Fasting is an art.

Instead of the food we have objectified, we allow God to feed us. And the food is in the breath.

The breath has its technique. But oh! The chant. The chant is so fulfilling!

Now and then I've wondered how Christ could have done 40 days in the wilderness; but now I realize that if the union is perfect, one can do 40 days. The chant is the perfection of union.

Looking deeper, the chant emerges as a tool that can be used extensively in healing all our conditions.

So today I woke up chanting down Babylon's walls. I chanted and chanted till I understood what Babylon really is.

And when I saw Babylon, and her walls more clearly, Oh! I chanted and chanted. I chant and chant, will chant and chant!

Stomping my feet till the whole city crumbles and the gates fly open.

I hope you'll get to understand with time, and that I may probably find an easier form of expression.

But there are things that most of us might have discarded in tradition that were beacons of our humanity.

Save for Maasai chanting and jumping, which I suspect has spiritual roots.

Looks like a 'scientific' explanation, but I doubt if it is. For example, I'd expect you to mention 'hyperventilation' like many anthropologists do...

Your model is limited to something called 'brain'. An organ whose task is very limited in cognition and being.

Some chanting may not have 'hysteria'. Like 'OM' chanting. Yet it has certain effects.

'Endorphins' may be an inadequate explanation especially when there are other factors of cognition or even object relations are involved. For example computations around the plexuses along the spine might be neutral.

Finally, what are these 'marvelous things' that happen to the brain?

But I acknowledge that your worldview may only be limited to such an explanation.

It's not about simply feeling like you can do a fast, or feeling like you can see Babylon.

Herb na fasting ni noma. Now and then I may take a psychedelic like herb, but that's a different thing in my opinion and experience.

@AA, I take it that you're speaking of a big 'O' and multiples...(Talk of njaa in a time of abstinence! It distorts vision).

If that would do, then Marquis de Sade would have been a saint.

But, when we realize that the conditions for ultimate satiety and bliss are when we are in union with God then we can begin to understand bliss.

When can we understand this union except when we desist or fail to feed our hungers and instead let God do the feeding?

And fasting is the quest and conversation between humans and God, with respect to the matter of feeding hunger.

I am certain that if it were all a human affair, no woman for example can meet my sexual needs. And neither can I meet a woman's needs.

Humans are very limited @Angelica.

Every week has a fast. At least 3 days of sexual abstinence, and at least a day without food.

Then there's the Lent period. An intense 40 days. It's like a marathon for the soul.

There's another form of fasting through resisting the lower self using meditation and prayer. This happens at any time and preferably always.

I think you should have said something more intelligent like, 'Allah is great'.

Talking about December being great is quite telling...