Intentional Fasting: Unintentional Pain
Brad Blackwell
Motivation
One Saturday morning, it was announced at the youth group at my church that
we would be fasting for Jesus for 24 hours. (If He could die on the cross to give
us eternal salvation, then we could at least sacrifice food for a day for Him, right?)
We were to go home for the day, then return for a sleep-
Let the Fasting Exercise Begin!
I finished my dinner at 5:10 pm, and finished the second of two glasses of water at 5:20 pm. I’d thought that the hardest part of this fast would be the food, but I hadn’t realized how much water I drink. I usually have a glass of ice water beside me at home, and I have a spot at work where I keep my personal glass of water hidden behind the coffee machine. Being surrounded by food all night actually wasn’t a temptation; after working at this restaurant for almost three years now, their cuisine is no longer appetizing.
Surprise!
About four hours into my fast, this experience took an interesting turn: I developed a headache. I get these fairly often, and I call them “caffeine headaches” because if I’m not at home (where I can easily take a couple Ibuprofen pills) then I’ll just drink a tall glass of Dr Pepper to get rid of them. But I’d given up all food AND drink for this exercise … so that meant I was just going to ride this one out. The headache wasn’t a throbbing one, but a dull pressure that remained constant. I was also tired
from being up early that morning to take my father to have his outpatient carpal-
an initiation or a rite of passage. I realized that this was about finishing something
I’d started back when I was a child at that youth group -
A couple hours into my headache, I felt like I was swimming or floating through
the restaurant. I’ve had this feeling before, where everything around me seems a
little out-
those who didn’t have access to medicine or other remedies for headaches; those who were condemned to experience each and every headache until it finally passed. I also wondered about those who, for religious reasons, intentionally abstain from taking pain medications that could otherwise allow them to avoid this. I wondered if their abstention from medicine is rooted in forcing them to fully experience these common life pains.
I found myself getting easily irritated as I was expected to do multiple things at once, as well as each time I was interrupted. (Conducting exercises like this often wouldn’t be conducive to keeping one’s job!) After nine hours, I was back at home. I wanted to try to imagine floating out of my body on my magical headache carpet, but unfortunately I fell asleep immediately.
The next morning, I woke up without a headache. I was also neither hungry nor thirsty. My wife told me how my father had asked her about the person he imagined seeing at her computer. Even after she explained that there was no one there, he stopped as he was walking by and waved to the ghost computer technician. I again wished I could have taken some of those amazing painkillers they sent him home with (though I’m not sure what combination of his other medication I’d need to get the desired result). I also realized that I would need someone to assist me by witnessing and documenting the experience, otherwise I wouldn’t know whether the things, people, and events I perceived were real or imagined. Aside from some minor hunger grumbling around 2 pm, I didn’t feel any effects from my fast that afternoon. I thought about how 24 hours was obviously not long enough to put someone into an altered state. And I thought about how ‘fortunate’ I was to have had my headache the day before. I did start to feel a minor headache about an hour before the end, but it was nothing compared to the pressure in my head I felt at work the night before. I laid in bed again and tried to imagine myself floating out of my body, but I wasn’t successful. I looked at the clock at 5:23 pm, got up, and rewarded myself with a refreshing glass of ice water.
Final Thoughts
I suspect that people seek altered states for a number of reasons. I consider prayer
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