I CHOOSE LOVE

Can you imagine choosing a life entirely free of violence and filled with love?

I have dreamed of this since I was very young. As a child, I observed the violence inflicted upon animals and later realized how society presented this to us as a "natural, normal, and necessary" part of culture. Yes, that is how we were raised; we were supposed to eat the meat of an animal. There was a man called a butcher—a man holding a sharp knife, wearing a blood-stained apron. Eating lamb in the spring, milk-fed lamb, or veal was considered completely natural, and unfortunately, it still is for many people. But not for me.

Since childhood, I have loved animals, trees, nature, and the earth; I was simply born this way. At one point in my life, I worked wholeheartedly in an association for three years to offer street animals a better quality of life. When they invited a team visiting from abroad to a kebab house to bring aid to the association, I was the only person in that environment who asked, "What kind of hypocrisy is this?"

During this period, the municipality allocated an old, long-unused slaughterhouse to us as a temporary shelter for street animals; the inside of the building looked extremely clean. Yet the moment we stepped inside, something shifted within me. I felt unwell, and the voices around me sounded as if they were coming from far away. I was seeing only how the animals were slaughtered, the chains hanging from the ceiling, the troughs where blood flowed, and those narrow passages designed so the animals could not escape. I entered a state of deep empathy with all the animals that had been there and lost their lives. I felt such heavy fear and adrenaline that my heart began to pound rapidly.

I could see the living beings dragged there in terror and the men beating and shoving them to their deaths. Who were these men? Did they have no hearts? Had they never known compassion? And what about us? Were we hiring an out-of-sight killer and setting tables with the victims of the crime? After all, we were not witnessing the murder ourselves... We were caught in an invisible conditioning known in social psychology as "Carnism." We did not see the beings crying out in agony, begging not to die, nor the blood pouring out and splattering on the walls. Men we paid—directly or indirectly—finished the job in hidden places, and then those lives were consumed for pleasure amidst laughter in fancy restaurants and barbecue parties. Tiny infants were separated from their mothers, their throats slit to brighten up dinner tables. This was truly a severe form of violence; even if people did not see it, there was a deep sense of guilt coupled with the normalization of violence.

I walked out of the building with my heart racing and my head spinning. No one around me was aware of the inner revolution I was experiencing. I decided to bury it inside because I believed there was no one who would understand me, and I did not yet have the courage to break away from the "herd." But this awareness never left me; I had passed through the doorway of a higher consciousness once and for all. When I went to the supermarket, I saw the cuts of meat in the display case as if they were torn from my own body—as though someone had severed my leg or my arm and placed it in the window.

I could no longer eat meat, and I was actually very grateful for that. However, my spouse at the time was meat-oriented in his diet and had no intention of developing such awareness. Living with our dog and cats, I found myself in another dilemma, so I had to restrict my choices for a while. When I began living on my own, I transitioned to a completely vegetarian diet. Recently, my husband and I chose to live our lives entirely as vegans. Witnessing the veiled cruelty inflicted on animals in the dairy, egg, and wool industries on social media was more than enough for me... Seeing chickens unable to move in cramped cages, cows subjected to continuous artificial insemination just to keep milk production going, and tiny calves torn from their mothers at birth and left to die for the sake of cream and cheese broke my heart.

I am someone who works with bioenergy, frequencies, and subtle energies within the human field. Because of this, I am deeply aware that everything in our world, including every food item, possesses a living vibrational frequency. The high levels of cortisol and adrenaline released by living beings at the moment of slaughter become trapped within the texture of the meat. Eating meat is not merely consuming food; it is taking the terror, fear, and frequency of violence from that being's final moments directly into your own field and body. On my plate, I do not want to see fear; I want to see love and life.

Today, even a single person turning vegan is enough to stop a massive wave of pollution and violence on the planet. Currently, a vast majority of agricultural land and grain production in the world is used not to feed humans, but to feed animals in the livestock industry. When pastures and these lands are used to plant food directly for human consumption, global hunger could theoretically end in a very short time, and the world could easily be nourished through organic farming as it once was. And I believe that people will be cleansed of fear-based thoughts, and violence will gradually yield its place to compassion.

Some people believe they need to eat meat. Yet when we look at the vast library of information provided by the internet, we can see communities that have lived for thousands of years under the principle of Ahimsa (doing no harm to any living creature) or the diets of the "Blue Zone" populations who enjoy the longest and healthiest lifespans on earth. In a vegan world, products will not be tested on animals, and the right to life of nature and living beings will not be usurped with an imperialist attitude. I am certain that a giant step will be taken toward a non-violent life.

What about our furry friends who are obligate carnivores, or those who miss the texture of meat? Today, a profound transformation is taking place thanks to advanced plant-based biotechnology and green innovation. It is now possible to recreate the exact texture, flavor, and richness of meat entirely through the power of plants, without involving or harming a single living being.

This ethical revolution works through two wonderful methods: In the first, plant protein structures—crafted from mushroom fibers, spinach, peas, or seaweed—are utilized to perfectly mirror the fibrous texture, density, and mouthfeel of conventional meat. In the second method, through precision fermentation using plant and microalgae/yeast cells in bioreactors, the very molecules that give meat its rich flavor, aroma, and juiciness are produced entirely from 100% plant-based origins—without using any animal cells or tissues whatsoever.

In other words, no animals are held, used, or harmed, the environment is spared from pollution, and authentic culinary experiences are created solely through nature's botanical wisdom. When we support these compassionate and plant-driven technologies instead of old-fashioned, violent industries, the world will transform entirely.

Eating non-violently is not just a diet, a religion, or a matter of belief. Eating non-violently means distancing your heart from fear, opening it to compassion, and elevating your soul and consciousness to a higher frequency with a monumental step. Peace begins at our dining table.

Somnur vdK