50: Sam Coffman on The Human Path

Sam Coffman has over 10 years of military experience as a U.S. Special Forces Medic, an interrogator and a linguist. He studied botany and bioregional medicine both privately and at several outdoor schools in Colorado, and during his military service as a Green Beret Medic he logged thousands of hours in the field as a team medic, military emergency rooms and troop medical clinics.

Over the past 25 years, Sam has not only taught survival for military and civilian students, but also has focused on post-disaster and remote-medicine using primarily (if not exclusively) plant medicine. He has worked as a clinical herbalist on his own and in conjunction with functional medicine doctors (M.D. and D.O.) for chronic as well as acute illness and injury. Sam has been highly focused on bio-regional plant medicine for infection, injury and illness most commonly encountered in a post-disaster, remote or underserved environment when there is no higher definitive medical care.
Sam has taught wilderness first aid certification, remote and post-disaster herbal medicine, urban and primitive survival skills and self-defense for over two decades. He is co-founder of the non-profit organization – Herbal Medics – that travels to remote areas in Nicaragua as well as medically underserved urban areas in the USA, providing herbal medicine clinics, off-grid and salvage-based engineering solutions (water purification, sustainable power, sustainable agriculture, etc.).

What’s The Human Path?
The Human Path is a survival school that is focused around the survival of our human species.  Classes are sustainability and earth-centric, yet also very practical and realistic.  The Human Path is  structured similar to a university, in that we have core paths (aka “specialties”) as well as electives (aka “peripheral classes”).  All of their courses are focused on self-sustainability, and the subjects that fit into that focus span a very wide range as well as amazing depth in each subject.

What is an herbalist?
A person becomes an herbalist, he/she has experience healing in the body with the use of plants. In herbalism, the human body heals itself. Herbalism supports the body healing itself.

Highlights from the show:
4:15 From talking to plants to Special Forces
5:00 Off-grid power, epidemiology of disease, herbal medicine
6:54 The Human Path
8:05 Herbal Medics (nonprofit)
8:23 Herbalism
10:35 Get the herb to the tissue
12:12 Treat the person, not the disease.
12:48 Different ways to treat the person, from salves, syrups, gargles to neti pots, etc.
13:43 Path to medicine making – the path to the tissue
16:20 Certain things that herbal medicine does better
17:45 Gratitude way to walk the Earth
19:10 The time he “failed” and lesson learned – FANTASTIC STORY! Walking and studying.
23:22 The Silver Lining – Surviving the Dream
24:40 What drives Sam?
25:25 Biggest success: Breaking ground that nobody else has done.
26:00 If I met you in an elevator, how would you describe what you do for a living?
27:32 Current and New Projects – Herbal Medics week in a devastated community in West Virginia
28:40 What to expect as a newbie signing up for your course?
30:05 Wilderness Herbal First Responder
30:33 Defining wilderness first aid – from the city to the wild –
31:19 A 4-day street medic class offered
32:06 Books
33:10 Follow your calling – Follow your path
34:00 The Home Grown Food Summit

Book Recommendations
The Energetics of Western Herbs – 4th Edition by Peter Holmes

The Herbal Medic by Sam Coffman

Where to connect with Sam?
http://thehumanpath.org/
https://www.facebook.com/thehumanpath
https://twitter.com/thehumanpath
https://www.instagram.com/thehumanpath_school/
http://herbalmedics.org/
https://www.facebook.com/HerbalMedics/
sam@thehumanpath.com