10. Questions & Answers

I fully understand that fasting would help me with my sinus trouble. I also suffer from constipation and digestive troubles although both of these are responding to my improved diet. However my family, and especially my husband, are totally against my missing a single meal, never mind going on a prolonged fast that may last two or three weeks. How can one resolve a problem like that?

Family opposition such as you describe may not be capable of full solution. From time to time we have family group meetings. If your husband would come to some of these, he might learn something about fasting and eventually give his consent for you to embark on a prolonged fast. If not, then continue on your present Hygienic path, being sure to meet all your body needs adequately. Miss a meal occasionally, several if and when you can. Healthful practices add up, in time, to major health benefits. It will just take you longer.

Will fasting help a person with a mental condition?

It all depends upon the underlying cause of the mental condition. If, for example, it is due to some kind of mechanical malconstruction, then it is doubtful that a fast would be of much, if any, benefit. However, if the sickness has come about through unhealthful eating and living practices which have in turn produced an inner toxic state, then the fast might be conducive to healing. It would all depend, of course, upon how much irreparable brain damage had occurred. However, in any case, a fast is worth trying before other, perhaps more dangerous, practices (such as surgery, hypnotism, and the like) be resorted to.

Isn't the fear of fasting an irrational fear?

It may well be, but it can be very real to the person thus afflicted, so real, in fact, that it can prevent his ever beginning a perhaps badly needed fast or it could actually produce great harm should the person who is overcome with fear nevertheless attempt to fast. This is why we emphasize the need not only to acquaint clients with the fasting concept but also to school them thoroughly before they undergo even a rather short fast. We should remember that best results are always obtained when a client has explicit faith in the fasting procedure and, also, in the practitioner.

Why is it that fasting is beneficial in some conditions, but less so with others?

That is a good question and one that perhaps needs to be addressed more in our studies. People are different. Diseases, with a few exceptions, all have a common cause, namely a toxic state of the body brought about by multiple errors in living and eating, these sustained over a varying amount of time by each individual and in differing ways and intensities. The greater the number of assaults, the intensity of the assaults, the kind of morbidity developed—all such will determine the nature of the condition and the extent of wasting of vital force which has subsequently ensued. Now if nerve tissue has been completely destroyed, it will be irreparable. Once braindamaged, always brain-damaged. If bones have been grossly abused, then full recovery may be impossible. Just as individuals differ in their respective backgrounds and life experiences, so will the forthcoming results of a fast differ. Additionally, the attitude of the fasting person will influence, either for good or bad, the results of a fast.
However, let us emphasize that, regardless of the nature of the illness, if the individual embarks on a fast by first becoming well informed about the fast, what to expect from the fast, etc., s/he will receive benefit from it in many ways, chief among which will be a greater systemic peacefulness. Even in terminal cases, the patient's last days can be made more comfortable when the fluids of the body have once been cleansed.

I am still at a loss to know just how we can tell when a fast should be broken. Can you perhaps clarify that for me?

Most Hygienists will agree that it is impossible to tell, in advance, just when to break a fast. It is important to make this point clear to your students. Ideally no time limit should be set forth at the onset of the fasting experience. The fast should, and again let us say, ideally, continue until certain definite signs appear. The return of natural and usually quite acute hunger is probably the most important sign that the need to continue the fast has ended and that the person should now begin to take in food. This is a sure sign that the digestive system is ready to receive, process, and absorb nourishment and, further, that the system is ready to assimilate the nutrients as received at their final destinations, the cells. There are also other signs, such as the clearing of the mucus overlay from the tongue, the return perhaps of a more normal pulse, etc. The individual body should be the sole determiner of the precise time to break the fast simply because it will give forth with these reliable signs, signs which should not then be ignored.
Whenever a fast is broken before nature's clear signs have indicated the need for termination, then we should understand that while nature has cooperated with us thus far, a complete cleansing has not, as yet, taken place and that more remedial work will have to be undertaken at a later time. I think that much of the post-fast discomfort that Ethel, for example, experienced and the fact that she had to undergo a whole series of fasts for a period of some years before she experienced the resurgence of health for which she was looking, was due, in large measure, to the fact that she broke her fast far too early, not because she wouldn't have been willing to go on, but purely because of her economic limitations.

What do you consider to be the most important role of the practitioner when it comes to the fast?

That question bears right down to the subject of this lesson. Our role should and must be to acquaint our clients with fasting, to tell them about the possible benefits that might accrue to them through fasting, to inform them about the possible symptoms that might arise during the experience, and WHY they may occur, and how such can be helpful rather than harmful; etc. In other words, we should help our clients to understand how fasting might help THEM to recover from whatever ails them.