“ Where green life has been effectively extinguished, in the inner city ghettos and prisons, mental illness and violence are commonplace. ”

Ann Wigmore
Nature’s First Law: the Raw Food Diet
(www.rawfood.com)

Many men want to lead less stressful lives, but they don’t know how.

Our post-industrial, twenty-four-seven culture has divorced us from the natural cycle of the four seasons. This means that although there is more time for doing, there is less time for being. Even catching one"s breath is considered suspect. Therefore, many men feel compelled to keep going until they drop. Many do.

At the Chiron Centre (Liverpool), our goal is mental, emotional, physical and spiritual health for all men aged 16+ by promoting inner peace, harmony and a peaceful environment.

We promote inner peace through regular meditation, right livelihood, mentoring and providing positive role models. We adhere to the following six golden rules. These principles, as well as regular spiritual practice, create the foundation for a sacred environment that offers sanctuary:

  • To protect life and to refrain from harm
  • To respect others´ property and refrain from taking that which has not been given
  • To speak the truth and to refrain from harmful speech
  • To encourage health and refrain from all intoxicants that dull the mind and body
  • To respect others and refrain from harming others using one´s sexuality
  • To honour and respect the Earth and to celebrate the Gaia principle (i.e. that our planet is a living, breathing, thinking, feeling organism that we choose to respect)

Together, they form the prerequisite for adult men to develop awareness. We acknowledge that avoiding intoxicants takes more than strong individual spiritual will — power: it needs the active and committed support of the community. Already for decades, psycho-social scientists have demonstrated that there is a mind / body connection: our wellbeing depends on our environment, lifestyle and the food we eat.

The deepest movement for peace is organic farming, because it puts an end to the poisoning of our environment with pesticides. It also means that the food we eat will contain sufficient irons, minerals and vitamins – essential ingredients largely missing from Genetically Modified food (GM) and fast food. Fast food is addictive and can lead to obesity, diabetes, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), chronic fatigue (ME), arthritis, depression, aggression and cancer (www.soilassociation.org).

According to Dr Marilyn Glenville, there is also a direct link between fast food and low sperm count in men:

“Both pesticides and plastics contain “xenoestragens”, poisonous chemicals that have been linked to low sperm counts and fertility problems. Therefore, only eat organic food and avoid plastic wrapping of food” (Observer Magazine, 11.11.07)

  • Warriorship can be developed daily in boys by the three ingredients of “action, adventure and sport” Marcus Trower (The Last Warriors).
  • “Cooked food inflames and damages internal organs. Short tempers, persistent anger and stress are caused by internal irritation. An entire generation of angry youth has been bred on fast food” (David Wolfe, Nature´s First Law: the Raw Food Diet, www.rawfood.com).
  • Thirty thousand tonnes of pesticides are applied to U.K. farmland each year. Pesticides, like chemical warfare, are produced in order to kill living beings. As yet, there is no scientific, publicly acknowledged direct link between pesticides and cancer. However, the problems pesticides cause to human health and the environment will only be solved when all farming and all food is organic (www.soilassociation.org).
  • Genetically modified food (GM) is altering the emotions of children (they are becoming more aggressive with each generation) and affects their bodies. The female hormone oestrogen is found in many GM foods - particularly meat, which causes puberty for girls to start earlier, and puberty in boys to start later than is natural (www.kindredspirit.org.uk).
  • In Liverpool – “the booze capital of Britain” 7% of men and 2% of women are alcohol dependent, 26% of the day time accident and emergency beds at the Royal Liverpool Hospital are occupied by binge drinkers (Daily Post 16.6.04); 70% of night admissions to hospital casualty departments are linked to drinking (Daily Mirror 21.5.04).
  • The NHS spends over £380 million per year on anti-depressants ... an independent medical research group found that 4 out of 5 GPs admit to over-subscribing Prozac (The Guardian, 19.5.04).
  • One man dies every hour in the U.K. from prostate cancer
    (www.everyman-campaign.org).
    It is the most common form of cancer for men, but most don´t know where their prostate is or what its function is meant to be!
  • “Heal your spirit, heal yourself” Dr Pema Dorjee (Heal Your Spirit, Heal Yourself).
  • In the U.K. prescriptions of Ritalin for ADHD have increased from 3,500 in 1993, to 250,000 in 2006. In the U.S. one in ten children takes Ritalin (Daily Mail 19.11.07).

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