First, we fill more orders in a day than most other entheogen vendors combined.  We’ve been The IAmShaman Shop for so many years now, that our system runs like a well-oiled machine, even on the busiest of days.  Because of this, our stock is constantly rotating.  We also used to get one shipment per year but we now have some of the most popular products growing in various places in the world so harvests occur at different times throughout the year.

Second,we buy DIRECT from most of our growers, or we grow products ourselves.  We know exactly how the plant was grown, how it was harvested, and are in complete control of the process from beginning to end.  We have our own farms and can’t always sell all that they produce ourselves, so we wholesale sometimes as well.  So, if someone claims to have fresher product than us, there’s a good chance that it’s hype.

Third, we only deal manufacturers and wholesalers who can provide a product that will stand up to our own scrutiny.  We work with many of the products we offer ourselves, so it’s critically important that they maintain the high standard that IAmShaman and Shaman’s Garden prides itself on.

Many think that becuase we offer lower prices than most of our competitors, that our quality MUST be lower, but it’s simply because you’re buying direct when you buy from us; there are FAR fewer “middlemen” in the process of growing, harvesting, and getting a plant to you.

Finally, the shop is far more than a shop to all of here.  It’s been my mission to help raise consciousness, even in some small way, on entheogens, shamanism, and the altered states of consciousness that have the power to reveal our true nature.  We’ve been denied this on a grand scale, and we’ve also been denied the use of powerful plant allies because of low quality, old stock,  overprocessing, and adulteration by suppliers looking to “stretch” their stock.

That could never happen here.  We care too much about what we do, and truly, we care more about customer satisfaction than anyone else we know.  When you make a purchase from us, you’re also helping to take another step forward in fighting for the freedom to explore what lies in the depths of our own minds.

Read our “Mission Statement” for more…

EXTRACTABLE HERBS

Since some of the products we offer are clearly labeled as non-consumable, this topic will pertain to only the consumable herbal products we offer.  In general, herbs such as Blue Lotus, Kava Kava, or Dream Herbs will efficiently extract into either alcohol, fat, or water.  Some herbs have active alkaloids (the active ingredient in an herb that is primarily responsible for the plant’s effects) that will extract into just one of the above three, and some (such as Kava) will extract into all three liquids.  Not all plants have a single alkaloid responsible for the effects, so often if one makes a tea out of an herb, they may be missing important alkaloids that work with other alkaloids to have the desired effect.

When discussing entheogens and ethnobotanicals, there’s a vast expanse of plants and preparations, so each plant botanical warrants its own discussion entirely.  With that in mind, I am speaking in broad strokes, and when I have asked people about what they would use for extracting any random herbs, I typically get one of two responses: 

1. “Make a tea out of it.”
2. Extract it into rum or vodka.”

And this is because most of know that teas come in a massive range of variety and for a massive range of ailments from sleeplessness to sore throats to energy boosts.  And yes, teas can be quite effective in extracting the active alkaloids from entheogens and ethnobotanicals, but it’s not always the ideal method.  How to know which extraction method is best?  Well, my standard answer is “empower yourself and experiment!” Yes, I know not everyone has the time energy and money to sit with a bunch of herbs and work for days or weeks on perfecting the best extraction method, trying every possibility until you find what works best for you, but it can be an amazingly rewarding experience.  Anyway…

MAKE A TEA OUT OF IT

This is a generally effective method for a wide range of herbs.  But, if you are unsure if the best extraction of your herbs will be though making a tea and you are of legal age, adding 1 ounce of alcohol into that tea will help to extract the active alkaloids that do not extract into water into your drink.  Or, if you’re looking for a more immediate or tangible effect from your water extraction (tea), I have sometimes resorted to doubling or tripling the amount I thought I would need, whether this equates to 2-3 teabags instead of 1, or 2-3 tablespoons instead of just 1 with a freshly-ground herb.

Really; its often open to personal preference and personal tolerance when it comes to making water extractions of your herbs.

EXTRACT IT INTO ALCOHOL

This is perhaps one of the best and more thorough ways of extracting an ethnobotanical or entheogen.  When extracting into something like wine or vodka, you are giving the herb 2 of its most-likely liquids that its alkaloids will extract into.  Typically, though, unless constantly agitated (shaken), herbs don’t extract into ANYTHING very well.  So, whenever I make an extraction of a favorite herb (such as Blue Lotus), i put 1 ounce of the herb into 1/2 a bottle of wine.  Yes, this is 2-3 times the amount that most use, but it works great for me.

Then, I use one of those vacuum pumps to get out any oxygen, and let it sit for a week or two in the fridge.  1-3 times a day, I then gently shake the bottle, making sure that fresh liquid makes its way onto the herbs.  Depending on my patience, I will let it site for 1 week, and sometimes 2, but what happens, is that both the water and the alcohol are working together to extract more than just nuciferine (the main alkaloid in Blue Lotus / Blue Lily), and instead extracts any of the other herbs that may work synergistically with the nuciferine.

OTHER EXTRACTIONS

Then, there are some herbs such as Kava that require mostly water and fats, but also will extract a few of its 24-ish alkaloids into alcohol.  So, whenever I make a Kava Kava Root extraction for myself and/or friends, I will use pineapple juice mixed with some soy milk, with a few shots of vodka.  The effects from Kava Kava extracted into just water or just coconut milk for me, is dramatic.  This is why we offer the Full Spectrum Kava Paste in addition to the Kavalactone 84% PAste found elsewhere on this site; there isn’t as much Kavalactone, but there are more of the other alkaloids that Kava has to offer.

We offer as much information as possible throughout our website here and at Shaman’s Garden, but the world wide web is a vast resource for more than any of us ever imagined possible.  Shop here, do you your research, and discover truth for yourself.  Peacefulness, Bodhi

First, although I have my personal favorite (which is the Standardized 15x Kratom Extract), we do our best to carry as wide a variety of Kratom products as possible, to suit as many of our customersâ?? tastes as possible.  By offering every kind of Kratom we can find, including our own personal Forest of Kratom from our Private Reserve, to the Commercial Kratom found absolutely everywhere, to the Maeng Da Kratom that someplace s offer (including us), we want to empower you to make your own decisions, to read the descriptions, and simply decide what you feel is â??rightâ? for you.

Secondly, we offer as many varieties of some herbal products as possible to educate you.  Many vendors try to pass off inferior product as something more than it is.  A great example would be Hawaiian Baby Woodrose seeds.  We carry a number of varieties; from the inexpensive and low germination-rated Ghana seeds, to the ultra-rare Private Reserve HBWR seeds that we cultivate ourselves.  We include actual photos as well, so you can get a clear idea of what each variety looks like, while reading an accurate description, allowing you to make your own choice with what you feel suits you most.

And, this is exactly the case with Kratom.  We have everything from dried Kratom leaves to powders, extracts, resins, and even Live Plants.  And, even with the Live Plants, we give you (as of this writing) TWO choices instead of one, to not only educate you, but to let you choose the variety that strikes you the most.

So, personally, I like both the 15x and the plain leaf, but all varieties of Kratom seem to sell equally as well.  So, empower yourself, try a couple, and see which one has the richest aroma and burns most effectively for you.

Honestly, though, part of the joy of discovering entheogens and other teaching plants is the journey of discovering them, and discovering which ones are your “allies”.  We are all vastly different people, and just like everything else, different herbs will please some and not others.  Really, they’re inexpensive enough to try more than one, so empower yourself and experiment, try both out to see which one works for you.  For me, one of the most amazing gifts we have as humans is the ability to explore our consciousness outside of these frames, and one of the most vivid pathways to this exploration is through lucid dreaming.

Being an avid lucid dreamer myself, i truly believe that this is something that can be both taught and learned by virtually every human.  We alsready know how to dream….lucid dreaming is simply taking that a step further to harness that power, and take control of the dream world…a world that is often just as tangible and real as the one we dream in on a daily basis.

For example, with Kratom, there are a number of alkaloids contain within the leaves of the plant, and although most people know of Mitragynine (which extracts into water), there are at least 14 other alkaloids that play a part in the chemical makeup of the plant.  So, if one were to extract only Mitragynine from Kratom leaves, you would be ignoring most of the naturally-occurring alkaloids that could play an important role if one chooses in ingest this plant, which have the potential to dramatically alter the duration or character of the pleasurable effects, among other things.

This is clearly evidenced with Kava Kava.  Most are familiar with the famous Kavalactone alkaloid that is, in large part, responsible for the pleasurable and euphoric effects of Kava Kava.  But, that’s only part of the story, because there are about 25 alkaloids in total that are responsible for not only the pleasurable effects of Kava, but for protecting you against possible damage to you liver!

It’s amazing that this plant, which has been shown to have chemicals in its stems and leaves that could potentially damage the liver, have alkaloids in the roots, that specifically help protect the liver!  So, in our eyes, enjoying a Full Spectrum extract like the ones that we offer here, as well as the ones at Kona Kava Farm, and Shaman’s Garden offer, speak for themselves.   Whenever I make my Kava drinks, I always start with the freshest root I can find, and extract it into both fats and water, to ensure that i am getting the full spectrum of Kava alkaloids when doing the extraction.

Yes, Kavalactone extracts into fat, like coconut milk (or milk, soy milk, and tons of other options), but not all the desirable alkaloids do.  So, I make sure there’s a mixture of fats (coconut milk), water, and acid (pineapple juice) whenever I am preparing my drink.  Then, I add a dash of Kavalactone paste, found here, for added potency, but still with a complete full-spectrum extraction.

Hope this helps! - Bodhi

Surely there must be a better way, I thought. 

So, I thought that if there was a way I could find out where to source these products myself, I could at least offer my favorite of these; Salvia divinorum on the forum that I had started specifically to seek others who held Salvia divinorum as sacred as I did.  When I posted these thoughts on my forum (I had a forum long before I decided to open an online shop), a dear soul, who worked for a now-defunct online entheogen dealer, made himself known to me.  His name was Tim.

He offered to sell me Salvia divinorum in large enough quantities to be able to make some extracts and to sell it to others for nearly my cost on our forum.  Another dear friend on the forum named Sphere, also taught me how to extract this beautiful and sacred plant, and I was off and running.

I took what I had learned from Sphere, and started to extract Salvia, as we refined and perfected the process along the way.  I was able to provide everyone on the forum with hand-made extracts of this amazing plant, and one of my dearest connections on the forum; John Morley, suggested that I open a small online shop to actually sell this extract.  Since I made extract by hand, with passion, love, and incredible diligence, why not share it with as many as possible.

With much contemplation, realizing that if I sold this plant, I couldnâ??t start the Salvia Church I so desperately wanted to start for me and everyone on the forum, IAmShaman the forum, now had the IAmShaman Shop as an offshoot of the forum.

Long story short, I continued to make contacts and more friends who knew of places to source ex0tic botanicals and entheogens.  Slowly, I added more products to the small list, and decided that if I was going to actually open a shop, that I wanted it to be EVERYTHING that I wished other online shops were but werenâ??t.

The IAmShaman philosophy and shop were born! â?? I wanted to provide the highest quality botanicals at the lowest prices, while shipping out these botanicals the SAME DAY.  I also wanted to have a phone number that people could call, to find out what was going on with their order, or to ask product questions, or whatever else they needed.

It turns out that more fellow spiritual explorers than I ever imagined had wished the same things when it came to buying entheogens and ethnobotanicals online, and the shop grew faster than I ever imagined it would or could.

Since then, my mission has remained the same, and we are still dedicated and devoted to offering the highest quality botanicals at the lowest prices.  The modest profits we have made, have gone straight back into the shop, to develop new contacts, to buy farming fields to grow our own products, and most recently; it has enabled us to offer the one-of-a-kind IAmShaman Grant, which we hope to expand every year.

I have never forgotten that itâ??s our treasured customers who made this all happen, and I want to continue to give back in every way I can think of until this body becomes too rickety to carry on.  My hope is that someone else will take over the shop and continue to fight for the freedom of thought and the preservation of knowledge of these sacred plants, just like the folks at Erowid and Entheology and so many others are doing.

In fact, I will still offer you a personal response to any question you may have.  Simply e-mail me, Bodhi, at Bodhi at iamshaman dot com, and I promise that I will get back to you.  Or, simply post on this blog; I am the only person who writes in it, so anything you write here, will get a personal response from me.

Besides something called a “Nova Dreamer” which I have used for about 12 years now to help induce lucid dreams, I have scoured the planet for herbs that have clear histories of being used specifically for making dreams more vivid.  (I think it’s interesting to note that the Top 2 activities reported by first-time lucid dreamers are sex and flight! )  In this search, I found something quite unexpected:  It was the African culture’s view on dreams and dreaming.

They believe that their ancestors speak to them through their dreams, so, built into their culture, is the historical quest for any plants and herbs that might help to induce dreaming.  As a result, we found several interesting herbs that have been known for helping to induce vivid dreaming, and which we call DREAMING HERBS.  By visiting that section of our site, you can see descriptions of each of the herbs that we have found, which have clearly documented use for this very purpose.

So, even though I am biased towards the product that I developed for the specific purpose of inducing lucid dreaming, (Find LUCID DREAMING reports in the Reports section of the website) called “Dreamer’s Blend”, it was created out of many months of trial and error.  I have been a longtime fan of Calea Zacatechichi, but i wanted to see if i could amplify the effects, if there was a way to make several well-known dreaming herbs work synergistically, to heighten the effect, increasing my frequency and vividness of my dreams.

So, I took the top herbs from 4 different cultures, trying to cover all my bases.  Calea Zacatechichi was an ingredient in all of my different “concoctions”, since that was always my favorite herb anyway.  That ended up working even more effectively ad more reliably when it was mixed with African Dream Herb (also known as a sea bean), and then with Blue Vervain and Wild Lettuce, both used by the American Indians who were also deeply intertwined with visions and dreaming.

I don’t know the science behind any of these herbal products, but extensive testing by me has shown a definite pattern of specific results, especially when alternated with a 1/2 dose of diphenylhydramine (25mg).  Diphenylhydramine is simply over the counter sleeping medication.  (With that, I am obligated to say that I am no doctor, and, by law, I cannot advise the mixing of untested herbal products with any pharmacy medication.  I offer this only as an anecdote of a personal experience with a plant that is very dear to me.)

I want to tell as many people as possible, that lucid dreaming is as real as you reading this post by me; it is a reality that you can be completely awake and alert in, yet you have complete control over that reality, limited only by your imagination! - This is so deeply exciting to me in so many ways, and none of them have to do with a deep desire to escape this reality.

I’ve found myself awake in my dream so many times, and have since given up on trying to find any “ultimate answers” to life, though.  In these “questing dreams”, I have visited mediums in the dreams, I have scoured bookstores for some book that held all the “answers”, I have cast Tarot Cards, and tried to fly to the edge of the Universe, but none have brought me any more knowledge than I have now, except for the rare occasions where I am shown an event, related only to personal friends and family members, that comes true shortly thereafter, or occurred that same night while I was dreaming about it.

This is what spawned my interest in Remote Viewing as well, and I have since taken a course on the system, and plan to post about that at a later date.  To me, this is modern Shamanism; this is the exploration of this consciousness we have been given, using the natural tools at our disposal, especially the ones from the plant word, to aid us in our exploration and journey through this world.

- Bodhi

There are in increasing number of resources on the web these days, including affiliate sites of ours, such as The Kratom Shop, The Amanita Shop, Entheology.org, and many others.  We even found an Alterative Search Engine called Link-to-Me, which has a growing number of reseources for the spiritual explorer.

We believe so deeply in being able to offer you such a wide variety of rare and exotic botanicals, and will do whatever we need to do to preserve our ability to do just that.  Look through our site, browse our Answer Center, speak to us via LiveChat of by phone, and we are willing to answer your questions and concerns six days per week.

More often than not, this is the most common error:  People referring to Blue Lily (also known as the Sacred Lily of the Nile or "Water Lily), have mistakenly called it a Blue Lotus instead.  Countless depictions of the floral symbol of Upper Egypt is, without question, a Nymphaea caerulea plant, and NOT a Blue Lotus plant.  Water Lily’s have a very distinct petal pattern, which is longer and thinner than Lotus petals. 

See the long, narrow petals of the Blue Lily here…

Where Blue Lotus petals tend to be "plump" in appearance…

The Blue Lily, along with the papyrus flower, was clearly shown throughout Egypt in tombs and temples to symbolize the union of Upper and Lower Egypt.  This sacred plant has often been thought, by many scholars, to be one of the ingredients of the mysterious visionary drink called Soma.  (There are several books devoted to this line of thinking; just check our bookstore for several titles.)

In terms of active alkaloids that each of these plants possess, they have very similar nuciferine content.  In Egypt, this is why Blue Lily was extracted into wine; it provided a euphoria for the royalty to enjoy, and it was even thought to possess magical powers of insight and depth of understanding.

This was true, as well, of the infamous LOTUS EATERS, found in many stories, and made famous in Odyssey by Homer.  We all know the Cyclops and the Sirens, but in a chapter that is rarely spoken of and certainly not taught in schools, is the chapter in the myth of Odysseus where he visits the Land of the Lotus eaters.  It’s actually one of the first stopping off points of the voyage after leaving Troy. On arriving at the island, Odysseus sends some of his sailors to investigate the place. They find a land where the inhabitants are fond of ingesting a plant called the Lotus. The result of eating this strange plant is that the lotus eaters are put into a kind of sleepy euphoric state. When Odysseus’s sailors eat the Lotus, they succumb to the plants power as well, and do not want to leave the island.  Odysseus has to free his sailors from the lure of the lotus plant, so the can set sail for the next destination.

So, the Blue Lotus that is one of the world’s most celebrated flowers, the one in in folklore, religion and the arts in one form or the other, which are found in temperate regions of Asia, Africa, Europe and North America, are actually Blue Lily, and NOT Blue Lotus.  Any plant that has "Nelumbo" as part of its name is a LOTUS, and any plant that as "Nucifera" as part of its name is a lily.

Later, Buddhism borrowed the flower from Hinduism, but their plant looks far more like a Lotus than it does a Water Lily, like those of the Nile. In Buddhist painting and sculpture, whenever Buddha is shown delivering an important sermon, he is shown sitting on a lotus pedestal. Buddhist scriptures enumerate fragrance, purity, delicateness and beauty as the attributes of lotus.  The 2nd image above looks far more like the traditional Lily of Buddhism than the 1st image above, from Egyptian times.

There is still much confusion about these plants, even in literature, historical documents, and even encyclopedias! - Know that it is your connection to the plant that matters most, because both are from a similar family of flora, and both contain almost the same amount of alkaloids, although Blue Lotus flowers have consistently shown, in our independent tests, to have slightly higher levels more often.

- Bodhi

My desire always remains the same; to find those who resonate with all that so many sacred and rare botanicals reveal in their individual forms, allowing us to find expression through mutual revelation of all I hope to be true.  In that, I hope to help to awaken others, as I was awakened, to a dream that is larger than any of us have ever imagined or have simply forgotten. Wrapped in such humanness, we have the power to reach beyond, to share that which is real, to love and to be loved with complete surrender.

Isnâ??t this all anyone ever wants when all falls to nothing?

So this shop is part of my dream, my beacon, honest in its design, obvious in its intent, hoping for nothing more than to share my experiences and discoveries of as many plants as I can find, plants with a rich use in Shamanic Traditions, as I work to help others to know of such rare treats, of which few are privileged to taste, and the majority are unaware.

This is why I am, why I still am, and what will always be my only purpose and intent. I was tired of waiting weeks for a product, with no communication from the vender, only to get a product that I was disappointed in and would never buy again.  Not so, with IAmShaman.

And this is why I treasure each one every one of our customers; it is because of all of you that we are able to persist.  We are not the fanciest and we do virtually no marketing, but we have a passion that is unmatched, a desire to bring you only the products that we believe in and would choose to work with ourselves.  We’ve always relied on word of mouth and continue to.  We feel that our products speak for themselves, and that whenever you try similar products at any competitor’s website (although we pride ourselves on having rare and exotic botanicals that no one else has), that you will find our way back to us.

- Bodhi