In the summer of 2014, the nomadic Tasmanian shaman, Dr. David Jubb set up a mobile healing camp at the foot of Arizona’s picturesque canyons, which he named “The Return to the Eagles’ Nest.” Jubb is the designer of a nutritional lifestyle — Life Foods — that had transformed my life and extended my youth by years. I drifted across the United States to join the clan of herbivorous desert nomads. In the upcoming weeks, I will be publishing installments of what I lived that magical Arizona summer, alongside the founder of Life Foods healing. In my account, I changed the names and certain details about the encampment to protect the privacy of the individuals I camped out with in Sedona.
Chasing the Enigma
I had been following Jubb for years, watching and studying his zany, comical ramblings on infinite topics revolving around natural living. A perplexing figure — reminiscent of the Toltec shaman Don Juan — I partially owed my reinvention to Dr. David Jubb.[1] His teachings helped set my nutritional freedom in motion. In 2009, one of Jubb’s mentees, Thomas the Cleanser, coached me through my own destarchification. I learned to prepare and consume natural foods based on organic fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. Within days, I felt lighter and sharper than I had in years.
Lured by this mysterious aura, Life Foods students traversed oceans and continents to camp out with Jubb in the mountains of Sweden, the plains of South Africa, the reservations of Oklahoma, the cornfields of Nebraska and the hot springs of Colorado.
I was hot on Jubb’s heels in Morocco over a year ago but missed him by days. The stories that emanated from Chefchaouen, Marakesh and Casablanca only contributed to Jubb’s allure and heightened my curiosity. When I learned that I was only a few hundred miles away from this sought-after healer, who was cultivating white gold—an arcane healing formula —in the canyons, I boarded a bus in Los Angeles bound for Phoenix.
A Lost Art Form
Sedona was twenty five miles outside of Flagstaff. No public transportation serviced Sedona. Upon receiving advice from the local owners of an organic coffee shop, I made a Sedona Please cardboard sign, in hopes of making it closer to my destination. I remembered my mother’s stories about hitchhiking across the Americas and Europe but, as I learned, it was not 1969; it was 2014. Hitchhiking was a lost art form.
After waiting an hour under the unforgiving sun and watching my duffle bag collect dust, I hitched my first ride. The very couple who had advised me earlier, drove up next to me and told me to hop in. I suspected they were not “headed south” but rather offered me a ride out of pity. It felt like cheating but, nonetheless, I was thankful to be three miles closer to Sedona.
The second ride was from the town sheriff. A pale, lumbering, gruff-looking man, he approached me aggressively, with the intent of ticketing me. He harassed me, asking me if I knew it was illegal to hitchhike. I remained seated, unemotional, on a rock as the sheriff returned to his police cruiser to run my ID. I answered all of his questions and converted his anxiety into curiosity. The sheriff, Gus wanted to know about my accent and if New York City was everything it was said to be.
When my ID came up clean, he made more small talk. Within minutes, he began to relate to me as if we were two old friends. He complained to me about “drunk Indians and dead beat hippies who hitched around the reservations.” It was as if he was citing this “mischief” in order to justify his initial hostility. I took in his clichés and mediocrity, observing this clog-in-the-machine simpleton. I thought about code-switching and the many advantages of being white in America. With a little bit of whiteness and money — you can just be, without worrying about how you will be perceived.
After more small talk, Gus offered to drive me eight more miles down the solitary road to where his jurisdiction ended. Again, this was not hitch-hiking as I expected but I was drawing closer to my destination.
The final lift was the most sincere. Two young women — who lived on an organic farm and spearheaded a campaign against baby male circumcision — told me to hop in the back of their black Ford pickup truck. They said I could live on their farm for as long as I needed. We conversed through the small window of their pickup truck, shouting raw foods recipes back and forth. I had known them for a total of 20 minutes and they were ready to adopt me on to their land and baptize me into their campaign against “male genital mutilation.” Only in Sedona, was the slogan I had heard before. I gently declined their invite, focusing on the approaching moment, when I would at last come face to face with the fabled medicine man.
As the sun set over the canyons, sublime oranges and reds ricocheted off the gorges. Awe-struck by the towering landscape, I grabbed my bag, dismounted the back of the pick-up and window-shopped at a health food store where I had coordinated to meet up with Dr. Jubb’s travelling band of Life Foodarians. A rented aqua blue Honda Sedan rolled slowly up to me. The driver slowed to a halt, rolled down the window and said “There he is! How about ‘cha mate?”
It was Dr. David Jubb. He invited me into the car.
When I jumped into the car, the passengers and driver introduced themselves as Sea of Sands, Sitting Moose, Rainy Toad, Fire Glacier and Happy Face. The adventure had begun. I had found the man behind the legend.
A Kaleidoscope of Life
Followers and mentees of Dr. Jubb pooled together money to rent a home in Arizona with turquoise and purple orchards and land to cultivate. This was typical for the impromptu teams Jubb assembled. An incessant transient, Jubb resisted the idea of stability and permanence. In the summer he set up camp in the hot springs of Colorado, only to disappear in the winter into the blue mountains of northern Morocco. Just when a potential student thought she had caught up with him in the glaciers of Norway, she received word that Jubb had reappeared among the Hindu temples off the coast of Sri Lanka. Jubb specialized in evasiveness. The shaman didn’t believe in the past or the future. He was fond of saying “we only have now.” Elucidating the concept of timelessness, Jubb refused to say his own age. When asked how old he was, he simply stated “I am entering my second lifetime presently.”
On the arid outskirts of Sedona, the elder Lifefoodarians slept inside the home. The younger communards slept outside, in a make-shift fort, hidden eighty yards into the forest.
We drifted off to sleep in the stiff heat, gazing up at a prodigious flock of stars that pranced through the night. We slept aside one another in the pitch darkness of the forest, illuminated only by the perennial motion of the celestial bodies above. The rumblings of javelinas, a type of wild boar, was the only sound bold enough to break the silence of the night.
There were extraordinary colors dancing in everything that we did — picking ripe fruits, preparing Life Foods cuisine and living in nature. The rainbow of life took the weary under its wing, offering a fresh perspective on both the mundane and the extraordinary.
We woke up to the poignant greens of the trees. Florescent and alive, they discouraged us from sleeping in. The blooming blues of the sky invited yoga, barefoot running, and harvesting white gold. Lava red canyons sprouted up from the barren earth. A treasure-chest of nature opened up around us.
My thoughts shifted east, back home to the Bronx: How criminal that most of our families were confined to a survival routine, without the ability to wander out and roam this vast, open land! I remembered Bob Marley’s prophetic lyrics:
Oh why can’t we roam? There’s open country. Tell me Why can’t we be what we want to be? We want to be free.
[1] Reference to Carlos Castaneda’s 1968 book, The Teachings of Don Juan.
How often do one get to answer the calling of its spirit? To live a life free to roam? Living off the land far removed from the conditions that have been set to limit not just the body but the mind as well.
Life is rare and remarkable with a pinch of extraordinary but with so much judgement and hatred. A huge piece of land offering so much kindness with some openness of spirituality and peace. I have never meet anybody to have the ability to be free and feel peaceful in NYC without any judgments.
It feels good to be in a healthy environment, and feel nature. Also, fruits and vegetables play an important role in our life. Being able to be a person who eat healthy food, give us a lot of energy. These types of food help us to develop our body wellness, and good function of our body.
Life is rare and remarkable with a pinch of extraordinary but with so much judgement and hatred. A huge piece of land offering so much kindness with some openness of spirituality and peace. I have never meet anybody to have the ability to be free and feel peaceful in NYC without any judgments.
Nature is an amazing phenomena that people simply forget to relish. Every time I visit the country side in the Dominican Republic, I always go with my relatives and friends on foot into the natural environments that are full of birds, trees, plants and fruits. We walk for hours as we head towards a river, where we freshen up and enjoy the clean massaging strokes of pounding water on our backs and legs. We eat the mangoes and guayaba we collected along the way as we sit on the large rocks in the river. You feel free and relaxed as you fancy your surroundings and forget for a moment all your concerns.
We are too busy with our lives that we do not take time to appreciate nature’s beauty. It sounds like this was a life changing experience, one very few people get to experience in their lives. In my opinion one has to be brave in order to be open to such a unique experience. Honestly I don’t think I’ll ever be comfortable hitchhiking, but is something I would love to try some day. It was a relieve to know that everyone you encounter while hitchhiking was in their own way helpful.This was every inspirational, I will definitely try to be more open and take sometime to appreciate whats around me. Unfortunately our society limits individuals to the point that it is almost impossible to take time to embark on a journey such as this.
I relate with the sentiment of wishing our friends and family could enjoy the same experiences that we do. Often when I travel, I feel selfish that I can not afford to take people with me. Traveling offers a whole new level of enlightenment and enrichment. It is something that we should not take for granted
This was a great article, your descriptions made it seem as if we were there with you. Being that you have converted into a healthier eating lifestyle not only shows a lot of strength but a lot of dedication. Myself and pretty much everyone from a community like mine can relate to the many times we “planned” on eating better, and how many times that only lasted a couple hours to maybe 5 days a week until you’ve reached the weekend and now you have to eat fatty foods to sober up. The hitchhiking was almost a part of a movie the way you described it, you can see yourself imagining the stories your mom told you about back in the day when it came to hitchhiking. It was very brave of you to hitchhiking us generation x children wouldn’t survive without a charged cellphone and a GPS system with 911 on speed dial to help us get through but you were very determined to get to where you were headed.
I believe that you are what you eat. Its very important make changes today. In the past people used to live longer, because they food was straight from the land, natural. Today, people is suffering many illness caused by the food artificial. Moreover, its necessary exercise the most often you can. It will help you on lose weight and lower the risk of some diseases. I really enjoy nice view and nature. Coincidentally, tomorrow I am living to Arizona and we planning to visit the Gran Canyon too. Hoping we will enjoy our trip the most we can.
1. What made you follow Dr. David Jubb? Who did you feel when you started eating new nutrients, meaning how did your body reacted when you started consuming new nutrients?
Did you have the opportunity to meet him in person? I know you were kinda anxious meet him.
2. Wow, you really had a difficult time to get to your destination. I know you were shocked when you were stopped by the sheriff. You probably thought it was the end. However, the sheriff gave you a ride, which it was very generous from his perspective. “lol finally, it was time to meet your master.” You really went to a difficult situation in you trip.
3. What did you learned from this trip? How was it, when you were sleep in the place different from your house? I know it was not the same.
Nutrition is very important aspect in our life that we seem to have for it. Eating nutritious is the best way to have quality life. We are feeding our mind and body with man made food that is causing all kind diseases. reading this article, it telling no matter in which stage in life people are in. they have opportunity to change their lives to better lives.
– It sounds like people in this place welcome others even though they don’t know them personally and that is very important when you somewhere different from where you come from.
– My sister and I been in this journey since learned how foods around us is unhealthy for us. I once planned to make trip to Costa Rica for Ayahuasca for body and mind cleansing but I had surgery I didn’t make it. However, I know important it is to eat healthy and nutritious foods.
I really enjoyed reading this! Your play on words and details was so strong that it felt as if I were there with you enjoying the journey. I was aware that you advocated for healthier eating habits and practices, but I never knew your dedication was this strong. I would never be able to drop everything just to meet this person considered to be a legend. Your journey and your experience genuinely sounded like a once in a lifetime experience. What caught me off-guard the most was when you mentioned that you hitchhiked! I would never be able to do such a thing without having my cellphone at hand to use its GPS navigator. The fact that you did this with no map or sense of direction, just through word of mouth, it’s incredible and beyond me. What stood out to me the most was your final sentence. It’s unfortunate and sad to see that people from poorer countries migrate to the “Land of the Free” just to feel the same pain and abuse they once endured. Instead of being able to go out the country and visit the beautiful sceneries or enjoy nature, they are stuck working as many hours possible just to pay their following paycheck. Moments like these, where you are able to become one with nature and be able to run free, are really special and are held close to the heart.
I really enjoy reading this article. It is amazing how you traveled hundreds of miles just to meet someone you admire. There is something that really caugth my attention from this article and it was something that Dr. Jubb said “We only have now”. It is truth, we only have now, we never know if tomorrow will exist for us. Thus, we need to live the present and take each opportunity we have today. I can see from this article that is what you do. You live your now, you follow whatever you feel to do, because now is what you have and you don’t know if tomorrow it will be too late. We all should think like that, and start to be more adventurous and take more risks.
I can’t believe you did all that traveling for someone when you had no idea who he was, on a personal level. Really amazing how you learn things as you go, you pick up things you would have never even thought of just by being in a differet envirnment. I became a pecatarian about a year ago, which led me to change the way I eat and mindful of the things i consume. My mother is really big on organic fruits and vegetables, so when food shopping she always checks some sort of numbers that help tell how it was grown.
I wasn’t surprised that the sherif’s attitude changed once verifiing you had a clean background. It really comes to say how people treat you when it comes to where you have been, come from and what you have done, which in all relaity is how we all judge things/people.