Last week I learned a friend of mine went veg. It didn't matter how or why to me. Just that she did. Bravo!

However, something she said stuck with me and I chewed on it all weekend.

She's one of those New Agers who runs around in tye dye speaking in a very soft voice. She recently started seeing her own personal guru. She'd been having trouble sleeping so her guru told her to "elevate her vibration by adopting a vegetarian diet." It worked so she's running round telling people they should elevate their vibration by adopting a vegetarian diet.

It sounds loopy so no one will listen to her. I understand the truth of it. But how does one communicate it in a level manner to the spiritually uninformed?

Muscle Memory.

Body builders and grief therapists have scores of data on muscle memory.

It's been documented that some organ recipients adopt traits of the folks who donated organ. A woman who hates bell pepper gets a heart transplant. The man the heart came from LOVED bell pepper. Suddenly this woman finds she can't get enough bell pepper.

Stanford has documented that if we "remember" doing sit ups for a particular period of time, we gain the same benefits as actually doing the sit ups themselves.

What does it all add up to?

America takes a nose dive in clinical depression. New drugs are popping up left and right. Is it genuine depression? Or is it something else? The fact that every piece of meat people are eating is carrying muscle memory of years of torment. Years of sadness. Years of grief and lonliness - life ended in extreme pain and torture. These animals are skinned alive. Some survive even after having their tummies ripped open.

Also rage skyrockets. Click the link below to read about a man who literally died of road rage.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/03/18/MNG6HHQGG41.DTL&hw=skyline&sn=002&sc=918

More muscle memory. It all goes back to factory farming. Some of these animals go insane with rage over their confinement. Our response? More torture. Chickens are de-beaked without anesthetic. Other animals have their toes and teeth removed.

And America goes happily along thinking meat is great.

Don't take my word for it. If you're a meat eater, write down how you feel today. Your mood as well as your physical feeling. Then go veggie for a week or two. Chronicle the changes in your mind and body.