The Master Cleanser

(adapted from Stan Burroughs)

1. The night before Day One of your cleanse, drink a cup of laxative tea. Something with senna as the main ingredient is good, & an organic tea is best.
2. Day One through Day Ten of your cleanse:
   1. First thing in the morning drink one quart of lukewarm salt water. Prepare this by mixing two teaspoons of un-iodized salt into one quart of lukewarm water. (An empty milk bottle does the trick nicely.) If you can’t stomach swallowing salt water, there is an alternative. Instead, first thing in the morning you may again drink a cup of laxative tea.
   2. All day long drink as many glasses of the lemonade drink as you like. (If you’re trying to lose weight, keep it between 6 to 12 glasses per day. If you do not want to lose any weight, don’t restrict your intake of lemonade in the least, & be certain that you’re drinking at least 12 glasses per day.) YOU WILL LOSE WEIGHT ANYWAY—DO NOT RESTRICT YOUR INTAKE OF LEMONADE AT ALL (or you’ll get hungry & quit). The lemonade is made by mixing 2 tablespoons of organic grade B maple syrup (or dark grade A), 2 tablespoons of organic lemon or lime juice, and one tenth of a teaspoon of cayenne pepper in a 10 oz glass & filling it with water. The purer the ingredients you can use, the better. The lemon or lime juice may be fresh squeezed, or—if you get it from a bottle—check to make sure that it is ONLY 100% pure juice & not from concentrate. The beverage may be hot or cold or any temperature in between. The amount of cayenne you use may be “to taste,” but use at least 1/10 of a tsp of cayenne more often than not in your drinks. (About once or twice a day, I like to have a drink without any cayenne, just for taste variation.)
   3. In between lemonade drinks, rinse your mouth with water. Swish & spit as if you are at the dentist’s office. This is very important; the maple & lemon in conjunction with one another are tough on your teeth.
   4. As a variation in flavor, you may also drink mint tea. Again, use organic if possible. Remember that the mint tea doesn’t have any calories, so don’t use it as a replacement for any of the lemonade drinks, but use it in addition to it, or if you just want a change of flavor. Remember: You are not to drink any other beverages during this cleanse (including coffee)!
   5. The last thing before bed, drink a cup of laxative tea.
   6. Repeat this process from step a above as many days as you choose to cleanse. (I personally don’t find it necessary—or convenient—to drink the laxative tea every night along with the salt water every morning, but most mornings. The idea is that as the lemonade cleanses your tissues, you need the laxative tea to loosen the detritus, & the salt water [or the morning dose of laxative tea] to flush out what is loosened. So be sure to engage in this full process more often than not! [And stay by the toilet.])
3. Breaking the fast:
   1. Day 11 – Drink organic orange juice—as much as you like—all day long.
   2. Day 12 – Drink organic orange juice for the 1st half of the day. Sometime during the day, prepare homemade vegetable soup as follows & eat it for dinner. Ingredients you may use in your soup: recommended vegetables include 1 or 2 kinds of legumes, potatoes, celery, carrots, green vegetable tops, onion, okra, tomatoes, green peppers, zucchini, etc. USE NOTHING CANNED, but you may use an organic vegetable bouillon cube or 2 for flavoring, as well as seasonings & spices (go delicately)—including okra powder, chili, curry, cayenne pepper—(go sparingly on the salt, though). You may also use brown rice. DO NOT USE ANY MEAT OR MEAT STOCK. A few rye wafers may be eaten sparingly with the soup, but no crackers or bread.
   3. Day 13 – Drink organic orange juice in the morning, eat leftover vegetable soup for lunch, & for dinner make a fresh, raw vegetable salad (or, eat anything in the form of vegetables, salad, or fruit). NO MEAT, FISH, EGGS, BREAD, PASTRIES, TEA, COFFEE, OR MILK!
   4. From this point on you may resume eating normally, but go slowly & be cautious! You may experience a period of abdominal discomfort or pain after eating. You can return to the lemonade beverage to help with this, or at any time. Some continue to use it as a meal replacer. (Some people like it like coffee 1st thing in the morning.) I also like to make a very large pot of vegetable soup on Day 12 & eat on it for several days afterwards, not just through Day 13. It’s best, in general, to avoid dairy products, eggs, & meat in the immediate days following your cleanse, & DON’T EAT LARGE PORTIONS of anything! (Note that following the cleanse, the author recommends lemonade for the morning meal, & that a strictly fruit, vegetable, seed, & berry diet is then followed.)