It's time to rip the cover off what really works to ditch addiction, depression, anger, anxiety, and all other kinds of human suffering. No, not sobriety. We're talking the F-word here: Freedom. We'll share, straight from the trenches, what we have learned from leaving our own addictions behind, and coaching hundreds of others to do the same—and since it's such a heavy topic, we might as well have a good time while we're at it.
(00:35): All right, folks. Welcome back to the alive and free podcast today. I, I wanna take you on a little bit of a journey. Last time we talked about being special and how much we're striving to be special. And I, I want to kind of take you a little further back in history on this one to give you a sense of how long and how far, and this goes back in history, cuz it's not just right now that human beings in Western culture are trying to make themselves special or individuals. Now what relevance does this have to getting rid of emotional stuff and, and really living alive and free? Why, why does it matter whether I'm special or not? Why does it matter if I have an identity around some of the things I'm experiencing, why, why would that get in the way of me experiencing more freedom and more life?
(01:21): So I want you to take a step back and consider some things, right? One life itself is not limited by anything. It's, it's there. It's constantly changing. It's adapting, it's constantly growing and it's constantly, you know, doing things that are unexpected and we keep discovering new things about even life on this planet that continue you to blow our minds. Like really life does this thing. It isn't bounded by any of our concepts in any of our limitations. It isn't bounded by any of the ideas. Humankind has life itself is beyond any language, any concept, any idea we could put on it. So necessarily if we then step in and we say, oh no, my ideas are who I am. Then what we've done is created a huge limit on life and way back toward the beginning of the podcast. When I shared the story about Bodhi DOMA and him telling the Chinese emperor that he didn't know that that was a very, very real explanation of what's going on.
(02:25): How could you possibly know all that you will ever be? How could you possibly know the, the bloom of the flower, the blossom of the flower, if you're currently just a sprout, you don't know the life is in you it's there the whole time. And yet, how could you possibly know all the things that you will experience in the world today? We define ourselves by all the things that we do. So if we go back into human history though, it's it's humankind itself that is busy trying to make itself special. So some years ago, not too long ago, there was a, a medical scientist down in Brazil. I forget her name off the top of my head, but she went down and they were putting up a, an exhibit and asking the, the population around what they think about the brain. What percentage of the brain do humans use?
(03:10): And so she's asking people and 60% of them, or more answered with the answer that I bet is on your mind. If I asked you what of the human brain do you use? What percentage of the brain do humans actually use? And what's your answer. Now, if you've been around me, maybe your answer's gonna be a little bit different, but the common answer for most people is 10%. And she was looking at this data and she had remembered it. But then she had this question come inside of her head. She's like, well, where did we get this idea? That it's 10% what? So she started calling some really well renowned neurobiologists and neurologists asking them and neuro chemists and all this other stuff, asking them, where did this number come from? And so she would call 'em up on the phone. She'd talk to, 'em tell 'em what she was doing.
(03:55): Tell them that she's preparing for some kind of medical exhibit and public interaction and things like that. She would ask him these questions. And she said, so it's 10%. Well, do you know where we got that number? And they would ham ha and say no, I don't actually know where the number, but that's the number, right? It had passed into this public consciousness around the idea that like, yeah, humans use 10% of their brain. Well, that had come from the idea that there are of the number of brain cells, neurons in the brain. There are 10 times as many glial and epithelial cells in the brain. Then there are neurons and that became problematic cuz as she was looking at it, she's like, well, see, you would do that by how would you would figure this out as you would cut down slices of the brain, find a little piece and you know, dye, whatever things needed to be dye so that you could then individually count this slice and buy that slice.
(04:48): You could then average out how much it does. But the problem is that neurons are densely packed in different densities, in different areas of the brain. If you're in the cerebellum, there are more neurons per glia say than there are in some other region of the brain. And so you might get two or three glial cells per neuron in one spot, but you might get one to one in another spot or even fewer. And that, that just depends on what area of the brain you're in. And so to be able to, to extrapolate from that, the idea that there are 10 times as many of these other cells as there are, our neurons is a little bit more difficult. So she said about trying to solve the problem of let's figure out how many neurons, how mu how many neurons there are in the brain and what percentage of these and the reason that they say you only use them is cuz at that time that that number was floating around.
(05:37): Nobody knew what glial cells and epithelial cells were four. So they just assumed that they were sort of this inert matter. That's in there and that's it. But they're actually for some pretty profound things in terms of coding the neurons and doing some other things and protecting them and, and maybe even regeneration, you can look 'em up on Wikipedia. If you wanna know more about Galal cells and what they do, but the point is neurons were the active ones. So they assume, okay, so if there's 10%, one 10th of the brain cells are neurons. Those are the active ones we use only 10% of the brain. That makes sense. What she decided was well since the, the density of these neurons is in uniform. What if we create a way to melt the brain? Oh yes. This sounds amazing. Right. And make what it's called brain soup.
(06:22): So they, so they take these human brains, not from living people, just in case you are curious or wondering and they melt them down. And from those, then they're able to get a uniform average number of, and number of cells. And it turns out there's around 86 billion neurons in the brain and about an equal number of Al cells. So all of a sudden, overnight, because somebody tried to measure differently, they figured out that, wow, you actually using half of your brain already. So congratulations. If you felt like you were an idiot because you were only using a certain percentage of your brain and someone told you that Einstein used more of his brain wrong, you're all using the same amount of your brain. And it turns out that all these different areas of the brain fire up at different times for different activities. And so it's not like there is this only one, 10% is used in the rest of its stored away in some safety deposit box.
(07:16): No, your brain is active all the time. So congratulations folks, if anything, by listening to this podcast today, you are much smarter, which means you should be able to figure out how to be more alive and free than you ever have been in the past. Now here's the thing though. She started using this tactic at this technique to, to figure out how many neurons are in other brains. And it turns out that didn't show doing. They figured out that human beings, aren't all that special that we have the number of neurons and glial cells and other things in our brains. This would be expected for a hoed ape, like kind of being of our particular size. If we had gorillas of our size, if we had chimpanzees our size, they would have a similar amount of neurons in the brain and all the other stuff.
(08:00): And it turns out that some of these ideas around, around humans being different and what separates humans from the rest of the animal kingdom come from this idea that because we're thinking beings, we think that we're special and we want to be special. We think that we're the culmination of all evolution on the planet and that we are the, the, the purpose of creation and whatnot. And that's in religious circles. It's in just social circles. It's in Phil philosophical circles. It's not the fault of any one person necessarily, but it's a very, very common idea that humans are different from the rest. And it's that very separation of human beings from the rest of creation, where we're ending up, making ourselves extinct in some ways and where we're destroying the planet. We live on to the point where there won't be anything special left about us.
(08:47): Cuz there won't be anything about us left. So what's fascinating here is that we've done so many different things over time, looking at how we are different. We think, oh, we're thinking human beings. We have the ability to reason and think, well it seems that that same ability as apparent in other types of creatures as well. Oh no, but humans use tools. Well, so do OTs, they use rocks to smash things. Beavers use tool, the all kinds of animals use tools in various different ways. Well, no, but humans have advanced communication. Well, so do sperm whales. So do dolphins. Some of them possibly even more advanced than our own, every single thing that we pick on to try and prove why we are better. Why we are the, the top of the, of creation, why we are different and distinct from the rest of it.
(09:35): It is only separating it us from nature in our minds. It's not actually the truth. Human beings populate like other animals populate. We eat food like other animals eat food. Our diet needs to be attuned to our biology. Just like every other animal. Our communication systems are there. Every animal has a different method of communicating possibly, but still there's sophistication in communication, possibly we say, oh no consciousness and self awareness, but it's possible also that elephants have a sense of an eye and a, a personal identity as opposed to other animals. It just it's. Yes, there are unique things about human cut, but in our effort to stand out in our effort to be so special, we've put clothes on ourselves and lied to ourselves and pretended we're not part of nature. And that has been detrimental to us in so many different ways. So many people feel disconnected.
(10:31): They don't get the ox, oxytocin hit from being in contact with the ground because they have to have fancy shoes on and fancy clothes on. And all the other things, they only get the benefit of the wind crossing their skin because well, they're not out in the wind that much, we're always got coat on and things like that. We don't get the benefit of all of the sunlight on our face or in our eyes and all this other stuff because we're inside sheltered, separated from the rest of creation. And I'm not saying that modern conveniences are bad, but the comfort level that has been created by modern society, all because we think we're special, we're trying to rise above things and, and become the best that there is on the planet. Those types of comforts are, have weakened us as a species to where our abilities to survive is far less.
(11:13): And so then we Revere and we, we Ooh and awe at people like whim, H who sit there and modulate his body temperature with his breath or monks who could do all these legendary feats, which may not have been that legendary. Yes. Some of them superlative skill, but it may just have been normal human behavior at a certain point. Only now we're looking at it going, wow, these people had access some superhuman knowledge. Maybe it wasn't superhuman. Maybe it was human knowledge. And what we're operating with is subhuman knowledge. And we have outsourced our own capacity for technology technology itself isn't necessarily good or bad, but the question is like, okay, cool. With, with more and more technology, we need less and less capacity within ourselves to the point where we're so weak, that technology will eventually take over everything that humans are doing. I'm thinking of the movie, Wally.
(12:02): Yes. That's probably extreme and whatnot, but things, atrophy, muscles, atrophy from lack of use human abilities, atrophy from lack of use, there are human cultures. It operate based on having a natural inherent sense of which way is north. They can feel it. You can spin 'em around blindfolded 20 times and they'll be able to point north every time. And the only time that you can stop that is if you put them in a ally sealed room in some way, so that the magnetic fields can't enter from the planet and then they'll be lost. They won't know what's going on and they'll move around other animals, birds do this, all this other kind of stuff. Humans have this ability, their language even doesn't have like right and left hands. It's like, will you move west on the bench so that I can sit down? You know? And they're operating in terms of Cardinal directions, cuz that's the way that they've navigated in the world. And that's a dormant human ability. It's not gone. It can be resurrected. There are people doing like this, but it's just one that we don't use. And so it's just sitting there dormant and we think it's a superhuman ability when it's just a human ability.
(13:03): If you or someone you know, is looking to drop the FBO of freedom in their life, whether that's from past trauma, depression, anxiety, addiction, or any other host of emotional and personal struggles, but they just don't know how or want some help doing it. Head on over to the freedom specialist.com/feel better now and check out some of the things we've got in store for you or book a call. So we can look at your unique situation and get you the help that you're looking for. So what is a human anyway? What is it that you and I are confusion about what you and I are actually starts to? When I talk about root issues and core beliefs that people have about themselves that produce so much suffering in the world, it really comes down to their view of themselves. There is, is no sense in any way, shape or form that a person will suffer. If they're, if they're not identified with something that they're not, it's this confusion about who and what we are that is at the root of so much suffering. If you think about it, if you didn't believe that you had certain rights, meaning I'm a person that's supposed to have the these things, then if those rights were somehow taken away or if those experiences were taken away, would you be freaking out about it? No, you would be handling it just like your dog, who you take away his ability to run in the yard and yeah, he might whimper here or there, but then he just gets used to his spot and he lays down and that's it, you change his food.
(14:34): It's not a big deal. He just he's doesn't believe that he's supposed to have a certain kind of food and whatnot. It's only the concept that we have of who we are, what we deserve, where we supposed to do, what our mission is, what our purpose is. And all of those other things that start to produce this sense of fear and suffering inside of us as humans. And so if you look back to the Earlie earliest kind of scriptural references about what it is that makes a human, a living, being a living soul, cuz usually there's this idea that we are this, we have these spirits and this soul that has lived for a long time. But that actually is a, is a, a new wish idea. And it didn't come from Juda, Christian sources at all. It came from somewhere else. So early, early in the Bible, Genesis chapter two, verse seven, you have this idea, God formed man from the dust of the ground.
(15:27): And he breathed into his nostrils, the breath of life. And he man became a livings soul. Right? If you look at the actual Hebrew words, that's not the one that, that translation may be fine, but it doesn't do justice to what the words are. If you really look at the words, it's like man sculpted. I mean, God sculpted man, right? The great ones in the sky, sculpted man dust from the earth, right? And the word for man is the same word as earth. So it's like sculpted the earthling dust from the earth and bellowed like a bellows on a fire, you know, really bellowed into his nostrils, the gasp beings of life. So you can imagine him waking up going, whoa, whoa. Right? So the gas bings of life, like a baby cries when he comes out and so bellowed into his nostrils, the gassings of life.
(16:19): And then, and he became, and the word is Neish and it like Nishma is one word. That means a breath. And there it comes from this term referring to a breathing thing. So man became a living, breathing thing, a living, breathing life. And that is what the Hebrew word said, cuz to them a soul was matter. Some inanimate thing that was breathing. And so when that soul expired, it's not that the breath went somewhere else. It wasn was a it's spirit. By the way, the word spirit comes from the word for breath to aspire to expire is to, you know, stop breathing. And so we, that used to be a word that people would use for when somebody died, they expired, they stopped breathing and the breath was really the indicator of life. A soul to the ancient Hebrews was literally something that was breathing.
(17:15): And when it died, it just died. It was gone and it was annihilation. And that was the biggest punishment that you could do is you just cease existing. And the, and we've talked about this in the history of like God and Satan and all these other things. This notion that there was an afterlife that was a later development in not just in the Bible text, in all of the ancient texts. It's not like somebody went in and managed to edit out this piece from every culture on the planet. An evolution of the idea of an afterlife came over time. Well, now we get to show up at the time of, of plateau. Now plateau was a couple hundred years before Jesus, right? Some, some 400 years or so. He really believes in democracy, whatnot. He's a student of Socrates, who's this epic questioner of all people coming and going and seeking out the truth and democracy comes.
(18:03): And it's that very democracy that it's that very democracy that, that kills SOCRA. So now Plato kind of retires from public life. He tries to start up some political kind of regime and a couple of different places to establish his idea of what the ideal state would be. But he had flip flopped and it turns into some sort of tyrannical Orla Garic government that would be censoring people that would be raising the kids like taking 'em from their homes. And the state is the one that raises the kids that determines what people get to hear and not hear and all this other stuff, his political ambitions failed ultimately. But he was a guy who was a little bit jaded by life. Now he had a university, it went on for several hundred years you know, until the 500 CE. So we're talking almost a thousand years off and on before it was finally shut down by the Romans and they taught his philosophy.
(18:54): He's the first philosopher that had in a written body of work that could be read and passed on. And he wrote 'em like plays. So they were accessible to people. Aristotle one of his students didn't write like that. He wrote a like deep, dense essays, philosophical essays that my wife would never read. And most people would be bored with, but Plato wrote his like there's characters and there's a scene and where it's happening and it's a conversation and people could pick up on this to the point where there's a lot there's people who have said that basically all of Western thought is the, let a footnote to Plato. What Plato thought, what he wrote down. And this comprehensive set of dialogues ultimately became the foundation of thinking for Western thought. Now his thought was this, that what you think? And he freely admits it in his FAO that he prefers to have an idea.
(19:52): And if anything in the world doesn't agree with his idea, he toss it out. But if something does agree with it, then he accepts it. In other words, he, his thoughts are more important than reality. What he thinks should be the case is more important than reality. And this is born out. He says that the body is evil, that there is a world of eternal forms that nobody has ever seen and that they, those are the things that are enlivening this. And the only reason we have concepts about horses, because there's an eternal form of a horse that lives somewhere, and these are all, you know, poor substitutes for that eternal horse. And so he has this sense that there's a perfect world somewhere else. And this has come from his life history. It didn't happen in a Q he had ambitions, they got slaughter.
(20:35): His, his teacher was killed. And every time he tries to kind of like help people out, it's, it's failing. Athens is a, in a time of kind of decadence and there's all these REITs and, and legal disputes. And you could Sue people left and right, like he's in this world, that's kind of in chaos, kind of like the United States. And he's jaded. There must be a better world elsewhere that gets subsumed into Greek thought than filo. One of the first century, like he was writing to Jews, but he was schooled in Greek. He was preaching this stuff into Christians that gets taken in. There's a lot of Greek converts in Christianity, the early churches swarmed with Greeks and their viewpoint of reality leaks into Christian thoughts. So, whereas for them, the body is evil and there's a perfect thing somewhere else for Jesus. The body is the place where the divine takes action.
(21:27): This is the matter the body is the, the place where God lives, which is why he, Jesus was smoking of a bodily resurrection. But there, the Greeks are like, no, no, the body's evil. And that thought pulls into Christian theology, thanks to a lot of these Greek converts and Greek thinking to the point where there's so much downplay of the human system and of the body. And then you get Renada cart that shows up somewhere in the, in Renaissance thinking, telling people I think, therefore I am literally, he was saying, the only way I know that I exist is if I'm thinking, I want you to take a step back for a second, a thinking is nothing more than you talking to yourself without making it vocal. So if you imagined every thought that had to come into your head was coming out of your mouth, would you ever be able to know what life is?
(22:11): The amount of thinking that people do is basically a person running around talking to themselves all day long. Would, how much would they actually notice of life? How much would they actually be able to experience it? Because the same brain processes that are used for engaging with the world are used thin imagination and thinking is a form of imagination, which means you have to check out from reality in order to use those brain regions. In order to think the frontal lobe, the seat of our higher reasoning shuts down and down regulates awareness of the outside world in order to be able to think it's not a bad thing, it's been great for survival. I'm not saying that at all, but for people who claim to know reality because they have logically deduced it. And because of what they think, those are very, the very people that are disconnected from reality.
(23:01): You cannot think about reality and at the same time be experiencing it. And that means that the more you think the less you have think about, because now you're only thinking about your thoughts. Now you're only having a conversation with the last sentence you said, and you're not taking in any more information. So we scoot forward to man being just this one piece of nature. That's a breathing thing. And that it has this fleeting life to man, as a thinking thing, he can't exist unless he's thinking. And that very jump has made us so wrapped up in our own thought processes that we forgot the body part. The human part of us that actually is what's keeping us alive. If you didn't have a heartbeat, you wouldn't be thinking at all, consciousness is dependent on your blood pH, it goes too much in one direction or another, you lose consciousness, go into a coma, possibly die.
(23:55): Your thoughts are a byproduct. They are a gift. They are privilege. They're a garnish on the dish. And too many people have made the garnish into the main course as a result. They're wondering why they're not nourished. They don't feel full. They don't feel satisfied with their life. Life more fully is life that embraces all of humanity, including the garnish, including the thoughts and the feelings, but it's gotta embrace sensation. And the main dish is how you breathe, how you move, how you gauge and interact with and receive all of the information that's happening in the world. And then thinking is a cool activity. It can be a hobby. It can be a sport make time for it. Sure. But the moment that it takes over your life, which it has for almost all of us is the moment that that life gets squeezed shut.
(24:43): And you cannot appreciate and enjoy the wellbeing that comes from nourishing yourself on the main course of life. So as we wrap up today in asking the question and trying to get you to think about what you are and who you are as a continuation of the notion that you're special, when you actually step down from the idea of specialness, which itself is just a thought and reengage with the world, you'll find that you don't need to be special. That what you are is sufficient. And as you simply engage with what you are and learn the beauty and glory of what it means to be human and how much this human body offers in terms of wellbeing and experience and all that other stuff, man, your life will be something that you could never have imagined. Never describe, never even dream about. It's something totally different.
(25:35): And that's what I'm hoping to help people understand. It is the reason why psychology is not something that was existent in a lot of these old healing methodologies, not at all because they recognize that the thoughts are not important. Yes. In social environments. Yes. For interaction with people they're useful. But our education system is based solely on thinking and it's not based on seeing perceiving, living, and being. So instead of human beings, we went to human doings to human thinkings. And as a result, we've lost touch with our being and that's it for today's alive and free podcast. If you enjoyed this show and want some more freedom bombs landing in your earbuds, subscribe right now at wherever you get your podcast from. And while you're at it, give us a rating and review. It'll help us keep delivering a great stuff to you. Plus, it's just nice to be nice.
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