Some of the Native American tribes believed in the Great Spirit. Eastern Religions believe in spiritual life. Catholics believe in the Holy Spirit. Christianity and other Western Religions profess some type of belief in a spiritual life.

The word SPIRIT, according to Webster's 3rd New International Dictionary, Unabridged (the big one you see at the Library reference desk) comes from the Latin root word SPIRITUS which means, literally, "the breath of life", and like the Latin verb SPIRARE, which means TO BLOW, BREATHE! (Check it out!) Since the time when Noah Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language was first published in 1828, the word SPIRIT has taken on several new religious intonations, but originally it meant BREATH OF LIFE! Since we are reading, thinking and perhaps speaking in English right now, and most American Bibles are written in English, maybe we should pay attention to Noah Webster's original definition of SPIRIT. Noah Webster was no dummy. In addition to writing the first major American English dictionary, he also spoke 26 languages. He was an American patriot who also wrote school books to replace the British-published books that dominated American culture at that time, among other credits to his name.

So therefore, according to the roots of the word SPIRIT (as was used in Christ's day, in ancient Rome), anyone who depends on BREATHING to live, is a SPIRITUAL BEING! So that includes ALL of us, does it not? Or is there anyone that you know who lives without breathing? Maybe a robot or an Android can live without breathing, but if you ever doubt that you are a breathing being or a spirit, simply stop breathing or just hold your breath! How long can you go without breathing? Time yourself. Not very long! Compare this extremely short period of time, a very few minutes AT MOST to the number of years you have been alive! HUGE DIFFERENCE! SO this shows you that AIR is WAY MORE IMPORTANT THAN FOOD OR WATER IN KEEPING YOU ALIVE! You can go for days or weeks without water, you can go for maybe weeks without food, BUT ONLY A COUPLE MINUTES WITHOUT AIR!!! Just realizing that you are a breathing being is a huge but necessary step in awakening to your YOUR TRUE SPIRITUAL NATURE. YOUR TRUE SELF!

If you wanted to be more scientific, there are also another 5 ways you can prove that you are a spirit. That is through the 5 senses: sight, smell, touch, taste and hearing. First of all, can you imagine yourself without your 5 senses? Everything that you are is a combination of your 5 senses: a name (sound); a mirror image of yourself (sight); a feeling of ecstasy; a warm, sweet smell, perhaps; these and many more -- in essence, you are a very complex combination of all of your 5 senses.Without your 5 senses you would virtually not exist! Try to imagine yourself without using any of your senses. It can't be done!

So now here's how you can prove, on our own body, that all of your senses come from the air: 1.) FEELING: Grasp your right wrist tightly with your left hand. Encircle your wrist with your fingers in such a way that you temporarily restrict the flow of blood from your arm into your hand. Hold it for about 5 to 10 minutes. You should feel your hand "go numb", does it not? For some people it may take longer. So think about it. Why does the feeling go away? Is it the nerves? If it was the nerves, you would instantly lose your feeling, wouldn't you? You know that you are breathing almost every minute of your life. The lungs take in air and mix it with your blood, which is then pumped by your heart throughout your whole body. When you restrict the flow of blood into your hand, you are also restricting the flow of oxygen being carried by your bloodstream into your hand. When the oxygen has been used up, you lose the feeling in your hand! The blood is still there, it hasn't been used up, so it's not the blood itself, is it? 2.) SMELL: Simply plug your nostrils with your fingers. Obviously you cannot smell anything without air going into your nose. 3.) TASTE: Like smell, if you plug up your nose and mouth, you cannot taste anything. 4.) HEARING: Plug your ears with your fingers. You cannot hear outside noises too well. Primarily, you can hear blood pumping through your ears, but that's about all, and that sound is coming from the oxygen carried by the blood! If you were in a complete vacuum (no air), you couldn't hear anything external, at all! (But then you couldn't breathe, either, unless you had an air bottle.) 5.) SIGHT: Close an eyelid. Put a finger on your eyelid and gently press and rub, like you might do when your eyelid itches, or when you're sleepy. If you rub for several seconds and then open your eyelid quickly, you will probably notice that you can't see for a few seconds. Why? Because the blood that carries the oxygen to your eyeball was temporarily, partially pushed out of your eye, therefore you could not see for a few seconds until the blood carrying oxygen to the eyeball, returned.

Since we now know that we are spirit (breathing beings) and that the 5 senses are spirit, we can also realize that ANIMALS are literally spiritual beings, too, since they also need to breathe.

While we are on the subject of SPIRIT, did you know that our "spirit" comes from the plant life on this planet? It certainly does! We can PROVE that it does! For those of you who want proof, here it is:

Find 2 small mice of approximately the same size, age, sex -- as equal as possible and put each one in a separate container -- a terrarium (like an aquarium, except that instead of water, there is soil with plants living in it, and the container is sealed off airtight and is clear glass on all sides, including the top). One terrarium, instead of plants, will have only soil (the same type of soil as the other terrarium), and will also be sealed off airtight. It's important that both terrariums be airtight, to prove the point. Put both containers in a place that receives an adequate amount of sunlight, and observe both containers every day. (Out of consideration for the mice, of course, this demonstration isn't necessary if you already know the outcome, or if you can take my word that plants give us the air that we breathe!) If you haven't already guessed the outcome of this demonstration you should know that the mouse in the terrarium without the plants will die long before the other mouse! I should say here, too, that I would not recommend doing this demonstration just for the fun of it! However, if you need convincing, go ahead and do the demonstration, but you must take responsibility for the lives of the mice!

So, now perhaps you can accept the fact that plants are the breathable-air suppliers of the planet. (Try looking in a Biology book, too.) So now how do you feel about the cutting and the clear-cutting of OUR forests? Perhaps now you realize that much more than the Spotted Owl or the aesthetic beauty of our forests or "prime" fishing and hunting land....is at stake?

And, speaking of stake (steak -- beefsteak), you might be surprised to know that cattle (where beefsteak comes from), unfortunately, are a major contributor to our LOSS of FOREST LAND! I don't like to be the one to bring you bad news, but it's true. How ironic, that the food that once symbolized "The Old West" is now the very food that today is one of the major reasons for the over-harvesting of timber that is going on now. Most forest cutting in Western civilization has been done to make more grazing land for all types of livestock, most of it for cattle alone. Throughout much of the history of Western Civilization, livestock farming has been the cause of desertification of several major areas of this planet! And, of course, over-harvesting creates a great loss of breathable air -- both through loss of plant life and by the creation of methane gas (from the cow's excrement). Remember that a cow eats 19 pounds of grain per day at the feedlot (for 100 days). Think how many humans that would feed. Think how much farmland it takes to feed them!

By simply boycotting meat: we can greatly reduce the amount of grain (and thus -- cropland) currently being used to feed these imprisoned animals; reduce the amount of fossil fuels burned to run the tractors, trucks, etcetera.

De-forestation causes not only a loss of oxygen, but the LOSS of a STABLE CLIMATE in which to live, (and, incidentally,) to grow crops! How? Well, for one thing, trees provide shade that helps keep us cooler during the hot summer. Another reason? Evergreen trees (if there's enough of them), in the cold North and in the mountains, keep the climate warmer in the winter because of their dark green color (dark colors absorb the heat of the sun, light colors reflect heat). Evergreen trees also, because of their needles prevent snow from collecting on their leaves like "broadleaf" trees would do. They also act as a "wind-block", to keep the climate more stable (again, if there's enough of them!). So the trees keep it warmer in the snowy winter and cooler in the hot summer (by creating shade), thereby making the climate more moderate, all year-round, but only if there are enough!

So, here are some very good reasons to immediately stop the cutting of all forests everywhere on the planet! Remember that a forest of large old-growth trees gives us a lot more oxygen and climate stability than a forest(?) of newly planted saplings. And now, how about another very good reason to maintain trees? We already know at least two good reasons to have trees, how about a few more?

Another good reason to have trees is for food. Fruit and nut trees provide an excellent source of high quality nutrition (NUTrition, NUT-RICH-ION?). Almonds are higher in protein than even beefsteak. All nuts are very rich in protein and fat, with no cholesterol. Fruits are the lowest in protein and the highest in natural sugars for high-energy (but when you become fruitarian, your metabolism speeds up, so the protein is sufficient!). Avocados provide us with a rich source of cholesterol-free fat, etcetera, etcetera.

Would fruit and nut trees be better to plant than mere vegetable crops? You bet! Why? For one thing, they don't have to be replanted every year like most vegetable crops. So what? So that's much "tractor energy" saved over the many years of life of the tree. Also, the larger the tree gets, generally, the more fruit or nuts it produces, as well as oxygen, of course, for the air, and the organic soil will produce nitrogen for the air, which is vitally important to keep oxygen from burning us up! Planting fruit and nut trees ( instead of so many grain crops, mostly to feed livestock) will in the long run (and on a large scale) very significantly reverse the greenhouse effect (climate instability), by using less tractor fuel and by providing more air-purifying/ oxygen-producing foliage, than mere vegetable or grain crops, while also providing for a more comfortable atmosphere!

Before anybody might rush out and immediately plant orchards and orchards of fruit trees, let me say this: Why don't we plan this out a little better, first? Let's build liveable communities nestled within a "forest" of a variety of fruit and nut trees? Or maybe we could create a landscaped "artist's dream" of many varieties of fruit and nut trees. After all, once planted, most fruit or nut trees will probably be in that same place for many years! This definitely takes more planning than vegetable farming! Let's build communities of maybe 50 people on maybe 40 acres, for example. This would provide a very gradual way to become a fruitarian, eating the best, freshest, most organic, most natural and most naturally harmonious food we could possibly eat! Just what God intended for us to have (Of course He hasn't twisted our arm to live there, right? God left it all up to us, to do otherwise would be interfering with our free will, that's why Eden doesn't exist anymore our ancestors chose not to live that lifestyle, but there is no physical, biological, or mathematical reason why we couldn't do it today!) Let's PLAN IT, PLANET EARTH, before we PLANT IT in the EARTH!

In other words, take a look at the facts (or the fax, as the case may be): the Earth is being systematically striped of its foliage, whether we like it or not. We know that we cannot live without breathable air nor a stable climate, and we know breathable air comes from an abundance of plant life! We know that we cannot continue to eat and sustain a large-scale meat-farming lifestyle. (If you don't know this fact, refer to: Diet for a New America by John Robbins; Beyond Beef by Jeremy Rifkin; Animal Factories, by Jim Mason and Peter Singer, copyright 1980.; and others.) We know the human population is growing on this planet, despite the wars. If we don't plant fruit and nut trees for our own future and for our children, how can we possibly survive in the future, without killing each other?

Not that I'm a religious fanatic (I'm more of a scientist), but in the Bible it says (in Genesis 1:29), that God told us to eat the seed of herbs and the fruit of trees. Since our ancestors (Adam and Eve, perhaps?) ate the wrong type of fruit, the human race has gone downhill to the point now where the planet is a mess and coincidentally people, generally, (at least in Western civilization),eat nearly totally wrong!

Some people today are "vegetarians", but actually we were/are biologically created to be "fruitarians" (fruit and nut eaters). Look at animals: buffaloes, elephants, deer, elk, cows, all are vegetarians. Look at the long necks that these animals have. These long necks are for bending down to eat the grasses close to the ground. Now look at the whole anatomy of the average human being. We do not have long necks to eat grasses. Now do we have sharp claws and jagged teeth, like the mountain lion, for example, or other predators whose bodies are obviously designed for tearing and eating flesh.

Now look again at our anatomy. We have hands. Hands are ideal for picking, holding and eating fruit from a tree. Our teeth are not sharp and jagged, but are usually rather straight and even, designed to bite and chew fruits and vegetables. We have a long intestinal tract, similar to vegetarian animals' tract. A carnivore has a very short intestinal tract, because meat putrefies very quickly and so must pass through the system quickly. Two or three pieces of fruit can easily provide the quantity of food necessary to fill the stomach. However, should the average American of today switch over from his/her omnivorous diet of meat, potatoes, pastries, processed and junk food, to an exclusive fruit and nut diet, they may feel good for a relatively brief period of time, but soon, most likely, they become either: ill, tired or even nauseous within a few days of eating nothing but fruits and/or nuts. This happens to nearly everyone, without exception. So the obvious question now is: Why do most people get sick, ill, tired, etc. from eating only fruits and/or nuts, if these are our biologically correct foods?

The answer is this: as soon as you switch from your omnivorous diet to a fruitarian diet, the fruit begins a cleansing process. During this cleansing process, fruit acts as a natural cleanser, dissolving the waste of old foods (especially the sticky, gluey waste of high-protein & high-starch foods) that fill the intestinal tract of the average American. When this old, dissolved rotten waste re-enters the bloodstream, these loosened up waste products, naturally enough, can make us feel sick, tired, weak, etcetera. However, once this old waste can pass out of our system (usually by way of the intestinal tract and the bladder), then we feel good again. However, if our intestinal tract is too full of the waste from the high-protein and high-starch diet of the average American, then this dissolved old waste stays in our bloodstream and thus we feel sick! If this old waste gets stuck inside a bodily organ, then the doctors give it some type of disease name.

If it's true that humans were created in the "image and likeness" of God, then it makes sense that God would create us as fruitarians (fruit and nut eaters), because, when you think about it, the fruit and nut (seed) diet is the least "violent" or destructive diet on the planet! Why? Because unlike the vegetarian or the carnivorous diet, you do not kill the plant or animal when you eat! In fact, if you were living under ideally natural conditions, (whereby you could bury your excrement in the dirt), you would actually be planting its seed in the ground where it would have a very good chance of sprouting back into the tree or plant like the one it came from! Or you would at least be organically fertilizing the land for another plant or tree! You would actually be re-establishing a long-lost POSITIVE, 2-way relationship with Nature! The plant gives you high-quality, delicious, plentiful nourishment and you naturally help spread its seed around to other areas for the plant (because plants can't walk), without killing the plant!

I believe that humans were originally created as the "Crown of Creation" -- that we were the "closest to God", created in the image and likeness of God -- the most intelligent, loving and kind of all the creatures on Earth. Therefore, we had no need to kill anything just to eat. In the "Garden of Eden" spoken of in the Bible, humans had a wide selection of pure, organic fruits, nuts and seeds. Even after our original parents ate the wrong type of fruit, Adam lived to be over 900 years old and Eve was very old as well. Obviously there is something very healthy about the fruit, nut and seed diet!

So why don't humans of today simply create "Gardens of Eden" and live there and be healthy and happy and live to a ripe old age like our ancestors did? Since this is a 2 part question, I'll give a 2 part answer: 1.) (I'll answer the latter part 1st) Generally, people don't know how to COMFORTABLY make the transition over to the fruit, nut and seed diet (as mentioned above); and; 2.)People don't have the knowledge or resources to create proper living environments that are ecologically sustainable, healthy, stress-free and in harmony with nature.

The solution to the first answer is contained in the following books: The Mucusless Diet Healing System, and; Rational Fasting both by Arnold Ehret, or; almost any of Ann Wigmore's books or The High Integrity Diet by Dr. Michael Schleyer and other books. In these books, you will learn that the fruit and nut diet is the most biologically correct food for humans.

The solution to the second answer is found in a project I am working on called The Garden of Eden Project (and hopefully, for the sake of life), the type of project others are working on, too. (I've heard of some.)

So, anyway, getting back to the subject at hand (the spirit-soul), now that we know that we are SPIRIT, what's the difference between the SPIRIT and the SOUL?

Perhaps the spirit is the life of the body in this lifetime, and the soul is the eternal part of us, the part of us that is the accumulation of knowledge and experience from everything that we've learned from all of our previous lives!

I believe that our souls are eternal, but our bodies are born, grow, change, grow old and die. I believe that anyone who is now, in this lifetime, a human, is not living their first lifetime! Any soul who becomes human has lived perhaps millions of lifetimes before arriving at this one. Most of us, unfortunately, cannot remember very much of our past lives. Maybe one reason might be that we spoke different languages in past lives, so, in this English-speaking life, we haven't translated all of our memories into English yet. Makes sense, doesn't it? Another reason might be that, according to Hinduism, we alternate between male and female, from one life to the next. Or perhaps the biggest reason of all could be that we have a mental block about the DEATH EXPERIENCE that killed us in our previous life!

However, I believe that God was very thorough in His creation of us, and He wanted us, eventually, to learn everything there is to know, so, He started us from the very beginning, a long, long time ago as a very small soul, very tiny, living inside one-celled plants and animals. It required many lifetimes to come to the human platform of life. After many life and death experiences our soul continued to grow, through many bodies, accumulating knowledge and experience (so-called "lives") until it arrived where it is now. Eventually, we will have learned sufficient knowledge to attain perfection, or one-ness with God. Reincarnation is the name given to the process of the soul re-entering a womb to "accept" a physical body once again, to grow and attain perfection, eventually.

Another reason that I believe that all humans have lived many lifetimes before this one, is that God is fair. Why would He create some souls that lived their very first lifetime as a human, and other souls as a lower life form, like a frog or a cat, or an insect? Or, if God is fair and loving, why would He have some supposedly "innocent" human babies born into extreme poverty and hunger while others are born into affluence or a well-providing family? Only reincarnation can explain this mystery adequately. You know now that animals also have a spirit, because they also breathe, feel, see, etcetera. I believe that they also have a soul, although it may not be as advanced as our human soul.

Now that we realize that animals have a spirit because they can feel, see, hear, taste, and smell, we also can realize that they too are a soul, in a learning process, although not as advanced as we humans. As they continue to learn and experience life, eventually, they will also in a future lifetime, become human. Doesn't that idea about God's creation of all of us Earthly critters make more sense (because God is FAIR), than saying (as some Biblical scholars preach) that animals don't have a spirit or a soul, and that it's okay for people to put livestock animals into cages, for example?

I believe that because God gave us all a free will, that He will allow theses people to mistreat animals like they do, but eventually these people will have to take their turn living perhaps several lifetimes as one of these animals, so their soul can learn that these animals do suffer from the experience of entrapment, they do feel pain and yes indeed they do have a soul and a spirit! Then sometime in a future lifetime they will remember how hard life was as an animal, so they won't mistreat an animal, hopefully.

I believe that if a soul is very old and experienced, maybe its first lifetime on this planet could be as a human, because the soul learned sufficient knowledge as primitive life forms on other planets that were similar to Earth.

I see our society, our government, our religions, all trying to find the truth about what is going on in the world today. This time is, like all times for the soul, a time of learning. We are all here to learn, and we do that best through experience. By me saying all of this, I am merely "waking up" your own soul-consciousness, if it isn't already awake. This may also help you get rid of any fears that you might have about doing what you know is morally or ethically right, and it should help you lose your fear of so-called "death!"

The point of all this is to remember that because God is fair, whatever we do in this life affects how and where we will be in our next lifetime. You don't get what you want, necessarily, instead you get what you deserve! If you act like an animal, you will reincarnate as an animal. If you don't think that animals have a soul, maybe you will be required to live a lifetime as an animal to learn that they do indeed have a soul!

Souls reincarnate for various reasons. Souls can reincarnate as humans, animals, even lower life-forms, or as higher life forms (angels, extraterrestrials, etc.) depending on their actions that they do in their present lifetime and their personal soul knowledge and experience. Karma could also be defined as the reaction of the Universe (including nature) to whatever we think, do or say. So, our next lifetime is determined by our karma created in this lifetime.

I hope the foregoing statements combined with the other information on this website are sufficient to help establish a "necessity" or "desire" to establish "Garden of Eden Projects" throughout the U.S. and perhaps other places on Earth. When you fully realize that you are your soul and you lose your fear of death (for one thing), you will be much less afraid to talk about the truth to other people and to help spread the REAL "good news" to humanity!