Meat & Karmic Debt

This morning I was had a phone conversation with my friend Eric Bramlett. At the end of the conversation he told me “You would be proud of me - I have not eaten meat in 2 weeks, I am playing with the idea of becoming a vegetarian, except I am still eating fish.” I congratulated him and casually mentioned with a smile on my face, “Fish are fine - No Karmic debt.”

A few minutes later I got an email from him following up from our conversation:

“Is it bad karma to eat chicken? Ali (Eric’s Boss Lady) wants to know. Any links you can send me to see what is good/bad karma to eat?”

I started to write him an email back explaining the concept of Karmic Debt and Meat when 10 minutes passed and I realized that I had a full blown blog post. So here is my answer to his question:

Here is the rule of thumb:

Animals all experience fear, pain and suffering to some extent - some more than others.

The more developed and advanced the central nervous system is corresponds to how much pain and suffering the animal is capable of experiencing.

Cows, pigs, goats, cats, dogs and other mammals have for the most part physical biology similar to humans - advanced central nervous systems, glands and brain functions that enable them to be more alert and conscious. Consequently, they experience more pain.

These animals experience a great deal of pain and suffering when they are slaughtered - therefore by eating them you are incurring a great deal of negative karma.

On the other hand fish are not a very advanced animal - the have very small brains and are operating more or less on instinct - they are just slightly more advanced and conscious than plants.

It is said that the pain and suffering that they experience is so slight that one can eat them without incurring any karmic debt. I read this in a book: The Yoga of Nutrition by Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov.

This seems to make sense from a biological perspective. I personally choose not to eat fish, mostly because I have found countless other nutritious and tasty alternative but also because I don’t want to take any risks that I am creating bad karma for myself!

However, if you are moving away from a carnivorous diet, I would say continuing to eat fish is a very effective way to ween yourself off of the flesh of more advanced animals. It is a very positive life change to move toward fish in an attempt to exclude other meats - I always encourage people when they tell me about such a life decision.

As far as Chickens go - they are somewhere in between a Cow and a Fish - they definitely experience pain and suffering, and there is no doubt that by eating them you will be incurring a Karmic debt. On this one I would say use your best judgment. Watch “Meet Your Meat” if you are still comfortable eating chicken after watching that video than you are obviously not ready to give up chicken. The good news is this: There are countless soy based meat alternatives available today. Delicious, tasty alternatives that will make you ever wonder why you ate the real thing.

My wife Alison became a Vegetarian about two months after we met 6 years ago. Once she was veg, she would always tell me how much she MISSED chicken fajitas when we would to to Mexican restaurants. It was the one food that she really craved. Well, we went to Whole Foods and found “Lite Life” Chicken Strips. We took them home and cooked them up on the grill and she DEVOURED them. They are delicious and for her they were a perfect substitute.

Chicken is slimy and gross, they have, feathers, beaks and claws - do we really want to eat them?

So when choosing the food you eat, be aware of what all had to happen before it reached your plate. How much pain and suffering was created to cut off its limbs, sear its beak, boil it alive or bludgeon it? When you consume pain and suffering you become pain and suffering.

For the good of all mankind who are still lured by the shredded flesh of dead animals, I have put together a diagram that compares the relative Karmic Debt of consuming animals. This is just my humble opinion. However, I have based it more or less on biology and the advancement of each being and other factors such as: brain size, central nervous system, intelligence and general consciousness. You can find a full breakdown of my theory concerning relative Karmic Debt here