Bridging the gap

Fasting:

Fasting is voluntarily not eating food for varying lengths of time. Fasting is used as a medical therapy for many conditions. It is also a spiritual practice in many religions.

(from http://www.answers.com/topic/fasting)

I find the idea of fasting very interesting in its application to the Cartesian mind-body dualism we've been talking about in class. From my general understanding of fasting (in the spiritual, "self cleansing" way), the idea is almost against the mind-body dualism in the sense that the practicing faster wishes to bridge the Cartesian gap--the dualism, the separatism, if you will--between the entities of Body and Mind. Ultimately, from many spiritual and religious perspectives, fasting is supposed to be a supreme, deep bodily rest that allows reinvigoration and rejuvenation of the body, mind and soul. These things cannot be separated from one another and the absence of either mind or soul will consequently compromise the entire effort, causing the faster to fail or suffer through a miserable period of abstinence.

There is another kind of fasting that is "generally accepted" (http://www.answers.com/topic/fasting-research-and-general-acceptance), which is medical fasting, in which a patient would also abstain from food from anywhere between seven and twenty-one days (http://fasting.ygoy.com/medical-fasting/). The idea is that restricting foodstuffs from entering the digestive system would effectively allow the stomach and intestines to "rest" and focus on healing the body from toxins that lie dormant in impacted feces, kidneys, bladder, sinuses and skin. They even claim that is helps people with obesity and chronic illnesses such as cancer! What a miracle this fasting must be. Interestingly, though, when speaking of a medical fast, there is either equal weight placed upon the spiritual and health benefits, or the spiritual benefits are not even mentioned.

There are hordes of people and "experts" claiming this method to be the ultimate experience of improved well being and mental clarity. Without new toxins entering their bodies, people claim that they were blessed with clarity of thought, agility, and improved consciousness and healthier values (Tom Coghill, http://www.fasting.ws/juice-fasting/juice-fasting-water-fasting-detoxifcation/fasting-soul-searching)!

But...really? Does it really work (physiologically, that is?) Is the dualism really abolished in this practice, where mind and body meet on the common ground of need, want, or desire (i.e. willful starvation)? It's an interesting concept and one I'd really like to explore more. It's my own opinion that perhaps the health and spiritual benefits may only really be contained within the mind, just like the warts magically disappearing when painted red, or blood oozing from a Catholic mystic's eyes and hands. Is the mind really its own thing, its own elevated entity, or does it, in some way, control every aspect of the body, from healing to stigmas to warts? This is why I find the idea of fasting such an interesting one; to think that the mind could have such power to cause a person to a) willingly abstain from food, even as long as Jesus supposedly did (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXGj4DksFAY) or longer, and b) heal themselves through faith, will power, and the belief that abstaining from food (or as some would like to call it, starvation) could possibly cure any ailments, diseases and mind fog.

Ethically, we have to wonder about any doctor who would advise their patients to stop eating when they've been plagued by any sort of disease. How right would it sound? How right is this idea of starvation, and how accurate is it to say that starvation will cleanse the body the way so many claim it does? Scientifically, is there proof? Some say no (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4616603.stm). As a weight loss method, there is a split between yes and no (http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/features_julieshealthclub/2008/09/why-deprivation.html). Can we thus say that perhaps the successes and failures are based not in the body, but in the mental perseverance of those involved? I think so.