Power Up Your Brain (32 page)

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Authors: David Perlmutter M. D.,Alberto Villoldo Ph.d.

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Week 5

 
Diet

Organics:
Choose

Allergens:
Avoid

Fats:
Favor low carbohydrate, low saturated fat

Alcohol:
Red wine, 1 glass 3 times per week, if desired (not on fasting day)

Caffeine:
Avoid

Fruits & vegetables:
Increase

Carbohydrates:
1 serving per day

Calorie consumption:
Women reduce to 2,000 daily; Men reduce to 2,550 daily

Fasting:
Once during the week
Dietary Supplements

Vegetarian DHA:
1,000 mg daily

Olive oil:
1 tbsp daily, plus 1 additional tbsp on fasting day

Alpha-lipoic acid:
600 mg daily, 30 minutes before meals

Coconut oil:
Virgin, organic; 1 tbsp in morning, plus 1 additional tbsp on fasting day

Pterostilbene
*
:
50 mg morning & evening; double this on fasting day

Sulforaphane
*
:
30 mg morning & evening; double this on fasting day

Curcumin
*
:
200 mg morning & evening; double this on fasting day

Green tea extract
*
:
200 mg morning & evening; double this on fasting day
*Note: These are all contained in 1 capsule of Nrf2 Activator, available from Xymogen.
Physical Exercise

Aerobic:
40–45 minutes, 5 days; not on fasting day

Yoga/Stretch:
At least twice a week; not on fasting day
Shamanic Exercises

Creating Sacred Space:
Prior to other shamanic exercises

Quieting Your HPA Axis:
Twice during the week in the evening

Shaman’s Bath:
Once during the week at the end of the day

Sky Gazing:
Daily at sunrise

Dream Yoga:
Daily

Lucid Dreaming:
Daily
Meditation

Planetary Meditation:
Daily

Breath Awareness:
Often
Relationships
• Ask for forgiveness
• Forgive using Radical Forgiveness
 

Thereafter

 
Diet

Organics:
Choose

Allergens:
Avoid

Fats:
Favor low carbohydrate, low saturated fat

Alcohol:
Red wine, 1 glass 3 times per week, if desired (not on fasting day)

Caffeine:
Coffee or tea, max 60 mg daily, if desired

Fruits & vegetables:
Increase

Carbohydrates:
1 serving per day

Calorie consumption:
Women reduce to 2,000 daily; Men reduce to 2,550 daily

Fasting:
Once during the week
Dietary Supplements

Vegetarian DHA:
1,000 mg daily

Olive oil:
1 tbsp daily, plus 1 additional tbsp on fasting day

Alpha-lipoic acid:
600 mg daily, 30 minutes before meals

Coconut oil:
Virgin, organic; 1 tbsp in morning, plus 1 additional tbsp on fasting day

Pterostilbene
*
:
50 mg morning & evening; double this on fasting day

Sulforaphane
*
:
30 mg morning & evening; double this on fasting day

Curcumin
*
:
200 mg morning & evening; double this on fasting day

Green tea extract
*
:
200 mg morning & evening; double this on fasting day
*Note: These are all contained in 1 capsule of Nrf2 Activator, available from Xymogen.
Physical Exercise

Aerobic:
40–45 minutes, 5 days; not on fasting day

Yoga/Stretch:
At least twice a week; not on fasting day
Shamanic Exercises

Creating Sacred Space:
Prior to other shamanic exercises

Quieting Your HPA Axis:
As necessary

Shaman’s Bath:
Once during the week at the end of the day

Sky Gazing:
Daily at sunrise

Dream Yoga:
Daily

Lucid Dreaming:
Daily
Meditation

Planetary Meditation:
Daily

Breath Awareness:
Often
Relationships
• Cultivate relationships with people who uplift and inspire you
 

*These supplements are contained in 1 capsule of Nrf2 Activator, available from Xymogen: 800-647-6100 or
www.Xymogen.com
. Nrf2 Activator also contains BioPerine, a pepper extract that significantly enhances the absorption of the active components of this unique supplement.

CHAPTER 15

 

SEARCHING FOR
YOUR SOUL

 

The search for the soul has preoccupied humans for centuries. At first, our ancestors thought the soul had its seat in the heart; later, numerous other organs, including the liver and the spleen, became candidates for housing the soul. Eventually, when we could not find the soul in any of these locations, we decided that it must reside in the head, inside the brain. Yet the ancient Egyptians had little use for the brain: while they carefully mummified all of a deceased person’s organs, they drained the brain by inserting straws through the nasal passage into the cranial cavity and tossed the whole bloody mess away.

Today, most scientists would argue that what we call consciousness is an epiphenomenon, or secondary by-product, of the brain—that is, that the neural circuitry in the brain creates consciousness. In fact, Francis Crick, one of the discoverers of DNA, states in his book
The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search
for the Soul
that everything to be learned about the soul can be found by studying the workings of the human brain. In contrast, shamans are more prone to believe the reverse, that the brain is an epiphenomenon of consciousness, and that consciousness itself utilizes complex evolutionary mechanisms to create the neural circuitry that allows us to become aware of ourselves and the universe.

Perhaps someday we will discover that
both
modern scientists and ancient shamans and mystics were right. Perhaps scientists will discover that, indeed, we are more than a sack of neurons, and perhaps mystics will discover that the brain and the body are both essential elements of consciousness. But what if we did not have to wait for leading scientists and spiritual leaders to pass a verdict on this matter? What if we were to conduct the experiment ourselves?

IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD

 

Science provides answers to the great questions that once could only be answered by religion. When these scientific answers are first discovered, they seem like heresies to the established order. We once believed the world had been created 6,000 years ago, that the Earth was flat, and that our blue-green planet was the center of the universe. When Galileo tried to describe the science behind Copernicus’s discovery that the Earth revolved around the sun, he was sentenced to house arrest for his heresy. Yet, today, everyone accepts that fact that the Earth is not the center of the universe.

Many religions teach that we have a soul that is eternal and undying, even though our physical bodies eventually return to dust. Materialistic scientists would argue that of course, energy and matter cannot be destroyed, and every particle in our bodies will be recycled into rivers, eagles, or cosmic dust.

But the shaman believes that it is possible for each one of us to have the experience of an eternal aspect of ourselves.

 

Alberto:
Think with Your Heart, Feel with Your Head

 

I remember the first time I held a human brain in my hands. My friend Brian, a student in medical school, had invited me to join him that evening while he removed the brain from a cadaver that he and his dissection partner had been working on. Brian had the brain to himself, as his partner had passed on the experience, saying that she was going into obstetrics and had little interest in that part of the human anatomy.

The double door at the University of California Anatomy Laboratory
was a ponderous, institutional gray. The sound of its bar lock ricocheted
off cold linoleum. The room was the size of a small warehouse and
blue-gray bright with fluorescent light. There were four rows of Bakelitetopped
tables upon which vague shapes were draped with black rubberized
sheets. The stench of formalin wrinkled my nose. Brian set a
stainless steel hacksaw beside a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken and
an empty beer bottle, then slid off the tall stool at the head of his table.

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