Chandra Ellerson and tobacco brown

[00:02] CHANDRA RENEE ELLERSON: Foreign My name is Chandra Renee ellerson. I am 30 years old. Today is Sunday, September 22, 2019. We are in the city of Memphis, Tennessee, USA. The name of my interview partner is Tobacco Brown. She is someone who was led into my life for this phase of my journey.

[00:28] TOBACCO BROWN: Hello, my name is Tobacco Brown. I am 63 years of age. Today is Sunday, September 22, 2019. I'm in Memphis, Tennessee. My interview partner is Chandra Renee Ellerson. And I met this beautiful woman because I was very inspired by both her profession and her ability to heal community. Hi, I'm here today with Chandra Renee Ellerson She's a medical technician. She's an American medical technician, certified clinical laboratory scientist. Chandra is a skilled scientist who discovers the presence or absence of disease and provides those results to help physicians determine patients care. She's working for several laboratories here in Memphis. But most importantly, I think Le Bonner. Her life's journey on her own sacred path is to. I'm sorry. Her life's journey on her own sacred path is to uncover the purpose of her divine energy and her purpose here in Mother nature. Chandra's daily practice is to connect to the here and now and to stay grounded within herself, to become more whole within the order of the universal cosmos. I want to share some of her compelling, her most compelling. I would like to share some of Chandra's most compelling narrative with you today. Chandra, can you tell me more specifically about your background and what influences led you to study science?

[02:25] CHANDRA RENEE ELLERSON: Well, my background starts with me being born In Toledo, Ohio, May 18th of 1989, growing there, I'm not really sure how many years, but moving from there to Denver, Colorado and from Denver, Colorado to Lexington, Mississippi, Mississippi and then from Mississippi to Memphis, Tennessee. Starting as a young child, I think I was always more so just drawn to the question or the curious cre. I'm sorry, I was always drawn to the question or the curio. I was always drawn to the question or the curiosity as to why things were. And so I often connected with Curious George. That was the one thing I always liked to be is Curious George. And then a lot of cartoons from then on just led me to want to be a scientist watching Bill Nye the Science Guy. So.

[03:26] TOBACCO BROWN: I love that Bill Nye the Science Guy and I especially love Curious George. In fact, I have a small collection of my own.

[03:33] CHANDRA RENEE ELLERSON: Oh, wow.

[03:34] TOBACCO BROWN: But I would like to know a little more about your passion for your work. Like what is the diamond or the center of that?

[03:44] CHANDRA RENEE ELLERSON: The center of my work is being curious. You know, if we have to Discover these things that exist or don't exist. We have to always ask the question why? And so with my profession, it kind of came to me because I just fed all of the parts of me. And then I came to be who I am because I fed my curiosity as to why things exist. Why are we here? And then medical laboratory science came to me.

[04:16] TOBACCO BROWN: You know, so elaborate more about that, how you came to be. Can you explain to our audience about that a little more?

[04:26] CHANDRA RENEE ELLERSON: Starting as a child, I just recently had a conversation with my mom lately as to how in the world did you function as a parent knowing your child would always run off? Because I ran off all the time. I knew where the customer service counter was in every store, every mall, because I got lost. But it was just I was drawn to figure out why. And just being that way and constantly taking in information, I had to figure out, well, what am I supposed to be? And then medical laboratory science. I'm sorry. And then medical laboratory science came to me. And getting into this profession and just seeing, like, I can discover things. Cause that's what my title defines me to do is to discover things in the medical field and to heal.

[05:17] TOBACCO BROWN: That sounds amazing. And what do you mean to heal?

[05:22] CHANDRA RENEE ELLERSON: To have a deeper understanding of who you are. I'm not licensed to be able to give out medicine and things like that. But as I discover in which my job allows me to do my career, my education is just giving me the foundation knowledge of anatomy and physiology. That's what I study. And so getting that and applying what I learned in college to just my own life and piecing things together, things are starting to make sense. Like, if I can't breathe, then I must not be getting enough oxygen. If I cannot breathe, then I must not be getting enough oxygen. Then from what I learned in school, what are the things that transport oxygen throughout your body? It's just simple as that. And that's what needs to be healed. But then my personal journey is saying things that go on in the soul, manifest in the body. So then understanding that I still need to work on my soul and figure out, well, what's wrong with it? Why can't it breathe? And then when I figure out the two, then I start to become a whole person. I'm not just healing my physical, but I'm healing my spiritual as well. And so instead of me just being healthy by what the doctor says, I become a full person.

[06:40] TOBACCO BROWN: So you believe that those things are related? You think the mind, the body, and the spirit are one?

[06:45] CHANDRA RENEE ELLERSON: Yes, and that's because of that curiosity, that question, why being in a place where Google exists, you know, any question that you have, just ask like there is no limitation to the question that you can ask. And just finding things that I've heard of before, different authors and different scientists that I know exist from just me taking in things. I'm like, I have to be connected to this place. There are things inside of me that are connected to this place. And things that manifest still come out of an energy. So science has proven that, that from energy things are created. And so if I understand there's an energy inside of me, if it's tainted, then what it will create is malignancies and disease. And so when you get down to the spirit of the thing, it won't function in a place that's not healthy, is going to let you know if your body is functioning right and your soul is functioning right. You will get an inclination that maybe today I need to drink water. Maybe today I only need to eat fruit. Maybe today I just want something a little salty. It's just simple.

[08:01] TOBACCO BROWN: So we should listen to those probing, those deep inner probings or intuition, intuitive things that come to us, right? And why is that, Chandra?

[08:11] CHANDRA RENEE ELLERSON: Because God didn't put us here to wonder. God didn't put us here to need to go to a doctor or need to go to some type of shaman or heal or don't. He didn't put us here that we need to go to people for people to tell people how they are. Because people still have to figure out who they are. So that's not solely what you need. You just need you. And everything that he put you here, all the tools that you need, he gave you when he put you here. You just have to find them within yourself. So if you need to heal, ultimately I said I will not serve a God that if I was not placed on an island alone by myself, nothing else, that he couldn't speak to me and let me know what I need to do to survive.

[08:57] TOBACCO BROWN: So in this philistine way of when God said, I put these here in the way when he talked about the nut trees, like this shall be meat for thee, right? You believe in that because most scientists only believe what they can see and they can touch. You think that there is a God.

[09:19] CHANDRA RENEE ELLERSON: There is a God. And because with science, even the levels of science understanding that I know that the scientists and who existed, the scientists of the past and what they were limited to, and then how technology advanced so that the things that they didn't even know existed, we Found ways to identify that they exist. So it's just that our technology hasn't caught up to be able to prove. But the technology has started to prove more and more to us that there is a God. Because every time we ask a question, we get an answer, but it leads to another question which defines an infinity. You could never get an answer to a question without another question. And so in that, there's still more to discover, there has to be a God.

[10:12] TOBACCO BROWN: So that leads me to the divine order. Recently, one scientist said that there has to be an order in the universe because things would be a lot more chaotic. Do you believe that philosophy?

[10:24] CHANDRA RENEE ELLERSON: Yes, I do. And it's just if I just go solely from what I've studied, Taking anatomy and physiology. Anatomy and physiology puts a lot of people out of medical school. Anatomy and physiology puts a lot of people out of medical school because they can't take the knowledge of knowing all these different complexities of how the body really works. Because it's so vast, it's endless. Because in that, that's just the foundation. But in that, all these different orders come out of it. And you can get deeper, deeper into cardio, you know, or the reproductive system, you know, or immunology or different things. You. These are studies. And so the body is too complex. And it's a system that works so perfect, and it isolates chaos. Even in how we were born, our system. Science has proven that we isolate cells that are no good for us. Our body does that every day. And so I tell people, you fighting sicknesses and diseases all day long.

[11:30] TOBACCO BROWN: That's incredible. That's exactly what I was thinking. I wanted to talk on a lighter note. Leonard Cohen said once that there has to be a crack because that's how the light gets in. And I know also, I was very sick once in Venice, Italy. And the man who helped me to heal by bringing me these incredible herbal teas said that your body wants to repair. It wants to be ill so that it can repair.

[12:00] CHANDRA RENEE ELLERSON: Right.

[12:00] TOBACCO BROWN: So you believe that?

[12:02] CHANDRA RENEE ELLERSON: I do. Even my whole. I don't want to say theory, but it is my theory. On cancers, a lot of times you have to understand that it's in your workup, your makeup. There is a code. Your DNA is a code. It's a chain of amino acids and it's linked together and it creates a double helix. And honestly, the double helix is a. Is a significant sign of infinity. That's what infinity is. When it's twisted and turned. There is no. There's no. It always is going to keep looping. And so that's what. That's the makeup of us alone is. There is an infinity in us. And that code for the malfunctions and the code for your immune deficiencies and all these things that could come out of you are with you. And so when you cause these immune responses and you call your cells to constantly regenerate and regenerate, then you making it, keep making something. So eventually it's going to hit that point to where that's where the chains didn't connect, right? Here goes that malignancy because we just had to make them so quick. You just got sick. You know, people break their bones and then they find out they have. They get diagnosed with cancers and different things, different things happen that cause that heightened immune response. Different things happen that cause that heightened immune response. And that's how I understand it. And I understand it because I keep seeing it. I keep seeing it just like that.

[13:39] TOBACCO BROWN: That it takes a trauma to bring out a healing. So healing is not a linear thing. It's a very complex thing.

[13:47] CHANDRA RENEE ELLERSON: It is. And even your connection to people like we have to understand that at some point we are always going to be vulnerable. If it's not physical, then understand your vulnerability spiritually. Know where you are at all times, know what you're doing at all times, know what you're saying at all times. Because everything, all of that has a power. And so when you know what you're saying, then you know what type of energy you putting out so you know what to expect back. And so that healing sometimes needs to come from the things you've put out into the universe coming back to you that you need to kind of reshift. You said some things, you spoke some things into existence. Because understand we are an image of God. And sometimes we take the image and the sayings that we are an image of God and we don't put that true responsibility on us and we don't watch the things that we say. If he spoke things into existence, we can too.

[14:45] TOBACCO BROWN: That's very interesting. So we are co creating our futures, right?

[14:51] CHANDRA RENEE ELLERSON: And so though the healing is not always physical, sometimes it's the things that your mother said to you that you took in and you identified with. Sometimes it's the things that you said because you don't understand the meaning of words. So sometimes we really even need to research words, understand the root of words, where they came from, what they meant, where they were in parts. And now that they're together, we need to understand that the power of this One word are these two that have always existed in this space and in Earth. But now this one word we're using, it means these two things. And so when I say that I am not emotional, I need to understand what emotional is. Emotional is not only expressing sadness, but it's expressing happiness. It's expressing all things that are emotions. So a lot of times, even me and myself, I always identified as being not emotional. But I didn't really understand what that word was. So I was hurting myself and experiencing true emotions because I always said I'm not emotional. So it took for me to be 30, literally 30 this year to experience I had been calling myself something that I really was because I am human and I have emotions, because that's what God gave me, because that comes with my soul and that's how I express myself. And because I was saying I wasn't. I wasn't fully expressing myself and living in each moment that I've had. So I had to go back. I had to go back and fix a lot of stuff just because I called myself not emotional. So you watch your labels. A lot of times the words. The words you put out is the energy you put out. And a lot of times that's what damaged you. It wasn't that you didn't eat right, or it wasn't that you didn't get enough risk. It was literally the words you put out into the atmosphere. Because we are an image of God. And just like he spoke out into a void and things were created. We do that too, every day.

[16:51] TOBACCO BROWN: And I just want to take it to another level. So can a narrative also be harmful if it's another person's narrative that they've put on us or imposed upon us?

[17:02] CHANDRA RENEE ELLERSON: It can. It can. And that's why I take. I take it very seriously when I listen to somebody's story. And what I understand, I don't just listen, but I let it be a dialogue. Because your words that you say out of your mouth could mean something else. But I need to understand what you're saying. So I need you to define that word. And a lot of times we don't have healthy conversation. And so you telling me about your life, you might say, my childhood was horrible. You could literally say, it was horrible, it was terrible. It could have been the death of me. My childhood was that. And I could take it as, man, her mama must was beating on her and all this stuff, because that's my definition of horrible. If I ask you to define, define to me what a horrible childhood was, you could have said, man, I had my mom and my dad and they was always fighting. That could have been a horrible childhood to you. But you not defining that word is allowing me to really not understand your life. Because now you can be my friend. And if I see that, man, her mom and her dad is in her life, like, what she talking about? Like, you know, what she spoiled. She doesn't. I can have a totally misunderstanding of who you are. I can think that you're not grateful. I can have a misperception of you because I clearly didn't allow you to define a word. And that's life. It's so simple.

[18:35] TOBACCO BROWN: That's interesting. So what is vulnerability to you in this sociopolitical time of oppressive construct and human rights inequities?

[18:46] CHANDRA RENEE ELLERSON: Labels going back again to words and defining them? I think that, well, I know on my life path, my life journey, I know on my life's journey that I've even started to wonder, why did we fight for rights? Why did we fight for these things? Why are we fighting for these different things? And it's like, in the end, I feel like we just fighting for a label. We're fighting for a label. So the more that we fight for labels, we fight for men. Men, people who are subject to the same thing that we are. We fight for them to say and define who we are. And so you can fight your whole life and you really make yourself vulnerable to what they classify you as. And the whole time you want somebody to classify you, and you don't even take the time to figure out, well, who am I? I might be fighting for gay rights, but today I might not feel gay.

[19:48] TOBACCO BROWN: Exactly.

[19:48] CHANDRA RENEE ELLERSON: And so I'm fighting to be put in a box, to have a check mark, when really I should just be fighting for myself.

[19:58] TOBACCO BROWN: So we're all dying for a metaphor? Basically. Yes. That's very interesting. That's a very interesting way to look at this. So how do we heal Chandra based on biomimicry? How do you heal yourself and others within the wisdom of nature.

[20:19] CHANDRA RENEE ELLERSON: The way that I look at it is again, going back to the image of God. And this is my theory on how I conduct my life. If I'm an image of God, I'm a reflection. And me being man and seeing man, I can see that there are many manifestations of God. If I look at myself as a reflection, I see there are many manifestations of God. And so I take these things that I've learned. The Bible, that was my foundation. That was my journey. That was my foundation. And I take from it God in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And the Father, or my purpose, or what I feel like people can find a way to healing is if you understand, if you are a reflection and you exist in these three persons just like he does, then the Father is you saying, my ancestors. And the Father is saying, my ancestors. And that's saying, where did I come from? And so that's the past. The sun is who we're all subject to. And everything under the sun, which is the earth, the plants, we need them because they solely need the sun in order to, even for photosynthesis to happen, they need sunlight. And so we are subject to them because they were. We're subject to them as well as them being subject to us because they were created to serve us. And so we have to understand that everything here is the here and now. And so understand why I'm here, what I'm supposed to do with what I'm here with. And then you can heal your body. Then when you go to where am I going? Then you connect to your, your three persons, the third, which is the spirit. And if you can create some type of synergy between all three parts, then you can heal as a person in inevitably, because you figured out where you came from, what you're doing now, and where you're going. So you connect to your power, your ancestry, your planet. You're here now, and your purpose, you're where you're going. And if you just focus on those three things, don't get caught up in information overload or whatever else is supposed to come as we evolve, if you just focus on that, no matter what phase or era we're in in life, then you will always be able to connect and heal.

[22:49] TOBACCO BROWN: So I just want to talk a little more about my TED talk as you know what gardens taught me about life. And within this metaphor of the garden, I talked about trees being rooted, and I talked about this kingdom where trees, when they see that another tree is dying or ill, that they will send nutrients below the surface to help that tree to heal. How can we change the balance of how humans navigate on the planet? How can we heal one another?

[23:24] CHANDRA RENEE ELLERSON: Understanding where you need to make a sacrifice, like that scheme that you just explained, it just simply shows how making a sacrifice is in nature. And so sometimes we fight our nature and things that we just would naturally do or in order to save humanity or to save mankind, which is naturally happen, we need to do that too. So we need to take a lesson from these things that have been here before us and will probably be here after us. Understand that they just act in the way that they were created. And if we got connected to that, if we got connected to how those trees work, how gardens work, then we would understand that we have to make a sacrifice. Sacrifice. Turning your lights on so much. If they're saying the carbon footprint is what? Like simply stop using stuff. Simply stop driving that car. I stay five minutes down the street from Le Bonner. Simply. I could just wake up in time and walk to work, you know?

[24:26] TOBACCO BROWN: Exactly.

[24:27] CHANDRA RENEE ELLERSON: It's not. We don't need somebody to tell us how to save ourselves. If we are destroying ourselves and nobody's telling us how to do that, we're just getting up and doing it every day, then that means that in order to heal, that's all we gotta do. Just be mindful.

[24:43] TOBACCO BROWN: But how do we push people in that direction? How can we use media or social media or networks, we. Our technology to help us and to move forward in that direction of making that sacrifice?

[25:04] CHANDRA RENEE ELLERSON: I think that that is a personal struggle for me right now because on my journey and on my path to find out who I am, I'm naturally pulled away from people. And so in that the world is always changing outside technology, but it's just not my thing. But honestly, these things are created. Nothing is created to just be solely bad. There's good and bad in everything. And so we need to use these outlets and just expose real life people who are the light carriers or lightworkers, people who are literally connecting to the spirit of this place that we're in. We need to be okay being public. We need to be okay being video taped, recorded, or documenting things in a way that people are documenting things now, you know, or connecting with people who don't mind, like, if we talk and they type, if the stress of holding a phone in your hand and literally typing a post is just what you. Not your thing, which is not mine. Find somebody who's okay with that and who don't mind just sitting up under you and typing down the things that you say. Like, find those people who don't mind helping because they exist. And it won't make it so hard for you to adjust to how things constantly are changing out here. And so, like, that's what we need to do. We need to be okay being public. We need to be okay just being a part of what's going on, finding your place in this place.

[26:40] TOBACCO BROWN: But I'd like to know, how can we provide networks where we can help people produce more Content or produce more networks where we can share this knowledge and information.

[26:55] CHANDRA RENEE ELLERSON: Now, that goes back to more personal experience. I feel like the thing we don't have a lot today is just conversation. We need to be okay just talking to people and having these. Like, I remember growing up, my mom and her friends, you know, they would just gather, you know, in the. In the house and just talk and just get stuff out, figure things out. Like, that's what we need. We just need to communicate face to face. Don't be so stuck on indirect communication.

[27:23] TOBACCO BROWN: That's very interesting. So what is the central narrative or major philosophy that you can share with the audience to get to that, to get us on our paths and to that point where we have those conversations to look at?

[27:42] CHANDRA RENEE ELLERSON: Understanding life is complex, but understand that understanding life is simple. There's a lot to it, but it's very simple. And so you don't need all these different outlets to really figure out what it is that you're supposed to do in this space, in Earth. You just simply need to be okay asking yourself the question why? And finding an answer to it. Don't let nobody talk you down on what you feel like exists, because that question came out of you.

[28:14] TOBACCO BROWN: That's very interesting. So can you give us advice today regarding healing and staying healthy? How can we heal in these difficult times when we might feel that the odds are against us? How can we stay healthy?

[28:31] CHANDRA RENEE ELLERSON: That's a question I think that I'm still on the path to figure out ultimately. But so far, what I'm figuring out is that if you. If you have that inclination, if you feel like there's. Even if you're diagnosed with a sickness, you know, there's so many people that feel like, I feel like I should be okay. I feel like I can be healed. You find it because that's for you. It might not be for somebody else who was diagnosed with the same thing. Their path, their journey, was not yours. But if you feel like you should be healed, find it. Go look for it. Ask God to show you it, because he will. He didn't put us here to struggle.

[29:18] TOBACCO BROWN: That's beautiful. I am Tobacco Brown. I am a TED speaker. My TED talk is what Gardens taught me about life. Please go to Ted.com and check out my talk. And I'd like to ask Chandra today one last question. I'd like to know what she's reading.

[29:37] CHANDRA RENEE ELLERSON: The books that have come to me are Be Here now by Ram Dass, Carl Linnaeus. I'm reading over his work, his scientific work. He's a Swedish botanist and also the Father of Taxonomy and Pliny the Elder Natural Historia. Those are the three books that I'm reading currently.

[30:01] TOBACCO BROWN: Now, do you have any last things that you would like to share with us today?

[30:07] CHANDRA RENEE ELLERSON: If whoever this finds, I just hope that it speaks to whatever they're looking for.

[30:15] TOBACCO BROWN: Thank you so much for this conversation today and I'd like to thank my listening audience and I am constantly on the quest looking for new content and dialogue about healing and how we can heal one another. Please go to my TED Talk page, what Gardens Taught Me About Life and leave me a comment. Or contact me if you would like to be the next person to talk about healing our planet. Thank you.