 the famine. Most
big difference from wet dry fasting, that the most therapeutic
- Second acidotic crisis. Begins with 8 po11-day, and sometimes
what a night it can solve all the truth and psychologically during this period
the most difficult. We passed a lot of patients with rheumatoid arthritis, of course,
Not all such good results, someone we will not be able to
help. Reasons for failure - it's not all can pass the necessary
healing period of fasting and a very big experience hormonal
therapy when all the natural healing forces of the body just
crushed chemistry. 221
221The case has brought me to a woman who I've been searching for. When
we meet her, she was with Kostylkov and very strongly
limping on his right leg. She had a deforming osteoarthrosis
right hip, and she very much did not want to do
operation. with pleasure, she went to our Altai, passed two
rate of dry hunger for seven days. from the fifth day she had a strong
glow in the hip joints. After fasting from her pain disappeared
and she stopped limping. The output of our entire group went to a cafe,
all marveled at how she danced beautifully. Unfortunately, it lacked
This course of fasting for five years. Sometimes after a good result
after fasting people cease to comply with all recommendations
arrange fasting days, and preventive courses of hunger, then
disease inevitably returns. When we met her five years later it became clear that she
- Still had the surgery. She told me: "How do you Sergey Ivanovich
left, I lost the support and incentive. " I often write and ask if you can help starving
with this incurable and insidious disease, as scattered
sclerosis? Multiple sclerosis, a chronic disease of the central
nervous system with an unpredictable, often with progressive
flow. Multiple sclerosis affects the brain,
optic nerves, the spinal cord that leads to disruption
respective functions. The disease is characterized by
formation of randomly scattered foci of demyelination -
loss of myelin, a white fatty substance that covers the axons
(Nerve fibers). Morbidity. Multiple sclerosis usually begins
in his youth, but can occur in any period of 15 to 60 years. Women are more susceptible than men. Most
high incidence - among Caucasians living in the temperate
climates. The disease is not inherited. U.S. diffused
MS suffers no less than 300 thousand people.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        Acquired
brochure describing the method of dry abstinence. Took leave and 11
days spent in complete abstinence from any food or liquids. The result exceeded all my expectations. Healed of all ills,
gone stones from the gallbladder, the sand from the kidney, uterine fibroids disappeared
cancer, improved eyesight. I am born again, younger age at
15. Since that approval, they say, if without food a person can live
month, then no water will not last, and five days - nonsense. During the dry
fast, without taking a single drop of liquid through the mouth, the body
receives moisture through breathing and skin. I walked at night from 3-4 am
when the dew falls, the hour for 2-3 barefoot in the dewy grass. Now
preparing for the new achievement - I want to spend without liquid 21
day, and then, like the biblical prophets - and 40 days. " Olga. Kislovodsk. Of course, such starvation is very risky to go
independently and at home, I still advocate of a more
soft gradual, coaching fasting. A woman called me from Yekaterinburg, she said to me: "I
was diagnosed: a precancerous condition dysplasia
cervix, uterus. Can you help me, I am very afraid
do the operation. I advised her to prepare well as I have
written on the site, and to come. In June, she came to us in Altai. Dry starvation she endured a very difficult, since the growth of 148
cm and weighed 98 kg. The most important thing - she did not clean the liver, so
her best friend, a doctor told her that the cleaning of the liver total
stupid and very harmful to the liver. The first course of fasting was
only 4 days, the output had to make her colon hydrotherapy
(Monitor purgation), a second famine occurred 10 days
Of course, it's easier the first, but too hard. Of course, helped to pass
hunger her powerful mental attitude and a desire to be cured. At the exit from starvation, I advised her to drink anticancer
Altai grass and do dry fasting days twice a week. 198
198Two months later she called me and said: "I again felt
heaviness in the abdomen, once appeared a negative thought, I wonder
hungry and I have nothing passed. " I advised her to do an ultrasound. She dared and went to the ultrasound, the conclusion - dysplasia and uterine
no. Most interestingly, her weight was 72 kg, and she disappeared tinnitus
and heel spurs. I think most of it helped that she was making
Dry fasting days and has been on a vegetarian diet. I had
many cases where during the famine did not pass a lipoma, but later
two - three months after fasting in observance of the recommendations they
reabsorbed. Disease of the breast
Breast disease - a benign breast tissue changes
cancer in women. Breast occurs in women of all ages, but
most often it affects women between the ages of 25 to 45 years. By
Statistics show that, 60-80% of women. Causes of mastitis
The main cause of mastitis in violations
in the hormonal system of women. Under normal
functioning of the female body monthly hormonal
changes lead to cyclical changes in the dairy
glands. Violations in the hormonal cycle may cause
to the emergence of mastitis. Risk factors, whose presence
increases the likelihood of mastitis:
inflammation of the uterus, transferred the patient;
hereditary factor - the presence of breast diseases
with relatives on the maternal side;
thyroid disease;
liver and gall bladder;
diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disorders;
lack of iodine in the body;
stress, depression, irregular sexual life;
abortion trauma of breast cancer, alcohol, smoking, radiation;
absence or late first pregnancy, short period
breastfeeding;
early onset of menstruation, and later their termination. Of all types of benign tumors (except for cystic
formations), breast is best is curable. First chest very quickly involved in the process of starvation,
on average, it loses weight by 10-15 grams daily. Second, the tumor
You can always palpate and find out whether it has disappeared. thirdly, to
tumor can always just put the leeches on the exit from the famine that
gives a huge potentiating effect. in the saliva of leeches contains
enzymes that can dissolve the protective capsule of the tumor that
facilitates the work of the immune system but a leech can act
in two ways: they enhance the normal immune system, and the weak
can suppress even stronger, that could trigger tumor growth. 199
199During the famine immunity always increases, and the tumor in such
conditions will never be able to grow, it turns out that girudoterapija
enhances the therapeutic effect, duration of fasting when combined
girudoterapii with much shorter. "I have always treated these worm (leeches), disgust
and distrust, and when, after eight days of dry fasting,
Output Sergei gave me on my tumor (I
nodal mastopathy: 42 X 32) leeches, I reacted to this
skeptical. But the next day I came out a lot of mucous
thick blood clots. On the chest remained small purple
triangular scar, which then passed. But the most pleasant
I was waiting ahead when, after survey, I have not found
mastopathy. Now I love them very much and twice a year doing
obscheozdoravlivayuschie prevention courses. Many, of course, will wonder why I have so much in the chapter devoted
attention to gynecological problems. First, in recent
time for us a lot of young girls coming from a very serious
gynecological patients who want to give birth to healthy children. Secondly, at the time, when I just started to carry out dry
starvation, a woman came to us from Surgut, she had adhesive
disease. in twenty years it has been found an ovarian cyst, she
spayed, but due to the complications she had to remove
uterus and the second ovary. as a result of this operation, it remained at
life barren and has not developed a personal life, and now
because of adhesions from her very badly operates intestine. She said to me:
"Why about you I have learned only through third parties, why do not you
give truthful information about dry fasting, because so many
now ill young girls and many of them repeat
my story. People should have the information that they have always
had a choice. " In the third place. Very often in his letters to women are asked how
also helps medical starvation, due to what mechanisms. Fourth, the instinct of motherhood,


with intestinal sanitation followed by the antimicrobial program below. However, it may persist in areas with reduced blood supply, such as
between toes and under nails, and also as vaginal thrush or causing
endometriosis. In this case, fungicides need to  be applied directly to the
problem area. Most effective for vaginal thrush are inserted capsules
filled with borax. In long -standing and severe conditions Candida tends to protect itself
with biofilms - like a mass of fungal strings covered in slimy or st icky
mucus which cannot normally be penetrated by fungicides. This may be
overcome by high doses of a strong fungicide such as 20 drops of Lugol's
solution, CDH or non -acidified MMS, which may induce diarrhoea and
vomiting of stringy mucus. Topical DMSO is best to eliminate Candida
from inaccessible places, preferably add another fungicide, such as
Lugol's solution. Frequently, especially with Candidiasis, there is a die -off or Herxheimer
reaction during intestinal sanitation or systemic therapy. You may feel 63
 weak and nauseous. In this case temporarily interrupt or reduce the
intake of antimicrobials but  make special efforts to clean out your bowels. The Spit Test: At the start of your program do the Spit Test which shows
if you have a fungus pro blem in the mouth. Immediately after rising
before you eat or drink anything, fill a clear glass with water at room
temperature. Spit some saliva into it. Then check for up to an hour what
happens. If Candida is present, you will see any of these:
1. Strings  like legs extending downwards from the saliva floating on top
2. Cloudy saliva accumulating at the bottom of the glass
3. Cloudy bits remaining suspended in the water. The quicker and stronger the strings grow and the sooner the saliva
sinks, the more Candida i s in the sample. If there are no strings and the
saliva is still floating after one hour the test is negative, Candida may still
be present in other parts of the body. It may be eliminated from the mouth
by swishing diluted Lugol's solution or CDH for seve ral minutes in the
mouth. Urine therapy
Urine is used in many cultures and  is especially effective against
disorders of the immune system, including infections, allergies,
autoimmune diseases and others. Urine contains antibodies and immune
stimulating factors against all microbes in our body. To switch off an
allergic reaction use urine collected during or after the reaction. Put a few
drops of straight or diluted urine under the tongue and  keep it in the
mouth for a few minutes. For the Universal Remedy  mix 2 drops of urine and 1 tablespoon of water
in a small (dropper) bottle by shaking for ten seconds with a strong
downwards movement. Whenever you feel sick put several drops under
the tongue every 2 waking hours. Make a new remedy every week,
usually no refrigeration required. Another meth od is to dilute a spoonful of morning urine with 5 to 10 times
the amount of non -chlorinated water. Shake 20 to 40 times with a sharp 64
 downward stroke.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        Blood group AB has the characteristics of A as well as B. The sub -
group  A2 needs more protein and fat than the dominant A1 type. Individuals of the non -vegetarian type, commonly with blood group O, 31
 need mainly slow -digesting food; those of the vegetarian type and
commonly with blood group A1 do better with fast digesting food or a low-
fat diet, while the other types and blood groups  may use a balanced diet. *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

 32
 Chapter Three
NUTRITION - Part Two
Use Supplements, Allergy Testing, and Alkalize the Body

SUPPLEMENTS
Presently nutritional supplements are promoted on a big scale because
that is where the money is. But the health benefits are usually very limited
because most people use supplements instead of focusing on basic
health improvement. The proper place of supplements is in addition to a
health improvement program, and th en focusing on essential nutrients
instead of using a wide range of fancy products. Commonly supplements now provide many times the amounts of
individual nutrients that might be available even from a good diet and, if
the correct nutrients are supplied in such high doses, they can actually
improve or normalize a health problem. The reason for this success can
be understood as follows. Presently diets are low in various nutrients but high in factors that reduce
their availability, such as seeds high in phyta tes and phytic acid ( e. g., in
cereals and bran) that prevent absorption of minerals, while microwave
cooking, high heating and refining greatly reduce the amount of absorbed
undamaged vitamins and other nutrients. Further, because of Candida -caused deficien cy of gastric acid and
inflammation of the intestinal wall in addition to gluten sensitivity, many
nutrients are poorly absorbed. These factors also cause Leaky Gut
Syndrome, microbial infestation of the blood, chronic inflammations and
allergies. This lea ds to hypercoagulation of the blood with blockage of
blood vessels and tissue calcification. Therefore,  sensitive structures in the brain, eyes, glands and organs are
no longer sufficiently supplied with blood, and the blood that they do 33
 receive is low in  essential nutrients. So, it is no surprise that deficiencies
are widespread. If we now increase the intake of a deficient nutrient ten -
fold with the help of a supplement, then we may double the blood level
of this nutrient and get more of it to the nutrient -starved organs. However,
supplements have the disadvantage that they are often synthetic and do
not have bioenergy for proper absorption and use. They can help if really
needed, but often they also are not properly excreted and produce toxic
resid ues which the body may find difficult to excrete. An alternative strategy would be to use high -quality food prepared in a
user-friendly way, heal the damage to the stomach and the intestinal wall
by getting and keeping Candida under control, cleaning the blood of
microbes, the blood vessels of obstruction s, and the tissue of
calcifications. This corresponds to the Health Improvement Program. Until this becomes fully effective, high amounts of key nutrients may on
balance still be beneficial. With this in mind, food supplements are most important for indi viduals
with malabsorption, chronic diseases and those using microwave
cooking, processed and refined food, or mostly non -organic produce. The following are some basic guidelines. To improve your diet preferably use concentrated health foods such as
barley  or wheat grass powder, bee pollen, spirulina or chlorella, whey
protein isolate, lecithin, krill oil and fish oils with added vitamin E. Preferably crush any vitamin or mineral tablets and mix them with meals
or take your tablets or capsules near the mid dle of a meal. Some individuals and especially children cannot swallow capsules or
tablets. An easy way is to place a tablet or capsule at the back of the
tongue and then tilt the head back to look at the ceiling. The tablet or
capsule will then automatica lly roll into the throat. Pyroluria  is a common metabolic condition in which pyrrol e, a key
component of haemoglobin, is overproduced in the liver. The surplus
binds to vitamin B6 and zinc and is excreted in the urine. This creates
severe deficiencies in B 6 and zinc and some other nutrients, such as 34
 niacinamide, gamma linolenic acid (GLA), and biotin. Depending on conditions, this may be a n underlying  cause of most
chronic diseases, especially of  diabetes and mental -emotional
condition s. Pyroluria can be inherited or acquired  due to intestinal
dysbiosis with overgrowth of Candida, pleomorphic (shape -changing)
microbes in the blood, and possibly Lyme disease, all affecting the liver. The resulting vitamin and mineral deficiencies may initially require a h igh
intake of these vitamins, although biotin can be obtained from egg yolk,
while gamma linolenic acid is highest in spirulina. With pyroluria the liver often cannot convert normal vitamin B6 or
pyridoxine into the activated form Pyridoxal -5-Phosphate whi ch should
then be supplemented. For d etails see: Pyroluria and Candida. Digestive enzymes  are beneficial for malabsorption, underweight, if
elderly or in poor health, and may be taken with all cooked meals. Lipase
(to digest fats) is especially good for diabetes, heart disease and
overweight. Proteases (to digest proteins) such as bromelain and papain
help with cooked meat. Fat-soluble nutrients  are frequently deficient due to malabsorption. Vitamins A and D may be  obtained from fish oils especially hali but liver
oil and krill oil, which also supplies beneficial astaxanthin. Deep sea fish
oil is good for providing omega -3 fatty acids but may not contain vitamins
A and


iminate procreation has brought humanity to a global crisis. It
has accelerated the danger of a war which might result in the ex-
tinction of the species. Apart from certain insects and higher apes, animals engage in
sexual intercourse for reproductive purposes only. The female re-
ceives the male only at definite mating periods, that overall com-
promise a small part of the animal's lifespan. It is clear that sex-
uality plays a different role for humans than it does for animals, and
it is critical that men and women become educated as to the pos-
sibility sex can play in their own evolution and thus affect the
balance of nature as well.CHAPTER 4
THE SEXUAL ECONOMY
"Man cannot be without woman and woman cannot be without
man. If you think intercourse is an isolated or separate act, longev-
ity is threatened and every illness arises." —from the Recipe for Making Priceless Gold
Sun S'su-Mo, physician who lived 101 years36 Taoist Secrets Of Love
Every man is born with a certain amount of priceless vital chi
energy. Some begin with more than others, but for the sake of
simplicity let us assume an average man is born with a sum of
vitality likened at $1,000,000. Over one's life span this million dol-
lar's worth of life force is spent. Some spend wisely and live heart-
ily into the 80's and 90's. When you are young you spend it faster
because it seems like such a huge amount it could never run out. Most people in our consumer society spend more money than
they earn. They borrow themselves deep in the hole, assuming
they will earn enough to pay it back later. If they fail, they face
bankruptcy or a corrective period of lean living. Through poor
habits the same thing happens with life energy, only the penalty is
loss of appetite for life, sickness, and death. Let us say that someone earns an additional 100 units of life
force daily through breathing, eating and resting. Yet he may spend
125 units of life through poor diet, smoking, gluttony, overwork,
anxiety, constitutional weakness, drug abuse and frequent loss of
the vital sex fluid. To spend the extra 25 units he must continuously
borrow vitality from the brain and organs. This theft of vital energy
from one's own million dollar reserves gradually induces mental
and physical sickness and premature aging. Conserving sexual energy is a practical way to earn 125 units
and spend 100 units or less. It's an investment in one's physical,
mental, and spiritual growth. The imbalance of one's personal
economy can be corrected by reducing the disastrously wasteful
expenditure of ejaculation. A "profit" of 25 units of vitality is then
made by transforming the conserved sexual fluid into higher mental
or spiritual energy. Eliminating other bad habits will reduce the
loss and increase the profit, but no other single factor in life is so
potent as sexual energy. If you work hard all day, you've already used up much en-
ergy. If you then have a few drinks, eat a heavy dinner and later
have sex in which you ejaculate the vital sperm fluid, you are
overspending your life's provision prematurely. Some people
would call it a day well spent, as they cannot envision anything
better in life to spend their energy on. If you continue to overtax
your resources, you may wake one morning fatigued with life, sick
with arthritis or cancer, or maybe you won't wake up at all. You
will have prematurely exhausted your vital capital and may have to
die at an age that you feel is somehow "unfair" or possibly worse,The Sexual Economy 37
suffer through your final years in life with your creative powers and
physical faculties greatly diminished. I am a Taoist living in the twentieth century near New York
City and lead an extremely busy life. I have a wife and an overly
energetic young child. I own a computer, drive a car in city traffic,
deal with teaching hundreds of students, and maintain a heavy
travel schedule flying around the U.S.I know it is possible to lead a
rich and rewarding life without exhausting oneself, and have seen
my students do the same. The more you cultivate your chi energy
with daily practice, the easier it becomes to replace energy spent
and still end up ahead. Of course, if you choose a simpler lifestyle you can progress
much more quickly. That's why many Taoists choose to live up in
the peaceful mountains. But you can live by the same Taoist princi-
ples anywhere. The universe is bountiful if you know how to live
with it. Sexual energy is one of the most abundant gifts given to us
by nature, yet most people casually toss it away without realizing
the full value of its treasure. As Americans become more aware of the importance of per-
sonal health they are seeking to change their lifestyles. Many peo-
ple are now realizing that they have been living destructively. For-
tunately, they have grown conscious before it is too late. Whether
they are jogging or taking a dance class, they wish to begin a life-
energy conservation program. First they must pay the interest on
the vital sums they have overspent from their mind and body. After
a while they may repay both interest and principal as they begin to
produce and conserve more energy. At that point they can take the
path of cultivating their chi energy into its original spirit. Have realistic expectations. You may have spent more vi-
tality than you had to spare. Concentration and patience are neces-
sary to recover it. You can spend $100,000 in an hour, but you may
need one year to earn it back. Serious physical and mental trauma,
heavy use of drugs, and frequent ejaculation all involve grossly
excessive spending. Many young people seem to have unlimited
energy. But these youths are toying with the sources of life as if on
a wild spending spree. Many older people apparently in good health are, in fact,
tottering on the brink of serious breakdown. Only the strength of
habitual self-will allows them to continue to function. When they
have a check-up—often prompted by unconscious awareness of38 Taoist Secrets Of Love
their condition—the doctor may order an immediate halt to stren-
uous exertion. Often these people collapse in the first days of their
enforced rest because the flimsy strand of willpower which kept
them going has been cut. Friends will say, "I can't believe it. Yesterday he seemed strong as an ox." If you learn to balance your
account in the sexual economy, you will be taking the most prudent
steps possible to avoid such a scenario in your own life. THE YOUTHFUL FURY OF SEXUAL FRUSTRATION
One of my main concerns is the frustration of youth in our society. Upon the quality of their thoughts and acts civilization will endure
or crumble. Most male youths are more interested in sex than
almost any other subject. This is natural, as their bodies are work-
ing overtime to produce billions of sperm cells. Women cannot
imagine what an intense experience this is, as their energy cycle is
more evenly distributed over the fluctuation of a monthly men-
strual cycle. This build-up of male energy is a natural manifestation of
universal Yang energy. The development of traditional romantic
love at this stage is natural. If this expanding Yang energy finds a
receptive female to nourish it the love between them can mature
and spiritual evolution gradually awaken. The problem of ob-
sessive sex arises from a material society that stresses the value of
physical sex so highly that people remain immature all their lives
seeking to sustain a lusty image of sex that exhausts them and
ultimately blocks their evolution by stimulating them to rapid loss
of their seed. The harder youths try to grab pleasure, the more surely it
eludes them. In their frustration, many seek pleasure with increas-
ing fury, a quest for identity that leads to frequent masturbation
and promiscuity. The more often they spill out their vital seed, the
more empty they gradually become despite the temporary feeling
of gratification as the life force passes out their loins. Unrestrained
sexual frenzy can destroy a young man's fragile identity and melt
him into the mob mind cultivated by sex-for-profit industry and
sexually exploitive media shows. Higher vital energy which should
nourish the young person's true center serves instead to grease the
empty fantasy of his bed of lust. Afterward he is left with nothing. This spells spiritual disaster if the excesses are not corrected inThe Sexual Economy 39
time. This type of young man may have difficulty in his relationship
with women and ultimately this leaves a vacuum in his understand-
ing of himself and the female pole of his own male energy. For this same reason adolescents tend to fanaticism, political,
religious, or otherwise. Mao's Red Guard is but one youth group
that has propagated its reigning tyrant's brand of fascism. The
proliferation of various cults in the U.S. is strong evidence that the
young are not able to fill the void in their lives with the physical
pleasures that have become standard. If the fragile link with his
newly forming adult identity is frayed or broken by lack of love or
social nurturance, a youth has only the group psyche to animate his
life. The group mind provides the fullness their hollowness craves. As Nature abhors a vacuum, their own emptiness despises itself. These remarks apply to adults in our sex obsessed society as
well; many are desperately


 the
Tao, which never divides anything. How can oneness be broken apart? It
would no longer exist if you could split it up. Withdraw yourself and allow others. Monitor your inclinations to compare yourself to others or to stay within
the “system.” A system is designed to get you to behave just like everyone
else, as it contrives to make comparisons determine your success or
happiness. The Tao Te Ching urges you to seek obscurity: Draw little or noattention to yourself, and don’t ask to be recognized. Instead, allow, allow,
allow. Let other people flourish, waxin g on about their strength and popularity. As Lao-tzu says, you must deliberately grant others the right to expand, but
take your own lesson from the fish that endure and stay in the deep waters
of your T ao-directed soul. Do the T ao Now
Give yourself an assignment to be as much in the background as you can
for an entire day. Stifle inclinations to compare yourself to anyone else or to
draw attention to yourself. You can accomplish this by making a
commitment to be interested in others today, substituting the pronoun I for
you. So instead of saying, “I did this kind of work for years; let me tell you
how you should proceed,” remark, “You seem to be doing so well with your
new business.” In the language of the Tao, stay soft and gentle and you will
endure. OceanofPDF.com37th Verse
The T ao does nothing,
but leaves nothing undone. If powerful men
could center themselves in it,
the whole world would be transformed
by itself, in its natural r hythms. When life is simple,
pretenses fall away;
our essential natur es shine thr ough. By not wanting, ther e is calm,
and the world will straighten itself. When ther e is silence,
one finds the anchor of the universe within oneself. OceanofPDF.comLiving in Simplicity
I call this the “Bite your tongue, zip your lips” verse of the Tao Te Ching. The paradox inherent in the two opening lines intrigues me enormously:
“The Tao does nothing, but leaves nothing undone.” Just imagine what
we’re being told to consider in this verse—do nothing and everything gets
done. It obvious ly contradicts all that you and I have been taught. Doing
nothing in our culture suggests a lazy, unsuccessful, and quite possibly
worthless individual. So for a moment, let’s modify the way we think about
living simply and doing nothing. Of all the troubles that are reported in the media—including wars,
terrorism, famine, hatred, crime, and disease—how many are the result of
interfering with the natural unfolding of creation? How much of the
essential nature of ourselves and our planet is able to shine through? What
would Earth be like if govern ments didn’ t meddle in everyone’ s lives? What if no one could be perceived as an enemy? Could there be a world
where groups of people never got together to control others or to invade or
conquer—how about where oceans, mountains, natural resources, air,
plants, and animals were respe cted and allowed to flourish without any
interference? Suppose that such a place of simplicity and lack of
interference existed... it would be acting exactly as the Tao does, doing
nothing and yet leaving nothing undone. Now shift out of this highly imaginative scenario and begin to reconsider
what’ s meant in this passage by the concept of powerful individuals
transforming the world. When they’re interfering with natural rhythms, they
ultimately create difficulties that are inconsistent  with the Tao. Try to
visualize great leaders who are instead centered in the Tao—th ey bite their
tongues and zip their lips rather than act in a hostile way, and they refuse to
participate in activities that cause harm to anything on the planet. Yes, this
may be a fantasy, but it’s not an impossibility when you think like a sage
and are centered in the Tao. The 37th verse of the Tao Te Ching can also help you change the way you
look at yourself. Let’s say that you’re accustomed to equating the idea of
success with a take-char ge kind of person. You believe that this individualallocates responsibilities to others because he or she is a leader who’ s
willing and able to tell others what to do and how to do it. Well, this view is
completely out of harmony with the Tao, which “does nothing” and “leaves
nothing undone. ” As you alter the way you look at your own power and
success, you’ll begin to replac e strong desires with calm contentment. When you start to allow your true nature—wh ich is the anch or of the
universe—to shine through, you’ll recognize that the way you look at things
has absolutely changed. I’ve used this simplicity lesson in dealing with all of my children. When I
step in and tell them “how,” I create resistance. But when I bite my tongue,
zip my lips, and retreat into silence, they not only figure it out themselves,
but a calm energy replaces their frustration. I’ve learned that my kids know
how to be: They too have the anchor of the universe within them. They too
are centered in the do-nothing, get-everything-done Tao. They too have an
essential nature that they’re listening to. As I’ve gotten more adept at
trusting this—not only for my children, but for everyone I encounter—I’m
more peaceful. And guess what? More, not less, seems to get accomplished
—on time and without problems that used to surface because of my
interference. Change the way you think abou t the entire idea of success and power, for
this isn’t the result of obsessive accomplishment and continually following
directions. Start living in a world that you know 37th Verse works far better
with less meddl ing. You understand that not everyone will stop instructing
others and just allow the Tao to unfold, but you can be an observer,
watching others tap into their power by centering themselves. Here’ s what Lao-tzu suggests for making this verse become your daily
reality:
Cultivate your unique, natural self. Practice allowing your essential nature to shine by not enforcing
judgments on yourself that were imposed by others. Remind yourself that
you don’t have to do anything:  You don’t have to be better than anyone
else. Y ou don’ t have to win. Y ou don’ t have to be number 1 or number 27 or
any other number. Give yourself permission to just be. Stop interfering with
your unique natural being. Lighten the burden you carry to be productive,wealthy, and successful in the eyes of others; and replace it with an inner
assertion that allows you to access the Tao. Affirm: I am center ed in the
Tao. I trust that I am able to straighten myself out, and so is the world. I
retreat into silence, knowing that all is well. Expect to see the essential natur e of others by r emaining silent. Deliberately bite your tongue and zip your lips at the precise moment that
you’re tempted to get involved in the lives of those around you. Become
aware of your inclination to tell others, particularly your family members,
how they should be conducting their lives. Even if you hold off for a few
moments before you butt in to someone else’s business, you’re on your way
to allowing those around you to find their anchor of the universe within
themselves. This new discipline of resisting your habit to get involved by
pausing before interfering will enable you to see how capable everyone
truly is when they’re in the energy field of someone who allows rather than
dictates. Do the T ao Now
Print or copy the first two lines of this 37th verse: “The Tao does nothing,
but leaves nothing undone.” Read the words repeatedly until you’ve
committed them  to memory; then go for a 30-minute walk and take note of
their truth. The air, sky, clouds, grass, wind, and flowers... nothing natural
that you see is undone, but nothing is taking place to work it all out. It is all
accomplished by the truth of these words. I’m reminded of a 13th-century poem by Rumi called “Nibble At Me,”
which applies perfectly to this section of the T ao Te Ching:
Nibble at me. Don’ t gulp me down. How often is it you have a guest in your house
who can fix everything? Let your all-knowing guest fix things while you live naturally. OceanofPDF.comOceanofPDF.com38th Verse
A truly good man is not awar e of his goodness
and is ther efore good. A foolish man tries to be good
and is ther efore not good. The master does nothing,
yet he leaves nothing undone. The or dinary man is always doing things,
yet many mor e are left to be done. The highest virtue is to act without a sense of self. The highest kindness is to give without condition. The highest justice is to see without pr eference. When the T ao is lost, ther e is goodness. When goodness is lost, ther e is morality. When morality is lost, ther e is ritual. Ritual is the husk of true faith,
the beginning of chaos. The gr eat master follows his own natur e
and not the trappings of life. It is said:
“He stays with the fruit and not the


arcane
juice. In	India	back	then	you	couldn’t	buy	sodas,	at	least	not	in	the
countryside. Instead	a	special	machine	was	set	up	at	a	vendor’s	stall	that
squeezed	fresh	chunks	of	sugarcane,	and	the	sweet	juice	was	poured	over	ice
to	make	a	cool	drink. “Want	one?”	I	asked	Baba	while	mine	was	being	squeezed. But	he	was	too	busy	looking	around	at	the	marketplace	with	all	its	shops	and
stalls. He	took	in	the	scene	casually,	but	there	was	X-ray	vision	behind	his
gaze. “A	lot	of	people	are	out	shopping	today,”	he	remarked. That	wasn’t	unusual;
housewives	came	to	the	stalls	every	day	to	get	food	to	cook,	and	everyone	had
to	come	here	to	buy	the	small	necessities. “But	some	of	them	are	shopping	for	people,”	Baba	said. “See?”	He	pointed	to
a	small	crowd	just	ahead	of	us. It	was	made	up	of	four	or	five	teenage	girls
sitting	together	near
	the	covered	bazaar. A	few	yards	away	a	similar	group	of
boys	were	huddled	together,	keeping	their	distance	but	checking	out
everything	the	girls	were	doing. I	didn’t	recognize	any	from	my	school. “Here,”	said	Baba. He	opened	his	hand,	and	in	it	was	a	hundred-rupee	note. “Let’s	put	you	on	the	market.”	I	can’t	tell	you	how	many	dollars	a	hundred
rupees	was	back	then,	but	I’d	never	seen	such	a	large	bill. Baba	folded	it	and
put	it	in	my	shirt	pocket. “What	do	you	want	me	to	spend	it	on?”	I	asked. “Don’t	spend	it. Just	walk	around	and	be	noticed.”	Baba	had	arranged	the
note	so	that	one	end	stuck	out	in	plain	sight. “I	can’t	walk	around	with	money	showing,”	I	said. “But	that’s	the	experiment. I	want	you	to	get	into	the	game	of	people-
shopping. It	will	only	be	for	an	hour.”	Baba	kept	insisting. I	felt	very	uneasy,
but	in	the	end	I	agreed	to	do	it	for	half	an	hour.It	was	the	longest	half	hour	of	my	life. Everyone	stared	in	curiosity	to	see	a
kid	with	that	kind	of	money	sticking	out	of	his	pocket. The	group	of	girls
were	the	worst. They	erupted	in	giggles	when	they	saw	me	coming,	and	after
I	passed,	I	overheard	them	whispering. The	boys	glared	at	me	as	if	I	had
grabbed	their	turf,	and	I	glared	back. Anyway,	the	whole	thing	was	nerve
racking,	and	I	was	glad	to	get	back	to	Baba. I	tore	the	money	from	my	pocket	and	almost	threw	it	back	at	him. “That	was
horrible!”
“Why? For	half	an	hour	you	were	the	best	thing	going,”	he	said	with	mock
seriousness. “You	should	be	happy.”
“It	had	nothing	to	do	with	me,	it	was	just	the	money	they	saw.”	I	was	calming
down	only	a	little. “Now	you	understand	the	trouble	love	gets	into,”	said	Baba,	“when	people
mistake	it	for	shopping. Those	boys	and	girls	are	picky	shoppers. They	want
only	somebody	who	looks	nice	and	feels	nice	and	maybe	smells	nice,	like	a
new	car.”
“Isn’t	that	being	a	little	cynical?”	I	said. Baba	shook	his	head. “Ask	the	ones	who	don’t	get	picked.”
I	couldn’t	argue	with	that. As	every	kid	knows,	getting	picked	depends	a	lot
on	the	same	things	that	go	into	picking	a	new	car—because	it’s	cool	or	makes
the	buyer	feel	important	and	successful—while	the	cars	that	don’t	get	picked
feel	like	rejects	even	before	someone	rejects	them. I	said,	“How	can	you	stop	boys	from	checking	out	girls	and	girls	from
checking	out	boys?”
“I	don’t	want	to. But	what	are	they	seeing?”	Baba	said. “Nobody	saw	you	just
now;	they	saw	what	you	had	on	display. The	worst	thing	about	being	on
display	is	that	you	can’t	be	yourself.”
“Nobody	walks	around	showing	their	money,”	I	pointed	out. “Maybe	not	the	bills,”	said	Baba. “But	they	show	what
	the	money	can	buy,	or
how	confident	and	cool	it	makes	them	feel. Love	is	the	opposite	of	being	on
display. You	show	who	you	are. If	you	don’t,	you’ll	never	be	able	to	trust	howothers	are	relating	to	you. They	could	be	acting	approving	or	jealous	or
secretly	hostile,	yet	none	of	these	reactions	are	about	you—they’re	about
what	meets	the	eye. Shopping	for	people	is	the	worst	way	to	find	true	love.”
Baba	started	chuckling	to	himself. “What?”	I	said. “I	was	just	thinking	how	everything	in	the	world	of	the	soul	comes	down	to
not	believing	your	eyes	and	believing	only	what	can’t	be	seen.”
W
HAT
	I	L
EARNED
I	think	this	lesson	speaks	for	itself. Then	why	is	it	so	hard	to	remember? Everyone	knows	that	you	shouldn’t	judge	by	appearances. Nobody	ever	had	a
father	and	mother	who	said,	“I	want	to	give	you	some	advice	about	falling	in
love. Pick	only	the	coolest	person	you	can	find,	and	if	they	stop	being	cool,
turn	them	in	for	a	better	model.”	Yet	social	life	often	revolves	around
shopping	for	people,	just	as	Baba	said. The	heart	value	is	pushed	out	of	the
way	in	favor	of	externals. When	you’re	a	shopper,	what	do	you	usually	look	for	first? Labels. A	nice
skirt	is	twice	as	nice	if	it	has	the	right	label. A	basketball	that	says
NBA
	feels
like	it	has	something	special. So	early	on	in	life	we	become	aware	that	we	are
wearing	labels,	and	unfortunately,	what	others	see	first	is	often	nothing	but	a
set	of	labels. Who	am	I? You	could	list	all	my	labels:	my	name,	address,	race,
skin	color,	income	bracket,	college	degrees. It	took	a	lifetime	to	get	all	these
labels,	but	only	a	few	of	them	look	very,	very	nice. Others	are	average,	and
one	or	two	might	make	people	say,	“Oh,	you	know	him,	that	Indian,”	or	“You
know	him,	that	guy	who’s	always	giving	his	opinion.”	Inside,	I	don’t	feel	like
any	of	these	labels,	so	I	don’t	work	hard	at	making	people	see	the	good	ones. I	want	them	to	see	me	with	no	labels	at	all. As	Baba	told	me	then,	shopping	is	a	terrible	way	to	find	love. When	I	am
tempted	to	judge	others	by	how	they	look	or	how	much	money	they	make	or
how	important	they	are,	I	can	stop	myself	with	just	one	reminder:
This	person
is	going	to	turn	into	what	I	see
. I’m	sure	you’ve	noticed	this	yourself. If	somebody	walks	up	to	you	with	a
thousand	dollars	sticking	out	of	their	pocket,	automatically	they	become	a
flashy	rich	person. Someone	who	mist


 on experimental and clinical ischemic strokes in this chapter and Chapter 9.160 Dimethyl Sulfoxide (DMSO) in Trauma and Disease
DMSO IN EXPERIMENTAL BRAIN ISCHEMIA
Stroke is the most fatal neurological disease and the leading cause of long-term dis -
ability in the United States. Stroke is divided into two major types, ischemic stroke,
where an artery is blocked by a blood clot, and hemorrhagic stroke, where a brain vessel bleeds from a leak or a rupture. About 80% of strokes involve blockage of a major cerebral artery, and this is where most of the animal research in brain isch -
emia is presently focused. 177 A considerable amount in our current understanding of
cerebral ischemia induced by stroke comes from animal models representing global and focal ischemia. Global ischemia is the product of mild-to-severe reduction of cerebral blood
flow throughout the brain, which can occur either acutely or chronically. If blood flow  cannot be restored within a given time limit (depending on the cause),
 permanent damage to the brain or death can result. When blood flow is restored
after global ischemia, reperfusion injury can occur if the brain is not pharmaco -
logically protected. Many diseases can cause chronic global brain ischemia such as atherosclerosis of a conducting brain artery, diabetes, sickle cell anemia, cardiac arrhythmias, and congenital heart defects, while acute global ischemia can result from a heart attack. 178
Focal brain ischemia is less severe than global ischemia but more common
both clinically and using experimental animal models. Focal ischemia reduces blood supply to a specific region of the brain where immediate or delayed neuro -
nal death can occur. 178 This area of injury is called the core ischemic zone and is
marked by severe ischemia with blood flow falling 75%–90% of baseline in con -
junction with the loss of oxygen and glucose, leading to rapid depletion energy stores. 178 Severe focal ischemia can result in brain cell death from the necrosis of
neurons within the ischemic core, but glial cells may be spared if blood flow is restored early. 179
Surrounding the ischemic core is an area called the penumbra where brain cells
are kept structurally intact by collateral blood vessels but functionally impaired.180
The ischemic penumbra is a zone where pharmacological therapy could most
likely be effective in restoring the loss of function.181 The ischemic penumbra blood
perfusion is generally too low to maintain electric activity but sufficient to preserve ion channels and structural integrity. 180
Research using animal models of stroke have provided not only an understand -
ing of the pathomechanisms underlying injury after ischemic stroke but also a way to develop effective therapy to prevent and arrest the severe pathology associated with stroke. Although many models of stroke have been used for research, includ-ing nonhuman primates, rodents are more often used due to their lower cost, ease of handling, substantial characterization of pathological expectations from previous research, and potential for genetic engineering. Experimental focal ischemia has generally involved occlusion of the MCA that is
the largest branch of the internal carotid artery (ICA) that supplies a portion of the anterolateral frontal lobe, most of the temporal lobe, and the parietal lobe. Occlusion of the MCA in animals can result in sensory-motor deficits and cognitive impairment 161 DMSO in Basic Neuroprotection
that can be monitored, quantitated, and analyzed by a variety of research tools when
drug evaluation is done. In the context of cerebral arterial thrombosis, the effects of thrombotic stroke can
be induced experimentally by cautery or by photothrombosis of the MCA, which differs from those due to cerebral ischemia induced by mechanical ligation or intra -
luminal occlusions of intracranial brain arteries
182 (Figure 8.5). There are two commonly used surgical approaches to provide direct access to
the arterial circulation of rodents. The first approach is to perform a craniotomy that allows access to distal branches of the ICA, such as the much used MCA, to be occluded either with a neurofilament or by cautery
183,184 (Figure 8.5). Other types of
occlusion to achieve focal ischemia have been reported such as photothrombosis, ligation of an arterial vessel, or drugs to cause local embolism, such as endothelin, a powerful vasoconstrictor. 185
One early report by Tamura and his colleagues186 described an approach that
occludes MCA proximal to the lenticulostriate arteries and produces the infarction of both the cortex and the lateral part of striatum. Figure 8.4 shows two popular
techniques used in rats to induce focal brain ischemia. Rat brain MCA oc clusion
ACA
(a) (b) (c)MCANylon
filamen t Cautery
PCA
ICA
ECA
CCA
FIGURE 8.5  (See color insert.) Normal arteries at the base of rat brain (a) and approaches
to induce focal brain ischemia using a nylon filament introduced from the ICA to the MCA (b) and thrombotic occlusion (c) of the MCA. Such occlusions of the MCA will mimic human ischemic stroke and involve parts of the cortex and subcortical regions, produc -
ing sensory loss and paresis or paralysis of the contralateral side of the body. See text for details. Key: ACA (anterior cerebral artery), MCA (middle cerebral artery), PCA (posterior
cerebral artery), ICA (internal carotid artery), ECA (external carotid artery), CCA (common carotid artery).162 Dimethyl Sulfoxide (DMSO) in Trauma and Disease
The intraluminal suture model, developed by Koizumi and his team (koizumi)
and Longa and his group,187 is undoubtedly the most frequently used focal isch -
emia model in rats and mice but is also one of the trickiest to produce a consis-
tent outcome. This may be due largely to the varied technical approaches, rodent model, rodent age, and gender of rodents. The intraluminal monofilament model of MCA occlusion involves the insertion of
a surgical filament into the external carotid artery and threading it forward into the ICA until the tip occludes the origin of the MCA, resulting in a cessation of blood flow and subsequent brain infarction in the MCA territory ( Figure 8.5). The technique has a number of variations and can be used to model permanent
or transient occlusion. If the suture is removed after a certain interval, controlled reperfusion can be achieved accompanied by an ischemic penumbra, which drug therapy can target. If the filament is left in place over 24 h, the procedure is suitable as a model of permanent occlusion. One useful advantage of the filament occlusion is that it does not require craniectomy or craniotomy, which can result in undesired variables to the experiment. Because the intraluminal suture model occludes the tip of the intracranial ICA, it
cannot be considered a strict MCA occlusion. 188
For this reason, the filament occlusion technique results in a wider ischemic zone
and higher mortality than when MCA is directly occluded, especially when permanent occlusion is made. 188 Nevertheless, the filament occlusion technique has become the
most frequently used method to mimic permanent and transient focal cerebral isch-emia in rats and mice and has also been used in rabbits,
189 gerbils,190 and marmosets.191
However, despite their usefulness in stroke research, these focal ischemic models
are not consistently reliable. The surgery to access and manipulate the cerebral ves-sels requires skilled and experienced hands, and for practical purposes, the results can vary from one laboratory to another and even within the same laboratory where findings are often highly variable. But the variabilities in stroke research are not due to technical difficulties only. It should be noted that the intensive research done in the past and up to the pres -
ent, using experimental stroke models, displays many technical, behavioral, and pathological shortcomings to mimic human stroke, and a considerable number of pharmacological agents have been seen to dramatically improve or reverse tissue injury after brain ischemia in rodents have failed to be translated into effective clini -
cal use. Many reasons have been suggested for this bench to bedside failure, and some of these reasons have been reviewed elsewhere. 192,193
One obvious reason for the lack of success in translating rodent findings into
effective human stroke therapy is the basic difference between the rodent cerebral circulation, hemodynamic responses to vascular stress, and relative tolerance to brain ischemia with those of humans. 194 In addition to anatomic and physiological
differences between rodent and human cerebrovasculature, most human strokes occur in elderly individuals, while a majority of animal stroke models are performed
on young rodents. 195
This lack of correlation between small mammals such as rodents and human
brain vasculature has produced no effective treatments in the last century for human
ischemic stroke other than fibrinolytic therapy. The only FDA-approved therapy for 163 DMSO in Basic Neuroprotection
the treatment of acute ischemic stroke is the thrombolytic tPA,196 and curiously, the
initial basic research was done in rabbits.197,198
As effective as they are when properly used, fibrinolytics have the limitation that
makes them ineffective when administered after


 simply
taking My word for any of this. There is a
place, on down the line, when you’ll have
to take My word for this —because
eventually you’ll find that we can discuss this thing forever, you and I —until there’s
nothing left to do but to “try it or deny it.” But
we’re not at th at place yet. So let’s keep the
dialogue going; let’s keep talking —the
person who has the “faith to move
mountains,” and dies six weeks later, has
moved  mountains for six weeks. That may
have been enough for him. He may have
decided, on the last hour of th e last day,
“Okay, I’ve had enough. I’m ready to go on
now to another adventure.” You may not
have known of that decision, because he
may not have told you. The truth is, he may
have made that decision quite a bit
earlier —days, weeks earlier —and not have
told you; not have told anyone. You have created a society in which it is
very not okay to want to die —very not okay
to be very okay with death. Because you don’t want to die, you can’t imagine anyone
wanting to die —no matter what their
circumstances or con dition. But there are many situations in which
death is preferable to life —which I know
you can imagine if you think about it for
even a little bit. Yet, these truths don’t occur
to you—they are not that self -evident —
when you are looking in the face someon e
else who is choosing to die. And the dying
person knows this. She can feel the level of
acceptance in the room regarding her
decision. Have you ever noticed how many people
wait until the room is empty before they
die? Some even have to tell their loved
ones —“No, really, go. Get a bite to eat.” Or
“Go, get some sleep. I’m fine. I’ll see you in
the morning.” And then, when the loyal  guard leaves, so does the soul from the
body of the guarded. If they told their assembled relatives and
friends, “I jus t want to die,” they would
really hear it. “Oh, you don’t mean that,” or
“Now, don’t talk that way,” or “Hang in
there,” or “Please don’t leave me.”
The entire medical profession is trained to
keep people alive, rather than keeping
people comfortable so th at they can die
with dignity. You see, to a doctor or a nurse,
death is failure. To a friend or relative,
death is disaster. Only to the soul is death
a relief —a release. The greatest gift you
can give the dying is to let them die in
peace —not thinking tha t they must “hang
on,” or continue to suffer, or worry about
you at  this most crucial passage in their life. So this is very often what has happened in
the case of the man who says he’s going  to
live, believes he’s going to live, even prays
to live: that a t the soul level, he has
“changed his mind.” It is time now to drop
the body to free the soul for other pursuits. When the soul makes this decision, nothing
the body does can change it. Nothing  the
mind thinks can alter it. It is at the moment
of death tha t we learn who, in the  body -
mind -soul triumvirate, is running things. All your life you think you are your body. Some of the time you think you are your
mind. It is at the time of your death that you
find out Who You Really Are. Now there are also times wh en the body
and the mind are just not listening to the
soul. This, too, creates the scenario you
describe. The most difficult thing for people  to do is hear their own soul. (Notice that so
few do ). Now it happens often that the soul makes a
decision that i t is time to leave the body. The body and the mind —ever servants of
the soul —hear this, and the process of
extrication begins. Yet the mind (ego)
doesn’t want to accept. After all, this is the
end of its existence. So it instructs the body
to resist death. This the body does  gladly,
since it too does not want to die. The body
and the mind (ego) receive great
encouragement, great praise for this from
the outside world —the world of its  creation. So the strategy is confirmed. Now at this point everything depen ds on
how badly the soul wants to leave. If there
is no great urgency here, the soul may say,
“Alright, you win. I’ll stick around with  you a little longer.” But if the soul is very clear that
staying does not serve its higher  agenda —
that there is no furth er way it can evolve
through this body —the soul is  going to
leave, and nothing will stop it —nor should
anything try to. The soul is very clear that its purpose is
evolution. That is its sole purpose —and its
soul purpose. It is not concerned with the
achievements of the body or the
development of the mind. These are all
meaningless to the soul. The soul is also clear that there is no great
tragedy involved in leaving the body. In
many ways, the tragedy is being in the
body. So you have to understand, t he soul
sees this whole death thing differently. It, of
course, sees the whole “life thing”
differently, too —and that is the source of much of the frustration and anxiety one
feels in one’s life. The frustration and
anxiety comes from not listening to one’ s
soul. How can I best listen to my soul? If the soul
is the boss, really, how can I make sure I
get those memos from the front office? The first thing you might do is get clear
about what the soul is after —and stop
making judgments about it. I’m making ju dgments about my own soul? Constantly. I just showed you how you
judge yourself for wanting to die. You also
judge yourself for wanting to live —truly live. You judge yourself for wanting to laugh,
wanting to cry, wanting to win, wanting to
lose—for wanting  to experience joy and  love—especially do you judge yourself for
that. I do? Somewhere you’ve come across the idea
that to deny yourself joy is Godly —that not
to celebrate life is heavenly. Denial, you
have told yourself, is goodness. Are you saying it is bad? It is neither good nor bad, it is simply denial. If you feel good after denying yourself,  then
in your world that is goodness. If you feel
bad, then it’s badness. Most of the  time,
you can’t decide. You deny yourself this or
that because you tell your self you  are
supposed to. Then you say that was a good
thing to do —but wonder why you  don’t feel
good. And so the first thing to do is to stop making
these judgments against yourself. Learn
what is the soul’s desire, and go with that. Go with the soul. Wha t the soul is  after is —
the highest feeling of love you can imagine. This is the soul’s desire. This is  its purpose. The soul is after the feeling. Not the
knowledge, but the feeling. It  already has
the knowledge, but knowledge is
conceptual. Feeling is exp eriential. The
soul wants to feel itself, and thus to know
itself in its own experience. The highest feeling is the experience of
unity with All That Is. This is the great return
to Truth for which the soul yearns. This is
the feeling of perfect love. Perfect love is to feeling what perfect white
is to color. Many think that white is the
absence of color. It is not. It is the inclusion of all color. White is every other color  that
exists, combined. So, too, is love not the absence of an
emotion (hatred, ang er, lust, jealousy,
covetousness), but the summation of all
feeling. It is the sum total. The aggregate
amount. The everything. Thus, for the soul to experience perfect
love, it must experience every human
feeling. How can I have compassion on that which
I don’t understand? How can I forgive in
another that which I have never
experienced in Myself? So we see both the
simplicity and the awesome magnitude of
the soul’s journey. We understand at last
what it is up to:  The purpose of the human soul is to
experience all of it —so that it can be all of
it. How can it be up if it has never been down,
left if it has never been right? How can it  be
warm if it knows not cold, good if it denies
evil? Obviously the soul cannot choose  to
be anything if there is not hing to choose
from. For the soul to experience its
grandeur, it must know what grandeur is. This it cannot do if there is nothing but
grandeur. And so the soul realizes that
grand


 of the world. W hen you wakeup, you will be in  th e world but n ot of  t he world, which means you w ill be
completely free from the challenges of the world. As I  outlined in  the three-step A wareness Practice in the previous chapter,
after you’ve woken up to the truth of A wareness, the final step is to stay
consciously as A wareness and not be pulled back into the mind and the ego. Some people wake up suddenly and stay that way permanently, and for others
awakening seem s to be a process. Everyone, however, says that the process of
awakening continues to deepen with no end. “It i sn’ t any longer possible to say—this is about saints, this is about Zen
monks, this is s omething you must wait lifetimes to have. Or—this is for
serious spiritual  practitioners, or for people who don’ t revel in the physical
life, or for people who believe a certain way... Know th at you can go there,
can be there, ca n live a life that is unencumbered. Y ou do no t have to earn
this, or deserve it. It’ s free, already here. It isn’ t a reward. It’ s innate.”
Jan Frazier, fr om  Opening the Door
W aking up to who you really are is the way out of all  negativity and the way
to permanent happiness. It is the destiny of every human on earth. It is your
destiny. Y ou can make it your life now! The Mountain of Consciousness
Many y ears ago, the Imperator of the European Rose Cross Order shared a
metaphor to help me understand the levels of Consciousness and A wareness. He called it “the mountain of consciousness.”
If you’re at the base of the mountain in the valley, you can’ t see very far. Y our
perspective is narrow and limited, and you can’ t see what’ s ahead of you or
what’ s around any corner. Because you don’ t know what’ s beyond the valley,
there is a great fear of the unknown. As y ou climb th e mountain, you begin to notice changes. Y our perspective of
life expands as you get higher, because you can see farther and you can see
past some of the things that were blocking your view at the bottom of the
mountain. Thing s look dif ferent a little higher up because you can see them
more clearly, and while still fearful, you’re not nearly as fearful as you were
in the valley. Higher again up the mountain, the atmosphere is dif ferent, the  vegetation is
dif ferent, and you can see much farther than you could be fore. Life looks
very dif ferent here, and because you can now see a lot of things that were
hidden from you before, your fear of the unknown is diminishing.When y ou reach the top of the mountain, you can see everything in all
directions. Nothing whatsoever is hidden from you. Y our vision  of the world
and beyond is fu lly expanded in every direction. Y ou can see the people in the
valley a nd their  limited perspective, and you know from wher e you are that
there’ s n othing for them to fear. Y ou can also see the peop le who are at
various stages on their way up the mountain, and the various limitations of
their perspective. And where you stand, at the top of the mountain, you can
see the sheer ex quisite beauty and perfection of absolutely everything. Y ou
see that nothing is out of place, a nd there’ s nothing for anyone to  worry about,
or be afraid of. The spectacle, the wonder, and the mystery of life that is
revealed to you is nothing shor t of magnificent, and when the people in the
valley can see the magnificence of what you can see, they also will be free. “When we stand on top of a mountain or look at the stars we are sensing
infinity, which is what we truly are, and why so many people cr ave that sense
of expansiveness.”
David Bingham
“At a higher level of consciousness, none of this personal mind stuf f matters
at all, for you are standing on the mountaintop of your own being, and all
below y ou are clouds passing. Y ou come to a point where noth ing matters at
all! Nothing, nothing, nothing! And all is perfection only.”
Mooji, fr om  White Fire, second edition
Now tha t you know who you are, you have begun the awakening process! The
only obstacle to permanently be ing who you are is your mind. Y our mind is
your gr eatest power in the material world, because it will generate any
material thing, event, or circumstance you want, but if you believe its negative
thoughts, you will use its crea tive power against yourself. There’ s nothing
wrong with the mind, it only becomes troublesome when you believe it’ s who
you are. When your mind tries to speak on your behalf, remember that the voice you
hear in your head is not you. Y our mind is not even an actual entity, but aprocess—a mechanical process. It’ s just made up of thou ghts, and the
thoughts it produces are coming from programs formed by your beliefs and
held in your subconscious mind. The subconscious mind is the storehouse of
our beliefs, memory, personalit y traits, automatic processes, and habits, and
its operation is no dif ferent from that of a computer; it’ s completely
mechanical. Y our subconscious mind receives information from the conscious mind, which
is yo ur t hinking mind, and it ac cepts all the data that the thinking mind puts
into it. The subconscious mind doesn’ t discriminate with any of the
information coming into it, but instead accepts everything that the thinking
mind believes is true. So b asically our mind recycles thoughts according to our belief s and holds us
prisoner with those thoughts by severely limiting our life—until we wake up
and see that our thoughts and our mind are not who we are! “W ould you rather play the game of limitation or would you rather be free? That sim ple que stion is a key to dropping our obsession with  being limited
body-minds. If you think you ar e your body-mind and the stories that you tell
yourself and others about being that body-mind, then you wou ld rather play
the game of limitation.”
Hale Dwoskin, fr om  Happiness Is Free
The firs t step to freedom is when we understand that our thoug hts create our
life. What you think is what manifests. Y ou won’ t  h ave the life y ou want if
you give  your attention to thoughts of what you don’ t want. And you will  have
the l ife you wan t if you give your attention only to thoughts o f what you do
want! When you un derstand this fully, you become very aware of your
thoughts, and it puts you well on the path of awakening, because your
awareness of your thoughts n ot only stops you from belie ving negative
thoughts, but it means you are becoming more aware. The Secr et  b ook and docum entary explain  the power you have to create y our
life on all subje cts—health, relationships, money, work, happin ess, and even
the wo rld—through your thoughts. If you don’ t yet understand the
phenomenal power you have through your thoughts, I ur ge you to get a copy
of The Secr et, or borrow one from a friend or a library. The Secr et  has
changed the lives of tens of mil lions of people, and becoming m ore aware of
your thoughts is an excellent fir st step in the wonderful process  of waking up
to what we really are.C H A P T E R  4  S u m m a r y
This life  is a dr eam. The whole world is nothing but a
dr eam-illusion. In yo ur night dr eams your mind cr eates an entir e world and
makes everything so r eal that you don’ t question it—until
you wake up. The waking state is also only an extr emely convincing play
that consciousness is pr oducing. Because the mind is mechanica l, if we live fr om our mind,
our life is mechanical. When our mind is running our  life, we’r e pr evented fr om
seeing the world as it r eally is. When you wake up, you will be  in the world but not  of the
world. The Mo untain of Consciousness is a metaphor for
consciousness: Y our perspective of life expands as you get
higher. At the to p of the mount ain, you can see the beauty
and perfection of absolutely everything. Y our mi nd is made up of thoughts, and the thoughts it
pr oduces ar e coming fr om pr ograms formed by your beliefs
and held in your subconscious mind. The subconscious mind stor es our beliefs, memory,
personality traits, automatic pr ocesses, and habits; its
operation is no differ ent fr om that of a computer. The firs t step to fr eedom is when we understand that our
thoughts cr eate our life. What you think is what manifests.C h a p t e


15 minutes (does not include overnight soaking)
Serves 2-4
2 oz. raisins, presoaked
2 oz. dried figs, presoaked
2 oz. dried apricots, presoaked
1/2 white cabbage, finely shredded
2 carrots, coarsely grated
2 red eating apples, coarsely grated
8 tbsp. yogurt
1 lemon
parsley, chopped
Soak the raisins, figs and apricots overnight in cold water, or pour boiling water over them and
leave for a couple of hours until plump. Finely shred the cabbage. Coarsely grate the carrots and
apples. (Sprinkle the apples with lemon juice to stop them from turning brown.) Put the above
ingredients into a bowl. Combine the yogurt, lemon juice and chopped parsl ey in a jug  and
spoon over the salad. Toss together until well mixed. 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 225Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.comGerson® Coleslaw
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Serves 2-4
onion, sliced or chopped
white cabbage, grated or sliced
carrot, grated
Dressing:
2 tbsp. lemon juice
2 tbsp. water
sugar (optional)
yogurt
cottage cheese (nonfat, unsalted)
Slice or chop the onion. Grate or slice the white cabbage. Grate the carrot. Mix all together. For
the dressing, mix lemon juice with water (and sugar, if used). Mix yogurt with cottage cheese
and beat well to get rid of any lumps. Then add the lemon juice and water mixture. Mix well
and pour over salad. Grated Lime Zucchini Salad
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Serves 2-4
1 lb. zucchini, finely grated
juice of 1 lime (or lemon)
1 red bell pepper, grated
1 clove garlic, crushed
lettuce
Grate the zucchini  finely. M ix with the lime (or le mon) juice and grated pepper. Add crushed
garlic. Allow the flavors to blend a little before serving on a bed of lettuce. 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 226Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.comHungarian Tomato Salad
Preparation time: 15 minutes
whole tomatoes, skinned
lettuce
chopped chives
Dressing:
yogurt
lemon juice
flaxseed oil
grated horseradish
Skin the tomatoes by dipping them in boiling water for a minute. Make the dressing. Place
the whole, skinned tomatoes on the lettuce leaves and cover with the dressing. Garnish with
chopped chives. Jumbo Salad
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Serves 4-6
variety of shredded lettuce leaves and salad greens, bite-sized and shredded
Any, or all, of the following:
tomato, chopped
green (or red) bell pepper, chopped
green onions, finely sliced
carrot, finely grated
beet, finely grated
radish, finely sliced
fennel, finely sliced
grape halves
lemon juice
flaxseed oil
dried dill  weed
raisins, plumped
Gradually build up the salad, beginning with the bite-sized shredded lettuce leaves and salad
greens. Add any, or all, of the ingredients listed above. Pour boiling water over the raisins
and leave for a few minutes to become plump and juicy. Sprinkle on top of the salad. Grate
the carrot and/or beet and place to one side of the salad. (If you put it all on top, it tends to
“smother” the salad.) Pour on the lemon juice and flaxseed  oil. Sprinkle with dill. Serve with
rice, oven-cooked and sliced potatoes or boiled small new potatoes. 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 227Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.comMinted Apple and Celery Salad
Preparation time: 15 minutes (does not include soaking)
Serves 2
1 red eating apple, cut, cored and chopped
apple cider vinegar
1 stalk of celery, chopped
raisins, presoaked
mint leaves
lettuce
Cut and core the apple and chop into bite-sized chunks. Mix with a little apple cider vinegar
(diluted with water, if desired). Chop the celery and add, with the presoaked raisins, to the apple
and apple cider vinegar. Take the mint leaves and tear into small pieces. Add to the dish and
serve on a bed of lettuce. (Leave for a little while before serving  so the flavors have time to mix. ) Variation: Yogurt  can be mixed with the apple cider vinegar  for the dressing. Orange, Chicory and Watercress Salad
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Serves 2-4
1 orange, peeled and segmented
2 heads of chicory
1 bunch of watercress
Dressing:
1 tbsp. flaxseed  oil
1/2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar  (or lemon juice)
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 green  onion
parsley
chives
dill
fennel
mint
Peel the orange and split into segments. Separate the chicory leaves and arrange like the spokes
of a wheel  around a large dish. Put the watercress and orange in the middle. Combine all the
dressing ingredients in a jug and stir vigorously. (If you have no fresh herbs, use a generous
pinch of dried herbs.) Pour over the salad and serve immediately. 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 228Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.comRadish, Apple and Celery Salad
Preparation time: 15 minutes (does not include soaking)
Serves 2
radishes, chopped
green apples, chopped
celery, chopped
raisins (presoaked)
lettuce
Dressing :
1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp. water
1 tsp. sugar (or honey)
1 or 2 cloves garlic, crushed
dill, chopped
yogurt
Chop the radishes, green apples and celery into small chunks. Add the raisins. For the dressing,
mix together the apple cider vinegar, water, sugar (or honey), garlic and dill. Add enough yogurt
to make a creamy dressing. Pour over the salad and serve on a bed of lettuce (include radicchio
or red leaf, if available). Variations: Use other herbs instead of dill, omit the yogurt or add some flaxseed oil. Raw Turnip, Watercress and Orange Salad
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Serves 2
1 turnip, peeled and cut
1 orange, segmented
watercress
Dressing:
orange juice
flaxseed oil
Peel and cut the turnip into matchstick -size pieces. Segment the orange and add to the turnip
pieces. Add the watercress and toss in the dressing. 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 229Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.comRice Salad
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Serves 2
green  bell pepper, chopped
red bell pepper, chopped
tomato, chopped
1 cup cooked brown rice
Dressing:
1 tbsp. flaxseed  oil
1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
1 clove garlic
sugar
Chop the peppers and tomato. Prepare the dressing, mixing well, and add the chopped peppers
and tomato. Spoon onto the rice. Serve with a mixed green salad. Romaine Lettuce with Yogurt Dressing
Romaine lettuce
chives, chopped
Dressing:
yogurt
sugar
lemon juice
crushed garlic
Coarsely shred the lettuce. Pour on the dressing and sprinkle with chopped chives. 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 230Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.comSalad Kebabs
Preparation time: 15 minutes
tomatoes, thinly sliced
zucchini s, thinly sliced
whole radishes, thinly sliced
lettuce hearts, thinly sliced
carrots, thinly sliced
Dressing:
lemon juice
yogurt
flaxseed oil
herbs (mint, dill or parsley)
Thread on wooden skewers thinly sliced pieces of tomato, zucchini, whole radishes,  lettuce
hearts and raw carrot. Dip into the salad dressing before serving. Salad Loret


sted water
rich in healing potential. Du ring the dry fast the
old "dead water" is replaced by "living water" of
excellent quality and synthesized by the organ-
ism itself. In the meantime all the negative infor-
mation brought into our body from the outside
is eliminated. By making a relatively short fast
without water the organism is stimulated to
elaborate the water that it already contains
within, thereby renewing our information. This
is why at the end of the fast we are information-
ally uncontaminated; we are composed of a ma-
trix of information devoid of anything negative
coming from the external environment. Similar
mechanisms do not exist in any of the other ex-
isting types of therapeutic fasting. This
Copyright © Vera Giovanna Bani 2019 www.dryfasting.infoThis Ebook was purchased by Gilberto Franchi email: gilbertofranchi@hotmail.frphenomenon is one of the main advantages of-
fered by this form of fasting. It is one of the main
therapeutic mechanisms of DF, which plays a
decisive role in renewing the energetic balance
of the human organism. 8.2. Anti -inflammatory and immune -stimu-
latory mechanism: the action of free forms of
glucocorticoids
The second therapeutic mechanism by im-
portance is an anti -inflammatory and im-
munostimulatory one. Life does not exist with-
out water and even inflammation cannot pro-
gress in its absence. Every part of the body that
is inflamed can be distinguished because of its
swelling. Microorganisms, viruse s and mi-
crobes, can only multiply in a sufficiently watery
Copyright © Vera Giovanna Bani 2019 www.dryfasting.infoThis Ebook was purchased by Gilberto Franchi email: gilbertofranchi@hotmail.frenvironment. A lack of water compromises the
inflammation process. The dehydration occur-
ing in the body with DF triggers a ruthless com-
petition for water between the strongest body
cells and pathog enic microorganisms. The cells
of the body, full of their role as "home owners",
will subtract water from microorganisms. At the
same time, the organism is able to not only syn-
thesize endogenous water in sufficient quantity,
but also to absorb the water fr om the outside,
from the air, through the skin. This is because
during DF the organism functions in absorption
mode rather than in emission. Then, the healthy
and strong cells receive extra energy and water
from the air, by seizing it, while the sick cells, the
viruses and the bacteria cannot do it. This is why
it is fundamental to practice DF in the middle of
Copyright © Vera Giovanna Bani 2019 www.dryfasting.infoThis Ebook was purchased by Gilberto Franchi email: gilbertofranchi@hotmail.frnature, preferably in the mountains and near
streams and waterfalls. Without water, microbes, viruses and parasites
die instantly. 70% glucocorticoid  and sexual
hormones are linked to blood transport albu-
mins and only 30% circulate in the blood in a
free state. During DF, the transport albumins de-
cay and their amino acids are employed in sup-
plying the body's needs, mainly the needs of the
brain and the  cardiovascular system. During this
process there is a release of huge quantities of
hormones circulating in a free state in the blood:
the amount of glucocorticoids flooding the
blood is three times greater than usual. This ex-
erts a strong anti -inflammato ry effect, suppress-
ing all inflammation outbreaks present in the
body. Glucocorticoid hormones are in fact the
Copyright © Vera Giovanna Bani 2019 www.dryfasting.infoThis Ebook was purchased by Gilberto Franchi email: gilbertofranchi@hotmail.frmost powerful anti -inflammatory agent in the
body. The powerful therapeutic mechanism of
dry fasting aimed at fighting inflammatory dis-
eases lies  in the action of free forms of glucocor-
ticoids. As mentioned above, during a dry fast the tox-
ins burn "in their own furnace", which means
that every cell, in the absence of water, triggers a
thermal reaction, a particular radical method
within the cells that destroys all the superfluous,
excessive, and morbid elements. Each cell trans-
forms into a temporary mini -reactor that mani-
fests as an increase in internal temperature. This
temperature may not even be noted with a ther-
mometer, but during DF, patients c learly per-
ceived as a sensation of heat, internal fire or
chills. It should be emphasized that in this state
Copyright © Vera Giovanna Bani 2019 www.dryfasting.infoThis Ebook was purchased by Gilberto Franchi email: gilbertofranchi@hotmail.frthe temperature itself is an important element of
defensive reaction. We know from experience
that with temperature all the waste, poisons and
even  cancer cells are destroyed and their activity
is suspended. This process accelerates healing. By increasing in body temperature, the organism
causes microorganisms to slow their growth. If the body does not receive food and dead and
heavy water, our blood  does not receive many
harmful substances, while it is instead cleansed
by the body, i.e. the same blood composition will
be repeatedly purified through the filter systems
until it becomes as ideally pure as possible. The human body has a powerful weapon
against diseases: the immune system, designed
to safeguard our health with the help of organs
and tissues programmed for the detection and
Copyright © Vera Giovanna Bani 2019 www.dryfasting.infoThis Ebook was purchased by Gilberto Franchi email: gilbertofranchi@hotmail.frelimination of foreign substances and harmful
microorganisms such as viruses, bacteria and
diseased cells. The main organs of the immune
system are the tonsils, the adenoids, the appen-
dix, the spleen and the thymus gland. Bone mar-
row, white blood cells and lymphatic tissues are
also important elements of the immune system. All these elements work together and, when nec-
essary, trigger the body's immune response. In a healthy organism with a strong immune
system it is quite difficult for viruses to survive. Bacteria are destroyed before they can cause in-
fection. Altered or diseased cells are destroyed
before they can cause cancer or other illnesses. But if the immune system is not healthy, it will
not work properly. In this case we can easily get
ill from colds, flu, infectious diseases and even
Copyright © Vera Giovanna Bani 2019 www.dryfasting.infoThis Ebook was purchased by Gilberto Franchi email: gilbertofranchi@hotmail.frcancer. Maintaining a healthy immune system is
the most important thing we can do  to preserve
our health, because this system is our main bio-
logical ally in the war against diseases. But how does the immune system work? When
a foreign body invades the organism, whether it
is a virus or a splinter, the immune system begins
to effectively produce a series of complex chem-
ical reactions. From this moment the immune
system embarks on its mission: to find the out-
sider and to destroy it. In our organism there is an entire system of
cells that resemble amoebae; they are the mono-
nuclear phagocytes. In every organ there is a
group of cells specific for only that organ, which
appear like amoebae and migrate throughout the
body, engulfing and digesting any alien bodies. Copyright © Vera Giovanna Bani 2019 www.dryfasting.infoThis Ebook was purchased by Gilberto Franchi email: gilbertofranchi@hotmail.frThese particular cells are found in the skin, in
the liver and in the heart and even in the brain. They migrate continuously, looking for prey. The problem is that any food, even vegetable,
contains a small amount of fat and the mononu-
clear phagocytes, instead of carrying out their di-
rect functions, focus on capturing and digesting
these droplets of fat, as if they had nothing else
to do. During dry fasting, however, the phago-
cytes are left without food, i.e. without fat, so
they begin to perform their direct tasks: capture
and digest bacteria, viruses, cell residues, dead or
dying cells, thus fostering renewal and the reju-
venation of the organism. Cancer cells, always
present in the body, are also digested. The de-
struction of diseased cells, and not of healthy
cells during DF is also associated with the release
Copyright © Vera Giovanna Bani 2019 www.dryfasting.infoThis Ebook was purchased by Gilberto Franchi email: gilbertofranchi@hotmail.frof lymphoepithelial cell s from the entire diges-
tive system. Abstinence from water and food for many days
creates the conditions for the withdrawal of the
powerful army of b -lymphocytes from the front-
line gastrointestinal positions. They accumulate
from the lymph nodes and lymphat ic collectors
of the long digestive path. In particular many of
them come from the small intestine. Once they
have transitioned to the reserve position, the
army of b -lymphocytes can be utilized for its di-


am	Magic
(Ready	in	about	10	minutes	|	Servings	2)

Ingredients

1. 3	pears,	cored

1. 2	carrots,	trimmed

1. 1	medium-sized	yam,	peeled

1. 1/2	teaspoon	vanilla	extract

Directions

1. First	of	all,	process	the	pears	through	an	electronic	juicer	according	to	the
manufacturer’s	instructions. 2. Add	the	carrots,	followed	by	the	yam	and	vanilla	extract. Shake	before
serving. 3. The	juice	is	a	rich	source	of	vitamin	K	which	is	good	for	your	heart	and
bone	health. Enjoy!Cucumber	and	Carrot	Cocktail
(Ready	in	about	10	minutes	|	Servings	2)

Ingredients

1. 1	cucumber

1. 1	apple,	cored

1. 1	carrot

1. 1/2	head	lettuce

1. Water	to	make	1	cup	juice

Directions

1. Juice	the	ingredients	and	serve	over	ice	cubes. 2. This	healthy	juice	is	loaded	with	vitamins	A	and	vitamin	C,	as	well	as	the
antioxidants.Cabbage	Apple	Cocktail
(Ready	in	about	10	minutes	|	Servings	2)

Ingredients

1. 1	stalk	celery	with	leaves

1. 1⁄4	head	green	cabbage

1. 1	medium	apple,	cored

1. 1	lemon,	peeled

1. 1⁄2-inch	piece	ginger

1. 1⁄2	cup	parsley

1. 10	collard	leaves

Directions

1. Process	the	celery,

cabbage	and	apple	through	an	electronic	juicer
according	to	the	manufacturer’s	directions. 2. Add	the	rest	of	the	ingredients. Serve	over	ice. 3. This	cocktail	is	great	for	weight	loss.ICED	TEA	RECIPESOrange	and	Lemon	Iced	Tea
(Ready	in	about	1	hour	10	minutes	|	Servings	16)

Ingredients

1. 4	green	tea	bags

1. 4	orange	tea	bags

1. 6	cups	boiling	water

1. 1	(12-ounce)	can	frozen	lemonade	concentrate

1. 1/2	lemon,	juiced

1. 1/2	cup	honey

1. Cold	water,	as	needed

Directions

1. Place	tea	bags	in	a	1-gallon	glass	jar. Now	pour	boiling	water	over	tea	bags;
then,	steep	for	15	to	30	minutes. 2. Remove	tea	bags	and	stir	in	lemonade

concentrate,	lemon	juice,	and	honey. 3. Fill	your	jar	with	cold	water. Afterwards,	allow	to	chill	in	the	refrigerator. Serve	well-chilled	and	enjoy!Maple	Raspberry	Tea
(Ready	in	about	15	minutes	|	Servings	10)

Ingredients

1. 1	gallon	water

1. 3	tea	bags

1. 1	cup	fresh	raspberries

1. 2	tablespoons	maple	syrup

1. 1/2	cup	powdered	lemonade	mix

Directions

1. In	a	large-sized	saucepan,	bring	the	water	to	a	boil. Add	tea	bags	and
raspberries. 2. Allow	this	mixture	to	steep	for	about	5	minutes;	remove	tea	bags;	now	add
the	maple	syrup	and	lemonade	mix	and	stir	until	it	is	dissolved. 3. Allow	to	cool	in	your	fridge	and	serve	over	ice	cubes.Classic	Lime	Iced	Tea
(Ready	in	about	1	hour	10	minutes	|	Servings	8)

Ingredients

1. 8	cups	water

1. 3	orange	pekoe	tea	bags

1. 1/2	cup	lime	juice

1. Honey,	to	taste

Directions

1. In	a	saucepan,	heat	8	cups	water	to	a	rapid	boil. Then,	drop	in	the	tea	bags
and	remove	from	heat. Now	cover	and	let	steep	at	least	1	hour. 2. In	a	large	glass	jar,	combine	the	steeped	tea	with	lime	juice	and	honey. Refrigerate	until	chilled	and	serve	over	ice	if	desired.Mint	Lemonade	Iced	Tea
(Ready	in	about	25	minutes	|	Servings	12)

Ingredients

1. 3	tablespoons	fresh	mint	leaves,	crushed

1. 1	tablespoon	fresh	sage	leaves,	crushed

1. 1	quart	boiling	water

1. 1/2	cup	instant	iced	tea	powder

1. 2	quarts	water

1. 1	(6-ounce)	can	lemonade	concentrate,	thawed

1. 1/4	cup	honey

Directions

1. In	a	pitcher,	combine	the	mint	leaves,	sage	leaves,	boiling	water,	and	tea
powder. Stir	to	combine	well	and	let	stand	for	15	minutes. 2. Add	the	cold	water,	lemonade	concentrate,	and	honey. Strain	out	mint	and
sage	leaves	and	serve	your	tea	over	ice.Mom’s	Cranberry	Tea
(Ready	in	about	35	minutes	|	Servings	12)

Ingredients

1. 1	gallon	water

1. 13	tea	bags

1. 1	(12-ounce)	can	cranberry	juice	concentrate

Directions

1. Bring	water	to	a	boil	in	a	large-sized	pot. 2. Now	add	tea	bags	and	let	steep	until	desired	strength	is	reached. Pour	in
cranberry	juice	and	stir	to	combine. Sweeten	with	agave	nectar	or	the	other
natural	sweetener	of	choice. 3. Serve	well-chilled	and	enjoy!Peach	Iced	Tea
(Ready	in	about	1	hour	10	minutes	|	Servings	8)

Ingredients

1. 1	peach,	pitted	and	sliced

1. 1	tangerine,	peeled	and	segmented

1. 1	tablespoon	agave	syrup,	or	to	taste

1. 8	cups	boiling	water

1. 4	Grey	tea	bags

Directions

1. Place	peach,	tangerine,	and	agave	syrup	in	a	pitcher. 2. Next,	mash	your	fruit	with	a	wooden	spoon;	add	boiling	water	and	Grey	tea
bags;	stir	to	combine. Serve	well	chilled. Enjoy	and	stay	hydrated!Peppermint	Orange	Tea
(Ready	in	about	40	minutes	|	Servings	8)

Ingredients

1. 1	quart	water

1. 1	blood	orange,	peeled	and	segmented

1. 6	tea	bags	of	choice

1. 1	peppermint	tea	bag

1. 1/4	cup	frozen	lemonade	concentrate

Directions

1. Bring	the	water	to	a	boil	in	a	large	pot	over	high	heat;	add	orange	and	tea
bags. 2. Then,	allow	it	to	slowly	steep	for	30	minutes	to	1	hour. After	that,	remove
tea	bag	and	stir	in	the	lemonade	concentrate. Drink	well	chilled.Lime	Cucumber	Iced	Tea
(Ready	in	about	2	hours	20	minutes	|	Servings	8)

Ingredients

1. 2	quarts	boiling	water

1. 5	tea	bags

1. 1/2	cup	cucumber,	sliced

1. 2	limes,	sliced,	or	as	desired

1. 1/4	cup	wildflower	honey

Directions

1. Pour	boiling	water	into	a	pitcher. 2. Add	the	remaining	ingredients. 3. Refrigerate	it	for	about	2	hours	or	until	flavors	have	infused. Serve	well
chilled.Mint	C


week-old newspapers on the couch. I was in a rut—physically, mentally,
and otherwise. After a few months of living this way, I took my doctor ’ s
advice and signed up for an introductory course in breathing to learn a
technique called Sudarshan Kriya. At 7:00 p.m., the bushy-browed woman locked the front door, sat in the
middle of the group, inserted a cassette tape into a beat-up boom box, andpressed play. She told us to close our eyes. Through hissing static, the voice
of a man with an Indian accent flowed from the speakers. It was squeaky,
lilting, and too melodious to sound natural, as if it had been taken from a
cartoon. The voice instructed us to inhale slowly through our noses, then to
exhale slowly. T o focus on our breath. W e repeated this process for a few minutes. I reached over to a pile of
blankets and wrapped one around my legs to keep my stocking feet warm
beneath the drafty window. I kept breathing but nothing happened. No
calmness swept over me; no tension released from my tight muscles. Nothing. T en, maybe 20 minutes passed. I started getting annoyed and a bit
resentful that I’d chosen to spend my evening inhaling dusty air on the floor
of an old V ictorian. I opened my eyes and looked around. Everyone had the
same somber, bored look. Prisoner Eyes appeared to be sleeping. Jerry
Lewis looked like he was relieving himself. Bindi sat frozen with a
Cheshire Cat smile on her face. I thought about getting up and leaving, but I
didn’ t want to be rude. The session was free; the instructor wasn’ t paid to
be here. I needed to respect her charity. So I closed my eyes again, wrapped
the blanket a little tighter, and kept breathing. Then something happened. I wasn’ t conscious of any transformation
taking place. I never felt myself relax or the swarm of nagging thoughts
leave my head. But it was as if I’d been taken from one place and deposited
somewhere else. It happened in an instant. The tape came to an end and I opened my eyes. There was something
wet on my head. I lifted my hand to wipe it of f and noticed my hair was
sopping. I ran my hand down my face, felt the sting of sweat in my eyes,
and tasted salt. I looked down at my torso and noticed sweat blotches on my
sweater and jeans. The temperature in the room was about 68 degrees—
much cooler beneath the drafty window. Everyone had been covered in
jackets and hoodies to keep warm. But I had somehow sweated through my
clothes as if I’d just run a marathon. The instructor approached and asked if I was OK, if I’d been sick or had
a fever. I told her I felt perfectly fine. Then she said something about the
body’ s heat, and how each inhaled breath provides us with new ener gy and
each exhale releases old, stale ener gy. I tried to take it in but was having
trouble focusing. I was preoccupied with how I was going to ride my bike
three miles home from the Haight-Ashbury in sweat-soaked clothes.The next day I felt even better. As advertised, there was a feeling of
calm and quiet that I hadn’ t experienced in a long time. I slept well. The
little things in life didn’ t bother me as much. The tension was gone from my
shoulders and neck. This lasted a few days before the feeling faded out. What exactly had happened? How did sitting cross-legged in a funky
house and breathing for an hour trigger such a profound reaction? I returned to the breathing class the next week: same experience, fewer
waterworks. I didn’ t mention any of it to family members or friends. But I
worked to understand what had happened, and I spent the next several years
trying to figure it out. —
Over that span of time, I fixed up my house, got out of my funk, and got a
lead that might answer some of my questions about breathing. I went to
Greece to write a story on freediving, the ancient practice of diving
hundreds of feet below the water ’ s surface on a single breath of air. Between dives, I interviewed dozens of experts, hoping to gain some
perspective on what they did and why. I wanted to know how these
unassuming-looking people—software engineers, advertising executives,
biologists, and physicians—had trained their bodies to go without air for 12
minutes at a time, diving to depths far beyond what scientists thought
possible. When most people go underwater in a pool they bail out at ten feet after
just a few seconds, ears screaming. The freedivers told me they’d
previously been “most people.” Their transformation was a matter of
training; they’d coaxed their lungs to work harder, to tap the pulmonary
capabilities that the rest of us ignore. They insisted they weren’ t special. Anyone in reasonable health willing to put in the hours could dive to 100,
200, even 300 feet. It didn’ t matter how old you were, how much you
weighed, or what your genetic makeup was. T o freedive, they said, all
anyone had to do was master the art of breathing. T o them breathing wasn’ t an unconscious act; it wasn’ t something they
just did. It was a force, a medicine, and a mechanism through which they
could gain an almost superhuman power. “There are as many ways to breathe as there are foods to eat,” said one
female instructor who had held her breath for more than eight minutes and
once dived below 300 feet. “And each way we breathe will af fect ourbodies in dif ferent ways.” Another diver told me that some methods of
breathing will nourish our brains, while others will kill neurons; some will
make us healthy, while others will hasten our death. They told crazy stories, about how they’d breathed in ways that
expanded the size of their lungs by 30 percent or more. They told me about
an Indian doctor who lost several pounds by simply changing the way he
inhaled, and about another man who was injected with the bacterial
endotoxin E. coli, then breathed in a rhythmic pattern to stimulate his
immune system and destroy the toxins within minutes. They told me about
women who put their cancers into remission and monks who could melt
circles in the snow around their bare bodies over a period of several hours. It all sounded nuts. During my of f-hours from doing underwater research, usually late at
night, I read through reams of literature on the subject. Surely someone had
studied the ef fects of this conscious breathing on landlubbers? Surely
someone had corroborated the freedivers’ fantastic stories of using
breathing for weight loss, health, and longevity? I found a library’ s worth of material. The problem was, the sources were
hundreds, sometimes thousands, of years old. Seven books of the Chinese T ao dating back to around 400 BCE  focused
entirely on breathing, how it could kill us or heal us, depending on how we
used it. These manuscripts included detailed instructions on how to regulate
the breath, slow it, hold it, and swallow it. Even earlier, Hindus considered
breath and spirit the same thing, and described elaborate practices that were
meant to balance breathing and preserve both physical and mental health. Then there were the Buddhists, who used breathing not only to lengthen
their lives but to reach higher planes of consciousness. Breathing, for all
these people, for all these cultures, was powerful medicine. “Therefore, the scholar who nourishes his life refines the form and
nourishes his breath,” says an ancient T ao text. “Isn’ t this evident?”
Not so much. I looked for some kind of verification of these claims in
more recent research in pulmonology, the medical discipline that deals with
the lungs and the respiratory tract, but found next to nothing. According to
what I did find, breathing technique wasn’ t important. Many doctors,
researchers, and scientists I interviewed confirmed this position. T wenty
times a minute, ten times, through the mouth, nose, or breathing tube, it’ s
all the same. The point is to get air in and let the body do the rest.T o get a sense of how breathing is regarded by modern medical
professionals, think back to your last check-up. Chances are your doctor
took your blood pressure, pulse, and temperature, then placed a stethoscope
to your chest to assess the health of your heart and lungs. Maybe she
discussed diet, taking vitamins, stresses at work. Any issues digesting food? How about sleep? W ere the seasonal aller gies getting worse? Asthma? What about those headaches? But she likely never checked your respiratory rate. She never checked
the balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide in your bloodstream. How you
breathe and the quality of each breath were not on the menu. Even so, if the freedivers and the ancient texts were to be believed, how
we breathe af fects all things. How could it be so important and unimportant
at the same time? —
I kept digging, and slowly a story began to unfold. As I found out, I was not
the only person who’d recently started asking these questions. While I was