Fasting cleanses and heals on all levels of your being, including the mind and emotions. It is not uncommon to find that emotional issues and feelings that may have been suppressed in the past suddenly spring to the surface where they can then be released, leaving you feeling calmer with a greater sense of clarity and purpose.

It is important to bear in mind that many people have created a variety of defences against experiencing their feelings through food. Repressed feelings have to go somewhere, and hence what often happens is that they get stuffed down and covered up with "comfort foods" - foods that can alter mood, such as sugar, chocolate, coffee, alcohol, fast food, refined foods, etc. This is why fasting can seem so threatening to some people. Instead, see it as an incredible opportunity to finally process and let go of "old stuff" that is holding you back from realising your true potential.

Pythagoras actually required his students to fast for forty days before he would initiate them into the wisdom of his teachings. He felt that only through the power of such a fast could the minds of his students be sufficiently purified to understand the profound teaching of the mysteries of life.

Fasting also enhances the movement of spiritualising energy and hence may be hugely supportive in one's spiritual development. Among other things, it helps us become clearer receptacles for the assimilation of Divine energy into our systems. The more in touch we are with this Divine energy, the easier it then becomes for us to be motivated to live in a way that will continue to enhance our spiritual development.

Fasting is one of the great ways of approaching God: it releases the life force from enslavement to food, showing you that it is God who really sustains the life in your body. - Paramahansa Yogananda

Fasting is mentioned seventy-four times in the Bible, and many of the great spiritual teachers fasted, including Moses, Jesus, Elijah, Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, Hippocrates, Zarathustra, Confucius, Leonardo da Vinci and the Essenes. In his wisdom, Gandhi told people to fast and purify their bodies, and regardless of their circumstances, they would find peace and joy on Earth.

Fasting will bring spiritual rebirth... the light of the world will illuminate you when you fast and purify yourself. - Mahatma Gandhi