arnold rational fasting

A Scientific Method of Fasting Your Way to Health

The onlycomplete

translation byDR. B. LUST

from the originalGermanedition

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RATIONFAST! NGA SCIENTIFIC METHOD OFFASTING YOUR WAY TO HEALTH

ARNOLD EHRET

Translated from the German"KRANKE MENSCHEN"by Dr. Benedict Lust M.D., N.D., D.O.and edited by John B. Lust

Benedict Lust Publications, New York, N.Y. 10156



Rational FastingCOPYRIGHT © 1971

Beneficial Books are published byBENEDICT LUST PUBLICATIONS

New York, New York 10156-0404 USA

This low-priced Beneficial Book has the complete text ofArnold Ehret's original hard cover book, Kranke Menschen,published 1914, in Munich, Germany. It is printed frombrand new plates made from completely reset, clear, easy-to-read type.

All rights reserved, including the rightsto reproduce this book or portions of it

in any form, without the priorpermission in writing of the publisher.

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: Where any condition has progressed toa serious stage, or if uncertainty exists as to the seriousness,it is best not to delay timely professional services of a compe-tent physician. This book may not be used in any manner topromote the sale of any products mentioned herein.

Library' of Congress Catalog Number 72-125413ISBN 0-87904-005-X

Printed in the United States of America



Contents

Introduction 5

Foreword to the Second Edition 19

Foreword to the Third Edition 21

Preface 23

Chapter 1 The Common Fundamental Causein the Nature of Diseases 27

Chapter 2 Remedies for the Removal of theCommon Fundamental Cause and thePrevention of Their Recurrence 47

Chapter 3 The Fundamental Cause of GrowingOld and Ugly 53

[Part Two] The Preservation ofthe Hair. Reasons for BecomingBald and Gray 57

Chapter 4 Increasing Longevity 63



Contents (continued)

PART II

Chapter 5 Complete Instructions for Fasting 61

Chapter 6 Rational Fasting for Physical, Mentaland Spiritual Rejuvenation 69

Chapter 7 Building a Perfect Body thruFasting 75

How Long Should One Fast? 76

How to Break a Fast 78

Important Rules for the Faster to beCarefully Studied and Memorized 79

Fasting Drinks 83

The Non-Breakfast Plan 84

The 24-Hour Fast 86

Fasting Used with the MucuslessDiet Healing System 86

Fasting in Cases of Acute Disease 87

Spiritual Rebirth thru the SuperiorFast 88

Chapter 8 Conclusion

Appendix Six Essays by the Author 95

My Mucusless Diet and Naturopathy 97

The Mucusless Diet Healing System 105

The Truth About Human Nourishmentand The Conquest of Gluttony 115

Physical Culture 125

Thus Speaketh the Stomach 135

The Definite Cure ofChronic Constipation 153

The Exact Diagnosis of Your Diseaseand "The Magic Mirror" 168PDF compression, OCR, web optimization using a watermarked evaluation copy of CVISION PDFCompressor


ratrod ucfionby

Dr. Guy Bogart, N.D.

Are we booked, charted and checked for a returntrip to the Garden of Eden? Is the fountain ofyouth to bubble forth in each man's front yard?Are we to forsake the soda fountain for theorganized water of the unfermented grape? Are weto extract from the air our individual supply ofnitrogen? Are bald pates to lose their aridity and toflourish with the effloresence of youth?

Professor Arnold Ehret, noted European savant,who spent his last years among Southern Californ-ia's growing colony of celebrities, gives an affirma-tive answer to the above queries.

Toppling from the pedestals of traditionary super-stition many of the old ideas of health, ProfessorEhret gave more than a quarter of a century tointensive thinking and experimenting. He foundthe boasted white race but an aggregation of"corpse-colored" beings. More orthodox medicalauthorities have told us we are fast becoming atoothless race. Professor Ehret agreed with thisfinding and peeps along the pathway just a littlefarther to a "no-western-race-at-all" goal

Unless

Here comes the professor, not with any utopian5



6 RATIONAL FASTING

dreams, but with a carefully worked-out scheme ofdietetic and health reform which some of thewisest doctors of two continents are hailing as themost fundamental word yet spoken in the complexmaze of health panaceas. There is one uniquefeature of this expert's method of workinghisexperiments were uniformly conducted upon him-self. In the fifteen years that he operated his bigsanitarium in Switzerland, during his lectures andclinics in the biggest cities of Europe, and bythousands of consultations by post and telegraphin America and Europe, as well as practice in Asiaand Africa during study trips, Professor Ehret hadno lack of experience in observing results of histheories applied over a long period of time.

It was on his own person, however, that experi-ments were made before being tried out on pa-tients. "Physician heal thyself" did not worry thiswizard of the sanitarium, for he began his searchwhile holding a professorship in a Badensian col-lege, where he became "incurably" ill with Bright'sdisease. The complete restoration to healthtowhat was probably the most perfect state of healthof anyone in our Western civilization todayandthe adventure of finding the fundamental lawsunderlying the problems of life, liberty and thepursuit of health became a life work.

"Mucus" is the key-note of the attack whichIgnorance has centered upon the Western civiliza-tion. A mucusless diet, coupled with a wise use ofthe fasting method, the whole adapted to theindividual patient, but observing basic lawscon-



INTRODUCTION 7

firmed by the physiological chemists and dietitiansof some of the biggest universitiesworked into asystem of cure evolved entirely by Professor Ehretis the wand by which the toothless race is to beheld back and western civilization given a new leaseon life.

Most schools of healing have united on the ideathat disease, regardless of its symptoms, consists ofa constitutional encumbrance of a material general-ly known as foreign matter. Natural healing, conse-quently, consists of methods of treatment to elim-inate this disease-producing material, and to stopthe source of it. At least so reason a great numberof the members of the healing profession; and it isthe perfection of this idea that made Ehret awizard among his kind.

My first knowledge of Professor Arnold Ehretcame a few years ago when a translation of one ofhis important monographs came to my reviewdesk. I was at once aroused, and, when he came toLos Angeles, was eager to make his acquaintance.Later I had the privilege of sitting through coursesof lectures in his classes, of meeting him sociallythrough a long period, of having his expert advicein my own dietetic practice, and of testing out tomy own satisfaction the principles of health whichhe has discovered. It is from these sources that Ishall try to set down, partly in his own languageand partly in paraphrase, the story of the man andhis record in the healing sphere. Only the broadoutlines, of course, can be attempted, for whilefundamentally simple, the Mucusless Diet Healing



8 RATIONAL FASTING

System is a matter for more detailed study thancan be covered here.

The general agreement on the part of at least thedrugless healers and a large proportion of themedical fraternity that the fundamental cause ofdisease is the presence of foreign material in thebody has not led to a basic discovery of the rootsof this invading mystery. This material (and hereand following I am speaking for Professor Ehret) isthe undigested, uneliminated and decayed foodelements from wrong and too-much eating. It is,consequently, most important, reasonable andclearly seen that the main factor in the healthenigma should consist of dietetics, and this in-cludes intelligently conducted fasting, especially ifovereating is the main cause of the patient's dis-ease. The method works the same in the humanbody as instinctive self-healing does in the animal.

The entire system is based upon Ehret's famousmucus theory, now a well-proven fact, and makesplain the former mysteries of all the 57 varieties ofdisease, including the "flu," pellagra and the jazzdance. The disease-producing material is a partiallydigested, decaying, semi-liquid mostly, and in thiscondition is generally known as mucus. It is easilyproven and demonstrated that everyone living on amixed diet (vegetables and meat), or a starchyvegetarian regimen, has a system more or lessclogged up with mucus, whether sick or not. Thisfoundation cause of every disease is going on fromchildhood and even before, if animal flesh andanimal food products (fats) and starchy foods are



INTRODUCTION 9

eaten. It has long been recognized by students andscientists that these foods are not suitable formankind, as the larger portion cannot be digestedfully, but are acted on by the gastric juices makinga toxic mucus which decays, ferments, producesgas, acidosis and many kinds of toxins; and this hasa sticky, gluey consistency which clogs the circula-tion, so the body needs a shock like a "cold" tostart the elimination of a portion of it.

If physical treatments are resorted to, they caneliminate only a portion as long as the supply isnot stopped by a change from the mucus-formingfoods and by overeating. It is reasonable, naturaland self-evident, therefore, that the disease-pro-ducing eating must be stopped if you will havecomplete success from physical treatments.

Fasting and a decrease in the amount eaten is theonly check on overeating, and non-mucus-formingfoods must replace mucus-forming disease-pro-ducing ones. Professor Ehret did not invent ororiginate fasting or the use of fruit and green-leafvegetables in improved diet, as these were recog-nized factors, but he did bring the greatest efficien-cy in their use by originating an entirely newsystem of combining them as a systematic healingmethod, under the name of The Mucusless DietHealing System, after his "mucus theory" hadbecome a well-proven fact as being the largestfactor of the fundamental cause of every diseasedcondition.

Neither fasting nor fruit diet have been used in



10 RATIONAL FASTING

strict accordance with the condition of the patient;but to combine them as a "Systematic Cleansing"the success is remarkable and satisfactory.

The greatest difference between a diet of Healingand a diet of Nourishment is a point that needsgreatest emphasis. Fruit is the ideal practical andnatural diet of mankind, for nourishment, but themucusless diet is a regimen of healing and consistsof raw and cooked fruits, starchiess and leafyvegetables and mucus-poor cereals specially pre-pared. The ordinary diagnosis is not needed, northe local name of the disease; but the amount ofthe encumbrance of mucus and the activity of thetoxins is of the first importance, and then thedegree to which the individual's encumbrance hasaffected his vitality. Whether the patient is able tolabor and desires to do so, or whether he is moreseriously incapacitated determines the speed ofelimination, and upon this depends the degree ofweakness and disturbing sensations. For this cure isthe only one recorded which can be regulated andcontrolled as to speed.

Action of the muscular and nerve systems is chem-ically lowered by the toxins of the mucus. To seehow these conditions affect the organic functionsand impair the vitality, in each individual case, isthe diagnosis.

It is an erroneous idea that only the blood isaffected, is unclean, full of mucus and toxins. Theentire body in its deepest tissues have these poisonsstored up. The amount of it is much more than is



INTRODUCTION 11

supposed; consequently when it is dissolved andloosened by the mucusless diet, care must be takennot to do it too rapidly, for that clogs the excre-tory system, impairs the vital energy which isalready weakened, and causes a serious condition.Even death may follow an unwise application ofthe eliminative process. This is important andexplains why long fasts or fasts without properpreparation, and radical fruit cures often fail.Ehret's diagnosis is a conclusion from his knowl-edge of the aforementioned points, together withthe general appearance of the patient, as to howrapidly he can stand the dissolving of his storedmucus, and then advises a transition diet that willmake a gradual change from his mucus-formingfoods to the full action of the mucusless diet. Assoon as the greater part of the mucus "deposit" isdissolved and eliminated, a strict mucusless diet isadvisable and if necessary can be combined withlonger or shorter fasts depending upon the indi-vidual's condition.

In this cure, special attention is given to the bowelmovements, as the intestines are the main organs ofwaste elimination. Artificial means can be usedtemporarily from above and below, but the mucus-less diet is the only thorough and perfect cleanserthat dissolves the dried mucus which sticks to theinner walls of the intestines and colon: and alsofurnishes the blood with the proper elementswhich dissolve the mucus that is stored up in thewalls of the alimentary canal and which stops itsperistalic action. To do this is the crowning actionin the cure of constipation, something no other



12 RATIONAL FASTING

method of diet or any laxative has ever succeededin doing.

The fruits of the mucusless diet furnish the bloodwith the best nutrient elements, as well as dissol-vents; and the starchiess and leafy vegetables fur-nish not only the right mineral salts but are therepositories of those elusive but important vita-mines, and the "Fat and water soluhies," the"A.B.C." foods, whatever those mysterious infini-tesimal materials are, while the vegetable fibresfurnish a broom to sweep out the intestinal canal.

The nutritive values of the mucusless diet aresuperior to those of any other foods. This has beendemonstrated by results and by the standard tablesof food analyses when properly interpreted. Theircurative and nutritive values were discovered in thiscountry and Europe at about the same time.

Professor Ehret made the discovery, during his longexperience, tests and experiments resulting in hiscure, that the grape-sugar of carbohydrates was thesource of vitality and vital energy, and not theproteids. This is a fundamental part of the newphysiology which he has built up. In 1909 hewrote an article for the European health magazinesdenouncing the metabolic theory, and in 1912learned that Thomas Powell, M.D., of Los Angeleshad made the same discovery and was effectingwonderful cures by using foods containing what hecalled "organized carbon," which is the same foodingredient that develops into grape-sugar duringdigestion.



INTRODUCTION 13

Man is working against too much friction in hishuman machine. Hidden away in every part of thehuman body are thousands of feet of small andalmost invisible tubes through which the bloodcirculates like the water in a water motor. If theblood stream contains sticky mucus from wrongeating, the body machine has to work undercontinual friction, like a car slowed down byapplying the brake. This explains the long-existingmystery of weakness and also that of blood pres-sure, and the high temperature of fever and inflam-mation. During the process of healing by themucusless diet system the same friction occurs,because the mucus is dissolved and is taken intothe blood stream. But it occurs periodically, be-cause the blood stream cannot carry it all at once.

The up-to-date fasting and fruit diet have beenused dilettantively and without any system and,therefore, failed in most cases. The mucusless diethealing system has been exhaustively tested by thethousands of cures by Professor Ehret and hisdisciples (the Ehretists) of Europe and the West;especially in advising the procedure in thousands ofcases, most of them pronounced "incurable."These have consisted of paralysis, epilepsy, blind-ness, diabetes, turberculosis, etc."The school in which I acquired the knowledgeand graduated from," said the originator of thenew system, "was in curing my own case ofBright's disease. I am not only fully cured physicaJ-ly but the mental is freed from the depressing andhindering effect of the debris from wrong eating,



14 RATIONAL FASTING

and a new life is the result. The only real preven-tion of disease is found."

During the years, a score of years ago, Ehret intrying to save his life tried every form of medicaland drugless healing known, mostly with goodreliefs from the latter; but he became discouragedafter each when he discovered that he was notcured. Not until he combined fasting with fruit andvegetable diet on his own responsibility was hehealed. In the thousands of cases he has cured sincethen he has found the educational factor an import-ant one, that the curing is done by nature's selfhealing processes and how they are best assisted.

The healing system must be varied and adapted toeach individual case. The practitioner must have apractical knowledge of every detail and show in hisown person the results of a perfect cure. Thesystem combines satisfactorily with any kind ofphysical or mental treatments, and gives themquicker and more satisfactory results.

In one of his books the professor writes of tubercu-losis:

"Therewith I also uncover the last secret of con-sumption. Or does anyone believe that this enorm-ous quantity of mucus thrown off by a patientstricken with tuberculosis for years and yearsemanates from the lung itself? Just because thispatient is then almost forcibly fed on 'mucus' (pap,milk, fat meats) the mucus can never cease, untilthe lung itself decays and the 'bacilli' make their



INTRODUCTION 15

appearance, when death becomes inevitable. Themystery of the bacilli is solved simply thus: Thegradual clogging up of the blood vessels leads todecomposition, to fermentation of these mucusproducts and 'boiled-dead' food-residues. Thesedecay partially on the living body (pussy abcesses,cancer, tuberculosis, syphilis, lupus, etc.) Now,everybody knows that meat, cheese and all organicmatter will again 'germinate, put forth bacilli'during the process of decomposition. It is for thisreason that these germs appear and are detectableonly in the more advanced stage of the disease,when, however, they are not the cause but theproduct of the disease, and disease-furthering onlyin so far as the decomposition, for instance of thelung, is being hastened by them, because of theexcretions of the bacilli, their toxins, act poison-ing. If it be correct that bacilli invade, 'infect' fromthe exterior, then it is nothing but the mucuswhich makes possible their activity, and furnishesthe proper soil, the 'disposition'."

Within a period of 14 months Professor Ehret lived126 days without food, 49 days in one stretch.These fasts (the world-record for absolute scientificobservation within an enclosure) were undertakenonly after long preparation of the physical organ-ism by a mucusless diet. "I even maintain," saidthe faster, "that if man lived in accordance withright dietetic laws on a mucusless diet he wouldexperience absolute health, beauty and strength,without pain and grief, just as we are told in theBible. All so-called miracles by the saints have theirorigin in ascetics, and are today impossible only



16 RATIONAL FASTING

because, although there is much praying done, nofasting is adhered to. We have no more miraclesbecause we have no more saints, i.e., sanctified andhealed by ascetics and fastings. The saints wereself-shining, expressed in modern terminology,medial or radioactive. I wish to state that I myselfhave succeeded in visible, electric effluences, butonly by external and internal sun-energies (sun-baths and food from the 'sun-kitchen,' fruits).

"It is today easier to write books, preach and pray,saying I am an exception. This is true, but only asfar as pluck and understanding are concerned."

While declaring war on meat and alcohol, ProfessorEhret recognizes that a moderate use of either orboth of these still places one far ahead of thevegetarian glutton. A person becomes most effi-cient and develops best in his health if he eats aslittle as possible.

A large proportion of ordinary fasting attempts failbecause of the ignorance of the fact that with thebeginning of the mucusless diet the old mucus isbeing excreted so much more forcibly until thatperson is absolutely clean and healthy. Thus theseemingly most healthy person has first to passthrough a condition of sickness (cleansing), or gothrough an intermediate stage of illness to a higherlevel of health.

Growing old is found to be latent disease, a slowbut constantly increasing disturbance in the opera-tion of the motor of life. If, according to Paradisic



INTRODUCTION 17

primary laws the lungs and skin be given nothingbut pure air and sun-electricity, and the stomachand bowels nothing but sun-food (fruits), whichare being digested almost without rest, there seemsto be no reason why the tube-system of the humanbody should become defective, weaken, age ,andfinally break down entirely. The human organismdoes not assimilate one atom of mineral substancewhich has not become organic in the plant. Grape-sugar of the fruits and their nutritive salts, and thesalts of the green-leaf starchiess vegetables are theright sources for a firm muscle-substance by whicha body throws off its diseases and maintains astandard of health. Properly, man in perfect healthshould exhale fragrance. The stench of sweat, foulbreath, etc., indicate but the rotten matter withwhich nearly all bodies are weighted and handi-capped from infancy to that final excess of cor-ruption which stills forever the human engine.

The hairs are odor-tubes or "gas chimneys" and itis no wonder that the pollution they carry off leadsto grayness and baldness. The remedy is to befound in the mucusless diet.

Professor Ehret's experimental proof that mucus isthe fundamental and main factor in sickness anddeath differs from the bacillus theory only in thefact that this mucus is the bed, the pre-condition,the primary. The excessive appearance of the whiteblood corpuscles, i.e., of the white dead mucus, ascompared with the red sugar and iron substances isbecoming dangerous to life. Red-colored and sweetis the visible token of life and love; white, pale,



18 RATIONAL FASTING

colorless, bitter, the token of disease and theoverwhelming by mucus, the slow dying of theindividual. "The death struggle or agony can beregarded only as a last crisis, a final effort of theorganism to excrete mucus; a last fight of thestill-living cells against the dead ones and theirdeath-poisons."My first American ancestor, landing in New Am-sterdam in 1616, was the colony's first physician,and for three centuries an almost unbroken line ofmedical men have held up the old tradition. I havebeen a close student of health and dietetics for alife-time, and it is not lightly that I echo the wordsof Luther Burbank when the plant wizard paid thistribute, "I have no doubt that Prof. Ehret hasfound the fundamental cause of all disease." Hestudied in four continents, keenly alive and observ-ing, familiar with the latest word of science inevery phase of his research, yet bringing the geniusof the discoverer into play in blazing new paths.Healing himself, experimenting on himself andjustifying his conclusions by thousands of cures inhis sanitarium and in clinic and by correspondence,he contributed a unique addition to the store ofhuman knowledge. I found him quiet and unassum-ing, fully alive to the significance of his newteachings but never arrogant nor grasping.



Foreword to theSecond Edition

In 1910, part of this book was published as anessay in "Gesundheit" (Health), Zurich, and in thenumber 17/18 edition of "Lebenskunst" (Art ofLife), publisher K. Lentze, Leipzig. It aroused suchgreat interest and demand that I felt obliged topublish it in book form with considerably moredetail and important additions in the text.

Within one year the first 5,000 copies of "RationalFasting" were sold out, which is proof enough ofits great popularity. And I hope that this secondedition will find an even larger audience who willlisten to the truth it contains. Apart from a fewminor additions, the content of my book was notaltered.

May this book serve all readers seeking after truthregardless of its source; may it especially serve thesick and encourage those worrying about the lossof their youth and the first signs of old age.

Locarno, Autumn 1912

ARNOLD EHRET.19



20 RATIONAL FASTING



Ft reword to theThird dition

There has been such great demand and praise for"Rational Fasting" that a third edition has becomenecessary. In the meantime, nature doctors havealso released publications on fasting cures despitetheir initial objection to the most natural of allcures. However, they obviously still lack the under-standing that there is only ONE disease, i.e. alldiseases are related in that they have a commonfundamental cause. Therefore, fasting and keepingto a natural diet will help in all cases of sickness,however, it will not help all patients withoutexception.

Even in the United States my book has become abestseller as is apparent from a letter I receivedfrom Dr. Benedict Lust, owner and director of thefirst natural health spa in the United States (NewJersey). Dr. Lust, who is also the editor of "Na-ture's Path" magazine, writes on July 23rd asfollows:

"The book market here is absolutely saturatedwith publications on fasting. Dewey, Haskell, Sin-cIair, etc. to name but a few authors. However, noone has so deeply and accurately grasped theproblem than you in your book which we welcome

21



22 RATIONAL FASTING

with great delight. It certainly is the best bothfrom a practical and scientifically sound point ofview. I really wished I had the financial means topublish your book and distribute it by the mil-lions."

There is a disconcerting indication that fasting willbecome nothing hut a fad. Hopefully, my cure willbe spared that fate and gradually establish itself ina permanent first place to the benefit of all people.

Locarno, Summer 1914.

ARNOLD EHRET.



Preface

Today's thinking indicates one fundamental differ-ence to former times namely that everybody has adifferent concept about the reason for being. Noteven the scientists who are specializing in NaturalSciences are in accord among themselves. They areasking more and more questions, make everythingmore questionable and finally make man a livingquestion mark.

Mauthner in his criticisms on linguistics reveals asecret everybody already knows: "nowadays allquestions are answered with an equal amount of'yes' and 'no'. Everything that has been proven hasalso been disproven. The most controversial amongall differing opinions and scientific controversies isthat of the meaning of disease.

I feel I should not wait any longer with making myexperience public; however my message is notintended for just everybody, it is dedicated tothose who are in search of truth and can recognizeand accept facts on the strength of actual experi-ments without bothering to question who pro-claimed them and whether the majority agrees withthem or disagrees with them.

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24 RATIONAL FASTING

A year ago the magazine "Vegetarian Watch Tow-er" published a report how my first disciple andmyself purposely went to the malaria infestedprovinces of Italy in order to test our resistance tothis fever at a pulse beat of 45/52. We made it apoint to sleep outdoors in areas that were consid-ered highly contagious, and indulged in strenuousendurance marches during the day. I have offeredmy services to all European and American authori-ties to use my experience in order to make peoplepositively fever resistant. I still maintain today thatI am immune to choleraand I am ready to proveitand would not contract it even if I were to eatnon-ripened fruit. More than that, I maintain that Icould help make other people resistant if they wereto live according to my advice. It is my duty andmoral obligation to perpetuate the truth which Ihave experienced on my own body and which willserve the healthy to remain strong and not to fallprey to disease and sickness.

Nowadays there are two ways for sick people tocombat their illness. There is the one kind of sickwho want to get it over and done with as soon aspossible. They take pills, drugs, vaccines etc. andindeed these medications will help to restore theirhealth for a while. However a complete curebecomes less likely in the long run and eventually arenewed and more severe breakdown of the systemis unavoidable.

Man seems to think this is the way it should be andmedical science therefore complies superbly with



PREFACE 25

the demands made upon it for instant cure. Thereis no denying the medical accomplishments.

The other kind of patient oftentimes consideredsomewhat old fashioned but in effect the one thatis honest with himself, intelligent and concernedabout the origin of the illness that has befallenhim, wants to get at the heart of things and curehimself once and for all. To achieve this end therewill have to be sacrifices. The patient becomes hisown doctor and adviser. All I can do is show himthe way. This is the purpose of this book.

Naturopathy works within these two extremes.Whilst cautioning against overindulgence in foodsthe main cause for most diseasesand preventionare given only somewhat secondary importance,Naturopathy does contribute greatly by applyingnatural ways of healing and it cannot be deniedthat by her methods including the use of fresh airand water treatments, the success of the fastingcure would be even further increased.

This booklet will give a general outline what a fastshould be like and which foods are to be avoidedbut it must be remembered that the individual'spersonal requirements may vary from one case tothe next and proper advice should always besought. I am confident that my readers who havealready gained good insight into my theory willprofit even more from this extensive writing.

It appears that the medical association has tradi-



26 RATIONAL FASTING

tionally very little use for the discoveries of anon-professional but that just can't be helped.Science and particularly natural science and tech-nology have never questioned the qualifications ofthe great discoverers. The world might have madefun occasionally of amateurs like Franklin andGalvani, Edison and Zeppelin but their genius wasnevertheless recognized and respected. The medicalschool however may teach about the Priessnitzcompress and never mention at all that he too wasa non-professional.

I do not share the animosity of the Naturopathstoward the medical profession nor do I sanction,indeed I condemn, the activities of any quack whois carrying on his activities under the pretext of'nature cures'.

These are a few of my thoughts.



CHAPTER

The common fundamental causen the nature of diseases

From the earliest periods of civilization onwardand throughout all phases in the development ofmedical science it was commonly believed thatdiseases were of external nature. By entering intothe human body they disrupted its normal func-tions, caused pain and eventually destroyed itcompletely. Even modern medical science, no mat-ter how enlightened it pretends to be, has not quiteabandoned this basic belief. Indeed, bacteriologistsrejoice over every newly discovered bacillus asfurther indication of the external danger to man'shealth.

Looking at it from a philosophical point of viewwe find that a change in its name is the onlydifference between the mediaeval conception ofthe so called 'evil spirit' on the one hand and theproven existence of the microscopically visible'bacillus' of modern times on the other.

There is, however, still the question of man'svarying degree of susceptibility which nobody sofar has explained to us. Tests indicate of coursesymptoms and reactions thereto but they really donot prove anything because the bacteria were



28 RATIONAL FASTING

injected directly into the blood-stream instead ofentering orally and then proceeding into the diges-tive channel. There is something to the concept ofan invasion of a diseaseeven a hereditary oneinto the body from without, however not in thesense that the invader is an evil spirit hostile to life,or a microscopic bacillus; rather, all diseases with-out exception including the hereditary ones arecausednot counting a few which are due toinsufficient hygieneby biologically wrong, unnat-ural foods and by each ounce of over-eating.

First of all I maintain that during all diseaseswithout exception the organism tends to secrete akind of mucus, and in case of a more advancedstage it takes the form of pus (decomposed blood).[It is understood that every healthy organismcontains a certain amount of fatty substances.]Every professional will agree to this whether wespeak of catarrhal diseases ranging from nasal dripto chest cold, to inflammation of the lungs and toconsumption. Even when the secretion of mucus isnot visible to the eye as in cases of ear, eye, skin orstomach trouble, heart diseases, rheumatism, gout,etc., even in all degrees of insanity, mucus is stillthe main cause of the illness. When the naturalsecretive organs become unable to cope with thedisposal of the excess mucus, it will enter into theblood stream and cause heat, inflammation, painand fever at such spots where the vessel system hascontracted which could be due to a cold.

We need only to give any patient nothing but'mucusless' food, for instance fruit or even nothing



THE NATURE OF DISEASES 29

but water or lemonade; and we would find that thenow made idle entire digestive energy would attackthe mucus matter accumulated since childhood andfrequently hardened, as well as the so called 'path-ological beds' (decomposed cellular tissues). Andthe result? With absolute certainty this mucuswhich I consider as the common main cause of alldiseases will appear in the urine and in the excre-ments. If the disease is somewhat more advancedand the patient has developed deposits of decom-posed cellular tissues, then pus is also being secret-ed. Once the formation of mucus by means of'artifical' food, fatty meats, bread, potatoes, farm-aceous products, rice, milk, etc., ceases, the blooditself attacks the mucus and the pus in the bodyand secretes them through the urine, and in thecase of heavily infected bodies even through all theopenings at its command as for instance alsothrough the mucus membranes.

If potatoes, grain meal, rice or meat are boiled longenough, we get jelly-like slime (mucus) or pastesimilar to the kind that is used by bookbinders andcarpenters. This slimy substance soon turns sour,ferments, and forms a bed for fungi, molds andbacilli. During digestion, which is nothing else buta boiling, a combustion, this slime or paste iscreated in the same manner, for the blood can useonly the converted dextrose sugar transformedfrom starch. The waste matter, this superfluousproduct, i.e., this paste or slime is at first complete-'j creted. It is however easy to understand thatin the course of one's lifetime the intestines andthe stomach are gradually pasted and slimed up to



30 RATIONAL FASTING

such an extent that this paste or flora and thisslime of fauna origin turn into fermentation, clogup the blood vessels and finally decompose thestagnated blood.

If figs, dates or grapes are boiled into a pap we geta kind of thick syrup which however does notferment and never leaves slime. It is true that fruitsugar, the most important thing for the blood, isalso sticky, but it is completely absorbed by thebody since it represents the highest form of com-bustible substance and leaves for excretion onlytraces of cellulose which not being sticky arepromptly disposed of and do not ferment. Owingto its resistance to fermentation, boiled down sugaris even used for the preservation of various foods.

Each healthy or sick person develops a stickymucus on the tongue as soon as he cuts down onhis intake of food or goes on a fast. This occursalso on the mucus membrane of the stomach ofwhich the tongue is an exact copy. In the firststool after a fast this mucus makes its appearance. Irecommend to you and physicians and researchersto test my claims by way of experiments whichalone are entitled to real scientific recognition. Theexperiment, the question put to nature, is the basisof all natural science and reveals the infallibletruth, no matter whether it is stated by me orsomebody else. Furthermore, I recommend thefollowing experiments to those who are braveenough to test on their own bodies what I under-took on mine. They will receive the same answerfrom nature, i.e., from their organism, provided




that the latter is 'healthy' in my interpretation ofthe word. Only the cleansed, healthy mucuslessorganism reacts with a certain predictable exact-ness. After a two year strict fruit diet with inter-spersed fasting cures, I had attained a degree ofhealth which is simply not imaginable nowadaysand which allowed me to make the followingexperiments:

I made an incision in my lower arm with a knife:there was no flow of blood because it thickenedinstantly closing up the wound, no inflammation,no pain, no mucus and pus, healed up in threedays, blood crust thrown off. Later, with vegetari-an food, including mucus forming starch food, butwithout eggs and milk, the wound bled a little,caused some pain and pussed slightly, a lightinflammation, and complete healing only aftersome time. After a meat diet and some alcohol thesame type of wound bled longer, the blood of alight color, red and thin, inflammation, pain, pus-sing for several days, and healing only after atwo-day fast.

I have offered myself in vain to the PrussianMinistry of War for a repetition of this experiment.Why is it that the wounds of the Japanese healedmuch faster and better in the Russo-Japanese warthan those of the 'meat and brandy Russians'? Hasnobody, for 2,000 years, ever wondered why theopening of the artery and even the poison cupcould not kill Seneca who had despised meat andfasted in prison? It is said that even before he was



32 RATIONAL FASTING

imprisoned Seneca took nothing but fruit andwater.

In the final analysis all disease is nothing more thana clogging up of the smallest blood vessels, thecapillaries, with mucus. Nobody would want toclean out the water pipe system of a city intowhich the pumps had fed dirty water which in turnclogged up the filters, without having the watersupply shut off during the cleaning process. If theconduit supplies the entire city or a portion of itwith unclean water or even if only some of thesmaller pipes were clogged up, nobody in the worldWould think of just repairing the defective spot;everybody thinks at once to go to the main feedand the filters, and these together with the pumpscan be cleaned only as long as the water supply isshut off.

If I were to paraphrase the First Commandment,this is what it would be: "I am the Lord, thyphysician". Nature alone heals, cleanses and elimi-nates mucus without fail, but only if the intake ofat least the mucus producing foods is stopped.Each physiological systemthat of man and animalalike-cleanses itself automatically and with tirelesseffort dissolves the mucus in the clogged up vesselsas soon as at least the supply of solid food has beeninterrupted. Even in the case of the supposedlyhealthy man, this mucus, as already mentioned,will then appear in the urine where it can be seenafter cooling off in the proper glass tubes! Whoeverdenies, ignores or rejects this fundamental factperhaps because it goes against his grain or is not




scientific enough for him, joins those who areguilty of obstructing the path to the discovery ofthe principal causes for all diseases. This is ofcourse in the first place to his own detriment.

This will also unveil the ultimate secret of con-sumption. Or does anybody believe that the enor-mous amount of mucus coughed up by a tubercu-losis patient year after year emanates only fromthe lungs themselves? Since such patients are manytimes nourished with high mucus producing foodssuch as pap, milk and fatty meats, the lungs remainunder constant strain and finally disintegrate andthereby provide the perfect breeding grounds forthe bacilli which will launch the deathly finalattack. The mystery of the bacilli is thus simplysolved: the gradual clogging up of the blood vesselswith mucus leads to decomposition and fermen-tation of these mucus food residues. They decaypartially in the living body (pussy abcesses, cancer,tuberculosis, syphilis, lupus, etc.). Now everybodyknows that meat, cheese and all organic matter willagain 'germinate, put forth bacilli' during the proc-ess of decomposition. It is for this reason thatthese new germs appear and are detectable only inthe more advanced stage of the disease. They arenot the cause but the end product of the diseaseand speed up the process of decomposition of thelung for example through excretions of poisonoustoxins. If it were true that bacilli invade from theexterior, then it is nothing but the mucus whichpermits them their activity and furnishes theproper predisposition.



34 RATIONAL FASTING

As mentioned before I have repeatedly (at onetime for as long as two years) lived on a mucuslessdiet, i.e., on fruit exclusively. As a result I could dowithout a handkerchief which product of civiliz-ation I hardly need even up to this date. Hasanyone ever seen a wild healthy animal spit orblow its nose?

I was suffering from a chronic inflammation of thekidneys considered incurable. But, not only was Icured, I am also enjoying a degree of health andefficiency which far surpasses even that of myhealthiest youth. Show me the man who havingbeen near death at 31, eight years later can runcontinuously for two and a quarter hours or takean endurance hike lasting 56 hours!

Surely it is theoretically correct that man was amere fruit eater in times gone by, and biologicallycorrect, that he can be it even today. There is noproof necessary of the fact since plain commonsense will tell that man lived on fruits only beforehe became a hunter. I even maintain that he livedin absolute health, beauty and strength withoutpain and grief just the way the Bible says.Fruitalone, the sole mucusless food, is natural. Every-thing prepared by man, or supposedly improved byhim, is evil. The evidence regarding fruit is scientif-ically proven; the apple or banana for instancecontain everything that man needs. Man is soperfect that he can live on only one kind of fruitfor at least quite some time. But nature's self-evi-dent truth must not be ignored just because no-body has been able to apply it in practice on




account of the inhibitions which civilization hasimposed on us. From eating only fruit one bringsabout a crisis, i.e., cleansing. No man would haveever believed me that it was possible to livewithout food for 126 days during 14 months inwhich 49 days were undertaken at a stretch. Nowthat I have done it, this truth is still not under-stood. Up to now I have stated and taught onlythat fruit is the most natural remedy. However, theself-evident is not always easily believed. When inthe previous century somebody talked about tele-phoning from London to Paris, everybody laughedbecause there had never been such a thing. Naturalfoods are not very popular any more becausealmost no one eats them and man being a productof civilization cannot easily come by them. It mustalso be remembered that there are other interestgroups which fear that the prices of artificialfoodstuffs may drop, and still others that fearphysicians might become unnecessary. The latterneed not worry for any fasting and fruit curerequires very strict observation and instruction.Therefore more doctors are needed for fewer pa-tients who, however, will gladly pay more if theyget well. Thus, the concern regarding the doctors'existence is unfounded.

Almost all attempts at fasting fail on account ofthe ignorance of the faster as to all that is involved.One fact must he carefully borne in mind, namelythat at the beginning of the mucusless diet therewill be the startling discovery that a lot of the oldmucus is being excreted and quite forcibly so untilthat person is absolutely clean and healthy. THUS



36 RATIONAL FASTING

THE SEEMINGLY HEALTHY PERSON HASFIRST TO PASS THROUGH A CONDITION OFSICKNESS (CLEANSING), or go through an inter-mediate stage of illness in order to attain a higherlevel of health. This is the big hurdle which evenmany vegetarians have failed to take and conse-quently rejected the credibility of this highesttruth just like the mass of people are doing. I havecontributed my experience to the "VegetarianWatch-Tower" and substantiated my method bystating my experiments and the facts I had gath-ered during my 49 day fast and the preceding fruitdiet. This served to refute the greatest objection,the fear of undernourishment. My state of healthwas only improved by this radical excretion ofmucus, not counting a few unhygienic circum-stances during the test. I received numerous lettersof appreciation especially from the educatedclasses. Most vegetarians however unheedingly mu-cus ahead. The foods which they brand as poison-.ous: meat, alcohol, coffee and tobacco are bycomparison rather harmless in the long run ASLONG AS THEY ARE CONSUMED WITH MOD-ERATION.

In order to avoid misunderstanding on the part ofteetotalers and vegetarians, I must insert a fewexplanations here. Meat is not a food, it is only astimulant which ferments and decays in the stom-ach. The process of decay, however, does not beginin the stomach, it sets in right after the slaughter-ing of the animal. Such are Prof. Dr. S. Graham'sfindings after various experiments and I enlarge




even further in this respect: meats act as stimulantsthrough the very poisons due to decay which leadto the mistaken notion that it is a strengtheningfood. Or is there anyone who contends that thealbumen molecule after having gone through theprocess of decay will regenerate itself in the stom-ach and subsequently celebrate its resurrection insome muscle of the human body? Of course not!Like alcohol, at first meat simulates a feeling ofstrength and energy until the entire organism isclogged up by it and the breakdown becomesinevitable. All other stimulants act likewise.

The basic evil of all non-vegetarian forms of dietlies always in the overeating of meat which in turnbrings on other evils, notably the craving foralcohol. Man who nourishes himself on fruit willsoon lose his desire for alcoholic beverages whereasthe meat eater is constantly tempted by it sincemeat produces thirst. Alcohol acts as a kind ofantidote to meat and the big city gourmand whoeats mostly meats must therefore indulge himselfin wines, coffee and smoking in order to at least insome way counteract meat poisoning. It is a wellknown fact that one feels decidedly fresher, physi-cally and mentally, after a moderate dinner even ifmade up of such foods as are considered 'stimu-lants' as compared to stuffing oneself to the brimwith the so-called good foods from the vegetariankitchen.

I ABSOLUTELY DECLARE WAR ON MEATAND ALCOHOL. But whoever finds it impossibleto give up meat and alcohol entirely is still far



38 RATIONAL FASTING

ahead of the vegetarian glutton provided he eatsmoderately. The American, Fletcher proved withtremendous success that a person becomes mostefficient and healthiest if he eats as little aspossible. This is the secret I discovered also on thebasis of my own experiments. Are not the poorerpeople who by necessity must eat more moderatelythroughout the years, also the ones that becomeoldest? Have not the greatest discoverers and in-ventors sprung from the less privileged classes, i.e.,been small eaters? And were not the greatest ofmankind, the prophets, founders of religions, etc.,ascetics? What culture is this, to wine and dinethree times a day; or do we understand by socialprogress that each working man must eat five timesa day and then drink a lot of beer at night? Sincethe sick organism can regenerate itself withoutbeing given food, then it follows that a healthyorganism needs but little food in order to retain itshealth, strength and perseverance.

All miracles performed by saints at the so-calledholy places have become rare for the simple reasonthat, although much praying is done, not muchfasting is adhered to. We don't have miracles anymore because we have no more saints, no moreblessed and healed by asceticism and fasting. Thesaints were radiant not by special grace butthrough divine healthy asceticism. I just wish tomention here that I myself have succeeded invisible electric effluences, but only by external andinternal sun energies (sun baths and food from thesun kitchen: fruit).




The entire world is mystified by the miracles ofancient times. And yet, the answers can be foundin simple experiments which everybody can repeatif he is brave enough. But it is apparently easier towrite books, preach and pray, or to say that I aman exception. This is true but only so far ascourage and knowledge are concerned. Physiologi-cally all men are equal. If man eats moderately andis healthy, he will also be able to indulge himself attimes in meats and starches without any problemof digestion and elimination of mucus residues thusproduced. He would of course further improve hishealth if he ate only fruit of which he needs butlittle because it is the most perfect nourishmentthere is. Nature is difficult for man to acceptbecause he has built himself up of overcooked foodand his cells are condemned to death. Every timehe exposes himself to the sun or eats the living cellsof fruit, or engages in a fast all this dead matter iseliminated from his body. However, the cure offasting must be carried out with the greatest care.

Today's medications are designed to protect manfrom a breakdown of his cells but in most cases adoctor will only be consulted when the disease isimminent whereas very little if anything is done forprevention.

The vegetarians cannot deny that the meat andalcohol consuming portion of the population hasproduced a good number of healthy people, ca-pable of great achievements and longevity. At acloser look however, it will turn out that suchindividuals usually belong to the group of moder-



40 RATIONAL FASTING

ate eaters. Overeating is less harmful in the case ofmeat eaters because meat contains proportionallyless mucus than starches of which vegetarian foodis oftentimes made up not to mention the celebrat-ed vegetarian dinners with entirely too manydishes. I myself have not bothered much aboutmeals for many years now; I eat only when I haveappetite and then so little that it does not causeany harmful effect if and when on occasion I amobliged to eat something which is not free fromobjection.

If the most serious diseases can be cured by fastingwhich has been proven thousands of times and ifone gets even stronger during the fastprovided itis applied correctlyit then stands to reason that adiet of fruit should have an even more positiveeffect. This point has been scientifically proven bythe highly regarded Dr. Bircher. It is true that thescience of natural healing has recognized the factthat the sick organism has to get 'rid of something'in order to get better. Therefore it was consideredof greatest importance to eliminate meat and alco-hol from the patients diet but only very littleattention was paid to the most effective element inthe healing process: abstinence, restraint and thefruit diet. This does not mean much in the face ofmy 'mucus theory'. It is unbelievable how muchevil has been attributed to the 'mucusless' alcohol.Soon enough it will be made the scapegoat of alldiseases simply because a few unfortunate alcohol-ics ended in delirium. I maintain that if an alcohol-ic were to be made to fast for a few days or eatnothing but fruit, he would soon lose his taste for




beer and wine. This proves that the entire civilizedmass of foods from beefsteak to seemingly harm-less oatmeals creates a desire for these detestableantidotes: alcohol, coffee, tea, tobacco. Why? Be-cause overeating makes man lazy and consequentlyhe has to pep himself up with stimulants. The truereason then for an increase in the alcohol consump-tion is overeating, especially with meat. Dr. Gra-ham says in his "Physiology of Nourishment": "Adrinker can reach a high age, a glutton never." Thisis correct because alcohol acts as a stimulant,especially beer and is less harmful in the long runthan the chronically clogged up digestive channelwith mucus food.

Now let me ask what sounds more reasonable toyou: to subjugate the body to all kinds of medica-tion, injections, vaccinations and possibly evenoperations, or to try to rid the body of thepoisonous mucus accumulated since childhood inthe cellular tissues, by reducing the intake of food?

Not even the best chef could produce somethingmore perfect and more mucusless than an apple, agrape or banana. If over-eating and the consump-tion of high mucus producing foods is the truefundamental cause of all diseases without excep-tionand I maintain that everybody could obtainthe proof to this effect from his own bodythenthere exists but one natural remedy: fasting andfruit diet.

It is a well known fact that animals take to fastingat the slightest feeling of being unwell. Even our



42 RATIONAL FASTING

domestic animals whose sharp instincts for theright kind of nourishment have otherwise beengreatly reduced by their environment and the foodman has been feeding them, will nevertheless whensick accept only the most essential foods and taketo fasting until they are better. By contrast man isnot permitted such natural ways of healing himself.Under no circumstances must he live on shortrations for more than one or two days for fear thathe may lose strength.

Many physicians have recognized the merits offasting, some speak of miraculous cures, others ofcure for the uncurable, cure of all cures, etc.Unfortunately there are always some quacksaround who have nothing better to do than tomisrepresent and thereby discredit a good thing.This is particularly deplorable in the case of myfasting cure which requires extreme care in itsexecution. I have accomplished most significant re-sults through my world record breaking 49 dayfast (see "The Vegetarian Watch-Tower" 1909,book 19, 20, 22, 1920 book 1 and 2). FurthermoreI am the only one who combines this cure with asystematically and individually adapted fruit diet,which makes the fast astonishingly easier to carrythrough and absolutely harmless. We are, thereforein a position to heal diseases which the school ofmedicine designates as incurable. In view of myconclusions that the mucus residues are the funda-mental cause and main factor in the nature of alldiseases, symptoms of old age, obesity, baldness,wrinkles, nervous disorders and loss of memory,etc., there is justified hope for a new phase in the




development of more progressive healing methodsand biological medicine.

Hippocrates recognized the uniformity in the for-mation of diseases. Prof. Jaeger has defined thiscommon cause as a kind of stench but he didn'tdiscover the source of this 'bad smell'. Dr. Lah-mann and some of his colleagues, especially Kuhne,directed their research to the common cause offoreign matter. But not one of them recognized thefact that it is the mucus produced by the unnaturalfoods which clogs up our organisms from child-hood on, tends to ferment, forms pathologicalbeds, and in the end decomposes the cellulartissues of the body. During colds or high temper.ature the mucus gets occasonally loosened up, andin its endeavour to leave the body it creates allsorts of disturbing symptoms. These have often-times been regarded as the disease itself. It istherefore possible for the first time to define thevarious degrees of susceptibility to disease. Themore mucus being administered to the body fromchildhood on, and the less mucus being excretedin some cases this is due to hereditary weakness inthe organs which are to perform this taskthegreater is maP's susceptibility to catch cold, fever,to freeze, to invite bacilli, to get sick and to growold. Very likely this discovery will contribute tolift the veil that has hitherto always surrounded thenature of the white blood corpuscles. I believe thatwe are dealing here with one of the errors ofmedical science. Contrary to common belief Imaintain that the bacteria, when they enter thebody, attack the white blood corpuscles and not



44 RATIONAL FASTING

the other way round, for the white corpusclesconsist to a large extent of just that famous mucusdescribed in such detail during the preceding pages.Bacteria are being bred outside of the organism onmucus rich potatoes, broth, gelatine, etc. Mucus isa nitrogenous, vegetable or animal substance con-sisting of an alkaline reacting fluid which containsgranulated cells of the same appearance as thewhite blood corpuscles. Perhaps in an entirelyhealthy body the so-called mucus membraneshould not be all white and slimy but clean and redlike that in animals. Mucus might even be a chiefcontributor to wide-spread paleness.

By means of this 'mucus theory' we have come toexplain away much of the mystery of disease. Hewho believes in the conclusions derived from myexperiments benefits in three important ways: hecan heal himself not only where all else has failed,he can learn to make himself strong and conditionhimself to be less if at all susceptible to disease.

The human organism is mechanically speaking acomplicated system of tubes and blood vesselswhich is given its impetus through the air in thelungs. The blood fluid in turn is constantly keptmoving and regulated by the heart as the mainvalve. The air which we breathe in is separated inthe lungs into oxygen and nitrogen, thus the bloodis constantly kept moving and the human bodyfunctions for a long time without getting tired.Therefore the matter is simple: If the mechanism isnot overburdened with too much food, it willperform at its best and not slow down. I cannot



THE NATURE OF DJSEASES 45

accept the usual argument that nature absolutelydemands that man must indulge in lots of 'goodeating' so that he can perform his daily tasks. Suchpeople have to first find out for themselves forhow long it is possible to work or walk withoutfatigue after a fast or a fruit diet.

In the first place fatigue means a reduction instrength by too much digestive activity, secondly aclogging up of the blood vessels and thirdly acertain internal poisoning due to excretion ofexcess mucus. All organic substances of animalorigin excrete poisonous cyan groups in their de-composition, which the chemist Hensel has definedas bacilli proper. The air is not only the mostimportant and most perfect manipulator of thehuman body but it is also most essential, to buildstrength and reserves. Very likely the animal organ-ism obtains nitrogen also from the air. It has beenstated that certain caterpillars increased theirweight through intake of air alone.



CHAPTER

Remedies for the removal of thecommon fundamental cause and

the prevention of their recurrence

Having told my readers about the horrors of beingsick or falling sick, it befits me now to give asummaryas far as this can be expressed in generaltermsof how to deal successfully with mucuspoisoning, this greatest foe of health, by fastingand keeping a proper diet.

Healthy people can submit to a fasting cure with-out any further ceremony. It goes without sayingthat they must fast reasonably, i.e. avoid dangerousoverexertions during the fasting period by notdemanding of themselves physical or mental per-formances which they could not live up to even atfull fare. Also, a precautionary measure must betaken at the beginning of the fast: the completeemptying of the bowels. A harmless purgative(such as a mild herbal laxative), a syringe, or bothshould be used. The reasoning behind this is thathe who fasts should not be bothered unnecessarilyby gas or decomposing matter which form fromthe excrements remaining in the bowels. It suffices,as already stated, that the mucus during the excre-tion will give him enough trouble.

If the reader, although healthy, does not dare take47



48 RATIONAL FASTING

a more prolonged fast, he should try a short one. Athirty-six hour fast, once or twice a week, will intime produce very favorable results. It is best tostart such a fast by skipping supper, taking anenema instead. Then, abstain from food until themorning following the full day of fasting. Breakfastthat morning should consist of nothing but fruit.Eating fruit is necessary after each fasting, as thefruit juices cause the now loosened mucus to move.Let me caution, in the case of sick and old peoplethis treatment must be carefully individualized.

A longer fast, say for 3 days, done in the waydescribed above and followed by what I call anafter-fasting cure, will naturally show results muchquicker. That is, do not eat anything for three daysand drink only fresh lemonade, unsugared, in singlegulps as may become necessary. On the fourth dayeat some fruit and take a thorough enema in theevening. Then add more fruit from day to day, sothat by about the seventh day of the after-cure thenormal quantity of fruit-diet in the proper compo-sition and selection has been reached.

Healthy persons, especially those whose occupa-tion permits them to spend some time in bed incase of difficult excretions of mucus, can extendthe fasting cure for weeks. Nobody should serious-ly object to the so-called "bad looks" or thedecrease in weight during this period; the body"fasts itself into health", despite the miserablecomplexion. Within a remarkably short time thecheeks will be adorned by a healthy, natural redand the weight restored to its normal standard,



REMEDIES 49

since after a fast the body reacts to every ounce offood. Incidentally, moderate eaters and frequentlyfasting people have a very fine, spiritual facialexpression, for instance, it is said that Pope LeoXIII, that great faster, had a very clear, almosttransparent complexion.

The success of any fasting cure depends also to agreat extent on the attitude of the person submit-ting to it. By no means should he permit himself tobecome depressed or ill-humored. During the dis-agreeable moments, some may prefer to rest,others may decide to do some light and mechanicalwork.When the body has been rid of the mucus, slimeand paste, then it is the sacred duty of the personwho has regained health to keep up the reclaimedhighest earthly happiness and to guard it by meansof natural, correct food. On this subject a fewshort remarks in the following paragraphs will notcome amiss.

Persons with acute health problems, lung or hearttrouble for instance, may not be able to fast,however, they can stop further accumulation ofmucus by adhering to a proper diet. All mucusformers, especially flour (pastries), rice, potatoes,boiled milk, cheese, meat, etc. should be avoided.Whoever cannot do without bread entirely, shouldeat brown or white bread only, toasted. By toast-ing the bread, it loses much of its harmfulness, asthe mucus substances are partly destroyed. Fur-thermore, toast has the added advantage that itcannot be gulped down and the necessary chewing



50 RATIONAL FASTING

will fatigue us, so that we eat less. If, on account ofbad teeth, eating toasted bread poses a problem,suck on it until it dissolves. As to potatoes, if at all,eat them only baked and be sure and eat thejackets.

At this point, many a reader will probably questionwhat, if any, "nutritious food" remains. Unfortu-nately, it is not possible for me to go into thequestion of food and its effects exhaustively in thisbook and a few statements have to suffice. As tothe value of meat, it is a known fact that the bodyrequires only a slight amount of albumin containedin the meat. Sugary fruits will fully cover thisdemand. Bananas and nuts combined with a fewfigs or dates, for instance, are first class muscleformers and provide the body with energy. In fact,green salads, prepared with oil and plenty oflemon, and all the delicious fruits and berries,including those from the South, are excellentnutritious food. And when springtime comes, andleast season's fruits, especially apples, are on thedecline, and the new vegetables not yet ready, doesnot Mother Nature help us out abundantly withoranges from the South? Will the aroma and wealthof these splendid products of nature not induceman to eventually become a fruit-eater entirely?More detail on fasting and a balanced fruit-diet isset forth in my "Mucusless Diet Healing System".

It may be well to mention also that non-fasters andpeople suffering from a slight ailment should atleast follow the morning fast or non-breakfast plan.It would, indeed, be better for everybody not to



REMEDIES 51

eat anything before 10 o'clock and then nothingbut fruit. The reward for this little chastising willcertainly show itself, if kept up faithfully.

Now, just one more word to those who think itimpossible to give up the usual mucus food (meat,etc.). To those "unfortunate ones" I give thisadvice: Chew your food, that is every bite,thoroughly as recommended by the American,Fletcher, in one word "fletcherize." Not that thefruit-eaters should not do this, certainly, but thepoison-laden mucus eaters must do so especially, ifthey do not wish to sink into their graves all toosoon. Chewing slowly furthers the secretion ofsaliva which decreases the formation of mucus andprevents overeating. Of course, this class of peoplecannot quite achieve the standard of health andstrength, preservation of youth and perseverance,physical and mental capacity of the faster andfruit-eater.Once man is healthy in my sense of the word byfasting and following a fruit-diet, that is, free frommucus, slime and germ, he, if he stays with thefruit-diet, need not fast any longer. And only thenwill he find a pleasure in eating which he neverdreamt of before. Only in this way will man findthe way to happiness, harmony and the solution ofall questions, as only through this he can becomewant-free and get "nearest to divinity."



52 RATIONAL FASTING



The fLmdarnenta causeofgrowngoIdancUgy

Nature's Ways to Maintain Youth and Beauty

I will now follow up the previous general remarksto the effect that mucus is the main cause ofdisease and the aging process with particular refer-ence to its influence over the development of allthe vital organs. I will show how it impairs beautyand instead produces symptoms of ugliness andage.

If we could have the perfect Paradisaic situationwhere the lungs and skin would take in nothing butpure air and sun, and the stomach and bowels befed nothing but natural foods, i.e. fruits, which aredigested almost without leaving any residues, thenonly mucusless, pasteless and germless cellulosewould be secreted from the body and there seemsto be no reason why the vessel system shouldbecome defective, weaken, age and finally breakdown entirely. The living energy cells of fruitwhich should constitute the best part of our dietare often neglected in favor of meat products etc.which in their raw condition are meant for beastsof prey, but are chemically changed by air-oxida-tion (decay), overcooked and thus robbed of theirenergy by the time we consume them. Mucusaccumulates especially in the stomach and bowelsand slowly clogs up the whole organism including

53

CHAPTER



54 RATIONAL FASTING

the glands. In the final analysis this causes chronicdefects, helps the aging process and is the mainfactor in the nature of all disease. Growing old,therefore, is a latent disease, that is, a slow butconstant increase in the slowdown of the motor oflife.

The study of the chemical composition of our foodproducts indicates that there is a decided lack ofminerals in boiled food.

The question arises whether faded beauty, humanugliness and symptoms of growing old can betraced back to nourishment. If this were so, thenbeauty treatments and rejuvenation would requirea dietetic therapy and an improvement in oureating habits. But inasmuch as beauty, especiallyhuman beauty, cannot be defined in absolute termssince everybody has a different taste, I will limitmyself to more or less the standard demands madeof aesthetic beauty. The sickly paleness of modernman can hardly be termed as beautiful. It is theresult of the wrong foods we eat. What a wonder-fully healthy color we could have if our dietconsisted of grapes, cherries and oranges, etc. andour hobbies of outdoor activities. The presence ofmucus indicates the absence of enough mineralsubstances which in turn are responsible for thislack of color. Just compare the food tables of Dr.Konig and you will find that the mucusless food,fruit and vegetables, rank highest as regards theirmineral content, especially lime. The size of aperson, i.e., his frame and bone structure dependsfor instance mainly on the amount of lime con-tained in the food. The Japanese want to increase



CAUSE OF GROWING OLD 55

the size of their race by eating more meat. Theyare certainly ill advised. All reduction in size,deformities, and especially tooth decay are due tolack of lime. Modern cooking boils the lime rightout of milk and vegetables. The tremendous lack ofminerals in today's food, especially in meat ascompared with fruit, will be made responsible forthe emergence of a toothless human race. This maysound like a figment of the imagination but it isquite a serious thought in which many doctorshave joined. Where fruit would be the answer tothe existing deficiency, inorganic substances havebeen chosen as substitute. The human organismdoes not assimilate one single atom of mineralsubstance which has not become organic. We havelived with one of the evils of civilizationobesity--for so long that our aesthetic feeling in this regardhas become somewhat disturbed and we do not evenknow what constitutes normal any longer. I per-sonally do not consider the overly developed mus-cular man particularly beautiful and a standard ofthe ideal. Weight, shape and especially the frame ofthe body are too big. Every accumulation of fat ispathological and in this sense not aesthetic. Noanimal living in freedom grows fat like modernman. The reason is simply too much food and toomuch to drink resulting in sluggishness and clog-ging up of the bodily organism. The dextrose sugarand all other nutritive attributes of fruit are thereal muscle builders and regenerators of the demor-alized body.

Facial and bodily flabbiness have become quitecommonplace. It is ugly and certainly pathological.Curiously enough this flabbiness is considered



56 RATIONAL FASTING

beautiful, and more than that, it is admired as anindication of abundant health, while our experi-ence teaches us quite to the contrary that the slim,youthful person has more strength and per-severence and generally reaches greater longevity.

Rarely if ever will you see an obese 80 or 90 yearold. The ultimate irony is that there exists atendency to believe that tuberculosis can be "fat-tened' away. If fat people do not die in their bestyears of a stroke or a heart attack, their bodiesbecome sluggish and their desire for food decreasesin spite of all artificial stimulations of the appetite.The skin, especially of the face, having been underextreme tension for years folds and wrinkles. It haslost its youthful elasticity on account of insuffi-cient and unhealthy blood circulation as well aslack of light and sun. No facial massage or beautytreatment will do much good at this late stage. Thedistinction and beauty of the facial features, thepurity and healthy color of the complexion, theclarity and natural size of the eyes, the charm ofexpression and the color of the lips, they all ageand turn ugly as an outward indication of what isgoing on inside the clogged up organism. We haveconcluded previously that the stomach and thebowels are the main deposit centers of our famousmucus from which most symptoms of diseasesemanate, including the process of aging.

What is sometimes talked about as 'the beautifulroundness of the cheeks' is quite deceiving. Moreoften than not it is accompanied by a swelling ofthe nose, a good indication of the presence ofmucus matter.



CHAPTER 3PART II

The preservationof the hair

Reasons for becoming bald and gray

I will now discuss the most important and moststriking symptom of growing old: getting gray hairand getting bald. An entire section must be devot-ed to this problem because its occurrence generallycauses great concern and is considered one of thefirst indications of getting old to which evenscience has hitherto not had any comforting an-swer.The fashion for males and females has been to weartheir hair extremely short for quite a few yearsnow so that we have become accustomed to thislook as well as that of the frightening proportionof bald heads among us. This voluntary and invol-untary absence of hair has caused us to lose ourartistic sense for the aesthetic pleasures which theharmonic creation of man once inspired in us. Manwho is not only intellectually but also aestheticallyspeaking, the crowning glory of creation has beenrobbed of the splendid crown on his head, his hair.They could be called 'walking skulls' these beard-less, colorless and expressionless heads of today.Just imagine the most beautiful woman withouthair! Which man wouldn't turn away with horror?



58 RATIONAL FASTING

On the other hand I cannot blame anybody forpreferring the clean shaven look to the positivelyunaesthetic appearance of some of the people whodo wear long hair and beards. In our time ofconformity it is preferred, and rightfully so, to cutoff this odorous, ugly, disheveled, uneven andhereditarily morbid hair which would otherwise bequite a good indication of the condition of man'sorganism. It stands to reason to surmise that anyoutward manifestation of physical degenerationreflects internal disturbances of the organism. Na-ture reveals such disturbances oftentimes throughdisharmony of shape and color. Doubters of mypoint of view and inexperienced observers of na-ture may be reminded of the fact that we haveunfortunately become unable either hygienically oraesthetically to experience or observe the idealbeauty and health of man living under perfectlynatural conditions. If there is pleasure to be de-rived from the beautiful, then displeasure must befelt by an aesthetic eye in looking upon thedisharmony of shape and color which in turn leadsto a certain degree to the recognition of a patho-logical condition.

Let us return to our subject. We know that medicalscience has no answer for baldness, and that cos-metics and hair tonic treatments have yet toproduce even a single new hair.

I agree with Prof. Dr. Jaeger who called human hairthe odor regulator of the body, conductors forperspiration. Everybody knows that we perspirefirst on the head and under the arms and that,especially on sick people, a disagreeable odor isnoted. Dr. Jaeger somewhere calls disease 'stench'.PDF compression, OCR, web optimization using a watermarked evaluation copy of CVISION PDFCompressor


PRESERVATION OF THE HAIR 59

This, with exceptions of course, seems to mecorrect in so far as I have come to conclude on thebasis of many years' observation and experimentsthat all diseases have fundamentally the sameuniform causes: Disease is the result of a process offermentation and decay of body substances or offood surpluses which have accumulated in thecourse of time especially in the digestive organsand which become a form of mucus matter. Inother words we are concerned here with the chemi-cal decomposition, the decay of cellular albumen.As is well known, this process is accompanied bystench, while nature sees to it that all creation ofnew life is accompanied by an abundance offragrance (blossom time of trees and flowers). Manin perfect health should therefore give off a smellof fragrance, particularly through his hair. Poetsspeak of comparing man with a flower and theypraise the fragrance of a lovely woman's hair. Itherefore consider human hair as having extremelyimportant and useful functions.

Hair not only serves to protect us and to keep uswarm, but has a highly interesting and useful taskof regulating the body odors of healthy and sickalike. A close observation of people will enable themore knowledgeable and the amateur with a keennose to gain insight into a person's qualities andalso help him draw conclusions as to the state ofhealth or sickness of an individual. Before a doctorhas sometimes recognized digestive troubles withthe aid of microscopes and test tubes, a quackmight have become aware of the internal process ofdecay, i.e. the sickness, with the simple help of hairdiagnosis. Why, there are many people today whoseemingly youthful and radiant with good healthPDF compression, OCR, web optimization using a watermarked evaluation copy of CVISION PDFCompressor


60 RATIONAL FASTING

do nevertheless have constant bad breath and arewondering why their hair is falling out, With thisobservation I have arrived at a vital point of myexperiments and research.

First one more word about getting gray hair. It hasbeen established that in hair which has becomegray the contents of air has increased and I am ofthe opinion that this 'air' consists probably ofvarious kinds of gas, or at least is intermingled withit. I wish a sagacious chemist would discover thepresence of sulphuric acid in gray hair, for thenfading of the hair color will also have been ex-plained. After all it is a known fact that sulphur-dioxide bleaches organic substances. It seems cer-tain to me, not only theoretically but also on thebasis of very conclusive experiments on my ownbody that the principal cause of baldness is ofinternal nature. If, then, the hair acts as an odorregulator of the body, almost like a chimneythrough which the odors are filtered, and all that isbeing discharged is stinking gas, very probablyintermingled with sulphur-dioxide, instead of na-tural, fragrant odors, we must not be surprisedwhen the hair and its roots suffocate, become pale,die and fall out. I am confident to have recognizedthe cause for baldness and to have shown the trueway for its cure. About ten years ago, when I wasafflicted with chronic inflammation of the kidneysand suffered from nervous tension, my hair turnedvery gray and started to fall out. However, as soonas I had been cured from this serious disease by adietetic treatment, the streaks of gray disappearedand my hair grew remarkably thick and healthy.

If therefore baldness stems from digestive troublesPDF compression, OCR, web optimization using a watermarked evaluation copy of CVISION PDFCompressor


PRESERVATION OF THE HAIR 61

and malfunctioning of the metabolism, it followsthat it can be remedied only by first alleviatingthose very causes. On the basis of my discovery Idare say that there is still hope even for the baldheads on whom all the tonics have failed and hadto fail. The reason for failure is of course therecognition that the cause is not external andtherefore cannot be treated externally. Whoever islosing hair to an alarming degree or whoever isalready bald and wishes to regenerate himself, maytake my advice. It is understood that there is nogeneral all-round remedy but rather, in line withmy whole theory of cure, an individual evaluationand treatment will be necessary in each and everycase. This much however is certain, I can guaranteethat loss of hair will stop even in serious casesprovided my teachings for a proper diet will beadhered to.

Thus all symptoms of aging are latent disease,accumulation of mucus and clogging up of thesystem with mucus. Anybody who takes to acareful diet of mucusless foods in case of anydisease, possibly followed up by a fast, will rid hisbody of the dead cells which have accumulatedthere in the course of many years and will not onlybetter his condition but at the same time rejuve-nate himself. And whoever rejuvenates himself willsimultaneously build up his resistance to disease toa remarkable degree. Nobody seems to believe inthis possibility. Yet, each scientific dictionary willtell you that under normal circumstances the na-tural causes of death should be arteriosclerosis dueto a slowed down metabolism, i.e., clogging up ofthe entire organism, and therefore life ought to endwithout any disease whatever. This would be thePDF compression, OCR, web optimization using a watermarked evaluation copy of CVISION PDFCompressor


62 RATIONAL FASTING

normal situation, but alas, the exception, the dis-ease, has become the rule today.

If everybody lived only on mucusless food from hisearliest youth and ate nothing but fruit, it wouldstand to reason that he could grow neither old norsick. I have seen people who became so rejuvenatedand beautiful after a mucusless diet cure that Ialmost didn't recognize them. For thousands ofyears humanity has indulged in dreams and wishfulthinking about the fountain of youth and has beenlooking for it in the stars.

Just think of the amount of money spent onremedies for impotence and sterility, of course allin vain. And yet, it could be so easy to give help atleast to some people simply by putting them on abetter healthier diet.

We can hardly imagine the beauty and strengthwith which the paradisiacal 'godlike' man wasendowed, what kind of wonderful, strong and clearvoice he had! One of the amazing results of mycure is a remarkable improvement in the voice, astrengthening of the vocal cords. Even a lost voicecan be reactivated which is eloquent proof indeedof the far reaching effects of my system on theentire human organism. I wish to refer here espe-cially to the tremendous success that the RoyalBavarian Chamber Singer Heinrich Knote, Munich,achieved through a cure under my direction. Hisvoice improved in clarity and beauty to such anextent that the entire musical world was amazedand full of the highest praise.



CHAPTER 4

Increasing longevity

In the previous chapters I stated that the reason fordisease and aging is the accumulation of mucus inthe body. I also proved the possibility of cellregeneration through fasting and fruit diet. There-fore, if man feeds on fruit only all his life, deathcan be delayed for a long, long time. Fruit eaters,at any rate, have a greater life expectancy thanpeople who indulge in all the wrong foods. Theirmetabolism works better and, due to their correctdiet, less strain is placed on the organs, especiallythe heart and stomach. It is noteworthy that theheartbeat of a fruit eater, even when he exertshimself physically, is not nearly as high as that ofthe mucus eater. The energy thus saved daily canbe figured out mathematically and proves theincreased longevity stated above.

When man dies of a critical injury or disease it isbecause his heart and brain cease to function.However, what causes these vital organs to stoptheir activity? In most cases the disease raging inthe body will weaken the heart and eventuallycause heart failure. Regarding causes for this fail-ure, science has by far not spoken its last word. Wecan, however, safely say that the clogging up ofblood vessels, consequently paralyzing the heart



64 RATIONAL FASTING

muscle and causing the destruction of the tenderheart nerves through constant re-poisoning of theblood, is the final cause of death in all chronicdiseases. Likewise, the clogging up of tender bloodvessels in the brain and their eventual bursting(apoplexy) as well as any other entire clogging upof vessels result in a standstill of all functions oflife, i.e. death. Other secondary causes come intoplay as well, of course, such as insufficient supplyof oxygen in case of lung disease, etc. Science alsomentions that an overabundance of white corpus-cles will result in death. As we know, this is adisease in itself called leukemia. In plain Englishthis means "white bloodedness", but in my opinionmore accurately yet "more mucus than blood".Naturally, many more reasons are given as thecause of death.

I now ask, what is really the killing poison?Modern medical science claims that the bacillicause most diseases, thus showing that it also hasthe idea of a common fundamental cause of alldiseases, aging and death. Undoubtedly, diseasesand their consequence (death) are to a large degreedue to the bacilli. My experiments which provethat mucus is the fundamental and main causediffer from the bacillus theory only in that mucusis the nutrient medium for all bacilli.

As we have seen, an abundance of white bloodcells, i.e. of white dead mucus, as compared withthe red sugar and iron substances, is a menace tolife. Red is the color and sweet is the taste of lifeand love; white or pale is the sign of sickness arid



INCREASING LONGEVITY 65

mucus building up in the body, a sign of gradualdisintegration.

The death struggle is only the last effort of theorganism to excrete mucus, a last fight of the stillliving cells against the dead ones and their deathlypoisons. If the white dead cells, i.e. the mucus inthe blood, gain the upper hand, clogging up of theblood vessels of the heart occurs. At the same timea chemical transformation, a sudden poisoning ofthe entire blood supply system takes place anddeath takes its toll.



arttwo

CHAPTER 5

Complete instructionsfor fasting

Most diseases are due to wrong eating habits,incorrect food combinations, acidulous foods andthe unnatural nourishment of present day civiliza-tion. How to overcome the results of these errorsthat the majority of us ignorantly inflict uponourselves will be taught in the following pages.

For thousands of years fasting has been recognizedas nature's supreme curative measure. But the artof when, why and how to fast has been with avery few exceptions lost by those living in presentday civilization. The body must have good nourish-ing food is the battle cry of today. But just what isgood nourishing food?

The unfortunate sufferers make the rounds of thevarious schools of therapeutics. They are veryoIen ignorant, grope in the dark and search infor the truth. And the most unfortunate part of itall is that they die before they learn the truth.



68 RATIONAL FASTING

Evangelists and divine healers have an advantage inthat they give Nature a chance.

An overdose of medication, surgery, injections andvaccinations can easily become the offenders of anoutraged Nature. And so it resolves itself into acase of "blind leading the blind". And yet, it is sosimple to receive instructions from Nature. Watchthe animals heal themselves in time of illnesswithout the use of so-called scientific medicine.This then is the supreme secret of Mother Nature'sselfhealing.

In the following chapters I will give an indicationof the kind of foods, cooked as well as raw, thatare necessary to guarantee a properly balanceddiet. I will also explain the causes of fermentationand of gas producing foods.



CHAPTER 6

Rational fastingfor physical, mental

and spiritual rejuvenation

It is significant for our time of degeneration thatfasting, by which I mean living without solid andliquid food, is still not fully recognized for itsworth by the average man, nor by the orthodoxmedical doctor as well. Even Naturopathy requireda few decades in its development before it turnedto Nature's only, universal and omnipotent rem-edy. It is furthermore significant that fasting is stillconsidered as a 'special' kind of cure, and due tosome truly impressive results here and there, it hasquite recently become a world-wide fad. Evensome experts of the Nature cure have gottencarried away and have drawn up some general rulesand prescriptions for fasting, and how to break afast, regardless of the condition or the disease ofthe sufferer.

On the other hand, fasting has been quite misrepre-sented so that the average man actually considers itto be dangerous to miss out on a few meals duringsickness for fear that he will starve to death, whenin reality he is being cured. He equates fasting andstarvation. The medical doctor in general is notwithout blame for having perpetuated such foolishbelief which is quite in contrast to Nature's laws ofself-healing and curing.



70 RATIONAL FASTING

Whatever goes by the name of "natural treatments"for the elimination of diseased matter and does notat least require some measure of restriction orchange in diet, or fasting, is basically disregardingthe truth concerning the cause of disease.

Have you ever thought when you were sick what itmeans to have no appetite? And that wild animalshave no doctors, no drug stores, no sanitariums,and no equipment to give them help? Natureteaches us through this example that there isbasically only one disease, the one caused byovereating and eating of the wrong foods. There-fore, this one disease or whatever the many differ-ent names man may have given it, can be cured bybut one remedy, namely by withholding from thebody those very substances which normally willbring about disease. ifl other words, do exactly theopposite of overeating: reduce your intake offoods, improve on your general diet and preparefor some fasting. The reason so many fasting cures,especially those of longer duration, have failed andcontinue to fail is the ignorance of its properapplication and the lack of understanding as towhat is going on in the body during a fast.Naturopaths and fasting experts are not always aswell aware as they should be in this delicate area. Idare say that possibly there isn't another man inhistory who has studied, investigated, tested andexperimented with fasting as much as I have. As faras I know there is no other specialist at presentwho could claim to have conducted as manyfasting cures even in very severe cases of disease asI have. I set up the first sanitarium in the world



FASTING FOR REJUVENATION 71

which specialized in fasting combined with themucusless diet as an essential prerequisite for myMucusless Diet Healing System.* I have further-more undertaken publicly several fasts for scientif-ic research, lasting from 21 to 24 to 32 daysrespectively in demonstration of my method ofhealing. The latter test represents the world recordof a fast conducted under strict scientific supervi-sion of government officials.

You therefore know that from my own experi-ments I have good knowledge of what actuallyhappens in the body during a fast. Previously Italked about the body which can be compared inits mechanism to a machine. Now imagine that thismechanism, made of a rubber-like material, hasbeen overworked for years due to high intake offood, thereby expanding the tissues and vessels toaccommodate the high proportion of residues.Hence the continuously overburdened organismputs unusual pressure on the blood and the tissues.As soon as you stop eating, this excessive pressureis rapidly relieved, the highly over-expanded bloodvessels and tissues relax, blood becomes moreconcentrated and superfluous water is eliminated.This process continues for a few days during whichyou may feel quite all right, but as the vesselscontract, the mucus which lines their inner wallscreates an obstruction for the blood circulation inas much as the passage becomes very narrow.Therefore the blood must in the process of its

*Mucusless Diet Healing System available from this publisher $2.25pIus 75 cents mailing and handling cost.



72 RATIONAL FASTING

circulation through the body, especially in thetissues, circumvent, dissolve and carry with it themucus and its poisonous substances for eventualelimination through the kidneys.

During their fast the primary immediate obstruc-tions caused by wrong and too much eating areeliminated first. This results in your feeling relative-ly good, or possibly even better than when eating.However when--as previously explainedthe bloodstream begins to carry with it some of the loosenedmucus matter from the obstructed passages, thenyou feel miserable. You and everybody else blamethis feeling on the lack of food which is true butonly to the extent that this whole cleansing processis set into motion by the absence of new food. Thenext day for sure you can notice mucus matter inthe urine. Once the waste products have beeneliminated from the circulation you will undoubt-edly feel fine, even stronger than ever before. It is awell known fact that a faster can feel better and isactually stronger on the twentieth day of his fastthan on the fifth or sixth day. Certainly ampleproof that vitality does not depend primarily onfood but rather on an unobstructed circulation.(See Lesson 5 of my Mucusless Diet Healing Sys-tem). The smaller the amount of obstruction thegreater the air pressure and consequently morevitality.

The above explanations will have given you aninsight into the nature of a fasting cure. At first itis a negative proposition to relieve the body ofdirect obstruction by abstaining from solid foods.Secondly it is a mechanical process by means of



FASTING FOR REJUVENATION 73

the contracting tissues and vessels whereby mucusmatter is freed and causes friction and obstructionin the circulation.

The following are examples of strength gainedduring a fast: One of my first fasters, a relativelyhealthy vegetarian, walked 45 miles in the moun-tains on his 24th fasting day.

After a ten day fast a friend fifteen years youngerand I undertook a 56 hour walk.

A German physician, a specialist in fasting cures,published a pamphlet entitled "Fasting increasesVitality". He obtained the same results as I did buthe didn't discover the reasons for this extraordi-nary increase in vitality which remained a mysteryto him.

If you drink only water during a fast the humanmechanism cleanses itself in a similar fashion as ifyou were to squeeze out a dirty sponge, but thedirt in this instance is sticky mucus in many casesintermingled with pus and drugs. It will remain inthe blood circulation until it is so thoroughlydissolved that it can eventually pass through thekidneys to the infinite relief of the body and itsowner.



74 RATIONAL FASTING



CHAPTER 7

Building a perfect bodythru fasting

As long as the waste is in the circulation you feelmiserable during a fast; as soon as it is thru thekidneys you feel fine. Two or three days later andthe same process repeats itself. This will explainwhy conditions change so often during a fast, whyit is possible for you to feel unusually better andstronger on the twentieth than on the fifth day, forinstance.

As this entire cleansing process (thru continuedcontracting of the tissuesbecoming lean) has tobe done by and with the original old blood compo-sition of the patient, a long fast, especially a toolong a fast, would be criminal if the sick organismis too greatly clogged up by waste. Fasters whodied from too long a fast did not die from lack offood but died from their own waste, i.e. theyactually suffocated. More clearly expressed: Theimmediate cause of death is not a lack of vitalsubstances in the blood but too much obstruction.Obstruction becomes as great as or even greaterthan air pressure and, therefore, the body mecha-nism is "deadlocked."

FASTERS SHOULD DRINK LEMON JUICEEITHER UNSUGARED OR WITH A TRACE OF

75



76 RATIONAL FASTING

HONEY OR BROWN SUGAR FOR LOOSENINGAND THINNING THE MUCUS IN THE CIRCU-LATION. Lemon juice and fruit acids of all kindsneutralize the stickiness of mucus and pus. Anyonewho has ever taken medication or drugs has to bevery careful when he takes his first fast. As thedrugs leave residues which are stored up in thebody like the waste from food (I saw patientseliminate drugs they had taken as long as fortyyears ago), his condition might easily becomeserious or even dangerous when these poisons enterthe circulation. Palpitation of the heart, headaches,nervousness and especially sleeplessness may occur.Everybody, and especially doctors, blame thesesymptoms on the fast.

How Long Should One Fast?

Nature answers this question in the animal king-dom with a certain cruelty: "fast until you areeither healed or dead." In my estimation 50 to60% of the so-called healthy men of today and 80to 90% of the seriously chronic sick would diefrom their latent diseases if they submitted to along fast.

How long one should fast cannot be determined inadvance, even in cases where the condition of thepatient is known. When and how to break the fastis determined by noting carefully how conditionschange during the fast. It should definitely bebroken as soon as you notice that the obstructionin the circulation is becoming too great and thatthe blood needs new vital substances to resist and



BUILDING A PERFECT BODY 77

neutralize the poisons. It is wrong to assume theattitude: "the longer you fast the better the cure"and you may now readily understand why.

Man is the sickest animal on earth in that no otheranimal has violated the laws of eating as much asman and no other animal eats as wrongly as man.Here is where human intelligence can correctivelyassist in the self-healing process by the followingadjustments which embrace the Mucusless DietHealing System:

Prepare for an easier fast by graduallychanging your diet toward a mucuslessdiet and by using laxatives and enemas.

In between fasts eat nothing but acleansing mucus-poor and mucusless diet.

Be particularly careful if you have beenusing drugs, especially those containingmercury, salpetre or oxide of silver whichis prominent in drugs taken for venerealdiseases. Before going on a fast, be sure toallow your body to adjust VERY GRAD-UALLY to a preparatory diet.

An "expert's" suggestion to fast until the tongue isclean has had some grave consequences with "fan-atical" fasters who heeded it. I personally know ofone case which resulted in death and you may besurprised when I tell you that I had to curepatients from the ill-effects of too long a fast. Thereason will be clear later.

In spite of the above, every cure, and especially



78 RATIONAL FASTING

every diet cure, should start with a two or threeday fast. Every patient can do this without anyharm, regardless of how seriously sick he may be.First a laxative and then an enema daily makes iteasier as well as harmless.

HOW TO BREAK A FAST

It is of utmost importance to know how to break afast, i.e. what to eat after a fast. This depends, ofcourse, entirely upon the condition of the patientand to a great extent on the length of the fast. Thefollowing two examples of extreme cases, both ofwhich ended fatally not from the fast but from thefirst wrong meal, were chosen to demonstrate justwhy this knowledge is so important.

A one-sided meat eater suffering from diabetesbroke his fast, which lasted about a week, byeating dates and died. A man of over 60 years ofage fasted twenty-eight days. After his first meal ofvegetarian food (mainly boiled potatoes), his con-dition became so serious that an operation had tobe performed. It showed that in the contractedintestines passage of the potatoes had been blockedby thick sticky mucus which was so strong that apiece had to be cut off. The patient died shortlyafter the operation.

The example of the meat eater shows that whenthe terrible poisons, loosened in the stomach dur-ing the fast, mixed with the concentrated fruitsugar of the dates such a great fermentation (car.




bonic acid gases and other poisons) set in that thepatient could not stand the shock. In this case, itwould have been advisable to break the fast asfollows: first a harmless herbal laxative, later rawand cooked starchless vegetable, a piece of roughbran bread toast. Sauerkraut is also to be recom-mended. Since the patient was not prepared for thefast by a gradual transition diet, he as a meat eatershould have had no fruit for a long time after thefast.

As to the second example, the patient fastedentirely too long for a man of his age and, again, hewas not properly prepared for the fast.

These two very instructive examples show howindividualized the advice on how to break a fasthas to be and that it would be wrong to make ahard and fast rule. What can be said in general,however, and what I teach is new and differentfrom the average fasting experts, I have summa-rized as "IMPORTANT RULES FOR THE FAST-ER TO BE CAREFULLY STUDIED AND MEM-ORIZED."

1 . After a fast, do not eat particularlynourishing food, this would he a mistake.All meals for a few days after the fastshould have a laxative effect.

2 - The sooner the first meal passes thruthe body the more efficiently it clearsaway the loosened mucus and poisons inthe stomach and intestines.



80 RATIONAL FASTING

3 - If no good stool is experienced aftertwo or three hours after the first meal,help with laxatives and enemas. WheneverI fasted I always had a good bowel move-ment at least one hour after eating and atonce felt fine. After breaking a long fast, Ispent more time the following night onthe toilet than in bed, and that was as itshould be.

While sojourning in Italy many years ago, Idrank about two quarts of fresh grapejuice after a fast and instantly experienceda watery diarrhea of foaming mucus. Al-most immediately after that, I had a feel-ing of such unusual strength that I easilyperformed the knee bending and armstretching exercises 326 times. This thor-ough cleansing of the body, i.e. removal ofall obstruction, which took place after afast of a few days, increased my vitality atonce! You will have to experience a simi-lar sensation to believe me and you willthen agree with my formula: vitalityequals strength after all obstruction in thebody has been cleared away. And you willalso realize the absurdity of making upscientifically nourishing menus for healthand strength after a fast.

4 - The longer the fast the more efficientlywill the bowels perform after the firstmeal.




5 - The best laxative food after a fast isfresh sweet fruit, especially cherries andgrapes or slightly soaked or stewed prunes.However only people who have lived for acertain time on mucusless or at least mu-cus-poor food, i.e. a transition diet, arepermitted fruit after a fast. As we haveseen before, absolutely no fruit for meateaters!

6 - Generally speaking, it is advisable tobreak the fast with raw and cooked starch-less vegetable, stewed spinach for example,has an especially good effect.

7 - If the first meal does not cause anyunpleasantness, you may eat as much asyou can. Eating only a small quantity offood for the first 2 or 3 days after the fastwithout experiencing a bowel movementdue to the small amount of food taken in(another wrong advice given by "experts")is dangerous.

8 - If you prepared properly for the fastand can start eating fruit after breakingthe fast and you have no bowel movementafter about an hour, then eat more fruit ora vegetable meal as suggested above. Atany rate, eat until you experience a goodstool that will relieve you of the wasteaccumulated during the fast.



82 RATIONAL FASTING

Rules During the Fast

Clean the lower intestines as well as you canwith enemas at least every other day.

Before starting a longer fast prepare for it andtake a laxative occasionally and definitely the daybefore you start the fast.

It is important that you get as much fresh air aspossible therefore remain outdoors as much as youcan during the day and keep windows open atnight.

If you feel strong enough, go for a walk or dosome light physical work. If tired and weak, restand sleep as much as you can.

On days when you feel weak--you will experi-ence such days especially when the waste is in thecirculationyour sleep may be restless and dis-turbed and you may have bad dreams. This iscaused by the poisons passing thru the brain.

If doubt and loss of faith in the fasting cure willarise in your mind then take this lesson and read itover and over again, as well as the other fastingchapters. Also, don't forget that you are lying on"Nature's operating table", the most wonderful ofall operations that could be performed and withoutsurgery!

However, if any extraordinary sensation occurs dueto the poisons now in circulation, take an enema at




once, lie down and if necessary break the fast. Rawand cooked starchiess vegetables such as Sauer-kraut or stewed spinach are recommended.

6. Whenever you have rested for a while, get upslowly because otherwise you may become dizzyand that is a very unpleasant and somewhat scaryexperience. It caused me considerable fear in thebeginning and I know of a number of people whogave up on fasting altogether when they experi-enced this sensation, although it is not serious andis nothing to worry about.

FASTING DRINKS

Many "fanatic" fasters drink nothing but waterthinking that it is best to avoid any trace of foodwhatsoever. I CONSIDER A LIGHT LEMONADEWITH A LITTLE HONEY OR BROWN SUGAROR A LITTLE FRUIT JUICE THE BEST. Drink asoften as you feel like it, but in general no morethan 2 or 3 quarts a day. The less you drink themore aggressively the fast works.

During a longer fast you should, as a change, drinkalso vegetable juice made from raw starchless vege-tables (raw tomato juice, etc. for example). If fruitjuice, orange juice for instance, is used exclusivelyduring a longer fast you have to be extremelycareful because the fruit juices may cause thepoisons to become loosened too rapidly withoutcausing a bowel movement. I know of a number ofsuch fruit and fruit juice fasts which failed corn-



84 RATIONAL FASTING

pletely because too much mucus and all of thepoisons loosened too quickly at the same time.Then this waste, once in the circulation, disturbs allthe organs and can only be eliminated thru thecirculation with the aid of bowel movements.

MORNING FAST OR NON-BREAKFAST PLAN

The worst of all eating habits nowadays is to stuffthe stomach with food early in the morning. InEuropean countries, except in England, no one hasa regular meal for breakfast, just a beverage ofsome kind and bread.

The one time that man does not eat for a period of10 to 12 hours is while he is asleep, and as soon asthe stomach is free from food, the body starts theelimination process of the accumulated waste.Therefore, people feel miserable and have a coatedtongue upon waking up. They have no appetite atall yet they crave food and feel better afterbreakfast.Why?

This is a mystery that has puzzled all "experts".They believe that it is the nourishing quality in thefood that makes us feel better. I discovered, how-ever, that as soon as you refill the stomach withfood THE PROCESS OF ELIMINATING THEACCUMULATED WASTEwhich, as I described,is somewhat unpleasant--IS STOPPED and there-fore you feel better! I think that my discoveryundoubtedly explains also why eating became ahabit and is no longer what nature intended it to




be, i.e., a satisfaction, a compensation of nature'sneed for food.

This habit of eating proves the saying I coined longago: "Life is a tragedy of nutrition". The morewaste man accumulates the more he must eat inorder to stop the elimination of waste. I hadpatients who had to eat several times during thenight to be able to sleep again. In other words,they had to put food into their stomachs to avoidthe digestion of mucus and poisons.

Short Fasts And The Non-Breakfast Plan

As we have seen, upon awakening you perhaps feelfine but instead of getting up you remain in bedand fail asleep again, have a bad dream and actuallyfeel miserable upon awakening the second time. Assoon as you get up, walk around or do something,the body is in an entirely different condition thanduring the sleep and the process of eliminatingwaste is slowed down, the energy being usedelsewhere.

If you skip breakfast every morning you willprobably experience some harmless sensations suchas headaches for the first one or two days. There-after you will feel much better, work better, andenjoy your luncheon better than ever. Hundreds ofsevere cases have been cured by the Non-BreakfastPlan alone, proving that the habit of eating a fullbreakfast meal is the worst of all.

You may enjoy the same beverage for breakfast



86 RATIONAL FASTING

that you are accustomed to. If you crave coffeecontinue to drink coffee, but abstain definitelyfrom SOLID FOOD! Later on, replace the coffeewith a warm vegetable juice and still later changeto lemonade. This change should be made verygradually.

THE 24 HOUR FAST, OR ONE MEAL A DAY PLAN

The benefits to be derived from the breakfast fastcan be even further improved by the 24 hour fast.It is also a good preliminary step to the longer fastsnecessary to cure the more severe cases of chronicdisease. The best time to eat is 3 or 4 o'clock in theafternoon. If you are on the mucusless or transi-tion diet, start with fruits (fruits should always beeaten first) and about 15 or 20 minutes later eatthe vegetables; but all should be eaten within anhour so that it is to say, one meal.

FASTING WHEN USED IN CONNECTION WITHTHE MUCUSLESS DIET HEALING SYSTEM

As I have stated before I am no longer in favour oflong fasts. In fact it may become criminal to let apatient fast for 30 or 40 days on water for thiswould cause the contracting tissues and vessels toexcrete more and more mucus which intermingledwith residues from previously taken dangerousdrugs etc. could actually result in self-poisoning ifno new vital food elements are added to the body.




No one can stand a fast of that kind without harmto his strength.

If fasting is to be used at all, then start at first withthe non-breakfast plan, subsequently follow the 24hour fast for a while, then gradually increase thefast to 3, 4 or 5 days interspersed with 1, 2, 3, or 4days of mucusless diet. In this way the body issimultaneously rebuilt and supplied with the bestnourishment found only in mucusless foods.

Through such intermittent fasts the blood is gradu-ally improved and regenerated and can more easilywithstand the poisons and waste. It is at the sametime better equipped to dissolve and eliminatethese many years old deposits which are loosenedup by the fast, deposits that no doctor everthought existed and that no one has known how toremove.

These are the merits of the invaluable mucuslessdiet healing system of which fasting is an essentialfeature.

FASTING IN CASES OF ACUTE DISEASE

"Hunger curesMiracle cures" was the title of thefirst fasting book I ever read. It related the experi-ences of a country doctor who stated: "No acutefeverish disease need end in death provided Na-tue', instinctive command to stop eating thru Jackof appetite is obeyed".



88 RATIONAL FASTING

It is insane for instance to give food to a patientwho suffers from pneumonia accompanied by hightemperatures. A 'cold' having caused an unusualcontraction of the lung tissues results in a loosen-ing and propelling of some of the mucus depositsinto the circulation. This produces an unusualfriction: fever, and it would aggravate the patientscondition even more if solid foods, meat broth etc.were given to him resulting in more fuel added tothe already overheated human engine. The lives ofmany of the pneumonia patients could have beensaved if only they had been given enemas, laxatives,cool lemonade and some exposure to fresh air intheir rooms. However, the medical profession issometimes very reluctant to follow new directions.

SPIRITUAL REBIRTH THRUTHE SUPERIOR FAST

All experts, except myself, believe that you live onyour reserves during a fast. You, however, knownow, that what is called metabolism is simply theelimination of waste.

The Muslim or Hindu fakir, the greatest religiousascetic and faster in the world today, is usuallyvery slender. I learned that the more thoroughlycleansed the body is the easier it is to fast and thelonger you can stand it. In other words, when youare free from all waste and poisons, and when nosolid foods are taken, then the human body func-tions for the first time in its life without encoun-tering obstructions. The elasticity of the entiretissue system and of the internal organs, especially




of the spongy lungs, responds to a single intake ofbreath with an entirely different vibration and anefficiency never known before. You ascend into ahigher state of physical, mental and spiritual being.I call that the "Superior Fast".

When you eat only the foods which I recommend,then your blood will be regenerated miraculouslyand your mind will function extremely well. Yourformer life will take on the appearance of a dream,and for the first time in your existence yourconscience awakens to a real self-consciousness.

Your mind, your thinking, your ideals, your aspira-tions and your philosophy will change fundamen-tally for the better. Your soul will shout with joyand triumph over all misery of life. For the firsttime you will feel a vibration of vitality thru yourbody like a slight electric current that shakes youdelightfully.

You will realize that fasting and superior fasting(and not volumes of psychology and philosophy)are the real and only key to a superior life; to therevelation of a superior spiritual world.



CHAPTER 8

Conclusion

While I have conducted thousands of fasting cures,any number of people have been helped by simplychanging their dietary habits. However, a changemade too rapidly may become dangerous and torelieve and avoid any disturbance of health Isuggest you follow my transition diet.

Changing from a meat diet to a strictly vegetarianor fruit diet always results in a more vigorousfeeling for the first few days, then weakness, greatfatigue, possibly headaches and palpitation of theheart set in. Fruit being the only natural food, itloosens and dissolves the mucus and poison whichare eliminated by the blood stream and the deaddecayed tissues are pushed aside to make room forthe new living food substances. This eliminationprocess causes some discomfort and unless you arethoroughly convinced of the efficacy of the naturaldiet, your friends will dissuade you from furtherattempts to cleanse the body. In fact, they willurge you to interrupt this cleansing process inorder to save you from what they believe will ruinyour health. Soon you will become lean, the facewill appear haggard and drawn and a general feelingof depression may overtake you. This then is thehealing crisis which, once overcome, will result inunexpected good health.

91



92 RATIONAL FASTING

I divide all food into the following two kinds:

Mucus-forming food, i.e. meat, eggs, fats, milkand all by-products of milk, dried beans, driedpeas, lentils and ALL STARCHY FOODS.

Non-mucus forming food, i.e. all green vegetableand all kinds of fruit. However, certain types ofvegetable and fruit contain some starch and there-fore should be given second place.

Begin the transition period by avoiding mucus-forming food as much as possible. After havingconditioned your body, the next step towardhealth is the MUCUSLESS DIET which is a com-bination of starchiess vegetable and fruit. With thehelp of this transition diet and some knowledge bythe individual to choose and combine rightly, thegreatest and most important truth of life is re-

vealed to him.

The so-called strength which we experience afterhaving eaten meat is nothing but a stimulation, forthere is no nourishment for man in meat. In fact,the waste products of meat, fatty plaque-shapedparticles, are deposited on the walls of the bloodvessels where in time they form a thick lining,calcify and thus contribute to the hardening of thearteries. This hardening of the arteries, in manycases resulting in high blood pressure, is the chiefcause of heart attacks and diseases of senility. Testson animals have already shown that meat-eatinganimals will die if fed on cooked meat alone. Andrats soon die if kept on a diet of white flour.



CONCLUSION 93

My mucus theory has been recognized more andmore. It has passed all tests successfully and todayhas established that: NATURAL TREATMENTAND DIET IS THE MOST PERFECT AND SUC-CESSFUL SYSTEM OF HEALING KNOWN. Thrumy Rational Fasting and the Mucusless Diet Heal-ing System suffering mankind now has the meansof not only relieving but PREVENTING disease.And my most fervent hope is that it will bringbetter health and happiness to all mankind.



APPENDIXFollowing are a series of seven

individual essays written byProfessor Arnold Ehret.

They have been assembled and publishedhere to provide a deeper understanding

of the author's basic concept.

95



My Mucusless Diet and Naturopathy

Professor Ehret, having been sponsored byDr. Benedict Lust, "The Father of Naturo-pathy ' observed the inter-relationship be-tween his system and that of his patron. Hefound them in complete harmony and inthis article, never before published, explainshow they should be combined.

When I first brought out my "Muscus-forming"diet as the fundamental cause of all disease, andmy "Mucusless" diet as its only cure, it createdgreat discussion, even in the ranks of Naturopathy.A little later, a professor of medicine advised allphysicians to read this book, "Rational Fasting",in which these diets are described. In treating lessthan twenty cases (my first ones) I observed thatevery one eliminated mucus. I have since proventhis fact by over two thousand cases. If a so-calledhealthy person is treated with proper elimination,fasting, diet, etc., the urine will show mucus.Standard analysis books state that under a micro-scope the atoms of mucus and pus cannot be toldapart.

Advanced Naturopaths, but not very many, knowthere is really but one disease, internal impurity,

97



98 RATIONAL FASTING

caused by unusable food elements. These impuri-ties are principally from mucus-forming foods, andare the sticky, pasty, and slimey substance, calledmucus.

Isn't it high time that Naturopaths take up thisadvanced truth and system and show by theirmarvelous success its superiority over the presenttheories of the cause of disease and drug treatment.Should not Naturopaths show results better thanthe ordinary "cures" (which are but reliefs) ofcomplete cures and become examples, themselves,of Superb Health, examples of perfect immunityfrom Disease, even examples like myself, of provenimmunity and of superb health?

This is "Paradise Health" and only possible by amucusless diet and rightly conducted fasting. Wenow know that wrong and too much food is thecause of all disease, and its only complete cure isby right diet and fasting, Nature's own methods.Even animals adopt fasting when injured or dis-eased, by instinct. This proves that Nature has onlyone diagnosis and only one disease, that of internalimpurity. Why spend so much time and labor ondiagnosis in Naturopathy, Eye diagnosis, etc? Whyso little attention paid to right diet and fasting?First, because the right diet for producing vitalenergy, which we have discovered, is not generallyknown; second, that fasts have been so crudelyconducted; and third, that diet and fasting havenot been properly combined. As nature cures alldiseases by fasting, it must be that eating is thecause of them.



APPENDIX 99

Why so little attention given to dietetics? Why sucha quarrel and such confusion about diet? Why is afruit or a mucusless diet so little used? Why havefruit, vegetables, etc., so little credit for their vitalenergy producing qualities? The very evident rea-Sons are: First, because they are not generallyknown, or considered only as relishes or ornamentsto a table or as a help to elimination, and not asthey are, superior energy producers. Second, that itis absolutely necessary to use them with a diet withsome mucus or "mucus-poor" as a transition dietin successful fasting. Third, they are evidentlyinstituted and scientifically and practically demon-strated. It is the only diet that can produce whatwe have rightly named, Paradise Health.

Disease is a beneficial result of the natural andintelligent efforts of the vital energy of the body tocleanse it of all impurities. These impurities we callmucus, but it includes all other toxic mixtures,mucus being its most plentiful kind. Nature canaccomplish the cleansing only if you don't eat, andfor this reason shuts down the appetite, even in asimple cold. Why do not people reduce their foodor fast when Nature's law lessens or stops thedesire for food? Because they do not understandthat the weakness which accompanies loss of ap-petite is a curative process, the impurities beingeliminated by the blood stream. Man is moredegenerated than animals in eating or curing ofdisease.Civilization has brought a greater cleanliness on theoutside of the body, but an awful uncleanliness



100 RATIONAL FASTING

inside. No one can imagine or realize this until hehas treated some hundreds of patients by fastingand diet, as I have. No animal on earth is so full ofundigested, fermented and decayed foodstuffsfrom overeating and unnatural food as so-calledcivilized man. If any one starts a fruit or mucuslessdiet or a fast, without intelligent knowledge ofhow to prepare for them, the decayed materiallargely mucusis loosened up all over the system,enters the blood stream, causing extreme weaknesswhich he does not understand, and this may puthis life in danger.

A prominent non-Naturopathic practitioner is erro-neously advising increased eating, even of meat,before starting a fast; while just the oppositecourse is the right one. When preparing or "train-ing" for my 49-day fast, under strict observation, Ilived on a strictly mucusless diet for over two yearsand took short fasts meanwhile. The "master" offasting is the East Indian Fakir, whose body is onlyskin and bones. There is no greater error than inbelieving that the tissue of the body "breaksdown" during a fast, or eats itself, becomes a"cannibal," as a prominent Sanitarium man de-clares.

My experience is that fleshy persons or thosehighly encumbered with mucus are distressed themost by a fast. The loosened up mucus gets intothe blood stream causing extreme weakness sooner,and the amount is so much larger that the weakperiod lasts much longer before the increasedstrength comes. These are the dangerous cases



APPENDIX 101

instead of the thin persons, whose poisonous en-cumbrance is much less. The fleshy ones are likepneumonia patients, suffocated (choked) by theirown poisonous mucus or auto-intoxication. Not asingle faster dies or has died from starvation, butfrom his own self-poisoning, often enhanced bywrong diet as the fast ends. Orange juice is oftenadvised in this country, which is right in somecases, but for a heavily encumbered or fleshypatient it is quite dangerous. Orange juice is anideal food, but when mixed with the awful poison-ous mixture in the stomach of the faster, it adds tothe quickness with which it is taken up by theblood, and is likely to harm the patient.

There is much to be learned about fasting and amucusless diet, simple as it looks to a layman, forno two cases need just the same preparatory diet orlength of fast, should be supervised by one ofexperience. The mucusless diet preparation andshort fasts, to commence with, are the "MasterKeys" to Superb Health for every one.

To change from the "awful" diet of civilization, atonce, without a good knowledge of the mucuslessdiet, is for most persons dangerous. The so-calledhealthy persons of today do not know theamount of auto-poisonous encumbrance theyhave acquired.

This is the reason why a right diet and fasting areso much misunderstood and wrongly used by bothpractitioner and laymen. Naturopaths must knowhow to prepare for themselves and conduct, and




finish a fast, with the right diet for each step,before taking a patient, then they have the onlyand absolute agencies for prevention of disease anda perfect cure.

The diet of civilization has brought mankind intoan awful state of diseased conditions and epidem-ics. Centenarians are getting as scarce as diamonds.No one is dying a natural death, without disease;and these results are due to ignorance and thedominating erroneous teaching and practice of thedrug cults.

It is so self-evident that the present diet of thecivilized countries, of wrong and too much food, isthe fundamental factor and cause of all presentailments, that it is with the same self-evidence as aspecially educated and prepared expert that Ipresent the mucusless diet and scientifically con-ducted fasting as the only reasonable, simple,natural and infallible "remedies" to bring mankindback to a better and a Paradise-like Health, whichit once enjoyed. I have completely cured many ofthe so-called incurable cases during my 15 years ofexperience in Europe (10 in conducting a Sanitari-um), even those that were not curable by thephysical treatments of Physiotherapy. When I de-veloped the mucusless diet and combined it withmy improved fasting methods as a system, andused them as primary remedies, I was not only ableto bring patients back to ordinary health, but to acondition of tremendous efficiency and endurance.Also not only immunity from ailments, but towhat we have appropriately named, paradise



APPENDIX 103

health; which means that all the faculties of thebody are improved. I proved all of these points inmy own person, first, and subsequently successful-ly in others.

To secure these in one's self or in patients, theremust be a slow change from the wrong to themucusless diet, by a transition diet which I havedescribed in my book, "Muscusless Diet HealingSystem". The transition diet must be of foods withless mucus"mucus-poor"and advised accordingto the age, condition, business, climate and seasonof the year, in each case. The first diet used shouldbe changed, according to the reaction, after a shorttrial, and slowly advanced towards the mucuslessdiet, until the mucus is loosened and dissolved, andthe system so cleansed that a short fast can betaken, and then these can be progressed in lengthuntil the desired cleansing is accomplished.

I have described in detail the ideal result of themucusless diet and improved methods of fasting inthis book. The mucusless diet of a more or lessdegree can be combined with moderate physicalapplications of Naturopathy with great success.For Naturopathy to grow in favor and to assist incombating wrong methods, it must show a greaterdegree of success. It must not be satisfied with atemporary relief (an anesthetic will give that), butmust bring about a complete cure. I have had manypatients that have been benefited by Naturopathictreatments, but not perfectly cured or made im-mune. If we shall finally get Medical Freedom anda free field for Drugless Healing, it must be by a




greater success in curing, and not wholly by litera-ture and arguments. This surely can be done byadopting the agencies described, and the MucuslessDiet is the "Master Key" to it. Of itself alone itbrings much greater success, but in combinationwith improved methods the results are marvelous,and many pronounce them "miraculous."



The Mucusless Diet Healing System

While he was actively engaged in teachinghis system in California, Professor Ehret wasinvited to submit a paper to be read at the24th Annual Convention of the AmericanNaturopathic Association by its president,Dr. Benedict Lust. This important paper,read to the delegates September 24, 1920 atthe Hotel Commodore in New York City isnow disclosed for the first time below.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

It has been suggested that I send a short sketch ofmy System to be read at this convention, and I amwell pleased to comply with the suggestion.

Since the commencement of the Drugless NaturalHealing or Naturopathic movement, it has beenaccepted that disease, regardless of its symptoms,consists of a constitutional encumbrance of amaterial generally known as foreign matter. Con-sequently, natural healing consists of methods oftreatment to eliminate this disease producing ma-terial, and to stop the source of it. It is self-evidentwhat this disease producing material comes from,and is the unusable residue of the food eaten,either from too much or from the injurious kindsor from both.

Naturopathy has paid a certain attention to dietregulation but has not recognized that in food were




the basic and fundamental principles and elementsof both health and disease. In other words thescience of Drugless Healing has not yet explainedfully enough that the foundational cause of dis-ease, this foreign material, is the undigested, une-liminated and decayed food elements from wrongand too much eating. It is consequently mostimportant, reasonable and clearly seen, that themain factor of drugless healing should consist ofdietetics, and this includes intelligently conductedfasting, especially if overeating is the main cause ofthe patient's disease.

It is an "open secret" that diet is the weak point ofchiropractic physicians, because the science ofdrugless healing lacks a dietetic system that isbased upon scientific and fundamental principlesand facts and complete enough to be used in everydiseased condition. The "Mucusless Diet HealingSystem" fulfills these two claims completely, for ithas proven itself true in my practice in Europe andin this country during a period of over 15 years, asthe main factor of healing. It works identically thesame in the human body as instinctive self-healingdoes in the animal. This proves beyond questionthat it is the only natural healing process of thebody itself. This system is based upon my mucustheorynow a well proven factand makes plainthe former mysteries of every kind of disease. Thedisease producing material is a partially digesteddecaying semi-liquid mostly, and in this conditionis generally known as mucus. It is easily proven anddemonstrated that everyone living on a mixed dietor a starchy vegetarian one, has a more or less



APPENDIX 107

clogged up system with mucus, whether sick ornot. This foundation cause of every disease is goingon from childhood and even before, if animal fleshand animal food products, fats and starchy foodsare eaten. It has long been recognized by studentsand scientists that these foods are not suitable formankind, as the larger portion cannot be digestedfully, but are acted on by the gastric juices makinga toxic mucus which decays, ferments, producesgas, acidosis and many kinds of toxins, and this hasa sticky and gluey condition and clogs the circula-tion, so that the body needs a shock like a "cold"to start the elimination of a portion of it. Ifphysical treatments are resorted to, they can onlyeliminate a portion as long as the supply is notstopped by a change from the mucus formingfoods and over-eating is not made. Consequently itis reasonable, natural and self-evident that thedisease producing must be stopped if you will havecomplete success from physical treatments.

Fasting and eating less is the only check onover-eating, and non-mucus forming foods mustreplace mucus forming, disease producing ones. Idid not invent or originate fasting or the use of afruit or improved diet, for those were well knownand used long ago as good factors of Naturopathy,but what I did do was to originate an entirely newsystem of combining them as a systematic healingmethod, naming it the "Mucusless Diet HealingSystem", after my "mucus theory" had become awell proven fact as being the largest factor of thefundamental cause of every diseased condition.Neither fasting or the fruit diet has been used in




strict accordance with the condition of the patient,but to combine them as a "Systematic Cleansing"the success is remarkable and satisfactory.

The great difference between a diet of healing anda diet of nourishment seems to be almost unknownto both practitioners and laymen. Fruit is the ideal,practical and natural diet of mankind, for nourish-ment, but the Mucusless Diet is a diet of healingand consists of raw and cooked fruits, starchlessand leafy vegetables and mucus poor cereals spe-cially prepared. A special or medical diagnosis isnot necessary, nor the local name of the disease,but the amount of encumbrance of mucus and theactivity of its toxins is of the first importance, andthen, the degree to which the individual's encum-brance has affected his vital energy. Whether thepatient is able to labor and desires to do so, orwhether he is more seriously incapacitated dependson the speed of the elimination, and upon this de-pends the degree of weakness and disturbing sensa-tions as the cure proceeds and which can be readilycontrolled and regulated.

The toxins of the mucus are chemically loweringthe action of the nerve and muscular systems; andto see how these conditions affect the organicfunctions and impair the vitality, in each individualcase, is the diagnosis.

It is an erroneous idea that only the blood isaffected, is unclean, full of mucus and its toxins,for the entire body in its deepest tissues have itstored up. The amount of it is much more than



APPENDIX 109

expected, consequently when it is being dissolvedand loosened up by the mucusless diet, care mustbe taken not to do it too rapidly nor too much, forthat clogs the excretory system, impairing thevitality which is already weakened, causing a seri-ous condition; even death can occur. This is im-portant and explains why long fasts or fasts with-out proper preparation and radical fruit diet at-tempts to cure, often fail. My diagnosis is aconclusion from my knowledge of the aforemen-tioned points, together with the general appearanceof the individual, as to how rapidly he can standthe dissolving of his stored-up mucus, and thenadvise a transition diet that will make a gradualchange from his mucus forming foods to the fullaction of the mucusless diet. As soon as the greaterpart of the mucus "deposit" is dissolved andeliminated, a strict mucusless diet is advisable andif necessary can be combined with longer or short-er fasts according to the patient's condition.

Special attention must be given to the bowelmovements, as they are the main organs of wasteelimination. Artificial means can be used temporar-ily, from above and below, but the mucusless dietis the only thorough and perfect cleanser thatdissolves the dried mucus which sticks to the innerwalls of the intestines and colon; and also furnishesthe blood with the proper elements that dissolvethe mucus that is stored in the walls of thealimentary canal and which stops the peristalticaction of it. To do this is its crowning action in thecure of constipation, and which no other food orlaxative has ever succeeded in doing.




The fruits of the mucusless diet furnish the bloodwith the best nutrient elements as well as dissol-vents, and the starchiess and leafy vegetables fur-nish not only the right mineral salts, but the latestfinds of the best vitamine foods and "Fat andWater Solubles", "A. B. and C." foods, whateverthose mysterious infinitesimal materials are, andtheir fibres furnish a broom to sweep out theintestinal canal.

The nutritive values of the mucusless diet aresuperior to those of any other foods. This is wellproven by results and by the standard analysistables when properly interpreted. Their curativeand nutritive values were discovered in this countryand in Europe at about the same time. I made thediscovery during my long experience, tests andexperiments resulting in my cure, that the grape-sugar of carbohydrates was the source of vitalityand vital energy and not the proteins. In 1909 Iwrote an article for European health magazinesdenouncing the metabolic theory and in 1912learned that Dr. Thomas Powell of Los Angeles hadmade the same discoveries and was making remark-able cures by using foods containing what he called"Organized Carbon", which is the same food ingre-dient that develops into the grape-sugar duringdigestion.

The human body has thousands of feet of smalland almost invisible tubes through which the bloodcirculates like the water in a water motor. If theblood stream contains sticky mucus from wrongeating, the body machine has to run and to work



APPENDIX 111

under a continual friction like a car slowed downby applying the brake. This explains the long-exist-ing mystery of weakness and also that of highblood pressure and the high temperature of feverand inflammation. During the process of healing bythe Mucusless Diet System, the same friction oc-curs, because the mucus is dissolved and is takeninto the blood stream. But it occurs periodically,because the blood stream cannot carry it all atonce.

The up-to-date fasting and fruit diet has been usedamateurishly and without any system, and there-fore has failed in most cases. This may be the causewhy Naturopathy has not yet given full attentionto nor fully realized the great value and importanceof these two factors of natural healing.

The Mucusless Diet Healing System has been ex-haustively tested and its superiority well proven bymy success in advising the procedure in thousandsof cases, most of them having been pronouncedincurable. They consisted of paralysis, blindness,deafness, epilepsy, tuberculosis, diabetes, etc., theschool in which I acquired the knowledge andgraduated from, was in curing my own case of"Bright's Disease". I am not only fully curedphysically but the mental is freed from the depress-ing and hindering effect of the debris from wrongeating and a new life is the result. The only realprevention of disease is found and a new healthleading up to the greatest efficiency, strength andendurance. This New Health is not only physical,but mental and spiritual. The mind is not only




opened to the highest conception of bettermenfor self and for all mankind, but there is a spiritualillumination which reveals a possibility of acquire-ment which is hardly possible to describe.

During the years of my trying to save my own lifeabout 20 years ago, I tried nearly all of the druglesstreatments in existence with mostly good reliefs,but would get discouraged after each one when Ifound I was not cured. Not until I combinedfasting with fruits and vegetable diet on my ownresponsibility and from what I had learned did Iaccomplish it. In the thousands of cases that I haveadvised since then I have found that the education-al factor is an important one, that the curing isdone by Nature's self-healing processes and howthey are best assisted. The healing system must bevaried and adapted to each individual case. Thepractitioner should have a practical knowledge ofevery detail and show in his own person the resultsof a perfect cure.

If you think that ailing people do not want to misstheir "Good Eats", my experience shows that itdepends on how sick they are and what they havetried for a "cure", and if they are convinced thatour System is the best or only one that can reallycure them, the change is made readily and theexhilaration of the benefits makes them faithfulfollowers and very earnest advocates.

Very much depends on the advice of the practi-tioner, how the change during the transition ismade, and the food combinations, for a diet that is



APPENDIX 113

not enjoyable is not a diet of healing. The Mucus-less Diet changes the taste and takes away thecraving for the wrong and stimulating foods to thetrue nutrients and healthful ones.

The important fact is this: that any chronic dis-ease, which any other kind of treatment cannotcure, is soon benefited by the Mucusless DietHealing System, and fully healed if the case iscurable at all. This System combines satisfactorilywith any kind of physical treatments, and by doingthis you will get quicker and more satisfactoryresults, increase your income and help to bringNaturopathy to the victorious success that itsnatural principles and their application deserve.

Naturopathy has to fight the greatest evil of man-kind, which is ignorance, and the diseases whichare resultant from it, and also other cults whichgive temporary relief and finally leave the patientworse than before but claim they are cured. Addedto these is the Octopus Medical Trust with itstentacles trying to strangle every kind of healingbut its own disastrous and deceiving brand. Itspresent dominating position makes the outcomeproblematical unless Naturopathy has greater suc-cess. Can we add to it what is proving to be a morecomplete knowledge of Nature's principles andmethods, and bring to mankind its redemptionfrom the diseases and evils of "modern (so-called)civilization" and to Natural Therapy a gloriousvictory?



114



The Truth About Human Nourishmentand The Conquest of Gluttony

Heretofore unpublished, this revealing arti-cle by Professor Ehret provides a conciseand practical guide to a fuller understandingof his theory in the battle against what hecalled "The Tragedy of Nut rition'

While I have directed hundreds of fasting cures, peo-ple by the thousands have changed more or lessunder my direction to a fruit diet. The suddenchange to a fruit diet causes disturbances, even inan entirely healthy person, which up to now werecompletely misunderstood, and which becomerisky and even dangerous, if conducted incorrectly,or without any directions.

To relieve and to avoid any disturbance of health,to replace the old tidbit enjoyments by new andbetter ones, I have established a so-called mucus-lean and mucusless diet, during the period oftransition to an absolute fruit diet. About this Iwill enlighten you later. If a meat eater or vegetar-ian passes suddenly over to a strict fruit diet, thesame disturbance will appear as with a fastingperson, only with a more slight effect. As a rule, hefeels better, more vigorous, until a few days later;then weakness, great fatigue, possibly headache, orpalpitation of the heart sets in. At the same time aviolent secretion of mucus in the urine, consisting




of phosphates, fat, uric acid and medicines he hastaken or used on his body, takes place.

The ignorance about fruit diet

Fruit, being the only natural food, begins to loosenand dissolve and to lead away through the circulat-ing blood the penned up filth and morass ofoverfeeding and of wrong useless foods, whichwere not fully eliminated.

Any one beginning fruit eating also begins a consti-tutional healing operation, just like the fasting, heloses the change of matter balance, not because thenatural food is the poorest in albumen, but becausenow real living food substances push away the deaddecayed ones, embedded in the tissue of his wholebody.

The breeding conditions for all constitutional andlocal disease forms are thus eliminated. His internalimpurity, the filth of gluttony, which are the chiefcauses of all diseases, begins to move. The paradisi-cal diet wants to bring him back to the purest puri-ty of paradise, where sickness and disease were notknown.

The human engine has the wonderful power to beable to clean itself without stopping, at the mo-ment you give it the chance, which means to fastor eat food poor in albumen. Every disease is thebody's want of this cleaning process, wherebynature gives the signal by a lack of appetite.



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The right understanding for the process of begin-ning a fruit diet remains hidden to the officialworld of science, as does the nature of all disease.

Science explains the want of appetite as a changeof matter disturbance, caused by not eatingenough, and the secretion as pathological symp-toms.

The elimination of poison through the circulationof blood causes more or less disturbance of healthand produces a burning desire for the old choicemorsels. The surrounding friends of the beginningfruit eater are perplexed and shocked, because hegrows lean, and urge him to interrupt his internalpurification and eat again rich food. The mostconvinced one becomes an infidel and wavers backand forth, and is tempted to give up entirely thisbadly reputed diet.

Transition diet

I divide all foods into two kinds:

Mucus-forming foods.Non-mucus-forming foods.

The first kind are: Meat, eggs, fats, milk, and allproducts made therefrom, dried beans, dried peas,and dried lentils; further, all starchy foods.

The second kind are: All green vegetables and allkinds of fruit. There are vegetables and fruitswhich contain more or less starch. The less starch




they contain the better they are fitted for food,because starch is nothing but undeveloped grapesugar.

It is best to begin the transition diet with amucuspoor combination in general, that means, asmuch as possible mucusless and as little as possiblemucus-forming food. The next step is the mucus-less diet, which means a combination of starchiessvegetables and fruits.

An elimination of part and a decrease of quantityof mucus-forming foods I call a mucuslean diet.Starch flour products are made more poor ofmucus by roasting or toasting. Mucusless diet is thecombination of greens, as much as possible, andstarchiess vegetables and fruit.

With the help of this transition diet and someknowledge by the individual to choose rightly andcombine, a relatively healthy person can easil:come by degrees to an absolute fruit diet.

Without stumbling and without losing confidenceagain, the greatest and most important truth of lifeis revealed to him, the knowledge of the purest,best and most perfect, and at the same timecheapest, form of nourishment. The morbid glut-tony disappears by itself, because now he nourisheshimself really and rightly and does not fill up, tosatisfy his enlarged stomach and stimulate it withsubstances which, without fail, will lead to diseaseand final death.



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The conquest of gluttonyThe cause of gluttony is not to be looked for inmental imbecility, or in a passion to satisfy aperverted appetite. It is a neurasthenic mania, apathological state of a high, strong and intoxicatednervous system, especially of the organs of digest-ion, for whose apparent and temporary satisfactionan ever-increasing amount of food-stuffs seems tobe necessary. The glutton must, in order to findsatisfaction, continually augment the quantities aswell as the piquancy of his "eats," just as adrunkard will increase the amount of strong drinks.The glutton will sometimes starve to death becauseof too much eating; or, what happens more fre-quently, certain of his organs and ultimately thewhole system will refuse to function. Experienceteaches us that a voluntary cutting down of thefood supply, or temporary fasting, is an annoyinghardship for the glutton, as well as of the averageman of to-day. His whole mind is possessed by thecraze for gluttony and the evil of temptation lies inambush on all sides. The mere thought of self-de-nial in eating fills him with horror, and he cannotbear the idea of curtailing the most conventionaland the most pleasurable pastime of his miserableexistence. If you take away those false pleasures,which to the modern man seem to be indispensa-ble, it is imperative to replace them with those thatare natural, healthful, and superior all around.Mankind is entitled to pleasure. I once met anEnglishman on his way home from India, who saidto me: "We don't know what living is until we ha'etasted a ripe pineapple fresh from the vine." And Isay, and thousands of my followers are saying the




same thing: "You must have relished a meal ofpure fruit after a fast, if you want to get a faintidea of paradisical enjoyment." The conquest ofgluttony will mostly succeed when we are forcedinto it by circumstances.

But, on the other hand, I am trying to show you abetter way, which you will gladly accept after youonce have seen the truth which I am trying topresent to you.

Gluttony can best be conquered by the substitu-tion of a counter pleasure, which we get throughthe new diet. Our taste will change and the verycraving for the things our tongue liked so well willdisappear. After the change to a fruit diet is onceestablished, you will get more pleasure out of yourmeals than ever before. You will reach a higherdegree of existence because you have passed theangel with the flaming sword who guards the gateto paradise.

In conclusion, I want to give you a plain criticismof food value, and that without the help of thehigh-toned scales of science.

A severe criticism of food values

Meat has no nourishment at all for man. Theso-called strength, which we experience after eatingis nothing but stimulation. Even the meat-eatinganimals will die if you feed them on nothing butcooked meat without blood and bones. The samething happens with an exclusive feeding on eggs,



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butter or white bread. Even rats will die if you givethem nothing but white wheat flour. Those experi-ments have been made. Nobody can live solely onany one of these so-called good foods. On theother hand, I would bind myself to live on nothingbut one kind of fruit for any length of time, anddo hard work besides.

Eggs and fats cause the worst impurity of oursystem. I have found that out with fasters in mysanatorium, who lived before mainly on thosefoods. I had a millionaire, who was a heavy fateater who perspired a substance during his fastwhich was as fat and heavy as melted butter.Cooked and concentrated milk is even worse. It is amucus former of the first class. Babies may thriveon it in a measure, but how well is proven by thegreat infantile mortality. All starchy foods are apoor road to grape sugar, which alone can beutilized in the formation of blood. Out of a singlefig you will get more nutritive value than out ofone pound of bread, rice or potatoes. Milk andstarchy foods are the stumbling block for thevegetarian glutton. Dried beans, peas and lentils arecausing just as much gout and rheumatism as meat,on account of their high percentage of albumen.Less harmful and more nutritious are all greenvegetables, because they contain valuable mineralsalts. I use those as a stepping stone to the highest,which is a fruit diet.

Fruits

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122 RATIONAL FASTtNG

is conclusively proven by the fact that the chem-ical combination is almost the same as mother'smilk. Above all, but very little albumen. If moth-er's milk is sufficient to insure a healthygrowth for babies, why should not fruits be anideal food for the grown-up man? The most deci-sive test of mother's milk is its sweetness. The mostimportant element of nutrition is not albumen, butorganic carbon, so-called "grape-sugar." It has thehighest percentage in fruits next to water. Everysingle fruit contains in ideal combination all theelements needed by the human body. Do youbelieve for a moment that men can create withchemistry and the use of fire anything superiorto that which the Creator has given us from thebeginning of time? Anatomically and physiological-ly man is in close relationship with the apes; thismuch even the scientists admit. Why, then, shouldthey classify us with the hogs, when they arewriting a book on diet? The most overwhelmingproof that fruits are the ideal food for man isfurnished in the success of an exclusive fruit dietfor the cure of chronic diseases. I healed thedifficult cases of chronic diseases with fruit dietafter everything else failed. I have cured myselffrom the disease of albuminaria through fastingand a strict diet, and I have reached a degree ofhealth which I did not know before. I have super-vised hundreds of such cures with excellent results.If fruits have a healing power and regenerate us, itmust follow that they are the best food to keep usin ideal health. Modern life is the tragedy ofnutrition. The curse of civilization is the feverishstruggle for the possession of money, so that we



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might enjoy the so-called privilege of sitting arounda well-spread table three times a day; while we donot realize that by doing so we undermine ourhealth and step into an untimely grave.

I hope you will take the conviction with you thatyou have seen the question of nutrition in a newlight of truth. If you come to the decision to turnover a new leaf in your habits of eating, you willgain in proportion to the adherence to these newprinciples. You will, moreover, serve your countrybetter in this way than in any other. And byfollowing the way I have outlined to you, you giveyourself the best treat, because it is an easy andbroad way to economic independence as well as toideal health. Moreover, you people, who live in themost favored fruit country in the world, ought tobecome the pioneers in this movement to help asuffering humanity to conquer gluttony by a closeradherence to the ideal diet.



Physical Culture

In this dissertation Ehret relates the practiceof dietetics and fasting with physical cultureto produce the high degree of civilizationthat prevailed in the age of Old Greece.

A strict interpretation of the word "Civilization"embraces spiritual culture, only, and its scientificmeaning can be expressed as the ennobling andperfection of man, in regard to his intellectual,moral and esthetic qualities.

In spite of this, we find that the highest degree ofcivilization in history (the classic period of theHellenic Age) combined, or was even based upon ahighly developed physical culture.

As a contrast, you may be reminded that theMiddle Age is classified in the history of civiliza-tion as a kind of spiritual stagnationthru' itsone-sided, nearly exclusive religious development,neglecting the culture of the body, entirely.Nietzsche may be somewhat right when he says:"Christianity has robbed us of the entire classiccivilization." Saying this, he surely thought notonly on the spitirualbut a great deal on thephysical development of the classic Greek andRoman peoples.




The philosophy of Western Civilization is basedupon Greek thinking, and the word treasure of allsciences has most of its roots in the Greek andLatin languages.

Esthetics; the science of beauty in the history ofEuropean art, especially sculpture and architecture,is based upon the Greek classic example of endur-ing foundation in principal lines.

There is no better example of the perfect humanbody than the Apollo and Venus of the classicHellenic period, and the foot racers of the Mara-thon exemplify, undoubtedly, a classic example ofphysical culture.

The Greek of this time were, no doubt, cultivatedand developed by physical training and a highstandard of Eugenics. The living models of theGods, reproduced in sculpture by the great artistPhidiasthe immortal creator of human beauty.

The gymnasium where unclothed boys and girls,together received their daily physical exercise, asthe principle of "classic education" is significantas regards morals and education.

The "Temple of Aesculap" was mainly, a place forwhat was known as "The sleep in the Temple."Here all sick people had to go, just as they go to ahospital, today. They were kept sleeping all of thetimewhich means, fasting.

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very littlebut this much is certain, that is: Cook-ing and eating were not the most importantthingsas they are in this civilization. I supposethat at the banquets, which are called "Baccha-nals," no alcoholic beverages were used. In everyartist's conception of this kind of a painting, thegrapes are the "significant thing" at the 'Baccha-nal" festival.

I believe that a scholar of classic Greek languageand civilization, of Greek philosophy, science;Greek art and mythologyand who knows aboutand believes in physical culture; in fasting anddietetics, at the same time would find and discoverthis:

The classic age of Greek civilizationwhich we callthe highest in historywas based upon and due toa highly developed body thru' physical culture,fasting, dietetics and Eugenics. As with the Ro-mansdegeneration set in just as soon as gluttonygained groundas soon as Lucullus and Bacchusbecame Gods.

The production and development of individualbodily perfection and geniality was the goal ofclassic Greek civiliztion.

We find another standard of civilization with theold Egyptiansand it is said that their prominentlearned men and "High Priests" did not swallowsolid foods for decades. They practiced "Fletcher-ism" some thousand years B. C.




Seen thru' the glasses of dietetics and fastinghygi-enic and dietetic rules, you will find that theseideas go, like a red string, thru' the Mosaic legisla-tionand thru' the stories of physical and spiritualheroes and prophets of the Old and New Testa-ments.

That physical culture in the classic age of oldGreece was combined with fasting and a highstandard of dietetics can be proved by the storiesof two of the greatest geniuses of history: Pythag-oras and Hippocrates.

Pythagoras, an immortal mathematical genius;vegetarian and founder of a high-standing school ofphilosophy, went to Egypt to learn more about the"secret sciences" of that country. Before he wasallowed to enter into the school of the learned,called High Priests at this time, he had to undergo afast of forty days, under supervision, outside of thecity. Believing that this was a test of his will powerand energy, he was told this: "Forty days' fast isnecessary in order that you may grasp what we willteach you."

Hippocrates, another mathematician, and learnedin natural science, is called the "Father of Medi-cine"because he was the first to cleanse this"doctrine" from superstition and put it on ascientific basis. However, remarkable as it ishewas an exclusive dietitian. He did not have muchknowledge of modern medicine, anatomy andphysiology. He knew exactly what disease was, andwhat was going on in the human body, in case of



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sickness. His ideas, concept and teachings abouthow to heal every disease can be characteristicallyseen and understood by two quotations from hisworks on dietetics. He says: "The more you feedthe sick, the more you harm him." Also"Yourfoods shall be your 'remedies,' and your 'remedies'shall be your foods."

His first statement proves clearly that he was anadvocate of fasting and restrictive diet, especiallyin case of acute disease. His second statement(suggestion) embraces perfectly the entire problemof dietetics. It is exactly what I call the "Diet ofHealing."

For a clearer understanding, it may be explained asfollows: Nature's only and omnipotent "remedy"-fastingis used in the animal kingdom to healevery disease and wound; showing that there isonly one disease. I call it internal impuritymucusderived from decomposed, un-natural foods. Byhealing wounds, Nature shows that she can do itbetter and more perfectly, without food.

In case of disease, Nature, with the instinctive"signal" of non-appetite, strives to say: "You didwrong by eatingstop itor at least, replace thewrong foods which produced your disease, withgood, clean, natural ones. You must do this, if I amto heal you and save you from the consequences ofyour wrong eating." Or, in the language of theScriptures: "I am the Lord, thy Physicianmyfoods, produced by Nature, only, are thy reme-diesand thou shalt eat only the bread of Heav-




enfruits and herbs" (Genesis), meaning greenleafvegetables.

For thousands of yearssince the time of Hippoc-rates and Moses, the truth has been revealed, butnot believednot understood and followed. Up tothe present time, a "radical" diet, such asadvocated by Hippocrates, as a diet of healing("remedies")and suggested by Moses, as man'snatural food, exclusively, has received little credit,even among dietitians.

Why, in our time of regeneration by physicalculture, have not fasting and dietetics become theprincipal and standard "remedy" of natural thera-peuticsas it was in the classic age of civilization,as shown above?

As a specialist in fasting and dietetics, with morethan twenty years' practice, I s.'bmit this slowprogress is due to the following facts: First, themodern manthe sick man, especiallyis so over-loaded with impurities; disease matters, that hecannot endure a long fast. In fact, it would, inmany cases, become dangerous. My experience hastaught me that shorter fasts, alternating with acleansing diet, and progressively increased, aremuch more easy and successful than longer fast-ings. I call this process a systematical fast. Second:The radical fruit diet; the raw food diet, or, as Icall it, the "Mucusless Diet"(fruits, exclusively;nuts and green-leaf vegetables) stirs up and dissolvestoo rapidly in the body of the average sick man,with his lowered vitalityso much waste and toxe-



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mias that he cannot endure the elimination ofsame. His condition becomes worse, instead ofbetter, and he and everyone around him attributesit to the lack of solid food; and his faith in naturalfoods has vanished, forever.

In fact, this is the reason why we have such aconfusion in dietetics, today. The amount of nutri-ment contained in a food is not the decisive point,but, rather, its eliminating qualities determines towhat extent it is a "remedy"according to Hippoc-rates.

I learned this, mostly, thru' my experience withserious cases of all kinds of disease; and imperfectconditions. The change from wrong, disease-pro-ducing foods to right, disease-healing foods, has tobe affected slowly, progressively and systematical-lyaccording to the condition of the patient.

A diet of healing can never consist of recipes andthe prescription of menus for the so-called differ-ent kinds of diseases. What I call the "TransitionDiet" must be a therapeutic system of eating, forelimination of waste and toxemias (disease mat-ters) selected, adjusted and combined in such away that the elimination can be controlled. Com-bined with fasting, we have a system of therapeu-tics which surpasses any other in existence.

If physical culture of any kind is combined withthis system, the elimination can be enforced rapid-ly. When the body is once clean; free from anywaste or poisonwhen all obstructions are re-




moved from the human machinethen the physicalculturist will develop a strength, endurance and abeauty of solid muscular proportion, and, at thesame time, enjoy a mental and spiritual progressequalling that of the classic period of the "HellenicAge."

No doubt our Western civilization is at stake. Wedrift along in a sort of half-conscious conditionastho' we were advanced to a high degree of civiliza-tion. The average mind thinks that the progress oftechnic and industryeconomic and financial pros-perity and success compose civilization. The flight(so-called escape) from healthful physical out-of-door work in the country, into the offices, thea-ters, restaurants, etc., located in the un-hygienicbuildings of large cities, is called progress.

Statistics show that we have the highest record inhistory in the development of consumption, cancerand syphilis. Whoever has treated chronic cases ofthis kind, knows the inside story of our so-calledprogress.

Due to the internal impurity of modern man, hisdisease (of whatever nature) is of a degree neverbefore attained by any people, in the history ofmankindand this is caused, mainly, thru' his dietof civilization, and to the lack of physical culture.

At the present time we are menaced by an over-whelming culture of psychology; of metaphysics;of spiritualismof spiritual "manias" of all kinds.It is significant that a well-known teacher of one of



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these cults had to remind his audience, upondifferent occasions, during the same lecture: "Yes;you must realize that you have a body." Thespiritual confusion; the uncertainty and contradic-tions found even in science, philosophy and reli-gion, have no analogy in the history of civilization.

The ignorance regarding the most important thingsin lifethe health and perfection of the bodyisindescribable. We suffer from a sort of psychicdefect; failing to realize how important health is.

We are swimming in an ocean of books, and arebrought into such a maelstrom of ideas that no onehas a correct conception of the truthor thathealth is the most important truth.

The attitude of the human mind towards every-thing spiritual is so terribly confused that youcannot find two men, today, who can agree on anyone idea. This much is certain, however, there areno two truths about the spiritual and physicalperfection of the human being. I have shown, thru'"classic examples," that the highest degree of realcivilizationof mental and spiritual standardswasreached, and could be reached, only, thru' a mostperfect bodythru' a superb, splendid health inevery linedeveloped thru' physical culture, fastingand dietetics.

If the individual will not banish all superstitionfrom his mind, and take care of his body in everyrespect; he, or she, cannot be saved from diseaseand imperfection.




Mankind, especially of the Western civilization,must soon take up the culture and care of thebody, in the broadest senseexactly as prevailed inthe classic age of Old Greece. The development ofthis process, alone, will determine whether or notcivilization can be saved.



Thus Speaketh the Stomach

Permitting the stomach to speak, ProfessorEhret discloses how to find the cause ofincreased and decreased functional capacityin all parts of the whole system.

The philosopher, Immanuel Kent, and other con-temporary thinkers, have ventured to criticallyinvestigate the process of thinking, itself. The moremodern materialistic school may at least claim themerit of having reminded us that normal thinkingrequires a normal organ of thought, with well-or-ganized brain convolutions. Materialism placed thecarriers of philosophical minds upon earthly soilagain. It did not commence its speculations in thebackground, nor in the abstract, super-sensual andmetaphysicalit put the scalpel of its thinking,figuratively and in reality, at the organs of the soul,and opened up a philosophy of lifestarting withthe material atom, and the cell of living substances.Brain convolutions, and the quality of nerve sub-stance, seemed to become the criterion of a materi-al basisin order to obtain a "Critique of PureReason," without sophistic tendencies, and tograsp the spiritual and physical lifethe process ofthinking, as perception, logic and judgment. Now,the cell appeared really tangible and visible, as aspecifically organized unit of living substance, and,as a co-ordinated carrier of bodily and mental




functions. The anatomy of these micro-organismsis known; but the quality of their functions, thecauses of their vitality are yet obscure. They forgetthat all depends upon the nourishing with liveblood, and that the fundamental lever of all think-ingof thinking, itselfhas to be put at the stom-ach; the center of blood formationif we want tosolve the mystery of life. One has to go to thegravity center of the organismthat is, one's stom-achin order to understand; alleviate; remedy theheaviness; the impediments to one's functions,known as disease. One has to look into the work-ings and at the basis of his central organs, if hewants to find the cause of accelerated and loweredfunctional capacity of all parts of the whole sys-tem, which are being nourished with blood, by thestomach.

Jean Jacques Rosseau dictated his writings while ina recumbent position. Freidrich Von Schiller puthis feet into cold water while writing. Fainting isoften the last stage of a bloodless condition of thebrain, caused thru' a full stomach. Pythagoras hadto fast forty days in order to understand thewisdom of Egypt; however, not because fastingcauses a bloodless condition of the brain, as isgenerally believed, but, because the very oppositeis the case. Far better than recumbentas withRosseau or by cooling the feetas with Schillerdoes the human brain produce the best thoughts,the surest perceptions, when thoroughly permeatedwith blood. If, by fastingas with Pythagoras,thestomach has been brought to that state of cleanli-



APPENDIX 137

ness whereby perfect digestion of food is assured;there will be no interference in the regular nourish-ing of the brain with bloodthru' the presence ofauto-toxins. One has, eventually to begin at thestomach, with a blood purifying. We must enterupon a higher grade of healthstarting from thecenter of blood formation, in order to obtain aperception of "blood-pure-reason," a priori, thatdisease in the main is but an unconscious laying ofmines in the body, which will he brought to aninflammation and eruption thru' secondary, inci-dent causes, such as a cold, infection, etc. We musteliminate the presence of unevacuated feces, re-tained thru' sticky mucus in the pockets of theintestines, constantly poisoning, and thereby inter-fering with proper digestion and blood-building.

Not only all life, but all culture, in the better sense,proceeds from the stomach. But this organ, thru'false nursing by the too-material cult of Bacchusand Lucullusaccording to Nietzschehas becomethe father of all misery: the secret hot-bed of alldisease. Here a latent deposit of moribund matter,consisting of retained waste products, is actingoppressively on the brain, and corrupting theblood, and, in each special case of disease; besidesbeing the direct cause, coming from the obscure,underground stomach cover, it obscures the clinicalpicture of every symptom of an eliminative nature,for the time being. As can be proved, pounds ofthe secret, pathological ailment are deposited with-in the tissues, as a primary cause of disease; aschronic corruption of the bloodcoming from the




under-ground; the obscure unknown; the mysteri-ous Xin the course of all acute and chronicdisease processes.

If, today, in some manner, I may introduce aspeaking stomach, this is done for three reasons:First, because this rather antiquated form of ex-pression seems better adapted to impart personalperceptions and concepts. Second, because thefunctions of an organ; a process of Nature! a force;a willthe sense and purposeful intentions ofunconscious partial functions of the human body,when especially personified and given speech, arebrought nearer to the general intelligence of thepeople. Third, because diet and with that, thestomachthe blood formationare the first thingsimplied in the question: "What and how should weeat and drink, in order to get well, and remainhealthy?" Perhaps even science can find someanimating thoughts in this idea.

Supported by an extensive material of facts, andby certain experiments upon my own bodysuchas no one else has made, so farI will attempt tointroduce to you, the stomachas the gatheringplace of that pathological material which has gener-ally been called, encumbrance; auto-toxins; morbiddisposition, or tendency; without the presence ofwhich, the action of a secondary cause of disease isimpossible. I have made experiments to produce acold; to get malaria infection, etc., with a negativeresultafter a thorough removal of the first generalcause; consisting of the complete encumbrance,thru' the stomachby fasting and using my own



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diet. In order to put disease, as an experiment,upon a common basis, I went to the limit ofendangering my life. In a state of improved health,I would intentionally eat myself sick, to a certainextent; in order to eat myself surely and radicallywell, againfor my own satisfaction. To my knowl-edge, this has never before been attempted. Ifscience does not care about this experimenting ofmineit may continue to look on, smilingly, atwhat is to follow. I, myself, believe I shall therebybe of service to the sickto the life efficiency ofthe human raceto the promotion of the peoples'vigor, and, to all humanity.

And now, let the stomach speak; in the principalrole of the "Tragedy of Man's Nutrition."

Thus Speaketh the Stomach:

"Histogenetically, I am, at first, a primitive, intesti-nal cell; a tiny, hollow bag, with a mouth-opening;this being the ultimate, common, basic form of alltrue multi-cellular vertebratesaccording to Haeck-el. In the whole scale of living animal organisms upto and including man, I am located in the center, atthe point of gravity. To methe Stomachbelongsthis centrally-located place; for I am the singlebuilding spot; the organized working apparatus forraw material, and, at the same time, the master-builder. I get my orders thru' the brainthe chiefmanagementas unconscious instincts, from theworld's architect. To me, alonewith my assistant,the blood-stream, belongs, in the main, the materi-al building of the whole body; the formation and




shaping of the organs; their maintenance; and thesupply of repair material. I am the material maincenter of growth; replenishing and working thewhole organism. Even the chief managementthebrainis subject to my food carrier; the blood. Ihave always been, and shall remain, the first andabsolute ruler in the cell state of man, and o1animals. To me belongs the center of being andhealth; of pain and disease, and of passing away.Thus I, only, in the first line, can be the source andsupply of remedythe hot-bed and the death-bedof disease.

"In the chase after causative factors of disease, Ihave been displaced from my dominating positionamong the organs, in man's perceptionhowever,in the scale of so-called pleasures of life andculture, I have been elevated to the 'Chief God.' Inreality, the millenarian mistreatment of man hasmade of me a dark chamber of suicidal tableenjoymentand pain, my warning voice and de-fensive force, has been choked in the endlesscourses of dimmed kitchens. Man's thinking hasbecome obscured in the tempo of over-culture ofhis abdomenthe conception of health has dis-solved in fancyand the spectre of disease ishaunting him. Also the terror of this phantom; hissuffering and death emanate from me. If I am thecenter of life; why should I not, also, be the centerof death.

"Pain, uneasiness in generaland in particularpartsare my signals to: 'Stop! too much unneces-sary eating!' These are alarm dispatches, and mdi-



APPENDIX 141

cate functional disturbances in the vascular system,as a reaction on mewhich I ingeniously supportby loss of appetite. They answer me by stranglingmy voice, thru' more eating. My voice works as adanger signal, causing pain----because, thru' over-eat-ing and drinking, the pressure and density of bloodare increased by me, instead of being diminished.In the state of disease and elimination, the bloodstream carries the dissolved auto-toxins from me tothe kidneys; this goes on painlessly, with relaxedtissues, only while fastingwhich acts as a relief.Pain is merely my cry of distress; an expression ofmy disturbed healing work, which I can perform,thoroughly, only when I am empty and fasting. Infact and truth, my pain signals are good andlife-promoting; thought and action-provoking tothinking people. They should be the refining fire;the upward move for the overcoming of sufferingand diseasethe fore-runner of a new dawn of life.(These ideas may serve as a contribution to thePhilosophy of Suffering; or Revelation of all val-ues.)

"I, the Stomach, am the primary ruler over life anddeath; from the first primitive intestinal cell, to thepassing away of the last creature. My rule overliving beings is self-evidentas I am the first decid-ing court of remedy; of repair; of restoration of thefunctional and organic disturbances called disease.Unceasingly, with the help of the organs of elimi-nation and protection, I am secretely at work; toregulate the well-being of man with Edenic reserveforces. Especially in advanced years, I maintain asecret process of life-protecting and life-sustaining




purpose; in the most subtle form. Under continuedinflow of unassimilable matter, of so-called foodculture, and, especially, during the stoppage of mydrainage canal, I am unable to maintain the bal-ance. I become flabby, from the eliminating work,and so does the whole tissue and blood system ofmy surroundings, and, of the entire body. I canneither digest the inflow, nor overcome it bysecretion. I have to deposit matter for more tran-quil times and store it up in the tissues. Abnormaldistension of my cavity and of the whole body, iscalled 'vigorous health'which must be registeredby a pathological condition.

"My 'striking'; and the possibility of eliminatingthe morbid matter of putrescent refuse, consists inabsolute emptiness and sobriety of fastingand onan instinctive animal command of the 'world regis-seur.' My intention is gooda regulating of thehealth and running-activitya sort of self-de-fensean aid from the underground. Instead ofproperly defending yourselves against all enemiesand dangers of life, you have throttled my life andhealing activitiesmy digestive power and my eat-ing capacity. My glands, my walls, the tissues ofmy surroundings, and, especially, my ten meterlong canal, are permeated, infected, soiled, inproportion to my chronic abuse, thru' moderneating. At the basis of my tissues, especially thoseof my surroundings. I have to deposit the residue,which, in the course of all disease, remains Un-known to you; as the primary causebecause, onlywhile I am empty and fasting, can I attack it;



APPENDIX 143

devour it; work it off; burn it up; and healinglyeliminate it thru' the blood stream.

"Instead of being a fountain of wholesome lifethe source of purest blood and healthI havebecome the secret underground chamber; thebreeding place of all suffering, and the father of allmisery.

"Thus I take up my 'song of lamentation,' as themost temperate representative of the present time.'He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.' Already,in the womb of the motherout of care for a newhuman lifeI induce disgust for unnatural 'cul-tured' eatingto retain the purity of the blood,and to conform with the instinct for primitivenutrition, thru' fruit. However, I am fed doublerationsand they wonder why the birth takes placewith pain, and danger to life for mother and child.I am given food poor in minerals, especially inlimesuch as flesh, boiled, decalcified milk; while Ilong for the lime salts of fruitssince I have tobuild up a new bony frame for the embryo. I catchup every milligram of lime salts, even at theexpense of the mother's teeth; in order to give it tothe child, in formation. Hysteria, and caries of theteeth of the pregnant, is how they diagnose mycare for a new human life. I am unable to buildgood mother's milk substance; since I am lackingin fruit sugar; its main ingredientaitho' I amflooded with cow's milk. I am also kept wellsupplied with this during the nursing period of theyoung onealso with the entire list of imaginable



144 RAT1ONAL FASTING

slime preparations. I cannot overcome the cheesy,putrescent refuse, and the slimy condition reachesfrom the throat to the pasted and clogged-upoutlet. My interior is stuffed with boiled, pallid,curdled and decalcified milk, and its germ-produc-ing condition threatens to strangle the windpipe ofthe little one. I am laboring with obstructions,impediments and friction; in fever heat. By force-ful, downward pressure, I try to make room, butmy good intentions are frustrated thru' constipat-ing drugs. Now I have the emergency vents of theskin open to throw off waste and impurities, thatslide into the blood stream.

"Measles, scarlet fever, eruptionsthey call my lastefforts to throw off the morbid; the useless; thedisease germs. If, in spite of all, the young citizensucceeds in getting on his legs; he at once searchesfor sweets and fruits; to which I urge him, withEdenic instinct. The live elements of fruit sugargive me a chance for a radical discharge of theputrescent mucus masses that have accumulatedinto a dangerous breeding field, within myselfwith a stench reminding one of carrion and death. Idischarge the first layer of my own depository ofdisease, and that of the intestines, as a warning toreform; and as a sign of my good intentions as to'life insurance.' This is called loose stool: scientifi-cally known as diarrhea and colitis; and is stoppedby opium. Since my evacuations originate fromputrid, curdled milk, they are of greenish color.With adults, especially with heavy meat eaters,they are blackish. In extreme cases of my defensework, downward, as well as upward, they speak



APPENDIX 145

more learnedly of Cholera morbus. If, thru' cli-matic heat, the danger of fermentation is stillgreater, and my provisional eruptions more intense;then my attempts at cleansing from slime andbacillus soil is called Cholera Asiaticawith whichone usually smothers in his own morass; because hecounteracts my eliminative efforts. When attempt-ing to gradually accustom my youthful purity tomeat, liquors, etc., I respond, in the child, withsqueamishness, and, in my juvenile elasticity, I tryto eject the loathsome, unnatural stuff, thru' ener-getic contractions. This is called 'colic'; and withthe aid of the rod, they force the reactive young-ster to weaken my original power, thru' so-calledstrengthening food.

"At the age of puberty, I start my special effort atcleansing, with the womanin the organ of gesta-tionto take place regularly each month, beforethe period of possible conception; with the solepurpose of cleansing before fecundation. This phe-nomenon is the health-regulating process of dis-ease; and is lessened both as to quantity andfrequency, in proportion to the general efforts atcleansing; commencing with me. It becomes super-fluous and disappears entirely, with perfecthealthif I am fed exclusively on pure and unmixedfood, with fruit, alone. (For proof; we refer to thelives of many saints.) I am likewise interested inthe formation of pure blood in the young man,since the quality of his blood is not only ofimportance to him; but to his whole future genera-tion. The sins of the ancestors, and the germs ofimmortality are in the atmosphere of today, but,




with me, nobody has dared to find them. Theentire list of sexuo-pathological symptoms may bepretty closely produced thru' a one-sided, extremeincrease in feeding on 'food of the beasts of prey.'Do you know that you can kill a man by feedinghim exclusively on fleshthe much-lauded mainfood of the century?

"With the Stomach, also, 'talking amounts tosilver,' while silence is often worth gold; especially,when one's stomach could speak whole volumesabout the foolishness of people, but without avail.To the asthmatic I give timely warnings of myuneasiness due to lack of oxygen in the digestion. Icontrol the elimination and subsequent emaciationin these types, especially. 'Tuberculosis has a cer-tain healing tendency,' said Prof. Virchow, thegreat pathologist. This disease also originates withmein the undergrounddestroying the air-organ,when I cannot get any more air, on account ofwrong eating. To overcome the highest degree ofblood corruption and the breakdown of the entirecell-stateas in the case of tuberculosis and cancer,my blood stream seeks to get a crater-like eruptionspot; and an emergency vent, as it were, to throwoff the products of decay, viz: slime and pus. Atthe very beginning, before the process of eruption,I ulcerate the surroundings; while depositing, germi-nating and re-buildingfor the filth is of especiallyputrefactive originresulting from excessive con-sumption of flesh and eggs. In most cases of thiskind, Ithe builder of man's bodyam able to beof material helpand, if they attempt to assist mewith their 'best diet,' they only make things worse.



APPENDIX 147

"Do they not even try to regulate the heart beat,thru' means which I have to take? Then whyshould not I also be the 'father of tortured hearts,'when I, thru' high pressure, must poison andcorrupt the blood which is banked up in thechambers of this valve; congesting the air pump(the lungs) where gasoxygen, is lacking? Not onlymust I, as the breeding and blood forming placeproduce germs of putrefactionin the field ofunderground encumbrance, but, by force of emerg-ency the pathological matter even forms intocrystallized, stony condensations; obstructing theblood stream in narrow passage-ways (as in the caseof rheumatism) or being deposited as stones in thegall bladder, or in the notches of the intestines.

"The resisting bulwark and greatest counter-force;the greatest impedimentwhich makes it possibleto prevent this germ depositary of all diseasesischronic constipation; the obstruction of the end ofmy drainage pipe; the rectum. Of the upper por-tion of my auxiliary organthe intestinal canalonly one part need be mentioned here. In sheerblindness, they mistook the appendix for a'blind 'superfluous and even impending structure,which, however, was to assist in the lubrication andsmoothening of the chyle; thru' its secretionlikethe oiler of a machine. Naturally, a machine willrun for a time with a clogged-up oiler; or withoutsamebut only until it becomes burning hot."

"Still greater than within myself and my surround-ings, is the accumulation of filth at the outlet of




the drainage pipe. Thru' decades of damming up,there has gathered a mire-like mass beyond descrip-tion. The deep folds conceal heaps of slime andfecal matter, in stony formation of many years'standing. This ulcerating and fermenting depositoryof putrefying refuse of the process of disintegra-tion of one's own tissues, is, in conjunction withmyself, a first-class hot bed and breeding place ofall diseases. Here is the dark, secret, undergroundreservoir of the dietary mire, which is poisoningthe blood-stream from childhood on, and, like anobscure subterranean spring, is feeding all painfuldisease symptoms. There we find the deeper causesof apoplexy, neurasthenia, typhus, head troubles,kidney and liver infectionsand of the varied listof 'specialties' invented by the 'medical brain.' I,the principal organ of digestion, like all other parts;especially the injured tissues of blood vessels con-gested by a coldcontinuously receive from thisreservoir deadly excremental gases and substances,thru' the circulationand I even stir up this partial-ly dead chamber, within a living body, because Imust, naturally, expel my contents thereinto.

"Germs of decayed and live parasites, broods ofvermin of various species, live and thrive on therefuse of flesh and starch in the alimentary canalsof un-numbered people; displaying a good appetite,and a voracity for the favored food of these pests.Fruit acids would kill thembut my interior walls,and my reflecting image, the taste-organ (tongue),are so charged with slime and so pasty that Icannot make known my primitive instinct for fruit.Air; water; sunshine; fruit sugar; fruit acidsand



APPENDIX 149

the building stones of organized substances con-taining albumen in the maximum of one-half percent, were, originally, and still are the sole andnatural components of my helio-electric formationof bloodwith radio-active force from sweet scentsand odors of fruits; 'the bread of Heaven.'

"I was, originally, tuned to a mono-diet consistingof a varied selection from the fruits in season,differing in the degree of their water value, and inaccordance with the position of the sun and theaverage temperature of the respective zones. Out ofthese, I produced force and warmth; bone andmuscle, for Edenic man, healthy and free fromdisease germsjust as today with the frugivorousapes; or with quadrupeds, on grass and water, intwenty degrees below zero.

"I can ward off and expel the much-accusedpoisons of modern civilization, such as alcohol,coffee, tobacco, etc., in much less time than I canthrow off the ballast of 'cultured' eating, which hasbecome the custom. The continuous overloadingtherewith, in disgusting mixtures, and withoutnecessity, threatens to choke and drown me, andmy life functions. Within me, on a base of soups,beer and wine, there is constantly swimming avaried and heterogeneous mixture of unchewedand useless substances, which are already largelydecomposedout of which I am supposed to turnout the live ingredients of the blood.

"The first thing to do would be to value alleatables accordinglyso that none of the necessary



150 RATiONAL FASTING

secretions and excretions would adhere to me, orto any part of the digestive apparatus; encumberingand obstructing everything with pasty slimeandto liberate me, first of all, from all slime permeat-ing my structurethru' the use of dissolving foods,especially fruits, salads and vegetables.

"To be, or not to be, healthy or sickthe life anddeath of man and humanity lies within my power.I am the ultimate smithery and destiny to all men.According to natural law and purpose, I am thehammer which can fashion out of blood and iron,men with vigorous, indestructible health. To besure, it takes live blood made out of the meat ofgrapes, oranges and such fruits, full of organicironinstead of dead animals, with disintegratedand devitalized albuminous matter. I seem only tohave become the anvil on which they think to welddead matter into live substance. My silent, Edenicharmony has been turned into dull growling. Ialready spit sparks of fire which will consume himwho means to throttle me. His downfall is mypaternal blood on the stage of life, in the Tragedyof Man's Nutrition."Thus sounds my lamentation: I, and my auxiliaryorgans, have been proven, in the zoological orderof evolutionwith 'moral glory'to be the organsof beasts of preyand, in the biological order,from a dietetic and physiological standpoint, wehave been out on a level with the swinein orderto justify the modern diet. All species and varietiesI must digest; from the mollusks of the sea to theruminants of the field, and the birds of the airandI have, apparently, adapted myself to their form of



APPENDIX 151

hutrition. Man has lost the appetite for fruitstheprimary diet of the human stomachand the faithin their live power (according to Dr. Bircher-Ben-ner.) The genealogy of man may be traced back tothe ape family, thru' a queer branching offbut, inthe present condition of my auxiliary organs, theteeth and intestines; and of myself, my brotherlysimilarity to the frugivorous ape, in regard to diet,has been denied.

"Man was formerly content to be satisfied with afew fruits of the forest, in order to procreategod-like, Edenic human beings, as the predecessorsof the hunter, with spear and fire. I am stillexisting on this pre-historic reserve fund of force;while dissipating my capital fund in the digestionof luxuries. My present silencewhile being fed onmilk, eggs, flesh, cereals and pulses, liquors, andthe entire modern artificial diet, speaks volumes.My glands, and the introductory structures of mytract are clogged with a slimy, sticky mucus, whichhas ruined them. The sensory and defensory nervesare benumbed. With the patience of a giant, Iendure the ten-fold measure and carrion-like quali-ty of the meals, lauded as good and strengthen-ingwhile they are the very oppositeweakeningand inducing incapacity to react against unassimila-ble matter. In fact, I operate under great difficul-ties, and 'keep the machine going' with the mostnecessary water and air. They call my silence underthe strain of desperate effortand the mute pa-tience of a giant'good digestion.' While the organ-ic wheel is jarring, heaving and groaning, and thepipes threaten to burst.




"Grapes, cherries, apples, all sweet and sour fruits Ieasily digest and turn into pure blood, thru' myEdenic capacitiesonly when I have thereby elimi-nated and ejected the last remnant of refuse mat-ter, accumulated during a lifetime. If you againextend the hand of reconciliation, for the 'bread ofHeaven,' and you want to eat yourself well, then Icommence the most ingenious mining work, withthe new blood from the sun kitchen. With it, Iwork thru' the whole body, stirring up the old,latent disease germs, and especially, the new-symp-tom fields. I begin the healing and transmutationof the entire man. The most radical cleansing ofmyself, and of my surroundingsparticularly ofmy drainage system, which is full of retained refusematter, furnishing the real reduction of the entireencumbranceand manifesting itself in an alarmingemaciation. However, I can only commence myconstructive, nourishing work with fruits, after allworn-out building material of my mansion hasbeen removed. I can then, only, become again thefountain of health; the wall of life; the inexhausti-ble source of vigor and pleasureaitho', hereditari-ly, since Adam; thru' milleniums, and, individually,for decades, I have been the father of misery, andthe germinating center of all diseases and afflic-tions."



The Definite Cure of Chronic Constipation

153

After four years of exacting study and dan-gerous experimenting on his own body Ehretdiscovered the following: Disease is Nature'seffort to rid the body of disease matters and toeliminate waste from the system. Instinctive-ly the voice of Nature comes to man as it doesto animals, "Don't eat - rest - be quiet!"

Chronic constipation is the worst and most com-mon crime against life and mankind - a crime un-consciously committed, and one whose full enorm-ity is not yet fully realized. It stands accused of be-ing one of the principal causative factors of allphysical and mental diseases. I know as a fact,from my practical experience with thousands ofchronically diseased, that the life of man, and theextent of his mental and spiritual capabilities arelargely influenced by the condition of the alimen-tary tract. It is certainly very important that thebrain and nerves of man are supplied with pureblood, and are not dependent on blood, pollutedwith impurities, arising from an unclean alimentarycanal. "Unclean" is too mild a word, when we aredealing with the worst kind of a filthy condition.




It is a fact that man, the product of the present"civilized" society of this much vaunted "advanced"twentieth century, is born in filth, because hismother, during pregnancy, is almost invariably suf-fering from constipation. And I say further, thatwhile in this state, she usually eats two to threetimes as much as is necessary. This causes the so-called normal, more or less healthy man, to besomewhat encumbered from infancy. And to amuch greater extent, is the constipated one - whois loaded with such a mass of internal filth, that itcan only be called "indescribable." His alimentarytract, reaching up from the mouth of the anus tohis throat, is filled with a morbid mucus - undi-gested, decayed and retained food-substances, all ofwhich are in a state of fermentation and putrefac-tion. His intestines have never had a perfect cleans-ing during his entire life. At the conclusion of eachdischarge, the anus must be artificially cleansed,which shows that the internal walls of the intestinesmust also retain, after each passage, quantities ofthis same filth.

A physician of Berlin, whose life work was the per-forming of autopsies, stated that 60 per cent of allthe corpses contained in the alimentary canal vari-ous foreign matter - worms and petrified feces -and he further stated that in nearly all cases thewalls of the intestines and colon were lined with acrust of hardened feces, making it evident thatthese organs had degenerated to a state of utterinefficiency. Progressive American physicians arerapidly awakening to the fact that retained fecal



APPENDIX 155

matter is one of the chief causes of disease. Autop-sies are constantly revealing indescribable filthyastounding conditions. One physician publishes thefollowing:

"I have found a prototype of the cause of all di-seases of the human body, the foundation of pre-mature old age and death. Surprising as it mayseem, out of two hundred and eighty-four cases ofautopsy held, but twenty-eight colons were foundto be free from hardened feces and in a normal andhealthy state. The others, as described above,were to a more or less extent incrusted with hard-ened, rotten, rejected food material. Many weredistended to twice their natural size throughouttheir whole length with a small hole through thecenter and almost universally these last cases men-tioned had regular bowel evacuations daily. Someof them contained large worms from four to sixinches in length.

"My experience from day to day developed start-ling discoveries in the form of worms and nests ofeggs, that we daily get from patients, accompaniedby blood and pus. As I stood looking at the colonand reservoir of death, I expressed myself in won-der that anyone can live a week, much less foryears, with such a cesspool of death and contagionalways with him. The absorption of the deadlypoison back into the circulation cannot help butcause all the contagious diseases. The recent treat-ment of hemorrhage of the bowels in typhoid feverhas shown it to be caused by maggots and worms




eating into the sensitive membrane and tapping avein or artery. In fact, my experience during thepast ten years has proven, by the rapid recovery ofall diseases after the colon was cleansed, that inthe colon itself lies the basic cause of almost allhuman ailments."

That this revolting and indescribable conditionarises from the almost universal ignorance of rightselection of food, reveals why the "Mucusless DietHealing System" is such an important discoveryand development for the regeneration of mankind.

On the outside, the man of today is carefullygroomed, perhaps unnecessarily and over carefullyclean; while inside he is dirtier than the dirtiestanimal whose anus is as clean as its mouth,provided said animal has not been "domesticated"by "civilized" man.

Long ago Natural Therapy proved, that in every di-sease there is a constitutional encumbrance of for-eign matter a clogging-up of the system. Thatstatement of fact is not sufficiently explicit. The en-cumbering matters, foreign to the body, and of nouse to the system, consist of masses of accumulatedfeces, undigested food, morbid mucus, and retainedsuperfious water, all in a state of fermentation anddecomposition. Truly, chronically constipated manconstantly carries in his intestines a veritable cess-pool, by which the blood stream is continually poi-luted and poisoned, a fact which only a skilled ob-server can at once detect by facial diagnosis. Offi-cial medical science and the inexpert layman do



APPENDIX 157

not suspect "constipation" when the individualconsumes from three to five meals a day, while he ishaving one so-called, good bowel movement. Manimagines that his "comfortable fatted" body is asign of health; at the same time he is as much infear of a cold wind and "germs" as he is of thedevil. When such a "well-fed" man who is usuallyconstipated, takes a fast or is put on a "mucus-lessdiet" - as I have advised hundreds as their lastresort - he will discharge masses of putrescent filth,fetid urine loaded with mucus, salt, uric acid, fat,drugs, albumen and pus, according to his disease.

The most surprising effect of these treatments isthe immense quantity of the discharged feces andthe fetid exhalation from both the mouth andskin. But the most important "discharge" is theelimination through the circulation into the urine.The urine of everybody will then show a sedimentof mucus as soon as he fasts a little or reduces thequantity of his food, or makes a change towardnatural, mucusless foods. Doctors call it "disease"and it is in fact a self-cleansing process of the body.This self-elimination through the circulation is thebody's most wonderful healing work of every di-sease. To control this process by food and food quan-tities is the only true, natural and most perfecttherapeutic art of healing and is in no other "treat-ment" so successfully accomplished as in the "Mu-cusless Diet Healing System."

This elimination - especially that of the sick manafter a long period of misery, suffering and unsuc-




cessful medical treatment - is man's "greatestevent." He now realizes what he had never thoughtof - and what only a few physicians in the worldhave ever understood as I did, through thousandsof cases - that mostly all civilized men are walk-ing, living cesspools, due to chronic constipation.

All his former unsuccessful treatments now appearto him in a tragic-comical light. He now knowsexactly where the source of his suffering is to befound, no matter what the name of the disease maybe. He now understands that he was wrongly andignorantly treated by the doctors who "suppressedthe disease," without eliminating the filth, whichwas retained in his entire system, especially in hisalimentary canal, since childhood, and which con-dition constituted the principal causative factorof the disease.

The Effect of Laxatives

I do not believe that either physicians or laymenreally know or understand how and why the bodyperforms the laxative effect of these different rem-edies. Official medical science knows very littleabout the "why" of the drugs. Their applicationis based upon the experience only that each onehas "a special effect."

All laxatives contain more or less poisons, that is,substances which would become dangerous if theywere to enter the circulation in a concentratedform. The protective instinct of the body reacts



APPENDIX 159

instantly by a greater water supply into the stom-ach from the blood in order to dissolve and weakenthe dangerous substance; the intestines are stimu-lated for increased and quickened activity, and sothe "solution" is discharged, only taking parts ofthe feces along. This is the physiological explana-tion, and you can see that the effect is an abnor-mal stimulation of vitality in general, and of theintestinal nerves in particular. It is an open secretthat all laxatives finally fail, because the constantoverloaded intestines are being over-stimulated bythe laxatives and thereby slowly paralyzed. To con-tinually increase the laxatives year after year, in-stead of changing the diet, means SUICIDE -slow, but sure.

The Real and Deeper Cause of Constipation

Constipation itself is a disease, and a really "se-vere" one, at that, because in severe cases it bur-dens the system with a heavy load of filth, some-times weighing as much as ten pounds or more.Disease as such is an abnormal, unnatural condi-tion; even "orthodox" physicians agree on that.We should expire slowly and painlessly, when vital-ity is exhausted, had we not lived with disease andsuffering. That cases of "natural death" are get-ting more infrequent nowadays is further proof ofthe depths we have sunken into in the "swampsof civilization."

Constipation - this most common disease - hasnot decreased or improved in spite of thousands




of remedies for sale on the market, and in spiteof so-called medical science; simply, because the"diet of civilization" is unnatural. The human in-testines are not organized at all for this unnaturalfood to either digest it perfectly, or to expel theunused residue.

Very little is known about foods that are consti-pating, and those of the opposite kind. What Iwrote and proved in my book, "Rational Fastingand Regeneration Diet," regarding the fundamen-tal causative factors of all diseases, constitutes thedeepest insight known into the nature of chronicconstipation.

Don't you know that bookbinder's paste is made offine white flour, rice or potatoes? That glue ismade from flesh, gristle and bones? Don't youknow how sticky these substances are? Don't youknow that skimmed milk, buttermilk and creamare the best ingredients used to furnish sticky basefor colors for painting? That the white of eggs willstick paper or cloths so perfectly that it resists dis-solution in water? Every housewife and cook knowshow oils and fats stick to the sides of a pan. Atleast 90 per cent of the "diet of civilization" con-tains these sticky foods and man stuffs himselfdaily with awful mixtures of them. Thus the diges-tive tract is not only clogged up through constipa-tion, but literally glued together with sticky mucusand feces.

Herewith the "mystery" of chronic constipation isunveiled and the story told of the fundamental



APPENDIX 161

causative factor of all diseases. Disease is but in-ternal uncleanliness - this simply states a true butwoeful fact. Fruits, green leaf and starchiess vege.tables do not contain these pasty, gluey mucussubstances and are natural foods - yet little credithas been given them by doctors or laymen. I willlift the veil and show why they fail to understand.Fruit acids and mineral rich vegetables saps - dis-solves the pasty mucus encumbrance and fruitsugar causes and develops their fermentation andforms gases. This so greatly feared fermentationof the inside filth is another necessary stirring up"process" to prepare them for elimination. Acidand fermented starch and glue lose their stickyability as soon as they ferment. If an average meateater or a child fed mostly on starchy foods acci-dentally eats too freely of good, sweet fruits, a"revolution" in the alimentary canal, with diarrheausually sets in (extreme cases are called dysenterycholera), and fever is caused through the increasedfermentation.

In severe cases, if a doctor stops the diarrhea andfeeds, as is usually the procedure, the patient dies,because nature was kept from accomplishing thecleansing process, and the partly dissolved poisonsremain in the system, causing death.

The patient literally suffocates in his own mire offilth, accumulated during his life from wrong foodmaterial and over-eating. If he does not die, hiscase ordinarily becomes chronic, which means: Na-ture is continually trying to expel poisonous



162 RATIONAL FASTINLz

mucus and gases, in spite of all obstructions andcounteracting remedies. The constipation merelyaggravates the process. Instead of eating less andthen only loosening foods, the chronic patient stuffshimself more and more with wrong foods, becomesfatter every day and even takes pleasure in his in-creased weight. In fact, this over-weight, calledhealth by the misguided ones, is mostly accumu-lated feces - water - and various kinds of filth.In most cases of tuberculosis, these conditions aretypical. Five to six meals a day and one bowelmovement or even less no wonder he takes onweight, looks "full of vigor" - but can never becured.

Nourishing and Curing Laxatives

No advanced physician will deny the relation be-tween any disease and constipation. But today peo-ple are far away from Nature and the truth, andthey are kept more and more in darkness - whentaken sick they do just the opposite of what theyshould do. The slightest indisposition, a little head-ache or cold, which is the result of insufficient bowelmovement, is treated with more, and so-called bet-ter eating - in spite of a decreased appetite. Thisis the main reason why Influenza, the "Flu," be-came a fatal disease. Formerly "Flu" was as easyto cure as the harmless "Grippe" - a self-cleans-ing process of the body, mostly prevalent in spring-time. Knowing nothing of "scientific medicine,"germs, etc., the patient instinctively followed hislack of appetite, took a mild laxative and very



APPENDIX 163

rapidly recovered; usually he felt much better afterthan before the "healing" disease. Today, he isfalsely taught that a germ is responsible - and nothis dangerous unhygienic habits. He eats too much,which is against the law of Nature, instead of fast-ing, the way every ailing animal cures itself. Butthe amount of internal impurities and auto-toxinsof man exceed those of any diseased animal. A longfast, therefore, would kill the majority of sick men;however, they would not die by starvation, butwould become suffocated from their own poisonousfilth. As an authority in fasting I know full wellthe reason why a fast is so feared by most people,and that it has been misapplied by laymen. It is acrime to advise a constipated patient to fast untilhis tongue is clean, before removing the "depositsof poisons" from his intestines. I could only suc-ceed in curing very old, severe cases of chronic con-stipation by relatively long fasts. Man, in regardto health, is more degenerated than any kind ofanimal. He lost his reason, so to say, about mattersof which he thinks the animal has none at all. Yet!his intelligence places him far above the animal andenables him to assist Nature to overcome obstruc-tions and difficulties that could become dangerous.That is the philosophical sense of the Art of Natur-al Healing.

Therefore, if you want to cure chronic constipa-tion perfectly and without any harm, you mustchange your diet, and instead of using foods whichproduce disease and constipation, eat really nour-ishing foods which loosen up, dissolve and cure. But




people are ignorant regarding this truth just asthey are about fasting, and they try to do thingswithout previous experience or knowledge, and fail-ure is usually the result. What I call "MucuslessDiet" consists of fresh, ripe fruits and starchiessvegetables, for they are the ideal foods, and thefundamental remedies for all diseases. Of course,the application must be intelligently advised bypersonal knowledge which can be received throughthe study of my book, the "Mucusless Diet HealingSystem."

It is an "eating-your-way-to-health" treatment,and consequently the most reasonable method ofcuring, because wrong eating is the causative fac-tor in all diseases.

These mucusless, nourishing and "laxative," that isdissolving, foods form new blood; the best bloodthat has ever run through your veins - and at oncestart the so-called constitutional cure of the body.The circulation of the new blood, permeating everypart of the system, dissolves and eliminates themorbid mucus, which is clogging up the entire hu-man organism; it especially loosens the deep-seatedimpurities in the intestines and renovates the wholesystem. This, then is the great enlightening fact -why constipation not only can be perfectly cured,but why the "Mucusless Diet" cures when all othertreatments have failed.

In severe cases of chronic constipation it is advis-able, in the beginning, to use as a help, a harmless



APPENDIX 165

laxative, to remove the solid obstructions of fecesin the intestines; in other words, to eject the worstfilth out of a clogged-up pipe system. Enemas con-sisting of clear, warm water are also a good helpin the beginning.

Among numerous laxatives on the market those ofvegetable origin are the least harmful. After manyyears of experience, I have prepared a "special mix-ture" of this kind. It has the advantage of remov-ing the old, solid feces, obstructions and mucus,from the intestines, without causing the usual diar-rhea and constipation as an after effect. It is to beused in the beginning only as an aid, and will nothave to be used continually.

As soon as the intestines are cleansed from the re-tained masses of feces and other obstructions andthe mucusless or mucus lean diet is taken up, youwill realize the truth of the previously stated facts.You will then perceive with both your eyes andwith your nose that I have not exaggerated. Andyou will become convinced that the state of ob-struction was not only localized in your intestines,but that all passages of your entire system were ob-structed and constipated with mucus, from yourhead to your toes.

You will then experience the formerly unbelievablefact - that any kind of disease - even those con-sidered incurable by all doctors - under my treat-ment soon begin to improve and are finally cured,if a cure is at all possible, simply because the sourceof poisoning of the system - the chronic constipa-




tion - is eliminated. Then the new blood, derivedfrom natural food, circulates "unpoisoned" throughthe entire system and dissolves and eliminatesevery local symptom, even in the most deep-seatedcases; and it removes the impurities of the en-tire system, which were mainly supplied fromthe deposits of poisons and morbid mucus inthe intestines, which condition is called ChronicConstipation.

Conclusion

"Life is a tragedy of nutrition" is a statement Imade many years ago. Everyone knows we dig ourgraves with our teeth, but the saddest of all is thepresent-day superstition of 99 percent of the peo-ple - the most highly educated and the ignor-ant - the healthy as well as sick - the rich andthe poor - that we must eat more concentratedfood when weak or sick. Concentrated food, highprotein and starchy foods are the most constipat-ing which, as shown in this booklet, accumulate inthe form of waste in the alimentary canal. The so-called "good stool" daily is in reality constipationand you may now see that constipation is the mainsource of every disease and that the average per-son suffering from constipation can only be healedperfectly by a diet, free from STICKYGLUEY-PASTY properties and that is a MUCUSLESSDIET.

You may improve your elimination temporarilythrough laxative remedies - special physical ex-



APPENDIX 167

ercises - vibration, massages and various othermethods, but you cannot clean out the old obstruc-tions from the alimentary canal and regenerateand cleanse the whole system as long as you eatthe same mucus and toxic-forming foods which havecaused and continue causing your constipation andall other ailments of the human body.



The Exact Diagnosis of Your Diseaseand "The Magic Mirror"

The "mirror" on your tongue's surface revealsthe amount of encumbrance that has beenclogging up your system since childhood,through wrong, mucus-forming foods - statesProfessor Arnold Ehret in this article that sup-ports his theory with simple logic.

Since man degenerated through civilization, he nolonger knows what to do when he becomes sick.Disease remains the same mystery to modern medi-cal science as it was to the "Medicine Man" ofthousands of years ago - the main difference be-ing that the "germ" theory has replaced the "De-mon"; and that mysterious, outside power still re-mains - to harm you and destroy your life.

Disease is a mystery to you as well as to every doc-tor who has not as yet had a look into the "magicmirror" which I am about to explain. Naturopathydeserves full credit for having proven that diseaseis within you - a foreign matter which has weight- and which must be eliminated.



APPENDIX 169

If you want to become your own physician, or, ifyou are a Drugless Healer and want more success,you must learn the truth and know what disease is.You cannot heal yourself, or other people, withoutan exact diagnosis which will give you a clear ideaof true conditions. This infallible truth can belearned only from the book of Nature - that is:Through a test on your own body - or the "magicmirror," as I have designated it.

The sufferer from any kind of disease - or anyperson, whether sick, or not - who will go throughthis healing process of fasting and mucusless diet,will eliminate mucus - thereby demonstrating thatthe basic cause of all latent diseases of man is aclogged-up tissue system of un-eliminated, un-usedand un-digested food substances.

Through the "magic mirror" a true and unfailingdiagnosis of your disease is furnished, as neverbefore.

"The Magic Mirror"

Proof that your personal, individual symptom,sore, or sensation, according to what your diseaseis named, is nothing more than an extraordinarylocal accumulation of waste.

The coated tongue is evidence of a constitu-tional encumbrance throughout the entire system,which obstructs and congests the circulation bydissolved mucus, and this mucus even appears inthe urine.




3. The presence of unevacuated feces, retainedthrough sticky mucus in the pockets of the intes-tines, constantly poisoning, and thereby interfer-ing with proper digestion and blood-building.

You will become convinced of this fact - of thisdiagnosis of your disease - by another surprise instore for you; if you will clean your intestines bothbefore and after the test, with a harmless herb-vegetable compound.

To look inside your body - clearer and far bet-ter than can be done by doctors with their expen-sive X-ray apparatus - and learn the cause of yourdisease, or even discover some hitherto unknownphysical imperfection or mental condition, try this:

Fast one or two days, or eat only fruits for two orthree days, and you will notice that your tonguewill become heavily coated. When this happens tothe acutely sick, the doctor's conclusion is - "indi-gestion." The tongue is the mirror not only of thestomach, but of the entire membrane system, aswell. The fact that this heavy coating returns, evenif removed once or twice a day, is an indication ofthe amount of filth, mucus and other poisons accu-mulated in the tissues of your entire system, nowbeing eliminated on the inside surface of the stom-ach, intestines and every cavity of your body.

As soon as you have fasted, decrease the quantityof your food - or eat natural, thereby cleansing,mucusless foods (fruits and starchiess vegetables)



APPENDIX 171

affording the body an opportunity to loosen andeliminate mucus, which is, in fact, the healingprocess.

This "mirror" on the tongue's surface reveals to theobserver the amount of encumbrance that has beenclogging up the system since childhood - throughwrong mucus-forming foods. After observing theurine during this test, you will note the eliminationof quantities of mucus in same.The actual amount of filth and waste, whichis the "mysterious" cause of your "trouble," isunbelievable.

Disease - every disease - is, first: A special, lo-cal constipation of the circulation; tissues; pipesystem. The manifestation of symptoms, or, of thedifferent symptoms. If painful and inflamed, itis from over-pressure - heat from friction andcongestion.

Second: Disease - every disease is constitution-al constipation. The entire human pipe system, es-pecially the microscopically small capillaries are"chronically" constipated, from the wrong food ofcivilization.

White blood corpuscles are waste - and there isno man in Western civilization who has mucus-free blood and mucus-free blood vessels. It is likethe soot in a stove-pipe which has never beencleaned; in fact, worse - because the waste fromprotein and starchy foods is STICKY.



172 RATiONAL FASTING

The characteristics of tissue construction, especial-ly of the important internal organs, such as thelungs, kidneys, all glands, etc., are very much sim-ilar to those of a sponge. Imagine a sponge soakedin paste or glue!

Naturopathy must, more and more, cleanse itsscience from medical superstitions wrongly called"scientific diagnosis." Nature, alone, is the teacherof a standard science of truth. She heals by onething - fasting every disease that it is possibleto heal. This, alone, is proof that Nature recog-nizes but one disease, and that in every body thelargest factor is always, waste, foreign matter andmucus (besides uric acid and other toxemias, and,very often, pus - if tissues are decomposed).

In order to realize how terribly clogged up the hu-man body is, one must have seen thousands offasters - as I have. The almost inconceivable factis: How can such quantities of waste be stored upin the body? Have you ever stopped to realize themasses of phlegm you expel during a cold? Just astakes place in your head - your bronchial tubes,lungs, stomach, kidneys, bladder, etc., have thesame appearance. All are in the same condition.And the spongy organ known as the tongue showson its surface how every other part of your bodyappears.

Medicine has devised a "special science" of labora-tory tests, urinal diagnosis and blood tests.More than fifty years ago, the most prominent pio-



APPENDIX 173

neers of Naturopathy said: "Every disease is for-eign matter - waste." I said, twenty years ago,and repeat it again and again, that most of theseforeign matters is waste from wrong foods, decom-posed - to be seen when it leaves the body asmucus. Meat decomposes into pus.

The light of truth dawned upon me after I hadfasted, against the will of the Naturopath fromwhom I was taking treatments for Bright's disease.When the test-tube filled up with albumen, I readhis thoughts in his facial expression. But it provedto me that whatever Nature expels - eliminates --is waste; whether it be albumen, sugar, mineralsalts or uric acid. This occurred more than twenty-four years ago, but this Nature-doctor (a formerM.D.) still believes in the replacement of albumenby high protein foods.

The medical diagnosis of Bright's Disease, whenthe chemical test of urine shows a high percentageof albumen, is as misleading as others. The elimina-tion of albumen proves that the body does notneed it, and is over-fed - over-loaded with highprotein stuff. Instead of decreasing these poison-producing foods, they are increased - to replace

... the "loss" - until the patient dies. How tragic toreplace waste, while Nature is endeavoring to saveyou, by removing it!

The next important laboratory test is that of sugarin the urine - Diabetes. The medical dictionarycalls it "yet mysterious." Instead of eating natural



174 RATIONAL FASTJNG

sweets, which go into the blood, and which can beused - the diabetic patient is fed eggs, meat, ba-con, etc., and, in fact, actually starves to deaththrough lack of natural sugar-containing and sugar-producing foods, which have been withheld.

It has long since been proven that all of theseblood tests, especially the Wassermann test, are afallacy.

We, as Naturopaths, cannot ignore Nature's teach-ing, in any way; even though we may find it diffi-cult to discard old errors hammered into us sincechildhood.

One of the most misleading errors is the individualnaming of all diseases. The name of any disease isnot important, and not of any value, whatsoever,when starting a natural cure - especially throughfastings and diet. If every disease is caused throughforeign matters and it is - then it is importantand necessary, only, to know how great and howmuch the amount of the patient's encumbrance ac-tually is - how far and how much his system isclogged up by foreign matters, and how much hisvitality has become lowered (See Lesson 5 of my"Mucusless Diet Healing System") and, in case oftuberculosis or cancer, if the tissues, themselves,are decomposed. (Pus and germs).

I have had hundreds of cases tell me that everydoctor they called upon gave a different diagnosis,and a different name for their trouble. I always



APPENDIX 175

surprise them by saying, "I know exactly whatyou have - through facial diagnosis - and youwill see it, yourself, in the "magic mirror," in a fewdays. ,'

The Experimental Diagnosis

Just as I have already stated in the beginning ofthis article, you must fast for two or three days.In the case of a fatty type, liquids should be used.The surface of the tongue will clearly indicate theappearance on the inside of the body, and the pa-tient's breath will prove the amount and grade ofdecomposition. It was even possible to tell the kindof food they preferred most!

Should pain be felt at any one place, during the be-ginning of the fast, you may be sure that this is aweak point and the symptom is not sufficientlydeveloped for medical doctors to reveal it, throughexamination.

Waste will show up in the urine with clouds ofmucus, and mucus will be expelled from the nose,throat and lungs. The weaker and more miserablethe patient may feel during this fast, the greateris his encumbrance, and the weaker his vitality.

This experimental diagnosis tells you exactly whatthe trouble is, and how to correct it by startingwith a moderate transition diet - or a more radi-cal one - and whether to continue or discontinuethe fast.



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