Arnold Ehret
1866-1922
Born in Germany on a farm, Arnold Ehret was fluent in German, French, Italian, and English. Although his interests included chemistry and physics, he became a professor of drawing and painting.
He was drafted into the military but had to be discharged for medical reasons pertaining to his heart and kidneys. After no doctor could heal him, he set out on his own to find a cure, learning a great deal of medical and holistic methods, including a vegetarian diet and fasting. He even sat-in on autopsies to compare the internal anatomy of people who ate different diets and lived different lifestyles.
After curing himself, he opened a popular healing institute in Switzerland and began lecturing across Europe on the benefits of a healthy lifestyle, and later moved his practice to California.
After many of his long fasts, sometimes for more than a month, he would perform amazing feats of physical strength and endurance, one example being an 800 mile bicycle trip, another cutting himself with a knife and having the wound heal within a day's time.
Ehret's untimely death was due to a slip-and-fall where he injured his head, although some believe foul play may have been at hand, as he vehimently spoke out against western medicine, the meat industry, and tobacco companies. His writings and lectures were published soon after.
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Norman Walker
1886-1985
Norman Walker was born in Italy and later moved to California. While as young man, he spent some time in the French countryside to recover from a breakdown. He observed some French women preparing carrots for a meal and noticed how much wetness was resulting from the peeling and cutting. He decided to grind up some carrots to see how much juice he could get, and voila! --the first cup of carrot juice!
While in the States, he befriended a medical doctor and together they opened the first juice bar, and developed several juice recipies for health, although they constantly battled the government who believed their juices to be unhealthy and dangerous.
 <<< the Norwalk Juicer
After perfecting his juicer in 1934, he moved to Utah and tried to develop a large-scale juice factory powered by an old cotton mill, but it was prevented by local health department regulations.
He sold the mill and started a health publication, The New Health Movement Review, and opened a health ranch in Arizona for awhile. After selling the ranch, he began writing books. More than 10 have been published.
Eating and juicing raw for 99 years, he passed away in perfect health and mental awareness, 100% active until his very last day. He died peacefully in his sleep, at home in Arizona.
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Dr. Herbert Shelton
1895-1985
Dr. Herbert Shelton's story is truly amazing.
Born 2 months premature in a small Texas town, Shelton was raised close to his parents care and spent much of his time in church and studying the Bible. He also spent much of his time on the farm, watching and tending to the animals which he loved. He was particularly intrigued by the way animals fasted during sickness, and how this lead to their recovery.
While in town, he noticed publications on Natural Hygiene at the newsstands, and began reading and practicing the advice he found, including raw foods, exercise, and fasting. As his health and strength improved, he began to consider this as a possible career direction; however, his parents did what they could to discourage him away from such thoughts.
Shelton had a serious case of asthma, nearly fatal. Nothing cured him except his following of the Natural Hygiene he learned in those early publications he had read. After his cure, his parents gave him their full support.
In college shelton dives head-first into studying religion, philosophy, nature, and health. After getting his PhD in medicine, he went about teaching how NOT to follow the popular medicine he spent all that time learning in school!
As Shelton's popularity begins to skyrocket, due to his publications and even a radio show, he is bombarded by advertisers of so-called "health products," being offered vast amounts of money by large corporations. He refuses, and is even put in prison on many occasions for "practicing improper medicine" and for speaking out against the military, as he was also an activist for peace.
He goes on to publish more books and periodicals and even catches the attention of Mahatma Ghandi, who invites him to India to assist him with fasting and the passive-resistance movement.
When he returns to States, government health institutions, drug companies, and the American Medical Institution continue to imprison him for so-called illegal practice. Shelton decides that Hygenic Practitioners need to unite and develop a stronger voice to reach the general public.
He published even more books, released beautiful photographs of models who were in his program, opened a Hygene school which taught and supervised fasting, founded the American National Hygiene Society, and even ran for president as a member of "the vegetarian party".
Later in his life, he began to develop Parkinson's disease and was practically bed-ridden. T.C.Fry began to pick up where he left off and continued the momentum that Shelton did so much to develop. His students continue to run his school, fasting clinics, and publications.
Shelton did not always follow his own advice. While many believe proper rest and fasting may have done much to battle the Parkinson's, Shelton was a workaholic by nature, and would spend days and nights researching, writing, and publishing more books. He got so bad that he eventually could not physically write, and began to dictate his books to others.
Although his body was wrecked, his mind was still sharp. It is believed he may have died while whispering dictation on his last book, which was completed by his students. He pushed on, right up to the very end.
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Dr. Ann Wigmore
1909-1993
Ann was first exposed to herbs and natural remedies as a child in Lithuania,
by observing her grandmother, who told her that "most illness results from ignorance, neglect or misdirected endeavors on the part of people themselves."
At the age of 16 she came to America to be with her parents, and to escape the horrors of World War I.
Ann married, and gave birth to a daughter, but her marriage ended in 1955. Her health declined, and she began to look to holistic hygiene to improve her condition. She developed an interest in weeds, grasses, and juicing
--
and noticed a profound improvement in her health.
Ann opened Healing Schools in Boston, and later with the help of Victoras Kulvinskas, founded the Hippocrates Health Institute in Florida in 1955 and opened it to the public in 1963. The Ann Wigmore Foundation began in Boston in 1985 and has since moved to a retreat center in New Mexico.
In 1966 she commissioned Sundance Industries to invent a machine to extract more juice from wheatgrass, as ordinary juicers would throw most of the juice out with the pulp. So a slower juicer with tighter grinding was developed. The first model was called "The Wheateena". Both hand-cranked and motorized versions are on the market today.
Ann traveled and lectured, published more than 10 books, (some of them rare or out of print now), and left everything in her will to her various organizations. She is also believed to have coined the term "Living Foods Lifestyle" .
Her untimely death in 1993 was due to a fire that broke out at the
Hippocrates Health Institute. While she escaped the flames, she passed away due to smoke inhalation.
 <<< the Wheateena
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Dr. William Esser
1911-2003
Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1911, the city was rapidly growing into an industrial mega-center and pollution was becoming rampant. As his parents were practitioners of hygienic living, they moved out to the countryside sometime in the late '20s/early '30s.
They grew their own food, and he and his two sisters were never innoculated or took any medications.
Although his primary interests were in photography and book collecting, he believed that he would do better as a Naturopath as a career option during the depression era. He read Dr. Shelton's early books, went to New York and attended one of the first schools for Naturopathy founded by the German M.D. Dr. Benedict Lust, whose curriculum was a well rounded study of science and hygiene. Eventually, he met Dr. Shelton in person and they became friends.
He then returned to Pittsburgh but had difficulty keeping patients, who expected specific modalities of treatment, or something more in-your-face than just a recommened diet or lifestyle change --they didn't feel they were getting their money's worth.
Esser decided to open an establishment where people could actually stay for a time and undergo a supervised fast, with raw meals and a quiet place to rest. After trying this approach in a few different states, he settled in Florida where he found it easier to grow crops and fruit trees to sustain his patients. Dr.Esser practiced there for over 50 years. Going this route, with the fasting program and supervision, he also achieved a much higher success rate with patients.
Affordability was also a concern. He charged the lowest rate in the country for what he offered. The accommodations were basic but maintained. Patients would return after 20 years and say it looked exactly the same as they remember. Reaching a greater number of people was more important than having a fancy, luxurious retreat center.
He was known as an energetic speaker, always full of life and beaming with health. Although a man of conviction and dedicated to his cause, he was not abrasive or condescending, but full of humility, kindness, and generosity.
Believing in a balanced life, he did take personal time off during the
summer months for his book collecting, photography, and he was even
an accomplished pianist; however, he still managed in his lifetime to
personally oversee more than 30,000 fasting patients!
Dr. Esser crossed-over naturally and peacefully on August 23, 2003 at 92 yrs.
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T.C. Fry
1926-1996
Perhaps one of the most interesting and contradictory personalities in the raw foods movement, the life of T.C. Fry is stranger than fiction. His life story may fit better into a Godfather movie-sequel than a book about Raw Foods !
As a high school drop-out, T.C. Fry was able to excel by charisma, intelligence, and sheer drive. He was a player's player, indulging in sex, schemes, and a wild, out-of-control lifestyle. He was the ultimate smooth talker, he was virtually undefeatable in chess and scrabble, and if he made up his mind, no one could persuade him otherwise.
At the age of 14, he got into a heated argument with an Oklahoma preacher over the validity of the bible. He was shot in the head by an ex-girlfriend. He crashed a car into a tree at 85 miles per hour. As a New York detective, he was repeatedly stabbed over the years by getting into fights with criminals.
TC was full of dirty jokes, tall tales, and conspiracy theory. He once claimed that the CIA raided one of his holistic clinics, shooting him twice --and indeed, he had fresh gunshot wounds to prove it. However, it was later discovered that it may have been an angry investor who lost their life savings.
TC wanted to accomplish a great deal with his new found way of holistic living, but it was going to require hoards of money to do it. Apparently, he wasn't going to let anything get in his way, especially ethics.
TC was known to scheme money from people and organizations, and then never return the investment. He collected hundreds of thousands of dollars for projects that never materialized: organic farms, holistic clinics, health cruises, etc...
His generosity was often at the expense of others. He was sometimes sued, shot at, and the IRS was constantly on his tail. He owed a lot of people a lot of money.
Let's back up in time just a bit. When did he get into raw foods and why?
It wasn't until 1970, after reading Dr. Herbert Shelton's Superior Nutrition, that T.C. Fry adoped a raw and hygenic lifestyle. Shortly after doing so, many of the health problems that had plagued him for decades began to fade away.
He immediately became a voracious researcher and scholar of the sciences of nutrition, physiology and healing. His desire to spread the word lead him to become one of the leading evangelists of the raw foods movement. He wrote thousands of pages --magazine articles, pamphlets, books, lectures...
Inspite of his nefarious business practices, he really did do a great deal of good and is considered by many to be one of the greatest and most accomplished members of the holistic health community.
He continued to read everything he could by Dr. Shelton, and founded his own periodicals such as Healthful Living (oftened declared as the most inspiring health periodical ever published) , The Wellness Messenger, and co-founded with David Klein, Living Nutrition magazine. He also created a fasting center in Texas, published several dozen health booklets, and created The Life Science Institute to teach, research and create factual and practical guidelines for human health and living. Among it's thousands of graduates is motivational speaker Anthony Robbins, as well as medical students from around the world.
TC was an expert at sales and marketing, especially mail-order-direct-sales. He founded Musical Heritage, the largest and most respected mail-order distributor for classical music cassettes and CD's. He applied these skills towards getting the word out for Natural Hygiene and Raw Foods.
The death of TC is shrouded in mystery. As his health was massively declining, he continued to tell people --in print, in person, on the phone-- that he was doing better than ever. Some believe it was his older injuries and health problems caught up with him. Others believe it was his switch to a fruitarian diet. He also had health problems that he never sought help for, even when doctors and friends pleaded with him to seek traditional medical assistance.
He may be one of the most human of the Raw pioneers. Totally dedicated, yet tragically flawed. He accomplished an unmeasurable amount of good in his life, yet he also left a wake of destruction behind. Positive intentions with questionable means. His thick-headedness and extreme personality were both the reason for his success and his downfall.
TC Fry was certainly a complex and mysterious individual.
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Victoras Kulvinskas
1937-Present
Victoras was born in Lithuania during World War II. Soon afterwards, they moved to the states and he eventually attended school at the University of Connecticut where he recieved an M.S. in pure mathematics, and also taught mathematics there as well. For six years he was a computer consultant for Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, NASA's Apollo Project, etc...
Yeah, you read it right---This guy helped to put a man on the moon !!!
As a type-A personality, he immersed himself in his work, eating and sleeping very little, always on-task.
However, by the time he was 28 he was forced into early retirement due to extreme health conditions. He experienced accellerated aging, advanced arthritis, cardiovascular complications, tumors, migranes, and skin problems.
The medical community was unable to help him and so he "asked the Universe for guidance" and soon afterwards he met Dr. Norman Walker and eventually Ann Wigmore.
After adopting a raw and holistic lifestyle, he began to heal and eventually became healthy enough to work with Ann Wigmore on founding the Hippocrates Health Institute. Kulvinskas actually did a great deal of the carpentry, plumbing, electrical, gardening, kitchen work, publishing and promotion for the Institute. He took no salary, he worked for free.
Victoras did a great deal of research, particularly in the study of enzymes, as he actually tracked down the principle researchers and met with them at the Harvard Medical Library --Dr. Howell in particular-- and eventually wrote a book with him entitled Food Enzymes For Health and
Longevity. He later researched the benefits of sea vegetables and chlorophyll.
He has written over 10 books, Survival into the 21st Century being the most famous, and is said to have lectured over 10,000 hours on the topics of raw foods and holistic living. He still travels and lectures to this day.
His wife, Vihara Youkta, passed untimely on Oct 16th, 2007. It is believed that the death of a close friend took a major toll on her health. She was raw for over 30 years with Victoras, and she was said to be a yogini.
 <<< Vihara Youkta
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Dr Gabriel Cousens
1942-Present
If Victoras Kulvinskas doesn't have enough credentials for you, then what about Mr. Cousens? With 3 PhD's, and also a Rabbi, a Priest, a student of Hinduism for over 15 years under ancient mastership, and certified for a dozen other healing modalities, Dr. Gabriel Cousens is more than qualified to speak his mind on the raw foods movement. He has put all of this into practice, with amazing results, even reversing diabetes and saving entire communities through health and spiritual awareness.
Gabriel Cousens, M.D., M.D.(H), D.D. (Doctor of Divinity), Diplomate American Board of Holistic Medicine, Diplomate Ayurveda, founsder and director of The Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center, is a leading author, and world renowned spiritual teacher and expert in raw, living foods nutrition.
To the process of awakening and healing, Gabriel Cousens, M.D., M.D.(H), weaves a background as a holistic physician, medical researcher,
world-recognized live-food nutritionist, psychiatrist, family therapist, homeopath, Rabbi, acupuncturist, Ayurvedic practitioner, expert on green juice spiritual fasting and detoxification fasting, ecological leader, Reiki master, internationally celebrated spiritual teacher, author, lecturer,
culture-bridger, world peaceworker, to give a unique holistic approach
to nurturing the hungry soul.
As part of service, Gabriel Cousens, M.D., M.D.(H) has published research in the Journal of Biochimica et Biophysica Acta, Psychopharamacology, School Health, and Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine. He is author of several books:
- Spiritual Nutrition: Six Foundations for Spiritual Life and the Awakening of Kundalini
- Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine
- Conscious Eating
- Depression-Free for Life
- Tachyon Energy
- Sevenfold Peace
- Spiritual Nutrition and the Rainbow Diet
- Creating Peace by Being Peace: An Essene Sevenfold Path
- There Is a Cure for Diabetes
Gabriel is an ordained Essene teacher since 1984 and founded the Essene Order of Light in 1993. Dr. Cousens, developed the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center in 1994 in Patagonia, Arizona, which he continues to direct. It is one of the most unique spiritual centers in the world with a mission to help individuals and the planet transform and heal physically, emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually, making the transition from a culture of death and war to a Culture of Life and Liberation.
Rabbi Gabriel Cousens, M.D., is also the founder and director of the Tree of Life Foundation, which trains Essene priests and priestesses (the Essenes are a meeting place of Jewish and early Christian traditions), and coordinates international humanitarian programs benefiting indigenous and disadvantaged families, children and cultures through holistic education and the development of high-yield, high-mineral, low-water veganic farming methods.
He is presently working with the support of the Panamanian government to set up organic, eco-health villages for the economically disadvantaged. He is also working with LULAC (League of United Latin American Citizens) and Save the Children in Mexico to bring the nutrition and anti-diabetes message to the Spanish-speaking world.
Gabriel Cousens, M.D., teaches throughout in the United States, the Middle East, Panama, Mexico, Ecuador, North Africa, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Bali, and Europe. He is the founder and director of the Tree of Life at the Dead Sea, serving the Middle East and Europe, where his work is spiritual teaching, healing, and peace in the Middle East. His spiritual background includes seven years under the tutelage of Swami Muktananda Paramahamsa and eleven years with Swami Prakashananda Sarasvati.
He is also a four-year Native American Sun Dancer and has been adopted into the Lakota Tribe; he presently runs Spirit Dances as prayer and fasting ceremonies for peace in Patagonia, AZ, and Israel.
Rabbi Gabriel Cousens, M.D., was initiated and ordained as a Rabbi after twelve years of guidance and study with Rabbi Gershon Winkler. Rabbi Gabriel is by invitation a member of the Shomer Shalom Elders Council for a Jewish Path of Peace, and leads shamanic Kabbalat Shabbats around the world. Gabriels deep personal multi-cultural experience in the Jewish-Essene-Kabbalistic, Native American, and Yogic traditions allow him to penetrate spiritual life in a way that transcends the ego and ethnocentric perceptions.
Gabriel graduated cum laud from Amherst College, where he published his first scientific paper, in Biochimica et Biophysica Acta, was captain of an undefeated college football team, and was inducted into the National Football Hall of Fame. He graduated from Columbia Medical School in 1969, where he published his second paper in School Health based on his 3-year experience living in Central Harlem. Here he developed a training program that was accepted in half the schools in Central Harlem, and eventually accepted by the N.Y. Department of Health. He completed his psychiatric residency in 1973.
While in New York, Dr. Cousens also developed a sickle-cell screening program with the PS 175 grammar school in Central Harlem. The results of this program were also followed through by the New York Department of Health. After graduating from medical school, Dr. Cousens received an appointment at the National Institute of Mental Health in community psychiatry. He also received a commission as a lieutenant commander in the Public Health Service where he served for three years.
Rabbi Gabriel Cousens, M.D., has been involved in humanitarian work since 1965, when he worked with Afro-American gangs in Chicago. During his medical internship, Dr. Cousens developed several community programs in San Francisco supporting socio-cultural peace. When he moved to Boston to complete his psychiatric residency, he developed a teen center for white, working-class teenagers providing family therapy and teen counseling as well as social activities.
After his residency, he moved to Petaluma, California, where he became a consultant for the California State Department of Mental Health. He also became the chief mental health consultant for Sonoma County Head Start programs, which ranged over an area of almost 300 miles. During this time, he worked with white, working-class parents and Pomo Native American parents and teachers in developing a Head Start Program, which included teaching family dynamics to the Head Start teachers and developing an innovative lead-screening program.
Over a period of several years, Dr. Cousens established the Petaluma People’s Services Center, which is a community-controlled network that provides social services for all of Sonoma County. It involved organizing over 40 agencies, plus developing new programs and networking to serve the elderly, a child-abuse hotline, and parent crisis hotlines. This center is still operating 25 years later and has been successful in its endeavors. It has become a significant social service agency in southern Sonoma County.
Gabriel founded the first Kundalini Crisis Clinic with Lee Sanella, M.D. In 1973 Gabriel transitioned from a meat-eating lifestyle to vegetarian, and started teaching meditation. In 1983 he transitioned to a 100% vegan live-food lifestyle. Since 1985, Rabbi Gabriel has been leading Peace 21 meditations around the world, including a quarterly peace meditation at the United Nations in New York City. His worldwide Peace Everyday Initiative (PEDI), started in 2003, encourages all spiritual traditions to work and pray for peace. PEDI has received the blessings of over 175 enrolled world organizations participating including spiritual leaders, leading rabbis, ministers, sheikhs, meditation teachers, and the Dalai Lama. He has recently created an international sevenfold peace communication tele-network broadcast worldwide through the Urth.tv Gabriel is a spiritual teacher who is coming from direct experience.
In his documentary, Raw for 30 Days, Dr. Cousens successfully reversed diabetes in six patients using a regimine of raw foods, exercise, yoga, meditation, and group therapy. The individuals recieved entry exams, and then medical testing twice each day to track progress. After a short time following the protocol, their blood sugar levels began dropping without medication and they were delighted as their bodies felt better and their minds experienced a deeper clarity. They began to believe that it was possible to reverse their disease with diet and the transformation from feeling powerless about their diabetes, to feeling empowered and healthy, emerges as they witness dramatic changes within themselves.
Gabriel is coming from the truth of his own life and light. Spiritual Nutrition: Six Foundations for Spiritual Life and the Awakening of Kundalini creates the conditions for experiencing the divine bliss, which is the primary motivation for liberation as it achieves the urge to live in an unending divine kiss. Spiritual Nutrition: Six Foundations for Spiritual Life and the Awakening of Kundalini gives you both the technology and the inspiration to do this. These combined with Creating Peace by Being Peace: An Essene Sevenfold Path, create a powerful foundation for spiritual life and world peace.
Rabbi Gabriel Cousens, M.D. is listed in the Who’s Who in California, the Who’s Who Among Top Executives, the Who’s Who in Executives and Professionals, the International Who’s Who of Entrepreneurs, Strathmore’s Who’s Who, and is a former member of the Board of Trustees of the American Holistic Medical Association (AHMA). Gabriel is married to Shanti GoldsCousens; he has two children and two grandchildren. He regularly teaches health and spiritual workshops, fasts and courses, and retreats at his two centers, tours with his book releases, and appears on popular talk shows. He has committed his life to world service and to establishing these programs on an international basis so that he, and everyone who chooses to help, can participate in the healing and transformation of the planet.
 <<< Shanti & Gabriel Cousens
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David Wolfe
1970-Present
As David Wolfe is a fairly humble guy,
i'm going to brag for him here on the feralfoods.org website. Dave has a Juris in Law, Masters in Engineering, Masters in Political Science, Masters in Nutrition, is an Essene Priest, almost a Rabbi, and has published more than 10 books, traveled and given talks in over 50 cities around the world, runs his own business (sunfoodnutrition.com), has at least 5 websites, is a voracious resesearher on many topics, and somehow manages to live life on his own terms. That's a hell of a feat. And he just turned 40. And he's a millionaire philanthropist, healing 3rd-world nations (and 1st and 2nd) and he's planting BILLIONS of trees around the planet. ---this guy is just non-stop! how in the heck can he do this?
...and I'm sure there's more....
David "Avocado" Wolfe is considered by peers to be one of the world's leading authorities on nutrition.
David Wolfe has degrees in mechanical and environmental engineering, political science, a juris doctor in law, and a masters in living-food nutrition.
He has studied at many institutions including Oxford University.
Currently, David still participates in higher education as a professor of nutrition for Dr. Gabriel Cousens' masters degree program on live-food nutrition. David Wolfe is the middle son of two medical doctors, which provides him with a unique perspective in the health field. Since 1995, David Wolfe has given over 1,000 health lectures and seminars in the United States, Canada, Europe, the South Pacific, Central America and South America.
He hosts at least six health, fitness and adventure retreats each year at various retreat centers around the world. David also coaches and feeds Hollywood producers and celebrities as well as some of the world's leading business people and entrepreneurs.
David Wolfe is the founder of the non-profit Fruit Tree Planting Foundation whose goal is to plant 18 billion fruit trees on planet Earth.
He is the author of Amazing Grace, Naked Chocolate, Eating For Beauty and The Sunfood Diet Success System. David works, in conjunction with sunfood nutrition, to develop, market and distribute some of the world's most wonderful and exotic organic food items. David and sunfood nutrition, (formerly Nature's First Law) were the first to bring raw and organic: cacao beans/nibs (raw chocolate), goji berries, Incan berries, cacao butter, cacao powder, powdered encapsulated mangosteen, maca extract and cold-pressed coconut oil into general distribution in North America.
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