Meat or No Meat: The Vegan vs. Carnivore Debate

The following is a post from a discussion regarding a link involving eating red meat and cancer from a good friend of mine, Antonio Valladares, on his Facebook page where he asked me to share another perspective so as not to fuel the relentless, ongoing debate between who's got the better evidence...which by the way is infantile and out-welcoming its stay in our culture.  How can we evolve as Humanity if we allow our ignorance to take the reigns and guide us in Life?  I have been working on a manuscript for the past two years that goes ever so deep into this topic and my response to the post is just a sampling.  Enjoy:

To compare what animals eat to what Humans eat will always result in conflict and misunderstanding and can only serve the ego's need for opinions and validation. What Humans have in common with animals are a physical, etheric, and astral bodies. What distinguishes Humans from animals is the existence of an Ego/I-organization - animals are instinctual and react out of instinct and not by free will. Humans can act from free will and always by conscious choice. Plants on the other hand have a physical and etheric body. Nutrition is a dynamic process in the Human where it takes what is "non-Human" and transforms it into what is "Human" - in other words it takes substance and destroys whatever part of it that it was and creates new subtle forces that only Humans have (ie. Ego/I-organization).
When Humans eat plants they have to destroy the plant's physical and etheric structures and then create astral and Ego/I forces from it. To requires much more inner work for the Human organism and thus explains why in certain religions and spiritual traditions that advocate fasting from animal flesh to be come somewhat more Enlightened. When humans eat meat, the animal has already done most of the work of destroying and transforming the physical and etheric structures and in this sense can make an individual "spiritually lazy" in developing their own "spiritual" forces. Also, by eating meat, one has to deal with and take in all of the animal's astralities (ie. feelings, emotions, etc) and if the person is not grounded enough, they will experience the animal's fears, aggression, horniness, etc.
Eating exclusively a plant diet can help one develop more inner/esoteric spiritual capacities but the major warning here is that if the person has ANY unresolved emotional/mental/spiritual/karmic issues can develop what's called "Luciferic" tendencies from the study of anthroposophy where one becomes like the fallen angel and blindly believes in their self-righteousness and pseudo-divinity, holier-than-thou mentality. This is evident in some "vegans" who swear that they are absolutely right and all meat-eaters are wrong (again more conflict and division). Eating exclusively animal flesh contributes to one being somewhat "spiritually lazy" where the person relies on the astralities of the animal to create their inner Human forces. In anthroposophy, this end of the spectrum leads people to be more "Ahrimanic", or attached to the world of matter. In other words, excessive flesh consumption leads to materialism and denial of what is all spiritual.
The debate between animal flesh and veganism is a distraction from the ego experiencing what Is. It attaches to reference points to validate its existence and to be conscious of experience. Dualism always creates separation with one side contrasting with the other. On the microscopic level, quantum science demonstrates the separation is a necessary illusion and the actuality is an interconnected matrix/field where both sides of the fence are in reality the same fence and debating between meat vs. no meat is like your left hand arguing with your right hand about which is better....totality ridiculous but enlightening at the same time.

The Mind and the Soul

The mind/ego thinks it knows the Soul because that's what the mind/ego does: it anchors itself to something that it can attach to and creates boundaries so that it can separate you (as the observer) from the object of your perception (the observed).  This allows you to be conscious of the experience.  But the Soul is not something that can be grasped and bounded because it is expansive, limitless, and boundless.  In fact, it is invisible and immaterial and because of this the mind/ego does its best to interpret what it is.  From the Rene Magritte painting to the left (The Human Condition) you can see that the painting of the ocean is a reflection of the actual ocean outside.  This is similar to what the mind/ego is as a limited and fragmented painting which is only a reflection of the greater, boundless Soul such as the actual ocean.  The mind/ego as a sense of self is only a reflection of the True Soul.

The Soul can become addicted to the body and fall into the illusion of the mind/ego's sense of self and forget its actual true, eternal Self.

How does one discriminate between what is from the Soul and what is from the mind/ego?

From the practice of vigilant observation.  The mind/ego operates in the realm of time and space.  The Soul realm is timelessness.  Commonly, if a thought requires some time, it's from the mind/ego and what's the first thing to pop up out from what appears to be nowhere is usually a message from the Soul.  The Soul communicates through images, vibrations, feelings, dreams, and an inner knowing and not so much through the use of words such as with the mind/ego.  The mind/ego uses thoughts based upon past experiences and knowledge (elements of time) and the Soul uses intuition which is a living, dynamic process of guiding the Individual.  With vigilant observation, one develops discriminative intelligence and there is no longer a painting separated from what is painted.  There simply is what Is.....

Observations of the Fitness Industry

Has anyone else noticed this in the fitness industry?: you get good at what you do; you start lecturing locally and then conferences; you write some e-books and articles; you crank out some DVDs; and when you really get popular, you start taking on interns and then start providing certifications; and then when your business is financially sound, you start "business" coaching. What's next after that?
Some sort of Soul/Spiritual connection. That's right. You heard it hear first.

If you're familiar with pioneers in the fitness world such as Paul Chek, you'll clearly understand that when one starts to pay attention to their physical health, this paves the way towards mental, and then soul/spiritual health.  Pretty soon, the popular names in the industry will start lecturing or acknowledging their practices of the spiritual aspects that have been purposely kept dormant due to the public's ignorance of this area.  For those "experts" who deny or refuse to transform and adapt to this wave of enlightenment, what you'll see is  a little bit of the same stuff they've been teaching over the years but with catchy/trendy marketing tags with the illusion of promoting something different. 

Overall, the fitness/wellness industry is being propelled towards a greater consciousness and once you pay attention to the trends of pioneers who are already there, you can get a sense of what's ahead.  Body - Mind - Soul....it's the Soul aspect that is about to shine.

Meditation may be much more effective than drugs in treating heart disease: A Recent Study

A recent study (and the first of its kind) presented at the annual American Heart Association’s conference last year (11/09) that revealed an almost 50% reduction in heart attack, stroke, and death in heart disease patients practicing Transcendental Meditation (TM). This study was sponsored by the NIH with a $3.8 million grant and conducted at the Medical College of Wisconsin and was a randomized controlled trial lasting nine years following 201 test participants.

The fascinating thing about this first-ever, government-sponsored study was that no drug, surgery, or combination of treatments for heart disease has ever been researched to reduce heart disease risks up to 50% and all it took for these patients was practice in TM.

Here are some interesting facts regarding heart disease:

• Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the leading cause of death in the United States

• There are nearly 1.5 million heart attacks per year in the United States, according to the American Heart Association

•  An American will suffer a heart attack every 34 seconds

•  Coronary heart disease is also the leading cause of health care costs. More than $475 billion is spent annually on treating CHD, including: $100,000 for each coronary bypass surgery, $50,000 for each angioplasty, and $30,000 for each diagnostic cardiac catheterization.

• There are nearly 500,000 coronary artery bypass grafts and 1.3 million angioplasties performed every year.

• Stress is thought to contribute to the development of CHD.

Transcendental Meditation is but one approach to meditation and this study opens the doorway for the newer perspective that a meditative/contemplative practice may be a more effective alternative to the typical prescriptive treatments for heart disease.

TAKE HOME MESSAGE:  Meditation practice is effective for the treatment of heart disease.

Pediasure and the Illusion of Healthy Nutrition for Our Children

Recently I observed some kids having a snack drinking a bottle of Pediasure which brought back memories of when I used to work in the hospital and patients were given the adult version of Pediasure (Ensure) to assist in their recovery.  One would think that this stuff must be good for you if they exclusively serve it to hospital patients, right?  I call major stinking bullshit on this.  Anyone can read the ingredients of these products and quickly get an idea that 1) there’s a lot of sugar (which is listed as the second ingredient) and 2) what are all these big and fancy words?  These products contain synthetic isolates of nutrients made in a lab and nowhere in Nature.  This means that Man tried to be like God and make a new and improved version of food.  This might work if we were simply robots and a mechanical approach to our function was the answer but obviously we as Humans are much more than machines that require isolates of nutrition.  The food we eat, the whole foods as they come from Nature, are complexes of nutrients that work synergistically to sustain our life experience.  For example, Vitamin C is not one nutrient called ascorbic acid; it’s actually a complex called a fruit such as an orange.  It was thought that it was a single ingredient that was responsible for a particular effect; but it is now known that each ingredient works with the greater whole.  Our bodies will do what they can with synthetic isolates but over time there’s just so much it can withstand and when physical and mental symptoms manifest, it’s the body crying out for help.

With children, their bodies are growing and very resilient to consuming poor quality food.  Of course it won’t kill them right away and yes, their bodies will do its best with the poor quality nutrition but the point is if more parents were aware of how they can help their kids by simply making more conscious choices in their children’s diets, most would change.  But then again, this may force them to rethink about their own beliefs on what is healthy and many may not have the health reserves to do so.  In fact, most parents who feed Pediasure to their kids already think they are doing their kids a service by giving them this stuff because it’s “recommended by pediatricians”.  This is where conditioning from advertisements, marketing, and corporate alliances and sponsorships educate the public and influence their choices with regards to health.  From the evidence of the rise in childhood obesity, food allergies, autism, juvenile diabetes, and ADHD, there may be a link to the processed food that is marketed to our kids and these conditions.

Below is the actual ingredient list for their chocolate flavor drink:

ingredients:

WATER, SUGAR (SUCROSE), CORN MALTODEXTRIN, MILK PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, HIGH OLEIC SAFFLOWER OIL, SOY OIL, COCOA POWDER (PROCESSED WITH ALKALI), SOY PROTEIN ISOLATE, MEDIUM-CHAIN TRIGLYCERIDES; LESS THAN 0.5% OF: SHORT-CHAIN FRUCTOOLIGOSACCHARIDES, POTASSIUM CHLORIDE, MAGNESIUM PHOSPHATE, CELLULOSE GEL, CALCIUM PHOSPHATE, CALCIUM CARBONATE, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, POTASSIUM PHOSPHATE, POTASSIUM CITRATE, SALT (SODIUM CHLORIDE), CHOLINE CHLORIDE, SOY LECITHIN, MONOGLYCERIDES, C. COHNII OIL, ASCORBIC ACID, CELLULOSE GUM, CARRAGEENAN, m-INOSITOL, TURMERIC, POTASSIUM HYDROXIDE, TAURINE, FERROUS SULFATE, dl-ALPHA-TOCOPHERYL ACETATE, L-CARNITINE, ZINC SULFATE, CALCIUM PANTOTHENATE, NIACINAMIDE, FD&C RED#3, MANGANESE SULFATE, THIAMINE CHLORIDE HYDROCHLORIDE, PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE, RIBOFLAVIN, CUPRIC SULFATE, VITAMIN A PALMITATE, FOLIC ACID, CHROMIUM CHLORIDE, BIOTIN, SODIUM SELENATE, SODIUM MOLYBDATE, POTASSIUM IODIDE, PHYLLOQUINONE, CYANOCOBALAMIN, AND VITAMIN D3.

CONTAINS SOY AND MILK INGREDIENTS.

Pediasure contains milk concentrates and soy protein isolates which are cheap forms of protein.  It also contains synthetic vitamins and minerals along with other preservatives and food colorings. And let us not forget the cheap fats such as soy oil and safflower oil which by the way tend to go rancid which would explain the preservatives.  What ever happened to giving our kids whole foods?  Most kids are already desensitized to the natural sweetness of ripe produce and the wholesomeness of a home-made, prepared meal because 1) growing up with processed food and 2) that’s what the mother ate while pregnant and that’s what the parents still eat, and 3) from the billions of dollars spent on advertising targeting children – the minds are held captive as slaves to society’s beliefs.  For most of us in these modern times we grew up eating processed food and fast food and we seem to be okay, right?  But the truth is that for many of us we didn’t start to change our diet and nutrition habits until we started to feel unhealthy, overweight, sick, or depressed.

So why should we have our kids repeat the cycle?  If we start being more aware and challenge rather than passively accept our beliefs on health, don’t you think our kids wouldn’t be too far behind following us?  Just because you grew up believing something to be true does not mean it is true for you as an adult.  And the same goes for your children.  We always have a choice when it comes to matters of our life experience and thus our health.