January/February 2003
Feature Articles
Holistic Health Q & A
by Dr. Ruth E. Bradley
Of quantum physics, vibrational energy
and the power of our thoughts.
The Treasures of the Amazon Rainforest
by Lenny Rader
The story of the pioneers who uncovered
the real treasures of the Amazon: healing, life-enhancing plants.
What is... Human Growth Hormone?
by Marjorie Williams
Research proves natural growth hormone
to be powerful anti-aging weapon that helps reduce body fat, increase energy
and much more.
UnCommon Sense!
by David Findlay
The War on Terrorism.
Articles on the theme "Talents & Abilities"
A Misuse of Talents & Abilities
by Lela Lilyquist and John R. Lee MD
How the Medical Establishment has been
corrupted, becoming a pawn of the drug companies.
Every Child Can Sing
by Barbara Bedingfield
An education that brings out the innate
abilities in every child.
Developing Musical Ability
by Bob & Claire Franki
Regardless of natural talent, it is
training that enables musical ability in children to shine.
Your Genius
by Linda Gaylord
Ways to discover and develop your unique
talents and gifts.
From Russia with Passion
by Oksana Kolesnikova
A talented young pianist and composer's
personal story.
Nature versus Nurture
by Charles Larsen
We all have talents and abilities,
but some are less obvious than others.
The Treasures of the Amazon Rainforest
by Lenny Rader
What are the treasures of the Amazon Rainforest? Over 200,000 species of wild plants of which only 200 have been studied for their therapeutic value.
Most of us have never heard of Nicole Maxwell, a brave pioneer and explorer, who spent half of her long life researching the dynamic healing properties of the wild plants of the upper Amazon. Nicole was a San Francisco dèbutante, an opera dancer in Paris during the 1920s and a wife of 12 years to a brigadier general. In 1945 she divorced and went to Bolivia to visit a friend. She stayed for 12 years. In 1948, while she was hacking her way through the jungles in Ecuador, she suffered a deep machete gash to her arm. Her guide, knowing immediately what to do, obtained some dark, red tree sap and gave it to her to drink. The bleeding stopped within minutes and the wound healed rapidly without a scar. At this moment, after many years of searching, Ms. Maxwell knew then that she had finally found her life's work.
For the next 40 years, she befriended the Indians in the remotest regions of the upper Amazon, learning the secrets of the true treasures of the Amazon: healing, life-enhancing plants. She became an ethnobotanist and wrote Witch Doctor's Apprentice. More of an adventure story than a medical manual, the book described a host of plants the Indians used to prevent tooth decay, decrease inflammation, painlessly extract teeth, dissolve kidney stones, heal burns, and cure and/or prevent scores of other maladies. There were even herbs for birth control! She eventually collected more that 350 plants, used to treat more that 100 common ailments. Her dream was that the plants of the upper Amazon would become a multibillion-dollar cash crop and halt the destruction of the rainforest. She remained confident that her work would eventually be recognized by mainstream science. "As soon as I am gone," she told a friend, "they'll come running."
Well, unfortunately it didn't happen like that. Mainstream science doesn't always have an interest in herbs because they cannot patent and make a high-priced therapeutic drug from a whole plant. Pharmaceutical drugs can only be patented from the isolated healing constituent found within the plant. For example, years later, studies on the red sap that healed Nicole's badly cut arm revealed that the sap inhibited replication of the AIDS virus. This plant, Sangra de Drago, Spanish for dragon's blood (croton lechleri), contains 90% proanthocyanins by dry weight (90% anti-oxidant). An effort to isolate and market the believed active substance was abandoned when it was found that separation from its other constituents destroyed its therapeutic properties.
For the indigenous tribes trying to support their families in the encroaching modern 21st century, the Rainforest has been more valuable dead than alive. Loggers, miners, and ranchers have enticed the villagers with quick cash and many tribes and forests were and are, still to this day, being lost.
When Nicole was 83 years old she finally saw hope for her vision when she was introduced to John Easterling. John was a successful importer of South American art crafts and crystal.
"Amazon John"
"Amazon John," as the natives have known him, had trekked into the Amazon over 50 times and had developed dear friendships with many tribes. At the time of their meeting, John also had been cured by the tribal healers and had a deep appreciation for the life-giving properties of the rainforest plants. John gladly accepted an invitation to accompany Nicole on her last trip back to the Peruvian jungle. At 84 years old, this dedicated and fearless champion for the Amazon felt confident to share her precious research with John.
As a young boy, John Easterling dreamed of discovering lost cities of gold in South America. He was fascinated by the mysteries and legends of the ancient civilizations of the Incas of Peru. After graduating from college in the seventies, he sold his car, bought a ticket and headed to Ecuador. He searched for lost cities, and whatever treasures he could find funded future trips back to South America. He started his first company, "Raiders of the Lost Art," recovering different pre-Columbian textiles, artifacts, sweaters and handcrafted items. Later he went over the Andes and back into Brazil and Uruguay to purchase gemstones tourmaline, quartz crystal, rose quartz and a lot of amethyst. Then he ventured into the Amazon Basin and worked with the local Indians gathering tribal artifacts and ceramics.
John had hepatitis and had contracted Rocky Mountain spotted fever years before he even had a near-death-experience. His liver had become very severely compromised. He was further challenged by frequent dysentery, parasites, low-grade jungle fever and Amazonian insects burrowing into his skin.
One day, in the Amazon Basin, very sick with recurring fever, sweats, and extreme weakness, he stumbled into a Shipibo Indian Village. The Shipibos, shocked by his poor health, offered him some healing teas. John said that by drinking these teas for over a period of ten days, his health not only went back to where it was prior to when he was sick with hepatitis and Rocky Mountain fever, but it took him to a whole new level of life experience. As John puts it, his energy came rushing back in, as did his mental acuity, his sense of groundedness, and vitality. He realized that all along he had been completely surrounded by "the real treasure of the rainforest the life giving properties of the forest itself. "
A few years later, after his travels with Nicole Maxwell in the Peru, John sold his business and began a new business and a new life. For over ten years now John has carefully imported thousands of kilos of carefully selected and documented herbs - never irradiated or fumigated. He and a team of international biochemists, medical doctors and naturopathic doctors have researched ardently the plants of the Amazon that have been used for thousands and thousands of years by shamans and tribal healers. To retain all of the healing goodness of the whole plant, the researchers have used the ancient spagyric process which extracts and preserves all of the bio-energetics and phytonutrients of the plant including the trace minerals in the alkaline ash. This method, also known as plant alchemy, is much more costly and time-consuming, and is used by only a few companies internationally.
Today John has created a thriving business, The Amazon Herb Company. The company just uses wild plants grown in rich virgin soils of the undisturbed Peruvian upper basin. All harvesting is wildcrafted with virtually no ecological and environmental impact. The herbs are carefully and sustainably collected by the members of over 19 indigenous tribal communities. These communities are being empowered for the first time and they can now make choices to preserve their forest and obtain deeds for their land. Finally, for the tribes of the Amazon, their home is more valuable alive than dead. The Amazon Rainforest is being preserved by her inhabitants and by scientists and people like you and me who want a genuine quality of life.
Unfortunately, our quality of life is being affected by degenerative disease. According to John Easterling, the cause is twofold. "The first cause is the amount of toxins and pathogens that are in our environment. The second, is the nutritional deficiency of our food supply. Our organs, glands, and systems are essentially starving to death. Throw in the toxins and boom! You get all these degenerative issues. The information in plants growing wild in the Amazon is different than that in a tomato growing beside the interstate in California. The interstate tomato comes up through the ground in an artificial environment and is sucking in exhaust fumes all day long. Certainly the chemistry and nutritional factors aren't there, and the information that is in that plant is not the same as the information in plants that have been growing for thousands and thousands of years in ecological harmony.
"When you're wildcrafting, you're getting the strongest of the species by definition because it is still in its original environment. Therefore, when we ingest these herbs we are also ingesting this environmental balance and harmony. This power and purity resides in us on a subtle level. When you get up river a couple of days in the Amazon, you don't see cancer, arthritis, diabetes or other degenerative diseases."
You are what you eat, so why not get food from the place of the highest concentration of life energy on the planet. The world has just begun to treasure the Amazonian botanicals. As Hypocrites, the father of medicine says, "Let thy foods be thy medicine."
Only three percent of over 200,000 Amazonian plants have been studied for their therapeutic value. One of the plants, which was in the tea that John first drank, is Chanca Piedra (Phyllanthus), also called Quebra Piedra, which literally means"stone breaker." It has been used for ages to help eliminate kidney and gallbladder stones. It is known for its ability to clear obstruction throughout the body, and it is known to soften the ureter and bile duct, easing the release of stones. It is believed to fortify the liver and gall bladder, supports the production of bile, is a tonic for the digestive system, and is effective at eliminating intestinal parasites. It can work as a diuretic, help cleanse the urinary tract, and eliminate uric acid. In India, Chanca Piedra is called Budharti and is used for the treatment of bronchitis, pneumonia, and other pulmonary afflictions, Chaca Piedra's anti-viral properties are well described in scientific literature. Another plant, Iporuru (Alchornis castaneifolia) is well known to the indigenous peoples for relieving joint pain, improving flexibility in movement and range of motion, for recovery of battle wounds and severe injuries. It is becoming popular in America with athletes, as it provides support of muscle and joint structure and is known to have strong anti-inflammatory properties. Other plants are Maca for energy, longevity and fertility; Boldo to improve fat digestion; Una De Gato to boost the immune system, and Manaca to purify the blood.
The Amazon Herb Company uses over 50 plants. Their team of scientists and doctors have developed 16 botanical formulas to address the major issues of ninety percent of the population: immune system dysfunction, inefficient digestion and metabolism, stress, environmental toxicities, energy circulation, hormonal imbalances, and pain, swelling and inflammation. The formulas have been used successfully to help bring thousands of people to a happier and healthier level. For nine years the herbs were only sold to doctors and other practitioners. Then the company decided to make the herbs available to everyone. In the last year this company has grown 500%. Hundreds of doctors continue to use these herbs in their practices.
Dr. Eric Innes, a chiropractor, who has been using Amazon herbs for over ten years says,"These herbs provide the most usable form of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, amino acids, and trace elements. High milligram levels on nutrition labels do not equate to bioavailability, rather, completeness of organic nutrients is what is vital. The spagyric processing helps to capture the plant's energies and the entire natural therapeutic compounds. These formulas contain the alkaloids, polysaccharides, glycosides, essential oils, minerals, and trace elements even the spirit of the plants. When these formulas get to the market they have retained their constitutional value I have been using them for years with great success."
Lenny Rader has been involved with natural healing since curing himself of cancer thirty years ago. He has traveled to Brazil three times to study with the world famous spiritual healer, Jaoa de Deus (John of God). He is currently a Rainforest Ambassador with the Amazon Herb Co. (386) 462-7902 or e-mail: lennyrader@cs.com
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