← Feel Better, Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee
Feel Better, Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee
How To Break Free From Negative Thoughts, Change Your Daily Habits & Unlock Your Full Potential with Dr Bruce Lipton #498
02:12:54
Did you know that around 95% of your behaviours come from your subconscious mind? For most of us, this means living much of our lives on autopilot. But what if I told you that reprogramming this 'hidden' part of your mind is not only possible, it also has the potential to completely transform your life?
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- [00:02]
A
You have to own that you are a participant in everything that's unfolding. We have been so programmed to believe we're just victims of a world out of control without recognizing the simple truth. We are indeed creators.
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B
Hey, guys, how you doing? Hope you're having a good week so far. My name is Dr. Rangan Chatterjee, and this is my podcast, Feel Better Live More. Did you know that around 95% of your behaviors actually come from your subconscious mind? So basically, most of our life is actually lived on autopilot. But what if I told you that reprogramming this hidden part of your mind is not only possible, it also has the potential to completely transform your life. Well, this week I'm thrilled to welcome Dr. Bruce Lipton back onto my podcast. Dr. Lipson began his career as a cell biologist, graduating from the University of Virginia before joining the Department of Anatomy at the University of Wisconsin's School of Medicine in 1973. Today, he describes his work as bridging science and spirituality. And in his best selling book, the Biology of Belief, he sets out the idea that our thoughts affect all the cells in our body. Now, many of you really enjoyed my first conversation with Dr. Lipton all the way back on episode 308 of the show over two years ago. And and in this brand new episode, we continue our deep dive into the fascinating world of the subconscious mind and its profound influence on our daily lives. Now, during our conversation, we explore four common beliefs that hold many of us back, including the idea that external circumstances control our lives and that our happiness is reliant on the actions of others. We discuss the importance of taking full responsibility for our lives and the value of extending compassion towards ourselves. We also delve into the benefits of living with positive energy, the significance of routines and intentional living. And we talk about the power of consciousness in shaping our reality, including our perception of aging. Dr. Lipton is warm, he's compassionate, and he's honest. And this episode is full of practical wisdom that I'm certain will empower you to make positive changes by understanding the incredible power of your mind. Sabrice if I think about what I see around me, both in my job and if I just look out at the public, I see a lot of people trying to make changes. They're trying to change their behaviors, but I don't think they realize that their behaviors are driven by their beliefs. So they change their behaviors and it lasts for a few weeks or even a few months. But because they've never rewired their belief system, the behavior never sticks in the long term, what's your perspective on that?
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A
That's exactly what's going on in the world. Because people think that my mind and I say the mind. I go, yeah, well, they say the mind like there's one single entity. There's a big mistake. There are two minds that work together. They're interdependent. I have the conscious mind and what is called the subconscious mind. Each of them has a different function and a different way understanding life and be responding to life. So let's start with the conscious mind. That's the latest evolution of the brain. It's right behind your forehead, a lobe of brain called prefrontal cortex. This is the seat of consciousness. I say, well, what is consciousness? I say, well, that's your personal life, your personal identity. That's where your spirit enters into your biology is through the creative conscious mind. Creative is the emphasis. The other mind, which was here long before that, was called the subconscious mind and by its definition means below consciousness. Things that, that the biology is controlled, that you have no control over. What's your ph and your blood, what's your temperature of your body, what's your respiration? All of these are controlled by the subconscious. And the subconscious is a million times more powerful a processor than is the conscious mind. Okay? So I say, so what's the point? Ah, the subconscious mind's not creative. Subconscious mind's got programs. It's a hard drive. So if you look at the brain as a computer, you would say the subconscious is the hard drive with programs in it. But the keyboard is where you can type your information in. So I say, that's like the consciousness, conscious mind. Conscious mind is the one that is creative, can type on the keyboard, put in wishes and desires and what you want. Subconscious mind is not creative. It's basically a hard drive with programs. Once you push the button, the program unfolds. You have no control over it at that point. It's just an automatic process. Now the question is this. Which mind is controlling our lives? Everyone thinks their conscious, creative mind, my wishes, my desires, my aspirations, consciousness, they believe that's what's controlling their lives. I go, well, this is problematic because everybody has great wishes to be healthy, happy, be in love, great job. And they fail at doing that. And then they feel like victims because they say, oh, I wanted to be healthy, I wanted to be in love, I wanted a great job, it's not happening. And then they go, well, then it must be the source outside that's interfering with me. They take on victim. Well, victim by definition means powerless. They feel powerless in the unfolding of their lives. I go, there's a great misunderstanding, and that is the conscious mind, which is the creative mind, which has the wishes and desires, can do two things. And I go, what do you mean? I said, well, imagine your body's a vehicle and the conscious mind is looking through the windshield and it's driving you to where you want it to go. Happiness, love, health, and all that. I go, that's one job of the conscious mind, but the other job of the conscious mind is to think. I go, so what? Well, thinking is not looking out at the world. Thinking is looking inside. A thought is inside. So the moment you are thinking, consciousness is no longer looking at the outside. Consciousness is looking for something on the inside, a thought. Where am I? What am I doing? Where am I going? Why, this, that? And I say, well, wait, if the consciousness, the conscious mind, is not looking out the windshield and it's inside, well, what happens? For example, if you're thinking when you drive the car? I go, what do you mean? I go, well, if you're thinking, you're not looking out the window with your conscious mind where you're going, what happens? How come you don't crash your car? And the answer is, when the conscious mind is thinking, the subconscious mind with the programs is autopilot. It takes over. Okay, so whatever program you got in your subconscious mind, it's running when you're thinking. And then I go, oh, my goodness. Sciences recognize we think 95% of the day we're in thought. I go, well, then translate that. And I go, yeah. 95% of the day, your conscious mind's not running the show, it's inside thinking. So 95% of the day, your life is being controlled by the programs that you downloaded in the subconscious. Then I go, well, wait a minute. If my programs are not very good, and turns out 60% of the programs in the subconscious are disempowering, self sabotaging, or limiting beliefs. So more than half of the programs are actually interfering with your life. I said, well, I would notice if I was playing one of those programs. No, that's the part I say, why wouldn't you notice it? Because why are you playing the subconscious program? Because you're not paying attention to what's going outside in the world. You're looking inside at a thought. So I said, well, then when the subconscious programs are playing, you yourself don't even see those programs. Other people see those programs and they respond to your program, and you're Thinking you're the victim because they're challenging your life in some way. I go, no, you're the one that sent out the program that they're responding to. We are creating the problem, but we don't see it. And just to conclude with this very simple which a point that I've made for 40 years, and that is this. You have a friend. You know your friend's behavior very well. You happen to know your friend's parent, and one day you see your friend has the same behavior as their parents. So you volunteer. You go, hey, Bill, you're just like your dad. Step back from Bill. I'll tell you why. Because. And you already know. Because I know what Bill's going to tell you. He's going to say, how can you compare me to my dad? My dad, I'm nothing like my dad. And the fact is, Bill, but everybody else sees that he's like his dad. The only one who doesn't see it is Bill. And here's the problem. We are all Bill, every one of us, 95% of the day, are creating our lives with programs that we don't even see them playing. We only see the result of those programs because the result is not supporting us when we have negative programs.
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B
Yeah, you said there, your friend Bill.
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Yeah.
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B
We could substitute the word friend for partner. Right. Because people see this all the time with their partners.
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They do.
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They can see that, oh, you're behaving just like your mom or your dad's.
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And a person resents that when they hear it.
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B
Yeah. Because there is this disconnect, I think, for many of us between, you know, what we think our behaviors are and where they've come from and what they actually are, which I think speaks to a lot of your work, which is, how can we take back the steering wheel? How can we start to be the architect of our life off our health, of our happiness, rather than, I guess, a victim to the world around us. But also, the way you answered that first question, Bruce, for me, there's a couple of things that are worth pausing on. One is what you said. About 60% of the programs that are running are negative.
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Yes.
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Okay. They're self sabotaging. And it kind of fits right with what I see, which is people struggle to make the changes in their life permanent because they're concentrating on the behavior. Oh, I want to meditate every day. Oh, I want to do this every day because it's gonna help me, which can go so far. But if you don't go and rewire the underlying belief. I kind of feel that our behaviors will always fall back to the level of our beliefs.
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A
A hundred percent. It's a hundred percent because unless you change the amount of time that you're running your programs. And I say, what does that mean? I say, well, why am I running a program? Because my conscious mind's thinking. And then I say, well, what if you're not thinking? What if you stay what is called present or you stay what is called mindful? I go, this is the cool part, because I say, this. Turns out science has recognized when we fall in love. What happens when we fall in love is we stop thinking. Because what you've been looking for your whole life is now in front of you. The idea of thinking is disconnecting. It's like, no, you don't want. You want to be here. So I guess what science has recognized, when you fall in love, you stop thinking. I go, yeah, but then what happens? I say, well, if you're not thinking, then you're not playing the program. And I said, well, then if I'm not thinking, then who's running the show? I go, the creative, conscious mind. So I say, your life could be blah, blah, blah, blah. Then you meet somebody, 24 hours later, you have a completely different life experience. I go, what is it? I say you fall in love. I say, what is it? I say you experience something we call the honeymoon. What's the honeymoon? Heaven on earth. I go, well, wait, every day was blah, blah, blah. Then 24 hours after you fall in love, you're creating the honeymoon. I go, yeah, because you're not creating your life from your program. When you stop thinking, you're creating from the conscious mind, which is wishes and desires. So when two people get together and they first get together, neither of them are playing their subconscious programs because they're in a creative mode, and they're creating that heaven on earth honeymoon experience. I go, well, this is great. Why the honeymoon is so wonderful and lovely? I said, but shortly down the road, you have jobs. You have to start thinking. You have planning. You have all. You start thinking. I go, so what happened? I said, well, the moment you start thinking, then you resort to going back to the program. Well, I say, yeah, but guess what? Your partner has never seen your programs because you never played them. Once you started being in love, and all of a sudden these negative things come out, and your partner looks at you and goes, who are you? Where did that come from? Because they never saw this. And then as the relationship continues, more and more of the Programs from both partners start manifesting.
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B
So the idea that they may say, oh, you weren't like that when we first met. It's true and it's not true. Right. They were like that, but you never saw that aspect of them because they were present. They were operating from the conscious mind.
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The creative mind.
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B
Yeah. So. Cause that's interesting. Cause both parts were there, but one part was hidden. And that's why the honeymoon effect, I guess it sort of wears off after a while.
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It does. And then all of a sudden was, why did 50% of marriages end in divorce? And the answer is, because nobody signed up for the programs. They signed up for the creative conscious wishes and desires. When the program started showing up, it's like, who are you? Where did that come from?
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B
Yeah. And then there's also another problem there, isn't there? Which is people will often go from relationship to relationship. Again, I accept there are some problematic relationships. There are some violent relationships. There are things that we should leave. But I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about this phenomena that I think is pretty common where after a while we think, oh, this partner's not right for us.
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Yes.
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And so I'm gonna find someone else who is right. And that cycle can keep going. But the same patterns follow you everywhere you go, because they're your subconscious patterns.
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A
Yeah. There's a joke. It's like the second marriage. The third marriage is like, I married the same person with different color hair. Basically, I'm still carrying my same program from this relationship to the next. But every time I start the relationship, I'm not playing the program because then I'm being conscious. And so every new relationship is like, oh, wow, heaven on earth. This is wonderful. The honeymoon. I love this. Inevitably, then it returns back to the program, and that relationship starts to collapse and fall.
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B
Yeah. The other thing I just wanted to pause on is what you said about driving the car. Because I think some people, Bruce, May think, what is this conscious subconscious, you know, what exactly are you talking about? You know, everything I do in my life is conscious. Right. Most of us have experienced driving.
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Yes.
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When at some point we've totally switched off. We're daydreaming, we're going through our job list. We're working out a relationship issue, whatever it might be, yet we still stop at the red light. I think that's so powerful because it shows us. For anyone who's skeptical, it's like, well, wait a minute. If you're not consciously thinking about the road, who on earth is right? Something is going on. There is an intelligence in your body. Your subconscious brain is still monitoring the cars, the traffic signals. Do you know what I mean? And I think for anyone who.
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A
Driving. Driving is a habit, and a habit is a program. You learn to drive by repetition. You practice. You practice. What's the point? When you first got in the car, you were so conscious, aware of everything. What's going on out the windows, the mirrors, the engine, the feet on the pedals. You were conscious. Now, you've been driving a car for a while. You get in there, you put the key in, and you're thinking about where I'm gonna go, what I'm gonna do and all this stuff, paying attention to the rules. All of a sudden, you're not doing that. So let's just say you and I are in the car right now and we're having this conversation. I'm driving the car, and we have this great conversation. My focus is on you, your focus is on me. I'm driving the car, and all of a sudden I realize I'm not paying attention to the road. And, you know, like, oh, my God, we're at the exit already. How did that happen? I'm already at the exit. I ask two questions. This is where it comes down to. I say, what was your conversation about? Oh, well, we talked about this and we talked about that. Then I asked, well, what was on the road when you were having the conversation? The answer is, I have no idea. And all of a sudden I go, right. And the point about it was what? You were not driving the car. The program was driving the car. You had no idea what was on the road. The program did it. And I say, but that's 95% of our lives.
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B
I love it, Bruce. Okay, so what I thought for this conversation today, because it's our second conversation together on my podcast, I was thinking about this idea that our behaviors follow our beliefs. And then I thought, okay, it will be fun with Bruce to think about some common beliefs that I feel exist across society in many of us and get your perspective on them. So are you up for that?
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100%.
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B
Okay. All right. So one of them I think you've sort of covered, but I'll put it out there anyway. So I believe that most people think that their conscious mind determines what happens in their life.
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A
That is a common belief that I'm creating my wishes and desires is to do this, and it's not working. Then all of a sudden, they feel like I'm being victimized. Why I wanna be successful, why Am I not successful? And then they look at the world around them and say, well, that person interfered with me, and that person did this, and that person. All these excuses of why they didn't get what they really wanted when they didn't realize that they were not creating their life with their conscious mind, they were creating it with the program. 95% of the day. I go, yeah, look, there's an old saying. It's a truism called knowledge is power, okay? I go, yeah, but let me say the same thing in a different way. A lack of knowledge is a lack of. Of power, okay? And then I'll add this. A misperception, something you believe to be true but is not is by definition a lack of power. A misperception is disempowering. So I say, oh, my goodness. We have this belief, yeah, I'm running my life with my conscious wishes and desires, and the world is preventing me from getting them. I go, no, your belief System is running 95% of the time. And the programming you got could take you off the world. Because if the program is wrong, then you're operating from misinformation. And I go, well, the misinformation you just brought up is I'm running my life with my conscious wishes and desires. I go, misinformation. Only 5% of your life is coming from the conscious mind. 95% is coming from the programmed mind. So I say, yeah, but the conscious mind wishes and desires. I go, yeah, but the program is different than the wishes and desires. So are you really creating your life with wishes and desires? I said only 5%. That's why it doesn't work. You want to create your life with wishes and desires, then at least 90% or more of your behavior should be controlled by your wishes and desires. Interesting. This is what science has found out. When people fall in love, when they fall in love, they no longer depend on the program. They stay conscious. And now 95 or 90% of their life is coming straight from wishes and desires. I say, so what did happen when you fell in love? I said your life was blah, blah, bl. You meet someone, you fall in love. It's only 24 hours later that you're now experiencing something called the honeymoon. And that was what? Your wishes and your desires. You're not playing the program, so that's empowering, isn't it?
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B
Right? If you can flip and change your whole state of being in just 24 hours, and anyone who's fallen in love before will know that feeling. Yeah, right. That shows Us that actually these things can be changed. And they can be changed quite quickly.
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A
Perhaps 100% quickly. This is what I say. Just 24 hours after meeting somebody, you wake up with a different day. Oh, my God, I'm so in love. Love is so beautiful. I'm so happy. Hey, the food's good, the music's good. Even a job that was crappy. It's not crappy anymore. Why? I'm enjoying my life. I go, oh, your conscious mind is now putting out its wishes and desires, manifesting. And of course, it comes back as, my life is beautiful because that's what I wanted. Okay? And I say, so what is the honeymoon? The first time you stop playing the program is the first time you actually then take control of your biology. And what did you manifest? Heaven on earth. And I go, you know, heaven on earth was always here. I go, then why aren't we experiencing every day? Because, well, 95% of the day, you're not operating from that mind.
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B
I think this is such a key point, Bruce. People. And I think your example of falling in love really brings it to life. Right. But what you said about your job, the job that you hated, and then you fall in love, and then now you actually like your job, or it's certainly not bothering you.
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Right?
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B
Right. That also shows us that perception is huge.
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Perception is the foundation of consciousness.
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B
Yeah.
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That is where it comes from.
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B
And we can actually change our perception of things if we want to.
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A
If you want to. Now, the conscious mind is the changeable one. You know, we could have a conversation. I walk out this door, and my conscious mind could have a whole different meaning about life. Okay? My subconscious is a hard drive, just like in a computer. I say, what's the point? I say, if you think you can change the hard drive, your subconscious mind, by just talking to it, talking to yourself, oh, I'm gonna do better. I say, who are you talking to? He said, well, I'm talking to the subconscious. I go, there's nobody in the subconscious. It's a hard drive, like in a computer. I say, if you think you can do that. I say, talk to your computer and see if it will change its function by talking to it. And the answer is no.
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B
People try when that computer's not working. People do talk to their computers, but I don't think it works.
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A
I usually yell at it when I mess up. Ye. But the reality is. What? The subconscious does not change habits unless there's a special way of doing it. And the reason is this. What is a habit? It's a program. Do I want it to change? Not if it's a good habit. I go, like what? Well, when did you learn how to walk? Before you were two years of age? Are you still walking? I don't care what age you are, you could be a hundred years old. Are you still walking? I go, yeah. I said, that's the original program that you got before too. It didn't change. If you would lose the habit, then what would happen if you woke up one day and you forgot how to walk? I say no. The beautiful part about the subconscious is it holds onto that program for your whole life unless you understand how to rewrite the subconscious, because otherwise you can't talk to it because there's nobody in there, nobody's listening. It's just going to play the program forever and ever and ever until you change it.
- [24:45]
B
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- [28:22]
A
Listen, the old days before we used to buy a computer originally, and you bought a brand new computer and you take it home and you plug it in, you push start and the screen lights up, it's booted up and I go, you got a brand new computer. I say, let's do something. I said, well, I can't do anything, but you got a brand new computer. I said, oh, no. First I have to put programs in the computer to use the computer. I go, the brain is a computer. It's the most fabulous computer humans have ever experienced. And it works in the same way. Basically says this. In the last trimester of pregnancy, three months before you're born, your brain screen lights up, it's booted, it's ready to go. Yeah, but I can't do anything with it until I get programs. Well, how do you get programs? The brain of a child from three months before birth to about seven years of age is not operating at consciousness at any level, really. Okay? And I said, well, what's it operating at? It's not conscious yet. I go, it's in a lower vibration. And I use the word vibration because when you put wires on a person's head to read their brain activity, it's in levels of vibration energy. A child's brain, up to about 7, is primarily in a vibration called theta. Now, theta is not consciousness, it's below consciousness. So I say, well, a child up until seven is not really Conscious. I go, no, but they're dealing with the world. And I say, oh, what's theta? Theta is actually imagination. I go, ah, that's what kids do. They can live in the real world and the imaginary world at the same time. I always give in a lecture. I talk about the famous tea party. They pour nothing into the cup. They drink nothing, and they say, oh, that's the best tea I ever had in my life. Or. Or the child's on a broom, and they say, it's a horse. In their mind, theta, it's not a broom. Their imagination is turned into a horse. So the mother says, give me the broom. And the child looks at her like, I don't know what you're talking about, okay? And I say, that is the character. Imaginary friends, imaginary things. I say, that's a character of theta. Theta is hypnosis. I go, what? I said, why? I say, how many rules must a child learn to be a functional member of a family? How many rules must a child learn to be a functional member of their community? I go, a thousand rules, maybe or more. I said, so how's an infant gonna learn? You gonna send it to school, read a book, go to a classroom? I say, infant can't do that. Nature handled it by saying, okay, first seven years you're in hypnosis, you want to know how to live. Watch your mother, watch your father, watch your siblings, watch your community, download their behavior. And now you know the rules of living in that community. Well, you're copying other people's behavior. And if the people you're copying are living a great, wonderful, happy, productive life, well, that's great, because you just downloaded that. But I'll give an example. In my personal life, my mother and father had a dysfunctional relationship. I'm a boy growing up at that age. I'm watching my father download behavior for the boy, the man. How do men do this? I watch my father. Guess what I'm downloading. He was dysfunctional. I downloaded dysfunctional behavior. Why is that important? And the answer is. Well, I was over 40 years of age, and I couldn't get a relationship off the ground. Why? Because 95% of my life was coming from the program I downloaded from my father. I was manifesting dysfunctional relationship unconsciously. Because when my conscious mind was busy, my father's behavioral program was playing. I couldn't get a relationship off the ground.
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B
I mean, I think people will get this, Bruce, in the sense that I think more and more people now are familiar with the idea that our childhoods yes. What happens to us when we're children, what trauma we experience or don't experience, how our parents are, the beliefs that we take on, they basically run the rest of our life unless we do something about it. So we don't realize until we have a reason, often as adults, to go, wait a minute. Where did I actually get this belief from in the first place? Why does this situation always trigger me? And I think real empowerment comes from when you realize that most situations in life are pretty neutral. It's actually your perception of that situation that determines the impact it has on you. Once you really absorb that concept and own it, your experience of life becomes very, very different. And so I think, you know, I've had Gabor Mate on this show many times before, and he talks about our childhoods and how our childhood experiences impact our adult behavior. Many child psychotherapists would say a similar thing. So I think I'm just trying to bring that up for people who may be going, really? We download programs. It's like, yeah, you know, you use the word programs, but essentially it's the conditioning we get at that age, isn't it?
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A
It's 100%. This is why kids essentially grow up like their parents. You know, I love it because musicians, the kids of musicians, are great musicians, you know, and if you look at really famous musicians, their children, whether it's George Harrison or John Lennon's kids or whoever, become great musicians. Oh, they must have a gene for music. I go, no, they downloaded the nature of manifesting music and writing and creating by observing their parents do it, and then they can do it. And so there's no gene for being a musician. It's your parents that you were following gave you that program that you can then manifest yourself. Okay, well, that's great. If your parents have great, great behaviors and you download great behaviors, there's no problem there. But like in my case, just as I mentioned a minute ago, what if my father has this dysfunctional behavior and I download it? Then it becomes my dysfunctional behavior 95%.
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B
Of the time, unless you do something about it.
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A
Ah, yeah.
- [34:50]
B
Which is the key. Right, So. I know. I mean, in our first conversation, you touched a bit on self hypnosis as one way that we can change these programs. Yes. I think you also talked about. Or maybe we didn't, but I think I want to talk today about how we can intentionally repeat certain behaviors until they become new habits.
- [35:13]
A
Yeah.
- [35:14]
B
But for anyone who at this point is going, okay, I get what you're saying, Bruce. I have Taken on these beliefs when I was a kid, I have downloaded these programs which are now running my life. If they then say to you, bruce, can I do anything about that? What do you say to them?
- [35:32]
A
I say, yes. But it's sort of like I mentioned, that the subconscious is like the programming, a hard drive. I say, you want to change the program in a hard drive? You have to go through a process. You have to push a record button. You have to do some special to activate the programming. Okay? The idea, a lot of people think, well, I'm just going to talk, you know, give myself a good talking to. And I'll keep telling myself, you know, oh, change, change. I go, but when you say I'm talking to myself, I say, there's nobody in the subconscious. So you're really not talking to anybody, and you're not changing the subconscious, because that's not how it learns. So the only idea is, you want to change the programming. You have to know how the programming goes in in the first place. We just mentioned before, first seven years of a child's life, they're in theta hypnosis. That's how the program got in in the first seven years. But you learn programs after age seven. You learn how to drive a car, play an instrument or something like that. And I go, well, how'd you learn that? And that was based on repetition, practice, repeating, repeating, repeating. And that is the second way that programs can manifest by repeating it.
- [36:41]
B
Okay, so this is really empowering. Right? So we can maybe come back to self hypnosis later. Right? We did cover it in the first conversation, but the second one about repeating our behaviors consistently. Okay, so I just want to summarize what I've heard to make sure I've got it and make sure everyone's following along. Okay, so in the first seven years of our life and for the three months before we're born, we are downloading certain programs from the world around us, our caregivers. For many of us, it will be our parents right now that has the most influence or has a major influence on who we are later on in life. But you're saying that we also download programs later, as evidenced by the fact that we learn how to drive. We might learn the piano, we might learn all kinds of new skills, which then become habits. Right? So that means we are capable of learning new behaviors and skills later on in life, which is empowering.
- [37:46]
A
But there's a fact, and learning that it's not like, oh, one time I got in the car, and then I learned how to drive. I say, no, you had to get in the car and practice how to drive. So it's the repetition that should be.
- [37:59]
B
Understood for me, I think about that through this lens of if we are regularly repeating intentional behaviors or we're regularly repeating behaviors intentionally, with enough repetition and practice, at some point it will go from conscious to unconscious.
- [38:21]
A
Absolutely.
- [38:22]
B
Okay, so one question that I ask myself each morning as part of my sort of morning routine is, what quality do I want to showcase to the world today? Okay. And I want to get your opinion on this, Ruiz, Because I do this after a meditation when I'm really sort of tuned into myself and I'm trying to intentionally decide how I want to be that day. So often it will be, I want to show the world the quality of patients, or I want to show the world a quality of compassion. And by setting that intention in the morning, I'm much more likely to exhibit that behavior throughout the day. Or if something happens where, you know, I'm tempted to be impatient, I'll be like, oh, Rangan, you said this morning you want to show the world around you the quality of patience. Now, I believe, and I know this to be true in my own life, that by doing that regularly and by repeating it regularly, and of course, I'm not perfect. So on those days where I didn't, by reminding myself that evening and the following morning, hey, Rongan, you could have been more patient. Then, you know, next time that happens, try and react in a different way.
- [39:35]
A
Yes.
- [39:35]
B
Before you know it, at some point, that becomes your default behavior. Now, do you agree with that, and do you think that's a sort of helpful practice for people to do?
- [39:44]
A
Well, absolutely. Because what are you doing? You're setting up a practice, a habit, a repetition. And the more you practice, the more it becomes downloaded as a program. If you just say it once and let it go, it's like a few minutes later, you're gonna be back in the old program anyway. But it's the conscious mind that has an opportunity to observe and go, wait a minute, I didn't mean that. Oh, wait a minute, I really want to say this. All of a sudden, ah. Then the conscious mind steps in and says, let's change the behavior. And if you repeat that change of behavior, that is the second way that programs are installed in the subconscious. I just want to help people for a second, and I want to help them with this. What are my programs? I go, well, 95% of your life is coming from your program. Your life is a printout of your Programs. I say, well then how do I know my programs? And the answer here it is, the things that you like and you want that come into your life, they come in because you have a program to acknowledge those things. But on the other side, the things that you want and you work hard and you put effort into it and you're sweating and you trying to make it. I'm making it work, I'm putting effort into it. I go, why are you working so hard for that destination? And the answer is, because your program doesn't support that destination and you want to now override the program. That's what working hard is all about. I'm going to work harder, I'm going to override the program. I go, it's not very effective. It just actually causes more stress in the end because I'm making more effort and I'm not getting there. Because that's not how you change the program.
- [41:26]
B
Yeah, there's something so profound there which I've also experienced, Bruce, which is this idea that these days, honestly I find putting in health promoting behaviors into my life, I find it really easy. I didn't used to find it easy. I was trying to overcome.
- [41:52]
A
Yes.
- [41:53]
B
Yeah. I was trying to do it in conflict with my underlying beliefs, in conflicts with the programs.
- [42:02]
A
Right.
- [42:03]
B
I guess another way of looking at this is like if you truly love yourself, right. Not in a narcissistic way, like, but in a really, in a really healthy way that, you know, I like the person who I am. If, if you really feel that way about yourself, which I certainly did not used to and I think many people don't.
- [42:24]
A
Let me give you a number on that. So you understand 80 to 90% of all people will not test positive for the belief. I love myself. And that's because we become self critical of ourselves. Where do we get the critical assessment? Our parents. Parents act like a coach. And I say, what does that mean? I say, there's a player on the team is not performing well. The coach doesn't go, oh please do better. No. The coach goes up and says, that's not good enough. Who do you think you are? You don't deserve to be on this team. I go, what's the coach doing? Needling, you know, pushing on the, on the kid to play better. And the kid being conscious and older is aware, saying, oh, the coach wants me to work harder, the coach wants me to do better. I go, that's cool. And that's what makes the play or do better. But when parents act as coaches and the kid is under 7, they're not conscious, they're in record. So I say, what does that mean? Well, the parent says, you know, the, the child's crying at the store because they want the toy and the parent wants to get out. So the parent just says, you don't deserve that toy and pushes them out of the store. I said, what did the child learn from that download? What was the download? I do not deserve or that's not good enough? Who do you think you are? You're not lovable. I go, if a child is under seven, they're not consciously understanding what the parent's saying. They're recording what the parent's saying.
- [43:49]
B
Yeah. And if you feel that you're not deserving and you're not lovable, well, of course you're going to engage in self sabotaging behaviors 100% right. You're gonna make change for a bit in January, new year, you're gonna get on your new plan, but you are gonna go back at some point because you haven't changed the program. And going back to what I was saying before, Bruce, once you truly get to the point of liking who you are, dare I say it, loving who you are, well, someone who loves themself, treats themself well, and others. So your behaviors are naturally going to change because your belief system is I am someone who is deserving. I do like who I am. I want to nourish my body, my mind, my soul. So of course I'm gonna engage in behaviors that do that.
- [44:38]
A
Yeah.
- [44:38]
B
And I know it sounds so obvious when you hear it like that, but I think it really is. I think that's why so many people struggle 100%.
- [44:47]
A
That's why I said 80 to 90% of people will not test positive for I love myself because they were so criticized by parents who thought they were doing like the coach. If I criticized you, you're gonna do better. But they didn't realize if the kid is under 7, they're not consciously putting it all together that, oh, I'm supposed to do better. They're just recording, I'm not good enough, I'm not smart enough, I'm not lovable, I'm not deserving. I say, that's a program. And I go, and then what? 95% of your life's coming from the program. If you don't love yourself, here's the problem. Nobody else can love you. I go, what do you mean? Well, if somebody says, oh, I love you, Bruce, and my program is I'm not lovable, I would look at them and go, well, you know, my conscious or subconscious mind would go, hey, they have no quality control. They can't see I'm not lovable. I know I'm not lovable. What's wrong with them? And then you will push them away, and then they're not there. And guess what? You're going to say, see, I'm not lovable. Nobody's here. And I say, your own behavior pushed them away because you couldn't accept the love that they were trying to give you. And this is why 50% of these marriages end up in divorce. Because if you don't love yourself, then somebody can't say, I love you. And you buy it. You can't buy it.
- [46:08]
B
Okay, so belief one, which I think you've tackled really well, was this idea that my conscious mind determines what happens in my life. You've just explained why that is not the case. Okay. A second cultural belief that I think is really common is this. I am not in control of what happens in my life. How it plays out is down to external circumstances. What do you make of that?
- [46:36]
A
Well, this is exactly what we just talked about. If you do not see you are participating in your own failure, then where did the failure come from? Just, you know, logically, oh, I wouldn't have sabotaged myself. Then who sabotaged me? Ah, now we look outside and we start to look at, oh, that person did this to me, and that person wasn't nice, and this person did that. And all of a sudden, you're not giving yourself the credit of, I was creating this because you don't want to acknowledge I created garbage in my life. I created this.
- [47:10]
B
No, Bruce, I think some people at this point may be wanting to push back and going, okay, I get it, right? I get what you're saying about conscious mind versus subconscious mind. But you don't understand my life, right? You don't understand what my boss is like, what my partner is like, what the strains and struggles are in my life. I am a victim to those external circumstances. If those external circumstances changed, I would be different. What do you say to them?
- [47:39]
A
I say, no, you're just like the person who divorces one person and then marries the joke. Marry another person, the same, but with different colored hair, especially. You're gonna repeat the same thing over and over and over again. And the idea about it is this. You're not acknowledging your own role in the unfolding of your life. If you say, I'm not responsible, those people did it. And I go, no, you didn't. Even hear what you were saying or behaving that they were responding to. They responded to your output, and you were the one who didn't even see the output because when you were thinking, the program was playing.
- [48:21]
B
So hold on, let's really dive in here. Clearly, in life, there are some things that happen that are not that great. Right. For example, if we have a boss that's quite pushy and domineering, that's not a nice place to be in. Right?
- [48:43]
A
Right.
- [48:43]
B
So let's use that as an example. Someone's in that situation and they're hearing you say that, they're not a victim to that. They don't have to be on the receiving end of that. I guess what I'm trying to understand from you is this idea that there can be circumstances in life that are not ideal, that have an impact on us. But at the same time, you're saying that. Yes, but it doesn't have to define us. How would you put that?
- [49:15]
A
Well, I would say the exact same thing is I look at my life and I say, geez, I really wanted to be successful here. And look at this boss who's interfering with my life and doing all that. And I go, how'd you end up there? How did you end up with this boss? A boss who was not supporting you, a boss who's giving you all. How did you end up there? You got the job. You applied for it. You were the one that got yourself into this position. Then you're in this position. You're going, oh, I don't want to be here. I go, yeah, but you were the one that installed yourself in that position. You didn't just get it by accident all of a sudden, like a lottery. Oh, hey, here's today's your boss. No, that didn't how. That's not how it worked. Okay? You have to own that you are a participant in everything that's unfolding. You are a creator in everything that's unfolding. And if you don't like the creation, then we blame the creation for the problem without recognizing we are the creator.
- [50:10]
B
Yeah. This I've seen very often around the subject of boundaries. Right. So people who don't have good boundaries, and I absolutely used to be one of these people. By not being able to put up your own boundaries, you can often find yourself being resentful of other people who you then perceive that they're asking too much of me. Like, you know, they're asking me to do this again. They shouldn't be asking me to. They should know, but the problem isn't them. The problem is that we never were able to put up our boundary in the first place. That would have then taught that person, this is what I'm prepared to do. This is what I'm not prepared to do. So we blame outside. I guess for me, the key message from this myth and through the lens of your teachings, is that even if there are external circumstances that we don't like, that we would ideally change, we have to also acknowledge that in some form, we have also played a role here.
- [51:11]
A
Please. That is the most important thing. Do not take yourself out of the program. That I'm just a total victim. And everything happens, I go, no, you are a participant in what's going on, and why are you working this job? You don't like it. And then, because let's put it maybe in your own mind, well, what if I don't have this job? Then where am I? Oh, my God, you know, I won't have anything. So what am I going to do? I'm going to put up with this. Well, that was your choice. Because of the fear of not having the job. You will take on all the problems that you're taking on. Because what's the alternative if I'm not here? What's the alternative if I find this job sucks? Boss. I hate that boss. I say, what are you going to do? You have another job? No. What are you going to do? Go with no job? Walk out? No, I have to take care of myself. I got responsibilities. I got a family. I got to pay for things. I stay. I say you stay, knowing this isn't working right. I go, why? Because your fear of getting out of it is greater than staying in it. Okay? And this is what the problem is. And it's interesting because I face this. I was a tenured faculty member in a medical school. A tenured member means a person who has a job for a lifetime. But I found there was conflict between me and my other fellow researchers because I was off on this new tangent. Epigenetics, they weren't there. And at some point I realized, boy, I'm just spinning my wheels. They don't even pay attention to what I'm talking about. And one day I just said, that's it. I went into the chairman's office, gave a letter of resignation, I'm walking out. The fear hit me only about a minute after I walked out of the office, where I realized, oh, my God, I just threw away my job. And that moment just hit me because I felt so like Yeah, I don't want this job. A minute later, it's like, oh, my God, I don't have a job. And it was psychologically very depressing at that moment. But the result was what I ultimately found, what I wanted to do. I found a better way of life. I live a much better life than if I stayed on that job. And in today's world, where jobs are falling apart in a lot of places and a lot of people are losing their jobs, guess what? A lot of those people are actually finding work that they want to do versus the one they had to do. And their lives are better because they found a job that they didn't compromise themselves with. That's a true story. A lot of people are happier after they lost their job because they found something they'd rather do than put up with the situation.
- [53:58]
B
I've seen that with so many people as well. And they never would have had the courage to leave the job, but they can then look back and go, that was the best thing that ever happened.
- [54:06]
A
Right.
- [54:07]
B
Cause if I hadn't been fired, I would never have found this thing which now nourishes me. I guess another way we can look at it is this idea that things happen to us. There are things that happen to us that we may not like. That may not be ideal. Yeah. You know what? That is life. That is the way things are. What we do with that is our responsibility.
- [54:31]
A
Oh, my God. You used the magic word responsibility. Because people don't want to have responsibility. Why? Because responsibility says, then you have to own what's going on. And most people would rather say, no, I'm a victim of what's going on. Responsibility is a very tough word. You don't want to use that easily because people will look at you and like, you know, wait, go away.
- [54:54]
B
For me, it's the only way to live. If you want to thrive in life, if you want to be happy, if you want to be healthy. Because you can't actually control external circumstances. All you can actually control is your response to them. So even if you had a rough upbringing, right. Even if your parents didn't do what you would ideally have liked them to do for you, I get it. It's hard. It's difficult, right? But that happened. Your only option, if you want a better life, is to go, right from this moment on, I'm gonna take responsibility. I can't change the past, but I can change how I view the future and how I want my Life to continue.
- [55:42]
A
100%. It's really what it's all about. I mean, this is why, look, I had a job for a lifetime when.
- [55:49]
B
You were the tenured professor.
- [55:50]
A
I was a tenured professor. And I go, yeah, but my life isn't that good when I'm being a tenured professor. I have to deal with people I don't want to deal with. And I have to put up with the so called, whatever the BS of the system might be at that moment. And it was a choice. Well, how much do I want to put up with this? There's a point that said no more. And that was a commitment, that was my responsibility to say, I do not want to give up the power over my life to be in this situation. And it's very hard because the alternative thing is, well, if you're not in a situation, then where are you? Then all of a sudden you realize, my God, well, maybe I'll just be out in the wild. So therefore I better stay where I am and put up with this. Because out in the wild's a little more scary than putting up with the aggravation that I have in this particular job. And I say, yeah, but when are you going to make that decision? When are you going to finally say, I've had it, I don't want this anymore? You know, that's where marriages finally get to the point of divorce. I put up with this, I put up with this, I can't do it anymore. And then a divorce. Now the question is, now that you've left, did you change who you are or you just got out of that particular relationship? If you didn't change who you are, you'll find yourself back in the same relationship again. And this is what we need to do. And it's not easy for a lot of people. If you, as you said, you got fired. Well, then now it's like, okay, now I'm out here, I gotta do something. But if you have a job and you don't want it, then all of a sudden you're gonna say, I don't want this job and walk off the job. You're gonna have a lot of thoughts about that. It's like, well, what happens if I don't have a job? How am I gonna pay for this? Where it's gonna, what's this gonna happen? And unknowns of that say, no, okay, I'll just stay here on the job. I'll put up with it. I go, well, that was your choice. That was a choice because the fear can override the choice. And then you live your life in fear. And I Go, well, that's no way to live on this planet because you're not living who you are. You're living what I have to be. According to the fear. That's not what I want to be, it's what I have to be. I go, that's a different life. I live today what I want to be. I create what I want. And if it doesn't work, I'm not there. I have choices. And I realize over the time I have such a good life because I don't have to put up with things I don't want. And most people put up with it because they don't see how are they going to survive if they didn't put up with what they don't want. Okay, and that is the fear. The fear is, is the unknown potentially better or not? If I leave this and I'm in the unknown world, what are my chances? Is it gonna get better or is it gonna get worse? The fear gets worse. That keeps you in the same position because you don't wanna let go of what you have at that point.
- [58:53]
B
Another cultural belief which I think plays into this, it's this idea that I think many people hold these days. They certainly behave in a way that is consistent with this. And that belief is this idea that busyness equals success. Right? Cause if you hold that belief, of course you're gonna overwork, get stressed out, neglect your health, neglect your happiness, because you believe that success means that you're busy. So what do you think about that? Is it true? Today's episode is sponsored by eight Sleep now. Eight Sleep have a technology called the pod. And the Pod is a high tech mattress cover that transforms your existing bed into a sleep optimization powerhouse. And clinical studies have demonstrated that the pods can increase quality sleep duration by up to one hour per night. It offers a temperature range from 55 degrees Fahrenheit all the way up to 110 degrees Fahrenheit. And this is particularly important because it allows for the manipulation of our core body temperature, which plays a crucial role in our sleep quality. It also incorporates sensors that monitor several key physiological parameters, including our sleep stages, heart rate variability and respiratory rate. And many athletes, business leaders and friends of mine have found it to be absolutely transformative. The POD can be especially helpful if you share a bed with a partner, as it enables both sides of the bed to to have a different temperature. So if you're ready to take your sleep and recovery to the next level, head over to 8sleep.com livemore and use the code LIVEMORE to get up to $600 off your Pod 4 Ultra purchase when bundled. This offer ends soon, so don't miss out and the Pod currently ships to the us, Canada, the uk, Europe and Australia. This episode is sponsored by Thriver, the app that helps you listen to your blood and get personalized guidance on how to optimize your health and fitness. Now I think regular blood tests can be a really valuable tool that can help tell us which lifestyle changes are working and where we might need to make changes. And Thriver is the perfect tool to help us do that because they make it really simple. You just take a blood test at home, which is really easy, send it off and then you get all of your results in a matter of days in an easy to understand app. And all of your results come with personalized, actionable lifestyle advice from doctors. You can then test again in a few months time and learn what's working well and where you might need to make some changes. For example, your average blood sugar, known as your HBA1C I think is a really important marker that gives you information on the state of your metabolic health and I personally like to check it every three to six months to make sure it's staying in its optimal range. The Thriver app is what I use to help me do this and it offers many different options. You can do general non specific blood testing or get more focused on things like hormonal health, heart health, sports performance and nutrient levels. For listeners of my show, Thriver are offering an exclusive offer of 20 off your first thriver cycle when you enter the promo code. Live more at checkout. Just visit Thriver Co to get started today. That's T H R I v a.co thriver listen to your blood.
- [63:01]
A
Not for me it's not true. Success is about am I happy? Am I enjoying my life? Do I feel healthy? Do I feel loved? Am I in a community where I live and my community is helping and supporting me and I feel safe and secure in this world. And the answer is no, most people don't have that. They just say if I work harder, I'll get what I need. Well, this is a, you know, a Darwinian belief. If you summarize the theory of evolution, which is simply this survival of the fittest in the struggle for life. I said, what does that mean, survival of the fittest? That means competition. Who's the fittest? How do I know if I'm the fittest? How do I know if I'm in a good place or not? And then the answer turns Out. Well, how successful are you? Meaning, do you have money? Do you have a bank account? Do you own things? Why? Because that's a reflection of the more I own, the more I'm successful. So I'm going to keep working on this job. Why? Because I'm going to get more. And as I get more, then my life is going to get better. And that was the whole belief that if I work harder and longer and I make more money than my life is better. I go, no, it's not. It didn't make your life better. Oh, yeah, I got great money, but I'm sick from the job. You know, I've lost my relationship from the job. I go, then what was the value of the job? Oh, well, that's what. Determined if I'm fit and will survive. I go, nah, nah. You know, it's interesting. What just came into my mind was when I was first married, I was way too young. I wasn't in the right place, okay? And I remember talking to my father who came from Russia in 1918 or 19, and I said to him, I'm going to get a divorce. And he looked at me like, what? And I go, what do you mean? He said, marriage is a business. I go, what? Well, he came from Russia. At that time, if you were not married, you didn't have a partner, you didn't have a partner, you wouldn't survive. So a partner, a marriage wasn't based on love, it was based on survival. And so his vision of marriage was, yeah, I have a partner, we're working together. Okay? Was there love? Not necessarily, but that's a business. And I thought, oh, my God, this is not my worldview. Because love to me was the whole vision, whether it was self love, which was first important, which I didn't have and had to acquire, and then it's the love of a partner. Why? Because there's the nature of community. The foundation of community is first a partner, and then you can expand your community. And evolution is based on community. Evolution is based on support in a community of people or things around you, okay? So all of a sudden I say, wait a minute. Love becomes the most important aspect of our lives. Love is harmony, love is the honeymoon, love is heaven on earth. All that. When you're really expressing love and this is what we seek, we seek this out because nature wants us to seek it out. Nature is saying life is based on community, not competition. And then when you let go of community, because I'm competing, I'm going to do better. I'm Going to get more. I'm going to have a lot more and go. That wasn't the destination. That was a misperception. That's a Darwinian belief. That is false. We didn't come here to make more and more. We came here to feel love, to experience love. Love the planet, love yourself, love your community. Love is another word for harmony. Are you living in harmony or are you not living in harmony? That's the basic understanding. If you think if I work harder and get more money, then harmony will show up, I go, no, that's not true at all. You could waste your whole life, you can make all the money and die a sick person at the end because you never even enjoyed your life at that point.
- [67:02]
B
Many of us think that, don't we? We think life is about survival and competition rather than cooperation and collective harmony. And it's pretty profound, this, because there are almost two different energy states.
- [67:20]
A
Yes.
- [67:20]
B
Right. So for the last few years, I've been really thinking a lot about the idea that it's not our behavior that's important, it's the energy behind the behavior. Right. What is the drive? What is the need that's being met by that behavior? And I think it really speaks beautifully to what we've just been talking about or what you've just been talking about. Like if the energy behind all your daily actions is that it's about competition, it's about survival, it's about dog eat dog. It's a zero sum game, right?
- [68:02]
A
Yeah.
- [68:02]
B
If someone else is doing well, it means I'm failing. So I can't have other people doing well. I have to be doing well. Right? Sure, you can do the same behaviors, but it's not a helpful energy. Right. There's a negativity behind it. There's a constantly looking around your shoulder, what are other people doing? How are they behaving? Whereas once you change and you're able to think about life differently and you start to think about, well, what's good for everyone, how can we cooperate here? How can I be of service? How can I help others? How can I lift people up? You just feel great. Do you know what I mean? You feel great. You don't want to sabotage yourself with negative behaviors. You just. You look at life differently.
- [68:45]
A
This is 100%. Because the idea is this, we call ourselves humans. I said, where does the term humans come from? And it came from the fact that we're compassionate. Compassionate about what? Not just our own survival, but helping all those around us, helping the world around us doing something that is bigger than you to help make a bigger world and a better world. And if you're working from compassion, then you're a humanitarian. You're a real human. But if you're working from aggression and competition, that's not helping other people. That's me. I'm here for me. I'm not here for you. This is a disconnect from what is called humanity. Humanity, by its definition, is to nurture and help the rest of the people and the world at the same time. We are not coming from there. We're coming from. I need to be more than you have. I need it. I want it more than you. And I need more. And I need more. And I go for what? Because there's some belief that having more is making your life better. When I go having more, you could compromise every aspect of humanity. You know, step on the person next to you. Why? Because then I can get more. Where's humanity there? I said, it doesn't exist anymore. And I said mammals by the character of the different plants. You know, we have reptiles, amphibians and birds and mammals. Mammals by definition are called nurturers. Nurturers. Are you nurturing the world? Are you nurturing your family? Are you nurturing the community that you live in? If you are, that's mammalian. And then we're doing what we're supposed to do.
- [70:30]
B
Yeah. Do you then fundamentally disagree with the idea of survival of the fittest? Do you think that's wrong?
- [70:40]
A
Yes, because survival of the fittest says, who's the fittest? I go, what's the fittest mean? Well, the one with the most toys, the one with the most money. Does that make them better? I go, no, as a matter of fact, they're sucking the life out of everything else to enhance their particular Life. We have 1% of the population with all the money. What about the 99%? Well, then they're the losers because they're not the fittest. I go, losers? It's completely wrong. We're each should be winners. Do you need $100 million? Do you need a billion dollars? No, not at all. You know, especially when I walked out of the university, I had no money. Did that mean all of a sudden I was, like, in fear and scared? And I said, no, I never felt freer than when I walked off the job. Because all of a sudden I realized, now I'm creating, now I'm doing this. I'm not conforming to what people expected me to be in that particular job. I can be what I want to be. And then, guess what? There's a community of people just like me. I'm now in this other community. Of what? The community of people sharing and being, you know, supportive of each other and loving each other and finding my God. The people I associate with today are not the people I associated with 30 or so years ago. I don't even know those people anymore. I'm in a world, a different community. And the word community is the emphasis, what I'm writing about. And our world is lost community. Because I don't care about you, I care about me. That means no community exists at that moment.
- [72:21]
B
When people say that, yeah, it's interesting. We often hear about the happiness levels in the Scandinavian countries like Sweden and Norway and Finland. And I haven't looked at the data recently to know if that's still the case. But there has been this feeling for a while that one of the reasons some of those countries are considerably happier than many other countries is because their societies are a lot more equal. They're a lot more egalitarian. It's a lot more about, we need to make sure everyone together is. Is winning. And I remember once chatting to. I think it was a chat from Sweden, and he said something like, you know, even in Sweden, if you have a lot of money, you wouldn't show it. I think culturally they have a different idea. Whereas let's contrast that with America and the American dream.
- [73:20]
A
Yes, right. The Ex Americ. There's no American dream anymore. It's gone. Go ahead.
- [73:25]
B
Well, my understanding of the American dream.
- [73:27]
A
Yeah.
- [73:27]
B
And, hey, listen, I was born and brought up in the uk, so this is purely my understanding of it is this idea that you can be whoever and whatever you want to be as long as you work hard.
- [73:39]
A
Right.
- [73:40]
B
And I think like most dreams or most beliefs, there's kind of a good side and a downside. So the good side to me is that, yeah, you know, it encourages you to go, you know, I can break out. I can actually make something of my life by applying myself. I guess the dark side might be, if I do that at the cost of everyone around me.
- [74:03]
A
This is why we have the 1%. Their mission was, I don't care about the other people as long as I get my dream. And now I have not a million. Now I've got a billion. How many billionaires are there? I say, how much money do you really need? A billion dollars? And then now, oh, no, I've got 30 billion, I got 40 billion. I go, where are you getting all this money from? Well, I'm Taking it out of the system. I said, then what does that mean? Well, then the people that don't have that money, they're struggling harder and harder because you've taken the wealth out of the system and try and see if those people down at the bottom can even get a job. Kids graduate from college in the United States and they work at McDonald's, why there's no jobs. Everything's failing. The infrastructure is failing, education is failing, everything is failing. Why you can't suck all the money out of the system and expect the poor people to carry the burden of fixing this.
- [75:06]
B
If we think about that through the lens of your teachings, Bruce, it strikes me that this idea that we can be the creator of our own lives once we've become aware of our subconscious programs and then start to change them, that's going to be easier for some of us than others. Right? So is it fair to say that if you are on the breadline and you are struggling to pay your mortgage, your rent and feed your family, then your primary goal is safety, it's security. So at that moment in your life, is it harder to maybe apply some of these teachings and go, I can be the creator of my life. I can change things? Or does it still apply but in a different way?
- [76:03]
A
It's very hard to apply that if you live in the fear. What if I try and strike out on my own? And I say so I say, well, there's a. I want to do this because I want to be more successful. But the fear is, what if I strike out on my own and I don't make it? Then all of a sudden I'm worse off than wherever the heck I was. I'd rather have the job at McDonald's than no job at all. And except I'm not even getting enough money to live. And I go, you cannot take the resources out and expect the leftover to support 90 some percent of the 99% of the population. It doesn't work. And again, this is because of the belief system that says if I work harder, I deserve it, and if I deserve it, I want it, and therefore I'm gonna work hard. I say, where are you getting all this stuff you think you deserve? Well, I'm taking it away from the other people because they don't have it. And I go, and what about the other people? What's your concern? It's like, I don't care. That is the problem. Because that 1% does not care about the poor people.
- [77:04]
B
Yeah, for that person, then, Bruce, who is working in A fast food chain. Right. And they've graduated from college and they're hearing what you have to say and go, yeah, yeah, I'm with you, Bruce. I get it. That my subconscious patterns are running my life. I really want this conversation to be helpful for that person as well. Right. So they're in a job they don't like, maybe with a boss they don't like, in conditions of work that they don't like.
- [77:33]
A
Right, right.
- [77:34]
B
So. And it may literally be that that's the job they have to take to pay their rent. I still believe that your teachings have relevance for that individual. Because even if they can't change things at that moment, I think what your work does is help people step back and be just more aware of things and go, yeah, you know what? This is a phase in my life. I don't want it to last for long. But I recognize at the moment it is like that even you accepting that and knowing that, it kind of steps you out of it so you can reflect on it. And it also, I think, makes it more likely that if, let's say, your boss doesn't treat you well, instead of taking that kind of disempowering mindset, you can take a more empowering one, which is, look, I know I don't like this job. That's the consequence of being at this job at the moment. Really focus on the fact that this job is paying my mortgage, it's feeding my children. So at the moment, it has given me these positives. I'm not going to take it personally. Yes, I'd rather my boss didn't treat me like that, but I'm not going to take it personally. That's a reflection of my boss and the state that they're in and the pressure they're under. I don't want to put words into your mouth, Bruce, but that's my perception of your work, that it still has relevance for that individual, even though it may be harder for them.
- [78:57]
A
100% is relevant to them for this reason. What is the drive? What is it that you really want on this planet? Is it that big giant bank account? No. Because you could be the most lonely son of a gun that ever existed. With all the money in the world that didn't give you the life you wanted. What was the life you wanted? Love, number one. Love. Harmony. Peace. Where are you gonna get that? Is it money? Well, money helps for some people to get that, but if you don't have. I go to India a lot. Okay.
- [79:30]
B
I was literally about to bring up India, but go for it.
- [79:32]
A
I go to India a lot and it's interesting because some of the richest people in the world are there and right next to them are some of the most poorest people in the entire world. You know what's the interesting part? The poorest people. And I see children in garbage piles looking for food, trying to avoid the cows and the pigs that are also in the same garbage pile with big smiles, big smiles and their joy. And I was like, how can these kids be happy picking garbage out of a garbage dump to survive? And the answer is because something else is giving them happiness. It's not that physical thing. It's the idea of family. It's the idea of community. It's the idea of being around people who are supporting you and giving you the joy and all the happiness.
- [80:18]
B
Now, I don't want anyone to misinterpret this as looking at this through rose tinted glasses. You know, yes, we should be trying to lift people up. We should be trying to improve conditions for everyone. But I also see that when I go to India, Bruce. And this really speaks so well to what you're saying about the first seven years of life and these subconscious programs that we download and then implement. If you never took on the belief as a child that your worth as a human being was dependent on your job title and your salary. Right. Like, we think that's normal. It's not normal. It may be common where you live, but it isn't normal. Not everyone in the world has that belief system. And I think it also speaks to the idea that we are very moldable as humans. Right. If you or me were born like you were born, I believe, in around New York. Suburbs of New York.
- [81:15]
A
Yeah, Suburbs of New York. Yes.
- [81:16]
B
Right. I was born in Manchester in the UK. Right. With Indian parents who were immigrants to the UK in the 1960s and the 1970s. Because of my parental influence and the fact that I grew up in the northwest of England, I have certain beliefs about the world. If I grew up in Delhi or in Shanghai or in Mexico City, it would still be me with my same genes. And we'll get to genes shortly. Right. But I would have a completely different belief system about the world because my programs would have been different.
- [81:58]
A
Exactly, exactly.
- [81:59]
B
And I think that's really important for us to think about that. Go. No, like we are a product of our experiences.
- [82:05]
A
But that's the whole program part. But if you didn't know you were programmed and you didn't know you were playing programs, then your life is a Mystery. How come I wish to be so happy and have things and be successful and have relationships. That's what I want. And it's not working.
- [82:24]
B
So those kids in India, I'm hypothesizing, right, they perhaps didn't take on the belief that who I am is dependent on my job and my salary 100%. So therefore, them not getting that, like, it doesn't have to necessarily affect their happiness because they didn't have that belief in the first place. Our belief is that we're here on God's earth and the sun is shining and, yeah, we wanna be there with our mum and our dad and make sure we've got food again. I'm not trying to romanticize that existence, but we see many people who break out of that, right, get the job, get the stress, and they're no happier. In fact, they're more unhappy when they've got the things that they thought they needed. That is so, so common.
- [83:16]
A
Absolutely. I've experienced that stuff my own self. When I would get something, I said, oh, I'm gonna work real hard and I get this thing. And then it's like I lost the interest in it once I got it, you know, it was like, when I didn't have it, it's like, oh, yeah, I want this and I get it. And then it was sor. Okay. It didn't give me what I was looking for. And it was funny because I work sometimes with belief change groups, and we were working with a professional wrestler and we were saying, so, what is it you want? So he says, well, first I want to be successful in my wrestling, and then I can become an announcer. I go, oh, okay. And then what? He said, well, once I become an announcer, if I'm really good, then I can be on a network and be a real sports announcer. And then what? Well, once I'm on that, then I'll have enough money. And then what? Well, then I'll be able to buy this and this. And then what? And then at the very end, he said, and then I will be happy. And then we looked at him, he says, well, you could be happy now without going through any of that. And it just like stopped him for a moment. He says, you know, I didn't have to go through that. Better, better, better, better to get to the best, to be happy. I could have started with happy, and then I wouldn't have been driven to go through that whole process to make that success. Because if I was happy to begin with, that was my destination. What I was striving for thinking that it was gonna be how much money I had that would allow me to be happy. And it turned out, no, it wasn't the amount of money. Happy is not money. And that stopped him because he thought about it. He thought, here I am. If I get this, all these things, then I can be happy. And we looked at him and said, why can't you be happy right now? And it stopped him because it didn't compute in his brain that you could just be happy, that you had to acquire all these things, then you could be happy. Well, that's what most people are in some place. I get all these things, then I'll be happy. And I go, well, like we just mentioned, the kids in India are in the garbage pile. They're already happy. They have nothing. Why did you put a value on how much value you had before Happy would show up? And the answer is, well, that's a program. Oh, yeah. You have to be the fittest. You have to be the winner. You gotta have all these things. I love it. Because people then are showing their fitness by how much they own where they are, how much they own. And I go, you know what's so funny? People that material things you possess are a reflection of how much you own. That people have so much material things that they actually have to store them in a storeroom. And I go, they're not even using it. What's it for? See how much stuff I have in that room? See, I'm happy. It's like, no, you're not. You're not even using this stuff. But we accumulated the stuff with a vision. If I have enough stuff, then I'll be happy. I go, well, that's a false move right there. Yeah, false.
- [86:22]
B
This idea that our behaviors are driven by our beliefs, I think has just so many everyday implications. And I think often this is why I started the conversation with this point, which is our behaviors are downstream from our beliefs. You wanna change your life, you wanna change your behaviors, you gotta change your beliefs.
- [86:48]
A
That's it. Where are you going? What's the destination? And you know what's interesting? Cause it's fun. Because we're working with a lot of people and we say, so tell us what you really want. And all of a sudden, they're put on a spot. Tell me what you want. And the thing is, most of them can immediately say, I don't want this and I don't want that. I say, yeah, but tell me what you want. And all of a sudden, there's like this void where they're thinking what is they really want? They don't even know what they want because it's not the goal that they're looking at, they're dealing with. I don't want to do this and I don't want to do that without even knowing what is it you really want in this life?
- [87:28]
B
Yeah. Let's get to another belief.
- [87:30]
A
Yeah.
- [87:31]
B
You mentioned before fear, that many people are living in a state of fear.
- [87:38]
A
Yes.
- [87:38]
B
And I want to get to what is fear doing to us? What is stress doing to us? And I guess the belief that might play into that is this idea that I must consume what everyone else around me is consuming. Okay. What I mean by that is I've realized over the last years I'm much happier when I frankly don't consume the news, don't keep up to date with a lot of what is going on around me. And when I become very intentional about what I put into my mind, whether it be television, online, on social media, whatever it might be by controlling the inputs, which are mostly fear based, frankly these days I've been happier, calmer, more peaceful, more content. Right. So I think many people feel that they've gotta be doing what everyone else is doing. I've gotta stay up to date with the same movies, the same box sets. I've gotta watch the news because everyone else watches the news. And being a citizen of the world means that I have to constantly be aware of things that are happening thousands and thousands of miles away. I appreciate people will have a different perspective on this. But through that lens and through the lens of fear and stress, what's your take on that belief?
- [89:02]
A
Well, I've done what you were talking about. I don't watch the news anymore. I'll give you a simple reason. Is this life is based on energy. That's a simple fact. You got energy, you got life, you have no energy, you don't have any life. People spend their energy without realizing they're not getting anything back from what they're doing. And I say, you know, look, you have a checkbook, you have an account, what's the money? The money is energy. The money, the more money you have, the more energy essentially you have to create what you want. So I say, if you have a checkbook, tell me, do you just write a check for people and give them money for no reason at all? You know, Dr. Chatterjee, I love how you do your job. I'm going to give you a hundred bucks, you can have that. I say, why would I do that? And the Answer is, well, because I like what he does, I go, yeah, but you've just taken your energy, which is life, and given it away. What did you get back from this? And all of a sudden I started to realize, what if you had a checkbook of spending your life energy. In other words, energy is life. And if you use your energy and give it away, then you're compromising your life. I say, if you had to write a. A check for your I'm going to invest my energy here. The first thing you would think about if you actually had to write a check is, what am I getting by using this energy? And you start to realize, well, wait, I'm using a lot of energy, but I'm not getting anything back. I, or my family or my community is not going to get anything back by my spending this energy. Example, two guys are in a bar. They get involved in an argument over politics. They get heated, they use energy, they're all excited, blah, blah, blah. They get angry, they do all this stuff. And then when the argument's finished, they go their own way. And I say, so what did you do? What did you get? You spent a lot of energy to do this. Getting hot is actually heat is wasted energy. In physics, getting hot over all this is meaning you're just wasting your energy. I say, what did you accomplish? Nothing. Why? Did you change the world? No. Did you change the other person? No. I said, then what did you do? You spent your energy with no return. So then I say, well, wait a minute. If I had to write a check investing my energy, I would then say, well, what do I get back from this? So I say, what do I get back from watching the news? Do I get any say in this? Does anybody call me up and say, what do you want to do about this news article? No, no. I read the news article. It takes my energy. I feel, you know, my nervous anxiety about, oh, the world's in all this trouble. Did anybody ask me, could I change that world? No. Then why the hell am I paying attention to it? Because all I'm going to do is give my energy up and anxiety and emotion over all this stuff. I get nothing back. And there's a point. Then I say, well, wait, if you had to write your energy check, then guess what? You would be very cautious about how you spend your life. You'd be very careful about, I'm going to invest my life in something that gives me something back. My family or my community gets something, what I do. And all of a sudden it says, well, then there's so many things, like watching the news that takes your energy. It didn't give you anything. It just sucked your energy out. How many different things suck your energy out? I go. All of a sudden it says, that's what I started to look at one day when I realized, am I giving away my life energy without any return? And then I started to realize, it's like, wow, if I didn't do that, I could have used this energy for having fun. I could have used this energy to enjoy my community. I could have used this energy to. To help my community.
- [92:59]
B
Yeah, it's such a good point, Bruce, which I don't think people think about enough. Right. So let's take that example there of the people having an argument, a heated row about politics, and then you ask them, you know, did you feel better? Did anything changed? No, no, no. It's not only a waste of energy, although of course that's huge. It's also the fact that they've dysregulated themselves and their nervous system, and therefore they will compensate with unhelpful behaviors. Right. They have to dissipate that emotional stress in some way or another. And usually the way people will do that is with an argument, is with alcohol, it's with sugar, it's with staying online too long, mindlessly scrolling. Right. So it's not a neutral occurrence. No, you have to do something with that. So I think that's one aspect that I think is really important. The other aspect for me is how you think about this. How do you change the world? How do you help create a happier, healthier world? And I think it goes back to what you're saying, which is. Well, I always think about it through the lens of what Gambi said, which is. Or it's certainly attributed to him, be the change you want to see in the world.
- [94:23]
A
Yes.
- [94:24]
B
I try and live my life according to that because it feels very empowering. So for me, for example, if I'm not consuming negativity, I'm in a better state of mind. I see the world through a more positive lens. And then, for example, when I come on the mics on this show, I've got a positive, upbeat tone that's hopefully inspiring, that hopefully encourages other people to make change. Right. So. So I believe that an interaction like this, when it spreads out to many people, can start to create change because you're empowering individuals to look at the world differently.
- [95:04]
A
You're putting your energy in to make the world look different. Now, that is what we're looking for. Why? Because we want to bring back the nature of that community, that harmony, the garden that we used to live in, okay? And that anything we do in that level is enhancing all of humanity. And then I said, well, now you're being the human that we were talking about, where you are helping the world. And that means that energy that you're using comes back to you. I give a lecture, I use a lot of energy, but guess what? The audience receives that energy and gives me the energy back. I can lecture for five, six hours, walk off the stage with as much energy as I walked onto the stage with. And why there's an energy exchange, and it happens in a community of people, and that's what keeps you alive. And that's why we can even go back to the poor kids in India. Where are they getting their energy from? From the love of the people around them. How much did it cost? No, they didn't have any money. They didn't pay for love. It was part of. That's the nature of the community we live in. Is that the nature of my community in the United States? I go, no, my community in the United States is dog eat dog, Darwinian. Who's gonna win, who's gonna lose? I'm sorry, you're a loser. You can't get healthcare. I'm sorry, that's your problem. I go, wow. You know, I'm enamored by the, by the fact of medicine, socialized medicine. You know, I live in New Zealand for half a year, usually about. And it was so interesting because in the US the first thing you do, walk in a doctor's office, give us your insurance card, give us your money even before the doctor sees you. Show me your money first. Okay. I had kidney stones in New Zealand. I went to the hospital, they took care of me in a hospital. They sent me on an ambulance to another hospital, gave me a scan. I had specialized doctors and all this stuff. And the, the surprise for me as an American, nobody asked for anything. They just said, what's your address? I gave my address and I said, okay, thank you. And I walked out and I go, oh, my God. I had all of this treatment, I had all of the actions, I had all of the tests. It didn't cost me anything. Try that in the United States. The answer is nope, you can't afford this. You can't have it. I go, that's not community. And I go, what's community? Socialized community. Social is community. Okay. Do we have that in the U.S. no, actually, you say the word social and all of a sudden that's a politically negative thing because they immediately connected socialism, communism. And all of a sudden it's like, no, you're on your own this America. You're on your own. I go, whoa, this is why it doesn't work.
- [98:03]
B
We should mention that you can finish a talk and have as much, if not more energy than when you started.
- [98:11]
A
Yes.
- [98:11]
B
This is fascinating for me. You were speaking in Manchester last night.
- [98:15]
A
Okay.
- [98:16]
B
For two, two and a half hours. We're talking today. Tomorrow you're gonna be in London talking for five hours. And you shared with me this morning that you are almost 80 years old.
- [98:28]
A
Yeah.
- [98:29]
B
Okay. Most people in society, I would say, have a belief that at the age of 80, you're not going to be traveling around the world dealing with jet lag, being cognitively sharp, giving keynotes in front of thousands of people to share your wisdom. Right again. A societal belief.
- [98:52]
A
Yes.
- [98:52]
B
A belief that as you get older, you have to be slower, cognitively, less able. You know, you have to start contracting your life. You are clearly an example of someone who is not doing that. You seem just as energetic and as sharp to me as two years ago when I think we spoke in London. Right. And it's interesting because anti aging and longevity is like the hot topic in health these days. I'd love your perspective on this. What do you think of longevity and what do you think about this belief that as we get older, our life has to contract?
- [99:32]
A
Well, since life is based on belief, if you start buying the belief I'm getting too old to do something, and you'll hear people say, oh, I'm too old to do that. I say, when you just said that, you've committed yourself to being aged at that point, I can't do it. I'm too old. You just admitted that. I'm not ready to admit that. Why? That's not my belief system. My belief system is I get life from engaging. I get life from helping. That's my. I want to be that helping guy. I want to be up there and say, you can have a better life. Let me show you. Let me give you the science of how to do this. And then the idea is when people buy this, their energy increases. But then when their energy increases, then the field I'm standing in, all of a sudden, the energy of the field has increased. Everybody in the room feels higher and happier just because they were sharing all this information. Where is aging? Well, aging is a belief system. I say, what? Wait, when you grew up, you saw there were young people and Then you saw that people got older. Then you saw some very old people. What did you learn? Program member of programming first seven years. Oh, people get old and then they fall apart, and then they're dead. I go, well, that's a belief that you bought. Does it have to be that way? And the answer is no. You know, and the simple reality is, if I buy the belief, and then I say, oh, my God, I'm 80. I'm one of those guys, I should be falling apart right now. I shouldn't even be here. I should be sitting in a chair in my backyard, you know, staring at the landscape. And it's like, no, Life is energy. I'm not giving up the energy. I love the energy because I get the energy back. And the energy I get back is not conflict. It's love energy. Hey, Bruce, thanks for giving me the power that I didn't know I had. And all of a sudden it's like, oh, wow. I get gifted with their energy. And the idea is, I am not of the mindset of, oh, I've reached a certain age and now I'm falling apart. No way. There's a profound understanding of biology. It's called use it or lose it. I go, what's the point? And the point is, every part of your biology is based on use it or lose it. We always think, oh, the muscles. I work real hard, I build up these muscles, and then all of a sudden, I'm not using them. Then the muscles disappear. I go, no. User or lose it is every part of your entire body your brain is based on user or lose it.
- [102:05]
B
Retirement. And then things stop for so many years.
- [102:08]
A
What's the meaning of retirement? I'm finished. I go, retirement. I'm not finished. I'm not going to retire. Why?
- [102:14]
B
You look as though you're getting started to me.
- [102:18]
A
I'm just a happy guy.
- [102:20]
B
You are. I will. Honestly, before you arrive this morning, I said to my wife, I said, you gotta meet Bruce. When he rocks up, he's just full of a warmth and a happy energy. It appears to me that you're very intentionally living this life of joy and gratitude, and you're deciding to live that way. You're not being a victim to the way you might wake up one day. It's like, no, no. This is how I'm living. I'm choosing to live this way. Is that an accurate reflection?
- [102:48]
A
Absolutely. I don't see old. I'm looking out these eyes. There's no age vision looking out through the eyes. If I look in the Mirror. I go, oh, yeah, you're looking older than I used to look. But I don't need to look in the mirror. I'm looking out my eyes. My eyes have no age on them.
- [103:05]
B
Yeah. And that really brings up the question, what would happen if we didn't look in the mirror? Right. But what would genuinely happen to our belief system about us if we never looked in the mirror?
- [103:16]
A
You wouldn't see age. Age.
- [103:18]
B
Exactly.
- [103:19]
A
You wouldn't see it. No. And therefore, if you didn't see it, it wouldn't be part of your life.
- [103:24]
B
You know, in some indigenous tribes, there is a belief that the elders are better runners than the young guys. Now, what's really interesting, if you look at, you know, scientific studies, they will show that things like VO2 max will go down as we age. Your muscular strength will go down. I'm not saying these things are not true, but belief is powerful. And I believe from what I can gather in those tribes, there is just a belief that the elders have been running for longer. They've got the wisdom, they've got the experience on these long runs. They know how to get it done. And so they also don't have the belief that as I get older, I'm going to get slower and my kids are going to be better runners than me. They have a belief that, no, as I get older, I'm gonna get better. So if you have that belief system, of course it's gonna have an influence on how you see the world and your behaviors.
- [104:24]
A
Yeah. I mean, look, if you get older, you got more wisdom because you have more life experiences and you have a greater opportunity to take in all your awareness and use it. Yeah. My thinking is working just as good as I could ever remember it working. But do I have to say my age? No.
- [104:41]
B
But also, you can be struggling with your brain at 40 and thriving with it at 80.
- [104:47]
A
Absolutely.
- [104:48]
B
So the number in many ways is neutral to a degree. Right. This is a cliche, but it is just a number because it is how you feel. It's your perception of it. It's what are you doing? What is your lifestyle like? What has your lifestyle been like? What were you able to do to nourish that brain so that it can be thriving like you, you know, at sort of the eighth decade time. Yeah. It is fascinating to me. You know, last time you came on, Bruce, you spoke about the evening, because I think we spoke about these two ways or two of the ways that we can change these programs. One was with self hypnosis, and one was as We've already mentioned today with repeating these behaviors consistently until they become habits. Right. And you spoke about, you can run these programs with earphones as you fall into sleep and actually get that program into your mind, which is really, really interesting. And I encourage people to go back and listen to that if they want to hear more about that. What about the morning time, you know, when you wake up first thing in the morning? Is there an opportunity there with the state of our brain to start downloading new programs and living a different kind of life?
- [106:10]
A
Well, I think the opportunity, wake up in the morning is very important because people who don't really like their job, I say, when they wake up in the morning, what are they thinking? Oh, my God, I gotta go back to, I hate this job. I gotta go do this job. Why can't you wake up with, today's gonna be the best day ever. Today I'm looking forward. It's gonna be exciting. I have no idea what's gonna unfold. I truly don't. But I don't look at what negative things I don't have. There are no negative perceptions that I'm broadcasting to myself at all. Why? Because what you put out is what's going to come back. It's called resonant. If I put out a negative belief, I'm going to respond with a negative experience. If I put out a positive belief, I'm going to respond with a positive experience. And I say, what's the average person, you know when they wake up? Most of it is, oh, God, I got to go to the job. Oh, God, today's not going to be great. Oh, God, there's a problem here, there's a problem there. I say, if that's your first thought in the morning, the rest of the day is not gonna get better for you. So what if you wake up with, hey, I'm here another day. That's what I wake. I'm still alive. Okay, what's gonna happen? I don't know. But I'm going out and I'm gonna find out and I'm gonna look for the wonderful things and then they show up. I have to admit, the first 40 plus years, that was not my life at all, you know? And now since that, that 40. This 40 is completely different. This 40. I wake up with the joy of being here on this planet and then find during the day how many people encourage and support my belief for the rest of that day.
- [107:47]
B
What happens when you have a bad night's sleep? If you have a bad night's sleep, Ever. And you wake up feeling tired and groggy. Do you have to intentionally implement that belief? I guess what I'm trying to get to, some people say. Is that a form of toxic positivity. Where you're not being realistic about the world. You're just imagining everything's great. Which is something that people will often say these days. So how do you see that?
- [108:15]
A
I just basically, look, if you understand the nature of the biology that I'm involved with. And the nature of how consciousness is manifesting our experience. And, oh, that sounds so New Agey. And I go, first of all, let's understand this. This the first principle of quantum physics is consciousness is creating our life experience, Okay? I go, yeah, that's a true story. So I say, well, then how are your life experience? I say, it's based on my consciousness. I say, then do I wake up even if I'm tired? Do I wake up and say, oh, God, the rest of the day is, oh, I'm so tired, I'm going to have problem. Why? Because then my consciousness would manifest that experience. Consciousness controls your life, not your genes, consciousness. And the issue is, we live in a world that's so threatening for so many people. That when they wake up, it's not because, oh, I'm so joyous to be here. It's like, what's my next thing? What do I got to do? Where, you know, where's this responsibility? Oh, my God, I got to do all this stuff. I go, how can the rest of your day get better. If the first thing you're talking about is you didn't even want to be there? That's our first time. When you woke up, it doesn't get better. You then live that. Yeah, I knew it when I got up this morning. It wasn't going to be good. And guess what? It's not good. And I go, that's not chance. That's physics. You started with a negative. You manifest negative. That is physics. And the biology that I was involved with is the mechanism by which that brain thought translates into biology and genetics. So the interesting part is I understood the physics. And when I understood the nature of the cells and how it worked, I said, oh, my God. The physics idea is manifest through how consciousness is controlling our genetics and that our behavior. And all of a sudden, this is what they said. Consciousness is creating this life experience. And all of a sudden it says, well, then what the hell is your consciousness? What do you think about your life in this world at this moment? Do you look at it as like hey, it's wonderful. I love to be here on this planet. Or do you go, oh, God, today is another struggle. Today I gotta do this and I gotta accomplish that. And all of a sudden it's like, where's the motivation? Where's the desire? When you start off with, oh, it's not so good, I go, you lost it.
- [110:38]
B
Yeah.
- [110:39]
A
And if you wake up with that, that is programming the rest of that day.
- [110:44]
B
Yes. Yeah. It's such a powerful idea that it's not toxic positivity at all. It's basically being intentional about how you want your life to be right. So it really speaks to the idea of an intentional morning routine, of a practice of gratitude first thing in the morning. If you look for things to be grateful for first thing in the morning, you've primed your brain to look for that for the rest of the day.
- [111:11]
A
And I'm broadcasting a vibrational frequency. People. You see, there's one other mistake that people have, and they say, oh, my thoughts are in my head. And I go, well, that's a misunderstanding, because I could read your brain activity with a probe outside of your head. Electroencephalograph is where you put wires on a person's head and you can read their brain function. Magnetoencephalograph, a newer version. The probe that reads your brain activity doesn't even touch your head. It's away from your head.
- [111:41]
B
That, for people, is gonna be, I think, brand new information. So they're used to an EEG if going to a hostel, getting wired up with that. But the wires are on your head, they're on your scalp.
- [111:53]
A
Yeah. So you think that it's reading what's.
- [111:55]
B
Inside, but you're saying something can read it from the outside.
- [111:58]
A
The newer device is not eeg. It's called MEG magneto instead of electroencephalograph. And the probe that reads your brain, it reads it just like electroencephalograph. But the magnetoencephalograph probe doesn't even touch you. It's outside.
- [112:13]
B
Is this why, Bruce, that if you go into a room and two people have been arguing, but the argument has finished. Right. So there's no words being spoken anymore. You can pick up on the energy. You know that you know when you walked into a room when something's just gone down, even if it's not going down anymore? Right. So what is that? How do you explain that energy that we can pick up on?
- [112:40]
A
Because the first thing is this biology is based. The first thing of the first communication of biology with the most primitive Organism on this planet is to read energy. In other words, since energy is life. Since energy is life, okay. Then reading energy becomes very important because if you're reading that, that energy is being sucked away from you, then you don't want to be there because that means you're losing your life. And so primitive organisms always read the field. Are they in the right place? Okay, Energy determines our field. It's like feng shui in quantum physics. Every object is actually energy. Well, if you surround yourself like a crystal with different objects, with energy that supports you, then you enhance your energy field. Okay, so everything around you is giving off energy, and then you find yourself reading the energy of wherever you go. But this is vital for survival for all organisms, except for us, because all organisms, they don't use language. How do they know if they're in the right place or the wrong place? They only read the energy. And we do that. But we were programmed generally as kids. Oh, don't go by your feelings, which is an expression of energy. Don't go by your feelings. Listen to what somebody has to say and say, oh, my God, you lost your power. Why? I can say any damn thing I want, but energy is energy. And if you walked into that room when the energy was now just broadcast through that room you walk in, you're a receiver of that broadcast. Energy is what you read. That's natural. And the idea is, if you were actually reading the energy of everything, you would never find yourself in the wrong place because you would realize, oh, bad vibes, don't go there. Bad vibes means loss of energy. Good vibes, oh, enhancing energy. This is how organisms that are not human determine where they're going.
- [114:38]
B
Trusting their gut, trusting their intuition, that's.
- [114:40]
A
All they know is the energy, is it good or bad?
- [114:43]
B
Whereas we let our heads get in the way. Often it can help us, but it can also get in the way, depending on what we're thinking.
- [114:50]
A
Absolutely. You've lost the information in the field by not paying attention to the energy. Because then, you know, programming wise, we've been programmed to not feel that energy, not to go by a feeling.
- [115:04]
B
You mentioned feng shui.
- [115:05]
A
Yeah.
- [115:06]
B
And I've always wanted to, you know, how can I put it? Get an expert in feng shui. Round to see how things are orientated in my house. Right. I've never done it, but I guess for anyone who's skeptical, I think we all know, like, if you in your bedroom move the bed to have a different orientation, it might just feel off. Now that could, you know, you could argue that's because you're used to it a certain way. But I don't think it's that. I think, you know, you light your sofa a certain way in your living room, and if you move it around, after all, it just doesn't feel right there. It needs to be there, right? So I guess we kind of intuitively know that, but the Western, rational, scientific mind is more likely to go, that's a load of rubbish, right? A sofa is a sofa, a bed is a bed.
- [116:02]
A
Put whatever. And I go, no, but that's not true. You decorate your house, as you just said. You put pictures on the wall that are in harmony with you. You put the furniture in that's in harmony with you. You set it up all around. I always give in my lecture, I talk about, you know, most people have, which is a sofa and two matching chairs. And I go, if you have that in your living room, which most people do, I say, I bet you there's one of those chairs you will sit in, and you won't sit in the other chair, even though the chairs are exactly identical to each other. I go, why would you sit in this chair and not in this one? The answer is because that chair happens to be the focus of the energy that you put around the room. The pictures, the whatever, the color of the walls, whatever you're doing. You set up an energy field. That's your field. And that's why it's comfortable to you, because you set it up. You go to your neighbor's house, they got a completely different energy. Walk in. You can feel like it doesn't feel good in here. Why? Because whatever their objects of energy are in the room are not in harmony with you. So when you decorate your room, you put everything in a place where all of a sudden it says, oh, that feels good. That's what it is. It feels good to have the couch this way, not that way. Okay, now here's an interesting thing. When people change their lives, radical change, Guess what? They change their room. They change their hair, they change their clothes. They change because all of a sudden, the old energy that put them into that original place no longer is the same energy of where they want to be. They either move the stuff, buy new stuff, change the stuff, or get even move out of the place they're in into another place. Why? They're looking for that balance, for the new energy. So it's interesting. We could have one energy. But if you change your life, the energy that you have created around you, which is an energy field that supports you. That's why you put everything in the right place. You don't put the picture on this wall. You put it on this wall. Why? It feels better. Oh, feels better. Feeling is energy. An interpretation of energy. That's what feelings are. And all of a sudden you start to realize, well, then you know when you're in a field where the energy is right for you. And you know when you're in a field where the energy's not right. You don't feel as comfortable in an energy that's not supporting you. You walk into a room, and the energy in that room has just been messed up by all the people you walk in. You feel it right away. Why the most primitive organism on the planet. Determines its life behavior by reading the energy. A bacterium doesn't just go anywhere. It follows where the best energy is. Because more energy, more life. And then I say, well, then you make a crystal of energy in your place. Where the energy feeds you. And as you mentioned, does the couch face this way or that way? Ha. That changes the energy field. And then you find just where the crystal structure is. And that's how you designed it, right there. It was not an accident. Why, you put things here and put things there. Or you got this piece of furniture. Or you put that plant or whatever it is. Everything is energy. That's quantum physics. Now, the question is, is the energy in harmony with you. Or is the energy in disharmony with you? And your purpose in supporting your energy. Is to create an environment. Where the energy around you supports your energy. So when you go home in your house. And you pick that one chair that you like to sit in. Then you can relax. You sit in the other chair. All of a sudden, it's not relaxing. I like that chair. I said, but the two chairs are identical.
- [119:51]
B
It's funny. We all have this. There's a spot in my living room where. Where I sit and meditate every morning. And occasionally I might try somewhere else. And it just feels wrong. I don't feel quite as grounded and as present there. So I go back to the one which I like.
- [120:08]
A
And it's again, why you like it? The question is, I like it. And I say, so what is it? Was it the color of the wall. Or was it the fabric on the furniture? I go, no, it's everything. Because in quantum physics, everything is energy. And therefore, we seek an environment where the energy supports who and what we are. And that determines a lot of your behavior. Where you're gonna go and what you're gonna do. Is, am I going to a place that enhances my energy?
- [120:39]
B
Or take it away and going back to morning routines then, or what we might do first thing in the morning. This idea of starting the day with gratitude, starting the day with, let's say, that question that I ask myself, what quality do I want to showcase to the world today? It is speaking to that energy. It's programming yourself to look for those things, to behave in a certain way that day. And let's be honest, what's your other option? What's the option that so many people take? Roll out of bed, straight into Instagram, straight into the news, straight into emails. Listen, I've done that before. I get that you can do that, but just know that there is a consequence to that. You're unlikely to have your best meaning filled day when you start it off that way. It's not impossible, it's just unlikely. You're definitely increasing your chances of success by starting your day in a more intentional way, aren't you?
- [121:39]
A
Absolutely. And I love it because at my age, I always joke, I say, hey, I'm still here when I wake up, I'm still here. I'm alive. You know, it's like, okay, that's a good start for today. I'm alive. And then go from that right there. I wake up in joy because I'm still here. I love this place, I love this planet. And that love is what gives me energy and energy gives me my life. So what do I do? Well, as I said, I don't look at the news. I don't. Does anybody ask my opinion? Did anybody say, what did Bruce think about this? You know, like, that I would make a difference in the world? No. Then why should I put my energy into something I have no control over, but I can control my life?
- [122:27]
B
Well, and on that, you are making a huge difference in the world because by putting the energy into what really matters for you, you go around the world, you speak on podcasts, you give live lectures, you empower people with this information and knowledge. So you are making a huge difference to people's lives, but you're doing it your way in the way that aligns with you, which I think is a very, very powerful message. Bruce, I always love chatting to you. You do have a lovely, warm energy, which is a pleasure to be around to finish off this conversation.
- [123:07]
A
Yes.
- [123:09]
B
You've been speaking about these themes for decades now. Okay. All over the world. For someone who is struggling in their life and doesn't know how to change things, what are some of your Top key messages that you've learned over the past few decades that you want to impart to them.
- [123:36]
A
Well, I think the first thing is stop accepting life the way it is. And that's the way it is. And I'm just part of whatever it is. And I'm a victim and I have no control and I just have to live the best I can under the circumstances. I say, no, that's not the way to live. The way to live is what do you want? That's where also I said, becomes a problem for a lot of people because they can't even tell you what they want, but they know it's not what they have. I go, well, this is a problem if you don't even know what you want. If you cannot write down right now on a piece of paper, this is what I want, if you can't list them, this is what I want, then you can't have it because your mind will get for you what you want. But you have to feed it a vision of what you're looking for. It's always interesting because the function of the mind is to make coherence between your belief and your reality. If I believe it's not going to work, then the function of the mind will manifest in a situation where it doesn't work. If I totally believe this is how it's going to work, then my mind will set me up in a situation where it works that way. And all of a sudden that's when you start to realize, wait a minute, it's not chance anymore. This isn't chance. This is creativity. And we are creators. And people have just accepted when it doesn't work. That's just the way it is. I go, I don't accept that. I will do something different. I will get out. And again, well, but if I get out, then I've lost my security. And I go, you may have lost your security, but you may gain happiness. You may gain the joy of being alive. The idea is, my God, this is the. You know, if you look at the world in which we live, it's so beautiful. How many people, how many people out here right now watch the sunset? I got. Most of you are probably in the car driving home from your job. You don't even see the sunset. When I used to live in the Caribbean, that was the major part of the day. Everybody at sunset would come out and sit on the beach and watch the sun go down. It was like, you know, an experience of the planet and closure and all that. Today you're running from here, you're running to there. You're not paying attention to where you are, why you are. You're just following some unknown plan. That is a plan. It's not an accident why you are here or why you are there. You set yourself up to be here or there. And then you say, yeah, but I don't want to be here. And I go, well, that's your conscious mind. The one that has the wishes and desires will look and say, no, this is not my desire. I go, then why are you there? The answer is because you're not living from that one. You're living from the program that says, oh, yeah, you must do this. This is the way we always do things. And then you find yourself doing it and going, why am I here? And you don't realize it because the conscious mind is the one with the wishes and desires. Then how come we don't manifest the wishes and desires? And the answer is, that's not the mind we're operating from. You're operating from the program. And I said, where'd you get the program? Not from you. You downloaded it from other people. You downloaded it from school teachers. You downloaded from clergy. You downloaded it from the doctor. The doctor. I'll give you an example. And this is very critical. It's very important. When we're in that developmental period, the first seven years, the average family, I say, if somebody's sick in your family, what do we do? And we say, oh, we go to the doctor. Average family, I say, and you're a kid in the family, so what did you learn? He says, when it comes to health, I'm not the one that does that. My doctor does it. I say, so then what did you do with that belief system? You say, since I have no knowledge of my health and the doctor has the knowledge, then the doctor is the one that provides me with truth. So then all of a sudden, then you give up your power of true and take the words of the doctor. I say, what does that mean? Well, what if the doctor says you have three months left to live? And you buy that because why? The doctor knows. I don't know. I'm just a patient. What the heck do I know? Oh, I got three months left to live. What do you think your brain does? That is the truth. What's the function of the brain? Take your truth and manifest it as reality. If I believe I'm going to die in three months because I was told by my truth provider, then I will die in approximately three months. Placebo is. You have an illness doctor says, I got the greatest new medicine. You believe it. Why? The doctor's the truth provider. You take this medicine with, the idea is, oh, my God, this is the new medicine. This is the one that's gonna heal me. And you get better. And then you find out the pill was a sugar pill, a placebo. The point I ask is, is then what healed you? The sugar pill. No, your belief in the pill healed you, not the pill. And everybody goes, oh, yeah, placebo effect. That's positive thinking manifesting itself. I go, that's great. Now here comes the part that's left out. What about negative thinking? Nobody talks about negative thinking. We only talk about positive thinking. Guess what? Negative thinking is equally powerful in controlling your life, as is positive thinking, but in the opposite direction. And we never talk about negative thinking, although the majority of our thoughts are negative.
- [129:12]
B
Yeah.
- [129:12]
A
And I say, well, if you have negative thinking, you create a negative reality, then you're living in it. And the idea was, what was it based on? My thoughts? Did I wake up with positive thinking? Today is another beautiful day. I have no idea what's going to happen, but it's going to be great. Or did you wake up with, oh, God, here I go, I got to go do this. This is my. Oh, I got to do these things. I'm not real happy about it. I go, that's two different days right away. And the idea was we discount negative thinking because nobody mentions that it is as powerful as positive thinking. Genes are responsible for less than 1% of all illness. And yet everybody thinks, oh, my illness is due to these genes and these genes, and I'm a victim of my genes. I go, no, you're not. You're the creator of your genetic activity.
- [130:01]
B
Yeah. Hopefully there's been a realization over the past few years that genes are not your destiny. Yes, you may have a genetic predisposition, but it doesn't mean you're necessarily going to get that condition. If things in your environment, food, physical activity, consciousness.
- [130:21]
A
Put consciousness in it.
- [130:21]
B
Yeah, thoughts, environmental toxins. And the thing about thoughts is really interesting because people don't often want to acknowledge the power of thoughts. But whenever I have had to explain this to people before, I say, okay, have you ever been in a situation, let's say an exam, where you're stressed because the thought is, I don't have enough time to finish. And then you have an urge to go to the toilet? Right. And a lot of people go, yeah, I know that feeling. I said, well, what's going on there? Well, it's your thoughts that is then changing your physiology and giving you an urge in your gut. Right. It's in a different location to your brain and that organ system is being affected. And then the penny starts to drop for people that, oh, yeah, how I think and what's going on in my brain and my mind has got an influence over my physiology. And of course, if we had longer, we could go deep into that. I know you've got a lot of science to share on that. I mean, I think we've covered a lot today, Bruce. We covered a lot in conversation. One, we've got plenty more to talk about. But I just want to say I genuinely appreciate you and what you're doing. Thank you for the advice you constantly share for people who want to learn more about you. Yes. You've got all these live events. I'm assuming it's brucelipson.com is that where they can get those things?
- [131:43]
A
That's as simple as it is. Brucelipton.com and there's everything we talked about. There are articles, there are podcasts, there are videos. Everything we talked about is available on that website.
- [131:52]
B
Blogs, resources, all kinds of things.
- [131:54]
A
All resources. Yes. And let me just answer this in regard to what you just said. I'm very honored to be here with you because your voice travels, your interviews and your actions affect millions of people. And to me, this is again, what my interest is as well. Can we help millions of people? I can help one person at a time for sure, no problem. But I love it if there's a thousand people in the room and I give the same message and all of a sudden a thousand all of a sudden have the same message. It's much more fun because then more people pick it up and that your work is totally, in my opinion, humanitarian. Because you're out there to do what? Raise the consciousness of the public to who they really are. Because we have been so programmed to believe we're just victims of a world out of control without recognizing the simple truth. We are indeed creators.
- [132:52]
B
Bruce. I think that's a great way to park this conversation. Thank you for everything you do and thank you for coming on the show.
- [132:58]
A
I so appreciate it and I really appreciate our audience because if they're listening, that means they're at least thinking there's another way and there's a better way.
- [133:12]
B
Really hope you enjoyed that conversation. Do think. Think about one thing that you can take away and apply into your own life. And also have a think about one thing from this conversation that you can teach to somebody else. Remember, when you teach someone, it not only helps them, it also helps you learn and retain the information. Now, before you go, just wanted to let you know about Friday 5 Bits, my free weekly email containing five simple ideas to improve your health and happiness. In that email I share exclusive insights that I do not share anywhere else, including health advice, how to manage your time better, interesting articles or videos that I've been consuming, and quotes that have caused me to stop and reflect. And I have to say, in a world of endless emails, it really is delightful that many of you tell me it is one of the only weekly emails that you actively look forward to receiving. So if that sounds like something you would like to receive each and every Friday, you can sign up for free@drchatterjee.com Friday 5 Now if you are new to my podcast, you may be interested to know that I have written five books that have been bestsellers all over the world covering all kinds of different topics. Happiness, food, stress, sleep, Behavior, behavior change and movement, weight loss and so much more. So please do take a moment to check them out. They are all available as paperbacks, ebooks and as audiobooks which I am narrating. If you enjoyed today's episode, it is always appreciated if you can take a moment to share the podcast with your friends and family or leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Thank you so much for listening. Have a wonderful week. And and please note that if you want to listen to this show without any adverts at all, that option is now available for a small monthly fee on Apple and on Android. All you have to do is click the link in the Episode notes in your podcast app and always remember, you are the architect of your own health. Making lifestyle change is always worth it because when you feel better, you live more.