Mycelium Running by Paul Stamets has been the perpetual best-seller on popular mycology since published in 2005. It’s an indispensible reference book for anybody working the land, especially foresters, farmers and environmental cleanup contractors. It’s also a great book for anyone interested in growing their own food mushrooms.

Mycelium Running is filled to the brim with useful tips on things such as using mushrooms to improve soils and boost productivity in forestry and farming (gardening) with decreased use of expensive fertilizers and pesticides; filtering waste-water (mycofiltration); and clean up toxic waste from the land (mycoremediation).

A detailed description of Mycofiltration, the use of mushrooms to filter waste water, is given in one section of the book. It lists recommended mushroom species and materials to use in creating the mycofiltration bed, as well as dimensions, depth, layers, etc. Mycofiltration beds like this can be effectively used for both industrial waste water and farm runoff.

Added perks when using mycofiltration is that the beds also yield crops of scrumptious food mushrooms, and every 2-3 years, as the bedding material needs to be replaced, the old material can be spread on the farm fields as a rich fertilizer.

Another piece of useful information for farmers and gardeners found in Mycelium Running concerns the no-till farming method as opposed to the conventional method of plowing the fields after harvest. No-till farming helps promote saprophytic fungi (decomposing fungi), which break down organic material at a pace better suited to plant-life than the rapid and heat producing breakdown by anaerobic bacteria, which are the primary decomposers when stubble is plowed under. The mycelium of saprophytic fungi also binds the soil to prevent erosion and loss of valuable nutrients.

For forestry, not only do saprophytic fungi help break down and recycle organic matter. They also help combat many parasitic fungi (blights) that may kill large numbers of trees. Stamets gives useful suggestions on how to seed beneficial saprophytic fungi in blight infested forests as a natural “fungicide,” fighting fire with fire, so to speak.

Mycorrhizal mushrooms can also be seeded to support the forest, or they may simply be encouraged to grow naturally by using more enlightened methods of forest management.

Most plants form symbiotic relationships with mushrooms. The mushroom mycelium more effectively absorbs water and nutrients, exchanged with trees for sugars, making the trees healthier and more drought resistant. Mycorrhizal fungi also provide trees with natural antibiotics against pathogens.

Mushroom mycelium can also be utilized to clean up toxic waste sites through a method known as mycoremediation. The term was invented by the author of Mycelium Running, Paul Stamets, but was in common use before the publication of this book.

Synthetic toxic compounds including petrochemicals, dioxins, neurotoxins, toxic industrial waste and much more can be effectively broken down by fungi into harmless compounds. Bacterial contaminants such E. coli can be killed by anti-bacterial compounds excreted by the fungi. And toxic levels of heavy metals may be absorbed and concentrated by mushrooms, which can then be harvested and safely deposed.

At $50 per ton, mycoremediation is a very cost effective method to clean up toxic waste. Conventional incineration may cost upwards of $1,500 per ton.

All that is just in the first half of this 300-page book; the second half is an instruction manual on growing your own mushrooms and mycelia, which is something that may be of interest to forest managers for mycoforestry, environmentalists for mycoremediation, farmers for increasing soil productivity, and the rest of us for growing our own gourmet mushrooms for food and medicine. In other words, this is a book for anyone and everyone.

Dr. Markho Rafael has worked in the natural health field since finishing Chiropractic College in the mid-90’s. He currently specializes in medicinal fungi, frequently consulting two reference books: Mycelium Running by Paul Stamets for medicinal, biological and chemical properties of mushrooms, and Mushrooms Demystified by David Arora, the most complete identification guide of American mushrooms.

As a pet owner you can be helped in a number of ways with animal communication. Understanding your animal from their perspective allows you to give them the best life possible. It can be very easy to place our own thoughts and understanding on animals without really understanding them. This is why animal communication is a valuable pet owner tool.

Have you every been miss-judged by some one else, it not a nice feeling is it? Yet it is very easy for us to do exactly the same with our own animals and the result is that we place negative feelings with them.

For example the other day I saw how a dog had been labelled as a bully with other dogs. This strong judgement had been made because the owner had observed that when her dog was around younger or gentle dogs, she would look very friendly but when she got close would snap at them and show aggressive signs.

Her behaviour was completely different to nervous or protective dogs where she would leave them well alone.

Using animal communication it became very clear that her dog was desperate to be sociable with other dogs. The reason for the aggression was that she was afraid of the intimacy. Now it became clear why she was approaching the younger and gentle dogs. She was also very sensitive to other dogs feelings and this is why she did not want anything to do with nervous or protective dogs.

This feeling of wanting to be close, changed as soon as her nose got to close to another dogs. Replaced with this feeling of intense shyness and protection.

This information changed the owners understanding and together we created a whole new approach, focused on helping her dog become intimate with other dogs. She was so desperate to learn how to overcome her shyness and have other dog friends that the task was easy when approached in the right way.

When we connect with our animals and understand them it gives us the power to start helping them. If you are constantly asking yourself why they do the things that they do then this is possibly because you have not understood them fully!

Animal communication is very natural and does not take long to learn. With these skills you will be creating a trusting environment for both you and your animal, as you will understand each other more. It is the same for us humans, when we find someone who understands us we naturally listen to and trust them. Animal communication is the key to a deeper relationship.

James French is an international pioneering animal communicator. The founder of Animal Communication Training The UK’s most established and well known animal communication teaching programs, taking people from beginners to professional animal communicators. Reikicare