Metaphysical Farms Soap

Metaphysical Farms offers soap making tutorials, a free lye calculator and recipe creation as well as homeopathy and meditation techniques to support your sustainable lifestyle

Sodium Bentonite Powder

Posted by David DeLauro on Tuesday, April 26. 2011 at 06:55 in Homeopathy

Sodium Bentonite ClayIf you look on various food products like candy bars, yogurt, protein powders, baby milk powders, rice milk powders, toothpaste and animal and pet foods; you will notice a peculiar ingredient: Sodium Bentonite. This substance expands when wet, absorbing as much as several times its dry mass in water. Despite its fancy name, sodium bentonite is really just clay. Because of it's absorbing properties, bentonite clay has been used the world around for medicinal purposes. The first known use of clay for medicine was in ancient Mesopotamia where physicians used the material as an anti-inflammatory agent and antiseptic. A recent study has found that Bentonite clay is actually anti-bacterial even able to take on the super bacteria MRSA. Further use of clay is by taking it internally to sweep away harmful toxins and heavy metals that may be residing in the body. In the stomach, the negative electrical charges of tiny clay particles attract positively charged toxins from stomach fluids. This clumping prevents very small particles, such as toxic molecules, from passing through the walls of the intestines and entering the bloodstream. The toxins and the clay are then expelled from the body in the normal bowel movements.

The actual use of the clay is fairly simple. One way you can use it is in a face-mask. The anti-bacterial properties and the toxin absorbing properties of the clay will work effectively against various types of acne. The clay will also give you skin a radiant glow. To make such a mask, you just need to get a quarter of a cup of bentonite powder and mix in enough water to make a substance that is similar to room-temperature butter. After applying the clay to your face and allowing it to dry, wash off the clay and apply a gentle moisturizer to replace any rancid oil that the clay has removed from your skin.

To take the clay internally, you will want to start out with no more than a teaspoon of clay in an entire glass of water. Your body will need to adjust to the clay just as it does to adding fiber to your diet. The key is to not intake too much clay as to have it start absorbing water from your body making you dehydrated. The more clay you drink, the more you may notice your bowel movements to turn grey. This is normal but it does mean you should not increase the amount of clay you are intaking.

Overall, bentonite powder is a nice natural way to gently flush your body of harmful toxins and heavy metals as well as making your skin look amazing.

Binaural Audio Brain Training

Posted by David DeLauro on Monday, March 28. 2011 at 11:30 in Homeopathy, Meditation

Someone suggested in a recent post about meditation that I look into the effects of Binaural Beats. I had researched the subject several years ago and had good results but the technology for generating the audio was still in its proprietary phase and so the (free) tools that I was using required C compilers and building your own waveforms in text files. Today, there are binaural sound production application all over the mobile market as well as for home usage.

Binaural BeatsFor those unfamiliar with binaural audio (or binaural beats), the basic premise is that playing two different frequencies, one in the left ear and the other in the right, results in a perceived third frequency. Scientific research has shown that the aural effects are measurable and actually do create these audio frequency hallucinations as well as physical responses to the hallucinated sound as if the listener was actually "hearing" the sound. Further research has shown that brainwave patterns will begin to move closer to the frequency of continual sound. This process is called entrainment and it is this process that has lead to the study and use of binaural beats to change brainwave patterns to reach a desired mental state. The table below lists observed brainwave frequencies and what they are associated with when observing them:

Frequency rangeNameUsually associated with:
> 40 HzGamma wavesHigher mental activity, including perception, problem solving, fear, and consciousness
13–39 HzBeta wavesActive, busy or anxious thinking and active concentration, arousal, cognition, and or paranoia
7–13 HzAlpha wavesRelaxation (while awake), pre-sleep and pre-wake drowsiness, REM sleep, Dreams
4–7 HzTheta wavesdeep meditation/relaxation, NREM sleep
< 4 HzDelta wavesDeep dreamless sleep, loss of body awareness

Binaural beat stimulation has been used fairly extensively to induce a variety of states of consciousness, and there has been some work done in regards to the effects of these stimuli on relaxation, focus, attention, and states of consciousness. Studies have shown that with repeated training to distinguish close frequency sounds that a plastic reorganization of the brain occurs for the trained frequencies. So, in theory, those that have trouble quieting the mind or sitting still long enough to focus for meditation could use this method to train the mind to be able to enter into these brainwave states.

Kidney Cleanse

Posted by David DeLauro on Wednesday, March 23. 2011 at 10:44 in Homeopathy, How-to

A kidney cleanse is a great way to avoid kidney stones, but how do they form? If you are dehydrated or have consumed lots of toxic substances, the urine that passes through the kidney can crystallize, forming mineral deposits or kidney stones. Drinking lots of sugary sodas adds to the stress of your system. If the stones become too big they can block urine flow, causing extreme pain in your lower back. A kidney cleanse helps these stones to dissolve, easing your pain, and can also prevent them from forming in the first place.

How the Kidney Works

KidneyThe duties of the kidneys are best described by calling them the filters of the blood. Your blood flows constantly through your kidneys to be purified or filtered. You might be surprised to learn that more than 500 grains of waste matter, acids and poisons have to be moved from the blood through the kidneys every 24 hours. You can easily see, therefore, that on this filtering and eliminating depends your health, to a very great extent. Let the kidneys fail to function properly and nature will call your attention to it right away. When your kidneys fail to function correctly you will feel depressed and tired, restless at night, and pains in the back will show up. There might be scanty urine or a desire to urinate frequently. Your head will ache and many other aches and pains will be making their appearance. You really cannot be surprised that you do not feel well. Just figure your kidneys would do only half the work and eliminate only 250 grains of waste, what will become of the other 250 grains? They will be carried back into your blood and poison your system. Watch, therefore, your kidneys and deal with even minor irregularity promptly.To avoid trouble be careful with your diet. Americans consume daily 80 grams of meat or nearly 3 ounces more of proteinthus attempting to dispose of about 35 grams more than we have capacity for. This overload gradually smashes the kidneys and throws them out of commission.

How to do the Kidney Cleanse

Kidney CirculatoryThe kidney cleanse is a 3-day fast during which you must drink large quantities of distilled water and apple juice. You can drink up to a gallon of each, separately or mixed together. If you haven't tried a fast before, don't worry this cleanse is perfectly healthy. You may be a little hungry, but the apple juice will give you energy and help you feel more full. You can start checking for kidney stones immediately after your first drink of apple juice. Use a simple tea strainer to look for them - they might be very small so look carefully. Not everyone passes kidney stones on this cleanse, but even if you don't its very healthy and will prevent any future problems.

How to Make Bath Salts

Posted by David DeLauro on Wednesday, March 16. 2011 at 13:04 in Homeopathy

Bath SaltsWalking down the bath salts aisle (yes an entire aisle), you will notice an array of various concoctions to add to your bath to make it more soothing or better for your skin. The prices of these additives can be beyond belief, if you know of what they are actually made. Bath Salts are by far one of the easiest things to make. You probably have all of the ingredients to make a very simple unscented bath salt right now.

Really all you need to make bath salts is salt of any kind. A good simple recipe is combining 1 cup of Kosher Salt with 3 tablespoons of Baking Soda. For a cheaper Bath Salt that actually soothes the muscles even more, combine 3 cups of Epsom Salts with 2 cup Kosher Salt and 4 tablespoons of Baking Soda. If you would like to add fragrance to the mixture you can just add about 20 or so drops of some essential oil or even your own handmade fragrance oil to the salt mixture. You can experiment with exactly what combination of salts you have on hand or prefer. The basic recipe I have provided is a 3:2 ratio of Epsom salt and salt. Really that is all there is to the basic salt recipe. In more posts I will talk about more advanced techniques including the use of colors and Dendritic salt.

Liver and Gallbladder Flush

Posted by David DeLauro on Saturday, August 15. 2009 at 14:34 in Homeopathy, How-to

I guess wanting to put information about the structure and function of the liver and gallbladder comes from my high school AP biology teacher. We always learned the--in this order--structure, function, malfunction, disease and treatment of any type of organ or system in the body. I'm not going to go into too much detail but if you want to skip to the liver flush just click here.

Getting to know your hepatic-biliary system

Liver and Biliary TreeThe liver is essential to the function of the human body. Its primary functions are detoxification, protein synthesis, production of biochemicals necessary for digestion, namely bile, and a host of other functions. An adult liver is a little smaller than a bicycle helmet making it the largest internal organ in the human body. The liver is also special in that it gets its blood from 2 different locations in the body. There is a direct path from the intestines to the liver as well as branched artery from the aorta. This direct path from the intestines allows the liver to be the first to filter through all the nutrients or toxins that have made it to the intestines.

The liver is also directly connected to the small intestine via the common hepatic duct. This tube makes a stop off along the way to a small pear shape sac called the gallbladder. The gallbladder's main function in humans is to store up bile until a meal with fat or protein is consumed and pushed into the small intestine after the stomach is finished with it. The bile is a very alkaline and not only used to help break down oils but also used to neutralize your stomach acid when it enters the duodenum (the first part of your small intestine. You can remember the parts of the small intestine by remembering the phrase "[D]igestive [J]uices [I]nside" which stands for Duodenum, Jejunum, Ileum). The gallbladder can store almost 2 oz of bile when it and the liver are functioning properly.

Problems that can occur

With all systems of the body, balance is the key to health. If something becomes out of balance--like eating too much fat or consuming too many toxins--the flawless functioning of the system breaks down. Many diseases that involve a slowing or breakdown of liver function are accompanied by jaundice (yellowing of the skin and eyes) because the liver is unable to flush out a byproduct of breaking down old red blood cell. Another problem that can occur is gallstones which is closely associated with a thickening of bile into biliary sludge. This thickening of bile is caused by particles precipitating out in the bile itself. Most often these precipitates are cholesterol crystals and calcium salts though the make-up is unique to each individual and cause of the problem. You can have biliary sludge and not even know it as this condition is often asymptotic. This sludge and the gallstones are what we are attempting to flush.



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