Raw Couple by Lapis Blog entry

Blog: In The Raw
by Lapis

Raw Couple

This couple, both authors enjoy a well balanced life based on their philosophy of raw foods and spiritual and psychological well being.

Date: 8/27/2005 9:01:58 PM ( 19 y ) ... viewed 2658 times

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Eating raw and healing from within
Jim Hart

Thomas and Gabrielle Chavez (holding a raw, no-bake cake) are pictured inside Healthy Spaces in Willamette where their books are on display. The two West Linn authors\' books also are available at VitaMedics, Powell’s Books and Amazon.com

West Linn residents Thomas and Gabrielle Chavez are both open to change.
Over the years, they’ve both changed in the way they think, the way they live, the way they prepare food, the way they care for such things as the natural environment and their relationships with other people as well as their health and spirituality.
“Alternative” is not an addendum to their vocabularies.
It is the guiding word.
Gabrielle is a vegan, and eats only raw, organic foods, which have not been heated or cooked or contain unnatural additives.
She also is an accomplished herbalist, gardener and flower essence practitioner.
She is the founding pastor of a church which, by choice, does not have a building; instead, meeting in homes and other rented venues around the metro area.
It’s safe to say she’s on the edge of mainstream America.
But this quiet, loving woman is a graduate of Yale University, with degrees in biology and religion. She also is a Reiki master, and has trained as a raw foods chef. She hosts a gourmet raw food potluck and founded Share the Love Catering. That venture, she says, is for people who want food that nourishes the soul as well as the body.
And now she has written a book describing her attitude toward nutrition. In “The Raw Food Gourmet — Going Raw for Total Well-Being,” she offers the how-to for people who might consider increasing their intake of raw foods — especially gourmet raw foods.
Chapters in her book address the following topics: the art of being a raw gourmet, global fruit, cake for breakfast, green food, soups and crackers, cheese dreams, feast food, sweet food, traveling raw, gardening in the raw and raw spirituality.
Her husband, Thomas, like his wife, is an author, eats raw foods and is basically a co-pastor in their church: Christ the Healer United Church of Christ, an interfaith spiritual community in the greater Portland area.
But he approaches the goal of a healthful life in a slightly different way than his wife. He was a student of the late John Whitman Ray, who grew up in West Linn in the early 20th century.
Whitman (and now his living followers) preached a system of medicine that made use of a number of methods of self-care that Chavez says help people miraculously cure themselves of otherwise incurable ailments.
That system is detailed in Chavez’s book, “Body Electronics: Vital Steps for Physical Regeneration,” which was released in the United States at the same time as his wife’s book.
“If you adopt the entire process (lifestyle) and are diligent,” Chavez said, “you can expect to have medically impossible cures — regularly and consistently.”
It becomes obvious very quickly that neither of the Chavez’s has a lot of faith in Western medicine. They want to take full advantage of the body’s inborn ability to heal itself, and they don’t want to be accused of destroying even the smallest part of the planet.
The books the two pastors have written as well as the instruction the two give in their areas of expertise are among the outreach ministries of their church.

Gabrielle F. Chavez
While living with members of Findhorn, a famous eco-village and spiritual community very close to the Arctic Circle in northern Scotland, she “baked” a raw cake, impressing its members so much that they asked her to write a book and include many recipes for raw foods.
A raw cake, such as the one she is holding in the photo, is comprised of avocados, walnuts, raisins, broccoli, strawberries and vanilla. It took her 15 minutes to assemble. The icing could be made from macadamia nuts and lemon.
The first edition of “The Raw Food Gourmet — Going Raw for Total Well-Being” was published this year by Findhorn Press, and is receiving distribution in the United Kingdom and Europe. Subsequently, Findhorn was asked by North Atlantic Books, Thomas’ publisher, if the Berkeley, Calif., company could publish the book by the same title and distribute in the United States.
Since raw food is such an integral part of daily life for her, Chavez cannot eliminate it from her conversation or her relationships with other people.
Eating raw (unpasteurized living foods) is one of the major methods of maintaining health and achieving physical healing that she employs in her life.
But healing in her physical and spiritual life, she says, also takes shape in the context of her earthly family, the church as a manifestation of the body of Christ.
“We worship in spiritual gatherings,” she said. “We work with the idea that the body of Christ is Christ’s healing presence in our day and age,” she said, “and the body is gifted. And we invite the people that come to share their gifts — their spiritual gifts and treasures.”
Such as the Japanese hands-on healing technique of Reiki.
Two years into her ministry (1998), someone brought a gift of raw foods. She and her husband jumped into the raw food “pool” head first, attending a raw food festival and becoming “converted.”
That’s when she discovered that Portland is a Western U.S. epicenter for raw food.
And now that she is completely vegan, and completely raw for the past four years, she says she loves everything associated with her lifestyle, especially the catering.
And promoting her book.

Thomas C. Chavez
Years ago, while attending four weeks of seminars with Dr. John Whitman Ray, including a minimum of 72 hours of concen-trated study each week, Chavez decided that he must learn more from this 20th-century guru.
He has spent the past 20 years studying Ray’s audiotapes and videotapes and learning through practice what Ray had taught on the subject of regenerating and maintaining health through a process — actually a lifestyle —called “body electronics.”
Chavez has been recognized for taking what he learned to a higher level.
Once a student, Chavez now has become the teacher — and author.
Building on what Ray learned through 25 years of research on all of the world’s forms of medicine, Chavez is continuing to preach the gospel of health according to Ray.
“What John did,” Chavez said, “was find a way to weave all these (alternative forms of medicine) together so that they would (work together for a cure).”
The book, “Body Electronics: Vital Steps for Physical Regeneration,” is receiving good reviews, including a recent one from a West Linn reader that states: (the book) is the owner’s manual for maintaining a healthy body and soul that should have been handed out to every one of us at birth.”
A medical doctor reviewing the book states: “The powerful message in this book is that it is a total program to improve life function, love, relationships and openness to all of life’s pains and joys.”
Another author says, “(the book) provides the basis for a complete transformation of body, mind and spirit.”
The process of body electronics, according to its author, is a self-healing system that involves nutrient saturation through diet and supplementation, and can be used for every imaginable trauma or illness.
Among topics in the book are: how to achieve enough nutrients with the right combination of enzymes and minerals; how much water to drink, and why it’s important; why eating cooked foods is a damaging addiction; and how to achieve the proper levels of bacterial flora in the intestine.
In addition to physical wellness, the book also addresses spiritual and psychological well-being.

The books are available at Healthy Spaces, 1833 Willamette Falls Drive; VitaMedics in Oregon City; several Powell’s Books outlets and on Internet Web sites including: http://www.powells.com and http://www.amazon.com.
For more information, contact Gabrielle Chavez at 503-650-4447 or write an e-mail to: gabrielle@cthgathering.org.

http://www.westlinntidings.com/article/8106