Everything You Need To Know About Unique & Never-Before-Seen "Essential Oil" Blends (The Sauna One Is MIND-BLOWING!), With Dr. Nick Berry

My name is Ben Greenfield, and on this episode of the Boundless Life Podcast.

Our ultrasonic extracted tincture of lion's mane is one of the most potent lion's mane formulations on the market. When I take the lion's mane tincture, hold it under the tongue for 30 to 60 seconds, all of a sudden, within about a minute, I feel my brain come on. It's almost like both of the hemispheres start communicating with one another more effectively, and it just switches your brain on. It doesn't carry these stimulating caffeine-like euphoric uplifting energy qualities, but it helps to turn on the mind. For many years, I've taken formulas or individual plant tinctures where I don't quite feel the medicine or the effects from it. With our ultrasonic extracted tinctures, I have been able to experience plants for the first time with the medicine that we're extracting.

Welcome to The Boundless Life with me, your host, Ben Greenfield. I'm a personal trainer, exercise physiologist, and nutritionist, and I'm passionate about helping you discover unparalleled levels of health, fitness, longevity, and beyond.

My office smells like white grapefruit. I've just been using your different oils. So, that happens to be what's sprinkled in my office today. So, I guess we're recording. We can just start for me talking about white grapefruit in my office. What's up, Nick?

Everything, Ben. Yeah, life is good. I have a lot to be grateful for or should I say grapefruit for?

Grapefruit. Oh, I see what you did there. Oh, boy. We're off to a fun start. Those of you who don't know Nick, Nick is the guy I've learned more about essential oils from. Than anybody else. He is literally the wizard of essential oils. The name of his company is Essential Oil Wizardry. He has been on the podcast. I'm kind of second-guessing now. Nick, have you been on twice, I think?

Yup.

Yeah.

This would be my third round.

Yeah, it was super fun. And, I think the first or second time we did it up at my house in Spokane. We're doing it virtually now. There's a lot fewer smells when we do it virtually, although As we were just saying, my office always smells like your essential oils anyways, my office, my sauna, my bedroom. I'll even wear your stuff as my cologne sometimes when I run out of my real cologne. So, you're responsible for how I smell and how my house smells half the time. And obviously, we've done other episodes and I'll link to those if people go to BenGreenfieldLife.com/Wizardry. Oils, BenGreenfieldLife.com/WizardryOils. And, I'll put links in there to all of Nick's crazy stuff. But, we were just talking as I attempted my bastardized version of Thai to greet you, Nick, that you were just over in Thailand doing research or something for your oils?

Yeah. So, I was fortunate enough to take a 6-week trip for my 40th birthday in January with Ellen. And, the intention of this trip was really our last international national hurrah as Ellen and I are about to step into this journey for pregnancy. And so we really wanted to celebrate this precious time together and go have a lot of fun in a foreign country. And so while I was in Thailand, I reached out to numerous essential oil companies in the Thai region, and I, I received several responses. And one of them just really spoke to my heart. It's a Thai family that owns a bunch of property and collaborates with other farmers in the region. And when I looked at some of their offerings, I was so inspired to go and visit. They have some of the most precious blue lotus, um, and other types of floral extracts, and they're doing really novel resin extracts. And so they're producing, um, really potent medicinal extracts that we'll talk more about. And so my journey to Thailand was really one of exploration and adventure and connecting deeper with my wife. And it also blossomed into this beautiful opportunity to connect with a Thai family that are producing some of the world's finest botanical extracts.

Okay. I actually want to learn a little bit more particularly about the blue lotus one because I've come across that in Thailand before. But before that, I got to hit rewind for a second, this whole pregnancy thing. So, is she pregnant or is this the path you guys are about to start attempting?

Yeah, we're about to get started. So, next month is when we're going to start planting seeds for a beautiful child.

Yeah, yeah, planting seeds. That's a That's a fun project. So, in terms of what you know because I know you've got your own form of internal biochemistry, are there strategies from the essential oil world that might relate to fertility in some way?

With regards to the essential oils, I'm going to be learning a lot more about pregnancy and the use of essential oils. It's something that I've chosen to stay away from for the most part. What we have been doing is lots of our ultrasonic extraction tinctures where we're producing really potent tincture formulations. I've been stacking, um, as a man, our ultrasonic extracted Kakongo roots and our Jing Qi formula. And our Jing Qi is filled with super nutrient-rich, um, very potent yang tonic herbs. It has ashwagandha, kakonga root, tongkat ali, epimedium, bahjaka, and it's really potent for stimulating testosterone and enhancing the amount of energy one feels. So, I've been dosing with that and eating a lot of sea moss and just getting the soldiers ready.

Sea moss, really? Does sea moss have an effect on fertility? I just asked because I got a bunch of packets of the akasha. Sea Moss in my refrigerator. I've been using it as salad dressing actually, but it impacts fertility?

I enjoy megadosing with Sea Moss. It is so mineral-rich that it will help your body build fluids extremely well.

Okay, cool. Alright. So, if you're crying or producing semen, either one, it could help. Alright, any fluids, folks, there you go, Sea Moss. So, back to Thailand. Blue lotus is one, again, for some reason I associate that with Thailand because I've seen it in paintings there. I've seen it around in temples, hotels. What's the deal with blue lotus?

So, blue lotus has been this revered plant for many centuries. It goes back to ancient Egypt and you can see ancient hieroglyphs on the walls with women who have their nose stuck in a flower, and that is said to symbolize the, the blue lotus flower. Blue lotus carries this really intriguing aroma, and it helps to lift a person's intuition. Um, more esoteric belief says that it opens up the crown, it helps with intuition. It also has this really sensual, beautiful honeysuckle, um, rich aroma, and it's very tantalizing. The pharmacology of Blue Lotus, um, has several different constituents which really hit a lot of different receptor sites in the brain. And so when a person ingests Blue Lotus, either by eating it or vaporizing the pure oil, it's It really carries this sensual uplifting, really honed intuition that I would describe it as it lifts your vibration and it really clarifies your vision.

Ben Greenfield: What's your favorite way to use it? And, I ask because I think you mentioned to me that it's a little bit of an aphrodisiac. We'll get into the stack you sent me for that later on, but isn't it related to that? The aphrodisiac effect?

It can be for many people because it really helps to reduce the levels of stress, clarifies your mind, and it brings you into the present moment. And, from that place of creativity and inspiration, if you are in the bedroom connecting with the woman you love, it is a great ally.

And, you mentioned eating it. I know earlier you also used the word resin. Is that what you'd eat? Is the actual— well, explain to me what a resin is because I think that's the oral form.

Form, right? We have several different formats of this precious blue lotus. We've been sourcing Blue Lotus Absolute and CO2 extracts, which are highly aromatic, for about a decade. And these absolutes have a really full-spectrum aromatic profile and flavor profile. And my favorite ways of working with those personally are to put them into an essential oil vaporizer heat it up and breathe it in straight to the lungs. It is a real powerful way and the most amazing flavor profile that one can experience. And so, the Blue Lotus Absolute has been an offering, uh, from ours for about a decade now. These Blue Lotus resin that we just sourced from Thailand is indeed more orally active. So, the resins are produced by taking the organically grown plant plant material and, um, putting it into water and heating up the pot until it's cooked down. You filter out the plant material and what happens is it's a great concentrate. And so the Thai family is producing about 100:1 for these extracts. And let me explain what that means, Ben. This means approximately 100 grams of plant material are in a single gram of this precious resin.

Ben Greenfield: Oh, wow. So, this is kind of like where you hear about, for example, oil of oregano. You can obviously spice in your kitchen with oil of oregano, but then if you were to concentrate the actual leaf, you can get to the point where it's caustic to the skin. I mean, it can be so concentrated. So, you're taking the Blue Lotus and taking what you'd have to consume hundreds of pounds of flowers to get the effect of and you're getting it into a tiny little ball that would fit on the end of a spoon.

Exactly. Yeah. So, most people will start off with about a grain of rice of these various types of resins. And, I'm usually ingesting about a pea-sized amount and I'll kind of play with my dosing from there. Usually, if I'm staying up later or being out social, I might redose every 1 to 2 hours. But, I have several of these resins from Thailand that are absolutely amazing for different purposes.

Ben Greenfield: Are you still— because we geeked out on what makes your oils kind of unique in a couple of episodes, and people can, of course, listen to those. But, I actually want to talk a little bit about that. Do you still charge up— I think you said you had this giant crystal called an Ark Crystal or something like that. And, all of your products, you actually somehow charge them with frequency. So, it's not just the oil, you've got a way of blasting or amplifying their energy before you ship them out to people?

Totally. Yeah. So, the Ark Crystal, which was invented by Nassim Haramein, is still a part of our proprietary process of charging our essential oils. And so what makes our brand and our offering so unique and different is, to my knowledge, we're the only essential oil company and botanical extract company that works on sourcing the finest quality botanical extracts from all over the world, utilizing those as the starting material, and then charging and tuning them with different tools, techniques, and frequencies. And so part of our processes for stimulating our different essential oil products, uh, indeed we are using the Ark Crystal to enhance the energy. And each of these different techniques that I'm talking about, if you are at our lab, we can do a before and after, and it's unbelievable to people who are just experiencing it for the first time because there's a notable difference from before and after for of these tools. And so, um, the arc crystal is one of the strategies. We also utilize orgonite. Orgonite is a composite resin of inorganic and organic minerals, and it's compressed into a resin. And when the resin compresses on these crystals, it carries a piezoelectric charge, which translates to electrical energy. And the electrical energy is conducted through the metal shavings of copper and other types of metallics that are in there. And so, it really acts as an activator. And, what we do is we combine different frequencies that are imprinted on these holograms and we amplify the signal using the orgonite directly into the oil and the various types of products.

Ben Greenfield: The crystals, I don't know if you still have these, but I think you gifted this to me the last time you were at my house in Spokane. A little— it's like a tray. I still have it. I keep it right by my oils. I have this special box that I keep the oils in and I keep that tray in there. It's like this white tray that I think you said has some of these piezoelectric crystals in it so I can kind of keep my oils charged while they're at my house.

Okay. I'm wondering if I gifted you one of the Biogeometry clearing trays.

I think that's exactly what it was. Yes. I think it's white. And then, it's got these little indents in it.

Yeah. I've had the gold ones and the clear ones over the years. And, the clear one is transparent but it has white markings.

Yeah, that one.

Yep.

Yep. Okay. Perfect. Okay. So, if somebody, let's say, wanted to charge up— let's say they wanted to use your technology but didn't just want to use it on oils, could I just some stupid couple like a banana on top of there and— It would charge up the banana.

Totally. Yeah, the, um, you know, the biogeometry technology is by no means mine. It's one of the things that we utilize in enhancing the quality of our oils. And that tray is used for clearing energy and enhancing the BG3 energy, to my knowledge. And when you put any type of food, drink, medication, oils onto the BioGeometry clearing tray, it helps to clear and amplify the energy.

Ben Greenfield: I have to say I was skeptical about BioGeometry and I'd heard about it. And then, probably 6 years ago, I visited Paul Chek's home and I walked into his office and it felt like I was walking onto a different planet, almost like gravity had changed or there was this different energy in the room. And, he, of course, has I think his whole house, his whole acreage has all sorts of biogeometry pendants and configurations and art and sculptures and all sorts of things that enhance biogeometry. So, I visited with him for 2 hours in his office. I learned a whole bunch about biogeometry. I've done a couple of podcasts on it now. I'll link to them in the shownotes. And, I actually have a lot of these little pyramidal shapes and stickers and trays and things like that in my own office now. And, some people raise an eyebrow at this stuff, but it's this hard-to-describe feeling of almost peace combined with this calm energy when you're in a room or in a home or a structure that has some of this bio— if I can talk— biogeometrical configurations scattered around it.

Biogeometry is a very powerful tool to apply into one's personal life. And, um, you know, I've received a lot of feedback about our oils over the years, what makes them so unique, and biogeometry is definitely one of those tools that really adds to it. Interestingly enough, I've had students of biogeometry that are a rather high level Biogeometry reach out and share that our oils carry a BG3 energy and configuration, which means that whatever we're doing is working and they're bioharmonic.

Ben Greenfield: When you said ultrasonic, you mentioned ultrasonic tinctures a little while ago. Is that the same as the frequencies from the Biogeometry? Do you call them ultrasonic after they've been infused or ultrasonic, something else.

Yeah, so the ultrasonic extraction process is one that was shown to me a little, approximately a decade ago. I think it was 2017. And Douglas Stewart, rest his soul, um, he shared with me a process of taking plant material and utilizing ultrasonic frequencies using water as a solvent. And extracting the different plant alkaloids and different essential oils into the, um, high-quality water. You essentially are producing a very concentrated tea. So what happens in this process is the ultrasonic frequencies create these shear forces on a microscopic level, and they get into the plant material. They break down the cell walls of the plant material on these spill out and extract the different essential oils and plant alkaloids. You then have this rich concentrated tea. We take this tea and we run it through a vacuum filtration process to remove as much of the plant waxes and plant material as we can. Then we put it through a low temperature vacuum distillation process, um, utilizing a rotary evaporator and Through this process, we take that rich plant herbal tea that has rich bioavailability and is super concentrated, and we concentrate it down further until it's this ultrasonic extract. We then reconstitute it with the hydrosol that we vacuum distill out using a very low temperature, and we add some organic alcohol to stabilize it. Producing a very potent and bioavailable tincture. This is what I'm talking about and this is our process for our ultrasonic-extracted tinctures.

So, if somebody wanted to try a tincture because I know you have quite a few that you sell on your website to see what it feels like when you try one of these tinctures. Let's say somebody just wants kind of a pick-me-up. Up? Like, this is something maybe they want to do in the morning to get through a tough work morning for more focus, more energy, maybe they're a little bit sleep-deprived, whatever. What would be a couple of your top ultrasonic tinctures if somebody just wanted to try this for themselves?

Yeah. So, a great option to start off with would be our Ultrasonic Lion's Mane tincture. So, I've received the feedback and this is my own experience with our tincture as well. And, I think there's quite a number of reviews reporting this, um, on our website, that our ultrasonic extracted tincture of Lion's Mane is one of the most potent Lion's Mane formulations on the market. So when I take the Lion's Mane tincture, hold it under the tongue for 30 to 60 seconds, all of a sudden, within about a minute, I feel my brain come on. It's almost like both of the hemispheres start communicating with one another more effectively, and it just switches your brain on. It doesn't carry these stimulating caffeine-like euphoric uplifting energy qualities, but it helps to turn on the mind. And so that's a really great one, uh, to start off with. What's special about this ultrasonic extraction process, and for me having experimented with so many individual plants, is for many years I've taken formulas or individual plant tinctures where I don't quite feel the medicine or the effects from it. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. Sometimes after a week or two, I start noticing something, and it was hard to really pinpoint what does this plant do. And with our ultrasonic extracted tinctures, I have been able to experience plants for the first time with the medicine that we're extracting. And so, um, it's a real joy to be able to experience, for instance, our Ultrasonic Skullcap tincture. Um, Skullcap is oftentimes used in sleep or relaxation formulas. And when I extracted it, I noticed that it actually has more of an adaptogenic-like quality. And so what I mean by that is when I take the, the Skullcap, which I actually took some before this podcast, what I noticed is it helps to relax the nervous system, but it also can stimulate the mind. It can help to hone the focus and really bring you into the present moment. So I'll actually— I love utilizing Skullcap before podcasts before bedtime or when I'm going to get creative with a project because it really drops me into the present moment. And, if I'm needing to rest or relax, I can also transition into sleep very easily from it.

Ben Greenfield: That's what I like, by the way, rhodiola, ashwagandha, reishi kind of fits into this category for me, any of those adaptogens. Paradoxically, the same thing that kept you wake when you needed more focus earlier in the day, can help you chill and relax at the end of the day, kind of tuning you up or down depending on what your body needs, which is such a cool part about— as my kids say when we're talking about nature, "Oh, that's pretty neat. It's pretty neat." That's awesome.

I love that.

Yeah. The tincture, you mentioned you hold it in your mouth. Is that necessary? Do you lose the effects if you swallow it right away?

What I notice subjectively is an enhanced absorption and stronger level of effects when I hold it under the tongue for 30 seconds to a minute. Other people prefer, because of the alcohol, they may prefer to put it into a beverage, um, like water or tea, and that also seems to work really well for it. So I would either hold it sublingually and/or make an 8-ounce glass of water or tea, add in your desired tincture formulations, and get at it.

Okay, got it. Now, another delivery mechanism, you mentioned how you would use a vaporizer for the Blue Lotus. I think some people have heard of a nebulizer. Is that the same thing?

So, the essential oil vaporizer is a I've been using them for over a decade and I'm waiting for the manufacturer to produce some more. And so unfortunately I can't source these, but these are a stainless steel type of apparatus that connects with a glass pipe at the end. And you can put the pure essential oil CO2 extract or floral absolutes into the glass vial, heat it up and breathe it in directly into the lungs. So this is a manual process in regards to the heating process. The hotter you get it— so the goal, if you're going to use this type of process, you want to heat and volatilize the aromatic molecules without burning the essential oils. The hotter you get it, um, you know, the goal is not to see the essential oils start smoking. That's going to cause more damage than benefit. So the goal is to heat up the oil gently enough that the flavor molecules and the different terpene molecules are going to volatilize and you can breathe them in directly into the lungs. And this is a very powerful method. During our first interview, I believe we had spoken about this method and, uh, I shared my experience when I was ill with pneumonia during a winter season. And I vaporized some oil of oregano, which I'm not suggesting anyone to do because it's extremely caustic and irritating in this way. But I was on the verge, um, I was really concerned for my life at this point and needed to see a doctor. And so I knew the power and the potency of the antimicrobial, antifungal qualities of oregano, and I was already having a difficult time breathing at this point. So when I saw my essential oil vaporizer sitting right next to a bottle of oil of oregano, for me, I felt that I had nothing to lose and everything to gain. Um, so I would, I would probably suggest if I was vaporizing something to stimulate my immune system currently with our wide array of different formulations, I would prefer to vaporize our immune Oil or our Respire oil. And, those would be a lot smoother, gentler, and very potent in terms of helping to open the lungs and clear some of the mucus and also stimulate the immune system.

Ben Greenfield: I have a bottle of your Respire in my hyperbaric chamber actually. I just spritz that around in there every time I climb in. It smells great. The vaporizer thing though, they're obviously vaporizers like the The Buddha, I think Paul Chek vaporizes. There's actually a whole chapter in my book "Boundless" with all his different recipes, different leaves and oils, et cetera. He uses a Volcano. I mean, could you just go to Amazon and get a vaporizer that people would most popularly use for weed and use essential oils and something like that?

I wouldn't want to give a blanket statement for that because there's so much crap that circulates in vaporizing tools. And I would, I would not want to be vaporizing propylene glycol, vegetable glycerin. I wouldn't want to vaporize any type of carrier oil, including, um, including carrier oils that are found in lots of our blends, right?

But, but, but just to clarify real quick, like, I have, um, I have the Buddha And, it's just a glass pipette that you would draw the vape through with a very small metal grate inside the glass. And, I suppose theoretically if you had some kind of a mesh that you could put the oil on, there's no other oils or propylene glycol or anything like that involved such as you would find in a vape pen, you're just adjusting the temperature and drawing through the glass.

Yeah, that sounds accurate. I've worked with Paul and have shared many bags with utilizing the Volcano, and it's definitely a lot of fun to add different essential oils or some of our essential oil tinctures onto the plant material. And if you're using one of the tinctures, it's really important that before you place the bag on top to, to heat up the herbs and the essential oil, you're going to want to heat up the herbs before placing the bag on top of it because you want the alcohol to evaporate off and not go into the bag where you're gonna be breathing it in because the alcohol can be damaging to the lungs. However, if you are utilizing, let's say, our Super Immune Boost or our Release Tincture onto the plant material, you add the appropriate amount and allow the alcohol to evaporate off, you now have an essential oil infused herbal blend. And the amount of flavor profiles and different effects that you can co-create with the botanical kingdom is absolutely amazing. And I'm really grateful Paul taught me about utilizing the Volcano and combining it with herbs. Because it just opens up a whole other way that you can work with the different essential oils. I actually have a list of some of my favorite essential oils and tinctures that I enjoy vaporizing, which I'd be happy to share with you and your listeners.

I'll totally put them in the show notes. I got to remember where the show notes are. It's BenGreenfieldLife.com/WizardryOils. Yeah, email them to me and I'll put them in the show notes. I've actually smoked a lot of bags with Paul. I don't have a Volcano. I just never bit the bullet and got one. But, there is, for people wondering, there is a page in my book "Boundless," I forget which chapter it's in, in which I have a lot of his recipes in there that he kind of taught me about the Volcano. But, I'm sure a lot of people are thinking, "Dude, you guys are starting to sound like a couple of psychonauts talking about smoking essential oils." yada yada. Most people want to just maybe slip into their sauna or diffuse something in their office or maybe use a humidifier or something like that. But, from what I understand, what I've learned from you, even that differs, what kind of oil you're going to use in a diffuser versus a humidifier versus a sauna. So, how do you kind of navigate that? Let's say I'm listening and maybe I do have a sauna and I've got a humidifier and a diffuser, how do I choose if I'm shopping around your website what to get and what to add to what?

Well, let me share a little bit of education and kind of empower people with the mindset of what they're looking for in the types of benefits and maybe drawbacks of different apparatuses. So, when you're talking about a diffuser, you're going to want to have a diffuser that has high-quality materials, something like glass or non-reactive parts that are going to be touching the actual essential oil. When you incorporate, uh, different diffusers utilizing water, you're going to weaken the, um, the aroma that is going to be aerated into the environment. If you are going to use a different type of, um, maybe an ultrasonic diffuser, those typically will use water and oftentimes have plastic parts. So if you have essential oils sitting with plastic parts for an extended period of time, that's going to damage the apparatus and maybe volatilizing microplastics as well. And so Um, when you have a diffuser that is incorporating heat into it, heat is going to change the essential oil. And so you may be receiving less of the therapeutic benefit that you would be expecting from the pure essential oil. So all of these are different factors with regards to when you're choosing your, your diffuser. When you're selecting your diffuser, what I like using— we have a nebulizing diffuser, which is a patented diffuser which has a wooden base. Uh, only the oil only touches a glass. It's not diluted with water. Each of the oils can diffuse to about 800 square feet, so it's very potent. And it's not going to be broken down by heat, and it's not diluted by water. So these are the types of things to look at when you are sourcing a diffuser.

Do you sell that on your website, that diffuser?

Yeah, yeah, we do.

I didn't even know you sold diffusers.

Yeah, yeah, okay. Yeah, we have a link, uh, to a partner we've been working with for about a decade on that.

Cool.

All right. Yeah. And so This is the mindset that I like to use. And so, when you're incorporating oils in the sauna, if you are using a pure essential oil that is going to volatilize completely, you might receive a little bit less of the benefits if you are pouring it onto the rocks and letting it smoke and burn.

Ben Greenfield: Okay. So, we're talking, by the way, not about the infrared sauna a lot of people use now. We're talking about sauna It's got the cage with the rocks that you normally put water on. And then, I'm glad you're covering this because I've been wondering about this, whether or not if I put oil in the water that I'm pouring on the rocks, is it kind of ruining the oil or even making it unhealthy if I breathe it in?

I'm imagining that it reduces the amount of therapeutic qualities and there might be some damage to the constituents, which would be unknown in the body. And also, you're going to receive therapeutic benefit from the oil that you're putting onto them. So I would, I would say you're, you're likely receiving less benefits by putting them directly on the rocks. You could put them into a glass that is very close to the rocks so that it's slowly volatilizing and receiving less of a burst of direct heat.

You mean just a normal, say, a drinking glass?

Yeah, maybe a 32-ounce jar filled with water and essential oil.

That makes really good sense. Why didn't I think of that? Okay. So, I could just take a Mason glass jar. Let's say I want to breathe, I don't know, I really like your Respire or frankincense is another one I like. So, I could just put some drops of that in the glass jar, and set that next to the sauna heater?

Yeah, I would, I would suggest that that would likely create more benefits and less of a risk for more of the damage of the oil reacting with itself. However, I also perceive, you know, that would be more of the purist approach. I'm also perceiving that if you put a pure essential oil or CO2 extract directly onto the rocks, that you would gain a lot of benefit as well. So, it's really how much of a purist do you want to be.

But, the rocks are really hot. You don't think that would damage the oil?

I think that it would damage the oil to some degree and you would also receive some benefit as well.

Okay. But, when you're— people talk about seed oils and how if you consume a rancid or damaged seed oil, that it could cause damage, oxidation to your cells. If you breathe in a heat-damaged essential oil, you don't think that could cause any damage to the lungs or something like that, do you?

I think that it would be better to use more of that purist method of putting it into the water. I think that the benefit would outweigh the risk. But, let's say you're doing this practice every day or multiple times a day, and you don't do breath practices or you aren't using regular detoxification protocols, then likely over the course of a period, you're receiving some benefits, but you're also receiving a little bit of, um, intensity that your body has to process. So this is why I would like to suggest these different techniques to get the most out of your essential oils safely. Now, when you were making the, uh, comparison with seed oils, In a pure essential oil, you are not going to have any of these fatty acids, and these fatty acids are going to combust when exposed to these high levels of heat. In these high levels of heat, these different volatile aromatic molecules may have enough energy that they react with each other, and, and some of them will go into the environment unchanged. So, it's really about taking care of yourself and mitigating risk while also getting the most out of your therapeutic essential oils.

You use an infrared sauna, don't you?

I do. And, in my infrared sauna, I will personally— typically, I'll rub my body and get my body sweating and I'll sit with it for about 20 minutes. Then, I'll apply different essential oils onto my physical body. So I'm not applying it directly to a heat source, but they are typically exposed to about 140°F, um, for an extended period of time. And then I'll rub those into my body. And then towards the end, I will rub myself off with a different rag and kind of clean myself off and remove some of the toxins and the oil which hasn't absorbed into into my body. That's kind of my personal strategy for using the oils in the infrared sauna.

Ben Greenfield: I also sometimes am lazy and I will just literally just baptize all the walls of the sauna with oil. And then, I do that in the dry sauna and I even do that in the cold plunge. When I'm walking past the cold plunge sometimes, I'll just put a few drops in there. So, the cold plunge always smells incredible if you like the smell of, I don't know, a spa. So, yeah. Back to the Blue Lotus thing and you were talking about this kind of aphrodisiac blend, you sent me some oils. I remember we were going back and forth. This was the night I was going to take my wife on a date and you had a lineup of Tongkat Ali, I think Bajaca if I'm saying that correctly, kakonga root, blue lotus. And, I kind of picked your brain, you gave me the information on dosages, et cetera. But, for people, let's say somebody visits your website and they want the ultimate date night stack or maybe they're wanting to plant some seeds like you and Albert are trying to do, fill me in. What do you add to your shopping cart and why?

Yeah. So, our Jing Qi formula is a real powerful blend of lots of different Jing herbs. That's one of my favorite go-tos. I'm, I'm really personally stacking our Jing Qi, our Ultrasonic Epimedium, and our Ultrasonic Kakonga Root. Um, each of those are— they carry their own nuances. So the Kakonga Root I sourced from my friend Ja'Kris, who was, um, born on the Virgin Islands, and he's the one who wild harvests these roots up in the hills, and it's a really special sacrament to their people. And in fact, it's one of the prime ingredients found in their root teas that they drink on the island. And I remember Chris sharing with me about, um, one of his baby mothers who was unable to get pregnant for a period of about 9 months. And he told me what he did and really helped to resolve that story about being unable to get pregnant. And that was, uh, kakonga root, moringa leaf, and a bunch of sea moss. And so, uh, I've, I've been going and enjoying a lot of the kakonga roots, which is also found in the Jing Qi formulation. Epimedium I really feel a strong— it feels like the energy of testosterone, just masculine drive, physical strength, wanting to work out, potent sexuality. And, when I take a lot of the epimedium, I can even feel a layer of aggression.

Yeah. And, by the way, that's funny you say aggression because I was doing some research on kakao root and multiple, multiple websites said that it's used in, in many indigenous tribes to help young men not be lazy.

Yes, isn't that, isn't that fascinating? Yeah, the, um, what Ja'Kris taught me was that they give it to the youth to help motivate them and keep them with direction, and they give it to the elders to keep them strong and healthy. And it's a powerful aphrodisiac. Definitely taking too much Cacanga roots can cause priaprism.

Yeah, which is the erections that last for a very long time and can be very painful and annoying and in some cases send you to the hospital.

Yup. So, utilizing these powerful Jing herbs in a responsible way is how I would always approach approach it. So, you know, one dropper, two droppers, maybe three droppers. Um, you know, I, I've definitely two to three droppers and stacked a few of them. Um, a strategy if a person is, um, having a difficult time with a prolonged erection, sometimes I'll focus on breathing and focusing my breath and concentrating on my breath and relaxing the nervous system. Sometimes that's, that's a strategy that can aid during those scenarios.

So the, the spelling for this one that you said kind of combines a lot of this stuff. Did you say Jing Qi?

Yes, Jing Qi, J-I-N-G Qi, C-H-I. And that's it. That's a, that's one that is somewhat difficult for us to keep in stock. And, there's a great reason why for it.

Ben Greenfield: I bet. Yeah. Alright, cool. Alright. And then, by the way, it works as advertised, folks. And, I keep that. I got little labels in the pantry and there's one that says Men's Health and that's where all those are. So, although my wife partakes also. The kitchen stuff is interesting because a lot of people, of course, are familiar with diffusing essential oils or using them in a fragrance or using them in some cases in the vaporizer like we talked about. But, in cooking, they can be very powerful, but you have some cool blends.

Thank you.

You sent me those vanilla drops. I was putting those in my coffee. But, talk to me about the kitchen part. And also, as part of that, if you do need to be careful with the concentration because I think these things are stronger than a lot of people realize.

Yeah. So, the different formulations that we produce for the kitchen are very strong and beautiful flavoring agents. So, I think we were discussing, I may have shared with you Chai Perfect, our Golden Spice.

I use 4 drops of Chai Perfect in a glass of hot water and it was still at that level super concentrated. I'm not much of a creamer guy, but I actually added some coconut cream to the water, it's very strong.

Yeah, that makes sense to me. So the, um, typically what I suggest is a smart, uh, a starting addition would be about 1 drop in 8 to 16 ounces of liquid for these various types of, um, either pure essential oil blends or tincture formulations. For this reason, you can always add more and flavor it to taste, but once you add too much, it can really throw off the formula. And I felt like you were going to really enjoy playing with these as you're quite creative in the kitchen, Ben. And so it sounds like you experimented with about 4 drops. How big would you say your glass was approximately?

Uh, that was— it was pretty big. It was about 24 ounces.

Okay. And then was it the, uh—

no, I take that back. It was by 20. It's 20 ounce.

Okay. And then was it the pure essential oil or was it the tincture formulation with—

it was the one that said Chai Perfect on it.

Okay. Um, because we have those as a pure essential oil and we also have them in a dropper bottle, um, and those are the tincture formulations. So the, the tincture formulations are a little bit weaker, and I would expect somewhere between—

I'll tell you just a second. It's over here.

Get it, Ben Greenfield!

It's horrible podcasting when the host leaves, but let's see, get my special box here. Um, it was the— this is great too, because then people get to see what your label looks like. Invigor. I hope it's in— here we go. It was this one, chai Perfect uplifting blend. Yep, that looks like the Pure Organic Wildcrafted Divine. I don't know which, which one is that. I should put my headphones on because I can't hear you.

Hold on. That is the Pure Essential Oil Blend.

Okay, now I can hear you.

That one? Yeah, it's a Pure Essential Oil Blend. Okay. And so that's going to be— yep, exactly. So for that size, 2 drops would have probably been pretty perfect in terms of potency. And when you add cream, I find that it absorbs— the flavor absorbs and becomes more well-rounded. So I love your intuitive hit on maybe adding some coconut milk or coconut cream.

Yeah, that balanced it out pretty well.

Yep. And, um, if it was a tincture, probably 2 to 4 drops would have been a great place to play with for that amount. So, the tinctures are less concentrated, but the flavor profile of the essential oil blends are so potent that a little bit can go a long way.

Do you ever cook with it? Do you have any recipes that you've used the Vanilla or the Golden Spice or anything in?

With regards to recipes, I am just such a wizard when I play. I don't write things down unless it's in the essential oil lab. When it's, when it comes to cooking and preparing, um, food or beverages, I'll just add utilizing about 8 to 16 ounces per drop of pure essential oil. That's kind of what I'll use to play with, um, on the fly. If, if one wanted to add a bunch of spices, uh, that are like turmeric, uh, cardamom, black pepper, um, combine that with some coconut cream and add some of our Golden Spice tincture. That is a really wonderful flavor profile. So you could look up a golden milk formula, add some sea moss gel and some of our Golden Spice tincture, and you're going to have one of the most rich, potent, nutrient-dense beverages and your body's going to feel super strong.

Ben Greenfield: I've got a massage tonight and I know what I'm going to be drinking after my massage. Sweet. Almost Father's Day at the time we're recording this, although Father's Day will have passed after we recorded it. You sent me this one that I've actually been wearing as a fragrance. And, I don't know if that's the right way, but I love the way it smells. It's called Father's Love. It just intrigued me when it shows up. It's a great name, but what is this one?

Father's Love was a formula that I crafted to honor my father while he was still alive, um, right after he received the stage 4 cancer diagnosis. And I wanted to make a healing blend to honor and celebrate my father. And my father was really fond of tobacco, and I added some tobacco absolute and some very earthy different extracts in here. So the Father's Love contains bergamot, buddha wood, cabraúva, cedar heba, tobacco absolute, and rose otto. And the, um, the Father's Love is really a formula that helps to ground a person into their body, helps to open up the heart helps to really come into resonance and forgiveness with patriarchal energy and celebrates the Divine Father, um, be it in physical form or your, your own father. And for me, it was a celebration of my father's life, and the aroma reminds me of this really beautiful old walnut furniture with some sweet notes to help to open up the heart and reminds me of the smell of growing up and honoring my father.

I love that. I'm going to be wearing it on Father's Day. Do you ever do that, just sprinkle it on your clothes?

I do, yeah.

So, there's another one that has been getting a lot of attention, another herb that's been getting a lot of attention. In the health world, saffron, for something that really stabilizes the mood, seems to be great for depression and anxiety. There are companies like— what was the company? Organifi. They sent me these gummies they have called Happy Drops and saffron is an ingredient in those. I think saffron is kind of underrated as a spice. So, tell me about the saffron.

Our Ultrasonic Extracted Saffron Tincture is a really lovely single ingredient, and working with the saffron plant is really a great agent. I fell in love with saffron by extracting it and feeling it in my body during the winter this past season. And what I find is when you take saffron internally, it helps to radiate the inner light and it helps to lift the mood and bring in more joy into your day-to-day. Um, I, during the winter season, I tend to utilize different lights, uh, infrared lights, um, like from SaunaSpace. I have them throughout our house and I also incorporate different UV spectrum bulbs and I find that it really is helpful for me when it's snowing outside and I'm not getting my light quotient that I prefer.

Like a seasonal affective disorder type of remedy?

Correct. And when I started working with saffron in my body, what I felt was it, it helps to shine the inner light. It helps me to turn on my inner sun. And so, I felt like I was less dependent on external light and more my body just felt satiated and happy.

Ben Greenfield: Yeah, I agree. I don't know if you ever cook with it or use it as a spice, but again, it's summertime when this podcast is coming out, but I think it's one of the best things to have around when you've got the dark dreary days of winter. Speaking of which, are you still in Oregon?

Nick? Yeah, Ashland, Oregon.

Gosh, you're still not that far from me. I moved to North Idaho, so I'm only 90 minutes from Spokane where I used to live. Okay. Yeah. We got to get together sometime. Hey, one other thing because I've been keeping this one by my desk and spraying it on every once in a while, Aqua de Flores. This is almost like a mist. Tell me about these things.

Aqua de Flores was inspired by Florida water. And Florida water is, it's this synthetic fragrance that is utilized in various types of circles. Ayahuasca circles, for instance, will use this Florida water.

Are you saying Florida like the state Florida?

Correct. Um, and so the agua de flores, it, it stands for water of flowers. And it's one of the— it's inspired by a flower bath. And the ingredients in here are things like bergamot, ylang-ylang, sandalwood, cedar, rose geranium, jasmine, rose. And so it's a really rich, organic flower water. And when my mentor and I were talking about making an Agua de Florida, a natural version, this was the inspiration for this blend. And so this is one of our ceremonial sprays, and it's really good for just lifting up your mood and really showering in some beautiful flowers.

Yeah, it smells great. Um, smells like— well, Smells like you're spraying flowers on. There we go. He's doing it right now, folks. So, like I said, this is the third time I've interviewed you, Nick. You have so many different offerings. I think you have over 200 different products now on the website that—

Over 300.

Oh, man. The Wizard Alchemy blends and your ceremonial blends, your botanical perfumes. You got a bunch of kava products. Therapeutic formulas. You even have this one in here, the Easeolution, which is more for bites, stings, et cetera. It's like visiting your own sweet-smelling pharmacy when you go to your website. And, that's why I've been a fan of you for so many years. I learned so much from you. And, if you're listening right now or watching, I really encourage you to go over there, check out Nick's website, You guys have great customer service, Nick. Not only are all the descriptions on there really helpful as far as where to get what or what to use for what, but you've always just— sometimes I'll ask you, "What's this oil for?" And, I'll get a 2-page email with everything I would ever need to know. So, I really appreciate you, man, and you've got such a big heart and such a love for this. So, thanks for doing what you do.

Oh, it's my pleasure, Ben. And, I'm truly honored to share with all of your listeners. And, It's always been an honor to co-create and share together.

Absolutely. Alright, folks, it's BenGreenfieldLife.com/WizardryOils. I'll link to other interviews with Nick. You can hear his whole backstory, how he got into doing what he does, more about the history of the company, other essential oils we didn't talk about on this show, and plenty more. So, BenGreenfieldLife.com/WizardryOils. Until next time. I'm Ben Greenfield along with Dr. Nick Berry signing out from BenGreenfieldLife.com.

To discover even more tips, tricks, hacks, and content to become the most complete boundless version of you, visit BenGreenfieldLife.com. In compliance with the FTC guidelines, please assume the following about links and posts on this site. Most of the links going to products are often affiliate links of which I receive a small commission from sales of certain items, but the price is the same for you. And sometimes I even get to share a unique and somewhat significant discount with you. In some cases, I might also be an investor in a company I mentioned. I'm the founder, for example, of Kion LLC, the makers of Kion-branded supplements and products, which I talk about quite a bit. Regardless of the relationship, if post or talk about an affiliate link to a product, it is indeed something I personally use, support, and with full authenticity and transparency recommend in good conscience. I personally vet each and every product that I talk about. My first priority is providing valuable information and resources to you that help you positively optimize your mind, body, and spirit, and I'll only ever link to products or resources affiliate or otherwise, that fit within this purpose. So there's your fancy legal disclaimer.