BellaOnline Forums Religion and Spirituality New Age Spiritual Cookery

The �spiritual quality of food� is not a metaphor: food contains a light fiber energy which is as important to our sustenance as vitamins and proteins, but which is not susceptible to chemical analysis. And just as the vitamin and protein content of food can be diminished by processing or overcooking, so too can the light fiber content of food be diminished by disrespect.

Light fibers are actually the same things as good feelings. When we feel good, we literally glow. When a food plant or animal feels good, it glows. Even when it is killed for food, the glow remains as long as the killing was done with respect; that is, with a sense of connectedness and gratitude rather than mechanically.

A farmer puts the glow into his plants and animals by treating them with respect � by respecting their feelings. Practically all farmers farm for the love it; they sure don�t do it for the money. They feel joyous as they ride their tractors up and down their fields, and that good feeling is communicated to the soil and plants. Similarly, most dairy farmers not only address their cows as individuals, but they also develop quirky personal relationships with them. Therefore, from a light fiber point of view, our vegetable and milk supplies are still relatively safe. Most egg farms, on the other hand, are run like Auschwitz, and that�s what makes eggs poisonous to eat (not their cholesterol).

Not all cultures have been so cut off from their true feelings about food as ours is today. Many Native American tribes had a deep awareness that they were a part of what they ate � e.g., the buffalo. They lived with the buffalo, followed the buffalo, prayed to the buffalo. They were one with the buffalo, and thus to them eating was a sacrament. Modern Native Americans maintain that same attitude of reverence towards maize.

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So where did you retrieve your information for this article? Because you contradict yourself in here, saying that Nattive Americans hunted, followed, prayed to and ate the buffalo then you say that their main diet was corn. Native Americans, until invasion by Europeans and forced concentration camp style migrations, were nomadic hunters. Following whatever game was available, buffalo, deer, elk, antelope, etcetera.
Alos the way you talk about eating makes me wonder if you A: aren't proliferating the American stereotype of gluttonous pigs; B: Have a secret hatred of people with weight issues; or C: have an eating problem yourself.
I understand what you are trying to say, that we should be thankful for what we have to eat, go back to basics and eat less processed, organic or even home grown foods. But find me a baby that feels shame in eating cake on their 4th birthday.

Hello Bob

I have edited your post down to a give a flavour (pun intended) of your article. May I respectfully remind you of one of my forum rules:

"Visitors do not publish essays, either their own or A N Other's. You may post a link to a longer text if you wish to make a reference."

This forum exists to give people a chance to discuss New Age issues. Spiritual Food is a great topic for discussion! I hope you intend to stay and chat with us & aren't just looking to send people to your own articles & site, as that would be against the spirit of Bellaonline forums.

But find me a baby that feels shame in eating cake on their 4th birthday.

LOL hahahahaha
I LOVE THAT!!!!!

Thank you Wendy!!!

I think he eats a whole lotta SPAM!!

:oSPAM 1/3 less pig lips!!!!


I think I will stick to my stake and potatoes!!! Texans dont eat SPAM or read it!!!

turkey spam isn't so bad LOL

lol only if I was starving to death and God told me to eat it!! lol

So what do you guys think of "Spiritual Cookery"? the thought of thanking the plant/snimal for sacrificing itself so that you could eat? A little bit different from thanking God/dess for what you are about to eat.

In one sense Bob was right that Natives did thank the organism for dying so that they could live on, and they also used every bit of that organism, nothing ever went to waste, whether it was for food or shelter, clothing, jewelry/decoration or what have you.

I will be the first to admit that even though I am native american myself, nine times out of ten I forget to be thankful for what I am about to eat. Do any of you do anything out of the ordinary before you are about to eat; Whether it be for ceremony or not?

I think the "light fiber" content of food is exactly equal to it's phlogiston, aether, and fairy dust content. We humans are omnivores, predators by nature, but we differ from other mammals in that we can consciously manage our food supply. Our foods are almost entirely artificial, created by other humans over the millennia through artificial selection/selective breeding. We have shaped life on this planet to better suit our needs and sustain our species to the point that we might escape the death of this world. So, to whom does the thanks truly go? the organism consumed? The long-dead string of breeders? The farmer? The storekeeper? The purchaser? The cook? I personally thank those who have provided for me in some way, and I observe the rituals of those with whom I am eating, whether it be the saying of grace at my parent's house or the "itadakimasu" at a Japanese household.

I must say that when I went to primary school (a long, long, time ago)we said Grace. It was said by rote with no real feeling & seemed just a formality & a nuisance stopping us from our food at the time. I think that sort of empty ritual has about as much spiritual value as saying the times tables!

Now I'm older I can see the value of a sincere 'thank you' to Mother Earth for providing the food on our plate- so I guess I agree in part at least with what Bob was saying...shame he hasn't dropped by again to chat about his thoughts.

Though I am the same way in often forgetting to be thankful for what I am about to eat, I do think it is something that is very important. I also think that it would be a great rite-of-passage for all that choose to eat meat (me included) to, at some time in their life, have to kill and dress something they are going to eat. Whether it be a chicken or a deer. Some boys get this experience, but I think few girls ever have this experience. I think I would cry through the entire experience, but I also think I would appreciate eating meat that much more after... Regardless of if your meat is packaged in plastic and styrofoam, something died so that you could be nourished... I think most of us take this for granted most of the time.

I guess the same is true for plants, though I can't get myself to think of it in the same way. For me, I think more of the farmers who have given their sweat and work to supply me with produce... We should be thankful for that as well...

I guess that's a good reason for me to stay veggie! Fleas & headlice are about the limit of things I ever intentionally kill...don't fancy nibbling on them

LOL they might make a tasty treat! LOL

LOL yuck Jase!! oooo!

I tend to pray and thank God for the food and ask that it doesnt make me fatter!!! lol and if it is something I grow or someone else grows and gave to me I thank the plant and the person who grow it and God for letting it live!!

I tend to think of all things meat like a tv dinner it came from the store and I baought it so thank you God for letting me make the money to by the food!!!

my mom is a veggie person and never eats meat so I dont like to think about poor daisy the cow being m y dinner!!!

At our meals, we do pray for each other and give thanks for the food and our lives together. Closer however I think to what you are asking is the prayer of thanks I find myself always giving when I cut herbs or pull veggies out of the garden for our meals. I thank the plant itself, not God or ourselves for growing it. I must confess though, that I find it hard to be that intimate with something from the grocery store.

\

Bugs are a delicacy in some areas!!

you can have my share I will fast but thanks anyways!!!


(I wanted to say YUCK!!! But i thought the above sounded nicer!!!)

I need to chime in here as I am Native American and spent the first 27 years of my life on our Sett.
All this past tense reference to us is a bit unnerving, as in we " used to" pray for the animal we ate and so on. This is not in the past for us - this continues!
Also, the part about maize ( corn ) is not accurate in that not all tribes were growing this crop. Nor did all tribes save plains tribes follow the food. California tribes and others had fishing and other readily year-long available sources of food.
Although we may not still roam looking for buffalo, many many natives still hunt the food they eat.
And when we get our govt. commodity food, it is powdered milk, powdered eggs etc.,,and the old standby- Spam! So I am also confused about that being brought up jokingly.
If it weren't for the commods and that Spam many elders, especially amongst the Lakotas , would die. They are starving on what is essentially a 3rd world nation ( Pine Ridge ) in the middle of America.
Not trying to be a downer here, but please don't discuss my people in the past tense. We are still here, we still practice our ways.

That's great to hear, and it's great to hear that Native Americans are still keeping their traditions alive. There is so much wisdom that has been lost already. It would be a shame if it were allowed to continue...

Rueben, I do apologize if I upset you, sometimes I think faster than I type and I meant that we used to be nomadic in our hunting not that we used to thank the animal for dying for us.

To Hunt or Not to Hunt

This was an essay posted on WitchVox. I thought that some portions of it tied in nicely to this discussion.

My beef with it (pun intended) is this: The author says she couldn't hunt or fish because she couldn't stand to watch the animal die in terror. That I can understand. She goes on to say that if she were in a situation where she was forced to hunt, she still wouldn't do it. She would have someone else do it for her... That's where I start to have a problem with her argument.

In my eyes, a person would have a lot more respect for the meat of choice if he/she was the one to kill it. It seems almost hypocritical to me for someone in a "hunt or die" situation to say, "Surely I'll eat the meat, but you have to use the hatchet."

Going back to something I posted before, I think that we should have some sort of right-of-passage where children hunt or experience what goes into the making of meat products. I think it would make people appreciate what goes into their bodies more.

And, though this lady says that she pays homage to any meat that goes into her mouth, if she actually had to go through with killing an animal to get that meat, I'll bet she would respect it even more...

I heartily agree with her stance that people shouldn't hunt just for fun. If they are doing it for fun, the meat should still be utilized for good in some way. But I still find something a little off in the fact that she won't hunt under any circumstances, but will gladly eat the rewards of someone else's labors.

Anyone else have any opinions on this?

(Disclaimer: I have never hunted or killed anything for the meat. I have been fishing, sometimes for the meat, sometimes for the sport. I still think that if I had the opportunity, I would like to hunt once just to have the experience. I would likely be crying while dressing the critter, but I still think it is an experience people should have...)

Thank you for joining us and chiming in Rueben. I find it distressing that tribal people are marginalised, but I am pleased that you do continue to honour your customs.

I hope that the world will learn to appreciate the wonderful diversity of tribal cultures - as if 'we westerners' have all the answers! Survival is an amazing charity I support that does work to raise public consciousness to what is happening to tribal people worldwide Survival International