The reason you want to use epson salts and Colon Cleanse before drinking the mixture is because if your colon isnt clean you wont release many stones (if any at all) I wasted 3 flushes doing this before I figured out that if you have food sitting in your intestines your body considers yourself full therefore it won't produce the bile necessary to push any stones out because you have waste backed up in your intestines. Sure you could avoid the epsons salts but in order to get a good flush you would have to have a completely empty colon through an enema or whatever method you have. From my experience epson salts havent hurt anything in my body they say they are harsh on the kidneys but I havent found that to be true for me. As a colon goes trust me you want to do one because im having problems from not doing a thorough enough cleanse afterwards. I'm having to get rid of these problems before I flush again so be careful it will render you flush useless if you just leave the stones in the intestines to break down.