
Brain Shaman
Brain Shaman is a philosophical and scientific journey towards better brain health. Michael Waite discusses how you can change your brain state and overall nervous system via behavior, nutrition, nature, and technology. Mental illness, addiction, and low brain function are destroying so many people and societies. By becoming increasingly disconnected from our natural mind-body-world and plugged into the artificial ones, we are getting sicker, weaker, and less free. We must become more conscious of how the information that we consume (in the form of action, food, drugs, sensory input, media, etc.) affects our brain. This podcast teaches you how to reconnect with your primordial nature, reprogram your brain, regain your freedom, and redirect your life.
Latest episodes

Jan 3, 2024 • 35min
Distracting Ourselves to Death: Deleting Time and Hiding From Life | Episode 58
This is an episode about distraction, busyness, to-do lists, dreams, goals, pleasures, and how all such things are preventing you from seeing yourself and living your authentic life. Stop adding noise, drop whatever it is you think you need or want to do, and roll with the true spirit hidden inside. Time is disappearing as you cover it up with things that do not really matter. We keep ourselves busy running around because we are scared to start living.

Dec 27, 2023 • 2h 22min
Jingle All the Brain: The Neurochemistry of Christmas | Episode 57
This is your brain on Christmas. Hop on this wild neurochemical sleigh ride through the brain. Learn how things like serotonin and dopamine affect your behavior during the holidays. More importantly, learn how to optimize them to ensure that you will indeed have a very merry Christmas. Life is a battle between connection and solitude, a see-saw between having and wanting, being and becoming, present and future. This episode explores such themes through the lenses of biology, culture, and psychology.

Dec 20, 2023 • 1h 9min
Kirill Krasnogir: Brain & Heart Tracking in VR for Assessing Your Mental Health | Episode 56
This is an interview with Kirill Krasnogir, the CEO of Cleverpoint, which combines VR with physiological sensors (such as EEG, EMG, and ECG) to analyze and assess your mental health state.It helps people determine and track the state of their nervous system - levels of stress, fatigue, anxiety, risk of burnout, and more. Get to know your unique psychophysiology through emerging technology. We discuss topics including: heart rate variability (HRV), electroencephalography (EEG), electromyography (EMG), electrocardiography (ECG), virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), brain computer interface (BCI), artificial intelligence (AI), fitness trackers, psychological tests (such as the Stroop Test and Schulte Table Test), and more.A recurrent theme throughout this episode is the idea that we each have our own unique psychophysiology. Health data must therefore be interpreted according to each individual and the numerous variables in their life. For example, stress levels or HRV can be either adapative or maladaptive, depending on the person and various other factors. So, we need to collect and analyze physiological data (e.g. from the brain and heart) from each person so that we can provide more individualized and effective solutions, tools, and protocols. Not every tool will work for every person. So we need to learn the reality of our own body-mind and thereby find our own solutions. Know thy body and brain. The unexamined mind is not easily treated.**CONNECT** Cleverpoint website: cleverpoint.pro Stressonika website: stressonika.com LinkedIn: /cleverpoint-neuro, /kirillkrasnogir, /aleksandr-smirnov-1000-b1733327 Facebook: /CleverPointNeuro

Dec 13, 2023 • 1h 4min
Adrian Harel: Traumatic Brain Injury — How to Detect, Treat, and Prevent TBI | Episode 55
This episode is all about traumatic brain injuries (TBI). Our guest is Adrian Harel, the founder and CEO of Medicortex, a Finnish company that is developing a non-invasive TBI diagnostic tool that detects the biomarker through saliva and urine. Together we explore various aspects of traumatic brain injuries: definitions, types, causes, signs, symptoms, diagnostic tools, technologies, treatments, recovery protocols, access to care, risks, ways to protect yourself, and more. RESOURCESPEOPLE, PLACES, & MOVIES - Barack Obama - Concussion (movie) - Turku, FinlandVOCABULARY- biodegradation- blood-brain barrier (BBB)- cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)- CT scan- Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS)- magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)- monoclonal antibodies**CONNECT & LEARN MORE** Facebook: /medicortex LinkedIn: /medicortexfinlandoyj PowerPoint presentations: www.medicortex.fi/eng/investors/reports-and-presentations website: medicortex.fi

Dec 6, 2023 • 1h 24min
David Hardy: Head Injuries and How to Understand & Change Your Brain through Bodily Movements | Episode 54
David Hardy is a functional neurologist and the host of The Hardy Brain podcast. In this episode, he provides a sort of crash course on the brain and nervous system. Specifically, you will learn how to use certain bodily movements (e.g. with the eyes, breath, mouth, and jaw) to both interpret and alter your brain state. A dual theme running throughout this episode is concussions, head trauma, and sports. However, this is an episode for anyone with a human nervous system. The simple behavioral tools that we discuss trace back to our early and pre-human roots and therefore can be used by anyone to quickly change how they think, feel, and act. Try some of them out, play around with them, and find the ones that work best for you. Along the way, you just might also discover some new ones or learn something new about yourself. The first 30 minutes or so of the conversation focuses primarily on concussions, head traumas, and David's life journey. Then we start digging deeper into neurology and how our overall brain and nervous system functions. We talk about how to detect problems in our nervous system and reprogram it via behavior protocols including: breathing exercises, eye, neck, head, mouth, jaw, & vocal movements, smells, and more. The direction (vertical, horizontal, rotational, etc.) engages different parts of the brain, and we talk about that. These movements can also be used in careful combinations with one another to produce various effects. We tie all this back to sports, music, dance, communication, life, and more. By the end of this, you should have a better understanding of your brain-body and how to consciously change it through action.RESOURCESEXERCISES - box breathing (used by Navy SEALs) - breath holding (used by biathletes) - circular breathing- EMDR- holotropic breathwork- lion's breath- smooth pursuit exercises- Wim Hof breathingNEUROSCIENCE TERMS - brainstem- cerebellum- midbrain (mesencephalon)- midline musculature- mirror neurons- optic nerve- pons- proprioception- trigeminal nerve- vestibular system ***CONNECT WITH DAVID HARDY*** LinkedIn: /dr-david-hardy-brain and /the-hardy-brain podcast: The Hardy Brain (available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, etc.) website: thehardybrain.ca

Nov 29, 2023 • 30min
Life in 3D: Using Multi-Directional Movements to Feel More Embodied and Complete | Episode 53
This is a solo episode is a reminder that we are 3D omnidirectional organisms. We move in a multitude of directions (along the x, y, and z axis, etc.) through this world. Today we will talk about how we can use different bodily movements (with the eyes, neck, mouth, arms, legs, etc.) to re-enter all of those different planes of reality - the horizontal, vertical, sagittal, and beyond. By doing so, we can reawaken to new possibilities in our body, mind, and world, becoming happier, healthier, more free and alive. Listen in an escape the limits of 2D.

Nov 22, 2023 • 1h 2min
Angela Clarke: Vocal Therapy — How to Tune Your Voice and Nervous System | Episode 52
In this episode, we explore the intimate connection between your voice, nervous system, and overall well-being. Our guest, Angela Clarke, is a voice specialist, embodiment practitioner, and educator based out of Australia. Join us in our lovely conversation about the voice, movement, touch, the nervous system, and more. This episode is packed full of fun practical vocal exercises that you can use to change your brain and bodily state at anytime - to increase focus, calm, connection, etc. "We are a song in the universe," and today we will practice how to sing. You will learn about: what the voice ishow sound (and everything) is omnidirectionalAlexander techniqueBody-Mind CenteringSocial Presencing Theater voice in connection with the head and neckhow to gain freedom over your voice (and entire organism)how your nervous system state affects your voicevocal toninghummingtouch and voicebones and voicesomatic imaginationhow to re-guide your attentionconnection (with our body, ourselves, others, the environment, and planet)how to use your voice to calm down and relax, decrease anxiety, etc.how we can use voice to increase care and empathyhow to use voice and movement to alter your focus and alertnesssinging as therapybenefits of communal singinghow to change your voice (tone, prosody, speed, etc.)the value of listening and silencehow the nostrils affect your voicephysiology of technology - smartphones, computers, and your nervous systemeye movement and voicehow to move "horizontally" trauma and voiceRESOURCESPEOPLE - Arawana Hayashi - Astrid Jorgensen - Bessel van der Kolk- Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen - Frederick Matthias Alexander - Moshé Feldenkrais - Stephen PorgesVOICE & EMBODIMENT PRACTICES - Alexander Technique - Body-Mind Centering - Feldenkrais - Pub Choir - Social Presencing Theater**CONNECT AND LEARN MORE**Angela Clarke's website: liveparticle.com.auAdventures in the Field: adventuresinthefield.com

Nov 15, 2023 • 60min
Tom Paladino: Photos in the God Machine — The Mysterious Healing Power of Scalar Light | Episode 51
In this episode, we talk with Tom Paladino, the only man in the world who has a machine that can funnel energy from Heaven directly into your body and mind. This newly discovered energy, that bursts out of Heaven via the stars is called "scalar energy." It's the same stuff that Nikola Tesla was trying to harness with his towers, that Hieronymus collected with his machines, and that the pyramids attract. Following in Tesla and Hieronymus' footsteps, Tom Paladino has miraculously created a little instrument that can infuse that healing eternal light into you. I call it his God machine. It can annihilate the most heinous of viruses and diseases, provide you with unlimited nutrition, balance your chakras, and do pretty much anything imaginable! Wow, this is amazing stuff. All you have to do is send Tom your photograph, and let the magic begin. Prayer, meditation, and positive thinking also should do the trick. You can call this healing force scalar light, prana, chi, consciousness, the force, a lightning storm, or whatever the heck you want. Bottom line: it works. At least according to Tom. Listen in to my intrepid exploration into this messy godly goo and decide for yourself what to believe and do.If in the end you are persuaded, still curious, and want to experience "scalar light" for yourself, to get some of that premium God-grade energy pumped into you, then step right up - you can go to Tom's website: www.scalarlight.com. Send in your photographs, or those of your pets, family members, or random people you want to heal. For 15 days straight, Tom will blast that healing lightforce into your eternal being, solving all problems for any of the people or creatures in those photos. Yup, you heard that right - a 15-day free trial of unlimited downloads from Heaven. If only governments and big business would allow the full unleashing of this free everlasting omnipotent energy. Then, we could turn this world into the Garden of Eden, a world of infinite bliss, everyone existing in vibrant health and ecstasy from now until eternity. Say goodbye to the long painful days of life in the electromagnetic spectrum. Enter the scalar dimension.Is this for real or is it just fantasy? Listen in, think, and decide for yourself. Enjoy the ride.For more information or to connect with Tom, visit: www.scalarlight.com

Nov 8, 2023 • 56min
Kristen Carder: ADHD Explained — Psychology, Perception, Behavior, Causes, Tools, and More | Episode 50
In this episode, we have a fun conversation with Kristen Carder, the host of the I Have ADHD podcast and a coach specializing in working with adults who have ADHD (Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). We dive deep into various aspects of ADHD, including its psychology, behavior, biology, risks, treatments, tools, and more.Topics discussed:The subjective experience of having ADHDExploring whether ADHD can be seen as a superpowerIdentifying the problems and dangers associated with ADHDKristen's personal journey after being diagnosed and starting medicationA closer look at the symptoms of ADHDThe impact of one's environment and spatial designHow individuals with ADHD perceive and manage time, along with time management toolsNavigating relationships when one or both partners have ADHDThe role of rejection in the ADHD experienceBehavioral tools and strategies for living and thriving with ADHDDebunking common misunderstandings and myths about ADHDUnderstanding the potential causes of ADHDThe influence of trauma on the conditionThe overlap between ADHD and other mental health conditionsThe role of dopamine and its relation to ADHDAddressing the higher risk of addiction, substance misuse, and risky behavior in people with ADHD... and more!Whether you have ADHD or are looking to understand and support someone who does, you'll find valuable insights in this conversation.RESOURCESBOOKS - Finish by Jon Acuff - More Attention, Less Deficit by Ari Tuckman - Rethinking Adult ADHD by J. Russell Ramsay - Scattered Minds by Gabor Mate - Taking Charge of Adult ADHD by Russell Barkley - The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk - What Happened to You? by Bruce Perry and Oprah Winfrey - Your Brain's Not Broken by Tamara Rosier PEOPLE - Ari Tuckman - Bessel van der Kolk - Bruce Perry - Gabor Mate - J. Russell Ramsay - Jon Acuff - Russell Barkley - Tamara Rosier***CONNECT WITH KRISTEN***website: ihaveadhd.comcoaching program (FOCUSED): ihaveadhd.com/focusedpodcast (I Have ADHD): ihaveadhd.com/podcastInstagram: @i.have.adhd.podcast

Nov 1, 2023 • 43min
Dylan Fox: How to Make XR Accessible for Everyone — Vision, Hearing, and Motor Disabilities in VR & AR | Episode 49
Dylan Fox is the Director of Operations for XR Access, a research consortium at Cornell Tech that works on making VR, AR, and MR accessible to people across the full spectrum of abilities and disabilities. In this interview, we talk about how to design immersive experiences for people with vision, hearing, mobility, and other limitations. We explore possibilities for ways to help people use and comfortably navigate through emerging technologies such as VR and AR regardless of their abilities. *** XR Access ***website: xraccess.orgLinkedIn: /xr-access Slack: join hereX: @XRAccessYouTube: @XRAccess RESOURCESARTICLES - 'The Blind Man Who Taught Himself to See' - XR Access research database: xraccess.org/researchCOMPANIES & ORGANIZATIONS - Cornell Tech - Equal Entry - National Science Foundation- Owlchemy Labs - XR Association HARDWARE - Apple Vision Pro - HoloLens 2 PROJECTS & EXPERIENCES - AltSpaceVR (defunct as of March 2023)- Benvision - Cosmonious High- SocialSense XR - VRChat - WalkinVR - We Met in Virtual Reality (documentary) - XR Accessibility Project Learn more about XR Access at xraccess.org Connect with Dylan Fox on LinkedIn: /dylanrfox