Fasting practices to reconnect with the sacred, regain a sense of your life’s purpose, and heal physically and emotionally

• Details what to expect during your fast physically, emotionally, and spiritually

• Provides step-by-step guidelines on preparing for the fast, how long you should fast, what you can and can’t do during the fast, and how to end your fast

• Explains how fasting can help or heal many chronic conditions, such as type II diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, arthritis, psoriasis, and insomnia

For millennia humans have fasted for spiritual, emotional, and physical reasons--as a way to heal their bodies, reconnect to the sacred, regain a sense of life’s purpose, and allow their souls to detoxify. We are evolutionarily designed to fast, and the body knows how to do it very well. Fasting allows the body and all its systems to rest, purify, and heal. During a fast, the body enters the same cleansing and healing cycle it normally enters during sleep. As a fast progresses, the body consumes everything that is not essential to bodily functioning--including bacteria, viruses, fibroid tumors, waste products in the blood, buildup around the joints, and stored fat--and the mind and heart release their toxic buildup as well. As Stephen Harrod Buhner reveals, in order to be truly transformed, you must first empty yourself.

Offering step-by-step guidelines to fully prepare yourself for a deep fast, Buhner explores what to expect during and after spiritual, emotional, and physical fasting and detoxification. He details the necessary dietary and mental preparations leading up to your fast, what you can and can’t do during a fast, and how to end your fast. He also explains how to plan the length of your fast and how to choose between a water fast, a juice fast, or a mono-diet fast. Revealing how fasting can help or heal many chronic conditions, such as type II diabetes, childhood seizures, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, arthritis, psoriasis, insomnia, and fibromyalgia, Buhner shows fasting as a way to truly inhabit the body, to experience its sacredness, and to activate its deep capabilities for self-healing.

Stephen Harrod Buhner lectures throughout the United States on herbal medicine, the sacredness of plants, and the intelligence of nature. His other books include Ensouling Language, The Secret Teachings of Plants, and Sacred Plant Medicine. He lives in Silver City, New Mexico.

Preface to the Second Edition

Preface

A Note to the Reader about Water and Juice Fasting

1    On Fasting and the Spiritual Life

2    Spiritual Fasting and Detoxification

3    Emotional Fasting and Detoxification

4    Physical Fasting and Detoxification

5    Preparing for the Fast, Fasting, Breaking the Fast

6    Deepening the Fast


Appendix 1    A 10-Week, Low-Fat Cleansing Diet

Appendix 2    Juices for Fasting

Resources

Notes

References

Index

About the Author