vegetarianism

"They want the people who eat fish to support them. And this was a problem when I was National Director for the , that was their problem. They didn’t wanna come out against hunting, against fishing, or against meat-eating. Because they thought they would lose membership support if they did. A lot of these groups aren’t interested in solving the problem, they’re interested in exploiting the problem."

"We understand that leaving trees or planting trees really helps the carbon equation, but nothing matters more than maintaining the integrity of ocean systems. I mean, these big animals, even the little ones, they take up carbon. They sequester carbon when they sink to the bottom of the ocean. The ocean is the biggest carbon sink on the planet."

"We are at war with the oceans. And if we win this war, we’re going to lose it all, because mankind is not able to live on this planet with a dead sea. It’s the total industrialization of fishing that is the problem here. We are pretty much destroying everything at rapid speed."

"If you want to address climate change, the first thing you do is protect the ocean. And the solution to that is very simple: leave it alone."

"“Do fish feel pain?” As a scientist, it’s common sense. They have a nervous system, fish do. They have the basic elements that all vertebrates have. They have the capacity to feel on a level that I almost can’t imagine we can. We feel pain, we feel touch. But fish have a lateral line down their sides that senses the most exquisite little movements in the water. So you see a thousand fish moving like one fish. Those who say, “Doesn’t matter what you do to a fish, they can’t feel anything.” Or that they… can’t relate to pain, or they can’t sense danger in the future. Well, they haven’t really observed fish. I think it’s a justification for doing dastardly things to innocent creatures. It’s the only explanation I can think of for treating fish with such a barbaric attitude. [So you don’t eat fish?] Oh, I don’t eat fish now, or any animal."

"By continued extraction of fish out of our oceans, you’re essentially deforesting our oceans by not only removing the fish, but the act of removal, the methods of removal are devastating to habitat, to ecosystems."

"The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the was the biggest in history. It gushed huge quantities of oil into the deep sea for a period of months. And everyone was appalled at the death of wildlife on the beaches as the oil slopped ashore. But in fact, the fishing industry in the Gulf of Mexico destroyed more animals in a day than that oil spill did in months. Because large areas were closed to fishing because of the possibility of being tainted by oil, marine life actually benefited from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill because it got a respite from fishing."

"Even the groups that are talking about marine plastic are highly reluctant to talk about what a lot of that plastic is, which is fishing nets and fishing gear. We hear a lot about the , and say, "Oh, isn’t it terrible? All our cotton buds and plastic bags are swirling around in the Great Pacific garbage patch." 46% of it is fishing nets, discarded fishing nets, which are far more dangerous for marine life than our plastic straws. Because, of course, they’re designed to kill. Now, this is so crashingly obvious, why aren’t we talking about it? Why aren’t even the plastics campaigns talking about fishing?"

"Over the years, I’ve seen changes. I’ve been a witness to perhaps the greatest era of discovery about the ocean. But at the same time, the greatest era of loss. Since the middle of the 20th century, humans have succeeded in extracting from the ocean, immense quantities of wildlife. The estimate is by the middle of the 21st century, if we keep taking wild fish at the level that we are today, there’ll be no commercial fishing, because there won’t be enough fish to catch."

"One need only refer to the undeniable fact that in all countries the mass of the peasantry live in robust health without fleshmeat, for the simple reason that they cannot afford to get it."

"Even in well-to-do house- holds the price of meat is a source of constant complaint and vexation to the prudent housewife ; yet she would laugh to scorn the bare idea of living without flesh, and, if she has ever thought of Vegetarianism, has thought of it only as an impious absurdity and dangerous hallucination of modern times, to be classed with Mormonism, Spiritualism, Anglo-Israelism, Socialism, and possibly Atheism itself."

"I think it will be worth our while to inquire if there be really such great absurdity in the idea of not eating flesh, or if it be possible that the Vegetarians have reason on their side, and that the present movement in favour of a reformed diet may contain the germ of an important change. However that may be, it can do no harm to my readers if they hear what can be said in favour of Vegetarianism; then, if they are not persuaded to adopt a fleshless diet, they will have a clear conscience, and be able to enjoy their beef and mutton all the more afterwards."

"The greatest and most unerring argument in favour of Vegetarianism is, to my mind, the utter absence of "good taste" in flesh-eating, which is revolting to all the higher instincts of the human mind."

"Vegetarianism," says one, "maybe all very well for the rich and indolent, but the hardworking man must have his meat." " The labouring classes," says another, '^ may doubtless perform their merely bodily work on a vegetarian diet, but those who have to work with their minds need a more stimulating diet."

""What sort of a religion must that be?" was the remark of an old and faithful servant when she heard that her former master had become a Vegetarian — a remark typical of the attitude of society towards the Vegetarian movement."

"There is overwhelming proof that Vegetarianism is possible; there is an utter absence of proof that it is in any way detrimental to perfect health. It is, therefore, at least worthy of more serious consideration than it has yet received; before it is ridiculed and condemned it should at least be tried."

"I read an article only the other day, in which it was explained that the nauseating stench which rises from those Chicago slaughterhouses, and settles like a fatal miasma over the city, is by no means the most deadly influence that comes up from that Christian hell for animals, though it is the breath of certain death to many a mother’s darling. The slaughterhouses make not only a pest-hole for the bodies of children, but for their souls as well. Not only are the children employed in the most revolting and cruel work, but the whole trend of their thoughts is directed towards killing..."

"The same thing is true to a still greater extent with regard to the higher bodies. Their senses cannot be clear if impure or coarse matter is drawn into them; anything of this nature clogs and dulls them"

"It is clear that a man’s duty with regard to himself is to develop all his different vehicles as far as possible, in order to make them finished instruments for the use of the soul. There is a still higher stage in which that soul itself is being trained to be a fit instrument in the hands of the Deity, a perfect channel for the divine grace; but the first step towards this high aim is that the soul itself shall learn thoroughly to control the lower bodies, so that there shall be in them no thought or feeling except those which the soul allows."

"This is a fact which has always been recognized by the student of Occultism; you will find that all those who in ancient days entered upon the Mysteries were men of the utmost purity, and of course invariably vegetarian. Carnivorous diet is fatal to anything like real development, and those who adopt it are throwing serious and unnecessary difficulties in their own way."

"If, through introducing loathsome impurities into the physical body, the man builds himself a coarse and unclean astral body, we have to remember that it is in this degraded vehicle that he will have to spend the first part of his life after death... all sorts of undesirable entities will be drawn into association with him and will make his vehicles their home, and find a ready response within him to their lower passions. It is not only that his animal passions are more easily stirred here on earth, but in addition to this he will suffer acutely from the working out of these desires after death."

"The feelings of nervousness and profound depression which are so common there, are largely due to that awful influence which spreads over the city like a plague-cloud. I do not know how many thousands of creatures are killed every day, but the number is very large. Remember that every one of these creatures is a definite entity — not a permanent, reincarnating individuality like yours or mine, but still an entity which has its life upon the astral plane, and persists there for a considerable time. Remember that every one of these remains to pour out his feelings of indignation and horror at all the injustice and torment which has been inflicted upon him. Realize for yourself the terrible atmosphere which exists about those slaughterhouses; remember that a clairvoyant can see the vast hosts of animal souls, that he knows how strong are their feelings of horror and resentment, and how these recoil at all points upon the human race."

"The average man is not after all a brute, but means to be kind if he only knew how. He does not think; he goes on from day to day, and does not realise that he is taking part all the time in an awful crime... every one who is partaking of this abomination is helping to make this appalling thing a possibility, and undoubtedly shares the responsibility for it."

"I must preface this essay by the confession that I am myself a Vegetarian, and that I mean to say all the good I can of the principles of Vegetarianism. This is rather a formidable admission to make, for a Vegetarian is still regarded, in ordinary society, as little better than a madman... Some of his friends, who take a graver view of such dietetic vagaries, feel it to be their duty to warn him boldly and explicitly that he will undoubtedly die in a short time unless he amends his ways... Others, again, are of opinion that though his bodily health may not suffer, yet his mental powers will be sapped by a fleshless diet, and he will soon sink into a state of hopeless idiocy and imbecility."

"The first and most obvious advantage of a vegetarian diet is its economy. Flesh-meat is so much more expensive than cereals and vegetable products, that it must be accounted very extravagant and unbusinesslike to use it as a common article of food, unless, as is generally believed, its superior quality compensates in the long run for its dearness. But if Vegetarians find that they live in perfect health without meat, would they not be somewhat deficient in common-sense if they did not make the most of their pecuniary advantage?"

"The cost of their food is far less than that of the shrewd flesh-eater. I mention this point first as being the most plain and indisputable, not necessarily the most important; yet that it is also of great importance will scarcely be denied, in a country whose food supply is yearly becoming a matter of greater difficulty, and where thousands of people are in a state of abject poverty and want."

"Secondly: Is it not equally unquestionable that it is both more humane, and what, for want of a comprehensive word, I must call more "aesthetic," not to slaughter animals for food, unless it be really necessary to do so .'^ If it can be shown that men can live equally well without flesh-food, or, rather, unless it can be shown that the contrary is the case (for the burden of proof must always rest with those who take on themselves the responsibility of wholesale slaughter), it must surely seem unjustifiable, on the score of humanity, to breed and kill animals for merely culinary purposes."

"If we assume for a moment that a fleshless diet is practicable, how cruel to animals, and how degrading to men, is the institution of the slaughter-house ! Having no wish to dwell on what is morbid and unpleasant, I shall not pain the feelings of my readers by harping on the sufferings which their victims undergo, but shall content myself with remarking that those good people are mistaken who imagine that the slaughter of animals is painless and merciful."

"It appears, then, that both on economic and moral grounds there are certain very distinct advantages in a vegetarian diet, provided only that such a diet can be shown to be physically practicable."

"The popular idea is, of course, that meat is the only food which gives strength, and that Vegetarianism is wellnigh impossible. Don't you feel very weak ? " is generally the first question asked of a Vegetarian, by a new friend or acquaintance ; and if we press for a clearer explanation of this vague belief in the strengthgiving qualities of meat, we find that it is composed of two distinct and sometimes contradictory notions — first, that meat is necessary to support bodily strength ; secondly, that mental work cannot be done without it."

"I read how one boy, for whom a minister had secured a place in the slaughterhouse, returned home day after day, pale and sick and unable to eat or sleep, and finally came to that minister of the gospel of the compassionate Christ and told him that he was willing to starve if necessary, but that he could not wade in blood another day... he could no longer sleep. Yet this is what many a boy is doing and seeing from day to day, until he becomes hardened to the taking of life; and then some day, instead of cutting the throat of a lamb or a pig, he kills a man, and straightway we turn our lust for slaughter upon him in turn, and think that we have done justice."

"I am abandoning the field of ordinary physical reasoning, and taking you up to the level where you have, naturally, to take the word of those who have explored these higher realms. Let us then turn now to the hidden side of all this — the occult."

"It is not only those who do the obscene work, but those who by feeding upon this dead flesh encourage them and make their crime remunerative, who are guilty... of this awful thing."

"The more flesh is consumed, the more serious is the danger of confirmed alcoholism."

"Beyond all question the future is with the vegetarian."

"There are many types and degrees of density among astral matter, for example, so that it is possible for one man to have an astral body built of coarse and gross particles, while another may have one which is much more delicate and refined. As the astral body is the vehicle of the emotions, passions and sensations, it follows that the man whose astral body is of the grosser type will be chiefly amenable to the grosser varieties of passion and emotion; whereas the man who has a finer astral body will find that its particles most readily vibrate in response to higher and more refined emotions and aspirations."

"It seems certain that in the future — and I hope it may be in the near future — we shall be looking back upon this time with disgust and with horror."

"I am certain that our descendants will look back upon this age as one of only partial civilisation, and in fact but little removed from savagery."

"The man who learns to see these higher vehicles sees at once the effects on the higher bodies produced by impurity in the lower; he sees at once the difference between the man who feeds his physical vehicle with pure food and the man who puts into it this loathsome decaying flesh."

"Let us see how this difference will affect the man’s evolution."

"The physical, body and its sense perceptions can never be at their best unless the food is pure."

"Anyone who adopts vegetarian diet will speedily begin to notice that his sense of taste or of smell is far keener than it was when he fed upon flesh, and that he is now able to discern a delicate difference of flavor in foods which before he had thought of as tasteless, such as rice and wheat."

"The purity of the heart and of the soul is more important to a man than that of the body. Yet there is surely no reason why we should not have both; indeed, the one suggests the other, and the higher should include the lower."

"We are none of us so far advanced along the road towards spirituality that we can afford to neglect the great advantage that it gives us. Anything that makes our path harder than it need be is emphatically something to be avoided. In all cases this flesh food undoubtedly makes the physical body a worse instrument, and puts difficulties in the way of the soul by intensifying all the undesirable elements and passions belonging to these lower planes."

"The higher sight, when brought to bear upon this problem, shows us still more vividly how undesirable is the devouring of flesh, since it intensifies within us that from which we most need to be free, and therefore, from the point of view of progress, that habit is a thing to be cast out at once and forever."

"Every religion has taught that man should put himself always on the side of the will of God in the world, on the side of good as against evil, of evolution as against retrogression. The man who ranges himself on the side of evolution realizes the wickedness of destroying life; for he knows that, just as he is here in this physical body in order that he may learn the lessons of this plane, so is the animal occupying his body for the same reason, that through it he may gain experience at his lower stage. He knows that the life behind the animal is the Divine Life, that all life in the world is Divine; the animals therefore are truly our brothers, even though they may be younger brothers, and we can have no sort of right to take their lives for the gratification of our perverted tastes"

"Even on the physical plane this is a terribly serious matter, and from the occult point of view it is unfortunately far more serious still; for the occultist sees the psychic results of all this, sees how these forces are acting upon the people and how they intensify brutality and unscrupulousness. He sees what a center of vice and of crime you have created, and how from it the infection is gradually spreading until it affects the whole country, and even the whole of what is called civilized humanity."

"The world is being affected by it in many ways which most people do not in the least realize. There are constant feelings of causeless terror in the air. Many of your children are unnecessarily and inexplicably afraid; they feel terror of they know not what—terror of the dark, or when they are alone for a few moments. Strong forces are playing about us for which you cannot account, and you do not realize that this all comes from the fact that the whole atmosphere is charged with the hostility of these murdered creatures."

"Let us at least make the experiment; let us free ourselves from complicity in these awful crimes, let us set ourselves to try, each in our own small circle, to bring nearer that bright time of peace and love which is the dream and the earnest desire of every true-hearted and thinking man."

"We Want the Best. I take it that in food, as well as in everything else, we all of us want the best that is within our means. We should like to bring our lives, and therefore our daily food as a not unimportant part of our lives, into harmony with our aspirations, into harmony with the highest that we know."