Most wouldn't hold the knife
There are many ways to come to the realization that eating animals is unnecessary, selfish, barbaric, disgusting, putrid, gross, and just flat out IN YOUR FACE... M U R D E R. Often we choose to hide behind tradition, lies, comfort, fear and refuse to give up dead flesh burgers and steaks. It takes RAW COURAGE to step into the truth and risk ridicule from friends and family.

Bury the carcuss
plant a fruit tree
Throughout my life I had health problems (I excepted this as normal). All my life I ate the burnt offerings on my plate (I excepted this as normal). All my life I just gave in and dug in without query. I didn't know that I was slowly digging my own grave. People from many different religions speak of a new birth, they speak of being born again. It was not until I went through a detox program which incorporated fasting and raw foods that I truly understood the true meaning of being born again.

The wheel of unfortune
Like the spinning wheels of chance, all who think that the human body is not governed by NATURAL LAW is playing with hustlers in their heads. If you eat the flesh of animals, dairy products and violate your body with poisons such as alcohol and processed foods without getting the vital RAW food in, your long term health will be compromised. Odds are that if you eat the SAD diet (Standard American Diet), you have a 50% chance of dying of a heart attack. Every 32 seconds someone dies of a heart attack in America. Heart Attacks are more likely to kill Americans than AIDS, cancer, or an automobile accident. In fact, it is the number one way that people exit their bodies in affluent countries where animal products make up the majority of the diet. Some 1.5 million people suffer heart attacks in America each year and out of that a half million will die. As you might have read already, one of my close friends became a statistic in 1994. And to be quite candid, I'm pissed off about it! There's no acceptable reason why anybody should die of a degenerative disease, especially at 29!

William C. Roberts, MD, Editor in Chief of the American Journal of Cardiology made the following statement;

"Human beings are not natural carnivores. When we kill animals to eat them, they end up killing us because their flesh, which contains cholesterol and saturated fat, was never intended for human beings, who are natural herbivores."

Dr. Roberts is right, it's time to stop pretending that we are carnivores and wake up and take responsibility for our health. The body disagrees with all who hold the carnivoric view and protests in the form of sickness and disease from the moment of birth until death. No wonder babies always spit out those disgusting, dead baby foods. Giving any child that crap should be illegal. It already is a crime against nature and the baby's natural instinct. The way I see it, the two biggest victims of the MEAT MYTH are children and animals. In both cases, they don't have a say in the matter. When a baby spits out the food, that's a pretty good sign of a protest. In the animal's case, the screams I have heard coming from slaughterhouses are also a damn good sign of a protest.

Planting seeds, pulling up weeds
Several times in my childhood I felt that eating animals and killing was wrong. Unfortunately, I would always give in to the patriarchal rule and trust the adult's perception without too much introspection. But there were occasions when the slumber was broken by a glimpse of the truth.

My very first clue came from my own conscience. As with most children, I felt an unspoken foreboding when I would eat the various animal parts offered to me for nourishment. One day when I was about 5 years old, I was at a friend's house and the family was having hot dogs (i.e. eyes, lips, testicles, and other scraps of diseased death). Something came over me and I refused to eat the flesh. My friend's mother was furious as I stood my ground that I did not want to eat animals anymore. She yelled and preached to me that people have to eat "meat". She brought me to tears as I ate the hot dog bun with nothing more than a slab of mustard on it. I went outside and sat on the porch and listened to the whole family joke out loudly at my STRANGE behavior. Although I stayed vegetarian for that day, their laughs haunted me quickly back into a carnivorous life.

Babe or bacon?
When I was about 8 years old. I went with my friend Charlie and his stepfather to a house in the country to pick up some "bacon". What I didn't know is that this "bacon" had not been killed yet. Charlie and his stepfather tired hard to get me to watch the pigs being butchered. I refused and they left me sitting on a wall as they watched the club fall. I spoke nor saw any evil that day, but I certainly did hear it! The screaming of the pigs kept the animals out of my body for a few weeks until I was again pulled back by into meatland by the adults and the system.

There were a few other brushes with vegetarianism as I got older. I remember frequently going over to a neighbor's house with my friend Mike to drink a powdered soy beverage. Mike and I really loved the stuff and would jump at any opportunity to get some. These neighbors spoke softly of their vegetarian ideals, but they definitely tried to influence us. In retrospect, I believe these neighbors must have practiced a vegan diet.

The last connection with the V world came 13 years before I would finally awaken at age 24. The year was 1977. I was looking for a summer job but was not old enough to legally work. While riding my bike I came across a help wanted sign at a very small natural foods store. The owner was a hippie type and I remember thinking how strange he seemed. He hired me to do small tasks and in return I received free food and discounts on merchandise. I really thought the owner of the store was a bit strange for his beliefs. He would talk to me about vegetarianism and environmental issues. I never really understood or believed what he told me, although I remember admiring his conviction. Now I realize the things he shared with me are true. I wish I could find this person today so I could thank him and let him know that the seed he planted finally sprouted.

April
I never liked to go to bars too much, but one night I gave in and went. I had a feeling that I would meet a special person that night. I was right. She was a beautiful brunette dancing on the dance floor with her girlfriend. It was that total feeling of love at first sight. I had to meet her! I wasted no time and went up to her friend and asked if I could cut in. Her name was April and she had a special sparkle in her eye for me too. On our first date we went to a Mexican restaurant. After we sat down to order she said there was something she needed to tell me. She explained to me that she did not eat animals for reasons of compassion and that she would not be romantically involved with anyone who ate meat. She let that stir around in my head a bit and then asked me what I thought. I don't think I wasted anytime in telling her, "That's it, no more meat!". I think she was surprised at how fast I had taken to her prerequisite for romance. I'm just glad it was a healthy prerequisite because I was so attracted to her that I might have been pulled into almost anything. April helped me understand a lot of the ethical reasons for not participating in suffering and killing of animals by getting them off my plate. She loaned me many magazines like The Animals Voice and Vegetarian Times. I feel very fortunate that I had someone so special in my life to help me see the light and that love motivated me to make the change.

Going Vegan
During the first part of our relationship, April and I ate a lot of eggs and cheese thinking we were doing our bodies good. It was not until sometime later that I met Tatiana Wrenfeather who suggested that I read John Robbins' book Dieat For A New America. After reading just the first chapter I went vegan (no dairy products or eggs), about three years after breaking the flesh addiction. The video, Diet For A New America also had a large impact on cementing my beliefs and eating habits.

The good doctor
I was very impressed by the segment in the Diet For A New America video where Dr. Michael Klaper makes the connection with animal-fat and heart attacks by showing the blood in a test tube from a person who had just eaten a fatty fastfood burger and compared it to one from a person with a clear bloodstream. This had a profound impact on me and I really "got" the health implications of the typical fastfood diet from Dr. Klaper's comparison.

Not long after I had seen the Diet For A New America video, I met my friend Alan who just happened to work for Dr. Klaper. I offered my video production services to Dr. Klaper and ended up doing a few projects for him, one being editing the 60 minute version of A Diet For All Reasons. I was very honored and happy to contribute to Dr. Klaper's work. I have been airing Dr. Klaper's video on the local public access channel for over 2 years with much positive feedback from viewers. If you live in the Antelope Valley, you can see this video every Saturday at 8 pm on cable channel 99.

Detox!
The next stop of my journey to find nutritional truthland was a three week stay at the Optimum Health Institute in San Diego, California. There I learned about the importance of fasting and detoxification of the body as well as eating and maintaining a primarily rawfood diet. It was at this time that I truly felt an increase in my level of healthforce and vitality. I stopped drinking coffee, alcohol, soft drinks (soft drinks aren't so soft on the body) and most processed and cooked foods. I learned about wheatgrass juice and other juices and their healing affects on the body. Although this was probably the best investment in my health next to buying and reading John Robbins' book, it was not easy. Depending on how toxic a person is, the detoxification process can be a humbling experience, but WELL WORTH IT!

I don't want to leave out the fact that all of this time I was also reading a lot of books, attending a lot of vegetarian potlucks and events and constantly searching out any information I could get my hands on about vegetarianism. Books can certainly affirm a vegetarian life, but nothing is more convincing than personal life experiences. As I felt my health improve, I thought back to all the sickness in my toxic carnivorous life. I was becoming more and more insured that I was going down the correct path. As a child, I was very often sick or should I say my body was having to constantly purge all the toxins that kept coming and coming in. I even had a bleeding ulcer at one time. Since the change to a primarily rawfood diet, I have not been sick once. I have however, purged the toxins on a regular basis by fasting on raw juices or clean water.

Close to home
As I was seeing my own health improve, I was seeing others fail. Up until the present, many people in my life have been victims of diseases associated the SAD diet. One grandfather died of colon cancer, both grandmothers died of strokes, my uncle died of diabetes, two neighbors and a best friend died of heart attacks, and both my parents have already gone under the knife for cancer and heart disease.

The whorehouse in grandma's head
When my grandmother on my mom's side of the family suffered her first heart attack and stroke she survived but ended up in one of those nasty convalescent homes with a big chunk of cholesterol closing off much of the oxygen to her brain. When I got there, they had her so drugged up along with her brain already suffering from the lack of oxygen, that she thought she was a hooker in a whorehouse. Well, no grandmother of mine was going to be a hooker in a convalescent home. Luckily I remembered to bring along my trusty juicer and I juiced and juiced and juiced for her everyday. In addition we got her off the drugs and I fought a carnivorous tooth and nail to get the people at this fine establishment to stop feeding her the ground up meat and dairy-pus puddings. Well what do you know, she immediately started to show signs of improvement and within one week she was out of that whorehouse and her mind returned to normal. Unfortunately, after we left, she went back to eating various pig and cow parts and the animals ended up getting their revenge anyway.

Immortality?
I want to acknowledge the fact that there is no escaping the cycle of life of which death plays a part. I'm not one of those people who is looking for immortality through eating and living a healthful life. If I die today or 80 years from now, it is the quality of life I'm concerned about for myself and all beings. And even if living life without imprisoning and killing animals meant that my health wasn't the best, I'd still do it for the animals. The beautiful and glorious thing is that living this lifestyle is best for everyone and everything, except of course the meat industry.

Michael
The death of my friend Mike Healy was one of the most recent affirmations and not just necessarily just because he died of a heart attack at the age of 29. Before I explain what I mean by that, the first question that needs to be answered is why and how could someone so young die of a heart attack? Well let's look at his lifestyle. Mike was very active and athletic. He took lots of supplements. He was a very happy, loving and positive person. These are very positive and important aspects to a healthy life. On the minus side, he had a fairly stressful job, drank a moderate amount of alcohol, and he ate the Standard American Diet. These are some of the most obvious possibilities that could end a life early, however I am sure there could be more to it. Not that exercise is not important, because it most certainly is. But perhaps diet is just a few notches above exercise when it comes to preventing heart disease. Sometime after Michael died, a very athletic Russian skater also died of a heart attack at the age of 28!

About a year before Mike's death, I talked to him about how we had been misled nutritionally. I gave him a copy of Dr. Klaper's video and then I would call him from time to time to see how he was doing, always curious to know if he had made any changes. When I look back now, I believe I must have been tuned in to his heart disease. I believe this because I truly felt an urgency to help him understand the correlation between diet and disease. I was at a friend's place the day I found out about what happened to Mike. Earlier in the day before I had heard the news, I walked through the front doorway and had a strong sensation of a doorway from life to death. I thought it was unusual and questioned why I would have that thought but I eventually brushed it off. Now I believe that could have been a sign for the news I was to hear later that day.

About a month after Mike's life graduation (as I like to call it) I was having a dream, just one of those dreams that doesn't really seem to make any obvious sense. Suddenly, like an emergency cut in that interrupts your favorite tv sitcom, my dream screen went abruptly to black. Then I see my friend Mike as bright and real as ever in front of me. He was there as complete and detailed as I had ever seen him. I was very lucid in this reality where we rarely have much conscious control over what happens. I realize this is not just a dream and I am totally aware that Mike is really with me in this other dimension. He smiles big and says to me, "Thank you, thank you" and then he gives me a brotherly hug. What was he thanking me for?, I'm not sure, but I have contemplated he was thanking me for our friendship and maybe even for the fact that I tried to help him with his diet.

Mike then shared three things that related to my life. The first thing was that he said I was chosen to do the work I am doing. Well, this is quite an honor if true, but for some reason it still makes me a little uncomfortable thinking I am quote, "chosen". As far as I'm concerned we are all chosen to do our own special work while we are here on Earth. But there is nothing more important to me than educating the masses on the virtues of eating the fruits and vegetables that we are so graciously given and ending the violence against all animals and humans as well.

The next thing was that he told me I didn't have that long to live. Now that's even more of a shock then hearing you are chosen! When I think about it, none of us really have that long. I mean what is 70, 80, or even 90 years if we go that distance? Perhaps he was letting me know to get busy because I really don't have that much time left or maybe we all don't have that much time left if we don't start living with more reverence for all life and the Earth. The end of the world as we know it? Who knows? The last thing that he shared with me was advice of a personal nature. Advice that was very likely to come from the mouth of Mike Healy if he had known about this particular situation in my life while he was alive. And that was it, he was gone after that. This next part is what truly blew my mind. When he was finished, it went to blackness and my prior dream picked up exactly were it had left off! I woke up soon after that and felt a strong presence in the room with me and felt I had been touched in a way I can't really explain. I felt an afterglow of the love and peace I had experienced in his presence.

All this may seem pretty far fetched indeed, but I must say I am still a believer that it happened and was not just my mind playing tricks on me. The experience was enough to convince anyone if it were to happen to them. I am even more open to these kind of things being real because I had a friend come to me about 13 years before in that dream dimension. His name was Doug and he told me he had died and he was walking through a door with a bright, white light coming out and around him. The phone woke me up out of the dream the moment he was telling me he had died and it was his father telling me that Doug had died in an early morning car crash.

In closing, I just want to say that there are many people who really miss the positive energy of Mike Healy including myself. And if there is an online service in heaven, I just want to say thank you Mike and I love you brother.

Vegan heart attacks?
Even being on a vegan or raw food diet, we may not be guaranteed totally that we are going to experience a disease free life, but the odds are definitely better. EarthSave statistics state that a vegan male has about a 5% chance of dying of a heart attack compared to about 50% for the average man eating the SAD diet. Not long ago a 40 year old male who had been vegan for 20 years fell into that 5% bracket. How could that happen I asked myself? I thought that being vegan was the pinnacle, the summit. I thought if you're at the summit, you have a clear vision of the dangers. I now believe if you are vegan and maybe even a raw-foodist, you still may have a way to climb. I say this mainly because there are so many aspects to health, but diet is a very important part of that ascent. The death of this person was explained by a health professional as being a congenital defect in his heart, but I'm not convinced. The vegan that died of a heart attack had some factors that I classify as risky. He ate a large amount of cooked food and many avocados a day and also smoked a generous amount of marijuana. Who knows how these factors contributed to this rare vegan heart attack.

The Journey continues...
This page will no doubt grow along with my experiences. At this point I believe that the best diet is a raw food diet and the majority of that should be fruit, but from there where do we go? How much raw plant fat is safe? How much raw food do we really need? Do we really benefit from a whole food supplement like blue-green algae? Do we need to take supplements if we are eating primarily raw diet?

Although what we put in our bodies is important, there are many other factors to creating and maintaining a healthy life - Loving yourself and others, exercise, good clean air, connecting with nature, having a path of service to others, the earth, or the animals and living in a loving environment which supports your growth. Oh yeah, and trashing your televisions will do wonders! I hope this glimpse of my journey will help with yours,

Rawbin