What is Shilajit?
Unlike most herbal products, this tar-like material is not extracted directly from a plant, but rather created from the slow decomposition of plant material over many centuries in the inner depths of mountain ranges around the world. Shilajit is an organic phytocomplex of nutrients that contains over 85+ trace minerals including fulfic and humic acids. The other portion of Shilajit consists of beneficial plant alkaloids, amino acids, lipids, resins, waxes and many other natural compounds. It is a rare organic substance that cannot be compared to much else on the market for its various beneficial health qualities.
Origin of Shilajit
Shilajit is a Sanskrit word meaning "destroyer of weakness" or "conqueror of mountains." This ancient product dates back at least 5000 years of being used in India, and first recorded to be found in the Himalayan Mountains and also found in the Altai Mountains of Siberia. In the Ancient Hindu and Vedic texts such as the Haraka Samhita and Sushrut Samhita, this ancient substance served as the backbone of Ayurveda medicine due to its use in combination with other herbs to treat various diseases. Some of these texts also reference its divine and spiritual implications which can be experienced in its calming nootropic effect combined with the increase in physical vitality.
Kings, emperors, and sultans all valued this substance highly so it was exclusively accessible to the wealthy who could afford to pay for its weight in gold. Naturally, it became a highly prized tradable good and made its way to the West from the East, and has been mentioned in texts of Russian, Turkish, Sumerian, Egyptian, Persian and Arabic texts as well. In the West, Shilajit was first described by the great Greek philosopher Aristotle in his writings around 2500 years ago, and is documented to have been used by Alexander the Great in battle.
In the Himalayas, this substance was noted by the local indigenous people to be consumed by the monkeys, in which these monkeys are seen to look younger and more fit in their elderly years when compared to their counterparts in Europe. The locals noticed the monkeys seemingly wiser, fit, and abnormally energetic, and came to realize it was from the monkeys licking Shilajit oozing out the mountains. Reportedly, this is how the use of Shilajit was discovered in recorded time.