Good day, kind viewers of Supreme Master Television, and welcome to Vegetarian Elite!

When I look around and talk about the love for me and love for humankind, wouldn’t it be nice if we all came together and waved a magic wand and made this planet a humane society?

Can you guess what famous American personality we would like to honor on today’s show? Well, he has a remarkably diversified resume! He is professional comedian with a career spanning five decades, a long-standing human rights advocate, bestselling author, anti-drug crusader, and expert nutritionist. He has been honored at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and is also the loving father of 10 beautiful children and a devoted husband of more than 50 years. If your guess was Mr. Dick Gregory, then you were absolutely correct!

Supreme Master Television had the privilege of speaking with Mr. Gregory after the live videoconference “World Vegan World Peace: A Conscious Choice” held in Chicago, Illinois, USA, in August 2011, with Supreme Master Ching Hai as the Guest of Honor. On today’s program, we will also bring you some highlights of Mr. Gregory’s stand-up comedy performance at the event.

I remember someone asked me, they said, “You’ve been fasting for 40 years. What does your doctor think?” I said, “My doctor’s been dead 30 years.” My next birthday, I’ll be 80 years old. Next birthday, my wife will be 75. We don’t have a prescription between the two of us.

So not only when you change into the vegan, not only do you help free up food for other people, My God, think what you do for yourself. Somebody asked me, “You’ll be 80 your next birthday? You look so well. How do you know when you getting old?” You know, you’re getting old when somebody compliments them beautiful shoes you’re wearing, and you’re barefooted.

Richard Claxton “Dick” Gregory has lived a life far from ordinary. He is listed on Comedy Central’s Top 100 Stand-Up Comedians of All-Time, and in the 1960s helped bridge African-American comedy to Caucasian audiences with much success. After the 1998 birthday commemoration for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., then US President Bill Clinton said, “I love Dick Gregory, he is one of the funniest people on the planet.”

Besides bringing us much laughter, he has also been at the forefront of advancing peace and social justice in our world as one of the world’s most influential civil rights activists. He has used his public image and passionate stance on non-violence to speak out numerous times against war and for equal rights. In fact, in 1968, he ran for President of the United States for the Freedom and Peace Party.

And in 1992, he began a program called “Campaign for Human Dignity” to reduce crime in his hometown of St. Louis, Missouri, where he has also earned a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame. Perhaps what has made Mr. Gregory so successful is his ability to connect with audiences on such difficult to discuss topics like violence.

You know, we look at TV now, and so many people look at TV, and identify with crises, they identify with violence, and identify with… I got a cousin in Kansas City; he even watched so many TV movies about violence, he got 27 locks on the door, and ain’t got nothing in the house. I said, “Boy, if somebody broke in here, they’d leave something.”

On the health front, Mr. Dick Gregory has discovered many incredible secrets to long-lasting health with his research into raw foods, fruitarianism, and plant-based diets. But in 2001, he received some startling news: doctors diagnosed him with cancer. Nevertheless, with his strong faith in the power of self-healing through vegan foods and exercise, his resilient spirit pushed forward to survival and he remains cancer-free to this day! We asked Mr. Gregory how he got interested on this path of true health when he began his transformational vegetarian diet in the early 1970s.

And so about 18 months after not eating no animal products, my sinus trouble left. My sinus was so bad that that when you pick me up at the airport, have we gone on a 50 mile radius I would have had a sinus attack, that’s how bad it was. About six months after that my ulcers are gone. I used to wake up in the morning and my ulcers would be so bad I’d have to take my rings, my watches off, could nothing touch my body. Six months after that, that was gone. Then I said, “Wait a minute, there must be something to eating they haven’t told us about,” (Yes.) and that’s how it started.

I started doing research, started questioning things, (Yes.) and then I realized that I’ve been in an awful ignorant trick. You know, “How can I feel this good by eliminating something?” And then after that I started looking deep, then I started.

Mr. Gregory started to explore further into the fields of nutrition and over the years has uncovered many unsettling truths, including the dangers of milk and its strange and shocking connection with glue.

And then in going deep into the research I found out that every culture on the planet that gives their child cow’s milk, they have crib death in that culture. Cultures that would never put cow’s milk into a baby, there is no such thing as crib death. Now, then, when you do the research you find out that mother’s milk has all the nutrition, all the things you need to destroy bacteria.

One day, I decided to do some research on breast milk, and called a friend of mine. I said “I want you to find the number one and number two authorities on breast milk on the planet,” and they found them. They were at Oxford University. They said, “Well the mother has a baby so she nurses a baby.” So they said, “Well, here is what we’ll do. Let’s catch the [milk] leakage and put it in a cooler and then say, well let’s check it for nutrition value.”

They had no idea. (Yes.) where they were going. When they checked it, they found out that what is leaking is all the impurity that’s in the mother’s body. (Oh wow.) So if you’re eating foods with pesticides, that’s what leaks. If you smoke cigarettes, the nicotine leaks to protect that baby. Cow’s milk, the most important ingredient to milk is not calcium, it’s called casein. Casein builds the bone structure to carry the bodyweight. So cow’s milk has 300 times more casein in it than mother’s milk because cow’s milk has got to build a bone structure to carry a ton plus.

Mother’s milk has to build the bone structure that carries a maximum of 175 pounds. Now, what do they make commercially out of cows, out of the casein? They make kerosene and they make glue. Now what happens with crib death? Any time you put cow’s milk into a human being, there is a reaction. So what happened is the baby drank the cow’s milk and the gluey substances, some of them can’t throw up. It affects you, everyone. (Yes) And those who can’t throw up, died. It’s why they call it crib death. They died in the crib.

After Mr. Gregory’s personal research, he met another high-minded individual who helped bring his health knowledge to even greater heights.

Now this African American woman, Dr. Alvenia Fulton moved me to another level: fasting. No one could live as a human on this planet if you didn’t fast. Now let me tell. When you go to sleep at night your body does a fast. When you wake up and eat your first meal that’s when the fast, we call it “breakfast,” we don’t even know we’re saying “breaking-fast.” (Right.) The fast is not supposed to be broken until 12 noon. Now 12 noon is not determined by your watch, 12 noon is determined when the sun hits your head at the right angle. That’s 12 noon.

And so I decided I was going to fast for 40 days. Didn’t know anything about it except what she told me, and against the war in Vietnam, and so I fasted 40 days on nothing but water. I went to 57 cities and did 63 speeches. Now what happened is after the fifteenth day, my sense of smell; I could smell stuff three blocks away. (Yes.)

I could hear stuff. I asked my wife, “Why are you all talking so loud?” “You all? Nobody else but you and me.” So I start walking toward the sound. And I walked to the window, I am on the ninth floor, and I am picking up a conversation of two women standing in the bus zone waiting on the bus. All your sensitivity wakes up on the fast.

Fortified with so much powerful information and experience, Mr. Gregory decided to use his celebrity status to its fullest and inform the public about the benefits of a plant-based lifestyle. He would sometimes speak up to 250 days a year at college campuses nationwide about vegetarianism. Tracye McQuirter, founder of BlackVegetarians.org and author of “By Any Greens Necessary” is glowing, vivacious vegan of over 20 years. She credits Mr. Dick Gregory with her transition.

I honestly never thought that I would be a vegetarian, a vegan, a healthy eater, none of that. I never thought that I would be a public health nutritionist. Our black student union at Amherst College brought Dick Gregory to campus to talk about the state of black America. And instead, he flipped the script on us and he decided to talk about the plate of black America. So he talked about how unhealthfully most black folks eat.

He spent the next two and a half hours graphically tracing the path of a hamburger from a cow on a factory farm, to a slaughterhouse, to a fast food place, to a clogged artery, to a heart attack. And that was the first time I had ever heard anything like that in my life, linking diet to disease. That was the catalyst that started me researching to become a vegetarian.

Mr. Gregory has been credited for introducing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s son to vegetarianism who then went on to influence his mother, Coretta Scott King, to become a vegan. And these days, with the uncertainties surrounding the safety of genetically modified foods, Mr. Gregory shares his concerns:

Have you seen the folks that can hardly walk? Can’t think? That comes from the dye. (Yes.) That comes from the animal products. (Yes.) You know it’s kind of interesting, you go to the grocery store and you go to the egg section, they have large eggs, small eggs, medium eggs. How do you get a chicken to lay a large egg? How do you get a chicken to lay a medium egg? It’s something you’re injected into them. I had to have somebody to tell me that organic ain’t just enough. Organic is not enough.

To give you an example, they’re making organic tomatoes, growing organic tomatoes. (Yes.) They’re cross-breeding them genetically with the fish cell. So what does it mean? That means the tomatoes hold water. (Yes.) So I can put a tomato on this table here, come back six weeks later, it’s just as pretty irradiant. What they don’t tell me when I eat that tomato, my body holds water. Then when I start swelling, I’ll go see my doctor. You’re not aware that the organic tomatoes have been genetically engineered. So when I come to see you, you put me on the water pills.

Anytime you put me on something to kill something that I don’t need, that will kill me. (Yes.) And so what I am saying now, there has to be a mechanism out here that has nothing but a research team and start putting that information out.

Mr. Dick Gregory, thank you for your very beneficial reminders about our food choices in this day and age. Your passion and exhaustive research are definitely much appreciated. May you continue to inspire the world with your lively energy and humor!

To learn more about comedian and activist Mr. Dick Gregory please visit: www.DickGregory.com

Amiable viewers, thank you for being with us today on Vegetarian Elite featuring the truthful messages shared by Mr. Dick Gregory. We look forward to seeing you again for part 2 next Sunday, November 5. Coming up next is Between Master and Disciples. See you next time!

On August 11, 2011, a great comedian and one of the foremost champions of civil rights addressed an audience on the stages of Chicago, Illinois, USA.

Understand that we have the power to change this planet.

Mr. Dick Gregory’s stand-up comedy performance followed the live videoconference “World Vegan World Peace: A Conscious Choice” with Supreme Master Ching Hai as the Guest of Honor.

We have the power to change it. And so, in our meditation, as we sit through the meditation, think about, not the hungry people starving, but see them getting up with smiles on their faces, and understand that there’s a love out here that can turn this whole piece around. That’s our job, but you can’t do it with fear. It’s love, love, love, and being lovable.

And so as I sit here and say to Supreme Master, thank you, thank you for being here. First, we’ve always thought this was a men’s job. We always thought, well, the men will come and save it. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Human beings have no sex, have no race, when love sits in.

Welcome back faithful viewers to the second installment of our two-part series on Vegetarian Elite featuring Mr. Dick Gregory – a professional comedian with a career spanning five decades, a long-standing human rights advocate, bestselling author, anti-drug crusader, and expert nutritionist.

With his resilient spirit, he has overcome poverty, racial injustice, and cancer. He has participated in over 100 fasts and prayer vigils to raise awareness about human rights and world hunger. As we found out in part one, Mr. Gregory also has a fervent desire to share his fascinating discoveries about where our foods come from and what they do to our bodies.

He has been credited for introducing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s son to vegetarianism who then went on to influence his mother, Coretta Scott King, to become a vegan. Mr. Gregory also practices what he preaches. Instead of lamenting and bowing to traditional treatment when he was diagnosed with cancer in 2001, he went public and helped millions of fans around the globe realize that with a proper lifestyle, cancer is in fact curable. Let’s return now to our insightful interview with Mr. Gregory to learn more about his holistic philosophy.

Well, 99% of my diet is fruit, ripe fruit, nothing in the can. One day, I’ll eat nothing but grapes. Another day, I’ll eat nothing but cantaloupes. Another day, I’ll eat nothing but berries And so basically, I don’t like eating. I can go forever without eating. And about twice a year, I’ll do a 40-day water fast; about three times a year, I’ll do a 12-day fast with nothing, just breathing. When you do that, you cannot be moving around, you can’t be doing any physical fitness, and that’s when you start communicating.

I use it in America where we have more folks die from overeating than under-eating. (Yes.) And then when you go on a fast, even people that don’t agree what you’re fed, every time you sit down and eat, they think about when they get hungry they eat, and so that’s what I use it for, although that’s a violation to use a fast for anything other than purifying (I see.) yourself and your consciousness.

One of the turning points of human health is when we turn to the ancient tradition of detoxing our bodies of all the unwanted substances found in our food and air. Mr. Gregory’s advises on the subject.

So when you start detoxifying, increase the water intake. And then there’s different things out here, different herbs and stuff, different fruits and stuff that you can eat, vegetables that you can eat to help detoxify the body. When I went on my first fast, I could taste stuff that I ate when I was five years old, (Yes.) candies and gum and stuff. (Yes.) And so that’s the first thing you do.

Two, when you really get into detoxification, you’re nature’s operating table, better be still. Well, in our society I can’t take off from work; well when you do that, the minute you get off, you go and rest. We think we can do the same thing that we’re doing and you can’t, the body is purifying. You’ve got 75 trillion cells that are being detoxified at the same time. It comes out, the poison. You see, 85% of the poison in your body comes out through your feet because of gravity pull. (Yes.) And so people who work, walking, they should change their shoes three times a day.

Athletes should never put on that same pair of tennies because all those impurities that stayed in them move back up into the body. And so in detoxification, take foot baths. But don’t get in the tub, take foot baths, because with gravity pull, it pulls it out. Walk in the sand if it’s available. Because if you see people sand blast a house, all at once it becomes white and all the dirt is gone, well the same thing happens walking in the sand. (I see.) And then get information on detox, there’s so much information out here now (Yes.) on detoxification. Get some.

The final stop in human dietary evolution is considered breatharianism or pranariasim – living on the invisible “cosmic energy.” The dietary scale starts at the bottom with eating processed cooked foods that may include meats and dairy, then moves up to the vegetarian diet, to veganism, then to raw food, onto liquidarianism, and finally, breatharianism.

In his revolutionary 1973 book titled “Dick Gregory’s Natural Diet for Folks Who Eat: Cookin’ with Mother Nature,” Mr. Gregory explains the experience of being food-free as “living entirely on a transcendental plane, breathing in pure air, absorbing the direct light and energies of the Sun, bathing in pure water; in other words living on what some writers call the ‘supersubstantial bread.’ I personally believe breatharianism to be the highest mode of human living and an entirely possible way of life under ideal circumstances.”

I didn’t realize the universe until one day I’m thinking, “If I don’t eat tonight, I won’t die. If I don’t have any money tonight, I won’t die.” If you held my nose and mouth for 30 minutes, I will die. The most important thing on this planet is oxygen. And nobody ever taught me to thank God for oxygen. They tell me to thank God for the sandwich I’m going to eat. (Yes.) Say the blessing over some food (Yes.) I’m going to eat.

But never told me the most important thing on this planet (Yes.) is oxygen. And that once you start then you start having respect. But wait a minute, I can’t see it, I can’t feel it, I can’t taste it. And nobody has ever walked up to me and tapped me and said, “Here’s your oxygen bill.” It’s free. (Yes.) And then the whole body starts to change.

And so consequently, we were meant to be nothing but breatharians. We were meant just to breathe.

Mr. Gregory shares with us his experience of meditation and prayer, which allow for a greater sense of connection with all life forms. Well, first we’ve keep telling people to meditate and we do that wrong. Man, all you’ve got to do is sit quietly, sit quietly. It’s hard to tell people, “Sit quietly, don’t think about anything.” How do you not think about anything? The first part is when you first wake up, you just sit quietly, sit quietly. You don’t have to put any record on. You don’t have to play anything. It gets you back into your spiritual self. (Yes.)

It gets you back to the human part. It gets you back to where I can look at a woman and see another human being. (Yes.) I can look at a child and see another human being. I can look at a tree growing and see something that has life that’s different from me. I don’t know what trees are talking about out there when they’re talking, but there are some people that can hear trees (Most certainly.) and listen to them. Let me tell you what I’ve been doing since I’m a little boy. I hear a siren, I don’t know where they’re going.

I’ve always said a prayer for whoever that was. Who, if it’s somebody in the ambulance; if they’re on their way, firefighters on their way to a fire, I’ve always said a prayer. And then after that I send a prayer of thanksgiving. We have that power, we have that power.

When entertaining a crowd, Mr. Gregory remembers to honor his spirituality before beginning shows.

Thank you. Let me first say we thank and praise God that we’ve all made it here safely today. I pray to God that your return and my return will be equally as safe. First let me just say, I’ve entertained all over the world, I’ve enjoyed it but tonight was something special.

Yes.

Tonight was something special. That’s because you’re special.

In concluding our tribute to Mr. Dick Gregory, one of society’s living legends of peace and freedom advocacy, we’d like to include his loving and supportive thoughts of Supreme Master Ching Hai and her selfless contribution to the world.

First, I’d like to say thanks. When I look at what she’s [Supreme Master Ching Hai] able to put together, she makes it look easy because of the love, the kindness, the peace but to get to where she is, nobody gave her nothing. I feel something that I want to be a part of. How do I start it? It starts from here. So what she has put together is a relay. I give a baton to you. You give it to somebody else. And it eventually comes back to me. And I say, “Okay, we’re going to up the distance. It’s not going to be a 100-yard relay. It’s going to be 440 yards.” And you keep raising the level and keep raising the level.

She’s (Supreme Master Ching Hai) validated by the progress that she sees. She’s validated by taking human beings, not changing them, but taking them back to their original, (Yes.) space. (Yes.) I can trust her because I know her kindness. Peace, she’s already created that to go back and take into me what I had. And so all she’s doing is different because what she uplifts stays in you.

Mr. Dick Gregory, we thank you for your kind-heart and numerous life-saving ways, your quest for the truth, and inspiring and comedic speeches to the multitudes – all of which have brought about a more benevolent and harmonious planet.

To learn more about comedian and activist Mr. Dick Gregory please visit: www.DickGregory.com

Courageous viewers, we trust you’ve enjoyed our two- part series on Vegetarian Elite featuring the legendary and brilliant Mr. Dick Gregory. Coming up next is Between Master and Disciples. May nature’s bountiful blessings bring you inner serenity.