People: El Kalinado

The picture is from a personal archive of El Kalinado

El Kalinado is a man who wasn’t afraid to begin his new happy life in his 57th year. He left his home and his art studio in Victoria, Canada, sold and gave everything away, and went to travel alone.

I was lucky to meet El Kalinado in a yoga retreat & raw food place in Palawan Island, Philippines. I love the time talking with him, joining his sound healing & laughter meditation, and raw food cooking class.

A magic way from France to Canada

El told me: “I am an artist and a healer; I was born in 1954 in France. The story began when I was 12 years old. I was invited to join the “Bendor Drawing academy”, owned by Paul Ricard, a philanthropist who was also a friend of Salvador Dali. At this young age I was already drawing nude models.

Two years after the death of my farther, when I was 19, I met my future wife in London. As we were sitting at the terrace of a restaurant, my uncle invited this young woman passing by to join us for coffee. She was from Canada. We quickly felt that we were to live together and went to study in France, before moving to Canada to live there for 30 years together. 

My wife died nine years ago, when our daughter was 17, and our son was 22. So I stayed in Canada for a while until the children became independent. I then decided to make a big change in my life: I sold and gave away everything, and went to Southern East Asia.

Sound-Healing at Bahay Kalipay, Philippines 

Yoga, massage and sound therapy

I started to practice yoga when I was in the university. After I had car accident, I needed a lot of massage therapy to recover. I noticed that while receiving massage therapy, the experience could be very different, depending on the therapist. With some, as soon as they put their hands on you, just from their energy you feel better. I then understood that this was not only massage therapy, but also pranic healing energy. So I started to learn massage therapy and Sound Therapy. It made a lot of changes in my life: it changed my habits and my diet. I then studied other alternative therapies.

No sickness for 15 years already

Before, I always had wine with dinner. But learning and practicing different therapies changed my habits. Progressively, without making a conscious choice, I stopped drinking wine, eating meat and avoiding anything that was not resonating with my body and my energy.

I used to be sick every winter but since, I’ve not been sick for over 15 years.

Raw food

I try to eat mostly raw vegetables, fruits, grains and nuts, a plant based diet. I mostly eat raw food, but when I live in India, I eat cooked vegetables, rice or lentils one time a day.

I like sweets only if they are made without white sugar or artificial sweetener. I used to teach raw chocolate classes in Canada: mixing unsweetened chocolate (coco powder or chocolate mass) with either coconut nectar, maple syrup, agave syrup (or honey if you are un-vegan) dates, and coco butter or coconut oil. This makes a healthy chocolate that must be kept in the fridge.

Picture from a raw food cooking class at Bahay Kalipay, Philippines

Main rules to be eating raw food

Drink 2 glasses of water when you get up, to flush your digestive system.

Chew slowly: I recommend to take a spoonful in your mouth, and then put the spoon on the plate, don’t touch it until you chewed the food completely and your mouth is empty. This is very important to have the enzyme needed for proper digestion.

It is good to eat fruits separately. Don’t mix them with vegetables and grains.

Don’t drink with your meals: drink at least 30 minutes before and 1 hour after your meal.
Try to get fresh organic fruits and vegetables.

If you live in a cold country, I recommend eating some kind of warm food: hot soup, vegetables or tea, and use some “heat food” like cayenne pepper and ginger.

Why is a green smoothie good?

When you put green vegetables in a blender, you extract all the nutrients from them. If you try to chew spinach or other greens, you have to chew them for at least 10 minutes to get the same amount of nutrients. But always drink your smoothies very slowly so you can digest them properly.

The main rule in my life

I will never retire… I never stop learning… I live in the present as much as possible and I love to help people heal with all the modalities I practice (Energy Medicine, Sound Healing, Emotions re-programing, Reiki, massage and Sat Nam Resayan).”