The idea is this: the fast gives nature a chance to clean you out, clean out every diseased organ, and stop feeding every abnormal growth.

The beneficial results from fasting are little less than marvelous. The cures from so-called "incurable" diseases border on the miraculous. It's like putting an old and much-abused automobile into a good workshop and having it completely overhauled; it runs like a new car when you take it out, but of course it isn't a new car, nor will you have a new body, but you will come very near to having one, if you take a complete fast and get rid of the old one almost down to the bones and skin, and this can be done without injury and with positive benefit, startling as it may appear.

And now I suppose you recall stories of shipwrecked crews and the story writers' vivid pictures of the awful agony of "hunger pangs" when people are starving, and you shudder and say, "Not for mine, thank you!"

Strange to say, there is very little inconvenience from hunger during a fast, and this chiefly at the very start of it. At the second, or third day at the most, all desire for food usually disappears, and until it reappears naturally, the fast should not be broken.

Strange again, but many people while fasting are not inconvenienced by physical exhaustion, and after the system has become in a measure accustomed to the fast they find their strength, lost in the first part of it, and are able to do vigorous physical feats. For in stance, an authentic case is recorded where a young lady walked twenty-four miles on the twentieth day of her fast without any serious fatigue.

As a rule the first and second days of the fast are the hardest; the craving for food will be very noticeable, especially at meal times; the stomach will be all upset; the tongue will commence to get a thick coat, the breath to be offensive, and you will literally feel "all in." It is about this point, possibly the third day, that most people with weak backbones stop, and forever after they go around telling about how they "fasted" and how it did them no good, etc.

Fortunately there are many who, when they go into a thing, go in to win out, and refuse to give up until they have made a thorough attempt according to the requirements. These people first study up on the question to the point of convincing themselves that others have been greatly benefited by fasting, that it is not dangerous, that one can easily go a month without food and without any serious consequences to the body, - and so they stick through the first few disagreeable days, stick until old Mother Nature says to them, "Having made a thorough job of my house cleaning and put this body in the best possible shape, considering the previous injuries done to it, now I'm ready for business again."

The only danger from fasting comes in breaking the fast. The fast can be broken at any time, but if broken before hunger appears naturally, the beneficial effects will be only partial, though even a short fast is helpful. No matter how miserable you feel, and many do feel miserable all through this ordeal, for in a sense it is an ordeal, you need not worry as long as you are drinking plenty of water and taking your enemas regularly. Not until the tongue cleans up should you take food of any kind; it will start around the edges first, a nice little red band, and keep working inward until you have the nicest little soft red tongue, full of "taste" for the food, that you will soon be eating with a relish that you have not known since the days when you were a barefooted kid.

There are several ways advocated to break a fast. The writer broke a fast once by using grape juice, just a tablespoonful to start with, and increasing the dose gradually each hour up to a glassful. The second day he started on milk and gradually kept increasing the quantity for several days. Many "fast experts" advocate living on an exclusive milk diet for a week or so after the fast. Milk does not agree with some people, and in such cases this would probably not be best. Broths and easily digested solid foods can be quickly substituted, though one must ever bear in mind that after the fast is broken the appetite is ravenous and must be controlled until the body becomes normal weight.

In most cases the lost weight is regained inside a couple of weeks, and usually to people who were under weight before the fast several pounds of good clean tissue is added. In cases of overweight the fast always helps to bring the body back to its proper normal weight.

Here is the entire situation in a nut shell: if you have lived right and are in perfect health, as you will be, then there is no sense in your fasting, unless you do this as a "spiritual experience," and there are some interesting results in this particular. But if you are not in perfect health, fasting will give nature a chance to clean out the impurities from your system and give you a new lease of life in a way that only a personal experience can convince you is possible.

I know of a certain lady whose health had run down to an alarming point. She finally could stand the strain no longer, and went to a physician who diagnosed her case as pronounced diabetes. Not satisfied with the one examination, she went to two other physicians and received the same report; this threw her into a frightened state that immensely aggravated the difficulty and she was constantly up and down, up and down, throughout the night, and the urinal discharge was very copious; it was a mystery where all the water came from. The lady had a floating kidney, and the physicians all advised an immediate operation. The matter looked very serious, so serious that she took a trip to Battle Creek to have an examination there at the sanitarium. The result of this trip was not satisfactory, and she came back more discouraged than ever. At this time I had been reading up on the matter of fasting, and also had taken a short experimental fast of seven days, and I advised that this lady take a fast. She had not studied the matter herself, but on the promise of a trip to the Southland, her home (for this lady happens to be my wife), she finally consented and the fast began.

It was a very trying ordeal for both of us. The amount of matter that was thrown out from the system was unbelievable. It seemed that the little woman would actually turn inside out, and the vomiting spells were very frequent and very painful. She was soon so weak that she took to the bed. On the second day the desire for food left her, and later when she found she had no desire to eat, she became frightened, and on the fifth day this grew upon her so that she felt that she was going to pass in her checks right away. Her nervous mental condition became so serious that we decided to break the fast, though it had not really a good start. For all that, she soon found she could eat, and in a remarkably short time she was strong enough for her trip South, and when she returned a month later, she was almost one of these "new women" we read so much about, having added many pounds of good healthy flesh and having completely eliminated, for the time being, her old complaint. I verily believe my wife would be dead today if we had followed the advice of the three physicians, and if she had not taken that fast; and that's recommendation enough to convince me that fasting beats filling one's hide with a lot of "dope" called medicine, or cutting out one's internal organs.

An anticipated question, and a frank answer:

"For what kind of diseases do you advise fasting?"

I do not advise fasting at all. All I do advise is that you carefully study into the subject and decide the matter for yourself on the merits of the case.

I will say this, however, that there is good evidence to prove that even cancer can be cured in this manner; and I am personally convinced that any disease that the doctors can even "better," can be completely cured through fasting.

And this in parting: if you ever decide to go through a fast, also decide that when you get through you will start in at that point to live right, for unless you do the fast will be but a temporary freedom from disease. You can't disobey nature's laws and be healthy. If you are determined to gratify your appetite and follow your bad habits, what's the use of fasting at all? The sooner the fool-killer gets you the better it will be for the race.

Patient -
Patient - "Is It Absolutely Necessary To Operate On Me, Doctor?" Doctor - "Well, Ahem, Not Exactly Necessary, But Customary."