Energy Considerations
 in the 
Pharmacy of Herbal Medicines

Introduction.

Plant material has been used as a principal means of promoting healing in humans since the beginning of recorded history. As ‘civilized’ man ceased living in the country where he was immersed in nature and he moved to cities, he became more materially minded in his focus, gradually losing contact with his relationship with nature and with its medicines.

An estimated 80% of the world’s population (WHO) still relies on plant based medicines with many in developed countries regarding medicinal herbs as a Creator given natural means of promoting healing.

Science has shown that all matter is vibrational energy. But not all energy is matter and as living organisms are more than just matter, it thus follows that for life to exist there must be a material lower vibrational energy component, a non-material higher vibrational energy component and a spiritual aspect, the combination of all three ‘encapsulating’ the physical form and its life force and spirit essence.

In this document in relation to medicinal herbs, this ‘encapsulated’ essence of life excluding the spiritual component, is termed the vibrational energy spectrum of the plant.

As the lower vibrational energy material component of a plant is only a portion of its energy spectrum, it follows that its ‘material’ chemical substrate is potentially only a part of the healing energy that is available from that herb, with the plant’s higher vibrational energies needing to be considered as being a part of that plant’s healing potential when manufacturing extracts from it.

This document presents evidence to support this hypothesis, that the entire vibrational energy spectrum of a medicinal herb does play a part in healing in humans, from the more subtle (higher) vibrational energies to the lower (heavier/material) fractions and that in general terms, the more complete the energy spectrum of the herb used as a medicine, the greater its healing potential.

In accepting this hypothesis, the best means of maximizing the capture and delivery of these vibrational energy fractions of a herb from growing through harvesting, processing and dispensing is discussed, this being the pharmacy of Medicinal Herbs.

Much of the inspiration for writing this document comes from the author’s year round daily working interface with the over 130 medicinal herbs in the Pindari gardens. The experience and observations gained from growing, harvesting and processing these herbs and then dispensing them as medicines, and the feedback from this practice and expressed observations of others, has prompted this endeavour to put in writing this understanding on the energy factors affecting the healing efficacy of medicinal herbs.

This document considers herbal medicine in terms of the energy of the plant, from the full energy spectrum of the live plant through the higher vibrational non-material energies to the lower vibrational energy fractions of the material and chemical components.

It encourages considering herbal medicines in terms of vibrational energy rather than a source of phytochemicals. It records one person's suggested practices in the processing of fresh plant material for use in healing. The subject matter is large and complex, being interwoven with many factors, not all of which are detailed here. Hopefully ahead, with input and feedback from others, this document can be expanded and it is thus at this time, a work in progress.

This document should be read in conjunction with ‘The Practice of Herbal Pharmacy’

Energy and Homoeostasis.

A plant’s vibrational energy is in a constant state of flux as it interacts with other surrounding energy forces and influences within its environment as it endeavours to survive and to attain a state of homoeostatic balance (homoeostasis), or a state of health. Similarly, we humans are also in a parallel energy interface with our environment as we endeavour to attain a state of homoeostasis.

For every life form on earth, the environmental influences will be different and the more complex the life form, the more complex this energy interaction can be. The interface of this is not only with the surrounding physical environment including other plants, animals, and infectious and parasitic organisms, but also with the earth’s magnetic fields, the influence of the sun, moon and other celestial bodies and possible other unknown factors. The complexity of this survival interaction is beyond science’s ability to measure and beyond the mind of man to comprehend.

But in order to understand the potential implications of this interaction in regards to healing and herbs, it is necessary to consider healing from the perspective of vibrational energy interactions rather than material interactions which are currently the philosophy and mindset of mainstream medicine.

The importance of the natural ‘survival instinct’ of all living matter, including plants, as they endeavour to achieve a state of optimum homoeostasis, and the means by which this is achieved in the face of the constant state of energy flux with the environment, plus the effects this has on the energy spectrum, is perhaps the driving ‘force’ behind evolution. It also provides the means by which the basic principles of healing from an energy perspective may be understood.

In relation to humans, the internal and external energy interactions that affect our health are made even more complex by the impact both positive and negative emotions and thoughts have on their state of health or homoeostasis.

Medicinal Herbs and Science.

Medicinal herb liquid extracts are one of the primary means for delivery of herbs as medicines in western medical herbalism. The development of technology has led to a range of procedures in the extraction process in making liquid extracts that has enabled the diversification, fractionation and manipulation of the resultant product. Much of this development has been driven by an industry based on economics and the need for material standardization and stability of the resultant product.

There are many factors in the manufacture of liquid extracts from medicinal herbs that influence the optimum efficacy of the product. There are also many differing viewpoints as to the presence, function and importance of the non-material fractions of the energy spectra in herbal medicines and the means of and need for ‘capturing’ these energies in the manufacturing process.

Science is in part the accumulation of knowledge based on the systemized study of the physical world through observation and measurement. Thus when science is applied to the manufacture of herbal medicines it is inclined to only consider that which its methodology can observe and measure. The concept of herbs being vibrational energy healing products, the higher vibrations of which it cannot measure is not one currently in vogue. Thus the existence and importance of the higher vibrational energy spectrum in herbs as an integral part of a herb’s medicinal properties is less accepted or ignored. However one is reminded that there is much more to this universe than that which science can measure or accept.

The experience from working with fresh plant materials and using Fresh Plant Tinctures (FPTs) as medicines prepared from them, compared with the current practice of using Fluid Extracts ( FEs ) prepared from dried plant material, has shown that these two product types are pharmacologically different and that they have differing potencies. This is explored ahead.

Medicinal Herbs, Homoeostasis and Evolutionary Steps.

When a plant succeeds in attaining a homoeostatic balance within its environment, its successful energy spectrum would become stabilized but remaining in a state of ‘alertness.’ From this base of now established energy strength it can quickly and more successfully respond to any sudden energetic challenge that may occur.

This stable state of homoeostatic energy readiness would by necessity over time influence the plant’s physical expression as the lower vibrational energy spectrum is materialized in its physical form. This can be seen in any natural environment such as a forest and even in a healthy home garden where plants of the same species physically express themselves differently in different environments.

The plant’s overall material expression via its ability to survive and procreate and thus pass on its successful genetic attributes when considered in large populations and over longer time frames is what could be called an evolutionary step, with genetic variants of the plant that are not able to attain homoeostasis under the environmental conditions, failing to successfully reproduce.

Should the environmental conditions dramatically change then greater is the challenge to attain homoeostasis. If too severe, then the plant specimens in that area can die and that gene pool would thus cease to exist or be greatly reduced in numbers. But also greater is the opportunity for successful variants at attaining homoeostasis, to prosper in number and fill the niche left by the non-survival of others. Thus the greater the homoeostatic challenge the greater the potential for evolutionary change and the energetically stronger the successful genotypes.

The Doctrine of Signatures suggests that the plant’s physical form and even its physical responses to its environment, ‘display’ an indication of the plant’s possible medicinal properties. Through the full energy spectrum of a plant runs a single 'signature' that is also responsible for the material form and function as it expresses its nature at all levels material and subtle. While some believe this concept is a contentious historical quirk, the more one 'lives with,' handles, processes the live expressing plant, the more this doctrine becomes a reality.

From this arises the concept that in terms of healing, lower energy fractions of herbs affect the lower material ‘fractions’ or functions in humans, and conversely the higher herbal fractions affect the higher ‘fractions’ in humans, being more their energetic functions and at the higher vibrational levels, their mental dispositions, and even their 'constitution'. In principle this concept is confirmed in practice from the author’s experience.

This can be further extended to where similar patterns of energy that display similar material and energy characteristics in both the plant and humans, are likely to be able to heal an aberration that is a disease state in one when captured in the other and applied. This being within the Homoeopathic principle that ‘like cures like,’ and the basis of the ‘Doctrine of Signatures,’ both concepts are expanded on ahead.

Evolution, Disease and Holistic Healing.

It is suggested that the energy steps in evolution alluded to can be seen as analogous to the healing process in humans where herbs are used as vibrational energy ‘support’ for dis-ease states.

The term ‘dis-ease’ (or discomfort or ‘out of sorts’) is used here to describe the state when within the higher fractions of the energy spectrum of a person, there is an aberration to the energetic vibrational field that has affected their homoeostatic balance. The symptoms are usually a lack of energy and or mental and emotional. As this aberration continues it can progress and deepen and materialized into a state of physical disease within the lower vibrational fraction or material form.

This is a simple description of a most complex process that has many and variable causative inputs and an immensely complex area as to the likely mental and emotional and physical consequences.

The plant and animal kingdoms (and thus humans) have evolved in very similar if not the same energetic environments. Both kingdoms have been in constant and direct evolutionary contact, being both supportive and in conflict with one another. Both occupy the earth’s land mass surface, living off the food produced by the results of the energetic interactions within the topsoil medium, the air, water and the sun's radiations, both having evolved in parallel together and being subject to the same external environmental influences. Both are ‘foods’ for the other, both are ‘born’ out of the minerals of the soil, both return as minerals to that soil on earthly death.

A quote from Pam Montgomery below (2008; Plant Spirit Healing; Bear & Co.) describes how plants have co-evolved alongside other forms of life on the planet, associated with a mutual co-dependence between plants and animals:

“Going back to the beginning of plants and animals, we see that amphibian plants, which are seedless vascular plants like horsetail and ferns, moved to land first, then reptilian plants like conifers moved to land next, and mammalian plants like angiosperms or ones that have internal development and protection of an embryo moved to land last. As plants moved to land their animal counterparts followed them so that mammals did not appear on land until angiosperms (flowering plants) were there to feed them. As flowering plants became dominant, they perfected their ability to reproduce or pollinate. Random pollination occurs by wind, but more efficient pollination occurs through insects, bees, birds and animals. …”

David Attenborough’s Secret Life of Plants BBC television series also clearly and beautifully illustrates the complete, symbiotic relationship between animals and plants.

If one is to accept the Gaia concept proposed by James Lovelock, then within the wholeness of the ‘isolated’ earth’s surface interface, any energetic dis-ease that occurs within an animal species as it interacts with its environment must have within the surrounding environment, an ‘ease’ vibrational energy for the wholeness of the Gaia energetic field to be maintained. And as the most active interface in the environment closest to human existence is the vegetable kingdom, then that ‘ease’ is most likely to be found in the local plants.

Evidence for this is found throughout the natural world as animals (and humans especially in the past), selectively seek out plants and consumed them for their dis-ease and disease states.

Humans, Homoeostasis and Holistic Healing.

Humans as a genotype have a greatly expanded genetic code compared with those of the plant kingdom, but within their genes is in part, the genetic inheritance from the plant kingdom.

The art and science of facilitating holistic healing can be described as the reduction of the negative and the enhancement of the positive influences affecting a person’s health, so as to increase the wellness and strengthen the adaptive responses that help maintain positive homoeostasis. For a more complete description of Holistic Healing including definitions, please visit the Pindari Herb Farm web page under “Holistic Healing” (www.pindariherbfarm.com/healing/holiheal.htm )

The practice of holistic healing accepts the "whole" person as a vital, conscious energetic life form involving a “fluid” interactive interface between the physical body, the mind, the emotions and the spirit/soul as it “lives” within its surrounding environment.

As suggested, a weakness or aberration in a human’s energy spectrum weakens homoeostasis and causes a state of dis-ease which can progress to a state of physical disease. To heal this aberration or restore homoeostasis, it is suggested that this aberration in the human’s energy spectrum may be ‘balanced’ and thus healed by the ‘seeding’ of or ‘addition’ to that individual’s vibrational energy spectrum of a similar or ‘matching’ energy vibration.

And it is contended that this ‘matching’ vibrational energy is to be most likely found in the plant kingdom and within those plants that exhibit ‘similar’ patterns of material and energetic expression to that which the disease exhibits in the individual, being within the principles of the Doctrine of Signatures.

It is also contended here that most often in humans, ill health starts as an aberration of the higher energetic spectrum of that individual as a vibrational dis-ease and then manifests into a physical disease. This is why a baby often first becomes irritable and ‘out of sorts’ before the physical signs of disease become evident.

If this is the case, then for complete healing (holistic healing), both the higher vibrational dis-ease and lower vibrating disease factions of the aberration need to be addressed. This would require the dosing to that individual of the higher and lower vibrational fractions within the energetic spectrum of the ‘like’ herb.

Thus the need in herbal medicines for both the material and higher energetic fractions to be present if holistic or the ‘more complete’ promotion of healing is to occur.

Homoeopathic Medicine and Holistic Healing.

To expand on the above concept, an example of this principle in action is found within and is the basis of the practice of homoeopathy. With this healing modality it is a principle that like cures like. Meaning, an herb or poison that causes the same disease symptoms in healthy humans when given in toxic/excess doses, can heal those symptoms when given in smaller or homoeopathically extended non toxic doses.

This procedure being the serial dilution of 1 in 10 or 1 in 100 with the concussion (succession) of the resultant dilution so as to transfer the vibrational energy from the seeded addition to the whole liquid. This way, with poisonous ‘medicines’ the toxicity can be alleviated with each dilution until the material is no longer present but the energy spectrum remains and as the material ‘component’ of the ‘medicine’ is greatly reduced or removed, the vibration of its energy spectrum can be raised so as to be more potent as a healing force affecting the higher energy spectrum area of the patient.  

This like cures like principle can also be observed to apply in allopathic drug medicine where it is often the effects (some times described as "side-effects") of the drug that being similar to the symptoms of the disease,  remove the symptoms of the disease for which it is prescribed on a 'like cures like' basis. But here the toxicity of the drug remains and its prescribing is often a matter of judgment between the possible benefits compared with the possible side effects.  

Thus within the holistic approach to healing, to optimize the healing potential requires the full vibrational energetic spectra of the plant, delivered appropriately and efficiently to ‘balance’ the energy ‘deficiency’ or imbalance that is the base cause of the disease process.

Conversely, the use of phytochemicals which are herb derived chemicals, would have single or groups of lower vibrational energetic ‘notes’ and thus would be likely to have much less or a minimal effect over all, compared with the energy spectrum of a whole of plant extract. Their healing effect is thus likely to be experienced only in the alleviation of lower vibrational material physical symptoms leaving the often causative mental and emotional higher vibrational dis-ease factors ‘untouched’ and thus un-healed.

Dis-ease and disease is never ‘a single note’ aberration of the energy spectrum unless something such as drug poisoning or the like is involved. With humans, dis-ease nearly always has an emotional factor and thus higher vibrational energies are involved that are required, along with lower material fractions in the spectra of the healing agent for the promotion of holistic healing. The art and science of administering a like cures like medicine for humans is far more complex than is often alluded to.

Should the spectra of vibrational energies given to the patient be greater than the homoeostatic balancing need, the danger of causing side effects is minimal if dosed appropriately, as the excess energetic spectra of that dose would be absorbed into the whole of the individual’s spectra and thus would not negatively influence their homoeostatic state.

With the ‘strong’ medicinal herbs, where there is a narrower therapeutic window, more care is needed with the dosing so as to not overload the energy spectra of the individual and cause side effects. The extremes of herbal potential toxicity can be exampled by Belladonna and Garlic where one is poisonous at very low doses and the other is considered a food.

The smaller the fraction of the energetic spectra used in healing, and the more concentrated the chemical material energy taken in, the less it is an energetic ‘food’ and the more drug like it is, and the more unlikely it would be that the individual is able to absorb any excess into its energetic spectra and thus, more is the potential of the extra concentrated chemical energy to negatively affect the state of homoeostasis.

In the complexity alluded to above, the suggestion is that healing using herbs can be at many levels and that the fractions of energy spectra of the herb to be used for healing is best assessed by considering the healing needs of the patient from an energy required perspective. The below is a suggest addition by a colleague that further expands on this concept

From the above, the question may be asked, can different energy fractions of different plants and even minerals, homoeopathic medicines and flower essences be added to a herbal mixture? This is discussed next from an energy perspective.

Compounding Different Energy Fractions into Herbal Liquid Extracts.

The compounding of different energy fractions from different modalities is an area of disagreement amongst herbalists where some believe that when flower essences, homoeopathic medicines and other energetic forms of medicine are mixed with herbal extracts, it affects the efficacy of those added energies. The author and other practitioners of herbal medicine claim to be able to successfully add these energies and still maintain the added energy's individual effects. However it is necessary for this 'energy addition' to be done appropriately, energetically and procedurally.

The higher vibrational energies that are within a herb in the main would be held within or present within the aqueous liquid fraction of an herb, they being "held" by the dipolar nature of the water molecule. If this is the case as the practice of homeopathy suggests, then the drying and then aggressive mechanical comminution of the dried herb material could substantially affect these higher energies. 

Many Homoeopathic remedies are made from plant material, mostly from fresh plant material. They are prepared according to specific procedures into a 1:10 dry weight to liquid extract that is called the mother tincture. The recommended dosage of these remedies is often using the mother tincture and up to 30 serial dilutions of this. Examples of herbs used this way are St Johns wort, Tansy, Dandelion, Comfrey, Bearberry, Nettles, Elder and Sage.

The energy spectrum of 1:10 homoeopathic mother tinctures would be very similar to that of FPTs made from the same plant thus to say that you cannot add a mother tincture to another FPT herbal extract is to say that you cannot compound herbal remedies.

Certainly, for homoeopathic potencies above 30C, it is the author’s view that it is better to prepare and dose separately. To give an analogy for this reasoning, it is difficult for the 'heart' to hear the pure notes of the harp when the trumpet is blasting away affecting the ‘lower Chakras’. Thus from an energy perspective, discernment is necessary as to what you mix with what and the higher the potency the more the need to separate the higher vibrational energy from the lower.

However, in relation to FPTs and mother tinctures, with the energy spectrum prepared from the fresh herb, the higher and lower vibrational energies that would be present, would already be in harmony as they have been derived from a live plant that is ‘in harmony’ with its environment.

From this ‘counter’ position, the addition of higher vibrational energies such as Flower essences, high potency Homoeopathic remedies and the like can be added to a Herbal extract but at the risk of having the higher vibrational energy ‘drowned out’ by the lower herbal energies and that the energies added need to be ‘harmonically acceptable’ to those of the herb or herbs to which they are added, and of course to the ‘energy’ needs of the patient.

The addition of Bio-chemic tissue salts to a herbal remedy is different again for this would be ‘single note’ vibrational additions and would be unlikely to be out of synch with the energy spectrum of the herbal mix as they are so basic to the energy makeup of us all, the minerals being a part of the building blocks of all living matter.

Some herbal practitioners after mixing herbs together as a compound herbal mixture, routinely succuss the mix in the belief that this helps to harmonize the broader energy spectrum created. The author’s experience in using this procedure suggests that the energy spectrum of the mix may be enhanced by the process.

Holistic healing using Herbal Medicines.

Within medicinal herb literature there is an often reported and long held view and observation that with the chemical constituents, “the sum of these individual constituents in the combination offered by Nature, has unique and valuable properties. It is obvious that the actions of the individual elements are not merely additive or synergic, but that genuine potentiation occurs.” (Weiss’s Herbal Medicine Classic Edition, authored by Rudolf Fritz Weiss, M. D. page 163)

The factors influencing this potentiation would most likely include the herb's higher vibrational energies and it is suggested here that these non material higher vibrational energies do play a part and at times a major part in the healing process. And as previously stated, these energies cannot be measured by current accepted scientific methods and as the practice of herbal medicine both in manufacturing and prescribing is philosophically drawn into the scientific world and of main stream allopathic drug medicine, there is an observed increasing tendency for these higher energies to be considered as either non-existent or ineffectual.

However one only has to examine the 170 year history of the success of homoeopathy as a healing modality for evidence to the contrary. All matter is vibrational energy and so are all the “constituents” of plants. It is only our senses and science’s ability to measure or not measure a constituent that “declares” one to be matter and the other to be of questionable existence.

As said previously but here expressed differently, healing using a modality such as a herb, can be said to be replacing or nullifying or changing the vibrational energy aberration in the individual that is the energetic cause of the dis-ease with a like vibrational energy. ‘Like cures like’. In doing this the back ground dis-ease within an individual that is the underlying cause of the expressed physical disease can be ‘corrected’ and true healing at a holistic level promoted as the body's own homoeostatic mechanisms are ‘encouraged’ or ‘energized’ to swing into action.

To incorporate the more subtle vibrational energies used in a holistic healing philosophy as suggested here into the manufacturing processes of these medicines, the focus necessarily needs to be on optimizing the capture of both the chemical constituents and the higher vibrational energies of the herb.  

As previously mentioned, there has been a directional shift in recent times through the industrialization of the manufacture of herbal medicines that has produced herbal products that are physically and energetically far removed from the live herb that was originally harvested and that was historically used to promote healing.

As a result, healing using medicinal herbs is developing into two increasingly distinct streams, one being the holistic approach and the other more towards symptom management. Both streams are relevant within the practice of herbal medicine but there is a need for this ‘parting of the ways’ to be honestly recognized so that there is an awareness and appreciation of the value of both and that one does not deny the other.

Growing, Harvesting and Processing Fresh Medicinal Herb Materials.

The already well documented manufacturing procedures of industrial medicinal herbs where the current and increasing trend is to use broad acre grown, dried, imported, stored, pulverized and percolated herbs to produce 1:1 and 1:2 aqueous/ethanol fluid extracts is not discussed here, it being outside of the subject matter of this document and the author’s experience.

What is discussed is the means by which medicinal herbs can be optimally grown and then freshly harvested and processed so as to maximize the capture of the broadest of its energetic spectrum. Within the practice of holistic healing as suggested in this document, to optimize the healing potential of the resultant extract of the herb, all of the vibrational levels of the living plant that are able to be captured should be included. There will be exceptions to this but the principle applies for the great majority of herbs.

The herbs need to be of strong genetic stock and in a vibrant state of homoeostasis or health. To facilitate this they need to be grown in well nourished soils in a microclimate that mostly suits them and then appropriately harvested so as to capture the maximum of their vibrancy.

All genetic variations within the species and the differing environmental experiences that they are exposed to will affect the energetic homoeostasis established and this must affect their energy spectrum and thus subtly influence the medicinal properties. This is confirmed by the experience in the wine industry and in practice in the field when harvesting wild herbs from different regions and growing conditions.

All products derived from a fresh plant can only be captured portions of the full energy spectrum of that plant and as a plant’s vibrational energies begin to wane immediately the plant is harvested, to capture the fullest energy spectrum of a medicinal herb, the herb should be harvested, gently comminuted and then macerated as soon as possible.

The degree and rate of loss of vibrational energies after harvesting would be a function of time, rate of drying and many other factors including temperature and exposure to light. Each herb would be affected differently.

As it is not scientifically possible to quantitatively and qualitatively “measure” the full energy spectrum of a herbal extract, current assessments as alluded to here are subjective, being based on personal observation using the human senses.

At Pindari this is achieved through personal and group ‘taste testing’ sessions. A list of the means of assessing the vibrational energy spectrum of a herbal extract is detailed below. This is a subjective list according to the author's 'energy' perspective. In 'balance' to this, medicinal herb companies are increasingly standardizing their extracts according to phytochemical markers despite inferior taste/ colour/ 'vitality' testing. Most companies in the 'evidence-based' paradigm do not acknowledge 'energy-sympathetic' principles as being in the same order of importance as the phytochemical profile of the end product, which is where the marketing is mostly focused.

The list below is given for consideration as a means of assessing and as evidence for the the higher subtle 'vitality' factors of a herbal extract.

1.      Taste testing the liquid extract and comparing it with the taste of the fresh herb. (Refer to the “Taste Testing” document available on this web page: www.pindariherbfarm.com/quality/taste.htm )

2.      The use of chromatographic procedures. This provides a visual image of the material constituents in an herbal extract that theoretically can be extended to include the likely complexity of energies above the material energetic spectrum.

3.      A comparison of the current industry practices with the suggested “energy sympathetic” harvesting and extraction methods may provide an indication of lost energies. It would also provide an opportunity for industry to reflect on and adjust to what could be more appropriate processing procedures.

4.      An examination of other modalities that are based on using energetic medicine. (Refer to next heading)

Vibration, Matter and the Healing Potential of Herbs.

Herbs are a ‘product’ of nature and have an immense structural, chemical and energetic complexity. Evidence for the existence of a ‘non-material energy’ fraction of a plant’s energetic spectrum can be found in ‘natural’ medicines where different parts of this spectrum are used in healing practices.

Examples of this are provided below in a ‘generalized’ order of descending vibrational frequency from light through to singular chemicals.

·         The vibrational energy essence of colour - Aura therapy. In plants this is especially the flower.

·         The vibrational energy essence of aroma - Aroma therapy.

·         The vibrational energy essence of the flower - Flower essence therapy. This would include colour.

·         The vibrational energy essence of higher potencies of Homoeopathic medicines prepared from potentized plant and drug material.

·         The vibrational energy essence of lower potencies of Homoeopathic medicines prepared from potentized plant and drug material.

·         The physical (chemical constituents) and higher vibrational energy essences of extracts of fresh plant material. E.g. Fresh Plant Tincture extracts (FPTs) and Homoeopathic mother tinctures. These would contain aspects of the energies of Aura, Aroma and Flower essence therapies.

·         The physical (chemical constituents) and a part of the vibrational energy essence of the plant - Fluid extracts and tinctures prepared from dried plant material.

·         The chemical constituents (phytochemicals) of plants either singular or as a group - phytopharmaceuticals.

·         Pharmaceutical drugs derived from plant material and chemically altered.

Mediums for Capturing and Delivering the Energy Spectrum of Medicinal Herbs.

To recap, variations in the processing methods of herbs affect the levels of vibrational energies and chemical constituents in the resultant product. The process of maceration using fresh plant material is likely to best capture the broadest fraction of a herb’s energetic and chemical makeup while percolation or maceration of dried plant material would enable the capture of the greatest concentration of the plant’s chemicals (phytochemicals).

The choice of the solvent/delivery medium within which the healing properties of the herb are captured and held, compounded with others and then dosed and dispensed orally to the patient, should be that which provides the maximum opportunity for invoking a healing response. The application of this is the art and science of the pharmacy of herbal medicine.

Some of the available ‘mediums’ for delivery of the herb’s vibrational energy include:

·         Fresh plant material in the form of the live plant.

.       Extracts of the live plant in the form of FPTs and Succi.    

·         The dried plant material ingested as is or in a capsule or tablet form.

·         An aqueous infusion of the fresh or dried plant material (cup of tea).

·         An alcohol/aqueous extract (fluid extract and tincture).

·         A Glycerin extract (a glycetract).

·         An infusion in oil.

The delivery medium should be chosen according to the ‘solubility’ within that medium of the chemicals and vibrational energies of the herb that are required for healing, remembering that no medium is "perfect".

Some factors affecting the choice are:

·         The nature or quality of the starting material from which a herbal extract is to be obtained.

·         The fact that few herbs are available for harvesting year round thus the need to capture and stabilize the energy spectrum including the material components of the herb for year round usage. This need adds a further dimension to the pharmacy of herbal medicines.

·         The solubility of the required phytochemicals in that medium.

·         The ability of the medium to capture and hold the herb’s higher vibrational energies.

·         The availability and side effects or even toxicity of the medium.

If preparing a liquid extract from dried plant material as are most liquid herbals used in Australia , the dried herb should have been grown and harvested optimally, then dried very carefully in a temperature controlled environment. It should then be transported and stored in specially designed cool rooms so as to minimize loss of chemistry and the remaining higher vibrational energies.

Both the percolation and maceration extraction methods should see the herb material adequately covered by liquid so as to reduce its exposure to air with its potential to oxidize. 

With the maceration process, the container should contain a minimal volume of air and be stored away from direct light in a warm to cool environment for the infusion to occur. After several weeks depending on the herb, it should then be mechanically pressed to separate the marc from the extract.

Energy Considerations in the Industrial Processing of Herbs into Medicines.

The use of energetically aggressive procedures in the processing of herbs such as the use of metal pounding mills, blenders (these create vortices and magnetic fields) and close contact with other radiation energies such as Wi-Fi and mobile telephone micro wave energy, and electrical currents in local wiring should be minimized and preferably avoided. These are likely to affect the more subtle energetic vibrations in the herbal extract.

Preparing liquid extracts from dried plant material allows for the year round manufacture of liquid extracts to meet supply demand, producing an extract with a greater concentration of phytochemicals compared with FPTs. It also allows industry to provide a standardized product with an often established efficacy and dosage regime.

Any drying process, no matter how carefully done, will see a loss of at least some of the more volatile oils, oxidation and degradation of vulnerable chemical constituents and the partial or complete loss of the higher vibrational energies. (See further on: "The Energetic Nature of Water”).

If dosing with the dried herb directly or via tablet or capsule, all the contained phytochemical constituents in the herb material will be ingested and made available in the digestive system for absorption and bodily use for healing.

The Energetic Nature of Water.

The research by the Japanese scientist Masaru Emoto, with his elegant photographs of ice crystals from different water samples (Refer to the book Messages from Water by Masaru), suggests that water has the ability to be negatively affected by pollution and other contaminants.

His research also indicates that water has the ability to absorb and hold other positive and negative energetic influences from its surrounds and from the human mind. 

Water with its dipolar structure has a unique ability to absorb and hold vibrational energy. Thus the water content in a fresh, live herb may well be "the seat" within the herb that holds much of the vibrational energy of a medicinal herb and may play a part in ‘holding’ its life force. The vibrational energy and life force would thus be significantly lost when the herb is dried and dies.

In support of this hypothesis is the fact that all living matter requires water for life. With a lack of water, plants wither and die with the vital life force diminishing as it loses moisture until the point is reached where it dies and the life force of the plant thus ceases.

Similarly, as a plant dries the vibrant energy of the plant visually wanes. If you can provide water in time, sometimes within hours the plant can revive and in a few days recover its vitality. In a garden setting you can visually see when a plant is dry by its lack of vibrancy. Water is the catalyst and potentiator for life, being the ‘holder’ of the vital forces for life in all living matter.

Emoto's work suggests that pollution from chemicals imparts an energetic "residue" on water affecting its vibrational energy that results in de-structured ice crystals. It follows from this that foreign toxic chemicals such as herbicides, pesticides used in the growing of the herbs and fumigants used by quarantine with imported herbs may leave a "vibrational residue" in the liquid extracts prepared from them. This could negatively affect the health of the consumer.

Epigenetics and Familial Human Health.

The "memory" potential of the water molecule has a parallel with the recently scientific discovery that our genes can somehow remember and pass on to succeeding generations, the experience of past generations that were influenced by drought, famine and disease etc. And science has also recently shown that the genetic influence of herbicide and pesticide exposure can be passed onto succeeding generations. 

The ability of genetic material to pass on environmental influences to succeeding generations has been termed Epigenetics. This ability is something that homoeopaths have known for 160 years and has been termed a miasm.

Further, with the understanding that the energetic vibrational influences of the human emotions and thoughts do influence the vibrational characteristics of water, then people in close contact with the growing and processing of herbs, and in the production and dispensing of herbal liquid extracts, could positively and negatively influence the resultant liquid extract by their emotional state and accompanying thoughts.

And, with the understanding that human emotions and thoughts have energetic vibrational influences, if one is to initiate a healing process in a person, then for an optimum and more permanent healing response, the person wishing to heal needs to focus on only positive, loving thoughts and expressed actions around their self and all others both outwardly and importantly inwardly so as to also positively affect the vibrational inner core of that individual. (Please refer to “Emotional Healing and Spiritual Truth” on the Pindari web page: www.pindariherbfarm.com/healing/emotions.htm ). The practitioner needs to be supportive of this in all ways.

Conversely, from the above process lies what can be the primary factor for the cause of dis-ease in a human.

The summation of this is that all conditions in the preparation of herbal products from growing, through harvesting and processing to the bottling and storage of medicinal herb products, are areas of energetic influence that can both positively and negatively enhance the resultant product.

Using Human Senses and Relating to Herbs.

Each member of a species, whether plant or animal, has its own unique vibrational signature. This vibrational signature is very similar within the species and this applies for each species of medicinal herbs. A part reading of this vibrational signature via the use of chromatography is how many herb species are accurately identified. The printed graphic "picture" that chromatography can provide is just one means of "viewing" the vibrational signature of a herb. 

Another means of ‘reading’ this vibrational signature is by the use of our senses, especially smell, taste and sight which provide us with a personal "chromatographic picture” of the vibrational qualities, strengths and effects of a herbal extract.

It is suggested here that with our external sensory perceptions we also have a similar inner perception of what is happening within our bodies. We are able to sense and read the vibrational energies that not only surround us but that enter and pass through us. A major focus area for this ‘inner’ sensory ability is our digestive tract.

But it is important to remember that the personal reading via the senses of the ingestion of an energy spectrum as it mixes and intermingles with the reader’s energetic spectrum is very subjective, being influenced by the readers own ‘field’ and the thoughts that ‘arrive’ from this experience.

This is exampled externally by our different feelings as we mix with others of the human race where some people we "warm to" more than others. We also can sense the quality of the energy in our surrounding environment, whether it be a fern glade, beach, forest or one’s home. There are good feeling places of meditation and others that are not so. Some places are of such feeling that we are compelled to leave whilst other places via their vibrational energy draw us near.

With our internal sensory perceptions, these too are totally personal experiences and are our readings of the intermingling of our energy field with the ingested energies such as in the case of foods, beverages and also herbal medicines.

Each of us is a living organism, interfacing with our internal and external environment from moment to moment. When we eat food, we are “tasting and sensing” its flavours, its smells and whether it is hot or cold or wet or dry. The feel on our tongue and palate particularly adds to the sensory input "subtly measuring" the appropriateness of the foods we eat. Some of us can sense the nature of our body’s “acceptance” of a food and whether it feels good or bad, whether it gives us energy or ‘drains’ us.

Some of us have consciously worked at developing these senses and some have given them less recognition and attention, and they thus remain dormant. Some of us have sensory organs that are acute and whilst others receive minimal input from these organs. But we all consciously or un-consciously use our senses as our personal "readers" of our internal and external environment every moment of every day.

It is suggested here that these human senses can be of particular value in assessing the medicinal qualities and healing potential of herbal liquid extracts. (Refer to the “Taste Testing” document available on this web page: www.pindariherbfarm.com/quality/taste.htm )

Below are examples where the human senses are used at Pindari in assessing when herbs are ready for harvest:

Althea officinalis (Marshmallow)
The visual look and physical feel of the smoothness of the leaf as a measure of when to harvest the leaf and young buds during the early flowering of the plant.
With the winter harvest of the root, touch and also the taste/mouth feel is used to gauge the mucilage content.

Lobelia inflata (Lobelia)
Using taste to measure of the level of "fire" in the leaf of the herb as a gauge of the lobeline alkaloid content.

Echinacea spp. (Echinacea)
Using taste to ‘read’ the speed of arrival, position on the tongue and the degree of fire as a measure of the alkyl amides in the different parts of the herb, being the root, leaf, flower and stem of the herb.

Taraxicum officinalis (Dandelion)
A taste test of the bitterness of the root to assess when it has peaked through the late summer into autumn months for its liver tonic qualities.

Summary.

Humans are a living, vibrational, complex energy ‘field’ that ‘lives’ in and surrounds a material part of that energy field that is the physical/material body

This energy field interacts with the surrounding energy fields of other living organisms, the surrounding and radiating energy fields of the earth on which we live and the celestial bodies. It is substantially influenced energetically by the consciousness of the individual being affected both positively and negatively by that individuals emotional states and thoughts, with that influence being at times ‘channeled’ to bodily areas and functions, this both being a conscious and sub-conscious process.

Dis-ease is a lack of harmony or homoeostasis in that energy field that is an energetic aberration that at times affects the material, physical part of the body resulting in physical disease. The cause of the dis-ease initiating aberration is most often complex and multi-factorial.

Initiating healing in a holistic manner involves addressing and/or eliminating the causes and then correcting the energy aberration. This document suggests that a means of achieving this is by seeding the affected individual’s energy field with a like vibrational energy to that of the aberration and that this is most often found within the evolutionary interface between the plant and animal kingdoms.

Any reduction in the vibrational spectrum of a plant has the likelihood of reducing the potential of that herb’s energy spectrum to holistically heal by the correcting of the dis-ease and or disease energetic aberration.

Holistic healing can be a mix of both art and science, with the healing facilitator using their intuitive and intellectual facilities coupled with their understanding of the nature of dis-ease and disease plus their wisdom of experience. All healing involves energy and its movement and in humans, also involves emotions and thoughts.

Healing can be addressed at many levels, from a holistic approach to the relief of symptoms, it being the patient’s Creator given right to choose at what level they wish healing to proceed.

For the practitioner, it is within the Command to: Only be loving that they need to practice. A part of this is the informing of their patient client of the area within which they may be able to help them heal.

This document attempts to place in writing one persons developing understanding of the nature of healing from an energy perspective using plant material as the healing medium.

With many factors now affecting the stability of societies on earth and as history has shown, it is plant based medicines that are the best renewable medicinal resource available to humanity. More important than ever is the need for the art and science of this ancient healing modality to be continued and expanded with the genetic material and knowledge of herbal pharmacy expanded so as to be available for the future.

Ken Atherton

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