"I still remember that Chinese medicine dr who practically slapped me for not eating all kinds of beans. But I hate beans! "

heheh. i've never been a big fan of beans myself for the most part.. and never eat them anymore. forget that guy

I dont eat beans becasue you have to cook them. I like black beans though, they are just sort of toxic to eat raw.

Well..I eat lots of sprouted beans and stuff so I guess that counts.

I quit eating meat for spiritual, health, environmental, and ethical reasons. I have not had any meat/fish since I quit eating it a little less than 3 months ago, so I don't know if it would affect me in a physical or mental (with regard to cognitive ability/problem solving)way.

However, I'll admit that a vision where I watched reincarnation occur is the primary reason I quit eating meat. Because of that, I have to assume that eating meat once in a while would affect me spiritually. In short, I try to plan my words and actions in a way that my conscience is clear next time I approach the doors of hyperspace. As of now, I don't feel that eating meat helps prepare my spirit for flight.

I would NEVER nag anyone about their eating of meat. It is a personal choice. However, I do reserve the right to nag people about their soda/pop/carbonated beverage consumption, and dump their cans of poison out while they aren't looking

Peace and Happy Journeys

I have stopped eating any kind of meat, and started on raw/partially cooked veggies about 3 months ago (for health & ethical reasons), and while it has been quite a challenge to put up with it in the first week, afterwards I've felt more energic and alive than ever. Now, due to the Christmas holidays, I ate a few steaks and some other meat dishes, and I can say that yes, eating meat does come with negative effects, on all planes. Because each affects the other.

I feel very heavy after a meat meal and drained of energy(physical), this in turn affects my mental state, because I become more aware of my body sensations and less focused on the tasks at hand. Including meditation and spiritual work I've been attempting. So for me, this was the final "confirmation". Apparently I needed this. It's funny how easy one can slip back into habit...I don't even want to know how shitty I'd feel if I was still consuming the junk food I once used to...

I wonder if a tek exists to extract the actual food, or the (hypothetical) vital food essense from a happy meal, a twinky, you name it.

Ive been vegetarian for about a year now, and have no idea how I would react physically to eating meat. Mentally/ spiritually/ emotionally- I would be VERY disappointed in myself. Ive actually had dreams where I ate meat, one for example I was in a Mcdonalds and ordered a hamburger, and as I swallowed the first bite I remembered that I was a vegetarian, and a huge wave of guilt, sadness and disappointment came over me.

I am constantly trying to be a better person, and have less of a negative impact on the world around me, and of all the changes I have tried and am continuously trying to make in my life, for whatever reason I have been able to stick with not eating meat. Anytime I get the urge to eat meat (which happens less and less frequently as time goes on) I think about how long Ive made it so far, and how disappointed I would be in myself if I was to cave, and the urge goes away.

The exact/similar thing happened to me, but i chose chicken strips instead, and i remembered i was vegetarian, the "dream" seemed so real.

Jamie: I've been happily meatless for 20 years, largely for ethical and personal reasons, and this choice factors into my spiritual outlook. So eating meat is, on some level, against my religion. Which is more rude- my refusing meat that is offered, or to offer meat to me and expect me to eat it despite my spiritual convictions?

But I digress. As far as living a mostly vegetarian lifestyle but occasionally eating meat without fear of Ill effects, part of the key would simply be to not go too long between having meat- perhaps a month max? OCD heard of people- mostly body builder types- who refer to themselves as "flexetarians"... Mostly veggie or vegan diet, occasional meat as circumstances/cravings call for it.

Another part of avoiding gastric shock from occasional reintroduction of meat: keep it high quality, organic. Plan on pigging out at a Thanksgiving dinner on all kinds of flesh? Maybe warm up earlier that week with some fish...

^yeah I have actaully had many of the people who will act weird about me not wanting to eat with them randomly at their home etc, get all weird another day when I offer them some raw food. Because my raw vegan bread we make has onions, carrots and flax in it or something..they just wont touch it. I dont care personally I understand. I just dont expect others to expect me to eat at their home unless they are offering me a salad or something. Being a vegan and eating a raw diet this happens alot. If someone offers me some nuts or something that are not raw and I am hunry I mean I will eat them, as long as they arent seasoned with weird stuff or like cnady nuts etc..but I mean, what I(or anyone else) put into my/their body is a very personal thing. You cant really get more personal than that.

I eat very literally the cleanest diet I can and I am used to preparing all of my own food from scratch. I dont eat canned food or preserved foods and anything in package I might ever buy randomly like some nuts I read the ingrediants to make sure of what I am ingesting. I personally just cant afford to put something into my body that I dont want there in order to please another person. Anyone who has been in my shoes would understand this in a second. I refuse to regress the state of my heath back to where I was 2 years ago. I am healthier now than I have ever been and it is one of the most important things in my life now to not just survive but to thrive.

When I was sick I remember one day I came home from the doctors feeling helpless and sat in the shower crying becasue I felt soo horrible all the time and nothing was helping me despite seeing all these different doctors. I realized that I could not at that point rely on anyone else becasue they did not understand anyway, and why should they. There are plenty of things I dont understand becasue I had not been there. I made a promise to myself that day that I would start to live for me and not for anyone else or the baggage or bs they carry. I realized I just had not loved myself enough up until that point and realizing that actaully gave me more compassion for everyone else becasue so many people I am sure feel the same way.

This is why I decided to try a raw vegan diet and it just happened to work and I can afford to look back but I understand others skepticism etc.

Replies in this thread offer a psychosomatic and an enzyme & gut flora explanation for the negative reintroduction effects.

When I dropped gluten containing products I had serious cravings but now, after almost two years, bread and cookies are just dead to me.

Sub questions: Do you ever dream about eating meat ? I have an episode every three months where I'm eating pancakes but then I go "Hm, I'm eating pancakes. I don't eat pancakes. I must be dreaming !". My greatest reality check.

Thanks for the replies everyone. I'm starting to see a pattern here.

As for my meat experience- I used to eat meat all the time, and craved it all the time as a teenager, especially fast food. It was addictive for me. Now, at 30, I only eat meat about twice a week, and to be honest it doesn't taste as good as I remember. Not as satisfying. Since my wife works at an organic food co-op, I have started getting into health food and supplements since she gets them so cheap.

It just seems impractical for a Minnesota apartment-dweller like me to consistently get a variety of fresh, organic fruits and veggies so my solution was freeze-dried organic fruits and veggies combined with a fiber and protein supplement! I found a couple products from the Megafood vitamin company (no I don't work for them) that have made a huge difference in my health. One is an organic hemp fiber shake with whole food nutrients, fiber, probiotics, omega fatty acids, and enzymes and the other is a blend of freeze-dried greens, "superfoods", herbs, vitamins, hemp protein, and enzymes. They both support digestive health, food-cravings, and blood sugar and I could probably live on them alone, but I eat a lot of pasta and home-made hot cocoa. I don't think I could ever give up home-made hot cocoa.

I don't remember feeling this good since I was a little kid!

Haha nice. Every time I dream about eating meat it always tastes horrible. Kinda like dead flesh combined with plastic.

Dear All,

I have stopped eating meat about 2 years ago; eggs and dairies about half a year ago. My motives had nothing to do with morals and ethics. I consider myself a very selfish person and I did this in my pursuit of greater mental stability. If eating a goat's tail would make me think better, I would eat it. A few years back, in my ignorance, I was the one making fun of the hippie like people, and now I joined at the deep end as I am keeping a mainly raw vegan diet. I say 'mainly' because due to practical reasons I often prepare a cooked dish as I don't have yet enough knowledge to vary the tastes on the raw ones, but slowly-slowly I'm getting there.

As I started experiencing what mushrooms have to offer I started becoming more aware that something isn't right in the way I feel physically and I stopped eating meat shortly after. The positive effect was very unexpected. Every now and then over the past two years I accidentally had a bite of meat (ordered veggie soup in a restaurant and it came with bacon inside; the other time was on a plane and got a croissant only to find it had smoked ham inside; the other time ordered a stuffed mushroom in a restaurant, and when the first bite tasted incredibly foul I asked what is it stuffed with and they replied chicken, pork and veal).

What positive effect I experienced from stopping meat, I had two fold improvement when stopped dairies and eggs. By this time eggs were already getting a bit unappealing and dairies seemed to not want to cooperate with my digestive system. The decision however was made when I started learning about the casein proteins (may I recommend the documentary 'Forks Over Knives' and then when I looked into hormones and how they are contained within the animal products. Overall I can pinpoint three big thresholds: The removal of meat which had an immediate effect on my mind, like I have been drunk my whole life until then and now I was sober. Then the switching to raw food saw an immediate boost in energy, warmth and general overall health. Finally the stopping of dairies and eggs felt like a very chronic negative aspect of my health is now starting to return to normal, a type of normal which I never had.

To answer the question however, yes I do feel that the occasional eating of meat, eggs or dairy affects negatively the mind and spirit. Physically as well in the form of reduced energy, feeling heavy, slow and sleepy to an extent which makes it not worth it. However, I do want to emphasize that it is most important to know WHY you're doing this or that, and how you interpret it. I would say that it is a really bad idea to force yourself to do something. If you want to eat a burger, then eat it. If you want to eat ice cream, then eat it. Thinking like this, I can share that I stopped eating these things because I stopped wanted them, not because I forced myself. In fact I encouraged myself to eat them one more time, and then one more time, but the feedback I was getting from the body was just reinforcing that I don't really want to any more.

I couldn't help but notice how the things I was doing due to selfish reasons, are starting to align with morality and ethics with me not even caring about them.

Now to touch on another topic that was brought up in this thread, regarding the difference between plants and animals. The difference is the presence of the brain. Obviously you're not eating the brain itself but the presence of the brain signifies what kind of spirit was connected to that body and as such one can conclude that a plant or a rock had a simpler type of spirit whilst something which has the complications of the brain are more heavy entities. It's not a big deal to play with some bricks in a brick factory and break some of them for the sake of curiosity or just playing, however you shouldn't attempt to remove or damage a brick from a building. Plants are like bricks in a bricks factory and animal parts are like the bricks in a building. I speculate that there is a link of sorts between the DNA and the brain which anchors a soul to the body and ingestion of body parts from animals would result in a blend of sorts. "You are what you eat", and I also want to mention the cannibals of ye oldie days that were eating the hearts of warriors in order to gain spiritual strength.

Therefore, whilst it might be a good idea for some animals to devour others, both body and spirit in order to achieve an average with greater stability across the realm, for others it might be a bad idea to pollute themselves as this is holding one's mind back...

Kind Regards,

Ethan

@SpartanII
Make hot cocoa by mixing a cocoa powder with a bit of hot water then filling the cup with almond milk (make it at home by blending soaked almonds with a few cups of water and then filtering) which can be warmed up (to 48 degrees C) if you want. Sweeten with honey.

i have always thought that eating tortured/factory farmed meat is an unexceptable part of my diet but i never did anything about it, i just ignored my objection and cracked on with £3 chickens and £2 mince ect, as i needed meat for protein and i cant afford to buy meat from properly raised/free range animals.

I have been reading through the current veggie threads and i think its about time i got a grip and stopped buying and eating these abused animals. This is one of the things thats on my "list of change" for this year. Im liking the idea of raw food, dont know why just seems like a good idea.

i currently eat pretty badly and i dont really have any cooking skills whatsoever, i can knock up chilli's/spag bol and stews but not much else.
Anyone got any suggestions for cook books (or free stuff online) that will get me going on my healthy eating mission.

(sorry for the swing off topic)

Expanding on this, you can create a cutting or callus from a plant and wind up with a genetically identical life form, thus completely nullifying death of an organism.

Thanks. I've been using 2% organic cow milk and white sugar but I'll try it with almond milk and honey.

For everyone who has had bad experiences with animal products after being veg:
How often were you eating meat, and where was it coming from? Meat from factory farms has extremely off balance nutrient levels compared to naturally raised livestock, not to mention antibiotics and pesticides.
You feel miserable after eating fast food or meat-heavy meals because the meat is either trash or simply too much.

Some people clearly benefit from abstaining, but it has always seemed to me that eating wholesome foods is responsible for increased health, not cutting options out of your diet. There are obviously exceptions, such as gluton intolerances, but I am just wondering.

Well I have been now cutting all meat since year ago and this has made me a lot more sensitive and generally feeling better overall. Transitioning from cooked vegan into raw and then into low fat raw vegan. Now as I have been lfrv about 3 months the difference is so big that eating meat does not make sense anymore. At all. The difference is really that big, you should try it yourself, the low fat raw vegan, for like 30 days. Also maybe try other kinds of diets 30 days each too to get what it feels like and stick with the one you like?

Eating too much fat now makes me feel slow and sleepy. Eating a lot of protein makes my stomach feel weird and acidic for example when eating too much tomatoes.

Have not eaten meat since year ago but seeing and smelling it just turns me off and experiencing that I know how bad it would feel to try to digest that after all the fruit.

I can basically echo this sentiment. I've found that if I just listen to my body it wants less meat than I'm giving it, though I couldn't tell you how much of that is psychosomatic since I didn't hear what my body was saying until after getting information that lead me to believe current developed nations lifestyles aren't the greatest. Regardless I agree that forcing yourself to accept something is probably not the best way to go about it. Still, I know people that are stuck in destructive cycles (food and otherwise) who need to force a habit change to realign their perspective. They know that they want to get somewhere but cravings keep them pinned.



Interesting perspective. It still seems subjective to say "well this consciousness is 'higher' or 'lower' than another." I say this despite basically agreeing with you.




This argument only holds if you advocate that every organic farm make clones of every vegetable they grow.