Fasting

To refrain from eating in a dream is to refrain from taking into yourself material opinions, ideas, ways of life. It is to concentrate your attention upon your own personal inner life and its growth. To refrain from acting from your desires, hungers, greed, ambition, sensuousness, and to allow Life to direct these faculties and harmonise your energies and cleanse you of mistakes and sickness.  Withdrawal or turning away from natural urges such as hunger or sex. Not taking in what society, the world is offering.

Can symbolise living in a state of purity, rejecting negative thoughts. It could also be a way to allow new ideas. If you have a belief that fasting spiritualises you or cleanses your body and mind, then the dream is probably an examination of this.

Fasting can also be a discipline in which the dreamer has stopped their natural, and sometimes unnatural desire to eat, and can be a way of developing a better relationship with their instincts. Because fasting has the effect of lowering ones emotional and physical energy, and because some form or psychological difficulties such as depression are the massive use of energy, fasting for a week or a fortnight can cause the person to regain their balance emotionally.

It was, and still is, a way of silencing the mind and experiencing how the mind in its crazy thinking can cause anxiety, restlessness and mental breakdowns. The profound silence which is achieved can shown the person that the despair and restlessness they usually experience is the result of misdirection of their enormous energy.

Such fasting was a way to gain personal initiation. Individuals, through prayer, fasting and lonely vigils, sought from their dreams, a vision of their destiny as an individual, and an image to aid a personal link with the Spirit pervading all life.

A Native American dream the following:

Example: At the age of about sixteen a youth went alone to a place there he fasted for sixteen days. At the end of this time he suddenly heard a voice in the sky saying, “Take care of this man and let him end his fast.” Then he saw an old man of great beauty come down from the sky. The old man came to him, and looking at him kindly said, “Have courage, I will take care of your life. It is a fortunate thing for you to have taken me for your master. None of the demons who haunt these countries will have any power to harm you. One day you will see your own hair as white as mine. You will have four children, the first two and last will be males, and the third will be a girl. After that your wife will hold the relation of a sister to you.” As he finished speaking the old man offered him a raw piece of human flesh to eat. When the boy turned his head away in horror, the old man then offered him a piece of bear’s fat, saying, “Eat this then.” after eating it, the old man disappeared, but came again at crucial periods in the person’s life. At manhood he did have four children as described. After his fourth, “a certain infirmity compelled him to continence” and so had a brother and sister relationship wit his wife. He also lived to old age, thus having white hair, and as the eating of the bear fat symbolised, became a gifted hunter with second sight for finding game. The man himself felt that had he eaten the human flesh in the vision, he would have been a warrior instead of a hunter.

Fasting can also indicate a discipline in which the dreamer has stopped their natural, and sometimes unnatural desire to eat, and can be a way of developing a better relationship with their instincts. Because fasting has the effect of lowering one’s emotional and physical energy, and because some form or psychological difficulties such as depression are the massive use of energy, fasting for a week or a fortnight can cause the person to regain their balance emotionally. Fasting for one or two days a week can be healthy and is a way to keep trim.

A test-tube study showed that exposing cancer cells to several cycles of fasting was as effective as chemotherapy in delaying tumor growth and increased the effectiveness of chemotherapy drugs on cancer formation. In one study, rats that fasted every other day experienced a delayed rate of aging and lived 83% longer than rats that didn’t fast.

Research shows that inflammation may be involved in the development of chronic conditions, such as heart disease, cancer and rheumatoid arthritis (4Trusted Source). Some studies have found that fasting can help decrease levels of inflammation and help promote better health.

One study in which 50 healthy adults showed that intermittent fasting for one month significantly decreased levels of inflammatory markers (5Trusted Source). Another small study discovered the same effect when people fasted for 12 hours a day for one month (6Trusted Source).

After about 8 hours of fasting, the liver will use the last of its glucose reserves. At this point, the body enters into a state called gluconeogenesis, marking the body’s transition into fasting mode. Studies have shown that gluconeogenesis increases the number of calories the body burns. With no carbohydrates coming in, the body creates its own glucose using mainly fat.

Eventually, the body runs out of these energy sources as well. Fasting mode then becomes the more serious starvation mode. At this point, a person’s metabolism slows down, and their body begins burning muscle tissue for energy. Although it is a well-known term in dieting culture, true starvation mode only occurs after several consecutive days or even weeks without food. So, for those breaking their fast after 24 hours, it is generally safe to go without eating for a day unless other health conditions are present. See this excellent video – https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01lxyzc/horizon-20122013-3-eat-fast-and-live-longer It gives full instructions.

I read somewhere that the Islamic festival of Ramadan was started to get the populace ready to fight and defend themselves during the daylight hours. The Islamic fasting is simply delayed eating.

But a straightforward way to fast effectively is to have a breakfast and then do not eat or drink alcohol or milk or caffeine drinks such as tea and coffee until breakfast the next day, which is a 24 hour fast. It is usually suggested the fast is best done for two separate days.

Useful questions and hints:

Am I consciously turning away from the material world and experiences?

If I am trying to delve more fully into my subtle nature, what is my dream commenting on that??

If this is about self-denial, what am I struggling with or against??

Is this about an eating disorder?

See Avoid Being Victims – Processing Dreams – Life’s Little Secrets – Dream Yoga