Modern Essene Gathering

The Essenes were prophetic, shamanic, mystical, spiritual warriors of the desert.

The Modern Living Essene Way is a way of liberation grounded by ancient and basic principles that can guide us to creating peace in our lives and on the living planet.  The Modern Essenes represent a universal archetypical consciousness that can be lived in any context and not necessarily joined.

The Modern Living Essene Way revelation is about inspiration; it is about inspiring ourselves and others to live in the highest degree of peace and harmony with ourselves.

This past weekend, the Modern Essene Gathering attracted nearly 60 participants from all over the world, including as far as the U.K. and !

Following is a photo summary for what turned out to be a powerful coming together of spiritual leaders, providing inspiration, direction, and community:

Classes on Essene history and teachings!

Participants eating at the Cafe

Live food lasagna!

Eating lunch!

Gabriel and Shanti explaining the Mikvah, an Essene purification pool

The female participants of the Gathering after their mikvah

Courtney, Reservations Supervisor, and Aviva, Director of Education

Participants chatting on the mesa top of the Tree of Life

The Peace Pole with the gorgeous Tree of Life panorama!

Live Music from Spring of Song

A gorgeous sunset from the Tree of Life property!

Sacred Relationships

“Tree of Life offers a whole person healing and transformation opportunity.  There is no better place to get real and heal than Dr. Cousens’ oasis in the desert!”  -Alexandra, Sacred Relationships participant

This past weekend, our Sacred Relationships course, facilitated once per year by Gabriel and Shanti Cousens, led eight couples through a profound journey into intimacy.  In the four-day course, our couples explored understanding their partner’s hidden logic, goals, and values, making tantra and eros a way of life, and the connection between health and sexual alchemical union.

Gerry and Lynne

“The Tree of Life experience will change your life.  Whether seeking health renewal, spiritual renewal or both; this is the best place on Earth to find it.  Gabriel and Shanti Cousens will guide you to the strongest relationship you could ever hope for.”  -Gerry

Aviva and Yosef

“The Sacred Relationships course is a wholesome experience.  Gabriel and Shanti created a space in which we recognize our divine essence that allows two complementary wholes to become a greater One.”  -Yosef

“Shanti and Gabriel created a sacred space for my husband and I to look at eachother and dive into the relationship.  The romantic dinner was amazing and learning about hormone imbalances was eye-opening.  I loved it all!”  -Aviva

They learned about the important role of the neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine in maintaining a healthy relationship, how to activate the highest expression of a relationship, and how to create sacred space and sacred partner practices, such as using aphrodisiacal oils.

Gabriel and Shanti guiding Catia and Jose through an exercise

They participated in exercises for stating their truths, active listening, clearing old behavioral and thought patterns which inhibit intimacy, and being present in a relationship.  They also practiced couples  tantric breathwork and couples yoga.

Kathy and Al

They were guided in clarifying, choosing, and preparing for new committments in the relationship, and then made new vows for their relationship.

Kory and Melanie

“Somehow, you have to get to the Tree of Life.  There is no way to convey it in words – you just have to go there.  Give yourself the gift of the Tree.”  -Melanie

“I loved it so much.  Life changing perspective.  Seeing my wife more and having a spiritually awakening experience.  Come to the Tree and take your marriage to a higher level.”  -Kory

Our couples were served a romantic, gourmet live-food candle light dinner with delicious dessert served by the Tree of Life Café, while being serenaded by live music.

Joshua and Mindy

Our chef and musical talent, Aaron, serenading the group

Shanti and Gabriel Cousens

Prashant and Anne-Marie

“The Tree of Life is a place to find and remember yourself.  A place of peace and beauty which has been transforming my life for the last last 1o years!”  -Anne-Marie, return guest

Please sign up for our newsletter to receive notification about our 2011 Sacred Relationships date, to be announced!

Tree of Life Orphanage Adoption

One of the service roles of the Tree of Life Foundation, a 501c3 non-profit organization, is to be a model of compassionate action in all areas of life.  We receive in order to share.

We are grateful to all our guests who have visited the Tree of Life for personal healing, experiential education, and rejuvenation on all levels.  Your individual holistic healing journey always contributes to the betterment of this world, as we create peace by being peace.

Recently, the Tree of Life Foundation adopted an orphanage across the border in Mexico.  This commitment has kept the orphanage from potentially being closed down.  We finance their daily operation and continue to upgrade the facility.  We work on creating a new model for the whole northern Sonora area of Mexico.  Our actions have already attracted the positive attention and support of the Governor of Sonora.

Stay tuned to hear more about the orphanage in our upcoming newsletters.

The children at the Orphanage are of all ages, from infant to teenagers.  It is wonderful to see how the children willingly share everything they own with each other.

About a week and a half ago, a crew of the Tree of Life staff and seva went to the orphanage in Mexico.  We all engaged in volleyball, song singing, yoga, meditation, and face painting with the children.  The Tree of Life Cafe staff also prepared a wonderful raw food meal for the children, and the children prepared a big fruit bowl for the Tree of Life community. The children also performed a play about a tree.  There was lots of love and memorable experiences sharing with one another.  Enjoy the photos!

Spa therapist Joanna distributing her raw vegan chocolate truffles!

Our Director of Education, Aviva, dressed as a clown, giving face paints!

Baby chicks!

Our neurofeedbak and NLP expert, Robert, showing a student how to do the "crow" yoga pose.

One of our nurses, India, showing a chlid how to feel her heartbeat.

Our community member Gerry, a previous Reversing Diabetes participant who successfully reversed his diabetes. He is taking measurements for upgrades.

Waiting for the play to begin

A play about a tree!

Watching the play

A live food meal!

Tree of Life garden-grown sprout salads!

Gabriel and Shanti Cousens leading a blessing circle before the meal

Conscious Eating Level 2

This post is coming a little late, but we have a visual treat in store for you!

Directly following our Conscious Eating Level 1 course, which is a course which people can come for ala carte, and is also a part of our Reversing Diabetes program, our Mental Wellness program, our Cancer Prevention program, and our Transformation program, we offer our Conscious Eating Level 2 course.

Our Level 1 course is part hands-on food preparation, part food preparation demonstrations, and part nutritional lectures and education.  In our Level 2, however, participants dig in with a completely hands on course, personally preparing recipes all day, every day, for seven days.  It is a complete immersion course where participants even prepare full, several course meals at the end of their stay.

To learn about our Conscious Eating Level 1 and 2, please click here.  You may also call us at 520-394-2520.  We look forward to speaking with you!

Below is a photo summary of our most recent Conscious Eating Level 2:

Our participant Jacqueline cutting bell peppers.

Cafe manager Debbie demonstrating putting a nut pate in a nori wrap.

A lot of kale chips!

Our participant Tom whipping up something delicious in a VitaMix blender.

Participant Connie making a salad with Tree of Life garden-grown tomatoes and greens.

Jacqueline with her lunch.

Tree of Life Cafe Chef, Kat, with a pecan pie made by our participants.

Our participants, as well as our cafe manager Debbie and our cafe supervisor Kat.

Our participants made raw vegan pizza to serve everyone for lunch. Here, our participant Petra puts on toppings.

Our participant Jacqueling gardeshing their pizza.

Raw, vegan pizza!

Our Level 2 participant Tom enjoying their own pizza!

Another guest enjoying her pizza lunch.

Our Conscious Eating Level 2 Graduates!

21 day Programs Update: April 23rd

We are in the last few days of our Conscious Eating Level 1 course, and our guests are having a grand time.  During Level 1, our participants learn about kitchen equipment, they learn many recipes through both food demo and hands-on preparation.  They also receive nutritional lectures from Gabriel Cousens, M.D.

Enjoy some pictures from the week:

Head Chef Debbie showing how to use a spirooli to make raw 'noodles'

Chef Kat holding up the finished spaghetti with 'meat'balls!

21 day Programs Update: April 16th

Our 21 day program participants are enjoying a few days off after a very intense and transformative week in our Zero Point Intensive.  The middle program of the three workshops that make up our 21 day programs, the Zero Point is a psycho-spiritual workshop, personally led by Gabriel Cousens, M.D., which is revered as an impressively rapid method for growth and for healing.  Some of our guests attend our Zero Point Intensive simply because they desire to reach the next stage in their spiritual path and personal growth.  We have those who attend because they are at a crossroads in their life and need direction, clarity and inspiration to embark on a new, fully aligned path.  We also host those with specific issues they desire to heal and release, such as addictions and compulsions, past traumatic experiences, tendencies towards negative emotional patterns such as anger or depression, codependent relationship patterns, issues with self-esteem, limiting belief systems about themselves, their life, and the world, and many other topics.  For many of our participants, particularly those here because they are healing health challenges, the Zero Point is instrumental for releasing emotional attachment and addiction to comfort foods.

Our guests had really amazing breakthroughs in healing this week, remarking to each other how everyone seemed lighter, and happier.  We even had a few participants who had done the Zero Point once or even twice before, and were back for more.  It clears such a huge amount for people on emotional, mental and spiritual levels, and gives people such profound clarity, that often people come back a year or a few later for a deeper experience.

So, how are our Reversing Diabetes patients doing?  Very well!  Most have returned to eating after fasting, but some have chosen to continue to fast.  First, let’s recognize how amazing it is that there are people making the personal choice to fast 2 or 3 weeks, who have never fasted before in their lives.  They are amazed at how the desire for food just dropped away after the first week or so, and they feel completely happy on just juice.  That is the beauty of fasting – it’s far easier than most people think, particularly if you’re in a supportive environment such as the Tree of Life.

When people return to food after fasting, even though they return to our raw food, low glycemic diet, blood sugars sometimes raise.  A few of our participants have noticed this effect, but are glad to see that despite eating, they are continuing to heal.  Only three of our eight participants are still on any kind of medication or insulin, and have drastically reduced the percentage they are taking.

Stay tuned for next week, which is our Conscious Eating Intensive!

21 day Programs Update – April 8th

Yesterday, on day 4 of our participants’ fast, our Reversing Diabetes participants already had great news to report.  Of our eight participants (seven of which are Type 2, one of which is Type 1), four have already had their morning fasting blood sugar reading drop under 100 and are are off all insulin and medications.  Two are already in the 80′s.  One of these four participants has dropped almost 200 blood sugar points in the 6 days he has been here and yesterday morning had a reading of 83.  As it stands now, these four are reversed and no longer diabetic.  Although none of them have ever fasted before, to Dr. Cousens’ question of “How are you feeling today?”, all these four replied they felt great.

Two of our other Type 2′s are each seeing consistent drops in their blood sugar and have had drastic reductions in their insulin intake and also reporting they are feeling fantastic.  Lastly, we have one Type 2 and our Type 1 whose healing is happening more slowly.

To learn more about our Reversing Diabetes Naturally program, please call us at 520-394-2520.

April 21 day Progams begin!

Greetings, appreciated blog readers!  We are a few days into our second round of 21 day programs this year: our Reversing Diabetes Naturally, Reversing Cancer/Anti Cancer, and Transformation programs.  We have 8 participants in the Reversing Diabetes program, this time just one Type 1 and 7 Type 2′s.

An interesting story about two of our Reversing Diabetes participants: they did not come for that program.  One came for our Transformation program, and the other came for our Anti-Cancer program, and neither knew they had any issue with blood sugars or had diabetes.  They found out upon getting testing and a medical workup here at the Tree of Life that they had Type 2 diabetes, and after getting over the initial shock of digesting this reality, are glad to have found out here and be addressing it immediately.

In addition to our 21 day participants, we have another 26 participants for our Spiritual Fasting Retreat.  Our spring program is always a favorite, because the weather is perfect: in the 70′s and 80′s during the day, sunny, and a little breezy.

Stay tuned to this blog for updates on our participants.  In the meantime, if you have been drawn to do a detox or fasting program, you may enjoy reading the articles Detoxification, Spiritual Fasting and Natural Liquid Zeolite, by Gabriel Cousens, M.D.  We also suggest you watch the documentary ‘Raw for 30 Days’, which you can purchase by clicking here.  Below is the trailer for ‘Raw for 30 Days’.

Tree of Life Cafe Creations – April 2nd

Salad made with spinach, strawberries, blood oranges, apple cider vinegar, olive oil, fig soak water, sunflower seeds, star anise, black pepper, and salt.

Pad Thai made from spiralized zucchini, sweet potato, and bell pepper. Also cilantro, broccoli, snow peas, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, sundried tomatoes, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, lime juice, coconut mylk, garam masala, star anise, and salt. Breadsticks are made from sesame, flax, sundried tomato, apple cider vinegar, olive oil, star anise, chipotle, and salt.

Tomatoes, sunflower sprouts all grown at the Tree of Life garden!

Tomatoes, sunflower sprouts all grown at the Tree of Life garden!

Raw Vegan Pretzels made from sprouted spelt, sesame seeds, caraway, olive oil and salt.

Raw Vegan Pretzels made from sprouted spelt, sesame seeds, caraway, olive oil and salt.

Conscious Gardening Workshop

We are currently running our wonderful Conscious Gardening workshop, during which we teach participants how to grow their own food!  We teach how to grow food in solar greenhouses as well as regular outside growing, so our workshop is relevant for anyone living in any kind of climate.  It is our incredibly knowledgeable, enthusiastic garden staff who teach this workshop.  They are also the ones who operate our sustainable garden year round, which consists of an acre of open garden, two dome greenhouses and three rectangle greenhouses.  They grow food to serve up to 80 people three times per day, so they are definitely experts!

Our Conscious Gardening workshop covers composting, harvesting, tunneling, cooling and heating systems, effective micro-organisms and other plant nutrients, vegan fertilizers, cover crops, seed saving and breeding, transplanting, grafting, and so much more!  Email us for an exact schedule!

We are offering this workshop three more times this year:

April 25- May 1, July 11-17, October 24-30

To reserve, please call 520-394-2520.  In the meantime, enjoy some pictures of what we grow, and what YOU can learn to grow also!

Tomatoes!

Kale!