>Hi Kirt!
>I'm curious about cassia.  What is it?  What does it taste like?

>I've been a member of the  NH M2M since it began and have loved every issue,
>have met several fellow M2Mers here in CA and also in Florida.  If anyone is
>interested in the address, let me know.
>>Smiles,
>Sandy

I'm surprised there wasn't a discussion there about it. Anyway...

Cassia is a black pod-like fruit of the a tree known as the "golden shower
tree" because of its incredible display of cascading yellow flowers. The
fruits are around two feet long or more, cylindrical, with a diameter btwn
one half inch and an inch. The whole look is very much the same as a long
hand-rolled cigar. (Imagine long black candles hanging amoung the blossoms
and you have a _very_ remarkable tree.) The casing is woody and cracks
along the stem end to blossom end axis on opposite sides (with the careful
cajoling of a nut cracker) to reveal seed compartments. Each compartment is
about a quarter inch length defined by circular woody disks which form
cross sections. These disks are coated with a black honey-like goo which is
what is eaten--usually sucked off the disk while in the mouth, and then the
disk is discarded.

It tastes like chocolate, licorice, mint, honey, and a million other
flavors depending on...well, depending on how it tastes! The taste-change
which indicates you've eaten enough is often a biting/burning one not
unlike light honeys (at least for me), though this too varies per person
and per instance.

It supposedly increases the permeability of all cell walls enabling better
molecular exchanges (read detox and rebuilding work) and increases the
deposition of toxins from the lymph and blood into the colon. In other
words, you get the shits big time. You will be in no doubt that you are
indeed detoxing when you experience cassia. There isn't much sense to
eating it if you consume cooked food; you'd just be on the toilet all the
time. Some people get fairly severe cramping at first. It is touted as
essential/mandatory for those starting to eat exclusively instincto,
especially for those with visible pathologies. If my next door neighbor
wanted to start instincto, I would advise that the first thing to do is get
some cassia.

My experience with it is that testing it every morning keeps raw foods
tasting great. The colon discomfort falls off as you become less toxic.
When we lived in Thailand (for 4 years) it was easily gatherable for free
from trees and even just picking up pods off the ground around trees. Since
it was free for me, I tested it most every morning, eating varying amounts
according to pleasure. (If using it for the first time you might want to
only eat two or three disks which is often enough to stir up things for
beginners.)

The lighter side of cassia: My principal (I was a 5th grade teacher) in
Bangkok was a strange fellow and always on about a new something or other
(coffee enemas, singing self-wrote C&W theme songs for the elementary
school, etc). He was real curious about cassia and was always asking me
about getting him some and finally I gave him a couple pods to shut him up,
telling him to be careful about using it since it was so powerful,
generally considered poisonous (to cooked food folk). He pooh-poohed me
telling how he was all detoxified years ago and such (he ate as many donuts
as the next guy from what I could see). I told him maybe he should try it
on a weekend morning just to be sure. Again, he claimed it wasn't going to
do much for him since he was so "pure" already. Well, you can guess the
rest. He was pretty much out of commission the next day at school, back and
forth to the toilet and looking grim according to the secretaries. Even at
3pm (I was in some BS meeting with him) he was having trouble. He said he
ate about five disks before going to bed and was up since three o'clock in
the morning.

I've also heard that the active ingredient in Exlax-type products is from
the bark of the cassia tree though I've never confirmed that.

Anyone who is serious about detoxing and recovering their native health
would find cassia useful. The best part is that your taste can control the
"dose" so that you will be able to handle whatever happens. I could imagine
testing it before a fast, or breaking a fast with it. I ate some after a
week of a 20 day fast (so I guess it wasn't a fast, eh?) and had a BM which
seemed to make the rest of the fast more pleasant. Still, it is a fruit,
not a medicine.

BTW, my wife doesn't like that cassia is so important to instincto. She
doesn't deny that it is important, just that instincto seems more like a
cult when one is always supposed to test cassia in the morning first thing.
It's a far cry from grape kool-aide, but I do know what she means a little
bit. Then again, she hates to detox, whereas I'm stupid enough to welcome
it...

Cheers,
Kirt