as an opportunity to be “Tao people.”Lao-tzu isn’t asking our government,
political leaders, or captains of industry, but us personally: “What man has
more than enough and gives it to the world?” The answer is, only the man
or woman of the Tao. When there are enough of us, there will be a pool
from which we Tao-centered people emer ge to govern. Then we’ll put into
place the way of living of fered in this verse.
It’s fairly simple to understand a surplus of mone y or possessions, but the
word actually symbolizes much  more. For example, there’ s the surplus of
joy you feel that you can offer to yourself and your family. Then there’ s the
excess of intellectual prowess, talent, compassion, health, strength, and
kindness you can share with the world. Whenever you see deficiencies in
joy, abundance, educational opportunities, perfect health, or sobrie ty, make
your own surpluses available. Lao-tzu urges you to look at what’ s deficient
and be an instrument of increasing, rather than a collector of more, which
marginalizes and divides the oneness that is all of life.
Practice these new ways of being that are more aligned with the way of
the T ao:
Reduce surplus.
Reduce what’ s in excess in your life and then offer it where it can be
utilized. Begin with your stuff: clothing, furniture, tools, equipment, radios,
cameras, or anything that you have too much of. Don’ t sell it; rather, give it
away (if you can afford to). Don’ t ask for recognition for charitable acts—
simply behave in harmony with 77th Verse the Tao by reducing your
surplus. Then think about your intangible abundance of health, joy,
kindness, love, or inner peace, and seek ways to offer those glorious
feelings to those who could benefit from your bounty.
Be an instrument of incr easing.
Just as nature fills voids by maintaining the cyclical balance necessary to
our world, be an instrument of increasing where you observe deficiencies.
Practice giving by dedicating a portion of your earnings to be used to ease
deficits, for as Lao-tzu points out, “The master can keep giving because
there is no end to his wealth.” If you can’t offer money to those who areless fortunate, say a silent bless ing for them. Offer a prayer when you hear
an ambulance’ s or police car’s siren. Look for opportunities to fill the
empty spaces in other people’ s lives with money; things; or loving ener gy in
the form of kindness, compassion, joy, and for giveness.
Do the T ao Now
Plan a day when  you make a point of getting rid of some of your surplus,
making sure that you part with something that’s useful elsewhere. Look
around for thing s you don’t need or use—for instance, I just glanced up
from my writing and spotted some legal pads, three DVDs, and a toaste r
that I haven’ t used in six months. If you scan the room right now as you’re
reading these words, I’m positive you’ll see things that you could easily
categorize as surplus. So sched ule a time to put some of your excess into
circulation. You can also pick up those things in your line of vision at this
moment and drop them off where they’ll be welcomed today. Be a man or
woman of the T ao!
OceanofPDF.com78th Verse
Nothing in the world is softer
and weaker than water.
But for attacking the har d, the unyielding,
nothing can surpass it.
There is nothing like it.

The weak over comes the str ong;
the soft surpasses the har d.
In all the world, ther e is no one who does not know
this, but no one can master the practice.

Therefore the master r emains
serene in the midst of sorr ow;
evil cannot enter his heart.
Because he has given up helping,
he is people’ s greatest help.

True wor ds appear paradoxical.
OceanofPDF.comLiving like Water
In researching, studying, and putting into practice the 81 verses of the Tao
Te Chin g, I’ve been struck by the many references Lao-tzu makes to water
in its various forms: the sea, rain, fog, mist, snow, and rivers and streams.
The esteemed master seemed to find his spiritual strength in all of nature,
but he must have had a special reverence for water and how it functions in
all of our lives. Be like water seems to be repeated throughout the Tao Te
Ching. This element is closer to being Tao-like than anything else in this
world, so it is a perfectly suitable symbol for teaching about the Great W ay.
Water is as mysterious to us as the Tao is. When you reach into the river
and try to squeeze it tight, you end up losing it all. W ater is elusive until you
cease grasping and let your hand relax and be one with it—pa radoxically,
you get it by letting go. Lao-tzu advises emulating this element in all of its
undecipherable and mysterious ways, even if it seems contrary to what your
intellect and conditioning are telling you.
Lao-tzu reiterate s three themes that appear throughout this book. They are
the true characteristics of water:
1. Overcome the unyielding parts of your life by yielding! Hard and rigid
are overcome by the relentless application of gentle things, such as water ’s
soft flow or steady drip. So be persistently gentle and willing to surrender,
and watch the resistance of the harsh and implacable wear away.
For years, one of my family members who insisted on damaging herself
and her relationships by ingesting intoxicating substances has been  met by
my loving but firm response. Slowly, over time, her hardness began to wear
away in the face of the steady drip, drip, drip of gentle but resolute
kindness, acceptance, and love. It can be discouraging at times, but as Lao-
tzu points out in this verse, we must act just like water and use a soft
approach, “for attacking the hard, the unyielding, nothing can surpass it.”

2. Water appears to be somethin g you could easily overpower. However,
it’s so flexible that once you push it out of the way, it will find its own level
below all strong  things and patie ntly enter where nothing solid can block itsresting place. Put up barricades, erect levees, and make everything
waterproof; yet with enough passage of time, the flexible quality of water
will triumph. “The weak overcomes the strong” is a powerful message for
you. Remember to stay flexible, willing to lower yourself in humility and
appear weak, but knowing that you’re in harmony with the Tao. Lao-tzu
urges you to be like the master who remains “serene  in the midst of
sorrow,” and evil will not be able to enter your heart.

3. Water is so soft that it can’t be harmed, damaged, or destroyed—it
simply returns to its Source to be used over and over again. Boil it until it
disappears, and its vapors enter the atmosphere, ultimately to return. Drink
it, and it returns after nourishing your body. Pollute it, and it will return
after enough passage of time to become purified nourishment again. This is
all accomplished because of the element’ s mutable softness.
When you stay soft and surpass the hard, you too will be indestructible.
(Reread verse 43, “Living Softly.”) There’ s nothing softer than wate r under
heaven, and yet there’ s nothing that can surpass it for overcoming the hard.
There’ s so much wisdom to be found in this analogy: Stay in your soft
mode. Hang back when you’re  about to show how hard you can be. Try
patience rather than attempting to rigidly control. Trust your innately gentle
self.
I love Mary Oliver’s beautiful poem “Wild Geese,” in which she speaks
of this:
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundr ed miles thr ough the desert, r epenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving acr oss the
landscapes,over the prairies and the deep tr ees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home
again.
Whoever you ar e, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting—
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
From his 2,500-year -old perspective, Lao-tzu reminds you of how much
you have to learn from nature, particularly water, and urges you to put these
ideas into practice:
Change the way you look at str ength versus weakness.
See that the stereotypes of rigid, hard, forceful, cocksure, and dominant
aren’ t attributes of strength at all. In fact, these qualities will lead you to be
suppressed and overpowered by softness, or what you’ve called weakness.
Change


gesic action on pain receptors by DMSO and morphine differed significantly.
29
If the analgesic action of DMSO was not achieved by blocking morphine recep -
tors, how was pain relieved in animals or humans?
The answer remained unsettled until 1993, when Evans et  al.30 reported
their findings in a study where 2%, 9%, and 15% DMSO was applied directly to exposed cat sural nerves. These unmyelinated sural nerves mediate somatic pain from C-fibers that terminate on the skin, muscle, and joint capsules.
31 It was
found that C-fiber conduction velocity was slowed by 5% DMSO and was con -
centration dependent. At 9% concentration, DMSO completely blocked C-fiber conduction, and at 15% concentration, the onset of nerve block was virtually immediate
30 (Figure 2.1). The study by the Evans et  al.30 was an extension of
previous findings by Sawada and Sato,32 who had reported that the mechanism
involved in the nerve conduction block induced by DMSO appeared to be due to potassium channel blockade. These investigators observed that DMSO caused a rapid membrane depolarization and decrease in membrane conductance of Aplysia  neurons, a finding consistent with the blockade of potassium leak chan -
nels.
32 These leak potassium channels function to set the negative membrane
potential of neurons. They differ from voltage-gated channels because they are always open to the passage of sodium and potassium ions across the membrane whereas voltage-gated channels open and close in response to specific changes in the membrane potential.
How DMSO specifically affects potassium channel depolarization has not been made
clear, but Davis et al.
33 found that 50% DMSO was necessary to block muscle twitch
in a frog sciatic nerve-gastrocnemius muscle preparation. Interestingly, Becker et al.34
found that 75% DMSO blocked both myelinated A-delta and unmyelinated C-nerve fibers (Figure 2.1). In a study of small fiber afterdischarge in spinal cord, medulla, and tegmentum following stimulation of the superficial radial and sural nerves, Shealey
35 20 Dimethyl Sulfoxide (DMSO) in Trauma and Disease
also found blocking of pain impulses by exposing the peripheral nerve to 5%–10%
DMSO, a result that they concluded might be due to blockade of C-fibers.
The effects of DMSO and a DMSO-containing saline solution were used on
 thermal- and chemical-induced nociception and inflammation, and the locomotor
activity after treatment was evaluated in CD1 mice.36 This mouse type is a multi -
purpose research animal model that can be used in such fields as toxicology to test safety and efficacy of drug products, and on in vivo  nerve preparations.
Centrally or orally administered DMSO was shown to display anti-  n ociception
to thermal (hot plate and tail flick test) and chemical (formalin test) stimuli.36
Additionally, oral and central, but not local, administrations of DMSO were seen to improve locomotor activity in the CD1 mice.
36
Thus, the collective evidence on the analgesic effects of DMSO in reducing pain
sensation differs from that of complete anesthesia since it appears to involve block -
ade or partial blockade of A-delta fibers that mediate acute sharp pain as well as C-fibers that mediate somatic signals involving temperature, sensual touch, and muscle and joint pain. This evidence implies that DMSO could be useful in mus -
culoskeletal aching pain and sharp arthritic pain impulses, which are conveyed by lightly myelinated A-delta fibers, and somatic pain mediated by C-fibers. The merit of this conclusion will be further examined in Chapter 3. The effects of DMSO on these experimental pain-related conditions offer the potential by DMSO to reduce or abolish pain by mechanisms ostensibly distinct from the opioids and the dangers posed by narcotic prescriptive agents.
Another possible mechanism exerted by DMSO on pain receptors may be its
effect on the excitotoxic expression of voltage-gated sodium channels and glutamate, NMDA ( N-methyl- d-aspartate), and AMPA ( α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methylisoxazole-
4-propionate)
37 as suggested by Hoang et al.38
Sodium channels are located in all sensory neurons, and some sodium chan -
nels that are sensitive to tetrodotoxin are found only on nociceptive-related sensory
DMSO action in pain relief
DMSO bl ocks conduction
Spinothalamic
Anterior spinothalamic
tractC-fiberA-delt a
fiber
Lateral
spinothalamic trac tFree nerve
ending: 1° afferent
terminals in skin
FIGURE 2.1  (See color insert. ) DMSO topical application can block both myelinated
A-delta and unmyelinated C-pain fibers.30,34 See text for details.21 DMSO in Basic Pharmacology
neurons implicated in pathological pain states.38 Lidocaine, for example, is a widely
used local anesthetic that functions through the blockade of sodium channels, a
mechanism distinct from the opioids.39
Since DMSO is reported to have an effect on blocking sodium and calcium ion entry
into cells40,41 and several research groups have shown that cancer-related neuropathic
pain42,43 has an underlying mechanism involving membrane hyperexcitability due to
overexpression of sodium channels and glutamate buildup stemming from the upregula -
tion of NMDA/AMPA pathways, it has been suggested that DMSO could be used as a primary or adjuvant analgesic agent in controlling pain in advanced cancer patients.
38
ANTI-INFLAMMATORY
Inflammation is a localized and complex protective reaction by the organism to remove damaging stimuli by removing offending factors and mobilizing molecules responsible for the healing process. The damaging stimuli can involve, but are not limited to, adhesion molecules, neutrophils, complement, IgG, irritants, dying cells, or pathogens. Inflammation is implicated in the pathogeneses of arthritis, cancer, and stroke, as well as in neurodegenerative and cardiovascular diseases. The acute phase of inflammation is characterized by the rapid influx of blood granulocytes, typically neutrophils, followed swiftly by monocytes that mature into inflammatory macrophages that can subsequently proliferate and cause tissue damage. When the inflammation occurs at or just under the skin, the characteristic signs of inflamma -
tion are pain (dolor), heat (calor), redness (rubor), and swelling (tumor), responses that can lead to scarring and loss of organ function.
A classical and popular model of inducing experimental inflammation and hyper -
algesia from edema formation is the carrageenan-induced inflammation in the rat paw. This model has been used extensively in the development of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and selective cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitors.
44
Evidence indicates that the COX-2-mediated increase in prostaglandin E2 (PGE2)
and prostaglandin I2 (PGI2) production contributes to the severity of the inflamma -
tory and pain responses in this rat paw model.45
Carrageenan-induced inflammation in the rat paw was used by Formanek and
Kovak46 and later by Görög and Kovács47 to demonstrate the anti-inflammatory
action of DMSO applied to the edematous rat paw. These investigators showed a significant reduction in paw and limb edema after topical DMSO application, but no biochemical explanation was available to explain how DMSO exerted its action. The anti-inflammatory actions of DMSO generated suspicion that its therapeutic benefit could be explained by its activity on prostaglandin pathways since it was well known that prostaglandins play a key role in the generation of the inflammatory response.
PROSTAGLANDINS
It remained for Panganamala and his research team48 in 1976 to show that
DMSO had an effect on prostaglandin biosynthesis. Using a liver microsomal preparation, DMSO was seen to stimulate PGE
1 and inhibit PGF2α by blocking
arachidonic-acid-induced platelet aggregation, a reaction involving endoperoxide 22 Dimethyl Sulfoxide (DMSO) in Trauma and Disease
metabolites, PGE2, thromboxane A2 (TXA2), and PGI2.48 These authors concluded
that anti-  i nflammatory properties shown by DMSO in these studies were likely due
to its hydroxyl radical–scavenging ability and inhibition of prostaglandin synthesis.48
Prostaglandins and TXA2 are collectively called prostanoids, which form when
arachidonic acid, a 20-carbon unsaturated fatty acid, is released from the plasma
membrane by phospholipases and metabolized by the sequential actions of pros -
taglandin G/H synthase or cyclooxygenase (COX).40 Prostaglandin production
remains very low in uninflamed tissues, but when acute inflammation occurs, it increases immediately prior to the recruitment of leukocytes and the infiltration of immune cells.
The presence of TXA
2 in blood will cause strong vasoconstriction and platelet
aggregation, while the formation of PGF2α, or PGE2


	already	been	given.
Finally,	we	can	all	be	grateful	for	the	courage	that	allows	us	to	take	personal
risks,	since	believing	in	ourselves	is	the	most	important	strength	we	have.	We
all	have	the	ability	to	gather	love,	friendship,	and	knowledge	before	life
passes	us	by.	It’s	up	to	us	to	make	the	effort.	Those	of	us	who	understand	the
importance	of	gratitude	can	encourage	others	to	recognize	their	own	special
moments.
Gratitude	feels	good!
Being	Grateful	During	Life’s	Challenges
Shakti	Gawain
Shakti	Gawain

is	the	bestselling	author	of	CREATIVE	VISUALIZATION,
LIVING	IN	THE	LIGHT,	RETURN	TO	THE	GARDEN,	AWAKENING,	THE
PATH	OF	TRANSFORMATION,	and	several	other	books.	A	warm,	articulate,
and	inspiring	teacher,	Shakti	leads	workshops	internationally.	For	more	than
20	years,	she	has	facilitated	thousands	of	people	in	learning	to	trust	and	act
on	their	own	inner	truth,	thus	releasing	and	developing	their	creativity	in
every	area	of	their	lives.	Shakti	and	her	husband,	Jim	Burns,	are	co-founders
of	Nataraj	Publishing.	They	make	their	home	in	Mill	Valley,	California,	and
on	the	Hawaiian	island	of	Kauai.
It	is	relatively	easy	to	feel	grateful	when	good	things	are	happening	and	life	is
going	the	way	we	want	it	to.	Even	then,	we	often	take	things	for	granted.	It
feels	so	good	to	take	a	moment	to	express	our	appreciation	to	other	people,	to
the	earth,	to	our	higher	power,	to	life.
A	much	greater	challenge	is	to	get	in	touch	with	gratitude	when	we	are	going
through	a	difficult	time,	or	life	is	not	going	the	way	we	think	it	should.	At
these	times,	we	are	more	likely	to	be	feeling	hurt,	confused,	or	resentful,
which	is	perfectly	natural.	Gratitude	is	the	last	thing	that	would	occur	to	us	at
such	a	moment.	There	have	been	times	in	my	life	when	I	felt	more	like
shaking	my	fist	at	the	universe,	wondering	why	it	was	dealing	me	such	a	cruel
blow.
It’s	interesting,	though,	that	after	going	through	a	difficult	time,	in	retrospect
we	can	often	see	that	there	was	something	important	and	necessary	about	that
experience.	We	may	not	arrive	at	this	perspective	until	months	or	even	years
later,	but	eventually	we	can	see	that	there	was	some	important	lesson	learned,
a	deepening	of	our	wisdom,	an	awakening,	or	perhaps	a	new	door	that	opened
in	our	life	as	a	result	of	events	that	seemed	negative	at	the	time.
For	example,	the	loss	of	a	job	may	have	led	us	to	spiritual	or	emotionalhealing.	The	ending	of	a	relationship	may	give	us	the	opportunity	to	discover
that	we	need	time	alone,	or	it	may	pave	the	way	for	a	more	satisfying
partnership.	At	that	point,	we	may	begin	to	feel	grateful	that	life	unfolded	as	it
did.
Usually,	a	painful	time	in	our	life	is	what	I	call	a	“healing	crisis.”	We	are
letting	go	of	something	old,	and	opening	to	something	new.	Often,	it	happens
because	we	have
already
	grown	in	consciousness,	and	therefore	can	no	longer
live	in	the	old	way.	Sometimes	we	are	being	confronted	with	a	necessary
change	that	we	must	make	within	ourselves	and/or	in	our	lives.	There	is	a
grieving	process	that	we	must	go	through	as	we	let	go	of	something	we’ve
been	attached	to.	We	must	allow	ourselves	to	feel	our	fear	and	sadness,	and
we	can	also	remind	ourselves	that	there	is	a	gift	in	this	experience	that	we
simply	can’t	yet	see.
So	if	you	are	going	through	a	healing	crisis	in	your	life	right	now,	reach	out
for	as	much	support	and	love	as	you	can,	and	allow	yourself	to	fully
experience	all	the	feelings	that	come	up.	Ask	that	the	gift	in	this	experience	be
revealed	to	you	as	soon	as	you	are	ready	for	it.	And	remember	that	after	a
little	time	passes	and	you	gain	perspective,	you	will	once	again	feel	grateful
for	the	amazing	journey	of	your	life.
Gratitude	Is	a	Sanctuary…
Michele	Gold
Michele	Gold

is	the	author	of	the	beautiful	coffee-table	book	ANGELS	OF
THE	SEA:	SACRED	DOLPHIN	ART	OF	ATLANTIS.	Her	award-winning
spiritual	artwork	and	storytelling	reflects	dream	imagery,	visions,	myth,	and
the	actual	experience	of	swimming	with	families	of	wild	dolphins.	Her	work
has	appeared	in	national	publications	films,	and	has	been	exhibited	in	private
and	corporate	collections	around	the	world.	Possessing	a	deep	love	and
respect	for	all	of	life,	it	is	Michele’s	greatest	hope	that	others	will	share	her
compassion	for	these	exquisite	dolphin	beings.	Michele	is	a	professional	fine-
art	illustrator,	writer,	photographer,	dancer,	and	musician	who	believes	that
love	is	always	the	answer.
My	father	told	me	a	wonderful	story	about	a	father	who	gave	his	young
daughter	a	simple	locket	and	told	her	that	it	contained	a	very	valuable
diamond	sealed	inside	the	locket,	so	if	at	any	time	she	was	ever	in	need,	she
could	crack	open	the	locket,	sell	the	diamond,	and	make	it	through
difficulties.
The	daughter	grew	into	a	woman	and	struggled	alone	through	terrible	times	of
poverty,	but	just	the	mere	thought	of	the	diamond	resting	safely	inside	the
locket	she	wore	around	her	neck	gave	her	enough	courage	to	pull	her	through.
Many	years	later,	she	had	finally	become	a	success	in	all	areas	of	her	life	and
no	longer	had	to	struggle	for	survival.	Her	curiosity	had	grown	to	the	point
that	she	had	to	know	how	much	the	diamond	was	actually	worth.
The	woman	took	her	precious	locket	to	the	finest	jeweler	in	the	village	to
have	the	diamond	appraised.	The	jeweler	eyed	the	plain,	tarnished	locket	with
a	bit	of	disdain,	raised	a	mallet,	and	with	one	swift	blow	smashed	the	little
locket	into	many	pieces,	releasing	a	small,	shiny	piece.	The	jeweler	held	it	up
to	the	light	and	said,	“Why,	this	is	not	a	diamond,	my	lady,	but	a	worthless
piece	of	ordinary	glass!”	Stunned	by	the	news,	the	woman	laughed	and	cried
and	then	laughed	some	more.“No,	kind	sir,	that	is	the	most	valuable	diamond	in	the	world!”	she	replied,
wiping	the	tears	from	her	eyes.
Her	father	had	given	her	a	priceless	gem…	the	gift	of	hope	and	the	belief	that
she	would	always	be	all	right,	and	for	this	she	would	always	be	grateful.
As	I	searched	over	the	experiences	I	am	most	grateful	for,	my	mind	travels	in
a	spiral.	No	matter	how	unique	the	experience,	the	center	is	always	kindness.
I	was


 that rises above the clink
of campaign contributions from big money industrial,
agricultural, manufacturing, financial and business
interests. T o achieve the desir ed effect – political action
on any and all levels – the voice of the voters must be
strong, widespread and united in purpose.
What Can One Person Do? – Miracles!
Whether you are counting to 10 or to a million, you
have to begin with one! That’ s how political action star ts.
Begin with yourself, your family, friends and neighbors,
involve your clubs, chur ch and other groups, and write
letters to editors of local newspapers. Call, fax or write
local radio and TV stations. Go to town council meetings
and state your health concer ns! www.senate.gov.
After you get your hometown or community
involved, extend your action into the county, the state,
the nation! W rite, visit, fax and call county of ficials, state
 135
officials and your congressmen and women, and even
the President and V ice-President of the United States!
Don’ t settle for promises or palliatives! Demand action
– and persist until you get it! It is up to each and every
one of us to bring all possible political pressure to bear
upon our political leaders to clean up our environment
(water, air, soil) and restore the world’ s vital natural
ecology. This is what we all must faihtfully do – it is our
responsibility if we hope to sur vive this 21st Centur y!!
Let’s Clear Up Some Confusion
On the basic issues of pollution and ecology,
practically all health-minded persons agree. On other
issues among ourselves, however, there seems to be some
disagreement. On the subject of nutrition, for example,
there was so much controversy among the advocates of
various diets – each claiming theirs was the only one
worthwhile – that we felt it necessar y to clarify matters.
As the world’ s oldest practicing biochemist and
nutritionist, with personal experience in evaluating the
Miracles can happen daily through guidance and prayer! numerous and varied dietetic theories, my father has
shared his great knowledge with all those who are
interested in our revealing, life-changing book, Bragg
Healthy Lifestyle – V ital Living to 120. (See back pages to
order this book if unavailable in your ar ea.) Now water,
and its safety, has become a similar controversy.
What is “Pure W ater”?
Reading this book, Water – The Shocking T ruth That
Can Save Y our Life, you are becoming aware of the pr os
and cons of distilled water versus mineral or ground
water. Unfortunately, however, writers and lecturers are
now creating confusion about distilled water. Some have
actually referred to “soft water” (water treated by a water
softener) as “distilled water.” This is definitely not the
case! Softened water has a high content of inorganic
sodium, calcium and other inorganic minerals.
Using this misinformation as a basis, even some
health publications have made misleading comparisons
in an attempt to make a case against distilled water! For
136 example, group comparisons were made citing people
who lived in remote areas with hard ground water
supplies and yet had a low incidence of cardiovascular
(heart and cir culator y system) problems  – without also
taking into consideration the pertinent fact that such
people tend to eat more natural “live” foods and live in
a relaxed, rural environment!
On the basis of water alone, this rural group was
compared with people living in crowed, highly polluted
metropolitan areas who drank treated city water,
presumably filtered through home water softeners
(erroneously designated as “distilled water”), who
showed a higher incidence of hypertension and other
cardiovascular problems. No mention was made of the
obvious facts that these urban dwellers were subjected
to much greater tensions, as well as diets of lifeless,
processed “plastic” foods from supermarket shelves –
both major contributors to cardiovascular illnesses.
Obviously, any self-styled “r esear cher” who makes such
errors as those noted above has not done their basic
homework! Unfor tunately, the reader may not be awar e of this – and thus unnecessary confusion is ir responsibly
created. So, with water as with eating, don’ t let the so–called
“experts”, often paid by big interest violators, fool you!
What is Distilled W ater? The Best for Health!
Throughout this book we have stressed that distilled
water is the only pure water – the only water you should
put into your body. As noted previously, “soft water” is
not distilled water... nor is “purified water,” “deionized
water,” “filter ed water” or “reverse osmosis water.”
There is only one process that can make 100%
distilled water and that is steam distillation. In steam
distillation, only pure water (H2O) evaporates, leaving
all inorganic minerals and other impurities behind.
 Test Y our W ater – Drink Safe W ater
With so many of American water supplies contaminated
by harmful chemicals and toxic additives, how can we
make sure that we provide only safe, healthful water for
ourselves and our families? One relatively simple answer
is to drink only distilled bottled water. But even this method
requires care, for not all bottled water lives up to even
FDA bottled water standards. Before you buy any bottled
water ask for an analysis – it’ s your right and it’ s your
health at risk! Let’ s work to prevent these water atr ocities
and get quick action to clean up our countr y’s precious
water supplies!!! Call or write to your bottled water
company and city water board to demand proof that
your water supply contains no THMs (trihalomethanes,
also formed through chlorination), car cinogens, fluoride
and other synthetic or organic chemicals and pesticides!
Get your water tested! Call your Public Health Dept. for
details. Also this website will help you test your home,
well, stream, etc. waters. V isit website: www.aquamd.com or
call The American W ater Council (toll free) (886) 278-2637
137
Associated Press – The EPA is set to unveil new requirements that will provide
citizens with details on what chemicals are found in their drinking water. The
U.S. President said new water quality reports are necessary “to ensure that
Americans have the information they need about the safety of their drinking
water.” The new EPA regulation will direct water agencies nationally to provide
information such as: • What lakes, underground aquifers or rivers the water
comes from. • What contaminants are in the water and whether the amounts
exceed EPA health standards. • What health risks are posed by the contamination
when federal standards are exceeded. see updates on web: www.epa.gov How Drinking W ater Affects Y our Health
Pure water is a necessity for health! In resear ch begun
way back in 1960, the water supplies of 1,633 of the
largest cities in the U.S. were analyzed. The shocking
results of this long study showed a definite link between
water quality and the mortality rate from cancer,
cardiovascular disease and other chronic diseases.
Total Dissolved Solids and Chronic Disease
In his study, “Relationship of W ater to the Risk of
Dying,” Dr. Sauer chronicled the relationship of T otal
Dissolved Solids to heart disease, cancer and other
chronic diseases ( Total Dissolved Solids – or TDS –
is the ter m for all the elements present in any
water supply ). It had been thought for centuries that
the European mineral waters so ver y high in TDS were
beneficial to health. But Dr. Sauer’ s study found that  as
TDS increases in a water supply, so does the number of
chronic diseases in the population using that supply.
138
(Author’ s Note: At our home in Desert Hot Springs,
one of California’ s renowned hot mineral water r esorts,
our corroded water pipes had to be replaced after only a
few years due to inorganic mineral buildup in the pipes.
What this inorganic mineral-laced water does to
plumbing in homes – it also does to the human pipes!)
High Blood Pressure and Drinking W ater
Water quality also plays a par t in the development
of hypertension, or high blood pressure. Hypertension
afflicts over 50 million people in the U.S., making it the
most common chronic disease. It is also a major health
problem in all of the developed countries of the world
– due to stress, the introduction of refined foods, salt,
lack of exer cise, and water dehydration.
But the good news about hypertension, or high blood
pressure, is that it can be reduced or even prevented! A
diet high in natural fiber, grains, vegetables, organic
calcium and potassium – with less meat, fat and sodium,
this can help reduce or even prevent hypertension. It’s estimated that fully 10% of our sodium intake is
from drinking water! A study of high school sophomores
in a community with high levels of sodium in their
drinking water showed significantly higher blood
pressure levels


fruit) Juice
Use only a reamer type juicer, electric or hand operated. Do not squeeze the peal of the fruit.
The aromatic oils contained in the skin are harmful and would interfere with the treatment.
The Daily Routine
The typical average daily menu of the Gerson patient is as follows:
 BREAKFAST: a large plate of oatmeal cooked in distilled water and sweetened with a little
organic honey or pre-soaked unsulphured dried fruit. An 8-ounce glass of freshly squeezed orange
juice. Some additional raw or stewed fruit. Optional: a slice of organic, unsalted, toasted 100%
rye bread.
 LUNCH: a large plate of mixed raw salad with flax seed oil dressing. 8-10 ounces of
the “special soup.” Baked, boiled, mashed or otherwise prepared potato. 1-2 freshly cooked
vegetables. Raw or stewed fruit for dessert.
 DINNER: Follows the same order as lunch but is varied with different vegetables and fruit
for dessert.
 PLEASE NOTE: Either at lunch or dinner, after the patient has consumed the necessary
foods,  he or she may eat a second slice of organic, unsalted, 100% rye bread. However, bread
should NOT satisfy the appetite or take the place of essential foods.
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 107Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.comBasic Recipes to Start You Off
For a full range of Gerson recipes, please see Chapter 28. The following instructions are only
meant to introduce the most fundamental items of the patient’s essential daily menu.
 BREAKFAST : For one person, put 5 ounces of rolled oats into 12 ounces of distilled water.
Start cold, bring to a boil, let simmer for 6-8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile squeeze
orange juice, add prescribed medication(s) (see Chapter 14 ). Serve the oatmeal with pre-soaked
unsulphured dried fruit, e.g. apricots, apple rings, prunes, raisins and mango. Or use raw or
stewed apple or stewed plums, or fresh fruit in season, e.g. peaches, nectarines, grapes or pears.
(No berries!) Up to two teaspoons a day of permitted sweeteners (raw honey, maple syrup, spray-
dried cane juices sold as Sucanat and Rapadura, or unsulphured molasses) may be used.
 LUNCH :  For the salad, cut up, slice and mix varied lettuces, such as red lettuce, Romaine,
escarole, salad bowl and endive. Add to the mixture chopped green onions, radishes, a little
celery, some tomatoes, cauliflower florets, slices of green pepper and watercress.  Dressing:  mix
1 tablespoonful of flax seed oil (during the first month of the therapy; afterwards reduce to 2
teaspoonfuls) with apple cider or red wine vinegar, or lemon or lime juice; add garlic to taste.
“Special Soup” or Hippocrates Soup
(to be eaten twice daily throughout the treatment.)
To save time and effort, prepare enough for two days, i.e., 4 portions. It will keep in the
refrigerator overnight for the next day.  These are the ingredients :
1 medium celery root if available. If not, 3-4 celery branches, i.e., pascal
1 medium parsley root (rarely available, may be omitted)
2 small or one large leek (if not available, use 2 small onions instead)
2 medium onions
garlic to taste—may also be squeezed raw into the hot soup instead of cooking it
a small amount of parsley
1 1⁄2 pounds of tomatoes (or more, if desired)
1 pound of potatoes.
To prepare : wash and scrub vegetables and cut into slices or 1⁄2 inch cubes. Put in lar ge pot,
add water to just cover vegetables, bring to the boil, then cook slowly on a low heat for 1 1⁄2 to
2 hours, until all the vegetables are soft. Pass through food mill, to remove fi bers. Let soup cool
before storing in refrigerator.

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 108Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.comPLEASE NOTE : Many spices are high in aromatic acids, which are irritants and are likely to
counteract the healing reaction. This is why only the following mild spices are permitted, to be
used in very small doses:
Allspice, anise, bay leaves, coriander, dill, fennel, mace, marjoram, rosemary, sage, saffron,
tarragon, thyme, sorrel, summer savory. In addition, chives, onion, garlic and parsley may be
used in larger amounts.
Two herb teas, chamomile and peppermint, are frequently used by Gerson patients. For details
please see Chapter 13  and Chapter 16.
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 109Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.comCHAPTER 13
All About Enemas
To the uninitiated the coffee enema is the most surprising and apparently bizarre element of
the Gerson Therapy. Critics like to attack and ridicule it, without bothering to find out its purpose
and function. Yet without this simple tool of detoxification the Gerson method wouldn’t work.
Before going into details, let us make clear why this is so.
The moment a patient is put on the full therapy, the combined effect of the food, the juices
and the medication causes the immune system to attack and kill tumor tissue, besides working
to flush out accumulated toxins from the body tissues. This great clearing out carries the risk of
overburdening and poisoning the liver, the all-important organ of detoxification, which in a cancer
patient is bound to be already damaged and debilitated. It was this recognition that prompted Dr.
Gerson some 70 years ago to incorporate the coffee enema in the program, for he realized that
without this additional means of detoxification the liver was in danger of becoming comatose,
which could severely damage or even kill the patient. How the coffee enema prevents this will be
explained fully in this chapter.
Generally speaking, any kind of enema introduces a substance into the rectum in order to
empty the bowel, or to administer nutrients or drugs. It is a medical procedure of great antiquity:
Hippocrates, the Greek “father of modern medicine” prescribed water enemas for several
conditions some 2600 years ago. In India, enemas were recommended for inner cleansing by
Patanjali, author of the first written work on yoga, in around 200 B.C. According to tradition, the
ibis, a sacred bird of Ancient Egypt associated with wisdom, used to administer itself an enema
with its long curved beak. Closer to our own time, a lady in the court of King Louis XIV of France
is reported to have taken an enema under her voluminous skirts, and “Le Malade Imaginaire,”
i.e., The Hypochondriac, in Moliere’s play of the same title, enjoyed an enema on stage.  It is
only in recent times, and mainly in English-speaking countries, that this simple and safe cleansing
method had fallen into disuse.
The use of coffee  as enema material began in Germany towards the end of World War I.
(1914-1918).The country was blockaded by the Allies, many essential goods—among them
morphine—were not available, yet trainloads of wounded soldiers kept arriving at field hospitals,
needing surgery. The surgeons had barely enough morphine to dull the pain of the operations, but
none to help patients endure the post-surgical pain; all they could do was to order water enemas
to be used.
Although owing to the blockade coffee was in short supply, there was plenty of it around to
help the surgeons stay awake during their long spells of duty. The nurses, desperate to ease their
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 110Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.compatients’ pain, began to pour some of the leftover coffee into the enema buckets, figuring that since
it helped the surgeons (who drank it), the soldiers (who didn’t) would also benefit from it. And
indeed the soldiers reported pain relief. This accidental discovery came to the attention of two
medical researchers, Professors Meyer and Huebner, at the University of Goettingen in Germany,
who went on to test the effects of rectally infused caffeine on rats. They found that the caffeine,
travelling via the hemorrhoidal vein and the portal system to the liver, opened up the bile ducts,
allowing the liver to release accumulated toxins. This observation was confirmed seventy years


.frmechanism that explains the link between fast-
ing and longevity in humans and other mam-
mals.
Australian scientist David Sinclair and his re-
search team discovered that sirtuins SIRT3 and
SIRT4, which prolong the life of cells, are acti-
vated during fasting. Scientists had previously
hypothesized that the work of mitochondria w as
associated with the organism’s life span. When
the mitochondria are exhausted, the cell be-
comes vulnerable, apoptosis begins, i.e. the pro-
gram of self -destruction is activated. The signal
of the beginning of apoptosis is the reduction of
the amount of the oxidation reduction coen-
zyme NAD+ (nicotinamide adenine dinucleo-
tide) in the mitochondria, in the nucleus of the
cell and in its cytoplasm. An experiment (during
Copyright © Vera Giovanna Bani 2019 www.dryfasting.infoThis Ebook was purchased by Gilberto Franchi email: gilbertofranchi@hotmail.frwhich laboratory animals were forced to fast for
48 hours) made it possible to establish that in the
guinea- pig's organism during this period the
Nampt protein was activated. This protein trig-
gered the synthesis of NAD+ in the cytoplasm,
which in turn determined the synthesis of the
enzymes coded by the  SIRT3 and SIRT4 genes.
These enzymes favorably influence mitochon-
drial function and energy metabolism in the cell,
i.e. they delay aging and prevent apoptosis.
"If we could maintain a high concentration of
NAD+ in the mitochondria, able to stimulate the
SIRT3 and SIRT4 genes, the cell would not n eed
anything else for a while" - said the study au-
thors, who called this phenomenon "mitochon-
drial oasis hypothesis." It can be assumed that
there is a molecule capable of influencing the
Copyright © Vera Giovanna Bani 2019 www.dryfasting.infoThis Ebook was purchased by Gilberto Franchi email: gilbertofranchi@hotmail.frconcentration of NAD+ in the mitochondria, as
well as in the SIRT3 a nd SIRT4 genes.
Tissue renewal
Doctor of Biological Sciences Professor L. V.
Polezhayev15, the most prominent specialist in
animal limb regeneration, who developed a
method of recovering lost limbs, tails, i.e., in am-
phibians, writes:

15 Polezhayev L. V. (1910 -2000), was a Soviet and Russian biolo-
gist, author of important books about limb regeneration: Stimul-
yatsiya regeneratsiyi myshchtsii serdtsa (Stimulation of heart mus-
cle regene ration) – Moscow, 1965; Utrata i vosstanovleniye regen-
eratsionnoy sposobnosti organov i tkaney u zhivotnykh (Loss and
restoration of the regenerative ability of organs and tissues in ani-
mals) - Moscow, 1968; Transplantatsiya tkaney mozga v norme i
patologi i (Brain tissue transplantation in normal and pathological
conditions), Moscow 1986.

Copyright © Vera Giovanna Bani 2019 www.dryfasting.infoThis Ebook was purchased by Gilberto Franchi email: gilbertofranchi@hotmail.fr“Fasting is a process of intensified physiologi-
cal regeneration, renewal of all cells, their molec-
ular and chemical makeup. Interestingly, the bi-
ochemical changes during fasting and reparative
regeneration are very similar. In both cases,
there are two phases: destruction and  recovery.
In both cases, the destruction phase is character-
ized by the prevalence of decomposition of pro-
tein and nucleic acids over their synthesis, shift
of pH to acidity, acidosis and more. The recov-
ery phase in both cases as well is characterized
by the prevalence of synthesis of nucleic acids
over their decomposition, and a return of pH to
its neutral state. From the teaching on regenera-
tion, we know that the amplification of the de-
struction phase leads to the amplification of the
recovery phase. Ther efore, with sufficient
Copyright © Vera Giovanna Bani 2019 www.dryfasting.infoThis Ebook was purchased by Gilberto Franchi email: gilbertofranchi@hotmail.frfoundation, we can consider fasting a natural
stimulatory factor of physiological regeneration.
At the basis of fasting there is a biological pro-
cess, which leads to the renewal and rejuvena-
tion of the tissues of the whole body.”

 However, new cells grow especially intensively
during the recovery period. Similar renewal hap-
pens in other organs and tissues, which is why
fasting is an ‘universal doctor’. No surgeon can
remove specific affected tumor or ulcer cells,
while preserving healthy adjacent cells and not
compromising tissue integrity. This is how pre-
cisely hunger, the great physician, heals.

Copyright © Vera Giovanna Bani 2019 www.dryfasting.infoThis Ebook was purchased by Gilberto Franchi email: gilbertofranchi@hotmail.fr8.6. Youth and quality of life extension
Everyone familiar with dry fasting or even with
just water  fasting sees numerous examples of
phys ical rejuvenation achieved during fasting.
Physical improvements are usually accompa-
nied by mental ones. Sometimes hearing is re-
stored in people who have been deaf for many
years. Eyesight becomes so acute that those who
have been wearing glasses for years, don’t need
them anymore (sight restoration in blind people
is extremely rare), the sense of smell and taste
perception become keener, in case of sensory
nerve paralysis, sensory perception gets re-
stored, a burst of energy may be observed, men-
tal capacity  increases, weight decreases, the
body’s functional activity becomes more intense,
eyes become clear and sparkling, complexion
Copyright © Vera Giovanna Bani 2019 www.dryfasting.infoThis Ebook was purchased by Gilberto Franchi email: gilbertofranchi@hotmail.frimproves and freshness and rosy glow, which are
characteristic of youth, are restored, facial wrin-
kles disappear, blood pressure decreases, heart
performance improves, the enlarged prostate
decreases in size, sexual rejuvenation takes place
— these processes, which are the evidence of re-
juvenation, may be observed by everybody who
has practiced fasting or is familiar with this
probl em. It is as if fasting creates conditions for
a rebirth, a revitalization of the organism. At that
time, all the cells in the body are cleansed, for-
eign substances (metaplasmatic materials) are
removed from the cell protoplasm, so that the
cells are rejuv enated and start to function more
effectively.
Some of these foreign materials are highly toxic
and accumulated long ago in the fatty cells and
Copyright © Vera Giovanna Bani 2019 www.dryfasting.infoThis Ebook was purchased by Gilberto Franchi email: gilbertofranchi@hotmail.frthe connective tissue cells, figuratively called the
organism’s landfill, that’s why it’s necessary to
remove them from the circulation and metabolic
processes in the body. When the tissues get rid
of these materials, it increases the effectiveness
of the physiological mechanism. Along with the
renewal of the body due to fasting, a certain po-
tential is also created,  which ensures improved
body function after the fast is complete.
Wear and damage, repair and replenishment
are continuous and almost synchronous pro-
cesses in all living organisms. Something is cre-
ated, and something is destroyed. Both of these
processes a re called metabolism, the production
is called anabolism and the destruction – catab-
olism.  Catabolism prevails during periods of
Copyright © Vera Giovanna Bani 2019 www.dryfasting.infoThis Ebook was purchased by Gilberto Franchi email: gilbertofranchi@hotmail.fractivity, anabolism – during periods of rest and
sleep.
Anabolism is the process of repairing the body,
when it gets a new burst of energy and prepares
for new activities. This process is dominant dur-
ing the period of active growth and it slows
down somewhat during aging.
It is established that fasting accelerates metab-
olism, and after the end of a fast the anabolic or
construc tive phase develops intensively. Thus,
one can say that a general cleansing of the body
renews the constructive processes of life. It is
true that under experimental conditions this im-
provement in life processes is brief. However, in
most cases this happens because the researchers
can’t manage to bring their patients back (on the
Copyright © Vera Giovanna Bani 2019 www.dryfasting.infoThis Ebook was purchased by Gilberto Franchi email: gilbertofranchi@hotmail.frpatients’ demand) to anything but their usual
lifestyle after fasting.
A person’s age is the duration of their life. The
term ‘age’ denotes several different aspects of
life: level  of a person’s development (physiologi-
cal age), level of mental development (psycho-
logical age), etc. Any other term or expression
signifying nothing else


	it
a	good	shake.

2.
Serve	well	chilled	and	enjoy!Melon	and	Blueberry	Seltzer
(Ready	in	about	10	minutes	|	Servings	2)

Ingredients

1.
6	cups	melon

1.
1	lemon,	cut	into	wedges

1.
1/4	cup	blueberries

Directions

1.
Combine	all	the	above	ingredients	in	a	glass	bottle.	Fill	it	with	seltzer	and
stir	to	combine.

2.
This	delicious	drink	is	rich	in	vitamin	C	and	vitamin	K,	as	well	as	in	several
important	minerals.	Enjoy!Kiwi	and	Sage	Water
(Ready	in	about	10	minutes	|	Servings	6)

Ingredients

1.
1	cucumber,	peeled	and	sliced

1.
4	kiwis,	peeled	and	quartered

1.
1	tablespoon	fresh	sage

1.
6	cups	water

Directions

1.
Place	cucumber,	kiwi,	sage	and	four	cups	water	in	a	pitcher.	Then,	stir	to
combine	and	replace	to	a	refrigerator.

2.
Add	remaining	two	cups	of	water	just	before	serving.	Stir	and	serve	well
chilled.	Enjoy!Fruit	and	Rosemary	Infusion
(Ready	in	about	10	minutes	|	Servings	6)

Ingredients

1.
1/2	grapefruit,	sliced

1.
1/2	lime,	sliced

1.
2-3	rosemary	sprigs

1.
Water

Directions

1.
Place	the	grapefruit,	lime,	and	rosemary	sprigs	in	a	bottle.

2.
Cover	with	water;	let	your	drink	stand	overnight.

3.
Add	some	ice	right	before	serving	and	enjoy!Orange	and	Black	Tea
(Ready	in	about	10	minutes	|	Servings	4)

Ingredients

1.
3	mandarin	oranges,	peeled	and	cut	into	half

1.
1	black	tea	bag

1.
Water

Directions

1.
Add	the	ingredients	to	a	bottle.	Pour	in	filtered	water;	let	it	infuse	at	room
temperature	at	least	3	hours.

2.
After	that,	chill	in	a	refrigerator	before	serving.

3.
Black	tea	may	lower	your	risk	for	kidney	stones,	diabetes,	and	high
cholesterol.	Enjoy!Pom	Berry	Water
(Ready	in	about	10	minutes	|	Servings	2)

Ingredients

1.
1/4	cup	fresh	raspberries

1.
1/2	cup	pomegranate

1.
Water

Directions

1.
Place	your	ingredients	in	a	pitcher.	Mash	them	with	a	spoon.

2.
Fill	up	the	pitcher	with	fresh	water.	Stir	to	combine	and	replace	to	your
fridge.

3.
You	can	freely	enjoy	this	heart-healthy	and	anti-aging	drink	all	day	long!Secret	Detox	Drink
(Ready	in	about	10	minutes	|	Servings	2)

Ingredients

1.
1/2	cup	pomegranate

1.
1	cucumber,	sliced

1.
1	lime,	sliced

1.
Water

Directions

1.
Place	the	ingredients	in	a	pitcher	or	a	mason	jar.

2.
Let	steep	in	your	fridge	at	least	2	hours.

3.
This	fruit	infused	water	makes	a	great	hydrating	detox	drink.Grapefruit	and	Lavender	Agua	Fresca
(Ready	in	about	10	minutes	|	Servings	2)

Ingredients

1.
1	grapefruit,	peeled	and	sliced

1.
2	fresh	sprigs	lavender,	gently	scrunched

1.
5	fresh	mint	leaves,	gently	scrunched

Directions

1.
Put	the	ingredients	into	a	large	glass	bottle.	Fill	it	up	with	water.

2.
Let	your	water	stand	in	a	fridge	at	least	3	hours	to	allow	the	flavors	to
infuse.

3.
Serve	well	chilled	or	with	ice	cubes.Cilantro,	Cucumber	and	Melon
(Ready	in	about	10	minutes	|	Servings	2)

Ingredients

1.
1	cucumber,	sliced

1.
1/2	cup	melon,	cubed

1.
3-4	cardamom	pods

1.
1	tablespoon	fresh	cilantro

1.
1	tablespoon	fresh	parsley

1.
Filtered	water

Directions

1.
Place	the	ingredients	in	a	glass	bottle.	Let	sit	for	a	few	hours	in	a	fridge.

2.
Cilantro	is	a	natural	water	purifier.	This	water	has	antibacterial	effects,	so
go	for	it!Hibiscus	Pineapple	Infusion
(Ready	in	about	10	minutes	|	Servings	4)

Ingredients

1.
1/2	cup	pineapple,	cubed

1.
2	carrots,	sliced

1.
A	few	hibiscus	petals

Directions

1.
Place	the	ingredients	in	your	bottle.	Cover	with	water	and	stir	to	combine
well.

2.
Serve	well	chilled	and	enjoy!

3.
Hibiscus	can	lower	blood	pressure	and	it	is	also	a	gentle	laxative.Apple,	Pear	and	Ginger	Refresher
(Ready	in	about	10	minutes	|	Servings	4)

Ingredients

1.
1	apple,	cored	and	diced

1.
1	pear,	cored	and	diced

1.
1-inch	fresh	ginger	root,	peeled	and	chopped

Directions

1.
Simply	add	ingredients	to	the	bottle	and	then	fill	it	up	with	filtered	or
seltzer	water.

2.
Now	keep	it	in	your	refrigerator.

You	will	be	able	to	refill	the	water	a	few
times.	Enjoy!Citrus	and	Cranberry	Drink
(Ready	in	about	10	minutes	|	Servings	4)

Ingredients

1.
1/2	cup	cranberries

1.
1/2	lime,	sliced

1.
1/2	orange

1.
16	ounces	water

Directions

1.
Add	the	ingredients	to	a	bottle.	Let	sit	for	about	1	hour.

2.
This	tasty	drink	will	improve	your	mood	and	flush	toxins	from	your	body.Peppermint	Fruit	Detox
(Ready	in	about	10	minutes	|	Servings	4)

Ingredients

1.
1	½	cups	water

1.
1/2	grapefruit

1.
1	tangerine,	sliced

1.
2	peppermint	leaves

1.
Water

Directions

1.
Drop	the	ingredients	in	your	pitcher.

2.
Top	with	ice	cubes	and	let	sit	for	a	few	hours	in	a	refrigerator.

3.
You	can	refill	your	pitcher	up	to	4	times.	Enjoy!Cooling	Mint	and	Apricot	Water
(Ready	in	about	10	minutes	|	Servings	4)

Ingredients

1.
1	sprig	mint

1.
4	apricot	halves,	pitted

1.
8	peach	slices

1.
Water

Directions

1.
Simply	drop	the	ingredients	in	a	bottle.

2.
Allow	to	chill	in	a	refrigerator	for	at	least	three	hours.

3.
You	will	be	able	to	refill	your	pitcher	up	to	6	times.

4.
Apricot	is	a	good	source	of	vitamin	C	and	beta-carotene.	It	also	contains
many	powerful	antioxidants.Citrus	Mint	Soda
(Ready	in	about	10	minutes	|	Servings	4)

Ingredients

1.
1	cup	fresh	mint	leaves

1.
1	lemon,	sliced

1.
1	grapefruit,	sliced

1.
8	cups	club	soda

Directions

1.
Place	mint	leaves	in	a	pitcher	and	squeeze	them.	Add	lemon	slices	and
grapefruit	slices.

2.


h suburb of
Broad Oak, about 90 minutes east of London.
“I’ve come under incredible resistance the whole way,” he told me,
scraping the passenger -side door against an over grown thicket as we
whizzed down a one-way street. “But the science is clear, the facts are clear,
the evidence is everywhere. There’ s really no way they can keep stopping
it.”
It was a Sunday afternoon, and Mew’ s only plans were to meet with me
and have his children over for tea, but he’d dressed in a three-piece
houndstooth suit with a white shirt and a rep tie from his preparatory
school, which he attended 75 years ago. W e veered onto a gravel driveway
and over a small bridge, then parked in the shadow of a stone turret. I had
heard that Mew lived in a “castle,” and was expecting something castle-esque, with painted concrete and vinyl siding. But every detail of this place
appeared strikingly real, from the moss-covered roof to the blackwater
moat. Mew killed the motor, grabbed his cane, and led me through dark
hallways to a kitchen of black wood cabinets and copper pots.
For several hours we sat beside a roaring hearth, where I heard about
how Mew built this castle, doing much of the work himself over the course
of a decade when he was in his late 70s. I also heard about Mew’ s various
devices to expand mouths.
His most renowned invention was the Biobloc, a modified version of
Pierre Robin’ s monobloc. Mew used it on hundreds of his own patients;
hundreds of orthodontists still use it today. A 2006 peer -reviewed study of
50 children showed that the Biobloc expanded airways by up to 30 percent
over the course of six months.
I came here because I’d become interested in expanding my own too-
small mouth and opening my too-small airways. But Mew told me his
device works best for children age 5 to 9, whose bones and faces were still
developing and easily moldable. For me, that was several lifetimes ago.
Mew’ s son, Mike, who is also a dentist, joined the conversation. Mike
was tanned, tall, and lanky, with piercing brown eyes, dressed in fashion
jeans and a tight-fitting sweater. He explained that the first step to
improving airway obstruction wasn’ t orthodontics but instead involved
maintaining correct “oral posture.” Anyone could do this, and it was free.
It just meant holding the lips together, teeth lightly touching, with your
tongue on the roof of the mouth. Hold the head up perpendicular to the
body and don’ t kink the neck. When sitting or standing, the spine should
form a J -shape—perfectly straight until it reaches the small of the back,
where it naturally curves outward. While maintaining this posture, we
should always breathe slowly through the nose into the abdomen.
Our bodies and airways are designed to work best in this posture, both
Mews agreed. Look at any Greek statue, or a drawing by Leonardo, or an
ancient portrait. Everyone shared this J -shape. But if we look around public
spaces today, it’ s obvious that most people have shoulders hunched
forward, neck extended outward, and an S -shaped spine. “A bunch of
village idiots, that’ s what we’ve become,” shouted Mike. He then assumed
this “idiot” position, inhaled a few short, puf fy, open-mouth breaths, and
looked around dumbly. “It’ s bloody killing us!”Many of us adopted this S -posture not because of laziness but because
our tongues don’ t fit properly in our too-small mouths. Having nowhere
else to go, the tongue falls back into the throat, creating a mild suf focation.
At night, we choke and cough, attempting to push air in and out of this
obstructed airway. This, of course, is sleep apnea, and a quarter of
Americans suf fer from it.
By day, we unconsciously attempt to open our obstructed airways by
sloping our shoulders, craning our necks forward, and tilting our heads up.
“Think of someone who is unconscious and about to receive CPR,” Mike
said. The first thing a medic does is tilt the head back to open the throat.
W e’ve adopted this CPR posture all the time.
Our bodies hate this position. The weight of the sloping head stresses
the back muscles, leading to back pain; the kink in our necks adds pressure
to the brain stem, triggering headaches and other neurological problems; the
tilted angle of our faces stretches the skin down from the eyes, thins the
upper lip, pulls flesh down on the nasal bone. Because “the village idiot
stare” doesn’ t sound scientific, Mike calls this posture “ cranial dystrophy.”
He claims it af fects about 50 percent of the modern population, including
Mark Zuckerber g, the founder of Facebook.
In January 2018, Mike uploaded a Y ouT ube video warning Zuckerber g
that he was going to die ten years early if he didn’ t correct his cranial
dystrophy posture. The message was viewed more than 9,000 times before
it was deleted.
Along with maintaining the correct oral posture, Mike recommended a
series of tongue-thrusting exercises, which he says can train us out of the
“death pose” and make breathing easier. The tongue is a powerful muscle.
If its force is directed at the teeth, it can throw them out of alignment; if it’ s
directed at the roof of the mouth, Mike believed it might help expand the
upper palate of the mouth and open up the airways.
The exercise, which Mike’ s hordes of social media fans call “mewing,”
has been popularly adopted as “ a new health craze.” After a few months,
mewers have claimed their mouths expanded, jaws became more defined,
sleep apnea symptoms lessened, and breathing became easier. Mike’ s own
instructional video on mewing has been viewed a million times.
It’ s dif ficult to convey mewing without seeing it, but the gist is to push
the back of the tongue against the back roof of the mouth and move the rest
of the tongue forward, like a wave, until the tip hits just behind the frontteeth. I tried it a few times. It felt awkward, like I was holding back vomit.
Mike demonstrated it for me. It looked like he was holding back vomit.
It was then—mewing in unison with another grown man in a homemade
castle, clumps of human bone dust still caked in the eyelets of my boots—
that I realized the quest to discover the lost art of breathing was going to be
a bit of a shit show.
But I kept at it, mewing all the way back out through the arched
hallways and into a moonless night, thinking how much more I’d enjoy the
practice if I understood why it worked.
•       •       •
Which is how I found myself at a final stop, on a dental examination chair a
few blocks south of Grand Central T erminal. Dr. Theodore Belfor was
hunched over me, wearing a short-sleeve shirt, gray slacks, and wingtips,
his shaved head gleaming under the examination lights. He was cleaning a
dental impression mold in the sink and explaining how human evolution is
no longer based on the survival of the fittest, an echo of what I’d hear from
Marianna Evans. He was also describing how my mouth was a total mess
because of it.
Belfor was another dentist with big ideas about how humans lost the
ability to breathe. And like the Mews and Gelb, he had big ideas on how to
fix it.
“Hold still,” he said in a thick Bronx accent as he reached his big hands
into my mouth. “Narrow arch, crowding, recessed mandible—you’ve got it
all. V ery typical.”
In the 1960s, after graduating from New Y ork University College of
Dentistry, Belfor was sent to V ietnam to work as the sole dentist and mouth
sur geon for 4,000 soldiers in the 196th Light Infantry. He had no oversight
and was able to improvise, invent, and devise novel solutions to what were
often disastrous problems. “I really learned how to put faces back together,”
he said, chuckling.
He returned to New Y ork and was of fered a job working on performing
artists. These singers, actors, and models needed straight teeth but couldn’ t
be seen with braces. A colleague introduced him to an old monobloc-like
device. After a few months of using it, opera singers began hitting higher
notes and chronic snorers slept peacefully for the first time in years.Everyone had straighter teeth and reported breathing better. Some in their
50s and 60s noticed the bones in their mouths and faces growing wider and
more pronounced the longer they wore the devices.
The results stunned Belfor. He’d been taught, like everyone else, that
bone mass (just as with lung size) only decreases after the age of 30.
W omen will suf fer much more bone loss than men, especially after
menopause. By the time a woman reaches 60, she’ll have lost


 T ransfer
the f lattened disc to a prepared baking sheet. Cut the circle of d ough into 8
wedges. Using a metal spatula, move the wedges around the pan, to allow
about 1 inch (2. 5 cm) of space between each. Repeat with the s econd piece
of dough.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 8  to 12 minutes or until puf fed and lightly
brown around the edges. Be care ful not to overbake and burn the wedges on
the bottom. T ransfer to a cooling rack and let cool for 2 to 3 minutes.
5. T o serve: Cut  a scone wedge in half. Drop 3 tbsp (45 mL) stra wberry jam
over the bottom piece. Replace  the other wedge and top with a dollop of
whipped cream.s t r a w b e r r y  r h u b a r b  f r e e z e r  p i e  f i l l i n g
For this sweet-tart pie filling,  the r hubarb is stewed until it forms a
sweetened, thic k sauce in which the strawberries float. Do bring the
strawberries to a boil, but as so on as they r each that point, r emove the pan
fr om the  heat altogether to keep them somewhat intact. If the strawberries
ar e sma ll, leave  them whole; ot herwise cut lar ge ones in half.  Thr ee cups
(750 mL) of fr ozen filling will fill a standar d 9-inch (23 cm) pie.
MAKES ENOUGH FOR TWO 9-INCH (23 cm) PIES
5 cups (1.25 L) chopped fr esh or fr ozen rhubarb2 cups (500 mL) chopped apple
juice of 1/2 orange
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 tsp (2 mL) salt
1–1/2 cups (375 mL) packed br own sugar
1 cup (250 mL) granulated sugar
8 cups (2 L) fr esh strawberries, whole if small, halved if large

1. In a Maslin pan or canning kettle, combine rhubarb, apple, orange juice
and lem on juice. Sprinkle salt o ver top and let stand at room temperature
for 30 minutes. S tir in the brown  and granulated sugars. Bring to a boil over
medium-high, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and boil gently for 10 to 15
minutes or until rhubarb is tend er and mixture is thick. Add strawberries
and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and let cool.
2. Divid e pie filling between tw o 1-quart (1 L) freezer bags. Press out air
and seal. Shape  into two empty  pie plates, label and freeze. Remove pie
plates when filling is frozen.
Use: As delightful as pies and galettes are ( strawberry rhubarb galette ),
you don’ t have to make them in order to use this sweet-tart filling. Y ou
can hea t it and spoon it over custard, yogurt or ice cream; use it to top
cheesecake or as a sauce for chocolate mousse, cakes and other desserts.
Having it in the freezer has saved me from dessert-less dinners many
times.
T o Make Strawberry Rhubarb Pie:  T haw a 3-cup (750 mL) container of
Strawberry Rhu barb Freezer Pie Filling and mix it with 2 tb sp (25 mL)
quick-cooking tapioca. Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C). Line a 10-inch (25
cm) pie plate w ith pastry (see Strawberry Rhubarb Galette, strawberry
rhubarb galette ) or purchase a 9-inch (23 cm) pie shell. Fill the shell with
the strawberry rhubarb filling. D ot the top with 2 tbsp (25 mL ) butter, cut
into sma ll pieces. Make an open  lattice pastry top for the pie or  cut a round
of foil about 8 inches (20 cm) in diameter and place in the centre of the pie.Bake in preheate d oven for 20 minutes. Reduce heat to 350°F (180°C) and
bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until pastry is golden and filling is bubbly
W ait until the rhubarb has thickened before adding the strawberries because if you cook both at the
same time, the strawberries will soften to a jam consistency.
I like to fill a freezer bag with 3 cups (750 mL) of filling and freeze it in a pie plate so that when the
filling is frozen and the pie plate is removed, the filling is frozen roughly in the shape of the dish. I
can then fill the pastry with partially thawed filling and bake for a bit longer than if the filling were
completely thawed.s t r a w b e r r y  r h u b a r b  g a l e t t e
Ther e ar e a few interpr etations of what a galette actually is. In France it
can mean a lar ge buckwheat cr epe that is filled with cooked meats or fish,
cheese a nd vege tables or with s weet fruits like apples or berri es. At other
times, a  galette  describes any number of flat, rustic cakes or tarts. Puff
pastry s quar es spr ead with mascarpone cheese or almond paste, topped
with sliced apples and glazed with honey or simple syrup ar e an elegant
type of galette. H er e in North Am erica, we use the term for a fruit-filled tart
wher e the bottom pastry is folde d up over the filling. I find that  r olling one
big bottom pastry disc is easier : less pastry to mess with and the r esult is
delightfully whimsical and informal.
9-inch pie plate
Pr eheat oven to 400°F (200°C)
MAKES 1 GALETTE PLUS P ASTR Y FOR ONE MORE
2–1/2 cups (625 mL) all-purpose flour
2 tbsp (25 mL) granulated sugar
1/2 tsp (2 mL) salt
1/4 tsp (1 mL) gr ound cardamom
1/2 cup (125 mL) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch (1 cm) pieces, chilled
2/3 cup (150 mL) ice water
3 cups (750 mL) Strawberry Rhubarb Fr eezer Pie Filling, thawed 1/3
cup (50 mL) tapioca

1. In a lar ge bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt and cardamom. Us ing a pastry
blender or 2 knives, cut in the chilled butter until pieces are the s ize of peas.
If using a food processor to ble nd in the butter, use the pulse button (or an
on/of f m otion) a nd blend until the butter is evenly distributed  but still in
pieces about the size of sugar cubes.2. Add ice water all at once to th e flour and butter. Mix the ingredients until
they begin to co me together as dough. If you are using a food processor,
add the water all at once through the opening in the lid with  the motor
running. Be careful not to overm ix or the pastry will be tough. Gather the
dough into a ball with your hands.
3. Cut the dough in half and shape it into 2 discs. W rap the discs in plastic
wrap an d refrige rate for at least  1 hour. (This recipe makes enough dough
for 2 tarts; you can freeze one of the discs for future use if you like, for up
to 2 months. Thaw in the refrigerator 1 day before using.)
4. U nwrap one pastry disc. On a lightly floured surface, roll out disc until it
is about 1/4 inc h (5 mm) thick. Using 2 lifters, or rolling it around the
rolling pin, transfer it to a 9-inch (23 cm) pie plate, allowing th e excess to
hang ov er the sides. Press the dough so that it lines the bottom and sides of
the plate. Combine pie filling and tapioca. Pour the mixture into the pie
shell. Li ft up the overhanging pa stry edges and fold toward the centre of the
pie, pleating the dough as neede d to make it fit. This folded-over pastry will
partially cover the filling, leavin g an open central portion where the filling
will show.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 2 0 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 °F (180°C)
and bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until pastry is golden and filling is bubbly.

Fr eezing Strawberries
1. Select Equipment:  Se lect suitable-size freezer c ontainers, bags or
Mason jars ( Freezing ).
2. P ack in Syru p:  I n a saucepan, c ombine 2–1/2 cups (625 mL) granulated
sugar and 4 cups (1 L) water. Bring to a gentle boil over high heat, stirring
frequently. Redu ce heat and gen tly boil for 3 minutes. Let cool. Fill pint (2-
cup/500 mL) or quart (1 L)


 going to be different.”
“That’s my nature.”…to…“That’s what I used to believe was my
nature.”
• Try to work each day on eliminating one I’m just for that day.
If you’ve used I’m forgetful as a self-descriptor, devote Monday to
working specifically at being aware of this tendency, and see if you
can alter one or two forgetful behaviors. Similarly, if you don’t like
your stubbornness I’m, give yourself one day to be tolerant of con-
trary opinions, and see if you can rid yourself of I’ms one day at a
time.
• You can interrupt your own “I’m-Circle” between point 3 and
4, and resolve to toss out those ancient excuses for avoidance.
• Find something you’ve never done and set aside an afternoon
for that activity. After your three-hour immersion in a totally new
activity, one that you’ve always avoided in the past, see if you can
still use the same I’m that you applied that morning.86 / Your Erroneous ZonesAll of your I’ms are learned avoidance patterns, and you can learn
to be almost anything if you make the choice to do so.
Some Final Thoughts
There is no such thing as human nature. The phrase itself is de-
signed to pigeonhole people and to create excuses. You are the sum
product of your choices, and every I’m you treasure could be re-
labeled, “I’ve chosen to be.” Go back to the opening questions in
this chapter, Who are you? and How do you describe yourself? Think
about some delicious new labels that are in no way connected to the
choices that others have made for you, or those that you’ve made
until now. Those old tiresome labels may be keeping you from living
your life as fully as you might.
Remember what Merlin said about learning:
“The best thing for being sad,” replied Merlin, beginning to
puff and blow, “is to learn something. That is the only thing
that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your ana-
tomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of
your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the
world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your
honor trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one
thing for it then—to learn. Learn why the world wags and what
wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never ex-
haust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or dis-
trust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the thing for
you. Look at what a lot of things there are to learn—pure sci-
ence, the only purity there is. You can learn astronomy in a
lifetime, natural history in three, literature in six. And then,
after you have exhausted a million lifetimes in biology and
medicine and theocriticism and geography and history and
eco-BREAKING FREE FROM THE PAST  / 87nomics, why, you can start to make a cartwheel out of the ap-
propriate wood, or spend fifty years learning to begin to learn
to beat your adversary at fencing. After that you can start again
on mathematics until it is time to learn to plough.”*
Any I’m that keeps you from growing is a demon to be exorcised.
If you must have an I’m, try this one on for size. “I’m an ‘I’m’ exor-
cist—and I like it.”
*Terence H. White, The Once and Future King  (New York: C. P. Putnam’s Sons,
1958).88 / Your Erroneous ZonesV
THE USELESS EMOTIONS—
GUILT AND WORRY
If you believe that feeling bad or worrying long enough will change
a past or future event, then you are residing on another planet with
a different reality system.
Throughout life, the two most futile emotions are guilt for what
has been done and worry about what might be done. There they
are! The great wastes—Worry and Guilt—Guilt and Worry. As you
examine these two erroneous zones, you will begin to see how con-
nected they are; in fact they can be viewed as opposite ends of the
same zone.
There you have it. Guilt  means that you use up your present mo-
ments being immobilized as a result of past behavior, while worry  is
the contrivance that keeps you immobilized in the now
89about something in the future —frequently something over which
you have no control. You can see this clearly if you try to think of
yourself as feeling guilty about an event that has yet to occur, or to
worry about something that has happened. Although one response
is to the future and the other to the past, they both serve the
identical purpose of keeping you upset or immobile in your present
moment. Robert Jones Burdette wrote in Golden Day:
It isn’t the experience of today that drives men mad. It is the
remorse for something that happened yesterday, and the dread
of what tomorrow may disclose.
You see examples of guilt and worry everywhere, in virtually
everyone you meet. The world is populated with folks who are either
feeling horrible about something that they shouldn’t have done or
dismayed about things that might or might not happen. You are
probably no exception. If you have large worry and guilt zones, they
must be exterminated, spray-cleaned and sterilized forever. Wash
out those little “w” and “g” bugs that infest so many sectors of your
life.
Guilt and worry are perhaps the most common forms of distress
in our culture. With guilt you focus on a past event, feel dejected or
angry about something that you did or said, and use up your present
moments being occupied with feelings over the past behavior. With
worry, you use up those valuable nows, obsessing about a future
event. Whether you’re looking backward or forward, the result is
the same. You’re throwing away the present moment. Robert Bur-
dette’s Golden Day is really “today,” and he sums up the folly of
guilt and worry with these words.
There are two days in the week about which and upon which
I never worry. Two carefree days, kept sacredly free from fear
and apprehension. One of these days is yesterday…and the
other day I do not worry about is tomorrow.90 / Your Erroneous ZonesA Closer Look at Guilt
Many of us have been subjected to a conspiracy of guilt in our
lifetimes, an uncalculated plot to turn us into veritable guilt ma-
chines. The machine works like this. Someone sends out a message
designed to remind you that you’ve been a bad person because of
something you said or didn’t say, felt or didn’t feel, did or didn’t
do. You respond by feeling bad in your present moment. You are
the guilt machine. A walking, talking, breathing contraption that
responds with guilt whenever the appropriate fuel is poured into
you. And you are well oiled if you’ve had a total immersion into
our guilt-producing culture.
Why have you bought the worry and guilt messages that have
been laid on you over the years? Largely because it is considered
“bad” if you don’t feel guilty, and “inhuman” not to worry. It all
has to do with CARING. If you really care about anyone, or anything,
then you show this concern by feeling guilty about the terrible things
you’ve done, or by giving some visible evidence that you are con-
cerned about their future. It is almost as if you have to demonstrate
your neurosis in order to be labeled a caring person.
Guilt is the most useless of all erroneous zone behaviors. It is by
far the greatest waste of emotional energy. Why? Because, by defini-
tion, you are feeling immobilized in the present over something that
has already  taken place, and no amount of guilt can ever change
history.
DISTINGUISHING GUILT FROM LEARNING FROM YOUR PAST
Guilt is not merely a concern with the past; it is a present-moment
immobilization about a past event. And the degree of immobilization
can run from mild upset to severe depression. If you are simply
learning from your past, and vowing to avoid the repetition of some
specific behavior, this is not guilt. You experience guilt only when
you are prevented from taking action now as a result of having be-
haved in a certain way previously.THE USELESS EMOTIONS—GUILT AND WORRY  / 91Learning from your mistakes is healthy and a necessary part of
growth. Guilt is unhealthy because you are ineffectively using up
your energy in the present feeling hurt, upset and depressed about
a historical happening. And it’s futile as well as unhealthy. No
amount of guilt can ever undo anything.
The Origins of Guilt
There are two basic ways in which guilt becomes a part of the
emotional makeup of an individual. In the first, guilt is learned at a
very early age and remains with a grown-up as a leftover childish
response. In the second case, guilt is self-imposed by an adult for
an infraction of a code to which he professes to subscribe.
1. Leftover Guilt.  This guilt is the emotional reaction which is carried
around from childhood memories. There are scores of these guilt
producers, and while they work


 what’s
in food that is conventionally grown. Is that what you’re saying? So, what can people expect? I mean,
how many more minerals are in a tomato grown in a garden with Ocean Grown minerals? How much
greater mineral density will it have, compared to a conventionally grown tomato?
Hartman : Well, typically, if you go to a grocery store and buy a tomato, it looks lovely. It can be blemish
free, bright red and look so nutritious. But typically, those tomatoes—from a hothouse or even out of
the ground—have 12, 14 or 15 elements. Tomatoes are genetically disposed to pick up 56 elements,
and it’s always the same 56 in a certain proportion. That’s what tomatoes pick up. Every vegetable and
fruit is different, but that’s what tomatoes want. When people buy fruits and vegetables, and take them
home and taste them and they taste like cardboard, people say, “What happened?” What happened is
that they were completely depleted. They are like virtual food.
Mike : It’s really just a shadow of the original tomato that people should be eating.
Hartman : That’s right, and it brings up an interesting point made first by Dr. Murray, who was really
the discoverer of how to use ocean water and minerals to grow food. When you sit down and think
about what commercial agriculture has come to and what modern cultivation techniques have come
to, you’re not really looking at somebody growing food. What you’re really looking at is a strip-mining
operation, because when you grow a crop of corn or wheat or whatever it may be, and you ship that to
market, you ship some quantity of elements in a certain proportion and quality off to market. What
current practice calls for is that you put back three elements, even though you might have shipped 56
or 74 elements off to market.
Mike : To be specific, when you say “elements” here, you’re using that in a sense of the table of
elements?
Hartman : Yes. I’m using that in the chemical sense, but people use the word interchangeably with
mineral elements.
seawater Minerals and the Coming Agricultural Revolution
Commercial fertilizers provide only three elements to crops
Mike : When you say they put three back into the soil, these are the three common components of
every commercial fertilizer on the market, right?
Hartman : That’s right: nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus.
Mike : So, farmers can grow something that looks like food, but they’re only putting three elements or
minerals back into the ground.
Hartman : That’s right. Even if they were growing cattle for beef, the same thing would be going on.
Cattle are fabulous foragers. They raze the grass and pick up the elements, and they become part of
their body. Then the cows get shipped to market. It’s a strip-mining operation with no easy solutions,
and putting back three elements is not going to do it.
The health consequences of mineral depletion of crop soils
Hartman : One of the things that we quote from time to time is that the United Nations has come to
a realization that I give them a lot of credit for: Two billion people out of the six billion inhabitants
of the planet are suffering from micronutrient malnutrition. Personally, I would quarrel with them
slightly, but the fact that they recognize this is impressive. I believe that six billion people—all the
people on the planet—are suffering from micronutrient malnutrition, and many doctors have done
a lot of work with how DNA replicates itself. One of the things they’ve come to understand is that
many millions of replications happen every day, but every replication needs a mineral to catalyze it.
On a given day, because minerals are not in our food, there’s something like 250,000 transactions that
can’t happen because there is a missing element—whether it be cobalt, selenium, gold, tin or platinum.
They’re missing.
Mike : The long-term result of the mass demineralization of the population is that we end up with
chronic disease acceleration, right?
Hartman : Absolutely. You know, people think we’re living longer, but that’s not really true. We’re living
longer, but for the last 10 to 15 years of our lives, we’re completely debilitated, hooked to a machine
or some drip bottle, extending life because we have better insurance. But it’s not a better life. It’s not
a longer life. It’s just extension.
seawater Minerals and the Coming Agricultural Revolution
Mike : Right. It’s a life with no clarity of mind and no physical stamina. I think the big question from
people, though, is, “Why do I need minerals in my food?” People think they can take a calcium pill and
solve the problem. What would you say to someone who came up to you and said, “What good is this?
Why do I need minerals in my food?”
Hartman : Well, first of all, as you stand there, you—just like animals and soil and fauna—are made up
of 90 minerals. And when you are born, you have 90 elements in your body. A certain percentage of
those are shed every day in your waste, and they need to be replaced. So how do they get replaced, and
what’s the chemical mechanism for their replacement? The only way they can be replaced in the body is
in an organic form. Now this is a tricky subject—organic and inorganic—because the food movement
has been misnamed, and they get the wrong idea about the chemistry or the process. What’s going on
here, though, is that each thing that comes into the human body needs to come in its organic form—
and in a chemistry definition, it has to have carbon complex molecules as it comes into the body. In
other words, it has to come in as fruit or vegetable or meat—something that is a carbon compound.
Mike : So you can’t just grind up seashells and eat that and expect to get all your calcium.
Hartman : No, absolutely not. I mean, there are some animals that can do that because they have a
different digestive system. Cows are ruminants; they have multiple stomachs, and they have special
bacteria that allow them to do that. They don’t do it well, but they can do it. Humans can’t do it at all.
Mike : We have to get our minerals in plant form. That’s what you’re saying?
Hartman : Right, and when you take a vitamin pill, most of that is going down the toilet.
Mike : Unless it’s a whole food concentrate that was raised on a lot of minerals. That’s a different story,
correct?
Hartman : That’s right. Again, you have to take your food in an organic fashion. Basically there’s a
symbiotic relationship between humans and plants. Plants inhale carbon dioxide, strip off the carbon,
compound it with other minerals and elements to make a carbon compound, and exhale oxygen. You
inhale oxygen, attach carbon to it that plants have stripped off, and exhale carbon dioxide. It’s a lovely
relationship. That’s the way it works. So when an organic farmer says, “I’m going to put manure on
my field,” that’s fine, but it’s going to have to break down, liberate the carbon atom and become an
inorganic element—and that element goes into a solution with water, and the plant picks it up. The
plant cannot directly pick up organic compounds. It gets tricky, because the whole industry has the
wrong name. Everybody thinks that the only good food is food that gets manure put on it. The sad part
is that the chemical farmers actually have a more readily available product for the plant. They don’t have
very many elements, but at least they are elements that can be used right away.
seawater Minerals and the Coming Agricultural Revolution
How ocean minerals nourish the soils, crops and consumers
Mike : So how does ocean water fit the blueprint of plants here?
Hartman : Well, ocean water is just a remarkable, remarkable solution. It’s uniform all over the world.
In other words, with a few exceptions, if you take samples of sea water all over the planet, it will have all
90 elements in the same proportion in the same order. It’s reliable, and humans have tried to duplicate
seawater with no success. It’s a very difficult thing to make, but there it is, and it’s perfect just the way
it is.
Mike : So when seawater goes into the soil, how are plants readily able to use it?
Hartman : We dilute it down, because it’s strong. We didn’t invent seawater, and it’s a perfect product as
it is. What we try to do is to make it as economic for people to use as possible. Our proprietary process
is to concentrate it so it’s economically viable and so that we can ship it halfway around the world.
Mike : What kind of concentration is it of ocean water? Like 10:1 or what?
Hartman : That’s a piece of information that we don’t give out yet, because we have a provisional process
patent pending, but we will be able to share that soon. There are certain things we don’t mention yet,
and that’s one of them. What you have is a highly concentrated solution


daily	quota	of	finished	products.	Coordinating	all	these	activities	are	computer
and	communication	systems	that	regulate	the	delivery	of	raw	materials	and	the
removal	of	wastes,	as	well	as	the	production,	storage	and	distribution	of	finished
products.	All	of	these	systems	are	based	upon	a	set	of	design	blueprints
containing	all	the	information	necessary	to	build	a	new	park.
You	have	just	toured	the	human	cell.	Each	cell	has	a	wall—	the	membrane—
whose	purpose	is	to	keep	out	toxins,	bacteria,	viruses	and	other	harmful
substances,	while	still	allowing	nutrients	to	reach	inside	where	they	are	needed.
The	membrane	also	prevents	healthy	and	necessary	substances	from	leaking	out
of	the	cell,	while	still	allowing	waste	products	to	be	excreted.	Powerhouses	in
the	cell	create	energy	and	manufacturing	plants	make	the	finished	products	your
body	needs,	such	as	neurotransmitters,	hormones	and	antibodies.	Your	cells	also
have	electrical	and	communication	systems	that	help	to	keep	everything	working
in	balance.	Cells	have	many	important	jobs	to	perform	during	every	second	of
every	day;	anything	that	interferes	with	these	tasks	is	a	threat	to	health.
Every	day	hundreds	of	billions	of	cells	need	to	be	replaced.	Building	a	new
cell	requires	a	long	list	of	raw	materials,	similar	to	building	a	new	car	or	a
computer.	If	even	one	part	is	missing,	the	product	will	be	defective,	and	if	many
parts	are	missing,	malfunction	is	guaranteed.	As	each	new	cell	is	created,	you	are
choosing	either	health	or	disease,	depending	on	whether	the	new	cells	you	are
building	are	healthy	or	not.
You	make	this	choice	when	you	order	at	a	fast-food	drive-up	window,	when
you	stay	up	too	late,	when	you	spray	cleaning	products	around	your	house,	when
you	take	your	daily	vitamin	supplement	or	when	you	choose	to	take	no
supplements.	Making	a	single	bad	choice	here	and	there	is	generally	not	a
problem,	but	when	you	consistently	make	bad	choices,	daily	living	can	wear
down	your	tissues	faster	than	they	can	be	repaired	or	replaced.Building	and	Operating	Healthy	Cells
To	be	healthy,	each	day	old	cells	must	be	replaced	with	new	ones	and	each
must	perform	all	of	its	intended	functions.	Do	you	know	what	raw	materials	you
need	to	build	healthy	cells?	Are	you	eating	the	right	foods—foods	whose
calories	are	packed	with	the	building	blocks	required	to	make	healthy	new	cells?
Does	anyone	really	believe	it	is	possible	to	build	healthy	cells	from	coffee,
donuts,	white	bread,	pasta,	potato	chips,	french	fries	and	ice	cream?	How	many
of	the	raw	materials	necessary	to	build	and	operate	healthy	cells	do	these	foods
contain?	The	answer	is	not	many,	which	is	one	reason	that	we	have	so	much
disease.
A	chronic	shortage	of	vitamins,	minerals,	water,	oxygen	or	other	nutrients
causes	your	cells	to	malfunction.	You	may	be	unaware	this	malfunction	is
happening,	particularly	at	the	early	stages,	but	a	chronic	shortage	of	even	one
nutrient	eventually	makes	you	sick.	When	shortages	are	chronic,	the	body	stops
repairing	and	self-regulating;	cells	then	deteriorate	into	a	diseased	state	or	die.
Building	healthy	cells	starts	in	a	mother’s	womb.	If	an	embryo	suffers	from	a
shortage	of	building	materials	or	the	presence	of	toxins,	a	child	born	with	birth
defects	may	be	the	result.	During	pregnancy,	certain	parts	of	the	fetus	are	being
constructed	during	specific	weeks—such	as	the	brain	and	nervous	system,	the
circulatory	system	and	the	digestive	system.	If	essential	raw	materials	are
unavailable	at	that	crucial	time	or	toxins	are	present,	any	of	these	systems	can	be
affected,	perhaps	manifested	as	heart	defects,	digestive	problems,	lower	I.Q.,
attention	deficit	disorders	and	so	on.	We’re	not	talking	about	genetic	defects
here,	but	defects	that	result	from	building	a	baby	in	an	unhealthy	environment.
In	extreme	situations,	the	construction	process	simply	shuts	down	and	the	fetus
is	naturally	aborted—an	ever-increasing	occurrence	in	our	society.
A	newborn	baby’s	health	is	the	product	of	the	genetic	material	from	the
parents
and
the	supply	of	building	materials	and	presence	of	toxins	(from	the
mother)	during	gestation.	People	wrongly	assume	that	genetics	by	itself	explains
the	health	or	disease	of	their	child.	Congenital	defects	(those	present	at	birth)	are
not	necessarily	the	result	of	genetics.	For	example,	the	December	2001	issue	of
Lancet
reported	a	study	regarding	supplemental	vitamins	taken	during
pregnancy.	Mothers	who	had	taken	both	folic	acid	and	iron	supplements	during
pregnancy	gave	birth	to	children	who	were	60	percent	less	likely	to	develop	the
most	common	form	of	childhood	leukemia.	Eating	right	is	especially	important
for	expecting	moms.	Like	any	disease,	leukemia	doesn’t	“just	happen.”	The
quality	of	the	cells,	tissues	and	systems	a	baby	is	born	with	has	a	lifelong	effect.
Whether	caused	by	nutritional	deficiency	or	toxic	exposure,	trouble	can	beginwhen	your	cell	factories	are	supposed	to	be	making	something	but	are	not
making	enough	or	have	shut	down.	If	cell	factories	are	unable	to	make	sufficient
antibodies,	we	become	susceptible	to	infections.	When	cell	factories	cannot
make	sufficient	neurotransmitters,	mental	function	suffers.	(Neurotransmitters
are	chemicals	generated	by	nerve	cells	that	send	information	throughout	the
nervous	system,	allowing	us	to	think,	learn	and	remember.)	When	unable	to
make	sufficient	hormones,	communications	and	self-regulation	are	disrupted.
Hormones	are	chemicals	produced	by	specialized	cells	that	travel	through	the
blood	and	lymph	systems	to	bring	messages	to	other	parts	of	the	body.	Blood
sugar	level,	for	instance,	is	balanced	primarily	by	two	hormones,	both	produced
by	specialized	cells	in	the	pancreas.
Although	each	cell	is	a	living	entity	unto	itself,	bodily	systems	can	only	be
regulated	and	controlled	when	cells	are	able	to	communicate	effectively	with
each	other.
Impaired	cellular	communications	is	one	of	the	most	basic	common
denominators	of	disease,	no	matter	how	the	disease	happened	or	what	it	is
called.
Cellular	communication	and	feedback	systems	regulate	everything	from
body	temperature	to	immunity	to	movement.	When	these	systems	break	down
gradually,	as	they	often	do	in	disease,	we	may	not	notice.	We	are	more	familiar
with	sudden	and	severe	breakdowns	in	bodily	communication,	such	as	spinal
injuries	that	cause	paralysis.	We	fail	to	recognize	how	subtle	communication
breakdowns	precipitate	chronic	and	terminal	health	problems.
Each	time	you	order	at	a	restaurant,	each	time	you	reach	into	your	cabinet	for
cooking	oils,	each	time	you	plan	your	day’s	meals,	you	are	basically	deciding
whether	you	will	build	strong	cells	or	weak	ones.	It	really	is	that	simple