Here is a very interesting blog post by Dr. Cousens. He is in tune with what I have been saying that fasting for a cause other than the giving up of food is very important.  There is more to fasting than the mere giving up of food and water.  Now he discusses juice fasting but really it is the same principal.

Sara

 I am continually inspired by the awesome healing power of Spiritual juice fasting as a self-healing tool. Spiritual organic juice fasting cleans the body-mind and feeds the spirit, allowing our physical bodies to better extract the Divine cosmic energy from our normal biochemical energy sources. The end result is the enhancement on all levels of bodily energy, including the Spiritualizing Kundalini force.

Today in our society, when everyone is so attached to food as a way to palliate the ego, and to suppress our real feelings, the idea of juice fasting can create a little trepidation. Most people do not realize how easy it is to do a fast. On our standard one-week group juice fast almost everyone is amazed at how easy it is. The appetite fades after the first few days, allowing one’s emotional and physical attachment to food to diminish. The mind becomes freer to experience the higher states of communion with the Divine. As people drop their loads of cellular, emotional and spiritual toxicity, they begin to soar and in this soaring they often wonder what their concern could ever have been. Here at the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center with the addition of our non-invasive cleanse and rejuvenation programs the cellular detox has accelerated between 200-400%. I am not seeing any major healing crisis like I used to see with just the juice fasting alone. The physical part of the fast has become even easier. Their success brings them to another level of freedom and self-confidence. To be free from the addiction of food is a tremendous freedom and joy. Fasting is not a deprivation at the Tree of Life; it is dining on all the forces of nature.

The key difference between Spiritual fasting and regular fasting is the clearly conscious “intent to heal on every level of one’s Being”. Such a focused healing process cleanses not only the physical body, but also the emotional, mental, and spiritual bodies, thus affecting our quality of life and how, after the fast, we choose to live in the world.

In the Spiritual fasting retreats, we reflect on the ancient Essene question: ‘‘Dost thou sacrifice the eternal for that which dies in an hour?’’

Spiritual fasting can be experienced as a mystical death. By the physical act of fasting, we let go of our attachment to the body – just as by the act of meditating, we let go in order to dissolve the mind. In the act of Spiritual fasting, we have the unique opportunity to become timeless as we let go of past conditioned programs and projected future anxieties, hopes and fears. The mind cannot exist without the concept of time. It is time and the mind that keep us stuck in the past or future. During a Spiritual fast, as we dissolve the mind, we can take advantage of this moment to move into the eternal Presence, beyond the limitation of time. By quieting the mind, using the fast and meditation, we pass through the experiential doorway of the present to the Eternal Presence, which then takes us beyond the mind to the timeless ecstatic peaceful Self and Truth of who we are. Facing one’s symbolic death creates the context for the potential of a spiritual rebirth. This rebirth into a new life is the foundation and secret of Spiritual fasting. This process of rebirth allows new meaning to enter our lives. Spiritual willpower can often be depleted because of how most people eat and live in the world. Spiritual fasting re-births and regenerates our spiritual willpower by filling our inner knowing with the direct experience of new physical, emotional and spiritual strength.

The willingness to allow ones rebirth, in joy, is a primary key to the total healing process. During fasting the accumulated physical and mental toxins are released from the body and mind in such a way that our body-mind’s armor melts away. As we allow our defenses to drop we begin to heal on every level and our natural healing forces begin to take over. In this process of Spiritual fasting, as the blockages are removed, we are naturally able to make a stronger connection with our light body, which is a powerful doorway to our cosmic body. In this way, we have much easier access to the living experience of our eternal Divine Presence. When the blockages are removed, the Divine more easily manifests through our light body and then through our physical body. In this way, Spiritual fasting is not a denial of the body, but a special doorway to enhance our experience of our own Divinity.

Read the rest of the article here: http://www.gabrielcousens.com/DRCOUSENS/DRCOUSENSBLOG/tabid/364/language/en-U...