Cooking, Food and Spirituality - What are Light Fibers?

What are light fibers?  Light fibers are energy.  They are basically the energy of good feelings.  Light in this sense not only refers to the opposite of dark, but also the opposite of heavy.  These light fibers are psychic, ethereal fibers.  These exist in and around everyone, and mostly in everything.  Mostly.  Here I will be referring to light fibers in our food, and the lack thereof.

Why do we want light fibers in our food?  Light fibers in food give us a sense of connectedness to the food we consume.  Eating should be a joyous, spiritual act.  We should be one with the food we consume.  After enjoying a meal we should actually feel light, perhaps energized, and glowing.  However, so much of the food we consume today lacks light fibers, and is treated as something disconnected from us.  Eating the foods common to the Western world, in what I call "Texas-sized" portions we feel heavy, sluggish and lethargic.  One way to diminish light fibers is with disrespect.  When the food we consume is disrespected its light fiber content quickly diminishes.

What if the light fibers are diminished?  Good news about light fibers, unlike other ingredients in food, once its diminished it can be revived through simple acts of respect for your food.  Treat food as sacred, chew mindfully, and slowly.  If possible eat in silence and focus on the act of eating.  Don't be afraid to play with your food, smell, taste and touch, much like an infant would explore and love their food.  The love that goes into food and cooking truly makes the difference, and is truly the secret ingredient to soul-satisfying food!

How do we get light fibers in our food?  Here are a few key things to getting as much light fibers into your food, and as much spiritual nourishment out of your food.  Grow as much as you can at home, buy organic, or from local farmers markets.  If none of those are suitable or available options, no need to fret.  I do not grow at home, and cannot always afford organic.  When working with your food visualize that you are casting these fibers of light into your food.  Be thankful of the Earth that the food came from, bless the farm hands, distributors, supermarkets that made this food be possible in your home.  

Talk to your food.  It may sound crazy, but food was once alive, depending on the freshness, especially in fruits and veggies, there is still a lot of life force in them that will respond to your communication.  Acknowledge that your food is a sentient being, worthy of respect, that died in order to give life and whom you wish a favor.  Genuinely feel the gratitude for your food.

Something else you'll want to do in your kitchen is to bless key, staple ingredients.  Bless the flour, salt, sugar, honey, etc.  You can do this by calling on any of your Spiritual Helpers/God(desses) that you are accustomed to working with.  Simply take your ingredients and ask for Their blessings.  If you are doing this all in good faith, you are doing it right.  It is recommended to keep the blessed ingredients separate from the regular ingredients, however I feel everything should be blessed in your kitchen.  When adding these ingredients to your meals, visualize the blessings (light fibers) filling the entire meal.

What about processed, boxed, canned and frozen food?  While these may not be the most nutritional options on the planet when compared to fresh foods, it can sometimes be the only option.  These food have the least amount of light fibers in them, as most don't require human hands to even touch them.  Light-fiber-wise these foods are quite empty.  Fear not, as stated above you can visualize casting light fibers to fill these foods up, or add a pinch of salt from your blessed ingredients.  The food will at the very least be spiritually nutritional!  

Junk food which has been blessed is actually better for you, spiritually speaking, than an organic meal that's been made in disdain, or a bad mood.  There are many different references to the power of positive thinking and what effects it has on our everyday life, like attracts like, for example.  The Institute of Neotic Sciences conducted a study to explore whether tea could have an effect on the mood and the verdict is in, "Tea treated with good intentions improved mood more than ordinary tea derived from the same source. Belief that one was drinking treated tea produced a large improvement in mood, but only if one was actually drinking the treated tea, indicating that belief and intentional enhancement interact. This also suggests that the esthetic and intentional qualities associated with the traditional tea ceremony may have subtle influences that extend beyond the ritual itself."  I'd like to stress the findings that it's not just the belief that one was drinking treated tea, the tea also had to actually be treated for the subjects mood to actually improve, suggesting that positive belief alone may not be enough, positive action is also required.

This brings me to the concept of prayer before meals.  Which getting down to brass tacks is tantamount to imbuing food with light fibers.  Doesn't matter what religious affiliation you have, even if it's no affiliation.  More and more studies are proving the link between prayer / meditation and living a happier, healthier life.  If you don't have a God to thank, thank and bless the people, plants, animals who made that food possible.  Thank the technology for the electric stove that heated the food, or the bees for pollinating the plants.  The biggest point here is the act of respect for your food and really feeling and being connected to it.  When you pray or bless your food and add the visualization of casting in fibers of light into your food, that really ties the positive belief and positive action together.  

One thing I will only lightly touch on here, as it could fill several blogs, with 6 billion different arguments to go along with it; meat.  I will not advocate any type of vegetarian or vegan diet here.  I will only say this; animals are sentient beings with thoughts and feelings, just like any other living creature, and as such they pick up on the world around them as well as their inner world.  If they experienced disrespect, hate, if they felt fear or sadness when they were being bred and slaughtered, they are not only devoid of any light fibers, they are filled with all that hate, fear, and negativity.  We consume this hate and fear.  It is extremely important to handle meat with respect, to identify with it, to thank and bless it, above all other foods due to the circumstances of today where animals are made in factories and are never given the opportunity to actually be connected with nature.  This also includes animal byproducts; eggs, milk, gelatin etc.  Be very mindful, and make sure to give as much love and respect to the foods you consume, especially animal products, which are more susceptible to absorbing bad vibes.

A few key "Don'ts" when working with a diet rich in light fibers:

* Do not "attack" the food, stabbing or ripping and tearing with utensils, for instance
* Do not take large mouthfuls, do not over-stuff your mouth, or shovel the food into your mouth 
* Do not feel shame when eating, this not only adversely effects your inner self, this diminishes the light fibers in food 
* Do not trivialize food, food shouldn't be treated as unimportant, it is imperative in sustaining life
* Do not be gluttonous, do not overeat, do not eat until full or "stuffed"
* Do not over cook the food, this diminishes the light fibers as well as nutritional value
* Do not cook when in a bad mood, nor should you eat food prepared by someone in a bad mood

You can start adding more light fibers to your diet today by simply giving a silent acknowledgment to the food you're about to consume.  Give the food your full attention, feel grateful as you eat, take small slow bites and chewing well.  Add some light fibers to your diet and feel free to comment with your experiences!

References:

1. Magical Living - Bob Makransky, Dear Brutus Press (June 1, 2001) www.dearbrutus.com; https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/MagicalAlmanac/info 

2. Effect of Positive Thoughts Before Meals - Bhavika (September 30 2008) http://fractalenlightenment.com/791/spirituality/positive-effect-of-prayers-before-meals

3. Metaphysics of the Tea Ceremony: A Randomized Trial Investigating the Roles of Intention and Belief on Mood While Drinking Tea. - Shiah YJ1, Radin D. (Nov-Dec 2013) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24199774

4. Why People Who Pray Are Healthier Than Those Who Don't - Richard Schiffman, Huffington Post (January 18, 2012) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-schiffman/why-people-who-pray-are-heathier_b_1197313.html