Mold Testing: Which is Best?

ERMI or HERTSMI testing? Which is better? Final answer….

Neither!

I’ve seen this topic popping up more and more on the forum. People relying on testing to do mold avoidance.

This is NOT compatible with the approach taken on this group. And it DOES NOT lead to the kind of healing (usually miraculous) that people experience on this group.
For reference:

1. The photo in this post.
2. Watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDkT2bNs-Zs&t

Let’s talk about the photo first. That’s mold in the photo! TONS of mold. It is dripping out of my air conditioner on the Casita. And I still use the air conditioner all the time!

News flash. YOU CAN’T AVOID ALL MOLD. And you don’t need to.

The whole PURPOSE of erik-style avoidance is so that YOU can become “unmasked,” and eventually use YOUR OWN BODY to tell you WHAT KINDS and HOW MUCH of different mold you can tolerate AT VARIOUS POINTS (because it changes) in the recovery process.

Mold testing is like trying to drive a car drunk, blindfolded, and in the trunk asleep while someone has a brick on the gas pedal, and trying to drive over the steepest windiest mountain pass in the world.

Mold testing doesn’t tell you WHICH MOLDS your body has an issue with and IN WHAT QUANTITIES your current “tolerance” allows for. Because sometimes, even 1/1,000,000 of what is picked up on a mold test will be TOO MUCH FOR YOU. Other times, the mold test could be PRETTY BAD and you could do fine in the building.

This is not an OPTIONAL FEATURE of the kind of mold testing we do in this group. It is the CENTRAL COMPONENT. You cannot circumnavigate this feature of mold avoidance and still think that you belong in our group, or are practicing Erik-style avoidance.

The mold growing in my Casita A/C is NOT BAD FOR ME. It may be bad for you though, at your stage of healing.

I have been around other A/C systems where the predominant mold that has taken hold in that system is VERY BAD FOR ME and I don’t use it or go near it.

This particular mold in the photo is not bad for me and drips off the room mixed with dirt as the A/C is running. It doesn’t bother me AT ALL.

The number of decisions, locations and exposures you deal with DAILY are in the hundreds or thousands. The only want to practice true mold avoidance is to become unmasked and tune into your senses to be continually asking, “what is this exposure doing to my power curve?” “How much can I handle”? Testing cannot tell you this because testing doesn’t know which molds to look for (it doesn’t look for super toxins) and because testing is not tuned into your body and your place in the recovery process. Testing doesn’t even look for active / current / today’s levels of mold. Testing is useless for the purposes of our group.

Final reference: The video link above is a visual version of this little discussion.