Fasting (2/2): Psychological and Spiritual Effects

Psychological Effects of Fasting

The physical and psychological benefits cannot be separated. Fasting purifies cells all over the body, including those in the brain. Negative mental states such as anxiety, boredom, loneliness, tension, and fear, to the some extent, can be said as the mental expression of a physical state. When the brain is free of toxic poisons, the mind is liberated both physiologically and then psychologically. Although psychological drugs only temporarily alter the mental states by affecting the brain, fasting may free the brain forever (Bragg & Bragg, 1999). In the last 50 years in Russia, therapeutic fasting has been found to be the most effective treatment for schizophrenia. As early as 1972, Dr. Yuri Nikolayev, director of the fasting unit of the Moscow Psychiatric Institute, reported on the use of fasting to successfully treat over 7000 patients who suffered from various mental disorders including schizophrenia. Now Nikolayev after 30 year’s experience fasting over 10,000 patients says, “seventy percent of those [schizophrenia patients] treated by fasting improved so remarkably that they were able to resume an active life” (www.fasting.com).

Many fasters report that their mind is sharpened and focused. This is explained by the fact that the cleansing process of fasting actually gets rid of cementing and intrusive particles of the nerve tissues. As a result, a greater number of our brain cells come into contact with purified blood and the improved flow of blood to the brain helps to clarify our mind. An Irish literary critic and dramatist, George Bernard Shaw, attributed his successful works to the effect of fasting (www.fasting.com).

Spiritual Effects of Fasting

People fast not only for health and youth, but also for spiritual illumination. Fasting is a rite in all religions; the Bible alone has 74 references to it (Bragg & Bragg, 1999). Prolonged fasting was practiced by the Bible saints, Ahab, Anna, Esther, Hannah, Ezra, John the Baptist, the Apostles. Christ, Daniel, David, Elijah, and Moses all did 40-day fasts. Moses received the Ten Commandments after fasting for 40 days. Jesus fasted 40 days in the desert before starting His ministry. Great religious leaders knew that abstaining from food led them to focus on God and also opened their mind for spiritual perception and understanding (www.fasting.com).

We can find Christ teaching about fasting in the Dead Sea Scroll found in 1947: “Renew yourselves and fast, for I tell you truly, except you fast you shall never be freed from the power of Satan, and from all diseases that come from Satan” Similar teachings can be found in Matthew 17: 14-21. Great saints of our history approached and some reached to “the truth” with their focused mind and spirit that were attained through asceticism including fasting, probably not only by special grace (Ehret, 1966).

In this modern world, we know that a great number of people fast for religious reasons.

For example, one billion Muslims fast daily during the entire month of Ramadan. Nearly 14 million Jews fast during the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), as well as on other special occasions. About 800 million religious Hindus fast on the Ekadashi day, on Janmashtami, and in the month of Shravan.

Gandhi, who led India’s nonviolent movement for freedom from Colonial England, initially tried fasting as means of self-restraint and realized its far greater benefits: “detoxification, heightened clarity of consciousness, and spiritual enhancement.” Gandhi concluded: “There is no prayer without fasting,” “The light of the world will illuminate within you when you fast and purify yourself” (www.fasting.com; cited in Bragg & Bragg, 1999).

Sources:    Bragg, C. P., & Bragg, P. (1999). The Miracle of Fasting. Santa Barbara, CA: Health Science.; Burroughs, S. (1976). The Master Cleanser (14th ed.) Moana Lane Reno, NV: Burroughs Books; Duncan, L. (1996). Internal detoxification. Total Health, 18, 42-44; Ehret, A. (1966). Rational Fasting for Physical, Mental and Spiritual Rejuvenation (14th  ed.). New York: Ehret Literature; Galland, L. (1998). The four pillars of healing. Total Health, 20, 23-24; Gormley, J. J. (2000). Garlic and detox. Better Nutrition for Today’s Living, 62, 16.; Jensen, B. & Bell, S. (1998). Tissue Cleansing Through Bowel Management. Tokyo, Japan: Tyuo-Syuppan.; Kim, K. (1998). Fast track. Village Voice, 43, 135-136.; Kita, J. & Laliberte, R. (1995). Mr. Clean. Men’s Health, 10, 66-68. ; Walsh, T. (1997). Debunking the detoxification theory. Nutrition Forum, 16, 1-2.; Wolf, G. (1995). The effect of fasting and fructose and glucose infusion on gluconeogenesis and triose phosphate flux in rats in vivo. Nutrition Reviews, 53, 299-301.; Zucker, M. (1998). The lowdown on colon care. Vegetarian Times, 247, 82-83; fasting.com — an official web site of Fasting Center International, Inc.

Prayer and Pyschotherapy

Prayer, especially meditative prayer, can focus us away from our problems and onto God (our solution) and His power to heal and restore us. Praying the rosary is particularly effective. As we meditate on the important events in the lives of Jesus and Mary, we become aware of how these events relate to and impact us in our trials and sufferings. We can grasp the joyful mysteries of our own lives from which we often feel disconnected, gain strength in our sufferings and trials, and gain hope in the glory that awaits us as we work through the pain and sadness that has brought us to therapy in the first place. Prayer transports us, not just in theory, but reality into the presence of God, who surrounds and upholds us through our trials and triumphs in life.

But what about those who do not believe, or have trouble trusting in the reality of grace through prayer? What of those who are so hurt and broken that the very concept of a loving Lord, who is there and listening is too foreign for them to conceive and believe? Well, here is where the rubber meets the road. Here is where objective truth really shines in all its glory.

You see, so many of us believe that effective prayer depends somehow on us. If we believe enough, or say the right prayer or novena, we can make things happen. Thanks to so many pernicious New Age concepts that have infiltrated Catholic practice in recent years, many have come to believe in a ‘god within,” or ‘positive thought energy,” or similar ideas that shift the power from the Triune God to this lesser god that dwells within. Although at first glance, it appears attractive to have a god that we in essence can control, the result of such thinking has had disastrous consequences in actual practice, especially in therapy.

The paramount feeling that most clients express upon entering therapy is that their lives feel out of control. Those who have been abused or traumatized indeed had no control in the past and desperately seek ways and means to gain a healthy sense of control and boundaries in their lives. Here is where New Age concepts fall flat, for what can be more frightening for a person trying to work through trauma than the thought that he or she is ultimately responsible for effecting their own healing? Being introduced to the truth of the Triune God, inviting Jesus in as Lord and Healer and transferring their dependence onto Him is the only thing that leads to true liberation and ultimate joy. The success of those twelve-step recovery programs that confess Jesus Christ as Lord bears out this truth.

Through the gift of our Catholic faith, we find the means instituted by Jesus Christ Himself to lead us into this relationship with Him, and to deepen our knowledge of Him and His presence in our lives. Through the sacraments we find, through ordinary things, visible signs of God’s presence and, most importantly, we receive the grace we need to overcome our sins and their effects upon us, as well as the effects of the sins of others against us. Through the Sacrament of Reconciliation we focus upon our own sins, confess them and receive God’s mercy and forgiveness. This empowers us to overcome these sins and sinful tendencies and, with the grace we have received, to change the only one we have any control over to begin with-ourselves.

Through the reception of the Holy Eucharist, we receive Jesus Christ Himself to dwell within us and give us the grace and the power to conquer our bad habits, to forgive from our hearts through His power, and to increase in holiness, the only true road to freedom and real happiness. The best part of all is, though faith certainly plays an important role, even if we have no faith in prayer or any real understanding of God and the sacraments, it is the obedient use of these very means that builds our faith and understanding. We should take to heart the last recorded words of Our Lady at the marriage feast at Cana: “Do whatever He tells you,” (John 2:5). You will be amazed at the results.

Source: “The Role of Prayer and the Sacraments in Psychotherapy”  by Allison Ricciardi

Psychiatry And the Catechism of the Catholic Church

The past ten years or so have been designated as the decade of the  brain, inasmuch as the neurosciences advanced by leaps and bounds; consequently, psychiatry, too, accelerated its pace, with perfected diagnostic tools and more precise differential diagnoses. The far-reaching positron emission tomography, often termed by its acronym,  PET, tracks down psychopharmacologic medications into discrete brain areas; working together, neurologists and psychiatrists, enhance their diagnostic acumen, as they view physiologic processes inside the living brain.

Psychiatry, an empirical science, based on direct observation and experimentation, ordinarily, focuses merely on one aspect of the human person, and one constituent of human reality.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (no. 1703) teaches that man is “endowed with a spiritual and immortal soul; the human  person is the only creature that God  has willed for its own sake. From his  conception, he is destined for eternal  beatitude.” And in no. 1702, we read  that “The divine image is present in  every man.” Man’s likeness to God  and his spiritual nature amplifies our  present Pontiff’s categorical affirmation of the “whole truth about man.”  Sadly, the supernatural factor is either  shunned or decreed non-existent,  even by good psychotherapists. The  aforementioned factor is the neglected complementary, but obligatory  part of treatment. “Human virtues are  purified and elevated by divine grace.   With God’s help, they forge character” (CCC, no. 1810).

Treatment Hierarchy: Natural And Supernatural

Catholic psychiatrists can be evangelizers of the Catholic Faith; too often psychiatric patients pine for God and require instruction in and direction to the knowledge and truth of our Faith. “The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to Himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for” (CCC, no. 27).

Families, too, need help on both natural and supernatural levels of treatment. We aid them to identify dysfunctional coping mechanisms or psychopathological behavior and also to grasp the sublime efficacy of supernatural grace as an antidote to family difficulties, for our “growth in Christian life needs the nourishment of Eucharistic Communion, the Bread for our pilgrimage until the moment of death” (CCC, no. 1392). Only then will family members be capable of heroic virtues; only then will their mutual devotion intensify while selfishness fades away.

The fields of psychology and psychiatry have rightly been censured by many, not only for their shortcomings, but also for their morally offensive theories. Both fields, however, have wise and competent experts who proffer more tenable and realistic views of the human person. Increasingly, Christian health workers, concede to the God-given dignity of the human person and their responsibility to respect moral values and family traditions. Our present Holy Father lauds psychiatrists who practice judicious therapy and dispense medications prudently.

Source: The Roman Catholic Psychiatrist by Luz G. Gabriel, M.D.(ewtn.com)

Where Psychology ends Catholicism begins

Classical Freudian psychoanalysis is atheistic, and so is most psychotherapy today. Even though the brilliant French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan had some familiarity with Catholicism, religion has no part in his psychoanalysis either. His concept of psychoanalysis, which masterfully refined Freud’s ideas, was still a product of natural reason. But Lacan can teach Catholics much about psychology. To put it in a nutshell, Lacanian analysis ultimately shows you that all your identifications with the world are just empty illusions. So you start analysis with your identity like a precious porcelain vase, and you end the analysis as a naked man sitting alone in a pile of broken pottery. So that’s life, you learn, just a pile of illusions. “Go make something of it anyway,” you’re told.

So what does this have to do with Catholicism and Catholic psychologists? Well, read Saint John of the Cross and you will find that his description of spiritual purgation is, in its practical effects, quite a bit like Lacan’s philosophy. The difference between the two, of course, is Christ. Christ leads us outside the box of natural reason. Christ begins where Lacan ends. Lacan leaves us with the stark, bare psychological truth of our broken lives. Christ—and only Christ—can heal the brokenness. And in that gap between Lacan and Christ is precisely where I locate the relation between psychology and religion. Psychology cannot heal us, but it can help us recognize just how broken we really are, and it can help us overcome our resistance to total surrender to Christ. Once we make that surrender, our healing begins. And that is precisely what Saint John of the Cross told us.

Source: Raymond Lloyd Richmond, Ph.D. at (www.guidetopsychology.com/catholic.html)

Exorcism and Psychology: The MPD case

Some mental health authors have suggested that there may be cases where exorcism is “therapeutic.” This belief is based, I feel, on a judgment that if the patient subjectively feels or fears that possession has occurred, providing the suggestion that they are now freed may lead to improvement. The therapist may also believe that true possession is not ever a possibility. There may be as well a sense that religious ideation and understanding is not really an important consideration.

Rarely is Christian theology seriously considered, except by fundamentalist “Christian counselors” or “Catholic Charismatics” who may consider possession and oppression to be common occurrences, with exorcism a tool to be freely used. I obviously consider the theology involved to be very important, but the idea of it being “therapeutic” also should be examined.

The most prominent writers in the field of the treatment of MPD (Multiple Personality Disorder)  have noted that exorcism for MPD is therapeutically contraindicated, with various forms of harm described.

Dr. Fraser from the Royal Ottawa Hospital in Canada. He reviewed the experiences of a number of his patients who had undergone exorcism in various circumstances. The patients varied in religious background, as did the religion of those doing the exorcisms and the form and nature of the exorcism activity. Some exorcisms were supported by the Church or religious community of the exorcist. Some of the exorcisms had occurred before, as well as after, the diagnosis of MPD. Based on his retrospective review of 7 cases, he reached several conclusions:

· The exorcisms had an effect in that they produced a change and had an impact on the personality system. Alternate personalities can be, at least temporarily, “banished” and new personalities can be created in response to the sense of trauma.
· The effect in each case was severely destructive.
· At least in cases where MPD is present or may be present, exorcism is contraindicated.

If someone is diagnosed as having MPD based on other personalities, a demonic presentation should be presumed to simply be another personality, unless clearly demonstrated otherwise.
· An MPD personality will have an identifiable time of formation and functional role within the personality system consistent with the trauma as it was occurring. MPD specific therapy will result in psychologically consistent change in that personality, with improvement over time in the presence of a healthy therapeutic alliance.
· As the personality is worked with, emotions such as rage will be clearly “human” in origin, and if the personality is more developed there will be the clear existence of state-dependent learning. Knowledge possessed will be appropriate to the role and function of the personality.
· Unusual phenomena will be those seen and reported in at least some other patients clearly diagnosed with MPD, and will follow the general patterns for those phenomena.
· Unusual phenomena consistent with true possession would be clearly outside the “natural order” and/or would be situations not reasonably accounted for by science.

There are strange phenomena that are frequently seen and observed in MPD patients. They are accepted as MPD dynamics, and are often present with some personalities and absent with others. In different patients, they may or may not be linked with a subjective sense of “being evil” and are clearly linked both to trauma and attempts at adapting to that trauma.

These phenomena would include at least the following:
· Susceptibility to hypnosis and an unusual ability to cause others to enter hypnotic or trance states.
· Body memories having physical characteristics. These are reenactments of past trauma and follow the same characteristics as the classic stigmata phenomena. They may appear and disappear without external manipulation and may include rashes, welts, cuts, burns, blood, swelling, and significant physiological changes.
· Apparent telepathy, clairvoyance, and unexplained knowledge. These may reflect hyperacute senses, such as hearing thoughts reflected in the movement of the larynx. Photographic state-dependent memory, extremely acute awareness of others’ body language and visual cues, and unusual mental feats are also common.
· Physical strength beyond ordinary perceptions of what is humanly possible.
· Highly accelerated healing, control of bleeding, and ability to regulate physiological states in ways not normally considered possible or under conscious control.
· Ability to cause in an observer a sense of cold, evil, or threat.
· Acts of self-harm and extreme self-mutilation, hatred of God and religious objects.
· Ability to go for long periods with neither food or sleep.
· Selective, personality specific anesthesia and the blocking of normal pain stimuli.

Source: Fr J Mahoney, Exorcism and multiple personality disorder from a catholic perspective, Consulting Chaplain of the Office of Chaplaincies of the Archdiocese of Detroit