Table Of Content“Return to Nature!”, Adolf Just.
RETURN TO NATURE!
THE TRUE NATURAL METHOD OF HEALING AND LIVING
AND
THE TRUE SALVATION OF THE SOUL.
Paradise Regained
By ADOLF JUST
THE CARE OF THE BODY—WATER, HUMAN CURATIVE
POWER LIGHT, AIR, EARTH, FOOD,
FRUIT CULTURE.
AUTHORIZED TRANSLATION
FROM THE FOURTH ENLARGED GERMAN EDITION BY
BENEDICT LUST, NATUROPATH.
EDITOR OF "THE NATUROPATH AND HERALD OF HEALTH,”
DIRECTOR AND PROPRIETOR OF THE AMERICAN JUNGBORN,
BELLEVUE, BUTLER, N. J.
VOLUME I
PUBLISHED BY
THE TRANSLATOR, B. LUST, 124 EAST 59TH STREET,
NEW YORK, U. S. A.
COPYRIGHTED 1903
BY
BENEDICT LUST, NEW YORK,
AND
REGISTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL, LONDON,
ENGLAND.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
DEDICATION.
In translating the present work I had in mind that large number
of the English speaking people of the world who are to-day
suffering under the lash of medical superstition, quackery and
charlatanism; men and women and children who for want of proper
education and understanding are groping about in darkness, and are
constantly being imposed upon by human vipers who live and thrive
upon the suffering and ignorance of their less fortunate fellowmen.
"Return to Nature" was written by a man humanely inclined, and
with a heart for the lowly as well as for all men who work towards
the betterment of Humanity. May this volume be the means of
spreading and propagating, health, peace and happiness, hope, faith
and enlightenment in the thousand homes. It was in this spirit I
undertook its translation and with this wish I respectfully dedicate it
to the English-speaking people of America, and throughout the
world.
THE TRANSLATOR.
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH
EDITION.
MOTTO : Nature ever shows the true and perfect way,
Therefore learn betimes ne'er from her paths to stray.
The Simpler Life is the demand of the hour. The confusions of
a complex civilization, the disintegration of the old-fashioned home,
the distractions of international discord, the perplexity of the
individual mind wavering between the evolution of Science and the
revolution of Theology—all these disturbing elements have settled
moodily into a sense of universal unrest, that pervades the mingled
atmosphere of nations.
Poets, preachers, philosophers, even diplomatists and
politicians have propounded causes and proposed cures
innumerable. But the dream of Individual Peace and Universal
Harmony is as yet but a beautiful vision of prophetic revelation.
And realization seems too remote to reckon with.
Simply because we humans have persistently sought Peace
from external conditions.
One single attainment would bring the concept from the clouds
into the concrete—Be at peace with yourself.
This is not moralizing.
Nor philosophizing.
Nor rhapsodizing.
It is the energizing impulse that constrained Adolph Just to
renounce the grimy smoke, mental fog and moral miasma of
artificial civilization and seek from the clear pure horizon-vantage
of Nature the secret of Health, Happiness and Universal Oneness.
This book reveals the secret.
It is so simple, easy and unpretentious that the world's greatest
scientists, doctors and savants have quite overlooked it.
Would you be whole, in body, mind and spirit? Would you live
to be twice threescore-and-ten, each year growing younger, happier,
better?
Would you feel consciously superior to cooks, doctors,
druggists and undertakers, and everlastingly immune to all forms of
Disease? Would you, incidentally, halve the cost of living, and lift
housewifery from the drudging routine of three-meals-a-day-and-a-
lunch to the imperial freedom of meal-time abolished?
Would you evolve from a wretched, dyspeptic, fearful
pessimist into a cheery, strong, courageous optimist?
Would you thrill in tune with every bird and flower and rill in
"God's great out-of-doors," finding your own divinity reflected in
every living thing?
Would you become the supreme embodiment of Health,
Beauty, Grace, Power, Truth, Wisdom, Love?
Then return to Nature—that's all. For Nature is the true
interpreter of the Infinite: no other voice whispers truths so potent to
awaken, arouse and inspire Humanity.
But one word more as regards my functions as Editor of the
English Edition. Animated by a deep spirit of veneration and respect
for the humanitarian author, Adolf Just, I have made but very few
alterations and corrections. I have ventured to amend the translation
in so far only as it appeared to me to be indispensable for the better
understanding of the English and American public.
In conclusion I give expression to the sincere wish that every
reader of this book may be as much benefited by "Returning to
Nature" as I have been.
BENEDICT LUST,
Naturopathic Physician,
American "Jungborn," Butler, N. J., U. S. A.,
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
I publish my book in celebration of the opening of the
Jungborn.
The vernal sun is again shining in the sky, the gloomy Winter is
gone. Snow and ice have yielded to the warm, bright sun, new life is
sprouting in field and meadow, in wood and glen, the Easter bells
are tolling, the festival of the resurrection has come.
I wish at the same time to add a friendly Easter greeting to all
those who have already emerged from darkness to light, to all those
whom my book may happily lead out of gloomy, dark, desolate,
frosty paths into bright, sunny cheerfulness, to all my friends far and
near.
AD. JUST.
Jungborn, Stapelburg in the Harz,
Easter, 1896.
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION.
When I had finished the first edition of this book, and sent it as
a message of glad tidings into a world full of disease and suffering,
full of worry and restlessness, full of misery and un-happiness, the
earth was putting forth its first green, and resurrection songs filled
the air.
Three years have passed since then, men have not despised the
glad tidings, but received them with joy and enthusiasm. The
Jungborn, which is the heart and main artery of the enterprise,
already blooms and prospers.
But in the meantime it has become necessary to expand and
perfect my book in important respects.
While I am engaged on this fourth and enlarged edition, nature
appears in her brightest colors. Solemnly and joyously the bells are
announcing the festival of Pentecost. The spirit of Pentecost is about
to descend.
During the past three years my cause has become widely
known all over the world. But the cause is nothing without the
spirit. In many places the true spirit is still wanting; sometimes,
indeed, even an unclean spirit threatens to beset the cause.
May this new edition, with its many improvements, foster and
spread the true spirit!
Filled by this sincere wish I send these old and many new
teachings once more into the world, to all men and women who are
seeking and longing, who are weeping and lamenting, who are
groaning and sighing.
ADOLF JUST.
Jungborn, Stapelburg in the Harz,
Pentecost, 1899.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Dedication v
Translator's Preface to English Edition ix
Preface to the First Edition xi
Preface to the Fourth Edition xi
The Voices of Nature 1
The Primitive and the Present Condition of Mankind 2
How I was led to a true Natural Method of Healing 3
Reason and Science, and the Voices of Nature 6
The Jungborn, its Purposes 8
The Natural Bath 10
The old Natural Method of Healing and the true Natural
Method of Healing 11
Vincent Priessnitz 14
Mistakes of past Water Applications and the incorrectness
of Full-Baths 14
The Bath of the Animals in the natural state 16
The Natural Bath of Man, its Description 18
Details of the Natural Bath 20
The Origin of Acute and Chronic Diseases 24
The Effect of the Natural Bath 23
Goethe's "Faust" 26
The Application of the Natural Bath and its Significance 23
Wounds 46
Operations 46
Rubbing and Stroking of the Body 48
Cures by Stroking of women and men (shepherds, etc.) in the
Country 49
Masseurs and Masseuses 50
The Application of Human Healing Power after the Natural
Bath 51
The Explanation of the Curative Effects of Rubbing and
Stroking 52
Who is gifted with Human Healing Power? 53
What more is to be considered in the application of human
Healing Power 53
Light and Air 54
Light and Air, the true vitalizing Agents 55
The great mistakes and omissions of the past, with regard to
Light and Air, and their Consequences 58
The true and perfect application of Light and Air (the
Light- and-Air Bath) 60
Light-and-Air bathing Details 61
The Sunbath . 65
Light-and-Air Huts and Cottages 66
Injurious Gaslight 67
Our Clothing 71
The way clothes should be made 71
Health Shirts, Shoes, Sandals, Stockings, Gloves, Suspenders 72
Trousers for Men and Women 74
The Corset 75
Swathing clothes for Children 76
Going Bareheaded 77
The Purpose of Clothes 79
Jesus and Clothes 80
Furniture 82
Curtains 83
Beds 84
Earth Power 85
Man and his relation to the Earth 85
The Myth of Antaeus 86
The significance of Ancient Myths 86
The Bible 86
Sleeping on the Ground 88
False use of Reason, Science 89
The great significance of Going Barefooted 93
Additional directions for Sleeping on the Bare Ground 98
The present need of sleep a consequence of unnatural
Living 96
Details with regard to Sleeping on the Bare Ground 102
How can one daily exploit the Earth-power? 102
The Fear of Catching Cold 103
Further Remarks on the Origin of Acute and Chronic
Diseases, and the significance of Air with regard to them 106
The injuriousness and danger of the Fear of Catching Cold. 110
Earth Bandages and Earth Compresses 119
The Rationale of Earth Bandages and Earth Compresses 119
The great significance of Earth Bandages 119
Directions for Earth Bandages . 121
No Blood Poisoning through Earth Bandages 121
Earth Compresses 122
Significance and Application of Earth Compresses 123
Directions for Earth Compresses 124
Earth and Sand Baths 126
Earth and Clay as Skin Purifiers 127
How Shall we Bury Our Dead? 129
Nutrition According to Nature 132
Science and the Question of Nutrition 132
Fruits, Man's Natural Food 134
The greater and lesser Disadvantages of the Foods hitherto used 136
Fruit Diet 137
Fruits alone contain healing juices 139
The Nut our Chief Food 139
Milk, Bread, Vegetables, and other transitional Foods 140
The great mistakes of Contemporary Vegetarians 142
Dr. Densmore and his Teachings 144
Unripe Fruits 145
Vegetables and leguminous foods 146
Tropical fruits 147
Sugar very injurious 147
Details with regard to nutrition according to Nature 148
Ought man to Drink? 149
What ought we to Drink? 150
Effect of a Natural Diet upon the Soul 154
The myth of the Danaids and the Hydra 155
Sexual sensuality, Modesty, Prudery, and True Morality 156
Jesus and Nutrition According to Nature 156
Natural Mode of Life the foundation of the Scheme of Jesus 157
John the Baptist and his Food 159
The Bible and the Natural Food 161
Meat and Alcohol 163
Man is not a Beast of Prey 163
Climate 165
The use of Alcohol occasioned by the use of Meat 166
The danger of Alcohol 167
The Bible, Jesus, and the Meat Diet 167
The Tree of the "Knowledge of Good and Evil" 168
Did Jesus partake of the Easter Lamb? 171
What is the Serpent in Paradise? 173
Jesus and Alcohol 174
Fire 174
Fire the origin of Civilization and Anti-naturalism 174
The myth of Prometheus 175
Cooked Food, Warm Baths, etc. 176
The significance of Living on Raw Fruit 177
Cinderella 178
When Ought we to Eat? 180
The directions of Nature with regard to the Time of Eating 180
The significance of the Holy Communion 181
The Natural Food, Care, and Education of Children 182
The Duties of a pregnant Woman. 183
Immorality within Marriage 184
The care of new-born Children 184
Milk as food for Children 186
The fear of Bacilli 186
Fruit as food for Children 187
Jesus and the Children . 189
Vaccination 190
Prevention of the great Dangers of Vaccination 191
Serum and Diphtheria 191
Children's Diseases 192
Specific present-day Dangers and Sufferings of Children 192
The Dress of Children 193
The only true Education of Children 195
School Education 195
The Calling which Children are to Choose 196
Cases and Cures 197
What value attaches in general to testimonials of Cures? 197
Inflammatory Rheumatism 198
Serious Nervous Diseases 198
Serious Trouble in the Head and Deafness 199
Serious Stomach Trouble and Tuberculosis of the Spinal Cord 201
Retention of the Urine, incipient Dropsy 201
A high degree of Nervousness 203
Pneumonia 203
Disturbance of the Digestive Function 203
Dropsy 204
Throat Trouble 204
Scab on the Head. 204
Tuberculosis of the Spinal Cord 205
Toothache 205
Tuberculosis of the Bones. 206
Typhoid Fever 206
General Debility 207
Convulsions 207
Fistula of the Rectum 208
Blindness 208
Cholera Nostras, or Diarrhoea 209
Sexual Disease 210
The Dangers of Sexual Aberrations and the present
false treatment of Sexual Diseases 211
Diabetes 212
Boils 213
Chronic Headache 215
Tetter 215
Snake-bite Poisoning 215
Disease of the Spinal Cord and Obesity 216
Chronic Inflammatory Rheumatism 217
Miscellaneous; rejuvenation, intellectual vigor the result of
true Natural Healing 218
Large wound from the Bite of a dog 218
War, a Curse to Mankind 219
The significance of Earth Bandages in War 220
Influenza 221
General Remarks on Cases and Reports of Cures 222
General Directions with regard to the application of the
Natural Method of Healing in every case of Sickness 223
The Fear of Infectious Diseases 227
The Freedom of Man 228
Sea and Mineral Baths, High Altitude Sanitaria 228
When Ought we to Submit to a Natural Cure? 229
The ancient Germans, once the strongest Men in the World.. 231
My Relation to the Old Method of Natural Healing 231
All innovation and progress in the Natural Method of Healing are
in the beginning always opposed by the adherents of
Natural Healing 232
The Mistakes of the prevailing Natural Methods of Healing.. 233
Everyone his own Doctor 237
The Errors and Dangers of all Medical Examinations. 238
