Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: Welcome back to another edition of Super Normalized. Today, we dive deep into the vibrant world of medicinal herbs of Jane Barlow Christensen. As a master herbalist with both personal experience and a family legacy that is steeped in natural healing, Jane brings unparalleled wisdom on using plant medicine to enrich everyone's daily lives. In this episode, we'll explore Jane's inspiring story from her beginning as an aerobic structure at the age of 18 to. To the dynamic shift in reviewing her reviving, so I should say, her father's herbal business to become a celebrated author of her published work, Be youe Own Shaman, now recognized by Skyhorse Publishing. Get ready for insightful conversations around demystifying medicinal herbs, embracing intuitive health practices, and even venturing into the evolving discourse and psychedelics. And if you're curious about taking charge of your health, using nature and resources, or just keen to learn more about Jane's transformative study, stay tuned. Join us as we engage with questions that challenge conventional thinking around wellness, while empowering each listener towards personal responsibility for their spiritual journey and physical health. On with the show.
Welcome to Super Normalized Jane Barlow Christensen. Jane, you're a herbalist, which is considered to be alternative health, which is a bit of a joke to both of us right now, when in reality, we. We know that that's what original health is.
[00:01:27] Speaker B: Yeah. A hundred percent. In fact, it's almost laughable at this point because like we said before we started recording, the world is waking up and we're starting to realize we've been duped. And. Yeah, I. I embrace the witchiness, the alternative. I embrace it all, man. At this point. Yeah.
[00:01:43] Speaker A: So would you consider yourself to be a witch as well nowadays?
[00:01:46] Speaker B: 100. Finger on.
[00:01:47] Speaker A: Yeah. Right. And. Okay, so let's roll all the way back to your childhood. You're growing up with your dad, who's dead set deep into herbalism. How did that all happen? And how did that play on you as a child, as you were growing up?
[00:02:01] Speaker B: Yeah, that. This is one of my favorite questions, because. Such a beautiful story. So I grew up the second oldest of 14 kids. So my parents met in college, and my mom said to my dad, I want a dozen kids. So this is what my mom said to my dad when they were dating. So my dad was like, you know, let's do this. So they had 11, and they adopted three. And my dad was a medicinal botanist. So his degree and his passion and what made him geek out in the world was plants and the medicine that they provided for human beings. And this was just something that was a normal part of our childhood with me and all my siblings. It was like we'd be driving somewhere and my dad would want to identify a plant, and he would pull over, we'd all scramble out, and he'd be like, okay, this plant's in the perfect season right now. You can harvest the leaves and the flowers and the time of day, you collect it and then you dry it, and you can. Here's the common name and the Latin name. And, you know, this was all just normal stuff for us. And we had a huge garden. We had a huge plot of land. We had herbs growing on the outside of our front porch, and we had herbs growing in pots everywhere. And as a young child, you know, all this stuff was awesome and interesting, but also just very, very normal. And then as a teenager, I was just like, oh, my God, I'm so embarrassed. My parents are such hippies. But I grew up in the 60s and 70s, so this is when all the modern stuff, all the fast food, you know, to have parents that were full on using herbal medicine in real life, in real time, on all of us. It started to get really embarrassing as a kid or as a. As a teenager. But then as adults, we all pretty quickly realized, holy wow, dad and mom gave us such a gift. And as we started raising our own kids, and I have grandkids now, this has been a complete game changer for me because. Just because my dad loved plants, he loved medicine that was made from plants, and that's how he raised us. So, yeah, it was a brilliant childhood, and I'm so grateful for it.
[00:04:05] Speaker A: Wow, that's awesome. What a way to grow up and to have that all happen. But it's interesting how when you got to your teenage years, you were cringing from it a little bit, probably because you're like, I just want to fit in.
[00:04:18] Speaker B: Yeah, well, it wasn't just that. Honestly, part of it was because I'm second oldest. My mom was always pregnant when I was growing up because there's so many of us. In fact, my youngest brother is two months older than my youngest son. So I was pregnant with my mom at the same time. And it wasn't just the herbs that made me embarrassed. It was that my mom was just always pregnant. It was just like, come on, like, there's 10 of us. Like, stop already. And of course, that was a small amount of time. That was just as a teenager. And then, you know, you really have bigger epiphanies, and you realize what a beautiful gift your parents gave you with all the siblings that are built in friends and all of that.
[00:04:57] Speaker A: So, yeah, yeah, that's awesome that you grew up with that. I mean, I did, and I was adopted, so I didn't get to experience any of that sort of family sort of connection. Even to this day, I don't really feel much of a connection to anyone in my family, except for maybe my cousins, because they're all cool and they're. And they're close by. And then I did end up finding my blood sister by chance through an adoption connection agency. So that was good. But, yeah, that's just. I didn't grow up with that, so I can't imagine what it was like, but it must have been amazing. So, okay, you're actually growing up in this situation with your father, and you're learning about all the plants and the herbs and everything. You got the bug from a very early age. At what point did you realize that there was like a magical element to this? I mean, you did say that your dad knew when to pick herbs at certain times. Was that actually in alignment with the planets and planetary connection?
[00:05:50] Speaker B: It was all of that, like, wow. Looking back now at the layers of it all. Because what happened is, when I grew up, I got married really young. I was 18. I had two babies very quickly. I was 20 and 21 when I had my two boys. And I went into the fitness industry. I went into fitness and I owned my own gym. I taught exercise classes. I was a personal trainer. So the first 20 years of my adulthood, you know, I was always dragging my kids when they were babies and little kids to the gym while I was teaching and working, and. And I started to realize as I was taking care of my boys when they were little that. That all these things I knew from my dad, I just. They just. It was just automatic. And. And it was, you know, you do a parasite cleanse on the new moon, and there's all these things that just are just simply automatic. And then what happened is my dad passed away. It was 27 years ago on January 1st, so he was actually only 62, which I'm older than that now. So he passed away really young. He had a. He had a heart attack. He was gone in one day. And he had a beautiful, thriving herbal business at that point where sold to doctors. And it kind of died with him because none of us were educated the way he was as far as he was, like, college educated with a botany degree. And we were educated life experience.
And so none of us really felt qualified, if you will, to step into my Dad's shoes. And four years after he passed, I was kind of at a pivotal place. My kids were out of high school, and I was a little bit burned out in the fitness industry. I still love the gym and the teaching, all that, but I was a little bit burned out. I was managing a big gym. And I just thought, you know what? I think I need to restart my dad's company. And I never dreamed it would be me because I have five brothers who usually boys go into the dad's. I mean, that's typical. It's not always, but it was me. And I've been going now for 23 years. And it's like I have found my calling. Like, I love the fitness aspect that I. That I got in my first career because it's. It's holistic. We're holistic, right? We don't just need herbs. We need fitness and low stress and sleep and good nutrition and fresh air and grounding. You know, we need all of the stuff. So I don't know if that answered your question. I kind of went off on a.
[00:08:14] Speaker A: No, no, no, that's fine. Like, it's. I like the organic run of conversations.
[00:08:18] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:08:21] Speaker A: Okay. So what inspired you to write Be youe Own Shaman? I actually find that really interesting that you called it Be youe Own Shaman. I wrote a article a while back for a magazine called Be youe Own Guru, which was about, you know, pursuing your own path and using, like, basically following your intuition to guide you into greater reality, rather than having idols or anything before you that or other humans that are, you know, obviously at fault too, when it comes to guiding you. So Be your Own Shaman is about, you know, connecting you with the plants and then following the plant path. What does that mean to you? And why did you write that? And. And how did you get inspired?
[00:08:57] Speaker B: Okay, so when I was in high school, when I was a senior, my dad wrote a book on medicinal botany called from the Shepherd's Purse. And there were 48 plants in it. And he self published it. And so for. Even before he passed away, it was out of print. And you can still get it to this day. 45, 46. However many years later, you can still get, like rare copies on Amazon and different places. But what happened is I started getting almost every single week. When I restarted his company, I started getting people bugging me about republishing my dad's book, because herbal medicine is timeless. The properties don't change. But I kept putting it off because, first of all, there's a whole lot of siblings that are part of this copyright of my dad's intellectual work. And it just didn't feel right to republish his original work. So what I did is I took the original 48 plants in his book and I more than doubled the content. I put it up to 101. I updated all the pictures, all of the illustration, I updated everything in my dad's original 48 plants and then doubled the content. And when I was trying to decide on a title. So my parents adopted three and the three that they adopted were Native American. They were full, they're full blooded Eastern Shoshone and they're siblings, two little girls and a boy. And they were adopted when they were 4, 3 and 2 and I was 4. So I grew up with three of my siblings, full blooded Native American and Gwen. So yeah, which was just. And you know, still my brother who was two, he's almost 62. So beautiful man with a long black gray beard, or not beard, but braid going down his back and the most twinkly laugh. And so when I was getting ready to get the title for the book, I, I said to him, I said, okay, here's some titles I have. I'm thinking be your own doctor, be your own healer, you know, because the goal of the book is to take information and let the everyday person be able to absorb it, utilize it and, and make it make stuff that is not like a big thick textbook with all the, all the hardcore science behind medicinal botany, but make it something really usable. And my dad's book was like that too. So as we were talking, I said, I had this moment, I said, well, what about beer on Shaman? Because I was thinking, I was in person with him at this particular moment and he's just got the most beautiful face and he's wise and he's so beautiful. And I said, what do you think about Beeron Shaman? And he just laid his blessing on it right there. He was like, you know what? I think you are going to be a bridge between the Native American indigenous people and all of their wisdom and the white people like you have the ability to be a bridge because cultures are supposed to be shared. And it was just this kind of beautiful moment with my brother that was like, okay, so that's how it got its name. But it started off with my dad's original work.
[00:12:08] Speaker A: That's awesome. And in the book, does it actually take you into some of the shamanic use of the herbs as well or is it more so?
[00:12:15] Speaker B: Yeah, it's more of a namesake. But if you really think about what medicinal botany is, what medi. What herbs are medicinal, which is pretty much all of them. It's just. There's just a little bit of a learning curve. My real hope was that I didn't want to turn people off with too much magic and shamanistic. I think that's another addition, you know, possibly an addition. In fact, when I first published it, I self published it like my dad did, because I thought, well, you know, to get a publisher for something like this would, you know. So I self published it and it only had 94 plants in it. And then last year it got picked up by a big New York publisher, which was. So like, they basically kind of came after me in a really beautiful way. But I added an additional chapter with psychedelics and sacred plants to it. So it moved it from 94 up to 101. It's. And it's. So there are. There is a, A more of a shamanistic chapter with those sacred plants and psychedelics.
[00:13:16] Speaker A: So that's cool.
[00:13:17] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:13:19] Speaker A: Do you use shamanic plants yourself?
[00:13:21] Speaker B: You know, I have minimally because I just. I mean, some things I do just normally, like parasite cleanse, I'll use. I do twice a year. I do that on the new moon. There's a whole kind of ritual with it. But as far as, you know, one of the plants that I got added was psilocybin or magic mushrooms. And I have had a couple of facilitated plant medicine journeys that included psilocybin. And I've used them minimally mostly because I don't have a lot of trauma to heal. I don't have. I think that there needs to be, you know, and there's a whole forward to just that chapter about facilitation and how these are sacred and they're not just for. I don't believe in using them for entertainment or just, you know, I think that they are sacred plants for a reason, because they can help humans heal on a deep, emotional, traumatic level. So I have a little bit of experience with that. Yeah.
[00:14:14] Speaker A: Nice. Okay, can you talk about your approach to integrating herbal remedies into daily life for enhanced health and wellness?
[00:14:21] Speaker B: Yeah, this one is such a good question, especially the age where I'm at, because I've over the years incorporated things as I've needed them. Like so, you know, I'm all. I'm through menopause. So I used a lot of adaptogens, things like rhodiola or maca root, ashwagandha, you know, things that help balance body chemistry. One of My favorites is an herb called suma. And suma root is a powerful adaptogen that's really, really effective on hormones. And it was probably the one of the main herbs I used for about 10 years while I was going through that time in my life. I also have really now focused on herbs for brain health and heart health. Because if you think about things that happen as we all age, we all get older, but you look at the things that really affect us and can take us down and it's heart issues, heart attacks and stroke and vascular problems and then brain, if you think about the dementia, the memory fog, the, and then just the incidence of Alzheimer's. So I've really, really integrated herbs for longevity on a really serious level. But it's not just been recently like I, I, I started taking cayenne pepper which is really good for heart health when I was 35 and in a couple months I'll be 64. That's almost 30 years I've been taking cayenne pepper daily. And that was because of my dad. My dad was a kind lover and you know, I had no heart problems then. But yes, I have integrated easy things like turmeric. I love turmeric and its properties. Inflammation and pain and anti cancer and digestion and you know, all kinds of amazing things.
[00:15:59] Speaker A: Awesome.
[00:16:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:00] Speaker A: What are some common misconceptions people have about medicinal herbs and plant based healing? I mean, cause a lot of people out there, I mean just assume that some part of my audience has no idea whatsoever where would they start and what should they be aware of?
[00:16:13] Speaker B: Well first, the first thing people need to be aware of is that it's, it's, it's not woo woo and it's also, it's only intimidating because for the people in the western world where we're all modernized, we have, we don't have any experience with it. And I think what I've seen is people are completely intimidated and they also don't want to make a mistake like what if I get an infection or a fever or I get something and I don't have, I don't have enough knowledge of plants that will do what I need them to do. And I don't have any experience with them because I don't. So I think the thing is people need to start, they need to realize that they need to be brave, they need to do some due diligence and they need to flex their courage, muscle and, and start using things. And I think teas are one of the easiest way to start. You know, dandelion root tea is awesome for your liver. But here's a really easy way to start too. And I put a lot of spices in my book, in the be your own shaman book, because to me, this is very unintimidating. Things like rosemary, thyme, basil, you know, all of these herbs that people are used to cooking with. People might not realize the power punch of medicinal properties that they're getting. They just think, oh, I'm flavoring my food. But the goal is to get herbs that are fresh, fresh as possible. If you have a spice cabinet with, you know, herbs that have been sitting in there for years. In fact, one of my neighbors just this past summer cleared out her spice cabinet and she had herbs from when she was married 13 years ago. She got them from her for her wedding and she kind of used them here and there. But I'm like, you need to toss those out because they might flavor your food a little bit, but they're going to provide you with no medicinal benefits. And here's the thing, don't let the word medicinal or medicine deter you, because when you add basil to your caprese salad, you're getting a delicious taste. And don't just think, oh, this is medicinal. I'm going to add it because it's medicinal. So start cooking with these things. And that's the best place to start, in my opinion.
[00:18:17] Speaker A: How long should people keep herbs if they somebody out there that went, oh, it sounds like me, I've got like a five year old pack in my cupboard.
[00:18:24] Speaker B: Well, okay, so this is where this can kind of be interesting for people. Six months.
[00:18:29] Speaker A: Six months. Only six months.
[00:18:31] Speaker B: And here's the thing. You don't know how long a little jar or a little tin or can of a spice has been not just sitting in the grocery store, but sitting in the warehouse before it got to the grocery store.
So even though I'm not saying toss all that out, this is what I'm saying. You need to do herbs and spices as fresh as you can. And it's easier than you think to not just grow them yourself. I know many places and I've been places around the world. You can buy a little basil plant in the middle of the winter and put it in your kitchen and you can use fresh basil as you're cooking or whatever. I have a rosemary plant. I live in Utah in the States and we have, we're in the middle of winter right now, but we have a rosemary bush in a pot and we put it inside in the winter and then we put it back outside. In the spring and it lives outside. And we. We use it all year, but it has to kind of come in and out so we. You can actually start really utilizing things. Even if you have a tiny piece of property, if you have. Live in an apartment and you have a sink, buy a window or something, you can start incorporating or you can share. Get a little group of people that, you know, buy some fresh spices, and only each of you take an ounce of something so that you can keep your spices fresh.
[00:19:50] Speaker A: Yeah. Good message there. Yeah.
[00:19:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:19:53] Speaker A: I was going to ask you about plant spirits and connecting to plant spirits and using the intuition. Do you use that as a part of your own personal technique and what sort of practice do you do there?
[00:20:04] Speaker B: I do. And it is. You are very rare to ask me that because most people do, like, it's all about, like, what. What plants do what and what ailments do they fix. I love this question. Okay. So after my dad passed away, then I started his company. My dad was the brilliant botanist and he had. I still have half of his library of medicinal books and all of that. But what happened is about five years after I restarted his company, I had a need for a formula that I was getting asked for a lot. So I sa. Sat down, not just with my dad's book, but I just started doing a ton of research. So this was almost 20 years ago, and it was very specific for a specific thing. And it took me about 18 months. And I had a whole journal full of notes of all these plants and all these herbs that needed to go into this formula. And I felt a little tiny bit overwhelmed. And I felt completely unworthy of doing this work without a degree. Just all my experience I didn't think was anything that was enough. But I. I sat down in this really. I have this great place where I meditate, and I thought, okay, I'm going to ask my higher self. I'm going to ask the plant spirits that I've got all this information about for help. Because I was. I was feeling a little bit overwhelmed.
So this is what happened. This is the coolest story. So I sat down, I had my notes opened up in front of me. I closed my eyes and I just. I just completely relaxed because I. I'd spent 18 months in due diligence working on.
Working on what plants would go in this formula. And this was going to be a tincture. So this is going to be a concentrated herbal blend. Within 10 minutes, I. Stuff started to drop in, like, immediately. So I turned the page, and within 10 minutes, I'd written out the herbs that needed to go in it and the exact percentages. And then I literally put my pen down, and I kind of sat there stunned. And it was just. It was like divine inspiration. The plants were talking to me. It was the cool. I actually get chills just thinking about it right now. So when I formulate. This is how I formulate now. And about 10 years ago, I formulated a brain formula. This. So. And I. It took me a long time to share that that's how I did it, because I felt like, okay, now, wait a minute. Wait a minute. That felt too easy. But then I'm like, okay, Jane, you just, for 18 months, worked your ass off. It wasn't like it just dropped in. But they do drop in faster to me now because now I have this process and the plants talk to me. It's really cool.
[00:22:35] Speaker A: Yeah, that's. That's really cool.
[00:22:37] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:22:37] Speaker A: And it's good that you can actually recognize that and that society has moved forward so far now that you can talk about that without thinking, oh, no, I'm the weirdo. You know what I mean?
[00:22:47] Speaker B: And I really don't care about being a weirdo, if I'm honest. Don't you think, like, I get to be a certain age, and if someone calls me a weirdo, I'm like, yeah, I like being the weirdo.
[00:22:57] Speaker A: Yeah, same exactly. When I was a kid, I used to cringe at that. It was like, oh, no, I'm the weirdo.
But it's totally fine now. And people actually listen to me, which is cool.
[00:23:07] Speaker B: I know.
I love it. That's a great question. Thank you for asking me that.
[00:23:12] Speaker A: Yeah, you're welcome.
[00:23:13] Speaker B: You're welcome.
[00:23:14] Speaker A: Do you have any other magical practices that you do, or is that your main one when it comes to your herbal connection?
[00:23:19] Speaker B: No, but I recently I have been.
I've been working on out of body, working on my deeper meditation, where I can awaken my Kundalini energy. And I've really been working on the. The deepest consciousness piece of me. And I think that all is connected to all of the things in mother nature. I think I was born to my dad for an exact reason. I know that for a fact. I really try to tune in. The meditation part is really deep and heavy and beautiful for me, as well as journaling, I'm like, I go everywhere with my journal in case something drops in. I can just open. I like, you'll see me in an airport or. The only place I don't take my journal is when I'm Hiking.
[00:24:01] Speaker A: That's cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. An intuitive, magical practice is essential, I think nowadays, and I think more and more people are adopting it in a certain way without even realizing what they're doing. But they're connecting to their intuition and, and a greater connectedness to life.
[00:24:16] Speaker B: I agree.
[00:24:17] Speaker A: So how do you stay motivated and passionate about teaching others, especially through platforms like YouTube and Instagram?
[00:24:23] Speaker B: Well, that is challenging. I've had YouTube take down videos.
[00:24:27] Speaker A: Yeah. I got banned on Twitter last week.
[00:24:29] Speaker B: Yeah.
So one of the things that I did about six years ago, or maybe seven, it was a couple years before the pandemic, if I'll just say it that way. I realized already because in the US here we have, you know, the regulatory agencies and all this stuff. I'm hopeful for change, but I also think that, you know, you need to be aware of the environment we're in. But a couple years, about seven years ago, I started a, an online course where people have to, they pay to get in. I don't make it expensive. And then once you're in, you're in. I'm constantly adding content to it, but I can teach uncensored. So I have like a hundred video modules in there at this point. And underneath every video, people can ask me questions and people can interact and it's a really beautiful community. And I can teach, I can teach uncensored, censored. So I do that. But I also, I also know that people are starting to develop their intuition as well. Like kind of what you were talking about. People are realizing that that's a beautiful gift we have. And if you really pay attention and you let it guide you how it's designed to, that it'll be more and more and more. Like if I, I told my husband when we first got married, look, if, just so you know, if we're ever traveling somewhere and we're getting ready to get on a plane and I have a bad feeling about it and I can't explain it or prove it or anything, just so you know, I'm not going to get on. And it's only happened twice over a long period of time, but it's still. And there were both planes had mechanical problems that everyone was fine. But it was like, this is, this is how I think we're supposed to be guided.
I think I've just navigated by being careful. And sometimes I use code words or, you know, like everybody else. Right. You kind of make motions and you, you know, you know exactly what I'm talking about.
[00:26:18] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I do. So it's like a.
A way in life that actually enables you to live authentically because, you know, you are living your truth.
[00:26:29] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:26:30] Speaker A: Every day.
[00:26:31] Speaker B: Yeah. And. And I. I believe there's a. You know, we all have a, you know, the whole thing, a higher purpose. I will. I'll say something really far out there. My goal right now and the things that I've studied now for decades. My goal is to not come back to this planet. And I'm done. I am not going to recycle back into the reincarnation trap. And I didn't believe in reincarnation as a child. I grew up in a religion that believed this is a one or done. But I want to go and I want my consciousness to be. And so I. When things get hard or I look at the overreach of governments and I look at the stuff that's suppressed from us and how I know we're designed to be vibrantly healthy, and it feels like everything is against human beings being that way. I remind myself, like we are divine sparks of pure consciousness and love. And that's. Nothing can hurt that. Nothing can hurt that. When you realize that.
[00:27:25] Speaker A: Yeah. I realized a while back that, you know, the government isn't there to help you.
[00:27:30] Speaker B: Oh, no, no, no.
[00:27:32] Speaker A: Itself.
[00:27:34] Speaker B: Yeah. And honestly, that was one of the things that. Surprisingly, maybe not. But my dad. Dad knew that too. He was a person who. He didn't believe in carrying a driver's license. He didn't believe in income tax. Like he was. He was like, you know, changing his phone number. I watched him, and I didn't really realize to the depth of. Not just of what a rebel he was on the herbal side, but he was aware of things. And I look at some of the things that he sent us to as kids. Like there's an organization in the U.S. i don't know if it's still around anymore. It was the John Birch Society. I don't know if you've ever heard of that.
[00:28:10] Speaker A: I've heard of it, but I don't know what it's about.
[00:28:11] Speaker B: So we went to John Birch camp when we were teenagers, and we were. And it was fun, but we were learning about the Constitution. We were learning about our rights as sovereign beings on this planet. Like, these were the.
[00:28:24] Speaker A: And that's cool.
[00:28:25] Speaker B: Yeah. So those. And my dad didn't preach this at us, but I would love to have a conversation with him right now with how far. All the things that I've learned and, you know, it. It would be really a beautiful thing because he was so far ahead of his time and to pass away at 62 is. Is. I think he is on to bigger and better things, man. He's just like, I'm out of here.
[00:28:51] Speaker A: Well, I can. I can relate to your desire come back. Because when I was younger, I actually didn't think I was going to make it to 50, but I did. And I also would always say, there's no way I'm coming back. And then I met my wife and I said I'd come back to hang out with you again because you're cool.
[00:29:05] Speaker B: Yeah, I. I think you got to be careful, man. If you make a soul contract, come back. Here's the thing. If you do come back, why do they wipe your mind if you're here to. To learn lessons and burn off karma? Well, why don't you retain all the things you learned? Like that makes no sense to me, but I'm so happy you have a lovely wife. That's amazing.
[00:29:29] Speaker A: I agree with you, though, that erasure thing is a bit weird. It's like, what's going on there?
[00:29:34] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, you're like, I did not expect it to go there, but there we go.
[00:29:43] Speaker A: It's all interesting. It's a good conversation. So it is. Is there anything that you'd actually like me to talk about that I didn't actually ask you a question on?
[00:29:50] Speaker B: No, I really. Well, maybe if I can just to say, I need to remind people, anyone who's listening, that maybe is struggling with their health and. And have struggled for a long time, because I think that the majority of the Western world has some type of health problem. And they. They're maybe on pharmaceuticals they don't want to be on, or maybe they, you know, this is my. This is my message. Health is simple. We are designed for. For vibrant health. If you think about the things that we do, we don't eat clean, we don't exercise, we eat bad food, and we have too much stress and we use too much technology, and we still live.
Our bodies are still living. So imagine what would happen if you started putting into practice simple things that just turn your health around. Your body will explode into vibrant wellness. That is how we're designed. And I think if anyone is feeling a little bit hopeless and helpless and maybe there's a spark of something if you make a dramatic change, you don't make. You know, I talk to people who have just gotten a gnarly diagnosis with some stage 4 type of cancer or something, and I watch them make dramatic changes. They change everything in their Life. And they have dramatic results, and they. They get well really quickly. So I think people just need to realize that health is not complicated. We're designed to be healthy.
[00:31:14] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a good message. I was going to ask you, though, do you have any examples of any success stories that you could share as long as you keep the people anonymous?
[00:31:24] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I have a really great story. I have several, but there's one in particular. So one of the things that my dad studied a long time was a really beautiful plant in a plant species of Venus flytrap. And if you think about a Venus flytrap, one in particular is Dionea muscula, because there's several different Venus fly traps. But this particular species, my dad made a tincture out of it. And you use the fresh plants, and they. You don't. They get overnighted from wherever they're coming from, and you put them into tincture right away. Because in the digestive juices, there are a lot of medicinal properties. You think about a Venus fly trap, it can catch insects, and it can digest and dissolve and digest them. And so what my dad found is that when you make fresh plant tincture out of Venus fly trap, it can shrink abnormal growths and tumors. So this has kind of been something we don't. We don't make it or we don't sell it, because we don't. We can't have access to enough plants. But about 14 years ago, a very good friend who lives here, near where I live was diagnosed. She was 74, and she was diagnosed with a stage four glioblastoma, which is a brain tumor. The doctors told. They found it at stage four, and the doctors told her that it was inoperable. And they did all the x rays and MRIs and stuff. And her husband scared her enough to let them operate, even though they told her it was an inoperable brain tumor. She didn't want to do any of it, but her husband was like, please, I want you to stay. And. And they want to do surgery. They might be able to do something once they get in there, but so they. They opened her up. They opened her head up and poked at it and then closed her back up because they couldn't operate on it. They knew that before they opened her up. So by the time she reached out to me, she had. I didn't know she'd had the diagnosis or had the surgery. She was in the hospital and had. Was recovering from her surgery, and she just said, okay, Jane, it might be my time to go. They can't do anything for me. I want to get on some of your herbs. We'd been friends for a really long time, and she knew what I did and already did some of my stuff. And so I, at that time happened to have some Venus fly trap and some of my other tinctures. My dad had a three herbal tinctures that were in his suggested cancer protocol, and that was separate from the Venus fly trap. So I said, look, let's get you on these. And so she went on all four of those tinctures. She changed her diet, she stopped drinking alcohol. She was funnest, most lovely party girl at 74. But she stopped. She stopped these lifestyle behaviors that would, you know, kind of hold her back. And to make a long story short, at the 14 month mark after her diagnosis, there was zero tumor activity. Zero. And she used to go in for her, like, I think they did a scan like every three or four months and. And the tumor had started to shrink, and she would wave her little tinctures at them and say, this is what I'm doing. And they just were kind of like, you know, get out of our face. And she was an older lady and sassy and brassy and had confidence in natural medicine, and they couldn't do anything for her any.
So they were just kind of like, okay, well, we don't know what's happening, but keep doing what you're doing. And they didn't want to hear about anything she was doing, but she lived another 10 years and she has since passed on. But that's one of my favorite stories because she was one of my favorite friends and her husband is still alive and actually remarried. You know, stories like that, to me, that's actually a very dramatic story. You know, when I was 14, I watched my dad stop a heart attack with cayenne pepper tincture. Cayenne pepper is a powerful vasodilator, and I think everyone should have it in. In their emergency cupboard. In their cupboard because. Or at least a teaspoon of cayenne pepper you can stir into water. Call 91 1, call emergency, but in the meantime, stir up a teaspoon of cayenne pepper, have the person drink it and. And then see what happens. I've seen it do powerful things.
[00:35:29] Speaker A: Yeah. Why do you think the medical establishment didn't want to hear about the tinctures?
[00:35:33] Speaker B: I think because they don't know anything about it. And I think if you think about, you know, you go to medical school and you have all these years of, you know, learning and all and they don't. And you're not taught about these things. I think it can be really tough on ego for someone who's, you know, got a medical degree. I think they just don't know enough. They don't know. They're not, they're barely taught about nutrition. Barely. Like we, we've heard stories about that all the time. Like, you know, I have a lot of friends now who are doctors. Because here's something really cool. About two or three years after I started, I started like after I restarted my dad's company, I started getting calls from medical doctors because there were naturopaths and natural doctors who were already in the customer base. And so they would talk to their medical doctor friends. And so I would start getting phone calls from medical doctors who maybe they had a diagnosis or a person in their family had a diagnosis of something and they didn't want to do their own treatments. So they would say, oh, so and so gave me your name. And they say you have a protocol for this. And so what they would do is they would use my protocol instead of something else that they were prescribing to their patients in place of it on their spouse or their children or their brother or whatever. And so now all these years later, I have a, I have a pretty good sized group of medical doctors who just use my stuff. Some of them send their patients my way and I don't give medical advice. I just, you know, they go to my website and stuff. But I think the world is shifting and more of these medical doctors need to be brave. And some of them are, some of them are stepping out and learning about natural medicine, breaking out of the medical system even, and starting their own practice where they don't even take insurance. They just, that way they can practice how they want to practice. It's an interesting world. It's such an interesting time we're in and I think it's brilliant. You have to go through these kind of. It's like birthing pains, right?
I think we're in the middle of that.
[00:37:32] Speaker A: Oh, I totally agree. I think we're actually seeing a big shift, a paradigm shift in consciousness and awareness and how things are connected. And you know, we're going back to the original ways. And part of those original ways is herbal health. And you know, we've only had like what, 150 years of Western medicine and it's been a disaster. Yeah, it's helped some people, it helps people through trauma, but that's about it. The rest of it is pretty Ordinary in some ways.
[00:38:02] Speaker B: Well. And you can't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Right?
[00:38:04] Speaker A: That's it. That's right. That's right. There's some goodness. There is some goodness. But.
[00:38:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:38:08] Speaker A: And they're realistic about that.
[00:38:09] Speaker B: Yeah. There's good people, too. If I. And if I get in a car accident, please save my life. Like stitch me up, put me in surgery, whatever.
[00:38:17] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:38:18] Speaker B: But. Yeah, I'm not against antibiotics, I'm not against prescription drugs. No. These things. We need to imagine this. Cj, In a perfect world, a person walks into a facility or a place because they're having a health issue. And in this place, there are not only surgery centers, there's acupuncture, there's herbal medicine, there's reiki, there's. You might need a prescription. Like, it's all encompassed in one place that's best for the person.
You know that that would be like all the beauty of what modern medicine has accomplished. And it would encompass all the natural medicine that has kept humans living and thriving for centuries too.
[00:39:00] Speaker A: Yeah, totally agree. Do you think it would make a good neuralink subscription, though?
[00:39:05] Speaker B: Now Say that again.
[00:39:07] Speaker A: Do you think it would make a good neural link subscription? Like Elon Musk is proposing? It's like, what?
[00:39:12] Speaker B: No, no, no. People need to exercise their no muscle.
[00:39:16] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:39:17] Speaker B: No, no, no. We don't agree. No way.
[00:39:21] Speaker A: That's right. That's right. Everyone should become a consensualist.
[00:39:24] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:39:24] Speaker A: You have to consent.
[00:39:26] Speaker B: Yes. And we are sovereign. We can say no. If enough of us say no, the systems will change or they'll crumble and new systems will be built.
[00:39:33] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:39:34] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:39:35] Speaker A: That's the way everything flows.
[00:39:36] Speaker B: You are a like minded soul, C.J.
[00:39:39] Speaker A: For sure. I've been like this forever. I used to be considered a complete weirdo just because I thought like this. And now it's becoming normal. Like, yay. You know?
[00:39:48] Speaker B: Oh, I love that. It's. It's good to be an outsider.
[00:39:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:39:52] Speaker B: You know, and be comfortable in your skin while you're an outsider.
[00:39:56] Speaker A: Excellent. Yeah, totally true. That's what I've had to come to over a long time. So, Jane, we're coming towards the end of the podcast now. How can people find you and your services?
[00:40:06] Speaker B: Well, so I'm easy to find. My website is barlowherbal.com so just b A R L O W H E R B A L. And I have a little YouTube channel, Barlow Herbal, where I. I drop a little herbal wisdom video every week. Every Sunday I put out a Sunday message of love. Because it is about raising the consciousness of the planet. You know, just let the. Let's raise our consciousness. So I'm super easy to find. I've got a little Instagram, Barlow herbal. So I'm super easy to find. Yeah.
[00:40:37] Speaker A: Excellent. I'll provide all those links in the show notes. And thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing your wisdom and your kindred spirit.
[00:40:45] Speaker B: Thank you, cj. It's so nice to talk to you. And on the other side of the planet, I'm just like, this is what I love about technology, is that it connects us, and we. We get to say, okay, I can feel your energy across. Across. Across the world. And I'm grateful that we connected. So thank you.
[00:41:03] Speaker A: Yeah, me too. Thank you very much, Jane. All right.
[00:41:05] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:41:06] Speaker A: Say goodbye to listeners.
Well, that was a hugely inspiring conversation with Jane. I really love the idea of her growing up with a father that was almost like a secret activist in the way that he connected to the world and educated them all as children. And. And that stayed with her throughout her youth and led her back in a big circle all the way to running her father's business after he passed. And the legacy of his work still goes on. And then her writing her book and then including all of his work in it, plus the extras that involved psychedelic medicine and how that can work for people, too. It was such a great, deep story and sharing that we had today and really good connection with Jane. Thank you so much, Jane. That was just totally cool. And if you've enjoyed today's show, please like and subscribe. If you're on YouTube, it's free. And also share this to a friend that you know that would really enjoy it. That'd be really appreciated as well. And if you're in a podcast app listening to this, give me five stars. That would be totally awesome. I'd really appreciate it. So please. Yeah. Thank you so much for enjoying today's show. And until next episode, it's bye for now.
