The spiritual properties of food

“Everyone desires a strong, magnetic personality,” writes Dr. H. Spencer Lewis, F.R.C., in the 1935 pamphlet, The Spiritual Property of Food. “We often meet those persons who seem to radiate a convincing attitude of joy and happiness, of abundant good health, of optimism, love and sympathy. These people make friends everywhere…. people love to do things for them.”

Wouldn’t you like to be one of those people? The secret, writes Dr. Lewis, is right there in your refrigerator! It’s food!

The pamphlet was “issued by permission of the Department of Publications of the Supreme Grand Lodge of the Ancient, Mystical Order Rosae Crucis.” The same organization also issued the prolific Dr. Lewis’ pamphlets Mental Poisoning (“Are there thoughts that enslave minds… projected through space?”) and The Symbolic Prophecy of the Great Pyramid.

Dr. Spencer’s book is a paean to fresh vegetables. He explains how cooking, steaming or boiling green leafy vegetables destroys “the electromagnetic juice containing spiritual energy.”

It’s not the easiest pamphlet to read (more illustrations might have helped) and his hypothesis is rather vague: “The solution, then, is finding the proper kind of food and eating it in the proper way.” He advocates removing white bread, meat, sugar, potatoes “and other things that are not the proper foods” from the diet.

His favorite “spiritual” foods are watercress, dandelion (who knew?), celery, green lettuce, raw onions, uncooked green peas and beans.

And as much as I’d love to have people in my life “who love to do things for me,” I just don’t think my own spiritual life could take such a limited diet without an occasional brownie or Little Debbie Snack cake.