If you can't find Natural American Spirit, see if you can find Manitou. They are German-made and are also additive-free, available as filtered cigarettes or as roll-your-owns. If you find American Spirit too strong, give these a try. The golden blend (yellow/orange pack) is about an 8 strength, while the original blend (blue pack) is about an 12 strength (it also has Greek tobacco in it). I think the American Spirits are somewhere around 16. Unlike American Spirit, there is no pesticide-free organic version that I know of, only additive-free.
Hi RyanRyan said:
you live in Australia don't you? Have you found a source for Organic cigarettes? I can buy Natural American Spirit Blue or Yellow packs but that is all I have found in Sydney
Regards
Gordon
Iconoclast
Jedi Master
i tried the Manitou tobacco recently and i find it to be quite ok.Nathan said:
but one thing that jumped out at me was the logo - i know it's supposed to be indian, but am i the only one who sees a stylized pyramid with the all-seeing eye?
Yep, but to be honest, I'm still smoking tailor-made cigs - toxins 'n all. I'll buy some 'Drum' and "roll my own" every so often, but I prefer tailor-made cigs. I haven't been able to find any tailor-made organic cigarettes sold in Oz - not that I've tried that hard to be honest. Do you have any recommendations?flashgordonv said:
Smoking. Shamans, stopping, starting, info, Thanx
I smoked from a young age until last october (when I was 22) when I read this piece from The Howard Marks Book of Dope Stories. The recent piece on the forum about smoking made me think about putting this passage up for people to read. When I found it I was quite amused at the title of the book from which it was taken! I can't personally verify the acuracy of any of this but it seems to me quite well researched.
From the book The Cosmic Serpent, by Jeremy Narby:
The Ashaninca say that by ingesting ayahuasca or tobacco, it is possible to see the normally invisible and hidden Maninkari spirits. Carlos Perez Shuma had told me that tobacco attracted the Maninkari. Amazonian shamans in general consider tobacco food for the spirits, who crave it "since they no longer possess fire as human beings do".
The idea that the Maninkari liked tobacco had always seemed funny to me. I considered "spirits" to be imaginary characters who could not really enjoy material substances. I also considered smoking to be a bad habit, and it seemed improbable that spirits (in as much as they existed) would suffer from the same kinds of addictive behaviours as human beings. Never-theless, I had resolved to stop letting myself be held up by such doubts and to pay attention to the literal meaning of the shamans words, and the shamans were categorical in saying that spirits had an almost insatiable hunger for tobacco.
There are however, fudamental differences between the shamanic use of tobacco and the consumption of industrial cigarettes. The botanical variety used in the Amazon contains up to eighteen times MORE nicotine than the plants used in Virginia type cigarettes. Amazonian tobacco is grown without chemical fertilizers or pesticides and contains none of the ingredients added to cigarettes, such as aluminium oxide, potassium nitrate, ammonium phosphate, polyvinyl acetate, and a hundred or so others, which make up approximately 10 percent of the smokable matters. During combustion, a cigarette emits some 4,000 substances, most of which are toxic. Some of these substances are even radioactive, making cigarettes the largest single source of radiation in the daily life of an average smoker.According to one study, the averagee smoker absorbs the equivalent of the radiation dosages from 250 chest X-rays per year. Cigarette smoke is direcly implicated in more than 25 serious illnesses, including 17 forms of cancers. In the Amazon, on the other hand, tobacco iis considered a REMEDY. The Ashaninca word for "healer," or "shaman," is sheripiari - literally, "the person who uses tobacco." The oldest Ashaninca men I knew were all sheripiari. They were so old that they did not know their own age, which only their deeply wrinkled skin suggested, and they were remarkably alert and healthy.
Intrigued by these disparities, I looked through data banks for comparative studies between the toxicity of the Amazonian variety (Nicotiana rustica) and the variety used by the manufacturers of cigarettes, cigars, rolling tobacco, and pipe tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum). I found nothing. The question, it seemed, had not been asked. I also looked for studies on the cancer rate among shamans who use massive and regular doses of nicotine: again, nothing. So I decided to write to the main authority on the matter, Johannes Wilbert, author of the book Tobacco and Shamanism in South America, to put my questions to him. He replied: "There is certainly evidence that Western tobacco products sontain many different harmful agents which are probably not present in organically grown plants. I have not heard of shamans developing cancers but that may, of course, be a function of several things like lack of Westeern diagnosis, natural life span oof indigenous people, magico-religious restriction of tobacco use in tribal societies, etc."
In any case, scientists have never really considered tobacco as a hallucinogen, because Westerners have never smoked large enough doses to reach the hallucinatory state.
The Cosmic Serpent, 1998
The day I read that was the last day I had a cigarette. That is, for eight months. Then I read the wave and Laura's findings in studies of nicotine's effect on the brain. It suddenly made sense why you can always hear lighters going in the background of the SOTT podcasts!lol Anyway, I started smoking again because the gist of it to me was, if your a thinker, then THINK AGAIN about whether smoking is bad for you. I've tried alot of things suggested in Lauras work, including spinning etc. I'd draw the line if the C's said, "you should jump of a cliffe, it's really beneficial", but because of the scientific study and evidence thats why I started again.
I've read the recent conversations to do with smoking and was extremely pleased to read about American Spirit Organic cigarettes and tobacco. I've made contact with the company and I can get hold of it myself so I'm definitely gonna change to that brand. Thanks guys. I think there are many interesting points raised in the passage above. Definitely FOOD FOR THOUGHT anyway!
I smoked from a young age until last october (when I was 22) when I read this piece from The Howard Marks Book of Dope Stories. The recent piece on the forum about smoking made me think about putting this passage up for people to read. When I found it I was quite amused at the title of the book from which it was taken! I can't personally verify the acuracy of any of this but it seems to me quite well researched.
From the book The Cosmic Serpent, by Jeremy Narby:
The Ashaninca say that by ingesting ayahuasca or tobacco, it is possible to see the normally invisible and hidden Maninkari spirits. Carlos Perez Shuma had told me that tobacco attracted the Maninkari. Amazonian shamans in general consider tobacco food for the spirits, who crave it "since they no longer possess fire as human beings do".
The idea that the Maninkari liked tobacco had always seemed funny to me. I considered "spirits" to be imaginary characters who could not really enjoy material substances. I also considered smoking to be a bad habit, and it seemed improbable that spirits (in as much as they existed) would suffer from the same kinds of addictive behaviours as human beings. Never-theless, I had resolved to stop letting myself be held up by such doubts and to pay attention to the literal meaning of the shamans words, and the shamans were categorical in saying that spirits had an almost insatiable hunger for tobacco.
There are however, fudamental differences between the shamanic use of tobacco and the consumption of industrial cigarettes. The botanical variety used in the Amazon contains up to eighteen times MORE nicotine than the plants used in Virginia type cigarettes. Amazonian tobacco is grown without chemical fertilizers or pesticides and contains none of the ingredients added to cigarettes, such as aluminium oxide, potassium nitrate, ammonium phosphate, polyvinyl acetate, and a hundred or so others, which make up approximately 10 percent of the smokable matters. During combustion, a cigarette emits some 4,000 substances, most of which are toxic. Some of these substances are even radioactive, making cigarettes the largest single source of radiation in the daily life of an average smoker.According to one study, the averagee smoker absorbs the equivalent of the radiation dosages from 250 chest X-rays per year. Cigarette smoke is direcly implicated in more than 25 serious illnesses, including 17 forms of cancers. In the Amazon, on the other hand, tobacco iis considered a REMEDY. The Ashaninca word for "healer," or "shaman," is sheripiari - literally, "the person who uses tobacco." The oldest Ashaninca men I knew were all sheripiari. They were so old that they did not know their own age, which only their deeply wrinkled skin suggested, and they were remarkably alert and healthy.
Intrigued by these disparities, I looked through data banks for comparative studies between the toxicity of the Amazonian variety (Nicotiana rustica) and the variety used by the manufacturers of cigarettes, cigars, rolling tobacco, and pipe tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum). I found nothing. The question, it seemed, had not been asked. I also looked for studies on the cancer rate among shamans who use massive and regular doses of nicotine: again, nothing. So I decided to write to the main authority on the matter, Johannes Wilbert, author of the book Tobacco and Shamanism in South America, to put my questions to him. He replied: "There is certainly evidence that Western tobacco products sontain many different harmful agents which are probably not present in organically grown plants. I have not heard of shamans developing cancers but that may, of course, be a function of several things like lack of Westeern diagnosis, natural life span oof indigenous people, magico-religious restriction of tobacco use in tribal societies, etc."
In any case, scientists have never really considered tobacco as a hallucinogen, because Westerners have never smoked large enough doses to reach the hallucinatory state.
The Cosmic Serpent, 1998
The day I read that was the last day I had a cigarette. That is, for eight months. Then I read the wave and Laura's findings in studies of nicotine's effect on the brain. It suddenly made sense why you can always hear lighters going in the background of the SOTT podcasts!lol Anyway, I started smoking again because the gist of it to me was, if your a thinker, then THINK AGAIN about whether smoking is bad for you. I've tried alot of things suggested in Lauras work, including spinning etc. I'd draw the line if the C's said, "you should jump of a cliffe, it's really beneficial", but because of the scientific study and evidence thats why I started again.
I've read the recent conversations to do with smoking and was extremely pleased to read about American Spirit Organic cigarettes and tobacco. I've made contact with the company and I can get hold of it myself so I'm definitely gonna change to that brand. Thanks guys. I think there are many interesting points raised in the passage above. Definitely FOOD FOR THOUGHT anyway!
G
GoldenV
Guest
Smoking. Shamans, stopping, starting, info, Thanx
Just like to chime in and say that the "cosmic serpant" is an excellent book, and definatly worth reading! As for smoking being good for you.. im sure it can't be good for your lungs, but niether is breathing the toxic air in our major cities.. so, light up i say! :)
Just like to chime in and say that the "cosmic serpant" is an excellent book, and definatly worth reading! As for smoking being good for you.. im sure it can't be good for your lungs, but niether is breathing the toxic air in our major cities.. so, light up i say! :)
Another good reason to light up a cigarette ;)
Brain cells work differently than previously thought: Nicotine helps to spark creativity
http://www.signs-of-the-times.org/articles/show/138489-Brain+cells+work+differently+than+previously+thought%3A+Nicotine+helps+to+spark+creativity
Brain cells work differently than previously thought: Nicotine helps to spark creativity
http://www.signs-of-the-times.org/articles/show/138489-Brain+cells+work+differently+than+previously+thought%3A+Nicotine+helps+to+spark+creativity
Johnno
The Living Force
I've just taken up the black-art of pipe smoking. Don't know what brought this on, it just seemed like a good idea. Bought a cheap pipe and a tin of Erinmore Flake (which smells good enough to eat) and am now happily puffing away. One advantage is I'm not drawing back and then there's the taste! Wonderful.
It's a whole new world of false lights, tamping and briar!
It's a whole new world of false lights, tamping and briar!
