>>>While fasting the body seeks to rebalance the system and without the burden of digestion on it systematically cleanses those parts of the body most urgently in need of it.<<<

This is absolutely true! Up to 70% of our bodies energy & resources are spent on the process of digestion; when freed of that burden, the body has a miraculous capacity to divert the energy to the healing process. And it does systematically cleanse parts of the body (using it's own 'knowingness' of what needs priority and the most attention). There is (or should be) no more perfect healing tool than water fasting.

>>>Fasting is the most efficient way to cleanse the body and you certainly won't have to do a colonic cleanse as well.<<< And this SHOULD be true as well (as was true at the early part of the century when our body & organs had not been exposed to & desperately trying to detox from...the over 70,000 chemicals that have been made & released into our environment since mid-century.

We SHOULD be able to Water Fast and have that heal our digestive tract. But for those people (the vast majority in the US) that have a rubbery thick layer of putrefying/putrefied food, rotten fecal matter and all the poisons the colon has captured so they wouldn't go into the bloodstream (mucoid plaque) lining their colons in this part of the century, simple Water Fasting is not enough to cleanse the colon (except in non-average circumstances). Dr. Bernard Jensen explained (my paraphrase): that each time something that is toxic is put into the mouth, the intestine responds by coating the intestines with a micro-thin layer of mucous (designed to 'capture' the poison and stop it from entering the bloodstream). In a truly 'natural' environment, the toxin/s would be captured and the body would slough off the mucous in it's next bowel movement (and if all WERE natural, that would be within an hour or so of eating our next major meal). But all is not natural, and our next meal will contain more substances that are poison to the body, hence more mucous is created to capture the toxins..and this cycle repeats itself several times daily (assuming one ingests some type of a chemical poison...and that assumption, sadly, now applies to everyone that lives on our planet).

Where 'once upon a time', simply fasting on water might have allowed the body to cleanse itself from a thin, small build-up of mucous, the situation now is MUCH different (and the herbal/natural healers of mid-century knew this well -see Dr. Christopher & Schulze- and had to adjust their protocols & herbal formulas to account for this. An herbal laxative/cleanser that was effective at the beginning of the century, no longer produced the same healing results by mid-century...and this cleansing and ridding the body of layers (sometimes INCHES) of extremely acidic, laden with poisons rubbery plaque that was stuck to the walls of the colon has a drastic effect on the body (and the efficacy of water fasting).

Virtually ALL water that we drink is absorbed into the bloodstream - where? Oh yeah, you guessed it - the colon. And whether or not we manage to ingest "pure" water that doesn't produce another layer of mucous, all the water we drink must seep & ooze through a thick rubbery layer of putrefying, acidic/poison/toxic hardened mucous. And this of course (whether fasting or not) puts an ADDITIONAL burden on the liver (as if the liver didn't have enough burden already).

The Master Cleanse (developed by Stanley Burroughs in 1976) addresses the issue of mucoid plaque very effectively, along with freeing the body of it's digestive burden. By ingesting an herbal tea that induces peristalsis (the muscular squeezing motion of the colon) daily AND starting each day with a true salt-water flush, the thick layers of rubbery mucoid plaque build-up are both "squeezed loose" and 'washed loose' by the quart of salt water than rapidly works its way through the digestive tract. Freeing the body of mucoid plaque makes EVERY healing protocol more useful & succesful.

Hence your thought: >>>Fasting is the most efficient way to cleanse the body and you certainly won't have to do a colonic cleanse as well.<<< is something I semi-disagree with. Water Fasting IS effective (whether the colon is clean or not, obviously far more effective when the colon is clean), but in this day & age it's no substitute for a series of colonics (or other various Colon Cleanses or flushes). And fasting (with water or juice or The Master Cleanse) is something that has the potential to negatively (sometimes rather seriously) impact the function of the liver & gallbladder. (which is why you frequently see knowledgeable healers recommend some type of Liver Flush immediately following The Master Cleanse or any type offasting).

The liver produces & expels bile into the gallbladder for the processing of natural fats and oils...and just the like the other miracles of Nature, it's when we ingest the fats & oils that our liver is triggered to produce & expel bile. This constant flow of bile through the liver keeps the intricate biliary network clean and the liver functioning properly. But hydrogenated oils/trans fats and margarine (which is techinally only one molecule away from plastic) does not have the same effect on the bile production as do wholesome fats & oils. Hence, combined with our daily poison exposure (which the liver has to neutralize and eliminate) and it's thousands of other duties AND a lack of bile flow/product, the liver becomes clogged & sluggish (basically from stale, hardened bile/bile salts) from decades worth of abuse and lack of bile 'flow'. Imagine if you will, a huge convoluted fire hose that's piled up near a sewer, and the slow-moving, low volume liquid drainage has been going through it for decades...and the output has become but a trickle. This 'condition' is very similar to the condition of the average liver...low bile production & a clogged biliary network. If one were to turn off (or severely lessen) the flow of fluid for a week or two, and then try to start it back up again, it's very possible that the clogs (that were kept open by the constant flow of fluid) would be hardened and very difficult to reopen. And hence it is with our liver when we water fast. Without the constant bile flow (caused by the natural fats & oils we do ingest), the production and flow of bile is lessened severely...and when we lessen the flow of bile through an already clogged/sluggish liver (and many times clogged gall bladder), people have been known to end up in the ER doubled over with a gallbladder attack or worsening of the condition of their liver. Maybe this wouldn't have mattered a bit at the beginning of the century (when the average liver wasn't overburdened with toxins, tortured by the ingestion of plastic margarine & hydrogenated oil, and having a regular diet full of healthy oils & fats). Perhaps ('tis even likely) that a pure Water Fast would have given the liver the major rest it deserved, it would have been able to be effective at attacking the backlog of build-up in our arteries efficiently, and when we 'turned the bile back on' there wouldn't have been clogs & sluggishness (and blockages) in the biliary network & gallbladder.

And I also agree (wholeheartedly even :)
>>a fast may very well help your body regain the balance it needs<<

Fasting almost always helps the body to regain the balance it so desperately needs. But on this toxic planet, it's no longer a protocol that should be entered into without understanding the possible 'downsides' or how it affects the other organs. Of course, with only a bit of knowledge and common sense, virtually every pitfall of 'downside' of fasting can EASILY be avoided.

Sadly, 'tis my solid opinion (based on the reality of our condition now on this planet, versus the 'natural' condition of the human body), that Water Fasting is not a substitute for thorough colon cleansing, and much attention to the liver should be provided.

Blessings always -

Unyquity