Short Stuff: Smudging: Not just for hippies | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

[Music]. hey and welcome to the short stuff I'm. Josh and there's Chuck and Jerry's here. too sit and for Dave it's the hug and. this is short stuff I think I already. said that so let's go uh woo woo Edition. a little bit depending on where your. what your background is or what your. intentions are or what you believe the. effects of what you're doing is are. that's right and what we're talking. about is smudging and if you're like.

what is that have you ever heard of. burning sage like oh we just moved into. this new house we're going to walk. around and burn some Sage get rid of all. those bad vibes and just welcome the the. newness and the goodness into this place. by burning a little bundle of white sage. yeah it's it's called smudging The Smoke. uh supposedly does some stuff to like. you said The Vibes it is very popular. among people who use words like Vibes. right but.

it has its roots um very firmly in. indigenous North American cultures in. particular the Dakota and hunk cultures. um smudged with sage hunk is more. familiar as the Winnebago tribe right um. and they also well I guess they evolve. this practice um independently but um. civilizations like throughout time have. used herbs or incenses to do things like.

cleanse the air or purify things and. there's there's definitely something to. it um it's just the science on it hasn't. really been um carried out in a lot of. ways and there's a lot of people who. still kind of jump to larger conclusions. than they possibly should at this point. who knows I think my take on it for I. just want everybody to bear this in mind. if uh it makes you happy if you like it. if you're doing it ethically and. responsibly um the more power to you.

yeah absolutely um burning all kinds of. herbs has long been a uh sort of a. ritual in different cultures like you. were talking about um smudging you can. also call it saging the word sage. actually comes from Latin uh from Salvia. which means to feel healthy and we're. going to talk about potential health. benefits here in a minute um but there. uh you know there are people who will. say well hold on a minute this is this. is cultural appropriation really and if. you're just walking around like you.

throw on some Ena or some Grateful Dead. and you're and you're burning smug. you're smudging you're burning that sage. and walking around then you may be sort. of doing a uh not a disservice but uh. inadvertently sort of insulting being. disrespectful to the original uh very. sacred practice uh so that is something. to keep in mind um and's like leave me. out of. this leave me in the cross word where I. belong exactly uh so there are people.

though that will say like hey if you're. going to do this um keep some things in. mind um Harvest it sustainably and we'll. get to why you should do that in a sec. although you should always do that for. anything yeah uh and then maybe you know. sort of do some research on how it was. really done and maybe you know try and. honor that in some. way yeah exactly um yeah maybe seek. different sources too Beyond um. Instagram or Tik Tok and not making fun.

but I know that there's a lot of people. that are getting the idea to go smudge. from those sources great but go look up. a little more about it and that might. help you feel a little better about. doing it yeah and if you're curious. about uh potential benefits of smudging. uh Beyond just sort of feeling like it's. a ritual you should do when you move in. or you want to get rid of some bad vibes. um don't go to websites that have uh web. pages that are. turquoise or comic Sands comic Sands.

pink pink script uh lots of crystals um. you're going to get a lot of information. on those sites but it may not be. accurate uh because I did look a little. deeper into uh benefits of smudging and. burning sage and maybe we should talk. about those when we come back right. after this I think that's a capital idea. all right we'll be right. [Music]. back.

[Music]. all right so if you look up you know. what are the benefits of burning sage. you will find all kinds of thing from. improved mood better sleep uh enhanced. cognition lowering your stress levels uh. antibacterial properties stuff like that.

uh the problem is with a lot of this. kind of stuff is it's hard to find great. solid scientific studies and evidence. because science doesn't usually study. stuff like this a lot uh the money goes. elsewhere so you'll find a lots of. studies where it's like there's a lot of. correlation and stuff like that a lot of. self-reporting. um but I was having a hard time finding. like some real good hard double blind. studies on this stuff yes that's that's. problem one problem two is there are.

some peer-reviewed good studies or. metaanalysis of other studies um but if. you start looking into him you're like. oh this isn't actually talking about. smudging at all or yeah if it is about. smudging it's not about smudging with. sage it's about smudging with havan Sam. Sami right which is a Indian um. medicinal I guess incense um which that. one is widely cited because that study. found that um burning havan sagari um. purifies your room it kills up to 95% of.

airborne bacteria for up to like 30 days. that's awesome so you could be like okay. I mean is Sage really that much. different from havan Sami so surely. there's some properties to it that's. what people are doing or if it's a um a. study on Sage and and Sage's ability to. enhance cognition or to fight. Alzheimer's or to improve your mood or. something like that um that's those are. studies on Sage extract that you're. taking orally it's not a study on.

smudging that's different again you can. make some some jumps to conclusions that. may have some some basis like um you. know if you burn some of the bioactive. compounds in other plants like marijuana. it does things to you for sure um how is. it that that far off that burning sage. and its bioactive compounds could have. other different effects that just maybe. aren't quite as noticeable or just. haven't been researched yes yes the. answer is yes but the the key thing here.

is to remember it hasn't been researched. um so you know take it all with a grain. of salt and but again if it's making you. feel good even if it's a placebo then. great yeah absolutely and by the way. please don't put sage in your bong and. inhale it oh my God it would kill your. throat yeah that would not be good for. you um we mentioned or I think I. mentioned um responsible harvesting of. sage uh about 50% and this is California.

wh age about 50% of California whes age. has been lost to urbanization MH uh this. article says you know the increase in. non-native people saging is posing a. threat I I saw that it was more like. urbanization in general climate change. fire drought poaching sort of The Usual. Suspects with stuff like that if it's. California Sage that fire is. contributing big time yeah absolutely um. so I'm not so convinced that that's true. that like. you know people jumping off of goop and.

buying Sage as like why that there's a. 50% drop but it may be playing a part. who knows um I mean if there's a huge a. huge decline in it naturally then a. bunch of new people coming and buying it. would definitely have an impact too sure. absolutely um carpenter bees are the. main pollinator of white sage uh so the. loss of sage is is no good just like you. know losing any kind of um pollinating. plant is no good mhm uh and then you.

know whether or not it's uh bad for you. I was trying to find information I. didn't see where it was necessarily bad. as long as you keep the smoke levels. down you don't want to especially if you. has a have asthma or something or any. respiratory illness you don't want to be. breathing in Smoke period so when you. Sage you want to you want to blow that. thing out pretty quick and keep the. smoke to a minimum yes one other thing I. did see though that makes a lot of sense. is that the smoke releases negative ions. and I saw some people say which. counteract um negative energy not true.

but it does counteract um uh things like. allergens like dust dander mold which um. are positively charged typically um so. that makes some sense so there is some. some science to it too um but also just. getting away from all the science. getting away from applying any new age. goop stuff to it um it does it is like a. traditional indigenous practice um and I. saw actually the m Clinic was boasting.

about how they have a smudging room at. their their Minnesota um like main. campus that if you because they work. with so many uh Native American patients. that's like one of the things they offer. with their chaplain oh interesting yeah. it's pretty cool uh I didn't see any. like um this is how long you're supposed. to do it because I think uh especially. if it's something that's like a symbolic. thing that you're doing I'm not sure. like you can even put a time limit on. something that. ethereal uh but yeah just uh I mean.

we're not smudge advisers I I I would. say just don't don't don't throw it away. like it's just some dumb thing you're. doing like o just let me do this like. maybe respect it a little bit uh even if. it's just a placebo effect like it's. something that many cultures have done. for for you know thousands of years so. like pay pay it a little respect I would. say so there's um there's a ritual to it. um I think a r Al smudging was bathing.

yourself in the smoke from the sage. bundle that that's really what what. indigenous smudging is and then it it. kind of got translated to clearing the. the negative energy out of a space as. well but one of the things you can do if. you smudge is you can you can basically. you take the smoke and waft it to. yourself yeah basically run it through. your hair run it over your shoulders. down your arms like just take a quick. bath in the in the um the smoke then.

that then you're actually doing like the. most basic um ancient indigenous. practice with smudging but you can also. walk around your place with it like. you're saying um and there's there's. different elements to it like literally. elements or or symbolic elements and one. of the first things you want to get. that's typically used is a a shell often. an abalone shell and that's the. container that you're actually lighting. the bundle in and that represents the El. of water yeah so not the Puka shell from.

your necklace that you inevitably have. on around your neck with the cocoa P pin. yeah something larger uh and then of. course you've got the herb itself um you. bundle it together you can call it a. smudge stick if you'd like uh you've got. your fire that's obviously an element. and then you got that smoke which is the. air element yep um house stuff works did. you get this from house Stu Works uh. that in other places well somebody. interviewed a a writer and healing.

practitioner named Molly Lin yeah who. said hey man if you're worried about um. like insulting indigenous cultures. because you're not doing this right. you're not taking it seriously enough. they said that basically the way you can. prevent that across the board is by um. having an intention with. smudging and like you were saying an. intention Beyond listening to Ena right. um and that uh you and expressing that.

intention through prayer and that that's. one of like the the big parts of. smudging is you say like I want to get. rid of I want to wash that man right out. of my hair or something like that so I'm. going to run Sage smoke through it or or. they like that's what most people think. of as smudging you're getting rid of. negative energy in a space or from. yourself but apparently according to. Molly Lin you can also bring in positive. energy so you can set your intention. whether it's to get rid of negative. energy or bring in positive or both um.

and then you just kind of repeat that. throughout the ritual of of. smudging yeah and and just keep in mind. all the science stuff we talked about. yes and one other thing too apparently. one of the beliefs is that the ashes. contain the negative energy that you. have um removed and so you want to. dispose of that Ash on bare Earth if. you've gone this far you might as well. finish it right okay absolutely and hey. if you're going to finish it right start. right and grow your own white sage and.

use that yeah that's another thing too. they recommend do not buy from Mass. Market retailers because they're. probably not sourcing it ethically um. they could be a part of the problem if. there is a sage shortage um ideally you. would buy it from a local Native. American owned business um and then yeah. the second second best to that is. growing at yourself yeah wow man wow um. we really did a good job here chuck if I. may say so ourselves I think so uh okay.

well go forth and and Sage everybody but. do so ethically and responsibly and with. respect and uh that means of course. short stuff is. out stuff you should know is a. production of iHeart radio for more. podcasts ihart radio visit the iHeart. Radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you. listen to your favorite. [Music]. shows.