Re: Human Experiment: The Effects of Starvation on Behavior

For some, the fasci­nation was so great that they actually changed occupations after the experiment; three became chefs, and one went into agriculture!

interesting! I don't think you can say this is a compulsive response to "starving", but calorie restriction really removes much of the padding that stands between ourselves and others, and the experience of 'plenty' ( and connectedness to others) that goes along with being a chef is quite delightful. I can see this happening as something 'meant to be' that the padding of weight might have never allowed to open up. 

I was a chef, some years ago, and was always cooking for dinner parties for my mother, when younger,  even cooking the family meal, from the time i was eight and my mother went to work -- and when I fast, I get a newly awakened wish to prepare really good food for others. I feel a heightened sense of its value to others. I'm not consumed (pun intended) with fantasies of food, but I develop a genuine appreciation for really good food. And I tend tend to research things related to growing it, etc. etc.  It's partly a slightly wired feeling i think...in a way I'd prefer to meditate for hours, but often don't feel quite 'up to it' physically, while I'm conscious that "I" am not the body; not the head either, but mental faculties work better, and then there's a witnessing part of mind that watches it all, and that i interpret as the *real* me.  i digress.

There was a woman in India (probably many of them!), but this one was somewhat famous; she had been a glutton as a child, and once married (still what we would think of a a child) her in-laws made fun of her, for being so -- they taunted her, driving her to the point of declaring that she would prove them wrong, and stop eating altogether. She went to the village priest, or the Indian equivalent, and asked him with great sincerity to help her attain her goal. He apparently  took her very seriously, after testing her motivation,  and gave her some breathing exercise to do --it's ALL about the breath, ultimately: in that the breath is the only thing one truly "owns" that connects one to the absolute present moment and to all prana...- Anyway. She became a breatharian; until her death. This was proven and well-known throughout the area. The thing is, she continued to cook meals for others. Indeed, she said it was one of her best-loved activities; this caring for others. .

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about the gum-chewing: rather a carnivorous affair, perhaps; often it allays feelings of aggression: or the ravenous desire for meat, but here's another consideration:

chewing in humans has been discovered to be actively connected to (necessarily) stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system, which controls the release of all sorts of hormones including the 'feel good' ones. For those who are not 'eating from another place' like the breatharians, this is important.

Thus, we are 'made' to chew. Babies suck, which is another kind of chewing, but once teeth appear, they chew, as any nursing mother will tell you! Infirm and the elderly who have no teeth and can only 'gum' soft foods, are no longer experiencing the subtle benefits of chewing --but it may be they are connected to something else: perhaps the fortunate or meritorious ( peaceful or content ) ones are in touch with other sources of "feel-good" hormones. so to speak.

just a few fasting thoughts.

these men are alarmingly thin in the none picture. That does look like starvation. Not a bit like fasting (which is all about how the mind interprets the absence -or diminishement- of food. Clearly, they felt deprived. haven't finished reading the piece, but their behaviour mirrors the behaviour of people in concentration camps. Moreso, a lot of people now in old folks' homes ( eps. holocaust survivors ) behave the same way. Taking pieces of cake to their room, hiding them in napkins, rituals of hoarding them. Whisperingly offering them to visitors who might be deemed trustworthy: allies: saying "here, take mine". My partner saw/experienced all this when he visited a place in Montreal, where many of the European Jews reside. He dubbed the general behaviour of the people there "the grey parade". It was quite overwhelming to him. The hard times haven't ended for these people, although all around is abundance. (this was a rather nice retirement facility.)

anyway, interesting reading, Mouse.

Chiron