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Quotes about Ritual from the world's top natural health / natural living authors

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"Spiritual Benefits of Fasting Spiritual benefits from fasting are well known in nearly every religion, though religious ritual fasts are sometimes very brief?a day or even less. Early Native American Indians fasted while going on vision quests and taking passage into manhood. Muslims fast from sunrise until sundown every day during their holy month of Ramadan, not even drinking water, despite living in the desert. Fasting is also practiced in Judaism and Christianity. The Bible mentions fasting 74 times." - Susan E. Schenck, The Live Food Factor: The Comprehensive Guide to the Ultimate Diet for Body, Mind, Spirit & Planet (Get the book.)

"RELIGION VERSUS SPIRITUALITY Webster's dictionary defines religion as, belief in a divine or super-human power or powers to be obeyed and worshiped as the creator(s) and ruler(s) of the universe, and, expression of this belief in conduct and ritual. Spirituality is concerned with the spirit or the soul, often thought of as the higher part of the mind; showing much refinement of thought and feeling." - Ron Garner, Conscious Health: A Complete Guide to Wellness Through Natural Means (Get the book.)

"Bee told us that years ago Lou and her late husband gradually stopped going to church because the Sunday routine and church ritual were too monotonous. "She's really spiritual, but she likes to do it in her own way," says Bee. Appreciation and Giving Lou is a comfortable and spontaneous giver. One day Bee said to her grandmother, "You don't even have a will. Don't you think you should do one?" Lou's response was, "Honey, if there's anything you want of mine, I'd rather you have it right now." - Rick Foster, Greg Hicks, M.D., Jen Seda, Choosing Brilliant Health: 9 Choices That Redefine What It Takes to Create Lifelong Vitality and Well-Being (Get the book.)

"This time it was to make the daily offering to her ancestors, a ritual that is a cornerstone of Okinawa spiritual life. She stood in front of the far wall where a built-in shelf held a collection of vases with flowers, urns, and old photographs. Gozei lit a few sticks of incense and set them down in front of an ancient photograph of a sullen-looking peasant couple. A ribbon of smoke curled upward and filled the room with the smell of sandalwood. Again, I seemed to disappear. For the next ten minutes she recited a series of prayers bowing toward the altar. Then she sat back down and smiled." - Dan Buettner, The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who've Lived the Longest (Get the book.)

"There are those who argue that a healing ritual can have clinical significance to the extent it magnifies the placebo effect (Kaptchuk 2002). The argument is carried further in that the themes of vitalism and spirituality can be empowering and authenticating (Kaptchuk and Eisenberg 1998). This line of argument, it seems to me, pales if empowerment and authentication require living in a contrived therapeutic envelope. That's a sad fate. To be effective, any treatment act must consider the preconceived notions the patient/client carries to the encounter." - Nortin M. Hadler MD, Worried Sick: A Prescription for Health in an Overtreated America (Get the book.)

"Rabbi Chaim Kramer, a respected Breslov scholar notes in his commentary to the holy Breslover seminal Chasidic text of Rabbi Nach-man's Torah Discourses, Likutei Moharan 37:6 that "when a person eats the meat of an animal which lacks proper ritual slaughter, he also ingests the aspects of animal matter, darkness, foolishness, judgments, forget-fulness, and death." - Gabriel Cousens, M.D., Spiritual Nutrition: Six Foundations for Spiritual Life and the Awakening of Kundalini (Get the book.)

"Most churches have some form of healing ritual, whether it be simple prayers for the sick at weekly services or special individual bedside services. Religious systems such as Christian Science preach spiritual healing as part of their creed. The vast numbers of visitors to shrines famed for miracle cures, such as Lourdes in France, reflect the powerful Christian belief in Jesus's preaching of 'thy faith hath made thee whole' and the efficacy of prayer." - Dr Ron Roberts, Asthma Controlled Naturally: Techniques That Work (Get the book.)

"She abstained from food and drink, except for the ritual swallowing of one paper-thin sacramental wafer at specific times during the week and one teaspoon of water per day.18 By ecclesiastical permission, Therese was allowed to be under scientific investigation for this phenomenon of inedia. The most famous investigation was by Dr. Fritz Ger-lick, editor of a Protestant German newspaper, who supposedly went to expose the "Catholic fraud." Instead, he wrote her biography." - Gabriel Cousens, M.D., Spiritual Nutrition: Six Foundations for Spiritual Life and the Awakening of Kundalini (Get the book.)

"It's more than what a book, a ritual, a practice, or the research of another person tells us is true. Belief is our acceptance of what we have witnessed, experienced, or know for ourselves. ?Belief is personal power. Our beliefs hold all of the power we need for all of the change we choose: the power to send healing commands to our immune systems, stem cells, and DNA; to bring an end to violence in our homes and communities or in entire geographic areas; and to heal our deepest hurts, breathe life into our greatest joys, and literally create our everyday Reality (with a capital R)." - Gregg Braden, The Spontaneous Healing of Belief: Shattering the Paradigm of False Limits (Get the book.)

"Her first ice cream—one more happy little ritual! So Anju put a dab of it in Priya's mouth. Priya's lips started to swell. Then her throat began to constrict. Priya started to choke, and struggle for air. Anju ran to the medicine cabinet and grabbed a syringe filled with the stimulant epinephrine, which her husband kept around because he had a severe allergy to shrimp. Anju jabbed the needle into Priya's thigh. Priya's anaphylactic shock quickly subsided, and her face deflated. She began to cry. Anju held her closely, and massaged the site of the injection." - Kenneth Bock, Healing the New Childhood Epidemics: Autism, ADHD, Asthma, and Allergies: The Groundbreaking Program for the 4-A Disorders (Get the book.)

"This nightly ritual not only reinforces your kids' healthy relationship with food, it also allows you to touch base regularly, which is crucial during the teenage years. The whole meal can last a total of twenty minutes, but those twenty minutes can make all the difference in the well-being of your child. A lot of the problems teenagers face, from substance abuse to sexual promiscuity, can be curbed with early intervention. Just by carving out a little bit of time every day, you can prevent many of these problems from ever taking hold." - Deirdre Imus, Growing Up Green: Baby and Child Care: Volume 2 in the Bestselling Green This! Series (Green This!) (Get the book.)

"Brilliantly Healthy people are deeply aware of this fact and have created their own ritual for setting Daily Intentions, which are outcomes of two questions: • How do I want to be today? and . . . • Throughout the entire day, where do I want to focus my attention? In our workshops we find that Daily Intentions yield rapid and noticeable results. After a workshop, Bill, one of our participants, reported, "I'm addicted. Taking the time to frame up my day has changed everything. It's like a positive priming of the pump." - Rick Foster, Greg Hicks, M.D., Jen Seda, Choosing Brilliant Health: 9 Choices That Redefine What It Takes to Create Lifelong Vitality and Well-Being (Get the book.)

"Regardless of what it involves, it is a habit you've chosen and acquired. This ritual is a pattern of behavior that you have adopted based upon your training, exposure, desires, and choices. Good, bad or indifferent, this ritual consists of the basic elements you have incorporated to prepare you for the day you are about to begin. From the moment you arise, the thoughts you entertain and the activities in which you participate exemplify the reward/avoidance system that characterizes the inspiration for embracing the experiences you are about to encounter." - Richard, Dr. DiCenso, Beyond Medicine, exploring a new way of thinking (Get the book.)

"The Latin word placebo was used in early Christian traditions as part of the ritual reading of Psalms 116:9. This passage begins with the words Placebo Domino in regione vivorum, which mean "I shall please the Lord in the land of the living."5 Although there's some controversy regarding the Latin and the original Hebrew translation of the same phrase, the word placebo itself is unaffected and generally translated as "I will/shall please." - Gregg Braden, The Spontaneous Healing of Belief: Shattering the Paradigm of False Limits (Get the book.)

"There had been imaginings of alien sightings and abductions, and even a satanic ritual. One volunteer, overwhelmed by the sight of an enormous set of eyes and the smell of burning sulfur, attempted to pull himself loose from the helmet and wrench off the blindfold and earplugs. As soon as the 500-pound door was pried open for him he fled, terrorized, from the room. The nature of the experience depended, Persinger and his assistants explained, on a physiological roll of the dice: the sensitivity of the left amygdala of the brain compared with its counterpart on the right." - Lynne McTaggart, The Intention Experiment: Using Your Thoughts to Change Your Life and the World (Get the book.)

"One study showed an increase in immune system function during a drumming and storytelling ritual. In this study, 111 healthy volunteers were exposed to an hour-long ritual, much like the kind of communal experience our ancient ancestors might have enjoyed around the campfire. The improvement in immune function after the drumming and storytelling ceremony was demonstrated by increased activity in helper T-cells. In addition, levels of the healthy hormone DHEA increased, while the stress hormone Cortisol dropped." - Dawson Church, The Genie in Your Genes: Epigenetic Medicine and the New Biology of Intention (Get the book.)

"Bathing Your Baby Bathing children is, for many families, a cherished end-of-day ritual. Just make sure that you know exactly what you're putting in your child's bath. After all, the skin is the largest organ of the body, and some of the most acute chemical exposures are transmitted through dermal contact. Recent laboratory tests released by environmental author David Steinman and the nonprofit Campaign for Safe Cosmetics found 1,4-dioxane in a range of children's bath washes and bubble baths." - Deirdre Imus, Growing Up Green: Baby and Child Care: Volume 2 in the Bestselling Green This! Series (Green This!) (Get the book.)

"It seemed perfect: it had ritual, it had music, it had audience participation. Roger viewed the production and asked the artistic director to pick the five most engaging portions of the show that would most affect the audience and hence the machine. The FieldREG attended ten shows in two cities in 1995 and several performances in eight cities in 1996. As if on cue, each moment that Nelson had predicted caused a glitch in the machine's data.7 A definite pattern was emerging." - Lynne Mctaggart, The Field - The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe (Get the book.)

"Though the mother and daughter had had a difficult relationship full of crosscultural conflict, the daughter's recounting of this experience was much like the telling of a miraculous event; each detail of the feeding, told almost as a sacred ritual, had brought the two women together in ways that were entirely new and healing. As the mother died, together the women had experienced a rebirth. Truth A sixty-five-year-old kidney cancer patient was completely honest with his family about death." - Rick Foster, Greg Hicks, M.D., Jen Seda, Choosing Brilliant Health: 9 Choices That Redefine What It Takes to Create Lifelong Vitality and Well-Being (Get the book.)

"Their lives were imbued with familial duty, ritual, and a certain emphasis on togetherness. This finding was especially true in Sardinia, where residents still possess a zeal for family. I asked the owner of one Sardinian vineyard who was caring for his infirm mother if it wouldn't be easier to put her in a home. He wagged his finger at me, "I wouldn't even think of such a thing. It would dishonor my family." Tonino Tola, the Sardinian shepherd, had a great passion for work, but told us, "Everything I do is for my family." In Nicoya, families tend to live in clusters." - Dan Buettner, The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who've Lived the Longest (Get the book.)

"Temple Judaism depended upon the sacramental activities? ritual garments, blood sacrifices—of a class of hereditary priests, the only ones granted privileged access to the Holy of Holies inside Solomon's Temple. The farther that the religious nationality built around the temple traveled, in time and space, from Jerusalem, the more it evolved into one dominated by professional scribes who came to dominate Jewish life." - William Rosen, Justinian's Flea: The First Great Plague and the End of the Roman Empire (Get the book.) "It was, after all, a baptistery, a place where what had once been an open-air ceremony, a simple initiation cetemony into the Christian community, had become a solemn once-a-year Easter ritual.4' The font did not long survive Ravenna's conquest, nor did any of the baptistery's decorations, save one. Seventeen centuries after its founder was excommunicated, anyone entering can lift his eyes to heaven, and see through to the heart of Arianism." - William Rosen, Justinian's Flea: The First Great Plague and the End of the Roman Empire (Get the book.)

"If democracy is to be more than a ritual dance choreographed by powerful corporations in this postindustrial "information age," government must actively protect the integrity of the information on which we rely to guide our personal and political choices. As individuals we have the opportunity to reclaim responsibility for much of our health through intelligent lifestyle decisions and informed use of medical care." - John Abramson, Overdosed America: The Broken Promise of American Medicine (P.S.) (Get the book.)

"The trick is to create an enjoyable bedtime ritual with a series of events that you can set into motion each night. For example, you can read a book to your child right before bed. Follow this with a special bedtime song, a hug, and a kiss before tucking your child in for the night. Bedtime can easily be transformed from something to be dreaded to a warm, loving event that ends the day. Once your child is under the covers, you must be firm. It's amazing how many children get "really hungry" just as the lights are being turned out." - Jay Gordon, The ADD and ADHD Cure: The Natural Way to Treat Hyperactivity and Refocus Your Child (Get the book.) "Here's what I recommend: on that first night, give your child the oatmeal and explain that you will incorporate the oatmeal into the bedtime ritual, but once the lights go out, he or she can't ask to be let out of bed for anything else. Try to make as few exceptions as possible. Of course, be understanding about the need to go to the bathroom or to get a glass of water, but be careful about letting this slide into an easily exploited set of loopholes. It's important to persist even though you might experience some trouble getting your child to fall asleep at first." - Jay Gordon, The ADD and ADHD Cure: The Natural Way to Treat Hyperactivity and Refocus Your Child (Get the book.)

"Their spiritual lives are rich with meaning, ritual, gratitude and trust in the innate goodness of the Universe. They see themselves as loved and protected by the Universe, safe in its embrace. You are a woman living at this time where you can be who you are, free of outside pressures or expectations. You can do what you desire and share your life with those who bring light to it. Your freedom extends to your inner self where you have released all bonds of fear and welcomed the liberty of love and the knowledge that you are a Conscious Creator." - Jackie Lapin, The Art of Conscious Creation: How You Can Transform the World (Get the book.)

"Peru's annual Acatay Mita ritual involved men and boys getting buck naked, running amok in their orchards and violating any woman who crossed their path. Anthropologists have documented fruit-fueled group sex among tribes all over the world, including the Oraon of India and Bangladesh, the Leti and Sarmata people in islands west of New Guinea, the Baganda in Africa, the Fiji islanders and the Kana of Brazil. In Europe, harvest orgies lasted well into the Middle Ages, despite condemnations from the Council of Auxerre in 590." - Adam Leith Gollne, The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce and Obsession (Get the book.) "Fruits, in Balinese ritual, inhabit a zone that is somewhere between the two. Fruit offerings are used to propitiate spirits during ceremonies such as circumcision, marriage, cremation and tooth-filing (a custom believed to eliminate animalistic lusts and desires). Fruits invariably appear at daily contributions to various deities or alongside gamelan musicians playing ancient melodies at rites of passage. Hinduism was the first major religion to explore the concept of reincarnation using fruits." - Adam Leith Gollne, The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce and Obsession (Get the book.) "The Waika of Venezuela use the beans of yopo fruits in a bizarre ritual where one man blows the fruit snuff through a long pipe into another man's nose. When he snorts it up, pandemonium ensues. The psychotropic quality that many fruits possess is actually a form of toxicity. Plants contain poisons intended to deter small animals from messing with them. When humans ingest these plants, their neurochemicals have effects ranging from relaxation and inebriation to paralysis and death. Cashew nuts are highly toxic until roasted." - Adam Leith Gollne, The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce and Obsession (Get the book.) "In his roundabout evaluation of what that ritual murder might have signified, Frazer's work ballooned to twelve volumes. Even the abridged version is packed with examples of fruits and their roles in arcane, magico-religious ceremonies and primitive beliefs. Indeed, Frazer concludes that the Golden Bough itself was probably a sprig of berries still used ceremonially today: mistletoe. The fruit world is endless." - Adam Leith Gollne, The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce and Obsession (Get the book.)

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