I’ve been flirting with the idea that the biohacking you describe at the beginning of this intro—the plunges and saunas and stuff—can sometimes be the Western New Age version of the first limbs of Ashtanga Yoga (yamas niyamas asanas and pranayama) or the early steps of the Eightfold Path (Right Action) or Sila (morality). These are the steps that focus on watching what you eat, what you say, how you express sexually, whether you are behaving in alignment with your values..:
Biohacking is like an ethical precept about the way to purify your material body so you can detoxify the container that social programming and inevitably imperfect upbringing pollutes.
Then, as you say, you shift to focusing on Consciousness Evolution (see what I did there?), which is represented as meditative practices in both Yoga and Buddhism, but can also be any of the other wonderfully woo stuff that is explored in this publication.
It’s like we need to build up prana in stages, starting with the gross and getting more subtle (or starting with dense vibration and getting higher, in other words.)
Kindness as a biohack fits into this perfectly! Thanks for expanding/validating my thinking. Theres a reason Right Speech was taught by Buddha and yogis attempt to embody Satya and Aparigaha—truthfulness and generosity, as I understand them.
This is already super long, but as a final thought: in the monastic cultures that those eastern traditions evolved in, you’d be REQUIRED to go through all the purification stuff before developing a sitting practice. That western householders skip to the end or reduce spirituality to meditation reduces these practices efficacy.
Thanks Geoffe for sharing your thinking here. It definitely makes sense.
An alternative view that is overlapping (as most of these things converge) is the models of ego development which usually contain a sense of building up the "self" through taking responsibility in your life. Fitness, jobs, etc are all ways this can express. Eventually one seeks to transcend or go beyond the self, but that always comes after one has usually went through some phase of building up the self
I absolutely believe that our thoughts impact our physical and mental health. I’ve experienced people who’ve talked themselves into poor health and people whose disposition has kept them healthier.
I’m also talking more about the needs I’m hearing about in the workplace. We’re demanding two ends of the spectrum: artificial intelligence and emotional intelligence. The further we travel towards AI, the further we’re going to need to travel in the other direction to balance it out with EI
I can’t wait to listen. I came from a science background too, and for the last few years have been fascinated by consciousness research and evidence of the mind-body connection. Am living it directly to, with regards to shifting beliefs and thoughts to relieve physical symptoms.
I’ve been flirting with the idea that the biohacking you describe at the beginning of this intro—the plunges and saunas and stuff—can sometimes be the Western New Age version of the first limbs of Ashtanga Yoga (yamas niyamas asanas and pranayama) or the early steps of the Eightfold Path (Right Action) or Sila (morality). These are the steps that focus on watching what you eat, what you say, how you express sexually, whether you are behaving in alignment with your values..:
Biohacking is like an ethical precept about the way to purify your material body so you can detoxify the container that social programming and inevitably imperfect upbringing pollutes.
Then, as you say, you shift to focusing on Consciousness Evolution (see what I did there?), which is represented as meditative practices in both Yoga and Buddhism, but can also be any of the other wonderfully woo stuff that is explored in this publication.
It’s like we need to build up prana in stages, starting with the gross and getting more subtle (or starting with dense vibration and getting higher, in other words.)
Kindness as a biohack fits into this perfectly! Thanks for expanding/validating my thinking. Theres a reason Right Speech was taught by Buddha and yogis attempt to embody Satya and Aparigaha—truthfulness and generosity, as I understand them.
This is already super long, but as a final thought: in the monastic cultures that those eastern traditions evolved in, you’d be REQUIRED to go through all the purification stuff before developing a sitting practice. That western householders skip to the end or reduce spirituality to meditation reduces these practices efficacy.
Thanks Geoffe for sharing your thinking here. It definitely makes sense.
An alternative view that is overlapping (as most of these things converge) is the models of ego development which usually contain a sense of building up the "self" through taking responsibility in your life. Fitness, jobs, etc are all ways this can express. Eventually one seeks to transcend or go beyond the self, but that always comes after one has usually went through some phase of building up the self
True! Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs” comes to mind as well, now that you bring jobs into it.
“Gotta become somebody before you can become nobody” as Ram Dass said.
I absolutely believe that our thoughts impact our physical and mental health. I’ve experienced people who’ve talked themselves into poor health and people whose disposition has kept them healthier.
I’m also talking more about the needs I’m hearing about in the workplace. We’re demanding two ends of the spectrum: artificial intelligence and emotional intelligence. The further we travel towards AI, the further we’re going to need to travel in the other direction to balance it out with EI
I think as AI becomes more a fixture, EI will become more of an imperative. The companies that invest in it, will have an advantage
Brilliant insight! Yes - yes I think you're right!!!
On impacting mortality...
"Lacking social connection is as dangerous as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day."
- US Surgeon General's 2023 Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation Report
There are ZERO supplements, saunas, even diet or activity that can improve our longevity like improving our social connection.
So many people die too early, and it's not because they don't have a cold plunge.
Source: https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/surgeon-general-social-connection-advisory.pdf
Thanks Rick. Such a good point. Have seen a ton of studies saying some version of this and social connections relevance to our overall well-being
Excited to listen to this one. I'm fascinated by how much our thoughts create our reality on multiple levels.
1000% the research David shares is incredibly compelling
You are right ! Kindness is the ultimate biohack
🙌🏻
I can’t wait to listen. I came from a science background too, and for the last few years have been fascinated by consciousness research and evidence of the mind-body connection. Am living it directly to, with regards to shifting beliefs and thoughts to relieve physical symptoms.
That’s amazing! One of my favorite on this topic was “The Divided Mind” by John Sarno