Bend Into Balance: Willis Mitchell, founder of The Loving Fungi

In this episode of Bend Into Balance, Adriana sits down with Willis, founder of The Loving Fungi, to explore his path toward understanding the deeper relationship between human health and the intelligence of plants and fungi. Willis shares how a lifetime of curiosity, experimentation, and lived experience has shaped his role as a self-described alchemist, dedicated to helping others reconnect with their bodies and the natural world.

Together, Adriana and Willis talk about the origins of The Loving Fungi, the importance of both pain and joy in personal growth, and how community-centered healing can create lasting impact. From one-on-one sessions to thoughtfully crafted formulas, Willis offers a grounded yet expansive perspective on what it means to pursue balance, vitality, and a more conscious way of living in Bend and beyond.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, my name is Adriana Marino, and I am the host and producer of Bend into Balance, powered by the Source. Today I'm really excited to be accompanied by Willis Mitchell, the founder of The Loving Fungi. Willis, thank you for being here.

SPEAKER_02 0:16

Oh, yeah, my pleasure.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? What brought you to bend?

SPEAKER_02 0:21

Oh gosh, it's a long story. Um, what brought me to bend? I was in California. Um, my sister had recently passed. She's my best friend, my only sibling. And I just kind of got this message to leave what I was doing. I got rid of most of my belongings, got a camper, and just took off into Oregon. I didn't know anybody. Actually, ended up in Sisters First and lived in the woods for about five months, figuring out what happiness meant to me. And then bounced around to Portland, Eugene, Ashland, and then eventually was drawn to Bend. And it was something where I was just coming to visit for a day, and I ended up here for a week. And the people here, I mean, it's the community that really kept me here.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

Yeah. How long ago was that then you arrived to bend?

SPEAKER_02 1:07

2019, I guess, was when I was really landed. Okay. Became a resident. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:13

Yeah. Can you tell us a little bit about the loving fungi?

SPEAKER_02 1:17

Uh yeah, it's it's uh continuously changing, but really um situated around understanding that there's plants, minerals, and mushrooms that are here for us, little friends. They all hold an essence, a spirit, and a mechanic to them that uh can benefit us greatly. And so that started off with you know, this was never something I planned to do. It was more like, oh my God, I'm fascinated by this stuff. I'm so passionate about it. I can't stop learning and talking about it, to the point where a lot of my friends are probably annoyed, you know? So um, it got to the point where I was making medicines, having these uh beautiful experiences, and then eventually were meeting people that needed those medicines too. And based on their transform transformative experiences, that was where I was like, oh my God, this is all I want to do. And so, yeah, started off with like uh tinctures and drinks and you know, the food stuff seasonings too, really fascinated by choice edibles. Um, and then that's just turned into this really beautiful expansion where you know, I see a lot of clients one-on-one. Um, we have a website where people can access us. And we've recently opened an apothecary where we carry our medicines, other people's medicines that we believe in, different tea and herbal blends, Chinese teas, crystals, books. We've got a EMF protected treatment room. It's a it's a real it's a real dream come true.

SPEAKER_00 2:46

Wow, congratulations. Yeah, I've been in, I was there a little bit ago and I was blown away by the beauty of the space. It's very soothing. It kind of made me remember like old pharmacies.

SPEAKER_02 2:58

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

You know, the ones that don't exist anymore with all the bottles in the back. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:01

My grandfather's true apothecaries.

SPEAKER_00 3:03

A true apothecary. My grandfather was a is was a doctor, radiologist, and at one point he was working in a pharmacy, and there's this beautiful picture in black and white of him behind this beautiful, you know, big wood desk, and in the back, he's there's bottles and bottles.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:17

And um, yeah, when I walked into that space, I kind of had that feeling of walking in back and you know how it used to be.

SPEAKER_02 3:24

Yeah, ancient and new, too, you know. So it definitely has like this uh Wizard's Den vibe that you know I was seeking and uh yeah, had some really great help from friends to bring it into into the light. And yeah, you're not the only one. Most people want to hang out there for a long time. Yeah, which is great. We got chairs, we've got books, you know. That's beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 3:42

So tell me, I'm very curious. Um, what is the magic of mushrooms? Like, why are mushrooms so interesting? Why is it so I mean, can you tell us a little bit about? I mean, I know you know a lot, but where would you begin?

SPEAKER_02 3:54

Yeah, it's such a fascinating uh species. They're not plants, they're not humans, they're not animals, they're their own thing. And we're actually more closely related to them than we are to plants. Wow. We have receptors inside of us that are designed just for them. You know, and so these things may be, you know, some folks talk about the spores being able to travel through space. And so are these intergalactic beings that come here with like a consciousness, a mission, an energy, you know, on a very like physical level, you know, what affects them affects us. So molds and and things like that. So we can uh use that intelligence to help our bodies with defense. And so a lot of these are considered adaptogens, uh-huh, um, which help us regulate and adapt to our environment, which is pretty pretty uh it's changing continuously.

SPEAKER_00 4:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:46

Um, so yeah, it's it's a huge, it's a huge subject to dive into, you know. Um they're the reason that uh trees decompose and we have minerals and nutrients and stuff so that we can grow things like healthy soil has fungus in it, you know. Um, yeah, it's just it's a wide open subject. What I found most fascinating about them, beyond the the tasty food stuffs, and porcinis and morels and stuff like that, was just the the medicinal qualities of these and and how long we've actually known about them as humans. I mean, Chinese herbalism, this goes back thousands of years. Uh-huh. You know, so just tapping into like something that was more like our roots in medicine, right? Um, has really kind of connected me to what I believe is my ancestry. Yeah. So yeah, big, big subject. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:37

When was your first encounter with mushrooms? How did that begin? How did this journey begin?

SPEAKER_02 5:41

Yeah, I had a a really good friend, uh my buddy Chris, who took me out uh mushroom picking, and this was over 10 years ago, and I was absolutely fascinated. You know, this is in Northern California in like the Hayuchi area. It's uh they get more rain than Seattle.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02 5:57

And the abundance, the color, uh, understood that they were food. He taught me a lot about the medicinal qualities and then figured out how I could, you know, use them, you know, outside of uh to so with mushrooms, it's really interesting. Like they're all made out of chitin, the cell membrane. And so you want the medicine that's inside it. So extracting that, opening up those cell membranes can be challenging if you don't know what you're doing. Um so learning about that was was huge for me too. And you know, I just have a I have a background in health and wellness and you know, was a major in psych and phys ed and and so it all just kind of fit together. Yeah, fit together and just became this thing. Um, you know, so yeah, I'm just I'm amazed that I'm even here. You know, it was all about, you know, it took five months and sisters when I first got up here, and it was like, well, what you know, what is my life? I kind of took this expanded view of like, what does happiness mean to me? And it wasn't money, it wasn't people, it wasn't things, it wasn't homes. Like I've had all of that and it's all you know transient. Um, it seemed to me like if I could figure out what I was passionate about and do that, that would bring me great happiness and joy. And the other part of this was like, well, if I could do something I'm passionate about and it benefits others and like I'm of service, wow, it's like this never-ending cycle of like feelings of joy and excitement. And I don't no longer seek like happiness, it's more like just peace. Yes. But at the time that was my question. And so all I could, all I knew is that what I was passionate about was mushrooms. Yeah. And I just I just dove in headfirst, you know, and researched and used them and helped friends with them. The big thing that I was talking about before was um, you know, a fella came to me who was suffering from HSV2, herpesimplex virus two.

SPEAKER_00 7:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 7:55

And he was getting like uh breakouts like once a week. And so he came to me because I had a friend and I was spouting off about, oh, these things are great. They've got these qualities that can help with this. Um yeah, he was uh super receptive. We changed his nutrition, we put him on this regimen of mushrooms. And, you know, on the energetic side too, he was working on these uh deep family wounds and traumas, you know, because nothing's just physical, right? Yeah, the emotional, mental, spiritual, all divinely intrinsically connected. So um, with him working on that area of his life, you know, changing his nutrition, using these medicines, he was able to go down to zero breakouts.

SPEAKER_00 8:35

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 8:36

And I was like, wow, this is it. Yeah. You know, and that was it. And I'm I'm like, you know, I'm not gonna work for anybody else. I'm just gonna dedicate my life to this and help people and never look back. And that's it. It's like that's a that's an edge for people. You know, you gotta take that jump. It's uh fun Terrence McKenna quote, the whole thing, but it's like this is the shamanic dance in the waterfall. This is what all the gurus know. It's like you jump off the cliff and at the bottom is a feather bed, something like that. I really slaughtered it. Uh-huh. I know. But but yeah, that's what I found, you know, and especially in this community in Bend. I've been extremely supported with everything that I've brought out to folks. And the funny part too is like when I start studying something, yeah, start getting really interested in it, all of a sudden everybody starts asking me for that thing.

SPEAKER_00 9:23

Oh, really? That's interesting.

SPEAKER_02 9:25

Just like listening.

SPEAKER_00 9:26

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 9:26

Um, and then following that passion. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

It's a growth, it's a path of lifelong learning.

SPEAKER_02 9:32

Yes, for sure. And if you stay in that path of like, I'm always an apprentice, I'm always open to learning. Your cups never overflowing, it's never full. Yeah. You know? And then you can just kind of explore where that takes you. So I'm here now. We'll see where this goes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:48

Wow. What a beautiful story. So this man that you mentioned before and his path to recovery, was he your first, if we will, client, the first person you served through mushrooms?

SPEAKER_02 9:58

Uh kind of. Um, this so many months before that, my grandmother was diagnosed with dementia. Okay. This was uh yeah, that was really hard for me. And like my grandmother was such a big part of my life. And I saw like these uh notes in my mother as well, and I was like, what can I do? Uh-huh. You know, the pharmaceutical route didn't seem to be helping her. And so I just studied and I went into uh finding medicines like lion's mane and cordyceps and go to cool and ginkgo bolova, and I started mixing these blends, and I sent them to her, and it was beautiful. It really helped her symptoms. Really? Brought her like more presence and like kind of snapped her out of it for a while. Yeah. It worked for a bit, and then also sent these medicines to my mom and and she had uh great responses from them as well. So that's kind of like the first, you know, like always out of like need um to like help my family. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 11:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:04

So I'd like to understand better, like why do mushrooms why do are they so medicinal?

SPEAKER_02 11:11

Yeah, uh, great question. Um yeah, so there's you can go into the chemical compounds, which is like more the mechanics, and you can also go into the essence, the spirit of them. Okay. Um, and the curanderos of Mexico, they talk about this, like everything has a mechanic and a spirit to it. On the mechanical side, like you could pick something like lion's mane, right? When we look at this and we put it in our body, what it's doing is it's encouraging new cell growth where neurons are firing. It's repairing the myelin sheath, which is the fatty acid that protects our neurons, and then it's boosting serotonin production in the gut, which is where 97% of our serotonin is mate. This also helps with detoxification, liver health, which is huge, you know. Um that is like the the mechanics of it, which is it's massive. We live in a uh, you know, cognitive forward society and culture. And so people really notice this one when they take it. That's why it's so popular. Wow. Um, yeah, fantastic. And then, you know, the spirit and the essence of it is more of like what you're feeling internally when it when it activates inside of you.

SPEAKER_00 12:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 12:17

And that is focus and clarity and energy and mood upliftment, right? Um, so that I mean, that's just one example. Each one of these mushrooms, like Rishi, is the mushroom of immortality in Chinese herbalism.

unknown 12:29

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 12:29

It used to be only like kings and queens would get to have it. Oh, really? Yeah, they would dry it over their doorway. It was a protector. You know, chaga is the mushroom of immortality of Siberia. They would drink it in teas, and this was their great protector. Oh, wow. Um, but how do they work inside of us? It's chemical compounds, triterpenes, um, beta glucans, um, these things that are really, really good for us in areas of adaptation, defense, and and lion's mane and sometimes cord cordyceps as well. Um, cognition and mood. Yeah.

unknown 13:03

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 13:03

It's fascinating. Do you have a favorite mushroom that you pr particularly take on a daily basis?

SPEAKER_02 13:10

No, people always ask me this. Um, it just it kind of goes in waves. Um, this morning I took Rishi, you know, really calming and soothing to the nervous system. Really great for detoxification as a liver and kidney tonic as well. Um, and good for the skin.

SPEAKER_00 13:24

Yeah. Will mushrooms sit differently depending on the individual and its bio makeup?

SPEAKER_02 13:31

For sure. When it comes to natural medicines in general, mushrooms and plants, um, you know, that they each hold their own like unique vibration, right? Like they're teaching their lesson.

SPEAKER_00 13:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 13:43

And some of us need certain lessons for a certain period of time until we understand it, right? Um, I mean, this so that's that is what so with mushrooms, it's like which one do you need? Yeah. Right? Okay. It's hard to choose sometimes. Um, there's some really basics, like if you're just looking for the mechanics, you can scroll through and find the one that fits you. Yeah. Um, but I often uh teach people uh to muscle test and body test and a feel into what is accurate for them in each moment.

unknown 14:14

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 14:14

You got a lot of people out there, they're just like, oh, I'm in a regiment and this person told me this on Instagram, and I gotta take this every single time. I'm like, Yeah, what? Uh-huh. Are you listening to your body? You know? And so I find that there's this uh this voice that's always speaking to us. Okay. Right? It's that it's that little quiet voice. And when we learn to slow down and tune into our bodies and listen, we we never regret that, you know? And so it's more about like learning that. So when people come into the apothecary, we often do little mini courses on body testing and muscle testing to find what's right for them.

SPEAKER_00 14:48

How does that look like what Yeah?

SPEAKER_02 14:50

Um, there's a couple different ways. Some people, and you know, some people may think this is woo-woo. I don't, I don't care. It's accurate, you know? It's uh so I stand up and I kind of tap a meridian right on the heart, and I hold the item in my right hand just right up there and I ask, it's like, hey, is are these for me or are these for me today? And then I bring it down to about two inches below my belly button center. This is our Dantian in in Qigong. And so standing straight up, we've tapped our meridian, we come into center, we ask, and we hold it two inches in front. Now, if my belly starts to move towards that, that's a yes. It moves away from it, it's a no. And so this has become very visceral for me because this is a regular practice. Wow. And it's kind of like you want big muscles, you go to the gym three to five times a week, you practice. Yeah. Same thing with this, you know. Um, for some folks, they get it right away and it's amazing. And then they're just running with it.

SPEAKER_00 15:45

They get it right away.

SPEAKER_02 15:46

I mean that the the yep, the muscle protrudes outward. Well, it's it's kind of like this uh energetic push or pull, more than a muscular thing, is what I'd experienced as uh because again, we're not just physical beings, there's something more going on here. Um, so yeah, it's like you wanna if you want to enhance this, then you can like hold food at the fridge and ask in the grocery store, who cares, you know?

SPEAKER_01 16:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:11

Um, or like whisper questions into your hand and hold them there and just listen. Because there's something greater than our mind at work here, right? And when we lean into that more of like listening instead of thinking about, thinking about, thinking about everything. Yeah, like it's forgetting that rational mind. Yeah, well, this is kind of like the hamster wheel of questions of fear of the past and anxiety of the future, right? Yeah. And you know, that's your mind is sharp, so is mine. What do you do? What has it brought us? Is it peace? Is it presence? Is it knowing? And so if it's not those things, where do those things come from? I believe the access point is our body. And so when we're standing there, we're tapping, we're bringing this right in front of our belly. Our consciousness has moved into our body and we're just listening. And it takes all of like 10, 15 seconds, and in that moment, you're not spinning your wheels. Yeah. Just you're present in your body. So any practice that brings us into our body in a deep sense of listening, it connects us to maybe the all that is. There seems to be an intelligence that permeates all things. And I'm curious about that. And so most people they go through their whole lives never attempting to connect or listen or talk to. And when we set up this method and we go, hey, universe, all that is, God, whatever you want to call it, like I'm gonna talk to you. I'm gonna do it in this way, and this is how I want you to respond to me. You better believe you get a response. And that is so powerful, right? And uh, there's so many things that we can't know. And by tuning into this uh other sense, right place, right time, synchronicities, flow, uh, things we we couldn't even know, right? I think this intelligence is very clever and has a sense of humor too, right? Yeah, and so some people they talk about like, oh, I saw this, or I was thinking about my friend, they just called me. It's we talk about it all the time.

SPEAKER_00 18:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:05

We literally say the gut feeling, right? For sure. Right? Yeah, and there's hundreds of thousands of neurons there. In many cultures, it's the second mind. And so if it's there, like why not practice to yeah, yeah, access it. For sure. Yeah. And so this is just and it's super fun too. You know, it's like, and your mind's gonna be like, You're crazy. Like, what is this? And blah blah blah. And that's the wheel, you know, and you know when it's happening. Uh-huh. And instead of like getting down about it, you're just like, Oh, I have a tool for this. It's like having your little Batman belt. Yeah. You know, it's just these these little things that bring us in a present throughout the day that And it's ours.

SPEAKER_00 18:40

Yeah. It doesn't cost us anything. It's just a matter of tapping into it.

SPEAKER_02 18:43

Yes. And another thing about it being ours is it's super empowering. It takes any like, oh, I have to go and listen to this person and this person and pay for their time and and I got to talk to a professional about this. And that brings it back into like, no, I'm I'm sovereign. Yeah. This is my divine connection. And I have a knowing that exists beyond my mind, and I'm gonna listen to that. Yeah. That's really, really empowering.

unknown 19:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:09

So many times this is the first approach with your clients when they come into the apothecary. It can be. It can be.

SPEAKER_02 19:14

Yeah, because I got a lot of stuff in there and it can be overwhelming, you know. So it's like, okay, if we're working on nervous system stuff, well, I've got then mind, I've got my blue moon tincture, you know. And so which of those two feel good for you? Sure. And so they can take both and hold them and test them for themselves. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. And so then they get to have the message, you know, I can do it for folks. I've got this weird thing where since I was a kid, I can feel everybody in the room and kind of know what they need. Uh-huh. Yeah. And it was scary at first, and now people pay me to do it for them. But this is a way where I can, you know, transfer that and allow people to, you know, have this uh technology within themselves so that they can move through their their days, like with that knowing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:00

Technology. That's an interesting new word. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:02

Yeah. It's it's a it's a word for it. It's a a magic, whatever you want to call it. Okay. Yeah. I mean, just like uh breathing is a technology, you know, that brings us into presence. So when you're driving around, you're at a stoplight, are you filling with your phone? Are you thinking about where you're going, where you're coming from, or are you like feeling your steering wheel?

SPEAKER_01 20:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:20

Are you breathing? And when you're breathing, you can breathe up your back. And when you're breathing out, you can breathe out your front. You know, and then you're fully present now.

unknown 20:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:29

Like that. It's a technology. Yeah. That's cool. Cool, right?

SPEAKER_00 20:33

Yeah. So do you find yourself constantly educating your clients, if you will? Are they, I mean, you you there's so much knowledge that you possess through these years of study and just your own intuition into the body and into these magic, into these mushrooms.

SPEAKER_02 20:51

Yeah, and it's a great joy, you know, education and also re-education, you know. Um, and so I I feel like the more study that I'm that I've done, understanding like there's some uh, you know, ideas out there about how the body works that uh are harming us instead of helping us. And so this shift in like seeing how the body works and empowering people, listening, you know, it's just it's such an honor. And it's it's what I love to do. And like I can just spit uh wisdom about this stuff all day long and still learn more too. There's a lot of people that come into the apothecary where it's like, oh, that's a bit of information I didn't have. I'm gonna go check that out.

SPEAKER_00 21:33

I can imagine that must happen a lot.

SPEAKER_02 21:34

Yeah. So just staying open to, you know, like I'm not I'm not the only one with wisdom. You know, everyone's the guru if you're able to listen. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:43

And um, can you tell me a little bit about like what things most clients are looking for when they come into the apothecary? What are what are current needs?

SPEAKER_02 21:52

Yeah, gosh. Um, I would say the big ones more recently are detox, you know, understanding that wow, we got a lot of poison. In our society nowadays. So the plastics, microplastics, plastics touch everything. All of our foods, their shampoo bottles, clothing, the polyester stuff, those are hormone and endocrine disruptors. And so what we're seeing is like a massive spike in estrogenics, which is inflammation, which is the big C, which is, you know, our hormones affect it's like this cascade effect in our body. And so figuring out how to like cleanse those out and then re-establish like healthy hormones is huge. Another one is parasites. It's big. I would say like 90% of people have them. And they're not this like scary thing. It's like they exist in our body because there's a food source and they're kind of like a cleanup crew. Yeah. Because the pH is acidic. They can't exist in uh uh pH alkaline uh states.

SPEAKER_00 22:53

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 22:54

And so understanding how they work, you know, cleansing them out, uh, liver cleanse as well, that's big. Now it's the main uh it's the main uh you know transfer box. It's the cleanser that it gets everything out of our body. And so giving that a break for like five days to a week is like super important nowadays, too. You know, there might be, you know, metals being sprayed down from the skies that might get in our food and water and et cetera. And so aluminum that crosses blood brain barrier, I found to be a big thing. You know, people talking about brain fog. Well, if you get metals that cross your blood brain barrier, you're walking around the 250 towers and bend or Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, sure, those things vibrate, right? And so it makes sense. And then once you remove those, oh, you know, like back to yourself.

SPEAKER_01 23:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:46

Um, so yeah, a lot of guidance and and cleanses has been big recently, just with people understanding and doing their own research on like the modern-day toxins and poisons.

SPEAKER_00 23:55

Yeah, wow. Yeah. And among your clients, men and women eat by par?

SPEAKER_02 24:02

Yeah. Um, I would say we actually see more women, like maybe like 60, 65% coming in that are really uh keen to learn.

SPEAKER_01 24:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:12

Um, and then yeah, with men, it's it's more uh fellows that are actively doing the research already.

SPEAKER_00 24:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 24:20

Um, yeah.

unknown 24:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:21

And are mushrooms good for everyone?

SPEAKER_02 24:24

Uh not necessarily. I wouldn't say that. That's like uh I wouldn't say that any one thing is good for everyone, you know? Okay. Um, I would say that they can play a beneficial role in adapting to uh life, you know, and so that could look like nervous system with Rishi, that could look like gut health with lion's mane and cognition as well. Um, it's really kind of like what what are you looking for? You know, what's coming up for you? Um, there's a lot of people that are like, in an American way, I I tell people not to buy so much stuff when they come in. It's like, hey, start with one or two things, you know. Start, let your body start to integrate those things so you know what it is. Sure. You know, the essence of it and the mechanics of it and how it's working in your body. Come back in in a few weeks and we can talk about the next step. Sure. And muscle test and body test for that for yourself. Um, you know, there's a lot of these blends out there by uh other brands that put like, oh, I'm just gonna put all the mushrooms and all the plants in one thing. Well, that could be interesting. That's a lot of like spirit, that's a lot of mechanic in one thing. And it could be great for a lot of people.

SPEAKER_01 25:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:36

Um, but it might be something to, you know, just work with one plant or work with one mushroom for a while. You know, the coronderos of Mexico to bring them up again, that's part of their uh understanding of working with plants. If they'll do a diet with a plant for months and they'll learn its song, they'll learn its energy and the mechanics of it, and then they're able to pass that knowledge on and or know when they when they need to use it again themselves. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:04

Wow. Yeah. Is there any mystery of mushrooms that you would or fungi that you would love to learn that that that kind of keeps you up at night?

SPEAKER_02 26:12

Oh gosh, nothing keep me up at night nowadays, uh so much. But yeah, I'm I'm just I'm stay curious and open um always to whatever the mushroom realm brings. And just anything to do with like understanding the body as well. Um one thing that came up recently was really fascinating is uh they're looking at fascia and they found that fascia are actually made of it's a neurological network.

SPEAKER_01 26:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:38

So fascia is like this, it's filled with this crystalline liquid. How they used to do it is when people died cadavers, they would dry them out, cut them open, and look at them. Well, the fascia's gone, you know, at that level because there's no liquid in them. And so being able to study the fascia nowadays, understanding that's a neurological network, it's like, wow, well, lion's main affects that, right? So lion's main affects us anywhere we have neurons firing. And that's our now our fascia, that's our gut, hundreds of thousands of neurons. That's our central nervous system. That's a giant neurological network. That's our heart. Our heart has about uh 60 to 90,000 neurons that fire independently of the mind, and they fire based on feelings and emotions. Makes sense, right? So any everybody thinks about neurons as just the brain, but really this medicine is affecting us everywhere. So little things like that that connect back to the knowledge around the mushroom realm. It's it's always fascinating.

SPEAKER_00 27:34

Wow. Yeah. Wow, that is yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:38

Neat, right?

SPEAKER_00 27:38

Yeah. Can you tell me more about that, what you just said about the heart?

unknown 27:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:43

Um, the the heart mouth institute.

SPEAKER_00 27:44

Yeah, I studied a little bit about that in our coaching program. We had to, and one thing that I learned is just that the heart sends more messages to the brain than the brain to the heart. And that was like, wow.

SPEAKER_01 27:54

Makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 27:54

We always think that the brain is what really dominates our, but it was can you yeah, so that's why I'm curious that you could dive into this subject.

SPEAKER_02 28:01

Yeah, it's it's a really fascinating thing. Um so the Hermath Institute, great group of people, nobody's studying like they do. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:10

By science.

SPEAKER_02 28:10

Um, yes. And so what they're looking at is wow, the heart has uh they're trying to check on the the electromagnetic wavelength, like how big it is. Yeah. And it's as big as the room that they have that they can like register it, way bigger than the brain, right? They also did this test on the heart where they sat people down in front of uh screens, right? And they put registers on the brain and the heart and they wanted to know which one registered first to stimuli. And so they would show an image of a bunny and an image of a meadow, and then a guy with a gun.

SPEAKER_00 28:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:44

And, you know, every single person registered, the heart registered first, and it registered like milliseconds before the image even showed up. And so it's like, wow, there's this thing inside of us that knows, that like intuitively knows before things even show up that we can tap into. Right. And that's the intelligence of the body, the heart, not the mind. This is this shows up later. The mind shows up later and just like gives you all the reasons why or why not, you know, um, based on your conditioning, based on your traumas, based on your childhood, which is where your whole blueprint is set up, right? Between ages of zero and 14. Um, like your notions of self-worth, masculinity and femininity, the whole thing. Um, and so that that's just it goes back to that practice of like muscle testing, body testing. Really, it's like bringing us into like that present moment or listening to that initial like yes or no. Yeah. You know, and just following that and like getting out of here. Right. Right. Like the mentalism in our society is just it's draining. It isn't keep up. We're we're overflooded with information. Our minds were not meant to receive as much as we do each day.

SPEAKER_00 29:59

Yeah. All the choices. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:02

Yeah. Yeah. And so the the phone, for example, I mean, it's just it's too flush. Yeah. Yeah. We've all experienced it, you know? Yeah, for sure. And so, like getting in the woods, you know, getting your feet on the ground, bare feet, um, just looking up at the sky. Yeah. You know, listening to bird song, um, being near streams and rivers, like all these things we take for granted. No, for sure. And it was like the old shamanic way, it's like, oh, this person's coming in sick. Like, well, did you stop singing? Did you stop dancing? Have you spent time in the woods? Those are like the first questions. You know, th that's it's a huge shift for us if we can just spend more time in nature, or like the equivalent that you spend in front of a screen, spend that time in the forest. Yeah. Yeah. That's good medicine.

unknown 30:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:47

For sure. Shinrin yoku, the forest bathing concept that the Japanese have created. It says a lot about their society, that they have a word for that.

SPEAKER_02 30:55

For sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:57

I love it.

SPEAKER_00 30:58

So do you get out in the woods a lot? What does your health wellness practice look like with this?

SPEAKER_02 31:03

Yeah. Um, I have to schedule it nowadays. Yeah, I can imagine you're very busy. Yeah, it used to be uh weeks on end of just being in the woods, and now it's uh making sure that I'm out in the woods at least uh one day a week by myself. Um it's kind of like temple or church or whatever you want to call it for me. Um it's a it's a necessity to stay balanced. And so um recently just going out picking morels, picking porcinis and and just and just being alone. It's where my greatest uh downloads or uploads come from is when I'm deep in the forest by myself. You know, solitude has always been a comforting place for me. Ever since I was young, it's just part of my makeup and yeah and uh having time alone like that, you know, even if it's just like a walk around the the river here in Bend. Sure. Um super important for me. Yeah, to stay balanced and healthy and happy and show up for people in a really good way. Like I have great responsibility to, you know, serve the community in this way. And so part of this is not only for me, it's for everybody. For sure.

SPEAKER_00 32:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:12

What any woods that you like to visit more than others? Any favorite places around Bend?

SPEAKER_02 32:17

I mean, there's a lot. I really love the Cascade Lakes Highway. Uh-huh. I love hanging out in the old growth forests up there. I love popping over the mountains to the mossy side, you know, and taking a couple hour drive and just spending the day there. Yeah. If you've ever fallen asleep in a mossy area, deep woods, it's uh it's a beautiful thing. And then, you know, coastal. I mean, we are really blessed. We can drive an hour or two or four hours in all directions and go through so many different uh ecosystems. Ecosystems.

unknown 32:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:52

Yeah. And so being on the ocean the fall and picking mushrooms there and the rain and the moisture, having that, you know. In the high desert, it's a it's nice to get away and have a little bit of that every now and then.

SPEAKER_00 33:02

Yeah. I miss the humidity too. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:05

It can be fun uh to have little little bumps in there. Um, but yeah, um I would say nowadays, um, with the where the mushrooms are at right now, I just kind of follow them. Uh-huh. Yeah. So it's wherever they take me. Yeah. So sometimes sisters, sometimes Cascade Lakes, highway.

SPEAKER_00 33:22

How has all this study and work and just this constant learning with mushrooms enhanced your own health and wellness?

SPEAKER_02 33:30

Oh yeah. I mean, this is who I am today and who I was like 10, 15 years ago. I mean, uh for everybody, probably completely different, but health-wise, just I feel fantastic. And 43, I'm gonna be 44. I don't look it, you know. Um I feel stronger than I ever have, you know, understanding like the necessity to move my body to lift heavy weights and to break those cell membranes and to grow them. Um, understanding the importance of detoxing. Yeah, it's just I feel really, really vibrant, you know, and and part of this too is like just showing people that this is possible um without pharmaceuticals, without surgeries, without um regular visits to the doctor. I've been to the doctor in over 20 years. Um, it's it's not necessary, you know. So right nutrition, right mindset, right spiritual connection, um, and then you know, accessing these beautiful mess medicines that are here for us. It's like 90% of pharmaceuticals are derived from mushrooms and plants. It's like why not just go to the source, right? And this this also connects us to our ancestry. There's something deep inside of us when we start working with these things, like it's activated. It's it's fascinating. Yeah. And so, yeah, does that answer that?

SPEAKER_00 34:51

Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah. No, what a beautiful journey you've been on, and just the fact that you've been able to share it with so many others.

SPEAKER_02 34:58

Yeah.

unknown 34:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:59

And it hasn't been without, you know, um, pitfalls and and uh things that seem like walls that are actually steps, you know, learning and and growth opportunities. Sure. With a loving fungi, things have shifted many times now. Um, and just learning to be fluid and pivot and learn and grow. And uh, you know, the more I do that, the more I'm supported, the more the community shows up, the more I'm like passion and driven or passionate and driven to show up for them as well. So yeah, it's I'm I'm incredibly grateful.

SPEAKER_00 35:34

I can imagine. The loving fungi, is there's a pun in that you can uh yeah, it's it's a little clever, you know.

SPEAKER_02 35:41

I consider myself that. Yeah. Uh but yeah, it is it is kind of grown into into much more than just me, which is beautiful. We have a team of about uh gosh, five, six, seven people now. We're all working together. Um it's it's beautiful. I I had this moment when it must have been like four years ago, and I was working in the shop by myself, and I just had this little, you know, you ever have the these little daydreams where I was like, imagine if I could support other people in the community and do what I love and uh and support people with their health.

SPEAKER_01 36:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:17

Wouldn't that be great? You know, I just kind of sat and fell into that. And I look back now, I was like, wow, I did it. You know, this is it. That's so cool. So yeah, well, we're we're excited to continue growing and offer more jobs to the community. Like we're we're pretty uh like we're moving in this AI realm, right? Yeah. And I am a little stubborn. I am good for you. Not a huge fan. Yeah, I can it's great to use for like, oh, I need information on like what to how to legal stuff, yeah. Legal stuff, yeah, yeah. Things that we don't want to pay out of pocket for. Um, but it's been really beautiful to have a team that's so aligned with like, no, we're gonna do this the human way. Yeah. You know, we're gonna write all of our emails by hand. Uh, you know, most of our artwork is made by a local artist. We use another local person to do our digital art that turns into our labels. We source as much stuff locally as we can. Our labels are printed here. Yeah, they're beautiful to the medicines that are inside it. Uh-huh. Um, yeah, so it's it's kind of again like a dream come true that I get to continue to do this um and do it with integrity. Yeah. You know, I think that that speaks louder than like any of these podcasts or or speaking with people is like when you when you understand what we're doing, right? And when you try it for yourself, you know. Right. And then people come back. Yeah. And we we build this beautiful like family and connection. Uh yeah.

unknown 37:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:46

Yeah. I love that human touch. Um, I receive your newsletters and I can tell, you know, the voice behind all your emails and your texts. And it reminds me of before moving to Bend, I was a beekeeper in Colombia, and um the bees made incredible honey where I lived. And um I it never there was never enough honey, you know, for all the people who wanted it. And every single bottle um had a handwritten note by myself. It said miel, which is honey, miel de taita, which is the name of the farm. And um, anyways, I wrote kind of basic information how many grams of honey it had, and I would always kind of draw a heart, and every single one was drawn by hand. And sometimes people said to me, you know, don't you want to do it, you know, you know, do a print, you won't spend so much time because I would cut out the paper, I would make the little punch hole, I would cut the string. A lot of love. It's a lot of love, you know, and I wanted, you know, people to know that this was made with love, you know, by bees and then, you know, kind of bottled by me. And um, I was always, it was also just a very mindful moment, you know, for me to write these things by hand. Um, yeah. And so I and I think I think it was my little personal touch that maybe made the honey to be such a popular seller, anyways.

SPEAKER_02 38:58

I missed sure. And and also that speaks to like why, you know, why does soul food taste good? Well, the women are singing and they're joyful and they all have love into what they do. And we can taste that. We take that on. Um, I would say it's it's super important to know who's making your medicine and your food. For sure. It's different when Nana or grandma's, you know, lovingly serving your food than when you go out to some type of you know, food truck or restaurant. You can feel that energetically. They've shown it. And so the same thing with what we're doing, like we we only make stuff by hand. You know, every single capsule is made by hand. That's incorrect. Every single blend, all the tinctures, you know. We're, you know, say a little prayer over these things. Like the intention is huge energetically in life, you know, and like what we think and feel goes into what we're doing. Yes, for sure. It's like you've got a relationship with a partner. Well, they can feel when you're fully authentically there and you're tapping in and you're sending them love versus just going through the motions. Yeah. Right. And so we as energetic beings pick up on these things really strongly. And when you clean up your life and you start getting a tune and in touch with these things, those things become more important, you know? And then yeah, it's and it can be challenging to find, you know, businesses, people, things with with integrity nowadays, right? All the flashy labels, all of the the marketing attempts and all these things. Um, yeah. And so super important when you do find them. I that's who I want to support, right? Yeah, that's who I want to have in the apothecary. Sure. You know, those are the people I want to surround myself with.

unknown 40:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:37

Yeah. I would love to see the process of making all your medicines. I mean, it must be fascinating how you extract it from them the mushrooms. I would be really curious to see that.

SPEAKER_02 40:46

Yeah. And and it is an important thing too. I I kind of want to bring that up is like stuff that like sets us apart from folks beyond like, man, everything made in small batches by hand with love, yeah, is and packaging, nothing is plastic. Yeah. Like we're only using glass stuff to hold things because we understand that the plastic is like infecting medicine. Yeah. You know, the integrity in that. And then yeah, just the extraction in general, making sure, like whether you get mushroom products from us or not, making sure it's always extracts from fruiting bodies. You know, everything else is kind of garbage. Again, like the kite in that cell membrane.

SPEAKER_01 41:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:27

You know, folks will just blend this up and give it to people, and that's damaging to the liver.

SPEAKER_01 41:32

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 41:32

Yeah. And so you have other companies out there that are using myceliated rice grain, which is essentially a rice block where they've only grown the mycelium into it, uh-huh, and then they're blending that up and giving it to you. So most, a lot of it's rice, and then the rest of it's just the mycelium.

SPEAKER_01 41:49

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 41:49

And so the the true medicine actually is in the fruiting body. That takes more time, uh-huh, takes money. Sure. And it takes a long extraction process that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, you know, to get an extract water-soluble powder. Okay. And so that's why some of these companies are bypassing that. Either they don't know better or it's a way to make make money off of people.

SPEAKER_01 42:14

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 42:14

You know, and so we do not do any of that. Like we we do not have the resources to create our own extraction facility at the moment. And so we outsource from the best in the world. Okay. Um, that's the only thing we we outsource um before our blends. Um, but yeah, tinctures are made with love and care. Um, those take anywhere from six to twelve months. You know, that's an everyday shake and love process. Yeah. They're they're set up on uh moon cycles and yeah, a lot goes into this that people don't know. So yeah, it's uh and it it's a it's a love, it's a passion. It's just like writing, handwriting your your tags, yeah, putting love into it, creating a relationship with bees. It's the same thing. Yeah. I have this relationship with these medicines now, and it's my job to act in integrity with them, you know.

SPEAKER_00 43:03

Yeah. Yeah. What's next for the love of you fungi and the apothecary?

SPEAKER_02 43:09

Gosh, I don't even know. Uh you know, what whatever happens, but you know, we are doing classes there, which are really rewarding. Um, we have different practitioners in the EMF protected room. I've been teaching a lot of people about that and you know, going into people's homes and helping them mitigate EMFs and bend. Uh-huh. Um, there's a lot of different things you can do in the home. Um, and then we are looking at uh expansion and so looking at getting into nationwide markets. Oh wow. Um yeah, and so that's yeah, incredible. We got some products that are gonna be coming out in July. Yeah. So I'm not gonna tell anybody about it just yet. Um, but it'll be exciting. If people want to jump on the email list, it's on the website, they can find out more about that. Yeah, you know, Instagram will probably share on there too.

SPEAKER_00 43:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 43:57

Um but yeah, so it's a little hush hush until then. Got it.

SPEAKER_00 44:00

So um, Mitchell, where can people find you?

SPEAKER_02 44:03

Uh in the woods. Uh don't come looking for me there. Uh yeah. So the apothecary is 519 Northwest Colorado. We do have parking in the alleyway in the back. Okay. Uh so swing back there and we're open Wednesday through Sunday. Um while the markets are going on, I'll be in Northwest Crossing on Saturdays. Okay. And Sisters Farmers Market on Sundays. And you can find me in the Apothecary Wednesday through Friday. Um, if you'd like to book a consultation with me too, I have that access point on the website uh portal. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:35

That's awesome. Yep. And uh speaking about your consult consultations, um what are reasons why someone might consult with you?

SPEAKER_02 44:43

Anything and everything, you know, uh as simple as like, hey, I want to learn more. I want to work on anxiety, hormonal health, detoxing, um, sleep cycles. Uh yeah, it's just kind of whatever comes up in that initial consult we start working on. Uh-huh. And it's one piece at a time. Yeah. Um, so yeah, it can be, it can be many things. And if it's not me that you need to see, um, oftentimes I'm referring to other colleagues in town. And we are abundant with some really amazing uh healers, guides, uh, medicine people. Um, and so that that's a beautiful thing too, is like I feel like a bit of an access point to like this uh spider web.

SPEAKER_00 45:28

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 45:29

Like really beautiful people in Bend.

SPEAKER_00 45:30

It reminds me a little bit of the network that fungi actually create under the ground.

SPEAKER_02 45:34

It's that's kind of like what you're doing. Mycelial web. Yeah. And that wasn't intentional, it just kind of happened. Um you know, you meet these people through your own healing process. That's that's it. I'm not forever on that journey too. Like when things come up, I wanna I wanna dissect them and go in and feel it all and and process it. And I need help too. Sure. And so there's really beautiful people that uh that are really good at what they do in Bend that have been very blessed to know.

SPEAKER_00 46:01

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:02

And so sharing them with folks that are on their own path too, it's like it's just natural now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:08

Of course.

SPEAKER_02 46:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:09

And as my last question, how does living and working in Bend help you? It is such a unique place. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:19

Um Wow, access to so much nature um helps me immensely, just like emotionally and mentally. Um, being around like so many different folks because we are kind of like a vacation town.

SPEAKER_00 46:32

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 46:33

You know, it's it's really cool to be at markets or being the apothecary and always meet travelers and different people from around the nation. Um, that's been beautiful. And then the community in Bend in general is extremely supportive for local stuff.

SPEAKER_00 46:47

I couldn't agree more. Bend is such a unique place and so blessed by the community of people who have chosen to live and work here. Willis, thank you so much for being part of Ben Into Balance today. I really enjoyed our talk, and I've learned so much.