>My name is Zephyr, and I recently read the "Greetings!" post on this list
>here at my girlfriend's house.  I read/scanned your/their book a few months
>ago, and I had a lot of reaction to it.

snip

>My fear is that their/your book will turn more people off to raw food than it
>will ever turn on.  I would love to be wrong, truly.  But the ground of
>being that I feel from the book is not primarly of compassion and deep
>experiential knowledge.  It feels hyped, self-righteous, and as fluffy as
>white bread.

Hey, Zephyr! Interesting post! I pretty much agree with both your comments
on NFL and your ambivilance regarding your own writing--I understand that
ambivilance only too well. Indeed, I would add to Roy's list of questions
to the NFL guys this one: What do the three of you DISagree on most often?
What do you feel you _haven't_ figured out yet? (oops, I guess that's two
questions)

In "defense" of the NFL guys, they are much easier to take in person.
Melisa and I met them at an "Earth Fair" here in southern CA. They are
truly excited about what they have stumbled on and that excitement is
infectous in person (though pretty much lost on us). They further claim
that the "in your face" writing approach is in response to the same
approach which worked on them and got them into the raw-vegan route. (I
probably shouldn't speak for them as they are quite capable of posting
themselves--if we haven't scared the bejezus out of em already :)

Nevertheless, this does touch on the topic of zealotry, which (along with
fringe diets' ability to attract unstable people, myself included! :/) I
find to be the most frustrating aspect of the raw food world. The
attachment of "save the world/truth/self-righteousness/I'm God's (nature's)
chosen one" ideation to as simple a subject as eating raw foods really gets
in the way, and spirals the whole "movement" into an even more fringe
status.

For many people, the raw foods trip leads to new perceptions and this is
part of the fun/adventure/scariness of the whole trip. But so many zealots
simply take it too far. I have heard the raw foods experience being offered
up as proof of Jesus, Mohammad, reincarnation, and heaps of other
"religions" as well support for promiscuity (that's a stroke, not a zinger,
Z.:), the "higher marality", and even Atlantis! Perhaps Jesus, Mohammad,
promiscuity, and Atlantis are all great stuff but I'd rather not have them
spicing my persimmons.

To take the increased intuition many discover on raw foods and claim ESP,
to take the improved health and claim humans "should" live to age 250, etc.
is just preposterous to me. Yes, I guess, people (including me!) do need to
believe in something, and as much as I disdain spectator sports, I do think
the world might be a better place if our zealotry were confined to rooting
for our favorite baseball team, and not for our homemade version of the
order of the universe. If these passions could be used up as uselessly as
possible (as in sports nuttiness), perhaps there were still be plenty of
room for folks to celebrate their own world view internally, without trying
to convert the world so that they may finally have a place in it.

Now, all I have to do is find a team to root for! :)

Rah, rah, rah,
Kirt