Fasting

[LivingLife]

Back in my believer daze, we had annual fasting usually in Feb where they encouraged the congregation to fast to hear from the lawd - I never participated.

 

What I do remember was that folk would be proud of just how long they had held out but I doubt that they actually did not eat. A 40 day fast seems just impossible and unless you were an obese person, there were no fat reserves the body can tap into.

 

The idea is based on the 40 days in the desert of Jesus so that he could become the uber messiah which anyway sounds ridiculous as why must even the son of god have to suck up to his father to get in his good books or commune with him.

 

Furthermore, why is it necessary that food must be excluded to commune with god? In all likelihood, this sounds like encouraging delusional thinking as the body needs nutrition and may get folk to hallucinate.

 

A good synopsis here http://www.professor...-Without-Food-/

 

There have been numerous activists who have placed themselves into a

starvation trance

in order to prove a political or religious point. Of the twelve most infamous starvation oriented protests, two people lost their tongues, one lost their feet, seven ended up on dialysis at least for a short period of time, and two died. Their fasts lasted for between 4 and 6 weeks.

Any thoughts?

[Mriana]

A 40 day fast seems just impossible and unless you were an obese person, there were no fat reserves the body can tap into.

 

Or anorexic. I held out, living on nothing but coffee, cappuccinos, and communion.

 

Furthermore, why is it necessary that food must be excluded to commune with god? In all likelihood, this sounds like encouraging delusional thinking as the body needs nutrition and may get folk to hallucinate.

 

You're right. Brain chemistry is altered when one fasts, esp for a great amount of time. It works very well in which to feel transcendence and "at one with God".

 

A good synopsis here http://www.professor...-Without-Food-/

 

There have been numerous activists who have placed themselves into a

starvation trance

in order to prove a political or religious point. Of the twelve most infamous starvation oriented protests, two people lost their tongues, one lost their feet, seven ended up on dialysis at least for a short period of time, and two died. Their fasts lasted for between 4 and 6 weeks.

Any thoughts?

 

If they could stop after 4-6 weeks. The whole thing is a recipe for an eating disorder or rather an ingredient of it. There is more to eating disorders than JUST fasting for religious reasons, but religion doesn't help.

[LivingLife]

If they could stop after 4-6 weeks. The whole thing is a recipe for an eating disorder or rather an ingredient of it. There is more to eating disorders than JUST fasting for religious reasons, but religion doesn't help.

 

I never saw any side effects of folk losing feet or tongues that is why I think they perhaps held out for a week max. 6 weeks is 42 days and I think that anyone dumb enough to try this willfully is asking for trouble.

 

My thoughts were that how does one simply go back to being normal? My guess is that the stomach chemistry would adjust or one would end up with ulcers. Anyway you look at it, the idea of fasting is not a sound thing to do and why the woo woos would see this as a logical thing to do beats me.

[Mriana]

I don't know about ulcer, losing feet, or anything like that, but I do know about anorexia.

[stryper]

well there are many spritual reasons to do it.

 

But what I've heard that makes the most sense to me. Is a 3-5 fast. With basically watered fruit juice or thin broth in the morning and at night. The main reason is to help reset the digestive system.

 

after 3 days most of the food in your system should have moved through. by 5 days your body will have rested.

 

I have heard of people doing it before starting a major change in diet or workout program.

 

I've never actually done it...so I can't say to the effectiveness, but it sounds reasonable.

[LivingLife]

Fasting as you explained also makes sense but you are ingesting more than just water. A true 40 day fast is only with water and no nutrients like you would get from fruit juices. I doubt under the circumstances you described that there would be any hallucinations.

[Xerces]

I did a whole week without any food once when I was a christard. Never doing that shit again, is not healthy at all.

[Mriana]

well there are many spritual reasons to do it.

 

But what I've heard that makes the most sense to me. Is a 3-5 fast. With basically watered fruit juice or thin broth in the morning and at night. The main reason is to help reset the digestive system.

 

after 3 days most of the food in your system should have moved through. by 5 days your body will have rested.

 

Not if one is an Xian with an eating disorder. It's like giving an alcoholic a sip of wine. Communion is also supposedly spiritual, but it can be a problem for those who are alcoholics, esp if the Communion wine isn't fruit juice.

[Phanta]

It's like giving an alcoholic a sip of wine. Communion is also supposedly spiritual, but it can be a problem for those who are alcoholics, esp if the Communion wine isn't fruit juice.

 

That's true, on both counts.

[JadedAtheist]

I've fasted on a couple of occasions when something serious came up, never more than a couple days though. It helps focus one's mind from what I noticed. I've had friends who've fasted for a week or more but those haven't been "true" fasts. They would usually have drinks that were basically blended vegetables/fruits in them, to keep 'em from dying I guess

[Margee]

I made it for 3 days one time and I had a MIRACLE!!

 

I lost 2 pounds!

[Mriana]

I made it for 3 days one time and I had a MIRACLE!!

 

I lost 2 pounds!

 

Yeah, it was all water. You gained it back within a day, didn't you?

[Tabula Rasa]

well there are many spritual reasons to do it.

 

But what I've heard that makes the most sense to me. Is a 3-5 fast. With basically watered fruit juice or thin broth in the morning and at night. The main reason is to help reset the digestive system.

 

after 3 days most of the food in your system should have moved through. by 5 days your body will have rested.

 

I have heard of people doing it before starting a major change in diet or workout program.

 

I've never actually done it...so I can't say to the effectiveness, but it sounds reasonable.

 

I've wanted to do something like this for a little while. I've had some stomach problems, and would like to see if getting my "pipes clean" (cleaning out my entire alimentary canal) might make me feel better. One thing I've considered besides the broth and fruit juice you've mentioned, is drinking V-8 juice. That way I could make sure I got all my vitamins and minerals. Would it be ok to drink vegetable juice as well as broth and fruit juice?

[florduh]

I'm sorry, but every time I glance at this topic I see Fisting - What does it achieve and How?

 

After that, the topic of simply not eating for a few days seemed dull.

 

I know, I know. I've heard it before - I'm just not right.

 

Carry on.

[Margee]

I'm sorry, but every time I glance at this topic I see Fisting - What does it achieve and How?

 

After that, the topic of simply not eating for a few days seemed dull.

 

I know, I know. I've heard it before - I'm just not right.

 

Carry on.

 

Florduh! :twitch:

[florduh]

Margee! You shouldn't even know what that means!

[Mriana]

What does it mean? I thought it was play boxing or something like that. Something tells me I should be blushing with embarrassment.

[stryper]

 

I've wanted to do something like this for a little while. I've had some stomach problems, and would like to see if getting my "pipes clean" (cleaning out my entire alimentary canal) might make me feel better. One thing I've considered besides the broth and fruit juice you've mentioned, is drinking V-8 juice. That way I could make sure I got all my vitamins and minerals. Would it be ok to drink vegetable juice as well as broth and fruit juice?

 

You could substitue, I would think. I am not an authority on it by any means.

 

If memory serves, I think the idea was for juices of low acid content. And you could do weak tea non caffinateed. My thought was the straight V-8 is tomato based. Tomatos are a higher acid veggie, well technically fruit but that's a whole other discussion. So you would need to water it down.

 

I would think with a history of stomach problem, you would also need to consult a Dr before doing anything. They would probably recommend skipping things like orange, lemon, pineapple, and tomato juices as they have higher acids and could aggreivate stomach problems on an empty stomach.

 

The other idea of the fast was to give your body some nutrition while doing it but not enough that the body has to really work at it, say compared to eating McDonald's. From what I understand, this was suggested as a general advice for a fast to reset the system. So it could help.

 

But plese check with your Dr or a nutritionist before you do Tabula. If you should do it and it only aggravates issuses then obviously stop.

[♦ Fuego ♦]

Most believers I knew, including myself, found that god seemed more distant while fasting. Some said that fasting "brings up the dross so he can skim it off", or any other excuse to keep it a mystical holy thing. I never experienced any breakthroughs, and never made it past a week before my joints began hurting. No more fasting for me except for blood tests.

[Mriana]

Most believers I knew, including myself, found that god seemed more distant while fasting. Some said that fasting "brings up the dross so he can skim it off", or any other excuse to keep it a mystical holy thing. I never experienced any breakthroughs, and never made it past a week before my joints began hurting. No more fasting for me except for blood tests.

 

Actually, I felt closer in that I felt transcended when I fast, esp with the candles, music, physical ritual, etc in the service and as a lay minister, it was even stronger than it was when I was out in the congregation.

[Wade]

There is no health benefit to fasting. Your body needs certain nutrients to maintain the chemical processes. Depriving your body of those nutrients has no positive effect on your body.

 

It is as helpful as running your car out of gas or oil.

 

 

I would suspect the psychological effect for religion is enormous.

 

Someone who has physically suffered for their religion is going to be even less likely to admit they have been duped.

 

It's just another form of mind control.

[MagickMonkey]

I've got a friend who was essentially on a beer diet for a long while. He'd eat half a cheese burger or something every now and then. I don't think his beer diet had any religious purpose, though. Maybe this would be a good strategy for fasting for the FSM.

[MagickMonkey]

The only thing I could figure is that fasting improved one's discipline. It could boost one's ability to delay gratification. I think there's probably more healthy ways of doing that, though.

[VacuumFlux]

I once heard the idea that it's supposed to help you avoid worldly distractions and focus on God, or to provide a sense of perspective on life when you do realize you're getting hungry (especially for rich Americans who've never had to skip meals out of necessity). I have had times where I got so involved in a project that I forgot to eat; I though fasting was intended to get you so focused on prayer that the lack of food doesn't matter.

 

One thing my mom would say about fasting, is that it isn't supposed to be about giving something up; it's about filling that time with prayer instead. She does occasionally try to fast for a meal when there's a prayer event, but that tends to give her migraines so she doesn't try very often.

 

The churches I've been to never required a fast, but would occasionally recommend it to those who were healthy enough when there was a specific important thing the whole congregation was supposed to be praying for. They were also big on the idea that a fast can be things other than food, particularly small comfort habits like eating chocolate. That way, every time you'd go for chocolate out of habit, you'd remember to pray instead. I think you were also supposed to realize something about how attached you get to worldly things that "don't matter" to your spiritual progress.

 

I have seen one secular "fast" where they asked people to skip lunch and donate the money they would have spent on lunch to a food bank. I assume most people just felt kinda bad that they thought nothing about eating lunch while other people went hungry, and donated money without skipping any meals themselves.

 

Personally, I used to skip meals on accident a lot in college, and later discovered that I'm hypoglycemic. I'd get sleepy instead of hungry, and in the afternoons/evenings I'd get paranoid (the sky is falling! I'm failing all my classes! all my friends hate me!) and depressed and couldn't focus, wonder why, and eventually realize I hadn't eaten yet that day. I guess it's not always that bad for other people, because I can't imagine that level of crazy being useful in any spiritual practice. Unless that's just what you go through before hitting the hallucinating high stage of starvation.

[gypsy79]

Furthermore, why is it necessary that food must be excluded to commune with god? In all likelihood, this sounds like encouraging delusional thinking as the body needs nutrition and may get folk to hallucinate.

 

I have wondered this before as well, although I have also heard explanations like the one Vacuum's mother gave, "that it isn't supposed to be about giving something up; it's about filling that time with prayer instead."

 

Personally, I can't go more than about 3 hours without a food headache starting ...