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In every system throughout antiquity there was an ascetic preliminary side which purified the mind and body and then only did meditation start. Without such purification, that is, asceticism, all the dangers of meditation--hallucination, misuse of occult powers, egotistic fancies, mediumship, and so on--are free to arise, but with it there is better protection against several of them. This explains why whenever fasting or on unfired food asceticism, there is disinclination for and inability to practise meditation; for all the inner subconscious energies are then directed to the first stage, purification. The second stage, meditation must come later when the job needed for the time being is done.

-- Notebooks Category 5: The Body > Chapter 4 : Fasting > # 23