The Truth About Tobacco & It’s Use(s) That Most People Don’t Know About Revealed Here

There is a lot of controversy these days about Tobacco.  It has been vilified because many people in the world are having adverse health effects because of it.  And this is very unfortunate because this does not have to be the case.  In actuality tobacco is a medicinal plant that has been misused and this causes misconceptions about it and how to use it.  And of course when studies are done about tobacco by health professionals who wish to discourage its use, it is easy for them to make it seem unhealthy since it is being used in the wrong ways.  And they even go as far as to say things such as “second hand smoke kills”, when in actuality they are testing second hand smoke in ways that would never kill in real life, because you would have to be inhaling it in an extreme manner that would in fact be worse than smoking (just like sitting in your garage with the car running inhaling its fumes), which no one would ever do. They give statistics about the thousands of chemicals that are used in tobacco, but most of which are not even naturally occurring in the tobacco.  So the tobacco leaf itself is not the problem.  Believe me, for as you know I am a long time health enthusiast, fitness freak, and holistic health practitioner and teacher.  The issue is that Tobacco is a medicine and drug, and like any thing of that nature, using it wrong will make it unhealthy.  But using it right is completely opposite.

Industrially produced cigarettes, unless otherwise specified, are not made with real natural tobacco (as pictured above in its natural state, and below after harvest in various curing stages).  Cigarettes are made with what is called “reconstituted sheet tobacco”. A brief summary of how this is generally made is as follows: The tobacco leaves are cured with ammonia to chemically alter the nicotine and make it have a more powerful effect on the nervous system. The tobacco leaves are then broken down and pulverized into a mash. This mash is then treated with the addition of many chemicals to cause a more intoxicating effect. This intoxication is due to the fact that these chemicals toxins, and I do will not bother listing any because there are too many to list and the worst ones are common knowledge. Once all the chemical additions have been made to the tobacco the mash is rolled out into sheets. To preserve the tobacco, the sheets are coated with wax, another unnatural element that one should absolutely not be inhaling as a smoke, and this is then shredded and made into cigarettes. Do these cigarettes have the same medicinal effect as all natural tobacco?  No. Furthermore these cigarettes are more addictive and so then they are usually smoked consistently throughout ones day. Is this the proper dose for helpful, rather than harmful, tobacco use? No. Furthermore, are these people using tobacco in the proper healing method to ensure the greatest benefit (rather than the greatest harm)? No.

Think about it, when you hear about people getting cancer from tobacco use, it is always cigarette smoking.  How often do you hear of cigar or pipe or hookah smokers or other sorts of tobacco use causing health problems?  Never.  And in the cultures in which it is sacred, such as the middle east where Hookah usage is as popular as coffee drinking, or Native American culture in which Tobacco is considered sacred shamanic medicine, you never hear about such problems either, even when they are using it every day.

And the Native Americans consider tobacco medicine because it does in fact have some benefits.  That is, WHEN USED PROPERLY. Tobacco, like any medicine, must be used and dosed appropriately. If it is not used appropriately of course it would have adverse effects. It is up for the user to take responsibility for the manner in which they use it. Many people are familiar with tobaccos use being rooted in peace pipe ceremonies, a spiritual rite among native Americans. However tobacco has been used as physiological medicine as well. Many cultures that have employ natural holistic healing methods since archaic times have used tobacco as a treatment for oral conditions such as mouth sores. Additionally even today western scientists are discovering that nicotine can be used as a medicine for mental health conditions, and that it even is received by the same special receptors in the brain that deal with DNA, which would explain why it is so sought after and everyone loves it. In fact the reason tobacco use is so wide spread, and always has been, is because it is the most powerful general medicinal plant in the world, physically, mentally and spiritually. Tobacco should not kill people or make them ill, and when used properly it does the opposite. Shamans in many cultures use it as their primary healing herb, whether their practices are primarily spiritual or as physiological healers. And many of the oldest living people were in fact smokers. But were these people smoking industrially produced cigarettes?  No. The tobacco they used was all natural (like the stuff you see being aged in the photograph below).

Proper use starts with choosing real natural tobacco that is nothing more than ground up leaves, not leaves that have been broken down into a mash and reconstituted into a paper.  When using real tobacco one will still have the same “buzz”, and it is sometimes stronger because the smoke is stronger. The smoke will taste far better and there are a variety of flavors to choose from, from a sweet smooth dark chocolatey tobacco to a earthy, leathery, spicy tobacco. There are also an infinite variety of tobaccos that have been cured with various things for flavors, such as fruits, maple syrup, rum, etc. When smoking this type of tobacco without the additives for higher addiction, and an unadulterated nicotine and higher quality smoke, one will feel satisfied from using less.  Most people who smoke a pack of cigarettes a day are not even getting a nicotine buzz anymore, but instead are just giving themselves cancer.  What is the point of that?  When you are not overdosing yourself with it, you will be able to enjoy getting a nicotine buzz again, without giving yourself cancer.  You see, tobacco is medicine, and so dose is very important.  Smoking should be a hobby, not an addiction.  Most pipe smokers only smoke a small amount of pipes per day, rather than doing so every chance they get. After procuring a natural product, one must develop a relationship with it. If possible, roll your own cigarettes, smoke cigars, or use a pipe or hookah.  This way one can use this with purpose, as more of a hobby than an unhealthy crutch.

Native Americans teach to communicate with the spirit of tobacco and make your intention for using it known so that it can help to effectuate this purpose with its power.  This may be too far out for most westerners today, and you do not have to use it as a Native American Shaman would…but however if you are rolling a cigarette with certain mindset, even if it is not the spirit of tobacco that is reacting, your mind will. Your body and brain will receive the smoke and the stimulating nicotine with that purpose in mind, in the manner of self hypnosis. So keep in mind that the brain can do anything with the body that it wants, especially with the help of a stimulating drug. So whatever intention you are smoking the tobacco with will be produced and amplified by the tobacco and nicotine it contains. If you are asking for it to have a more specific effect, such as stress relief, or for it to help you with a certain situation or invoke a certain feeling, it will. This is similar to the method that spiritual masters used tobacco in prayer, which is even more effective with the hypnotic effect of tobacco.  The smoking of tobacco can help one in a solely psychological way, as well as some physical ways.  For as most people know, it can be both physically relaxing or invigorating, depending on what your mind does with it, it effects the body in that way.

Now lets talk about some of the alternatives to cigarettes, which I’m sure many of you are wondering about.  There are certainly trade-offs for each one that I will go over for you here so that you can choose the best method for yourself.

PIPE SMOKING

This is the least expensive, easiest, simplest and most practical way to use tobacco.  It also gives you the widest range of flavor choices, as mentioned above, you will have all sorts of delicious flavors to choose from, ranging from hearty flavors to dessert flavors.  Pipe tobacco is also incredibly inexpensive, and packing a pipe and lighting it is hardly any more difficult than lighting a cigarette.  One of the best parts of pipe smoking is that you can pack however much you want or have time for, which is something that no other smoking method affords you the ability to do.  Usually when you light a cigarette or cigar, you must smoke the whole thing.  With a pipe you can smoke just a little if you wish to.  You can also install a filter in your pipe to make the smoke cleaner and more healthy.  And you may either smoke by fully inhaling into the lungs, or simply taking it into the mouth and tasting it with your palate for a less unhealthy smoking experience.

It may seem like a mans thing, but women can do it too, especially if you buy yourself a fancy beautiful glass pipe blown by a glass artist, which you can even get with a water reservoir that it passes through as a filter.  This is what I consider the best way to use tobacco.  It comes in a variety of delicious flavors from fruits and vanillas to caramels and coffees to chocolates and liqueurs and on to other more woodsy and even leathery flavors.  I personally love the coffee and chocolate flavored blends.  Luckily they are inexpensive and if you go to a tobacco shop that sells them in bulk you can get a small portion of a variety of different ones at a very cheap price to see how you like each of them.  And there are cheap pips you can get to start as well.  So there is no reason not to give this a try.  It goes best with a good brandy or cognac or liqueur, though they could also go good with a good whisky, rum, or some dark beer.

CIGARS

Cigar smoking is a fine art, like drinking expensive wine or whisky.  Cigars are different than most smoking methods because they are exceptionally strong, and are a large amount of tobacco, so you do not inhale them.  Instead you only let the smoke go into your mouth, and perhaps just touch your throat, and get the flavor entirely from your palate.  This means that you are not getting the same negative side effects as you would with regular smoking.  Many cigarette smokers out there who have never done this may be questioning if you actually get any flavor with that method, and the answer is yes, TONS.  In fact, lots more than you get from a cigarette.  As I said, cigar tobacco is very strong.  It is also the most delicate of all tobaccos.  Extra special care goes into the curing and aging process, giving it a lot of flavor notes.  You area also getting flavor through having the tip of the cigar in your mouth as well.  And you are getting plenty of nicotine from both these places as well before you ask.  In fact the average cigar contains 1,000 mg of nicotine.  Yes that’s right, a full GRAM of nicotine.  So not only do you not have to worry about getting your nicotine fix, but you actually can get too much when you are first starting to smoke cigars.  So you must be sure not to smoke it too fast, not to hold it in your mouth the entire time, and to only smoke one after a meal.  Unfortunately when most people try their first cigars they are unaware of these fine points and end up doing it wrong and not really enjoying it or getting the best flavor, or worst of all: giving themselves a nicotine overdose and ending up feeling sick, which can ruin your night.  However if you smoke your cigar using the methods I am going to teach you it will make for a very luxurious and pleasurable smoking experience, and you will find that cigars, when smoked right, are just delectable.

Now lets talk about how to actually smoke a cigar for the most enjoyable experience.  Because cigar tobacco is delicate, and if you light it wrong or let it get too hot at any point throughout the smoking process, you will char the tobacco and ruin the flavor.  To light a cigar you must first cut it cleanly as close to the edge of one end as possible.  A poor cut can ruin your smoking experience so make sure you do this cleanly, and then blow off any residue.  And don’t even think about trying to take a shortcut on this and buy cigars that do not need to be cut and already have a hole in the end, those cigars are absolute shit and will taste like that is what you are smoking.  You will have to buy a cigar cutter, and if you are just getting started with this I recommend getting a hole punch cutter which is the easiest to use and is completely failsafe, and allows for the least flakiness in the end of your cigar.  After cutting you must hold the tip above a flame (not touching it) at a slight angle and then rotate the cigar so that the entire edge of the tip gets toasted and then starts to burn.  Once the edge has burned you can put the cigar into your mouth and gently puff on it while rotating it again in a full circle.  This should properly light your cigar.  Then give it a chance to cool off.

The key to a pleasant smoking experience is to keep the ember as cool as possible at all times.  The cooler the ember and smoke, the better it will taste.  But the hotter it is, the more it will taste like charcoal (because that is basically what the tobacco will become like).  So inhale gently and slowly, do not puff on it the way that people do on TV in order to produce large clouds of smoke, this is done for the visual effect of the show/movie only and actually ruins the cigar.  Take at least 30 second breaks in between drags.  And allow an ash to develop over the ember as this will keep it cool, and do not continuously flick it off.

Open your palate and analyze the flavor notes and sensations it produces in your mouth.  Give yourself about 90 minutes to finish a full cigar, relaxing and enjoying it rather than rushing through it like a person taking a cigarette break from work would.  This makes cigar smoking the perfect thing to do while watching a movie, going to a concert, having drinks with friends, golfing, going hiking, or at the beach.  Many people also enjoy chewing the tip lightly as they smoke to get more flavor and nicotine from it, just be sure not to go overboard with this and cause the tip to deteriorate into a mess in your mouth.  If the cigar goes out, don’t worry that is perfectly fine (it is much better than you charring the tobacco by smoking too quickly), simply roll the ash along the ash tray and gently blow off any that is left after that, and re-light it in the same manner that you first did and you can continue to enjoy it.

Cigars, unlike other forms of tobacco, can not be stored any kind of way.  They must be kept in a humidor that is kept at a certain humidity, otherwise they dry out and get stale. So this can make the start up seem a bit expensive and complicated, but you can get a humidor for as little as around $20.  And luckily once you get your humidor up and running it will require very little maintenance from you after that point and being a cigar connoisseur does become an easy hobby.  It is best to start not by buying a humidor and a bunch of cigars, but by simply going to the tobacco shop and getting a few different cigars fresh and smoking them soon after you purchase them.  Don’t worry, they won’t get stale too soon after you buy them, you can wait up until a week or two to smoke them, depending on how dry or humid of a climate you live in.  This way you can try out some different kinds and see how you like them, and after doing so with a wide variety you will know whether or not getting a humidor and storing cigars in your home is right for you.  Cigars can tend to be expensive (a mid range cigar will cost around $10, and they can get to be up to $25-50 or even more), but you do not have to spend a lot of money to get a perfectly good one.  There are good cigars you can get at smoke shops for as low as around $5, especially if you are looking at smaller ones, which are great ones to start with.  And if you know you like cigars and are ready to invest in the hobby, but want to budget your money, you can get bundles of them online for as low as $1 each on sale.

So this is a past time that just about anyone can afford to enjoy, not just the elite like politicians and business men as they have become so commonly associated with.  And cigars are not just for men either.  Women can enjoy them too.  Most of the women I have dated and introduced to cigars have enjoyed them, and it is common for women in Latin America to smoke cigars.  The last girlfriend I had while living in Mexico didn’t think she would enjoy cigars, but when I introduced them to her she instantly loved them, and likened smoking a cigar to drinking a glass of fine wine.  If you open your palate to it there is a full bouquet of flavor notes for you to indulge in and smoking them is a very scrumptious experience.

Much of the cigars flavor comes from the outer wrapper, which is a very special leaf that is used to wrap the cigars inner “filler” tobacco, which is milder, less expensive, and less flavorful.  The type of leaf used as the wrapper will be readily apparent through the color it is.  The lighter colored cigars may be tan or even green for the lightest colored wrappers.  The green wrappers are called “Candela” wrappers are from a young leaf that has not reached full maturation, and was not aged long like the others or fermented, but instead was dried quickly and heated by flame ideally, which preserves the clorophyl, and giving it a sweet fresh cut grass scent and flavor, and other sweet wood and herbal notes.  The tannish wrappers are called “Claro” wrappers which are grown in the shade and are similarly mild to the candela wrappers and will have a sweet hay like flavor along with other sweet wood notes.  These light colored cigars are perfect for entry level cigar smokers because they are low in nicotine, and are mild and sweet in flavor.  They also and pair well with most any food and are great with light hoppy beers, wine or a cocktail.

Then those in the middle of the color and flavor spectrum will be different shades of brown, and be from Connecticut.  These are grown in the shade and allowed to reach maturation before harvest, and have a very bold and woodsy taste, which can tend to be hearty as well as a little spicy and even better.  These are more for experienced smokers and masculine types who appreciate the type of extremely bold and woodsy flavor that they provide.  These cigars pair well with Scotch and Irish Whisky, Rum and meat.  They can be anywhere from mild to strong in flavor, usually being centered in the middle though.

Cigars that are darker in color and thus deeper and richer flavor are the Sumatra and Maduro wrappers.  Sumatra are dark brown and come from Indonesia, and Maduro wrappers are wrappers that have been fermented which turns them the darkest shades of brown and even black.  These cigars are going to have a deeper, richer, more chocolate/coffee taste and are going to be more generally palatable to everyone, at least anyone who likes chocolate and coffee, and who doesn’t right?  And they go great with dessert and a good after dinner drink such as Bourbon or Rye, or a Brandy/Cognac, or certain Cordials.   And again these cigars can be anywhere from mild to strong, usually centered in the middle.  However you do want to be sure of the strength of your cigar.  A strong cigar may contain well over a gram of nicotine, which is an overdose for someone who is new to smoking cigars and will only cause you to get sick.  Make sure you are starting off with milder cigars.

Then you have a variety of cigar sizes.  Which will be gauged by both length which is measured in inches and diameter which is measured in 64ths of an inch.  The smallest cigars are the size of small cigarettes and are called Cigarillo’s (it’s Spanish so the double L is silent).  The longest can be a foot long or more and can be very thick.  There are even novelty size cigars such as ones that are short and fat called Torpedo’s.  The most common cigars are right there in the middle, the Robusto which is 5 inches and 50/64ths of an inch, and the slightly longer and slimmer Corona which is 5.25 and 44.  For those getting started with cigar smoking I recommend starting with the smaller ones and working your way up.  Definitely do not start out with anything larger than a Robusto or Corona.  A long thinner cigar will be a pleasant experience that is a step up from smoking a cigarette or pipe.  The mid size cigars can tend to take 60-90 minutes to smoke and again are a lot of nicotine for a new smoker to handle.  And the even bigger ones will take longer than that to go through and will just have too much nicotine.  So it is best not to get one that is too large, but to opt for one that is more slender.

However if at any point during your cigar smoking you decide that the Nicotine is becoming too much for you and you are feeling dizzy, just simply leave the cigar be for a while and let it go out on it’s own.  Then as soon as you are ready, as long as it is not more than half a day or so later, you can lightly ash the cigar, re-light it in the same way it was lit in the first place and enjoy the rest of it.  However I would not relight a cigar after 24 hours or more, it is best to do this later that day, or if you smoked part of a cigar the previous night, then finish that cigar by after lunch time.  Any longer than that and the cigar will be stale.  However it is worth mentioning that if you have had enough smoking for the day but not necessarily had your fill of tobacco flavor or nicotine you can also allow a cigar to extinguish but hold it in your mouth and chew on the end of it over the course of the rest of the day to continue to get flavor and nicotine out of it.  In fact some people like to hold their cigars in their mouths before lighting them as well…and there are some out there who do not keep their cigars lit long at all, but buy them primarily for chewing.

The country of origin of the cigar is very important.  Cuba has always been known as the best place for cigars, but unfortunately Cuban cigars are expensive and can not be bought at smoke shops, though you can get them shipped to your home if you want.  However luckily for much of the world in recent decades many neighboring countries in Latin America have been able to perfect their craft and make cigars that are close rivals to Cubans.  The biggest competitor is the Dominican Republic, but other countries make great ones as well.  Even Mexico has cigars made with tobacco grown in volcanic ash that tastes almost as good as a Cuban. When you are done with your cigar be sure to put the butt and ash in one of your girlfriends potted plants or in her garden if she has one, as it is a good fertilizer for the soil.  And for those of you who are just getting started, don’t get discouraged if the first couple cigars you buy don’t smoke as good as you had hoped they would, or just aren’t your type.  You may have to try a variety of types of cigars of different brands, with different wrappers, from different countries, of different sizes before realizing the perfect one for your taste.  So it is best to not start out by buying large quantities of any one cigar even though it may be economical.  It is best to sample single cigars, or buy sampler packs until you know which ones you love.  And you will find ones you love if you try all different kinds.  So treat yourself to a sampler pack next special occasion, you’ll be in for a real treat!

Hookah & Shisha

Hookah smoking is the most luxurious and delicious of all tobacco smoking.  Shisha is the name of the tobacco that is used in hookah smoking.  It is different than any tobacco because it is processed with fruit and glycerin making it extremely moist, and sweet.  When you smoke shisha out of a hookah it actually gets covered up with tin foil and has a charcoal placed on top so that the shisha gets baked and it is more of a vapor that you are inhaling.  Plus it is filtered through about a liter of water, so it is an exceptionally clean smoke.  This means that you can smoke a lot of it and it will not have the same negative side effects as regular smoking.  And the smoke is the lightest, sweetest, most aromatic and delicious flavor of any tobacco smoke, which is an extremely fruity flavor.  Though they can also combine it with coffee, chocolate, and other flavors as well.  My favorites are the mango flavor and the cappuccino flavor.  They also make candy flavors which are quite good as well.  The trade off is that this is the most elaborate and complicated way of smoking.

You can go to a hookah lounge when you want to smoke hookah, which is a very fun experience, but of course, you may not always want to do this every time you want to smoke.  And so if you are going to do it yourself, it is quite a process, and requires the largest up front investment.  A good hookah will cost around $100, depending on how nice you want it to look, and if you are like me you may want it to serve as a decoration as well and will want to opt for a more classy and elegant looking one, which will fare you more.  If you are someone who doesn’t care about how it looks and just want to have fun, you can actually find some very plain and inexpensive ones well under $50.

Hookahs require set up and come with some accessories that you will need, and may need to be purchased separately.  After building your hookah and filling it with water you will have to lightly sprinkle some tobacco into the bowl (which is easier said than done since it is very sticky), and make sure that it is evenly dispersed.  Then you will need to cover it with special foil (that you will have bought with your hookah, not aluminum foil from your kitchen), and then use a safety pin to poke a lot of holes into the foil.  Then you can light and place your charcoal over the foil and start smoking, making sure to periodically move it to different places around the top of the bowl as you go.

When smoking a hookah you want to fully exhale any air from your lungs before inhaling the hookah smoke.  Then you will fully inhale the hookah smoke completely filling your lungs with it.  It is a very delectable smoking experience, and is usually worth the trouble it takes to set everything up and get it started.  The smoke is so light that you may not even realize how much nicotine you are getting at first, so take it slow otherwise you may overdose and have an unpleasant experience.  Because there are less negative side effects you can smoke hookah more often than other smoking methods but of course due to the lengthy and elaborate process involved you may not want to. Smoking a hookah can take anywhere from 30-90 minutes depending on how much you have packed, how many people are involved (hookahs can have as many as 4 hoses, and of course hoses can be shared too), and how fast each person is smoking.  Hookahs are really meant to be made an event of and are ideal for sharing with multiple people, so have fun being social with your hookah!

Hookah smoking is the perfect past time for with any party or social gathering at your home such as a dinner party or after party from any event, and is the perfect way to get people to come over to your house after a night out at the bar or club.  It is also the perfect activity to do on a date night, and it goes great with dessert, drinks and a movie.  Getting a hookah is a great investment because it makes you a very popular person as everyone will want to hang out at your place.  And as a man who enjoys having a rich and abundant dating life I have found that it is the perfect way to get girls to come home with me for an intimate experience.  So it is worth the money and time you are going to invest in it.  And did I mention that it tastes delicious?  And it pairs perfectly with a cocktail, cappuccino or tea.

Cigarettes

So now finally lets talk more about cigarettes and the pro’s of using them, since I have spoken enough about the con’s already.  So if none of these alternative methods sound right for you just remember that if you are going to smoke cigarettes you must get the all natural ones, and I would highly suggest trying little cigars called cigarillos for a deeper richer fuller smoking experience, or clove cigarettes, which come from Bali and are infused with clove oil for a sweet, spicy, herbal smoking experience which is a real treat.   But what is best of all is to roll your own!  Not only does that give you better options for the tobacco you’ll use (of which I recommend you get anything labelled “shag”), but rolling your own cigarettes turns tobacco use into an art, hobby and past time and gives it the purpose it needs for it to be helpful rather than harmful, as a crutch for negative aspects of ones life that only adds more negative aspects.  As I stated in the last paragraph it all comes down to your intention for its use.

Rolling your own cigarettes can be a fun craft if you like using your hands, and the more you do it the easier it will get.  In Europe everyone rolls their own cigarettes and they get so good at doing it that they could be walking down the street talking on the phone with one hand and rolling a cigarette in the other.  Hell back in the day cowboys used to be able to do it even while riding their horses.  And you can get filters that you can put into your rolled cigarettes as well so that you are not smoking a harsher smoke than you are used to.  If you happen to struggle with rolling your own there are machines you can buy that will make it easy for you to make very neat uniform cigarettes on your own, which I think is really cool.  Then you can get a fancy cigarette case and every night you can take a little time to roll yourself a case-full of homemade cigarettes that will be convenient to take out whenever you want, and look cool to anyone you do it in front of.  If you do not care about your health or turning tobacco into more of a hobby just want something to indulge in on a moment to moment basis, then industrial cigarettes perhaps are for you. Just know that the chances of you dying a very slow, horrible, gruesome death are extremely high.  And this is so unnecessary when one can use tobacco in any number of the other ways I have listed to have it enrich your life and your holistic health.

And just remember when smoking cigarettes that though they produce a lighter smoke than the other forms of smoking do, since you are inhaling it fully into the lungs with every drag, that it is actually the most unhealthy and dangerous form of smoking.  And another thing that makes it such is the fact that most people tend to get carried away with it and will smoke more than one per hour.  This is a great way to overdose on the drug and ensure that you contract the maximum health problems, while minimizing the effects of the nicotine by developing the highest level of tolerance for it.  So definitely do not do that.  Your cigarettes should be a special treat that you can relish in.  So treat them like a little reward for yourself at special instances throughout the day, not like a crack head who needs them literally every half hour and cannot focus on your work otherwise.  This is a gross misuse of the great medicine that tobacco is.  And if you find it difficult to not fall into nicotine addiction and the misuse of tobacco with cigarettes, but also do not want to quit, don’t worry, you do not have to quit.  That is just a sign that cigarettes are not the method of tobacco use for you.  You simply need to try one of the other methods I have listed here which you will find much more healthy and enriching.

Now finally and perhaps most interestingly let’s go over some of the secret ways you can use tobacco that you will not hear about ANYWHERE else…

Miscellaneous & Holistic Uses

The chewing of leaves can be a cheap easy alternative to smoking that is quite tasty and also gives you a real kick of nicotine, and as mentioned before the Native Americans used it to help in physical ways such as with fighting mouth sores.  Chewing tastes great as chewing tobacco generally is very sweet, but it is just not very glamorous as you will have to be spitting brown liquid out constantly, so it is best not to do in a social or work setting…unless you work on the railroad in the 1800’s.  It is also not a good idea to do this as often as smoking as it will stain your teeth much more quickly (unless you don’t mind whitening them).

You may also use it in the same way that native american’s use sage bundles (if you have any long leaf tobacco or old unused loose cigars that you want to burn without smoking), by “smudging” (wafting) the smoke to cleanse and bless a space.  Tobacco can also be used in gardening by adding it into your top soil to as a fertilizer to help nourish the plants (and remember that it is a shamanic medicine so plant spirits love it, if you are like the Native American’s and believe that they have them).  The sweeter blends can be used as a potpourri for your living room.

And another way you can use tobacco without smoking, or chewing, which is great for your holistic health, which is one of my favorites, is by infusing it into a bath. This has many great effects, as the medicinal elements are absorbed through the skin which is the least harmful way for them to be absorbed, and also the oils in the tobacco will nourish the skin (one should get a darker more oily tobacco for this), and the aroma will provide an aromatherapy aspect, and there are innumerable other holistic benefits, such as the cleansing/healing/blessing of ones spirit (if one is a spiritual person looking for this effect).

For those of you who are super hardcore about holistic health and alternative remedies, and like to do cleanses periodically, you can infuse some cheap tobacco into water and then use the solution for an enema to give you a great home colon cleanse as well as a heavy duty nicotine rush that will be quite an intense experience.  And of course can be used as an offering for any shamanic/earth based deities you may believe in, most of whom love and appreciate it as a shamanic medicine and will bless you in return.  And if you are very interested in shamanism and those types of spiritual practices you may wish to do a “shamanic prayer” with your tobacco use, which you can learn how to do by clicking the link here to go to this article I have wrote on the subject.

So make sure you chose your tobacco accordingly.  And most of all treat it with respect for the plant as the medicine that it is (in its natural state), and as more of a hobby than an addiction.  As this is the only way that you will be able to use it in a way that will really enrich your life and make it more fulfilling.  And for more little known holistic health information that will further enhance your life check out my holistic health course by clicking here now!