My Story

My own healing crisis led me to the live-food path.

I'm Kathy Matara. Aloha!  My background is in Herbal Medicine, Transcendental Meditation, and Ayurveda. I started my herbal journey at 13 and extensively studied Herbology from every major culture, yet I still ran into a health problem that stubbornly persisted.

Finally, after not getting results from all the "right" herbs, I gave it up to the Divine to solve.

After one particular group meditation program, a long-time friend came up to me outside the meditation domes and said, “I’ve had a vision about you. You need to go to the live-foods clinic that I just attended.” I thought that maybe this was the missing link. So I packed my car and drove from Iowa to the Village of Natural Teaching in Marshall, MI.

I drove up to a quiet farm with a single house on it. A diminutive woman answered my knock, looked me up and down and said, “What are you doing here, you’re not sick.”

I said, “I do have a health problem; one that’s been bothering me for years.”

“That’s not why you’re here,” she said. Then added, “Do you want to know why you are here?

I said, “Okay.”

“My spirit has told me about you, you are here because you are going to be doing this for the rest of your life.”

I had no idea what she meant, but I was definitely intrigued so I said, “Okay, what do I do?”

“First,” she said, “you are going to fast.”

“Oh no,” I countered. “I have a Pitta (Ayurvedic term meaning "fiery nature") constitution and I can’t fast.”

She smiled then and said, “Don’t worry honey you’re going to drink like a fish.”

I felt uneasy and hesitant.

She asked me, “So? Are you going to stay or not?”

“Alright. I’ll stay. I’ll give it a try.” Within two days of being on a live-food cleanse, my symptoms were gone. For good.

Live-Food sushi

I proceeded to learn the live-foods way of fasting, eating and healing.

My entire life changed. The silence my body got from from fasting made my meditation deeper and more profound. I started to get more flashes of insight and strengthened intuition. My prayers were answered more quickly.

I stayed at the Village of Natural Teaching for 2 weeks of cleansing. Years were taken off my body. Cellulite almost completely vanished. My skin changed; it became softer and finer. My eyes became clearer. I looked years younger. These benefits were far more than I ever expected. I was certain that this would have a huge effect on my longevity.

Initially resistant to drinking wheat grass juice, I ended up feeling its great benefit on my health.

Animals will eat wheat grass to either settle their stomachs, aid nutrition, or if needed, as an emetic. Many cultures have sourced their herbal knowledge by observing animals.

  Live-food blintzes

Ada Cooper Robinson guided me as I became interested in helping others to heal using the techniques I’d learned from her. I ended up studying with her, earning my certification as a Natural Health Care Practitioner. I went on to become certified at the Ann Wigmore Institute as well.

Since then I’ve used my herbal knowledge and knowledge of living foods to educate and help people cleanse in order to restore their health through nature’s amazing apothecary. I combined this new knowledge with all of my natural health care training and experience in order to help people target their healing.

Everyone who takes the Katika Alchemy Internal Cleanse Program undergoes a positive transformation and leaves knowing how to use food and fasting for self-healing. They also learn how to make live food in a delicious gourmet way. Lastly, as one participant recently stated, "I finally understand what Hippocrates meant when he said, 'Food is your medicine.'"

They are empowered.