be here this is boring this is stupid why did I do this you know that's the Primitive mind uh not wanting to do that and I knew that there'd be a craving that craving is look get me out here I need social interaction I need to read something like I remember I had my toothpaste I probably read like 18 times you know because I needed to read something and uh but after about four days of that battle you kind of get over it and now you are heightened with your senses you realize the walk that you've been taking to the meditation school from your sleeping quarters you realize things that you never realized before like I could hear the grass through the wind the wind blushing through the grass those things that I'd notice on that walk that I'd never noticed before because we've always got the blinders on and our senses have become so shut off and dampened from the noise from the sounds from the sights from the smells everything and then just being alone so you can


smells everything and then just being alone so you can actually for once hear your own voice in your head in your thoughts with Clarity is absolutely unbelievable it's really really good but coming back into society was very difficult you know because you know like I remember going into a gas station on the way back and the lights and it's music playing and his kids in there and I was like I cannot handle this it's too much too soon and I remember going to the vipassana which is about a four hour drive for me had the music playing all that sort of stuff I just wanted silence on the way back on the way there I didn't notice the mountains on the way back I'm noticing the beauty in the mountains and noticing the Beauty and the small things and appreciating so many of the small things that we usually take for granted and appreciating life you know the lifeline that we've been given and I've taken that for a granted and that's why one of the reasons why


granted and that's why one of the reasons why I'm working so much on increasing my health span and my longevity and my health because of course I'm going to get old but I don't want to be elderly in a process where someone has to take care of me you know I've got some sort of disability because our lives are very very valuable and I think it's very important to do something like a vipassana for those that are just focusing on work focusing on the next year focusing on their career the woman whatever you need to focus on yourself a little bit more to ground yourself yeah um you know speaking about grounding yourself when you actually get into what vipassana entails it's extremely mathematical uh I don't know the exact technique because I've not really done a course the way you have but it's something like for these for this much time you have to focus on your breath and for this much time you have to focus on something else yeah so you start off with


focus on something else yeah so you start off with a larger sort of triangle around the bottom of your lips over your nose like the mask yeah you focus on your breath around this area and the senses around this area and as you get a little bit better you focus on closing that Gap until you're just focusing on the inside of your nostril and then you go through a scanning process starting with the top of the head going down if you get distracted by any thought whatsoever you start again and if you get down to say your eyes you go back and start again at the top and you know you train yourself not to get distracted you know that's the hardest part because we're so used to it you know if you ask you know what when I do my seminars I always ask people has anybody meditated everyone puts out their hand and then I ask them do you meditate hardly anyone puts up their hands because it's difficult it's hard but it's just like you know if


it's hard but it's just like you know if you're training maybe it's going to take several months for you to see any results and it's the same with learning a language or meditating you know you just got to be consistent with it to actually get anything from it but um Mr SN guenko is just a phenomenal teacher and he's there through the TV and through the audio at some occasions teaching and I it really really did help but then the rest of the time that you're just in silence I think that's the big joy and benefit of meditation that young people especially college students teenagers fail to understand that you know when you see a really really sharp knife where someone's handing you a sharp knife and they say okay don't touch that side because you'll cut yourself very easily your mind is capable of becoming that knife if you're able to engage yourself in the grind which is meditation people think that when you meditate uh it's boring and you'll get negative thoughts and your mind


boring and you'll get negative thoughts and your mind will run places and all that's okay it's it's supposed to happen it's like your mind flushing out the thoughts yes exactly uh and your job is to just pull it back to the point of focus which could be how when we're passing they focus on the breadth and the movement of uh Consciousness it could be a mantra it could be something else it could be a chant you're doing but bringing it back to that single point of focus sharpens that knife which is your mind and once your mind is like that much sharper you're able to apply it in the gym in your career uh in your relationship uh and we had a we had a Sri Lankan monk his name was dandapani and I've spoken about this concept exactly that this is what mindfulness and meditation brings to your life that your knife for life becomes sharp and he's like yeah that's true but also when you're in moments of Happiness you're able to


you're in moments of Happiness you're able to focus on the happiness much more and extract the happiness yeah that's true yeah because you're that much more in any particular moments in your presence and very few of us are present you know if with having a conversation with someone we're usually waiting for them to finish so we can talk as opposed to really listening shutting out all the distraction making the eye contact and being present yeah in that particular moment and that's why I think a lot of people go wow that year went so quick well last five years I remember when the album came out because no one's present yeah and it's the same when we're eating our meals you know we're talking about the Mind muscle connection I get my clients to really focus on slowing down when they're eating their meals there's a great book out there called the slow down diets where we are appreciated we appreciate the color of the food the texture of the food when it's in our mouth how many hands it


food when it's in our mouth how many hands it went through to get onto our plates and what it's going to do for us provide us energy antioxidants polyphenols for our skin here whatever it's our Lifeline you know and then you appreciate and you feel more fulfilled because a lot of people are eating distracted once they've finished eating that meal they're like what else can I eat yeah and people are overeating because they haven't acknowledged what they've eaten 100 men um okay I'm gonna tell you something I've spoken more on the show a lot uh I was one of those people who really looked down upon meditation and yoga and I thought because again I was I was very much into my weight training my power lifting and I was single uh I mean there was a single pointed Focus I had towards like powerlifting and getting my numbers up uh and then at age 22 Ayahuasca happened to me was that in India no no it was it just came to me man I didn't go


was it just came to me man I didn't go out looking for it like I was in Seychelles and I met a shaman on the beach and he tried convincing me to do it and I was fighting the thought I was like I'm not gonna do this [ __ ] and uh that night when I was sleeping I had a dream I just felt like some higher power told me do it I did it the next day and it was the single most important life experience I've had like everything switched up like I came out a new person and recently I've had another kind of shamanic experience it wasn't Ayahuasca it was psilocybin oh yeah but with a shaman and that changed me as well that gave me the empathy that I was missing especially towards my family because with content you have empathy you know towards your audience you have empathy towards your team because they're building it with you but that empathy is kind of coming from somewhere and I was


is kind of coming from somewhere and I was withdrawing it from my family so I feel like it didn't just uh turn back this empathy I'm giving in the forward Direction it added more empathy to my heart so that I can give it in the forward and the backward direction of my family so both these experiences have been very life-changing now parallely um I've been questioning the meaning of this kind of grind a lot in terms of this is a lot of work to be generating so many podcasts to be doing social media to be doing businesses a couple of years back I began working on a meditation app uh for the last year we've really been working on it and I've still been questioning things because it's a lot of work there as well but I just figured that when I was training people it was a lot I was doing for people in that one hour session you know in terms of I wasn't only like training their bodies but I was adding something to their mind as well


but I was adding something to their mind as well now imagine that at scale so The Silo Simon actually showed me that the the meditation you're putting out there it's to convince versions of you who are younger than you in this world that things like meditation things like mindfulness add a lot to your existence interesting not everyone's gonna get access to Ayahuasca and silos I've been to understand that everyone has access to technology and apps and you can do so much more when you do it at scale um have you ever had any experience like that with plant medicine yeah medicine yeah actually went to Colombia and did Ayahuasca some years ago uh I didn't have the effect that a lot of people did there you know people you know I was there for five to seven days but we did the Ayahuasca over five days and some people had life changing or four days some people had life-changing experiences after the first day you know I saw a lot of people there people from around the world didn't have that


people there people from around the world didn't have that effect on me um and I kept getting more cups as the days progressed and it just wasn't getting the effect as a lot of people were and they said that because I've grown up with so much control wanting control that I wasn't able to let myself go in that scenario I'd done psilocybin as well but I found out that I think there's a compound within me that doesn't allow the psilocybum to have a positive effect because it releases too much dopamine in my brain however I can do LSD so I've done I do a lot of LSD on micro dosing scale because that helps with preventing so much dopamine being released I just want to put a disclaimer this is not recreational at all and we're not like talking about drugs here this is from a neurology perspective yeah for sure and it can help you know with PTSD it can help with depression and if you have some sort of uh hormonal


and if you have some sort of uh hormonal imbalances everybody's different that's why you're going to have your blood work done before you look into anything like this because it could have a negative effect on some people then you know then that's why I do it and uh the most profound effect that I had uh was ketamine therapy and I did this in a clinical setting you know I had had you wouldn't call it a shaman that was there but I had an instructor that was there who's also my meditation instructor and yoga instructor back in Boise and that had a very very positive effect on me and that was just you know in a basement near a busy street as opposed to going to a luxury place in Columbia where I did the Ayahuasca you know I was able to get a better effect but that goes to show that someone like you can do psilocybin and Ayahuasca but that's not going to have a positive effect for someone else you have to find what your groove


for someone else you have to find what your groove is are you comfortable talking about the ketamine of course um because I think ketamine has a very negative connotation for a lot of people yeah they'll categorize it with cocaine and heroin yeah uh and anything including Ayahuasca and xylocybin can be harmful to you if you do it in excess yeah so uh any substance I mean even even like brown rice and chicken breast and broccoli can be harmful if you do it in excess so of course these things can be harmful of course they can be addictive but when you do it with a science-backed approach with neurologists around with people to guide you things can change radically in your brain I would love to know what that was like for you my man yes so picture this so I'm in a room I'm lying on uh it's called a pod which is like a large bin bin bag and I've got like a weighted blanket on me with a face mask but beforehand


blanket on me with a face mask but beforehand for about an hour with the instructor we're discussing the intention what is the intention that I want to get from this why am I I'm there because you're not doing this for a recreational purpose you're actually doing this to clear something from your past from your presence whatever it may be and then you take you know then they would actually tell you the amount that you should take of the ketamine so then you get given the ketamine which is basically like a large lozenge you can actually have it injected as well through IV yeah but I took the lozenge where you let that melt underneath your tongue and then they'd start like the Music and start talking through the process of what you're about to experience and then your experience and you kind of lose track of time you're probably under for about two hours but if you came out and I said it was 20 minutes or eight hours you probably wouldn't know the difference you know you lose you


wouldn't know the difference you know you lose you definitely lose track of time and the only way that I could probably describe it it wasn't as if that you're seeing like bright colors or you're like tripping by any sense it honestly feels like and this is the only way that I can describe it because there's a lot of Darkness there is that it feels like someone is just cleaning out all the rubbish in your brain and that's what all the darkness is all the toxic buildup that you know you build up in your body let's say if you're drinking alcohol or having bad polluted uh air you know you're getting rid of all the the bad thoughts and the toxic buildup in your brain and that's what all the dark matter is and then when you come out and there's a clearing it feels like you can fill your brain now with the thoughts that you want to think because a lot of the time we're like oh why am I thinking this way I've got a


oh why am I thinking this way I've got a great life and I got a you know great wife got good hairs got a dog or whatever but why am I having his thoughts and it allowed me to clear out a lot of those thoughts so I could fill it with the thoughts that I wanted to think created space in your mind yeah but what did you visualize when this was happening I didn't really visualize anything it was so much it was the only way I could describe it is that I saw like a lot of waterfalls but they were made out of like leaves you know that was it there was uh an occasion where it felt like the ocean but the ocean was all black but like you know where you see the water break and it's all white like that was like soft like clouds that's kind of what I was seeing you know it's very difficult where if you were on something like LSD you're probably going to see a loads of bright colors you're going to probably see faces


loads of bright colors you're going to probably see faces in the trees it was nothing like that it was very soft it's very relaxing but it was very dark as well at the same time when I say dark I just mean the tone not the thoughts um when I was on my Ayahuasca and silos I've been experiences at the peaks of both I felt the presence of the entities associated with the two for example when you're gonna do Ayahuasca they say you always feel a feminine entity yeah that's right yeah same with silos I've been you feel uh they call it the mushroom I think for me it was like a transgender entity didn't have a gender it was just like an entity with me which was healing did you feel that with me I didn't feel that I didn't feel that I didn't feel that what I did feel is that I felt a connection especially with the Ayahuasca I felt a connection with the Earth felt the connection like I remember looking up at the stars and feeling


like I remember looking up at the stars and feeling a connection with the Stars because it was outside in a hammock uh feeling a connection with like the trees uh I could almost see the the bloodline within the Earth within the walls you know everything was alive and that's when I felt more of a connection with the universe maybe for you the mother Ayahuasca showed up as Mother Nature yeah maybe yeah you maybe you've brought something to like that I had no idea I didn't think about that um did you have like a vivid experience in your Ayahuasca session as well because I'll tell you why I ask you this you actually went to the Amazon and did it went to Columbia okay uh Costa Rica sorry Costa Rica Colombia was another stem cell experience uh how expensive was it in Costa Rica I actually got that for free okay because they just wanted me to give them an honest review after wow uh and uh I had Jerry Who's in charge of the facility fascinating character I had him


charge of the facility fascinating character I had him on my podcast so I said yeah yeah I'll give it a shot because that was something that I was interested in and a couple of my friends from the biohacking space had already been down there and they just connected us so uh myself and my partner we went down there and we did it for the week and it was only on that last day that I felt an experience really but it wasn't as life-changing as an other people there where I felt maybe what you said is that connection with Mother Ayahuasca uh which was nature mother nature and uh you know just feeling that connection was really really amazing but just see if seeing the connection with other people during that time I don't know if you purged where you were throwing up I didn't have any of that I didn't have any of those experiences it didn't happen to me either but I cried a lot and I wasn't sad when I was crying I knew I was just releasing things


was crying I knew I was just releasing things I actually looked at my Shaman and asked him why am I crying because I'm not feeling sad I'm actually feeling happy well there's a lot of people there when you were doing it no and I was just me see I think that probably would have been better for me because I'm a little bit more of an introvert and I do better around myself as opposed to a lot of people I feel a little bit vulnerable like that there was a lot of people there you know you could hear people over here screaming people over here throwing up and then one person crying here and I think that probably kept me straight can I tell you something straight up sure and this is not as a professional brother so many people in Bollywood need these things and they don't know it and I don't think they have access to it because their world is So Glamorous and so so many things to do I feel so many of them are in pain and I


feel so many of them are in pain and I say this to you because you've worked with some of them and I don't blame them for being in pain man that's the reality that's what reality has done to them so many of them need it uh in fact I feel they'll become even better artists if they uh go through an experience like this yeah for sure well I think a lot of them live in bubbles and I just don't know that these opportunities are out there whether they'll take those opportunities is another thing but I don't think they're exposed to a lot of them you know because the conversations that I've had about various things that happen around here you know they'll often say how do you how do you know about that how do you learn about this well I've only been here a few weeks dude it's why podcasts are important culturally I mean I don't see people gaining these things really through Netflix documentaries but they just put on a podcast you know while I


they just put on a podcast you know while I don't know while just while doing house chores these are the Nuggets you can pick up and I'm not trying to sell podcasts to people I'm saying this because I learned about Ayahuasca through Joe Rogan's podcast yeah and uh I I listen to a lot of episodes in a year after the first time I heard about Ayahuasca it came into my life and I knew what it was and I knew what it was capable of and I took that leap and it was the best decision I've ever made for myself back then but again this is not me promoting it it's just me sharing my experience yeah um in saying that did your partner have like an intense experience no she didn't she had more of an intense experience than me there's no doubt about it but not like I said like maybe we shouldn't be comparing but comparing to the majority of the people there not an intense experience is weird maybe it's because


not an intense experience is weird maybe it's because we're both here at the same time we weren't allowed to be together during the experience like she's a in one end of the hall and at the other end but I don't know yeah [Music] I'll tell you why I'm asking you so many questions about this uh when you take Ayahuasca or shrooms if you keep your eyes open it's like being really stoned like it's kind of like that that's the closest thing to it or being really drunk or something I don't know but it's it's definitely like your reality becomes a little hazy the moment you close your eyes at least for me along with the shaman along with appropriate music uh ideally uh meditation should precede this process or some sort of prayer should perceive this process when you close your eyes that's where a movie starts playing in your head and things start happening at least that's what it's been for me in both these experiences it begins with that entity like mother


these experiences it begins with that entity like mother Ayahuasca or the mushroom and then they take you through a process and it was very different for me but Ayahuasca it was like uh I went I I went on this like Road and I could see little Windows where I could enter aspects of my past and I could go to past memories stay there for as long as I'd like and then come back on the road and it helped me heal so many things from my childhood by just going there uh and it gives you deeper experiences like at the end of my Ayahuasca trip I saw a big visualization which actually gave me my answer at that point I was asking Ayahuasca if youtubing is the right way to go in life because I've done engineering like most Indian dudes yeah and doing YouTube was an extreme jump so it just it showed me like a massive Fireball going past me and the mother ayawaska told me that like this Fireball could be your career if you


that like this Fireball could be your career if you have self belief so take self-belief and I opened my eyes and I started crying not out of pain just out of like joy out of knowing something I switched in my head that was ayahuasca but the mushroom it played around with my head when I and I did like my meditation my prayer all that before it it it opened up aspects of my body showed me a profiling of myself after seven years of this grind of my career after I gained the self-belief after I saw ups and downs what had happened who am I right now gave me that level of self-awareness which definitely happens in some deep meditation sessions but with meditation you really you probably realize three or four things about yourself it showed me 90 things about my own mind and then it showed me the dark stuff as well and told me no go there and I was fighting it I was fighting and I told my Shaman I don't


fighting and I told my Shaman I don't want to [ __ ] go there why is it taking me there and he said okay I can move on go to another part then I started solving the questions that I actually asked of it it helped me solve that it was like some breakup situation that I was solving the same football breakup but this was like years after it so I was I was questioning why I'm taking so long to heal it healed me there and after healing me it took me back to some family situation family situations that you hadn't remembered until then that's interesting yeah and it only saw this out sort this out but I just wasn't able to during the mushroom trip but what I ended up with was a task list from the mushroom he told me do these things and I've done two out of the three things actually one out of the three things because the other two are too difficult but it said that that's the Stark difference of doing


it said that that's the Stark difference of doing psilocybin with a shaman that it won't sort out your [ __ ] the way mother I've asked her does it'll give you a task list and tell you listen go do these things and then you've got to sort it yourself but it'll help you in the process yeah in the same way that mushrooms rot wood in forests so imagine the wood to be your Darkness your negativity the mushrooms will begin the rotting process but at the end of the day you've got to like burn it ah interesting yeah I like that um very very important life experiences man but when you closed your eyes did you like did you visualize anything at all I visualized more when I opened my eyes like I said when I was on a hammock I remember putting my hands up my fingers extended into the branch and the branch is extended up into the Stars that's when I noticed more and I remember you know going to going to the toilet and just seeing like


going to going to the toilet and just seeing like I said the vascular system in the walls and in the ground everything was moving and that's when I realized wow even the cement is part of Earth it's alive everything around us is alive that's what I saw and that was on the last evening when my eyes are open you know but like I said maybe it's because I was around too many people there's too many distraction I can focus so much of the beauty in a moment who knows it was one guy there yeah that was just I thought it was quite entertaining A lot of people were disturbed by it but he was just just screaming screaming big time and I was thinking listen you know and uh but you know I know some people said the next day they were disturbed by it but you know it's just a distraction in it you know like I tell you what I had Nick this is a funny story actually if you've got a second yeah so um I take CBD yeah


got a second yeah so um I take CBD yeah and in the US you're allowed to have 0.3 THC in that CBD so that's what I usually take on a daily basis to help with sleep help with relaxation and whatnot you don't really feel any effects of it though you know you don't feel like you're stoned yeah you're stoned it's just mainly the CBD that's doing the work anyway this company that I get the CBD from they also make another form of of the product another brand of the product and I was in a spare bathroom downstairs I was watching a movie and I thought oh there's a there's another um CBD here I'll take that before bed I usually take three the three thousand milligram strength and I'll take three tinches of that okay over 100 milligrams I'll take three tinches and I saw this as 1200 I was like oh right I could take probably three more or two more of that so I took them started watching a movie and I was like ah then


started watching a movie and I was like ah then I'm getting Feeling High here so what's going on I was like maybe there's a bad batch that I had in that CBD and then I was getting worse and worse and I was thinking you know I'm next to my girlfriend I'm like at what point do I actually say freaking High here and it was getting so bad eventually I was like I'm trash I feel off my tits she said I thought you were because you're saying things like this movie's odd and stuff I go there's nothing thought about it is the gray man you know and uh and I said I had that CBD I think it's a bad bash she said was it the one that said Delta eight on it and I said yeah she's like that's pure CBD wow I'd had a 160 milligrams oh no pure THC yeah 160 milligrams of THC and I've spoken to a lot of people that are just into smoking and I like I don't know anybody that's ever done


I like I don't know anybody that's ever done anything close to 160. so that night I was closing my eyes obviously I was trying to sleep it off I was trying to weather the storm I saw a lot I saw a lot that night you know and I remember my wife was she was looking at the label she's looking online and she's going I think we should call the ambulance I'm like do not call the ambulance I'll go upstairs and I'll just weather this storm you know but I woke up the next day and I had a film in the morning I had a film with my sunglasses on because I still stoned but that was like that was like a like heroic dose it felt like it was much more than what THC should have been it felt you know it felt it was really weird because I at the moment I'm like I just need to straighten myself up I just got to weather through this because I've got to film in the morning but in the morning you


film in the morning but in the morning you know or throughout the next day I felt so much more clarity in my brain it's weird it's so weird because it was so bizarre and hectic and chaotic at the time but it felt like that chaos you know just much like with a sacrifice that's where the success comes I felt that I experienced a success following so weird but it's all by accident yeah only when you know the depths of your own Darkness can you like work with healing work with light yeah exactly you know it's like for me weight training is therapy and if I've had a bad day then I know that's going to be a terribly hard workout I'm gonna hurt for days following because I find that you need to heal those wounds by going a little bit deeper with with the training you know to a certain degree you know the more scar tissue that you build up the more it's going to heal after yeah uh did you get a bad


to heal after yeah uh did you get a bad trip as they call it like when you were high on TLC uh no I didn't get but it is more than anything I was just thinking God how did I do this you know it was just a mistake and I just I had a film crew coming around at 7 00 a.m the next morning and the whole reason why I took that CBD was to have a really good night's sleep I woke up the next day exhausted like I hadn't slept at all because I think it reduces your REM sleep yeah like that too much I actually really wanted a Tracker I usually wear an aura ring I've got it on charge at the moment but it was flat because I was really interested to know what it did to my sleep ah fair enough do you feel like all these experiences the THC edible experience the Ayahuasca Silo Simon have you come out a different man from all three I'd say it's out of everything that I've spoken about what has


out of everything that I've spoken about what has had the most profound effect uh in lights with positivity in my life is a vipassana for me that's personally because I tried all these things and I was like well let me try the vipassana and that was definitely the most positive experience for me and I I would probably do it every year you know as a like a Top-Up you know because it's very important that you continue your meditation technique following that you know they'll recommend like three hours a day I'm not gonna do three hours a day but I'll do you know 20 30 minutes in the morning and maybe 20 minutes in the evening that's what I do right now but until you know I'll keep that top up so the end of the year then I'll maybe do another 10 day you know kind of go boot camp again yeah if if 10 years back you told me Chris gethin would be speaking to me about vipassana and Silas Ivan and Ayahuasca dude I wouldn't


Silas Ivan and Ayahuasca dude I wouldn't have believed it you were a different person yeah I have been following you for a while yeah I was definitely you know like I wasn't following a lot of the protocols that I'm doing now in regards to eating organic and whatever I just had this a lot of aggression yeah a lot of aggression that I used to my advantage to help but my bodybuilding goals and you know I I I I got into bodybuilding because I love white training a lot of people get into bodybuilding so like bodybuilding yeah I love weight training and I love seeing how far I can push myself in the gym and that created a different sort of mindset because I've always been very competitive not so much in team sports you know competed in Motocross downhill mountain biking Iron Man Triathlon ultra marathon uh bodybuilding has always been a singular journey and I I'd always have to close myself off and kind of tune into what this AKA character of mine was which


into what this AKA character of mine was which was cage muscle in order to produce those results so I had to turn into like a bit of a different person but now I've been able to eliminate the gap between the alter ego and myself now there's a story have been holding back from you since the time I met you even on this podcast and I thought I'd bring it up in the end we actually have to talk about diets as well but before getting to the diet section I'm thinking I'll bring in the story you've interacted with me for an hour and a half right now do you feel I wish bad for you no not at all uh you feel like I'm just trying to learn from you right sure we're just interacting yeah uh you and me have interacted in the past in a negative way oh really yeah interesting yeah this is gonna get juicy uh the reason so when Chris gethin was brought up as a name for this show I agreed immediately for this moment what's gonna


I agreed immediately for this moment what's gonna happen right now all right because I wanted to apologize to you interesting yeah for something that I did no some for something that I did all right okay uh this is like back in 2010 no but when I first came here 2010 2011. right it's okay um and this is one thing I love about foreigners who are into fitness uh there's definitely that same sense of aggression and go-getting but at least back then in Indian gyms in Indian Fitness there was a lot of jealousy and insecurity flying around and aggression obviously like you if you went to like an Indian gym people would be comparing themselves to each other and putting down the other dude and saying oh you've dropped your body and all that and you notice that most of those dudes have stuck to the process of weight training for the wrong reasons and it's usually insecurity you know the insecure about something in their life they think they're ugly they think they're short


life they think they're ugly they think they're short they think they're fat they think whatever that's why the majority of people get into bodybuilding I got bullied eat whatever yeah and the ones that stick to it stick to it because of the wrong motivations in terms of oh I'm gonna put my anger into this Etc and I was one of those dudes as well yeah that's true I'm sure you started like in a similar way for sure uh 100 you need the work that [ __ ] out for yourself as a man get past your own insecurities and then start training for the right reasons which is just therapeutic or going into your own body like one thing I've got to learn about you from this episode is that you experiment with your own body a lot and I love doing that as well um you know so you've got to kind of transition into the right zone now keep in mind when this had happened I was in like the wrong Zone man you know there was alcohol in my life


Zone man you know there was alcohol in my life like I've dealt with alcoholism man this is probably around the same time so uh I think this is when you were just kind of gaining your name in the Indian Fitness scene and my first impulse towards you as a 19 year old I'm 29 now so this happened 10 years ago as a 19 year old I saw a fit guy becoming Hrithik Roshan's trainer you were like like you know you have your photos and all that I remember your tattoos man like all that my first impulse towards you honestly was jealousy like I was jealous I was envious of you because I felt like you know sometimes as a fitness coach or as a fitness Enthusiast you think you know everything about form and you think that everyone else is not up to the mark especially if you're scientifically oriented so I would always like look down upon you in conversations with friends oh no Chris gethin doesn't know anything and this one time um I think


doesn't know anything and this one time um I think you'd put up a photo of your legs and uh my my account name was beer biceps even back then this is way before the actual funny uh and I uh I told you in that like a friend of me tagged uh my account under your post and I wrote something like he's a steroid user and uh you lashed out at me and I loved fights so I mean I'm a very different person that's terrible then because that I like fights back then as well I'd argue with everybody online uh uh and we we had this long ass argument which became famous not only in my gym but at my workplace I was doing this internship with this Finance firm back then it became famous that this guy took on Chris gethin uh do you remember that we met in Soho House two weeks yeah I remember that yeah I wanted to come up and tell you this but I had a gut feeling we'll do a podcast oh


a gut feeling we'll do a podcast oh that's cool uh honestly two things man firstly I'm really sorry like I thought he was gonna say hey I was the guy that got you banned from Gold's Gym here I was like it's you okay but no no no no no no no no uh I was just acting out of place of immaturity and jealousy uh and secondly man uh honestly even even you you've changed like I feel if that same thing happened to you now you wouldn't even lash out no I'd probably defend myself you know because I tried to defend myself from people what what's what's what I know is my truth and what's right and you know people always have their assumptions so I always try to you know argue my point to a certain degree to defend my position but I don't go out there and just laugh shout now or try to okay this is an argument it's okay pain bodies here let's go for it yeah you know so


here let's go for it yeah you know so I've read about Eckhart Tolle the power of now so I realized to back off I think when you're not past that phase as a fitness Enthusiast you kind of look for fights a lot more you know you kind of look for places outside of the gym where you can channelize aggression without actually hitting someone yeah like none of us want to kind of get into physical alterations or cause physical harm on anyone yeah but the internet becomes like this nice juicy place to kind of act out in terms of aggression everyone's a UFC champion that's true but you see it all you know it hasn't changed in the culture you know all around the world you know the online culture is just a victim of it where they see somebody and they think okay that's I'm not living up to those expectations so I'm going to bring them down to mine yeah and uh like I I see it now as a witness to other people like I'm sure


as a witness to other people like I'm sure you know Michael Hearn yeah everybody has said for years and years and years these guys on steroids he's not natural whatever well I like to give him the benefit the doubts I've trained with that guy several times and I seen the life that he lives so I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt but people don't see that they don't see what he was like at 16 years old when he was winning world titles at that age you know and here he is now 52 and that's lifting more than the the enhanced guys but is he looking like the enhanced guys no he's not so you know I think it all comes down to the perspective what you see behind the the what you see online that you know that 40 odd years or 30 odd years of training and dedication kind of living like a monk you know it's just an easier sport to point the finger at yeah you know if you look at somebody


finger at yeah you know if you look at somebody that's a car racer and fight you know faster than anyone else you're not going to say it's because it's the fuel that he's put in his car you know it's probably the driver yeah 100 I mean the main kind of outcome for me from this session section is uh I'm sorry like didn't mean it man like I didn't know what I was doing so I appreciate it brother I appreciate it genuine apology to you I I there's something that tells me you probably will remember that particular argument because I really riled you up like the moment I caught onto the fact that you're being aggressive I tried like pinching you even more so it it I was also acting out of a place of my own childhood trauma so yeah sorry about some screenshots the weird thing is I probably still have the screenshots send them to me man that'd be quite funny to have a look back at because I want to know what I was like


at because I want to know what I was like back then because there was a time here in India like I this is how I went down the biohacking route I got mold toxicity when I was living in an apartment underneath uh John Abraham I was training John Abraham at the time and I got mold toxicity which led to me having literally three hours of sleep a night so I wasn't a good person to be around I was an absolute [ __ ] there was a movie John Abraham did called shootout at Wadala which is that movie and force these two movies oh yeah yeah of course yeah were the two best John Abraham physiques and I'm assuming you were part of just after Force okay just after four so I was probably shoot out of him yeah and uh I got more toxicity then and uh so train like my training at that time was at its all-time highest because I was so aggressive and I was like I don't give a [ __ ] who you are I'm gonna


a [ __ ] who you are I'm gonna out train you even though I'm not gonna get sleep I'm gonna outwork you and that's just the mentality that I had on myself on myself and I was riding so much I I recorded an album here um I wrote two books here uh thankfully I self-published and when I looked back at what I'd written not only for the music but in in his books I'm like who was that honestly honestly and and at that time I knew that wasn't me that's why I went and sought help I went and stayed in a clinic in uh Oldsmar Florida for six weeks to try to get detoxed and um I knew at that time there was something wrong so now when I reflect back and I see you know maybe the argument that I had with you you know I'd look look at that and go wow who was that person I was an aggressive cat he just wanted a fight so if you came to a fight with me then


so if you came to a fight with me then this was the perfect scenario this is a perfect War yeah I wouldn't ever come up for the fight with you like looks at this even buddy I'm a soft cat uh yeah that's what I've got to know about you over the course of this episode let's talk about Johnny Abraham a bit how is it different training him I've had him on the show that guy is motivated yeah he's a cool guy he's got that same sharp level of motivation at 50. that he probably had when he was 20. is he 50 now yeah wow like I only saw him two weeks ago if that I was in um I was in a gym and I bumped into him and he looks great looks phenomenal I didn't know he was 50 now yeah and he got a lot of positive energy yeah very very chilled out it's very positive very laid back like I remember him just being so so laid back and uh you know what we I train him very


and uh you know what we I train him very differently to Riddick because he just doesn't sleep the guy doesn't sleep you know because he wears so many hats you know with his production company yeah looking after sports teams and whatnot a lot of responsibility so knowing that he wasn't sleeping much then I wouldn't train him as much you know I wouldn't train five six days a week like I do already because Riddick will live like a monk where John he'd come in at two o'clock in the morning we're training at six so odds we wouldn't be training that often maybe like four times a week three or four times a week but he would never moan not once even though he's on like three or four 4 hours sleep it wouldn't whinge I'd say okay this is what we've got to do today okay you know grab the 100 pound dumbbells let's go oh yeah he's known to lift heavy he's very strong very strong guy you know what parsies are like


very strong guy you know what parsies are like uh they're in their ethnicity from Iran oh yeah technically as in the in onion but they live in India because of historical reasons right so uh parsis are strong dudes right yeah he seems like a naturally strong guy you know he's got like uh just like a big frame yeah Big Frame so you know like farmer strong we go like naturally God gifted strength yeah um exactly but I mean when a dude is that strong as a trainer I'm assuming that you load him up even with more weight so his high repetitions will be done with a much heavier dumbbell than uh someone who doesn't have that kind of natural strength yeah for sure but sometimes they don't have the cardiovascular capacity or they don't have that much aerobic strength so let's say you know some people are very good with endurance they can do those reps with the weight longer with someone that's very very strong sometimes they stop very short because they've got a lot


sometimes they stop very short because they've got a lot more anaerobic strength so it's all dependence on that person you know luckily I've got a bit of both that's why I'm able to do bodybuilding but if I want to do an Iron Man Triathlon I can go do it anything else that's very specific to training John Abraham like about his body uh no you know other than you know it obviously is is when it comes to the nutrition because he's a pescetarian I don't know if he still is you know obviously the the food variety is very limited you know like it eats a lot of eggs a lot of egg whites a lot of fish you know depend on uh you know supplements such as protein powders a little bit more but other than that no there wasn't anything that really stuck out other than is dedication very dedication like he would never miss a workout ever would he miss a meal no you know even though it'd be lacking on time and lacking on sleep it'd


be lacking on time and lacking on sleep it'd still make it how do you make up for the lack of sleep because sleep if done right is the strongest supplement you can have can't make up for it can't make up for it impossible like obviously nutrition helps with the recovery but sleep is number one and everything falls into place after that a lot of people that I see that get injured is through lack of sleep you know the body is in a state of recovery when you're training it you know something's going to go wrong you know if you have something and especially with hydration you know you think of an elastic band when it perishes due to exposure you know you've got all the little snap and that's what I see with uh with people and our bodies all the time they get injured because they just haven't slept they're not hydrated yeah um I've been reading a lot of meditation research for the meditation app that we're building it's called level and there were two things that


building it's called level and there were two things that stuck out for level and we're trying to actually incorporate these things into level the first is Yoga Nidra have you heard of this yeah yeah uh and even two women talks about Yoga Nidra and when he spoke about it it kind of really got me thinking because this guy is all about po reviewed studies science based etc etc have you ever tried yoga oh yeah of course you feel it actually so I mean I'd love for you again to explain what Yoga Nidra is from your perspective or from my perspective is that you know you're focusing on one nostril uh you know with your breath and the other nostril and what I found especially when you're doing what you call it like the fast breathing what would you call this a particular name the piranha yeah is that it's much like PNF stretching you know PNF stretching when you're pushing against that individual they're pushing against you and then they stretch a little


pushing against you and then they stretch a little bit further I found that with a Yoga Nidra and The Prana is that it really helps slow and deepen your breath yeah so all of a sudden Everything feels calm you've got to calm a deeper breath everything slows down at the time when you're doing it like I remember the first time I did it with my instructor I'm like what am I doing this is stupid I just won't focus on meditation and being chilled but then I after like literally a minute of doing it I'm like okay now I understand it I'm feeling more relaxed now more than a like a subconscious state I feel like the world overall is just going to gravitate towards meditation for the next 10 years and one of the other things that has been of benefit for me and my clients as well is cold therapy like every single day I'll do an ice bath for three minutes and the morning and I'll do one minute in the evening and


and I'll do one minute in the evening and I don't know if you know that you know it helps tone your vagal nerve that takes you from that sympathetic into your parasympathetic State you know as long as you've got your neck or your thyroid submerged under under the water so you know I'm trying to do that in the hotel that I'm at at the moment but can't really fit in that in the bathtub properly but I'm trying it um but that is something that has really really helped me from a mental perspective because it helps stabilize my mood and also it stabilizes your blood sugar levels as well so I you know I measure my blood sugar with everything that I eat and if I do the ice bath in the morning my blood sugar levels are so much more stable as well so less irregularities less energy troughs less Cravings Etc so many benefits to it why do you think it just hits that one nerve I'm sure it hits other nerves


that one nerve I'm sure it hits other nerves but oh yeah it has also effect all your nodes in your body of course your excitatory parts of of your body uh but also the neck is as well was where the vagal nerve is and if you control if you contrast that with hot and cold therapy so I always start with sauna I always finish with cold but definitely finish with the cold it helps tone that area so it can balance the mood so much easier if it isn't toned then it's going to sway one way or the other much like you know you'll see people that are like a bipolar you know they're completely different one to the other but we have more subtle versions of that within ourselves on day-to-day basis especially with the environment that we live in today so I think ice therapy is going to become more and more popular as you know we're definitely having more science with Wim half having so much tests so many tests put on himself on how it can help


many tests put on himself on how it can help balance the mood how it can improve the immune response as well like uh he got injected and some of his uh workers with E coli and is able to reject it through ice and breath work immunity was really high oh yeah I'm believable you know it's phenomenal and they thought well is he just you know is it just whim but no they did it on uh his his uh his teachers as well he's a perfect example of someone who's taken from ancient Indian culture and brought it to the west and he's making himself an example for the West to study yeah uh when they talk about Indian like rishis who went to the Himalayas they did things like this uh there are certain careers which is supposed to do in cold water ice I don't know the careers myself yeah for sure and like the Russians they even used to put their babies outside in the winter you know they'd put them in the carts but there's pictures of


put them in the carts but there's pictures of this online you'll find it like in the 1930s because they they truly believed that it helped with their immune response as they got older yeah um probably I mean it might be some version of you getting used to the cold as you grow up or sure as you grow older for sure that's probably why I sweat all the time because I'm so used to cold now I think Wim Hof says that um if you don't go to the cold the cold will come to you yeah which means like sickness will like come to you or you'll feel cold but dealing with cold on a regular basis definitely has its long-term benefits man for sure in every aspect of your life and I think you know we've become a culture that's very soft now and we always see Comfort yet we're getting sicker we're dying earlier for more complications yet we've become the most comfortable generation ever so what's going wrong well we're not getting comfortable being uncomfortable


wrong well we're not getting comfortable being uncomfortable so we need to seek the discomfort whether that be working out whether it be cold hot therapy making sure that we aren't not hitting the snooze button if it's raining outside the monsoons go out for a run your Skin's waterproof you know you'll get through it so uh I think you know we've just become a culture of like we want to deliver it now we want the Wi-Fi to be quicker we want to avoid the traffic we want the AC on and we want to see Comfort but you know we need to get more uncomfortable much like our ancestors did yeah 100 I I would like to believe that the world is going in that direction yeah um for the final section of this particular episode Mr gethin uh everyone's been waiting for your diet breakdowns on this one um you've trained Hrithik Roshan you've trained John Abraham I'm sure you've trained many more Bollywood stars um let's specifically talk about these two when you're


um let's specifically talk about these two when you're helping someone put on muscle um is there a mathematical formula you follow like do you go for X grams of protein per kilogram of body weight is it nuanced based on you know the the particular person where do carbs come in what's your take on fat you can go as scientific as you want to go uh the audience kind of knows the basics but at the same time we'll cover everything we'll cover the basics we'll cover the advanced stuff as well yeah it's not really that uh Advanced to be honest it's very it's very simple I try not to over complicate things I think when you've got more variables that can go wrong then you know you're you're looking for trouble so I try to keep it very very simple so as an example we'll talk about Riddick now because I'm I'm working with him right now and I can remember everything I can recall is that I recently had him on like 4 800 calories what yeah 4


had him on like 4 800 calories what yeah 4 800 calories because when I first saw him now I was like okay you need to get in shape but you have no muscle on your frame he hasn't been training uh so I really need even though I wanted a diet him down immediately because he's holding so much body fat we had no choice but to you know go into a mass building phase so he was eating a lot of clean calories the only fats that he was having was several egg yolks he'd have uh two tablespoons of olive oil and he would have a naturally occurring fat so I'd have him to supplement with a tablespoon of EPA and dheas as well but everything was just everything else is coming in a form of protein and carbohydrates you know your typical chicken uh you know poultry your meat your fish your protein powder that's his protein sources and then the carbohydrates coming from Rice there's some Roti in there there was a lot of potato


Roti in there there was a lot of potato oats and that was it you know it's split into six meals and a shake every single day now his carbohydrates were higher on his training days than his non-training days and then even higher on chest day because I'm really trying to bring up that weakness at the moment isn't allowed to eat for a good 90 minutes before bed but his goal is to eat immediately upon Awakening gotcha so that's the goal because obviously he's fasted for a duration I need to take him out of catabolism and put him into anabolism by having food as soon as possible and then drinking about a gallon of water a day a lot of people don't perform not because of nutrition is because of hydration and unfortunately a lot of people wait until they're thirsty which is probably a signal for dehydration until they drink and you know if your body's made up of about 70 fluid and you're dehydrated by say three percent it could be down in productivity by about


three percent it could be down in productivity by about 20 percent so it's very important to stay hydrated as well so you know that's a perspective and you know we'll take digestive enzymes maybe some apple cider vinegar some pineapple as well with those meals to help with the breakdown and insulin response to them maybe a little bit of activity after certain meals whenever he can get the activity in because he's a busy guy but that's kind of what it looks like my activity you mean like a walk or a job yeah it could be like 10 minute walk it could be you know a lot of the time I'll say Okay wherever you are if you're in your trailer I want you to stand up and sit down 50 times you know if you're on if you're on a plane you go to the toilet and you go and stand up and sit down do some toilet squats you know got it just to get the body activated get the body move in and help with the blood sugar response


body move in and help with the blood sugar response after having a meal of that bit size because he's eating big meals but now we've gone into the fat burning phase so uh those has come down to about 2 800 calories now and it'll come it'll continue to come down now it depends on how much weight you know he's still losing weight on that so I'm not going to change it I only make changes when we Plateau gotcha um is there like an X number of grams of proteins that uh you stick to in your bulk and your gut yeah yeah it could be as high as like 1.5 grams of protein per kilogram per pound of body weights per pound okay per pound of body weight I can't remember the kilos now it's been a long time and then I'll probably come down to about one gram of protein per pound of body weight as we're getting into the shredding phase more just to retain okay I think the Assumption earlier used to be that when you're


the Assumption earlier used to be that when you're shredding you have like higher levels of protein to prevent muscle loss has that changed lately yeah I always come lower you know carbohydrates are protein spirit and that's true but you know I if you're taking in too much protein that can still lead to Fat you know a lot of people think it's just protein and carbs but when we get into you know single digit body fat levels you have to cut everything you know how do you know if it's too much protein um you know I'll just know that their body's plateauing they're just not able to utilize uh you know lose the body fat that's visual for you yeah so everything's visual for me I take pictures every week but I look at him every day just to make sure I can see everything's going in the right direction the weaknesses are concerning strands uh but I've got a quite a good eye you know I used to be a judge at bodybuilding shows as well and I was always


judge at bodybuilding shows as well and I was always very very critical of myself you know people always look at themselves in their favorite Lighting in the best mirror look at the best body parts I always like to look at the worst body parts in the worst lighting and when that is impressive then you know you've got something you know it's like you know when I used to compete in shows my goal was not to impress the people you know the judges at the front the person that was just coming in through the back of the auditorium I wanted to impress that person you know uh in terms of like the worst food that you can possibly put in your body in a phase like this would you say it's like processed food and sugar for sure sugar yeah it's terrible for longevity anyway it's in inflammatory and anything that is deep fried because a lot of the fruit is fried in you know refined seed oils canola oil things like that soybean oil so that's very pro-inflammatory


like that soybean oil so that's very pro-inflammatory we try to stay away from a lot of the Amiga sixes and go for more of the anti-inflammatory omega-3 Foods uh you know so if it's grilled if it's like just pan fried with some olive oil that's absolutely fine but when you're going for the deep fried yeah you need to stay away from that and a lot of the creamy foods that you get here in India I know the foods taste absolutely awesome but I'm testing a lot of these Foods now as well and my blood glucose Rock monitor seeing the response a lot of it is carb Laden do you mean like gravies but yeah like yeah creamy gravies you know if it's a lighter sauce and it's not as much calories and grape you know like Riddick chef has learned to do some phenomenal sources just with spinach and put some kimchi in there a little bit of avocado whatever and the final key question in this entire podcast what about supplementation when


question in this entire podcast what about supplementation when it comes to Bollywood uh we had Basu Shankar who's the coach of the Indian cricket team so he's you know all about sports science and he spoke about the importance of creatine for athletes I supplement a lot with creatine I feel it just changes the shape of my body my performance in the gym therefore the shape of my body even more I am assuming that you administer creatine to your clients yeah creation for sure must studied amino acid out of all the amino acids for its Purity safety and performance so yeah for sure you know that's a supplement that I get my clients on but again you have some people that are responders and that can take the creative molecule the size of the particle some people can't so then you have to look at this the type of the creatine so if they can't take a monohydrate which majority of people can that's the most studied one they'll have to take them like a


studied one they'll have to take them like a micronized HCL uh type of creatine so everybody's different on the type of creatine that they'd respond to as well but creating yeah the basics um you know the protein powders are glutamine the multivitamins but then you go down to Rabbit Hole based on their blood work maybe they need gluten sign especially after the age of 40 maybe they need more nmn especially after the age of 40 if they're low in B12 maybe they don't absorb vitamin D through the Sun so they have to go very high when it comes to the vitamin D and K2 supplementation yeah I think this is the kind of breakdown for another whole episode right you would go down a rabbit hole Yeah supplementation maybe in this one we won't really talk much about the supplements because what I've assumed is that it's different depending on the person's life everybody's difference everyone's difference okay you know I like to look at the blood work first before saying okay because the thing


the blood work first before saying okay because the thing is all supplements have got a health responsibility to them you take them all you'll probably die you know so you have to look at it logically yeah um what about protein shakes plant protein versus whey protein versus isolates do you do you acknowledge plant proteins for sure do you think you think it works especially my own brand has a plant protein okay so with plant protein pea protein is going to be the most bioavailable however the still have planned defense mechanisms called lectins so it's very important that you have a digestive enzyme to help break that down and increase the surface space of that peptide okay so your body can absorb it that much easier but if you do have that then it will have a positive effect so do plant proteins like do they usually get manufactured with that enzyme inbuilt you no they don't always you'd have to add that to it what's the enzyme called uh Pro there's two enzymes uh the the main one for


there's two enzymes uh the the main one for plant-based is called Iowa technology basically and then the other one which is usually more so but it can be used in plant protein but usually more so in Whey proteins it's called Pro hydrolyze and that's an enzyme that'll help down help break down the isolate into a smaller fraction to be absorbed easier okay and speaking about whey protein in general uh do you feel like whey protein has as a better effect on human bodies than plant protein or is it against subjective based on the person subject based on a person especially of their background if they want to go for something that's plant-based they don't want to have dairy or anything like that um I personally think whey is better uh but I don't have a pro like I take the plant protein I love it um but I think whey protein is going to have a better response a better anabolic response you know it's got the complete essential amino acid profile um you know but you can


essential amino acid profile um you know but you can add extra leucine to a plant-based protein to make it a little bit more anabolic as well have you noticed whey protein causing skin issues with people like I see that with a lot of Indian guys I don't know now whether it is some Indian genetics angle but a lot of my friends deal with everything from pimples to bloating to some sort of rashes because of whey protein do you think it's because of using lower quality whey proteins or is it probably because of their subjective response to Dairy it could be both subject to the responsibility but I'd say is probably the quality of the protein more than anything um you know like I know people that take and isolate that are cystic fibrosis sufferers so they have an allergen towards a lot of proteins but if they take one that's of high premium grade it's non-GMO uh it's got less than one gram of lactose they're usually absolutely fine um you know so I


they're usually absolutely fine um you know so I always tell people as well look go get a gut micro debiome test there's a company that's called volume that does it there's a lot of companies out there and see if your body is like has a lot of histamine or there's some sort of sensitivity that you add to a particular food and maybe you have to do an elimination process during or for a while and then maybe fix the leaky gut syndrome that you have a lot of people will eliminate a food and go okay I feel good now and then they try to introduce it again in six months time but they don't really understand the negative side effects you have to heal the gut microbiome let's say if you've done antibiotics or you've had pro-inflammatory Foods Pro processed foods all of this is going to upset the gut microbiome and you're going to cause gut dysbiosis so then you need to fix it and then introduce it again um whoa okay again this


then introduce it again um whoa okay again this is one of those things we got to break down on a whole other episode man and uh knowing you as a person now I feel like you're a learner you're a researcher and you're an Explorer of life like you do all sorts of things even outside of the world of Health so I'm just looking forward to like meeting you again Chris but what's next for you like in life what's happening this hill uh this year okay well so for me personally with my own training I've actually got back into bodybuilding uh it kind of stepped away from it and got into hybrid athleticism and then with the injuries uh but I'm going to be guest posing on a bodybuilding stage next year so we're going to document that process of again muscle kind of like the video trainers that I've done before but this will have a different approach on how to do it in your late 40s 50s and how to avoid injuries and how to do it from an


to avoid injuries and how to do it from an anti-aging perspective to try to reverse your biological age and then the end goal will be me guest posing uh on on stage and I haven't guest post since 2009 so that's going to be quite exciting see what the body can do at 48 now and uh then you know we're opening two more gyms here in India you know we've got the myself and Jack have the gym franchise Chris getting gyms we're opening two more here now in India and then what I'm looking forward to is in 2024 because 2023 is booked up as I'm gonna go and live in a van myself and my partner are just going to do van life for about eight months to travel around the US you know wow that's a goal yeah that's great so we have to delegate as much as we possibly can between now and then so we can go and enjoy that without too much distraction why are you doing that though because I I just feel like I want to


though because I I just feel like I want to explore a lot more like I would definitely want to travel a lot more overseas that feels like it's a calling that I want to explore more cultures you know I I hope to go to the Amazon next year with a couple of my friends that are from the Marines and uh we will definitely be going off a Beaten Track and living with some tribes for a while you know no other you know it's not as if that you can go on an organized tour to do this this is something that the Marines some of them from the Amazon that I've done before and I I know them and I may be doing that you know I want just want to explore different cultures different tribes different experiences but I thought well look the US is so vast and let's go and do that in a van first you know and that's what myself and my partner are planning on doing yeah yeah you know the more I talk to you the more I


know the more I talk to you the more I feel I didn't do justice to this particular podcast because you've got that much to share man but uh oh that's it I'm spent now no but knowing how much you come to India I'm honestly looking forward to doing this with you more regularly you know maybe the next time you're here I'm sure you'll have a whole new set of things to share man yeah well myself and a couple of uh other friends in a biohacking space that are in slash they recognize we're thinking of doing a tour here in November or December so I'll keep you informed of that very cool Chris gethin thank you for speaking to us on the show man thank you for giving out this knowledge like oh thank you I appreciate it I'd heard a lot about you on this podcast and it's been a pleasure to actually experience it in person no likewise likewise this is in many ways a Teenage Dream Come True for me uh so not in the Romantic


Come True for me uh so not in the Romantic Katy Perry videos no no I just I had to have this conversation with you for a very long time I'm just glad I got to learn from you man you're like a whole kind of library of knowledge and looking forward to doing more episodes with you my master brother awesome thank you appreciate it at the start of this podcast I promised you to signs the [ __ ] out of it and that's what I hoped that we did over the course of this episode we couldn't pack all the gems from this conversation into this one podcast episode those gems have been uploaded in an unfiltered format on our other YouTube channel TRS Clips where you'll only find highlights of this podcast and for more fantastic podcasts like this make sure you follow us on Spotify every episode's available on Spotify 48 hours before it's available anywhere else in the world I feel we've only scratched the surface when it comes to Chris gethin's knowledge about the world of Health


to Chris gethin's knowledge about the world of Health Chris brother returned on the show very soon [Music]


so um ranveer the Indian calendar basically is a lunar calendar okay and the Gregorian calendar is a solar calendar so that these are calculated as per the movement of the moon when the moon is going into the next zodiac that is when the tithi changes gotcha so that's why you know a lot of people don't understand and people ask if you know the Western festivals are all on fixed days why can't we have fixed days for festivals so that we know you know when it's coming but they are fixed days there's some beautiful depictions if you are into things like got or a lot of the Rings or is it larger than live depictions you know in the qurans and you know there are battle scenes that are described with these women warriors you know they are so Fierce and they are so strong that the Asus you know who overconfident actually they think oh we'll capture this woman it's just a woman right that's that's the attitude which is very clear in the in the


the attitude which is very clear in the in the qurans and these so-called mere women they teach them a lesson they'll never forget navratri is special of the visual had to be done with the TRS All-Star Dr vineeth Agarwal he's given us some fantastic episodes in the past but after each of those episodes he's always told me that he wanted to do this particular episode lately I have been learning much more about the divine feminine aspect not just in Hinduism but in every World culture and it's a fascinating concept but specifically in the domain of Hinduism I don't think there's a better human being than Dr vineet to explain the dash mahavidyas the different philosophical meanings of the divine feminine it's a heavy episode it's an information packed episode and it's another episode in the series of fantastic episodes we've been releasing lately for more episodes of TRS make sure you follow us on Spotify every episode's available on Spotify 48 hours before it's available anywhere


available on Spotify 48 hours before it's available anywhere else in the world Dr Vinita Agarwal Returns on TRS [Music] thank you [Music] Dr Vinita Agarwal in the house we're doing a navratri special we're talking about Shakti we're talking about Devi's we're talking about the divine feminine aspect of Indian culture for international audiences Dr Vinita Agarwal welcome back to TRS thank you for all the views and all the subscribers let's do some more of that thank you so much thank you so much it's my pleasure always to be here we always manage to have great conversations and I think that just translates to views so yeah yeah why do we even begin this firstly okay I know I know where to begin this I will Begin by asking you why you were so Keen to do this podcast since the first time I met you and we've just delayed it till this point what's the urge to do this particular one so um I think the first time we met the


so um I think the first time we met the first podcast we had one of the first ones we had was on Tantra right and I think that was in Hindi so there was and there was a realization that I had you know after the comments that I saw you know on the video and um people reaching out to me after that podcast that you know there's so much uh that people don't know you know especially about the goddesses because we just broadly understand that in Hinduism there's a concept of Devi you know the Shakti but the finer details we don't really know so there's there's a beautiful proverb I I don't know or a statement or a quote you know that I read somewhere which said that God is in the answers but goddess is in the questions so you know there is so many questions related to the goddesses and people who are practicing Hindus they also themselves are not very clear about the different manifestations the different aspects related to Shakti


different manifestations the different aspects related to Shakti the goddess you know the Devi so um that's the reason I was pushing you for it and I think it had to happen at this time you know this is the perfect time to have a discussion on Devi you know we are in the midst of navratri and this is the perfect time to remember the goddess yeah um I'm gonna approach this topic as I know best there are only two versions of approach I know once the extremely deep spiritual version and once the most basic version where it's my childhood memories of deviwa honestly I wasn't connected to Devina while growing up and that connection happened in the adult phase of my life but when I was a kid I watched Vishnu puran which was a fantastic deep show I think we've brought it up on our past episodes and Vishnu puran had this depiction of how the devis were created um you know and it kind of for a kid you kind of


and it kind of for a kid you kind of take things very literally right so um as a kid I always assume that Vishnu Shiva Brahma came first and their wives were the Davies and their wives represented certain uh traits right um Lakshmi represented wealth please correct me yes yes uh durgama represented uh strength strength of all forms yes and uh saraswatima represented knowledge um and that that's all I knew as a kid then when I grew up I understood the depths of divine feminine in our culture and what it really means and even when we're talking about divine feminine like the feminine aspect of God it's actually just God expressing itself and not himself or herself right as a form that's friendly for that phase of your life completely so depending on the phase that you're in in life you probably need a different version of God to turn to because God is all-encompassing stands for many many different things uh it's not a man in the sky or a woman in


not a man in the sky or a woman in the sky but it's a collection of elements and a few of those elements are represented in our culture by the Devi Mass yes yes so Dr vanit my first question to you is uh do you want to actually brush up my Basics so so ranveer uh I think your knowledge is uh impeccable but uh I think there's more to it you know and we'll have to probably go a little deeper to understand the concept of Shakti better um so to begin with you know and I think we covered it in a previous podcast that you know there's the purans each of the purans they um tell the stories or they narrate the incidents that happened in one day of Brahma so Brahma we know is a Creator God right and Brahma has a lifespan of 100 years each of his ears has about 360 days and each of these days is known as a kulper so the different purans they actually narrate the stories of different kalpas


they actually narrate the stories of different kalpas of Brahma so in some kalpa it was Vishnu who was Supreme in some kalpa it was Shiva who were appeared first so he's Supreme and in other kalpas you know there were different deities who were the first to manifest and therefore they were considered Supreme and the purans talk about that particular deity in that particular date and is it like his timeline is different from Human time time definitely definitely where would we be in his 100 years so in brahma's 100 years currently it's the 51st year going on okay halfway through but in human years we are in it's close to 155 trillion human years okay so there's a proper calculation to it and it's not a number that's just you know taken out of the air you know it's a there's a proper calculation it's a very complicated calculation to arrive at that number some very Interstellar Vibes right there so that's where we are and you know the Devi Bhagavad


we are and you know the Devi Bhagavad puran the Devi puran there are shakta purans you know that data focused on Devi and that actually talk about Devi being the first form of God to appear so in in one particular kalpa or one particular day of Brahma that must have been the case so Devi puran actually says that Devi was there at the beginning you know Shakti was there at the beginning and then the trimurti emerged from her the Trinity yes Brahma Vishnu Mahesh and then the Trinity emerged from her and when we say Devi was there at the beginning that what what do we mean by that like what's the visualization you're supposed to keep in your head was a woman there was it a feminine energy yes so we see in Hinduism you know when we talk about we are very accustomed to seeing God in specific genders but in upanishads you know when God is described it's mentioned that you cannot contain God in these narrow


mentioned that you cannot contain God in these narrow definitions right the the dualities God is beyond all dualities you know so it's very difficult to ascribe a gender to God but for ah for making things easier for us you know God Appears or God manifests in different forms to perform certain different functions so when we talk about the trimurti you know the Trinity Brahma Vishnu and Mahesh and uh I think in one of the previous podcasts I also mentioned about different forms of Lord Vishnu so Vishnu when we talk about is you know if you go to the root of the word Vishnu means you know someone who's spread which were we talk about the whole world right wish is something that spreads inside your body what is wish poison okay so Vishnu comes from that same root of spreading and what is it that is spread in the entire universe it's space right if you think of it logically so Vishnu represents space the color that Vishnu is depicted in you know


the color that Vishnu is depicted in you know the blue color of the sky or the dark color of space you know that's what Vishnu represents when we talk about shiv Lord shiv you know we call him mahakal so he's time he is the great god of time who regulates everything you know who's who's responsible for that's why he's called The Destroyer because you know when the time is up Destruction has to happen you know he is the maintainer of time just as Vishnu is of space so we talk about the space time continuum that's what it is you know it's Lord Vishnu and Lord shiv together so what exists around us the material creation is Brahma because Brahma is responsible for creating it that is Brahma right but everything in this universe it needs energy to work right otherwise you know there are mountains standing there they cannot move you know there is probably potential energy but no kinetic energy there's no movement happening for us to work for us to do anything in


for us to work for us to do anything in life you know any living being it needs to have energy the entire process of photosynthesis you know starting from photosynthesis is meant to provide us that energy you know so energy is the uh Wheels you know that makes things move so energy is Shakti energy is the goddess so we can represent it in narrow terms by giving them you know very specific forms but these are the basic concepts behind those forms and energy is energy is supposed to it's represented as a feminine form but purush and prakriti you know Shakti and the masculine form they together combined to create this whole realm or this whole universe okay let's kind of have another parallel narrative for deeper understanding of this now this is obviously ancient knowledge an ancient knowledge was transferred across Generations using stories and characters they say the saptarishis which are the seven Great rishis of Hinduism which are probably actual Souls but there's seven Great Souls they carry pure


Souls but there's seven Great Souls they carry pure wisdom from God to human beings and that's their role in the world right now they couldn't pass on that knowledge just as it was to human beings because it's beyond human understanding it's like The Fifth Dimension that they've shown in interstellar it's beyond human understanding so they capture all that information in the form of stories puranas Etc and the rishis that we know of in our culture who have existed in the subcontinent for thousands and thousands of years lacks of years probably take the knowledge from the subtrishis and actually pass it on in an easier fashion to human beings by writing these puranas Etc now how do you explain the space-time Continuum the space-time fabric material creation aspects like all forms of creativity actually being around you and then you just pulling it out of that intuitive net to make it creative Creations oh let's probably call it Brahma Mahesh and Vishnu yes uh now probably the rishis thought how do we


yes uh now probably the rishis thought how do we explain life how do we explain energy let's give it a feminine form yes because in day-to-day human activity um could could it be argued that women play that kind of a nurturing energy giving role healing role in society women you know it's it's very clear females of all species you know they are responsible for continuity of civilization you know women are the child bearing gender you know they are the ones because of which a civilization or a or a race or a species can survive so definitely or is this the aspect of sacred feminine you know which has always been there in all ancient religions of the world yeah so whether you go to Mesopotamia you know there was goddess inanna there was Ishtar you know there was uh in in Greeks there were other goddesses like you know Athena there was Aphrodite and all over the world you know all the ancient uh uh mythologies or civilizations you know all


uh uh mythologies or civilizations you know all of the them had a concept of the Sacred feminine so that was the basic concept of Shakti you know being the energy of the universe and nothing moves without energy right so our rishis are ancient people the writers of the qurans you know it's Maharishi and other people you know who conceived of this Great Notion they realized that you know it was not enough to have only one aspect of God which is you know the masculine aspect so the feminine was also very necessary to be covered and they did it they explained it and they linked it with the regular lives that people were leading right so you know for example if we go into the concept of the Nava Durga you know there are the nine different manifestations of the Goddess you clearly see it being very very relatable to the life of a woman that you can observe you know so when we go deeper into the uh forms should we do it now yeah okay so so if


should we do it now yeah okay so so if you go into the forms you know if you if you start and I'm not sure how many people are aware of the nav Durga forms but these are the nine forms of the Goddess that are worshiped on different days of navratri I think actually even before that we will have to take a step back and understand why navratri first of all you know why do we celebrate navratri so so navratri again you know is the uh cognizance of that nurturing aspect of nature so here you know the goddess is known as prakriti and we spoke about purushan prakriti but prakriti Mother Nature again it's a universal concept why is nature considered mother because it is nurturing right and mother nature or prakriti is responsible for maintaining the balance and you see navaratri coming at a time when there's a change of seasons and a lot of people again would not be aware that navratri does not come just once in


aware that navratri does not come just once in a year it comes four times so four times and if you see if You observe what are the timings you know the first navratri is that is right at the beginning of the year of the Hindu year you know in the Indian calendar so in Maharashtra we have Guri padwa you know so that is the first day of chaitra navratri actually and the ninth day ends with ram navami so the first navratri and that's the change of seasons you know it's Spring and most traditional calendars actually interestingly you know they began with spring you know it doesn't make any sense to have a new year in the middle of winter right so all the ancient calendars actually began with spring because spring was renewal right so the chaitra month which was the first month in Indian calendar it starts with navratri and then you have navratri which comes in ashad month of ashad which was before monsoons just before monsoons then you have uh


monsoons just before monsoons then you have uh the Sharad navratri which was this one which comes in October November uh close to Autumn and then you have the magana navaratri which was in Winters so every time you observe the nine days they correspond with the change of season actually gives it significance you know it tells us that you know during this time people are more susceptible to getting sick you know there's a change happening around don't we see that happening right I mean right now also the weather is so Whimsical you know a lot of people are falling sick because of changes in where the sudden changes in weather like I'm asking the doctor and you this because you're a qualified doctor what's the actual biology behind that so it's it's just you know the sudden changes of temperature you know sometimes you feel it's hot and you know you're switching on the AC and you're sitting in the air conditioner and then the moment you step out you know it's actually cold


the moment you step out you know it's actually cold and so the changes in temperature and what navratri actually correlates with is you know the fasting the fasting makes you aware of what you're doing what you're putting inside your body and this time of transition has to be read very carefully so the Devi Bhagavad puran it actually mentions you know it talks about the time it's probably written in a time when there were a lot of people falling sick you know during this duration and um so it advises you to propitiate to pray to God is prakriti to be merciful you know which is again divine feminine divine feminine without saying yes all of them together it mentions prakriti Devi as prakriti so it's nature it's Mother Nature so it has a very uh you know logical reason of Celebration when you are fasting or you're observing a certain ritual you're more mindful of what you're doing or what you are putting inside and you know you are


what you are putting inside and you know you are you know probably uh taking care of your body much more yeah also it's like the whole logic of intermittent fasting where your body just heals faster when you're fasting yes um and you probably need healing because as a human being you will kind of fall sick in this change of season right so to deal with that sickness recover fast and building your immunity right instead of having food that you every day have you know which may not be very nutritious you know you're advised to have fruits your advice people have people eat all all sorts of stuff but ideally you know you should have fruits which provide your vitamins you know you you can you're allowed milk which provides a protein so calcium you know so they these are things that are light on your tummy and they also help build your immunity so that is The Logical reason for navratri or you know occurring at this particular time I'm also 110 show and this is because I've


I'm also 110 show and this is because I've been getting a little bit into astronomy lately there has to be some Celestial angle to the some alignment of planets so the moon and I'm definitely not sure what it is but uh uh I know for a fact that uh when you fast and then set for your meditations the meditations are way deeper it's just much more conducive for meditation um grain actually affects both prayer and meditation like in eating rice eating weed eating millets comes in the way uh but if you're on an empty stomach you just slip into your meditation very easily yes yes so uh I I mean I'm sure there has to be some angle like that as well I'm sure I'm sure anyways because you know it's all calculated according to these according to the calendar so do you like I mean these ancient calendars do you think they were I mean I'm sure they were kind of built according to astronomy of sorts right because if for example if you look at


sorts right because if for example if you look at the Gregorian calendar as Jan Feb March April May June it's cool but it's very stiff other than that one day um you know every four years which is just extra again that's just it's very mathematical and stiff right what's the logic of the Hindu calendar so um ranveer the Indian calendar basically is a lunar calendar okay and the Gregorian calendar is a solar calendar okay so that's one of the major differences okay so the lunar calendar is according to the movement of the Moon the titis and if you would have observed you know sometimes the festival is celebrated on overlapping days what is the logic of that you know solar day is one it can't be overlapping but these days are decided as per the moon rise okay so the tithies are calculated as per the movement of the moon when the moon is going into the next zodiac that is when the Titi changes gotcha so that's why you know a lot of people


so that's why you know a lot of people don't understand and people ask if you know the Western festivals are all on fixed days why can't we have fixed days for festivals so that we know you know when it's coming but they are fixed days in Indian calendar you know I mean if you go one layer deeper it's probably because the moon has some sort of effect on the human mind yes I mean all yoga schools we look at the Moon as a very significant part of the yogic process in general right uh I have been told again there is no scientific proof behind this but I've been told that um the moon uh affects your ability to digest food as well and different phases of the moon affect your ability to digest food as well again this is from one of the yogic schools this is I'm just relaying information um so that's the logic behind keeping a full day fast on a full moon day they say that on that day the pull of the moon is supposed to be


day the pull of the moon is supposed to be more right I don't know true that is but I will tell you this I've experienced doing these 36 hour fasts on Full Moon days and the meditations are way more intense on those days right so I am 110 sure that if you really dial back and see the pure knowledge of the rishis they would have linked navratri to something about lunar phases for sure and you see you know Moon does have a lot of effect on our physiology you know the whole concept of uh you know it affects the oceans you know the tides are because of the moon so why wouldn't it affect our body if we're 70 water if you're 70 water exactly that's the concept you know that's the thought behind it and you know there's a theory that you know the menstrual cycle is actually to the moon really because moon has 28 days cycle right so it was linked to the Moon probably that's a theory so don't women have like a fixed date of


theory so don't women have like a fixed date of the periods yeah but I think I mean that's the theory I haven't really delved dive deeper into it but that's a theory that there is a correlation of the menstrual cycle with the um lunar cycle okay um sort of a unrelated but related topic one of the things that fascinated me the most was starting to learn physics in eighth standard like I love physics it was like it's still my favorite subject um when we learned about waves you know how there is um a dual nature of light right in terms of it's a wave as well as mass it's Photon as well as a wave yes so it has a physical form as well as a waveform yes in the same way every single object has a physical form that we see right and then it also emits a wave every single object and this is one lesson from my eighth standard physics textbook that just blew my mind I kept reading that line again and again it also means that the


that line again and again it also means that the maths around that concept was if the object is larger the wave becomes stronger like the way it's emitting becomes much stronger right therefore what about a Celestial body which is that large of course and there is the gravitational pull right yeah you know so so in fact you know Moon has a very important role to play in our own existence and I'm not talking about humans but about Earth as a planet that could sustain life you know there's there's a lot of scientific theories about the significance of moon you don't find such a huge Planet satellite you know it's one-fourth the size of Earth none of the planets in the solar system have a satellite which is one force their size right so moon is unique in that respect and in uh you know in one of the theories it says that Moon could stabilize Earth's orbit you know it was because of the effect of moon that Earth orbit stabilized in this Goldilocks zone it's called


orbit stabilized in this Goldilocks zone it's called Goldilocks zone you know so there's a very narrow band around a star which can sustain life uh you know if the distance is lesser you're closer to the star it will be too hot for life to appear or evolve if you're further away from the Goldilocks zone it's too cold so the and we see it in the solar system right that uh the plan is that are closer to the Sana super hot and the ones further away are very very cold you know like Neptune so Earth is positioned in that unique Zone called the Goldilocks zone where it was able to evolve life and um there's a theory that you know a big part of it was because of the stabilizing effect of the Moon yeah funny that it's coming up in this podcast where we're talking about the divine feminine and even the Moon is supposed to have sort of this uh feminine uh right energy in all cultures yes the sun is considered


energy in all cultures yes the sun is considered masculine and the Moon is considered feminine yes possibly again for the same reason nurturing protection possibly and moon is considered to be the uh you know the overlord of mind yes in our scriptures you know and also vegetation okay so so moon or Soma is actually also the Lord of vegetation a lot of vegetation yes what is vegetation vegetation plants everything that grows you know the plants the plant kingdom the overlord is Moon why not the sun exactly why not okay so so I mean that's a thought you know and I've always wondered about it maybe it's this whole Moon being feminine and prakriti being feminine probably probably so coming back to the nav Durga form yes so uh we we have a tendency to go after that I love it I love these tangents with Dr Agarwal so coming back to the nav Durga you know we start with and as I was saying earlier that you know the nav Durga actually represent