The credit for pioneering the use of Auto-urine Therapy in Europe and then in other countries, goes to J.W. Armstrong. Although it existed in India in the form of Amaroli or Shivambu-kalpa, in Europe or America it was an invention.
It so happened that Armstrong had been suffering from consumption. It was the duration of First World War. In addition to that as toxic effect of medicines, he developed diabetes and had a sore mouth, aching teeth, swollen gums and tongue.
Also he got inflicted with insomnia, frayed nerves and bad temper. He followed a strict regime of mixed fasting for sixteen weeks with some relief in catarrhal conditions and sciatica, but his other conditions did not improve and his consumption deteriorated bringing a host of troubles.
He lost faith in doctors and, even against their advice, he began some new ventures. Being extremely weak, he opened the Bible to read. Just as he glanced at the text in the Bible, he got stuck at one place and wondered what it meant.
The text in Command V of the Holy Bible runs thus; “Drink waters of Thine own cistern”. At this he was at once reminded of a young girl, whose father gave her own urine to drink when suffering from diphtheria, which got cured in three days.
At this he read his own meaning in the words of the Bible. He consulted the doctor, but the doctor did not agree. The doctor said that the organs could not assimilate dead matter of urine.
But Armstrong’s implicit faith in the Bible made him brush aside the advice of his doctor. He went on a 45-day complete fast only on urine and water, and that also despite the doctor’s assertion that eleven days without food was the limit to which a human-being could go.
After the fast, Armstrong writes: “At the end of the treatment I felt that I was an entirely a new man. I weighed about 140 pounds; I was full of vim and looked about eleven years younger. I had my skin that of a young girl.
I was thirty-six at the time and am now over sixty and feel much younger than most men of my age. I keep free from all major and minor ailments, to which the body is said to be the heir”.
He says further, “Being convinced that knowledge must not be selfishly hidden under a bushel, but should be shared with one’s fellows, I began to advise and supervise the fasting of others on the same lines.”
Armstrong wrote the experiences of his life-long treatments in his book, the ‘WATER OF LIFE’, which became a Bible for many a practitioner in auto-urine therapy in Europe and then elsewhere.
As the book came to India, it excited the humour of many. Its translations began to appear. I remember having seen one in Urdu under the title, ‘Aab-e-Hayat’. So, in the modern world Armstrong became a Messiah for many.
His achievements include the complete treatments of such diseases as gangrene, cancer, Blight’s disease, heart diseases, fevers, orchitis, burns and wounds and also many miscellaneous ones, like menstruation, nephritis, obesity, jaundice, cataracts and kidneys.