The Master Cleanse, PART TWO: What It Is and How It Works

The Master Cleanse is a system of detoxifying the entire body. The method is quite simple really. You make a lemonade using spring water, fresh squeezed lemons, grade B or grade C maple syrup, and just a pinch of cayenne pepper, in certain proportions. You then drink as much lemonade as you need throughout the day to maintain a feeling of fullness. You don't eat any food, take any supplements, or consume anything else, except water and maybe some plain herbal tea if you like. You do this for at least ten days, and preferably thirty to forty days for a thorough cleanse. That's it.

Well, that's almost it. There's also something called the salt flush, which you should do every day or at least a few times a week while you're on the Master Cleanse, beginning on day three or four. The salt flush is a vital part of the cleanse. All you do is drink a tall glass of salt water, designed to be about the same temperature with the about the same proportion of salt as your body. The salt water runs through your system without digesting and irrigates your entire digestive tract. Basically, it goes in one end and comes out the other.

The salt flush method of cleansing the digestive tract is superior to the use of colonics, because a colonic only irrigates the colon, or lower intestines. The salt flush irrigates the entire upper, middle, and lower intestines, along with the rest of the digestive tract. And you can do it by yourself at home just by drinking a glass of salt water. For those who can't handle drinking salt water, there's the alternative of using laxative herbal tea followed by water.

The lemonade works in conjunction with the salt flush. Both the lemon juice and cayenne pepper help to loosen excess mucus in your body, which is attached to toxins and waste. Excess mucus is also related to excessive inflammation, which is related to all manner of illness and disease. One reason why taking fish oil or flax seed oil is so beneficial to overall health is because it reduces inflammation in the body. Fasting is the best way to quickly and drastically reduce the amount of inflammation in your entire body.


Not only will the lemon juice and cayenne pepper act to loosen mucus throughout the digestive tract, but they will also loosen mucus and reduce inflammation throughout all of your internal organs, including your lungs and sinuses. Many people with sinus and respiratory problems get better on the Master Cleanse. Many people with acne, such as myself, notice that their skin is perfectly clear toward the end of a thirty day cleanse. The cleansing that is happening to your skin is also happening to your entire body, inside and out. Your skin is only a reflection of your body's health. While fasting, you might hear people comment on how bright or glowing your skin looks.

After three or four days of drinking your lemonade and abstaining from food, you are ready to begin flushing. You system is completely empty, and the toxic build-up in your intestines has been loosened. After drinking your salt water, stay near a bathroom for the next couple of hours. The process is not painful and not too uncomfortable for most people, but you will spend a considerable amount of time sitting on the toilet. There may be a little bit of cramping involved, but there may not be. It also feels quite refreshing and pleasant in a way that you have never felt before. You can feel the sensation of being deeply cleansed from the inside out, and it actually gives you a very refreshed feeling unlike any other.

Doing the salt flush throughout your cleanse can clear away up to five pounds or more of toxic build-up that is trapped inside your intestines. Not only is this good for your health, for fairly obvious reasons, but it will also flatten out your stomach and add to an appearance of thinness.

Your intestines are the place where all of your fuel, all of your physical energy, is processed. The health of your intestines has been shown to be related to your physical health in general, which is why colonics have become so popular. Not only are your intestines related to your physical well-being, but they're also related to your psychological well-being. A clean intestinal tract facilitates the proper balance of hormones, and the proper balance of neuropeptides such as serotonin.

The fresh lemon juice and cayenne pepper will do more than just loosen up all that toxic stuff that's in you. They also contain a rich, complex blend of vitamins and minerals that will nourish you while you're doing your cleanse. The grade B or grade C maple syrup will also give you nutrients, as well as the complex carbohydrates and energy you need to go on living your life normally. You can even continue to exercise. In fact, you can drink up to 2,000 calories or more per day!

You are not starving! You are being given everything you need. In fact, the Master Cleanse might even replenish certain nutrients you're currently deficient in. For example, grade B or grade C maple syrup contains a rich B vitamin complex, and most people in our society are deficient in B vitamins. If your diet is normally not very healthy, then by the end of the Master Cleanse you'll probably have more adequate nutrition within your body than you do right now.

Anyone can do the Master Cleanse! Anyone! The first time I did the Master Cleanse, I was eating a lot of fast food and usually had an unhealthy diet with a lot of fatty meat and heavy food. I just dove right into it, and went for 27 days! If I can do it, anybody can do it! I still don't have a perfect lifestyle, but I believe that cleansing periodically helps to mitigate some of the effects of poor lifestyle choices, and it makes changes in your body and your mind that encourage you to make changes in your everyday life.

Eating nothing but raw fruits and vegetables is also considered a form of fasting. In fact, eating nothing but raw food for thirty days will cure most cases of diabetes, in much the same way that the Master Cleanse will. However, a raw food diet will not give your body the same thorough cleansing as the Master Cleanse. Some who have been raw foodies for years may feel that the Master Cleanse is not necessary for them, and that's perfectly fine. However, I believe that anyone who chooses to do the Master Cleanse will benefit from it. It's also easy to transition back and forth from the Master Cleanse to a raw food diet, and I'll explain how in part three.

Anyone can do the Master Cleanse! The Master Cleanse is for EVERYBODY!!!

Next: How to Do It

The Master Cleanse, PART ONE: A Breif History

                                   

For the last two weeks that I've been on the Master Cleanse, I've received a lot of questions from people who want to know more about it. I did a Google search on the Master Cleanse and noticed there's actually a lack of concise, accurate information. That might be one reason I've received so many questions. In response, I decided to write an article series that will hopefully satisfy most of your curiosities and help get you started.

In this five-part article series, I'll give you a brief history of  how the Master Cleanse was developed, an explanation of how it works, instructions on how to do it, tips and strategies for success, and a discussion of the spirituality that is linked to it. My primary reference is The Master Cleanser, by Stanley Burroughs, as well as my own experience.

A Brief History

The Master Cleanse was developed in the 1940's by a man named Stanley Burroughs who studied and embodied the practice of natural living. In his time, the use of fasting to treat and sometimes cure diseases was still used in some hospitals and medical centers. Throughout history, many have believed that fasting periodically is beneficial or even vital to one's health. Fasting has been known to cure a variety of diseases, including cancer, liver disease and heart disease, among many other things. It can also cure common diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and ulcers.

There are other ways to achieve these results, but fasting works by giving the body a thorough internal cleansing from the inside out. It will cleanse your digestive system, internal organs, skin cells, lymphatic and circulatory systems, and essentially your entire body. Fasting will flush toxic tissue out of the body, including tumors and other harmful wastes. 

Your body uses a lot of energy in the process of digestion. When you're not digesting food, this energy is freed to get to work on giving your body a thorough cleansing. Your body goes into a state of repair and regeneration. As you start to break down unhealthy tissue, you'll also accelerate the growth of new, healthy tissue. During a fast, you go deep into a healing process. It revitalizes you at a cellular level, and maybe even at a genetic level.

It is said that a person can go for 40 days with nothing but water, without experiencing any malnutrition or any tissue damage. What Burrough's witnessed was that water fasts were sometimes being used in medical facilities where the fasting patients were being monitored by professionals and sometimes given IV's in addition to water, but sometimes not. The fasts often succeeded in curing illnesses, sometimes even when quite severe or advanced.

However, for most people water fasts are very difficult to do, and not necessary. It can also be very difficult to function on a water fast, if not impossible. Some people might even feel sick if they don't eat, especially if they already have a metabolic imbalance. Therefore, Stanley Burroughs developed something that's basically the closest thing to a water fast you can do without it being a water fast, and it's surprisingly doable. While you're on it, you're actually getting a rich blend of nutrients and up to 2,000 calories or more per day.

The Master Cleanse has cured countless people of uclers, hypertension, and diabetes over the decades. It's also been used to assist people as a complementary therapy in more serious cases. The Master Cleanse is done for ten to forty days, with a standard fast being thirty days. Thirty days is a standard length of time for anyone wanting to achieve a thorough physical cleansing. (For a water fast, the standard length of time is ten days.)

Along with a physical cleansing, there's also a spiritual or energetic cleansing that occurs, which can have lasting effects in one's life. Of course we all know the story of Jesus fasting for 40 days in the desert, the amount of time a person can live without food. Buddha fasted, and many other stories about fasting have existed throughout ancient history. Bourrough's believed that God, nature, people and animals are all one and all the same. I'll briefly discuss his spiritual philosophy, and my thoughts on the benefits of doing the Master Cleanse that actually go beyond the benefits to your physical body.

Next: What It Is