welcome to the human experience podcast
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strangers thank you for listening
[Music]three years to the day after my total
complete meltdown I was standing on
stage at the mr. universe in Mumbai
India representing my country and I was
like wow this this really works when you
get rigid and you become dogmatic in
your belief in your methodologies you
stand you tend to stop paying attention
to the red lights going off in your life
right now it’s the heady days you know
it’s going up at this exponential rate
and virtually anybody you know gets in
and they’re like I’ve made 200 percent
or 300 percent or 500 percent or a
thousand percent last year or whatever
it happens to be and and what happens is
is greed can cause a loss of perspective
and so one of the things that I have
learned to develop is to look at diet or
look at training or look at anything and
stop seeing the differences but let’s
look at the commonalities and I discover
essentially it’s the drug called the
whole thing is as a drug culture at the
end of the day humans evolve and
contribute by adding value to other
people
[Music]what’s up folks
Xavier katana here you’re listening to
the human experience and wow what an
amazing episode with mr. Wade light
heart a Wade is a three-time Canadian
all natural national bodybuilding
champion he’s a nutrition coach he has
explored health he’s explored fitness
he’s explored consciousness and even
cryptocurrency so we talked about all of
those things in this episode Wade is a
friend of mine and I was so glad to do
this episode with him and there’s so
much information on just meditation
connecting with yourself being able to
free yourself from the matrix and travel
and live the life that you want so I
really hope that you guys enjoy this
episode it was a really fun one thank
you guys so much for listening the human
experiences in session my guest for
today is mr. Wade light heart Wade my
good sir welcome to hxp
oh it’s a pleasure to be here Xavier
thank you for having me so Wade we’ve
been friends for a couple years and we
met at a biohacking conference a couple
years ago we talked about a bunch of
different things and you know I I know
you as having different facets of your
life and traveling wealthy backpacker
but people might not know who you are so
if you could just give everyone
listening a sort of background of what
you do who you are for the audience
please well thanks you know Ivan I like
to think that I’m an ordinary kind of
person that just stumbled into an
extraordinary life but I feel grateful
is the the prime thing but it’s like
everyone else we all have that
challenges but if I can try and make a
long story short you know I grew up in
Canada and northern Canada I was did all
the normal physical kids do play hockey
and stuff and then had a
transformational experience at fifteen
with my sister
you know diagnosis of cancer and we can
talk about that a little bit and I went
to study exercise physiology the
University New Brunswick because I was
looking at ways of improving my own
performance and health that led to your
career in the health and fitness
industry and also a career of kind of
traveling I got into travel and you know
my first plane ride was literally 22 and
I got hooked on it and after that I just
kind of went crazy and that you know
brought me to a lot of things you know
as everything from hanging out with
meditation masters and India and you
doing shamanic sessions with people and
standing on stage in front of 4,000
people given a talk on health and I had
the good fortune of being one of the
only vegetarians to compete in both the
mr. universe and the natural mr. Olympia
and yeah that’s it’s kind of the the
four one one and then you know I got
into the online space I had a friend who
was making money online and I couldn’t
believe that you could I thought he was
crazy at that time I had given up my
computer and all my electronics because
I was living kind of like a personal
trainer as a monastic at the same time
and we started a business and moved to
Panama in 2005 because it started taking
off and from there I think I spent about
seven years kind of traveling the world
living the lifestyle I always I always
joke around I said I wish I had a red
Tim Ferriss book before I started I need
like he didn’t write that soon enough
because what he outlined in that book
sort of said yeah I wish I hadn’t known
that at first because I had to learn
everything the hard way and then now
today I just work on a variety of
projects I have a nutritional company
which focuses on fixing digestion
because it’s such a big issue I have an
online business called the wealthy
backpacker which is teaching people
about online business and how to live in
the digital republic the new the new
world that is emerged that has is
changing everything it’s changing
countries it’s changing boundaries it’s
changing work and this evolution is
going to you know continue to accelerate
in my opinion oh yeah I can’t wait to
get into that with you you’re also an
author you’ve co-wrote a book called
staying alive in a toxic world you also
won was it mr. Canada that you won three
yeah yeah yes three times
Wow I mean that’s that’s quite an
achievement man I mean so you know what
do you find yourself doing the most in
your day what do you think is taking the
most of your management skills what are
you spending the most time on right now
well you know anything that I feel that
will contribute and raise the
consciousness of humanity whether that’s
helping people have more resources
whether that’s improving people’s health
well it’s just sharing tips about you
know some great spiritual stuff that
I’ve run into that mean that’s that’s
always the driver behind everything I do
if you understand if it’s in those light
relations I’m excited about it I want to
do it if it’s not in those lanes I don’t
have the energy or motivation or really
the interest because I’m just I’m on the
planet to try and evolve the best that I
can and by doing that it’s about
participating with everybody else on the
planet and I don’t have everything
figured out or anything like that I want
to be clear about that but I just love
humanity I’m fascinated by it but I
think if you look at a day to day basis
I spend a lot of my time online whether
it’s a webinar teaching stuff I think if
I had one scale it’s the ability to
teach principles in an in a layman’s
turns that people can understand and
provide things that can improve their
health or improve their business so it’s
a little bit of a split between those
two those two areas yeah I’m so glad
that you said that I’m so glad that you
mentioned the service to others and
service to humanity I think that’s so
important to all the things that you’re
doing with what you’ve established tell
us about the backpacking project that
you have running wealthy backpacker how
does this work how does a person travel
around the world on a limited budget
what is this new world that you were
just you were talking about just a
second ago that’s a great question and
I’ll try and summarize it as best as I
can basically the wealthy backpacker was
an idea that was born out of myself and
one of my friends AJ Harvey and what was
interesting is both of us love travel we
both made money not from a conventional
way of business he was a former hedge
fund owner had made his killing in the
markets and when everybody was getting
blown up in 2008 he was exiting the
market and living around the world and
carrying a couple suitcases and that was
it and you know even though he was
fabulously
and for myself I was able to build an
online business income that I didn’t
have to be in any particular location
working in Panama one month and I could
be in Bali the next month and I could be
in Vancouver the next month and I could
who visit my friends in California or
wherever happens to be and you know it
was a radical idea in 2005 now it’s much
more common so what happened is AJ and I
decided that you know we were really
lucky we felt we were very fortunate and
we had both achieved this lifestyle from
very different means where we’re like
totally opposite people and I believe in
partnering up with people who are of
opposite nature and opposite capacities
if you do have some conflict inside of
that but that’s that’s healthy conflict
if you know how to resort resolve that
because you get your own ideas and your
own values challenge and I think a lot
of people in the world of social media
today actually they do themselves a
disservice because they get blocked into
groups and ideas that just validate
their opinions as opposed to exposing
themselves to other groups or interests
so that’s the one negative I think about
social media is it just ends we really
deal with the confirmation bias before a
social media I argued with all my
friends and passionately and I didn’t
think less of them I preferred that kind
of you know that kind of sharing of
ideas and the passionate sharing of
ideas and then we laugh about it and we
we learnt to accept and love each other
for our differences and of course or
improve ourselves but AJ and I decided
to put this book together and we were
gonna combine two unique ideas one is
how do you make money online enough that
you could exit your day job or your go
to work job and part two is where he
came in is providing investment
education news bulletins that would
teach you the principles of investing
how to invest like the world’s
wealthiest people who you leverage
things like hedge funds in which he
owned one sure and so by combining those
two ideas and then also sharing with us
well guess what you probably don’t need
as much money as you think you do if you
can make enough money online get a
little bit of positive cash flow you can
move to a low-cost jurisdiction very
much like I did and like he did and
start accruing more wealth at a higher
quality of lifestyle and investing the
difference between your expenses and
your cash flow to make it simple and by
doing that after a few years you would
probably compound enough assets and
enough passive income that you could
of pretty much anywhere you wanted
anyways but the key was to create that
gap to create that that area of
resources financial resources that a lot
of people just don’t have they don’t and
they don’t know how to get that you know
they’re just making enough to get by and
to opening up the world to this what I
call the digital Republic that you can
live anywhere you can work anywhere you
can communicate with anybody you can
make money online I mean although the
largest companies in the world right now
our unlike knees I love this this idea
of traveling around the world I mean
this for me is actually a dream thing as
a personal goal I’ve set for myself to
have everything mobile which it pretty
much is right now and to be living in
country of your choice you know like
Bali somewhere like that and then move
to a different country absorb as much
culture as I can and do that for you
know several years and then sort of come
back to you know the states or wherever
I may end up but you know why do you
think people get trapped in the
nine-to-five of things and have so much
trouble sort of exiting the matrix great
question I would say two main things and
that is fear and identification with
possessions so how do we identify that
fear how do we turn that fear into
knowledge and then use that knowledge
for our benefit it’s a great another
great question I love your questions by
the way um well I think you have to
really understand how psychology works
you need to say I think a lot of people
focus on consuming information but
actually don’t consume information to
learn how their brain is and our brains
are relatively unreliable the more that
you study it so what you expose to you
tend to believe and what happens is most
of the mainstream media channels are
focusing on fear if you look at today’s
world it’s hard to believe that less
people are dying by war than ever before
less people are there’s less crime being
committed on the world people are living
longer than they have like there’s a lot
of great things but if you look at the
news or you look
these things you would never ever dream
that that’s happening right it looks
horrific and it’s terrible but the
statistics are absolutely the opposite
to what a lot of people think but our
brains are wired to self protect their
selves to be fearful all you don’t know
you don’t want to take that trip you
don’t want to go to that place what
happens I heard that you know that’s
really damaging over there I heard is
there’s a war gone over there I heard
there’s crime over there when the
reality is is that’s a very small
segment for a very particular time in a
place but that could happen in any city
and so people develop fears and they get
comfortable with their local environment
because it’s predictable in their brain
says this is safe this is secure can’t
imagine living anywhere else you know
what and then it starts what happens is
we start making rationalizations but at
the core is there’s a fear and we
rationalize away our lives to protect
their selves and how that ties into our
identities is oftentimes you know where
you live what kind of home you have what
kind of car you drive what kind of
friends that you have what kind of
events that you go in and that can come
at any financial range so it doesn’t
matter if you’re making you know twenty
thousand a year or two hundred thousand
dollars or two million dollars a year
there is an identification what I would
call product line with each strata of
income that just keeps you hooked into
that and what happens is we start to
develop an identity around those things
and once we build an identity into it
you know I think it was the Russians way
back in the 60s we’re doing
psychological research and they
discovered that the fear of death was
not the number one fear it was the loss
of identity huh okay yeah I find that
intriguing it’s really really
interesting how much we can allow fear
to dictate our lives fear to prevent us
from you know really living the life
that we want I think there is a sort of
romantic notion that is attached towards
traveling around the world it is a very
romantic idea to travel and live abroad
I really think that more people want to
do this but they’re simply afraid to
either they’re afraid or they just
haven’t done it yet
and it’s a procrastination thing that
keeps getting put off and and like you
said it ends up being something that
never really happens why do you call
this the revolution the digital
revolution why is that a term that you
use so often well here’s the thing if
you look at how humans have organized
themselves over these you know over the
centuries you know we started out at
kind of tribal cultures foraging for
food and doing whatever we we could and
then when the Industrial or the
agricultural evolution came in we
started organizing in cities and stuff
because we could actually grow food and
we didn’t have to travel very much and
that was you know that caused major
changes in society and then came the
Industrial Revolution which changed that
we weren’t working on farms we started
to working in factories and machines and
then and then cities got bigger and then
also as you know we assured in this last
century with the rising the the
devaluation of the dollar and the
increase of production of things the
demand for money increase in so people
started to move into the suburbs to have
bigger homes and commuting and you know
to cars and Pulaski kids and so all of
this started to change culture at a very
rapid rate then what happened is the
internet came upon us and the internet
changed everything because now today
you’re in a living in a condo for
example you don’t know your name
Bursar’s but you’re communicating with
people all around the world and you used
to go down to the to the five-and-dime
store to do your shopping
well now amazon has outputted
outperformed all of the retail shopping
in america they’ve made more sales than
all of the retail shop america in retail
shopping in america you have to realize
it’s got like a 300 year head start
amazon has been around what 20 years has
it been that long
and it’s now completely changed that
look at you know companies like Facebook
look at Google you know everybody
Google’s in a day everybody you know
will use Twitter or Facebook or take an
uber ubers in one of the big community
you know transportation companies and
they don’t even own vehicles Alibaba
doesn’t even
they don’t even own any stock it they
like they don’t own any inventory all
right and they sell things online so
we’ve moved into this age where people
are interacting with other people
through their screens through their
phones through this digital world and
what happens is it’s now going to affect
boundaries so if you look at the tribal
stay so we went to those tribal
countries and then we moved into
city-states and then we went into like
kind of we tried the mega nations with
the EU and all that sort of stuff which
you know United Nations which has had
mixed results but now you know where
countries used to make sense because of
geographical borders or because of
language and customs and cultures and
that sort of thing those barriers are
being tore down as those institutions
those governmental systems are trying to
keep things in line you know but what’s
happening is those lines are starting to
blow hurry and so it’s like well why why
do I call myself a Canadian why do I
call myself when or an American or you
know somebody from Cameroon aren’t I a
human first like aren’t I really a human
and when you start to strip away these
identities you know people ask you where
are you from well we automatically start
building a story about who that person
is and that’s not necessarily true but
we have maybe met you know a dozen
Americans or a dozen people from Canada
or whatever so we’ve said oh yeah
Canadians they’re really nice and play
well III know some unemployed Canadians
you know catched me on a bad day it’s me
so the bottom line is is I think this
digital revolution is you don’t have to
go to a job anymore you can make money
online you can invest online you can buy
all your stuff online and you can be
anywhere in the world doing it so I
think it will completely eliminate
boundaries countries and it’ll start
inviting some questions of like well why
are we fighting with each other what
other options are there and the more
that we expose each other to other
cultures I mean think of probably what’s
happened in the last oh I would say 10
years in the world of shamanic practices
these have been going on for hundreds or
thousands of years in South America
Chah and all of a sudden thanks to the
internet the use of
botanicalls as being widespread in her
facilitating different states of
consciousness in different states of
awareness for a lot of people and that
wasn’t possible before because people
couldn’t get to South America or they
couldn’t even hear about it they didn’t
even know that was there or they
couldn’t go to Leon ashram in India it
was too far away I mean I think it was
around 1900 one of the presidents went
to India it took him six months to get
there in six months to get back right I
can get on a plane and be there tonight
yeah yeah it’s it’s absolutely
fascinating and you know this isn’t
something that you’re just talking about
it’s not something that we’re just
having a conversation about this is
something that you live and do sometimes
we’ll we’ll have a brief you know just a
quick message and I’m like hey what’s up
you know how are you and you’ll tell me
something like you know I’m headed to
Dubai for the night and you know I’ll be
back tomorrow or something like that
it’s you know it’s very hilarious to me
because it’s not usual you know it’s
it’s not something that I see with other
people and I think you know this digital
revolution I think you really have
something there because they’re more and
more people are starting their own
businesses moving away from the
corporatized you know culture of this
nine-to-five job you know this cubicle
madness where you’re you’re literally
going insane and you know people want
out of what we’ve been sold and a big
part of something that you’re very
motivated by and in my opinion is is
cryptocurrency and you know bitcoin has
been in the news for forever now it
seems like lately you know Bitcoin has
has seen some huge huge gains I think
people sometimes they mix those two
things they they mix Bitcoin and
cryptocurrency together and they’re –
they’re these are two separate things
right yeah I think if you’re talking
about Bitcoin the currency or the
blockchain per se I think there is
extraordinary applications for both and
there’s extraordinary challenges for
both and right now we’re in what I call
the 1999
dot-com phase if I don’t firth of you
who weren’t around and what I see a big
rage in the crypto space is particular
people who may not bid him round in that
1999 they were born after it or born
just before it and if you remember there
was all the rage about the dot-com
industry and all these different
companies came into play and and it was
huge right there there was millions of
dollars I lived in Vancouver at the time
and I remember these startup you know
warehouses offices of people and
literally millions of dollars being
poured into them with no tangible assets
no tangible business model but they had
a great idea in a good pitch man and
that sort of thing and these things
started to emerge and I think with
cryptocurrency I think there’s a couple
things that’s really interesting about
it number one is the idea of a
decentralized Universal and private way
of exchanging value and and I think
where that comes from is a lot of people
are frustrated with the banking system
as it is and it’s concordant fiat
currency which tries it in which
certainly has its place and its means
and certainly up to this point I mean
it’s it’s funded transactions it’s a lot
better than trying to change you know
trade beaver pelts for shotguns sure you
know it’s a lot more convenient money
you know is a more convenient way to
exchange thing and people what’s the
value of Bitcoin well what’s the value
of your fiat currency well the fiat
currency is based on the idea that you
know the bank is gonna issue and the
taxpayers are gonna turn their labor
units and turn that over plus interest
to a centralized bank in the case of
Bitcoin it is encrypt those it’s like
okay we’re gonna do work on what’s
called the blockchain actual you know
computations by computers and that’s
going to be the value that has been done
and block chains are gonna pop out and
that’s gonna allow you and me to do an
exchange outside of the knurl own
currency system you know and that’s
really a layman’s term I don’t I don’t
want to profess that I’m an expert in
crypto currencies or anything like that
but I am fascinated by them can I like
the idea and I think it I think what
you’re gonna see is you’re gonna see
some cryptocurrency be put in place
on a global scale that will be leveraged
and maybe several of them whether that’s
going to be Bitcoin in the end or not
Ida I’m not so sure I mean if you look
at you know Yahoo at one time was the
largest search engine right myspace was
the number one social media very seldom
does the first one end up being the
final adaptation and so I have a little
bit of caution and when we talk about
Kryptos and our investment news
bulletins and aj of course is an expert
on these type of things and right now
it’s the heady days you know it’s going
up at this exponential rate and
virtually anybody you know gets in and
they’re like I’ve made 200 percent or
300 percent or 500 percent or a thousand
percent last year or whatever it happens
to be and and what happens is is greed
can cause a loss of perspective and
right now I think we’re in a very
speculative component do I think there’s
value in it yes do I think you should
put all your eggs in that basket no
definitely not do you want to put some
money aside and play that game sure but
right now it’s you know the applications
for Kryptos in a day to day basis um
haven’t really translated into the real
world
I mean a little bit you know people are
making some exchanges but the exchanges
are relatively slow and you know there’s
issues that haven’t been worked out and
I think are gonna run into some
challenges with governments I know that
the IRS asked coinbase recently to share
everybody who’s got you know twenty
thousand coins or more because what
happens is let’s say let’s say I bought
a Bitcoin at $1 way back in the day and
now for whatever reason Starbucks puts
in a transaction base for bitcoins or
any commercial agency but that Bitcoin
as we speak is worth like $15,000 over
but I buy my my $4 coffee well under the
tax laws of that particular country I’ve
realized a three dollar capital gains
here and so this is the part that people
have to recognize that as it gets
recognized as a currency these
government agencies are one are going to
they’re gonna go against it and that
doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t get
involved with it and I think it’s
something that everybody should you know
get some semblance of knowledge and
participate on some level but I I don’t
people to lose their minds about it
because at the end of the day humans
evolve and contribute by adding value to
other people and the more that we focus
on value based enterprise as opposed to
speculative base enterprise I think the
more security we actually build for
ourselves because at the end of the day
if we’re producing value people are
going to purchase it whatever the form
of currency happens to be or whatever
the medium or wherever you happen to be
I love the the broadness of your answer
because it leaves enough for
interpretation and I want to ask for
anyone listening to us speak about
cryptocurrency right now would you have
any advice as far as you know investing
specifically with Bitcoin right now and
and the price of Bitcoin it just seems a
little bit silly right now what’s going
on with Bitcoin would you agree yeah it
seems it seems pretty crazy and like I
said it seems a lot like 1999 the
reality is is probably 90% of these
crypto currencies aren’t gonna make it
they will fall away things won’t work
out or whatever but there will be some
that emerges and what that is and so I
don’t want to give financial advice I
can’t legally do that I think it’s that
you run into trouble but one of the
things I think there’s an old strategy
in investment worlds I think that really
plays out well first off never invest
anything you’re not willing to lose sure
number two don’t invest in anything that
you don’t understand I think those are
those are good rules number three one of
the things that I do so I’ll share what
I do as I’m not giving advice I’ll share
what I do is – I’m in an in a particular
investment when it doubles I take out
what I invested I ride that with
whatever or the game was so that allows
a person with a little bit of money to
kind of play maybe not even in Bitcoin
but maybe some of the alt currencies or
whatever but as soon as it goes up
double I pull out what my initial
investment was and and if it rises up
and if it goes down well you know I
didn’t lose anything so and that was
something I’ve learned you know I was an
athlete and athletes we take risks we go
against the odds and thanks to AJ he was
able to provide me some insight to my
own biases and my own biases as I want
to play
I want to go for the win so if I hadn’t
had that information you know maybe a
few years ago or even you asked me the
same question years ago I’d be like yeah
go all-in right you know but I’m all-in
but I don’t suggest you go all-in on
anything even though that was a pathway
for me and almost everything that I did
but as I move into a new season in my
life I’m looking at a little bit more
defensive strategy yeah yeah I like that
I you know I would just suggest looking
at you know like like you said all
currencies alts coins
wait I really want to talk about you
know none of this stuff matters if your
health isn’t on point if you’re if
nutrition for you isn’t there then you
know none of this stuff that you’re
traveling you’re not gonna be able to
travel and your investments you’re not
gonna care how much money you have
because yours your health isn’t gonna be
there so I mean a big part of your world
is nutrition staying healthy and fitness
in the way that you were competing in
these athletic competitions for
bodybuilding why was that such a a
powerful thing for your life there’s a
lot of reasons and those reasons evolved
over time but I’ll say when I was 15
years old my sister was diagnosed with
cancer and she was four years older than
me and she was very athletic strong and
you know played a lot of sports and was
quite successful at it and then I
watched over for years
through through my high school years as
as you know despite all the heroic
efforts of modern medicine and all the
treatments and all that sort of stuff I
watched her literally waste away and
eventually die within under you know
tragic and painful circumstances
particularly for my family and anyone
who’s gone through an experience of a
family member having cancer can
recognize that they they understand what
that is it’s a it’s a very helpless
feeling but having that happen to me at
such an early age there was a gift
within that and the gift was is I
realized that my health wasn’t a
guarantee and I think so many people
assume that they’re going to be healthy
and always going to be healthy and it’s
just one of those things we put off to
the side and suddenly at some point in
time oh I got a diagnosis so it’s like
you know gee how did that happen well it
happened over the last 30 years of
whatever you’ve been doing over 40 years
or 50 years or however long you been on
so that had a powerful impact on me now
it started off very innocent and silly
my sister had actually given me a
bodybuilding magazine I still remember
had Troy zu claw toe mr. kit had won
just mr. California on the cover and had
these two beautiful girls and I thought
oh wow man I guess you need muscles for
that and he looks strong and healthy
that looks great and I started getting
into Arnold Schwarzenegger as my first
kind of mentor in my mind and I read his
book education of a bodybuilder and he
said you know you can achieve anything
with hardwork self-discipline and a
positive attitude and that seemed like a
great idea to me he looked like he was
doing well so I started on that endeavor
to build up myself because I thought
that would make me healthier and I
thought it would make me stronger the
ironic thing was is I went off to
University studied exercise physiology
and you know I got a good background
information but it was like all these
pieces of the puzzle it wasn’t put
together and so I decided that I would
go under mentorship so what I did is I
found one of the best coaches in the
world in the world of bodybuilding and I
hired him to mentor me and that was a
great move on my part and it took me a
long time to get there to kind of
suspend my ego and make that step and
when I did it was transformational but
it also came with some challenges for
example in 1998 I went to the my first
national championship so this is you
know after ten years of training I go to
my first national championship and I
discover essentially it’s a drug cult
the whole thing is a drug culture so we
have this look of bodybuilding which is
this you know these beautifully muscled
men and women standing on stage and you
know almost nothing you know chiseled
you know cosmetic ideals of what we were
supposed to look like but then backstage
it looks like a a MASH unit or something
and so I realized at the time this is
not why I got into the sport you know I
got into the sport to be healthy and
strong and vital no listen I realized
that at the higher levels it’s become
everything that I didn’t want it to be
that’s not what I signed up for so I
left the sport I opened up my own
nutrition store but then I got involved
in you know what I call sex drugs and
spirituality basically my coach told me
the years later what it was and he said
you actually went through a grieving
process
so I went in and you know got involved
you know I went through an evolutionary
phase where I partied a lot and used a
lot of different chemicals and stuff and
then had a transformational experience
in 2000 that pulled me out of that world
and when I came out of it I got into
meditation and started practicing and my
teacher had told me that if something
didn’t exist for you and it was right
you could do it if you practice these
principle so I said okay I’ll put that
to the test I became a vegetarian said
I’m gonna win a national championship
with no drugs as a vegetarian and I’m
gonna meditate my way to that process
and literally three years to the day
after my total complete meltdown I was
standing on stage at the mr. universe in
Mumbai India representing my country and
I was like wow this this really works
this really really works he was right
this is true I can do this and you know
a lot of unusual circumstances happened
to that so I started to realize the
power of meditation the power of self
exploration the power of going inward
and today in the digital world which
everything is so outward and so coming
at us that is stepping back and going
within and realizing that no matter how
powerful digital technology becomes it
cannot compete with physiology the
intuitive and emotional capacities of an
individual human and then if you can
connect with a collective group of
humans literally anything is possible
but more importantly true inner peace
and true joy is possible and I think at
the end of the day that’s what everybody
is really secretly craving you know when
you see people practicing nutrition and
working on their bodies you know whether
it’s it’s weightlifting for competition
or just to stay healthy is there a
fundamental mistake that you see people
making that that you would advise
against well I’ve made all of them so I
could probably help people out along the
way the first thing I think is rigidity
of thought so if you look in martial
arts a rigid position is a position of
weakness
and I believe it is the same in every
endeavor the second we think that we
know we’re in trouble so the ability to
maintain an open mind the ability to
experiment and to track that experiment
whether you are a data based person or
you’re more an intuitive kinesthetic
feel kind of person those two ways of
interpreting how something affects your
body is great so I would say that my
first mistake and a lot of mistakes that
people make is they begin to identify
themselves with a certain diet a certain
training style or a certain philosophy
and what I have found is like life is
things change and there is an
evolutionary process so the right diet
for somebody at 15 years old might be
different than 25 or 35 or 45 or so on
or a competitive based diet which I you
know I fell victim to one time all right
and I say victim because I ended up
becoming you know I ran that program out
to a point that caused me to be ill now
that illness led to a breakthrough which
we can talk about but the bottom line is
when you get rigid and you become
dogmatic in your belief and your
methodologies you stand you tend to stop
paying attention to the red lights going
off in your life and that can be in any
endeavor it could be in health it could
be in relationships it could be in your
business life but I think what happens
is people get in there and I’m Kido or
I’m a vegetarian or paleo or whatever
the new fad is and oftentimes the change
produces the initial results but if you
look at life you look at everything
everything has seasons everything has
arisen rhythms the the Four Seasons the
changing the night today you know the
dry climate – the wet climate the hot
climate – the cold climate everything
has contrast in the world that we live
in and so by staying rigid we hold
ourselves back from experiencing all
possibilities and so one of the things
that I have learned to develop is to
look at diet or look at training or look
at anything and stop seeing the
differences but let’s look at the
commonalities and from the commonalities
we can compile some basic tenant
are some basic truths and from that
point we can do our experiments so what
I’m hearing is to really excel at this
at anything is to not to have a rigid
stance on whatever your understanding of
something may be and to have enough of
an open mind to accept you know the
changes of things as in like the seasons
and you compared it to the seasons as my
close and understanding what what you
just said yeah I think so and I think
there’s another piece that when we’re
relating to diet particularly that
people make a big mistake okay and that
is theyes you know the old saying you
are what you eat and that’s kind of
become a meme that is perpetrated
throughout the world and of course we
identify with what we eat or so we’re
socially or physically or culturally but
what most people don’t realize it’s a
single canal from your mouth to your
anus it’s like the food is in the tube
it’s not in your cells it’s not in the
actual body it’s not in your physicality
until it goes across you know it goes
through the digestive process and is
broken down and in today’s world I think
what happens is we are chasing our tails
because we make the assumption that if I
eat it it gets consumed and utilized and
absorbed and that’s not the case and
what we’re having developed now is we’re
seeing that but the fifth leading cause
of death is digestive related illnesses
in people who was that possible but yeah
well the root cause of cancer and the
root cause of heart disease and the root
cause of diabetes they’re all traced to
what we eat or what we consume but and
some of those things can be things that
cause us to be depressed some of those
things can cause us to have various
illnesses in the body whether it’s
diabetes whether it’s heart disease
whether it’s cancer these are all
related to our environment both
externally and internally and so what we
find is that getting ones digestive
health in an optimal state is a key
component to get the maximum benefit out
of any dietary practice and also over
the long term to maintain one’s health
and one’s vitality is our ability to
consume
and utilize the nutrients from our diet
and to eliminate the waste products and
today we have a lot of things like you
know chemical agents and you know
whether it’s pesticides and herbicides
and plastic they’re finding plastic all
in people’s physical tissues now you
know that the high levels of estrogens
and all the things that we genetically
modify through all these sort of things
that have been developed relatively
recently and our human bodies have not
adapted to them and although we have all
the technological breakthroughs that
life is brought to us we see an
increasing level of depression and what
I call treatable these diseases so we
have treatments for disease that’ll
extends people’s life but doesn’t extend
their quality of life and so for me I
want to live long and live strong in
order to do that I have to recognize I
need to put great fuel in my body and I
need that engine that digestive system
is how we convert fuel into everything
else in our body that needs to be at an
optimal level and from that we developed
a company around that because I had that
problem in 2003 when I went to that Mr
Universe contest never goes oh wow
that’s great and wonderful I followed a
extremely rigid diet for a long period
time eleven straight months I ate five
things and literally at the end of that
contest game 42 pounds of fat and water
I felt terrible I went from mr. universe
to mr. marshmallow and it was
devastating and I couldn’t figure out I
couldn’t I was like I’ve been doing this
for 16 years I’ve got the best coach in
the world I’ve got the best discipline
in the world I’m doing everything I’m
right and Here I am at the end of my
rope I’m having a disaster
from that perspective but that’s what
led me to finding the medical doctor
that taught me about how to build the
body from the inside out as opposed to
the outside in I had started a
meditative process at that time so that
made even more sense to me on a
psychological level but then it was
something I could use on a biochemical
level as well and and you know it’s been
that way ever since so I really want to
dig into your last statement there where
you felt you had been doing this for you
know 16 years or what were you doing
wrong that resulted in
this reaction what happened there a
couple of things one was an excessive
consumption of protein I think was the
first thing number two an extended
calorie restriction under you know an
incredible physical duress I mean
training for mr. universe contest is
annexed it’s challenging and run a life
and stuff and also I would compound
another thing onto that and going back
to my initial statement the first fear
because of an identification I was that
guy I was that guy that need to be at
single-digit body fat percentages I
identified with you know being that
champion being that athlete being best
student of my coach and not listening to
my own intuitive wisdom you know I felt
terrible the last six months I knew that
there was problems but I refused to
acknowledge them because I was so
focused that I was going to the mr.
universe no matter what and it didn’t
matter what the cost was and you know
when the bill came I discovered what the
cost was and the cost was my health and
the cost was my happiness the cause was
all that but fortunately I was able to
find another person to help me and
that’s what opened me up to flexibility
you know you will become flexible or
life will smash you ask anybody that has
kids right kids change everything yeah
absolutely this is why I wanted to you
know really bring you on the show is
such a diverse range of experiences that
you’ve had and there’s something that I
was reading about that I had to do a
double-take on when I was doing the
research for the show I think it was an
article that you wrote called what every
athlete needs to know about restructured
ionizedwater
is this an action this is a real thing
what is restructured ionizedwater why
isn’t so important to our health and our
bodies well again this was a another
fortuitous discovery that I made in 2007
ionized water or electrically reduced
water as it’s some kind sometimes called
in like scientific or technical
is basically a process where through
electrolysis you put an electrical
current through water and with a device
you can separate those waters into two
streams and this one stream will be
acidic and one stream will be alkaline
based on the mineral dispersion so you
had an occurring in a negative ion base
minerals will go one way and the
positively charged ones will go another
way and it was discovered in Japanese
hospitals back in the 60s that you could
use this ionized water and you could
treat a variety of different things and
there was a lot of different theories
about why this was had positive benefits
but I will list the couple that I
understand which has now have recently
been proven to be true and number one is
if you can I’ll start on the one side
that a lot of people don’t start on on
the acidic side when you create an
ionized water you’ll create two sides
one will be negatively charged which has
an antioxidant benefit and another one
is a positively charged which will be an
acidic effect now you can make a strong
acid using this water that you can kill
salmonella E coli mersa
any kind of bacteria in Japanese
hospitals we’re using that in order to
disinfect the instruments without using
antibiotic or antibacterial mechanisms
and so that has a massive benefit to
society from a you know you look at
hospitals today they’re the number one
source of you know untreatable
antibiotic resistant bacteria one of my
friends dr. Horace filter who was part
of the team that put the he’s a Harvard
graduate and he taught at the Harvard
Medical Center for 35 years and surgery
put the first stent in the body he says
that you know a large part of people who
die from surgery die from infection not
from the surgery and so he was testing
it because he thought it was it was
beneficial for untreatable wounds you
know people with open wounds and sores
and all these things that wouldn’t
respond to normal treatment so use it
for that and that’s what it was
originally used for in Japanese
hospitals but they also started to
realize that if you drank the negatively
charged ions what happens there was a
change to the structure a change to the
charge of the water a change to its
effectiveness and what it meant is it
reduced water to a level that was more
absorbable by the body
it was easier to cross into the cell
membrane so you had better hydration and
it also seemed to have a positive effect
on free radicals and that is free
radicals are the things that basically
cause inflammation in the body on every
level we’re all inflammation is the
number one killer of everything it you
know we get inflamed anything that’s an
itis inflammation is the silent killer
that we can’t feel or touch but it’s
part of what causes the aging and
degeneration process and so they started
using this in Japan quite widespread Lee
and then later on what happened is a
number of companies sprung up and they
were selling these household ionisers
that you could actually turn your tap
water into this I thought it was a bunch
of bunk guys like come on man this
sounds really far-out
fortunately you know I mean really and
what happened is I realized that I had a
rigid position and I went okay you know
what I have a rigid of the position the
scientific method is to put in a
hypothesis and test that hypothesis to
see if it’s gonna be what I find ironic
is a lot of people in the medical or
scientific professions quickly discount
this kind of technology without running
an experiment they actually break away
from scientific method they condemned it
before experimenting so it’s just one of
the the interesting points of the world
today so I didn’t experience it you know
I’m gonna try this stuff at the time I
was about 200 pounds I said
approximately 75% water I’m going to
replace if this really is that much more
absorbable and utilizable I’m gonna put
a little theory that I’m gonna drink as
much of this water as possible or a
short period of time and see what its
effects on my body Isis be like changing
the oil in my in your car in layman’s
terms I figured I would just flush all
the water that’s currently in the body
and put in this new stuff so I drank an
excessive amount of this water and I
trained and in a ferocious late cuz I
said if this is an antioxidant level
this is really has an ability to absorb
better it should reduce lactic acid
significantly and it did I couldn’t
believe it I was like wow I can’t
believe I’m training this hard and the
level of soreness I experienced is
significantly reduced to anything that
I’ve ever experienced before and so I
said well maybe it’s an antidote maybe
this isn’t true so what I did is I
literally Regan
turd into the national championships
which was only three and a half weeks
later I’ve been retired since my contest
in 2003 this was 2007 and I was like I’m
gonna compress four months of
preparation into three and a half weeks
and there’s no way I could possibly
survive this under normal circumstances
but I’m gonna apply everything that I’ve
learned over these last four years in
rebuilding my health and I’m gonna put
it out of an extremely high level in an
optimized level and I’m gonna train like
a crazy person and I’m gonna see if I
can produce a result that I know is not
possible and that is to get in shape for
this contest and potentially win it and
turned out I did win both my classes and
went back to the World Championships
three months later and placed better
than I did the first time and I said
okay that’s great now what was
interesting going back to the book his
people got wind of this story and as you
know when people get wind of the story
they oftentimes get it incorrectly and
so I came back I went to the contest was
in Greece at that time and after Greece
I went on a you know kind of a tour
around Europe and ended up all over the
world and then I got back in January and
I literally saw an article that was
produced by a particular company and a
quote about this and and I’m looking at
this and then I I found out from some
other people they thought I was some 70
year old guy that had went to the mr.
Knorr because he came to retirement and
there was all these stories and it was
this crazy and so I called up one of the
people that made the marketing brochure
and I said to them I said hey look uh
number one I think this is a wonderful
marketing brochure that you have it’s
really well done it’s very oh ticket I
love this design and the color we’ve got
a couple of problems though and I said
number one you use my picture without my
approval
number two you’re misquoting what
actually transpired and you’re doing the
world a disservice by telling them wrong
information and so he was kind of he’s
like waiting for a lawsuit I said look I
don’t want you to sue I think the water
is great for people I think I’ve used it
in my clinic I use myself I think it’s
got a lot of benefit but how about we
come together here and do something of
service how about I write a book on how
this affects athletic performance
because I think it’s gonna be such a
game-changer for athletics I think it is
an unfair advantage if you’re drinking
this water and you’re in an athletic
environment
on a daily basis or whether at the
highest levels of you know professional
sports it’s a game changer so we wrote
this little book what every athlete
needs to know about restructure dinah
has water and the next thing you know
that started a speaking tour as these
distributors of the product wanted me to
come and speak at their local events and
so off I went again and you know that
was the culmination of about seven years
on the road where I just kind of lived
around the world and I would be taken in
by people and get on stage in front of a
couple hundred people or a hundred
people or you know a thousand people
didn’t matter and I would share about
what I had learned and I would answer
questions from other athletes and and it
met a lot of great people and had an
amazing time and yeah it was totally
unexpected but it was out of service
you know just hey I think people can
benefit from this I saw it personally in
my own life and I saw it personally in
the with the clients I dealt with so
that’s how it went and then what was
recently happened is I just had a call
with dr. filter three weeks ago and he
also was very skeptical being a surgeon
about this technology but it had he had
found a significant benefit with his
arthritis when he had a drinkin which is
the bane of all surgeons he went on a
quest for ten years and nobody could
prove that it was actually having an
antioxidant effect and he reasoned that
was because the charts that are the the
mechanism they were using to measure its
antioxidant effect was incorrect and he
devised a test where he could do this he
could actually measure its antioxidant
effect and just recently published the
data in a 100% defensible experiment
scientifically valid put into
peer-reviewed journals that has proven
that this type of water increases
mitochondrial energy and has an
antioxidant effect in the body and is
absorbed by the body and also improves
red blood cell formation all things
which I experienced but it had no way of
sharing other than anecdotal in my own
intuitive nature so it was really nice
to have that scientific validation wow
this is really amazing really
interesting to read about this to learn
about this to hear about it from you Wow
I mean wait we’ve covered so much
information we’ve covered you know
finance
comics nutrition traveling the world you
know I really want to also cover because
it this is a big part of your life and
you mentioned it several times and I and
I glossed over it because I wanted to
cover these other things meditation and
just enhancing consciousness identifying
with our inner world connecting with
that which is inside instead of looking
on the outside for things how does a
person do that more how do we how do we
see within more oh that’s a that’s a
really loaded question um you know I can
only share my own experience because you
know I can’t always get inside of other
people’s heads and I had a couple I
think frankly I think I might have
gotten some advantages that allowed me
to discover the benefits number one when
when I was fifteen we moved to this very
rural areas five miles into the woods so
I had to spend a lot of time alone
without a lot of stimulus and so without
that stimulus you spend time in your
thoughts you spend time going in also in
a very peaceful environment even though
I wasn’t interested in that at that’s
being 15 I want to be with my friends
and having fun and all that stuff Here I
am in the munis pristine place so III
develop that capacity and also when I
was training when you’re building your
body that became a process where you
started to internalize so I do think
that athletics gives a person an
advantage that by doing athletics you
can start going within oneself as you
get a deeper connection and I’m not
talking about putting the headphones on
and going to the gym I’m talking about
actually feeling your body in itself
whether that’s through yoga practice or
whether that’s through bodybuilding
whether that’s through endurance
training you start to be aware of your
breath you start to be aware of the
physicality of yourself and then what
happens is you start to reflect on that
now
for me being experimenter as I as I have
been and I didn’t know anything about
meditation or internal environments when
I was 22 you know I was experimenting
with you know LSD and these type of
things and for whatever reason I had an
overdose at one point and
had the experience of dying and had the
life review and experience the universe
or God however you want to a near-death
experience and that completely changed
my life when I came out of that the
world seemed you know I was in
university at the time and it just
seemed like I was in kindergarten and
people were asleep and and I had this
whole new awareness and that spawned me
to you know get on a plane and go to
Santa Monica and follow my dreams and
become a body bill you know I met Joe
golden when training and all that sort
of stuff so there is a progressive part
and then that can be a side effect you
know years later when I left
bodybuilding and went through that down
period again I I fell into the pursuit
of you know trying all different sorts
of chemicals and things like that what
you have you know different experiences
and states of consciousness but I got
into the dark side of that and then you
know had a mystical experience coming
out of that where my teacher appeared to
me and you know the rest you know told
me I needed to start meditating and I
had been studying meditation from a
scientific point and from a pure
mechanical wave of playing music and
doing sensory stuff but then I got into
a serious practice at that stage in my
life and from then the internal
progression over time in its in it’s not
linear sometimes you go through great
periods of just unbelievable
realizations and sometimes you feel like
oh my god I’m not made any progress at
all and that is part of the journey and
that is part of the reflection and that
is part of understanding the seasons
within our own consciousness itself and
so I’m not here in advocating you know
using sort of all sorts of recreational
drugs or ethnobotanical –zz but I think
for me they triggered some experiences
that made these kind of Airy fairy out
there ideas that I hadn’t been exposed
to it at an earlier age become real and
tangible and something I wanted to seek
without those those chemical agents yeah
wow that’s so profound I love that
yeah meditation is important crucial
it’s an everyday practice for me it
keeps me sane as much as I I look at
at it as you know going to the gym for
the mind for me it keeps me in tune
things are very intuitive for me and for
me to keep that compass sort of in line
in check I have to have a sort of
grounded state and if that is add an
imbalance or if I if I’m not taking time
away and and doing that it’s not fun
it’s important to have all these in
check so that we can travel the world so
that we can conquer you know all these
business ideas and so that we can be so
at service to others is there anything
that that you can add to what I just
said yeah I actually I can and I think
I’m one of the experiments and why I got
triggered into kind of travelling the
world I read about the the wandering sad
who’s in India and these people would
stay and never stay in a place for more
than two weeks because I didn’t want to
tech develop attachments and patterns of
behavior or actions based on their
environment I thought well I wonder why
they would do that that seems pretty
radical so I said okay well why don’t I
try that why don’t I just go all over
the world I you know I had gone through
a major change in life and you know
didn’t have any possessions or anything
like that so I was like well this is the
perfect time to kind of you know the
world kind of help me let go of those by
just circumstance and so I got on that
path and you know Ike remember when you
first do it especially when you go to a
new place or a new area what happens is
it’s very disconcerting most people
don’t realize is that you develop once
you get you know in a certain area or
living in a place in the world that’s
familiar you just ignore a lot of the
things that are going on your brain goes
into autopilot mode and feeds in the
data but when you go to a new place it
seems there’s a lot going on and you’re
aware of so many different things and
all these tripwires and your brain start
become activated and oftentimes when
people travel it could be very stressful
it’s very challenging you know new
cultures languages you know going to the
store can be difficult cuz you can’t
communicate you don’t understand if you
know what the exchange is you don’t know
the social customs all of this stuff and
then I remember
there is a kind of a breakthrough moment
I think it was about three or four years
in where I realized that I could go to a
new place and not be overwhelmed and
what I felt it was doing is I was
increasing awareness of what’s my
peripheral vision and at that point I
was learning under a spiritual teacher
by the name of dr. David Hawkins and he
was talking about how meditation moves
to contemplation and in the bonner and
busy world that you can meditation is
kind of sitting in one place but in a
contemplation you would hold maybe a
spiritual thought or a universal thought
or a loving thought and you would take
that and apply it throughout the day in
a meditative process so you could be
going to the store and you could be kind
and loving under all circumstances while
someone smashes into your car well are
you gonna be kind and loving in that
circumstance or you get caught in
traffic and this becomes a a benchmark a
contrast point to see where am I at and
again I think that starts to bring you
back in to see am i stressed am I
overreacting am i angry having these
negative emotion States and we start to
realize yeah I am in a negative emotion
choice and I can totally relate to what
you said you know if for some reason I
don’t do my meditation or I forget about
my contemplation or I get you know out
of that pattern pretty soon it doesn’t
take too long and all of a sudden I see
a degeneration to my old patterns of
behavior my old stress levels all these
types of things coming up so you know I
don’t think you’re immune to it at any
level on the journey or any place in the
journey like I said it’s not a linear
thing is there’s no place to go there’s
not like all those sort of stuff it’s
it’s the letting go of everything and
which is kind of counterintuitive to how
we’ve kind of setup the Western world of
you know of more the more monster yeah
and we can start to wrap up here with
this and I think we’ve come full circle
with this and I really appreciate this
conversation it just flew by you know I
think for a lot of people there is you
know this fear of missing out and I feel
like we go through education we go
through this sort of training and we get
put into the so-called real world
and we’re not given any tools we’re not
given anything that’s beneficial my my
degree is you know a paperweight it’s
literally a piece of paper that I don’t
think I ever used I think all the
learning that I did post college is
where I developed my career where I
develop my passions do you agree with
this I mean do you agree with the way
that the system is set up that people
are sort of trapped in this sort of loop
this sort of cycle of school job work
chase money get married that sort of
cycle of life and death yeah I really
believe that that’s why I’m so
passionate about the idea of the digital
republic and living in this at the new
age where you can experience and express
more outside of that and recapture that
youth if you look back to history
history always gives indications of the
future if you look back to ancient
Greece and kind of like the great
thinkers 2,500 years ago who really
understood the psychology in mind they
talked about the connection between mind
and body the development of self
discipline within oneself and they
didn’t teach just science they taught
philosophy science without philosophy is
can be used for terrible things science
with philosophy can be transformative
for the world but at the end of the day
one can only apply philosophy or science
to one’s self and rather than express
oneself to force everybody to become
like you or to you what you do that the
better way with the great teachers of
the world where they reform themselves
to such a level that became so magnetic
and so attractive that their life took
on you know a different level I mean you
look at all these people that there was
hardly any books there is no internet
there was no these eyes but these ideas
and these values have transcended and
developed cultures throughout thousands
and thousands of years and for some
reason in the modern world and all this
busyness people have lost the concept of
self-experimentation the the concept of
the value of one’s physicality and
taking it and and creating it to be as
healthy as possible
so that you can experience the full
range of our sensory experience and
environmental experiences and and then
to leverage the technology of today to
take that plane trip to the other side
of the world to take that boat trip it
take up the artist course to go down
there and drink some juice in the jungle
and see what happens to you to go out
there and expose yourself to things and
you know of all the people that I’ve
seen do that I haven’t met one of them
that didn’t feel that their life was
enriched did all the things that go out
the way they expect no did you know they
end up having a fatter bank account
not necessarily did they experience a
greater level of joy and connectedness
almost every single time and some of the
most fascinating people I’ve ever met
we’re the people who were willing to let
go of the status quo the people that
were willing to break free of the social
conditioning that they found themselves
in the ability to not identify
themselves with the past but to learn
from it and to use that as a tool to
influence their present and ultimately
their future I love it Wade thank you so
much for being here man where can people
find your work where can people get a
copy of of your book and whatever
whatever you want to plug do it do it
now please
oh well thank you appreciate that well
um if they’re interested in the digital
republic can how to make money online to
kind of finance their traveling world
they would go to the wealthy backpacker
calm and you can download a free copy if
you’re suffering from health challenges
or you’d like the next level health they
can simply go to the human experience
slash the awesome health course we’ll
put that in the notes and I give away
literally a 12-week health optimization
course and inside that it’s little five
to fifteen minute videos of everything
that I’ve learned over the last thirty
years that can enhance the qualities of
one’s health and vitality and I give
both of those things away for free and
the reason I do that is I really want
people to freely enjoy my ideas but not
to say that they have to follow them and
I always tell people just read it if you
like it take what you like and discard
what you don’t apply what you think is
relative to your life right now and and
if it works out for you drop me
I’d love to hear it I’d love to hear
those stories from people yeah for sure
wait thank you so much for your time
guys we are going to get out of here you
have been listening to the human
experience my name is Xavier katana a
huge thanks to my guest Wade light heart
guys thank you so much for listening you
will hear from us next week