THE HEALING PATH A soulful journey from suffering to grace, PART 2
Dr. Gregory T. Lawton
The Healing Path The Healing Path and the Fasting Cure Often when we think of beginning treatment programs for our health issues our first thoughts center around what should we eat, what supplements should we take, or what herbs should we use? We are thinking about what we can do, or what we can add, to our diet or nutritional regime. Many times, what we should be thinking about is what can we omit or subtract from our diet and lifestyle and this brings us to the important subject of fasting. There are many paths towards healing and these paths include physical medicine, whether conventional allopathic medicine or traditional holistic health care, psychological counseling and therapy, and through spiritual means including prayer, meditation, and unconditional service and charity to others. Fasting falls between all of these and has beneficial effects on our body, mind, and spirit. The effects of fasting are not strictly physical, mental, or spiritual but rather exert influences on all aspects of our being. Bahá'u'lláh stated, “Verily, I say, fasting is the supreme remedy and the most great healing for the disease of self and passion.” It is currently popular to go on a “detox” program and many of these programs involve a dietary plan, nutritional supplements, and/or herbs as a means of “detoxifying” the body of accumulated chemical substances that we have acquired through bad dietary habits or the chemicals that are added to foods to preserve, color, bleach, texturize, or improve their taste. But just as important, perhaps more important, are the toxic emotions that we experience from painful memories, anger, grief, depression, anxiety and stress, trauma, and poor decisions and moral behaviors. Fasting is a powerful remedy for body, mind, and spiritual healing. It is a panacea that can effectively heal all dimensions of our being. When I am consulting with patients, often on serious or difficult cases, fasting is one of the tools that I like to recommend. There are many kinds of fasts, including religious fasts, the intermittent fast, the single food fast, a fruit fast, a vegetable fast, and a juice or herbal tea fast, but my preference is ether a total water fast or an intermittent fast. The type of fast that I utilize therapeutically with patients depends upon the patient and the illness or disease that the patient has. The total water fast involves only drinking pure water for a specified number of days. A person who is going to attempt a total water fast should be assessed and cleared for the fast by their physician and then supervised by a doctor during the duration of the fast. A total water fast may be from one day up to 25 or 30 days in duration. The longer the fast is the more critical it is that a doctor is supervising the fast and monitoring the vital signs of the person who is fasting. I do not consider fasts that allow the consumption of a single food, like rice, or fasts based upon the eating of fruit and vegetables, or fruit or vegetable juice fasts, to be as physiologically beneficial as a total water fast. For example, a person may be using fasting to treat cancer and because of the documented benefits of fasting in the reduction of dietary sugar and blood glucose which are known to
feed cancer cells. If the person is using apple juice or carrot juice, then they may be supplying the body with significant amounts of sugar and carbohydrates and defeating the purpose of the fast. Physical healing, no matter what kind is pursued or applied in the treatment of disease, will not be effective and lasting unless it is accompanied by spiritual healing. Abdul-Baha instructs that, “There are two ways of healing sickness, material means and spiritual means. The first is by the use of remedies, of medicines; the second consists in praying to God and in turning to Him. Both means should be used and practiced.” Consider his statement, “Both means should be used and practiced”. Some Bahá'í s that I have talked with interpret this statement to mean, either or, or that they can use one or the other, material or spiritual, and my opinion is that it means that both means should be used, both material and spiritual, and that they should be used together. Well is it with the physician who cureth ailments in My hallowed and dearly-cherished Name. (Bahá'u'lláh, from a Tablet - translated from the Arabic) Most religions observe and practice fasting in some form or another. Religious fasts may be defined and structured in accordance with religious laws or fasting may be a periodic activity that is freely practiced by a person who is following a religious or spiritual path. Regardless, of whether a religious fast is a mandatory part of a person’s faith, or is freely practiced, these faith-based fasts exhibit a beneficial influence upon body, mind, and spirit. Bahá'u'lláh says, “The healer of all thine ills is remembrance of Me, forget it not. Make My love thy treasure and cherish it even as thy very sight and life.” (The Hidden Words of Bahá'u'lláh, Persian no. 32, rev. ed. Wilmette: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1985), p. 43) Albert Einstein stated that” Science without religion is lame, and religion without science is blind”. One of the central principles of the Bahá'í Faith is the oneness of religion and science or that the two should agree. Long before Einstein made his statement Bahá'ís believed that religion that is not in agreement with science is mere superstition and that science without spirituality can lead mankind to great harm and destruction. Bahá'ís observe the spiritual laws of their Faith which involve prayer, meditation, and fasting. They also accept the body of scientific evidence regarding the many health benefits of fasting, and specifically the form of “intermittent” daily fasting that defines the annual nineteen-day Bahá'í fast. Beginning March 2nd, and continuing for nineteen days until the first day of spring, the Bahá'ís do not eat or drink anything from the hours of sunrise to sunset. This is a form of intermittent fasting, and while it is symbolic of detachment from the material world, it is known to have significant physiological and health benefits. Intermittent fasting (caloric restriction) has been found in scientific and medical studies to have many physiological benefits including the prevention of the formation of abnormal protein molecules in the body that may be progenitors to cancer cell formation and the aberrant molecules seen in epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease. Intermittent fasting, the 16/8-hour program schedule (16 hours of fasting before eating), has found popularity in the treatment of obesity, diabetes, and other metabolic disorders. Bahá'u'lláh has enjoined upon Bahá'ís to seek out the guidance of competent physicians, even if the patient is themselves a physician. “According to the explicit decree of Bahá'u'lláh one must not turn aside from the advice of a competent doctor. It is imperative to consult one even if the patient himself be a well-known and eminent
physician. In short, the point is that you should maintain your health by consulting a highly-skilled physician.” (Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha, p. 155) A competent physician employing fasting as a treatment modality would be a doctor trained in fasting therapeutics. As a wise teacher once told me, “You cannot give a gift that you do not possess, you cannot teach what you do not know.” The word doctor, originating from the Latin doctoris, means teacher or master teacher and a competent doctor is foremost a teacher of his or her patients in how to prevent becoming sick and if they do become ill, how to treat their illness, as is provided in the words and guidance of Bahá'u'lláh, “Treat disease through diet, by preference. (Bahá'u'lláh: Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era, 1980 ed.,p. 106) If, while following your path towards healing, you want to utilize fasting, then seek a doctor who is trained and experienced in this powerful healing remedy and cure. Bahá'í Prayer for Fasting “O God! as I am fasting from the appetites of the body and not occupied with eating and drinking, even so purify and make holy my heart and my life from aught else save Thy Love, and protect and preserve my soul from self-passions and animal traits. Thus, may the spirit associate with the Fragrances of Holiness and fast from everything else save Thy mention.” (Abdu’l-Baha: Star of the West, Vol. IV, No.18, p. 305)