A GETAWAY FOR THE SOUL
Patagonia, Arizona — The “tree of life” is a term mostly associated with the Jewish system of Kabballah, whose literal interpretation means, “Received tradition.”
According to its Wikipedia entry, the tree of life “is a tree in the Garden of Eden whose fruit gives everlasting life, i.e. immortality. This is a fitting metaphor for the place that is the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center, nestled in gentle rolling hills in the quaint town of Patagonia about 12 miles north of Nogales and the Arizona/Mexico border.
Much like a tree that has a trunk as its core and a multitude of branches, the core of the Center is health and healing, a subject that is close to my heart. It’s not necessary to be chronically ill in order to appreciate a healthy ethic, but so many people have become accustomed to living with illness, or expecting to, that disease is fast becoming society’s standard of normalcy. Health and longevity are no longer expected; disease, physical breakdown, and painful maturity are. The people at the Center have a different take on health; one we thought was worth investigating.
All of the Center’s services work under the understanding and expectation that physical life and health can absolutely be extended when we give our body the nutritional components it was designed to operate on. I dare say that “standard” allopathic medicine does not make this assumption. In fact, given their reliance of pharmaceuticals as the primary treatment strategy, they can’t assume absolute extension if the body is not being supplied that which it was designed to operate properly on.
The chapel is a sanctuary within a sanctuary.
It’s like a mechanic recommending olive oil to keep your car’s engine lubricated while operating instead of engine oil. It may operate for awhile, but it will break down much sooner than it would normally, if it had oil that was designed for the pressures that the engine operates under.
On the other hand, you wouldn’t think of using engine oil as an internal lubricant in your body… that is, unless a doctor told you to, or you see a commercial where an actor in a white coat posing as a doctor said that doctors recommend it, and you see images of people whose happiness have been restored by the new oil. Sounds absurd, but, knowingly and unknowingly, we’re feeding and exposing our bodies a long list of toxins that kill us softly and slowly, so softly and so slowly that we don’t think of it when disease begins to set in. And yet, the larger problem are the nutritional components that our bodies are not getting, which make them susceptible to environmental toxins.
In the same way that our cars will last far longer than we have grown accustomed to if we take simple care of them, life and health extenstion is available to all who are ready and willing to make a few healthy changes. Magnesium and iodine are two very important components that merit more attention. The focus of The Center is on all-natural food.
One of the main programs at the Center is the Ayurvedic (Science of Life) Live Food Diet. The term Ayurveda deals with the measures of healthy living, along with therapeutic measures that relate to physical, mental, social and spiritual harmony. To put it simply, nothing is cooked, everything is raw. As such, the nutritional value, along with the life essence in the foods served, remains. The Live-Food Diet nutritional program is supported by other health activities, such as yoga and spirit fasting, sacred relationship workshops, Reiki training, live food and sprouting apprenticeships, and retreats, for both individuals and groups.
This path leads to a mikvah which is used for purification.
The Center’s ethos has been demonstrated in a documentary film titled, Raw For 30 Days, a film about live food and the intention of healing. The film brings together six individuals from diverse backgrounds, who share a common disease, in this case, it is Adult Onset Type II diabetes. The general mantra on diabetes from our medical community is “there is no cure.” Once you have it, “modern medicine’s” goal is to help you “manage”, i.e., live with the disease for the rest of your life.
The American Diabetes Association home page states, “the cause of diabetes continues to be a mystery, although both genetics and environmental factors such as obesity and lack of exercise appear to play roles.”
After spending quite a bit of time researching some the causes of disease, such statements are more troubling than comforting. For example, nowhere is it suggested that profound nutrition-deficiency, born of cumulative years spent ingesting processed, low toxicity, pesticide-laced foods, may be a contributing factor to the diabetic syndrome.
Since the consequences of these contributors are not earnestly looked at, the possibility of actually reversing one’s diabetic status is not even hinted at. You would think that the 20.8 million people (7% of the population) in the U.S. alone, including adults and children, not to mention the 40 million more who love them, and are being conditioned to fear for their own onset of the disease, would want to know that there are options. Well, there are.
Raw For 30 Days examines this subject head-on, and in the end, all six of the test subjects were free of diabetic indicators. What they did afterwards are six new stories, but the concept, that diabetes
can be reversed through nutritional replenishment, is undeniable.
I’ve learned that nutritional components like zinc, selenium, magnesium, and more, are what allow the body to produce insulin in amounts necessary to sustain health and well-being. Shortages or imbalances in any of these will invariably result in health problems. Any treatment regimen that doesn’t include mineral building and rebalancing, will not restore health, but will help manage the disease instead. These days that would amount to “business as usual.”
The labyrinth.
The property featured a large labyrinth, set in a field, bounded by golden tall grass. Responding to some unknown impulse that I decided to “go with,” I removed my shoes and socks and traversed the serpentine path barefoot, much to the disdain of my tootsies.
I gritted through the journey nonetheless, feeling a much elevated sense of relief and gratitude for what some strategically placed cotton and rubber can do to contribute to our well-being.
Peace does prevail at this point.
The Center is indeed an Oasis for Awakening, not only of the body, but the mind and spirit. While the compound has the feeling of a commune from another era, the people we met were friendly, interested in our being there, and made us feel genuinely welcome. Here’s to our great health.
Directions
The Center is roughly 40 miles south of Tucson. Get there by taking I-10 east to Rt. 83, then south 25 miles to Sonoita, taking a right (west) on to Rt. 82 to Patagonia. At Taylor Street, turn left, then another left onto Harshaw (it’s not marked, but you can’t go straight). Follow the street around for 1 mile, until you reach 686 Harshaw Rd. on the left. For more information, see their web site: www.treeoflife.nu or call 866-394-2520.
