Originally published November 17 2008
Dr. Gabriel Cousens, Raw Food Expert and Author, Shares the Benefits of Detoxification
by Kevin Gianni
(NaturalNews) This interview is an excerpt from Kevin Gianni's Fountain of Youth Summit, which can be found at http://fountainofyouthworldsummit.com. In this excerpt, Dr. Gabriel Cousens shares what detoxification can do for you.
The Fountain of Youth World Summit with Dr. Gabriel Cousens, the founder of Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center and author of "Conscious Eating" and "Spiritual Nutrition."
KEVIN: I am extremely excited about this. So, why don't we start talking about detoxification? What's your story? How did you get involved in this?
GABRIEL: Well, initially I was exploring it from a spiritual point of view. In 1982, on my own did a 40-day fast.
KEVIN: A-ha.
GABRIEL: It's not the...probably the best way to start - it was a great way for me to start but I don't really recommend it for most people.
KEVIN: [Laughs]
GABRIEL: In 1988, I really began to do fasting retreats for people.
KEVIN: A-ha.
GABRIEL: And did a lot of different researches. We've got along, and in fact right now, we are in the middle of a spiritual yoga juice fast.
KEVIN: OK.
GABRIEL: So, it's really, fun to share that at the same time. At the Tree we do, we've evolved really 2 different fasts. One is where people who come every once a week, and what we'd just called a detox-fast.
KEVIN: OK.
GABRIEL: Then we had a spiritual fast, which is like a week-long seminar. It's really a 9-day fast. So, that's kind of what we do. It's one of the main things we focus on. So we've developed a lot of research in technology along the way with that. I think the most important thing to understand is that fasting is the most natural and most powerful way to detox. Paracelsus, the great Renaissance physician in the 16th century and so forth, talked about that the most powerful healer is fasting.
KEVIN: A-ha.
GABRIEL: And Hippocrates, one of the great Greek physicians, said again, that fasting is the inner doctor. So, why does fasting work? It's because it activates a vital life force, and it's the vital life force which energizes the body that gives it enough energy to detox.
KEVIN: OK.
GABRIEL: So, the model we can hold is that the cells are filled with toxins but they're also overloaded.
KEVIN: OK.
GABRIEL: And so they're not as able to get the toxins out. So when we fast, we stimulate a process of energizing the cells, and also I'm going to use it to call it a process of diffusion. What we mean by that is, as you're pulling toxins out by the act of fasting by doing what we do, eliminating in several areas, we do skin brushing which we'll talk about�we do enemas and colonics.
KEVIN: A-ha.
GABRIEL: We do kidney and liver cleanses. We do breathing to clear the toxins out of the lung. We help people out gas, so they, they - here in Arizona you can be in nude outside in certain areas so you are getting a whole body air cleansing. So, all those things start to pull toxins out naturally. And in that way, it starts with ...of the cells. But the key truly is the vital life force, and that's strongly activated by the power of fasting.
KEVIN: OK. And you talked about detoxification, I mean, what are some of the things that we need to detoxify from?
GABRIEL: Life!
KEVIN: [laughs]
GABRIEL: Really, we have physical toxins, emotional, mental, and spiritual toxins.
KEVIN: OK.
GABRIEL: And when people come here to Patagonia, Arizona they were getting a very, very clean air and clean water. People are able then to rest and relax because in most people in the modern day world have lost touch with their rhythm.
KEVIN: OK.
GABRIEL: What life is about, they've lost touch with the meaning about what life is about, and in essence their mission, their sacred mission in life. And so fasting is a time to reestablish so we get in touch with your sacred rhythm, your sacred design, and also get in touch with the rhythm of the planet. We live in cities, what rhythm in the planet, you know?
KEVIN: Yeah.
GABRIEL: You can't see the sunset because the skyscraper is in the way, and it's like that kind of thing. So fasting, in a deeper way, helps you PG.4 Visit www.liveawesome.com for more expert interviews on health, weight loss tips, longevity, self motivation, nutrition and optimum health! reconnect with your essential self. Now that being said, we are going to focus a little bit more on the physical part of it and different fasts have different effects.
KEVIN: OK.
GABRIEL: A 7-day fast is what we do. Now we - just to be clear, there are people who come here and fasted for 80 days.
KEVIN: Wow.
GABRIEL: 90 days, and had tremendous benefits. We will talk about that a little later. I think the one-week fast is maybe most appropriate for people and a good place to start. First of all, fasting is not a new thing. It's 5000 years old. Almost every culture has done it.
KEVIN: A-ha.
GABRIEL: And in the animal world, dogs can fast up to 60 days. Salmon go upstream for months without food. Penguins go 3 months without food. It's part of that - the cycle of nature.
KEVIN: OK.
GABRIEL: But why one week and why has that worked well. What we found is it takes about a week according to my research to get rid of the bowel toxins. Now, where do bowel toxins come from? Well, they come from this - most people have pathogenic bacteria in the bowel.
KEVIN: OK.
GABRIEL: And because we eat too much, and we're not digesting well. And the ...pathogenic bacteria begin to take the putrefied food, and it turns into toxins.
KEVIN: OK.
GABRIEL: That's what we are talking about, specifically.
KEVIN: And those are being reabsorbed?
GABRIEL: And those get reabsorbed into the body. They go into the nervous system. They go into everywhere in the body. In 1917, just to make it clear, this is not some kind of a newfound idea, in 1917, Sedderly and Eldrich, two AMA physicians, okay?
KEVIN: A-ha.
GABRIEL: Now, this is the way from what the AMA people do now. But at that time, they were on it. They cited 517 cases whereby clearing the bowel toxicity, people reverse their depression, their anxiety, their paranoia, their lethargy, their stupor, their general feeling of malaise. KEVIN: Wow! GABRIEL: Really impressive! Okay, so they understood that the toxicity in your bowel was affecting your - functioning of your mind. It was affecting your mood. It was affecting your clarity. OK, and it's true! The Russians had done some research with schizophrenics. And they took supposedly incurable schizophrenics and put them on a water fast. We don't really recommend water fast. There is some danger to it, but I don't even know if they have any juicers in Russia, so we'll just put it that way.
KEVIN: [laughs]
GABRIEL: And particularly when this research was done, and what they found was 28-35 days in water which is a severe water fast. That 65 percent of the schizophrenics became healed.
KEVIN: Wow!
GABRIEL: And the only time that they relapsed is that they ate meat. Now, what's the reason for that is schizophrenics have a certain metabolic pathway or some schizophrenics at least 65 percent.
KEVIN: A-ha.
GABRIEL: Where when they eat meat, the putrefactive bacteria produce 6 times higher 5-hydro skatole. Skatole is one of the bowel toxins. And that is what was literally making - have a schizophrenic nervous system.
KEVIN: OK.
GABRIEL: So, that's how powerful it can be. Now in 1933, Dr. Bassler cited 5000 cases where people healed from sinus, sciatica, almost every element you can think of, you know arthritis, again emotional problems, and related again to clearing the bowel toxicity. So these are not a metaphor in other words. These are real - toxins are real things. You got skatole. I'm not going to list all, ammonia.
KEVIN: And how do you know if you have them?
GABRIEL: Well, everybody has them.
KEVIN: OK. [laughs]. So this is like, this is a blanket, everyone has this. It's just a matter of how much and what levels they have?
GABRIEL: Exactly. Now, when you're fasting, when we fast because we're doing fasting all over the world, we have a fasting center in Israel as well.
KEVIN: A-ha.
GABRIEL: By the Dead Sea, so very much and they have seen kind way of being.
KEVIN: A-ha.
GABRIEL: And were having fast here, or you - you know, frequently besides our weekly 10-day detoxing. And basically if you don't like foods, and you're not overeating ... foods then you're fasting frequently, you're not going to have much bowel toxins. You'll have a little bit.
KEVIN: OK.
GABRIEL: Most people tend to build it up overtime, particularly if they aren't taking a lot of acidophilus. So, it's pretty endemic. And the good news is really in a pretty short time within 1 week, we measured the indican which is a measure for bowel toxicity.
KEVIN: OK.
GABRIEL: In 1 week, by day 6, most people, no excuse me, a hundred percent of the people we tested no longer were showing indican in their urine.
KEVIN: OK.
GABRIEL: So we pretty much know by day 6 on a juice fast, you're going to be done with your bowel toxin. And that's also about the time people's mental state begins to clear. And they begin to get a tremendous amount of energy. There's a lot of energy that you get when you get the toxins out. On a 60th birthday 4 years ago, we - on day 5 or 6, I did 601 push-ups.
KEVIN: OK.
GABRIEL: And that was something that I couldn't do while I was eating. I was up to 550 something like that. I wasn't breaking the barrier.
KEVIN: A-ha.
GABRIEL: The reason is, there's this � even if someone who's - you know eating the right foods, 100 percent right foods, and you know juicing, and doing all of that on a regular basis, there's certain amount of toxins that you build up. That's something in everyone.
KEVIN: OK.
GABRIEL: And just that difference of 5 days juicing cleared enough the toxins to give the extra strength. Once after a 7-day fasting, we did Mount Chester that was in the '90s. We walked up, a group of us walked up Mount Chester. Usually, it's a 2-day trip to go to 10,000 feet, and on the 2nd day you go, and you camp out, and then you go over 2000 feet.
KEVIN: A-ha.
GABRIEL: We started at 3' o clock in the morning. We reached the peak by about 11.
KEVIN: Wow.
GABRIEL: And we just walked straight too because we had that extra energy.
KEVIN: Wow. That sounds good. I think it probably just about everyone in this call could use a little extra energy. [laughs].
To read the rest of this transcript as well as access more information by health experts on abundance, optimum health, and longevity just like Dr. Gabriel Cousens, please visit http://fountainofyouthworldsummit.com .
About the author
Kevin Gianni is a health advocate, author and speaker. He has helped thousands of people in over 85 countries learn how to take control of their health--and keep it. To view his popular internet TV Show "The Renegade Health Show" (and get a free gift!) with commentary on natural health issues, vegan and raw food diets, holistic nutrition and more click here.
His book, "The Busy Person's Fitness Solution," is a step-by-step guide to optimum health for the time and energy-strapped. To find out more about abundance, optimum health and self motivation click here... or you're interested in the vegan and raw food diet and cutting edge holistic nutrition click here. For access to free interviews, downloads and a complete bodyweight exercise archive visit www.LiveAwesome.com.
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