Pain-Killing Properties of Pure Tobacco and Nicotine

There are 79 species of tobacco. In commercial cigarettes, Nicotiana tabacum is the most common species of tobacco used. But Nicotiana rustica is wild tobacco, a type of tobacco that’s different from Nicotiana tabacum. Wild tobacco, N. rustica, for example, contains up to nine times the level of nicotine in N. tabacum and it has been used for centuries by the native people of North America as a medicine for humans, as a ceremonial tool, and as a way to naturally control insects in the garden.

Big Pharma would love it if we all believed that every species of tobacco was the same. The campaigns in the 1990’s against cigarette smoking were quickly replaced by marketing of the masses to take up vaping instead. Nowadays, cigarettes are almost synonymous with “Tobacco-the-Plant” and conceptually, we’ve been taught that there’s only one type of tobacco and it’s evil and it will kill you. But this isn’t the whole truth. It’s not even close to the truth.

Wild tobacco is viewed as the first of the sacred medicines. N. rustica is used ceremonially as a medicine in tandem with a number of the other sacred medicines because of its ability to get rid of negative energy and also physical toxins. Before the Scientific Revolution, N. rustica was used frequently by shamans in traditional societies because it worked to heal people – shamans understood this healing process intuitively without understanding the technical pragmatics regarding the cholinergic nervous system and its nicotinic receptors. Today, we can, in theory, use both the shamanic intuition of ancient humans in combination with the science of nicotine and the cholinergic system to produce an interaction between Nicotiana rustica and our human nicotinic receptors for positive medicinal benefits. Our bodies were designed to be able to interact with this plant. Back when nicotine was first discovered in the 19th century by John Langley, nicotine was referred to as a “receptive substance”. Once nicotine was discovered, Big Pharma then pushed to produce a synthetic nicotine that ultimately produces nicotine dependence. Synthetic nicotine, after all, is an unnatural chemical that damages the nicotine receptors rather than dislodging toxins from them as natural nicotine can do.

Substances that interact with the nicotinic receptors abound in nature. The nicotinic receptors are part of the body’s acetylcholine system, most commonly known as the cholinergic system, and they ultimately act to connect the mind or spirit with the body. In shamanism, we might say that nicotinic receptors help the soul embody the body fully, and in fact, shamans acknowledge that emotional, spiritual, or biological toxins can indeed lodge themselves in the nicotinic receptors to make it hard for our soul “parts” (as the soul can dissociate into different parts in response to trauma) to properly fill-out and embody the physical body. A toxin, such as the toxin produced by the cholera bacteria, snake venom, or the COVID spike protein might lodge itself in the nicotinic receptors in all areas or in isolated parts of the human body and make it hard for the soul to reclaim control.

Let’s say, for example, that you are bitten by the krait snake in Myanmar. The venom from this snake contains nicotinic toxins that lodge in the human body’s nicotinic receptors, causing the body to develop Totally Locked-In Syndrome. This is beneficial for the snake because Totally Locked-In Syndrome paralyzes the body so totally that not even the victim’s eyes can’t move. Yet the victim is fully conscious inside the body and able to feel heat and cold, sensations on the skin, and any pain or sensory experience that exists in the body. Meanwhile, the victim is unable to move, unable to breathe, and even unable to change the position of their eyes.

Lesser, more partial versions of Totally Locked-In Syndrome exist as just “Locked-In Syndrome”, but there are also health issues like Long COVID or vaccine injuries of various types that involve a version of Locked-In Syndrome that might be experienced simply as pain and extreme lethargy, or a sense of general exhaustion or depression, among other symptoms. Partial paralysis due to nicotinic receptor overload is even possible. We might say that nicotine and other nicotinic receptor agonists are able to release nicotinic toxins from the receptors. Nicotine is one of several natural medicinal substances that can dislodge toxins from the nicotinic receptors to help make it possible for the soul or the animating principle of the patient, to take control of the body again.

In addition to this important medicinal effect of Nicotiana rustica (and sometimes low-dose nicotine patches), nicotine is also able to produce a pain-relieving and anti-inflammatory effect on the human body. Natural forms of nicotine – such as pure, unadulterated tobacco such as Rapéh or Ambil – are recommended since they have a detoxifying effect on the nicotinic receptors and on the body as a whole. Studies have shown that nicotine and Nicotiana rustica, as well as other tobacco species, can relieve pain better than diclofenac (an NSAID) when taken at the proper dose. In this context, nicotine works to relieve pain via a mechanism of action that acts on opioid receptors in the body’s opioid system in addition to its effects on the body’s nicotinic receptors. This might explain why people often say that breaking an addiction to cigarettes is more difficult than breaking an addiction to heroin. Synthetic forms of nicotine are likely interacting powerfully and in a toxic way with opioid receptors as well as with the nicotinic receptors.

In animal models of pain, studies have shown that nicotine extracts act both peripherally and centrally to reduce pain and inflammation when given at a dose of 12 mg/kg body weight, but this would be a very high dose of nicotine for a human. Nonetheless, it deserves mention here that nicotine, through its action on the nicotinic receptors as well as the opioid receptors, can have a healing effect on major digestive issues such as ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease (both of which contribute to a significant amount of chronic pain to sufferers of these diseases).

Nicotine interacts only with the mu-opioid receptors and the nicotinic receptors, but other medicinal substances found in Nicotiana rustica contribute to the more balanced effect produced by this sacred plant medicine. Nicotiana rustica also contains flavonoids that are present in the smoke as well as in other formulations of the plant such as Ambil and Hapé / Rapé. Antioxidants in the whole plant help to modulate the overall effect of this medicine.

Nicotiana rustica is an annual plant that originated in the Andes Mountains in South America. As a plant medicine, this plant traveled throughout the western hemisphere and, in the distant past, it was used as a sedative by the Mayans and the Aztecs in Mexico. Mayan tribes used Nicotiana rustica to treat the following health issues:

Restlessness
Insomnia
Convulsions / seizures
Fever
Mood disorders
Pain in the eyes
Skin conditions

Later, Nicotiana rustica traveled to the east and was used as an herbal remedy for other disorders including:

Common cold
Headaches
Stomach disorders including Crohn’s disease, and ulcerative colitis

After reaching Africa, Nicotiana rustica was found to be useful in the treatment of yet other health conditions including:

Ear pain / pain due to ear infection or due to other causes
Skin lesions
Burns

Medicinal cigarettes that included Nicotiana rustica along with the following medicinal herbs for health problems such as throat pain, bronchitis, asthma, or emphysema followed:

Origanum vulgare / Oregano
- Combined with N. rustica in cigarette form to treat sore throat.
Eucalpytus globulus / Eucalyptus
- Combined with N. rustica in cigarette form to treat bronchitis.
Datura OR Brugmansia
- Combined with N. rustica for asthma and emphysema.
- Both Datura and Brugmansia are powerful herbs that can produce challenging effects for patients. Be sure to work with a skilled herbalist who has plenty of experience with these herbs in the treatment of lung disease.

Nicotiana rustica leaves can also be chewed to prevent toothache and tooth decay.

It makes sense that Big Pharma would want to own a synthetic, patentable nicotine product that it can market to the masses, especially if that synthetic nicotine product is addictive and as long as it does not cure any diseases (to cure a disease is not a profitable model for Big Pharma, after all).

Nicotine: Neurotransmitter Effects

Nicotine interacts with the nicotinic receptors of the cholinergic system, but it also promotes the release of dopamine and the release of endogenous opioids that interact with the pain-killing mu-opioid receptors in the opioidergic system. The natural nicotine found in Nicotiana rustica promotes beta-endorphin secretion, the natural opioid that’s associated with natural “highs” such as the so-called “runner’s high”, so its opioid effects on the body are not physically addictive, per se, but they can be psychologically addictive in the same way that running 10 miles can be addictive to people who are predisposed to exercise addiction.

Thuja occidentalis, Artemisia absinthium, and Thujone for Pain Relief

The medicinal agent known as thujone, which is found in a number of different medicinal plants but most famously in Thuja occidentalis, has a checkered past with lots of dark corners and mysteries that are still seemingly unsolved. Like tobacco and nicotine, Artemisia species and Thuja occidentalis, and their primary medicinal agent, thujone, has been used as both a medicine, and as a medical-political force during certain eras in history to promote propaganda that has elements of truth that compel the masses in one direction or another. Both nicotine and thujone have been, at times, dubbed a “public health concern”, but when used in the proper context at the proper dose, these are powerful medicines that can be used intentionally to overcome major health issues.

Like Nicotiana rustica and nicotine, the substance known as thujone interacts with nicotinic receptors in the cholinergic system, but its relationship with these receptors sometimes opposes the effects produced by nicotine, thus nicotine’s ability to quell a seizure while thujone might produce one. Both nicotine and thujone interact with the nicotinic receptors to bring the soul / energy body of a person into the body or push it out, but it’s important to note that thujone produces an 80% inhibition of acetylcholine (this is an endogenous neurotransmitter that interacts with both nicotinic and muscarinic receptors). Unlike nicotine, thujone does not interact with the nicotinic receptors to the same degree as endogenous acetylcholine. So while thujone’s action is still “nicotinic” in that it inhibits these receptors, it has a generally opposite effect as nicotine in terms of seizures specifically.

Thuja occidentalis, also known as northern white-cedar, eastern white-cedar, or arborvitae, contains thujone, a natural, plant-based compound that is also found in other plants such as Artemisia absinthium / common wormwood or Artemisia vulgaris / mugwort. Artemisia absinthium is the medicinal plant used to produce a green-colored, distilled alcoholic beverage known as “absinthe”. Absinthe has, in some people, produced hallucinations involving an entity known as The Green Man (or sometimes, The Green Fairy). Some sources talk about The Green Man as something that people really did see and interact with. Other sources completely reject the idea that The Green Man exists. Not everyone who becomes totally inebriated with a thujone-containing absinthe will see The Green Man. He doesn’t reliably make an entrance. Does that mean that The Green Man is not real? You decide…but it might be worth your time to read the rest of this article before you weigh in on this topic.

Absinthe was so popular in the 18th century that 5:00 PM was dubbed “The Green Hour” in some parts of Europe.

Absinthe, as a result of its thujone content, could, at times, produce hallucinations that caused people to behave erratically and even experience seizures as thujone in large quantities for long periods of time can be toxic. By the 19th century, absinthe was banned in the United States with its thujone content cited as the primary reason why, but in reality, it’s hard to say for sure what the motivations were for banning thujone as the American Medical Association / AMA was created in 1847, and the practice of medicine in 1915 was shifting dramatically from a system that could save lives to a system that could make money by keeping people alive albeit at a lower quality of living and always with the purpose of making money off of chronic illness. We also have to remember that prohibition started in 1920, so the banning of absinthe may have happened more or less to support this movement as it gained momentum.

Also, absinthe was well-known in Europe for producing artists (for example, Picasso) and writers (like Oscar Wilde) who were able to present reality to people in an entirely different way. It’s possible that certain powerful people did not want for absinthe to disrupt a certain version of reality that would be profitable and beneficial to a select few. In any case, we don’t know the exact reasons why absinthe and thujone were so absolutely demonized at this time, but thujone specifically was removed from the public eye for quite some time.

Needless to say, today you can purchase absinthe again in the U.S. but it’s thujone-free. Indeed, it’s possible to overdo it with thujone and maybe people do need some safety parameters in place to properly work with thujone-as-a-medicine. But thujone is also a valuable healer, so we have to consider the possibility that the AMA promoted the obliteration of absinthe – and the thujone real absinthe contains – so as to promote the development of certain diseases that can be prevented or treated with low-to-moderate doses of thujone. In today’s world, the AMA has very sophisticated methods for removing nutrients and medicines from natural food or plant products, after all, in order to promote the development of diseases like cancer or “autoimmunity”.

While Artemisia species are fairly well-known for their anti-parasitic and women’s health-promoting effects (neither should be taken during pregnancy), Thuja occidentalis is a coniferous tree that is native to eastern North America; this tree is most commonly known as “arborvitae”, or the Tree of Life, which suggests is long history as a central medicinal plant. Arborvitae can be administered either as a homeopathic remedy or as the mother tincture.

The homeopathic remedy itself does not contain a great deal of thujone (if any, in fact) which makes it safe for children and infants as well as women who are pregnant. Be sure that you’re working with a homeopathic expert if you’re administering Thuja occidentalis during pregnancy, lactation, or if you’re giving it to young children. Homeopathic remedies work differently than whole plant extracts or other standard herbal remedies, so be aware that the medicinal properties of the Thuja homeopathic remedy do differ from those of actual, concentrated Thuja occidentalis plant extract (in fact, their effects are somewhat the opposite of each other in some cases given how homeopathic medicine works to treat health problems).

In terms of healing chronic pain issues, Rhus Toxicodendron is the most commonly prescribed homeopathic remedy for osteoarthritis, but Thuja occidentalis (as a homeopathic remedy) has a 97% effectiveness rate as an intercurrent remedy for this chronic pain condition. Thuja improves joint function while relieving pain in those with arthritis. For diabetic neuropathy and nephropathy, Thuja occidentalis (as a homeopathic remedy) acts as an anti-inflammatory and an antioxidant that can treat the root cause of diabetes. But diabetes is a disease that also has some associations with mental illness with the most relevant being multiple personality disorder / dissociative identity disorder in that this is a mental health issue in which sub-personalities take control over a person’s body in response to trauma-triggers. The Thuja remedy is indeed also sometimes used to treat mental health issues, including MPD / DID and psychotic conditions.

But moving on, the mother tincture of Thuja occidentalis – which is, in essence, a concentrated, standard herbal tincture – contains dramatically more thujone than the homeopathic remedy, and like the homeopathic remedy, the mother tincture became famous for its ability to reduce pain from various causes. As a plant medicine (in contrast to a homeopathic remedy), Thuja occidentalis contains essential oils, tannins, flavonoids, and proanthocyanidin substances that have powerful medicinal effects. This medicine works to reduce pain by physiologically diminishing oxidative stress and inflammation, while promoting programmed cellular death (as opposed to the necrosis of tissues), thus promoting healing in both the kidneys and the nervous system. For inflammatory bowel diseases like ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, the Thuja occidentalis mother tincture is administered orally at a dose of 25 to 50 mg/kg body weight to inhibit inflammation in the colon. So, like tobacco, the thujone-containing herbs have a healing effect on the colon. Both Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are related closely to colon cancer / colorectal cancer and indeed, thujone, eucalyptol, and camphor, three medicinal components found specifically in Salvia officinalis / sage, inhibit colon cancer cells. So, we might look at these lower intestinal disease-states that are responsive to both nicotine and thujone treatment as diseases that involve some kind of deep spiritual affliction.

The maximum safe dose of mother tincture of Thuja occidentalis recommended in the U.S. is 3-7 mg/day. This dose is obviously far lower than the recommended dose for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis demonstrating that the information circulating out there in the scientific community about thujone is inconsistent at best. Is the scientific community recommending this low dose to ensure that no one can cure a serious disease with thujone? Maybe, but it’s still wise to play it safe with thujone-containing herbs if you’re new to this domain, since thujone is powerful and requires respectful use. Though there’s a great deal of research into commercial cigarettes out there to cover-up any meaningful data about the use of wild Tobacco for colon cancer, we can assume that the healing effects produced in Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis would translate to colon cancer as well. High dose vitamin B3 / nicotinic acid for Crohn’s, ulcerative colitis, and colon cancer supports this assumption.

Thujone does, in fact, block alpha-nicotinic receptors, but much of its negative press is actually associated with its ability to block GABA receptor transmission. Studies have demonstrated that thujone produces medicinal effects similar to the effects of the pharmaceutical GABA-blocker drug, picrotoxin. Thujone reversibly blocks GABA-A receptors in humans, which gives it an excitatory, stimulating effect on the brain and mood-states. As such, thujone acts like an antidepressant to lift mood, but it can also produce anxiety if used outside of a ceremonial context. While the alcoholic beverage, absinthe, would produce depressant effects as a result of the alcohol-content, the thujone-content would act to promote mood elevation such that the effects of alcohol intoxication (including disinhibition and depression) are mixed with the mood elevating effects of the absinthe / thujone.

Oscar Wilde wrote this about absinthe:

“After the first glass, you see things as you wish they were. After the second, you see them as they are not. Finally, you see things as they really are, which is the most horrible thing in the world.”

This assessment of absinthe and thujone gives us a way of describing how this medicine works to those who have never used it in a ceremonial, healing context.

Nicotine vs. Thujone: Physiological Effects

Nicotine and thujone are both pain-relieving herbs that have opposing effects on the nicotinic receptors in the body. Thujone also impacts the GABA-A receptors, of course, to produce a somewhat different experience than what nicotine can do.

Nicotine causes the following physiological and medicinal effects:

Increase in blood pressure
Increase in heart rate
More powerful heart contractions
Dilation of coronary arteries
Increased blood flow to the heart
Release of adrenaline
Increased gastrointestinal movement and peristalsis
Stimulation of the stomach (which can result in sensations of nausea or even vomiting, though tolerance develops quickly to overcome these symptoms)
Appetite reduction
Laxative effects
Alteration of taste bud sensitivity
Decrease in muscle tonus and restlessness
Relaxation
Brain stimulation
Antiparasitic
Natural Crohn’s disease treatment
Natural ulcerative colitis treatment
Stimulates dopamine release
Stimulates glutamate release
Stimulates gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) release
Stimulates the release of corticotropin-releasing hormone to increase the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (this is thought to contribute to the stress response during withdrawals when people take high doses of nicotine chronically as a result of smoking commercial cigarettes)

Note that if the arteries that feed the heart muscle are clogged, nicotine may put stress on the heart. Be sure to read about vitamin K2 / MK-7 and EDTA for heart disease and to prevent heart attacks when working ceremonially with nicotine if you have a weak heart.

Thujone, in contrast to nicotine, has the following effects on human physiology:

Convulsant (the higher the dose of thujone, the greater the risk of seizures – the seizure-producing dose in humans is not known)
Pain-relieving / antinociceptive
Acetylcholine inhibition
Antiparasitic
Nausea (at high doses)
Vomiting (at high doses)
Gallbladder disease
Natural Crohn’s disease treatment
Natural ulcerative colitis treatment
Natural abortifacient
Emmenagogue (it promotes menstruation when periods are late)
Modulates GABA receptors
Blocks Alpha-7 nicotinic receptors
Muscarinic effects (research is not conclusive in regard to muscarinic interactions)

Ceremonial Use of Tobacco and Artemisia

Throughout the world, tobacco has been burned in tribal communities as a way to guard humans against negative spiritual entities and dark forces, but other members of the Artemisia genus have also been used in a similar way in Native American groups.

While Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioners burnt Artemisia vulgaris / mugwort at specific acupoints on a patient’s body in the practice of moxibustion, native shamans in North and South America would blow tobacco smoke on their patients. Indeed, the energy channels noted by the shaman who would use soplada treatments on their patients are nearly identical to the meridians in TCM.

Both tobacco and mugwort (as the plant-medicine representative for this particular thujone discussion) have been used for centuries in ceremonial medicine to treat non-corporeal, spiritual maladies that exist at a more fundamental level of pathogenesis in terms of disease and chronic pain. In ceremonial contexts, Tobacco is referred to as “The Father of All Plants” or “The Royal Plant” with its nicotinic properties that give it a vital protective and yet non-toxic faculty in terms of its insecticidal effects for a garden of other plants. Metaphorically speaking in the ceremonial-medicine context for humans, we might look at damaging insects that are hurting or killing plants as spiritual-metaphorical toxins that can be controlled (rather than being obliterated along with all of the helpful insects like bees and butterflies) using a balancing force like the tobacco plant. Plants benefit from a bit of Tobacco dust to ward off damaging, predatory insects because insects are innervated by a highly reactive “nicotinic” nervous system that can’t tolerate the nicotinic effects produced by the Tobacco dust.

Humans also benefit from the nicotinic effects of natural, wild forms of Tobacco that have not been genetically modified, but in order to understand Tobacco’s effects on us spiritually and emotionally in a ceremonial context for healing, we have to relate to this plant in terms of the metaphor of insects as predatory or parasitic negative energies that would eat away at us psychically. There are many insects with nicotinic receptors, like bees, ladybugs, or butterflies that keep plants alive and well, but a bit of tobacco dust on a plant will repel insects that would otherwise eat the leaves of the plant. Tobacco plants are pollinated by bees, for example, and the bees benefit from the nicotine content in the nectar of Tobacco flowers as an antiparasitic for themselves and the hive, but bees don’t want to eat the leaves of plants. Tobacco is not a toxic insecticide that kills every “insect” (read: potentially dark, predatory, or parasitic energies or forces) that comes near. But Tobacco dust can be used to protect plants from being preyed upon by certain “bad” insects while providing medicine to other types of “good/beneficial” insects (read: positive child-soul parts that perhaps need to be retrieved for healing).

For humans, Tobacco can be used ceremonially to release spiritual or emotional “toxins” as well as physical toxins that have nicotinic-receptor effects such as synthetic pesticides. Natural, wild Tobacco does not repel all spiritual or energetic forces that are around us, only the toxic forces that would seek to consume us in a predatory or parasitic way. A bit of ceremonial tobacco also produces opioid-receptor effects for pain-relief, but this medicine works to heal the body through multiple mechanisms of action when properly applied in a spiritual-ceremonial context.

Low-dose nicotine patches, though valuable, may not have the same healing effects as Nicotiana rustica on chronic pain because they lack other herbal substances and the plant consciousness of whole tobacco to produce pain-relief, trauma release, and the other spiritual benefits of working with the whole Tobacco plant.

In contrast to Tobacco use in shamanic medicine, Artemisia vulgaris can be used as a dream-invoking herb for divination, as a medicinal plant in ceremonial contexts, and as a plant medicine that helps the vital energy in the body flow more easily (according to TCM). These two medicines, nicotine / Tobacco and thujone / Artemisia vulgaris, shouldn’t be used at the exact same time, however, because they can cancel each other out or otherwise alter each other’s effects. Though it might be okay to use Tobacco in a ceremonial context first and then administer Artermisia vulgaris shortly afterward, if used simultaneously, the effects could be unpredictable or null.

Like Tobacco as The Father of Plants, Artemisia vulgaris / Mugwort was known as “The Mother of Herbs” in European, Hindu, and Chinese traditions. It was used to protect travelers in part because Mugwort is a “flying herb” used to produce visionary, dreamlike states and to ward off negative or dark energies.

Whereas Tobacco can produce visions and insights, Mugwort produces a more dream-like state of mind through its thujone content and other medicinal substances. This lucid-dreaming state can be used productively by a shaman to release negative energies around a client, but in TCM, Mugwort is burnt near the skin of the patient in order to balance the movement of the body’s natural energies through the meridians. Shamans use Mugwort to travel to other realms in order to heal a client, but in TCM, the client heals him or herself with the help of the Mugwort, properly applied to specific areas of the body.

Both Tobacco and Mugwort are burnt to produce smoke during the ceremonial cleansing of spaces, objects, and people, and, like tobacco dust on plants, the nicotinic properties of both of these herbs might be cited as the main underlying mechanism of action in play. However, Mugwort, through its thujone content, would also have GABA-A receptor effects that stimulate the brain in order to produce divinatory visions.

Thujone can produce seizures in high-doses and though this is obviously an effect that people should avoid, we also need to note that epilepsy is viewed in many tribal communities – the Hmong people in Laos are a good example – as a gift that indicates shamanic capabilities. In shamanic cultures, a seizure is a type of soul loss where the soul is able to “travel” to other realms. An adult person with epilepsy born into one of these cultures knows how to intentionally do this kind of “soul traveling” to other realms in order to do work in these other realms on behalf of the tribe. They leave their bodies behind in a state of seizure in order to “travel” or “fly”. Diabetics who end up in a diabetic coma might simply be using these same kinds of faculties as epileptics, since diabetes can exist in one sub-personality in a person with multiple personality disorder while other sub-personalities do not have diabetes, suggesting that a diabetic coma may be a kind of “soul travelling” in some contexts.

In the modern world, few people know the shamanic model of medicine that considers the soul and its “soul parts” as the medicines that heal. In the modern world, we ascribe to an absolute separation between body and mind, spirit and body, but in the cosmology of those who have not been conditioned to think logically and without emotion as the highest of all attainments, the body IS the mind. The body IS the spirit. In shamanic cultures, a human being doesn’t die the way that human beings die in the modern world. Shamanic medicine acknowledges that a person can die part-way and then bring themselves back to life. In other words, a person can release a soul part as a result of a major trauma and that soul part will go and live elsewhere in another “realm” as the guardian and keeper of the negative emotions and beliefs that were created as a result of the trauma. This “other realm” is roughly synonymous to the Unconscious Mind of western psychology. In modern conventional medicine, the “other realm” would be viewed as the autonomic nervous system (which contains the nicotinic receptors as well as muscarinic, adrenaline, and noradrenaline receptors, by the way). A partial soul death looks like a physical illness or it might look like an inability to sleep at night or to feel wakeful and alive during the day. It might look like brain fog or severe mental illness, including psychosis or multiple personality disorder. In any case, shamanism is a type of medicine that works intensively with soul parts to bring them back from the “other realm”. But if you are a modern human and you don’t know how to believe in other realms, if you’ve lost the part of you that can believe that a body-near-the-precipice-of-death can bring it’s Self / Soul back in order to be totally healthy, then shamanism and all that it has to offer will elude you as though this type of magic were not, in fact, real.

Thujone is a medicine. It is also a toxin if taken at inappropriate doses. This unique contrast helps the soul detach temporarily from the body so that the soul can “fly”.

This explains why absinthe, as a thujone-containing alcoholic beverage, was regarded as a substance that could provoke artists and writers to create masterpieces (in addition to its seizure-producing effects). Thujone gives certain people who have a way to make use of thujone’s effects the ability to “fly” while other people who take thujone will be unable to productively use their ability to “fly” and they simply become “crazy” or just very ill.

Shamans spend a lot of time training to learn how to use the thujone-containing herbs if they’re from a tradition where something like Mugwort is used on a regular basis. The goal is to be able to work with an herb like Mugwort to find information on other planes of reality and to be able to do productive work on these other planes on behalf of others in the tribe or family.

Tobacco is similar in that shamans use it at very high doses, through consistent work with the herb to produce tolerance. Most people don’t want to develop tolerance to nicotine, but shamanic healers in many tribes do. Tolerance and regular nicotine use help them think clearly even when they’re working with people who are physically or emotionally very ill.

Lydian and I work with both Mugwort and Tobacco with certain clients, but as a general rule, our clients aspire to be healers for themselves and their family tree (read: their tribe). In the modern world where individuality is highly prized and where the vast majority of individuals are powerfully individualistic and logical in their thinking, shamanism can still be valuable, but the lack of belief in modern humans produces a major block. Modern adult humans tend to believe in science which is very two-dimensional and full of disillusionments. We believe in what we read and what we see online in the 2-dimensional realm. Our bodies have fewer interactions in the real, 3-dimensional and 4-dimensional world. We discount our own emotions and even our own sensory experiences at the behest of parents and other authority figures. Is it really that hard to believe that we could censor our daily Reality and edit out the things that don’t jive with what the consensus has required of us? Our left, logical brains are hyper-developed and often standing in the way of raw, childlike belief and awe. Lydian and I believe that this block against raw belief and raw experience isn’t entirely negative, but rather a part of the evolution of humans. It’s good that people have managed to develop logic and narrative to a high-degree in today’s day and age. But, we also misuse and misunderstand logic and narrative right now at this time in our development as a species because we don’t have belief and imaginative thinking to help us untether ourselves from inner trauma loops and a lack of solutions to repetitive problems. The hyper-development of the left-brain certainly isn’t all bad – but it is currently imbalanced in terms of the other aspects of our humanity, namely our ability to dream, to imagine, and to believe in something even without the support of science or other institutions requiring it. Lydian and I ascribe to the view that people become ill (emotionally or physically) in order to notice this block in our human experience and in our ability to heal. Humans become ill as a result of left-brain dominance and they develop pain in order to move past the block and to motivate healing through the expansion of belief.

Most of the people who read this chapter will have inner conflicts about the Science and the Shamanism of what we talk about here. Science tries to uncover the secrets of the universe even as we humans hope that we never actually solve those mysteries because to do so would be to crush all sense of magic in terms of belief. Some scientists look ever more closely at the smallest units of what’s “known” only to find that there are ever smaller units. Other scientists build ever-more-powerful telescopes in order to look out further into space to try to find the outer limits, but things spin and change position at incomprehensible speeds… alas, by the time we focus the lens of the most powerful telescope on earth on a point-of-interest, the earth has moved to an entirely new position with an entirely new landscape of “what’s out there”. We are not passive recipients of reality. Consciousness itself produces reality.

As patients search frantically for “The Cure” for their disease or for whatever the problem is that afflicts them, they also hope that there will be some magic in the process of overcoming. Do we hope in this way consciously or do we hope for miracles quietly and without words so as not to reveal that we have hope for something that would be regarded as a miracle? Are you someone who hopes without having hope? Does your right hand know what your left hand is doing? Or are you like people with multiple personality disorder who have one soul part with diabetes and other soul parts (read: personalities) that do not?

Nicotine and Thujone: Summary for Chronic Pain

A lot of people who work with low-dose nicotine patches become really hopeful about this medicine and then they’re really disappointed when the patches don’t work. But for some, or perhaps all of these people, nicotine is not the answer…ceremonial, spiritually-administered Tobacco is AN answer. For these people, there may be a path that they need to follow and until they submit to it, healing won’t SEEM possible. And so we present nicotine and thujone through a new lens in the telescope along with a dose of alternative beliefs to feed the soul.

It’s important to note here in our final summary that Tobacco can be used to treat and prevent seizures and to heal the self because it brings the soul back into the body, while thujone-containing herbs like Artemisia vulgaris, in contrast, can produce seizures by sending the soul away into the other realms to heal others. If you don’t believe in a soul, then it might be time to ask yourself if you believe in The Green Man of the era of absinthe? And if so, who is The Green Man and what is his message / purpose in our lives? What kind of magic in the world around you are you editing out of your memory that maintains your illness and chronic pain?

You can go to an acupuncturist who administers moxibustion and work with thujone safely through TCM and moxibustion for chronic pain. And you can give low-dose nicotine patches a try. They might work for you. But perhaps you have “shadow parts” – the parts of you that you’ve rejected so deeply and so absolutely that they don’t even believe anymore that they’re human. These parts can be like storms or strange, dark monsters that are haunting you. That’s right – maybe you’re haunting yourself with monsters that you created in order to avoid having to wrestle with ugly traumas from your past. In that case, ceremonial Tobacco in the form of Hapé / Rapé or Ambil can be useful. There’s no shaman necessary as long as you pay homage to Tobacco as The Father of Sacred Plants and show him gratitude within a ceremonial context of your own creation. Tobacco is a plant-embodiment of gratitude as a medicine that can produce a state of expectation (for healing) without impatience – a trance state of deep belief and openness to the idea that something that’s improbable is not necessarily impossible.

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