Limitless Mindset

I interviewed Richard Harris - he’s a man in England with a beard and blue eyes that beam with the brilliance of a quasar.

He has one of the top channels on Odysee where he inspires thousands to reject the slavery that the modern world imposes upon us. In this wide-ranging conversation, we get deeply into the weeds, connecting the philosophical to the pragmatic...

Are you in the gym or on a bus on the way to visit a sacred site? Listen to this on the go here.

Mentioned in the interview

Latest Biohacking trends: Sleep hacking, Bulletproof Coffee, Modafinil, and Nootopia - the potent Nootropic stack I was on during this interview

“I swear upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”—Thomas Jefferson’s prayer and the occultic spirituality of America’s founding fathers Documentary: Belly of the Beast: Director’s Cut

The time I got a taste of political power: Flashback to 2016 -- Why I supported Trump

Visiting sacred sites: World map of Ley Lines, Rila monastery in Bulgaria--try Dual N-Back brain training at a sacred site

Red-pilling friends and family: Changing Minds on the COVID-19 Vaccine

Prince/King Charles: Book: The Antichrist and a Cup of Tea

The medicinal properties of the water: Analemma Water wand, Documentary: The Truth about The Lost History of Flat Earth

Lifecoaching breakthroughs with Kambo, but Biohackers should be skeptical of Psychedelics

Taking back control of your sexuality: Dispenza-style meditation for mindset transformation, How to Stay Loyal to Your Woman - 6 steps to resilient sexual-spiritual risk mitigation, Book: Libido Dominandi: Sexual Liberation and Political Control

Connect with Richard

He can be contacted about life coaching on his website. Check out his Liberty Live Streams; I don’t live stream for the reasons I rant about here...

Revisiting this conversation with Richard inspired me to sing this song about hedonism to my 1-year-old son. Here's me, operatic and off-key...

For more deep-dive interviews delving into the intersection of personal and philosophical liberty…

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For years, as a Biohacker, I’ve been a voracious consumer of broccoli - the way I do broccoli is awesomely nutritious and delicious (although eating broccoli won’t get you blowjobs, sorry guys!) So I was keen to try Sulforaphane, which I heard described as broccoli in a pill.

On average, a head of broccoli contains 44 to 171 milligrams of Sulforaphane. That wide range is, I would imagine, because there’s a pretty wide quality spectrum when it comes to the nutrient content of food. If you’re getting your broccoli organic from a farmers’ market, you’re probably getting over 100 milligrams; if you’re picking your broccoli up at Walmart, probably a lot less! So you can see why getting Sulforaphane in supplement form makes a lot of sense, especially if you’re not eating broccoli daily. Do Not Age’s research team estimates that SulforaBoost’s two-capsule, 400-milligram special formulation equals the Sulforaphane content of two and a half heads of broccoli.

My wife and I took two SulforaBoost capsules every evening with dinner. I did try using it as a condiment, opening a capsule, and dumping the Sulforaphane powder on salad or yogurt. And I think I’ll stick to just taking it like a normal supplement because the powder doesn’t really add much taste or texture. Other than that, I don’t have much to report subjectively from my three months of taking two capsules a day. I think it might be one of these anti-aging supplements that you don’t notice much from if you’re young and otherwise healthy.

Recent Sulforaphane Science

Over 1400 articles of human research can be found on PubMed, including 24 clinical trials done in the past five years alone - a substantial amount of research making Sulforaphane a scientifically respectable natural anti-aging agent.

A placebo-controlled 2021 study of 144 older Japanese adults evaluated it as a Nootropic by looking at how it improved performance in a brain game over 12 weeks. And the abstract concluded...

The [Sulforaphane] groups recorded significant improvements in processing speed and working memory performance unlike the placebo intake groups...

Another recent Japanese study evaluated its effect on exercise, specifically heavy resistance exercise-induced muscle damage.

Together, these findings suggest that the oral chronic intake of sulforaphane suppressed the heavy resistance exercise-induced increase in muscle damage parameter... The chronic use of sulforaphane may be a novel therapeutic candidate for the prevention of muscle damage in athletes training daily with high-intensity exercise.

This I find a bit confusing: if it protects from major muscle damage, that’s great, but some muscle damage and inflammation is how our muscles grow. The study also notes that it has an effect suppressing creatine kinase, which is also important to growing muscle. So gym bros may want to pass on Sulforaphane or at least supplement Creatine concurrently.

Another study of 60 Iranians evaluated it as an intervention for cardiac-induced depression. A lot of people experience depression after adverse cardiac events: coronary interventions and artery bypass surgeries.

Sulforaphane could safely improve depressive symptoms induced by cardiac interventions.

This is a somewhat timely study, isn’t it? Perhaps you have a family, friend, or coworker recently diagnosed with myocarditis (that definitely has nothing to do with the COVID vaccines they’ve taken). Maybe slip them some SulforaBoost® capsules, and you might see their mood improve.

It’s been the subject of some cancer research; it has potential in treating melanoma, pancreatic, and prostate cancer.

A 2021 double-blind, placebo-controlled 15-week study was done at the University of Massachusetts Medical School with 57 children, ages 3-12 years, with [autism spectrum disorder]. It resulted in a small statistical uptick in autism-related scores among the children. Apparently, another study found it even more helpful for young men with autism. So it’s no autism cure, but yet another tool in the biohacking armamentarium that parents of children on the spectrum can turn to. The study notes that it was well-tolerated by the children and safe.

A British-Nigerian study notes that...

...when powdered brown mustard is added to cooked broccoli, the bioavailability of sulforaphane is over four times greater than that from cooked broccoli ingested alone.

Which confirms the tasty broccoli/mustard seed combo once suggested to me by a friend.

If all the Sulforaphane science has you sold on it as an anti-aging agent, you’ll want to pick up the 366-capsule jar - a 6-month supply. And if you really like it, you could save 32% (over the monthly price) by getting a year’s worth on subscription.

In Closing

Do Not Age makes the cut as a Limitless Mindset Secret Society vendor; I really like what they are all about...

* Their health supplements are purity-verified.

* Their products meet stringent GMP standards.

* They have shipping hubs set up in Europe and North America. I sure appreciated getting my package from them directly without having to pay VAT fees or deal with the import office here.

* They accept payment in Bitcoin and other popular cryptocurrencies.

* Check out this interview with their founder, Alan Graves.

About SulforaBoost®

Sulforaphane is a phytonutrient (a nutrient found in a plant) derived from certain vegetables, which helps multiple anti-oxidant pathways in the body. It can neutralise toxins, reduce inflammation and support the body’s efforts to reduce cancer.

Since first isolated from broccoli and demonstrated to have cancer chemoprotective properties in the early 1990s, over 3000 publications have described its efficacy and/or underlying mechanisms of action. There is even data that sulforaphane supports a healthy liver, as well as protecting against pollution, UV rays from sunlight, alcohol, cigarette smoke and airborne pollutants.

from donotage.org (Use coupon code ROSELAND for a 10% discount)

Get your Sulforaphane in your system; here’s a song about broccoli...

For more biohacker reviews and science overviews…

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You need a reality check on the relative state of comfort in your life.

We all do.If you’re listening to this podcast, you exist in a state of historically unprecedented material comfort...

* Food prices might be high, but you’ve NEVER had to actually worry about starvation.

* You have a roof over your head---that doesn’t leak.

* You’re a Biohacker, so you probably don’t suffer from a debilitating, paralyzing health condition.

* You’re not being forced by a petty tyrant to go off and fight and die in a brutal war.

* You don’t need to break your back for +8 hours a day in a field or factory to put enough calories on the table.

* You don’t need to worry about your drinking water poisoning you half-to-death or a gangrene infection from a papercut.

* If you’re a woman, you have a very decent semblance of human rights. You’re not agency-less property of a man, made to suffer through childbirth without pain relief.

Your modern life is actually incredibly comfortable. The gift this reality check should give you is gratitude. The fact that you can even pursue health, personal growth, prosperity, beauty, meta-political liberty, and a meaningful life is a tremendously lucky roll of cosmic dice. So quietly offer up a prayer of gratitude to whatever you believe in for that!

To drive this reality check home, I’m joined by Mikael Avatar--a man who essentially shouldn’t be here, let alone breaking records. Born clinically dead for 45 minutes with cerebral palsy, doctors didn’t expect him to walk, yet he went on to set a Paralympic world record in the long jump. After spending 40 years trapped in chronic pain, he cracked the code to becoming pain-free and now spends his time dismantling the “performance masks” of high-achieving leaders, helping them move from the empty pursuit of status to genuine, lived freedom.

Mentioned in this interview

Human suffering

Book of Job (Old Testament of the Holy Bible)

Anger management

Books: How to Keep Your Cool: An Ancient Guide to Anger Management (translation of De Ira by Seneca) and Anger Management Workbook for Men: Take Control of Your Anger and Master Your Emotions

Dual N-Back Brain training for greater emotional resilience

Mikael’s review of my book: How To Be Cross Eyed: Thriving Despite Your Physical Imperfection— a mémoire and lifehacking manifesto

Wow, what a practical book for navigating a life. It’s framed around biohacking, but it’s really about finding your way home to your own path. Simple things like how you cut your hair, how you dress, right through to attracting the right people who open doors to the life you actually want. Small things that can shift the whole direction you’re heading. Mindset is one of the real keys running through Jonathan’s book.It also deals with being different, with feeling like an outsider, and how to handle that in a status-obsessed society. The title suggests it’s only for people with a specific physical difference, but honestly, almost anyone could get something out of this book.This book helps you spot false prophets, and what to actually do instead. It’s remarkably hands-on, broken down into small, daily, doable steps that quietly move you toward your goals. Clickable links so you can start right away, even references to research studies. Packed with useful stuff. It’s just wow.Who is this for? Probably speaks loudest to a younger generation living a bit of an unfocused life. A guidebook for them. But it also brought back memories of how I carved out my own path, and I caught myself laughing in recognition more than once, like all those endless marketing projects I ran that never made a single dollar. ? All that traveling around the world that eventually led me home. This book genuinely offers shortcuts that will save people years of their own trial and error. Use the knowledge Jonathan is generously sharing here.

Create a checklist of what you are looking for in relationships--if you're a single guy, build on the one in my book for men, Don't Stick Your Dick in a Blender: How to meet a nice girl instead - from a tantric husband with a better sex life than you!

Inspired? Hire Mikael

Mikael actually brings some pretty serious credentials to the table as a high-performance coach. Way back in 1990, at just 22 years old, he was serving as the head coach for Sweden’s Paralympic athletics team, working directly alongside leading medical researchers—including members of the Nobel Committee for Medicine. Fast forward to today, and he’s spent over four decades studying human resilience, logging more than 20,000 hours of 1-on-1 coaching, and speaking to over 300,000 people worldwide.

This is not conventional coaching or motivational advice. It is a structured, hands-on 12-week transformation program that reprograms deep-seated thought patterns and behaviors so they become new automatic routines — grounded in evidence-based neuroplasticity.

From MikaelAvatar.com

Take-away question for the listener: What will you wish in a year from today that you had done now?

My conversation with Mikael inspired this song...

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I’ll compare it to Racetams and other smart drugs I’ve tried, which is not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison, but I think it will be helpful to a lot of people reading this.

I did a very detailed article quoting and citing what the recent human scientific research is saying about Kratom; it’s a little contrary to probably a lot of other things you are reading online about Kratom. You should check that out before using Kratom.

My thoughts on a few of the different strains...

White Vietnam - Probably my favorite white strain... The first time I burned 2 grams, I didn’t find it particularly energizing. Another time I upped the dosage to 4 grams, which produced a noticeable boost in energy comparable to a lower dosage of Racetams for several hours. Indeed, it does create a strong desire to work! At higher dosages, it does create a sensation of optimism about the world for 2-4 hours - I can see how this may be very helpful for people wrestling with depression.

White Maeng Da - This strain is supposed to be very energizing, like coffee, but I didn’t really experience this.

Red Vietnam - Also relaxing but not as acute of an effect. I meditate before going to sleep; one night after consuming some Red Vietnam, I got into a cool meditative state, kind of a low-level flowstate like the one I got into using the emWave2 after smoking marijuana.

Red Vein Thai - Awesome for relaxation and inducing drowsiness. I burn some before sitting down to read for 30-60 minutes before bed. It definitely makes me tired; I had a little bit of trouble meditating in bed before sleep.

Red Vein Maeng Thai - I feel a little less drowsy and more clear-headed on this one but nonetheless tranquil. Which makes it ideal for reading and listening to music, one of my favorite things.

Red Vein Maeng Da Malay - Induces kind of a cool sensation in my nasal cavity... Also good for bedtime.

Gold Borneo - I burned some of this strain one afternoon, and I found it detrimental to my productivity, and I had a dip in my brain training scores. I got distracted from my web development frequently by social media. I had to take some Caffeine+Theanine to pep myself back up!

Green Maeng Da Borneo - Kratom is rich in antioxidants and supposedly a potent immune booster; I can attest to this, I think it protected me from getting quite sick.

Perhaps I would have had some more exciting effects if I had done Kratom at higher dosages.Usually, with performance enhancers or Nootropics, I try them at a really wide range of dosages, I take higher dosages for the sake of experimentation, however, Kratom is one of the very few things I’ve consumed that has a body of scientific literature recommending against this - people have actually died of Kratom intoxication (in combination with other drugs) - so I kept the dosages low.

It’s kind of a pain to consume or ‘burn’ - the traditional ways of consuming Kratom are to eat the leaves, smoke it, or drink it as tea. So the first couple of times I measured it out with my digital scale and then dumped it in this big-ass coffee mug I have and boiled it in water. It would have been nice for Island Lion Herbals to include some little measuring spoons, but I already have a bunch from the other Nootropics I do. Now, as you can see, Kratom is this fine, green powder that is easy to make a mess with! I was constantly cleaning it off my microwave, kitchen counters, digital scale, and my big ass mug!

Also, you always need to brush your teeth after using Kratom, so it’s not like Phenibut or L-Theanine that you can let dissolve in a glass of water that you drink leisurely while you are reading before bed and then just leave the glass on the nightstand and drift off to sleep. You need to get up out of bed, go to the bathroom, brush your teeth, and then go to the kitchen and wash your big ass mug.

My video review of Kratom is a great example of why I’m not a huge fan of it; I had been burning white strains all afternoon, and as you can see, I’m not quite my normal, witty self; in fact, I’m a bit awkward in front of the camera.

⚠️ Island Lion Herbals is now out of business, which typifies the Kratom biz; lots of faceless fly-by-night operators with eCommerce websites that fail to prove the quality or purity of their products.

I urge Biohackers to instead use Adaptogenic herbs (which offer many of the same benefits that Kratom ostensibly does) from credible vendors that rigorously test their products and provide certificates of analysis.

For more insightful reviews letting you know which performance enhancers to choose (or pass on)….

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I’ve used Horny Goat Weed as a sex hack for years now; I’ve tried several libido-enhancing herbs and supplements, and Horny Goat Weed is the best.

I have the best sex of my life on this stuff. It’s a sensation enhancer; it makes you hornier, and it improves your erections. You might be concerned that you’ll orgasm after like three minutes if you take something that makes you hornier and more sensitive. Still, in combination with tantric techniques and doing kegels, I’m able to maintain control and stave off orgasm long enough to bring Mrs. Roseland to orgasm consistently.

Booze can be a bit of a sex hack if you get the dosage just right - there’s a sweet spot of just enough alcohol to keep you from ejaculating prematurely, while too much alcohol will give you whiskey dick, as most men have shamefully experienced. If you’re going to do a little drinking before an adult horizontal session, a teaspoon of Epimedium will keep your dick rock hard. It’s an effective whiskey dick countermeasure!

An herbal biohack for sexual performance enhancement by naturally supporting testosterone.

Herbal Nootropics are a much more acute and enjoyable experience when taken as tea. Taken in capsule form or just washed down with a glass of water, you get less of an experience. For this reason, I highly recommend making a Horny Goat Weed tea; this is my go-to pre-coital adult beverage. It dissolves nicely in steeped water and tastes pleasant. With Horny Goat Weed, it’s ok to use a lot of the stuff; there’s a difference between using just a few hundred milligrams and taking a few heaping teaspoons of the stuff. It’s a benign herb, so you can take a mega dose without concerns about an overreaction or side effects.

Ashwagandha is also reputed as a sex and libido biohack, but I’ve found that if I took a bunch of Ashwagandha, I would sometimes have weak erections. But I do like taking some Ashwagandha in the evenings to wind down a bit from a long day, and I usually mix it with Epimedium. I’m not sure if the two are synergistic, but together they put me in a relaxed yet randy mood.

Subjectively, there’s not a huge noticeable difference between how my dick feels on this stuff versus other powdered Epimedium I’ve used, but I trust this stuff more because it’s lab-verified as pure and free of toxins - see the PDFs attached below.

Summary of Epimedium Science

On PubMed, you can find +700 scientific papers referencing Epimedium and two clinical trials in the past 5 years. I’ll summarize some of the recent interesting findings...

A recent animal study suggested a synergy between Epimedium and Metformin in decreasing Mitochondrial autophagy.

Icariin, the active ingredient in Epimedium, had a beneficial effect on the heart health of Diabetic rats in a recent Chinese animal study.

It’s an immune hack. A recent paper suggests that it helps to fortify the immune system from damage done by the all-too-common toxin Benzene. Chinese researchers in 2019 found that Icaritin, the active ingredient in Epimedium, promotes tumor T-cell infiltration and induces antitumor immunity in mice. American and Chinese researchers collaborated on a 2018 paper, The effect of icariin on immunity and its potential application, which describes in-depth its wide array of positive effects on the immune system...

Recently, more and more studies have demonstrated the application of [Icariin] in autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, bronchial asthma, multiple sclerosis and systemic lupus erythematosus due to its anti-inflammatory. Additionally, [Icariin] also has the anti-tumor activities.

A healthy immune system is your first line of defense against cancer, and there’s a lot of evidence that it’s more effective than the Slash, Burn, and Poisonmainstream (and very expensive!) cancer treatments. Growing research indicates that Horny Goat Weed’s active molecular constituents have potent anti-cancer effects. Icariside II suppresses cervical cancer cell migration, according to another animal study. Chinese, American, and Japanese studies further validated an anti-cancer effect.

An animal study found that it was an antioxidant hack

Flavonoids ultrasonically extracted from [Epimedium] considerably affected antioxidant defense system in [Drosophila]

In bioscience, you come across the Latin word Drosophila, from time to time, do you know what it means? Dragonfly.

A recent paper established its neuroprotective effect

Therefore, icariin treatment accelerated locomotor function recovery in [spinal cord injury], and its protective effects may be mediated via its antioxidant, anti‑inflammatory and anti‑apoptotic bioactivity.

A 2019 Singaporean clinical trial suggested that it could be a preventative measure of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women - this is a bone-weakening condition that causes many elderly to suffer from frequent injuries.

Levels of Epimedium prenylflavonoid metabolites observed in this study were consistent with levels demonstrated to have anti-osteoporotic effects in cellular and animal studies.

A Vietnamese study found that it reduces bone loss.

Unleash mindblowing sex with Epimedium and Tantric sex techniques

Purity is a concern with Nutraceuticals

Nutraceuticals come from the natural world; they tend to absorb the toxins in the environment around them, making many of the herbal supplements that you might find possibly Iatrogenic - they may actually do you more harm than good. This is why I wouldn’t buy any old Epimedium that I found on store shelves or online, especially if it’s cheap. I’d also prefer not to get my Epimedium in a “multi-vitamin” stack that combines it with a bunch of other things unless they prove its purity with a certificate of analysis. I enthusiastically recommend Lost Empire Herbs as they have the highest standards in the industry for quality assurance and purity testing.

If you're taking Horny Goat Weed, you WON'T need this dumb AI song about Epimedium...

For more reviews of herbal hedonism hacks…

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Aristotle vs Plato.

Everything philosophically comes down to Aristotle vs Plato, especially personal growth.

Plato gave us the cave and the perfect Forms: the ideal versions of things that exist in a higher realm, of which our ordinary lives are only imperfect shadows. Aristotle rejected that separate realm. He was the empiricist, the realist who insisted we start with what is actually in front of us.In our own development we face the same choice. We can take the Aristotelian path: clear-eyed, empirical, sometimes hard on ourselves, working with the person we actually are. Or we can lean Platonic and reach for the perfect version of ourselves that seems to exist somewhere beyond our current reality.

Neither is universally right. People have different tolerances for unvarnished truth. Some need the bracing realism of Aristotle. Others need the aspirational fire of Plato. That is why I distrust one-size-fits-all personal growth systems. You have to experiment. You have to stay relentlessly curious until you find the philosophy that actually fits your particular mind, body, and spirit.

In this interview, a throwdown between Aristotelian and Platonic philosophy of personal growth, with Steve Barton, a Gestalt psychology-trained High-Performance Executive Coach, and he’s the author of The Father, the Son, and the Aha Moment--which I read as I’m a new-ish dad.

I read Steve’s book, which is really about mindset, and while it has some good insights, I really disagreed with a few of its fundamental suppositions. It’s a bit too Platonic for my tastes, but I invited Steve on the podcast for a bit of friendly disagreement.

Mentioned in this interview

Infographic: The Game of Ten® vs Game Often Played

I reveal all the sordid details of our digital betrayal trauma episode and how I rebuilt trust: I forgot what D’Artagnan taught me and got my dick BURNED by a LASER and How to Stay Loyal to Your Woman - 6 steps to resilient sexual-spiritual risk mitigation

My experiences with psychopaths: I Did Business With Insane People and Live Fast. Die Young

Dissection of an epically toxic relationship: Red pills on relationships with Stephen Paul Edwards, author of “Venus Fly Trap”

Adult ADHD Cured! The Four Pillars of Maintaining Focus, Motivation, and Memory

Fear is fossil--Biohack it

Rhodiola - the King of adaptogens

Mindfulness practice: meditation or brain training with Dual N-Back

Books

Evil Genes: Why Rome Fell, Hitler Rose, Enron Failed and My Sister Stole My Mother’s Boyfriend

A Course in Miracles by Marianne Williamson

Self-Discovery Questionnaire: Are you “off 10?”

My conversation with Steve inspired this song about philosophy and personal growth...

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The manifesto of the world's most infamous salesman, Jordan Belfort, has some devilishly clever persuasion hacks.

Let’s dive right in by looking at Jordan’s best state-management biohack...

The olfactory biohack for instant confidence

The key distinction here is that once you’ve learned the technique for triggering an empowered state (I’m going to teach you the most powerful one in the world in a moment), you only want to use it at certain key moments, when it matters most, like before you enter a sales encounter, or try to close a business deal, or enter into a negotiation, or even if it’s just an important decision you need to make in your personal life.

The most common state that salespeople will try to set an anchor for is a state of absolute certainty, and the most common anchor they’ll choose to try to link it to is a combination of shouting the word “yes” and simultaneously clapping their hands.

Anchoring confidence

The key, Bandler explained, is that you have to be at the absolute tippy-top of the state, in terms of the emotional intensity you feel inside, in order to successfully set an anchor. Anything less than that, and the anchor won’t set.

let’s choose a state of absolute certainty, as this is the state that you must be in when you enter any sales encounter.

Scent anchoring

It had to be a scent that was extreme enough, unusual enough, powerful enough, and pungent enough to meet Bandler’s criteria, yet still be pleasing enough to the nose to not gross me out or become its own negative anchor.

You wait for a very specific moment, and then take out your BoomBoom [scent anchor], unscrew the top, and follow the steps above—take a massive blast up each nostril and then ball your hands up into fists and dig your fingernails into your palms, and belt out the word “yes” in a powerful yet controlled manner. Then, ten seconds later, with the scent of BoomBoom still lingering but the initial rush gone, repeat the process again. And that, as they say, is that.

Jordan recommends this product, the BoomBoom, which apparently hits you with a really strong and distinctive energizing scent. But it doesn’t seem wise to anchor your confidence to a specific product, as they may go out of business. Also, it looks like BoomBoom is only available in America. I suggest anchoring with essential oils; the ones with the strongest scents are Patchouli, Frankincense, Eucalyptus, and Ylang Ylang. In the past, I’ve used a smelly old dry cigar as a scent anchor.

I’ve got an add-on mindset strategy to stack on top of the olfactory confidence biohack. Recently, I have been anchoring certainty and confidence while doing the Dispenza-style epigenetic mindset transformation meditation.

Update: The olfactory confidence Biohack made it into fiction, my novel, Hourglass. In the chapter, The Addict, I describe how the protagonist stacks it with three other confidence hacks...

Xavier had once dropped $1800 on a 3-day Neuro-Linguistic Programming workshop. He had picked up three surprisingly effective methods for instant confidence from the workshop…1) Scent TriggeringThis is classic Pavlovian conditioning; in a simple yet potent hack of olfactory memory, one anchors a scent to a desired mindset. Xavier’s was mistletoe - whenever he had emerged victorious from a windfall Sim poker game, elated by the win, he took a big whiff of mistletoe. Thereby associating the scent with a headspace of massive confidence. This was a two-way biological street, provided he didn’t dilute the scent by over a 1:3 proportion (one-time faking confidence, for every two times anchoring the smell to an actual event) - according to the sandal-wearing, long-haired, eccentric, and energetic NLP guru.2) Ape-ingThis biohack was less complex; one would act like an aggressive ape for about two minutes, shaking one’s arms above one’s head and reaching for imaginary branches. Done in private, of course, or with friends for riotous hilarity.3) 60 Seconds of Arbitrary LaughterXavier found that deep, belly laughter for one minute was a sure stimulator of peak confidence and mood. The first 20 seconds were always awkward and forced, but after that, laughing at laughing became self-evidently funny and carried him into a quintessentially playful state.

The Straight Line System

THE FIVE CORE ELEMENTS

1 The prospect must love your product.

2 The prospect must trust and connect with you.

3 The prospect must trust and connect with your company.

4 Lower the action threshold.

5 Raise the pain threshold.

The three tens

1 The prospect must love your product.

2 The prospect must trust and connect with you.

3 The prospect must trust and connect with your company.

Vs objections

In reality, though, the actual meaning of any particular objection has very little to do with what it states on the surface. You see, at the end of the day, objections are merely smoke screens for uncertainty for one or all of the Three Tens. In other words, if you ask for the order and your prospect is not high enough on the certainty scale, then they’ll throw out a smoke screen in the form of one of the common objections

Future pacing

We call this technique future pacing, and it serves as the very backbone of how we move someone emotionally. When you future pace someone, you’re essentially playing out the post-buying movie in the best fashion possible—allowing that person to experience your product’s amazing benefits right now, along with the positive feelings they create. The prospect’s needs have been filled; their pain has been resolved; any itch the they had has been scratched, and they are feeling wonderful as a result of it.

In short, future pacing entails running an imaginary movie through your mind where you get to see yourself in the future having already achieved a certain outcome. The result is that you get to experience the positive feelings associated with a future achievement right now

The First Four Seconds

During a phone call with a prospect, you have a bit longer—you have four seconds to make an impression. To be clear, though, even when you’re in person, it still takes four seconds before a final judgment gets made. The difference is that the process starts sooner when you’re in person—literally from the first moment the prospect lays eyes on you. But, either way, whether in person or over the phone, there are three things that you need to establish in those first four seconds of an encounter, if you want to be perceived in just the right way:1 Sharp as a tack2 Enthusiastic as hell 3 An expert in your fieldThose three things absolutely must come across in the first four seconds of a conversation; otherwise, you set yourself up for a major uphill battle. Now, in truth, if you screw up the first four seconds, you have another ten seconds, at most, to play catch-up ball, but after that, you’re completely done. It’s basically a lost cause. You can’t influence anybody.

Tonality and Body Language

You’ll be judged by your cover

The things a person will internally debate start with a very basic observation: your appearance. They’ll then make a snap decision about you as a result of that. It’s like we discussed in item number one on the syntax. They’ll be debating things like how clean-cut you are, if you’re well dressed or not, how much jewelry you’re wearing. It all goes back to judging a book by its cover. How someone dresses, how long their hair is, how they groom themselves, how they shake hands—it all makes a huge difference in how we’re perceived and, for that matter, how we perceive other people.

Check out the chapter of my book on Lifehacking Your Looks and these beauty hacks for both the fairer and not-so-fair sex...

* Supplementing Collagen, C60, and Schisandra for glowing, healthy skin and hair.

* Eating raw coconut; a beauty superfood.

* Using red light therapy daily for brilliant skin.

Spatial awareness

If you’re a man selling to another man, then you want to do what’s called cornering off—meaning you want to stand at a slight …

Zinc modulates brain excitability and plays an important role in Neuroplasticity.

A player of ubiquitous biological roles in the mind and body, Zinc is found in virtually every tissue in the body and plays a role in up to 300 different types of chemical reactions.

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

Scientific Research

It’s one of the most studied nutrients on the planet; on PubMed you can find over 47,000 scientific articles of human research and over +2200 clinical trials since the turn of the millennium. That’s an impressive body of research!

Recent human data has sharpened the case for Zinc as a practical performance tool rather than just a basic nutrient. For example...

A 2023 double-blind trial in middle-aged overweight or obese women found that 30 milligrams of chelated Zinc daily for twelve weeks improved scores on the Mini-Mental State Examination and the Stroop test compared with placebo, independent of any weight change. The same study noted rises in salivary Zinc and shifts in inflammatory markers. This is one of the cleaner recent signals that Zinc can move the needle on real-world cognitive metrics in people who are not severely deficient but are metabolically challenged.

On the neurochemical side, systematic reviews from 2021–2022 examined Zinc’s effect on circulating brain-derived neurotrophic factor. While one analysis showed only a non-significant trend, another found clearer increases at the 30 milligrams dose. Given BDNF’s central role in synaptic remodeling, this remains one of the more interesting mechanistic links for biohackers chasing Neuroplasticity rather than just acute focus.

For physical performance and hormonal edge, a 2023 review of the Zinc–testosterone relationship concluded that deficiency reliably lowers testosterone and that moderate supplementation can restore it, with the effect size depending on baseline status, dose, and form. Athletes under heavy training loads also show measurable drops in serum zinc after intense sessions, which helps explain why some strength and recovery studies still report benefits from repletion.

But none of these trials turn Zinc into a stimulant or a magic bullet. What they do is reinforce that keeping Zinc status solid is low-cost insurance for cognition under metabolic stress, hormonal resilience, and recovery capacity--exactly the kind of quiet edge most biohackers actually need.

Empowering Neuroplasticity

A 2009 University of Calgary study, published in Brain Research Reviews, stated:

...evidence gathered from electrophysiological, behavioural, and anatomical experiments are utilized to argue for a role of zinc in cortical plasticity.

This means that Zinc is an essential driver of Neuroplasticity in our minds. Neuroplasticity is the scientific term that covers virtually all domains of personal development:

* Learn new career skill sets.

* Playing a musical instrument.

* Changing behavioral patterns in your interpersonal relationships.

* Learning a new language.

* Recovery from brain damage.

Yeah, Neuroplasticity is pretty awesome! It’s also what heals your brain if you sustain a brain injury (take your Zinc, boxers!) To learn more about it, lend your ear to Limitless Mindset podcast #9: Empowering Neuroplasticity in Your Mind.

The “Goldilocks” Neuroplasticity Curve

The neuroplasticity-zinc relationship follows a distinct U-shaped curve:

* Deficiency: Results in BDNF downregulation, loss of synaptic spines, impaired hippocampal LTP, and brain fog.

* Optimal Levels: Maximizes BDNF gene expression, drives TrkB signaling pathways, and maintains robust synaptic plasticity.

* Extreme Excess: Massively unbuffered excess free Zinc can flood the synaptic cleft, leading to paradoxical hippocampal toxicity and suppressed neurogenesis.

The older electrophysiological work on Zinc and cortical plasticity still holds, but the more recent BDNF data gives it a clearer molecular handle. Zinc supplementation has been shown in systematic reviews to raise circulating BDNF levels (particularly around the 30 milligrams mark). BDNF is one of the primary drivers of synaptic remodeling, so this is a plausible mechanism for the cognitive improvements seen in recent trials and for Zinc’s broader role in learning and recovery from metabolic stress. Zinc also acts as a modulator of NMDA receptors (inhibiting them at certain sites) and influences GABAergic transmission, both of which sit at the center of synaptic plasticity and excitatory/inhibitory balance. The practical takeaway remains the same, just better supported: if you are deliberately training new skills, languages, or behavioral patterns, keeping zinc status high is one of the cheaper, lower-risk levers available.

Cognitive Enhancer

Cognitive Function & Systemic Inflammation: A clinical trial published in Nutrients on zinc supplementation’s effect on inflammatory and cognitive parameters demonstrated that targeted zinc intake in middle-aged subjects significantly mitigated cognitive deficits, boosted short-term memory performance, and reduced key inflammatory cytokines like TNF-alpha and IL-6. The study highlighted that Zinc’s neuroprotective benefits stem directly from its capacity to curb systemic oxidative stress while enhancing intrinsic antioxidant capacity.

Mitochondrial & Enzymatic Protection: Modern biohacking research detailing Zinc in cognitive impairment and aging emphasizes Zinc’s role as a structural cofactor for over 2,000 human proteins, including Superoxide Dismutase 1 (Cu/Zn-SOD). Within the brain, SOD1 protects neuronal mitochondria from reactive oxygen species generated during intense cognitive strain or physical exertion.

Dopaminergic and Basal Ganglia Integrity: Clinical investigations exploring neurodegenerative pathways have highlighted Zinc’s role in stabilizing neurotransmission and protecting dopaminergic circuits, reinforcing its necessity for executive function, mental drive, and motor control.

A 2007 paper, published in The Journal of International Medical Research, The influence of micronutrients on cognitive function and performance, stated:

The searches confirmed that the water-soluble vitamins (B group and C), together with the minerals, calcium, magnesium and zinc, are most relevant to cognitive performance.

The brain’s dark horse

A Swiss paper called Zinc “the brain’s dark horse” and went on to say about it:

Thus, zinc homeostasis is integral to normal central nervous system functioning, and in fact its role may be underappreciated.

The paper went on to describe how Zinc plays a critical part in the chemical-electrical signal being sent from one part of the body to another.

For Immunity

Zinc has a lot to do with governing your immune system’s correct functioning. If you find yourself getting ill often or during the colder season, you’re almost certainly deficient.

Feeling under the weather? Here’s why Zinc Lozenges are a great idea...

While zinc itself is essential for immune function, zinc lozenges, which are best if you’re trying to stave off or shorten a cold, appear to work through a different mechanism entirely. When you pop a zinc lozenge into your mouth, it begins to release ionic zinc, which is the key to its antiviral activity. Dissolving a lozenge slowly in the mouth provides a steady release of free ions into the pharyngeal region in the nasal cavity, which can have a greater effect on reducing respiratory and nasal symptoms associated with sickness than taking a zinc capsule or tablet. In fact, studies have shown that zinc lozenges can decrease the duration of a cold by five to seven days (if you think about how long a cold usually lasts, that’s almost getting rid of the cold!). (p.631)

Zinc is hands down one of the best, if not the best, immune-hacking supplements. If you read the medical literature, this is one modality that has been shown to work over and over again. (p.630)

Zinc suppleme…

Happiness is the enemy of the future. Happiness is like a mirage in the desert; it eludes your grasp when you most strive for it. And yet, in my first book, I wrote about how…

“I’ve found the happiness that I didn’t give a damn about…”

Here I’ll explain why not giving a damn about happiness makes you happier, quantitatively and qualitatively...

Hedonic adaptation

To illustrate the principle of “hedonic adaptation,” I’d like you to think about going on a vacation; imagine the most awesome vacation...

You fly to some beautiful exotic place with resplendent weather.You check into an opulent hotel and settle into a well-appointed room with breathtaking views.Maybe you’re vacationing with your best friends, or your family, or your significant other, or you’re alone (might be the way you like it).No expense is spared doing the most awesome stuff; you take Scuba lessons, go surfing, go skydiving, jetskiing, hike serene mountain trails, do winter sports, rent off-roading vehicles, etc.You meet the coolest, sexiest people poolside at your swanky hotel.Your cool new friends invite you to join them for dinner and drinks at the top-rated-on-Tripadvisor local restaurants and bars. You gorge yourself on delicious (fresh sea) food while sipping top-shelf booze and laughing and swapping stories with your new friends.Then you all go out to the most awesome parties or clubs; the music is bangin’, the people are sexy, and the drinks are strong (maybe you even do party drugs) — the revelry persists until the morning sun peaks over the blue horizon of the sea as you stumble back to your hotel room with a smile on your face.You’re having a lot of sex (sometimes twice a day) either with your significant other or with some sexy (and tan) person you’ve met. It’s exciting and sometimes adventuresome sex.And, of course, the whole time you’re uploading videos and photos of your awesome vacation on social media; the likes, emoticons, and (sometimes jealous) comments flood in with every upload.It’s EPIC!

But, as you know, if you’ve ever had an epic vacation, it gets OLD, FAST!

Even with days filled to the brim with novelty, debauchery, and adventure, after a week or two, you’ll be pretty sick of vacation. Welcome to hedonic adaptation; you’ve been racing on a hedonic treadmill that’s become a hamster wheel going nowhere. You could stave off your hedonic adaptation to your glamorous life of fun in the sun by about a week by abstaining from drugs and booze, but eventually doing all these very fun things will just become tiresome. You’ll start to yearn for your normal life back home. Odd isn’t it?

I can attest to “hedonic vacation fatigue” myself! I’m writing this on the final day of a decadent week that my wife and I have spent at the black sea. We lounged at the beach and swam every day, read books, ate great food, I did meditation at sunrise, we had amazing coffee (spiked with Bailey’s liqueur), and we banged (righteously! On the beach even, beneath the stars one night — which was very exciting — and also righteous.)

I realize that thanks to the great pandemic/plandemic of 2020, a lot of people didn’t get to take a vacation this very weird year. We were able to because…

* We lived pretty spartanly this year; we stopped dining out. I spent my money on “doomsday” food prepping (which doesn’t seem so paranoid now, does it?)

* And we dressed up for each other and did our date nights at home.

* And the black sea coast is an AMAZING vacation value, especially at the end of September.

Before I got married, I took a grand total of two real vacations totaling two weeks in about 15 years. Since I’ve been married, I’ve adopted the Southern European lifestyle (a bit) and spend a few weeks a year on holiday (as the Brits say).

And, after a week, I’m glad to be getting back to my not-terribly-exciting life back in Sofia. Hedonic adaptation intervenes not just on vacation as you get sunburnt, but with almost everything; what makes you happy will soon make you bored.

* We’ve all had friends that started dating some sexy, exciting, cool new person, which for the first few months made them very happy. But, eventually, they grew bored with them. The red pill dating gurus like to say, “For every beautiful woman that you see or meet, just remember, there is a guy(s) out there that has grown sick and tired of having sex with her…”

* Booze, drugs, and sex will make you very happy for, at a maximum, a few hours, and then you’re not so happy when you come down from the high, and you have to deal with the consequences of your indulgences.

* Eating decadent food will make you feel great for at most a few hours, but then it does nothing for you.

* You buy a fancy new electronic toy or gadget. It makes you very happy for, at maximum, a few weeks, and then it’s just another thing in your life.

* You drop hundreds of dollars on the hot new smartphone, and you beam with pride every time you take it out of your pocket. But after not long, it gets scratched, and people no longer ask, “Is that the new smartphone?”

* You move into a nice new place or get a new car, and you’ll be very happy living there or driving it for a few months, but after a year it’s not so special.

The fleeting nature of happiness is my reason for not giving a damn about happiness.

You might say…

You’re describing a bunch of cheap thrills, of course, they don’t make you happy permanently.

Yeah, that’s something that we all hopefully learned at a young age. But my objection is to making happiness your compass in life. Instead, make meaning your compass, and trust me, you’ll be a lot happier in the long term.

I’m an ethical hedonist, which means choosing the greater pleasure over the lesser pleasure. It entails passing up on a lot of frequent pleasures. This is why we do our date nights at home instead of going to swanky restaurants weekly. This is why we do a 24-hour fast every week (THIS is why, as you can see, my sexy wife and I are fit and skinny; we didn’t gain any weight during the COVID-19 lockdowns while a lot of people were getting chubby).

Recently, a video went very viral of Jada Pinkett and Will Smith discussing Jada having an affair with some dumb rapper. In the video, Jada is conspicuously unapologetic, and at one point she says something very telling…

I just wanted to feel good, it had been so long since I felt good…

Normal people will shake their heads in disbelief that someone privileged with incredible wealth and luxury just didn’t feel good. We also can’t say that Jada and Will don’t pursue meaning; they’ve been hugely successful and have formed a beautiful family. I’ll remind you that Jada has been into a bunch of wu-wu “draw happiness from within” stuff for decades; according to interviews, she meditates daily in a meditation lounge (in their $42 million mansion!) I’m sure that their situation was complicated and we know that these kinds of scandals are often manufactured for perverse reasons. But happiness is clearly her compass, and we can see in this example and innumerable others how making happiness one’s compass poisons meaning and has negative consequences. If Jada can’t afford enough happiness to “feel good,” that should tell you something about happiness!

Every couple of years we see a case of some high-profile celebrity committing suicide inexplicably. These people with fame, money, and unlimited access to luxuries that we can only dream about just can’t take life anymore and decide to end it. Excess happiness and indulging in cheap thrills seem to rob even a meaningful life of the will to go on.

What’s the solution?

Buy a compass and leave it somewhere that you’ll see it often, as a reminder to make meaning your compass.

Happiness is a genetic mechanism that our selfish genes have crafted for their own perpetuation. It drives us to reproduce and then to eat a lot of food that will result in our demise so we can get out of the way of the coming generations (this is the phenoptosis hypothesis, and it can…

I have very high standards when it comes to adaptogenic herbs. In my experience, powdered herbs are a whole lot better value than capsuled herbs.

Locally, I haven’t been able to find high-quality powdered Rhodiola and Schisandra, two of my favorite adaptogens for energy, mood enhancement, immunity (important during the wintertime!), and libido. I did some research about European herbal vendors and decided on Indigo Herbs out of Glastonbury, UK.

Unfortunately, the only shipping option from the UK to Bulgaria, where I live, was Royal Mail Airmail; this shipper loses about 50% of packages I’ve had shipped to me here in Sofia. I waited for about a month for them to deliver my package of Rhodiola and Schisandra, and it never came, so I contacted them, and they shipped out another package free of charge, which arrived in about two weeks. To my pleasant surprise, about a month later I received a notification that the original package was at the post office. So I ended up getting two-for-one from Indigo Herbs.

* My wife and I enjoyed the Rhodiola and Schisandra. We like to consume these herbs as tea; they make a very tasty, earthy-tasting tea that has a similar effect to a cup or two of coffee.

* These herbs met my expectations of organic herbs; previously I used Lost Empire Herbs’ excellent COA-verified products.

* The Adaptogens are noted for having a potent pro-immunity effect. Using these Adaptogens daily during the eastern European winter, we managed to avoid getting sick during the winter of 2019.

About Indigo Herbs

Indigo Herbs has been trading since 2005, supplying premium quality pharmacoepial grade herbs and superfoods. We take quality seriously and only choose to work with suppliers and growers that have a genuine respect for the planet and its people. Our brand is simply packaged as we aim to make natural health products available and affordable. We are a small friendly business so we also like to talk to our customers and we give gold star customer service. We are an online shop and can dispatch goods internationally. We also provide a local collection service in Glastonbury, UK.

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