

Brain Shaman
Michael Waite
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.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jan 31, 2024 • 1h 7min
Nathalie Giraud Desforges: Tantra and IFS for Deeper Self-Compassion, Awareness, Connection, and Sex | Episode 62
Nathalie Giraud Desforges is a sex, couples, and IFS therapist. We talk about how to use tantra to connect with our body, mind, multiple selves, nature, and each other. Concepts from Internal Family Systems (IFS) weave through the conversation. Learn to be kind and compassionate to both the "good" and "bad" parts and people in both your inner and outer world. Get jiggy with yourself and each other, in a never-ending orgasm that permeates your entire life and being. Blast love through your heart, into everything that you are. You will learn how to have longer-lasting, more pleasurable, connected, satisfying sex. You will learn how to flap your perineum's beautiful butterfly wings and how to feel as powerful, light, and free as that butterfly. The past will become less of a burden as your inner children reunite and inner villains find a friend. You will feel more alive and aware, as your hidden sensations, selves, thoughts, feelings, and memories slowly reawaken. Energy will flow, opening you up and reconnecting you to yourself, the world, and other people.**CONNECT WITH NATHALIE**website: www.nathalie-giraud.frInstagram: @nathalie_giraudTed Talk (in French): www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQn0A4rGY1YWe also talk a little about hypnosis. If you want to try to the Reveri app by David Spiegel that I mentioned, you can learn more about it here: www.reveri.com.I've also found The Hypnotist podcast by Adam Cox to be quite useful (though this wasn't specifically mentioned in this episode).If you would like to join one of Nathalie's tantric seminars or receive a private consulting (online) *offered in both English and French*, you can find more information about that on her website.

Jan 24, 2024 • 1h
Faye Sahai: The Future of Digital Wellness and Mental Health Technology | Episode 61
Faye Sahai is the managing director at Telosity Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in digital wellness and mental health startups. In this interview, you will learn all about current trends in mental health and the some of the latest technologies and solutions striving to improve it. We discuss this from various angles: cultural factors, human connection, trust, autonomy, agency, personalization, etc. We also talk about the causes of the rise in mental health disorders (especially in youth), the role of technology (such as smartphones, social media, sensors, data, VR, and AI), assessment tools, environment, nutrition, behavior, and more. For those of you interested in creating or investing in mental health startups, you will also get advice on how to build or identify a great company. As a teaser, some of the things we touch on include: user engagement, determining how well the product/service truly helps people, and diversity. This is also a nice chance to get to know Faye's story - her upbringing, career journey, motivations, memories, pains, sensitivities, influences, family, hopes, and beyond. We delve into some darker topics such as suicide, depression, dementia, and social isolation. But there is light at the end of this conversational tunnel. **CONNECT & LEARN MORE** website: telosity.coLinkedIn: /telosity-coTelosity Report (Market Guide): telosity.co/mkt-guideRESOURCESCOMPANIES- Daybreak Health - Flipd - Ksana Health- Manatee- Maslo- MindRight Health - NeolthPEOPLE- Andrew Huberman- David Eagleman- David and Jan Baszucki- Dylan FoxPODCASTS- Huberman Lab- Inner Cosmos with David EaglemanTELEVISION- Alive Inside (documentary) - It's Okay to Not Be Okay (TV series)- The Brain with David Eagleman (documentary series) **CONNECT & LEARN MORE** website: telosity.coLinkedIn: /telosity-coTelosity Report (Market Guide): telosity.co/mkt-guide

Jan 17, 2024 • 39min
Between Two Worlds: Interoception, Exteroception, and Your Home In Between | Episode 60
This is an episode about finding balance between our two main modes of perception: interoception (the inner world) and exteroception (the outer world). Sometimes we get stuck too far in one direction, either internally within our body-mind or externally out there in the world of other objects and things. We are always dancing between these two realities, struggling to keep our balance with a foot in each world. Often, we pull both feet into one extreme - perceiving too much of the inside and not enough outside, or vice versa. Today, let's talk about how to fine tune that dance, how to build ourselves a home between both worlds, so that we can feel happy and alive both on the inside and the outside. We also discuss various tools for altering our balance between interoception and exteroception, including: our visual environment, visual exercises, clothing, breathing, food, and more.Compliments of suno.ai for the semi-sweet song at the end.

Jan 10, 2024 • 1h 11min
Michael Morin Nissen: Looking Trauma in the Eyes — Eye-Oriented TRE and Trauma Therapy | Episode 59
Michael Morin Nissen is a psychologist, body-oriented psychotherapist, and TRE trainer. In this episode, we talk about various trauma therapies such as Tension and Trauma Release Exercises (TRE), bioenergetics, and body-oriented psychotherapy. We discuss the history behind such therapies as well as how they can be used to help people with, for example, multiple sclerosis (MS), depression, or childhood trauma. The conversation largely centers around the role of the eyes and face in understanding and releasing such trauma. By the end of the episode, you will have a greater understanding of trauma as a whole-body phenomenon, TRE and other therapies, and the connection between trauma and the eyes. This will hopefully help you better understand your own bodily, facial, and ocular habits, and how to return your nervous system to a safe and regulated state. **Connect with Michael Morin Nissen** website: www.morin-nissen.com LinkedIn: /michael-morin-nissen-0b6a90114 YouTube: @tredanmark8689RESOURCES PEOPLE - Alexander Lowen- Bruno Adler - David Berceli- Sigmund Freud- Stephen Porges- Wilhelm Reich - Will DavisTHERAPIES - bioenergetics- body-oriented psychotherapy- brainspotting- EMDR- Emotional Core Perception (ECP)- functional analysis - grounding- Tension & Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE) CONNECT WITH MICHAEL: website: www.morin-nissen.comLinkedIn: /michael-morin-nissen-0b6a90114YouTube: @tredanmark8689

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.


