Stuff You Should Know - Short Stuff: Smudging: Not just for hippies

Episode Date: February 28, 2024

Smudging is the process of wafting around the smoke of burning white sage. What is it good for? Listen in and find out.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I'm John Seifer and I'm Gerry O'Shea. We spent over 30 years in the CIA uncovering global conspiracies. Conspiracies aren't just a theory to us, which is why we started our podcast, Mission Implausible. Everyone has questions about conspiracy theories, but with our background, we can actually answer those questions. Anyone can just start screaming about microchips and Jewish space lasers,

but it's our mission to remove the bull and get down to what's real. Listen to Mission Implausible on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. I'm Josh, and there's Chuck and Jerry's here to send in for Dave. It's the huge and this is short stuff. I think I already said that. So let's go. Uh, woo woo edition? and this is short stuff. I think I already said that, so let's go. A woo-woo addition? A little bit, depending on what your background is

or what your intentions are or what you believe the effects of what you're doing is, are. That's right, and what we're talking about is smudging. And if you're like, what is that? Have you ever heard of burning sage? Like, oh, we just moved into this new house We're gonna walk around and burn some sage get rid of all those bad vibes And just welcome the the newness and the goodness into this place by burning a little bundle of white sage

Yeah, it's it's called smudging the smoke Supposedly does some stuff to like said, the vibes. It is very popular among people who use words like vibes. But it has its roots very firmly in indigenous North American cultures, in particular the Dakota and Ho-Chunk is more familiar as the Winnebago tribe. Right. And they also, well, I guess they evolved this practice independently, but civilizations like throughout time have used herbs or incenses to do things like cleanse the air

or purify things. And there's definitely something to it. It's just the science on it hasn't really been carried out in a lot of ways. And there's a lot of people who still kind of jump to larger conclusions than they possibly should at this point. Who knows?

I think my take on it, I just want everybody to bear this in mind. If it makes you happy, if you like it, if you're doing it ethically and responsibly, there's more power to you. Yeah, absolutely. Burning all kinds of herbs has long been a sort of ritual in different cultures like you were talking about.

Smudging, you can also call it saging. The word sage actually comes from Latin, from salvia, which means to feel healthy. And we're going to talk about potential health benefits here in a minute. But there are people who will say, well, hold on a minute, this is cultural appropriation really. And if you're just walking around like you throw on some in ya or some grateful dead and you're burning smudge, you're smudging, you're burning that sage and walking around, then you may be sort of doing a, not a disservice, but inadvertently sort of insulting, being disrespectful to the original,

very sacred practice. So that is something to keep in mind. And just like, leave me out of this. Right. Leave me in the crossword where I belong. Yeah, exactly. So there are people though that will say like, hey, if you're gonna do this, keep some things in mind, harvest it sustainably and we'll get to why

you should do that in a sec. Although you should always do that for anything. And then maybe sort of do some research on how it was really done and maybe try and honor that in some way. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, maybe seek different sources too beyond Instagram or TikTok. And I'm not making fun, but I know that there's a lot of people that are getting the idea to go smudge from those sources.

Great, but go look up a little more about it and that might help you feel a little better about doing it. Yeah, and if you're curious about potential benefits of smudging beyond just sort of feeling like it's a ritual you should do when you move in or you want to get rid of some bad vibes, don't go to websites that have web pages that are turquoise. Or in Comic Sans. Comic Sans, pink script, lots of crystals. You're going to get a lot of information on those sites,

but it may not be accurate because I did look a little deeper into benefits of smudging and burning sage. And maybe we should talk about those when we come back right after this. I think that's a capital idea. All right, we'll be right back. Hi, I'm John Ho Bryant, host of Money and Wealth on the Black Effect Podcast Network. I'm an entrepreneur and a businessman. Some would call a thought leader.

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And I'm Jennifer Fessler also from the Real Housewives of New Jersey. I joined the show in season 13. And we host the new podcast, Two Jersey Jays. You know us from the Real Housewives of New Jersey, and now you'll really get to know us. We're gonna tell you probably more than you want to know. We are going to have lots of fun on this podcast while we discuss what it's really like to be a real housewife and all the drama that comes with it. Follow us as we navigate family, friendships, and even her enemies. And

we're gonna be brutally honest about motherhood, men, menopause, and even for enemies. And we're going to be brutally honest about motherhood, men menopause, and making every day count. Listen to Jersey Jays on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or every listen to podcasts. Alright, so if you look up, you know, what are the benefits of burning sage? You will find all kinds of things from improved mood, better sleep, enhanced cognition, lowering your stress levels, antibacterial properties, stuff like that. The problem is with a lot of this kind of stuff is it's hard to find great solid scientific studies and evidence because science doesn't usually study

stuff like this a lot. The money goes elsewhere. So you'll find a lots of studies where it's like, there's a lot of correlation and stuff like that, a lot of self reporting. But I was having a hard time finding like some real good hard double blind studies on this stuff. Yes, that's problem one. Problem two is there are some peer-reviewed good studies or meta-analysis of other studies. But if you start looking into them, you're like, oh, this isn't actually talking about smudging at all. Or if it is about smudging, it's not about smudging with sage, it's about

smudging with Havan samagri, which is an Indian medicinal, I guess, incense, which that one is widely cited because that study found that burning Havan samagari purifies your room. It kills up to 95% of airborne bacteria for up to like 30 days. That's awesome. So you could be like, okay, I mean is sage really that much different from Havan Samagari?

So surely there's some properties to it. That's what people are doing. Or if it's a study on sage and sage's ability to enhance cognition or to fight Alzheimer's or to improve your mood or something like that, those are studies on sage extract that you're taking orally. It's not a study on smudging. That's different. Again, you can make some jumps to conclusions that may have some basis. Like, you know, if you burn some of the bioactive compounds in other plants, like marijuana, it does things to you for sure. How is it that far off that burning sage in its bioactive compounds could have other different effects that just maybe aren't quite as noticeable or just haven't been researched? Yes, the answer is yes. But the key thing here is to remember it hasn't been researched.

So, you know, take it all with a grain of salt. But again, if it's making you feel good, even if it's a placebo, then great. Yeah, absolutely. And by the way, please don't put sage in your bong and inhale it. Oh my God, kill your throat. Yeah, that would not be good for you. We mentioned or I think I mentioned responsible harvesting of sage about 50% and this is California white sage about 50% of California white sage has been lost to urbanization. This article says, you know, the increase in non-native people

saging is posing a threat. I saw that it was more like urbanization in general, climate change, fire, drought, poaching, sort of the usual suspects with stuff like that. If it's California sage, that fire is contributing big time. Yeah, absolutely. So I'm not so convinced that that's true that like, you know, people jumping off of Goop and buying Sage is like why that there's a 50% drop, but it may be playing a part. Who knows? I mean, if there's a huge decline in it naturally, then a bunch of new people coming and buying it would definitely have an impact too. Sure, absolutely. Carpenter bees are the main pollinator of

white sage. So the loss of sage is no good, just like, you know, losing any kind of pollinating plant is no good. And then, you know, whether or not it's bad for you, I was trying to find information. I didn't see where it was necessarily bad. As long as you keep the smoke levels down, you don't want to, especially if you have asthma or something, or any respiratory illness, you don't wanna be breathing in smoke period. So when you sage, you wanna blow that thing out pretty quick and keep the smoke to a minimum.

Yes. One other thing I did see though that makes a lot of sense is that the smoke releases negative ions. And I saw some people say, which counteract negative energy. Not true, but it does counteract things like allergens, like dust, dander, mold, which are positively charged typically. So that makes some sense.

So there is some science to it too. But also just getting away from all the science, getting away from applying any new age group stuff to it. It is like a traditional indigenous practice. And I saw actually the Mayo Clinic was boasting about how they have a smudging room at their Minnesota main campus because they work with so many Native American patients, that's like one of the things they offer with their chaplains. Oh, interesting.

Yeah, it's pretty cool. I didn't see any like, this is how long you're supposed to do it because I think, especially if it's something that's like a symbolic thing that you're doing, I'm not sure like you can even put a time limit on something that ethereal. But yeah, just, I mean, we're not smudge advisors. I would say just don't throw it away like it's just some dumb thing you're doing like, ooh, just let me do this. Like maybe respect it a little bit, even if it's just a placebo effect, like it's something that many cultures have done for thousands of years. So like pay it a little respect, I would say.

So there's a ritual to it. I think originally smudging was bathing yourself in the smoke from the sage bundle, that that's really what indigenous smudging is. And then it kind of got translated to clearing the negative energy out of space as well. But one of the things you can do if you smudge

is you can basically you take the smoke and waft it to yourself. Basically run it through your hair, run it over your shoulders, down your arms. Like just take a quick bath in the smoke. Then you're actually doing like the most basic ancient indigenous practice with smudging. But you can also walk around your place with it,

like you're saying. And there's different elements to it, like literally elements or symbolic elements. And one of the first things you wanna get that's typically used as a shell, often an abalone shell, and that's the container that you're actually lighting the bundle in, and that represents the element of water. Yeah, so not the pukashell from your necklace that you inevitably have on around your neck. With the cocoa-pelly pen? Yeah, something larger. And then of course, you've

got the herb itself. You bundle it together. You can call it a smudge stick if you'd like. You've got your fire. That's obviously an element. And then you got that smoke, which is the air element. Yep. How stuff works? Did you get this from how stuff works? That and other places. Well, somebody interviewed a writer in healing practitioner named Molly Larkin, who said, Hey man, if you're worried about, um, like insulting indigenous cultures because you're not doing this right, you're not taking it seriously enough. They said that basically the way you can prevent that across the board is by, um, having an intention with smudging

And like you were saying an intention beyond listening to Enya right and that Expressing that intention through prayer and that that's one of like the the big parts of smudging as you say like I want to get rid of I want to wash that man right out of my hair or something like that. So I'm going to run sage smoke through it. Or, or they, like, that's what most people think of a smudging. You're getting rid of negative energy in a space or from yourself.

But apparently, according to Molly Larkin, you can also bring in positive energy. So you can set your intention, whether it's to get rid of negative energy or bring in positive or both. And then just kind of repeat that throughout the ritual of smudging. Yeah. And just keep in mind all the science stuff we talked about. Yes. And one other thing too, apparently one of the beliefs is that the ashes contain the negative energy that you have removed.

And so you want to dispose of that ash on bare earth. If you've gone this far, you might as well finish it right, okay? Absolutely. And hey, if you're gonna finish it right, start right and grow your own white sage and use that. Yeah, that's another thing too. They recommend do not buy from mass market retailers

because they're probably not sourcing it ethically. They could be a part of the problem if there is a sage shortage. Ideally, you would buy it from a local Native American-owned business. Then, yeah, the second best of that is growing at yourself. Yeah. Wow. I love it.

Wow. We really did a good job here, Chuck, if I may say so ourselves. I think so. Okay. Well, go forth and sage everybody, but do so ethically and responsibly and with respect. That means, of course, short stuff is out. Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app. Apple podcasts are wherever you listen

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