Speaker 1: Welcome to Destiny. Now here's your host, Cliff Dunning.
Speaker 2: Hey, how you doing. I hope you're doing well today.
Speaker 2: Come on in, let's talk. Hey. I talk about and
Speaker 2: present data and information on energy healing. I am a
Speaker 2: reiki teacher. I have been for over twenty years. I
Speaker 2: don't teach anymore. I use it on friends and myself
Speaker 2: for the most part. And I have been focusing on
Speaker 2: and this has been going on for god thirty years,
Speaker 2: focusing on the pyramid tech that the Maya has developed,
Speaker 2: probably related to a mother culture. We can identify it
Speaker 2: perhaps as Lemoria or Atlantis, or even a previous epoch
Speaker 2: where earth energy, gravity, tolleric fields whatever were developed and
Speaker 2: utilized over what we use today, which is very very
Speaker 2: toxic nuclear energy and other forms of well, I mean,
Speaker 2: you know, thermonuclear kind of stuff, pretty toxic. But it
Speaker 2: seems to me that this dialogue, these programs are falling
Speaker 2: in line with a growing understanding that we are energetic beings.
Speaker 2: Now I get acupuncture once a month, and these are
Speaker 2: needles that go into what they call the Meridian, the
Speaker 2: bodies energy super Highway. But we've presented the fact that
Speaker 2: the Earth, our planet, has its own super highway known
Speaker 2: as ley lines or earth meridians that crisscross in specific areas.
Speaker 2: And what's a fascinating notion is that places like the
Speaker 2: Giza Plateau where the great Pyramids are, TiO Tiva Kan
Speaker 2: and Mexico and a variety of other locations that are
Speaker 2: spread out also sit on top of lay lines. And
Speaker 2: how they how they our ancestors understood this is really
Speaker 2: the question. Did they naturally seek out these locations in
Speaker 2: place their pyramids and temples and buildings on top of them.
Speaker 2: Were they aware? It does appear that they were aware
Speaker 2: of these signatures, these energetic signatures that bubbled up from
Speaker 2: the ground and were captured in the body of pyramids,
Speaker 2: transmuted and enhanced in certain ways, and then distributed. Now
Speaker 2: we don't know exactly how they were distributed. If we
Speaker 2: look to more modern scientists, people like Nikolai Tesla, he
Speaker 2: seemed to understand that this natural rhythmatic earth energy could
Speaker 2: be tapped and he had plans to do this and
Speaker 2: provide free energy. His Wardencliffe Tower, which was built in
Speaker 2: New York that never got off the ground, was a
Speaker 2: capture device and trans transmutation device which would provide free
Speaker 2: energy to provide to power cars, submarines, airplanes, and who
Speaker 2: knows what else could be powered by this stef And
Speaker 2: this is and of course the story goes it was
Speaker 2: shut down because his investors didn't want to have free energy.
Speaker 2: They wanted a Westinghouse, who was one of his big investors,
Speaker 2: discovered this and he thought, I can't make any money
Speaker 2: if we pump out free energy. So he was that
Speaker 2: Warncliffe machine. That generating tower was shut down. But when
Speaker 2: we begin looking at nature from an energetic point of view,
Speaker 2: and we devise and we have technology that can capture
Speaker 2: like chakras and have devices that can actually see the energy,
Speaker 2: then we can begin understanding how important it is to
Speaker 2: stay well, to make sure that our environment is not polluted,
Speaker 2: that we don't cut down all the trees, because are
Speaker 2: huge trees. Our forests are the lungs of our world.
Speaker 2: So this is all critical stuff and it's important to
Speaker 2: be aware of energy. So my whole thing is that
Speaker 2: I think that our and we hear this from people
Speaker 2: like Christopher Dunn, We hear it from a lot of people.
Speaker 2: We heard it a little bit recently from Scott Walter
Speaker 2: that the Templars found technology and also Michael's John Michael
Speaker 2: Greer in his interview discovered that the earlier civilizations developed
Speaker 2: temples that not only captured earth ancient earth energy, but
Speaker 2: also distributed it in crops in animal husbandry, so you
Speaker 2: had healthy animals and also the humans who are interacted
Speaker 2: with those temples and places of residence. Which makes us think,
Speaker 2: and we've talked a little bit about this, that the
Speaker 2: earlier epochs, earlier civilizations that we really don't know about prehistory,
Speaker 2: perhaps the late Dynatic, early Dynastics and early civilizations understood it,
Speaker 2: but they were aware of the importance of tu lurk energy,
Speaker 2: the emissions that come from the Earth, and they built
Speaker 2: their dwellings on top of these places. Now, doctor Lydia
Speaker 2: de Leong has been very forthright about standing in rooms
Speaker 2: that are pumping this energy out and the fact that
Speaker 2: you shouldn't stay more than an hour or two or
Speaker 2: otherwise it becomes a problem. And it's funny she said
Speaker 2: that because I've been to Egypt at the Hathorp Temple,
Speaker 2: and that Hathorp Temple sits on a some kind of
Speaker 2: an energy filled and if you stand in certain of
Speaker 2: these smaller rooms too long makes it throws you off.
Speaker 2: It throws your equilibrium off, which means that there's some
Speaker 2: form of energy emission coming out of those floors. That
Speaker 2: is pretty strong stuff. Now, I want to remind you
Speaker 2: that we do have a tour coming up in December.
Speaker 2: It's our Guatemala to Our Sacred Pyramid Tour December first
Speaker 2: through the twelfth, and doctor Lydia will be with us.
Speaker 2: And unlike Mexico where you can't really climb pyramids anymore,
Speaker 2: in Guatemala, we get to climb not only the Lost
Speaker 2: World Pyramid at t Call, but the whole trip is
Speaker 2: about energy and we're about half full. If you want
Speaker 2: more information on that tour, go to Earth Ancients dot
Speaker 2: com forward slash Tours check that out. Because not only
Speaker 2: are we going to be in t Call, northern Guatemala,
Speaker 2: we're actually going to get a chance to go to
Speaker 2: Almador perhaps see doctor Richard Hanson and climb those pyramids
Speaker 2: as well. And those are very very active pyramids. So
Speaker 2: we are going to do what our ancestors did, which
Speaker 2: is not only interact with pyramids, but climb them, meditate
Speaker 2: with them, and intent on healing, on prosperity and on willness.
Speaker 2: As our forefathers, as our ancestors did thousands and thousands
Speaker 2: of years ago. So today our program is on interacting
Speaker 2: with nature and the program is called Sacred Forest Bathing
Speaker 2: the Healing Power of Ancient Trees and wild Places. And
Speaker 2: my guest is author Ellen D. Davidson, and listen closely
Speaker 2: to her interactions with not only trees, but with the
Speaker 2: force in general and how powerful the healing can be
Speaker 2: of body, mind, in spirit Earth. Ancients does a number
Speaker 2: of tours every year and it's really important to have
Speaker 2: a really good camera. I just found the Insta three
Speaker 2: sixty x five recently, and I gotta tell you it
Speaker 2: is an outstanding camera. It is an artificial intelligence camera,
Speaker 2: which means that automatically can adjust to the tones either
Speaker 2: day or evening. It has a huge battery, one of
Speaker 2: the best image quality you've ever seen, and you can
Speaker 2: edit on the fly. I mean you quick edit mode
Speaker 2: where you can actually edit while you're standing there, and
Speaker 2: for a limited time, they'll throw in a selfie stick
Speaker 2: if you're one of the first thirty people who purchase
Speaker 2: the standard package. Go to store dot Insta three sixty
Speaker 2: dot com and punch in Ancients and you'll qualify for
Speaker 2: that that selfie stick, which is worth twenty five bucks. Again,
Speaker 2: it's store dot Insta three sixty dot com. Use the
Speaker 2: word Ancients and you'll get that deal. This is an
Speaker 2: outstanding camera. Hold it in the palm of your hand.
Speaker 2: It's waterproof and it is a great camera. Check it
Speaker 2: out the Insta three sixty x five. I'm really lucky
Speaker 2: to live in northern California, and I say this all
Speaker 2: the time. We're close to the Great Sequoiah Redwoods. I'm
Speaker 2: close to John Muir Park, which is in Marin County.
Speaker 2: I'm over here in the Berkeley across the bay from
Speaker 2: San Francisco area, and I think we're blessed not only
Speaker 2: for the environment, but it's just a sacred place. And
Speaker 2: I'm always talking about getting out and being one with nature.
Speaker 2: And today's program is something that kind of unique, and
Speaker 2: I think I've hinted on it but haven't really talked
Speaker 2: about it, which is called Forest Bathing. And the book
Speaker 2: we're talking about today is called Sacred Forest Bathing, The
Speaker 2: Healing Power of Ancient Trees and Wild Places. And my
Speaker 2: guest is Ellen D. Davidson. She goes by d and
Speaker 2: this book not only is it remarkable because it talks
Speaker 2: about these paths from illness to wellness, but also her
Speaker 2: interconnection and connection to these ancient forests that are surrounding us.
Speaker 2: There's a few lefts, thank God. And what I didn't
Speaker 2: understand in my somewhat intuitive focus on forest bathing is
Speaker 2: that the Japanese have a kind of a term for
Speaker 2: it too. I think probably if we look to Europe
Speaker 2: this there's groups that are doing forest bathing that maybe
Speaker 2: they don't call it that. But I'm looking forward to
Speaker 2: speaking with D today and it's great to have her
Speaker 2: on the program. So D, welcome to Destiny. Great to
Speaker 2: have you on the program.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 2: Talk about and give us a sense of entering the
Speaker 2: sacredness of the forest area that you're in. And you
Speaker 2: opened the book talking and telling us about illness. You
Speaker 2: had illness just as I guess as a form of stress, right,
Speaker 2: fibromyalgia isn't a comfortable condition to have. But talk about
Speaker 2: where you were at the time prior to really integrating
Speaker 2: with the forest.
Speaker 1: After I had my first daughter, she was colicky and
Speaker 1: she didn't sleep, and somehow, in the stress of all that,
Speaker 1: my body forgot how to sleep. And then I started
Speaker 1: into this whole cascade of symptoms that went into fibromyalgia
Speaker 1: and chronic fatigue. I couldn't turn my neck. I was
Speaker 1: in a lot of pain, and I tried everything. I
Speaker 1: went to hypnosis, I went to psychiatrists. I tried some
Speaker 1: of their drugs, but I lasted for about three days.
Speaker 1: They made me sick, and I took herbs, I jeused,
Speaker 1: I did massages, al chemical hypnotherapy, you name it. I
Speaker 1: went through the gamut with a little bit of relief
Speaker 1: here and there, but nothing really ever worked along the journey.
Speaker 1: I did try Vajuriana Tibetan Buddhist meditation, and that helped.
Speaker 1: It didn't help me sleep, but it did calm me
Speaker 1: down and I became I softened around the illness so
Speaker 1: that I could live with it. But I still was
Speaker 1: in pain and not sleeping. And I had been having
Speaker 1: these dreams. I have an old growth redwood in my backyard,
Speaker 1: and that tree had been visiting me in dreams for years.
Speaker 1: I was really into my too. I'd been writing them
Speaker 1: down for decades and analyzing them, trying to figure out
Speaker 1: decode what they meant. But I always did it as
Speaker 1: if everything in the dream represented a part of me,
Speaker 1: and back then it just this is in the nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety about. Back then, it never even occurred to me
Speaker 1: that a tree could be sentient or communicate with me.
Speaker 1: That was so far beyond my wildest imaginations. But now
Speaker 1: looking back, that's what was happening. The tree was teaching
Speaker 1: me at night. Then the next thing on my odyssey
Speaker 1: that happened was during these meditations with a Vadriana Tibetan buddhislama.
Speaker 1: He suggested we follow the juice, and what he meant
Speaker 1: by that was that we be guided by what was
Speaker 1: our heart's desire, what filled us with energy and joy.
Speaker 1: So on my free days, and my youngest started had
Speaker 1: just gone off to college, so there were more free days.
Speaker 1: On my free days, I started playing a game with myself.
Speaker 1: I'd wake up when I had slept for a few hours,
Speaker 1: but anyway, I'd get up and I think, what do
Speaker 1: I want to do today? Every day it was go
Speaker 1: to the forest. It's just insane. I thought I'd want
Speaker 1: to do other things, but I wanted to go to
Speaker 1: the forest. So I started doing it, and I had
Speaker 1: no expectation that this was going to heal me. So profoundly.
Speaker 1: But when we step into the holy cathedrals and sacred
Speaker 1: spaces of these ancient forests that have been undisturbed for
Speaker 1: millions of years, there is a palpable energy field. So
Speaker 1: my little energy field that was disregulated and had been
Speaker 1: for now decades, I would step into this field of wholeness,
Speaker 1: and it allowed me to experience the part of myself
Speaker 1: that new wholeness. I'd go home, I'd sleep a little
Speaker 1: better and think, Oh, that's interesting. My neck, Oh I
Speaker 1: can turn my neck. Oh, how cool is that? And
Speaker 1: at first I didn't even equate it with the fact
Speaker 1: that I was forest bathing. But and I didn't know
Speaker 1: the word forest bathing. I'd never heard of it. I
Speaker 1: didn't know there was such a thing. It was only
Speaker 1: I don't know, fifteen years and ten years maybe into it,
Speaker 1: that I started reading books about The Japanese call it
Speaker 1: shinrin yoku, and they've been studying it scientifically and proving
Speaker 1: that even a couple days spent in a forest has
Speaker 1: healing effects that last for a whole month.
Speaker 2: Wow, amazing. Yeah, you've said something that and you write
Speaker 2: about this as well, that you believe that these trees
Speaker 2: are sentient and which is a another way of saying
Speaker 2: self aware or conscious? Can you give us some examples
Speaker 2: of that position that thought, because I've always thought that
Speaker 2: the ancient trees, the ancient Sequoia redwoods, have some kind
Speaker 2: of sentient and that just them. I think all older trees,
Speaker 2: apparently at a certain period, begin to provide information to
Speaker 2: us if we ask for it. But how are you
Speaker 2: interacting with these ancient trees.
Speaker 1: Well, it happened is I would usually I would go
Speaker 1: into the forest a lot of times by myself. I
Speaker 1: didn't plan on doing that, but nobody wanted to go
Speaker 1: as often as I did, so I braved it. And
Speaker 1: so you know, I'd go in there with my bare
Speaker 1: bells so that wild animals wouldn't get me in, Not
Speaker 1: that they do, They're not after us. But I'd go
Speaker 1: in with the bare bell and I would just my
Speaker 1: thoughts would settle like a stream coming clear. And then
Speaker 1: I always found myself a lot more present, And after
Speaker 1: hiking three four miles, I would sit. I have some
Speaker 1: favorite trees that I've gotten to know over the years,
Speaker 1: and I would sit at the trees. I guess summer
Speaker 1: tree called me. I was on a hike with a
Speaker 1: friend of mine, and this is at the very beginning,
Speaker 1: and we sat down to have lunch, and then she suggested,
Speaker 1: why don't we try meditating with the tree. I'd never
Speaker 1: meditated with a tree before. This friend was also part
Speaker 1: of the Buddhist meditation group, and so she was a
Speaker 1: really good meditator. And we sat and then a voice
Speaker 1: spoke in my head and it said come back. It
Speaker 1: was so clear and distinct that I thought she'd spoken,
Speaker 1: and my eyes popped open and I said, did you
Speaker 1: just say come back? No, not her. We looked around,
Speaker 1: there was no one there. And I don't think the
Speaker 1: tree actually said in English, come back, but I think
Speaker 1: my brain translated some kind of bioelectric communication, which science
Speaker 1: now proves that trees do with each other. And I
Speaker 1: just had an interview with Ellen Camey of the Natural Nurse,
Speaker 1: and she told me that scientists have discovered that human
Speaker 1: brains have receptor sites for interspecies communication.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So it's coming together. These experiences that just seemed
Speaker 1: so fanciful to me when I was having them. But
Speaker 1: I did come back, and I didn't know I'd be
Speaker 1: coming back for seventeen years and continuing. But that's what happened,
Speaker 1: and it's a relationship, just a love affair.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what's the name of the tree that you are
Speaker 2: kind of I'm talking about summer tree, some summer trees.
Speaker 2: Is this is once a couple of miles from your home.
Speaker 1: Uh, well, I have some old growth near my home,
Speaker 1: but there aren't any remaining old growth forests. I have
Speaker 1: to drive half an hour north or south to get
Speaker 1: to because everything was logged. There's only really five percent
Speaker 1: of the old growth forests I redwoods left, And so
Speaker 1: I do drive. I drive about forty minutes, well thirty
Speaker 1: minutes maybe forty to get and then and the drive
Speaker 1: is actually beautiful. I pass lagoons and forested hills in
Speaker 1: the coastal cliffs. And then when I and that gives
Speaker 1: me a chance to worry and think about everything that's
Speaker 1: bothering me in life and whatever is whatever my you know.
Speaker 1: So then by the time I get to the trail,
Speaker 1: I'm ready. They just become present and it's so beautiful
Speaker 1: and beauty. I think beauty's a goddess and she and
Speaker 1: chances in the presence.
Speaker 2: I mentioned before we started that I think that you
Speaker 2: have elf energy and you kind of jokingly say that
Speaker 2: in the in your book. But I think there's something too,
Speaker 2: what I would call the elementals, the elf beings, the fairies,
Speaker 2: the gnomes that are unseen, but there's a presence there
Speaker 2: when we go to these ancient forests. Can you talk
Speaker 2: a little bit about a sense of that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I definitely feel the elemental intelligences. And it's not
Speaker 1: like I'm seeing little fairy well sometimes I can imagine them,
Speaker 1: but it's not like I'm seeing little fairies and gnomes
Speaker 1: all over the place. What I'm experiencing is the intelligence
Speaker 1: in the water, those crystal clear creeks definitely communicates something
Speaker 1: to me. Or the air, the way the air caresses
Speaker 1: my skin, and knowing, knowing or visions or ideas. And
Speaker 1: there's an interesting book, the story is in Our Bones
Speaker 1: by ospre oriole Lake, and she was talking about how
Speaker 1: almost all of our ancestors made decisions outside Western ancestors too,
Speaker 1: not just not just Native American, but made decisions outside
Speaker 1: by what we're known as council trees. And what I've
Speaker 1: noticed is the quality of my thoughts, what I think
Speaker 1: the ideas I have are subtly different. And I think
Speaker 1: that's the influence of these intelligent natural energies, the nature
Speaker 1: intelligences and so elementals. You know, they've been defined in
Speaker 1: various traditions all around the world. Almost every culture has
Speaker 1: some version of nature spirits, the air, the earth, the water,
Speaker 1: the fire, and the ether.
Speaker 2: Yeah, why do you feel it's important that we walk
Speaker 2: among the forests? I totally feel that it's healthy for me,
Speaker 2: and I do it because I need a creative input.
Speaker 2: I need to relax off, I need to get off
Speaker 2: the internet and rest my nervous system. But what do
Speaker 2: you say, why do you feel that it's important to
Speaker 2: be in the forest.
Speaker 1: It is extremely soothing for our nervous systems. There is
Speaker 1: a bioelectric field the forest puts out, plus the aerosols
Speaker 1: trees put out to protect themselves from rot and insects
Speaker 1: and even fires. The fight insides and terpenes. Those boost
Speaker 1: our immune systems and help fight cancer and viruses and
Speaker 1: colds and all kinds of things. So it's very healthy
Speaker 1: and that's scientifically proven. It's we evolved outside in nature,
Speaker 1: in different kinds of nature, but often in forests, and
Speaker 1: I think it makes us feel more at home. And Plus,
Speaker 1: something I'm thinking about a lot lately, especially how fascinated
Speaker 1: people are with AI is how disembodied it is, and
Speaker 1: how it puts us on human beings created AI. And
Speaker 1: now what's programmed into AI comes from human beings, even
Speaker 1: if it's recording whale songs, which is kind of fascinating
Speaker 1: what they're doing there. So we go along a trajectory
Speaker 1: that we're already on, and it's I think we desperately
Speaker 1: need to keep our connection to the more than human,
Speaker 1: the Earth, which is we're part of, and we only
Speaker 1: are beginning to explore how we can relate and connect
Speaker 1: on a deeper level. I do think the Earth is created,
Speaker 1: is capable of restoration, miracles beyond our wildest imaginings, if
Speaker 1: we just allow her to guide us more.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you talk a lot about physical health in the book,
Speaker 2: of course, your own wellness Journey. What is it about
Speaker 2: being in the forest with these ancient trees that is
Speaker 2: neural receptive, neural positive, and how do you suggest that
Speaker 2: that's healing? Because that's something that I pick up from
Speaker 2: your book and that I think I get on my own. No,
Speaker 2: I'm here down south from where you are. We don't
Speaker 2: have the big red woods, but we do have oak
Speaker 2: and some new growth for uts. You know, I'm here,
Speaker 2: like I said, on the east side of the bay,
Speaker 2: so I can feel it. But there's something even more
Speaker 2: integrative about the redwoods sequoia redwoods talk about that.
Speaker 1: I'm actually on the coastal redwoods the centervirons, but the
Speaker 1: Sequoias are up in the sierras, and they're different from
Speaker 1: each other. But Kin Well, you were saying the neuro biology,
Speaker 1: I know from personal experience that my whole nervous system
Speaker 1: was just rewired. I'm a happier, calmer person then in
Speaker 1: every way. And there's a peacefulness in those trees that's palpable.
Speaker 1: I think what happens is when we spend time amongst them.
Speaker 1: And by the way, the oaks give a different energy,
Speaker 1: but just as valuable to the druids. The word druid
Speaker 1: comes from the word oak. Dru means oak, so it's
Speaker 1: the wisdom of those trees. And they impart a sort
Speaker 1: of solid stability. So every type of tree or forests
Speaker 1: is going to give us something incredible, but it's different.
Speaker 1: And for the redwoods, their roots are very shallow and
Speaker 1: they hold each other up. They are they're really shallow.
Speaker 1: They don't go very far. Yeah, isn't that wild? Most trees,
Speaker 1: like an oak tree, what you see above is the
Speaker 1: same as what goes down below. Not so for the redwoods.
Speaker 1: They have these shallow roots and yet they hold up
Speaker 1: these big trees. Part of how they do it is
Speaker 1: their roots are entwined and entangled, so they're very community
Speaker 1: oriented trees.
Speaker 2: Wow. So a three hundred foot sequoia redwood has a
Speaker 2: shallow root base, but you're saying that their neighboring trees
Speaker 2: are all kind of interconnected and that's how they support
Speaker 2: each other.
Speaker 1: I think. So. Their roots are very entangled and entwined together,
Speaker 1: and even the old stumps they will keep to alive,
Speaker 1: maybe for hundreds of years. These trees can live the
Speaker 1: semper environmens where I live, the coastal redwoods can live
Speaker 1: two three thousand years. The sequoias can even live longer.
Speaker 1: And I don't know exactly how much longer, but I
Speaker 1: think it might be four or five thousand years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're very, very long lived. It's amazing. What do
Speaker 2: you think that means to us as humans? If we
Speaker 2: walk among these ancient ancient trees? Is there a period?
Speaker 2: And I think you write a little bit by where
Speaker 2: we begin connecting. And if we do, you ask intentionally
Speaker 2: for wisdom from them, how do you communicate with them?
Speaker 1: Well, I sit with them for a long time, and
Speaker 1: I let myself become open and spacious, and I also
Speaker 1: I asked to receive the highest guidance for me and
Speaker 1: my loved ones at that moment, or for the earth
Speaker 1: or But so I'm not trying to control what comes
Speaker 1: in so much as just to become very receptive. But
Speaker 1: it's safe to be receptive out there. There's a protection.
Speaker 1: There's a feeling of psychic protection in the redwoods that
Speaker 1: feels very real to me. And so then often I've
Speaker 1: had a sense of this ancient wisdom and timeless awareness,
Speaker 1: and and I feel I feel connected to in my
Speaker 1: to things like fabled Lemoria and MoU and to a
Speaker 1: sense of when we could understand the birds and we
Speaker 1: knew what the whale songs were singing, and there was
Speaker 1: a kind of a wholeness in my imagination. But it
Speaker 1: does seem like what I imagine is different with the
Speaker 1: influence of the trees. It's almost like vibrationally or frequency wise,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure which, but it's almost like they hold
Speaker 1: these old memories, an old, healthier, more intact ways of being.
Speaker 1: There's still and because these remnant forests still have those feelings,
Speaker 1: it helps me imagine what it would you like for
Speaker 1: us to live in a clean, peaceful, whole environment ecology
Speaker 1: that we belong to and are part of. Intend.
Speaker 2: We're going to take a short commercial break to allow
Speaker 2: our sponsors to identify themselves, and we will return shortly
Speaker 2: with my guests today, Ellen D. Davidson, discussing her newly
Speaker 2: released book, Sacred Forest Bathing. Will be right back. My
Speaker 2: guest today is author Ellen D. Davidson. She's coming to
Speaker 2: us from northern California and the site of some of
Speaker 2: the largest Sequoia redwoods in the world, and she's discussing
Speaker 2: her new book, Sacred Force Bathing, on how to integrate
Speaker 2: with nature. That's kind of cool. So you're saying that
Speaker 2: you get a projection from the tree of perhaps our ancestors,
Speaker 2: how they lived more naturally on the earth and more holistically.
Speaker 2: I guess is what you're saying, which is the ultimate
Speaker 2: wellness because you're one with guya right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it feels like it, And she feels incredibly into
Speaker 1: intelligent and I can glimpse fractals of that actually where
Speaker 1: it would be way before recorded history, it would be
Speaker 1: you know, the mythologies of the whole world have various
Speaker 1: versions of the Garden of Eden and the time when
Speaker 1: we were living peacefully with the other creatures in harmony. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: those feelings come back to me and it gives me
Speaker 1: the sense of possibility that could be created that and
Speaker 1: I feel like the intelligence that comes through these trees
Speaker 1: and their connection to Gaya to me is almost like
Speaker 1: the Earth is wanting to restore and recreate that. It
Speaker 1: feels larger than me. It doesn't feel like I'm making
Speaker 1: it up. It feels like I'm receiving it. There's no
Speaker 1: effort when I imagine something, I'm projecting something. This is not yeah,
Speaker 1: this is I'm sitting there and I'm receiving these beautiful visions.
Speaker 2: Can you tell us about the goddess the different goddess
Speaker 2: traditions around the world and how they are integrative of
Speaker 2: the forest, because you do bring that up in the book.
Speaker 2: I do.
Speaker 1: I was in an awakening woman's Sodna when I was
Speaker 1: writing that book with the Norse goddess Freya, and she's
Speaker 1: a forest goddess, and I was I identified here, I
Speaker 1: was off in the forest, and then I discovered that
Speaker 1: there are goddesses in almost everywhere on the world. In
Speaker 1: the world where there are forests, there is a forest goddess.
Speaker 1: There's the Japanese cherry blossom goddess, and there's Ajia, an
Speaker 1: African goddess, and there's Oh boy, do I remember all
Speaker 1: the names we have in Greek mythology. We have Diana,
Speaker 1: and we Artemis and Daphne who turns herself into a tree.
Speaker 1: It's just all the traditions have these forest goddesses, and
Speaker 1: they are I think there's a deeply yin sort of
Speaker 1: feminine quality in the forest. I feel safe in the forest.
Speaker 1: I know everyone doesn't. We've our fairy tales and our
Speaker 1: mythologies have sort of demonized the forest and made it
Speaker 1: seem like a dark, scary place where you know, bad
Speaker 1: things could happen. But that's that's layered on top of
Speaker 1: many cultures that we've evolved from that had sacred trees.
Speaker 1: The Norse have Yigdristle, who connects the nine worlds, the
Speaker 1: bail bob that stores water. So this tree worship is
Speaker 1: cross cultural around the world, and it goes with this
Speaker 1: sense that we have that we're nurtured and sheltered and
Speaker 1: protected in the forest, and I certainly feel that way.
Speaker 2: Are you able to get a hint of the Goddess
Speaker 2: when you are in the forest and asking for her
Speaker 2: guidance and healing or is it more general intuition that
Speaker 2: you get from specific trees.
Speaker 1: For me, beauty is a goddess and the forest is beautiful,
Speaker 1: and she enchants me with birds, song and butterflies and
Speaker 1: sparkling clean waters splashing over rocks, and so the whole
Speaker 1: forest becomes the embodiment of this goddess of beauty and
Speaker 1: brings me into a state of awe and reverence and
Speaker 1: worship and wonder and that joy we all felt as kids,
Speaker 1: most people felt who had halfway decent childhoods. We all
Speaker 1: felt this sense of wonder. We would see a sala
Speaker 1: bug and it would amaze us, or a butterfly life.
Speaker 1: It's that quality of really being present with life and
Speaker 1: the whole miracle of it and this whole planet. I
Speaker 1: think Guya is an embodiment of the Goddess.
Speaker 2: I think that we forget that though, and we are
Speaker 2: not going to nature for healing. I wanted to talk
Speaker 2: a little bit about what I experienced and how you
Speaker 2: can relate to it, which would be the being altered,
Speaker 2: because when I go into these areas and I'm walking
Speaker 2: and I'm off the ashphalt or cement and I'm walking
Speaker 2: in nature, my consciousness shifts. And I don't know if
Speaker 2: that is and you could probably speak better to this.
Speaker 2: I don't know if that is the healing attributes of
Speaker 2: being in nature to shifting and and uh, this altered
Speaker 2: consciousness or it is what we do because we need
Speaker 2: to connect with the force with these natural settings. But
Speaker 2: I find that I'm altered, and I don't even pay
Speaker 2: attention until I think about it. I was like, wait
Speaker 2: a minute, you were out there, you were gone. But
Speaker 2: that's a that's a healing aspect of being in nature,
Speaker 2: isn't it kind of your body kind of switches into
Speaker 2: this into this natural world.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And I think it's not a unique experience to
Speaker 1: just you or me. I think it's a people might
Speaker 1: define it or describe it differently, but I think it's
Speaker 1: a pretty common experience to have our consciousness altered by
Speaker 1: being in the forest. And one reason is we're literally
Speaker 1: out of the box. Most of the structures we spend
Speaker 1: time in that we humans have created are rectangular, they're linear,
Speaker 1: so we're kind of living in various triangles and rectangles
Speaker 1: and boxy shapes, and we go out there and everything
Speaker 1: is fractal, it's curvy. So there's that. Then there's all
Speaker 1: of our senses. We're smelling, and smelling is a very
Speaker 1: deep sense. It's undervalued. It opens us up tremendously to
Speaker 1: other cities of consciousness, especially when the smells are so
Speaker 1: utterly pleasant, which they usually are outside of nature. We
Speaker 1: smell the mulchy earth and the scent of the subtle
Speaker 1: fragrance of trilling flowers or whatever's around. And then there's
Speaker 1: the sounds. Sounds expand our consciousness. We know that now
Speaker 1: because so many people are experience and into sound healing.
Speaker 1: The difference being in a forest is we're not isolating
Speaker 1: each of these senses with taking a flower essence or
Speaker 1: a sound bath or getting you know, all of them
Speaker 1: are at once. We're in a symphony where every sense
Speaker 1: that we have, including the subtle ones that are less
Speaker 1: developed like instinct and intuition, are enlivened with this gentle stimulation.
Speaker 1: And it's very gentle. The nature blends things in such
Speaker 1: a beautiful palet. So the color is in the visual,
Speaker 1: which tends to be our dominant sense. But even then
Speaker 1: we're soothed instead of bombarded, and it definitely all here's
Speaker 1: our consciousness, And then there's whatever frequencies and vibrations in
Speaker 1: the palpable field created by these trees, who I think
Speaker 1: are friends. They're all there communing with each other and
Speaker 1: creating this environment and interrelating with other species that make
Speaker 1: the forest their home.
Speaker 2: So there we are talk about Summer tree a little bit,
Speaker 2: because this is a unique connection. Do you feel this
Speaker 2: is a relative of some kind or is it more
Speaker 2: of a friendly teacher, the relationship you have with that
Speaker 2: special tree.
Speaker 1: Well, she called me, and right off the bat, none
Speaker 1: of the other trees that I've gotten, except for the
Speaker 1: one in my backyard, which I named Grandmother dragon tree.
Speaker 1: Actually my children named her that because she has this
Speaker 1: big spike at the top and the snout nose, and
Speaker 1: she looks just like a dragon. So but other than
Speaker 1: those two trees, none of them called me. I went
Speaker 1: and sat and asked permission, and some of them aren't
Speaker 1: interested in me being there at all. They want to
Speaker 1: be left alone to do whatever they're doing.
Speaker 2: Do you get that sense like people like, you know, hey,
Speaker 2: I'm not nice to see you, but keep moving.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. Some of them are just like, don't bother
Speaker 1: me now, I'm busy talking to the stars.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: But summer Chie wanted a relationship with me and called me,
Speaker 1: and so that is unique right there. And I went
Speaker 1: back and back. I've called her summer Ty because I
Speaker 1: have to cross a creek to get there, and in
Speaker 1: the winter of that creek is too high across, so
Speaker 1: I can go for about six months of the year.
Speaker 2: And then OK, wow wow.
Speaker 1: So that and then there was this thing that happened
Speaker 1: sitting over time with summer Ty where I felt this
Speaker 1: grandmother in the tree and even had some almost hallucinatory visions.
Speaker 1: One happened with my friend and she saw it too.
Speaker 1: We felt like we were there's this beautiful little clearing.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we do yoga beneath this tree because there's a
Speaker 1: flat duff area that yeah, and she had this vision
Speaker 1: right with me. We were both meditating. She meditates too,
Speaker 1: and we are sitting for a long time with this tree.
Speaker 1: Time goes really fast. Sometimes it'd be two hours and
Speaker 1: we'd open our eyes and it would feel like five.
Speaker 2: Minutes you're altered, very.
Speaker 1: Altered, and kind of blissed out. It's how I could
Speaker 1: describe it with an experience lots of people have had
Speaker 1: is occupuncture needles or a really good massage where you
Speaker 1: just feel those currents of energy running through your body
Speaker 1: and it feels good. So it's not like I'm making
Speaker 1: myself sit there, it's it's just feels good. And so
Speaker 1: we both had this hallucination or vision that we were
Speaker 1: that there were these grandmothers, Indigenous grandmothers. They were all
Speaker 1: dressed differently. Some of them had like drindle skirts and
Speaker 1: some had feathers. And we opened our eyes and we
Speaker 1: saw these grandmothers in this little clearing where the tree
Speaker 1: was around us, and we're looking at her, going do
Speaker 1: you see what I'm saying? And we could tell they
Speaker 1: weren't physical flesh and blood, but they were like looking
Speaker 1: at a hologram or something. You could really see them
Speaker 1: three dimensionally. It's never happened again, but I've continued to
Speaker 1: sense the sense of a grandmother in this tree. I
Speaker 1: still haven't figured out the mystery of that. This is
Speaker 1: partly what I've gone back for seventeen years. It's really fascinating.
Speaker 2: That is yeah. Wild wow.
Speaker 1: And by the way, we weren't on any drugs. We
Speaker 1: were completely in our normal stay to consciousness.
Speaker 2: That's funny anyone thought about, you know, was she on
Speaker 2: an ayahuasca journey or was she taking some fantastic cannabis
Speaker 2: or d MT or something. You don't talk about that
Speaker 2: at all in your book, which means that you are
Speaker 2: that you're using natural frequencies to get your high.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, I've done cannabis, but I don't I've
Speaker 1: never even taken ayahuasca and I'm not drawn to it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I know a lot of people haven't have had
Speaker 1: good experiences. But that's just but no, we were like complete,
Speaker 1: but we're not normal by the time. We've sat with
Speaker 1: the trees for a long time because, like you said,
Speaker 1: walking in the forest alters you. And then sitting if
Speaker 1: if if a person finds a comfortable spot to sit
Speaker 1: that and the redwood forest doesn't have very many ticks
Speaker 1: or hazards or poison.
Speaker 2: Oaks bring that up, which I'm glad you did because
Speaker 2: my son had a tick bite and he was in
Speaker 2: trouble for a couple of years, So yeah, it's a
Speaker 2: very good for those of you listening. Ticks can really
Speaker 2: be a problem. You can get limes disease, which is
Speaker 2: just a devastating neurological problem, so I appreciate you adding
Speaker 2: that to it. So that's something you've brought up. No ticks,
Speaker 2: so you can sit sip by the tree without too
Speaker 2: much of a worry.
Speaker 1: Well, there could be a tick. I do check and
Speaker 1: I wear I try and wear long pants that cuff
Speaker 1: in at the bottom, and we look afterwards. And a
Speaker 1: tick won't give you limes if you get it within
Speaker 1: the first twenty four hours. It has to actually engorge.
Speaker 1: And if you do pull one out, you can take
Speaker 1: it to your local CDC and they can check to
Speaker 1: see if it's a limes tick. But basically, if you
Speaker 1: take antibiotics quickly after getting a tick that has limes,
Speaker 1: you're fine, and if you don't, it is an ordeal.
Speaker 1: So I'm pretty careful. But the redways have far fewer
Speaker 1: ticks than the grassy oakland, and that's why I wanted
Speaker 1: to bring that up, because you're in the oaks, So
Speaker 1: if you're just going to PLoP down and sit next
Speaker 1: to a tree, you have to be careful.
Speaker 2: Thank you for that reminder. Yeah, we're going to talk
Speaker 2: in a minute here about your technique for force bathing,
Speaker 2: but before we do that, you and this is fascinating
Speaker 2: to me. You talk about lay lines. And I am
Speaker 2: somebody who studies ancient Maya traditions, and a lot of
Speaker 2: their pyramids sit on lay lines, sit on tealloric energy fields,
Speaker 2: and the belief is that they understood these earth neurosystems
Speaker 2: you can call them, or energy systems known as what
Speaker 2: the English called lay lines. Would you say that summer
Speaker 2: tree and these other big trees are connected in some
Speaker 2: way and sit over energy fields.
Speaker 1: I'm one hundred percent sure they do. Now whether or
Speaker 1: not they're what we traditionally call lay lines is an
Speaker 1: ongoing inquiry for me, because I can kind of see
Speaker 1: them sometimes when I'm altered, like I can envision, and
Speaker 1: they look really my sillial. They're like curvy and woven,
Speaker 1: but they light. There's light. I can see this light
Speaker 1: going through the earth sometimes and I can sense it.
Speaker 1: But lay lines, So I wondered about that, and I
Speaker 1: started looking into lay lines, and they're always described as
Speaker 1: more straight and networked in like a grid I'm sure
Speaker 1: the red woods are connected to those, but maybe they
Speaker 1: curve into them and then get onto those main they're
Speaker 1: energetic highways like occupuncture points in the Earth, and the
Speaker 1: red woods are connected. They are connectors. And what I
Speaker 1: also experienced with the red woods is they connect Heaven
Speaker 1: on Earth. They connect the cosmic storry intelligences with the
Speaker 1: Earth intelligence. In fact, I think are antennas and they
Speaker 1: channel that right through.
Speaker 2: I love that analogy that they're working with the cosmos.
Speaker 2: That's something I was curious about is that if these
Speaker 2: are teachers, you know, ancient teachers, how do you learn
Speaker 2: with them? Did you sit there and ask them questions
Speaker 2: like summer Tree, do you do you have periods where
Speaker 2: you know what Summer Tree, I'm curious about this earth situation?
Speaker 2: Or can you tell me about myself? You use them
Speaker 2: kind of as a sounding board. Maybe that's disrespectful. Maybe
Speaker 2: you need to go in and be respectful and say,
Speaker 2: Summer Tree, I honor you, but I need to know
Speaker 2: about this my relationship with this person who sucks or something.
Speaker 1: You know, when I was really ill for a while
Speaker 1: and I could never sleep, I actually ended up every
Speaker 1: once in a while in cheer desperation taking tranquilizers. I
Speaker 1: was taking some las of pen and then my youngest
Speaker 1: daughter ruptured her appendix and was near death in the
Speaker 1: hospital for ten days. I had like flirted with this
Speaker 1: for like a decade, every once in a while when
Speaker 1: I was desperate for night of sleep, but I would
Speaker 1: I took the lowest dose. I wouldn't take them every
Speaker 1: night because I was determined not to get addicted. When
Speaker 1: she was in the hospital, I took them every day
Speaker 1: for two weeks while this crisis happened, and then I
Speaker 1: did get addicted, and because I tried to just quit,
Speaker 1: because I had always quit before. If I took them
Speaker 1: and I couldn't get off them, and the doctor said, well,
Speaker 1: you're on the lowest dose, it shouldn't be a problem.
Speaker 1: It was a total problem. I could not get off them.
Speaker 1: So I did go to the trees in this abject
Speaker 1: misery of like, oh my god, I'm an addict. Now,
Speaker 1: how did this happen to me? I was really upset
Speaker 1: and I begged for help, and it was very direct.
Speaker 1: The help. I mean, I can't remember it's written in
Speaker 1: my journals now, all the information they gave me. They
Speaker 1: literally guided me step by step for how to get
Speaker 1: off of these Oh.
Speaker 3: My god, it was very very like like specific, like
Speaker 3: go to bit at this time, only these foods don't
Speaker 3: get alcohol h weed.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, it was that specific. And it was those
Speaker 1: things you're very intuitive too. It was the thing you
Speaker 1: just said, you know, it was more and it was
Speaker 1: like they told me how to get I had to
Speaker 1: ask that. I didn't even know they existed. The doctor
Speaker 1: didn't tell me this. The trees told me that I
Speaker 1: could get drops and lower my dose every three days
Speaker 1: by drop by drop by drop. And that's how I
Speaker 1: did it with that because when I first tried to
Speaker 1: cold turkey, after I got addicted, my brain was little,
Speaker 1: literally creaking and crackling and rattling. The insomnia went through
Speaker 1: the roof. I had non stut headache, and I was
Speaker 1: nauseated and a sweating. It was bad. I could not
Speaker 1: get off this side.
Speaker 2: I gotta stop you d so are you bringing out
Speaker 2: your journal or are you bringing out a recorder? And
Speaker 2: you're talking, You're closing your eyes, You're meditating with your
Speaker 2: with the summer tree and going summer tree. I'm I
Speaker 2: can't stand this drug. I'm dealing with. What do I
Speaker 2: do and then every time you close your eyes you
Speaker 2: got a hint as to withdrawal or something. Tell me
Speaker 2: about it.
Speaker 1: I did record things into my phone. Sometimes I would
Speaker 1: run home and write it in my journal right away
Speaker 1: because I could remember it. This was These were vivid.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, so were vivid.
Speaker 1: Well not. Some of them are like pulling back a
Speaker 1: dream that you only can remember a few images because
Speaker 1: I'm so deep and some of them, but these ones
Speaker 1: were I could mostly remember. I did speak into my phone,
Speaker 1: usually when I'd be walking back. I would record it
Speaker 1: and then write it in my journal as soon as
Speaker 1: I got home. And that's just a very speci the thing.
Speaker 1: Most of the time, I have to confess, I wasn't
Speaker 1: asking all these big questions of the trees. I was
Speaker 1: just receiving what needed to come through next. It's how
Speaker 1: I received the book. That book, my book. It was
Speaker 1: written in two months. I want to I didn't want
Speaker 1: to write it because I'd written some children's books and
Speaker 1: gone through a whole onslaught of rejections and then had
Speaker 1: books and then had publishers go out of business and
Speaker 1: books everything that could happen to me, and I had
Speaker 1: just gotten tired of working so hard for not much.
Speaker 1: So when I first was sitting at the tree and
Speaker 1: had this vision of this book that I was to write,
Speaker 1: and it was blazing with light, I said no. And
Speaker 1: then every time I go sit at the tree and
Speaker 1: try and meditate, I couldn't get anything because I just
Speaker 1: see this book again. And finally I just came and
Speaker 1: I said, I'll write the book.
Speaker 2: And as soon as ID going, girl, you got to
Speaker 2: write it. You're not going anywhere until you've finish this
Speaker 2: book exactly in two months. That that means that that
Speaker 2: that was a major data download waiting to come.
Speaker 1: I was blissed out too. It was amazing. I mean
Speaker 1: I was like getting up at four in the morning
Speaker 1: to write sometimes or writing late at night, but it
Speaker 1: was I was higher than a kite. It was like
Speaker 1: this blaze of white light was just blowing into my body.
Speaker 1: So I hardly noticed. I mean I did have to
Speaker 1: go back and edit it after that, and that took
Speaker 1: a few more months. But but I had never written
Speaker 1: a book like that. It took me years to write
Speaker 1: some of you know, a young adult fantasy. It took
Speaker 1: me years. I was plotting it out. This wasn't that
Speaker 1: I didn't write it on that level. And I felt
Speaker 1: like I was just in service to the trees, the
Speaker 1: forest and nature. And if you're.
Speaker 2: A you're a tool for them, you're a you're a channel.
Speaker 1: I was for this and and I just felt like,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of commissioned. I think lots of us are.
Speaker 1: I think certain things are ripe and they're ready to
Speaker 1: come through, and a lot of people will receive those
Speaker 1: ideas or inventions or creative images at the same time.
Speaker 1: But I made myself available because I was out in
Speaker 1: the forest, so I was available to the nature spirits to.
Speaker 2: We're going to take a short commercial break to allow
Speaker 2: our sponsors to identify themselves, and we will return shortly
Speaker 2: with my guest today, author Ellen D. Davidson, discussing Sacred
Speaker 2: Forest Bathing. We'll rejoin you shortly. My guest today is
Speaker 2: Ellen D. Davidson. She has written a new book called
Speaker 2: Sacred Force Bathing. This is all about connecting with nature,
Speaker 2: connecting with the earth energy gaia energy for healing, for
Speaker 2: spiritual growth and for wellness. Seems okay about it? I
Speaker 2: mean to write a book in two months is unreal.
Speaker 2: That's oh, just create I know.
Speaker 1: I haven't even confessed that to any other interviewers.
Speaker 2: Oh oh, hey, guess what we heard her first? Hear
Speaker 2: our destiny. But I have to say that you don't
Speaker 2: seem to be angry about it. You don't seem to
Speaker 2: be put off. You accept the role as the channel
Speaker 2: or the tool for the nature world and bringing this
Speaker 2: book forward, which I think is a wonderful acknowledgment. You
Speaker 2: may not think about that well, but I mean, you're
Speaker 2: smiling right now, so you must be okay, okay with it.
Speaker 2: And it's a wonderfully written book, so it ca at worked.
Speaker 1: Hey.
Speaker 2: And the other thing is you got Inner Traditions to
Speaker 2: publish it. They have great editors there, so you had
Speaker 2: some good people to help you right.
Speaker 1: Well, actually, before Inner Traditions publish it, I've been a
Speaker 1: Twee Sister for a long time. It's an organization, a
Speaker 1: nonprofit that plants trees all over the world. And Mary
Speaker 1: Reynolds Thompson both teaches writing and she published with Inner
Speaker 1: Traditions ironically The Wild The Way of the Wild Soul Woman,
Speaker 1: and she is also a professional editor. So I had
Speaker 1: an editor at Inner Traditions who was interested in my manuscript.
Speaker 1: I just did a cold call query, but he said
Speaker 1: it needed some work at that point, so I hired
Speaker 1: Mary and she helped me and then it went through.
Speaker 1: So I did have some good editing help, which probably
Speaker 1: most channel books need.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I mean they have certain standards, which is
Speaker 2: actually good because it makes it more legible and it
Speaker 2: flows probably better. There's certain things that editors can help
Speaker 2: you with that really make a book outstanding, so the
Speaker 2: end result is positive. Let's talk about the technique of
Speaker 2: forest bathing. You suggest your suggestions for nature therapy, so
Speaker 2: let's go through them. So you suggest to sit for
Speaker 2: two hours in nature to receive the benefits, to start
Speaker 2: from the top. So how would we identify a place
Speaker 2: that would be the ideal location to do the work.
Speaker 1: Well, first off, I think it's good to find a
Speaker 1: place close to home that you can visit over and
Speaker 1: over again, because this is a relationship. What we're doing
Speaker 1: is we're creating relationship, and that's not a one off.
Speaker 1: It's okay to go to some place that you want
Speaker 1: to see and you've dreamed of your whole life, and
Speaker 1: everyone has their bucket list. There's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 1: But I think what we're starving for in our modern
Speaker 1: culture where we're always doing new everything is to really
Speaker 1: bond deeply with specific places and trees. And it's just
Speaker 1: so lovely to get to know a place in all
Speaker 1: weathers and all moods and what blooms when. And there's
Speaker 1: an inmacy in that that I think we're craving because
Speaker 1: I keep reading articles about how lonely we all are,
Speaker 1: and part of that is we've become disconnected. And part
Speaker 1: of reconnecting is to reconnect to place. So for people
Speaker 1: that are housebound, that could be a house plant or
Speaker 1: maybe even a pet or but that deep bonding, or
Speaker 1: a garden outside or even a window box garden. And
Speaker 1: then if people live in a city, it can be
Speaker 1: a park and finding a special plant or tree there
Speaker 1: to really open up to and meet get to know.
Speaker 2: Let me stop you real quickly. D you said plant.
Speaker 2: I thought that it's really important to be around trees
Speaker 2: to get this interconnection. Are you saying that a plant
Speaker 2: can also provide the beginnings of a connection that can
Speaker 2: lead to the healing world that you want.
Speaker 1: I'm going to backtrack even further. I love the forest,
Speaker 1: and I live in the forest, and I've really bonded
Speaker 1: and I think there is something special about being in
Speaker 1: a forest, for sure, but nature therapy will work with
Speaker 1: any type of nature, whether it's a desert, a prairie,
Speaker 1: a mountain. Water. They've done studies and a lot of
Speaker 1: the health effects like lower blood pressure and lower cortisol
Speaker 1: and increased well being happen in blue spaces, oceans, lakes, rivers, waterfalls.
Speaker 1: A lot of people know about the ions and waterfalls
Speaker 1: and how that's ceiling. So I don't think there's any
Speaker 1: wild natural environment that doesn't that we can't bond with
Speaker 1: and become more intimate and alter our consciousness and be
Speaker 1: healed from. So that's why I think that people need
Speaker 1: to find what speaks to them close to home, because
Speaker 1: then we can go over and over again. And when
Speaker 1: people get a chance, going to an unspoiled forest is
Speaker 1: an amazing experience.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you mentioned that visit the spot once or twice
Speaker 2: a month, and so in those visits, what are we
Speaker 2: doing to connect and why are how are we developing
Speaker 2: the relationship that becomes the healing tool or the intuitive connection.
Speaker 1: Okay, so the most important thing, bar none, besides going
Speaker 1: and getting your body there, is to unplug from all
Speaker 1: your electronic devices.
Speaker 2: Oh right, yeah, no phone, No phones.
Speaker 1: Don't wear headphones with music because you want to hear
Speaker 1: the sounds of the environment you're in and they have
Speaker 1: an effect on state of mind and conciousness. Music's powerful,
Speaker 1: it's wonderful, but that's not what this is about. The
Speaker 1: second thing is either go alone if you like to
Speaker 1: go places alone, so that you can be more engaged
Speaker 1: with the environment than with another person. We humans love
Speaker 1: each other, so when we're together, we're going to talk
Speaker 1: and find out all about what's going on with each other.
Speaker 1: If you're going in a group or with people, then
Speaker 1: after you know a short amount of connecting and talking
Speaker 1: and setting up the plan for the day, practice silence
Speaker 1: and scatter. Find, you know, go twenty ten, twenty yards
Speaker 1: apart and find each person can find where they're drawn
Speaker 1: to sit and have a spot. I don't think people
Speaker 1: need to sit per se for two hours. I've been
Speaker 1: doing that after I walk, but I think the immersion,
Speaker 1: the being there should be two to three hours. That's
Speaker 1: actually what the Japanese have discovered with shin Rin Yoko
Speaker 1: is forest beating really requires a two to three hour
Speaker 1: minimum commitment to receive the full benefits and that's of
Speaker 1: just being peaceful and really being there. The next part
Speaker 1: of the protocol would be to tune in to our bodies.
Speaker 1: Our bodies are nature, I mean, that's what our bodies are.
Speaker 1: We're part of the earth, and so tune in to
Speaker 1: the smells, the sensations physically, the sights, the sounds, what
Speaker 1: the whole environment is. And the more present we become
Speaker 1: with our senses, like Mary Oliver talks about our soft
Speaker 1: animal bodies, that's what we want to come into, our
Speaker 1: soft animal bodies. We want to do that. Dropping down,
Speaker 1: getting out of our heads so much that alone is
Speaker 1: really healing and putting our hands on our hearts. The
Speaker 1: Institute of heart Mouth is doing a great tree interconnectivity
Speaker 1: study right now, and they discovered that when people send
Speaker 1: loving thoughts and feelings and words to I think they
Speaker 1: used a maple to a tree, the tree expanded its
Speaker 1: ambient bioelectric field. So this really is a scientifically proven
Speaker 1: We're having relationships, and like any other relationship, we want
Speaker 1: to take time. We want to pay attention and every being,
Speaker 1: whether even rocks, I think, but all beings, certainly all
Speaker 1: living beings love attention. And you can experiment with that
Speaker 1: in your house. People have when we focus loving attention
Speaker 1: on our plants, they grow better, just our house plants.
Speaker 1: This is known, and they have. There's an ancient book.
Speaker 1: Do you remember that book, The Secret Life of Plants?
Speaker 2: I think it was Peter Tompkin.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and remember how when somebody went towards the plant,
Speaker 1: just with the thought that they were going to cut
Speaker 1: the plant, it electronically sent out a screen.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. They hooked up the plants to different electrodes
Speaker 2: and they discovered that they have they have feelings.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, so this isn't a live somehow post
Speaker 1: industrial revolution culture, modernity, we reified everything. We turned it
Speaker 1: all into dead matter. Maybe it was that whole Newtonian thing,
Speaker 1: but we've made the world into objects. That's not the reality,
Speaker 1: and the physicists are figuring this out too. The reality
Speaker 1: is energy, and everything is alive and vibrating, and so
Speaker 1: we want to connect back to them because that is
Speaker 1: the world of life, and life is a miracle. It's
Speaker 1: magical and we're magical. And this is the elf talking.
Speaker 1: I could feel that little elsiness there. They're perking right up.
Speaker 2: So it's not wrong to do forest bathing by walking,
Speaker 2: But I think what you're suggesting in your book is
Speaker 2: to sit quietly with a specific tree or plant or
Speaker 2: bush or whatever and do some work, not just you know,
Speaker 2: absorb the energy, but intend on something more.
Speaker 1: Yes, and but the work is to soften, to open,
Speaker 1: to receive the more. It's not, it's not. It's like
Speaker 1: a state of soft fascination where we it's not the
Speaker 1: focused intent that we're used to, where we're directing our thoughts.
Speaker 1: We're opening but with.
Speaker 2: Like I was thinking when you were talking about going
Speaker 2: locally and finding a place. I'm close to some reservoirs
Speaker 2: and there's some parks that they've built that have very
Speaker 2: old trees. Do you want to find Do you go
Speaker 2: there looking for someone to say, hey, come sit with me?
Speaker 2: Or is it just the overall experience and don't think
Speaker 2: about a specific connection.
Speaker 1: It's really a good practice, I think, to open up
Speaker 1: to our kind of gut knowing and our intuition and feel,
Speaker 1: feel from your belly, feel from your gut. Where am
Speaker 1: I pulled? What? What? What tree has magnetism for me?
Speaker 1: You know? Who? Do I want to get to know more?
Speaker 1: We can go by our own desire. Our desire is
Speaker 1: a gift to show no different than with a person.
Speaker 1: You might be at a party and you're just drawn
Speaker 1: to this one person and they're drawn to you, and
Speaker 1: then you start having a great conversation like this, I'm
Speaker 1: having fun now, so you know, so it's no different.
Speaker 1: It's just that we're opening up to where in nature
Speaker 1: are we drawn and if we're working with trees, which tree?
Speaker 1: And I wanted to backtrack a little bit too. There
Speaker 1: are a lot of people, because I wrote this book
Speaker 1: and I've been meeting more people that are really into
Speaker 1: tree communication. There are people that will ask trees specific
Speaker 1: questions and intuitively receive answers. Some people do it by
Speaker 1: drawing and painting and answers, and some people will get
Speaker 1: it verbally or even in movement. Some people are even
Speaker 1: doing it over long distance. Well, there's the listening field
Speaker 1: is talking to ancient olive trees without actually going there.
Speaker 1: Because we're all energy. I feel like we've got a
Speaker 1: pretty disembodied culture already. So I'm an advocate for bringing
Speaker 1: your body.
Speaker 2: But you know this force bathing, there's one element we
Speaker 2: didn't even talk about, which is and you call it
Speaker 2: deep breathing, and I don't think we breathe enough, and
Speaker 2: so how do we integrate the breath into our forest bathing?
Speaker 2: Talk about that, would you?
Speaker 1: I'm so glad you remember to bring that up. I
Speaker 1: think the breathing's the most important part, because on this planet,
Speaker 1: we literally breathe with the trees. We're inhaling their oxygen,
Speaker 1: exhaling the carbon dioxide that they're inhaling. We have a
Speaker 1: very symbiotic relationship with trees and plants in that way.
Speaker 1: So when we go to a forest and consciously breathe
Speaker 1: with the trees, it's sort of ecstatic, and it's a
Speaker 1: way to slow ourselves down and calm that vague nerve.
Speaker 1: So I do different types of forest breathing. Some is
Speaker 1: when I'm sitting and I might be if I'm really
Speaker 1: wound up in my mind and I can't settle too fast.
Speaker 1: I literally might breathe in for account of four or five,
Speaker 1: hold for one or two, and then breathe out for
Speaker 1: the same count and do that until I've come into
Speaker 1: a calmer rhythm. Okay, see Yeah, But there's all kinds
Speaker 1: of different breathing techniques, and it's basically finding one that
Speaker 1: works for each individual person.
Speaker 2: Should we be conscious of our breath when we're ours
Speaker 2: first connecting or is it just just take some deeper
Speaker 2: breath so that you're I think what you're suggesting is
Speaker 2: by breathing, you're seeking up with the tree.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we need to slow down. You know. It's interesting.
Speaker 1: I think the trees actually vibrate higher than we do,
Speaker 1: at least the old redwoods. But in order for us
Speaker 1: to connect and and our vibration will organically rise in
Speaker 1: their presence, in order for that to happen, we have
Speaker 1: to slow down. So it's a paradox in a way.
Speaker 2: But I think you said something very very important, which
Speaker 2: is the connection begins with the breath, because you're you're
Speaker 2: you want to be in harmony with this, with this
Speaker 2: sentient being, and by breathing in a certain manner, after
Speaker 2: a while, you probably know that you're connecting in some way.
Speaker 2: Maybe you feel it, or maybe you're like, oh, I'm
Speaker 2: much more relaxed, which is also a message that the
Speaker 2: tree is linking up with you in some way. Talk
Speaker 2: about your experience, I d I mean you must go
Speaker 2: up to the big girl summer tree and have a
Speaker 2: way to link with her.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, first of all, for me, I'm a pretty
Speaker 1: active person, so I like it that I have to
Speaker 1: walk a few miles to get there, because just walking,
Speaker 1: the rhythm of that and seeing the various beautiful things
Speaker 1: I see along the way already has calmed me down
Speaker 1: a little bit. And then sometimes I do yoga in
Speaker 1: the clearing for a little bit and that will also
Speaker 1: help me center. But sometimes I just sit. It depends
Speaker 1: on my mood. And then when I sit, I I
Speaker 1: try and pay attention to my breath. Sometimes I'll do
Speaker 1: a technique like I just said. Sometimes I'll just observe
Speaker 1: my breath. But as I calm myself down with the
Speaker 1: breathing and the presence, then I will start feeling. Usually
Speaker 1: for me, I first can feel the connection with the
Speaker 1: trees through the back of my heart chakra. It's almost
Speaker 1: like little tendrils and roots growing into me, and there
Speaker 1: is a transfusion of energy and it's palpable. I can
Speaker 1: feel it like little tingling currents, and so it's almost
Speaker 1: like I become it feels like I'm becoming part of
Speaker 1: the tree.
Speaker 2: Wow, that's pretty amazing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's not science yet, but it probably will be,
Speaker 1: because none of this was science when I started out,
Speaker 1: and my husband thought I was crazy, but now half
Speaker 1: of it is science.
Speaker 2: So I think these things are ancient wisdoms that are
Speaker 2: coming back to We're remembering them. The books called Sacred
Speaker 2: Force Bathing the Healing Power of Ancient Trees and wild Places.
Speaker 2: In my guest today's been Ellen D. Davidson. As we conclude, uh,
Speaker 2: the what would you like to leave us with in
Speaker 2: terms of the importance of this forest bathing? What? What?
Speaker 2: What are some of the final thoughts.
Speaker 1: As we as we reconnect and open up to nature,
Speaker 1: we're healing ourselves and also that will help heal our
Speaker 1: ecologies and our earth. And we can be guided too
Speaker 1: well know our next steps and they can be they
Speaker 1: can be in more grace and ease. We don't have
Speaker 1: to constantly fight against everything. We can work with the
Speaker 1: intelligence of nature and just have We could have such
Speaker 1: a good time on this beautiful planet.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think we're all some of us are really
Speaker 2: out of balance. I want to ask you, if someone
Speaker 2: has an illness like you had your illnesses, how do
Speaker 2: you approach that with forest bathing? Do you ask for
Speaker 2: healing or And you might have mentioned that when we
Speaker 2: first started, when you had your fible biologia and your
Speaker 2: other illnesses. But how did what would you suggest for
Speaker 2: somebody who has a chronic condition and how can they
Speaker 2: ask for healing and how do they go about it?
Speaker 1: Well, that's a good question. First off, just being be
Speaker 1: it nature therapy is a real thing, and just being
Speaker 1: out there. As long as we unplug from our electronics
Speaker 1: and let ourselves really be present, there's an automatic amount
Speaker 1: of healing. I think our auras get cleaned and we
Speaker 1: just automatic have our energetic fields become cleaner and higher vibration.
Speaker 1: That's going to influence ourselves and so there is healing
Speaker 1: in that. I also just read Sophie Strand's The Body
Speaker 1: is a Doorway. Not everyone with a chronic illness is
Speaker 1: going to heal on that level, but she so eloquently
Speaker 1: and beautifully makes the point about how in nature, even
Speaker 1: when we're dying or we're not going to heal, we're
Speaker 1: part of the whole, the healthy, beautiful whole, constantly creating
Speaker 1: new life out of the dissolution. So wherever we are
Speaker 1: in our lives and life is a series of ups
Speaker 1: and downs for I think everyone and we all go
Speaker 1: through things that are ard At times we can soften
Speaker 1: around it and being outside with nature. It's bigger. Nature's
Speaker 1: bigger than we are, so we can be embraced in
Speaker 1: that and we can relax no matter what's going on.
Speaker 1: So there's an element of healing in just that level
Speaker 1: of relaxation, and then our own body intelligence can arrive
Speaker 1: at the highest level of homeostasis possible for us at
Speaker 1: that time. Okay, whatever we're dealing with, I think.
Speaker 2: The first part of that, because you're just you're saying,
Speaker 2: just go out and be in nature. That's the that's
Speaker 2: healing right there, that's the start.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the book just came out a few weeks ago,
Speaker 2: so you can get it on I think I saw
Speaker 2: it on Amazon and wherever you get your books. Let's see,
Speaker 2: let's give your web address. The web address is. Your
Speaker 2: name is Ellend Davidson dot com. You have a Facebook page,
Speaker 2: You have an Instagram page. What you got on your
Speaker 2: Instagram page? You got pictures of your trees, the summer
Speaker 2: tree on Instagram?
Speaker 1: No, I should uh put a picture.
Speaker 2: Everybody wants to see the trees.
Speaker 1: I have some cheese here and there, and certainly on
Speaker 1: my website there's some and I do post them on Facebook.
Speaker 1: I tend to post a little bit more on Facebook
Speaker 1: than Instagram.
Speaker 2: I thought you were going to say, well, I don't
Speaker 2: post these sacred trees like Summer Tree because I don't
Speaker 2: want anyone going out after them. But heck, it takes
Speaker 2: you a bit of time to get to them, so
Speaker 2: probably only the animals and you know where it is.
Speaker 1: You know, No, I have posted pictures of it before,
Speaker 1: but I just haven't. Well it's not summer yet, I
Speaker 1: can't even get there yet, so I will post one.
Speaker 1: Stay tuned.
Speaker 2: The real pleasure. Much success on this book. I think
Speaker 2: you got something and I really appreciate you writing the book.
Speaker 1: Thank you for having me. It was really a joy
Speaker 1: to talk to you, so thank you.
Speaker 2: That was a lot of fun for me. I had
Speaker 2: to tell you. When you live amongst the ancient Sequoia
Speaker 2: redwoods and these are you know, trees that are two
Speaker 2: hundred three hundred feet tall, They're monstrous, and you're in
Speaker 2: these groves, there's something very sacred about it, very calming,
Speaker 2: and they're exuding all types of energy. We're just beginning
Speaker 2: to understand what kind of energy they do exude, but
Speaker 2: we know it's very healing. As D was telling us,
Speaker 2: it's very healing to the body, and I've heard other people.
Speaker 2: My ex wife lived in Willets, which is south of
Speaker 2: where d lives in northern California, and she was a chiropractor.
Speaker 2: She had a lot of stories about people who were
Speaker 2: kind of doing the forest bathing technique or communing with
Speaker 2: nature and recovering from all kinds of real chronic problems.
Speaker 2: I think the other thing is when you move to
Speaker 2: a smaller town, you do have less resources, but you're
Speaker 2: much more in nature, and this can be very, very beneficial.
Speaker 2: So the book just came out, Sacred Forest Bathing The
Speaker 2: Healing Power of Ancient Trees and Wild Places came out
Speaker 2: a couple of weeks ago, and I enjoyed the book.
Speaker 2: It has some work that you can do after each
Speaker 2: chapters are very small. You can do a little work.
Speaker 2: The recommendation is you do a little work after each
Speaker 2: chapter to kind of review. But we went over the
Speaker 2: techniques for doing these interactions with the nature. But I
Speaker 2: really strongly suggest the book simply because it offers a
Speaker 2: lot of benefits for connecting with nature. So Ellen D. Davidson,
Speaker 2: Sacred Forest Bathing, what an interesting term. Sacred forest bathing
Speaker 2: bathing Among the Vibrations. Hey, if you're enjoying Destiny Earth
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Speaker 2: that's it for this program. I want to thank my
Speaker 2: guest today, Ellen D. Davidson, coming to us from northern California.
Speaker 2: As always, the team of Gail tour Mark Foster, and
Speaker 2: everyone who makes this thing happen. You guys are rock
Speaker 2: all right. Take care of you well, and we will
Speaker 2: talk to you next time anything a