fungai art The Covenant · 64 axes

The Covenant.

Sixty-four axes of human flourishing

Most medicine asks one question: does it work? The Covenant asks a longer one. Does it work, safely, sovereignly, truthfully, compassionately, traceably, measurably, and in service of human flourishing? Sixty-four axes, organised into six layers, evaluated at every stage from harvest to ingestion. A quality bar with teeth.

I The shift in the question

From "does it work?" to a longer question.

Standard pharmacology stops at first-order effects. What compounds are present? What receptors do they affect? What dose appears to work? What side effects emerge? Useful. But narrow. It collapses every human into a single mean, every formula into a single answer, every intervention into a single moment.

Before
"Is it effective?"
After
"Is it effective, safe, sovereign, truthful, compassionate, traceable, measurable, and life-enhancing?"

Most failures in medicine happen because someone asked the shorter question. The patient is on three other drugs. The herb was grown on contaminated soil. The protocol creates dependency. The compound works fine in mice and fine in the lab and fine for three weeks — and then the third-order effect that no one predicted shows up at month eighteen. The shorter question loses everything beyond the first order.

The Covenant exists to make the longer question standard operating practice at Fungai Art and New Tyme Tonics. Every herb. Every formula. Every batch. Every recommendation. Every practitioner conversation. Sixty-four axes, six layers, five stages.

II The six layers of analysis

Six layers, one organism.

Every herb is evaluated across six lenses. The layers compose: a formula that passes the biological layer can still fail the environmental one (heavy-metal contamination); one that passes both can still fail the covenant layer (creates dependency). All six must hold for a formula to be considered covenant-grade.

I
Biological
12 axes · 1–12
Active compounds, pharmacology, metabolism, dose-response, half-life, receptor binding, long-term effects, toxicity thresholds.
II
Human
12 axes · 13–24
Age, sex, weight, genetic polymorphisms, existing conditions, current medications, allergies, baseline state, microbiome.
III
Environmental
12 axes · 25–36
Source organism identity, growing region, soil quality, harvest method, contaminants, processing, sustainability, traceability.
IV
Behavioural
12 axes · 37–48
Sleep, diet, stress, hydration, activity, sun exposure, social rhythm, substance use, screen time, breath, recovery.
V
Ethical
10 axes · 49–58
Informed consent, realistic expectations, dependency risk, transparency, disclosure, stop conditions, monitoring access, exit dignity.
VI
Covenant
6 axes · 59–64
Autonomy, flourishing contribution, dignity preserved, relationship to nature, lineage respect, generational impact.
III The sixty-four axes

The sixty-four.

Every axis is a real evaluation surface — not a slogan. Each one becomes a column in the herb database, a filter in the Engine, a check in the practitioner conversation. The numbering below is the canonical source: when we say "Axis 17," we mean the same thing on the website, in the data, and in the studio. Expand each layer to read its list.

I. Biological 1 — 12 ⇓
  1. 01
    Active compound identity
    Which molecules are actually doing the work. Named, characterised, isolated where possible.
  2. 02
    Pharmacological mechanism
    Receptor binding, enzyme modulation, ion-channel activity. How the molecule talks to the cell.
  3. 03
    Metabolic pathway
    Which enzymes process it (CYP450 family etc.). Which metabolites it becomes downstream.
  4. 04
    Bioavailability
    How much of the ingested dose actually reaches the target tissue. Extraction matters here.
  5. 05
    Half-life
    How long until the compound is at half its peak. Determines dosing rhythm.
  6. 06
    Dose-response curve
    Linear? Hormetic? Inverted-U? Where is the threshold below which it does nothing and above which it harms?
  7. 07
    Receptor affinity
    How tightly the compound binds, how selectively, how reversibly.
  8. 08
    Long-term effects
    What happens at month three, year one, decade two. Effects that only show up on long horizons.
  9. 09
    Tolerance development
    Does the body adapt? Does the same dose work next month? Down-regulation, up-regulation.
  10. 10
    Withdrawal profile
    What happens when use stops. Rebound effects. Discontinuation timeline.
  11. 11
    Synergistic cascades
    How combinations within the same biomass interact — the whole-organism effect that isolated compounds miss.
  12. 12
    Toxicity threshold
    The dose at which damage begins. Acute and cumulative. Liver, kidney, neurological, cardiac.
II. Human 13 — 24 ⇓
  1. 13
    Age
    Developmental, adult, geriatric. Liver clearance and receptor density vary across the lifespan.
  2. 14
    Sex and hormonal state
    Endogenous hormones change every pharmacokinetic curve. Menstrual cycle, pregnancy, andropause, menopause.
  3. 15
    Body composition
    Weight, lean mass, fat distribution. Lipophilic compounds partition differently.
  4. 16
    Genetic polymorphisms
    CYP2D6, CYP3A4, COMT, MTHFR. Some individuals metabolise tenfold faster or slower than the population mean.
  5. 17
    Existing conditions
    Comorbidities reshape every risk-benefit calculation. Autoimmune, hepatic, renal, cardiovascular, psychiatric.
  6. 18
    Current medications
    The single largest source of catastrophic interactions. Cross-checked against every constituent of every formula.
  7. 19
    Allergy and sensitivity history
    Asteraceae, salicylates, sulphites. Cross-reactivities map across plant families.
  8. 20
    Microbiome state
    Gut bacteria transform many compounds. Some metabolites only exist if the right bacteria are present.
  9. 21
    Mental health history
    Personal and family. Mood-acting herbs require different consent thresholds where there is bipolar or psychosis lineage.
  10. 22
    Reproductive context
    Trying to conceive, pregnant, breastfeeding. Uterine stimulants, abortifacients, transfer-risk compounds.
  11. 23
    Baseline biomarkers
    Resting heart rate, blood pressure, sleep architecture, HRV, fasting glucose. The starting state determines the trajectory.
  12. 24
    Subjective state
    What the human is trying to change. Self-reported pain, mood, energy, clarity. The reason they are here.
III. Environmental 25 — 36 ⇓
  1. 25
    Source organism identity
    Species, strain, sub-variety. Verified by morphology and ideally by DNA sequencing.
  2. 26
    Growing region
    Wild vs cultivated, latitude, altitude, ecological community. Chemistry varies with terroir.
  3. 27
    Soil and substrate
    Mineral profile, microbial community, organic content. The plant is a soil expression.
  4. 28
    Growing conditions
    Sun exposure, rainfall, season, stress events. Stressed plants make different compounds.
  5. 29
    Harvest method and timing
    Lunar timing, time of day, plant lifecycle stage. Lignification, flowering, fruiting all change composition.
  6. 30
    Contaminants
    Heavy metals, pesticides, microbial load, aflatoxins, radionuclides. Tested per batch.
  7. 31
    Processing method
    Drying, milling, extraction solvent and temperature, calcination protocol. Each step alters the chemistry.
  8. 32
    Storage stability
    Light, oxygen, moisture, temperature. Oxidation timelines per compound class.
  9. 33
    Batch traceability
    From specific patch of forest to specific bottle, with chain of custody. No anonymous biomass.
  10. 34
    Sustainability of source
    Population health of the species in the region. Embargo overharvested zones; reroute to abundant alternatives.
  11. 35
    Ethical sourcing
    Indigenous land rights, fair compensation, traditional protocol respect. No cultural appropriation by extraction.
  12. 36
    Lifecycle accounting
    From bud to ash — closed-loop spagyrics. Nothing is discarded; everything is transmuted.
IV. Behavioural 37 — 48 ⇓
  1. 37
    Sleep architecture
    Duration, latency, REM, deep, fragmentation. The base on which every recovery system depends.
  2. 38
    Diet pattern
    Macros, micros, meal timing, fasting windows. What is the gut actually receiving.
  3. 39
    Stress load
    Acute and chronic. HPA axis state. Cortisol curve shape.
  4. 40
    Hydration
    Volume and mineral content of water. Affects clearance and concentration of every compound.
  5. 41
    Physical activity
    Type, intensity, frequency. Movement changes liver and kidney clearance and mitochondrial demand.
  6. 42
    Sun and light exposure
    Circadian anchor. Vitamin D status. UVB exposure to skin.
  7. 43
    Social rhythm
    Isolation, community, intimacy. Vagal tone reads social safety.
  8. 44
    Substance use
    Alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, cannabis, recreational. Every one of these has an interaction map.
  9. 45
    Screen and information load
    Blue light, attention fragmentation, news cortisol. Modern environmental factors with measurable biology.
  10. 46
    Breath patterns
    Nasal vs mouth, depth, pace. CO2 tolerance. Autonomic state reads through respiration.
  11. 47
    Recovery practice
    Sauna, cold, breath work, meditation, time in nature. The active counterweight to stress load.
  12. 48
    Work and purpose
    Sense of meaning. Daily-effort coherence. The single largest factor in long-horizon health that mainstream medicine never asks about.
V. Ethical 49 — 58 ⇓
  1. 49
    Informed consent
    The human knows what is in the bottle, what it is likely to do, what it may do, and what the unknowns are.
  2. 50
    Realistic expectations
    No miracle claims. No hidden conditionals. The expected outcome is stated with its uncertainty range.
  3. 51
    Dependency risk disclosure
    Whether the formula creates or breaks dependency. Stated openly.
  4. 52
    Transparency of process
    How it was made, by whom, with what. No black boxes.
  5. 53
    Stop conditions
    The signals that say "discontinue and consult." Pre-stated, not improvised.
  6. 54
    Monitoring access
    A way to track the effect over time. Journaling, biomarkers, follow-up.
  7. 55
    Side-effect education
    Common, uncommon, and severe. What to recognise, what to do.
  8. 56
    Off-label clarity
    Where traditional use exceeds modern evidence, the gap is stated.
  9. 57
    Exit dignity
    No long-term lock-ins. No emotional coercion to continue. The relationship can end at any time.
  10. 58
    Pricing honesty
    Price reflects cost and care. No exploitation of vulnerability or desperation.
VI. Covenant 59 — 64 ⇓
  1. 59
    Autonomy
    The intervention increases the human's capacity to act for themselves, not their reliance on the supplier.
  2. 60
    Flourishing contribution
    Beyond symptom reduction — does this make the life more whole? Cognitive clarity, emotional range, vitality.
  3. 61
    Dignity preserved
    The framing treats the human as the protagonist of their own healing, not the object of an intervention.
  4. 62
    Lineage and cultural respect
    The traditions the medicine comes from are credited, supported, and not appropriated.
  5. 63
    Relationship to nature
    Does using this reconnect the human to the ecosystem — or sever the link further? Rebuild, maintain, sever.
  6. 64
    Generational impact
    Effect on children, grandchildren, downstream ecology. The hundred-year question.
Named anchors
Throughout the studio we will refer to Axis 12 (toxicity threshold), Axis 18 (current medications), Axis 37 (sleep architecture), and Axis 63 (relationship to nature) as the four most-asked-after axes — the ones that come up in nearly every practitioner conversation and every formula development cycle. They are not more important than the others. They are simply the ones the world tries to ignore most often.
IV The five-stage development pipeline

The pipeline, stage by stage.

The 64 axes do not all get evaluated at once. They are partitioned across five development stages so that the right axes are checked at the right moment. A herb cannot pass Stage 3 until it has cleared Stages 1 and 2. A formula cannot ship until it has cleared all five.

1.

Identification

Species · strain · source · harvest

Before anything else: what exactly is this organism? Species verified, strain noted, source documented, harvest method and timing recorded. If the identity is uncertain, nothing else matters. This stage clears Axes 25, 26, 29 and 33.

2.

Chemistry

Compounds · stability · extraction

Active compounds named, characterised, quantified. Stability under planned processing established. Extraction method selected to draw the targeted chemistry without destroying co-factors. Clears Axes 1, 4, 31 and 32.

3.

Biology

Mechanism · target tissues · metabolism

What the compounds do once inside. Receptor binding, enzyme interactions, metabolic fate, half-life. Long-term effects modelled. Clears Axes 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 12.

4.

Human impact

Benefits · risks · contraindications

The formula meets the specific human. Existing conditions, medications, allergies, microbiome, mental-health context, baseline biomarkers. Every Axis 13–24 evaluated. This is where most mainstream medicine stops — we go one more.

5.

Covenant evaluation

Autonomy · flourishing · relationship

Does this increase sovereignty? Reduce suffering without creating dependency? Maintain dignity? Honour lineage? Rebuild the relationship to nature? Clears Axes 49–64. No formula ships without passing this stage.

V A worked example

A mushroom blend for anxiety.

Robin is developing a blend that reduces anxiety. Two ways to answer the question "will it work?":

Without the Covenant
"Research suggests compounds X and Y may reduce anxiety. A daily dose of Z mg appears effective."
With the Covenant
"The formulation may reduce anxiety in healthy adults. Users on SSRIs, benzodiazepines, antipsychotics, or immune-modulating drugs must be separately evaluated. The product is tested per batch for heavy metals, species identity, contaminants, and consistency. Effect is measured against sleep architecture, cognitive performance, emotional regulation, dependency patterns, and long-term well-being. The user understands expected benefits, known uncertainties, and explicit stop conditions."

The second answer is longer because the system is honest. It does not promise more than it can deliver, and it surfaces the constraints that determine whether the formula will actually work for this specific person. The first answer flatters the seller. The second answer protects the human.

VI The simulation roadmap

From observed to predicted.

Today most herbal medicine is observational. We see what happens to previous patients and infer what will happen to the next one. With sufficient simulation, the question changes: "what is likely to happen inside this specific patient before we administer anything?" Five levels, each building on the previous.

L1

Molecular simulation

Compounds · receptors · enzymes

Simulate binding, enzyme interactions, metabolism, degradation pathways. Today, we do pieces. The ambition is to do all of it simultaneously, for an entire formula at once.

L2

Cellular simulation

Neurons · immune · liver · microbiome

Each compound modelled against a population of cell types. A mushroom compound that looks inert in isolation may be transformed by gut bacteria into an active metabolite that targets inflammation — a chain that takes years to discover empirically and seconds to simulate.

L3

Organ simulation

Brain · liver · kidneys · immune · endocrine

Cascading effects become visible. A compound reduces inflammation. Inflammation drop improves sleep. Better sleep improves hormone regulation. Improved hormones improve recovery. Recovery shifts the immune set-point. The full chain in one simulation pass.

L4

Digital twin

Per-person predictive model

Not a generic human. This human. Genetics, age, weight, medical history, diet, current medications, lifestyle. A personalised biological model that can be perturbed with candidate formulas to see the projected five-year outcome before the first dose is taken.

L5

Covenant-of-consciousness simulation

Sovereignty · dependency risk · long-term flourishing

Where the framework becomes unique. Pharmaceutical simulations optimise for effectiveness, profitability, and marketability. This simulation optimises additionally for sovereignty, dependency risk, long-term flourishing, quality of life, cognitive clarity, and emotional stability. The objective function changes from "maximise symptom reduction" to "maximise human flourishing while minimising harm and preserving autonomy."

With sufficient simulation, development changes from create → test → observe → learn slowly to create → simulate millions of scenarios → identify risks → optimise → test only the best candidates. Development becomes dramatically faster, dramatically safer, and dramatically less wasteful of human bodies.
VII The fundamental shift

From recommendation engine to flourishing engine.

The biggest change the Covenant produces is in the question the system asks itself before it answers anything. The old question is "what herb matches the symptom?" The new question is "what intervention creates the best long-term outcome for this specific human being?"

That shift is the entire point. It moves Fungai Art and New Tyme Tonics from a recommendation engine into a human flourishing engine — one that integrates biology, mushrooms, natural medicine, safety, ethics, personal sovereignty, and predictive simulation into a single decision framework. Each of the 64 axes is one fibre of that framework. The Covenant is the weave.

Sixty-four axes. Six layers. Five stages. Five simulation levels.
One question: does this make the human more whole?

the QMBI manifesto academy