Healing has been a life-long obsession and constant theme for me. I wish I could say this was serendipitous. But I’ve come to see this stretch of my earthly tour as a masterfully architected blueprint for my soul’s evolution; one that I would have gladly handed off to another.

We all know that infamous hero’s healing journey; an iconic rite of passage hailed in spiritual circles. Somewhere along the line, life throws you a curve ball. And you step up to the plate, bat in hand, confident you’ll hit a home run.

Trusting in Universal Law and stints in various mystery schools, you go to work aligning your chakras with the perseverance of a major league rookie training for an incoming season.

After a two-week structured water fast, celery juice and raw veggies are mealtime staples. No alternative treatment, frequency device or herbal tincture is off the table. Daily meditative practices lead to enthusiastic affirmations that healing is complete despite any evidence it is true.

While the results of such rituals aren’t easy to substantiate, you can’t deny a slight energetic shift is inching you towards the win. Or maybe you’ve stumbled on just the right combination of supplements, diet and exercise to turn the corner. Either way, you are feeling stronger and more confident.

Your bat makes perfect contact with the ball, hurling it into the stands. The bases are loaded and the crowd cheers in anticipation. This single hit is the prelude to stardom.

Legendary accounts of spiritual teachers overcoming a major life obstacle are commonplace in our community. I’ve spoken of my own at great length. We all love a good story.

At the darkest hour, supernatural forces open the flood gates to ancestral voices. Answers are revealed and a soul is anointed with healing wisdom. The question isn’t whether these are genuine events, but if they are sustainable and repeatable healing methods intended for others. A blueprint is only useful beyond the construction phase if the next building is identical to the first.

A big win is bound to feel amazing. But much as you’d like to hold onto the glory, it’s impossible to turn one career defining hit into an envied batting average for long. This isn’t because you don’t possess the talent or will. The probability of a home run relies on more than the number of pitches thrown.

The formula for a batting average has only undergone slight modifications since 1876, when the National League officially adopted the definition of hits divided by at-bats. But I think there’s a flaw in the calculation; because each batter is a unique manifestation of consciousness and every moment at bat a rare event swayed by unforeseen variables.

The evolutionary experience that a batter requires isn’t the concern of Major League Baseball; but maybe it should be. Even in the spiritual world, we rarely account for such pertinent periods of soul growth and their impeccable timing.

Despite not being recruited for the major leagues, I was a pretty decent recreational ball player in my childhood. Looking back I’ve come to realize that regardless of the massive gap in technical skills, there isn’t much difference in the ups and downs between seasons. Every major league slugger and 12-year old who dreams of becoming one is bound to have a bad year; as will your most revered healers, channels and spiritual teachers.

This only becomes a problem when the world is counting on you to repeat last year’s award winning grand slam. It’s natural for die-hard ball fans to compare their favorite player against the season’s rankings. And in the off years, it’s painful to admit how far you’ve fallen off the leader board. From the bench, you start to question the spiritual win that your ego so passionately embraced.

Let’s face it. No one wants to shed light on a score that’s plummeting. This would be counterintuitive to beating the odds, especially in the realm of healing.

To confess that you haven’t been able to summit the next mountain suggests that your secret healing sauce isn’t worth as much as you thought. Revealing an absence of intuition would further defile your polished image as a mystic. Eventually, you’d have to admit that your hero’s journey wasn’t the lifetime achievement it was all cracked up to be.

The savior archetype comes in many shapes, sizes and colors, but there is one common denominator. For a savior to be real, the lack of a further insurmountable obstacle is required. This fairy tale is glamorized in Instagram shots of your favorite guru scaling red rocks with outstretched arms in the allure of freedom and everlasting vitality.

But true healing doesn’t look this way because it never comes to an end.

Regardless of how hard you train, some pitches will fall just out of reach of the ego’s need to control. This is by design. These humbling moments at bat are stretching you to evolve in areas that your soul hasn’t before; in ways other than you did in ancient Lemuria or that nagging past life your Akashic records reader keeps replaying.

You are here now to become a different version of who you were before. So if history repeats, it isn’t because you didn’t conquer it then. It’s showing up in a slightly different form because you’ve meaningfully ascended through previous attempts and the universe knows that you are capable of more.

I am not suggesting that savoring a win is wrong; but if rested on too long, diminishes the actual triumph, which is an accumulation of achievements your soul has weathered since its very first breath. The Guides say that we don’t fully appreciate this precious legacy until we’ve reviewed it through Heavenly eyes.

What a soul gains in a test of faith can’t be encapsulated in a podcast-worthy tale or dramatic photo capturing the exact moment a record breaking hit kicks up dirt. It is impossible to quantify through material success or an astral process. In fact, the most cherished attributes of healing are rarely brought to light.

In all my years of channeling for private clients, sessions for the chronically ill scared me the most. It is the only topic that I expect my mind to interfere with. I feel the pressure of what is at stake as my soul is still growing through its own physical vulnerabilities. And the last thing I want is for my ego to taint critical guidance requested at such a tender moment.

I am always surprised and relieved when the message isn’t what I’d expect.

One session, in particular, made an overwhelming impact on me. A regular client was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and coming often to understand why. She eventually asked her Guides for the exact action steps to rid her body of this horrible disease. I was floored when I heard them lovingly proclaim that she was asking all the wrong questions.

They suggested that she surrender her physical healing and instead prioritize how she wanted to live inside of the experience that her soul was given. I realize this gets controversial in the spiritual bypassing domain. It may seem they were putting the blame on her for manifesting this terrible fate. But a soul’s destiny isn’t this exact, despite the best astrologer’s ability to chart the beginning and end of an arduous cycle.

They explain it this way.

You did not decide on every detail of your soul’s journey. You carved a complex wave of vibration through a living legacy. You are not meant to recall every detail of this predestined plan or reason for coming to Earth. In fact, the projection of this from the astral is so massive, it would be impossible to fit into a linear perspective on a physical planet.

You are simply attracting the vibratory equivalent of all that is necessary to become your soul’s next highest expression. This doesn’t mean that your vibration is to blame. It is highly intelligent.

On Earth, we attract from a pool of history that runs through the entire human condition. This isn’t all bad. It gives us a glimpse into what it must have been like to be here before and an occasion to improve on it for generations to come.

We all face prominent karmic themes wound within our past; some related to the body and others to hardships like poverty and loss. The goal isn’t to heal, understand or change them. Their purpose is to change you. When taken to heart, this primal incarnate pursuit improves the entire universe and every part of you that roams through it.

Ascension may imply that you are moving up a linear ladder; yet fragments of your soul are strewn throughout space and time in every dimension of this universe. What you are doing here right now is complimenting incarnations elsewhere and vice versa. Each lifetime is cultivating an expression of energy that touches others uniquely, leaving its time stamp on ones to come.

This activity is quantum.

Something this important could not be relegated to one incarnation. It can’t be labeled with a diagnosis or branded by one season of life.

You see, the decisions that my client would make to heal her body didn’t matter in the end. She couldn’t get it wrong other than to suffer through them, because this phase of her life was programmed into her Divine plan. And its purpose wasn’t to discover a cure.

She was in this predicament, like so many others, to make the absolute best of every day she had on planet Earth, even when it seemed nearly impossible. Because creation isn’t the end result of what we do, but how we experience everything that comes our way.

To rid ourselves of disease, we are called to imprint it with a new energy. The only difference between diagnoses like cancer, multiple sclerosis and diabetes are lab markers and symptoms. But suffering is the air, water, soil and sunlight that keep every disease alive. And suffering runs so rampant throughout the human condition that we all incarnated for the purpose of relieving it.

Sure, cancer has taught us some very important, grounded lessons about toxins, food, our DNA and cells. Within the confines of any diagnosis lies a treasure trove of life altering choices; some with the potential for future generations to inherit stronger bodies. None of these critical decisions go to waste.

But suffering is where the rubber meets the road. It weaves through all physical and emotional traumas. It exists inside of pain, disease, heartbreak and financial loss. And it spreads faster than the next manufactured pandemic.

So to step fully into our multi-dimensionality, we must tackle illness from a slightly different angle than our ancestors did. It’s not that we ignore the physical plane and do nothing meaningful there. The Guides ask us to remain neutral to the outcome of our decisions and open to the possibility that we aren’t charting a path to better health alone.

How we are being inside of the doing matters most because a journey through illness is expanding us in ways we cannot yet see. It is leading us to a new and better reality, whenever and wherever that may be.

My client has since passed on, but I do not believe this is because she failed or wasn’t privy to the right answers. She was given an opportunity to evolve in ways that we cannot fathom while in a physical body. And I think she probably aced the test.

I’ve since come to realize that the highest spiritual guidance will not solve all of your problems. It will not take you from disease to wellness, poverty to wealth or solitude to a soul mate. The best spiritual teachers won’t train you to manifest your problems away. They will help you create a safe space to become present within them.

Guides at this level will walk you through moments of peace, faith and a keen sense of awareness. They will lead you to the inner strength that lies beneath distress. They know that time is your most valuable healing asset and there is no pinch hitter skillful enough to take your place at bat.

To search outside of yourself will only take you straight out of the game.

To rid the world of suffering does not require that we never feel fear, sadness or anger again. But we can use these emotions to constantly self-reflect and improve; to reach for more intense states of connection. They are assets in our quest for ascension, because nothing prepares you to serve a collective more than going through the muck of what needs to be served.

Once your boots are dry, your muddied steps aren’t the most interesting part of the climb. What you learned about yourself in the process is sacred. Who you become inside of the hero’s journey is all that matters, even if you never reconcile what brought it on in the first place.

Yet your soul’s becoming is infinite and the reflection of millions of other spiritual voyages currently in progress. Oneness isn’t some abstract concept we have yet to reach. It is available right now inside every inner battle we face.

Mary Magdalene says that, if you will allow it, suffering can become a passageway between worlds, where a soul has the distinct opportunity to heal and become the healer. In these moments, you must be willing to feel to the depths of your ability, as all restriction is causing separation from God.

Separation is the root of all suffering.

But if we can move through hardship consciously, we gain the skills to detect it in others. ​We possess priceless insight into what it means to be human.

If we reach for grace in troubling times, sharing anything from a place of love comes more naturally. In our daily quest for self-compassion, we begin to hold it for others. And if we are able to grant ourselves understanding, forgiveness comes easier on a planet full of hurt.

Healing of any kind requires humility; because there is nothing we can do to intervene in a soul’s plan other than to remind them that they are not alone. This doesn’t mean that we can’t continue our missions to serve and still revel in the hero’s journeys. But we should remember that there is just as much value in periods of failure as success.

So if you are out there healing and teaching, resist the urge to hide your off-seasons. ​These inconvenient times are magnets to others walking the same path.

The things you struggle with most hold wisdom. Your imperfections make you humanly relatable and your service more personal and relevant. Authenticity brings these rare gifts to the surface.

Instead of trying to muscle a slew of bad pitches into the next heroic hit, I now step out of the batter’s box for a while. I become quiet and mindful. I see these moments as the prelude to great transformation and an occasion to hold hands with those who are also swinging and missing.

In my many healing seasons of life, I’ve learned to stop checking the batting average and keep my eye on how the batter is improving. I have more patience. I allow myself to rest and have stopped calculating my worth on ideals of outward success.

In difficult times, the universe will take a wrecking ball to hidden fragments of ego that you didn’t know existed. I now invite these uncomfortable periods of destruction into my life. Through them, I have gained a deeper sense of empathy, not knowing what season others might be in.

These are my greatest wins.

If you are always looking at the stats, you’ll miss out on the amazing souls behind them. Gently remind yourself that you haven’t walked a day in their cleats and then look down at your own. The mud, grass and rock stuck between them are evidence of what got you to where you stand today.

Regardless of whether you are on the field or in the dugout, every step is cause for celebration.

As we observe the world today, there are numerous aspects of life that can benefit from both modern day and ancient healing principles. Even in a modern world with advanced technology, it is often beneficial to look to ancient wisdom for insight on how to live with a higher quality of life and spiritual intention. Many are exploring the ancient teachings of the Divine Feminine for answers.

In the history of humanity, healing goddesses are honored in every major culture and religion in the world. The skills and gifts of these deities are known to be varied and significant -- to include improving health and healing sickness, creating fertility, facilitating ritual, alleviating suffering, interfacing with the plant kingdom and acting as patrons of the arts. Looking at this list, it is easy to see that ancient forms of healing are still relevant and much needed in today’s world.

Those who study the goddess traditions are familiar with names like Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of wisdom, music, art and learning. Others invoke the compassionate heart of Kuan Yin , the female Buddha, in their spiritual practices. Practitioners working in the healing arts use the powers of the Earth Mother in her many forms. Mother Earth or Mother Nature, sometimes known as Gaia, focuses on the life-giving, nurturing aspects of nature. She is described as the Creatress of all life and is associated with the moon, stars and the sea. Homer, the Greek poet, referenced her: “I shall sing of Gaia, Universal Mother, firmly founded, oldest of all the Holy Ones.” In the Christian tradition, Mary, Mother of Christ, is referred to as the Divine Mother of all creation, guiding us on our path to discover our “Christic” spiritual self.

The nurturing qualities of these goddesses remind us that we are all children of the Divine. In our relationships or practices with the Goddess, it is important to remember that we are all children of this universe. Through the guidance of the Sacred Feminine, we can find many answers to our life’s challenges. In truth, all the goddesses we revere are one and the same healing force in her many aspects and transcendental beauty.

Today’s healing goddesses offer solutions for our quickly changing healthcare system. Many are looking for forms of healing that don’t come with an endless list of side effects or other disease-causing factors. Individuals are now turning away from pharmaceuticals and looking beyond traditional medical approaches for a solution for their symptoms of physical and emotional pain. Our population is becoming acutely aware of the many diseases caused by stress. Individuals who are in search of alternatives will often encounter many ancient techniques enveloped in the work of modern-day healing arts practitioners.

In a visit to a contemporary healing goddess, the patient or client might be given herbs or even a specific yoga practice instead of a pain reliever or pill for indigestion. If the client reveals a significant emotional component in their illness, they might be advised to engage in dance or visual arts therapies. Other forms of sound healing use primitive instruments or voice techniques, such as chanting. The participant might be invited to participate in sacred rituals that have been used since ancient times and discover that their current-day healing potential is immense.

The three faces or healing aspects of the goddess refer to three aspects of the human being. All of these must be addressed in order to have a complete healing or transformation of body, mind and spirit. In this view, medication alone only addresses one aspect of the experience of dis-ease. Looking deeper to find the emotional component or the physical stresses that have caused the breakdown in a once healthy individual is the secret to a complete regeneration of the human form. When supported by a vibrant subtle body and energetic field, the healing powers of the body become miraculous.

However, there are times when traditional medical treatment is an absolute necessity. There are many goddesses in today’s healthcare system who continually try to re-introduce the ancient methods and work in concert with the advanced technological/diagnostic approach of today. Every field should be acknowledged for their contribution in alleviating suffering. We must continually search for ways of healing the whole human being.

In the early days of civilization, the Goddess overseeing the plant kingdom was revered for the abilities she had in alleviating the most serious health challenges. Today, extensive study continues in the many options for the use of medicinal herbs. The ancient systems—Ayurveda, Chinese medicine and Native American wisdom offer great curriculums in this area. It is important to realize that if the destruction of the earth continues, many of the natural cures may be lost. We can choose to turn to natural substances first before succumbing to dangerous drugs. While they may alleviate symptoms in a short time, “quick fixes” seldom bring a complete healing—and in many cases can lead to a dependency on the substance that was supposed to be the cure.

There are many ways we can experience a “return to Eden.” Visiting our forests and pristine waters, listening to the exquisite sounds found in nature, all are healing aspects of the natural world we are bound to protect. It has long been known that there is a great potential in the healing power of sound. Looking at ancient spiritual traditions, Tibetan singing bowls, bells and gongs, quartz crystal bowls and native instrumentation were all used to bring the “energy bodies” back into harmony, thereby aligning the various aspects (body, mind, emotions) to heal the whole person.

Today, the technique of chanting is still used by Ayurvedic and yogic health practitioners. In these studies, some of the Sanskrit words used are labeled specifically “healing mantras.”

In addition to the mantra itself, the sound was also depicted in sacred geometrical patterns called “yantras.” Some of the ancient practitioners of the healing arts were adepts, who were able to see the patterns created by the sound. They chose to record them in intricate drawings that have been with us for thousands of years. These images now have an amazing connection to the recent research of the last fifty years which has led us to the discovery of a new science known as “cymatics.” Through the use of a device known as a CymaScope, the vibrations of sound frequencies can be seen in water or other substances, revealing their unique geometries. Many of these sound-made-visible images called “cyma glyphs” have an astounding resemblance to the ancient yantras. Hearing and seeing sound can have a profound effect. Today’s neuroscience suggests that our nervous systems benefit greatly from healing tools that address all of our senses.

The combination of certain frequencies has proven to create a language which can speak to our cells, helping them remember their original healthy resonance. While the ancient sounds (such as OM) are primordial, the modern researched frequencies are also a natural way to assist the cells in returning to their vibrant health. Through “entrainment” with the resonances that have been proven to positively affect the physical and energetic bodies, there is a release of the stressful disease-causing factors which prevent the return to vibrant health.

Pioneers in sound healing, such as Dr. Hans Jenny and Dr. Peter Guy Manners, were researching combinations of healing frequencies that could positively affect the human form. Originally called “cymatic therapy,” we now utilize a technique called “Cymatherapy” which is delivered with devices whose innovation grew from the original instrumentation used by these doctors and scientists. Using the frequencies generated by new instrumentation along with the modern-day images, (cymatic glyphs) we can see the sounds that heal us, much the same as ancient meditators could see the mystical symbols of their holy visions.

While there are other valuable sound healing choices on the internet, (to include recordings of nature and other musical tones or single frequencies), the most highly researched form of sound healing available to us today involves actually applying sound to the body trans-dermally. This same technique was first experimented with by Dr. Peter Guy Manners who had spent years developing the specific frequency patterns to be generated with his device, utilizing an applicator for addressing designated areas of the body. The early ideas and the devices have now been more fully developed and they can be accessed in a much greater capacity by today’s sound therapists, using the ancient texts for identifying the pathways of healing for these modern applications.

In the last decade, researchers like Joie Jones from UCLA, have proven the existence of the meridian pathways, as recorded in the ancient Chinese medical texts. Discoveries like these have opened doorways for other approaches to administering sound to the body. If we return to the ancient wisdom and oldest medical systems known to humanity, the maps for transmitting energetic healing to the body are there for us to learn from. Now advanced sound technology devices can deliver frequency through the feet and hands, providing sound nutrition to the entire physical form through these portals. Sound—from sacred chants to modern day advanced sound technology—can be an effective tool for bridging the knowledge of the ancient healing goddesses with all the new “sound science” is discovering.

At any time, we can return to the healing powers and mystical gifts of the Goddess as we continue to evolve in consciousness. We can choose to be respectful of the ancient traditions while making amazing discoveries about the natural world that is opening up in front of us, with each new scientific discovery. A combination of the mystical and scientific truths will net us the most complete vision of what our human experience can be.

Reishi is a tree fungus that is highly revered throughout the history of Asian herbalism. The Japanese name, reishi, is most commonly used. In China it is called lingzhi, and the Vietnamese name is linh chi; all of which mean “soul/spirit mushroom” or “supernatural mushroom.” Reishi is said to support a long, vibrant and beneficial life, and has earned the titles “mushroom of spiritual immortality,” and “good luck herb.” Its Western pharmaceutical name is Ganoderma lucidum, so named for its shiny upper surface. 

Reishi is a member of a class of tree mushrooms called Polypores, due to their fine porous bottom surface, as opposed to the gilled underside of most common and edible mushrooms. Polypore mushrooms grow in forests on dead wood. Hi quality semi-wild ganoderma is grown outside on cut logs, and commercial varieties are cultivated in controlled environments on moistened rice, oats, hay, and other substrates, with varying degrees of quality. [1] Polypore mushrooms are generally not edible, as the cellulose is tough and fibrous, with a lignin structural matrix similar to cork wood. The fruiting body and mycelia are used to create reishi products, but the fruiting body is thought to be the most valuable part for health. Cracked spore and spore oil products are recently available, but I believe breaking the spore cell wall is destructive to reishi’s natural design and intention. 

Polypore mushrooms include varieties of reishi that vary in color, and its many cousins (ex. Ganoderma Oregonese), chaga (Inonotus obliquus), maitake (Grifola fronderosa), Phellinus lintaeus and turkey tail (Coriolus versicolor). These mushrooms are found growing in many regions, with ganoderma varieties occurring almost universally around the world.   

Many studies have proven the effectiveness of polypores for supporting general immunity, [2] but reishi is also said to enhance spiritual perception. This illustrious reputation was cultivated over thousands of years of experiential observation, and a great deal of Asian art and literature has documented reishi as a spiritual herb, although modern scientific analysis has not developed the mechanisms to evaluate these properties. 

Ancient Chinese folklore attests that one who takes reishi can attain immortality, and that regular consumption can “initiate benevolent cycles of health.” My favorite saying is that reishi is a “bridge between Heaven and Earth.” We can view this in the scroll painting below. 

In the lower portion, people are dwelling on Earth, sipping tea and walking in the forests. The venerable Lao Tzu leads a group of young scholars. Quan Yin ponders harmony in natural beauty, and young lovers revel under the trees. In the center, a reishi mushroom grows on a rock, and above, the Emperor and Empress dwell in the Imperial Palace and ascended Immortals ride celestial dragons among the clouds. Reishi is said to imbue immortality when taken regularly. “Celestial Immortals” have been described throughout Chinese literary history. Many of these Immortals are still said to dwell in the high realms of China’s five sacred mountains. The Queen Mother of the West, China’s Matriarch, lives atop Kunlun Mountain and holds a reishi mushroom in her lap. Historically, writings in the Shennong Bencao, possibly dating to 5975 B.P (before present) state that reishi can “prolong life so as to make one an immortal.” Ge Hong (1734 B.P.) created an elixir with gold reishi that was sought after by Emperors. He stated that reishi could pertain to “an intermediate dimension between mundane and transcendent reality,” and that the mushroom could “produce geniehood.” Li Shizhen (437 B.P.) stated that it could “lengthen life to that of the Immortal fairies.” 

Since discovering reishi, I have sought to decipher the possible biochemical pathways responsible for its purported spiritual enhancement and its ability to support long life. I began with the impressive modern research on reishi’s immune-supporting potential. Analysis reveals polypores contain a class of powerful polysaccharides called Beta 1-3-6 glucans, which are found to activate cytokines, special enzymes that penetrate and invigorate white blood cells, or macrophages ~ our body’s primary immune defense agents. When macrophages are empowered, the immune system will be engaged in cellular protection from anti-microbial activity through phagocytizing and general blood cleansing. Reishi also contains organic germanium (up to 6000 pts. Per mil.), and is high in triterpenes, also called ganodermic acids, which comprise the bitter component and are measureable as the therapeutic biomarker [3] (bitter is better). 

When the body’s internal defenses are strong, we feel safer and protected, which relieves the adrenals of stress from worry and insecurity. When empowered, we are confident and willing to engage in life’s adventures. This optimistic attitude can brighten one’s light. Confident people will attract many friends and admirers, and in time, we become “The Light,” inspiring those around us. We then find we can help people, and we receive help. Thus, we unveil the “benevolent cycles of health” mentioned before.  

This represents a potential psycho-somatic side benefit of taking reishi, but, mushrooms are also known to affect the psyche and perception in ways that aren’t yet scientifically documented. Reishi does not induce psychotropic experiences, but it appears to expand perception. So, let me attempt to explain some possibilities for this potential, as well as delve into many mysteries around the origins of life on Earth and the role advanced fungi may play in consciousness.

Some revelations may exist in the study of Astrobiology. Many Mycologists believe that mushrooms are extra-terrestrial life forms, due to their taxonomic sovereignty, and because fungal spores are capable of surviving space travel; mushroom spores are microscopic and light enough to drift out of our atmosphere and into space (gravitropism), potentially making Earth a cosmic fungal sporulation lab (the spores are initially launched from the fruiting body cells through ballasting processes that may involve diamagnetic electrostatic repulsion, propelling them high enough into the air to be caught in wind currents).[4]

Beginning in the 1970’s, Astrobiologists proposed that basic archaea and much prokaryotic (single celled) life is extra-terrestrial, having originally blown into our atmosphere or arrived in blocks of ice and on meteorites.[5] In the case of the mysterious red rain of Kerala, scientists discovered the tinting was caused by moisture capturing an extraterrestrial algae that was drifting into Earth’s atmosphere. The event was preceded by a sonic boom that may have been from a meteorite that entered our outer atmosphere and exploded, dispersing the algae.[6] Such microbes are called extremophiles, due to their resilience under heat, cold and pressure. Extremophilic organisms are now thought to be responsible for seeding planets with biologically active life.   

During Earth’s early stages, it is thought that bacteria sought refuge from solar radiation inside the permeable fat walls of algae cells, forming colonies that eventually created cooperative intercellular organelles and mitochondria, leading to the rise of complex multi-cellular (Eukaryotic) life. [7] I discussed in my book Threshold to the 4th Chakra that it is unlikely that bacteria alone created these cellular components. Bacteria remain in their own kingdom and perform many symbiotic actions within their milieu, but they do not become functioning DNA of larger organisms. These scientists overlook another important kingdom responsible for the rise of complex life; fungi may have supported the development of microtubules of cellular cytoplasm ~ the information transport system of the cell. By this, I believe that bacteria, algae and fungi combine to create higher life forms.   

Fossils reveal that Earth’s earliest masses of carbon material, called stromatolites, were composed of lasagna-like layers of algae and bacteria, enabling nitrogen fixing, molybdenum oxidation and other important components for life. As this material decomposed, “carbon substrates” formed, creating a medium conducive to fungal sporulation, and tiny filaments of mycelia permeated the substrates, creating nutrient-delivery systems that were remote, thus introducing the conscious transfer of information. I believe that without fungal mycelia, life would merely be composed of tiny organisms living and dying to create sandwiched mounds of matter. While bacteria and algae do function consciously, they would have continued within this cooperative environment into perpetuity. It wasn’t until mycelinating fungi created neurologic systems that symbiotic multicellular life with higher consciousness evolved. 

Cytoplasm in eukaryotic cells has no physical similarities to colonized bacteria, but does resemble fungal mycelia in structure and function. In fact, they can hardly be distinguished, as revealed in the images below. On left is a Human neurological cell and right is fungal mycelia. Both are information-transport networks. 

 

And now, for the mystery question; if fungi, bacteria and algae combined to create higher conscious life, when and where did this original evolution take place? If these microbes, archaea, diatoms and spores have been transported to Earth over potentially vast distances and time-travel, then where did they come from? The only answer we can assume is: everywhere. 

Earth’s oldest rock samples (approx. 3.5 billion years B.P.) contain fossilized cyano-bacteria (algae-mimicking bacteria).8 This indicates they evolved somewhere long before Earth’s atmosphere was established. These considerations imply that Earthly life follows a pre-established order that is symbiotic with all life in the cosmos, and indicates a universal Blueprint. Every celestial body in the universe may be dusted with bacteria, algae and spores, and, depending on a planet’s proximity to a star, they will begin a long process of creating and regulating an atmosphere conducive for life, where evolutionary patterns will progress to create environments and organisms that share common biology with our planet.

Then again, we must ask, where did all this begin? We can only humble ourselves in the face of this mystery, but we can also know that there are worlds beyond - before and after, for, if these lifeforms arrived on early Earth, they must have evolved on planets identical to ours. As mentioned, bacteria are functional symbionts of biological activity; algae create oxygen atmospheres, which, along with bacteria can congeal to create carbon substrates, but the advanced fungi appear to be the harbingers of consciousness, allowing organisms to cooperate and contemplate life, and by which Humans might even someday discover and communicate with life on other worlds.   

We have long known that mushrooms benevolently affect consciousness. Reishi is not psychotropic and does not alter perception, but benefits mental clarity and helps instill a reverent attitude. Reishi enhances spiritual enlightenment, and seems to “weave us into the mycelial web of life.” The subterranean relationship of fungi with plants is called mycorrhiza. Humans attempted to sever ourselves from this relationship through disassociation with the ground (pavement, shoes, tires, etc.). Protracted taking of reishi appears to resuscitate our connection to everything else; plugging us back into our Earth. Nature is calling us to reunite for common survival, and that is why I believe reishi and other tonic herbs and superfoods are emerging in our consciousness that this time.

It is relatively simple to create and maintain the microenvironments and conditions for growing our own reishi, therefore, it cannot be controlled, usurped, sequestered or denied from us. Wild reishi is a world-wide phenomenon that could never be exhausted or endangered, therefore, we all have access to this lifechanging messenger. By taking reishi, we could quickly experience the rapid unfoldment of our higher stage of evolution, which could metaphorically correlate with the 4th Chakra energy of the Heart - the energy of giving. Of reishi’s five colors, the red reishi is associated with the Heart. Curiously this is the variety that is revealing itself to us as we walk in the woods, and is even seen growing on trees in city streets.