Greetings, SuperFriends!
Today, we’re joined by yet another incredible expert I met during the Summit at Sea event late last year. His name is Colter Merrick.

As someone who doesn’t drink alcohol, I was particularly happy to meet Colter, as he is an expert in non-alcoholic elixirs and cocktails.

What does this have to do with SuperHuman Academy, you ask?

Well, it turns out that Colter runs a company called Elixart, where he and his team develop and produce powerful cocktails with loads of health and mood benefits. After trying just about everything on his menu, I was determined to get him on the show and pick his brain about some of the substances he introduced me to.

In this episode, we talk about everything from traditional herbs and plants used for healing, all the way to the flow of energy in our bodies and in our lives, and everything in between. We talk about some plants and substances that you may never have heard of, and why it might behoove you to experiment with them in your own lives… It's a great episode, and I just know you're going to learn a TON!

This episode is brought to you by Four Sigmatic Foods. Use coupon code “superhuman” to save 15%!

In this episode, we discuss:

• What has Colter Merrick been up to, and what interesting conference was he at when we spoke?
• How did Colter become an expert in natural remedies?
• How was Elixart started? How has it changed?
• What was Colter's learning process when he first started out?
• What is a “Yan” tonic? What about a “Ying” tonic?
• How does Chinese medicine influence Colter Merrick's work with Herbal Elixirs?
• What are “ethnogens,” and what do they do in our bodies?
• Stress, adaptability, and survival – how are they related?
• A discussion of the medical establishment and some downsides of it
• Colter's views on alcohol and it's positives and negatives
• Energy, and how it influences us and our surroundings
• What is kava and how does it affect our bodies and our moods?
• Are there any dangers associated with consuming Kava?
• A brief discussion of Marijuana, and whether it's renaissance is the first of many
• What is kratom and what is it used for? How does it work?
• What is Maca root, and what is it used for?
• How should you get started safely experimenting with herbal medicines?
• Chocolate, and how it is far inferior for your health than real Cacao
• What is Shealojit and what does it do?
• Which food is one of the most nutrient dense on the planet?
• Where can you safely buy some of these herbs and plants?
• What is Colter's morning elixir routine?
• How can liquid gold improve your mental acuity?
• An interesting story about tea and “poor man's tea” in China
• Listen through till the end to get Colter's personal email address for any questions!

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

• Summit At Sea
• Lightning In A Bottle Festival
• The Hands of Light by Barbara Brennan
• Herbs we discuss:
  • Kava (Wikipedia)
  • Kava (Amazon)
  • Yerba Mate (Amazon)
  • Kratom (Wikipedia)
  • Maca Root (Wikipedia)
  • Maca Root (Amazon)
  • Cacao (Wikipedia)
  • Cacoco drinking chocolate
  • Shealojit (Wikipedia)
  • Turmeric (Wikipedia)
• Elixart products
  • Saffron Spice Elixir
  • Maca Chai Powder
  • Theta Gold
  • Herbal Tea
• Where to find:
  • Dragon Herbs
  • Zija Moringa
  • The Root of Happiness Kava
• Elixart on Facebook

Favorite Quotes from Colter Merrick:

Transcript:

Introduction: Welcome to the Becoming SuperHuman podcast, where we interview extraordinary people to bring you the skills and strategies to overcome the impossible. And now here's your host, Jonathan Levi.

Jonathan Levi: Before we get started today, I just want to let you guys know that this episode is brought to you by Four Sigmatic foods. Now, some of you may remember our interview with the founder and CEO of Four Sigmatic terribly. So calcula where we talked about reishi mushrooms, lion's mane, cordyceps, chaga, and tons of other mushroom varieties that you can and should be incorporating into your diet for optimal health.

Now, so many of you have reached out. And told us how you took advantage of that exclusive 15% discount that we offered and that you really enjoyed the products that we actually wanted to feature Four Sigmatic again, on this episode as a sponsor. So to take advantage of that 15% discount code entry, some of their highly recommended mushroom supplement products visit jle.vi/mushrooms.

Greetings, SuperFriends. And welcome. Welcome. Welcome to today's show. Before we get started, I want to read you guys an awesome review from Mr. Glenn Matheson of Norway who says this is my absolute favorite podcast. All that's amazing. Great guests. And Jonathan does a great job asking. All the right questions.

Thanks for this. Learn a lot every time. Well, thank you, Glenn, for leaving us such a fantastic review. It definitely made my day and I look forward to seeing the reviews of anyone and everyone out there. So please take a moment. After listening to this episode to leave us a review, it definitely helps us in the rankings.

It definitely helps us get those better guests, those great guests that we always have. And. Just makes me feel awesome on to today's show today. We are joined by yet another incredible expert that I met during the summit at sea conference late last year. I know what you're thinking and yes, that was probably the best investment I've ever made of time or money now.

As someone who doesn't drink alcohol, I was particularly happy to meet today's guest because he's an expert in get this non-alcoholic elixirs and cocktails. Now I know what you're thinking. What the hell does this have to do with becoming Superhuman? Well, yeah. Today, our guest is going to talk to you about his company, which is called elixir art.

And it's a company where he and his team develop and produce these powerful cocktails with loads of health and emotional and mood and, and spiritual benefits. So after trying just about. Everything that he had to offer on his menu. I was determined to get him on the show and pick his brain about some of the substances that he actually introduced me to.

Now it took the better part of half a year, but I'm happy to say that we finally got time to sit down and talk. So in this episode, you guys, we talk about everything from traditional herbs and plants used for healing and mood improvement. All the way up to the flow of energy in our bodies and in our lives, we talk about spiritual exploration.

We talk about existentialism and just about everything in between. We also go into some of the specific plants and substances that you may never have heard of. I had never heard of them and also why it might be who view to experiment with them. In your own lives. Now, I just want to apologize in advance.

We did have some internet connectivity issues. I'm not sure if they were on my side or on the guest side, but there are some cutouts, there might be some jumping around and you might miss a word here or there. I think overall everything is very clear. Our editor's done a fantastic job, stitching all the pieces together with the disconnections, but I do want to apologize and let you know.

About that in advance. I think nonetheless, you'll take away a ton of valuable, incredible information and wisdom from today's guest. And so I'm very excited to introduce you all to my super friend, Mr. Colter, Merrick.

Cool. Colter, my friend. Good morning. Good evening. I'm so excited to finally have you on the show, man. I think my audience should know. That I was so impressed by you that I was willing to take an 8:00 AM. Call the day after Israeli burning, man, just to get you on the phone and just to bring your message to them. Welcome.

Colter Merrick: Delighted to be here, man. I had a really great time at summit connecting with you and yeah. Share the magic and share the love I have with nature and, um, especially send that message to halfway across the world. 

Jonathan Levi: Absolutely man. Absolutely. So you've been really, really busy since we met in November. What have you been up to? What are you up to now? Tell us a little bit about that.

Colter Merrick: Well, the winter time, you know, I live up in the mountains and I I'm a pretty avid skier and that respects and, uh, you know, running my business, but full time gig, we just recently. Finished up a lightning in a bottle, which is a pretty big festival, about 30,000 people.

And we brought our bar out there and set it up next to a stage in the village where there was some really incredible ceremony and people really connected to nature and ceremony and music and celebration. And. You know, just creating an atmosphere for people to connect and to elevate their consciousness.

And we had a huge success there we're really, we have remodeled our business a little bit, did some additions. It's kind of put down a little bit. This winter, I had a pretty bad ski crash, so I have some recovery time on that, but I'm strong to say it I'm back on my feet and pretty much a hundred percent recovered from that.

Oh, wow. It's a big plans for the future. We just got a new product, kind of developed our saffron spice latte, and we're getting ready to launch that to the world and trying to hit bigger, better markets, uh, stepping outside of Nevada city. 

Jonathan Levi: Wow, amazing. Amazing. And then, so now you're, you mentioned you're in Vegas at a world T conference.

I didn't know such a thing existed, but I have a feeling I need to go next year. 

Colter Merrick: It's a pretty special time where it started in a lot of ways. For me, it was a lot of things that got me on my path here, but. Traditional chameleon, sinensis tea ceremonies. It's a really good look at a plant that has influenced the world in such a large way.

Pretty much every country has a tradition or a culture around tea that varies quite a bit from country to country. And learning about that, learning about, you know, The ground that it's making in America, you know, America doesn't have as strong of a foothold as some of the other places, but, um, it's a very large and growing business and, you know, it's good to kind of come back to the roots and, uh, see what people are doing out there.

Jonathan Levi: Absolutely. That sounds really encouraging. So culture, I mentioned in the intro. To our guests a little bit about my awesome experience with your products and a little bit about who you are and what you do. But I think what you just said, you know, starting out in how this conference ties into some of your roots in the industry is a really nice segue into how you become the herbal elixir man.

Like the tea God, as I called you, when I was walking around the cruise ship. 

Colter Merrick: She has some kind words there, you know, it's exciting. I mean, it starts just with the love of nature. Really. It started for me, it's kind of an experiment. So just try to find the treasures of nature, reading benefits, nature, and then just ingesting them and starting to experience them and figuring out ways to.

Concentrate them to potentiate their effects. And then, you know, a lot of those herbs are, a lot of them are pretty bitter. I'm pretty, you know, and so finding ways to blend them and, you know, and also being able to. Find mainstream applications have to integrate that and pick up those lifestyles. So they're not a foreign thing, you know, that's kind of the beginning, we've come a long way since then, because I tie in what I do to such a larger part than just what the herbs are, because you know, you can look at things on a clinical way to say, this is the physiology.

This is how my effecting my theology. You know, and look at it like that, but you can also look at the energetics or something of how it's raising your spirit and the relationship you have to it. And, and some things are a lot deeper than others. I mean, you know, there's a lot of different levels to look at, you know, sometimes talking about spirit and relations with spirit, you know, kind of turns people off and, you know, but what I like to tell people is these plants.

They're living beings. They were alive at one time and they have a spirit and learning how to communicate with them is a big part of the practice. And sometimes just a simple ceremony where you're setting intention and you're having gratitude as a starting place. And then trying to find a platform that integrates that into a mainstream relationship with these plans.

So people can develop that as another element of it that, uh, you know, it was really time in, but once we kind of put up this brick and mortar. And we started realizing, you know, we started out four years ago. I think you got to experience the, uh, tradition that we started called cava cacau. And when I first opened a Pixar, it was basically a large format, landscape photography gallery, really high end art gallery.

And I introduced a six person T-bar and Friday night we started doing a ceremonial thing with cava and cacao. And we just really started seeing how people were connecting with each other and how some of these substances just opened up the heart. They created more talk to this, more bonding, more social connection.

And that's, that's where I feel it wasn't medicine. And I mean, there is another element of the self-empowerment and so, you know, it's taken out of like, what's the, of supposed to do. And to like, this is why I'm taking the survey, because this is how it makes me feel, you know? So much of the time, you know, we have this relationship where we're disempowered, we go to our doctor and he tells us what to take.

And we're forced to kind of follow his advice without any knowledge or reason why. And, and it's important for me to say that it's, you know, I'm not here to give them medical advice or anything like that, but I'm a very good observer when I stand behind my Alexa bar, you know, and I introduce something for someone to try, you know, and they have a response for they're like, Having an experience that totally captivates them and totally changes how they perceive things and their gratitude, but their connection to the plant is self-empowering where they're making the choice to go back to that plan again and continue their experience with it.

So that's kind of a, a nutshell, you know, I mean, I can go on and on all these different layers of how this practice works, but yeah. To sum it up. It's a love of an editor and building the related measures of nature. I love 

Jonathan Levi: it. I love it. And I think my audience is now starting to understand why it was so important for me to get you on the show because not only is it amazing the way you've presented these little known, I mean, I'm a self-proclaimed biohacker and you were introducing me to a lot of stuff.

I didn't know, but I think it's really interesting. The level of understanding with which you approach your craft. So I would come to you every night and be like, Hey, Colter, you know, tonight, I think I want to dance all night. I don't drink alcohol. Don't want to do any drugs. What do you got for me? And you'd pour me some delicious beverage and I would be out there, you know, on the stage dancing all night next night.

Hey. We're trying to have a really hard to hard conversation here in the tea lounge. What do you have for us? You know, and you'd give me an, a friend something else and, and without fail, I mean, you always kind of hit the nail on the head as to exactly what kind of night I wanted to have. And I thought that was incredible.

Colter Merrick: Cool. I appreciate that. Yeah. You know, I mean, a lot of times it's the plants, you know, and, and they have a voice too. We got some star players and, uh, you know, without a doubt, they really, they aim to please, for sure. 

Jonathan Levi: So culture, as you know, I'm super interested in learning. So anytime I find someone like yourself who knows something about really something that's very obscure.

I mean, we're not talking about Camilia synthesis here. We're not even talking about Monte. We're talking about things that. Probably when you learned about them were very obscure. So what I'd like to maybe explore a little bit is, you know, you mentioned experimenting, you mentioned stuff like that. How did you start learning about this stuff?

I mean, what resources did you pick up? Did you start going through books? Did you start talking to people? Was it a matter of, you know, digging through your local farmer's market? I mean, how did you learn so much that helps you run your business the way you do today? 

Colter Merrick: Yeah, I was reflecting on that today.

It's a long journey in a sense, you know, and just shorten that story a little bit, but you know, basically. There were some herbs that I really started with, you know, just, I think my first real infatuation with it, you know, it was kind of like looking at the central side of herbs and things that were aphrodisiac, you know?

And so I started kind of just doing research and going, Oh, you know, this has aphrodisiac properties. This has these kinds of properties. And. You know, the Chinese medicine system, you know, and, and Chinese herbs is pretty vast body of knowledge that you kind of unravel there and, you know, like yang tonics, and, and just kind of understanding some of the explanations of the way that they classify the herbs was kind of, I think one of the first things that excited me and, you know, just explain a yang tonic a little bit, or what they call a Zhang Jang is what they describing as like the sexual fluid.

The spinal cerebral fluid, the creative fluid, it's kind of regulated by the kidneys. And it's kind of a way that the body stores energy in a certain type of energy. And that yang is kind of the expression of that energy. The yen is kind of the, like putting them up. Hang on the bank and the yang is kind of sending that money and it relates to hot and cold and different ways that your energy flows in your body.

And there's a lot more to that as well as how well the energy flows in your body, you know, and they have all these meridians and cheap points and ways to get energy flowing through your body. So the energy you are using becomes a lot more efficient, a lot more effective. So the Chinese medicine systems, a really good place to kind of tap in to kind of see how many different herbs and different effects and different combinations there can be.

And, you know, and again, you know, without going too much into a real formal background, because it. You can take you down a lot of different paths. And my objective was a little different, you know, I feel that experience is the best teacher. And so I started playing around with these herbs and I started seeing how they affected me and how to increase your effects and then, you know, work with combinations as well as, you know, looking at traditional formulas and seeing how those work and seeing what I liked about it and started breaking them down trial and error, really trial and error.

Yeah. Also the South American or very amazing botanical encyclopedia. You know, and, and not to get too far off kind of where a mainstream application is, but there's also a class of herbs called ethno. Gins just kinda means the God within and things that really have a really profound spiritual connection to kind of take you into the spirit world and really.

Open up your perspective of who you are and you know, where the limitations start and what self-imposed limitations you have. And, you know, that may be a conversation for another time, but that definitely was something that started my fascination with that, and really understanding the officer's state a little bit.

And even on the most subtle alter state, like taking gen sing or something like that. And I know the thing is the adaptogenic class of herbs, which basically allow you to adapt. To your surroundings, the different stresses, the handles stresses, you know, a lot of things that people find problematic and use, you know, different medications for anxiety and stress.

And, you know, stress is probably. One of the biggest and most harmful contributors to someone's ill health. And so things that help you manage that, or actually adapt to that. I mean, as well as, you know, adaptability is one of the keys to survival. And so the more that we can adapt to the harmful situations and learn to thrive in this world.

And so that's kind of like, you know, a little bit of a, how many different directions it seems to go. But what I found was, you know, when I looked at the world out there, I saw that. You know, there's a hard, big, heavy body of information in terms of our medicine and how we structure our medicine. And I find that there's so much special interests there.

That's not really telling the whole sorts of things, but obviously it's a very prevalent part of our society and culture. And, you know, I mean, I could sit here and fight and talk against it, but you know, I'm not wanting to try to oppose, you know, create wasted energy. Yeah, but, you know, I'd have some differences of opinion about that.

So with that, I wanted to find a way to find a mainstream application. So it was kind of tucked in underneath it all. So they could receive the benefits without having to be in this conversation. All of that. And, and this was quite a few years later, but I started with this idea for an herbal wine company.

Oh, cool. Horrible line. And at that time I was kind of alcohol with it. I grew up in a ski town. I've lived kind of has a hedonist. So I was pretty exposed to just a celebrating culture of I was on vacation and so on and so forth. So I started on this wine project. I developed a few formulas, developed a meditation for I'm in an aphrodisiac formula.

And I went in once a blind entrepreneurship programs to another state and learned a lot about the wine business and made some pretty neat products actually, you know, and kind of learn. I didn't really want to be in the wine business actually, to be honest with you. The more, I started really focusing on my health and wellness.

You know, I didn't really find that there was a place for the alcohol and an expression of that. I want to say though, the two parts of our physiology, that our spirit and elevating our spirit and to create joy and to create positive experiences is as much a medicine as anything else. And so going out to a social setting and celebrating and, you know, things that make you happy and bring you joy, you know, are valuable.

And I don't want to, I know that in our culture, alcohol Jews, Very widespread and there's a lot of good times to come from it. And I think there's can be a lot of benefits, you know, obviously. You know, with anything, it can be overdone and, you know, our body is a poison control center. And if we bring the right nutrients in and we nourish our stuff, you know, we have the ability to process toxins and to be able to heal ourselves.

And, you know, that's, I can go into a little bit about, you know, other parts of the health and wellness that we use for healing and cleansing and things like that know, just stay a little bit more focused on just the herbs. And the drinks and the elixirs that I make to create that libation to bring an elevator or spirit is, you know, a primary part of just.

I think an important part of all our lives is just create joy. Absolutely. Yeah. That's where my main focus is. 

Jonathan Levi: Absolutely. And, you know, I want to mention though that you and I are so on the exact same wavelength, because I had last week actually with a plant substance, a kind of epiphany about exactly what you were talking about, which was energies and these ideas that are so common in Eastern philosophy that, Hey, you know, they knew that all matter, including us was made of energy.

Thousands and thousands of years ago and said, wait a minute, if we are made of energy, if the matter in our bodies is made of energy, then that energy can be influenced, right? And, and input and output. And, and I had this kind of very intense experience where I actually felt physical transfer of energy with another human being who was in a state of distress.

I was in a state of calm. And just by touching that person. I actually felt myself becoming uneasy, angry, agitated, and she felt herself become less agitated. More calm, was able to like take a deep breath. I just had this insane experience again, with the help of some of these plants where I was like, Oh my gosh, why is energy not a bigger focus in everything that we're doing?

Why are we not asking? You know, how is the volume influencing the actual. Energetic flow in my body. So I think it's really interesting that you mentioned that here and now, you know, a couple of days later. 

Colter Merrick: Yeah. Well, sad. I mean, you know, there's just simple notes that are kind of wrapped into the practice and one is his reflection and, you know, that's really where I gained a lot of insight to just the basic tea ceremony is you sit down, you put your intention and reflect on how something is affecting you.

You know, a lot of times we just put something in and it's one more accessory in our busy life. And so being able to reflect and bring awareness to. How things are affecting you, no matter how subtle they are, you know, it's such a big part of empowerment. And, uh, I'm glad you mentioned that because the energetics is such a huge part.

And the more you're clear to be aware and tune into that, the more you're going to be able to adapt and benefit from those subtle changes. 

Jonathan Levi: Absolutely. Do you have any resources or books you'd recommend I check out if I want to start learning a little bit about this flow of energy in the body, you know, I, I was kind of looking at that question.

Colter Merrick: Well, I mean, related to that question, I would say the hands of light Barbara, Barbara McKittrick. I don't know if you look up hands, the light, it's basically kind of all about the energetic exchange and how healing modalities with touch. And, you know, it's not really my expertise, but something that, you know, early on, I was really into and really understanding how energy flows, I mean, I don't really have lists of, of reference. That's a solid start point. 

Jonathan Levi: Yeah. So we touched a little on the learning culture. I want to get into some of these actual herbs and plants because I have to admit I've done a little bit of research on them. My summit to see notebook was literally full of names of stuff that you gave me. And like, can I find it here in Israel?

And can I do this and how does it work and why did I feel this way? So if we could, I'd love to go through piece by piece. Some of the. Herbs and kind of plants that you guys use and share a little bit with our audience, what they are. I assume actually, a lot of people haven't even heard of them. Could we start maybe with cava, because that's one that you mentioned before, and I particularly remember being like, Whoa, this has a huge effect on my physical wellbeing.

Colter Merrick: Sure. Yeah. I'd love to talk about that. One's definitely one of my star players there and you know, there's lots to tell, but to start with, you know, basically it's a. Polynesian Pacific Island tradition of about 3000 years. And you know, there's a lot of traditional uses for it and, and really powerful cultural effects.

You know, it was kind of used for gaining access to the spirit world, but it also was a welcoming and a gesture of peace and an offering of how people has changed things. They also used it. As ways to solve problems, you know, if there was trouble in a village or a tribe, they'd all sit in on the COVID ceremony.

And they would basically come in and drink COVID until they solved their problems. You know, because it, I like to call it the root of happiness, some of the factual experience from it. Is, you know, relaxation talkativeness euphoria has a real bonding element. And a lot of times it can be described as alcohol a little bit in the sense that it causes that state of relaxation.

The best thing about it though, is it, it doesn't affect the thoughts or thoughts remain clear, unlike alcohol, the deeper you go, the more inebriated it becomes. So again, you know, it brings back that clarity of really getting to this comfortable state where we kind of break through our ambitions and, um, You know, really can create a really great positive social experience, you know, as well as combating stress and anxiety and things like that.

I drink it quite often, myself. It does have like therapeutic uses for anxiety. There's the other thing that is really fascinating about it, you know, and there's always more research to be done. I want to touch a little bit about some of the perceptions of Kaaba, but. Addiction control is one of the few substances out there that actually works in a reverse tolerance kind of way, meaning that the more that you have in your system, the less it actually takes to get the effect.

Wow. So it essentially weans you off itself as you drink it. So it's a pretty unique substance. This may be a controversial topic. And I, and I just want to mention it a little bit because, you know, just expressing my research and, you know, because I'm such a strong advocate of cava, there are claims that it's harmful to deliver and that it creates toxicity in the liver.

And, you know, it's, it's really interesting, you know, when you kind of start digging into this research a little bit, because what is known about it and the case study they do have, which is very small, is pretty inconclusive. I just want to bring this into generality about the relations to the pharmaceutical industry and a way a lot of our press and media kind of comes about.

And again, it's a pretty controversial topic, but when I kind of go deeper into some of the claims that are being made out there, you know, I see that they're like the inconsistency of what they're basing their claims on. You know, on a statistical manner where it's like, I think there's like less than 12 cases that they have, like less than 50 cases total, which, you know, when you compare it to other harmful things, they haven't really been able to conclusively pin down that, that the harm is coming from the Kaaba.

A lot of what happens, you know, and a lot of important element of our businesses, the sourcing in a lot of when you have nutritional supplements that have combinations of other things, or have a lot of. Other impurities with them. And these claims were being made by, by a combination of things where toxicity can come from other contaminants that are in substances or nutritional supplements.

That aren't the pure Cabo. You know, I wouldn't say that the glue with, I mean, when it's produced naturally the glue to thymine actually promotes healthy liver function. Anyway, that being said, though, there is a lot of inconclusive information and so just do the research on it. 

Jonathan Levi: Right. Proceed with caution, but not too much caution.

I mean, I feel the same way about motto. Like a lot of people talk about, Oh, well there's a study that shows cancer of the throat. And it's like, well, yeah, but people are drinking a piping hot liquid through a metal straw all day. I mean, hot enough liquids will also cause cell deformation right. Or cell, uh, you know, breakdown.

So I think it's really interesting. The point that you make is like a correlation is not causality one and two. Nobody's funding, huge double blind studies of kava and your Mamata cause there's no money in it, which is just kind of a sad truth that as well as like there are studies kind of showing that for treating anxiety, that actually suggests that there's.

Colter Merrick: Good or even better resolves things like benzoids and things like that. You know, so it's, it's a very competitive kind of marketplace, but if they have one case, it can get amplified. And so just this whole array of bad press about it. And there's a lot of herbs out there like that, or a lot of things that are like that.

I mean, there's another, I know you're going to ask probably about the crowd I'm too, and it's really interesting to see that, like I was just reading this article tonight that was basically talking about. How much more effective the use of cava for anxiety, it can be than some of the pharmaceutical substitutes.

Right. You know, and I was just kinda gonna want to roll that into the crowd I'm thing, you know, as well, because it's, it's like we do fight these fights quite a bit, you know, and caught on to happens to be pretty high on the list in terms of getting some pushback from the pharmaceutical industry and, you know, I have friends that do a lot of lobbying and kind of seeing it come in to, uh, a few States that have tried to ban it.

And that sense in the article I was listening to today was talking about George. And it was talking about just basically the narcotic, uh, rehabilitation centers for opiate addictions. And how much or how little compliance there is for that. But I just was kind of using that as the States that kind of are pushing the crowd, them out, have this booming business and this opiate addiction addiction field.

And, you know, not to say that, that the competitiveness around using this as an alternative as an opiate, but, but basically that. It can be a very effective tool and there's a lot of really powerful holistic medicine out there. Totally. That is kind of being pushed aside without a real valid comparison.

Jonathan Levi: Totally. I'll tell you when I lost hope was or lost trust, I guess I should say is. I actually read a statistic that benzodiazepines and SSRS and stuff like that, that they're kind of using as a patch when applied to PTSD, right in our veteran community is 10% effective. And yet, you know, you have guys like Clarence McKenna in the sixties and seventies using psilocybin, natural mushrooms, stuff like that.

And having like 60 to 70% granted in small trials, but 60 to 70% efficacy. Which kind of blew my mind. The one exception here, I think that's interesting is marijuana. Like now nobody can ignore that marijuana is more effective for glaucoma, more effective than a lot of painkillers, more effective for curing queasiness from chemotherapy.

Like the drug has become so powerful or the medicine I should say has become so powerful that even pharmaceutical companies can't seem to sweep it under the rug and say, well, no, we have like a drug that'll help with that.

Colter Merrick: Yeah, it's interesting. I usually don't go down that path to kind of present that argument.

You know, the main thing that I'm trying to say is just the prevention of the holistic use to verbs is something that we're kind of always come upstream against. Right. And so it's just important to know that, you know, a lot of it. Of the herbs and the relationships with the herbs, they have to be introduced.

So people have to kind of get through that threshold just to realize how harmless so they can be. You know, they're still powerful medicines and, you know, at the same time, everything needs and deserves the respect of that. But you know, when you're kind of tit for tat comparatively. The invasiveness and most of these things have no toxicity at all.

You know, it's just really important that, you know, people do these things with an open mind and get to experience them. And that's kind of where my practice comes in is creating an environment to where people can have these experiences. 

Jonathan Levi: Right. Culture. Tell me a little bit about Keratoma I'm super interested in it.

That was another one. Gave me a very different feeling from the kava. And I want to understand from your perspective, a little bit better, what it is and how it works. 

Colter Merrick: So Kratom is a, um, it's a leaf or a tree grows into a tree it's mostly grown and prevalent in the Southeast Asia, Thailand, and Indonesia, Malaysia it's in the coffee family.

Believe it or not, although it doesn't contain any caffeine. The way it works is that it works on the opiate receptor. You know, it's an opiate antagonists and basically, you know, it has a range of effects. I like to describe it as a stimula as well as a sedative, depending on the dose size. What I personally noticed is like an increase in sexual energy, kind of the same thing, more talkative, more social, you know, it really helps to break down the sensitivity to physical and emotional pain.

So it kind of takes your anxiety away. I believe it has a slightly euphoric effect for sure. Some people. You know, on the energizing side, you know, we'll take it to kinda, to be better at monotonous tasks. You know, if like you're going out there and digging a ditch or doing whatever, man, it just makes like everything a lot easier.

On the other side, the larger doses that you take can have more of a sedating effect. You know, again, kind of taking your pan and your anxiety way, but if you get into that more relaxed state, you know, your sensitivity to your surroundings become a lot more attuned. Listening to music becomes a lot more pleasureful experience that I've got to have with it on heavier doses is kind of that walking dream state, where you're at a place where you're lying down, you're awake, but you're kind of in the dream world.

And man, it is really a really magical experience on that level. I mean, typically I'm not, you know, Going that deep on it in a sense. But the thing about it is, is just like any class. And it's just to kind of come back a little bit to sourcing and quality, depending on how it's grown and how much sunlight it receives and what strain it is.

Cause it's, it's similar in cannabis in the way that there are. Many, many different varieties that have have different types of effects. Some of them can be more pain-relieving and some can be more concentrated. Um, and again, that's another thing that I would say about dosage and, you know, everyone's physiology is a little different, so, you know, basically some people are more sensitive to others.

Some people are really sensitive to opiates in that sense and how the opiate receptors. Stimulate it. So when I tell people to do is just approach it with caution in terms of dose it start with a much smaller dose, probably the most harmful part of that as it can. Cause sometimes it can cause nausea when people are really sensitive.

Sometimes you want to take it on an empty stomach to kind of avoid that. But yeah. Other than that, it's pretty harmless. You know what I mean? It does have some potential addictive qualities, but nothing compared to any opiate or anything like that. I tell people to use it as a celebratory thing once or twice a week.

I don't recommend using it every single day, but yeah. It was some people comparatively, you know, and again, it's kind of comes back to this argument of what is an acceptable norm in relation to what type of relationship you have, people that are dependent on opiates. And, you know, again, going into the other side of where medicine plays a role to fix an element where a lot of the times, what I'm trying to do is create a preventative thing where people are experienced and joy and they're improving their energetics and their lives.

And so they're using these things to be able to rise above some of the challenges that they have in that sense. Yeah, I just put a disclaimer out there, you know, for anything. That has a sedative quality to it. Not that it's necessarily substantially impairing your judgment, but just to be respectful, if you're in a sedated mode, not to operate heavy machinery and not to drive a car, you know, not to climb up a ladder, do things, put yourself where.

You're putting yourself at a greater risk when your judgment is impaired. 

Jonathan Levi: Absolutely culture. I want to ask you about one third ingredient that I know you guys use very prevalently in that I experienced, which was Maka. Now I didn't actually realize at the time Maka and Marsha are very different. So tell me a little bit about Maka road.

Colter Merrick: Yeah. So Maka road is a South American root tumor and it has been a traditional value, but it also has some really powerful adaptogenic qualities as well as some really powerful. Alfred, TJ Equifax, something. I started out a long time ago, making some mock-up bank adaptogenic qualities, actually for women on the hormonal side, you know, to try to kind of understand the adaptogenic herbs, you know, for example, it, it kind of balances you, you know, if you're too energized, it'll calm me down.

If you're too calm, it'll energize, you've got too much estrogen in your system. You can balance that out. So it's really good for female hormones and things like that, but it's definitely as a feel good. Or if you know what I mean. I'll try to describe kind of the same things that we're talking about.

Just things that make you feel good and recognizing that feeling good is something that we all are very fond of and yeah. Really understanding how to bring things in our life that make us feel good. And in MOC is definitely one of those things. Again, I kind of described me starting out, you know, in the aphrodisiac category and the joy of feeling that type of energy.

It's very pleasureful and you can definitely experience that with Maka. It also has a very high nutritional value and a really great food to take on a regular basis. You know, just think of it as a super food, basically. 

Jonathan Levi: Brilliant. I'm sure our audience is asking like, okay, I get it. There's some super powerful plants and herbs and roots out there.

And I'm sure our audience wants to know how do they get started? I mean, how do they go down this path of seeing, you know, which ones should they start with? When should they try them? We'll get in a little bit later about how we can encourage them to source them legally and safely and stuff like that.

But how should people get started culture? 

Colter Merrick: That's a good question. There's such a range of thing to know. What we kind of ask at the bar is like, Hey, how do you want to feel? You know, obviously to kind of break it down into some categories, as far as things that are stimulating, things that are relaxing, things that are geared towards health and wellness or for cleansing, or, you know, bringing minerals and nutrients into the body.

Just to kind of list off some of the star players. I think cacao is really powerful plant. It has a lot of history in ceremonial use and has some pretty powerful elements of theobromine, which is very hard opening, which is kind of a cousin to caffeine, but it kind of has an energizing effect without kind of creating that jitter or that edginess to it.

I really recommend that one. Cause people, you know, have a different kind of relationship with Gacaca and it's usually, and again, Kind of want to emphasize again, I've talked about this a few times tonight, just the sourcing purity and anything. That's a really important factor to really get a true experience with it.

Things that are adulterated and chocolate tends to be one of those things. I mean, the way that they're processing the cacao bean is usually, you know, they're separating the cowl butter from the Coca Coco. You know, those things were really works or synergistically together. And a lot of the heat and the processing coms creates a lot lesser of a product.

Right. But that being said, there's a lot of really great cacao out there. The less process did anything is there's a really important part. Uh, we have a really great drinking chocolate. I think you tried it on the boat. It's actually started at elixir. It's called Rococo. The company's well on its way to doing really well.

We just did some talks of lib together. So that's a good one to start with. You know, it has a kind of a universal broader appeal to it on the health and wellness side. You know, there's a lot of things we haven't talked about that I just going to throw out there. I won't go too deep into them. There's one substance called Sheila Git, and this is all kind of stuff that.

It's kind of a health and wellness component to detoxifying the body. Bringing nutrients in Sheila is basically an earth resin. That is a million year old plant and Marine life. That's been fermenting the tectonic place for millions of years, and it comes out as a black resin ooze, but it's basically the most base organic building blocks of life that your body has.

Similarly has really quickly. And pushes out all the toxins. So it has a real grounding. Uh, it's also super alkalizing to the body, really nourishes the adrenals, which again, you know, gaining energy and, you know, things like said how we described some of these herbs, things that are energizing, things that are taxing the adrenals have a very powerful effect, but you know, they can have a harmful effect on the body.

If you use an excess, like. Caffeine and things like that. I mean, obviously we know how, how prevalent it is in our culture. We all like to boost our energy throughout the day. But then that being said, there are a lot of like of these tonic herbs, a lot of these Chinese herbs that nourish the body and the Sheila just happens to be one of them where you actually get energy from actually nourishing the adrenals instead of taxing.

It's actually one of the really good things I recommend for people getting off coffee because it reversed the harmful effects of coffee. Coffee is really high acid. So. The Sheila is real alkalizing to the intestine, to the gut, and then it also nurses adrenals. And, um, it has a real earthy taste, a really neat thing.

And it's pretty unknown. You know, it's something people want to explore some cool, exotic substances that are really, really good for you. That's another one, you know, this kind of gets into the superfood category a little bit. Not playing as much with my energetics, but still has an effect because when your body's working right, you're going to feel it.

And you're going to like it. Moringa Farrell is a, basically one of the most nutrient dense foods in the world, on the planet, that type of nutrients and minerals and vitamins it has in it. And the quantities that it has in it is off the chart. When you compare it to other things, I mean, 14 times more calcium than milk, 14 times more potassium than bananas.

Nine times more iron than spinach, more vitamin a or vitamin E 10 or 12 different amino acids, vitamins minerals. I mean, it's a really powerful plant. It actually grows and really air places. And how do they, aminos is really helpful to just the whole healing process. So that's one, I highly recommend people check out of some of my lists.

One drink. I mentioned at the beginning, that's probably one of our best sellers. And you know, if anybody wants to come to the site and try something out, that's handcrafted from Alexa, art service, saffron spice, elixir. So saffron is a really powerful plant, really powerful in the sense of it's boosting mood, fixing depression.

Helping with eyesight and in cancer properties, anti-inflammatory properties. Primarily though we use it as a mood booster, you know, just to feel good, happy experience the drink itself. We make an, a latte style and it, it is such a pleasure to drink and it just. Instantly shifts your mood and uplifts you.

It's a really awesome thing to kind of see it happen in the bar, you know, after a couple of sips. Wow. That's when I speak really highly up, you know, another thing that we really work a lot with, that's obviously gaining a lot of popularity out there as tumeric, and that's one of the. Really powerful masterful plants, you know, inflammation in the body.

They uncomfort in the body is such a key part to comfort. And to our wellness, there's so many masterful master plants out there that are so effective and you notice them right away. What I was kind of going into, you know, just about being an expert and really understanding that experience is the best teacher.

I mean, Learning about some of these planets and bringing them into your life and seeing how they affect you is the start. But it's also about creating a practice, you know, and at that point, it's, it's a lifestyle choice, improving lives, style, and that's where it kind of the bar I'm surrounding yourself with people that really are trying to find things and making choices that are healthy choices, the herbs themselves, they're not going to work if you don't take them.

So creating that practice. And a lot of times it's regularity people. Sometime expect to have an instant gratification society. And some of these things are profound and you feel them immediately, but as you burst in your life and you really start to integrate them, you'll really see a very powerful, powerful effects.

That's kind of the key points is start with one or two things. And if it's something you really want to go with and I recommend tomorrow, we've got a really powerful CO2 extracted tumeric. Extract you take as a shot, you can mix drinks with it. And I had a really great drink. We call it the golden healer.

I think you experienced that a little bit on the boat, a couple of tumeric drinks we had out there. 

Jonathan Levi: So Colter that's actually a really good segue. Where can people get this stuff? I mean, I know you guys offer some of the products online, a lot of the products, only in the bar, I'm sure people in the audience are wondering like, dude, when can I buy this elixir stuff and have it shipped to me?

Or if not, if it's something like regulation, like where can they buy stuff? Like kava stuff, like Kratos, all that kind of stuff. Like where would you recommend people source? And, and obviously if they can buy it from you, I'm sure. Listeners in the audience would prefer to support you guys for sure. 

Colter Merrick: Yeah. I appreciate that.

Yeah. We've got some offerings on our website. We've got a little ways to go to bring some of the things that I've talked about. We do have a few COVID products and we're constantly expanding our offering. You know, I would say like the reputability of sources as far as the Chinese tonic herbs and some really amazing.

Plants and Chinese herbs I'd recommend Ron Teagarden, dragon herbs. He was one of my mentors and you know, one of my peers, I remember I will probably 20 years ago, I went to his bar in Santa Monica and they offered me a called heavens drops. And I was like a $300 bottle of gin Singh. And then I took a couple of those drops and I swear everything became why I felt like I wasn't having there for a brief moment.

So. I would say that where you are sourcing things is really important, but a dragon herbs, a lot of products that we carry his products to the bar, we put them in our drinks, a really, really great company, the Sheila Git, but I mentioned pure black as the brand we use there. And it's really important to really understand that it's a source that really needs purity because your body's assimilating us so quickly and it'll carry anything with it.

It also. That's great as a catalyst. So any of these other herbs that you're using, combine it with the that's one of my morning routines is taking the , combining it with a few other tonic herbs stance, and a couple other ones that I use the Maringa is, is gaining a lot more popularity out there. I've been using this product called , it's a pretty convenient product.

It is a MLM. You can still sign up to it without having to sell it to other people, but it's a really good product, but there's a lot of good organic moringa that you can buy out there. I do recommend getting organic whenever you can. And you can get that just about anywhere. You know, if it's organic, it's a pretty widespread plant.

Uh, Cabo, you know, I would say by the comma from us, we do sell it online. We have few COVID concentrates and other person to give some props to is the root of happiness. She's one of the COVID gurus is really doing a lot. I mentioned just legislatively to spread the word and keep people focused on the benefits of cava, as well as some of the other medicine that I've done.

We're not selling crop, Tom ourself on our website yet we will eventually, you know, there's a lot of sources for it out there. It's pretty prevalent out there. You know, I would say, try to find an organic sources, so really hard thing to find organically, but. Just dabble on different websites. I don't have one to recommend per se, but try the different strands, the Mang dot and getting the highest alkaloid contents really important.

The green and white strands tend to be more energizing. The red strains tend to be a little bit more sedating, but you know, just try a little bit of each. The internet obviously is a huge source for that. And again, you know, we're trying to build our brand up to. Be able to offer that a lot of the drinks that we offer, we have a child drink that we offer.

That's made with Maka. It's got a lot of different Chinese tonic herbs in it. So a really great coffee substitute. I have caffeinated versions of non-caffeinated versions of it. You know, we have some other kind of cutting edge products. Oh yeah. I have a product called theater gold. That's basically.

Nano-sized gold, suspended and water that is actually had some really neat clinical studies of improving the ICU. After a month, prolonged use really helps the body communicate has, you know, gold itself obviously has a very powerful, energetic component to it. God, it's been used throughout history for a lot of different health and spiritual connections, and I've had some previous experiences with it.

So it's another one to kind of check out out there. Very cool. You know, there's also a full range of herbs. We have a whole lot of herbal teas that are just stuff that you steep that taste good that are kind of designed for certain ailments. Whereas Tommy or relaxation or sexuality or tranquility to where they have a full line of that, of different herbal formula teas that are really neat.

Gynostemma is another one that's um, I recommend out there it's a non-caffeinated or herbal drink because it's an adaptogenic plant. It's a longevity plant. In the other stories of villages, they call it poor man's tea. And there's a lot of villages in China before it was really discovered where they couldn't afford tea and I'd go out and pick the stuff in the wild and then they'd see them.

Everyone in the village was living over a hundred years old. Nate did these studies and I found this because they were drinking this kind of STEM, uh, joggle Alon is another name for it. Brilliant. The cool thing about it is it. Because our society and our culture, and, you know, I can't address what it's like for you there, but in our American culture, you know, it's dominated by corporate interests.

And so the media, and once you get to learn about these things, you have to kind of dig a little bit beneath the surface, but there's a huge wealth of information out there. And there's so many treasures of nature that if you can really just take the time and have the interest, and that's kind of a big part of.

Where I feel my purpose is, is to introduce some of these things. And the rest is up to you. You know, the main thing is, is that there's so many treasures of nature out there to bring into your life and to form a positive relationship with it. But again, Let the experience through years, listen, and be subjective and form your relationship with nature.

Jonathan Levi: Brilliant, sir. I want to thank you so much for your time. I know we've had a ton of technical difficulties that hopefully the audience won't know about everything. I'm sure we'll be stitched up together, but you've been really patient and really generous with your time and just shared so much wisdom and value.

I think this conversation. Delivered everything to our audience that I hoped it would. And so, so much more. So I do hope we keep in touch and I'm really looking forward to ordering some of the products myself. I also encourage our audience to do the same@elixartdotcomelixart.com. And if people want to get in touch with you and learn a little bit more, where should we send them?

Colter Merrick: Well, my personal email address is culture at elixir. Dot net or.com. You know, if you're in California, come into our shop in Nevada City, California, and turn into us at Facebook as well. And we've got a lot of related events and some really cool pictures there and hopefully become into a town near you one of these days.

Jonathan Levi: Awesome. So culture, once again, thank you so much, my friend, and, uh, I do hope we keep in touch. I'm sure. I'll see you on the, uh, summit conference. 

Colter Merrick: Biohacker circuit. Jonathan. Thanks so much for this opportunity. Real pleasure to speak with you. You really have a great thing going on here and really, again, appreciate being a part of it.

Jonathan Levi: Thank you, sir. All right, Colter take care, man. Okay, bye now.

Jonathan Levi: All right Superfriends, that's it for this week's episode, we hope you really, really enjoyed it and learn a ton of applicable stuff that can help you go out there and overcome the impossible.

If so, please do us a favor and leave us a review on iTunes or Stitcher, or however you found this podcast. In addition to that, we are. Always looking for great guest posts on the blog or awesome guests right here on the podcast. So if you know somebody or you are somebody, or you have thought of somebody who would be a great fit for the show or for our blog, please reach out to us either on Twitter or by email our email is info@becomingasuperhuman.com. Thanks so much. 

Closing: Thanks for tuning in to the Becoming Superhuman Podcast. For more great skills and strategies, or for links to any of the resources mentioned in this episode, visit www.becomingasuperhuman.com/podcast. We'll see you next time.