Dr. Udo Erasmus: Biography

by Udo Erasmus PhD

Dr. Udo Erasmus is best known for his work in health, more specifically his work in fats, essential fatty acids, and omega-3 fatty acids. His book FATS THAT HEAL FATS THAT KILL is a bestseller. His main claim to fame is that he developed methods for making oils with health rather than with shelf life in mind. His blend of nutritious oils, which contains everything good from fats and nothing we should avoid—UDO’S CHOICE OIL BLEND—is a popular health product endorsed by many of the major advocates of health through nutrition.

His age-specific PROBIOTICS and DIGESTIVE ENZYMES, and his WHOLESOME FAST FOOD (fiber) BLEND are also very popular for improving digestion, detoxification, and bowel regularity. His GREEN BLEND provides greens, the most important of our nutrients, in a convenient form for people who don’t eat their salads and for those on the run. His PHYTONUTRIENT BLEND provides extracts of herbs and spices with health benefits.

He is a popular speaker on 4 continents, known for his clarity on the topic of health as wholeness, on physical health, and on human nature—the heart, the mind, the body, and the environment.
He has a BSc in Zoology, grad studies in Biochemistry and Genetics, an MA in Counseling Psychology, and a PhD in Nutrition.

Udo is even more interested in the topic of peace than he is in the topic of health. He has been a proponent for peace most of his life.

He was born in Europe in 1942 during the war, and knows first-hand how war affects children. He is one of those children. He was 2 years old when his family fled Poland with the communists hot on their heels. He was abandoned during the flight, and was later fetched by an aunt who went behind enemy lines to find him.

In the early 1960’s, Udo was one of the first few people who marched against the use of atomic bombs, in the days when the signs read: BAN THE BOMB.

During that decade, Udo was deeply involved in the Peace (Anti-War) movement. He left when that movement became more about politics and ideological power struggles than about peace.

In 1972, he began to practice the inner discipline of peace. He decided that if there was to be peace on the planet, it would have to be embodied by the people who want peace, and that peace goes much deeper in each human being than most of us realize.
This focus and commitment to the personal experience of peace has continued for more than 30 years.

In 1985, while writing his book on fats, he took a break to coordinate the Vancouver, Canada part of a global ‘Space Bridge’ organized by a group called ‘Beyond War’. Beyond War membership consisted of doctors, lawyers, architects, teachers, and other professionals. One of their main resources was Helen Caldicott, the Australian physician who was at that time the most passionate voice against nuclear war.

The ‘space bridge’ was a ‘live’ event in which the heads of six nations (who called themselves the Five Continent Peace Initiative) spoke about why they were against the development and use of nuclear weapons, followed by a ‘live’ cultural event from each country.

The heads of state of India, Greece, Sweden, Tanzania, Argentina, and Mexico were the speakers. The event used 7 satellites and 9 earth ‘bounce’ stations (because signals could not be transmitted directly from one satellite to another), and was broadcast around the world. There were downlinks of this event to more than 100 locations in North America. In Sweden, the event was live on national television. Tanzania had to re-establish diplomatic links with Kenya (Kenya, but not Tanzania, had the technology necessary for this undertaking). It was the largest ever event using satellite technology at that time.

Udo is a member of the Rotary Club, part of whose vision is to improve world understanding and peace. Udo is active in the club promoting an understanding of the practical nature of peace.

Since 9/11, Udo has been giving talks on peace internationally. It became obvious to him that discontent people will continue to spread discontent. Equally obvious, people who know peace and contentment must spread these faster than discontent people spread discontent, crime, murder, terrorism, and war if peace is to grow on this planet.

Udo has been invited as a speaker at Deepak Chopra’s Alliance for a New Humanity in Costa Rica December 8-11, 2005.

Udo is writing a book on the BIOLOGY OF PEACE.

He is also on the fund-raising committee for the WORLD PEACE FORUM, which will take place June 23-28, 2006 in Vancouver, Canada. This forum is envisaged as a Nobel Prize-worthy event that will bring together the world’s most powerful and passionate voices for peace. More than 150 proposals for events have been submitted. The World Peace Forum has been endorsed by Vancouver’s City Council, the Vancouver School Board, the BC Teachers Federation, and many other organizations.

Udo says: “We need to be the peace we want to see. We must embody that peace. Lucky for us, the peace we want is already part of our nature, and can be felt at the core of our being. We can connect to this peace that is our deepest nature. From there, we can speak and act from peace. When we do, our influence on our world becomes one of peace, and our world moves in the direction of peace.
“As more and more people choose to embrace peace and to live from peace, the world moves closer and closer to peace. Those who don’t have it will begin to enjoy peace, and those who have peace will deepen and strengthen their experience of peace.
“Unlike war, which can be imposed on others, peace must be deliberately and individually chosen. It’s very grass-roots. Peace cannot be forced on anyone, because its direction is inside rather than outside.
“The challenge is that our senses automatically take us away from ourselves and the peace at the core of our being, but there is nothing that automatically brings us back to our core. That is why the choice for peace must be a deliberate one. Once we have decided for peace, then a peace coach who has mastered the practice of peace, and a commitment to practice a method for taking our awareness back to the feeling of peace at our core can be very helpful in order to become strong in the only real peace there is.
“Once we have become able to connect, at will, to our peaceful core, the only remaining challenge is to speak and act in the world while remaining aware of the internal feeling of peace at our core.
“While peace is seen as the goal by many, the fact is that peace is the starting point—the foundation—on which the deeply longed for changes in the world can take place.
“One cannot declare a war from the core feeling of peace, and one cannot declare peace (real peace) without feeling core peace.”