Addiction
Freedom From Tobacco
CJ Liu interviews Dr. Jeff Schmitt and Dr. Cynthia Bergh about the Tobacco Freedom project and why we get addicted to smoking.
Why We Get Addicted to Smoking // Part 1 of 3
Jeff shares his research findings that show an inverse correlation between smoking and the onset of neurodegenerative disease. What he discovered was that if you smoked for any period, say five years any time in your life, your chances of getting neurodegenerative diseases were actually quite a bit less than those who never smoked. The net of the research showed that nicotine itself is like an aerobics workout for the neuronal circuitry in your brain. This is especially true in the parts of your brain that are very susceptible to neurodegeneration.
This scientific odyssey led Jeff into discovering that there’s no other compound that does what tobacco nicotine does to the brain. If the smoker, or the person administering the tobacco to themselves, can actually consciously or unconsciously guide the outcome the tobacco. Nicotine can be both a stimulant and a relaxant, a euphoria producer, or a memory enhancer. There are a dozen different psychopharmacologies connected to smoking.
Why is nicotine so addictive?
Jeff explains that it’s addictive because it helps you achieve cognitive and body emotional states that you may for. It’s a very powerful plant unlike alcohol or heroin or other substances of addiction. This is due to it’s unique capacity to interact with the brain in the way it does. It’s a kind of medicine that can calm you, excite you, or increase your memory. It’s up to your intention with how you use it.
How does nicotine help with neurodegenerative diseases?
Dr. Jeff explains that the molecule that nicotine imitates is the most important and most prevalent neurotransmitter in our body. It’s called acetylcholine. It’s the neurotransmitter worker bee molecule that’s responsible for everything from many aspects of brain function to all of our all of our body’s motion. This includes all of our muscle movement and the functioning of our gut and digestion which are mediated by acetylcholine. Nicotine looks just like it but it has some unusually different properties.
Neurons hate to be inactive. The brain is extremely energy consuming more so than most all of the rest of your organs put together. The brain has a built-in function that when one piece of structure is sitting around doing nothing but consuming energy, the brain tries to get rid of it. In neurodegeneration, when one set of cells that are not doing much, something called programmed cell death turns on. When nicotine is present, it literally puts the neurons in a gymnasium and starts getting revved up – working and reconnecting. It prevents the program cell death.
What is the trade off between heart attacks, and lung cancer from smoking versus neurogenerative diseases?
If you do a survey of indigenous cultures worldwide what you may find is many people who use tobacco as a sacred healing tool or a sacrament. However, basically the first thing they will tell you is to never put tobacco smoke in your lungs because it’ll kill you it’ll make you sick. In these cultures, the way that the tobacco is used, understood and related to is completely different. It’s about intention and having it effect the outcome.
In these cultures, where tobacco is used as sacred plant, is understood, and revered as the most powerful and most sacred plants. Cynthia explains that it’s about changing our relationship to this sacred plant similar to how people interact with mushrooms and ayahuasca. It’s like any sacred relationship that you have with your spouse or partner, which is built on respect and deep connection with the living world. We need to be careful not to just see these sacred plants as objects and subject to our domination. Instead, it’s about being in communion and understanding that there is sentience, an intelligence, and a living essence.
Vegetalista: Developing a Respectful Relationship with Plant Medicine // Part 2 of 3
In part two, CJ, Dr. Jeff Schmitt and Dr. Cynthia Bergh discuss how we can create a honorable and respectful relationship to plant medicine, like tobacco. Both Jeff and Cynthia share their thoughts of a vegetalista, which is a person who practices folk medicine; an herb doctor. They explain that each person will have a completely unique relationship with plant medicine depending on their life story.
How to Quit Smoking Using Binaural Beats and Meditation // Part 3 of 3
In this final part, CJ, Dr. Jeff Schmitt and Dr. Cynthia Bergh discuss how to quit smoking using their program. This involves binaural beats, meditation, and coaching support.
More on Dr. Jeff Schmitt and Dr. Cynthia Bergh
Dr. Cynthia Bergh
Dr. Cynthia Bergh knows the power and wisdom everyone has available to them for the fullest expression of wellbeing and purpose. She has had a lifelong passion for witnessing and supporting the magnificent expression of life. From the outdoor exploration of childhood, to a Bachelor of Arts in Biology, to Doctorate in Chiropractic, to full certification in Network Spinal Analysis she has pursued resources and deep understanding of self-organizing and healing properties.
From the original structure of Donald Epstein’s 12 Stages of Healing, she has developed Gaia Health System to navigate a wholistic experience to greater wellbeing and expression of human potential. Gaia Health System supports people, systems, and organizations to efficiently and sustainably self organize, learn, and grow into their magnificent potential expression.
She is the mother of two beautiful girls. She makes her home in Asheville, North Carolina and is an active part of the healing community. Creating a center for Embodied Wisdom has been a lifelong passion.
Jeff Schmitt, PhD
Jeff Schmitt, PhD is a Folk Healer, Tabaquero, Ceremonialist, Musician & Scientist; he is a walker-between-worlds. Jeff has also practiced and taught Chinese martial arts for most of his life. He is a 32-year veteran scientist, entrepreneur with over 100 publications and patents to his name. As a social entrepreneur he has helped start five companies, one of which went public in 2002. Jeff is a dedicated practitioner and student of the folk healing traditions of Peru and North America. Jeff enthusiastically works with clients using sacred healing and counseling methods; one of his greatest joys is bringing people together in sacred community to facilitate personal and planetary healing. He is also a teacher of the healing arts of South America and the Andes.
One of his greatest joys is sharing knowledge and wisdom. He has given nearly 200 invited presentations (including a TEDx talk and keynote at the Global Philosophy Forum) over the past 25 years. As a university professor, he taught advanced undergraduate, graduate-level and interdisciplinary courses. Jeff has enjoyed a decades-long relationship with the sacred healing plant, tobacco. For many years, Jeff studied the neuroprotective properties of compounds found in tobacco and helped start a company to fight diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s based on this research.
Over the years his relationship has shifted to working with tobacco as a teacher and catalyst for sacred healing. After a concentrated apprenticeship with noted Curanderos, Jeff was given the title Tabaquero or ‘one who heals with tobacco’. I have been blessed to study with and take numerous pilgrimages to the sacred Mountains of Peru and Bolivia with don Mariano Quispe Flores, don Abraham “Alberto” Fernandez, don Victor Chura Quispe and don Raimundo Quispe Flores.
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