This cult is also known as "Essene Order of Light."
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Essene Order of Light
C/o The Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center, PO Box 1080, Patagonia, AZ 85624
As a child, Gabriel Cousens, the founder of the Essene Order of Light, experienced visions of what he came to regard as the White Brotherhood, also known as the Essene Elders or Order of Melchizedek. As a young man, he began teaching meditation, adopted a vegetarian diet, and began a study of the Essene Way that included a focus on Kabbalah, yoga, and kundalini (the energy believed by Tantric Hindus to reside at the base of the spine and to bring enlightenment when awakened). In 1975, in a meeting with Swami Muktananda, he experienced a profound kundalini awakening. During his seven years with Muktananda in India, Cousens sought a vegetarian diet that would support the awakening of the kundalini. He concluded that a live-food diet (the Rainbow diet) most nurtures spiritual growth. He also worked with Dr. Lee Sannella to assist people who had become unbalanced as a result of their kundalini experience.
In 1981 Cousens returned to the United States and revived his interest in the Essene Way. He studied Essene teachings and was ordained in 1988. He also became a Reiki master. Cousens founded the Essene Order of Light in 1992. In 1994, during a lengthy fast, he had an experience of the Tetragammaton, the holy name of God (in Hebrew). During this experience, four principles of the Living Essene Way were given to him and he in turn offered these to the other Essene groups to serve as a common understanding between them.
Through dissemination of the Essene teachings, meditation, and the imparting of shaktipat (spiritual power or methods) for achieving kundalini awakening, the Essene Order of Light seeks to serve as a force for the healing and transformation of the planet. Its Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center, located in Patagonia, Arizona, and directed by Cousens, attempts to guide people into the joy of sacred existence through the study of various traditions, including Kabbalah, Shamanic Judaism, the Essene Way, Yoga, and the Native American Way. The center introduces people to a spectrum of spiritual practices, including Shaktipat/Ruah Ha Kodesh meditation, Shamanic Shabbat celebrations, daily sunset meditations, Yoga, pranayama, Yogic chanting, spiritual fasts, sweat lodges, spiritual discussions, Kosher live-food nutrition, and a variety of self-healing workshops.
The order offers a course that leads to ordination as an Essene minister. This course includes a reading program and participation in various workshops and events held at the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center. Ministers work in various service projects that bring humanitarian assistance (natural healing, vegetarian food, clothing for the poor) to the needy. The order sponsors quarterly peace meditation events at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
Membership
Not reported.
Sources
Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center. www.treeoflife.nu/
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About the philosophy
• The nonprofit Tree of Life Rejuvenation Foundation, which has federal tax-exempt status, is a religious organization in Patagonia that promotes a spirituality it calls the Essene Way, which aims to train the “new world planetary citizen” – citizens who are part of an evolving world soul that honors the divine presence in all humans, animals and plants.