Limitless Mindset

Two years ago, I started reading Boundless Parenting shortly after hearing the heartbeat of what I now think of as my first son.

But we lost him in the seventh month due to a random cord incident. For a while, I said, "We lost the pregnancy," instead of, "I lost a child" -- maybe because I never saw his face. I stopped reading it, but nearly nine months ago, I picked it back up again, after discovering we had another one on the way. Becoming a new father is a page flip without equal to a new chapter of life, and I have a lot to learn, so finishing a thousand-page book on the topic seems smart!

I suppose this is the first of a lot of parenting content that you can expect from me, but those of you who have followed me for a while know I didn't start offering marriage advice until after I'd remained happily married for at least half a decade. Similarly, as long as I lack experience in the parenting department, I'll try to keep my content around the topic grounded in the authoritative experiences of others or sound scientific research.

Storytime: The elasticity of the protective impulse at the playground

Lately, I've been doing light workouts a few times a week at this park near my flat in Sofia that has one of those basic free weatherproof gyms next to the playground where you can do an assortment of bodyweight exercises. And there are almost always kids and young people there - one thing that makes me confident about raising a family here in Bulgaria is that the culture is relatively healthy here. Like the other day, I saw four young dudes (they looked like teenagers) there working out, and get this, none of them had smartphones. They were just hanging out, outside, exercising. I freakin' love to see that!

The other day, this little girl climbed up on the monkey bars where someone had hung a rubber exercise band, and basically she wanted to put one foot in the exercise band and then bounce up and down (which I'm sure is fun!) But she was small enough that she could slip and fall off the monkey bars with one foot in the band and really hurt herself. Her mom or grandmother was sitting a ways away and didn't really seem to be paying attention to her. And I don't really want to touch some random little girl helping safely bounce up and down with this band, so I just told her in Bulgarian, "This is dangerous!" And then I let her do whatever she wanted.

Later, I reflected and said to myself, "That was kind of a proto-parenting moment, wasn't it?" I had a protective impulse when I saw the kid doing something risky, so I had to intervene; ultimately, all I could do was tell her, "This is dangerous." I figured, if she fell and hurt herself, then she'll remember that some random guy warned her, and if she managed to balance on the bouncy exercise band, then she gets the confident boost that she did something "dangerous!" Which is probably a good thing. I've got about two decades of situations with that dilemma ahead of me...

An important point on the economics of information consumption.

This book is $55 in hardcover and $20 on Kindle. Some of you may be shaking your heads at the fact that digital books (a freakin' file!) cost this much these days, and perhaps you're thinking: I'll just listen to Ben Greenfield's podcasts about parenting - those are free! Only if your time is next to worthless! When your favorite podcasters put out books, it actually makes a lot of sense to buy and read those books even if you can get that information for free from their show, because as they are a refined distillation of their knowledge (especially if said podcasters insert an insane amount of audience-time-wasting midroll ads into their podcasts - like Ben!)

This book is written by (not just) Ben Greenfield but also...

37 parents ranging from single divorcees to grandparents to celebrities to entrepreneurs to pastors to teachers to survivalists and beyond. In each chapter, Ben Greenfield interviews a unique parent or set of parents about the highly specific, practical and personal details of their parenting journey, including the way they educate, discipline, manage time, develop presence, love and ultimately raise amazing, self-actualized and flourishing children.

In this book review, I'll try to give credit to them individually for the wisdom I borrow here. I'll start with my biggest takeaway from the book...

The worst day of my life was June 23rd, 2023 (I'll explain why I'm telling this story now - two years later)

The day before, my wife grew increasingly concerned that she hadn't felt any baby kicks from our son, who she was six months pregnant with. We visited the emergency room to get an ultrasound. I sat in those uncomfortable metal seats, bracing myself for the worst possible news an expecting father can get. My wife finally appeared speechless and white as a ghost; she slumped down beside me and didn't need to say anything. Our son was dead within her.

And to make matters worse, my wife would need to deliver him soon, stillborn. They suggested she be booked into the hospital immediately, but I questioned them further. There was nothing that could be done at the hospital that day, so we decided to go home and spend a final night with the three of us in bed together. We sat outside the hospital on a bench under a tree for a cruel eternity; we held each other, we cried, we cursed God, and we asked, "Why us?"

Back at home, I jumped to pointless and hurtful speculation. Why had his little heart stopped beating? My wife refrained from using our red light devices during pregnancy (there's no good scientific reason not to use red light during pregnancy) - might this have (fueled the mitochondria in his little heart with extra ATP and) saved him? Maybe it was all the bed rest my wife had done during the pregnancy (I had seen some research indicating that excessive bed rest is not positively associated with successful pregnancy). Might my wife's lack of resolute confidence in her body and ongoing anxiety about the pregnancy have somehow manifested this?

We broke the news in person to my Bulgarian mother-in-law, who was shocked and heartbroken. The prospect of becoming a grandmother, finally, was the only glimmer of happiness this woman had in her life.

I poured myself a glass of Rakia. The harsh liquor burned in my chest, and I descended further into sorrow. I had a glass of wine over dinner while we discussed what would happen next. After dinner, I poured myself another glass of Rakia and stood on our balcony surveying the city lights of Sofia. I'd reached the adversarial bargaining-with-God phase; if my son could be magically re-animated somehow (like in a bunch of questionable stories I've heard), I'd be the best damn Christian I could be for the rest of my life.

In the cruel morning light of June 23rd, I imagined it was all a nightmare. But the nightmare was what we had to rise to meet.

My responsibility was to collect medical paperwork from the doctor managing the pregnancy at a different hospital than where my wife would go into delivery, delivering that which was dead. Our doctor speculated about what might have happened; sometimes in pregnancy, the umbilical cord gets knotted up, cutting off blood and oxygen flow (nobody is in there telling the baby, "Don't tangle that thing up!"), and it is lights out. I dropped off the paperwork at the other hospital and saw my wife a final time; unlike elsewhere, in Bulgaria, the father and mother are separated during delivery. For some stupid bureaucratic reason, they don't want men in the natal unit comforting their women. There was nothing for me to do there.

Back home alone, it was just time to wait. I figured I should educate myself about what my wife was about to go through, so I looked up YouTube videos about stillbirth. These totally triggered me, I broke down and cried in a way I haven't since a girl broke up with me when I was thirteen years old (I was a sort of a wimpy kid, and Tiffany was a jerk!) I called my mom and cried with her.

Friday, June 25th, was the worst day of my wife's life.

She doesn't have much pain tolerance and had to endure round after round of painful dilation checks (think: aggressive deep fingering without a drop of lube). Even after five vaginal capsules of misoprostol, her six-month-pregnant body was just not ready to deliver a baby, so they forced dilation with some kind of balloon contraption. Even anesthetized after two epidurals, it was the most physically torturous thing she ever experienced. The stillbirth itself happened relatively quickly. After several long hours of her being out of touch, she texted me...

Jon .. it's over. I gave birth to our baby boy... he's safe in heaven and has angel wings now. I asked my dad to take over and watch over his little soul.

Going into the hospital, she had been adamant that she did not want to see the lifeless form of our son after delivery. But fortunately, a thoughtful midwife there convinced her otherwise. She was able to hold his tiny body for the saddest moment of her life; she kissed his wrinkled little forehead and told him that Mommy and Daddy loved him and would miss him. They did not allow a photograph for reasons that baffle us. She decided to name him Teofil ("Teo" for short) after his grandfather, who we also lost in 2023. I'd give anything to have been there with her for this.

I went and saw her in the hospital as soon as I could; she was a broken woman. My wife then had to spend three more nights in the hospital, during which we both slept badly. I visited her daily to spend time and bring her decent food and (shockingly) toilet paper (Bulgaria's glorious socialized healthcare apparently doesn't provide this). Having not betrayed my wife digitally (by viewing porn) in over three years (update: five years, now) and knowing that men often relapse into porn use when lonely and dealing with a crisis, I refrained from drinking even a drop of alcohol the nights I spent alone. What helped those nights was doing relaxing breathwork sessions with the Othership app and distracting myself by watching war movies.

We broke the awful news to my family in America via text message and an invitation to talk sometime soon. I thought this was better than the ominous "Something happened. We need to talk..." text message. I'd rather get bad news as a gut punch than as a slow burn of anxiety, so that's how I delivered it.

I write this from a depth of sorrow that I haven't known before in my 38 years.

I mourn for the lost future moments of fatherhood I looked forward to; holding him in my arms, changing his diaper, seeing my wife lovingly mother him, teaching him to ride a bike, showing him how to open a coconut by throwing it on the ground, teaching him about Biohacking, giving him advice about girls, and so much more.

But the most helpful thing to hear on that terrible day that my wife delivered was that an umbilical cord complication indeed caused it. It would certainly add a long-lingering extra degree of mental anguish if it were a "cause of death unknown" - that would have left us ever questioning what we might have done wrong...A tangled cord is a random thing; we probably all tangled our cords a little in utero, but then they got untangled. In the face of tragedy, I find comfort in my belief in randomness; I'm relieved of self-attacking speculating about causality. And, while this has been a tremendous challenge to my Christian faith, I believe that a good God lets bad things happen to good people because it's only in tragic misfortune that we get the opportunity to exercise our free will - that unique human capacity to rise above habit, impulse, and instinct. The more random and unfair the misfortune, the harder it is to choose not to let it define us, to hold onto hope, to keep faith, and to optimistically make plans for the future.

Why I kept this a secret for two years

My wife is Bulgarian, and this is a culture that handles death differently: this is a culture that clings to the ghosts of the dearly departed. Walk around any Bulgarian town, and on homes' entrances, you'll see posted notices of residents' deaths. Look closer and you'll note that some of the deaths occurred many years ago, yet the surviving relatives go to the trouble of posting new death notices on their buildings every season.

This loss broke my wife…

With the summer season upon us, my podcast assistant par excellence and I elucidate and illuminate in this Q&A. From questions about entrepreneurship, passive income, and the most dire of mighty morality dilemmas dividing a young Moroccan man to delving into Dark Triad brain training and curing COVID-vaccine-caused cancer (yes, I said it!) And my erudite assistant shares a few thoughts on my recently released science fiction/cyberpunk thriller novel about seduction, biohacking, and philosophy.

Yes, I’m wearing an eye patch now. And it’s finally time I told THE TRUTH about why my eye is… like that.

It begins with my mother.After college, she took a solo Euro trip -- the kind of spiritually expansive journey you go on before seed oils ruin everything. She ends up in Crete. She is big into hiking, sunlight exposure, and keeping her circadian rhythm synced with Mediterranean daylight cycles. Just really living her best proto-biohacker life!She goes hiking along the coast. There were caves. Of course, there were caves. And in one, there was this big opening in the roof where the sunlight streamed in like something out of a perfume commercial. She stood there, basking in the moment, contemplating her future -- so full of mystery and adventure...

That’s when she hears a voice behind her -- a deep, melodic murmur in Greek.She turns around and sees a Cyclops.Yes. A literal, living, one-eyed man-mountain glistening with olive oil and ancestral masculinity. He’s wearing some kind of animal hide that definitely hasn’t been sanitized.She freezes. He smiles.“Don’t be afraid,” he says, “Welcome to my cave.” (He said it in perfect English, by the way. With a charming island accent.)Now, my mother is a bold woman. She didn’t backpack across Europe to NOT vibe with supernatural beings.

They got to talking. He noticed she only had a couple of protein bars for lunch, and being a gracious host, he offered her some traditional Cretan cheese and locally fermented biodynamic wine -- which he explained was made by his cousin, a winemaker who only listens to goats to decide when to harvest.They talked. They laughed. The Cyclops listened -- really listened. At one point, he said, “You’ve been hiking all day. Would you like a foot rub?”

And you can see where this is going...Yes. My mom banged the Cyclops.There, in his cave beneath the ancient sky. Because YOLO. Because wanderlust. Because when a muscular mythological being offers you cheese, wine, and affection -- you say YES.She lost track of time. The conversation, the connection - it was so deep, so magnetic, so primal - she found herself lost there in an "unbearable lightness of being" moment.And, I won't reveal too many lurid details; but we all know that there's really no such thing as "safe sex," and it was the 80s, and my mother lived DANGEROUSLY (and THAT, friends, is how to use a semicolon with salacious style! Style that throws caution to the wind as my mother did there in that cave below foreign stars.)Midnight came.

And just as their climactic union reached its apex, a bolt of lightning - out of nowhere, pure freak act of nature or divine intervention - struck the Cyclops on the back mid-thrust.He died instantly.My mother survived. Traumatized, barefoot, and slightly tipsy, she staggered out of the cave, made it back to her hostel, and chalked the whole thing up to a heatstroke hallucination. Until a few weeks later...

Her period was late.And that is how I was conceived.A child of lightning. Half-Cyclops. Born of wine, goat cheese, and pure magnetic polarity. Conceived in a cave during a wine-fueled union between woman and legend. It explains so much: The intensity that I bring to everything I do, my habitual rule-breaking, my perspective, my vision -- or, rather, the lack of it in one eye.

Which brings us to this look.And over the years, just a few commenters on my videos have pointed out - ALWAYS VERY POLITELY - that my naked face is not the MOST PLEASANT viewing experience. And for the longest time, I just said, "Be yourself unapologetically!" And for the longest time, I embraced radical authenticity. Full frontal weirdness. And no fucks were given.But I am a man who embraces reinvention the way the Cyclops embraced my mother. So It's time for a new look, and this is it.

The real story is not nearly as epic

I was born this way. I'm cross-eyed; I have conspicuous strabismus, which is currently beyond the bounds of Biohacking or surgical solutions because of some nerve damage I have. It got worse in my mid-20s because my career mostly involved staring at computer screens for +8 hours a day, which is bad for your eyes. If you don't want to end up looking like me, then don't spend so much damn time staring at screens.

But, on my 40th birthday (yeah, I look pretty good for my age, don't I?), I decided to correct one of my most grievous errors and cover it up.

I should have done this earlier; there are a few good personal development lessons in why I didn't. I'll explain...

Casting your identity in stone kills growth

Let me be honest: I made "cross-eyed" my identity.

I wrote a freakin' 221-page book entitled How to Be Cross Eyed about Thriving Despite Your Physical Imperfection, and I did thrive. Despite my glaring physical defect...

I've had a pretty interesting life. I've dated a politician's daughter in Medellin, Colombia. I hung out with spies in Kyiv, Ukraine. I've almost died underwater twice. I participated in a bank robbery and I lost my virginity to a spy (yes, really!) From having sex in a brand new Maserati and getting in high-speed car chases to being deported from South American countries and representing the US Presidential candidate Donald J. Trump I've found the happiness that I didn't give a damn about and realized my dream of becoming an adventuring philosopher.

And along the way, I found edifying joy and meaning between the voluptuous legs of a beautiful Bulgarian woman on the edge of Europe - which turned into a happy 7-year marriage.

But more recently, I had the most mind-blowing day of my life as a Biohacker, and it reminded me that personal growth and embracing adventure demands a flexible identity. It's OK to hold to a couple of core values and principles, but certainty is often the enemy of edifying evolution. Identity and certainty often go hand in hand. Mark Manson explains this better than I in his book; he recommends not being too married to an identity as it closes you off to transformation and growth. Manson’s law of avoidance is…

The more something threatens your identity, the more you will avoid it. (p. 136)

I say don’t find yourself. I say never know who you are. Because that’s what keeps you striving and discovering. And it forces you to remain humble in your judgments and accepting of the differences in others. (p. 139)

In my recent essay about sex addiction, I made the point that it's an especially bad idea to have your identity married to something negative. Then I looked at the man in the mirror - I had allowed my public identity to become entangled with my ugliest feature.

What got me here won't get me there

Let me tell you about Bill. He's a very cool guy. He was a Canadian ex-pat I met in South America. Bill was an amazing salsa/bachata dancer; I saw him in action plenty of times, and he's a dangerous man on the dancefloor.

* He also speaks Spanish fluently, almost like it's his first language.

* He is also in great shape and obviously takes care of his body.

* He's a somewhat successful businessman; he has very high standards for his product and its marketing, and this extends to his numerous customers.

* I would seldom NOT see him surrounded by friends, and he always had a pretty girlfriend (and a few waiting in the wings to take her place).

* You might think that a guy this successful would be kind of a douchebag, but he's actually down-to-earth and friendly.

So here's the interesting thing about Bill - the successful salsa dancer, he's very short. This brings up an interesting question: if he was born with the luckier genetics of being tall or even average height, do you think he would have developed into being such a dynamic and robust guy? I say no. He turned the disadvantage into a hell of an advantage - like me.

In my first book - a memoir and lifestyle manifesto - I described …

Self Quantification is quite the rabbit hole to go down…

In principle, it’s a pretty good idea. We have all these options for self-improvement or Biohacking — it seems like every week there's some new supplement, technology, app, device, meditation technique, or productivity hack to try. Yet we know that a lot of these options won’t really work for us…

For example...

I’ve personally tried at least 100 different smart drugs and Nootropics and, for me at least, less than half of them actually work and have any discernible short or long-term effect.

The point of self-quantification is getting objective feedback about what’s working. But there are also some real pitfalls to self-quantification;It’s the highway to analysis paralysis. Spending so much time analyzing your data that you’re not making progress towards meaningful goals.It’s expensive, both in terms of money and time. It makes sense to spend a couple of hundred dollars a month on blood tests and meticulously document the caloric quantity of everything you consume to see exactly how some new supplement or diet is affecting your unique neurobiology if you are Tim Ferriss and you’re writing books about your body that are going to sell millions of copies.But if you’re just a normal guy (or gal) that has limited time and money to spend on Biohacking and you just want to be as productive and happy as your biology will allow, I’ve got a really simple and insightful self-quantification experiment for you to do daily.

Here it is; breath counting during meditation.

__

One of the first things that you learn when getting started with meditation is focusing on deep, rhythmic belly breathing and the counting of your breaths can be used to gauge your state of mind.

If your attention is very disparate, if you’re not very focused, you’ll have trouble counting.

I find this pretty accurately reflects my very recent behavior, habits, and consumption.If I’ve been out partying the night before and I ate an indulgent sandwich for lunch, my mind is going to be all over the place; I’ll be thinking about all these different things while counting:

One…Two…I need to pay that invoice!Three…I should check how many days left I have on my visa here…Four…Should I text Maria about dinner or should I wait for her to text me?Five…I wonder what the Bitcoin price is?Six…Seven…God! I fucking suck at meditation. Fucking idiot!

I may even lose track of which number comes next.But if I’ve gotten good sleep, I had a coconut or salmon salad for lunch and I took a focus-promoting smart drug, my counting will be very precise:

One…Two…Three…Four…Five…Six…Seven…

I play a little game with my mind doing this counting; if I get distracted by something for more than about 2 seconds I have to start over counting. Your unconscious mind is constantly delivering up information to your conscious mind, so it’s ok that little thoughts pop up while you’re meditating, that’s pretty natural but if I dwell on them for more than a second or two then I have to start over. This makes you exercise your focus muscles.

I do the Taoist breathing method which is a little more complicated, you can read my article on it if you are interested, but just counting the breaths while breathing deeply works just fine.

If you’re trying a new supplement, Nootropic, diet, or brain training software this method will give you pretty accurate feedback as to how effective of a focus promoter it is.

My findings:

* The best focus promoter is Modafinil.

* Vying for 2nd place is Caballo, my racetam-rich stack, and Dual N-Back brain training.

* What I’ve eaten and drunk has a lot to do with how focused I am. Healthy fats are a lot better than carbs, sugar is better than carbs. A little coffee helps but more than two cups is detrimental to my focus. Green tea is a little better than Adaptogenic tea.

* Interestingly, supplemental nicotine stimulated what I’m going to call passive problem-solving during meditation, this is because nicotine stimulates what’s called your default network. From a 2011 meta-analysis:

The default mode network (DMN), one of several resting-state networks (RSN) in the brain, is thought to be involved in self-referential thought, awareness, and episodic memories… the absence of visual stimuli or effortful processing suggest that nicotine’s cognitive effects may involve a shift in activity from networks that process internal to those that process external information.

When you come up with a great idea while you’re in the shower or sitting at a red light, you can thank the default network, which is what nicotine fires up, promoting expansive thinking. Meditating on nicotine is a very interesting experience, if you’re a non-smoker I recommend you pick up some supplemental nicotine and try it.

If you’re a smoker, try having a cigarette before meditating; you probably won’t get as cool of an effect on your expansive thinking because your Nicotine tolerance is several thousand percent higher than mine but all these great writers and thinkers throughout history were voracious smokers — Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Tolkien, Ayn Rand — so it obviously is a creativity promoter.

Share this with a Biohacker…

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Dopamine is often misunderstood as the “pleasure” molecule, but its primary role is motivation, reward-seeking behavior, and reinforcement learning. It drives goal-oriented behavior, productivity, focus, and even longevity. Dopamine is essential in habit formation and performance optimization—but it’s also involved in addiction and burnout.

I'm joined by my friend, Lucas Aoun of Boost Your Biology. He's on the expert consulting team for our new flagship program, Anakainōsis, and we are going to go deep on the topic of dopamine here and how to Biohack it for a vigorous life of meaning, joy, and adventure.

Mentioned in this podcast

My Meta-Analysis: Catuaba Bark: This Natural Nutraceutical Nootropic from Brazil is DOPE!

Flowstate - The chapter of my lifehacking manifesto, Finding Flowstate, goes deeper on this

Nootropics for Dopamine - Modafinil, Mucuna Pruriens, Bromantane, Selegiline, L-Tyrosine, 9-Me-BC

PEMF device - The IC Hummer

Binaural beats for focus - I like Brain.FM

HRV tracking devices - HeartMath devices, Garmin Smart Watches (I think these are the best option), Oura Ring

Ultradian rhythms - Every 90-120 minutes, the brain cycles between high-energy focus and lower-energy rest phases.

Dopamine fasting - Biohacking is a better option for fixing the Dopamine system, we contend!

Steven Kotler's books on flowstate: The Rise of Superman and Stealing Fire

Scientific paper: Disruption of dopamine D2/D3 system function impairs the human ability to understand the mental states of other people

Graham Hancock's books on a lost antediluvian civilization: Magicians of the Gods and America Before

Documentary series: Ancient Apocalypse

My upcoming science fiction novel about Biohacking, seduction, and philosophy - Hourglass (download 5-chapter sample)

Try Lucas's new supplement, COA-verified pure Catuaba, from INB4SUPPS (a Limitless Mindset Secret Society recommended vendor - spend +$150 with them and get a free consultation with me)

About our new flagship program, Anakainōsis. A one-of-a-kind, 6-month coaching program with a team of experts and an odyssey of personal discovery that results in a powerfully pragmatic and philosophical book as unique as you - your gift to the future.

Connect with Lucas AounBoost Your Biology podcastOn InstagramOn YouTube

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A forest-dwelling elixir of health long renowned by Siberian shamans, now demanded by elite Herbal Biohackers.

Chaga (Inonotus Obliquus), also known as KING OF MUSHROOMS, is a curative fungus most commonly found on birch trees. Chaga powder may be one of the best supplements for enhancing immune function.

This article is mostly going to focus on decoding what the science is saying about Chaga and how this squares up with the anecdotal experiences of Biohackers online.

History

Since time immemorial, it has been used by the native people who lived in areas where it is found for a wide range of treatments both internally and externally in a poultice. How long it has been used by rugged peoples in cold northern climates, nobody knows. In fact, it was one of the two Adaptogens found on Ozti the Iceman.

My wife and I enjoy watching YouTube documentaries about the Asiatic Yakuts people who reside in the coldest place on Earth, in Siberia. And they don't just reside, they thrive! These people are now obviously very dependent on central heating, but one has to question how they survived before modernity. Herbal medicine like Chaga, that's how, of course!

And interestingly, it's used in rituals by the Denesuline people in Northern Saskatchewan to predict the future.

A Terrific Tree-Hugger

Different from mushrooms, it grows its sclerotium or mycelium on the outside of the tree instead of fruiting bodies. It is believed to not be parasitic but instead to live symbiotically with the host tree.

Summary of Chaga Science

On Pubmed, you can find more than 200 scientific papers referencing Chaga, although it lacks human clinical trials. I'll summarize some of the recent interesting findings...

It's not actually a mushroom, as some on the internet suggest; it's a fungus. A recent Canadian paper reviews literature published on it dating back to 1900 and calls it a super-fungus with countless facets and untapped potential.

* Anti-inflammatory

* Anti-oxidant

* Anti-cancer

* Anti-viral

* Anti-tumor

* Anti-thrombotic

* Antihyperglycemic

* Anti-Lipo peroxide

* Anti-fatigue

* Antibacterial

* Immune booster

* Gene protection

The abstract of the paper concludes:

Overall, chaga is a promising natural resource with a wide range of potential applications and therefore the diverse array of therapeutic compounds makes it an attractive candidate for various applications

A recent Russian overview describes its wide array of effects.

The use of mushrooms as functional foods and in the treatment of diseases has a long history. [Chaga] is a mushroom belonging to the Hymenochaetaceae family and has possible anticancer, antiviral, and hypoglycemic properties... A plethora of findings have highlighted the potential molecular mechanisms of actions of this mushroom such as its ability to scavenge reactive oxygen species, inhibit the growth of tumors, decrease inflammation and insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes, and stimulate the immune system.

I'd like to see some human clinical trials done with Chaga. Generally, I'm skeptical of supplements that haven't undergone clinical trials, but Chaga has been used by millions around the world, and it's been used traditionally in North America, Northern Europe, and Asia. Unfortunately, pharmaceutical companies, universities, and federal health agencies with their billion-dollar research budgets just aren't really interested in funding trials for unpatentable natural medicines like Chaga. I still enthusiastically recommend it because of its historical credibility and relative lack of side effects.

Vs Cancer

There are nearly 30 studies and scientific publications specifically evaluating Chaga's cancer-fighting prowess. It has well-established mechanisms counteracting various cancers of the lung, liver, bladder, pancreas, breast, and even the brain.

While researching this one, I came across a book I'd like to read "Cancer Ward," a semi-autobiographic novel by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (yeah, that Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn) about cancer patients in the post-Stalinist Soviet Union. Chaga was the "peasant's cancer cure" - describing a political prisoner stricken with cancer and subjected to iatrogenic radiation treatment, Solzhenitsyn writes...

He could not imagine any greater joy than to go away into the woods for months on end, to break off this chaga, crumble it, boil it up on a campfire, drink it and get well like an animal.

It acts against lung cancer via a Mitochondrial mechanism; from a 2019 paper:

Collectively, our results demonstrate that [Chaga polysaccharides] acts on cancer cells through a mechanism by which AMPK triggers the apoptotic pathway via the opening of mitochondrial permeability transition pore, and reducing [mitochondrial membrane potential], leading to an inhibition of ATP production. Therefore, our study provides a solid foundation for the use of IOP as a promising alternative or supplementary medicine for cancer therapy.

And that's not the only science on it counteracting lung cancer. Perhaps you're saying, "I don't need to worry about lung cancer because I don't smoke!" Well, good for you, but do you live in a big, bustling, smoggy city? If so, sorry, you're not so safe from lung cancer - in fact, you face lung cancer risks, similar to a light smoker, and taking something like a Chaga is a really smart idea!

A 2016 Japanese animal study found that just three weeks of aqueous Chaga extract suppresses cancer progression.

in tumor-bearing mice, 60% tumor reduction was observed, while in metastatic mice, the number of nodules decreased by 25% compared to the control group... Our findings suggest that the [Chaga] extract could be used as a natural remedy for cancer suppression by promoting energy metabolism.

Searching for anecdotal evidence, I found a Stage-4 Bile Duct Cancer survivor on Reddit who reports

I drank it some during chemo. Never saw any changes in liver function panel results but then I had liver mets. Maybe my results were skewed? In the end, both liver tumors and the lung tumors disappeared. One year [no evidence of disease] this week!

There are no human studies showing that it "cures cancer," but mechanistically, it's very promising. And if it is good enough for Solzhenitsyn, I'll certainly add it to my cancer prevention protocol. If you're taking Chaga to treat cancer, heed the wizened words of Daryl Patton, The Southern Herbalist: 1) Make the tincture first in whatever ratio 2) Do the extraction with pure grain alcohol 3) Remove the chunks of Chaga 4) Place the chunks in a pot of water and cover it in about 3 inches of water and allow it to simmer 5) Then combine those two extracts.

If you're just going to take it as a preventative, fortifying tonic, Patton advises: "Keep a pot of it boiling all the time!"

Vs Stomach Ulcers

It's potentially a digestion hack with a Gastroprotective antiulcer effect, from a 2019 assessment published in the International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms.

Oral administration of ethanolic extract of [Chaga] exhibited antiulcer activity in all models used. The ethanolic extract of I. obliquus showed an effective antiulcer activity, which could be due to the presence of various biologically active compounds.

Anti-Viral

In vitro and animal studies have established that its bioactive constituents bring the fight to a number of viral infections: hepatitis C, HIV, H1N1, herpes simplex virus, and even SARS-CoV-2 (Got the wu-flu? Get some Chaga in your cup!)

A concise 2022 review names it - alongside Lion's Mane, Reishi, Cordyceps Sinensis, and Turkey Tail - as a mushroom that belongs in your anti-COVID armamentarium.

Phytochemicals found in medicinal mushrooms include terpenoids, alkaloids, flavonoids, phenols, tannins, polyphenols, polysaccharides, proteins, lipids, and peptides, all of which have potent antiviral properties in terms of preventing viral invasion...

Anti-Microbial

It also beats back microbial nastiness: Staphyl…

Baby-making is more complicated than it might seem, and any couple struggling to conceive and achieve a successful pregnancy is faced with a confusing maze of fertility optimization measures.

This is where whole genome personal genotyping can be very helpful. Your genes obviously have everything to do with fertility, and your genes are unique. Personal g…

It's a new year, and with my self-inflicted new haircut and my lady at my side, we aim to impress by delivering sagacious responses in this Q&A podcast. From water's hardness, Huperzine's hijinks, to lowering blood pressure with pleasure and Moringa's might. And, I share a chapter from my upcoming science fiction novel about seduction, biohacking, and philosophy.

Listen to the full Q&A podcast on the go with Castbox, here.

Disclaimer

What you find on this website is NOT medical advice. I'm not a doctor. I'm just an experienced unlicensed self-experimenter practicing free speech in talking about my own extensive experiences and my interpretations of published science. Please see my guide on How to Biohack Smart and Safe. You should consult a doctor about any biohacking you're doing and, ideally, also get a second opinion.

#42 Questions

Q

i have had ADHD my whole life but didn't realize it until now at 50 , my whole life I haven't had any drive or motivation, what can i take for that...?

A

Apply everything in my deep-dive presentation…

Q

The people in eastern Europe with the hardest groundwater were found to have longer lifespans. Move over, distilled water, right?

A

Read: The Relationship between Mortality from Cardiovascular Diseases and Total Drinking Water Hardness: Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis

Recommendations: MITOLIFE water filtration system or ZeroWater countertop filter

Conclusion: In summary, while certain regions in Eastern Europe may have harder groundwater, and some studies suggest potential health benefits associated with hard water consumption, attributing longer lifespans solely to harder groundwater oversimplifies a complex interplay of factors influencing human health and longevity. Hard water is not the longevity hack, Magnesium is.

Q

Responding to Virus-Proof Yourself: 4 Natural Anti-Viral Biohacks

I haven't been sick since I started doing intermittent fasting and avoiding seed oils, aside from the period of "keto flu" that indicated the switch back to a healthy metabolism. I have also been much more heat- and cold- tolerant since then as well, and with some other benefits as well.Regarding your video title you might be interested to learn that virology is by all logical accounts a pseudo- science, failing logical scientific protocols like Koch's Postulates, virtually all tests of transmissibility, and in the fraudulent testing of vaccines and their effects by way of eliminating a proper placebo and also not factoring in multiple vaccines given over time. Let me know if you want some good links on that topic, if you ever have kids or have anyone with kids (or even taking "flu shots" or other injections) that will listen to you about the topic you would be very wise to do a bit of research and learn about it.

Q

What are your thoughts on Moringa?

A

Good broad-range nutriceutical with over 400 articles of human research on PubMed since the turn of the millennia. From a recent review of the nutraceutical...

Potential applications of Moringa compounds in the treatment of chronic diseases include antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial (bacterial or fungal), and anticancerous effects. In this review, various phytochemical extraction techniques, therapeutic properties, and applications are discussed.

* Helps pregnant women with chronic energy deficiency

* Enhance breast milk production in breastfeeding mothers

* Neuroprotective Effects

* Improve exercise performance in young male adults

Recommended source: Health Ranger Store's clean Moringa

Q

What's with Huperzine? Our naturalist dr. said that it would help stave off dementia. Any thoughts?

A

Huperzine has only 14 scientific papers since the turn of millennia and I could find just three old Chinese studies on Huperzine vs Dementia

Issue: Huperzine stays in your system for at least 24 hours. When you consume 400 mcg of huperzine (which is a common dosage in many stacks) the next day after you think that the Nootropic's effects have worn off there’s actually still 200 mcg in your system. The Huperzine in your system accumulates when you then take another 400 mcg, or maybe more if you mega-dose a Nootropic stack containing it.

Recommendations: Get your personal genotyping done to see what kind of cognitive decline risks you face Dementia-preventative evidence is better for Phosphatidylserine and Oxiracetam. If you must, take micro-dosed Huperzine you must, 25-50 micrograms daily.

Q

Responding to Exogenous Oxytocin 💗 A biohack for meaningful monogamy (and superlative sex?)

What are the Biohacks for lowering blood pressure?

A

Synopsis: Oxytocin has been shown to decrease blood pressure in certain contexts. Studies indicate that oxytocin can lower arterial blood pressure in conscious, unrestrained spontaneously hypertensive rats. Additionally, oxytocin can cause a decrease in blood pressure by binding to its receptors in the heart, kidney, and vasculature, leading to vasodilation and a decrease in plasma volume. However, the effects of oxytocin on blood pressure can vary depending on the context.

Recommendations: Baby Aspirin and anything that boosts Oxytocin itself, time spent with loved ones, good sex, petting a cute kitty - including the probiotic strain Lactobacillus Reuteri, which boosts Oxytocin.

Q

I'm a former subscriber -- sent money to you last year.Did not renew -- not paying you now.Are you reading carefully?When email from you arrives, I usually stop what I'm doing to read it right away.Very few people have that claim on my attention.You do.I want to see you succeed, because I want more of your good ideas.But you are making serious mistakes in your marketing process.Struggling with wasted effort.You don't even see those mistakes, otherwise you'd correct them.You are one of the few Internet writers for whom I'll make time.But when I've written to you in the past, your replies have been low-effort.I don't respond to low-effort messages.If you send a low-effort reply to this message, you won't hear from me again.So if you do reply, but I don't answer, well, you'll know one of the problems you need to fix.You're welcome.

My upcoming novel: About Biohacking, Seduction & Philosophy

Here's a teaser of the plot...

Xavier is a Biohacker, Lifehacker, professional poker player, statistical savant, gamer, addict, and cyber-criminal currently being prosecuted for masterminding a nine-million-dollar heist of "pre-cognitive capital." Pushed out of his comfort zone one night at a cigar bar, he approaches a strikingly beautiful Colombian woman, Astrid. An old Russian man gives him a mysterious confidence drug along with some advice that gives him a shot at charming a woman unlike any other he has ever known. But Astrid has an identical twin sister who seems to have succumbed to the same corrupting modern influences as Xavier. As he battles his addictions, the twins draw him into a web of intrigue and moral quandaries. In a world where corporations enslave the human mind to predict the future and profit, he'll excel because of the Biohacking tools he yields and his innate talents but falter because of his fundamentally flawed character.

And the back cover book blub

Set in a dystopian near-future world drunk on virtual bliss, it delves deeply into the themes of the digital enslavement of human sexuality, tech addiction, the state of men in modernity, the scientific study of consciousness, and corporate capture of the prophetic ability of the mind. This novel illustrates the application of some of the edgier Biohacks, lifehacks, and social dynamics hacks. Along with some philosophical exposition that will clarify the reader's viewpoint of the absurdistan of the modern world.

It's some of the best writing I've ever done. And I'd like to give you a download of the first five chapters to whet your appetite...

If you're a sex addict, sorry it's not for you. In fact, please pass on these sample chapters. They might be "triggering" (to use that word I resisted for a long time) for you. But, not much more triggering than life in general, and not …

While everyone else is hoping that 2025 will be a better year than those earlier this decade, I suggest that you think more about 2030...

And I know what you might be thinking…

I'm not big on New Year's Resolutions, Jonathan. I've disappointed myself with pass/fail goals too many times in the past. My current stack of habits is pretty good, so I'm just going to stick with those.

Or maybe you're more pessimistic than that…

What's the hell is the point of making grand plans at this time? In the post-COVID "new normal," my career prospects are shot  -  my industry has been hit hard by the shit show of the 2020s. And it's harder to date now. My social life is contracting  -  people seem less interested in meeting up. My family members are estranged because of political differences. Inflation has made it even harder to afford to eat a clean, organic diet. I'm just hoping we don't all die in a nuclear war next week!

I'd still urge you to make some New Year's Resolutions and, in fact, make some five-year 2030 resolutions. Here's why: I've been doing this for a while myself, and frankly, I fail at a lot of goals I set for myself in a given year - but I'm surprised at how this conscious future-casting manifests years later. Too many gurus and pop culture characters sell the idea that your personal growth efforts will bear fruit quickly, and as a result, you get disappointed that the results of your first year investing in cryptocurrency have not been something to brag about - or whatever it is that you devote yourself to.

If you're pessimistic about the future...

I certainly wouldn't blame you given how chaotic this young decade has proven itself thus far, but I'd urge you to rewatch my speech, The Winter Solstice of Civilization…

Give some contemplation as to how you can liberate yourself by choosing discomfort in 2025. The more you choose to endure discomfort, the more you claw back your God-given freedoms from the vile forces that seek to enslave you - the more your horizons broaden while beauty, meaning, and adventure beckon.

In the past two years, my marriage and sex life have improved dramatically as a result of my choosing discomfort, discipline, and higher personal standards, which I write about in How to Stay Loyal to Your Woman - 6 steps to resilient sexual-spiritual risk mitigation and I forgot what D’Artagnan taught me and got my dick BURNED by a LASER.

Create a 5-Year Self-Determination Flowchart

It’s well said that…

We often over estimate what we can achieve in a year and underestimate what we can achieve in 5 years.

In one year, you’ll likely be pretty similar to who you are right now.It’s also pretty hard to say what your life will be like in 10 years; some people’s lives will radically change for the better or worse in 10 years.However, in half that time, your life will likely still have a significant resemblance to what it is now.

I strongly encourage you to make optimistic predictions about what your life could look like in 5 years in these areas…

* Business or Career

* Education and Learning

* Family and Friends

* Finances

* Faith and Spirituality

* Health and Fitness

* Food and Diet

* Hobbies and Entertainment

* Relationships and Sex

* Things and Toys

* Travel and Adventure

* Where will you live?

* What would your average day or week look like?

Try to strike a balance between your wildest fantasies and a reasonable prediction of how you will be living if you practice your best habits with discipline. Look at your Coach.me dashboard (you should have set this up by now if you’re serious about thriving) and imagine those daily habits multiplied by 1800 (5 years).

By the way, don't set yourself up for failure by overloading yourself with too many daily habits. Certain edifying habits only need to be done once or twice a week. For example, While I love technology, I don't want to outsource my memory to technology, so I practice Mnemonics with the SuperMemo app a few times a week.

MindMeister is one of my favorite tools for organizing my thoughts and ideas. So, I suggest that you take 45–60 minutes (Fire up Brain.FM for a 60-minute focus session) to create a flowchart in MindMeister, which is free and takes just a moment to sign up for.

* I suggest that you link the individual self-determination predictions to your habits in Coach.me.

* All of your 5-year predictions should connect at least loosely to your daily habits. If they don’t, consider adding them to your Coach.me dashboard.

* Specificity is great. Actually, be arbitrarily specific.

The important thing is that you visualize and think specifically about what you want your life to look like in 5 years. This is quite different from a vision board, which is really just fantasizing…

I’d like a red Ferrari.I’d like a supermodel girlfriend.I’d like a yacht with a shark tank in it.

Whereas the 5-year Self-Determination Flowchart is specific organized predictions based upon habits and behaviors, which can be measured and done daily or weekly.

I urge you to make time to do this now

Life will happen to you, and you’ll forget about this exercise. Do it now.

The self-determination flowchart is a great thing to save and revisit, especially around January 1st. With the craziness of the holidays and the demands of family in the rearview, this should naturally be a more introspective period for you. This is an ideal time to consider how you’re doing and review your life, values, and habits along with your medium and long-term goals.

Here’s my old self-determination flowchart; perhaps you can draw some inspiration or ideas from it…

Our current self-determination flowchart, I'm NOT going to publish as one of my resolutions is to be a bit more of a private person instead of the oversharer with the internet that I have been.

For the vain

Speaking of the year 2030, if you find yourself struggling to stay really committed to the healthy anti-aging and biohacking stuff, go look at pictures of people five years older than you are now. If you have family members of the same sex about 5 years older than you, go look at a recent photo of them - that might give you a pretty good idea of what you'll look like in the future. Use an AI Age Filter image tool or search Your Age+5 Your Gender on Shutterstock or Google Images for images...

Unless you're under 25 years old, it's not a pretty picture - especially if you disregard the obviously doctored/photoshopped/Instagram-filtered modeling photos  -  is it? I'll make a wild claim and then prove it: I haven't aged in the past 10 years. Check out these photos of me at age 26…

At 36...

And this year, at 39

I don't share these photos to brag (ok, maybe a little), but to prove that this biohacking and diet hacking stuff really does work - I looked hard for photos of me looking worse after 10 years of wear and tear and couldn't find any. If you'd rather age like wine than milk, replace a few of your meals a week with raw coconut and implement as much of the anti-aging stuff as you can afford to, and you'll thank me in five or ten years!

If...

You've failed at your New Year's Resolutions in the past, check out this video. In it, I share a long-term strategy and a specific technology.

Respond...

On balance, are you optimistic or pessimistic about 2025? What goals and dreams do you have for 2030? What daily/weekly habits will you implement now to work towards them?

Share this with someone optimistic about the new year…

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