THE CRUX OF FLETCHERISM
The Value of Occasional Fasting--The Power of Freedom from
Indigestion--Muscles have Memories
Almost everybody eats with sufficient care most of the time; otherwise,
all would be on the sick-list _all_ the time and the death-rate would
be increased enormously.
Whatever sickness, depression, weakness and other illnesses there are
now are the result of occasional carelessness only.
The remedy for lapses from carefulness is knowledge of what the natural
requirements are, and training the muscles and functions employed in
nutrition to work always with careful deliberation and never allow
themselves to be hurried with their work.
It should also be made a habit
NOT TO EAT ANYTHING
without a keen appetite. This involves knowing how to recognise a
true appetite and also how to detect a false craving. Waiting for a
healthful call for food, for any length of time, can do no harm, and
should not cause any discomfort or inconvenience; but exciting a false
desire and taking food before the body is "good and ready" for it,
starts trouble brewing at once.
If the worst results of premature or hurried eating were immediately
felt, no one would get in the habit of sinning in this manner. Like
auto-intoxication from excess of alcohol, poisoning from unnecessary or
unwelcome food--either an excess of it or when taken untimely--is an
aftermath of unhealthy stimulation or exhilaration.
The crux, then, of dietetic righteousness, or, Fletcherism, is
habituating the body to practise that Eternal Vigilance, which is
THE PRICE OF FREEDOM FROM INDIGESTION
It should be much easier to instal a habit of carefulness than it is
to permit habits of carelessness. It is possible so to sensitize the
muscles which control swallowing that they will refuse to act and will
cause choking if an attempt to swallow prematurely is made. Systematic
attention to this detail of care for a week will secure it as a
permanent habit without need of any further attention to it.
The statement that it is easier to do the right thing than it is to do
the wrong thing: and that it is easier to fix firmly good habits than
it is to acquire bad habits, will probably be questioned or disputed by
many; but practice of the principles which underlie Fletcherism will
cure such pessimism relative to the attitude of Mother Nature towards
her most perfect product in general, Man.
Man is given more liberty and more license than any other natural
expression and, with the endowment which we call "intelligence," he is
raised to a position of partnership in assisting natural evolution and
progress.
From inklings of experience it is reasonably inferred that Man is more
susceptible to evolutionary influence than any of the animal kind;
that he can ever progressively train himself towards higher and higher
supermanhood; that he is able to perform marvels in taming and training
other animals and in perfecting plant life to prodigious proportions.
He is even "gifted" to the extent of overcoming, harnessing, and
using at will the "forces of Nature," and dispelling the mysteries.
He can only do this, however, by co-operating with Nature in the most
intelligent and faithful manner.
To ascertain Nature's requirements of preferences it is necessary to
begin with the first essentials of care, the nutrition of the body
and the management of the mind. These basic essentials are the first
concern of Fletcherism and really the crux of the Scientific Management
of the Highest Efficiency.
One of the most important discoveries in the development of Fletcherism
is the fact that
MUSCLES HAVE MEMORIES
The usefulness of this discovery rests in the knowledge that it is
possible to make the muscles connected with nutrition commit to
memory the sequences of procedure in the processes of nutrition which
accomplish the most profitable results, and then pass on to other
details of responsibility care-free and thought-free, fully confident
that everything will go on as Nature would have it go.
Without beginning this discipline of the muscular equipment at
the right point and in the right manner, no solid structure of
Efficiency-Building can be secured. Any amount of indigestion, or
unnecessary strain put upon metabolism, interferes with the smooth
working of the organism in the same way that an infinitesimal weight
put at the tip end of the long arm of a lever multiplies the burden of
resistance at the short end many, many fold.
Therefore, the Crux of Fletcherism is found in first training the
muscular and mental apparatus to proceed with thorough deliberation
relative to every thing taken into the body; for from this intake, and
especially from the manner of the handling of this material along the
line of the alimentary canal, come efficiency or inefficiency.
It is first necessary to know what you want the muscles to habituate
themselves to doing in connection with nutrition. They must learn
to know what constitutes a true appetite, in contradistinction to
indefiniteness of want or desire. The muscles will soon learn to know
that real hunger (body need) is not expressed by any uncomfortable
feelings below the guillotine line. Only in the head, where the
senses are all bunched together for the most important team-work, is
honest hunger sensed. We may rightly add to the list of the senses,
Appetite, and trust it with confidence to tell us what the body can use
to advantage of the foods available at the time. That the foods are
appetizing is the only recommendation necessary to a set of muscles
trained to treat them as Nature requires when they enter the laboratory
of the mouth.
Connected with the training of the mouth-muscle outfit, there is the
one standing order. Challenge everything applying for entrance, whether
by special invitation or in the way of surprise, by testing it for
taste-acceptability at the tip of the tongue. Then keep on tasting and
testing, with reverential appreciation of the gustatory delight there
is in it, in the full knowledge that both digestion and assimilation,
which are the prime necessities of nutrition, are healthfully
stimulated by accentuated enjoyment.
It is not necessary to dwell intensively on sensual enjoyment of
the material being automatically handled by the methodical muscles.
The pleasant sense sensations surrounding taste may serve as an
accompaniment to agreeable conversation, to the delight of beauty in
any form, to flowers, to music, to graceful and vivacious femininity,
or to any sort of charm, with added strength given to the effect on
wholesome nutrition.
So much for the usefulness of the mouth-muscles, including that most
wonderful of muscles, the tongue, in assisting in the healthful
stimulation of nutrition. Their most important office is to stand
guard against the contingencies that are liable to happen which are
prejudicial to digestion. If there is worry in the atmosphere: "Don't
let anything into the mouth on pain of court-martial and suffering!"
Those are the "orders of the day" for the sentinel muscles of the
mouth, serving at the outer entrance of the alimentary canal.
In the category of "worry" are included anger, argument, blues, or any
other of the depressant passions, and no food or drink, other than
water, should be admitted to the canal while any form of depressants
are being suffered.
We must agree in the first place that it can do no harm to wait for
a clearance of the mental atmosphere. Real hunger is not a painful
craving for something or anything, but is a most accommodating waiter
for final collection of all the taste dividends there are due in
a big lump sum to compensate for not getting them by instalments.
Consequently, if the mental atmospheric conditions are not favourable
to the best nutrition, the best way to clear them is to wait. Nothing
is so forceful in making one modify or forget passing clouds of pain
or disappointment as growing healthy Hunger.
The mouth-muscles soon learn to know this beautiful provision of
Mother Nature, whereby deferred collections by appetite are paid with
compound interest sometimes sure, if by the waiting process the mental
atmosphere is cleared of the elements of digestive lightning and
thunder.
How delightful it is to be assured that the best way to secure the best
nutrition is the easiest way and that it can be quickly installed as a
habit, so that attention to the mechanics of the care is not necessary,
leaving the whole battery of appreciation to employ itself with the
gustatory festival.