The Power of Fasting

Do you think fasting can give you spiritual strength? Or is it a placebo and the belief in its benefits is what makes fasting seem powerful?

I personally think there is power in fasting but I'm not sure why. Is it metaphysical? Spiritual? Physical? Subconscious?

I remember watching shows about hauntings and the Catholic priest would have to fast and pray a lot to strengthen himself for spiritual warfare before doing a house blessing or an exorcism. But what is it about fasting that gives him this power?

I don't know a lot about Christianity/Catholicism but a part of me thinks that the act of fasting connects the priest to Jesus's spirit who fasted in the desert. It's kind of like how when we listen to a song we might feel closer to the musician. So the emotion of feeling closer to Jesus gives the priest a kind of force to repel ghosts and demons?

I think there might be something to the fact that digestion requires a lot of energy. And if you aren't digesting anything you can dedicate that energy elsewhere?

There is the purification aspect of fasting as well

I'm Catholic, went to Catholic school and the whole deal. In Catholicism it can be a form of sacrifice that is offered up. If you are familiar at all with the life of the saints there's a lot of emphasis on physical suffering to show you devotion in general.

Fasting is part of a lot of religions. On Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement they fast, well, to atone as the name of the day indicates.

I have a good friend that did a fasting camp. She said after 4 days when they started to take her stats, blood pressure and all that- ALL the electronic and magnetic equipment around her went crazy.

It would be really hard to do for us ehemm food lovers I have read a few articles though that sugar consumption is on a way of your manifesting powers. Maybe a sugar free diet to start off with if you wanted to experiment?

i dont think i could fast.... i can go all day without food but by about 5pm i get shaky!

I think we all know that fasting and I don't mix lol

But it's curious. I have fasted before by just eating one meal a day for a week instead of three meals per day. That meal was usually just a banana, an orange, and cheerios with milk. I remember having lots of manic energy that week (always walking around) but my mind was also scattered.

oh my.... i couldnt.... dont get me wrong i'm not a big eater, i generally only have one proper meal and graze between anyways... but if i dont eat much i get tired and my anxiety kicks off... so i just couldnt.

But if fasting can help me manifest more easily...I just might be willing to make the sacrifice...although ironically I'd just manifest loads more food

Over on PLoA, EvilZerosc posted a couple of times about the power of fasting and how it aids manifestation.  I was intrigued by it because I remembered when I was in the process of attracting a guy I completely lost my appetite so while I wasn't fasting on purpose it was a form of fasting nonetheless, and I wondered if that had assisted in any way since I was actually successful.  

I no longer have the messages he(?) sent directly to me about fasting but I know he mentioned that when you are fasting your brain waves go to the theta state which allows direct access to the subconscious mind.  I did a quick search on PLoA of his posts:

EvilZero,
How does fasting increase theta waves?

It weakens the conscious mind and brings it back into harmony with the other parts and is a natural meditative state all the time....the deeper the fast the clearer the mind becomes and the stronger its connection to the divine....the brain waves slow down to a state of calmness and peace to a state of just existing....you become very sensitive to feelings, the power of emotions are magnified many times....as the flesh grows weak and is no longer being supported by the mother(earth/physical)...it must be supported by the father(spirit) and so the spirit body begins to absorb more light/vibration/spirit/energy.....and your frequency only continues to rise as everything not conducive to the health of the being's mind/body/spirit is purged.......there is no better way to manifesting.  The power of the mind is at its strongest when you are at your weakest.

Veeeery interesting stuff.  I do remember him saying you should know what you are doing before you do it though, don't just jump into it without reading up on it.

That makes complete sense. Eating really sets off so many different processes in our bodies-hormone responses and all kinds of stuff beyond just the digestive system itself. Especially sugar as was mentioned. So it would make sense if that was not happening it would bring our bodies to a calmer state in general.

I think it might be a bit dangerous to jump straight into fasting if your body is used to a lot of sugar every day. Something about insulin levels dropping, shock, can't remember exactly but it can even be life threatening, depending on your system and what it's used to.
I know that if I'd try, all I could think about is food all day long lol.

But for sugar free diet, they say that when the sweet tooth kicks in, which is basically just body's defense mechanism protecting against that insulin crash (you'll suddenly start craving sweet things) you should eat complex carbs that turn into sugar but not refined sugars, so eat sweet potato, old fashioned oatmeal...

Or you can just be like Adi and eat lettuce and grass all day long

Ah, now that makes sense. I haven't researched sugar's affects on the brain but my Dad did and it's like something out of a horror story. Of course, I'm in denial about it because....Reeses. But if our brain becomes imbalanced by all this over-consumption, we might have less windows during the day to reach a state of mind that can manifest more easily. It's kind of like how porn addiction rewires the brain so that it's easy to get erect at porn, but not easy to get erect with real women. For me, I think balanced meals is best. I'm not sure if this is actual science, but I have a feeling that our body knows which nutrients it needs. If we consciously deny those nutrients, we feel an impulsive rush for sugar as a way to survive and compensate. Or maybe complex carbs are satiating in themselves, so the body doesn't desire as much sugar...

Adi eats grass all day long? lol So that's why he's been so nice lately....

President Roosevelt wrote:Of course, I'm in denial about it because....Reeses

Will you marry me?

President Roosevelt wrote:not easy to get erect with real women.

On second thoughts....

loooooool there's always Viagra Posay

The real question is- who is willing to be the guinea-pig and test out the manifesting power results by fasting for a week? Mmmmh? Anyone?

Love&Light wrote:Wow - this is an interesting topic... Thanks CR   ..............
There are stories of hermits and holy men going to the forest and mountains and meditating for years without food.. In the end God appears to give a boon - That could be the manifestation success.

One holy man that made the news...............Prahlad Jan, of India.

http://www.spiritscienceandmetaphysics.com/holy-man-hasnt-eaten-in-75-years/

Another is Ram Bahadur Bomjon ( " Buddha Boy "), from Nepal.  He was in the news about ten years ago. His followers thought him to be the reincarnation of Gautama Buddha, ( the buddha most often thought of when one hears the name " buddha ", the little fat guy you see sitting in a lotus position in the pictures and statues .)

These and others like them take the term " fasting " to it's utter limits.  They go many, many days without food, even water.  

There is much controversy about this subject, whether these holy men can really go without food or water for long periods of time.  

Prahlad Jan, claims to have went 75 plus years without food or water.  He was evaluated at a hospital for about ten days, to two weeks? ( I can't remember, it may be in that link I posted ), was monitors 24 hours a day, and did not eat or drink anything for the period of time he was there. Doctors ran tests on him during that period.

The controversy:  A human cannot go past three days without water. You die.  Yet, this man did it, but how?

Back to the topic at hand.  I think that fasting raises your consciousness, your vibration. When you give no care about physical needs, ( food, water, clothing ,shelter ) the things necessary to survive,  you get closer to, awareness. Infinite consciousness. God. All that Is. The I AM.  
When you are in this state of consciousness, miracles ( manifestations ) happen.

In Christianity,  Jesus fasted forty days and nights.  In the gospels, Jesus is approached by his disciples when they tried to cast out a demon from a boy, but failed.
They asked Jesus why they couldn't cast the demon out, and, Jesus told them it was their lack of faith, and, this type of demon could only be cast out with prayer and fasting.

Jesus performed many miracles ( manifestations ) during his physical life.  The assumption would be if you do as he, ( prayer, fasting, faith, believe.....) you can do the same.

The prayers and fastings the holy men do in India probably works for the same reason.  Maybe Lotus, when he gets back, can share what he thinks about this subject. I have a feeling this is a topic he has much information on.

What a great topic!

Thanks Rodan!

This is very interesting. How can that holy man go so long without food? Is his consciousness at such a high level that his connection to this "higher aspect" of consciousness is what's "feeding him"?
And how does this tie in with Unified Field/Superstring Theory?

"What do we need from food? The minerals, which are made out of molecules, which are made out of atoms, which are made out of quarks, which are made out of superstrings, which is ultimately part of the Unified Field or Superstring Field.

At a fundamental level of nature, nutrition is really just vibrating strings of non-local energy.  Could he somehow be receiving this information somehow without the need to physically ingest food? "

How does he access that information? And how does that information change his way of life?

I also remember a Bashar video where he said that humans don't actually need to eat that much food, we've only gotten used to eating so much.

I've also noticed that when I'm in a very meditative state, all of my hunger disappears and it feels like I'm floating even though my feet are on the floor.

I'm really tempted to fast now and see the results....but the taste of Eggo Waffles drowned in syrup is seducing me....

As far as the connection between the fasting and the prayer/meditation.

When we fast our bodies processes all slow out of self preservation and again, because the digestive process itself is no longer in play. And when we engage in prayer or meditation the same thing happens. So it makes sense if we take both of those factors in to account that the need for food and/or water naturally diminishes.

If we calm our bodies by meditating for a long period and all of our bodies processes slow down we simply require much less energy (food) just to sustain ourselves.

I know that the 3 days without water is a common guideline, but it actually can be much longer. For instance, of course if you are stranded in the desert your needs for water are going to be much more immediate than someone who is sitting in a meditative state for days.

Not to get the whole conversation sidetracked but there are others without the spiritual motivation who survive quite a long time with intentionally taking in very little or no nutrition. (I am speaking of those with eating disorders.) The human body is amazingly designed to survive during periods of famine and adversity. We evolved from early humans who didn't always have easy access to food and water and those early humans who were best able to survive those conditions passed their genes down to us.

I think most of the major religions that advocate periods of fasting don't insist that it be even an entire day. It might be sun up-to sun down or something like that. So I don't think you need to go days and days or even a complete day in order to experience the benefits.

Another thing I wanted to mention is if you read about the bodies response to starvation you'll often see that after the initial period of hunger the feeling ends up actually euphoric.

You wouldn't expect that but from an evolutionary standpoint it makes sense to get us to sustain ourselves during those periods where food is scarce that the body would create hormones that enable us to continue to search for food. It's like the body says "ok those initial hunger cues I sent didnt work to get them to give me food so I have to do something different so that they have the ability to keep looking."

It's probably during this euphoric state that manifestation becomes easier. But you'll have to go a while without eating to get there!

i dont know... i'm just not convinced by all this sorry guys, i myself have had problems with food in the past, and also seen what anorexia and other eating disorders do to the body, you would have to have such a strong .. unshakeable mindset and belief to do this i guess

also when you dont eat the stomach shrinks so you cant eat much anyways

and also if you fast... when you do eat it, the body stores the fat differently so its harder to get rid of .. just incase you fast again

i dont mean to sound rude or say anyones wrong... but i just dont like the sound of it, i'm sure starving yourself can do a lot of damage to your internal organs.

but thats just my thoughts, dont mean to shrug off anyone elses

I agree NE. I've had some issues myself (which is how I know this stuff...). I don't advocate anyone go down this path if there any chance at all that they can develop a problem. It's not fun and the repercussions can be serious.

My last post was an explanation not an endorsement.

oh yes of course Kazoo, i wasnt aiming my post at you, i just worry about people not eating properly thats all, i understand we all want to reach something higher spiritually, but i remember Lotus explaining to me before that cutting out meat can help, which is what i've just begun to do, not just for that reason for moral ones aswell, but maybe that would be an option if people want to do something?

No worries NE.  I think you made an important point.  First priority is to take care of our health.

Most people aren't going to last long on a fast and it's probably not advisable for the reasons you detail.  A better option might be eating "clean" for a while.  As in a whole plant based diet.  Again, not for everyone but a better option to ditch the meat, sugar and processed food for a while.  A lot of people report feeling more energetic etc. after doing that for a while so you can get similar results without being so extreme.

Thought I'd share some insights as well
In Islam there is a period of fasting during Ramadan where you eat and drink right before the first rays of dawn and break your fast just as the sun sets at dusk. This goes on for 30 days starting from a designated full moon. Other things come into play such as avoiding distractions such a TV, sexual relations with your spouse etc. as a way to maintain pure focus on your connection with God.

I know for those who practice fasting during Ramadan it helps them to keep diligent with prayers and thus get closer to God or Source. I know a lot of people tend to get answers during this period as its truly mind mastery connecting with yourself and source. It helps to connect with community who are also focusing internally on their relationship with God so it creates some kind of collective consciousness when fasting breaks at home/ at the mosque.

Though there is another angle that Muslims do it to feel the hunger that poor people go through and to have gratitude for what they do have when they do open their fast.

I guess it can be beneficial if you feel this is the correct practice for you to connect with Source energy and focus all your energy on what you want and develop your intuition.

Of course this can also be done through prayer and meditation but I guess the fasting is just a way to maintain a more strict focus and schedule like during Ramadan where prayers are offered 5 times a day.

It's quite fascinating to me, I grew up with Islam as a religion but never really connected with it most my life, however now I am just noticing some interesting things which I never thought about.

Anyway my two cents