Page:Linda Hazzard - Fasting for the cure of disease.djvu/215

MENTAL AND BODILY REACTION human body is but a vehicle for its manifestation.

Again, in disease, body temperature and pulse may be above or below register. In the fast, when purification is complete, temperature and pulse are restored to normal. Food plays no more part in the accomplishment of this result than it does in the restoration of strength. Each instance of fasting for the cure of disease perfectly demonstrates the basis in fact of the theory that food serves the sole purpose of repair and growth of body tissue, and that the source of vital energy and of body heat lies without the human frame. The brain is its organ of reception, and it is significant that this instrument of function recovers from fatigue through rest and not because of the assimilation of food. Nerve sustenance is obtained from its storehouse in the body, but nerve energy is renewed through the breath of life. 201