Podcast appearances and mentions of stephen harrod buhner

You're invited next September 20-26, 2026, to The Tender Harvest, a week-long retreat amidst the golden hues and organic bounty of the world-class Ballymaloe House in County Cork, Ireland. Each day will feature yoga, meditation, farm-to-table meals, and curated excursions—plus ample time for rest, self-nurturance, and imagination.The sound of flowing water soothes most nervous systems, but particularly those acclimatized to the desert, and particularly upon waking. I have struggled with sleep disturbances for most of my adult life, so it's rare for me to experience the weight and metabolic satisfaction of a good night's rest. But twice last month, I found myself receiving what we can call river medicine: first while visiting friends at their cabin in the Pecos Wilderness, and again east of Aspen, Colorado, while teaching at Beyul Retreat, a guest ranch along the Frying Pan River, a tributary of the Roaring Fork River.River medicine is like this: surrounded by tall, sappy pines, I found myself one early morning in the atmospheric valley between sleeping and waking, an integrative field of frequencies and forms. You know the place. Even now, I do not know for certain: did the river, by some charm of consciousness, stream into my dreamscape and stir me awake? Or was it the dream that pulsated forward into the matrix of a new day? What I can say is that I felt a bright, hydrous intelligence moving in ripples and waves through my body—clarifying and tonifying, calming neurons and glial cells in their watery beds, clearing layers of baked-in tension like grit loosened from a soaking pan. And for a time, I floated above the push of the day, appearing and disappearing and reappearing to myself.In the wake of hours that followed, to my delight, I noticed a quiet reverberation—an elemental answer quelling a wordless, needful thirst.Science offers a partial explanation for this. Water has a high dielectric constant, meaning it reduces the electrostatic attraction between charged particles, which helps substances like salt crystals separate and dissolve more easily. I would also propose that water's properties of solubility, absorption, and transmission apply to its natural ability to clean and balance the bioenergetic forces of being human.When a river twists and turns, it releases negative ions into the air. Microscopically, this process is dynamic—even violent. Molecules spill over rocks and tumble forward, rushing and colliding, breaking apart, and thereby transferring electrons and charging the surrounding air. But I find comfort in this science of fluid revitalization. New, more supportive structures can form when old ones give way, pointing to how, beyond turmoil and devastation, we too can hope for vital transformation.Years ago, I read a New York Times article called “Where Heaven and Earth Come Closer,” in which journalist Eric Weiner wrote about “thin places,” locations where the gap between the ordinary and extraordinary—or, better yet, transordinary—thins out.“Thin” seemed to me a strange choice to describe where the air thickens with meaning. But Celts and early Christians held that a small but distinct distance, like three feet, separates heaven and earth—and that distance dissolves in “places that beguile and inspire, sedate and stir, places where, for a few blissful moments [we] loosen [our] death grip on life, and can breathe again.”Many a thin place has been built by human hands. Early in my career, I worked for the United Nations Foundation in collaboration with UNESCO's World Heritage Centre, and developed the sensible habit of visiting the most treasured cathedrals, temples, and sanctuary sites wherever I found myself in the world. Jama Masjid in Delhi, Sacré-Cœur in Paris, Tirta Empul in Bali, Newgrange in Ireland, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem: each has a distinct energetic signature that lives in my memory, a resonance born of its purpose and the accumulation of countless prayers that infuse the surrounding air.But thin places are more often found than made. Mountains, canyons, coral palaces—they are organic monuments to mysticism and ready reminders of our humble size before nature. As Weiner writes, “Thin places relax us, yes, but they also transform us—or, more accurately, unmask us. In thin places, we become our more essential selves.”In this sense, thin places evoke qualities of alchemy and revelation. In traveling to Beyul Retreat, I recalled how the Vajrayana Buddhist term “beyul” refers to hidden valleys believed to be sanctuaries blessed by enlightened teachers, places where the land itself is animate. A beyul holds the wisdom that rivers, trees, and even rocks are not objects but mandalas — living altars, ineffable and intricate in their aliveness.Aptly named, Beyul Retreat is a place where the boundary between perception and imagination feels more permeable. The land electrifies with new growth as summer approaches: dandelion confetti bursts open in the meadows, aspen trees shimmy, and fresh sage scents the air. Each morning, as the river's murmur moves through the valley, calypso orchids bloom in the shade while the pointed ears of silver fox pups perk up from behind cool, wet stones.In the imaginal realm of childhood, there are many such beyuls, many thin places. There are fern groves and swallow lairs, stars nestled in apple cores and galaxies in lightning bugs, and lobe-handed sycamore leaves at the wild end of the yard.We tend to think of nature as speaking in symbols, but its directness transmits rather than approximates. “The world is not made of objects; it is a communion of subjects,” writes Stephen Harrod Buhner, author of Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal Realm. “To enter the imaginal realm is to give permission to the ineffable within us, to allow the world to speak through our senses, our dreams, our longings.”To commune is to listen with our whole body, to notice the most basic and vital exchange of breath and circumstance that underpins our existence. To allow for a metamorphosis of our attention. And when we realize the subjectivity of the world, we can discover strange and wonderful ways of joining the conversation. Like us, the aspens drink water and eat light. They have instincts and work to protect their lives. And did you know that the dark spots resembling eyes on the smooth, pale bark are scars left behind when the tree sheds lower branches that receive less sunlight? Look how this porous watchfulness is directed in our direction, how the forest offers us its attention.Together, we are making sense of being human in an era of radical change. Your presence here matters. Thank you for reading, sharing, ‘heart'ing, commenting, and subscribing to The Guest House. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit shawnparell.substack.com/subscribe

Amber Alekhamis is a qualified naturopathic herbalist (BHSc), certified in iridology and flower essences. Her work and life revolve around being in reverie with nature and advocating for us as people to be in a reciprocal relationship with the earth. She continues to try to always be a proponent for traditional practices of Naturopathy and to be guided by the light of nature. Amber lives in the Northern Rivers of NSW with her husband, where she runs her small business known as From The Eartha.During this episode, Amber shares how an upbringing steeped in the philosophy of nature connection alongside a childhood living on the wild islands off the coast of Western Australia heavily influenced her belief systems and the way that she practices and connects with herbal medicine today. Amber's passionate about keeping alive the traditions and constitutional approaches of early naturopathic founders- focussing on the whole person, rather than reducing someone to their symptoms. She uses herbal oils as a way of deepening her connection to herbal medicine, but also as a beautifully gentle introduction to using herbs for those that are new to plant medicine. Helping her clients experience the potency and effectiveness of plants in a way that asks them to slow down and use all their senses. I loved chatting with Amber about two often overlooked herbs- Chamomile and Comfrey and the way she uses these in her herbal oils.This is a beautiful nature infused chat which I think you're going to love!**SHOW NOTES**Amber references philosopher Victor Schauberger who you can read more about hereShe also shares a quote from Stephen Harrod Buhner- you can listen to our Sacred Herbalism podcast segment featuring a tribute to Stephen hereShe also speaks of a plant spirit communication journey on which she was guided by Heidi Wedd- you can listen to Heidi in conversation with Stephanie Hazel on this episode of Sacred Herbalism and with Tatiana Dawn on this episode of Herbal Education. **CONNECT**You can connect with Amber and purchase her divine herbal oils via her website here, read her gorgeous Substack here or stay in touch via instagram here.You can connect with JESS via instagram and facebook here and here,  join her newsletter community here, buy her handmade herbal products here or book an appointment here.**BUY ME A CUPPA**If you liked the episode and want more, a cuppa fuels my work and time, which is given for free. Leave a comment and a few bucks here: https://buymeacoffee.com/theeldertree**THE ELDER TREE TROVE PATREON COMMUNITY**You can join our Patreon ⁠⁠here⁠⁠ and gain a deeper connection to our podcast. Pay only $2 per week to have access to bonus and often exclusive resources and opportunities- plus support the Elder tree at the same time! To find out more about The Elder Tree visit the website at ⁠www.theeldertree.org⁠ and donate to the crowdfunding campaign ⁠here⁠.You can also follow The Elder Tree on ⁠Facebook⁠ and ⁠Instagram⁠ and ⁠sign up to the newsletter⁠.Find out more about this podcast and the presenters ⁠here⁠. Get in touch with The Elder Tree at:  ⁠asktheeldertree@gmail.com⁠The intro and outro song is "⁠Sing for the Earth⁠" and was kindly donated by Chad Wilkins.  You can find Chad's music ⁠here⁠ and ⁠here⁠.

What is the interplay between aromatherapy, sensuality, and sexuality? This query started back in 2017, when I was curious why some essential oils are considered “aphrodisiacs” and how some are considered “hormone balancing”—realizing many essential oils influence both aspects. This episode goes there. How can essential oils like Patchouli, Vetiver, and Blue Lotus (Jasmine, Ylang ylang….) support holistic sensuality and sexuality while embracing the sacredness of being whole, undivided beings?We start by reflecting on the yin and yang within us all, the interconnectedness of our bodies and the universe, and the sacredness of creation as a gateway to divine knowing or gnosis. We continue into highlighting the power of scent as a form of deep communication, noting how odorants influence receptor sites in the body and can deeply connect us to ourselves and others. Sharing insights from poetry and philosophy, we weave together themes of respect, receptivity, and the importance of dispelling ego to embrace our sensual selves. Drawing inspiration from works like Rumi, E.E. Cummings, and Stephen Harold Buhner, we frame sensuality and sexuality as sacred and beautiful, celebrating the profound connection between scent, body, and spirit.Throughout the episode, we explore the role of essential oils in supporting sensuality and sexuality, highlighting favorites like Sandalwood, Patchouli, and Peru balsam for their grounding and nurturing qualities. This episode is a celebration of our fundamental core, encouraging us to embrace our bodies, imperfections and all, and to create moments of self-care, such as aromatic baths or massage oils, to connect with our sensual-sexual selves.Tune in for thought-provoking insights, poetry, and practical tips to integrate aromatherapy into your daily life. This episode offers a holistic approach to embracing our divine, sensual selves and connecting with the sacredness of being alive.Poems highlights: (Minute ~28) Rumi, “You that come to birth and bring the mysteries.”(Minute ~32) e.e. cummings, “Lady, I will touch you with my mind.”(Minute ~39) Stephen Harrod Buhner, “Semen is Latin for a dormant, fertilized plant ovum.”

A powerful and intriguing tribute to Earth Poet, Animist and Herbalist Stephen Harrod Buhner, featuring the magnificent Skye Cielita Flor. In this episode, Stephanie and Skye discuss the potency of SHB's works, their impact on their own lives and teaching styles, and break some of the key points he covers in his book ‘Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal Realms'.  Skye is currently offering a transformative 10 week online study group focusing on the teachings of his book. The next group starts 17th January and sold out in one week after the release date in November - for good reason! The next round is being released alongside this podcast so you get a chance to sign up. See below. https://events.humanitix.com/plant-intelligence-and-the-imaginal-realm-x10-week-online-and-in-person-study-group-h49rem6b Stephen Harrod Buhner offers a unique approach to understanding the relationship between humans and the natural world, highlighting the importance of integrating rationalist perspectives with mystical animist practices. Stephanie and Skye discuss sensory gating, how we develop the ability to sense and feel the natural world without psychedelics, and the crucial bridge between science and mysticism that SHB offers us: Eco-Animism, or Bio-Animism.  Show Notes & Links: Books mentioned in the episode: Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal Realm https://www.thenile.com.au/books/stephen-harrod-buhner/plant-intelligence-and-the-imaginal-realm/9781591431350  Sacred Plant Medicine https://www.booktopia.com.au/sacred-plant-medicine-stephen-harrod-buhner/book/9781591430582.html  Herbal Antivirals https://www.thenile.com.au/books/stephen-harrod-buhner/herbal-antivirals-2nd-edition/9781635864175  Herbal Antibiotics https://www.thenile.com.au/books/stephen-harrod-buhner/herbal-antibiotics-2nd-edition/9781603429870  The Lost Language of Plants https://www.thenile.com.au/books/stephen-harrod-buhner/the-lost-language-of-plants-the-ecological-importance-of-pl/9781890132880  Becoming Vegetalista https://www.thenile.com.au/books/stephen-harrod-buhner/becoming-vegetalista/9780970869623?srsltid=AfmBOoresy5-84ortihNEvd1ZuUgqNC50p7gbgCc5HWZfsCUK1sowwAh  Stephanie mentions Professor David Nutt and his work with psilocybin - you can read about that here. https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/119786/magic-mushrooms-effects-illuminated-brain-imaging/ https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-01744-z  https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.1119598109  *BUY ME A CUPPA* If you liked the episode and want more, a cuppa fuels my work and time, which is given for free. Leave a comment and a few bucks here: ⁠buymeacoffee.com/theeldertree⁠ To find out more about The Elder Tree visit the website at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.theeldertree.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or follow is on socials here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ / ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  The intro and outro song is "⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sing for the Earth⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠" and was kindly donated by Chad Wilkins.  You can find Chad's music ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Daoist Tonic Herbalism is an ancient tradition from China that works with adaptogenic and tonic herbs to extend life, and support soulful ageing. In this episode, Stephanie Hazel interviews Mason Taylor, one of Australia's major proponents of this tradition through his business Superfeast. They ponder the often ignored question: What does it take to age well? And what's the point of ageing well? Show Notes: * You can find Mason Taylor's business 'Superfeast' and their range of Di-Dao (grown in traditional ways) tonic herbs here. * We discuss Stephen Harrod Buhner's book 'Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal Realms' briefly. (It's amazing!) **THE ELDER TREE TROVE PATREON COMMUNITY** You can join our Patreon ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and gain a deeper connection to our podcast. Pay only $2 per week to have access to bonus and often exclusive resources and opportunities- plus support the Elder tree at the same time!  To find out more about The Elder Tree visit the website at ⁠⁠⁠⁠www.theeldertree.org⁠⁠⁠⁠ and donate to the crowdfunding campaign ⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠. You can also follow The Elder Tree on ⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to the newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠. Find out more about this podcast and the presenters ⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠. Get in touch with The Elder Tree at:  ⁠⁠⁠⁠asktheeldertree@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠⁠ The intro and outro song is "⁠⁠⁠⁠Sing for the Earth⁠⁠⁠⁠" and was kindly donated by Chad Wilkins.  You can find Chad's music ⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Tom Barnett joins us on Season 1 (2021) of Birdsong. This episode was removed and banned from YouTube. Surprise surprise! Tom Barnett is a holistic health practitioner and mindset coach, covering diverse topics from law, culture and sociology to human health and spirituality. Many people from all walks of life have found value in Tom's relaxed and calm demeanor while getting right to the point, providing valuable, stable content that will remain applicable for life.  Over the past few years, Tom's value has been truly appreciated for his consistent ability to ground people in what matters. He become quite the media sensation from one of his earlier videos, which is where I first became familiar with Tom, as did a lot of people. It was titled something like “you cant catch a virus.” What he was essentially explaining was the difference between germ theory and terrain theory, and why you cant catch a virus, which we'll get into in this conversation. Tom spent over a decade with chronic fatigue, and it was through his learning and understanding which he developed through six years of study of science which included medicine, six years of natural health and medicine, and three years solely looking into the nature of viruses, bacteria, protozoans and parasites, that he cultivated the knowledge to reclaim his health and taught others how to do the same. Past clients include everyday people with everyday problems, professional athletes, high ranking CEOs and royalty. He has formal training and experience in lifeguarding, security operations, advanced driving instruction, and is a former athlete. More than anything, he has refined the rare art of thinking for oneself. Outside of his work as a researcher and educator, Tom is a keen surfer, writes music and enjoys travel, food, nature, martial arts, comedy and meditation. https://tombarnett.tv/   TIMESTAMPS: [3:26] Tom's progress on his second book about detox and knowing our rights [4:40] The overarching feeling of being completely engulfed by and cared for by a higher power [7:45] The western system cuts people away from the sacred [9:30] Holistic health is balance on the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual [13:00] The density of the physical body [14:40] Looking to the wisdom of nature to understand viruses [15:20] The transmissability and contagiousness of pathogens [16:11] Why the hell are so many people sick today? [18:00] The truth about viruses and the role of microbiology in detoxification [21:20] What does it mean when we say a virus is not alive? [24:10] All life has its own innate intelligence, including viruses [26:50] Pasteur's Germ Theory vs Bechamp's Terrain theory [29:59] The reason why so many people are getting sick at the same time and the reason why it's not linked to a contagious virus [32:00] What we're seeing is a selective process and the collective outcome from toxic pollutants and radiation [34:00] What's the difference between man-made viruses vs viruses that are created from our own internal cellular processes? [37:18] Our protective bodily mechanisms and the only way to get a virus into the body [39:00] The virus is a smokescreen to cover up for all environmental toxins that actually make people sick to push the injection agenda [40:42] What are we seeing the same set of symptoms throughout the collective? [42:44] Hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin and zinc? [44:46] Stephen Harrod Buhner and the nature of anti-viral herbs [49:10] The caution of herbs and heavy metals [50:50] The body is an electric system and is susceptible to metallic minerals [53:08] Fat is what protects us from all forms of toxicity [54:18] Fasting doesn't get rid of deep-seeded environmental toxins [55:05] Detoxification through oral chelation vs wholesome diets [57:15] Tom's thoughts on using supplements [1:00:40] We need more calories to functional optimally in today's world [1:02:15] The natural state of our body wants raw foods [1:03:00] Healing with urine therapy [1:06:30] Tom's “wee-monade” [1:09:15] When detoxifying it's important to include high levels of saturated fat in the diet [1:10:27] Is Victoria Australia the testing ground for a police state and new type of governance? [1:11:55] Learning our rights can be like learning a new language (a very important language!) [1:13:00] Every law comes from the bible: the hierarchy of laws [1:16:05] Tom's journey of learning about the law [1:17:15] The world of commerce: creditors, debtors and asking questions [1:20:07] Public and private worlds are mirror images of each other [1:22:40] What are the bare-bones fundamentals to start learning? [1:24:00] Embodying information through practicing, role-playing and actioning [1:28:44] In what ways has asserting our human rights been of direct benefit to Tom? [1:30:30] If you've got the tenacity to see it through, you'll win the battle but might lose the initial war [1:31:38] Solutions empowerment, know your rights group, and other resources for learning [1:34:30] Tom's final message and words of wisdom on sovereignty and knowing our rights RESOURCES & LINKS: Subscribe to Tom's channel on YouTube Connect with Tom on facebook Sign up to Tom's mailing list   Andy Cutler Chelation Oral chelation for mercury Boyd Haley and Emeramide (youtube) Solutions Empowerment Know Your Rights Group A Warrior Calls Cal Washington Creditors in Commerce (youtube) UnitedCollective.org United Collective Common Law Court Understanding jurisdiction in law (youtube) You, The Law, and Legislation - Common Law Courts Youtube Tom Barnett Interview with The Godfather of True Law, Equity, Suveran, The REMEDY for OPPRESSION

Mikaela and Bryan of Alchemystic Fungi join Mason today for an explorative conversation around the multidimensional nature of the mycelial world.  Connected through their shared passion and reverence for mother nature and her plant queendom, Mason, Mikaela and Bryan dive deep into the unifying and medicinal role fungi play on the planet, placing a spotlight on the plethora of functional applications it can have, especially as a remedy to the industrial impacts of our time.  Whether it's churning through plastic, alchemising industrial waste, feeding the forests or supplying sustainable swaps for common synthetic materials, throughout this conversation we can begin to glean hope that despite the looming doom of the climate crisis, we have a future; and that future is fungi. Mikaela and Bryan spend their days on beautiful Bundjalung Country, visioning, researching, fossicking, educating and creating in the realms of fungi. Profoundly devoted to their craft and quest, this dynamic duo are deeply rooted in nature based ethics, unified by a circular economy where nothing goes to waste and everything is fed back into the death, birth, growth cycle of the earth.  Alchemystic Fungi have big dreams and I personally cannot wait to see Mikaela and Bryan bring their visionary magic into continuous creative form. A rich and inspiring listen.    Bryan, Mikaela & Mason discuss: - Heart math and the work of Stephen Harrod Buhner.  - The Alchemysitic Fungi origin story. - The mushroom market; competition verse connection and infinite unity. - Mycelium, water filtration and environmental toxins. - Mycorrhizal associations; the symbiotic relationship between a fungus and a root system. - Fungi and atmospheric carbon. - Mycelial based materials as the future of sustainable industry.   Resource guide Guest Alchemystic Fungi Website Mentioned in this episode  Paul Staments Christopher Hobbs Stephen Harrod Buhner Relevant Podcasts Entering The Imaginal Realms with Stephen Harrod Buhner (E#88) Psilocybin Journeywork & Fungi Academy with Jasper Degenaars (EP#120) The Wild World Of Medicinal Mushrooms with Jeff Chilton (EP#37)   SuperFeast Online Education Check Out The Transcript Below: https://www.superfeast.com.au/blogs/articles/alchemystic-fungi-with-bryan-mikaela-ep-190  

Stephanie Hazel interviews environmental activist and cofounder of the Deep Ecology movement John Seed on how Deep Ecology is a powerful philosophy for herbalists, plant folk and all humans living with grief and confusion around the devastation of the natural world. By getting humans out of the driver's seat of existence, and remembering that we are one strand in the web of life not the spider in the middle, we can restore right relationship with the Earth. John shares unique stories for the first time on this show: how powerful experiences with magic mushrooms prepared the ground for his initial groundbreaking revelations in the Australian rainforests that led to what we now know as Deep Ecology; how "Aussie-huasca" just might have saved his life recently; and how he discovered indigenous rituals performed in a group context to dissolve the hubris of human superiority that were exactly like the 'Council of All Beings' process he had created with Joanna Macy a few years prior. Show Notes: John Seed's book 'Thinking Like A Mountain' is available for free download here: https://rainforestinfo.org.au/deep-eco/TLAM%20text.htm Excellent talk by John Seed at Rebel Herbal conference https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPdxrrg_Frw 'The Spirit of Herbs', an article written by John Seed in response to Stephen Harrod Buhner's work:  http://www.rainforestinfo.org.au/deep-eco/herbs.htm Upcoming Deep Ecology workshops with John Seed: https://events.humanitix.com/host/6020d0d134494c000a3c23bd

Today we are honored by the presence of the legendary Dr. Dennis McKenna. Dr. McKenna has conducted research in ethnopharmacology for over 40 years.  He is a founding board member of the Heffter Research Institute, and was a key investigator on the Hoasca Project, the first biomedical investigation of ayahuasca.  He is the younger brother of Terence McKenna.  From 2000 to 2017, he taught courses on Ethnopharmacology and Plants in Human affairs as an adjunct Assistant Professor in the Center for Spirituality and Healing at the University of Minnesota. In 2018, Dr. McKenna conceived the McKenna Academy of Natural Philosophy to explore modern and traditional practices, ideas and technologies that foster the understanding of nature, consciousness, the cosmos and their interweavings with humanity. The Academy's mission is to be a catalyst for the transformation of global consciousness, through educational experiences that interweave our collective intelligence, science, and ancestral wisdom.   TOPICS COVERED:   The Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss   The Experiment at La Chorrera   Ethnopharmacology   Tryptophan, Tryptamines & 5HT2A ReceptorsPsychedelic Biochemistry   Messenger Molecules & Signal Transduction   Psychedelic CommunicationsNeural Gating & The Reality Hallucination   Future of Psychedelics in Modern, Western Culture   Psychedelics Sourced from South America – Short-Term Extraction, Long-Term Symbiosis?   Nature Wave Zero   Humans as an Endangered Species   Undiscovered Psychedelic Compounds   The McKenna Academy   EPISODE RESOURCES   McKenna Academy: https://mckenna.academy/   McKenna Academy IG: https://www.instagram.com/mckenna.academy/   "The Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss": https://www.amazon.com/Brotherhood-Screaming-Abyss-Terence-McKenna/dp/0878396365   "Botanical Medicines: The Desk Reference for Major Herbal Supplements": https://typeset.io/papers/botanical-medicines-the-desk-reference-for-major-herbal-2df0ifn7xz   5-HT2A Receptors: https://en.wikipedia.org//wiki/5-HT2A_receptor   ESPD55 Website: https://espd55.com/   Stephen Harrod Buhner: https://www.stephenharrodbuhner.com/books/   Psilocybin: Magic Mushroom Grower's Guide: https://www.amazon.com/Psilocybin-Mushroom-Growers-Handbook-Enthusiasts-ebook/dp/B00BOE16V8   

In this special interview Mason shares a deep conversation with one of his greatest inspirations in work and in life, Stephen Harrod Buhner. Stephen's work in herbalism, heart perception, plant medicine, earth poetry, Lyme's disease, bacterial intelligence and more, has reignited the journey's of many into the indescribable "imaginal" realm that plant enthusiasts, artists and adventures throughout time have known well. In this chat Stephen invites us to reach beyond the reductionistic mental approach to life that our Western culture insists upon and "trains" us for, to discover and dance with the wild non linear spaces that lay within. Mason and Stephen touch on many beautiful topics ranging from wild terrain medicine, herbal antibiotics and the effect of pharmaceuticals on the planet. Delving into the mystical and empowering realm that is driven by feeling, the place where we can start to develop a deep relationship with the planet and the plants that help us to heal. Stephen's books and work are transformational, and we cannot recommend them highly enough! Among Mason's favourites are; The Lost Language Of Plants, The Secret Teachings Of Plants, Plant Intelligence And The Imaginal Realms and Sacred And Herbal Healing Beers.    Who is Stephen Harrod Buhner ? Stephen Harrod Buhner is a interdisciplinary, independent scholar, polymath, Fellow of Schumacher College UK and head researcher for the Foundation for Gaian Studies. Stephen is an extraordinary human who, like many (if not all), cannot be summed up in a simple paragraph, to read more about the universe that is Stephen Harrod Buhner, please see his extensive bio here.   Resources: Stephen's Website Stephen's Books Stephen's Articles The Foundation For Gaian Studies

In this special interview Mason shares a deep conversation with one of his greatest inspirations in work and in life, Stephen Harrod Buhner. Stephen's work in herbalism, heart perception, plant medicine, earth poetry, Lyme's disease, bacterial intelligence and more, has reignited the journey's of many into the indescribable "imaginal" realm that plant enthusiasts, artists and adventures throughout time have known well. In this chat Stephen invites us to reach beyond a reductionistic mental approach to life that our Western culture insists upon and "trains" us for, to discover and dance with the wild non linear spaces that lay within. Mason and Stephen touch on many beautiful topics ranging from wild terrain medicine, herbal antibiotics and the effect of pharmaceuticals on the planet. Delving into the mystical and empowering realm that is driven by feeling, the place where we can start to develop a deep relationship with the planet and the plants that help us to heal. Stephen's books and work are transformational, and we cannot recommend them highly enough! Among Mason's favourites are:    Plant Intelligence And The Imaginal Realms The Lost Language Of Plants The Secret Teachings Of Plants Sacred And Herbal Healing Beers.   Who is Stephen Harrod Buhner ? Stephen Harrod Buhner is a interdisciplinary, independent scholar, polymath, Fellow of Schumacher College UK and head researcher for the Foundation for Gaian Studies. Stephen is an extraordinary human who, like many (if not all), cannot be summed up in a simple paragraph, to read more about the universe that is Stephen Harrod Buhner, please see his extensive bio here.   Resources: Stephen's Website Stephen's Books Stephen's Articles The Foundation For Gaian Studies

I wrote this piece in a 6am flurry of sunrise inspiration, the words pouncing through me, stirred by a combination of books I'd been reading on plant science and deep evolutionary history (thank you, Stephen Harrod Buhner and Thomas Halliday).All too often we read headlines about extinction or climate change, and it can be difficult to relate. Difficult for emotions to flow and process. I think we need to bring these notions intimately home, into the utterly personal, into the first-person experience of what it's like to lose something forever. I wrote this piece from the perspective of life itself, relishing and feeling all the parts of its splendorous body. It brings me tears and yet such sheer gratitude that we live inside of this kind of world... That we are this. There are still so many possibilities. Please sit back and enjoy this rather different bedtime story.Find the written piece here. And pair with this song for something delicious. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In today's video, we'll be looking at herbs for both collective and personal grief. Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer https://www.robinwallkimmerer.com/books Earth Grief by Stephen Harrod Buhner https://www.stephenharrodbuhner.com/books/ Elizabeth Gilbert Interview on Grief https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/why-elizabeth-gilbert-disappeared-what-she-came-back-to-say/id1564530722?i=1000560690018 Robin Wall Kimmerer Interview with Krista Tippett On the Intelligence of Plant https://onbeing.org/programs/robin-wall-kimmerer-the-intelligence-of-plants-2022/ Subscribe to this channel to stay up to date with new videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqHWmptta4uc7HThzEATBVA?sub_confirmation=1 Sign up to my mailing list to stay updated on free webinars, virtual garden and herb walks, and other free content: http://www.skyhouseherbs.com/  Say hi on social: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ashley.litecky Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skyhouseherbs/ #SkyHouseHerbs #AshleyElenbaas

Intuitive living and finding attunement go hand in hand as we grow in our lives. Continuing from the previous week's episode, we listen as Stephen Buhner shares with us more about how ecosystems work in relationships. Open your eyes and see the realities of the world's systems. Join us if you want to learn about how the act of leaving your rational mind behind can guide you in your journey into feeling.  ❂ About our special guest: Stephen Harrod Buhner is the author of Herbal Antivirals,Herbal Antibiotics, and 17 other works. He speaks internationally on herbal medicine, emerging diseases, complex interrelationships in ecosystems, Gaian dynamics, and musical/sound patterns in plant and ecosystem functioning. Guest's website: http://www.stephenharrodbuhner.com/about/ (www.stephenharrodbuhner.com/about/)

Intuitive living and finding attunement go hand in hand as we grow in our lives. Developing our feeling sense and slowly learning to sense beyond rationality helps us develop a deeper attunement. Stephen Buhner talks about the feeling sense, the climate of our minds, and re-learning to live through the heart. Join us as he shares stories with us and we acquire more wisdom together.  ❂ About our special guest: Stephen Harrod Buhner is the author of Herbal Antivirals,Herbal Antibiotics, and 17 other works. He speaks internationally on herbal medicine, emerging diseases, complex interrelationships in ecosystems, Gaian dynamics, and musical/sound patterns in plant and ecosystem functioning. Guest's website: http://www.stephenharrodbuhner.com/about/ (www.stephenharrodbuhner.com/about/)

Stephen is an interdisciplinary, independent scholar, polymath, and author or 23 books (and working on others), numerous articles, and essays and have achieved some mastery in a variety of subjects a few being bacterial ecology, resistance dynamics; plant intelligence and ecology, human psychology and psychotherapy, biological self-organization; nonlinearity; contemplative spirituality, transcultural epistemology and more. www.stephenharrodbuhner.com Contains mild profanity. An edited version of this interview was aired on Lumpen Radio, in two parts.

Stephen Harrod Buhner has been called an Earth poet, bardic naturalist, and an herbal philosopher, as well as one of the most accomplished writers on medical herbalism in the United States. He is the multiple-award winning author of 23 books, a score of memoir and fictional short stories, and numerous nonfiction articles.He is a tireless advocate for the reincorporation of the exploratory artist, independent scholar, amateur naturalist, and citizen scientist in American society - especially as a counterweight to the influence of corporate science and technology.I was first introduced to Stephen's work through my encounters with Lyme Disease–of which Stephen is (in my words) the preeminent expert. He essentially wrote the Bible of how to understand the disease and treat it effectively yourself with herbs (spoiler, it works).Later I discovered Stephen wrote twenty two other books on far-ranging topics across many disciplines, incorporating radically subversive ideas about intelligence, ecology, environmentalism, science, mental health, and perception.I wanted to discuss “Gaia Theory” with Stephen–the idea that the Earth is a sentient, self regulating organism, and how that overlaps with the ayahuasca experience–and discuss we did.Also in this episode are:Western Science's origins in the Protestant Revolution (and why that's bad)Rationalism and the dissection of nature into discrete partsThe Journey of the Self, learning to think for yourself and discard inherited beliefs"Who Am I?" Reframing painful experiences as part of your personal mythPlant and Bacterial IntelligenceThe function of psychedelics in ecosystemsInvasive species as a natural reorganization of Earth's ecosystemsLyme DiseaseHerbalism, the deeply ingrained societal beliefs that dismiss itHow to present information that bridges two paradigmsThe limiting trap of trying to win approval and mainstream acceptance with fundamentally paradigm shifting ideas ("Trying to make Daddy proud")You cannot control or suppress nature--humans are destined for some tough lessons.And so much more that if you're not curious already,  there is no point in me typing the rest of it, so go to the mall instead (and pick me up a Cinnabon).

Stephen Harrod Buhner is an Earth poet and the award-winning author of fifteen books on nature, indigenous cultures, the environment, and herbal medicine. Stephen's work has appeared or been profiled in publications throughout North America and Europe including Common Boundary, Apotheosis, Shaman's Drum, The New York Times, CNN, and Good Morning America. Stephen lectures yearly throughout the United States on herbal medicine, the sacredness of plants, the intelligence of Nature, and the states of mind necessary for successful habitation of Earth. www.gaianstudies.orgFor more information on the Well of Light Global Community, Programs, Radio shows and Services go to www.welloflight.comTo access other great interviews and offerings: www.patreon.com/welloflightYour donations are gratefully received and make it all possible!

Episode 28: Whiteness and CivilizationApril 18, 2021Housecleaning. Apologies about the absence, doing the best we can. Talking a little bit about some of what Kevin has been going through over the last year, particularly dissociative identity disorder. A bit more here: https://www.gofundme.com/trauma-healing-and-recovery Going over a bit of what has been going on the last year in terms of the veneer of white supremacy slipping and what that says about civilization. How whiteness embodies the entitlement of the colonizer. Talk a bit about Cull of Personality and questions of representation. The scourge of white liberals and the racism of Stephen Harrod Buhner. Looking at issues in the worlds of rewilding, white herbalism, and more. Talking about systems and the nature of abuse over just focusing on how we save ourselves.

Returning guest, Samantha Lee Wright, host of the Essential Oil Revolution podcast, joins us again in this week's episode of the Less Stressed Life Podcast to share her daughter's journey with Lyme disease.Sam shares:Early signs and testing of Lyme diseaseBeing an advocate for yourself and loved onesThe link between mold and LymeSupplementation, nourishment, and herbal supportMentioned in this episode:Healing Lyme: Natural Healing and Prevention of Lyme Borreliosis and Its Coinfections Book by Stephen Harrod Buhner  #056 CBD Oil vs Copaiba Oil Showdown with Samantha Wright Host of the world's #1 essential oil podcast, The Essential Oil Revolution –– with over 3.5 Million downloads to date –– Samantha Lee Wright teaches others how to use the power of nature for better health and happiness. She’s a master at helping people clear the toxins from their lives and take control of their health. She’s a wife, mother, author, speaker, and a fierce advocate for living life on your own terms.Assess your Adrenals, Detox, or Get my Guidechristabiegler.com/linksJoin us on Instagraminstagram.com/anti.inflammatory.nutritionist/Shop our Favoriteschristabiegler.com/shopLoving the podcast? Leave us a review!reviewthispodcast.com/lessstressed

I could not be more pleased or feel more honoured that the first guest in this space is none other than Stephen Harrod Buhner. Stephen Harrod Buhner has been an indescribable influence on my path. His books, perspectives, and basic nature are such an inspiration for me (and for many others I know), and his contributions to herbalism, human consciousness, spirituality, and ecological relations are, in many ways, unparalleled.

In this episode we speak with community herbalist, writer, earth poet and animist mystic Stephen Harrod Buhner about using the heart as an organ of perception, following the "Golden Thread", having plants as primary teachers, pantheistic animism, becoming your own authority, and a bit about his own journey. Stephen has written a lot of books, and you should check them all out, but the ones that form the basis of our conversation are "The Secret Teachings of Plants", "Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal Realm" and the others in that series. These books give exercises for developing the heart as an organ of perception, adjusting sensory gating and communicating with plants. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/plantcunning/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/plantcunning/support

Tom Barnett has become quite the media sensation as of late. I first became familiar with Tom, as did a lot of people, after watching one of his videos from a few months ago that was titled, something like “you cant catch a virus.” What he was essentially explaining was the difference between germ theory and terrain theory, and why you cant catch a virus, which we’ll get into in this conversation.Tom spent over a decade with chronic fatigue, and it was through his learning and understanding which he developed through six years of study of science which included medicine, six years of natural health and medicine, and three years solely looking into the nature of viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoans and parasites, that he cultivated the knowledge to reclaim his health and taught others how to do the same.Subscribe to Tom’s channel on YouTubeConnect with Tom on facebookSign up to Tom’s mailing listPlease support the show...Check out the Patreon pageLeave us a review on iTunesConnect on InstagramConnect on FacebookFull links and resources[4:40] The overarching feeling of being completely engulfed by a higher power[7:45] The western system cuts people away from the sacred[9:30] Holistic health is balance on the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual[14:40] Looking to the wisdom of nature to understand viruses[16:11] Why the hell are so many people sick today?[18:00] The truth about viruses and the role of microbiology in detoxification[21:20] What does it mean when we say a virus is not alive?[26:50] Pasteur’s Germ Theory vs Bechamp’s Terrain theory[29:59] The reason why so many people are getting sick at the same time and the reason why it’s not linked to a contagious virus[34:00] Artificial vs natural viruses[37:18] Our protective bodily mechanisms and the only way to get a virus into the body[39:00] The virus is a smokescreen to cover up for all environmental toxins that actually make people sick to push the injection agenda[40:42] What are we seeing the same set of symptoms throughout the collective?[42:44] Hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin and zinc?[44:46] Stephen Harrod Buhner and the nature of anti-viral herbs[49:10] The caution of herbs and heavy metals[54:18] Fasting doesn’t get rid of deep-seeded toxins[55:05] Detoxification through oral chelation vs wholesome diets[1:00:40] We need more calories to functional optimally in today’s world[1:03:00] Healing with urine therapy[1:09:15] When detoxifying it’s important to include high levels of saturated fat in the diet[1:10:27] Is Victoria Australia the testing ground for a police state and new type of governance?[1:11:55] Knowing our rights[1:13:00] The hierarchy of laws[1:17:15] The world of commerce: creditors, debtors and asking questions[1:20:07] Public and private worlds are mirror images of each other[1:22:40] Where should we start?[1:28:44] The benefits of asserting our rights[1:31:38] Solutions empowerment, know your rights group, and other resources for learning[1:34:30] Tom’s final message and words of wisdom on sovereignty and knowing our rights

Linear thinking is a buzzkill to the dream… Author, poet and sublime dreamer, STEPHEN HARROD BUHNER, dives deep and wide in his latest book, Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal Realm http://www.gaianstudies.org

Linear thinking is a buzzkill to the dream… Author, poet and sublime dreamer, STEPHEN HARROD BUHNER, dives deep and wide in his latest book, Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal Realm http://www.gaianstudies.org

On day 5 of Blu's water fast - Blu chats to one of her dearest friends Azrya and covers the topic of water plunges, water fasting and why on earth do they put themselves through this "torture" in the name of spiritual development.  Azrya and Blu also cover the topics of tribe and what it truly means to have a close knit group of people around you and how it can exponentially support your evolution.  @iazrya  Book recommendation: The Transformation Power of Water Fasting by Stephen Harrod Buhner 

Natalie Ross shares about discovering your intuition after a lifetime of being told it doesn’t matter or exist. You’ll also hear about: How mushrooms inspired her to finally find her path after years of feeling lost and uncertain Whether it's safe to trust your intuition and why trusting is hard for many of us What to do if the people in your life don't “get it” ♥ PS - Make sure to check out the secret episodes! Plus, when you sign up for secret episodes, you get the Plant Speak mini-course on how to grow relationships with Earth and nature spirits for support and guidance in your everyday life. ***** Earth Speak founder Natalie Ross was interviewed by Stephanie Briggs for a series called Your Earth Journey about her journey to live guided by her intuition. Enjoy this conversation! In this interview, Natalie shares about: Her lifelong affinity for plants Healing from the effects of having young parents with their own baggage How her outer reality as a child turned her attention to inwards Dropping out of college 3 times & struggling through her entire twenties How mushrooms inspired her to finally find her path after years of feeling lost and uncertain Mycoremediation as a way to rehabilitate toxic ecosystems and soils Getting a master’s degree in soil science and still feeling like there’s something more How her first podcast, Dream Freedom Beauty, was born one hot summer’s day Hiding in the “broom closet” and not telling the people around her about her true interests How society has a sickness of the spirit The energetic language of intuition that doesn’t speak in words and how to hear it How your body is an energetic antennae Intuition as a GPS that course corrects when you miss a turn Speaking with plants and the nature of intuition How to develop a relationship with your intuitive senses and come to trust them Whether it's safe to trust your intuition and why trusting is hard for many of us What to do if the people in your life don't “get it” Why your intuitive guidance matters How intuition is a pathway out of the dominant patriarchal society Check out the secret episodes where your favorite podcast guests get weirder! Also find a guided journey led by Natalie to connect deeply with the spirit of the amanita muscaria mushroom at https://www.earthspeak.love/secret Links: Join our live weekly ritual calls in the Earth Speak Collective membership // https://www.earthspeak.love/collective Follow Natalie’s personal Instagram @knowyourenergy // https://www.instagram.com/knowyourenergy  Get the secret episodes at https://www.earthspeak.love/secret References: Connect with the rest of the “Your Earth Journey” series // https://www.embracingyourearthjourney.com/ Book: Mycelium Running by Paul Stamets // https://www.amazon.com/Mycelium-Running-Mushrooms-Help-World/   Book: The Secret Teachings of Plants by Stephen Harrod Buhner // https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Teachings-Plants-Intelligence-Perception/  Stephanie Benedetto Padovani // https://www.theawakenedbusiness.com/  Liv Mokai Wheeler and the Kontomble // https://www.ancestorbridge.com/  ► Leave us a written review on iTunes, and get shouted out on the show! Theme music is “It’s Easier” by Scarlet Crow http://www.scarletcrow.org/ and “Meeting Again” by Emily Sprague  https://mlesprg.info/ Learn to trust your intuition and activate your Earth magic + sign up for our delightful newsletter at https://www.earthspeak.love Follow Earth Speak on Instagram and tag us when you share @earthspeak https://www.instagram.com/earthspeak

Natalie Ross shares about discovering your intuition after a lifetime of being told it doesn’t matter or exist. You’ll also hear about: How mushrooms inspired her to finally find her path after years of feeling lost and uncertain Whether it's safe to trust your intuition and why trusting is hard for many of us What to do if the people in your life don't “get it” ♥ PS - Make sure to check out the secret episodes! Plus, when you sign up for secret episodes, you get the Plant Speak mini-course on how to grow relationships with Earth and nature spirits for support and guidance in your everyday life. ***** Earth Speak founder Natalie Ross was interviewed by Stephanie Briggs for a series called Your Earth Journey about her journey to live guided by her intuition. Enjoy this conversation! In this interview, Natalie shares about: Her lifelong affinity for plants Healing from the effects of having young parents with their own baggage How her outer reality as a child turned her attention to inwards Dropping out of college 3 times & struggling through her entire twenties How mushrooms inspired her to finally find her path after years of feeling lost and uncertain Mycoremediation as a way to rehabilitate toxic ecosystems and soils Getting a master’s degree in soil science and still feeling like there’s something more How her first podcast, Dream Freedom Beauty, was born one hot summer’s day Hiding in the “broom closet” and not telling the people around her about her true interests How society has a sickness of the spirit The energetic language of intuition that doesn’t speak in words and how to hear it How your body is an energetic antennae Intuition as a GPS that course corrects when you miss a turn Speaking with plants and the nature of intuition How to develop a relationship with your intuitive senses and come to trust them Whether it's safe to trust your intuition and why trusting is hard for many of us What to do if the people in your life don't “get it” Why your intuitive guidance matters How intuition is a pathway out of the dominant patriarchal society Check out the secret episodes where your favorite podcast guests get weirder! Also find a guided journey led by Natalie to connect deeply with the spirit of the amanita muscaria mushroom at https://www.earthspeak.love/secret Links: Join our live weekly ritual calls in the Earth Speak Collective membership // https://www.earthspeak.love/collective Follow Natalie’s personal Instagram @knowyourenergy // https://www.instagram.com/knowyourenergy  Get the secret episodes at https://www.earthspeak.love/secret References: Connect with the rest of the “Your Earth Journey” series // https://www.embracingyourearthjourney.com/ Book: Mycelium Running by Paul Stamets // https://www.amazon.com/Mycelium-Running-Mushrooms-Help-World/   Book: The Secret Teachings of Plants by Stephen Harrod Buhner // https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Teachings-Plants-Intelligence-Perception/  Stephanie Benedetto Padovani // https://www.theawakenedbusiness.com/  Liv Mokai Wheeler and the Kontomble // https://www.ancestorbridge.com/  ► Leave us a written review on iTunes, and get shouted out on the show! Theme music is “It’s Easier” by Scarlet Crow http://www.scarletcrow.org/ and “Meeting Again” by Emily Sprague  https://mlesprg.info/ Learn to trust your intuition and activate your Earth magic + sign up for our delightful newsletter at https://www.earthspeak.love Follow Earth Speak on Instagram and tag us when you share @earthspeak https://www.instagram.com/earthspeak

In 2009 Keith developed pain in his neck after a fall from a horse. He did all the usual things to heal a sore neck but didn't improve. The pain lingered and started to travel to other parts of his body. At this point we suspected there might be something else going on. After seeing a number of different doctors over two years, Keith was finally tested for Lyme in 2011. He tested positive and was given the usual 3-week course of antibiotics. He improved for a short time but then his symptoms returned. Several doctors denied he was still sick and told us there was nothing they could do. He continued to decline. Then Keith saw a top infectious disease doctor at Columbia Hospital, who re-tested him. The doctor said the test was negative for Lyme (with one band showing) and that there was no such thing as Chronic Lyme. He suggested that it was all in Keith's head. It was totally demoralizing. Once we re-grouped from that experience, we continued to look for help. Keith saw an osteopath and the treatment was helpful but he was still in a lot of pain. The osteopath agreed that there are some people with Lyme who, even after the 3-week course of antibiotics, are still sick. Just this validation was huge for us. The osteopath was willing to give Keith 6-weeks of antibiotics to see if it would help but he wouldn't give more, as he was afraid to lose his medical license. The antibiotics seemed to help for awhile but then Keith got worse again. Then we heard of a Chinese herbalist who was having good luck treating Lyme patients. Keith would drive several hours once a month for his appointments, to get herbs. Keith tried this for several months with some improvement but no lasting results. Thankfully, before we could try any of those, I stumbled upon two books that helped set us on the right path, Cannabis for Lyme Disease & Related Conditions: Scientific Basis and Anecdotal Evidence for Medicinal Use by Shelley M White and Healing Lyme: Natural Healing of Lyme Borreliosis and the Coinfections Chlamydia and Spotted Fever Rickettsiosis by Stephen Harrod Buhner. Out of desperation, I designed a protocol for Keith from what I learned. Within couple weeks of starting this new protocol we knew we were on the right track. He stopped getting worse and actually started to improve. He stopped taking antibiotics and then after a year, stopped taking the herbs. His health had stabilized and but his health had not been restored. Still in research mode, I read about the Keto diet, which sounded crazy at first but we took a leap of faith and decided to give it a try. Within a few weeks Keith started to feel better.

Welcome to 2020 Vision, a podcast to help you see clearly. In this episode Kirsty introduces you to her framework for conceptualizing energetic anatomy. She identifies the body's three decision-making centres - the mind, the heart and the gut and talks a little about the role of each of these in helping us to navigate confidently through life.  Also mentioned in this episode are Dr Joe Dispenza https://drjoedispenza.com and The Secret Teachings of Plants by Stephen Harrod Buhner https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/378207.The_Secret_Teachings_of_Plants.  Website https://ayniwest.ca  Email 2020@ayniwest.ca Enjoy! With thanks to Tommy Kerr for production support, you're a champ! 

As Slowness Medicine is being experienced by the collective consciousness on an unprecedented scale, we can more clearly than ever see that the frenetic pace of the human species under endless growth capitalism is the root cause of global ecosystem disruption (one consequence of which is the emergence and lightning fast spread of novel viral pathogens). From newly clear canal water in Venice to dolphins swimming closer than usual to Italy’s coast to record breaking breathable air in China, let’s embrace this opportunity to pause consciously, learn deeply, and critically rethink our approach to the many threats that face our planet and all who share it. IN THE INTRO: Coronavirus, planetary interconnectivity, and what stillness reveals IN THE INTERVIEW: Pushing the belief button: self confidence on the life path That underlying feeling so many of us have had that there has to be something other than the consumerist capitalist culture we were born into Ayana’s awakening to a life of questioning, seeking, and activism The role of the erotic in meeting overwhelm and hopelessness in these times Burning ourselves out will not save the earth Time plugged in v time in nature and the lie that we’ll be more productive if we’re hooked into technology 24/7 When we slow down, the earth slows down (literally) How the For The Wild podcast came to be (Ayana had no idea what she was doing at the beginning) and how the vision has evolved “My devotion is unwavering, but I’m very flexible with how I understand things” The cultural moment that we’re in is a spiritual crisis Rebuilding consent, trust, and reciprocity Planting a million redwoods and building a living library of species Striving to be successful while also staying small and slow and moving through the world with integrity LINKS: Matriarch Collective For The Wild website The 1 Million Redwoods Project Medicine Stories Patreon (podcast bonuses!) Specific For The Wild episodes mentioned- Dr. Bayo Akomolafe on Slowing Down in Urgent Times, Bronte Velez on The Pleasurable Surrender of White Supremacy and on The Necessity of Beauty, Dr. Max Liboiron on Reorienting Within a World of Plastic, Dr. Kyle Whyte of The Colonial Genesis of Climate Change    Specific Medicine Stories episodes mentioned- Planetary Intelligence, Ancestral Resonance, & the Perception of the Heart w/ Stephen Harrod Buhner and The Boundaries of the Unthinkable are Wavering w/ Charles Eisenstein My Coronavirus Highlight on Instagram For The Wild on Instagram For The Wild Patreon My website MythicMedicine.love  Take my fun Which Healing Herb is Your Spirit Medicine? Quiz Medicine Stories Facebook group Mythic Medicine on Instagram Music by Mariee Sioux (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes) The Overstory (novel) by Richard Powers The Nuclear Family Was a Mistake (article in the Atlantic) by David Brooks  

Dr. Dennis McKenna, PhD is an ethnopharmacologist, renowned researcher, highly sought-after lecturer, and brother of well-known psychedelics proponent Terence McKenna.  He has been featured widely on many podcasts, and in books, documentaries and films including the Joe Rogan Experience, on Brian Rose’s London Real, DMT: The Spirit Molecule, Fantastic Fungi: The Mushroom Movie, and countless others. McKenna's memoir, The Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss retells his experiences and adventures with his brother Terence's McKenna. Dennis has authored & co-authored 50+ scientific publications on the interdisciplinary study of ethnopharmacology and plant hallucinogens.  He is a founding board member of the Heffter Research Institute where he continues exploring the therapeutic uses of psychoactive medicines derived from nature and used in indigenous ethnomedical practices. Most recently, Dennis is working on launching his mystery school, The McKenna Academy of Natural Philosophy, in Peru. This episode was recorded in Costa Rica at Soltara Healing Center. The #SoltaraSeries is a collection of awe-inspiring tales of personal growth and healing from an array of guests and thought leaders. To learn more about Soltara Healing Center visit https://soltara.co/thoughtroom Special Offers in This Episode: → $200 off Ayahuasca retreats at Soltara Healing Center with code THOUGHTROOM. Use link: https://soltara.co/thoughtroom Topics Explored:  > Dennis shares fascinating stories about his first experiences with ayahuasca, over 30 years ago in the early 1980’s > The importance of set, setting and structure for the psychedelic experience, allowing for an individual interaction with the medicine > The “set is the most complicated part of it...because the set is YOU.”  > The novelty of the psychedelic experience and how that can help provide meaning in our lives > Default Mode Network & the Reality Hallucination > Dennis’s psychedelic journey of photosynthesis, experiencing it through the lens of a water molecule being translocated through the roots & osmotic pressures into the chloroplast of the plants  > The Gaia Hypothesis, plant intelligence, the potential fate of human life on earth and the importance of cultivating symbiosis with the whole biosphere   >  Dennis’ legacy and mission to educate people about psychedelics in order to shift collective consciousness > The Experiment at La Chorrera and psychedelic research > Dennis’ legacy and the McKenna Academy of Natural Philosophy   Show Resources: (Book) The Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss - Dennis McKenna (Website) McKenna Academy of Natural Philosophy (Book)The Invisible Landscape: Mind, Hallucinogens, and the I Ching - Dennis McKenna, Terence McKenna  (Book) Psilocybin: Magic Mushroom Grower's Guide: A Handbook for Psilocybin Enthusiasts, Terence McKenna, Dennis McKenna (Book) Botanical Medicines: the Desk Reference for Major Herbal Supplements - Dennis McKenna, Kenneth Jones, Kerry Hughes (Book) Ethnopharmacologic Search for Psychoactive Drugs: 50 Years of Research - Dennis McKenna, Ghillean Prance, Wade Davis, Benjamin Leonen (Book) The Psilocybin Solution: The Role of Sacred Mushrooms in the Quest for Meaning - Simon Powell  (Book)  Darwin's Unfinished Business: The Self-Organizing Intelligence of Nature- Simon Powell  (Book) Magic Mushroom Explorer: Psilocybin and the Awakening Earth - Simon Powell   (Book) The Secret Teachings of Plants: The Intelligence of the Heart in the Direct Perception of Nature- Stephen Harrod Buhner  (Book) Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal Realm: Beyond the Doors of Perception into the Dreaming of Earth  - Stephen Harrod Buhner  (Book) How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence - Michael Pollan  (Book) Eckhart Tolle: The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment  (Documentary Series) One Strange Rock (On Amazon Prime Video-- No longer available on Netflix as of Jan. 2020) → Ayahuasca Plant Medicine at Soltara Healing Center: http://bit.ly/soltara Subscribe to The Thought Room:  Apple | https://tinyurl.com/qp3mqnp Spotify | https://tinyurl.com/wxyzmdw Stitcher | https://tinyurl.com/wrxv39g Connect with Dennis McKenna|  Twitter | https://twitter.com/dennismckenna4 Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/dennisjonmckenna/ Website| https://mckenna.academy/  Connect with Hallie Rose: Thought Room IG | https://www.instagram.com/thoughtroompodcast/  Hallie Rose IG | https://www.instagram.com/hallie_rosebud/ Twitter | https://twitter.com/ThoughtRoomPod YouTube |http://bit.ly/ThoughtRoomYouTube  Website | www.thoughtroompodcast.com  Email | thoughtroompodcast@gmail.com  Sign up for the TRP Newsletter | www.thoughtroompodcast.com  HELP SUPPORT THIS SHOW!  The Thought Room is offered freely and funded entirely by listener support. All interviews are done in-person for better chemistry, more intimacy, and more powerful storytelling. Donations to this podcast support travel expenses and pay for the fees of our podcast hosting platform.  DONATE:  Patreon | https://www.patreon.com/thoughtroom or send a send a one-time gift via Venmo| https://venmo.com/HallieRose  Other ways to support:  SHOP → Want to purchase a book or product mentioned on the show? If you buy anything through the links in the show notes a small portion of your purchase gets donated to the Thought Room. SUBSCRIBE →   Apple Podcasts +  Spotify+ Stitcher +  Google Podcasts  LEAVE A TYPED APPLE PODCASTS REVIEW →   Would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to land prominent guests! (https://tinyurl.com/qp3mqnp) SHARE →  Spread the word! Tell your family, friends and tag @thoughtroompodcast on social media ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Special thanks to Emmy-Award winning composer Kodomo (Chris Child) for allowing us to use his brilliant track Concept 1 as our theme song.   

Melissa Gallico joins us to distill her extensive knowledge of fluoride, why water is still being fluorinated, hidden sources of fluoride, and all of its health impacts. On today’s podcast, you will learn: Fluoride toxicity symptoms, including acne, teeth spots and more. Why reactions to iodine supplements are really fluoride detox symptoms. Why fluoride is still being added to water. Why your water filters likely is not filtering fluoride. Sources of fluoride besides water. Melissa Gallico's Bio: Melissa Gallico is a former military intelligence officer, FBI analyst, and Fulbright scholar to the United Kingdom. As host of the #Fpollution podcast, she follows a paper trail of documentary evidence including declassified government memos, internal industry communications, and legal filings to show how corporate polluters corrupted the science on the safety of long term, low dose fluoride exposure. Gallico is also author of The Hidden Cause of Acne: How Toxic Water is Affecting Your Health and What You Can Do About It published in May 2018 by Healing Arts Press with a foreword by Stephen Harrod Buhner. She has a degree in science and technology in international affairs (STIA) from Georgetown University and a master's degree in international security studies from the University of St. Andrews. You can learn more about Melissa's book The Hidden Causes of Acne, and take her 30 day challenge at Don't forget to tune into her podcast #Fpollution at Are toxic metals causing your fatigue and health issues? Find out by taking Wendy’s Heavy Metals Quiz at

We've got Amina Eastham-Hillier back on the show today. This time around Amina is talking all things Lyme disease. Amina is an experienced Lyme literate naturopath who specialises in testing and treating Lyme disease, Lyme co-infections, mould related illness and chemical sensitivities. Amina is a treasure trove of knowledge in her area's of expertise and today's chat offers a grounded and holistic approach to healing stealth infection and Lyme disease.  Mason and Amina cover: Lyme disease. Health sovereignty and the importance of taking charge of your own health. The multifaceted approach required to remedy chronic health conditions. Ticks - "the dirty needles of nature". Principals of prevention, tips and tricks you can embody to minimise exposure to Lyme and other pathogenic bacteria. Inflammation and gut health. Stealth viruses and the havoc they can wreak. Living in harmony with nature, and that includes viruses and bacteria.   Who is Amina Eastham-Hillier? Amina owns a successful multi-modality clinic in Noosa comprising of 18 practitioners. With over 15 years of Naturopathic and 25 years of Nutritional practice, Amina successfully treats chronic illnesses and complex cases. Amina is a Keynote speaker presenting to medical doctors and naturopaths at international conferences, medical documentaries, TV interviews, radio, seminars, webinars, podcasts and workshops. Author of “Lyme Natural” Amina won the award for ‘Australian Practitioner of the year’ in 2017 and is currently finalising her second book (Chronic stealth infections – Filling in the missing pieces).   Resources: Amina Website Amina Facebook Amina Instagram Lyme Natural Website   Q: How Can I Support The SuperFeast Podcast? A: Tell all your friends and family and share online! We’d also love it if you could subscribe and review this podcast on iTunes. Or  check us out on Stitcher :)! Plus  we're on Spotify! We got you covered on all bases ;P Check Out The Transcript Here:   Mason: (00:03) Hey, Amina. Thanks so much for coming back on and chatting with me.   Amina: (00:07) Oh, you're welcome, Mason. Thank you for having me.   Mason: (00:10) Always a pleasure. I think it was about two years ago that we jumped on, when we were different podcasts by then. Mason Taylor Podcast. We chatted about Lyme, we chatted about mold, mold when just got distributed out. And so everyone in the SuperFeast community has begun to become familiar with you and your awesomeness and I want to continue pointing people in your direction because I've found you always really influential. And watching your Instagram, I love watching you being a practitioner, live and breathe the lifestyle up in your retreat. I love your foraging tips and I love watching all the notes when you go to these conferences, whether it's ... I know you're going to ... What's the conference you're going to this weekend, you're presenting at?   Amina: (01:01) Oh, it's actually in September, but it's in Melbourne for metagenics and it's all on fatigue and looking at intricate details of just what's going on with people with fatigue and why are they not getting better? Looking at a lot of biotoxins and underlying viruses and lots of things. Very exciting.   Mason: (01:26) Well, I just love watching the adventures because you go along, obviously, and attend and upgrade your skills. You can just really tell you're an absolute nerd for all of this.   Amina: (01:36) I do love it.   Mason: (01:39) Yeah. I feel like ... You know, we've spoken to you a couple times. I know how deep you can get into the nuance of the body and testings, and really going after and hunting for the source of symptoms. And you work a lot with people with extremely chronic illness. Right?   Amina: (01:57) Yes, yes. I do.   Mason: (01:59) And we were just talking about the fact, as well, before how when you look down the barrel of either going through western medicine, a lot of people go down that gauntlet and then come out the other side without answers. And then coming into the, for lack of a better word, the natural treatment, going down that route. I can understand why going down the western route is often necessary, of course, but is cozy and comfy because there's this integrated nature where there's a specialist for everything and your doctor will talk to the specialist. On the surface, that's the idea. There's a big web that you know you don't have to think. You're just caught in it. But then if you look down, often, the natural route, the amount of information out there, the amount of conflicting information, of course that's in the western medicine as well but it's that non-integrated web that makes it so difficult at times and you've kind of got to stand up into your sovereignty and be your own hub.   Mason: (03:02) I know I send so many people your way when they're dealing with stealth infection or Lyme, as well, because I know ... I read that at Noosa Holistic Health ... Is that Noosa Holistic Health?   Amina: (03:14) Yep.   Mason: (03:15) Yep. And you were saying how you've really created a hub and how you ask for every single test that's ever been done through the western model or beyond in the natural world and try and create that melting pot. On that, I think it's important for people ... We're going to go into Lyme today. I think it's very relevant in this instance, but know whether we're dealing with chronic illness, whether it's stealth infection, or just a mystery. Finding someone who can create that hub and go and be the detective and be that central point, I just want to know ... obviously, you've created it. I just want to know the extent of which you put importance on that for someone. And then what do you like to see and procure in your patients for them to be able to feel like they have the capacity to start to be that melting pot, themselves, and really feel that health sovereignty while being supported by practitioners?   Amina: (04:21) Okay. So first of all, when patients come in initially, obviously I'm listening for what their main concerns are. And I have a jigsaw puzzle template by my side and it literally has about 50 odd pieces and I can squidge them all around if I need to. And this empty, blank jigsaw puzzle template, I actually start writing everything on and it becomes a full puzzle. And I think that's the main thing for the people to understand when I'm first having consultations with them is that they may come in saying, "Have I got Lyme? Is it this? Is it that? What's wrong with me?" And you can never give one person a definite answer because, the thing is, there are often so many things. So there are many pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.   Amina: (05:19) For example, someone might come in and they think that they've been bitten by ticks or they're not even sure, but they've got chronic fatigue, they've got pain. It might be just random pain, fibromyalgia-type pain or aches. It's often brain fog. Maybe a bit of sweating, maybe not, digestion problems, anxiety, all of the common symptoms that we see that aren't getting addressed with the normal medical models. And we just start putting it together. So I just go through a very comprehensive history and just putting all the pieces. So whether they have had chemical exposure, mold exposure ... I mean, this is a very broad summary of what I do. I think an answer to your question, is that ...   Mason: (06:07) Yeah, for sure. I mean, I guess I almost wanted just to make sure everyone had an insight into the depth and level that you'd want to be able to demand or go and find with a practitioner in order to qualify.   Amina: (06:21) Absolutely.   Mason: (06:22) And then what's the difference? Do you see certain ... the difference between a patient and just some qualities that other patients, you can help imbue in them in terms of not feeling overwhelmed or feeling empowered in the fact that you can transfer? The fact that you, yourself, you've got so many patients, so much stuff going on. You can't hold the constant hub for every single patient. At some point, it needs to bridge over into the patient themself, especially with long-term healing. Right? Is there ...   Amina: (06:53) Absolutely, absolutely. So what I like to do, I think it's really important, if patients want to. Not all patients want this. They do like the practitioners to take charge and they don't really want much information. But I think, these days, it's really important to take charge of your health and have it that each person really understands themself. So that's why I really encourage patients to gather all of your past medical results. It doesn't matter how long ago it was. Get as much information as you can. If you had a stool test with a naturopath 10 years ago, get it. Let's put it all together. Let's see, where did this start? Because of the patients that I'm seeing, they're often very chronic, complex patients that often have so many things going on and that's why it's very difficult for them to go to any one place and get a diagnosis.   Amina: (07:46) So it's really important for us to gather as much information as we can. And if you haven't had past tests, that's great. That gives us a clean platform to go, okay. Well, now we know what we need to do in the way of functional medicine testing as well as working with their doctor and seeing what treatments they may be getting at that time. But I just definitely, I can't express enough how I think it's important for patients to take charge of their own health in a way of just knowing what's going on, knowing what has happened in their body before they got really sick, and understanding their family history, things ... Even looking at genetics can be really helpful, knowing what their sensitivities are and their triggers, and understanding the state of their adrenals and nervous system, and understanding their gut and being mindful of, "Is my gut going good? Do I need a bit of a detox at the moment?" Or, "Do I need a detox from life? Do I need to sort of step back and go and have a rainforest walk or something?"   Amina: (08:56) So just being really mindful of all of the systems. And that's something of a naturopath that I think is really important for us to educate patients so that they know what to look out for and they know how to be their own sort of one-stop hubber and check in on themselves, as well as having the support of the professionals.   Mason: (09:16) Yeah. I just don't think it can be said enough. It's a great reminder and I just wanted to bring that up in the beginning because, at SuperFeast, we get asked so many ... every day. It's phone, email, Instagram, getting so many questions and some of them very gnarly and very deep questions. We don't consider our role to kind of play practitioner, we just don't. We continue to stand in the fact that we're doing tonic herbalism and we are standing for a particular philosophy and lineage. However, we don't like leaving everyone high and dry. And so what I feel like I consistently want to do and for the podcast and having these kinds of conversations, is continue to make distinct ... just that simple nature of ... when you say, "Become your own practitioner," I feel like that's quite loaded because I'm prone to this, then I feel the pressure, and I'm very much prone to putting pressure on myself, to have a level of understanding using similar language, that a practitioner would have in a specialised area, of myself.   Mason: (10:24) And then with that and put a couple of other things on my shoulders that I'm doing in life, it becomes overwhelming and I feel I'm kind of failing at this. I don't know how to manage my own body. I need to continue to rely on practitioners. But what you're saying, I just don't think it can be repeated enough for everyone to remember. If you just gather all that information so you know thyself, you can understand little patterns and your constitution. You get little clues and then put it into language that ... For me, it's been especially useful. Just put it into language for a lay person or just put it into language that's not charged and easy for you to then go take into your kitchen and your lifestyle because, as you said, just knowing. It can kind of seem like it just gets on repeat. And I just want to make sure everyone's listening. Reading your body and your digestion, watching the way that you're pooing, or your nervous system can tell if you can get that pattern to go, "Wow, it's time for a little bit of a walk. Right now, it's time for a little bit of practice...   Amina: (11:21) Absolutely. That's right. And it's just having that understanding. And sometimes, I find when I go through and I put all the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle together, literally, and then the person can see, "Oh, there's quite a few things going on." Not to be overwhelmed at all, but purely just we can see, look, we do need to work on all systems here because all systems are affected. And of course, I'm not saying to be their own practitioner and treat themselves. I'm very, of course, into seeing a professional practitioner that can monitor and help you with the dosages of herbs and so forth and give you the right medicine. But just, I find a lot of people will bounce around from many practitioners to practitioners, different types of practitioners and still not understand the basics of what's going on with their body. If they could see that, they might not be as overwhelmed and see, "Okay, I need some help with my adrenals," or, "I might need to do a bit of a gut detox. I'll go and see my practitioner," be it naturopath, Chinese medicine, integrated doctor or whoever. And we work together.   Mason: (12:34) Yeah. That working together, I don't think it's that rare anymore, but I don't know, sometimes it feels like it. I know that's definitely the biggest thing we get when we're like, "Look, we're really just going to have to encourage you to go and have someone onside, have a practitioner onside." And it can just seem like such a daunting task in the beginning, going and finding someone. But they're out there and if you're on the sunny coast, you know where to go.   Mason: (12:59) So I want to dive into Lyme. And I especially just wanted to make sure I had this resource for everyone in the community who is asking us questions. There's just so much that I can do in terms of saying, "You know, read." I like Stephen Buhner's work. Sending to your website. But I just wanted to speak to a couple of things that come up constantly that I feel will be useful, and especially useful for my team, hearing it from you in this context to pass on.   Mason: (13:37) For those of you that don't know Lyme disease, can you give a little elevator pitch, Amina, knowing that most people will know and there's many resources for people to get the understanding, including your website. But do you want to just give a little brief update for everyone? And especially your current understanding of Lyme infection?   Amina: (13:55) Absolutely. And I must say that my current understanding is just becoming more and more expansive as the years go by. But your traditional textbook Lyme is someone's been bitten by a tick and that tick has given the person an infection of Borrelia bacteria. And as a result, the person gets very sick. So it's a tick-born bacterial infection. That's a very simple textbook example. However, we know that there are ... Now Lyme, I think, has become a bit of an umbrella word. In Australia actually, a lot of practitioners use the term more Lyme-like illness and I think that's probably more appropriate because we don't know exactly what we're dealing with. So there's a lot of different types of Borrelia, not just Borrelia burgdorferi. There's actually a hundred strains or so.   Amina: (14:55) There's actually a lot of different types of Borrelia. We know that this Lyme-like illness is not just caused by ticks. We know there possible are other vectors. There's even been talk of mosquitoes. A study in Germany showing that mosquitoes could possibly be carrying Borrelia. I know there are possible other insects that can certainly pass on very similar co-infections, like midgies, sandflies and passing on things like mycoplasma bartonella, that co-infections that often coincide with Lyme patients.   Amina: (15:31) And we know that it can be passed on by utero. So if a woman's pregnant, she could definitely pass it on to her baby. Doesn't mean the baby's going to have the full on symptoms like the mother may have had. I certainly have seen quite a few different levels of patients. Some people have a positive Borrelia result, maybe even from a couple of different labs, and they really are okay. They're not suffering from a lot of symptoms. And I've seen people that we test and they've got negative Borrelia and it's not being picked up. Doesn't mean it's negative, but in the blood, the urine, and serum. And they've had lots of tick bites, lots of rashes.   Amina: (16:13) So it's a very broad umbrella term. But generally, I feel that now what we're dealing with when we're talking about Lyme-like illness ... the technical name is actually borreliosis because of it being from the Borellia bacteria infection. However, I think we just need to look at the facts that there are a lot of ticks and a lot of other biting vectors in Australia. We know that the ticks carry many bacteria. So rickettsia, ehrlichia, anaplasma, bartonella, which is a cat scratch disease as well. And we also know that Babesia, that's a very common infection in kangaroos and wallabies and is a similar infection to mosquito malaria.   Amina: (17:08) And recent studies just last year have come up with Australian ticks ... The one study, they had 21 viruses that they actually found in the ticks and they were actually affecting penguins down south of Australia. But in the studies, they weren't so sure if these particular viruses are going to affect humans, which is a very kind of, I think, controversial subject and could be. So the point is, the ticks are also carrying a lot of viruses. In fact, in this particular study, two of the viruses hadn't even been discovered. No one really knew what they were. So they're pretty yucky things. Hence, we call them nature's dirty needles. Ticks, they really are a bit of a problem.   Mason: (17:57) So just back to a couple of things. So you were talking about vectors, the possibility of passing on Borrelia by utero. And I think we got asked this question just after the mold podcast that we'd put out. It was one of the reasons I thought we've got to do a specific Lyme podcast, because someone was asking in terms of whether it can be sexually transmitted or via saliva.   Amina: (18:22) I'm not sure via saliva. I, from a practitioner perspective and upon conversations with many other practitioners from Australia and overseas that deal specifically with Lyme, I'd say clinically, anecdotally, yes. It can be passed on sexually, considering it is actually very similar. It's a spirochaetae bacteria that's very similar to syphilis bacteria, which is passed on sexually, of course, and very similar way of presenting within the body. Like, the initial syphilis, you'd get the canker sores and Borrelia, you may get the erythema, target-type rash. May not, as well. And then the symptoms can flare up for a couple of weeks or so and then, maybe, be a little bit dormant for a few months and flare up. That can happen with the syphilis for sure.   Amina: (19:16) So I think, yes. And why I think this is because I have seen families that we have tested the whole family and the mother might think she got it from the father for some reason. And upon testing, they all do have it. And the father or the mum says, "I've never been bitten by ticks or not to my knowledge." And then the children have it. So that has happened on a number of occasions. So I would say, yes.   Mason: (19:44) Yeah. Okay. So going back to the dirty needles of nature. Obviously, we were talking about the simplicity before with understanding patterns of your body so you can read your body and take very simple actions. And then you accumulate an incredible amount of benefits through taking ownership and responsibility. I think what's confusing, definitely has been for me, is just the simplicity of that. You get lost in just how potent that small accumulation of practicing that, what that can do for your health.   Mason: (20:20) In relation to Lyme, I think it's definitely worth something not being paranoid about, yet being extremely vigilant about, especially in the east coast of Australia, where we're at. The same as east coast of America and all these places where, obviously, you just need to be very real and not stay in your little box in your concrete jungle and be unrealistic about the fact that you live within gnarly nature and there is the possibility for many vectors to come and bite you. So in terms of just basic principles of prevention, have you got some just quick tips for people to embody into their lifestyles when they are camping or when they're foraging, as you do?   Amina: (21:07) Absolutely. I live out in ... I've got acreage. So every day, I go for a walk through the forest. And with my dog and I sometimes go through long grasses. So of course, the first thing is to make sure that you check yourself for ticks when you get home. So I recommend people wear light clothing if they can and then you can see the ticks. And whenever I've gone for a walk, which is pretty much every morning, I just strip off and just get straight in the shower and those clothes end up going in the wash. I also check my dog, as well, because my dog is running around with me and she does get quite a few ticks, but we get them quite quickly.   Amina: (21:48) So just be mindful of that. If it's a hot day and you've got a bunch of clothes, you're not sure ... because it's a lot of washing, otherwise. If you've got a bunch of clothes, you're not sure, it's a hot day, just put your clothes in a suitcase in the car. The ticks aren't going to survive in the heat of the suitcase. Or put clothes in the dryer for a few minutes. But definitely, you just need to check and be diligent about ... and just know, just check all over your body or your nooks and crannies.   Amina: (22:19) I mean, I have had quite a few tick bites and, of course, I go straight in with my herbs, my echinacea and my astragalus and garlic, anyway, because I actually am taking my regular immune herbs and vitamin C every day. So I'm keeping my body healthy. So I think it's important to just be healthy, as well, of course. It comes down to diet, all that sort of thing. I mean, that's the extreme, walking through forests and long grass. If you're just going for ... You need to get out. If you're just going in a park or something, just be mindful. There's lots of places you can go where the grass is short. Tuck your pants into your socks sort of thing and just enjoy. I think the benefits of being out in the nature and out in the fresh air is so helpful for your nervous system and immune system, anyway. At the end of the day, you have to live. So this is really important.   Mason: (23:22) And it always helps to have ... Well, I like using those tick-specific tweezers, having those around when you get the ...   Amina: (23:29) Oh, yes. For sure. Always have good tweezers and you can use things. There are some sort of ... People use citronella and sometimes even a little bit stronger that they can spray onto their clothes, but I think if you're going to brush up against a tree or something like that, that's when you're more likely going to ... if you're brushing up against plants and if you have animals, because animals will bring ticks in the house. So you take your boots off in the house and go and make sure you have a ... get in the shower and just don't be sitting around on your bed sort of thing with your clothes that you've been out in the forest with. Things like that. Just be really diligent.   Mason: (24:08) And in terms of if you do get a tick bite and you remove it, are you a fan of popping on dragon's blood? Any little myths that you want to bust around what you should be doing, topically?   Amina: (24:23) I actually use ... I've got a medicinal throat spray that's got sage and thyme and echinacea and I actually spray that on the bite.   Mason: (24:34) That's a great idea. Yeah.   Amina: (24:38) I think if you can use your herbs, topically, I think something like good-quality manuka honey is really good. But otherwise, just keep an eye on it. I mean, if you're going to get bitten by these sort of types of insects and ticks and mosquitoes, you just need to be mindful and just keep an eye on it and make sure it doesn't come up in a rash. If it does, then you take further precaution. And, yeah. There's not really anything more I would put onto a tick bite, no.   Mason: (25:10) Yeah, great. Just those little things to add to your culture. That's what people, over the years, when I ask ... I always get curious when people have all the herbs. And living in particular areas. Astragalus, for a lot of people, they're like, "Yep, in autumn." And then if I get a tick bite, comes up quite often that they ... just as you said. A little echinacea, even just getting a little bit of manuka inside of you, but they'll take a big does of astragalus, as well, if they have a tick bite.   Amina: (25:39) Absolutely.   Mason: (25:40) Just as a little precaution.   Amina: (25:41) Absolutely.   Mason: (25:42) And mushrooms, as well. I mean, you can get the shiitake, maitake, reishi's, and chaga's in and give it ... because there is going to be, at the time of consuming medicinal mushrooms and the beta-glucans they do in astragalus, as well. They're going to get into the bloodstream and you're going to see, most of the time, a direct impact on white blood cells and natural killer cells and macrophage activity. So that's the other one that always comes up.   Amina: (26:08) Absolutely. Definitely. I've been using some medicinal mushrooms in my clinic recently. So just some new formulas and I'm just finding, yeah, the benefits are really awesome. I think it's great. Anything you can do to boost your immune system up, but definitely the shiitake, ganoderma (reishi), and so forth are really definitely helpful and part of keeping the immune system as strong as possible.   Mason: (26:35) Yeah. I think we've got to make sure we stay in touch for when you really dive into the medicinal mushroom literature. It would really be good just to jump on and have a jam. Maybe at that point, that's what we can do when I get up to the sunny coast and I can come and visit you up there. Is it just called Hillier Retreat?   Amina: (26:52) Yes.   Mason: (26:52) Okay. I'm coming to visit you up at Hillier Retreat and we can go have a forage, because you've got ...   Amina: (26:56) Absolutely.   Mason: (26:57) The mushies up there are incredible, especially because obviously, being tropical, you can even find the tremella's snowflake mushrooms.   Amina: (27:06) Oh, yeah. There's so many. It's actually fascinating. Every day when I go for a walk, I find new mushrooms and it's just because we've got a lot, there's tree's fallen and it's just the perfect environment. Oh, it's just amazing.   Mason: (27:21) Can't wait. So then the other time we get a lot of questions, so probably the most for us is people writing to us and saying, "I've just been bitten by a tick," and they're not used to it. They haven't been in the shrub much and so ... But then after that, we do have a lot of people writing to us, whether it's themselves or their children, identify that it's been a tick bite, possibly, because I know that the rash or the bullseye esha is, I think ... what is it? Like, 60% of the time or something like that, that that..?   Amina: (27:52) Different statistics. I've heard anywhere between 30 and 60% of people will get a rash. And if you've been bitten on the scalp or some nook and cranny, you're not going to notice a rash. And don't forget, some of the ticks are so minute, they're nymph, the size of a pinhead, the baby ones you're not even going to notice. You wouldn't even know. You'd just rub it up with a towel and you might not be aware of having one at all.   Mason: (28:22) So just to help us consolidate our advice or if we're going to refer people to this podcast, what would be those first steps? What would you be looking out for symptomatically and what would be something that you'd go, okay, now you want to actually turn your head to that and knock it on the head?   Amina: (28:39) Okay. So if you know, yes, there's just definitely been a tick or a tick was attached, you might not know how long it's ... If it's just literally crawled on your arm and you feel it attached, just take it off and it's not likely going to have passed anything on too severe. But we don't know how quick. The bacteria has to actually be passed on through the tick's hypostome, it's little, pointy sort of appendage that sticks into you. And it needs to be really actually feeding in a proper feeding moment for the bacteria to release from its stomach. So depending on how long the tick's been on you, just get the tick off as quickly as easy as you can without squeezing the tick.   Amina: (29:27) Then, just be mindful. So you could certainly put any sort of antiseptic or a lot we just said, topically onto the bite. And then I would boost up with vitamin C. I would definitely boost up with those herbs. What to watch out for, if you do get a rash, then I would be more than likely, if you get a specific bullseye rash, I probably would recommend just go to a doctor and get a couple of weeks of Doxycycline, at least.   Amina: (29:54) If there's no rash ... Sometimes it can just be a bit red and puffy and swollen. Lymph glands swell up. It could just be a normal sort of allergy reaction to the tick because that can definitely happen. So just keep an eye on symptoms and, at this point, I would definitely be boosting up those herbs. Your anti-spirochete ones, so your astragalus, echinacea, as we said. Siberian ginseng, for example. Garlic ginger, which I would recommend you get the practitioner support with that, with the dosages.   Mason: (30:27) Would you put cat's claw in there, the uña de gato ?   Amina: (30:30) You can, but it's very difficult to get good quality cat's claw in Australia, right now.   Mason: (30:36) Yeah, you know what? I stopped stocking it because of that.   Amina: (30:40) Yeah, it's very difficult. I would love to be ... I did use it a lot, but I haven't been able to get it for a good couple of years and until I know that my quality sources that I get it from are available and I'm not really trusting any other ones. But there's plenty of other herbs. Andrographis is another beautiful one for these initial infections.   Amina: (31:02) So definitely, prevention is better than anything. So boost up on the herbs, anyway, and just be mindful. So that infection, you might not get any symptoms but, if in the next couple of weeks, two or three weeks, you do get some flu-like symptoms, I would go and get tested. As in, go and get checked with the doctor and just get checked. Things like rickettsia will come up quite quickly. You might need to wait about six weeks before the tests will actually show anything positive in those early stages, but I think that's a good cause for, if you have all of those symptoms, the rash, feeling not so good, lymph glands up, and then you get the flu-like symptoms, a bit of fever, it could be not necessarily Borrelia, it could be rickettsia, it could be a bit of babesia depending on the symptoms. So therefore, I would get onto it. Boost the natural packet treatment with your practitioner and you may need to go on antibiotics.   Amina: (32:05) I say this very open-mindedly that there is a place for the antibiotics, of course, for traditional medicine or conventional medicine. And we can work together on that. So I think if that is the case, otherwise, if it's just a case of, "I've got bitten and now I'm okay a few weeks later," you've been taking your herbs, eating well, resting, and nothing really flares up, I'd say that you're probably okay, but just be mindful of those. It's the symptoms that come up like the aching joints, the knee pains that, "Mmm, didn't have that before," and you haven't been running or anything in particular, to know that there is an ongoing infection. And it's really ... yeah.   Mason: (32:56) I assume it'll be similar symptom presentation in children?   Amina: (33:00) Yes, but children often won't explain exactly what's going on, but you'll know. I mean, a child might get fevers. You'd know that. The glands are up, maybe. And if they're young, they'd probably be crying a lot, feeling very uncomfortable, irritable, not feeding so well. The stools might be a little bit loose, showing there's systemic inflammation that's affecting the gut, as well. Rashes, doesn't have to be the bullseye. A bartonella rash can be almost like stretchmarks on the body. Any sort of rash, I think, needs to be dealt with.   Mason: (33:37) Yeah. And that was, when I got bit ... I think we've spoken about it. I mean, for some people might be new here, my interest was really spiked. And it was three years ago, and I got bitten by a tick, but it was very micro and it stayed on me for about three or four days and we just didn't catch it and we thought it was something else. And it was at that point, it had been feeding because it became engorged. And at that point, now I understand, oh, that's when you really got to watch it, when that engorgement has occurred there can be a transfer of bacteria. Got it out and then we were a few months away from having a baby and then I went down, the esha presented. "Okay," kind of kept on going. Kind of like, I don't know. I don't know if it was just because I was just so healthy and was just like, "Right, cool. I'll charge through this." And then after a few days, started getting fevery and started getting aching through the joints in my right hand, somewhat in my knees.   Mason: (34:33) I'd listened to enough of Stephen Harrod Buhner. You can't listen to him or read his books without coming across Lyme quite extensively. So I was like, "Right. I kind of know what this is." And so at that point, in came the andrographis, the high dose vitamin C's, a lot of astragalus and all that. But it went on for, I think it was seven to ten days it went on and I just continued to deteriorate in fever and just couldn't get out of bed. And then I was listening to one of Stephen Buhner's podcasts and he was just reiterating that, at that point, this is when you ... He's teaching about antibiotic resistant bacteria now, running rampant as many awesome herbalists are. Yet, he's like, "At this point, that's when doxycycline is going to be very useful for you to knock it on the head," and I was just in that position. I definitely had that solid belief that I would never be turning to anything like that for the rest of my life, but yeah. That one Monday night, I was deteriorating thinking, "Geez, we're having a baby soon."   Mason: (35:40) I'm at this point, and this is what I want to discuss with you next, I'm at this point where it's possibly able to be dealt with on a surface somewhat level, on acute or subacute level. And I obviously want to ensure that these bacterium aren't able to really dig their way into my system to cause that long-term infection. And so I did. I went Monday night to the emergency in Byron, showed them the rash because, here, they're a little bit more open minded. They were like, "Oh, yeah. We know what that is. Here's your doxycycline dose." And I know a lot of people have been turned away. However, I know a lot of doctors in emergency rooms have turned people away. So I'm not sure if you have any advice there on what they can ask for or say, but that sorted me out in 24 hours. And then I just continued to maintain that protocol of completely supporting my immune system and my nervous system for months. My whole lifestyle was that, but high, high doses of these herbs for quite a few months to get it out.   Mason: (36:44) But, yeah. I think it's nice to hear that that's the advice that's still standing, still quite nice and simple...   Amina: (36:53) Yeah, I think so because I've seen patients that, for example, they may have been bitten by a tick in California or in Germany and, straight away, they went to a doctor and they were only given maybe two or three weeks of doxycycline or similar. That's the main one, antibiotic. And even just taking it for that very short period of time did make it help their body, but they didn't end up getting a full-on chronic Lyme symptoms, have that go on for years and years. And how long you take it for is really dependent on the patient because some patients, in those acute times, may need it for quite a few months, that particular antibiotic and other antibiotics. But I think if you can just get in there as soon as possible and the herbal medicine, then you've got a really good chance.   Amina: (37:48) And we can sort the gut out later. We can deal with the side effects of the antibiotics and we can work on that. It's better to, I think, initially do that. And some people can't take antibiotics, it's as simple as that. So therefore, we have to just do the herbs. But this is in the real acute, black or white, yes, you've got it. There it is and we need to deal with that infection. I think it would be negligent to not have it treated with the antibiotics and using the herbs. So when I see patients that are ... most of the patients I see that are more chronically Lyme, then it's a different story. I do feel it's a different story than if ... It's questionable whether the antibiotics might help them at that point if they've already had it for two years, also, it's like, mm, okay, that's where I probably would go more herbal medicine, but I'd go in very gently. I don't go in with the hardcore antibacterial herbs at high doses, whereas I would with the acute Lyme.   Mason: (38:54) Yes. I mean, well that's ... Chronic Lyme seems to be, whenever I see anyone explaining the fact that we will have herxing reactions as you're removing infection from the body or busting up open biofilms, it's always Lyme disease that's used as the example. "Such as in Lyme disease..."   Amina: (39:14) Yeah, absolutely. And it's very important to ... it's almost two disease, acute tickborn infections and treating someone that has chronic Lyme that they may not have even known whether they ever had a tick bite or anything but ... they may have a positive Borrelia, they have all the symptoms and then we need to treat it. That's when it becomes a beautiful example of how naturopathy can help by putting all those pieces on the puzzle and treating that person holistically. And if you don't treat all of the systems, if you miss out treating the adrenals, they're going to stay tired. If you don't detox them properly and work on the liver, they're not going to eliminate those lipopolysaccharides, the dead bits of the outer shell proteins of the bacteria upon killing them.   Amina: (40:05) And inflammation has to be addressed at all times. The gut's got to work well every day. Every part of the body needs to be working at its best. When I talk about the jigsaw puzzle that I put together, there's so many factors then in chronic Lyme that are pieces of the puzzle then. It's not just about, yes, someone got bitten by a tick. Now we're looking at a full piece of toxins, mold, so forth, and the viruses.   Mason: (40:37) Well naturally, because your immune system and your energy levels, your hormonal cascades are going to be out of rhythm during that time if you've had months or maybe years of chronic infection, as well. Right? So naturally, just on the back of that, not to say that there was stealth infection or stuff going on beforehand. Naturally, it's going to come into a ... And it often seems like a perfect storm. I've met a lot of folks, especially around area, had long-term chronic Lyme and they're exhausted from the treatment protocol. I've never seen more of a bit of a jadedness towards how much they need to do and keep their finger on the pulse to get well, when it is extremely chronic. Do you feel like by bringing back a little bit more flow in the sense of understanding the puzzle, understanding how the holistic nature of what phase we're in of treatment and also what the consistent pieces of the puzzle, as you were saying, got adrenal liver. Of course, they're going to be primary. What's your take on managing the mental load and the emotional load of that whole treatment protocol?   Amina: (41:50) I think it's important to ... When we talked earlier about just taking charge of your health, you don't have to be knowing what to do, you just need to be understanding what's going on. And then work with someone that can put it all together. So for example, it can be quite simple. I can have someone with many, many piece of the puzzle. All those heavy metal toxins and genetic, MTHFR and pyrroles, and the mold exposure. It's all along there.   Mason: (42:29) All the trendy things to get diagnosed with at the moment.   Amina: (42:32) Yeah. All of those things. The tooth infection, the mercury fillings. It's all on there, you know?   Mason: (42:38) You know what? Maybe a bit of SIBO. I know that's pretty hot right now.   Amina: (42:41) Absolutely. SIBO. They've got adrenal depletion from stress that they've had. Usually, there's a period of time when they've had stress. So there's often many pieces of the puzzle. And then we need to sort of put it simply. And simply, I just look at the systems that need, basically, support. So diet. Diet alone can be amazing just to help the person with a personalised diet that's going to work for them. So making sure that they've got enough iron, enough vitamin B-12 for detox methylation, enough protein, amino acids for detoxification again, and neurotransmitter support for their nervous system chemicals.   Amina: (43:30) And diet, I think, is such a ... obviously, it's a really important part, but I think it can be so overwhelming in itself for people of what they should eat. "I've got histamine sensitivity and salicylates and oxalates and ..."   Mason: (43:44) Yeah. I mean ...   Amina: (43:44) It can be very overloading. So I think just bringing it down to really simple, a simple basic diet, simple vegetables, and understanding what works for that patient and what doesn't, because everyone's different. So I think that the diet is the most important thing and reducing any sort of inflammation triggers. Obviously, alcohol, coffee, the basic things that would be better to reduce or eliminate if possible. I like to use anti-inflammatory herbs to reduce inflammation because inflammation is going to make everything worse. And stress is going to make inflammation worse. So we've got to also work on the nervous system, the adrenals for the adrenal support.   Amina: (44:35) So in answer to your question of how do we put it all together, I think was what you were asking, is just looking at it and it just really needs to be simplified. Even looking at the liver and make sure the person is detoxing well. Well, you know, it's a case of how you feel when you eat. Do you feel nauseous after you take your B vitamins? That might indicate that your phase two detox pathways aren't working so well. You're not able to tolerate garlic of sulfurs or ... What's going on? Is there methylation problems? We can actually look, by understanding the symptoms, what may be going on there and offer that very basic liver support that might be just a case of having the right amino acids, proteins. Having some tumeric, some broccoli, sprouts. Making sure that maybe a bit of N-acetylcysteine might help just with ... obviously, we're trying to boost the Glutathione and make sure that the liver is doing its job. I love St. Mary's thistle for hepatoprotection and just to help the liver naturally do what it is supposed to do.   Amina: (45:38) So it's just about looking at the areas that really need the most addressing. And symptoms of things like brain fog and memory and focus, concentration. That can just be often due to inflammation. So often, just having some anti-inflammatory support. tumeric, amazing. chamomile, calendula, fennel, marshmallow, beautiful herbs that will support gut and inflammation can actually reduce those symptoms just by working on reducing the inflammatory markers.   Mason: (46:11) So a couple of things that are coming up. In previous conversations, we've honed in to certain explanations of particular issues using Classical Chinese terminology. And there's one thing I feel like, really, when I've gone down the depths of trying to understand naturopathy and that pathway and tried to ... I know for yourself, as well, I know the immense amount of success that you're having, which is incredible and I feel like, although I get the conversations from people who are in that exasperated state when it comes to not just naturopathy, but all doctors and all the different things that they're trying, and so I always try and not focus on that but really try and find out the key things that are, what's up? What's going on that lead to that exasperated state where someone can't really get on top of it? Hopefully, get through their symptoms and then get on the mend where they have that health sovereignty.   Mason: (47:14) Something about the way that you talk about all this, I was trying to figure out why I feel comfortable and why ... Dan Sipple, I don't know if you know him. He's a naturopath down south of Sydney.   Amina: (47:25) Oh, yeah. Yeah.   Mason: (47:25) Yeah. So he's a good friend of mine. Our personal naturopath, but especially working with my mum. He originally introduced your work to me and he really liked your stuff, as well. I think there's a nice bridging there. Not that you can merge systems. I definitely don't think we can merge and lay over Classical Chinese medicine with naturopathy, but there's something that flows in when you talk that you don't so much purely sit in that, "All right, what's the symptom? Bang. Here, slap this protocol on." There's a looking, and maybe correct me if I'm wrong, but there's a looking for somewhat of the pattern that's leading to the pathology with a particular person and then a desire to understand what's constitutionally going on for them, which leads to a bit more of ... And I know that's the theory a lot of the time in naturopathy and that's the theory of, now, modern, traditional Chinese medicine which has deviated from the classical nature and deals with symptoms, but I feel like theoretically what they say they're doing and what's actually happening is two different things because, and quite often, what's in the way is living it as a way of life.   Mason: (48:38) I feel like that's kind of what I feel is there's a bit more flow with the way you're talking about this and possibly why we see you getting such high success rates because there is that little bit of extra time in order to identify what that underlying pattern is, not just focusing on the shiny thing that is the symptom or the pathology.   Amina: (49:04) That's exactly right. And one thing I'd like to bring up is what I'm doing a lot of work with at the moment, are the underlying causes of why are the people not getting better, or why they ... Sorry, that's my dog out there.   Mason: (49:21) That's all good.   Amina: (49:22) Beautiful Jessie. Why people start getting better when they start working on their bacterial infections, but then other symptoms arising and it's viruses. We're just not paying enough attention to the underlying viruses. And I think this is something that I'm really doing a lot of work on and I'm ecstatically excited about because I'm realizing that, when I'm working on the viruses with the patients ... For example, someone in their jigsaw puzzle, they had Epstein Barr virus, glandular fever, when they were a teenager. And they had immunoglobulins tested. So it would come up IGG. So, yes, they had that Epstein Barr virus virus a long time ago. The IGM may not be coming up, sort of active antibodies, but they're still presenting with funny sweats and aches and pains. And this is almost like new symptoms and we know that, with borreliosis and a lot of these Lyme-like illnesses, symptoms do move and change.   Amina: (50:29) So looking at it, when you look at the person, you realize they had Epstein Barr virus, they've still got active herpes, or they had cytomegalovirus. Oh. And when we test, they actually had Ross River virus or Dengue fever comes up a lot, Barmah Forest. Coxsackie virus, which is your mouth, sort of your hand, foot, mouth disease viral thing. And what I've realized is that upon further testing ... There's a lab in Germany that, ArminLabs, that's actually looking at more detailed Epstein–Barr viruses and actually seeing that, even though a person had IGG antibodies, they're actually coming up with high levels of lytic Epstein–Barr virus within the cells. It's not the latent Epstein–Barr virus, which shows that basically the virus is now almost reactivating.   Amina: (51:25) Now, viruses are not like bacteria. They have their own DNA or RNA, but they're not like bacteria. They have their own organelles. The virus needs to get into a living cell, be it a red blood cell or a bacteria and it uses the cells organelles. So it needs to use our own cell organelles in order to replicate. So if a virus is in a system that maybe that person's not massively healthy or they have low levels of mitochondria, which is your energy powerhouses of the cell, or the cell is not very sort of full on effective at that time, the virus will just sit there and hang out until the cell is more nourished or ready. Or the virus will go and find another cell.   Amina: (52:20) Now what happens is, say the person starts dealing with their chronic Borrelia infection or their other bacteria, their gut dysbiosis or parasites, then it's like almost when the person starts getting a bit healthy, then the viruses will start replicating.   Mason: (52:38) Oh, god. It's so ...   Amina: (52:38) This is what's going on now and that's what I'm feeling is a big area. And I know that there are quite a few other, specialist practitioners that deal with chronic fatigue and retroviruses and things like that. There's a Doctor Dietrich Klinghardt in America that's looking a lot at retroviruses. And I would have to agree, because this is what I'm seeing, as well. And I think being mindful of that, we need to make sure that the person also has viral support and that we understand and the patient understands what's going on. Because otherwise, what happens is they take herbs and go, "Oh, yeah. I did this, but it made me worse." you know a full on Herxing that's not being dealt with because they're not detoxing well or ...   Mason: (53:29) Yeah, sorry to cut you off there, but it's really poignant and I feel like it brings up a position where I've sat with so many years, having essentially given people access to tonic herbs and to these medicinal mushrooms and then educating them as much as possible about appropriate ways to integrate these with intention. But then when you get these questions about, "Well, this is presenting and this is presenting, what's happening to me?" it is only so far and I feel like I like presenting five or six different options of what's possibly going on. And the nature of saying it's a detox reaction or it's a herx has, seemingly over the last few years, seemed too simplistic just to put out there. You know what I mean?   Amina: (54:22) Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yep.   Mason: (54:24) And so just hearing this, it's just further bridging for me. I never expect them to be simple answers that come forth when people get clue ... there's always a chance that a herb isn't for somebody, which is always the first that I like to put forth. And as well, also, doses being too large at a particular time.   Amina: (54:48) Absolutely, absolutely.   Mason: (54:50) So that gets presented first. And then going on to what comes down the line, which I ... and the general attitude, and I can feel it in you and I feel it as well, is, "Well, this is bloody exciting because there's something going on here." And just hearing that nature of, "I'm getting better," but then, bam, I just get another hit in the face and then I go down again to some new symptoms. That trap, that loop when you are working purely symptomatically and you're not going for that underlying pattern. Or in that sense, you haven't figured the pattern that the reason there's a backlog or a bottleneck within a person who's, because phase two detoxification isn't actually able to occur and because they gut these and actually were able to eliminate, that I feel like ...   Mason: (55:39) The word that's coming forth, which you are using in a practitioner mindset, which I feel can very easily be transferred into someone's everyday life before going and looking for solutions from one herb or looking to find the exact reason why you are reacting positively or negatively, seemingly, to a practice or a herb or whatever it is, is you can bring in these very sensible ideas of looking at what is the pattern that your body is going to need to be supported in in order to basically stop that bottleneck of symptoms from occurring? Or even the bottleneck of positive effects from a herb.   Mason: (56:21) If you take a herb, as far as I'm concerned, you don't necessarily want to be feeling waves of energizing and vitality straight away. It shows that there was maybe a little bit of a deficiency.   Amina: (56:33) Yeah.   Mason: (56:34) So that level of sensible nature, that seems like that and you kind of ... I don't know if you feel it. I know I try not to feel dismissive in this nature when I talk to people and go, "Look, back off. I want you to be really making sure that your gut, your nervous system and adrenals and liver," you hit on them before, it's where I land, as well, "are absolutely running on optimal and are optimised so that you can possibly eliminate any of the reactions from occurring in the first place." That's the ideal situation. But sorry, I just wanted to touch base on that because I feel ... I'm going to have my whole team, especially the team who I'm chatting to customers, just listen to this so we can get a bit more context of how to communicate it.   Amina: (57:23) Sorry, what were you wanting me to ...   Mason: (57:25) Nothing. I just stopped there. I didn't even ask a question. But I did interrupt you when you were in the middle of talking about what's going on, just after you were talking about the retroviruses, that I interrupted you there. But either I can go on with another question or is there any more of that? Because this is super interesting and [crosstalk 00:57:48]   Amina: (57:47) Oh, there is so much more. I think it's just something ... Our science, at the moment, we just don't know enough about the types of viruses. Like I said, the tick study that just came out last year showed that the Australian ticks have 21 viruses. There's studies showing that estimations of ... We have 320,000 mammal viruses that are present in our current world and possibly more, but that's just based on looking at different types of animal genre and looking at the types of viruses that might be specific to them. And it's an estimation, but I think it's a reality.   Amina: (58:33) And you think about a virus, a virus is the size of a pea compared to a bacteria that might be the size of a watermelon, compared to the size of a red blood cell that would be the size of one of those giant gym balls. So a virus is a tiny, micro, micro, microscopic thing, yet it can be so powerful. I think the whole looking at the retroviruses that mean that the viruses are either RNA or DNA. And the retroviruses, they start off the single-cell RNA strand virus into a cell. They can actually, as I said, use the cells organelles to replicate itself, but they can actually, change themselves to become DNA-type viruses and they actually change the DNA of the cell, because when that cell that now is full of this active virus that's changed itself, and it's now using the human cell's DNA, now when that cell replicates it actually has already some of the viral DNA or RNA within it. So it actually is changing us genetically.   Amina: (59:48) And that's actually not a bad thing because, environmentally, evolution, we need viruses. We need viruses. We need retroviruses to change us for evolution. It's normal. That's been happening for thousands of years, but it's just interesting. I think, at the moment, due to the way we are, our toxic bodies, electromagnetic radiation, all the chemicals, glyphosate that's being used. All of that stuff is actually exacerbating this growth of the retroviruses. That's the problem.   Mason: (01:00:25) Mm-hmm (affirmative). I'm really happy that you brought up the necessity there of just the fact that we are sharing an environment and we are co-evolving with a virus, because it does bring up that reminiscence of when germ theory was really rocking and we're still in the medical model trying to destroy bacteria and can conquer bacteria when bacteria is, in fact, a part of us and the origins of our cellular matrix that is our ancestors and likewise. We, to an extent, have been evolving and have the possibility of living in harmony with viral loads that'll have that mentality of going to war. Never really going to ...   Mason: (01:01:14) If that's the entirety of your mindset towards it, it's never going to allow you to get into what the Tao and what all these ancient philosophies were talking to was to start to get into unison with nature and with the elements. And that's where those basic principles can come about to ensure that you are not overexerting yourself. If you can take the years, and years, and years to not ... you need to alter your lifestyle so that you find yourself being able to come predominantly at the world, I'm really working on this myself at the moment, from a parasympathetic space and ensuring that you are getting your beautiful amount of sun exposure, walking and moving consistently, remaining hydrated, a diet that is working for your constitution and your intuition and is somewhat simple in that nature and not shrouded in dogma, then you've got those basic patterns and principles that will hopefully allow you to get back into unison with nature. And then we have our little tests and our supplements and our things that we can take to help us compensate for the way the world is going for as much as we possibly can.   Mason: (01:02:27) So that, to an extent, these bacteria, these nasty viruses, perhaps we can slightly get back into a place where we are living in harmony or able to have our own cells and immune system be able to manage them so they don't lead to chronic illness. And it always comes back to that simplicity.   Amina: (01:02:50) It is really about living in harmony. Sometimes I feel like I just want to sort of say to patients, we really need to accept the fact that everyone is going to have a lot of chronic stealth infections. We have up to two kilos of bacteria in our gut. We need bacteria to survive. [inaudible 01:03:15] bacteria beneficial and commensal and then you disbiotic when it gets out of balance. And of course, like I've mentioned, the viral role is an evolution thing. It's not something we can stop. Viruses don't all necessarily have to be bad, but if the body is not in balance, that's when the viruses will affect ... There's a lot of bacterial viral interactions that go on and I think this is what gets missed in these chronic patients. It's not just the fact that they have underlying viruses that haven't been treated. It's the fact that the viruses are now coinciding with the bacteria and actually ...   Amina: (01:03:58) For example, there's direct interactions like influenza, just your normal flu virus. When it comes into contact with, say, a staphylococcus-type bacteria, like staphylococcus aureus, for example ... and there's been studies proving this. The influenza virus, it's like a big sort of ... well, it's not, it's tiny, like a round shape and it has lots of appendages, like lots of sticky things sticking out of it, like lots of sort of protease is what they're called, like these cleavers. And the staphylococcus can actually make the viral appendages split. So therefore, say the virus has a hundred little arms coming from it, it splits them so it now has 200 appendages. So it has more ability to cling onto the cell wall that it's wanting to attack or to intrude.   Amina: (01:04:59) So the bacteria actually help the virus when it's first initiated into the body to survive. And other ones, like your herpes virus, can actually cause an immune suppression type environment that actually can lead to ... I think there's a gingivalis type bacteria that specifically, if you've got herpes and you've got that particular gingivalis bacteria within the mouth, they're actually going to work together so that the virus can actually survive a lot easier. [crosstalk 01:05:35]   Mason: (01:05:35) Mm-hmm (affirmative). So amazing. I don't know. I find that really fun. I find it really exciting. Kind of reminds me just not to be a snowflake with the fact that there are so many opportunistic organisms around us and it's not because they're bad, it's nothing evil, it's just ...   Amina: (01:05:57) They just want to survive, but we're all trying to survive. Everyone's doing the best they can, including the viruses. And at the end of the day, I think we're almost ... What I was saying I'd like to say to patients sometimes is that we almost energetically need to make these are friends and we really need to love our body. And that's where it comes down to. It's a very spiritual aspect, I know, but loving ourselves, loving our body, accepting what is and just allowing the balance to occur. Not neglecting oneself, but in the best environment you eat well, you breathe well, you sleep well, you eliminate well, you'd be outside, be mindful, be in nature, do all of those things that you can do to create optimum holistic health. And then because the viruses are going to do what they're going to do and the bacteria's going to do what they're going to do, but we create an environment that everything is in balance and in harmony and no one takes the mickey because, otherwise, they become opportunistic in that toxic environment.   Mason: (01:07:03) Yeah, it's like having a bunch of delinquent children sometimes inside, but. And I really appreciate ... We'll bring this home because I know you've got stuff to do, but I really ... having off the back of a conversation that's so practical and in reality, and shrouded in testing and understanding exactly what's going on and which organ systems need to be supported in order to come back to optimal within 3D reality. I 100% agree that, at that point where you mind feels comfortable, that you're moving and you're on top of that, then going in and reestablishing your relationship with yourself and the viral and bacterial and everything else loads that, within you, can often ... I've found it to be often one of the keys. Obviously, there's many keys along the way that will get people over a particular hump.   Mason: (01:07:53) And I feel ... I guess that's ... It especially brings up ... I have a friend who does a lot of this work in reestablishing your relationship with the entity of even wifi and 5G. And if you are just doing that and that alone and not being real about what's actually going on on a cellular level, that possibly can be wishy washy, some of us are strong enough to actually ... and I think we can agree upon that just with that reframing can reestablish a flow of Qi and self function in order to bring some protection. But most of all, what it does is it allows us to move forward without an identity that is derived by opposition. When we are opposing our bacteria and we're in opposition to viral load and opposition to this sick state that we're in, we create a massive glass ceiling in what's possible for us to go forth in our emerging identity.   Mason: (01:08:52) So I really appreciate you bringing that up. Thank you for that, Amina.   Amina: (01:08:56) You're welcome. Thank you.   Mason: (01:08:58) I think we've got a couple more. We could probably have a whole ... After you've talked in September, it might even be nice if you'd be up for coming and sharing on an even deeper level what you're discovering and excited about with these viral infections and these ...   Amina: (01:09:16) Definitely.   Mason: (01:09:17) ... retroviruses. I think, of course, it'd be really fun. And then dive into the mushrooms. And when I get up there, we'll have a deep dive and have a nerd-out on that world of mushie love.   Amina: (01:09:28) That'd be

November, or Brovember as we like to call it, is all about our men's health at SuperFeast. Today we're thrilled to have our good friend Dan Sipple back on the podcast. Dan is absolute gem and wealth of information in his field of natural medicine. In today's chat Mason and Dan discuss the importance of men's hormonal health and outline the diet and lifestyle factors men can embody to keep their hormones primed and rocking.  Dan and Mason break down: The male hormonal cascades. The importance of brain and cognitive health in regards to male fertility. The influence of diet and lifestyle on healthy hormonal function. The two simple pillars of hormone health; Sleep and Breath. Testosterone; the amazing hormone. Detoxification and reproductive health. Genetic testing. The connection between abnormally high iron (ferritin) and male infertility.  The role zinc plays in the conversion of androgens. The damaging effects of chronic inflammation in regards to hormonal health. Naked sunbathing and vitamin D3. The herbs that stimulate and antagonise androgens.   Who is Dan Sipple? Dan is a also known as The Functional Naturopath who uses cutting-edge evidence-based medicine. Experienced in modalities such as herbal nutritional medicine, with a strong focus on environmental health and longevity, Dan has a wealth of knowledge in root-dysfunction health.   Resources: Dan Instagram Dan Email Benny Fergusion - The Movement Monk The Dutch Test - Carrie Jones Podcast with Tahnee The Wildcrafting Brewer Book by Pascal Baudar SuperFeast Deer Antler  SuperFeast Ashwagandha SuperFeast Eucommia Bark SuperFeast Cordyceps   Q: How Can I Support The SuperFeast Podcast?   A: Tell all your friends and family and share online! We’d also love it if you could subscribe and review this podcast on iTunes. Or  check us out on Stitcher :)! Plus  we're on Spotify!   Check Out The Transcript Here:   Mason:  Hello everybody, we're welcoming back our good mate Dan, Dan Sipple, functional naturopath, how are you going man?   Dan Sipple:  Mate, I am fantastic today, how about you?   Mason:  Yeah, I'm really good. It's a nice sunny day down there, nice sunny day up here, we'll get into why that's significant and important if you're a man, you're going to be very happy at those points when the sun comes out. Thanks for joining me for Brovember here at SuperFeast focusing especially on this pod, going through some very important aspects and elements for men's health, men's physiology, things that, it's just going to be great. As they say, "They should teach this in schools," because it would actually be useful for us to understand about our hormonal cascades and our physiology going forth.   Dan Sipple:  Absolutely, and it's exciting. It's an exciting time to be alive and loving all the information that is just coming through right now in our amazing little world of natural health and how that can affect hormones and we'll dive obviously deep into all that stuff today I'm sure.   Mason:  Yeah, I think it's great as well. I really like this time of being alive as well, because we've gone through the extreme deconstruction of what's going on with health, and including lifestyle and dietary kind of fads that have been reduced to their parts. Likewise, of course we've learned a lot about the body through a reductionist western model, which can even sometimes cross over into naturopathic thought, but then it's synthesising and emerging, and just a real blossoming time where it's kind of coming together and being able to come into harmony in a lifestyle long term that doesn't make you feel like you as a person, in working on these things, need to reduce aspects of your lifestyle to work on them necessarily.   Mason:  Of course there's going to be areas where we put our focus upon, it's a very important thing for men to be able to do and then the aspect of men to able to have laser-like focus on something we're working on. That's when men can quite often in health scene loose themselves and we see that in many areas of dietary faddiness and going, that focus takes us right down the barrel of dogma or down the barrel of something like the more of the extreme bio-hacking kind of scenes, where we remain compartmentalised in our day, or our supplementation, or our diet.   Mason:  I think now we're seeing that the emergence of us being very aware that we have a foundational personal culture, lifestyle that mingles in with our family and our community and how can we sculpt an integrative lifestyle that's going to lead to these various markers, these various hormonal cascades and processes to be naturally nourished and able to function and regulate themselves, just through us living our lives, right?   Dan Sipple:  Absolutely, and I think people, men and women are just.. It's A time in the human existence where it's like we're feeling it now. People just know that there's something not quite right, and obviously being a naturopath, I'm a little bit biased because I'm seeing a lot of those people, naturally. But I think I read a study a couple of weeks ago that was saying something like men in even the 60s and 70s had just such a higher grade of production across the board of testosterone compared to men now. And it's a scary thought. I think I read in the same study something like by 2035, the rates of infertility in males is just going to absolutely sky rocket should all the factors, which disrupt that sort of cascade continue to be at work.   Mason:  Boys, let's learn how to not become just another statistic, take control of your sovereign health and hopefully end up with nice healthy levels of testosterone. Of course we'll have a little bit of, I guess that will be a little bit of a pillar. Where we go is you take us through the entire hormonal cascade from upstream, right through the middle of the stream, to downstream and then I feel like, you will of course go into this physiologically, but lifestyle wise, how that downstream is then ... We talked a little bit about it if we are a microcosm, in the macrocosm here where, and we have the reflection of nature within us, of course it isn't just upstream to downstream and then you get your results. What's going on downstream is very much going to evaporate and emerge and go right up to the top of the stream and affect our ability that, you know those kingpin aspects of our health.   Mason:  So, with that lets start jumping in. Was it the hormonal cascade in general and just the nature of that and the process of that do you want to take us through primarily?   Dan Sipple:  Yeah, I think it would be good just to do a little refresher on the actual physiological side of it, just to give focus on a bit of a mental picture. And if there's anything the guys take away from this today, and girls, it's that, just not to focus on male hormone production at the area of the downstream like you said, the testes and the adrenals. And to really factor in how important brain health is, and cognitive health, because that organ itself is the master commander, it's commanding that communication down to those organs to say, hey make testosterone mate, make DHEA et cetera.   Dan Sipple:  And that all starts from two hormonal chemicals, I guess you call them. Follicle Stimulating Hormone FSH, and Luteinizing Hormone LH. So they're speaking down to the leydic cells in the testicles to say make hormones, make testosterone and they operate like many hormones do on a bit of a feedback mechanism, a negative feedback mechanism. So for example, if testosterone down at the testicular level is adequate, FSH and LH back off in men and in women respectively with testis and ovaries.   Dan Sipple:  Likewise, if the production is low, those at the higher end in the pituitary LH and FSH will spark up and start screaming down at those organs to say, make more hormones, make more hormones. And there's a lot of things that we'll get into that can disrupt the communication between those two vital organs. So I've got that going on and then in terms of the steroid pathways, that's another kind of area that you weigh into the equation with regards to how cholesterol from the diet then gets transferred down into hormones like Pregnenolone and Progesterone, and across to precursors to testosterone and oestrogen like androstenedion. And again, things can go a little bit haywire during that conversion if there are other factors that play such as things like stress, acute infection, illness, a plethora of things, different herbs as well will affect the destination. Ultimately those signals.   Dan Sipple:  But essentially, we're starting at cholesterol and we're wanting to get down to progesterone in men and females. What can happen as a bit of something in between those two, an interruption if you like, is we call this the pregnenolone steal, and there's still a little bit of controversy around that in our field on whether it's actually a thing. You'll read a lot about that online and whatnot. The theory is that cholesterol starts and if it doesn't reach progesterone, pregnenolone comes in and diverts that signal down to cortisol, which is the stress pathway, and away from testosterone and away from oestrogen and away from DHEA, which for men and females are all the hormones responsible for making you feel strong, resilient, able to recover, confident, et cetera.   Dan Sipple:  With today's level of chronic stress and inflammation, a lot of hormonal panels when we look at them in folks with different stuff going on, will show that they've got a lot of production going down that cortisol pathway. It's being stolen if you like, hence the phrase the pregnenolone steal.   Mason:  And so, let me know whether you want to just go through the full range first to give us an insight, or whether you want to just start diving in there, because that seems like one of those critical physiological points. And when you're talking about stress, we've kind of gone through the stress model before in a podcast, but clinically, was it the pregnenolone steal? Is that what you said?   Dan Sipple:  Yep.   Mason:  So at that point, when you say chronic stress, you're talking about a diet that's going to be causing high amounts of inflammation and you're generally going to talk about a lifestyle that's going to keep you within the variations of a sympathetic nervous system, rather than being able to get into that deep parasympathetic.   Mason:  This is something interesting because clinically we see it a lot of the time and we hear it again and again and again, being banged on about getting out of the stress response and making sure you don't have stress in your lifestyle. But then, of course that's kind of a reductionist view in itself in terms of it's like a light switch and when it's on, you're in sympathetic and you're stressed and you're running away from the tiger. And we are boom, we turn it off and now you just happen to be relaxed.   Mason:  I feel like there's more and more, the conversation in men's health and women's health as well is coming to the various nuances and the personal relationship that you have with the reality of what a parasympathetic state is and what being able to approach the world in a way where you're nervous system isn't running a rye, your amygdala isn't throwing up past fears and memories that are then affecting your HPA axis and therefore taxing your adrenals. There's so many different nuances and because men are so focused and love to hanging on to things especially in processing mentally things, it's like all right, now I need practices that switch it off, turn it off and get me into this static thing that is a parasympathetic system.   Mason:  So, I'm just interested in some of, just clinically of course you're bridging people to try and get some protocols going, where they're maybe meditating, maybe doing something like a yin yoga or generally just coming back to their breath daily in order to really approach life in kind of more a balance between that yin and yang. But have you got any kind of tips or insights in terms of how we're going to deal with that stress without it being a reductionist conversation?   Dan Sipple:  That's a big question, I like it. I'll say first of all, the first two things that I always try and dial in, sleep and breath. Sleep and breath. It's that simple. If you can get a male, take a tradie for example. I see a lot of tradies down here. High pressure, they have to be able to exert authority on the job side, they have to be able to cope in that environment, and the ones that can't, usually leave the trade, from what I hear.   Dan Sipple:  But getting them to dial down from that, that sort of level of activity once the day is over, and just getting them doing this simple stuff like I say, if you can just do one minute, if you can do 60 seconds, where you can take literally eight to 10 breaths only, to get down to that level. That done daily as soon as you get home. So go outside, strip off your clothes, get you bare feet on the grass, sit down, let the sun hit you, have a chamomile tea or something like that, that's just going to take that edge off, probably the worst thing to do, which a lot do, is just go and smash four or five beers, and that's [crosstalk 00:11:30], because they want that [inaudible 00:11:31]. It's understandable, they want to come down. But we'll get into why that's not a great idea down the line.   Dan Sipple:  Breath and sleep, just dialling those two in. And sleep is something that so many people, I know I've banged on about this in the past, but I find people get it right and then they drift away from it and they forget that they got it right, and they slip back into old habits and they become really hyper-focused on the supplements and the weights and the diet and all that, but they forget the sleep. And I'm guilty of it 100%, I put my hand up. It's always something that I'm constantly trying to reel back in. I don't know about you, but it's something that I just find, if it's out of whack, there's no point even trying with the other stuff. That has to be first and foremost.   Mason:  I mean it's an interesting thing because you're right. And men are quite often, and then generally going to be those kinds of people that you give them an inch and they'll take a mile. And so, if you treat sleep and having somewhat of a subtle breath practice or even throughout your day where you can come into noticing your breath and allow that noticing without agenda to be the precursor for your actions, so in that awareness of the breath, you are leaving space for a non-stuck in the mental state, or non-stuck in an over identification with the physical to take place. In that space when you're just observing the breath. You then have an ability to have a noticing of what's going on with the mind and what's going on with the body and therefore there's less division and there's less as you said, that focusing on the thing which the mind tries to do. I'm going to do these weights to heal this problem, I'm going to do this ...   Mason:  So when it comes down to, there is, although that stuff is fun, you're never going to be able to go past the chop wood, carry water practice. Now if you really think about that, rather than it being just another thing, great, I'll take on that practice of chopping wood, carrying water and just doing that mundane for the rest of my life ... I was talking to my acupuncturist about it the other day and he was just like, and I was like, "Yeah man, that chop wood, carry water, I'm really working on it, but it can be really fleeting at times." And he was just like, "Listen mate ..." And my interpretation is we have such a privileged world, where we don't actually have to do the chopping of wood and carrying of water, but we do have to go to work every day, we need to be working on our homes and our cars and things that keep us going so that we can have the wood in the warmth and the material for us to live in this house and the water.   Mason:  Normally we're thing like actually chopping wood and actually getting up and carrying water and bringing that so we have something to drink, but now we're doing it in different ways, but it's the same thing. Keep ourselves warm and sheltered with chopping that wood and ensuring that you always have water to sustain life and cook with and prepare everything that we rely on water to do.   Mason:  That, because those practices are as methodical and slow and Yin in their repetitiveness as they were, they're very dynamic, naturally we need to lean a little bit more into the intentional nature of there are things like chopping wood, carry water, if you think about doing that for the next 40 years, this is what my acupuncturist was talking about, classically trained, worth mentioning, not modern TCM style. Is that, you're doing that for 40 years, of course along the way you are going to have some big pops and big insights and it's going to be moments of enlightenment, which of course the whole nature of chop wood, carry water is to release that enlightenment, otherwise you will be stuck in that place. And then, if you look at the majority of it, it's going to be very mundane, very boring, and very repetitive.   Mason:  But the nature of that is so beautiful in what it's going to do if you're going to accept that, and realize it's not always going to be bells and whistles. All of a sudden, the simple act of chopping wood and carrying water and coming consistently back to the breath and back to your practice daily, if that's one minute or if it's back to that practice of that discipline of screens down, creating that beautiful sleep environment, absolutely prioritizing bedtime, and if I can't prioritise, be able to get to stay up and stay asleep the next morning.   Mason:  We all have kids, a lot of us have kids, a lot of us have hectic jobs and social lives. But that chop wood and carry water, I think at the essence of this men's health message, that needs to be respected and honored, even if you're standing solid in your Yang. If you look at the Yin and Yang symbol, there is always going to be that place where you can stand with the Yin, within the Yang to ensure that, that is there and present so you don't have these hormonal stealings, which are going to lead us, this generation being dramatically lower in testosterone, and basically emasculated, right?   Dan Sipple:  Totally, and that's the thing too. How many males do we know that over train and spend too much time if you like in TCM terms, in the Yang, and just burning that furnace, I've got to lift weights and I've got to smash it and I've got to do this and do that. And I've got to make so much testosterone jacked up, and this and that. And it's like yeah, do all those things and that's cool, but fuck, regenerate man, get that sleep, get that breath dialed in. You have to regenerate, you have to dial in to regenerating, otherwise, let's face it, it's when you sleep that you build your testosterone and your growth hormone.   Mason:  In your blood, right?   Dan Sipple:  Yeah, and your blood.   Mason:  It's in your blood. That's kind of what I think, women are so, women are more sensitive to it because women are way more prone to running low on blood. Women are running on blood. We're running on Qi generally, and so it's a little bit, because we're not bleeding every month, it's a little bit harder for us to become deficient in blood, but it comes up and bites men in the arse, it's a gradual thing, but when you're over-training, over-ejaculation, overworking, in your mind excessively, you can go for so long. But then eventually bit by bit, you're chipping away at that blood and that Jing and ultimately when you look at what's going on hormonally, you're chipping away at the efficacy of these pathways and so you're going to end up in a place where you are deficient and it's not going to be a supplement, and it's not going to be a training session that's going to be able to turn that back on, build that blood back and actually restore the ability of these pathways.   Dan Sipple:  Mm-hmm (affirmative), 100%. And I want to make it clear too to the men listening. I'm not saying don't do all these things, we're not saying don't go and lift weights, and don't try and optimize testosterone, because I still think there's a lot of shame politically around that today, which I really want to see dispel. I hope this doesn't come across the wrong way, but I feel like, especially in naturopathy especially, there's a lot of focus on female hormonal health and it's totally acceptable and it's not even thought of twice for a female to want to optimize her estrogen and her progesterone and regulate her cycle and yadi, yadi, yada.   Dan Sipple:  As soon as a male wants to build up his testosterone, I feel like there's a bit of a stigma there still in some circles.   Mason:  You know who kind of cracks that with Stephen Harrod Buhner. He was totally in those herbal scenes going, "Hang on, we've got this huge apothecary full of phytoestrogenic herbs that are absolutely incredible for women's hormonal health." And we've got really nothing driving androgen, no herbs driving androgen, basically androgenic herbs. And then when he brought pine pollen, and that book on pine pollen that I think he supported or wrote, but he just championed it.   Mason:  Because he's such a gentle man, I feel like it was accepted, and he begun the process. But you are right, if you are taking pine pollen even to an extent ashwagandha, deer antler is probably the biggest one where people associate it with, of course maybe not in this community as much, but very much generalising. But you're right, the stigma is there, you're a boof head for wanting to, "You want to jack up your testosterone do you? Yeah, Good on you." In order to develop Shen, far out. In order to continue to grow our personality, emotionally, spiritually going deep into the ether of ourselves in order to become better humans, better men, you absolutely require that baseline testosterone optimisation.   Mason:  I'm with you, and it also comes down to the way that men approach it. There's no other context rather than, all right, you know we're going to like get, I just want to jack up my testosterone, I don't know how that connects to everything else. The only association with it is to become "more manly" and therefore that has a glass ceiling on its usefulness, right?   Dan Sipple:  Totally, yep. You nailed it, and that's another thing I really want to highlight too in that context is that don't just think of testosterone as my testosterone is up because I'm horny, because I feel like I'm keen and I'm good to go. Na man, bone health, you need to [crosstalk] testosterone, and immune function you need testosterone. Cognitive health, brain health, sleeping well, recovering, all that sort of stuff as well comes into that amazing hormone, which is testosterone.   Dan Sipple:  And I say to a lot of patients too, our physiology and our genetic demands and our DNA is, it sounds really harsh, but it does not give a shit about what's going on today societally. It doesn't care that we've got food problems and government problems and this problem and that problem. It's demands are exactly the same as they were seventy years ago, and you have to serve that. I'm sorry, you have to recognise that, and the sooner you do and start getting things back to simplicity like it's referring to, chopping your wood and your carrying your water. They're metaphors, but the audience, and I know exactly what you mean by that. Stripping things back to that simplicity just so that as a man you are serving your physiology and you're not putting things into your body and putting practices around your environment which affect that.   Mason:  So, just to kind of finish up on that, that stress conversation. I feel like it's a good point. If any guys, they feel like they're really rocking their physical practice in terms of, in that aspect of men's health, whether you feel like it's, whether you're lifting weights or you're running or whether it's MMA or whatever. If you've got that kind of side rocking and you're really loving it, you want to make, then you want to have like a more integrative practice in a way of training and practicing, approaching life from that parasympathetic place so that you can widen your cup, so that cup can hold more of these androgenic hormones and testosterone.   Mason:  My man Benny Ferguson has that really, really great programs, you can get in touch with him to see what might be ideal, but whether it's the tension release programs or in body flexibility or whatever it is, there's some really beautiful practices and you can hopefully find something there for yourself and as well, connect to the breath outside of dogmatic or, not that they're all dogmatic, but sometimes you don't want to enter into another clique. You don't want to go into a different style of yoga, you don't want to go into a different style of soft martial art. You want to just be working on your pure physiology and connecting to your breath and there's many people doing that in a way that's not just based on cues and rules of what it should look like to get good output. Many people are doing that, but Benny happens to be the one that I work with and I think he can be a really great resource for a lot of people, he's a beautiful man.   Mason:  So that stress, I think we've kind of really hit somewhat of a core of that ability to not maintain a life that's not philosophically stressful in the way that you approach it. Is there any other aspects of the pathways you want to go into before you jump into cholesterol? Otherwise, I want to really hear your two sense on it.   Dan Sipple:  Just touching back on that cascade we got kind of from cholesterol to progesterone, if all things are going well, then across to Androstenedione and then again if all things are still going well, across the testosterone ultimately.   Dan Sipple:  An important thing to look at there is, and it gets a little bit tricky, but I'll try and break it down, aromatase, which is an enzyme which influences or encourages the conversion of testosterone down to estradiol or E2 in men and female. And the really neat thing is when you do a DUTCH test by the Precision Analytical Company-   Mason:  That's not [Carrie] is it?   Dan Sipple:  That's Carrie.   Mason:  Dr. Carrie Jones, so that's for men as well, did you say?   Dan Sipple:  Totally, yep.   Mason:  That's cool. That was a great podcast that Tahnee had Dr Jones on. All right, great. We will put that in the show notes, so-   Dan Sipple:  She is a weapon. If anyone hasn't followed her yet on Instagram Dr. Carrie Jones, she's amazing.   Dan Sipple:  There's certain compounds that are going to influence that conversion, but ultimately if you're a man, obviously you want to keep it dialled in at testosterone, you don't want to lose that to a conversion process down to oestrogen, which inflammation, excess body fat, high insulin. So if you're getting too much carbohydrate and refined sugars, you'll influence that. Alcohol is a classic one that's going to encourage testosterone to convert down to oestrogen. And-   Mason:  A man's drink.   Dan Sipple:  That's right, exactly.   Mason:  Beer made with the most oestrogenic herb on the planet-   Dan Sipple:  Can't be-   Mason:  [crosstalk 00:25:47].   Dan Sipple:  What do you mean? That's right. Guys, beer, we have alcohol and we've got hops in there, double whammy, not so good for your testosterone.   Mason:  Yeah, but it's so delicious.   Dan Sipple:  I know.   Mason:  I think that's a nice thing, we'll bring it home in the end. We'll talk about, really, I can't stand having a rule based approach, not allowed this, not allowed that, so it's like ... My gosh, I can't wait until natural androgenic beers starts actually hitting the market. It's going to be the most incredible revelation and this is going to pop it for men that, Hops is literally, I think literally the most oestrogen forming herb that we have on the planet, and the man's drink not only you have like a shit load of beer, you're going to have excessive alcohol in the system, which is going to help, it's going to ... Is it an antagonist for aromatase?   Dan Sipple:  It encourages aromatase. So aromatase, you want to inhibit it ideally. So I think like zinc, grape seed extracts-   Mason:  Nettle root.   Dan Sipple:  Nettle, you've got damiana, [inaudible] and those sort of things, will inhibit that conversion, that enzyme. But yeah, androgenic beer, man.   Mason:  Yeah, pine pollen beer with no Hops, no grain, it's going to be the best thing. Everyone can go and get, and then start making their own with Pascal [Boudet 00:27:12], I think I've got my French-   Dan Sipple:  Have you done it before? Have you experimented with-   Mason:  We don't have that kind of crazy time, we try every now and then, [Tahnee] and I try to, we're kind of working our way back into being in the kitchen where we can get really fermenty again. We've gone and done the workshop with Pascal, where we went and foraged everything we made. We made a beer with few different types of sages and reishi's and fermented limes and a shit load of mugwort in order to bring out that bitterness. I've had a lot of natural beers and it's just like, it's watery, it doesn't have that oomph and punch that a beer normally does. But Pascal, I think he's the wild brewer, anyway ...   Mason:  Pascal is, we'll put the notes for the book down there. He's got a wild crafting brewer, or something like that, and he can teach you how to make these natural beers and you can just go and put pine pollen in there. You can either use SuperFeast like Deer Antler or we'll go to China Town and get deer antler slices and throw that in there to the fermentation process. Then you're kind of working with something, and you're working with an androgenic beer, but the way he makes them, he gets the flavour profile and he gets that meatiness that you need to hit the spot.   Mason:  So we started with aromatase and we went off to beer, but that's natural.   Dan Sipple:  That's all good. And then additionally into aromatase, there's another enzyme called 5-alpha reductase, which can also push testosterone down to its more potent form, 5-alpha DHT, which is also known as dihydrotestosterone. I think there's still a little bit of debate on whether you want to limit that conversion or whether no, You actually do want some healthy degree of DHT, which is the more potent androgen form of testosterone. I think there was a bit of a stigma because of the association and literature around BPH, Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia, and that being associated so they say, with higher DHT, dihydrotestosterone.   Dan Sipple:  We'll get into further, but that's essentially what I wanted to kind of just bring to light, the cholesterol conversion, and then once you arrive at testosterone, if all is going well down that cascade and that chain, keeping it there, rather than letting it go to those other hormones which we don't really want too much of as males.   Mason:  In terms of like the estriol or the estradiol.   Dan Sipple:  Yeah.   Mason:  Okay.   Dan Sipple:  And cortisol too. Yeah.   Mason:  Where does the cortisol come into it? Is that in the pregnenolone steal?   Dan Sipple:  That's right, so that's backup the chain. So that's before it gone across to testosterone, so it starts at cholesterol. You want it to get down to progesterone and then skate across from progesterone to the androgen pathways, but between cholesterol and progesterone, pregnenolone is kind of in the middle there and that can divert it if you like, down to the stress pathway...cortisol.   Mason:  Okay, cool. Well, let's go up and let's start breaking it down a little bit. So cholesterol, I think by now most people should know, but if you don't know, is the primary ingredient for the creation of hormones. Backbone of creation of hormones, so that's why you see a lot of people getting very passionate about having the inclusion of cholesterol in saturated fats in the diet, especially back probably a decade ago. It was like a massive kickback on a wider scale from those low fat diets and the 80-10-10 diets. 80% carbohydrates and sugars, 10% fats, 10% protein.   Mason:  And even in a lot of vegan and raw circles, as that kind of got to it's height, you saw a lot of endocrine disruption occurring and it kind of, a lot of it came down to the fact that no one actually had the backbone for the creation of hormones and then naturally that affected the nervous system as well. So, now it seems more of a normal conversation and there isn't that, even on a cultural level in Australia at least, there's not as much of championing of low fat diet.   Dan Sipple:  There was.   Mason:  Yeah, I don't even know whether the Healthy Heart Tick, I don't know whether that institution of dieticians is ever going to budge. But I don't know where you're at with your knowledge, [crosstalk 00:31:26].   Dan Sipple:  I don't even look at what they're doing anymore Mason, to be totally honest with you. It sometimes comes up in a conversation with a dietician or around the traps, but I try and shy away to be totally honest.   Mason:  But this study from Sanatorium told me-   Dan Sipple:  You've got it. We digress.   Mason:  All right, so what have you got to say on the cholesterol front?   Dan Sipple:  Well look, I see a lot of people on plant based diets and a lot of people on the flip side, that are doing close to carnivore diets. So I see them both. I think it's important to highlight that the body is a machine and a weapon and it will do its best to serve you no matter what diet you're doing for a time. In the plant based realms, I can hear people going, "But I get plenty of cholesterol, I have coconut oil for this, and I put coconut oil on that, and this and that."   Dan Sipple:  There's going to be a time where that supply, that kind of constitution and life force will start to dry up, eventually, that's just inevitable. And that can be argued til the cows come home, but I see it, I see it, I see it. And I've felt it before too, where you lean more towards those plant based diets and then you feel what it's like when you return back to a diet where you're getting lots of different saturated fats and mono unsaturated fats from different types of sources, plant based and animal sources, and you feel that return, you feel that gene come back and that neuroplasticity and whatnot.   Dan Sipple:  But look, I just encourage people to not over do it either, there's a big ... I feel like there was the plant based movement but then even now with all the carnivore madness going on at the moment, there's a big kickback to people and ketogenic diet, just going crazy on fats and ending up with all these bile issues and digestive issues, which we've gone into in the past as well. So it's a sweet spot. It's like anything, you have to hit the sweet spot. So long as you're doing things like macadamia nuts, avocados, a bit of coconut oil, grass fed beef, if you can get it, venison and deer, especially the men, trust me the next day your body will thank you for it, you know what I'm talking about, when you first wake up in the morning.   Dan Sipple:  But yeah, did you have anything that you would like to add there mate, with your take on that?   Mason:  I agree, just get out of the labels, if you can challenge yourself, it's one thing because I did want to talk a little bit about the fact if throughout this conversation, if there is someone that is really feeling like they've broken out of the dogma of like a vegan or raw kind of style of things, but they're still walking that lifestyle, just make sure we're hitting little points to enable them to maintain as best as they can a healthy cascade. In that sense, the best you're going to be able to do is just continue to hit those plant based fats, especially making sure you're getting an array of macadamias, avos, coconuts, any others that come to mind there?   Dan Sipple:  I probably wouldn't do any more than that. I think in that scenario, you then want to look to your herbs because as long as you're getting the backbone there, which is cholesterol, it's the rest of the process that you have to worry about on a plant based diet, and that's where the herbs can really help influence, maca is fantastic, maca is one of my favourite herbs. Couldn't speak more highly of that for men and female. That's always going to help men and female detoxify those more toxic types of oestrogens. Any oestrogenic kind of reabsorption that you're going to get through the enterohepatic recirculation, which sounds really complicated, but it's just essentially oestrogen getting broken down on its way out for excretion, but then due to certain gut bacteria, getting recirculated and popped back into the system. And ultimately, that can keep you in an oestrogen dominant state.   Mason:  All right, let's quickly hit that for a second, because we're looking at, I talk a lot about liver support and liver supporting herbs ongoingly, being present for women to ensure that their endocrine system remains healthy. Somewhat the liver, somewhat this is an analogy, but being like a conductor in terms of this gets broken down, this gets recycled, that's out, this is going to be reused, nope we want to keep that in circulation, and also just keeping those phases of detoxification open and present, so that then you don't get that bleed over of toxins and to an extent, I think even to the extent like toxic hormones bleeding over into the sex organs. There's a lot to do, from what I understand with women sexual organ issues, but for men as well, really, really key core to ensure that you're not getting these bleed overs of especially oestrogen [inaudible] into the rest of your system.   Dan Sipple:  Well that's right, because even if you've got good detoxification, even if your liver and gall bladder and your bile is all doing a fantastic job at getting that stuff broken down and packaged up in a nice little package ready for excretion, but then it gets down the large colon and then it hits disbiosis and you've got certain overgrowth of species known to basically unpackage that oestrogen, break it all back down and then guess what, it gets reabsorbed through the gut wall, then suddenly, it's back into the blood stream and back into the liver.   Mason:  So we've got a couple of things. We've got like a huge amount of time, but just in terms of what you like seeing included in the diet, we've got a couple of things in helping that through the intestines, we're going to make sure that we don't have disbiosis occurring in that area, so men maintaining a thorough awareness of their gut health. And then on the liver health in just ensuring that those detox pathways through the liver as well as the bile flow is going. Some basic recommendations.   Dan Sipple:  Totally, so I've got things like Schizandra, we've got globe artichoke, we've got-   Mason:  We're looking at the liver right now?   Dan Sipple:  We're looking at the liver right now, from the top-down. Those things are going to be usually as well as helping the liver, helping you stimulate bile. Bile is so, so important there, that's like washing crap through your liver and getting it down into the bowel for excretion.   Dan Sipple:  To your point though, just to hit that off on the head, binders are the important thing to prevent that recirculation. So we're hitting the charcoal, we're hitting Chlorella, zeolite if you like, I'm not such a fan of zeolite, but those first two are my faves.   Mason:  Why aren't you so much of a fan of zeolite?   Dan Sipple:  Zeolite, from certain studies I have looked at, can potentially bind up good minerals as well, and for that reason, and I've seen that happen too. I've seen people do it for too long and end up really depleted across the board, in terms of their micronutrients and trace minerals.   Dan Sipple:  It does do a good job of getting rid of the crap, but it can take out some of the good too. So something like, I tell people, always do your binders right before you go to bed, away from food, away from supplements. Do it as the last thing. So, a tall glass of water with some charcoal or some Chlorella thrown in there, make sure they are good quality.   Mason:  What about the clay side of things? As I said I generally sit, not like one back from the intensity of zeolite, even charcoal, I can't really handle every day because it's just too dehydrating for me, and I kind of feel like it has that same approach. Whereas clay's seem a little bit more gentle.   Dan Sipple:  Clay is something I have had less experience with, so you're probably going to be a little bit more vast in its ability to do that. But it does definitely fall into that same category. I definitely consider that before I hit zeolite.   Mason:  Yeah, okay. Cool. And then maintaining that liver health is something I feel like those staples. MSM is something that I'm still absolute thorough fan of, is that something you're still comfortable with men having?   Dan Sipple:  I do like it. It is very sulfuric, so people on a high protein diet that are already getting too much sulfur, all that have certain snips or SNPs or genetic variations on certain enzymes that predispose them to accumulating sulfur, have to be careful with that one. That's why it's always good to test them and check that stuff out before you just go gnarly on detoxing and those sorts of things.   Mason:  Do a genetic testing?   Dan Sipple:  Genetic testing is good, yeah. Mm-hmm (affirmative). Good old 23 and me run it through a genetic converter, find out if you've got enzymes like the CBS enzyme, that's to do with the transsulfuration pathway. But look, generally speaking, I see it do good things, it's excellent for joint mobility, I know I'm preaching to the choir here anyway, but, yeah. Back to you.   Mason:  Keep the inflammation down as well.   Dan Sipple:  Totally.   Mason:  And then with these things, the reason I like having these conversations because we get into the nuances of particular herbs, nuances of particular mineral supplements like MSM, and if something doesn't have a nuance, and it's just like a broad statement and it doesn't actually have room to move and breathe with all the different constitutions and genetics and tensions we have. Then it's marketing, you're not looking at it deep enough.   Mason:  Okay, so great. Keep up the Schisandra, globe artichoke probably milk thistle falls in there as well, it's like a here and there kind of like ... Helping herbal aid. And then getting down into the digestive system, like binders is just something I'm going to ... You know binders and clays, are in the Shen Nong original Materia Medica, as one of the original tonic herbs. And so we have the reishi's and the eucommia's and the schizandra's and the shatavari's there, within these ... Over 2000 years ago and thousands of years of pouring in, humans, men and women, herbalist and shamans like looking into what's going to be the most life enhancing, life procuring tonics from minerals, animals and plants and mushrooms, that you're going to be able to include in our diet longterm, and there's four different clays in there, that fit into that tonic herbal system as a mineral herb.   Mason:  So, it's something that I don't see as a treatment of myself daily, I see it in that kind of, the way that you see indigenous humans, birds, primates, going and sorting out the clay deposits or finding like here in Australia, the those termite mounds that are high clay, and every now and then, just popping a little bit of that through your tract in order to bind, to not just toxins in the environment, but metabolic waste that occurs just in general.   Dan Sipple:  Which includes hormones, yeah, totally.   Mason:  Which includes hormones. All right, beautiful. Now-   Dan Sipple:  Can I just chime in there Mase.   Mason:  Yeah.   Dan Sipple:  You've brought up a good point. While we're talking about detoxing the liver, and inflammation and whatnot, oxidative stress, iron is such a big, big factor that I never look past when I'm treating males. Obviously men don't menstruate, so we don't have a natural means of losing iron. And a lot of men, particularly those with low testosterone will have elevated ferritin or even elevated serum iron.   Dan Sipple:  Now, there's a genetic condition called hemochromatosis, which some of the listeners might be familiar with. That affects males and females. So, if iron is really high, guys when you've done blood checks in the past and your doctors just gone, "Oh well, we don't really know what to do about that, it's all good. Just check it out in a year." Pay attention because iron, if it's high, it's going to spell a lot of issues when it comes to your hormones. It creates a lot of inflammation, a lot of oxidative stress and just like it does in the environment, it's going to rust out your body and your organs.   Dan Sipple:  So ferritin scores, this could be reference range, western diagnostic range between 30 and 300. You don't really as a male want to be over say 100, 120. The sweet spot I find tends to be around 90 or 100 for ferritin. That's a deep reservoir sources of stored iron. But look, iron, even iron rich foods funnily enough, in a lot of the androgenic foods, beef, chicken, eggs and that sort of thing, naturally are going to contain large amounts of iron. So if you fall into that category where iron toxicity is a thing for you and you work that out and you link that back to why you haven't been able to reach your androgenic potential, that's something that you'll need to individually curve and look at. And again that's going to come back to how well your liver is detoxifying, because of all that iron creating a lot of oxidative stress, you have to be hammering the antioxidants. That's your blueberries, your green tea's and all those liver herbs which Mason and I just rattled off, so your milk thistle, globe artichoke, schizandra berries, rosemary, so forth.   Dan Sipple:  I just want to throw that in there because the dance and the balance between those metals and micronutrients like zinc and iron, you have to get that dialed in, you have to make sure that your zinc isn't being lost to iron, because all those metals are going to compete. Copper, iron, zinc. And zinc, we'll do a little section on that soon, but that is, they call it the male mineral for that reason, it's the one that always is associated with proper formation of your androgens and getting that testosterone converted from progesterone.   Dan Sipple:  So in a nutshell, to cap off from that, check your iron out, it's always good to do a full serum iron panel, iron studies and look at your ferritin scores, if it's a problem for you, make sure you're not taking any iron supplements. Definitely get all iron out of your supplements-   Mason:  You probably shouldn't be taking iron supplements to begin with.   Dan Sipple:  That's right. They do tend to work their way into a lot of the multi-mineral formulas, unfortunately. But there are some companies like Thorn for example, that will do iron free multi-mineral formulas.   Mason:  Okay. You recommend, I know this is like you get down the route of blood letting, which we know maybe it's not happening as much. Or even just going and donating blood in order to alleviate that. I know it's always like a real easy way to, if you're prone to those high iron levels, getting in there and doing something like that, right?   Dan Sipple:  100%, and you'll know it too, because there will be the sort of people that you'll do a consult with, and they'll be like, yeah I went and got my blood test and I don't know what it was, I don't know if it was just because I was fasting that morning, but man, I felt light that day and the next day. And you'll be like, okay. It's going to be interesting to see what your iron scores come back with, and sure enough, a lot of the times they're high.   Mason:  Okay, leading on from that, do you want to talk a little bit more on zinc while we're at it?   Dan Sipple:  I'd love to. So zinc and copper, zinc, the male mineral, copper the female mineral. Little bit sort of, it's not that straight forward but they do have that sort of reputation. We do see in today's society usually a lot of panels where zinc will come back low and copper will come back high. And copper dominance for females and males is an issue, because it definitely will cause a lot of hormonal disruption, brain fog, immune system problems. Any issue where zinc cannot accumulate and build up to a healthy decent level is going to affect immunity, constitution and hormones.   Dan Sipple:  So, zinc as a supplement is always a good idea I think for men, as soils these days are just as fact depleted in zinc. It is hard to get zinc. So a good sort of 30 milligram supplement, but it's also good to test as well. Test and check where you're at. But I just rarely see when we run a zinc panel a mans zinc is like prime and in good shape, it's always like, it could be better.   Mason:  It's always nice, you can, just that connection that it's like, took Tahnee out for dinner last night and of course started with a couple of Sydney rock oysters, like always good to keep the oysters in a high rotation if possible. Don't know where pumpkin seeds sit anymore in terms of actually affecting zinc levels, but-   Dan Sipple:  Yeah, I'm on the same kind of band wagon there. That really got pumped, so I remember when I was at uni, pepita seed, pumpkin seeds for zinc.   Mason:  It used to be on the pepita seed butter.   Dan Sipple:  Yeah, me too.   Mason:  And it's very delicious. But like I don't think there's any drawback, I don't see as many drawbacks. I definitely don't have as many seeds these days in my diet as I used to, but a little bit of that there. But then in terms of supplementation, I think we were talking yesterday, I got a little bit of citrate sitting up there, zinc citrate in that form, which is quite effective. But you like the-   Dan Sipple:  I like picolinate. Picolinate is, I won't talk too much to it because I'm not a chemist, but it's a form of zinc, which the body is going to be able to yield more from essentially. There are studies that actually conflict that too, however. So it's something where you do need to do a bit of personal trial. I do well on picolinate, I don't do well on citrate. Others, they do well on citrate.   Dan Sipple:  Generally avoid the over the counter versions though. I find like zinc gluconate, zinc oxide, some of the cheaper forms of zinc, just you'll probably absorb 10 to 20% of them. You're wasting your money really. But before you supplement, like you touched on Mason, definitely try and stack your diet if you're a man, in zinc rich foods. So we're talking oysters, deer venison, eggs, beef, funnily enough, zinc is found in a lot of the animal foods, it's just a fact. I find that even, and I can hear the plant based community in my head going, but there's zinc in this and there's zinc in that. Yeah, there is zinc in like pepita seeds for example, but there's also phytoestrogens in that same food. And there's also copper in that same food, which is going to make it hard for you to use that zinc.   Dan Sipple:  Whereas, something like good old grass fed beef, it's just bioavailable. Your body will just know what to do with it, and will suck it up.   Mason:  Or even better, like a venison, like wild non-vaccinated venison.   Dan Sipple:  Yes, exactly, yeah. And anything, as I think Sylvester Stallone said it in the 80s, "I'll eat anything that runs, walks, crawls, or flies".   Mason:  Okay. Deep.   Dan Sipple:  Yeah.   Mason:  Can you just, so I can get my head around a little bit of more of the importance of zinc. It's definitely something I haven't really, I'm not doing too may isolated supplements these days, but zinc and iodine was always one that I kind of like had hanging around at least. So can you just talk in terms of the pathway of where zinc is supporting that process of maintenance of health testosterone.   Dan Sipple:  Definitely. So like we touched on before, preventing testosterone from aromatising down to oestrogen. That's the main association there with zinc. If you have poor zinc levels, you can be pretty sure that that's going to be what's happening.   Mason:  Okay.   Dan Sipple:  That's essentially in a nutshell. But I find zinc isn't just testosterone fuel, it's all the other stuff too, like its bone health, its immune function, which is super important for much as male all around health and female too. But specifically the hormones, yeah, it's preventing that aromatisation.   Mason:  And the association between copper and oestrogen?   Dan Sipple:  Yeah, so copper is going to act like a shield for zinc to get on its receptor. So zinc and copper are always, excuse me. Trying to compete for the same receptors. It's a constant battle, and the ideal ratio, no matter what the scores are when you look at them on blood, as long as they're one to one, that's what you're aiming for. So I usually look at plasma zinc and serum copper. But most of the time, I'd say 90% of the time in males and females, we're seeing too much copper and not enough zinc.   Dan Sipple:  The way you remedy that is essentially just by pushing more zinc into the body to help push copper off the receptor sites, but you then have to get it out. So same thing applies what we were talking about before. You have to have good liver health, you have to be sweating, you have to be moving, and you have to be binding.   Mason:  And you've got to be pooing well with the binder.   Dan Sipple:  And pooing.   Mason:  So, that's kind of like a similar conversation, I guess there's always competition and ratios going on in the body. It's a similar thing with taking iodine to get those toxic halogens out of those receptors, right.   Dan Sipple:  It is, it is man. You have to look at selenium, you have to never just blindly take iodine and never look at selenium. You can see that become problematic and you can see, it can be flip side too. I have experienced that where I was on supplements that, and a diet that's naturally high in selenium and all of a sudden, I was creeping into selenium toxicity and my iodine was falling really short.   Dan Sipple:  So, it's always about that dance, you have to, don't just look at one mineral, you have to look at the full array.   Mason:  Okay. What's next down the chain?   Dan Sipple:  Let's have a look. We talked a little bit about soy-boys as they're sort of referred to.   Mason:  The precursor to the conversation guys, just in case you were like, hang on, I didn't hear the words soy-boy, I would have remembered that.   Dan Sipple:  Yeah, that's right. The precursor conversation. I mean, just highlighting that phytoestrogen sources can be anything really in the diet, that does have oestrogen mimicking or oestrogen like qualities, it can be problematic for men. So naturally when men do a plant based diet and they do it for too long, inadvertently, they're going to end up on, not all of them, but some, on foods that do have a high soy intake. Especially if they're not doing it properly and that, we don't need to go down it too detailed, but that's an obvious disrupter to testosterone. It's always going to be an issue there.   Dan Sipple:  And so that's where it pays to do, if you're an honest vegetarian or vegan and you want to do things properly, check out your hormones. Get the data, see what's going on and be honest with yourself and call it into check if things feel out of whack and if you're not feeling good. Because as I said earlier, your genetics are the same as they were all those thousands of years ago. Things have not changed genetically.   Mason:  That's the best thing, we can just all take our way of a charge. I think a lot of people are really emotional in the meat eating community, because they've had their own experiences of being vegan, vegetarian, and done something to themselves and then they feel like they've got to wave the banner. Otherwise, you've got people in the vegan community consistently only following vegan advocates and therefore justifying their diet and going further down that rabbit hole. But if you can take the charge away, get your panels done, don't do it in a sense that's defensive, don't do it trying to prove that one diet is right or wrong, no one is rocking it.   Mason:  There might be a few like indigenous communities that are really kind of making it really work still, but despite, yes we've got that, medical systems they're supporting us at the moment, but we're still everyone is experimenting at the moment in terms of what's going to be ideal in this post industrial world. For health, we're all trying to, we're picking and choosing and scraping things from different traditions and different countries and trying to make that work. So, in that sense, everyone can really get off their high horse-   Dan Sipple:  Yes, on both sides.   Mason:  Yeah, well from carnivore, to vegan. Veganism and everything in between. And if you can take away that charge and just get these panels and not be waving a flag for an agenda, or a justification of what you are doing currently. One of the best things I ever did when I was basically vegan, raw food, was reading Weston Price Natural Degeneration. I looked into the reality of why the China study was pretty horrible. Not horrible science, just horrible correlations that were results that they pulled out of that study.   Mason:  And just because I wanted to take away the charge of trying to justify myself and what I was doing, rather than actually having natural curiosity. Reading those books and reading about all the benefits of animal fats and all those kinds of things when I was vego, that was years before I made the transition. They weren't causative things that made me flip over, they just made me, they just kind of helped balance me out. It's nice to know other points of view, so you don't feel like you have to get defensive with your diet, because that's when you really dig yourself a hole, it's something, I don't exactly, I haven't got my head completely around the physiology of this particular susceptibility, but again, our acupuncturist talks a lot about the fact that when you have excessiveness in your lifestyle and in your diet, excessiveness is generally going to lead towards a deficiency of Jing at some point.   Mason:  And that is going to lead to a deficiency of your neurology and especially when you get to the point when you are deficient in blood, that is when you become susceptible to dogmatic ideas because it's so much harder for you to find your own center, your own Shen, your own mental consciousness, that you need to lean out and rely upon external systems. And because you can't establish the blood, which carries the Shen through your body, then you can't restore your Jing because you put on the blinders for your dogmatic diet or lifestyle factors or whatever it is, and you can't get out of it. And so, it's going to be a slow build out of that, and if you can work, even if you're in a nice balanced place now, consistently having little challenges for yourself to make sure that you are actually living dietarily supplement wise, belief system wise, based on something that is still relevant and innately coming from your center and your family center, rather than an idea that you feel like you've put your chips on and so you've got to make sure that you have all the data to justify.   Mason:  I think that's a huge part of it here, and I think that's all I have to say on that conversation because I really have a lot of friends who are vegan, I really respect the fact that they do that. And they're like, I'm going down this route, and there doesn't need to be any justification of it. But then they're doing the panels, right. They're taking the herbs and they're trying to ensure as much as possible that they're not degenerating their genetics.   Dan Sipple:  Totally, and that's the thing. I work with vegan's, carnivore's, paleo's, keto's, all of them, right. And I have respect for anyone that walks through the door no matter what they're doing, as long as they're being conscious about it, and which feeds into what you're saying. So getting your panels done, being conscious and honest with how you're feeling. If you're honest with your body and it's not working for you, it's okay, you tried it, you gave it a crack and you cleaned out your body, and you're going to revolve it from there. Don't get stuck into the dogma where, that's right, you've just got the blinders on and you can't hear anything. And that's on both sides of the equation too.   Dan Sipple:  If you've gone down that path and you are feeling signs of degeneration and you're skipping meals and you're eating chips and you're drinking beer, but you're plant based. It's like, come on, that's not cool.   Mason:  Or even not that, even if it's not like that kind of like faux health, even if there's no beers and chips and it's all that. There's always obvious signs of degeneration and you want to get to them before, not that it's about other people, but you want to get onto them before it becomes evident to everyone else.   Dan Sipple:  Totally.   Mason:  Because that's what happens a lot. Thanks for going down that little rabbit hole with me. We haven't got too much longer, so I want to hear a couple of other things. We've looked at cholesterol and how important it is, having a reasonable amount of and varied fats, plant and animal. Ensuring not to go excessive as to put taxation on our gull bladder and as well I think we've talked about too much fat is going to lead to an overgrowth of particular bacteria and off gassing, and that's why you see a lot of people who aren't designed for keto or just tend to stay there too excessively, are going to see this dibiosis in their gut. Runny poos and all those kinds of things. That general queasiness-   Dan Sipple:  Yeah, nausea, queasiness-   Mason:  Or it's that little queasiness when you have too much fats [crosstalk 00:59:22]. It's good to be on to that.   Mason:  Now tell me, we've gone down the nature of stress and ensuring that inflammation and stress isn't present, so that we can have that pregnenolone steal, which happens up above and inevitably goes down to forming more cortisol, right? So it's not even that directly cortisol being caused, it's the fact that we've got potentially these shenanigans going on in that hormonal cascade.   Mason:  I want to quickly talk about the formation of vitamin D3. It being a hormone in itself, it's one of the other things that always came up in terms of vitamin D3 levels being very low in people who don't have adequate cholesterol, and that's something that came out of that same conversation about 10 years ago for me, that I was talking about. So, can we quickly touch on the role that vitamin D3 is playing on all of this as well as our testosterone?   Dan Sipple:  Sure. So vitamin D3 isn't actually a vitamin, that's the first thing. It's a hormone. It's a steroid hormone with a cholesterol backbone. So straight away, we get out on the mindset of oh, it's just a vitamin and its good for you. It's like no, it's a hormone and you need it in big quantities. And if you want happy hormones and you want low inflammation, you'd better damn sure be looking at your vitamin D3, and that includes the active and non-active forms when you do blood panels.   Dan Sipple:  Typically, when you go to a doctor, they're just going to look at the non-active form, which is called 25-hydroxy vitamin D. Looking at the activated form is 1,25-dihydroxy vitamin D. And that's the one that the kidneys I believe converts from the sunlight and using sunlight and cholesterol hits your body, boom, goes into the organs, the liver and the kidneys and gets converted. And making sure that you've got a healthy, good level of both ultimately. That's kind of the long and the short of it.   Dan Sipple:  But, I'll say in addition to that, that hormone D, I don't call it a vitamin, I call it hormone D, is the ultimate antiinflammatory hormone in the body. So if you have high cortisol and low hormone D, guarantee you're in trouble. Guaranteed.   Dan Sipple:  Inflammation, we hear a lot about inflammation and it's kind of like people, yeah, yeah, yeah, I get inflammation. But it goes so, so deep in terms of what stimulates inflammation and just how catastrophic that can be to your hormonal cascade. So, inflammation can come from yes, diet, it can come because you're not sleeping, but an often overlooked area is infections. If you have stealth infections in your body, and your po

Episode 12 provides a summary of season one of the #Fpollution podcast. >> "The heart of the pollution story behind public water fluoridation is this: industry polluters—aided, in many cases, by government officials—created a pseudo-scientific consensus that inflated fluoride’s benefits and obscured its adverse health effects in a successful effort to limit their vulnerability to lawsuits over fluoride air pollution. That’s it. That’s the pollution story behind fluoridation."   Melissa Gallico is a former Fulbright scholar, FBI analyst, and military intelligence officer. She has a degree in science and technology in international affairs (STIA) from Georgetown University and a master's degree in international security studies from the University of St. Andrews. She is also author of The Hidden Cause of Acne: How Toxic Water is Affecting Your Health and What You Can Do About It published in May 2018 by Healing Arts Press with a foreword by Stephen Harrod Buhner.   *For a full transcript and references mentioned in this episode, see http://www.Fpollution.com/ep12-fluoride-pollution-scandal.   If you enjoyed this episode of The #Fpollution Podcast please subscribe and leave a review. It really helps other listeners find the show.   The #Fpollution podcast is a Linda Peterson production. This episode was executive produced by Scott Cousland, Drew and Helen Jeter, Linda Palmisano, and Kristie Lavelle. Our production team is Angela Sparks, Anna Lytle, Carol Koff, Douglas Cragoe, Jennie Mintz, Julie Fletcher, David Cosentino, Khara Edler, Lacey Elliot, Madeleine Powley, Mary Byrne, Diane Sheats, and Taylor Swagert. To help us expose the pollution scandal behind fluoridation by becoming a producer at Gallico Studios for as little as $1 per month, visit www.Patreon.com/GallicoStudios.   To sign our petition to end fluoridation, visit https://www.change.org/p/congress-stop-promoting-fluoridation.  

Stranger than Strangelove documents some of the more shocking angles of the fluoridation scandal that have long been overlooked, as told by former military intelligence officer and FBI analyst Melissa Gallico. This episode delves into the fluoride poisoning of the Mohawk tribe at Akwesasne caused by air pollution from two U.S. aluminum plants. With audio commentary from local Environmental Science Officer, Dr. Henry Lickers.   Melissa Gallico is a former Fulbright scholar, FBI analyst, and military intelligence officer. She has a degree in science and technology in international affairs (STIA) from Georgetown University and a master's degree in international security studies from the University of St. Andrews. She is also author of The Hidden Cause of Acne: How Toxic Water is Affecting Your Health and What You Can Do About It published in May 2018 by Healing Arts Press with a foreword by Stephen Harrod Buhner.   *For a full transcript and references mentioned in this episode, see http://www.Fpollution.com/ep11-fluoride-pollution-Akwesasne.   If you enjoyed this episode of The #Fpollution Podcast please subscribe and leave a review. It really helps other listeners find the show.   The #Fpollution podcast is a Linda Peterson production. This episode was executive produced by Scott Cousland, Drew and Helen Jeter, Linda Palmisano, and Kristie Lavelle. To help us expose the pollution scandal behind fluoridation by becoming a producer at Gallico Studios for as little as $1 per month, visit www.Patreon.com/GallicoStudios.   To sign our petition to end fluoridation, visit https://www.change.org/p/congress-stop-promoting-fluoridation.  

Stranger than Strangelove documents some of the more shocking angles of the fluoridation scandal that have long been overlooked, as told by former military intelligence officer and FBI analyst Melissa Gallico. This episode delves into the 1954 congressional testimony of Ms. Florence Birmingham, the president of the Massachusetts Women's Political Club, who claimed the government was conducting secret experiments about fluoridation at the Wrenthem State School for Feebleminded Children. Melissa Gallico is a former Fulbright scholar, FBI analyst, and military intelligence officer. She has a degree in science and technology in international affairs (STIA) from Georgetown University and a master's in international security studies from the University of St. Andrews. She is also author of The Hidden Cause of Acne: How Toxic Water is Affecting Your Health and What You Can Do About It published in May 2018 by Healing Arts Press with a foreword by Stephen Harrod Buhner. Featured documents discussed in this episode:
 Florence Birmingham's official testimony from 1954 congressional hearings on fluoridation “A study of the occurrence of fluorine in the drinking water of New Mexico, and the menace of fluorine to health.” by John Clark and Edward Mann MIT press release on settlement over human radiation experiments Bertran Brill's official testimony from 1994 congressional hearings on human radiation experiments "U.S. Radiation Testing on Humans" by Tod Ensign and Glenn Alcalay in Medical Ethics Robert Harris's official testimony from 1952 congressional hearings on fluoridation Fred Boyce obituary The State Boys Rebellion by Michael D'Antonio "Fred Boyce Finds a Home" by Michael D'Antonio for the Los Angeles Times, April 25, 2004   *For a full transcript, see http://www.Fpollution.com/ep6-fluoridated-mental-institutions. If you enjoyed this episode of The #Fpollution Podcast please subscribe and leave a review. It really helps other listeners find the show. This episode was executive produced by Linda Peterson, Scott Cousland, Linda Palmisano, and Kristie Lavelle. To help expose the pollution scandal behind fluoridation by becoming a producer at Gallico Studios for as little as $1 per month, visit www.Patreon.com/GallicoStudios. To sign our petition to end fluoridation, visit https://www.change.org/p/congress-stop-promoting-fluoridation.  

Stephen Harrod Buhner is the author of Herbal Antivirals, Herbal Antibiotics (now in its second edition), and 20 other works including Herbs for Hepatitis C and the Liver, Sacred Plant Medicine, The Lost Language of Plants, The Secret Teachings of Plants, and Ensouling Language. He speaks internationally on herbal medicine, emerging diseases, complex interrelationships in ecosystems, Gaian dynamics, and musical/sound patterns in plant and ecosystem functioning. He is a tireless advocate for the citizen scientist, the amateur naturalist, and community herbalists everywhere. He lives in New Mexico.

STEPHEN HARROD BUHNER is an Earth poet and the award-winning author of fifteen books on nature, indigenous cultures, the environment, and herbal medicine. Stephen is a tireless advocate for the reincorporation of the exploratory artist, independent scholar, amateur naturalist, and citizen scientist in American society – especially as a counterweight to the influence of corporate […]

Drawing from historical primary source documents which she links to in the notes below, intelligence analyst Melissa Gallico argues that public water fluoridation is, at its heart, a pollution scandal—the biggest pollution scandal in American history. Melissa Gallico is a former Fulbright scholar, FBI analyst, and military intelligence officer. She has a degree in science and technology in international affairs (STIA) from Georgetown University and a master's in international security studies from the University of St. Andrews. She is also author of The Hidden Cause of Acne: How Toxic Water is Affecting Your Health and What You Can Do About It published in May 2018 by Healing Arts Press with a foreword by Stephen Harrod Buhner. // Here is the 1948 study of Alcoa factory workers featured at the end of this episode. Is it "one of the most significant of American documents of the essential harmlessness of exposure to and absorption of fluoride," as Robert Kehoe claimed? Share your thoughts on social media using #Fpollution. For more documents and other evidence featured in this episode, visit www.Fpollution.com/ep3-fluoridation-pollution-story-II If you enjoyed this episode of The #Fpollution Podcast please subscribe and leave a review. It really helps other listeners find the show. This episode was executive produced by Linda Peterson, Scott Cousland, Linda Palmisano, and Kristie Lavelle. To help expose the pollution scandal behind fluoridation by becoming a producer at Gallico Studios for as little as $1 per month, visit www.Patreon.com/GallicoStudios To sign our petition to end fluoridation, visit https://www.change.org/p/congress-stop-promoting-fluoridation.

STEPHEN HARROD BUHNER is an Earth poet and the award-winning author of fifteen books on nature, indigenous cultures, the environment, and herbal medicine. Stephen is a tireless advocate for the reincorporation of the exploratory artist, independent scholar, amateur naturalist, and citizen scientist in American society – especially as a counterweight to the influence of corporate […]

Drawing from historical primary source documents which she links to in the notes below, intelligence analyst Melissa Gallico argues that public water fluoridation is a pollution scandal—the biggest pollution scandal in American history. Melissa Gallico is a former Fulbright scholar, FBI analyst, and military intelligence officer. She has a degree in science and technology in international affairs (STIA) from Georgetown University and a master's in international security studies from the University of St. Andrews. She is also author of The Hidden Cause of Acne: How Toxic Water is Affecting Your Health and What You Can Do About It published in May 2018 by Healing Arts Press with a foreword by Stephen Harrod Buhner. Featured documents discussed in this episode:
 "The Story of Fluoridation" on the National Institute of Health website 
Earliest study of industrial fluoride poisoning in factory workers in Europe
 Europe's leading fluoride expert blames air pollution tragedy in Meuse Valley, Belgium on fluoride
 Example of internal documents showing fluoride poisoning in U.S. factory workers
 Declassified notes of 1944 meeting on fluoride toxicity between USPHS dentists and corporate polluters
 Example of corporate polluters using dental claims to ease fears over fluoride pollution
 Head USPHS dentist argues against first fluoridation trial because of evidence of harm
 *For other documents discussed in this episode, please see the links in the transcript at www.Fpollution.com/ep2-fluoridation-pollution-story. If you enjoyed this episode of The #Fpollution Podcast please subscribe and leave a review. It really helps other listeners find the show. This episode was executive produced by Linda Peterson, Scott Cousland, Linda Palmisano, and Kristie Lavelle. To help expose the pollution scandal behind fluoridation by becoming a producer at Gallico Studios for as little as $1 per month, visit www.Patreon.com/GallicoStudios. To sign our petition to end fluoridation, visit https://www.change.org/p/congress-stop-promoting-fluoridation.  

Stephen Harrod Buhner is an Earth poet and the award-winning author of books on nature, indigenous cultures, the environment, and herbal medicine. He comes from a long line of healers including Leroy Burney, Surgeon General of the United States under Eisenhower and Kennedy, and Elizabeth Lusterheide, a midwife and herbalist who worked in rural Indiana in the early nineteenth century. The greatest influence on his work, however, has been his great-grandfather C.G. Harrod who primarily used botanical medicines, also in rural Indiana, when he began his work as a physician in 1911. He has been the senior researcher for The Foundation for Gaian Studies for the past 30 years. In that time he has explored Gaia's complex organism interactions and how human beings can reinhabit their interbeing with the Earth, taking their place once more in the circle of life. All of his many books deal with that exploration and what he has discovered on the journey, among others, “Herbal Antivirals, “Healing Lyme: Natural Healing and Prevention of Lyme Borreliosis and Its Co-infections”, “Sacred Plant Medicine”, “The Secret Teachings of Plants”, “Ensouling Language” and “Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal Realm”. The post Eldering into Hope appeared first on Future Primitive Podcasts.

Pascal Fafard is a consultant and crop advisor in Quebec, Canada, working primarily with fruit and vegetable growers. He holds a bachelor’s degree in agronomy and has been supporting and mentoring fruit and vegetable growers for more than 25 years. While working in IPM, nutrition and vitality advising, and the typical agronomic considerations, he realized that taking care of growers is as important as the grower taking care of plants. This shift in focus led to his unique take on agriculture that has inspired advisors and growers to adopt more intuitive farming practices in the hopes of fostering greater peace of mind, increased clarity and enjoyment, better plant vitality and improved business productivity. As you will hear, Pascal is committed to life in all its many forms and brings a perspective that stresses the importance of a close partnership between man and nature. His innovative approach encourages advisors and growers to unlock their full potential and to strive to realize what is most important to them. This episode is largely the story of Pascal's thought journey on the nature of farming, the relationships we hold with nature, and the opportunity to make both more meaningful. He and John talk about the development of techniques to increase communication between growers and their plants, and a much more subtle way of interacting with our crops, which is intended to provide greater fulfillment to the grower, and better results. We may be challenged to step outside our comfort zones, hearing what Pascal offers, but one may find it to be of great value. "If there is something I want to say today...my only desire is... open new possibility to the grower, and if there is something that resonates in themselves from what I say, just take it. If there is something that doesn't talk to you just...throw it in the garbage.” In this episode, John asks the question "What is it that plants desire from the grower?" This episode introduces a Regenerative Agriculture Podcast first: quotes from actual plants, as translated by Pascal. He notes that "When you communicate with nature you can receive information as a thought, as an image, as an emotion, you can be pulled to go somewhere in the field. It depends on the person...be open minded...it's got to be your way." There are many stories from the field and a few action items, but this interview is not about science and agronomy. It's about a farmers relationship to life, and passion for the work of farming. These are esoteric concepts that Fafard presents eloquently and practically. Pascal's course suggestions: Maya Kincaid: The Sedona International School for Animal and Nature Communication Pranic Healing - International course offerings: (USA EAST site: https://pranichealingusa.com/) (USA west site: https://pranichealing.com/) And John's suggested reading on the topic: The Lost Language of Plants and The Secret Teachings of Plants, both by Stephen Harrod Buhner. If you have questions or would like to set up a consultation with Pascal, please reach out to him at info@pascalfafard.com   Please remember to support all of our Community Impact featured partners! Chelsea Green is an employee-owned and mission-driven company and a leading publisher of hundreds of great titles, including Gabe Brown's recent book, From Dirt To Soil -- which we featured Gabe & his book on this show, in Season 1. If you like this podcast, you will love their books. And there is just enough winter left to read a few. Visit them at www.chelseagreen.com and enter the code "REAG30" at checkout, for a generous discount just for listeners of this show. And finally, we are very pleased to announce the recent release of AEA’s new online learning platform, the Regen.Ag Academy, https://academy.regen.ag/ The first course is ready and more are on the way. This self-paced series of courses, each comprised of multiple video lessons, and graded quizzes, is geared toward the agricultural professional, Certified Crop Advisor (CCA), student, or highly motivated grower who wants to further their studies in regenerative agronomy. It is an accredited course and can be taken for CEU points from the ASA. We've been working hard to set up a platform where the best of John Kempf's teachings can be received, and where you can assess your own knowledge. We look forward to your participation and feedback. Check out Regen.Ag Academy here, and sign up to be notified of future course releases. Thanks for Listening!   Support For This Show This show is brought to you by AEA, helping professional growers make more money using regenerative agriculture since 2006. If you grow on a large-scale and are looking to increase crop revenue and quality, email hello@advancingecoag.com or call 800-495-6603 extension 344 to be connected with a dedicated AEA crop consultant.   Sign Up For Email Updates To be alerted via email when new episodes are released, and get special updates about John speaking, teaching, and podcast LIVE recordings, be sure to sign up for The Regenerative Agriculture Podcast email list.   Feedback & Booking Please send your feedback, requests for topics or guests, or booking request have a Podcast episode recorded LIVE at your event -- to production@regenerativeagriculturepodcast.com Email John directly at John@regenerativeagriculturepodcast.com   Credits This episode was Directed by Geoffrey Shively and Nathan Harman, Edited by Nathan Harman, Produced by Nathan Harman, Robin Kitowski, and Jenna Sodano.

IN THE INTRO: Free Handcrafted Healing Herbal Oils online workshop! Evolutionary health, symptoms as adaptations, why there's no such thing as the optimal diet, and why we didn't necessarily evolve to be healthy One of our last remaining collective/ancestral rituals IN THE INTERVIEW: Why to start herbally & nutritionally preparing for your period at ovulation Understanding nutritional needs throughout the menstrual cycle Tracking your period Coffee & chocolate for the cycling woman- good or bad? Iron, blood, oxygen, and women How Anja overcame six years of alcohol and drug abuse and built a healthy, healing life We share our stories of growing up with an alcoholic parent, and of our mothers' deaths, and what it feels like when you get that phone call we all dread A super important but always overlooked perspective on nutrient deficiency in addicts and the role of nutrition in recovery It's never too late to change your path When Anja found out about her German great-grandmother being the town mystic and Tarot reader, and how this ancestor's sensitivity has echoed down through the motherline Food, drink, and herbs for winter nourishment Carminitives: a simple, delicious, and healing class of herbal medicine that you already have in your kitchen   LINKS: Anja's website ManaMedicinals.net My website & herb shop MythicMedicine.love Medicine Stories Patreon (podcast bonuses) The Medicine Stories Facebook group Take my fun Which Healing Herb is Your Spirit Medicine? quiz Mythic Medicine on Instagram Music by Mariee Sioux (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes) BOOKS- *The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health, and Disease by Daniel E. Lieberman *Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler *Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom by Dr. Christianne Northrup *Sex, Time, and Power: How Women's Sexuality Shaped Human Evolution by Leonard Shlain *The Alphabet Vs the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image by Leonard Shlain *It's OK That You're Not OK by Megan Devine (and her website Refuge In Grief) *Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal Realm: Beyond the Doors of Perception into the Dreaming of Earth by Stephen Harrod Buhner PODCASTS- *LifeSpa with John Douillard *Dr. Gabor Mate on Russell Brand's Under the Skin podcast Past Medicine Stories episodes mentioned- *8 w/ Stephen Harrod Buhner (sensory gating channels) *18 w/ Suuzi Hazen (iron, liver, evolution) *20 w/ Kami McBride (herbalism, oils, menstrual wellness) *30 w/ Cilla Whatcott (fever, illness, immunity) MISCELLANEOUS-  *My video An Herbalist's Perspective on Cold & Flu *Period Tracker apps *Dr. Zach Bush

Today's episode is dedicated to talking all about our favourite mushrooms; reishi. Known as the mushroom of immortality and the mushroom of spiritual potential, this herb truly is a wonder and a gift to our health. Mason is joined by his friend Dan Sipple (clinical naturopath @the.functional.naturopath) to discuss the lore, history, clinical use and wide range of benefits of this ancient herb. Mason shares his experience from getting thousands of people onto reishi mushrooms and what he's seen as the consistent theme, while Dan shares what he's seen in his wide array of patients when given reishi.  We will discuss: How to use reishi for candida Reishi and pregnancy Whether children can take reishi How to ensure your reishi is quality Autoimmunity and reishi How to take this magic mushie Reishi for sleep The compounds that make reishi adaptogenic How reishi calms the Shen (spirit) Reishi for balancing emotions and calming the mind How to identify reishi   Resources: Reishi mushroom: https://www.superfeast.com.au/products/wild-reishi-powdered-extract The Secret Teachings of Plants by Stephen Harrod Buhner

This week’s encore episode opens up a plethora of curiosities around human's relationship to art, creation and mind altering substances. An evergreen classic chosen by Research Director, Madison Magalski. Stephen Harrod Buhner is the earth speaking on behalf of themselves. He so beautifully and scientifically challenges us to give ourselves fully and humbly in our relationships with our more than human elders and kin, he asks us to walk our talk when it comes to unlearning human supremacy and civilized consumptive conditioning through relationship to plants. Humans have always made things more beautiful than they perhaps had to have been for functionality. We dialogue with Stephen about what is the particular role of art in these times and how humans have used intoxicants to create that which comes forth from spirit and moves through us. Art allows us to shift. Art acts as a depatterning figure. Art shifts the perceptual frame of the people experiencing it. Art upsets. “Art is an amazing thing. For example a poem, when someone is able to capture something that cannot be captured in words and put it in words. It causes one to have an experiential perception of the world that is not in the words, but rather gather momentum and then land in another frame of reference. This is a crucial element of Art.” As always, listen in weekly on forthewild.world/listen and subscribe & review our podcast on iTunes.

If you've listened to Sounds of the Trail, you already know today's guest.  Backpacker Radio is joined by Laura "Hey Girl" Johnston- an AT and PCT thru-hiker, conservationist, conversationalist, and an all-around smart and congenial gal.  Topics from this show include:  Curcumin Sounds of the Trail podcast Hey Girl's love of Patagonia Baggies Highlights from the North Carolina / Tennessee section of the Appalachian Trail 21 Facts about the AT (why the balds are bald) Appalachian Trail Thru-Hiker Survey Appalachian Trials Interview with Stephen Harrod Buhner author of Healing Lyme "Green goo" aka Amazing Grass superfoods powder Recorded at Wayfinder Co-op in Denver, Colorado. Have any praise, questions, praise, comments, praise or praise for Backpacker Radio?  Reach out to podcast@thetrek.co. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes (and please leave us a review)!   A big thank you to our Cinnamon Connection Champions from Patreon: Kate Hurley Follow Hey Girl, Backpacker Radio, The Trek, Chaunce, and Badger on Instagram.   Follow The Trek and Chaunce on YouTube Follow The Trek on Facebook, Twitter and sign up for our newsletter.

There is a vast intelligence in Nature, which both precedes and envelopes human consciousness. By opening our doors of perception- the heart, the senses, the nervous system- we can engage in communion with this field and come to know the world in which we are embedded as sentient, responsive, and ever-adapting, just as our ancestors did. Stephen Harrod Buhner is an earth poet and the award-winning author of twenty books on nature, indigenous cultures, the environment, and herbal medicine. He teaches about the sacredness of plants, the intelligence of Nature, and the states of mind necessary for successful habitation of Earth.  In the intro: The attentive noticing of the soul An herbalist's perspective on cold & flu Empowerment & herbalism Giveaway! In the interview: Stephen’s memories of his physician great-grandfather, and how DNA carries more than just physical information down through the generations The tendency toward high sensitivity in plant people Sensory gating channels & discerning meaning from the touch of the world upon us The doors of perception & how psychedelics, or “neurognostics”, effect them Plant perception and the neural networks in root systems- humans do not have a monopoly on intelligence The function of psychedelics in the ecosystem, apart from and long before human use The birth of James Lovelock’s Gaia theory and how real innovation & paradigm shifts can only happen outside of institutions How we can recover the intelligence of the heart in the direct perception of nature Visionary plant encounters & knowing plants through dreaming states Aisthesis- the exchange of soul essence between two life forms  The misunderstood nature, vast intelligence, and ecological necessity of bacterial & viral life forms The age of miracle drugs is over, just as so many people are stepping into the world of herbalism Herbs are much better able to deal with infections and disease than technological medicine is Stephen’s opinion on whether or not humans, and the earth, will survive What happened in the Great Flu Epidemic of 1918: “The thing we haven’t learned is the dangers of our hubris” True self-empowerment v reliance on outside medical knowledge The paradigm shift that happens when you realize that all around you are plants with exceptional medicine that you can learn to use The process of eldering and the point when the inevitability of dying becomes predominant  Herbal lineage, the march of generations, and young folks as the torch-bearers for the future of herbalism Links: The Foundation for Gaian Studies (Stephen's website) Stephen's books on Amazon  Extra Potent Elderberry Elixir My video An Herbalist's Perspective on Cold & Flu  Take my fun Which Healing Herb is Your Spirit Medicine? quiz Medicine Stories Facebook Group Medicine Stories Patreon Music by Mariee Sioux (from the song Wild Eyes)

Our discussion is with Bardic PHILOSOPHER Stephen Harrod Buhner, author of Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal Realm: Beyond the Doors of Perception into the Dreaming of the Earth and at least 19 other books related to transcending the shortcomings of the linear, reductionist, corporate world view Stephen Harrod Buhner is a tireless advocate for the reincorporation of the exploratory artist, independent scholar, amateur naturalist, and citizen scientist in American society - especially as a counterweight to the influence of corporate science and technology. Like Rudolf Steiner before him, Stephen Harrod Buhner is a student of Goethe's natural history work. Again, like Steiner, who gained insights into spiritual realm of Nature through the undomesticated herb gatherer Felix Cogutzki he met on a train at the age of 21, Stephen was initiated into the non-linear, non-academic perception of nature that preceded the industrial mindset through his great grandfather, C.G. Harrod a botanical physician. Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal Realm is the fourth in a series that began, long ago, with Sacred Plant Medicine , and which includes The Lost Language of Plants and The Secret Teachings of Plants ). All of these books contribute to developing sensibilities important to the biodynamic farming practitioner and attempt to teach the reader how to escape an anthropogenic world view.     The show notes for today's conversation, as always, are at bdnow.org   If you appreciate hearing programs on topics as important as this one, please take the time to leave The Biodynamics Now! podcast a positive review on iTunes OR ... at least stop by bdnow.org and say 'hi' in the comments for this show. believed – and tapped into – the magical energy transfer that happens within great rock and roll.

Hello again! Frank and I return with a follow up to our previous show about our familiarity with market foods vs the weeds outside. We're both new-ish to foraging - but I have a year's worth of paying attention AND a mentor to guide me... and Frank has a passion, an understanding of the nutrient riches out there, and a crazy frustration because he feels lost in the weeds - so to speak. In this show - we chat about some of those frustrations and get around to recommending resources and approaches to getting passed the road blocks to collecting and eating wild foods in your brain. I go off on a wild tangent about pollen in the rock record. I have a lot to learn about living pollen - having only experienced the fossilized remains (queue the massive googling). Some resources mentioned in the show: Arthur Haines Sam Thayer Steve Cooksey Daniel Vitalis We have also received our first carrier pigeon! Jen asks about ticks and what we do about them. Frank refers her to a great episode that Daniel Vitalis does for one of his Rewild Yourself episodes with Stephen Harrod Buhner.

Why You Should Listen: In this episode, you will learn about herbal approaches for treating Lyme diease, how the environment impacts Lyme disease, and how plant medicines can be used to modulate and balance health. About My Guest: My guest for this episode is Stephen Buhner. Stephen Harrod Buhner is an Earth poet and the award-winning author of twenty books on nature, indigenous cultures, the environment, and herbal medicine. He comes from a long line of healers including Leroy Burney, Surgeon General of the United States under Eisenhower and Kennedy, and Elizabeth Lusterheide, a midwife and herbalist who worked in rural Indiana in the early nineteenth century. The greatest influence on his work, however, has been his great-grandfather C.G. Harrod who primarily used botanical medicines, also in rural Indiana, when he began his work as a physician in 1911. Stephen's work has appeared or been profiled in publications throughout North America and Europe including The New York Times, CNN, and Good Morning America. Stephen lectures throughout the United States on herbal medicine, the sacredness of plants, the intelligence of Nature, and the states of mind necessary for successful habitation of Earth. He is a tireless advocate for the reincorporation of the exploratory artist, independent scholar, amateur naturalist, and citizen scientist in American society - especially as a counterweight to the influence of corporate science and technology. Key Takeaways: - What drew him to the field of Lyme? - How has the environment and ecosystem impacted Lyme disease? - What has changed with the core protocol? - What herbs may be helpful for Bartonella, Babesia, and Mycoplasma? - Do we need to eliminate every microbe to be well? - Is astragalus a problem in Lyme disease? - What toxin binders may be helpful? - How do we modulate the immune system? - What herbs help with mast cell activation? - Do microbes develop resistance to plants? - Do antimicrobial herbs impact beneficial flora? Connect With My Guest: http://www.gaianstudies.org Related Resources: http://betterhealthguy.link/BuhnerLymeBooks Interview Date: April 18, 2017 Disclaimer: The content of this show is for informational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, treat, or cure any illness or medical condition. Nothing in today's discussion is meant to serve as medical advice or as information to facilitate self-treatment. As always, please discuss any potential health-related decisions with your own personal medical authority.

If you've ever wanted a completely different way to look at, perceive, and connect with the world, then do we have the Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal Realm show for you. Today I'll be talking with Stephen Harrod Buhner author of Herbal Antivirals, Herbal Antibiotics and at least 17 other books including one of the most important, profound, and paradigm shifting books I've ever read, Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal Realm. And that's just what I want to talk with him about today, our connection to the natural world, how to cultivate a completely a completely new realm awareness, and what it means for our day-to-day lives. That plus we'll talk about Barbara McClintock, Tom Sawyer Syndrome, butterflies and first grade, sharing a metaphysical moment with grandpa, Lyme disease and Japanese knotweed, White Pine, and Clark's Nutcracker and what in the world can happen if it's the sixties and you long hair in Texas. Self-Improvement and Self-Help Topics Include: What's the importance of Einstein's words “We can't solve problems using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them”? What does it mean to look with luminous or child-like eyes? What happened to people with long hair in Dallas in the sixties? What are emancipation papers? What did he learn from Elisabeth Kübler-Ross? What do butterflies have to do with Nazi concentration camps? How do we abandon our preconceptions? What does it mean to see and hear in the old way? What does it mean to truly become aware? What are the challenges with science and a deconstructionist way of perception? How do we override our gating, or our limited scope of awareness? What does it mean to shift our consciousness? How do we develop our senses? What does it mean to follow golden threads? What do indigenous cultures understand about awarenss? Where does imagination fit into awareness? How do we see what is right in front of us, rather than merely looking at it? What is seeing with caring or seeing with friendship? To find out more visit www.gaianstudies.org  Stephen Buhner on How to Step Outside Your Paradigm by Connecting with the Natural World + Guided Meditation! Health | Inspiration | Motivation | Spiritual | Spirituality | Meditation | Inspirational | Motivational | Self-Improvement | Self-Help | Inspire For More Info Visit: www.InspireNationShow.com

Stephen Harrod Buhner is an Earth poet and the award-winning author often books on nature, indigenous cultures, the environment, and herbal medicine. He comes from a long line of healers including Leroy Burney, Surgeon General of the United States under Eisenhower and Kennedy, and Elizabeth Lusterheide, a midwife and herbalist who worked in rural Indiana in the early nineteenth century. The greatest influence on his work, however, has been his great-grandfather C.G. Harrod who primarily used botanical medicines, also in rural Indiana, when he began his work as a physician in 1911. Stephen’s work has appeared or been profiled in publications throughout North America and Europe including Common Boundary, Apotheosis, Shaman’s Drum, The New York Times, CNN, and Good Morning America. He has spoken at colleges and conference around thw world, including the United Nations. Stephen’s books include: * Herbal Antibiotics: Natural Alternatives for Treating Drug-Resistant Bacteria * Healing Lyme: Natural Healing & Prevention of Lyme Borreliosis and its Coinfections * The Lost Language of Plants: The Ecological Importance of Plant Medicines for Life on Earth * Sacred Plant Medicine: The Wisdom in Native America Herbalism * Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers: The Secrets of Ancient Fermentation * The Secret Teachings of Plants: The Intelligence of the Heart in the Direct Perception of Nature * The Natural Testosterone Plant: For Sexual Health and Energy * Herbs for Hepatitis C and the Liver …and more Stephen and I started our conversation around old time doctors and kitchen medicine, exploring herbs like ginger, cayenne, and even honey. Then, as I expected and hoped for, Stephen went in some interesting directions. So, though he talks about the effects of accidentally breathing dust from Western Skunk Cabbage, and ingesting some well known toxic plants such as Poison Hemlock…well, I would ask you stay away from using those plants internally. Stephen does offer some amazing gems of information, and you never know when he is going to drop one of them on you. However, there is gold in the overall message he is trying to say. Try to stay in the space of looking at the larger picture of the conversation. Visit http://www.gaianstudies.org

In this special interview I have a deep conversation with one of my greatest inspirations in my work and life, Stephen Harrod Buhner. His work into herbalism, heart perception, plant medicine, Earth poetry, Lyme's, bacterial intelligence and more has reignited many people's journey into the indescribable "imaginal" realm that plant enthusiasts, artists and adventures through time have known well, beyond the reductionist mental approach to life that our culture insists upon and "trains" us for; it's time to invite the wildness to grow from within you once more.    We touch many beautiful topics ranging from wild terrain medicine, herbal antibiotics and the effect of pharmaceuticals on the planet. We delve into talking about this mystical and empowering realm that is driven by feeling, the place where you can start to develop a deep relationship with the planet, with the plants that help heal us and your self-healing journey.    His books and work are transformational and I can't recommending getting your hands on some highly enough and letting the inspiration roll. I especially recommend The Lost Language Of Plants, The Secret Teachings Of Plants, Plant Intelligence And The Imaginal Realms and Sacred And Herbal Healing Beers.    Enjoy the show!   Links: Stephen's site http://www.gaianstudies.org/   Lyme's Crowd Funding - please donate and support  https://www.gofundme.com/HealingLyme2nd

Every year in the United States, about 300,000 people are diagnosed with Lyme disease, according to recent studies. Symptoms of Lyme range from early on fever, achy joints and fatigue to long term severe migraines, short term memory loss and inflammation of brain and spinal cord. In this episode, Earth poet and award-winning author Stephen Harrod Buhner joins us to discuss this silent epidemic, how to avoid it and what to do if you contract it. We discuss his recently updated book, Healing Lyme, where he outlines leading scientific research, tests and treatment for Lyme disease. Stephen also shares his potent herbal protocol for treating Lyme, which has an amazing success rate: "75% of those who use the protocol as a core treatment regimen (along with other herbs and supplements as symptoms dictate) feel that they are cured." This interview is filled with helpful and crucial information for those infected with Lyme, have loved ones infected with Lyme or who live in areas where Lyme ticks are common! Episode Breakdown: * What is Lyme Disease? * Zombie ticks * Sophisticated bacteria * Be proactive * Antibiotics * How a robust immune system can help you ward off a Lyme infection * Diagnostic testing for Lyme * Stephen’s herbal protocol recommendations * Can apitherapy help minimize Lyme symptoms? * The problems with Western medicine practices * Lyme co-infections * The longterm effects of Lyme on life * Entering the Lyme Wars * Stephen’s GoFundMe for the revised edition of Healing Lyme * Key trigger symptoms of Lyme * We’ve exceed the carrying capacity of the Earth 

The conversation from last week continues. What has the role of psychedelics been in human and plant evolution? What is the ecological function of art? How is science changing as it moves out of reductionism? What do the heart, the brain, and the gut have in common? Stephen Harrod Buhner is the senior researcher for the Foundation for Gaian studies, described as a bardic naturalist, he is the award-winning author of 19 books, including The Lost Language of Plants, The Secret Teachings of Plants, and Sacred Plant Medicine. His most recent book is Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal Realm. Before retiring from the road in 2013, he taught for more than 30 years throughout North America and Europe. He lives in Silver City New Mexico.

This week’s interview is a mosaic of mind-shattering insights from Earth-poet-philosopher Stephen Harrod Buhner. Stephen is the senior researcher for the Foundation for Gaian studies, described as a bardic naturalist, he is the award-winning author of 19 books, including The lost Language of Plants, The Secret Teachings of Plants, and Sacred Plant Medicine. His most recent book is Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal Realm. Before retiring from the road in 2013, he taught for more than 30 years throughout North America and Europe. He lives in Silver City New Mexico.

This article by Global Freedom Movement. About This Episode This week on GFM Radio, we are ecstatic to present a fascinating and inspiring interview with Stephen Harrod Buhner. Stephen is an Earth poet and the award-winning author of twenty books on nature, indigenous cultures, the environment, and herbal medicine. He comes from a long line of healers including Leroy Burney, Surgeon […] The article Plant Intelligence: Beyond The Doors Of Perception With Stephen Buhner (Episode 29, GFM Radio) appeared first on Global Freedom Movement.

Donate to The Permaculture Podcast Online: via PayPal Venmo: @permaculturepodcast Like this podcast? Support it on Patreon. My guest for this episode is Keefe Keeley the executive director of The Savanna Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to developing savanna-based agricultural systems through research, education, and outreach. During this interview we discuss the role of research, citizen scientists, and traditional ecological knowledge in order to build biome specific agricultural systems. Throughout we use the models presented by the Savanna Institute as the basis for the conversation. You can find out more about Keefe and the Institute at savannainstitute.org. You can also find them on Facebook and Twitter (@Savannainst). Keefe wanted me to let you know that the Savanna Institute is accepting applications to work with farmers who are interested in getting involved. You'll find more information about that on the Case Study Program page. If you enjoyed this episode, two others I recommend are my interview with Stephen Harrod Buhner, or Elizabeth Farnsworth. Both of those conversations touch on the ideas of citizen science and what we can do as lay researchers. From this conversation I liked Keefe's focus on mixing the rigorous quantitative methods of science and research with the qualitative experience of farmers. We can all come together to do this work.and gain knowledge. Find out what is best, what is worse, and what does or does not work in a given area. Are hardy kiwi or grapes right for everyone, everywhere? No, but sharing information can help us find just the right niche for our crops. Similarly Keefe's reference that farming was not his primary endeavor is another standout point. I'm glad to see the understanding spreading that we all have our own endeavors and strength and that we can, and should, spend our time focusing on those. Do what you are good at. Do what you love. Along the way I'll be here to assist you, so please reach out to me if there is anything I can do for you. Email: The Permaculture Podcast Write: The Permaculture Podcast The Permaculture Podcast Before we draw these notes to a close I would like to let you know about an upcoming class. Since this episode deals with the restoration of the savanna, if you would like to learn more about restoration agriculture from the author of the book by the same name, Mark Shepard, he is working in cooperation with Ecology Artisans in San Diego, California, from March 10-14, 2015. Josh Robinson, a past guest of the show, brought this course to my attention. He is offering a $50 discount to any listener who registers and uses the code “permaculturepodcast50”. Restoration Agriculture Workshop Finally, this show depends on listener support to stay on the air. I've embraced gift economics as the way to support the podcast, myself, and my other online permaculture work. If you are in place to help, I really appreciate it. Know that you are keeping this podcast on the air and keeping it free for everyone else who is unable to lend to hand. Together we are spreading permaculture world wide, including 125,000 unique visitors to the website last year and over 800,000 downloads. Together I want to at least double those numbers in 2015. Find out how to make a one time or ongoing gift at: www.thepermaculturepodcast.com/support Until the next time, take care of earth, yourself, and each other. Resources Restoration Agriculture The One-Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka Tree Crops by J. Russell Smith (Public Domain PDF)

Take control of your health! Emerging viruses are becoming more virile and aggressive, and traditional medications are becoming less effective against them. In this companion to the best-selling Herbal Antibiotics, Stephen Harrod Buhner offers in-depth instructions on how to prepare … Continue reading →

Antibiotic-resistant infections are alarmingly on the rise, and many people are looking for sound information on herbal alternatives to standard antibiotics. In this indispensable reference, herbal expert Stephen Harrod Buhner explains the roots of antibiotic resistance, explores the value of … Continue reading →

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of ReWild Yourself! podcast, I talk with Stephen Harrod Buhner, an Earth poet and the award-winning author of twenty books on nature, indigenous cultures, the environment and herbal medicine. He is probably best known for is extensive writing in the field of herbalism and plant intelligence, though I would offer that he is one of the most significant writers and thought leaders of the modern ReWilding movement. Episode Breakdown: * Stephen’s early experiences with the metaphysical background of the world * The reality police * Fear of wildness * The education system shuts us down * Opening sensory gating channels * The 6th sensory channel: the feeling capacity * Using NeuroGnostics to open sensory gating channels * Reset your software program * Orient towards meaning rather than form * How to reclaim the feeling sense * How to operate from the feeling sense in this information-rich modern world * Sophisticated writing cultivates the feeling sense for the reader

Stephen Harrod Buhner is an Earth poet and the award-winning author of twenty books on nature, indigenous cultures, the environment, and herbal medicine. Stephen lectures yearly throughout the United States on herbal medicine, the sacredness of plants, the intelligence of Nature, and the states of mind necessary for successful habitation of Earth. He is a […] The post Through the Doors of Perception appeared first on Future Primitive Podcasts.

Stephen Harrod Buhner EARTH POET   Stephen Harrod Buhner Stephen Harrod Buhner is an Earth poet and the award-winning author of ten books on nature, indigenous cultures, the environment, and herbal medicine. He comes from a long line of healers including Leroy Burney, Surgeon General of the United States under Eisenhower and Kennedy, and Elizabeth Lusterheide, a midwife and herbalist who worked in rural Indiana in the early nineteenth century. The greatest influence on his work, however,has been his great-grandfather C.G. Harrod who primarily used botanical medicines, also in rural Indiana, when he began his work as a physician in 1911.   Stephen's work has appeared or been profiled in publications throughout North America and Europe including Common Boundary, Apotheosis, Shaman's Drum, The New York Times, CNN, and Good Morning America. Stephen lectures yearly throughout the United States on herbal medicine, the sacredness of plants, the intelligence of Nature, and the states of mind necessary for successful habitation of Earth. He is a tireless advocate for the reincorporation of the exploratory artist, independent scholar, amateur naturalist, and citizen scientist in American society - especially as a counterweight to the influence of corporate science and technology.   "One of my favorite authors. A truly revolutionary writer." Susun S. Weed, author of Healing Wise.

Stephen Harrod Buhner is an Earth poet and the award-winning author of fifteen books on nature, indigenous cultures, the environment, and herbal medicine. Stephen lectures yearly throughout the United States on herbal medicine, the sacredness of plants, the intelligence of Nature, and the states of mind necessary for successful habitation of Earth. His most recent […] The post Re-membering our kinship with Gaia appeared first on Future Primitive Podcasts.

Julie McIntyre Wild Earth, Wild Plants, Wild Woman Join us for a conversation with Julie McIntyre and The New School’s Kyra Epstein exploring Julie’s life as an herbalist treating Lyme disease with a successful herbal protocol, an Earth ceremonialist, and the author of a new book: Sex and the Intelligence of the Heart; Nature, Intimacy and Sexual Energy. Julie McIntyre Julie is an Earth ceremonialist and metis of Norwegian and Mohawk/Blackfeet decent. Julie recently directed a state ceremonial program for Native men in prison and also works with young women with ceremonial rites of transition into womanhood. She has a private holistic health practice working with herbal medicine and chronic illness–she is the leading practicing expert using the herbal lyme protocol developed by her partner, Stephen Harrod Buhner. In her practice, she also works with sacred plant medicine, spiritual mentoring, ecological reclamation of the soul, becoming authentic, and sexuality. You can see more of her and her work on her website. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Showtime:  Tuesday, August 14th at 6pm PT / 9pm ET Bacterial infections are on the rise, and antibiotics are increasingly powerless to stop them.  These bacteria outsmart modern medicine as they become "superbugs."   in 1942, the world's entire supply of penicillin was approximately 64 pounds.  By 2009, it rose to 60 million pounds a year!  Half of the antibiotics in the US are used on LIVESTOCK so they can survive overcrowding (plus antibiotics fatten them up -- higher revenue).   Most people don't realize it, but these antibiotics never go away -- they end up in our water system and pollute our environment.   The good news is that there are extremely effective NATURAL antibacterial herbs that fight these superbug bacteria.  In this show, Dr. Lo interviews herbalist extraordinnaire Stephen Harrod Buhner and author of Herbal Antibiotics: Natural Alternatives For Treating Drug-Resistant Bacteria.  A show you don't want to miss!

Host Dana Laake and her special guest Stephen Harrod Buhner will be discussing healing Lyme disease. Stephen Harrod Buhner is a master herbalist, psychotherapist, and expert on indigenous and contemplative spiritual traditions. He is the author of numerous books on nature, indigenous cultures, the environment, and herbal medicine. His book, Healing Lyme: Natural Healing And Prevention of Lyme Borreliosis And Its Coinfections, examines the leading scientific research on Lyme infection, its tests and treatments, and outlines the most potent herbal medicines and supplements that offer help.

Stephen Harrod Buhner is an Earth poet and the award-winning author of ten books on nature, indigenous cultures, the environment, and herbal medicine. He lectures yearly throughout the United States on herbal medicine, the sacredness of plants, the intelligence of Nature, and the states of mind necessary for successful habitation of Earth. His website Gaian […] The post The Deep Intelligence of Plants Ecology appeared first on Future Primitive Podcasts.

Episode 21: Stephen Harrod Buhner is an Earth poet and the award-winning author of twelve works of nonfiction and one book of poetry, among them the multiple award-winning Lost Language of Plants, Sacred Plant Medicine and The Secret Teachings of Plants: The Intelligence of the Heart in the Direct Perception of Nature.  In this interview Stephen talks about plant healing, ethnobotany, and the power of the green world. 

Stephen Harrod Buhner is an Earth poet and the award-winning author of ten books on nature, indigenous cultures, the environment, and herbal medicine. He comes from a long line of healers including Leroy Burney, Surgeon General of the United States under Eisenhower and Kennedy, and Elizabeth Lusterheide, a midwife and herbalist who worked in rural Indiana in the early nineteenth century. The greatest influence on his work, however, has been his great-grandfather C.G. Harrod who primarily used botanical medicines, also in rural Indiana, when he began his work as a physician in 1911.

Stephen Harrod Buhner is an Earth poet and the award-winning author of ten books on nature, indigenous cultures, the environment, and herbal medicine. He comes from a long line of healers including Leroy Burney, Surgeon General of the United States under Eisenhower and Kennedy, and Elizabeth Lusterheide, a midwife and herbalist who worked in rural Indiana in the early nineteenth century. The greatest influence on his work, however, has been his great-grandfather C.G Harrod who primarily used botanical medicines, also in rural Indiana, when he began his work as a physician in 1911.