Gabriel Cousens, MD, is a holistic physician, homeopath, psychiatrist, family therapist, Ayurvedic practitioner, Chinese herbalist, diabetes researcher, ecological leader, founder and director of Tree of Life Foundation and Tree of Life Center US. 

He received his medical degree from Columbia Medical School in 1969 and completed his psychiatry residency in 1973. One of eight people selected for the National Institute of Mental Health Career Development Program, Dr. Cousens served as a lieutenant commander in the US Public Health Service.

A student of Kabbalah since 1970, he became an ordained Essene teacher in 1984, founded the Modern Essene Order of Light in 1993, and became an ordained rabbi in 2008.

Dr. Cousens received his yoga training during his seven-year sadhana with Swami Muktananda and his eleven-year sadhana with Swami Prakashananda, Muktananda’s first liberated disciple. In 1981, Swami Prakashananda publicly recognized him as a “yogi of real spiritual attainment” who has “realized the innate perfection.”