Smudging has long been recognized as an effective way of removing negative energy and evil spirits, but does this spiritual practice have more to offer? New data reveals a reason that everyone, regardless of their spiritual beliefs, should give this ancient cleansing technique a try.
Despite the fact that many Americans view the practice of smudging your home as a ‘new age’ technique, it can be traced back thousands of years to the teachings of the Native Americans, used to cleanse their spirit. Also known as the ‘Sacred Smoke Bowl Blessing’, practitioners would burn herbs in a special bowl, the smoke created believed to be the cleansing property. Today, dried herbs tied together known as smudge sticks make the process even easier.
Many view the practice as skeptical at best, questioning whether those who practice today genuinely see any benefit from their efforts, or whether this ‘spiritual shower’ is merely a placebo effect. After all, if we truly believe that negativity has been removed from our lives, focusing on the positive side of life would that not, in turn, evoke the law of attraction, our own positivity, in turn, attracting more? At the same time, if it’s working and bringing more positivity into the world, is it really a bad thing?
If you’ve been wavering on giving this technique a try in your own life, a new study published in the ‘Journal of Ethnopharmacology’ looked closely at the practice of studying and the potential physical impact it may have on our lives. The research team looked at the use of single and multi-ingredient herbal and non-herbal smudging remedies as they were administered across 50 different countries.
Surprisingly, they found the use of smoke as a delivery system was more common than they had previously believed, largely used to address pulmonary, neurological and dermatological concerns. This medicinal use of smoke, the team explained, showed great promise and should be explored by those practicing modern medicine as a potential drug delivery system for many of today’s modern remedies. Furthermore, the team found that smudging was an effective way to cleanse a room not only of negative energy but also of airborne bacteria, improving air quality!
In their research, the team revealed that a 1-hour treatment of the medicinal smoke, created by burning both wood and a ‘mixture of odoriferous and medicinal herbs’ was effective in removing over 94% of the airborne bacterial populations in the space. This meant that the smudging treatment was equally as effective to, or even more effective than modern antibacterial sprays without the use of potentially harmful chemicals. Adding to the promise, a month after the smudging was completed the bacteria was still undetectable in the space.
As we continue to better understand the impact that many of these pathogens have on our lives, our society pushes the use of these chemical concoctions to kill off as many of these harmful bacteria as we can. However, this data raises the question – are we unnecessarily introducing more chemicals into our lives. Did we have the answer all along? For those that believe in its effectiveness, and it’s hard not to given these facts, smudging may be the safer, all -natural approach to protecting ourselves and our homes!
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