Fasting

[Foreigner]

I've been meditating on the idea of fasting a lot lately, mostly for "spiritual" purposes. That, or temporarily reverting to very light diets like vegetarianism, or only eating once a day for a short period of time. I've been some reading Qabbalistic texts lately, which then lead me to more traditional texts across the Judeochristian diaspora, and they all recommend fasting during periods of spiritual devotion. Obviously this concept wasn't invented by them, it's just what's bringing it up for me. In the Judeochristian traditions, there are periods of the year when you only eat between sundown and sunrise (like Passover or Ramadan), in order to purify and to feel a closer connection to God. It's also meant to be a symbol of personal sacrifice to prove devotion, in some cases. Even during those periods where you can eat, they recommend you abstain from meat, though the reason is never really explained. However, one thing I've come to understand about older texts is that their specific protocols have a rationale that you often have to simply do to experience.

I used to be a vegetarian, for 8 years, and although I had to abandon it for health reasons I remember that I felt a lot lighter at the time, and my body felt cleaner (smelled cleaner too!). I know that it's recommended that people fast once a year regardless of the reasons because it gives the GI a break and a chance to eliminate excess. There's an association with fasting and becoming "lighter", whereas gluttony tends to cause heaviness and turn the spiritual senses mundane. In ancient Greece, Hippocrates would get each of his patients who had chronic conditions to fast for a period of three days to eliminate excess which clouded the diagnosis. In the absence of the excess, the body's true health position would appear, and could then be treated more accurately. This method was used in the west all the way up to the time that Paracelsus introduced alchemy.

My problem is that when I fast, my blood sugar gets reaalllly low, to the point where I'm shaking. The catch-22 is that hypoglycemia is caused by an inefficiency in the liver converting glycogen (stored sugar) to glucose (free circulating sugar), and this is caused by excess. So to resolve the hypoglycemia, fasting seems necessary.

Anyway... I'm curious what people's experiences are here with intentional fasting for spiritual purposes. I'd like to avoid talking about modern "detox" diets and fad diets. I'm specifically interested in traditional fasting methods targeted at spiritual practitioners. Have you had success with these methods? Which method did you use? Did it enhance a spiritual process at all? Was it difficult or challenging? Could you conduct all your daily affairs or did you have to scale back your life a bit?

I notice that if I eat lightly in the days prior to a psychedelic trip, the trip is more intense, there's less of an uncomfortable body load, and any propensity towards it becoming a bad trip is greatly reduced.

 

[Ninae]

I recommend "The Yoga of Nutrition" for good advice about this.

 

[Jabberwocky]

Anyway... I'm curious what people's experiences are here with intentional fasting for spiritual purposes. I'd like to avoid talking about modern "detox" diets and fad diets. I'm specifically interested in traditional fasting methods targeted at spiritual practitioners. Have you had success with these methods? Which method did you use?

Yeah, you're gonna want to read up about it a lot. There are lots of opinions out there, some of which are so radially different that it seems hard to get clarity. Dig around from multiple sources and see what resonates with you. I've tried lots of different methods, and ever the tinkerer, I've made variations as well. I used to be more into the extreme things. One of the more unpleasant ones was the salt water flush. After a while it becomes a marathon of how much weird shit your body can take. I've mellowed out a lot since then. I'll share with you the version of the fast I use these days when I do it. Rather than make all sorts of claims which you'll hear from others as you read, I'll simply say that I find the experience is a generally positive one and one I personally value enough to keep doing it. Once you breakthrough to the other side of the fast you feel good and there is a lightness of being feeling that accompanies it. It's useful to know what that feels like for discernment purposes if nothing else. It also gives your bio-flora a chance to reset, which is one of the main sources of imbalance in our lives in my way of thinking. What you do with that clean slate is up to you.

I've settled on a fast/cleanse that involves drinking organic vegetable juices only. It's a lot more humane than other fasts out there. I go to the local whole foods and load up my cart with a variety, making sure they have no added sugar or anything like that. You can add cayenne pepper to give it a kick if you like. I drink as much as I feel like without counting calories or anything like that. As far a supplements go, I take psyllium husk and probiotics. I used to go overboard with all kinds of supplementation, but now I just keep it simple. I also make sure to drink lots of lemon juice from fresh squeezed lemons (the concentrate juice isn't the same thing and sucks as a shortcut). I start my day with a glass of lemon water. Then drink it liberally throughout the day. Peppermint or milk thistle tea are the only other things I allow. Everything else is cut, including medicines (if safe to do so), tobacco, coffee, etc, etc. I target three days minimum. First couple days are the detox days, the third day is when one starts to experience the benefits. More often than not I stop after day three, but sometimes you want to keep going and that's safe too. I've made it to day five. The most important part of the fast in my experience for more lasting benefits is how you break it. It took me a while to learn this lesson. I'd spend so much time dreaming about food when I was fasting that when I broke it I'd jump right into some heavy mexican food or something like that. You spent all this time cleaning house, why shock your system?Good rule of thumb is for every day spent fasting, spend one day eating brown rice and veggies only or something along those lines. Gives your body a chance to settle and stabilize. Hope that's useful

Best wishes Foreigner

 

[Helpmehelptheworld]

To add onto what Levels is saying it'd be smart to add something like ginger into the mix and perhaps get dried beans and cook them (cheap and easy) and add that to the mix when you are on your rice days.


Then it also gets important to realize that the foods you eat need to have an assortment of vitamins with it. Magnesium, Vitamin D, and other micro nutrients come to mind as highly important. Also as a male if you're whacking it semi regularly I'd recommend an intake of zinc. Can always google to find what veggies does what. Starve the Ego Feed the Soul some say.

 

[sigmond]

Short not very elaborate nor informative and seemingly obvious answer forthcoming...

In the past I have fasted for three to seven days and remember at approximately 48 hours my mind would become clearer while also experiencing that feeling of lightness you described. Instead of a complete fast I would prefer to limit my food and beverage intake to water, juice, yogurt, baked potato, minimal coffee, or perhaps a veggie wrap. I believe it is good for you in moderation as long as you have the discipline not to binge eat following the fast.

Regarding spiritual experience:

I do not believe I ever had one although the most I ever went was about 7 days and only did that a few times.

Sláinte!