Lake Constance in Germany glitters with bands of gray, silver, and ice blue. A blackbird chatters noisily and I catch the scent of magnolia. For once I’m not worrying about anything. I’m not distracting myself with my phone or a book or a bar of candy. I’m halfway through a 21-day fast at Buchinger Wilhelmi—the spiritual and scientific birthplace of modern fasting—and my preconceptions have all been blown out of the water. For years I’d thought Buchinger was “just a weight-loss place,” that it simply offered an extension of the intermittent fasting craze that has swept the wellness world. I expected to be bored, maybe a little lonely, and very hungry. What I hadn’t expected was a deep inner recalibration, tantamount to a spring clean of the soul.
The clinic was founded in the 1950s by Otto Buchinger, a naval doctor who learn about fasting in India and was said to have been cured of severe rheumatoid arthritis following a 19-day water fast. He dedicated his life to fasting and yet, right from the start, it was about more than the physical effects of abstinence.
“When a person fasts, they are in a state of maximum receptiveness that can bring about profound and comprehensive change,” he claimed. Buchinger himself was an avowed yet non-dogmatic Christian who integrated a plethora of spiritual and cultural influences into his model of therapeutic fasting. His “nine elements of soul nourishment” included “meditation and adoration,” spending time in nature, reading spiritual literature, surrounding oneself with good companions, using music, art, and movement to nourish body and soul; and valuing a “God-given” sense of humor and self-deprecation.
This spiritual, emotional, and physical reset is a million miles away from the hormone pummeling of current weight-loss drugs, and the aughts’ detox ethos. Its origins lie in ancient Greek philosophy and Ayurvedic purification; it is woven through Christian, Islamic, Sufi, and Buddhist traditions. Fasting was never intended as a pound shredder: it was seen as a pathway to clarity, renewal, and self-mastery. Nowadays at Buchinger, it’s about shifting from symptom blasting to a nuanced understanding of how our thoughts, emotions, and beliefs affect our bodies.
“More and more guests come to us for the spiritual dimension,” says Leonard Wilhelmi, Otto’s great-grandson who now heads the business side of the operation. “Everything becomes clearer when you fast. We see a transformation after five days or so.” His cousin, Dr. Verena Buchinger, is the medical director: “Guests frequently have epiphanies; some claim it’s a spiritual reset,” she agrees.
