My First Master Cleanse Experience

By Tom Woloshyn, The Lemonade Guy

I have been thinking back to when the Master Cleanse first came into my life, and how I went from total skeptic to believer. I have been guiding and supporting the participants in these Online Group Cleanses through 3 days of preparation leading into the Master Cleanse, the 10 day Master Cleanse and 3 days of transitioning back to food. It has been a great experience for myself and the participants and I will be sharing some testimonials of these people with you in the coming week as they are very inspiring. This has brought back memories of my first Master Cleanse and my resistance to doing it, and now as I look back, it was one of the most important experiences of my life. I thought I would share how I got started in my life’s work.

Some 41 years ago, I was introduced to the book “Healing For The Age of Enlightenment” by Stanley Burroughs. It was my skydiving roommate, Michael, who brought it to my attention and specifically talked about the Master Cleanse, also known as the Lemonade Diet. He suggested that the three of us (including my girlfriend at the time) go on this diet of lemonade made with maple syrup, lemon juice, cayenne pepper and water. When I asked, “Well, what else do you eat?,” he said, “Nothing.” I responded, “And for how long?” He said, “Ten days.”

From there I asked, “Why would I do it for ten days, wouldn’t I just starve, feel weak and maybe make myself sick?”  He said it was a cleansing diet to heal your body of diabetes, heart disease, cancer and any number of other conditions that may wreak havoc on your body. I thought it sounded like quackery at its finest, a bunch of BS, and I had no need or desire to do this.

I was 24 years of age at the time and thought I was reasonably healthy and smart enough to know that I would not consider doing something so absurd. However, I did have some health issues. I was getting throat infections every month, problems with sleep, chronic neck and shoulder pain and was constipated, maybe not so healthy when I look back now.

I put this cleanse out of my mind because I had a job in which I thought I could not function safely while doing this crazy cleanse, so there did not seem to be any possibility of me going on the Master Cleanse. Michael did not give up that easily, and the Universe had other plans for me as well, because a month or so later the plant I worked at went on strike and I was suddenly unemployed. Michael suggested we do the Master Cleanse at this point because I had no excuse not to, I had no job. I decided I would now do what I thought was a ridiculous cleanse, in order to prove to Michael that it would NOT work.

We went out and got all of our ingredients, started the cleanse, and nothing has been the same since. The first 5 days I sat around in the apartment waiting to feel tired and it just didn’t happen.  When I was hungry, I drank a glass of lemonade and my hunger was satiated. I was seeing my dentist at the time and had 2 wisdom teeth removed without taking any meds as follow up and never had any pain or infection occur, in fact my gums healed very quickly.

I became much more relaxed and calm, my neck and shoulders had much less pain and I felt better with each passing day. By the end of my first cleanse, the post nasal drip stopped as well.  At the end of 10 days, I transitioned for 3 days back to eating before going back to my “normal” diet at the time. As it was, I felt that I was much healthier, I would have a bowel movement at least once a day instead once every 2 to 4 days.  Wow, that was all in just 10 days of simply drinking lemonade.

About 7 months later, my friend, Richard Grassie, invited my soon to be teacher, Maynard Dalderis, to Regina to instruct a class in all of Stanley Burroughs’ work.  As a result of learning this comprehensive healing system, I have not seen a doctor since late 1979, as I have cleansed over 1600 days since that time(generally 10 days, 3-4 times/year). The cleanse was and is a life changing experience that still is a big part of my life and work. Since this first Master Cleanse, I was approached by a publishing company to write a book about the Master Cleanse.  This was a great opportunity to bring a greater awareness and understanding for the Master Cleanse and my first book, “The Complete Master Cleanse,” was published in 2007. 

I hope these words are an inspiration to you and maybe you will go on the Master Cleanse for the very first time or be inspired to start your next cleanse.  My online group cleanses run every month, click HERE to learn more.