Potcast 189: Cannabis Dreams and Sound Healing with Steven Halpern
We’re exploring the entourage effect of cannabis, music, and intention for healing, creativity, and spirituality with Steven Halpern, a Grammy® nominated, multi-platinum recording artist, composer, producer, researcher, and author.
Steven is yet another example of someone who discovered their passion by following a curiosity. He shares his early research and the science of sound healing, how sound can be a portal to easily accessing meditative states, and how our vibration gets baked into everything we create. As we’ve discussed on previous episodes featuring my sister the consciousness coach - we are vibrational beings living in a vibrational universe. And if you’ve never been exactly sure what that means we’re cracking that conversation wide open today.
It’s all energy and it’s all moving, my friend. So settle in for an empowering discussion on the sensitivity of our subconscious and ways to create more health, harmony and balance in your everyday experience. It’s time to get casually baked.
I’m happy to be your cannabis lifestyle guide and share what I know and learn with you. So if you feel inspired, please take a beat to rate and review Casually Baked on iTunes or Apple Podcasts. That simple action helps other canna-curious folks find this highly responsible cannabis content.
Kumbaya and cannabis, -Jo 💚
This Potcast Is Covered By MJ Relief
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‘After the Show’ Notes
Steven Halpern’s internationally-acclaimed albums radiate relaxing, meditative, and spiritually uplifting frequencies that have touched the lives of millions worldwide. His music, writings, and media appearances pioneered the Sound Healing movement and launched a “Quiet Revolution” in modern instrumental music.
Steven released his latest album “CANNABIS DREAMS: Music for Relaxation, Healing, and Well-Being” in April, linking the healing power of cannabis with healing music.
Something Steven said during our potcast conversation struck me as a beautiful metaphor for life - “Once we get past the obvious melody - the stuff right in front of us - we’re able to notice what’s happening in the background. And that’s when things get really interesting.”
That said,
I invite you to slow down and explore your day-to-day experience like you’re listening to the space between the sound. Notice your vibration and know that you have the tools to raise it whenever you’re feeling nervous, scared, anxious, or worried. Your words and energy wield immense power, my friend! Though science can’t exactly label HOW they do have the research to know that it DOES.
✌️💚, -Jo
Connect with Steven Halpern on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube
You can find Cannabis Dreams and the rest of Steven Halpern’s music catalog on Spotify.
The Sustainability Roll-up is presented by OCB Rolling Papers. In perfect harmony with natural, sustainable practices, it’s always been the OCB signature to provide the highest quality, responsibly sourced, and sustainably crafted rolling papers.
While getting into the weeds on sound healing, I learned that Spotify had a fourteen hundred percent (1,400%) increase over the last year in streams of its ‘Music for Plants’ playlist, suggesting some people think music has a positive effect on plants. I got curious and looked up the oldest studies I could find examining plant growth and music.
Turns out, sound waves do indeed stimulate the plant's cells which encourage nutrients to move throughout the plant body, promoting new growth and strengthening their immune systems.
Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose, an Indian plant physiologist and physicist, spent a lifetime researching and studying the various environmental responses of plants. He concluded that they react to the attitude with which they are nurtured. He also found that plants are sensitive to factors in the external environment, such as light, cold, heat, and noise. Bose documented his research in Response in the Living and Non-Living, a paper published in 1902, and also in The Nervous Mechanism of Plants, published in 1926. In order to conduct his research, Bose created recorders capable of detecting extremely small movements, like the quivering of an injured plant, and he also invented the crescograph, a tool that measures the growth of plants. From his analysis, Bose hypothesized plants could both feel pain and understand affection.
In 1962, Dr. T. C. Singh, head of the Botany Department at India's Annamalai University, experimented with the effect of musical sounds on the growth rate of plants. He found that balsam plants grew at a rate that accelerated by 20% in height and 72% in biomass when exposed to music. He initially experimented with classical music. Though he later, found similar effects experimenting with Indian jam band music known as raga.
Singh repeated the experiment with field crops using a particular type of raga played through a gramophone and loudspeakers. The size of crops increased between 25 to 60% above the regional average.
Through his experiments, Singh concluded that the sound of the violin has the greatest effect on plant growth. He also experimented on the effects of vibrations caused by barefoot dancing. After exposure to India's most ancient dance style, with no musical accompaniment, several flowering plants, including petunias and marigolds, flowered two weeks earlier than the control.
So what does this have to do with sustainability?
If plants react to the attitude with which they’re nurtured then it’s even more important to me to know my farmer. The more I learn the more I know that everything is connected. And The benefits of the food and plant medicine I consume can greatly increase when I make highly responsible and sustainable choices.
Many of the cannabis farmers I know keep their girls company by playing them music. Since the studies indicate that plants also seem to have a specific taste in music, it sounds to me like getting the vibe right by making your garden a mixtape might be the right move for a healthier harvest. 💚And then keep that harmony on high with OCB rolling papers.
Steven and I will dig into plants and music in a future episode of the potcast. 🤓🌿🌻🌾
A Couple of Studies and Books on Sound and Plants:
Roll With Me, a new video series launched on the Casually Baked YouTube channel in April 2021, is a collaboration with OCB Rolling Papers. Get lessons and insights on the craft of rolling while chatting about all things hemp and cannabis culture.
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Get 4 booklets of OCB and a rolling tray for only $4.99! This bundle is worth 20 bucks and is around for a limited time. But the rolling skills and street cred we’re going to earn together, my friend, makes this bundle priceless as far as I’m concerned. ✌️💚