Types Of Fasts
Fasting is another type of cleanse for the body, mind and spirit. People have taken part in fasts for thousands of years with successful results. Philosophers such as Socrates and Plato used fasting to help themselves better understand the truth. Many religions use fasting for purification, spiritual awakenings, and initiations. The Christian period of Lent is a time during which people give up certain foods as a way to connect with Jesus Christ’s sacrifice. During Ramadan, Moslems fast from food until sunset in order to focus more on prayer. Yom Kippur is a Jewish day of purification, during which people fast from food and water. Hinduism and Buddhism both contain practices of fasting before and during holy days, during certain phases of the moon, and before initiations.
Fasting has been defined in several ways. The term fasting can be used for a dry fast, which means being without food or water, or an abstinence from certain types of food, such as from meat. According to Dr. Gabriel Cousens in Spiritual Nutrition And The Rainbow Diet (1986), “Fasting in a larger context, means to abstain from that which is toxic to mind, body, and soul.” For many people, fasting will include taking a break from worldly responsibilities in order to abstain from the daily stresses involved with working, driving, etc. Some people will take a break from speaking or from any type of social interaction. Gandhi, for example, practiced one day of silence each week. By not focusing one’s attention so much on the outside world, one will have more energy to use for personal exploration, spiritual development, and cleansing. Gabriel Cousens says that one’s appetite usually diminishes within the first few days of a fast, allowing for the individual’s focus to move away from food. During spiritual fasting, one’s body stops using biochemical energy as fuel and instead uses pranic, or life force, energy. One’s level of pranic energy can increase with fasting, and if this energy reaches a certain point, one’s Kundalini, or dormant spiritual energy, can be awakened. Cousens states that fasting “is not done to make the body suffer, because in practical reality the body is also becoming healthier with fasting. It is done because, until we achieve a certain level of spiritual communion, the desires of the body-mind complex are often stronger than the desire of God communion.” (149)
There are many types of fasts, and Gabriel Cousens recommends a gradual process of initiating one’s body into fasting. Cousens gives four stages of fasting in his book Spiritual Nutrition And The Rainbow Diet (1986). The first level of fasting is for people who eat a meat diet. These people are recommended to fast from meat for one week twice a year. The second level suggests that people who do not eat meat fast on fruits and juices for either three days once per month or one day per week and additionally fast for seven days twice a year. The third level is for people on a lactovegetarian diet; they are recommended to fast on juices for the same schedule as level two. These first three levels of fasting are geared towards cleansing the body at the physiological level and as support for spiritual practices. The fourth level of fasting is different from the first three in that it is an active spiritual practice within itself, done in conjunction with prayer and meditation. The final level consists of four ten-day fasts per year and either fasting three days once a month or one day per week. This level is for people who are on a vegetarian diet and desire to use fasting to enhance their spirituality. Fasts at the final level can start out consisting of fruit and vegetable juices, then progress to wheatgrass, and finally to distilled water.
In the book The Healing Path Of Yoga (2000), Nischala Joy Devi outlines another method of progressive fasting, which she recommends following instead of jumping into long fasts without previous experience. In the first stage of her process, Devi suggests fasting for several hours. This can be done by eating a normal breakfast, skipping lunch, and instead practicing yoga or breathing exercises. One can drink herbal teas, vegetable juice, or vegetable broth to appease hunger. For dinner, eating in moderation and with appreciation is best. The second phase of fasting is for people who have had a positive experience with the first stage. During the second stage, one can eat a regular breakfast and lunch, but then fast from after lunch until breakfast the next morning, following the same guidelines as the first phase. This is about an eighteen hour fast, and a great deal of the time is spent in sleep. The third step is to fast for twenty-four hours by fasting from after lunch one day until lunch the next day. Nischala Joy Devi says the third phase of fasting “is sufficient for a regular once-a-week or once-a-month healing fast. Longer ones can be added as the practice feels more comfortable.” (201-202)
It is important, according to the Sivananda Yoga Center in The Sivananda Companion To Yoga (1983), to decide upon one type of fast a person wants to experience before starting the process. The best time to fast is when one isn’t extremely busy and can be without any type of medication. During a water fast, the Sivananda Yoga Center recommends drinking five to seven glasses of water per day slowly to absorb the most energy from them. A juice fast can consist of the same amount of fluids, and the best way to take juice is to chew it. The Sivananda Yoga Center stresses the importance of having guidance if fasting for more than four days. During a fast, the first three days are the hardest. The body can undergo many reactions during these first days, including headaches, bad breath, difficulty breathing, and vomiting. When any such reactions occur, it is because the body is trying to rid itself of toxins. If one does experience vomiting or breathing problems, it is best to break the fast slowly. Other recommendations include only performing light exercise, wearing plenty of clothing to keep warm, and practicing yoga postures and breathing exercises (which will be explored further in a later part of this course).
There is additionally a forty-day spiritual fast that Jesus, Moses, and the Essenes practiced. Jesus and Moses both fasted for forty days with no food or water. There is also a progressive forty-day fast that brings people from their every-day diet to fasting on liquids within forty days. If someone is a meat eater, for example, they could eat 37 days of vegetarian food and then three days of juice. The purpose of a longer fast is not to cleanse the body, but rather to commune with the Divine. Gabriel Cousens, in his book Spiritual Nutrition And The Rainbow Diet (1986), states, “It is on this (forty day) fast that we directly confront death and the offering up of our body, mind, and ego to God.” (155) Gabriel Cousens experienced very high energy and clearness with his own forty-day fast. He was able to meditate for increased amounts of time, and during the last phases of the fast, Cousens meditated for nine hours per day. Cousens states, “My mind became so devoid of thoughts that in meditation, it would simply dissolve into the light of God for hours at a time.” (156)
The physiology of fasting shows the benefits it can have on the physical body. When the body doesn’t receive nutrients through consuming food, it begins a process called autolysis. During this process, the body turns to poorly functioning cells and breaks them down to be metabolized. Autolysis usually begins after three days of fasting. According to Gabriel Cousens in Spiritual Nutrition And The Rainbow Diet, one should stop fasting when the body is done breaking down the unhealthy cells, which is indicated by a renewal of appetite. If one were to continue fasting at that point, the body would turn to its healthy cells and begin to break them down.
The organs of the body that help to release toxins, which are the liver, kidneys, bowels, lungs, and skin, are able to become more active during a fast. One’s body no longer has to use its energy to digest food and can instead focus more on cleansing itself. Evidence of toxic release during fasting is often foul breath, body odor and foul smelling feces, as well as an increased amount of mucous and dark urine. Elson Hass notes that fasting can be very beneficial for one’s overall health. He refers to fasting as the “missing link” in the typical Western diet. Too much food is often consumed too often.
Fasting has been used in the past to heal people and is currently used in other countries as well. According to Gabriel Cousens, fasts lasting from 14 to 21 days are commonly used in European fasting clinics for health therapy. Cousens notes that fasting can be dangerous for people with certain health conditions or in certain stages of life, such as lactating mothers, pregnant women, people who are not physically mature, and people who loose weight easily and have trouble regaining it.
There are several guidelines that Gabriel Cousens recommends for people who are fasting. It can be helpful to do enemas every day of a fast to clear toxins from one’s bowel. Using a skin brush to help the skin detoxify, being in the sun if possible, doing deep breathing exercises, performing exercises, taking saunas, abstaining from sexual activity, and using flower essences are all suggested during one’s time of fasting. Cousens has found the following combination of flower essences to be helpful during fasting: self-heal, silver sword, papaya, lotus, star sapphire, and quartz. Self-heal helps the body absorb prana, or universal energy. Silver sword balances one’s heart chakra and aids with the subtle bodies. Papaya essence helps to balance sexual and emotional energies, while lotus works on alignment of all levels of a person. Finally, star sapphire focuses on activating the chakras.
After
completing the time designated for one’s fast, it is essential to
transition between fasting and eating one’s regular diet. A person’s
digestive system will shut down during a liquid or dry fast for several
days or more, and when food is re-introduced to the body, the digestive
system will absorb nutrients very quickly. Cousens suggests breaking a
fast with foods that the individual wishes to use for rebuilding one’s
body, such as healthy, healing foods. The completion of a fast can be
an excellent time to change one’s diet or lifestyle. Gabriel Cousens
states, “I have found that a ratio of one day of breaking the fast
for each two to three days of fasting is a good guideline, though everyone’s
body is different and this needs to be individualized.” (153)