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Pop psychology and the broad personal-development adjacent culture sphere have become VERY trauma aware. This is a good thing in a lot of ways, as trauma affects us all. But, I'll break with the mainstream, by contending that myopic focus on trauma is a mistake. And it might be something you don't need to focus on at all to break away from the pain and pattern of the past.
My story (it has a happy ending)
Growing up, for the better part of a decade as a child and young teenager, my mother emotionally dumped on me all her disappointments with my father. His emotional insensitivity, his anger issues, his bullying of her over the very silly issue of keeping the house clean - I heard about them all on practically a daily basis. I spent a lot of my childhood feeling sorry for my mother, my life was kind of an emotional "Groundhog Day" with her - wake up, go to school, come home, listen to mom complain about dad, REPEAT.Psychologists term this an "emotionally incestuous" relationship with a parent, and apparently, it's something a lot of mothers do with their sons. Which has predictable results when they grow up; it royally fucks up the way they relate to women. As you can imagine, a lot of these men end up pretty simpy, they dramatically overcompensate in trying to be the "nice men" their mothers didn't choose. They become unassertive chumps that can't attract women, they let women walk all over them, or they become male feminists or gay - I imagine in some cases. They end up with crippling cases of "Moma's boy" syndrome. And I'm sure a lot of them end up very angry at women.
But not me. As a young adult, I had relatively healthy relationships with women. I dated a few women who were less than classy, but never for long. I went through a promiscuous phase that I have a few regrets about. And then I married a beautiful, classy, virtuous Bulgarian girl and we've stayed married for seven years now - we're happier than ever with each other! I ended up surprisingly well-adjusted in regard to women, despite the emotional dumping I endured in my formative years.
THIS is because of the personal development influences I had as a young adult.
* I started by reading Think & Grow Rich, then I read Donald Trump's business books (which are really about mindset).
* I consumed a lot of pick-up artist and "game" content which I contend is dramatically healthier than the modern cultural programming on dating, relationships, and sex. You might be surprised by how much the pick-up artist gurus emphasize empathy, consent, respect, and healthy holistic masculinity. The pick-up artist movement has produced a lot more decent men in healthy relationships with women than it has predatory creeps!
* Then I got into Biohacking; Nootropics, smart drugs, meditation, brain training, etc.
* I quit porn and cultivated myself as a tantric man - reclaiming my sexual sovereignty from the pixelated pleasure planet.
* And I studied philosophy and ethics - learning much about real-time relationships from Stefan Molyneux, the world's greatest living philosopher.
These influences were very pragmatic ones; I took action every day on the things I learned about and charted my own course. These influences taught me how to be confident around women and how to walk that precarious tightrope in my relationships with women - balancing between assertively providing leadership and being a doormat.
I haven't spent more than 30 minutes talking with a therapist about my relationship with my mother and more than a few pages journaling on the topic. I paid the cost to liberate myself from the Jungian shadow of my mother with action-taking, not sitting on the couch of a $100/hour psychologist. I've heard a lot of people talk about going to talk therapy for their childhood trauma (for years, spending thousands of dollars!) and it sounds like an arduous, tedious, and painful excavation of the past. Whereas, the personal development approach I took - taking big risks as an entrepreneur, going salsa dancing at a beach club in Spain, doing Daygame in Colombia to practice my second language, taking Ayahascua in the Andes mountains, trying hundreds of smart drugs - that all was fucking fun and produced a bunch of great memories that I'll cherish for the rest of my life.
Avoiding sin > trauma awareness
A Christian masculinity podcast I listened to said something interesting about trauma. The two hosts were speaking highly about their wives and our now very trauma-aware pop culture. One man said...
"My wife worries more about avoiding sin than she does her trauma."
Trauma is not a choice, it's something bad that happened to you when you were powerless. And it happened in the past, you can't change what happened. But sin, in the Christian view is very different, sin is a choice - every time. The Bible couldn't disagree stronger with the stylish modern "No Free Will" notion. Sin is something to be avoided every day, demanding our eternal vigilance and devotion to something greater than ourselves. Avoiding sin is about the future (yet unwritten), while trauma is about the past (set in stone). By focusing a lot on your trauma might you be damning yourself to remain in its shackles? But when you avoid sin you're taking back your power from the demons of the past, and architecting a more virtuous future.
And, of course, the trauma you endured is almost certainly the result of someone else's sin - rage, pride, or lust. By avoiding sin yourself you are casting a gift more valuable than gold into the future, you're breaking the cycle. When you focus on avoiding sin instead of trauma, you're broadening your scope from putting a small injured part of yourself under the microscope to a Christlike love and concern for others. If you're a person of faith, does your holy book recommend focusing a ton of time and energy on the wrong done to you in the past? Or does it spend a lot more ink calling you to practice your free will in avoiding sin? That should give you a hint as to what will actually help!
I tend to think that the universe bends to the will of the man or woman determined to impose it with absolute belief. And actually, that's the most proven fact in science with over 150,000Â gold-standard clinical trials proving the power of belief over the material structure of our biology (fixing broken bones and curing cancer, to mention a few things) - more about the placebo effect a little later. Your tenacious determination, empowered by the right tools, will accelerate you to escape velocity, and beyond the gravity well of your trauma.
Women's mental health
An example of the myopic focus on childhood trauma...
In another podcast, I listened to recently, a husband called in for help with his wife who was experiencing extreme postpartum woes. It sounds like she was somewhat suicidal and acting quite crazy, undermining his career and the healthy development of their babies. The host spent about 20 seconds asking about her health...
Host: Has she seen a doctor? Gotten blood tests done? Is she getting enough sleep?Caller: Yeah, they said everything is fine on her blood tests. She gets 8 hours a night.
And then 90 minutes on her childhood trauma; speculating that she was so far gone in the mental health department because her having children re-ignited her unresolved childhood trauma. Oh, and she had been in talk therapy for years, with little apparent positive effect.
I'm sure there's something to the idea that becoming a parent for the first time would reawaken old childhood trauma, but there's NO WAY this woman is in good hormonal health! I've listened to a lot of podcasts about women's health and read a couple of books around the topic, and women's mental health issues have a lot to do with hormonal imbalances, vitamin/nutrient deficiencies, the standard American diet, or spending all day swiping on a smartphone. Mental health issues can often be resolved quickly by Biohacking; Nootropics, smart drugs, diet hacking, detox protoco…
The book shows how journalism has died in the digital age because of how the economics of the Internet reward the worst behavior from journalists and news websites. The subtitle of the book is Confessions of a Media Manipulator, the author is a PR consultant who would cleverly orchestrate the media to do his bidding and draw millions of eyeballs.
Some people "take the red pill" - have some awakening to how corrupt, evil, and fake everything mainstream is in neoliberal modernity - and then decide to serve and provide comfort to the powers that should NOT be. Ryan Holiday, the author of this book, is one of those people.After writing this book on how the media is corrupt and the news is fake more often than not, since 2016 he has been aggressively anti-Trump and since 2020 pro-COVID medical tyranny. Someone could be forgiven for succumbing to the mainstream media propaganda barrage on Trump and COVID, but not somebody who really understood the fake news - they would have seen through at least some of the lies. Go look at his Facebook page, he is a prominent prig - which means a person who demonstrates exaggerated conformity or propriety, especially in an irritatingly arrogant or smug manner.
He writes...
Conning the conmen is one of life’s most satisfying pleasures. (p. 39)
In the first chapter of the book, he describes dressing all in black in the dead of night to go vandalize his own billboards, just to create a clickbait-worthy scandal. That just sounds fun to me!
He describes the trading up 'media hack'
I’d start with using HARO to get quoted on a blog that didn’t care much about credentials, then use that piece as a marker of authority to justify inclusion in a more reputable publication. (p. 56)
How to go viral
“the most powerful predictor of virality is how much anger an article evokes” (p. 63)
I made it my strategy to manufacture chatter by exploiting emotions of high valence: arousal and indignation. (p. 66)
On fact-checking
The link economy encourages blogs to point their readers to other bloggers who are saying crazy things, to borrow from each other without verification, and to take more or less completed stories from other sites, add a layer of commentary, and turn it into something they call their own. (p. 150)
On trust
He talks about how for some reason we assume that since something is written down it must be more legitimate than just something somebody says...
Studies have shown that the brain experiences reading and listening in profoundly different ways; they activate different hemispheres for the exact same content. We place an inordinate amount of trust in things that have been written down. (p. 185)
On snarkiness
To be called a douche is to be branded with all the characteristics of what society deigns to hate but can’t define. It’s a way to dismiss someone entirely without doing any of the work or providing any of the reasons. (p. 204)
On fake news
The process is simple: Create a pseudo-event, trade it up the chain, elicit real responses and action, and you have altered reality itself. (p. 220)
From here we get the defining feature of our world today: a blurred line between what is real and what is fake; what actually happens and what is staged; (p. 220)
For example...
2002, Vice President Dick Cheney leaked bogus information to an attention-hungry reporter for the New York Times, and then mentioned his own leak on Meet the Press to help convince us to invade Iraq. (p. 221)
Probably like yourself, I seldom watch the mainstream media; Fox, CBS, CNN, NBC, BBC but there are a couple of what they call alternative media channels and personalities I do follow and have some degree of trust in because they are more anti-establishmentarian. Their news programs are not interrupted every 10 minutes with an advertisement from Pfizer or Ford. Unfortunately, after reading this book, I have even less trust in the alternative media sources I follow because I see that they are also subject to the unfortunate economics of the Internet that rewards quantity over quality and scandal over veracity.
How to combat fake news...
* This book confirms what I recommend in the High-Leverage Information Diet which is to spend more time reading more books and less time reading articles. Books are just so much more likely to contain truthful information because anyone writing a book has to spend at least $900 to have that book edited; they are going to take their fact-checking a whole lot more seriously than that journalist or blogger who must bang out 3 articles a day. Anyone writing a book knows that their reputation and public persona are going to be permanently tied back to whatever they say in that book. Whereas a blogger or an "online journalist" has so much less moral responsibility for what they write.
* I'll encourage you to not read the news and if you do read the news because there's a story that you just have to inform yourself about then read the stories and analysis that come out a couple of days or (ideally) weeks or months after the fact. These are so much more likely to present an accurate and holistic picture than the breaking news is. Thanks to the current US elections we are perhaps living in an era where more eyeballs than ever before are transfixed by the breaking news. We have this epic showdown between this iconic egotistical billionaire and this Machiavellian, double-faced super-politician. I bet you that in a few years, books will be written about this election that reveals things that are completely contrary to what the news is telling us right now.
* Get your information from online sources that are not economically compromised. The more ads you see surrounding the news you are reading the higher the likelihood that the veracity of news has been compromised by factors described in this book. This is a big part of the reason why I've never had ads on my website or YouTube channel that paid me per view. I've always made my money as a blogger or Youtuber via affiliate commissions. So my economic incentive is to make the most trustworthy recommendations of the very best products to my audience so that they will keep buying them. I've always known that as soon as I installed ads on my site I would become a slave to the page view.
Nowadays we see some alternative media sources that serve the news and make money by taking donations or selling things like books or supplements. These seem like imperfect but more honest economic models of journalism than being paid tiny fractions of a cent per pageview. Some examples of this would be Infowars.com, Red Ice, Freedomain with Stefan Molyneux, Mike Cernovich, Corbett Report, or - to name a few left-leaning media sources I follow - Sam Harris and RealLifeLore on Youtube.
I'll add a silver lining to the pessimistic conclusions presented here; nowadays whenever any type of newsworthy event happens what do you almost always see around the periphery of the event?Everybody holding their smartphones recording the event. It looks pretty funny, as opposed to enjoying the event or making an effort to keep their wits about them to stay safe, everybody is just transfixed on documenting it with their little rectangular devices.While it's weirdly narcissistic behavior, it's great for the overall veracity of news and online discourse. There have been all sorts of instances where a scandalous news story broke and the public shaming and hysteria began but then a grainy video of what happened surfaced and everyone learned the truth.
Eventually when we live in a world where almost everything that happens is recorded will "fake news" still be so prevalent? Maybe not...
Share this with a news junkie…
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Gents, one of the most pernicious myths about women that I’d like to disabuse you of is that women are just into guys with money.
Over 7 years I traveled to over 20 different countries, and in many of them, I sought out local wingmen or at least found a local guy who spoke decent English and asked him about the cultural nuances of dating there. What I heard over and over was…
“Oh, girls here are just interested in guys with money.”
This is a half-truth. As a red-pilled man, you should have some cursory understanding of females’ dual mating strategy…
* Sleep with a “lover male”. She’ll throw all caution to the wind, engaging in risky sexual behavior with a man that signals high genetic fitness — either being very good-looking or being a cocky “bad boy” — sometimes resulting in unplanned pregnancies.
* Locking down a “provider male”. She makes a very rational selection of the man most able to provide her resources, financial security, and emotional stability. And then she plants her flag on her newly conquered territory which often involves marriage, stalking him on social media, or encouraging him in behaviors that will make him less attractive to other women.
Now women do find both types of men attractive but they treat them very differently. Their sexual relationships with lovers are just all about fun, no more serious than hopping on a rollercoaster at an amusement park. But when it comes to providers, females become as conservative as Warren Buffett doing a quantitative analysis on a prospective billion-dollar investment. They take things slow and will dispassionately scan your soul for any disqualifying feature.If you begin your relationships with women by bragging to them about your stuff or showing off the financial security you might offer then they’ll put you squarely in the provider box, where they really won’t be in a hurry to sleep with you, and they’ll constantly be looking for reasons to eject from the relationship.
The advantage of starting a relationship as her lover instead of as her provider cannot be overstated…
* If she regards you as a “lover” from the beginning of the relationship, she’ll reward you with a lot of sex and good times.
* Then you start testing the water with some “provider behavior” — showing her more respect — and just see how she reacts. If she’s a bad woman she’ll lose interest in you and be flakier the more you invest in the relationship.
* Reward her devotion by making her your girlfriend. Gradually, act a bit more like a provider; buying her gifts, paying for her groceries, helping her with her bills occasionally, and providing emotional support. And see how she treats you, if she’s a good woman she’ll reciprocate your devotion with thoughtful acts of service.
Transitioning from lover to provider comes easily and naturally, and a good woman will reward your transformation. Whereas, transitioning from “provider” to “lover” in her mind is damn near impossible. Now there’s a spectrum of behavior among women, of course, some only sleep with and date bad boy lovers (and then complain about it!) While some women are more interested in getting a decent boyfriend. But unless you’re courting with a Belarussian farmer’s daughter who reads her bible every day and has never watched a Hollywood movie, she’s going to respond more positively to lover behavior, at least in the beginning. I’ll point out that I don’t think this makes women “bad”, it’s just the way they are, it’s an evolutionary thing. You can complain about it and wallow in self-pity, or you can get it working for you.
So of course, you’re thinking…
OK, act like a “lover,” not a provider. How do I do that practically…?
A couple of social dynamics hacks for exuding the lover vibe…
* Tell her to move — You’re talking to a girl at a party, bar, or on the street, tell her “Hey move over here real quick.” and gesture to somewhere nearby. As you’re doing it make a little excuse, it’s too bright here, the music is too loud, I need some fresh air…
* Go direct, then change the subject — I’ve had a number of friends and wingmen who were very effective natural seducers. Observing their interactions with women, they would almost always announce early their intentions. They would say something like “I thought you were very beautiful and I had to meet you…” but then they would quickly change this subject to chatting about something more mundane.
* “I don’t want to be your boyfriend” — This statement of intent often prompts the woman to say “Oh, I have a boyfriend,” which is true about half the time, just respond “Don’t worry. I don’t want to be your boyfriend.” Then switch to the conservation subject.
* “We’re not sleeping together, don’t get any ideas…” — As the interaction gets a bit more flirtatious or sexual, throw out a false disqualifier “We aren’t having sex, I’m a nice boy…” or give some other silly reason “I’m suspicious of women with large purses, I don’t think it would work out between us” then continue with the flirting.
* If there’s a chance that you can kiss her, go for it! — If you’re failing to turn first dates into second dates or relationships or ending up in the friend zone, it might be because you’re waiting for the perfect moment to kiss her. Try kissing her even if it’s a little awkward, even if your head and her body aren’t perfectly aligned. She may brush off your advance but try again in 20 minutes. If she really doesn’t want to kiss you, she’ll be adamant about it. She’ll know what you’re after and you at least won’t get stuck in the friend zone again.
I got a story about that final one, once upon a time in Belgrade, Serbia I invited this Serbian girl with fake tits smoking outside a hostel to join me at a bar with a wingman. My wingman, being not-totally-clueless (this is why you should go out with guys who are into “game” and pickup), could tell that we had a little chemistry and left us to ourselves, the girl didn’t speak great English (she told me she was 13-years-old, I think she meant 30!) so I kept trying to kiss her while showing her silly Youtube videos on my phone. I think I tried 4–5 times and she always turned her cheek to the side avoiding my advances, but she didn’t leave or make a big deal out of it. And then I never met her again, but the funny thing is that after that she persistently stalked me on social media for about 4 years! She liked every photo I posted and would send me messages in barely legible English, suggesting that we meet again somewhere in the Balkans. Ultimately I had to block her on both Facebook and Instagram because I got married and wanted to avoid any temptation to do anything really stupid.
My new book, Don’t Stick Your Dick in a Blender, delves a lot deeper into advanced social dynamics strategies so that you don’t waste your time with women by unwittingly exhibiting provider behavior while at the same time filtering into your life women who will respect and reward noble provider behavior when the time is right for it…
Share this with a guy who thinks, “Women are just into guys with money….”
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I first read this when I was around 20 years old, I'm 31 now. I've heard people say that this book kind of grows with you. I read it again and I think I got more out of it the first time I read it. I'll explain why later...
I'll be honest, I read this book about 11 years ago and, I've done a lot of thinking (and doing) since then but I have not grown rich. So you may want to just stop reading this now if you were hoping to hear from someone who's made a bunch of money as a result of reading Think & Grow Rich.
However, where it's really ROI'd for me is in rich life experiences...
* I've spent years traveling around the world living in interesting places.
* Having control of my time. I spent pretty close to 100% of my time doing the things I want to do.
* Finding meaningful work. Finding that intersection of what I'm good at, what I'm passionate about, and what people are willing to handsomely compensate me for.
* Having interesting relationships with a diversity of people.
And it's given me an abundance of the two things that I have always valued most, which are...
1. An adventurous life of novelty.2. Being a thinker. Even when I was very young I knew I wanted to be a writer, I knew I wanted to be a philosopher. With the application of the principles in this book, I've accomplished that.
There are some things in this book that I think Napoleon Hill was wrong about...
I see a trend of polarization and demonization of those who aim to compete aggressively. Our who is John Gault society, steadily marching towards the world foretold in Idiocracy and 1984, seems increasingly keen on inventing witches to hunt. I foresee a public backlash against Biohackers.
Biohacking is antiestablishmentarianism starting on a biological level. It's naive to think that our movement which empowers the individual by hacking health, happiness, and productivity doesn't present a threat to the powers that be. If you share a little of my paranoia on this issue I encourage you to start paying for your smart drugs with crypto.
A lot of people who are into smart drugs and Biohacking are Internet Gangsters who are also into using blockchain-based digital currencies. It's a pretty natural overlap, the people who are hacking the financial system and choosing personal sovereignty by using crypto are also interested in high-leverage control of their own biology.
Convert cryptocurrency into the enhanced neurotransmitters you most need to succeed
First of all, there are several credible vendors of smart drugs, Nootropics, or anti-aging health supplements directly accepting crypto. Listed alphabetically...
Caballo
The Red Pill Formula for Biohacking Cognitive Capital. A combination of the highest potency Racetams for a profoundly enhanced cognitive experience.
Caballo is now EXCLUSIVELY AVAILABLE to clients of our flagship transformational program, Anakainōsis, for which crypto is the preferred payment method.
Intellimeds.net
These guys are based out of Spain. It looks like they accept Bitcoin for dozens of different Nootropics and supplements. What I like about them is that they almost exclusively sell the highest quality pharmaceutical-grade smart drugs and they have certificates of analysis (COAs) verifying this. They do specialize in powdered brain supplements, which you will need to measure out when you take them. They come in very utilitarian no-frills packaging and since they are powdered they will not taste very good. They offer Nootropics like
* Noopept
* Pramiracetam
* AniracetamÂ
* IDRA-21
* Tianeptine
ModafinilXL
ModafinilXL is, I think, the most credible vendor on the Internet of Modafinil and Armodafinil. This is the biggest digital Modafinil pharmacy online. I call it the biggest because they have over 15 different kinds of Modafinil. ModafinilXL is probably the best value source of Modafinil on the internet. You are going to want to do your research on Modafinil before taking it. About a third of Biohackers don't like it, yet it is often the preferred smart drug of Wall Street traders, Silicon Valley programmers, and elite combat pilots in the Air Force. Modafinil costs between $2 - $5 daily. They offer a generous discount if you use crypto and you can pay directly on their website with Bitcoins as easily as you can with a credit card.
NMNBio
In the UK, offers the rarefied longevity enhancer, NMN - the epigenetic vitamin, to British and European Biohackers and they accept Bitcoin, upon request.
Pure Nootropics
As their name implies these guys are a source of high-purity, COA-verified Nootropics. They offer mostly capsuled Nootropics. I used their Caffeine+L-Theanine stack, Oxiracetam, Coluracetam, Piracetam, and Aniracetam and was pleased with the results.
RUPharma
Shipping from Kazakhstan/RU and Singapore/Dubai offers some unique Nootropics, anti-aging agents, and performance enhancers. They are an option for Europeans in countries that have authoritarian restrictions against smart drugs; particularly the Racetams and Modafinil family.
* RUPharma.com ships from Russia to the US and the UK.
* EuropeChemist.com ships from the EU to other EU countries where it's usually difficult to receive Nootropics.
Pharmacological categories offered are...
* NMDA Biohacks like Cerebrolysin & Semax
* Peptides
* Male enhancers
* HGH and testosterone
Check out my Biohacker reviews and overviews of some of their products here.
SwissChems
In the USA, offers a wide range of smart drugs (including the Godfather of smart drugs - Piracetam), peptides, SARMS, performance enhancers, and research chemicals (that you should really do your research on BEFORE self-experimenting with!) Their website features purity-testing COAs for a number of their products, although I don't love their refund/return policy (I guess it's one of the things that keeps their prices very competitive). They accept payment in Bitcoin and several other mainstream altcoins.
Other Nootropic vendors accepting Crypto
The more credible ones that I have experience with are above, the ones below I can't recommend as enthusiastically...
NootropicsJet.com - Based in Poland, serves Europeans Racetams, Modafinil, and some other common Nootropics. Many of their products are COA-verified. They offer a 10% discount on cryptocurrency payments and free shipping with an $80 minimum purchase.
Nootropix - Based in Abu Dhabi, offering purity-tested Nootropics to the Emirates.
AntiTPD.com - Want to use Nicotine as a smart drug? AntiTPD ships everywhere and accepts payment in Crypto exclusively.
Now there may be a Nootropic you want to use that is not for sale for Crypto...
Like the Adaptogens; Rhodiola Rosea, Eleuthero, and Schisandra Chinensis which I recommend highly to everyone.
These herbs are demonstrated in human studies to have great long-term anti-aging benefits. They are effective short-term performance enhancers. And they are pretty cheap compared with the Racetams and Modafinil.
 In the past, I used and recommended P2P crypto exchanges to convert crypto into cash, but now many custodial crypto services offer credit cards - you can spend your crypto anywhere that accepts VISA, Mastercard, etc.Â
What you don't want to do is store a lot of your crypto on exchanges or custodial crypto platforms like Crypto.com or CoinBase. These centralized platforms may steal your crypto (famously, as in the case of Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX) or charge you onerous fees. Also, the big crypto platforms are like your bank, they'll potentially report your transaction history to authorities. Self-custody your crypto with a tool like Exodus Wallet and transfer only the crypto you need to liquidate or trade to these platforms and you'll keep more of it!
Some HODLERs might be screaming right now at this article: Don't spend your crypto, save it!
I hear you, but what you do with your crypto stash depends on your priorities; personal and ideological.
You probably came into crypto in the first place because of your smarts - might you dramatically increase your capacity to make (a lot) more by enhancing your cognitive capital?
Also, if you like me, see Bitcoin as a vehicle to a saner future you should reward the vendors who accept crypto.Â
I know what some of the more cryptographically adroit might be thinking: Bitcoin is NOT a privacy coin!
That's true, if you've ever shared your BTC wallet address publicly your BTC transactions may not be as private as you would like them to be - still better than buying smart drugs with ye' old legacy financial system-issued credit card though!
Even better would be using the Monero, the most popular and secure privacy coin. Here on MarketplaceGOLD, you can see which Nootropics/Health supplements vendors accept XMR.
30-minute Biohacking consultation is included if you invest at least...
* +200 EUR with Intellimeds
* $150 with ModafinilXLÂ
* $150 with Pure Nootropics
* Â $150 with RUPharmaÂ
* +$150 with SwissChems
We can get on Skype or Zoom and I will do my damnedest to answer whatever questions you have not been able to find good answers for just by Googling it.
I'll also mention that...
I accept Bitcoin and mainstream altcoins for my Biohacking coaching/consulting
My rate is $189 for a 90-minute session. It's kind of expensive but there seem to be two categories of people that it really ROIs for.1) The first is people who are c…
I lost my religion.
I was once a very religious, evangelical Christian and now I'm not.
One night, a while ago, I found myself in a very placid lucid dream, it wasn't one of those lucid dreams where you are having sex and fighting with lightsabers, I was just in a dark room lounging on some bean bags, talking with a red-haired woman. I had conducted the digital text test so I knew I was dreaming and I asked her a difficult question:
I was once very religious with strong faith. Now I am not. When I was religious I always believed that non-religious people, while claiming intellectual reasons for their atheism were just using it as an excuse for their hedonistic activities. Now I carry on a fairly hedonistic existence and I'm not religious. Am I intellectually justified or am I just avoiding my maker because my moral standards are a shadow of what they used to be?
Tough question right? And a question that could only be answered by oneself.
The character in my lucid dream responded that I was indeed bullshitting myself; that I was a non-believer of convenience, not conviction. That I was not intellectually justified.
This book is less anti-religious than you might guess from its title. Its author is one of the most hated philosophers and current public intellectuals because of his politically incorrect criticisms of religion. This is interesting to me because he's the most polite politically incorrect person I can think of - really the polar opposite of the kind of rude anti-religious rants you hear from comedians and shock jock podcasters - yet he inspires vitriolic hate across the Internet. You can go look him up on YouTube and watch his videos and he comes across as just the most docile, sober, soft-spoken critic of religion.So this book is not like 250 pages just beating up on religion. It's really about meditation practice which is the solution to spirituality without religion. I suspect many religious people could read this book and will be better religious people for it.
On the other side of the spectrum, some strictly atheistic people may not even consider reading a book like this with the word spiritual in its title. However, I'll give them a more precise definition of spiritual to consider:
Seeking to understand our minds, the nature of self, and our relation to the world more deeply by way of reaching for extraordinary states of consciousness.
The new Anakainōsis program presents a unique opportunity, for you and I to do a bunch of cool Biohacking stuff together in person (at your location OR in Europe where I live).
This program, which for you will be a transformation that authors a legacy that echoes in eternity begins with four deep-dive discovery conversations (60-90 minutes each)...
* Your Biohacking and Nootropics regimen - what biohacks you've tried, what's working, and what isn't.
* Current state of your life - goals, relationships, fears, vices, addictions - what challenges you are struggling with.
* Your life experiences along with your values, principles, beliefs, and faith - what drives you on a deep level?
* What is your exponential 10X blue ocean - what might you do better than anyone else on Earth?
These conversations are the foundation of the transformative program and from which I will derive the grand narratives underlying your unique and original Anakainōsis book - made to last 200 years by a master artisan. While these can be done via VOIP, it would be really cool to do them in person! This would give me a different view of you, which I can capture in the book which will stand as a testament to your legacy.
In person, there's a bunch of cool Biohacking stuff we could do together...
* Nootropics and Smart Drugs - I've self-experimented with over 200 of these. So, if you're open to it, I'll put you on some potent ones to enhance your working and long-term memory during those deep-dive conversations.
* Infoceutical frequency biohacks - One of my favorite Biohacking tools, that must be experienced to be believed, is the downloadable infoceuticals that work via the phenomena of water memory and quantum colocation. I'd like to put you on a few of these!
* Breathwork - This is an instant satisfaction Biohack for energy, optimism, stress resilience, and even stoicism - with the breath-holding exercises. I do them every day and I'd like to go through a couple of sessions with you, teaching you how to breathe like a Jedi.
* Advanced mindfulness exercises - This week I'd like us to sit together at least once for 50 minutes doing the epigenetic mindset transformation with olfactory-pavlovian scent conditioning. This sometimes results in massive mindset and health breakthroughs!
* Exercise - Let's do a workout (or seven) together. I might show you a few things (or you me!)
* PEMF, heart rate variability training, and other biohacking tech - I'd like to put you on some of my gadgets. Like a PEMF device that entrains the brain with different wavelengths; alpha, beta, gamma, and delta.
To name several things.
Here's the big question:Â do you want to do this at your location or here in Europe?
Doing it at your location, I get a more intimate view of the life you've built. I could meet some of your friends and family. My witty and pretty wife comes with me everywhere I go so we'll be hanging out for about a week.
OR
You could come to see me in Bulgaria for a week. Bulgaria is a very underrated place...
* It's a Slavic country with southern European charm, hospitality, and good weather.
* The diet is generally Mediterranean, not quite like Italian or French cuisine but all organic and very good in my opinion!
* Wifi is blazing fast here, customer service standards are downright decent, and it's generally a well-run country where English is very common.
* It's one of the safest countries in Europe. In case you're wondering, we're about 1000 miles away from the conflict in Ukraine and Bulgaria is one of the more neutral European countries. So there's really not more concern about geopolitical fireworks here than there is in many "first world countries" in the current year.
I live in the center of Sofia, the cosmopolitan capital, a five-minute walk from the Roman ruins and natural spring. We could do it here, but what might be a more sublime experience would be spending a week together at one of the very affordable resorts on the beautiful sun-drenched Black Sea coast, we can begin our mornings with a sunrise-gazing meditation and grounding at the beach.
Bulgaria is in a very different timezone than North America so if that's where you're coming from I can put you on some jet-lag Biohacks or better yet, tag your visit onto the end of a European vacation this year.
With the Anakainōsis program there are a couple of different packages and pricing options that we can discuss on a pre-program client interview, one of them includes my travel expenses to do all this at your location. Doing it via VOIP or in Bulgaria will be more economical, so you'll have to do some thinking about that.
You're probably wondering how much the Anakainōsis program will cost...
That and your other questions are addressed in the FAQ section of Anakainosis.co.
Modafinil and I go back. Way back. I've used Modafinil well over a hundred times, I've used every type of Modafinil. You name it - Armodafinil, Artvigil, Adrafinil, Modalert - I've metabolized it! While Modafinil holds a special place in my heart, it's problematic.
In this article, I'll break down ten issues with Modafinil and I'll suggest an alternative.
1. Sleep Disruption
This is the main reason why I've cut way back on my Modafinil usage. As you become more self-aware as a biohacker you realize how costly bad sleep is.
* Just a night of bad sleep has a deleterious effect on your intelligence and capacity to solve problems. According to a Time magazine article Missing an hour of sleep turns a sixth grader’s brain into that of a fourth-grader.
* If you want to make some bad decisions, get some bad sleep. It causes foolish, impulsive decision-making, from some scientific research published in the book NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children: A tired brain perseverates—it gets stuck on a wrong answer and can’t come up with a more creative solution, repeatedly returning to the same answer it already knows is erroneous.
* As you've probably experienced, bad sleep really hits your productivity, focus, and mood.
* Chronic bad sleep contributes to heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and even Alzheimer's.
The pharmacological purpose of Modafinil is to keep Narcoleptics awake, if you don't have narcolepsy it may keep you from naturally falling asleep and getting good sleep. It remains in your body and affects your sleep for 15-20 hours after you consume it.
To quote tarbtl on Longecity:
"The only thing I notice is I'm able to stay "awake" longer. It completely kills deep sleep for the time it's in effect (6-8) hours so you can forget about taking naps. Also, it makes me a tad bit nauseous and makes my head feel more "swollen". That's about it as far as effects go. I took 200mg the first day and couldn't sleep that night."
There are a few things that you can do to mitigate the chances of Modafinil ruining your sleep.
* Don't take a full dose. I now cut Modafinil or Armodafinil tablets in half so I'm only doing 75 - 100 milligrams instead of the full 150 - 200.
* Dose very early. Since it stays in your system so long I only take Modafinil very early in the morning; like around 6 AM or 7 AM.
* Use tranquilizers in the evening. When it's finally time to relax; use some natural anxiolytics like Ashwagandha, CBD oil, or Apple Cider Vinegar and honey tea.
But Modafinil is a very powerful drug and even taking these steps Modafinil may result in a night of crappy sleep or hours spent tossing and turning in bed with your mind racing. This is why I use it less frequently now, I only touch it if I need a day of powerful focus and wakefulness which is worth sacrificing some of the following day's productivity.
2. Anxiety
A very frequently reported side effect of Modafinil and something I've certainly experienced is anxiety. It's a hardcore stimulant and it may make you nervous, irritable, or even paranoid. As a rule of thumb, if you start getting annoyed by little things - your family, slow people at stores, traffic, etc - while dosed on a Nootropic, you're overstimulated. Good Nootropics should put you into a state of relaxed arousal, where you're focused and motivated but also clear-headed and happy. If you're motivated yet angry you're doing it wrong!
A number of biohackers on Longecity discussed the downsides of Modafinil...
Especially counteradvised for anyone with predisposition for anxiety, OCD and generally having a cocky personality (you'll later regret the things you said on moda). I'm also unimpressed by its effect on creativity...
I have some ill effects if I use every day, especially anxiety, which is why its not a regular thing for me to use.
I also feel pretty excited (which is verging on anxiety). It's really a very surreal feeling. I'm still trying to assess whether it's pros outweigh the cons.
To avoid a minor panic attack while on Modafinil, don't combine it with too many other stimulants, go easy on the coffee (or Nicotine) add some light anxiolytics to your daily stack, like L-Theanine (drink a lot of green tea) or a small dose of a few hundred milligrams of Ashwaghanda.
3. Dopamine Desensitization
Modafinil releases a lot of Dopamine into your synapses, which is part of what makes it such an effective smart drug for many (just try having sex on it!) This can also result more problematically in Dopamine Desensitization. This could manifest in a higher tolerance to Modafinil (needing to do more of it to get the same cognition-enhancing effect) or, more concerning, it could rob the joy out of the simple, natural pleasures of life. You may find that after chronic use of Modafinil, you just don't enjoy a succulent meal or deep conversation with a friend as much. This may account for some of the personality changes discussed in this article.
To quote from a 2014 paper, Performance enhancement at the cost of potential brain plasticity...
Cognitive enhancement is no longer a scientific fiction; we must consider the unique dynamics of the developing brain and proceed cautiously until thorough safety and efficacy parameters have been established.
4. Histamine Reactions
Modafinil stands out as an ostensible Nootropic in that it hacks histamine, the neurotransmitter that you are probably well acquainted with thanks to the annoying itch you get after being bitten by a mosquito. Modafinil's wakefulness mechanism works by elevating histamine levels in the mind and body.
Boosting histamine may not have the performance-enhancing, smart drug effect that you desire.
The imminent biohacker Dr. Andrew Hill, in a Reddit AMA, shared a harrowing negative reaction he had to Modafinil
"I hate modafinil. It put me in the hospital with body-covering hives, that lasted weeks and left me with reactive histamine system for months. If you don't feel like eating today, google Erythema Multiforme Minor, to see what I was dealing with. Also, the cognitive enhancing effects are pretty minor - not as powerful as neurofeedback or mindfulness, or even piracetam imho, and definitely not sustainable. If you are narcoleptic it probably has good use, but I'm very adverse to it as an off-label drug for ADHD, etc. In fact, review papers show that there is an increased risk for side effects in people with attention issues."
A reaction this bad is pretty rare, you probably don't need to be paranoid about landing up in the hospital after taking Modafinil.
Whiskey on Longecity reported some unpleasant histamine-related side effects...
"After third dose I noticed some reddish rash on my cheeks. It was not bad as I have had these before, but after the fourth dose my skin started to feel warm and itchy, but as I said, it has been very mild. I discontinued the use of modafinil and the rash has not yet spread... It seems that I am having allergic reaction and increased amounts of histamine H1 have caused the skin rash and H3 some sleep difficulties (even after the use was discontinued). I think antihistamines might work to relieve the problem... Can one get cured from modafinil allergy or prevent it happening with use of antihistamines?"
RXList.com lists among Modafinil's side effects Serious Rash, including Stevens-Johnson Syndrome, which is...
A serious systemic (body-wide) allergic reaction with a characteristic rash involving the skin and mucous membranes, including the buccal mucosa (inside of the mouth), conjunctiva, and genital areas.
An unpleasant dry mouth is another frequently reported symptom of histamine reactions...
"Modafinil gave me the WORST dry mouth I'd ever experienced, and I've been on more than a few drying agents. Unfortunately, I had to stop using it within a couple of days"
5. Effect on Personality
Few Modafinil users will deny its assortment of effects on one's personality, not all good.
"It's having many of the positive effects I had expected (enhanced mood, reduced fatigue etc) but I confess it's…
The methodology for selecting the Nootropics in the Social Anxiety Protocol is based on several factors...
Quality scientific studies
These Nootropics have been the subject of double-blind, placebo-controlled human clinical trials. None of them are research chemicals, the youngest among them have been researched for at least 35 years, others have been the subject of 20-year-long human population studies, and as I mentioned the Adaptogens have been used in traditional medicine for thousands of years.
An abundance of anecdotal efficacy
I spend a lot of time on the Biohacker forums, deciphering the crappy grammar, the ranting antics, and Biohacking lingo. If hundreds of users on a forum are talking about a particular smart drug, and there's some consensus as to its experiential effects among them, that's a pretty good indicator as to what we can expect from it.
Risk-reward
Occasionally you'll hear about some wonder antidepressant drug or herb that turned someone who is a socially awkward, wallflower into a real Casanova. You'll hear a report that some weird drug will enable you to socialize effortlessly without fear, inhibitions, or filter. There are enough psychoactive substances that there is some molecule out there that could radically change your mindset, behavior, and transform you into the impetuous socialite you've always fantasized about being but it will likely have undesirable side effects or a steep tolerance curve or serious addiction risk and likely a combination of all three.
The Nootropics in the Protocol are very safe; their upsides are significant while their downsides are easily manageable to virtually non-existent. An extensive Italian review of Piracetam stated:
“Cognition enhancers are drugs able to facilitate attentional abilities and acquisition, storage and retrieval of information... Among other classes of drugs, piracetam-like cognition enhancers (nootropics) have never reached general acceptance, in spite of their excellent tolerability and safety.”
The trade-off for this high degree of safety is that they are not significantly mind-altering. They are enablers of your own volition and action. They are not going to transform you into an effortless socialite overnight, although you'll be surprised how much your behavior may change over 10 weeks of following the protocol.
The two higher-risk components of the protocol are Phenibut and Kratom, I've included them because anecdotally they have such consistently helpful effects across a broad spectrum of personality types. You'll want to pass on these if you have an addictive personality or a history of serious drug and alcohol abuse.
My experiences
A final factor is, of course, my own experience. I've personally tried about +100 different smart drugs. I've used all the social smart drugs mentioned, some for years, and I've cycled on and off them multiple times. I've done self-quantification experiments with brain training and meditation on them. The smart drugs' rabbit hole goes deep and my ravenous curiosity to explore its depths is compelled by the peak experiences that have resulted from the cognitive enhancers flowing in my veins.
Since this is an open-source protocol, I'll mention a couple of other drugs and Nootropics worth consideration for overcoming social anxiety.
Ashwagandha - Another Adaptogen that modulates the nervous system. Often reported as helpful for socializing. A German Biohacker reported:
"Indian herb helps before social situations where you don't feel that confident, takes away some fear and has hardly any side effects... And it probably makes you horny too, raising testosterone moderately"
Caballo - This Racetam-rich stack contains Piracetam in a black capsule and Oxiracetam in a red capsule. From my editor's review:
Caballo is actually a pretty sublime social smart drug, the precision, and certainty with which I speak and act while on it gives me a lot of confidence. I recently had one of the most fun nights I can remember at a swingers club while on a stack of 2 Caballos, Phenibut, and a coffee. My second language, Spanish, improves on it which is what I would expect from a quintessential smart drug. I find myself speaking more fluently in a flowing way and 'being present' to the conversation as opposed to searching my vocabulary and second-guessing my grammar.
GABA - Is the tranquility and restfulness-inducing neurotransmitter. To paraphrase Dr. Fredrick Von Stieff: "GABA removes the stop signs from our world."Â For better or worse it liberates us of our inhibitions, basically, GABA is the metaphorical little devil on our shoulders that says "Why not?" and "What's the worst that could happen?" Alcohol and Phenibut are Gabaergic.
Memantine - Many online find this Alzheimer's drug very helpful. From AlwaysLearning on Longecity
"I no longer constantly worry about being judged, and do not feel inferior to the people around me. Eye contact is pleasurable rather than painful, as is exerting my will and expressing my desires. I am able to truly enjoy physical and emotional intimacy now. I see people more for who they truly are (their pain, their anxiety, their joy, etc.)"
Modafinil - Many report that Modafinil makes them more sociable. However, it's not my go-to social smart drug. In my experience, towards the beginning of the bell curve of Modafinil's cognitive-enhancing effects, you'll feel more social and talkative. However, you'll grow very critical, and social interactions will seem 'too slow'. I don't take Modafinil during the day if I have a date, party, or other social engagement in the evenings.
Olive Oil - According to Alpal on Longecity, this is a bit of a testosterone hack for getting social as...
"olive oil increases luteinizing hormone and testosterone"
Sulbutiamine - Sulbutiamine is another social smart drug, it has been shown to reduce psycho-behavioral inhibition. A 2000 French study; Effects of sulbutiamine on psycho-behavioral inhibition in major depressive episodes, analyzed the effects of it combating the symptoms of depression in a placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomized test environment. According to human studies, Sulbutiamine may...
facilitate the rehabilitation of patients in their social, professional and family-life functioning.
One optimistic self-experimenter reported on Longecity:
"...Usually verbal fluency and a quick wit are the things I seem to notice the most (also a slightly euphoric feeling). Also pre-workout it definitely gives you a boost/increased focused aka 'in the zone'..."
Tianeptine - The uplifting effect on mood of this Jekyll and Hyde antidepressant is a boon to many dealing with depression and social anxiety.Â
In the comments here let me know if you've tried any of these social smart drugs and if you have a favorite.
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In this podcast, I peruse the FAQ section of Anakainosis.co to address whatever questions you might have about this peerless 6-month program that authors a legacy that echoes in eternity.
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