The following are the introductions used in our latest Raw Empowerment Group in Eugene.  We were inspried by Victoria Boutenko's 12 step concept as it applies to raw foods, but as her book, 12 Steps to Raw Foods was not yet published, we kind of made it up as we went along.  Here, then, is what we came up with.  Keep in mind, we read them in a group setting, although they still have tremendous value to help you cover all the bases that NEED to be covered as you make a transition to a raw food diet.  Good luck!!! 12  STEPS TO A RAW FOODS DIET 1.                 I believe that live vegan food is the most natural diet for a human being. 2.                 I acknowledge that the addictive power of cooked food controls my food choices and my life. 3.                 I shall make a searching and fearless inventory of the real reasons for seeking comfort and pleasure from                     cooked foods. 4.                 Realizing that the thought and feeling tone I hold on any subject has creative power, I focus my energies                       positively, imagining myself successful in all areas of my raw food  lifestyle. 5.                 I shall gain necessary skills, learn basic raw recipes and obtain equipment to prepare live food. 6.                 I shall live in harmony with people who eat cooked food. 7.                 I shall avoid temptations. 8.                 I shall create support for myself and provide support to other raw fooders. 9.                 I shall find activities or hobbies that affirm my new lifestyle. 10.               I shall engage in regular physical exercise. 11.               I shall let my intuition guide me in all areas of my life. 12.               I am restored to clarity as I experience spiritual awakening. Step 1: I believe that  raw vegan food is the most natural diet for a human being. Here are Richard's introductory remarks : "According to Webster's Dictionary, the word "natural' is defined by the following: 1. Of or dealing with nature. 2. Produced in nature; not artificial. 3. Innate; not acquired. 4. True to nature; lifelike. 5. free from affectation. Take a moment to relax and think about these ideas: What does it mean to be natural?  To recognize and connect with our own natural selves? What would a natural life look like?  Have I ever experienced myself or someone else being completely natural?  What seems most natural about a human life? Brief sharing: in a word or two, tell us what you see in life that is natural: living, free, spontaneous, artful, playful, honest, open, friendly When introducing this step, Victoria related her story about encountering a cow or chicken when one is hungry.  Does our mouth water?  Do we want to eat the cow as we look at it?  No.  We are more likely to feel drawn to pet the cow.  Animals naturally elicit an affinity response from us rather than one of desire for food. Also consider the natural tools other animals have to assist them in capturing and devouring their prey.  The often run very fast and move quickly. They have sharp teeth for tearing skin and flesh; and their digestive tract is much shorter than a human's .  These traits all enable the animals to ingest and digest other animals quickly and thoroughly. A human being has no such tools for feeding the human body.  When we see a ripe strawberry in the morning sunlight, red ripe with dew upon it, our moth does water.  We have the gentle touch and dexterity of our fingers to reach out and tenderly pluck the fruit from  the vine without causing even so much as a bruise upon it. Our teeth are built for grinding and chopping our food; and our digestive system is long enough to allow our body to extract all the nutrition available from the plants we eat.  Is it a coincidence that our stomach is the approximate size of a mango or avocado  and so many other fruits?  Look at how comfortable a mango or an avocado fits into our hand. When we become "raw", we feel closer to nature.  The trees and the water become sources of peace and serenity for us.  We are drawn to the outdoors and to the countryside.  It becomes easier to be still and to meditate.  We become more aware of the stresses in our old way of living and we want to move away from them." Richard ends by saying, "The live vegan food way of eating becomes a doorway to rediscovering our connection with our natural selves and the natural ways all around us." I present the following handout in further support of this premise.  (anatomy chart from pp. 435-437 of Sunfood Diet Success System by David Wolfe )  Note especially numbers 1, 4, 9,and 13-16. (discuss briefly: teeth, shape of face,  intestines, acidity/alkalinity of body fluids, cooling methods).  From this and other evidence, it seems clear that the natural design of our human bodies would indicate a raw vegan diet.  I doubt that you disagree with this. Another way to examine this issue is look at the resultant health status of people who follow different diets and which group enjoys the most naturally healthy life.  Surely we can recognize by this that the standard American diet is not natural.  Folks on this diet tend to be medicated, subject to chronic illness, debilitating disease, depressed and often overweight.  These common conditions in his country come about because people eat devitalized, unnatural, dead foods filled with man-made additives that are never found in nature.  We feel we need more and more food because what we eat is not satisfying our  body's natural hunger for nutrition.  We become lethargic and our pastimes are reduced to inactivity and entertainment rather than creativity and participation.  On a cooked food diet we feel normalwe fit in with those around us.  But the fact that it is normal to cook food and eat animal products has no bearing on the issue of natural.  Remember that it is also normal to have health problems, to deteriorate with age, to lack energy.  After a diet of this, we have lost our sensitivity to the natural way of nourishing ourselves and no longer know what a natural life might be like.   Isn't it natural to feel alive and vibrant?  Isn't it natural to experience perfect health and vitality as do creatures in the wild?  Isn't it natural to experience your place in the oneness that exists in nature?  It's also natural to be expressive, open, intuitive, and spiritually connected.  And joyful and abundant in all that pleases you.  It is natural to feel confident within yourself.  To enjoy natural surroundings.  In fact, with time, on a raw food diet you will find yourself drawn more and more to the beauty of nature and natural activities and less and less interested in unnatural forms of entertainment such as tv. So, we each have a choice to make: normal or natural!  How do you imagine yourself as a fully natural being?  What does it mean to you to be natural? Share with us the choice you are making in your life, how that feels to you, describe your new emergence into a more natural life and self, the challenge of the processfocusing as always on your vision of what you want and what pleases you.  Probe as deeply as you can and share as fully as you wishdoing this creates growth and new insights for you.  Each time we share like this we are rediscovering the truth for ourselves. Step 2:  I acknowledge that the addictive power of cooked food controls my             food choices and my life. Step  3:  I shall make a searching and fearless inventory of the real reasons for              seeking comfort and pleasure from cooked foods. I would like to read Richard's introduction: "Addiction: To give oneself up to a strong habit. (Webster's Dictionary) We all behave with habits.  After all, a habit is merely a usual or customary way of doing something.  However, not all our habits are strong habits.  And most of our habits are probably controllable by us if we choose to control or modify them. When we do behave strictly out of strong, uncontrollable habit what is given up?  What qualities in ourselves do we set aside when we base our behavior on strong habits?     judgment; good sense; priorities; commitments; self esteem; rightness; health; vitality? This step introduces us to the possibility that our eating habits are strong habits and at times we give up something of ourselves because of them.  Are we aware of this tendency with regards to eating?  Would we admit that we are reluctant or even sometimes unable to modify or control certain eating habits? Do we recognize that cooked food is addictive?  According to research into the statistics of some of the leading health centers that promote a living food diet as a part of their program, only 2% of the graduates of these intensive programs stay on a raw food diet.  If only because of the health benefits experienced from this diet, why aren't folks staying with the raw diet?? Addiction to food is not a rational process.  Food is used for comfort, to cope with social situations, to reduce stress or a distraction from something uncomfortable or painful.  When these behaviors remain unexamined and unresolved,  they stay in place driving the coping behavior; in this example, they compel us to eat uncontrollably. Cigarettes and alcohol are known examples of addictive substances.  The very first reaction to their use is commonly adverse.  The effect on the body's system, dulling the discomfort temporarily, influences us to ignore our negative reactions to their effects.  Little by little, we accommodate the ill effects in exchange for the apparent relief from pain.  Eventually these substances can kill us. Cooked food is comparatively quite subtle.  Our first experience is right after birth with formula or cooked baby food.  We don't even recall our reaction and we were not given a choice.  Cooked food kills over a longer time via debilitating disease processes.  Typically someone won't commit a crime or cheat on a spouse to support the cooked food habit.  Yet their body will just become sick or overweight and develop ailments while they continue to eat and eat, all the while remaining hungry.  The right nourishment is not provided.  Vitamins, minerals and vital force of the live enzymes are denied the body.  And the love and comfort that compelled the food addiction to begin with are nowhere to be found. Other comments: Addiction: Habitual psychological and physiological dependence on a substance or practice beyond one's voluntary control  (Stedman's Medical Dictionary) Accepting this more strict definition leads us to apply two aspects of the function of the human body called accommodation and cellular memory. Accommodation refers to a physiological or systemic adaptation made by the body which allows it to accept and utilize unnatural food substances like cooked food.  This accommodation testifies to the body's adaptive ability but results in body responses that influence our future decisions in our choice of foods.  We accept that unhealthy foods are in fact, what we are meant to eat, because of the body's craving for that which it mistakenly recognizes as food. Cellular memory is the organic companion to emotions related to a specific event in our life.  Certain events have a strong emotional component that we give enormous meaning to.  When these events occur they are often accompanied by the ingestion of comfort food or chemicals.  As a part of the accommodation process, the body holds these substances in the cellular tissue throughout the body.  When similar emotions are experienced throughout our life, the cellular memory signals the brain of the association with the original food or chemical intake, and the urge to consume these substances over again as a part of the current emotional experience can be overwhelming." Thank you, Richard! I personally have experienced the addictive properties of cooked food, which is no doubt why it took me so many years to finally adopt a raw food diet.  I know the feeling of despair of ever managing to get on top of my food choices.  Of making a decision I was unable to follow through with ten minutes later.  I felt like a failure and that made it even harder to move forward.  There seems to be a bit of a moral judgment regarding addiction, isn't there?  This makes it hard for us to admit to ourselves that we are in an addictive process. Before we go on I would like you to share just briefly but honestly, your response to this step.  Can you relate to the out of control feeling Step 2 talks about, either now or in your past?       Often we think of an addiction as strictly a chemical issue, but clearly there are many other components, as you are probably discovering for yourself.  I have heard that after 2 weeks the chemical addiction has abated, yet still people struggle with avoiding cooked foods.  What keeps us coming back for more??  It will help us to find the answer to that! Giving up any thing brings up issues of deprivation.  As soon as we decide we can't have something any more, doesn't that make you want it?  And we have strong attachment to our old cooked food habits.  In giving up these habits, you are letting go of: What is familiar Old and good friends Sources of pleasure and comfort Status quo (we resist change) Social interaction Entertainment  Warmth (heat connotes emotional warmth) Protection/defense against uncomfortable feelings Nurturance Reward Peer acceptance (don't want to be different) What other issues can you think of??  I know you will continue to think of other things that food represents to youwhat a lot of attachment issues we have to deal with.  No wonder people are challenged to make changes in their food habits!! We have decided, based on Step 1, to adopt a raw vegan diet.  It is now our value to live a natural lifestyle.  Health and well being, vitality and fulfillment are strong value we hold, but the values on the list I just mentioned are strong as well.   How can we make this shift in our system of values and beliefs?? One idea is to create our own personal list of food attachment issues.  Awareness is the precursor to change.  When you feel the urge for a non-raw food, ask yourself what you are seeking, really?  Be open to the answer.  Then work with yourself to find a raw substitute.  (example: reward could equal a smoothie or raw pizza)  Sometimes the awareness alone is enough to dissolve the issue for you. You are among a very small group to have even made such a commitment to yourself!  Most people are too set in their habit patterns of addiction and attachment to even be having this discussion.  It represents too big a threat to their comfort zone of the status quo.  In time, perhaps, they too will be ready to make more rational choices for their own well being.  But for us, the time is now!! Think about the possibility of a new reality for you.  A light at the end of the tunnel.  Can you imagine and feel the freedom of leaving these food issues behind?  Share with us your now vision for letting go of habits of addiction and attachment and creating new health-giving habits based on raw foods.  STEP 4:  Realizing that the thought and feeling tone I hold on any  subject has                creative power, I focus my energies positively,  imagining myself successful                in all areas of my raw food  lifestyle.  (Preliminary exercise: make a list of negative ideas, doubts and concerns that tend to defeat or impede us in our transition to a successful raw food lifestyle.  Things that emerge may include: I'm just no good at creating tasty raw food! I'd like to do this but my partner/family likes cooked food. I'd like to but I can't imagine giving up buttered toast (or whatever) I'd like to but it's impossible for me to swear I'll do it forever. I'd like to but I get cravings that won't quit! I don't want to be out of synch with my friends It's just too hard with my work schedule. I travel a lot so it just wouldn't work. I have no will power and will just fail. I'm a hopeless addict to cooked food.) This step is crucial to creating a successful raw food lifestyle.  It is based on universal law, one we shall call the Law of Attraction.  Our every thought and feeling is subject to this law, which can be expressed as "Whatever you give your attention to becomes your point of attraction."  You are a powerful creator and the universe is continuously bringing you that which you have attracted through your focused attention.  You have also heard it stated, "As you sow, so shall you reap."  Or "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he."  There are other ways of stating this universal law and we have all heard it.  It has formed the basis of the teachings of all the great avatars. Yet few people realize its import for our daily life and happiness.  Few of us know how to use this law to consciously create what we want in our lives.  Please don't dismiss this step as some sort of New Age woo woo stuff.  It is science--an important component of the new physics, actuallyand more important to your well being than the well accepted Law of Gravity. In order to clarify this important step, I would like to read an excerpt from this handout I am giving you titled "Moving Up the Vibrational Stick" (from www.abraham-hicks.com). Are you understanding that you are vibrational beings?  Are you understanding that everything is vibrational and that your experience, no matter who you are, is only about your translation of vibration? When we say to you, what you see with your eyes is an interpretation of vibration, what you feel with your fingertips, what you hear with your ears, what you smell with your nose, all that you are experiencing is vibrational interpretation, you say, "Well,  this interpretation of vibration is reality."  And we say, the reason you are calling it reality is because so many others are agreeing with you, in general terms, about the reality you are perceiving.  But in truth, you are all interpreting uniquely from your perspective.  Once you understand that you are vibrational interpreters, then you can take it further, going beyond your physical senses, and utilizing your emotions as a very effective guidance system. Everything is about vibration.  And everything that your are perceiving is already vibrating.  When you give anything your attentionwhatever its vibration isnow becomes included in your vibration.  So it is true that everything that you are allowing yourself to ponder or remember or imagine or observe effects your vibration.  And many would say, "Well, so what?"  And we say, it is very important "so what".  Since the Law of Attraction is what is sorting all of this out, then whatever it is you are offering in your vibration is what Law of Attraction is giving back to you.  Whatever you are observing, or whatever you are pondering, or whatever you are imagining, or whatever you are giving your attention towhether you are remembering it from the past, or observing it in the now or imagining it in the futurewhatever you are giving your attention to is causing your vibration to be what it is.  And whatever it is, is your point of attraction. Your power is here and now, because here and now is where you are vibrating.  You cannot attract your past.  You are not vibrationally there.  Perceptually, you are standing here, you  are attracting here.  So how you feel right now, right now, how you feel right nowWhether you are thinking about then or now, or tomorrow, it doesn't matter whether you are perusing past, present or futurehow you are feeling NOW as you are perusing, past, present or future IS your indicator of your point of  attraction.  Creating from the inside out says, "I will generate the feeling, which will cause the vibration, which will affect the attraction."  (When we create by default, we observe a thing that has happened and have a feeling response to it, which affects the attraction, although we aren't aware of the processdo you see the difference??) Every subject is really two subjects" There is that which is wanted and the lack of it.  There is the subject of wellness or not.  There is the subject of abundance or not.   There is the subject of raw food lifestyle success and the lack of success.  Every subject is of that which is wanted or of the lack of it. When you pick up the very long stick (or subject) that has two ends to it, the only question that is really important to you is "Which end of this stick am I vibrating on."  If you really want to know: what you are living is your evidence of thatbecause whatever you are thinking and feeling, and whatever you are getting, is always a vibrational match.  The manifestation that you are living is a true indicator of what the vibrational content of your offering is.  When you pick up the stick that says "money", you can tell, you can feel it in your solar plexus, which end of it you're vibrating on.  You can feel eagerness and enthusiasm, or you can feel worry and concern.  You can feel whether you're thriving or whether you're worried.  When you pick up the stick that says "raw food lifestyle success" you can feel  which end you are vibrating on.  Are you excited about learning about these concepts and the prospect of enhanced health, vitality and spiritual connection?  Or are you doubtful you will be able to stay away from cooked food?  Are you afraid it is too different, too complicated?  Are you worried about how such a change will affect your family and friends? When we begin a new adventure, it is normal for doubts to creep in.  These doubts are letting us know our knee-jerk response to these topicsour habitual response to this type of issue.  We are showing ourselves old habits.  This is not, however, REALITY.   These moments of doubt and fear show us what WE DON"T WANT.  "Ah, I'm experiencing a negative moment.  I'm showing myself what I don't want.  What is it I DO want??  Well, I want to feel joyful in my new raw food lifestyle.  I want to enjoy my ever expanding sense of well being and vitality.  I want to bask in the oneness I am coming to feelwith all of nature, with other people, with my Spirit  I want to feel successful and empowered in making food choices that support my joyfulness and vibrant health.  I want to enjoy an ease at incorporating new healthy habits into my life."  I know you can create a more expanded scenario of what you want in terms of your liberating raw food lifestyle and I invite you to do this every time you catch yourself telling yourself what you don't want!  It's great to write it out on a regular basis, too, and it's most effective when you allow yourself to really get into the feeling state you are wanting.  Imagine you are there now.  "Fake it till you make it" is a great concept because the universe doesn't know you are faking it!  If you are sending the vibrational tone of what you are wanting, you ARE there as far as the universe is concerned and the universe gives it to you. These may be new concepts for you to grasp.  I know it has taken me five years to BEGIN to "get" it!!  You can speed up your understanding by rereading the handout and also by listening to tapes about the Law of Attraction.  These are available for check out at the library at the Unity Church in south Eugene.  They are called Abraham tapes.  They will help you to fully understand and use Step #3, Realizing that the thought and feeling tone I hold on any  subject has creative power, I focus my energies positively,  imagining myself successful in all areas of my raw food  lifestyle. Please share with us now a bit of your own highest vision of living the raw food lifestyle just the way you want it!  Imagine you are living it NOW! Step 5: I will gain necessary skills, learn basic raw recipes, and obtain equipment to             prepare raw food. This step just makes sense!  It's hard to imagine making such a drastic lifestyle change without tools and knowledge.  The transition from a cooked food diet to a happy, easy to maintain, fulfilling raw food lifestyle becomes A LOT easier when you have the skills, recipes and equipment to make your new way of life a tasty and satisfying reality!  It is one of the goals of this class to provide at least a starting point on this journey, by demonstrating and discussing, as we have been doing,  some of the basic processes that can be used on a raw food diet.  Sprouting, non-dairy milks, smoothies, rejuvelac, raw soups, fermented cheeses and yogurt, dehydrated crackers and breads are some of the topics we have already covered.  These skills take a bit of practice, so don't get discouraged if your first raw soup or batch of crackers is less than palatable.  Just as in the preparation of cooked foods, there is a bit of a learning curve.  Hang in there!!  BOOKS: Once you have the basic idea of these processes, you can go on to experiment with different recipes.  There are lots of raw food recipe books available and most of them also offer a section that describes the basics as well. I have a lot of them and you are welcome to peruse them to determine which ones you might like to buy for your own raw library. And as part of our raw support system, we encourage recipe sharing.  When you discover something yummy, we all want to hear about it!! EQUIPMENT: Of course, you can be a raw fooder with no equipment, just by picking fresh fruit and veggies and eating them whole.  But few of us do that, especially at first!!  The most basic piece of equipment is a really good knifeactually a paring knife, a chef knife, and a middle range knife would be a good set to have.  You will be using them a lot, so it pays to invest in quality.  If you're starting out on a shoestring, as I did, a thrift store blender and  food processor shouldn't set you back more than $10 for both.  I've also purchased a number of citrus juicers and a type of food processor called a Salad Shooter, also for about $5 each at Goodwill or yard sales.  These served me well for quite a while. The blender is ideal for smoothies, raw soups, and things that are predominantly liquid.  The food processor has an S-blade and performs a blender-like operation, but usually on food of a drier consistency, such as finely mincing ingredients for a vegetable/seed loaf or making a pie crust of dates and almonds.  A food processor should also have a shredding attachment or two which enables it to grate/shred vegetables in a slaw-style shape. The salad shooter also shreds and it comes with different graters to make fine or coarse shreds, as well as chips.  It's very easy to use.  Be sure to look for a Professional model and make sure all the parts are there if you shop in thrift stores! A citrus reamer is handy to use in extracting the juice from a single lemon, but if you juice citrus fruits regularly or are juicing several fruits at a time, an electric juicer is great.  I prefer my old one, which I still find at thrift stores, over anything that is available now commercially.  If you have an Acme juicer, there is a citrus attachment for it that works well. As you move into more "gourmet" raw foods, you will be wanting a high speed blender, such as a Vita Mix or a Champ.  These cost about $350-$400, but are so valuable for creating really smooth textures and for making quick and lovely soups, smoothies, and other items.  I have some info on these items that you can peruse. The next higher budget equipment you may want is a juicer.  There is lots to consider in deciding which one to get.  A Champion works well for a wide variety of applications.   It has a blank screen for  "ice cream", cracker dough and nut loaves, and a juice screen for   juicing carrots and other vegetables and fruits.  This juicer will not make wheatgrass juice and doesn't work as well on fruits and greens.  But it produces a high quality of juice.  It costs about $200 A Juiceman II is easy to use and clean and works well on carrots.  It is a centrifugal juicer that shoots the pulp out the back.   It costs about $150 The Green Life/Green Power  costs about $450 and it does it all including wheat grass.  Its twin gears grind, rather than cut the material, leaving more of the enzymes intact and reducing oxidation loss. There is a complete and detailed juice comparison guide at www.discountjuicers.com and they tend to have the lowest prices as well. Check them out for the Excalibur food dehydrator, which will probably be the next high budget item you will be wanting.  With the dehydrator, you can make crackers, cookies, and all sorts of "comfort" foods, plus you can dehydrate fruits and vegetables (sun-dried tomatoes!) for later use.  It costs about $200 for the 9-tray model. You will also want teflex sheets for the dehydrator so that you can dehydrate wetter things, such as cracker dough.   Miscellaneous equipment: 1. "coffee" grinder  or mortar and pestle for grinding seeds, Celtic salt, herbs 2.  wheat grass juicer if your juicer won't do this 3.  cafeteria trays for growing wheat grass and buckwheat and sunflower greens 4.  straining bags for separating pulp from nut and seed milks 5.  sprouting equipment, such as wide-mouth Mason jars, lids, sprouting bags 6.  rubber spatulas are great to have, as are wooden spoons Did I forget anything??  What else do you find indispensable? SETTING UP A RAW KITCHEN: Raw food skills we have been covering in our class and you have received some basic recipes to get you started.  Now we have covered the equipment factor.  Setting up a raw kitchen can be done in a small space (I did it in a 24-foot travel trailerKody's space is even less!).  Even if you keep a few pots and pans and the stove around for other members of the family, it's easy to put together an efficient raw food preparation center. When we put this kitchen together, we thought about what groupings to create.  What would we be doing together?  That's why we put the electric equipment together.  Often a recipe will require more than one piece of equipment and it's been easier to group them.  A multi-outlet strip works well for this.  One cupboard contains dry beans and grains in Mason jars with extra quantities stored in the garage in 5-galon buckets.  Nuts and seeds are stored in the freezer with smaller quantities in the refrigerator.  We have a drawer for spices and a tub in a cupboard for liquids such as nama shoyu and apple cider vinegar.  We try to keep our refrigerator organized so we can easily see what's available.  We have a drawer for crackers and softer ones are kept in the freezer.  We chose to use the dining room for more food prep work area and produce storage.  There is a sprouting center with jars and seeds.  We have recently moved here, so we are still a bit in transition and will probably get even more efficient with this! Please share with us what you have found to work well in your raw kitchen!  Has this given you any ideas for fine tuning your raw food preparation center?? What questions do you have regarding skills, recipes, equipment, kitchen set-up? Please share with us your NOW response to Step #5: I will gain necessary skills, learn basic raw recipes and obtain equipment to prepare raw food. I encourage you to stay if you can and take a look at these materials on equipment and look at the books in these book cases to see if there are any you wish to buy.  You can order from Amazon.com or buy those that are available at Sundance or other health food stores. 12 Steps to a Raw Foods Lifestyle Step 6: I shall live in harmony with people who eat cooked foods. Imagine for a moment how you feel when you are given unsolicited advice.  When someone says, "You should get more exercise." Or "Fasting is good for you.  You should try it."  What incident can you recall where this happened to you.  How did you feel? rebellious          guilty                    angry/hostile                     depressed          low self-esteem           What did you do? opposite  nothing/ignored     passive-aggressive response              confrontation/aggression Even if we know they are right and that we would be better off doing what they say, we rarely do so.  We rarely say, "You are so right.  Thank you for your concern.  I'll do it immediately!"  Why is that? We're not ready; we haven't really arrived at that conclusion in an impactful way; we just don't like to be told; we don't want to change. Yabut we're talking logic here!!  And you just KNOW your family and friends would be happier and healthier if they adopted this raw diet.  Perhaps if you mention it often enough and disparage THEIR food clearly enough, they'll get it?  Nope.  Never happen.  Have you seen any evidence of it working???  Did your partner become raw when you said, "I'm raw now, so don't eat that crap in front of me!"? And you don't even have to say anything to pressure someone.  Here's a quote from Victoria's new 12-step book (page 81) We don't even have to speak to make those we love uncomfortable.  Some of us throw certain glances that convey the same meaning as the words just mentioned.  For example, a woman in one of my classes said to me, "My family is angry with my raw foodism even though I never pushed anybody to eat raw food.  My son makes all kinds of jokes about my green juices."  I said to her, "You might be doing something that irritates them that you're not aware of.  Just watch yourself, and catch those moments. Don't watch others.  Watch and see what you are doing to antagonize your family.'  The next week she came to class and said, "Yeah. I caught myself several times poking little pins in certain painful places.  I'd say something hurtful or look disgusted or put out.  I changed my attitude toward my family, and they, in turn, shifted toward me and it only took one week.  When I started accepting them, then they accepted me back.  Now my husband is making juice every morning and bringing it to me in bed.  He says, 'Honey, I want you to stay on raw food.' Suddenly my house has become a peaceful place and my son is willing to try everything I make." Doesn't it make sense that your friends and family are likely to respond in the same way that you do when unsolicited advice is given?  Isn't it clear that they will not make this transition by our pressuring them, any more than WE came to this conclusion through someone else's prodding?  Are we clear on this??!!  IT DOESN'T WORK TO PREACH, CAJOLE, NAG, ADVISE OTHERS INTO A RAW FOOD LIFESTYLE.  The opposite effect results!  Do we agree???  Any one still think it might work??  Go for it, but you will come to the same conclusion sooner or later! For harmony to abound, we don't all need to believe the same things or to think or eat the same.  Harmony is the result of mutual acceptance, love  and support.  Can you imagine fully accepting and supporting your cooked-food eating family and friends, no matter what lifestyle choices they make?  What would that look like? What interferes with your full allowing of their choices?  It is helpful to uncover your motives.  They might not be as pristine as you had imagined! Are you fearful that if they are "cooked", you won't be able to sustain your own raw lifestyle?  Do you  pressure them to be raw to bolster your own raw courage??  If this is the case, it might be helpful to remember the law of attraction which states that what I focus upon I attract into my life.  Another way of saying this is that through my focusing of energy,  I am the director of my own life.  And I am responsible for creating my life the way I want it.  No one else has the power to sabotage my life.  Unless of course, I believe that they can do so.  In that case, the sabotage is a result of my belief, not their action.  Do you see that we can always create the life we want, regardless of what others do or don't do.   So I see that I don't need others to be raw so I can be. Are you concerned about the health of your family and friends, feeling responsible to pass along the information you have because you know the health problems cooked food can contribute to?? Are you resentful that your partner or children cling to what you see as a dead food lifestyle, when you would like to be sharing  life with them at a more mutually expansive and natural level of functioning??   It can be frustrating to have information I think is critical to the well being of another that they refuse to hear or accept.  Nevertheless, the beauty of it is that we each get to make our own choices!  What can we do?  We can set an example that is appealing and enticing.  We can prepare luscious raw food for ourselves!  We can create such a powerful example of health and well being that people are beating down our door to get our secret!!  That's effective!!  Our example is a much more powerful teacher than our words!! As Victoria says, "When I went on raw food I did just the opposite of my advice to you.  I went around telling everyone to go on raw food.  I was chasing overweight ladies in Safeway, trying to explain to them how easy it is to lose weight.  I was so excited about the healthy changes my family was experiencing, I got carried away.  I made a lot of enemies before I understood that people need to find their own way and decide their own path." (p. 84-85) What comes to mind for you in terms of attempting to convince others to be raw? Let me state again that for harmony to abound, we don't all need to believe the same things or to think or eat the same.  Harmony is the result of mutual acceptance, love  and support.  Keeping in mind the law of attraction and that I create in my life that which I focus upon, let's again try to imagine fully accepting and supporting our cooked-food eating family and friends, no matter what lifestyle choices they make?  What would that look like?  What would it feel like?  Can you create such a scenario??  The more we understand our own power as focuser and creator of our own life, and appreciate the autonomy of others as they focus and create, we become more allowing of the choices of others.  Allowingnot merely toleratingallowing with lovethis is unconditional love and it is our highest state of consciousness on this plane of existence.  Releasing our expectations of others enhances our own consciousness! This is one of the wonderful rewards of step 6: I shall live in harmony with people who eat cooked foods. Step 7: I shall avoid temptation. Temptation.  First we need to decide what it is! What turns a desire for something into a temptation??  If you desire an apple, is that a temptation?  A temptation is a short term pleasure with a long term negative consequence To turn down immediate gratification in exchange for a long range benefit is a challenge.  The mind has become adept at getting its way, perhaps by distracting us just long enough to slip that slice of pizza by.  And so, once temptation erupts, will power is not an effective tool in withstanding it.  In fact, the best way to deal with temptation is to avoid it whenever possible, rather than to resist it.  Do this exercise.  Honestly try to remember all your temptations in the field of cooked food.  Write them down.   On one side of the paper list the temptations that seem to be avoidable.  On the other side, list those that seem unavoidable, such as when a friend offers you a cooked food treat.  This exercise makes you aware of all the places where you could be tempted, so you will be able to get prepared to meet the challenge. First let's discuss avoidable temptations.  These are temptations you can take action to avoid.  Does the chocolate bar in your desk drawer entice you?  You could get rid of it, right?!  You could clean your kitchen of any foods that represent  a temptation.  Do you panic if you get hungry when you're out and feel tempted to eat whatever is at hand?  You could make it a habit to always have a stash of raw food at hand in such casessome raisins or nuts, at least.  You've heard it's not a good idea to shop for food on an empty stomach, right?  So it might be a good idea to eat before you shop or shop with a pocket of raw nibbles to munch on..  In her book, Victoria recommends the avoidance of advertising, cooked food oriented parties, and restaurants during the first couple of months on the raw diet.  Too much of a temptation.  But once you have etched a raw groove in your consciousness, once you feel secure in your new lifestyle, you may enjoy social events like this, as long as you take precautions, such as bringing some tasty raw food. What avoidable temptations invite and entrance you?  What ones have you listed and what strategy can you think of for avoiding them? How about restaurants?  You can avoid them all together.  But if you choose to go to a restaurant with friends, how can you avoid the temptation of eating cooked food?  One  person created a card that he gives to the waiter.  It says, "I eat only raw, uncooked foods.  I would like a salad or vegetable plate with only fresh, uncooked items."  It then lists items from which to choose, such as lettuce, zucchini, broccoli, spinach, mushrooms, etc.  The card ends with the message, "Thank you for your creative efforts!"  Of course, another strategy for dealing with restaurants, is to bring some items to add to a salad and a raw dressing. Unavoidable temptations present a special challenge, but by thinking it through, we can pre-pave a successful response to them. Here is an excerpt from Victoria's book regarding unavoidable temptations: "Scientists who do research about drugs and addictive substances talk about a chain reaction. The reaction is harder to stop if we haven't decided beforehand how we will choose to act.  For example, when an alcoholic has money in his pocket to pay the rent, but he meets his friend on the corner, he is much more likely to follow that friend into a bar and spend the rent money on drinks.  That's called the chain reaction.  When you see a food vending machine, you're going to go into a chain reaction of wanting what you see unless you have already figured out your response.  The safest time to figure out how you will react is when you are at home or at a place where there are no possible temptations.  This is the time to figure out what you are going to do." Understand that you are not powerless.  In fact, when you know your tempters and plan ahead a strategy for coping, you will emerge unscathed!  Look at your list of unavoidable temptations. What foods and situations are present?   What triggers temptations for you?  Is it when you feel tired, bored, lacking in self-esteem, or other emotional state?  What pushes your cooked food buttons?  What strategies can you devise for maintaining your course in the face of these?  Please share your ideas with us.  (Play the temptation game, if desired.  See page 96) What happens if you give in to temptation?  Victoria's book has this to say: "After a couple of months of staying away from temptationsyou might get an illusion that your addiction to cooked food is over and that you can eat or try small pieces of cooked food once in a while.  When you will try a bite of cooked food once, you might not feel much.  But on the next morning you might notice that you will begin to think about cooked food and to pay attention to whatever cooked food you'll see.  If you will give into temptation once more, you might lose peace of mind and have to start all over again." So giving in to temptation, even once, can lead to the down fall of your raw food lifestyle.  It certainly sets a dangerous precedent! Temptation prevention is also a powerful strategy!  You will strengthen your resolve on a daily basis by reading uplifting, raw-related material and raw food books and by reminding yourself of your convictions through affirmations.  Focus is the key!    In all of these ways you can successfully practice Step 7, I shall avoid temptation! Step 8:  I will create support for myself and I will give support to other raw fooders. One definition of support is "that which enables one to maintain a position."  Just as training wheels enable a child to easily learn to maintain an upright position with forward momentum on a bicycleand water wings enables one to stay afloat while learning to swimso too is support available for us as we become raw fooders in a cooked food world. Receiving and giving supportboth are important as we commit to a raw food lifestyle.  Like the inspiration and expiration of our breath, the flow or cycle of giving and receiving empowers us much more than either one alone could do.  It is normal to think that first we must get support to become raw and then, once we are established in this lifestyle we will have something to give.  This is far from the truth.  We can always extend support to others in simple ways, such as respectful listening to another, believing in her/him, and in simple acts such as giving someone a ride to a potluck or speaker event, sharing a recipe, suggesting or loaning a book, and sharing your own heartfelt and sincere thoughts and feelings at these raw empowerment groups.  Hosting a raw food dinner or potluck or going "out" with someone for  a raw meal or just "hanging out" with another raw fooder is mutually supportive. Giving support is even more empowering than receiving supportdo you see how?  When we see ourselves as needing support, we are perhaps coming from a place of feeling under-empowered.  When we give support, we are coming from a place  of greater empowerment, of having much to give others.  And so, the very act of giving support empowers and supports the giver.  It is very powerful indeed!  I find it a bit analogous to extending money or gifts that cost money to others.  When we feel or believe we don't have enough financial resources to give in this way, that belief disempowers our financial well beingit chokes off the supply of $ from coming our way.  But when we come from a belief in abundance and in the limitlessness of the resources of the universe, we are greatly empowered materially.  I believe this is the meaning of: "It is better to give than to receive."  Nevertheless, let's do both!!! We have stated several avenues for giving support.  Keep in mind we don't want to foster dependency.  That's why in this group, we share experiences, rather than give advice.  It's why we focus on the Law of Attraction as a tool for self-empowermentto remind ourselves that can recreate our lives by imagining and focusing on what we WANT.  We can also use the Law of Attraction to assist others to become more empowered.  I like to use the following "generic prayer" to visualize myself and others in this state of empowerment: __(fill in name)______ is fully empowered as creator of her perfect life, enjoying the abundant flow of all things desired, ever deepening in her knowing of the power of who she is!  She feels a wonderful ease and lightness as she relaxes into utter well-being, knowing that all is truly well!!  Appreciation and joy are the cornerstones of her life, as she continually discovers fresh, new avenues for flowing her energy and opportunities to co-create with people who love and inspire her!!! I cannot think of a more powerful and supportive action you can take on your own or someone else's behalf than to spend some time in this visualization activity!! Expectations, bias, judgments, or pressure to change has no place in the concept of support.  It can be challenging to weed these out, especially when we have some personal investment in the outcome.  By setting aside our personal issues or values, we are able to offer a deeper, broader and more inclusive support to others.  This is apparent when we practice simple listening and really try to hear and understand another.  Simple listening can be extremely empowering. It sometimes helps to make a distinction between supporting the person, rather than the idea or action they are engaged in or are considering.  Focusing on the individual makes it easier for us to stay neutral relative to the content of his life.  This also makes it possible to stay in communication with the other.  Of course, we need not limit our willingness to support only those who have embraced the raw food diet.  Sharing food or ideas with anyone in a loving manner and speaking from our heart can be very influential and supportive. We may never know the effects of our support.  Even encouraging one individual in some small way can have wide ranging effects.  Each person who is supported will pass on the effects of that support in a ripple effect that can have a wide range of impact.  One example is the woman Victoria encountered in a check out line years ago.  She looked healthy, so Victoria asked her what her secret was and the woman said, "raw food".  Based on her input, the lives of Victoria and her entire family changed, and this enabled Victoria to pass the raw food message along to thousands of others through her classes, books, and tapes. We need not limit our support to recipes, listening, and other of our preconceived notions about support.  As natural beings, we can listen to our intuition and receive guidance in this area.  Just as we are led by our intuition about what to eat, we can trust ourselves and let intuition guide us in this important work of supporting other raw fooders! Our intuition can help us to receive support, as well.  There are so many opportunities to receive support out there!  Every day new raw-related books are published that can inspire and inform us.  We have several bibliographies of such books , but of course, we would do well to come to our own conclusions, rely on our own intuition and inner guidance, rather than to assume that the ideas of someone else necessarily apply to us. We are fortunate in Eugene to have so many sources of raw organic foods!  This is so very supportive to us as raw fooders!  And what about the relative availability of appliances that make raw food preparation easier and more enjoyablethat supports us, as well!  If we look, we will find many opportunities to fulfill step #8, I will create support for myself  and I will give support to other raw fooders. Let's take some time to embark upon a rampage of appreciation for the support we are receiving as raw foodersremembering that such appreciation sends a clear request to the universe for continued support! Now I would like us to share sincerely and from the heart about your experiences of extending support to others.  Did you learn something new about yourself?  Is it an empowering experience?  What avenues have you discovered for giving support? Step 9:   I shall find activities or hobbies that affirm my new lifestyle. In the cooked food world, FOOD is central to every event: birthdays, holidays, anniversaries, weddings, football games.  When we go out with others, food figures prominently into the outing.  Eating is synonymous with socializing and celebration.  And with cooked food,  much time is spent every day in food-related activities: preparing, serving eating, and cleaning up.  These activities shaped our identities as normal, cooked food-eating people.  Now we are creating a new identity!  We are shaping a new, raw foodist persona! Often, cooked food existence centers around working and eating.  The day revolves around breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snackwith work times interspersed between breakfast and dinner.  Throw in a little tv and you have the essence of a "normal" life! On raw foods, in time your food needs will diminish and why not!?  You are giving your body more nutrition and less junk to deal with!  Your sleep needs will also diminish.  And you will have more energy.  What will you do with more time and energy?  Watch more tv?  I think not! Perhaps you have already noticed that there needs to be a shift in the activities in which you invest your time and energy???  I remember when I moved to Eugene, I was impressed by the variety and number of wonderful restaurants, coffee shops and bakeries here and  I went out to eat at least once a week to sample the food and ambience with Art or friends.  This was part of who I was, but as a raw fooder, the charm was lost, now that I had to pretty much bring my own food to these places! Time and energy are precious commodities and you will want to direct them in ways that truly make you happy and that reinforce your new persona as a natural being.  Perhaps there is a hobby you have not gotten around to pursuingor a new dream that is popping into consciousness.  You may want to begin gathering data, noticing what other people are doing that gives your life new direction.  Some people pursue artistic endeavors or learn to play a musical instrument or a new language.  Others make travel plans or even discover a new career. Please share with us what occurs to you in this regard.  What new dreams, activities or hobbies might you pursue in your new raw empowered lifestyle??  What truly suits this new you?? Step 10:  I shall engage in regular physical exercise. Exercise is as essential to physical vigor, strength and development as breathing is to human life.  Exercise causes muscles that are tight and tense to be stretched, nerve energy to become balanced and improved. It also hastens the absorption and elimination of various growths and deposits.  Due to the intimate relationship between mind and body, the benefits derived from exercise also improves the quality of the mind and the overall feeling of joy and happiness. When we do not get exercise, muscles begin to lose their tone and become weak and flaccid.  Exercise is cumulative in its benefits.  Strength and endurance, along with coordination, flexibility and agility are part of our physical identities.  Posture is also improved, insuring correct relationship between bones, muscles and organs, and aiding all the tissues of the body. In order to derive the positive benefits of exercise  in terms of strength, coordination, flexibility, agility, and vitality, we need to engage in a fairly diverse program.  It is likely that  no single exercise can provide all these benefits, although I have heard this claim for swimming, walking and rebounding.  At any rate, look for exercise opportunities that provide the opportunity to stretch and contract the muscles and to give you some aerobic activity. Exercise is more than building strong muscles.  It is body building in the complete sense of the term.  Every cell and fiber of the body is involved.  The heart, kidneys, liver, skin, hair, eyes, brain, nervous system, digestive system, and colon all benefit from regular exercise.  The proper circulation of the lymphatic system depends upon regular exercise to remove toxins and wastes from the cells.  The skeletal system depends upon exercise to maintain its size, strength and physiological functions.  Respiration, digestion and assimilation, as well as the strength and efficiency of the heart depend largely upon physical exercise. Fortunately very little is needed  in the way of equipment or financial resources to get exercise.  A brisk walk every day is free and you gain a lot more than exercise as you appreciate and commune with nature!  I have heard that 5 minutes on an inexpensive rebounder twice a day can condition and build health in every cell of the body!  Yoga provides a powerful spiritual connection, in addition to a great physical workout.  Perhaps it's time you began gathering data to discover the exercise activities that best suit you!  There are books, classes, and information available on all of them!  By keeping our intuition tuned in to such opportunities and taking advantage of them, we realize Step #10: I shall start doing regular physical exercise. Please share with us now your response to this important step:         Step 11:  I shall let my intuition guide me in all areas of my life. Intuition is our natural link with our nonphysical Selves.  It is our key to survival and growth. Yet, in the normal, cooked food world, intuition has been replaced by information, facts, knowledge, experts, books.  It is the norm to rely on these, rather than on our intuition.  Yet knowledge can NEVER replace intuition!  If we trusted our intuition, we would rely on our body and we would understand why our body never makes a mistake.  Our body is constantly trying to communicate with us by creating certain sensations.  Our body creates a feeling of "too cold" to let us know to put on a sweater or go inside.  When the body needs water, it creates a sensation of thirst.  When the body needs rest, it creates the sensation of fatigue.  It's normal to ignore most of our bodily requests.  We don't rest when we feel tired; we don't take off  those stylish but uncomfortable shoes when they pinch and we don't stop eating when we feel full.  That is why we get sick!  By learning to listen to and trust our intuition, we can reverse this process and create health, vitality and happiness in our lives.  This is our birthright! Our intuition is also always available to guide us to the most appropriate food choice for us at any given time.   The body knows its needs and can direct us to the fulfillment of them, even to be able to pick out exactly the right apple from a basket of apples, if it is apples the body is wanting.  Listening and trusting our intuition means honoring our Selves in our fullnessour physical self, our spiritual self and all that we are. In 12 Steps, Victoria tells of her family's experience hiking the Pacific Crest Trail and how keen her intuition became along the way.  She could tell when it was going to rain, when the sun would be out, what foods were edible and which ones were not, which way to go to find the trail.  As we maintain a raw food diet, we become more natural in all ways and more tuned in to our intuition.   As we listen and act upon this powerful ally, we will gain strength from step 11,  I shall let my intuition guide me in all areas of my life . Please share with us how your intuition has impacted your life.  Step 12: I am restored to clarity as I experience spiritual awakening. As we follow our intuition more and more, we  discover a shift in our perception of life.  Many of our old beliefs now appear to be false, our former opinions no longer hold water, and we seem to be shedding our old life much as a snake sheds its skin.  In their place, we sense the emergence of  a new and shining claritya deep sense of knowing that transcends factual knowledge.  In the cooked world, we need experts to give us facts and knowledge so that we may have a set of beliefs (facts we believe in) to explain and interpret the events of life and our relation to them.  Our parents were  our first set of experts and we incorporated a vast network of conditioned beliefs that formed and shaped our belief system about who we are and what kind of world we live in. Many years of schooling added to this externally based storehouse of  facts and knowledge.  Such informational material is perhaps how we first became aware and learned about the raw food lifestyle. But such knowledge and conditioned belief systems can never substitute for true clarity, and very often, knowledge prevents us from attaining the  clarity that is the state of mind in which we experience our connection to our spiritual self and all of nature. Let's not confuse clarity of mind with clean explanation.  Victoria presents the following example, "If I memorized the book Human Anatomy and I could explain clearly anything from that book, it doesn't mean at all that I have clarity about how the human body works.  We have lots of knowledge and very little clarity.  When we don't understand the difference between the two, we prefer to have knowledge rather than clarity.  Clarity starts when we begin to follow our intuition.   When we follow intuition, we are working not against, but with nature.  We become co-partners and co-creators with life.  This enables us to clearly view the perfect harmony of the universe.  With clarity we can see the spiritual nature of human beings and feel the oneness with all living things." True happiness is experienced in this state of clarity, not from the pursuit of physical pleasures and entertainment.  Does this make sense to you??  True happiness is experienced in this state of clarity, not from the pursuit of physical pleasures and entertainment.  Have you been experiencing this in your lifestyle?  To enhance this state of clarity, practice de-conditioning and learn to recognize and let go of old beliefs and thought patterns that no longer serve you. We can facilitate this process here in our sharing.  I'd like to invite you to share an instance in which you recognized an old pattern of conditioning in yourself and overcame it.  For example, I have a conditioned belief that money comes through hard work and a "normal" job, yet I have moments of clarity in which I know that abundance is readily available at all times; it is our natural birthright and we are fully worthy of whatever degree of prosperity we wish; there is no need to "earn" it.  We can just allow it to flow to us, following our intuition and interests.  What example of personal de-conditioning would you like to share with us?  There are other ways you can assist in your own spiritual transformation, including spending time in nature; fasting;  spending time in communion with animals and children, journaling of your own inner thoughts, self-expression through an artistic medium, dance, or play; yoga; meditation.  As we access our spiritual self and experience that exquisite clarity, we experience  step 12, I am restored to clarity as I experience spiritual awakening?    Please share with us your own experiences of spiritual awakening.  What activities have the most meaning for you in restoring you to greater clarity?  DID YOU FIND THESE STEPS HELPFUL??  WHAT FEEDBACK DO YOU HAVE FOR US?

EUGENE RAW FOODS COMMUNITY Here are SIX articles you may find of interest.  Sorry to squeeze them all on the same page, but Homestead has downsized their free websites to 3 pages!!  The first article was taken from the September 27, 2000 issue of the Eugene (Oregon) Register-Guard; the next three, written by me (Phyllis) are titled: Origins of Popular Delusions; Sprouting Basics; 12 Steps to A Raw Food Diet (from the Eugene Raw Empowerment group).   The fourth article, Intuitive Eating is by Cheryl Stoycoff. The fifth is a very credible report on B12 by Dr. Gina Shaw.  Enjoy!

Rah-Rah-RAW! An Ashland woman shares the joys of uncooked food By ELAINE BEEBE LAPRIORE  The Register-Guard VICTORIA BOUTENKO credits raw food with great things. The Russian native lost 80 pounds; her heart arrhythmia and her suicidal tendencies vanished. She says eating raw food cured her son's diabetes and her daughter's asthma. Her husband, Igor, had arthritis, thyroid ailments and high blood pressure. "Now his pulse is 47. Like yogi," she says. "That's what raw food does to us - it cleans our brains and our hearts! It does!" she declares, wide-eyed, as if this fact still amazes and delights her after 6 1/2 years of raw fooding. Boutenko, of Ashland, tells this story to a north Eugene conference room full of diners: 39 people - three-quarters of them female - from Eugene, Corvallis and Portland. The curious and converted have gathered for an introductory raw food dinner and presentation. Lean physiques, flowing garments and receptive outlooks prevail. As they enjoy the soup course, Boutenko describes how, after tedious months of eating salads, she developed other recipes using raw foods - from borscht to unpizza to unchocolate cake. With a Web site, a loyal following and a cookbook at the publishers, the Boutenkos travel the Northwest, teaching courses in raw food preparation. By foregoing the fleeting pleasures of cooked food, Boutenko has found a greater happiness and the need to spread the word. "I don't teach, I share," she tells the diners. "I don't think people need more information. I think people need love, and I will share my love with you," she says with a smile. "Because cooked foods are addictive!" she repeats evangelically, to an affirmative chorus of mmm-hmms. (Mouths are occupied with gazpacho.) A BRANCH OF veganism, the raw foods movement is based on the belief that humans were meant to eat food as nature proffers it, emphasizing such "living foods" as freshly sprouted nuts, grains and seeds. It all began with the woman who brought us wheatgrass, Ann Wigmore, a Lithuanian immigrant who in 1958 opened the Hippocrates Health Institute in Boston. Wigmore died in a fire at the institute in 1994, but her living foods doctrine has spread worldwide. Raw foodists believe that enzymes are the life force of foods. Eating foods raw transfers that life force, while cooking food kills it. What does science say? "That kind of thing's really hard to study," says Sonja Connor, a research dietician at the Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland. "There's no science that says we should eat raw foods. ... It's personal choice." However, Connor notes, "You can actually meet nutritional needs eating that way. "One thing that is an advantage is there are no empty calories. ... It can be nutritionally adequate, if people eat a broad range of foods. It can also be nutritionally inadequate, if they don't." Connor rattles off the average American calorie breakdown. "Thirty-four to 40 percent from fat, 20 percent from sugar, up to 5 percent from alcohol. ... So we rely on 35 percent of our calories to give us all of our vitamins and minerals. That makes eating whole foods look pretty good, raw or not." Would a raw food diet endanger anyone? "I think people who are generally chronically under the care of a physician should get advice, but most people know that," Connor says. "I think people who are immune-compromised would not want to do this. ... People with AIDS have gotten into trouble with molds," she says, eating organic foods that contain no preservatives. "I don't know about people with malabsorption. ... People with a shortened bowel might get a lot of diarrhea." Enough science. Back to dinner. BOUTENKO'S ORIGINAL menu had included borscht, her raw adaptation of the Russian favorite. But that morning at the farm stand, 50-cents-a-pound heirloom tomatoes spoke to her. Thus, gazpacho - heaps of glorious red and yellow tomatoes whirled in the Boutenkos' Super Total Nutrition Center Whole Food Machine, the Cadillac of juicers. "Smell," she orders. It is pungent with herbs, sharp with raw garlic, mouth-watering and complex. "Raw-8," she calls it. The soup is not unlike canned V-8 juice, but it is thinner and foamier, with the occasional floating avocado chunk and a garlic kick that lasts till the morning after. The main course follows: Un-pizza. A chewy, dark brown, crackerlike crust has been topped with a thick, herb-flecked nut paste and garnished with thin tomato slices. The overall impression is nutty, well-seasoned and, above all, filling. The pizza is served with a kale and tomato salad of surprising lightness, thanks to marinating the kale in olive oil, cider vinegar and Nama Shoyu, an unpasteurized soy sauce. As the diners chew, Boutenko discusses raw foods as a community-builder. The previous weekend, she had hosted 125 raw foodists in Ashland, some of whom are in this room. "Does everybody know Chad?" Boutenko asks. "Hi, Chad," a few people call. In a cream-colored tunic and pants with matching head wrap, Chad Sarno is hard to miss. He's a staff chef at the four-person Living Light Culinary Arts Institute of Fort Bragg, Calif., which offers a nine-day certification program in raw food preparation. Originally from New Hampshire, the 30ish Sarno has spent the last six years traveling and teaching classes for the institute at places such as Breitenbush Hot Springs. He has just settled in Eugene to open a raw foods wholesale distribution business he will call Vital Creations. In a splash of synchronicity, Eugene resident David Niles, 39, is planning to open a raw foods cafe early next year. A graduate of Sarno's course and the former bicycle coordinator for the University of Oregon Office of Public Safety, Niles is currently scouting locations in the Fifth and Lincoln area for his Moringa Cafe, named for a particularly nutritious African tree. The cafe will serve salads, spreads, juices and desserts, Niles says, but also will be educational. His vision for the cafe extends from grow-your-own-wheatgrass seminars to a pedal-powered juice bar. (Pick out your fruit, then set the blender/bike to liquefy.) Until these businesses sprout, the meeting place for raw foodists will be the monthly potlucks that Phyllis Linn has organized since June. "When I changed my diet to be 100 percent raw, I had so much extra energy, and it needed channeling," she explains. Linn, 54, a book indexer by day, is the woman who brought Boutenko to Eugene. "It was at a talk that Victoria gave that I decided to go to 100 percent raw," Linn says. "I did so at that moment, and I've been that way for four months." The process was gradual. Five years ago, Linn was intrigued by a healing diet of raw foods and juices called The Incurables Program. "It seems to me that if this program could cure somebody from death's door," she says, "what could it do for me, who has no real symptoms of illness? "I got a juicer and I started juicing. That was the start." Linn would start each meal with a raw food: fruit at breakfast, salads at lunch and dinner. "I didn't really worry about forcing myself to do anything," she recalls. "I would just start adding raw foods, and then I found that's more and more what I wanted, and so other things fell away. And that's the only way I recommend to people to try it." Linn attended the Boutenkos' recent raw food weekend in Ashland. She brought her husband, Art, who is pure West Texas: ramrod posture, blue jeans and boots. Art attended the seminars, soaked in the hot springs and ate raw food all weekend. Until Sunday, when he slipped down the road to a Mexican restaurant. "Chili verde and a margarita," he recalls with a shy, shameless smile. The Linns seem to juggle their diets handily. "One thing I learned from Victoria is that you don't all have to eat at the same time, or eat the same things," Phyllis says. Different family members might have different "food urges," she says, and will eat accordingly. Art is about 50 percent raw - fruit for breakfast, sometimes just a smoothie for dinner - and figures that's about where he'll stay. "I have to have coffee. I'm not going to give that up," he says. "And every two, three months, I say, `It's time to have a steak,' and we go to the Black Angus." DESSERT! (No coffee.) What looks like a large pink sheet cake is peach slices layered with a thick, chunky fruit-nut paste, frosted with a raspberry puree and trimmed attractively with sliced almonds and poppy seeds. It is a weighty concoction, particularly after the pizza, and not as appetizing as plain fruit. But creative, to be sure, and widely sampled by the diners. By evening's end, 36 people have enrolled in Boutenko's five-class series. "I aspire to do what she's doing," says Katherine Baynton of Eugene, who signed right up. Much cheaper than the Breitenbush class, she says. Baynton attended the dinner with her elfin 7-year-old, Shawna, a vegan since birth. "When she was little, she would ask for raw foods, especially cherry tomatoes," Baynton says. "Kind of like a little teacher." Beverly Rowland, 63, a vegetarian of 20 years, is intrigued enough to take the class. "As a vegetarian, I'm always looking for ways to improve my diet," she says. But she doubts she'll go 100 percent raw. "I'm all for it, but I don't think I can maintain it," she confesses. "There's a pumpkin cookie at that bakery downtown that I just lust for."

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ORIGINS OF POPULAR DELUSIONS "The raw food diet is completely radical and bizarre!!   Cooked food is poison??!!  People have been cooking food for centuries, so how can you say it's wrong or harmful??" Haven't you heard this response, at least once?!  Don't you sometimes wonder why  everyone doesn't immediately grasp the significance and truth of the raw food message??  What gets in the way?  Several factors commonly interfere with reason, logic, and common sense in such instances. People confuse the norm with the truth.  Just because something is popularly accepted doesn't make it right or true.  People apparently believed the earth was flat, but it wasn't.  Witch hunts used to be more common, based upon the belief that they caused diseases and other problems.  State of the art medicine at one time involved leeches and blood-letting, though that seems ludicrous now.  Popular delusions are prevalent in every culture.  Like cooked food, cancer, heart disease and other diseases are the norm in this time and place, but that doesn't make them desirable or even necessary.   Every aspect of popular culture is based on a degree of false information.  Very often these untruths are deliberately introduced and maintained by some group who stands to benefit from them.  For example, the AMA and the pharmaceutical industry have vested interests in allopathic medicine.  The ADA must protect its interests by insisting that mercury amalgam fillings are safe.  The beef and dairy industry would have you believe in the safety of their products and your need for great amounts of them in your daily diet.  The processed foods and supermarket industries want you to pursue a cooked food diet.  This list could go on for a very long time!!  Disinformation from these groups worms its way into your consciousness through advertising, "education" campaigns, and influencing legislative bodies. People tend to believe what they hear and are told, rather than to think things through for themselves.  This process leads us to distrust our own instincts and understanding and to look to "experts" for answers.  Soon the experts' dogmas are accepted without question.  Unfortunately, the so-called experts come from the vested interest groups! It's difficult for most people to question their beliefs because if they changed their perceptions, it would be tantamount to admitting that they were wrong or misguided on some issue.  No one likes to admit to error.  Even though we tend not to come to our own conclusions, we hate it when it becomes obvious that they are incorrect, so we protect our ignorance! As humans, we like to maintain easy access to our comfort zone, defined by what's familiar to us.  Anything outside that range makes us uneasy and distrustful!  Cooked food is very familiar.  Since birth, food has been a powerful source of emotional nurturance, in addition to its nutritional value.  These are the (cooked) food items we refer to as our "comfort foods" and they are almost always nurturingly warm.  How could something that feels so good be wrong??! We have already listed several compelling reasons why mankind may have come to erroneous conclusions about its cooked food diet  Now for the most important factor:  cooked food is highly addictive!!  Have you ever tried to discuss the dangers of smoking with a tobacco addict??  The effect of alcohol on the liver with an alcoholic??  The information does not easily penetrate the addicted brain.  This is possibly an unconscious self-preservation tactic.  The person knows, on some level, that he is addicted and therefore not likely to change, and evidence of the negative consequences of his behavior only adds insult to injury, so he flips into denial mode.  The eyes glaze over, the mind is not in gear, even though he may voice a fair amount of agreement, "I see what you're saying; it makes sense, but, uh, um."  So before you say, "The raw food diet is completely radical and bizarre!!" ask yourself if its possible that your views could be colored by any or all of these factors.  If so, now you are in a better position to move beyond dietary dogma and to learn the health-enhancing attributes of a raw and living foods diet! What other factors contribute to popular delusions regarding food??

Sprouting Basics WHY SPROUT? THE PROBLEM OF  ENZYME INHIBITORS A seed is the very core of life.  It is a storehouse of concentrated nutrients and energy.  All dry seeds, including beans, nuts, and grains contain enzyme inhibitors, which are nature's way of preserving the life force for the purpose of future plant reproduction.  Enzyme inhibitors prevent the seed from sprouting until water is available to support the growth process. By soaking the seed in water,  the inhibitors are neutralized, thus allowing the enzymes to initiate the growth of the seed.  If seeds are eaten without prior soaking, the enzyme inhibitors can put a strain on the pancreas and impair digestion.  For this reason, eating raw, unsoaked seeds is not a good idea.  This includes raw sunflower seeds, almonds and other seeds and nuts.  SPROUTS ARE RICH IN ENZYMES The concepts of enzymes is central to sprouting.  Sprouting unlocks the enzymes contained in dry seeds. These enzymes lay dormant until activated by water in the soaking phase.  As the enzymes come to life, they inactivate the inhibitors and begin to grow.  Enzymes are CRITICAL to your health and well being.  They are needed by all of the cells of every living plant and animal.  It is enzyme activity that accomplishes all the biological work the body performs.  When we eat, we need enzymes to help digest the food.  If the food we are eating is raw, such as a sprouted seed, the enzymes we need are present in the food itself, ready to go to work on our behalf.  If the food (seed) has been heated beyond about 110 degrees, however, these naturally occurring enzymes are killed, and our body must manufacture its own digestive enzymes to do the job.  THIS IS A PROBLEM!  Our bodies produce a finite number of enzymes in our lifetime, according to biochemist and nutrition researcher Edward Howell, author of Enzyme Nutrition: The Food Enzyme Concept, and depleting them in the process of digestion of cooked foods causes us to age faster and succumb more easily to disease.  Raw foodsprouted foodretains these precious enzymes; they aid in the digestion process, allowing the body to conserve its enzyme stores and thus maintain good health more readily.            SPROUTS ARE LIVING FOODS Sprouted seeds, beans, grains and nuts are true living foods.  These foods are growing, living plants.  The life energy of living foods is liberated from the plant cells during the process of chewing and digestion, and becomes usable for the regeneration of your body.  An energy exchange takes place.  Kirlian photography  shows a beautiful and strong field of energy around a sprouted seed.  This energy is transferred to your body when you eat sprouts. SPROUTING INCREASES NUTRIENT CONTENT The germination process that occurs during sprouting beneficially changes the nutritional composition of the seed.  It actually increases the protein, water, and oxygen content while decreasing the starches and fats.  Dr. P.R. Burkholder of Yale University showed that when oats are sprouted, the Vitamin B2 content increases by 1300%, Vitamin B6 by 500%, and folic acid by 600%.  Because of these enormous increases over the vitamin content of dried grains and seeds, Dr. Burkholder recommended the wide-scale use of sprouts as food in the West.   When they first hear of the raw food diet, the first thing people often ask is, "Where do you get your protein?"  Not only are sprouts a rich source of protein, they are a rich source of highly assimilable amino acidsthe building blocks of proteins.  Proteins must be broken down into amino acids in order to be usable by your body.  Dr. J. Bland, professor of nutritional biochemistry at the University of Puget Sound, showed that approximately 6 cups of lentil sprouts supplied 50 grams of protein, the recommended intake of protein for an adult male.  Dr. Bland concluded that sprouts could provide a significant portion of our daily protein needs in a safe and inexpensive form, compared to other plant and animal protein sources.  Of course all fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, and seeds contain protein, so the concern about getting protein is not really an issue.  But we have been brain washed by the propaganda of the beef and dairy industry to believe this should be a concern.  But back to sprouts!   ENHANCED DIGESTIBILITY OF SPROUTED SEEDS Since food enzymes are present to help break down protein, starches and fats, the digestibility of sprouted foods is unsurpassed.  The fatty acids, amino acids and simple sugars produced by this process provide the body with an easy job of digestion. MORE REASONS TO SPROUT Sprouting is easy to do!  As you will see, it takes only a few minutes a day and no special equipment.  It can be done year-round in a small living space, while traveling (even on a hiking or bicycle trip). Anywhere!  Sprouting allows you to regain control of a vital factor in your life: food!  Sprouts are portable.  If you take a bag of sprouts (and maybe some fruit) with you when you go out for the day, you have a healthy food source that requires no further preparation and no refrigeration.  It's cheap!  Pound for pound, sprouts are perhaps the most nutritious food there is per dollar value.  This is due, in part, to the fact that sprouts increase in size, weight, and nutritional value as they grow.  In addition, there is (so far) an abundance of seeds all over the world available for sprouting.  The popular alfalfa sprout costs only 33 cents a pound to grow, while its weight from seed to sprout increases over 600 percent and its volume increases by 2900 percent.  In one study, a pound of alfalfa seed produced nearly seven pounds of alfalfa sprouts.  Mung bean sprouts cost 28 cents per pound and increase in volume more than ten times.  You can grow a variety of sprouts that will provide you with Recommended Daily Allowance of protein, vitamins, and minerals, and you can grow them for less than one dollar per day!! To get the same amount of nutrients from any other food or combination of foods would cost many, many times more!  Of course, no one is recommending that you attempt to live entirely on sprouts.  But clearly the use of sprouts rests on a firm economic basis, not only for consumption in this country, but also in famine-stricken parts of the world, where sprouted seeds and grains could be used to alleviate nutritional deficiencies What 92 cents will buy: (This was written in 1983) ½ c. almond sprouts                            $.26 ½ c. sesame sprouts                                .08 1 ½ c. wheat sprouts                                .06 1 c. rye sprouts                                          .035 1 c. sunflower sprouts                           .145 3 c. alfalfa sprouts                                    09 1 ½ c. lentil sprouts                                 .065 2 c. mung sprouts                                   .085 3 c. buckwheat sprouts                         .025 3 c. sunflower gr                                        .05 3 c. wheatgrass (juiced)                        .025 ___________________________________________ 20 cups                                                $  .92 WHAT TO SPROUT It's important to get high quality, organic seeds.  Your natural grocery probably carries a supply and the RESOURCES list following this article supplies further options. Types of seeds to sprout Seeds that have a long shelf live and can be stored at room temperature: Beans, peas, lentils (lentil/mung/pea combo is my favorite) Alfalfa, radish, cabbage, clover, broccoli (small seeds that "green") Grains: oat groats, buckwheat (hulled), rye, quinoa,  spelt, wheat, etc. Seeds with hulls (plant in soil): sunflower, buckwheat, barley Nuts and seeds that are high in fat and should be stored in the freezer or refrigerator to prevent rancidity: All nuts, sunflower, pumpkin and sesame seeds HOW TO SPROUT Regardless of the method used, all seeds need a moderate temperature (65-75 degrees is best), air, moisture, and low light for optimum sprouting.   There are lots of equipment options for sproutingjars, bags, baskets, automatic sprouting kits, to name a few.  The jar method works well for easy sprouting of beans, peas, and legumes.  Alfalfa sprouts can be grown in jars, but I have found that the basket method works best for producing green sprouts, such as alfalfa, clover, radish, and broccoli.  The tray + dirt method works best for growing wheatgrass, sunflower greens, buckwheat greens, and barley greens. Jar method: Equipment needs are minimal.  You need a couple of wide-mouth jars, such as quart canning jars.  For the lids, you can use something as simple as cheesecloth and a rubber band or commercial sprouting lids made of plastic or metal screening.  It's helpful to have a dish drain or some other means of holding the jars at a 45 degree angle while they are sprouting. 1.  Measure, cull, and rinse seeds. In a quart jar, use about 3 tablespoons of alfalfa-size seeds or about ½ cup of legumes or grains; cull any foreign objects or obviously damaged seeds (don't make a big project out of thiskeep it the simple process that it is!) 2.  Soaking phase. This deactivates the enzyme inhibitors.  Place seeds in the jar and cover with good quality water.  Most seeds should be soaked 8-12 hours or overnight.    Soaking time varies with size of seed; smaller seeds tend to need less soaking time; larger seeds need more.  For large or very hard seeds and/or cool room temperature, soak 8-12 hours, drain, rinse, refill with fresh water and resoak for 8-12 hours more. 3.  Drain.  The soak water is great for feeding house plants. 4.  Sprouting phase.  This is the nutrient expansion phase.  Rinse sprouts in cool water and drain 2-3 times a day for 2-3 days (average); maintain proper angle (about 45 degrees) for draining.           Ideal temperature is 65-75 degrees. 5.  Put in indirect light to allow photosynthesis to green the leaves of the sprouts.  (This applies to alfalfa and other green sprouts if you are using this method instead of a basket to grow them.) 6.  Hull and cull (optional).  Removing the hulls and any seeds that didn't sprout or "look funny"  helps to keep the sprouts fresh for a longer time, as decaying hulls encourage bacterial growth.  Swish sprouts around  briefly in a bowl of cool water and then allow the hulls float to the top and skim off. 7.  Dry and store. Allow sprouts to dry 6-8 hours before storing; dry sprouts remain fresh longer than wet ones.  Store in a glass jar or ziplock bag. Basket Method: You will need a couple of jars for soaking the seeds; For sprouting, I have been using the type of bamboo basket that is used at picnics to give support to paper plates; they are easy to find, inexpensive and work well--but feel free to experiment!!  It's also helpful to have a tray or towel for draining purposes.  I use a black garbage bag to create a dark, moist environment for germination and, later, a sheet of clear plastic to create a greenhouse climate. 1.  Follow steps 1-3 above. 2.  Spread soaked seeds on the bottom of the basket, cover with another basket, place on a towel or tray and cover loosely with the black plastic bag. 3.  Twice a day, rinse the sprouts with cool watera hand held sink sprayer works well for this task. 4.  After 3 days, place the sprouting basket in indirect light and use the clear plastic for a greenhouse instead of the black; continue to rinse twice a day. 5.  Harvesting is best done by plucking the sprouts as needed; however if you have an excess, they can be stored in the refrigerator in a glass jar or plastic bag. 6.  A vegetable brush works well to clean the basket and to remove any errant roots. Tray/soil method: Cafeteria trays work well for this method; they are inexpensive and available at restaurant supply stores; commercial potting soil can be used or you can create your own soil blend. 1.  Follow steps 1-3 of the jar method; for wheatgrass, use about 1 ½ c. dry red winter wheat berries; for sunflower and buckwheat greens, start with about 2 c. seeds. 2.  Place enough moist soil to just reach the top of the tray.  Spread the soaked seeds evenly on top of the soil and cover with another tray. (Do not cover seeds with dirt.) 3.  Leave it alone until you notice that the sprouting seeds are beginning to lift the top.  Remove the top; water and place in indirect light. 4.  Water once or twice a day as needed. 5.  Harvest wheatgrass when it is 5-7" long by cutting the greens with scissors close to the roots.  Harvest as needed or store excess for a day or two in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. 6.   Compost spent wheatgrass mats, rinse tray and start over. RECIPES SPROUT LOAF 1 c. alfalfa (or alfalfa mix) sprouts 2 c. lentil/mung/pea sprout mix ½ c. cabbage sprouts 1 c. soaked almonds, ground 1 stalk celery, diced 1 scallion, diced ½ red pepper, seeded and diced 1 tbl. Braggs amino acids or tamari Mix ingredients in a bowl, adding just enough spring water to form a loaf.  Serve on a bed of romaine lettuce.   This could also be used to stuff red pepper halves. (from The Hippocrates Diet and Health Program, by Ann Wigmore GREEN DRINK 2 c. alfalfa sprouts 2 c. buckwheat greens 2 c. sunflower greens 2 c. spinach, beet tops, dandelions, or other greens 1 c. wheat grass 2 carrots 1 small beet 2 stalks celery 1 c. parsley 1 apple Juice in a slow-turning juicer (Green Power or wheat grass juicer). COMPLETE MEAL SALAD 1 c. alfalfa sprouts 1 c. sunflower greens, torn in half 1 c. mung bean or lentil sprouts 1 c. greens, torn into small pieces ½ c. grated squash or beet 1 avocado, cubed 1 red pepper, diced 1 tomato, diced Toss all ingredients together and serve with garlicky olive oil or your favorite homemade dressing. SUNNY  SPROUTS  AND  CARROTS 3 grated carrots 1 large handful mixed sprouts 2 minced green onions Divide between two salad bowls. DRESSING: (or use about 1/3 c. garlicky vinaigrette) 2 tbl. olive oil 1 tbl. cider vinegar 1 tsp. honey 1 tsp. dijon mustard pinch pepper 1/2 tsp. dill Pour over salads. ENERGY SOUP 5 c. baby greenalfalfa, clover, sunflower, etc. 1-2 c. bean sprouts 1 avocado 2 apples 2 tbl. seaweed 1 clove garlic spinach, parsley, or other dark greens (optional) Blend in blender with water or rejuvalac to soupy consistency. Bibliography This article is an introduction to sprouting, designed to get you started.  The following books are recommended to give you a more exhaustive treatment of the subject. Sprouts, the Miracle Food, Steve Meyerowitz The Sprouting Book, Ann Wigmore Many books on raw food preparation include a section on sprouting: The Raw Gourmet, Nomi Shannon Dining in the Raw, Rita Romano The Hippocrates Diet and Health Program, Ann Wigmore Resources Sun Organics is a good source of organic seeds for sprouting.  Sun Organic Farm P.O. Pox 2429 Valley Center, CA 92082 1-888-269-9888 www.sunorganic.com Are you ready to build your own inexpensive, easy-to-use automatic sprouting system?? Check this one out: www.eatsprouts.com

The following are the introductions used in our latest Raw Empowerment Group in Eugene.  We were inspried by Victoria Boutenko's 12 step concept as it applies to raw foods, but as her book, 12 Steps to Raw Foods was not yet published, we kind of made it up as we went along.  Here, then, is what we came up with.  Keep in mind, we read them in a group setting, although they still have tremendous value to help you cover all the bases that NEED to be covered as you make a transition to a raw food diet.  Good luck!!! 12  STEPS TO A RAW FOODS DIET 1.                 I believe that live vegan food is the most natural diet for a human being. 2.                 I acknowledge that the addictive power of cooked food controls my food choices and my life. 3.                 I shall make a searching and fearless inventory of the real reasons for seeking comfort and pleasure from                     cooked foods. 4.                 Realizing that the thought and feeling tone I hold on any subject has creative power, I focus my energies                       positively, imagining myself successful in all areas of my raw food  lifestyle. 5.                 I shall gain necessary skills, learn basic raw recipes and obtain equipment to prepare live food. 6.                 I shall live in harmony with people who eat cooked food. 7.                 I shall avoid temptations. 8.                 I shall create support for myself and provide support to other raw fooders. 9.                 I shall find activities or hobbies that affirm my new lifestyle. 10.               I shall engage in regular physical exercise. 11.               I shall let my intuition guide me in all areas of my life. 12.               I am restored to clarity as I experience spiritual awakening. Step 1: I believe that  raw vegan food is the most natural diet for a human being. Here are Richard's introductory remarks : "According to Webster's Dictionary, the word "natural' is defined by the following: 1. Of or dealing with nature. 2. Produced in nature; not artificial. 3. Innate; not acquired. 4. True to nature; lifelike. 5. free from affectation. Take a moment to relax and think about these ideas: What does it mean to be natural?  To recognize and connect with our own natural selves? What would a natural life look like?  Have I ever experienced myself or someone else being completely natural?  What seems most natural about a human life? Brief sharing: in a word or two, tell us what you see in life that is natural: living, free, spontaneous, artful, playful, honest, open, friendly When introducing this step, Victoria related her story about encountering a cow or chicken when one is hungry.  Does our mouth water?  Do we want to eat the cow as we look at it?  No.  We are more likely to feel drawn to pet the cow.  Animals naturally elicit an affinity response from us rather than one of desire for food. Also consider the natural tools other animals have to assist them in capturing and devouring their prey.  The often run very fast and move quickly. They have sharp teeth for tearing skin and flesh; and their digestive tract is much shorter than a human's .  These traits all enable the animals to ingest and digest other animals quickly and thoroughly. A human being has no such tools for feeding the human body.  When we see a ripe strawberry in the morning sunlight, red ripe with dew upon it, our moth does water.  We have the gentle touch and dexterity of our fingers to reach out and tenderly pluck the fruit from  the vine without causing even so much as a bruise upon it. Our teeth are built for grinding and chopping our food; and our digestive system is long enough to allow our body to extract all the nutrition available from the plants we eat.  Is it a coincidence that our stomach is the approximate size of a mango or avocado  and so many other fruits?  Look at how comfortable a mango or an avocado fits into our hand. When we become "raw", we feel closer to nature.  The trees and the water become sources of peace and serenity for us.  We are drawn to the outdoors and to the countryside.  It becomes easier to be still and to meditate.  We become more aware of the stresses in our old way of living and we want to move away from them." Richard ends by saying, "The live vegan food way of eating becomes a doorway to rediscovering our connection with our natural selves and the natural ways all around us." I present the following handout in further support of this premise.  (anatomy chart from pp. 435-437 of Sunfood Diet Success System by David Wolfe )  Note especially numbers 1, 4, 9,and 13-16. (discuss briefly: teeth, shape of face,  intestines, acidity/alkalinity of body fluids, cooling methods).  From this and other evidence, it seems clear that the natural design of our human bodies would indicate a raw vegan diet.  I doubt that you disagree with this. Another way to examine this issue is look at the resultant health status of people who follow different diets and which group enjoys the most naturally healthy life.  Surely we can recognize by this that the standard American diet is not natural.  Folks on this diet tend to be medicated, subject to chronic illness, debilitating disease, depressed and often overweight.  These common conditions in his country come about because people eat devitalized, unnatural, dead foods filled with man-made additives that are never found in nature.  We feel we need more and more food because what we eat is not satisfying our  body's natural hunger for nutrition.  We become lethargic and our pastimes are reduced to inactivity and entertainment rather than creativity and participation.  On a cooked food diet we feel normalwe fit in with those around us.  But the fact that it is normal to cook food and eat animal products has no bearing on the issue of natural.  Remember that it is also normal to have health problems, to deteriorate with age, to lack energy.  After a diet of this, we have lost our sensitivity to the natural way of nourishing ourselves and no longer know what a natural life might be like.   Isn't it natural to feel alive and vibrant?  Isn't it natural to experience perfect health and vitality as do creatures in the wild?  Isn't it natural to experience your place in the oneness that exists in nature?  It's also natural to be expressive, open, intuitive, and spiritually connected.  And joyful and abundant in all that pleases you.  It is natural to feel confident within yourself.  To enjoy natural surroundings.  In fact, with time, on a raw food diet you will find yourself drawn more and more to the beauty of nature and natural activities and less and less interested in unnatural forms of entertainment such as tv. So, we each have a choice to make: normal or natural!  How do you imagine yourself as a fully natural being?  What does it mean to you to be natural? Share with us the choice you are making in your life, how that feels to you, describe your new emergence into a more natural life and self, the challenge of the processfocusing as always on your vision of what you want and what pleases you.  Probe as deeply as you can and share as fully as you wishdoing this creates growth and new insights for you.  Each time we share like this we are rediscovering the truth for ourselves. Step 2:  I acknowledge that the addictive power of cooked food controls my             food choices and my life. Step  3:  I shall make a searching and fearless inventory of the real reasons for              seeking comfort and pleasure from cooked foods. I would like to read Richard's introduction: "Addiction: To give oneself up to a strong habit. (Webster's Dictionary) We all behave with habits.  After all, a habit is merely a usual or customary way of doing something.  However, not all our habits are strong habits.  And most of our habits are probably controllable by us if we choose to control or modify them. When we do behave strictly out of strong, uncontrollable habit what is given up?  What qualities in ourselves do we set aside when we base our behavior on strong habits?     judgment; good sense; priorities; commitments; self esteem; rightness; health; vitality? This step introduces us to the possibility that our eating habits are strong habits and at times we give up something of ourselves because of them.  Are we aware of this tendency with regards to eating?  Would we admit that we are reluctant or even sometimes unable to modify or control certain eating habits? Do we recognize that cooked food is addictive?  According to research into the statistics of some of the leading health centers that promote a living food diet as a part of their program, only 2% of the graduates of these intensive programs stay on a raw food diet.  If only because of the health benefits experienced from this diet, why aren't folks staying with the raw diet?? Addiction to food is not a rational process.  Food is used for comfort, to cope with social situations, to reduce stress or a distraction from something uncomfortable or painful.  When these behaviors remain unexamined and unresolved,  they stay in place driving the coping behavior; in this example, they compel us to eat uncontrollably. Cigarettes and alcohol are known examples of addictive substances.  The very first reaction to their use is commonly adverse.  The effect on the body's system, dulling the discomfort temporarily, influences us to ignore our negative reactions to their effects.  Little by little, we accommodate the ill effects in exchange for the apparent relief from pain.  Eventually these substances can kill us. Cooked food is comparatively quite subtle.  Our first experience is right after birth with formula or cooked baby food.  We don't even recall our reaction and we were not given a choice.  Cooked food kills over a longer time via debilitating disease processes.  Typically someone won't commit a crime or cheat on a spouse to support the cooked food habit.  Yet their body will just become sick or overweight and develop ailments while they continue to eat and eat, all the while remaining hungry.  The right nourishment is not provided.  Vitamins, minerals and vital force of the live enzymes are denied the body.  And the love and comfort that compelled the food addiction to begin with are nowhere to be found. Other comments: Addiction: Habitual psychological and physiological dependence on a substance or practice beyond one's voluntary control  (Stedman's Medical Dictionary) Accepting this more strict definition leads us to apply two aspects of the function of the human body called accommodation and cellular memory. Accommodation refers to a physiological or systemic adaptation made by the body which allows it to accept and utilize unnatural food substances like cooked food.  This accommodation testifies to the body's adaptive ability but results in body responses that influence our future decisions in our choice of foods.  We accept that unhealthy foods are in fact, what we are meant to eat, because of the body's craving for that which it mistakenly recognizes as food. Cellular memory is the organic companion to emotions related to a specific event in our life.  Certain events have a strong emotional component that we give enormous meaning to.  When these events occur they are often accompanied by the ingestion of comfort food or chemicals.  As a part of the accommodation process, the body holds these substances in the cellular tissue throughout the body.  When similar emotions are experienced throughout our life, the cellular memory signals the brain of the association with the original food or chemical intake, and the urge to consume these substances over again as a part of the current emotional experience can be overwhelming." Thank you, Richard! I personally have experienced the addictive properties of cooked food, which is no doubt why it took me so many years to finally adopt a raw food diet.  I know the feeling of despair of ever managing to get on top of my food choices.  Of making a decision I was unable to follow through with ten minutes later.  I felt like a failure and that made it even harder to move forward.  There seems to be a bit of a moral judgment regarding addiction, isn't there?  This makes it hard for us to admit to ourselves that we are in an addictive process. Before we go on I would like you to share just briefly but honestly, your response to this step.  Can you relate to the out of control feeling Step 2 talks about, either now or in your past?       Often we think of an addiction as strictly a chemical issue, but clearly there are many other components, as you are probably discovering for yourself.  I have heard that after 2 weeks the chemical addiction has abated, yet still people struggle with avoiding cooked foods.  What keeps us coming back for more??  It will help us to find the answer to that! Giving up any thing brings up issues of deprivation.  As soon as we decide we can't have something any more, doesn't that make you want it?  And we have strong attachment to our old cooked food habits.  In giving up these habits, you are letting go of: What is familiar Old and good friends Sources of pleasure and comfort Status quo (we resist change) Social interaction Entertainment  Warmth (heat connotes emotional warmth) Protection/defense against uncomfortable feelings Nurturance Reward Peer acceptance (don't want to be different) What other issues can you think of??  I know you will continue to think of other things that food represents to youwhat a lot of attachment issues we have to deal with.  No wonder people are challenged to make changes in their food habits!! We have decided, based on Step 1, to adopt a raw vegan diet.  It is now our value to live a natural lifestyle.  Health and well being, vitality and fulfillment are strong value we hold, but the values on the list I just mentioned are strong as well.   How can we make this shift in our system of values and beliefs?? One idea is to create our own personal list of food attachment issues.  Awareness is the precursor to change.  When you feel the urge for a non-raw food, ask yourself what you are seeking, really?  Be open to the answer.  Then work with yourself to find a raw substitute.  (example: reward could equal a smoothie or raw pizza)  Sometimes the awareness alone is enough to dissolve the issue for you. You are among a very small group to have even made such a commitment to yourself!  Most people are too set in their habit patterns of addiction and attachment to even be having this discussion.  It represents too big a threat to their comfort zone of the status quo.  In time, perhaps, they too will be ready to make more rational choices for their own well being.  But for us, the time is now!! Think about the possibility of a new reality for you.  A light at the end of the tunnel.  Can you imagine and feel the freedom of leaving these food issues behind?  Share with us your now vision for letting go of habits of addiction and attachment and creating new health-giving habits based on raw foods.  STEP 4:  Realizing that the thought and feeling tone I hold on any  subject has                creative power, I focus my energies positively,  imagining myself successful                in all areas of my raw food  lifestyle.  (Preliminary exercise: make a list of negative ideas, doubts and concerns that tend to defeat or impede us in our transition to a successful raw food lifestyle.  Things that emerge may include: I'm just no good at creating tasty raw food! I'd like to do this but my partner/family likes cooked food. I'd like to but I can't imagine giving up buttered toast (or whatever) I'd like to but it's impossible for me to swear I'll do it forever. I'd like to but I get cravings that won't quit! I don't want to be out of synch with my friends It's just too hard with my work schedule. I travel a lot so it just wouldn't work. I have no will power and will just fail. I'm a hopeless addict to cooked food.) This step is crucial to creating a successful raw food lifestyle.  It is based on universal law, one we shall call the Law of Attraction.  Our every thought and feeling is subject to this law, which can be expressed as "Whatever you give your attention to becomes your point of attraction."  You are a powerful creator and the universe is continuously bringing you that which you have attracted through your focused attention.  You have also heard it stated, "As you sow, so shall you reap."  Or "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he."  There are other ways of stating this universal law and we have all heard it.  It has formed the basis of the teachings of all the great avatars. Yet few people realize its import for our daily life and happiness.  Few of us know how to use this law to consciously create what we want in our lives.  Please don't dismiss this step as some sort of New Age woo woo stuff.  It is science--an important component of the new physics, actuallyand more important to your well being than the well accepted Law of Gravity. In order to clarify this important step, I would like to read an excerpt from this handout I am giving you titled "Moving Up the Vibrational Stick" (from www.abraham-hicks.com). Are you understanding that you are vibrational beings?  Are you understanding that everything is vibrational and that your experience, no matter who you are, is only about your translation of vibration? When we say to you, what you see with your eyes is an interpretation of vibration, what you feel with your fingertips, what you hear with your ears, what you smell with your nose, all that you are experiencing is vibrational interpretation, you say, "Well,  this interpretation of vibration is reality."  And we say, the reason you are calling it reality is because so many others are agreeing with you, in general terms, about the reality you are perceiving.  But in truth, you are all interpreting uniquely from your perspective.  Once you understand that you are vibrational interpreters, then you can take it further, going beyond your physical senses, and utilizing your emotions as a very effective guidance system. Everything is about vibration.  And everything that your are perceiving is already vibrating.  When you give anything your attentionwhatever its vibration isnow becomes included in your vibration.  So it is true that everything that you are allowing yourself to ponder or remember or imagine or observe effects your vibration.  And many would say, "Well, so what?"  And we say, it is very important "so what".  Since the Law of Attraction is what is sorting all of this out, then whatever it is you are offering in your vibration is what Law of Attraction is giving back to you.  Whatever you are observing, or whatever you are pondering, or whatever you are imagining, or whatever you are giving your attention towhether you are remembering it from the past, or observing it in the now or imagining it in the futurewhatever you are giving your attention to is causing your vibration to be what it is.  And whatever it is, is your point of attraction. Your power is here and now, because here and now is where you are vibrating.  You cannot attract your past.  You are not vibrationally there.  Perceptually, you are standing here, you  are attracting here.  So how you feel right now, right now, how you feel right nowWhether you are thinking about then or now, or tomorrow, it doesn't matter whether you are perusing past, present or futurehow you are feeling NOW as you are perusing, past, present or future IS your indicator of your point of  attraction.  Creating from the inside out says, "I will generate the feeling, which will cause the vibration, which will affect the attraction."  (When we create by default, we observe a thing that has happened and have a feeling response to it, which affects the attraction, although we aren't aware of the processdo you see the difference??) Every subject is really two subjects" There is that which is wanted and the lack of it.  There is the subject of wellness or not.  There is the subject of abundance or not.   There is the subject of raw food lifestyle success and the lack of success.  Every subject is of that which is wanted or of the lack of it. When you pick up the very long stick (or subject) that has two ends to it, the only question that is really important to you is "Which end of this stick am I vibrating on."  If you really want to know: what you are living is your evidence of thatbecause whatever you are thinking and feeling, and whatever you are getting, is always a vibrational match.  The manifestation that you are living is a true indicator of what the vibrational content of your offering is.  When you pick up the stick that says "money", you can tell, you can feel it in your solar plexus, which end of it you're vibrating on.  You can feel eagerness and enthusiasm, or you can feel worry and concern.  You can feel whether you're thriving or whether you're worried.  When you pick up the stick that says "raw food lifestyle success" you can feel  which end you are vibrating on.  Are you excited about learning about these concepts and the prospect of enhanced health, vitality and spiritual connection?  Or are you doubtful you will be able to stay away from cooked food?  Are you afraid it is too different, too complicated?  Are you worried about how such a change will affect your family and friends? When we begin a new adventure, it is normal for doubts to creep in.  These doubts are letting us know our knee-jerk response to these topicsour habitual response to this type of issue.  We are showing ourselves old habits.  This is not, however, REALITY.   These moments of doubt and fear show us what WE DON"T WANT.  "Ah, I'm experiencing a negative moment.  I'm showing myself what I don't want.  What is it I DO want??  Well, I want to feel joyful in my new raw food lifestyle.  I want to enjoy my ever expanding sense of well being and vitality.  I want to bask in the oneness I am coming to feelwith all of nature, with other people, with my Spirit  I want to feel successful and empowered in making food choices that support my joyfulness and vibrant health.  I want to enjoy an ease at incorporating new healthy habits into my life."  I know you can create a more expanded scenario of what you want in terms of your liberating raw food lifestyle and I invite you to do this every time you catch yourself telling yourself what you don't want!  It's great to write it out on a regular basis, too, and it's most effective when you allow yourself to really get into the feeling state you are wanting.  Imagine you are there now.  "Fake it till you make it" is a great concept because the universe doesn't know you are faking it!  If you are sending the vibrational tone of what you are wanting, you ARE there as far as the universe is concerned and the universe gives it to you. These may be new concepts for you to grasp.  I know it has taken me five years to BEGIN to "get" it!!  You can speed up your understanding by rereading the handout and also by listening to tapes about the Law of Attraction.  These are available for check out at the library at the Unity Church in south Eugene.  They are called Abraham tapes.  They will help you to fully understand and use Step #3, Realizing that the thought and feeling tone I hold on any  subject has creative power, I focus my energies positively,  imagining myself successful in all areas of my raw food  lifestyle. Please share with us now a bit of your own highest vision of living the raw food lifestyle just the way you want it!  Imagine you are living it NOW! Step 5: I will gain necessary skills, learn basic raw recipes, and obtain equipment to             prepare raw food. This step just makes sense!  It's hard to imagine making such a drastic lifestyle change without tools and knowledge.  The transition from a cooked food diet to a happy, easy to maintain, fulfilling raw food lifestyle becomes A LOT easier when you have the skills, recipes and equipment to make your new way of life a tasty and satisfying reality!  It is one of the goals of this class to provide at least a starting point on this journey, by demonstrating and discussing, as we have been doing,  some of the basic processes that can be used on a raw food diet.  Sprouting, non-dairy milks, smoothies, rejuvelac, raw soups, fermented cheeses and yogurt, dehydrated crackers and breads are some of the topics we have already covered.  These skills take a bit of practice, so don't get discouraged if your first raw soup or batch of crackers is less than palatable.  Just as in the preparation of cooked foods, there is a bit of a learning curve.  Hang in there!!  BOOKS: Once you have the basic idea of these processes, you can go on to experiment with different recipes.  There are lots of raw food recipe books available and most of them also offer a section that describes the basics as well. I have a lot of them and you are welcome to peruse them to determine which ones you might like to buy for your own raw library. And as part of our raw support system, we encourage recipe sharing.  When you discover something yummy, we all want to hear about it!! EQUIPMENT: Of course, you can be a raw fooder with no equipment, just by picking fresh fruit and veggies and eating them whole.  But few of us do that, especially at first!!  The most basic piece of equipment is a really good knifeactually a paring knife, a chef knife, and a middle range knife would be a good set to have.  You will be using them a lot, so it pays to invest in quality.  If you're starting out on a shoestring, as I did, a thrift store blender and  food processor shouldn't set you back more than $10 for both.  I've also purchased a number of citrus juicers and a type of food processor called a Salad Shooter, also for about $5 each at Goodwill or yard sales.  These served me well for quite a while. The blender is ideal for smoothies, raw soups, and things that are predominantly liquid.  The food processor has an S-blade and performs a blender-like operation, but usually on food of a drier consistency, such as finely mincing ingredients for a vegetable/seed loaf or making a pie crust of dates and almonds.  A food processor should also have a shredding attachment or two which enables it to grate/shred vegetables in a slaw-style shape. The salad shooter also shreds and it comes with different graters to make fine or coarse shreds, as well as chips.  It's very easy to use.  Be sure to look for a Professional model and make sure all the parts are there if you shop in thrift stores! A citrus reamer is handy to use in extracting the juice from a single lemon, but if you juice citrus fruits regularly or are juicing several fruits at a time, an electric juicer is great.  I prefer my old one, which I still find at thrift stores, over anything that is available now commercially.  If you have an Acme juicer, there is a citrus attachment for it that works well. As you move into more "gourmet" raw foods, you will be wanting a high speed blender, such as a Vita Mix or a Champ.  These cost about $350-$400, but are so valuable for creating really smooth textures and for making quick and lovely soups, smoothies, and other items.  I have some info on these items that you can peruse. The next higher budget equipment you may want is a juicer.  There is lots to consider in deciding which one to get.  A Champion works well for a wide variety of applications.   It has a blank screen for  "ice cream", cracker dough and nut loaves, and a juice screen for   juicing carrots and other vegetables and fruits.  This juicer will not make wheatgrass juice and doesn't work as well on fruits and greens.  But it produces a high quality of juice.  It costs about $200 A Juiceman II is easy to use and clean and works well on carrots.  It is a centrifugal juicer that shoots the pulp out the back.   It costs about $150 The Green Life/Green Power  costs about $450 and it does it all including wheat grass.  Its twin gears grind, rather than cut the material, leaving more of the enzymes intact and reducing oxidation loss. There is a complete and detailed juice comparison guide at www.discountjuicers.com and they tend to have the lowest prices as well. Check them out for the Excalibur food dehydrator, which will probably be the next high budget item you will be wanting.  With the dehydrator, you can make crackers, cookies, and all sorts of "comfort" foods, plus you can dehydrate fruits and vegetables (sun-dried tomatoes!) for later use.  It costs about $200 for the 9-tray model. You will also want teflex sheets for the dehydrator so that you can dehydrate wetter things, such as cracker dough.   Miscellaneous equipment: 1. "coffee" grinder  or mortar and pestle for grinding seeds, Celtic salt, herbs 2.  wheat grass juicer if your juicer won't do this 3.  cafeteria trays for growing wheat grass and buckwheat and sunflower greens 4.  straining bags for separating pulp from nut and seed milks 5.  sprouting equipment, such as wide-mouth Mason jars, lids, sprouting bags 6.  rubber spatulas are great to have, as are wooden spoons Did I forget anything??  What else do you find indispensable? SETTING UP A RAW KITCHEN: Raw food skills we have been covering in our class and you have received some basic recipes to get you started.  Now we have covered the equipment factor.  Setting up a raw kitchen can be done in a small space (I did it in a 24-foot travel trailerKody's space is even less!).  Even if you keep a few pots and pans and the stove around for other members of the family, it's easy to put together an efficient raw food preparation center. When we put this kitchen together, we thought about what groupings to create.  What would we be doing together?  That's why we put the electric equipment together.  Often a recipe will require more than one piece of equipment and it's been easier to group them.  A multi-outlet strip works well for this.  One cupboard contains dry beans and grains in Mason jars with extra quantities stored in the garage in 5-galon buckets.  Nuts and seeds are stored in the freezer with smaller quantities in the refrigerator.  We have a drawer for spices and a tub in a cupboard for liquids such as nama shoyu and apple cider vinegar.  We try to keep our refrigerator organized so we can easily see what's available.  We have a drawer for crackers and softer ones are kept in the freezer.  We chose to use the dining room for more food prep work area and produce storage.  There is a sprouting center with jars and seeds.  We have recently moved here, so we are still a bit in transition and will probably get even more efficient with this! Please share with us what you have found to work well in your raw kitchen!  Has this given you any ideas for fine tuning your raw food preparation center?? What questions do you have regarding skills, recipes, equipment, kitchen set-up? Please share with us your NOW response to Step #5: I will gain necessary skills, learn basic raw recipes and obtain equipment to prepare raw food. I encourage you to stay if you can and take a look at these materials on equipment and look at the books in these book cases to see if there are any you wish to buy.  You can order from Amazon.com or buy those that are available at Sundance or other health food stores. 12 Steps to a Raw Foods Lifestyle Step 6: I shall live in harmony with people who eat cooked foods. Imagine for a moment how you feel when you are given unsolicited advice.  When someone says, "You should get more exercise." Or "Fasting is good for you.  You should try it."  What incident can you recall where this happened to you.  How did you feel? rebellious          guilty                    angry/hostile                     depressed          low self-esteem           What did you do? opposite  nothing/ignored     passive-aggressive response              confrontation/aggression Even if we know they are right and that we would be better off doing what they say, we rarely do so.  We rarely say, "You are so right.  Thank you for your concern.  I'll do it immediately!"  Why is that? We're not ready; we haven't really arrived at that conclusion in an impactful way; we just don't like to be told; we don't want to change. Yabut we're talking logic here!!  And you just KNOW your family and friends would be happier and healthier if they adopted this raw diet.  Perhaps if you mention it often enough and disparage THEIR food clearly enough, they'll get it?  Nope.  Never happen.  Have you seen any evidence of it working???  Did your partner become raw when you said, "I'm raw now, so don't eat that crap in front of me!"? And you don't even have to say anything to pressure someone.  Here's a quote from Victoria's new 12-step book (page 81) We don't even have to speak to make those we love uncomfortable.  Some of us throw certain glances that convey the same meaning as the words just mentioned.  For example, a woman in one of my classes said to me, "My family is angry with my raw foodism even though I never pushed anybody to eat raw food.  My son makes all kinds of jokes about my green juices."  I said to her, "You might be doing something that irritates them that you're not aware of.  Just watch yourself, and catch those moments. Don't watch others.  Watch and see what you are doing to antagonize your family.'  The next week she came to class and said, "Yeah. I caught myself several times poking little pins in certain painful places.  I'd say something hurtful or look disgusted or put out.  I changed my attitude toward my family, and they, in turn, shifted toward me and it only took one week.  When I started accepting them, then they accepted me back.  Now my husband is making juice every morning and bringing it to me in bed.  He says, 'Honey, I want you to stay on raw food.' Suddenly my house has become a peaceful place and my son is willing to try everything I make." Doesn't it make sense that your friends and family are likely to respond in the same way that you do when unsolicited advice is given?  Isn't it clear that they will not make this transition by our pressuring them, any more than WE came to this conclusion through someone else's prodding?  Are we clear on this??!!  IT DOESN'T WORK TO PREACH, CAJOLE, NAG, ADVISE OTHERS INTO A RAW FOOD LIFESTYLE.  The opposite effect results!  Do we agree???  Any one still think it might work??  Go for it, but you will come to the same conclusion sooner or later! For harmony to abound, we don't all need to believe the same things or to think or eat the same.  Harmony is the result of mutual acceptance, love  and support.  Can you imagine fully accepting and supporting your cooked-food eating family and friends, no matter what lifestyle choices they make?  What would that look like? What interferes with your full allowing of their choices?  It is helpful to uncover your motives.  They might not be as pristine as you had imagined! Are you fearful that if they are "cooked", you won't be able to sustain your own raw lifestyle?  Do you  pressure them to be raw to bolster your own raw courage??  If this is the case, it might be helpful to remember the law of attraction which states that what I focus upon I attract into my life.  Another way of saying this is that through my focusing of energy,  I am the director of my own life.  And I am responsible for creating my life the way I want it.  No one else has the power to sabotage my life.  Unless of course, I believe that they can do so.  In that case, the sabotage is a result of my belief, not their action.  Do you see that we can always create the life we want, regardless of what others do or don't do.   So I see that I don't need others to be raw so I can be. Are you concerned about the health of your family and friends, feeling responsible to pass along the information you have because you know the health problems cooked food can contribute to?? Are you resentful that your partner or children cling to what you see as a dead food lifestyle, when you would like to be sharing  life with them at a more mutually expansive and natural level of functioning??   It can be frustrating to have information I think is critical to the well being of another that they refuse to hear or accept.  Nevertheless, the beauty of it is that we each get to make our own choices!  What can we do?  We can set an example that is appealing and enticing.  We can prepare luscious raw food for ourselves!  We can create such a powerful example of health and well being that people are beating down our door to get our secret!!  That's effective!!  Our example is a much more powerful teacher than our words!! As Victoria says, "When I went on raw food I did just the opposite of my advice to you.  I went around telling everyone to go on raw food.  I was chasing overweight ladies in Safeway, trying to explain to them how easy it is to lose weight.  I was so excited about the healthy changes my family was experiencing, I got carried away.  I made a lot of enemies before I understood that people need to find their own way and decide their own path." (p. 84-85) What comes to mind for you in terms of attempting to convince others to be raw? Let me state again that for harmony to abound, we don't all need to believe the same things or to think or eat the same.  Harmony is the result of mutual acceptance, love  and support.  Keeping in mind the law of attraction and that I create in my life that which I focus upon, let's again try to imagine fully accepting and supporting our cooked-food eating family and friends, no matter what lifestyle choices they make?  What would that look like?  What would it feel like?  Can you create such a scenario??  The more we understand our own power as focuser and creator of our own life, and appreciate the autonomy of others as they focus and create, we become more allowing of the choices of others.  Allowingnot merely toleratingallowing with lovethis is unconditional love and it is our highest state of consciousness on this plane of existence.  Releasing our expectations of others enhances our own consciousness! This is one of the wonderful rewards of step 6: I shall live in harmony with people who eat cooked foods. Step 7: I shall avoid temptation. Temptation.  First we need to decide what it is! What turns a desire for something into a temptation??  If you desire an apple, is that a temptation?  A temptation is a short term pleasure with a long term negative consequence To turn down immediate gratification in exchange for a long range benefit is a challenge.  The mind has become adept at getting its way, perhaps by distracting us just long enough to slip that slice of pizza by.  And so, once temptation erupts, will power is not an effective tool in withstanding it.  In fact, the best way to deal with temptation is to avoid it whenever possible, rather than to resist it.  Do this exercise.  Honestly try to remember all your temptations in the field of cooked food.  Write them down.   On one side of the paper list the temptations that seem to be avoidable.  On the other side, list those that seem unavoidable, such as when a friend offers you a cooked food treat.  This exercise makes you aware of all the places where you could be tempted, so you will be able to get prepared to meet the challenge. First let's discuss avoidable temptations.  These are temptations you can take action to avoid.  Does the chocolate bar in your desk drawer entice you?  You could get rid of it, right?!  You could clean your kitchen of any foods that represent  a temptation.  Do you panic if you get hungry when you're out and feel tempted to eat whatever is at hand?  You could make it a habit to always have a stash of raw food at hand in such casessome raisins or nuts, at least.  You've heard it's not a good idea to shop for food on an empty stomach, right?  So it might be a good idea to eat before you shop or shop with a pocket of raw nibbles to munch on..  In her book, Victoria recommends the avoidance of advertising, cooked food oriented parties, and restaurants during the first couple of months on the raw diet.  Too much of a temptation.  But once you have etched a raw groove in your consciousness, once you feel secure in your new lifestyle, you may enjoy social events like this, as long as you take precautions, such as bringing some tasty raw food. What avoidable temptations invite and entrance you?  What ones have you listed and what strategy can you think of for avoiding them? How about restaurants?  You can avoid them all together.  But if you choose to go to a restaurant with friends, how can you avoid the temptation of eating cooked food?  One  person created a card that he gives to the waiter.  It says, "I eat only raw, uncooked foods.  I would like a salad or vegetable plate with only fresh, uncooked items."  It then lists items from which to choose, such as lettuce, zucchini, broccoli, spinach, mushrooms, etc.  The card ends with the message, "Thank you for your creative efforts!"  Of course, another strategy for dealing with restaurants, is to bring some items to add to a salad and a raw dressing. Unavoidable temptations present a special challenge, but by thinking it through, we can pre-pave a successful response to them. Here is an excerpt from Victoria's book regarding unavoidable temptations: "Scientists who do research about drugs and addictive substances talk about a chain reaction. The reaction is harder to stop if we haven't decided beforehand how we will choose to act.  For example, when an alcoholic has money in his pocket to pay the rent, but he meets his friend on the corner, he is much more likely to follow that friend into a bar and spend the rent money on drinks.  That's called the chain reaction.  When you see a food vending machine, you're going to go into a chain reaction of wanting what you see unless you have already figured out your response.  The safest time to figure out how you will react is when you are at home or at a place where there are no possible temptations.  This is the time to figure out what you are going to do." Understand that you are not powerless.  In fact, when you know your tempters and plan ahead a strategy for coping, you will emerge unscathed!  Look at your list of unavoidable temptations. What foods and situations are present?   What triggers temptations for you?  Is it when you feel tired, bored, lacking in self-esteem, or other emotional state?  What pushes your cooked food buttons?  What strategies can you devise for maintaining your course in the face of these?  Please share your ideas with us.  (Play the temptation game, if desired.  See page 96) What happens if you give in to temptation?  Victoria's book has this to say: "After a couple of months of staying away from temptationsyou might get an illusion that your addiction to cooked food is over and that you can eat or try small pieces of cooked food once in a while.  When you will try a bite of cooked food once, you might not feel much.  But on the next morning you might notice that you will begin to think about cooked food and to pay attention to whatever cooked food you'll see.  If you will give into temptation once more, you might lose peace of mind and have to start all over again." So giving in to temptation, even once, can lead to the down fall of your raw food lifestyle.  It certainly sets a dangerous precedent! Temptation prevention is also a powerful strategy!  You will strengthen your resolve on a daily basis by reading uplifting, raw-related material and raw food books and by reminding yourself of your convictions through affirmations.  Focus is the key!    In all of these ways you can successfully practice Step 7, I shall avoid temptation! Step 8:  I will create support for myself and I will give support to other raw fooders. One definition of support is "that which enables one to maintain a position."  Just as training wheels enable a child to easily learn to maintain an upright position with forward momentum on a bicycleand water wings enables one to stay afloat while learning to swimso too is support available for us as we become raw fooders in a cooked food world. Receiving and giving supportboth are important as we commit to a raw food lifestyle.  Like the inspiration and expiration of our breath, the flow or cycle of giving and receiving empowers us much more than either one alone could do.  It is normal to think that first we must get support to become raw and then, once we are established in this lifestyle we will have something to give.  This is far from the truth.  We can always extend support to others in simple ways, such as respectful listening to another, believing in her/him, and in simple acts such as giving someone a ride to a potluck or speaker event, sharing a recipe, suggesting or loaning a book, and sharing your own heartfelt and sincere thoughts and feelings at these raw empowerment groups.  Hosting a raw food dinner or potluck or going "out" with someone for  a raw meal or just "hanging out" with another raw fooder is mutually supportive. Giving support is even more empowering than receiving supportdo you see how?  When we see ourselves as needing support, we are perhaps coming from a place of feeling under-empowered.  When we give support, we are coming from a place  of greater empowerment, of having much to give others.  And so, the very act of giving support empowers and supports the giver.  It is very powerful indeed!  I find it a bit analogous to extending money or gifts that cost money to others.  When we feel or believe we don't have enough financial resources to give in this way, that belief disempowers our financial well beingit chokes off the supply of $ from coming our way.  But when we come from a belief in abundance and in the limitlessness of the resources of the universe, we are greatly empowered materially.  I believe this is the meaning of: "It is better to give than to receive."  Nevertheless, let's do both!!! We have stated several avenues for giving support.  Keep in mind we don't want to foster dependency.  That's why in this group, we share experiences, rather than give advice.  It's why we focus on the Law of Attraction as a tool for self-empowermentto remind ourselves that can recreate our lives by imagining and focusing on what we WANT.  We can also use the Law of Attraction to assist others to become more empowered.  I like to use the following "generic prayer" to visualize myself and others in this state of empowerment: __(fill in name)______ is fully empowered as creator of her perfect life, enjoying the abundant flow of all things desired, ever deepening in her knowing of the power of who she is!  She feels a wonderful ease and lightness as she relaxes into utter well-being, knowing that all is truly well!!  Appreciation and joy are the cornerstones of her life, as she continually discovers fresh, new avenues for flowing her energy and opportunities to co-create with people who love and inspire her!!! I cannot think of a more powerful and supportive action you can take on your own or someone else's behalf than to spend some time in this visualization activity!! Expectations, bias, judgments, or pressure to change has no place in the concept of support.  It can be challenging to weed these out, especially when we have some personal investment in the outcome.  By setting aside our personal issues or values, we are able to offer a deeper, broader and more inclusive support to others.  This is apparent when we practice simple listening and really try to hear and understand another.  Simple listening can be extremely empowering. It sometimes helps to make a distinction between supporting the person, rather than the idea or action they are engaged in or are considering.  Focusing on the individual makes it easier for us to stay neutral relative to the content of his life.  This also makes it possible to stay in communication with the other.  Of course, we need not limit our willingness to support only those who have embraced the raw food diet.  Sharing food or ideas with anyone in a loving manner and speaking from our heart can be very influential and supportive. We may never know the effects of our support.  Even encouraging one individual in some small way can have wide ranging effects.  Each person who is supported will pass on the effects of that support in a ripple effect that can have a wide range of impact.  One example is the woman Victoria encountered in a check out line years ago.  She looked healthy, so Victoria asked her what her secret was and the woman said, "raw food".  Based on her input, the lives of Victoria and her entire family changed, and this enabled Victoria to pass the raw food message along to thousands of others through her classes, books, and tapes. We need not limit our support to recipes, listening, and other of our preconceived notions about support.  As natural beings, we can listen to our intuition and receive guidance in this area.  Just as we are led by our intuition about what to eat, we can trust ourselves and let intuition guide us in this important work of supporting other raw fooders! Our intuition can help us to receive support, as well.  There are so many opportunities to receive support out there!  Every day new raw-related books are published that can inspire and inform us.  We have several bibliographies of such books , but of course, we would do well to come to our own conclusions, rely on our own intuition and inner guidance, rather than to assume that the ideas of someone else necessarily apply to us. We are fortunate in Eugene to have so many sources of raw organic foods!  This is so very supportive to us as raw fooders!  And what about the relative availability of appliances that make raw food preparation easier and more enjoyablethat supports us, as well!  If we look, we will find many opportunities to fulfill step #8, I will create support for myself  and I will give support to other raw fooders. Let's take some time to embark upon a rampage of appreciation for the support we are receiving as raw foodersremembering that such appreciation sends a clear request to the universe for continued support! Now I would like us to share sincerely and from the heart about your experiences of extending support to others.  Did you learn something new about yourself?  Is it an empowering experience?  What avenues have you discovered for giving support? Step 9:   I shall find activities or hobbies that affirm my new lifestyle. In the cooked food world, FOOD is central to every event: birthdays, holidays, anniversaries, weddings, football games.  When we go out with others, food figures prominently into the outing.  Eating is synonymous with socializing and celebration.  And with cooked food,  much time is spent every day in food-related activities: preparing, serving eating, and cleaning up.  These activities shaped our identities as normal, cooked food-eating people.  Now we are creating a new identity!  We are shaping a new, raw foodist persona! Often, cooked food existence centers around working and eating.  The day revolves around breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snackwith work times interspersed between breakfast and dinner.  Throw in a little tv and you have the essence of a "normal" life! On raw foods, in time your food needs will diminish and why not!?  You are giving your body more nutrition and less junk to deal with!  Your sleep needs will also diminish.  And you will have more energy.  What will you do with more time and energy?  Watch more tv?  I think not! Perhaps you have already noticed that there needs to be a shift in the activities in which you invest your time and energy???  I remember when I moved to Eugene, I was impressed by the variety and number of wonderful restaurants, coffee shops and bakeries here and  I went out to eat at least once a week to sample the food and ambience with Art or friends.  This was part of who I was, but as a raw fooder, the charm was lost, now that I had to pretty much bring my own food to these places! Time and energy are precious commodities and you will want to direct them in ways that truly make you happy and that reinforce your new persona as a natural being.  Perhaps there is a hobby you have not gotten around to pursuingor a new dream that is popping into consciousness.  You may want to begin gathering data, noticing what other people are doing that gives your life new direction.  Some people pursue artistic endeavors or learn to play a musical instrument or a new language.  Others make travel plans or even discover a new career. Please share with us what occurs to you in this regard.  What new dreams, activities or hobbies might you pursue in your new raw empowered lifestyle??  What truly suits this new you?? Step 10:  I shall engage in regular physical exercise. Exercise is as essential to physical vigor, strength and development as breathing is to human life.  Exercise causes muscles that are tight and tense to be stretched, nerve energy to become balanced and improved. It also hastens the absorption and elimination of various growths and deposits.  Due to the intimate relationship between mind and body, the benefits derived from exercise also improves the quality of the mind and the overall feeling of joy and happiness. When we do not get exercise, muscles begin to lose their tone and become weak and flaccid.  Exercise is cumulative in its benefits.  Strength and endurance, along with coordination, flexibility and agility are part of our physical identities.  Posture is also improved, insuring correct relationship between bones, muscles and organs, and aiding all the tissues of the body. In order to derive the positive benefits of exercise  in terms of strength, coordination, flexibility, agility, and vitality, we need to engage in a fairly diverse program.  It is likely that  no single exercise can provide all these benefits, although I have heard this claim for swimming, walking and rebounding.  At any rate, look for exercise opportunities that provide the opportunity to stretch and contract the muscles and to give you some aerobic activity. Exercise is more than building strong muscles.  It is body building in the complete sense of the term.  Every cell and fiber of the body is involved.  The heart, kidneys, liver, skin, hair, eyes, brain, nervous system, digestive system, and colon all benefit from regular exercise.  The proper circulation of the lymphatic system depends upon regular exercise to remove toxins and wastes from the cells.  The skeletal system depends upon exercise to maintain its size, strength and physiological functions.  Respiration, digestion and assimilation, as well as the strength and efficiency of the heart depend largely upon physical exercise. Fortunately very little is needed  in the way of equipment or financial resources to get exercise.  A brisk walk every day is free and you gain a lot more than exercise as you appreciate and commune with nature!  I have heard that 5 minutes on an inexpensive rebounder twice a day can condition and build health in every cell of the body!  Yoga provides a powerful spiritual connection, in addition to a great physical workout.  Perhaps it's time you began gathering data to discover the exercise activities that best suit you!  There are books, classes, and information available on all of them!  By keeping our intuition tuned in to such opportunities and taking advantage of them, we realize Step #10: I shall start doing regular physical exercise. Please share with us now your response to this important step:         Step 11:  I shall let my intuition guide me in all areas of my life. Intuition is our natural link with our nonphysical Selves.  It is our key to survival and growth. Yet, in the normal, cooked food world, intuition has been replaced by information, facts, knowledge, experts, books.  It is the norm to rely on these, rather than on our intuition.  Yet knowledge can NEVER replace intuition!  If we trusted our intuition, we would rely on our body and we would understand why our body never makes a mistake.  Our body is constantly trying to communicate with us by creating certain sensations.  Our body creates a feeling of "too cold" to let us know to put on a sweater or go inside.  When the body needs water, it creates a sensation of thirst.  When the body needs rest, it creates the sensation of fatigue.  It's normal to ignore most of our bodily requests.  We don't rest when we feel tired; we don't take off  those stylish but uncomfortable shoes when they pinch and we don't stop eating when we feel full.  That is why we get sick!  By learning to listen to and trust our intuition, we can reverse this process and create health, vitality and happiness in our lives.  This is our birthright! Our intuition is also always available to guide us to the most appropriate food choice for us at any given time.   The body knows its needs and can direct us to the fulfillment of them, even to be able to pick out exactly the right apple from a basket of apples, if it is apples the body is wanting.  Listening and trusting our intuition means honoring our Selves in our fullnessour physical self, our spiritual self and all that we are. In 12 Steps, Victoria tells of her family's experience hiking the Pacific Crest Trail and how keen her intuition became along the way.  She could tell when it was going to rain, when the sun would be out, what foods were edible and which ones were not, which way to go to find the trail.  As we maintain a raw food diet, we become more natural in all ways and more tuned in to our intuition.   As we listen and act upon this powerful ally, we will gain strength from step 11,  I shall let my intuition guide me in all areas of my life . Please share with us how your intuition has impacted your life.  Step 12: I am restored to clarity as I experience spiritual awakening. As we follow our intuition more and more, we  discover a shift in our perception of life.  Many of our old beliefs now appear to be false, our former opinions no longer hold water, and we seem to be shedding our old life much as a snake sheds its skin.  In their place, we sense the emergence of  a new and shining claritya deep sense of knowing that transcends factual knowledge.  In the cooked world, we need experts to give us facts and knowledge so that we may have a set of beliefs (facts we believe in) to explain and interpret the events of life and our relation to them.  Our parents were  our first set of experts and we incorporated a vast network of conditioned beliefs that formed and shaped our belief system about who we are and what kind of world we live in. Many years of schooling added to this externally based storehouse of  facts and knowledge.  Such informational material is perhaps how we first became aware and learned about the raw food lifestyle. But such knowledge and conditioned belief systems can never substitute for true clarity, and very often, knowledge prevents us from attaining the  clarity that is the state of mind in which we experience our connection to our spiritual self and all of nature. Let's not confuse clarity of mind with clean explanation.  Victoria presents the following example, "If I memorized the book Human Anatomy and I could explain clearly anything from that book, it doesn't mean at all that I have clarity about how the human body works.  We have lots of knowledge and very little clarity.  When we don't understand the difference between the two, we prefer to have knowledge rather than clarity.  Clarity starts when we begin to follow our intuition.   When we follow intuition, we are working not against, but with nature.  We become co-partners and co-creators with life.  This enables us to clearly view the perfect harmony of the universe.  With clarity we can see the spiritual nature of human beings and feel the oneness with all living things." True happiness is experienced in this state of clarity, not from the pursuit of physical pleasures and entertainment.  Does this make sense to you??  True happiness is experienced in this state of clarity, not from the pursuit of physical pleasures and entertainment.  Have you been experiencing this in your lifestyle?  To enhance this state of clarity, practice de-conditioning and learn to recognize and let go of old beliefs and thought patterns that no longer serve you. We can facilitate this process here in our sharing.  I'd like to invite you to share an instance in which you recognized an old pattern of conditioning in yourself and overcame it.  For example, I have a conditioned belief that money comes through hard work and a "normal" job, yet I have moments of clarity in which I know that abundance is readily available at all times; it is our natural birthright and we are fully worthy of whatever degree of prosperity we wish; there is no need to "earn" it.  We can just allow it to flow to us, following our intuition and interests.  What example of personal de-conditioning would you like to share with us?  There are other ways you can assist in your own spiritual transformation, including spending time in nature; fasting;  spending time in communion with animals and children, journaling of your own inner thoughts, self-expression through an artistic medium, dance, or play; yoga; meditation.  As we access our spiritual self and experience that exquisite clarity, we experience  step 12, I am restored to clarity as I experience spiritual awakening?    Please share with us your own experiences of spiritual awakening.  What activities have the most meaning for you in restoring you to greater clarity?  DID YOU FIND THESE STEPS HELPFUL??  WHAT FEEDBACK DO YOU HAVE FOR US?

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Intuitive Eating, by Cheryl Stoycoff   http://www.cherylstoycoff.com/articles.htm#Intuitive%20Eating When I wrote Raw Kids: Transitioning Children to a Raw Food Diet, I was heavily into promoting, teaching and living the raw food diet and lifestyle. I was first led to raw foods in the early stages of my Kundalini process and I found it to be an excellent way to purify and detoxify the body and spirit. When the body is lighter (vibrationally) and as the consciousness becomes lighter, you are better able to perceive and experience the Kundalini energy. Like so many others, I thought I had discovered the long-lost secret of all secrets and I was absolutely positive that following a 100% raw food diet was the remedy for the ails of mankind.   As my Kundalini process progressed, I began to delve more deeply into the spiritual teachings of the enlightened Sages, Masters and Gurus. I used to wonder why, these enlightened beings, who had the wisdom and benefit of higher states of consciousness and expanded human awareness, did not mention the raw food diet in their teachings? How could they not know about the raw food diet? How could they not see this truth that appeared so obvious to me? Why did they not follow the raw food diet themselves? How could they reach such a perfected state of consciousness without the benefit of the one and only true diet for mankind? These questions plagued me and as I entered the latter stages of the Kundalini process and began to access these higher states of consciousness for myself, I began to understand.   What these Masters knew was that while it was certainly preferable to eat a vegetarian diet which included plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, balance is the most important ingredient for any level of higher awareness to be realized and stabilized through the human vehicle. Balance being essential to the Kundalini process, I soon discovered that to achieve balance required flexibility. As the Kundalini ascended into the higher chakras, I was unable to continue with a predominately raw diet. I was not able to stabilize the energy until I added back in some cooked food such as steamed vegetables, tofu, steamed rice, vegetarian soups, etc.  I experimented a lot and listened to my body on a daily basis. What prompted this change was that I began having a lot of trouble with my intestines (bloating, indigestion, constipation), which I didn't understand. As I asked about this, I intuitively received an answer to read a book about the Ayurveda system, an ancient Vedic system of health care which classifies body types (called doshas). I took the test in the book and found out I am predominately a vata type, which is the most sensitive constitutional type and also the easiest to upset and throw into imbalance. When I read about vata imbalance, I knew that was what had happened to me. The symptoms and my experience fit exactly. I was shocked to learn that the recommended diet for vata is minimal raw foods! The basic constitutional elements of a vata type are air and ether. Therefore, the increased energy (prana) that was flooding my system, added to my already energetically charged and light constitution, really threw me into chaos, having no elements to ground or balance my physical body. I immediately started implementing the suggestions in the book and my intestinal problems were gone in three days!   Having been heavily into the raw food movement, I was well aware of the school of thought that one can balance a vata constitution on a raw food diet by exercising more care with regard to the preparation and types of raw foods. I attempted this several times without much success. From that point on, I learned to listen to my body on a daily basis. I no longer relied on any specific preset dietary guidelines, including the Ayurveda system. I realized that the Kundalini process was being directed by a higher intelligence and that the existing dietary guidelines and various dietary regimens had not been created for someone experiencing the extreme physiological and energetic transformation of the Kundalini process. I understood my body had a whole new set of needs, and I began to trust the Divine, through the wisdom of my body itself, for my nutritional guidance.   My experience has required that I change my belief that the raw food diet is always the right diet for everyone, all of the time. I have had many clients who have come to me with physical and emotional problems resulting from the raw food diet. While they often times experienced wonderful and dramatic results at first, as time went on, they found it increasingly difficult to live up to the ridged and idealistic standards presented by most of the raw food teachers. Feeling disheartened, they reverted back to their old eating habits, usually after many months of inner conflict and feelings of failure.   On several occasions, in my capacity as a Medical Intuitive, I have been consulted by people who had developed severe physical problems as a result of the rigidity of the raw food diet. One such woman, who also has active Kundalini, had been advised by a raw food educator to omit every source of fat from her diet. This suggestion was made in an attempt to clear up her Candida problem. Because she was trying to follow a vegan, raw-foot diet, omitting all the fat also meant omitting the major sources of protein (nuts, seeds and their butters). The result was that within one month, she developed severe symptoms of MS (Muscular Dystrophy). These symptoms sent her to her allopathic doctor for a battery of tests, all of which came out negative. As I intuitively scanned her body, it appeared that the nerve sheaths were "raw" resulting from there being no conduct-ability through the nerve pathways of her nervous system. Nerve impulses were being sent by her brain, but were not flowing to the nerve endings. The resultant symptoms were tingling and numbness in her limbs. The increased activity of the Kundalini energy through her nervous system required her to eat more fat and protein to allow the nervous system to keep up with the added demands of the intense physiological changes of the Kundalini process. Her nervous system was starving for fat! When she did not give her body what it wanted, physical damage was the result. She said she had been craving flax seed oil (fat) and eggs (protein) so badly she could barely stand it but was fighting these cravings because she was trying to stick to the raw food diet as strictly prescribed. Her body was suffering, her psyche was suffering, her self-esteem and inner-peace were suffering and her medical bills were increasing! How simple it would have been for her to just "give into" what her body was craving! I realize this is an extreme example. Most people do not have active Kundalini nor the extreme physiological demands this process brings. This is an excellent example however, of the varying needs which arise within our bodies on a constant basis and the need to honor what our bodies are telling us. The strict idealism of the raw food movement is not conducive to achieving a healthy balance through increased awareness of the process of intuitive eating. When one begins on the raw food path, it is very common to be told that all difficulties that arise are due to detoxification and that they will subside over time. So much of the movement focuses only on the physical aspects. People are taught what to eat, how to prepare (or not to prepare) the food, what to expect through detoxification, etc. They read and re-read the raw food success stories and look to the raw food teachers as role models. When one encounters difficulty and it becomes difficult to strictly follow the raw food path, what was once a joyous expression of life becomes a source of conflict. Success on the raw food path or in any endeavor depends on balance. To achieve balance requires awareness of all the variables. Through that awareness, we evolve into greater self-mastery. When we focus only on the physical aspects of the raw food diet, we are leaving out several very important variables. In addition to the physical body, we have an emotional body, a spiritual body, an astral body and a mental body. You are a multi-dimensional being and every aspect of your being directly affects and interacts with every other aspect. There are a myriad of energies at work in and through the individual and planetary consciousness at all times. You cannot escape these influences. Even if you are not interested in anything beyond the physical practicalities of your diet, you are still being affected by these variables. To ignore them creates imbalance.   Once my Kundalini process completed, I found my body once again changing what it wanted in order to bring balance. I was again drawn to lighter foods and began eating mostly raw, fresh foods. I still eat occasional fish, range-free eggs, tofu and sprouted, whole grain bread because my body craves them and is thriving. I am aware of the more subtle levels of my being and can sense the interaction between the physical body and these other levels. I have learned to listen to what my body wants on any given day and I watch in awe and amazement at the wisdom it demonstrates as it works to establish balance at each level. As I encounter and stabilize higher and more refined states of consciousness, it has become clear that the farther we evolve as a species, the more we must humble ourselves to be able to discover what we have yet to experience. To believe anything is the "ultimate truth" that applies to everyone at all times, is the height of spiritual arrogance.   You must learn to eat intuitively and to rely on your own body to tell you what it needs. There simply is no other way to bring balance. No one can tell you what the ideal diet is for you. There simply are too many variables and these variables change on a daily basis. To eat intuitively is to be in balance with all of creation. This is a given, because your body naturally seeks balance and it will tell you what it needs on any given day. To rely on your body's innate wisdom means that you must free yourself from dietary idealism. You cannot hold yourself to some set of strict guidelines if your body is telling you something different. To do so goes against the balance which is naturally trying to become established through all aspects of your being.   If you are thriving on the raw food diet, that is wonderful. If you are having difficulty, it does not mean you are doing anything wrong. You are not weak because you have cravings or because you feel you need to include some cooked foods in your diet. Establishing balance takes time and very few people are able to embark on the raw food diet and stick to it with no problems. Truthfully, there are very few long term success stories because the goal (to be 100% raw) has been set too high and the standards too ridged. I am attempting to change that by bringing to light the naturally occurring difficulties which come through strict adhesion to any external belief, concept or ideal.  Change only comes through love and acceptance. Each and every difficulty happens to assist us in gaining self-awareness and each and every difficulty ceases when we release the need to live up to external standards. Be patient with yourself, know that you are changing on many (unseen) levels and that these changes will affect the needs and responses of your physical body. Learn to live (and eat) intuitively because there is a higher intelligence guiding your existence, one which will guide you into peace, happiness, health and balance.if only you will trust it above all else.  (For more information on the Kundalini process, see Solomae's new book, Kundalini and the Evolution of Consciousness, available through Living Spirit Foundation.)

THE VITAMIN B12 ISSUE, by Dr Gina Shaw, D.S., M.A., AIYS (Dip. Irid.) The subject of Vitamin B12 is not new to most vegans, vegetarians or raw fooders.  The supplement companies have many people running to their local health (drug) stores in an effort to make themselves deficiency-free, but is this a good idea?  A number of issues will be raised in this article and I will attempt to piece together some information from many different and reliable (non-financially-oriented) sources.A vitamin B12 deficiency is a serious disorder, but it is never just a B12 deficiency because vitamin and mineral deficiencies never happen in isolation.  Indications of a deficiency of vitamin B12, when they do reach a stage where they have shown up, can be quite severe.  Fatigue, paleness, anorexia, mental confusion, delusions, paranoia, weight loss, etc. are just some indications that a person may have a B12-deficiency.  In my opinion, ME is a B12-deficiency disorder.  If you do think you may have a B12-deficiency, it would be wise for you to seek the advice of a health practitioner (such as myself) who is knowledgeable about B12-deficiencies, for immediate advice.  This disorder can eventually lead to death if left unchecked.UK official recommendations have decreased in recent years, the body's needs having been previously over-estimated. Indeed, the Department of Health recognises that some people have lower than average requirements of B12. A whole lifetime's requirement of B12 add up to a 40 milligram speck of red crystals, about one-seventh the size of an average tablet of aspirin! Taking large doses of the vitamin by mouth is pointless because 3ug is the most that can be absorbed at any one time.Vitamin B12 is excreted in the bile and is effectively reabsorbed. This is known as enterohepatic circulation. The amount of B12 excreted in the bile can vary from 1 to 10ug (micrograms) a day. People on diets low in B12, including vegans and some vegetarians, may be obtaining more B12 from reabsorption than from dietary sources. Reabsorption is the reason it can take over 20 years for a deficiency disease to develop.  In comparison, if B12 deficiency is due to a failure in absorption, it can take only three years for a deficiency disease to occur. Since vitamin B12 is recycled in a healthy body, in principle, internal B12 synthesis could fulfil our needs without any B12 provided in the diet, but if cobalt in our diet is lacking, the problem is not so much a lack of B12 synthesising intestinal flora, as a lack of cobalt (which again will need other factors for efficient absorption).Among the many controversies surrounding vitamin B12, there is the argument that, although intrinsic factor is produced in our stomachs and that our intestines are known to produce vitamin B12, the bacteria is produced too low down in the intestines and cannot be absorbed by our bodies. This argument is sadly still hanging around, however, according to Dr Vetrano, it was disproved by research over 20 years ago and is nothing more than an obsolete scientific theory.  Indeed, in a 1999 version of 'Human Anatomy and Physiology' by Marieb, it states quite clearly that we do indeed absorb vitamin B12 through our intestines.Many people say that the only foods which contain vitamin B12 are animal-derived foods.  This also is untrue.  No foods naturally contain vitamin B12 - neither animal or plant foods.  Vitamin B12 is a microbe - a bacteria - it is produced by microorganisms. Vitamin B12 is the only vitamin that contains a trace element - cobalt - which gives this vitamin its chemical name - cobalamin - which is at the centre of its molecular structure.  Humans and all vertebrates require cobalt, although it is assimilated only in the form of vitamin B12.B12 synthesis is known to occur naturally in the human small intestine (in the ileum), which is the primary site of B12 absorption.  As long as gut bacteria have cobalt and certain other nutrients, they produce vitamin B12.  According to Dr Michael Klaper, vitamin B12 is present in the mouth and intestines.  B12 must be combined with a mucoprotein enzyme named Intrinsic Factor, which is normally present in gastric secretions, to be properly assimilated.   If the intrinsic factor is impaired or absent, B12 synthesis will not take place, no matter how much is present in the diet.    B12 deficiency may be brought upon by antibiotics (also contained in milk), alcohol, smoking and stress (alcohol damages the liver, so drinkers need more B12, smoking (and all high temp cooked food is smoky) also raises B12 needs).Many nutritional analyses of foodstuffs were carried out such a long time ago, and, as such,   have not taken account of more up-to-date technology in scientific procedures.  For instance, Tesco's raspberries now state quite clearly that 100g of raspberries contain 30% of the recommended daily allowance of vitamin B12.  This cannot be an isolated example of a plant food which contains B12! More likely, it is just one plant food of many which contain this vitamin. Indeed, according to Dr Vetrano, current books on nutrition in the U.S. have now stated that there is B12 in any food that contains quantities of the B vitamin complex, but previously they were just not able to assay the amounts.  Nowadays, more modern technology has allowed them to discover that there is B12 in those foods rich in the B complex.The author does not believe that a vitamin B12 deficiency is more widespread in vegans or vegetarians - this is probably just another marketing lie!  In fact, many so-called studies 'showing vegans deficient' have to be carefully studies themselves - many of them do not prove vegans to be deficient at all!  In fact, contrary to meat and dairy industry propaganda, meat-eaters are known to be more likely to have a vitamin B12 deficiency - this has been known since 1959!!(1)  Having said this, we must bear in mind that many vegetarians and vegans still take antibiotics or consume antibiotic-containing foods such as onions, garlic, strong radishes and other foods rich in mustard oil, which are lethal to intestinal flora.  The trouble is that once we have damaged our intestinal flora, it is difficult to correct without proper and knowledgeable healthcare and dietary advice.   It is of far greater importance to correct intestinal flora problems than to rely on so-called supplements. People who have a physical problem because they think they are not getting enough vitamin B12, are in fact often not assimilating their foods properly because of poor digestion.  When digestion is straightened out, B12 can be utilized and produced once againAccording to Marieb's 'Human Anatomy and Physiology', vitamin B12 can be destroyed by highly alkaline and highly acid conditions.  This assumes that the B12 in meat would be easily destroyed because the hydrochloric acid in our stomaches during the digestion of meat is highly acidic. This may explain why meat-eaters are just as likely to have a B12 deficiency as vegans - even though their diet contains vitamin B12.  Also, for meat-eaters, there is antiobiotics contained in meat!  Of course, many meat-eaters destroy their friendly bacteria in their intestines by constant putrefaction and the putrefactive bacteria naturally present in meat will give the body a hard time.Another side to the equation is that low serum B12 levels do not equate to a B12 deficiency necessarily. Just because there is a low level of B12 in the bloodstream, this does not mean that there is a deficiency in the body as a whole, it may well be being utilised by the living cells (such as the central nervous system).  In any case, a person who takes supplements may well have 'vitamin B12' floating in their bloodstream, but this does not mean it is usable to the human body as synthetic, inorganic vitamins are not.The illusionary benefits of supplement-taking result in the person's increased metabolism in order to expel these harmful substances as quickly as possible.  This results in a stimulation of the body and the illusion of an improvement in health.  The truth is that there is a very delicate balance among hormone secretions, vitamins, enzymes, minerals, etc.   This is something that scientists know very little about.  These substances do not work alone, but in fact require other factors for them to be effective, like fats, etc.  We know very little about life within a cell.  The use of supplements can disturb this delicate balance and diminish the efficiency of body functions.   Health is reduced commensurate to the imbalance that occurs. Commercially, vitamin B12 tablets are made from bacteria and the bacteria is deeply fermented.   A healthy body will usually expel fermented substances.  The main problem with pill supplements is that they: 1) Do not contain the hundreds of other nutrients we may need to be healthy that raw foods provide, and 2) they contain artificial substances/contaminants that are detrimental to health.Synthetic vitamins and minerals are inorganic and are therefore unusable by the human body.   In the manufacture of 'food supplements', chemically pure substances must be used for the most part.  If the scientists used naturally derived nutrients, their pills would be too large for us to swallow.  Additionally, a chemical 'carrier' is added to make the products acceptable to the palate of the consumer and to bring their product up to an acceptable standard.  These chemical carriers, as with all chemicals, are toxic to the human organism.  They result in stimulation of the body and an illusionary cure.According to Dr. John Potter PhD, of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, "Food's magic is based on thousands of complex interactions of dozens of different phytochemicals which are difficult to recreate in pills. While 190 solid studies prove that fruit and vegetables benefit, supplements have only a smattering of evidence".  Vitamins, minerals, hormones, etc. do not work in isolation, they work symbiotically.  They work with other nutrients in order for their work to be carried out.  When these highly complex substances are disturbed, their overall effectiveness can be reduced. However, too much of a nutrient is draining on our vital energy as the human (or non-human) organism may have to expel a nutrient overload.   Also, it is doubtful whether, even if you do have a B12 deficiency, you have only a B12 deficiency.   A healthier diet and living conditions, as well as a fast may be in order. According to Dr Douglas Graham, in his book 'Nutrition and Athletic Performance', supplementation has proven to be an inadequate and incomplete method of supplying nutrients as scientists cannot match nature's refined balances.  He says that since an estimated ninety per cent of all nutrients are as yet undiscovered, why would we want to start adding nutrients into our diet one at a time rather than eating whole foods?  Most nutrients are known to interact symbiotically with at least eight other nutrients and considering this, the odds of healthfully supplying any nutrients in its necessary component package becomes 'infinitesimally minute'.  More to the point he adds, 'there has never been a successful attempt to keep an animal or human healthy, or even alive, on a diet composed strictly of nutritional supplements'.Dan Reeter, at Bio-Systems Laboratories in Colorado is creating one of the world's most comprehensive computer facilities for soil biology testing.  He says that, from his extensive tests, plants grown in organically-managed soil make significantly higher levels of usable vitamin B12.  It has also been reported that vitamin B12 is present in wild fruits and wild and home-grown plant foods.The author contends that animal and dairy produce is a poor source of Vitamin B12 since the vitamin is contained in nutrient-deranged foodstuffs which will inevitably destroy the usability of the vitamin.  Studies show that those following a typical animal-based diet require more vitamin B12 than those who do not.  This is because the typical diet leads to digestive atrophy.  Because B12 is peptide-bound in animal products and must be enzymatically cleaved from the peptide bonds to be absorbed, a weakened gastric acid and gastric enzyme secretions (due to a cooked food diet) causes an inability to efficiently extract vitamin B12 from external food.  Nevertheless, raw food vegans who have a more powerful digestion actually get more B12 by reabsorption from the bile than they do from external food. Wolfe argues that the natural soil microbes and bacteria found on wild plant foods and unwashed garden plants are typically adequate to supply our B12 requirements. The natural microbes in the soil need to be duplicated and to colonise in our digestive tract, without fermentation or putrefaction.Another point worth considering is that vitamin B12 Recommended Daily Allowances (RDA's) are based upon the average cooked food (meat and two veg), smoking, drinking person.  Commercial interests have indeed grossly exaggerated our needs for many nutrients. These studies tell us nothing of the requirements for a healthy vegetarian.   It is very difficult to determine precise individual needs of any vitamin or nutrient, and an overload of any vitamin or other nutrient creates an unnecessary burden on our vital domain.  Factors such as rate of metabolism, stress, etc. can determine our differing and often changing needs.  Dr Victor Herbert reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (1998, Volume 48) that only 0.00000035 ounces (1 microgram) of vitamin B12 is required per day.  These minimum vitamin requirements may be inadequate to explain the needs of a healthy raw food vegan, for example, who may require less B12 due to an improved gastric ability and a high ability to recycle vitamin B12.  (Cooking destroys microbes and a highly sterilised, cooked vegan diet may not provide the intestines with enough good quality flora). Absorption rates of B12 are higher in healthy individuals than in unhealthy individuals.  Studies, based on healthy Indian vegetarian villagers, showed that none of them exhibited symptoms of B12 deficiency, despite levels of .3-.5 micrograms of B12.  Dr Gabriel Cousens argues that vitamin B12 deficiency is typically caused by lack of absorption in the intestinal tract rather than a lack of this vitamin in the diet.  Annie and Dr David Jubb argue that people have lived in such a sterile, antiseptic environment for so long that these necessary symbiotic organisms have been less than present in our diet.  They argue that by ingesting soil-born organisms you can maintain an enormous reservoir of uncoded antibodies ready to transform specific pathogens, the way nature intended - by eating a little dirt!   If a person is healthy and on a healthy vegan, high-percentage raw food diet and does not habitually over-eat, wrongly combine their foods and abuse their bodies generally, and utilises fasting on occasion, it is unlikely that they will develop B12 deficiency symptoms providing their intestinal flora was not previously deranged.  Vitamin B12 deficiency is usually symptomatic of a larger problem i.e. poor intestinal flora, poor absorption and also lack of sunlight.Harvey Diamond argues that the entire nutrient issue has been made so confusing with contradictory information that it is no wonder that people are bewildered about where to obtain sufficient nutrients.  Unfortunately, some people have been so totally misguided and scared that no amount of common-sense reasoning of even factual data can rescue them from the meat, dairy and petrochemical (synthetic food 'supplement' suppliers) multi-million pound industries.  The truth is that whatever nutrients the body needs will be contained in its natural foods (for human beings, raw plant foods).  Mother Nature knows how to provide for her own.  Why would it be that we are created in such a way as to make us a natural plant-eater and hey presto, there is no vitamin B12 provided for us by plants?   If you can't get it from raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds or sprouts then WE DON'T NEED IT! Just because a wild fruit or organic foodstuff contains only a small amount, this does not mean it is deficient.   It means that we only need a small amount!The pill pushers are quick to say that our soil is deficient, but according to Diamond and others, if a seed does not receive the elements it needs IT WILL NOT GROW (OR WILL GROW POORLY - author).  Also, plants obtain nutrients from other sources in greater amounts: the sun, water and the air.  Plants actually obtain only about 1% of nutrients from the soil. If you do develop a B12 deficiency, certain urgent dietary adjustments may need to be made, and there is a possibility that fasting is in order.  In any case, on switching to a healthier diet, be it vegetarian, vegan or raw food (for optimum health), we should go back to nature as much as possible and pay little attention to germ phobics who advise us to scrub our vegetables and fruits.  Buy organic and eat home-grown or wild foods and do not clean them too scrupulously!  Just as nature intended!.  Dr Shaw is available for health and nutritional consultations, fasting supervision, courses in natural health, emotional healing and iris analysis (iridology).  Her address is: True Health, c/o 8 Marston Rd, Clayhall, Essex IG5 OLZ, telephone 020 8351 0086/8550 0374. Email GinaShw@aol.com Visit her web site at http://vibrancy.homestead.com/pageone.html 1. 'Fit for Life', Diamond, H. and M., 1987       2. 'The Life Science Institute Course in Natural Health' - 1986 3. 'Nutrition and Athletic Performance', Dr D. Graham, 1999 4.   'Female Balance' article 2001 -K Perrero www.living-foods.com 5.   Human Anatomy and Phyisology - Marieb - 1999 6.   Correspondence with Dr Vetrano and family 2001 7.   'The Sunfood Diet Success Story' by David Wolfe 8.    B12 article by the Vegan Society 9 .   B12 article by the Vegetarian Society 10. 1990 'Solstice Magazine' article