the stomach and intestines is like the brain and spinal cord, just a collapsed, lower form of it - it is the serpent, snake, devil in man that must be stood up in the desert for us to be whole again - this is why Yacub had a very large head - his stomach and brain was one - this is also the symbol of health with the snake crawling up the staff - and it is also seen in the Arabic spelling of ALLAH - the snake approaching the staff - when we fast, our intestines shrink and i would guess that it would eventually stand up and rise up to the head - this is written all over the ancient walls, but we look for complex magical explanations of these things
