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Heard, Gerald - Pain, Sex and Time - Fasting
Identifier
000523
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Pain, Sex and Time – Gerald Heard
The Hebrew cannon witnessed to its effects; Saul 'ate no bread all the day nor all night' before the vision of Samuel given him by the Endor witch.
The fast of 40 days was believed in Arabia to give power over the Djinns who became visible to the faster.
Many yogins fast until the gods are seen face to face.
The medieval proscribed mystics, the Bogomils, fasted until they saw the Trinity before them and an early tradition supported their practice by telling James the Less that to obtain sight of the risen Lord, he had to vow a fast, whilst the almost canonical book The Shepherd of Hermas advises fasting which will be rewarded with 'a vision of the church'