A lot seems to have been said about Don Tolman, the (self named?) Indiana Jones of wholefoods, as Google has shown me this morning. For all his allegedly questionable business practices he and his team have certainly mastered the marketing game, online and in the flesh. He’s a forceful speaker who really believes the knowledge he seems eager to share.

I saw him speak last night about his ideas on self-health care, the law of similarities, the perils of pharmaceuticals, and his principles of healthy living. He spoke for close to 3 hours, the talk was free and we were encouraged to take notes but he didn’t hide the fact that he was selling his books, food products and a health retreat as well (and a hard sell at that). He didn’t withhold the fact that he is a business….Guy’s gotta make a living.

Strangely one of the most fervent complaints I found about him was the fact that he charges for his work and doesn’t just offer everything up for free on his website. No one questions the right of pharmacists to charge for medicine, hospitals to charge for beds, or grocery stores to charge us for food.

The invectives used to describe him online, hidden well down the list under positively glowing reviews – certainly well managed by his PR machine – don’t actually serve to make me dismiss what I heard last night, but made me think about why people are so outraged by his practices and beliefs. Many of the most vocal haters didn’t seem to know that much about him, except for some of his views, principally on cancer – he believes sunscreen is more harmful than the sun as a cause, and that diet is a more effective treatment then surgery, chemo or radiation.

The main points I took away from his talk however, was to eat more fruit and vegetables and raw foods, to use our imagination to increase our abilities to learn, to question our dependence on medication and doctors for any health issues we face, to live a life with passion and air, sunshine and love.

Hardly outrageous ideas that wouldn’t stand up to even a superficial investigation. Certainly he’s a loud, brash cowboy with a large ego, and I wouldn’t encourage taking everything he says on faith – as I wouldn’t with anyone, doctors included – but as he says himself, if something doesn’t feel right to you, don’t believe it.

Basically, dismiss whatever insults your own soul & don’t bitch about it on the internet. We don’t have to swallow everything we’re told.