Part 1 and 2 contain Matthew’s lecture on the first day. His broad topic is energetics. He explores the four elements and four qualities of the Greeks, the three Doshas of Ayurveda, the five elements of traditional Chinese medicine, the six tissue states of physiomedicalism and the four humours of medieval western Europe. Some of the herbs covered include sweet clover, elderberry, dandelion, rabbit tobacco, hyssop and black haw.
Matthew Wood
Herbalist Letha Hadady shares the secrets of her trade in this fascinating lesson in nontraditional medicine, revealing which Chinese herbs help mitigate conventional Western diseases such as high blood pressure, depression and diabetes. You'll also discover certain food products that contribute to overall health. Follow Letha to her kitchen, where she concocts her potent potions, and find out how you can replicate her approach in your home.
Shipibo healer Ricardo Amaringo describes how he prepares, teaches, and shares the plant medicine ayahuasca. Olivia and Julian Arévalo sing examples of icaros (healing songs) in the Shipibo language.
Matthew Wood discusses the Wisdom of Nature in presenting us with plant signatures that aid us in understanding the application of herbs as herbal medicines for your the health and well-being. Matthew takes you out into the fields to see the herbs in their natural habitat and explain the magic and the wisdom of nature from the roots to the flowers to the berries.
In March 2023, despite a flush of police raids and arrests in the struggle against Cop City in Atlanta, the Weelaunee Food Autonomy Festival gathered people for four days of learning and working in the forest. The observational film follows along as participants in the festival plant hundreds of fig, pawpaw, and persimmon saplings, give away fruit trees to neighbors of the forest, graft edible pears onto invasive trees, learn to mix herbal medicines, and restore an area of forest that had been recently disturbed by illegal demolition work.
Parts 3, 4 and 5 cover a range of topics that came out of the discussion about energetics. Matthew talks about lymphatics, mucus types, the role of essential fatty acids, types of coughs, purgatives, Native American animal medicines and the signs of the Zodiac and the relation of each to an emotion and a part of the body system. It’s a wide-ranging discussion in Matt’s eclectic way. Herbs covered include red root, calendula, cleavers, madder, poke, scrophularia, yellow dock, red clover, mullein, wild cherry, crab apple and more.
Alice Tate, mother of two, with a marriage of 16 years, finds herself falling for a handsome sax player, Joe. Stricken with a backache, she consults herbalist Dr. Yang, who realizes that her problems are not related to her back, but in her mind and heart. Dr. Yang's magical herbs give Alice wondrous powers, taking her out of her well-established rut.
When young Joshua learns that he will be going on vacation with his family to a small town called Nilbog, he protests adamantly. He is warned by the spirit of his deceased grandfather that goblins populate the town. His parents, Michael and Diana, dismiss his apprehensions, but soon learn to appreciate their son's warnings. Guided by his grandfather's ghost, will Joshua and his family stand a chance in fighting off these evil beings?
To preserve the reputation of their family's traditional fertility herbal shop from neighbors' ridicule, a married couple who have been childless for years pretend to be pregnant so they can claim a found baby as their own.
Born in the early 20th century, herbalist Jan Mikolasek became rich and famous after curing countless diseases with unorthodox means. A true emblem of Czechoslovakia before World War II, the healer became even more appreciated during the Nazi occupation and the communist regime. Each regime appreciates his skill and protects him. But how much will it cost him to maintain his status in a new political change?
Lo Lieh stars as Sima Jun, a killer working for a corrupt lord whose orders are followed without question or hesitation. When the lord suffers from a life-threatening boil on his back, he is told by the Imperial doctor that an herb called "Longevity Rattan" offers the only cure and is grown in a remote village by an herbalist named Tan. Lo is sent on a mission to get the herb and bring it back before it's too late.
In medieval Serbia, a young monk, a master of herbal medicine, grabs the attention of warlord's wife.
A Chinese herbal doctor trying to heal herself from sickness by making a soup of memory.
Ex flower child goes looking for revolutionary hero and finds a brilliant no-quitter with a good appetite.
On Valentine's Day, 1993, Caveh Zahedi decided to ingest 5 grams (a very large dose) of hallucinogenic mushrooms. For the first time in his mushroom-taking history, he had an experience of "divine possession," in which he felt that a divine being took possession of his body and spoke through him, in a voice that was not his, and with knowledge that he himself did not possess. He later tried several times to repeat the experience. I WAS POSSESSED BY GOD is the documentary record of one such attempt.
Jerry Wald has to write about radio, visiting Sid Gary gives him the tip it might be more easy for him to write this article at the radio station than at his newspaper office. At the studio they listen to the Boswell Sister's rehearsal, which is interupted by some not so friendly remarks by orchestra leader Abe Lyman, they listen at the door, where a Colonel Stoopnagel broadcast is prepared, as well as to the rehearsal of a new song for an broadcast by Kate Smith.
Filmed in 1938, less than a decade before Indian independence, Delhi has a curious tale to tell. ‘Delhi’, the viewer is informed, ‘is the cockpit of the Indian Empire’, it provides the ‘gateway to the riches of the south’. The opening sections of the film focus upon those who have tried and failed to establish a lasting power in the capital. ‘At Delhi’, the commentator states, ‘successive cities have been built by conquering invaders – each has fallen into disuse and decay’. The camerawork focuses on the ‘impressive ruins’ of these earlier invaders. Although the film also depicts the enduring architecture of Muslim rulers, such as Akbar and Shahjahan, it is stressed that their power has been superseded. Legend has it that it will be the ninth city of Delhi that ‘will endure and will rule forever’. Shahjahan had built the eighth.