Spira Speaks

The following is a compilation of writings and dialogs that I exchanged with friends and family about my experiences practicing Prof. Arnold Ehret’s Mucusless Diet Healing System over the past 10 years. When I first read the Mucusless Diet, I knew that I had obtained a document containing sacred and vital information about the true nature of the health of humankind. As a child, I watched my mother suffer and ultimately die of horrific health conditions. After spending countless hours in hospital rooms and nursing homes, I prayed that I might one day learn why humans must suffer such deplorable conditions. This prayer was answered after meeting Brother Air, who not only introduced me to the works of Prof. Arnold Ehret, but stood as a living example of how Ehret’s work could be translated into a sustainable lifestyle. I was then introduced to a community of mucusless diet practitioners who created the support system that I needed to take on the challenging journey ahead of me. I must first express my appreciation to Brother Air and every member of the community for all their love and support over the past 10 years.

Within the first 6 months of practicing the diet, I lost 110 pounds and healed many of my ailments, including allergies, sleep apnea, daily migraine headaches, lower back pain, frequent indigestion, and yearly bouts of bronchitis. I quit taking the pharmaceutical medicines that I had endured since infancy and quelled all desires for meat, dairy, alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and other questionable substances. In light of these remarkable results, I wanted to tell the world this great news: “It was rediscovered that the foundation of human illness is pus- and mucus-forming foods! Humans are a frugivorous species! The pain and suffering of humankind can be relinquished after being cleansed and rebuilt on the foods designed for humans!” Yet, I learned that most of my closest friends and family were not ready to encounter such information. I realized that this valuable knowledge was meant for me, and that I needed to run with it and transform myself before my desire to help others could be realized.

In 2003, I watched Brother Air sustain an 8½-month juice fast. After another year of intensive transition and study, I did my first extended juice fast of 6 months. At this point, I felt the need to document my journey. After a meeting with jazz saxophone legend Charles Lloyd, Brother Air and I were inspired to create the Breathairean Ensemble. It is a vegetarian jazz organization which includes mucusless diet practitioners. My primary vehicle for expressing this vital information became my music-making with the Breathairean Ensemble. We also started a radio show called the Immortality Pipeline on the local community radio station where we shared our music and experiences practicing the mucusless diet. As I began to promote the band on the internet, I realized that I was subsequently exposing people to, and educating people about, the Mucusless Diet Healing System. I began to seek out others interested in Ehret’s work and found my way to the online Ehret Club Forum administered by Alvin Last. It was on this forum that I first wrote about the Mucusless Diet. As I spoke of my experiences and the thriving Ehretist community in Cincinnati, I began to receive many health-related questions. As I began to respond, I realized that these dialogs would be of great interest and importance to future generations of health seekers. In the years that followed, I interacted with many others interested in Ehret through YouTube, Facebook, the Ehret Italia Forum, and email.

I knew that the day would come when I would compile my writings and make them more available to the public. The following version contains much of the raw, mostly unedited, encounters that I have had with people about my experiences with the diet. As a consequence, the writings document my journey and those of others becoming mucusless. Some of the questions have been edited and names changed to protect the privacy of those with whom I am communicating. Today, the short eBook pamphlet is in fashion, and my writings have been organized into three volumes that cover different areas of interest and experience. In addition to short essays, dialogs comprise several chapters, many of a Socratic nature, which took place primarily in online forums or through private emails. In addition to learning practical information about transitioning to a mucus-free lifestyle, this eBook is designed to help you shift your consciousness toward a more natural dietetic paradigm free from modern medical errors and faulty assumptions. I highly recommend that you read Arnold Ehret’s Mucusless Diet Healing System and Rational Fasting prior to, along with, or after this eBook. Although it is certainly not required, knowledge of Ehret’s works will help you to fully benefit from this work.

Much has changed over the past 5 years as numerous self-identified raw foodists, fruitarians, and fasters use social-media sites to document and share their stories with others. There has been a major shift in the public consciousness as more people begin to seek out the truth about higher levels of health. Modern-day advocates for plant-based lifestyles have helped raise public awareness levels to a point where the information that we have may be more easily understood, respected, and practiced. Although we have only scratched the surface of humankind’s potential to regain superior health, our experiences and information about sustaining a mucus-free lifestyle are vital to all who seek true wellness. Arnold Ehret is the forefather of modern plant-based, vegan, raw-foods living and mucus-free natural healing. Yet, too few people know of his works or the communities of people who currently live a mucus-free lifestyle. The world needs to be exposed to the power of the Mucusless Diet Healing System now more than ever!

With the support of my friends, family, and community, I am ready to tell the world our profound story . . .

A Profound Transition: Testimony of Prof. Spira

Before and After Mucusless Diet
On the top are my old Resident Adviser ID badges which were taken 1 year apart. I think that the bottom left was taken during a Boy Scout trip at Niagara Falls two years before starting the diet, and the bottom right is a photo that was posted on the “Meet your R.A.s” bulletin board in Siddall Hall.

I was addicted to pus- and mucus-forming foods. A lot of them. Well, I’m still an addict, but back then, a normal meal could consist of two chili-cheese footlong coneys, five root beers, popcorn, and a cheeseburger at our neighborhood Root Beer Stand. Unfortunately, I was in a social setting and cultural landscape that gave me status for my big stature and indulgent lifestyle. I played American football and was a 250-pound varsity offensive lineman for the Princeton Vikings. I loved the feeling of running onto the field while the crowd exploded with sounds of drunken joy, then legally running people over during the game. My other love was music. I had played the trombone since fifth grade and was fascinated with jazz. When it was time for college, I decided that I wanted to pursue my spiritual love of music and went to the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music to study jazz.

When I began school, I thought I was on the right track. I was an “A” student in one of the top music schools in the country, experiencing the legal and illegal fun of American college life, while eating and drinking as much as I could take in. But this excessive lifestyle came with a cost, and I suffered from many ailments. I had chronic migraine headaches, joint pain, bad allergies, frequent nose bleeds, painful hemorrhoids, and yearly bouts of bronchitis.

Young Goecke with Turkey Leg
“Bam Bam” with Turkey Leg

As a child, I had tubes put in my ears to help drain large amounts of mucus from my sinuses and was injected with countless drugs. Around age 7, I began taking daily allergy medications. I first took Seldane, but after several years it was driven off the market for killing people. I then was put on Allegra, followed by Allegra D, then Zyrtec, Claritin (did nothing for me—like taking a sugar pill), and finally back to Allegra D. Along the way, I frequently took antibiotics, migraine medicine, and many over-the-counter drugs. In junior high and high school, I had doctor’s orders that allowed the school nurse to supply me with Advil. I had splitting headaches almost every day and often left class to take an Advil and lie down in the nurse’s office. In addition, my nose was often red, sore, and scabbed from blowing it hundreds of times a day . . . almost every day.

By the time I went off to college, I weighed over 280 pounds. I planned to move into the dorms, but I was self-conscious about my loud snoring. My Boy Scoutmaster had used a CPAP unit and he said it cured his snoring. I went to the doctor for a sleep study and was hooked up to dozens of wires, given a lot of junk-food snacks to eat, and told to fall asleep. Needless to say, I did not get much rest. The doctor promptly diagnosed me with sleep apnea and ordered me to purchase a CPAP unit. Thus, I was 19 years old and already hooked up to a respirator at night.

Drunk in Dorm
280 pounds, drunk in college dorm c.2002

I felt as if I had no control over my health and I would joke with friends that I would probably have my first stroke by age 26. Up to this point, I had been exposed to many of the popular dietary fads and had investigated a few of them without being impressed or successful. I worked out constantly, took diet pills, ginger root supplements, and more in futile attempts at losing weight. I watched every late-night infomercial on diet and exercise, fantasizing about the possibility of actually gaining control over my weight. Yet, I was not really interested in true health but only in looking fit and being buff. Unfortunately, none of the diets being pushed in the mainstream made any sense to me. So I decided to just over-indulge in food with the philosophy that I would just “die whenever it was time for me to go.” But, when I left high school, I stopped working out like a varsity athlete. Instead, I practiced my trombone for 8 to 12 hours a day. I ate huge meals and then practiced for hours, taking breaks only to smoke and eat candy bars or Doritos.

250 pounds
250 Pounds, c. 2000 in Toronto, Canada

During my freshman year, I made it a point to plug into the local jazz scene to supplement my school activities. I knew that I would really learn how to play music while on the professional jazz bandstand, and I sought out as many opportunities as I could. On Sunday nights, I would go to Sonny’s jazz jam session and sit in with my trombone. Sonny’s was one of those bars where the older black folks congregated to drink and socialize. The older men would show off their brand new 1967 leisure suits, while the older women would get wasted and try to offer me drinks saying, “You so fine, baby!” And of course, the old sugar daddies would show up courting their young sugar babies. One Sunday I met an interesting jazz drummer named Brother Air. After seeing him around Cincinnati at other local jazz spots, I began to talk with him about health and diet. Air dismissed the principles of Western dietetic theory and asserted that the only true road to health was through Prof. Arnold Ehret’s Mucusless Diet Healing System. Brother Air said that he was over 40 years old and had practiced the diet for more than 20 years. This was shocking, as he did not look anywhere near 40 years old.

One evening, my saxophonist friend Daktehu and Brother Air were sitting in on Erwin Stuckey’s set at Chez Nora in Northern Kentucky. At the intermission, Daktehu and I hit the free buffet and filled our plates with chicken wings and other delectable items. As we sat and ate, Air began to speak very clearly about the Mucusless Diet Healing System. As the conversation progressed, Daktehu and I ate slower and eventually quit. As I looked at my plate with new eyes, Brother Air talked about his experience eating nothing but fruit for an entire year, and sustaining 100-day juice fasts. This caused something to click in my brain. Humans as fruit eaters! It made so much sense. If any being on the planet could subsist on nothing but fruit, why is it not possible for humans? By the end of the conversation, we had both decided to buy the Mucusless Diet Healing System and check it out.

After reading Arnold Ehret’s Mucusless Diet Healing System and Rational Fasting for Physical, Mental and Spiritual Rejuvenation, my entire concept of life was transformed. The information seemed so simple, yet it challenged every assumption that I had about sickness and how the human body functions. For days, I sat and let questions flow through my mind: “Could this information really lead to the fountain of youth?” “Is the fundamental cause for aging and death mucus and pus?” “Is disease and sickness a self-induced thing?” “Did Brother Air really survive on nothing but fruit for an entire year?” “Are the lungs really the pump and the heart, the valve?” “If man is supposed to eat fruit, why did we start eating dead animals and cooked/fermented foods?” “Is eating protein-rich food really unnecessary and harmful?” “And what is so important about the fifth chapter of the Mucusless Diet?” “What is meant by the body being an “air-gas engine,” and why was I instructed to read and reread this chapter about five times?” “What is meant by ‘Vitality = Power – Obstruction’?”

One cool autumn day, I sat alone in a Memorial Hall practice room holding my silver trombone. I was dressed in a pair of brown suede, oxford pants and a yellow short-sleeved, 100 percent silk, button-up shirt—all from Bachrach Men’s Clothier where I had been a sales representative. I sighed. On the wall stood a big mirror with a pattern of cracks in the bottom right hand corner, possibly left by the angry hand of some hopeless music student before their board examination. I gazed at 280 pounds of swollen anguish wrapped in fine fabrics. At that moment, my life blazed before my eyes. I thought about the instances when I had been ridiculed for being fat. I remembered the indescribable pain of seeing my grandmother and mother pass away due to chronic illnesses. I tried to imagine how many thousands of tissues had rubbed my sore, scabbed nose over the years. I remembered how unfulfilled I felt when I smoked or drank. I thought about the overall suffering of humanity. Is eating solely to blame for the ills of humankind? This was followed by a vision of the future. A future when all people would be empowered to seek superior health through a lifestyle that is in tune with Nature’s laws. An era when concepts of pain, suffering, and death are remembered only through ancient tales and legends. It was at that moment that I became filled with the unrelenting determination to do all in my power to transform myself through this profound information that I had the privilege to receive. I realized my opportunity was a rare and precious gift that very few people were given. I had information that held the potential to transform the entire Universe! I then wiped a tear from my right eye and vowed to dedicate my life to pursuing superior health through the practice of the Mucusless Diet Healing System.

To be continued. . . .

Peace, Love, and Breath!

-Prof. Spira

To eat or not to eat? That is indeed the question. Moreover, why do we eat? Do we eat to live or do we live to eat? Is there an answer to this great dietetic paradox that we must consume nutritious foods to live, but these foods may be the root cause of sickness and death? To investigate this paradox, we must ask: What does the body need? We know that people do not need dead animal flesh or frozen and fermented animal milk to live, yet people around the world consume them with impunity. We also know that rice can be cooked into sticky glue, yet it is a staple meal for many. We hear about people who can abstain from food for a short time, but how is this possible? If the body does not need dead animals or milky-gluey substances to survive, then what do we need? Given the above, it seems that the most important substance that we consume is air. People can do without meat, grain, starches, and carbs, but they cannot live without air. Thus, air is premium in our realities; but for many, it is the thing thought about the least.

I began to explore the needs of the human body about 8 years ago. I was in college studying jazz trombone performance in Cincinnati when I met a jazz drummer by the name of Brother Air performing at local jazz venues. Brother Air told me about the Mucusless Diet Healing System by Prof. Arnold Ehret, which he and his family had been practicing for the past 25 years. I was initially impressed by his stories of sustaining an all-fruit diet for a year and his concept of pus- and mucus-forming foods being the root cause of human illness. At the time, I was in bad shape. I weighed over 280 pounds and suffered from a variety of ailments, including: chronic migraine headaches, lower back pain, joint pain in my right hand from football, joint pain in my right knee, chronic allergies, and otolaryngological problems including chronic cases of bronchitis. At the age of 18, I began using a CPAP unit (a machine that pumps oxygen into the nose during sleep), and I was also an 11-year veteran of consuming daily doses of allergy medications. What was the cause of my illnesses? The doctors told me that it was probably genetic and that chronic illness runs in my family. According to doctors, it wasn’t my fault; and the best way to battle my illnesses was finding the right drugs. Since I grew up with family members who took as many as 10 pills a day, organized in little plastic containers labeled M for Monday, T for Tuesday, etc., I equated adulthood with the amount of medications I took. Thus, sickness meant status and maturity. While growing up, I would brag to my friends about how I was already taking medicine like adults. An MRI at the age of 17 to investigate my unbearable migraine headaches felt like a rite of passage to me.
What the doctors did not consider telling me was that I needed to examine my dietary habits. They forgot to mention that it is not okay to eat a large double-pepperoni, bacon, and ham pizza without sharing it with friends. Or that eating two footlong cheese coneys and a cheeseburger in one sitting may be bad for my health. Or that it was unhealthy to eat a sack of 10 cheeseburgers, cheese sticks, and a chocolate malt from United Dairy Farmers all in one sitting. I learned that my pain and suffering could not be blamed on my family’s genes or on God, as some people suggested, but that the food which I consumed was to blame for my sick and pathological condition. More specifically, mucus- and pus-forming foods were the problem.

In the Mucusless Diet Healing System, I was exposed to Arnold Ehret’s Mucus Theory, which posits that mucus- and pus-forming foods (i.e., dead animal products, dairy, grains, and starches) are the fundamental cause of human illness. These are foods that have no nutritious value and cause the body’s systems to become constipated over time. As we become more and more encumbered, our body reacts either by attempting to eliminate mucus (e.g., the so-called common cold) or by suppressing the immediate elimination, from which chronic illness and latent diseases will eventually emerge.

The mucus idea made sense, but it seemed too simple. I had been conditioned to believe that if I did not see a bunch of complicated medical terminology, then it could not be good physiological science. If pus and mucus could explain human illness, then why are there so many names for different diseases and ailments? I knew that I would need to test the Mucus Theory on my own body if I wanted to find out if it were true. At the time, I was living in a college dorm as a resident advisor. I was a sophomore and had endured my freshman year of unrestrained eating, drinking, and smoking a variety of substances. In fact, I had gained about 30 pounds during my freshman year of college. In addition to pizza, cheeseburgers, and fish sticks, the dorm cafeteria had many fruits and a great salad bar. I began to eat as much fruit and salad as I could and traded horrific mucus formers, such as cheeseburgers and eggs, for lighter mucuses, such as 100-percent-wheat spaghetti and tomato sauce. By trying to abstain from mucus, I quickly learned how addictive and stimulating it is. I would have mucus-withdrawal symptoms comparable to what heroin addicts describe when they are kicking their habit. Some people would blame my withdrawal symptoms on a lack of nutrients or protein; this is why many people are scared to follow through with such a dietetic endeavor. There were days when I endured great weakness and felt terrible. Was the weakness from the fruit I was eating? I learned that my weakness was not from mucus-free fruits, which are the most perfect human foods, but was a result of my body loosening and attempting to throw off the pools of dross that I had been accumulating since childhood. I decided to keep going forward and after a while, I gained in strength and vitality. I watched quarts of mucus drain from my body and, since I was not consuming as many mucus-forming substances, I began to heal. As my body grew progressively cleaner, it became easier to eat living foods and engage in fruit-juice fasts. Within 6 months, I had lost 100 pounds and was emancipated from the many ailments and medications that had enslaved me since childhood.

What Is the Mucusless Diet Healing System?

Physiological Liberation begins and ends with Prof. Arnold Ehret’s Mucusless Diet Healing System. It contains the most profound rediscovery of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: that the human body is an “air-gas engine”! It explains how every sick person has a mucus-clogged system, and that this mucus comes from undigested, uneliminated, unnatural food substances that have accumulated since childhood. It has proven to be the most successful “compensation action” and so-called “cure” against every type of disease and illness known to humans. By its systematic application, hundreds of thousands of patients declared incurable by the “medical authorities” could be healed.

The Mucusless Diet consists of all kinds of raw and cooked fruits, starchless vegetables, and cooked or raw, mostly green-leaf vegetables. The Mucusless Diet Healing System is a combination of individually advised long- and short-term fasts, menus that progressively change to non-mucus-forming raw foods, and regular colon irrigation. In the book, Ehret observes that the human body is an air-gas engine that is maintained solely through breathing and that the accumulation of uneliminated waste materials (i.e., pus, mucus, and white dead blood) is what leads the chronically ill body to its painful demise. Ehret offers the equation, Vitality = Power – Obstruction, as an eloquent solution to the most injurious dietetic and physiological paradox in history: the belief that our body needs to consume nutritious materials that will ultimately promote its death. He criticizes many of the commonly held theories of metabolism, protein, and nutrition, and offers new physiological explanations derived from experimenting with his Mucus Theory. Ehret’s findings suggest that our bodies do not need to take in illness-causing substances to live, and that pus- and mucus-forming foods are the greatest proponents of human illness. Thus, the most fundamental human right is that we do not need to consume harmful, mucus-forming foods. In other words, we need not consume that which is unnecessary and damaging to human life.

Peace, Love, and Breath!

-Prof. Spira