Alchemica

Through Galangal. It's given some action and direction when everything was falling apart into the pathologic focal distraction. A food and medicine of Heart and Spirit I sent the universe a request, I asked the plant spirit recently to turn what was mangled To give me a Yang of health and goal-directed action, a healthy Yin. It took doing that through action, in incremental steps. These plants help me break such heavy contraction It hasn't been easy but today I pot up lots of baby Galangal These Galangal have spread local and interstate I'm working on improving better traits. (also lot of polyphenol rich grape vines)

Yeah I find that interesting too, it seems to be a complex of likely flavonoids and other constituents that give rise to effects, complex beyond a simple couple of receptor interactions. I also don't find anxiolyics and many sedatives sedating at appropriate doses, While I have a GABA system that is quite atypical, I tend to get energising liberation from anxiety. I also find it's the way you use the plant, if you use it as an integration energy, you go from breaking apart to building new connections in yourself, to the universe, to others it becomes an exothermic psychological stimulating process. Sometimes dropping walls with something can encourage that A friend said one of their teachers says Galangal encourages dreams

Nice day of incremental embodied positive action with a creative edge, a connecting to others edge. Today I'm embodying deeper creative action, started to Feng shui (ie clean) areas of the house more. Just got enough momentum to engage another task-orientated task in the world. Got for my run and enjoyed the rainbow lorikeets. Did the dishes. Posted a galangal to someone. Made Divine the Mundane. On a background of rusty technological progress, in melted plastic signifying 'progress' - is that the real process? We get stuck, we build walls, get lost... Disconnect from our Hearts Today I see the Heavenly potential in All Some of us are returning to the World with Rekindled Love for Nature, The World, You, Me Today I choose to not see fences between You and Me. I choose not to build walls between You and Me. Today I see universes in universes. The Heavenly Sky bursts forth in a show of flowers Each one of us is divine potentiality I bring my Yang to the day with a run and a gift The Yin flows in alignment Transcendence, Immanence and Mental Health "...transcendence provides evidence and insight that being human means being dependent, and that the life space we inhabit is one of interdependence, not independence. It also shows us that self- protectiveness, isolation, and the ubiquitous human desire for omnipotence produce great suffering." We discover sense of connectedness, a belief in the unitive nature of life, fulfilment found in encounters with a transcendent reality, tolerance of paradoxes, non-judgementalness, a desire to live in the moment, and gratitude. We also find peace in the immanence of life. The journey of transcendence, to break free from ruled by suffering You can foolishly chase spiritual bypass heights, or grow through incremental action From Mundane to Sacred. A spiritual journey can make you grow Inner demons can become friends, or turn on you and make you fend Sometimes it takes mind-blowing to see the Light, when is you see it, you know your feel a deeper role, to seek and embody that in a balanced way It's hard to forget, you don't want to stay stuck in the Dark Night of the Soul You never forget your shadow but life becomes about transcending struggles, sometimes it just takes a mere hello Everything takes on a lively glow Your heart fills with passion, life becomes construed with deeper meaning not following the mainstream fashions But it easily turns ungrounded You start taking on things too unfounded That's where creativity becomes stabilising, There's space for you and me, You regain balance in creating your voice, your music, your song, your dance, your art You find healing in joining with others It affirms your life as unique and worthy, of meaning and depth, other's as being worth it as they are As you affirm you compassionately with grounded action Head and Heart heal You begin to have deeper loving feels. The sacred, then, is manifest in a continuous spectrum of modalities, ranging from the mundane to the divine, from the completely immanent to the completely transcendent. In mental health generally, it is often a transcendent relationship (i.e. with God) that is understood as being at the heart of whatever it is that appears to many to be beneficial about spirituality in conferring resilience towards and improved recovery from mental disorders. For example, Ellermann and Reed refer to spirituality as ‘a self-transcendence whereby personal boundaries are expanded transpersonally to connect one to a higher power or purpose greater than the self’ (Ellermann and Reed 2001). It has been suggested that transcendence may in fact be concerned with the transcendence of suffering (Craigie 2008). Similarly, in Howden’s Spirituality Assessment Scale, transcendence is understood as ‘The ability to reach or go beyond the limits of usual experience; the capacity, willingness, or experience of rising above or overcoming body or psychic conditions; or the capacity for achieving wellness or self-healing’ ‘Letting go’, acceptance, mindfulness, non-attachment, serenity, spiritual surrender, gratitude and forgiveness. Of these approaches, it seems to me, only spiritual surrender more or less requires some kind of understanding of the transcendent as God or a Higher Power.

I struggle with an obsessive compulsive aspect and socio-emotional problems. I've been exploring spirituality to buffer that the last few days. "The madness that we encounter in “patients” is a gross travesty, a mockery, a grotesque caricature of what the natural healing of that estranged integration we call sanity might be. True sanity entails in one way or another the dissolution of the normal ego, that false self competently adjusted to our alienated social reality; the emergence of the “inner” archetypal mediators of divine power, and through this death a rebirth, and the eventual reestablishment of a new kind of ego-functioning, the ego now being the servant of the divine, no longer its betrayer." - R. D. Laing "Modern man, is controlled, made dull and obedient, cold and empty" Occasioning a mystical-type experience IN conjunction with utilising spiritual resources may cause enduring positive changes in psychological functioning and in trait measures of prosocial attitudes and behaviours. In one study, it improved measures interpersonal closeness, gratitude, life meaning/purpose, forgiveness, death transcendence, daily spiritual experiences, religious faith and coping Can you bias that towards restoring higher-order 'heart-mind' mediated processes through a bit of shifting attitudes, self-compassion, self-affirmation, modifying beliefs etc? "Various religious practices have the potential to influence our health, in both positive and negative ways. It was noted that religious people, in general, have a lower risk of anxiety and depression. This, in turn, is linked to a stronger immune system. On the other hand, people engaged in religious struggles might experience the opposite effects. " Is it possible to remove dissonance between head and heart? To restore faith based on reason, greater love, compassion, kindness, altruism? To move from lower subcortical “reward” structures and bias towards less hedonistic, eudaimonic PFC mediated goals. There is evidence of hypofrontality and abnormal corticostriatal-limbic functional connectivity in multiple mental disorders. It's easy to get in a state of ego-depletion leading to self-control failures. It has been proposed "social control via conditional regard [causes] curtailment of dopaminergic (and endogenous opioid) expression associated with the sympathetic limbic/OFC circuitry, forming a permanent homeostatic imbalance which restricts empathetic feeling, intelligence, and exploratory interest in the world" "Functional neuroimaging studies of self-regulation and its failures suggest that self-regulation involves a balance between subcortical brain regions representing the reward, salience and emotional value of a stimulus and prefrontal regions associated with self-control. When this balance tips in favor of subcortical regions the likelihood of self-regulatory failure increases." Devotional practice was reproducibly associated with activation in nucleus accumbens, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and frontal attentional regions. It starts simply: By simply using self-affirmations you can restore self-competence by allowing individuals to reflect on sources of self-worth, such as core values. fMRI results showed increased activity in key regions of the brain’s self-processing (medial prefrontal cortex + posterior cingulate cortex) and valuation (ventral striatum + ventral medial prefrontal cortex) systems when reflecting on future-oriented core values (compared with everyday activities). Mentally simulating future events, especially those relevant to personal goals, involves key regions hypothesized to be involved in self-affirmation interventions, including the VMPFC, MPFC and PCC. Future-oriented thought and self-affirmation rely on similar neural mechanisms, they may mutually reinforce one another. Imagining future personally relevant, emotionally positive and rewarding events is associated with changes in VMPFC, striatum, MPFC and PCC ( D’Argembeau et al ., 2008 , 2010 ; Benoit et al. , 2011 , 2014 ). Increased activity in the MPFC has also been shown to positively correlate with imagining positive ( vs negative) future episodes ( D’Argembeau et al ., 2008 ) and such activation is further associated with projected reward value of the imagined future ( Benoit et al ., 2011 , 2014 ). In addition, a recent meta-analysis found that increased activity in the MPFC and PCC, among other regions, was associated with thinking about hypothetical (e.g. future) compared with past episodes ( Benoit and Schacter, 2015 ). What am I looking for? My primary end-point measure for the effectiveness of different spirituality things as a tool will be how this impacts (fairly acutely) self-regulation, emotional regulation, mood/anxiety and in the world engagement. I have to steer clear from some types: orientations that emphasise rational-analytic elements (e.g., extrinsic religion or religious fundamentalism) may be more likely to facilitate explicit self-regulation and potentially even interfere with implicit self-regulation. These tools may promote the acquisition of skills that are conducive to implicit self-regulation. Implicit self-regulation is optimally suited to maintain the global integrity of the personality system. [1] Positive emotions broaden people’s attention and thinking and set people to trajectories of growth that will build consequential personal resources. By bringing meaning in people's life, religiousness or spirituality (R/S) could be a kind of resource. Induction of positive emotions, in particular self-transcendent ones (awe) lead to higher R/S "Explicit self-regulation is closely associated with analytic processing, a cognitive style that is dependent on linguistic encoding, precise, sequential, rigid, and dissociated from emotional and sensorimotor systems. By contrast, implicit self-regulation is closely associated with integrative processing, a cognitive style that is largely independent of linguistic encoding, impressionistic, parallel, flexibly attuned to multiple meanings, and closely coupled with emotional and sensorimotor systems. Many forms of religion/spirituality may facilitate a self-regulatory mode that is flexible, efficient, and largely unconscious. In this implicit mode of self-regulation, these individuals may be able to strive for high standards and simultaneously maintain high emotional well-being. A review of the empirical literature confirmed that religious stimuli and practices foster implicit self-regulation, particularly among individuals who fully internalized their religion’s standards. The present work suggests that some seemingly irrational aspects of religion may have important psychological benefits by promoting implicit self-regulation. Religiosity may change the very basis of meaning in life, by shifting people’s focus away from hedonic concerns about the pursuit of pleasure toward eudemonic concerns about living according to one’s core values or authentic self Behavioral priming effects appear to be mediated by implicit self-representations and may thus be considered a special form of implicit self-regulation. Primed with Divine concepts such as “spirit,” “divine,” and “God” people behaved more generously in a standardized social interaction task than did unprimed Religious transformation can be seen as a process that allows a person to recognize and integrate experiences. For instance, by breaking with a person’s self-centered view on life, religion may open the person up to other people’s needs and wishes. Religiosity is likely to facilitate implicit self regulation to the extent that (a) it is characterized by an orientation toward the well-being of the whole person, (b) it encourages integrative cognitive processing, and (c) it relies on embodied metaphors and practices to convey the meaning of its teachings. From Implicit self-regulation has been shown to promote volitional efficiency, such that the individual is capable of forming appropriate intentions and translating these into action. Second, implicit self-regulation has been shown to promote flexible and efficient affect regulation, such that the individual can avoid becoming overwhelmed or stuck in emotional or motivational states. Third, implicit self-regulation has been shown to promote an implicit sense of meaning in life, such that the individual is capable of creating meaning out of new experiences and maintaining older networks of meaningful cognitive representations Affect-regulatory function of religious imagery was found in a brain imaging study Subliminally priming self-related stimuli can lead to increased self-regulation of reflexive responses. Likewise, priming individuals with autonomy-related stimuli can promote more intrinsic self-regulation, as evidenced by more voluntary task engagement, reduced self-serving bias, and increased psychological well-being" If we choose higher beliefs such as self love, internal control, etc. our self-esteem grows and we move into more harmony with our selves and environment, moving more towards Self-Actualisation. Six Mental Control Strategies for overcoming anger, anxiety, and depression can be used: Choice, Harmony, Understanding, Goals & Expectations, Optimism, and Focus You shift from conditional self-worth to more unconditional self-worth. You start to love yourself despite past mistakes, deficiencies, and internalised negative subparts. What's your Higher Self encompass? I like these subparts you can tap into - "inner child", " inner professional", "inner counselor", "inner lover", "inner student", "inner parent", "higher self", etc. The higher self learns through EMPATHY to love ourselves and others unconditionally What's the shift from maladaptive to Adaptive-Healthy Values and Lifestyles and Eternal Identity encompass? 1A. Intrinsic Sincere Congruent Lives religion Personal faith 2A. Actualizing Growth-oriented Self-regulated agency Experiential-creative Self-renewing-repentant Integrates ambiguity and paradox 3A. Reforming-renewing Change oriented Benevolent-reforming power Tolerant Egalitarian 4A. Interpersonal-social orientation Networking-familial-kinship Cooperative Open-authentic-integrity Self-sacrificing 5A. Nurturing Tender- protective Warm- faithful- intimate Caring Facilitating growth Empathic 6A. Reconciling Forgiving Humble Appropriately direct Problem solving 7A. Inspiring Attunement to spirit of truth Prophetic Mystical-good reality testing Ref: http://web.csulb.edu/~tstevens/sct-oh.htm From Christ to Urban Shamanism What does Embodying Christ mean to you? I pondered that and came up with .Through the Christ-symbol, man can get to know the real meaning of his suffering: he is on the way towards realizing his wholeness…. To me it is finding Love, ego loss to service. The Urban Shaman "Living in a modern day rat-race of a world deluged by unending data and information streams; a modern world state of being that has resulted in precipitating our current addiction to ‘busyness’ How did we find our meaning, purpose in life, take time to slow down and connect back to nature when we are in a constant technology loop? We are people communing with nature in absolute solitude sitting stationary in self-imposed sacred ritual. We may celebrate cosmic events or other things, while simultaneously giving thanks to mother earth, father sky etc. As modern society evolved, we destroyed our own mythologies and relationships to what we deemed ‘holy’ and ‘sacred’ by supplanting the spiritual with new gods of ‘science’; gods that allowed us to destroy each other by the touch of a button. In essence, we became our own Gods - destroyers of our own world as we filled our days and nights with trivial activities. Our hunger compelled our search for both spiritual and emotional fulfillment. Organized religion attempted to provide us with answers, but doctrine in itself was considered ‘obsolete’ and irrelevant. “Religion” lacked the ability to appeal to a growing number of us who could not relate to religious dogma. Instead of finding solace in ‘official’ houses of worship, we hit the Internet and shared posts from ‘IFLScience‘ and Neil Degrasse Tyson as a way to fill that spiritual and emotional void. Without a need for formal religious practice, the world of organized religion became at least for us, both archaic and obsolete. Nevertheless there were a few key elements that religion served that satisfied our desire for: a sense of community, sacredness, and meaning. It is these fundamental needs that we currently pursue. What is remarkably interesting and poignant about these incidences is the reality that these venues are actively sought, re-constructed, re-imagined and re-enacted by folks in the western world either concretely or symbolically. The question of why this has happened speaks to the need in our modern day world for sacredness and the pursuit of a deeper, richer and more meaningful truth. This search has led many of us including me to seek the truth in age old rituals." God as a Therapist Ref Given the psychological and spiritual aspects of mental illness, an intervention that addresses these using spiritual resources in addition to psychological resources may be particularly effective. It can result in psychological symptoms (eg, shame, guilt, rage) and spiritual symptoms (eg, spiritual struggles, moral concerns, loss of meaning, self-condemnation, difficulty forgiving, loss of faith, loss of hope). Diminishing ego function and "encouraging the emotion of awe has been described by the psychologists Dacher Keltner and Jonathan Haidt as a combination of two elements: a sense of vastness—in terms of size or power or prestige—and a “need for accommodation”—a desire to somehow accommodate the experience into one’s worldview. If awe reduces a sense of certainty, then it should also lead to pattern-finding and thus greater religious belief." In a sense, It allows “imaginal dialogues,” conversations between self and other that happen in the mind. These can be therapeutic because the reality to which someone responds is always partly of their own creation, and an imagined therapist (an immaterial God necessarily must be imagined) can thus re-create that reality as effectively as a human one. When God becomes that therapist, It’s obviously different from ordinary psychotherapy because the “therapist” is more powerful than any human therapist and also more perfect. Individuals higher on Spirituality/religiosity (S/R) also reported less substance use, risky behaviours, and better affect. It is important to target inaccurate or maladaptive beliefs—called stuck points—that result in guilt, shame, and self-blame, rendering individuals stuck. Forgiveness (Recall, Empathize, Altruism, Committing, and Holding on) and possible targets of forgiveness (ie, self, others, God). The impact that trauma and mental illness can have on one’s spiritual well-being is explained and spiritual distress is normalised. Lament is introduced as a formal expression of sorrow and spiritual grief. By focusing on cognitive restructuring using spiritual/religious resources (ie, spiritual beliefs, practices, sacred writings, values, and motivations) it is possible to challenge maladaptive thinking patterns. One can instill spiritual concepts and rituals of compassion, grace, spiritual guided imagery, repentance, confession, forgiveness, atonement, blessing, restitution, and making amends. You can build Forgiveness, Esteem and Trust Address Power, Control, and Spiritual Discrepancies: Spiritual discrepancies and spiritual issues related to power, such as anger at God, the limited nature of human perspective, free will, and active surrender, are discussed. The theme of intimacy related to self, others, and God can be explored. Spiritual partnerships are discussed, both in terms of how trauma and illness can impact these relationships and how deepening or reengaging in spiritual partnerships/community can help with the healing process. Spiritual Partnerships and Intimacy: The theme of safety related to self, others, and God/divine can be explored

Whereas before I would have said ECT/medicine those inner demons out of you, these days I say dance/drum them out of you in your own crazy way. "Dance is a pleasurable and captivating activity that involves motor, cognitive, visuospatial, social, and emotional engagement. Although practiced for thousands of years in rituals and as a leisure activity, the long-term effects of systematic dance training on cognition, and brain structure and function are not well understood." I see the power in engaging music with movement to restore control over aberrant subcortical processes. For me, it's still unco quasi drumming but I'm getting better synchronising and matching beats. Cortico-basal ganglia loops are essential in dance training and execution as they control body posture, movement, and action selection With some good high voltage music and noone watching the craziness, I work up to a crazy little enjoyable drumming dance. Brain regions involved in mediating the aesthetic response shift from subcortical regions associated with dopaminergic reward processing to posterior temporal regions involved in processing multisensory integration, emotion, and biological motion. [1] Currently, there is increasing interest in dance as a therapeutic intervention for various clinical groups, ranging from developmental disorders such as Down syndrome (Lifshitz-Vahav et al., 2016), to neurological disorders such as schizophrenia (Martin et al., 2016) and mood disorder (depression; Meekums et al., 2015), neuromotor disorders such as Parkinson’s disease (McNeely et al., 2015), to dementia prevention and management (Ballesteros et al., 2015; Adam et al., 2016).[2] [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4402020/ [2] https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/…/fnhum.2017.00566/full It's really nice when you become more of a master of your consciousness and learn to reach those highs and healingly modify consciousness endogenously and through music etc. I've moved through many interesting altered states recently [1]: Sensory: An altered experience of space, time, and other sensory phenomena. Recollective-analytic: An experience in which individuals develop novel ideas and revelations about themselves, the world, and their role within the world. Symbolic: Identification with a historical figure or famous person accompanied by mystical symbols such as having a vision of a crucifix or an angel. Integral: A religious and/or mystical experience usually involving God or some other supernatural being or force. The person usually feels merged with or at one with the universe. This state has sometimes been called cosmic consciousness. Krippner and other experts believe that very few people are actually capable of attaining this level of consciousness. Tapped into a bit of Trance states: An alert but very suggestible state. An individual in a trance is focused on a single stimulus and oblivious to much of everything else going on around them: “induction of an empty trance matrix reduces the noise of thought and more or less suspends the normal and pathological frame of beliefs and references” I'm learning the power to induce ASCs through dance, quasi-drumming, music etc. Music functions in many different contexts to alter consciousness. Concepts of trance and ecstasy are linked to the amount of body movement to music. The activation pattern (blood flow) of brain regions (increased: ventral striatum, dorsomedial midbrain, insula, orbitofrontal cortex; decreased: amygdala, left hippocampus, ventromedial prefrontal cortex) shows a surprising similarity to activity patterns induced by drugs with a primarily euphoric effect Time Is the Key: Music and Altered States of Consciousness Starting from the auditory centers, the cascade of activation initializes changes in parts of the frontal cortex, the mesolimbic reward centers, and finally the nucleus accumbens, releasing waves of dopamine. As expected, the cerebellum and the basal ganglia, regions of the brain involved in dopamine, motor, and timing processes analyzing rhythm and meter in music, became active as well. Phasic increases in dopamine release happen when meaningful objects are in the focus of attention; the higher the personal meaning and valence of the object in focus, the more dopamine is released. One may organize the sounds and rhythms to culminate at a certain important point in the ritual and trigger endogenous processes

"We get so obsessed with the outward details that we forget the most important thing, which is to intuitively feel the essence of what we’re doing." I write a poem Cradled by the Divine Gaia Mother, in the afterglow of Moonlight Life sometimes comes with a bit of Hellish bite The Heavens open towards the Sunlight, quite a sight Maintaining balance between yin and a yang that's got more healthy actioned might As we head into another night, the energies balance in an emotional fight between the brain's hemispheres of left and right But the goal is to transcend that struggle to reach greater frontal cortical height Focusing on the positive sublimes the night, making things feel a bit more alright. Neurotically tight consciousness expands towards levels of Light Lately the Self energies for me have been to dissolve the crippling loop of mind "balance and bring to better harmony" and strengthening Heart. For me, that's also trying to find a Healthy Masculine in goal-directed doing but also balance with Healthy Feminine, rekindle receptivity, attune to hearty emotions, Presence, Being. What have they been for you? On cultivating deeper feeling and receptivity - It's quite a paradox I find, in order to feel receptivity to the world, tap into a feeling emotional space of deeper heart, I have to actively engage more with it. Socially, without much happening, it's like the brain generates it's own representations of the world pathologically which over-ride the Heart, to make up for the social lack. But when you engage actively, bring the Yang, the Yin flows back in balance? If there's one thing I've been good at manifesting, it's suffering in my life on all levels emotional, mental, physical, social, and spiritual. It's been kind of solve et coagula lately to dissolve all aspects and try to bring them back to a better balance My mind particularly has this amazing ability to latch onto everything but what really matters. We insist on learning through cold harsh intellect, but we neglect the need to purify our hearts and act from our hearts In a world busy of aimless doing, I've tried so hard to attune to that present moment feeling away from rigid analysis, receptivity and Being. I could never strengthen that aspect through trying structured mindfulness etc, focusing on breath etc just didn't work, I was too broken and dissociated, even my walks were losing receptive presence. I totally lost the ability to watch a movie etc, watch TV shows, not that I enjoy such but anyway, just seeking that being Present to Receive I always thought I would dive into an enhancing spiritual states through spiritual pursuit, but I've more recently discovered some spiritual experience through grounded action instead and want to pursue that. Sounds paradoxical to become more receptive to the world by seeking receptivity... Likewise I sometimes question if you get more spiritual by seeking spirituality? I found my most spiritual times have not been through active seeking but caused by breaking through hellish suffering, something like there being an equilibrium trying to restore. I couldn't find that day to day being present receptivity since I got ill. I've been finding it sometimes comes from action, in throwing yourself more at the world, with a bit of Yang, the Yin of present receptivity flows back at you. I go for my runs and find I'm more receptive etc. Anyone else find something like that? I don't seem to be the only person who finds this, “It came from action, through which I began discovering moments of presence in that state where the distinction between action and presence disappears.”

Tapping into emotional auditory-sensorimotor functioning as therapy. One of the interesting things to me was when I escaped my rigid analytical linguistic mind to try and move from explicit self-regulation to restoring implicit self-regulation recently, I got emotional and sensorimotor engagement back. That is a very under-developed aspect of myself. Brain-to-Brain, Body-to-Body we can tap into emotional sensorimotor psychotherapy with hoping to improve connection to a whole self and find interpersonal synchrony. Relying exclusively upon language is less than optimal for a myriad of reasons. Have you ever found yourself tapping your foot, nodding your head, or drumming with your fingers along to your favorite song? Chances are you have, and are unaware of the extensive neural connections firing throughout your brain attempting to keep timing and coordinate your movements. The non-verbal legacies of ill minds and trauma comprise three general areas of difficulty: dysregulated arousal, maladaptive procedural learning, and impaired sensory processing. Coupled with the socio-emotional-spiritual aspects How did this manifest for me? Simple uncoordinated finger tapping to music. Having quite an autistic brain (it's odd having the ASCs and autism), I've ranged from stereotypical hand flapping which is quite a common thing that can manifest in autism. You cannot force a rhythm, that's a big mistake. We see overlap in activated areas during synchronized sensorimotor and reward systems that facilitate interpersonal synchrony related to the brain's reward system and activity in the caudate but ONLY if the rhythm comes easily When distress is not tended to in a timely manner, the pathways between higher brain and these lower brain structures fail to develop, and the amygdala may be chronically overactive causing the person to be chronically hyperaroused. "neuroimaging based upon beat tapping experiments to a metronome show connections between the cerebellum, basal ganglia, and primary motor cortex. These are all areas known to be involved with coordination and motor control modulation that facilitate neurotransmission of action potentials throughout the body." Treatment that seeks to amend the profound effects of early trauma, illness, neglect, and attachment failure on the final wiring and function of the brain may be enhanced by interventions other than top-down “talking about.” Bottom-up interventions that work directly with movement, sensation, regulatory and sensory systems might address problems that originate in the reptilian and limbic systems, rather than the cortex. Brain-to-Brain, Body-to-Body: A Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Perspective: http://www.drbonniegoldstein.com/…/Ogden-Goldstein-Fisher-B… Cognitive Functioning of Drumming and Rhythm Therapy for Neurological Disorders: http://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_chanhonoproj/1983 It is said those characterised by “grossly non-reality-oriented ideation, abnormal perceptual experiences, profound emotional upheavals, and bizarre mannerisms” go through a shamanic resolution in five stages: 1. The Precondition: Fear; Feelings of Impotence and Failure; Guilt; 2. Preoccupation; Isolation; Estrangement; 3. Narrowing of attention; Self-initiated sensory deprivation; 4. The fusing of higher and lower referential processes; and 5. Cognitive Reorganization: “a reorganized set of perceptions and conceptions in which the structure of reality is “something else” How did I find my first attempts at feeling/engaging with music to the beats with quasi-drumming? I pushed past the 30min, it works quite well. It would be observed as being pretty uncoordinated so it's not like I'm going to do it at a drum circle but yeah... I feel like once again, throwing yang constructively brings more receptive yin Research reviews indicate that drumming enhances recovery through inducing relaxation and enhancing theta-wave production and brain-wave synchronisation. Drumming produces pleasurable experiences, enhanced awareness of preconscious dynamics, release of emotional trauma, and reintegration of self. Drumming alleviates self-centeredness, isolation, and alienation, creating a sense of connectedness with self and others. Drumming provides a secular approach to accessing a higher power and applying spiritual perspectives. [1] Exposure to 15 minutes of either repetitive drumming was sufficient to induce a decrease in cortisol levels. Exposure to rhythmic drumming sequences for 15 minutes, have been shown to be an efficient inducer of ostensibly shamanic imagery. The subjective experiences reported by participants were different between the groups receiving instructions for shamanic journeying and the groups receiving instructions for relaxation with studies reporting the evocation of ostensibly shamanic mental imagery in participants [2] the first step in a shamanic journey consists in finding an entrance to the so-called “Lower World”. Once this entrance is found, the participant may encounter his or her “power animal” or other “spirits”, in what is often experienced as a lucid dream. At the end of the journey, participants are led back to “everyday reality” by going back to the “entrance point” [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1447805/ [2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4085008/ Contrary to most music, I find I can learn to engage with music like this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOWwuZldfFQ

How we can view mental illnesses and why it's healing through a shamanic view: http://nautil.us/issue/58/self/a-mental-disease-by-any-other-name-rp "Excessive focus on distress weaponizes it into ressentiment, a state of reflexive anger about one’s position in the world that only adds to suffering rather than resolving it. All too often, therapists are complicit in this process, reflecting back and growing the distress of their clients. An obsession with individualized distress positions the client as a discrete and disempowered entity in the world." It's usually through some story that we become ill and that includes diagnoses. What if you undo that story and re-master yourself? We encourage a medicine of submission. Can you help me? Patients give all the power to Drs/therapists. It's priestly medicine. The idea that the Dr/therapist holds the truth needs to go. We need to regain Mastery and empowerment The only therapy worth doing is one of engagement. One of expansiveness, multiple views and complexity. Expansion vs. contraction - otherwise one promotes prototypical contracted states of consciousness are found in the fixations of neuroses, addictions, obsessions, compulsions, and attachments.

Thanks @Tøn for the encouraging words and sharing your story and pain, agree it can become an addictive high bordering on delusional and dysfunctional initially in itself finding that spirited connection, and a chase that's counterproductive. I hope you find enough time to continue your healing, some connecting time with nature and continue your healthy growth, well done for your current efforts. Best wishes on your journey, keep us updated.

How do you like to integrate a journey? How did I feel about being there? Was there confusion, fear, pain, joy, excitement, bliss? It's was an experience of Divine love, connection and re-finding pieces of my Soul, nourishing Spirit. Letting go of struggles in life, ingraining positive views when I was drowning in bleakness, and seeing more to who I can be. An experience of reconnecting to my Heart, To God, to Life, to Spirit How do I feel about it now, as I recall my experience? It was a pleasant, malleable friendly transpersonal state that I could use to empower myself to be a better me and to have greater compassion. What was the purpose to the journey? How does it relate to my life? What is my own sense of purpose? The Journey was to die to a loop of pathological Mind, to break free of a time in my life that was become stagnant with suffering. How do I view the collective human experience? How do I view my own human experience? Whereas before, I was jaded with humanity, I now see in new light. I see the good in life again, choose to live life as a gift, and pay forward that gift How do I see myself as part of society/the collective? I sense a deep connection to humanity. The blindness of judging others disappeared. I see the judgement I had towards others was a reflection of how I was judging myself. I see myself as having a role to play in the collective, whereas before I couldn't find a sustainable sense of meaning and purpose What is my role in the world? My role is to continue to make small steps to progress in health. To find small contributions to make to others along the journey. To enjoy life for once. How do I feel about the concept of God/Singularity now? How did I feel about it before the journey? Whereas before I had an anger towards concepts of God, which was holding me in anger against myself, I accept the concept as a personal concept that can evolve and bring a connection to people's lives, a relationship. I see deep connections to a collective point. What is my level of trust, in others, in life? What is the level of trust in myself? I had severe trust issues. I was struggling to regulate my emotions and as such couldn't attribute trust to anything. I was doubting myself, falling into self-denigration. I now feel trusting in myself and others that is good in me and good in the World. I now trust in a goodness to life, a Divine aspect of life. How do I feel about nature? I feel a deep connection to nature, as a nourishing influence in my life. As a place I can express love through nurturing nature and life in that aspect. What did I learn learn about my spirit? I wanted to learn to maintain a growing loving spiritual aspect in my life away from the rational-analytical obsessive. I found that positive upward emotional-spiritual spiral and see how I have to take action to maintain that in my life Why do I wish to explore consciousness? I wish to evolve in consciousness, in love, in connection with myself and others. Questions Ref

Some people may think my approach is 'crazy' but there's method to my madness. I felt so empty, so broken, unwhole. Transmuting through Fire Each step of Fire towards Compassionate Action Burning the Ill Passions, The Inaction, The Stagnation Of the Body, Mind, Heart and Soul Bringing each into Sacred Alignment, with Spirit To Heal the Body To Lift The Heart To Build the Spirit "The emotional body has gone haywire and the health of the body is in dire straits. But, we can change this rotten dynamic, this pervading stench that wreaks with me-ism. Don’t let the voice of crazy penetrate too deeply. Block it with the Heart-Fire of Transformation. Think it. Believe it. Love it. Project it. We better start loving our surroundings like never before. Better start loving our neighbor like never before. Better start loving our community like never before. And we better start loving our humanity like never before. The only values that need be honored are the values that sustain civility and harmony. Without these, we are lost." - Stefan Bright "Shamanic universals involve psychophysiological dynamics of altered states of consciousness (ASCs) and visionary experiences, metaphoric representations produced through integration of innate representational modules, and rituals that produce psychophysiological healing responses. ASCs reflect natural brain processes involving systemic integrative conditions." [1] It is possible through transpersonal experience to affect ego development. It can be things like situating the dream in one’s waking life context, association of dream elements or images, imaginative technique (drawing images or scenes; active imagination); and asking questions about the dream; amplification technique (cultural, archetypal levels); and ritual. "For generations, following a traumatic life event, healers used experiences that engaged more fully the brain’s right hemisphere than the left, including drumming, dance, and the use of symbols that appeared in the person’s dreams, art, and imagery. They used ceremony and sacred rituals to heal the soul pain and call back the spirit energy that had left at the time of trauma In Shamanic belief, when the mind separates from the body, as happens during dissociation, the human soul can fracture. When this happens, a part or parts of the soul can remain at the scene of the trauma, as thought frozen there in that space and time. Dissociation is viewed as an opportunity for the traumatized person to reclaim the soul parts and to experience a tremendous feeling of healing and wholeness. In Shamanic cultures, it is believed that during dissociation the spirit helpers place the traumatized person in an altered state. In this trance-like state, the person witnesses the soul part or parts in their frozen state. With the assistance of spiritual guides and helpers, the soul parts are removed from the trauma scene, taken to a safe place, offered a healing, and then reintegrated back into the larger and now more complete and whole soul. The first step: safety and healing The second step: updating and encouraging return The third step: soul and body integration and welcoming The fourth step: Processing and mental integration Illness points to a fragmentation, disconnection or imbalance that results in a loss of power of the individual; power refers to the power of Spirit that is present in all things, whether animate or inanimate. Psychologically speaking, loss of power can result from negative life experiences (e.g., trauma, addiction, poor self-esteem, etc.). Health is about wholeness, connection and balance; thus, the restoration of power to the individual From a shamanistic perspective, individuals can experience a psychological loss of power through negative life experiences or wounding, disconnection to self, others, spirit or higher power and culture. Healing from this process results in the emergence of a new self, which is, psychologically and spiritually, a deeply connected self. This is a therapeutic work that is done outside of the conventional psychotherapy but nonetheless can have a powerful effect on different areas of an individual’s life. Wooten (2007) speaks of this healing in terms of connection and health: “This reconnection is reparation of relatedness to self, to others, and to a presence greater than the isolated ego.” During trauma/high intensity illness, the amygdala records the highly charged emotions and sensations but if the exposure is severe enough the hippocampus can become overcharged and shut down. The traumatic event is then not recorded as explicit memory but is instead only recorded as implicit memory, and in the form of highly charged emotions and sensations Questions of meaning and purpose, symbolic expressions of soul brokenness, and dreams of searching, are of an existential nature, begging for a spiritual exploration. Yet numerous approaches to trauma care in use today do not address the spiritual aspects of trauma whereas in most societies, previous to the past five decades, those who attended to the ill, regardless of the causes of the illness, were spiritual specialists. In these cultures, the healer most often held a Shamanic view of reality. From this perspective, illness is viewed as a disharmony between the ill person’s body, mind, emotion and spirit and between the ill person and the larger environment. Healing requires a restoration of the harmonies of body, mind, emotion and spirit and includes a rebuilding of relationships with the Creator, the ancestors, other human beings and with all aspects of the environment" [2] [1] https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/…/2a1724969134aab523c02af5… [2] https://www.omicsonline.org/trauma-and-dissociation-neurolo… "Shamanic healing is an art form. There are no "right" way to perform a shamanic ritual or ceremony. While there may be similar elements each shaman's direction from their own Spirit Allies ultimately shapes the session." Three-dimensional reality of time and space is not 
the only way of seeing reality; it is not the only perspective. We are locked into an
 ego-state, which sees everything as solid, the universe is real, it’s here, and it’s 
tangible. But when we move out of that three-dimensional view we move into 
another reality. "Due to the age of rationalism and the Cartesian world view, what has happened is
 that all we recognise is the three-dimensional world view of time and space. We
 have lost contact with the imaginal realms, with the enchantment and magic of
 everyday life. If we look around what we see is soul loss at a personal and social
 level because we no longer trust our imagination. It’s seen as something that is 
suspect. It has led to “psychophobia” as I call it, fear of our own psyche and fear 
of going into those realms." The more I move myself (and my ego) out of the way, the more powerful the healing flows through me. In working in such close communion with Spirit, co-creation, manifestation, and true miracles are within grasp. The world around us feels different—magical, even—when we see ourselves as a contributing force within creation. "[we see] in recent times, is the whole area of
 psychoneuro-immunology [allows us] the use of the imaginal realm to influence
 physical healing. We find that the immune system responds to visualisation and 
guided imagery and this is the area where I see the connection between shamanism,
 physical health and psychotherapy. Shamanism, in fact, forms the core of all we do today in terms of medicine and
 psychology, because if you look at what the traditional shamans did and still do,
 they used art therapy, psychodrama, dance, gestalt, visualisation and music to
 promote healing. If you look at the practices of any shaman and you analyse it from a psychoanalytic 
or psychotherapeutic point of view you will find that much of what we think we 
have invented in the twentieth century has always traditionally been done by the 
shaman. Psychotherapy has limited itself to the emotional and psychological realm, 
but I think we need to move into what James Hillman and Thomas Moore term
 soul-work, re-souling the world in community, bringing people together to tell their
 story." http://iahip.org/inside-out/issue-35-winter-1998/shamanism-and-the-imaginal-realms Purifying and soothing the spirit through ritual, mending the gap between body-mind-spirit, finding heart empowerment again, evoking protection, evolving Love and Spirit. The psychological motifs are venting, cleansing, purifying, transforming the participants’ negative emotions and trauma into more meaningful experience by going through symbolic death and rebirth. We transform the Dark energies to Positive energy which promotes growth, action, innovation, renewal and optimism. It inspires equality between people, strengthened community and shared responsibilities. We participate in cleansing things such as anger, regret, sadness, and desperation. We try to ameliorate the wounds made by tragic events, serious illnesses and sudden deaths of beloved people. “Negative energy means heavy energy. It wants to slow things down and bring them to a stop. When the negative energy penetrates someone’s body it is hard to detect. If not addressed, it seeps through [us] Its purpose is to promote suffering and destruction in return for temporary power. It lives on fear, separation, revenge, and differences. It creates depression mentally and economically, and ultimately destroys individuals, society and the environment. It is our role ... to clear negative energies and replace them with positive energies that restore health and balance" Great Spirit: I call upon the white light of protection to come forth from the golden orb above my head, covering my entire body from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet, through each chakra extending through my entire aura. This light surrounds, protects, heals and guides me, going within to further protect, cleanse, purify and heal, totally permeating my entire being. I ask that any and all negative, sickly, jealous, evil, or mean energies, entities, spirits, guides, or vibrations that have attached themselves to me be sent back to their source, never to return. I ask this blessing with neither love nor hate, but for sake of the greatest good. I thank you. "It helps us feel less burdened, to reconnect to inner power and overcome bereavement process. It eventually facilitates participants to go back to their daily routines. Spiritual healing does not exist far away from their lives, but within the embodying experience of physical death and spiritual rebirth through rituals. Encountering spirits, especially in deep distress, may help people contact their unconscious to overcome their suffering, not only in the primitive cultures but also in the modern era, if it is well contained in sophisticated ritual and psychologically healthy frame." "If shamanic rites help the suffering people to contact with numinous entities and experience an in-depth journey, they may make spiritual temenos for healing and individuation process probably far better than modernized collective activities like watching TV, smartphone and internet. Modern people using technological devices seem to have become alienated from their own emotion. Meanwhile, shamanic rituals force people to show their affection and response" Motif of cleansing, purifying, venting and relieving one’s negative emotion or experience is observed in many religions, myths and cultures

Happy with the way my other Lacto-brews went. I prefer these so much to Kombucha. You know better what you're culturing (vs SCOBY's coming from all over the place) and can work with more sterility and introduce clean bioconverting probiotic sources This one's Probiotic Hibiscus, Matcha, Spearmint and Ashwagandha. I make a sterilised 2L tea (this has 25g/L hibiscus, spearmint and Matcha powder, 30g/L Ashwagandha [as these constituents can be more lipophillic, I add this as a powder to the brewed and strained tea at the end - using a standardised extract to prevent having bulk powder in the brew]) and use 6 tablespoons of raw sugar (keep conditions sterile apart from the starter culture) similar to this link: https://www.culturesforhealth.com/…/lacto-fermented-herbal…/ On cooling start it with a broad spectrum probiotic containing good counts of things with probiotic diversity including L. plantarum which are beneficial for bioconversions (check out Life-space probiotics for starters). It requires homogenisation before serving if you include things like ashwagandha. I have 200mL as my serving size. See more on the science here I enjoyed it as a beverage for awhile! Withania somnifera has been used in numerous Ayurvedic formulations owing to its wide array of health-promoting properties. It's used for it's adaptogenic effects in stress-induced dysfunctional homeostasis. Ashwagandha may be effective in enhancing both immediate and general memory in people with cognitive impairment as well as improving executive function, attention, and information processing speed. It can serve as a nootropic and withanolides are promising drug candidates against innate inflammations. Withanolides are therapeutic canditates in inflammation-mediated chronic diseases (including arthritis, autoimmune, cancer, neurodegenerative, and neurobehavioral). These naturally derived compounds exhibit remarkable biologic activity across these complex disease processes, while showing minimal adverse effects. W. somnifera extract may be beneficial as a safe and effective adjunct to SSRIs in the treatment of OCD. It inhibits microglial activation and migration and may prove to be a potential therapeutic candidate for the suppression of neuroinflammation in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. I've had good luck with growing Ashwagandha at the community garden some time ago. It's root is really nice gentle adaptogenic, antianxiety and mood medicine with some pro-cognitive and neuroprotective benefits, I've done lots of root and a fair bit of leaf - "When brewed as a tea, the leaves may help to regulate blood glucose (blood sugar) in the body, increase energy and support mental clarity and attention." It seems to require more cautious dosing, the leaf due to the high levels of Withaferin A, one withanolide which is cytotoxic, needs some caution. Withaferin A also has intriguing use as a TLR4 antagonist. I've explored the fruit but not much. Saving this seed for growing but it's worth mentioning the benefits of the fruit. Efficacy and Safety of Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal) Root Extract in Improving Memory and Cognitive Functions Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal) is a staple therapeutic in the Indian Ayurvedic system of medicine, and is classified as a Rasayana or an “adaptogen.” It also belongs to a sub-group of Rasayanas known as Medhyarasayanas. Medhya refers to the memory and intellectual capacity. One of ashwagandha’s prescribed applications is for treatment of memory and cognitive deficit following injury, illness, or simply old age. Preclinical studies have indicated a potential role of ashwagandha as a nootropic, promoting cognitive function and enhancing memory, presumably due to its cholinomimetic activity. Results have been promising for neurological disorders such traumatic brain injury, brain tumor, and neurodegenerative pathologies. Efficacy of ashwagandha extracts and isolated constituents has been reported in experimental models of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD), which are associated with the disruption of neural networks and premature death of neurons. Clinical studies with ashwagandha have shown promise in bipolar disorder, enhancing cognitive and psychomotor performance, and ameliorating cognitive dysfunction. ...daily treatment with ashwagandha for a period of eight weeks produced significant enhancement versus placebo in a battery of cognitive tests designed to assess memory (p 0.05), executive function (p 0.03), and attention and information-processing speed (p < 0.01). Ashwagandha root has been found to possess antioxidant, neuroprotective, antiinflammatory, antidepressant, anxiolytic, and immunomodulating activities. Plant-derived compounds from ashwagandha have shown significant potential as an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, which would support its utility for the treatment of MCI and AD. Working memory can be modulated by drugs having dopaminergic activity and a number of studies have found that ashwagandha root can stimulate the dopaminergic system of the brain. A number of animal studies and clinical trials support the nootropic activity of ashwagandha. Evidence indicating neuroprotective effects of ashwagandha supports its therapeutic efficacy in MCI and AD patients Ashwagandha also possesses anti-stress, anxiolytic, and sedative properties. These may be indirectly involved in improving memory and cognition in human subjects, as stress, anxiety, and sleep disorders can affect normal cognitive function Ashwagandha may be effective in enhancing both immediate and general memory in people with MCI as well as improving executive function, attention, and information processing speed. It appears to improve auditory-verbal working memory (digit span backward), a measure of reaction time, and a measure of social cognition in bipolar disorder. [1] Fruits of Withania are reported to possess several bioactive compounds as curative agents for various clinical conditions. 82 chemically diverse metabolites consisting of organic acids, fatty acids, aliphatic and aromatic amino acids, polyols, sugars, sterols, tocopherols, phenolic acids and withanamides were found in the fruits of W. somnifera. Withanamides, the primary active constituents in W. somnifera fruit extract exhibited neuroprotective effects. The fruits have relatively strong antiproliferative activity. They may improve antioxidant status and reduce proinflammatory markers. "The healing benefits of Ashwagandha reach far beyond the brain into all areas of the body, for if one does not have health in the brain, one is sure to falter in the “lower” body systems. Let us take a closer look at this herb and its multidimensional components. The Brain Through the regulation of the neurotransmitter serotonin in the brain, Ashwagandha helps the body find greater peace of mind as well as effectively bringing down the production of cortisol, which, when consistently produced, contributes to a perpetual state of stress. Studies have actually shown that the use of Ashwagandha was, in many cases, more effective than anti-depressants in balancing out brain chemistry. Holistic Healing When looking at the overall profile of this herb, I am led to the conclusion that Ayurvedic medicine found value in it because of its ability to address a patient as a whole being – including and acknowledging the mind, body, spirit connection as equal portions of a whole. What begins in the head continues to the feet. The ingestion of Ashwagandha cannot only affect the brain, in other words - if benefiting a person with imbalances in the head, it is inevitable that balancing the brain chemistry would domino into an array of body-adjustments proving helpful to the entire person as a whole. Stress Today's world is kept high-paced, emphasizing value in the enormous amount of stress that is both generated and recycled throughout the system and within man. The constant expectation kept on “fast” and “instant” has created people who are constantly running from one thing to another, jumping from thought to thought and carrying stress along as if it was a cherished passenger from the past – into an unknown future they most surely must include. Stress is not a friend, however, except when consulted in small doses, and on the occasion where lives are being saved and quick-turn decisions are needed. But in the way that this world has employed stress and anxiety to “take care” of time and deadlines, to inform the heart and the mind of the value of things...this stress has become a tyrant which eventually transforms into the grim-reaper for many. Adaptogen Ashwagandha has a way of soothing the soul, calming the mind, nourishing the body. It is a well-known adaptogen in India, which means it is able to bring the body back into a state of balance where stresses are handled with ease and without harm to the system. Basically, this herb makes you more resilient in a world where much is expected of you, even when you don't feel able to fully deliver. Self-Judgment and Anxiety Some of the biggest stresses in the body result from the way in which we conduct our self-talk. Societal expectations then become judgmental mind chatter, which berates the self for not being able to keep up, make do or “make ends meet.” The constant need to “keep up with the Jones's” has created a perpetual anxiety in humanity which cannot help but create illness in both body and mind. This self-deprecating stress is also the biggest killer of spiritual connectedness. When one feels “less than” those around him or her, he or she often cannot find the inner fortitude and strength to care for oneself and the psyche of the mind, which includes spirituality." https://basmati.com/2017/…/12/healing-whole-self-ashwagandha

Say Yes, Choose To Make A Difference – The Butterfly Effect Each of us is like that butterfly, The Butterfly Effect. And each tiny move toward a more positive mindset can send ripples of positivity through out to ... our families, and our communities. – Shawn Achor Every action and every non-action matters. Every choice you make or don’t make matters. Will you fully live your life, or just continue to exist? Your time as a caterpillar has ended. Will you take up your life purpose, your wings? If you have said yes in the past, is it time to trade in the smaller wings for a large pair? To expand your comfort zone? To acknowledge and accept your bigger purpose in this world? I had been one of those people who could disappear into a crowd. Now I can’t do it. It is no longer natural. It now feels uncomfortable.... How did I go for today's goals: A level of meaning, achievement, purpose. Basic Self-care: couple of runs ✓, tidy up my desk ✓, address some simple chores ✓. Cleaned up around the garden ✓ Psychological care: I've done some psychological reading today. I'll affirm myself throughout the day with encouraging compassion ✓. I'll assert some meaning and purpose by gift giving ✓. Social care: I have time with friends this afternoon, a shortish get together. I've got in touch with people ✓, restored some social connections Spiritual care: I'll take time to connect with myself ✓, the beyond me and love ✓ Tomorrow something similar but it involves a trip on the bus and train to friends. Transmuting through Fire Each step of Fire towards Compassionate Action Burning the Ill Passions, The Inaction, The Stagnation Of the Body, Mind, Heart and Soul Bringing each into Sacred Alignment, with Spirit To Heal the Body To Lift The Heart To Build the Spirit "The emotional body has gone haywire and the health of the body is in dire straits. But, we can change this rotten dynamic, this pervading stench that wreaks with me-ism. Don’t let the voice of crazy penetrate too deeply. Block it with the Heart-Fire of Transformation. Think it. Believe it. Love it. Project it. We better start loving our surroundings like never before. Better start loving our neighbor like never before. Better start loving our community like never before. And we better start loving our humanity like never before. The only values that need be honored are the values that sustain civility and harmony. Without these, we are lost." - Stefan Bright Finding our fire [1] "Traditionally, the subtle inner fire is considered the main agent of inner transformation, the one without which spiritual evolution would not be possible. From here comes the immense importance of the harmonious awakening of this aspect... Rise up to the blaze which doesn’t burn This fire can occur at all levels of being. By the help of this sublime interior fire we destroy by inner burning all traumas, stress and spiritual wounds. For this kind of fire causes true states of catharsis accompanied at times, especially for women, by a purifying, regenerative weeping, showing the burning and annihilation of toxic subtle energies that lasted for a long time in their inner universe, causing tension, pain, seclusion and even disease. Such a fire, however, destroys and annihilates forever all impurities, all mental misery, and all ills. The sublime inner fire helps the harmonious functioning The awakening and harmonious activation of this sublime inner fire brings dozens of benefits and crystallizes spiritual virtues and physical, psychological, mental and spiritual qualities - on one condition: the presence in our lives of that gram of practice. Only intense personal practice will help us discover the wonders produced by the presence of subtle inner fire and all the extraordinary transformations that it makes possible!" Shamanism and the Imaginal Realms "Shamanic healing is an art form. There are no "right" way to perform a shamanic ritual or ceremony. While there may be similar elements each shaman's direction from their own Spirit Allies ultimately shapes the session." Three-dimensional reality of time and space is not 
the only way of seeing reality; it is not the only perspective. We are locked into an
 ego-state, which sees everything as solid, the universe is real, it’s here, and it’s 
tangible. But when we move out of that three-dimensional view we move into 
another reality. "Due to the age of rationalism and the Cartesian world view, what has happened is
 that all we recognise is the three-dimensional world view of time and space. We
 have lost contact with the imaginal realms, with the enchantment and magic of
 everyday life. If we look around what we see is soul loss at a personal and social
 level because we no longer trust our imagination. It’s seen as something that is 
suspect. It has led to “psychophobia” as I call it, fear of our own psyche and fear 
of going into those realms." The more I move myself (and my ego) out of the way, the more powerful the healing flows through me. In working in such close communion with Spirit, co-creation, manifestation, and true miracles are within grasp. The world around us feels different—magical, even—when we see ourselves as a contributing force within creation. "[we see] in recent times, is the whole area of
 psychoneuro-immunology [allows us] the use of the imaginal realm to influence
 physical healing. We find that the immune system responds to visualisation and 
guided imagery and this is the area where I see the connection between shamanism,
 physical health and psychotherapy. Shamanism, in fact, forms the core of all we do today in terms of medicine and
 psychology, because if you look at what the traditional shamans did and still do,
 they used art therapy, psychodrama, dance, gestalt, visualisation and music to
 promote healing. If you look at the practices of any shaman and you analyse it from a psychoanalytic 
or psychotherapeutic point of view you will find that much of what we think we 
have invented in the twentieth century has always traditionally been done by the 
shaman. Psychotherapy has limited itself to the emotional and psychological realm, 
but I think we need to move into what James Hillman and Thomas Moore term
 soul-work, re-souling the world in community, bringing people together to tell their
 story.

To me lately there has been an opportunity to balance energies. The Galangal affirmed that for me. Just as the plants give unconditionally to us, they remind us to live life as a gift and pay it forward, even when struggling Some plants can take you to new levels of Self and Spirit, it can be an addictive thing self-discovery/development but in the end, what matters? To me, it's always what we've done on Earth from our Hearts for others. I had to temporarily move a bit away from propagating things because my inner resources weren't coping. With a bit of spirit yesterday got back into that, getting through that stagnation vs community generative potential by potting up some nice rooted plants I can't rely on medicines to do the work for me, they can be of assistance but it's an active thing for me to do Today's challenge for me is finding physical-psycho-social-spiritual balance using the "Goldilocks approach". They offer events for mental health but neglect that a day out can be a depleting, challenging time. I can handle a morning in the Community Garden at my pace, going to the Botanic Gardens for a short time, do a walking group, a quick trip to the city. Some time with friends. A bit of community endeavor through propagating plants but more that that, I break down. What's a day that gives me meaning, achievement, purpose etc? Basic Self-care: Today I am going to go for a couple of runs, tidy up my desk, address some simple chores. Psychological care: I've done some psychological reading today. I'll affirm myself throughout the day with encouraging compassion. I'll assert some meaning and purpose by gift giving. Social care: I have time with friends this afternoon, a shortish get together. I've got in touch with people, restored some social connections Spiritual care: I'll take time to connect with myself, the beyond me and love.

I like this view: An important part of healing is to repair this sense of separateness within ourselves and from others. How can we regain our “spirituality”, and our deep connection to all life in difficult times? What happens when we open an inner connection to our creative, happy and loving self, Soul? An Evolutionary and Developmental Science Framework for Integrating Attachment, Mentalization, and Mindfulness: Implications for Religious Practice and Moral Development The quality of attachment relations affects the development of an individual’s moral sensibilities and the capacity to experience empathy for others. Positive and loving early experiences cultivate a prosocial morality and empathy. Mentalisation-based therapists seek to increase the client’s mentalisation capacity within a secure and emotionally-attuned relationship. Early attachment relations have a profound effect on the basic cognitive, affective, and social neuro-development, what happens if these don't form properly? What happens if you “keep the mind in mind,” or attune to, reflect upon, and articulate the inner world back to the you? Adequate mentalising of the inner world lays the foundation for the person to understand that our mental experiences of self and others are representations of reality, not reality itself. This is a cornerstone for the development of attentional control, affect regulation, language skills, and, extended autobiographical narratives of self and world. Without this, neural and functional deficits in mentalisation and the re-emergence of “pre-mentalisation” states like “psychic equivalence” (equating internal and external reality) and “pretend mode” (separating internal and external reality), associated with personality and affective disorders The God representation can serve punitive or compensatory functions in the psyche, depending on the dynamics. It continues to evolve and be used as a dynamic construct over the lifespan. Mental representations of the omnipotent and omnipresent God of the Western monotheistic religions serve attachment-related functions It provides a “stronger and wiser” figure that provides devotees with comfort and love during times of stress (safe haven) and with strength and support to deal with life’s challenges (secure base)

That's the one, I'll try to get better referencing just sometimes when I'm in uplifted spirits, my hyper-reference mode dissolves a bit. True, it's an older paper, I'm just trying to find bits and pieces that consolidate a healthier view for me. Some of the more new age stuff leads to issues IMO. Good at cherry picking for my needs Appreciate your kind words @Anodyne. I really appreciate the level of knowledge and critical reflection and questioning you bring to the forums. Thank you

What if we moved out of pathology, restored hope and viewed illness as an initiation into an energy of awakening, enlivening, and of recovery? Many ancient narratives involves a descent, which can be seen as a rite of passage, or initiation into a more cohesive yet differentiated relationship between the ego and the Self. We need to adopt a person-oriented process that involves self-determination/choice, and growth potential and addresses the biopsychosocial-spiritual. Lots of religions have valid spiritual teachings if used correctly, here's just one example. Initiation and Individuation: The Shamanic Journey in the Judeo-Christian Tradition Given the psychological and spiritual aspects of mental illness, an intervention that addresses these using spiritual resources in addition to psychological resources may be particularly effective. It can result in psychological symptoms (eg, shame, guilt, rage) and spiritual symptoms (eg, spiritual struggles, moral concerns, loss of meaning, self-condemnation, difficulty forgiving, loss of faith, loss of hope). Diminishing ego function and "encouraging the emotion of awe has been described by the psychologists Dacher Keltner and Jonathan Haidt as a combination of two elements: a sense of vastness—in terms of size or power or prestige—and a “need for accommodation”—a desire to somehow accommodate the experience into one’s worldview. If awe reduces a sense of certainty, then it should also lead to pattern-finding and thus greater religious belief." In a sense, It allows “imaginal dialogues,” conversations between self and other that happen in the mind. These can be therapeutic because the reality to which someone responds is always partly of their own creation, and an imagined therapist (an immaterial God necessarily must be imagined) can thus re-create that reality as effectively as a human one. When God becomes that therapist, It’s obviously different from ordinary psychotherapy because the “therapist” is more powerful than any human therapist and also more perfect. Individuals higher on Spirituality/religiosity (S/R) also reported less substance use, risky behaviours, and better affect. It is important to target inaccurate or maladaptive beliefs—called stuck points—that result in guilt, shame, and self-blame, rendering individuals stuck. Forgiveness (Recall, Empathize, Altruism, Committing, and Holding on) and possible targets of forgiveness (ie, self, others, God). The impact that trauma and mental illness can have on one’s spiritual well-being is explained and spiritual distress is normalised. Lament is introduced as a formal expression of sorrow and spiritual grief. By focusing on cognitive restructuring using spiritual/religious resources (ie, spiritual beliefs, practices, sacred writings, values, and motivations) it is possible to challenge maladaptive thinking patterns. One can instill spiritual concepts and rituals of compassion, grace, spiritual guided imagery, repentance, confession, forgiveness, atonement, blessing, restitution, and making amends. You can build Forgiveness, Esteem and Trust Address Power, Control, and Spiritual Discrepancies: Spiritual discrepancies and spiritual issues related to power, such as anger at God, the limited nature of human perspective, free will, and active surrender, are discussed. The theme of intimacy related to self, others, and God can be explored. Spiritual partnerships are discussed, both in terms of how trauma and MI can impact these relationships and how deepening or reengaging in spiritual partnerships/community can help with the healing process. Spiritual Partnerships and Intimacy: The theme of safety related to self, others, and God/divine can be explored "Just as the sun also rises each day to birth the dawn, this novice-initiate of life’s unfolding may also know an inner resuscitation or renewal – one marked by expansion, cohesion, and an intimate connection to the mystery that emerges from the sacred sourced deep within." Each day through enacting their deep mysteries, psyche renews herself day by day. Rather than “suffering from,” the imperative becomes to “suffer into” as a path towards personal wholeness. Individual suffering takes on meaning, then, rather than serving as a narcissistic or cathartic – but not transformative – experience in itself. (1) an initial separation, marked by (2) a return to origins, followed by (3) a rebirth This can additionally be framed this patterning as preliminal, liminal, and postliminal One experiences: (1) a separation or break from that which is familiar, functional, ordinary or “normal” (van Gennep’s preliminal stage); (2) the initiate needs to enter into a period described variously as chaotic, messy, liminal, or radically unstructured, both internally in one’s (lack of a sense of) psychic cohesion and/or in society; for example, living on the fringes of society, perhaps in an alternative communal setting, or simply spending a period of one’s life in solitude or on pilgrimage; (3) there is a sense of re-emergence, or “coming together” with the whole again – whether internally/psychically, or externally/socially. This can be seen psychologically as an increased sense of cohesion of the new self, now expanded with greater awareness or differentiated wholeness (i.e., more individuated), or socially/relationally as re-entering society or the family from the perspective gained post-initiation. The tripartite structure in many ways mirrors Edinger’s (1972) stages of ego development (inflation, alienation, individuation). "Because individuation is an heroic and often tragic task, the most difficult of all, it involves suffering, a passion of the ego… [which] suffers, so to speak, from the violence done to [it] by the [.S]elf….Through the Christ-symbol, man can get to know the real meaning of his suffering: he is on the way towards realizing his wholeness…. The cause of suffering is… “incarnation,” which on the human level appears as “individuation.” It is only through the loss of self that this person may find rebirth in new life. This occurs psychologically as the death and integration of the ego through its contact with the numinous Self, which is often experienced as a death.

Finding what a full spectrum living a life plan is for yourself is important. Sinking into another's 'recovery model' is dis-empowering, it's what works for you. You should do this, do that, hurry up - simply doesn't work. I jumped into volunteering, forced myself to feel productive and validated through activities when I wasn't keeping enough care of myself going, just makes you crash and burn. Self-worth can't be generated through an activity IMO, it has to be valuing yourself as you are, where you are. It can be enhanced by meaning and purpose through activities but it has to come from yourself, not be hinged on the outer world. I think the fundamentals of self-care health are diet, exercise, self-defined social, addressing personal psychological - find your own tools that help your mind - if inclined spiritual then you can potentially address more engagement with the world and medicinal options if needed. Pretty much in that order. Before you can chip away at anything in the world productively, you need some real self-care from the ground up. IMO if you try and build and sustain momentum to do things that other people think you should be doing, when that's too much you'll get worse, it needs to come at your sustainable healthy pace. I've tried pushing myself to expectations many times, it easily fails and does more harm than good. It starts with giving a crap about yourself and your inner world. Being comfortable with you as you are, an attitude of friendliness towards yourself, self-compassion without rushing into the world to feel completed by an activity or another person. If you don't have a feeling of initial self-respect and self-worth, evolving self-love, you go nowhere and stay seeking external solutions, validations and fixes. If you can generate that internal feeling of self-love, the world out there starts to become more loving. There's a progressive outward spiral into the world that becomes less and less self-centric as you move through those but it's not selfish to take better care of yourself, you cant be a helpful influence to others when you're ill. I find if I jump, try tackling the social too quick, without self-care basics addressed, I fall into a heap, you can try for awhile but it's not sustainable. Diet I've covered quite extensively, that's hugely important to feed quality nutrition and keep it going. The social sphere doesn't always offer success and continuous positive encounters, so you need something individual you can work on. Could be a hobby but I find exercise is important for it's healing potential. Diving into more self-less activities can be too intense if you don't have fundamentals addressed. Exercise is a super good stepping stone I believe. That gives a continuous sense of meaning and purpose. improves self-esteem. Gives you SMART goals. You can achieve something every day and push yourself for a sense of achievement. It becomes a stress regulatory activity as well as potentially an active meditation exercise in Nature. What happens when you turn away from the social? I've been progressively ditching the world, what does that do? You get a rapid increases in depressive symptoms, self-worth declines, you get jaded with world, increased fearfulness of social situations (sometimes resulting in paranoia) develops Your HPA axis dysregulates, you'll get an abnormal stress response over nothing, executive function rapidly deteriorates, oxytocin (the “social hormone”) function is apparently decreased; brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), one of the most abundant background facilitators of neuronal plasticity and nerve health, is decreased; and allopregnanolone, an important health-positive neurosteroid in the brain, is also decreased. -areas of the brain having to do with the perception of (social) pain are strongly activated -gray matter density decreases in an area of the brain related to social perception -areas of the brain having to do with “mentalization” (imagining other people’s minds) are decreased in activity -the brain (in the all-important amygdala, for example) shows increased activity, with decreased recovery in response to negative stimuli Ref https://www.health.harvard.edu/…/im-so-lonesome-i-could-cry… The personal psychological you can work through, so too some spiritual, they become self-learning and self-development.

My polyphenol/carotenoid etc spruced diet got somewhere but there's still severe relapse-remitting symptoms with such. Tailoring a balanced typical diet is healing but isn't the cure-all. Exercise is helping. So too attitude etc. I'm also noticing, to discount using alkaloids is short-sighted. I had a good break from our nitrogenous bases bar nicotine and some caffeine for awhile, I wasn't using them very well but they're potent allies. Role of Plant Derived Alkaloids and Their Mechanism in Neurodegenerative Disorders "There are several drugs, but they do not possess the efficacy to amend the disease progression, rather they exert copious side effects. Plant derived components or phytomedicines such as alkaloids and flavonoids have been used from the ancient times against neurodegenerative and mental disorders. They have been potentially proved as the most effective management and therapeutic agents to minimize the crucial aspects of such disorders such as AD, PD, stroke and schizophrenia" I'm learning you can mindlessly ingest a plant, expect it to take you somewhere, or you can reciprocally work with it on a deeper level... it sounds airy fairy to work with a plant as a spirit ally, a conscious entity but sometimes bringing an aliveness and alive connection to the medicines gives a different result. Interacting with it as a reciprocal relationship energy just gives a layer of deeper connection. You can catalyse something different. I noticed that the other day. "Sit down with a plant you are drawn to... Settle into quiet stillness... Move your awareness within, to your inner body environment. Breathe slowly and deeply, feeling the pleasure of your breath as it moves through you. Greet your body as a beloved friend, bringing your compassionate awareness to every part of your body, allowing your breath to keep your mind anchored in the awareness of any body sensations. As you come into the presence of your body and heart, invite the plant in, becoming aware of the energy and feel of the plant as it enters your body. Follow the subtle energy of the plant and sensations it produces as it moves to different places within you. Continue to breathe deeply, allowing your mind to calm, and relax into a space of receiving. With no expectations, just an openness to connect, greet yourself and the plant from your heart. Do not wait for anything; instead, actively welcome this friend and ally into your inner realms. Allow your heart to guide you into listening and feeling the plant’s energy as it washes through you. Open the eyes of your cells, dropping into the consciousness of your organs and body tissues. Allow your consciousness to move through your body as you breathe, following any sensations as they come and go. Witness how the plant interacts with you and feel how your body interacts with it. Welcome the plant in... Relax into receiving whatever medicine the plant has for you, opening to enjoy this moment of connection to yourself, your body, and to plant consciousness. Allow your body to receive the medicine it’s needing, quieting your mind, and letting go into this space of rest. Following your breath, continue to relax into receiving and welcoming the plant into your heart. Allow yourself to show up with all of your truth, all of what you are carrying in your heart and body. As you feel ready, relax into opening any hidden places within, places that are suffering, and invite the plant there. Ask for healing touch where you need it most. Greet yourself and your body with compassion and tenderness. Use this time with the plant to take you into the places within you that have been in need of your tenderness and listening. Allow the consciousness and energy of the plant to move through you one place to the next, feeling its way through you as it communicates with your body. Allow your organs, cells, and fluids to receive the plant’s energy in the places that need it most. Breathe, held in the arms of the plant spirit, and let go of resistance. Give your body the nourishment and help it’s needing, resting and surrendering into the healing process. Let go of control, welcoming all that arrives along the journey of healing. Listen with a brave heart to all the voices within and to the guidance of the compassionate spirits. Ask the plant to show itself to you. Welcome its energy and spirit into your body as if welcoming a beloved friend into your house. Meet it there under your skin. If you are bathing in the plant, smoking it, using it externally in massage, or covering yourself in it’s sacred smoke, invite the spirit of the plant in. Listen to the messages coming from your body as you take the plant in. Call the spirit of the plant to you until you feel its energy and presence arrive. If nothing comes, keep dropping into your body, relax, and continue to invite. Ask to enter into sacred relationship with this green intelligence. Allow any messages or images that come through you as you journey with the plant, letting go of expectations or assumptions, and allow the plant carry you where it does. Lay back into the arms of this ally, inviting it to dream with you, opening to receive its intelligence, its memories, and its landscapes. Let your consciousness open to the plant. If your thoughts drift, bring yourself back to your body sensations, back into your breath, gazing again from your heart into the eyes of the spirit who has come to greet you. Return to listening and receiving, with honor and gratitude for who is with you." [1] The bisbenzylisoqinoles are nice tonics, they also add an interesting dimension to other medicines. Balanced with some polyphenols and polysaccharides in their medicine, which is neat. There's current interesting research on the β-carbolines, too, also covered in this article. Loss of inhibitory tone in amygdala with its subsequent overactivation contributes to the development of multiple mental disorders. It's possible with β-carbolines to selectively potentiate the inhibitory but not excitatory transmission onto the amygdala projection neurons, which may contribute to its antidepressant and anxiolytic influence.

Had a good plant medicine session which made me decide to take up daily running with mindful time in nature. EE as a tool can't be discounted. While I'm used to doing brisk walks each day, a run is so much better. They're not the longest at the moment, do a sprint then walk then sprint for as long as I can to go around the block a bit. Seems even acutely, just a couple of days of it superior to brisk walks for a long time etc. Why discounting exercise as a mental health aid is short-sighted I think it hits self esteem really hard when you suffer from depression, anxiety or just the occasional low’ ‘Exercise can be really intimidating because you’re forced to put yourself in front of other people doing something you may not necessarily be good at – which can obviously be really scary. ‘So it’s easier to sh*t on something than try doing it. Novel approaches to alcohol rehabilitation: Modification of stress-responsive brain regions through environmental enrichment Relapse remains the most prominent hurdle to successful rehabilitation from alcoholism. The neural mechanisms underlying relapse are complex, but our understanding of the brain regions involved, the anatomical circuitry and the modulation of specific nuclei in the context of stress and cue-induced relapse have improved significantly in recent years. In particular, stress is now recognised as a significant trigger for relapse, adding to the well-established impact of chronic stress to escalate alcohol consumption. It is therefore unsurprising that the stress-responsive regions of the brain have also been implicated in alcohol relapse, such as the nucleus accumbens, amygdala and the hypothalamus. Environmental enrichment is a robust experimental paradigm which provides a non-pharmacological tool to alter stress response and, separately, alcohol-seeking behaviour and symptoms of withdrawal. In this review, we examine and consolidate the preclinical evidence that alcohol seeking behaviour and stress-induced relapse are modulated by environmental enrichment, and these are primarily mediated by modification of neural activity within the key nodes of the addiction circuitry. Finally, we discuss the limited clinical evidence that stress-reducing approaches such as mindfulness could potentially serve as adjunctive therapy in the treatment of alcoholism. Besides modulating stress hormone production in the periphery, environmental enrichment also regulates stress response by affecting central brain regions. Perceiving repeated aversive events can cause one to become chronically stressed. Chronic activation of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis can have deleterious consequences on physiological parameters and behaviour (e.g. emotional reactivity, stereotypies, cognition). Environmental enrichment is a robust paradigm which provides a non-pharmacological tool to alter stress response and seems to alter mood and things like risk of relapse. Neurogenesis is stimulated by enriched environments, exercise, and learning and is inhibited by stress and aging. Even the stages of neurogenesis are influenced by these environmental factors. Enrichment and exercise stimulate the proliferation of neural stem cells 1 week of EE is reportedly sufficient to elicit increased cell proliferation and differentiation in the amygdala of adult non-drinking mice, resulting in greater numbers of oligodendrocytes and astrocytes and likely impact higher order brain regions. Physical activity is often investigated as an easily dissociable component of environmental enrichment and elevating the level of physical activity has consistently been reported to modify behaviour, including alcohol seeking etc. "The benefits of EE are well-accepted to be driven primarily through increased neuronal plasticity. This broadly involves alterations to the physiological properties of neurons, enhanced LTP, firing rates and network rhythms, most of which are wellcharacterised by studies of the hippocampus and cortical regions The impact of EE on neuronal networks and region-to-region signalling could account for enrichment-mediated modifications of drugseeking behaviour, e.g. the prevention of drug-induced reinstatement attributed to the modulation of infralimbic cortex activity and reduced cue-induced reinstatement associated with increased perineuronal net intensity within the medial prefrontal cortex"

5HT1A/2A receptor subtypes play an important role in the modulation of socio-cognitive functioning and therefore may be relevant for the treatment of social cognition deficits. They may be important for the normalisation of empathy deficits and increased negative reaction to social exclusion in depressed patients. Recent findings show it is possible to reduce the neural response to negative emotional stimuli and ameliorate social pain in key brain regions responsible for emotion processing and social interactions. There seems to be a strong effect of 5-HT2ARs in mediating things like happiness, trust, closeness to others, enhanced explicit and implicit emotional empathy and impairing the recognition of sad and fearful faces. The neural response to social exclusion in the ACC – a brain region associated with ‘social pain”- was reduced by 5-HT2A/1A agonist administration compared to placebo. Furthermore, emotional empathy was enhanced 5-HT2 receptors seem to mediate robustly improved behavioural flexibility, elements of prosociality and emotionality, some aspects of mood improvement and reduction of obsessive compulsive aspects. They also are suggested to cause a shift towards 'active coping' while 5-HT1ARs might mediate 'passive coping'. What happens when you choose or bias a plant medicine's actions towards 5-HT1AR but include other serotonergic elements? What element does 5-HT1A bring to their therapeutic potential? I've been biasing my medicines towards 5-HT1ARs lately and amplifying them in that direction. Utilising a 5-HT1A biased medicine approach seems to personally encourage a more friendly emotional aspect towards self and other IMO. Less fear of ego dissolution etc. The stronger 5-HT1A background seems to promote some prosocial aspects and axiolysis while you're working with a medicine. Brings a stronger empathetic heart dimension. Examples of medicines with strong 5-HT1A mediated effects include stronger heart medicines and things like this include DPT and 5-MeO-DiPT: DPT found quite a bit of use awhile back as a shorter acting option. According to therapists' ratings, there was a significant enhancement in recall of memories and experiences, greater emotional expressiveness, deeper levels of self-exploration, and greater psychodynamic resolution. 5-MeO-DIPT is generally known to generate more empathogenic qualities. To me, 5-HT2A agonism has a key role on emotionality (including empathy), spirituality and boundaries between self and other. It also has a strong beneficial effect on behavioural flexibility at seeming even sub-blatantly psychoactive levels. To me, 5-HT1A receptors are, as literature suggests, involved in mediating the emotional state I consider more selective 5-HT2A agonists can be quite counter-productively mind-trippy, they can induce pure loops of mind crap at times. I've always gravitated to ones with naturally more 5-HT1A affinity as being better medicines. 5-HT1A receptor agonism may act to buffer 5-HT2A-mediated effects. 5-HT1ARs are implicated in the prosocial effects of empathogens but that action may be codependent on 5-HT2ARs. 5-HT2A receptors may strongly influence the emotional state, they seem to be 'valves to experiencing self and other' Antagonism of 5-HT2A prevents the prosocial behaviours. 5-HT1A receptors are believed to be crucial in physiological processes linked to emotional balance While it's not always the case that co-agonism of 5-HT1A reduces the intensity of an experience of a classical 5-HT2A (partial) agonist, consider 5-MeO-DMT which is a potent 5-HT1A agonist with lesser 5-HT2A affinity (5-MeO-DMT alters cortical activity via both 5-HT1A and 5-HT2A receptors) - What intrigues me is the therapeutic potential of serotonergics with stronger 5-HT1A effects. Targeting this receptor over a light background of 5-HT2A mediated effect. The action of 5-MeO-DMT is mediated by simultaneous alterations of the activity of sensory and associative (PFC) cortical areas, supporting a role of 5-HT1AR stimulation in sensory and PFC regions, in addition to the well-known action on 5-HT2ARs.

Only few days of having an evening session with Lotus embryo each evening instead of high dose chamomile which was helping get to sleep but not improving sleep quality. While I was mainly using this as a mood tonic, this is used in TCM for insomnia but I find I need high doses initially. While being on a nicotine patch has possibly made sleep easier, I'm finding I'm finally getting to sleep with ease and getting a more solid sleep (instead of being broken I get sleep and don't wake up multiple times a night), with results better than I got with high dose Zizyphus (when stronger meds like low dose quetiapine doesn't work for me anymore -it's pure side effects), I also enjoy the Lotus state. It's a reasonably short lasting state but there seems to be more lasting effects. Literature suggests there is an up-regulatory effect on monoaminergic and GABAergic systems Intriguingly, neferine is not just serotonergic and active at 5-HT1ARs. These Lotus alkaloids display a weak cannabimimetic- type behavioural effect In vivo studies demonstrated sedative, and analgesic effect of N. nucifera embryo extract, and sedative and antidepressant effect of neferine Neferine displayed affinities for δ-and µ- opioid receptors with Ki values of 0.7 ± 0.1 and 1.8 ± 0.2 μM, respectively, and was determined to be a weak δ agonist Decided to explore the dose-response curve for Lotus embryo. Is more a better experience? You have to account for the 'plant spirit synergy'. It's more than neferine. You've got a high flavonoid/polyphenol content and spectrum of alkaloids, all of which seemingly have activity. These alkaloids seemingly require a bit of citric acid etc to liberate a good dose. That helps with the extreme bitterness, too. To me, pushing the dose even higher seemed to induce more hazy uninteresting sedation over an enhanced emotional and spiritual state. There's a middle ground moderate dose pleasant space where you're simply at ease with yourself and able to work through life better, a bit of spiritual attunement etc. While a more moderate dose is anxiolytic, pushing it became seemingly more traditionally sedative. It became duller, benzo-esque - I just had a bit of an uninteresting unenlightening sleep - over catalysing a peaceful state of mind. While TCM dose are quite low, a suggested dose on the pack is 10g. That's where I'd start for explorations. I can't particularly notice that dose. I'm not keen on going extremely high dose, Neferine displays hypotensive effects and inhibits platelet aggregation. It has actions on the heart - neferine displays anti-arrhythmic action due to its inhibitory effect on K+, Na+ and Ca2+ currents of the myocardium and inhibitory actions on hERG channels so you need to use caution. That said, it seems to be relatively safe for long-term treatment While neferine did not affect muscle coordination, it dose-dependently inhibited locomotor activity in mice. It induced hypothermia in mice and apparently potentiated thiopental-induced sleeping time. With the seeds, which contain neferine but at lower levels, in an animal model night-time activity reduced by 53%, but total sleep time was increased by 60%. The sleep-promoting effect was associated with up-regulation of GABAA/GABAB and serotonin receptors. There are suggestions that the Lotus alkaloids exert sedative–hypnotic and anxiolytic effects via binding to the GABAA receptor and activating the monoaminergic system but research on neferine itself seems to be less suggestive on a GABAergic MoA. Other uses of the embryo covered here Contraindications: This is not well studied. It use as a food and lack of serious indications is a good start but caution is required. While the embryo alkaloids have not been specifically studied, lotus leaf alkaloids has a strong inhibitory effect on CYP2D6 isoenzyme activity in vitro. This seems to be due to the more classic aporphine alkaloids over the bisbenzylisoquinolines. That said, neferine is predominantly metabolised in the liver and undergoes initial bioconversion by CYP2D6 into liensinine, isoliensinine, dimethylliensinine, and dimethyl- isoliensinine. There is also known involvement of CYP3A in neferine metabolism Lotus might lower blood sugar levels in some people. Watch for signs of low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) and monitor your blood sugar carefully if you have diabetes and use lotus as a medicine.

Gardenia vs Saffron As for the Gardenia, today is the last session I'll have with that for a bit, likely pursue it more later down the track when I get more, only bought a small quantity. As seen in clinical studies, I'm maybe noting a mood improvement. It's hard to attribute a sole effect to it as I've been using Gardenia in the morning and then unwinding in the evening with Lotus but my initial impressions of it as a medicine from the days I've had with it: Fairly acutely, It seemingly has some energetic balancing qualities but I think saffron is potentially more uplifting - there's a slight beneficial quality I attribute to the dopaminergic activity of saffron, I didn't get that with Gardenia at the TCM-style doses and I don't want to dose too high on it. Despite both being crocin sources and the gardenia containing beneficial iridoids, I find the saffron has potentially more mood effects than the Gardenia at the doses I used but I've used more saffron than Gardenia so have a greater attunement to it's qualities. I'd say the Gardenia at higher TCM doses builds a foundation of greater balance, a somewhat harmonising energy, the traditional medicinal actions attributed to gardenia include calming irritability; cooling and clearing away heat (a yin/yang imbalance often characterized by deficient yin). The saffron on the other hand is what I'd call dose dependently a spiritual energiser when used correctly. They're both useful but I'm going to stick with saffron in the morning for a bit and re-visit Gardenia a bit later. "Saffron is a spiritual and energetic food ... it can affect so much change and offer incredible healing to the body/mind/spirit complex. Through balancing, the energetic body is also brought into cooperation wherein the associating masculine and feminine energies are able to more fully work together." In Ayurvedic Medicine, it helps to enhance qualities of love and spirituality. Saffron currently has a larger clinical body of evidence for neuroprotective, procognitve, anxiolytic and antidepressant effects with preclinical anti-psychotic effects. While Gardenia has preclinical cognitive improvement in studies, there seems to be a decent clinical improvement in cognitive functions with saffron. It was found to be as effective as donepezil for treatment of mild-to-moderate AD. The beneficial effects of saffron on memory have also been suggested to be mediated by the cholinergic system An interaction with glutamatergic system for saffron and its components might be postulated involving NMDAR modulation, there is functional interaction between crocins and the DAergic system. C. sativus and its constituents increased dopamine levels in the brain in a dose-dependent manner. It also interacts with the opioid system

Apart from 5-HT2A agonists, Aya and scopolamine what else is there? Bought some seeds to grow of this one... Gardenia jasminoides possess multiple biological activities, such as antioxidant properties, hypoglycemic effect, inhibition of inflammation, antidepressive activity, and improved sleeping quality. A number of chemical components of G. jasminoides have been isolated and characterized, including iridoids, iridoid glucosides, triterpenoids, organic acids, and volatile compounds. Geniposide, genipin, gardenoside, crocin, and iridiod are the major bioactive compounds found in G. jasminoides. For instance, the yield of geniposide reached 10.9% under certain extraction conditions [1] Gardenia jasminoides showed a significant rapid acting antidepressant effect [2]. The antidepressant response started at 2 hours after administration - similar to ketamine, it may have a great clinical potential for treating patients with depression [3]. It's used in Yueju pill, a traditional Chinese medicine formulated to treat syndromes of mood disorders. Yueju has been shown to promote a fast-onset antidepressant effect clinically and in preclinical studies. An extract had the functions of learning and memory improvement and the neuroprotection [4] Alongside this neuroprotective effect, geniposide enhanced cholinergic neurotransmission, which likely contributes to its memory enhancing effect [5]. Gardenia yellow pigment (GYP) is a collection of compounds with shared structure of crocin, which confers antidepressant activity. These compounds are remarkably enriched in Gardenia jasminoides, implicated in rapid antidepressant effects that are exerted through enhanced neuroplasticity. Antidepressant response was detected at 30 min, and lasted for at least 3 days post a single administration of GYP [6] There's an affordable 10:1 polygala root extract in Aus now. I tried the plain root but found it too mild, an extract might be interesting. "Root of Polygala tenuifolia (Radix polygalae) is a traditional herb used for its tranquillizing and anti-amnesic effects in East Asian countries. Recent research disclosed wide range of biological activities of Radix polygalae and it active compounds, such as dopaminergic D2 and serotonergic 5-HT2 receptor binding, NMDA toxicity protection, prevent depression symptoms in chronic mild stress model animals, and induction of brain-induced neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the hippocampus. Behavioral tests such as female urine sniffing test, novelty suppressed feeding, learned helplessness paradigm and anhedonia in chronic mild stress exposed animals require repeated dose of monoaminergic antidepressant reagents to exert antidepressant-like effects. But single or two doses of Radix polygalae extract improved depression related behaviors in these tests. Like ketamine, pretreatment of an AMPA receptor antagonist abolished the antidepressant-like effect of Radix polygalae. Also the phosphorylation of hippocampal AMPA receptor GluR1 subunit was changed. Radix polygalae is a commonly prescribed reagent by practitioners of traditional medicine. According to these recent findings, Radix Polygalae extract may have rapid-onset antidepressant effect which can be a safer alternative to ketamine and lead to the development of life-saving medications by reducing the risk of suicide in emergency situations" [7] There's also saffron The crocins are hydrophilic carotenoids that can act as antioxidants, improve learning and memory, be used for treatment of brain injury, mood disorders, OCD, joint pain and muscle dysfunction in osteoarthritis, metabolic syndrome and related mood disorders and neurodegenerative damage, and have a protective effect against brain damage Aside from the NMDA affinity and sigma-1 binding, there is evidence that crocins act as reuptake inhibitors of dopamine and norepinephrine, while aside from it's GABAA affinity, safranal acts primarily on serotonin reuptake. "The antioxidant properties of saffron derivatives may also be relevant. Mood disorders are associated with elevated oxidative stress and a deficit of exogenous antioxidants, affecting immune and inflammatory responses in a way, which may promote neurodegeneration (Leonard and Maes, 2012). There is good evidence that the antioxidants in saffron extracts protect against oxidative stress in the central nervous system (Mehri et al. 2015; Oruc et al. 2016), constituting a second potential mechanism of therapeutic action. The most important indicator of the quality and commercial value of the saffron is its contents of crocin I and II, which are specified in trade standards. The Chinese Pharmacopoeia stipulates that the total content of crocin I and II should not be less than 10.0 %." In an analysis of 63 saffrons, the crocin I content range was 6.6–23.7 %. There is a TGA listed coated tablet containing either 11 mg or 14 mg of standardised saffron extract (affron), derived from the stigmas of Crocus sativus L. and standardised to contain >3.5% Lepticrosalides® (a measure of bioactive compounds present in saffron, including safranal and crocin. Two tablets daily constitutes a dose. Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) has demonstrated antidepressant effects in clinical studies and extensive anxiolytic effects in experimental animal models. It reputedly has acute effects. Safranal is an effective anticonvulsant in animal models, shown to act as an agonist at GABAA receptors. Saffron extracts and crocetin had a clear binding capacity at the PCP binding side of the NMDA receptor and at the sigma-1 receptor while crocins attenuated schizophrenia-like behavioural deficits. Crocin has been shown to be an antioxidant and neural protective agent Saffron is a potential efficacious and tolerable treatment for major depressive disorder with anxious distress. [1] It increased mood, reduced anxiety and managed stress without side effects, offering a natural alternative to standard treatments [2] Saffron is as effective as fluvoxamine in the treatment of patients with mild to moderate OCD [3] More on saffron here:

Rethinking medicinal plants and plant medicines We need to “engage conversation between different ways of making medicine ‘work’ in-the-world” When medicinal plants become mobile and are studied in laboratories or in different cultures they are conceivably dislocated from the knowledge and rituals of the healers. Hence, medicinal knowledge is seen as not necessarily located within entities such as plants, but rather in the therapeutic transformation/s that emerge from healing “encounters and their traces”. How much therapeutic efficacy are we losing by doing that? What happens if I interact with medicines with the plant as an entity over being a mere source of bioactives? What happens when you include Ritual, Ceremony and the Sacred Element of Art [1] Currently, medicinal plants are increasingly being integrated into economic enterprises and scientific investigations. Medicinal plants are acted on: removed, pressed, catalogued, chopped up, transplanted and exploited. In their biocultural diversity, plants ... act on and within people. Enmeshed with humans, these plants, arguably, encourage their own cultivation. In much anthropological literature, it is argued that the ability of medicinal plants is activated by the knowledge of healers, their rituals, preparation methods and interaction with the spirits. A number of scholars describe the social-cultural power of plants and plant intelligence, as well as their volitionality, vibrancy and communication. In many cultures, medicinal plants have potency and are viewed as “masters,” “teachers” or “doctors,” able to impart strength and wisdom and to aid in learning. "They [healing plants] know [ǂang] how to change/repair what is wrong [the sickness]. Medicinal plants have a good/strong spirit, they are of nature [tci kxao]. I ask the plant for its strength/power to heal, but I must always give something back to the plant." Certain medicinal plants have the power to bring about change and healing. This ability and knowledge comes from nature, the spirit, soul or breath-essence of the plant, apart from the skill of the healer and his respectful relationship with the plant. The chemical potentiality of psychoactive plants arguably becomes enmeshed with healers’ and users’ collective and individual histories, their physiological and psychosocial dispositions, as well as their beliefs, meanings and intentions to relationally become-with in healing and bringing about spiritual, mental and therapeutic effects. Could we, in fact, make sense of plants as actants, entities that can have an effect on their environments and relationships within it? If we see “elements in the environment as persons,” that is they are gifted with “cognitive, moral and social qualities analogous to those of humans.” These approaches assimilate plants and spirits in the category of persons. Plants play a key role in human existence, but are also viewed as “entities that act as humans and thus as social agents — not just in … healing and magic, but also in everyday life.” Many medicinal plants are administered internally and have “mutually inclusive physical, psychological and spiritual therapeutic effects”. These are activated through the interaction between ritual dynamics, the phytochemical synergy of the plants’ therapeutic capacity, the mixtures utilised and the psyche of the user The plant “made/turned it [sickness/sick person] into something else [kuru ka ko tci dore]”: by bringing about transformation, it could heal [dù !kóbó]. "The ability to heal comes from the n/umkxao’s openness to and management of the relationship with the kgwe (power), the breath/essence/good spirit [ma’a cua] of the plant itself, the environment, the air [n|a’àn], the wind [màq], the spirits [//gauwasi]" etc [1] http://creativeawakeningnow.podbean.com/e/ep-5-ritual-cere…/ Full text: http://sci-hub.tw/…/…/doi/full/10.1080/23323256.2017.1415154