GABRIEL COUSENS, M.D.

Gabriel Cousens M.D., M.D.(H), D.D. (Doctor of Divinity), Diplomate of American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine, Diplomate Ayurveda is considered the leading live-food medical doctors and spiritual nutrition experts in the world, and, is recognized as "the fasting guru and detoxification expert" by the New York Times. He is also a psychiatrist, family therapist, Ayurvedic practitioner, homeopath, acupuncturist, medical researcher, ecological leader, and bestselling author of books such as Spiritual Nutrition, Conscious Eating, Rainbow Green Live Food Cuisine, and There Is a Cure for Diabetes.

He received his M.D. degree from Columbia Medical School in 1969 and completed his psychiatry residency in 1973. Dr. Cousens was the Chief Mental Health Consultant for the Sonoma County Operation Head Start and a consultant for the California State Department of Mental Health. He is listed in the Who’s Who in California, Who’s Who among Top Executives, Strathmore’s Who’s Who, and National Register’s Who’s Who and is a former member of the Board of Trustees of the American Holistic Medical Association (AHMA).

Gabriel Cousens, MD has developed the first live-food, vegan Masters program in the world in conjunction with University of Integrated Science California. He is the director and founder of the Tree of Life Foundation and the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center, called by Harper’s Magazine, “One of the world’s best 10 yoga and detoxification retreats”. Dr. Cousens has taught about live-foods, spirituality, and diabetes prevention throughout courtries all over the world. 

Gabriel Cousens is married to Shanti Golds Cousens and has two children and three grandchildren.

PRIESTESS SHANTI GOLDS COUSENS, MA

Shanti Golds Cousens is the co-director of the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center in Patagonia Arizona where she teaches Kali-Ray® Tri-Yoga, aromatherapy, and other classes in the Center’s spiritual retreat programs.

Shanti has dedicated her life to love, service and devotion. She was initially trained as a community nurse in her native land of New Zealand. She has earned her B.A. and Masters Degree in Vegan and Live-Food Nutrition from the University of Integrated Science. She offers a variety of workshops at the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center in Patagonia, Arizona, as the Director of TriYoga®. The depth of her experience in the spiritual and healing arts, along with her compassionate presence, inspires and illuminates the lives of all those she serves.

One of Shanti’s first live-food mentors was Gabriel Cousens, M.D., Founder/Director of the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center, who would become her husband eleven years later. After many years of study she has been ordained as an Essene Priestess in the Essene Order of Light, and she is currently assisting Gabriel specifically in the preparation and training of priestesses.

Shanti became a vegetarian at age 16 and she began her study of yoga at the age of nineteen. Five years into her practice of yoga, at the age of twenty four, she met Kali Ray®, with whom she would spend the next 16 years living, learning, training, meditating and teaching. In 1986 she became among the first of the trained Kali Ray TriYoga® teachers and taught as a Senior Teacher at the Kali Ray TriYoga® headquarters in Santa Cruz, California for 16 years.

Shanti quickly found the harmony between the practice of TriYoga® and a vegan, live-food diet. As a teacher, she expanded her classes to include living foods education and hosted living foods gatherings a t the Kali Ray TriYoga®Center. With great generosity, she offers her love through preparing delicious live-food delicacies to nourish body and soul.

Shanti’s passion for healing, spiritual illumination and a holistic way of life lead her to the art, science and spirit of aromatherapy. For seven years she studied and worked under Elizabeth Van Buren, Director of the College of Botanical Healing Arts in California. She completed extensive studies of botany, chemistry, blending therapeutic oils and individualizing the healing approach for each client. During this time she was employed by Elizabeth Van Buren blending customized oils and as an independent aromatherapy healing practitioner. She continues to share this time-honored healing art as an aromatherapist at the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center.

Shanti and Gabriels partnership embodies the Divine Flow inherent in the Culture of Life and Liberation lifestyle. They inspire those around them to manifest sacred partnership, right livelihood, holistic living and Divine Union. She co-teaches the Sacred Relationship Course at the Tree of Life with Gabriel, and also co-participates in the spiritual questions and answers are port of the evening programs at the Tree of Life. The essence of her work is to bring the healing power of the Shakhinah energy (Sacred Feminine) into the planet for the healing of the world.

THE VISION OF THE TREE OF LIFE FOUNDATION 

Our vision is to create a living experience of the meaning of sustainable healthy living for the individual and for the planet.  This means providing people with a direct experience of what it means to live a quality of life that is healing both to themselves and to the planet of every single level from agricultural interests of our society to personal health, emotional health, and spiritual health.  We offer this so that people can know that such an existence is real and can experience the joy of living that way.  In essence, each person has a deep yearning to live a quality of life or what we may call an “awakened normality”.  In that way the Tree of Life is an oasis for awakening. 

THE TREE OF LIFE FOUNDATION is deeply committed to providing experiences and empowering people to apply that experience of “awakened normality” back into their lives. The Tree of Life Foundation mission is to be an oasis of awakening on every level and provide a direct experience of a quality of life that is healing to oneself and to the planet, through pure reliable agriculture, personal health, emotional well-being and spiritual vitality.

The Tree of Life is actively involved in establishing and operating a number of humanitarian and health projects in the United States and around the world.  All of our projects are designed for the healing of the planet…from the personal to the ecological and spiritual level.  Presently there are a number of projects in which we are actively engaged. They include:

1. Transforming the health and humanitarian awareness both on the personal and global levels through leading-edge work on the art and science of rejuvenating health and well-being.  We are acting as an inspirational training center for people around the world by helping them directly experience the joy of health, harmony, and rejuvenation, helping them takes it back to their own countries. 

2. In his book, There is a Cure for Diabetes, Gabriel Cousens, M.D. M.D.(H),   establishes that diabetes can be reversed naturally and he is doing formal research to prove this.  The Tree of Life has a Reversing Diabetes Naturally program in the U.S. in which approximately 70% of people have healed from non-insulin dependent diabetes.

3. The Tree of Life Foundation has developed an sustainable vegan gardening that is designed to be totally solar as we expand our large-scale infrastructure.  It offers an ecology experience to its world visitors as a working model for what can be done in their countries to maintain and protect the ecology.

4. We have a highly recognized program in nutrition and food preparation also attended by students from around the world.  Most students go on to teach health and lifestyle and start plant-source-only restaurants around the globe.

5. Training, self-empowerment courses, family life, psycho-spiritual healing, food preparation, and detox and spiritual healing are offered for increasing the quality of life and healthy functioning of families and couples.  We emphasize a family-centered approach to health.

6. One of the major problems in the world today is addiction.  The Tree of Life is actively developing solutions for helping people overcome their addictions so that they can lead happy, productive drug free lives.

7. Since 1985 we have sponsored quarterly peace meditations throughout the U.S. and Europe, called Peace 21. Dr. Cousens also started the Peace Everyday Initiative to create peace, which is now practiced by over 192 organizations around the world.

8. We have laid the groundwork to begin programs in helping and teach Native Americans in every tribe throughout the U.S. how to heal diabetes naturally and to eliminate it as a predatory disease in their society.  Once this is started, we have the background to begin to heal the alcoholism problem in Native American societies.  The diabetes and alcohol problems exist in many indigenous people around the world.  Once the Native American program has proven successful in the U.S. we hope to begin similar work with the Mayori tribes in New Zealand and the Aborigines in Australia where these problems are epidemic.

To learn more about the Tree of Life Foundation click here.