Brain Shaman

In this episode, we talk with Niraj Naik, the founder of SOMA Breath. We discuss breathing practices and techniques for altering your cognition, mood, and health. Learn how to quiet down your thinking mind, find focus and calm, and enter mystical, psychedelic, and blissful flow states via the breath. Breath patterns, speed, duration, and intensity are all part of this. We can change our breath to change how we think, feel, perceive, and connect. 

Music, visuals, symbols, light and dark, dance, touch, social connection, sex, exercise, and TRE can also be combined with these breathing experiences to enhance the psychophysiological effects further.  By using these other sensory and somatic techniques, combined with the breath, you can more deeply and enjoyably tap into the programming of your body and mind. We talk about all that.

You will also learn about tantric sex breathing practices, psychedelics (e.g. the different varieties of magic mushrooms), and more.

**Connect with Niraj Naik**
website: somabreath.com
Instagram: @Nirajnaikofficial

RESOURCES

ORGANIZATIONS
 - HeartMath Insitute

PEOPLE
- David Berceli
- Jan Kounen
- Lao Tzu
- Robert Sapolsky

PLACES
- Ibiza, Spain
- Gili Islands, Indonesia
- Ko Pha-ngan, Thailand

VOCAB
- 5-MeO-DMT
- Buteyko method
- collective coherence
- dark retreats
- default mode network
- DMT
- fractals
- Ganesha (psychedelic)
- mandelas
- Pranayama
- psilocybin
- Siddhi powers
- sigils

Connect & Learn More:
website: somabreath.com
app: somabreath.com/soma-app
Instagram: @Nirajnaikofficial
21-Day Awakening Journey: somabreath.com/the-awakening-breathwork-journey
book: Breathworks (coming soon!)
Cambridge study: biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.19.580985v1
FREE Masterclass: somabreath.com/soma-awakening-meditation-ewo

In this episode, our guest is Daniele Scuteri, a fitness enthusiast, language learner, black belt, and former amateur soccer player.  We talk about how to level up your mental and physical performance, happiness, and growth by embracing hard things. Challenges and difficulties can be opportunities for transformation along your journey through sports, work, love, learning, and life. 

We discuss various tools for improving your ability to embrace and push through challenges, including: breath work, cold exposure, discomfort, coaches, mindfulness, nutrition, exercise, social connection, goals, and mindset. 
 

RESOURCES

BOOKS
 - The Oxygen Advantage by Patrick McKeown

ORGANIZATIONS & EVENTS
- CrossFit
- Flow Research Collective
- Hyrox
- Spartan Race

PEOPLE
 - Andrea Prondo
- Andrew Huberman
- Andrew Weil
- Gianmarco Citelli
- Lorenzo Pennati
- Matthew Walker
- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
- Nicolas Luna
- Peter Attia
- Stanislav Grof
- Steven Kotler
- Wim Hof

YOUTUBE CHANNELS
- Breathe With Sandy

**Connect with Daniele**
LinkedIn: /daniele-scuteri-0a2bb5

In this episode, our guest is Al Wadleigh, a Feldenkrais practitioner and the co-host of the Feldenkrais for Life podcast. We talk about how to rewire our nervous system through Feldenkrais, increasing our learning, memory, health, and potential. Returning us to that childlike state of exploration, curiosity, aliveness, and possibility, Feldenkrais is like a playful portal into adult neuroplasticity and change. Waking us up from our habits and removing our rigid societal masks and algorithms, it can likewise unlock self-awareness, self-image, spontaneity, lightness, ease, authenticity, freedom, and growth.

We delve into this via various interconnected angles, including: novelty, making mistakes/errors, correcting, contradictory movements, speed of movement, pausing, relaxation, zooming in and out, focus and unfocus, attention, the eyes, neck, lips, mouth, creativity, the imagination, the voice, the skeleton, effort, finding links and connections, technology (e.g. smartphones, the Internet), and other exercise and movement-based practices.

The episode wraps up by putting all this into action through a short powerful Feldenkrais lesson using the eyes and imagination. 

**CONNECT & LEARN MORE**
podcast: feldenkraisforlife.com
website: achievingexcellence.com
audio lessons & more: achievingexcellence.com/all-products

RESOURCES

BOOKS
 - The Brain that Changes Itself  by Norman Doidge
- The Brain's Way of Healing by Norman Doidge

LESSONS
- Alexander Yanai lessons
- Al Wadleigh lessons

PEOPLE
- Donna Ray
- Moshé Feldenkrais
- Norman Doidge

VOCABULARY
- Functional Integration
- homunuculus
- Weber-Fechner Law

Listen to Feldenkrais for Life, Al Wadleigh and Donna Ray's podcast, on Spotify, Apple, or your favorite podcast app. Connect with Al on his website: achievingexcellence.com.

Dr. Ilene Naomi Rusk is a neuropsychologist and functional medicine brain health consultant who helps heal people with trauma and neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's. Her education, training, and experience are vast, dancing like a constellation of stars through the nervous system night. We captured glimpses of it today, focusing primarily on the important role that connection and engagement (with others, nature, yourself, your sensory experience, and the beyond) play on your nervous system health and well-being. 

You can change, heal, and grow your brain in beneficial ways, what Dr. Rusk calls "positive neuroplasticity."  Today we discuss some of the portals into such plasticity, including: education, social connection, nature, positive thinking, mental reframing, memories, and the imagination. Through such, we can learn to overcome our trauma, get our nervous system and life unstuck, and more easily enter into a state of safety, calm, connectedness, playfulness, presence, love, wellness, and hope. 

We also talk about: eye contact, humming, the voice, the face, cameras, photos, screens, functional medicine, and more.

This was a very healing and educational conversation for me, and I hope it is for you too.

Sadly, the event Dr. Rusk invited us to has now finished. But she always has lots of upcoming online events, which you can find on the events tab of her website.

**CONNECT WITH DR. RUSK**
website: ilenenaomirusk.com
Instagram: @dr_rusk
Facebook: /drilenenaomi


RESOURCES

PEOPLE
- Dale Bredesen
- Dan Siegel
- Esther Perel
- Helen Reddy
- Stephen Porges

SONGS
- I Am Woman by Helen Reddy

STUDIES
- Emotional valence modulates the topology of the parent-infant inter-brain network (NeuroImage, Feb 2020)


Learn more, connect, and find out about upcoming events at:  ilenenaomirusk.com

This is a solo episode reflecting on the behavioral and sensory locks and keys to our inner world, that beautiful melty sacred space where imagination, possibilities, dreams, creativity, freedom, and the unconscious come alive, where we are no longer controlled by the external puppeteers and can instead awaken to the authenticity, simplicity, and greatness of our true natural being. 

Today, we discuss how to leverage those sweet gentle tools that bring us inward and avoid those that blast us outward into existential and psychophysiological oblivion. 

Learn to shift your attention toward the inside, rather than letting it get hijacked by external stimuli, and watch your health, mood, life, and autonomy re-emerge. Bask in your inner oasis, where all those invisible things you’ve always dreamed of and run from become visible, perty, and real. If this sounds like the kind of vibe and life you want, then listen in as together we traverse this wild inner dreamscape where rules do not exist, nature melts with mind, memories dance, and you are colorful like a child. 

The shamanic keychain provided today contains the following keys (and corresponding locks) into your boundless inner self:

1. eyes closed (vs. open)
2. darkness (vs. light)
3. direct sensory experience (vs. screens and cameras)
4. valuing those things on the inside (vs. those on the outside)
5. imagination (vs. videos, pictures, and porn)
6. silence (vs. noise)
7. odorless (vs. fragrance)
8. flavorless (vs. flavors)
9. nose breathing (vs. mouth breathing)
10. exhales *including humming, chanting, singing (vs. inhales)
11. fasting (vs. eating)
12. breaking rules (vs. obeying cultural and habitual rules, norms, & limits)
13. solitude (vs. socializing)
14. sleep & dreams (vs. waking life)
15. creation (vs. consumption)
16. meditation & hypnosis (vs. brainwashing and memes)
17. difficulty, discomfort, challenge & pain (vs. easiness, comfort, & pleasure)
18. nature (vs. city)
19. death, loss, & change (vs. immortality, possessiveness, & permanence)
20. minimalism (vs. materialism)
21. stillness & slowing down (vs. busyness and going fast)
22. curvy and spontaneous movement (vs. rigid and predictable ones)

In addition, there are experiences that sweetly bridge the inner and outer worlds, which can also be embraced to your comfort. Some of these include: books, podcasts, psychedelics, conversations, interviewing, safe connection and embrace, eye gazing, instrumental music, and more.

You can also stack these tools on top of one another, mix and mash them, to create your own little customized meditation-like retreat. 

We also discuss a brief history of sense-hacking technologies and how that evolution intertwines with the collapse of the inner world. Don’t let your beautiful mind go the way of the dinosaurs. Become like a bird and fly freely into the future.

RESOURCES

 - Between Two Worlds (episode #60)
- Darshan with Paramahamsa Vishwananda (the darshan event I went to in Osaka)
- Duncan Trussell (podcaster / comedian)
- Duncan Trussell Family Hour (podcast)
- Merlion (overphotographed statue in Singapore)
- scratch and sniffs (fragrance technology)
- Say Cheese and Die! by R.L. Stine (Goosebumps book #4)

Roland Verment is a neuropsychologist, biohacker, and the owner of Neurobics, an at-home neurofeedback service. In this interview, we discuss how to understand and change the brain via neurofeedback and nootropics.

We talk about brain waves (delta, theta, alpha, beta, and gamma) and how they correspond to various brain states, regions, neurochemicals, and disorders, including: OCD, ADHD, autism, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, anxiety, depression, PTSD, Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome, and visual neglect).

Learn how to manipulate these brain waves in order to increase your creativity, organization, productivity, memory, happiness, focus, flexibility, calm, balance, and overall brain health.

We also discuss: EEG, fMRI, sleep, resurrecting old childhood memories ("time traveling"), alcohol, meditation, medications, VR, emerging tech, and nootropics (including: caffeine, rhodiola, alpha GPC, Huperzine A, and  cerebrolisin).

*CONNECT & LEARN MORE*
Instagram: @neurobicsneurofeedback     or               @rolandsnap
Facebook: @Neurobics
website: neurobics.care

RESOURCES

NEUROANATOMY
- anterior cingulate cortex
- frontal lobe
- hypothalamus
- occipital lobe
- parietal lobe
- temporal lobe
- visual cortex

COMPANIES
- AppliedVR
- BrainBit
- Cleverpoint
- Divergence Neuro
- GrayMatters Health
- Headspace
- Kernel
- Muse
- Tripp

PEOPLE
- Andrew Huberman
- Cody Rall
- Jay Gunkelman
- Josh Sackman
- Kirill Krasnogir
- Tim Ferris

SUPPLEMENTS & DRUGS
- alpha-GPC
- CDP-Choline
-  Cerebrolysin
-  Huperzia serrata (Huperzine A)
-  lithium
-  Methylphenidate (brand names: Ritalin and Concerta)
-  rhodiola (active compound: salidroside)

Learn more at: neurobics.care (or on Instagram @neurobicsneurofeedback)

Ken Middleton is the author of Bamboozled: How Alcohol Makes Fools of Us All and the editor of the publication AINYF (Alcohol is NOT Your Friend). In this episode, Ken shares helpful tools and strategies for quitting alcohol. These include: exercise, nutrition, education, sleep, hobbies, social connection, finding a supportive partner, and having a big goal.

We also discuss:

• the neuroscience of alcohol
• addiction and strategies for habit change
• short-term and long-term alternatives to alcohol
• alcohol's effects on sleep, memory, and cognition
• health risks associated with alcohol (e.g. cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer's)
• the costs and benefits of alcohol consumption across various life stages
• how alcohol can block personal growth and impede self-improvement
• the deceptive portrayal of alcohol in movies, media, and advertising
• metaphors and analogies to help illustrate the effects and dangers of alcohol
• the gifts and benefits of quitting alcohol

**CONNECT & LEARN MORE**
book website: thebamboozledbook.com
Dry-90 Challenge: dry90.com
Instagram: @kenmmiddleton

RESOURCES

BOOKS
- Alcohol Explained by William Porter
- Alcohol Lied to Me by Craig Beck
- Atomic Habits by James Clear
- Bamboozled by Ken Middleton
- This Naked Mind by Annie Grace

COMMUNITIES
- Alcohol-Free Lifestyle
- Tribe Sober

MOVIES & TV
- American Pie
- House Party (starring Kid 'n Play)
- Scandal
- SuperBad
- Sherlock Holmes

PEOPLE
- Annie Grace
- Craig Beck
- James Clear
- James Swanwick
- Janet Gourand
- Robert Downey Jr.
- William Porter

VOCABULARY
- acetaldehyde
- anhedonia
- dynorphin
- nucleus accumbens

Connect or learn more at: thebamboozledbook.com

In this episode, we discuss strategies for managing and reducing alcohol cravings, uncovering alternative pathways to satisfy the deeper needs that fuel them. 

Today, we delve into 11 needs, exploring alternative actions to address each:

1. water
2. nutrition
3. social connection
4. sex
5. touch
6. movement
7. sleep
8. feeling of possibility, novelty, chaos, & adventure
9. stimulation (light, sound, etc.)
10. stress reduction and calm
11. goals/projects

Listen in to discover your hidden needs and other healthier ways to satisfy them, ultimately diminishing the urge to drink and granting you greater freedom in how you choose to live.

RESOURCES:

COMMUNITIES:
- Alcoholics Anonymous
- Tribe Sober

ENTERTAINMENT
- Six Flags Magic Mountain (amusement park)
- Memento (movie)

SCIENCE VOCAB:
- basal ganglia
- intercostal muscles
- mesolimbic pathway
- prefrontal cortex
- striatum
- substantia nigra
- ventral tegmentum

In this episode, we're joined by Osinakachi Akuma Kalu, the founder of TAFFD's, dedicated to enhancing health and biological longevity for Africans through educational initiatives. He's also an author, futurist, musician, and speaker.

Our discussion centers on traditional African health practices, mindsets, and tools, covering: social connection, community, movement, nutrition, farming, medicine, music, dance, language, metaphysics, morality & ethics, biodiversity, environmental factors, holistic living, and more.

We also discuss how Westernization has negatively impacted the health and longevity of Africans, across these various dimensions. History, politics, education, and big business are a big part of this. Some ways in which Africa is degenerating include: social isolation, fracturing of family and community, poor nutrition (e.g. processed foods and added sugars), environmental toxins, loss of religion and culture, and increasing use of chemicals and pharmaceuticals. 

Osinakachi aims to reconnect Africans to their ancestral roots, returning to a time marked by robust health, longevity, strong social bonds, community, safety, trust, empathy, vulnerability, natural exercise, biodiversity, nutritious food, and a mindset that values such.  We must redefine wealth, prioritizing health and social cohesion over money, comfort, and convenience. While traditional practices like farming and open dwellings may be disappearing, education and hard work can help revive some of the positive aspects of Africa's heritage.

The principles, practices, and mindsets discussed in this episode can be applied to your individual life, relationship, family, or community, regardless of your location in the world.

*Connect with Osinakachi*
LinkedIn: /osinakachi-akuma-kalu
Facebook: /authorOsinakachi
website: taffds.org

RESOURCES

MUSIC IN AFRICA
- African Traditional Music (ATM)
- Afrobeats
- Amapiano
- Bongo Flava
- Highlife

PEOPLE
- Aristotle
- Feta Kuti
- Izu Marcel Onyeocha
- Ludwig Wittgenstein
- Martin Buber
- Plato
- R.L. Stine

VOCABULARY
- assimilation
- association
- Berlin Conference
- Igbo
- Ohafia War Dance
- Omenala
- palm wine
- Scramble for Africa
- Ubuntu
- Zulu

Josh Sackman, cofounder and president of AppliedVR, joins us today to talk about pain management using virtual reality (VR). We discuss the bio-psycho-social dimensions of pain, and how to manage and reduce it accordingly.

Some of the evidence-based tools and features discussed include: breath (e.g. box, 4-7-8, Wim Hof, diaphragmatic breathing, etc.), visualization, social connection, mindfulness & meditation, distraction & attention control, movement & interactivity, presence & immersion, sleep, biofeedback, interoception-building practices, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), pain education, grit & resilience, voice, and various other self-regulatory techniques.

Although VR has proven benefits for the reduction and management of both acute and chronic pain, the goal of today's episode is to teach you principles, practices, and skills that you can use anywhere and anytime, with or without the headset.

We discuss the various benefits of VR, how it compares with opioids and other existing therapies and technologies, common hurdles that VR helps overcome (e.g. accessibility, availability, affordability, complexity, enjoyability), pain's connection and interference with other facets of life (e.g. sleep, social interaction, mood, etc.), and how to find more peace, stability, and calm amidst your pain.

**CONNECT & LEARN MORE**
Josh's LinkedIn: /joshsackman
company (AppliedVR) website: appliedvr.io
product (RelieVRx) website: relievrx.com
Instagram: @appliedvr
LinkedIn: /appliedvr

RESOURCES

BOOKS
 - Breath by James Nestor

COMPANIES, SCHOOLS, & ORGANIZATIONS
- ByteDance
- International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP)
- Stanford University
- University of California, Berkeley
- University of Washington
- USC
- Virtual Human Interaction Lab (@Stanford)

PEOPLE
- Albert "Skip" Rizzo
- Andrew Weil
- Beth Darnall
- Bob Jester
- Hunter Hoffman
- James Nestor
- Jeremy Bailenson
- Matt Walker
- Sean Mackey
- Wim Hof

PODCASTS
- Huberman Lab
      -  Dr. Sean Mackey: Tools to Reduce & Manage Pain (1/15/2024)
      - 6-part sleep series with Matt Walker (4/3/2024 ~)
- The Matt Walker Podcast

Learn more at: appliedvr.io