What is fasting? – Part 03
Is it not obvious that if fasting suppresses Vomiting, diarrhea, coughing, inflammation, fever and the other symptoms that make up what we commonly today refer to as a disease, it would be as evil as drugging, to call fasting the fasting cure? The hunger cure or the abstinence cure, as many have done before, is to place it in a false light, unless of course, we understand that by cure what is originally meant is care. Care for the patient, care for the body. Fasting is part of rational care for the sick body. It does not cure disease as the word cure is now commonly used.
That fasting is a period of physiological rest was emphasized by all early natural hygienists, Jennings, Graham, Troll, et cetera. In fevers and in all inflammatory diseases, fasting is a matter of the first importance as a rule. Nature herself points out this remedy, when animals have a malady, they stop eating. Loss of appetite is a symptom of disease, and it points also to the mode of cure. Not only must the stomach have a rest, but all the organs of nutrition and the nerves which produce their action. When we stop food in fevers and inflammations, we diminish the volume of the blood and relieve the action of the heart and by relieving the system of the labour of digestion and assimilation, we allow the nervous force (authors note: Living Energy) to expand. Itself in recuperative action, c cold is a sort of fever, and there is no better remedy for a cold than abstinence from food. After pointing out that the loss of appetite seen in all acute diseases and common in chronic disease is the voice of nature, forbidding us to eat, and lamenting the fact that physicians and nurses disregard this voice of nature and force food down the throats of disgusted patients.
That fasting is a period of physiological rest was emphasized by all early natural hygienists, Jennings, Graham, Troll, et cetera. In fevers and in all inflammatory diseases, fasting is a matter of the first importance as a rule. Nature herself points out this remedy, when animals have a malady, they stop eating. Loss of appetite is a symptom of disease, and it points also to the mode of cure. Not only must the stomach have a rest, but all the organs of nutrition and the nerves which produce their action. When we stop food in fevers and inflammations, we diminish the volume of the blood and relieve the action of the heart and by relieving the system of the labour of digestion and assimilation, we allow the nervous force (authors note: Living Energy) to expand. Itself in recuperative action, c cold is a sort of fever, and there is no better remedy for a cold than abstinence from food. After pointing out that the loss of appetite seen in all acute diseases and common in chronic disease is the voice of nature, forbidding us to eat, and lamenting the fact that physicians and nurses disregard this voice of nature and force food down the throats of disgusted patients.
“It seems necessary to point out that any return to the prior mode of living after the fast will reproduce a state of enervation and toxemia, thus giving rise to more suffering, which may tempt the relief seeker to again resort to the old relief measure. If he does this, he may again find himself in the grip of addiction. Only by first class habits of living can any man guarantee himself against evils of all kinds.”
P. 322 Herbert Shelton The Science of Fasting
Anyone can be benefited by a fast, the length of which needs to be discussed with your Neo natural hygienist, but the best fast is one to completion. Meaning until nature shows us that the fast has terminated. Of course we would not advise someone, who has been eating all his life three meals a day or more, to immediately attempt total abstinence from food for seven days. Though such a fast under such conditions would be productive only of benefit, provided it could be born without too much of a mental strain and provided great care is used not to overeat when normal dietary habits are resumed.
It seems necessary to point out that any return to the prior mode of living after the fast will reproduce a state of enervation and toxemia, thus giving rise to more suffering, which may tempt the relief seeker to again resort to the old relief measure. If he does this, he may again find himself in the grip of addiction. Only by first class habits of living can any man guarantee himself against evils of all kinds.
In fact, the greatest difficulty and risk in connection with a fast of any direction is a tendency to overeat after the fast. This error will often be productive of so much injury that all the beneficial results of a fast are practically erased. Unquestionably, it would be better in experimenting with fasting to start by fasting one meal or say one day at a time. The result of this will give you confidence in its benefits and then you can gradually advance into a full-fledged convert.
The principal value of such a conversion will be that from Day One an absolute independence of all advisors, medical and or otherwise, upon an ailment of any kind that attacks you. Fasting will be at once the principal part of the “yourself treatment“ and forever. Thereafter, your stomach will be free of any unnatural habit. Living after the fast like we used to before the fast, will only lead to the same situations, same discussion and also same challenges.
