Cousens advocates live foods therapy, a nutritional regimen which he says can cure diabetes,[2] depression[3][4] and other chronic degenerative diseases.

[9] As a freshman at Amherst College, he designed a heart lung machine and spent two summers doing leukemia research.

[6] Cousens founded the Essene Order of Light in 1992,[6] and the following year he established the Tree of Life Foundation as a federal tax-exempt religious organization.

The Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center, located in Patagonia, Arizona,[14] was founded in 1994 as a health retreat which offers raw food education,[15] fasting, and nutrition.

[23] Surgeon and alternative medicine critic David Gorski said that Cousens and the film both grossly misrepresented the modern medical approach to diabetes.

[24] In 1994, California revoked his license to practice for "excessive prescribing", but based on a form of plea bargain this revocation was stayed for three years probation.

[28] Levy's son said that his father was healthy, able to run three miles, not overweight, and had no high blood pressure at the time of his visit to the spa, and the family sued for malpractice.

[27][29] Cousens argued that the medical examiner had misdiagnosed the cause of death, which he said was toxic shock unrelated to the injections, a claim that the Levy family attorney called "outrageous".