that patients with digestive disorders
could tolerate dietary proteins and fats fairly well But complex carbohy
drates from grains and starchy vegetables made the problem worse. Sugar,
lactose and other double sugars also had to be excluded from the diet.
However, certain fruit and vegetables were not only well tolerated by his
patients, but improved their physical status. Dr Haas treated over 600
patients with excellent results - after following his dietary regimen for at
least a year there was "complete recovery with no relapses, no deaths, no
crisis, no pulmonary involvement and no stunting of growth". The results
of this research were published in a comprehensive medical textbook The
Management of Celiac Disease, written by Dr Sidney V Haas and Merrill P.
Haas in 1951. The diet, described in the book, was accepted by the medical
community all over the world as a cure for celiac disease and Dr Sidney V
Haas was honoured for his pioneer work in the field of paediatrics.
Unfortunately, "happy end" does not happen in human history too
often. In those days celiac disease was not very clearly defined. A great
number of various inflammatory conditions of the gut were included in the diagnosis of celiac disease and all those conditions were treatable by the
SCD very effectively. In the decades that followed something terrible hap
pened. Celiac disease was eventually defined as a gluten intolerance or
gluten enteropathy which excluded a great number of various other gut
problems from this diagnosis. As the "gluten-free diet" was pronounced to
be effective for celiac disease, the SCD diet got forgotten as outdated infor
mation. And all those other inflammatory gut conditions, which fell out of
the sphere of true celiac disease, got forgotten as well. The true celiac dis
ease is very rare, so the "forgotten" gut conditions would constitute a very
large group of patients, which used to be diagnosed as celiac and which do
not respond to treatment with the gluten-free diet. Incidentally, a lot of
"true" celiac patients do not get better on the gluten-free diet either. All
these conditions respond very well to the SCD diet, developed by Dr Haas.
GAP Syndrome would fall into this group.
Following the whole controversy about celiac disease, the Specific
Carbohydrate Diet would have been completely forgotten if it wasn't for,
you guessed it, a parent!
Elaine Gottschall, desperate to help her little daughter, who suffered
from severe ulcerative colitis and neurological problems, went to see
Dr Haas in 1958. After two years on SCD her daughter was completely free
of symptoms, an energetic and thriving little girl. Following the success of
the SCD with her daughter Elaine Gottschall over the years has helped
thousands of people, suffering from Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis,
celiac disease, diverticulitis and various types of chronic diarrhoea. But the
most dramatic and fast recoveries she has reported in young children who,
apart from digestive problems, had serious behavioural abnormalities,
such as autism, hyperactivity and night terrors. She has devoted years of
research into the biochemical and biological basis of the diet and has pub
lished a book, called Breaking the Vicious Cycle, Intestinal Health Through
Diet This book has become a true saviour for thousands of children and
adults across the world and has been reprinted many times. A number of
web-sites and web-groups have been set up to share SCD recipes and
experiences. Dr Gottschall is in her eighties now, still very active and help
ing many people around the world with the implementation of the Specific
Carbohydrate Diet. For the full details on how to implement this diet I
would highly recommend Elaine Gottschall's book.
The diet appropriate for GAPS patients is largely based on the Specific
Carbohydrate Diet. However, there is one issue that has to be taken into
account - the use of dairy products. What about dairy?
The Specific Carbohydrate Diet permits lactose-free dairy products. Lactose
is a milk sugar with a double molecule. It is present in fresh milk and many
commercially available dairy products. According to various sources from
25% to 90% of the planet's population cannot digest lactose due to the lack
of the lactose digesting enzyme, called lactase. Children and adults with
GAPS and people with gut problems most certainly cannot digest it and
have to avoid it. Well-fermented milk products, such as yoghurt, soured
cream and natural cheeses are largely free of lactose because in the process
of fermentation the fermenting bacteria consume lactose as their food.
However, apart from lactose milk contains other substances which GAPS
people have to avoid. The most researched substance is the milk protein
casein. In the previous chapters we have discussed casomorphins - pep
tides with an opiate structure, which are found in the urine of autistic,
schizophrenic, depressed and other patients. Casomorphins come from
misdigestion of milk protein casein. They absorb through the damaged gut
lining into the bloodstream of the GAPS person, cross the blood-brain bar
rier and affect the functions of the brain. And indeed when dairy products
get completely removed from the diet of an autistic child or a
schizophrenic patient we observe an improvement in the clinical picture,
sometimes quite dramatic. There is a debate about what particular form of
casein is the problem. The group of proteins called beta-caseins have
received most attention. For example, Cade and other researchers have
shown that in an unhealthy digestive system they convert into beta-
casomorphin-7 which gets taken up by 32 various areas of the brain, many
of which are responsible for vision, hearing and communication.
Another problem with dairy is its great ability at creating allergies and
intolerances. Real allergy to milk is one of the most common allergies in
existence, because dairy products have a wide range of antigens (various
immunoglobulins). According to various research papers it is the main
reason for infantile colic. Even in breast-fed babies if the mother consumes
dairy products the child may develop colic due to sensitivity to dairy anti
gens being passed through the mother's milk. In many cases when the
breast-feeding mother stops consuming dairy foods the colic in her baby
goes away.
Whether it is lactose or casein or allergies or a combination of factors,
the clinical experience shows that GAPS children and adults should not
consume dairy products until their digestive system is well enough to handle them. The only exception is for the milk fat, which contains virtu
ally no milk proteins or lactose and is generally well tolerated. Pure milk fat
is called ghee or clarified butter. It is easy to make at home from butter
(look in the recipe section). Unfortunately commercially available ghee
often contains preservatives and other additives. To make sure that your
ghee is pure it is best to make it at home. Ghee contains a lot of valuable
nutrients and is excellent for cooking and baking. Some people with severe
dairy allergy can not tolerate even ghee and have to avoid it. However, in
my experience the majority of GAPS children and adults have no reaction
to ghee and can use it in their diet right from the beginning.
The good news about dairy products is that for many patients they do
not have to be out of the diet forever. As the gut lining starts to heal many
GAPS patients are able to re-introduce other dairy products.
The first product to add to their diet is butter. Butter is virtually pure milk
fat and contains only very small amounts of whey, which at a certain stage in
the diet the patients can usually handle. Butter should be bought organic,
because non-organic butter contains a lot of pesticides, hormones and
antibiotics, which non-organic cows consume. I generally recommend to try
introducing butter after 6 months on the diet. It is preferable to have unsalted
butter as a lot of salt products which are used to preserve butter contain flow
agents and other additives. I would like to emphasise here that butter and
ghee contain a lot of valuable nutrition for children and adults and should not
be avoided, unless there is a true allergy. Butter and ghee provide various fatty
acids with important health giving benefits, vitamins A, D, E, beta-carotene
and other nutritious substances in an easy to digest form.
In about a year gradual introduction of protein containing lactose free
milk products is possible: yogh


 the purpose of the coffee enema is not to promote evacuation, but it does that
anyway, especially on the 5-a-day routine. So why must I also take that ghastly castor oil?
A: Seriously ill cancer patients usually carry a huge toxic load of tumor tissue. As this load
Copyright © Charlotte Gerson, 2007.  All rights reserved.
This material may not be reproduced in any medium, print or electronic without prior written permission from the author.Page 157Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.comis attacked by the recovering immune system and gets excreted, lar ge amounts of toxins are
released into the blood stream, collected by the liver, and released into the small intestine for
eventual evacuation. Most people don’t realize that the transit from the release by the liver/bile
system to the anus can take many hours, even with the regular five daily enemas. During that
time it is unavoidable for the body to re-absorb some of those toxins.
 Castor oil is needed to remedy that situation. The oil rapidly clears the entire intestinal tract,
not just the colon, and especially the small intestine, where the re-absorption would take place.
The same cleansing effect would also benefit non-cancer patients who, due to so-called civilized
living, are carriers of large amounts of not just the colon, and especially the small intestine, where
the re-absorption would take place. The same cleansing effect would also benefit non-cancer
patients who, due to so-called civilized living, are carriers of large amounts of toxic substances
other than tumor tissue. They may well recover without the castor oil enemas, but using the
additional detoxifying by orally taken castor oil speeds up healing.
Q: Can I do this therapy at the same time as receiving chemotherapy treatment?
A: It seems a contradiction to poison the body on the one hand with chemotherapy drugs,
and on the other to detoxify it at the same time with coffee enemas, juices, etc. So sharp is
the contrast between the two approaches that patients who come to the Gerson Therapy after
chemotherapy has failed to help them, have to go on a reduced form of the Gerson programme
for at least six months, to allow for the gradual detoxification of the body. You may, however,
support your body during chemotherapy by switching to the Gerson diet and having no more
than 3 glasses of freshly made juice and one enema a day, as long as you realize that you are not
doing the Gerson Therapy.
Q: If this therapy is so effective, why isn’t it recognized by the medical authorities?
A:  As is well known, the present orthodox medical system is dominated by the huge and
powerful pharmaceutical companies. They even control, via substantial donations to medical
schools, what is being taught to medical students: drugs, drugs and more drugs to suppress
symptoms. But drugs never heal, with the result that chronic degenerative diseases are termed
“incurable.”
The Gerson Therapy cuts totally into drug use, and therefore drug sales, by healing the
body of its true underlying problems—the disturbances in the entire metabolism, the diminished
immune system and the damaged essential organs.
Thus the whole body can be healed, “cured” of the underlying problems, and health is restored.
The problem is that the big pharmaceutical companies cannot make money out of natural organic
food, such as a sack of carrots. So they fight the nutrition-based therapy as long as they can. They
know that the public is beginning to understand what is going on.
Copyright © Charlotte Gerson, 2007.  All rights reserved.
This material may not be reproduced in any medium, print or electronic without prior written permission from the author.Page 158Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.comQ: There are so many different kinds of cancer. How can the same therapy be right for all of
them? What about specialization?
A: It is true that when the body is severely damaged by toxins, steady irritation, genetic causes
or any other reason, normally it is the weakest part that breaks down and allows the wild cell
growth, which equals cancer. Hence the wide variety of malignant disease. However, the Gerson
Therapy works on the entire organism; it restores the body’s defenses, so that it becomes able
to attack and destroy malignant tissue, which is actually foreign to it. The healthy immune
response kills and removes this “foreign” tissue, no matter what its name, origin or location!
This doesn’t mean, of course, that precise minor adjustments are not made in the program,
according to individual needs. But beyond that, specialization is a mistake, since the bottom line
remains the need to heal ALL the body systems along with the immune system, including the
mineral balances, the hormone system, the essential organs—everything. Only that ensures true
healing.
Q: Can the Gerson Therapy be used on small children, and how is it scaled down to suit
them?
A: Yes, small children respond extremely well. (see Case No.15 in “A Cancer Therapy—Results
of 50 Cases,”  where the patient was an 8-months-old boy. Of course since then we’ve had many
successes, with patients ranging from toddlers to teens.) Medication is scaled down more or less
according to their weight, but they are well able to take juices, even from a nursing bottle, and
generally don’t need coffee enemas before the age of 2-3.
Q: What’s the earliest age a baby can be given carrot juice?
A: There are some babies that are allergic to EVERY type of milk: mother’s milk, when the
mother is ill, goat’s milk, soy milk, formula, everything. Such babies have been raised on
NOTHING but organic carrot juice, starting at a few weeks of age. The juice gives them all the
nutrients they need and they grow up totally well and healthy.
Q: Some people are terrified of needles. Why can’t they take the liver extract with B12 by
mouth?
A: People who are afraid of needles are surprisingly not afraid of putting every kind of poison
into their bodies, including nicotine, alcohol and all sortsof toxic painkillers and other drugs.
The problem is that when they are terminally ill, the body is so severely depleted that oral
administration is insufficient to make up for the deficiency to stop cancer growth. The other
problem is that we already use liver powder, which is not enough, and B12 (which is needed to
enhance the production of healthy red blood cells) is poorly absorbed in almost all people. For
proper absorption of B12 orally, the body needs the so-called ‘intrinsic factor,’ which very few
Copyright © Charlotte Gerson, 2007.  All rights reserved.
This material may not be reproduced in any medium, print or electronic without prior written permission from the author.Page 159Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.compeople have. So they must get B12 faster and more efficiently by intramuscular injection.
By the way, if the injection is correctly delivered into the ‘gluteus medius’ (as Dr. Gerson
instructed), not into the ‘gluteus maximus,’ as most doctors and nurses wrongly do, it is entirely
painless.
Q:  Beet is generally considered a very healthy vegetable. Why is it not used in the juices?
A:  Beet IS a healthy vegetable and it is all right to use it as such. Dr. Gerson avoided it for
juicing, probably because it is very sweet (beets are used in sugar production). Also, it is a
powerful cleanser, and patients already undergoing systematic detoxification should not be
given any extra cleansing substance. However, small amounts used occasionally as vegetable
will not do any harm.
Q: Since these days even organic produce is lower in nutrients than it used to be, shouldn’ t
patients be given extra vitamins and minerals?
A: It’s true that organic produce is not as rich as it used to be. However, synthetic vitamins and
minerals, which the pharmaceutical industry uses in its supplements, are almost always poorly
absorbed. Moreover, some are outright damaging (see Appendix II in “A Cancer Therapy ”),
such as Vitamins A and E and several of the B vitamins. A & E are found in fish oils and soy
oil. These have to be avoided, since the fatty substances stimulate tumor growth. The only B
vitamins that are important to use are B3 (niacin) and B12. The others disturb the metabolism; Dr.
Gerson found that they cause damage to the patient.
Even if organic foods are lower in nutrients, with 13 glasses of freshly made juice a day
the patient’s body is thoroughly flooded with vitamins and minerals in their living, active form,
that even the sick body is able to assimilate—and they are being  given in truly huge amounts,
to replenish the sick, damaged organs. Pharmaceutical vitamins and minerals, even so-called
‘organic’ ones from plant sources, are usually not, or only poorly absorbed, so that some go into
the system and others do not. This causes new imbalances.
Q: Why can’t a cured patient after a year or two start eating a normal diet?
A: In theory a ‘cured’ patient could start to eat a ‘normal’ diet.   But what is normal? Canned,
tinned, preserved with chemicals, artificially flavored and colored, frozen food? Most patients


 deficiency is prevalent. Countries
such as Japan and Iceland have higher intakes of iodine and lower rates of goiter and breast cancer. On the other hand, countries
such as the United States, Mexico, and Thailand have lower iodine intake and higher incidences of both breast cancer and
goiter.
34
 Some countries such as Poland, Switzerland, Australia, and Russia have been found to have high rates of breast cancerassociated with localized pockets of iodine deficiency. In the United States, a correlation has been found between higher mortality
rates from breast cancer and areas of iodine deficiency (e.g., Great Lakes region).
35
Cathy, 49 years old, was diagnosed with breast cancer one year ago. She said, “I was devastated. I thought I took
good care of myself and my life was shattered. When I asked the surgeon, ‘How did I get it?’ He answered, ‘I don’t know’.
His only concern was doing surgery and getting me ready for chemotherapy. I was not satisfied with that.” Cathy did
elect to have a bilateral mastectomy and chemotherapy, but still searched for why this
may have happened to her. When I
examined Cathy, I found her to have a serum iodine level below the detection limits as well as having a very low iodine
loading test—22% (normal > 90%). In treating her with iodine/iodide (Iodoral
®
), she noticed an immediate improvement
in her overall health. “I was having fatigue and leg cramps. The fatigue was debilitating. I felt like an old woman,” she
said. Three weeks after starting the iodine, both conditions improved dramatically. “It was a miracle. The leg cramps
and leg pains melted away but, more importantly, the fatigue left. My brain started functioning again, and I began to feel
like my old self. Even my friends began asking me what I was taking, since I looked so much better,” she said.
Iodine has been found to be necessary for the maintenance of normal breast tissue in both animals and humans.
36

37

38

39
Iodine was found to have a suppressive effect on the development and the size of mammary tumors in rats.
40
 This
suppressive effect was enhanced with the use of progesterone. The enhancement of iodine uptake with progesterone has also
been found in other tissue including the uterus and the ovary.
41
 These studies prove that the optimal use of iodine is best
undertaken as part of a comprehensive holistic treatment program, which emphasizes balancing the hormonal system as well as
correcting nutrient deficits. For more information on
bioidentical hormones, I refer the reader to my book,
The Miracle of
Natural Hormones, 3
rd
 Edition.
THE BREASTS AND TOXIC HALIDES: IS THERE AN ASSOCIATION WITH BREAST CANCER?
The halides are a group of elements that share a similar size and shape.
Chapter 11
 will cover this topic in much more detail.
Fluoride, bromine, iodide, chloride, and astatide make up this family. Iodine and chloride are the only halides that have
therapeutic effects in the body.
Bromide is a toxic element that has a chemical structure very similar to iodine. This similarity can cause bromine to bind to
iodine receptors and possibly interfere with iodine transport in the body. Bromine is found in many food items such as bakery
products, and some sodas, as well as many prescription items. In addition, bromine is found in many fire-retardant chemicals
added to furniture, carpets, etc. Crops are sprayed with bromine as a fumigant for agriculture. When there is iodine deficiency
present, bromine toxicity will be exacerbated.
Fluoride is put in the water supply, toothpaste, and many drinks as a preventive measure against dental caries. There is little
evidence to support the idea that fluoride prevents cavities. Furthermore, there is much research that shows that fluoride (in the
amounts ingested by drinking fluoridated water) can cause
dental fluorosis, hip fractures, bone cancer, and other negative effects.
Fluoride toxicity will be covered in more detail in
Chapter 11
.
I undertook a study in my office to look at the difference in iodine, fluoride, and bromine levels in eight women with breast
cancer versus ten women without breast cancer. Please refer to
Chapter 11
 for a further discussion of this study and the results.
This study showed that all of the women tested--those with breast cancer as well as those without breast cancer--had low
iodine levels. Those women with breast cancer were found to have much larger amounts of the toxic halides bromine and fluoride
as compared to the women without breast cancer. The toxicity of bromine and fluoride are exacerbated in an iodine-deficient
state. Perhaps the reason we have an epidemic of breast cancer is not only due to iodine deficiency, but also to the toxicity of the
halogens fluoride and bromine which inhibit iodine uptake by the tissues of the body. Effective breast cancer therapies will not be
realized until the causative factors of breast cancer are more thoroughly studied.
THE JAPANESE: A POPULATION WITH A HIGH IODINE INTAKE AND A LOW RATE OF BREAST DISEASE
AND GOITER
It has been estimated that the mainland Japanese ingest approximately 13.8mg of iodine per day, which is over 100 times
the
RDA.
42
 Japanese from the coastal areas ingest more iodine than the average inland Japanese consume. The mainland Japanese
receive much of their iodine from seaweed, which is known to concentrate iodine.
What is the effect of ingesting this larger amount of iodine? The Japanese, who consume a large amount of iodine by U.S.
RDA standards, have remarkably lower levels of breast, endometrial, and ovarian cancers. In addition, there is a significantly
lower amount of fibrocystic breast disease in Japanese women who consume the larger amount of iodine. Over 30 years ago,
research showed that Japanese women who move to the United States have a higher rate and mortality of breast, endometrial,
and ovarian cancer as compared to mainland Japanese women.
43
 I believe this increase in mortality of Japanese women is due to
falling iodine levels.
It has been known for over 50 years that there is an association between breast cancer and iodine levels. There have been
many articles written in medical literature pointing towards a direct relationship between low iodine levels and the development of
breast cancer in various regions of the world, including the United States.
44

45Joyce, 52 years old, was diagnosed with breast cancer two years ago. “I thought I was in great shape. I used to
exercise, and I watched what I ate. When I was diagnosed with breast cancer, I
was devastated,” she said. Joyce did not
want to undergo chemotherapy and radiation. Joyce claimed, “I did not have a chemotherapy and radiation deficiency. I
have done a lot of reading on breast cancer, and I was worried about the side effects from the chemotherapy and
radiation. I wanted to search for an underlying cause and find a treatment for that.” Joyce had a long history of
fibrocystic breast disease and dense breasts on a mammogram. My initial examination and laboratory workup of Joyce
revealed an enlarged thyroid gland (i.e., goiter). Laboratory tests showed evidence of a poorly functioning immune
system (low natural killer cells and low immunoglobulin levels as well as a low white blood cell count). An iodine-loading
test showed Joyce was extremely low (12% excretion with normal levels >90%). Joyce was treated with a combination of
iodine/iodide (Iodoral
®
) four pills per day (50mg of iodide/iodine) for three months. After three months, her iodine-
loading test improved to normal and her dose of iodine was lowered to two pills per day (25mg). During that time, Joyce
noticed an improvement in her energy and overall better health. “I felt wonderful once I started taking iodine. My energy
level zoomed up and my metabolism increased. All my friends started asking me what I was doing, since I looked so
much better,” she said. Joyce was also treated holistically with a detoxification program and given vitamins and
minerals. Her laboratory markers all improved as well. Her doctors felt the
changes in her breasts. “My doctor told me
that my breast tissue felt much softer. He said that my breasts felt much healthier,” she claimed. With her improved
laboratory markers, I feel Joyce will have a better chance to overcome her illness. Was iodine deficiency the underlying
cause of her cancer? I don’t have the definitive answer to that question, but an iodine-deficient state will not only set the
stage for breast illness such as cancer to develop, it will make it extremely difficult for the body to overcome such
illnesses. Update on Joyce: After three years of iodine supplementation, Joyce’s iodine loading test is now normal (92%
excretion). She continues to feel well and there have been no signs that the cancer is progressing. The initial lesions seen
on radiologic exam have gotten slightly smaller. Joyce is seen by a surgeon and she undergoes radiologic tests every six
months.
New 5
th
 Edition Update on Joyce: Joyce is still supplementing with iodine and feeling well. There are still no signs of
progression of the cancer. Joyce recently stated, “The best decision I made was to go the holistic route. The


n	out	of	the	raw	material	of	consciousness.	The	workshop
where	this	creation	takes	place	is	Akasha,	the	field	of	consciousness.	The
artisans	in	charge	are	those	with	enough	awareness	to	do	the	job.	I’d	like	to
propose	that	even	if	you	don’t	feel	competent	to	make	a	god,	you	can	at	least
teach	yourself	to	make	an	angel.I	once	interviewed	a	man	who	had	remarkable	healing	abilities,	and	he
was	very	modest	about	them.	He	told	me,	“I	could	teach	you	to	do	the	same
thing	in	a	few	days.”	When	I	replied	that	I	doubted	that,	he	said,	“It’s	actually
very	simple.	The	hard	part	is	removing	your	belief	that	you
can’t
	heal.”	The
same	holds	true	for	almost	everything.	We	spend	our	whole	lives	projecting	a
dream,	stepping	into	it,	and	believing	the	dream	is	real.	See	yourself	as	the
one	who	is	doing	all	three,	and	suddenly	the	world	of	angels	becomes	as	real
as	this	world	of	solid	things.12
T
HE
	D
REAM
	C
ONTINUES
HOW	DOES	SAVITRI’S
	tale	end?	The	sun	had	already	dipped	beneath	the	treetops
when	she	ran	back	into	her	hut	and	peered	out	the	front	window.	Yama	was
still	sitting	in	the	dust,	only	now	the	long	shadows	of	the	pines	completely
covered	him.	Savitri	braced	herself,	saying	one	last	prayer,	and	went	out	to
face	him.
And	then?	In	one	version	Savitri	puts	on	a	great	show	of	welcoming
Yama.	The	Lord	of	Death	is	so	pleased	that	he	grants	her	a	boon.	Savitri	asks
for	the	boon	of	life,	which	confuses	Yama.	“You	are	already	alive,”	he	points
out.	But	Savitri	insists,	and	Yama	grants	her	wish.	Savitri	rises	to	her	feet,
saying,	“You	have	given	me	life,	but	I	cannot	live	without	Satyavan.”	At
which	point	Death	is	outwitted	and	must	give	her	husband	a	reprieve.
But	not	everyone	is	satisfied	with	such	a	simple	trick.	I	can	tell	you	what	I
believe.	Savitri	had	conquered	all	her	fears,	and	so	she	went	outside	and
danced	for	Yama.	She	danced	so	exquisitely	that	when	she	ended	up	with	her
head	resting	in	his	lap,	she	whispered,	as	one	lover	to	another,	“Time	isn’t
long	enough	to	satisfy	my	longing	for	you.”
To	which	the	enchanted	Yama	replied,	“But	we	have	eternity	together.”
Savitri	shook	her	head.	“If	you	are	all-powerful,	add	one
second
	to	eternity	so
that	I	can	love	you	more	than	anyone	has	ever	loved.	That’s	all	I	ask.”
Yama	had	never	been	offered	any	kind	of	love,	certainly	not	by	a	young
woman	who	had	every	reason	to	fear	him.	So	he	granted	Savitri	a	single
second	more—and	thus	he	was	defeated.
How?
A	second	to	the	gods	is	a	hundred	years	to	mortals.	In	that	extra	second
Satyavan	returned	home	and	embraced	Savitri.	They	went	inside	their	hut	and
lived	as	before.	They	had	children	and	grew	old	together.	In	time	Savitri’s
father,	the	king,	relented	and	welcomed	them	both	back	to	his	palace.	And	in
her	old	age	Savitri	wondered	if	she	had	asked	for	too	much	time,	because	she
survived	long	after	Satyavan	left	this	world.	She	spent	her	final	years	in
meditation	and	became	enlightened,	so	when	the	extra	second	was	up,	Yama
was	amazed	to	find	that	Savitri	hadn’t	tricked	him	after	all.	She	actually	did
love	him	as	one	loves	the	wholeness	of	life	rather	than	one	aspect	alone.
This	ending	is	beautiful	and	consoling.	I	would	like	it	to	be	read	when	Ihave	no	more	days	left.	In	the	spirit	of	Savitri	I’ve	already	written	this	note,
which	I	will	leave	for	my	family	to	read.
No	matter	what,	don’t	cry	for	me.
I’m	all	right,	and	I’ll	go	on	loving	you	no	matter	what	happens.	This	is	my
road	to	travel
.
Every	once	in	a	while	I	look	at	the	words	for	a	moment.	Somehow,	like
Savitri,	I’ve	won	nothing	more	than	an	extra	second	of	existence.	It	will	be
enough.
REINCARNATION
Making	an	angel	isn’t	the	ultimate	accomplishment	of	consciousness.	Making
a	new	life	out	of	nothing	is.	This	ability	is	known	as	reincarnation.	The
popular	notion	of	reincarnation	is	simple:	we	die	and	come	back	as	somebody
else.	But	how	does	the	soul	clothe	itself	in	a
new
	personality	in	order	to	be
reborn?	In	a	culture	like	India,	where	reincarnation	has	a	strong	foundation,
people	want	to	know	why	they	are	born	with	certain	karmic	tendencies,	and
whole	groups	in	society—astrologers,	priests,	philosophers,	gurus—exist	to
explain	the	process	whereby	Karma	attaches	itself	to	a	soul	and	gives	rise	to	a
new	lifetime	of	experience.
Most	people	are	aware	that	Tibetans	expect	their	religious	leaders,
including	the	Dalai	Lama,	to	reincarnate	as	a	baby	who	will	give	signs	of	his
identity.	These	babies	are	almost	always	born	in	Tibet,	but	there	are	cases
where	they	can	appear	in	Europe;	for	example,	about	a	decade	ago	the	search
for	a	great	lama	led	Tibetan	investigators	to	a	family	in	Spain.	In	India	noted
religious	figures	are	often	matched	to	illustrious	predecessors;	Mahatma
Gandhi	has	been	linked	by	his	followers	to	great	gurus	in	the	past.	Who	is	to
say	which	match	is	valid?	The	subject	becomes	very	complicated.
There	are	Native	American	tribes	in	which	five	or	six	children	may	be
born	who	have	vivid	recollections	of	having	the	same	mother	in	a	prior
lifetime.	There	are	similar	instances	in	Japan	of	children	who	remember
identical	experiences	in	a	past	life	in	World	War	II,	as	if	a	single	soldier’s	soul
fragmented	into	pieces,	each	of	which	was	reborn	separately.	Experts	in	“soul
regression,”	which	takes	a	person	back	one	lifetime	after	another,	claim	that
memories	blend	and	become	absorbed.	Thus	a	great	personage	like	Cleopatra
or	Napoleon	affects	the	recollections	of	an	entire	society,	and	people	in	later
lifetimes	remember	being	Napoleon	when	in	fact	their	lives	were	simply
touched	by	him	in	some	powerful	way.
People	can	become	fascinated	by	the	game	of	“Who	was	I	in	a	prior
lifetime?”	or	even	“Didn’t	I	meet	you	in	a	former	life?”	But	I’ve	known
others	who	cover	their	ears	when	they	hear	the	word	“reincarnation,”distressed	by	the	notion	that	they	might	be	reborn	as	a	pig	or	a	dog.
Reincarnation	offends	Christian	theology,	which	doesn’t	permit	a	second


 You don’t need to do
anything. Just be the one who notices that the mind is creating thoughts, and
you are aware of them. In order to do that, you can’t be disturbed by the
thoughts that are being created. If the thoughts bother you, you will leave
the seat of objective observati on and try to change the mind. To truly
achieve witness consciousness, you must be willing to let the thoughts be as
they may and simply be aware that you are aware of them.
If you want to experience true witness consciousness, just look in front
of you. Do you see what’ s there? Don’ t think about it, just see it. That’ s
witness conscio usness. It’s just seeing. You are simpl y witnessing what’ s
there. Now, turn your head and look around. Practice the imme diacy of just
seeing. Notice that your thoughts often have something to say about what
you see. Can you simply notice these thoughts like you noticed what was
outside, or do you have to do something about them? Thoughts,  emotions—
they come up by themselves. Good, now simply notice them.
When you reach the state wher e you can observe what is going on in
the mind and heart, you’ll notic e that you’re not always comf ortable with
what’ s happening inside. What is more, there is the tendency to want to
willfully do something about it. That’ s very natural. If you want to willfully
do something, here’ s what you do—relax. This is certainly not the intuitive
thing to do. You want to prote ct yourself from the inner disturbance by
getting rid of it. That struggle just makes it worse. You are capable of
simply relaxing and not engagi ng with the disturbed energies. At first this
seems impossibl e because you’re trying to get the disturbance itself to relax.
Don’ t do that; You relax. You who notices the disturbance are not the
disturbance. You are witnessing the disturbance, and you are welcome to
relax in the face of it.
You are in the seat of awareness, way back inside, watching the dance
of mind and heart. It’s a very natural place, this place back inside. If you
don’t get pulled into the thoughts and emotions, you can just relax and
notice. Don’ t think about it. The moment you see what’ s going on—just
relax. Relax your shoulders, relax your tummy, relax your buttocks, and
most importantly, relax your heart. Even if the heart itself won’ t relax, the
area around your heart will. You have willpower in there, use it. Here’ s what
you do with your will: relax and release. First relax through your initial
resistance, then release the disturbed energy that comes up. When you dothis, you are actually providing space for the release of the samskaras
causing the disturbance. You are giving them more room to release because
you’re not struggling with the thoughts and emotions they are creating.
Eventually there  is no struggle,  as you have created distance between the
seat of Self and the noisy mind. To be free, you need distance between those
two—subject and object.
Spirituality is not about changing the objects you’re looking at.
Spirituality is about accepting the objects but not getting sucke d into them.
It’s about being detached and feeling at peace with whatever your mind and
heart are doing. When you are totally comfortable with everything that can
come from your mind and heart, they will stop creating inner disturbance.
You don’t know that yet, but it’s true. People often ask whether the mind
will keep talking once you are at peace with it. The mind is talking because
you’re not okay, and it’s trying  to figure out how to be okay  by getting
things the way you want. Once you’re okay in there, there’ s much less to
talk about. Whe n you’re in the presence of someone you love, you’re not
thinking about how to find love. You’re just experiencing the beauty of the
love. Likewise, when you are okay in there, you will not be thinking about
how to be okay. You will just be relaxing into the quiet state of peaceful
well-being. This requires that you be okay with your thoughts and emotions.
Relaxing in their presence is a good start to being okay with them. If you
can’t willfully relax in the face of thoughts and emotions, you will have to
do something about them. You will get pulled down into them and attempt
to do something  to fix what is bothering you. Better to simply relax and
allow the samsk aras the room they need to release. When you relax back
into witness consciousness, you are surrendering to the reality of what’ s
happening.
First relax, then lean away. You who notices are at a distance from
what you are noticing. You don’t have to think about it. Just notice that what
you are seeing in there, thoughts and emotions, are all distinct and at a
distance from you. Now, lean away from their noise. The mind and
emotions make noise. That is not a problem. Just relax and lean away from
the noise. When you lean away from the noise, you are creating distance
between You (the consciousn ess) and the objects of consciousness (the
thoughts and emotions). In that distance, the samskaras have room to release
their energy. It’s going to get uncomfortable, and that’s natural. The
discomfort you are experienci ng is the discomfort of samskaras beingreleased. They were stored with pain; they are going to release with pain—if
you let them. This is the pain that ends all pain.Chapter 31.
Low-Hanging Fruit
The best way to let go of stored pocke ts of pain is to practice. Just as you
practice scales to learn the piano or practice a sport to get good at it, so you
practice letting go to learn how to do it. You start with simple things. We
call these the low-hanging fruit. There are many situations each day when
you create inner disturbance for absolutely no good reason. Bothering
yourself about the car in front of you does no good at all. It only makes you
tense and uptigh t. The cost-benefit analysis is one-hundred-perc ent cost and
zero benefit. Letting go of that tendency should be easy, but it’s not. You
will find that you’re in the habit of insisting and demanding that things
should be the way you want, even if it’s irrational. Things are the way they
are because of all the influences that made them that way. You are not going
to change the weather by complaining about it. If you are wise, you will
start to change your reactions to reality instead of fighting with reality. By
doing so, you will change your relationship with yoursel f and with
everything else.
Start with the small things to prove to yourself that you are capable of
doing this. Working with yourself at this level is practicing letting go. Once
you are able to relax and release through the relatively easy stuff, you will
find you are better able to deal with the bigger situations. You are training
yourself to deal with yourself.
Lots of differen t experiences in life fall into the low-hanging fruit
category. A good practice for letting go can be found in your relationship
with the weather. Believe it or not, you can use the weather for tremendous
spiritual growth. There’ s alway s weather out there: hot, cold, windy, dry,
humid, and everything in between. The weather has nothing to do with you.
It has to do with the forces that are causing it to be the way it is. If you can’t
handle the weat her without getting disturbed, how are you going to handleanything else? Complaining about the weather is a perfect example of
something that has a one-hundred-percent cost and zero benefit. What do
you gain by complaining about the weather? Nothing, except to get upset. “I
couldn’ t handle the heat today. It was terrible. I was sweating.  I hated it.”
Congratulations, you didn’ t have a nice day, and it didn’ t change the
weather one bit.
Eventually, you start to work with yourself. When your mind
complains about the weather, don’t fight with it. If you want, you can use
positive thinking. For example, when the mind starts up with, “It’s hot; I’m
so hot,” instead of getting into that, ask yourself, “How did it get hot? What
does that mean ‘it’s hot’?” Use your mind to remind you that there’ s a star
ninety-three million miles away that is so hot you can actually feel its heat.
That’ s amazing.  Use your higher mind to appreciate and respect reality
instead of complaining about it. When you do this, you are willfully using
your mind for something positive and constructive. Y ou are raising yourself.
Though this practice of positive  thinking is beneficial, ultimately, what
you need to do is relax and release past the disturbance. If you bother to
relax and release, you won’ t be so hot. After all, You in there can’t get hot—
you can only experience that the body is hot. You are way back inside,
witnessing the experience of heat. If you relax and release back into your
seat of cons


 for the improvement of human existence.
It se ems too g ood to be true that mind-forged manacles will
simply drop away of their o wn accord. But that’s exactly what
Rumi m eant w hen he declared that the jail cell is open. S ince we
are alre ady fre e, there is no effort needed to get free. You are free
once you base your life on one thing, your sense of self.
But as things stand, the sense of self is almost t otally
overlooked. Woody Allen’s 1 983 movie, Zelig, depicted its title
character as a kind of historical phantom. Even though he was
totally insignificant, Leonard Zelig was a human chameleon. Hehad the ability to melt into his surroundings completely. The
movie t akes pla ce in the 1920 s and 1930s, and the novelist  F. Scott
Fitzgerald is the first to notic e Zelig’s amazing transformations. At
a Great Gatsby –like party, Zelig is in the liv ing room talking in a
refined Boston accent and upholding Republican values, while
later in the k itchen he comes off as a common man with
Democratic ideas.
Somehow Zelig is everybod y and nobody, everywhere  and
nowhere. That’s a parable for the sense of self. It is present in
every experience but melts invisibly into the backgroun d—until
you star t payin g attention to it. Then the sense of self, un likely as
this seems, takes center stage.
The firs t step is to begin to n otice your sense of self. Imag ine a
debating society where one side is defending a controversial
position on the Middle East conflict, abortion rights, or racism.
See yourself standing up and delivering an eloquent argument on
one side. Let’s say you vehe mently oppose racism, beli eve in a
two-state solution for the Palestinians, and support a woman’s
right to have an abortion.
Now pu t yourself on the opp osing side and make exactly the
contrary argument for each issue. It might help if the contrary
position is outrageous—you might see yourself defend ing the
necessity to ban all abortions or supporting the terrorists who
deny the right of Israel to exist. Even though you will experience
resistance in abandoning the  side you actually believe in, debaters
do it all the time. They shift perspective from pro to co n at the
drop of a hat. This ability to s hift perspectives is beyond any set of
beliefs. We can put on any coat we want to wear. Yet whether you
speak up for i deas you love or ideas you hate, you  are always
present. Your sense of self is independent of anything you think or
say.
Next ex ample: Take any common object in your house and
touch it. Is it you who touched it? Anyone will automatic ally say
yes. Lo ok at the same objec t. Is it you who sees it? Yes again.
There is no time in the history of humankind when the  answer
would be different. What kee ps changing is our mental m odel of
what it means to touch and  see an object. In prehistory, before
language arose, there was no explanation for seeing and to uching.In a n ag e of faith, when dead flesh, the body, was animate d by the
soul, it was God who ma de sensation possible. Today, the
experience of seeing and touching is ascribed to the central
nervous system and the activity of the brain in receiving sensory
data from the world “out there.”
Yet if you don’t bother with any of these explanations, th ere is
only the self having an experi ence. You can modify this ex ercise in
other w ays. In medical school, students are taught that bodily
sensations reach the brain through a spidery web of afferent
nerves running everywhere. If you touch your hand or lift your
arm, the signals from affere nt nerves are responsible for feeling
the experience. Every signal is like an Inca runner dashing from a
remote region to the Andes to the emperor in the royal city of
Cuzco. The information from afferent nerves is constantly flowing,
so w hy don’t w e feel every limb’s weight, position, warmth, and
the like all the time? Sit in your chair and let your attenti on roam
from the top of your head to your nose, then to your heart, then to
the tips of your toes.
If I ask, “Who is roaming from one sensation to another? ” you
will sur ely answ er, “I am.” Th e self selects whatever it wan ts to pay
attention to. Therefore, the self is not bound by the activity of the
nervous system. It is present no matter which nerve cells are
firing.
One fin al exam ple: If you clos e your eyes and see the color blue,
this exp erience is happening  in your awareness. If you open your
eyes and gaze at the blue sky, where is the blueness? It i s still in
your awareness. The experience of blue “in here” and blue “out
there” o ccurs in the same p lace. When you handle an object or
smell it or hea r it, you can remember those sensations. Did the
sensations travel from the outside world to your inside world? We
assume they did. Sitting arou nd a warm campfire and wat ching its
flickering flames is different from remembering the warmth and
the flickering flames. But both experiences happen in awareness.
Hearing a bang in your head and hearing a car backfire on the
street are two different experiences, but they share the undeniable
fact that both occur in awareness.
If awa reness is present both inside and outside, it is
independent of space. Likewi se, the campfire you sat beside mighthave be en in childhood, while the memory of it is now. Since
awareness was registering th e campfire both then and now, it is
independent o f time. Once you see that awareness isn’t b ound by
time and space, then you—the real you that is pure consciousness
—must not be bound by time and space. Wherever your aw areness
goes, yo ur sen se of self is present; the two are fused. The self is
present in everything, but we don’t notice this because, like Zelig,
the self knows how to melt perfectly into every situation.
I thi nk most people, with a little reflection, can accept that  they
have a sense o f self following them everywhere like an invisible
shadow. But to fully pass the “So what?” test, the sense of s elf can’t
simply be a by stander. Part of Woody Allen’s conceit was  that, if
you loo k closely, Zelig appears in photos of momentous events like
a presid ential inauguration—but this didn’t make him im portant.
Similarly, sensing yourself in every experience doesn’t put it
center stage. The direct path brings the sense of self to light.
What’s needed next is to discover the enormous difference this
modest attainment actually makes.
The leap from human to m etahuman, the shift from virtual
reality to the “ real” reality, is all contained in the simple act of
noticing the self. Not the eg o, which wants to hog the l imelight
and cla im that  it and it alone is the self. The ego-personality can’t
help but contain the sense o f self—every experience contains it.
But the  ego blocks our view. It is tied to virtual reality an d keeps
luring our attention everywhere but  the sense of self.
As we’ll see in Part Three, once you rid yourself of all the t hings
you don ’t actually need, your ego can be discarded, too,  but not
your sense of s elf. As the unnecessary burdens and rubbis h of the
spell/dream/illusion are tossed out, the sense of self doe sn’t hog
the limelight. Being the only thing about you that is timeless and
eternal, it doesn’t have to do anything. It simply is, a be acon of
pure aw areness that shines constantly in every second of your
existence. Ironically, everything else in your life has a much
harder time passing the “So what?” test.A10

F R E E I N G  Y O U R  B O D Y
s we saw, co nsciousness i s everywhere, always, and
everything. If that’s true, then you are everywhere, always, and
everything. But in your daily life, even if you were totally
convinced abo ut this, you a re guided in the opposite d irection.
You’ve endured  a lifetime of training and conditioning telling you
that you  are a s olitary person  sitting by yourself in a room. Instead
of always, your life span is ve ry limited, bookended by two events
—birth and death. Instead of  everything, you are a bundle of very
specific things, beginning with your name, gender, marital status,
work, and so on.
The vir tual reality we want to dismantle is made up of many
moving parts that occupy the ir own compartments. One part is the
body, another the mind, the world, and


foods	that	are	reheated	(perhaps	in	a
microwave,	so	be	sure	to	ask).
Very	few	restaurants	use	high-quality	organic	meats.	Bear	this	in	mind	the
next	time	you	ponder	a	menu.	Deep-water	ocean	fish	is	probably	your	best
choice,	but	only	if	it	is	fresh.	Fresh-water	fish	is	likely	to	be	contaminated	withtoxins,	and	farmed	fish	are	neither	nutritious	nor	free	of	toxins.	When	ordering
out,	I	often	select	large	salads	or	freshly	harvested	fish,	with	vegetables.	Many
restaurants	are	willing	to	make	up	a	vegetarian	entrée	on	request.	Avoid
anything	that	is	“blackened,”	as	well	as	selections	containing	meat	and,
particularly,	dairy	products.	Make	simple	selections,	and	be	able	to	identify	all
the	ingredients.
Caution:	This	Water	Is
Hazardous	to	Your	Health
In	addition	to	food,	water	is	an	essential	ingredient	for	life	and	good	health.
Adequate	water	intake	helps	rid	your	body	of	toxins,	both	through	the	kidneys
and	through	sweat.	Shockingly,	however,	in	a	highly	developed	nation	such	as
the	United	States,	almost	all	of	the	water	is	toxic;	it	adds	poisons	to	your	body
and	is	unfit	to	drink.
Toxins	from	landfill	runoff,	sewage	pollutants,	industrial	chemicals	such	as
PCBs	and	vinyl	chloride,	agricultural	runoff	(particularly	pesticides),	leakage
from	gasoline	storage	tanks,	and	other	pollutants	contaminate	our	water.	Some
researchers	believe	chronic	low-level	exposure	to	these	chemicals	contributes	to
our	cancer	epidemic.	Even	those	of	us	fortunate	enough	to	live	near	a	high-
quality	water	source	would	probably	be	disappointed	to	learn	that	our	local	water
supplier	takes	perfectly	good	water	and	contaminates	it	with	toxins	such	as
chlorine,	fluoride,	arsenic	and	aluminum.	Water	then	travels	through	municipal
and	household	pipelines,	which	can	add	contaminants	such	as	lead,	cadmium,
copper,	asbestos,	iron	and	nickel.
Although	these	toxins	exist	in	minute	amounts,	we	drink	water	(or	beverages
made	with	water)	daily,	so	we	are	exposed	chronically.	This	exposure	leads	to
toxic	bioaccumulation,	cellular	malfunction	and	disease.	Minimize	tap-water
consumption;	drink	high-quality	distilled	or	spring	water	(preferably	in	glass
containers	to	avoid	toxins	from	plastics).	Purchase	from	companies	willing	to
provide	you	with	a	chemical	analysis	of	their	water.	Another	alternative	is	to
drink	tap	water	purified	by	a	filter	that	uses	reverse	osmosis.	Remember	that
commercial	fruit	juices	and	other	beverage	products	are	usually	made	with	tap
water.	Pure	water	is	what	your	body	needs;	when	you	can	get	it,	choose	it.
What	Is	in	Your	Drinking	Water?
How	do	some	of	the	toxins	commonly	added	to	municipal	water	suppliesharm	your	health?	About	80	percent	of	the	drinking	water	in	the	United	States	is
chlorinated.	Chlorine	is	an	extremely	toxic	and	volatile	chemical	that	reacts	with
organic	matter	in	tap	water	to	form	carcinogenic	compounds	called
trihalomethanes.	These	compounds	bioaccumulate	in	fatty	tissues	and	are
capable	of	causing	genetic	mutations,	suppressing	immune	function,	and
interfering	with	the	natural	controls	of	cell	growth.	Long-term	consumers	of
chlorinated	water	have	been	shown	to	have	higher	risks	of	rectal,	bladder,
kidney,	intestinal,	liver,	pancreatic	and	urinary	tract	cancers,	as	well	as
spontaneous	abortions.	The	Department	of	Health	Services	in	California	reports
that	women	who	drink	bottled	or	filtered	water	have	substantially	lower	rates	of
birth	defects	and	miscarriages	compared	to	women	who	drink	tap	water.	Just
opening	the	tap	to	wash	your	hands	releases	toxic	chlorine	fumes	that,	when
breathed,	damage	your	health;	taking	a	shower	is	many	times	worse.	I	use	a
charcoal	filter	in	my	shower	to	filter	out	the	chlorine	and	organic	pollutants.
Fluoride	is	more	toxic	than	lead	and	only	slightly	less	toxic	than	arsenic,	yet
we	have	been	conditioned	to	believe	that	fluoride	is	good	for	us.	Presumably,	we
put	fluoride	in	our	water	to	prevent	tooth	decay.	Although	tooth	decay	has
indeed	declined	worldwide	since	the	1970s—an	event	for	which	fluoride	is	often
wrongly	credited—the	real	reason	for	the	decline	remains	unknown,	because
tooth	decay	has	declined	at	the	same	rate	in	countries	that	do	not	use	fluoride.
Most	people	are	unaware	that	in	more	than	fifty	years	of	testing	and	widespread
use,	no	one	has	ever	been	able	to	prove	that	fluoride	is	either	safe	or	effective,
which	is	why	fluoride	has	never	been	approved	by	the	FDA.	After	half	a	century
of	use,	the	FDA	still	classifies	fluoride	as	an	“unapproved	new	drug.”	Once
again,	we	are	guinea	pigs	in	a	vast	medical	experiment	gone	awry.	The	truth	is,
fluoridation	of	drinking	water	is	making	us	sick,	but	no	one	is	ready	to	admit	it
because	of	the	almost	unthinkable	legal	liability.	Do	you	think	it	is	a	coincidence
that	toothpastes	now	have	toxicity	warnings	about	their	fluoride	content?	Many
young	children	swallow	toothpaste,	unless	supervised	by	adults.
The	truth	about	fluoride	is	gradually	being	revealed;	a	number	of	large-scale
studies	suggest	that	fluoride	does	not	prevent	and	may	even	cause	dental
problems.	Fluoride	bioaccumulates	in	the	body	and	has	been	shown	to	damage
teeth,	bones,	kidneys,	muscles,	nerves,	genes	and	immune	function.	In	fact,
fluoride	toxicity	is	causing	diseases	such	as	dental	and	skeletal	fluorosis.	Dental
fluorosis	is	a	malformation	of	tooth	enamel	characterized	by	brittleness	and
discoloration,	ultimately	damaging	the	health	of	the	teeth.	Dentists	tell	people
that	fluorosis	is	“merely”	a	cosmetic	problem.	In	reality,	fluorosis	is	a	sign	of
systemic	fluoride	poisoning.	More	than	one	out	of	five	U.S.	schoolchildren	nowhave	some	degree	of	dental	fluorosis,	and	X	rays	of	children	with	dental
fluorosis	often	show	bone	abnormalities	(skeletal	fluorosis)	elsewhere	in	the
body.	Skeletal	fluorosis	weakens	bones	in	a	manner	similar	to	osteoporosis.
Early	stages	usually	are	misdiagnosed	as	arthritis,	and	advanced	stages	usually
are	misdiagnosed	as	osteoporosis.	The	minimum	crippling	fluoride	dosage	(the
dosage	that	can	cause	skeletal	fluorosis)	is	5	milligrams	per	day	for	twenty	to
forty	years,	according	to	the	National	Academies	for	the	Advancement	of
Science,	yet	Americans	living	in	fluoridated	areas	average	up	to	6.6	milligrams
per	day!
Fluoride	is	a	powerful	enzyme


 many divergences from normal. In Fig. 105 will be seen a family of six
individuals. Four were born before the modern store was put on that island and two after the
parents had come into contact with the influence of the imported foods. It will be seen that the four
older brothers show marked uniformity of facial design, and that all have reproduced the tribal
pattern. The two younger members show definite change in facial pattern. This is also illustrated in
Fig. 106 above, in which the oldest brother was born before the store was put on Badu Island,
and the three younger, after the establishment of the store twenty-three years ago.
FIG. 105. Of these six brothers the four older were born on
Badu Island before the white man's store was established.
The two younger at right below, after. Note change in facial
form.
7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 189/250FIG. 106. Above, the brother at the right was born before the
store was put on Badu Island, the three younger, after. Note
the change in facial form. Below, note that the dental arches
are too constricted to provide space for the erupting
cuspids. This boy is the one shown at the left in Figure 107.
    This problem of progressive degeneration in the younger members of the family is again
illustrated by the group shown in Fig. 107. The older girl has reproduced the tribal pattern of the
race with normal broad, dental arches. The second girl shows marked narrowing and lengthening
of the face. The third child, a boy, shows very marked divergence from the tribal pattern. This
group is shown below with their teeth exposed. It will be seen that the oldest girl has broad dental
arches typical of Nature's normal design. The second girl has a marked depression laterally in the
molar and bicuspid region producing a narrowing of the palate. The third child has in addition to
the narrowing of the face a marked deficiency in bone growth so that the cuspids both above and
below are forced entirely outside the arch. The total circumference as well as the breadth of the
upper arch is so reduced that space is not available for the cuspids. They will be seen imbedded
high in the tissue, as illustrated in the lower picture of Fig. 106.
7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 190/250FIG. 107. Natives from islands north of Australia. Above,
note the progressive facial change in the younger sister and
brother with lengthening and narrowing of the face and
body. Below, note the broad arches of the oldest girl at the
right, lateral depression of the bicuspids and molars of the
next girl and inadequate bone development of the boy's face.
These are on an island north of Australia.
    Fig. 108 shows three white girl scouts in New Zealand. Note that progressive narrowing of the
body including both shoulders and hips has occurred in the younger members of the family. This is
also shown in Fig. 107.
FIG. 108. White Girl Scouts, New Zealand. Note the
progressive lengthening and narrowing of the face and
narrowing of the hips in the younger girl at the left.
    It would be remarkable if these disturbances in the physical pattern were limited to the face and
dental arches. An illustration of other deficiency injuries is shown in Fig. 109, which shows three
children in a modernized Maori family. It will be seen that while the oldest girl has the typical Maori
racial pattern of face, there is a marked lack of development of the middle third of the face, with
progressive severity of distortion in her two younger brothers. On observing the feet it will be seen
that she has splendidly formed feet while the second child has flat feet, and the third child has
clubbed feet.7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 191/250FIG. 109. New Zealand Mann. Note the progressive change
in facial form of the two younger boys as compared with
their older sister. Then note the progressive change in their
feet. Normal feet, flat feet and club feet.
    I have found similar examples in several of the modernized primitive racial stocks. The severity
of the disturbing factors may be different under different circumstances. Drought, industrial
depression, unemployment, and the like, all have their influence. In Fig. 110 will be seen three
Maori children of New Zealand; the second child is smaller in stature than the third and gives more
evidence of facial injury. While his older sister and younger brother have normal feet, his quite
severe disturbance in facial growth is associated with club feet.
7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 192/250FIG. 110. New Zealand Maori. Note the marked undersize of
the second child and underdevelopment of the face
associated with marked deformity of the feet.
    I have one patient who was the seventh of a family of eleven children. All the children in the
family have good facial development, except this patient. She was born in the midst of a severe
financial depression when the total amount of money available for the food for the family was
reduced to a very low level. The other children were born before or after the depression, and were
not injured. In addition to this patient's severe facial deformity, she has had some arthritis and a
general rheumatic tendency. Her facial injury is marked and is characterized by a lack of
development of the middle third.
    Deformities of the feet associated with facial deformity have been found in several modernized
groups of primitive racial stocks. A typical case among the modernized Indians of Peru is shown in
Fig. 111. The face of this boy shows abnormal development with narrowing of the upper arch and
displacement of the teeth. This is associated with gross deformity of one foot and shortening of the
leg. He lives in the high country. This phase is strikingly illustrated in Fig. 112 where the face is
very badly injured and both feet are seriously clubbed. This boy is a Coastal Indian.
FIG. 111. This boy is a modernized Indian in the high Sierra
of Peru. Note the disturbed development of the face
associated with the deformity of one foot.
7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 193/250FIG. 112. This is a modernized coastal Indian of Ecuador.
Note the serious facial and dental arch distortion associated
with club feet.
    The serious expressions of physical deformities which we found had occurred in several
primitive racial stocks, after they have become modernized sufficiently to be using the foods of our
modern civilization, are occurring in our modern American families with equal severity and great
frequency.
    One method for determining the cause of these deformities is through an examination of birth
and death certificates to note the recorded data relative to physical deformities. An outstanding
contribution to this approach has been made by Dr. D. P. Murphy, of the University of
Pennsylvania. In an examination of 130,132 individual death certificates that have been recorded
between 1929 and 1933, he found physical deformities recorded in 1,476 cases. Dr. Murphy sent
field workers to make a personal study of the family histories by contacting the mothers or
grandmothers, of whom they were able to locate 890. From this group he was able to select 405
with sufficiently complete family histories to allow tabulation in a form that would throw light upon
the birth rank and other data. His studies strongly emphasize the presence of a period of low
reproductive activity. In concluding one of his reports he states: (1)
   Miscarriages, stillbirths, and premature births occurred more often than would be expected by
chance in the pregnancies immediately preceding and immediately following the pregnancy
which resulted in the birth of a defective child, and less often than would be expected by chance
in the remaining pregnancies. Miscarriage, stillbirth, and premature birth occurred most often in
the pregnancy immediately preceding that of the defective child.
    From the above observations, it is concluded that the birth of a congenitally malformed child
may be only one expression of a prolonged decrease in functional reproductive activity, the
other expressions being miscarriages, stillbirths, and premature births.
    It is suggested that the obstetrician has unusual reason to suspect the possible existence of a
congenital malformation in the pregnancy which follows immediately after a miscarriage, a
stillbirth, or a premature birth.
    Shute, of the University of Western Ontario, London, Canada, in a personal communication,
states that he has been impressed, in his studies of aborted fetuses, with the large percentage that
are malformed. This seems to link the malformations with the causative factors which have resulted
in decreased reproductive activity.7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 194/250    In connection with the production of imperfect infants, the period in the formative process at
which the injury occurs and also its origin are important. Murphy has thrown important light on this
phase in his study of the cause of the defectives in forty families with two or more malformed. (


ARETTES
In the case of cigarette smok ing, coaxing your body to give up its
addiction makes  much more sense than forcing it to. People do manage to
quit by going “cold turkey,” but the sudden withdrawal of nicotine
precipitates a lot of stress. The story is told that Sigmund Freud smoked
twenty cigars a day for many years, until he began to suffer heart
palpitations as a result. He tried to quit smoking, on his doctor ’s advice, but
the palpitations returned with doubled force as soon as he stopped, driving
him back to his habit. Freud told his biographer that trying not to smoke
was “torture beyond human power to bear.”
In Ayurveda, we tell smokers to keep sending signals to the quantum
mechanical body telling it that they want to quit. These signals can be of
various kinds. Laying off cigare ttes for a day at a time is one way—many if
not most of the people who successfully quit do so by temporarily stopping
a dozen  or more times. A more powerful message is sent to the quantum
mechanical body with meditation. Even if you are a heavy smoker, this may
be all you need. One retrospecti ve study based on five thousand  meditators
showed that only 1 percent of the men and 4 percent of the women weresmokers, even though before starting meditators, a whopping  34 percent
said that they smoked at least occasionally.
There are additional ways to help you quit. When patients come to
Ayurveda clinics and ask how they can stop smoking as painlessly as
possible, here is what we tell them. Three ground rules are laid down in
advance:
Do not try to give up smoking—hard-minded determination just sets
you up for failure. Nicotine is addictive, as is the habit of reaching for
a cigarette. To end these habits you have to retrain yourself as
unconsciously as you started.
Keep your cigarettes with you—the strategy of throwing cigarettes
away seems to make sense, but it only leads to panicked trips for more
and the embarrassment of begging them from friends and strangers.
Notice the automatic cues that make you reach for a cigarette and
dissociate yourself from them.
The third point is the key one and requires explanation. All smokers light
up autom atically on cue. For some the cue is picking up the phone, for
others it is turning on the TV, starting a conversation, or ending a meal. You
probably know your own cues;  if not, take a day to observe them. These
cues are the signals to Vata that make you act on impulse. You do not notice
that you are lighting up because in fact your mind has gone blank for that
instant. Vata has taken over.
You need to switch off this automatic pilot. The way to do that is
surprisingly simple: smoke consciously and pay attention to the act of
smoking. The best method, whic h has helped many of our patients to quit in
a short period of time, is as follows:
When you catch yourself lighting up, stop for a second and ask if you
really want this cigarette.If so, go outside and sit quietly by yourself. Smoke the cigarette
without distractions.
As you are smoking, pay attention to your body. Feel the smoke in
your lungs; feel any sensations in your mouth, nose, throat, stomach,
or anywhere else.
Take out a piece of paper or a small diary and immediately record what
you felt and the time you smoked the cigarette. Keep a record of each
cigarette, whether it was conscious or automatic, and how it felt.
Do not worry about how much you are smoking; just record each
cigarette, even if you find that at the end of a phone call you don’t know
how those three butts in the ashtray got there. If you follow this procedure
faithfully, you will become a conscious smoker instead of a smoking
machine. We have found that many patients cut down their daily intake
from two packs to four or five cigarettes—this reflects how much they
actually want to smoke. Cutting  back is almost as important as stopping; it
prepares the way for quitting and also reduces the direct health risk of your
habit.
CURING AN ADDICTION AT HOME
In the past, many addicted people have preferred to live with their
problem, no matter how tormenting, than to reveal it to outsiders. This
feeling is entirely understandab le, and I always feel it should be respected
as long as you are also taking productive steps to quit. A comple te course of
home treatment would include:
Learning to meditate
Detoxifying the system, either at home or under a doctor ’s care
Body-type diet (beginning with Vata-pacifying foods until the signs of
Vata imbalance are gone)Regular Ayurvedic exercise
Daily routine with oil massage (abhyanga) to settle disturbed Vata
At the outset, I recommend that you begin by learning to medita te at your
local center, then visiting an Ayurvedic physician for a complete physical
examination and diagnosis of imbalances. Tell him of your desire to quit,
frankly and honestly. He will indicate how to detoxify your body and
balance your doshas through diet and daily routine. Visiting him once a
week thereafter is advisable at the outset, since the initial period is the most
stressful for the body. But this is essentially a self-cure. Nobody coerces
you into followi ng the program; there is no confrontation or pressure of any
kind.
Also be sure to take time every morning for a full-body abhyanga; a
second, shorter massage at night, moving slowly and gently as you cover
head, shoulders, and feet, is also recommended. And remember, the rule
when you are quitting any habit is regularity. The more regular you can be
about everything in your day, the better and quicker you will train Vata back
to norm al. You should not try to force Vata back into balance, since that is
impossible; you want to coax and soothe it back. The gentlest time in your
life should be the period when you are rebalancing your body.
In addition, a few other treatments enter into the picture as supplements:
Music therapy
Aromatherapy
Herbal food supplements (known in Ayurveda as rasayanas— see page
221)
Listening to music is extremely settling to the nervous system while you
are purifying your body. A fifteen-minute session in the morning is
recommended, followed by another session at night before you go to bed.
Filling your room with the appropriate dosha-pacifying aroma s also helps
relax you at bedtime. The use of rejuvenative herbal food supplementsbegins to repair the mind body connection at the level of your cells and
strengthens tissues damaged by drugs.
We feel that no addiction treatment can succeed in the long run without
compassion and understanding. If you decide to seek counseling, look for
these qualities in a psychologist, pastor, doctor, or just a good friend. One
crippling drawback of conventional rehabilitation is that constant vigilance
means constant stress. The monkey never does get off your back. We feel
instead that addicted people have to learn to trust themselves and be
comfortable with their lifestyles. Any increase in fear and anxie ty is totally
unproductive, even if the stress is supposed to help end a habit. The
rationale behind our hands-of f approach is that nature can be trusted. An
addict’ s body will return to balance if it is treated correctly.
If you are seriou sly addicted to alcohol or drugs, you may feel that you
have ruined your whole life; most addicts have inflicted pain on their
families and themselves. The vital thing for you to realize is that this
negativity is not you. It is the result  of physical and mental ama that has
been built up over time. You should take the same attitude toward it that
you would to dirt on your skin—wash it off and forget about it. If others
want to remind you of how destructive you have been in the past, take their
criticism as calmly as you can. The past is the past. You cannot  live it over
again, and you should not remind yourself of it.
It is extremely important that you associate with healthy, normal people
as much as possible. You will have to choose whether to enroll in group
rehabilitation—many addicted people feel that it is an important part of
their return to normal life—but do everything you can to find a
compassionate, positive counselor. Anyone who has a confrontational or
fanatical approach to addictions should be avoided for your own good.
Finally, it is norm al to have relapses as you are recovering. Of course you
will be disappoi nted, but try to see that this is not a personal failure. It takes
time for the body to normalize itself. If you have to have another drink,
cigarette, or pill, it is the habituated doshas that are forcing you. Doshas are
powerful, but you are much more powerful than they can ever be. Youressential self is untouched by addiction. It is happy, free, above all
problems, and at peace. Once you begin to touch this true self of yours,
everything will work out. Be patient and allow yourself to emer ge in
freedom.
The measure of your success is not how many days you go without a
relapse. Rather, you should look for signs of self-acceptance


	to	the	right
amount	for
your
	body.	Refined	carbs	don’t	have	a	place	in	this	ratio.	As	with
fat,	experiment	and	see	what	works	best	for	you	and	your	body	type	and
constitution.	Eat	unlimited	veggies,	especially	green	veggies,	throughout	the
day.	You	can	have	them	in	salads,	green	smoothies,	steamed,	or	lightly	sautéed.
Starchy	root	vegetables	also	digest	well	and	can	be	paired	with	greens	and	other
nonstarchy	veggies.	Beans	and	grains	don’t	have	to	be	everyday	foods	(although
some
cultures	and	people	do	great	consuming	them	on	a	daily	basis),	but	they
can	be	worked	into	your	weekly	rotation	a	few	times	a	week	at	around	one	cup
(cooked)	or	more,	depending	on	your	constitution,	activity	levels,	and	how	you
deal	with	digesting	certain	foods.	Pay	attention	to	your	own	body’s	needs	and
how	you	feel.	Your	body	is	unique	to	you.
PROTEINProtein	is	made	of	amino	acids,	the	building	blocks	of	every	cell.	Amino	acids
are	found	in	all	natural	foods	in	varying	amounts,	from	romaine	lettuce	to	kale
to	almonds.	Amino	acids	are	like	alphabet	blocks;	they	can	be	combined	from
smaller	units	into	whole	proteins,	like	letters	being	combined	to	form	whole
words.	Therefore,	a	totally	vegetarian	or	vegan	diet,	by	combining	amino	acid
groups,	can	achieve	the	full	complement	of	proteins	needed	for	health	and
beauty.
Because	protein	isn’t	used	for	energy	by	the	body,	we	need	much	less	of	it
than	people	believe	when	they	consume
steaks	and	burgers.	Only	a	few	ounces
are	really	needed;	there	isn’t	much	protein	deficiency	today	in	developed
societies	except	among	the	very	poor	and	malnourished.	If	your	diet	contains
enough	calories,	it	will	be	virtually	impossible	not	to	get	enough	protein,	even
without	trying.	The	old	belief	that	vegetarianism	was	dangerous	because	of
protein	deficiency	was	never	true.	There	are	no	innate	drawbacks	to	a	plant-
based	diet.
The	most	complete	protein	source	in	the	vegetable	kingdom	is
soy,	and	for
decades	soy	burgers,	tofu,	and	soy-based	supplements	and	bars	were	a	mainstay
of	vegetarian	diets,	not	to	mention	traditional	regular	diets	in
China	and
Japan.
But	current	research	casts	doubt	on	consuming	excessive	amounts	of	soy	as	a
major	part	of	our	diet,	with	the	risk	of	genetically	modified	soy	and
inflammation	being	the	most	recent	concerns	(but	as	mentioned	on
this	page
,
organic	forms	of	fermented	soy,	such
as
tempeh,	natto,	and	miso,	are	easier-to-
digest	options	that	can	be	worked	into	your	diet	in	moderation	if	you	don’t
have	a	soy	allergy).	But	virtually	all	foods	contain	varying	levels	of	protein,	and
you	can	get	a	hefty	amount	on	a	plant-based	diet.	For	instance,	a	cup	of	cooked
lentils	has	around	18	grams	of	protein,	and	a	cup	of	cooked	spinach	has	around
5	grams	of	plant	protein.	Brussels	sprouts,	mushrooms—you	name	it—all	whole
foods	contain	protein-building	amino	acids	that	are	easily	assimilated	into	your
body.	(Long	before	amino	acid	combining	became	scientific,	traditional	diets
delivered
complete	proteins	by	serving	grains	and	legumes	together,	the	classic
combination	of	rice	and	beans	or	rice	and	lentils	that	is	still	the	staple	for
billions	of	people	around	the	world.)
WHAT	ABOUT	THE	PALEOLITHIC	(CAVE	MAN)	DIET?
One	of	the	newer	iterations	of	the	high	protein	/	low	carb	diet	is	the	so-called
Paleo
diet,	which	was	first	outlined	by
Loren	Cordain,	an	exercise	physiology	professor	at
Colorado	State	University.	The	views	of	this	plan	are	founded	on	the	extremely
hypothetical	habits	of	the
Paleolithic	(Stone	Age)	people	and	modern-day	hunter-
gatherers,	which	he	suggested	could	be	studied	to	make	assumptions	about	the
dietary	habits	of	those	in	Paleo	times.
27
	But	as	pointed	out	by
T.	Colin	Campbell,PhD,	in	his	book
The	Low-Carb	Fraud
,	Cordain	“confesses	in	several	places	in	his
research	papers
28
	that	estimates	of	dietary	intakes	in	both	of	these	groups	are
‘subjective	in	nature’

”	and	furthermore	“acknowledges	that	‘scores’	attempting	to
rate	these	presumed	intakes	from	a	very	large	compendium	of	862	of	the	world’s
societies	are	‘not	precise.’

”
29
	Cordain	notes	that	the	true	“hunter-gatherer	way	of
life,”	devoid	of	Western	influence,	is	“now	probably	extinct.”
30
Historically,	anthropologists	reached	a	consensus	that	only	about	33	percent	of
the	foods	consumed	by	hunter-gatherer	societies	were	animal	based.
31
	But	in
2000,	Cordain	added	a	larger	number	of	societies	and	changed	some	of	the
definitions,	leading	to	a	much	higher	estimate	that	about	66	to	75	percent	of	these
“Paleo”	diets	were	made	up	of	animal	foods.
32
	Scientific	literature	and
anthropologists	have	challenged	Cordain’s	conjectures,	including	anthropologist
Katharine	Milton,	who	asserts	that	Cordain’s	assumption	that	modern	hunter-
gatherers	are	representative	of	Paleolithic	hunter-gatherers	is	a	stretch.
33
Plant	foods	leave	little	or	no	traces	in	archaeological	remains,	making	it	hard	to
accurately	assess	ancient	dietary	habits,	if	we	did	want	to	use	that	as	a	guide	for
our	modern-day	diet.	But	we	can	see	with	certainty	that	we	share	a	very	similar
gut	anatomy	(simple	acid	stomach,	a	small	cecum,	a	small	intestine,	and	a	distinctly
sacculated	colon),	as	well	as	a	lack	of	anatomical	tools	(sharp	fangs,	claws)	to	kill
and	eat	larger	animals,	with	our	nearest	genetic	relatives,	chimpanzees.	Looking	at
their	natural	diet	reveals	that	chimpanzees	are	largely	plant	eaters,	and	may	only
get	upward	of	4	to	6	percent	of	their	diet	from	animal-based	foods	in	the	form	of
ants	and	termites.
34
Assumptions	and	highly	conjectural	“evidence”	from	ancient	history	should	not	be
used	to	assert	the	guidelines	of	eating	such	a	high	protein	and	high
fat	diet	today
(30	to	50	percent	of	each).	Superior	research	directly	refutes	the	high	levels	of
protein	and	fat	pushed	by	high	protein	diets	such	as	the	Paleo.	For	instance,	it	has
been	widely	established	that	when	diet	and	disease	correlations	for	different
populations	are	compared,	diets	like	Paleo	that	are	rich	in	fat	and	animal	protein
correlate	strongly	with	higher	rates	of
heart	disease	and	breast,	colon,	and
prostate
c


 and from then on its exponents and
practitioners, persisting in the face of scientific opposition, gradually accomplished their purpose by proving their content ions, and
at length have the satisfaction of seeing their conclusions accepted and adopted without a pology or acknowledgment by what may
be termed intellectuaI authority.

There is no form of ignorance that is so difficult to overcome and to instruct as is of the "scientific" mind. And, when the latter, as
it sometimes does, obtains a conception of its error, it is extremely loth to admit, first, that it has not always been in possession of
the truth, and, second, that it should render due credit to the mind responsible for its change of concept or belief. And, if  the
position of the individual be such t hat he may with authority employ the power of mere assertion, it is usually much the easier way
to announce as one's own discovery that which formerly one has denied and condemned, perhaps through prejudice, but more
often through sheer ignorance.

In thi s connection quotations are made from several articles and books recently issued by medical authors. These screeds are given
with small comment, but they serve to illustrate the contemptuous attitude assumed by those of whom Louis Kuhne years ago sai d
this: "Everywhere the new science of healing finds sympathetic acceptance, except among a few sceptics and those who believe
that they know everything better than anyone else, and who generally consider it superfluous to make practical trial of any m ethod
strange to the tenets of their own."

First let us hear Dr. W. A. Evans, who writes How to Keep Well, a syndicated letter at present published daily in various
newspapers throughout the country. Dr. Evans has this to say about fasting:
"On the shelves of the  Crerar Library (Chicago), or any other library of similar equipment, are many books on fasting. I
know none that is even half way scientific, nor a quarter way trustworthy. One reason for this is that fasting is the sport o f
amateurs, as one writer calls it. He might have added that it is the fad of faddists and the field of the faker. To further
complicate matters, it is all mixed up with religion. Every religion has always had religious feasts, which are gorges, and
its fasts.

"Prof. Morgulis of the Un iversity of Nebraska has just put out a truly scientific book on the subject. The only trouble
about this book is that it is so accurate, scientific, and technical that the man who needs it most cannot understand it.
Page 34 of  72
"Fasting is a remedial agent of enorm ous power --power for good and power for harm. Nothing the doctor carries in his
saddle bags approximates fasting in its therapeutic possibilities. In fact, a doctor attends a patient through a long illness,
giving him four kinds of medicine four times ever y day, it is probable that the under -nutrition through which the patient
has passed by reason of his loss of appetite, vomiting, diarrhoea, or other quality of his disease, or the dieting to which h e
was subjected, influenced both the patient and his disea se far more than did the medicine which was given.
Comes now Dr. Frederick M. Allen, A. B., M. D., of the Rockefeller Institute Hospital, who about the year, 1915, advanced his
"discovery" of the "starvation treatment" of diabetes. There is no need to dev ote more time to him than to say that as far back as
1878 Dr. Edward Hooker Dewey successfully employed the fast in treating diabetes mellitus.

A quotation now follows from Fasting and Undernutrition, the book of Professor Morgulis of the University of N ebraska College
of Medicine. This is the author mentioned by Dr. Evans, who attributes to the Professor the only scientific work written upon  the
fast--so scientific in fact that the man who needs it most cannot understand it. In his book Professor Morguli s has devoted himself
solely to the physiological aspect of abstinence from food with its effects upon animals in health, neglecting its therapeuti cal
possibilities, excepting to say in his preface: --"In the hands of the skilful practitioner of medicine total abstinence from food may
prove a wonderfully effective weapon in restoring health. The therapeutic value of inanition, however, should be studied
experimentally and not be left to the judgment of amateur enthusiasts. The practical value of inanition wi ll never be fully utilized
until both laymen and the medical profession lose their instinctive fear of fasting". (My italics.) Professor Morgulis, scien tific in
mind and expression though he may be, makes in the statement given the egregious error of confu sing inanition, starvation, with
fasting, forgetting or perhaps not knowing that there is no malnutrition comparable to the starvation that accompanies overea ting.

Quotations from the writings of these men of science are made thus at length for several r easons. It is desired that the reader may
be impressed with the truth that fasting for therapeutic purposes --fasting for the prevention and relief of disease --has been known
and practiced for all of the historic ages of man. It is also to be emphasized tha t all animate nature, save man, instinctively refuses
food when physical balance is disturbed. And, whether the discussion conducted herein be from the standpoint of science
"scientific" or not, it will stand the sole test that makes for truth in that the results connoted are based upon long, faithful, and
accurate observation and experiment of minds as capable of receiving and recording the phenomena connected with abstinence
from food in illness or in health as are those of the scientists quoted. And it s hould possess the further distinction of being easily
understandable by him who needs it most.

The premises of the argument underlying the application of a fast for therapeutic will bear repetition. Disease, in whatever form
evidenced, whatever the sympt om displayed, has its origin at the threshold of digestion. In disease itself lies relief. Disease and
cure, viewed from the standpoint of nature, are a unity. The former may not be suppressed lest the latter fail of attainment.  When
an organism, constitut ed as is the body of man, becomes the victim of its own violation of hygienic law, when the avenues through
which vital force, the source of life, is transmitted, are permitted to become obstructed, unless these channels are cleansed, are
opened for the pa ssage of energy, life ceases and death occurs. In order that the passages through which the life principle reaches
the separate parts of the human body may be free and unobstructed, a system of elimination exists. Building of tissue --
assimilation --takes pl ace as the result of food ingested and digested, but health depends upon a balance between nutrition and
elimination. And there is no eliminative agency known to science comparable with a properly administered fast.

Dr. Evans has said that the book of Pr ofessor Morgulis is a treatise upon the fast that is truly scientific. And there is no doubt that
Fasting and, Undernutrition is a thesis most carefully prepared and couched in purely scientific terms. But it deals entirely with
inanition in healthy animals and with a few short fasts undertaken by healthy human professionals. Fasting in health and fast ing
when disease is in evide nce are two distinct processes, and the writer believes that even science must concede differing chemical
transformations and reactions in sickness and in health. And further, because the results of many years of observation, exper iment,
and induction are placed before students in terms that are easily understandable, it must not be concluded that the truths discovered
and related are non -scientific and are to be discarded as fallacies. Yet the professed scientist is most free in offering the sort of
critic ism mentioned and inferred, and this has its weight with those who are subservient to intellectual authority, with those who
are either unwilling or incapable of thinking for themselves.

It is thus seen that obstacles are put in the way of the practice o f fasting as a therapeutic measure by the scientist and by the
ignorant layman, but this has a direct advantage in promoting investigation, for criticism, especially from scientific source s,
necessarily induces in an intelligent and conscientious observer intense concentration upon all phases of the subject. No point that
may conduce to favorable issue is overlooked; no natural law or accessory is permitted to remain without investigation.
Considerations merely selfish in character might here prove motives for a certain sort of endeavor --desire for gain, the hope of
triumphing over other schools. But a broader deeper feeling actuates the true student of nature In him the search for perfect
understanding of cause and effect, the giving of a truth to the world  the relief of physical suffering, are the stimuli that impel him
to surmount the obstacles he meets and that bring success to his labors.

The discovery of the general therapeutic worth of the fast was soon followed by a knowledge of its value as a diagn ostic agent.
Page 35 of  72 Properly directed, the method never fails to uncover every weak point in an ailing body, to reveal the exact location of orga nic
distress or defect, the focal point of disease. Continued experiment and observation established the desirability of correct approach
to complete abstinence from food through gradual diminution of intake, thus insuring systemic accommodation to the
physiological changes involved,


 given you a blank stare. I had never
even thought about it.
I s tarted  leafing through the pages of the book on Zen,
and within minutes it became evident: this book was
about that voice. My heart practically stopped. I had
trouble breathing. This book was clearly about how to
stop that voice from talking. Passage after passage spoke
about quieting the mind. It used terms like the True Self
behind the mind. There was  no doubt that I had found
what I’d been looking for. I knew there had to be others
who had gained the perspecti ve of watching that voice of
the mind instead of identify ing with it. Not only was
there an entire legacy of kno wledge spanning thousands
of y ears that d ealt with the voice, but this book clearlydiscussed “getting out.” It talked about freeing yourself
from the hold of the mind. It talked about going beyond.
Needless to say, I was in awe. I felt a reverence for this
book th at I had never felt fo r anything in my life. I had
been forced to read and study  so many books in school. I
now ha d in my hands a book that answered some real
questions for me, like who a m I that watches that voice
talk. These were questions that I passionately wanted to
know the answers to. Truth is, it was way beyond want.  I
needed  to know these answers—tha t voice was driving
me crazy!
What Three P illars o f Zen  had to say was very clear
and unequivocal. It said to stop reading, talking, and
thinking about your mind, and just do the work
necessary to quiet it down. The required work was
equally unambiguous—meditate.
Before I even knew about meditation, I had tried
sitting alone in order to make  the voice stop talking. But
that ha d never worked for me. With this book, I was
presented a tried-and-true method that had worked for
thousands of others. Simply  sit down in a quiet spot,
watch your breath go in and o ut, and mentally repeat the
sound Mu.  That’s it. Now do that for an ever-increasing
length of time each day. In  Zen, the real work was
generally done in a group setting called a sessin.  In
traditional sett ings, a trained person would walk around
with a kyosaku  stick. If you st arted to sleep or lost focus
in a nother manner, you would get a smack on your
shoulders with the stick. Zen was strict; there was no
playing around. This form of Zen was serious work.
I didn’t have a group or a teacher. All I had was the
book an d a very sincere yearn ing to see if these practices
would t ake me  where I want ed to go. So I started to do
Zen me ditation on my own. At least it was my best
understanding of what Zen meditation is. At first I sat for
fifteen or twenty minutes eac h day. Within a week I built
that to half an hour, twice a day. There were no fireworksor deep experiences. But concentrating on my breath and
the mantra was definitely di verting my awareness from
the incessant chatter of the v oice. If I made the mental
voice say Mu,  it couldn’t say all the crazy personal things
it usually said. I quickly bega n to like the practice. I
looked forward  to the times I had put aside during the
day for meditation.
I w as no more  than a few weeks into my experiment
with Zen meditation when Sh elly and I decided to go on
a ca mping trip. We were joined by four friends, and
together we drove our vans into Ocala National Forest
for the weekend. I had a VW  camper, so weekend trips
were an easy affair. But this trip wouldn’t turn out to be
just another camping trip—this trip was destined to have
a profound impact on the rest of my life.
We found a sec luded spot in the woods that opened up
to a pristine wetland area. Once we situated our vans, we
were overcome by the quiet and beauty of the place. It
dawned on me that this wo uld be a good place to do
some m editation. I was just a novice, but I was very
serious about doing the practices and finding out what it
would be like i f the voice actually stopped. I asked Shelly
and our friends if I could spend some time by myself. No
one objected, so I meandered down by the grassy lake
and found a nice spot to sit. The whole notion of
meditating was  so meaningful to me that from the start it
was like a sacred experience. I picked a tree to sit under,
just like the Buddha. Then, very dramatically, I told
myself, I’m not getting up unt il I’ve reached
enlightenment.
What happened under that tree that day was so
powerful that even now my body shivers and my eyes
begin to tear just to think about it.4.
A b s o l u t e  S i l e n c e
I  crossed my legs in a full-lotus position. I knew I wasn’t
proficient enou gh to hold that posture for long, but I
thought I might as well start with the official meditation
position. I straightened my back and neck, and I began to
concentrate on  my breath expanding and contracting in
my abd omen. The Zen book instructed me to make the
Mu  sou nd way do wn in my belly, below the belly button.
I watched my breath go in and out from way down there.
I wa s intending to sit for muc h longer than I had done
previously, so I used my will to concentrate with extra
intensity and sincerity. It must have made a difference
because I went deeper insi de than I had ever gone
before. It seemed that concentrating on the movement of
the breath in my belly created a force that linked the
outflow of breath from my nostrils with the inner
movement of my abdomen. Every time I breathed slowly
out my nose, I felt a warm, inviting sensation throughout
the area below my belly. The sensation was so nice that
my attention naturally centered there. For a period of
time, I simply lost myself in the beauty of the experience.
Some ti me later, the length o f which I had no way of
telling, the mental voice began talking about how
beautiful the experience was  and how this must be real
meditation. Since my awar eness was drawn to that
mental voice, it was drawn away from concentrating on
the breath. The meditation experience seemed to have
run its natural  course, and I began to come down to my
normal mental state.But this meditation session was supposed to be
different. I had told myself I w asn’t getting up until I had
broken through. So I willfully began concentrating anew
on the movem ent of the breath in my belly and on the
sound of Mu.  I lost myself once again in the warm
flowing force that tied my ex halations to the warmth in
my abdomen. The force became much stronger as I
concentrated more deeply. E ventually, all consciousness
of my body an d my surroundings was gone. I was only
aware of the effortless flow  of warm energy that was
building and expanding at the core of my belly. I was not
there; only the flow was there.
From time to time, for brie f moments, my sense of
self-awareness would drift b ack into focus. The instant
that sta rted to happen, I would willfully focus on the
feeling of the exhaled breath  and the movement of my
belly—and, in stantly, I was no longer there. This
experience of drifting in and  out of the deep state went
on for a prolonged period of time, perhaps hours.
At s ome point, I must have  lost the will to refocus
during one of those mom ents when self-awareness
returned. I had been far gone in a very deep and peaceful
place, but I started to come back. I don’t know how long I
had actually been sitting, but the first thing I became
aware o f was the pain in my legs. They hurt a great deal
from sitting in a full-lotus po sition for so long. The voice
of th e m ind ha d not started b ack up yet. I was just there,
kind of dazed, but very peaceful and deeply mesmerized
by the experie nce. I suppose I would have continued to
come down, but an amazing thing happened. From back
behind where my sense of awareness had been centering
came a booming voice. It said  very sternly: “DO YOU OR
DO YOU NOT WANT TO KNOW WHAT IS BEYOND
YOU?”
This wa s not the voice of th e mind I was so used to
struggling with. Ever since I first noticed that chattering
voice, it was t alking in front of and below where I satinside. This new invocation came from behind and above
where m y sens e of awareness was now situated. In any
event, i ts stern challenge shook me to the depths of my
being. I didn’t feel the need to answer the question,
because every drop of