From Pharma To Farm with Grounded Extracts
James from Grounded Extracts joins Vibe Rant tonight to talk about his life and work, assisting those who are ready to leave allopathy behind and step into the freedom of true health. Topics may include addiction and iboga, natural birth, and spagyric alchemy, but with Vibe Rant, everything is on the table!
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In this episode
Core themes
Natural Alternatives and the Idea of Side Success
James of Grounded Extracts said his main aim was to offer alternatives to pharmaceuticals that were not addictive and did not carry side effects. He argued that side effects were simply effects, and that natural remedies used properly produced what he called side success, meaning unanticipated benefits. He stressed that he was not trying to replace anyone or anything, only to have options. Michelle Lundquist said she first came to his work through an earlier interview and praised his perspective, and speakers agreed that small batch remedies carried more potency and the maker's intent.
Inner Herbs, Drop Doses, and Sacred Voice
A host showed a tincture blend that Kyle, a recent guest, had sent him, made from tulsi, calamus, St. John's wort and Solomon's seal. Michelle Lundquist described the tiny holes in the St. John's wort leaf as gateways for light and for working through trauma. Several speakers argued that a single drop could act more on an emotional level than a full dropper, and Gabe said he believed some goddesses preferred purity over quantity. A speaker noted that the Sanskrit vacha and Latin vox both mean voice, and James tied the idea to the inner voice.
Addiction Consultations and Self Compassion
James said the main work at Grounded Extracts at the time was addiction consultations, which he described as blunt, question based and not something anyone should jump into. He asked listeners not to reach out on behalf of others, since people who were not seeking help were not ready. One speaker argued that self condemnation held back change and that anyone still breathing was not damned. Speakers also stressed that a person's relationship to a plant such as cannabis mattered a great deal, and that respect for it mattered most.
Catharsis, Dream Witnessing, and Plant Meditation
Gabe reflected that people will go out of their way for a sense of catharsis and wondered whether the word had a phonetic link to the Cathars. Later, Chance wondered whether dreaming could let a person serve as a witness or guide for another being. Michelle Lundquist told of a dream in which she delivered a letter for a woman who lacked the courage to send it. Another speaker described meditating with plants by entering an inner sanctuary and asking permission to enter the herb, and a speaker stressed that nobody was recommending any substance.
Gatekeepers, Middlemen, and Doing the Work
Chance argued that commerce, health care and spiritual middlemen all profited from standing between people and their source, and that the deepest gate of all was the fear of knowing ourselves. A speaker said that growing your own food and making your own medicine were steps toward opening that gate. Another speaker used a ladder image, saying any modality could become the new pattern that held a person until they stepped off it. Later, another guest introduced German New Medicine, the idea that ailments were tied to trauma, and speakers traded simple breathing and reflexology tricks.
Quotes
“If your drug doesn't have side success, and people are like, what's side success? Well, that means no side effects. And it means all these other unanticipated effects that are actually super good, super beneficial and just super healing for you.”
“So St. John's wort has in the leaf these perforations. If you hold it up to the sunlight, you'll see these little holes in it, and it's filled with the essential oil. And so I always look at the holes as gateways into working through something, working with trauma.”
“I believe that some goddesses prefer purity over quantity. And so if you can make just a single droplet of an offering, then no matter how much work it takes to get it as pure as humanly possible, that is the perfect offering.”
“So anytime I get someone who absolutely gets the full depth of what they're involved in, I get excited about it. And so it's not something that anyone should just jump into. We're very blunt and we ask questions.”
“If I wasn't able to evolve, it's important to me to be able to set the example of doing the work. Otherwise talking about this stuff is just a bunch of flapping gums.”
“For so long, what I was trying to figure out, the real gem that I was trying to mine out of my guests' minds, was how did you get to where you're pursuing your purpose as your livelihood, and free from other forms of the feeling of need to survive doing stuff you don't want to do.”
“I love the word catharsis. It's a hard commodity to sell. People will go out of their way for a sense of catharsis, and now I'm also wondering, is there a phonetic association to the Cathars?”
“It's almost just like you're adding witness to somebody that needs the extra witness. And I wonder if there are beings dreaming us in our moments where we need help and guidance, where we need extra clarity and cohesion and awareness.”
“I still know that I've done it. I still know that it's there. Sometimes I hide myself from the feeling of that primary vibration of logos because it's scary to know the responsibility of just how integral and centered we are in the entirety of cosmos, each and every one of us.”
“Any Vibe Rant that you want to call in on or throw your two cents and hat in the ring, let me know in some form or another, even if we're already mid show. Once a Vibe Ranter, you're quite welcome back.”
“A lot of people are just hungry for this knowledge and thirsty and wanting to know that they can heal themselves, and our bodies are built to freaking heal. And once you just start tuning into that and you have something that comes up, it just becomes so clear that we are capable of healing ourselves and our bodies want us to heal.”
“It takes a lot of relief off people's shoulders. It is not your responsibility to straighten someone else's life out. So we can help. We can be there. We can offer things, but we just hope people do the right thing for them.”
“So it's just a pleasure to meet you guys and talk with you guys and know that I'm part of a community that cares for one another. And that's everything. That's literally everything to me and to life.”
Gabriel, known on air as Slick Dissident, co-hosts InnerVerse's Vibe Rant show and is a longtime recurring guest on the podcast. He teaches occult symbolism and tarot on his YouTube channel, ranging across the Major Arcana, the esoteric Enneagram, mythology and archetype, mystic linguistics, and the symbolism hidden in popular film. He is best known for Tarot-tories, his own system mapping the 22 Major Arcana and zodiac archetypes onto the geography of the United States.
See all Gabe episodes→Kyle and Serena Denton are community herbalists creating wild-crafted and organic plant medicines out of Milwaukee since 2015. I have used their teas and tinctures on an almost daily basis for years now. Kyle is a great friend of InnerVerse and has appeared on the channel more times than I can count. These products work, not in the allopathic "pharma-medicine" way, but in a terrain-support, consciousness bolstering plant-teacher sort of way.
