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smoking and piles of sticks and other inflammables next to his bed, but all of this debris was his "precious." I
knew that I was in for trouble if I disturbed his precious, but the insects and dirt piles seemed to be expanding
exponentially.
One day the dirt exceeded my tolerance level. To make a long story short he caught me in the act of cleaning
up his precious. Was he furious! All 350 pounds of him! (By this time he had lost 50 pounds.) He barreled
into me, fists flying, and knocked me into the pipes next to the furnace and seemed ready to really teach me
what was what. I prefer to avoid fights, but if they are inevitable, I can really get into the spirit of the thing. I'd
had lots of childhood practice defending myself because I was an incurable tomboy who loved to wrestle; I
could usually pin big boys who considered themselves tough. So I began using my fists and what little martial
arts training I had to good use. After I hurt him a bit he realized that I was not going to be easily intimidated,
and that in fact he was in danger of getting seriously damaged. So he called a truce before either of us were
badly beaten up. He had only a few bruises and welts, nothing serious.
After that he refrained from collecting things inside the building (he continued to collect outside). This
compromise was fine with me, and the incident allowed me to maintain the authority I needed to bully him
into co-operating with the program: taking his vitamins, and sticking to his fast until he finally reached 200
pounds. After 90 days on water he actually looked quite handsome, he no longer smoked, he was off
psychotropic medication, and his behaviors were within an acceptable range as long as your expectations were
not too high.
He was well enough to live outside a hospital and also clear-headed enough to know that if he let too many
people know how well he really was, he might have to give up his mental disability pension and actually
become responsible for himself. No way, Jose! This fellow knew a good thing when he saw it. So he
continued to pull bizarre stunts just often enough in front of the right audience to keep his disability checks
coming in, while managing to act sane enough to be allowed to live comfortably at home instead of in the
hospital. By keeping to my program he could stay off mind-numbing psychotropic medication if he kept up
his megavitamins and minerals. This compromise was tolerable from his point of view, because there were no
side effects like he experienced from his tranquilizers.
It is very rare for a mentally ill person who has spent more than a few months in a mental hospital to ever
usefully return to society because they find "mental illness" too rewarding.
My Own 56 Day Long Fast
Fasters go through a lot of different emotional states, these can get intense and do change quite rapidly. The
physical body, too, will manifest transitory conditions. Some can be quite uncomfortable. But, I don't want to
leave the reader with the impression that fasting is inevitably painful. So I will now recount my own longest
fast in detail.
When I did my own 42 day water fast followed by two weeks on carrot juice diluted 50/50 with water, which
really amounted to 56 consecutive days, my predominant sensation for the first three days was a desire to eat
that was mostly a mental condition, and a lot of rumbling and growling from my stomach. This is not real
hunger, just the sounds the stomach likes to make when it is shrinking. After all, this organ is accustomed to
being filled at regular intervals, and then, all of a sudden, it gets nothing, so naturally the stomach wants to
know what is going on. Once it realizes it is on temporary vacation, the stomach wisely decides to reduce
itself to a size suitable for a retired organ. And it shuts up. This process usually takes three to five days and for
most people, no further "hunger pangs" are felt until the fast is over.
Chapter Three 40
Real hunger comes only when the body is actually starving. The intense discomforts many people experience
upon missing a meal are frequently interpreted as hunger but they aren't. What is actually happening is that
their highly toxic bodies are taking the opportunity presented by having missed a meal or two to begin to
cleanse. The toxins being released and processed make assorted unpleasant symptoms such as headaches and
inability to think clearly. These symptoms can be instantly eliminated by the intake of a bit of food, bringing
the detox to a screeching halt.
Two weeks into the fast I experienced sharp abdominal pains that felt like I imagine appendicitis feels, which
compelled me toward the nearest toilet in a state of great urgency where I productively busied myself for
about half an hour. As I mentioned earlier, I was experimentally adhering to a rigid type of fast of the sort
recommended by Dr. Herbert Shelton, a famous advocate of the Natural Hygiene school. Shelton was such a
powerful writer and personality that there still exists a Natural Hygiene Society that keeps his books in print
and maintains his library. The words "Natural Hygiene" are almost owned by the society like a trademark and
they object when anyone describes themselves as a hygienist and then advocates any practice that Dr. Shelton
did not approve of.
Per Dr. Shelton, I was going to fast from the time hunger left until the time it returned and I was not going to
use any form of colon cleansing. Shelton strongly opposed bowel cleansing so I did no enemas nor colonics,
nor herbs, nor clays, nor psyllium seed designed to clean the bowel, etc. Obviously at day 14 the bowel said,
enough is enough of this crap, and initiated a goods house cleaning session. When I saw what was eliminated
I was horrified to think that I had left that stuff in there for two weeks. I then started to wonder if the
Sheltonites were mistaken about this aspect of fasting. Nonetheless, I persevered on the same regimen because
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