The following is a slow exploration and loving praise of one of my most used and most beloved allies of the plant and mushroom kingdom; a little something to put in your pot and simmer on…
But before I get ahead of myself, lets start with basic introductions. The Japanese name of Reishi is the common name used to refer to a whole constellation of conks which are called Ganodermas. The Japanese Reishi, whose latin name is Ganoderma Lucidum, is the most sought after and revered of this constellation; however the North American varieties of Ganoderma Applanatum (often known as Artist’s Conk) and Ganoderma Tsugae share most of the same uses.
Dripping with forest magic and mystique, Ganoderma Lucidum’s many names mean everything from ‘mushroom of immortality’ to ‘ten-thousand-year-mushroom’; it’s chinese name is Ling Zhi and is derived from the pictographs for ‘shaman praying for rain.’ The name Reishi may even be connected to the term Rishi, which describes Buddha’s transformation into Forest Sage. And so this coveted forest conk is steeped in lore and fable– carved into ancient palace walls, immortalized in golden thread on the robes and tapestries of emperors and nobles, and depicted in the hand of Kuan Yin, glistening goddess of mercy and healing.
For myself, Reishi is the composer in the middle of a great humming orchestra; it’s rippling red flesh fans out like so many sound waves reverberating from the trunk of it’s host tree– reaching out and drawing in; and in my more eccentric moods, it can feel as though Reishi is breathing with the whole undulating symphony that is the forest. Within this forest symphony, all mushrooms and their mysterious underground webs and tunnels of mycelium connect and communicate (see here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycelium), but Reishi, more than any mushroom or conk (in my experience) has a special way of holding the beat.
According to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Reishi acts in relationship to that subtle part of us that is called the Shen, which is similar to what we might refer to as ‘the spirit’ in the west. The Shen is a vibrant and animate light that resides in the empty center of the heart, and it’s health has palpable effects on our bodily health: reflected in the luster of our skin, the brightness of our eyes and the force of spirit that shines from us.
What is of particular interest to me is the way in which the Shen connects us to our exterior world–slipping us into it’s melody and rhythm; a healthy Shen can be seen sparkling in flickering moments or humming in long slow times when our inner selves are synched up to our “exterior” worlds; to communicate and be heard, to fold into someone arms just so, to be embraced by the land, to know where you are from, or to find work that suits your spirit’s path. To be at home in the world. As Lorie Eve Dechar states, with a disturbed Shen all bearings are lost, “the breaths of qi become chaotic, the fire of the heart grows dim and we wander in a daze from one meaningless project to the next, wondering how we found ourselves in this or that predicament.” The Shen keeps us in relation, and thus in tune, rather than out of tune, with the whirling cosmos surrounding us. And so too Reishi, the composer, in it’s almost unnamable ways, holds the beat; causing things to continue circulating, and connecting as they do.
THAT’S VERY POETIC, BUT WHAT DOES REISHI REALLY DO, YOU ASK?
Like the heart beat at the centre of our living life, whose beating is not noticeable (we hope), the best composers are the ones that, with cool equanimous composure and effortlessness, keep things in rhythm without making much noise themselves. And so when clients ask me what exactly Reishi does I generally tend to fumble a bit in my answer. Rather than listing all the things that Reishi does (an epic list for sure), I find it more useful to understand the way of Reishi, so that it’s unique ‘way’ can be applied to any number of situations.
In simplest terms Reishi is called for when things fall out of balance, connection and rhythm. This is precisely why Reishi, and mushrooms in general, are so called for in our age; an age marked by the tearing up of age-old-fabrics– whether those be cultural, spiritual or physical. Mass migrations, language loss, genocides, computerization, industrialization, deforestation, dams… the last 100 years have seen such immense change on every single front. Whatever your feelings on ‘progress’ are, it’s indisputable that we live in a deeply shaken world fallen out of balance. When that balance was shaken, and if it ever existed, are interesting questions to ponder, but not all that necessary in order to give breadth to the strangeness of our times.
Once again, I’m getting ahead of myself into big sky ideas– a fine thing, but lets first dip down into the world of mushrooms in order to help find out feet. Did you know that we are more closely related to mushrooms than any other kingdom? We share in many of the same pathogens and we inhale oxygen and exhale Co2 in the same way. Almost 600 million years ago we split from fungi, and where they externalized their stomaches and lungs, and bared their precious neurological membranes along forest floors, branching along sentient mycelial lines– everywhere interfaced, revealed, connected, coalescing, nuzzling– we humans went internal. And dare I say, we’ve become more and more self contained, separated off, and ego driven since that split.
Mushrooms are incredibly useful aids in helping our clumsy selves interface with our estranged environment and recall our rhythm with it. This is particularly useful in a toxic and changing modern world that has a new puzzle for our ancient biologies to negotiate every day. A prime example of this is in the ability of fungi to metabolize and remediate never before seen toxicities. Paul Staments observed that in the forests around Chernobyl and down river from the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant, where all kinds of life struggle to survive– Chaga Mushroom can still be found in profusion. Somehow this mushroom has found a way to live intimately with the worst of modern contaminants, and still fruit it’s life-giving-self– which is exactly the challenge of these times; how to fruit something beautiful out of such great devastation. And so these pioneers of the unknown are incredibly non-judgmental and willing to interrelate with the mutants of modernity: radiation, H1N1 and drug resistant bacterias like MRSA; not by destroying them but rather by metabolizing them into something new. Reishi reaches down into the sad, grief stricken original wound to which these mutants of modernity arise, and returns a kind of rhythm.
All disease is a falling out of balance; but two of the most epidemic imbalances of modernity, Cancer and Autoimmune disease, not only demonstrate this clearly but also are the two areas I turn to Reishi the most. Cancer could be understood as the body falling out of balance with the ebs and flows of life and death; whereby cells refuse to die in a fever of uncontrolled growth, resulting in a pile up of cells (tumors). The fact that the rise in cancer is coupled by the rise of industrialization, growth-at-all-costs economics, homogenization etc. is a compelling topic on it’s own.
Autoimmune diseases, which are a modern phenomenon, also provide a key example of bodies and ‘selves’ fallen out of relationship with the exterior world (self and other). The causes of autoimmune diseases are complex, multilayered and irreducible– toxicity of environment and trauma certainly play a large role. Autoimmune disease itself, appears as an immune system that is confused over the boundaries of self and other and thus attacks parts of it’s own body. One must wonder how much of this phenomenon of confusion has it’s seed somewhere deeply set in the cultural milieu of separation; as Charles Eisenstein writes in his article on autoimmunity:
“we perceive ourselves as separate beings having relationships. But this is not the truth. We are not separate beings having relationships. In fact, we are relationship. The true self is a connected self. This is not only a matter of philosophy or metaphysics; it is true in biology as well. What is a human being? A human being is composed of some 50 trillion cells, each of which carries common genetic information inherited from his or her parents. Right? Well, actually, if you are healthy, your human cells are outnumbered ten-to-one by bacterial cells and those of other microorganisms. Your skin, your intestines, and indeed every mucous membrane are teeming with bacteria, yeasts, microfauna, and even microscopic arthropods.”
This sensibility of an interfacing connectivity is a reality that mushrooms never forgot; they are vessels of relationship. What perfect medicine for modern ‘individuals’, who are not only increasingly cut off from our neighbors, the moss under our feet, but also from our ability to experience ourselves as the intertwined and symbiotic beings we are.
It’s both interesting and hurtful to me that the majority of people suffering from autoimmune diseases are both female and people of colour; those within our society who are most stunted in their abilities to effectively produce change within a white, male dominated environment; aren’t these the people who are more likely to turn on themselves instead? Whose very success and ability to ‘get by’ in this world requires them to suppress anger and send it inwards?
Reishi’s effects on autoimmune disease comes from it’s ability to modulate and balance the immune response, rather than smother it. “X.X. Gao et al. (2000a, 2000b) found polysaccharides (F10-b) from the mycelium both anti-inflammatory and immune-stimulating. This seeming contradiction is dose-dependent and bi-directional suggesting a modulating effect on cytokine production. the production of interleukins is usually associated with an inflammatory response of the immune system, and yet… Reishi both enhances the immune system and reduces inflammation” And so, autoimmune illnesses, such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, are being found to respond in promising ways to the kind of immune regulation that Reishi offers. The same positive results are well documented in Cancer: “recent German studies showed water extracts reduced cancer growth by 64.9 percent, with complete regression in 45.5 percent of tested animals.”
Pardon the science, lets get back to the poetics; as well as the dear Shen, who began this whole spiraling article.
Some relate to the Shen as a flock of precious birds who make their feathered home in our hearts. And like all wild winged beings, sometimes this world can be a bit more than they can bare and they fly off. Without the safety of a secure, cozy nest, the Shen, our igniting spirit, may fly off again and again– or maybe never return home. Like a symphony without a composer, we’re lost.
The reality is that most people in our time and context do not feel safe, secure or seen. Many of us actually exist from day to day in a state of numbness, or at least a level of disassociation– our most precious selves and illuminated spirit having flown the nest long ago (or perhaps shyly watching from cedar bow). And for this reason Reishi Mushroom and mushrooms in general are premier allies in helping us not run away… but to be here in a world that is difficult, to some how find a way to metabolize it and even dance with it. Reshi tells us to sit in the heart of it, right in the heart of it (!), all of it, the good, the bad, the weird– and find that beat again. Its down there somewhere.
“We live in a kind of dark age, craftily lit with synthetic light, so that no one can tell how dark it had really gotten. But our exiled spirits can tell. Deep in our bones resides an ancient, singing couple who just won’t give up making their beautiful, wild noise. the world won’t end if we can find them.” M. Prechtel