Basement Shaman Blog

Novel Treatments for Bipolar Disorder

Manic-depressive illness, or bipolar disorder as its known in modern psychiatric parlance, is a devasting disease affecting at least 15 million people in the U.S. alone during any given year. In reality this number is likely significantly higher as the disease tends to be under-diagnosed. I've always researched bipolar disorder because it strikes a chord very near and dear to me, you see the disease runs in my family.

Recently I came across several renegade and experimental treatments which might show some promise to millions of sufferers. The first are a number of clinical trials in which the the drug ketamine, offered relief within the matter of hours. Ketamine is traditionally used as a dissociative anesthetic. The drug made its way onto the streets, and became extremely popular on the rave scene. Users would typically snort amounts, much lower than those used in full anesthesia to enter a realm consciousness where they able to navigate a novel dream-like realm, benignly detached from their bodies and their normal waking consciousness, moods,emotions and fears. Ketamine blocks a pain receptor called N-methy-D-aspartic acid (NMDA). This receptor is critical for the reception of neuronal signals produced by glutamate, and the dysregulation of glutamte seems to be one of the pathways involved in bipolar disorder and depression.Antidepressent effects of ketamine in depressed patients

Another interesting option came about with complete serendipity. There was a strange trend spotted among both depressive and bipolar patients who had recently undergone an MRI for reasons completely unrelated to their conditions. Some were reporting that they felt significantly better after the MRI. The idea that high frequency electromagnetic energy could influence the health of living cells isn't new. Pioneers such as Nikola Tesla(for more about the brilliant Nikola Telsa) hypothesized as much at the turn of the last century, and George Lakhovsky expanded on Tesla's designs to produced machines aimed at curing all manner of disease as far back as 1940. Modern researchers began subjecting subject to repetitive bursts of electromagnetic waves and found very promising results. Unfortunately the FDA seems to be dragging its feet hear in the U.S., while therapuetic devices are being approved and used in various countries throughout the world. Informative article from NeuroPsychiatry Review on rTMS therapy.

Centers for rTMS research.

Lastly trials have show the efficacy of both fish oil and coenzyme Q10 in alleviating some of the symptoms associated with the disorder. I've spoken to many customers through the years who have struggled with bipolar disorder. If anyone would like more information, please make a post, and I'll see if I can be of help. Happiness, Andy @

Illinois to ban Salvia divinorum

Yet again nature is to be declared illegitimate as another sacred plant ally, Salvia divinorum, is poised to be lost due to the misguided efforts of lawmakers in the state of Illinois. An amendment to declare Salvia divinorum a schedule 1 controlled substance, has made its way through both the house and senate, and it's just a matter of a signature from the governor to add Illinois to the the roster of states that have imposed draconian measures against this misunderstood plant entheogen.

We aren't certain exactly how the lawmakers have come to view Salvia as a material of such public danger and potential abuse. It seems most have signed onto the bill simply because such reflexive "war on drugs" rhetoric is the easy choice. Few have ventured to ask the difficult questions of how and why such sacramental, visionary compounds can be integrated into a healthy society. Such territory remains verboten, and this complete lack of insight and courage are appalling and disgraceful.

We're deeply saddened by this news. Having cultivated this marvelous plant for over 15 years, the loss is almost unimaginable. We are heartened though, that during this time we were able to propagate and disseminate thousands of clones, which will happily resides in homes throughout the states. Despite efforts of lawmakers, Salvia divinorum will live on, just as nature's intended.

Plant Growing Tips - The Trinity

This time of year its only natural that I get tons of email from concerned gardeners seeking to provide their plants with just the right conditions to make them thrive. While the Basement Shaman stocks plants from around the world, there are some surprising few tips which will greatly improve your chances at successful growing.

I think one of the most misunderstood areas is watering. If I took a random tally, I'd say that there's more overwatering going on versus underwatering. Most of our customers container grow their plants, and this in itself can be a bit tricky. Plants evolved to weave their roots into porous substrates of soil, unencumbered by physical barriers such as plastic pots. The environment directly in the soil offers unfettered gas exchage. Our first recommendation is replace plastic pots with much more porous, unglazed clay pots. We've recently begun phasing out our plastic pots in lieu of spun coconut fiber pots. Plant health is closely related to good gas exchange at the root level. Byproducts of plant metabolism must be allowed to escape and oxygen must be allowed in. Overwatering greatly inhibits this process, and literally starves the root zone of critical gas exchange. The end result is poor root health and a weakened plant. In our our greenhouse we allow most of our plant to dry to the point where they just begin to slightly droop between waterings. There are a few exceptions. One simple tip is to always allow the surface of the soil to dry between waterings. Stick your finger into the pot about an inch or two deep and test for moisture. If it's still moist, hold off on watering.

The second most popular question involves fertilizer. Here's a succinct tip, kick the Miracle-Gro habit!Miracle-Gro is a petrochemically-derived fertilizer that contains some inferior sources of nitrogen and other potentially problematic compounds. The nitrogen contained in this formula will produce lush growth but it also seems to produce plants that have very little resistance to pests. Furthermore, high levels of elevated metals have been found in the product, and you don't want these in your nervous system or your environment. Instead choose a good liquid, organic fertilizer. We love the Earthjuice brands and have used them in our own greenhouses for many years now. There are also many powdered organic supplements on the market.

And lastly, there's also a question about appropriate growing media. Avoid top soil. The stuff will eventually turn to cement in your pot. In fact most potting mixes are what are properly termed "soiless" mixes. They usually contain a blend of composted peat, perlite ( a white crumbly, very porous mineral mined from volcanic deposists), vermiculite(another mined mineral product with good porosity, and perhaps some composted bark and sand. Peat bogs have been seriously overmined, and we've selected mixes that substitute coconut coir, a fibrous byproduct of coconut harvesting that has some very beneficial growing characteristics. Once again, avoid the Miracle-Gro type products which now come pre-charged with their own fertilizer.

This is just a quick and cursory rundown. If you have any specific concerns you'd like answered, please post them here, and I'll compile some more growing tips. Remember as, mentioned, we are the point sources for protecting and disseminating these incredible plant allies. Our gardens are the living lineage, the points of light for preserving plant consciousness.

Happiness,
andy

Plant Growing Tips - The Trinity

This time of year its only natural that I get tons of email from concerned gardeners seeking to provide their plants with just the right conditions to make them thrive. While the Basement Shaman stocks plants from around the world, there are some surprising few tips which will greatly improve your chances at successful growing.

I think one of the most misunderstood areas is watering. If I took a random tally, I'd say that there's more overwatering going on versus underwatering. Most of our customers container grow their plants, and this in itself can be a bit tricky. Plants evolved to weave their roots into porous substrates of soil, unencumbered by physical barriers such as plastic pots. The environment directly in the soil offers unfettered gas exchage. Our first recommendation is replace plastic pots with much more porous, unglazed clay pots. We've recently begun phasing out our plastic pots in lieu of spun coconut fiber pots. Plant health is closely related to good gas exchange at the root level. Byproducts of plant metabolism must be allowed to escape and oxygen must be allowed in. Overwatering greatly inhibits this process, and literally starves the root zone of critical gas exchange. The end result is poor root health and a weakened plant. In our our greenhouse we allow most of our plant to dry to the point where they just begin to slightly droop between waterings. There are a few exceptions. One simple tip is to always allow the surface of the soil to dry between waterings. Stick your finger into the pot about an inch or two deep and test for moisture. If it's still moist, hold off on watering.

The second most popular question involves fertilizer. Here's a succinct tip, kick the Miracle-Gro habit!Miracle-Gro is a petrochemically-derived fertilizer that contains some inferior sources of nitrogen and other potentially problematic compounds. The nitrogen contained in this formula will produce lush growth but it also seems to produce plants that have very little resistance to pests. Furthermore, high levels of elevated metals have been found in the product, and you don't want these in your nervous system or your environment. Instead choose a good liquid, organic fertilizer. We love the Earthjuice brands and have used them in our own greenhouses for many years now. There are also many powdered organic supplements on the market.

And lastly, there's also a question about appropriate growing media. Avoid top soil. The stuff will eventually turn to cement in your pot. In fact most potting mixes are what are properly termed "soiless" mixes. They usually contain a blend of composted peat, perlite ( a white crumbly, very porous mineral mined from volcanic deposists), vermiculite(another mined mineral product with good porosity, and perhaps some composted bark and sand. Peat bogs have been seriously overmined, and we've selected mixes that substitute coconut coir, a fibrous byproduct of coconut harvesting that has some very beneficial growing characteristics. Once again, avoid the Miracle-Gro type products which now come pre-charged with their own fertilizer.

This is just a quick and cursory rundown. If you have any specific concerns you'd like answered, please post them here, and I'll compile some more growing tips. Remember as, mentioned, we are the point sources for protecting and disseminating these incredible plant allies. Our gardens are the living lineage, the points of light for preserving plant consciousness.

Happiness,
andy

FDA Bullies Herbal Industry

Listen up friends. This one's important. It looks like the FDA, in it's insatiable desire to wield power over the lives and bodies of free citizens of the U.S, is attempting to increase it's control of many commonly available herbs and nutritional supplements. The vary regulatory agency that can't even seem to ensure a safe food supply for our pets, seems to think it should impose more barriers between what we see fit to put into our bodies. There is a public forum that open for comment by anyone who wishes to do so, and we urge all of you who value the right to access and regulate the natural substances and nutrional supplements you use on your own accord, to visit the link listed below and let the FDA know where you stand on this issue. We need to let our voices be hear here.

Happiness,
andy @ the basement shaman

From the American Botanical Council - Austin, TX:

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) yesterday extended the deadline
for public comments on the draft document, Guidance for Industry on
Complementary and Alternative Medicine Products and Their Regulation by the
Food and Drug Administration. 1
Public Comments Docket:The new deadline for filing public comments is May 29, 2007.

On February 27, 2007 the FDA issued this as a proposed set of guidelines in
the Federal Register (FR) which the agency attempted to clarify its role in
regulating so-called "CAM products". The document stated that the public
would have 90 days from the date of publication to comment. However, the
agency apparently erred in stating that the deadline would be April 30,
instead of 90 days from February 27, which should be May 29. This error was
discovered by the vigilance of the American Herbal Products Association, the
leading trade association dealing exclusively with herbs and herbal
products, and was communicated to FDA in a letter. (Presumably this is the
reason for the agency's extension of the deadline. The actual date on the
document is "December 2006", the time the document was completed, even
though it was not published in the FR until February.)

The FDA's publication of the proposed new guidelines has generated a
significant level of e-mails and Internet discussion among members of the
Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) community, health freedom
activists, members of the herb and dietary supplement industry, and others.
During the past weeks ABC has received numerous requests from ABC members
for requests for clarification. Many e-mails and communications among the
lay public have questioned whether the FDA may be reaching out for new
regulatory territory - whether the agency may be attempting to regulate new
domains of activity, i.e., the practice of CAM as opposed to the agency's
traditionally regulated areas, i.e., foods, drugs, biologics, cosmetics and
medical devices.

There has also been confusion about whether FDA is proposing new rules
governing the use of herbs, dietary supplements, or other materials in the
practice of CAM. Some people appear to be unaware that FDA does not create
"legislation" - that is the domain of Congress and state legislatures.

Late Night Guitar

Thanks Eoghan. I'll be picking up some Phil Ochs next time I'm shopping for tunes! I have too often been watching and playing along with the great D.A. Pennebaker film "Don't Look Back" that's recently been rereleased as the boxed 65 Tour Edition including a great little scopitone book. You know that kind of book where you flick the pages and animate a little movie. Playing along late at night you can get a little moody ay?

Johns Hopkins Mystical Mushroom Study

Today I had the good fortune to speak with a loyal Basement Shaman supporter who is passionate about ethnobotany and entheobotany. We exchanged some esoteric info about tropane alkaloids profiles among various species of lovely Brugmansia species, swapped war stories of trying to successfully germinate notoriously stubborn seeds, and pondered whether the archeological evidence of anadenanthera snuffs used several thousand years ago in the highlands of South America is complete.

My companion turned me on to a study which completely escaped my notice, but I think it bears attention. The study involved the use of psilocybin, one of the active alkaloids in what are commonly called "magic mushrooms". The subjects were all quite straight, upright citizen without previous experience with psychedelics/ entheogenic substances. Administration of the compound produced a very high rate of what were termed, positive spiritual experiences which had significant beneficial effects in the subjects outlook and behavior often lasting several months. Further studies are pending. Of course, psilocybin is illegal, and is a officially deamed by the DEA as a pretty evil substance with high abuse potential and little or no medical value. It's refreshing to see an institution with high stature such as Johns Hopkins to brave an area of research that's too often characterized with derision. Check out the link at Johns Hopkins Mystical Mushroom Study

Hard Rain's a Gonna Fall

Hello my friends, thank you for your kind and encouraging words. I've been in a funk as of late. Why's that? Look at the news, the blogs, the whirling entropy happening everywhere. It breaks my chest open as if receiving open heart surgery everyday to see atrocities overseas, our complete submersion of the right of habeas corpus in Guantanamo bay ,our malnourished babies here in the inner cities or rural America, the unbearable pain of a young college gunman and the subsequent pain he invoked on some many innocents. In my own Buddhist training, the idea is to feel compassion for every sentient being, whether they're living lives in deep, horrific delusion or just peacefully struggling for food and shelter. Just when it feels you can't take in more, you breathe in more of the world's pain, and your heart expands. Eventually your heart becomes an infinite reservoir, ready to take in the pain of all sentient beings.

Bobby Dylan has been spinning chronically in my cd player and his words seem to convey my mood best :I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains, I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways, and I've stepped in the middle of seven side forests, I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans, I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard , and it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard rain gonna fall....and what da you do now my blue eyed son, and would do ya do know my darling young one, I'm going back out for the rain starts a fallin, I head for depths of the deepest, dark forests, where the people are many andy their hands are all empty, where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters, and I tell it and think it and breathe it, and reflect from the mount so all souls can see it, and I stand on the ocean till until I start sinking, and I know my song well before I start singing,and it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard rain gonna fall.

The Sacred and the Profane

The truth is that The Basement Shaman is irrelevant. You don't need us or anything we could possibly try to offer you. We've always struggled to walk the razor's edge between the sacred and the profane.We've restled with the concept of being a "conscious" business since our inception, and struggled with whether the very idea is ridiculous or meaningful.

It's funny you know, when we first started business back in 1992, there were very few companies involved in the business of offering ethno or more precisely entheobotanicals. We owe much debt in the formation of our original business idea to the now defunct "of the jungle...", an absolutely novel, and pioneering company. Now we see hundreds of businesses have spun off from the original model. Many are poor copycats, some are outright scams, and a few are gems. You'll find many self-proclaimed "shamanic superstores", and it makes us wonder when Wal-mart will enter the gig. It's sad to see how much the essence of shamanism and the spiritual connection of humans to the radiant intellechy of nature has been the commercialized and commodified. What a hallmark of our time that money seems to be king in every possible venue including the ineffable.

At times, when I'm feeling most cynical, irritable and just downright depressed, I think of pitching it all. Throwing in the towel, and trying for something more pure. I've heard very litttle from all of you, except for when we offered some enticement such as a product freebie for leaving a comment on this blog. Tonight it leaves me feeling raw. I realize I'm being peavish, petulant and self-absorbed to ask for more. Once again, we're likely irrelevant, but I'm left wondering, just what is it that you all really want? What do you feel you need? Are you all just spectators, witnessing this like anonymous bystanders to a traffic accident at rushhour? The silence is deafening.

How's The Basement Shaman Doing?

We'd like to hear from you. All the people that have made it possible for us to exist and evolve over the past decade. We welcome all input without bias, be it negative or positive. Share your experiences of our service, our products, and the directions we've explored. Give us your ideas, critiques, rants and raves.

We strive to be a conscious business, that acts ethically and responsibly on both a person to person and planetary level. We know that we're far from perfect, but we're willing students to strive for better. We'll do our best to help you on your path, and we ask that you help us too.

Happiness,
Andy @ The Basement Shaman