Register For June 25 “Fantastic Fungi” Film!

By Neenah Payne

DISCLAIMER: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Book recommendations contain Amazon affiliate links, but all other products and services are offered solely upon the recommendation of the article’s author for informational purposes.

Fungi are the planet’s great transformers. They bridge death and life, chaos and form, energy and substance. As the first multicellular organisms to emerge from the oceans, fungi shaped the terrestrial world we and our animal kin inhabit. They have profound implications for our future individual and planetary health.

Holistic Primary Care invites you to discover this fascinating cosmos with a special online screening of Louie Schwartzberg’s magnificent film Fantastic Fungi. Bursting with extraordinary time-elapse images and insightful interviews with leading medical and environmental experts, Fantastic Fungi reveals how mushrooms and other fungi can help us solve some of our most vexing problems. Immediately following the screening will be a live Q&A session with Director Louie Schwartzberg, neurologist Maya Shetreat, MD, and holistic psychiatrist, Scott Shannon, MD, moderated by HPC’s editor, Erik Goldman.


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Tickets are limited—-Click HERE to register. Price: $7.99. Thursday, 25 Jun 2020, 8:00 PM – Eastern Time  (US and Canada).

Fantastic Fungi Film and Book

“Fantastic Fungi” Film Event Online March 26! shows that the Fantastic Fungi film by mycologist Paul Stamets and filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg was launched in March. The film won the 2019 Audience Award for Documentary Feature at the Maui Film Festival. See the trailer. The book Fantastic Fungi: How Mushrooms Can Heal, Shift Consciousness, and Save the Planet is an Amazon Best Seller.

Fantastic Fungi is a vivid journey into the mysterious subterranean world of mycelium and its fruit— the mushroom. A story that begins 3.5 billion years ago, fungi makes the soil that supports life, connecting vast systems of roots from plants and trees all over the planet, like an underground Internet.

Through the eyes of renowned mycologist Paul Stamets, professor of forest ecology Suzanne Simard, best-selling author Michael Pollan, food naturalist Eugenia Bone and others, we experience the power, beauty and complexity of the fungi kingdom. The film is a blueprint for what connects all humanity and the natural world. There is much to learn from the world of mycelium and Fantastic Fungi is an inspiring place to begin the process of bringing us together as interconnected creators of our world.

The Power of Wonder and Awe

The world can feel like an increasingly crazy place with the COVID-19 plans now stretching into the summer and the growing Black Lives Matter protests going global. So, it is easy for many people to feel disoriented, depressed, hopeless, and confused.

The Power of Wonder & Awe by Louie Schwartzberg reminds us of the importance of reconnecting with the beauty of nature now at a time of growing uncertainty. It says:

Sometimes, our darkest moments can help us discover a profound purpose. The career of director and photographer Louie Schwartzberg began by documenting Vietnam War protests that changed the course of that conflict. Louie wanted to make the world a better place and fight for social justice. He photographed a generation in turmoil and bore witness to an epochal shift in American values.

We stand at a similar crossroads today. Visual imagery can help us find hope and transformation. Visual can capture great beauty, but also express the fullness of humanity and the human experience. Louie’s message of hope and courage is needed now, and the power of the image will be essential to our future.

Louie explained during his TED Talk:

Today the battleground is consciousness, grabbing your attention, your eyeballs. Politicians can do it by being dark, vulgar, and divisive, and pushing our fear buttons. We need to counter that with beauty and wonder, shining a light into the darkness, connecting and opening our hearts to shift behavior and celebrate life. We need to be resilient to make our voices heard.

How Mushrooms Heal Us and The Planet

6 ways mushrooms can save the world | Paul Stamets shows that mushrooms are highly active against flu viruses. Mushroom Supplements Boost Your Immune System explains that just as we each have a gut microbiome, the Earth has its own microbiome — the community of micro-organisms (including bacteria, fungi, and viruses) that live in a habitat. Top soil is a microbiome with bio-activated nutrients – minerals from rocks. Topsoil is composed of mineral particles, organic matter, water, and air. It is where Earth’s biological activity occurs.

The Earth’s topsoil is a mixture of the microbiome made of bacteria and the mycobiome made of fungi. The mycobiome is like a spider web intertwining the microbiome. The mycobiome acts as a detox mechanism in the microbiome. The microbiome is the top layer with the mycobiome beneath which acts as an information-relaying network throughout the microbiome of the planet. There may be a layer of the microbiome underneath the mycobiome as well.

Paul Stamets – Mushroom Magic | Bioneers shows how mushrooms can help heal the planet. It explains that Stamets has recently achieved remarkable results cleaning up dangerous toxins using “fungal bioremediation” and radically improving soil fertility with mushrooms. Stamets explains that the mushroom network beneath the ground all over the Earth is the original communication “network” replicated in the internet. His work has shown that mushrooms can turn waste dumps into gardens.

Stamets loves walking the old growth forests with his wife Dr. Carolyn Dusty Wu Yao who is a plant specialist (shown below). In his fascinating and informative presentation Mushrooms as Medicine with Paul Stamets at Exponential Medicine, Stamets discusses a variety of mushrooms and their uses. He goes into greater depth about how Turkey Tail mushrooms helped his mother recover from cancer and its additional benefits. He also shows that mushrooms have proven to be more effective than drugs in treating flu viruses like H1N1. Stamets discusses new data supporting the role of fungi in biosecurity and the health of the bees that pollinate our planet.

Turkey Tail Mushroom Helped Heal Stage 4 Breast Cancer!

In Paul Stamets | Mushroom Science NO Trace of Cancer, Stamets explains that in 2009 his 84-year-old mother Patty was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer. Her doctor said it was the second worst case she had seen in 20 years of practice — and gave her just three months to live! However, the doctor recommended Turkey Tail mushrooms!

So, Patty took the Turkey Tail mushroom supplement her son creates at his Fungi Perfecti firm along with the drugs Taxol and Herceptin. Stamets initially praised Taxol but later said that it’s a terrible drug. He explains in his fascinating presentation Mushrooms as Medicine with Paul Stamets at Exponential Medicine that of the 50 people in a Herceptin drug study in which his mother participated, 48 died. Only his mother also took the Turkey Tail supplement! Patty was still cancer free as of 2018. Although Stamets doesn’t say the Turkey Tail mushroom supplement cured his mother’s cancer – only that it helped – it looks like the drugs didn’t help! So, people can draw their own conclusions.

The 2016 CNN article The ‘forbidden fruit’ of medicinal mushrooms follows the story.  7 Medicinal Mushrooms That Fight Cancer is by Ty Bollinger, host of The Truth About Cancer. It says  that Turkey Tail mushroom has anti-viral properties which offer a unique opportunity to target tumor viruses.

Podcast: The Magic of Mushrooms!

In the Organixx podcast Episode 47, The Magic of Mushrooms, Jonathan Hunsaker, founder of Organixx, and TeriAnn Trevenen, CEO of Organixx, discuss many of the amazing facts about mushrooms.

This podcast is a follow-up of Episode 6 “Boosting Your Immune System Using Mushroom” in which Jonathan and TeriAnn interviewed Dr. Daniel Nuzum, former chief formulator of Organixx products, about how to use mushrooms. Mushroom Supplements Boost Your Immune System documents that podcast which is no longer online. It shows that mushrooms are not plants or animals – and are closely related to humans!

The article explains that the biggest mushroom in the world is armillaria ostoyae — or as it has been nicknamed the “Humongous Fungus”. Covering 2,385 acres of Malheur National Forest, Oregon, it is our largest organism. From the way the fungus has been growing, it may also be our oldest organism. Humongous is estimated to be 2,400-8,650 years old.

Organixx 7M+ Supplement

Jonathan and TeriAnn focus on the Organixx 7M+ supplement which was the first product Organixx launched in 2016 and is now their second-best seller after their Turmeric 3D. The Organixx 7M+ contains Chaga, Lentinan, Cordyceps, Lion’s Mane, Shitake, Turkey Tail, and Reishi mushrooms. Using centuries-old knowledge with a unique formulation process, Organixx unleashed the power of these mushrooms in a way never done before. 7M+ does not contain yeast, soy protein, sodium, starch, artificial coloring, preservatives, or flavoring and is GMO-Free.

Mushrooms and Telomeres: Slowing Down Aging

TeriAnn referenced podcast Episode 46 Telomeres and Slowing Down Aging which explains that mushrooms help lengthen telomeres and slow down aging because they boost micro-nutrients, reduce inflammation, and provide anti-oxidants.

The unique, fermented 7M+ mushroom supplement supports:

  • Heart Patented fermented mushroom extracts help keep your heart healthy
  • LiverLive brown seaweed extracts help support healthy liver function
  • StomachLion’s Mane fermentation maintains healthy gut function
  • Immune SystemHelps maintain healthy immune function
  • ThyroidSupports natural energy and mood balance
  • AdrenalsHelps your body recover from long-term stress

For centuries, the Japanese have understood the unsurpassed benefits of certain mushrooms. An Organixx article that is no longer online pointed out:

In fact, the last 3 men to hold records for oldest on Earth were all Japanese… of the 100 oldest people living today nearly 30% are from Japan…one dietary factor stands out that is unique to the Japanese diet: for centuries, the Japanese have been consuming a variety of mushrooms.  Mushrooms like Chaga, Shiitake, Reishi, and more.

They’re known to be some of the most powerful natural elements on Earth, and they’ve been a big part of the local diet in Okinawa for centuries. The benefits of mushrooms are known far and wide. The Japanese and other Asian cultures have cooked, made tea and other powerful elixirs to combat everything from inflammation to a poorly functioning heart. As it turns out, their love for these powerful fungi has translated into longer lives filled with youthful enthusiasm, boundless energy, strong immune systems, and a higher quality of life.

Santa and The Red and White Mushroom

The sacred red and white Amanita Muscaria (aka “Fly Agoric”) mushroom used by Saami shamans in the Arctic Circle plays a central, but hidden, role in our Christmas traditions! Saami shamans dress in red and white to honor the mushroom. They take sacks of the mushrooms through chimneys of homes because the snow covers the entrances. People hang the mushrooms by the fire place and put them on fir trees to dry. When the reindeer eat the mushrooms, they are said to fly!

The mushrooms are prized and are eaten on the Winter Solstice because they cause enlightenment — just as the light of the sun begins to return. Without knowing the origin of the traditions, we sometimes hang socks by the fireplace. We bring fir trees inside and decorate them. We tell kids that Santa lives at the North Pole, wears a red and white suit, and flies through the sky in a sleigh driven by reindeer to deliver presents through chimneys around the world. We copied everything except the mushroom and enlightenment. Instead, we turned Christmas into a shopping holiday!

In this way, Santa Claus preserves our connection to our shamanic roots — while hiding and disguising them. Instead of delivering the magic mushroom which is a pathway to wisdom and enlightenment through transcendental direct experiential knowledge, Santa Claus brings gifts we often don’t need or want — and ties us more deeply to the material world.

Mushrooms and Mankind: The Impact of Mushrooms on Human Consciousness and Religion shows that the amanita muscaria mushroom is also connected to Adam and Eve, Jesus, Last Supper, Pope, Holy Grail, manna from heaven, holy water, Knights of the Round Table, King Arthur, Ark of the Covenant, Easter Egg hunt, Catholic “communion”, four-leaf clover, Fountain of Youth, Philosopher’s Stone, War on Drugs, snake, caduceus, dollar sign, etc. The mushroom provides the Near Death Like Experiences that lead to transcendence which is prized by shamans and is the root of all religions. The book shows the hidden representations of the mushroom in religious art and architecture around the world.

The Saami

The Saami live in the Arctic Circle. The traditional Saami are dependent on the reindeer for food, transportation, and clothing in much the same way the Plains Indians depended on the buffalo and later the horse.

Dennis Banks of the American Indian Movement visited the Saami. There is no conflict between these Europeans and the rest of the world. This is the part of Europe that never adopted Christianity and lives much like the rest of the indigenous world. The Saami are considered part of The Fourth World around the Article Circle which extends to Alaska and includes the Inuit.

The 1987 Saami film The Pathfinder is the story of the founder of the Saami people.  It is the only film in the Saami language and is a thrilling story.  It is the ULTIMATE ski film!

 Top image source: Movingart.com

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