RABBI GABRIEL COUSENS, M.D., M.D.(H), D.D.
SPIRITUAL BIOGRAPHY
Gabriel’s spiritual path began in 1943 at the age of one, when he faced near death from miliary TB prior to the introduction of antibiotics. At this time, his older brother was also close to death from rheumatic fever. At the age of 9 he began having explicit visions of white robed ancients in a desert setting. Neither he nor his parents understood these visions. At the age of 15 his older brother was killed in a car accident. This event served as a spiritual wake-up call. Gabriel spent hours in silence in his brother’s room for several years. During this time he created a heart-lung machine which won the Illinois state science fair. His father died when he was 21, and his mother died when he was 33. He had no teacher to illuminate the mystery of death for him.
When Gabriel received Shaktipat initiation from Swami Muktananda in 1975, and in a direct aperception of the truth, he realized: "There is no death for the Self; only the body dies". Gabriel then began an eleven year period of intense spiritual lifestyle (sadana) under the guidance of Swamis Muktananda and Prakashananda simultaneously. Swami Prakashanda was the first person to be acknowledged as liberated by Swami Muktananda in 1969. Swami Prakaskananda acknowledged Gabriel's liberation in 1981. Shortly thereafter Swami Muktananda acknowledged Gabriel's liberation just prior to leaving his physical body. In 1983, at the end of a 40-day fast and three days of unbroken nothing awareness, a small voice broke the eternal silence with a whispered message (chasmal); he was now to serve his people of birth.
As a result of that Divine direction, Gabriel entered into a study of the mystical Kabbalistic and Essene aspects of Judaism to realize truth as bitul hayesh, in which the personal I disappears leaving only Hashem (God); all else being the dance of the illusionary matrix. In 2008 Rabbi Gershon Winkler initiated Gabriel as Rabbi into a lineage that may be traced back to the Bal Shem Tov, the Maggid of Mezerich, and Rabbi Elimelek. Gabriel also explored the mystical Jewish/Native American connection. He completed four years of traditional Sundance as well as the Eagle Dance in the fourth year. He was adopted into the Lakota High Horse Clan and given the name Yellow Horse. He then became a Spirit Dancer (traditional Ghost Dancer). He has continued this since 2000. Gabriel has realized Mitakuye Oyasin as the "unity of the four worlds and the four levels of physical creation and life".
These Kabbalistic/Essene/Judaic, Yogic, and Native American aspects of Self-Liberation have brought Gabriel to a Rama Krishna level of attainment and have given him a unique, authentic, ecumenical, unified world view. Presently he serves as the Rabbi for the Etz Haim shul; "Rabbi at large"; and an Essene Rabbi bringing Jewish (B’nei Israel) and non-Jewish (B’nei Noach) peoples into unity for the healing of the planet. He has developed a two-year Essene training program for this purpose. As the founder and director of the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center and Foundation, Gabriel has combined these three traditions into a way of living which he calls the Six Foundations and Sevenfold Peace. This is a pre-conditional lifestyle for liberation. Woven into this is his work as the physician leading the planet in living plant source nutrition and the development of natural healing modalities for diabetes and depression. As a family therapist and psychiatrist, he teaches a sacred relations course with his wife Shanti. He leads spiritual fasting retreats, teaches conscious eating courses, and has developed a Western Jnana Yoga program called Zero Point. He co-created the Kundalini Crises Clinic in 1976 with Dr. Lee Sanella, and is a vehicle for shaktipat transmission at the direction and empowerment of Swami Muktananda. He is considered a master of kundalini as well as a teacher of meditation, prayer, jnana, bakti, karma, and mantra yogas. Gabriel has been a student of hatha yoga since 1975.
As a part of his world service, Gabriel functions as a live-food vegan peace worker reactivating the prophetic teachings of Genesis 1:29 for the healing of individuals and the planet from the ravages of global weather instabilities such as warming. In this capacity, he participates in moving the world from the ecologically destructive "Culture of Death" toward the green "Culture of Life". As a husband, father, and grandfather, he supports families on the spiritual path. In summation, Gabriel is a world teacher, a servant, and an inspiration to thousands for the paradigm of whole person liberation.