Rational fasting

by Arnold Ehret

1. The Common Fundamental Cause in the Nature of Diseases

All the phases of the process of development of the medical science, including those of the earliest periods of civilization, have in their way of understanding the causal nature of diseases that one thing in common that the diseases, owing to external causes, enter into the human body and thus, by force of a necessary or at least unavoidable law, disturb it in its existence, cause it pain and at last destroy it. Even modern medical science, no matter how scientifically enlightened it pretends to be, has not quite turned away from this basic note of demoniac interpretation. In fact, the most modern achievement, bacteriology, rejoices over every newly discovered bacillus as a further addition to the army of beings whose accepted task it is to endanger the life of man.

Looking at it from a philosophical standpoint, this interpretation differs from the mediaeval superstition and the period of fetishism only in the supplemental name. Formerly it was an “evil spirit,” which imagination went so far as to believe in “satanic personages;” now this same dangerous monster is a microscopically visible being whose existence has been proven beyond any doubt.

The matter, it is true, has still a great drawback in the so-called “disposition”—a fine word!—but what we really are to understand by it, nobody has ever told us. All the tests on animals, with their symptom-reactions, do not prove anything sure, because these occur only by means of injection into the blood-circulation and never by introduction into the digestive channel through the mouth.

There is something true in the conception of “external invasion” of a disease, as well as in heredity, however not in the sense that the invader is a spirit (demon) hostile to life, or a microscopic being (bacillus); but all diseases without exception, even the hereditary, are caused— disregarding a few other unhygienic causes—by biologically wrong, “unnatural” food and by each ounce of over-nourishment, only and exclusively.

First of all I maintain that in all diseases without exception there exists a tendency by the organism to secrete mucus, and in case of a more advanced stage—pus (decomposed blood). Of course every healthy organism must also contain a certain mucus—lymph, a fatty substance of the bowels, etc., of a mucus nature.) Every expert will admit this in all catarrhalic cases, from a harmless cold in the nose to inflammation of the lungs and consumption, as well as in epilepsy (attacks showing froth at the mouth, mucus). Where this secretion of mucus does not show freely and openly, as in cases of ear, eye, skin or stomach trouble, heart diseases, rheumatism, gout, etc., even in all degrees of insanity, is mucus the main factor of the illness, the natural secretive-organs not being able to cope with it any longer, the mucus entering the blood and causing at the respective spot where the vessel-system is probably contracted owing to an over-cooling (cold), etc., heat, inflammation, pain, fever.

We need only to give a patient of any-kind nothing but “mucusless” food, for instance fruit or even nothing but water or lemonade: we then find that the entire digestive energy, freed for the first time, throws itself upon the mucus-matters, accumulated since childhood and frequently hardened, as well as on the “pathologic beds” formed therefrom. And the result? With unconditional certainty this mucus which I mark as the common basic and main cause of all diseases will appear in the urine and in the excrements. If the disease is already somewhat advanced so that in some spot, even in the innermost interior, there have appeared pathologic beds, i.e. decomposed cellular tissues, then pus is also being secreted. As soon as the introduction of mucus by means of “artificial food,” fat meat, bread, potatoes, farinaceous products, rice milk, etc., ceases, the blood-circulation attacks the mucus and the pus of the body themselves and secretes them through the urine, and in the case of heavily infected bodies, even through all the openings at their command as well as through the mucus membranes.

If potatoes, grain-meal, rice or the respective meat-materials are being boiled long enough, we receive a jelly­like slime (mucus) or paste used by bookbinders and carpenters. This mucus substance soon becomes sour, ferments, and forms a bed for fungi, moulds and bacilli. In the digestion, which is nothing else but a boiling, a combustion, this slime or paste is being secreted in the same manner, for the blood can use only the ex-digested sugar transformed from starch. The secreted matter, the superfluous product, i.e., this paste or slime is a foreign matter to the body and is being completely excreted in the beginning. It is, therefore, easy to understand that in the course of life the intestines and the stomach are gradually being pasted and slimed up to such an extent that this paste of floral and this slime of faunal origin turn into fermentation, clog up the blood-vessels and finally decompose the stagnating blood. If figs, dates or grapes are boiled down thick enough we also receive a pap which, however, does not turn to fermentation and never secretes slime, and which nobody calls slime, but which is called syrup. Fruit-sugar, the most important thing for the blood, is also sticky, it is true, but is being completely used up by the body as the highest form of fuel, and leaves for excretion only traces of cellulose, which, not being sticky, is promptly excreted and does not ferment. Boiled-down sugar, owing to its resistance against fermentation, is even used for the preservation of food.

Each healthy or sick person deposits on the tongue a stinking mucus as soon as he reduces his food or fasts. This occurs also on the mucous membrane of the stomach, of which the tongue is an exact copy. In the first stool after the fasting this mucus makes its appearance.

I recommend to the physicians and searchers to test my claims by way of experiments which alone are entitled to real scientific recognition. The experiment, the question put to nature, is the basis of all natural science and reveals the infallible truth, no matter whether it is stated by me or somebody else. Furthermore, I recommend to those who are brave enough to test on their own bodies the following experiments which I undertook on mine. They will receive the same answer from nature, i. e., from their organism, provided that the latter be sound in my sense. “Exact” to a certain degree reacts only the clean sound, mucusless organism. After a two years' strict fruit-diet with intercalated fasting cures, I had attained a degree of health which is simply not imaginable nowadays and which allowed of my making the following experiments:

With a knife I made an incision in my lower arm; there was no flow of blood as it thickened instantaneously; closing up of the wound, no inflammation, no pain, no mucus and pus: healed up in three days, blood-crust thrown off. Later, with vegetaric, food including mucus-formants (starch food), but without eggs and milk: the wound bled a little, caused some pain and pussed slightly, a light inflammation, complete healing only after some time. After that the same wounding, with meat-food and some alcohol: longer bleeding, the blood of a light color, red and thin, inflammation, pain, pussing for several days, and healing only after a two days' fasting.

I have offered myself, of course in vain, to the Prussian Ministry of War for a repetition of this experiment. Why is it that the wounds of the Japanese healed much quicker and better in the Russo-Japanese war as those of the “Meat and Brandy Russians?” Has nobody for 2,000 years ever thought it over why the opening of the artery and even the poison cup could not kill Seneca, after he had despised meat and fasted in the prison? It is said that even before that Seneca fed on nothing but fruit and water.

All disease is finally nothing else but a clogging up of the smallest blood vessels, the capillaries, by mucus. Nobody will want to clean the water-conduit of a city, a pipe-system, which is fed with soiled water by a pump, the filters of which are clogged up, without having the water-supply shut off during the cleaning process. If the conduit supplies the entire city or a portion of it with unclean water, or if even the smallest branch-pipes are clogged up, there is no man in the world who would repair or improve that respective spot; everybody thinks at once of the central, of the tank and the filters, and these together with the pumping machine can be cleaned only as long as the water supply is shut off.

“I am the Lord, thy physician”—English and modern: nature alone heals, cleans, “unmucuses” best and infallibly sure, but only if the supply or at least the mucus supply is stopped. Each “physiological machine,” man like beast, cleanses itself immediately, dissolves the mucus in the clogged-up vessels, without stopping short, as soon as the supply, of compact food at least, is interrupted. Even in the case of the supposedly healthiest man this mucus, as already mentioned then appears in the urine where it can be seen after cooling off in the proper glass tubes! Whoever denies, ignores or fights this uniform fact, because, perhaps, it goes against him or is not scientific enough for him, is jointly guilty of the impossibility of the detection of the principal cause of all diseases, and this, in the first place, to his own detriment.

Therewith I also uncover the last secret of consumption. Or does anybody believe that this enormous quantity of mucus thrown off by a patient stricken with tuberculosis for years and years, emanates only from the lung itself? Just because this patient is then almost forcibly fed on “mucus” (pap, milk, fat meats) the mucus can never cease, until the lung itself decays and the “bacilli” make their appearance, when death becomes inevitable. The mystery of the bacilli is solved simply thus: The gradual clogging up by mucus of the blood vessels leads to decomposition, to fermentation of these mucus products and “boiled-dead” food - residues. These decay partially on the living body (pussy abscesses, cancer, tuberculosis, syphilis, lupus, etc.). Now, everybody knows that meat, cheese and all organic matter will again “germinate, put forth bacilli” during the process of decomposition. It is for this reason that these germs appear and are detectable only in the more advanced stage of the disease, when, however, they are not the cause but the product of the disease, and disease-furthering only in so far as the decomposition, for instance of the lung, is being hastened by them, because the excretions of the bacilli, their toxines. act poisoning. If it be correct that bacilli invade, “infect” from the exterior, then it is nothing but the mucus which makes possible their activity, and furnishes the proper soil, the “disposition.”

As already said, I have repeatedly (once for two years) lived mucusless, i.e., on fruit exclusively. I was no longer in need of a handkerchief which product of civilization I hardly need even up to this day. Has anyone ever seen a healthy animal, living in freedom, to expectorate or to blow its nose? A chronic inflammation of the kidneys, considered deadly, which I was stricken with, was not only healed, but I am enjoying a degree of health and efficiency which by far surpasses even that of my healthiest youth. I want to see the man who, being sick to death at 31, can run without a stop for two hours and a quarter, or make an endurance march of 56 hours' duration—eight years later.

With this “mucus theory,” well confirmed by my numerous experiments, there is for the first time put up a thorough, aetiologic, i.e., a cause—defining uniform conception of all diseases. If naturopathy here and there mentions certain affections of the blood as being the fundamental cause of all disease, this theory has proved insufficient because the food had been prescribed to be meatless or its contents of meat greatly reduced, at the same time, however, introducing so much the more mucus by means of bread, pap, milk, butter, eggs, cheese and farinaceous stuffs, especially starch food. That is the reason why most of the vegetarians in spite of their lauded bill of fare, are not healthy just the same. I myself was such a much—and mucus-eater for several years. If a considerable number of the vegetarians does not soon advance towards the only natural food, the fruit diet, or at least returns to eating little, there will be great danger of the shallowing­down of vegetarianism; not because the principle of “no meat eating” is bad, but because the healthful effects of the existing vegetaric nourishment are so inferior. The representatives of the vegetarian movement are still trying to prove what man is in need-of as regards boiled meals, because they themselves as well as all the amateurs in this field have a fundamentally wrong conception of the fruit diet as a healing remedy, and go at it in a wrong way. The hobby of the vegetaric propaganda is the argument that man is not a carnivore and that, therefore, the eating of meat is unnatural. With perfect right says the opponent that the eating of meat is just as “natural” as that of bread, cabbage, milk, cheese, etc. Professor V. Bunge has reproached the vegetarians for inconsequence more than a decade ago, and he is right.

It is surely theoretically correct that man was a mere fruit eater in times gone by, and biologically correct, that he can be it even to-day. Or can the horse-sense of man not conceive, without any proofs and directly, of the fact that man, before becoming a hunter, lived on fruits only? I even maintain that he did live in absolute health, beauty and strength, without pain and grief, just the way the Bible says. Fruit only, the sole “mucus-less” food, is natural. Everything prepared by man or supposedly improved by him is evil. The arguments regarding fruit are scientifically exact; in an apple or a banana, for instance, is everything contained what man needs. Man is so perfect that he can live on one kind of fruit only, at least for quite some time. This, however, need not necessarily be cocoanut (Kabakon). But a self-evident truth preached by nature must not be discarded just because nobody has been able to apply it in practice on account of civilizational considerations. From fruit only one becomes first of all ill,

i.e. cleansed; this cleansing process, however, is better to undergo at home and not in the tropics. No man would have ever believed me that it is possible to live without food for 126 days, in which 49 at a stretch, during 14 months. Now I have done it, and yet this truth is not being understood. Hitherto I say and teach only that fruit is the most natural “healing remedy.” Whether my calculation is correct will be proven by the next epidemic. I take, however, this opportunity to uncover the reasons why the self-evident is not believed in. When in the previous century somebody talked about telephoning from Berlin to Paris, everybody laughed, because there had never been such a thing. Natural food is not being believed in any more, because almost nobody practices it and, being a man of civilization, cannot easily practice it. It must also be considered that contra-interests fear that the prices of the other, artificial food­stuffs may drop, and others fear that the food-physiology may receive a shock and the physicians become unnecessary. But it is just this fasting and fruit cure which requires very strict observation and instruction—therefore: more doctors and less patients who, however, will gladly pay more if they get well. Thus the social question regarding doctors is solved—assertion already made by me publicly in Zurich several years ago.

Almost all fasting attempts fail on account of the ignorance of the fact that with the beginning of mucusless diet the old mucus is being excreted so much more forcibly until that person is absolutely clean and healthy. Thus the seemingly most healthy person has first to pass through a condition of sickness (cleansing), or to go through an intermediate stage of illness to a higher level of health.

This is the great cliff around which so very few vegetarians have failed to go, discarding the highest truth just like the mass of people is doing. I have proven this here in the “Vegetarische Warte” competently on the basis of experiments and facts, and refuted the greatest objection, that of under-nourishment, by an actual fasting experiment of 49 days with preceding fruit diet. My state of health was only improved by this radical excretion of mucus, disregarding a few unhygienic circumstances during the test. I received numerous letters of appreciation, especially from the educated classes. The mass of the adherents of vegetarianism “mucuses” gaily ahead. Vegetarianism has to show representatives of both sexes who do not differ by anything from Munich beer-stomachs: a consequence of the daily stuffing up with “mucus-food” of all kinds. Contrasting herewith it can only be said that the poisons (so-called by them): meat, alcohol, coffee and tobacco are in the long run comparatively harmless, as long as they are used moderately.

In order to avoid misunderstanding on the part of teetotalers and vegetarians, I must insert here a few explanations. Meat is not a foodstuff but only a stimulant which ferments, decays in the stomach ; the process of decay, however, does not begin in the stomach but at once after the slaughtering. This has already been proven on living persons by Prof. Dr. S. Graham, and I complete this fact by saying that meat acts as a stimulant just by means of these poisons of decay, and therefore is being regarded as a strengthening foodstuff. Or is there anyone who can show me chemico-physiologically that the albumen molecule going through the process of decay is being newly reformed in the stomach and celebrates its resurrection in some muscle of the human body? Exactly like alcohol, the meat acts in the beginning delusively as if stimulating strength and energy, until the entire organism is penetrated by it and the break-down inevitable. All the other stimulants act likewise.

The fundamental evil of all non-vegetaric forms of diet consists always in the overeating of meat, as it is the origin of all the other evils, especially of the craving for alcohol. If fruit is eaten almost exclusively, the eagerness for cup or glass loses itself to chastise himself against it, simply because meat produces the demon thirst. Alcohol is a proven kind of antidote for meat, and the gourmand of the big city, who eats almost nothing but meat, must therefore have wines, Mocha and Havana, in order to at least in some way counteract the heavy meat-poisoning. It is a well-known fact that, after an opulent dinner, one feels decidedly fresher, physically and mentally, if the stimulants, poisonous in themselves, are taken moderately, than to stuff one's self full with the good eating to the very fatigue.

I absolutely declare war on meat and alcohol; through fruit and moderate eating these great evils are radically diminished. But whoever finds it impossible to entirely give up meat and alcohol is, if he takes them moderately, still far ahead of the vegetaric much-eater. The American Fletcher proves this most evidently by his tremendous success, and his secret is explained by my experiments which show that a person becomes most efficient and develops best in his health if he eats as little as possible. Are not the oldest people as a rule the poorest? Have not the greatest discoverers and inventors sprung from poverty, i.e., been little eaters? Were not the greatest of mankind, the prophets, founders of religions, etc., ascetics? Is that culture, to live in Berlin, dining excellently thrice a day, and is that social progress that each working man eats five times a day and then pumps himself full with beer at night? If the sick organism can regenerate by eating nothing, I think the logical consequences is that a healthy organism needs but little food in order to remain healthy, strong and persevering.

All so-called miracles of the saints have their only origin in ascetics, and are to-day impossible but for the reason that, although much praying is done, no fasting is adhered to. This is the only solution of this quarrel. We have no more miracles because we have no more saints, i.e., sanctified and healed by ascetics and fastings. The saints were self-shining, expressed in modern language: medial or radioactive, but only because through ascetics they were “godly” healthy, and not “by special grace.” I just wish to mention here that I myself have succeeded in visible, electric effluences, but only by external and internal sun-energies- (sun-baths and food from the “sun-kitchen,” fruit.)

The entire world is quarreling now regarding these questions and miracles. And here is the solution on the basis of experiments which everybody can repeat if he is brave enough. But it is apparently easier to write books, preach and pray, or to say that I am an exception. This is true, but only as far as pluck and understanding are concerned. Physiologically all men are equal, and whoever cannot be moderate may learn it from me if he wishes to be a real searcher. If a man eats little and is healthy he can digest for quite a length of time the most absurd food, meat and starch (mucus), i.e., he can again excrete it; naturally, he becomes and remains still more perfect and clean if he eats but little fruit, and of this he needs the least because it is the most perfect food. This eternal truth by natural law man of today will and cannot admit, and has a well-founded fear of it, because he is built up of dead-boiled food and his cells die off and are excreted as soon as he takes sun-baths, fasts or eats the living cells of fruit. But this cure must be done with the greatest care. Medicine has, as long as this is possible, to protect man from a breakdown of his cells, to hold him above water, only to make him then die of the disease so much more promptly and quickly, which to-day is fervently wished for. Vegetarianism cannot deny that the consumers of meat and alcohol can also boast of much health and great deeds and high age, but taken individually and as a people, only so long as but little is eaten and no over-nourishment caused. The “too much” takes less revenge in case of meat-eating because meat contains proportionally less “mucus” than the starch-containing, i.e. “mucus” vegetaric food and the celebrated vegetaric dinners with so and so many dishes daily. I myself have not cared for many years for any meals; I eat only when I have appetite and then so little that it does not cause any harmful effect, if, on account of an experiment, I am obliged to eat something which in itself is not entirely free from objection.

If the most serious diseases can be cured by fasting— which has been proven in thousands of cases—and if by this way of living one gets even stronger “if it is done right,” then the most energetic food, the fruit, should cause one so much the more to become strong and healthy. This has been also scientifically proven by the merited Dr. Bircher. It is true, the science of cure by nature has recognized the fact that something must get out of the sick organism, but it has so far ascribed the greatest importance to physical stimulations and ignored entirely the real natural moment of the process of cure; the abstaining from food and the fruit-diet, or at least only tried to substitute it by an alcohol and meatless diet. This does not mean much in the face of my “mucus-theory.” And what is this mucusless alcohol not accused of to-day! It will soon be made the scape-goat of all diseases, because here and there is found a depraved one who, consuming it in enormous quantities, ends in delirium. Just compel a drinker to fast a few days or to eat nothing but fruit—I can bet that the best glass of beer will have lost its taste for him. This shows that the entire “civilized” mess, from beefsteak down to the apparently harmless oatmeals, creates the desire for these detested antidotes: alcohol, coffee, tea, tobacco. Why? Because much-eating paralyzes and only the use of stimulants restores.

Here is the true and fundamental reason for the increase of alcohol consumption: the over-nourishment, especially with meat. Prof. Dr. Graham says in his “Physiology of Nourishment”; “A drinker can reach a high age, a glutton never.” This is true, because the acute alcohol acting as a stimulant, especially the modern beer, is less harmful in the long run than the chronic stuffing-up of the digestive channel with mucus food.

I now ask: what appeals more to reason—to wipe out the masses of mucus, piled up since childhood and having infected the cellular tissues of the body right there (symptoms of illness), by sweating, baths, artificial cold (kneipp cures), massage, sport, etc., at the expense of vitality (especially of the heart) and the duration of life . . . or simply to stop the further supply of mucus? Or is there anybody who wants to prove to me that even the best chef or confectioner is capable of producing something better than an apple, a grape or banana? If nourishment by mucus and over-eating is the true fundamental cause of all diseases without exception, which I can prove to anybody on his own body, then there can exist but one natural remedy, i.e., fasting and fruit-diet. That every animal fasts in case of even the slightest uneasiness, is a well-known fact and to culture and thanks to man feeding them, have lost their sharp instinct for the right kind of food and the natural hours of feeding—and therewith their proper state of health and acuteness of sense,—they will nevertheless, when sick, accept only the most necessary food; they fast themselves back to health. Poor, sick man, however, must under no circumstances live on short rations for more than 1 or 2 days, for fear that he may “lose strength.”

Already have physicians called the fasting: wonder cures, cure of the uncured, cure of all cures, etc. Certain charlatans have brought this infallible, but at the same time dangerous cure, to discredit. I have done in fasting the most significant thing in centuries: 49 days, world-record (see “Vegetarische Warte,” 1909, book 19, 20, 22, 1910, book 1 and 2). Furthermore I am the only one who combines this cure with systematically and individually adapted fruit-diet, which makes it astonishingly easier and absolutely harmless. We are, therefore, undoubtedly put in a position to heal diseases which the school-medicine designates as incurable. On the basis of my detection that this mucus coming from cultured food, is the fundamental cause and main factor in the nature of all diseases, symptoms of age, obesity, falling out of the hair, wrinkles, weakness of nerves and memory, etc., there is justified hope for the creation of a new phase of development of the progressive healing methods and biological medicine.

Already Hippokrates had uniformly recognized the “disease-material” for all diseases. Prof. Jäger has defined the “Common” as “Stench,” but not discovered the source of this “bad smell.” Dr. Lahmann and other representatives of the physical-dietetic tendency, especially Kuhne, came on to the tracks of this “common foreign matter.” But all of them did not show, recognize or prove by experiment that it is just this mucus of culture-food, which loads up our organism from very childhood, and attacks it at a certain degree of fermentations forms pathologic beds, i.e., decomposes the cellular tissue of the body itself into pus and decay. It is being mobilized in case of casual colds or high temperatures, etc., and produces, in its tendency to leave the body, symptoms of abnormal functions which hitherto have been regarded as the disease itself. It is, therefore, for the first time possible to define what is meant by “disposition.” The more the “mucus” (bad mother's milk and all its substitutes) is being administered from childhood on, or the less this mucus is being excreted, owing to hereditary weakness, through the organs made to perform this task, the greater is the inclination to catch cold, fever, to freeze, to admit parasites, to get sick and to grow old. Very likely by this the veil has been lifted from the secret which hitherto has always surrounded the nature of the white-corpuscles. I believe, that here, as in many other cases, we have to do with an error of the medical science. The bacteria throw themselves upon the white largest extent of this mucus denounced by me. Are not the bacteria being bred on this mucus by the millions outside of the organism?—on potatoes, broth, gelatine, i.e., on mucus, i.e., nitrogenous, vegetable or animal substances consisting of an alcalically reacting fluid containing granulated cells of the appearance of the white blood-corpuscles! Perhaps in an entirely healthy condition the so-called mucus membrane should not at all be white, slimy, but clean and red like on animals. Perhaps this “corpse-mucus” is even the cause of the paleness of the white race? Paleface! Corpsecolor!

With this “mucus-theory” to be confirmed by experiment the spectre “disease” has been finally deprived of its demoniac mask. He who believes me can heal not only himself, if everything else fails, but we have for the first time been given the means to radically prevent disease and to make it definitively impossible. Even the dream of lasting youth and beauty is now about to become true.

The animal, and especially the human organism is, from a mechanical standpoint, a complicated tube-system of blood-vessels with air-gas impetus by means of the lungs in which the blood-fluid is constantly kept moving and regulated by the heart as a valve. The decomposition of the air-gas is accomplished by each breath in the lungs (separating of the air into oxygen and nitrogen): thus the blood is constantly kept moving and the human body does its service incredibly long without fatigue. Let nobody come to me with the silly excuse of the “daily experience of the absolutely natural compulsion of much-eating,” prescribed for working man, etc., before it has not been experienced by such complainant, how long it is possible to work or march, without fatigue, after fasting or fruit-food. Fatigue is in the first place a reducing of strength by too much digestion-work, secondly a clogging-up of the heated and consequently narrowed-down blood-vessels, and thirdly a “self- and re-poisoning” through the excretion of mucus during the motion. All organic substances of animal origin excrete cyan groupes in their decomposition, which the Chemist Hensel has defined as bacilli proper. The air is not only the highest and most perfect operating material of the human body, but simultaneously the first element for the erection, repair, substitute, and very likely, the animal organism derives nitrogen also from the air. On certain caterpillars an increase of weight through air alone has been stated.

II. Remedies for the Removal of the Common Fundamental Cause of Diseases and the Prevention of their Re-occurrence

After having told my readers the dread and horror of being sick or getting sick, in the previous chapter, it befits me to show them the means and ways, as far as this, commonly speaking, is possible, how to successfully encounter mucus-poisoning, this greatest foe of health.

I have already mentioned that each patient requires individual treatment. In form of verbal as well as written advices—the only after detailed reports from the patients— I have already succeeded in numerous and serious cases to exert my helping and healing knowledge. Here I wish to show three means and ways which can produce a beneficial change.

1

The shortest and best way is the fasting so much talked about in this magazine. It cuts short the life of the grim misdoer in our body and causes him to flee, and he leaves us faster with fright and terror.

Healthy people can submit themselves to a fasting cure without any further ceremony; it goes without saying that they must fast reasonably and be responsible for it that they do not cause dangerous over-exertions during the fasting period, by demanding of themselves physical or mental performances which they could not live up to even at full fare. I insert here a precautionary measure which must be observed in all fasting cures: the complete emptying of the bowels at the beginning of the fasting by a harmless purgative or by a syringe, or by both. It lies in the nature of the thing that he who fasts must not be bothered by gas or decomposing matter which form from the excrements remaining in the bowels; it suffices that the mucus during the excretion gives him enough trouble, as already stated.

Who does not care to do a more prolonged fasting, although he is healthy, may try a short one. Even a fasting of thirty-six hours, weekly one or two times, acts in the long run very favorably. It is best to start by leaving off the supper and taking a syringe instead.

Then, in case of a thirty-six hours' fasting, nothing is taken until the morning after the next, and then nothing but fruits for breakfast. The eating of fruit is necessary after each fasting, as the juices of the fruits cause a moving of the mucus-masses which have loosened; in the case of sick and old people this treatment must be carefully individualized.

One arrives at this end, however, very much quicker, if a longer fasting is done in the way described, for instance, three days, and then keeps an after-fasting cure. That is: not to eat anything for three days and drink only citron-lemonade in single gulps as may become necessary, to begin on the fourth day with some fruits, at the close of the fourth day take a thorough syringe, and then add more fruit from day to day, until about the seventh day of the after-cure the normal quantity of fruit-diet in the proper composition and selection has been reached. The fasting, however, can be extended for weeks by healthy persons and by those whose occupation permits of their spending their time in bed in case of difficult excretions of mucus. Nobody should mind then the so-called bad looks or the decrease in weight The body fasts itself into health, despite such miserable complexion, and soon the cheeks will be adorned by a healthy, fresh red, and the weight is also restored very soon after the fasting to its normal standard. After a fasting the body reacts on every ounce of food. Very moderate and frequently fasting people have a very fine, inspirited expression of the face. It is said that Pope Leo XIII, this great faster and life-artist, had a very clear, almost transparent complexion.

In this connection I wish to call attention to another point, already mentioned elsewhere. The success of the fasting depends upon it to a great extent: the fasting person must not unnecessarily become depressed or ill-humored; the one finds relief in the disagreeable moments by complete rest, the other by quick and decided work, especially in light and mechanical occupation.

When the body has been dismucused, disslimed and dispasted, then it is the sacred duty of the person who has regained health to keep up the reclaimed highest earthly happiness and to guard it by means of the correct food. On this a few short remarks in the following paragraphs.

2

He who cannot fast, because of considerations of advanced lung or heart trouble, for instance, may at least see to it that the further accumulation of mucus be cut short by refraining from pronounced mucus-formers, especially from all flour (cake), rice, potatoe-dishes, from boiled milk, cheese, meat, etc. Whoever cannot miss bread entirely, must eat black or white bread only toasted; by toasting the bread loses much of its harmfulness, as the mucus substances are being partly destroyed. The eating of toasted bread has the further advantage that not much can be eaten of it; it cannot be devoured as wild beasts do, and the necessary chewing will fatigue even the most greedy gums. Whoever cannot bite the toasted bread, on account of bad teeth, may suck on it until it dissolves—a splendid way to restore declined strength. Whoever cannot miss potatoes should eat them only baked.

What then remains for “nutritious food,” after I am to give up all albumenous food, like dried peas, lentils, beans, as little as possible? Thus many a reader will ask with a sigh.

As to the value of meat I have set forth my views elsewhere. The slight requirements in albumen are fully covered by sugary fruits; the banana, the nuts, combined with a few figs or dates are first-class muscle-formers and strength-givers.

The vegetables (cut small and made into salads), the salads themselves, prepared with oil and plenty of lemon, and all the splendid fruits and berries, including those of the South, are worthy of being served on the tables of gods. And when springtime comes, and last season's fruits, especially apples, are on the decline, and the new vegetables not yet ready, does not Mother Nature help us out abundantly with oranges from the South? Will the aroma and wealth of these splendid products of nature not induce man to eventually become a fruit eater entirely?

It is not possible for me to go into the question of food and its effects exhaustively in this book; for healthy people these statements may suffice, to sick people I give special prescriptions according to their state of health. It may be mentioned that non-fasters and people easily succumbing to illness, may at least insert the morning's fasting. It would be better for everybody not to eat anything before 10 o'clock and then nothing but fruits. The reward for this little chastising will certainly show itself, if the latter be kept up unfailingly.

3

Now, just one more word to those who think it impossible to give up the usual mucus food (meat, etc.). To these “poor ones” I also give the advice: to chew your food, and each bite, thoroughly, as per the American Fletcher, in one word; to “Fletcherize.” Not that the fruit eaters should not do this; certainly, but the poison, i.e., mucous-eaters must do so especially, if they do not wish to sink into their graves all too soon.

The strong secretion of saliva in slow chewing decreases the formation of mucus and prevents the over­eating. Of course, this class of people cannot quite achieve in health and strength, keep-up of youth and perseverance, physical and mental efficiency, what can be achieved by the faster and fruit-eater. Once man is healthy in my sense of the word, by fasting and fruit-diet, i.e., free from mucus, slime and germ, and if he stays with the fruit-diet, he, of course, need not fast any longer and only then he will find a pleasure in eating which he never dreamt of before. Only in this will man find the way to happiness, harmony and the solution of all questions, especially the social question, as only through this he can become want-free and get “nearest to divinity” (Socrates).

III. The Fundamental Cause of Growing Old and Ugly, of the Falling Out and Getting Gray of the Hair

THE MEANS FOUNDED IN NATURE FOR MAINTENANCE OF YOUTH AND BEAUTY.

Following the previous general arguments to the effect that mucus is the main cause of disease and ageing, there is only left to show in particular and on the various organs in how far the mucus of culture-food acts beauty-hindering in the construction of the human body, and produces symptoms of ugliness and age.

If according to paradisic primary laws the lungs and skin would be given nothing but pure air and sun-electricity, and the stomach and bowels nothing but sun-food, i.e., fruits, which are being digested almost without rest, secreting only mucus, paste and germless cellullose, there seems to be no reason why the tube-system of the human body should become defect, weaken, age and finally break down entirely. Instead of the living energy-cells of the fruit one eats “killed food,” which” biologically is meant for beasts of prey, i.e., food chemically changed by air-oxydation (decay), dead-boiled and robbed of its energy. Mucus accumulates especially in the heating channel (stomach and bowels) of this tube-machine, and slowly clogs up the channel and filters (glands). The sum-total of this defilement causes chronic defects, makes grow old and is the main factor in the nature of all disease. Growing old, therefore, is a latent disease, i.e., a slow but constantly increasing disturbance in the operation of the motor of life.

The chemistry of victuals gives the most reliable proof that deformity and decomposition have their source mainly in the lack of minerals in boiled culture-food.

If human ugliness as such, lost beauty and symptoms of growing old can be made accounted for by wrong nourishment, then the theory of beauty and rejuvenation leads to a dietetic cure and a respective improvement of nourishment. But inasmuch as beauty, especially human beauty, cannot be absolutely defined, because everybody has a different taste, I can limit myself only to the main standards of aesthetic demands.

The white corpse-color of the light and sunless man of culture cannot be called beautiful, and emanates mainly from the white corpse-color of the dead-boiled, wrong food. What wonderful color a man can get who feeds on “bleeding” grapes, cherries and oranges and who takes systematically air and sun-baths, cannot be imagined by the modern artists of “pleinair”-painting. Mucus and at the same time lack of earthy matter means as much as lack of color. Just compare the food tables of Dr. König and you will find that the mucusless food, the fruit and the vegetables occupy the first place as regards their contents of necessary earthy matter, especially lime. The size of a person, i.e., the circumference of the skeleton depends, for instance, mainly on the amount of lime contained in the food. The Japanese want to increase the size of their race by meat thereby from bad to worse. All the pining away of size, deformities of the bones and especially the decay of the teeth is due to lack of lime; through the boiling of milk and vegetables the lime is being eliminated. The enormous poorness in mineral culture-food, especially of the meat as compared with fruit, is responsible for the coming of a toothless human race, as predicted even by physicians, and which is not merely a phantom of imagination. And instead of by fruit these stuffs, are being substituted by an organic preparation. The human organism does not assimilate one single atom mineral substance which has not transmigrated into a plant or fruit, i.e., which has not become organic. The most modern disfigurement, the obesity, has clouded up our aesthetic feelings in this regard so much, that we even do not know any longer the limit of the normal. I do not even consider the bred “man of muscles of classic type” beautiful and as a standard for the ideal type of Germanic and Aric races. Weight, shape and especially circumference of body are too great. Every accumulation of fat is pathologic and in this measure unaesthetic. No animal living in freedom is upholstered with fat, like so many men. The reason is only too much food and too much fluid; relaxation and clogging up of the entire system of vessels are the natural consequences. Grape-sugar of the fruits and their nutritive salts are the right sources for a firm muscle-substance, by which a body disfattened and dismucused by fasting can be quickly rebuilt.

The stoutness of face and body are dangerously on the increase; it is ugly and certainly pathologic. It is a curious fact that this accumulation of fat is considered not only beautiful, but even a sign of over-abundant health, while the daily experience teaches that the slim, permanently youthful type is in every respect of a greater force of resistance and generally reaches a higher age.

- I should like to be shown just one person of 80 or 90 years with such obesity, which to-day is pronounced as beautiful and healthy, and with which it is believed to fatten away tuberculosis. If fat people do not die in their best years through palpitation of the heart, apoplexy or dropsy, they succumb to a slow emaciating and the desire for food decreases in spite of all artificial stimulations of the appetite. The skin, especially of the face, having been subjected to extreme tension, becomes foldy and wrinkly. It has lost its youthful elasticity on account of insufficient and unhealthy blood circulation as well as lack of light and sun. And now this relaxation of the skin is being tried to be prevented by salves and powders externally! The distinction and beauty of the features, the pureness and healthy color of the complexion, the clearness and natural size of the eyes, the charm of the expression and the color of the lips age and become ugly to the extent of the expression and the color of the mucus in the bowels, which we have recognized above as the central depot from which all the symptoms of disease, and therefore those of age, are being fed. The “beautiful roundness of cheeks” which at the same time increases the size of the nose, is nothing but a clogging up by mucus, which, as is well known, breaks out in case of a cold in the nose.

I come now to the most important and most striking symptom of the growing-old ; the falling out and getting gray of the hair, to which I must devote an entire section, because its appearance generally causes the first and greatest worry and pain over the coming age, and because hitherto science has stood baffled in the face of this problem.

The modern cutting short of the masculine hair on the head, as well as the alarming expansion and earliness of baldness have accustomed even an artistical eye so much to this appearance that we no longer become conscious of the fact how seriously the aesthetic and harmonic figure of man is disturbed by this voluntary and unvoluntary “hair­decapitation.” Man, who is not only intellectual, but also as an aesthetic product of nature, “the crown of creation,” is being robbed of the splendid crown of his head—the hair. They could be called “living skulls,” these beardless, colorless and expressionless heads of to-day! Just imagine the most beautiful woman with a pate! Where is the man that would not turn away with horror? Or a fashion-sport of today hewn in marble! In addition to that the mustache shaped geometrically and angular or trimmed off entirely, then the modern clothing which distinguishes itself from that of all the centuries by the greatest insipidity—and this we find beautiful reasons for which the present-day man gets his beard and hair cut down to a minimum length. The lack of beauty and therewith the un-aesthetic appearance of hair and beard has become so general that in course of time the need of shaving and use of the millimeter machine have come as a matter of course. In our time of equalization and all-levelling it is preferred, and rightfully so, to cut off these odor, and so to speak, revelation-organs of inner man, instead of furnishing by ugly, disheveled, uneven and hereditary morbid hair a living proof for the descendence theory. Therewith we can understand the maltreatment of the hair. The thought is practically given rise that the getting ugly of one organ or of the entire organism means its inner morbidness, i.e., nature reveals internal physiological disturbances of an organism through disharmony of shape and color. The seriously ill and dead organisms are its extremes. Doubters in my points of view, and bad nature-observers may here be reminded of the law of exception from the rule, and as regards man—of the fact, that neither hygienically nor aesthetically have we any imagination left of the ideal beauty and health of man living under perfectly natural conditions. If the pleasure in the beautiful is a sentence in the favorable sense, then the displeasure felt by an aesthetic eye in looking up the disharmony of shape and color must include to a certain degree the recognition of the pathologic.

Let us return to our subject. We know that medical science is powerless as regards baldness, and that cosmetic and chemistry of tonics have failed to produce even a single new hair.

I have already called the hair, especially of the human head, the odor-organs of the body, which are to conduct away the exhalations of the human body. Everybody knows that sweat is produced first of all on the head and in the arm-pits, and that with this sweat, especially on sick people, is connected a disagreeable odor. Dr. Jäger calls disease somewhere “stench.” This, with exceptions, of course, seems to me correct in so far, as I am able to pronounce, on the basis of many years' observation and experiments, the following fundamental uniform conception of disease:

Disease is a fermentation and decay-process of body-substance or of surplus and unnatural food-material, which in course of time has accumulated, especially in the digestive organs, and which makes its appearance in the shape of mucus-excretion.

That is, it means in the last instance nothing but the chemical decomposition, the decay of cellular albumen. As is well known, this process is accompanied by stench, while nature combines the originating of new life with fragrance (the building of plants.) Properly man in perfect health should exhale fragrance, particularly so with his hair.

Poets are rightfully comparing man with a flower and speak of the hair-fragrance of woman. I, therefore, recognize in the hair of the human head a very important organ which aside from protective and warmth-regulating purposes has a highly interesting and useful destination: to conduct away the exhalations, the odor of healthy and sick people, which reveals to experts and acute noses not only individual qualities, but even certain disclosures as regards the inner state of health or sickness of a man. If the doctors have not by far recognized digestive disturbances with the microscopes and test-glasses, there have yet been certain quacks who have been able to state by simple hair-diagnosis the stench-producing inner process of decay—the disease. Why, there are numberless people to-day, still youthful and radiating health with a breath like that of a sewer and who are wondering why their hair is falling out. I have now arrived at the vital spot of my researches and observations.

First one more word about the getting gray of the hair. It has been found that in hair which has become gray the contents of air is increasing, and I am also of the opinion that this “air” consists probably of stinking gases, or at least is mixed with such. I recommend to a chemist with a “strong scent” to discover here the sulphurous acid, then the disappearance of the color of the hair will also have been explained, as it is a well known fact that sulphur­dioxyde bleaches organic substances.

It now seems to me certain, not only theoretically, but also on the basis of my interesting experiments on my own body, that the principal cause of baldness can only be an internal one. If through these odor-tubes or so to speak “gas chimneys of the head” there must be constantly discharged stinking, corroding gases, very probably impregnated with sulphur-dioxyde, instead of natural, fragrant odors, we must not be surprised if the hair together with its root becomes deathly pale, dies off and falls out. Herewith I claim to have recognized the reason for baldness and to have shown the true way for its cure. I add that about ten years ago, when I was afflicted with chronic inflammation of the kidneys, combined with a high degree of nervosity, my hair had become very gray and fell out. After having been cured from this serious disease by a dietetic treatment I saw that at the same time the gray hairs disappeared and that my hair grew into perfect profusion.

If therefore, the main cause of baldness lies in the disturbance of digestion and interchange of matter, it can certainly be cured by regulation of these functions. It can be said that even the absolutely bald heads may again take hope, on the basis of my discovery— after all the tonics have failed, and must fail. The reason is that the cause is not external and therefore cannot be got at externally. Whoever sees his hair falling out, or whoever is already bald, and wishes to regenerate in this direction, may apply to me for advice. There is no general internal remedy, and whoever has understood me will appreciate that individualization is necessary in every case. On the basis of the influence of my doctrine of diet on digestion and creation of blood and, therefore, the correct nourishment of the hair-bed, I can at least guarantee a stand-still of the falling out of hair, if my advices are followed correctly.

Thus all symptoms of ageing are latent disease, accumulation of mucus and clogging-up by mucus. Everybody subjecting himself to a thorough restoring-cure in case of any disease, by parting with the dead cells through mucus-less diet and eventually fasting, rejuvenates himself simultaneously, and whoever submits to a rejuvenating cure, deprives each and every disease of its foundation. Nobody wants to believe in this possibility. Yet, in each scientific dictionary you will find the theory that at the worst one should die only of disturbance in the exchange of matter, i.e., constipation by mucus, so that life ought to end without any disease whatever. This would be the normal; but, alas, the exception—the disease, has become the rule to-day.

If anybody would live from childhood on absolutely mucusless food, and feed on nothing but fruit, it would be just as certain that he could grow neither old nor sick. I have seen persons who through a mucusless cure have rejuvenated and become beautified to such an extent that they could not be recognized. Since thousands of years humanity dreams, imagines and paints the fountain of youth, and looks for it sentimentally to the stars, in the suggestion.

What is not being expended for remedies for masculine weakness and impotence, for sterility—of course, all in vain! And how easily could some people be helped, especially through correct and nourishing food from the sun-kitchen.

We cannot imagine with what beauty and faculties the paradoic “godlike” man was gifted, what wonderful strong, clear voice he had! The beautification and strengthening of the voice, yes, the winning back of the lost voice is an amazing symptom in my cure, and an especially eloquent proof for the really grandiose effect of my system for the entire organism of the patient. I wish to refer here especially to the wonderful success of the cure submitted to by the Royal Bavarian Chamber Singer Heinrich Knote, Munich, under my directions, whose voice had improved to the amazement of the entire musical world.

IV. The Death

In the previous chapters I have quoted the clogging-up by mucus as being the reason for disease and ageing. I have also proved the possibility of re-substitution of died-off cells. In view of the latter fact it cannot be denied that the entire stand-still of the human motor can be delayed for a long, long time, if the body is being built up and maintained by living sun-food from childhood on. At any rate the body thus nourished is far ahead of that of the bad and all-eater in that its building material is much more durable. In the right way of living the exchange of matter takes place to a much lesser degree, likewise the stress on the inner organs, especially the heart and the stomach. In the performance of greatest efforts the mucusless organism has not nearly the pulse-frequency of a much-eater. Merely through this saving of energy it is possible to mathematically figure out and prove an advantage as regards longevity. But can we perhaps even solve by this all-explaining mucus-constipation the last of all mysteries—death?

In life-endangering injuries and afflictions the brain and the heart are the organs whose disturbance of function finally ends with death. We can say that in most diseases death takes place through additional development of heart-illness. As regards these science has not by far spoken its last word, but we can say that the clogging up of the blood-vessels of the heart and the destruction of the tender heart-nerves through permanent re-poisoning of the blood is the last cause of death in all chronic diseases. Likewise leads the clogging-up of the tender blood-vessels in the brain and an eventually bursting of same (apoplexy), as well as any other entire clogging-up of vessels to a stand-still of all functions of life. Of course, other circumstances play also a part in it, for instance, insufficient supply of air in case of disease of the lungs. Science also mentions the excessive appearance of the white blood-corpuscles as the reason for death, This process of disease is regarded as a disease in itself, and called “Leukaemia”—white bloodedness, but better, in my opinion: more mucus than blood. Many other reasons are given for the cause of death.

If, perchance, a disease cannot be put into any of the better defined registers, it is given the name of “cachexy,” which sounds very wise and means: bad condition of nourishment, decay. I now ask: what is really the killing poison? Modern medical science gives the bacilli as the causes for most of the diseases, thus showing that it also has the idea of a common fundamental factor for all diseases, the ageing and death, and undoubtedly a large part of all diseases and their consequences (death) are due to the bacilli. My experimental proof that mucus is the fundamental and main factor, differs from the bacillus-theory only in that just this mucus is the bed the pre­condition, the primary.

The excessive appearance of the white blood-corpuscles, i.e., of the white dead mucus, as compared with the red sugar and iron substances, is becoming dangerous to life. Red colored and sweet is the visible token of life and love, white, pale, colorless, bitter, the token of disease and overwhelming by mucus, the slow dying away of the individual.

The death-struggle or agony can only be regarded as a last crisis, a last effort of the organism to excrete mucus; a last fight of the still living cells against the dead ones and their death-poisons. If the white, dead cells, the mucus in the blood, gain the upper hand, there takes place not only a mechanical clogging-up in the heart, but also a chemical reformation, a decline, a total-poisoning, a sudden decay of the entire blood-supply—and the machine stops short “It has pleased God Almighty;” “we bend our knees before the mysterious power of death”—thus we speak with resignation.

“Uncertainty is the only tragedy of life. There is none other,” says Peter Altenberg in his “Prodromes.” Thus is also the last, the highest cause of all diseases, the ageing and the death, at least if unnatural, a spiritual one, a not-knowing, a sin which we have unconsciously committed and for which we are being punished undeservedly, but we are punished just the same, for in nature as well as in the civil book of laws, ignorance does not exempt from punishment.

The purpose of this article is to contribute towards the good fight against ignorance, this trap-door for so many poor men and women, and to spread knowledge which to the individual as well as to the people will be a blessing on body and spirit.