Dec 14 2011
From Cult to Cultivation – Cafe Gratitude and My Wheat Grass Addiction
Wheat Grass
Wheat Grass. I used to think wheat grass was for hippies, weirdos, and alleged cult members. Little did I know it’s one of the best kept secrets of the fitness fanatic!
(Want to know more about my run ins with Alleged Cult Members? Read the side bar, or skip ahead to get to the wheat grass.)
(Side Bar On Alleged Cult Members: Back in 2006 while working at Amazon.com, I was invited to a social marketing meeting by someone who’s identity I will keep secret. For our purposes I’ll call her Mildred. Mildred assured me this would be a very useful meeting about social marketing and networking. Amazon is a huge company and I didn’t know Mildred very well. We were not in the same department or team and had no interaction besides basic conversation in the elevator. I didn’t realize when I agreed to attend this meeting in an undisclosed conference room that this meeting had no affiliation with Amazon at all.
The meeting was a recruitment event for the Landmark Forum. The Landmark Forum is an educational program I don’t fully understand. Some people call it a cult, others call it self help. I don’t know for certain either way. The only way to really know would be to attend one of the seminars.
I arrived at the meeting excited to meet new people. Maybe this could provide great connections within the company! Mildred introduced her friend, we will call him Stephen. Stephen had a hard job, to convince potential recruits to attend the Landmark Forum, and pay 500 dollars for the weekend. Of course, he didn’t get into this right away as you would never bring up the price initially in any type of sales pitch.
“Hi My Name is Stephen. Welcome to this meeting about the Landmark Education Forum. I’m really pleased Mildred was able to get this group of 20 of you together. I SUPER excited to tell you about the Landmark Forum and the huge difference it can make in your life! The Landmark Forum literally changed my life! It’s been used by the president of Reebok, among others. I was able to change my life and take it to the next level by applying the tools I learned at the Landmark Forum.” He continued on his rant but my mind had started to wander. I started to realize I made a huge mistake in coming here, his rant sounded like recruitment for a cult… something where they break you down and build you back up again, then break you down. Then build you back up again. Then they get you to try to bring more people in.
“…. I used to be an overworked office manager, now I’m SUPER happy in my new job as a bar tender….” Wait did he just say he became a bar tender? I don’t think you need to go to a cult meeting to let you know you don’t like your job.
Most cults use the powerful psychological tool of Social Proof to recruit members and turn members into recruiters. Social Proof says essentially if people in your peer group are doing something then it makes sense for you to do it too. Once your in a cult, you are going to try to get your peers in on it so that it proves that you are not crazy. And there you have it a cult in the making. So that saying if everyone else jumped off a bridge would you do it too? Is not so far from the truth except that if all your friends did jump off a bridge you probably would feel somewhat compelled to do it…. Maybe that’s why I went skydiving?
Dammit!! I thought. I am going to have to sit through this whole thing? Or do I? Should I just leave? Well, maybe this will be entertaining…
“….Look this is what we know, “ Said Stephen as he continued to draw a circle, ” This is was we Don’t Know,” He drew another circle, ” And here in this part, this is what WE DON”T KNOW, WE DON’T KNOW” Okay Donal Rumsfeld, I thought. This was getting weirder.
He droned on for a long time telling of his life transformation and his rebirth. He discussed how Landmark Forum changed his life… (One of us, One of us, One of us) was all I could think at the time. Eventually he opened it up for questions. I started getting nervous. I could sense tension in the crowd. Apparently everyone there had been tricked by Mildred to attend this meeting. They were all angry about having to attend a pointless meeting, but not angry enough to leave hmmm.
“I heard it’s a cult, what do you have to say about that?” said someone from the crowd. Wow that guy is a straight shooter I thought.
Stephen battled through objection after objection. No one there would attend for the $500 price. When they tried to hard sell me, I used a delay tactic.
“Sure I’ll think about it. Can’t really commit right now. It looks like an amazing program. Life changing I am sure! I have to run to a team meeting gotta go. ” Nervous laughter. Smile. Nod. Wait for the opportunity to flee. The minute I left the conference room I hurried to another important meeting, that didn’t exist.
After the Landmark Forum Recruitment meeting I would duck and dodge Mildred in the halls. If she was in the elevator I wouldn’t get in. I actually dove behind a vending machine once when I saw her coming but it turned out to be a figment, a ghost. She had disappeared from the Amazon halls to go, who knows where?
After she evaporated from Amazon I started thinking avoiding her was not very nice but neither is inviting someone to an ambush.
End Side Bar On Alleged Cult Members, I’ve added the words Alleged to this in hopes of not getting sued by the Landmark Form. If you are a lawyer reading this remember I don’t know if Landmark Forum is a cult or not, OKAY!?)
Begin Wheat Grass Story
I first encountered wheat grass at Cafe Gratitude. Cafe Gratitude screams Bay Area. There is no meat on the menu. They only have vegan raw foods. I read about Cafe Gratitude in the East Bay Express before ever eating a meal there. The East Bay Express Article accuses Cafe Gratitude of forcing their employees to attend the Landmark Forum, that some say is a cult. The Article put me off. I had come into contact with the Landmark Forum in the past and was not impressed.
Most of what I put together about Cafe Gratitude was second hand or just hearsay. Very Mysterious. You know that old saying how your reputation proceeds you? Well Cafe Gratitude has a reputation for being pretentious, vegan, new age, Bay Area, and according to the article affiliated with what some consider a cult and others claim is life changing.
I didn’t think much about Cafe Gratitude. Later in the year I went on a camping trip to Lake McClure. Our fellow campers, a husband and wife, knew of Cafe Gratitude. The husband who had prepared some of the best fried chicken ever tasted had this to say:
“The place is weird. You can’t just order a meal. You have to say how you feel. All the meals items are feelings. Things like, I am grateful. I am joyful. I am playful. I am sassy. I hate that place, they don’t have any MEAT!” He said this with a carnivorous gleam in his eye and continued eating his chicken.
His wife had the complete opposite to say about Cafe Gratitude. ” The food is amazing! It’s all natural organic raw vegan food, it’s so good for you. I absolutely love Cafe Gratitude. We should totally go there some time! You’ve never been there before? Let’s set a date to go there, I would love to go!” She said getting more excited by the fact that my girlfriend seemed very opening to going there (she is a vegan after all).
Cafe Gratitude caused visceral gut reactions from people. You either loved it or hated it with absolute certainty. This is the sign of a true brand.
I had to experience Cafe Gratitude for myself.
Weeks later we met up at Cafe Gratitude in Berkley, minus the carnivorous husband. The food seemed very expensive and it was a bit strange because the only things on the menu are vegan and raw. It takes getting used to if that is not the world you live in on a daily basis. On a whim I ordered a 5 dollar wheat grass juice shot. My initial reaction was ” why did I just pay 5 dollars for a 5 dollar shot of something that contains no alcohol?
The taste was. Well. Weird. It tasted weird. Wheat grass juice tasted weird. My next reaction was. Wow,disgusting and 5 dollars. Why would anyone drink this?
I left Cafe Gratitude and completely forgot about wheat grass juice shots and Landmark Forum.
3 Months went by without thinking about wheat grass juice. I started learning more about acid alkaline balances in the body. The basic idea is that your body must maintain a certain ph balance otherwise you will experience negative side effects. These negative side effects include low energy, aches and pains among other things. Some acid will not effect you. But lots of acid in your body will be very harmful. Wheat grass juice happens to be one of the foods highest in alkalinity, most leafy greens are very high in alkalinity as well.
Different types of foods have different amounts of energy in them. Wheat grass is a food that per pound has the most amount of raw energy.
Energy! I was intrigued. I’d seen wheat grass in the store before, but how do you juice it? How does anyone afford to drink wheat grass when it costs 2 to 4 dollars for just a small container of it, or 5 dollars a shot at Cafe Gratitude?
After hearing about the starling fact that wheat grass juice has such high nutritional content, as well as it being able to provide natural energy. I headed to whole foods, where it was getting real in the parking lot.
But I had a stroke of luck in the produce aisle.
“Do you have any wheat grass here?” I asked
“No we don’t.” said John
“Do you know where I can get some? ” this was starting to feel illegal, I was asking some one where I could get some grass.
John was nice, it turns out he had grown his own wheat grass juice and he explained to me the whole process. You could buy organic winter wheat seed at whole foods for 1.19 a pound and plant it yourself. In 10 days, presto you have your own wheat grass juice. Guess how much 1 pound of wheat seed can grow. A lot. I’m talking a mini field of wheat grass. 3 Pounds was enough to cover my patio and have more wheat grass than I could realistically even drink. The only real expensive part was finding a juicer that can actually juice wheat grass.
I put John’s formula into action. I bought 3 pounds of seed for 3 dollars, bought organic soil, and got pots for free from a nursery in Alameda. Then I went to work cultivating my wheat grass crops.
I drank wheat grass every day for a month. It gives you a small initial burst of energy at first but it’s one of those things you really need to do every day to get a real benefit from. There have been stories about wheat grass curing diseases and performing all kinds of health benifits. The clorophil in the plant transfers it’s living energy to you. Vegitables in the store, how many days did they take to reach you? Do you know how much nutrition you loose every day it’s on the shelf? Why do you think vegetables wilt over time? It’s because they are dieing. The sooner you eat them the more nutritional benefit you get. So it makes sense in a way. Pick the wheat grass immediately turn it into a shot and, you’ve got yourself one amazingly natural cheap and efficent energy supplement.
I found out this week that Cafe Gratitude is closing down all of their 7 locations. They say the $200,000 dollar law suit from former employees is too much and they can not stay afloat. So what if they forced their employees to attended a cult like gathering at their own expense? If they didn’t like it they could quit right? The point is the food was weird, expensive, but truly excellent in it’s own strange way.
Without Cafe Gratitude I would never have gone down this wheat grass odyssey for ultimate energy. Thanks Cafe Gratitude. I am grateful and I am sad.
Want to grow and juice your own Wheat Grass crop? Here is how:
Step 1 - Purchase Wheat Grass Juicer ( I prefer this mechanical juicer but there are electric juicers out there that can juice wheat grass, the only downfall is they cost about $300), Organic Wheat Grass Seed, Organic Soil, and Potting material.
Step 2 – Plant your seeds, you can either germinate these first or plant them directly in the soil.
Step 3 – Water and nurture for 8 to 10 days. You can stagger the amount you plant over a number of days so that you have fresh wheat grass available every day.
Step 4 – Juice and Enjoy. Here is to your health! surprisingly my first reaction about wheat grass was incorrect. The taste of the wheat grass will very in flavor depending on your ph level. If you drink a shot while your body is highly acidic it will taste very bitter, however if your ph balance is in line already it will taste somewhat sweet.
What energy supplement will give you the most amount of energy? What energy supplement will give you more stamina and endurance without making you crash or cause undesired side effects? These are questions that have been on my mind for many years.
Last year I was searching for the perfect energy supplement and I discussed some of my experiments on myself. The original post covered the natural Maca and Ginseng versus the man made Jack3d.
Here is the link to the original post: The Energy of The Inca – The Quest for The Ultimiate Energy.
I’ve experimented with a variety of different supplements and supper foods over the past year. In future posts I will discuss the foods and supplements I found that gave me the biggest energy boost. The energy quest will continue soon, thanks for reading!