Daniel Vitalis is a leading health, nutrition, and Personal Development Strategist, as well as a nature based philosopher, teaching that our invincible health is a product of living in alignment with our biological design and our role in the ecosystem. He incorporates the wisdom of indigenous peoples into our modern lives with an entertaining, motivational, and magnetic teaching style. He is also the creator of www.findaspring.com, a resource helping the public find clean, fresh, wild water, free of pollutants wherever they live.
We are thrilled to have Daniel share his wisdom and experiences with us at this year's Rootstalk Festival! He will present two classes throughout the weekend, as well as ignite the ceremonial fire for us on Friday evening as we celebrate the autumnal equinox with folklore!
We hope you enjoy this fantastic interview with Daniel!
The Quest for the Mushroom of Immortality
Forays into foraging and preparing medicine from medicinal mushrooms! Human beings have been using polypore fungi for food, medicine, and even fuel since deep antiquity. Come see how easy it is to add these fungal allies into your personal pharmacopeia, as we explore this strange kingdom of life. Neither plant nor animal, but somewhere betwixt the two are the fungi, they inhabit a nether-realm of life, and have a lore that is all their own. I will share my experiences, techniques, and musings on the hunting, gathering, processing and preparing of medicinal polypore mushrooms.
Indigenous Nutrition and Human Evolution
I've prepared a riveting and dynamic workshop exploring the origins of human nutrition and medicine from our inception as a species to modern society. How do we adapt and evolve to our environment and what implications are inherent in our current lifestyle choices? Deep scientific concepts are made simple through humor, yet the profundity and immediate relevance is made obvious. We will cover the gamut of nutrition and medicine choices, from natural wild foods to cloned and genetically engineered foods and synthesized medicines, and how our exposure to these affects us today, as well as the future generations who will inherit our genome.
For me, each time I create a meal or medicine from a wild landscape it is powerful beyond my ability to articulate. My life has been one where there was always a sense that I was part of something more than my culture had led me to believe. That something is Earth’s ecology, and having discovered how to experience this brings me joy beyond words. Coming face to face with the many dynamic species who inhabit the wild lands, developing relationships with them, and cultivating an ongoing exchange that encourages us both to thrive is the essence of what this life is about for me. Everything else seems dulled somehow. The only thing that compares is the excitement of sharing this with someone else, and seeing them awaken this within themselves.
I find it challenging to narrow this down, though if I must, I would say this. We are inseparable from the “environment” as we require habitat as much as any creature. My primary concern is that through our lack of connection to real functional ecosystems, we have assumed that we are omnipotent and can somehow live without the life support systems of our living planet, and have even become so bold as to assume that we can leave the Earth and colonize space. This belief is influencing people to postpone the very serious answers that must soon be generated, answers to questions about the basic care of our own habitat and that of other life forms as well. My biggest concern is the very real possibility that we may create a situation on Earth where there is simply not enough viable habitat left for us, especially with regard to our food and water sheds. It is nearly impossible for humans to hunt and gather today (as we always have throughout our long stay on this planet), and this life-way is quickly being abandoned around the world by the remaining indigenous peoples, leaving nearly all humans dependent on inherently unsustainable agricultural practices.
By learning to commune with, harvest from, and perpetuate wild foods and medicines in their local habitat, a person suddenly becomes aware of the scope and magnitude of the ravages our civilization has wrought against ecosystems. This is difficult to grasp when all of our food and medicine comes from local agriculture or perhaps even industrial agriculture and pharmaceutical medicine.
Until a person goes directly to ecosystems for subsistence - even in part - it is difficult to see oneself as a part of the Earth’s ecology. This is a problem even in the organic food, herbal medicine, and natural healing communities. It is very easy to view our needs as resources divorced from their sources when we haven’t gone to the source ourselves.
Defending wild places and the “resources” that they are composed of becomes very real and much less abstract when these wild places are our foraging grounds, and when the species that inhabit them are part of a complex system that we directly perceive ourselves as part of.
Currently I am developing curriculum that merges the so called “primitive skills” of our ancestors with modern science to create a true form of sustainable living that encourages the development of ecosystems rather than depleting them. It is my vision to teach foraging as a very real and accessible form of food and medicine procurement in order to offer a true and pure form of “environmentalism”. Our current forms are wonderful beginnings but are often just “less bad” variations on our current problem creating technologies. I feel that the gathering of wild foods and medicines, as well as the creating of our other necessities out of wild nature is a truly revolutionary approach to our current predicament. In addition to this, my company SurThrival is busy creating the most powerful and high integrity supplements to support our bodies in this current state of adaptive stress. We are particularly focused on foods and medicines that have the potential to awaken our epi-genome and begin restoring our bodies to their original robustness.
Firstly, I am truly excited to experience Oregon, which I have never visited in this life. It is an honor to be invited to share my message with the community of people there, and to meet and hear from those who are pursuing similar goals as mine. I am also very much honored to share my particular view and expertise with the greater community of herbalists, foodies, and other naturalists and to see my ideas integrated into the greater whole.
For me and my partner, it is always wonderful to meet and share space and time with those who are working to achieve the same ends as us.
Again, a challenging question, as so many plants have revolutionized my life. Here in New England I am particularly fond of Wild Rice (Zizania palustris), which was the first plant that I harvested that contributes significant wild floral calories to my diet. There are many wonderful plants that I have a relationship with (Stinging Nettle, Orpine, Cattail, Pine, Milkweed, etc) both for food and medicine, but few provide the macro-nutrition needed for a robust life. I am eternally grateful to the Earth and the Creator for Wild Rice.
For more information about Daniel's amazing work, visit the Rootstalk website here:
http://www.rootstalkfest.com/page/daniel-vitalis
