food/spirit

I've only done one cleanse, The Master Cleanse and I've done it five times, the first and the most recent being the most succesfull attempts.. or communes, if you will.  I was drawn to it from first hearing about it by how radically different it is from "the norm" and that it would be probably the most challenging thing I'd attempted to that point.  it was, though a Vipassana meditaion course has since surpassed it.

Stanley Burroughs seems to be coming about this idea of cleansing as a spiritual practice. The book was a fantastic read and I felt well supported by that alone.  Almost like a bible.  being non-religious for my adult life, I can now understand more experientially the notion of a bible.  this little yellow book is preceded 'biblically' for me by "Healing With Whole Foods" by Paul Pitchford... though not in quite as radical an experiential way.

Taking the leap into such an endeavor as the master cleanse is an act of faith.  Trusting the powerfull creative force of the universe to take care of things while you journey into radical unknown territory is akin to any mystical journey.

As I get to know my body on a more intimate level~as the cleanse progresses, I notice more clearly how habit-patterns are so well entrenched.  I begin to feel a lightness that comes from breaking those bonds. it's like, as the body is getting cleaner, the pathways for cognition are becoming more like the superhighways they're supposed to be.  There's a fogginess that clears (many many times over...  many many layers of fogginess) and this human machine that I embody suddenly feels like a really well oiled and tuned device that is so well connected to the "primal matrix".  This usually happens at about day eight...

are you able to describe the process?

on goals

I would like to do an extended commune with the master cleanse (at least) once a year.  the next time I want to do 20 days min... mebbe this summer.

I would like to pick entheogenic mushrooms in the wild and eat them in their natural habitat.

I'm in a pretty carnivorous diet right now and it needs amendment.  I've stopped smoking tobacco after 17 years only four months ago and since have gained about 25lbs.  I look GREAT!!! right now but am concerned it won't stop... and if I keep eating all the free meat I can at work.... definitely a dietary goal.  I was 170 as a teenager and it was too heavy.

As an adult I've had a mostly vegetarian diet with meat phases scattered throughout. While, up until I was twenty I ate meat at least twice a day.  I think I'm a lot less terrified as a middle-aged adult than as a  young adult.  Diet could certainly play a key role in that.  A recurring theme throughout journals is the need to clean up the dietary and lifestyle. 

It feels like I'm getting cleaner all the time.  (I was in SUCH HUGE denial about how filthy smoking was!!!)  The last four months have been incredible and I'm excited for being in the current we're in. 

There is a guiding force.  I won't waste time trying to name it.  I'll just trust it... and what it moves me to do...

on benefits

If I try and think what my life would be like without doing what I do in relation to diet and spirituality, I firstly can't totally get my mind around it but then, it seems a life that is drab and mundane... at best.  I don't know at all if I would be alive if I wasn't living this life.

The downfall, but not in all ways a challenge, is that my spiritual lifestyle is technically still illegal.  This is the truth for many plant-Lovers out there.  Herbalists included.

But whatever!  The payoff is huge.  The biggest benefit is that it feels like i am getting it.  Like total liberation (or whaever you want to call it) is within my grasp.  Whether this is simply an opportunistic... who knows.  I do know that i'm really excited about what it feels like in a body growing old... but i'm not attached to it happening either... simply trusting.

so how about you tell me your story?