Conversation starts 5:45 Growing up within a family lineage of community herbalists and healers, Dr. Hobbs leads us through his orientation to healing and medicine starting with an overview of medical and healing systems, in particular the intersection between eastern and western medicine. The central question that Dr. Hobbs asks is: “What is medicine?” This, an obvious question that, sadly, is not often reflected upon. Dr. Hobbs urges us to cultivate and source our own medicine within our daily lives. As a young man, Chris spent his time in the old forest looking for mushrooms and, given his family history and knowledge of healing modalities, he became acquainted with medicines that grow naturally. We continue with subjects ranging from the community of mycologists, mystical states through a scientific process, the religion of science, food as medicine, issues with modern medicine, factory farming, food tax, food as source of healing, medical response to Covid, vaccine rollout, the role of viruses in our biological network, humanity living out of balance, the dual split of the vaccine, understanding a vaccine and a virus, the scientific method, publication and interpretation of data, medicinal mushrooms, inviting mushrooms into your diet, the microbiome and the gut, fungi and the immune system, nutritional benefit of mushrooms, visionary mushrooms, value of subjective experience following many mushroom journeys, and the lack of cultural and ritual process to fold psychedelics and religious experience into a sacred practice. Bio: Dr. Christopher Hobbs is a fourth-generation, internationally renowned herbalist, licensed acupuncturist, author, clinician, botanist, mycologist, and research scientist with over 35 years of experience with herbal medicine. Christopher has a doctorate from UC Berkeley in phylogenetics, evolutionary biology and phytochemistry. He is also a founding member of the American Herbalists Guild. https://www.christopherhobbs.com https://www.facebook.com/chrisrhobbs https://www.tellurideinstitute.org/telluride-mushroom-festival/ Website for The Sacred Speaks: http://www.thesacredspeaks.com Information for Mark Plotkin: www.markplotkin.com WATCH: YouTube for The Sacred Speaks https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOAuksnpfht1udHWUVEO7Rg Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/ @thesacredspeaks Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesacredspeaks Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thesacredspeaks/ Brought to you by: https://www.thecenterforhas.com Theme music provided by: http://www.modernnationsmusic.com