E11 S1| Shamanic Practitioner Amy Dempster Shares the Healing Power of Nature

In today’s episode of the Sick and Seeking Podcast, I have the pleasure of speaking with Amy Dempster about the profound ways nature can serve as a supportive and healing force in our lives. Amy is the host of The Earth Keepers Podcast, which has been a source of inspiration and comfort for me during challenging times.

Join us as we explore our connection to the earth and how it can enrich our wellbeing.

Conversation Highlights:

• Rediscovering Connection: She reflects on her upbringing on a farm and how she gradually lost her connection to the land after college.
• Intuitive Abilities: We discuss Amy's journey of remembering her psychic and intuitive gifts, and how nature communicates with us beyond our five senses.
• Frequency and Vibration: Amy explains the concepts of frequency and vibration, highlighting their impact on our health and experiences.
• Raising Vibration: We talk about practical tools that can enhance the vibrational quality of our environments.
• Benefits of Being Outdoors: Discover why spending time in nature is essential for our well-being.
• Ions in Nature: We discuss the presence of positive and negative ions in our environment and their effects on us.
• Mindful Walking: We encourage listeners to leave their phones behind and take leisurely walks as a way to reconnect with nature.
• Ancient Wisdom of Plants: We reflect on the deep knowledge that plants hold and how they have interacted with humans throughout history.
• Electromagnetic Frequencies: Amy sheds light on how modern electromagnetic frequencies impact our health.
• Our Ancestral Connection: We explore how many of us have lost our intimate connection with the land through generations.
• Nature as a Partner: Finally, we discuss the long-standing relationship between humans, psychoactive plants, and fungi.

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Transcript

Leslie Field (00:00.19)
us down. I've already called in the ancestors, so we're good. The guides, they're all here with us. So here we go. Hi Amy, it's such a pleasure to have you here with me today.

Amy Dempster (00:11.41)
Thanks for having me, Leslie. I'm excited for our chat.

Leslie Field (00:14.87)
I am so excited. So today I have with me Amy Dumpster. Amy is a shamanic practitioner. She has all these beautiful business and website and podcast names and I'm not even going to say them yet. We're going to link to those in the show notes and Amy will tell you about that at the end of our conversation. But first, Amy, you don't know this. When I decided I wanted to do a podcast, it was very clear in my mind that you were one of my dream guests to have on my podcast.

Amy Dempster (00:42.6)
Aww.

Leslie Field (00:44.55)
So here it is, it's happening. I never thought I'd get to this point, so thank you. And I warned Amy, we're gonna fawn over her for a minute, so just here we go. Amy, it's like, I feel like I'm writing like a love letter. Dear Amy, let me tell you why I love you so much. So I found Amy maybe about, I know, a year, maybe a couple years ago. And it was when I was having a really, really tough time in my life. A friend of mine recommended your podcast to me. I know I've shared this with you.

started listening to your podcast and I said, no, no, no, this is not for me. This is a little too out there. Nope. Uh-uh. And then before I knew it, I had listened to her entire podcast. Now we might not talk about all of those interesting and special and exciting and cool and sometimes odd things, which I love personally. We're not going to get into all that here. But what I do want to highlight is the fact that when I was going through that tough time, my friend brought your podcast to me and it helped me get through a really, yeah, it helped

Amy Dempster (01:24.786)
Hehehe

Leslie Field (01:44.57)
really dark and tough time in my life that I've shared about on my podcast. And one of the biggest things that I'm so grateful that I've met you, I think that makes sense, is that you helped me reconnect back to nature. You helped me understand that nature is for everyone. We are a part of nature. Nature is always calling to us. And so when I was going through that dark time, I was noticing I always wanted to be outside. I wanted to put my hands in the dirt. I wanted to grow things, which I typically never cared about, really.

in the past. I found out I was really good with plants. I found out I could resurrect plants that were dying or dead or I thought. And you were the person who helped bring me back to the land and bring me back to nature. So for that, I'm just forever grateful. So thank you.

Amy Dempster (02:30.694)
well thank you so much, you know, you just as somebody, you know, you probably feel the same doing a podcast, you're just sitting in your room by yourself, in my case just sharing my personal stories and so it's always wonderful to hear, you know, the impact that some of those stories have on people. So I'm glad it's been a good resource for you.

Leslie Field (02:38.45)
Thanks for watching!

Leslie Field (02:50.97)
Oh my gosh, beyond, beyond, beyond. And I think that's sort of why I wanted Amy to come on here today, which is really this theme, how nature can be a supportive and healing force. That was sort of like what was drawing me to have her on today to especially share with people who, I believe my listeners are people who are like me, who have just maybe had a tough time in their bodies, things going on, medical issues, or they have a loved one who's just been going through a rough time in their body as well. And so I want to invite people like you,

here, Amy, to just sort of share like what's another possible resource or something to consider that maybe could just help you get through a tough time, especially when things in your body are doing things maybe you don't want it to do. So first maybe it would be great for you to share about how you've always been sort of drawn to the land and you've had a special connection to it and maybe a little bit about your psychic and intuitive abilities if you'd like to share that as well.

Amy Dempster (03:46.738)
Yeah, sure. Well, I mean, I grew up on a farm, so in some ways, you know, I just was around nature growing up in probably a way that a lot of people haven't had the experience or haven't had the opportunity to do. And so some of that was probably just innate to me and just the way that I grew up that

until I was really more separated from it as an adult didn't realize how much I was missing by not being in that type of environment. And in fact, I, you know, the last probably handful of years that I lived and worked in a big city, you know, it was becoming more and more difficult for me to be in that environment. And I would find myself like having to take multiple breaks a day

Amy Dempster (04:43.844)
floral shop next door that were so nice they let me go in and just like touch up the plants, you know, during the day. And so I don't even think I totally knew what I was doing in that sense, but just like kind of trying to make that reconnection and find that kind of missing link that had happened after.

a number of years of just doing probably what a lot of people did, right? You could leave home, go to college, get a job, just live in the suburbs, commute an hour each way every day, and really just kind of lose that connection that you always, or at least I always had, to being in and around nature. And so I think from that level it was really that. I knew that it just made me feel better, it made me feel good to be

And so, yeah, I mean, as far as my psychic or intuitive abilities, they really unfolded slowly over quite a number of years, and I think really was more a matter of remembering or reacquainting myself with how that works in general. I think...

A lot of people don't realize, first of all, just the number of ways that we're picking up intuitive information from our environment every day. We tend to ignore or blow off or diminish, especially those of us who are like empaths and feelers, right? We just blow off the fact that like we have a gut feeling about something because it's not like a message in your head telling you something, right? We like expect it to come in in the way that we see it in, you know, TV and movies. And if it doesn't, then like...

Leslie Field (06:25.812)
Yeah.

Amy Dempster (06:27.874)
Clearly we don't have that special ability, which is not true. We all do. And so yeah, just like the more you practice at it and the more you do it, the more, you know, the easier it gets. But also the better you get it just learning your own body and how your own body reacts to basically telepathic information, which is how nature communicates with us.

Leslie Field (06:51.91)
Ah, well, and it's funny you say that because I had a moment before we got on this podcast where I thought, you know, I haven't charged my keyboard in the while, and I thought, gosh, it could be dead. And then I walked up to my computer and it was dead. And I thought, oh, there it was. That didn't just, we sit here and we're like, we think it comes from nowhere. We think it's like, oh, that's so ridiculous. I like, it glanced through my head for a second, like, like passed by so

Amy Dempster (07:06.354)
Hehehehe

Leslie Field (07:21.47)
It's dead. And if you don't get discharged right now, you can't start your podcast with Amy. So you better do that right now. So I love that you share that about the intuition because that comes up a lot in the conversations I have with women who come on the podcast. Them talking about just like knowing that something is going on in their body or something's wrong or just sort of this is the direction I need to take or I'm not sure I want to listen to that piece of advice and I want

Amy Dempster (07:24.946)
Hehehehe

Leslie Field (07:51.39)
that we all have that because I do talk to a lot of people who just think oh no no that's for psychic mediums and people that are specially born like that. I'm like no no.

Amy Dempster (08:02.882)
Yes, if you're a human being incarnated on planet Earth, you have the ability to, you know, communicate with senses outside of just the five senses we've been taught.

Leslie Field (08:13.99)
and you were the person that unlocked that for me, like I like blew my mind. And maybe we'll talk about some of the moments where I've been second guessing myself and we would do some cool healing work with the land or I'll just, let me just talk about it. We were out at a retreat, we did some healing work with the land, you guided us. I remember showing up to the retreat and being like, oh no, no, I'm a newbie. I'm just, I don't have these gifts yet. Like give me a moment. And then we were working in group

you know that that sort of collective power same idea if you're in meditation or you're being guided on a meditative journey I See that it's sort of like kind of I don't know amplifies it a little bit and here I was Seeing these cool visions and things that I'm like, I'm a crazy person in one part of my head. I'm like I am crazy I am seeing caricatures and things in my brain and I'm a crazy person but I'm just gonna go with it and then we would all share and then we'd have The exact same things that we were all sharing and that was the moment I said

Oh, this is real, like this can happen. So really cool. Very cool.

Amy Dempster (09:19.182)
Yeah, and it happens all the time. People tell me all the time, like, I'm not good at this, I'm totally new, I don't know what I'm doing. And then they rattle off, like, a page of information that they got during the journey, you know? Or like, You got it! It's right there! You absolutely had it!

Leslie Field (09:37.43)
And I think a lot of it just comes down to self-trust and a lot of it. And I was just so grateful that I found you in a community that like, I was like, okay guys, I'm the newbie here, but I'm gonna give it a try. And everyone's like, come, it's okay, give it a try. And then you try and you're like, oh, I can do it too. And I'm learning and these gifts are developing. So that's been, I'm just really grateful for you to just sort of like pull back, I don't know, the curtain to be like,

this. If you just believe in yourself, you have the right tools and techniques, which you talk a lot about on your podcast and your website and all the places, you can do this. So I love that. I also love that you talk about frequency and vibration. You did a couple of podcast episodes, which I feel like I should just go back and listen to five times over, because when you talk about something on the podcast, you are so thorough and you pull in the science, you pull in

explaining it, also not making it scary, because some of the things you talk about, sometimes I'm like, I'm scared, but you're like, it's not scary, let's just talk about these things, it's gonna be okay. But anyway, you had this whole episode or two about frequency and vibration, and I think it's important to sort of talk about that. Can you talk to me, or explain to listeners a little bit about frequency and vibration, how it works, what's possible, what does it feel like, and all that good stuff? So, I'm gonna go ahead and start with frequency and vibration, and then I'm gonna go ahead and start with the sound, and then I'm gonna go ahead and start

Amy Dempster (11:01.612)
Yeah, and...

Yeah, there's so many pieces to it. I mean, really, it's like it's the building blocks of our universe, right, as is frequency and vibration. And so, you know, whether or not that most often we think about it coming through sound, right. And so many of the different cosmologies, origin stories of religions and cultures around the world really have some.

piece of it that incorporates sound, right? That that's where the universe was born and that's how it became. And so working with that you realize that, you know, we very much think of ourselves as being solid and like the walls around us being solid and everything being in form, but really that form is just a frequency vibrating at a certain

I'm not going to get it right off the top of my head, but a number of revolutions per second basically that makes it appear more or less solid to us. But it is actually all very malleable and flexible, and we are all interacting with each other as vibration, as frequency. And so I think we've probably all experienced a situation where somebody can...

walk into a room and change the vibe, right? Like either way, right? Like there's the people you say light up the room or you know puts everybody in a good mood or you know makes everyone feel good about themselves, right? Those are people with like really high vibrations and it draws you in and makes you want to be around them and you've certainly probably experienced the opposite of people who come into a room and bring the energy down, you know, or even just when you're sick,

Amy Dempster (13:02.74)
lower, you don't feel as you do when you're healthy. And so what happens is though when you get a bunch of people together, a bunch of different frequencies together, it doesn't just all have to be people, they kind of start to even each other out, right? Like the higher frequencies can pull everybody up, but

could also pull a group of people down. And so it's a really good way, you know, thinking about that, about kind of the environment that you're in on a day-to-day basis and how those are affecting you because we can't, it's just like, it's a law of physics, right? It's just how our bodies are going to react. We can't, you know, we, there are some things we can do to kind of protect our energy and do those types of things, but for the most part, it's just how it works. We get in the,

the

vicinity of other people and their vibration will affect us. Our body will just react to it. And so when you start thinking about that, again kind of like going out into nature, right? That's why nature feels so good to us because it just the baseline, like lowest vibrating frequency in nature is naturally higher than like the best human vibration, right? And so

Leslie Field (14:27.05)
Thanks for watching!

Amy Dempster (14:30.96)
it has a high vibration and it's gonna pull your vibration up and it's going to be potentially like a healing frequency in your body and so some of these things can sound kind of like weird and woo-woo but when you actually look into the science of them and the research you realize like this is this is a proven fact it's just how it works so it's it's why we like going going outside and being in nature

Leslie Field (14:55.79)
Yeah, I always love when you describe it and explain it again, because there is a part of me that just goes like, it doesn't almost want to believe it. Like, I know it. Okay, here we go. Let's get into this. I know it when I'm outside. My body's like, I feel it, I sense it. I love it when the sun is on my skin. I have the fresh air. I'm walking barefoot. I know it does that, but then

Amy Dempster (15:23.855)
Could it be that easy?

Leslie Field (15:25.85)
Couldn't be that easy. Yeah, it really, it's so fascinating where I'm, but it's taken me, yeah, since I met you to really be like, yes, this is real. Like you're saying there's science, there's an ion exchange, which I don't know the words, but they talk about, you know, earthing and when you're on the earth and I'm gonna get this all wrong, the positive and the negative ions and it does things to you. And I just can't speak science is really what's happening here. But it means, thank you. Go Google it.

Amy Dempster (15:50.203)
No, but you're 100% right. Yes. Yes, yes. The earth is full of negative ions. It's kind of the opposite of what we think, right? The negative ions make us feel positive, basically. So, you know, and so same thing after a rainstorm, right? Then the air is just fully charged full of those negative ions. And yeah, it makes us feel better.

Leslie Field (16:13.55)
See, this is why I had Amy on, because otherwise I'm just gonna fumble through it, get it all wrong. I know I quoted you on an earlier podcast, and we were talking about sound and vibration. I was just like, I need to have Amy on, because I'm just butchering this right now. I know you often talk about even different tools and things beyond nature. You talk about things like singing bowls, which I have my singing bowl. You talk about the frequency or vibration of all essential oils. You talk about things like toning.

So there are other things available to us as well that sort of can help sort of maybe shift our environment. Am I getting that sort of correct?

Amy Dempster (16:51.554)
Yeah, absolutely. And if you look into the work, and you just look it up online of, let's see if I get his name correctly, Masaru Emoto, I believe is his name. And he's the one that did all of the photos of water, right? So he basically would play a tone or a note or whatnot next to water and take a photo.

Leslie Field (17:02.11)
Yes.

Leslie Field (17:11.112)
Mm-hmm.

Amy Dempster (17:21.648)
of the shape that the water would move itself into. And it's always like, you know, all of the kind of high vibrational or, you know, happy good types of things, the water moves into these perfect forms of sacred geometry, right? And things, you know, it's the same kind of thing. You've probably seen other studies of just like, you know, what happens when you say mean things to plants versus, you know, nice things to plants. It's the same thing. But if you think about like, what percentage of our body

water, you realize like our body is listening to everything in our environment all of the time. And so the more that you can surround yourself with, you know, I always, my go-to is always like sulfegio frequencies, right? Because super duper high vibe, you know, like put them on the headphones and listen, because then your body is like taking that information in and organizing

Amy Dempster (18:21.268)
rational.

forms for lack of a better term. And so you can do that you know with something like that but also yeah playing singing bowls, toning which is really just singing, saying a tone which and again your whole environment will react you know if you have sound instruments at all you probably notice that like your animals will come sit with you when you play with them or you know my cat loves it.

Leslie Field (18:25.042)
Mmm.

Leslie Field (18:38.95)
you

Amy Dempster (18:53.54)
very much, like she kind of asks me to play them. And so yeah, like everybody, you know, like everyone else in nature, I guess you could say, knows like this feels good. I like this, this, you know, makes me happy. And so any of those things that you can bring into your environment will not only affect you, but affect the plants, the animals, you know, whatever in your environment as well.

Leslie Field (19:19.53)
Oh, it's such a good reminder. Yes, yes. And yes. Now before we go to plants, which I want to do a deep dive there is I want to go back to sort of this, this idea of like intuition and inner knowing and building trust there. I thought maybe, is there a way? Or are there ways that you would recommend that people could maybe, you know, is it to strengthen their intuition and inner knowing and trust? Is it really just meditation? Like what what are tools that you've used to help strengthen those things for you?

Amy Dempster (19:50.254)
Yeah, you know, there's lots of different ways to do it. And so, you know, meditation is great, but like not everybody loves it. And so...

Can you practice it and get better at it? Like, of course. But kind of depending on how your brain works, like some people work better with a guided journey and having like a more active participation in the experience. And so I always suggest like try a bunch of things to see what works best for you. I do really well with like channeled writing. And so it's kind of a combination.

I'm quiet, I'm kind of tuning in to what it is, you know, whether I have a specific question or a certain energy that I'm wanting to connect with. And then it's like the information will kind of start flowing a little bit and so I just am kind of like writing down what's coming in or what I'm seeing or feeling and usually within a couple of minutes, it's like I'm in the flow and then it just I can just write and

excuse me, and the messages will just come in that way. So that works really well for me. Other people do really well just sitting outside where you're sitting quietly, but you can kind of be observing and looking and your brain's a little bit more active. I always say it's like a focused. I'm not gonna lie,

Leslie Field (21:02.471)
Wow.

Amy Dempster (21:21.046)
meditation, right? So you need to be not so relaxed that you're falling asleep because you just won't remember anything, but relaxed enough to let information come to you from your surroundings. And so yeah, there's lots of different ways that that can happen. But for me, if I'm really deeply on a journey or meditating, at some point...

I'm trying to hold too much information in my brain. Some people do really well with that. I start getting worried like, oh, I'm going to forget that part that I already heard or got or received. And so for me, I like to go in and out, so be kind of in a meditative state and then something happens or a message comes in and I just have my notebook on my lap.

So I'll just open my eyes, write down, set my pen down, close my eyes, go back into the journey. So even when I'm kind of teaching or leading people, a lot of times I have them practice that because I think even that is just a learned skill of being able to just calm, dip in and out of meditation. And the better you get at that and the more practice you get, the easier it starts being that's just happening to you in your day-to-day life because you're kind of in that place where you're like focused but relaxed.

and can receive information that's coming in from the environment while you're going about your day-to-day routine.

Leslie Field (22:46.81)
Mm-hmm. I love that. I think I did know that you did the journaling and when I've done different sort of journey with you You yeah, you're like have the the notepad there. But yeah, I I'm a person I've never really practiced that so I'm just like nope. I want to continue the journey. I'll remember everything I also have really vivid dreams Yeah, yeah, I have really vivid dreams So I'm kind of used to that that I'll wake up in the morning and be like, oh I can recount my whole dream from Start to finish and you said something really key in there

Amy Dempster (23:04.901)
Some people love to do that.

Leslie Field (23:16.79)
think a lot of people maybe miss is that the slowing down and being still is a key piece to this. And I know that I'm a person and I come from a family of go, go, go. We don't stop for anything. We joke that my dad's house, he doesn't even have like a lounge chair. You can't even lay on his couch. Like there's no laying down. There's no resting. The only appropriate place to lay down and stop is in your bed. So it's almost like symbolic

Amy Dempster (23:39.209)
I'm sorry.

Amy Dempster (23:45.062)
Hehehehe

Leslie Field (23:47.55)
Whereas, you know, I really cultivate that quiet time and that sort of, yeah, that stillness because I find that I have to let it out because my brain is like, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go. I just have to sit with no devices, which we know is a huge issue. Basically, I feel like for everyone who has a smartphone, right? Those things are, I mean, they're addictive as heck, you know?

Amy Dempster (24:08.566)
It is for me too. I have to turn it off. Yeah. Yeah.

Leslie Field (24:16.91)
for one thing and then 20 minutes later you just were like I forgot why I even touched this thing. So I have particular feelings about technology and just about the amount of screens that were on. I moved from screen to screen to screen to screen and let's not even talk about the what is it IMFs the electro I know electro EMFs I was like that's not right. EMFs I'm starting to realize as more of I believe a more sensitive like body what you were talking about it I start to feel the overload

Amy Dempster (24:21.778)
Hehehe

Amy Dempster (24:35.286)
EMFs, yeah. Yep. Yeah.

Leslie Field (24:47.17)
It's so subtle like I never really thought about it And so it's even more where my body's like you got to get outside like you can't don't touch your phone Don't bring the screen with you. I know that there are some people. I don't know if there's actual studies I believe there are where they talk about the EMFs can even bring inflammation into your body, and I'm just like god I don't need more inflammation like like There's enough

Amy Dempster (25:09.552)
Yeah.

Yeah, they're a frequency too, just like everything else, right? But they're, and you're right, like we think it's, unless you're somebody who's really, really electromagnetically sensitive, we think it's subtle. It's actually a sledgehammer. So if you think about, if you're wanting to connect with the subtle world right around you, it is incredibly subtle compared to technology. So you're getting hit over the head with a sledgehammer while you have your phone in your pocket,

sitting there being like, I don't think I'm getting anything, you know? Like I don't think I can hear anything. It's like, well you can't hear over what's blasting in your vibration. And so that's a really easy way to remember. Like just sometimes just set, go for a walk and leave your phone at home.

Leslie Field (25:59.01)
Mmm, I feel like we need to put that on repeat. I need to put that all over my social media, even though people be on their phone. I understand that, I think it's irony that they had to be on their phone to see that, but then maybe they'll, but then maybe they'll put it down, right? I know. I, and this is why I love you so much, because again, I'm trying to build a community online as well, and I have such this like love-hate relationship, but that's why we do things in person too. That's why you meet up for people

Amy Dempster (26:03.318)
I'm out.

Amy Dempster (26:10.048)
This is my problem too, yeah. I'm like, I have an online business, but also don't use your phone.

Amy Dempster (26:20.882)
I'm gonna go to bed.

Amy Dempster (26:27.59)
Mm-hmm.

Leslie Field (26:28.89)
coffee, you go on retreats and all those things because then it's not all on the screens all the time. But that's a really positive reminder to remember that to get those very subtle messages is to leave all the screens, devices, and technology that's just blaring in your field around you. Gosh, I guess there was one other thing I wanted to add to that connected to sort of the intuition

Amy Dempster (26:35.355)
Right.

Leslie Field (26:59.53)
that sort of inner knowing. And I should share this with you, Amy. I'm really feeling called to a path where I wanna learn a lot about embodiment and accessing embodiment through very easy, gentle, organic movement. So I'm working with a couple teachers, some come from this direction, some come from that direction. But what I'm finding is that's the state where I can get almost into a body meditative state. I mean, I know it's all connected,

I've been sharing this with people when I do meditation in particular, I still feel like it's in my head and I'm in my head all day. I'm like, I'm tired of being up there So I love the practices that I'm learning because it gets me down into my body And then that's when I'm able to just things come up not just even about the body and ooh, I didn't feel that I didn't know that was there. I didn't know I was so tired. Oh, wow. I'm really sore I didn't realize that till this but I also just get these messages that finally can come through or sort of like a

to just sort of relax and I'm realizing that might be a space and a place where I will be able to sort of get those more intuitive messages coming through. So it's really beautiful because there's so many options for us but like you were saying meditation might not always be the way forward but there's so many other ones and I'm glad we've shared a few.

Amy Dempster (28:19.906)
Yeah, I mean meditation's always great and it's great for lots of other things outside of just, you know, receiving subtle information like it's It's good sometimes to just have that time where you're clearing your mind and you're just sitting quietly But yeah as far as receiving information like it comes to us so many different ways So yeah, I always suggest when people really want to get started like exactly that leave your phone behind Go out for a walk and I mean it can be short walk, you know

minutes, whatever, but however quickly, you know, let's say that's like a walk around your block, however quickly you would normally do that walk, make it take twice as long, make it take three times as long, like because I think to your point, like that's exactly what we do. We walk everywhere fast, we do everything fast, like we're just, and part of it I think is like technology has trained us to go faster, faster, faster, and so...

we miss so much. There's so much communication around us all the time and we just we blaze right past it. We're thinking about the next thing. We're multitasking, whatever the case may be. So walk around your block in 30 minutes instead of 10 minutes or whatever the case may be and just force yourself to go at that slower walking pace. And over time you'll realize like, oh, this is

Amy Dempster (29:44.92)
that nature's vibing on. I'm just usually on a whole different radio channel, right? I can't even like hear what's happening over here.

Leslie Field (29:52.371)
Oh my gosh, totally. And I think this is the moment where I want to turn towards plants and the ancient wisdom of plants. And also the fact that, like I said in the beginning, we come from nature. We are nature. But like you had mentioned earlier, we move into a big city. Not everyone grew up on a farm. Oddly, or not oddly, or coincidentally, I have ancestors who I know grew up on farms. They were on farms.

He had a cow named, I think, Snooki was its name, you know, so it's amazing. He was very connected to the land and had to milk his cow before he went to school and all that stuff. And yeah, I grew up in the suburbs and yeah, we had plants and things and I just didn't really, I was like, oh, they're pretty, they're cool, whatever. But like when you really spend time to sit with them or take notice of them, for instance, I have this snack for resurrecting plants.

Amy Dempster (30:24.287)
Cute.

Leslie Field (30:49.51)
here, she was dead. Like full on, she got too much sun and too much water. We had moved her, I had moved and she was very unhappy and she died. And I, for whatever reason was like, I still have hope. Like I know she could come back and I, she came back and everyone's been like mystified that this happened. But one of the reasons why I think I'm so great with plants is you have to stop and observe and, and just you have to be willing to have very like have like a

head moment conversation in my mind. I'm like, I am talking to them. I'm an animist. I think Amy gets it. I believe they have a consciousness. They can hear us. They can feel us. They can sense us. So you know in my mind I'm looking at my roses going, oh you're doing so good today. Oh what's going on over there? And it's like when I stop and I do those things and I give them the attention, I find out a lot about their health. I figure out how I can help them. And it,

Leslie Field (31:49.57)
invested and take a moment to observe. And like you said, we're just moving so fast all the time. Yeah.

Amy Dempster (31:58.55)
Yeah, yeah, it really is. And they'll tell you. I mean, I think that's part of it is like we have

ordered and categorized things, you know, in orders of what we believe intelligence is, right? Like humans are the most intelligent because we have language and, you know, we can communicate in these ways without realizing that the rest of the universe has language too. It's just a different language than the language that we speak or that we typically speak. And so when we take the time to connect on, I mean, really that's what it is, like

telepathic level, just an energetic level, and say, I see that you're hurting, what do you need? Like you would to a friend. They usually will just tell you, I'm really thirsty, give me some water. I need some fertilizer, I need whatever, you know? And it's usually simpler than we think, but we just have to ask and we have to care enough and like you say, just slow down to hear the message, however it wants to come to us.

Leslie Field (33:03.25)
Yes, and I should also say there's one more fangirl moment that's about to happen. It was through listening to you and bringing me back to nature that I started to realize that I had this sort of, I guess it's this bias against nature where there was a part of me that didn't trust it. And I know we're going to continue to go into the ancient wisdom of plants. But one thing I want to bring forward is, and this is again my journey and my story and people can disagree with me.

because I thought it was a really important moment where I've had a lot of medical things for most of my life. I mean, since the day I was born, I was born in a hospital and I've been medicalized in this Western medical system, which I'm very grateful for. I talked about that. I talked about how in past episodes, I would not be alive today and feeling the way I do without our conventional medicine and pharmaceuticals. However, it was when you started to sort of talk about plants and the healing properties of plants, which I knew existed,

no, no, that's from the ancient past or that's from the past. We don't need those things anymore. That was what our grandmothers did because we didn't have these scientifically proven, you know, studies that prove that these pharmaceuticals are the way forward. And it was through listening to you and sort of looking at the sort of bias or sort of programming that I had that I started to see that I was yet afraid of kind of herbal remedies or afraid of anything

eat everything and not like check what it is and do it safely, but it was so fascinating to me that I was more ready to trust a pill than I was to trust a very gentle like plant that I could steep in a tea and it was really important and beautiful that I met you so you could help me sort of break down that to say hey there's options here. There's this and this so again. Thank you to you Amy for that.

Amy Dempster (35:01.33)
Well, you're welcome. And I do think, I mean, I don't think it's a secret that our world has been created, and really only in the last handful of generations, to do exactly that, right? To teach us that the resolution to all of our problems is in, you know, modern science, and that anything from the past is...

you know, is not safe or not usable. And I just think we take for granted the things that we've learned over our lifetimes in that like you can walk into a pharmacy and you know that you want ibuprofen for your headache or whatever, right? Like you know what the different name brand things are that will do something specific for you, hopefully. And.

same thing exists in the natural world, we just, no one taught us, right? Nobody or most of us had the opportunity to have a grandparent or a teacher or somebody in our lives who could take us out in the woods and say, this is the plant you need when this is happening. And that's all it is. We just have to learn and we have to take the time and it's okay that we don't know because our society wasn't set up for us to believe.

that we could have any power in healing ourselves or in caring for ourselves and that all of that has to come from outside of us and so there is a lot of just you know taking our power back in what do I have the power to do and you're right like if I broke my arm I would go to the doctor and like have a cast put on right but like if I have a headache I'm probably not going to take a

Amy Dempster (36:52.018)
just a matter of learning and educating ourselves to those things.

Leslie Field (36:57.11)
Yeah, definitely. I think the one that really got me one day was, I think it was watching a program, again, inspired by all the things I was learning from you. And someone just said it in the program, they said, you know, plants have been here way longer than humans. They have an intelligence that we will never quite understand. And just again, because we can't quantify it through science, why should we just sit here and say that they don't have an intelligence?

Leslie Field (37:26.95)
like this, that we are the top and the pinnacle of all things when the plants have been here way before us and it's like almost like they're just laughing slash shunning us cuz like oh goodness who these humans think they are you know

Amy Dempster (37:43.298)
Yeah, I had this real aha moment last summer, even when...

I had learned somewhere along the line about how the mycelial network, right, so fungi in the soil react to thunder and lightning storms. And that was something that was always really well known in ancient times, right, is that there was a storm, if there was a storm, you could go look for mushrooms like X number of days afterwards because the lightning like caused them, you know, I'm sure they didn't know, you know, scientifically why, but like those two things went together.

And so at some point last summer, we had had a bunch of work done on the property and the vegetation had been disturbed and so we had hydro seeding.

come in where they spray on seeds and fertilizer or whatnot and it grows pretty quickly. But so I was in that like couple of week like expectation like waiting for the grass to sprout and we had a thunderstorm and like the next day I went outside and like the grass had sprouted everywhere and I was like, oh my gosh, maybe the lightning makes the, you know, makes seeds sprout as well. And then I just like, I don't know where my mind went with it was like, it's probably so much more complex than that.

It's probably all of it, right? Like the lightning talks to the fungi and the fungi talks to the seeds and then the seeds sprout and the grass is having a conversation with the sun. And it's like, I think in, especially in modern science, we will like wanna boil it.

Amy Dempster (39:17.914)
down, like this compound does this thing. And I think in nature it's far far far more complex and like I said like they've been here for eons living together on the earth and figuring all these like really complicated and sophisticated systems out and humans were always a part of that right like human is and same thing like the humans then knew there's lightning there's going to be mushrooms and by picking the mushrooms you're spreading the spores so

mushrooms can grow, right? So all of these things all go together and when we just try to synthesize one compound that we think is the active compound in one particular leaf to create a medicine to do what that leaf could do, we're missing all the nuance and all of the sophistication that's happening in nature.

Leslie Field (40:09.45)
Oh my gosh, absolutely. That was so beautifully said. Absolutely. I was just saying that to Ben the other day, which I think he was saying that he, Ben's my husband, which you know, people might know. You know, we've had such a huge drought here in California and it's been really bad, really bad. You know, the worst one ever recorded, all the things. And then we've had so much rain, so much rain. And every Southern Californian, I know, woe

know why we live here and we have certain expectations and our expectations of why we live here are not being met right now. No. And so we've had so much rain. So but I was actually had this thought the other day and I think you can actually prove it. Where I was like I'm pretty sure the land is just trying to come back into balance and nature is speaking. You know it doesn't always work like that. We know it doesn't always happen and crops fail and humans since time immemorial when they were trying to grow plants and whatever like all

Amy Dempster (40:43.602)
I'm sorry.

Leslie Field (41:09.41)
catastrophic things would happen. However, like I was just like finally hit me I was like I'm pretty sure the land is like hey and all the plants and all of nature you know they're working together because it's trying I mean I don't know if this is totally correct but I like to think that nature wants to try to find a balance maybe it doesn't always just like our systems want to try to find a balance so it's I just was like I'm pretty sure the land nature plants everything was calling for

Leslie Field (41:39.691)
So anyway, I thought it was pretty cool how that all works together.

Amy Dempster (41:43.982)
It really does. And we can't, you know, I think that, and you know, this is a whole other kind of tangent to rabbit hole, but you know, it's also not a secret that, you know, like we've been seeding clouds and, you know, modifying the weather for years, and I mean, decades. And I think a lot of what we're seeing is a result of...

believing that we know better and that we're smarter and that like this particular area needs rain, so let's see the clouds and have it rain there without understanding that weather is like, again, a complex ecosystem that exists over the entire earth and you can't do one thing in one area and think it's not going to affect another area. And so...

I think unfortunately we've kind of built up to this place with a combination of what's been the weather modification that's been happening and then back to what you were saying about the negative ions is that what you know the negative ions is what nature is doing normally. It's what weather is doing normally organically. But any kind of man-made EMF is emitting positive ions. And so if you think about just the number of man-made EMF devices we have.

point. I mean literally every piece of radar, every piece of...

wireless technology, towers, routers, phones, I mean everything is emitting positive ions into the atmosphere. And so at some point it like, it tips the balance and we're now out of balance. What's here naturally isn't creating enough negative ions to clear. It's basically like we live in, you know, electro smog 24 seven. And so, you know,

Amy Dempster (43:33.936)
that we need to focus on are clearing some of those positive ions out of the air. And so whatever has happened in Southern California, or California in general this winter, in fact we were talking about this the other day too, has really created an atmosphere and an environment where clouds can come together and drop precipitation in a real serious way.

Leslie Field (44:02.65)
Mm-hmm. I love that you know the science behind this, because I just like math. Science doesn't like to stay in my brain very well. So this is great. I'm just gonna keep referring people to you. Oh, you should just listen to Amy. She'll explain it to you. Or that's what Google's for. Yes, you'll have to go on your device to look that up, but that's what Google's for.

Amy Dempster (44:06.93)
I'm gonna go to bed.

Amy Dempster (44:12.314)
Hehehehe

Amy Dempster (44:24.683)
Well, and this was actually the conversation I was having with my husband over the weekend because I'm not, I don't get into like the super complicated...

bits and pieces, even though I know they can be explained in a very complicated scientific way, but I think most of us can't understand it in that way, me included. And so, any time I come across some of this technology, I'm always looking and seeking and trying to find what is the simple explanation, because all of these things should be able to be explained simply. And

it's there if you look for it. And so I think that's part of kind of what I do and offer as well, is look for like, how can we understand this so that we understand like what is happening in our environment, right? Like it's really easy to just tune out. It is for me too when like really heavy duty science and climate, you know, technology is being discussed. And I think though when we understand like this is how it actually works, like this is what's happening to our body, this

bit more empowered to do something about it, get involved, care about it, whatever it is for you, and participate in what's happening in our environment, what's happening all around us.

Leslie Field (45:40.95)
Definitely. Oh, yeah. I love that you said that keep it simple because I yeah, I have a tendency to make things really complicated So for especially for what I'm creating my business my podcast the words I always hear probably coming from who knows a guide an ancestor somebody my intuition saying keep it simple Just keep it very simple. So yeah, I love that message. I also just want to remind people that yeah, like There's there's all of course there's all this talk about climate change and all the things about the climate like you were just saying and

across again is that, you know, nature and outdoors and plants, they're really for everybody to enjoy and to be around, whether it's just a little potted plant you have on your desk, or if you have a whole yard outside with plants that you tend to. I guess, I want to say that again because when I found you, I always thought that these things, again, were reserved for people who are currently connected to the land, like, or people who have a more clear connection back to working with the land and spirit,

And so of course being here in the US, I always think of Native Americans are indigenous people. So I always think, oh no, that's the realm of them. That's what they do. They're the only ones who can connect to the essence of the water or the plants and the trees and, and weather. And you were the person who, again, I could see you more easily because you are a white woman, just like me. So, but it was like, I almost needed it to come through you so I could say, oh, this is for me as

Leslie Field (47:10.95)
indigenous people who are very, you know, in their history connected to the land. However, I know you have talked a lot about our ancestors and you've done a deep dive, which I totally appreciate, into connecting with your ancestors and the fact that we are not so far away from our traditions and our food and the way we lived and that was another great thing. And I should tell you, after I was listening to your whole story connected to your ancestors, of course my, of

Why are they not talking to me? And then it was...

Amy Dempster (47:44.216)
Don't be jealous, it was a lot.

Leslie Field (47:48.87)
Well, let me tell you, it was funny because they were like, oh, we're here. And I found three, of course, of all places, I found three photos on my phone of great, great grandparents and great grandparents that I did not know were on my phone, sent them to my dad. He said, I don't know where I did. I've never seen those photos. Sent them to my aunts, never seen those photos. And I just was like, mystified. I'm like, OK, I was missing my ancestors. I was like, sad. They hadn't talked to me.

Amy Dempster (47:53.426)
I'm out. Bye.

Amy Dempster (48:03.877)
Wow.

Amy Dempster (48:13.102)
Wow

Leslie Field (48:18.85)
Found these photos. No one has seen these photos. Turns out I must have gotten them a long time ago from a cousin that was my dad's cousin. Anyway, it was just so cool. Cause it was like, ask and you shall receive. They were just waiting. Yeah, so I guess what I love when you talk about the ancestors is that like, we all did come from agrarian, more land connected people. We've just lost that. We forgot.

Amy Dempster (48:29.498)
They were just waiting. They were just waiting to be noticed.

Amy Dempster (48:44.342)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it doesn't, I mean, every single, you know, human being on earth can trace their lineage back to an indigenous community somewhere in the world that

was colonized, that was taken away from their traditions. And some of us have a more kind of visceral memories, whether coming in your dreams or whatnot of some of those timelines and lifetimes. But if we're talking about white European people, it was probably when the Romans came to your part of the world, which was probably a thousand years ago or more.

You just realize that just so many more generations between when your ancestors were removed from the land, but it was done just as systematically, just as brutally, and resulted in the same situation as what we have in North America just longer ago.

some ways more forgotten, but you don't have to dig in very deeply to the history to really realize that our ancestors were living and connected with the land as well, and they had traditions and they had cultures that have also been lost.

Leslie Field (50:10.77)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think it's a good thing to remember. It's it's some work that I personally would like to do more of. So I'm currently finding those photos, looking into when they they came here into North America. But obviously, I know that they came from sort of like Western Europe and all that good stuff. So I'm excited to dig into that and to find out more about. So, for instance, I do go to, if I can, the south of France every year. My dad lives there for part of the year. And I do kind of laugh because a lot of my people

area and I have to go well why is it that I love this part of the world if someone said where's your favorite part and I'm very happy and lucky that I've been able to travel to a lot of places I still will say the south of France there's something magical about that beautiful quiet they call it the bread basket of France there's small villages it's very natural and I feel so drawn to it and part of me goes probably because that's where a lot of your people came

lines that came from that area for sure. I know I do. So I always think that's pretty pretty cool that I'm being called back to the land and where my people came from. I guess the last thing I wanted to talk about too is how you know there's been a lot of sort of focus on I guess you could say psychoactive plants, you know, a lot of people are talking about ayahuasca these days and there's all these beautiful plants that hold certain medicine around there. And I guess I wanted to maybe ask you about maybe anything you want to share about that or

Amy Dempster (51:15.366)
Yeah.

Amy Dempster (51:19.259)
Yeah.

Leslie Field (51:40.75)
or, you know, because I know that you talk a lot about this. You've done a lot of research connected to your Mormon ancestry, connected even to the mysteries of, I think, Eleusis, is that the name? Back over in Greece. Yeah, I mean, you tell me that. That is so cool. I'm reading a book about that. But talk to me a little bit about sort of like maybe your experience or what do you think, what is this all about? These healing messages, these plants? I'd love for you to share.

Amy Dempster (51:53.066)
Yes, that's one of the... Yes, yes.

Amy Dempster (52:08.918)
Yeah, and I mean, this would be one of those topics we could spend a whole day, you know, just talking about and, and...

you know, questioning really, because you know, even after the experiences that I've had and the work that I've done with a variety of kind of different plants and mushrooms, you know, I would just say I don't even know what I've learned, right? Like I don't even know what I know at this point. You know, but the reality is that, you know, plants, mushrooms, and people have been working together for thousands and thousands of years, right? That there is this long

of knowledge and just to work together. But our culture has changed so much, and while there is a renaissance about working with these plants, we also see some of what we were talking about, where the pharmaceutical companies are trying to figure out.

how can we take the benefits of psilocybin but take out the part that makes you, you know, have visions and whatnot and then give it to people in doses that will help their depression? Okay, well how do you know that the visionary piece isn't integral to the healing that people are having, right? How do we know that? We don't know that. It hasn't been studied. And, you know,

I think that's my fear somewhat in some of this is that the way that always people worked with these plants was in community and with a community understanding. And so, well, I think there's a lot of benefits and I think we're going to find out how it works in a clinical setting because it seems like that's where the laws are going that are changing that.

Amy Dempster (54:13.34)
I would be disappointed if the opening up of this type of medicine didn't extend to people being able to work with these medicines themselves in their own communities or their own backyards or their own environments. Because what I think, in the most simplistic way is happening is like a portal is opening, right?

the plant is assisting in opening that portal. What's going to happen when the portal opens? No one knows, right? Like you never know. What's going to happen? Which ancestors are going to come through? What three-year long journey you're going to go on with them? Speaking to my own experience.

Leslie Field (54:54.95)
I'm sorry.

Amy Dempster (55:01.042)
You know, you just, you can't know. And I'm sure also you've probably talked about this plenty on here as well, you know, like healing isn't a linear journey. And...

It doesn't happen kind of on a timeline or against check marks on a clipboard list of what should happen after you take this medicine or whatever the case may be. I think that it can be incredibly healing and incredibly life-changing if it's something that someone is being called to specifically and they feel called to work with a particular medicine. But...

I think that you also, you have to be open to the mystery and be open to the fact that it's not going to happen the way you think and it's not going to happen on a particular timeline. Is that all vague enough?

Leslie Field (55:56.956)
Yeah, it's perfect. I think it's good. I think, yeah, you're right, because we could do a whole...

Leslie Field (56:04.63)
of different plant medicines and what have you, but I had to get a little bit in there because I knew you had a little bit to say and a lot. You had a little and you could say a lot about it. But yes, healing, I mentioned this and I'm sure a lot of people listen, we know healing is not, it is not a straight line. There's forwards and backs and crazy all over the place kind of in this wild experience.

Amy Dempster (56:13.963)
Yes, yes, very much so.

Amy Dempster (56:29.666)
Been there.

Leslie Field (56:34.55)
There's so many other cool things that Amy shares about in her life and her experience. I think it would be great for you to share with listeners how they could find you and find you, how they could connect with you or be a part of the community that I'm a part of, which just prepare yourself. This was just only scratching the surface of the things that Amy likes to talk about.

Amy Dempster (56:49.106)
I'm so cool.

Leslie Field (57:05.493)
I think she has a lot more to share. So yeah, Amy, how could people connect with you?

Amy Dempster (57:10.542)
Yeah, well, my website is FollowingHawks, like the bird, so followinghawks.com.

where you can find all the things there. But I do have a podcast called The Earth Keepers, and you can find that all the places that podcasts exist. I am on Instagram and YouTube as Following Hawks, sometimes TikTok. Sometimes you'll find me there. And I do have a free Facebook community called The Following Hawks Earth Keepers Community where you can come just hang out and chit chat with all the other nature lovers.

Leslie Field (57:45.91)
That's beautiful, absolutely, very, very cool. I'm so grateful to have met you, to be going on retreats with you. I'm so grateful that I pushed through, even though when Napparmi was like, nope, nope, nope, nope, this is not for me. This is too out there, no thank you. And then that little intuitive voice was like, I want to know more. Tell me more. Yeah, just one more, you know? And I love that. I have the two sides of my brain

Amy Dempster (58:01.244)
Hehehe

Amy Dempster (58:08.221)
Just listen to one more episode.

Leslie Field (58:16.01)
side is like nope nope no no no no no uh-uh and the other side's like just be open to it who cares if this is just like all made up stuff which i don't think it is but what who cares it's it's is it providing entertainment are you curious is it expanding your brain like yes so uh you know just know that i uh i get if people do you reach out to you and they start to look just i want them to remember what i said because uh you were the person that taught me you could have this and

coexist at the same time. So I'm very grateful to have met you and to have you come on my podcast. Amy, thank you so much for being here today.

Amy Dempster (58:55.962)
Thank you so much for having me, Leslie. I enjoyed our chat.

Leslie Field (58:58.99)
Thank you, thank you.