Smudging does a lot more than “clear evil spirits” new research reveals

I regularly burn sage.  When I burn it, I pray and meditate and it makes me feel better.  It helps to center me.  I write, think, and study better after burning it.  

Glad to see this piece on it that helps dispel stereotypes about burning or smudging—which equate to stereotypes against native people who practice smudging regularly, and have done so for millennia. 

The plant name, "sage," comes from Latin salvia, meaning "healing plant," and salvus, meaning "safe." The deeper takeaway should therefore be that our ancestors were scientists all along and that modernity has finally caught up, in at least this one aspect, and barely so.

Long overdue, I would say.

My only quibble with this piece is that it says that burning or smudging, as in incense, pre-dates Native American culture. Check out a substantive challenge, for example, to the Clovis hypothesis of North American Indian presence of 12,000 years by Indigenous scholar, Paulette Steves. 

“Counter to the western stories that we’ve been here 12,000 years, we’ve been here over 60,000 years, likely over 100,000 years, and there is a great deal of evidence to support that.”

So we can't really speak of "pre-dating" until we have a complete record that takes into account recent evidence that challenges just how long native peoples have been on "Turtle Island," the Indigenous name for the North American continent. 

That said, we have much to learn from Indigenous people.

My sage thoughts for today.  

Speaking from Turtle Island.

Thanks to Sean Arce for sharing.

-Angela Valenzuela 

Smudging does a lot more than “clear evil spirits” new research reveals

“Fill your heart full of good things” – smudging is the ceremonial tradition of Indigenous people across North America, it cleanses your mind, body and soul.

Smudging is an ancient form of purification. It is scientifically backed as a way to release negative ions into the air, kill bacteria and germs, and promote wellness within ourselves and our environment. Smudging can be done at anytime for yourself or within a group and is traditionally done before taking part in any sort of important ceremony. It’s a “clean slate” of sorts. A way to release what is no longer serving you and clear away negative attachments so that you can focus on whatever work you are trying to do (meditation, ceremony, tarot, etc.). It can also be used to cleanse objects such as crystals, cards, or basically anything that might hold a negative attachment.

The smoke the herbs put off is said to cleanse negative energy and spirits, and even people and tools. Smudge smoke, like washing hands before eating food, was used as a way to cleanse people and places.

Smudging was commonplace in traditional societies. It has been used for thousands of years and even pre-dates Native American culture. The burning of incense also goes far into our past.

We can see some of the first instances of incense burning as far back as 1530 B.C.E. in Egypt and Israel.

Of course, with any spiritual practice, we have to look at it with critical eyes and be somewhat skeptical. Science has recently looked into the ritual to see if it goes beyond mere superstition.

In a 2006 study published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology, researchers administered herbal and non-herbal remedies in smoke form. Their findings?

The most frequent medical indications were medicinal smoke are pulmonary (23.5%), neurological (21.8%) and dermatological (8.1%). Other uses of smoke are not exactly medical but beneficial to health, and include smoke as a preservative or a repellent and the social use of smoke

They found the smoke to be air purifying and highly effective at it too. Another paper, published a year later, found that medicinal smoke reduced airborne bacteria.

The authors state: “This study represents a comprehensive analysis and scientific validation of our ancient knowledge about the effect of ethnopharmacological aspects of natural products’ smoke for therapy and health care on airborne bacterial composition and dynamics.”

A long list of pathogenic bacteria were found to be absent in an open room 30 days after a smudging treatment.

“We have demonstrated that using medicinal smoke it is possible to completely eliminate diverse plant and human pathogenic bacteria of the air within confined space,” write the researchers.

These are all very fascinating developments and of course requires still some healthy skepticism and further research. What we can say is that it’s starting to look like burning sage and other herbs does a little more than make your house smell nice.

You can learn how to easily smudge in the video below:

Article from Higher Perspectives