Filtered Water

Aajonus consistently recommended a three-stage water filtration system for household use, specifying the sequence explicitly and repeatedly: paper first, then charcoal or carbon from coconut shells, then sand last. He stated this order emphatically, noting that some conventional plumbers and filter companies recommended the opposite and that following their sequence would not produce the same result. The logic of the sequence was that the paper filter catches the larger oil-soluble particles and industrial poisons first, the coconut charcoal removes heavy metals including mercury and thallium, and the sand filter at the end both cleans what remains and introduces beneficial soil probiotics back into the water.

When asked in July 2007 about a whole house water filter, Aajonus gave the same three-stage answer directly: "I would use a three-tier system: paper - charcoal or carbon - sand, in that order." He elaborated in other contexts that the paper filter specifically catches industrial poisons because paper production itself involves many industrial chemicals, meaning the paper filter medium is suited to trapping similar compounds. The coconut charcoal, he specified, should be made from coconut shells, distinguishing it from other types of charcoal that may themselves contain mercury and thallium.

In a later correspondence about a four-stage system a person was trying to install, Aajonus clarified that there had been a miscommunication and that he recommended three stages, not four, explicitly excluding the "whole house water conditioning" stage the person had been told to include. He wrote: "I suggest a 3 stage water system with NO Whole House Water Conditioning." He also addressed installation specifics: he recommended using metallic joints to couple the sand filter because the water pressure would cause leaking with other joint types, and noted that if the units were installed outside, leakage would not be a problem.

Aajonus placed particular emphasis on the sand filter as the final and arguably most important stage. He described sand as "an incredible cleanser" and explained that no commercial sand filter designed for household plumbing would be suitable, because residential sand filters were only built to handle water pressure of around 50 pounds per square inch, whereas municipal systems in Los Angeles ran at 70 to 90 pounds of pressure. To solve this problem, he used large swimming pool sand filters, specifically 300-pound capacity units, for his own hot tub system.

He stated that he had used one such 300-pound swimming pool sand filter on his hot tub for 10 to 12 years without ever changing the sand, and that the water remained crystal clear. He described the sand filter as capable of filtering "every toxin out of it, every waste product out of it," while crucially allowing algae to grow, which he considered beneficial. Algae, in his framework, "pulls metals out of your body," and he would lie on the rug of algae that grew in his hot tub, then scrape it out every three months and feed it to his plants, which he reported grew flowers twice as large.

The key attribute Aajonus valued in sand that he did not find in other filtration stages was the introduction of soil probiotics. He stated explicitly that producers of commercial filtration systems, including Aquasana, had a medical view of microbes and therefore designed their systems to exclude soil probiotics. Sand, by contrast, naturally carries these organisms. When he evaluated the Aquasana whole house system, which he acknowledged received high ratings from Consumer Reports, he still said he would add a sand filter to it for this reason.

For his publishers' home, he described building a sand filter specifically because no commercial unit could withstand the household water pressure. He repurposed an old industrial filter canister that had originally been designed to add potassium chloride (which he called "salt peter") to water, which he described as a chemical used in standard water softeners to disrupt sexual hormones. He stripped out the chemicals, installed sand in the canister, and ran the system so that water passed through paper first, then charcoal, then sand, flowing throughout the entire house. He reported receiving an email saying "the water feels so good they don't have to put milk in the water and vinegar in the water anymore."

Aajonus engaged in extended correspondence about the Aquasana whole house filtration system, which uses a 5-micron paper filter, then KDF 55 mineral media to remove chlorine, then acid-washed activated coconut carbon. He acknowledged it was rated highly by Consumer Reports but maintained that it lacked a sand filter, which he considered essential. The KDF 55 mineral media, which uses copper and zinc granules, concerned him. When a correspondent suggested that KDF 55 might add minerals that soften water, Aajonus responded that adding minerals to soften water "is the same as adding potassium chloride or chlorine" and was not beneficial.

He noted that municipal water is almost universally made alkaline through the chemicals added to preserve pipes, and that this forced high pH dries the skin because human skin has a natural pH of approximately 5.5. He said that adding sea salt and other recommended ingredients to bathing water resolves pH issues regardless of the incoming pH, making elaborate pH-balancing filter components unnecessary.

When the same correspondent considered adding a UV light stage, Aajonus agreed that UV light was not good because it is used to kill bacteria and algae, which are the very organisms he wanted to preserve. When the question of reverse osmosis was raised, Aajonus stated that "osmosis destroys microbes" and that this was not beneficial for bathing. He therefore opposed adding a reverse osmosis stage to the system.

Aajonus addressed the type of piping used to deliver filtered water through a house, noting that the choice of pipe material matters because water passing through certain materials after filtration can pick up contaminants that the filter just removed. He noted that copper piping downstream of the filter introduces toxic metal and copper back into the water, defeating the purpose of filtration. He stated that PVC schedule 80 (the grey type) is preferable to schedule 40 (the common white type), citing that schedule 80 has a higher temperature rating and that plumbing professionals who custom design whole house filtration systems use it to prevent plastic from entering the water after filtration. He noted that schedule 40 may release a small amount of plastic.

For his own system, Aajonus stated that he used stainless steel plumbing, which he described as his personal preference, though he acknowledged it is expensive, estimated at approximately ten dollars per linear foot.

For someone who had not yet installed the three-stage system and needed water for dogs in the interim, Aajonus offered a specific temporary method: fill half a bucket with sand and add one cup of topsoil, then fill the rest of the bucket with municipal water, let it stand for 24 hours, then remove some of that water for the dogs to drink. This ad hoc method was intended to replicate, in a crude way, the effect of the sand filter by allowing the water to sit with natural materials that would absorb some chemicals while introducing soil bacteria.

Aajonus was clear that even properly filtered water remained water, and water's fundamental nature as a solvent did not change through filtration. He described municipal Los Angeles water as containing 192 to 197 chemicals and stated that it would take 12 separate filters to remove everything from it, making a complete filtration at that scale prohibitively expensive. He said, "I've seen all kinds of filter systems, and like in LA, we have 197 chemicals in our water. It would take 12 filters to remove everything."

This context made filtered water appropriate for bathing and hot tubbing, where the goal was to reduce the chemical burden absorbed through the skin, but it did not make filtered water a recommended drinking fluid. Aajonus maintained that he drank very little water regardless of its quality. He stated he might drink half a cup to a cup per week during summer and spring, and almost none during fall and winter. When he did drink water, he described mixing it with coconut cream, dairy cream, honey, lemon juice, and cucumber to make it more compatible with cellular absorption, because the H2O molecule requires binding with ions, vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients in order to be absorbed at the cellular level rather than simply passing through the system and leaching nutrients out.

In some workshop discussions, Aajonus described a more elaborate four to five stage system for dealing with the most severely contaminated municipal water supplies. In this variation, the first filter was still paper, the second was coconut shell charcoal, and the final stages were two separate sand filters rather than one. He said that in Los Angeles, with 193 to 197 chemicals in the water by the time it reached the city (noting it was used twice, first by heavy industry in the valley and then by the city), a single sand filter might not be sufficient and two sand filters in succession would be more thorough. He framed this as the only way to "get a good, clear system to handle the toxicity in our municipal waters."

Aajonus gave detailed attention to hot tub filtration as a separate application from whole house filtration, because the hot tub was a surface he used for daily therapeutic soaking and because the same water recirculated rather than flowing through once. He described running his hot tub on a continuous cycle through filters, with the paper filter used only when filling the tub with fresh water (roughly once a month or less) and bypassed during regular recirculation, because clay added to the tub water would clog the paper filter within weeks rather than the expected one to two year lifespan, making it expensive to replace (approximately 60 dollars every three months). During the regular cycle, only the sand filter with carbon was used for ongoing recirculation.

He described using his 300-pound swimming pool sand filter on a hot tub that held 500 gallons and fit 14 people, shaped like a small round Greek tub. He would go six weeks without changing the water if he used the tub daily, but found that if it sat unused for a few days, he could smell mold from organisms other than algae developing in the machine. He stated that with daily use, he could probably run six to seven months without changing the water.

For bathing in municipal water without any filtration system, he recommended adding two to three cups of raw milk, three tablespoons of raw unpasteurized apple cider vinegar, and two tablespoons of sundried sea salt to the water, or alternatively adding half a cup of sundried clay, two ounces of raw unpasteurized apple cider vinegar, and three tablespoons of raw coconut cream. He explained that this was necessary because when soaking in chemically contaminated water, the body perspires toxins out through the skin into the water, and without those protective ingredients in the water, the chemicals in the municipal water are reabsorbed. He described his own experience before discovering this: three minutes in Los Angeles tap water would cause his blood pressure to spike severely and leave him shaking, "like I had 10 cups of coffee," an effect that immediately ceased once he added those ingredients.

Aajonus addressed the question of commercially bottled mineral water in the context of filtration, specifically defending Gerolsteiner when it received an F rating from the Environmental Working Group. He explained that Gerolsteiner received that rating precisely because it does not treat its water and does not remove bacteria, which in his view made it the safest water being sold. He wrote that the major reason for the F was that Gerolsteiner did not disclose on its label that it was untreated and might contain bacteria. He questioned the credibility of a group calling itself the Environmental Working Group that gave its highest endorsements to three of what he described as the most polluting food companies in the world, naming Gerber, Nestle, and Penta.

He stated that the best commercially available option, if water was going to be drunk at all, was naturally sparkling mineral water in glass. He noted that Gerolsteiner had stopped exporting to the United States in glass and was continuing to supply other countries in glass. He also stated that the very best water for drinking would be "algae-rich lake water with all of the bacteria and other organisms in it," and that he had personally consumed water from ponds and reservoirs containing cattle urine and feces without ever experiencing diarrhea, vomiting, or dehydration, contrasting that with the dehydration he reported from bottled or rain water.

Aajonus specifically addressed Kangen water and alkaline water systems, stating that "Kangen water is no better than any other processed water" and that all water, regardless of alkaline content, leaches nutrients from the body. He stated that all water leaches nutrients, not just calcium as some claimed of mineral water, and that this was precisely why he recommended drinking very little water of any kind. He said alkalinity in the water, including that forced by municipal treatment chemicals, caused the skin to dry out because the skin's natural pH is approximately 5.5.

He framed the 8-glasses-a-day recommendation as originating in 1961 or 1962 when cola companies, particularly Pepsi, decided to bottle and sell water and paid doctors to write that people needed eight glasses per day. He repeated this historical origin story consistently across multiple workshops and correspondences, arguing that the entire culture of heavy water consumption was a marketing invention with no biological basis, and that humans prior to the early 1960s drank almost no plain water, surviving and thriving on milk, vegetable juices, fruit juices, and the water naturally contained in foods.

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