A Brief History of My Fasting [Article]
I have gone more than three days without food and water. On purpose. And it felt great! So now I do it regularly. Here’s my journey with fasting, from traditional Tibetan techniques, to my own customized version. Maybe you’ll find your own version that works for you too.
The Body Knows What to Do
Why fast? It is wise to give the body a respite from digestion every now and then. Our bodies were never really meant to be digesting all the time, which is basically the case for most of us these days. No sooner have we finished digesting one meal or snack and the next one is already on its way. (Let’s be honest; a lot of the time the previous food hasn't even fully digested.)
However, far more important than the rest itself is the activation of the processes that the body enters when it is not digesting. This is when the body starts cleaning things up and repairing damage. This is a very, very useful process.
Simply allowing the body to do this is the best insurance against imbalance, toxicity and disease. The body knows what to do, we just need to give it the space to do it. And that means allowing it time to do something other than digest food.
From Gross to Subtle
In 2004 I organized the first North American tour for my teacher, Tulku Lobsang. After that, the next thing I organized for him was a purification retreat at his center in Manali, India in the summer of 2005.
The retreat explored bringing a Tibetan yogic fasting practice to Western folks. For 21 days we fasted, ingesting only the essence of medicinal flowers, a formulation called chulen. We had some water, and sometimes a little barley porridge, called tsampa. But mostly, it was just 21 days of the chulen pills. (Here you need to picture Tibetan Medicine pills that look like brown pellets, not pharmaceutical pills.)
This is a yogic practice because in addition to cleansing the physical body, it supports energetic functioning and the elevation of consciousness. As the physical body gets less heavy and draws less energy for digestion, the subtle, energetic body can be more readily experienced. As our awareness of the subtle body increases, our practices go deeper.
And so, fasting becomes a purification practice on multiple levels. The physical body purifies by reducing its toxic load and damaged cells. The mind has less unnecessary thoughts, becoming calmer and clearer. And the subtle body channels open, improving the movement of both energy and consciousness.
Doing it Wrong
Wow, what a great opportunity that first chulen retreat was! However, I didn’t do it right. I was attending the retreat while also being in charge of running it, helping with the other course that was taking place at the center at that same time, and working in the office. It was too much. I was running around with my focus projected outside of myself. I was tired. I wasn’t doing my practices. I wasn’t meditating.
Despite that, in the end, I did lose a significant amount of excess fat. I didn’t have any health problems I was aware of, so I cannot say what deeper healing may have taken place. But I definitely looked radiant and glowy. And then I made another rooky mistake—I didn’t take care of how I broke the fast. Immediately afterwards I ate way too much, way too fast. That came with some suffering, and also a big rebound effect. Big mistake.
However, I got a taste of what was possible and what a powerful tool fasting is. My interest was piqued. In the years since then, I have done multiple 10-day wheatgrass fasts, water fasting, extended calorie-restricted fasts (keeping calories very low, less than 500 calories), alternate day fasting, fat fasting (eating only fats, no protein or carbohydrates) and intermittent fasting (eating within a time-restricted window each day). I’ve played with the macronutrients, the time frames, and the frequency until I found the thing that works best for me.
Defying What We’ve Been Told
I had heard about dry fasting, and to be honest, I dismissed it outright as being too extreme. No water?? I have trained myself to drink plentiful amounts of water. I am very aware of the important role that it plays in supporting the kidneys, flushing out toxins, hydrating the fascia, maintaining brain function and cellular respiration. Weren’t we all told that the body would die after 3 days without water?
And then, at a conference I attended on the latest research on biological regeneration, rejuvenation and longevity, I met a man that included information about dry fasting in his presentation. There were two things that sparked my curiosity—hearing someone’s empirical experience, as well as the science to explain how it was possible.
(Brief side note on some science and historical comments. I encourage you to do your own research.
The body does not in fact go without water. Rather, the body creates its own perfect water endogenously by using the hydrogen from broken down fat cells combined with inhaled oxygen. This is why it is healthiest to dry fast in an area with more pure air.
The body enters both ketosis and autophagy more rapidly on a dry fast. It is like we are sending a much stronger signal to the body to break down everything that’s not essential. (Ketosis is when the body uses ketone bodies from the breakdown of fat for energy when glucose is not present. Autophagy is the process of cleaning up old, senescent and cancerous cells to make way for regeneration of young cells.)
One day of dry fasting is considered to be equivalent to three days of water fasting in terms of how efficient the body is at autophagy.
There is a larger spike in Human Growth Hormone after dry fasting, which is known to play an important role in repairing brain, organ and other tissue, as well as boosting metabolism and youthful skin.
Plus, dry fasting is found in traditions around the world, such as during Ramadan and the Native American traditions of vision quests.)
I had to try for myself. It was the only way to know for sure. And so I did.
I told myself I would do it for two days and see what happened. Instead, I went completely without food or water for 88 hours. I ingested absolutely nothing—no supplements, no flower essences, no water at all. What surprised me the most was that it was not difficult for me.
Beforehand, I was dreading the feeling of thirst, the parched throat, the aching desire. I was bracing myself to amass massive amounts of willpower. But it was not necessary. The deep thirst never came. I would experience what I consider the “thought-feeling” of thirst, the impetus that would normally make me reach for some water. In those moments, I would simply remind myself that I wasn’t doing that right now and choose to focus on something else. The thought-feeling did not persist.
And the thirst never went beyond that. I still made saliva and had a moist throat. I still urinated (much less volume, of course). I still had energy. In fact, I was shocked that on the evening of the third day, when I went for a walk to watch the sunset, I spontaneously decided to jog home. And I’m not a runner! I work out, I jump rope, but I rarely go running. To top it off, earlier that day I had made multiple trips up my four flights of stairs carrying boxes of books and doing laundry. In short, I felt amazing.
With some disappointment, I ended that first dry fast because I was going to be flying to Europe in a couple days and I wanted to be at home and in full control while I broke my fast. (I learned my lesson from that first Chulen retreat in 2005.) Since then, I have incorporated regular (at least monthly) dry fasts into my life. I’ve found that shorter periods more often (maybe 2 days every 10 days) work really well for me too. And the days after the fast are often just as valuable for me as the fast itself.
The Next Level
As I am becoming more accustomed to dry fasting, I am eager to combine it with periods of more intense focus on my Tantrayana practices. So far I have been dry fasting while still maintaining all my usual daily responsibilities. But it is clear that whatever time I can carve out while fasting to focus on going inward and experiencing the more subtle aspects of my being is incredibly powerful.
In September of 2019 in Italy, Tulku Lobsang offered his second chulen purification retreat. I was not able to attend, but I heard a lot about it afterward. It was a much more elevated offering than that first time in India in 2005. It was exactly the experience we always talked about creating—a quiet, relaxed environment, a focus on gentle movement practices, meditation and visualization. And: extra support for the body in the form of steam rooms, saunas, hot water, refreshing cold plunges and massage. A context of deep spiritual development and turning inward. An introduction to one’s true, inner self. An opportunity to assess habitual patterns and priorities. This is the true purpose of a fast.
Find Your Own Way
I’m not saying that dry fasting is for everyone. I have a lot of experience with fasting so I found it really approachable. In my experience, it is far easier to cut out everything than to allow myself some food or water. If I don't activate my digestion at all, it is quite happy to stay quiet and be ignored. But as soon as I give it one small thing, it is like poking a giant. It just won’t let me forget that it is there, wanting more. It really does seem like flipping a switch. So, it is actually less challenging to fast without flipping the digestive switch on at all.
For sure, everyone is unique and I wouldn't presume to know what is best for you. But what I do know is that you should find some way to allow your body to activate its cleansing mechanisms and clean up old and abnormal cells. By releasing toxins and eliminating their load on the body, you become more resilient to disease. By abstaining from food you have a chance to reboot your relationship to food and hunger. And afterwards, the body is hormonally primed to rebuild with the purest building blocks available.
And there is an even more potent reason to fast: to connect to your inner being. To experience what is there when you strip away external inputs. To attune to yourself to a more subtle level.
As for me, I remain in complete awe of this body. It is able to tap into powers and abilities far greater than many of us imagine. And I am just beginning to scratch the surface.
Here’s to your optimization, your energy and your light. Let it shine!