Daryll, in Hepburn's book,Strongman, he talks about being lost in his early 50s and feeling and emptiness and began searching for an answer.He came across a book,Philosophy of the Masters by Hurzur Maharaj Singh, which he describes as being "more spiritual than religious" which led him to meditation, doing good deeds for others and vegetarianism. He mentions that at he was able to put the improved levels of concentration into his training and at 54 started to break records in his age group.As you say online "It's hard to find reliable sources." The internet is full of experts who copy what others have written without any verification.psychologist wrote: ↑Sun Jul 19, 2020 9:04 ampeter yates wrote: ↑Sat Jul 04, 2020 4:13 pmDoug Hepburn became vegetarian later in life when he started exploring Eastern religions. My feeling is that Bill Pearl began vegetarianism around the same time he started to follow Shri Chinmoy.Chinmoy was a controversial character in the weightlifting community due to his claims of hoisting stupendous poundage.This maybe why Pearl claimed his change of diet was for health reasons and not religious in nature. I would have to check the timeline for this though and as such is just supposition.
Regards,Peter.
From what I have read online Doug Hepburn was struggling with obesity and alcohol problems and this is why he converted to vegetarianism. It's hard to find reliable sources on this so I will have to do some more research. I have not seen any religious link for these guys vegetarianism.
Regards,Peter