Health | Reaching Into the Universe

4May/120

Using tobacco to quit smoking

Praying with mapacho Given the theoretical considerations, it's been suggested that one can actually use tobacco to quit smoking.

After all, if

tobacco is a carrier and amplifier of intention (a "power food"—it feeds whatever you give it to),
the tobacco used to make commercial cigarettes carries and amplifies the intentions of the tobacco corporations to feed addiction to make more money, and
the tobacco in cigarettes can be cleared of those intentions and imbued with your own intentions (to quit smoking or change your relationship to tobacco)

then it follows that the cigarettes you smoke can empower your intent to stop smoking them.

All it takes is a simple method of putting your intention into the cigarette before you smoke it.

I can see it going either of at least two ways:

"Quit smoking" within the current story of tobacco addiction.
The tobacco empowers your intentions, so every time you smoke it either feeds the reality in which you're "addicted", or it feeds another such as your desire to "quit". You choose to use the tobacco to feed your desires for yourself to quit rather than the cigarette companies' desires for you to continue buying their product. After you successfully quit you still operate from a "tobacco bad/nonsmoking good" worldview that sees tobacco as only a negative.
Step into a different reality by replacing the "smoking bad/nonsmoking good" story with a different paradigm in which tobacco is a sacred ally.
In this case, the tobacco still empowers your intentions, but your intention is to let go of any paradigm that sees tobacco as a negative in all ways and instead replace it with a perspective more in alignment with indigenous and shamanic uses of tobacco. In this perspective, tobacco is a helpful tool, a plant spirit to be respected and used in good ways. The concept of "addiction" doesn't have much meaning here; it's simply not how a person would work with the plant or treat its spirit.

On either route, it's probably helpful and more healthful to switch from conventional cigarettes (laced with an endless array of additives and chemicals) to pure tobacco. Since I'm not into commercial tobacco, the only brand I'm aware of is American Spirit, but there may be others.

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25Dec/100

Holiday gift: healthcare! from Karma Clinic Network

What better gift than the gift of health? But when was the last time your doctor gave you medical treatment as a gift?

Dr. Aumatma Binal Shah does just that, along with a number of health-related practitioners. I met Aumatma at an Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream Symposium and learned that she was operating a gift-economy health care clinic called Karma Clinic.

What is gift-economy? It's a system where goods and services are given and received as gifts rather than exchanged for other goods and services (as in barter economies) or money (as in market economies). At Karma Clinic, you can receive treatment as a gift, no strings attached. You are welcomed to make a gift to Karma Clinic if you feel moved. The clinic is sustained on these gifts alone.

Since its inception Karma Clinic has expanded into a network, with services ranging from bodywork & yoga to coaching & acupuncture from practitioners located in East Bay, San Francisco, and North Bay. The network model means you can contact any of the practitioners you are interested in directly, rather than having to get a referral from the clinic, and you can see them in various places other than Karma Clinic's Oakland location.

Karma Clinic has also branched out with a Berkeley satellite project. Twice a month Karma Clinic transforms hip eatery Himalayan Flavors into a gift-economy drop in clinic. Not only does this provide more opportunities for clients and patients to see practitioners, it gives practitioners another venue in which to give their services. Many practitioners who aren't in the Karma Clinic network participate in this satellite clinic. To get on the email list to be notified of Karma Clinic dates, send an email contact@himalayanflavors.com.

As if all of that wasn't enough to keep a person busy, Aumatma is one of the driving forces bethind Himalayan Flavors' new Ambrosia Juice Bar. With flavors like Pomegrateful and Sweet Date With a Monkey, Aumatma draws on her training as a naturopathic doctor to offer drinks that are both delicious and healthy. But the most unique offerings are the herbal teas. With ingredients ranging from passionflower to astragulus, these look like real medicine, not your average Wild Berry Zinger.

So, eat, drink, and be merry this holiday season... and don't forget to gift yourself with health and good self-care.

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