PNTV: One Spirit Medicine by Alberto Villoldo, Ph.D. (#229)

Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to Philosopher's Notes TV. Today, another great book, One Spirit Medicine, One Spirit Medicine by Alberto Violdo, PhD, who's a fascinating blend of medical anthropologist and practicing shaman. We've done a couple of notes on his other books, including Courageous Dreaming and Power up your brain. This one's his newest, one Philosopher's Note. Bunch of big ideas and a handful of my favorites here. So let's jump in. So basic idea here is combining ancient wisdom of the shaman traditions that he studied in the Amazon and the Andes with modern science. Half of the book is nutrition. If we want to experience what he calls one spirit medicine as we optimize our lives, actualize our potential, and connect to something bigger than ourselves, we have to start by getting our gut right. So first big idea is the gut brain. The gut brain, otherwise known as your second brain. We've talked about this in a few other episodes. Every single time I read about the second brain in your gut, I'm blown away. 100 million neurons. 100 million neurons are in your gut. That just blows me away. 100 million neurons. Think about that. 95% Alberto tells us of the serotonin that's used and created is in your gut. It's constantly communicating with your head brain, your gut brain and your head brain. And it's extraordinarily important. I optimizing that is key if you want to optimize your health. So if you have any issues with your psychological or emotional or physical well being, although your doctors may not tell you to look at what you're eating and what's going on in your gut, it's huge. Pay attention to it. And these are our top two toxins that we want to pay attention to. Sugar and flour. I come back to this a lot in our videos talking about nutrition because it's huge. You can debate on the edges of certain things, nutrition, but no one's going to tell you to eat more sugar and eat more refined processed flour. Not going to happen. Keep these stats in mind. Sugar, 150 pounds and flour, specifically wheat flour, 133 pounds. So over our couple million years of evolutionary history, we had next to zero added sugar and next to zero wheat miniscule amounts, right? Today we have 150 pounds of sugar. The average American consumes 152 pounds of added sugar. In 1700, that was 5 pounds. And we eat 133 pounds of wheat alone. And that wheat, Alberto tells us, is very different than the wheat we had even 75 years ago. Post World War II came up with a new type of wheat that helped deal with some famine issues, but it has 20 times the amount of gluten that wheat before it had. Not good for us. All of us have a certain level of gluten sensitivity. Some of us are more sensitive than others, but Alberto says all of us have a level of sensitivity. We did not evolve to eat wheat and sugar in the quantities we eat them. So these are the first three things to remove from your diet if you haven't yet, so you can take nice care of your gut brain, so you can take nice care of your overall brain and feel better. Sugar, he says, is the number one toxin in your kitchen. Big idea. Okay, so those are our toxins. The third big idea is our superfoods. He talks about a number of them and supplements and stuff in the book. But the one I'm going to focus on now is cruciferous vegetables. Cruciferous vegetables. These. These are veggies, like broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, celery, kale, bok choy, collard greens are all cruciferous vegetables. We know that green vegetables are good for us, but cruciferous vegetables are even better for us. They're truly superfoods. In the note, I mentioned some studies by Joel Fuhrman that you can eat a certain amount of green vegetables, like a lot of green vegetables, and you'll see your cancer rate go down by X percent. But if you eat a fraction of those green vegetables as cruciferous vegetables, your cancer rate will go down an equivalent amount on a fraction of the greens when they are cruciferous vegetables. So take out the sugar, take out the flour, and next time you're cruising through your grocery store or farmer's market or wherever you're buying your produce, pick up some cruciferous vegetables. I love kale. I love collard greens and bok choy. Brussels sprouts are amazing. Stock your fridge with those foods. Eat them consistently. Keep it simple. Get your superfoods on. Boost your gut health. All right. Fourth big idea is a fascinating one. News and TV talk. So Alberto tells us that in one week, via just the Internet and TV alone, we modern human beings stimulate ourselves more in that one week than our Paleolithic ancestors did in their entire lives. Think about that for a moment. In one week, we receive more stimulation via the Internet and TV alone than our Paleolithic ancestors received in their entire lifetime. That's crazy when you actually slow down and think about that. He talks about the fact that this is Running wreaking havoc on our overall sense of well being. And we're going to have a hard time connecting to something bigger than ourselves. One spirit medicine. And if we're constantly responding to that stimuli. I've talked about Stephen King and how he described it as having jumper cables on his brain when he was super busy as a school teacher when he started his career. It was tough to create when he was so stimulated. And get this. In the note, I talk about Kelly McGonigal and her upside of Stress. She talks about research done following the Boston Marathon bombing 2013. So individuals who watched over six hours of news footage on the Boston Marathon bombing, six hours of TV viewing of that incident had higher. Those individuals who watched it had higher levels of post traumatic stress than individuals who actually were involved in the event personally were affected personally. Our brains didn't evolve to take in this type of data all the time. When we're constantly plugged into every single tragedy and trauma that's going on around the world 24 7, we just hit overwhelm. We can't handle it. Our brains can't differentiate between something happening over there to someone else and something happening here. It feels like it's all here. It's an amazing thing to keep in mind. And we need to reduce the load of that if we want to tap into this. He talks about it, we talk about it. The notes. Stillness. Finding your breath. Finding and cultivating stillness in your life. But this is huge. Another little data point from Kelly McGonigal. She says in the Upside of Stress that researchers have discovered that the greatest predictor of someone's fear and anxiety is the number of hours they spend watching TV talk shows. Crazy. Unplug. Turn it off. Average American watches 34 hours of TV. That's equivalent to this 150 pounds and 133 pound stat. It's crazy. Fifth big idea. Death and life. So the first half of the book is about nutrition, how we get our gut brain right. And then we move into some other stuff and the book winds up with the medicine wheel. Alberto's a shaman and he walks us through the four points on the medicine wheel. So south, west, north and east. Each of which has its own journey. Mythological framing, really cool stuff. But the one I want to talk about right now is the West. In the west, we embrace the fact that life goes through cycles of death and rebirth. You cannot have life without death. Alberto and all great teachers tell us, and it's in the west. And imagine a sun setting. We know that the sun sets in the west every day. But we also know that as the day ends, the death comes. Through the day, we know it's going to come back. The sun rises in the east, and that's a cyclical pattern you can't break. You can't have eternal sunshine and eternal sunrises, period. You need to have the death cycle and then the rebirth. And he says we need to embrace that in our lives. What do you have in your life that you're holding onto that you need to let go of? As we face different challenges in our lives, we have opportunities to grow. He says the forest in the Amazon only grows from the death of other plants. That's what nourishes the canopy and the forest and the jungle. The jaguar dies, and his essence feeds the tree that feeds the monkey that the next jaguar is going to eat. So it's the same with our lives. We have cycles of death and rebirth, Many cycles throughout our lives. Campbell and Nietzsche say, the snake that cannot shed its skin, Skin must perish. We need to let go of the old so we can give birth to the new. It's a huge concept. Think about in your life where you might be holding on and where you can let go and move into the next life following the death. Sunset, sunrise. Big idea news. Turn it off. Not good. Remember, your brain did not evolve to take in that much stress and stimulation. Oh, this is the line that Alberto shared. That's just amazing. He says our minds evolved to deal with one lion roaring at us at once, not the entire jungle turning against us. That's our experience, our felt experience by our subconscious mind. When we're constantly consuming 24. 7 of every single intense thing going on. It's as if the jungle is coming at us every single day. Not a wise thing. Superfoods, cruciferous vegetables. Next time you're cruising through the grocery store, pick up some bok choy, kale, brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, Go nuts. Reduce your sugar. Reduce your flour. Take care of your gut brain as you experience one spirit medicine. Hope you enjoyed. I'm interviewing Alberto about an hour after I wrap this up, which I'm excited about. I'll share that soon. And whatever the idea was that jumped out at you, jump on it. Make it a part of your life. Look forward to sharing more with you soon. Have another awesome day. See ya.