--- In [email protected], "jyouells2000" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > A mechanical engineering manager friend of mine, along with > his 2 sons harvested wild genseng from the mountains of NE > PA for years. Their best markets, he said, were in Japan > and China. This was in the early 1980's. It surprised me. > I didn't even know that it grew here.
My karate teacher told an interesting story from his father's youth in Japan. He said that their father told the kids that he used to go out into the mountains at night to hunt ginseng -- with bows and arrows. According to the story (the veracity of which I have no reason to doubt, but which I do not know for sure is true), the variety of ginseng they were searching for is hard to find in the daylight because the plants are sensitive to vibration. If humans approach, the minor vibrations of their footsteps are detected by the plant, which then "curls up" the way some ferns do and "hides," making the plants difficult to find. But this particular variety tends to grow in naturally-radioactive soil, and glows faintly in the dark. So they would go out at night, and when they saw a glow in the distance, they would shoot an arrow at the glow, and then go back in the morning and find the arrows, and with them, the ginseng plants they were hunting for. Again, I don't know for sure that this is true, but it certainly is a fascinating story. It also provides an explanation for why some cultures value the older ginseng roots, the ones that have managed to survive in the wild for decades. On some level, the plants don't really "want" to be found and harvested; they strive to survive. This quality is one of the reasons that some feel that ginseng is beneficial as a tonic, and wild, old ginseng even more beneficial. For those who are interested in definitions of the different tonic herbs and what they are beneficial for, Ron's site (this particular section originally created by my friend, who used to be a TM teacher) has a great page that documents them: http://www.dragonherbs.com/herbs/index.asp A visit to Ron's store/home in L.A. is a real adventure, if you ever have the chance. Being able to see the herbs in big bins, in their natural form, is quite different from seeing them in powdered form, in capsules or as a tea. You can actually feel some of the "vibe" of the different herbs, some of them quite distinctly. My personal favorites are astralagus, reishi (one of the world's most proven anti- carcinogens), cordyceps, dragon bone (a mineral), schizandra, lyceum, polyrachis (really a type of ant), and male silk moth. The last two are extremely potent male sex tonics. For the ladies, Ron makes a female sex tonic that (his store being in L.A. and all) is one of his biggest sellers. :-) My favorite of all the herbs I was ever able to try is Tibetan rhodiola: http://www.dragonherbs.com/herbs/herbs.asp?herb_id=12040 It's a variety of rose/rose hip that only grows above the snow line in Tibet, and that has been used for centuries by the Dalai Lamas for both health and spiritual purposes. It's one of the world's great oxygenators, and has been used by Olympic teams in the past to help their athletes develop more "wind." In Tibet, it is used by high-altitude climbers and guides to cope with high (above 19,000 feet) altitudes and to prevent altitude sickness. Among Tibetan monks, the same substance has been known for a long time to develop wisdom and facilitate spiritual experience. If anyone is tempted to order some from Ron and experiment, I offer one caveat -- it tastes really, really, really bad. It took Ron months to develop a tea containing it that was actually drinkable. To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
