Overload
Fasting
Category: Actions
Type
Voluntary
Introduction and description

There are good and logical reasons why fasting - avoiding food and all drinks except water for a day or two days before attempting to obtain spiritual experience via contemplation and detachment, for example - is a sound idea. Beyond this period it can be classified as Nutritional deprivation.
The reason why fasting directly before seeking a specific experience can be useful, is that food and drink can form a bridge.
A bridge acts as a bridge between our composer and the composer of the substance ingested. Thus milk, for example, can act as a bridge, to the functional realm of dairy products! You will thus be transported and communicate with the spirit beings of these substances, which may be what you want, but it may be you actually want to go, figuratively speaking, 'up' and away from the spirit beings of material things. Away from the terrestrial hierarchy and towards the celestial hierarchy.
As such there is some logic in temporarily fasting and clearing our system if we wish to move away from the terrestrial.
![]() |
![]() |
Background
All religions consider fasting a fundamental part of religious practice. I think the link between spiritual experience and lack of food and drink has been lost, but it is clear that at one time this link was known.
These days the fasting is often very moderate and would achieve absolutely nothing – which of course rather begs the question why is it still used?
In the Bahá'í Faith, fasting is observed from sunrise to sunset during the Bahá'í month of `Ala' Followers abstain from both food and drink. But the purpose is not to obtain spiritual experience
The Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith, Shoghi Effendi
Fasting is symbolic, and a reminder of abstinence from selfish and carnal desires.
The Lenten fast observed in the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church is a forty day partial fast.

Fasting is not a particularly prevalent Jewish technique in this day and age. Most Jewish people celebrate their festivals and special days by eating not fasting, but the recognition of the fast as a form of technique has not been entirely lost. There are 5 public fast days in Judaism. There are also fasts which are limited to specific groups or individuals. The day before 'Pesah' is a fast for the first born and the bride and groom fast before their wedding ceremony. Only one fast is specifically commanded in the Torah, however, and that is for Yom Kippur during which Jews express sorrow for wrongdoing. Jewish leaders have added 4 fast days all of which commemorate sad events in Jewish history.
Very few of the fast days and times of fasting are long enough to lead to a spiritual experience, although they may make the person light headed enough that some effect might be achieved.
The Tisha B'Av fast which mourns the loss of the first Temple in 586BC by the Babylonians [along with a number of other events] is, like the Yom Kippur fast, a 25 hour one. But the event is marked by religous ceremonies in the synagogue which are intensely atmospheric with low lights, and readings in Hebrew from the book of Lamentations. Furthermore, for some Jews this and other fasting days are preceded by days in which no meat or wine is taken, so adding to the effects. This combination may thus be more effective than the single fasting day.

In Islam, fasting for a month is an obligatory practice during the holy month of Ramadan, from fajr (dawn), until maghrib (sunset).
Muslims are prohibited from eating, drinking, smoking, and engaging in sexual intercourse while fasting.
All of which quite probably leads to extremely bad tempers, but is of no earthly use spiritually.
Fasting in the month of Ramadan is one of the Pillars of Islam, and thus one of the most important acts of Islamic worship. By fasting, whether during Ramadan or other times, a Muslim “draws closer to their Lord”. Except that it is unlikely to have any effect, given the time involved.
There are many types of fasting in Jainism. One is called Chauvihar Upwas, in which no food or water may be consumed until sunrise the next day. Another is called Tivihar Upwas, in which no food may be consumed, but boiled water is allowed. If one fasts for the eight days of Paryushana, it is called Atthai, and when it is for One Month, it is known as Maskhamana.

Self-starvation by fasting is known as Sallekhana and is “supposed to help shed karma”[sic] according to Jain philosophy. Another form of fasting is Santhara, the Jain religious ritual of voluntary death by fasting - suicide.
It is worth stating that although a recognised practise in many religions, there are quite a few more rational and spiritually aware people within those religions, not to mention quite a few philosophers, who consider it a dangerous practise totally at odds with the religion itself and its moral codes.
If the religion’s moral code says DON’T HURT, then starvation disobeys this rule, as you are hurting yourself and those who love you. It can lead to death – so suicide - a sort of addiction for the experience of the high – drug addiction in other words, as starvation eventually releases endorphins.
The Bhagavad Gita [translated by W J Johnson]
You should know that men who undertake extreme ascetic practises…. in thrall to exhibitionism and egotism, driven by the forces of passion and desire, mindlessly emaciating the aggregate of elements that make up the body …. are set on the demonic
Jean-Pierre Camus
Our dear saint – Francois de Sales – disapproved of immoderate fasting. He used to say that the spirit could not endure the body when overfed, but that if underfed, the body could not endure the spirit

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche – On the Genealogy of Morals
The result expressed in terms of psychology and morality, is the loss of the self, ‘sanctification’, in physiological terms, hypnosis – the attempt to achieve for mankind something approximating hibernation for some kinds of animals, ‘estivation’ for many plants in a hot climate – the minimum metabolic rate which maintains life below the level of real consciousness. A surprising amount of human energy has been expended to this end – has it all been in vain?
There can be no doubt that such “sportsmen of sanctity” who flourish at all times and among all peoples, have in fact found a real release from what they used such rigorous training to combat – in countless cases, their system of hypnosis really helped them to escape from deep physiological depressions; which explains why their methods number among the universal facts of ethnology.
There is likewise no justification for counting such an intention to starve the body and its desires as in itself a symptom of madness – as it pleases an awkward kind of beef eating ‘free spirit’ and Sir Andrew to. But it certainly points the way to all sorts of mental disturbances, to inner lights, for example as in the case of the Hesychasts of Mount Athos to aural and visual hallucinations, to lascivious outpourings and ecstasies of sensuality – the story of St Theresa.
Method

Temporarily fasting for a few days clears the system of food and thus provides no 'bridges'.
Drink water, there is no point in getting an experience via dehydration.
How it works
At this level of fasting, a few days, the result is not being achieved via Nutritional deprivation.
What it is doing, in theory, is removing sensory stimulation, in effect it is theoretically limiting the messages being received from the Nervous system. The way it works is thus by suppressing Nervous sensations and the messages from the Autonomic system, so a twofold effect. If you practise this in moderation and combine it with, for example, Contemplation and detachment activities, you are actually using a suppression technique, not an overload technique.
But, it is an extreme form of Dietary modification. And because it is extreme, you run the risk of failing, in the sense it may only add to the nervous sensations, not reduce them. There is an added complication. Fasting is a form of repression.
If you are in an environment where you cannot avoid seeing food - pictures of food, the sight of food being cooked, the smell of other people's meals, you are overloading your emotions. Your 5 senses will be giving you messages whenever they see food – 'that looks nice', 'that looks really yummy, why aren't we- your cells - getting some?'
It may be helpful to refer to the generic description of How spiritual experience works to understand what this is doing to you.
If we practise dietary moderation, the effect is suppression as shown below. If we turn to fasting every one of those blue boxes can go red and the emotion box will turn red too. It may be extremely effective, but it is overload.
If we look at this from a logical point of view, what we see is that the Will is being assaulted by a Threat. The Threat as our body sees it is Nutritional deprivation.
The Will will be being bombarded by messages saying, 'we are not getting nourishment and you are tormenting us by depriving us of food when food is available DO SOMETHING!'
But the Will of course has decided.
There is little input from the Reasoning function – after all what can it do? The threat is real in some senses, but the Will appears to either not care or have decided an alternative course that reason does not understand. The messages from the Subconscious become stronger and stronger. DO SOMETHING, DO SOMETHING!!! The Will may first tell the Subconscious to cease complaining, but there is an interesting battle going on here between the Conscious mind and the ego and the Subconscious with its overloaded emotion and sensory systems. There may come a point where the Will gives up, exhausted, and lets the Composer take over. The ego has been squashed.
And we get our spiritual experience.
Related observations
Healing observations
- A Gift From God Ibogaine by C 017446
- Communion with the gods 010342
- Fasting and cancer 006667
- Fasting and obesity 006666
- Fasting and toxins 010377
- Healing using ritual 'psychointegration' methods 012351
- No Boundaries Ibogaine by TPTB 017442
- Overwhelmingly Majestic Nature of Life Ecstasy by wombat17s 020279
- Saint Francis of Paola - Louis XI King of France 024237
- Saint Francis of Paola - Raising the Dead 024236
- Saint Francis of Paola - The Gift of Healing 024234
- Saint Francis of Paola - The Gift of Miracles 024235
- Taking the waters 006677
Hallucination
- Abraham Ya’ari – Iggrot Erets Yisrael 014919
- Anorexia 000513
- Blessed Elizabeth von Reute – Given the Host by an angel 024224
- Brunton, Dr Paul - A Search in Secret Egypt - A night inside the Great Pyramid 1 010054
- Brunton, Dr Paul - A Search in Secret Egypt - A night inside the Great Pyramid 3 010057
- Chrysostom John - Murders a princess 000532
- Daniel 10 028037
- Dr William Sargant – The Sex Magick and drug based practises of Aleister Crowley 02 024332
- Fasting 000518
- Goes, Hugo van der - Death of the Virgin 022282
- Hagman, Larry – Takes LSD 025836
- Monsiour Maury – Description of St Francis’s visions and stigmata 026048
- St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi - Fasting and penance 012803
- Stranded Russian climber 'hallucinated' during Pakistan ordeal 027489
- Thelmar, E – 06 Thousands of mad voices yelling in her ears 025937
Wisdom, Inspiration, Divine love & Bliss
- A Gift From God Ibogaine by C 017446
- Communion with the gods 010342
- Fasting and toxins 010377
- Father Bernabe Cobo - Inca Religion and Customs - Titicaca Temple of Sun and Moon 1 011746
- Ficino, Marsilio – Selected Letters - From a letter to Giovanni Cavalcanti, methods 015990
- Heard, Gerald - Pain, Sex and Time - Fasting 000523
- Jainism - The Syādvāda 017077
- Jobs, Steve - And Fasting 000524
- Mayan - Popol Vuh - 13 Hymn to the Creators 011668
- Mayan - Popol Vuh - 15 The Vigils of Plumed Serpent and Noble Sweatbath 011676
- Meher Baba - Humility is one of the foundations of devotional life 000694
- Overwhelmingly Majestic Nature of Life Ecstasy by wombat17s 020279
- Rumi - Rubaiyat - When you fast for a while 000531
- Saint Brendan - 02 The Voyage of Saint Brendan 015504
Out of time
- A Gift From God Ibogaine by C 017446
- Bouissou, Madame Michael - I took Jugoslavia as the goal of my nocturnal perigrinations 023686
- Bouissou, Madame Michael – The method which enabled me to achieve astral projection – an OBE 023684
- Brunton, Dr Paul - A Search in Secret Egypt - A night inside the Great Pyramid 3 010057
- Clark, Fay Marvin – Into the Light - The initiation of the Wangarapa by the Wirinum 023365
- Engel, C - Bull roarers and Australian Aborigines 003344
- Hagman, Larry – Takes LSD 025836
- Jesus - Luke 4 - And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost 000529
- Kipling, Rudyard - Kim - On fasting 000520
- Lucius undergoes initiation 010065
- Major F Yeats-Brown on the 'resurrection of the dead yogi' 016505
- Mary Magdalen de Pazzi – Levitating with three mile boots 024207
- Mircea Eliade - On caves 006583
- No Boundaries Ibogaine by TPTB 017442
- Reichel-Dolmatoff – Amazonian Cosmos - Shamanic transformation 011626
- Reichel-Dolmatoff – Amazonian Cosmos - The shaman, yaje and viho 011625
- Saint Anskar - Visions of Dying in the Ninth and Nineteenth Centuries - His NDE 023594
- Suso, Henri - Goes out of body on the Feast of St. Agnes 000036
- Suso, Henri - Stella maris Maria hodie processit ad ortum 005818
- The Loop Amanita muscaria by CuriousJim 020141
- The Resurrection of Harides the Yoghi 028005
- Thelmar, E – 01 From telepathy to out of body, the voice in the dark 025932
- Ticking clock produces out of body 002215
- Walled up in a living tomb as his hands were eaten by ants 016504
- Watson, Lyall - On the out of body experience 011402
Enlightenment
- Abraham Ya’ari – Iggrot Erets Yisrael 014919
- Kipling, Rudyard - Kim - On fasting 000520
- Mahavira - Jaina Sutras, Part II - Enlightenment 013832
- The Resurrection of Harides the Yoghi 028005
- Yassawi - 03 HIKMET 6 022645
In time
- A Gift From God Ibogaine by C 017446
- Acts 10 010235
- Bouissou, Madame Michael - Seeing things through Mme de Ch-L’s eyes 023685
- Brunton, Dr Paul - A Search in Secret Egypt - A night inside the Great Pyramid 3 010057
- Chrysostom John - Murders a princess 000532
- Cicero Newell - Indian Stories – How the Holy Men were tested by fire 023812
- Daniel 10 028037
- Dr William Sargant – The Sex Magick and drug based practises of Aleister Crowley 02 024332
- Engel, C - Bull roarers and Australian Aborigines 003344
- Ficino, Marsilio – Selected Letters - From a letter to Giovanni Cavalcanti, methods 015990
- Goes, Hugo van der - Death of the Virgin 022282
- Goes, Hugo van der - The Adoration of the Magi 022283
- Hagman, Larry – Takes LSD 025836
- Jesus - Luke 4 - And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost 000529
- Monsiour Maury – Description of St Francis’s visions and stigmata 026048
- Myōe – The Woman of Yuasa 021388
- No Boundaries Ibogaine by TPTB 017442
- Paul Devereux - On Migraine and mushrooms 000148
- Paul Devereux - Shuar [Jivan] Indians of Ecuador 011578
- Peruviana torch cactus experience 007821
- Reichel-Dolmatoff – Amazonian Cosmos - The shaman, yaje and viho 011625
- Saint Francis of Paola - The Gift of Miracles 024235
- Sheridan, Clare –The Initiation of Plenty-Coups, the famous Crow Chief 023704
- St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi - Fasting and penance 012803
- Suso, Henri - Stella maris Maria hodie processit ad ortum 005818
- Suso, Henri - The Upper School and the science of Perfect Self-abandonment 000850
- The Loop Amanita muscaria by CuriousJim 020141
- The Possession of a Nun by Asmodeus 024344
- The Possession of Father Surin 024325
- The Possession of Sister Jeanne des Anges 024324
- The Strange case of Ermine de Reims 020097
- Thelmar, E – 01 From telepathy to out of body, the voice in the dark 025932
- Thelmar, E – 06 Thousands of mad voices yelling in her ears 025937
Prophecy
- Mayan - Popol Vuh - 15 The Vigils of Plumed Serpent and Noble Sweatbath 011676
- Nineveh - Jonah prophecies the destruction of the city 022151
- Saint Francis of Paola - The Gift of Prophecy 024232
- Sheridan, Clare –The Initiation of Plenty-Coups, the famous Crow Chief 023704
Dying
Environmental Influence
- Blessed Elizabeth von Reute – Given the Host by an angel 024224
- Blessed Ladislas of Gielniów - Levitates 027349
- Cheyenne - Native American Indians - Roman Nose's protective medicine 000530
- Cicero Newell - Indian Stories – How the Holy Men were tested by fire 023812
- Cicero Newell - Indian Stories – How the Holy Men were tested with Winchester rifles 023813
- Major F Yeats-Brown on the 'resurrection of the dead yogi' 016505
- Mary Magdalen de Pazzi – Levitating with three mile boots 024207
- Monsiour Maury – Description of St Francis’s visions and stigmata 026048
- Reichel-Dolmatoff – Amazonian Cosmos - Shamanic transformation 011626
- Reichel-Dolmatoff – Amazonian Cosmos - The shaman, yaje and viho 011625
- Saint Francis of Paola - Fire handling 024238
- Saint Francis of Paola - Raising the Dead 024236
- Saint Francis of Paola - The Gift of Miracles 024235
- Saint Francis of Paola - Walking on water 024233
- Saint John Joseph of the Cross - He found himself lifted up in the crowd and without touching the ground he was carried right out of the door of the cathedral 024214
- Starving yogi astounds Indian scientists 005900
- The Resurrection of Harides the Yoghi 028005
- Villoldo, Dr Alberto - On Praying Rain 011205
- Walled up in a living tomb as his hands were eaten by ants 016504
- Yogiraja Vaidyaraja, the burying yogi, and his ability to maintain autonomic equilibrium while enclosed in an airtight box all day 027344
Other observations
- Bruce Chatwin - Australian aboriginal - Walkabout 001167
- Eleusinian Mysteries - Thesmophoria - 01 Introduction 016234
- Nineveh - Jonah prophecies the destruction of the city 022151
- Plank Across Some Psycho-Stimulant-River Amanita muscaria by the uticprez 020124
- Ramsay Smith - Australian Aborigine - Initiation 000526
- Saint Catharine of Genoa – The Heat of the Mystic 024257
- Sefer ha-Shem - Eleazar of Worms 014922
- Venerable Serafina di Dio - She lost great quantities of blood through the nostrils or by the mouth 024259