For those seeking spirituality, vegetarianism is an extension of their spiritual practices. Vegetarianism is the most compassionate diet because it involves eating foods that contain the least amount of consciousness or life, such as plants. Spiritual teachers often claim that vegetarianism is necessary for those who want to find God. For those who wish to follow the path that leads to self-knowledge and God realization, a strict vegetarian diet is essential.
Why would so many spiritual Masters, founders of different religions, mystics, philosophers, and thinkers from different time periods agree that a vegetarian diet was necessary for spiritual advancement? One of the reasons correlates with a law of science, called action and reaction. One of the laws of physics is that every action has a reaction. Most people think that this law only has to do with physical matter or energy. There is another component that science is just beginning to discover. We are getting to learn about the mind-body-soul connection. We discover that our thoughts have an effect on our body. The law of action and reaction applies not only to physical matter, but also to the subtle level of thought. For example, we know that stress triggers a release of hormones through our body that requires us to act. That action can be to run and flee from danger, or to protect ourselves in defense. Adrenaline is sent to our muscles to prepare our hands to fight or our legs to run. Due to the stresses of modern life, people are having this reaction even when they are not in physical danger. We can also react as if we are in danger when faced with intellectual or emotional challenges. Thus, even our thoughts can provoke a physical reaction in which a tremendous amount of stress hormones circulate through our body. The result of this excess stress is that the prolonged circulation of these hormones can cause the degradation of our body tissue. Thus, we found that people with high levels of stress can experience physical illnesses such as heart disease, circulatory problems, digestive problems, skin problems, headaches, and other stress-related ailments. Then we can see the power of our thoughts in our body.
Saints and mystics have taught that our thoughts are powerful. The thoughts we think and send also have an effect. Thoughts provoke actions, which result in a reaction. There are many religions that speak of a law that establishes that all the good that we do is returned to us and all the bad or negative things that we do, say or think also return but as a negative reaction. Most religions believe that we are responsible for everything we think, say, and do. Whether we call it the law of karma, or action and reaction, or we simply believe that all the good we do comes back to us and all the bad we do must be paid for, there is an almost universal belief in some system of responsibility.
People who have had NDEs or near-death experiences who have suffered a clinical death and were relived by physicians report similar experiences. According to a 1991 survey, twelve million people reported having an NDE. The first books by Dr. Raymond Moody, and later by Dr. Melvin Morse, who visited me at the Center for the Science of Spirituality a few years ago, described these experiences that were reported to them and other physicians by patients who were revived. They described a repeating pattern of experiences. While their body had died clinically, they experienced rising above the body. They started by looking at her body underneath while people worked on her body. Then they went through a tunnel and emerged into a world of light. There they saw a light brighter than any other in this world, but it did not burn. They were also welcomed and embraced by a being of light who poured more love into them than they had ever experienced from anyone on earth. This being of light often took them on a life review in which they saw all the good they had done and all the bad they had done. What was significant about this life review was that, seeing this three-dimensional repetition of their life, they also experienced with great intensity the reactions of other people to their own actions. When a person with an NDE witnessed an occasion in their past to be loving and kind to another person, they would also experience within themselves that love and kindness that the other person experienced. When a person with an NDE sees in his or her past an occasion of having hurt someone, he or she would also experience within himself all the damage that he or she had caused that other person. The intensity of experiencing the pain they had done to others transformed them.
It made them realize that everything we do here matters. They also learned that what matters most in our worldly lives is love. All the loving and kind things we do come back to us, and all the hurtful and hurtful things we do come back to us as well. When these people who had NDEs revived and their soul returned to the body, they changed drastically. Most of them decided to become more loving people and not hurt others because they realized the effect of being negative.