My fasting journey

[SkullTraill]

Alright, so I just wanted to talk about some fasting that I have done, and see if anyone else has done similar or wants to share their experiences.

Firstly, most of the time, I intermittent fast. As in, I eat my first meal of the day after 12 noon, and my 2nd and last meal of the day before 8PM. Only 2 meals, sometimes snacks too, but never after 8PM. However, I don't really want to talk about intermittent fasting as I feel like it's really common and a lot of people do it.

What I really wanna talk about is long fasting (3+ days).

The first one I did was a butter coffee fast a couple years ago. I wanted to do it for 14 days, where I have absolutely no food, but once a day, I drink black coffee blended with butter. This being the first long fast I did, was pretty difficult, First few days till ketosis started were the hardest, lots of headaches and weakness, but after 3 days, I was not very hungry, food cravings were gone, mental clarity was decent, however I still felt pretty weak. Mind you, I did 0 exercise at this point in my life. After 7 days, I decided I had enough and stopped fasting. I lost about 6KG.

Second fast was a couple months ago, last year. This was a 7 day water fast. Nothing but water for 7 days. First 3 days were the same as previous, but the subsequent days were noticeably more difficult than the butter coffee fast. I noticed even on day 3+ my brain was foggy, I couldn't focus, and had headaches. I started adding a bit of salt to my water to help with the electrolyte situation, and having some black coffee, but it was still very difficult. On day 5, I made the massive mistake of having 2 vitamin C tablets (0 sugar, 0 carbs). This shit started giving me massive acid reflux, to the point of needing to throw up, and since I didn't have much experience, I decided to end the fast after suffering for a few hours. (Total 5.5 days) I lost about 8KG (after gaining back water weight)

My 3rd and last fast so far just ended today, it was another failed attempt at a 7 day water fast. I started last saturday my time (it's friday now) and it was noticeably harder than the other 2 fasts. Maybe because my metabolism is a bit higher since I work out now, or maybe because I just couldn't help myself from watching food videos on youtube. Basically from day 2 onwards I had light headaches, weakness, brain fog. From day 3 onwards, I also started getting pretty bad acid reflux. I was drinking aa bit of salt with my water from the start, and once I started getting acid reflux, I started adding a little baking soda to my water, which did curb the acid reflux, but caused significant bloating and made me feel quite unwell. I decided to give this up after completing 6 days. I had a few dates and some soup. This time was extremely unpleasant and has put me off long fasts for probably a long time. I lost about 5.5KG (will calculate regained weight in the coming days).

Any similar experiences? Also, ask me anything.

 

[Baranova Alya]

Wow, hats off to you! I wouldn't have lasted that long!)
I've heard that in esotericism fasting is considered a super way to increase your abilities. I think that you can't go into fasting abruptly - you have to do it gradually. There is such a term as “therapeutic fasting”. You might be interested in reading about how people enter this state.
I have a huge passion for coffee and chocolate. I can eat nothing, but coffee and chocolate must be available at all times!) I have found a way out for myself - ascesis. Perhaps you practice asceticism too? Not just to torture yourself with fasting, but to add magic to it, so to speak!)
I admire your willpower!

 

[Yazata]

Inspiring! Great job on the willpower and congratulations on the weight-loss

 

[SkullTraill]

Wow, hats off to you! I wouldn't have lasted that long!)
I've heard that in esotericism fasting is considered a super way to increase your abilities. I think that you can't go into fasting abruptly - you have to do it gradually. There is such a term as “therapeutic fasting”. You might be interested in reading about how people enter this state.
I have a huge passion for coffee and chocolate. I can eat nothing, but coffee and chocolate must be available at all times!) I have found a way out for myself - ascesis. Perhaps you practice asceticism too? Not just to torture yourself with fasting, but to add magic to it, so to speak!)
I admire your willpower!

Thank you for the kind words. While discipline was one of the reasons I fasted, I have to say it was never the main or a major reason. The 2 main reasons I do long fasts are for autophagy and weight loss. I am interested in non-fasting forms of asceticism for occult work but probably will not do fasting again for a while as this time it crossed the line from mental torture into physical torture in a big way for me. This last fast, I worked out on day 2 and day 4 and I have to say the hunger pangs, cramps, and extreme discomfort in general were not worth the measly 5KGs I lost. I also didn’t feel especially spiritual or any kind of mental clarity after the fast. Perhaps it was too soon after my last one.

Also since I already do intermittent fasting I couldn’t think of any other way to “ease into” fasting either. Perhaps I have to lower my metabolism a little before I start next time.

However I don’t think I will do this again till next year probably.

Inspiring! Great job on the willpower and congratulations on the weight-loss

Thanks man, I wish I had the willpower to finish the 7 days. I’m sure I’ll have the willpower to keep working out and maintain my new weight though

Overall I think experiences like this in some ways help you appreciate life as well. After all, what is joy unless you have suffering to compare it to.

 

[beardedeldridge]

Way to go!

I did a couple of longer ones when I was younger. Usually black coffee only. I had one where I allowed a small amount of fruit each evening after sundown that was much easier. As a late teen once I was near end of day three of my first water only attempt at 7 days and someone put a plate of spaghetti in front of me and I had inhaled half of it before it even registered what I was doing. It all came back up a mile down the road once I excused myself and left. Fasting is hard but I never really had any bad reflux issues thankfully.

I often intermittently fast during daylight hours to prepare for a ritual.

When I travel I often do ritual fasting where I eat prior to sundown on Sunday then I allow 3 cups of black coffee (Morning, Lunch, Dinner). Then I go for a walk (skip any other exercise) in the evening then come back to the hotel room, bathe, and do ritual prep work after sundown. Then after sundown on Wed (so 3 days) I preform (sometimes doing the Eucharist, drinking wine, or whatever if included in the ritual) the final ritual. Then the next morning I have a bland omelet. I found I can do 3 days fairly regularly without being too hard on my body (1-2 times a month). Staying busy makes it easier.

-Eld

Post automatically merged: Feb 7, 2025

Way to go!

I did a couple of longer ones when I was younger. Usually black coffee only. I had one where I allowed a small amount of fruit each evening after sundown that was much easier. As a late teen once I was near end of day three of my first water only attempt at 7 days and someone put a plate of spaghetti in front of me and I had inhaled half of it before it even registered what I was doing. It all came back up a mile down the road once I excused myself and left. Fasting is hard but I never really had any bad reflux issues thankfully.

I often intermittently fast during daylight hours to prepare for a ritual.

When I travel I often do ritual fasting where I eat prior to sundown on Sunday then I allow 3 cups of black coffee (Morning, Lunch, Dinner). Then I go for a walk (skip any other exercise) in the evening then come back to the hotel room, bathe, and do ritual prep work after sundown. Then after sundown on Wed (so 3 days) I preform (sometimes doing the Eucharist, drinking wine, or whatever if included in the ritual) the final ritual. Then the next morning I have a bland omelet. I found I can do 3 days fairly regularly without being too hard on my body (1-2 times a month). Staying busy makes it easier.

-Eld

 

[Flandre]

Impressive!

I've done a couple of fasts (no tea or coffee either), most of them being one day long and more recently a three day long one. In my case I mainly wanted to train my willpower, see how my body would react to it and to lower the mental component of hunger (cravings and overeating, mostly). They didn't really work for that last part, if anything I had more desire for food afterwards which does make sense in foresight. As for training willpower... It was by no means easy, but at least to me it was easier than more abstract/social aspects.

The first day for me is usually challenging for the willpower alone - thoughts of food do creep in every now and then - but not much aside from that and a bit of weakness.

Second day was the worst one. Weakness, nausea, feeling of being out of breath, chest pain, dizziness, low body temperature coupled with feeling feverish and difficulty concentrating are there throughout the whole day. During that time and onwards, standing up suddenly would make me lose vision for a moment. But - at least to me - the worst part is insomnia. It's nearly impossible for me to fall asleep by that time. I got slightly concerned for my health back then, but I was fine in the end.
At that time I was also interested in trying astral projection and I tried to induce it taking advantage of my weakened body - to no success.
Meditation was very difficult, probably the most difficult it ever was.

Third day is when it gets better for me. Most of the physical symptoms subside to a tolerable degree - what persists is insomnia and weakness. It was still pretty hard to concentrate, though.
That is also when the intense craving for food stopped and I did not see a reason to continue that fast after midnight by that point.

Right after eating a meal after that fast is when it got much worse again. Then, over the next few days I felt much better - but I'm not yet sure if it was due to the fast, I'd have to repeat it to get a better idea. However, I'm not too keen on fasting too often since I weigh around 40kg (14.9 BMI) and I do not wish to lose weight as it would be rather unhealthy, it's very hard for me to gain any weight in the first place. So I only plan to do such longer fasts when a ritual calls for it.

I also noticed I usually feel more capable the day after fasting for 24 hours and I plan to experiment with those a bit more in the future, especially since they aren't taking as much of a toll on my body.

Did you also experience any insomnia? I presume it might be due to higher adrenaline levels which are associated with fasting.

 

[MidnightProphet]

Excellent post, SkullTraill. From my perspective, fasting from something should...SHOULD...be included in every magickal repertoire. I find that fasting and abstaining do wonders to sharpen the will and flatten aspects of the personality which do not serve a positive purpose. I am also on a similar routine, first meal is usually after 11 a.m. and last meal is no later than 8 p.m. One thing I add to my butter coffee is coconut-derived liquid MCT oil to supplement fat and give the brain some elasticity. It also slows the uptake of caffeine, extending its appetite-suppressant qualities while muting some of the upper ranges of caffeine/fast-induced anxiety that can occur.

Abstinence is necessary, at least in moderation, to curb the appetites which would otherwise draw one away from the work they have set out to do.

 

[Wintruz]

By nature I don't eat a great deal but I've undergone periods of extreme fasting before and, in my experience at least, the psychological effects are often connected with what else is going on, the variables around the fast. The line between "I am a flame of Pure Will existing in the Formless Abyss" and "this is simply self-torture" does seem to shift, not with intention as much as with preparation going in. The absolute worst was the so called "Master Cleanse" Lemonade diet. Three weeks of headaches, the endless taste of cayenne pepper at the back of my throat and energy levels that felt like accelerate and brake were being floored at the same time. At the end, I'm sure I was physically "detoxed" but any psychic effects were minimal and they didn't come within a 100 miles of the potent psychological effects of going without sex (but sitting with - not suppressing - erotic energy) for a few weeks. That really does lead to some powerful, deep shifts in consciousness.