It seemed my visualizations actually did help.  Ever since, I’ve had the fasters I supervised use creative imagery or write affirmations to help their bodies heal.  There are lots of books on this subject.  I’ve found that the techniques work far better on a faster than when a person is eating normally.

After breaking the fast it took me six weeks to regain enough strength that I could run my usual distance in my regular time; it took me six months to regain my full 135 pound weight because I was very careful to break the fast slowly and correctly.  Coming off water with two weeks on dilute carrot juice I then added small portions of raw food such as apples, raw vegetables, sprouts, vegetable juices, and finally in the fourth week after I began drinking dilute carrot juice, I added seven daily well-chewed almonds to my rebuilding diet.  Much later I increased to 14 almonds, but that was the maximum amount of such highly concentrated fare my body wanted digest at one time for over one year.  I found I got a lot more miles to the gallon out of the food that I did eat, and did not crave recreational foods.  Overall I was very pleased with my educational fast, it had taught me a great deal.

If I had undertaken such a lengthy fast at a time when I was actually ill, and therefore had felt forced into it, my experience could have been different.  A positive mental attitude is an essential part of the healing process so fasting should not be undertaken in a negative, protesting mental state.  The mind is so powerful that fear or the resistance fear generates can override the healing capacity of the body.  For that reason I always recommend that people who consider themselves to be healthy, who have no serious complaints, but who are interested in water fasting, should limit themselves to ten consecutive days or so, certainly never more than 14.  Few healthy people, even those with a deep interest in the process, can find enough personal motivation to overcome the extreme boredom of water fasting for longer than that.  Healthy people usually begin protesting severely after about two weeks.  If there is any one vital rule of fasting, one never should fast over strong, personal protest.  Anytime you’re fasting and you really desire to quit, you probably should.  Unless, of course, you are critically ill.  Then you may have no choice—­its fast or die.

Common Fasting Complaints And Discomforts

The most frequently heard complaints of fasters are headaches, dry, cracked lips, dizziness, blurred vision with black spots that float, skin rashes, and weakness in the first few days plus what they think is intense hunger.  The dizziness and weakness are really real, and are due to increased levels of toxins circulating in the blood and from unavoidably low blood sugar which is a natural consequence of the cessation of eating.  The blood sugar does reestablish a new equilibrium in the second and third week of the fast and then, the dizziness may cease, but still, it is important to expect dizziness at the beginning.