The Derangements

How fasting rewired my brain

An emaciated Bodhisattva seated on a throne flanked by gods and worshippers, second to third century, Gandhara, via the British Museum

By Beau Friedlander

Here’s what happened when I didn’t eat for prescribed periods of time: it affected every cell in my body, and my mind started working better. I can’t prove any of this. There’s science out there that might explain it, but that work is far from settled.

A few times in my life, I have experienced a state of mind that felt “right.” But I didn’t know why or what specifically caused the mental clarity, acuity, focus, and sense of well-being until I began fasting. Each time I did so, I found the same result until I came to understand that not eating and thinking straight were, for me, in some way connected.

I usually tell strangers the same story when I’m trying to sell them on fasting: I’ve been playing classical guitar for more than forty years. There have always been pieces from the more advanced repertory that I couldn’t play no matter how much I practiced. My hands simply were unable to do what my mind wanted them to do.

The work of Argentinian guitarist and composer Jorge Morel is one of the better examples of music I could not play. I couldn’t get the syncopation into my hands. Beyond that, it was just very complex. A few of the adaptations of Bach Lute Suites were similarly beyond my musicianship.