Spiritual benefits of the long fast.
Channel: The Fasting Atheist
Date: 28/12/2017

This vlog will chart my 40 to 60 day water fast and provide references to materials on primary research into the health effects of fasting.
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"Day 18 and I'm still fasting; still an atheist.

Last time, I spoke about the physical ailments I have which I hope to see improved as a result of the fasting experience.
Today, still in answer to Marina's question, I want to talk a bit about the spiritual benefits I'm looking for.

First, some definitions:

A spiritual idea, or an intimation, or a feeling ... simply put, these are all members of a sub-category of brain-states; they are passing, from moment to moment and give us the illusory sensation of time, among other things.

Unlike these passing brain-states, things like "spirituality", spiritual inclination, nature, personality ... indeed sub-personalities ... these persist in time (some of them go back to our earliest experiences: for instance, we may have formed a neurotic defense to a particular insult offered to our still-narcissitic natures, as babies); as such, they are part of our neural networking or hard-wiring; to a large extent, they constitute who we are (or who we think we are, which for operational purposes might be the same thing); in brief, they can be thought of as our spiritual nature.

I mentioned "neurotic defenses" just now: I could also have added the following: our deep inclinations: our sense of trust or distrust; a happy, open personality, bitterness, optimism, realism, pessimism and so through the whole catalogue of terms we use to describe various human traits and the variety of human nature.

These neural networks, that is, our spiritual natures, also include the gamut of psycho-pathology: mood disorders, manias, addictions, and various species of intemperance: lusts, in short.

I want to turn to two of these: mood disorders and addictions, for the remainder of the video.

All my life I've been prone to various addictions that have led me by the nose, diverting me from good intentions (like finishing a degree in a timely manner, then taking a job overseas, or here in Australia); my addictions have also dissipated my energies and talents: in this fast, I wish to travel to the source of this intemperance and extinguish it in the fires of abstinence  (fine old biblical terms there: intemperance and abstinence, and apt too); I want to purge it in the fires of the fast.

Next to my moods: my moods, like my addictions, have led me a merry dance in life: you see, I have what doctors call a Borderline Personality Disorder, whereby my deeper, truer nature, comprised of my true passions, is over-ruled, time and again, by ephemeral moods, which may spring up like a summer breeze, sometimes blow out into a full-scale storm, but always  ALWAYS pass, subside and die away into a calm dawn sky.

In the same fire of which I just spoke, I wish to unmake these neural networks, forged in my adolescence or even younger, and, with the powerful aid of daily yoga and meditation, forge new networks: ones more conducive to spontaneity; I want to grow my brain in the direction of greater existential fluidity; that is, greater openness to the present moment: a state of being less hampered by the phantoms of the past which tell me how things will be because of how things were.

Finally (told you I'd get there in 5 minutes this time) this fast is a physical process designed to influence a physical mass: the brain, in ways designed to re-set its circuitry and open up new possibilities, new degrees of freedom.

Thanks for watching; catch y'all in about a week."