While I don't doubt that a diet based around fruits and vegetables is both healthful for the physical body and in focusing consciousness, I think if people focus on this area too much, they miss the point and get caught up in yet another belief system.

Our consciousness transcends the physical body.  Therefore, while some diets may help or hinder our focus, they will not be the main factor or the only factor in deciding the path of our lives.  If thought creates reality, both in the physical world and the afterlife, then our thoughts are of paramount importance.  What we ingest is important but to a much lower extent.

Perhaps our ancient ancestors had it right in saying grace and blessing food before they ate it.  You see, in giving thanks, and saying a blessing for what you are about to eat, you essentially combine your positive intention with the ingestion of whatever the substance is.  Since your intention is much more important than the physical matter itself, the blessing or grace said before eating can mean a lot to your physical and spiritual health.

Masaru Emoto wrote of some interesting experiments with water exposed to positive or negative "intent" expressed by writing and thoughts directed at the water.  Extending this theory out to blessing our food before consumption only makes sense to me.


Matthew

O wrote on Nov 6^th, 2009 at 3:52am:


  Wanted to say a few things re: Monroe as he is a good case study to look at. 

I find it highly interesting that when Monroe was working with the explorer Rosiland A. McKnight and her guidance in his lab way back when and for a number of years, the usually patient, loving, and gentle guidance team of Rosies at one point got quite stern with both Bob and Rosie about their lack of discipline and concern regarding their diets and general lifestyles in the health sense. 

  So much so, that at one point "Ah So" and her guidance team put their nonphysical feet down and said basically something like this *if you two don't get your act together with this stuff we're trying to get across to you, then we're not going to work with you in this manner anymore.  Tough luck, grow up.* 

My own experience is also that Guidance can be more stern and/or authoritative at times with important issues.   It's like grownups looking at an older kid in their antics, but one who should know better, and being like, "hey, stop messing around, you know better." 

  Because Bob and Rosie were more mature consciousnesses, they could handle more direct criticism. 

    I've looked at Monroe's astrological chart, read all his books, his two biographies, and some other books which mention him, and while this doesn't make me an expert by any means on him or his life, i can't help but get the sense that sometimes he was a rather stubborn and willful personality at times.  You should see the amount of Fixed energy he had in his chart, guy could be a mule sometimes. 

  What happens to overly stubborn/fixed people when they continue to refuse to listen to wisdom from both within and without? 

  They tend to get banged in the head with 2X4's by "life" if they are more spiritually mature, as Bob grew to be in his life.  As O noted from Bob's own writings, this very much is what happened to him. 

  His "body", or rather we should say the combo of his body and his Disk, couldn't get through to him in any other way, except to almost force him to clean up his act.  He hadn't really listened to Ah so and Rosie's guidance earlier.   

Hence the extreme reactions to everyday common pollutants like caffeine, alcohol, etc.

  What i find even more interesting is that the above thing with Bob is similar in some ways with what went on with Edgar Cayce.  He was also told by guidance on a number of occasions that it would be helpful if he lived much more healthily as to diet and exercise.  A couple time he was gently chastised and criticized for treating his Temple so poorly.  (Notice i used the word "Temple" and capitalized it.  There is a reason, the body is a Temple and should be treated with the appropriate respect and appreciation.)

  He was also stubborn and rarely listened or consistently followed this advice. 

  But here's the confusing thing.  People look at people like Bob Monroe or Edgar Cayce and they think, 'wait, if it's important to have a healthy lifestyle, and if it helps nonphysical perception and attunement, etc, then why did it not seemingly hinder these guys who ate so poorly, didn't exercise enough, etc.'

  Relativity my dear Watson.  These guys came in with some unusual developement psychically, and both probably had a lot of innate vitality and endurance to begin with, which gave them a certain amount of "wiggle room" or cushion in this area. 

   Also, having OBE's, and various other psychic experiences does not necessarily mean one is very spiritually intune.  There are some rather psychic people out there who are very immature spiritually.  I'm not saying this is the case with Bob and Edgar, but i've noticed a lot of people put these guys on some pretty high pedestals at times and sometimes confuse the psychic stuff with spiritual developement and balance. 

These guys were no Yeshuas or He/She's, not by a long shot.  Both of them, tended to experience a lot of deep depression at times in their lives.  Depression incidentally often comes from a combo of one's body being too out of whack physically and often not living up to ones spiritual ideals enough and being too selfish and/or materially attuned.

  These are not personal criticisms, nor am i fault finding.  I'm just trying to put things into holistic perspective.

  See, this is my question.  What if both of these guys really ate healthily, exercised, and did all the helpful physical stuff that helps clear and balance ones mind and emotions. 

  Just think how happy, powerful, clear, balanced, and accurately psychic these guys would have been if they had cared a lot more about this facet which they ignored. 

  All i can think is WOW  what a sight it would have been.  What level of helpers they could have been.  Think how long they could have lived and served.  It would have indirectly helped them get closer to that "He/She" level and expression.

P.S., though in his latter years Monroe did give up a lot of the more harmful food/chemical toxins because he had to or suffer the more immediate and extreme consequences, it's reported in both his biographies that he had a real sweet tooth till the day he died (was a sugar addict), and would have to sneak candys and chocolates so that his wife wouldn't see him, otherwise she would have expressed her unhappiness with it. 

  Also, btw, it's important to note that for example, Cayce when he was 3 or so years old, fell forehead first onto a board with a large nail sticking out of it, and the nail deeply pierced his forehead.  This may have greatly accentuated his psychic sensitivity by impacting or affecting his Pineal gland.  Hence, of course diet etc. is not going to have as much an effect for someone who had an experience or "adjustment" like this as the average, typical person who hasn't had same. 

   Relativity again. 

  Well said Crossbow, and i agree with so much of what you wrote, especially how that yes it is a relative and individual process in some ways. 

  But i would like address something you said that i don't quite agree with; Crossbow wrote re: diet and health lifestyle "..but only assisted in a passive sense, in that I don't think a good diet actively helps, but a bad one can be detrimental."

Certainly the latter part is very true, but from at least my own experience the former isn't quite so.  I will try to put it into a couple of different but related perspectives. 

  Have you ever noticed that when you eat really healthy and exercise properly consistently for awhile, and at the same time you're basically a loving and positive kind of person who tries to treat others well, that you feel really, really good and alive?   Yet, in times past or future, you've still been that basically good, kind, positive person but your diet and health lifestyle left something to be desired to say the least, and you were prone more to depressive states, feeling kind of off kilter in different ways, felt low energy, etc? 

    I've experienced both extremes of the spectrum and the inbetween.  And what i noticed is basically this.  When your body, your Temple is strong, vital, healthy, and balanced, it helps you to feel better mentally and emotionally in so many ways.  You feel more clear, balanced, and attuned.

You just feel good and so much more alive!  I've noticed the opposite when one treats ones Temple like a pig sty (which i've done as well).  It becomes harder to maintain those positive and balanced states of mind and emotions.  It leads more easily to poorer freewill choices and choosing. 

  Here is a particularly extreme example of the necessary balance and beneficence that can be seen when there is that coordinating and balance between the body, mind and spirit and when all are focused on simultaneously in a strengthening way. 

  In July, 2007 I attended with my Twin Soul and newly wed Wife, the Gateway Voyage program at The Monroe Institute in Faber (it was our "honeymoon"). 

   It was 6 days of a lot of meditating, a lot of prayer, a lot of enjoying and attuning to beautiful nature, a lot of group work, and a lot of positive, loving thoughts and feeling states. 

  Combined with that, is that i went out of my way to eat as healthily as i could with the choices i was given.  I ate a very cleansing diet throughout that time, which was mostly vegan and included as much live, raw food as i could get plus combing various other health principles i've discussed on this thread like mostly avoiding certain food combinations, avoiding processed and refined foods, avoiding sugars, etc.

  Towards the end of my stay there, i cannot begin to tell you how naturally high and lite i felt.  I felt incredibly alive, aware, and intune as compared to my "normal" state. 

Granted, the higher vibrations built up at the place also helped, but it was primarily an inner thing (loving and positive thoughts, feelings, with a lot of meditation, prayer, etc) and the outer process of deliberately eating in a very life promoting way. 

  Creative Life force begets and attracts Creative Life force. 

  As one person here said, the proof is the in the pudding, and in the experience. 

Maybe others might not have this experience like i had, but something tells me that it certainly would help most people to feel better in a holistic way, which would lead to using their creative will to choose in a more consistently positive manner.  In using their freewill to choose in a creative, constructive manner comes teh real spiritual developement.

  My point is, why hinder and put blocks in the way of that process?   

Why not facilitate with all that can help you?

Quote:


  Sure, that happens sometimes but it's the quality of life in the moment that matters whether or not one will transition two days or a hundred years from now. 
Quote:


Sliced apples, oranges, and fruits notwithstanding, pretty cool.  Seems he is building up his spiritual maturity.  Imagine all the positive things he could do and all the people he could effect if he had kept his Temple healthy and young?

  You responded after i wrote about Cayce falling forehead first into a large nail which deeply pierced same and how that probably contributed to his unusual, ultra psychic abilities:
Quote:


   Actually, it was both which contributed, both the nail and the sum of many lives of psychic experiences.  His guidance outlined a number of his influencing lives, and about 75 % of them had been involved strongly with meditation-prayer, holistic service to others, and attuning to PUUL. 

  But, Cayce would not have been as ultra psychic and open if he hadn't had the head trauma.  More than a few, unusually psychically sensitive people have mentioned having had severe head traumas.

  Interestingly and sychronisticially, i talked to my brother last night for the first time in awhile, and he mentioned that he and his wife went to go see a medium recently. 

  The medium was apparently the real deal, and she explained some of her background and said that she had been in an accident, had some severe head trauma, some surgery, and afterward it really accentuated some of her psychic perception (she was primarily clairaudient). 

Goes to show,  how much the physical can sometimes be involved with the process of nonphysical perception.   

Quote:


  I find it interesting that on one hand you often downplay the importance of paying attention to the physical..but then turn around and share such physically attached sentiments.  Quite contradictory

  Precisely because i'm more detached to the physical in many ways is why i can have the amount of discipline i have to eat from a mental space rather than the much more common and typical emotional, and physical addiction space. 

  In any case, my experience has been that when i have really cleaned out and balanced my system, and consistently eat healthily and exercise enough, etc. that my body begins to crave those "non comfort" foods, and "comfort foods" lose their appeal. 

  If anything, veggies, fruits, brown rice, kefir, etc. have become my comfort foods that help to uplift my emotional state as well as feel better physically.

  So, no misery here for lack of comfort foods.  But, i believe in moderation even for moderation.   I occasionally indulge a sweet tooth or what not now and then, or eat foods that i know aren't the best for me. 

    Or, on the other hand even though i've been vegetarian for about 10 years now, i will occasionally eat fish--particularly if someone else offers it to me  in their home or i'm at a Restaurant with friends who are eating meat.

  Last summer, i even ate chicken despite that i really don't have any draw to do so.  The reason why, is that i was camping with a long time friend of mine who had somehow forgotten ( really Jeff, you've known me for all those 10 years) that i was vegetarian, but went out and bought natural or organic chicken partly because he thought i would appreciate it (not something he would normally buy). 

   I was moved by his thoughtfulness in this area, and so i thanked the Chicken's Consciousness and then ate the chicken's flesh with my friend in appreciation and gratitude, even though Becky looked aghast at me and i could hear the loud mental, "why the hell are you eating that stuff!??"  (i hadn't had chicken in many years by that point).

  It's the Spirit of the Law that matters more than the letter of same. 

  Sometimes it is easy to get too hung up on the letter of the law and become overly dogmatic and rigid in nature.  I'm well aware of this.

 

  As much as i enjoy our bantering Volu, i have to say Au revoir on this thread, as i think i've really over killed this thread, and there's just not much more to say on the topic. 

  May the Farce be with you.  Actually, i know the Farce is strong in you already. 

. A healthy diet will not correct his perverted spirituality, and an unhealthy diet will not tarnish a good man's soul or spirit. But a spiritual outlook will result in right and respectful diet to the degree circumstance allows. That's my three cents worth anyway. [/quote]

I so agree with those sentences - from my pov, it is impossible to think of eating the flesh of any creature & I have never done so, so I can't compare it to anything else.

But, for what it's worth, twice a day I eat unpolished brown rice (not overcooked!) laced with linseeds, plus a dash of soya sauce & a sprinkle of fermented black beans & often a tablespoon or two of giant redskin peanuts (unsalted).  I often add a few strips of dried seaweed, & an infrequent vegetable curry dish.  Otherwise, at least 500grams of black grapes a day plus a cup or two of black coffee or green tea.  And that's all.  IfI deviate from this (eg have a slab of chocolate!) I have a hemiplegic migraine attack, so my body has made its needs well known to me, which I take as "on advisement" of the HS .

Crossbow said:  Except when people are extreme and try to heighten their own false sense of moral superiority by trying to guilt others about their diet, like some vegetarian types do - I don't agree with that.

Recoverer responds: It is good that you said "some" vegetarian types. Just like with other issues, there are some vegetarians that try to develop a false sense of superiority by being a vegetarion.

However, this doesn't mean that all vegetarians do the same.  Some realize that about 65 billion animals are raised in cruel conditions each year so people can eat them. Because such vegetarians love all souls, they also love the souls of the animals that are tortured. They don't do so because they seek a false way to feel morally superior. They do so out of love.

It seems to me that some meat eaters become defensive and clingy about their meat eating ways,  and as a result accuse vegetarians to be nothing more than moral fakes.

I've met Justin in person and have spoken to him on the phone, and it is clear to me that he isn't a vegetarian because he's a moral fake. Rather, he has opened his heart to an extent where he loves all beings including animals. Just as he wouldn't torture a person so he could use them for his own purpose, he won't torture animals just so he can eat them.

I figure that when this world evolves to a higher level of being, people won't heartlessly torture billions of animals every year simply because they are tasty. If we want to get to the point where we can live according to love as completely as possible, we can't make exceptions as to when we live according to love and when we don't. 

I figure there are some things you consider immoral. Would it be possible for you to speak up about such things, without it being a matter of your developing a false sense of moral superiority?  Are animals so lowly that their welfare can't be accounted for?