Eustis Story - The Journey to Toxic - Less: Revelations on my Visit to Machu Picchu

On my train ride up to Machu Picchu, I was barely into my early thirties when I stumbled upon a book that would change my life.

The book was purchased in a used bookstore where I relished opening up old books and receiving whiffs of aged wisdom. It was a small booklet that cost me less than five bucks. I dug into my backpack for my book and began reading holding my hot tea in one hand and book in the other.

Bragg’s Toxicless Diet

The book was entitled, Toxicless Diet, by Paul and Patricia Bragg. They called themselves “Bragg Health Crusaders: Americas Pioneers.” I bought the book because one of my great teachers on my path was Dr. John Demartini who was directly inspired by Paul Bragg himself. Bragg taught him to follow his vision.

Dr. Demartini was in Machu Picchu when he was called into chiropractic. He felt a knowing he was to go into the field. "Chiropractic picks you!” many have said.

I was picked by chiropractic at the tender and vulnerable age of just 13. I had received my “vision” and just knew the field would be in my future.

And on this train a similar thing happened. I discovered the Law of Compensation as it related to health from this little Toxicless Diet book.

I had previously read about the Law of Compensation by Emerson. I even ordered his Law of Compensation essay in which he states:

“Ever since I was a boy, I have wished to write a discourse on Compensation: for it seemed to me when very young, that on this subject life was ahead of theology, and the people knew more than the preachers taught… Thus is the universe alive. All things are moral. Justice is not postponed. A perfect equity adjusts its balance in all parts of life. {Oi chusoi Dios aei enpiptousi}, — The dice of God are always loaded. The world looks like a multiplication-table, or a mathematical equation, which, turn it how you will, balances itself. Take what figure you will, its exact value, nor more nor less, still returns to you. Every secret is told, every crime is punished, every virtue rewarded, every wrong redressed, in silence and certainty. What we call retribution is the universal necessity by which the whole appears wherever a part appears… Every act rewards itself, or, in other words, integrates itself, in a twofold manner; first, in the thing, or in real nature; and secondly, in the circumstance, or in apparent nature. Men call the circumstance the retribution. The causal retribution is in the thing, and is seen by the soul. The retribution in the circumstance is seen by the understanding; it is inseparable from the thing, but is often spread over a long time, and so does not become distinct until after many years…”

I flashed back on Emerson's writings. I thought about how the Bible often states that groups who are oppressed will eventually take over and how the tail will become the head and the head will become the tail. And then I leaned back into the train booth and dived into how this principle or universal Law of Compensation applies to the human body.

This little treatise on health and detoxifying the body very clearly spelled out for me that there is a point, whether it is earlier or later, based on your genes/lifestyle/choices when your body will reach a critical mass of toxicity and at that time it will compensate you with illness and disease. This tipping point has to do with the law of cause and effect. For every cause there is an effect; for every effect there is a cause.

In our office patients have often claimed,"I didn't do anything, Dr. Wagner, I swear. I just bent down to tie my shoes and my back gave out and I couldn't get up." Trying to explain that it was many many years in the making still caused many to simply tune out or they would say, "Maybe it was that car accident 20 years ago where the car rolled over two times and I walked away." Usually, it was almost impossible to articulate and cause the patient to have an epiphany that it was a variety of factors such as the food they ate hundreds of times, the lack of exercise and stretching for months at a time, the thousands of bad postures and motions that break down the joints, the cigarettes they smoked and the processed meats they ate. As I read Toxicless I felt a distinct sickening conviction like when you find out you have a disease but a diluted version of it. Instead of going into shock and terror and victim mentality I felt a strong sense of truth instead.

I had spent a decade smoking the occasional cigarette, eating refined foods like pasta and tortilla chips and fast food because it was cheap. I consumed burgers and bacon and truly believed somehow my Iowan background of meat and potatoes and overcooked vegetables was a healthy balanced meal, that cooked vegetables like corn, green beans, and broccoli with a big portion of meat like pork chops was indeed healthy. And I only went downhill in my health habits while building my small enterprise of my chiropractic clinic. I also had been gulping down triple shot lattes twice a day to keep my energy up. Somehow I had lied to myself that Red Bull or five hour energy drinks were okay if I was really tired, and if I ate carbs like pasta I could run off the calories outside. The diet sodas I drank caused large freckle-like spots on my face and I had gallbladder attacks. I came down with Hashimoto's thyroiditis and fibromyalgia in my mid 20s. Depression and anxiety were definitely part of it and moments of anger quite frequent.

The conviction hit my gut like altitude sickness. As the train moved higher and higher towards the ancient Incan city of Agua Calientes I thought back about how my body took the abuse again and again. And eventually the abuse hit its tipping point and “boom” flipped and my body began abusing me. I can distinctly remember pains, irritable bowl syndrome, insomnia, and aches and pains all over my body’s joints. I had gallbladder attacks on a regular basis just bad enough to ruin an experience but not bad enough to go to the hospital. And I suddenly really got that my body was a byproduct of the hundreds or even thousands of bad choices I had made all the while thinking, “Just this time, I will indulge.” And again and again.

The Law of Compensation does appear in the body. This book put it into clear terms that my choices were responsible for my sickness and that I could change and reverse the abuse by beginning to eat and drink healthy foods and clean water. I began to see that I could heal my depression, bowel issues and low energy by eating in an intelligent manner.

I decided when I got home I would fall in love with cutting and cooking lots of fresh veggies, that I would change my ways and exercise more frequently, and that I would turn the Law of Compensation in my favor.

“The average food of civilization has been so perverted and robbed of its life and energy that most of its vital nutrients have been removed! You cannot expect to build a high Vital Force on poor fuel.”

- THE BRAGG TOXICLESS DIET: BODY PURIFICATION AND HEALING SYSTEM

And although the journey is a long one little changes are powerful in getting the body to work in your favor. The hardest part of any journey is the decision to begin. Begin today.

Bragg, Paul Chappuis, and Patricia Bragg. The Bragg Toxicless Diet: Body Purification and Healing System. Health Science, 1981.