Dolly Parton, the famous country singer, is an open and pleasant Christian. We differ in our views of the Bible but that is not a problem and she does have a sweet voice and a simple faith which are qualities not to be mocked.

She has said that when she wants to write songs she heads up to the woods and fasts for up to a week.

This can be quite a useful habit for a Buddho-Darwinist too. I have started on one day fasts and managed up to three or four days. For a Buddho-Darwinist this represents two balanced opportunities. Fasting provides you with a Darwinist view of how well you can survive or how tough you are. From the Buddhist point of view it also lets you see how well you can cope with giving up the things of this life. If you give the money you save from not buying food to charity it also gives an opportunity to show compassion.

Dolly apparently finds a connection with her creativity and perhaps her heart when she fasts. I have the feeling that most people who try say three days will begin to find something similar inside themselves. If you need to, try one day first then leave it a month, then try two days etc and build up.

The longest period I ever fasted was ten days after a colonoscopy. My father had died of an intestinal cancer so I thought it wise to ask the doctor what he could do when I reached the age my father had been when he died. He offered the colonoscopy. I spent the day before that rushing to the lavatory over and over again as they give you salts to clean your intestines out in preparation. The procedure itself was an unknown for me because the sedative they gave me to relax me put me to sleep, (I can be very childlike at times). Apparently some people are awake despite the sedative and one woman I talked to was shocked at the intrusiveness of it. I recommend a sleep therefore so go to the procedure tired if you have to have such an investigation. In the period after I just did not feel like eating and after about a six days I think I just decided to find out how far I could go.

When Muslims fast for Ramadan they do not even drink but then they only fast from dawn to sunset. If you do choose to challenge yourself to fast for a few days, do take in thin fluids eg water, tea etc. but not too much cheating with milk and such substances as obviously that is like wearing a nicotine patch since it is a food in itself.

My only word of caution is beware of binging after the fast or you will find yourself putting on more weight than you had before you started the fast. A bowl of fresh fruit sliced up in orange juice with some single cream is my favourite fast end meal. Tasty, good for you and refreshing.