PsychedelicEagle

Not true. Organic farming = sustainable agricultural system that uses ecologically based pest controls. It's mostly better for the environment, probably also better for consumers. This. For curiosity, organic seems to yield 25% less than non-organic. Disconsidering differences in pesticide, fertilizer, & other costs, one can use a simple rule of thumb to assess whether the price of an organic food is fair. Personally, I always buy organic because I believe it might be healthier and better for the planet. Which might not be true. If I wasn't able to afford organic I wouldn't matter much about it.

@aurum Yes, great points. An example of this is trace minerals. We grow our foods in soil that is reutilized over and over, with usually only a handful of minerals being replenished. Even whole foods are not as natural anymore. After learning about it, I'm now considering a trace minerals supplement.

Could it be your Cortisol regulation? Usually what makes us jump out of bed in the mornings is the cortisol peak. Not sure what would help to regulate it, but I think doing these things earlier in the day might help: exercising, cold exposure, daylight, etc. The reason is that earlier the peak the lower cortisol will be later in the day. Maybe over time this will either directly regular the cycle or indirectly help you sleep earlier.

Have you looked at the natural hygiene movement? There are some medical phylosophies that take the absence of hunger as an indicative the body needs to fast. Not necessarily suggesting it's your case, just food for thought. Other ideas: Reducing the number of meals. Personally, I eat 2x/day. I find it quite nice because when I eat it's pleasurable and I get to eat significant amounts of food in each meal. Using a blender to get more calories in. Not solving the hunger issue, but an alternative. Trace minerals. Something I became aware of recently. Not sure they can be tested...

@bambi, I honestly think these issues are not taken as seriously as they should. We live in a society where reductionism and scientism are the norm. Anyway I appreciate what Bryan is doing and I think the gradient is positive: Blueprint helps to move society to a healthier place.

The idea is to weigh measurements with other facts. Biomarkers are just one way of informing oneself. Perhaps a quite reliable one, but not infallible. Agreed, this is likely required if we want to optimize health to the extreme. But notice that manipulating highly complex biological systems is not easy. Whenever you decide to go againt nature you are playing at high stakes. Perhaps this is part of Bryan's purpose; if so, that's okay, and his findings will be valuable for humanity. I just wouldn't run the risk myself. The line is drawn arbitrarily of course. To me, the longer some behavior/food/etc. was present during our evolution, the more natural it is. Therefore I favor whole foods vs supplements, for example. Natural is not strictly better, but the standard deviation tends to be smaller: you are less likely to screw yourself by doing things we evolved doing. So we can say natural is more robust.

Indeed. He doesn't even mention meditation in the protocol. Perhaps another hint at his center of gravity still falling under Stage Orange.

Okay, I see your point. Reformulating mine, I think he relies too much on measurements, lacking epistemic humility. The more we measure, the better (disregarding measurement side effects), but that doesn't mean we have to act within the boundaries of such measurements. Besides measurements, we can use other pillars, such as history and evolution, to inform our decisions. In my example above, that would correspond to acknowledging that we evolved with our skin exposed to the Sun and therefore maintaining a minimal level of Sun exposure could be wise. Yes, granted we know what toxic chemicals to look for. Some might only be revealed to be toxic decades from now. Anyway, my personal bias is to rely on natural means as much as possible.

For instance, never exposing himself to Sunlight. Granted, UV radiation ages the skin and you can supplement Vitamin D. But what if there's more to Sunlight than Vitamin D? What if Sun exposure expresses/produces other genes or compounds we're not aware of as of today? Also, is it really healthier to block the UV you are exposed to but then risk adding other chemicals (e.g., PFAS) into your body via too much sunblocker?

I agree with this, but if you look deeper he seems to have good intentions: sharing all the data, emphasizing the importance of the fundamentals (sleep, diet, exercise), etc. He's mostly coming from a hyper rationalist perspective. Which actually makes him somewhat relatable for people who are scientifically-minded and not yet open to trans-rationalism. Fair point, indeed, and great summary. Though I still think a more holistic approach would be more robust for long-term health -- using but at the same time acknowledging the limitations of the current metrics/measurements.

As I mentioned in this post, I see his Blueprint project as quite positive. The main issue with Bryan IMO is that he's still stuck in stage orange, trying to measure everything. And IIRC he's got a quite materialist/rationalist worldview, as per his interview for Curt Jaimungal (for whom Leo was also interviewed). Still, he's got green values such environmentalism.

Agreed. Though I would remove salt, and make sure to not use any oil for cooking (just Olive Oil as a topping). IMO an significant part of a healthy diet is making it SOS-free: no Salt, Oil, or Sugar. A bit extreme for conventional standards but that's what I do.

Makes sense, whenever we take too much/too little of something we're shifting "out of distribution" as I said, so your concern is real. What makes me believe that taking supplements may be beneficial is that the soils onto which we grow our food have been drastically modified/depleted of trace minerals & perhaps even other substances such as Vitamin B12. So from this perspective we're already out of distribution without taking anything. Btw, as for Vitamin D, I take the aforementioned 5000 UI once a week during winter. Just for maintenance, since I know my current level is good.

Quite interesting, I hadn't seen this before. Thanks for sharing. Curious to see if this will indeed have an effect while keeping a safe profile. Do you know if this therapy is done once in a lifetime or if it has to be repeated in the future?

Legumes (lentils, beans, etc.) usually have some compounds which make digestion harder. These compounds are higher in concentration when the legume seed is in its dried state. Soaking (or even sprouting) and cooking help remove these compounds. I eat black lentils almost every day. I usually don't soak them, but I cook them for at least 20 minutes. It could be you are sensitive to those compounds and therefore you can try soaking or cooking for a longer period. Also, are you eating the same amount of calories you normally do? Consider other ingredients as well, such as the hempseed. IIRC they can cause allergy. You can try ablating the different ingredients to see if the lentils are indeed the cause. Lastly, if you're not used to eating a lot of fiber, your body will have a harder time should you abruptly increase your fiber intake. Over time I believe your microbiome gets used to it. In any case, eating more fiber will result in more gas. At least that's my experience.

Wonderful! What a piece of art! Thanks for sharing @koops

I also feel conscious about making loud noises when I trip at home. @shree, about your OP trip, did you take 5-MeO while still fasting? Do you think the fast is what potentiated it? I'm curious because I also periodically practice fasting and therefore I might also try a 5-MeO trip before breaking it in the future.

@mmKay, you mean once mercury gets inside the cell it's never excreted? I would hope that by eliminating extracellular mercury, that would increase the percentage of mercury excreted from the cell (since there's now less mercury in the bloodstream). And, through this process, slowly remove mercury from the body/brain. Just guessing, I haven't done any research. I just saw a podcast once where this mainstream brain expert Dr. Daniel Amen mentioned sauna was very effetive for detoxing mercury. This research found Ni (nickel) and Pb (lead) are not eliminated as effectively in the sauna as when one is exercising. Kinda interesting. So maybe sauna only works for Mercury and eventually Arsenium. I usually go to the sauna after training so I wonder what the effects would be in my case.

Sauna seems great for detoxing Mercury. Not sure how it goes for other heavy metals.

I'm sorry that you went through this. I don't know what is the best option forward, but have you considered focusing on the fundamentals? Prioritize sleep, diet, and exercise. Try to get as many nutrients as possible from a whole foods diet, focusing on plant-based (but supplementing B12, etc., based on your defficiencies). Do grounding and expose your skin to sunlight in the mornings (also helps regulate sleep). Check your Omega 6-Omega 3 balance. Etc. Also, I have heard Lithium is an important trace mineral for regulating mood. Black lentils and beans are rich in it.

In my mind I distinguish between "essential", "non-essential", and "low impact", focusing on longevity. Here's what I'm currently on. I only take what I can't easily get from whole foods on a plant-based diet. Essential Omega 3 (EPA/DHA), 835mg/day Vitamin D + K2 (only for winter months, when I can't sunbathe), 5000 UI + 100 mcg Vitamin B12 (I eat vegan 6x/week), 500ug 1-2x/week Iodine (I eat an SOS-free diet, which means I never use iodized salt), 250ug/day Zinc (also due to vegan eating), 14mg/day Extra-Virgin Olive Oil, 2 tbsp/day (together with my two meals) Non-essential, high impact BroccoMax (for sulphoraphane, when I don't have broccoli sprouts at hand or when I'm traveling) Taurine (added recently, seems impactful on longevity), 500-1000mg/day (on the conservative side) Vitamin E (since my intake from food is "only" 12mg/day, which seems to be on the lower side), 322mg/400 IE 1x/week Non-essential, questionable impact Ginkgo Biloba, 200mg/day (since I had tinnitus) Creatine, 1g/day (on the convervative side) Pea protein isolate (since I do moderate/heavy weight training 5-6x/week, I try to eat 1.2g of protein/kg of bodyweight), 30g/day (24g protein) I usually take them together with my green smoothie, to avoid putting too much of a highly concentrated thing directly into my body. I am aware that this may compromise absorption (e.g., oxalate food such as spinach may interfere with calcium absorption, etc.), but in my mind this is a more conservative approach to supplement taking. Great point. This is something I learned more recently. One has to think about the entire metabolism and not only at hitting a "recommended daily intake". That's why I try to stay around the daily limits (except for Vitamin D, which seems fine). For instance, I've heard that animal food/protein and salt increase calcium excretion, just as an example. So by eating less animal food & less salt I am happy with my calcium intake of "only" 800mg/day.

I see his extremely reductionistic approach to health, trying to quantify everything, as a hallmark of stage orange. Personally, I believe it's more robust to rely on whole foods, the ones we evolved eating. Every time you consume something different/extremely concentrated such as supplements you're putting your body "out of distribution" (thinking of nutrients as different dimensions in a statistical distribution). That said, I see Bryan's Blueprint initiative as quite positive. He's sharing all the data, recipes, etc. He also seems to incorporate a lot of stage green/yellow in his ideas (at least for a stage orange entrepreneur). For instance, see this presentation. He addresses subjects like global warming and more systemic issues such as our collective minds.

@toasty7718 thanks. Being realistic about it, I almost did not make it through. I remember entering the metro the day I was going to do my tomography, which was already a couple months after the experience. I was having labyrinthit all the time, every single day until that moment, which I was attributing to a possible stroke (looking back, my extreme worry about a stroke was likely a type of OCD, I think). During that metro travel to the hospital, an insight came me: "what if this is not real, what if this is being caused by my own mind". At that moment I realized I was inflicting all that suffering onto myself, I realized I probably did not need a tomography to tell me I was fine. Had this insight not had that happened to me, I would have likely needed medication or God knows what. This was one of the experiences that made me open to the power the mind and our perspectives have. It helped me to shatter a bit of my extreme rationalistic/materialistic paradigm. Perhaps that was the crisis that introduced me to stage green, even though it took me a decade to fully adopt green values.

Fully agree. If you're up for game, best sober. I usually prefer daygame over festivals/nighttime anyway. Related to weed & festivals: when I was ~20, I smoked it (which was probably hash) at a University festival: the worst trip I ever had. Basically I had an anxiety attack and thought I had had a stroke. My mouth got completely dry and I could not speak for what seemed like an hour. That also triggered a Labyrinthit crisis lasting for weeks. I had to live with the fear of having had a stroke for months after, even did a tomography lol. Happily I went through everything without "professional" help, which means I was not exposed to pharmaceuticals/antidepressants/whatever. Overcoming this episode on my own helped me to build great mental strength. This strength now makes me very secure when exploring psychedelics.

In one of my Bufo Alvarius trips I had an insight into the importance of integrity in one's life. From that point forward I completely stopped drinking, having been tolerating small amounts of alcohol here and there in social events due to social pressure and habit. Then I said enough. I don't have to tolerate small portions of a substance I find counterproductive for health and development just because society is fucked up. IMO psychedelics help to interconnect your inner values and experiences and from there changes can happen. It's not a given, though. I see it as though your mind has to be ready and willing to work in a certain area for a breakthrough there to happen. In my case I had been fed up with putting up with alcohol for a few years before the 5-MeO experience took place. I had also been consuming health content which raised my awareness of the detrimental effects of alcohol. That said, I think I healed my deepest traumas with Ayahuasca. I don't have as much experience with 5-MeO as I have with Aya tho. Could the length of trip helps to settle the realizations you have into your emotional being? In this case Aya would have an advantage, especially vs 5-MeO-DMT smoked.