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The Transformational Power of Fasting: The Way to Spiritual, Physical, and Emotional Rejuvenation
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.
• 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.
Audiobook
First published January 1, 2003
About the author
Stephen Harrod Buhner
31 books374 followersStephen Harrod Buhner is an Earth poet and the award-winning author of ten books on nature, indigenous cultures, the environment, and herbal medicine. He comes from a long line of healers including Leroy Burney, Surgeon General of the United States under Eisenhower and Kennedy, and Elizabeth Lusterheide, a midwife and herbalist who worked in rural Indiana in the early nineteenth century. The greatest influence on his work, however, has been his great-grandfather C.G. Harrod who primarily used botanical medicines, also in rural Indiana, when he began his work as a physician in 1911.
Stephen's work has appeared or been profiled in publications throughout North America and Europe including Common Boundary, Apotheosis, Shaman's Drum, The New York Times, CNN, and Good Morning America. Stephen lectures yearly throughout the United States on herbal medicine, the sacredness of plants, the intelligence of Nature, and the states of mind necessary for successful habitation of Earth.
Stephen has served as president of the Colorado Association for Healing Practitioners and as a lobbyist on herbal and holistic medicines and education in the Colorado legislature. He lives in New Mexico.
from
http://www.gaianstudies.org/Stephen.html
and
http://www.storey.com/author.php?ID=5...
Stephen's work has appeared or been profiled in publications throughout North America and Europe including Common Boundary, Apotheosis, Shaman's Drum, The New York Times, CNN, and Good Morning America. Stephen lectures yearly throughout the United States on herbal medicine, the sacredness of plants, the intelligence of Nature, and the states of mind necessary for successful habitation of Earth.
Stephen has served as president of the Colorado Association for Healing Practitioners and as a lobbyist on herbal and holistic medicines and education in the Colorado legislature. He lives in New Mexico.
from
http://www.gaianstudies.org/Stephen.html
and
http://www.storey.com/author.php?ID=5...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
September 26, 2016
This book has changed my life forever. I read it and fasted for 14 days on nothing but water and have never felt better in my entire life. I'm adding them to Goodreads because I'm about to reread it again and fast for another 14 days.
After reading this book I realized that everything that I knew about fasting, was wrong.
After reading this book I realized that everything that I knew about fasting, was wrong.
December 4, 2012
I didn't realize that fasting here, means totally not eating anything for more than 4 days. Oh no.
I don't think I'm going to do it in the near future, but it is a good reference.
Recently, I came to realized that people's attitude towards food vary greatly from one another. A great many look at it as something to be conquered. They stuffed themselves nuts. Some look at it as enemies. Some look at it as a status symbol. I want to regard it as a friend.
I don't think I'm going to do it in the near future, but it is a good reference.
Recently, I came to realized that people's attitude towards food vary greatly from one another. A great many look at it as something to be conquered. They stuffed themselves nuts. Some look at it as enemies. Some look at it as a status symbol. I want to regard it as a friend.
November 4, 2011
*Sigh* Another book on fasting by a True Believer. I would really like to find a good, objective discussion of this topic but am having some difficulty.
The Fasting Path is quintessentially one of those New Age tomes that combines pseudo-science with the fervor of conversion to make some rather outlandish claims (cures cancer! reverses cardiovascular disease!) and entirely obscures the few interesting philosophical and practical items it has to offer.
Why is it that this whole naturopathic/herbalist branch of thought feels the need to make bald statements based on extraordinarily limited evidence when the facts of their experience would be much more compelling? This inferiority complex toward allopathic (Western) medicine simply serves to reinforce the idea that they are placing themselves in the same category of endeavor and in that match-up they will always, always lose. Mind you, I have the deepest respect for many of these practitioners and have even benefited personally from seeing a naturopath. But even this man I respect felt some odd need to march out outlandish claims based on an odd mixture of cherry-picked (and often since discredited) science and unreproducible non-science with a limited and confounded class of subjects. Often these claims are entirely and eye-rollingly anecdotal.
An example from this book: Buhner goes to great lengths to make the case that the heart, because it has a great deal of innervation, therefore has a mind of its own, as if it is somehow important to prove that the literal heart and the emotional heart are one and the same. This is just silly stuff and has no basis in fact and, most important of all, doesn't matter a bit. Instead, it just makes the man seem rather silly when he does, in fact, have some good stuff to say.
Just an annoying is the perpetual reliance on information that begins with the phrase, "Almost all ancient cultures believed..." as if that inherently proved something worth proving. I guess they were naturally better than us, so all of what they did must be better, too. I suppose we shouldn't mention that many ancient cultures believed in virgin sacrifice to propitiate the gods? Naw, that just ruins the pretty picture, doesn't it?
But listen to this:
Or this: "Fasting casts each of us into the choppy waters of our basic relationship with food....In many ways, relationship with food is the same for all of us. It is about trust and intimacy and survival." Now, that's what I'm talkin' about!
What a shame that an author with such wonderful things to say spends so much time on the mostly worthless crap that is the nutritional information and "science" behind his claims. A philosophical book expanding on the understandings behind the quotes above would have been much more useful and much less dangerous to those who might try to carry out some of the more outrageous plans contained herein. Ah well, my search continues. Heck, at this rate I may have to write my own book on the subject. But I may need to sacrifice a few virgins. Anything for science!
The Fasting Path is quintessentially one of those New Age tomes that combines pseudo-science with the fervor of conversion to make some rather outlandish claims (cures cancer! reverses cardiovascular disease!) and entirely obscures the few interesting philosophical and practical items it has to offer.
Why is it that this whole naturopathic/herbalist branch of thought feels the need to make bald statements based on extraordinarily limited evidence when the facts of their experience would be much more compelling? This inferiority complex toward allopathic (Western) medicine simply serves to reinforce the idea that they are placing themselves in the same category of endeavor and in that match-up they will always, always lose. Mind you, I have the deepest respect for many of these practitioners and have even benefited personally from seeing a naturopath. But even this man I respect felt some odd need to march out outlandish claims based on an odd mixture of cherry-picked (and often since discredited) science and unreproducible non-science with a limited and confounded class of subjects. Often these claims are entirely and eye-rollingly anecdotal.
An example from this book: Buhner goes to great lengths to make the case that the heart, because it has a great deal of innervation, therefore has a mind of its own, as if it is somehow important to prove that the literal heart and the emotional heart are one and the same. This is just silly stuff and has no basis in fact and, most important of all, doesn't matter a bit. Instead, it just makes the man seem rather silly when he does, in fact, have some good stuff to say.
Just an annoying is the perpetual reliance on information that begins with the phrase, "Almost all ancient cultures believed..." as if that inherently proved something worth proving. I guess they were naturally better than us, so all of what they did must be better, too. I suppose we shouldn't mention that many ancient cultures believed in virgin sacrifice to propitiate the gods? Naw, that just ruins the pretty picture, doesn't it?
But listen to this:
Experiencing the world as nonliving has powerful implications for how we live our lives. Our lack of real experience with our own soul, its intelligence and wisdom, and our failure to regularly engage the soul of the world and other living things cause all of us to live a half-life, cut off from the luminous, one of the primary sources of direction in life.To me, this sounds like real wisdom.
Or this: "Fasting casts each of us into the choppy waters of our basic relationship with food....In many ways, relationship with food is the same for all of us. It is about trust and intimacy and survival." Now, that's what I'm talkin' about!
What a shame that an author with such wonderful things to say spends so much time on the mostly worthless crap that is the nutritional information and "science" behind his claims. A philosophical book expanding on the understandings behind the quotes above would have been much more useful and much less dangerous to those who might try to carry out some of the more outrageous plans contained herein. Ah well, my search continues. Heck, at this rate I may have to write my own book on the subject. But I may need to sacrifice a few virgins. Anything for science!
February 28, 2022
Apart from interesting technical (medical/biological) explanations of the physical effects of fasting, Buhner also covers the emotional and spiritual aspects. A very interesting read. Four star because I think Buhner makes fasting more difficult than it has to be by going into it on a low fat diet, and by doing nothing, not even reading during the fast. Obviously, it makes the experience more intense.
Which could be right up your alley.
Me, I'm looking for the health aspects, first, the physical cleansing. Mental torture by creating a low impulse environment is maybe something I'll try when I'm more experienced in fasting. For now, it seems like an excellent time to read.
Good book. Encouragement and warning. Mental and physical sides. Well researched.
Which could be right up your alley.
Me, I'm looking for the health aspects, first, the physical cleansing. Mental torture by creating a low impulse environment is maybe something I'll try when I'm more experienced in fasting. For now, it seems like an excellent time to read.
Good book. Encouragement and warning. Mental and physical sides. Well researched.
Read
July 21, 2020a quick read. this book offered a good amount of insight that you can use while you fast.
July 31, 2024
Poetic. Everyone interested in fasting at any level should read this book.
October 17, 2017
If you ever consider doing a fast, this is the book to read. Fasting is a deeply personal choice and it involves a lot more than just the physical. You'll experience emotional and spiritual upheavals and it is all a healing experience. This book takes you through the experience so you'll be able to make a wise choice with your eyes open.
April 22, 2017
Very Repetitive
I tried to like this book but found it very difficult to get past the first few chapters. It seems he really just kept saying mostly the same things about fasting which quickly became boring.
I tried to like this book but found it very difficult to get past the first few chapters. It seems he really just kept saying mostly the same things about fasting which quickly became boring.
June 8, 2021
Beautiful and poetic. I found much of the information enlightening, easy to understand, and gentle. Required reading for anyone interested in fasting, short and long-term.
February 16, 2020
Previše spiritualna, nisam to očekivala prilikom odabira knjige. Dio koji se odnosi na sami post i njegovo provođenje je ok. Mada ima nekih dijelova koji su mi dosta kontroverzni kada piše o nastanku određenih bolesti s kojima se kao medicinar nikako ne slažem.
June 15, 2018
Very interesting book about how fasting affects the body and how you can heal most ailments.
December 18, 2018
Fascinantno.
May 3, 2019
Instructive, caring and but also cautionary. A perfect book to understand the physical, emotional and spiritual process involved with undertaking a fast.
July 8, 2019
Liked most of it, but found the anti-allopathic sections annoying, verging on dangerous (telling people antibiotics are just Bad could kill someone).
August 17, 2020
An awesome book. It is very cohesive, and a good reminder of the act of putting intentions behind fasting. I really enjoyed this book~ and I’ll buy a physical copy of it
November 6, 2020
Amazing!!!!
A very holistic vision of body, mind, spirit and the world that surrounds us. Well written, easy to understand, but also incredibly profound.
A very holistic vision of body, mind, spirit and the world that surrounds us. Well written, easy to understand, but also incredibly profound.
January 10, 2021
Definitely a good read if you are looking to educate yourself about fasting and it’s many benefits. This book is both spiritual and scientific with reference to literature.
February 5, 2021
The subject is well explained. Touches the spiritual, mental, and physical benefits of (deep) fasting in a very engaging fashion. Got me highly motivated.
December 25, 2023
eu quando sou maluca mas this will cure me !!!
September 19, 2017
My fasting journey started 3 years ago when I had no idea what spiritual underlying it really has. I read Paul Bragg's 'The Miracle Of Fasting' and the following day I started my fast that lasted for six and a half days. Buhner's book is one of those rare ones that cover a topic from different angles. It gives you the understanding that fasting is NOT about losing weight and getting cleaner skin (which it surely does). The autor is determined to show that when you consciously, of your own free will, decide to stop eating for some time, you go on a journey. And on this journey you will inevitably have to ask yourself those questions you failed to ask for years. They will just pop up. Fasting makes you go deep into your inner world. Fasting opens your spirituality and emotional side. What are these emotions you stuffed down with food? What have you been distracting yourself from when cooking, going shopping for food or bar hopping? It all comes up. And you must prepare not only your body for a fast (plant-based diet for 1-2 weeks prior to a fast), but also emotionally and spiritually. The author gives a good set of questions to ask yourself before a fast. Overall, it's the best book on fasting I've ever read.
August 23, 2018
I’ve been interested in my mind - body- food connection and read several health books throughout the last 15 months. I realized that what Heavenly Father has asked us to do- word of wisdom, eat meat sparingly, monthly fast... are very good for us. So I wanted to learn about how fasting effects our bodies in order to not only be spiritually connected to my fast, but to recognize its health benefits. Overall a good book on fasting- brief- with some things I don’t agree on but still enjoyed reading.
February 21, 2017
I've read a number of books on fasting, but this is absolutely the best one. Perhaps a little short on the medical side (although still enough for any beginner or advanced faster), but so much richer on the emotional side of the undertaking. Why do you really fast? is the question, and in contrast of that; why do you eat!
April 21, 2021
"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 (...) Buhner shows fasting as a way to truly inhabit the body, to experience its sacredness, and to activate its deep capabilities for self-healing."
- from the back cover
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 (...) Buhner shows fasting as a way to truly inhabit the body, to experience its sacredness, and to activate its deep capabilities for self-healing."
- from the back cover
September 9, 2016
I followed this book into a first fast - have read two of (Secret Teachings..., Lost Language...) Stephen's books and felt I could trust his knowledge.
The first sections explaining the physiological, physical, and psychological effects of the first stages of fasting are really good!
I eased my way into a fast with 6 weeks of simple diet - as suggested by the book - felt all went very well through a ten day fast (7 of which was water only) - BUT found there was very little support in the -'re-feeding' stage where you reintroduce foods - this was the hardest part of all - dealing with strong cravings, feelings of guilt re: overeating, choosing suitable foods etc.
I felt very out of my depth suddenly and made some very painful mistakes...and struggled to find support online too - no response to my email to Stephen -
- I think that he could do a lot better on this section if he revises - and therefore creates a much more thorough support for those daring to follow this path...
The first sections explaining the physiological, physical, and psychological effects of the first stages of fasting are really good!
I eased my way into a fast with 6 weeks of simple diet - as suggested by the book - felt all went very well through a ten day fast (7 of which was water only) - BUT found there was very little support in the -'re-feeding' stage where you reintroduce foods - this was the hardest part of all - dealing with strong cravings, feelings of guilt re: overeating, choosing suitable foods etc.
I felt very out of my depth suddenly and made some very painful mistakes...and struggled to find support online too - no response to my email to Stephen -
- I think that he could do a lot better on this section if he revises - and therefore creates a much more thorough support for those daring to follow this path...
December 15, 2019
Dec 18, 2014 06:05PM
I followed this book into my first 8 day water fast - having read two of (Secret Teachings..., Lost Language...) Stephen's books I felt I could trust his knowledge. The first sections explaining the physiological, physical, and psychological effects of the first stages of fasting are really good! I eased my way into a fast with 6 weeks of simple diet -as suggested by the book - felt all went very well through a ten day fast (7 of which was water only) - BUT found there was very little support in the -'re-feeding' stage where you reintroduce foods - this was the hardest part of all - dealing with strong cravings, feelings of guilt re: overeating etc. I felt very out of my depth suddenly and made some very painful mistakes - I think that Stephen could do a lot better on this section if he revises - and therefore creates a much more thorough support for those daring to follow this path...
I followed this book into my first 8 day water fast - having read two of (Secret Teachings..., Lost Language...) Stephen's books I felt I could trust his knowledge. The first sections explaining the physiological, physical, and psychological effects of the first stages of fasting are really good! I eased my way into a fast with 6 weeks of simple diet -as suggested by the book - felt all went very well through a ten day fast (7 of which was water only) - BUT found there was very little support in the -'re-feeding' stage where you reintroduce foods - this was the hardest part of all - dealing with strong cravings, feelings of guilt re: overeating etc. I felt very out of my depth suddenly and made some very painful mistakes - I think that Stephen could do a lot better on this section if he revises - and therefore creates a much more thorough support for those daring to follow this path...
August 5, 2015
Nodaļa par fiziskajiem ieguvumiem šķita vērtīga, bet kopumā no šāda tipa literatūras sagaidīju vairāk. Vietām par daudz "ūdens" saliets, atkārtošanās.
Ņemot vērā, ka liels uzsvars tika likts uz atkopšanās periodu pēc badošanās, attiecīgi būtu gribējies atrast vairāk padomu un recepšu ēšanas režīmam atkopšanās periodā.
Tomēr kopumā grāmata, kurai jāpaliek manā plauktā, lai nepieciešamības gadījumā pārlasītu vajadzīgās nodaļas.
Ņemot vērā, ka liels uzsvars tika likts uz atkopšanās periodu pēc badošanās, attiecīgi būtu gribējies atrast vairāk padomu un recepšu ēšanas režīmam atkopšanās periodā.
Tomēr kopumā grāmata, kurai jāpaliek manā plauktā, lai nepieciešamības gadījumā pārlasītu vajadzīgās nodaļas.
September 30, 2015
Excellent wholistic analysis of the benefits of fasting, from a scientific, anthropological, and cross-cultural spiritual perspective. Explains what is happening in the body during fasting, different kinds of fasts, and why fasting, an ancient healing and spiritual practice found in all cultures throughout the world, is recommended as a key aspect of a wholistic wellness practice.
April 29, 2012
This book is so comprehensive! It describes all aspects of fasting, what it does in a detailed medical way, and what to expect in a beautiful, spiritual way. I definitely recommend it for anyone who is curious or attempting their first water or juice fast.
March 31, 2015
It was a beautifully written book with useful information from someone who has been through the process of fasting himself. I was sad when the book came to an end and will be looking for more books and articles by this author.
December 24, 2007
This is by far the most useful book on fasting and also contains never before seen by me theory of digestion and taking in nourishment. If you are going to fast, this is the book!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews