IG Live: Shaman Durek with Dave Asprey

I wanted to take some time, you know, before we get officially into the holidays, and pick your brain a little bit about what the heck is going on in the world right now from a shamanic, energetic perspective. And by the way, it's snowing like crazy where I am. I don't know if it is for you, but that's also.

Yeah, it is here too. I'm in Norway, so.

Yeah, out of snow there. All right, well, I'm in Canada, same thing. So what's going on in the world today, man? Why is everything so strange?

So the reason why things are strange right now is because we are at a point in our evolution where it's important for us to return back to that which is the basic functionings of how we operate as a species. And everything that we have been stuffing under the rug and denying and not taking responsibility for, which means the ability to show up with love for is needing to be restructured. And that only happens through alchemy. So in order to get to that alchemy state and how we interact as a sustainable human being versus a human being that is operating from the need to constantly be codependent. So we're creating a new intelligence on the planet by recognizing how we connect with our food, how we connect with our bodies, how we connect with our community, how we connect with information and intelligence, and how do we use that intelligence and the information in a way that actually up levels our life and optimizes our life so that we're not operating in this very low, you know, low vibrational energy, where we're not looking at all of the available resources to be able to source correct ourselves. And source correct ourselves basically means that we are literally becoming a functional human being instead of a being that's always looking outside of ourselves for someone to fix us or to complete us. And so the sustainability aspect of humanity, when we look at it from a sociological understanding to an anthropological, we begin to understand that everything is in itself, in its sense that's happening is getting us to return back to that center. And that's the place where we actually realize, wow, I can have a relationship in a different way with myself than I've ever had, or when I eat this food, I have a different meaning and purpose. Because, I mean, look, when you're at a time when toilet paper is the new bling and its value is much more than some of the things that it has been, we have to really look at how we're taking care of ourselves and how resourceful are we. Are we a surgeon of resource or are we constantly looking for someone to keep us in codependency? And so this time, right now is a choice point for humanity to uplevel and optimize.

I've been seeing this trend towards some kinds of people are just saying, well, no one's doing anything, someone should do something. What's the energy behind that?

You know, I think that in society we've always looked for some type of authority figure or some type of leader or someone above us to be able to make, make decisions for the nature and the well being of who we are as a thriving community. And I think right now where we're coming to is recognizing that the very thing that we put our energy into, our governments and our social political systems are not actually in alignment to what it means for us to adapt and create true understanding of what it means to live in a thriving understanding of community. So to be able to think, thrive, we have to return back to the autonomy we have to return back to. You know, it's like what I love about some of the old traditions is like that family, like how everything was passed down through family and we've lost a lot of that. And so now it's really coming into autonomy and it's really coming into a point where we make a decision as an individual and see how the collective is responding to it by the rippling effect, what this thing is doing.

Move your mic off your collar too, because you're clicking for people.

Oh, sorry. Much better.

All right, I, I like that. I like that perspective a lot. Now everyone's asking me because I was taking my vitamins. People saying, what stack is that? That's the rest of the vitamins I'm taking right now. Just, just to. I'm not gonna all those because we're here to talk to Shaman Turk. I'm just, it's morning.

Oh, I've been, I've watched him take a lot of vitamins. This guy is like no joke. When Dave like wakes up in the morning and I see like all the things begging, I just, I shake. He just does it. He's, he's, he's, he's a beast. He just does it. He gets it down.

That was about half the bag that left now.

Oh, I'm sure, I'm sure.

You talk about eating good. Clearly you might want to take some supplements. Probably not as many as me, unless you're on a specific mission here. What are the other types of self care that are good for people who are almost bifurcated? So there's the, the thinking part of me that's like, oh, I know there's a 99 point something something percent chance of survival. Therefore I know that I am mostly safe unless I'm in a very high risk category, in which case I have something like a 90% chance of survival. Right. But then there's the, the lower part of you that's like, I could die. And then we vacillate between those two states. What is your, like, meditative, shamanic perspective on how people can get grounded?

So one of the things we have to understand is that we look at the body, we understand that the body's a living organism, right? And you have all of these microorganisms that do belong to the earth, and they do have a fear that one day they could die and they could perish. And so these things are affecting a lot of people's responses. Because in order for us to be sustainable human beings, we have to stop one reacting every time we get a feeling that comes through us. And we have to start looking at discernment as a key component to our ability to thrive and maintain equilibrium. So when we're operating in this idea of reacting, we have to understand this could be the microorganisms in our body that are freaking out because it just wants to live, it wants to survive. But you are an eternal being. You are made up of an energy source of technology that is so profound in its nature that all you have to do is be able to tap into that sense and that reality. But in order to do so, you have to start seeing yourself as an individual who has the capacity to use your thinking process in alignment and conjunction with your body and with your environment. And that means what? That means cutting out any type of stimulus that's coming in from the outside world that is a low vibration stimulus. And that can come from friends, that can come from family, that can come from a lot of different people, because those. What do you say?

From Instagram? Even. I'm kidding.

Yeah, even Instagram. Because there are people on Instagram who are just talking head. They're not solution orientated people. So they just want to keep talking about the negative and keep talking and recycling it. And recycled negativity actually creates what we call aggressive markers in shamanism. And those aggressive markers do affect your organs. They affect the way your body is functioning, they affect the way the inflammation builds in your body. And when your body feels like it's constantly under attack, and then you start building more toxins and you start being more susceptible to a lower grade in your immune system. And that makes you susceptible to viruses, bacteria, all types of germs and things that are out there, because you're not safeguarding yourself, because you're getting pulled into the magnetic stagnant that comes from people's conversations and bombardment of these aggressive markers. And so, as we begin to. To learn about human sustainability, we have to understand that sustainability is not just in the foods that we eat or the vitamins we take or how much we biohack ourselves. It's also in our environment, the conversations we're having, and what we're actually electing our consciousness to. It's an investment into ourselves when we choose to spend time with another person. So what happens is when we are wanting to ground ourselves, the first key to grounding yourself is being aware of yourself. And so to do that, the way you do that is you get out of analyzing and you get into observation, because observation immediately grounds you into your technology. It allows you to spirit hack into your senses. So when you go to a beach and you look at an ocean, you're observing, you're not analyzing. You go into nature, you're observing nature, you're not analyzing. But when you analyze, you're taking information that was given to you in this portion of information that isn't really giving you the understanding of how to deal with the situation. And then you go into fear, and then fear generates more anxiety, more stress, and so forth. And so we have to get into that space of observation for true grounding.

You mentioned a word, discernment. I keep this thing, like, on my desk, it says discernment with a circle in it. And I do that to be discerning. Right. And discernment is a very nuanced, powerful word, and I love that you used it. And discernment is. It's not judging, right. But it's being thought fully aware, as you just described, about, okay, what's good in this, what's bad in this? Whether it's a person, a thing, an idea, or vitamin, it doesn't really matter. But discernment is that weighing of the two sides to figure it out. Do you have any spirit hacks or other hacks to help people be more discerning about information that they're bringing in?

Absolutely. So one of the things you can do, which is called covering your access of intelligence. So your access of intelligence is your navel. It's your birth canal. So your birth canal holds all of these very small nerves that go and weed throughout different parts of your nervous system. And you would be Surprised how much information actually goes into your stomach. And that's why your stomach and your brain for health is so important, because not only is it about balancing your microbiome, but it's also about balancing the way that energy is being received in your body. So if you are a person who is constantly being bombarded by information and intel that is actually, actually low grade intel that can cause more stress, more anxiety, and really lower your immune system because you're being bombarded too much, you want to cover your navel. So when you cover your navel and it's like, sometimes I'll be talking to people and I'll cover my navel and I'll listen and I can tell which frequencies are actually not great for me, not in harmony for me. And this connects you into that emotional intelligence that we so need to develop and adapt on our planet. And because it allows you to be able to sense energy faster to what's right for your body. And a lot of tribal cultures, they would cover their navel when they are going into communication or talking or sharing in the tribe, so they know that the information they're getting is high intellectual information versus lower grade information that's based in fear, lack limitation, or just the idea that something horrible is going to happen to you, but you don't really know what it is. And so as we begin to develop as a species, emotional intelligence plays a major key. And how we interact with our environment and our intelligence, with each other in our conversations, what we take in, what we allow and what we don't allow, which gives us a stronger sense of discernment. And you can also say out loud, and so we can do this as well, Dave, if you want to experience it, you can say out loud, drop me into observation.

Drop me into observation.

Of the energy of this realm, of.

The energy of this room.

And what did you feel?

There's a peripheral sense of awareness.

Right. Now put your hand over your navel. Now say it again. Drop me into observation.

Drop me into observation of the energy of this room. Of the energy of this room. It's not as strong, huh?

So, yeah, so when you're, when you, when you, when you block that area, right, you're able to be more grounded and more able to connect into what energies are right for your body. And this is the way that we as human beings can adapt and thrive, because not every single thing is right for everyone. And on top of that, there's a lot of people in the world who just subject themselves to conversations, to music, and all of These mantras that you hear in music and all of these different things that literally are causing stress, anxiety and adding more to the problem than actually being a solution.

Does this mean I should get a navel piercing? And if so, what crystal would be best for me?

I'm not going to go for that. Dave, you're not getting a navel piercing. I'm going to talk to your wife. Dave. I'm going to talk to your wife. You can pull that off at Burning man, but it'll be a clip on one. It won't be the one you. You'll be having permanently.

My mom used thing that now has spiritual meaning when you'd, like, say something. When I was a little kid, she'd be like. I'd say something like, oh, look at me, I'm so good. And she'd be like, well, well, glue a ruby in your belly button. Like, that was, I don't know, family expression. So I. Maybe I'll try that, actually. I'll glue a ruby in my belly button and we'll just see how disturbed. All right.

Well, I mean, if you're gonna do some belly dancing for us though, you know, you gotta, like, you gotta hook it up, you know, you can't just put a ruby in the belly button. Or you gotta keep it like a little secret ruby. You're gonna be in meetings and have this little ruby sitting there.

I think I'm have to get some hip flexibility if I'm gonna do that. Let's talk about that fear thing there. And I want to share a strategy that I use with you and with everyone listening. And I want you to tell me what's good or what's bad about it.

Okay.

A while ago, and there's lots of people in the spiritual type of things where it's like, yes, reincarnation is real. And I come from a scientific tradition where anyone who'd believe in reincarnation would. Is clearly dumb. Except I reject being on either side of that. I'm like, I'm just gonna be discerning. So I decided that it was highly rational for me to decide that reincarnation was real. And here's why. Because if I'm wrong, I won't know. But if I believe that if I die, I get a reset button and my fear level drops. So either I'm right and then there is reincarnation, and then I can work on multiple lifetimes coming fully enlightened and all that side of things, or if I'm wrong, I can't lose. But I. The Minimum. The minimum benefit I would get is that I would be less afraid. Because, you know, if I make a horrible mistake in this life, yeah, I'll probably come back. And I taught my body to believe that which I think has me be less fearful. What good and bad things did I do to my energy body by taking that strategy?

Well, I mean, first of all, you have to understand I don't believe in reincarnation in the way that I see very pressed upon in the very new age communities. To me, I look at the scientific understanding of development of human species and the intellect development. So the idea that we believe in a linear projection to begin with is actually self created, not truthful. So then therefore, then I look at the quantum aspects of, you know, understanding how the trajectory of linear creates a future in a past. But outside of the paradigm of human consciousness, the idea of linear does not exist. So therefore that means that the idea of a past life cannot exist. And so therefore, if I was to take away that small aspect of what human consciousness likes to hold on to, aspect I had a past life, I would then move it into an understanding of quantum reality. I would look at all the different types of realities that could exist. From parallel dimensions to inner dimensions to outer dimensions. And what I would find is that if it was order, if there was a past life, so to say, then it would be happening simultaneously as I'm in this one. You know, me, I may be a shaman, but I'm also. I think that's why you and I, you know, have such a great friendship. Because we love to. Oh, what? Oh what? That spray? No, never again. Never again. Not going down that road with you again. I'm sure you can persuade me when I'm with you, but yeah, we'll see.

Microdose Nicotine Lucy gum. And this is a 1mg spray that's both a cognitive enhancer and an anti aging substance. And can make you, if you take too much of it. You're highly sensitive. The technical term is trip balls.

Yeah, had that wonderful experience. It was great. Went to the underworld, you know, had to release some spirits, you know, hands coming out of the walls. Yeah, really great. Dave.

When I will long time, that's for sure. Talk to me about winter solstice and Saturn and Jupiter and stuff like that.

Honestly, I don't really believe in it. But then again, you have to understand the reason why is because when I communicate to spirit, I feel like people want something to come and get them off the planet. They're just like waiting for some Kind of cosmic thing to happen. But it's like, you know, when I keep going back to is this message that I get like, yes, I'm sure it's affecting the planet. Do I feel like it's affecting us on a level that everyone's trying to make it? No, I think that it's the same old day as it is yesterday. The difference is that everyone thinks they're moving into the age of Aquarius right now. They don't understand that time and the dimensional realms are. The dimensional gates of space are operating at different sequences. So our sequence that we are experiencing here can be the next 20 years of what they're experiencing, what they think is going to happen today. And so again, there's this point where I feel like people have to get grounded in reality of spiritual, deep spiritual reality, which is rooted reality, which is this. As long as there's people who are being hurt, trafficked, suppressed, oppressed, endangered because of their sexuality, their color, the whatever, I'm not going anywhere. I got things to do. I'm not waiting for some flying saucer or some planet connecting with me and bumping me into another dimension. It's not going to happen that way. And you know, and so I'm sorry, but I mean, yes, I'm a shaman, but I'm also the very grounded shaman and I'm also very, you know, the shaman who speaks about science and understanding of the technology of human development. And I can't get into the woo woo of these like, things that, you know, that are really distracting me from what needs to happen. Oops again, sorry. What needs to happen. I'll just hold it from here. Actually, it's buttoned in my shirt. No wonder what needs to happen for us to be able to up level this planet. You know, we have a lot of resurgence to do on planet Earth and I'm not trying to leave anytime soon. What I do need is my brothers and sisters to get their thinking caps on and get into reality of what we can do, such as learning spirit hacking, learning biohacking, learning ways that we can begin to, to resurface things on the earth, you know, build more ways for that so that we can, you know, thrive on the planet. You know, from reforestering to, you name it. There's so many things that are out there to help us to become a resurgence of a species instead of waiting for some new. I mean, first there was the wife, 2K, then there was some other being that was what people were committing suicide to jump on some starship that they Felt was going to. I just can't get into that.

Dave, I'm so happy you said that. It's the same thing like, oh, I'll lose weight as soon as I move to a new house or get a new girlfriend or boyfriend. And like, it's not the external stuff. You show up and you do the damn work. Whether or not the planets are in alignment, it just might be more work if they're not. If they even make a difference. Right. You just have to put one foot in front of the other. And sometimes that toughness seems like it's missing from just the narrative we see in the news. It's sort of like, oh, someone will help me. Like, why don't you be the helper instead of the helpee? Right. What's bingo to be the helper, not the helpee.

Yeah, I agree. I think it's. Again, it's another state of codependency. It's another, like, Superman saved me. You know, someone's gonna come on a golden horse and make it all better, and all we have to do is just wait, you know, and so forth. And that's not why I came to Earth. I came to Earth to get my hands dirty. I came to Earth to stand on the front line. I came to Earth to go to countries that are having war and conflict and be in the middle of it and be able to support the people in coming back in their power. And just let's cut off the nonsense. You know, we have a lot of upgrading and we have a lot of momentum in, you know, where we see with epigenetics and science and the ways that we can start building a bridge between the spirit and. And the science community, as well as the way we're operating in our physical and our physiology and so forth. Why are we so much wanting to wait for something to come and take us off the planet instead of utilizing this time for experimentation and learning and developing how we can begin to bring these informations and conversations together in a place where doctors and biohackers and shamans and Eastern medicine doctors and so forth, can come and begin to have intellectual conversations that are worth having to create a new health model, a new understanding of human development that we can then be a part of, to thrive longer on this planet instead of just waiting for something to come. And then by the time we get to that place, the Earth has made it impossible for us to be able to adapt because our resources are going to be completely stretched and there's not going to be enough people to be Able to feed and to house and to give them the sustenance they need for survival.

Most of the shamanic practitioners that I know of do something special on the solstices. Do you completely reject that or do you like light a candle? Do you say an extra thing? Do portals open? Like what's. Come on, give me the inside scoop here.

Well, you know, some shamans in different cultures, like for instance, my roots come from Africa. So African spirituality is based on the idea that it's not just about a solstice, it's about understanding the energy frequencies that are taking place on the planet and being able to create rituals that support those things. So I have a newsletter where people can sign up and find out what dates those are for different openings, then they can create rituals for it. But some people like to honor the different solstices and the different changes and the seasons and so forth because it was honorable based on crops, it was based on agriculture, it was based on how things were developing within the tribe. And so now we're moving in more in modern times. And if shamans are still observing those things, then great. I'm not here to say that you can't, but I can tell you I'm not observing every solstice, but I am observing intellectual communication between countries that are still having conflict and wondering how is it that we can create mediation and understanding for development of the way we use our lexicon and the way that we kind of communicate to create less war and less chaos and you know, and really helping people get out of the chaos theory of needing to support something that continually riles them up and then they become reactive. Instead of taking time to stop being reactive and start observing and acknowledging what types of energies do you want to be a part of? And start building what we call a sustainable self care structure for your family, for your friends, that supports longevity and that you can live a good life and a healthy life where you're not being bombarded by all. I'm not saying spiritually bypassing. What I'm simply saying is that you begin to understand how to govern yourself so that you can be there to support others who are coming out of that those wars and out of those chaos driven types of communities that want to keep finding ways to project their anger into others so they have a reason to be angry, to coming in and saying, hey, let's get solution orientated. Here are the situations we can best support with the resources that we have. And let's look at those resources and see how we can be a resourceful human being instead of a human being who's just adding to the problem. So I'm not really. The solstices are great and I do what you might call it, observe some of the solstices. I do. However, again, as you know how I feel about ayahuasca or dugain or any of the plant medicines, I think that there's a balance that we have to maintain in our life. And if we do that, we simplify things and then we come into a greater understanding of who we are and how we connect with. With other people.

How many hundred ayahuasca sessions will I have to do to be a good person?

Dave, you're already a good person. But I love you. I mean, Dave, I think you've done them all. I don't know how many. I don't think there's any more medicine on the planet for you to experiment with. I mean, I think you are the salman. Dave.

What I'm here to do, I'm something different.

I know you are. I know you are.

Here is a question for you. When we it's one of the most recent times we sat down, you were doing one meal a day fasting. And by the way, guys, I am subtly plugging the heck out of fastest way in my new book right now. In case you missed it, you guys need to order this because if you pre order it, my publisher will be very happy and then good things will happen on New York times, all that fastestway.com I talked about omad fasting here are you still doing one meal a day fasting and how do you. And how do you use it energetically? Tell me all about your fasting.

So for me, you know, I feel more energy when I'm eating one meal. But there's times where like once a month, at the end of the month, I'll do an intermittent fasting to break it up and give my body a chance to like have a rebalance and then go back into the omad aspect. I find that ever since I've been on the Oman, it allows me to have more energy, I feel more strength, like, especially when I'm horseback riding. And I notice that sometimes when I watch friends of mine who eat a lot, they have to put a lot more energy when they're riding horses. Whereas with me, I just feel like I can fly on the horse. I feel my body feels good. I don't have so much pain after doing so many rising trots. I feel balanced in my system and my brain is optimized. So I'm able to pick up on subtle nuances of energy. I can hear my ancestors clearer. I can feel more able to understand my environment. And not only that, but the toxic. My body doesn't feel toxic. I feel vibrant. My skin never breaks out. You know, I'm always having a glow about me. I don't put facial products on other than just oil once in a while, just patting some oil just to give them a nice little glow, you know, I feel good in my system. And I noticed. And it's funny because I actually just had this conversation with one of my bonus daughters tonight because she was talking about, like, people should eat three meals a day. And I was like, no, we really are eating incorrectly. In tribal culture, the tribe would go out and, like, hunt their food, and everyone would be fasting until that time. And then they would bring the food and then cook the food. Or even if they didn't have fire, they would eat the food and then they would fast all the way into the next hunt. And that's how our bodies originate. But I feel like the food industries have manipulated people to believe that they have to keep turning on their heater and their stomach. And every time you do that, like, your body cannot heal all these other things that are going on that can create that. Basically, it wants to because it's always having to go through digestion. Digestion takes so much energy out of the body. And when I actually have friends of mine who have gotten into omad or intermittent fasting, they are like, oh, my God, I can't believe how much energy I have. Like, this is amazing. So, yeah, I feel like it's a complete. Like, my body feels happy, it feels vibrant, and it feels really, really, really good.

Part of what I'm. I wrote about in Fastest Way People. Eddie was asking the name Fastest Way, by the way. Guys, go to fastestway.com send me a receipt, and I will teach you the book over two weeks, and we'll do a spiritual fast. Because what I did. Shaman Dirk, I don't think that you have the advanced edition of this book yet, the reviewer's copy, because you're in Norway. But I'll get it to you. I hired a shaman in 2008 to drop me in a cave outside Sedona for four days. No food, no people. Because I was afraid of being alone. I had identified that. I didn't know I was afraid of that, but I was like, why do I have this weird thing that. That was driving me to be in bad relationships? And I was afraid of being hungry. Because I knew that if I was hungry, I would act like a jerk and then I would probably starve to death. So I'm like, what do I do? So I like the whole book is the narrative of that. And then what happens in the body? What do you think about spiritual fasting? You know, sitting down for more than 24 hours and meditating and fasting at the same time? What do people get out of that?

So I believe that when your body, when you're. When you're not intermittent fasting and you're not doing omad. And you're just doing spiritual fasting, it's. It's great because what we call in shamanism, vision quest, or in African shamanism, we call it connecting into the spirit world in the most efficient way. Because what happens is when your body is eating anything, right, all of your system has to focus on keeping and regulating that. But when you go into just being with yourself, no food, you actually begin to access different levels of your deep subconscious mind that allows you to open up doorways to perceptions that you didn't even know you had. Feelings in your body you didn't know were there. And also your sensitivity, your senses, your smell, your hearing, your eyes, the way that you taste things, the smell things, the feelings in your body become super enhanced. And when that happens, you actually begin to connect into that. You didn't even realize that was out there, but is there because of the fact that you're now able to sense it. You see, a great part of humanity is missing out on is the many levels of perception that exist. Most human beings are governed by the information that they have. And then they use that information as an intelligent resource to decide what they'll be able to look at, experience, or be a part of. So there's so much of life that people do not see and so much of information intelligence that has not been given to someone because they're so preoccupied with the information they've already been given. And utilizing that information through analyzation, intelligence to keep making choices to walk or go this way or go left or go right or go straight or forward or backwards. And when you are in a fasting place, all of it goes into a center. And in that center you connect into what we call deep soul. So the soul itself then opens up your senses and the informational intelligence, the way that you process information, think of it as that information upload and an intelligent restructuring. Because literally your brain becomes more optimized and it literally starts to raise the frequency in the way your synapses are firing off information and intelligence that anything that has been stagnant and limiting you from seeing these other perceptions gets cleared out. And then you begin to open up this sense, almost like an antenna, and you begin to see more colors, become more vibrant. The air feels differently on your skin. You begin to see and perceive your peripheral, your prefrontal lobe becomes different in its activity. And the way that you operate in your senses gives you what I call a new brain. It's a new brain, A new technology gets built. And I think that if we spend more time of getting into that space, even if it's once a month or once every two months, we're going to see an influx of intelligence on the planet and new technology, new innovation, new creativity, new music, new this. All of these things are going to happen because the brain's intellect is operating at a higher functioning speed, Whereas instead of it being drawn down because of all the other things. So that's what I notice when I fast like that.

What a profound description. And what I believe is happening there with fasting from a biochemical perspective that helps with spirituality, is clearly you get ketones from fasting. And also that ketones have more energy. That's kind of settled science, I'm going to say. But we know ketones make you feel pretty good. And that's.

Oh, it feels really good. Yeah.

One of the little secrets in bulletproof coffee, even if you didn't fast in there from the piece, but there's something else too, and it's that you said you feel clean when you do one meal a day. And it's that a lot of plant foods. In fact, there's in the first chapter of the bulletproof diet from like, I don't know, seven years ago. So I'm like, here's the four big categories. It turns out there's probably five, depending on how you want to count them, of things plants do to you because they're mad that you ate them, right? Like they don't want you to eat their babies. So that's okay. You still needed some food. But if you do it all the time, it's that discernment thing. There's lots of good, right? And there's some bad. And if you're saying, well, I'm going to take in none of the bad, and I didn't need the good from the plants right now because I had enough good that was already in my tissues. I had enough energy. And I think that's part of the clarity that comes from eating less often and from doing A longer spiritual fast is that there's nothing getting in the way and you're just burning energy with no, no distractions in there. And man, my ability to meditate, my ability to focus, to enter those altered states, even like the neurofeedback based ones, even things like Samadhi where it's very hard to do that if your stomach is full. There's great value to that. But how do you all day long, you're a highly energetic guy.

It's crazy.

Do you ever get like, it's like 4:30 and you're planning to eat at 6:30 and you're like I'm actually really hungry right now. My energy is going down a little bit or does that never happen to you?

So I don't eat at 6:30, I eat at the time where my heater and my body. So I look at Ayurveda principles as ways to understand how to cycle my eating. And so most of my eating happens between 1 and 2 o', clock, which is when my pitta energy is on fire, right? And so when my pitta energy is on fire, I can go like people trip off of me. Like they'll call me at 2:00 in the morning, I'll be working out, I'll be walking, I'll be doing this, I call it being lit, living a lit life. So for me, most people don't understand. I get so much energy because I get energy by meditating. I don't need the energy from food per se to give me the energy that I need. So what I do is if I feel like I'm having that, what I call, what you call this like decline, I go straight into meditation and I start using my spirit hacks to bring in energy intelligence into my body because. And then once I bring the energy in, you know, then you're, you're stimulating your mitochondria, you're increasing your serotonin, you're releasing dopamine and you're, your body starts to get this high and all of a sudden I'm like boom. And I'm up again and I'm getting things done. I'm putting things together, talking to the team, you know, and it, you know, literally like my publicist is here, she knows I get fire. Like I'm on fire. Like I'll be like doing one interview, this TV thing, this thing, this thing, that thing, boom, boom, boom, boom. And being a bonus father to the children and being there for my girlfriend and like talking, you know, dealing with the pride and dealing with this and whatever. And I'm just like smooth moving through it. And that's because I use the balance between the ayurvedic principles, the understanding of fasting and omad, the understanding of meditation and bringing in energy as supplemental nourishment. So that gives me the ability to stay lit, stay in power, stay mentally stimulated and emotionally aware. And then I begin to, you know, just rock it. I call it being a lit rocker. I become a lit rocker.

I love that. And people are asking, what is pitta? This is the fire aspect of Ayurvedic constitution. That's a circadian rhythm. And some of us have more of one constitution than another. And you said something really important here. And most people who do one meal a day will eat dinner as their meal because it's socially most interesting. But it turns out we're eating exactly the perfect time. If you. If you don't worry about societal demands. Around one or two is when is when. Historically, when we were just mitochondria floating in the ocean, this is when the sun was overhead. We get the most solar energy and we could feed on other little algaes and things like that. And this is what we're stuck to. So we're still wired that way. So if you really wanted the perfect metabolism, you do one meal a day and you eat it around 1 or 2 in the afternoon. And you'd work out right before that.

That's right.

That is the strongest and like the youngest that you can do. It's just hard if you have a job and kids and all. So you can do it whenever you want. But this omad as dinner will slightly affect your circadian biology. But it's still better to do that if you're ready. And for people listening, going, I'm only gonna do omad like Shaman Durek. I know lots of people who their body isn't ready and it's too much stress to go there right away. So you start out, and this is part of why I wrote fast this way, is that people are over fasting just like people over exercise. Right. Or you over keto. Like, oh, you never go out of keto. Bad things will happen to the glial cells in your brain. So there's a rhythm for most people. And you're very far out there because you've been omad for a couple of years now, right?

Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. So if it works for you, awesome. But I would just tell people, start out gently, especially if you are like me when I weigh 300 pounds and shum Dirk you have lost like 80 pounds, I think. Yeah. So you've lost a lot of weight as well. So when you're starting out, it's okay to be kind to your body and teach yourself to do this. I fasted for three days earlier this week. I did a 72 hour fast and I was doing six interviews a day and I felt amazing. And on the third day, towards five, I was like, you know what, I'm a little bit tired now because I just been putting out energy, just nonstop, non, stop, non stop. Right. But I can live with that. That was three days. Right. So what I want you guys to do is don't think you have to run a marathon the first time you go running. Right.

No.

Good for you, but you can do whatever. So I don't want you to like follow what Shaman Durk's doing or what I'm doing and say, I'm going to go for the gold right now. Work up to it, because otherwise you can harm yourself.

Absolutely. And there's also the point too in that for women, because women have hormones and you're operating in the way that their bodies are operating. Fasting in an obod may not be the right thing for women. So again, it's also about finding that place that's right for you and you'll know your body. Body is so smart and it's so alive and it talks, it communicates, it tells you. You just got to be willing to listen and tune in. If you all of a sudden eat something and you get super, super tired and you don't feel lit and you're like, why do I feel like I need to fall asleep right now? My body feels groggy and heavy and whatnot. Then you just ask your body, is this the right thing for me? Perhaps I modify it in a way and really take it slow. And when it comes to Ayurveda, it's really good to know your constitution. Like for me, I'm a pitta pitta, right? So I'm blasting fire. So if I eat spicy food, too much spicy food on any level, I'm on the toilet with diarrhea, my whole body starts heating up and I feel like I'm like sweating for days. So I balance out my food in the way in which my dosha represents, but also in the time that my stomach heaters are turning on that pitta energy, which is like 1 and 2 o'. Clock. So the reason why I tell people don't eat at nighttime is because you're in kapha, which is the Time where you're supposed to slow down and get into that place of rest and get into that place of, you know, just taking a break. And so your body's already slowing down so it's not going to burn all the food that you're eating. So then guess what happens? And Dave can tell you, your body then will begin to store fat. And that's why it's difficult for people to lose weight or get their body into a place where they feel lit and feel full of energy, because their body is beginning to take everything that you did not burn and convert it into fat. And that is a lot of the reasons why we see a lot of obesity in people. Because obesity is not just even. People say, I work, I go to the gym, I do all these things and nothing is coming off. That's because your body's constitution is not being, being honored in the right way and you're not getting enough sleep so that your body can self regulate itself so that you can be able to get into that space where your body's like, okay, I'm ready to go into this process with you. So what I would always say, and this is something that Dave and I believe a lot in, is create a structure for you that takes you baby steps and you inch your way into where you want to be. You don't just like jump in the water, you know, you kind of, of weighed in and you go in a little bit more. And what happens is you get into a space in a rhythm that feels right for you, and then you can take up the momentum and go in there. Like, even when I started drinking bulletproof coffee, I remember when Dave would send me and I would, you know, I used to drink it and my body's like, okay, you're drinking way too much. You need to taper it and work your way into a place that's, you know, connected to your body and what's right for you. And you, you can listen to what anyone has to say, but you ultimately have to be confident, more aware of your body and shamanism. Shamanism is based on your relationship to food, your relationship to your body, your relationship to nature, relationship to your ancestors, relationship to your community, relationship to everything. And so what type of relationship are you having with yourself if you're just beating up on yourself because you want to get to some desired goal? Be gentle, be kind, and be loving and nurturing to yourself in the process.

So, so beautifully put. Something that came out as I was looking at all the research on fasting is that the majority of studies on fasting were done on young healthy white dudes because those were college freshmen for most of the time of history. Right now we have a lot more diversity. We have more women than men in college and we have a rainbow of colors of people going to university now. So newer studies include women. But only about a third of the fasting studies accounted for the differences between women and men. And none of them looked at the difference between when, say a person from Africa fasts versus a person from the US fasts, which is probably reasonable because it would depend if you're West African versus East African. You have totally different genetics, right?

Yes.

Know about fasting and genetics very much and we're starting on that. But we do know for women enough that there's a whole chapter in fast this way that's specifically for women. And I'll tell you, right in the middle of your cycle, you probably don't want to be fasting on that day. Like have some pancakes, just make them gluten free and healthy and all that kind of stuff. You'll actually be stronger and better. That's a time of nurturing and kindness and just telling your body there's more than enough in the world right now versus you know, when you're not cycling, like, okay, like let's go get it. So you ride that curve much more than us dudes do. Right. And I think it's really important to acknowledge that. So the fact that you called that out as well because you intuited that from your shamanic perspective and from working with clients, it's such a big deal. So just thank you for saying I'm really concerned about women doing omad 30 days in a row. That might not end well. In fact, it'll end in first poor sleep, then a messed up hormonal cycle and then thinning hair. And with men it takes us two months with that. Probably not for you, but for a typical guy who's over fasting, it comes down to, let's see, first my sleep quality goes down, then I don't have a kickstand when I wake up and then my hair is thinning. Right. So we can both over fast. Just like if you run 10 miles every day and you're not ready for that, you're going to have the same thing happen whether you're a man or woman. But women always hit the wall first when it comes to that kind of stuff.

Yeah. And then your body's releasing stress hormones and you can get, you can develop alopecia, you can develop up all types of situations, because, I mean, it even can break down your immune system. And for women, it's important because the hormonal balance is necessary for women to keep their structure and the way in which they operate in their energy. Because if they're handling children or if they're in the day to day, how much energy women actually take is so much different than what men experience. And so a lot of the stuff that I do with women is finding what actually supports them in their daily lifestyle. Because it's easy for a woman, say, okay, I want to do this, I want to do this because I want to be on top of this whole thing. Again, you have to look at your lifestyle, you have to understand who you are as a woman, because there's different women and then there's menopause and there's, you know, pre and post and understanding that as well, because there's all these other things that go on to like, basically your, how much, you know, if your sugar is in your body, are you taking in salt? You know, and like people who overeat kale with which is a poison to the body. Like, it's like literal poison. And I see these, like, spiritual communities and like these health and wellness people going like, oh my God, I had a kale salad. I had a kale salad yesterday. I had a kale salad this day. I'm like, you're literally going to like, make one of your organs stop working because you're literally destroying your whole entire system. And people don't realize that because they're not educating themselves. They're not listening. People like Dave, they're not not going and talking to people who are in the world of health and wellness, who are really standing in health and wellness instead of just being like hot and looking cute on Instagram, eating kale versus, like, here are the things that happen when you eat too much kale, and here are the things that can affect you. And the same with anything. And so for women, it's a different understanding of the model that needs to be created. And it first has to start with what is your routine, because if your routine. Because a lot of women, they have very different routines and the energy that they spend out through those routines can affect greatly what type of diet they choose to go into, how they observe, the way they eat and how much they rest and how much they meditate and everything else. And Dave can tell you about the kale because he's an expert in all of that.

Kale is something that seven years ago I went on the Joe Rogan show. And I'm like, joe, your raw kale smoothies are bad for you. And then there was a bit of a falling out there. And just this year, Joe's like, I had to stop drinking kale smoothies because it was affecting me. From the oxalic acid.

Exactly.

Phallic acid is a thing that goes into your body. It's there so you won't eat kale. The pigs on my farm spit out kale they don't like. And they know animals, know horses, same thing. It's bad for them. And this stuff goes in, it sticks to calcium in your blood, and then it forms tiny micro crystals in your joints, in your vulva, if you're so equipped inside your brain and it causes inflammation and juicing kale makes it even worse.

Oh, it's worse.

Yep, even worse. And so if you're going to do kale, and some people do, always take it with either calcium carbonate or a pinch of baking soda to at least get the crystals to form in the kale and in your gut so you can poop them out instead of in your blood. And it's tied very heavily to gout and to kidney stones. And so literally, this is not a health food at all. The Kale Marketing association there was such a thing, made a campaign. Kale is just not that special. The other thing it does is it accumulates thallium, which is a very toxic heavy metal. More than any other plant. It's a thousand times more toxic than lead, which is why when they took lead out of gasoline, they replaced it with thallium. So this is one of those things where I'm going to break my spiritual fast with a big kale salad taste a few times. That would be my long take on it.

Yeah. And also what it does is it also creates an imbalance in women's bodies, too. It creates a high level of acid in women's bodies, which can lead to all types of malformation functions within the uterus walls. The way that the tissue is forming because of the inflammation, which can lead to bulbous tissue, which turns into cysts in the ovaries, and also creates what we call a blocking in your intestines. So people who want to have good intestinal health will start getting what we call these creases and seizures that can lead to everything from hemorrhoids to bleeding inside of the intestines. And if they're over period of time, if you don't have the right amount of food in your system, your intestines, then can go into irritable bowel syndrome, and then you can get cancer of the colon. And so there's all of these different things that happen when you're actually putting too much of that in your system. And it's important to balance out how you eat your food. Right? And making sure that the way you eat is not because everyone thinks it's on trend. You want to stay away from trends, and you want to get educated, and you want to educate yourself. What is going on? What is going in my mouth and what is going on and what I'm putting in my mouth? Because in shamanism, we have this belief that food has code, and there's a code that connects to your body. And every time you put something in your body that doesn't match that code, your body sends a synthesis to your system. How are we going to digest this? What are we going to do? And so a lot of allergies, because we didn't. I mean, I grew up in the 70s. We didn't have all these allergies. We didn't have these food allergies that I see people having. And that's because you're creating a hodgepodge of nonsense in your body because your tongue, which is your first sensor, and your saliva is not getting the right types of things because your enzymes can't break down. A lot of the things you're putting in, which Dave can tell you about as well. So a lot of these things we have to really be educated on. And we also need to be mindful that we're not following trends.

Amen. People are asking a lot about what greens. Arugula is good for you, is good for you. Other than that, chard, beet greens, especially raw spinach, but any spinach and kale are the ones that have the most of these acids that. That really mess you up. So more the brassica family, cabbage, broccoli, stuff like that. And even too much of those can be a problem for you. And it comes down to, you don't need to have 40 servings of green vegetables a day. We are not sheep. And if we were. And by the way, I raised 20 sheep on my farm here.

Yeah, I know. They poop all over the place. I have to dodge their poop. They totally do.

Well, now we've got 20. Is Romaine okay? Yes. So lettuce is generally good for you. Celery is good for you. Fennel is good for you. And fermenting doesn't get rid of oxalic acid. So these are those. Those nuances. But you can intuit this, right? And you pick this up, Shaman Durek. But a lot of people are doing their very best. I was a raw vegan for a long time and man, I gave myself much worse Hashimoto's thyroiditis from eating stuff like that. And I put all this stuff. It's actually in fast this way. So if you guys are just joining in, go to fastestway.com, order the book now. And then I'm leading a two week training where I'm going to, for the first time, teach a book to you. But this is a neat conversation because you're like, okay, I eat my one meal a day, but I have to eat the right stuff. Because if you eat the wrong stuff, what would happen the next day.

Yeah, exactly. And a lot of those of you who are in the tribe and who have been getting a lot of the content that I put up on Instagram, the book spirit hacking, the spirit hacking thing came from Dave because Dave was like, I'm a biohacker and you're a spirit hacker. And like, literally when I was with him, you know, because Dave and I are brothers and we're always talking about spirituality and information and this and that and the other because we really want to be able to really educate the masses on how to be self reliant and so that, you know, and so we always say it's better to teach a person to fish than to give them fish. Even though Dave loves eating a lot of fish. Yeah.

But it's there now. By the way, Lana just texted my wife, Dr. Lana. She sends you her love and says she hopes you can come back this summer. Let's hope that we can get some travel bands and stuff lifted because we'd love to see you guys again.

Yeah, exactly. And Martha would love to come, we would love to come with the kids and we want to spend time with you. And I've been on often talking to Lana and we've been trying to figure it out. Once the mini apocalypse is over, we'll have some family time, which I'm really excited about.

Me too. And Shaman Durek, thank you for being on Instagram Live. Guys, if you are not following Shaman Durek, he is absolutely worth following. He knows stuff in ways that are nonlinear. He's a dear friend and his book is fantastic as well, which is why, you know, I've my name's on the back as an endorser of it and I don't do that lightly.

You wrote the forward. You wrote the forward.

It indeed. Now thanks again. And guys, if you like this, I appreciate thumbs up. Share it with people you like. And please do pick up my book. And if you haven't read Spirit Hacking, go to Amazon right now. Order fastest way. Order Spirit Hacking. And then it'll show people who buy this book. Always buy that book. And then you have a moral obligation to leave a review after you read a book. If you don't leave a review, it's because you're basically the Kale of humans.

The Kale of humans. I love you, Dave.

We'll see you soon.

Give the kids my love. Tell them I love them.

I will.

What.