HERBAL INTELLIGENCE – Plant Teachers and the Return of Viriditas
By David Hoffmann, FNMH, RH
Book Review
This book is for sure a mile stone in how we look at herbalism.
David Hoffmann is a scientist and herbalist with extensive experience in the world of medical herbalism.
In this well documented book Hoffmann describes and explains how herbalism has always been a part of human life, culture and healing methods from antiquity. Of course, the holistic use of the plants for food and healing in Native American culture is well documented. But this is universal. All Indigenous communities in all parts of the world had a very intimate and profound knowledge of the use of the vegetation that surrounded them. David goes on to explain how even today the pharmaceutical industry has relied heavily on the traditional knowledge of plants to synthesize and patent their drugs. The problem with a synthetic molecule is that the surrounding molecules in the plant are essential to the use of the plant by human physiology. When a synthetic molecule is used, it’s not natural and the body does not know how to mitigate the harmful effects that the active molecule has. This is why all synthetic drugs have side effects.
Hoffmann explains in detail how herbalism is and will continue to be a key element of all healing into the future. He details how herbalism will be a solution and an answer to many of the problems we have today and those that will emerge in the decades to come.
As I have been passionate about finding solutions to our current world problems from a very young age, David Hoffmann’s idea about the impact herbalism will have in our polycrisis environment are right, but have limits. He sees through the lens of a scientist and a fervent herbalist and that, to my feeling, has put certain blinders on his vision. I see a more global and holistic view of the future and its healing. Nevertheless, this book will give any herbalist, medical practitioner and therapist a wealth of references, ideas, perspectives and prophetic views on what herbalism can offer to the present and future of humanity, based on a thorough and scientific look at the western world’s experience of herbalism. This book has great value and should be looked at by all those interested by the future of herbology and of healing into the era of accelerated human evolution that is upon us.
By INNER TRADITIONS – Healing Arts Press – Rochester Vermont USA – 2024