 use this understanding to create a new reality.
Q: What is the main theme of the book "Metahuman"?,
A: The book explores the idea that our reality is constructed by our consciousness, and that we can change this reality by becoming aware of it.
Q: What is the author's claim about the relationship between genes and our lives?,
A: The author argues that our genes do not control our lives, and that we have the power to change our reality and our lives.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>For example, when there’s a sudden death in the fam ily or a
catastrophe like a tornado or the house burning down, we  may go
into shock. With a blank stare we reveal how dislocated our
existence suddenly feels, saying things like “This can’t be
happening. It’s unreal” or “Nothing matters anymore.”Normally, this dissociated st ate will pass, and in time reality
feels real again. But some pe ople never return—after a psychotic
break, for example, a percentage of mental patients become
chronically sch izophrenic an d have hallucinations, seeing  images
or hearing voices for the rest of their lives. But the feeling  of “This
can’t be happening; it’s like a  dream” doesn’t have to be triggered
by shoc k. Coun tless people engage in personal fantasies of fame,
wealth, or some other dream that feels totally real to them and
drives them all their lives. W hen someone is suddenly ecstatically
happy, for whatever reason, everything can seem surreal, too. However, the physical world “out there” feels real and
substantial a lot more than 99 percent of the time, which is proof
enough, one would think, that we aren’t under some kind of spell. But we are. Iro nically, there’s  now technology that forces a person
to confr ont wh at is real and  what isn’t. When you don a virtual
reality (VR) headset, powered by artificial intelligen ce, the
simulation you are plunged  into is like a wraparound, three-
dimensional movie of such vividness that it overwhelms the senses
and cau ses a dislocation from what we deem as everyday reality. You might find yourself precariously perched on a steel
construction girder in midair with the city street many stories
below. Your brain, fooled by the visual image, triggers the stress
response just as if you were r eally teetering on the girder. You will
feel you rself go ing off balance in a panic, even though in t he room
where you are actually standing, your feet are firmly on the ground
and you are in no danger of plunging to your death. The VR illusion is created by visual images, and the same holds
true in everyday life. What you see, you believe in. Such trust is
misplaced, as every grade-schooler learns when told that  the sun
doesn’t actuall y rise in the east and set in the west. Y et when
quantum physics tells us that matter isn’t what it appears to be, we
continue to cling to the sens ations of weight and solidity of hard
physical objects as if they w ere indisputable. Would a bullet be
less dan gerous if you saw thr ough the illusion? No. The bullet and
the entire physical world remain intact but with the realization
that th ey are the end point of a process that begins in
consciousness.Once you grasp this and fully absorb it, your personal reality
becomes much more malleab le, because you can go to the source
and be part of the creative process. Getting untangled from the
virtual-reality simulation isn’t easy. Our personal experience
would h ave to  change drastically, but the beauty of it is that we
have th e potential for change where before we had none or very
little. W hile you cannot turn bullets into cotton balls, to accept
that all of reality “out there” is beyond your ability to chan ge isn’t
true. The gro und rules of everyday life are much looser than we
imagine. Even  when a perso n feels completely immerse d in the
simulation, the re is an escap e route. And not just one, but many. This only makes sense. Metareality is more real than any virtual
simulation. We should regard glimpses into it as evidence that we
can inhabit the meta state all  the time. Instead, the entang lements
of virtu al reality have turned the picture wrong side up. As you
read the meta experiences below, you will be tempted to see them
as a nomalous, freakish, or untrustworthy. Getting real is a process
that beg ins by confronting yo ur misplaced trust in illusions every
day. “ S o m e t h i n g  H a p p e n e d ”
Let’s co nsider one of the mo st basic aspects of virtual reality. Hardly anyone would question that being inside the body is
normal, natural, and a true experience. But this certainty runs
counter to the phenomenon of out-of-body experiences (OBEs),
which h ave be en documente d in every culture for centur ies. The
most widely publicized out-of-body experience is “going into the
light,” as reported by patien ts who have clinically died during
emergency medical procedures, especially from heart attacks. *
It tu rns out that expecting to go into the light when we die is
misleading, be cause what happens in near-death experi ences is
much more individual than a nyone thought. The largest study of
near-death exp eriences, whic h examined 2,060 patients who diedunder e mergency or intensiv e care, arrived at the conclus ion that
death isn’t a s ingle event—it  is a process. There isn’t simply one
final or definitive event. Du ring this process, there are ways to
reverse death. In cases where medical professionals were
successful at getting the heart, lungs, and brain to come back to
normal functio ning, about 40 percent of those who died a nd came
back remember that “some thing happened” when the y were
flatlined. This pa rt of the study, which was titled AWARE and was l ed by
British intensive-care doctor Sam Parnia, seems irrefuta ble. But
very q uickly the details of “something happened” become
controversial. We have to dive into a few details to see w hat the
issues are. Out of the 2,060  patients who died (the study went
from 2008 to 2012 and inclu ded 33 researchers in 15 ho spitals),
104 were resuscitated. The first point to note is that all had
actually died. They were not “near death.” Their hearts and lungs
had stopped functioning, and within 20 to 30 seconds their brains
showed no activity. The decomposition of cells throughout the
body actually takes several hours to commence afterward. During
the interval between dying and being brought back is when
39 percent reported the mem ory of being conscious even though
their brains had stopped. Dr. Parnia believes that this i s probably just a fraction of those
who had such experiences; the rest had their memories erased
either by brain inflammation, which occurs for 72 hours  after a
person is brought back from  death, or because of drugs that are
administered as part of resuscitation, which also cause memory
loss. Of  the 101 patients who completed the questionnaire about
their ex perience during death, only 9 percent had an ex perience
compatible wi th the typical “going into the light” model. The
majority of memories were vague and unfocused, som etimes
pleasant but sometimes not. Only 2 percent  of those who came back, which means 2 p eople
out of 101, ha d the experience of full awareness or out- of-body
experiences such as looking down from above their bodies
watching and listening to the medical team as it was working to
revive t hem. O nly one person could accurately narrate what hadbeen happenin g in the room in such detail that it corresponded to
timed events. So what does this one person tell us about dying? It depe nds. Skeptics shrug off all such experiences as p urely
physical, claim ing that if w e had finer measurements of brain
activity, at a ve ry subtle level we’d discover that the brai n hadn’t
actually died. Dr. Parnia accepts that this might be true. His main
focus is on ho w to achieve better results at resuscitation that
might bring back a normal person with no organ damage,
particularly brain damage after clinical death. But Dr. Parnia’s
personal conclu sion is that a person can be fully conscious  without
brain function, as this one patient was. He points to the basic
disagreement, thousands of years ago, between Aristo tle and
Plato. Aristotl e contended that consciousness was a physical
phenomenon, Plato that it was nonphysical, residing in a soul that
transcends the body. The AWARE study didn’t co nfirm either side. Unsurprisingly,
skeptics and believers didn’t change their position, or their
prejudices. On e can say that it’s a significant step to turn death
into a process  that can be  reversed. It’s


 the
possession of a superabundance of animal spirits." Recognition of the great difference between fasting and starvation, and the
symptoms which denote the end of one period and the beginning of the other, is of
vital importance in the employment of therapeutic fasting. Abstinence from food
can be exceedingly dangerous if one attempts to set in advance the length of a
period of fasting without regard to the differences between the two phases of in-
anition. On the other hand, an understanding of these points eliminates all danger
of true starvation. The symptoms which indicate the end of the fasting period are
easily recognizable in all cases, and the simple knowledge of what these are can
be of assurance to both the physician and layman that the fast will not be ex-
tended too long. The fast which lasts to the return of hunger and the consequent end of the fast-
ing period is said to be "complete." It has carried the work of renovation, rejuvena-
tion and cleansing to its final consummation. The patient has then undergone the
most thorough therapeutic treatment that is possible to provide. His body has lost
most or all of its superfluous materials, waste matter and diseased or dead tis-
sues. It is then in an ideal condition upon which to build new healthy protoplasm,
with consequent vigorous health. The time required for the fast to reach completion varies in the individual cases. Some have exhausted their food reserves after as little as 20 per cent of the body
weight was lost, with others remaining in the fasting period when over half— even
up to 60 per cent — of the body tissues were consumed.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        THERAPEUTIC
FASTING
BY ARNOLD DEVRIES
COPYRIGHT © 1963 BY ARNOLD DE VRIES

All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof,
must not be reproduced in any form
without permission. FOURTH EDITION
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Published by Chandler Book Co., Box 75923, Los Angeles 5, California   2  TABLE OF CONTENTS
I Forms of Fasting______________________________________________3
II A Short History of Fasting_____________________________________4
IlI Physiological Reactions to Fasting_____________________________7
IV Efficiency of Fasting________________________________________15
V The Complete Fast___________________________________________34
VI Safely of the Fast___________________________________________40
VII Symptoms of the Fast________________________________________45
VIII Supervising the Fast_______________________________________53
IX Breaking the Fast___________________________________________60
X Living after the Fast__________________________________________66
Bibliography__________________________________________________74   3 I Forms of Fasting
THE TERM, fasting, implies total or partial abstinence from food or water for
any of a number of reasons. Thus one may refer to fruit fasts, vegetable fasts, milk
fasts, water fasts and many other types. As the different reasons for fasting are
considered, other divisions may be given — religious fasting, professional fasting,
physiological fasting, pathological fasting and accidental or experimental fasting. A fruit fast is abstinence from fruit; a vegetable fast is abstinence from vegeta-
bles; a milk fast is abstinence from milk; a water fast is abstinence from water, and
similar fasts may be defined accordingly. Religious fasting is abstinence to de-
velop spiritual thought or fulfill a religious rite. Professional fasting is abstinence
for purposes of notoriety and publicity. Physiological fasting is normal inanition in
nature, such as the hibernation and seasonal abstinence of certain animals. Pathological fasting is associated with organic derangements which make one un-
able to take or retain food. Accidental or experimental fasting is forced inanition
among man or animals for purposes of scientific investigation. These are the recognized forms of fasting. Yet, there is another, and perhaps
much more important, classification which is seldom given mention or even known
about. This is therapeutic fasting — total abstinence from all food, but not water. The purpose of therapeutic fasting is the promotion and restoration of health. It is
associated with experimental and physiological fasting in the sense that studies of
the latter provide the knowledge and information which make therapeutic fasting
possible. Therapeutic fasting is not the result of any particular new scientific discovery,   4 but rather has proceeded to its present development as the result of centuries of
experimentation, observation and study. It is today the culmination of a large
number of scientific investigations and discoveries which have reached their cli-
max during the past century. Fasting for therapeutic purposes is thus an impor-
tant, though in popular conception, almost unknown, phase of the modern science
of medicine, and as such it is the subject of our present inquiry and analysis. II A Short History of Fasting
THE ORIGIN OF FASTING for illness perhaps dates back the development of
the present forms of animal life. Among undomesticated animals it is a common practice to fast when ill, though
this is of course an instinctive procedure rather than a planned therapeutic meas-
ure. The first records of human fasting for the remedy of disease go back to the
ancient civilizations of Greece and the Near East. Both Plato and Socrates are
said to have fasted for 10 days at a time to "attain mental and physical efficiency. " Pythagoras fasted for 40 days before taking his examination at the University of
Alexandria, and then he also required his pupils to fast before they could enter his
class. The ancient Egyptians were said to treat syphilis with their fasting cures,
and the great Greek physician, Hippocrates, prescribed fasting during the critical
periods of disease. Asclepiades and Thessalus employed fasting; Celsus is said
to have used it in the treatment of jaundice and epilepsy, and the Arab physician,
Avicenna, prescribed fasting for three to five weeks at a time. Later Tertullian
wrote of fasting, and Plutarch said: "Instead of using medicine better fast a day. " 5 During the sixteenth century, the renowned Swiss physician, Paracelsus
claimed that, "Fasting is the greatest remedy. " In the seventeenth century, Dr. Hoffman wrote a book entitled, Description of the Magnificent Results Obtained
Through Fasting in All Diseases. Dr. Anton Nikolai followed in the next century
with recommendations of fasting instead of food for those who were ill. Later Dr. Von Seeland, of Russia, wrote: "As a result of experiments I have come to the
conclusion that fasting is not only a therapeutic of the highest degree possible but
also deserves consideration educationally. " In Germany, Dr. Adolph Mayer as-
serted that "fasting is the most efficient means of correcting any disease," and Dr. Moeller wrote that "fasting is the only natural evolutionary method whereby
through a systemic cleansing you can restore yourself by degrees to physiologic
normality. " It has been during the past century that the greater portion of scientific
data has been gathered. Both Europe (in particular, Germany) and America have
contributed heavily to the research on experimental and physiological fasting. Hundreds of publications have been the result of this work and they provide thor-
ough and exact knowledge regarding many phases of fasting. Among the best
known research scientists who studied fasting were: Sergius Morgulis, Professor
of Biochemistry at the University of Nebraska College of Medicine; Professor
Child, of the University of Chicago; Herbert Sidney Langfield, of Harvard Univer-
sity; Dr. Frederick M. Allen, of the Rockefeller Institute; Francis Gano Benedict and
Ernest G. Ritzman, of the Carnegie Institute; Luigi Luciani, Professor of Physiol-
ogy at the University of Rome; and Victor Pashutin, Director of the Imperial Mili-
tary Medical Academy of pre-revolutionary Russia. Other scientific studies of fast-
ing have been made by N. Pyaskovski, W Skorczewski,, N. J. Sands, A. Cleghorn,
N. Morozov, P B. Hawk, P F. Howe, O. S. Soltz, C. A. Stewart, S. R. Wreath, C. M. Jackson, L. H. Hyman, N. Zuntz, Roger et Josue, Miescher, Mansfield,   6 Rosenfeld and many others. All told, during the past century, hundreds of scien-
tific workers in many countries have added to our knowledge of the biological im-
portance of fasting. In contrast to these scientists, who were concerned primarily with developing
laboratory data from studies of experimental and physiological fasting, chiefly
among animals and to a lesser extent among humans, we have the other men of
science who were concerned with the clinical and therapeutic phases of fasting. They supervised tens of thousands of fasts, and as a result discovered the exact
effectiveness of fasting as a remedy for specific diseases. Among these physi-
cians were many of the nineteenth century, in addition to those now practicing. They include, among others: Dr. Isaac Jennings, Dr. Joel Shew, Dr. Russell
Thacker Trail, Dr. Robert Walter, Dr. Henry S. Tanner, and Dr. Edward Hooker
Dewey. The experience of these men was followed in the twentieth century by that
of Dr. Linda Burfield Hazzard; Dr. Hereward Harrington; Dr. Eugene A. Bergholtz,
of Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Dr. John M. Tilden,


formation	of	melatonin. It	also	supports	the	optimal
metabolism	of	fats	and
carbohydrates,	promotes	healthy	cell	growth	and	repair,	and	activates	the	vitamin
folate	in	the	body. While	it	can	be	stored	in	your	liver	for	some	time,	you	can	get	a
blood	test	to	see	if	your	body	currently	has	the	proper	amount. Vegans	and	vegetarians	are	definitely	encouraged	to	supplement	with	B
12
because	it	is	found	mostly	in	animal	products,	but	if	you	do	eat	meat,	that	does	not
necessarily	mean	that	you	have	optimal	levels	of	Vitamin	B
12
. Absorption	andutilization	of	B
12
	might	still	be	compromised	even	if	you	consume	foods	that	contain
it	(such	as	animal	protein,	fortified	cereals,	and	nutritional	yeast). For	instance,	if
you	are	low	in	hydrochloric	acid,	which	releases	B
12
	from	food,	your	body	may	have
issues	absorbing	B
12
. Your	stomach	lining	could	also	be	lacking	in	its	ability	to
produce	intrinsic	factor,	a	protein	that	must	bind	to	B
12
	in	the	small	intestine	so	the
body	can	absorb	it. Check	with	your	doctor	if	you	are	unsure	of	how	much	Vitamin	B
12
	your	body
needs,	but	500	to	1,000	micrograms	(mcg)	is	generally	considered	a	good	daily
amount. You	can	take	a	B-complex	supplement	to	get	a	balance	of	all	the	B
vitamins. If	you	really	value	your	sleep,	you	may	have	to	make	some	serious	lifestyle
changes	around	your	alcohol	habits. This	may	seem	difficult	at	first,	but	once
you	experience	more	daytime	bliss	and	start	feeling	great	in	so	many	other	areas
of	your	life	(including	having	increasingly	beautiful	skin),	you	may	naturally
taper	off	your	imbibing. When	you	do,	you	may	find	that	your	“cleaner”	system
needs
far	less	alcohol	in	general	to	feel	relaxed	or	to	enjoy	the	taste	of	your
favorite	Cabernet	or	Pinot. In	an	ideal	world,	you	should	avoid	drinking	within
3	hours	of	bedtime. But	if	you	are	going	out	for	a	night	with	friends,	this
obviously	won’t	be	realistic. Just	be	aware,	drink	responsibly	and	moderately
(ideally	keeping	it	to	one	or	two	drinks	maximum),	and	perhaps	find	other
ways	to	spend	time	with	friends	and	relaxing	that	don’t	involve	alcohol. Hopefully	by	now	it	is	clear	to	you	just	how	important	Peak	Beauty	Sleep	is	for
your	overall	health,	vitality,	and	beauty. It’s	so	important,	in	fact,	that	achieving
your	full	potential	of	Radical	Beauty	would	be	hard	to	realize	without	working
to	optimize	your	sleep. Be	sure	to	make	the	necessary	shifts	to	prioritize	your
sleep	so	you	can	enjoy	your	best	beauty	for	the	long-term.PILLAR	4:
Primal	Beauty
If	you	want	to	see	true	beauty	personified,	all	you	need	do	is	gaze	at	a	sunrise	or
sunset,	the	mighty	rivers	or	wide	oceans,	or	the	harmonious	synergy	in	any
forest. We	can	stand	in	awe	of
nature’s	perfect	beauty	while	recognizing	that	we
are	a	part	of	it. Each	of	us	is	a	part	of	the	natural	world,	and	living	in
accordance	with	natural	principles	and	rhythms	aligns	us	with	Mother	Nature. This	powerfully	supports	our	natural	beauty	to	flow	through. Shakti
	is	the	Sanskrit	word	for	the	creative	power	of	nature	that	we	are	all	a
part	of. Living	in	accordance	with	nature	is	as	essential	to	our	being	as
breathing	or	sleeping,	but	it’s	easy	with	a	modern	lifestyle	to	stray	further	and
further	away	from	our	attunement	with	nature. When	we	superimpose	synthetic
or	unnatural	rhythms	over	the	fabric	of	our	lives,	our	natural	beauty	suffers. Nature	is	our	teacher. We	can	learn	a	lot	from	watching	the	cycles	of	the	sun
and	moon,	listening	to	the	sounds	of	nature,	and	tuning	in	to	the	effects	they
have	on	our	energy. The	more	you	are	in	harmony	with	nature	and	her	rhythms
and	energies,	the	more	positive	effect	you’ll	see	on	your	well-being	and	beauty.SHIFT	13:
Harness	the	Beauty	of	the
Seasons
One	of	the	most	important	ways	to	allow	the	power	of	nature	to	support	your
health	and	beauty	is	to	tune	in	to	the	changing	seasons	of	the	year. Every	part
of	the	year	has	a	different	collective	energy,	which	in	turn	affects	your	personal
energy. Riding	this	wave	and	adjusting	your	dietary	and	lifestyle	patterns	to	be
in	sync	with	the	flow	of	the	seasons	will	help	you	achieve	Radical	Beauty. The
more	in	sync	you	are	with	the	universal	energies	taking	place	on	a	larger	scale
beyond	you,	the	better	your	skin,	hair,	and	nails	will	look,	and	the	more	power
you’ll	feel	supporting	you	in	everything	you	do. For	instance,	by	eating	according	to	the	seasons	and	largely	focusing	your
diet	on	the	produce	that	is	being	grown	locally	during	the	current	season,	you
will	be	eating	food	that	is	at	its	peak	of	freshness. Not	only	will	it	taste	its	best,
but	it	will	also	have	the	most	beauty	nutrition	because	it	was	picked	close	to
when	and	where	you	consume	it. Seasonal	foods	also	tend	to	be	more
affordable	since	crops	for	each	season	are	naturally	in	abundance	and	sellers
don’t	have	to	account	for	shipping	costs. If	you	focus	on	eating	seasonally	and	shopping	often	at	the	local	farmer’s
markets,	you	may	find	that	you	end	up	eating	a	far	wider	variety	of	what
happens	to	be	growing	around	you	at	the	moment	instead	of	reaching	for	your
favorite	staple	veggies. This	will	help	you	naturally	get	a	greater	variety	of
beauty	nutrients	into	your	diet,	as	different	foods	contain	different
compositions	of	minerals	and	phytonutrients	to	help	support	your	Radical
Beauty. You	will	also	feel	more	integrated	into	your	surrounding	environment
if	you	can	eat	what	is	grown	there. Besides	your	personal	benefits,	eating	this
way	reduces	your	carbon	footprint	and	allows	you	to	support	Mother	Nature. It
requires	less	fuel	(from	trucks,	trains,	planes,	and	so	on)	to	transport	food	from
local	farms	to	your	table	than	from	overseas	growers. From	a	beauty	standpoint,	you	may	notice	that	each	season	has	a	different
effect	on	your	skin,	and	it	is	important	to	adjust	accordingly. The	seasons	will
influence	your	exercise	and	activity	levels,	as	well,	and	you	must	honor	thatflow. In	a	larger	sense,	as	the	overall	environment	is	shifting,	you	can	tune	in	to
that	collective	energy	and	work	with	it	in	each	season,	not	against	it. For
example,	during	the	peak	light	of	the	summer	you	may	feel	a	tremendous	drive
to	work	on	creative	projects	that	you	previously	decided	to	“plant”	in	the
spring. Being	authentic	to	those	natural	urges	will	make	you	more	beautifully
powerful


 “It has dawned on me that the difference between being a flight
attendant, with those guaranteed benefits, and losing myself pleasurably indoing what I love doing is a difference in a way-of-being-in-life  that simply
makes flying no longer an option for me.”
I wonde red what had caused the breakthrough as she excitedly continued,
“This morning I was happily immersed in thoughts and books and your
words and ideas, working on the manuscript with a cup of hot tea next to
my typewriter.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        From the perspective of the next dimension, one level of
consciousness is all that there is, and all of us are characters in that dream. Our form  is as real to us as it is to the characters we create in our dreams,but from an expa nded awareness  we can see that they are all illusions in our
one dream. One dream, one dreamer, billions of embodied characters acting out that
one dream, and the disembodied spirit leaving the waking-consciousness
level and the illusions of suffering that form is subject to. Your true essence
is that you are part and parcel of the one big dream. Now from this perspective, try to view your own death. In the waking-
consciousness level of existence, we view death as something fearful and
the ultimate in suffering. In fact it is quite the opposite. You cannot suffer in
the astra l or thought plane. Suffering is played out in form. The pain that we
experience, the aging process, the various diseases, the cuts and bruises, and
the relationship difficulties are all sufferings that we experience within
form. With the death of form, suf fering is no longer possible. With this understanding I am unable to make death the great melodrama
that most people do. I truly see it as a reward rather than a punishment. I
know that transcending my form means an end to suffering, and also that I
am capable of doing just that while I am in form if I live in the
consciousness dimension where there are no limits. Viewing the entire next
dimension of higher consciousn ess as one dream, and one dreamer, with
many characters in the level beneath that, helps us to recogni ze death as
transformation rather than punishment and to see the great oneness that is
our onesong. This is the quintessential message that is available from all of the
spiritual masters. The way to glimpse it is through the mystical world that
you are able to create for yourself and live out in your dreaming body. You,
the dreamer…G od, the dreamer. You create all the characters and situations
that you require. God does the same. Your characters are real for you while
you are in your dream. So too are God’ s characters real. In fact, you are one
of them. All form is nothing but an illusion in your dream, though the
reactions are very real. In God’s dream, the characters are illusions also,
though His dream lasts ninety years and ours ninety minut es, and the
reactions of thought are real. When you wake from your dream you look
back at the folly of being upset over the illusions, and you get on with the
next level of living. When you wake up in God’ s dream and look back you
see the folly of holding on to the illusions, and you get on with the next
level. You see from a new perspective a grander wider -lensed view which
encompasses it all. There is only one dream and one dreamer. How you live out your one
dream character  role is entirely up to you, as a character in the dream and as
a dreamer. It is a monumental paradox, one that once accepted allows us to
see with new eyes. However, it is no more of a paradox than the fact that we
contain billions of cells, and that we are also encompassed in any one of
those cells at the same time. I assure you that when you truly  know that
there is only one dream and that you are connected to every one in that
dream, you begin to think and act as if you are connected to it all, rather
than attached to your separateness. This can provide an etern al access to
happiness and success. You will feel unthreatened by anyone or anything
forever after. Ask yourself the question “What happens to the characters in my dream
when I awaken. ” Now try to see that it is not a place at all, but a new
dimension. They are not waiting in a room; they have demonstrated their
multidimensionality. You too can enter this ever -formless dimension at will. WHY  YOU MA Y RESIST  THE PRINCIPLE OF ONENESS

This is an easy principle to spend an entire lifetime resisting. Why. Because we have been taught that separateness is the essence of our
humanity. We believe in boundaries, limits, labels, and traditions. We
have learned to look at “others” as distinct from us, and, in many
cases, to regard literally half of humanity as our enemies. We have
been raised to treasure our ethnicity, and to regard anyone different as
“not of our clan. ” Our labels have become our self-definition. What
happens over a lifetime of this conditioning is that we identify
ourselves as French, male, female, Protestant, tall, dark, conservative,
athletic, middle- class, and on and on. These are all labels that separate
and classify us, making it difficult to think of the onesong and to
become enlightened. Oneness is an admittedly abstract and therefore difficult concept to
grasp and then live out. To truly  believe and see this principle in action
requires a view of the physical world from a grander perspective than
we can conceive even with our imagination running at full throttle. Wemust be able to suspend our narrow view, and this is not an easy thing
in a world which requires living within the confines of narrow physical
boundaries. To get a big pictur e requires suspending our conditioned
way of thinking. It would be similar to asking a cell within the liver,
which has only seen the liver environment, to abandon the belief that
the liver is all that there is and see itself as a part of an entire human
body it does not know exists. All it knows is liver. All it has ever seen
or exper ienced is liver. Yet it is expected to see how it funct ions in
conjunction with a whole that can only be speculated about. This is
where you are, with one exception—you have a mind that is capable of
perceiving how the whole thing fits together. You are part of that
universal mind. Even so, it is a monumental task to imagine how it all
works while you are in physica l form, and in the boundaries inherent
in the world of form. It is easier to choose the world of boundaries. Even though we can
understand the metaphor using our own body as a whole, it is difficult
to make the shift from the microscope to the telescope. We are inclined
to take the narro wer road, and to defend the boundaries and limits. It is
easier, though far less rewarding, to live in a world where the lines are
all drawn, often by people who lived thousands of years ago. Where
and how to worship is mandated  by birth, and it seems easier to follow
that path. It is easier to go along believing our enemies are who we
have been taught they are, rather than to resist the vision that creates
enemies in the first place. It may seem easier to continue a family
business or tradition that contrib uted to disorder than to incur the wrath
of the others who have gone along. It is simply easier to be a cell that
lives its life out that way, ignoring the long run and the overall picture. Defending our separateness gives us a tremendous opportunity to
practice blame as a way of life. When you believe in and live oneness,
blame literally becomes impossible, for we are all connected, and
therefore life energy is directed to finding solutions for the good of the
self and the whole. When separateness  is the goal, we tend to view
others as responsible for whate ver is lacking in our life. “They” are
easy targets for blame. You may not be willing to give up this business
of blaming “them,” particularl y those who reside in a completelydifferent chorus  of the onesong, whom you will likely never see in
person, and who look so different from you. It is up to you to decide if
it feels more convenient for you to have enemies and people to hate
and blame than to feel that we are all one. As long as we need others to
take the rap for the problems in our lives, we will find this notion of
oneness easy to resist. Those who personally profit from separation will find it easy to deride
the concept of oneness. Anyone in the business of manufacturing or
marketing weapons designed to kill our brothers and sisters will scoff
at this “nonsense” of unity and oneness. Anyone needing to hold on to
traditional ways  of living and being that separate us into superior or
inferior categori es will resist what I am saying in this chapter. Your
business or religion or any enterprise you are involved in which is
designed to remind you to judge others will find unity a discom fiting
notion indeed. In truth, anyone who spends life


 are the following lower
chakras: Atara, Vitara, Sutara, Talatara, Rasatara, Mahatara
and Patala. Located between the coccyx and the heels, they
control the animal instincts. Although it is on a higher plane
than these seven, passion and animal instincts predominate
in the muladhara as well. However, the divine shakti also
resides there. The ordinary person may occasionally yield to
the grip of the lower chakras, behaving instinctively like an
animal, but it is said that he will always return to the
muladhara or another of the higher human chakras. The prop
er practice of kundalini yoga, however, makes it impossible
for the kundalini to descend into these animal centers by
transforming the shakti of the muladhara into spiritual
energy (ojas) and causing it to ascend the sushumna. The three major nadis - ida, pingala, and sushum
na - originate in the muladhara. These are the most impor
tant among the reputedly 72,000 nadis in the body (one
source gives the figure 300,000). Satyananda says that
although the word "nadi" is often translated "nerve," it is
derived from the root nad, "to flow." Therefore, it should be
interpreted to mean the flow of psychic consciousness and
not simply a physical conduit for this flow. The ida nadi starts from the left side of the muladhara
chakra, the pingala from the right, and the sushumna from
the center. Within the sushumna is the more subtle chitra 219
nadi and inside that is the Brahma nadi, subtler still. The
sushumna may therefore be considered a conduit for two
other streams of conciousness. From the muladhara, the
sushumna courses straight up to the ajna chakra. The ida and
pingala wind their way up the spine in a spiral pattern, cross
ing each other at each chakra and reversing sides in the pro
cess. Finally, the ida enters the ajna chakra from the left and
the pingala from the right. The ida is said to control mental
and psychic activity, and the pingala, prana and various
physical activities. The alternation of their relative positions
at each chakra helps to maintain a balance between
psychological and physical energy, ensuring harmony be
tween the activities of the mind and body. Satyananda main
tains that if an imbalance exists between the energy flow of
the ida and pingala nadis, shakti cannot flow into and ascend
the sushumna. The Svadhishthana Chakra
The word svadhishthana literally means "one's own
abode." This signifies that the original home of kundalini
was in this chakra. Only later did it descend to its present
seat in muladhara. 220
In fact, this theory corresponds with the physical migra
tion of the male testes during the viviparous period. During
the first months they are located in the interior of the lower
abdomen, and then gradually descend to settle in the groin
area. Of course, the sexual organs have a close relationship
to shakti energy, and this movement is very similar to the
alleged migration of kundalini. Satyananda locates the
svadhishthana at the coccyx, adjacent to the muladhara, and
states that both are connected to the sacral and coccygeal
nerve plexuses. Of particular interest is Satyananda's discussion of the
svadhishthana and the unconscious. He states that the center
in the brain connected to the svadhishthana controls all
phases of the unconscious mind, in particular the collective
unconscious. This collective unconscious is more powerful
than individual consciousness, and it controls much of
human behavior, although most people are virtually unaware
of it. Every experience in daily life, whether relevant to the
individual's self-interest or not, whether conscious or un
conscious, is recorded in the center of the unconscious, the
svadhishthana. Thus this center houses not only the karma of
the individual's past lives, but all the experiences and
associated karma which have contributed to the process of
human evolution. Some of this karma is stored as dormant
seeds, some is active. Whether active or inactive, the in
dividual's conscious mind is seldom aware of his karma at
all. However, when the awakened kundalini begins to as
cend, triggering the process of psychic evolution, both dor
mant and active karma are unleashed and flood into the con
sciousness. If the individual cannot analyze or control this
karma stored in svadhishthana, then the kundalini retreats
back to the muladhara. In this sense, the svadhishthana chakra and the karma it
houses are a serious impediment to human spiritual evolu
tion. The best method to overcome this obstacle is first to
awaken the ajna chakra. The superconsciousness housed in 221
the ajna is fuly aware of the workings of the unconscious
mind in the svadhishthana, and can control the unleashed
karma. At this juncture, it may be useful to summarize Satyanan-
da's views on human evolution. Life is created when prakriti (original substance) is
manifested, ordered by the observing consciousness of
purusha (spirit, the True Self). As matter becomes increas
ingly ordered, successive stages of animal evolution are
realized and the seven minor chakras which exist in humans
below the muladhara are gradually developed and activated. Once the muladhara is reached, animal evolution ends and
human evolution begins. The six higher chakras represent
the full range of possible human development. According to
the Tibetan tantric tradition, above the sahasrara there exists
another series of seven chakras which correspond to the
evolution of divine beings. Thus, just as the muladhara is
considered the highest animal but the lowest human chakra,
the sahasrara may be viewed as the crossover point between
human and divine evolution. In tantra, then, the infinite process of evolution from the
Absolute - the state before creation, before the interaction of
purusha and prakriti - through the creation of the pheno
menal world, the animal and human realms, the dimension
of divine beings and beyond, is described in terms of the
chakras. This conception is grounded in the belief in the
ongoing spiritual evolution of all created things and
acknowledges the importance of the chakras in this process. This system underlies the esoteric traditions of yoga and
Buddhism in India, Tibet, and Nepal. In this context, Satyananda contends that much of the
common experience undergone during the process of animal
evolution is stored within the muladhara chakra, in the form
of karmic propensities and latent abilities. For example,
most of man's physical activities - sleeping, eating,
defecating - are functions developed during the stage of 222
animal evolution, and they are still at work due to the activity
of this chakra. In this sense, the karma of man's animal
nature is active and functioning in the muladhara. In contrast, the karma of the svadhishthana is almost com
pletely inactive without manifest form. It exists only as the
collective unconscious, the residual karmic force of past
evolution. In this sense it is even more basic than the
muladhara, the original source of the latter's animal karma. The forces hidden within the svadhishthana are very power
ful and irrational, and form a strong impediment to the fur
ther rise of kundalini. Often the kundalini will return to its
dormant state in the muladhara, beaten back by the im
penetrable karma of the svadhishthana. However, when the
latter chakra is awakened and controlled, the animal karma
of the muladhara is subjugated, and further advancement
becomes possible. In a broader sense, as well, it is said that whenever a higher
chakra is activated by kundalini, its functions and scope of
activity begin to predominate over those of the lower
chakras. The relationship between these two lowest chakras
is both unique and particularly close, however, and should
be noted carefully. The traditional diagram tor the svadhishthana chakra con
tains a crocodile residing within a crescent moon. The
crocodile represents the forces of unconscious, formless kar
ma. The crescent moon is formed by two circles, the larger
with outward-turned petals, the smaller with petals facing in
ward. The inner circle represents the phantom-like existence
of the unconscious, carried on the back of the crocodile. The presiding deity is Brahma, the creator. He is some
times described as the Hiranya-garba, the "golden womb"
from which all creation issues. Satyananda equates the Hi
ranya-garba


	this	book	he	incorporates	these	parts	of	his	Being	to	provide	us
with	a	masterful	treatment	of	life-after-death.”
—
R
AM
	D
ASS
“Chopra	illuminates,	brilliantly,	a	wonderful	variety	of	extraordinary
experiences	documented	by	scientists	and	engineers,	and	weaves	them	into	a
tapestry	embracing	different	religious	traditions,	by	grouping,	comparing	and
analyzing	them. This	radical	empiricism	in	the	William	James	tradition
succeeds	beautifully,	as	did	James,	in	putting	the	‘burden	of	proof’	squarely
on	the	reductionist	materialists	who	have,	for	several	decades	now,	while
claiming	to	speak	for	science,	been	allowed	to	ignore	the	bedrock	of	science:
facts. Chopra	then	compares	these	data/experiences	with	some	of	the	metaphors
with	which	we,	in	the	world	of	science,	amuse	ourselves,	and	impress	the
masses. Deepak	has	thrown	down	the	gauntlet	demanding	the	burden	of	proof
from	the	reductionist	materialists. I	can	confidently	predict	that	the	best	they
will	do	is	to	try	to	ignore	it.”
—
R
USTUM
	R
OY
,	professorships	at	Pennsylvania	State	University,	Arizona
State,	and	University	of	Arizona;	elected	to	the	National	Academies	of
Science	or	Engineering	of	The	United	States,	Sweden,	Japan,	Russia,	and
India
“As	we	enter	the	twenty-first	century	it	is	clear	that	we	have	crossed	into	anunprecedented	global	age	in	which	widely	diverse	worldviews	intersect,	meet,
and	often	compete	or	collide	in	the	marketplace	of	our	cultures. Deepak
Chopra	has	established	himself	as	a	unique	global	voice	for	our	time	who
lives	and	speaks	from	the	global	perspective	and	through	a	global	lens	that
brings	our	diverse	worlds	together. In	his	global	story	it	is	clear	that	the
collective	wisdom	of	the	ages,	including	the	wisdom	of	frontier	science,
concurs	that	Reality	must	be	an	infinite	unified	field	of	interconnectivity	that
calls	for	a	radical	revision	in	how	most	of	us	see	and	understand	ourselves
and	approach	our	life	and	death. In	his	powerfully	accessible	narrative	Chopra	helps	all	readers	cross	into
this	ancient,	yet	newly	revealed,	global	perspective	that	clarifies	a	new
common	sense	that	overcomes	chronic	ignorance,	fear	and	denial	of	our
passage	through	death. This	lucid	book	shifts	the	burden	of	proof	about	life
after	death	onto	the	older	dysfunctional	egocentric	cultures	and	myopic
perspectives	whose	time	have	now	passed. This	book	is	another	clear	historic
marker	of	our	transition	into	our	new	global	story	and	self-image	in	which
humans	may	flourish	together	across	all	our	old	artificial	borders.”
—
A
SHOK
	G
ANGADEAN
,	Professor	and	Chair	of	Philosophy,	Haverford	College;
founder-director	of	the	Global	Dialogue	Institute;	co-convenor	of	the	World
Commission	on	Global	Consciousness;	host	of	the	TV	show	Global	Lens;
author	of
The	Awakening	of	the	Global	Mind
	(
www.awakeningmind.org
)
“
Life	After	Death:	The	Book	of	Answers
	opens	the	doorway	to	an	ever-
evolving	future	Now. With	mastery	and	compassion,	Chopra	combines	the
wisdom	of	the	Vedic	tradition	with	quantum	physics,	and	his	experience	as	a
doctor,	to	reveal	that	we	are	not	and	never	have	been	limited	creatures	trapped
in	physical	bodies,	but	are	already	multidimensional	beings,	creating	our
future	beyond	this	life	through	every	thought,	word	and	deed. His	view	of	the
nature	of	reality	is	precious,	illuminating,	life-giving. I	love	the	book.”
—
B
ARBARA
	M
ARX
	H
UBBARD
,	President,	Foundation	for	Conscious	Evolution
“A	unique	initiative	to	understand	Life	After	Death	and	dispel	one	of	our
greatest	fears	of	the	unknown:	death. Weaving	between	religious	scriptures,
science,	and	our	common	cultural/societal	understanding,	Deepak	has	very
articulately	reasoned	the	myth	of	death	and	simply	made	it	just	another	aspect
of	life. Surely	this	book	serves	to	expand	our	understanding	to	go	beyond	and
deeper	into	the	unknown,	cherish	life,	and	embrace	death	with	love.”
—
B
AWA
	J
AIN
,	Secretary	General,	World	Council	of	Religious	Leaders
“Three	cheers	for	Deepak’s	courage	to	express	his	beliefs	and	wisdom	about	a
subject	many	fear	and	avoid. This	book	will	help	us	to	open	a	door	to	asubject	few	seemed	prepared	to	explore	because	they	cannot	explain	it. I
know	from	personal	experience	that	near-death	and	past-	life	experiences	are
not	a	matter	of	the	imagination. I	can	believe	because	I	have	had	the
experience. Consciousness	exists	when	our	bodies	do	not. From	my	own	life
and	my	work	with	patients	I	know	that	we	are	aware	of	the	future	and	the	past
at	an	unconscious	level,	which	when	made	conscious	helps	us	to	understand
and	survive. Life	is	a	mystery,	so	read	on	and	help	us	to	enter	the	darkness
and	light	a	candle.”
—
B
ERNIE
	S
IEGEL
,	M.D.,	author	of	365
Prescriptions	for	the	Soul
	and
101
Exercises	for	the	Soul
“I,	perhaps	like	many	others,	most	often	think	of	and	look	to	Deepak	Chopra
as	a	physician,	pioneer,	and	major	influence	in	the	huge	positive	change	in
Western	attitudes	toward	holistic	medicine. In	this	book	he	is	much	more	than
that. He	addresses	the	ultimate	mystery—death—as	a	physician,	a
philosopher,	and	a	teacher. His	presentation	of	concepts	such	as	the	‘journey
of	the	soul,’	or	the	‘music	of	the	spheres,’	reminded	me	of	the	readings	of	my
grandfather,	Edgar	Cayce,	who	many	years	ago	also	provided	the	world	with
a	more	hopeful	view	of	the	transition	we	are	all	destined	to	make. I
recommend	this	book	for	all	of	us	who	are	concerned	about	our	own	eventual
death,	and	the	death	of	those	closest	to	us.”
—
C
HARLES
	T
HOMAS
	C
AYCE
,	Executive	Director,	Association	for	Research	and
Enlightenment,	Inc.;	President,	Edgar	Cayce	Foundation,	Inc.
“Deepak	Chopra	masterfully	navigates	a	bewildering	but	profoundly
important	landscape	in
Life	After	Death:	The	Book	of	Answers
. Gracefully
weaving	parables,	poignant	experiences,	religious	lore	and	scientific
evidence,	Chopra’s	survey	of	the	afterlife	is	at	once	contemplative,	heartening
and	satisfying.”
—
D
EAN
	R
ADIN
,	Ph.D.,	senior	scientist,	Institute	of	Noetic	Sciences. “This	is	not	an	‘easy’	but	thoroughly	fascinating	book	that	could	well	become
one	of	the	important	reads	of	your	lifetime.”
—
D
ORIS
	W
ILSDORF
,	Professor	Emeritus,	University	of	Virginia,	and	inventor
“A	fabulous	read! While	western	science	continues	to	watch	the	world	with
its	nose


	psychiatrist	Gary	Schwartz,	whose	experiments	have
engaged	me	personally. The	same	research	brought	Allison	DuBois	to	light
and	resulted	in	a	television	series	on	NBC,	as	recounted	in	Gary	E.	Schwartz
and	William	L.	Simon,
The	Truth	About	Medium
	(Hampton	Roads	Publishing,
2005). Schwartz	gives	a	thorough	account	of	his	academic	research,	the
leading	findings	in	the	field,	in
The	Afterlife	Experiments:	Breakthrough
Scientific	Evidence	of	Life	After	Death
	(Atria,	2003),	for	which	I	wrote	the
introduction. Chapter	7:	The	Invisible	Thread
Readers	who	are	interested	in	the	historical	perspective	of	the	afterlife	may
want	a	survey	like	Harold	Coward,	editor,
Life	After	Death	in	World	Religions
(Orbis,	1997),	which	collects	essays	on	each	faith	by	various	experts. I	came
up	with	my	own	synthesis,	relying	heavily	on	a	classic	work,	Huston	Smith,The	World’s	Religions:	Our	Great	Wisdom	Traditions
	(HarperSanFrancisco,
1991),	which	is	still	a	model	of	fairness	and	ecumenical	tolerance,	not	to
mention	graceful	writing	and	valuable	insights. If	there	is	one	book	that	every
person	interested	in	religion	should	begin	with,	this	is	it. T
EXT	NOTE:
p.	105
	“There	is	no	salvation	for	those	outside	the	Church	…”	is	quoted	from	a
press	interview	with	Mel	Gibson,	cited	online	at
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4224452/
. Chapter	8:	Seeing	the	Soul
The	subject	of	spiritual	materialism	is	incredibly	important	because	so	many
people,	especially	in	the	West,	are	driven	by	ego	needs	even	when	it	comes	to
spirituality. We	turn	spiritual	to	gain	things	from	the	world	that	we	otherwise
couldn’t	through	work	and	struggle,	and	thus	we	transform	work	and	struggle
into	spiritual	processes. The	book	that	started	me	thinking	along	these	lines
was	Chogyam	Trungpa,
Cutting	Through	Spiritual	Materialism
	(Shambhala,
2002),	which	is	told	from	a	Buddhist	perspective	but	with	a	Western	audience
in	mind. Chapter	9:	Two	Magical	Words
It	goes	without	saying	that	eternity	is	indescribable,	but	the	Vedic	rishis	were
comfortable	living	in	unbounded	awareness. Therefore	their	descriptions	are
the	most	reliable	that	we	possess	in	the	world’s	wisdom	traditions. It	helps	to
have	someone	who	continues	to	have	similar	experiences. I	would	point	to
Nisargadatta	Maharaj,	a	humble	Indian	farmer	who	became	a	renowned	guru
in	Bombay	after	enlightenment. His	book,
I	Am	That
	(Acorn	Press,	1990),	is
one	of	the	purest	spiritual	testimonies	we	have	in	modern	times. Not	only	is	it
completely	unspoiled	by	any	trace	of	the	guru	game,	which	has	been	played
in	India	for	centuries,	but	Sri	Nisargadatta	seems	to	be	witness	to	a	very
expanded	state	of	awareness,	fully	comparable	to	the	ancient	rishis. This	is
another	of	the	few	books	I’ve	kept	by	my	side	for	years. T
EXT	NOTES:
pp. 122–26
	My	account	of	Mellen-Thomas	Benedict’s	journey	into	the
afterlife	comes	from	online:
http://www.near-
death.com/experiences/reincarnation04.html
. pp. 135–36
	The	story	of	Dawn	J.,	the	woman	who	healed	with	miraculous	oil,
is	told	in	Cheri	Lomonte,
The	Healing	Touch	of	Mary
	(DivineImpressions,	2005),	which	contains	dozens	of	similar	firsthand	accounts. Chapter	10:	Surviving	the	Storm
Readers	who	are	interested	in	theories	of	consciousness	face	a	bewildering
number	of	choices,	and	in	the	context	of	science	almost	all	those	choices	are
materialistic. That	is,	they	assume	that	mind	arises	from	matter. Since	I
disagree	with	the	assumption,	I	am	halfhearted	about	recommending	even	a
good	survey	like	Susan	Blackmore,
Consciousness
:
An	Introduction
	(Oxford
University	Press,	2004),	which	does	a	thorough	job	covering	the	many
philosophical	questions	raised	by	current	theories. The	most	praised	authors
in	the	field	seem	to	be	skeptics	who	believe	that	mind	is	actually	an	illusion
created	by	neural	activity	and	outmoded	thinking	about	the	brain. See	Daniel
Dennett,
Consciousness	Explained
	(Back	Bay	Books,	1992),	which	argues
aggressively	for	the	proposition	that	consciousness	is	a	materialistic
phenomenon	and	nothing	more. Therefore,	human	consciousness	could	(and
one	day	will)	be	duplicated	by	a	computer. For	a	more	pluralistic,	open-minded	discussion,	see	Susan	Blackmore,
editor,
Conversations	on	Consciousness:	What	the	Best	Minds	Think	About
the	Brain,	Free	Will,	and	What	It	Means	to	Be	Human
	(Oxford	University
Press,	2006),	in	which	twenty-one	thinkers	talk	in	conversational	interviews
about	the	whole	problem	of	relating	mind	and	brain. Finally,	for	a	perspective
that	is	more	neurological,	I	read	the	fascinating	speculations	of	Humberto	R.
Maturana	and	Francisco	J.	Varela,
The	Tree	of	Knowledge:	The	Biological
Roots	of	Human	Understanding
	(Shambhala,	1998),	which	attempts	an	all-
inclusive	theory	that	follows	the	evolution	of	mind	from	a	basis	in	organic
chemicals. It	is	up	to	each	reader	to	decide	if	Vedanta,	whose	own	all-
inclusive	theory	begins	with	consciousness	instead	of	chemicals,	stands	up	to
modern	skepticism	as	I	have	claimed. The	discussion	of	the	five	Koshas	is	my	own	synthesis	of	traditional	Vedic
ideas. Those	ideas	are	easy	to	explore	online	at	Web	sites	such	as
http://swamij.com/koshas.htm
. Chapter	11:	Guides	and	Messengers
The	literature	on	angels	is	vast,	but	I	found	that	what	I	wanted	to	say	did	not
involve	the	many	historical	surveys	describing	how	angels	appear	in	various
world	religions. However,	there	are	many	fascinating	accounts	from	people
who	have	learned	to	cooperate	with	the	devas,
creative
	agents	that	are	the
Indian	parallel	of	angels. These	are	all	New	Age	books	that	center	on
Findhorn,	a	famous	Scottish	community	that	claimed	to	use	devas	to	growcrops	on	barren	soil,	among	other	remarkable	things. See	Dorothy	MacLean,
To	Hear	the	Angels	Sing:	An	Odyssey	of	Co-Creation	with	the	Devic	Kingdom
(Lindisfarne	Books,	1994)	and	Machaelle	Small	Wright,
Behaving	As	if	the
God	in	All	Life	Mattered
	(Perelandra,	1997)	for	two	sympathetic	stories	of
women	who	suddenly	found	that	they	could	talk	to	devas	and	use	them	to
manifest	desires. Both	are	at	polar	opposites	to	skepticism	and	materialism. Chapter	12:	The	Dream	Continues
The	literature	on	reincarnation	is	quite	unwieldy	since	it	spans	every


 add a little jaggery (Gur, Gud) to it. But excess
of jaggery is meant for weight gain. So, honey is better. Re-Heating
If you prepare herbal tea, it is best to consume it when it is freshly
made. Do not store it for the later time, re heat and drink it. Re-
heating herbal tea is very against to Ayurvedic principles of
medicine/food preparation. It burns out all the active ingredients of the
herb. Having Too Hot or Cold Tea
If you are of Pitta body type, or Pitta aggravated symptoms like
excess burning sensation, excess bleeding, etc, and then allow the tea to
cool down to lukewarm before drinking. If you have Vata or Kapha body type, then you can drink it when it
is hot. Closing the Lid of the Vessel While Making Herbal Tea – As Per
Ayurveda, the vessel should be open so that water evaporates. Stirring the ingredients while you are making the herbal tea makes
the tea richer with herbal active ingredients. Taking Herbal Tea without Consulting a Health Expert
Lean diabetic patients, people who have recently undergone
Panchakarma treatment (within 2 months of time), people who arealready taking many herbal medicines, people who are excessively tired,
might not require herbal tea. It may cause worsening of the symptoms. So, consult your doctor.19. Pramathya – Weaker
Form of Decoction
Y
is is modied form of herbal decoction. is herbal decoction used
especially to improve digestion strength. Reference: Sharangdhara Samhita Madhyama Khanda 2nd chapter (in the
context of Kashaya chapter)
Pramathya word is derived from Upasarga ‘Pra.’ Here ‘Pra’ means
Prakarsena, it in dicates the churning process which is done in Pramathya. Method
One part of herbs is made into paste. It is added with 8 parts of water, taken in
a vessel, boiled in mild re till the total quantity reduces to a quarter. It is ltered with a clean cloth. Obtained product is called Pramathya. Dose is 50–100 ml per day. Pramathya vs Kashaya
In Kashaya, Kashaya – 16 parts of water is added to 1 part of herb, boiled and
reduced to 1/4 or 1/8 or 1/16 parts. Large amount of water S reduced to get a very small amount of Kashaya
Eg: 50 g herb coarse powder + 800 m l water S 50 or 100 ml. S Kashaya.Pramathya 50 g herb S paste S 400 ml of water S boil and reduce to 100
ml S administered. e level of herb concentration in the nal liquid is more in Kashaya than
Pramathya. Kashaya >Pramathya. Kashaya is used in severe stages of disorders. Pramathya is used in moderately aggravated Doshas. It is used in medium
stage of disorder. Example
Musta – Nut grass (root) – Cyperus rotundus
Indrayava – Seeds of Kutaja – Bark of Holarrhena antidysenterica
Pramathya S Cool it down S honey S diarrhoea, dysentery with bleeding –
as in Ulcerative colitis.20. Ayurveda’s Take on Re-
boiling Water and Herbal
Teas
Y
Re-boiling water, in the context of this article means, boiling once, allowing
cooling down and then again boiling it. Ayurveda does not approve of this. e Above Sanskrit verse Means the Following –
Once any liquid, water or kashayam (decoction) is boiled and cooled down, if
it is re-heated, that liquid acts like poison. Besides water, this rule also applies to –
Ghrita – herbal ghees
Taila – herbal oils
Paneeya – herbal drinks and juices involving boiling process
While making Leha – herbal jams like chyawanprash, we make the Kashaya
(decoction/herbal tea) rst and then to it, other jaggery or sugar etc are added
and re-heated. In this case, the Kashaya is not allowed to cool down and as soon as Kashaya
is ready, we just add the other ingredients and continue heating. So, the above
rule does not apply here. About Making Oils, Avalehaere is another rule while preparing herbal ghee, herbal oils, jams etc. It is
best to prepare these oils, ghee and herbal jam in more than one day. is is
because; the night time has its own benecial eﬀect on the product. But here, it cannot be considered as re-boiling. Because, once Kashaya is
made, it is added with sugar/oil/ghee. en boiled for some time and then the
boiling is continued on the next day. Here, the boiling is a continuous process
and we are not re-boiling the nished product. For Using Oils for Massage
Some practitio ners heat the massage oil, just before starting massaging. is is
ne in winters and in cold climate places. Because, if we massage extremely
cold oil, it may cause Kapha increase, leading to joint stiﬀness or Vata Dosha
increase. So, heating the oil just above the room temperature, before massage is
agreeable. Can we heat the market available kashayam, before consumption? No. ere is a wrong assumption to heat the ready – made kashayam that is
available in the market, before consumption. is can be very dangerous. Not
only the Kashaya, even the preservatives also get heated, leading to complex
unhealthy mix. It may cause worse diseases than the patient already is suﬀering
with. Logic
Why Re-boiling water makes it poison? e answers are not totally convincing. Here is some eﬀort:
e water contains dissolved gases and minerals. Once they are boiled, they
reach an activated stage. But if they are cooled and re-boiled, their complex
interaction makes it poisonous or unhealthy to consume. In Ayurveda, it leads
to formation of Ama – a product of altered digestion and metabolism.Minerals that are good for us in small doses, such as calcium salts, can be
very harmful when re-boiled and can lead to kidney stones and gallstones. What is wrong with re-boiling Kashayam, herbal ghee, oils etc? Kashay – decoction simply means boiling herbs with water for some time,
ltered. Like all cooked foods, Kashaya is told to be taken when it is freshly made
and in hot condition. Kashay making itself is a form of cooking. Only in high
Pitta condition, a freshly made kashay is allowed to cool down before
consumption. So, when kashay is freshly made, the water soluble active principles of herbs
are in activated, charged condition. is when consumed, gets easily absorbed
and quickly show their benets in the body. But if Kashayam is re-heated, after cooling down, it loses the charge of active
principles and they become very hard for digestion, leading to production of
ama – a product of altered digestion and metabolism. is further leads to
onset of many diseases. Same is the case with herbal jams, herbal ghees and herbal oils. is Rule also Applies to Cooked Food
Heating is a process of charging up the active principles in the food and herbs
that we consume. Once they are charged up and activated, they have to be consumed so that
their energy and total of their phyto-nutrients are easily absorbed by the body. But once after they cool down and again re-heated, they are not as charged
as previously, leading to erratic absorption. Reference: Kaiyadeva Nighantu – Drava Varga
Sharangdhara Samhita Prathama Khanda 121. Kashaya Home Remedy
for Fever
Y
Ayurveda oﬀers many home remedies in combination of herbs and dosage
forms for fever. In fever, Kashayam (water decoction) is mainly used, because it
gets absorbed quickly and brings about swift action. Here we learn about one
such powerful Kashayam home remedy for fever. Ingredients
Guduchi powder – Stem of Indian Tinospora – Tinospora cordifolia – 5 g rams
Dashamula – group of ten roots. Available online herb stores – 25 g rams
e Dashamoola are –
Bilva – Aegle marmelos
Agnimantha – Premna mucronata
Shyonaka – Oroxylum indicum
Patala – Stereospermum suaveolens
Gambhari – Gmelina arborea
Brihati – Solanum indicum
Kantakari – Solanum xanthocarpum
Gokshura – Tribulus terrestrisShalaparni – Desmodium gangeticum
Prishnaparni – Uraria picta
Water – 200 ml
Procedure
Guduchi + Dashamoola –


icing your own
apples or oranges for the liquid in smoothies will reduce the
calories signiﬁcantly because bottled juices tend to be higher in
calories. Add some protein. Stir a tablespoon of ﬂaxseeds, chia seeds,
nuts, tofu, or whey powder into juice or smoothies. Include dark greens. Adding kale, Swiss chard, spinach, or
broccoli boosts calcium. Avoid dried and canned fruit. They’re usually high in sugar,
and some are treated with chemicals.F l u s h i n g  f a t s  w i t h  j u i c e,  w a t e r,  a n d
s m o o t h i e s
Your digestive system, especially your liver, is important to
maintaining overall health and, speciﬁcally, to maintaining optimal
body weight. That’s because the liver is the primary organ for
ﬁltering out pollutants and chemicals from your food and, just as
important, metabolizes fat. Detoxifying and cleansing the liver makes
it more efﬁcient so that nutrients are absorbed, waste and toxins are
cleared, and fat is burned more effectively. Eating organic foods and avoiding over-the-counter drugs as much as
possible is the ﬁrst step in helping the liver do its job. The next is to
drink those eight glasses of water! Last, cleansing the liver is
absolutely essential. A juice fast to cleanse the liver and lymphatic system is one of
the keys to your health. I guarantee you’ll feel better, and it’ll
help your liver work with you as you begin to lose weight. Here is
a simple plan for a liver cleanse:
Day 1: Pre-cleanse: Eat only raw foods — no dairy, no grains, no
animal protein. Here are some suggestions:
• Make a fresh, raw fruit juice for breakfast and a midmorning
snack (see Chapter 11 for recipes, but omit all dairy). • Either eat ten raw almonds throughout the day or grind them
and stir half of them into your breakfast and midmorning
juices. • Make a fresh green salad for lunch and dress it with 2
tablespoons of organic, cold-pressed nut, avocado, or olive
oil mixed with 3 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar. • In the midafternoon, make a fresh, raw vegetable juice with a
beet and some greens — you can pick a vegetable juice
recipe from Chapter 12 and add the beet and greens, or use
the Borscht recipe in Chapter 12 and omit the yogurt.• For dinner, either eat a fresh vegetable salad or drink a
vegetable smoothie. In the mid-evening, drink a vegetable
smoothie. • Be sure to drink eight glasses of pure water throughout the
day. You can have herbal tea, but no coffee or black tea. Days 2, 3, and (optional) 4: Cleanse: Drink only pure juice or
water. Here are some suggestions:
• Upon rising, drink a glass of fresh pure water mixed with the
juice of 1/2 lemon. Wait an hour, and make a fresh, raw fruit
juice as your breakfast. • Juice 4 cups fresh cranberries and 1 apple; measure the juice
and add an equal amount of pure water. Cover and set aside
in the refrigerator. Drink 1 cup midmorning and 1 cup
midafternoon. • At noon, drink a vegetable juice and drink a vegetable juice
again every two hours after that. • Be sure to drink eight glasses of pure water throughout the
day. You can have herbal tea, but no coffee or black tea. Day 4 or 5: Post-cleanse: Eat only raw foods — no dairy, no
grains, no animal protein. Here are some suggestions:
• Make a fresh, raw fruit juice for breakfast and a midmorning
snack (see Chapter 11 for recipes, but omit all dairy). • Either eat ten raw almonds throughout the day or grind them
and stir half of them into your breakfast and midmorning
juices. • Make a fresh green salad for lunch and dress it with 2
tablespoons of organic, cold-pressed nut, avocado, or olive
oil mixed with 3 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar. • In the midafternoon, make a fresh, raw vegetable juice with a
beet and some greens — you can pick a vegetable juice
recipe from Chapter 12 and add the beet and greens, or use
the Borscht recipe in Chapter 12 and omit the yogurt. • For dinner, either eat a fresh vegetable salad or drink a
vegetable smoothie. In the mid-evening, drink a vegetablesmoothie. • Be sure to drink eight glasses of pure water throughout the
day. You can have herbal tea, but no coffee or black tea.Chapter 8
Juicing and Smoothies for the Inside
In This Chapter
 Feeling energized and sexy
 Living longer
 Improving immunity and memory
Given that we live in a fast-paced, stress-ﬁlled, modern society
with escalating demands on our time and patience and
seemingly little choice for nourishing food, it’s not surprising
that many people consider wellness and health to be the
absence of sickness and disease. But high-level wellness — that
clear-headed, exuberant, and joyful state of being that
encompasses social, mental, emotional, and physical ﬁtness and
well-being — involves so much more than simply not being sick. In 1961, Dr. Halbert L. Dunn described optimum or, in his words,
high-level well-being as a state wherein you are “alive clear to
the tips of your ﬁngers. You have energy to burn. You tingle with
vitality.”
Emerging from the fog of low-level nutrition in order to “tingle
with vitality” is something that is possible for everyone to
achieve through diet and exercise. It’s not by chance that some
people are lean and strong and resistant to illness, have sharp
brains, and stay sexually vibrant. It’s not always genetics that
keeps some people spending vast sums of money for
supplements and treatments for conditions that could have
easily been prevented. Instead, it’s the small day-to-day decisions that revolve around
conscious and unconscious habits that raise or lower our ownlevel of health. This chapter is all about feeding your body at a
cellular level so that each intricate component can fulﬁll its
brilliant potential and compose the shining entity that you are. It’s about bringing about physical and mental change from the
inside. Incr easing Y our Energy Level
People are meant to think and move, dance and play. They’re
wired for contemplation, recollection, memory, and throwing
their entire beings into their passions. And at the end of the day,
they may be spent and tired and ready for a long, rejuvenating
sleep, but they’ve also been able to think clearly and act with
vitality. They feel rewarded for their efforts and their ability to
handle whatever the day has presented. Operating at a low,
depressed, irritable, and lethargic pace is crippling in an
insidious way — but it’s often a normal way of life for people
who think they don’t have time to eat well, replenish their
spirits, and exercise. Ironically, people who take the time to nourish their bodies and
spirits and who set aside a mere 30 minutes for physical activity
every day actually have more time for all the daily routine tasks,
as well as the unplanned challenges, because they’re mentally,
emotionally, and physically equipped to accomplish their goals
and handle the stresses, which allows them to get more done. Increasing your energy level through cleansing and ﬂushing (see
Chapter 9) and feeding and fueling the cells not only infuses
your body, but also begins to change your thinking and your
emotions in ways that you may not expect. In their raw state, all plants (in particular, fruits) are reservoirs
of solar energy. The presence of this incredible energy is what
makes raw plant food so vital to our health. It’s what separates
synthesized chemical supplements from the vitamins, minerals,and other nutrients in the real thing. Fresh, raw fruit is higher in
solar energy than any other plant, although vegetables, grains,
nuts, seeds, and legumes all contribute that life-giving force to
us if we eat them raw. Food plants that have a long, slow
ripening process and that are ripened on the vine or in the ﬁeld
(instead of in gas-ﬁlled containers or on shelves) have more
time to absorb and store the sun’s energy, and that’s why most
fruits are exceptional energy storehouses. Naturally sun-dried
fruit or vegetables are also high in solar energy. The sun’s energy is stored in the cells of plants as starch. Starch
is one of the body’s primary sources of complex carbohydrates,
and starch is converted to glycogen (sugar), which is pure
energy in our bodies. It’s this carbohydrate-to-sugar-to-energy
process (called metabolism) within human beings that powers
everything we do. It fuels our growth, allows us to breathe and
carry on all the daily and nightly involuntary internal functions,
and allows us to think and be active. F u e l i n g  t h e  b o d y
In order to capture and utilize a high level of dynamism and
drive, you need to provide your body


’s nerves originate
in and extend from the cervical vertebrae of the
neck, and impingement of nerve transmission to
the fingers can result in numbness. Reflexology
applied to the reflex areas along the big toe can
help with this and other neck problems. easing pain
The body’s twelve thoracic vertebrae extend
from the base of the neck to the waistline. On
the foot they are reflected from the base of the
big toe to the base of the first metatarsal, the
long bone below the big toe. Reflexology applied
to these reflex areas helps to alleviate discomfort
and pain between the shoulder blades. The five sacral vertebrae span the spine below
the waist to the tailbone. Reflex areas that The skeleton and the foot
Just as the organs of the body  can be superimposed on the reﬂexology
maps, so too can the skeletal structure, the bones of the body. This reﬂection
ranges from the vertebrae of the neck, mirrored on the big toe, to the tailbone,
reiterated in the heel. A chart reflecting these relationships can be helpful in
addressing specific skeletal concerns such as damaged vertebrae. 34 the principles of reflexologycorrespond to them follow the inside edge of the
foot from the base of the first metatarsal to the
beginning of the heel. Reflexology applied to
these reflex areas helps ease pain in the lower
back. The reflex areas for the tailbone and
coccyx are along the inside of the heel. Reflexology to these areas helps with discomfort
following injury to these parts of the spine. hastening recovery
Reflexology technique may be applied further to
reflex areas representing the skeleton and limbs
to help alleviate pain and hasten recovery from
injury. From tennis elbow to bursitis of the
shoulder to hip pain, reflexology work to the
appropriate reflex areas achieves results. In addition, the skeletal structure is supported
and linked by muscles, tendons, and ligaments. When considering achiness and pain in the
lower back, for example, it is not just the
vertebrae of the lower back but the muscles that
surround them that add to or even create
problems in the lower back. Just as any part of
the body below the waistline constitutes the
lower back, any reflex area below the foot’s
reflected waistline encompasses the reflex areas
of related tendons and ligaments. To help relieve
a lower back problem with reflexology also
apply technique to the surrounding reflex areas.the skeleton and the foot 35right sole
This map has skeletal reﬂex areas that relate to
the body’s right side. The shoulder skeletal reﬂex
area, for example, relates to the right shoulder. The right sole reﬂects the reﬂex areas for the
right side of the body. left sole
This map has skeletal reﬂex areas that relate to
the body’s left side. The elbow skeletal reﬂex
area, for example, relates to the left elbow. The
left sole reﬂects the reﬂex areas for the portions
of the hip and pelvis on the left side of the body. cervical vertebrae
(neck )
thoracic
vertebrae
Waistline
lumbar
vertebrae
sacral vertebrae
tailbone/coccyxleft
shoulderleft shoulder
blade
right
elbowright shoulder
blade
right
shoulder
right
upper
arm
right hipleft
upper
arm
left hip left
elbowThe benefits of reflexology  are as
varied as the people who use it. Fundamentally,
reflexology’s hands-on communication allows
person-to-person connection, which enhances
relationships, encourages healthy living, and
empowers both giver and receiver. As you read
this chapter, think about who reflexology can
benefit in your life, and how.Benefits for lifeChapter 2Enduring images of warm, person-to-person
experiences emerge from stories about the use
of reﬂexology. For example, one woman related
that her two-year-old niece called her “Foot”
rather than “Auntie,” as she associated her with
her foot reﬂexology work. Another woman told
of her father bartering with the children on
Sunday mornings, offering to fix them a special
breakfast if they would work on his feet. It was
a pleasant interlude in the week, creating a
closeness between parent and children. A sense
of responsibility and the family working together
was reﬂected in this shared experience. showing support and love
Practicing reﬂexology gives you the ability to
reach out and show that you care when words
might not suffice. One study of reﬂexology
found that its use provided a means for family
members of cancer patients to show their
support and love; the patients experienced less
pain and also felt less isolated. Reﬂexology
established a way for the relatives to feel
connected to their loved one as well as for the
patients to feel their support. It was the gesture
of caring that stood out as a morale booster for
both patients and their families. Showing that you care
Reﬂexology is a great form  of nonverbal communication that tells the
recipient they are cared for. Whether your goal in using reﬂexology is to boost
health, to create a quiet moment, to provide comfort in illness, or simply to say
“I love you,” reﬂexology provides a means of expression without the need for
words. For you, the greatest beneﬁt of reﬂexology is the opportunity to reach
out and touch a loved one’s life in a positive way. 38 benefits for lifeThe reality of reﬂexology work is that just taking
the time, making the effort, and paying attention
to the individual is therapeutic in itself. Reﬂexology empowers the provider and the
receiver: the provider receives the gift of giving
and the beneﬁt of physical contact with another
human being, while the recipient gains from
being the focus of another’s care. Whatever the
relationship between them, both can find beneﬁt. nurturing friendship
Many a friendship has been nurtured through
the shared reﬂexology experience when a mutual
support system has emerged. Reﬂexology
lightens, brightens, and buoys up the spirit. One
friend, for example, helped another to gain
control over her addictive behavior. Both
acknowledged the beneﬁt of a friend’s ear for
listening, but credited the reﬂexology work with
helping to change the destructive habits. The net result of reﬂexology work is an
environment of safety and security that allows
individuals to express themselves. At times, it is
difﬁcult to know what to do to help a loved one. Reﬂexology forms a positive, non-judgmental
form of interaction, helping to grease the wheels
of a stressful relationship where one exists. “Many a friendship has been nurtured
through the shared reflexology
experience when a mutual support
system has emerged.”
reflexology  is a treatment
that can be carried out at
home in an atmosphere of
relaxation and ease. showing that you care 39Reﬂexology techniques are uniquely sustaining
and nourishing to the body’s developmental
system. In particular, mothers who have been
concerned about their child’s development in
some way have used reﬂexology as a tool to
maximize the child’s full potential. For example,
the mother of a child who had been blinded in
one eye was worried that the eye would not
follow the movement of the sighted eye. After the
accident and over the years, the mother used
reﬂexology techniques to keep both eyes in line. The parents of eight-month-old Alexander
became concerned that his speech development
would be affected when tests revealed hearing
impairment caused by blockage of the eustachian
tubes in the middle ear. They applied appropriate
reflexology techniques to Alexander and found
that his hearing improved to the point where he
turned his head at the sound of a whisper.The healing touch
Giving a reﬂexology treatment  provides you with a special opportunity
to cherish the people you care for. Touch is a unique form of communication,
and numerous studies have demonstrated its value. It lowers blood pressure and
raises self-esteem; babies gain weight and sleep better; and even the individual
who applies the program of touch beneﬁts. Both physically and psychologically,
touch comforts, reassures, and heals us. 40“Mothers who have been concerned
about their children’s development
have used reflexology as a tool to
maximize their full potential.”
Benefits for lifeAn Indian newspaper article in 1995 cited the
use of reflexology at a school for children with
special needs. The Principal of the school,
Professor Lissy Jose asserted, “Mental retardation
may not be totally cured, but reﬂexology is
certainly beneﬁcial. It improves their alertness,
attention span, and behavioral pattern, apart
from improving their general health. The school
utilizes reflexology with its 75 students.”
Bringing people together
“Reﬂexology helps bring children closer to
parents with whom they previously had


 habit of eating as many greens and salads as
you can. Soon you will crave them as you used to crave cheese and/or
sweets. Lunch salads serve 2. Baby Field Gr eens Salad
Greens, greens, greens. Greens are the king of all foods. All food originates
from greens. Remember, even carnivores feast on animals who themselves
are built from greens. So bypass the recycled greens and go straight to the
mother lode. ½ small red onion, sliced into ¼-inch rounds
1 tablespoon blackstrap molasses
1 package baby field greens
1 cup carrots, grated
1 cup grapes
1 can butter beans, rinsed and drained
6 walnut halvesCracked black pepper to taste
Dijon Dressing (see page 232)
Cook the onion in a sprayed skillet on high heat for 5 minutes, stirring
frequently. When the slices begin to brown, stir in the molasses and 1
tablespoon water. Stir for a minute longer, until the liquid is absorbed. Place
the baby field greens in a lar ge bowl. Arrange the carots, grapes, beans,
walnuts, and caramelized onions on top of the greens. Season with cracked
pepper. Dress lightly with the dressing, and toss the ingredients together. E2 Basics Salad
Instead of using iceber g lettuce, which has a low nutrient value, use
romaine. Incredibly robust, it’ s loaded with more than 40 percent protein
and bursting with antioxidants, phytochemicals, and other micronutrients. Remember, no food is nutritionally superior to greens. None. ½ head romaine lettuce, rinsed and torn into fork-size pieces
1 can mandarin oranges, drained
1 red bell pepper, seeded and sliced into strips
½ avocado, peeled and sliced
Cracked black pepper to taste
E2 Basics Dressing (see page 232)
Place the lettuce in a lar ge bowl. Arrange fruit and vegetables atop the
lettuce, and season with cracked pepper. Dress lightly with the dressing, and
toss ingredients together. Variation:
Add roasted red bell pepper strips to salad. Red Tip Lettuce Salad
When you’re not in the mood for a robust romaine lettuce salad, a softer red
tip lettuce is a nice alternative. 1 small head red tip lettuce, rinsed and sliced into ½-inch strips
½ cucumber with skin on, sliced into rounds
2 small tomatoes, sliced
1 mango, peeled and choppedCracked pepper to taste
Peanut Dressing (see page 233)
Place the lettuce in a lar ge bowl. Arrange the cucumber, tomatoes, and
mango on top of the lettuce. Season with cracked pepper. Dress lightly with
the dressing, and toss ingredients together. Spring Gr eens Salad
More good news about greens: Ounce for ounce, they are the greatest
source of protein on the planet. Surprised. What do you think gives the
elephant, cow, ape, bull, and giraf fe their muscle and size. Greens. This clever combination of ingredients will make you feel that it’ s the
first day of spring whenever you smell them. ½ package spring greens
1 can artichoke hearts, drained
1 green bell pepper, seeded and sliced into strips
1 apple, diced
Cracked pepper to taste
Orange Hummus Dressing (see page 234)
Place the greens in a lar ge bowl. Arrange the vegetables and fruit on top
of the greens.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>
Q: Which has more cholesterol, a 3-ounce piece of red meat, or a 3-,
A:
Q: What fruit has the highest percentage of protein? A: A lemon, which is 16 percent protein. Raise-the-Roof Sweet Potato–V egetable Lasagna,
A:
Q: What is the recommended way to cook the rice in the E2 Brown Rice recipe?,
A: The recommended way to cook the rice is to bring 1 ½ cups of water to a boil, add the rice, reduce the heat, and cover for 40 minutes, or until the liquid is absorbed.
Q: What is the suggested method for preparing the quinoa in the Couscous with Tomatoes and Asparagus recipe?,
A: The suggested method is not provided in this passage, as it is not mentioned.
Q: What is the recommended cooking time for the mushrooms in the Portobello Mushroom Burgers recipe?,
A: The recommended cooking time for the mushrooms is not provided in this passage, as it is not mentioned.
Q: Who is the chef who inspired the E2 Basics Pancakes recipe?,
A: The chef who inspired the E2 Basics Pancakes recipe is not mentioned in this passage.
Q: What is the suggested way to cook the lasagna noodles in the Raise-the-Roof Sweet Potato-Lasagna?,
A: The suggested way to cook the lasagna noodles is not provided in this passage, as it is not mentioned.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>Mirin, a sweetened Japanese sake, adds wonderful flavor. Serves 4
¼ cup mirin
2 teaspoons tamari
1 tablespoon brown rice vinegar
2 tablespoons cornstarch16 ounces mushrooms, sliced
2 carrots, sliced
2 tablespoons fresh ginger, minced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 large bunch bok choy, chopped into 2- to 3-inch pieces, or 6 baby bok
choy
1½ cups vegetable broth
16 ounces cooked soba noodles
2 tablespoons black sesame seeds
Combine the mirin, tamari, brown rice vinegar, and cornstarch in a small
bowl. Stir well and set aside. Stir -fry the mushrooms on medium heat in a
nonstick skillet or wok for 3–4 minutes. Add the carrots, ginger, garlic, and
bok choy, and stir -fry for 1 minute. Add the vegetable broth and the mirin-
and-cornstarch mixture, and continue cooking until the bok choy softens
and the mixture thickens. Serve over soba noodles and garnish with sesame
seeds. Variation:
For Fir e Cadets during W eek One. Add cooked fish or chicken with the
vegetable broth and mirin. Shepherd’ s Pie
When I was a kid in Cleveland, a wonderful Yugoslavian neighbor named
Mina used to make our family a shepherd’ s pie several times a year. That
pie would hit the top of our lazy Susan dinner table and we six Esselstyns
would devour it before the table stopped spinning. This is almost as good as the original. Savory crumbles, green
vegetables, and mashed potatoes make it a hearty, satisfying meal. Serves 4 to 6
3 Yukon Gold potatoes, cut into quarters
½ cup unsweetened soy milk
2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, chopped
Cracked pepper to taste
16 ounces fresh or frozen green beans
2 onions, diced
8 ounces mushrooms, sliced2 cloves garlic, minced
16 ounces vegetarian meat crumbles
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon Bragg Liquid Aminos
6-ounce can tomato paste
1 tablespoon vegetarian Worcestershire sauce
Preheat oven to 400º. Steam the potatoes for 15 minutes, until soft. Drain
and mash them in a bowl with the soy milk, a tablespoon of the rosemary,
and the cracked pepper. Set aside. Steam the green beans for 7 minutes, or
until bright green and still firm. Sauté the onions on medium heat in a lar ge
skillet for 5 minutes, until translucent. Add the mushrooms, garlic, and
remaining tablespoon rosemary to the onions. Cook for 5 minutes, until the
mushrooms begin to release their juices. Add the meat crumbles, black
pepper, and Bragg’ s. Stir in the tomato paste and Worcestershire sauce,
adding a small amount of water as necessary to combine ingredients. Place the vegetable meat crumble mixture in a 10-inch cast-iron skillet
or casserole dish. Spread the green beans atop the mixture. Spread the
mashed potatoes over the top. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 30
minutes. Remove the foil and bake another 5 minutes, or until the potatoes
begin to brown lightly. Variation:
Use frozen peas in place of green beans. Macar oni and Not Cheese
One of my favorite meals growing up was a plate of frozen Stouf fer’s
macaroni and cheese, which I’d make myself whenever my parents went
out to dinner. After cooking it in the oven for 30 minutes, I’d excitedly pull
a stool up to our horseshoe-shaped kitchen island and dig in while watching
my favorite television program, The W ild W ild W est. Pure decadence. I recommend making this for guests and keeping the television of f.
Serves 2 to 3
1 onion, chopped
1 cup cashews
1/3 cup lemon juice
11/3 cups water½ teaspoon sea salt
4-ounce jar roasted red peppers, drained
3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
16 ounces whole grain elbow pasta, cooked
Preheat oven to 425º. Sauté the onion on medium heat in a nonstick
skillet for 5 minutes, until translucent. In a food processor, combine the
onion, cashews, lemon juice, water, and salt. Gradually blend in the roasted
red peppers, nutritional yeast, garlic powder, and onion powder. Thoroughly
toss the sauce with the pasta. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes until golden
brown on top. E2 Stir-Fries
Stir-fries


 will take care of themselves,” she said. But after ninete en years Nina didn’ t feel taken care of. Her love had
supported other people but not herself. She decided to find self-
improvement on her own. Therapy, meditation retreats, and women’ s
groups quickly followed. When  her husband resisted these changes, Nina
felt fearful but determined. The door to self-exploration was open, and shewanted her relationships to mirror the new person she was trying to
become. She explained, “If my first husba nd insisted on keeping me in a box that I
didn’ t want to be in, then he wasn’ t the person who loved me the most. It
had taken me a long time, but that was what I wanted out of marriage, to be
with a person who could accept me and allow me to grow. That’ s my idea
of someone who loves me the most.” Nina felt she had found such a mate in
Gregory; after a whirlwind romance that began through having the same
therapist in Los Angeles, Nina rushed into marriage a few months after her
divorce. Ten months later I saw her at a reception and asked, “How’ s Gregory?”
Nina’ s eyes grew vague. “Oh, we’re having problems. We both thought it
might be good to have some time apart. I don’t know—things happened.”
Her voice drifted off; she looked  exhausted. I hardly recognized the woman
who had placed such high hopes on her marriage. Nina later confided that although Gregory wasn’ t dominant or demanding
like her first husband, she found herself getting angry at him and distrusting
his motives in marrying her; they were both spiritual, but the soul love she
had expected wasn’ t there. One thing Nina said was extremely telling: “Do
you want to know something? Every morning when I wake up, I repeat the
same question to myself: ‘Who will rescue me?’”
“Who do you think will?” I asked. She shrugged. “Maybe nobody, I don’ t know.”
I knew Nina well enough to be sure that she doesn’ t see herself as merely
a victim or a damsel in distress. There was a deeper reason why this
question was coming up. Nina was expressing the fundamental, haunting
fear of aloneness. “Who will rescue me?” means, “Am I going to survive on
my own?” This fear bespeaks our tremendous need for security, a need so
dominant that it often blocks the insight, courage, and freedom we really
need but don’ t know how to find. When we had time alone I laid this out for Nina, telling her that I thought
the speed of her courtship and subsequent decision to marry Gregory said a
lot about her insecurity after her divorce. “When we set out on a spiritual path, we set out on a solitary journey, yet
pulling against this is all the old conditioning that tells us, particularly
women, that it isn’t safe to go it alone, that we can’t make it without outsidesupport. In other words, commitment to yourself collides with your belief in
commitment to a mate. Society  is changing, and independence for both
sexes is more accepted than before, yet that doesn’ t change the feeling of
aloneness that hits you when you break away from old conventions, old
models, old social standards.”
“Then I have to choose either marriage or being by myself?” Nina asked. “No,” I answere d, “that’ s just fear talking. Your love for Grego ry can be
the starting point for finding yourself; the two aren’ t incompatible.”
Spirituality begins with a vision, but reality doesn’ t fit that vision. The
path is what brings them toget her. Most people who want to experience
inner growth begin, as Nina did, by reading in the vast inspirational
literature. They become discont ented with the distance between their own
lives and the enlightened existen ce they discover in their readin g; they start
to make  a break. Inevitably there turn out to be people—like Nina’ s first
husband or parents or old friends—who don’t fit the spiritual  vision. Yet
after the break nothing seems to really change. The haunting insecurity and
loneliness, the sense of confusion and conflict, are still there. But instead of feeling let down by this “failure,” you need to realize that
all spirit ual work is done by yourself, with yourself, and for yourself. No
one “out there” can take responsibility. It is all right to be aware of a
distance between vision and reality, because that is what it feels like to be
on the path. If you had no gaps to close, you wouldn’ t need a path. We all step onto the path to love out of need, but at a certain point need
can be destruct ive, because it is born of lack and fear. Need must be
balanced with two other ingredients—willingness to be transformed and
support in that transformation. It isn’t easy to have all these requirements met, and it’s nearly impossible
if you don’t know of their exist ence. A highly motivated woman like Nina
would find it particularly difficult to expose her vulnerability, to express
need directly. Her willingness to change seemed genuine, since that was the
motivation behind her divorce,  but was this willingness really deep? In
choosing Gregor y, who had much experience of spiritual matters, she found
the opposite of her first husband, but perhaps Gregory saw too clearly into
her insecurities. Finally, support  depends upon being able to receive it when
it is offered, and it wasn’ t clear that Nina was entirely open to sharingherself with a man whom she had known for only a few months before they
began to live together. Need, willingness, and support. All of these are necessary if one is to step
onto the path to love. They serve as signals to spirit that you are ready to
depart from traditional ways of living, for the old modes can’t be converted
to new ones. I told Nina that there was a deeper meaning to her question “Who will
rescue me?” She was expressi ng an intuition that she was going to be
rescued. But not by a man—it was her own spirit that was summoning her
onto the path. I asked Nina to practice meditat ing on her heart, and this is what she said
she felt: gasps and moments of ragged breathing, occasional sobs followed
by deep, relaxe d sighs, twinges of chest pain, tightness in her neck and
abdomen, restless urges to stop meditating and jump out of her chair. When
asked what was happening mentally, she reported flashes of old memories,
bursts of sadness, fantasies, obsessive repetition of daily worries, and some
fleeting moments of silence. This is very typical of a perso n newly opening up to spirit— a lot of
purification was going on as the mind body system began to release its old
energies. Nina’ s transformation, like everything placed in the hands of
spirit, promised to be tremendously beautiful. For the time being, however,
she was too caught up in her confusions to see this. At one point in our conversation, Nina was startled by a comment I
made. “If you don’ t mind me saying so, I like you this way,” I said. “What? In a mess?” she rejoined. “First of all, I don’t think you’re in a mess. You’re in ferment, and there’ s
a big dif ference. Y our confusion has made you open.”
“You mean it’ s turned my life upside down,” she corrected. “And what’ s wrong with that? We can all be wounded, every one of us. The people who try to deny this have to live inside a shell of denial. That’ s
not what you want.”
She suddenly looked tired. “I just want to be happy.”
“That’ s what everyone wants, but you’re aiming much higher,” I said. “You want to be real. And you’re willing to face what it takes to get there. That’ s how your spirit is expressing itself right now.”Her mood broke, and she gave me a wan smile. “Having a warm body
next to me would help.”
There’ s nothing  obviously “spiritual” about Nina’ s situation, but in fact
the path to love beckons most strongly when old behaviors, beliefs, and
approaches no longer work. Ferment, restlessness, and discontent always
mark the beginning of the path. Before we parted Nina and I embraced. “You don’t feel loved right now,”
I said, “and you doubt whether you are lovable. You feel instead that you
have failed or been let down. Allow these feelings to be what they are;
don’t try to run away from them. But know that the real issue lies
somewhere else—you are trapped in a definition of love that is far too
limited. Expand your definitio n, allow your conception of love to go
beyond your emotional needs, and your whole perspective will change. You
won’ t see failure and defeat. Far from it—you’ll see perfection. At every
moment, from the second you were conceived in the womb, your life has
been about love. Your existence is an expression of love, the only real
expression it can have. Everything else is an illusion.”
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THE SPIRIT OF ROMANCE
IN OUR CUL TURE