In regards to eating meat

[Monica]

For me, yes, when I stick to my diet I am just full of energy all the time. Whenever I need energy to exert myself, whether physically or mentally, it is there. There is no "crash". I will be walking down the street and I just feel vibrant and bouncy you could say, just full of energy, and I sort of jump around and stuff. You just sort of ooze energy when you eat this way.

yossarian, you are an inspiration!

I'm getting here late to this discussion...

In response to the OP, my opinion is that, yes, a vegetarian diet is an ideal to aspire to, and certainly quite doable for most people, unless they have unusual physical challenges...while a raw foods vegan diet the absolute ultimate spiritually pure and karmically free diet to aspire to while still here in 3D.

I became a vegetarian 28 years ago, after reading The Essene Gospel of Peace (attributed to Jesus) and Survival Into the 21st Century (Viktoras Kulvinskas), both of which totally blew my mind.

I actually refused to eat meat as a child also, until age 10. Although, in all fairness, I can't really say I was a vegetarian, since I didn't eat any veggies at all! I had an unusual eating disorder as a child. But I do remember being totally repulsed when my dad made me hold the feet of the chickens while he cut off their heads.

Although I did eat typical junk food, including meat, during my teen years, it didn't take much for my repulsion towards it to return. Now, the idea of consuming meat is completely foreign to me.

I tried taking it a step further and going raw foods vegan, but, unfortunately, at the time I didn't have all knowledge to do it right. And, I ignorantly believed a nutritionist who told me to drink distilled water, which turned out to be extremely harmful. I developed extreme mineral loss from the combination of distilled water and inadequate variety of foods. ie. I ate fruit but not greens or nuts. Big mistake!

I learned many years later that, as yossarian states, we must have lots of greens, nuts and seeds to thrive on a raw foods vegan diet. Now that I understand it better, I hope to go mostly raw again very soon! I am getting mentally prepared...it really is an ideal I have aspired to ever since I read those books, so very long ago. But now I have the proper knowledge to do it right!

After my nutritional mishap, I did regain my health, but that's another story! I had a child, so, like fairyfarmgirl, I opted for practicality while maintaining a middle-of-the-road healthy vegetarian diet.

We were vegans for awhile, but alas, my son didn't care much for nut milks or smoothies, and this was before I knew about mixing greens and fruits in a VitaMix for a delightful, protein-and-mineral-rich treat! So, I started giving him cheese, with the rationale that he was already ahead of the game by not eating meat, and since he didn't eat sugary treats, I didn't want him to be totally alienated at birthday parties. At least he could eat the cheese pizza!

I think he relies on cheese too much for optimal health, but overall, he has been much more healthy than most kids I've seen! Never a bite of meat in his life! I'm sure 3.5 years of mama's milk, and not getting vaccinated, helped too!

When I first became a vegetarian, I was awful! Very self-righteous! I made it into a religion and tried to cram it down people's throats. I felt justified because, not only was I trying to help them, but I was trying to speak up on behalf of the animals, who could not speak for themselves.

Alas, my approach did not work, and I only succeeded in alienating people. Finally, a friend spoke up to me, and made me realize how obnoxious I had become.

I now make a point to never bring up diet unless explicitly asked. Nevertheless, people are often intimidated by me, saying stuff like “Oh, I am embarrassed to eat this hamburger in front of you” even though I said nothing about their choice; nor did I even raise an eyebrow. Just asking for a vegetarian entree is enough to attract resentment from my meat-eating friends. I am expected to respect their choice...why can they not respect mine?

I once had a co-worker who admitted that she had a goal of getting me to eat meat...can you believe it? She said I was 'too extreme.'

I was expected to respect her choice of eating slaughtered entities...and I was expected to be silent...but she would not respect my choice.

I am still troubled by this...sometimes I feel very conflicted...how do we balance the Law of One principle of respecting others' free will with speaking up on behalf of the oppressed?

For animals are oppressed! Just as I wish pro-choicers could respect that pro-lifers are championing what they consider to be human children, I wish that meat-eaters could understand that we speak up on behalf of those who feel pain but cannot speak for themselves.

The bottom line is that, barring a few notable exceptions due to physcial health challenges, humans simply do not need to kill animals for food. So why inflict suffering unnecessarily?

Primitive cultures were forced to kill animals for survival. But that is no longer true! The vegetarian diet has been proven to be not only adequate, but more healthy, for the vast majority of humans.

We know from the Law of One that animals are more likely to be INDIVIDUALLY SENTIENT than carrots or heads of lettuce. Case in point: if a falling tree was about to crush a lettuce plant and a dog, and you could save only one, which one would you save?

I can't conceive of any human saving the lettuce plant instead of the dog.

For me, the choice is clear: I would save a human child over a dog, as much as I love dogs, but sorry, I believe the human is a little higher in his spiritual evolution. Likewise, I believe a cow is higher than a carrot.

Aside from the Law of One, it isn't difficult to figure out. Here is a clue: I have observed that cows and chickens, and even fish, struggle like hell to get away, whereas a carrot does not, and fruit fall peacefully from the tree. Yeah, I know that tired old argument that the carrot would run away if it could, but I do not believe that - I believe that spirits inhabit the bodies they need in this lifetime, and if a spirit is advanced enough to want to run away from danger, it is NOT going to choose a carrot's body!!!
I believe that, being on the physical planet, and since we must eat something, there is more life-force of a higher nature in plants - whereas meat actually has negative life-force – it actually promotes death because the animal died a violent, terrifying death, and their escalated fear hormones were rampaging in their frightened, panicked bodies at the time of death. The evidence supports this - many studies have shown that animal foods (and junk food, also having no life-force) are the culprits in most degenerative diseases. Even the 'consciously' killed animals, like the deer stalked by a Native American who gave thanks for its gift, or the animals raised organically, still try to run away. They do NOT want to be killed - they want to live! I do think that if someone chooses to eat animals, it is good to try to get animals that were raised & killed in a humane way, but please respect that I STILL believe animals are not intended as food. But again, that is MY belief. The idea of eating any animal, even fish, is very repulsive to me - regardless of whether or not it is organic or how it was killed - it is simply repulsive the same way human flesh might be repulsive to you.

Taking it a step further, a raw-foods vegan diet is the ultimate karma-free diet. Think about it. Fruits fall naturally from the tree...no life is lost. And carrots? Observe an organic carrot in your cupboard...it will sprout! I submit that is life force merges with our own...it has a group consciousness...is not yet sentient...so nothing is killed...life force is added to life force.

Having said all that, I would like to mention that I have met a number of psychics over the years who told me that they had to eat meat to stay grounded. Ask any vegetarian and they will tell you that they feel lighter, more spiritual, higher, since they quite eating meat. But some psychics are already sort of 'out there' and need to stay grounded. It makes sense to me that eating meat might be an anchor for them. For most of us, becoming vegetarian assists us in feeling lighter and more spiritual, but for some people, who are floating most of the time, eating meat might actually be helpful to them. Still, I remain unconvinced that eating meat is their only option to stay grounded. I suspect it is used as a justification in many cases, and other options have not been explored. It's very easy to just eat meat. Did they try eating sprouted nuts and seeds? Or doing Chi Kung exercises to channel their energy? And those with medical conditions...did they just follow their doctor's instructions, or did they ever try a raw foods vegan diet? I suspect that, in most cases, they were quick to use meat to solve their problems, without being aware that there might be other (vegetarian) options which would also solve their problems. I just don't believe that it's ever absolutely necessary for any human to eat meat. I think there are always alternatives worth exploring. But that is my personal belief and I cannot possibly know what others (like psychics or those with medical conditions) have experienced in this regard. So I think we shouldn't judge others who eat meat, because we don't have all the facts about their particular situation.

But those are the exceptions. Most people eat meat out of habit. They could easily stop if they set their minds to it. And they would help reduce suffering, and thus reduce the negative energy on this planet, if they chose the tofu dish instead of the animal carcass.