May 11, 2023

From podcast: https://bengreenfieldlife.com/podcast/lyle-phillips-podcast/

[00:00:00] Introduction

[00:01:25] Podcast Sponsors

[00:07:16] Who is Pastor Lyle Philips?

[00:09:53] Ben Greenfield and his work

[00:24:08] How to biohack creativity?

[00:34:24] The effects of light and sound on human body

[00:40:12] Podcast Sponsors

[00:44:38] What nootropics are good for creativity?

[01:03:21] How to deal with adrenal fatigue

[01:12:22] How people react to Ben talking about faith?

[01:20:15] End of Podcast

Ben:  My name is Ben Greenfield. And, on this episode of the Ben Greenfield Life podcast.

If you're looking for something that is a little bit friendlier to the pocketbook because supplements are expensive, the old school writer's friend of cup of coffee and cigarette, you replicate that with a cup of coffee. What you do, and this is a relatively inexpensive supplement, is you get the supplement called l-theanine.

Lyle:  Okay. Yeah, I've heard of this.

Ben:  It's a powder you can find anywhere about 100 milligrams, paired with a cup of coffee, causes the coffee to have a longer slow bleed into the system, and l-theanine shifts you into alpha brainwave mode to enhance creativity. And, it's just a cheap hack for a cup of coffee. And yes, even though you wouldn't necessarily want to smoke a cigarette back to the temple, you can use sources of nicotine that wouldn't really have many of the artificial sweeteners or anything in them at all.

Lyle:  Got it.

Ben:  I think the best one for that is they make nicotine toothpicks. So, you can literally have a nicotine toothpick like a cigarette sticking out of your mouth, cup of coffee with a little l-theanine in it. And, that's a dirt-cheap hack a lot of people don't know about. They'll get you through hours upon hours of writing.

Faith, family, fitness, health, performance, nutrition, longevity, ancestral living, biohacking, and a whole lot more. Welcome to the show.

Let's talk detoxification. There's a lot of mixed messages in the media now about detox. Do you need to detox? Do you not need to detox? Do you need to do the fancy ayurvedic 12-week diarrhea protocol? Do you need to spend 30 bucks a day on a fresh pressed juice with 18 pounds of cilantro in it? The idea is you do need detoxification support. Sometimes some of these detox remedies though, they kick your butt and they leave you on the toilet all the time or they're incredibly expensive or very inconvenient. So, that's where this stuff called PushCatch Liver Detox comes in. It's made by my friend, Dr. Chris Shade. Incredibly smart dude who's been on my podcast before. He heads up this company called Quicksilver Scientific.

So, what Quicksilver Scientific did is they created this very simple two-step protocol designed to support detoxification and removal of toxins from your body in a very quick and efficient manner. So, improperly designed detox programs neglect removal. So, sometimes they'll bind the toxins, but then they wind up in nasty places like your brain. Quicksilver doesn't do that. They have toxin recirculation avoidance. So, the toxins don't recirculate through your body by pushing toxins through the bile into your gut then catching them with a binder for a safe and effective detox, hence the name, PushCatch Liver Detox. So, they have what's called Liver Sauce and Ultra Binder. It's one-two step in this PushCatch Liver Detox. So, it boost bioflow, hepatic detoxification pathways, intercepts, mobilize toxins in the gut for a very seamless highly effective detox experience that doesn't break the bank, that doesn't empty your wallet and it doesn't leave you in the bathroom all day. 

So, I highly recommend Quicksilver Scientific because they take and make supplements that actually work in your body. And, they're giving all my listeners a big fat 15% discount. You visit quicksilverscientific.com and use code Greenfield15 for 15% off your purchase. That's quicksilverscientific.com/Ben and use code Greenfield15 for 15% off your entire purchase. Enjoy.

You may have been at a gas station or convenience store or random grocery store, wherever and you see these horribly branded sexual enhancement pills, erection pills, whatever you want to call them. And, those can be tempting, throw them back and get a insti pleasurable experience. But, we're talking about four-hour erections that won't go away and nasty side effects, and heart issues, and sweaty palms, and possible trip to the hospital to get rid of that thing. And, these are pharmaceuticals or they're crappy herbal compounds that are somewhat effective, I guess, with a ton of nasty side effects. 

So, there is one natural sexual performance booster that I will stand behind. It's called JOYMODE. So, what it's got is L citrulline, arginine, yohimbine, and vitamin C. What those first three components do, the L citrulline, the arginine, and the yohimbine is they cause nitric oxide production, penile tissue relaxation, they work for women too, and your sexual organs and increased sex drive, and the antioxidant vitamin C protects the nitric oxide from getting degraded and enhances the blood flow promoting effects of nitric oxide. So, it's a very intelligently designed sexual performance-enhancing supplements, a little powder, you tear open the sachet. By the way, it's amazing as a pre-workout too if you happen to need a pre-workout in a pinch. You put in a little bit of water just like an electrolyte and you do this 45 minutes up to four hours prior to sexual activity, you get better blood flow, you get better erection quality and firmness, better orgasms for both males and females, better sexual energy, better sex drive, and just overall an amazing experience without nasty prescription drugs or weird gas station pills.

I'm going to give you a special offer for this JOYMODE stuff. You go to usejoymode.com/Greenfield. That's usejoymode.com/Greenfield or you can just enter GREENFIELD on their website at checkout for 20% off your first order. That's joymode.com/Greenfield. Enjoy your JOYMODE.

Hiya. No, seriously, Hiya. That's kids' multivitamin. It's amazing. Most kids' multivitamins, I got 5 grams of sugar or more. They can contribute to health issues paradoxically. This Hiya stuff, they make it with no sugar, no gummy junk, but it tastes amazing. Kids love it. It's a pediatrician-approved superpower chewable vitamin. Okay. Again, typical children's vitamins, they got two teaspoons of sugar in them. They're basically candy in disguise. 

But, Hiya not only fills all the common gaps in modern kid's diets to provide the full body nourishment that children need with the yummy taste that kids love but they've got vitamin D, B12, C, zinc, a whole host, 15 essential vitamins and minerals to support immunity and energy and brain function, mood, concentration, your child's teeth, their bones, but it's also guilt-free, non-GMO, vegan, dairy-free, allergy-free, gelatin-free, nut-free, everything else you can imagine. They designed this for kids of all ages. They send it straight to your door, so parents have one less thing to worry about. My kids love it. Everybody that I've showed it to, all the parents who've children have tried it swear by this stuff. It's a multivitamin that parents can give to their kids guilt-free and it fills all the gaps in, so you don't have to worry about your children's nutrient and micronutrient status.

Now, here's the cool thing. You can get a bottle with your first order and then they send you eco-friendly refills every month. To do this and to get 50% off that first order, you go to hiyahealth.com/Ben. That's H-I-Y-A-H-E-A-L-T-H.com/Ben. That will allow you to get your kids the full body nourishment they need to grow into healthy adults and gives you amazing savings. So, hiyahealth.com/Ben.

Hey, the following is a conversation with my friend, Lyle Phillips. Lyle's a pretty cool cat. He's actually the lead pastor of a Legacy Church in East Nashville. Here's a very cool backstory you should look into him, got rescued from a lifestyle of drugs and street living to running an amazing Church down in Nashville. I've gone there and just the singing and the worship service alone is nothing else you've ever experienced. So anyways, he and I have become friends. He just started a podcast called Conversations. And, we had a conversation on Conversations. We went into things that I don't think pastors talked much about like smart drugs and nootropics and productivity and breathwork and a whole lot of other cool, cool things. So, the shownotes for this one, you can find at BenGreenfieldLife.com/Lyle. That's BenGreenfieldLife.com/L-Y-L-E and this is interesting.

In the weeks following this chat and chats with some other pastors, people who take care of congregations, people who are pretty smart and well-versed when it comes to say religion but perhaps not as well-versed when it comes to health, I decided to arrange an event at my house. I am opening up my own home in October to a very, very small number of individuals, October 17th through the 20th specifically pastors. I'm going to take a maximum of 12 guys in, take you under my wings, feed you through the fire hose, teach you breathwork, making meals and teach you how to make healthy meals, how to choose ingredients, the type of supplements that do and do not work, how to do bodyweight workouts, how to use workout technologies to enhance your fitness without breaking the bank, how to sleep better, how to breathe better. We're going to be doing cold tubs and ice baths and sauna and breathwork and movement and hiking and amazing meals. And, I'm not charging anything for this. This is my ministry. This is me giving back. But, the only thing I'm asking guys to do is, of course, pick up your plane ticket to Spokane, throw a few nickels into the hat for some of the food costs for the week and that's not going to be very, very much.

So, anyways, all the information on this, you can find at BenGreenfieldLife.com/WarriorsforGod. That's BenGreenfieldLife.com/WarriorsforGod. And, there's a little form that you can fill out there if you want to be considered for attendance. So, that's it and let's move on to the conversation with Lyle.

Lyle:  Welcome back to Conversations podcast with Pastor Lyle. Today, I am joined by my new friend, Mr. Ben Greenfield. How you doing, bro?

Ben:  I'm pretty good, especially considering this is the first church, I think, I've ever been to that has a fancy toilet with the bidet literally in the sanctuary, whatever you want to call it over there.

Lyle:  Yup.

Ben:  You guys have stepped it up a notch.

Lyle:  What'd you think about that when you walked in and saw that —

Ben:  I mean, I don't know if I'm allowed to say this on your podcast, but there's even all the way down to organic tampons. You guys have it really figured out.

Lyle:  That's exactly right. We're trying to biohack the church, bro.

Ben:  Yeah, yeah.

Lyle:  That's probably a phrase you've never heard before, biohacking a church.

Ben:  No, I haven't heard that.

Lyle:  A lot of Christians are unhealthy.

Ben:  But, starting with the warm water bidet seems a good way to go for me.

Lyle:  Let's go, man. Let's go. Well, for some of you guys, you may not know Ben. You've never been exposed perhaps to his work, to his books. I have an amazing book of his right here, which is massive. You could knock somebody out with this, bro.

Ben:  It's kind of big. You could.

Lyle:  “Boundless.” This is–

Ben:  Yeah, it was meant to be a workout tool.

Lyle:  The first book of yours I ever read was “Beyond Training” and I had the Kindle version. Was it this big physically?

Ben:  No, it was smaller than that. I kind of want of people to buy two so they could do their bicep curls with the “Boundless” book. But no, that one is big. That one took me three years to write and just pull together all the information. I'm actually working on an update to it now, but I was telling you before we started recording, I just wrote the equivalent of that for parenting, for family and parenting and education and legacy and discipline. And, it's called “Boundless Parenting” and it's that big, but in my opinion, more meaningful than a book that teaches you how to live a long time and have six-pack abs.

Lyle:  Yeah.

Ben:  This book is about legacy and generational wealth and educating your children and defying the status quo and creating young human beings who are resilient and free thinking and creative. And, as a dad and a husband who's grown to appreciate faith and family even more than fitness now, I'm like, “Pinch me now I'm dreaming.” Now, the book's actually being shipped out and people are getting it and posting pictures of it. 

Lyle:  Are you getting some good feedback of people doing what's in the book and seeing immediate fruit with their children?

Ben:  Oh, yeah. I've had multiple parents write in several of them have children who are now in prison, a few others have kids who are addicted to sugar. No, I'm just kidding. I've gotten very little feedback so far about the book because I mean, as we're sitting here talking, people are literally just now posting on Instagram and stuff. But, the pre-reads I've gotten from people have been like, “Yes, there is no book that exists like this.” I basically crowdsource 33 different sets of parents from pastors to educators to epidemiologists to all these folks to get the best of the best wisdom and knowledge from as many people as I could and then put it all together in this cookbook for parenting.

Lyle:  Wow.

Ben:  Yeah.

Lyle:  I think the first parenting book of yours that I read was also a Kindle version, a digital version.

Ben:  A teeny tiny book I wrote.

Lyle:  Yes.

Ben:  When my sons were six, and so of course I had the whole parenting game figured out.

Lyle:  Figured out at six.

Ben:  Yeah. I had all figured out because the picture on the front is one of my sons swinging his kettlebell, his first kettlebell in the backyard, and it's all about how your kids should be barefoot and why you should let them lick the floor and get kissed by the dog and how to work out with your kids and how to arrange the house so they don't get exposed to dirty electricity and lighting for their optimized circadian. Basically, like how to biohack a superhuman kid.

Lyle:  Wow.

Ben:  Which is kind of like–

Lyle:  I got to go back and read it again.

Ben:  For the first probably eight years of my kid's life, I was pretty gung-ho like these are going to be a little 4:00 a.m. burpees and kettlebells, ice baths at 7:00, liver at the 8:00 for breakfast type of kids. And, I backed way off on that. I mean, we're pretty easy. I mean, we still do. For me, one of the best parts of my week, multiple times per week, that's this father-son bonding experience that I think is wonderful for adults and for children is we do breathwork, heat, cold.

Lyle:  Okay.

Ben:  So, we have a sauna and we get in the sauna. I jack it up at 5:30. We usually have our family dinner at 7:00.

Lyle:  Okay.

Ben:  And so, about 5:30, I'll walk out of my office in the basement, turn up the temp of the sauna, and then I call my sons down at 6:00 and we all climb in the sauna and it's already at 160 degrees and it's an infrared sauna. And, infrared sauna makes light that heats up your tissues way more deeply and effectively than a traditional dry sauna or steam sauna. I think infrared sauna, even though they consider it to be a bastardization of sauna culture if you'd ask somebody from Finland, saunas are really big and where all the research has been done on dry saunas, there's a lot happening in terms of the photons of light exciting your mitochondria and causing this deep release of toxins and metals that occurs when you're in infrared.

Lyle:  Okay.

Ben:  So, we're getting the infrared and we dive into about 20 to 40 minutes of breathwork. And, it's a lot of Wim Hof-style stuff. This is not like stick and breathe and dwell on your positive affirmation, this is very intense, I mean, to the point where right now we're training for free diving trips. We're doing a lot of exhale hold, inhale holds. 

So, we do 20 to 40 minutes. So, my sons are learning how to turn up or turn down the dial on their nervous system, control their physiology, control their stress, focus through something hard where you're not moving in a seated lotus position. And then, once we finish and we're drenched in sweating our heart rates are through the roof and our brains are just completely flooded with oxygen, we've blown off a bunch of CO2 and everybody's veins are dilated from all the nitric oxide going through their systems — these are my twin 14-year-old sons. Then, we march out this time of year through the snow barefoot, 50 yards out, to this little wooden shelter I have out in the forest back behind our house where we've got this giant cold. It's one of those old fitness swimming pools like the endless current that you swim against. But, I turned it into an icy cold plunge.

Lyle:  Amazing.

Ben:  So, we get in the plunge and we do the ice and then we go in get ready to have dinner.

Lyle:  Okay.

Ben:  And, it is amazing for any human being to incorporate heat and cold and breathwork. And so, of all the things that are in that tiny superhuman's book, the one thing that really stuck was we do heat, cold, and breathwork.

Lyle:  Incredible.

Ben:  You feel so good. It's almost addicting.

Lyle:  How young should we be doing this with our children? My son is 8.

Ben:  There's Scandinavian and Russian populations and even Native American lore of people literally from the time their kids are nearly newborn throwing them in icy cold rivers and lakes and oceans and getting that mammalian dive reflex that occurs when you take that sharp breath in when you're first born. Re-triggering that over and over again through a child's early years of life as we wait for the social workers to knock on the door of the church here.

Lyle:  Of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:16:57] _____ at this point.

Ben:  For all the hypothermic children. Basically, it's great for kids' immune system. It's great for a kid's nervous system and stress tolerance. It helps to convert their white adipose tissue into this metabolically active brown fat that keeps them warm and keeps their metabolisms elevated. I think it's fine for your kids to get started with cold as early as possible. I mean, with my kids when we take a shower, I'd put the water on cold. When I go swimming, they'd be on my back in the pool.

Lyle:  Yes.

Ben:  They've just always grown up with this notion that cold is not something to be feared that you can go outside during their homeschool but go outside during the school day and have your shirt off and be barefoot and be walking around the snow and that's perfectly fine and actually good for you.

Lyle:   That's amazing.

Ben:  I think that humans who embrace cold and who even live through winters versus all of you weaklings here in Tennessee freak out when ice develops in the windshield.

Lyle:  The whole city is blown up by the way. [00:17:18] ______. No one's doing anything.

Ben:  45-degree rain. Anyways though, so I think that winter and cold definitely has this resilience effect on the human body that's probably why you see the seals getting cold and hypothermic in the water. And, it's why you see the Russians doing their cold baths.

Lyle:  Yes.

Ben:  And, there's definitely something to it.

Lyle:  That's amazing, man. I know for me, anytime I've done cold like ice bath and I used to do it a lot more often than I do today. The effects of it, I mean, it's just huge. If you've never done it before, you have to do it.

Ben:  It's hard not to feel good when you get out of the ice bath or down the cold shower. And yeah, it sucks during. And, there are certain things you can do to alleviate some of the suckedness like breathwork beforehand. That's how Wim Hof got popular was he will do fully in, letting go, fully in, letting go. And, you do that for three to four rounds with each fully-in, letting go being 30 to 40 breaths. And, with each, you're taking a deep inhale, hold and then exhale, all the air out and you hold the exhale. And, each exhale gets longer and longer. 

And, when you do that you get this flood of nitric oxide and warmth and blood through your body that allows you to hold your breath longer, which you shouldn't be doing in cold water. You don't want to get shallow water blackout. But, it also causes your body to be able to handle the stress a little bit better. So, a lot of people will do breathwork and then get into the cold. That can make it easier. There are things that can accelerate your ability to be able to burn fat when you're doing cold like green tea is one example.

Lyle:  Okay.

Ben:  Berberine, a common supplement you can get at a health food store.

Lyle:  Okay.

Ben:  Caffeine can even accelerate it.

Lyle:  Sure.

Ben:  That's another one. Getting the head wet early on in the process, a lot of people keep their head dry.

Lyle:  Yeah.

Ben:  If you can get your head wet right away, it activates that Malian dive reflex I was talking about, triggering the main nerve that snakes through your body called the vagus nerve. And, the vagus nerve is responsible for turning up or turning down your nervous system. So, when you get your head wet when you first get in, what that does is it allows your vagus nerve to help you to calm yourself down a little bit better.

Lyle:  Okay.

Ben:  And then, there's what would be called a dorsal stressed out crouched over rolled up in a fetal position. Let's say you're in the bath drawing your knees up to your chest and putting your head down, that triggers the body's stress response. That's like the turtle mode versus lay back, put your head back luxuriously against the back of the tub or wherever else you're doing a cold soak, and open up your body. Or, if you're in the shower, open up your hands and your thumbs and turn your shoulders back. That pose sends a message to the body. It's almost more like a power pose.

Lyle:  Yeah.

Ben:  Hey, I'm in control. Things are just fine here.

Lyle:  I'm fine, this is good for me.

Ben:  Yeah.

Lyle:  I love this.

Ben:  Exactly. And then, finally, there's the people on TikTok or Instagram or whatever posting videos of them doing 10 minutes, 12 minutes, 15 minutes on these long ice soaks that intimidates a lot of people.

Lyle:  So, do you need to do that?

Ben:  No. You get benefits after 10 seconds in terms of dopamine response and the adrenaline and epinephrine response. For me, most of the time, it's two to a maximum of five minutes that I'll stay in the cold. I'm skinny and I don't like being that cold anyways, but you don't have to do these super long epic cold baths where you have your whole playlist pulled up and your family knows you're going to be in there an hour hog in the bathroom in the ice. These can be very quick cold shower after workout or do a breathwork session for 20 minutes in the sauna and then go jump in the cold for a couple minutes then get out. These brief bouts of cold are just fine.

Lyle:  I love that. I love that. So, if somebody doesn't have an ice plunge, for instance, because I would love to have one and every time I get on Instagram or I go to websites to look, even these plastic barrels they're trying to sell for $799–

Ben:  Yeah, yeah, overpriced cattle troughs.

Lyle:  Yeah. What is happening with that? Do you just use your regular cold water in your shower because that doesn't seem cold enough for me?

Ben:  What research has shown is that 55 degrees or colder gives you an effect.

Lyle:  Okay.

Ben:  It depends where you live, how cold the water will get, but they actually make–I forget the brand, but you can look it up. Probably the Google term would be cold thermogenesis shower or something like that. They make shower heads that will cool the water as it comes out of the shower.

Lyle:  Okay.

Ben:  It's like a little chiller system on the shower head.

Lyle:  Yes.

Ben:  And, I think that's 70, 80 bucks. That would allow you to take a super cold shower.

Lyle:  Okay.

Ben:  The other hack is you can just go to the feed store and get a cattle trough for a fraction of the cost of these big tubs.

Lyle:  That's what I have.

Ben:  Yeah. And, you just fill that with water and drop by the gas station, grab some ice every now and again and keep it cold. 

Lyle:  You get one for 100 bucks, by the way.

Ben:  Yeah.

Lyle:  Tractor Supply.

Ben:  Yeah, exactly. And, it doesn't have to be that cold. I mean, if you put ice in and it's the fall or the winter, it's going to stay below 55 easily.

Lyle:  Yeah.

Ben:  And then, there's these nice biohacked systems like the Morozko and the cold plunge and the cold tub. And, a lot of these have actual chiller systems and ozone cleaning systems and all these fancy bells and whistles. And yeah, in the middle of the summer, it's 100 degrees out knowing there's something on your backyard that's going to stay at 33 degrees no matter what, it's nice, but it is expensive.

The other thing you want to remember is if you have one of those cattle troughs that you fill up with water and ice, it can get dirty. And, the trick for that if you don't want to constantly be changed out the water is every time you do it, just put a couple of tablespoons of hydrogen peroxide in.

Lyle:  Okay.

Ben:  And, it's easier on your body than chlorine, easily cleans the water if you have some funky friend who's getting in there too or I don't know, you're just concerned from a hygienic standpoint, that hydrogen peroxide is a good hack.

Lyle:  That'll do it.

Ben:  Yeah.

Lyle:  Okay. So, the reason why I got into ice baths, to be honest, was probably from watching you, watching Joe Rogan, watching other people who talk about it all the time for the mental benefits of it.

Ben:  Yeah.

Lyle:  So, as a pastor, for me, I'm constantly trying to figure out how to biohack my creativity. I think that's how I found you because back in, let's see, when my wife and I are first got married 2013, 2014, I started watching CrossFit videos on YouTube because I was trying to figure out how do I increase my creativity quotient. I'm always writing. I'm always preparing–

Ben:  By keeping pull-ups and cleaning jerks.

Lyle:  It didn't work as well as I expected, Ben.

Ben:  Yeah.

Lyle:  But, I think that's how I found you.

So, I'm wondering aside from ice baths, is it really possible to hijack our creativity?

Ben:  Yes.

Lyle:  Okay. How do you do that? Is there sort of some simple ways, small to big spectrum?

Ben:  Yeah. The so-called Limitless drug for pastors.

Lyle:  Yes, we need this.

Ben:  Yes, the Bradley Cooper of Christ's Kingdom.

Lyle:  Yeah, #Goals.

Ben:  Okay. Yeah. I mean, you could put this into a few different categories when it comes to creativity.

Lyle:  Okay.

Ben:  You can shift the brain into certain brainwave states, particularly an alpha brainwave state that would enhance creativity using external variables.

Lyle:  Okay.

Ben:  Namely temperature, regulation, another one would be light and sound. Those are probably the top three.

Lyle:  Okay.

Ben:  Temperature regulation, we already discussed. If you are listening and can implement that cold shower, cold bath regularly scheduled cold thermogenesis into your routine, you're automatically going to be able to shift your nervous system more into that alpha brain waves.

Lyle:  Before or after I go to write?

Ben:  You would do it before. Ideally, this would be at the beginning of the day.  If you can do sauna cold breathwork at the beginning of the day, you're hitting three different variables that are all going to not only decrease stress but enhance creativity and also a side benefit–

Lyle:  [00:26:03] _____ protocol right now with–

Ben:  Increased longevity. Yeah. So, sauna, cold, breathwork in the morning. It doesn't be a long session but it could. And, if you don't have a sauna, it's okay to sit on your living room floor do a 20-minute breathwork session, and then get in the cold. My one complaint and just slight rabbit hole here with a lot of these breathwork apps is they're very new agey woo-woo secular or whatever. It's either empty-headed meditation and in scripture, we're called to meditate upon God's word and not just to empty our heads and allow whatever other entity might be in the room to take us over, which can happen sometimes with meditation. There's actually a great new book that just came out about this called “The Enlightenment Trap.”

Lyle:  No way.

Ben:  A lot of people are dying and getting being possessed during meditation. A big part of that is they're not meditating on scripture or in God's word–

Lyle:  It's a Christian book?

Ben:  No, it's written by Scott Carney.

Lyle:  So, it's written by a non-Christian.

Ben:  Yeah. It's just about the dark side of new age and enlightenment and meditation. It's a good book.

Lyle:  Wow. Not to get distracted–

Ben:  It just came out. I might have gotten an advanced copy, but it's very, very interesting. It's about people who are kind of getting messed up from. And, of course, we know that can happen with things like Ayahuasca and psilocybin and this whole plant medicine surge, but it can even occur with meditation as well.

Now, back to the issue with a lot of these breathwork apps that are all just positive self-affirmation, empty your head, embrace the source, or whatever. There's really not a whole lot that goes on during the breathwork session that's uplifting from a spiritual sense. And, my logic is if you're going to be sitting there for 20 minutes, in addition to your breath, you might as well be focusing on something else. My trick for this initially once I taught myself several different breathwork tactics like slow count in for four, hold for two, out for eight, or in for four, hold for four, out for four, hold for four.

Lyle:  Box breathing.

Ben:  Yeah, box breathing or the Wim Hof-style tactics was just to play soaking worship or some non-lyrical uplifting almost like Christian music without lyrics kind of.

Lyle:  Legacy [00:28:08] _____.

Ben:  Yeah. Anybody's listening to soaking music. What's it called?

Lyle:  We did a soaking album.

Ben:  Oh, I didn't know.

Lyle:  Each track is one hour long. So, if you want to pray for an hour, then you can play one track. It's got four tracks, four hours for the album.

Ben:  Yeah. And, just so you know, I'll go back to my hotel room after this. I'm working on a cookbook right now.

Lyle:  Yeah.

Ben:  And, I've got a dinner tonight at 6:30. I'll probably get back to my hotel room at 1:30, so I can embrace the brain fog in the afternoon, and in my hotel room with beds 5 feet away, I crawl in there and take a little nap.

Lyle:  Yup.

Ben:  I will get back to my hotel room, I'll sit on the floor of my hotel room, I'll do 20 minutes of breathwork, I'll take a cold shower and then I'll jump into the cookbooks. So, this is what I'll be doing this afternoon.

Lyle:  Yeah.

Ben:  But, you can either do music that's more uplifting or let's say you don't know what to do for breathwork, you don't know when to breathe in, when to breathe out, when to do the holds, et cetera. My logic starting a couple months ago was, why isn't there a Christian breath workout? There's some of the Orthodox breath as prayer like the Jesus prayer.

Lyle:  Yeah, yeah.

Ben:  Breathe in. What do they say? Smell the flowers, blow up the candles. So, that's how you would do breath as prayer. You smell the flowers, blow out the candle, so it's in through the nose, out through slightly pursed lips. And, there's a variety of different breath prayers. There's even a whole book called “Breath as Prayer,” which I think is fantastic that's got about 25 different sections of scripture that can be used for breath as prayer. But, the earliest one practiced by the early desert fathers and mothers was breathe in, “Oh, Jesus Son of God,” breathe out, “Have mercy on my soul.”

Lyle:  Wow.

Ben:  Right. And, that's a very, very simple breathwork routine where it's literally just for 10 minutes, breathe in, “Oh, Jesus Son of God,” breathe out, “Have mercy on my soul.”

Lyle:  Wow.

Ben:  But, what I thought was, well, gosh, there's so much more that you could do with breathwork just because it does shift you into almost this receptive spiritual state. Yeah, you don't have to use breathwork and biohacks to get close to God, but it is kind of cool that you can tweak brain waves in a way that opens you up spiritually, especially for conversations with God.

Lyle:  Yeah, absolutely.

Ben:  Or, to listen to his voice in the silence. I can hear God's voice in the still small silence, yes. I can hear God's voice in the still small silence 90 seconds into an exhale hold during breathwork even better, which sounds kind of gimmicky, but it just is. God gave us breath and there are certain ways that we can use our breath to enhance our ability to be spiritual.

Lyle:  Absolutely. I do it before I get on stage on Sunday.

Ben:  Yeah.

Lyle:  So, I'm standing backstage, I'm preparing to go up to preach. And, tell me if I'm doing something wrong, I'm doing the–

Ben:  Yeah. No, that's perfect. That's that Wim Hof style breathwork that not only gives you confidence and swagger, senior preachers —

Lyle:  Let's go. Yes, sir.

Ben:  But, also the rush of oxygen to the brain that can help with your focus and the blowing off of the CO2 which can help you to manage anxiety. So, yes, there's something to that. If you are super wired up, you'd want to do inhales and long exhales. If you're nervous, but normally, yeah, breathing yourself up, especially if you're confident, familiar with your congregation, you want to be a little bit more excited than so nervous about all these people you're going to go out and preach to. And, I don't know if preachers use the same tactic as a lot of public speakers imagining everyone in the congregation naked.

Lyle:  I've never met one that did.

Ben:  I'm guessing that's not something that's done although it was a tip I was giving away. So, two craziest tips I've been given for public speaking and then I'll get back to the breathwork was imagine everybody out there is naked so that you think that they're just as nervous as you might be. And then, I met this other guy who puts food in his undershorts before he goes out on stage.

Lyle:  No way.

Ben:  And, he's a very well-known great speaker who I heard give a talk about how to give an effective speech and he'll just be like, yeah, I'll drop a few raisins down there or a little bit of leftovers from lunch. And, he said, it's hard to feel uptight and nervous when you have food in your underwear.

Lyle:  No way.

Ben:  And, I'm totally not joking. I never tried it, but this guy [00:32:21] _____ gives you a little bit of food in your underwear.

Lyle:  Just drop a casserole.

Ben:  Granola bars, casserole.

Lyle:  Wow.

Ben:  Yeah, a little green beans.

Lyle:  Dude, I've never heard of that.

Ben:  Yeah, neither did I until I hear that. So anyways, what I decided to do a couple months ago was start to record breathwork apps or breathwork sessions that would be, for example, the fruits of the Holy Spirit from Galatians. And, that's the opening verse and then three minutes of box breathing where you're dwelling upon that verse that's repeated a couple of times. And, I've already have these in a bunch of audio sessions I'm going to release in an app soon.

Lyle:  Amazing.

Ben:  And then, move into your intense breathwork for two minutes. And, on the inhale, you imagine breathing up all the fruits of the Holy Spirit. On the exhale, you exhale, hold, and it's all choreographed music and everything and just listen and pray.

Lyle:  Come on.

Ben:  And then, you do another round. Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out, full inhale, breathe in the fruits of the Holy Spirit, full exhale, pray.

Lyle:  Incredible.

Ben:  And so, you do three rounds of that and then finish with another three minutes of box breathing and then a final Lord's prayer. And, my idea, I mean obviously the Bible's a big book, right?

Lyle:  Yes, yes.

Ben:  I already have 30 different breathwork sessions mapped out on a Google Doc on my computer that I just need more time in the day to be able to record. But, that's my goal is for Christians to be able to not have to own some kind of a new agey woo-woo app to be able to do breathwork and furthermore to come closer to the Creator and be able to enter into prayer in a deeper state through breathwork.

Lyle:  This is incredible, bro. You're revolutionary for this. Thank you for doing this.

Ben:  Yeah. I've seen a need for it for a long time. And, some of the sessions will just be super short. Some of the sessions will be box breathing, 10 minutes of, well, “Oh, Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on my soul,” pray, done. And then, others will be a lot more epic and uplifting. And, the first one I did is 35 minutes long.

Lyle:  I can't wait to try this out.

Ben:  Yeah. And so, back to your question about creativity.

Lyle:  Yeah.

Ben:  Heat, cold, and breathwork, now that I've kicked those horses to death, I think about as much as I can, would be where to start. But then, you've also, like I mentioned, got light and sound.

Lyle:  Okay.

Ben:  Light and sound. So, the body can respond to photons of light. I mentioned when I was talking about the sauna how light is able to do things like excite the mitochondria, the powerhouses of your cell. It's able to, when you see natural sunlight first thing in the morning to be able to stimulate that cortisol awakening response that helps you to feel awake and alert. An illustrative example of that would be when I travel to help me sleep, I use high doses of melatonin.

Lyle:  Okay.

Ben:  And, I'll say if I could show you my sleep scores here in Nashville, I'm sleeping eight and a half hours a night, perfect sleep scores. And, a lot of that's due to the melatonin that I take before I go to bed at night, large amount and it works–

Lyle:  When you say large amount, what do you mean? You talking about over 5 milligrams?

Ben:  I use a 300-milligram melatonin suppository.

Lyle:  300 milligrams, Ben?

Ben:  I get it from my friend in Sarasota, Florida. He's a doctor, Dr. John Lieurance.

Lyle:  Wow.

Ben:  He has a company called MitoZen. And, normally that amount of melatonin would not be absorbed well orally and would result in a large peak followed by a drop that wakes you up. By using the rectal delivery mechanisms, you just slow release the melatonin all night long. You wake up and the problem is you're groggy because the melatonin is still in your system.

Lyle:  Sure.

Ben:  So, I'll walk over to my hotel room window, I pull open the curtains, the sunlight comes in, hits my eyes. Within five minutes, I'm fine. As a matter of fact, if you take melatonin in the middle of the day, it won't make you sleepy if you're out in the light because the light shuts down that melatonin response.

Lyle:  No kidding.

Ben:  So anyways, the reason I'm telling you this is that some form of light can be very stimulating for creativity and productivity. The two best kinds are red light delivered either intranasally or intracranially and the same type of bright blue-greenish spectrum from sunlight.

Lyle:  Okay.

Ben:  Now, you could get all of that by just going out in the sunlight every morning before you start into your creative work.

Lyle:  Got it.

Ben:  You could also, as an alternative to, if you got to be indoors or in addition to that, get two different kind of biohacking type of devices.

Lyle:  Okay.

Ben:  One is called a Vielight. It's an infrared almost like a helmet that you put on that blasts your entire skull with infrared light. I do this 20 minutes in the morning and it's a cup of coffee for my brain. And, there's a little probe attachment that goes up your nose. They originally developed this for Alzheimer's and dementia.

Lyle:  Okay.

Ben:  But, it works fantastically for overall brain health.

Lyle:  So, you've got a helmet on.

Ben:  It's kind of like a full-on helmet but a bunch of lights that just get–

Lyle: Breathwork at the same time?

Ben:  No, this is just first 20 minutes of writing for the day. That's what's on my head.

Lyle:  Alright, got it.

Ben:  And, if you close your eyes, you can kind of sort of feel this little buzzing hurt sensation.

Lyle:  Okay.

Ben:  But, you barely notice that it's on besides the fact that all of a sudden just everything starts to go clear.

Lyle:  Wow.

Ben:  So, that's the first way that you could use light in addition to this natural sunlight.

The second way is that the brain shifts into this gamma brainwave signal hyper-creative, hyper-focused mode at about a 40 Hertz signal.

Lyle:  Okay.

Ben:  And, there's another company that makes a light, very similar to the light boxes that they sell for seasonal affective disorder such as you would put on your desk during the gray and dreary times–

Lyle:  Yup, I'm aware of those. Some of my friends suffer with seasonal depression. So, they'll put that–

Ben:  Yeah, yeah, and that works fantastically.

Lyle:  So, you could do that while you're writing a sermon for instance.

Ben:  Yeah. But, there's one company called, I think it's Evy, Y. I have one of these. I've had it for a couple of years now. It works really well. You press one button on it and it's like those seasonal effective disorder boxes but it specifically creates the hurt signal designed for creativity, focus.

Lyle:  Okay, okay.

Ben:  And so, that is on my office desk. And, usually what I do, my first 20 minutes of writing for the day, I pull on the infrared light. I push that button, so basically I'm getting this 40 Hertz signal of bright light from my desk and then the infrared light over my head.

Lyle:  Wow.

Ben:  A lot of people don't realize how effective light is at shifting your brainwave state.

The other one would be sound, like I mentioned. So, we've got breathwork, heat, cold, light, and then sound. You've probably heard of these apps that will produce binaural beats to help you sleep based on hypothesis that if you blast the left ear with 405 Hertz and the right ear with 395 Hertz, the delta on those is 10 Hertz so you chip yourself into a 10 Hertz alpha brainwave zone.

Lyle:  Interesting. I've done this on YouTube. So, I'll put the headphones on during the [00:39:17] _____

Ben:  Yeah. And, most of these are designed to be done with headphones.

Lyle:  Okay.

Ben:  That's the mistake a lot of people make is unless you have, I guess, surround sound speakers, we have a perfectly placed speaker on the left side of the desk and one on the right side of the desk. Headphones are best. And so, some of these tracks or binaural beats are designed specifically to enhance creativity and focus and put you in kind of that 10 Hertz all the way up to 40 Hertz brainwave zone that would allow you to have enhanced creativity.

Lyle:  Okay.

Ben:  I think the best one out there, I don't think it's even that expensive, is called Brain.fm.

Lyle:  Brain.fm.

Ben:  Brain.fm is designed and it's got creativity, it's got focus, it's got meditation, it's got sleep, four different settings on it. That one works really well for anybody who likes to listen to external sounds to enhance creativity or focus. And, if you have headphones, particularly, that works really well.

Earlier this year, I made a pretty big statement, I think, that when it comes to NAD, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, this molecule with great cellular protective and anti-aging properties, when it comes to the bioavailability of it, I think that nothing beats, from what I've seen, NAD3, a version of NAD that's very bioavailable, difficult to find, but there's a new product that has added other proven longevity compounds namely spermidine, niacinamide, and resveratrol to the NAD3 making it the most complete and efficacious NAD supplement that I think exists anywhere and it's called BioStack NAD Regen made by BioStack Labs, NAD Regen like regeneration.

Now, this is pretty impressive stuff. I'm popping three every morning right now. I'm also taking their Cell Shield. So, those two in combination give an enormous age reversal longevity anti-aging punch. When you get a three-month supply of this stuff, they're going to send you a fourth bottle totally free. So, you're getting a bottle completely free. You go to BioStackLabs.com/Ben, BioStack, B-I-O-S-T-A-C-K-Labs.com/Ben if you want to try this stuff out. So again, it's called NAD Regen.

Lucy. Probably saw that smart drug movie called Lucy, was like that other one called Limitless. Well, there actually is kind of sort of the equivalent of the smart drug and it's called Lucy. It's an oral nicotine company, a modern oral nicotine company that makes nicotine gum and lozenges and pouches for folks who want the best most responsible way to consume their nicotine. It's an adult product. You pop one. You get focus. You get clarity. You get better word recall. And, they taste amazing and they aren't chock full of Franken fuels like a lot of these gums out there are. So, the lozenges, I think like the cherry ice one is amazing. I really like the pomegranate gum. Those are probably my two top flavors. I use them in moderation as you should too because this product does contain nicotine and nicotine is an addictive chemical. But, if you want to experiment with how you feel on nicotine, one of the old school nootropic brain-enhancing compounds that's out there, you want to do so without doing things like, I don't know, smoking, you should check out Lucy's products. So, you go to lucy.co, Lucy, L-U-C-Y.co. And, you can use promo code BEN20, BEN20. Use promo code BEN20 at checkout at lucy.co. And, you're going to get a big discount. So, check them out, nicotine gum, nicotine lozenges, nicotine pouches, but clean ones. So, lucy.co and use code Ben20.

Alright, folks. It's coming up. It's right around the corner. It's the Health Optimisation Summit. Me and my entire family are headed to London for this thing and it is crazy, amazing. It's this massive expo full of the best biohacks.

You get to be ahead of the curve and see this stuff before it even hits the streets. You get entrance and access to all stages and breakout talks by an amazing variety of speakers. They've got 35 world-class forward-thinking speakers from the biohacking nutrition longevity fitness functional and preventive medicine fields. They've got next-level exhibitors and workshops, amazing VIP experiences with parties, with gadgets, with refreshments, with priorities, seating with upgraded goodie bags, and the list of speakers at this event is crazy. So, it's happening June 17th and 18th this year.

So, it's coming up quick. Jim Kwik, Vishen Lakhiani, Mimi Ikonn, my friend and dentist and former podcast guest Dr. Dominic, Dr. Jolene Brighten, Dr. Mark Atkinson, Kris Gethin, Dr. Christopher Shade, the list goes on and on. Some of the best of the best speakers, the coolest crowd and the exhibition for is absolutely mind-blowingly amazing. Plus, London is fun, great restaurants, cool people, and it's a party.

So, if you want to go to this year's Health Optimisation Summit, here's how to get in with a discount that's going to give you 10% off of all the regular and the VIP tickets. So again, it's June 17th and 18th. So, the Business Design Centre in London. And, here's your code, BenGreenfieldLife.com/HOS23. That's BenGreenfieldLife.com/HOS23. Use the code BENGREENFIELD for 10% off both regular and VIP tickets. That's BENGREENFIELD for 10% off regular and VIP tickets. Enjoy.

Lyle:  I'm really fascinated by this and I'll tell you why. So, long before we met, and I was mentioning this to you earlier before we started going live, aniracetam, which most people wouldn't have a clue what that is, but when nootropics kind of came on the scene and became more popular at least from my perspective, stuff like that I was thinking about–

Ben:  Pretty effective nootropic, right?

Lyle:  Yeah. Should I get it? But, here's the thing, Ben, and tell me what you think, it's like there was a certain level, I don't know if I should say conviction or because it was personal conviction or it was Holy Spirit conviction. I was like, “I don't know. Is this right? Is this using drugs?” So, I just never tried it.

Ben:  Right.

Lyle:  What do you think about that in that sense?

Ben:  Okay. Big can of worms that you just opened up. So, first of all, there's a few different directions that I could go with this. I want to make sure that I do have a chance to tell you from a dietary and a supplement standpoint what would actually be effective and safe to enhance creativity or whatever, flown to Tokyo and you got to give a sermon and you got there at 2:00 a.m. and the sermon's at 8:00 and what do I do? So, let's address the ethical piece first.

Lyle:  Okay.

Ben:  Is there any evidence in scripture that shifting one's state of focus or creativity is a sin or is abusing the temple or is pulling others into sin causing your brother or your sister to stumble? I can't say that I'm aware of anything in scripture that forbids that especially provided that there's no long-term physiological damage that occurs.

Lyle:  Sure, because you're not drunk.

Ben:  The type of drug use–well, the Bible specifically separates–

Lyle:  Yeah, go ahead. I think I know where you're going.

Ben:  Sobriety from drug use for a specific reason for most of human history all the way up to present times if you actually do the digging, drugs were used for the purpose of divining with the spirit world.

Lyle:  Right. Yes.

Ben:  And, this is the definition of pharmakeia using drugs to divine with the spirit world.

Lyle:  Yes.

Ben:  So, when I step back and a lot of people hear pharmakeia and they're like, “Oh, pharmaceutical companies, evil conspiracy theory.” Pfizer is, whatever. Goat horns and devils in the basement. That's not the case, they're a drug company trying to help people and making some dumb profit-driven mistakes along the way. But, I don't consider that to be the forbidden pharmakeia that's in the Bible.

Lyle:  Sure, sure.

Ben:  So, the reason that divination through the use of drugs, this so-called pharmakeia in the Bible is forbidden is because it is incredibly effective. If you've actually used ayahuasca or psilocybin or anything like this in a set and setting that's not a rave or a club or some party scene but with the intention to actually do things like ask Big G God or little g god for answers or perhaps see what kind of entities happen to be in the room with you at the time or be able to dialogue with someone from a distance who also happens to be on that same drug or if you're in the Amazon. I just interviewed a shaman in the Amazon about this.

Lyle:  I listened to it.

Ben:  Go to battle with another shaman under the influence of something like ayahuasca.

Lyle:  That is crazy, bro.

Ben:  It's totally crazy.

Lyle:  That's crazy to think.

Ben:  But, we don't live in a logical rational materialistic scientifically proven world. We live in a world created by a spirit, by a God, by a deity, and there is magic and there are miracles, and there is an entire Frank Peretti novel-esque spiritual world that exists all around us.

Lyle:  “This Present Darkness,” is that what it's called?

Ben:  “This Present Darkness,” “Piercing the Darkness,” two examples or any of the modern work on the Nephilim or unseen realms.

Lyle:  Yup. Are you into that? Michael Heiser's books?

Ben:  I wouldn't say I'm into it, but I do find the whole idea fascinating. He was actually having a discussion at the music studio last night about, “You realize like this stuff was given to us by the gods like knowledge of music, knowledge of metallurgy, knowledge of instrumentation design, knowledge of makeup application.” If you read in the Bible, this stuff was handed to us by the spirit world. We didn't come up with this on our own. So, it is fascinating, but–

Lyle:  We're going deep now, bro.

Ben:  Yeah, yeah. We're getting away from creativity a little bit. But, back to aniracetam, so the Bible separates drug use and pharmakeia from the use of alcohol because while a red nose alcoholic who is violating the laws of sobriety and temperance that were prudently laid down in particularly the Old Testament to allow for better societal stability in the same way that monogamy allows for better societal stability, well, I think that is sound advice but I don't see that the town drunk is having an issue with demon possession or speaking to gods and other entities. 

And, I actually think that pharmakeia, especially the modern infatuation with it, and the fact that it's been placed upon a pedestal is the path to spiritual enlightenment is a very, very dangerous world indeed. However, I would separate both of those whether we're talking about alcoholism and lack of sobriety and whether we're talking about pharmakeia from the use of compounds or substances that enhances one's physiology or ability to focus because I realize that this is a little bit of a slippery slope fallacy, but there are foods that can shift your brainwave state to enhance creativity drugs aside.

Lyle:  Yeah.

Ben:  This is kind of interesting because there's this whole idea in nutrition science of the doctrine of signatures, certain things that look like other things in nature can be good for certain goals. For example, in this case, a walnut looks like a tiny brain.

Lyle:  Like a brain.

Ben:  Well, a walnut is chock full of choline that actually can assist with brain performance.

Lyle:  Interesting.

Ben:  Eggs. You crack them open in a pan, they look like eyes. Turns out some of the components and nutrients in eggs are good for eyesight. The sweet potato is kind of shaped like a pancreas and it turns out that a sweet potato is actually pretty good for blood glucose management and insulin production. The list could go on and on all the way down to this fascinating plant called strophanthin, which actually looks like a heart with a bunch of little tendrils and veins coming out of it. And, it's called the insulin of the heart and is used by a bunch of functional medicine docs as something that allows someone to recover from a heart attack by regrowing the vessels in the heart.

Lyle:  Should we take that preventatively?

Ben:  I'm not knowledgeable enough on it to know if it would work preventively. I know for people who have had cardiovascular attacks, it's something. I interviewed Dr. Thomas Cowan, author of a book called “Human Heart, Cosmic Heart” if you want to dig into that.

Lyle:  Interesting, sure.

Ben:  So anyways, God gave us all sorts of things on this planet that can be used to enhance our ability to be able to focus and engage in creativity including in ancient times using mortar and pestle and oil extracts and alcohol extracts, et cetera, the ability to be able to concentrate the components of these plants or even synthetically create molecules that are like them to enhance creativity or focus.

Lyle:  Okay.

Ben:  So, coffee would be an example, green tea would be an example, nicotine from the tobacco plant would be an example. All of these things when used moderately and responsibly and not in a way that would that would harm your temple, I'm totally fine with.

Lyle:  Like choosing a piece of nicotine gum, I've heard, I haven't tried it, can help you with creativity.

Ben:  It can help you with creativity. It can help you with focus. And then, if you want to get into the nitty-gritty of all that, you could also say, well, for me to be fully present for my family and my congregation, I need to make sure that my gut and my poops and bloating and constipation all that is in order as well.

Lyle:  Yes.

Ben:  And so, then you just have to make a wise and prudent decision because most nicotine delivery products are chock full of artificial sweeteners and fermentable compounds and things that would affect the gut. So, you got to dig in and equalize. There are some companies like Lucy, for example, that make nicotine gum that has less of the artificial sweeteners in it. You can even import from the Amazon like the snortable nicotine compound Rapé, you can just spray it up your nose and get a similar effect.

Lyle:  Wow. Okay.

Ben:  So, yeah, there are workarounds with a lot of this stuff, but to cut straight to the chase, the problem is that you have to know what you're doing because you can drain the brain. Aniracetam, you brought up for example, speeds up the brain like a gas pedal and allows you to just go, go, go for a few hours. Problem is it also depletes that nutrient that I mentioned is found in walnuts, choline. And so, you're driving the car a million miles an hour, you run a gas intake, you crash and you feel crappy. So, you would have to pair aniracetam with choline to be able to actually operate. 

And so, because of that, rather than cowboying your way around random pharmaceutical websites and ordering something because you heard it could enhance creativity, I'm a bigger fan of done-for-you formulations that are very, very similar to just over-the-counter supplements or things you can buy on Amazon that go beyond just the fringe underground biohacking industry stuff that you buy in the dark corners of the internet.

Lyle:  Yeah.

Ben:  So, I think some of the better-formulated mixes or blends out there even though I'm sure that several of these companies advertise on my podcast in the past, et cetera, I've got no financial affiliation by mentioning any of these. One would be ONNIT makes one called Alpha Brain.

Lyle:  Yes, I've heard of this.

Ben:  That one is well-formulated. One that I particularly liked that I use a lot is called Qualia. Qualia is made by a company called Neurohacker Collective and they make a product called Mind.

Lyle:  Okay.

Ben:  I like the Caffeine Free Mind mostly because I also like to have a cup of coffee in the morning and I don't like to over-caffeinate myself.

Lyle:  Yeah.

Ben:  So, that would be another good done-for-you blend. And then, if I could name one more, there's a company and this one I'm probably most impressed with, a company called Nootopia, N-O-O-T-O-P-A.

Lyle:  Okay.

Ben:  You go to their website, you fill out a questionnaire. Am I easily distracted? Do I struggle with sleep? Do I sleep too much? Do I feel demotivated? Do I feel excessively motivated? It's basically a questionnaire that allows them to determine what your specific neurotransmitter imbalances would be. They then custom-design a box. It's not inexpensive. I think it's about $400 or so for a month's supply. Frankly, most of the people I know including myself who will get something like that will take closer to two to three months to go through it because it's not like I'm popping smart drugs every day, but on those more cognitively demanding days.

Lyle:  Yes.

Ben:  And so, Nootopia, Qualia Mind, or Alpha Brain would be three examples of supplements that would allow you to get the creativity without risking the idea that you might be depleting something or robbing Peter to pay Paul. 

And then, if you're looking for something that is a little bit friendlier to the pocketbook because supplements are expensive, the old school writer's friend of cup of coffee and cigarette, you replicate that with cup of coffee. What you do, and this is a relatively inexpensive supplement, is you get the supplement called l-theanine.

Lyle:  Okay. Yeah, I've heard of this.

Ben:  It's a powder you can find anywhere about 100 milligrams paired with a cup of coffee, causes the coffee to have a longer slow bleed into the system, and l-theanine shifts you into alpha brainwave mode to enhance creativity. And, it's just a cheap hack for a cup of coffee. And yes, even though you wouldn't necessarily want to smoke a cigarette back to the temple, you can use sources of nicotine that wouldn't really have many of the artificial sweeteners or anything in them at all. I think the best one for that is they make nicotine toothpicks. So, you can literally have a nicotine toothpick, a cigarette, stick it out of your mouth, a cup of coffee with little l-theanine in it. And, that's a dirt-cheap hack a lot of people don't know about. That'll get you through hours upon hours of writing. Maybe not as fun and sexy and colorful as some of these pills and stuff. 

And then, the last thing that I would throw in there, last two things I would throw in there. First of all from a dietary standpoint, the more you can consume slow-burning logs versus fast-burning kindling as your fuel, the better. Carbohydrates, starches, processed foods, soft foods, drinkable foods, et cetera, those would all be fast-burning kindling with a steep rise in energy followed by a sharp drop that would best be paired before, during or after a workout if you're going to use that stuff at any time during the day.

Lyle:  Okay, okay.

Ben:  A state of ketosis accomplished with strategies such as fasting, carbohydrate restriction, higher intake of healthy Mediterranean-style fats, putting a little bit of coconut oil or MCT oil in your coffee or even these newer drinkable ketones that shift you into that steak very readily can give you a good long slow bleed of energy that keeps you going all day long. So, looking into ketosis, particularly not the style of what would be called dirty ketosis where people are doing sticks of butter and coconut oil energy bars and pooping out giant logs of grease. But, basically more ketosis like Mediterranean high healthy fats, fish oil, fatty cut of salmon, maybe a little bit of– 

Lyle:  Blue Zones Diet.

Ben:  Yeah, almost like a low-carb Blue Zone-style diet.

Lyle:  Okay, got it.

Ben:  That's a healthier approach to ketosis.

Lyle:  Got it. I had MCT that you gave me this morning.

Ben:  Yeah, yeah, MCT oil. That'll converted. Yeah, that's great stuff. I forgot about that. Yeah, you can put that in a little bit of coffee. So, ketosis and particularly a vegetable plant-rich form of ketosis is a good hack for the dietary component of focus and creativity. And then, finally, every once in a while, you need the big guns. You need the, “Oh, I am in book writing phase and I'm on deadline three weeks, I'm going to be sleeping four hours a night and taking care of the kids and making sure I take my wife on a Friday night date and preaching and delivering a sermon.” This is a phase where I need the big guns or like I mentioned earlier, “I'm flying to Tokyo. I get at 2:00 a.m. I got to deliver a sermon or a speech at 8:00 a.m. and freaking l-theanine in my coffee is not going to do the trick.”

Lyle:  Yeah.

Ben:  There's one, and I would consider this to be a smart drug you'd only want to use in moderation to ensure that you don't build up tolerance to it is called modafinil.

Lyle:  Okay. Yeah, I've heard of this.

Ben:  Modafinil was the inspiration for the movie “Limitless.” 

Lyle:  Yeah, yeah, yeah, develop for people with narcolepsy and then Olympians started using it.

Ben: Off-label anti-narcoleptic drug also goes by the name Provigil.

Lyle:  Okay. I've never tried this.

Ben:  Yeah, yeah. And so, usually, a pill of that comes as about 200 milligrams. 

Lyle:  Okay.

Ben:  One pill would give you hyper productivity for about 24 hours.

Lyle:  Got it.

Ben:  Half a pill about 12 hours.

Lyle:  Okay.

Ben:  What you need to realize though is that the mechanism of actions that it floods the cell receptors with dopamine and serotonin. So, everything feels rewarding, particularly work checklists and tasks.

Lyle:  Okay.

Ben:  And, you'll just go and some people find that it makes them irritable and impersonable. Meaning with your family, you might be like, “Get out of the way, Dad's got to work.”

Lyle:  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ben:  And so, that can be an issue. The other issue is that anything that floods the cell receptors long term with dopamine, you've probably seen these new books like “Dopamine Nation” or people shutting down the dopamines on their phones by switching them to grayscale. The reason for that is that anytime the cells get flooded with dopamine, it builds up more receptors for dopamine on the cell surface and you need more and more dopamine to feel good. So, if you were to start to take modafinil, I feel great, I'm going to take this every day, and then you run out or you decide not to take it for a week, you feel kind of flat because nothing feels good. Sex doesn't feel as good. Rib-eye steak isn't as good. Taking your kids to the beach doesn't feel as good because you don't have all that dopamine in your system.

Lyle:  Yeah, yeah.

Ben:  Even though I'm mentioning that as a good strategy, this would be big guns. I'm using this for this one day or this one-week hard stint of work.

Lyle:  12-hour stretch or three-day stretch. That's max. That's it. It's over.

Ben:  Yeah. So, in summary, you have your natural mechanisms for creativity; light, sound, cold, breathwork. You have your nutrients, things like choline, fatty acids, ketones, low carbohydrate diet. You have your done-for-you formulations like Qualia Mind or ONNIT Alpha Brain or Nootopia company with the cheap hack being the theanine, caffeine, nicotine, and then your big guns something like modafinil. And, that would give you a pretty good toolbox.

Lyle:  Okay, this is incredible, man.

Ben:  Yeah.

Lyle:  I have two more questions for you because I know we're just about out of time. One is more health-related as it pertains to pastors and the other is just personal.

Ben:  Okay.

Lyle:  On the health front, a lot of my friends that are pastors, we don't always take the best care of ourselves. Pastors don't. I think a lot of people anticipate that, they see that, a lot of pastors are overweight, they're unhealthy.

Ben:  Too much marshmallow salad at the church potluck.

Lyle:  Yeah, unfortunately. We're very sedentary. I mean, we sit around. The only time you see us active is pulpit time–

Ben:  I don't know. I've seen you run a half marathon on stage last time I was at Legacy.

Lyle:  Well, I mean, I try to get after it. I want to break the mold a little bit and you're helping me to do that. Thank you, by the way.

Ben:  Well, I go to a Reformed Baptist Church where nobody's wandering too far away from the podium.

Lyle:  That's right because they're standing right there.

Ben:  Right, in a suit and tie.

Lyle:  Are we allowed to talk about that church?

Ben:  Yeah.

Lyle:  Okay. I love that church, by the way. Pastor Douglas Wilson.

Ben:  Christ Church, Moscow, Idaho.

Lyle:  Christ Church–

Ben:  That's a church I grew up in.

Lyle:  You literally grew up there.

Ben:  Yeah.

Lyle:  Which by the way, I'm so afraid that one day he's going to intercept a teaching of mine and then just roast me. This guy's way off.

Ben:  No, Doug is super cool.

Lyle:  But, I love his books.

Ben:  Hyper intellectual.

Lyle:  He's a hero to me. You're a health hero to me. He's a theological hero to me.

So, one of the things that I hear from a lot of pastors, and this is actually what a doctor told me, you have extreme adrenal fatigue. This is constant among my pastor friends. That's what they tell us all. Oh, adrenal fatigue, adrenal fatigue.

Ben:  Technically isn't even a medical term.

Lyle:  Yeah, I don't even know why they say that or what that even means, but usually they're like, “Well, how much coffee do you have? You have way too much coffee because that's what pastors drink constantly.”

Ben:  Yeah.

Lyle:  And, you're emotionally depleted and exasperated and you need some help. And so, this doesn't have to be long but is there some kind of quick dirty tip of like if you are concerned for your adrenal glands, how can we be more kind to ourselves in that sense?

Ben:  Three things. First, adrenal fatigue is often over diagnosed, and in order to truly know whether someone's adrenal glands are functioning the wrong way, you have to get a test that shows you not only what kind of hormones you're producing; cortisol, testosterone, a lot of the things that the adrenal glands would help you to produce or be directly responsible for producing, but you also have to look at how quickly are those metabolites being broken down. Are the building blocks for those metabolites necessary or available in the human body? 

The only test I'm aware of that's a decent test to truly diagnose something like adrenal fatigue is called a DUTCH Panel. It's a dried urine panel. It collects 24 hours of urine and gives you everything you need to know. And, a lot of times, I will run that test on someone who has been diagnosed with adrenal fatigue. And, it turns out that, for example, they're producing as much cortisol as they'd ever need, which is the definition of adrenal fatigue like you're not producing any cortisol.

Lyle:  Interesting.

Ben:  But, for example, that cortisol is getting broken down extremely quickly. So, there's some upstream issue happening. And, a lot of times, that might be everything from inadequate calorie intake to sometimes it can be excessive caffeination. So, basically, it requires a lot of digging. So, if you're diagnosed with adrenal fatigue, know that a lot of times it might not be that, it can be everything from hypothyroidism, to carbohydrate depletion, to neurotransmitter imbalances. So, whenever somebody says that I'm, “Adrenal fatigue from what?” And, there can be 10 different–I have an article on my website somewhere about the 10 different reasons for adrenal fatigue. So, it's more than just adrenal fatigue.

The second thing is that there are certain things that can accelerate or amplify the amount of stress that's on the adrenal glands, these little glands that sit on top of your kidneys.

Lyle:  Okay.

Ben:  And, it is true that over caffeination, excessive use of supplements, excess exposure to artificial light in the evening, inadequate sleep, poor stress management, poor relationships, et cetera, those can all accelerate the rate at which the adrenal glands become exhausted.

Lyle:  Okay.

Ben:  We talked about some things earlier; heat, cold, breathwork, I would throw exercise into this category.

Lyle:  Okay. So, pastors should play pickleball.

Ben:  Pastors should play pickleball.

Lyle:  That's a big thing amongst pastors now.

Ben:  Icy cold, wearing as little clothing as possible and–

Lyle:  Put food in your underwear.

Ben:  Yeah, doing breathwork prior and getting in a sauna afterwards. Anyways, though, the idea of figuring out things that give you energy other than stimulants which might seem kind of paradoxical based on the discussion that we just had, but knowing when it's true fatigue and you really need a cup of coffee versus, “Yo, I already had a cup of coffee two hours ago. All that caffeine is still in my system. I need to take a cold shower, do three minutes of Wim Hof breathwork.” And, that's going to be way friendlier to my adrenal glands than all these drugs and stuff compounds, et cetera. So, that's number two.

Number three is there are certain things that the adrenal gland needs to keep its gas tank topped off. The main two would be minerals and vitamin C.

Lyle:  Okay.

Ben:  Minerals and vitamin C. A third one I would throw into the category of something that can assist with adrenal gland balance are so-called adaptogens.

Lyle:  Okay.

Ben:  Okay. So, let me tell you how this would look. Minerals of vitamin C would be like, wake up in the morning, giant Mason glass full of water with a teaspoon of sea salt and the squeeze of a lemon.

Lyle:  Got it.

Ben:  Or, there's a company called Jigsaw Health. They make something called Adrenal Cocktail. I'm lazy with the lemons and the salt, so I put a powder, a scoop of the Adrenal Cocktail in my morning glass of water.

Lyle:  Got it.

Ben:  Okay. And, that's in addition to salting my food throughout the day, eating a diet that's got fruits and vegetables rich in vitamin C. The more stressed out you are, the more minerals you need, the more vitamin C you need. So, that's really good for the adrenals. The other one, the adaptogens, those would be probably the two best that I'm aware of that seem to work for a wide variety of people are reishi mushroom extract and another one you've probably heard of ashwagandha.

Lyle:  Yeah, yeah.

Ben:  So, these can be used during times of the day when you feel you have a lot of stress, when you're too driven. Maybe you had too much coffee, whatever. The definition of adaptogen is it will turn up the dials when the dials are too far down and it'll turn down the dials when the dials are too far up. So, different people will respond in different ways, but anybody who has adrenal issues or is hard driven. So, for me, for example, I do like to take an afternoon siesta sometimes after lunch.

Lyle:  Yes.

Ben:  Often not because I need it but because I know by the time we start our family dinner at 7:30, I'd be kind of tired if I just don't step out for 20 or 30 minutes, meditate or crawl in the corner of the office and crawling in my desk and sleep. I'll just sleep anywhere.

Lyle:  This is like NSDR is that what they call it? Non-sleep deep rest–

Ben:  NSDR, that's one way to do it. Yeah, Yoga Nidra that's called. And, that's very simple, dude. Full body scan starting from the toes up to the head or the head down to the toes. That will simulate a full sleep cycle and you can download free Yoga Nidra tracks on YouTube. And, that can actually be very effective for simulating a full sleep cycle at anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes. I'll do Yoga Nidra on the airplane sometimes with noise-blocking headphones. It works fantastically. And, that's sometimes what I'll do when I step away in the afternoon after lunch, but I always take a couple of packets of, I say packets because I use a company called Four Sigmatic and they make reishi mushroom extract. I'll take a couple of packets of those and then that kind of like turns off my brain and settles me down but doesn't leave me as groggy as if I'd ever taken much of, I don't know, sleep product or CBD or something like that.

Lyle:  Yeah, yeah. 

Ben:  And so, then I can get up and be ready to rumble again. So, any hard-charging high achiever identifying some kind of adaptogen that you can use usually in the late afternoon to early evening can also help out with adrenal stress.

Lyle:  Okay.

Ben:  So, in summary, if you really think you have adrenal fatigue, get a DUTCH urine test to actually see if you truly have adrenal fatigue.

Lyle:  Okay.

Ben:  If you want to make sure you take good care of your adrenals, start off the day with a whole bunch of minerals and vitamin C and continue to get minerals and vitamin C going in throughout the day. When you feel tempted to take a stimulant, double-check yourself and ask if you should instead just eat the frog, do the hard thing, get in the corner, sit down, do three minutes of breathwork, or slip away and take a cold shower or do some jumping jacks or burpees or something other than a stimulant that will drain your adrenal glands more quickly than natural energy from movement or cold. And then, finally, the use of adaptogens when you do feel you're excessively stressed can be used. So, those are a few things to consider for adrenal– 

Lyle:  That's super helpful. I guess I'm going to sneak this one in. How much coffee is too much coffee?

Ben:  Well, it depends on your genetics.

Lyle:  Okay.

Ben:  You probably heard some people slow metabolizers.

Lyle:  Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, pastors drink coffee all day, bro. 

Ben:  Yeah. And, you can obviously build a tolerance to it also. I always switch the decaf for one week out of every month to check myself because I love the flavor of coffee. I like the glorious morning bowel movement that it gives you.

Lyle:  That's the best.

Ben:  But, I do want to make sure I'm not getting attached to anything, so I switched a decaf for a week out of every month, which kind of resets all the caffeine receptors.

Lyle:  I love that.

Ben:  For a slow caffeine metabolizer, it's not much, it's 200, 300 milligrams of coffee. It's like a couple cups of coffee is too much for that person.

Lyle:  Wow.

Ben:  It's just in your system all the time, you don't sleep well because you takes so long to break it down. Fast caffeine metabolizer, I mean, I've seen data on up to five cups a day and allowing you to get the anti-diabetic cardiovascular enhancing health effects of coffee without it being deleterious.

Lyle:  Okay.

Ben:  I'm a fan of a two-ish cup a day guy, a big morning cup, and a big afternoon cup. I think that's pretty good. I'm a fast caffeine metabolizer. I know I can have a cup of coffee at 3:00. I still sleep okay. I think two cups of coffee is a decent thing to shoot for, especially if you're taking all the drugs we talked about. That nicotine toothpick hanging out your mouth.

Lyle:  We're going to have pastors, man, type at sermons nicotine–

Ben:  Yeah, you're going to be preaching a sermon [01:12:13] _____. Yeah.

Lyle:  Hitting their French press. Okay. So–

Ben:  [01:12:18]_____ last drop.

Lyle:  Yeah. Do you want some more, bro?

Ben:  No, I'm good.

Lyle:  Okay. This is my last question. So, since I have been listening to your podcast reading your books following me on YouTube, I subscribe to you on everything, I've noticed just the uptick in you talking about your faith. And, I'm wondering, how has your audience responded to that? Have you had people meet that with some level of resistance? Are they upset with you for talking about your faith now? I think the first time I DMed you, you were doing a one-year Bible.

Ben:  Yeah.

Lyle:  I was, “Dude, I thought Ben was a Christian. He just presents so much information in a way that I thought he would know Jesus.”

Ben:  Yeah.

Lyle:  So, what's that been like for you?

Ben:  Yeah. I mean, I was born into a Christian home, grew up worshiping going to Sunday school, love the Lord, and memorize scripture, and was by all definitions a pretty good kid, a pretty good little straight-laced Christian kid. I was homeschooled.

Lyle:  Okay.

Ben:  I graduated high school when I was 15, started college when I was 16. I think it was a little bit immature spiritually and succumbed to a lot of temptations in college. And so, from the age of about, gosh, 16 until I got married when I was 21, I kind of went off the deep end with alcohol, women, things like that.

Lyle:  Sure, yeah.

Ben:  After I got married really didn't have that great of a walk with the Lord for a good 10 years.

Lyle:  Okay.

Ben:  And, it was rough. My wife and I would fight a lot and I was traveling over the world and wasn't a present father and wasn't a great husband. And, it took nearly breaking up with my wife that caused me to see the light because I love my family so much and I love my wife so much. And, I have such a vision of legacy for my sons and have such a deep desire for them to grow up to be Godly young men. And, I was just almost a loser of a husband. And so, I wound up when I realized I was about to lose my family, my wife was about to divorce me, I wasn't a present father, I didn't have any of the spiritual disciplines like meditation, prayer, reading scripture, devotions woven into my life. I went to church once a month maybe. My wife went to church every week and I would sometimes go and sometimes not.

Lyle:  Wow, wow.

Ben:  I really became convicted at about 31, 32 years old that not only–well, what I realized initially was I needed to start putting my spiritual armor on. And, that for me to be the father and the husband who I knew that I should be and that God has called me to be, I needed to begin to spend a lot more time on my spiritual health. I didn't have any idea that that would eventually become a process of me beginning to talk about those same things to my audience.

Lyle:  Yeah, yeah.

Ben:  Emptiness and fitness and in biohacking and in health and nutrition and yes physical training is of some benefit, but it's a complete attachment and addiction for a large portion of my audience, for example, this whole biohacking health world. I began to talk about my own journey on my own platform, on my podcast, on my blog. I began to publish books like “Fit Soul” or “Endure” or the “Spiritual Disciplines Journal.” That's what I started to do with my family. In the morning, we meditate. In the evening, we meditate and do devotions together and scripture, study together. We still do that in the morning and evening every single day. It's our coming together as a family. And, I just began to share what I was doing with my audience. 

And frankly, it was very well-received. There are so many Christians in the fitness world who hide their light under a bushel because it's just not cool to be a trainer who talks about God but maybe who also has a nice body because it's too earthly or fleshly or worldly. But, there are a ton of trainers who started to talk with their clients about their Christianity, a bunch of people who came out of the woodwork who because they'd seen me, the guy who was supposed to be the cool worldly Instagram dude or whatever, begin to talk about my faith, they were inspired to share their own faith.

Lyle:  Amazing.

Ben:  I'm now putting out two videos a week of spiritual lessons or inspirational videos. I saw a few comments on one this morning. And yeah, I get flack with a couple comments I saw this morning. One, because my post today was about how God will sometimes refine us with fire and trial and tribulation. And, the best response when we're going through those type of trials is to as Job said, “Thank the Lord, thank Him for His blessings, thank you for whatever He's working in your life and respond to tribulation with gratitude.” 

And, I saw two comments like, “You worship a God who punishes you because He loves you. That's a pretty F ‘d-up God, in my opinion.” And then, another person wrote, she, you mean she when you're talking about God, you mean she. And so, you get little comments like that, but frankly, I really haven't experienced much of a blowback. I don't know, man, doing something wrong. Maybe I'm being too flavorless. I don't know.

Lyle:  No, no.

Ben:  But, it's been very, very rewarding to be able to feel as though the platform that God gave me in the fitness and the health and the biohacking world is very earthly, worldly, fleshly world is now the same platform that he's given me the ability to be able to turn around and speak to and tell people that, yes, caring for your temple is good; yes, as a pastor optimizing your brain, your creativity and focus is going to reach more people and do more and accomplish more, write more and produce more. 

But, at the end of the day, all of this stuff is for naught unless we care for our spirit, for our soul unless we actually are focused on the eternal things that will happen far beyond this life, and unless ultimately at the end of the day, we're loving our God and loving our neighbor as ourself. And, it's just been so incredibly rewarding and so fulfilling. And, I know that one of the reasons God gave me this platform is to now turn around and operate almost behind enemy lines speaking to people who I'm not going to run into a church or Sunday school or a prayer room or whatever. These are people who are living in the gyms and triathlon start lines and folks who need to hear this message I think.

Lyle:  That's right.

Ben:  Yeah.

Lyle:  Well, bro, thank you for doing it. Thank you for your courage, your bravery, speaking out, speaking up, sharing the Bible. I know it's inspired me. Like I said, you're one of my heroes. And so, for me, now knowing that we share faith together and we can talk about Jesus and the Bible, it just only makes me all the more happy. And, I hope that I get the opportunity to introduce you to some of my friends who might follow me and listen to this podcast. It's a real joy.

Ben:  I absolutely love that. and, one of the things that I'm trying to do now is I think the way I phrase it to you once in a text message was you guys go out and be Moses and I just want to be able to hold up your staff and give you the endurance and whatever else you need that's up inside my head to be able to help that happen.

Lyle:  It's beautiful, man.

Ben:  The more I can do that, the more I feel like that's my calling.

Lyle:  Thank you, bro. Thank you. And, I want to say reciprocating. I'm here for you, man. I want to pray for you as you step out into those dark places and say, “Ben, we got your back, we're praying for you. We'll prophesy to you. We'll cover you. We'll be a blessing to you.” And, we'll put together a whole prayer team for you, man. We got your back, bro. Thanks for coming on my podcast. It's just brand new. So, I appreciate you spending some time with me, bro.

Ben:  Sweet. I appreciate you, man. Thanks.

Lyle:  Thank you, bro.

Ben:  More than ever these days, people like you and me need a fresh entertaining, well-informed, and often outside-the-box approach to discovering the health, and happiness, and hope that we all crave. So, I hope I've been able to do that for you on this episode today. And, if you liked it or if you love what I'm up to, then please leave me a review on your preferred podcast listening channel wherever that might be and just find the Ben Greenfield Life episode. Say something nice. Thanks so much. It means a lot.

 

For over 20 years, Pastor Lyle has served full-time in ministry with a passionate focus on the presence of God. They've rescued over 400 children from slavery, fed hundreds of orphans, and helped thousands find salvation, healing, and discipleship. Pastor Lyle spent time on the mission field with Iris Global, under the mentorship of Heidi and Roland Baker, before founding Legacy.

During our discussion, you'll discover:

-And much more…

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Resources from this episode:

– Lyle Phillips:

• Legacy Nashville
• Conversations Podcast

– Podcasts And Articles:

• The Crazy Future Of Medical Biohacking: Skull Resets, Suppositories, Nasal Sprays, Nebulizers, Sound Therapy & More With Dr. John Lieurance. 
• The Renegade Breathing Mastermind Behind The Crazy Holotropic Breathing Protocol I Do In My Sauna (& Biohacking Breathwork, Best Foods For Breathhold Time & Much More!).
• Pharmakia, Plant Medicines, Addiction, Escapism, Ayahuasca, Shamanism & The Problem With The “Noble” Use of Drugs With Author Robert Orem.
• Devoured By Cannabis: Weed, Liberty, Legalization (& Whether Christians Should Smoke Marijuana) With Pastor Doug Wilson.
• Sunlight Makes You Skinny & Blue Light Makes You Fat: 11 Ways To Biohack Light To Optimize Your Body & Brain.

– Books:

• Ben's Books:
  • Boundless: Upgrade Your Brain, Optimize Your Body & Defy Aging
  • Beyond Training: Mastering Endurance, Health & Life
  • Boundless Parenting: Tools, Tactics and Habits of Great Parents
  • 10 Ways To Grow Tiny SuperHumans
  • Fit Soul: Tools, Tactics & Habits for Optimizing Spiritual Fitness 
  • Endure: Tools, Tactics & Habits for Spiritual Stamina
• The Enlightenment Trap by Scott Carney
• Breath as Prayer by Jennifer Tucker
• Human Heart, Cosmic Heart by Dr. Thomas Cowan

– Other Resources:

• Sauna
• Cold Plunge
• Green Tea
• Berberine
• Coffee
• Wm Hof
• High Dose Melatonin Suppository (use code BEN to save 5%)
• Vielight
• Evy Light
• Brain.fm (use code BEN20 to save 20%)
• Lucy Nicotine Gum (use code BEN20 to save 20%)
• Rapé
• Onnit Alpha Brain (use code BEN to save 10%)
• Qualia Mind by Neurohacker Collective
• Nootopia (use code BEN10 to save 10%)
• L-Thianine 
• Nicotine Toothpicks
• Coconut Oil 
• MCT Oil
• Ketones
• Salt
• Quinton
• Jigsaw Health Adrenal Cocktail
• Kion Immune
• Four Sigmatic Reishi Mushroom 
• Ashwagandha
• Yoga Nidra
• DUTCH Test
• Spiritual Disciplines Journal

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