Fasting, Breatharians & Spiritual Awareness
FASTING IN THE ANCIENT WORLD
Fasting may seem like a fad in today’s modern world. It’s certainly a buzz topic in the alternative health community. However, fasting has long been practiced throughout human history. The ancient Greeks including Hippocrates and Plato both recommended fasting to repair the body and to achieve clarity of mind. The Egyptians, Buddha, the Bible, Ayurveda, and Shamanic cultures all included fasting as a means of restoring the body back to vibrant health.
Fasting was not solely about health either. It was used as a practice of devotion for God and a preparation for spiritual awareness. Shamans used fasting as preparation for deep cleansing and heightened states of consciousness for shamanic journeying, and as a bridge between the material world of form and the spiritual realms.
All of the major religions including Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism all display various forms of fasting as a religious practice not only centuries ago, but in various forms today. Christian saints, sages, and mystics have been known to fast showing devotion to God and to seek a closeness with Divinity itself.
Many traditions and cultures use fasting religiously to focus attention away from worldly possessions and concerns to concentrate on the connections with God. Not only do religions use it as a tool for communion with God, but it is also considered a form of repentance, as well as spiritual discipline utilizing regular prayer ritual. Fasting for religious purposes could be seen as a means to honor God, to enhance your individual faith in God, improve self-discipline and control, and to bring clarity of mind which opens up your ability to intuit spiritual guidance.
Lowering dependence on food and temptations of the body is believed to move your concentration solely toward your higher power. For those that are seeking and become determined to feel this in their life, fasting has been a tool passed down throughout millennia.
HEALTH BENEFITS OF FASTING
It is no secret that fasting is a natural method of healing. Whether the entire medical community wants to acknowledge it or not, it has been used repeatedly for healing and removing disease. Today, portions of the scientific community are finally embracing the health benefits of fasting moderately, or for even longer periods of time, which is a return to something humanity has always known.
More doctors are seeing the scientific evidence for less food and its ability to help repair a degenerating body. Fasting for periods of 8 hours or longer promotes autophagy, the natural celluar process where the body begins to eliminate unwanted wastes and creates cellular repair. Simply put, abstaining from food for longer periods of time allows the body to clean itself properly and without any medical intervention whatsoever.
Health benefits of fasting include weight loss, lower blood pressure, lower blood sugar levels, relief from chronic pain, improved mental clarity, reduced inflammation and autoimmune disease, as well as increased energy levels. There are facilities throughout the world devoted to fasting as a technique for healing. TrueNorth Health Center, located in Santa Rosa, California, has a team of doctors, naturopaths, chiropractors, and other specialists that provide assistance and medical monitoring during water fasting only. Many attendees experience miraculous healing after completing a 30-day guided fast as well as integrating back into healthier eating practices.
There are lots of different methods of fasting. Some suggest a regular 12 hour fast each day supplies daily healing to the body. Others promote a 16 hour fast and an 8 hour period of ingesting food. While some promote regular single to multiple day fasts or even longer for optimal healing. Every person is different, every body experiences a fast differently so it’s important to consult a medical or fasting practitioner if you are serious about healing a very chronic condition. Easing into the process and increasing your fasting periods may benefit the success of your fast.
The current culture is obsessed with food. The amount of food in stores, fast food and dine-in restaurants are on every city corner, the food pyramid teaching us we require adequate food nutrition, the conditioned programming that we need three meals a day to survive, the hoards of supplements flooding the shelves, not to mention the moment we are born food is thrown into our mouths every few hours, has created the belief we need ample nutrients from food and water to survive.
Whether it is true or not, we live in a society based around meals, meal times, and with the inner thought, do we have enough? Is this really true? Do we really need this much food? Fasting research and those who have experienced healing with less food are beginning to think otherwise. Is food the real source of chronic illness and disease that is consistently rising throughout the world?
BREATHARIANISM- PRANIC NOURISHMENT
Breatharians would say food is a contributing factor to the rise of chronic and degenerative disease. What is a breatharian anyway? Breatharians believe that one’s human life can be sustained by the Vedic term prana, or the magnetic life force permeating all things. This is often referred to as pranic nourishment or the ability of the body to absorb cosmic rays as food. Say what?! The energy field we live in can provide us with sustenance?
The moment you hear some people are living with very little food and drink your initial reaction might be to get vehemently angry and spout off things like, “That’s crazy! Those people are nuts! That’s not possible! Everyone knows you die without food after 30 days and 7 days without water! That’s pseudoscience!”
You might find yourself thinking this sounds mad, and because most of us believe food and water are nourishment, hearing that eating once a week or once a month or once a year seems completely bizarre, not to mention impossible. How can this be? Well, for those people that have actually tried it, they have something else to report.
Most breatharians report a period of transition, roughly around 21 days until you cross into a pranic nourishment state. Breatharians disagree that they are fasting because during fasting vasts amounts of weight is lost and is NOT sustainable for anyone long term. Once a person has crossed over into a state of vital life force, has immense energy, less need for sleep, and is NOT losing weight is considered a breatharian. The amount. of food consumed is very little compared to what the majority of the population is ingesting. Of course this is a transition and takes varying amounts of time depending on the individual and his or her state of health.
This is hard to fathom, isn’t it? Think about your stomach rumbling only hours after eating and telling you it needs more food. We’ve all been there! Smelling a savory meal, the aroma of spices cooking in the kitchen, and anxiously awaiting your first mouth-watering bite is what most of us look forward to. When we eat constantly, the body is sent into 24/7 digestion with very little time for rest. When you fast for periods of time, you allow the body to rid itself of toxic matter and transform weak cells into strong ones. The body becomes much more efficient and can utilize the air you breathe as a main source of nutrition. Breatharians claim if you do this consistently, your body begins to thrive on the essential nutrient of life which is prana, simply from the air we breathe. You no longer need as much food or water, and your weight becomes stable.
There are many people out there who have had great experience with this method of living. Some have not and there are surely deaths that have been reported. However, if you want to dive further into breatharians and those that have been successful no matter what level they are at, check out any of the following. You’ll be surprised at each story and how they came into the process of pranic nourishment. Even a young couple explains their pranic journey bringing a baby into the world, as well as maintaining a thriving pregnancy, something no OBGYN would believe. Most of us have no interest in joining this movement, however, incorporating the concepts of less food, deepening your connection with your breath, and getting out in the sunlight are all helpful tools to maintain a healthy body.
IS FASTING REQUIRED FOR SPIRITUAL AWARENESS?
It’s clear that less food encourages a stronger, healthier, more vibrant body which can eliminate or help prevent chronic illness and disease. But, what does fasting or becoming a breatharian have to do with spiritual awareness? Is it necessary to stop eating to recognize your Divinity or be guided by the spiritual aspect of your mind? Many who take this path of fasting claim it is. They have many stories of feeling clearer of mind and more connected to their true nature without the distractions of food and digestion. Some have heightened states of consciousness and claim to be at a higher level of spiritual advancement. If we are not really a body, then why does it matter if the body is eating or not, to know yourself as a spiritual being? It seems possible that fasting can lead one into the higher realms of consciousness, but is it a requirement?
Clearly it is not. Many people who are extremely ill report out of body experiences, mystical states, and experiences of oneness with a higher power. Those who are approaching death, even clinically dead, report having near death experiences all while the body was incapacitated. The Buddha didn’t look like he lacked nourishment from food, yet he still had a miraculous opening under the Bodhi Tree. A woman by the name of Jill Bolte Taylor, a PhD in neuroscience, experienced a massive stroke many years ago and wrote a book about it. At the same time her body was failing, she had a beautiful expansive experience that altered the course of her life forever, as well as her understanding of consciousness.
It seems there are many pathways to Truth, and the body is not necessarily a part of that experience. A Course in Miracles reminds us that the body is nothing, and the only healing ever needed is in the mind. The Course also reminds us that the brain is not the mind, a common misconception, and the brain should always be considered as a part of the body, and nothing to do with the decision making part of your mind.
If the body is truly nothing, then why would it hold any resemblance of our true nature in God? Why would the body need to be in any state of health for the mind to unite once again with spirit? These are questions to ponder as you walk your own unique spiritual path. What works for some, may not work for others. Each one of us has our own pathway Home, so be mindful of what resonates with you and what doesn’t. Is it possible that fasting and breatharians can discover spirituality within themselves? Absolutely. Does it mean it is the only way? No it does not.
The key word here is the spirit that resides within you. Nothing on the outside, or within the physical structure can change what is already in you. If you want to keep your body functioning as smoothly as possible, eating less may play a vital role, and fasting is an option. However, whether you want to eat three meals a day, or no meals at all, that’s just a preference in the world and shouldn’t be confused with your ability to connect with your highest self as spirit that resides in your mind.