Herb is the healing of a nation, alcohol is the destruction.
Thou hast the keys of Paradise, oh, just, subtle, and mighty opium!
I have come with one medicinal herb that I am offering as a remedy to India's problems. And that medicinal herb is 'development'.
Why do they always put mud into coffee on board steamers? Why does the tea generally taste of boiled boots?
At one point consciousness-altering devices like the microscope and telescope were criminalized for exactly the same reasons that psychedelic plants were banned in later years. They allow us to peer into bits and zones of Chaos.
What the eye does not see, the heart does not rue
While aromatherapy is practiced by medical doctors in France, this has not been the case in England and the United States.
Oils of cinnamon and eucalyptus are as powerful against some microorganisms as conventional antibiotics, and are especially effective against flus. Sandalwood oil from Mysore, India, is not only a classic perfume oil but is also a traditional remedy for sore throats and laryngitis. Lavender oil, so often used in toilet waters and scented sachets, has a dramatic healing action on burns.
The scope of herbal medicine ranges from mild-acting plant medicines such as chamomile and peppermint, to very potent ones such as foxglove (from which the drug digitalis is derived). In between these two poles lies a wide spectrum of plant medicine with significant medical applications. One need only go to the United States Pharacopoeia to see the central role that plant medicine has played in American medicine.
With the growing recognition of the value of herbs, it is surely time to examine the professional therapeutic use of these herbs. There are profound changes happening in the American culture and herbal medicine, 'green medicine,' is playing an ever-increasing role in people's experience of this transformation.
or simply:
