By: Albert Schindler
Roughly three years ago—I was 81 years old at the time—I was diagnosed with kidney cancer. My right kidney was so cancerous that the doctors gave me zero percent chance of saving it, so it was surgically removed. The cancer spread to my bladder. Consequently, over about a period of a year and a half, I had 12 chemotherapy sessions and several non-surgical probes to get the cancer in remission. Several of these chemo sessions left me with a bladder infection that took antibiotics to cure. Needless to say, my health was in a very precarious situation.
It was the twelfth, and last chemo session, plus an infection that really got the best of me. My entire body, from the neck down, ached terribly. The experience lasted for roughly two days. I say “roughly” because for the most part I was in a daze and had no recollection of time. Because of the pain, I couldn’t sleep, and I could barely stay awake. I ached if I sat up, and I ached if I tried to lie down. Near the end of this time, I suppose because I was so lacking sleep plus so weak from the pain, I started to experience hallucinations.
I had several different hallucinations, but of interest to this story is near the end when I saw before me a large grid that resembled a giant-sized, brown “Weetabix,” like is found in a Weetabix cereal box. I had a bucket in my hand and I was trying to dip out the pain I felt in various parts of my body from one square of the grid and pour it into another square. I was becoming more and more frustrated. This didn’t work! My pain was still one hundred percent there, only I kept shifting it around!
After what seemed like an eternity of fruitless dipping to end my pain, something within me said, “You have to get rid of the pain, not just mask it by trying to hide it somewhere else.” In other words, dipping it out of one Weetabix square and pouring it into another square wasn’t the answer. What was of special interest after that “Aha! moment” was a very clear, audible voice that said to me, “Man is not made to eat flesh.”
Within, about a half hour of this event, my fever and my hallucinations left me, and I felt quite normal again.
Later on, when I related this story to my family, I quoted this “voice” as having said, “Man was not made to eat flesh.” The voice quickly corrected me, again audibly: “Man is not made to eat flesh.” The difference in the meaning is that the word “was” denotes a time element that doesn’t exist in the spirit world. The word “is” is timeless: without beginning or end. Also note that, when I related this experience to my family, I was not in a hallucinatory state.
All this took place around the end of July, 2014. From that moment on, I no longer ate meat of any kind, and have become a vegetarian. (I certainly see the health benefits of adopting a full vegan diet, and that may yet come to pass, but at the present moment, circumstances make it difficult for me to go vegan.) But, even as a vegetarian, my health has improved immensely over what it used to be. The future holds even better promise!
Since that epic day I have had continued evidence that the promptings from the Spirit had my health in mind. Even though I’m 85 years of age, I feel better now, on average, than I did when I was in my 60s! My kidney and bladder cancer is in full remission! I’ve recently had my annual medical and physical exam by my family doctor, and am happy to announce that I’m (to quote my doctor) “100% normal in all my tests.” The Word of Wisdom does work!
Although I understand that humans are omnivores, I don’t think that’s the whole story to our creation. Something has been lost to us. I do believe that part of “Adam’s fall” was the adding of meat into their diet, and since we now have entered the seventh, and last cycle of our earthly evolution, we will soon abandon the desire to eat flesh and again eat more nourishing food. In our very near future, eating flesh will become as abhorrent to us as cannibalism is now.
When we kill animals to eat them, they end up killing us because their flesh, which contains cholesterol and saturated fat, was never intended for human beings, who are natural herbivores. (William Clifford Robert, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Cardiology. See: ”Humans are Omnivores”)
In my opinion, the reason we LDS folk are lagging behind much of the world in adopting a more wholesome diet is included in Jehovah’s silent promptings to our spirit to “Hold back.” Had we been first in adopting a wholesome diet, the world, especially the more “learnéd” dieticians and anti-Latter-day Saint, would have dug in their heels and defied common sense. This way, the world will be first, and we Latter-day Saints, in our allotted time, will dutifully follow and adopt this growing popular food habit.
It’s all working out so beautifully! Many Latter-day Saint pioneers, past and present, are the cornerstone in the Thousand Year Millennium that we are now in.
Albert Schindler was born during a Saskatchewan blizzard on the 27th of February, 1931, on a farm near a small village called, Hubbard, about 100 miles North East of Regina, the capital city of Saskatchewan. He has lived quite the adventurous life, including serving a term in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Provost Corps (Military Police). He has been a Hotel Detective, Private Investigator and Security Guard. He also spent 10 years with Gulf Oil Corp. (now Petro Canada) where he joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In 1976 his family moved to Cardston, Alberta, where he has enjoyed several Church callings, his favorite being the Director of their combined Stake Family History Centre.
I am deeply impressed that we are never too old for the Lord to teach us, or for us to respond to the voice of the Lord! It has been a great honor and privilege for me to get to know Brother Albert Schindler, a man I greatly admire. Thanks so much for sharing your story, Albert. You have had an amazing journey!
Thanks for sharing your story. I would love for my parents to make this change with me. My dad will be 81 in the next few months.
Patience, Ann. Patience! Remember, living by example is the best form of education there is. It was by my family members living the Gospel, as taught by our Church, that finally convinced me to join the Church. It’s never too late — but, do remember, don’t be pushy, or you’ll only drive them farther away.
Very inspiring story. Pain is difficult on any level, but I can’t begin to fathom yours. I thank Heavenly Father that you and I have heard the promptings that led us to a cleaner, healthier life. Thanks for sharing your story. My husband served a mission up there in the seventies.
Brother Schindler, I was eighty years of age when my daughter Jane Birch taught me how to eat the Word of Wisdom Way and I haven’t eaten meat or any animal products at all for four years and never will again do so. I just turned eighty four last month. I really enjoy just eating grains and vegetables and fruit of all kinds. I have never before been as physically healthy and strong as I am right now except when I was a new born baby. Six days a week I exercise very vigorously, on a machine at our city’s Recreation Center for the equivalence of “going” the distance of two miles each time I exercise!
I appreciated particularly one thing you said in your message above which may well be the truth:
“Although I understand that humans are omnivores, I don’t think that’s the whole story to our creation. Something has been lost to us. I do believe that part of “Adam’s fall” was the adding of meat into their diet, and since we now have entered the seventh, and last cycle of our earthly evolution, we will soon abandon the desire to eat flesh and again eat more nourishing food. In our very near future, eating flesh will become as abhorrent to us as cannibalism is now.”
I personally don’t think that most human beings will ever begin to eat the Word of Wisdom Way before the actual beginning of the promised Millennium! But I wish that most all of our fellow humans who know us would heed our example and begin eating right now in the “Word of Wisdom Way” and be blessed with the great health we now experience!
Thank you for your kind comments, Brother Birch. Slowly, but surely, we ARE making a difference!
In reading your story I got thinking that Lehi and family ate meat and so did Jesus eat fish. So do remember all of the Lord’s help for man.
Hi Darrel! You make an excellent point. The Lord did ordain flesh for our use. It is certainly a tender mercy as there have been times and places where this is needed. For our day and time, the Lord tell us it is “pleasing” to him if we do not use this except in times of need (winter, cold, famine, and excess of hunger as stated in D&C 89:13, 15).
For myself, I’ve never been in a situation where I needed meat for survival (like Lehi and his family), but I’m grateful for this option if I were ever in that situation!
Neil, I just had to make another comment and say how much I agree with you, and add that there is MUCH lost in the story of creation, according to Genesis. At one point I even went as far as to contact a Jewish Rabbi in Israel to study the Kabbala, but I found that even the Kabbala, according to Hebrew scholars, is corrupt.
There certainly is evidence that, at the time of the fall of Adam and Eve when God made “coats of [animal?] skins” for them that, prior to that time, the killing of animals was unheard of. I have also read somewhere, but can’t put my hands on it at the moment that, prior to their fall, Adam and Eve were “gatherers of food,” and after the fall, they became “hunters and gatherers of food.”
Do you just eat raw vegetables? I have tried a vegan diet but I soon run out of ways to eat vegetables and then it becomes so boring. Do you eat a lot of salads, or vegetable soups? Do you juice? I need some help in that direction, although I am very healthy and 80 years old, I do like to be obedient in all things. Thanks.
Joanne: I hope you don’t mind if I chime in here. A whole food, plant-based diet definitely does not need to be boring! It is much more than fruits and vegetables. The Lord asked us, for example, to make grains the “staff of life.” Then of course there are all the wonderful legumes: beans, peas, and lentils. So much variety and can be prepared in such a tasty way!. See here for WFPB Recipes. See here for WFPB Made Easy. See this video to view Mormons eating this wonderful delicious food: Discovering the Word of Wisdom: A Short Film. Please contact me if you’d like any help. I’m happy to help out!
Thank you for replying to Joanne’s concerns. I certainly couldn’t have said it as well as you did!
Thanks Jane for the tips. I love the idea of a plant based diet and have looked up the sites you offered. I am going to give it a try. I’ll just need to find different ingredients and recipes to use. Are you aware of any restaurants that serve plant based foods? It would be nice to buy the food you need already made up by someone more knowledgeable than me.
I have always ground my own wheat and made my own bread, but now I have grandchildren who are gluten in-tolerant. And from the looks of the isles in the stores, many people are. And yet, wheat is for man! It is frustrating.
It is exciting to see so many folks, especially little children are getting into this way of life. Thanks for all you are doing to spread the word.
Hi Joanne:
Glad to hear you want to give this a try! It does take some time and determination to learn new ways of cooking and eating at first, but the effort is well worth it, and the Lord will help you.
I don’t know where you live and what restaurants are there, but most restaurants do not serve these foods. Like most of America, they serve animal foods and foods that are highly processed. There are some exceptions, and as you become experienced, you can figure out how to eat at almost any restaurant, but they are not a good place to start with.
I recommend the PlantPure Jumpstart program. They will ship meals to your home at an affordable rate: http://plantpurestore.com/jumpstart/. These are lunch and dinner meals. Breakfast is easy: hot whole grain cereal with nondairy milk and fruit is one option, for example.
Feel free to contact me directly with more questions! Best wishes to you!
I, personally, don’t eat *just* raw vegetables. In fact, some raw vegetables, like onions and garlic, for example, can be hard for some people (like me) to digest. Another example, raw cucumbers make me violently ill, even the smell of them will do that. Yet, I absolutely love cucumber dill pickles. Go figure! I’d suggest you contact Jane and she can give you all kinds of various recipes that would suite your taste and liking.
Thank you Albert for your insight. I wonder how many of us would hear the voice say “Man is not made to eat mean,” if we would just listen. I didn’t listen until my heart disease was very advanced and I was in my late 60s. Your example shows that it’s never too late make changes.
I love your emphasis on the word “is” because man is and always was made to be an herbivore. Our teeth structure, the length of our intestines, our lack of claws, our manner of perspiring (though our skin, not through out tongue), the weak hydrochloric acid in our stomachs, the alkalinity of our saliva, and other physiological features, are all different from carnivores and point to the fact that we always were and still are herbivores.
Best wishes in your new lifestyle!
The wonderful part of our Gospel is that, if we are at all sincere, it’s never too late! Lesson learned. That’s what’s important!
I know of another man, who had a near death experience, due to a heart failure procedure.. While on the other side he kept asking why did this all happen? He was raised on a dairy and ranch and ate all good things, so he thought.. He was told, “stop the killing and live, ” repeated several times. So as he was permitted to return, he became Vegan. A hard lesson to be learned.
Thanks Albert for sharing.
Wonderful insight. As I read these stories I am lifted and I am reminded of the importance of the Word of Wisdom, and that my body feels so much better when I eat a vegan diet, I am struggling some but I am on the path. Thank you again Brother Schindler for your story and my best wishes for continued good health!
Are you familiar with the Star Wars character, Yoda? He’s famous for his saying, “Do or do not. There is no try.” I have my own Yoda character who is even more blunt in his response to my questions: “DO! There is no try!”
Do you listen to Dr. Phil? When his guests say that they’re “going to try” when he suggests a solution to their problem, his response is similar to My Yoda’s response: “There is no try!”
I know this sounds blunt and sometimes a bit inconsiderate, but if you really think about it, as long as we are “trying,” we’ll never fully succeed.
What an amazing story! The quotation you used by William Clifford Robert, M.D,, Editor in Chief of the American Journal of Cardiology titled “Humans are Omnivores” resonated with me and is so true:
“WHEN WE KILL ANIMALS TO EAT THEM, THEY END UP KILLING US BECAUSE THEIR FLESH, WHICH CONTAINS CHOLESTEROL AND SATURATED FAT, WAS NEVER INTENDED FOR HUMAN BEINGS, WHO ARE NATURAL HERBIVORES.”
Scientific studies have proven this fact beyond a shadow of a doubt. Thanks for sharing your experience. It is encouraging to hear that even those of us who are older (I’m 73) can still heal. I stopped eating meat in November of 2014, and stopped dairy (raw milk and raw milk cheese) and most fats in June of 2015. I’ve also eliminated salt, and sugar is long gone. My cholesterol dropped from 249 to 166 in a blood test done last fall (along with other improvements), but a few chronic issues haven’t resolved yet. I’m working on those.
I appreciate Jane’s untiring efforts and love reading the stories of all who share on this website.
Thanks, again, Bro. Schindler, for yours.
Thank you for your comments, Laurel. I think that, when one is older, it takes a little more time to get the consequences of all those years of bad eating habits out of the system. I, too, am still working on “getting better.” It’s frustrating, some times, but I guess it’s an exercise in patience, which old people, like us, have more of than younger folks.
Yes, Jane is certainly doing a marvelous job in spreading the Word of Wisdom way of living better, and it’s also great that her father, Neil Birch is so supportive of her efforts. Let us add Jane and Neil to our list of personal prayers, praying that they can more easily overcome any adversities that must plaque her, at times: that she becomes an Unstoppable force in moving this great work forward.
Thanks for your story, Albert! It’s powerful when a voice (the Spirit) speaks to an individual like that! I’m glad that your test results are normal now.
Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy! I love knowing that even though I don’t regularly have opportunities to be merciful to humans (I am not confrontational), the least of the animals is an opportunity to be merciful that even a small child can take. It makes room in the heart for Jesus to have mercy.
How beautiful, Andrea! Thanks so much for sharing!!