John Hogue :: An Interview + Giveaway

September 22, 2009

In the world of parapsychology, mysticism, prophecy, and the occult John Hogue needs no introduction. For those of us who may not be familiar with him, John Hogue is a “rogue” prophecy scholar and world authority on Nostradamus, who writes on the subjects of parapsychology, mysticism, prophecy, and the occult. He is an internationally acclaimed best-selling author of numerous books that have been published in 18 languages. Nostradamus: A Life and Myth is one of these books, which I’ve read, and is one of the items for the giveaway.

He has appeared on over 700 radio and television shows. One popular late night radio show and one of my personal favorites is Coast to Coast AM with Goerge Noory, which John Hogue is a frequent guest. The History Channel televises documentaries featuring special appearances with John Hogue and his work, and also produces DVD’s on the topic.

In this interview, John Hogue shares with us how he became a “rogue” prophecy scholar, his mentors, his thoughts on a plant-based diet, other prophets, like Nostradamus’ culinary passion, John’s other interests, and much more.

Enjoy the interview. This is Part I of two interviews.

Ingrid Weithers-Barati: Tell us a bit about your background What inspired you to become the “rogue” prophecy scholar you are today?

John Hogue: Since being a young boy, I have been an old man growing younger as the body ages. Back then I had a fascination with current events and the repetition of history like a doctor is fascinated with pathology. I wanted to understand “why” history kept repeating itself, and I had an instinctive skepticism of what teachers and “authorities” taught, because if they really knew what they were talking about, why has humanity not learned history’s lessons. Do we repeat mistakes because we do not learn from history, or, do those who teach us teach the wrong conclusions about history’s lessons? (A very serious young boy, there.)

Anyway, when it started getting too serious I fell into an existential crisis by the time I was in my 20s so I began searching for spiritual and religious answers, especially those less orthodox or more Eastern than those I was indoctrinated to follow as a being labeled “Western Caucasian American” stamped on the bum side of my soul. In the process of studying religious paths, I became aware of the prophetic scriptures of the world. It seemed “future history” was just as plagued as the past with patterns of conditioned habits. The future seemed just as repetitively tragic as the past. So, as I embarked since 1980 on the path of meditation on the side was this continued evolution of my study of what made people predictable in the past and predictable in the future.

My work is all about understanding the engine of conditioning each new generation to be as silly and miserable as the past, no matter what the color or design of the cultural or religious blinders put upon the inner eye of their souls as “truth.”

Thus, my iconoclastic experiential slant on prophecy is perhaps unique among prophecy scholars. That is why I am known as a “Rogue Scholar”.

Over the past 30 years, I must have studied enough on my own to become a Rhodes scholar but I attained no degrees, short of the minimum requirement — a high school diploma — in 1974. More than this degree in society’s de-education of my intelligence was too much to bear. The price for a further dulling of intelligence required I assume deeper degrees of BS, BMs, and ‘piled high and deep’ PhDs of borrowed knowledge.

IWB: Who is/are/were your mentor[s]?

JH: Existence is first and foremost the mentor of us all. It is life itself. There were many others and still many more coming. Ray Bradbury taught me how to write. My meditation teacher, Osho, still teaches me before and beyond the grave to be aware of the witnessing consciousness that abides all changes in the body-mind and to celebrate living as a “Zorba the Buddha” in the marketplace of a constantly changing and impermanent world we all share. He taught me to be a witness of these things, and more: To be aware of that which is beyond what consciousness reflects. For that I cannot limit my answer in mere words. At a point one must stop talking about H2O and jump into the water. Meditation techniques are a way to prepare for real meditation. Those who want to know more than what I’ve said here must come and meditate with me.

IWB: When did you become a vegetarian, and what motivated you to do so?

JH: I was 25 years old. I was motivated by practicality, not anything holy-baloney “spiritual.” I discovered after a first quarter century of living in this body that it didn’t like animal flesh of any kind. Once I stopped eating it I became a hale and hearty high-energy fellow ever since.

IWB: What are your thoughts on consuming a plant-based diet and the role it plays on the health of our environment?

JH: First off, a word about dietary spiritual conceits. From my experience, vegetarianism does not make you more spiritually evolved. Case in point, Adolf Hitler tried all his life to be a vegetarian while Jesus Christ ate meat.

There are many people, born of Western bodies, who try to claim some spiritual attainment by eating Vegan or Veg. at the cost of making themselves less energetic, unhealthy and mentally dull. I will tell you right now, as a Vegan now for four years, who eats eggs, if at any moment my body impresses upon me the need to eat fish, chicken, lamb, or beef I will do it without hesitation or any spiritual guilt. What is good for Gurdjieff or Muhammad, or all the Sufi mystics, many of the Zen masters, or even poor ole Jesus left hanging around as some lamb sacrifice of God is good for me too.

Now, with that said, my own experience agrees with my own teacher, Osho. About six months after I quit eating meat, fish or chicken I felt a glugginess leave my bodily and nervous system. I felt a lighter quality in my body-mind. I did feel less gross, more sensitive. Moreover, in my case I got physically stronger. I mean, if big 800-pound, muscle bound, chest thumping gorillas can eat bunny-fare and be that big and strong that means there are some animal and human animal people that have bodies like those veggorillas. I’m one of those plant gorging apes for sure, for now.

Certainly adopting a vegetarian, even vegan, lifestyle lowers my carbon footprint, but let that not prevent people from eating a modest meat diet from time to time if their body needs it. We can still vastly reduce the wasteful farming and green house gas flatulating herds of livestock to help Mother Earth if people simply approach their eating habits in a balanced and intelligent way. Most affluent people simply eat too much, including those who graze like rabbits as proud veggie folk.

IWB: How has vegetarianism contributed to your physical, mental, and spiritual well-being?

JH: I’m not a vegetarian anymore. I am now a Vegan who eats two eggs a day. (Thank you, Chickens of the world!) As I said in your last question, I definitely grew stronger and less slickly and prone to immune weakness after becoming a veggie guy. The question is, was this improvement this solely from becoming a Vegetarian at 25?

It is hard to know because at 25 I also went to India, became initiated as a Swami in the Neo-Sannyasin “non-tradition” of Osho. Before this, I started meditating. Therefore, since I like what chickens make, we have a chicken-or-the-egg Zen koan here. Did the diet make me a meditator, or did the meditation make me a vegetarian?

There have been great mystics and meditators that have not been vegetarians, so one must wonder? Also, psychosomatic issues might equally have caused the chronic problems I had with my upper and lower GI until I stopped eating meat. Osho’s active meditation techniques and encounter groups put me on the fast track of letting go 25 years of repressed emotions, fears and judgments. We hold things in our bodies.

Osho says, “start with the body” in meditation. It sure worked for me. Does therefore my vegetarianism-cum-veganism become a happy extra to this cleansing? Did my psychosomatic bouts of intestinal blockage end because I stopped eating hamburgers? On the other hand, was it the rebirthing session that got me in contact with the life in Napoleon’s army in 1812, at the Battle of Borodino? I received an artillery shell splinter in the gut while on my horse directing a corps of French cavalry into a ravine for cover from cannon in a large Russian breastwork that was rolling my troupers and their horses over like bowling pins for two hours. When wounded in the gut, I calmed my horse. Everyone around me watched as I yelled “beau feu!” and dropped dead.

Reincarnation studies show that people seem to carry health issues related to traumas in past lives. Once I saw how I died on the battlefield, I never had intestinal “infortitude” ever since (I’m in my 54th year in this body). Was it the veggie diet or was it breaking the unconscious psychosomatic connection a past life bowel injury that killed?

IWB: Would you say eating this way contributes greatly to your mediation practice and your ability to foretell future events?

JH: I heard Osho say that vegetarianism makes one on the path more esthetic, less gross and dense. My life path experiences would tend to agree with him; however, if at some point this body should need animal products beyond chicken eggs we will put that theory to the test.

I am very surprised how good I feel after I stopped eating dairy products. I was a major cheese eater as a vegetarian, by the way. I do not see myself going back to cheese or meat in the foreseeable future, but one must listen to the body, as it always needs new things. Osho has a meditation for “talking to the body” which I find very helpful.

IWB: Are there any particular types of food, plant-based or otherwise, that can impede your abilities?

JH: Weed. Alcohol. “Silly”-sybens perhaps, although every time in my youth when I was lining up to try them I would practice a week of cleansing my body for the best initiatory event. My friends, though, could not wait and consumed them before the week was out.

It all depends. These vegetarian “foods” can aid one, loosen one up, give one a glimpse but a glimpse does not a lifetime of bliss or augury make. For that you can’t knock it back, toke or mushroom your self 24/7 over seventy years like Timothy Leary, who I saw a few months before he died, sitting to the side of the book store area of a Seattle Whole Life Expo in the 1990s to which I was invited to lecture.

My eyes were pulled to regard this spent and wrinkled candy wrapper of a man, shrunk in his chair. I did not even recognize him at first. It was a visceral moment. Our eyes met. Mine must have conveyed wordlessly the feeling of concern for and a marveling at how this stranger looked physically and spiritually spent. This impression registered in reflection in his eyes and he cowered. Then it dawned in a flash who it was I had regarded in the gap of no-thought was Timothy Leary.

I turned away, embarrassed to have stared, but not sorry to have felt a truth conveyed innocently through me, to him.

Drugs had destroyed Timothy Leary in the name of artificial enlightenment.

You have to find the inner high free of all chains or ticklers for the body-mind.

I mean, what inebriate was available to my consciousness before I was born? What will be available to imbibe when this body-mind imbiber is ash?

The fundamental question is, “who” is having the high? Who is not having a high?

Any dependence on something through the body for expanded consciousness is a path to addiction. There are far more subtle and profound addictions from which we all suffer. For instance, the identification with body-mind and emotions that leads us repeatedly into a cycle of lives lived in ego’s Misery-field.

Food for thought? Or, is the answer something untouched by any food or thought?

IWB: Edgar Cayce was a vegetarian who advocated eating vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds, at least 1/3 of it raw [uncooked] in any diet type. Are there other prophets, past or present, that you are aware of, who embrace[d] a vegetarian/vegan dietary lifestyle?

JH: Well, I met a few like J. Krishnamurti or Yogi Bhajan and sat at the feet of one for many years, such as Osho, who were all vegetarians. Osho never considered himself a prophet but his predictions are quite stunning and far-reaching.

IWB: Any who embrace a raw food diet?

JH: Not that I’m aware of personally. (Isn’t it good that you can’t hear plants scream?)

Actually, I do feel them go through their own anguish when they are harvested. I experienced plant life’s silent scream working on a truck farm and as a lumberjack cutting down juniper trees in my youth. Now I like talking to plants and trees before I harvest them. I am reminded of the Zen master who used to be a woodcutter. He would walk through the forest and ask the trees which one was ready to come down. When he got the appropriate impressed “answer”, he took out his axe.

In the future, even Vegetarians, Vegans and Raw-fooders will become more meditative and commune with their plants before they slaughter them. They will feel the death as well as the life and the spirit of the food they harvest. You cannot know life without equally feeling death at the same time.

In the distant future, in the Age of Capricorn, human beings will transcend the food chain altogether and attain their nutrients direct from the sun.

IWB: Nostradamus’ lifelong passions were writing and culinary delights. Edgar Cayce enjoyed photography, and I read he was a Sunday school teacher. What are your passions and hobbies?

JH: Running, f**king, eating good food, drinking good wine and aperitifs.

Dancing in a trance, sitting doing nothing (a luxury these days), singing, laughing, writing music, playing a cow in a musical or the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood (a Children’s Opera). Yesterday I crashed the Island County WA parade running in my blue shorts, tank top, and silver running shoes with bouncing green twinkle shamrock entennae clipped to my head. I ran a quarter mile ahead of the parade receiving the accolades of the waiting crowd, sometimes apologizing for budget cuts constituting my run as the parade this year. Laughter and joy was had by all as a crowning “clowning” warmup for a wonderful parade.

Other loves?

Love, for one.

Then there is a love of all kinds of music. I write my 15 books and counting often listening to classical music, though I will listen to anything that captures what it is truly trying to convey, whether it is Wagner’s Ring or Nirvana’s “Heart Shaped Box” or Vangelis’ “Antarctica” or provocative CDs such as “Enigma”. I can start the day playing Michael Jackson and end up withAlanis Morissette and Radiohead. I can dance to Grateful Dead and am a big fan of Dead can Dance.

Hobbies? I used to be a pretty good miniature ship builder of museum quality boats. I was once a master painter of miniature figurines. I also used to paint canvases in oils. I love how turpentine changes the smells and tastes of everything. Ever since 2005, I apply these painting talents to painting on bigger canvases called the interiors and exteriors of houses as a painter. (Writing is a calling. Anyone who thinks they will get rich being a freelance writer, might as well believe they can get rich being a schoolteacher. It is a passion and a calling to be a person of wordcraft with a message.

IWB: In your book, Nostradamus: A Life and Myth, there are many references throughout the book about one of his favorite passions – culinary delights. Tell us about his interest in the culinary arts and what type of food he loved to make.

JH: South French passions for Mediterranean cuisine go back more than a millennium as Nostradamus’ writings show. He had a passion for all kinds of foods, recipes for salads (liberal in their use of rose petals and wine). His chief culinary concern was the science of fruit preservatives. In this following passage from my biography on the prophet Nostradamus: A Life and Myth are examples of how this wandering apothecary, physician and Anthony Bourdain of the 16th century, had “no reservations” as a chef on a pilgrimage around France, Spain and Italy, gathering recipes that found themselves in his travelogue on the trail of medicine, cosmetics and food recipes:

We might follow a trail of bitter cherries left in passages of Traité des fardemens et confitures to mark some places passed. Nostradamus was obsessed with the sweet desires of the stomach—in particular, finding ever better ways to cook up fruit preserves of bitter black cherries of “the most delectable taste, which will keep for a long while.” In a rare moment of owning to where he had been, Nostradamus on the trail of the perfect black cherry jelly, says he had “seen it made in Toulouse, Bordeaux and [La] Rochelle.” Toulouse, the district seat of the Inquisition, seems an unlikely place to have been seen in 1539 [the year before they had “summoned” him for examination for questionable healing practices]. After Bordeaux he might have ridden north to La Rochelle, but another written extract could point his mule south, abandoning France altogether to hide out for an extended period among the black cherry confectioners and sweetmeat makers of Valencia, Spain:

I have often seen preserved things from Valencia, which were extraordinarily good … Their sugar is inferior [to] ours, but they are more skilled in the art of preservation. The same is true of their sweet meats in the manner in which they finish them, for when the sugar has been thoroughly absorbed and all bad and harmful moisture has been removed, they completely get rid of this sugar (which has become blackened through repeated boiling) and use a very beautiful one, which then makes the confectionery exceptionally attractive and excellent.

Excerpt from

Nostradamus: A Life and Myth, page 86.

IWB: Did he have a favorite food recipe?

JH: Beyond black bitter cherries? It seemed he liked best whatever he was engaged in preserving, whether it as pumpkin sauce to cool fevers and have a very pleasant taste, or taking bitter oranges into a sugar preserve, or honey preserving walnuts, or making a concoction called “boiled wine.” He wrote about a green ginger recipe originating from Mecca, Saudi Arabia. His quince jelly preserve endorsed by the Papal Legate of Avignon made him famous. His tastes seemed to mix the bitter with the sweet, though he also advised readers how to make candies and marzipan.

Ingrid Weithers-Barati: What fruits or vegetables are your favorites, least favorite and why?

JH: I can’t eat much fruit as it makes me too acidic, but I do like bananas, strawberries and blackberries and red wines (grapes).

I do eat nearly all vegetables. My favorites are broccoli, red onions, garlic, and mushrooms. My least favorite: Okra from India. It used to be eggplant too but I do love the way Punjabis make it.

IWB: What’s the one thing about you few people know?

JH: Nice try. If I tell you, too many people will then know it. Let us keep that to the chosen few. A man of mystery is far more intriguing, is he not?

IWB: If you could be or do anything else what would that be?

JH: A full-time composer of music. I wish I had the time and the financial backing to compose and conduct the many symphonies, concertos, symphonic poems and songs that play with full instrumentation in my head. I fear that I will be the only one to enjoy them if life is not much longer than the next moment.

I am bringing a few of these pieces into the world right now through the help of a dear friend, Talia, who is a composer and violinist who once played with Van Morrison in his “Into the Music” CD and was one time the kid who played violin with Jack on the Jack Benny Show.

IWB: What one word would you use to describe yourself?.

JH: No-knowing…

IWB: Where and what was your most memorable raw food meal?

JH: At the most recent Conscious Life Expo in LA, I lived three times a day on the Vegan wraps of food vendors with a café in Redondo Beach. They are called “Leaf Organics“. Go there if you can. They are the Mecca of vegan wraps! Leaf Organics! Yumm!! They used big broad leafs like burrito wraps. I still don’t know exactly what they put in there to make it so good. Who thinks when the thoughts drop in the no-mind of munch?

IWB: What is the most amusing response you’ve experienced or reaction you’ve received when you told someone you are a prophet scholar?

JH: I don’t remember. So, I guess it will have to be next response-reaction.

IWB: Looking forward, do you see a growing interest in vegetarianism/veganism?

JH: Yes indeed. To use a plant metaphor, it will be “grass roots” in nature until the emergency of food sustainability coming in the next decade forces a lot of people to get off the agra-meat machine. Ecological stresses caused by such high waste farming will become unprofitable.

Thank you John.

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The Giveaway

Raw Epicurean offers two copies of John Hogue’s book Nostradamus: A Life and Myth, and one [1] 25.00 gift certificate to Whole Foods Markets. To be eligible to win one of these three wonderful gifts, simply answer this question:

What fruits or vegetables are your favorites, least favorite and why?

One entry per person, please.

The drawing for this giveaway will take place ~~Saturday, September 26th~~ Thursday, October 1, 2009. I will use an online random number picker, my favorite tool to choose the winning participants. I will contact the winner’s via email and write an announcement in the comment section of this post.

Thank you in advance and best of luck for the drawing.

========

More about John Hogue

Visit Hogue Prophecy to direct download his ebooks and purchase his books: Nostradamus: A Life and Myth and others. Also, visit his site to read his amazing predictions for each year, and his yearly almanacs. Note: On November 27th, 2009, he will release his predictions for 2010.

Listen to his interviews and talks on Coast to Coast AM.

View documentaries on The History Channel featuring John Hogue and The Nostradamus Effect.

Tweet This: Send Page to Twitter

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Comments

35 Comments so far

Diana on September 22, 2009 Tuesday, 4:41 pm
My favorite fruit is grapes because they’re sweet and refreshing, and my favorite vegetable is spinach. I’m not sure why, I guess I just like the flavor. My least favorite fruit is pineapple because it makes me feel gross after eating it. And my least favorite vegetable is celery because it’s too fibrous.
sans on September 22, 2009 Tuesday, 6:06 pm
I haven’t met any I don’t like/love. There is such a variety of flavors and textures to explore.
Currently I am fascinated with the figs we (greenhouse) grow on an organic urban farm in New Britian, CT. Fig fruit is actually the flower of the tree, the flower is not visible, as it blooms inside the fruit. How cool is nature?
Yvonne on September 22, 2009 Tuesday, 6:08 pm
My two favorites are beets and carrots…I love to juice them…freeze the juice and then thaw it to drink cold. Nutritious and tasty!!
Gene Mui on September 22, 2009 Tuesday, 6:19 pm
My favorite vegetable is broccoli - it’s chock full of vitamins and minerals. My least favorite is probably winter squash - my mother made me eat it as a kid.
marcella wing on September 22, 2009 Tuesday, 6:30 pm
My fav veggies are wild Dandelion greens, Purslane, Heal all , Lambs Quarters, just to name a few, I am not sure they are classified as a veggie But I eat them everyday in a salad or smoothie, they are my fav because of their nutritional value and because they make me feel so vibrant. I also love the great wild tast of them. I guess if I had to pick just one fruit it would ba cucumber, I eat them right out of the garden and whole like an apple, my second fav would definatly be avocados, Because when I crave something smooth or with fat this will do the trick.In a healthy way.
April Myers on September 22, 2009 Tuesday, 6:48 pm
My favorite veggies (do I really have to pick??) are avocados and red, yellow or orange peppers! I love the divine creaminess of avos, sprinkled with sea salt, herbamare or Braggs, and the sweetness, aliveness and delightful crunch of sweet bell peppers makes my heart sing! I’ve never met a vegetable I don’t like, though eggplant, when I used to eat it cooked, did not like me! (Too yin, I think) In the summer, there is nothing better than a delicious, juicy sweet, local PEACH!! And in the fall, I am amazed at the myriad varieties of apples!! YUMMMMMM
Jess on September 22, 2009 Tuesday, 7:00 pm
I love broccoli and carrots, they are so versitile. I cannot really stand iceberg lettuce and mango, the first because it’s kind of a throwaway and the mango because it can be slimy to me.
janie on September 22, 2009 Tuesday, 7:21 pm
My number 1 favorite fruit in the world is WATERMELON!!! Sweet,red,delicious,juicy wa-ah-ter-mel-lon!! It’s especially orgasmic when cold. My least and I can’t deal with it either raw, fried, or baked - is OKRA!! It’s slimy, slimy,slimy. I can’t get with it.
Isle Dance on September 22, 2009 Tuesday, 7:35 pm
Very interesting…! The fruits and veggies I didn’t like have since become just as tasty as all the others. Bless this raw food thing. :o)
Jess on September 22, 2009 Tuesday, 9:31 pm
What an eye-opening interview. Thanks so much for introducing us to this fascinating soul and his ideas.

It’s no secret that my favourite fruits are figs, followed closely by persimmons. I could probably subsist on these two alone (okay, to be honest I’d also require leafy greens and cacao). Fruits I don’t like? Mealy supermarket apples.

As for vegies, I love ‘em all, and tend to follow my cravings and what’s available seasonally. I discovered celeriac this year and it’s pretty amazing. Also adore all sorts of mushrooms, and juicilicious cucumbers.
Renee on September 22, 2009 Tuesday, 10:30 pm
Wow! This is great! I can hardly wait to sink into this author! Thank you for sharing!

My ‘latest’ favorite veggie is kale. I love this because it is not only great in salads but I use it for wraps and in smoothies. My 4 year old loves to pick it fresh each time we use it. The other day we made a green pudding with kale and mangoes with coconut water. (His idea and we ate it with a spoon!)
I find it easy to eat in any weather hot or cold and it has such great uses. Those kale chips fresh out of the dehydrator… be still my heart!
:)
Jeanne Emerick on September 22, 2009 Tuesday, 11:07 pm
Ummmm, So many luscious choices!
Favorites:
BERRIES! All of them YUM!
I remember up north picking blackberries, raspberries and coming home with purple stained fingers!
BANANAS! Frozen, in smoothies, puddings, BEFORE/AFTER exercise, ANYTIME day or night!
Going outside and cutting my own down and eating. I feel like I am in the jungle!
AVOCADOS: Dips, puddings, COMFORT food, Could eat them everyday!(I love GROWING my own!)

Veggies: Another Broccoli lover!
Napa Cabbage oh so sweet!
Beets, juiced, shredded with lemon &
Cilantro. yum

NO NO: (most)MUSHROOMS.!!
(I approve of their health benefits for some) NOT for ME. Since I was a child the smell of them cooking gave me a headache.
Their flesh-like texture, ick!
GOOD: Grilled Portabellas, what can I say, cook these and I will eat them. Raw?, nah.

Everything else is beautiful, delicious and full of possibilities.
I LOVE to decorate my dishes artistically with the pretty colors of fruits and veggies.

TASTE THE RAINBOW!
stephanie on September 23, 2009 Wednesday, 2:34 am
great interview. thank you.
fave veggies are raw KALE KALE KALE with avocado and chives and basil and cherry tomatoes.
fave fruits are blueberrys forever

least fave veggies - eggplant
least fave fruit - kiwi
Renata on September 23, 2009 Wednesday, 4:26 am
Great article, will definitely check out his books. Regarding the fruits/veggies? Cherries are my favorite, maybe it’s because we can’t get fresh cherries all year round and I’m having withdrawals during the winter time, I don’t know. Love avocados. Hate celery, too stringy. Whenever I use it for juicing, I can’t use the leftover fibers for anything…
Mari T on September 23, 2009 Wednesday, 4:33 am
Cool interview. I’ve never heard of John, but know I’m interested in reading more.

My favorite fruits are Papaya, berries and peaches/nectarines. I love the taste and its aroma. Also young coconuts (although not a fruit or veg) I love making coconut kefir, the benefits are huge.

My favorite vegetables are green sprouts (like sunflower, micro greens etc), WIld greens like (purslane and dandelion) and aloe vera (its my top superfood).

My least favorite are beets, I never liked the taste of them, they make me want to gag.
susan on September 23, 2009 Wednesday, 4:43 am
Very interesting & informative read.

I’m just wondering how someone who eats 2 eggs a day can consider themselves Vegan when eggs are chicken embryos. Is it because they are not “alive” or fully formed yet?

Also, I wanted to clarify that while Timothy Leary did take mushrooms, he also did tons of LSD, which was what destroyed his body. The effects on the body from plant medicines like ayahuasca, iboga, peyote & mushrooms is very different than the effects of LSD, which can be very damaging. I don’t think the Shamans of the Amazon or African Medicine men would consider their spiritual connection to the plants to be synthetic, since the plants communicate with them & guide them.
Monica Knab on September 23, 2009 Wednesday, 5:15 am
Favorite vegetable - cucumbers…Fresh tasting and mixes well with fresh herbs.
Least favorite vegetable - eggplants…simply, I do not like the flavor.
Favorite fruit - cheeries, black, sour or sweet,I love them all.
Least favorite fruit - that is difficult, I would have to say grapefruit due to the sourness.
Interesting interview!
Thank you,
Monica Knab
Mark Stacey on September 23, 2009 Wednesday, 5:54 am
Favorite fruit: watermelon. It is happy food for me, reminds me of sunny summer days. Full of water, flavor and aroma!

Least favorite fruit: pears. Hate the flavor and texture. Can’t really say why.

Favorite vegetable: TIE between broccoli and asparagus. Yummy, green, vital. Could eat them both every day.

Least favorite vegetable: Egglplant. What’s the big deal? I miss it somehow.

Mark
Fran Meadow on September 23, 2009 Wednesday, 6:10 am
I am a raw foodist. My favorite vegetable is zucini. I love to marinate it and then make a wonderful pesto sauce. Favorite fruit would be
pineapple for its wonderful enzymes.
Least favorite vegetable…beet tops (but I do love the beets!).
Least favorite fruit would be mango, too acidic for my system.
Jodi on September 23, 2009 Wednesday, 7:57 am
Favorite fruit is pineapple - it’s so sweet and tangy.

Favorite veg is fresh yellow beans not cooked - they are so crisp and yummy

Least favorite fruit - grapefruit - just too sour for me.

Least favorite veg - is Brussel sprouts - hate the taste
Sue Turner on September 23, 2009 Wednesday, 12:37 pm
My favorite veg is glorious red bell pepper. When I bite into it, I get a burst of delicious sweet flavor & crunch. My favorite fruit is blueberries. Such a powerhouse of nutrition & I love the color. My least favorite veg is brussel sprouts - too bitter. And I’m not a big fan of melons. Can’t ever seem to find the perfectly ripe ones. God gave us such a tremendous variety of fruits & vegetables so we can all have our favorites.
John Hogue on September 23, 2009 Wednesday, 1:10 pm
I do not consider myself a label like “Vegan.” Indeed, no one is a label. We are far more. I just use words as a utility tool to communicate and indicate something beyond words. For those who identify with the “hammer” rather than the “hand” that uses it, then it is easy to miss what I’m saying. And anyway, why not expand beyond the dogma of Veganism. Aren’t all the “isms” in our life a bit anal? Communism, Fascism, Capitalism, Veganism…?

What is more important to me than narrowly adhering to vegetative dogmas or religious dogmas is to find what each unique human being needs for nourishment of body and soul. I can add “Rogue” Vegan to my Rogue Scholar utility identity.

Now to Timothy Leary and Shamans. The difference between the too is vast. A Shaman uses herbal psychotropic drugs to aid his or her vision quests. Leary was used by his drugs. Also, if Shamans were as unwise as Leary and used their natural psychotropic inebriates as frequently, daily, this would impair their vision and harm their body-mind systems. Just because a drug is natural doesn’t mean it can’t be poisonous if taken too often. Any real shaman will tell you that.

John Hogue
http://www.hogueprophecy.com
Springfairy on September 23, 2009 Wednesday, 1:33 pm
Ingrid, normally I love your interviews but imho this guy was a bad choice, I checked his website to know more though I had such a bad vibe from the interview about him, he is a fake and in the interview he comes across as a narcistic, unpleasant, incoherent person (just like his master, Bhagwan, sorry Osho :) ). A vegan who eats 2 eggs a day? That’s an ovo vegetarian.
andra on September 23, 2009 Wednesday, 6:02 pm
I was not familiar with this guest but I am familiar with Coast to Coast with George Noory, which I have listened to but often end up anxious (I am anxious by nature and nighttimes are the worst for me so please dont take this wrong :) I am not blaming Mr. Noory, just relating my experience).

It took time to think about what my least favorite fruits are….I dont really like papaya or guava and have sampled them in Costa Rica; I just did not like the taste. I love most other fruits, though. Really love berries. I get kindof a stomach ache if I eat melons but I love the taste.

I like most veggies but there are some I prefer more than others. Cannot really think of a veggie that I cannot stand or really dislike. Hmmm, I will have to think about this more LOL :)

andra
Allison Lopez on September 24, 2009 Thursday, 7:14 am
My favorite fruit is blueberries. I feel really energetic when I have them. My second favorite is bananas because they make any veggie smoothie taste good. I really love any kind of green leavy vegetable because I know how good they are for me and they also make me feel energetic. I have a smoothie every morning that consists of my favorite fruits and veggies - what a great way to start my day!
Claire on September 24, 2009 Thursday, 6:39 pm
Interesting article!

I love nearly all fruits, especially blueberries, figs, and watermelon, because they’re so refreshing and sweet but don’t weigh you down like a heavy dessert would.

I love broccoli any way, cooked, raw, marinated. It has a versatile flavor and pairs well with a lot of ingredients.
Shannon on September 25, 2009 Friday, 6:38 am
i don’t think there’s a fruit i don’t like! nor is there one favorite :)

if we’re talking veggies, i’d probably go with winter squash or spinach as my favs. Not a huge fan of brussels sprouts, although i do eat them occasionally (a huge step up from my childhood!), turnips, raw fennel…
Nicole (The Fitness Freak) on September 25, 2009 Friday, 7:49 am
Wow, very interesting interview Ingrid!

My favorite fruit right this minute is the Asian pear because they are so sweet and crisp and my favorite veggie is kale because they make the yummiest chips! My least favorite fruit is persimmons and my least favorite veggie is rutabaga they both taste awful to me.

Thanks for the chance to win another great gift!
Rawtastic on September 25, 2009 Friday, 2:42 pm
HI! I love the subject of this and would like to be put in the drawing for the book.

My favorite fruit is a peach that is perfectly ripe. I just really like the texture and it’s not too acidic like a mango.

My least favorite is rhubarb. But it good medicinally.. tastes like medicine..
Sandra Fountain on September 30, 2009 Wednesday, 9:08 am
My favorite veggies are: Tomatoes, potatoes, asparagus, yellow squash, (any squash raw), and onions! Used to like eggplant, but it’s a bit harsh to me now. And broccoli. Neych.
dd on September 30, 2009 Wednesday, 1:15 pm
My favorite fruit or vegetable changes w/seasons and Locations I am based. Least favorite vegetable green bell pepper ,cause it tasted bad when I was a kid. Now adult cucumbers w/seeds all taste pretty bland & annoying.
Nadia on September 30, 2009 Wednesday, 9:14 pm
My favorite vegetable is cucumber because it is the most tranquilizing and detoxifying vegeatable out there! It’s so cool and light….

I don’t have a least favorite vegetable, they’re all good!

My favorite fruit is pumpkin, because of it’s lovely autumn flavor, and it’s ability to taste good no matter how you prepare it, (it’s seeds are also tasty and healthy!)

Least favorite fruit: green apples, because I’m severly alergic to them!
linda on October 2, 2009 Friday, 4:11 pm
f**king? really? sorry ingrid but I have to agree with springfairy this guy is indeed an imposter and it’s hard not to comment on how unbelievably full of himself he is, eesh :(
Ingrid on October 2, 2009 Friday, 8:57 pm

ANNOUNCEMENT

Thank you to everyone who participated in this drawing. :-)

Congratulations to

Stephenie of Stephanie Forest and Fran of Thoughtful Hearts, you both will received a copy of Nostradamus A Life and A Myth

Claire will receive a $25.00 Whole Foods gift certificate

Enjoy your gifts.
Dana Horwitz on October 13, 2009 Tuesday, 8:29 am
hi! favorite veg: oh - kale when i make kale chips with nut or seed cheese - mmmmm - eat them right out of the dehydrator and they are great for any kind of craving that might happen once in a while since they are salty, crunchy, cheesy and green! and sea vegetables in all sorts of ways - salads, soups - great way to get minerals. dark greens of all kinds in salads - especially dandelion - it’s so satisfying with a tahini-lemon dressing. least favorite - probably jicama - just way too sweet for me.

fruits - blueberries! strawberries! crisp apples! fresh figs! dates! thai coconuts! persimmons! bananas! (but i don’t eat a lot of fruit because of the sugar - maybe one piece per day) least favorite…hmmm…anything that isn’t organically grown:)

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