(Note: the following article appeared in Body Mind Spirit Magazine in the June/July issue, and has been reproduced in its entirety. We have added three tab pointers below for your convenience.)

1. Supplements Take the Green Path
2. Powerful Prana
3. Criteria for Purity and Quality

Standing in our circular garden at the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center in Patagonia, Arizona, I am in awe of the life force vibrating around and through me. The green plants give off an incredible energy. The many varieties of bees are busy buzzing in their gentle ways. Just standing in this biogenic garden battery is rejuvenating. The secret of life is happening here.

Perhaps this seems like an exaggeration, but not if you understand the story of Zarathustra, the ancient Persian sage around whom the religion of Zoroastrianism evolved. At one time, King Vishtaspa of Persia challenged Zarathustra to teach him the mysteries of life in the time it took the king to get on his horse. Zarathustra gave him a grain of wheat. Thinking Zarathustra was making fun of him, he rode away in a royal huff. Many years later, as the king was getting old, he was still ignorant about the mysteries of life. Again he asked Zarathustra, and received the same grain of wheat that he was given before. This time he was more respectful and kept the grain of wheat in a little gold box. Every day he looked at it but with no increased understanding. After a few months he got impatient and sent for the great Indian sage Tshengregacha to instruct him. The king showed him the grain of wheat in the small golden box, and immediately the sage understood and explained, "You cannot understand the life force and teachings of nature by keeping a grain of wheat in a small box where it cannot interact with the forces of nature." The Indian sage suggested they go together to study in Zarathustra's garden. It was there that the king's craving for wisdom was satisfied. From this interaction between the king, Zarathustra, and the garden, the spiritual path of Zoroastrianism was born.

Supplements Take the Green Path

By understanding the green power in our gardens, we too can cultivate our appreciation of the forces of life. As we jump from the poetry of Zarathustra to the poetry of the biophysics of our garden, we can understand the statement of Nobel Prize laureate Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, the biochemist who was the first to isolate vitamin C: "We live by a small trickle of electricity from the sun."

The green of our garden is the transducing agent that harvests the suits light via the process of photosynthesis. This stored sun energy is then released to us as electrons and transformed to ATP, adenosine triphosphate, the biological form of energy that comes from the sun. ATP is the biological energy necessary for all cellular function. If we are gaining electrons from our diet, we are building up an ATP energy surplus of vital force that is healing, sustaining, and rejuvenating. If we are losing electrons to excess free radicals in our system and poor lifestyle, then our vital force is diminished and we experience accelerated aging, cellular and tissue degeneration, and premature death. With this understanding, the importance of the Green Path, the eating of a variety of green plants, algae, and grasses, takes on a new significance.

The greening of America’s supplements is a positive, healthy step. The main players on the green team are the algae Alphanizaomenon Flos Aquae (AFA), which are the blue-green algae harvested exclusively from Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon, and its surrounding canals; spirulina; chlorella; and the young grasses of wheat, barley, oat, kamut, spelt, and alfalfa. Each of these algae and grasses has unique qualities. The proponents of the different green companies often have extensive literature explaining why their product is superior to the others. Such debate misses the unifying point that they are a team, a multiple gift from God, offering a full spectrum of healing and rejuvenation. In my 20 years of clinical experience in using the various green team players and now at the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center, I've frequently recommended various therapeutic combinations to my clients for healing and rejuvenation.

AFA, among the more popular blue-green algae, seems to have a prana or energetic force for amplifying the function and energy of the mind and nervous system. It seems to activate neurotransmitter systems that help many people overcome depression; improve mental clarity, concentration and stamina, create a sense of joy, and enhance right-brain creativity. In my research of auricular acupuncture, the AFA specifically enhances pineal, pituitary, and hypothalamic function. Aside from hypothalamic glandular extracts, it is the only substance I know of that specifically enhances hypothalamic function. This is good news for vegetarians. I have seen it significantly help a few people with Alzheimer's disease and autism, as well as function as a brain-mind tonic for the general public.

Powerful Prana

Recently, some "yellow" journalism has created a false scare about the purity of the water of Upper Klamath Lake. The two main companies that harvest directly from the lake invested in a water-quality study by an independent laboratory. The report was overwhelmingly positive. While no lake water is considered potable, the test showed that the sample found at the harvest site was cleaner than most drinking water. No pesticides or other toxic substances showed up in the analysis. These data do not apply to the water in AFA harvesting sites on canal runoffs that are not on the actual lake.

Victor Kollman, who developed the original Blue-Green Manna back in the 1970s, felt it was the specific water of Upper Klamath Lake that made the algae so unique and powerful. At one point he actually bottled the water and gave it privately to people. Many anecdotal healings came from the use of this water alone. According to Dr. Wayne Carmichael at Wright State University, a foremost authority on algae, no cyanobacteria toxins or strains have ever been found at Upper Klamath Lake. Nevertheless, the major companies are including batch testing for the possibility as part of their protocol.

Spirulina is powerful prana: it not only heals the body, but also helps to activate the mind. Spirulina is useful in ameliorating the symptoms of hypoglycemia, diabetes, anemia, ulcers, protein deficiency, malnutrition, and chronic fatigue. It is one of the main protein sources I recommend for pregnancy. It is even a helpful supplement for weight loss. Researchers have found the phycocyanins in spirulina to be powerful immune system stimulants, boasting an anticancer effect, and possibly effective against the herpes and AIDS viruses. Japanese researchers have found it useful in the healing of hepatitis.

Chlorella is another algae that has powerful healing effects. The Japanese have been taking chlorella for many years because of its ability to help guard against radiation and air pollution. It is particularly effective in chelating out cadmium and the PCBs. Chlorella is very high in nucleic acids and is high in a growth factor that stimulates the healing process and growth in human beings. It seems to help with the repair of RNA and DNA. Like the other algae it seems to have some anticancer activity.

I use the green grass juices primarily for detoxification, healing, and alkalinizing. Research has been done on the cereal grasses - sprouted grain seeds - since the 1920s. They are rich in minerals and enzymes. For example, wheat grass offers 100 basic and trace minerals. It has almost as much iron as liver and more protein per individual unit than dairy products, eggs, fish, and meat. Dr. Ernest Krebs, the famous researcher of laetrile (an anticancer nutrient), claims that young wheat grass has ten times the laetrile than the seeds from which they sprout. There is research showing that wheat grass produces anticancer effects as well. Like the other greens, it helps protect people from x-rays, radiation, and the destructive effects of air pollution.

Barley juice, along with its many other wonderful properties, appears to repair injured DNA in the cell. Its active ingredient is a gluco-protein called P4D1. Barley juice has also been reported by doctors to help in the treatment of arthritis, asthma, diabetes, fatigue, GI problems, skin irritations, pancreatitis, stomatitis, and inflammation of the oral cavity. It has been used to reduce constipation and has been linked to the inhibition of cancer cells. Some medical research suggests that it improves stamina, sexual energy, clarity of thought, and alleviates the dryness associated with aging.

Alfalfa is one of the most nourishing greens. It contains vitamin K, which contributes to proper blood clotting time. Its protein content is higher than that of beef, eggs, and milk. Alfalfa contains a full range of minerals such as calcium, iron, potassium, and magnesium. Like AFA and spirulina, it is a powerful source of electrons, minerals, vitamins, chlorophyll, and antioxidants in the extra and intracellular fluids. Its healing and detoxifying energies are powerful combatants against degenerative diseases, including cancer.

Criteria for Purity and Quality

As a physician who wants to give my clients the very best energy food concentrate products, I have developed stringent criteria for purity and quality. These criteria may be helpful to the consumer who is trying to sort out which of a plethora of interesting products to choose. By knowing the right questions, one might actually get the right answers! My questions are:

1. Has any maltodextrin (corn starch), rice bran, flax meal, barley malt, grass fiber powder, apple pectin, apple fiber, or other inexpensive filler been added to the product?

2. Are products flash or spray dried? Flash drying is done at 88 degrees Fahrenheit and preserves more of the nutrients and enzymes than spray drying, which is done at higher temperatures.

3. Are the green grasses juiced and then dried or are they simply grasses that have been dried and powdered? Grasses that are juiced first and then dehydrated are more concentrated and more bioavailable.

4. Have herbs been freeze-dried in a slow process and are they certified organic? When herbs are freeze-dried by the slow freeze-drying technique, the volatile oils, which are electron carriers and active healing ingredients, are kept intact.

5. Is the storage container plastic or Glass? Research shows that when ingredients such as beta-carotene are exposed to oxygen, heat, light, or moisture, they become oxidized and degraded. Glass bottles are not permeable to oxygen, while plastic ones are. For example, up to 30 percent of the beta-carotene may be oxidized when in a plastic bottle.

6. Are the products certified organic? The most stringent standard for this is the California Certification Program (CCOF), which requires that no pesticides, herbicides, or synthetic fertilizer be used on the farmland for five years before harvest. In general, when not dealing with organic farm produce, the question to ask is, Are the products gathered and produced under environmentally safe conditions and controls, and from environmentally safe land and water areas?

The Green Path calls us to heal and rejuvenate ourselves and our planet. To fully know this path, as Zarathustra understood his garden, we must enter into direct, experiential contact with the forces of nature. It reconnects us to the primal benevolence and source of life on this planet.

Gabriel Cousens, M.D., is a holistic physician, author of Conscious Eating, and codirector of the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center in Patagonia, Arizona.

BODY MIND SPIRIT, JUNE - JULY 1 996

Gabriel Cousens, M.D., is a holistic physician and author.
He is co-director of the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center in Patagonia, AZ.