The Human Upgrade: Biohacking for Longevity & Performance

Episode 1357: The New SCIENCE of Energy Healing | Biohacking Updated
Host: Dave Asprey
Guest: Harry Massey (bioenergetics pioneer, founder of NES Health, creator of the GEM wearable)
Date: November 4, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into the new science of energy healing and bioenergetics with Harry Massey, a thought leader who transformed his own debilitating health struggles into pioneering research and technology. Together, Dave Asprey and Massey discuss the origins of chronic fatigue and trauma-related illness, the role of information fields in health, and the development of digital wearables like the GEM to diagnose and correct energetic imbalances in the body. The conversation blends hard science, personal narrative, ancient wisdom, and practical biohacking into an energizing and thought-provoking discussion about upgrading human health beyond conventional chemistry.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Harry Massey’s Health Story and the Limits of Conventional Medicine

• (03:10) Massey spent 7 years bedridden and time in a wheelchair following a series of physical (spinal fracture), viral, and emotional traumas at age 21.
  • Quote: “Pretty much it’s like living in a big dark black cloud.” – Harry Massey ([03:13])
• (06:33) Describes the lack of support and misdiagnosis by the British healthcare system, which dismissed his symptoms as “yuppie flu.”
• (07:02-08:25) After years of failed diets and alternative therapies, Massey shifted his focus to understanding “where energy actually comes from in the body,” leading him to bioenergetics.

2. Origins and Principles of Bioenergetics

• Massey collaborated with an Australian scientist mapping the body’s energy fields.
• Began developing a home wellness system for energy field correction, first using “infoceutical” water imprints, and now delivering through digital wearables.
  • Quote: “I wanted to create a home wellness system that could work out how people like me could get better from home.” – Harry Massey ([00:21])

3. Skepticism and Western Medicine’s Blind Spots

• (09:45) Dave recounts his own skepticism about homeopathy but became more open after exposure to practitioners who combined Western and energy medicine with profound patient results.
  • Quote: “So I don’t have a problem with it now. But I also don’t like the idea of having to have a big rack of water, drops of this and drops of that. It’s just too much work.” – Dave Asprey ([11:15])

4. The GEM Wearable: Technology and Diagnostics

• (11:28–12:25) The GEM (Guided Energy Management) wearable delivers digital “infoceuticals” (signals), personalized by time of day and user’s energetic needs.
• Incorporates data from facial analysis, tongue and voice (TCM), pulse-reading, and lab data to give a multidimensional health overview ([15:03]).
• Digital pulse diagnostics: Maps 29 pulse qualities, correlating emotional and organ health (TCM lineage).
  • Quote: “Just from the pure wearable perspective, … we mapped out those pulses just using a PPG sensor.” – Harry Massey ([15:49])

5. Correlation with Modern Science

• (17:17-18:12) While Chinese medical readings often map to emotional/organ systems, blood lab data offers additional context. AI is used to synthesize this information.
  • “The more inputs you have, the better the overall picture of working out what’s going on with your health.” – Harry Massey ([18:22])
• Published research: UCSD study showed GEM increased mitochondrial density by 50% in rat cardiac cells, outperforming meditation ([18:42–19:12]).
  • Quote: “50%. Is this Dr. Hamil Patel?” – Dave Asprey ([19:07])
  • “He came back ... he rang me, said, Harry, you’re right. Actually it beat the meditation effect by a few percent.” – Harry Massey ([20:12])

6. How the GEM Works – Field Effect, Data Injection

• GEM uses PEMF (pulsed electromagnetic fields) and light (LED) to deliver digitized “information” into the body.
  • “We’re putting a binary signal into the body.” – Harry Massey ([27:05])
• Dave compares this to a data injection attack for health: override faulty bodily signals using accessible network mediums (light, magnetism, etc.) ([28:00])
  • “All we’re talking about here is in computing, what we call a data injection attack, except it’s for your own good, not for bad things.” – Dave Asprey ([28:59])

7. Beyond Chemistry: The Need for Faster Communication in Biology

• Critiques the reductionist “body-as-chemistry” model and explores biofield communication: “Trillions times trillions of magnitude of complexity.” – Harry Massey ([31:12])
• The placebo effect and instantaneous coordination show the necessity of field-based systems ([32:42]).
  • “If the placebo effect exists, then we’re not running on just chemistry.” – Dave Asprey ([32:52])

8. Real Scientific Outcomes and Claims

• (21:57, 22:09, 26:26) GEM increases mitochondrial efficiency by 22%; modulates over a thousand genes, including those for mitochondrial, antioxidant, and resilience pathways.
  • “Turning on or off more than a thousand genes, correct?” – Dave Asprey ([26:51])
  • “Yeah.” – Harry Massey ([26:58])
• Functions as a sleep and fitness tracker in addition to bioenergetic corrections ([22:49–23:03]).

9. Emotional Trauma and Energy Leakage

• Massive emotional trauma is among the biggest unseen drains on energy and longevity.
  • Quote: “On average, there’s a 20-year reduction in lifespan [from significant adverse childhood events]…that’s one of the biggest energy leaks.” – Harry Massey ([23:49])
• GEM provides real-time feedback on emotional states to help users transform negative emotions, linking emotional awareness to extended lifespan ([24:40]).

10. Broader Context and the Future of Biohacking

• Dave and Harry discuss how biohacking blends ancient wisdom, direct measurement, and intervention for self-transformation.
• Emphasize that advances like GEM are the modern evolution of age-old traditions, now backed by AI and clinical research ([35:58–36:51]).
  • “This is a continuation of a very long lineage and it’s particularly cool. This pisses off rationalists and it’s fun to be a rationalist and an irrationalist at the same time.” – Dave Asprey ([36:01])
• Dave highlights the need to experiment, challenge dogma, and harness every available variable—biofield, chemistry, behavior—to upgrade human performance ([37:11]).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (by Speaker/Timestamp)

• Harry Massey ([03:13]): "It’s pretty shocking, honestly, and extremely traumatic. And you lose all of your friends…pretty much it’s like living in a big dark black cloud."
• Dave Asprey ([04:54]): "So you had massive physical injury which causes inflammation… massive emotional trauma which causes inflammation, fatigue..."
• Harry Massey ([08:25]): "I came to the conclusion that I wasn’t really studying where energy came from…why don’t I study where energy comes from from a positive state instead?"
• Dave Asprey ([09:45]): “I’ve probably been the most skeptical of homeopathics or just this whole idea of energy and water for a long time.”
• Harry Massey ([12:25]): "A wearable is a way better way to deliver [energy medicine]."
• Harry Massey ([15:03]): "Your face contains information from a Chinese medicine perspective. …your tongue also contains information... your voice contains information."
• Harry Massey ([18:22]): “The more inputs you have, the better the overall picture of working out what’s going on with your health.”
• Dave Asprey ([22:19]): "And yet a 22% shift in efficiency of converting sugar into electricity or heat just by wearing the gem."
• Harry Massey ([23:49]): “That’s one of the biggest energy leaks of the body that most people don’t talk about… But we don’t really talk about trauma. So actually having awareness of your emotions and a path…"
• Dave Asprey ([28:59]): “All we’re talking about here is in computing, what we call a data injection attack, except it’s for your own good, not for bad things.”
• Harry Massey ([31:12]): “Every cell has 3 trillion operations that happening every single second…The only way the body can stay alive is if you’ve also got a field-based system.”
• Dave Asprey ([32:52]): “If the placebo effect exists, then we’re not running on just chemistry.”
• Harry Massey ([37:11]): "In the world of biohacking, it’s now a $36 billion industry and it was a new idea that’s so related to this. It was, let’s measure and then change."
• Dave Asprey ([40:08]): “A lot of people today are running at 50% of what they could run at and they think they’re fine.... The difference is profound because people are nicer to each other and we don’t feel like crap all the time.”

Timestamps for Important Segments

• [00:00] – Harry’s health crisis and origin story
• [03:10] – Harry's seven years bedridden: emotional and physical cost
• [06:33] – Medical system’s failure; the search for answers
• [08:25] – Turning point: shifting from fixing symptoms to studying energy
• [11:28, 12:25] – GEM wearable introduction: digital delivery of infoceuticals
• [15:03] – Diagnostics: combining TCM, wearable tech, and AI
• [18:42–19:12] – UCSD study: mitochondrial density increased by 50%
• [21:57–22:19] – Mitochondrial efficiency, gene modulation by GEM
• [23:49] – Emotional trauma as a primary energy leak
• [31:09–32:52] – Limits of biochemical models and the case for field effects
• [35:58–36:51] – Evolution from ancient medicine to modern biohacking
• [37:11] – Integration: measure + change = true biohacking

Summary

In this episode, bioenergetics expert Harry Massey and host Dave Asprey chart the evolution of energy medicine from ancient principles to modern AI-driven wearables. Together, they articulate how real biological transformation happens at the intersection of mind, body, and information—well beyond chemistry alone. Through personal anecdotes, scientific research, and provocative analogies, the conversation explores how digital energy therapeutics like the GEM can dramatically improve mitochondrial function, emotional well-being, and overall performance, potentially reshaping the conversation about holistic health and human potential.

If you seek new tools for energy, resilience, and transformation—and are open to ideas that push the conventional boundaries—this episode provides both practical insights and hope.

Product Mention:
The GEM wearable by E4L (e4l.com/dave), “Guided Energy Management,” $400 (with show discount available).

For those wanting the next step in biohacking, emotional energy repair, and longevity, this episode offers a glimpse into the science—and the future—of energetic healing.