Archivist

***

***

Orion, I meant to ask, too: do you have any opinion on schizandra?

Antares -- could you unpack what you said about cordyceps working on pre-Heaven Qi? What does that mean? Also, Kevin -- how do you feel about the diagnostic ability of staff at reputed US herbalists, especially Jing Herbs and Dragon Herbs. I've always been wowed by the quality of their products, but have tapered off from excessive use/doses, due to the problems you've elaborated on here. Would in person/over phone with them be enough? Or do you recommend a certified practitioner? I don't mean to malign them by saying this (actually the opposite), but I find Jing Herbs and Dragon Herbs have a bit of a "pop herbalism" side to them. They certainly have very traditional formulations, but don't tend to promote some of the more obscure plants/roots/etc. They're more about high quality reishi, astragalus, ginseng, etc...the "major herbs," so to speak. Still, their general mantra seems to be 'consume as much as you can, as often as you can.' (Of course, they're businesses so they have another reason to say this...)

***

***

***

***

Haha, touche!

Interesting, Aetherous. I had a landlord in grad school who seemed really cool, actually came by and helped me shine the place up upon move-in. He seemed generally unstressed, so for awhile I thought it was probably easy to manage a three-story building with at least 100 rental properties in it. Then one week I saw him literally trampolining on a pile of student trash so it'd fit in one of those big dumpsters. Like you, it's on my radar, but it did get me thinking about those "hidden costs" thelerner was alluding to... As for land, I think if it's arable soil and you go thru the effort of raising an organic garden on it, you could make a big dollar sale, in the coming years. Whenever it's trash/recycling day and I'm strolling thru a rich neighborhood here in Eastern U.S., I'm always a little surprised to see how the affluent are into woo-woo health, just like bohemian types--organic this and that, etc. People are going to want more than place to raise a McMansion or simply rent, I guess is what I mean to say. They'll want that fresh backyard cuke, too, esp. if food costs go up and cut into their budget. (You might even see the return of "home gardener" occupations, where millennials with farm skills get their own little quarters on grounds, hehe...)

Wow, that's quite an erudite take, thelerner! Thank you! Haha, I liked your coffee analysis. Good to know what you're doing for your son, especially for those of us who may still go the homesteader route. I'll add that was my gut feeling, that you've got to make a substantial move. Do you feel comfortable saying what amount you'd consider "substantial"? 10K? 20? More?

I've had experiences that might correlate with Apeiron&Peiron's. Refining energies before bed with qigong exercises seems to result in more "productive" dreams, rather than just getting a symbolic representation of a blockage/explicit flashes. You start tapping into psychic networks, rather than just working thru your own gunk. I also tend to think that people's psychic sensitivities are increasing in general these days, so qigong before bed and then dreaming of "past people" is you peeking into the fact that they've been thinking about you recently. Lots of people are reflecting on past relationships these days, why things played out the way they did, etc. Definitely had an instance of this recently, with fairly decent anecdotal proof. Streams of consciousness are interacting and things are being triggered b/c your energies are tapping into the collective unconscious, is one possibility, I think. As for scientific explanation, this personally happens when my pituitary and pineal glands are vibrating with chi. These are hormone-regulating glands, including inducing sleepiness, and the pineal gland supposedly manufactures DMT, which is said to be the catalytic substance in entheogenic plants like ayahuasca. On those nights, I notice there are more "weird shows," as you put it, and patterning--versus, say, dreams of 'oh here I am again running from a monster... Certain Chinese herbs mixed with qigong can really do the trick, too. Like he shou wu. But applied wisdom, like lucid dreaming, is hard to do in these scenarios, in my experience.

For those with a significant discretionary spending budget, looking at say a used car or a large homesteading garden or a down payment on a house: What about making more "traditional" financial investments with the possibility of decent returns? In particular, what say you about investing in a precious metals collection, versus splurging a few thousand on that used car?

***

***