Integrated Tobacco Diet
Honor Codes
These practices, when done with intention, form a greater whole: A Code of Honor. They communicate respect for self, teacher, and community.
At their most basic level, they preserve safety in the diet by instructing against behaviors that could derail or toxify our process. When performed with awareness, they create a practice of deliberateness, reminding us of our intention to grow, learn, and transcend the self-serving control of the ego.
In actively choosing the agreements that we make, we honor ourselves as sovereign actors and our process as something that surpasses our fluctuating thoughts or desires. We acknowledge the power of our behaviors and patterns, sanctify our choices, and open to prayer. This leads to prayer that is truly receptive and has the potential to transform us.
The components of the honor code encompass different domains—dietary, lifestyle, energetic, and exclusivity of work with the dieted medicine. What is held in common is the creation of an internal structure within the self to receive our process without distortion or interference. Nothing is guaranteed in this work, but consistency and devotion are our invitation for transformation, subtle or gross.
We choose foods that promote vitality and provide pleasure without distraction. We keep our mental airways uncluttered and available for transmission. We keep our energies self-contained by respecting eros, and allow energetic transformation to occur through the dieted medicine, rather than other medicines or other substances. Our consciously chosen actions provide us the essence of being the container, rather than being inside a container.
It is common in a diet to be unsure if an action is in alignment with the honor code or not–while one legitimate method of response is seeking counsel, another is returning to the spirit of dieting described above. What choice honors the magnitude of your process and demonstrates the greatest receptivity? This does not mean saying “no” to any opportunity, rather whether your choice is bringing more beauty and honor to your diet.
Sexuality & Intimacy
When Dieting Tobacco we steward our sexual energy within our vessel, to circulate, nourish and be utilized by the spirit of the medicine. This is sensitive and deeply important. It is vital that all who undertake an Integrated Tobacco Diet are fully committed from the core to contain and keep one’s sexual energy within. These boundaries in no way represent some sort of judgement or condemnation of sexuality, but simply guide us towards a season of sacrifice for the power of the spirit to grow.
Please Refrain From:
Sex
Masturbation
Sexual Fantasizing (The mind guides the body)
Pornography
Erotic Touch
Sleepovers with anyone who is not your sole, committed partner
Processes & Interaction with Ex-Lovers or Half-Lovers
Permissible:
Platonic Cuddling with friends, family and loved ones
Light kissing and snuggling with dedicated partner
Eating
When Dieting Tobacco the food we eat must be fresh, clean, full of vitality and free of contaminants—to the highest degree possible. Meal planning is important and offers us an opportunity to deeply consider what we put into our bodies, how to refine the way we eat and how good we can feel when we feed ourselves simply and cleanly.
There are moments in an Integrated Tobacco Diet where we may question if what we’re eating on the go is in alignment with the Honor Codes or we may be in a position where we cannot control the exact ingredients in our food. In these situations, the most important thing is to do our best to respect the Honor Codes with our eating and trust that if we eat a little bit of a restricted food by accident, bodies and processes will balance things out.
Though, there are some foods which are particularly toxic to the internal environment that shamanic plant medicines can open and thrive within. These will be listed first.
Absolutely Do Not Touch
Pork
Shellfish (Shrimp, Lobster, Crayfish, Oysters etc)
Red Meat
Dairy
Fermented Foods (Vinegar, Kimchi, Kombucha, Sauerkraut, Hot-sauce, Olives, etc)
White Sugar
Highly Discouraged
Highly Processed Oils & Seed Oils
Packaged / Canned / Preserved Food
Dried Food such as Mango or Bananas
Shelf Bought Sauces or Condiments
Spicy Foods as in Chili Peppers
Be Conscientious of
Consumption of Lemons & Citric Acids
Consumption of concentrated syrups such as Honey, Maple or Agave
Drinking
The liquids we consume during the Integrated Tobacco Diet are important and meaningful. It is highly encouraged to drink pure, mineralized, fresh water. If you have the ability to harvest your own spring water from a local source, water prayers are a great practice to keep while dieting—and all the time. :)
Drink Lots of Water, between 2 and 4 liters per day
Please Do Not Drink:
Caffeinated Beverages (No Coffee, Black Tea, Yerba Mate, etc)
Sports Drinks
Energy Drinks
“Healthy Sodas”
Flavored Sparkling Waters
Strong Medicinal Teas such as Passionflower, Blue Lotus, Kava, etc
Excess Ginger or highly heating substances like curcumin
Encouraged Exceptions:
White Tea
Ceremonial Cacao in Modest Quantities
Coca Leaf
Medicines & Herbs
On the Integrated Tobacco Diet we need to be highly intentional with the medicine we take. One common phrasing of this principle is: “One medicine at a time on the altar.” In this case, that medicine is Tobacco.
In general, cooling herbs that work on the waters of the body are encouraged. Herbs that heat, detox the body or work on the central nervous system are not permissible within the diet. Substances such as alcohol, cannabis, pharmaceuticals, the herbs of Chinese medicine or the ingestion of essential oils are not permissible within the diet.
Please refrain from:
Alcohol
Cannabis
Narcotics
Pharmaceuticals
Sedatives & Sleep Aids
Herbs that work on the Central Nervous System
Herbs that detox or purify the liver, blood or kidneys
Herbs that are strongly antibacterial or antiviral such as oil of oregano or rosemary
Prescribed herbs from Traditional Chinese Medicine
Drinking essential oils
Medicinal Mushrooms such as chaga or reishi
All other forms of Tobacco, including the smoke of Mapacho.
Ingestion of any other form of plant medicine
Permissible:
Sitting in ceremonies without the ingestion of medicine
Mint, Chamomile, Hibiscus, Verbena, Anis, Dried Fruit Teas, lemon balm
Using essential oils on skin or diffused in environment
Emergency Needs:
If you have a medical need that arises during the 3 month period of the Integrated Tobacco Diet, such as a flu or intense bacterial infection, please speak with Mockingbird to discuss possible care pathways that offer the highest respect for the diet.
Supplements
The term “diet,” as it refers to the ingestion of master plants while holding an honor code of lifestyle boundaries over a given period of time while, communicates very literally what this work is about: learning how to nourish and power one’s self on the energies of master plants.
Any supplements we take during an Integrated Tobacco Diet should empower this learning effort through gentle system support, and be sure not to detract from it, by confusing our primal body with excess sources of intake that our systems must necessarily account for, digest and incorporate.
Please refrain from:
Cognitive Enhancers
Creatine
Probiotics
Permissible:
Vitamins
Shilajit
Minerals + Hydrating Salts
Dietary supplements such as Spirulina, Wheatgrass, Seamoss or Kombu
Holistic Therapies & Lifestyle
During an Integrated Tobacco Diet, Tobacco is the primary therapist we are receiving support, medicine and teaching from. There are therapies and modalities, however, which can be greatly supportive to keeping the power medicine provided by Tobacco, flowing, digesting and integrating.
Please refrain from:
Acupuncture
Reiki or Ceremonial Energy Work
Tattooing
Swimming in the ocean or chlorinated pools
Hyperbaric Pressure
Permissible:
Talk Therapies
Craniosacral
Network Spinal
Bodywork
Gentle Contrast Therapy (Long exposure to high-heat sauna very discouraged)
Fresh Water Swimming
Media
During our Integrated Tobacco Diet, refining the ingestion of media is as important as the way we refine and structure our ingestion of food, drink or medicines. The power of media links worldview, belief and teaching straight into our Central Nervous Systems. When we diet, whatever we bring into ourselves, we bring into our diet to be amplified as part of our process. This includes music, film, art, reading and imagery.
Please refrain from:
Violent Media
Hyper-sexualized Media
Politically Charged Media
Ideological Media pushing heavily polarized viewpoints
Permissible:
Podcasts, shows, films & books that elevate the human spirit
Music that stirs the imagination and empowers the soul
Social Sharing
The way we speak about and share our process during an Integrated Tobacco Diet is incredibly important. Who we choose to trust our processes with can either weave into our diets through drama and transference, or support us and hold solid space for us to move through what we are transforming in our lives. One will create drama webs and the other will encourage right relation in friendship through witness.
Likewise, social media is one of the most powerful tools available to us at no direct financial cost. While dieting it is wise to keep any social media sharing practices concise and general, taking care not to reveal the details of our process to the open internet. The STK Online Portal was created for social sharing within the Communal Vessel created by our collective adherence to the Honor Codes.
Please refrain from:
Sharing the details of your process with friends, family or loved ones who do not have the capacity to hold space for you without emotional entanglement or coaching
Sharing the details of your process with the open internet
Engaging in drama webs with friends, family and loved ones
Permissible:
Sharing your heart and whatever aspects of your process feel available to be shared with your Accountability Partner, Guardian or Mockingbird, with the community via the STK Online Portal, and with trusted friends, family and loved one’s who will not judge, critique or attempt to shape your experience in any way
Communication Within the Container
⁜ Always Speak with Respect ⁜
Do not call each other out or give advice in our group calls or in our circles—please keep your shares to your own process.
Do not gossip in the container about each other. When communicating with accountability partners, please leave others out of your talk. If there is interpersonal friction that needs to be worked out with another individual in the container, please reach out to the individual directly a guardian to help mediate.
In-Person Ceremonial Ground Rules
No physical contact with other participants during ceremony; hugs after please <3
No speaking outside of necessary exchanges
No other medicines such as rapé, sananga or cannabis
No cosmetics, skin cream, essential oils or perfumes—Agua Florida is permissible.
No leaving the designated ceremony area, except for bathroom breaks and to refill water.
No phones, computers or screens in our ceremonial space.
No singing icaros alongside facilitator. When the guitar comes out everyone is welcome to join & there will be invitations for everyone’s voice to be heard.
After ceremony is finished, please empty your purge bucket by a tree away from common areas.
Honor Code preamble by Itamar Shapira