A friendly sharing from your local snake oil salesman who has nothing to sell.

I am a person who has always had a "high functioning" type of autism. As I furthered my understanding of my condition, the first thing that I became aware of was that I get in a terrible feeling disconnection/unconsciousness blocked state when I am not in touch with nature, when I am in cities etc. Difficulties with sleep has been central to my condition. Low quality sleep, difficulty falling asleep etc. I also found out that dairy is a strong factor. I know gluten is also, but I still have not given up on oats as a staple... These "psychedelic experiences" may be adventures for most, but for me using ayahuasca analogues to clear up my awareness and connect to myself and the world is a regular maintenance and a matter of life and death. Now I am a father of 2 years and the burden of responsibilities is extra heavy because of my condition. Handling many things at once is an ability I have almost none of. My child is getting most of my attention, and this is good and even necessary as we have no other family to help raise her, but then I almost feel like a second mother not having resources left for more classic fatherhood responsibilities.

All that aside...

Just got called to trying horsetail tea for clearing out any heavy metal buildup which is a known factor in autism... Horsetail is known to be a detoxifier, having a lot of silica which a chelator...

The other thing is, I know I also need to fast in some way or another. I can feel some toxic debris accumulating in my body and brain. I will turn 40 this year. It seems to be the age when people start feeling aged, and also health cannot.be taken for granted anymore and requires ongoing conscious maintenance.

I have seen posts here about magic, telepathy, crystals, homeopathy, alternate dimensions... not too much repression of viewpoints that aren't commonly held IMO. Yes, COVID discussion (and other politicized/social issues) has been out of bounds for a while. I imagine if there were many productive threads on herbalism, it would make sense to organize them into a sub-forum.

I think stating the sources of facts and the bases of observations (e.g. changes in feelings vs. claiming specific effects which aren't directly observable) makes the information much easier to weigh and sort through. It's difficult to have a balanced conversation when unpacking a few casually made claims can take a lot of time and discussion.

No need to call yourself names.

That's all I'm sayin'.

And maybe it is now time for an apology from me, for coming on quite so strong.
Events of late that have been alluded to have pushed my mental health very close to the brink, and it has been an interesting, if not altogether pleasant experience, watching myself function in a less capable fashion, finding myself emotionally unable to deal with situations that really should not be a problem. First world problems, you could call them, and whilst my brain comprehends this intellectually, my emotional reactions have been becoming detached from this reality.
The modern phenomena of stating demonstrable lies as undeniable truth, from BoJo to Trump, and the unquestionable tsunami of propaganda that follows any official line has made separating fact from fiction nigh on impossible, but trying to shut down dialogue because some people may be misled and manipulated into making bad decisions? That just allowed the conversation, narrative and 'truth' to be controlled, and changed as the ground kept shifting (ahem). Twitter et al. had government agencies imbedded, shutting down anyone off-message. Say what you want about Musk, and I have plenty, but his takeover of Twitter has at lease allowed people to report observable facts without fear of censorship.
I am trying my very hardest not to get into any political detail, but I would just say on the subject of Rogan, watch his podcast with the CNN Doctor and tell me he hasn't provided some excellent, undeniable evidence of mainstream media's outright lies. When the conversation is controlled, and without platforms like his, people might still be under the impression that the active ingredient in horsepaste hasn't been used over 4billion time in humans, and that the African nations who give it to their populations as an anti-parasitical have also miraculously, and totally inexplicably, had nothing like our virus troubles.
Civil discourse is the key to everything, no matter the subject, but that is getting harder and harder these days, no matter the subject...
Peace.

I get the sense that this thread has been quite civil, relatively. Ya'll are mature psychonauts!

And I think we can all agree that we don't want this to get political; we can hash out the details when they arise.

I feel like the request for a space to talk about herbs is fairly simple. It is an incredibly huge realm of study, and I feel ties in to what the DMT nexus is about. We talk about admixtures to Ayahuasca all the time, for example this is herbalism. The practice of extracting DMT from plants is, in essence, a practice of herbalism as well.

So why would talking about non-psychoactive plants be taboo?

Because they heal or affect the body, rather than the mind? Even if that distinction were concrete (which we all know isn't--where does the mind end and the body begin? Where IS the mind? etc.), what's the difference, anyway?

Authority (largely patriarchal) has a long history of suppressing "heathen" spirituality, executing witches, crucifying sooth-sayers, etc. We are now, I believe, just beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel, with the gradual legalization and normalization of marijuana, psilocybin, ketamine, etc. Why should the body, then, take a back seat? We are gradually reclaiming sovereignty over our spirits and our minds--why let slide the importance of sovereignty over our physical health?

As if there is a clear distinction between physical health and spiritual health... hah!

Anyway. I digress. And I fear that I've strayed into the "political."

~~

Maybe instead of "trip reports," people can write "health reports" about herbs, dietary regimens, lifestyle changes, etc. It's no different from than the "n=1" idea of the trip report.