Kelvin

I'm rejoining the list after a several month absence. Shortly after first joining the list in July 1997 I decided to go all raw. For the next two months or so I did pretty well with my program, though I lost weight rapidly and felt a bit weak at times. Then I experienced a few episodes of blood in my urine. After I passed a small mass of tissue or something I decided I had better see a doctor. He said the thing was a polyp from my bladder and sent it to a lab. A few days later he called me and said the lab said it was stage 2 cancer. He wanted me to see a urologist to have a scope with a camera shoved up my penis (cystoscopy) to see if there was any more of that stuff up there, and if so, to scrape it out. I didn't like the sound of this, and decided not to see the urologist. Instead I bought a Norwalk juicer and intensified my raw food program, reasoning that the polyp was ejected in the first place because of raw foods (and a short fast or two). I decided I should get an AMAS test done, a simple blood test which supposedly tells you if there is cancer anywhere in your body. The results of the test were negative. I felt somewhat reassured, but kept up my raw food program anyway. I kept losing weight, getting down to the low 140s (I'm 6'1") and didn't really feel all that great. I was afraid to eat any cooked food, but I was also afraid of withering away to skin and bones. I was getting hassled by my wife, who was convinced I was killing myself. And Gabriel Cousens told me the AMAS test was not all that accurate, and he urged me to get a cystoscopy to see what I was dealing with. I hesitated, but finally decided the uncertainty was too much. I occasionally had uncomfortable sensations in my groin and had no idea if I was being eaten alive by cancer or what. So I finally went to the urologist six months after the polyp passed, and he said I needed to have the cystoscopy and a series of x-rays called an IVP (intravenous pyelogram). He said he had never in his 25 year practice heard of someone expelling a tumor like I did. He assured me that in the cystoscopy he would not do any scraping, just looking around with the camera. It was very painful and I am convinced I will never have it done again. Afterwards he told me that all he saw was a very tiny polyp, 2x3 mm, which he recommended I have surgically removed (for $20,000). He didn't seem real concerned about it, though, because he said he "sees them all the time." I said, well, does that mean it's normal? No, he said, he just sees them all the time. But then he gave me a piece of paper which said the results of my test were "normal." What this says to me is that practically everybody has these polyps, and if he had his way, he'd operate on everybody to scrape them out if they would let him. Maybe that is what he calls "preventive medicine." The results of the IVP were also normal. But that didn't satisfy the doc. He wanted me to have more tests. At this point I decided I had had enough medical intervention. My conclusion (and the conclusion of a holistic doc I saw) was that raw foods healed my cancer. You'd think that would be all the motivation I need for staying 100% raw, but it isn't. I'm rejoining for support and because I know I have lots more to learn. Glad to be back. A question: Does anyone have experience with natural treatment of Alzheimer's disease? My mother may be dealing with this disease. The conventional docs just say take this drug and it may slow down the inevitable, but they offer no hope of a cure.

Sun, 7 Dec 1997 01:18:21 -0800

The big disadvantage to eating raw food is that it sets you apart, in a way, from society, since practically everybody is conditioned to eat mostly cooked food. Even in my house, where my wife still eats cooked, it makes things a little more difficult at mealtime. Our choice of restaurants is very limited, especially since I now demand practically all organic food. Lately I've been making salads ahead of time and taking them to the restaurant. Seems kind of ridiculous, but no one's thrown me out yet.

Another disadvantage (or not, depending on your point of view), is that you may become thinner than what people are used to seeing, especially if you don't eat any animal food. From what I hear this tends to be more pronounced in the beginning, when the body is detoxing, adjusting to the change, etc. Weight lifting supposedly will help with this. I don't know, I haven't tried that yet, but it makes sense. Personally, I don't care if I am thin, but people will make comments. The other day one of my clients told me he thought I looked "gaunt." A friend of my wife's (who is tending towards obese) told her I was "anorexic." If it starts to get me down, I guess I'll go pump iron. But I'd much rather be doing yoga.

Is it safe to eat raw foods? If you are worried about chemicals in the food (a worry I have also), then don't eat food grown with chemicals. Buy organic or grow your own. Plant a garden, grow sprouts. But let's face it: if you eat cooked food you are still getting those chemicals anyway. Cooking does not get rid of the chemicals. In fact, I have heard that in many cases it alters them and makes them more dangerous. It also destroys lots of nutrients and causes us to compensate by overeating, thereby clogging up our systems, inviting disease, etc.

As far as the spiritual advantage, that is the chief reason I have chosen to eat this way. I was feeling sluggish and tired, didn't have much energy for meditation, and even spiritual thoughts seemed to be diminishing. After nearly five months raw (almost 100% the last two months) that has changed dramatically. You should definitely read Gabriel Cousens' books *Spiritual Nutrition and the Rainbow Diet* and *Conscious Eating.* Both of them, especially the first one, address this subject in detail.

My advice? Jump in, the water's fine. I knew about raw eating for 20 years before I took the plunge, and now wish I'd done it sooner. You can only learn so much by reading books, or by dipping your toe in it from time to time. Give it a real shot and see what happens. You've got nothing to lose. And you've got a big support group right here.

Date: Tue, 9 Sep 1997

Rest is extremely important. But I would like to add that the kind of rest we need is not addressed simply by increasing our hours of sleep. We could sleep 24 hours a day and still not be rested, because few of us know how to truly rest. When we learn how to rest in the midst of activity, then we will learn how to rest when we sleep.

With very few exceptions, human beings are in a constant state of tension, of contraction of body and mind. Fear causes us to tighten our bodies and minds to avoid facing -- what? Perhaps it is the impending death of the body-mind, perhaps it is the realization that our supposed self is but a speck in the vastness of creation. So we tighten, to try to give some substance to our insubstantiality, to try to feel "I" ever more intensely. But this is not the real "I", this is an impostor. Enormous energy is expended to maintain this artificial self.

Fortunately, it is possible to emerge from this sorry state. It begins with simple awareness of what is happening, within and without, in the present moment. When we see What Is (without trying to change anything) it is impossible for the impostor to expend energy in contraction, to prevent the inflow of Life. Indeed, the impostor vanishes, and we see that Life is all there is. In the absence of personal doership, we are bathed in a sea of energy. Live for only an hour (or even a minute!) without the sense of "I" and notice how the world opens up into the Vastness.

This is the complete rest that we all need. The good news is that it is available right now, and that we don't need to DO anything to experience it. We need only BE.

Please don't forget to sign the guestbook when you leave!

Return to All Raw Times Homepage