← The Human Upgrade: Biohacking for Longevity & Performance
The Human Upgrade: Biohacking for Longevity & Performance
Why Motivation DOESN’T Work | Mental Biohacks : 1361
00:39:28
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- [00:00]
A
The man who thinks he can and the man who thinks he can't are both right. Living Without Limitation the greatest level of possibility can actually change the elemental structure of your of your body temporarily. You can biologically prove that, you can scientifically prove it. Then if you know how to play the game, you work on that level of consciousness and you get up to the next level, you become more powerful. Energy flows through you more in the form of better thoughts, better ideas, deeper intuition, healed body, greater bank account David.
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B
Bayer is an author and entrepreneur known for building of the fastest growing transformational coaching organizations in the U.S. he and his wife have scaled their programs from zero into an eight figure business while training thousands of leaders and coaches worldwide.
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A
Our business is on track over the next 12 months to do. It's a wide range, we'll call it 10 to 20 million dollars. And I started reshaping my reality. Most people are living a very limited life within constraints that are self imposed or adopted from a very early age. And if you want to create a change in your life, the way you create it at a root cause level is through that is the quantum space of possibility. It is a key that unlocks so much healing.
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B
You're listening to the human upgrade with Dave Asprey. Is the air you're breathing making you sick? Just because you don't see mold doesn't mean it isn't there. My friend Jason Earl has been on a mission for over two decades to help people understand the hidden role of indoor air in their health. He's one of the world's leading experts on mold and indoor air quality and he created the Got Mold Test Kit to make professional grade air testing simple and accessible. It uses cutting edge air sampling tech that top inspectors trust and it's engineered for you at a fraction of the cost. It takes just minutes to get samples using the patented Biovac air sampling pump. Then you send them prepaid to one of the most prestigious microbiology labs in the world. No guesswork, no paperwork and no hidden fees. You get fast results, intuitive reports and great support. And since you keep the pump, you can retest anytime for less. It even comes with a lifetime warranty. Mold may be invisible, but its impact isn't. This kit helps you understand your environment so you can take action for your health. Go to gotmold.com and use code DAVE10 to save 10% and see what's in your air. Because the best biohackers don't guess. They test. Here's something even the most dialed in biohackers Miss, you can look great and feel fine, but you could still be aging fast on the inside in one area but not another. That's because each of your organ systems ages at its own pace. And systemage from Generation Lab can show you exactly how each of your internal systems, your brain, your hormones, your mitochondria, your immune system are holding up over time. This goes deeper than just blood sugar or cholesterol testing. It tells you what's working and what's not. Is the daily supplement stack you're taking actually making you younger? Well, now you can know. And you don't just get raw data, they give you an action plan to improve. What nutrients is your body missing, what to eat more of, where your body needs extra recovery. Best part, it's a 5 minute pain free blood test you do at home and it gives you a level of data most people never see even with a functional medicine team. Go to generationlab.com, use code DAVE20 to get $20 off and see what your body's really doing behind the surface. I want to say that you're anti motivation. Why is that?
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A
I think that motivation and inspiration are great, they're part of the process, but it's, it's a microdose of transformation. Right? It's not, it's not sustainable. I remember when I first got into personal growth. It's like I'd go to an event, I feel amazing, I'd think different, I'd be in community with other people and then I'd go home with the same brain. And that was actually a big, a big piece that drove me forward into figuring out like, how can I create sustainable change in the way that I'm thinking. It's really what drove me forward. And I kind of talk about that as Personal Development 1.0 and Personal Development 2.0. I didn't want to have to work so hard anymore to buy into my beliefs, to change my habits. I just felt like there must be a better way. And don't get me wrong, when I was coming out of my drug addiction and my alcoholism and started to get in personal growth, I was listening to Les Brown every day. I was listening to TD Jakes every day. Like I had to replace that negative inner critic in my own head. But then, then ultimately at some point your own consciousness has to take over. And so I think it's part of the process, but it's, it's not the end game.
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B
Yeah, I talk a lot. In fact, I have a supplement called Motivation 101. But end of the Day. Motivation is rare and precious, and if you rely on it all the time, you run out. And it exists neurochemically for just brief periods of time. And so what your work, it has talked about a lot is how if you shift your brain, something different happens than motivation. But what's the difference between the kind of shift you're creating and just relying on motivation as an energy source?
- [05:04]
A
I think it's aligning perception with fundamentally how reality is functioning. And so, like, we, we, we, this opens up a much larger conversation. But, you know, when I, when I think about motive, motivating myself to do what or beyond what, a lot of times it was motivating myself beyond my limiting beliefs. You know, I. I didn't feel like working today, but I would work. I'd have a fear of getting on stage, but I'd do it anyway. Whatever you want to describe the, the motivation du jour, I think it's more elegant to actually look at the psychological resistance that's showing up. Like, really start to audit the thoughts. And if you have a proper framework, you know, the framework could be an understanding of behavioral psychology or an understanding of neuroscience or metaphysics or spiritual teachings. What you start to see is like, your thinking just doesn't hold up under scrutiny. Right. So I was, I was, I was requiring motivation to move through what I would describe as untrue or unintelligent thoughts. And so rather than continue to hit the gas on motivation to overcome the resistance of the day, I found it a much more elegant practice to systematically begin to see my unintelligent thinking is unintelligent. And so in order to do that at the highest level, I had to develop a new frame for how reality functioned. And so, you know, for example, I fundamentally believe that I create my own reality. Well, that's different back than when I had to be motivated and inspired a lot. I fundamentally believe that reality is working, even in the challenges of my life, for my greatest growth, my greatest prosperity, and my greatest evolution. And so I developed a new belief system that for me is much more aligned with the geometry or the laws of how reality is functioning. And I think that when people are operating from a blue pill experience or a deep unreality, they require a lot of motivation to support them. But when you see reality properly, you're no longer needing as much motivation and inspiration because there's less resistance, Right? Buddha talks about this as right perception.
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B
How do you know that the way you're seeing reality now is the right one and that you're not Just still self deceiving.
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A
Well, that's a great question. I'll tell you how I know. I test it as a hypothesis within the experience of my own life and I see, and I see what the results are. And so, you know, look along before I believe that, that, that money was hard to make. And my reality was that money was hard to make. And as I started studying personal growth, metaphysics, wisdom teachings, consciousness theory, you know, I, I adopted a belief that I get to determine how my reality is going to be. Now then the question is, well, okay, is that true? I say, well, well, I don't know. I'm going to test it and see if it's true. For me, one of the things that I found is I ran test after test after test after test is that I, I, I, I found for myself that 100% of the time that I was thinking something that didn't feel good, it turned out not to be true. And, and so what, what I've discovered for me is that my nervous system is an internal guidance system. It's a lie detector test. And, and when I'm entangled with a limited thought that by the way, I can, I can make my reality because that's how the brain works and that's how powerful we are. But, but when I, when I'm entertaining a limited thought, that's what produces stress or anxiety or overwhelm or jealousy or anger. And, and so I look at that as it's not, it's not true for me. I have to investigate that thinking and look at it from another perspective. And when I look at it from another perspective, almost 100% of time the opposite perspective, it actually feels good. It actually feels good. And when I'm willing to hold that new thought, I find that that thought starts to sculpt my reality. So how do I know that something is true? Number one, it feels good when I think it. Now we could talk about like heroin or. No, I was just going to use the heroin example, right? You're reading my mind. Let's take away the fringe examples and then we can get to them. But we could just say like, you know, the idea that financial prosperity and abundance is my birthright feels good. The idea that I can trust most people feels good. The idea that, you know, I am good enough feels good. And so for me that seems to be true. And then when I run a, a test and I hold that belief long enough, my reality starts to change and I start to find more evidence for it and I start to manufacture more coincidences. And synchronicities around it. So it turns out that that negative feeling thought I had before wasn't necessarily true because as I bought into a new one, I started reshaping my reality. But you could say, but this a placebo effect. You could say this is, how do you know it's what's true or false? This is just a placebo effect. And I would say, well fine, but why would we throw it out as just a placebo effect? I think it's one of the humorous things in the health space today is people will go, well, you don't heal yourself, it's just a placebo effect. It's like no, that's what the placebo effect is. Right? So you would say, well no, you're not actually changing your reality, it's just a placebo effect. It's like no, I'm changing my reality. So somewhat long winded way to answer your question. Question is I know what's true to me because it feels good and when I'm thinking something that's not true to me, it doesn't feel good. And then I test the hypothesis and 100 of the time, you know, as I'm willing to hold on to a new belief system, that feels better. The, the truth establishes itself within my reality.
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B
In your model for a personal framework, I. Is there absolute truth or is everything true to a person?
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A
Yeah, I mean I think I, well, depends on how we define truth. Like at one level we could say Henry Ford supposedly said, who knows, it could just be a meme on the Internet. Right, But Henry Ford supposedly said the man who thinks he can and the man who thinks he can't are both right. And, and so what that is suggesting is that well, whatever you believe becomes your truth. But I think that's a permission that's given within a macro system. I think the macro system and the truth of the macro system is that life is designed according to a loving, nurturing, evolving law based mathematical structure that is always working for our greatest growth, our greatest prosperity and our greatest evolution. And so in that sense I think what's true is love. Like I think you start to get into court Jesus teachings, right? So at the macro. But, but, and we'll use some language for it, let's call it God loves you so much, meaning the system love is built as love and growth that you are allowed to choose limitation for yourself. So you have this macro truth around how the system is architected and within that you have the freedom to choose whatever it is that you, you know Desire your own limit, your own limitation. In this example, one of the things.
- [12:16]
B
I, I teach my kids is that you get to choose suffering until you get the lesson. And I'm not going to stop it for you. But if you want some help, I'll help you find the lesson. But if you don't experience it, you don't, you don't oftentimes learn. But it's possible to just learn from someone else's suffering. So you don't have to go there. If you're getting brain fog, cramps or just crashing in the middle of the day, maybe you're not tired, you're just dehydrated. This is a thing. And water alone won't fix it. You need electrolytes like sodium, potassium and magnesium to get water into your cells so they can make electricity. If you work out hard, you're fasting or on a permanent low carb diet that will drain your electrolytes. And without enough electrolytes, your cells just can't fire right? So you're tired, you're foggy, you're drained. That's where element comes in. Element is a drink mix with the electrolytes your body needs. And none of the B.S. no sugar, just science backed electrolytes in the right ratios for your body. Element sports hydration when you're fasting, before you work out, and especially after sauna sessions or anytime your brain just doesn't feel right, you need more energy. Thousands of pro athletes, special forces teams and yours truly trust it daily. Their latest and most popular flavor, lemonade. Salt is truly awesome. It's salty, it's tart, it's refreshing and it's perfect for summer. And right now you can get a free 8 count sample pack of Element with any drink mix purchase by going to drinkelement.com Dave element is totally risk free. If you don't like it, give it away to a friend and they'll just give you your money back. It's time to give your body real hydration and you will feel the difference. Believe it or not, your nervous system works overtime to handle modern stressors including EMFs and toxins in your environment. That extra work in your nervous system means you're likely to feel low energy, less focus and not recover very well. Enter Quantum upgrade. It's a 24,7 service that sends quantum energy straight to you wherever you choose. It doesn't sound believable, but this is based on real science and not just a little bit. There are 14 placebo controlled studies that back it up the same Kind of studies that big pharma uses. A recent study on Quantum Upgrade had some amazing results. Stress brain waves dropped 80% in 30 minutes and 13 times more alpha brainwaves in the limbic system, which is what supports calmness and relaxation. And HRV improved, showing stronger stress response and faster recovery in study participants. You can send Quantum Upgrade energy to your home, your body, even your pet. And They've just added 30 frequency options to choose from, including specific brain support, weight management, focus and more. And to be honest, it would be easier if this didn't work because then I wouldn't feel called to talk about it. But this is real. Right now you can get a 15 day free trial of Quantum Upgrade. You don't even need to enter your credit card info. Go to quantumupgrade IO, use code Dave at checkout and give it a try. Is suffering important for personal development?
- [15:18]
A
I think so. At least in this earth based experiment. It seems that suffering or and let's call it trauma are part of the growth mechanism. You know, Joseph Campbell highlighted the hero's journey, right this, this structure for heroic archetypes and the, the, the journey that greatness goes through to become great. And if, if you look at the story of any great person, when I look at it through, through the framework that I've designed, it's through the overcoming of, of the challenge or the trauma that an in individual develops the skills and the character and the qualities to, to be the person capable of holding the greatness that they materialize into the world. And so, so challenges will happen. And the way the mind is designed initially, you know, we're, we're programmed at a very early age with perception. So, so we're, we're built to interpret situations and circumstances most often according to the way our parents did. And there's a propensity to do it from a fight or flight perspective. It's built into the machinery so that produces suffering. Like what are we talking about when we say suffering? Stress, anxiety over depression, loneliness. These are all forms of suffering or like what we would call primal states of being. And you know, I, I have my own theory that, and I'm not alone in this theory that a soul incarnates from life to life to life. Just as we go through the journey of our own life and we learn and grow, we learn and grow from life to life to life and through the challenges of a previous life, it articulates the desire that we step into, to fulfill in the next life. And in order for us to achieve the desire or achieve the potential or become the thing. It seems to make sense in an intelligent system that you would be born into the opposite of it. So, for example, you know, if. If you are someone who decided you wanted to truly experience the development of faith in this life, you'd be born into an environment riddled with doubt, and you'd be born to parents who were doubtful. And through your own hero's journey and that archetype structure, you would come to become exhausted by the doubt, and you would start looking for an alternative to the doubt, which would be a seeking of faith. And so this seems to be a very geometric, mathematical structure that's played out not only in Joseph Campbell's Hero's journey, but in the way that I'm architecting it. And so if you look at what is the purpose of a human being, I think there are several, but one is to come into an environment where you are experiencing the opposite of what you desire, because that is the seed for the transformation, to become who you're destined to become or who you chose to become in this life. So suffering is an essential part of it. Suffering is compressed energy, as opposed to expansive energy. And so you know, when you learn how to transform that compressed energy through the misperception that you've developed, you become more powerful. Energy flows through you more in the form of better thoughts, better ideas, deeper intuition, healed body, greater bank account. If you really look at the structure, it's all about transforming, the compression. Or people talk about shadow work, the dark into the light, the limitation into the potential. And so really, the limitation of the suffering is the seed for potential.
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B
I like that. So suffering becomes a seed. When people suffer, sometimes they lose their faith. But it seems like faith itself might have a signature, a biological signature or something in the brain or the body. Is faith something you can build the same way as strength or focus or attention?
- [19:05]
A
I can speak from my own experience and the experience I've seen of other people. I think the. Every time there's the absence of faith or the losing the faith that you've talked about, it is now moving to an opportunity for the reconnection of faith. And, you know, look, you know the science much better than I do, but I assume the frequency of reconnection is strengthening. If, if you want. If you want to get strong at something, it's about disconnecting, reconnecting, disconnecting, reconnecting. Building the. The muscle of reconnection to create consistency of connection. Because I know very few people that are just, you know, faith all the time. We were at one of our live events recently and this woman was talking about how she's learning how to surrender and, but she's controlling in this area of her life. And I'm like, so you're a very faith based person. Like you believe in a higher power. Who is it for you? She said, it's God. I'm like, well, but you believe over here, but you don't believe over there, right? She said, right. I'm like, oh, so you have one of those part time gods, like so, but, but the, the absence of faith over there and the wearing, wearing her down, right. As the result of the absence of faith makes her available to believe at a deeper level. And so faith is belief, right? We use faith as a belief in a higher power, right. Most frequently, but you could have a faith in anything. But I think that in the same way we talked about suffering is essential for the achievement of potential. The absence of faith is essential for the development of faith. And I've, I found in my own life, you know, for a long time I had, you know, I don't know if we're talking about faith in a higher power, but just as a side note, when I, when I first got into the work I was like all about the universe, right? It was like a relationship with the universe. It was Abraham Hicks and it was universe and it was, you know, I, I grew up in a family where my dad was Jewish, my mom was Lutheran, we did the commercial holidays. But like there wasn't really God in my childhood and I found a relationship with my higher power when I got into 12 step at age of 33 when I got into alcohol and drug and sex addiction recovery. But even then it wasn't like it wasn't a God and it wasn't a Jesus. And, but about a year ago I ran into some, some challenges in my life and beliefs that I was just tired of struggling with and, and I started praying for a personal relationship with God. I don't know what happened but like David of the Bible kept crossing my path and, and I'm not, you know, deep in the Bible, but I love that story of the shepherd boy who stands up against Goliath and like his faith in God is so strong. He's like, today Goliath is going down. Interesting, right? Because then David goes through these ups and downs in his faith. That's David's story. And, and so I was like, I really want a personal relationship with, with my higher power. And over the course of the last year through a series of things I have developed a much deeper personal relationship with my higher power. And again, whether it's true or not, whether it's placebo or not, it works for me. Right? It works for me. And the, the, the, the. I do believe in asking and receiving, whether it's vibrational with the universe or however you want to define it. But, you know, it was because I was at a point of pain and suffering that I asked out of that suffering for a deeper relationship with my higher power. And there was a response.
- [22:20]
B
It's rough because if you read something like Think and Grow Rich and Napoleon Hill, author of one of the oldest and maybe the first personal development book for business people read it when I was 16, like, that's kind of mind blowing. He talks about making up a roundtable of Thomas Edison and Einstein, whoever else you want, Winston Churchill and just kind of imagining them and then having these conversations and meeting with your council of these wise things. And I remember thinking, well, that seems kind of dumb because it's all just made up. But then you try it. Well, it kind of works. So in your example, if someone's listening, doesn't believe in higher power, who cares? Make it up then, like you are the higher power. It's not relevant. I do the same thing with reincarnation. It's just a rational belief. Even if you don't believe provably makes your life better because you're less afraid. And if you're right and you get reincarnated, great. And if you're wrong and you're dead, you won't know. Like, you can't lose by choosing that. So it's the same thing. You create a relationship with a mythical and maybe pretend higher power. But it doesn't matter if it's real, if it works.
- [23:26]
A
Right. I love what you're saying. Right? Because what you're saying is you're a more effective and happier human being if you're less afraid. So. So if this allows you to be less afraid, go for it.
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B
It's like you have these paranoid conspiracy people going, oh, you know, everything's stacked up against me. You could be a prosperity person and say, you know, there's a conspiracy in Give me everything I want. Either one might be true, but you might as well just pick the one that at least is going to make you feel better. And maybe it's real, maybe it's not, but it's not relevant. It's relevant. Did you get the results? So the storytelling that may or may not be an accurate representation of reality seems to make life better. And probably affects reality. Would you agree?
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A
Yes, but I mean, you, you know, again, you know this better than me. You can biologically prove that. You can scientifically prove it, right? You can say, you know, whatever it is that you believe in, as long as you don't believe that you can fly and jump out your window. That's not what we're talking about. And people will always bring up these fringe examples, right? To counter something that's very logical.
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B
I actually tell the people that they can, and all I have to do is go do it. I usually end the argument pretty effective.
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A
That's why I don't have any friends left.
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B
No, I've had this argument with my son because in our house, we don't say things are impossible and we don't say that we can't do it. It just is because they're never true. And he's, I don't know, six or seven. He goes, daddy, doesn't make any sense. You can't travel to the middle of the sun right now without a spaceship. And I said, sure you can. And he goes, what do you mean? And I said, just change the laws of physics. And he goes, I don't know how. And I'm like, oh, so did you tell me you don't know how to go to the middle of the sun right now? And he goes, well, yeah. And of course he's pissed off that I made my point because that's what it's like when you're six. But the point is really valid. It's always, we don't know how to do that, or we think we don't know how to do that. It's not that it's impossible. So there's plenty of cases. If you look at ancient. The yoga sutras of Patanjali, you look at ancient myth. Yeah. There's people who can levitate, right. There's fringe people who teach it. Now, I haven't witnessed it in person, but I know people who have witnessed it in person. I don't think they're crazy. It's just very rare. So I'm not going to say it's impossible. I'm going to say I'm not jumping off the top of the roof right now because, well, unless I have padding down there, it's probably a bad idea.
- [25:47]
A
I was going to mention Paramahansa Yogananda, an autobiography of a yogi. I had an argument with ChatGPT one day because I said, look, you know, I have a theory that through meditation and raising your vibration, you can Actually change the elemental structure of your, of your body temporarily and you rise out of the elemental structure of your body and when you come back in it reorganizes at a higher level and the byproduct of that is health and healing and all kinds of transformation. I said is there, is there any scientific evidence for this? And Chatgpt said no. And I was like well but you can also look like I have to having read Autobiography of a Yogi. I mean Pramahansa Yogananda who's on my wall with my council, you know, wrote the book in like the 1950s, 1960s. And so you read the book and you go, I either have to decide that this, this revered Indian saint is lying when he talks about who's gurus that could perform these miracles or he's hallucinating or it's true. Right? But, but, but the truth that the material world is malleable is established also in Christian teachings, right? I mean those are, those are the miracles that are articulated in the Bible. So, but to your point, I think living without limitation provides you. This is going to sound very common sense. The, the greatest level of possibility and you know, whether it's manipulating the material world or it's something as simple as Roger Banister breaking the four minute mile, it's really the same philosophy that applies. It's really interesting when, when, when Roger banister broke the 4 minute mile, the record had been 4 minutes and 2 seconds for around 11 years. And, and he went out on the race that day and who, the competitor who was expected to win the race was a guy by the name of John Landy. And right before the race John Landy's interviewed and they say do you think you're going to break the four minute mile? He goes it may be broken someday, but I don't think it will be anytime soon and it is certainly not going to be me. That same day John Banister goes, Roger Bannister goes out and breaks the four minute mile. Why? Because he had a different set of beliefs. Right? And so on, on again on every level. We're talking about the power of belief. If people, if people want to be skeptical about the power of belief because we haven't yet seen someone meditate. I think they're missing the big picture here. Most people are living a very limited life within constraints that are self imposed or adopted from a very early age. And if you want to create a change in your life, the way you create it at a root cause level is through a changed mind.
- [28:12]
B
So how do you go about turning a trauma pattern from early childhood, which is where a lot of these beliefs come from, especially the negative ones. How do you turn that into energy for growth instead of just a repeated pattern?
- [28:24]
A
One of the things that we've identified is what we call the core program. It's like a super limiting belief, which you might relate to as like your core trauma. And it, it has dynamics to it. It's not just one belief. So for me, the dynamic of my core program is worry. It's the idea that I need to find someone to help solve my problem. I can't solve it on my own. It's the idea that there's something wrong with me. It materialized as health problems because health problems were a great mirror. Every time I had this chronic health challenges that I've had over the last eight years, my reaction to it was, there's something wrong with me. I, I don't know how to do it right. I need to find someone else who can solve the problem for me. So when you, when you're working with trauma, like capital T trauma, you're working with it on several levels. You know, you can take each of those limiting beliefs and start working with them, but then there's also this imprint in the body. So, you know, other tools that I found to be very helpful beyond like a psychological or cognitive approach to working with, with, with that trauma is the fully experiencing of the feelings. You know, I have a phenomenal coach right now, and my work is less on trying to come up with a new belief and seeing that my old belief is untrue, like our work is based in, that is very, very helpful for the vast majority of people in clearing out a lot of their belief systems. The byproduct of that is, you know, a transformed life. But then the, you know, the body keeps score. So, you know, the. To. To fully feel the emotions and to have someone be able to facilitate that for you and to remember because extraordinary memories come up when you're willing to sit with the emotion as, you know, you've experienced and then, and then to be able to go back and to be present to that moment and to reimagine that moment and to reinstall a different experience and to feel the emotions of that, you know, new desired experience that is always, you know, the opposite of the trauma. Those are really powerful techniques. And, you know, somatic work is important. Supporting it with other tools. Right. That, you know, like you brought to your book event that I was able to attend. Right. Breath work. It's. It's it's, it's a comprehensive approach when you're working with trauma. And then I think the relationship with the higher power, because I get triggered in situations and circumstances that bring up that memory of my original trauma and a big part of me down regulating my nervous system is a reminder going back to what we talked about before, that like, I'm okay. I live in a loving system. It's not just me. I'm not alone. Life is working for me. I'm going to turn it over to a higher power of my own understanding. So these are all tools that I've had to use in order to be ineffective and productive human being as a result of my trauma.
- [31:11]
B
It says a lot. And I think everyone has trauma. We just don't identify it as that. I certainly didn't when I was in my early 30s. I don't have any trauma. I'm fine. So I didn't really know what trauma was. Right. And I had a lot of resistance to even understanding the concept of it. You specialize in high performers and you teach these four layers of resistance. What are the layers that we all use for resistance without knowing it?
- [31:44]
A
The first we would identify as limiting beliefs easy to work with. From a cognitive behavioral therapy or a psychological perspective, we can identify a limiting belief. That seems true because your perception has become calibrated to finding evidence for it. But we can also establish the opposite of the limiting belief and start to work with someone to resurface memories and evidence they have of the opposite of the limiting belief. What we would call the new decision. And you can start to do the neural pruning, right? You start reestablishing. Tony Robbins talks about, like putting, you know, legs under a stool. So you start re rebuilding a new philosophy. But you and I talked about this at dinner one night. Then there's another layer of limiting beliefs that, you know, it's like, well, how come some of my limiting beliefs seem easy to shift, but others seem more difficult, and that's because some of them are deeply tied to resentments.
- [32:33]
B
Oh, tell me more about resentment.
- [32:35]
A
Well, you know, the, our beliefs for the most part, were formed in. In some form of interpersonal relationship. Right. So I, you know, let's, let's call it. I, I experienced in dynamics with my dad that I didn't know how to do things right and that I wasn't good enough. And I think that's the right way to articulate it because in the case with my dad, it's not like he did that to me. You know, my trauma was not physical abuse, sexual abuse. It was. It was, it was. I like what Gabor mate says. He says, trauma is not what happens to you, it's what happens inside of you. That's why we all have trauma. Right. So I could do all the work in the world. You know, I could use our tools. I could go jumping up and down at a Tony Robbins event. I could go do the Landmark Forum. I could go meditate in India. I could go do all this stuff. I could go do psychedelics in ayahuasca. But as long as I'm still holding a resentment towards my dad around this or at all, I can't let go of the limiting belief because it runs along the same chord. Right. And it's why you've been talking about forgiveness so much recently, because it is a key that unlocks so much healing.
- [33:43]
B
You're right. If you got resentment, pretty much your life is hellish and you don't know why. And resentment towards anything or anyone, you got to work through that. And certainly I use the reset process and neurofeedback in 40 years of Zen and a whole bunch of esoteric, ancient practices, as well as. What's your favorite for letting go of resentment?
- [34:02]
A
I take the same approach. I have a particular perspective on what happened. So there's a philosophy that surrounds the work that I do, which is I chose my dad. And it goes back to what we talked about before, which is I came here to learn and become some things. I needed to move into an environment that was the opposite of that. I believe my dad was part of my familial soul team. And he's like, I'll come in and be that for David. And so as I start to use this philosophy, it's very easy for me to see that nothing wrong happened. And when I can truly see that nothing wrong happened, I don't have to find forgiveness. It's right there. So it's a philosophical approach that leads me to forgiveness.
- [34:49]
B
Yeah. The idea that nothing wrong happened, it's a big pill to swallow for a lot of people. And when I'm teaching forgiveness, it's like, well, did they do it or did they do it to you? And when you realize they just did it because of their programming, it makes giving them grace a little bit easier. You just realize it felt personal, but it was clearly someone who's not in their right mind, because people in their right minds don't do that. And I've certainly walked through a lot of stuff, and we talked about it off camera at the biohacking consciousness event that I did. And yeah, there's been through a lot, but ultimately that's what it comes down to is did somebody do it? And they did not do it to me, even though it may have happened to me. And that division makes a lot of it makes forgiveness a lot easier.
- [35:36]
A
Right? Yeah, I like that a lot. The, the, the third layer is the core program that we talked about. Right. The super limiting belief that I believe calls you back into a relationship with a higher power and teaches you the process of surrender and humility in your life. And the fourth layer, the absence of self love. And so as we can restore self love and we can restore a relationship with our higher power and we can forgive our resentments and we can see our unintelligent thinking is unintelligent, meaning our limiting beliefs, that is a recipe for producing a whole human being.
- [36:09]
B
Very well said. That's. It feels like we're talking in a circle sometimes around this and not you. It's. We as a species, we're trying to teach this thing. That's, that's a feeling, not, not words. But you're doing a great job of transmitting that, basically. I've also seen you talk about things like, you know, biblical, turn the other cheek. What does it mean when someone turns the other cheek and what, what's really happening there?
- [36:39]
A
Yeah, I think that the Bible is such a great metaphysical interpretation of, of, of proper conduct within the system of reality. And that's really what, you know, Jesus represented and what the teachings informed. And we were recently talking about turning the other cheek at our event in relationship to the Charlie Kirk incident, because people were saying, you know, how do we react to this? How do I think about this? I'm angry, I'm resentful. And I said, well, let's, let's look at how we're told to react to this. And there were four specific passages in the Bible that I referenced. Two were from the Sermon on the Mount, which is like, you know, the ultimate seminar that Jesus gave like the.
- [37:20]
B
Mother napple pie of the, of the Bible.
- [37:23]
A
Yeah, exactly. It's like, it's all in there. It's, it's pretty unbelievable. And one was the idea of turning the other cheek. And turning the other cheek is a metaphysical principle. And so when we're confronted by evil, Right. The idea is evil strikes us on one side and we're told to turn the other cheek. And what happens when you turn the other cheek is you're actually, if you look at it from a physical standpoint, you're directing your attention away from the evil. And so we'll always experience evil and we will always experience problems, we will always experience contrast in our life. And as I mentioned before, that is the seed of inspiration for the new desire and the new direction. And so, you know, turning the cheek is not be a victim and allow yourself to be terrorized. It is the idea of do not resist that which you dislike. Because when you stand against something energetically, you're standing up something, you're standing it up. And we see that in the world today, right? We're on terror, war on drugs, you know, even if it's like, you know, the war on the pharmaceutical cartel, the war on the financial cartel. Now we have this emerging structure of totalitarian control and everybody wants to talk about it, and I understand why, but the greatest teachers taught us to use that as a, a touch point for don't like that and be inspired to turn the cheek and move in the other direction because you're a powerful creator and create something new, right? So, so that's the idea. I don't like censorship. I bring my attention towards free expression, right? I don't like financial insecurity. Turn the cheek. I bring my attention towards abundance and prosperity. And I actually think that the impossibility of the current global situation is bringing people back into fundamental principles that as we embody them, you know, because you think about it, you and I know at some level, I don't know that we necessarily are in full accordance in how we'd articulate it, but we create our own realities, right? Think and grow rich stuff, Napoleon Hill and, and what we're really talking about here is the capacity to have sovereignty over your attention. That's what it is. Because your attention is hijacked by your limiting beliefs, your traumas, your memories. Your attention is hijacked. The work that we're talking about liberates you from the hijacking of your attention. Now, you can direct your attention where you intend and you change your life. But when you have enough people doing that in coordination, it creates civilization, scale change. And so that's the time that we're entering. Right now is a massive shift and it requires a massive trauma and a massive confrontation by what we would call evil. And enough people turning the cheek in the other direction, and we will materialize a new system and a structure not by tearing down the old one. That is the story of Moses and the Hebrews in the Old Testament, right? They didn't rise up and overthrow totalitarian control, which was Pharaoh. What did they do? They walked away. And they walked away into an unknown, which is very scary, Right. That is the quantum space of possibility to create something new called the promised land. And so we're being asked to do something similar now, and I'm very excited. This is one of the reasons why on my show I say I believe in the certainty of the goodness of the future. And people are like, well, how can you say that with everything that's going on? And I go, because everything that's going on is just the contrast that fuels civilization and evolution.
- [41:00]
B
I'm with you. I think we have a very bright future ahead of us. We might have a couple years of very wealthy people trying to use AI to control others. They'll get over it. And the concept of turning the other cheek, though, is really interesting. Do you know where that practice originally came from?
- [41:16]
A
Don't.
- [41:17]
B
It was a Roman practice under Roman law. So if someone slapped you like this, like a normal across the face, open palm slap, you could do that. Then you turn the other cheek, because then they slap you with the back of their hand, with their knuckles, and that was a crime. And, you know, if they caused damage, they could get punished and. And things like that. So the idea was they slap you once and then you turn that cheek like, I dare you, like I dare you to escalate, right? And. And you do that, and that kind of calls the other person's bluff. And it's actually a much more powerful way of talking about being in your own power, right? Because if you're sitting there in your own power and you're well regulated and you know, some slaps you across the face, right? And you just look at them, like, turn your head, they're gonna have to.
- [42:07]
A
Bite the boss move, right?
- [42:10]
B
So there. There's a cool nuance where there's a forgiveness aspect to it and also like a trust and a knowingness that there will be. That there will be a reckoning if they go down that path, right? So I like the forgiveness aspect and I also like the let's dance aspect. Like, I think they're both. They're both real when you turn the other cheek. Because a narcissist or a traumatized person, they're doing it to get a rise out of you. And if they don't get any rise at all and you're like, you want to go again?
- [42:41]
A
They're like, okay, hold on. I didn't get what I just mess with. Yeah.
- [42:45]
B
And that's actually narcissist repellent. It's when you're not triggered at all. So it's kind of a cool bit of history I came across there.
- [42:53]
A
I appreciate you sharing that.
- [42:54]
B
David, thank you for coming on the show and sharing the wisdom of all the things you've been through.
- [42:59]
A
Dave, thanks for having me. This was great. I appreciate it.
- [43:02]
B
Your book is called A Changed Mind and you have a ton of good stuff on YouTube. So thank you for supporting the biohacking consciousness event when you did. And you're just putting out a lot of good stuff in the world right now. And so much of what you teach, what I teach, it's ineffable. These are things where it'd be nice if there was a linear recipe. You do A, then do B, then do C. And it's always going to work. It's always going to feel the same way. And it's not like, you know, you get the red paint and put the paintbrush on the wall and you know, paint up, paint down, and you get a red wall. But there is a path and I think you're illuminating it really, really well. But it's an individual path and it's one that starts the way you teach and in reframing your reality and understanding the nature of things, which really does remove the need to rely on motivation so you have it when things are really tough. So thanks for spelling this out, being vulnerable, and just for sharing the wisdom.
- [43:57]
A
Dave, thanks for letting me be here. Really enjoyed it. Appreciate you.
- [44:00]
B
Appreciate you. And I will see you soon in person somewhere.
- [44:03]
A
You got it.
- [44:05]
B
See you next time on the Human Upgrade Podcast.
- [44:14]
C
The Human Upgrade, formerly Bulletproof Radio, was created and is hosted by Dave Asprey. The information contained in this podcast is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended for the purposes of diagnosing, treating, curing, or preventing any disease. Before using any products referenced on the podcast, consult with your healthcare provider carefully, read all labels and heed all directions and cautions that accompany the products. Information found or received through the podcast should not be used in place of a consultation or advice from a healthcare provider. If you suspect you have a medical problem or should you have any healthcare questions, please promptly call or see your healthcare provider. This podcast, including Dave Asprey and the producers, disclaim responsibility for any possible adverse effects from the use of information contained herein. Opinions of guests are their own and this podcast does not endorse or accept responsibility for statements made by guests. This podcast does not make any representations or warranties about guest qualifications or credibility. This podcast may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products or services. Individuals on this podcast may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to herein. This podcast is owned by Bulletproof Media.