 sphere, by assuming that you are already that ideal, you identify yourself with it and thereby
transform yourself into its image, [ thinking from the ideal instead of thinking of the ideal. Every state is already there as "mere possibilities" as long as we think of them, but as overpoweringly real
when we think  from them]. This was called by the ancient teachers "Subjection to the will of God" or
"Resting in the Lord," and the only true test of "Resting in the Lord" is that all who do rest are inevitably
transformed into the image of that in which they rest [thinking from the wish fulfilled]. You become
according to your resigned will, and your resigned will is your concept of yourself and all that you consent
to and accept as true. You, assuming the feeling of your wish fulfilled and continuing therein, take upon
yourself the results of that state; not assuming the feeling of your wish fulfilled, you are ever free of the
results. The Truth That Sets You Free
When you understand the redemptive function of imagination, you hold in your hands the key to the
solution of all your problems. Every phase of your life is made by the exercise of your imagination. Determined imagination alone is the means of your progress, of the fulfilling of your dreams. It is the
beginning and end of all creating. The great secret is a controlled imagination and a well sustained attention
firmly and repeatedly focused on the feeling of the wish fulfilled until it fills the mind and crowds all other
ideas out of consciousness. What greater gifts could be given you than to be told the Truth that will set you
free? The Truth that sets you free is that you can experience in imagination what you desire to experience
in reality, and by maintaining this experience in imagination, your desire will become an actuality. You are limited only by your uncontrolled imagination and lack of attention to the feeling of your wish
fulfilled. When the imagination is not controlled and the attention not steadied on the fee   ling of the wish
fulfilled, then no amount of prayer or piety or invocation will produce the desired effect. When you can call
up at will whatsoever image you please, when the forms of your imagination are as vivid to you as the
forms of nature, you are master of your fate. [You must stop spending your thoughts, your time and your
money. Everything in life must be an investment. ] Neville - THE  POWER  OF  AWARENESS.doc                                                          Page 13 of 51Visions of beauty and splendour, Forms of a long-lost race, Sounds and faces and voices. From the fourth
dimension of space And on through the universe boundless, Our thoughts go lightning shod. Some call it
imagination, And others call it God. Neville follows this with the date April 12, [19]53. In Awakened Imagination (1954) he would write, "On
the morning of April 12, 1953, my wife was awakened by the sound of a great voice of authority speaking
within her and saying, 'You must stop spending your thoughts, time, and money. Everything in life must be
an investment.' To spend is to waste, to squander, to lay out without return. To invest is to lay out for a
purpose from which a profit is expected. This revelation of my wife is about the importance of the moment. It is about the transformation of the moment.... It is only what is done now that counts.... Whenever we
assume the feeling of being what we want to be, we are investing." (ch. b) Ed. Neville - THE  POWER  OF  AWARENESS.doc                                                          Page 14 of 51Chapter Six
                       ATTENTION
A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. James 1:8
Attention is forceful in proportion to the narrowness of its focus, that is, when it is obsessed with a single
idea or sensation. It is steadied and powerfully focused only by such an adjustment of the mind as permits
you to see one thing only, for you steady the attention and increase its power by confining it. The desire
which realizes itself is always a desire upon which attention is exclusively concentrated, for an idea is
endowed with power only in proportion, to the degree of attention fixed on it. Concentrated observation is
the attentive attitude directed [from]* some specific end. The attentive attitude involves selection, for when
you pay attention, it signifies that you have decided to focus your attention on one object or state rather
than on another. *Neville substitutes from for towards, the reading in the original. -Ed. Therefore, when you know what you want, you must deliberately focus your attention on the feeling of
your wish fulfilled until that feeling fills the mind and crowds all other ideas out of consciousness. The power of attention is the measure of your inner force. Concentrated observation of one thing shuts out
other things and causes them to disappear. The great secret of success is to focus the attention on the
feeling of the wish fulfilled without permitting any distraction. All progress depends upon an increase of
attention. The ideas which impel you to action are those which dominate the consciousness, those which
possess the attention. [The idea which excludes all others from the field of attention discharges in action.] This one thing I do, forgetting those things that are behind, I press toward the mark. This means you, this one thing you can do, "forgetting those things that are behind." You can press
Attention toward the mark of filling your mind with the feeling of the wish fulfilled. To the unenlightened man this will seem to be all fantasy, yet all progress comes from those who do not
take the accepted view, nor accept the world as it is. As was stated heretofore, if you can imagine what you
please, and if the forms of your thought are as vivid as the forms of nature, you are by virtue of the power
of your imagination master of your fate. Your imagination is you yourself, and the world as your imagination sees it is the real world. When you set out to master the movements of attention, which must be done if you would successfully
alter  the  course  of  observed  events,  it  is then  you  realize  how  little  control  you  exercise  over  your
imagination and how much it is dominated by sensory impressions and by a drifting on the tides of idle
moods. To aid in mastering the control of your attention, practice this exercise: Night after night, just before you
drift off to sleep, strive to hold your attention on the activities of the day in reverse order. Focus your
attention on the last thing you did, that is, getting in to bed, and then move it backward in time over the
events until you reach the first event of the day, getting out of bed. This is no easy exercise, but just as
specific exercises greatly help in developing specific muscles, this will greatly help in developing the
"muscle" of your attention. Your attention must be developed, controlled, and concentrated in order to
change your concept of yourself successfully and thereby change your future. Imagination is able to do
Neville - THE  POWER  OF  AWARENESS.doc                                                          Page 15 of 51anything, but only according to the internal direction of your attention. If you persist night after night,
sooner or later you will awaken in yourself a centre of power and become conscious of your greater self,
the real you. Attention is developed by repeated exercise or habit. Through habit an action becomes easier,
and so in course of time gives rise to a facility or faculty, which can then be put to higher uses. When you
attain control of the internal direction of your attention, you will no longer stand in shallow water but will
launch out into the deep of life. You will walk in the assumption of the wish fulfilled as on a foundation
more solid even than earth. Neville - THE  POWER  OF  AWARENESS.doc                                                          Page 16 of 51Chapter Seven
                           ATTITUDE
EXPERIMENTS RECENTLY Conducted by Merle Lawrence (Princeton) and Adelbert Ames
(Dartmouth) in the latter's psychology laboratory at Hanover, N.H., prove that what you see when you look
at something depends not so much on what is there as on the assumption you make when you look. Since
what we believe to be the "real" physical world is actually only an "assumptive" world, it is not surprising
that these experiments prove that what appears to be solid reality is actually the result of "expectations" or
"assumptions." Your assumptions determine not only what you see but also what you do, for they govern
all your conscious and subconscious movements towards the fulfilment of themselves. Over a century ago
this truth was stated by Emerson as follows:
As the world was plastic and fluid in the hands of God, so it is ever to so much of his attributes as we bring
to it. To ignorance and sin, it is flint. They adapt themselves to it as they may, but in proportion as a man
has anything in him divine, the firmament flows before him and takes his signet and form. Your assumption is the hand of God moulding the firmament into the image of that which you assume. The
assumption of the wish fulfilled is the high tide which lifts you easily off the bar of the senses where you
have so long lain stranded. It lifts the mind into prophecy in the full right sense of the word; and if you
have that controlled imagination and absorbed attention which it is possible to attain, you may be


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 believe this? It is such a difficult thing to accept. I mean,
all of us want to be special...
...all of you are special...
...and the ego gets in there —at least with
me it does, and tries to make us feel somehow  “chosen” for an amazing
assignment. I have to fight that ego all the
time, seek to purify and  re-purify my every
thought, word, and deed so as to keep
personal aggrandizement out of it. So it’s
very difficult to hear what you’re saying,
because I’m aware that it plays to my ego,
and I’ve spent all my life fighting my ego. I know you have. And sometimes not too successfully. I am chagrined to have to agree. Yet always when it has come to God, you
have let the ego drop. Many is the night  you
have begged and pleaded for clarity,
beseech ed the heavens for insight, not so
that you could enrich yourself, or heap
honor upon yourself, but out of the deep
purity of a simple yearning to know. Yes. And you have promised Me, over and over
again, that should you be caused to  know,
you would spend the rest of your life —
every waking moment —sharing  Eternal
Truth with others...not out of a need to gain
glory, but out of your heart’s  deepest desire
to end the pain and suffering of others; to
bring joy and gladness,  and help and
healing; to reconnect others with the sense
of partnership with God  you have always
experienced. Yes. Yes. And so I have chosen you to be My
messenger. You, and many others. For
now, during these times immediately
ahead, the world will need many trumpets
to sound  the clarion call. The world will need many voices to speak the words of
truth and  healing for which millions long. The world will need many hearts joined
together in  the work of the soul, and
prepared to do the work of God. Can you honestly claim that you are not
aware of this? No. Can you honestly deny that this is why you
came? No. Are you ready then, with this book, to
decide and to declare your own Eternal
Truth,  and to announce and articulate the
glory of Mine? Must I include these last few exchanges in
the book? You don’t have to do anything. Remember,
in our relationship you have no  obligation. Only opportunity. Is this not the opportunity
for which you have waited all  your life? Have you not devoted your Self to this
mission —and the proper  preparation for
it—from the earliest moments of youth? Yes. Then do not what you are obliged to do, but
what you have an opportunity to do. As to placing all this in our book, why would
you not? Think you that I want you to be  a
messenger in secret? No, I  suppose not. It takes great courage to announce oneself
as a man of God. You understand, the
world will much more readily accept you as
virtually anything else —but a man of  God? An actual messenger? Every one of My
messengers has been defiled. Far  from
gaining glory, they have gained nothing but
heartache. Are you willing? Does your heart ache to
tell the truth about Me? Are you willing to
endure the ridicule of your fellow human
beings? Are you prepared to give up glory
on Earth for the greater glory of t he soul
fully realized? You’re making this all sound suddenly
pretty heavy, God. You want I should kid you about it? Well, we could just lighten up a little here. Hey, I’m all for enlightenment! Why don’t
we end this chapter with a joke? Good idea. You got  one? No, but you do. Tell the one about the little
girl drawing a picture...
Oh, yes, that one. Okay. Well, a Mommy
came into the kitchen one day to find her
little girl at  the table, crayons everywhere,
deeply concentrating on a freehand picture
she was creating. “My, what are you so
busy drawing?” the Mommy asked. “It’s a
picture of God, Mommy,” the  beautiful girl
replied, eyes shining. “Oh honey, that’s so
sweet,” the Mommy said, trying to be
helpful. “But you know, no one really knows
what God look s like.”
“Well,” chirped the little girl, “if you’ll just let
me finish....”
That’s a beautiful little joke. Do you know
what’s most beautiful? The little girl never  doubted that she knew exactly how to draw
Me! Yes. Now I’ll tell you a story, and with tha t we can
end this chapter. Alright. There once was a man who suddenly found
himself spending hours each week  writing
a book. Day after day he would race to pad
and pen —sometimes in the  middle of the
night —to capture each new inspiration. Finally, someone a sked him  what he was
up to. “Oh,” he replied, “I’m writing down a very
long conversation I’m having with God.”  “That’s very sweet,” his friend indulged him,
“but you know, no one really knows for  sure
what God would say.”
“Well,” the man grinned, “if you’l l just let me
finish.”
  Chapter 9
You may think this is easy, this “be Who
You Really Are” business, but it’s the most
challenging thing you’ll ever do in your life. In fact, you may never get there. Few
people do. Not in one lifetime. Not in many. So why try? Why enter the fray? Who
needs it? Why not simply play life as if it
were what it apparently is anyway —a
simple exercise in meaninglessness
leading to nowhere in particular, a game
you can’t lose no matter how you play; a
process that leads to the same result,
ultimately, for everyone? You say there is
no hell, there is no punishment, there is no
way to lose, so why bother trying to win? What is the incentive, given how difficult it
is to get where You say we’re trying to go? Why not take our good -natured time and just relax about all this God -stuff, and
“being Who You Really Are.”
My, we are frustrated aren’t we...
Well, I get tired of trying, trying, trying, only
to have You come here and tell me how
hard it’s all going to be, and how only one
in a million makes it anyway. Yes, I see that you do. Let Me see if I can
help. First, I would like to point out that  you
already have taken your “good -natured
time” about it. Do you think this is your  first
attempt at this? I have no idea. It doesn’t seem as  if you’ve been here
before? Sometimes. Well, you have. Many times. How many times? Many times. That’s supposed to encourage me? It’s supposed to inspire you. How so? First, it takes the worry out of it. It brings in
the “can’t fail” element you just talke d
about. It assures you that the intention is for
you not to fail. That you’ll get as many
chances as you want and need. You can
come back again and again and again. If
you do get to the next step, if you evolve to
the next level, it’s because you want to,  not
because you have to. You don’t have to do anything! If you enjoy
life at this level, if you feel this is the
ultimate for you, you can have this experience over and over and over again! In fact,  you have had it over and over
again —for exactly that rea son! You love
the drama. You love the pain. You love the
“not knowing,” the mystery, the suspense! You love  it all! That’s why you’re here! Are You kidding me? Would I kid you about a thing like that? I don’t know. I don’t know what God kids
about. Not abo ut this. This is too close to the
Truth; too close to Ultimate Knowing. I
never  kid about “how it is.” Too many
people have played with your mind about
that I’m not  here to get you more mixed up. I’m here to help you get things clarified. So clarify. You’r e telling me I’m here
because I want to be? Of course. Yes. I chose to be? Yes. And I’ve made that choice many times? Many. How many? Here we go again. You want an exact
count? Just give me a ballpark estimate. I mean
are we talking about handfuls here, or
dozens? Hundreds. Hundreds? I’ve lived hundreds of lives? Yes. And this is as far as I’ve gotten? This is quite some distance, actually. Oh, it is, is it? Absolutely. Why, in past lives you’ve
actually killed people. What’s wrong with that? You said yourself
that sometimes war is necessary to end
evil. We’re going to have to elaborate on that,
because I can see that statement


 your life changes. Y ou will know with certainty
that thos e suppr essed feelings have been af fecting the health of  your body when
you release them. And when yo u see all the circumstances of your life begin to
change f or the better, as they most definitely will, you will know through your
own experience that those feelings were holding your life back too. I once did this p ractice on a hurtful childhood experience that had stayed with me
all my life, and I can now no longer remember what the exper ience was; I only
remember releasing it. When I released the hurtful feeling that the memory
evoked, it took all of the thoughts of the memory with it, so much so that the
memory itself vanished! Hurtful memori es are heavy bu rdens for us to carry; they get in the way of us
having t he life we deserve, and they’re not who we are. Y ou ca n free yourself ofpainful memories. “Notice the feeling  beh ind every th ought and it will dissolve. It’ s a self-cleaning
mechanism. Us e the shortcut of dissolving feelings to dissolve hundreds of
negative thoughts by welcoming the feeling.”
My teacher
It’ s inspiring to know that releasing just one negative feeli ng will take out
hundreds if not thousands of negative thoughts with it. As you dissolve your
negative feelings, you take out thoughts of doubt, unworthiness, needing
approval from others, insecurity, lacking confidence, and every other kind of
negative though t that holds y ou back from a life filled with wonder and
continuous happiness. W ith every negative feeling that is released, your life will
soar. The Super Practice
I want to share with you an in valuable practice that my teacher gave me that
changed my life, and that I continue to use every single day. This is a simple but
powerful combi nation of the tw o most important and vital prac tices in this book
—welcoming an d staying as A w areness. My teacher says that w hile you stay as
A wareness, the body is an autom atic self-cleaning mechanism. What that means
is th at while you stay or rest as A wareness, the trapped ener gy from every
negative emotion is unwinding automatically and being released from your body
by itself! Y ou can sometimes fe el the ener gy unwinding around the area of your
chest. Step 1. W elcome Anything Negative
Open your heart and welcome any negative reactions, negative feelings, negative
sensations, negative thoughts or problems, in the moment they appear. Step 2. Stay as A war eness
Stay as A wareness by keeping your attention wide like the lens on a camera, so
it’ s not focused on any detail. Because A wareness is naturally welcoming, you will find after doing the Super
Practice for a w hile that the t wo steps mer ge into one. In the moment you
welcome, you’ll find that A wareness is instantaneously present. Since do ing this practice, I’ve noticed that negative emotions an d reactions have
become much weaker and eva porate quickly. I even reached a point where I
loved a negative emotion or reaction to come up, because it not only reminded
me to welcome it and stay as A wareness, but it felt so good  when it dissolved. I us e the same practice when a negative situation, circumstance, or problem
appears. I open my attention, open my heart, and welcome the negative feeling
about th e situati on, and then I stay as A wareness the best I can. (A way to stay as
A wareness that I have found to be invaluable is to love A wareness. Simply byloving A wareness you are giving your full attention to it.) I find that the negative
situation change s very soon af ter I do this practice. It actually must change,
because our resistance is what holds a negative situation to us! “In the state of that awareness, all suf fering ceases.”
Jan Frazier, fr om  When Fear Falls A way
A few years ago, I went through an event that would be considered by most
people intensely scary and stressful. However, due to welcoming and staying as
A wareness, the event didn’ t af fe ct me the way it would have be fore I knew these
practices. W ildfires were threatening to d estroy the community I live in. I was evacuated
from my house, yet felt a peaceful state of calm about the safety of my home. I
felt calm because I was fine with whatever happened. I had evacuated, and if I
had lost my house, I absolutel y knew it would be for the b est, and that life
needed to take m e in a dif feren t direction. The fire was out of control for many
weeks, d estroying everything in  its path. Eventually it loomed closer to my home
and was burning houses in the road where I live. But I felt no fear, and no
attachment to any outcome. I knew that I would remain happy no matter what
happened. W ith no resistance to any outcome, my house remained safe. I had
welcomed the situation, and I have no doubt that the peace and calm I felt
through those fires was due to the welcoming I had practiced in the past. “I’ve rea lized ho w much misery comes of resisting the present facts, or of living
in the past or th e future. I don’ t  think I realized how much pain I was in before. It’ s like I was hitting myself on the shin with a hammer for fifty years, and then
the hammer fell out of my hand.”
Jan Frazier, fr om  Opening the Door
T o be free of negative emotions is worth every second that you put into it. I have
been fee ling goo d most of the time since I discovered The Se cret in 2004, but
these da ys I exist mostly in a state of gentle happiness due to the knowledge and
practices I’m sharing with you in this book. Can you  imagin e living a single  day without any negative emot ion af fecting you
whatsoever, let alone living a month that way, or a year? If you didn’ t have
negative emotions, you wouldn ’ t have negative thoughts to contradict what you
want, an d you would become a magnet for anything and everything you want! When yo u exper ience this for yourself, then you’ll know that this is the true joy
of living.C H A P T E R  7  S u m m a r y
Happiness is your natural state of being, so if you don’ t feel
happiness right now, then you ha ve a negative feeling that is
stopping that happiness fr om being pr esent. Be awar e of a negative feeling without r esisting it,
expr essing it, or judging it in any way, and see that it’ s just a
feeling. The ener gy behind a negative feeling will naturally r elease
when yo u allow the feeling to be pr esent. It’ s an automatic
pr ocess. W elcoming is a practice that eradicates negative feelings. W elcoming is the opposite of r esisting. W elcoming says to a
negative feeling, “Y es, you ar e welcome her e.”
In th e beginning it can be help ful if, when you open your
attention, you also open your arms out to the sides of your
body. Y ou can consciously open your heart too. Use the welcoming pr ocess for a nything that makes you feel
bad, any negative thoughts or stories, negative feelings,
painful sensations or memories, and limiting beliefs. When you have allowed a bad fe eling to be pr esent and you
haven’ t suppr essed it, that feeling will never be as str ong in
you again. Every negative feeling is ther e to dir ect you back home to
who you ar e. They alert you to t he fact that you’r e believing
stories that ar e not true, so you can welc ome those feelings
and live  your life as the magnificent A war eness that you
truly ar e.
A negative emotion only arises when you’r e r eady to be fr ee
of it.When you r elease your negative feelings ar ound a subject
you feel str ongly about, you ar e r eleasing all the ener gy you
have focused on it and ar e  disempowering the
cir cumstances surr ounding the subject. When we welcome a suppr essed feeling evoked fr om a
memory, all the hundr eds and thousands of thoughts
attached to that memory will be r eleased with the feeling. The ligh tness, the happiness, and the “high” you feel as you
r elease the feelings attached to painful memories cannot be
described. The Super Practice
Step 1. W elcome anything negative. Step 2. Stay as A war eness (loving A war eness is one way to
stay as A war eness).C h a p t e r  8
No Mor e Suffering
“Here’ s the bottom line: suf fering is optional.”
Byr on Katie, fr om  A Mind at Home with Itself
Y ou are not meant to suf fer. And when you’re living as you r true self,
A wareness, you will never suf fer. It can be hard to imagine


absolutely astounding to you. — D R.  W A YNE  W. D YER
Fear has taken hold. The world is in crisis. It’ s late  March 2020, and a global pandemic called coron avirus is
spreading. As I  type these words, my wife, Denise, and I are on orders no t to leave
our hom e. Y et we are not alone: Half  of all Americans have now been
issued some kind of stay-at-hom e order. More will come. Globa lly, billions
of people are facing and will continue to face government restrictions. By the time you  read this, perha ps you know how all this turns out. But it
is all new to us. Quarantines, social distancing, mass gathering cancellations, and
economic shutdowns  are words we are all just getting used to saying. First, th ere were the warnings. A mysterious virus emer ged in China. Then th e inevita ble confusion, avoidance, and denial. Then the contagion
spread quickly beyond borders. Then mass panic. Then, in just weeks, no
choice: travel restricted, schools closed, workers sent home, countries
locked down all over the globe. More ne ws com es every day th at shakes the foundation of our comforts
and certainties. Hoarding of basic supplies, overwhelmed hospitals,
increasing regulations, the vitrio l of blame, the worldwide economy on the
brink, and, every day in the  headlines, rising infections and death,
everywhere.For much of th e globe, there is this constant, grueling terror of the
unknown. The kind that leads us  to repeatedly ask why  and how  and who  to
blame and what  now—i mpossible questions that lead to sleepless nights,
endless speculation with friends, shifting social blame, political conspiracy,
and the heart-wrenching realit y of watching the death rate climb with
exponential precision. The econ omy in the United States has collapsed into recession, leading to
a $ 2 trillion stim ulus package, which many acknowledge will m ake barely a
dent. Th ree million filed for u nemployment last week. T ens of millions
more are expected. Businesses, good ones, are shuttering everywhere. Countries contin ue to lock down. More restrictions are coming. There is no
vaccine in sight. And yet, mercifully, I type these words feeling deeply at peace. The
emotional contagions of fear and scarcity have not pierced my mind, body,
or spirit. Somehow, I feel calm. Centered. Responsible for my emotions. Self-
reliant in  the face of infinite dan ger and spreading death. Removed from the
need of grasping in hopes of controlling it all. The shelves at my grocery store, before it closed, were empty of basic
needs—and yet I feel abundance. Like most of the world, I am likely to get infected at some point—and yet
I feel safe, whole, complete. I am locked in my house, but I am authentically and spiritually free. Thousands of people message me every day. They are scared, seeking
guidance and hope, and often de monstrating anger, terror, anxiety. And yet,
I’ve not been pulled into the abyss. I feel a confidence that is hard to
explain—ready to serve. Optimism and faith blanket me. I observe my worried thought s and the
instant reactions, sensing an egocentric concern for self, and yet most of my
day is asking, “How can I serve others now?”
I am finding appreciation and even moments of bliss in these seemingly
dark days and nights. For this perspective and ability, I have W a yne Dyer to
thank. Oh, beli eve me, I’m not perfect and I’m not always brave. But I  am here,
fully here, centered and positive, thanks to W ayne’ s wisdom and influence
throughout my life.W ayne w as, and  still is, a vital part of my own awakening. E specially
now. THE DIST ANT MENT OR
It’ s been 24 year s since I read my first W ayne Dyer book. Thoug h W ayne
passed a way five years ago, this book that you are holding is W ayne’ s 43rd. I can’ t think of a more important time for his message. What’ s t he prom ise of this book  amid these chaotic times? In my view,
it’ s what W ayne often taught:
Ther e is a higher place that each of us can r each while we ar e
her e.
And when you awaken  to  that p otential, which is what this book is about,
“you live according to your high er self, which promotes peace, fulfillment,
integrity, and joy.”
Note that W ayne didn’ t referenc e circumstance. Y ou don’ t need a lucky
break—you simply choose to live acco r ding to your higher se lf, and  it just
happens. A w akening isn’ t contingent up on convenience or ease. It can just
happen, even now. Somehow, I find comfort in that. My entire adult life, I’ve fou nd solace
and freedom in W ayne’ s message. When I was 19 years old, I was suicidal. A breakup with my high school
sweetheart sent me over the edge. She had cheated, and since my entire
identity was wrapped up in our relationship, once the relationsh ip ended so
did my conception of self and purpose. Sometimes, when your relationship
falls apart, you fall apart. That’ s  what happened—I became unraveled, lost
and depr essed. I  planned on taking my life, and I planned how and when to
do it. But then, as it happens, life had other plans. One night, I was  in a car
accident where the car rolled several times of f a highway. I found myself
pulling my body through the windshield to escape and stand ing on the
crumpled hood of the car. Blood was running down my legs. Fear sur ged
through my entire body.And then, I felt faint. I thought I was going to die. I loo ked down a t all the blood spilling of f my feet and onto the hood of
the c ar. I thought this was it: Did I even matter? I fe lt my gaze pull to the
sky and there was this great big beautiful moon. And in that instant  I looked
up, I felt freed  of pain, sudde nly safe. I spontaneously awoke to life’ s
preciousness and magic. God had given me a second chance. That sad and heartbroken and suicidal kid didn’ t want to die anymore. I
wanted to live. I wanted to love again. I wanted to matter. That night began my commitment to learning how to change and improve
my life. Fast-forward a few weeks, and after recovering, I started browsing
bookstores for my existential questions. I found the self-improvement
section and was drawn to an audiobook by W ayne Dyer. In a serendipito us turn of event s that I know W ayne would have loved,
the first thing I consumed was his audio program The A wakened Life. (When Hay House asked me to write the foreword to this book, I
gleefully agreed without even knowing its title. I remember opening the
manuscript and seeing The Pow er of A wakening  and thought, Full cir cle,
my friend. W ell done. Thank you. ) W ayne’ s audio program How to Be a No-Limit Person  and his book Real
Magic  were next, and essential to opening my mind in my 20s. Y ears la ter, afte r the 9/11 terror ist attacks, I found comfort and  hope in
Ther e’ s a Spiritual Solution to Every Pr oblem. What was I learning from W ayne? That atti tude matters. Intention matters. Love matters. Faith matters. Ego,
control, materialism, and power  over others do not. Serve others and you
are serving a purpose. T ap into a higher consciousness and you access your
highest self. Y ou can be at peac e and feel joy even amid what seems like
chaos. Find stillness within. Lo ok for miracles. Surrender can be strength. Act in accor dance with love, with the Divine. By 2003, these lessons were paying of f. I was happy and in love. I felt
good mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. I had manifested a good job as a
leadership consultant. It was satisfying, challenging, and se rvice-driven
work. But I felt called for something else. I wanted to be a writer. I had visions of myself public speaking and talking about my books, like
a young but less skilled, and definitively less wise, W ayne Dyer. It’ s not thatI f elt I could be like W ayne—it’ s that he was an example of what I viewed
as a car eer choice. I didn’ t want to follow or mimic him; I wanted a career
like his, helping people. I felt called to that. W ayne t aught th at most of us don’ t allow ourselves the freedom  to listen
to th ose internal callings. I decided to listen to my dreams because, no
doubt, somewhere in the recesses of my mind, W ayne had influenced me


fasting person believes they’re already dying
from not eating and succumb to panic, starting
to eat again. When toxins leave the body, which always hap-
pens during fasting, you may experience un-
pleasant sensations, weakness and pain in some
parts of the body. That’s why a person who’s ig-
norant about fasting may f eel that their body is
being irreparably destroyed during fasting. Copyright © Vera Giovanna Bani 2019 www.dryfasting.infoThis Ebook was purchased by Gilberto Franchi email: gilbertofranchi@hotmail.frColoproctologists say jokingly: the organism is
essentially an upgraded intestinal canal. And, to
be fair, they aren’t really exaggerating the im-
portance of this organ. After all, it is in the intes-
tinal canal that all the vital digestive processes
take place. The majority of the substances necessary for
the body is absorbed through the intestinal walls. It turns out that a person’s health directly de-
pends on the state of their bowels. But a n irreg-
ular, unbalanced diet leads to waste accumulat-
ing on the intestinal walls. These dense deposits
impede the absorption of nutrients, produce
toxins, disturb intestinal peristalsis. As a result,
a person often experiences weakness, irritability,
const ipation, skin breakouts, weight problems. Copyright © Vera Giovanna Bani 2019 www.dryfasting.infoThis Ebook was purchased by Gilberto Franchi email: gilbertofranchi@hotmail.frOrgan function is hindered, which threatens
with serious ailments. Out of all bowel segments, the large intestine is
especially susceptible to toxin accumulation. Since the gastrointestinal tract is rich in its own
endocrine ‘taps’, which change their activity un-
der the influence of changes, related to metabo-
lism in the bowels, this system in our body pri-
marily provides normal regulation of metabolic
processes, their correspondence with metabolic
and adaptive cha nges. And, of course, all these
systems are dominated by the nervous system,
which controls the overall coordination of all the
systems’ activities. That’s why it’s quite appropriate that diseases
of organs and systems that, at first sight, are un-
related to the bowels, during their course are
Copyright © Vera Giovanna Bani 2019 www.dryfasting.infoThis Ebook was purchased by Gilberto Franchi email: gilbertofranchi@hotmail.fraccompanied by intestinal disorder and, in par-
ticular, a decrease in its barrier function. In this
case, the ejection of intestinal toxins into the
blood and lymph of the sick organism increases,
which substantially in creases the accumulation
of endotoxins in the organism and leads to the
development of endotoxicosis — accumulation
of toxic substances in tissue and intracellular
fluid. These substances can affect the flow of
metabolic processes in the cell, disturb the regu-
lation of bioprocesses. Digestive tract diseases
can create more than 100 different complica-
tions: food allergy, eczema, arthritis, spondylitis,
schizophrenia… The list goes on. According to scientists, in cases of chronic in-
testinal diseases one of th e causes of internal or-
gans and systems pathology may be linked to the
Copyright © Vera Giovanna Bani 2019 www.dryfasting.infoThis Ebook was purchased by Gilberto Franchi email: gilbertofranchi@hotmail.frdisorders of the absorption of important food
components. This can be caused by loss of nutri-
ents due to diarrhea, excessive bacterial growth
or change in intestinal wall permeability.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        All living beings can use one
or the other reserves for  their nourishment if
they cannot obtain nutrients from external
Copyright © Vera Giovanna Bani 2019 www. dryfasting. infoThis Ebook was purchased by Gilberto Franchi email: gilbertofranchi@hotmail. frsources or if they are unable to assimilate them
(in case of illness, for example). It is possible to cite many examples of autolysis,
but the ones offered are sufficient to clarify that
it is a common phenomenon. It remains to be
said that the body itself manages this process,
like all other life processes, and that autolysis is
not an uncontrolled and blind action like an ele-
phant striding through glassware. Fasting practices provide many examples of the
organism's control over the process of autolysis. For example, it is possible to note that body tis-
sues disappear according to the degree of their
usefulness: fats and pathological thickenings dis-
appear first and other tissues follow only aft er-
wards. Within all living things, from worms to
humans, during the fasting period different
Copyright © Vera Giovanna Bani 2019 www.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>
Q: What is the primary mechanism that allows the body to destroy and renew tissues during a period of fasting?,
A: Autolysis, which is a natural process that allows the body to eliminate damaged or dysfunctional cells and regenerate new ones.
Q: What is the main difference between dry fasting and water fasting, and why is it considered more effective?,
A: The text does not explicitly state the main difference, but it implies that dry fasting is more effective due to the activation of autolysis and the rejuvenation process.
Q: What is the purpose of apoptosis in the body, and what are the consequences of its excessive or deficient activity?,
A: Apoptosis is a natural process that allows the body to eliminate damaged or dysfunctional cells, and excessive or deficient activity can lead to various health issues, such as premature aging, cancer, and autoimmune diseases.
Q: What is the key to maintaining a healthy and rejuvenated body, according to the author?,
A: The author emphasizes the importance of maintaining a healthy diet, regular physical activity, and a positive attitude, as well as avoiding stress and negative energy.
Q: What is the primary benefit of dry fasting, and why is it considered a natural and effective method for rejuvenation and health restoration?,
A: The text does not explicitly state the primary benefit, but it implies that dry fasting is a natural and effective method for rejuvenation and health restoration due to its ability to activate autolysis, eliminate toxins, and restore the body's natural processes.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>People affected by similar bowel dysfunction
develop all kinds of different diseases quickly
and easily. Under these circumstances, the prob-
ability of fatal outcome increases, and the
chances for the organism to conquer the disease
and for the person to get well decrease. In other
words, if functional and pathological changes
arise in the digestive tract, the body stops receiv-
ing enough nutrients. The state of the micro-
scopic flora fluctuations, resulting in the im-
mune system weakening and the organism be-
coming defenseless against even the smallest
Copyright © Vera Giovanna Bani 2019 www.dryfasting.infoThis Ebook was purchased by Gilberto Franchi email: gilbertofranchi@hotmail.frthreats. A danger of oncological, allergic, dys-
trophic diseases arises. Enterosorption - an effective means of intes-
tinal rejuvenation and cleansing
Currently enterosorption is one of the best
means of life prolongation (organism rejuvena-
tion). Enterosorption is effective, simple and
safe. We definitely have to take advantage of it! Medicine widely employs a method of blood
purification called hemosorption. This method
entails a person’s blood being run through a
sorbent, which extracts a number of harmful
substances from it. Usually, synthetic charcoal is
used as a sorbent. However, these procedures
can turn out to be unsafe for the body. A well -
Copyright © Vera Giovanna Bani 2019 www.dryfasting.infoThis Ebook was purchased by Gilberto Franchi email: gilbertofranchi@hotmail.frknown gerontologist, academician V. Frol-
kis23 effectively used enterosorption to increase
lifespan. The important point is that a person se-
cretes up to 10 -12 liters of digestive juices per
day. The liquid part of these juices is filtered out
from the blood. It’s absorbed back into the blood
in the lower parts of the intest inal canal. There-
fore, when we conduct the sorption of digestive
juices, we can harmlessly purify blood, lymph,
and consequently, intracellular and cellular

23 V. V. Frolkis (1924 -1999), Ukrainian physiologist and geron-
tologist. In Kiev he headed the Department of Aging and the  Labor-
atory of Physiology. His research interests covered all major fields
of experimental gerontology with particular emphasis on neuroh or-
monal mechanisms of aging and longevity. He developed the adap-
tive-regulatory theory of aging. He was the author of more than 700
works, including 25 monographs and 15 handbooks. His fundamen-
tal work is: Starenie i uvelichenie prodolzhitelnosti zhizni   (Aging
and Lifespan Prolongation)  (1991). Copyright © Vera Giovanna Bani 2019 www.dryfasting.infoThis Ebook was purchased by Gilberto Franchi email: gilbertofranchi@hotmail


1. 1	cup	mint	leaves,

loosely	packed

1. 4	cups	cold	water

1. 1	(6-ounce)	can	key	lime	concentrate

Directions

1. Pour	simmering	water	into	a	saucepan. Then,	add	tea	bags	and	fresh	mint
leaves. Cover	and	steep	for	about	10	minutes. 2. Then,	discard	tea	bags	and	mint	leaves. Sweeten	with	natural	sweetener	of
choice. 3. Add	4	cups	cold	water	and	lime	concentrate. Serve	over	ice	cubes.Chinese	Spearmint	Iced	Tea
(Ready	in	about	10	minutes	|	Servings	4)

Ingredients

1. 1	tablespoon	loose	Chinese	green	tea

1. 5	cups	boiling	water

1. 2	bunches	fresh	spearmint,	rinsed	and	drained

1. 1/3	cup	honey

Directions

1. Combine	Chinese	green	tea	and	5	cups	boiling	water	in	a	teapot;	steep	for	2
to	4	minutes. 2. Add	spearmint	and	honey,	stirring	until	well	combined. Steep	for	4	minutes
more. Strain	your	tea	and	chill	until	ready	to	serve;	enjoy!Orange	and	Apricot	Iced	Tea
(Ready	in	about	10	minutes	|	Servings	4)

Ingredients

1. 3	(11.5-ounce)	cans	apricot	nectar

1. 2	quarts	brewed	tea

1. 1/4	cup	fresh	orange	juice

1. Agave	nectar,	to	taste

Directions

1. Stir	all	the	above	ingredients	in	a	pitcher. Then,	transfer	prepared	tea	to	a
refrigerator. 2. Serve	well	chilled	over	ice	cubes. Garnish	with	orange	wedges.Raspberry	Grape	Iced	Tea
(Ready	in	about	10	minutes	|	Servings	8)

Ingredients

1. 1	cup	raspberries

1. 4	cups	water

1. 2	family-size	tea	bags

1. 3	cups	grape	juice

1. 1	lime,	sliced

1. 1	(16-ounce)	bottle	orange	soft	drink,	chilled

Directions

1. Process	raspberries	in	your	food	processor	until	smooth. Pour	raspberry
puree	through	a	fine	strainer	into	a	large	container	in	order	to	discard
raspberry	seeds. 2. Bring	4	cups	of	water	to	a	boil	in	a	large-sized	saucepan. Remove	from	heat
and	add	tea	bags. Then,	cover	and	steep	for	about	5	minutes. 3. Discard	tea	bags. Add	raspberry	puree,	grape	juice,	slices	of	lime,	andorange	soft	drink. Stir	to	combine. Sweeten	with	some	natural	sweetener
such	as	agave	nectar,	stevia,	or	honey. 4. Cover	and	chill	overnight. Serve	well	chilled.Raspberry	Hibiscus	Refresher
(Ready	in	about	10	minutes	|	Servings	8)

Ingredients

1. 4	cups	boiling	water

1. 8	hibiscus	tea	bags

1. 1/2	cups	agave	nectar

1. 2	cups	sparkling	apple	cider,	well-chilled

Directions

1. Pour	boiling	water	over	tea	bags. Cover	and	steep	for	10	minutes. Now
discard	tea	bags. 2. Stir	in	agave	nectar. Now	chill	until	ready	to	serve. Pour	in	sparkling	cider;
serve	over	ice	cubes.Ginger	Orange	Iced	Tea
(Ready	in	about	10	minutes	|	Servings	8)

Ingredients

1. 4	tea	bags

1. 6	cups	boiling	water

1. 4	orange	tea	bags

1. 1/2	lemon,	juiced

1. 1/2	cup	honey

1. 1-inch	ginger	root,	peeled	and	sliced

1. Cold	water,	as	needed

Directions

1. Place	tea	bags	and	boiling	water	in	a	large-sized	jar;	then,	steep	about	30
minutes. 2. Remove	tea	bags	and	stir	in	remaining	ingredients. 3. Lastly,	allow	to	chill	in	the	refrigerator. Serve	well	chilled	over	ice	and
enjoy!Cherry	Iced	Tea
(Ready	in	about	10	minutes	|	Servings	8)

Ingredients

1. 3	(11.5-ounce)	bottles	cherry	nectar

1. 2	quarts	brewed	green	tea

1. 1/4	cup	fresh	lemonade

1. Agave	nectar,	to	taste

Directions

1. Stir	all	the	above	ingredients	in	your	pitchers	or	bottles. Then,	transfer	tea
to	a	fridge. 2. Serve	well	chilled	and	garnished	with	lemon	wedges	if	desired.Berrylicious	Iced	Tea
(Ready	in	about	15	minutes	|	Servings	6)

Ingredients

1. 6	cup	water

1. 2	black	tea	bags

1. 4	mixed	berry	tea	bags

1. Agave	syrup,	as	per	taste

1. 1	tablespoon	orange	juice

1. 3	tablespoons	fresh	mint	leaves

Directions

1. Bring	water	to	a	boil. Pour	boiled	water	over	tea	bags	in	the	pitcher;	steep
tea	bags	for	about	10	minutes. 2. Then,	discard	tea	bags. Chill	covered	for	about	2	hours. 3. Stir	in	agave,	orange	juice,	and	mint	leaves. Serve	well	chilled	and	enjoy!Blackberry	Iced	Tea
(Ready	in	about	15	minutes	|	Servings	6)

Ingredients

1. 5	cups	water

1. 5	strawberry	tea	bags

1. 2	cups	frozen	blackberries

1. 1/3	cup	honey

Directions

1. Steep	strawberry	tea	bags	in	5	cups	of	water	for	8	to	10	minutes. Allow	to
chill	overnight. 2. In	a	blender,	mix	2	cups	of	frozen	blackberries,	1	cup	of	steeped	tea	and
honey. 3. Add	blackberry	puree	to	the	steeped	tea,	stir,	and	pour	into	glasses.Strawberry	Lemon	Iced	Tea
(Ready	in	about	20	minutes	|	Servings	10)

Ingredients

1. 10	tea	bags

1. 1	cup	strawberries

1. 1	cup	fresh	lemon	juice

1. 1/2	cup	agave	syrup

1. 3	cups	sparkling	water

1. Berries	for	skewers

Directions

1. Bring	10	cups	of	water	to	boil. Turn	off	burner	and	add	tea	bags;	now	allow
to	steep	completely. Pour	tea	into	a	pitcher	and	allow	to	chill	completely. 2. Put	the	strawberries	and	lemon	juice	into	your	food	processor	or	a	blender;
purée	until	smooth. Then,	strain	puréed	mixture	in	order	to	discard
strawberry	seeds. 3. Add	strawberry	purée	to	the	tea	in	the	pitcher. Stir	in	agave	syrup	andsparkling	water. Stir	to	combine	well. Garnish	with

fruit	skewers.Tropical	Iced	Tea
(Ready	in	about	20	minutes	|	Servings	12)

Ingredients

1. 12	cups	boiling	water

1. 12	tea	bags

1. 1	cup	pineapple

1. 1	cup	fresh	orange	juice

1. 1/2	cup	agave	syrup

1. 3	cups	lemon	soda

Directions

1. Place	boiling	water	and	tea	bags	in


paging through texts and interviewing freedivers and super -breathers,
scientists at Harvard, Stanford, and other renowned institutions were
confirming some of the wildest stories I’d been hearing. But their work
wasn’ t happening in the pulmonology labs. Pulmonologists, I learned, work
mainly on specific maladies of the lungs—collapse, cancer, emphysema. “W e’re dealing with emer gencies,” one veteran pulmonologist told me. “That’ s how the system works.”
No, this breathing research has been taking place elsewhere: in the
muddy digs of ancient burial sites, the easy chairs of dental of fices, and the
rubber rooms of mental hospitals. Not the kinds of places where you’d
expect to find cutting-edge research into a biological function. Few of these scientists set out to study breathing. But, somehow, in
some way, breathing kept finding them. They discovered that our capacity
to breathe has changed through the long processes of human evolution, and
that the way we breathe has gotten markedly worse since the dawn of the
Industrial Age. They discovered that 90 percent of us—very likely me, you,
and almost everyone you know—is breathing incorrectly and that this
failure is either causing or aggravating a laundry list of chronic diseases. On a more inspiring note, some of these researchers were also showing
that many modern maladies—asthma, anxiety, attention deficithyperactivity disorder, psoriasis, and more—could either be reduced or
reversed simply by changing the way we inhale and exhale. This work was upending long-held beliefs in W estern medical science. Y es, breathing in dif ferent patterns really can influence our body weight and
overall health. Y es, how we breathe really does af fect the size and function
of our lungs. Y es, breathing allows us to hack into our own nervous system,
control our immune response, and restore our health. Y es, changing how we
breathe will help us live longer. No matter what we eat, how much we exercise, how resilient our genes
are, how skinny or young or wise we are—none of it will matter unless
we’re breathing correctly. That’ s what these researchers discovered. The
missing pillar in health is breath. It all starts there. •       •       •
This book is a scientific adventure into the lost art and science of breathing. It explores the transformation that occurs inside our bodies every 3.3
seconds, the time it takes the average person to inhale and exhale. It
explains how the billions and billions of molecules you bring in with each
breath have built your bones, sheaths of muscle, blood, brains, and or gans,
and the emer ging science of how these microscopic bits will influence your
health and happiness tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, and
decades from now. I call this a “lost art” because so many of these new discoveries aren’ t
new at all. Most of the techniques I’ll be exploring have been around for
hundreds, sometimes thousands, of years. They were created, documented,
for gotten, and discovered in another culture at another time, then for gotten
again. This went on for centuries. Many early pioneers in this discipline weren’ t scientists. They were
tinkerers, a kind of rogue group I call “pulmonauts,” who stumbled on the
powers of breathing because nothing else could help them. They were Civil
W ar sur geons, French hairdressers, anarchist opera singers, Indian mystics,
irritable swim coaches, stern-faced Ukrainian cardiologists,
Czechoslovakian Olympians, and North Carolina choral conductors. Few of these pulmonauts achieved much fame or respect when they
were alive, and when they died their research was buried and scattered. It
was even more fascinating to learn that, during the past few years, theirtechniques were being rediscovered and scientifically tested and proven. The fruits of this once-fringe, often for gotten research are now redefining
the potential of the human body. —
But why do I need to learn how to br eathe? I’ve been br eathing my whole
life. This question, which you may be asking now, has been popping up ever
since I began my research. W e assume, at our peril, that breathing is a
passive action, just something that we do: breathe, live; stop breathing, die. But breathing is not binary. And the more I immersed myself in this subject,
the more personally invested I felt about sharing this basic truth. Like most adults, I too have suf fered from a host of respiratory problems
in my life. That’ s what landed me at the breathing class years ago. And like
most people, I found that no aller gy drug, inhaler, mix of supplements, or
diet did much good. In the end, it was a new generation of pulmonauts who
of fered me a cure, and then they of fered so much more. It will take the average reader about 10,000 breaths to read from here to
the end of the book. If I’ve done my job correctly, starting now, with every
breath you take, you’ll have a deeper understanding of breathing and how
best to do it. T wenty times a minute, ten times, through the mouth, nose,
tracheostomy, or breathing tube, it’ s not all the same. How we breathe really
matters. By your thousandth breath, you’ll understand why modern humans are
the only species with chronically crooked teeth, and why that’ s relevant to
breathing. Y ou’ll know how our ability to breathe has deteriorated over the
ages, and why our cavemen ancestors didn’ t snore. Y ou’ll have followed
two middle-aged men as they struggle through a pioneering and masochistic
20-day study at Stanford University to test the long-held belief that the
pathway through which we breathe—nose or mouth—is inconsequential. Some of what you’ll learn will ruin your days and nights, especially if you
snore. But in your next breaths, you’ll find remedies. By your 3,000th breath, you’ll know the basics of restorative breathing. These slow and long techniques are open to everyone—old and young, sick
and healthy, rich and poor. They’ve been practiced in Hinduism, Buddhism,
Christianity, and other religions for thousands of years, but only recentlyhave we learned how they can reduce blood pressure, boost athletic
performance, and balance the nervous system. By your 6,000th breath, you will have moved into the land of serious,
conscious breathing. Y ou’ll travel past the mouth and nose, deeper into the
lungs, and you’ll meet a midcentury pulmonaut who healed W orld W ar II
veterans of emphysema and trained Olympic sprinters to win gold medals,
all by harnessing the power of the exhale. By your 8,000th breath, you’ll have pushed even deeper into the body to
tap, of all things, the nervous system. Y ou’ll discover the power of
overbreathing. Y ou’ll meet with pulmonauts who have used breathing to
straighten scoliotic spines, blunt autoimmune diseases, and superheat
themselves in subzero temperatures. None of this should be possible, and
yet, as you will see, it is. Along the way, I’ll be learning, too, trying to
understand what happened to me in that V ictorian house a decade ago. By your 10,000th breath, and the close of this book, you and I will know
how the air that enters your lungs af fects every moment of your life and
how to harness it to its full potential until your final breath. This book will explore many things: evolution, medical history,
biochemistry, physiology, physics, athletic endurance, and more. But mostly
it will explore you. By the law of averages, you will take 670 million breaths in your
lifetime. Maybe you’ve already taken half of those. Maybe you’re on breath
669,000,000. Maybe you’d like to take a few million more.Part One
THE EXPERIMENTOne
THE WORST BREATHERS IN THE ANIMAL
KINGDOM
The patient arrived, pale and torpid, at 9:32 a.m. Male, middle-aged, 175
pounds. T alkative and friendly but visibly anxious. Pain: none. Fatigue: a
little. Level of anxiety: moderate. Fears about progression and future
symptoms: high. Patient reported that he was raised in a modern suburban environment,
bottle-fed at six months, and weaned onto jarred commercial foods. The
lack of chewing associated with this soft diet stunted bone development in
his dental arches and sinus cavity, leading to chronic nasal congestion. By age 15, patient was subsisting on even softer, highly processed foods
consisting mostly of white bread, sweetened fruit juices, canned vegetables,
Steak-umms, V elveeta sandwiches, microwave taquitos, Hostess Sno Balls,
and Reggie! bars. His mouth had become so underdeveloped it could not
accommodate 32 permanent teeth; incisors and canines grew in crooked,
requiring extractions, braces, retainers, and headgear to straighten. Three
years of orthodontics made his small mouth even smaller, so his tongue no
longer properly fit between his teeth. When he stuck


 Changes  the
image o f the receptive Earth below and the creative Heav en above form
primary attributes ascribed to Y in and Y ang respectively. The Inner Classic  u ses the analog ies of water an d fire to describe the
intrinsic attributes of their opposing natures, as summarized below:Practically speaking, four pri mary principles explain the dynamic
relationship between Y in and Y ang in traditional Chinese medicine:
1) All phenomena contain two innate opposing aspects. 2) Y in and Y ang are co-dependent. 3) Y in and Y ang nurture each other. 4) Between Y in-Y ang there exists a transformative potential. These b asic prin ciples governin g the relationship between Y in and  Y ang
are well illustrated by the traditional diagram of the Supreme  Ultimate. The
universe is symbolically comp osed of the primal forces of Y in and Y ang,
represented as black and white respectively, forming a unified circular whole. W ithin each colored half there  is a contrasting spot indicatin g there are no
absolutes and that both forces o nly exist in relation to each other, just as night-
time exists only in relationship to day-time. The moving interfa ce between the
two halves denotes their vital na ture and nurturing tendency, which in extremes
can cause transformations to occur. The symbol also indicates the tendency of
Y in-Y ang towards balance, for their overall appearance is one of equal strength.3
T h e  F i v e  E l e m e n t s
Z ou Y in (350-270 B.C.) is generally accepted by historians t o have first &^
formally articulated an integrated theory based upon the Five Elements (wu xing). He w as a brillia nt philosopher who combined the Y in-Y ang doc trine with the Five
Elements and is credited with developing an original method o f induction used to
interpret and predict human a nd natural af fairs in an order ly way. The Five
Element doctrine as an important secondary system of correspondences first had an
impact on Chinese medicine wi th its inclusion in the Inner Classic  and  the n more
substantially in the Classic of Difficult Issues. T he term “Five Element” is u sed
here out of con vention followi ng the usage of other English  texts on Chinese
medicine, as well as to facilitate cross reference in approaching similar concepts in
Indian m edicine, but actually the characters translate more accurately as the Five
Phases or Movements, for the Chinese were more interested in process and
patterns than in substance and structure. The five substances wood, fire, earth, metal and water specifically symbolize
the fundamental  qualities and behavioral patterns intrinsic to  the universe. The
attributes of the Five Elements are summarized as follows: W ood is characterized
by the process of germination and a spreading outward tendency; Fire is an
emblem for heat and growth with an impulse for flaring upwards; Earth represents
transformation and nourishment with a tendency towards con tainment; Metal is
characterized by  the maturing process and a concentrating influence; and W ater
represents cooln ess, decay, transmutation and storage with a downward flowing
motion. There are two o ther important patterning methods within the Five Element
model k nown as  the Generative and the Control cycles (xiang sheng & xiang ke). The Gen erative cycle describes  the inherent order of activity found amongst the
Elements i.e. germination (W ood), growth (Fire), nourishment (Earth), ripening
(Metal), and decay with the g uarding and storage of the see d-essence (W ater)
which allows for the cycle to begin again at the germination stage. The annually
repeated procession of the seasons, as found in temperate climates such as that of
China, are a natural example of this concept. The Control cycle, similarly p roceeds in a defined orderly manner, but
denotes a restraining tendency of one Element upon another. Just as in the Y in-Y ang doctrine mutual support and restraint are indispensable, so also the Control
cycle functions  as a counterbalance to the promotive tendency within the
Generative cycl e and ensures the maintenance of equilibrium. Classically the
Generative cycle is linked to Y in and the Control cycle to Y ang. In ancient texts
the follo wing sy mbolism is given to illustrate the ordering of the Control cycle:
W ood uproots and loosens Earth; Fire melts Metal; Earth con tains and obstructs
W ater; Metal penetrates and cuts W ood; and W ater extinguishes Fire (see
illustration 2). Both these cycles operate simultaneously and unidirectionally creating a
natural feedback  system. For example, W ater controls Fire, but Fire generates
Earth w hich in turn controls W ater; by promoting Earth, Fire  exerts an indirectcounter -influence on W ater. The reciprocal relationships among the Elements thus
formed, further strengthen the system’ s tendency towards harmony, though a
perniciously excessive or deficie nt condition in an Element may cause impairment
to t his self-corrective propen sity. In terms of medicine t he Five Element
philosophy provides a valuable  framework in which to describe and understand
many aspects of health and illness, particularly the dynamics of the Or gans. The Y in-Y ang and Five Eleme nt schemes can be partially co rrelated, for
example in the linking of W ood and Fire with Y ang since both these Elements are
more active as opposed to the more quiescent Y in Elements of Metal and W ater,
while the Earth sits in neutral balance between Y in and Y ang. A selection of
traditional corr espondences related to the Elements can b e viewed in the
accompanying chart. 4
T h e  E s s e n t i a l  S u b s t a n c e s
C hinese m edicine identifies five  Substances that form the basis for the
development and maintenance of the human body. They are : Qi, Blood
(xue), Essence (jing), Spirit (shen) and Fluids (jin ye). The five Substances
have a dynamic relationship, su pporting and nurturing each other for the
benefit of the whole or ganism. The Substances are also linked with the
Elements and Or gans according to their special af finities. Although the classical texts take the concept of Qi for granted, this
idea is dif ficult for the occidental mind to grasp. Qi represents t he essential
life forc e within human beings, which is visualized as an internal rarefied
substance on the ver ge of form lessness. Qi as a substance circulates and
activates or ganic functioning, and appears in various dif ferentiated forms. Qi m ay also be used to denote a n actual functioning part of an or ganism or
a pa rticular quality of a phen omenon. Qi is responsible for warming,
invigorating and protecting the body, as well as providing orderliness and
impetus to its movements and transformations to help ensure integrity. In t he body, Q i is derived fro m three sources: 1) the Qi, called
Original Qi (yuan qi) that is tran smitted by the parents at concep tion, which
thereafter determines the basal level of vitality of the body; 2) G rain Qi (gu
qi), the nutritionally absorbed ener gy from foods and liquids; and 3) Cosmic
Qi (da qi), the vital portion of the air taken in through respiration. Basically the body’ s Qi is dif ferentiated into five major categories:
1)   Or gan Qi (zang fu qi), which animates all Or gans and individualizes
an or gan’ s functioning;
2)   Meridian Qi (jing qi) is that part of the body’ s  Qi that
circulates throughout the comprehensive system of pathways;
3)   Nutritive Qi (ying qi) is closely associated with Blood, and aids in  he
absorption of pure nutrients from digestion and its distribution
throughout the whole body;4)   Protectiv e Qi (wei qi) circulates throughout the body
(especially  supe rficially); it regulates body temperature and
perspira tion and warms the Or gans;
5)   Ancestra l Qi (zong qi) aids, regulates and harmonizes
respiratory  mov ement and heart beat. Ancestral Qi also
motivates the circulation of the Nutritive Qi and Blood. In Chine se medicine Blood denotes both the material that circ ulates
under th e guidance of the heart as well as the force closely asso ciated with
the functioning  of the sensory or gans. The general concept of Blood
parallels moder n biomedical concepts closely in that its function is to
nourish and moisten all the Or gans and tissues of the body. The relationship
between Blood and Qi is that of Y in to Y ang. The Qi is said to be the
commander of Blood, while Blood is referred to as the mother of Qi. Essence determines all human growth and development, as well as
the body’ s physical characteristics. Essence is the foundation of
reproductivity, manifesting materially in the form of sperm and ovum and
as a  force thro ugh the procreative ur ge. Essence is derived from one’ s
parents and is normally produced by the body from the Qi and Blood. The
body


out and remove coarse o uter leaves. W ash in a sink full of cool wat er to which a drop of fo od-safe soap has been
added. R inse, d rain and pat dry. Sort into small, medium and lar ge sizes. Blanch whole Brussels sprouts in boiling water: small heads for 3 minutes,
medium heads for 4 minutes, and lar ge heads for 5 minutes. Immerse in
cold water for 3, 4 or 5 minutes. Drain and pat dry. Canning Brussels Spr outs
I do n’ t recommend canning Brussels sprouts because processing turns them
brown and intensifies their stron g sulphur flavour. Pickling and freezing are
the best methods of preserving. Fr eezing Brussels Spr outs
1. Select Equipment:  Se lect suitable-size freezer c ontainers, bags or
Mason jars ( Freezing ). 2. T rim, wash and blanch spr outs. Pack into containers, leaving a 1-inch
(2.5 cm) headspace. Remove air, label and seal. Freeze for up to 12 months. s w e e t  p i c k l e d  b r u s s e l s  s p r o u t sT ry to find small Brussels spr o uts for this pickle. If you must use lar ger
heads, c ut them  in half. Picklin g sweetens and mellows the flav our so that
you can use them in grain salads (such as Beet T abbouleh ) and with braised
winter gr eens. Y ou can cut this r ecipe in half if you wish. MAKES 10 CUPS (2.5 L)
8 cups (2 L) small Brussels spr outs
3 cups (750 mL) white vinegar
1–1/2 cups (375 mL) granulated sugar
1–1/2 cups (375 mL) thinly sliced onions
1 cup (250 mL) diced r ed bell peppers
2 tbsp (25 mL) mustard seeds
1 tbsp (15 mL) celery seeds
1 tsp (5 mL) gr ound turmeric
1 tsp (5 mL) hot r ed pepper flakes
1. T rim and blanch sprouts. 2. Mean while, heat five 1-pint (2-cup/500 mL) jars in boiling  water, and
scald the lids, lifter, funnel and tongs ( Boiling W ater Method, Step by Step ). 3. In a M aslin p an or canning kettle, combine vinegar, sugar, onions, red
pepper, mustard seeds, celery seeds, turmeric and red pepper flakes. Bring
to a boi l over high heat, stirring frequently Adjust heat and si mmer for 5
minutes. 4. Distribute onion and diced pepper in hot jars. Fill jars with Brussels
sprouts and hot l iquid, leaving a 1/2-inch (1 cm) headspace. Run  a thin non-
metallic utensil around the insid e of the jar to allow air to escape. Add more
hot liqui d, if necessary to leave a 1/2-inch (1 cm) headspace. W ipe rims, top
with flat lids an d screw on met al rings. Return jars to the hot water bath,
topping up with hot water if n ecessary Bring to a full rolling boil and
process jars for 10 minutes ( Boiling W ater Method, Step by Step ).5. Remo ve cann er lid and wait 5 minutes before removing jars t o a towel or
rack to cool completely Check seals, label and store in a cool place for up to
1 year. r a s p b e r r y - g l a z e d  b r u s s e l s  s p r o u t s  w i t h  p a n c e t t a
The sweetness of the raspberry  and the salty pancetta balance the heady
taste of the Brussels spr outs. I l ike the crunch of the r ed pepper and onion
in c ontrast with the softened t extur e of the fr ozen and thaw ed Brussels
spr outs. Y ou can  use smoked side bacon or pr osciutto, both cut into dice, to r eplace
the pan cetta. Some notes on the differ ence in the two Italian pork
ingr edients: Pancetta is Italian  salt-cur ed bacon cut fr om the pork belly,
and is not smok ed. It is sold r olled or in a slab. Rolled pance tta is sliced
thinly; a slab is chopped or diced befor e being fried and added to a dish. Pr osciutto is the Italian wor d for “ham.” It is usually sold dry-cur ed
(uncooked) and thinly sliced. Melon and figs complement the s alty taste of
pr osciutto. MAKES 4 SER VINGS
2 tbsp (25 mL) olive oil, divided
3 oz (90 g) pancetta, cut into 1/4-inch (5 mm) dice
1/2 cup (125 mL) chopped r ed bell pepper
1/2 cup (125 mL) chopped r ed onion
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/4 cup (50 mL) whole almonds
1/4 cup (50 mL) Raspberry V inegar ( sweet raspberry vinegar  or stor e-
bought)
2 cups (500 mL) Brussels spr outs, thawed if fr ozen sea salt and pepper
1. In a s killet, heat 1 tbsp (15 m L) of the olive oil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium and add pancetta. Cook for 6 to 8 minutes, stirringfrequently, until  crisp and brow ned. Using tongs, lift out to a p aper towel–
lined plate and set aside. 2. Add remaining oil to the skillet and heat over medium he at. Add red
pepper and onion and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until
soft and  translu cent. Add garlic and almonds and cook for 2 minutes or
until alm onds are toasted and lightly browned. Remove vegetables and
almonds from the skillet. 3. Add raspberr y vinegar to the skillet and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer for about 7 minutes or until reduced and slightly
syrupy. Add Brussels sprouts a nd stir for about 5 minutes or until heated
through. T oss with red pepper, onion, garlic and almonds. T ransfer to a
serving bowl. Garnish with crisp  pancetta. Season to taste with a few grinds
of salt and pepper.C a b b a g e
BRASSICA PLANTS  (k ale, collards, broccoli, c auliflower, turnip,
Brussels sprouts ) are referred to as cruciferous due to their cross-shaped
(from the Latin crucifix,  mea ning “cross”) flower petals. Cabbage (Brassica
oleracea capitata)  is  an ol d plant, once called co lewort, or cole. Over the
centuries, it has been selectively bred to a round ball shape with tightly
wrapped leaves around a central core. Good Pr eserving V arieties
Cabbage may be yellow, whi te, green, purple or red; round-, flat- or
conical-headed; curly or fringed; tight or loose leaved. The most common
varieties are round and light green or red. Cheers is a round green variety that is perfect for cabbage rolls because the lar ge leaves separate
easily. Round, Gr een Cabbage T ypes
Krautkaiser:  Lar ge, slightly flattened shape, white; weighs up to 6 lb (3
kg); perfect for sauerkraut and pickled cabbage. Other round green types for
preserving include Cheers, Stoneh ead, Autumn Queen, January King,
Minicole  and V iking. Oxheart Cabbage T ypes
The distinguishing characteristic is their enormous firm heads that grow to a
point. Cultivars in this category are dark green and good to grow becausethey will stand in the garden f or a long time (from July to December if
covered) and have very good flavour. Caramba  is an excellent Oxheart
cabbage type for preserving. Savoy Cabbage T ypes
W ith their crinkly leaves and milder taste, Savoy cabbages are considered to
be the most tender and sweet. S avoy is a good choice for stuf fed cabbage
leaves since the leaves are more pliable and stand up better to longer
cooking times. Use in Frozen Coleslaw. Savoy types are a good choice for stuf fed cabbage leaves. Red and Purple Cabbage T ypes
These types take longer to mat ure, so they are generally not as tender as
green or white varieties. Most o ften pickled, raw shredded red c abbage also
makes a  striking addition to t raditional green salads. Along with green
cabbage, red cabbage is the best for storing, and it preserves well. The
heart-healthy compound anthocyanin, which gives red cabbage its beautiful
colour, w ill also  turn it blue when cooked with any alkaline substance (salt
or baking soda). Shr edding CabbagePreserving recip es call for shred ded cabbage, and everyone
has a favourite tool for getting just the right cut. Y ou will
need a lar ge cle aver or


 and
using your “I’m busy” line to postpone it forever. • Deciding to start your diet tomorrow or next week. It’s easier
to put-it-off than to take-it-off, so you say, “I’ll get to it tomorrow,”
which of course will never arrive. • Using sleep or tiredness as a reason for putting it off. Did you
ever notice how tired you get when you are close to actually doing
something uncomfortable or difficult. A little fatigue is a terrific
deferring device. • Getting sick when you are faced with a disquieting or trouble-
some task. How could you possibly do it now, when you feel so
terrible. Like exhaustion above, it’s an excellent technique for pro-
crastinating. • The “I don’t have time to do it” ruse, in which you justify not
doing something because of your busy schedule, which always has
room for those things that you really want to do. • Constantly looking forward to a vacation or that dream-trip. Next year we’ll find Nirvana. • Being a critic and using your criticism of others to camouflage
your own refusal to do. • Refusing to get a physical checkup when you suspect some
dysfunction. By putting it off you don’t have to deal with the reality
of possible illness. • Being afraid to make a move toward someone you’re fond of. It’s what you want, but you’d rather wait it out and hope that things
work out. • Being bored at any time in your life. This is merely a way of
putting off something and using the boring event as a reason for not
doing something more exciting. PUTTING AN END TO PROCRASTINATION—NOW  / 183• Planning but never putting in action a regular exercise program. “I’ll get started on that right away…next week. ”
• Living your entire life for your children and always putting off
your own happiness. How can we afford a vacation when we have
the kids’ education to worry about. Reasons for Continuing to Put It Off
The rationale for putting it off is composed of one part self-delu-
sion and two parts escape. Here are the most important rewards for
hanging onto procrastination. • Most obviously, putting it off allows you to escape from unpleas-
ant activities. There may be things you’re afraid to do or things part
of you wants to do and part of you doesn’t. Remember, nothing is
black or white. • You can feel comfortable with your self-delusional system. Lying
to yourself keeps you from having to admit that you are not a “doer”
in this particular present moment. • You can stay exactly as you are forever, as long as you keep
putting it off. Thus you eliminate change and all the risks that go
with it. • By being bored you have someone or something else to blame
for your unhappy state, thus you shift responsibility away from
yourself and onto the boring activity. • By being a critic you can feel important at the expense of others. It is a way of using others’ performance as stepping-stones for elev-
ating yourself in your own mind. More self-delusion. • By waiting for things to get better you can blame the world for
your unhappiness—things just never seem to break for you. A great
strategy for doing nothing. • You can avoid ever having to fail by avoiding all activities184 / Your Erroneous Zoneswhich involve some risk. In this way you never have to come face
to face with your self-doubt. • Wishing for things to happen—Santa Claus fantasies—allow
you to return to a safe and protected childhood. • You can win sympathy from others and feel sorry for yourself
for the anxiety that you live with as a result of not doing what you’d
like to have done. • You are able to justify a sloppy or less than acceptable perform-
ance on anything if you put it off long enough, and then just allow
a minimal time segment for getting it done. “But I just didn’t have
time. ”
• By putting it off, you might be able to get someone else to do it
for you. Thus, procrastination becomes a means of manipulating
others. • Putting it off enables you to delude yourself into believing that
you are something other than what you really are. • By avoiding a task you can escape success. If you don’t succeed
you avoid having to feel good about yourself and accepting all of
the continuing responsibility that goes with success. Now that you have some insight into why you procrastinate, you
can begin to do something about eliminating this self-destructive
erroneous zone. Some Techniques for Ousting This Postponing Behavior
• Make a decision to live five minutes at a time. Instead of thinking
of tasks in long-range terms, think about now and try to use up a
five-minute period doing what you want, refusing to put off anything
that would bring about satisfaction. • Sit down and get started on something you’ve been postponing. Begin a letter or a book. You’ll find that much of yourPUTTING AN END TO PROCRASTINATION—NOW  / 185putting it off is unnecessary since you’ll very likely find the job en-
joyable, once you give up the procrastination. Simply beginning will
help you to eliminate anxiety about the whole project. • Ask yourself, “What is the worst thing that could happen to me
if I did what I’m putting off right now. ” The answer is usually so
insignificant that it may jar you into action. Assess your fear and
you’ll have no reason to hang onto it. • Give yourself a designated time slot (say Wednesday from 10:00
to 10:15 P. M. ) which you will devote exclusively to the task you’ve
been putting off. You’ll discover that the fifteen minutes of devoted
effort are often sufficient to see you over the hump of procrastination. • Think of yourself as too significant to live with anxiety about
the things you have to do. So, the next time you know you are un-
comfortable with postponement anxiety, remember that people who
love themselves don’t hurt themselves that way. • Look carefully at your now. Decide what you are avoiding in
your current moments and begin to tackle the fear of living effect-
ively. Procrastination is substituting the now with anxiety about a
future event. If the event becomes the now, the anxiety, by definition,
must go. • Quit smoking…now. Begin your diet…this moment. Give up
booze…this second. Put this book down and do one push-up as your
beginning exercise project. That’s how you tackle problems…with
action now. Do it. The only thing holding you back is you, and the
neurotic choices you’ve made because you don’t believe you’re as
strong as you really are. How simple…just do it. • Start using your mind creatively in what were previously boring
circumstances. At a meeting, change the dull tempo with a pertinent
question, or make your mind go off in exciting ways such as writing
a poem, or memorizing twenty-five numbers backwards, just for
the sheer drill of memory training. Decide to never be bored again. 186 / Your Erroneous Zones• When someone begins to criticize you, ask this question, “Do
you think I need a critic now. ” Or when you find yourself being a
critic, ask the person in your company if he wants to hear your citi-
cism, and if so, why. This will help you to move from the critic to
the doer column. • Look hard at your life. Are you doing what you’d choose to be
doing if you knew you had six months to live. If not, you’d better
begin doing it because, relatively speaking, that’s all you have. Given the eternity of time, thirty years or six months make no differ-
ence. Your total lifetime is a mere speck. Delaying anything makes
no sense. • Be courageous about undertaking an activity that you’ve been
avoiding. One act of courage can eliminate all that fear. Stop telling
yourself that you must perform well. Remind yourself that doing it
is far more important. • Decide not to be tired until the moment before you get into bed. Don’t allow yourself to use fatigue or illness as an escape or to put
off doing anything. You may find that when you take away the
reason for the illness or exhaustion—that is, avoidance of a
task—physical problems “magically” disappear. • Eliminate the words “hope,” “wish” and “maybe” from your
vocabulary. They are the tools of putting it off. If you see these words
creeping in, substitute new sentences. Change
“I hope things will work out” to “I will make it happen. ”
“I wish things were better” to “I am going to do the following
things to ensure that I feel better. ”
“Maybe it will be okay” to “I will make it okay. ”
• Keep a journal of your own complaining or critical behavior. By writing these actions down, you’ll accomplish two things. You’ll
see how your critical behavior surfaces in your life—the frequency,
patterns, events and people that are related to your being a critic. You’ll also stop yourself from criticizing because it will be such a
pain to have to write in the journal. • If you are putting something off which involves others (a move,
a sex problem, a new job), have a conference with all in-PUTTING AN END TO PROCRASTINATION—NOW  / 187volved and ask


 that is
12.5-37.5 mg in the form of Lugol’s solution, turns out to be the exact range of intake for sufficiency of the whole human body,
based on a recently developed loading test. 3
 Iodine/iodide in the proper amounts resulted in increased urinary excretion of heavy
metals such as lead and mercury; and had a detoxifying effect by increasing excretion of the toxic halides fluoride and bromide. 4
 It
is time to wake up and realize that we are sitting on the shoulders of the giants of past generations who have given us useful
information, which we have discarded in favor of preconceived ideas by self-appointed experts. This book by Dr. David Brownstein is a welcome departure from the past and a fresh look at facts only, discarding myths and
unfounded concerns about inorganic nonradioactive iodine/iodide. Patients will be grateful to Dr. Brownstein for bringing to light a
simple, safe, inexpensive way of healing many medical conditions. The ultimate Healer is the Creator of heaven and earth. His guidance has been felt constantly during this project by this
author. May He bless and guide Dr. Brownstein and his patients. “I the LORD am your healer.”
(Exodus 15:26)
Guy E. Abraham, M.D., FACN. 1
 Abraham, G.E., Flechas, J.D., Hakala, J.C., Orthoiodosupplementation: Iodine sufficiency of the whole human body. The
Original Internist, 9:30-41, 2002. 2
 Abraham, G.E., The Wolff-Chaikoff Effect of Increasing Iodide Intake on the Thyroid. Townsend Letter, 245:100-101,
2003. 3
 Abraham, G.E. The safe and effective implementation or orthoiodosupplementation in medical practice. The Original
Internist, April 2004 (In press). 4
 Abraham, G.E., Iodine Supplementation Markedly Increases Urinary Excretion of Fluoride and Bromide. Townsend Letter,
238:108-109, 2003Preface to the Fourth Edition
(Author’s note: Dr. Abraham died before I began working on the 5
th
 Edition of this book. He was gracious to write a new
Preface for each edition. I am including the last Preface that he wrote for me.) Less than five years ago, David Brownstein, M.D. introduced to the medical community and to consumers, his book on the
essential element iodine, describing his experience with the orthoiodosupplementation program and the iodine/iodide loading test. 1
 This test is simple, straightforward, and practical. Since then, he has crisscrossed the continental U.S.A. from East to West and North to South, lecturing on his experience with
inorganic non-radioactive iodine to physicians, other healthcare professionals and consumers. Due mainly to his persistent efforts,
reassuring healthcare professionals that inorganic non-radioactive iodine is safe and effective, there are now thousands of
physicians and other healthcare professionals using the iodine/iodide loading test and implementing orthoiodosupplementation
safely and successfully in their practices. After trying orthoiodosupplementation on themselves and their loved ones, they became
confident that medical iodophobia was not justified for the inorganic, non-radioactive forms of this essential nutrient. The number of publications presenting new research data on the orthoiodosupplementation program has increased markedly
in this short time. As of December 2008, 23 manuscripts have been published. Dr. Brownstein is the sole author or coauthor in
five of these publications. These publications are available on our website at
Optimox.com
, under Iodine Research. Dr. Brownstein and I coauthored a publication, reporting the positive effect of vitamin C at 3000 mg/day on a defective
cellular transport system for iodine, emphasizing the importance of a complete nutritional program for best results with
orthoiodosupplementation. 2
 In collaboration with Drs. Brownstein and Flechas, I recently published a procedure for assessing the
saliva/serum ratio of inorganic iodide as an index of the efficiency of the iodine/iodide symporter system. 3
 We have established
normal values and have demonstrated a negative effect of elevated serum bromide on this ratio, suggesting that bromide interferes
with cellular uptake of iodide. Iodine intake in daily amounts from 50 to 75mg iodine in the form of Lugol’s tablet (Iodoral®) had
a positive effect on the saliva/serum iodide ratio and decreased serum bromide. Abnormalities in the cellular uptake of iodine were reported in breast cancer patients with elevated bromide levels. 4
Organification defects in the utilization of cellular iodide were reported in a subject with fibromyalgia. 5
 Iodine alone at
100mg/day
markedly improved the symptom scores. The addition of high dose vitamin B2 and B3 further improved the overall well-being in
FM patients. 6
The iodine project is now eight years old and strong, but not without enemies. Continued research and publications,
education of physicians and consumers, and more widespread utilization of the orthoiodosupplementation program are the most
effective ways to fight iodophobic bioterrorism and medical iodophobia. The future of the essential element iodine in medical practice looks very promising. We are rediscovering what our medical
predecessors already knew. To quote Nobel Laureate Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
7
: “When I was a medical student, iodine in the form
of KI was the universal medicine. Nobody knew what it did, but it did something and did something good. We students used to
sum up the situation in this little rhyme…If ye don’t know where, what, and why; prescribe ye then K and I… Our medical
predecessors, possessing very few and crude instruments only, had to make use of two given by nature (the use of which has
since gone out of fashion): eyes and brains. They were keen observers and the universal application of iodide might have been not
without foundation.”
May the most-high God, Creator of heaven and earth, continue to guide us and bring to light what was kept in darkness
for
over 60 years--the safe and effective use of the essential element iodine in the medical practice. Guy E. Abraham, M.D., FACN. 1
 Brownstein, D.,
Iodine: Why You Need It, Why You Can’t Live Without It. Medical Alternatives Press, West Bloomfield,
MI 2004
2
 Abraham, G and Brownstein, D. Evidence that the administration of Vitamin C improves a defective cellular transport
mechanism for iodine: A case report. The original Internist. 12 (3): 125-130, 2005
3
 Abraham, G., Flechas, J., Evidence of defective cellular oxidation and organification of iodide in a female with fibromyalgia
and chronic fatigue; The Original Internist. Vol 14: 2: 77-82. 2007
4
 Abraham, G., Flechas, J. Evidence of defective cellular oxidation and organification of iodide in a female with fibromyalgia
and chronic fatigue. The Original Internist. Vol. 14:2:77-82. 2007
5
 Abraham, G., et al. IBID. The Original Internist. Vol. 142:77-82. 2007.6
 Abraham, G., and J.D. Flechas, MD, The Effect of Daily Ingestion of 100 mg Iodine Combined with High Doses of
Vitamins
B2
 and B3 (ATP Cofactors) in Five Subjects with Fibromyalgia The Original Internist, Vol. 15, No. 1, 8-15, March
2008
7
 Szent-Gyorgyi, Bioenergetics Academic Press, NY. 1957FOREWORD to the 1
st
 Edition
Practicing holistic medicine for over 10 years has brought me into contact with many wonderful teachers. From these people I
have learned a tremendous amount about how to use safe and natural remedies to promote true healing in the body while not
relying on foreign substances (i.e., drugs) that simply treat the symptoms of illness and do little for treatment of the underlying
cause of illness. There are many physicians that I have learned from. Some of these wonderful physicians who have researched and educated
others about their successes in using natural items to promote true healing include: Jonathan Wright, Majid Ali, Broda Barnes and
William Jeffries. There are many more. I would like to add one more name to that list. His name is Guy Abraham, M.D. Dr. Abraham has been researching the
benefits of iodine therapy for 6 years. He studied the effects of iodine and looked at the research on iodine therapy. Dr. Abraham
has written numerous articles about the misinformation on iodine and how this misinformation has contributed to the poor health of
many of us. While reading the
Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients
 (May, 2003), I read a letter to the editor that was titled,
“Iodine Supplementation Markedly Increases Urinary Excretion of Fluoride and Bromide”. I was intrigued. I knew of the
deficiency of iodine and the consequences of this deficiency. I was also aware of certain toxic items (