Eating

Have you ever not eaten for 4 to 7 days straight either because there was no food or because you were fasting on purpose for your health or religion? Yes. You probably drank water, at least because without water after 2 days you begin to hallucinate(I've gone 4 days without water or food on a native American vision quest in 1983).

But, if you have experienced what it is not to have food or water during different lengths of time you know the oftentimes unusual or downright strange perceptions of reality (if you haven't been through it before or are not used to things like this, this wouldn't be true).

However, now think about all the people now on earth who cannot afford enough healthy food or enough healthy water all the time. So they would constantly be in a very unusual or strange state of mind from long term food or water deprivation or both. You know if you have experienced this how hard it can be after about 2 days of no food to make good decisions or even be that attached to normal cultural things.

Well, many millions experience this around the world every day not because they want to but because there is simply no alternative for them. And some die every day. I think the figure now is at least 10 million of all ages because of bad water, bad food or even no water and no food each year.

It is very important when you consider the physical, mental and emotional state of people enduring hardships wherever you go on earth to be understanding of the sufferings of others as many of you travel the world. Because people in many of these altered states cannot really be considered to be "safe" to be around unless you understand them or know them and you and they trust each other.

So, this summer all those of you who want to help people all over the world. Please be aware of what you are going into potentially so you don't wind up like the 10 medical volunteers from the U.S, Europe and around the world recently gunned down in Afghanistan. This happened to them even though they were health care professionals and prepared for many altered states of behavior and mental states. If you are not trained for these kinds of situations be very careful and make sure to take with you, if possible, people who speak your language and who understand the situation.