>> I find Ray Kent's overuse of extended fasts (water) & his complete
>>disdain for anything beyond his own Spartan regime to be the most
>>troublesome.
>Peter,
>I (& some others probably too) don't have a clue about any of these
>people or what they advocate & what their results have been. I'm
>extremely interested in any info about experiences fasting below the
>point of hunger return ("overfasting"). Can you go into "overuse of
>extended fasts" & what Ray's experiences have been? What is his
>Spartan regime & how does he & others make out on it?
>Thanks, Doug
Ray believes that it takes undergoing numerous fasts - the longer the
better - to cleanse & heal the body and perscribes them for everybody
with no exception. His attitude is that the more you are suffering
spiritually, mentally or physically during a fast the better and sees
this as a sign of a deeper purging and redemption of past indescretions
taking place. There is of course a lot of applied psychology to his
"the worse you are feeling the better" approach, and his clients
love/hate his seemingly indestructable faith in the fasting process.
There is a lot of joking and gallows humor expressed around Ray, who
will never pass up an opportunity to be provocative. If somebody
suffers from an allergy to tomatoes f.ex he believes in feeding this
person only tomatoes, so the person can benefit from the cleansing
properties of the allergy. I used to love Ray for this radical &
uncompromising spirit of his.
However, I have mellowed some of my radical bents and believe that
pushing people to override the warning signals of their bodies to the
extent that Ray does is a foolish and possible dangerous endeavour. (He
will fight anybody tooth & nail who expresses a wish to stop a fast
before time). What often happens when the restraints of a fast that
went on for too long or never should have been initiated in the first
place are over (people with eating disorders or severe emotional
problems should IMO avoid fasting like the plague - though it might be
indicative for some conditions like scizofrenia, which I understand the
Russians have treated succesfully through fasting), the body will swing
back like a pendulum to regain homeostasis - usually resulting in
overeating to compensate for the physical/emotional deprivation of the
fast, which will set up the scene for a new fast. Though juicing IMO
is often better, fasting, especially when taken to such as an extreme
as with Ray, will rather than give the body a rest put it through
unneccessary hardship and reinforce compulsive eating patterns and
yo-yo dieting. I have seen this happen to many of Ray's clients, but
this is not to say that Ray has not helped anybody, he as - some with
even complicated conditions, though I do not remember any cases well
enough to quote them or know how they did longterm.
He & his wife do look & seem fit & healthy, but I have not known of
anybody who has gone through his program to have stabilized their
health. They usually have just one more long fast to go though before
they enter that state of paradisical, super health.:-)
The diet that Ray advocates is a low calorie, high fruit, raw vegan
diet, though he does acknowledge that it may take years of
transitioning to able to practise it fully. However, it is Ray's
complete disdain, which he never misses an opportunity to express, for
any other diet or approach to health or spirituality (he loves to put
down & ridicule the use of herbal remedies, supplements, colonics,
exercise, physical therapies, pcychotherapies, meditation, etc) that I
find so dangerous - especially for those who are blinded by his charms.
This macho all or nothing - black or white - we verses them - attitude
which is often found in the raw food/ natural hygiene movement, and
which Ray has taken to such an extreme, I find to be very antagonistic
and I sincerely doubt that it can lead to any lasting state of health
or healing on any level - except maybe for a small, ever elusive
minority.
Best, Peter
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