The Tao of Health, Sex and Longevity [Paperback]

Daniel Reid's work in this book should be widely applauded by western readers seeker an excellent guide to all aspects of taoism. In particular, the chapters on diet, fasting and excretion could change so many people's lives in the west for the better and even save people from the grave.

I myself have personally followed Reid's diet/fasting/colon programmes and have been amazed at how good it feels to cleanse yourself internally. In fact, anyone who doubts such cures should complete a seven day fast with three times daily colonic irrigations and you will be amazed/horrified and relieved by the disgusting mess that comes out of you. This in itself should be enough to convince anyone of the truth of some methods.

Daniel Reid sould be applauded for his work on taoist health regimes; all the reader needs to do to regain glowing health, is to summond their own will power and follow his programmes. Best wishes and luck to all those that do.

Daniel Reid has been based in Taiwan for some time now, and his study of Taosim and its application to health, diet and energy is both practical and yet rooted in the rich spiritual and cultural history of this great philosophy. As a Westerner with a very generalist appreciation of chinese thought and religious history, I felt he was able to introduce Taoism in a respectful and interesting way, the practical advice about diet etc. was argued convincingly and there are lots of pointers to pick up. A good starting point for anyone with an interest in this area.

One last thing, the section about sex is not so much titillating as a guide to preserving energy and therefore increasing longevity. However, women by far get to have the most fun if you follow the precepts, so that can't be bad!!!

I bought this book based on the good reviews on Amazon and I want something that covered the practical aspect of modern Daoism other than simply meditation and qigong. This book seemed to fit the bill. However I found my own knowledge exceeded Daniel Reid a virtual every step to the point were I found that every chapter contained deliberate misinformation or sophistry. I can only imagine the good reviews for this book come from readers who are in themselves a position of igorance who enjoy being lectured by another ignorant self styled California guru. If you can't tell my scorn for this book is strong.

The book starts with a 45 page introduction were Reid attempts to outlines the basic philosophy of Daoism and principles of Chinese medicine. He does this by explaining them simultaneously a long side what he claims is the western scientific equivalent understanding. I'm not a massive fan of comparing mysticism with science mainly because they deal with to different sphere's of knowledge, one existentialism and the other empiricism but what is even worse is Reid makes no serious delineation between the two. What your get is Reid select transliteration of a Chinese source, which then he interprets according to his own bias' which then he combines with select "science" to result in an psuedo-scientific & psuedo Daoist explanation. This wouldn't be half as bad if he showed his working but he doesn't he just passes it off as fact. It only when you know the sources he refers to and the science that you that the utter garbage that he spouts is exposed. If your without prior knowledge you get duped into believe his incredulous simpleton notions but Daoist philosophy.

For example Reid refers to Yin and Yang as positive and negative, which is an onerousness over oversimplification simply because he wants to use pseudo science rather ions to support it. He also refers to Daoism as the art of doing nothing, which is just about the worst transliteration of Wu Wei that I think you could render, implying that Daoism abdicates doing nothing as opposed to achieving without striving, or action without contrivance or any of the infinitely more accurate renders.

Another thing that I found highly irritating was his constant switch between romanisation types for Chinese names and words, using Wade Giles for names, Pin Yin for a few terms and a special system he has randomly invented for Qi referring to it has Chee. As a Chinese language specialist he should know better and simply use Pin Yin, because it is phonetically accurate. Ch is a hard sound different from the thin sound of Qi. It would take a sort sections at the being to explain the pronouncation.

The psuedo science becomes massively evident in the diet and excretion sections were Reid refers to auto-toxification (discredited by science about 100 years ago), trophology (no evidence for it) where he claims starch are protein should not be eaten together because '-Amylase is inhibited by low pH in the stomach acid halting carbohydrate digestion. What he fails to mention is that the stomach produces HCL based mostly on stomach distension and not contents, that stomach pH is controlled by a feedback mechanism and will be roughly constant regardless of what you eat and that '-Amylase with continue to work in low pH conditions for 40% longer when in the presence of as little as 1% carbohydrate and that the pancreas excretes '-Amylase in the intestines replacing the deficit. He also makes claims that Gut flora a generally bad for you and then in the next breath recommends uncooked foods coated in bacteria such as what he calls "aspergillus plant". Strange how he dosn't actually could it Aspergillus mould. This is deliberate sophistry.

Reid provides no real references for his claims and when he does they don't have any real substance, for the trophology he reference's Dr Herbet M shelton how when I searched on wiki for I got this

"In 1927, he was arrested, jailed and fined three times for practicing medicine without a license. These arrests continued periodically through the next three decades while he continued to lecture and campaign for his ideas.[2]
In 1932, Shelton was jailed repeatedly for practicing medicine without a license. Found guilty of violating the Medical Practice Act, he served 30 days on Rikers Island.
In 1942, Shelton was charged with negligent homicide and "treating and offering to treat a human being without a state medical license" for starving a patient to death.[2] The case was never tried and charges were dropped.
In 1978, another patient died at one of his schools, this time apparently of a heart attack. After a two-year-long court battle, Shelton lost the lawsuit for negligence and was bankrupted by the judgment.[2] The school closed as a result."

but not only are Reid claims psuedo-scientific, from untrustworthy sources at no point does he provide any Daoist sources to back up his claims. In fact he proposes eating tomoatoes which classical Daoists don't and grains which classically they don't, and depending on the era meat.

Also he proposes raw food repeatedly even though modern studies have shown that the highest uptake of nutrients as is actually from steamed foods. He makes various comparisons to the Chinese diet but then goes on to propose eating raw meat which is thought of as repulsive in China.

He then goes on to recommend a 7 day fast, were you use BRANDED supplements and BRANDED self colonic kit (providing the supplier details probably in exchange for some bribe) spouting the same old nonsense about compact fesses and mucus which has not a shred of scientific evident to and actually evidence to show that it can be harmful damaging the balance of gut flora introducing foreign mico-organism whilst depleting ones which actively play part in the symbolic relationships with our bodies . Not only is he recommend what is quite a serious fast, with various supplements that he has no clinical data for he's recommending it for pregnate woman and children. Dao is about nature and it not natural to put a 5 gallons of coffee through your colon and several Kg of microscopic rock particles though your insides.

Truely a terrible book, truly a snake in the grass author not to be trusted. Truly un-Daoist non-sense