Vegetarianism

Vegetarianism is the practice of consuming plant-based foods and, depending on the type of vegetarianism, animal foods which were not obtained from the slaughter of animals.

Many types of vegetarians exist including lacto-ovo vegetarians, ovo vegetarians, vegans, raw food vegans, and others. Lacto-ovo vegetarians eat eggs and dairy products in addition to plant-based foods, while ovo vegetarians only eat eggs and plant based foods. Some vegetarians exclude all animal products including eggs, dairy, and animal-derived food ingredients; individuals abstaining from all animal products are considered vegans. Raw food vegans only consume uncooked vegan foods.

History

The origins of vegetarianism are uncertain, however, vegetarianism was practiced as early as 3200 B.C.E. by various ancient Egyptian religious groups. Other ancient philosophies also embraced vegetarianism, including Hinduism, Zoroasterianism, Jainism, and Brahmanism. Central to the beliefs of these ancient philosophies were the ideas of non-violence and respect for all life. Vegetarianism was also prominent in ancient Greece and was advocated by Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Pythagoras believed that vegetarianism was important for peaceful human interaction because slaughtering animals damaged the soul. Many parallels exist between the beliefs of ancient vegetarians and modern vegetarians.

Health reasons

The China Study (a massive epidemiological study was performed on populations in China) revealed that great differences in the prevalence of disease existed between areas which consumed animal products and areas which did not. As animal product consumption approaches zero, a dramatic decrease in cancer and other Western disease occurs. When strictly vegan, cancer and heart attacks, two of the leading causes of death in Westernized society, are nearly nonexistant. Even slight consumption of animal products is associated with a significant increase in the prevalence of disease. Animal products are either low in or do not contain nutrients which protect against cancer such as antioxidants, fiber, phytochemicals, folate, vitamin E, and vegetable protein. Compounding this problem, animal products contain large amounts of cancer causing substances including saturated fat, IGF-1, arachidonic acid, and cholesterol.

Cancer is not the only disease influenced by animal products. Coronary heart disease directly increases with the consumption of animal protein, and decreases as consumption of legume and vegetable protein increases. A strong correlation exists between vegetable and fruit consumption and general health.

Ecological reasons

In 2006, a United Nations investigation found that raising livestock is one of the most damaging industries for the environment. Livestock production uses 26 percent of all arable land for grazing, and food for industrial livestock takes up an additional 1/3. Combined, livestock production uses more than half of all the available farmland on the planet, land which could be used to support at least 8 times as many people, possibly as much as 54 times, if it were used to grow grain crops. In the U.S., 70% of all arable land is used to raise livestock.

Grasslands and tropical forests are being destroyed at a rapid rate in order to increase available land for livestock feed and production. This deforestation and destruction contributes greatly to a loss of biodiversity. Additionally, the pollution, especially toxic runoff into water systems, causes great environmental damage. For instance, toxic runoff from industrial livestock production contributes significantly to the deadzone in the Gulf of Mexico. The deadzone encompasses 8000 square miles of water in which there is too little oxygen for any significant life to survive. Further, livestock production accounts for 37% of methane emmissions, 65% of nitrous oxide emmisions, and 9% of all CO2 emmissions. Methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas than is carbon dioxide.

Theosophists and vegetarianism

Anna Kingsford was an early advocate of vegetarianism, graduating from a Paris university in 1880, one of the first women to graduate with a doctorate in medicine, so that she could argue for vegetarianism with more credibility. Her beliefs were very much in accordance with Theosophy, and she became president of the London Lodge of the Theosophical Society in 1883.

Dr. Kingsford said, "What right have I, I asked myself, thus to ill-treat a creature simply because it has a form which differs from my own?" Her belief was that as creatures more evolved from beasts, we should uphold a corresponding, higher moral quality of truthfulness, love, sympathy, and friendship. She believed that being human in form is less important than being human in spirit, and that as higher creatures, we should not mistreat and kill needlessly other creatures. Much like other prominent Theosophists, she believed that ultimately speaking, all creatures are one.

Dr. Annie Besant was also an important advocate of vegetarianism. The souvenir book produced for the 1957 International Vegetarian Union Congress features some of her writings under "History of Vegetarianism."

Theosophist Geoffrey Hodson was the founder and long-serving President of New Zealand Vegetarian Society.

Theosophical reasons for vegetarianism

H. P. Blavatsky was not a vegetarian herself, although she always recommended the vegetarian diet for aspirants, if that was possible (we must remember that at the end of the 19th century it was very difficult to be vegetarian in Europe). In her article "Have Animals Soul?" she supports vegetarianism as an act of compassion for the animals. Another reason for this is that eating meat is a hindrance for the occult development of the aspirant:

When the flesh of animals is assimilated by man as food, it imparts to him, physiologically, some of the characteristics of the animal it came from. Moreover, occult science teaches and proves this to its students by ocular demonstration, showing also that this "coarsening" or "animalizing" effect on man is greatest from the flesh of the larger animals, less for birds, still less for fish and other cold-blooded animals, and least of all when he eats only vegetables.</ref>

The eating of meat strengthens the passional nature, and the desire to acquire possessions, and therefore increases the difficulty of the struggle with the lower nature.

Nevertheless, she never put the physical actions as the diet as more important than the emotional and mental activity:

[Eating meat] is no crime; it will only retard his progress a little; for after all is said and done, the purely bodily actions and functions are of far less importance than what a man thinks and feels, what desires he encourages in his mind, and allows to take root and grow there.

Mme. Blavatsky thought that even the general person, not particularly interested in the spiritual life, would obtain a health benefit from a vegetarian diet:

We believe that much disease, and especially the great predisposition to disease which is becoming so marked a feature in our time, is very largely due to the eating of meat, and especially of tinned meats. But it would take too long to go thoroughly into this question of vegetarianism on its merits.

Prominent members from the Theosophical Society (Adyar) have supported vegetarianism as part of the spiritual life, although it was never an imposition within the Theosophical Society. Below are some of the reasons put forward:

• Interconnection with other Kingdoms of Nature

According to Theosophy life, in all its variety, is one. We are all connected, not only with other human beings but with the whole planet and also with the universe. Animals are seen as humanity's less evolved siblings. Being in a position of power, humans should aid creatures lower in the chain of evolution, as opposed to causing them pain and misery. If a person is to advance and grow, he cannot be isolated from the rest of the world. Eventually, the pain, and disharmony of others, not as advanced, will hinder his progress. Annie Besant writes:

The misery that you cause is, as it were, mire that clings round your feet when you would ascend; for we have to rise together or to fall together, and all the misery we inflict on sentient beings slackens our human evolution, and makes the progress of humanity slower towards the ideal that it is seeking to realize.

When animals are slaughtered, filled with pain and fear, they send out a powerful, negative vibration into the astral world which subsequently influences the material world. Any person that comes near these vibrations is also influenced by them, the sensitive being especially susceptible. About these negative vibrations Annie Besant writes:

This continual throwing down of these magnetic influences of fear, of horror, and of anger, and passion, and revenge, works on the people amongst whom they play, and tends to coarsen, tends to degrade, tends to pollute.

C. W. Leadbeater explains it similarly, stating that the pain and terror inflicted upon the animals, butchered for our consumption, is creating unseen, yet strong, forces which negatively affect us and our children, creating an atmosphere of fear and terror.

• The building of the subtle bodies

The body is seen as the vehicle for the soul, and therefore needs to be kept in as best of a condition as possible so that it is easier to develop the higher, more important aspects of our nature. A diet based on animal meat makes it more difficult for the soul to use its vehicles, and anything which makes our path more difficult should be avoided. Annie Besant wrote:

As we carry on the purification of the physical body by feeding it on clean food and drink, by excluding from our diet the polluting kinds of aliment - the blood of animals, alcohol and other things that are foul and degrading - we not only improve our physical vehicle of consciousness, but we also begin to purify the astral vehicle and take from the astral world more delicate and finer materials for its construction. The effect of this is not only important as regards the present earth-life, but it has a distinct bearing also . . . on the next post-mortem state, on the stay in the astral world, and also on the kind of body we shall have in the next life upon earth.

C. W. Leadbeater explains further how the constitution of the physical body affects the subtle bodies:

As the astral body is the vehicle of the emotions and passions, it follows that a man whose astral body is of the ruder type will be chiefly amenable to the lower and rougher varieties of passion and emotion; whereas a 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. Thus a man who is building for himself a gross and impure physical body is building for himself at the same time coarse and unclean astral and mental bodies as well. This effect is visible at once to the eye of the trained clairvoyant, and he will readily distinguish between a man who feeds his physical vehicle with pure food and another who contaminates it by intoxicating drink or decaying flesh.

• Responsibility

Although animals are not necessarily being killed directly by meat-eaters, the Theosophical approach maintains that people eating meat are still responsible for the “deterioration in the moral character of the men on whom we throw this work of slaughtering”. Geoffrey Hodson explains that forcing people to work in the meat processing industry is cruel. The industry causes people to lose their appreciation for life, and tends to derail their spiritual and cultural progress.

According to Annie Besant, an ethical rule is that no person should force another person to perform some duty that he or she is not willing to perform his or her self. If a person wants to eat meat, they should do the killing themselves. Leadbeater strongly agrees with this sentiment, writing "It is universally recognized in law that qui facit per alium, facit per se--whatsoever a man does through another, he does himself."

Further reading

• Vegetarianism in the Light of Theosophy by Annie Besant

• Theosophical Vegetarianism in Australia by Edgar Crook, published online by the International Vegetarian Union.

• Vegetarianism and Occultism by C. W. Leadbeater