Spiritual Neuroscience: The Biohackers SECRET Formula to Human Potential | Billy & Elisabeth Carson

You can find actual articles online by the Smithsonian. They've thrown giant bones into the Atlantic Ocean. The reason why natives would come up to you indigenous peoples of America, and they would raise their hand to see if you had six fingers. Because if you had six fingers, you were probably a descendant of or directly related to one of these giants. And they found in Chief Joseph in his pocket a Sumerian tablet from Mesopotamia. How in the world did he get a Sumerian tablet from Iraq in his freaking pocket?

It's either some kind of psychic teleportation or advanced technology. I know there's at least one more advanced civilization. Why are these stories not well known?

There's an agenda to keep control over the population.

Who runs the agenda? You're listening to the Human Upgrade with Dave Asprey. I'm a biohacker and a longevity guy. Have been for 25 years. And I'm also very heavily into consciousness meditation. I've run program called 40 Years of Zen for more than 10 years, teaching the highest levels of meditation with neurofeedback. And I've traveled around the world to meet gurus and to train in monasteries and jungles and places. So there's a big piece of science, Western science, mitochondrial biology, neuroscience, bdnf. But what's powering this is I know that anytime you enter on the path of biohacking, you might be like me, brain fog, overweight, all that kind of stuff. Maybe you're sick, you can't stop farting. Whatever your thing is, you're going to come in and ultimately you're going to say, I want to live longer and I want to be happier. Because you don't want to live longer if you're not happier. And happiness is a form of nourishment like anything else. And so biohacking is about all the tools to give you control of your state. That includes your physical state, your mental state, your emotional state, and your spiritual state. And these are what drive me. When I started this blog, what, 14, 15 years ago, my goal was five people not go through all the suffering that I went through with my health and all that. And what I care about now is helping you have the tools to become more conscious and more energetic, more present, more peaceful and more powerful. And today's episode, we're going to talk about all of those things. This is recorded live here at the studios in Austin, Texas. And our guests are Billy and Elizabeth Carson. And we're going to talk about using trauma to boost your success. And we're going to talk about some Esoteric things like manifestation. And we're going to talk about conscious relationships. And as you know, if you've been listening for a while, I've really spent a lot of time studying different relationships, working with different relationship experts. And I believe that that third F word, mitochondria, care about fear, food, fertility, friends and forgiveness in order. That fertility piece, the intimate relationships in your life. There's an algorithm, there's rules, there's skills, just like there are for marketing or for learning how to eat or how to exercise. And just no one teaches that stuff. So we're going to talk about that today, talk about science versus mindset versus consciousness. And it's going to be a lot of fun. We'll go deep, we'll probably go off the charted path, which is the most fun that I think we can have. I approach all of life with curiosity. A lot of things that I think I know that I'm wrong about, a lot of things that I do know that someone else might be wrong about. And who knows, maybe we're both right, depending on what lens we're wearing. So I invite you to listen to this episode with an open, curious mind. There's some cool, cool value here. Elizabeth Carson is a bestselling author and COO of Forbidden Knowledge. They she talks about all kinds of stuff. Real estate, entertainment, culinary arts and runs Biohack your best life, which is a show about biohacking, you might guess. And Billy Carson, four times bestselling author and co founder of Forbidden Knowledge and he wrote the compendium of the Emerald tablets and woke doesn't mean broke and a bunch of other stuff. We got consciousness, we got biohacking, we got trauma, we've got awareness and we got esoteric mysteries of the universe like the Emerald tablets. And yes, I know what those are. Guys, welcome to the show.

Hey, thank you. Great to be here.

Yes. Thank you so much for having us.

I'm just go straight in on this stuff. Trauma is a word that I used to react to real poorly. I'm like, what do you mean trauma? I'm not like a whiner. This would have been me when I was 30. I didn't experience trauma. I solved both arms, both legs. It wasn't that hard. I walked it off. And I understand now that trauma sets patterns in my nervous system that I probably don't know about and it makes me react in ways that I don't want. So I've gone through huge amounts of trauma resolution. You have a different take on trauma. Tell me about using trauma for your benefit.

Yeah. Yeah. So I've used trauma to basically expand my life and learn to be a better person. Really? And I would lean on biohacking to do so. So, I mean, nobody can go through life unscathed of trauma. Even going through the birth canal, you're getting some sort of trauma. Even if you have some sort of something in the. In, in utero that happens to you that can affect how you act.

I can't believe you said that you went straight to pre and perinatal trauma. So esoteric. And that was one of my formative experiences from my ptsd. Did you know that?

No.

All right, we're going to go deep on this stuff. All right, tell me more.

Yes. Okay. So, I mean, I relate because I was adopted, and so I know that there's so much trauma that relates to that. Yes. Massive abandonment issues, which I didn't even discover until probably about 10 years ago when I was like, oh, I'm really messed up and I don't know why. And I don't know why I have these abandonment issues.

How old were you then?

I was 28.

Wow.

So you were early. Early on. Okay.

Yes, yes.

Not a lot of people in their twenties become aware of that. Usually it takes another five, six years. So.

Yes.

Ahead of the curve.

Yeah. Well, you know what? I found brain training when I was 19 years old.

There you go.

And so I had some sort of contrast which led me down this path of trying to find ways to feel better because of my trauma. I was just reaching for everything external to heal my pain, which was not necessarily great. Partying, drugs, alcohol, you know, just anything I could distract myself from because I was feeling so horrible inside. And so I. Luckily, I did find biohacking, and I used my trauma as a strength and as an example for other people because I've been through probably everything that you could think of. Negative that could happen to a woman has happened to me. But yet I've overcame those things and I've built a pretty good life for myself. So I use the trauma that I've experienced to talk about it and share with people, to let them know that you. You can have hope that you can get over these things. You can feel better and you can feel. Get out of stress.

Now, how I use trauma in the same way. Excuse me. Without realizing it was. I came from a very rough upbringing, you know, but beneath the ghetto, I mean, you could say. I mean, we were. We were taking baths in the backyard using the water hose connected to someone else's house. Cause we didn't have running water, no electricity, sleeping on the floor to prevent from getting shot in the bed at night because the baseboard added extra protection. The bullet went down there, you might not get hit. And just a really rough up. Eating Cairo Serpent toast every day and walking around with holes in my shoes and so forth. And I remember one day I just said to myself, there's gotta be a way at least just, just to get something from the ice cream truck. We can't even afford an ice cream truck. I just wanted to get the bazooka bubble gum. And I ended up coming up with a decision to sell my toys. And I went door to door selling my toys, asking for donations. A penny, a nickel, a dollar, whatever. I made about 13 bu with that. But long story short, that showed me that I have the power to change my reality. And that excelled me in so many areas of my life. Even to this current day, the trauma of being completely impoverished in poor, abject poverty and struggling and suffering, it just propelled me where I didn't take the victim mindset as to woe is me. They're holding me back and I can't get this and I'm. And we're poor and this is my life and I accept this. That's PTSD mindset. I took the PTG mindset, as Dr. Amen told me, said post traumatic growth mindset.

Yeah.

And so that's how I use trauma to excel. Now there are some side effects to that. Oh yeah, because. Because you're striving and you're thriving and anytime anything comes up trauma wise, trauma related, you dive straight into where I drive, dive straight into work and ideas and concepts and building and building and building. So you become obsessive in that area because it soothed you early on. But that's how I use trauma to strive and thrive. But later on now at this current stage of my life, through Elizabeth's work, I'm realizing how to go back now and deal with that trauma. Because you can't let that sit in there and fester. You know, at the age of 53 now I'm really just really finding the trauma links from before and seeing now from new eyes how I utilize that trauma to excel. So it helped me and propelled me in one direction, but on the other side, there's still a lot of triggers and things that I have to work through with that trauma.

I've had a lot of entrepreneurs who come through 40 years of Zen, which is a trauma resolution thing amongst a high performance thing. And I remember my Friend Craig, he says it's a 1200 person company. He says, I just realized that all my success comes from being bullied in seventh grade, right? And I would say I had a lot of that in my early years too. I didn't have that level of poverty. I've had a knife pulled on me more than once. I've been in probably 100 fights in school and got bullied pretty heavily.

That's significant.

And it's helpful that I was the biggest guy and the fattest guy because I just look at the bullies and be like, I'm gonna sit on you. Right? So never threw a first punch, always threw the last punch. Maybe a little bit of anger within there. And I worked through that. We talk about the birth trauma.

Yeah.

First time I ever did any personal involvement thing. This is before I started the biohacking movement. I went to this bizarre 10 day thing called the Star Foundation. And the founder of this was the woman who created the American Pre and Perinatal Psychology Association. I didn't know anything about this stuff. And a friend said, dave, you gotta go. And I said, well, why? And she said, I'm not gonna tell you what they do because then you wouldn't go, but just trust me. And I'm this hardcore kind of rational and really angry. And I recognized my anger. I didn't understand that was anxiety underneath it. So I show up at this place and this lady with like these glowing blue eyes from Dune, she looks at me and she goes, tell me about your birth. And I'm like, hospitals, vaginas. I'm kind of like weirded out. And she goes, do you have any details? I said, well, yeah, the cord was wrapped around my neck and I didn't lose oxygen, so it was no big deal. Wow, I thought so. And she shows me like a printed out PowerPoint slide. And it's like a strength weakness, opportunity, threat. Like it was like if you take a moth and pin it down to a board. It's like this woman just called my numbers. How did you know? And she says, it's science. She said, what happens in the womb and during birth affects personality. And we have 30 years of data on this. And I actually started crying. And computer science guys don't really cry from Silicon Valley. And I felt like she hit me in the gut. And I'm like, why didn't someone tell me like all this suffering for 30 years and the fact you just throw that out there, good for you. Because for me I had PTSD from my birth experience and I Did the healing for it. And I couldn't have done things I do in the world if I was still carrying that weight with me. How did you heal from birth trauma?

Well, to be honest, I'm still healing from it. I feel like life is an everlasting heal journey. But, I mean, I did a lot of work surrounding adoption, and one time I was sitting with a practitioner. She was specialized in craniosacral, and she was doing cranial sacral somato emotional release work on me. And I remember she put her hands on my stomach. And when she put her hands on my stomach, it was like I shot back into my mother's womb. And I was there, and I could feel everything deeply. Like, I mean, throughout my life, I've had a lot of trauma, so I was very disassociated. So I didn't feel emotion for a very long time. So this was prior to me really feeling emotion. And so when I went back into my mother's womb, it was like, bam. And it hit me. I'm like, oh, my God. It just. I was swimming around in stress, depression, anger, and just all of these negative feelings. And I could just feel how stressed my mother was and how awful and scared she was. And then it hit me and I'm like, okay, well, I feel these abandonment reasons for a reason. This is why. Because my first introduction to consciousness is rejection. And then I did some more work around my adoption, and I actually re experienced my birth. And so I felt the emotions coming out of the canal. And I remember feeling the emotion of I just wanted the woman that was carrying me to look at me and embrace me. That's all I wanted. And I didn't get that. I never looked at her, never saw her. Doctors took me away. And then back then, they didn't really understand how important it is to your physical contact to love on a newborn. So I don't feel that I got much of that at the beginning of my life. So that really impacted me. But it helped me to understand myself better, that this is the reason why I have these abandonment issues, that this is the reason why I'm like this. So it connected something for me. And then it also made me realize how deep things that happen in the birth, in the womb, and those first few moments of life. It's so important because we don't have any shells over us. We have not built any layers of protection. So when you get emotionally attacked, it hits you straight in the soul. It becomes your core wound that becomes so deep rooted in you. It really spawns who you are. So, yeah, I mean, I've just. I continue to do work around that. And I want to be a person that really talks to adoptees because I was so confused that I had these abandonment issues for so long. It didn't make any sense to me. And I know that a lot of adoptees as well, experience the same types of issues that I have. So that's been a pretty big goal of mine. And that's what I'm writing my next book on is adoption.

How do you respond to people who say you can't actually remember your birth?

I just tell them, you know, that's okay. I mean, believe what you want to believe. In my vessel and in my spirit, I believe what I believe. And because my perception is so, then it's reality to me. So I really just kind of brush those things off and I don't really too much let.

It's like a New age way of telling them they're wrong.

Yeah, I guess so.

A very gentle letdown.

Yeah.

I mean, your perception is your perception, mine is mine, so.

So you've got a lot of credibility. And I'm going to share something. I don't think I've ever shared this on the show because we're going there. I would have said there's no way in hell you can remember your birth. No one remembers a birth. That's dumb. So at this same event, Barbara, who since passed, she. I think she'd be 100 now. She said, I want to do the regression part of this with you. So I don't even know what that is, but okay. So she asked me to do some breathing. No hypnosis? No. Nothing like that. And like. Like it. Like, I kind of snapped back into my body and I remember all the time in the womb and the memories. And I think you'll resonate with this. The memories of being in the womb, it's all feelings and emotions. There isn't much thinking because your prefrontal cortex isn't really there. So it's all just like, body somatic sensation and like, very big swings of, like, fear and connectedness and all the different things. And I kind of set aside some of what I saw, and years later, I found a book somewhere that described the sensation of the development of a zygote. You know, a fetus. This. And I was, oh, my God, this guy. It's like it was in my head when I was experiencing that. And then I remember my birth, and I remember some things, and I called my parents and said, hey, did this happen? And they said, oh, yeah. And. And here's. Here was my experience, okay? So I. I was. I was posterior, which is different than being breached. It means, like, you're flipped backwards but not going to die. Coming out. And had the cord around my neck, and they were flipping around and probably tongs, whatever. And if you're listening, it's going, dave, why are you talking about this? Just stick with me for a minute here. So then I was delivered, never lost oxygen, all that kind of stuff. And I remembered just being in this clear, transparent box with the bright light. And that was what I asked my parents about. And they said, oh, yeah, it was a warming chamber. So as soon as you were born, they took you and put you in this warming chamber in another room, under a light to warm you up instead of putting on your mom. And. And I remember, like, in my bones, the decision I made. I came out and was like, I don't know what's going on here, but I'm all alone. And then I said, I still get, like, tingles in the back of my neck. I said, if I'm going to be alone, then I'll be alone. And I was alone for 30 years of my life. Wow. Until I healed it. Wow. Right? And people think it doesn't matter how children are born. Your mitochondrial networks, your unconscious parts, they're deciding what the world is like so they can set you up to win and at least to not die. And all that abandonment, trauma, all the stuff that I had about being alone, it wasn't a decision. It was decided by the environment around us. And that's why my first book was on fertility, including conscious childbirth. And it's why I caught both my kids at home. And they don't feel like they're alone. And they didn't get the abandonment. They didn't get all that stuff. Stuff. Are you familiar with Stan Grof's work on birth?

No.

So Stan Grof is the father of transpersonal psychology, where a lot of the stuff that we've all worked on comes from. He's about 100 now. He was 94 when I did a breath workshop with him. He invented holotropic breathing.

Wow.

And he invented it because he used LSD with 3,000 patients in Czechoslovakia in the 1950s, when it was Czechoslovakia. And when it became illegal, he figured out this breath work that would make people. I think the technical term is trip balls. And that was part of this process I went through when I was 30. And what he came up with is that there's five stages of birth. And when you get stuck at any one of the five stages, there's behaviors in your personality and your emotions and your triggers that you'll continue repeating until you heal it. So what I want to know is how did you heal? Or at least what was your process of entering healing? Because you said you're still working on it.

Yes. So I've actually done probably over 80, 90 holistic modalities. I mean, I've tried everything. I've been following you for over a decade, so, I mean, I've really tried everything. Flotation therapy.

Thank you.

Magnetic therapy. Yes. I mean, we have a hyperbaric oxygen chamber at home. We have an infrared sauna. We have a limb. So, I mean, really, for me, it was a matter of understanding that. I always felt like I had a gaping hole in my gut and I was trying to fill it up with everything external like alcohol and friends, but really I realized that that was my own self love. So I needed to find love within myself again. And I was searching externally for everything instead of looking internally. So as soon as I shifted focus inside and internal, then everything changed for me. And I realized that I'm not my thoughts. I can control my thoughts. I am the observer of my thoughts. That was the moment I woke up. It was like everything changed for me because I was stuck in a negative spin, thinking that I'm not good enough, I'm not worthy attracting these bad relationships, bad friendships, bad instances. So as soon as I really realized that I had the power to create my own thought process, that's when things really shifted for me.

That is. It's so profound. You understand the thoughts. And for me, the first tool and when I brought into the world of biohacking very early on was heart rate variability training. Not the wake up and look at your ring score that's relevant, but it's. How do I consciously, in real time, change my heart rate variability? Do you do that?

Yes, yes. We have heart math. So I have the little thing, the clips on your ear.

Yes.

And through meditation and breath work.

Breath work, yeah.

Beautiful. So Roland McCready, who is the head of science at the HeartMath foundation, has been on the show a couple times. We've been friends for, I think, up 20 years now.

Oh, great. Yeah, we talked to him on the phone about a year ago.

Oh, you did?

Cool.

I was an advisor to HeartMath in 2008. They started doing training in 2004 when they. Roland came and spoke at the longevity nonprofit that I used to run in my 20s, and it just blew my mind. Like, oh, my God. Hundreds of times a day, my body is going into fight or flight without my knowledge or permission. Like, this is a load of bullshit. And I did the training for a while, and then all of a sudden, I realized I don't need to have the clip thing on my ear. I just feel when it happens. And when you do the training, with their little appetite, there's a skill, a thing that makes the light turn green. And for me, it feels like something in my heart, and I could just do that. And so I spent maybe three years in my late 20s, early 30s playing whack a mole with my nervous system. It would get triggered for God knows what reason. I'm like, all right, chill, chill. And eventually, it's pretty chill the vast majority of the time. And if it's not, there's a reason, and it's not a trauma reason. It's a physiological reason. Yes. If you had to sort of pick a thing from a scale of 1 to 10, one is no healed. 10 is, I've got this. Where are you?

I would say 10, because I always got it.

Nice.

I always have it. But I do feel like there's next levels and more levels of awareness I can reach, more levels of optimization I can reach. And I do have triggers. I observe those triggers right now. I don't really let my emotions take control of me like I used to. I stay aware in those moments, which is, to me, the best thing that you can do in life.

So easy on me.

Yes.

That was.

My next question was like, how does this affect your relationship?

Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, well, I think that for us, I just. I love where we're at because he's a mirror to my triggers, and I'm a mirror to his triggers. And we definitely got together for a reason, and I think that reason is to heal each other, because he didn't know what trauma was before we got together.

I didn't.

And my whole life is about trauma. And that is the only missing piece I feel that can excel him sky high. And so we definitely met for a reason. We've been working deeply on Billy's trauma, and Billy's been so helpful in being so patient with me and my triggers and the stuff that I go through and then being willing to do all this weird biohacking stuff.

I used to think it was weird in the beginning, but now I've accepted it as part of my lifestyle.

You know, it really works. I wouldn't waste my time on it.

Right. Yeah.

I want to know a little more relationship stuff. All right, so when Elizabeth gets triggered, what do you do?

Well, the first thing I do is I observe the energy of the frequency swing. And I realize, okay, the energy is. She doesn't have to say anything. I could just sense the energy has now shifted. And the first thing I do, I want to go check on her, just see if she's okay, if there's anything that she needs. Maybe it's something that had nothing to do with me. In the beginning. I used to think, maybe it's me. It's the first thing you go to. Oh, it's gotta be me. And then you begin to realize through us counseling and talking and learning each other, that sometimes it has nothing to do with me. And for me just to be there, just to be supportive, just to sometimes listen and just to maybe sometimes ask questions or sometimes maybe to see if she just needs a little bit of space. And it takes a lot of patience and control to get to that immaturity, to get to that point. In the beginning, it. I wasn't there in the beginning of our relationship, but I really feel so pleased now that over the time, over time now maybe four years, I've really matured to the point where if she's triggered about something, I don't have to go crazy. I don't have to get nervous. I don't have to figure out what's going on. I can check on her. I can show her I support her. I can show her I love her. I can embrace her. I can see if she needs space or if it's something I can assist with.

With.

And I don't try to solve every single problem because I don't have to solve every problem. Sometimes he just needs an ear or somebody just to be there and sit quietly. Whatever the case may be, I'm there for that, and I'm open to it. And that patience and that love and that empathy, it helps bring us closer together.

Wow. You ever think about having, like, one of those, like, water spray bottles? You just spray it like.

Like we do with the dog. Keep the dog off the couch.

You're so triggered. You. He sprayed me. If I was, I'd be so angry. Like, what are you doing?

I recommend not doing that.

Just. I won't do.

Might actually be funny, though.

We've really built a very special relationship. This is the greatest relationship I've ever been in. For me, starting over in my 50s is a big decision.

You're in your 50s?

53.

He's aged backwards.

This melanin thing is. It's like your skin doesn't age. What the fuck? I mean, you look like you're 30.

I appreciate it. Thank you. Well, I got it.

Literally, he's been reverse aging. When I first met him, he didn't look like.

No, I didn't. Oh, that's another conversation we can have. I was a vegan.

Yeah.

Oh, my God. That'll make you so sick.

30 years.

I was getting so sick. I was dying. I was literally dying. And she literally nursed me back to health and switched my diet up, got me back eating proteins, got me back in the balance. Took me to get my blood panels on a consistent basis to get my saliva, stool, and blood checked, to help customize a diet, a nutrition plan specifically for my body type, for my blood, for everything about me customized and really nursed me back to life. And I went back. I was 175 pounds, which is not good for six foot four. I look like a stick man. And getting autoimmune responses. My teeth were dark because they were. I was malnourished. I had leaky gut. I had borderline osteoporosis. I was internal bleeding. I was at Gaia TV filming a TV show, and I stood up after four hours of filming in the chair, and the chair was wet. And I go, why is the chair wet? And when I did, like, I had on black. Black suit. When I did, like this to the. To the chair, my fingers was red. I said, wait a minute, what is that? Oh, I'm leaking. I'm bleeding. I was bleeding out while I was on this TV series I was filming on Gaia.

Bad. Yeah.

And I was just like, I thought I was dying, gang. And it got real bad. It got real bad, man. I was so inflamed in the joints, I couldn't do one push up. I was in bad shape. So I had to get nursed all the way back to now, you know, £215. I'm solid. I am exercising on a consistent basis. She's giving me all the supplements and nutrients I need to take on a daily basis, all the peptides I need to take, all the bio.

Good job.

Saved my life, literally. Yeah. And my biological age dropped down to.

I think you're like, 40 or something.

Yeah, I think it's 40. Yeah.

Like 15. Yeah.

Yeah.

Congratulations.

Yeah, thank you.

And there's a couple things going on there, and one of these is, like, one of the biggest just injustices that I've ever come across. And you got osteoporosis because it's hard to make vitamin D when you have dark skin.

Yes.

Right, Right. And there are tens of thousands of black fathers in prison right now because their babies didn't have enough vitamin D. And so they get rickets, and then their bones break, and they go to the hospital. Your mom and dad go to the hospital with the baby, say he's in pain. I don't know what it is. And they do X rays and say, well, there's broken bones. Which one of you is beating the child?

Yep.

And they call cps. And then it comes down to, well, we know the child has been beaten because of the broken bones. It's just a nutrient deficiency because you need more sunlight, you need more vitamin D. And then it comes down to this. Well, if one of you won't confess, then we'll take the baby from both of you. So the dads do what dads do, and they say, fine, it was me. And they go to jail, and they didn't do it. And Dr. Cannell from the Vitamin D Research Institute has testified hundreds and hundreds of times to help men get out of prison or not go to prison. Wow. We're just dealing with nutrient deficiencies and sunlight deficiencies. Wow. And it's like, it's so wrong to separate a family like that. It just gets under my skin. It pisses me off.

It's so sad. Another gentleman just. He fortunately got released from jail. They had locked him up because the baby died in his arms while he was sitting on the couch while.