Undoctrinate Yourself - #15 - Dr. Nick Berry

Episode Date: March 12, 2025

Dr. Nick Berry is a PharmD turned master curator of botanical extracts and formulations. He founded Essential Oil Wizardry in 2014, which provides the most vital, energetic organic and wildcrafted botanical preparations available on the market today. In this episode, we delve into a variety of topics including: -plant chemistry-botanical extraction methodologies-routes of administration-botanical allies for memory, cognition, energy, anti-anxiety, and sleep...and so much more. To get involved in Dr. Nick's world:Instagram: ⁠@essentialoilwizardry⁠⁠Website (affiliate link): https://essentialoilwizardry.com/#DRALEXIS⁠ and use the code DRALEXIS to save $ at checkout⁠Alchemy Club⁠: https://essentialoilwizardry.com/alchemy-club/Support the podcast by becoming a patron: https://www.patreon.com/undoctrinateyourselfpodcastFollow the podcast on Instagram ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@undoctrinateyourselfpod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow Dr. Alexis on Instagram ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@dralexisjazmyn⁠⁠

Hello everyone and welcome back to the Undoctrinate Yourself podcast. Today I have an absolutely magical and radiant guess for you, somebody who I've been a major fan of and just like admiring his work. It's Dr. Nick Berry, who is the founder of Essential Oil Wizardry. We discovered Dr. Nick through Paul Chek years ago when he first appeared on Living in 4D and tried out some of his products and we're just literally blown away. like we're going to get into the details of what he's offering and the beautiful plant and botanical allies that he brings to the table. But I just want to say up front that experiencing the products that Dr. Nick offers, it literally was like a night and day experience from any other sort of essential oil products I had experienced in the past. You can palpably feel that these these products

are alive. Like the plant's soul and spirit is intact in the product. You can sense that. And when you're wearing them or using them, we'll talk about the variety of ways that you can use essential oils, whether it's internally, externally, or diffusion or nebulizing. But in any way that you're using them, they're just so, they're bringing so much almost like friendship and just like spirit to a space. And so I'm just so grateful for having these allies in my life. And first of all, I just want to welcome you, Dr. Nick. And thank you so much for coming on. Oh, it's my absolute pleasure. Thank you so much, Dr. Alexis, for having me on.

on. Yes, yes. And I really feel like I've connected with your work on Paul's podcast initially because you also came from a more like centralized medical, pharmaceutical background and then you transitioned into the more, I don't know if you want to say esoteric or just like a more spiritual, holistic way of viewing the world. And that resonates so much with my approach too. But if you just want to briefly introduce yourself and essential oil wizardry and then maybe we can dive into your as a pharmacist. I would love to start there. Yeah. What is it that you would love to know about me, Alexis? So I would love to know how you initially started down the pharmaceutical path, like what inspired you about that? And then when the turning point was where it was like,

oh, maybe, you know, this structure or this mindset can now be applied to other things. And there's like a whole world of plants and botanicals and other things to know about outside of just like isolated pharmaceutical compounds. Fantastic. Yeah, well, as a teenager, as I was feeling into what I wanted to do with my life, I really was fascinated by drugs and their effect on the human body that one little molecule could have such a humongous physiological, psychological, or spiritual effect on an individual. And so as I was doing research upon what might be the most ideal career path for me, I resonated with pharmaceuticals because I was fascinated by drugs. I wanted to help people. And it was a good paying career. And so for those reasons, it just felt like a clear alignment for me. And it definitely got a solid foundation for what has transpired in my life. Yeah, absolutely. I can totally see that. So where did you do your pharmaceuticals? studies, and did you end up going into a career in pharmacy before pivoting into the world of

essential oils, or what did that look like in the background? Yeah, so I graduated from University of the Pacific in Stockton, California in 2009. I worked at an eastern-western pharmacy for about a year, and so they incorporated different herbal formulations, different supplementation, and pharmaceuticals into more of a holistic perspective for aiding their private clientele. Before I did that, I also went on a medical mission to Central America with the U.S. government and other NGOs. And that was a really beautiful experience. One of the major things that I gained from that humanitarian mission was the ability to give

generously and to serve people without any expectation of receiving and the amount of gratitude that I received from people in these different countries, including El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, they were just so grateful for our service. There were free medical services amongst pharmaceutical care during the time that I was part of that mission. And my heart was really inspired because I felt like they were giving more to me because they were so grateful. They had these living conditions which were very challenging and they had such a positive attitude. They spoke with such grace and appreciation. And it was a very inspiring time for me. When I first practiced pharmacy as a pharmacist, because I did work at different retail pharmacies as

an intern while I was in school. When I graduated and got my pharmacist license, I worked about a year at that Eastern Western pharmacy. Wow. And so was that your initial kind of exposure to the herbal side of like medical approaches or had you previously maybe earlier in life also been exposed to using herbals or just like more holistically minded approaches to medicine? Great question. When I was about 17, ill with mononucleosis and that developed into chronic fatigue. And that really sucked my life force energy for about eight years. So I was homeopathy, Chinese medicine, and different alternative modalities were really supporting and supplementing my lifestyle. I had a very focused, determined type A personality and I was involved in lots of different programs through my school

and I would take all the opportunities as they would come and it was a very delicate line with my health for about eight years. And so I was very interested in all of the alternative types of medicines very early in my life. And that was really the first taste of balancing my nervous system and supporting my body so that I can take the actions that I want in the world and feel good. Wow. So were your parents at all, like influential in this way? Did you, as a young kid, have exposure to these alternative approaches to? Or were you just super curious and started exploring yourself? That's a great question. I feel like it was a natural evolution, both with my mother and myself.

I think my family upbringing, we always had an open mind about life in general. And when traditional Western medicine wasn't able to support my symptomology, which was requiring me to take multiple naps throughout the day. And I just had such low energy. extreme fatigue for about eight years that would that would waft in different waves of intensity. And, you know, working with a Qigong master and some Chinese herbal formulations from Ron Teagarden. Ron Teagarden from Dragon Herbs actually gave me my first Chinese herb medical consult.

And I found that they didn't take away the root cause of what was harming my physiology at the time. But it allowed me to progress throughout my school career while having an unhealthy balance. I was able to make do. That makes a lot of sense. I'm particularly interested in this area now because I've recently been doing some studies in herbalism. And so it's like opening my mind and like my eyes to. the different applications and just the way the different cultures have approached medicine throughout history. And I just think it's super interesting, especially with the more Eastern approaches, how they really consider like your baseline constitution and also the way you're living your life and any imbalances that could be driving issues and disease over time and how they're really supporting those imbalances so that you can, I mean, ultimately make positive changes in your life, I think, ideally.

but at the very least reduce negative sensations and feelings that you may be having while you're trying to figure out and like strike a balance in your life. So it sounds like that was very supportive for you with the Chinese medicine, which is incredible. And I'm sure that was very an influential experience for you as well. It was. I really received it. I wasn't gaining the knowledge of how to apply Chinese herbalism at that time. but it really it really bolstered my immune system and my body's function generally speaking. And, you know, those ancient wisdom medicines of Ayurveda and Chinese medicine, there's really a lot of wisdom to be held from those modalities.

Yeah, I couldn't agree more. And I think slowly Western, like even the reductionist Western approach is now starting to look at some of these old, older, like more. ancient practices through a more it's still a reductionist lens which I think also misses the point to a certain extent where we're looking at we're just trying to like break it down into the molecules that are having the effects without considering like an

entourage effect or a synergy between plants and between the constituents of plants which is so important when we're thinking about how they're interacting in the body and like that's something that I've been learning in my herbalism training too where it's like the plants are kind of mirroring aspects of ourselves and like certain ones will be supportive of certain qualities or characteristics within our bodies. And if we're just looking at like the chemicals that make it up,

we're maybe going to be missing the bigger picture, which I think is something that I also learned just working with your products from essential oil wizardry too. Like you can really feel like plants working together and synergizing and creating a new experience that you wouldn't necessarily have with each botanical alone, which is also super interesting to consider. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yes, you're welcome. So on that note, I would really love to hear around what time you started transitioning into making your business into creating essential oil wizardry and what that process looked like. Yeah. Well, I had a beautiful transformation and evolution post-pharmacy school. I believe it was 2010 was the year that I went to Burning Man for the first time. And that, um, that,

really brought about a lot of synchronicities at the tail end of that event. The pharmacy that I was working at, the Eastern Western pharmacy, the owner who was also a pharmacist, came back from Europe and she started managing and working her own pharmacy so she didn't need the same level of assistance. Simultaneously, around that time, I had some friends that were starting a cannabis testing facility. And as a teenager, I had explored cannabis and different enthogens in a less conscientious way than I would approach the topics now. I had a fascination and awareness that cannabis was a medicine. It was not a medicine that I was using at that time. In fact, it's currently not a medicine that really resonates with my physiology.

It's a very slower energy than how I like to embody my life. But I recognized it was a powerful medicine. And so I started engaging different dispensaries around that time in 2010 of offering their patients' consultations to support and look at the different strains and constituents that were found inside the cannabis plants that they were choosing and advising them how best to minimize their drug herb interactions and maximize their therapeutic benefits. So it was around, I believe it was around 2011, 2012 was when I first got my first contract working with a dispensary with regularity. and it was it was very inspiring to dive deeper into the research around the cannabis plant.

And while I was working with Arts District Healing Center in that capacity, I worked with a woman who had training around essential oils. And she once engaged me the question. She said, have you ever worked with essential oils? Are you familiar with them? They're rich in different turpines. And because I was engaging with the cannabis plant and learning about the different therapeutic qualities associated with the cannabinoids and the terpine molecules, what I realized was that these powerful plant extracts known as essential oils contain these concentrated terpen molecules, which are pharmacologically active at very low concentrations. And that gave me the insight to start exploring these different plant extracts and combine them in

conjunction with the therapy of cannabis that I was seeing in clinic. Wow, I love that. And can you give us an example of some plants or like some extracts that would synergize maybe with cannabis in certain cases? I think it's super interesting to think about because especially with cannabis being increasingly legalized and it could be interesting to think about different. ways that you could synergize or combine with other herbals to maybe, you know, enhance certain aspects of the experience versus maybe like reducing anxiety, paranoia, things like that.

Yeah, great question. So this was really early in my career and some of my favorite combinations are very, very simple experiments. What I would do is I would combine, I would take lavender essential oil, or I would take a citrus oil such as blood orange or lemon, or I would use eucalyptus. I believe my earlier incantations, I was just using a single essential oil. I used some type of thick paper that absorbs the liquid effectively. And what I would do is I would take maybe an eighth or a quarter of cannabis, and I would take a little piece of paper, I would apply maybe one to three drops into a jar. I would put the essential oil on the piece of paper and I would drop it into the jar and I would close it. And after,

I don't recall the exact time, but maybe one to three days, the different aromatic turpines would start naturally errating throughout the cannabis plant. And what I noticed subjectively, and again, this over 10 years ago since I was diving deep and experimenting with this. But I experimented with some of these things in my own physiology. And what I noticed was the enhancement with the essential oils into the cannabis plant really seemed to create a more clear experience. Let's say with lemon or orange, for instance. It would uplift the mood. It would stimulate the immune function. And it the experience seemed to be a little bit brighter. I noticed less cloudiness in my mind, less fog, if you will, when I was combining it with

these citrus oils. With the lavender oil, you could take something that is heavier in, let's say, Miracine, one of the strains that might be a little bit more calming, sometimes associated with couch lock if it's a really heavy concentration. and it would really help to relax and soften the experience. And it would really support someone who had high levels of stress, really calm their nervous system down. Another one that I really enjoyed was eucalyptus.

When I combined eucalyptus oil with various different strains, what I noticed is it really softened the intensity on the lungs. It just opened up the respiratory system. And I felt like the experience was both cleaner and it also felt easier on my lungs to inhale and receive. I love that. And actually, whenever we're using like our volcano vaporizer with any cannabis, we like to use like Andrea Seed Oil's phenyl oil and put some there. And it also has like a very similar opening effect and like purifying effect for the lungs, similar to like eucalyptus, where it's really like, I feel like it just makes the experience smoother and allows, because I honestly think with cannabis, a lot of the negative effects that some people can experience is dependent on like how the cannabis is being taken into the body. And if it's in a super harsh way, that can kind of set the tone for the rest of the experience in some ways. And it also makes a lot of sense with like the lemon and the orange because if I'm remembering correctly, and I think you alluded to this when the cannabis has more limine than it tends to be like a brighter, more heady.

more euphoric experience versus like the mercing like you're mentioning is tends to be a more heavy or like a like a more body uh or like indigastrain i guess yeah yeah and the uh the citrus oils tend to have a higher concentration of de limineine well that makes perfect sense i think we're definitely going to have to experiment with that because we love to like vaporize different herbs and cannabis at times too and and just like playing with different combinations i think that's great tips for anybody who wants to kind of just do some self-experimentation and like see how these different herbals can synergize and create new experiences, which makes it really fun too, I think. And that really brings it back to also something that I'm super interested in, which is like an end of one approach

in general in life, like trying things for yourself and seeing how your body likes things or doesn't like things and giving you that data so that you can, you know, move forward and honestly knowing yourself better in a lot of ways. Yeah, that really resonates for me. My body has experienced lots of different compounds and different modalities over this past decade. And it really has become much more of a clear compass over the time. And what works for someone may not work for another person. And so it's always important to listen to your body and allow yourself to be your own compass. And if you can't hear your signals approach with more conscientiousness and awareness. Yeah, I think that's a beautiful

tip in just like every aspect of life too. And we kind of have these innate signals that are telling us information all the time. And it's so easy in the modern environment to get dulled out because we're just assaulted with so much stimuli constantly, whether it's light, whether it's processed foods, whether it's media. It's just like all of these big, bold signals that are basically masking some of the more subtle signals that we would have gotten if we were more in tune with nature and more in tune with our bodies. But as it turns out, I mean, I think in this modern environment, people are so easily checked out of actually inhabiting their bodies just because of the way that we're kind of just very mental as a society.

these days, which it's robbing us of a lot of information at the end of the day. Oh. Yeah, I love that. And also I wanted to mention something that was interesting that I also experienced in my like teen years too. You mentioned that like drugs were super interesting to you. And I also was very inspired by them like starting early in high school. I was somebody who was like on Aeroid all the time, which was the website with all the different like active plant chemicals and like how they're interacting in the body and what of the effects and was always super. intrigued by it. And I was actually initially in culinary school after high school. And then I had this really mind-blowing and just like completely life path-altering LSD experience that ended up,

ended with me going into science essentially because I was like, wow, there's so much I don't understand and I want to learn more. That's fascinating. I love that. It's great. So there are many inspiring experiences to be had. And it doesn't necessarily have to be with plant medicines or medicines in general, but they're definitely one way to get the mind open and just see things a little bit differently, which can be totally life-changing. I want to learn a little bit about when essential oil wizardry started and what it looked like when it was first incepted. So what year was that and what were like your core products that you kind of first offered to the world? Those are great questions. So initially, as I was working with these dispensaries,

I was starting to source different essential oils. And some of my first blends, citrus blast, was, I think, the very first blend that I made. And that was a combination of hydro-distilled lemon and lime with cold-pressed blood orange. And the second blend that I crafted was the cosmic orgasm. And the cosmic orgasm is a combination of Royal Hawaiian Sandal. wood, Moroccan Cedar Atlas, with cold pressed blood orange. And when I was first sharing the oils, I was exploring them with different types of mechanisms for use, or I should say routes of administration. So very early on, I was vaporizing a lot of essential oils. So I was using these

these pipes that were used for vaporizing plant material and or oils, and I would heat them up and breathe the essential oils at a very low concentration directly into my lungs, or at a very low temperature, rather. So I would use low temperature, breathe them into my lungs, and it would produce a pretty high concentration and intensity into my lungs. And I had an aha moment about the potency of essential oils, which really gave me clarity on my path and the importance in working with these powerful botanical extracts. And that was, I believe it was the winter of 2011 going into 2012 where I had my third year of pneumonia. I had pneumonia three winters in a row. And the first two years I used pharmaceutical means in order to recover. And it took maybe about seven-ish days before

I started getting any type of relief. Probably somewhere between 30 to 70 percent of feeling recovered in my lungs using the traditional pharmaceutical means. And this third year, I was doing a lot of research on the constituents found inside essential oils. And so that really was my opening was looking at it from a scientific lens. So I would look at these individual constituents that were found inside essential oils and learn about the therapeutic benefit, their mechanism of action, and interpret that data and extrapolate it to how I can serve people. And so one of the earlier people I served was myself. And I had learned that oil of oregano contains this phenol called Carvacrol. And Carvacrol is an extremely powerful antimicrobial broad spectrum immune supporting molecule that also is quite irritating.

And it's richly found inside oil of oregano. And I would almost define it as caustic and dermally irritating. And during this experience that I had, I remember multiple days, maybe even a week, week and a half after starting to have some symptoms of difficulty breathing in my lungs, I just kept pushing it off and said, oh, you know, maybe I'll get better. I'm not sure if this is pneumonia. I remember waking up and my breath was so labored. And I had the thought that if I, if I don't do something, that I might die. And as I was having difficulty, breathing and having this thought sitting on my bed, I look over to my counter. And on my counter was five different essential oils. That was my collection at the time. It has grown massively

over these years. And one of those essential oils was oil of oregano. And right next to my oils was this essential oil vaporizer. And it's called the essential vape. And what's funny is I wasn't really using it to vaporize cannabis or oils. I just kind of had it because I worked at a dispensary. And I had this aha moment that I could heat up the oil of oregano because my lungs were the direct site that was infected. By breathing the oil of oregano, the carbacrol would enter into my lungs, and I figured if it could kill Mercer with a very low concentration. As I had read in these studies, I figured it could kill whatever was growing in my lungs. And so I knew that it was going to be extremely irritating, and I'm not recommending this for anyone who's listening. But I took maybe about

three drops of oil of oregano. I put it into the glass file. I screwed it on to the base of the pipe. I heated it up, and I breathed it in. And it was such an intense experience. I was coughing and spitting up all types of yellow and green sputum and I was choking and my coughing was probably somewhere between about five and ten minutes and when the coughing stopped I repeated the process and I did that I believe three times on the first day and twice on the second day and by the end of that 48 hour experience I was somewhere around 60 to 70% back to my baseline. And that really transformed my reality because it was as much as of a shift, if not more, than what I had experienced after a whole week of taking some of these other

alternative, I should say, mainstream therapies. And so I realized that I was working with some really powerful botanical tools, and that really helped align. my life path. I love this story so much and I just want to share briefly about our experience with oregano too because ever since hearing you share this story on Paul's podcast I believe back in the day, we never like don't have oregano on hand. We have a couple different oreganoes from you, Greek and there's one other kind. Maybe you can share the different kinds of oregano that are available. Maybe what's different between the profiles of them. But whenever anybody around here is exposed to somebody who's sick or has like the beginnings of illness, what we'll do is

we'll like simmer a pot of water and then we'll add a couple drops in and then we close our eyes and breathe in the vapors of the steam and you do get that very like, uh, your throat kind of wants to clam down and like clamp down and when the oregano hits, it's like very abrupt in some ways and intense. But it's incredible to just like prevent a full blown illness or just nuke anything that might be trying to fester there in the mouth. or in the lungs. And I'm also totally a proponent of like if you have an infection somewhere that's technically on the outside of your body, like we don't necessarily need to poison the

whole body with antibiotics when we could just specifically target areas that are infected with something like oregano or colloidal silver and get the benefits directly in C2 for that. So I think that's an incredible tip. And again, like not necessarily recommending for people, but if you feel inspired to try it, I think especially probably a bit more gentle if you're doing it with the steam versus like directly inhaling it. But I mean, you had quite an intense situation going on. So desperate times, desperate measures. Absolutely.

And knowing what I know now, I know there's better, less intense options that I might choose to select if I was directly vaporizing into my lungs. Like our respire formulation for instance. It's so good. Yeah, it's, um, respires a combination of, uh, eucalyptus peppermint, Ravansara, time linole, all black spruce, La Leshua, CO2 extracted frankincense carteri and Niaw. And so it's a, um, a really powerful broad spectrum, um, antimicrobial that supports your immune function that also, um, really helps to open up the lungs. It has bronchodil. effects and I find it to be very soothing on the lungs and on the throat and it's not as intense as something like oil of oregano. And so that would be a better option compared to something as

intense or potent as oregano oil, for instance. Amazing. So for respire, would you recommend vaporizing that or applying it topically under the nose? around the chest, maybe diluted in some oil, or is it already in fractionated coconut oil? Yeah, respire is one of our pure essential oil blends, and so it is very concentrated. It can be diluted before applying it to the body. There's a number of different ways and mechanisms that I enjoy working with respire, and it kind of depends upon what the symptoms are. if I have a gunky chest and stuffiness in the throat or lungs, what I may do is, do I have it here? I have it here.

So here's what I would do. I would take a few drops in my hands, rub my hands together, pop my hands around my nose and throat, mouth. So typically I'll do about three inhalations. what then I do is I take my hands and I massage it into my chest. Now, if someone has sensitive skin, I would suggest diluting this oil before applying it onto the skin. And if you are, this is a great ally if you're having congestion in the lungs as well. if I had congestion in the lungs or I was concerned about an infection there, I would do a mechanism to breathe it directly into the lungs at a higher concentration. So vaporizing it through that essential oil vaporizer would be one mechanism.

Another method is the hot pot method. And what that is is you can take a big blanket. you can heat up a pot of water and you can take about three to five drops of the essential oil. You could use less or more. It kind of depends on the volume in which you're going to be inhabiting how much water you're using. But you get the water so that it's boiling. And when it's boiling, you take it off the stove, you set it down and be very careful

with this so you don't burn yourself. while you're under the blanket. But what you're going to do is you're going to make yourself a little nest. You're going to sit down, cover yourself with the blanket, apply a few of the drops of in the essential oil, of the essential oil into the pot of hot water. And then you're just going to keep your eyes closed the entire time. Make sure that you don't burn your legs or any of your body. And I typically like to do this without any of my clothes so that all the essential oils can seep into my pores and I can really maximize my absorption and the therapeutic application of this. And with my eyes closed, I'll sit in there for about five to 15 minutes. And that's a really powerful way,

less intense than my experience of vaporizing it directly into the lungs. with the oil of oregano, for instance. And I probably wouldn't choose to do that with a really powerful oil such as oregano. I would prefer that with something like lemon grass or a respire formulation or eucalyptus. So these are some examples of how I might utilize the essential oils in different ways to support different symptoms that I'm experiencing. same. I love that. And you actually just sparked like a question. I mean, do you know anybody who uses them any oils within sauna? So like I have an infrared sauna and I'm wondering, I wonder if I can put some drops, you know, maybe in there or even on my body and then it would like kind of

perfume the inside of the sauna. Do you have any thoughts on that? Absolutely. I love using essential oils. We have an infrared sauna at our house. And at essential oil wizardry, we actually have a sauna kit with some of my favorite oils for the sauna. Oh. And eucalyptus respire are really great basic formulations that you can use inside of the sauna just to help open up the lungs and support your immune function. There's really calming oils that I like to use inside of their like Violet Chill or root blend to really help to relax my nervous system, decouple from stress and

drop me into my physical body. So I'll massage those on the bottom of my feet. And people have different saunas, right? So sometimes there's saunas with hot rocks and a person can put some pure essential oils onto the hot rocks and then it's going to steam into the sauna. That may be intense for some people. Other people love it. I enjoy. it. Lots of our blends are infused in carrier oils for various reasons. And for our blended oils, I don't prefer to burn them on the hot stones, for instance, because then you're getting the combustion of the carrier oil, which is not beneficial for one's health. That's a great tip. So with regards to some of the oils that you're talking about that are a bit stronger like oregano,

are there other examples of oils that you would use more like sparingly or only in certain cases that could be more harsh if they're used at like more intense concentrations? Yeah. So cinnamon contains cinamaldehyde, which can be very irritating. Cinnamon bark specifically. clove contains high concentrations of eugenal, which can also be very irritating, and it's very powerful. So cinnamon clove, thyme and oregano as well. Time contains higher concentrations of thymol, and some species have a fair amount of carvacral as well. So these are some of the stronger constituents.

when I'm blending, I like to have lower concentrations of these different essential oils in my formulations because they pack a punch. And if you blend them well and at a lower concentration, you can really gain some of the therapeutic benefit without having it be overwhelming. So an example of that would be our immunity oil. And immunity oil is a combination of pepper cinnamon, oregano, clove, and eucalyptus.

And so it has really powerful essential oils and a broader concentration of the peppermint and eucalyptus and a smaller

concentration of some of the ones with the more fiery, irritating phenol and aldehyde molecules. Cool.

So from like a chemical perspective, are the phenols and the aldehydes typically the more reactive or harsh ones or are there others that people would, if they're interested in chemistry and like geeking out on that, are there other molecules that would also

impart some of these effects? Aldehydes and phenols can be more caustic and topically irritating in general. It's some of the oxides can be topically

irritating. The you know, there's so many different constituents and we can go down that rabbit hole if you would like to. What I would maybe say as a more broad term before we go into individual constituents, as they all have general trends or qualities of inside these individual constituent groups.

And there's going to be exceptions to all of those general rules, but aldehydes and the phenols do tend to be more irritating, more caustic, and also tend to pack a punch around different microbes in the body, let's say. Amazing. That's extremely helpful just to generally think about, you know, if we're looking at plant chemistry, we might be able to keep our eyes out for like certain types of molecules, and we can say, oh, maybe, you know, maybe this plant has these types of effects that it's imparting. But actually, maybe before we dive into the specifics of any molecules and their interactions, it could be interesting to explore just a bit about how essential oils are made to begin with.

I think a lot of people might not know about how these are extracted from a plant and, like, what they generally contain with regards to their composition. So do you want to enlighten us a bit about the different methods you use to extract essential oils? Yeah, just what the options are for that and what we can expect chemistry-wise in general for oils, like what different types of chemicals will be present in there. Sure. So there are different extracts of plants. And so essential oils are considered to be a different type of extraction method of compared to a solvent extracted absolute or a CO2 extract or an ultrasonic extract.

Essential oils and essential oil distillation and extraction is one of the more classic technologies of extracting the essence and the intelligence of the plant. So an essential oil is rich in volatile aromatic constituents. Most of these constituents are considered to be terpen molecules. And these terping molecules have all different types of, therapeutic applications and functional groups, which we were alluding to some moments before. So the essential oils are typically distilled out of the plant. And so using machinery, you'll have a wide tank where you collect your plant material and you're going to heat water. and all of this is going to be in a closed system. So you're going to have a pot essentially or a tank,

and you put plant material in there. Underneath and or sometimes as a hydro distillation, you have the plant material in the water as it's being heated. So each of these are going to, when the water is heated, the plants are going to open up and their delicate aromatic molecules are going to leak out of their plant material. And the hot water vapor is going to volatize these aromatic molecules into the steam. And as it's leaving the tank, there's going to be a cooling apparatus that's wrapped around this glass chamber that's going into the collecting flask. And so the steam is then going to be cooled as it goes down the other side of this apparatus. And it's going to separate because as the steam cools, it condenses into water vapor,

which also has some aromatic constituents in it. And so this water vapor condenses into this water, which is also known as a hydrosol. And the hydrosol also has these bioactive constituents from the plant material that it collects. The oil phase that comes from the plants that's volatized is also going to condense. And what happens is in the collecting flask after it cools, because there's no more heat input, what's going to happen is the oils, typically they rise to the top unless it's a very, very heavy oil.

Let's say something like a vetiver, which actually becomes heavier. Right, because of all the sesquiturpenes, it actually is heavier than water. so it has a heavier density and therefore it sinks to the bottom of the collecting flask, but a majority of essential oils are going to collect on the top of the water phase. And so that you're going to have the water phase, which is the hydrosols. And then on the top layer, that's going to be the essential oils in most plant distillations. Wow, that's incredible and gives some really great insight into the process. And so does the water phase contain the water soluble constituents and then the oil phase has anything that was more lipid soluble?

Or is there also some like crossover between those? You are mostly correct. There's a small amount of oil soluble constituents found inside the water. I think it depends on the distillation. I don't recall any specific numbers, but let's say there's about less than 1% of oil solubles in many of the plant hydrosols. Just in the process, there can be micro amounts of the more, let's say, hydrophobic molecules found inside the water phase at a very small concentration. So that is something that's interesting that not a lot of people know is that there can be very small amounts of essential oils found inside the hydrosols. I remember really early

in my career around 2014, I was living at my mentor's house on the Big Island Hawaii. And he had gosh, something like 20 kilos of Hawaiian sandalwood. And they were all in these glass 32-ounce jars. And we actually realized that they were, they contained a little bit of the hydrosol inside of the oil. And so we would actually heat it up. We would heat up some water on the stove in a pot, and we would open up the lid. And we were able to actually remove some of the water contamination from the essential oil. The other is possible as well. You can have some essential oil found inside the hydrosol, and you can heat up the hydrosol, and you can actually remove some of the essential oil from a purification stage in that way. Incredible. So the applications for

hydrosols, are they similar, different, or how would people work with hydrosols? similar and different. It's a different ball of wax. I am less experienced in working with hydrosols. I really enjoy working with hydrosols that are infused into water and drinking them in many cases. Things like Melissa or E. Long-e-long-e-long are really delicious and nourishing in different ways. There's also, I've worked with numerous hydrosols over the years, but it definitely hasn't been a major focus. Hydrosols are also really great for room sprays. I like to use, for instance, we have a Hawaiian sandalwood hydrosol. That's a great base for a room mister. We use some of that in our Agua de Flores, which is our natural Agua de Florida spray for ceremonial purposes. And so the hydrosols, you can mix really well and use them as room sprays.

You can infuse them into beverages and consume them. And because they have such a low concentration of essential oil, it's just really easy for the body to assimilate. and the flavor profile is amazing. So you can make some really nourishing and hearty cocktails for friends with hydrosols. Oh, I love that. Is Rosewater technically a hydrosol or is that a bit different? That is correct. Rosewater is almost a branding for Rosehydrosol, if you will.

I believe there can be some subtle differences. And perhaps that is if the roses are just sitting in the water but not distilled, and then they're extracting the aromatic constituents, but there's no distillation process. That might be more true to a rose water as opposed to a rose hydrosol. But a rose hydrosol can also be called a rose water. Amazing. So you mentioned when you were describing to us, us about how the essential oils are distilled out of the plant, that there were other modalities

such as CO2 extract and ultrasonic extracts. Would you be able to share a little bit about what those are and how they differ from that process? Absolutely. So a CO2 extract uses carbon dioxide as a solvent, and CO2 at room temperature is a gas. And so what this equipment does is it changes the pressures and the temperatures of the CO2 to turn it into a liquid. And it runs this liquid through the plant material. And it soaks up the different aromatic constituents. And it's able to pull a very rich in concentrated full spectrum extract from the plants. Now, something that you may or may not know is when you're heating the plant material and the constituents, some of them change and or get damaged. And so some of the aromatic constituents can get lost.

So this is one reason why you never see a jasmine essential oil. There is not a steam distilled jasmine essential oil unless you do something very tricky, which I won't go into here. But in regards to distillation from jasmine flowers, you'll destroy the jasmine flowers and the aromatic constituents. You can get a nice jasmine hydrosol, but the essential oil, to my understanding, breaks down. And so using something like CO2 extract, you're able to actually get a very rich and potent aromatic extract from these jasmine flowers because you're not damaging these delicate aromatic molecules or the delicate petals with all of the heat. And so I once was told that CO2 extracts can be almost twice as potent, therapeutically speaking, pharmacologically, compared to traditional steam distilled essential oils. I haven't personally seen that research. This was shared by one of my CO2 extraction suppliers.

And what I note in general is CO2 extracts seem to be more full spectrum aromatically. Essential oils, if you were to compare a steam distilled cardamom to a CO2 extracted cardam, for instance, when I inhale the cardam steam distilled, it's lighter. It's definitely got those spice notes. It's uplifting. It's stimulating. But it's more of a top note. When I take the CO2 extract of cardamom, I get more of those midnotes and multiple aromatic experiences that kind of stack upon each other. It's a more full aromatic experience. And so different extraction methods have different qualities, and therefore you may choose to use them differently. You know, we were,

talking about hydrosols, they're very light. You may enjoy them in a beverage. You can use them as room sprays. I also, I didn't share this, but they're also really great as facial toners. Just spraying on some geranium hydrosol or some rose hydrosol, for instance. And so those are going to be great methods for use for the hydrosols. Steam distilled essential oils and essential oils, and CO2 extracts are both therapeutic quality. So there's no nasty solvents in the CO2 extracts. After you do the extraction, the aromatic constituents enter the CO2 and you collect this rich aromatic liquid. as soon as you change the temperature and pressure to become more room temperature and stable, what's going to happen is this liquid turns back into a gas and completely leaves,

and you're left with this really concentrated potent extract. And so if I'm wanting to work with something internally at the right concentration, these would be a higher choice for the majority of people to work with than something like a solvent absolute. So each types of extracts kind of carries their own therapeutic benefit, some of their own unique characteristics. I guess I can cover the solvent absolutes and the ultrasonic extractions, if you would like. I would love that, yeah, just so we can see how. how they compare and maybe how that would relate to the applications or what you might want to choose, given a certain context.

Yeah. Yeah. So for a solvent extracted absolute, you are using some harsh non-polar solvents that are typically pretty nasty like hexane. And the modern day extraction processes, you're able to get relatively clean. extracts as a final product. And the solvent extracts are probably the closest picture of a concentrated plant extract. And so it's a very full spectrum. They tend to be very thick. They contain different waxes and lipids and a bunch of aromatic constituents. Oftentimes they'll be thicker than an essential oil and oftentimes even more so than a CO2 extract as well.

And so the process is essentially using this non-polar solvent to pull the aromatic constituents out of the plant material. You then filter out all the plant material and then you have liquid. then you're going to evaporate the solvent off and you're left with something that's called an aromatic concrete. Now this concrete is like this sticky floral, and I say floral because oftentimes flowers, delicate flowers are extracted with this absolute process. So you're left with this sticky aromatic wax that's known as a concrete. So after you evaporate off as much as you can of that solvent, you then wash it with a solvent that's not so nasty. Most oftentimes in this process, it's ethanol. So you'll wash it in eth, ethel alcohol, and you'll be able to remove these aromatic constituents

from the wax and they're going to go in the alcohol. You then remove the alcohol and repeat the process where you're going to evaporate the alcohol away and that's going to yield your final product or a solvent extracted absolute. And so solvent extracted absolutes are beautiful for the world of perfumery. There's, you know, Rose Absolute is on the FDA list generally recognize as safe for addition into foods, for instance. And so I think that steam distilled and CO2 extracts are going to be cleaner. And if you use the right concentration, they may be a better option.

but there are practical applications for the absolutes, even in foods. I think the best, generally speaking, the best application for absolutes is botanical perfumery. So there's very beautiful, tube rose, pink lotus, blue lotus, rose absolute, jasmines of exotic species, Cassie, mimosa absolutes, all of these produce very rich, floral, extremely beautiful extracts.

And so this is what a solvent extracted absolute is. Did you have a question on that, or should I go with... Yeah, I did. I have a quick question. And so I just wanted to get your take on why you think the absolutes are, like, do you have that enhanced richness compared to the CO2 extracts, for example. So do you think it's because there's some molecules that are like fused into the lipid structure of the cells that's like you're getting that with the hexanes? Or do you think there's something else going on chemically that you're losing them in the CO2 process?

Or what's your thought on that? Is your question directly comparing the CO2 extract with the absolutes or absolutes to essential oils and CO2 extracts? Yeah, I guess I would say the absolutes compared to the other methods. Yeah. So absolutes aren't using heat and you're using a non-polar solvent. And so you're able to get some of the larger consulate. and some of the fatty constituents, which the water is not able to effectively remove from a traditional steam distillation. CO2, and I think there's pretty low polarity with the CO2, and hexane is, and other non-polar solvents may even have more of a non-polar charge.

And so I think it has to do with the heat, the pressure, the temperatures, and kind of this multiple phases of extraction of removing it into this concrete. The non-polar solvent is going to do a very potent job of removing lots of different constituents that are non-polar solvent. into the liquid, which is then going to be evaporated away to yield the concrete. So the CO2 and the absolute, they're both ridiculously beautiful and concentrated, but I would say that the absolutes are a little bit more full spectrum compared to the CO2. And that may have to do with some of the pressure that's necessary. to drive the CO2 into the plant material to get these really rich and potent. So heat and pressure both can damage to some degree aromatic constituents.

That makes a lot of sense. Thank you for sharing that. And so now let's see how the ultrasonic's play into this. I don't know much about this process. I'm curious to learn how they compare to the others and what they're kind of like the spectrum of molecules that come out during that process as well. Yeah, so the ultrasonic process that we've adopted here for our extractions in-house at

essential oil wizardry, this is a process that one of my mentors, Douglas Stewart, really helped to adapt and empower for me. trying to think of timeline. I think it's been about maybe six or seven years that we've been doing these extracts. And you're using water as a solvent, or I should say we're using water as a solvent. And we use ultrasonic frequencies. And so it's a range of frequencies that creates a high vibratory pattern. You can think of, if,

If anyone's ever seen an ultrasonic cleaner that is able to remove some of the soot from fine jewelry, this is, we're using a high-powered ultrasonic tank similar to this type of concept. Now, what the ultrasonic frequencies do at a microscale is it creates a shearing force that is able to break down the cell walls of the plant material, and it spills out the essential oils and different active constituents found inside the plant. And so we're using a polar solvent water. And so it's a nice full spectrum of the plant material. I'm imagining that we lose some of the terpenes. So it's less like an essential oil concentrate and more like a full spectrum extract. what we do is we filter out the plant material from this tea, as we like to call it.

And then we reduce the amount of water until we get a concentrated ultrasonic extract. And we use very low temperatures. And I feel that's one of the reasons why our ultrasonic tinctures are so concentrated. and potent, and you can really feel the intelligence of the plant spirit. And once we concentrate this extract, we then reconstitute it with some of the hydrosol, some structured water. We add in some water-soluble C-60 and some other different additions that we like to bring to the table to amplify the potency and the energetics of the final product, and we add in some organic alcohol to stabilize it into a final tincture formulation. And so this is our ultrasonic extraction process,

which we use to produce our ultrasonic tinctures. I experienced them as a very full spectrum, and I'm able to tap in deeper with each of these plants at a larger degree than a majority of plant tinctures that I've experienced on the market through our ultrasonic process. Yeah, I definitely can confirm there. Again, they just feel like you can sense the life force of that plant in there and then you're like taking it in and they're basically collaborating with that plant to do whatever you're doing in the world, which I think it's also a beautiful way of viewing that. like it's literally a collaboration. You're not just using or, you know, depleting that energy or that

ally, but you're actually, you know, trying to collaborate in order to do something good. And I feel like that's one way we also wouldn't be wasteful of products like this because, I mean, we didn't talk about this yet, but the amount of plant material that goes into making a small bottle of essential oil is immense, right? Yes, there's different yields associated with essential oil production And we have a reasonably small facility here in Ashland, Oregon. And one of the benefits of the ultrasonic extract is our runs are typically about a pound and a quarter to a pound and a half of plant material. The process takes us about a week. And we're able to typically produce somewhere in the vicinity of about half a liter to a liter of final tincture formulation.

And so that's a considerable return or a considerable yield compared to essential oils, which if we were doing essential oils, it might be like one to three ounces of final essential oil product. So, yeah, it's something that we're able to take local plant material and or organic or wildcrafted essential plant material from different regions of the world and create our own alchemy and house and share it with our community. Heck, yes, and we're so grateful for it. And actually, that's one thing I wanted to highlight as well that I really think adds to your products and these plants is that you're really getting the highest quality. you know, if you're wild crafting, for example, that plant is interacting with thousands and

thousands and maybe millions of other plants, fungi, organisms that are all contributing to that botanical expressing itself and its environment. And if you're, you know, using plant material from something that was maybe, I don't know, monocropped or just didn't have the, its potential actualized, basically, because it wasn't living in its evolutionary environment, then you're going to be getting a much more like unidimensional final product compared to something that's wildcrafted or organic or biodynamic, et cetera. That's absolutely true. Yeah, the energetics of the plants are, you know, I always like to look at the starting material as literally that. It's, you want the best quality plant material for what you're starting with so that you can yield the best

final product at the end of the process. And I started this company because I wanted to be taking and using all of the finest quality botanical extracts myself. And so that's what I want to share with the people around me. And I can honestly say we've tried many different brands up until finding you guys. And there's nothing else that even comes close. So I just really want people to experience this. So obviously I'm going to be like linking to everything in the show. so people can check out your page and your offerings. But before we go there, maybe we can just circle back. So I would really love to talk about maybe we can touch on some of the plant chemistry, just maybe pick one or two that could be interesting to discuss. And then we can talk about some

specific applications of some of your products that might be good for, for instance, energy or focus, but also maybe for relaxation. So I know a lot of people who are listening to the podcast are, you know, necessarily scholars, but a lot of citizen scientists and people who are, you know, very intense thinkers and learners and that they might need some support, you know, kind of tamping down at night and getting relaxed, but also get into the zone as well. So it'll be good to explore some options in those departments. But let's start with a couple of plant chemicals that you think are interesting to kind of do a mini dive into, and then we can move on to that if it sounds good for you. Okay. Essential oils tend to be really rich in monoturpenes.

And so monoturpenes are an example of this would be delimene. And there's been research, lots of in vitro research and some clinical studies, very small, using delimine for various different things. They've found that delimine has antitumor qualities. Deleimine, if you were to take it and spray it on a surface, that's really sticky. let's say tire grease, de limine just cuts through that tire grease. It's amazing for cleaning. There's likely some auto cleaning products on the market that have high concentrations of delimony. So delimine has been found to stimulate immunity. They've also looked at it for,

I'm not making this claim, but there was a study looking at treatment-resistant GERD, and its effect on a small collection of people. And I think it was used one gram internally every other day for 20 days. And it had a pretty notable reduction in symptomology for patients that were treatment resistant after they have tried the gambit. So this is the power of essential oils. They're very potent and concentrated. Now, monoturpenes tend to be lighter compounds, let's say compared to sesquiturpenes, which has 15 carbon molecules instead of the 10 carbon molecules found inside monotropines and monotropines are robust in essential oils. And there tends to be different

therapeutic components. This almost doesn't follow the general trend of some of the different categories because mercing can be relaxing or linole can be relaxing, but delimining can be energizing or uplifting. Pinene can be uplifting. So each of those four examples are examples of monotropines. Alcohols. Alcohols end in OL. So linoleol is an example of a monoturpine alcohol. And linole is found in plants such as as lavender or rosewood. If you do a distillation on either of these, it has a very high concentration of linole. And linolel tends to be calming and soothing, as do a majority of the alcohols. They have a light solvent quality, but the most general trend is going to be relaxing or soothing.

And that would be an example of a functional group classification that has general trends. There's ketone molecules found inside some essential oils. A majority of ketone molecules are assumed to be toxic and dangerous. And one of the reasons this is is because of the shape of the ketone molecules, the ketone, are able to pass the blood-brain barrier, and so it can exude expressions of toxicity. So an example of a plant that is rich in a ketone molecule, which has toxicity, is going to be wormwood. So Thugone, which is also found in Thugia, can pass a blood-brain barrier. And so ketones have beneficial properties, but if you take them internally, especially at a higher

concentration, this is where some of the risks can manifest. So beneficial expressions of ketones is they tend to be mucalytic so they can break up mucus and phlegm. They tend to be disintegrating. And so scars, scar tissues, keloids, sometimes the ketones can have a quality that starts breaking them down to reduce that tissue. And a majority of the ketones tend to have cognitive qualities that can be considered toxic, can affect the consciousness, can be, overstimulating. They can, in some cases, people can experience seizures.

And so many essential oils that are higher in ketone concentration are typically not recommended for aromatherapy or internal use. Does Vettiver have ketones? Not to my awareness. Okay. I just asked because I think I remember reading on your website about, vetiver not necessarily being great, especially like higher doses because there can be some toxicity from it? Do you remember about that? With with vetiver, I don't tend to ingest higher quantities of it.

With vetiver, it's a very thick essential oil. It's one of those that, one of the few, I should say, that when you distill, it would end up below the water because it has a higher density. And vetiver, it's very calming and soothing, and it's richer in some of these heavier sesquiterpine molecules. And so, sesquiturpenes, generally speaking, tend to have more anti-inflammatory qualities. And some sesquiturpenes, such as bisopal or chamezol, specifically, chamezul. can be anti-inflammatory. And so Vetterver really contains a multitude of different aromatic

constituents. And the overall trend of this is it's very calming, it's very soothing. And so if one was to ingest a larger amount of this, it might slow down the brain. What I find when I apply Vetteropically, one of my favorite ways is massaging the vetiver onto the bottom of my feet. Within about five minutes, I feel more

within my physical body. So it maybe drops me out of my head and thinking. And I become more calm, relaxed, and focused. And I feel more physically here. I love that. And I always laugh when wherever we're using the vetiver here, we always talk about it as a spiritual process because you just are sitting there waiting for like a drop to come out for a little bit. And I don't. But it's beautiful because it's already, like, before you even use it, it's already making you more present and, like, hear with it. I love that you reflect that with your friends because what I tell people is Vetterbeer teaches patience. And it takes about 30 seconds for a drop, the first drop to fall out usually. Yes, exactly.

But it's well worth it. My partner loves using it as like a, like a cologne just because he loves the smell of it. And it's just very grounding and earthy. and it's a very buttery smell too. It's just very enjoyable. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's a, it comes from, a vertebra comes from the roots. And so it's, it's that earthy root medicine, which I feel like generally speaking in American culture, we don't have that many, we don't have that many root medicines that we tend to work with very often. You know, different roots that I've been exploring over the past few years,

Makar root, Tongkat Ali, Kakanga root. I find that the roots oftentimes are very, very physical. Ashwaganda is another example of a root. And I feel the roots in the physical body. And so there again, we're talking about Vettiver, which is a root, and it's very physically grounding, puts you in your body, or it builds physical strength, some of these other roots. So it's interesting to also perceive plants from how they grow and project that to how it affects the nervous system. Yeah. And speaking of root medicine,

and it's lack of use in the West, I think it's particularly interesting because I feel like among all of the areas that we need to focus on in the West, it would probably be the root. because, I mean, I'm just thinking it from a financial standpoint. We know that like financial insecurity is manifested at the level of the root chakra and just the massive debt that so many people are in for a variety of reasons. And like that weakness in the root chakra just creating such insecurity and ultimately just like an instability in the energy field of the body too. So I think the root medicines can be such an ally there.

And I also want to make sure that we touch on like your root chakra set because I'm absolutely obsessed with that set and I want people to learn a little bit about it. but I wanted to circle back briefly to you mentioned about Wormwood because I know wormwood's often used in an anti-parasitic context, yeah, which makes sense if you're talking about it, like disintegrating and breaking down. And so I could imagine working that way also within the gut for people who have parasites. Yeah, Wormwood is definitely powerful. I haven't used the essential oil of Wormwood, though I have worked with Wormwood whole plants

in my physical vessel. And it does feel like it stimulates immunity, maybe breaks down, you know, worms, parasites. And I often don't feel great after wormwood, you know, a little bit of a Herc's reaction kind of thing. But if I drink plenty of fluid and work on a protocol with wormwood, it's a powerful plant ally. And so, you know, there's certain essential oils which are not oftentimes used in aromatherapy because some of their constituents are really high that you're wanting to avoid it. It could be toxic. Like horseradish essential oil, for instance, is it's not used in aromatherapy. And I've never actually purchased it because it can have some toxicity associated with it. And mustard seed would be another one of those examples. And so

it's important to know that different expressions of a plant may vary from therapeutic to almost too therapeutic that it causes toxicity and it should be avoided. That makes sense, honestly, because things like horseradish and mustard are already so pungent in their whole food form. You can imagine like concentrating that down 100,000 fold is going to be very, very potent and pungent. And that's actually a really interesting point too, because sometimes, you know, the plant compounds are already at such a concentrated level that you don't necessarily need to take them in the essential oil form or even in a tincture form that you can use whole foods and whole herbs as well to use them as medicine, too.

Yeah. One thing, one book I want to show you, you and your listeners might be interested in if you want to nerd out about the chemistry of essential oils. This is one of the best books I found. It's called the chemistry of aromatherapeutic oils. It's by E. Joy Bowles. And it's a phenomenal book that approaches. and demonstrates different types of trends between functional groups and explains a lot of perspectives about the individual constituents of essential oils and the hows and the whys. And I find it a fascinating read. Oh, thank you so much for sharing that. I'm definitely going to be purchasing that one as we're really endeavoring over here in our home to work more with plants and botanicals in general. And so I think, you know, this knowledge will be invaluable as we're trying to

enter into the space gradually just for our own personal use, but ultimately, you know, I have some ideas about like products that I'd love to develop in the future. So I think that's, that's going to be a great resource. Thank you so much for sharing that. Let's circle back to the chakra formula briefly and then maybe we can, or the chakra set rather, and then we can talk about some of the cognitive boosters and maybe some like helping with sleep or relaxation after that. that sounds fantastic Alexis and can you give me 90 seconds to grab um my my my uh my computer is ready for another charge since we've been going oh a time and no worries take your time i'll be right back all right thank you for your patience of course no problem um yeah so let's if you're ready let's

dive into the chakra set and how you kind of went about formulating those, the thoughts behind it, and then we can go ahead and talk about some allies for mental health support or like mood and energy and also for like sleep and relaxation too. Fantastic. So our divine align chakra set was a collaboration with a friend Michael Brian Baker about a decade ago. And I was hired to help him to anchor in and develop a chakra set that he was going to use in practice. And we chose to collaborate on the blend and each of us offer it in our practices. And so the inspiration really came through each of us. And Michael had a lot of great input. And from his input, I was able to intuitively guide the process, add in different things that would soften or balance or potentiate the overall formulation.

One of my gifts and joys in this planet is to be able to interpret someone else's vision of what they want to express through the botanical realms and develop custom. blends. That could be therapeutic in nature or used as a botanical perfume that they wear to invoke different physical, mental, or emotional effects. And so the chakra set was one of my earlier collaborations with essential oil wizardry. And at that time, I used a little bit more of my mind than how I intuitively create now. So as I've evolved over the past decade plus working with the oils, I have, I typically am very intuitive now. And the oils tell me which want to go in different formulations. And I do this through muscle testing. And then I typically, I'm able to reverse engineer why something's in a formula. If someone says, oh, why did you add this thing? I say, oh, well, I added eucalyptus in so that it opens up the lungs and it helps to support grief. And so I can reverse engineer the whys. But it's really an intuitive process for me at this point. In my earlier days, formulations like in vigor, Violet Chil,

respire, I used a lot more of my analytical intelligence. And so knowing the therapeutic constituents found inside the vast world of essential oils, it gave me a bigger picture of what the therapeutic effects were associated with individual essential oils. And then I would blend them together so that the flavor, the taste, the taste, the overall feeling and experience elicited one that was aromatically pleasant and yielded the therapeutic or energetic qualities that I wanted to craft. And so in regards to the chakra set, we tapped into different oils and plants that were supportive of those energies that

wanted to invoke the themes or ideas around each of the chakras. So, for instance, the root chakra blend, which is very grounding, it puts a person into their physical body, it relaxes the nervous system. That's a combination of CO2 extracted myrrh, Himalayan Cedar, Spiknard Vetterver, and CO2 extracted divana. And the root chakra is, as you are describing earlier. It's that foundation. And if we don't have that foundation and we're not feeling safe, then it's difficult for us to express our higher gifts to humanity. And we're concerned about our own personal safety. And so we wanted to help to ground a person into their body, soften their nervous system so that they can take action in a calm and ground.

way. So you can you can extrapolate those creations all the way up the chakra centers on how and why everything came to be in the way that it did. And it was both an intuitive journey. It was slightly analytical journey. And it was a journey led by my friend Michael who had a fair idea of what he wanted to create already. And I just have that gift of pulling it out and making it happen and adding my little magical flare to it. I love that so much. And we use them every time we're having any sort of like, whether it's medicine ceremony or just like an intimate evening together, we love to have this experience where we're each anointing each other with each chakra oil up all the chakras and just such a beautiful way to connect with, oh, are you okay?

up water went down the wrong pipe. Oh no. Yeah, but it's just such a beautiful way to connect with a beloved. And I also find that it's super interesting. Sorry, I don't want, I don't want you to die over there. Are you good? Oh, I feel great. Okay, good. I just think it's a beautiful way to connect with your loved one. And also, I think it's really interesting how I've noticed that people, whenever I show these oils to friends or, family people tend to self-select the like their favorite of the chakra set out of kind of like what they need support in their life so like personally i gravitate towards the uh solar plexus oil so much like it's just like whenever i smell it i can just like feel my energy rise and i just love it and i definitely i have a history of ibs and like disordered eating and i feel like i just probably need a little bit of

energetic support in that chakra and it's so hopeful in that way so they can just be not only it's not only a pleasant experience, but it can actually be very supportive for a healing journey, too, in my experience. Thanks for reflecting that. Yeah, it does seem like when we have an awareness around our body, and sometimes even when we aren't really sensitive to our own body signals, we tend to gravitate towards the things that would support us the most with our oils. I have noticed that trend and receive those reports as well. Yeah, and actually tying it back to something you said earlier where you said that cannabis doesn't really necessarily jive with your system that well. And I've also had similar experiences, but I think it's also interesting to think about how people self-select

substances or plants or drugs or whatever it is that kind of are supporting them in an area where they have a deficit in some way. And then like, I think some of the more Eastern traditions will even, because in my herbalism studies, they're talking about how people will self-select things that will help support them in areas where they are in need. And if you know that information as a practitioner, that can actually give you insight into what's going on within their energy systems, within their body. So I think it's really interesting that people can just kind of survey.

Like, if you go into the meta and look, you know, look at yourself from above, so to speak, you can kind of view what you're up to and use that as information to kind of better understand yourself and where you might need additional support, maybe in ways that are more healthy. If instead you're leaning more towards like on an addiction to a substance, maybe you can find other ways to support those needs.

Because I think ultimately the body has a need or a deficit and it needs support in that area. But if we leave it to ourselves unconsciously to deal with that, then it could lead more into vices versus actually finding solutions. That's right. Yeah, you know, all of these tools, these various plant medicines or these essential oils,

or these pharmaceutical drugs or these modalities, you know, all of these, all of these are tools. And if we utilize them with healthy relationship, with a conscientiousness to grow, to evolve, to become better, to express ourselves as the best version of ourself, they are all tools. And sometimes tools come in a cyclical, wave of this is being supportive and the supportiveness of this tool has run its course and now I'm

just abusing it. And I've noticed that relationship over several cycles of my life with various different plant allies or teachers or medicines or drugs or whatever I was experimenting with at various times in my life. And I think, I think. think as long as we integrate these tools as lessons and we're really honest with ourselves and we listen to the feedback from the people around us as well that if something's doing a net harm, it may not be supporting us. And that might be something that we want to re-evaluate. If something is supporting our overall direction, but maybe it's a, maybe it's partying with Kava often or cannabis or maybe people are having insights with mushrooms or whatever it may be.

You know, is it benefiting the individual? And I think there's times in life where there's these natural waves where something may be supportive and at the time when it's not a net support, just to be honest with ourselves, I think develops a healthy relationship and balance with bringing exogenous things into our physiology. Absolutely. And it really does require honesty and like check-ins frequently because something that is supportive at one time, you know, a week, two weeks, two months, a year from now may not be anymore. And so we need to be constantly checking in with our bodies and ourselves to make sure that what we're up to is actually, you know, something that's supporting us and the people around us and that it's not causing a net harm. there's definitely a time in place. Like you said, for these different tools and modalities, they can be super helpful. But there is, I would say, a fine line between use and abuse or like collaborating or, you know, just exploiting whatever kind of tools, modalities, plants, whatever they are in our lives. So I think that's a really important piece of advice that people can go away with. But on that note, I would really like to talk about plants that we can collaborate with in a healthy way. that we'll support, let's start with like mood and or like energy levels or focus, and then

maybe we can talk about ones that are good for sleep and relaxation as well. Okay, great. Well, one of my favorite little energy boosts is our InVigor formulation. So InVigor is a combination of Carraway, cardamomom, sweet basil, two types of rosemary, peppermint, silver, fir, and frankincense infused in fractionated coconut oil enhanced with some ormus. So what I like to do with InVigor is take maybe two to three drops in the hands, rub the hands together, and take three deep inhalations in through the nose and mouth. And then what I'll do is I'll massage it into my scalp. I typically will rub it in with my nails, give myself a nice healthy scalp massage.

And it's peppy. It's, it's, um, a nice little break that's instantaneous, or I should say 30, 30 seconds to a minute. And it really resets my, my nervous system and my focus. And so if I'm, um, creating and generating in the morning and I need a, a quick little afternoon, afternoon reset, invigor is a great ally to keep by my computer or workstation. I love that. Actually, so Rosemary has been an amazing ally for me. It's something that really like jives with my biochemistry for whatever reason, but I'm using a formula for my friend, Olivia.

She like makes organic Olivia products, but her focus blend has Rosemary, go to cola, Ginko, and it's beautiful. Like Rosemary internally, I imagine it also on externally on your scalp stimulates blood flow as well. So it really helps to just kind of get some juices flowing to the brain and just help with clarity. And so I can totally vouch for that. I don't think I've actually used in vigor though.

So we're going to have to try that one. I really want. Sounds beautiful. Beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. I'm glad that you have new friends to look forward to. Yes, I do.

I was just mentioning before our podcast, but for the listeners, I have some of our amazing allies back here from Dr. Nick. But there's still some that I haven't tried, apparently. have to get on that. So in regards to memory focus, kind of stimulating my cognitive function, some of the allies that I enjoy working with are, it could be any of these. They all have their own nuances, but are ultrasonic Lions main tincture,

our ultrasonic Kinkobaloba tincture, or are ultrasonic go-to-cola tincture. are all really helpful for supporting cognitive function. I find that the Lionsman tincture that we produce, and a lot of people have put reviews on our website, affirming this is really the strongest and most powerful Lionsmane that I've ever experienced, where I actually take it and I feel something. I feel more cognitive coherence and just awake.

And I feel like the ginkobeloba and or go to cola seem to stimulate different parts of the brain alongside of the lion's mane tincture. And so I find that to be a really nice synergy if I'm looking to switch my brain on. I love that. That's beautiful. I'm a big fan of Lionsman. I use it a lot in my practice, but also just personally, it also is another one that really works with my body and I notice it. I actually recently found like a beverage that's infused with lines main extract. But I'm curious for your ultrasonic tincture, is the fruiting body and the mycelium or is it both? It's both. Amazing. So most products don't have both and it's like something that bugs me because I know the science is really clear that there's actives in both parts of the mushroom that

need to kind of be consumed in order to get the maximum benefits. So that's incredible that you're doing both and really putting out an incredible product, which another one. I don't know if I've tried, so I've got to get on that. Yeah. And that one is our most recent batches over the past few years have been grown organically locally. So it's really great. That's a locally produced product as well. Beautiful. I love that so much. Definitely going to be a good one for, I think, the listeners here, anybody who's interested in just supporting their brain health, but also, you know, being able to focus and get some energy that it's in a more like, just like a gentler way than something that's like a very harsh stimulant. For example, I think there's lots of ways we can

support our functioning from a cognitive standpoint in ways that don't require us to deplete ourselves. So I think these are incredible tools for that. Yeah, as a reflection of what you just said, Alexis, I just took the lion's mane tincture maybe about two minutes ago. And I'm feeling a little bit more switched on in kind of the front of my brain. I'm just feeling a little bit more heat, a little bit more fire, focus attention. And what I want to advocate for each of these that I've described so far, that's unique. is these are different than caffeine. You're not receiving the same physiological stimulation that's exciting your neurotransmitters and calibrating your body to an excited state.

The invigor is it's mild pep and refreshment and just brings you to the here and now. And these other tinctures feel like they support different. parts of your brain to activate them so you're functioning more at par. They're not going to increase or stimulate your energy per se. They're going to maximize your available resources so that you're being your 100%. I love that. And for the tinctures, do you let them absorb under your tongue or do you just take it orally without letting it like sit in the mouth? What we find is, in our experience, is there's the best absorption and effects if we hold under the tongue for about 30 seconds to a minute, and then we swallow. Some people also enjoy putting the half

a dropper to a dropper full into a cup of water, which can be drank cool and or added to their warm pots of tea to elicit even more of a response. That's beautiful. And definitely very different from caffeine. I think caffeine has a time and place, but I think coffee in general, like I have assorted pass with coffee and I think it's probably the, I would say obviously in our culture, it's probably the most normalized drug. And people don't consider it that way.

And I think that's a disservice because it's quite a powerful drug in a lot of ways. it's highly addictive. And the first time I stopped drinking coffee was like two years, two and a half years ago now. And I probably had it every day for like a decade before that. And I was withdrawing for a month and a half from that coffee, even though I literally weaned off onto decaf and macha. And still it was a good six weeks before I felt back to like normal energy levels. So it's just, you know, a testament not only to like the effects of long-term coffee use.

And if you kind of the dependency you develop on those. But also to the resilience of the body that, like, in six weeks, I felt back to, like, a baseline normal after kind of abusing coffee for a decade. So, I mean, that's not that long in the grand scheme of things. So body is amazing in that way. And I mean, I was also only drinking, like, one or two cups of coffee a day. And some people are drinking coffee all day long. So I think it can be a real problem in some people's lives, especially if they deal with anxiety and any sort of just, like, nervous system dysregulation. Stimulant use is just like a huge. contributor to that that's not really talked about in the mental health space.

Caffeine is not my medicine. Yeah, it's pretty harsh because it's also kind of tricking your body into thinking that you're less tired than you are versus just like you were saying earlier, supporting your natural resources and your in your vessel and getting those on board versus kind of just like blocking the receptors to tell you if you're fatigued. And then when they wear off, then it's like you're below the baseline that you were initially at. So it needs to be used, I would say, consciously. Indeed. Yeah, my general preference and trend is I like working with substances, plants, allies that are going to leave me higher than where

I started. I think that's a beautiful approach to working with these plants. And actually, so on that note, maybe some people who are using coffee or caffeine or other stimulants and, you know, not necessarily, as a crutch to make them feel less burnt out from them, but things that they can use to support their nervous system and being more relaxed and calming down and getting better sleep, do you have some examples of products that would be good in that context? I have a collection of things that are softening to the nervous system can really help slow down an overactive mind, relax a nervous system. I guess I'll share a few of them. Our root chakra blend. I had shared that it's really good for getting into the physical body. I find that this

one is mild in terms of reducing the stimulation to the mind. Some stronger ones that we have would be our Violet Chill formulation. That's a good medium of the road one. What I like about Violet Chill is it takes the edge off, but you can still function. I don't find myself to be. I don't find myself to be. be groggy or tired with Violet Chill, but if I'm overly stressed and not performing to my maximum because I'm feeling anxiety or stress, I find that it takes the edge off, it relaxes my nervous system so I can receive the information and move forward with my day. The Violet Chill is a really popular blend. It's lavender, cedar, frankincense, mure, and helicrism. Beautiful.

And how do you recommend using that? Massaging it into the bottom of the feet for about five to ten seconds and let them sit on the feet. Maybe sit in a chair, relax, or apply it in your bed and give it about five to 15 minutes before you put on your socks and go about your day. And what I find is within about five to ten minutes, I just notice this soft. softening of my brain activity. You can also put a few drops below the nose. That works reasonably well. And it's also wonderful topically for bug bites, burns, inflammation. And yeah, as I mentioned, great for stress. Oh, that's great. I mean, I think we can all kind of think of think of inflammation as just like an agitation at the physical level. So if your nervous system also feels agitated, it makes

sense that this blend would also work really well for anxiety or any sort of just a state of dysregulation that you need to kind of take it down a couple levels. So when you're applying it to your feet, is it absorbing into your bloodstream that way? Or what is what is the like the efficacy of that root of application? Yeah. So the aromatic molecules are small enough that the they could pass through the pores and the bottom of the feet. They tend to enter. And, the bloodstream in about five to 15 minutes. Some of the larger constituents may take longer than that, but as a general rule of thumb, about five to 15 minutes. So I like to give myself a foot massage, do some self-care with these oils, and it's a great way of internalizing without orally ingesting

the essential oils. That's beautiful. Do you guys have any passion flower products? I don't remember off top of my head. We do have an ultrasonic extracted passion tincture, passion flower tincture, and what I notice with passion flower, it's the vibration that if I'm feeling stress or anxiety, it kind of cuts it. And so I don't feel overly augmented in terms of feeling more relaxed or feeling more focused. I just feel like it removes some of the dysregulation when I'm feeling it.

That's how I experience our tincture, which is great. I love that. I reach for it a lot in my practice for anybody who has issues with like looping thoughts or just like really ruminating. It seems to work incredibly well in that context. And I've also experienced that myself. Sometimes there will be some nights where I'm laying in bed and I just literally like, maybe it's a song that can't get out of my head or just some looping thaw.

The passion flower is really amazing ally for just helping to calm that and get you just kind of back into a more like baseline relaxed state which can help with sleep but also during the day it's not necessarily going to make you tired which is nice it can be used during the day too to help sort of anxiety which is great uh that's a great share um with one thing some of the things that i suggest for people if they have overactive thoughts during the evening. Some of my stronger formulations that I like using before bed are our moon cycle blend and or our kava chill formulation. So they have similar ingredients. The kava chill is a tincture formulation with CO2 extracted kava kava root in conjunction with the other seven essential oils.

and each of those I find really help to slow down an overactive mind, relax and nervous system. I feel like there's a little bit more of a body slowness and relaxation with the Kava chill. It's a great formulation. I don't recommend either of those two formulations for women that are pregnant. There are some essential oils which have a question. amount of if they'll throw off the hormones or cause a premature abortion. And so I just, I just have a blanket of don't use those two formulas if you're pregnant. But they're really great allies. The moon cycle, I've had a lot of women who have shared with me that after not

having a regular cycle between one year and 10 years. I've had numerous women over the past decade plus come to me and say after using moon cycle daily twice a day that they restarted their cycle. And so it's a really powerful piece of feedback that I've received. I hear, I've been told it's not as helpful for women that are post menopause. for hormone regulation. But I have heard some amazing miracle stories with our moon cycle blend. I love that. That's a great tip that people can look for. I mean, hormone dysregulation and irregular cycles are just all too common today. So that's going to be a great tool that people can

potentially reach for. I had a similar experience with, from Bear blends, their moon lodge. When I first got off the pill in 2018, I used that moon lodge. And I had a normal cycle within a month. I mean, It's hard to say if I would have anyways, but I felt a significant difference, like a shift in my body when I started using it, which I'm not sure about the ingredients in that one. I wonder if there's overlap, actually, with your product. I'll have to check because I think we have both of those still. So it's really interesting, though. And I mean, plants can be such incredible supporters of just regulating our physiology and getting us back into like a normal rhythm because our body really does rely on like the cycles of nature. And we're so disconnected from nature cycles today that it's really.

great that any way that we can support that within our physiology and the plants can be such great teachers and supporters in that way. Yeah, I love that you're framing all of that in that way as well. One of the things that I've noticed is in working with these plants in different dosage forms, be it tinctures, essential oils, applying them topically, inhaling them, ingesting them, What I have noticed over the past decade plus of working with all of these with a high focus is I've become more attuned with my body. And there's this allyship. And I feel like I'm not reaching for something to mask a symptom. It's more a broadening relationship and a fine-tuning of my own physiology that I have these tools.

that if my body is not balanced, I have the right tool that can help me get back into balance and or I can enjoy it with friends or share it for a social experience or any assortment of intention. So my apothecary is one that is able to not only support my own being when I'm not not feeling my optimal, but it's also able to entrain me to a higher baseline and teach me how to have a better balance with myself. It's able to show me a higher baseline for what I'm able to tap into and adopt the baseline, whether I use the botanical allies or not. I love that so much. And I think intention is just everything with anything that we're doing in our lives. And if you can bring your conscious awareness to every experience you're engaging in or as much as you can.

It just creates a much more magical and beautiful existence in my experience. And it's also really fun to think about it when we're using any of these products or engaging with any of these herbal allies that you're kind of inviting the consciousness of that plant or botanical into your body. And then it's expressing itself through you, which makes it fun to think about. It's not just like chemicals interacting with receptors, creating an effect, but it's like the spirit of that plan is expressing itself through your body and how magical it is to think about it that way just really creates kind of a different experience as well.

I love that. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, we've been going for a while. We could probably go for another two hours, but I want to be very conscious of your time. But please, before we depart, can you just share where people can find you and the different ways that people can work with you? for example, your wizard alchemy club, let's hear a little bit about that and ways that people can

kind of be in your world and share with you. Okay. We're most active on social media through Instagram these days and you can reach us through our website at essential oil wizardry.com. We have an assortment of over 300 different botanical allies, everything from Peeleazardry. essential oils, CO2 extracts, floral absolutes, ultrasonic extract tinctures. We have ceremonial blends, botanical perfumes, ceremonial formulations, and therapeutic blends. So we have a whole assortment and array of different allies to support your nervous system, your emotional evolution, and support your spiritual development as well. In terms of how to adapt and relate and learn together,

what Dr. Alexis was just sharing was we offer an alchemy club. And this alchemy club is a curated package with education every month and an assortment of between one and four different formulations. It can include a tincture, a pure essential oil, a wizard alchemy blend, and a botanical perfume. And it's a great way to step outside your comfort zone and learn a broad spectrum of different plants that can be used in different formulations, different ways. and the intention behind it, and I've received a lot of good feedback about this in this way, is that it empowers people to step outside of their comfort zone and learn how to adapt with different plants,

and it teaches them to develop a relationship. And so it's a self-committed agreement that you get to learn and grow and adapt. adapt with different botanical buddies every month. And so Dr. Alexis has been a part of our alchemy club for, it's been a few years, I believe. How long has it been? Do you know? Gosh, so we were, initially when you, I think, first launched a program, we were involved for a while and we took a hiatus and now we've been back for a few months. And it's honestly like Christmas every time we get our package because we don't know what to expect. And then oftentimes it's products we haven't tried yet. So it's just like, oh, like, this is so fun. We get to read about, you know, what the

classical uses of them are, what, what to expect with regards to effects, like how we, how we might feel our bodies responding to the oils or to the tinctures or whatever the product is. And then we get to try it out and we get to compare notes like me and my partner will be like, oh, I feel, I'm feeling like this. And then he'll share his experience. And so this is really fun, like, just a really fun way to experience these products, I think, in addition to just, you know, going onto the website and finding ones that speak to you, having just these surprises coming every month gives you something to look forward to and really, like Dr. Nick said, expands your, expands you out of your comfort zone so that you're trying new things that you maybe wouldn't necessarily have picked yourself,

but now you can experience them and you might find a new favorite. Honestly, we are constantly impressed and surprised by what's coming. And it's just a really, really fun experience. No, thank you. I'm glad it's been a positive experience for you. Yeah, it absolutely has. If I remember correctly, you guys had a retreat last year. Is that going to be a recurring thing? Yeah. So in regards to 2024, some of the different ways we're excited to engage with our audience is we are intending to have one to two botanical retreats this year, likely in the spring or fly. We're excited to be. We're fall. That's the nicest time of the year to come up to our enchanted dome in Ashland, Oregon, which is a really beautiful 4,000 square foot dome built out of cedar. And we have all the tools and

gadgets, all types of different healing technologies and botanical allies. And it's really, a special experience for me to be able to share all the wisdom that I've been accumulating through experience one-on-one with people. I'm also really calling in working with more healers that have vast networks that can amplify the impact that my work has on the earth at this time. And so I may choose to do a training with people that are excited to share essential oil wizardry botanicals on a deeper level to go through the house and the deeper dive, if you will. So, yeah, I would expect a botanical retreat in the Enchanted Dome this year. I'm also really inspired to work with other brands and businesses that are excited to bring an essential oil product into their network. And collaboration is what 2024 feels like for me.

And so by utilizing my gifts to amplify other people's visions into a botanically based therapeutic product that can support people's audiences feels like something that's bringing me joy and amplifying my impact. So custom blends. And also we offer personalized consultations, which are not only focused on the essential oils, blends, extracts that we produce here in-house, but a wide array of everything that I'm into, be it different healing tools, free techniques that you can do, medicines that expand outside of the botanical range. Like for instance, I have my colloidal silver, colloidal gold and a nebulizer over here. I'm just into all the trinkets and things that can amplify a person's well-being. and so we offer personal consultations as well.

And so those are the best ways to engage with me. Amazing. There's so much variety and different points, like price points too, that people can get involved in your world. And if you don't, you know, if you as a listener, you don't have a lot of money to spend. There's plenty of, like, honestly, like pretty low price points that you could engage with Dr. Nick on his website.

That honestly, it's well, well worth every single. penny. We have spent thousands of dollars on essential oil wizardry products and we have zero regrets and we're going to continue to do so because they're just elevating our life and our experiences and helping us build community and get other people excited about working with plants and experiencing plants and botanicals too. So I think it's a wonderful world and it's a very magical world to be involved in and I think it can be really consciousness expanding and community building and so many good things. But Dr. Nick, thank you so much. much for coming on the show. I loved having you on. Ever since I first heard you talk on Paul's

podcast years ago, I knew that one day we would have to chat, and it's finally happened, and I'm so happy about that, and hopefully we can do more chats in the future. And I just want to thank you so much for your time and for who you are and what you're bringing to the world. It's just very beautiful. Oh, thank you, Dr. Alexis. I appreciate you, and congratulations on being done with school and making an impact. Thank you. It feels good. It feels great. Thank you so much. I hope you guys enjoyed this podcast.

Like it, share it. I'm going to link to all of the different products and services that we mentioned here, including the book and Dr. Nick's website and Instagram so you can check him out. I have an affiliate code with them as well, so I'll include that in the show notes. And other than that, go check out his amazing work. Let us know what you think. And have a great day.

Bye, everyone. Bye.