Re: Herbert M. Shelton and people quoting his literature

Chris,

you wrote "I wouldn't say that there is no serious literature on fasting as Shelton plus Bragg and many others wrote volumes on the subject and from their own experiences with supervision. Bear in mind that Shelton supervised over 30,000 fasts in all manner of health and disease and unparalleled since his time."

Shelton plus Bragg (and who are those others?) did not have --could not have-- the knowledge and understanding of physiology as we do now. As I already mentioned, the Science of fasting did not start until the late 1960s -- and that's about when both Bragg and Shelton ended their careers.

While their experience is certainly very valuable, when it comes to the mechanisms of fasting, the knowledge of how it works and why -- it is seriously lacking. All those "volumes" can offer is mere speculation. At least Shelton was educated as a naturopath, so we could assume that he had a descent grasp of physiology, albeit circa 1920s, -- while Bragg did not have even that. But, on the plus side, Bragg had the valuable insight that only a direct, personal experience can give -- which alas Shelton lacked completely.

I see here you corrected the number of fasts Shelton supposedly supervised. Last night I replied to your old post in this very thread where you gave a different number, 50,000. It must have been a typo. But even cut by a third, the number is still very doubtful.

It is wildly quoted on the Net that Shelton supposedly "Supervised more than 30,000 fasts between 1925 and 1970". This comes to 45 years of practice in which to administer those fasts. Again, estimating an average fast of 10 days, here are the numbers:

10 days * 30,000 fasts = 300,000 day-fasts to supervise
divided by 45 years of active practice,
this gives us 6,667 fast-days to supervise per year, every year
divided by 365 days in a year,
this gives us 18+ people to supervise each and every day, without fail, for 45 years.

Of course, no one works every single day without fail. I sincerely hope Shelton sometimes took holidays with his family. Besides, he was reportedly arrested and jailed several times, when he could not practice.

You wrote that he had facilities with nice grounds where he administered fasts. Would you remember how many beds it had? I'm asking, because it would have to have more than 20 beds --to make up for those days in a year when hardly anyone fasts. This would make his clinic unusually large for its kind. Was it really that large? And that busy all the time?

All this leads me to doubt this 30,000 fasts number, even when spread in 45 years of practice. It appears to be highly inflated.

I have to run now, but will certainly address your other points later :) Tweet