Fasting

Abstaining voluntarily from food and/or drink for reasons of religion, or social protest.

Among almost all peoples fasting is a method of making contact with the supernatural, of personal sacrifice and of divine propitiation of purifying one's self before important events; evoking mystical experiences or revelation; or of providing social pressure on an individual or group to recognize a social injustice, pay a debt, yield a point, or grant a request.

The amount of publicity depends on the purpose of the fast. Fasting as a means of social pressure requires that the group toward whom the fast is directed know about the fast and the progress of it. There needs to be belief that a negative social or moral effect will result should the person fasting die.

1. Fasting without an appropriate social and moral climate is a meaningless activity.

2. Fasting leads to deterioration of one's health and possibly to death.

1. Abstaining

1. Refusing to eat

1. Atoning for sin

1. Eating

1. Starvation

1. Voluntary
2. Involuntary
3. Abstinence