November 30, 2025 • 13 mins
This episode explores why 70–90% of retreat participants show rapid, uniform shifts in inflammation, immunity, and gene expression within just seven days—and how Dr. Hemel Patel is designing blinded, large-scale studies to rigorously test those extraordinary claims. We connect epigenetic pressure, beneficial stress, mitochondrial health, and community coherence into a practical framework anyone can use for daily change.
We begin with the anomaly of uniform biological change at scale, tracing Dr. Patel’s path from faith and philosophy to a data-driven approach grounded in multi-omics science. You’ll learn how epigenetic pressure acts as a shared environmental driver, why novices often move from resistance to breakthrough, and how “good stress” differs fundamentally from the chronic cortisol load of bad stress.
The episode explains Dr. Patel’s human collectome strategy—integrating metabolomics, microbiome analysis, and immune markers—to map how state shifts unfold across systems. We explore metabolome signatures, gut microbiome transitions, and even breast milk changes linked to maternal emotional state. We discuss artificial blue zones, community coherence, and the idea that mindset and behavior may function as potent health determinants. Finally, we cover mitochondria, microtubules, the MI screen for mitochondrial efficiency, and practical steps to build daily good stress.
High-volume keywords used: epigenetics, inflammation, mitochondrial health, microbiome, metabolomics, stress resilience, gene expression, community health
Listener Takeaways
- Why large groups can show uniform biological change within seven days
- How Dr. Patel’s blinded, multi-omics research model works
- The difference between good stress and chronic cortisol overload
- How metabolomics, microbiome shifts, and community coherence interact
- Practical steps to create daily positive stress and improve mitochondrial efficiency
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:00):
Welcome to the deep dive.
Today we're taking on a findingthat's um really challenging
some fundamental rules of humanbiology and healing.
SPEAKER_00 (00:08):
It really is.
SPEAKER_01 (00:09):
We're talking about these massive-scale scientific
studies showing profound, rapidbiological change in huge groups
of people.
And and here's the kicker (00:17):
the change is almost universally
positive.
SPEAKER_00 (00:22):
Yeah, it's a total anomaly in medical science.
I mean, we're used to seeingstudy results where maybe what,
20% of a group responds tosomething?
SPEAKER_01 (00:30):
Right.
20, 25 percent tops.
SPEAKER_00 (00:32):
But here, the data shows that biological markers,
we're talking metabolites,proteins, even how DNA is
expressing itself, are changingfor 70 to 90 percent of
participants.
SPEAKER_01 (00:41):
70 to 90 percent.
SPEAKER_00 (00:42):
In these large-scale meditation retreats.
Yeah.
And they're not just changing,they're all moving in the same
healthy direction in just sevendays.
SPEAKER_01 (00:50):
Aaron Powell, that directionality, that's what
makes this so compelling.
So to explore this, we're reallyunpacking the work of Dr.
Hemel Patel.
He's a UC San Diego professorand uh the lead researcher for
studies with Dr.
Joe dispenses events.
SPEAKER_00 (01:02):
Aaron Powell Right.
And he's overseeing these huge,independent, blinded studies.
He's trying to bring realscientific rigor to what for a
long time has just beenanecdotal, you know?
SPEAKER_01 (01:13):
Aaron Ross Powell The power of consciousness to
drive biological transformation.
Exactly.
And what gives Dr.
Patel such a unique lens on allthis is his personal history.
I mean, he was raised in a Hinduhousehold reading texts like the
Bhagavad Gita and theUpanishads.
And then he later converted toCatholicism.
So his life journey is thisliteral bridge between Eastern
(01:34):
thought, Western theology, andyou know, hard-nosed scientific
reason.
SPEAKER_00 (01:38):
That's the perfect combination, really, to tackle
something that sits right on theedge of what we understand.
He comes at this space with uh adeep skepticism, which is
exactly what you need.
Totally.
His whole mission seems to bedesigning the right experiment
to pull these incredible claims,like, you know, chronic
conditions just resolving in aweek out of the realm of fate.
SPEAKER_01 (01:57):
And into the realm of reason.
And hard data.
Yeah.
So let's start with his path,because I think it gives a lot
of context for his rigor.
His academic approach washolistic right from the start.
Double major in biology andphilosophy religion.
SPEAKER_00 (02:12):
Yeah.
At Truman State.
He was trained to look at thewhole person, not just, you
know, the cellular mechanics.
SPEAKER_01 (02:17):
Aaron Powell, and that foundation was was really
tested in 2014 with the suddenloss of his mother.
He says it was like losing hisspiritual grounding.
SPEAKER_00 (02:25):
Aaron Ross Powell And that sent him on this uh
two-year period of intensesearching and discovery, which
you know ultimately led to hisconversion to Catholicism in
2016.
SPEAKER_01 (02:35):
Aaron Powell And here's a detail that just it
connects his background directlyto his work now on the Mind-Body
Link.
So when he was born, his Hindustar chart predicted he would
die in water.
Wow.
And this created a paralyzinglifelong fear.
He wouldn't go near pools,boats, anything.
That fear state completelydissolved when during his
baptism he went through a fullimmersion.
SPEAKER_00 (02:55):
He literally fulfilled the prophecy of dying
in water.
SPEAKER_01 (02:58):
Exactly.
It's this profound, almostmystical thing that shows how
these deep personal beliefs canshape your reality.
SPEAKER_00 (03:04):
And that internal shift, it kind of prepared him
for what happened next.
Like his first communion, wherehe said a tiny sip of wine left
him feeling wobbly, like he washit with the surge of energy he
couldn't explain.
SPEAKER_01 (03:16):
He called it his first true mystical experience,
a direct encounter with that,that powerful invisible energy.
SPEAKER_00 (03:23):
Right.
And that's really the enginedriving his science now.
He gets that people report theseunbelievable things, but instead
of just dismissing them, hesays, Look, I'm a skeptic, but
the data is forcing me toexplore this.
SPEAKER_01 (03:36):
He sees science as this relentless process of just
designing better and betterexperiments until the impossible
is proven repeatable.
SPEAKER_00 (03:44):
Which is the essential mindset for this kind
of work.
And it brings us right back tothat massive finding.
SPEAKER_01 (03:49):
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (03:50):
The sheer scale and uniformity of the change.
SPEAKER_01 (03:52):
Okay, let's drill down on that data anomaly again.
Why is a 70 to 90% change ratein the same direction?
Why is that so earth-shattering?
SPEAKER_00 (04:00):
Well, think about it this way if you give a drug to a
thousand people, you get a bellcurve.
Some people get a little better,some a lot, some stay the same.
SPEAKER_01 (04:08):
And some get worse.
SPEAKER_00 (04:09):
Exactly.
We're all genetically andenvironmentally unique.
So when you see 90% of a diversegroup of people, different
diets, different genetics,different starting points, all
having their inflammatorymarkers go down and their immune
function go up.
SPEAKER_01 (04:23):
You can't just talk that up to randomness.
SPEAKER_00 (04:25):
No way.
The hypothesis is that the groupexperience creates what Dr.
Patel calls epigenetic pressure.
SPEAKER_01 (04:32):
Okay, break that down.
What does that actually mean inthis context?
SPEAKER_00 (04:35):
Aaron Powell So epigenetics is like the layer of
instructions on top of your DNA.
Your genome, your blueprint,doesn't change in a week.
But the epigenome decides whichparts of that blueprint get
read.
SPEAKER_01 (04:46):
It's like the contractor on the job site.
SPEAKER_00 (04:47):
Perfect analogy.
So this epigenetic pressuresuggests that the collective
intense focus on positiveemotion and intention acts as
this uniform environmentaltrigger.
It's so powerful.
It's overriding all thatindividual variability.
Trevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_01 (05:02):
So it's causing them to express similar beneficial
proteins and metabolites.
SPEAKER_00 (05:06):
Aaron Powell Yes.
Their guts change in a similarway.
They upregulate genes tied tolongevity.
It's a collective biologicalupgrade.
SPEAKER_01 (05:12):
Aaron Powell And these aren't all, you know,
seasoned meditation gurus.
A lot of his research is onnovice meditators.
SPEAKER_00 (05:18):
Aaron Powell Oh, yeah.
Many come in super resistant,skeptical, struggling for the
first couple of days.
They're literally fighting theprocess.
SPEAKER_01 (05:26):
Aaron Powell They're confronting their own stuff.
They're limiting beliefs.
SPEAKER_00 (05:30):
Aaron Powell For sure.
But the event structure isdesigned to constantly challenge
them.
And once they hit that tippingpoint, that moment where they
just go all in.
SPEAKER_01 (05:38):
All that resistance that was holding them back gets
released.
SPEAKER_00 (05:41):
And it leads to an equally massive evolution.
They've changed the relationshipwith their thoughts, which
immediately translates intobiology.
SPEAKER_01 (05:48):
It is definitely not a relaxing spot trip.
We're talking about what, 35hours of actual rigorous
meditation and another 25 hoursof intense learning in one week.
SPEAKER_00 (05:59):
Aaron Powell, which brings up this crucial contrast
between good stress and badstress.
His team actually ran controlspeople on a normal, you know,
non-relaxing vacation.
SPEAKER_01 (06:08):
And what'd they find?
SPEAKER_00 (06:09):
Those people often had negative stress, biological
dysregulation, more cortisolfrom the chaos of planning and
travel.
But the meditators areexperiencing this demanding but
positive stress.
SPEAKER_01 (06:21):
Focused intention, gratitude, powerful emotions.
SPEAKER_00 (06:25):
And that drives their biology toward health.
The challenge is focused andbeneficial.
SPEAKER_01 (06:30):
So if you have this huge uniform shift, you need a
way to capture it.
And that brings us to the humancollectome.
SPEAKER_00 (06:38):
Right.
Dr.
Patel's massive researchstrategy.
He calls it spying on a human bymeasuring everything they
release.
SPEAKER_01 (06:44):
The word collectome is key here, isn't it?
It's about the scale, thecompleteness of it all.
SPEAKER_00 (06:49):
Absolutely.
They're not just looking at onesystem, they're measuring the
whole human experience frombrain activity to breath at a
level that honestly mostacademic labs just couldn't
afford.
SPEAKER_01 (06:58):
So let's talk about the measurement spectrum.
They're using wearables likeGarmin's for 247 data, right?
Aaron Powell Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (07:04):
Tracking heart rate variability, sleep activity,
giving this dynamic view of thenervous system.
SPEAKER_01 (07:09):
Aaron Powell Then you get into the omics, which is
where you get this trulyunbiased molecular look.
SPEAKER_00 (07:14):
Aaron Powell Right.
They're not just looking at thegenome, the DNA.
They look at the metabolum, theproteome, the transcriptome, the
epigenome.
SPEAKER_01 (07:20):
Okay, for those of us who don't speak fluent
biochemistry, why is measuringall those ohms so important?
SPEAKER_00 (07:26):
So think of your DNA, the genome, as the house
blueprint.
The metabolum, though, is maybethe most fascinating part here.
It's all the small moleculesbeing used for life right now.
SPEAKER_01 (07:38):
So it's a real-time snapshot of what the body is
actually doing.
SPEAKER_00 (07:42):
Exactly.
Shows you how the body isengaging with energy.
And when the metabolum shiftswildly in the same direction
across a huge group, that'sproof that the actual
construction of your health isfundamentally changing.
SPEAKER_01 (07:55):
The data must be staggering.
For the gut microbiome alone,they have what, over 5,000
samples?
SPEAKER_00 (08:00):
Over 5,000 pre and post-event samples, yeah.
Showing dramatic resolution ofdisease markers.
They're even identifyingbeneficial microbes that bloom
in that meditative state.
SPEAKER_01 (08:10):
So they're thinking about creating probiotics that
could sort of mimic that state.
SPEAKER_00 (08:14):
Aaron Powell That's the idea.
That the mind is directlyshaping the ecosystem in your
gut.
But they don't stop there.
They analyze tears, sweat,urine, even the volatile
organics on your breath.
SPEAKER_01 (08:26):
It really is a full spectrum, unbiased assessment.
SPEAKER_00 (08:29):
Which leads to one of the most uh heartwarming
pieces of data.
SPEAKER_01 (08:34):
Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00 (08:35):
The breast milk study.
They look at samples from 14lactating mothers.
SPEAKER_01 (08:39):
Before and after the seven-day retreat and the
results.
SPEAKER_00 (08:42):
The milk was, and I'm quoting, completely
different.
Wow.
After just seven days of thispractice, the levels of
proteins, sugars, essentialelements like iron all shifted
dramatically.
It's molecular proof of how themother's mental state affects
the nourishment she provides.
SPEAKER_01 (08:58):
And Dr.
Patel noted that science is justcatching up here.
Indigenous communities told himthey've always known this.
SPEAKER_00 (09:03):
Yeah, they've always known breast milk has these
complex healing properties basedon the state of the mother.
It's powerful validation.
SPEAKER_01 (09:09):
So all this uniform change, it has to connect back
to the environment they're in.
SPEAKER_00 (09:14):
Exactly.
When you gather people with thatkind of shared, focused
intention, love, gratitude, youcreate what Dr.
Patel calls an artificial bluezone.
SPEAKER_01 (09:23):
Like the real blue zones, Okinawa, Loma Linda,
those places where people livepast 100.
SPEAKER_00 (09:28):
Precisely.
In those zones, it isn't justdiet, it's the community, the
socialization, the relationalhealth.
The retreats are basicallyartificially creating that
environment where the collectiveenergy supports the individual
shift.
SPEAKER_01 (09:40):
The implication here is it's profound.
It fundamentally challenges theWestern idea that the mind and
body are separate things.
SPEAKER_00 (09:48):
It absolutely challenges Cartesian dualism.
Dr.
Patel argues how you think, act,and feel isn't just an influence
on your health, it's a majordeterminant.
SPEAKER_01 (09:57):
He points out that even a fantastic doctor can
maybe only impact about 20% of apatient's long-term health.
SPEAKER_00 (10:02):
Right.
The other 80% is behavior,environment, mindset.
The science is now quantifyinghow your consciousness is
literally writing theinstructions for your physical
body.
SPEAKER_01 (10:13):
Which raises the big question about the mechanism.
If the mind is changing thebody, something must be carrying
that intention.
SPEAKER_00 (10:19):
An information carrier, yeah.
Early findings suggest thatinformation created during
meditation can be transferred toother living systems, causing
changes.
It implies there's something,some carrier we haven't
identified yet.
SPEAKER_01 (10:32):
And that takes us into the hardest problems in
biology and physics.
Dr.
Patel is exploring consciousnessas an energy state linked
directly to our mitochondria.
SPEAKER_00 (10:41):
To the cell's energy factories.
But when you talk about quantumeffects in biology, you run into
the warm and wet problem.
SPEAKER_01 (10:48):
Can you explain that?
SPEAKER_00 (10:49):
Sure.
The warm and wet problem is justthat biological systems are too
warm, too watery, too noisy tomaintain the delicate state of
quantum coherence for very long.
SPEAKER_01 (10:59):
But he connects this to the microtubules hypothesis,
the idea from Penrose andHamarov that these tiny
structures in our neurons arewhere consciousness happens.
SPEAKER_00 (11:08):
And he pointed to a study where stabilizing these
microtubules made animals harderto anesthetise.
It suggests that when thephysical structure for
consciousness is more stable,the system is more resilient.
SPEAKER_01 (11:19):
Fascinating.
But Dr.
Patel's ultimate conclusion isthat consciousness is
fundamentally an energy state.
SPEAKER_00 (11:25):
Yes.
Think about it.
When someone dies, their DNA isstill intact.
What changes instantly?
The metabolism.
The flow of energy.
He argues consciousness is thatdynamic flow, the vital force of
biochemistry.
SPEAKER_01 (11:39):
And to measure that, his lab used tech from NASA
studies to create somethingcalled the MI screen.
SPEAKER_00 (11:44):
The mitochondrial efficiency screen, yeah.
It's a consumer test thatassesses mitochondrial health
from a few drops of blood.
It looks at how efficiently yourcells are using energy.
SPEAKER_01 (11:53):
So it's an unbiased look at your core health, your
ability to generate that lifeforce.
SPEAKER_00 (11:59):
It's the ultimate measure of that energy state he
thinks is synonymous withconsciousness.
SPEAKER_01 (12:03):
What a monumental body of work.
I mean, from navigating ancientprophecies to leading this
global research, the keytakeaway really is this idea
that consciousness isn't just abrain function, but an energy
state.
SPEAKER_00 (12:15):
And for the next generation of scientists looking
at this, Dr.
Patel's advice is really clear.
Curiosity drives discovery, biasjust mutes your ability to see
the reality that's right infront of you.
SPEAKER_01 (12:28):
That is the essential message that this deep
dive confirms.
But here's the final thought foryou, the listener.
And it circles back to thatincredible 70 to 90% statistic.
If a badly managed vacationcauses biological dysregulation
and an intense, demandingpractice that causes massive
positive change in just sevendays, you have to ask what
(12:48):
choices are you making daily togenerate that good stress, that
focused intention, to optimizeyour own cellular energy flow.
If this kind of rapid directedchange is possible, what is
stopping you from initiatingthat shift in your own biology
right now?
Welcome to the deep dive.
Today we're taking on a findingthat's um really challenging
some fundamental rules of humanbiology and healing.
SPEAKER_00 (00:08):
It really is.
SPEAKER_01 (00:09):
We're talking about these massive-scale scientific
studies showing profound, rapidbiological change in huge groups
of people.
And and here's the kicker (00:17):
the change is almost universally
positive.
SPEAKER_00 (00:22):
Yeah, it's a total anomaly in medical science.
I mean, we're used to seeingstudy results where maybe what,
20% of a group responds tosomething?
SPEAKER_01 (00:30):
Right.
20, 25 percent tops.
SPEAKER_00 (00:32):
But here, the data shows that biological markers,
we're talking metabolites,proteins, even how DNA is
expressing itself, are changingfor 70 to 90 percent of
participants.
SPEAKER_01 (00:41):
70 to 90 percent.
SPEAKER_00 (00:42):
In these large-scale meditation retreats.
Yeah.
And they're not just changing,they're all moving in the same
healthy direction in just sevendays.
SPEAKER_01 (00:50):
Aaron Powell, that directionality, that's what
makes this so compelling.
So to explore this, we're reallyunpacking the work of Dr.
Hemel Patel.
He's a UC San Diego professorand uh the lead researcher for
studies with Dr.
Joe dispenses events.
SPEAKER_00 (01:02):
Aaron Powell Right.
And he's overseeing these huge,independent, blinded studies.
He's trying to bring realscientific rigor to what for a
long time has just beenanecdotal, you know?
SPEAKER_01 (01:13):
Aaron Ross Powell The power of consciousness to
drive biological transformation.
Exactly.
And what gives Dr.
Patel such a unique lens on allthis is his personal history.
I mean, he was raised in a Hinduhousehold reading texts like the
Bhagavad Gita and theUpanishads.
And then he later converted toCatholicism.
So his life journey is thisliteral bridge between Eastern
(01:34):
thought, Western theology, andyou know, hard-nosed scientific
reason.
SPEAKER_00 (01:38):
That's the perfect combination, really, to tackle
something that sits right on theedge of what we understand.
He comes at this space with uh adeep skepticism, which is
exactly what you need.
Totally.
His whole mission seems to bedesigning the right experiment
to pull these incredible claims,like, you know, chronic
conditions just resolving in aweek out of the realm of fate.
SPEAKER_01 (01:57):
And into the realm of reason.
And hard data.
Yeah.
So let's start with his path,because I think it gives a lot
of context for his rigor.
His academic approach washolistic right from the start.
Double major in biology andphilosophy religion.
SPEAKER_00 (02:12):
Yeah.
At Truman State.
He was trained to look at thewhole person, not just, you
know, the cellular mechanics.
SPEAKER_01 (02:17):
Aaron Powell, and that foundation was was really
tested in 2014 with the suddenloss of his mother.
He says it was like losing hisspiritual grounding.
SPEAKER_00 (02:25):
Aaron Ross Powell And that sent him on this uh
two-year period of intensesearching and discovery, which
you know ultimately led to hisconversion to Catholicism in
2016.
SPEAKER_01 (02:35):
Aaron Powell And here's a detail that just it
connects his background directlyto his work now on the Mind-Body
Link.
So when he was born, his Hindustar chart predicted he would
die in water.
Wow.
And this created a paralyzinglifelong fear.
He wouldn't go near pools,boats, anything.
That fear state completelydissolved when during his
baptism he went through a fullimmersion.
SPEAKER_00 (02:55):
He literally fulfilled the prophecy of dying
in water.
SPEAKER_01 (02:58):
Exactly.
It's this profound, almostmystical thing that shows how
these deep personal beliefs canshape your reality.
SPEAKER_00 (03:04):
And that internal shift, it kind of prepared him
for what happened next.
Like his first communion, wherehe said a tiny sip of wine left
him feeling wobbly, like he washit with the surge of energy he
couldn't explain.
SPEAKER_01 (03:16):
He called it his first true mystical experience,
a direct encounter with that,that powerful invisible energy.
SPEAKER_00 (03:23):
Right.
And that's really the enginedriving his science now.
He gets that people report theseunbelievable things, but instead
of just dismissing them, hesays, Look, I'm a skeptic, but
the data is forcing me toexplore this.
SPEAKER_01 (03:36):
He sees science as this relentless process of just
designing better and betterexperiments until the impossible
is proven repeatable.
SPEAKER_00 (03:44):
Which is the essential mindset for this kind
of work.
And it brings us right back tothat massive finding.
SPEAKER_01 (03:49):
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (03:50):
The sheer scale and uniformity of the change.
SPEAKER_01 (03:52):
Okay, let's drill down on that data anomaly again.
Why is a 70 to 90% change ratein the same direction?
Why is that so earth-shattering?
SPEAKER_00 (04:00):
Well, think about it this way if you give a drug to a
thousand people, you get a bellcurve.
Some people get a little better,some a lot, some stay the same.
SPEAKER_01 (04:08):
And some get worse.
SPEAKER_00 (04:09):
Exactly.
We're all genetically andenvironmentally unique.
So when you see 90% of a diversegroup of people, different
diets, different genetics,different starting points, all
having their inflammatorymarkers go down and their immune
function go up.
SPEAKER_01 (04:23):
You can't just talk that up to randomness.
SPEAKER_00 (04:25):
No way.
The hypothesis is that the groupexperience creates what Dr.
Patel calls epigenetic pressure.
SPEAKER_01 (04:32):
Okay, break that down.
What does that actually mean inthis context?
SPEAKER_00 (04:35):
Aaron Powell So epigenetics is like the layer of
instructions on top of your DNA.
Your genome, your blueprint,doesn't change in a week.
But the epigenome decides whichparts of that blueprint get
read.
SPEAKER_01 (04:46):
It's like the contractor on the job site.
SPEAKER_00 (04:47):
Perfect analogy.
So this epigenetic pressuresuggests that the collective
intense focus on positiveemotion and intention acts as
this uniform environmentaltrigger.
It's so powerful.
It's overriding all thatindividual variability.
Trevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_01 (05:02):
So it's causing them to express similar beneficial
proteins and metabolites.
SPEAKER_00 (05:06):
Aaron Powell Yes.
Their guts change in a similarway.
They upregulate genes tied tolongevity.
It's a collective biologicalupgrade.
SPEAKER_01 (05:12):
Aaron Powell And these aren't all, you know,
seasoned meditation gurus.
A lot of his research is onnovice meditators.
SPEAKER_00 (05:18):
Aaron Powell Oh, yeah.
Many come in super resistant,skeptical, struggling for the
first couple of days.
They're literally fighting theprocess.
SPEAKER_01 (05:26):
Aaron Powell They're confronting their own stuff.
They're limiting beliefs.
SPEAKER_00 (05:30):
Aaron Powell For sure.
But the event structure isdesigned to constantly challenge
them.
And once they hit that tippingpoint, that moment where they
just go all in.
SPEAKER_01 (05:38):
All that resistance that was holding them back gets
released.
SPEAKER_00 (05:41):
And it leads to an equally massive evolution.
They've changed the relationshipwith their thoughts, which
immediately translates intobiology.
SPEAKER_01 (05:48):
It is definitely not a relaxing spot trip.
We're talking about what, 35hours of actual rigorous
meditation and another 25 hoursof intense learning in one week.
SPEAKER_00 (05:59):
Aaron Powell, which brings up this crucial contrast
between good stress and badstress.
His team actually ran controlspeople on a normal, you know,
non-relaxing vacation.
SPEAKER_01 (06:08):
And what'd they find?
SPEAKER_00 (06:09):
Those people often had negative stress, biological
dysregulation, more cortisolfrom the chaos of planning and
travel.
But the meditators areexperiencing this demanding but
positive stress.
SPEAKER_01 (06:21):
Focused intention, gratitude, powerful emotions.
SPEAKER_00 (06:25):
And that drives their biology toward health.
The challenge is focused andbeneficial.
SPEAKER_01 (06:30):
So if you have this huge uniform shift, you need a
way to capture it.
And that brings us to the humancollectome.
SPEAKER_00 (06:38):
Right.
Dr.
Patel's massive researchstrategy.
He calls it spying on a human bymeasuring everything they
release.
SPEAKER_01 (06:44):
The word collectome is key here, isn't it?
It's about the scale, thecompleteness of it all.
SPEAKER_00 (06:49):
Absolutely.
They're not just looking at onesystem, they're measuring the
whole human experience frombrain activity to breath at a
level that honestly mostacademic labs just couldn't
afford.
SPEAKER_01 (06:58):
So let's talk about the measurement spectrum.
They're using wearables likeGarmin's for 247 data, right?
Aaron Powell Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (07:04):
Tracking heart rate variability, sleep activity,
giving this dynamic view of thenervous system.
SPEAKER_01 (07:09):
Aaron Powell Then you get into the omics, which is
where you get this trulyunbiased molecular look.
SPEAKER_00 (07:14):
Aaron Powell Right.
They're not just looking at thegenome, the DNA.
They look at the metabolum, theproteome, the transcriptome, the
epigenome.
SPEAKER_01 (07:20):
Okay, for those of us who don't speak fluent
biochemistry, why is measuringall those ohms so important?
SPEAKER_00 (07:26):
So think of your DNA, the genome, as the house
blueprint.
The metabolum, though, is maybethe most fascinating part here.
It's all the small moleculesbeing used for life right now.
SPEAKER_01 (07:38):
So it's a real-time snapshot of what the body is
actually doing.
SPEAKER_00 (07:42):
Exactly.
Shows you how the body isengaging with energy.
And when the metabolum shiftswildly in the same direction
across a huge group, that'sproof that the actual
construction of your health isfundamentally changing.
SPEAKER_01 (07:55):
The data must be staggering.
For the gut microbiome alone,they have what, over 5,000
samples?
SPEAKER_00 (08:00):
Over 5,000 pre and post-event samples, yeah.
Showing dramatic resolution ofdisease markers.
They're even identifyingbeneficial microbes that bloom
in that meditative state.
SPEAKER_01 (08:10):
So they're thinking about creating probiotics that
could sort of mimic that state.
SPEAKER_00 (08:14):
Aaron Powell That's the idea.
That the mind is directlyshaping the ecosystem in your
gut.
But they don't stop there.
They analyze tears, sweat,urine, even the volatile
organics on your breath.
SPEAKER_01 (08:26):
It really is a full spectrum, unbiased assessment.
SPEAKER_00 (08:29):
Which leads to one of the most uh heartwarming
pieces of data.
SPEAKER_01 (08:34):
Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00 (08:35):
The breast milk study.
They look at samples from 14lactating mothers.
SPEAKER_01 (08:39):
Before and after the seven-day retreat and the
results.
SPEAKER_00 (08:42):
The milk was, and I'm quoting, completely
different.
Wow.
After just seven days of thispractice, the levels of
proteins, sugars, essentialelements like iron all shifted
dramatically.
It's molecular proof of how themother's mental state affects
the nourishment she provides.
SPEAKER_01 (08:58):
And Dr.
Patel noted that science is justcatching up here.
Indigenous communities told himthey've always known this.
SPEAKER_00 (09:03):
Yeah, they've always known breast milk has these
complex healing properties basedon the state of the mother.
It's powerful validation.
SPEAKER_01 (09:09):
So all this uniform change, it has to connect back
to the environment they're in.
SPEAKER_00 (09:14):
Exactly.
When you gather people with thatkind of shared, focused
intention, love, gratitude, youcreate what Dr.
Patel calls an artificial bluezone.
SPEAKER_01 (09:23):
Like the real blue zones, Okinawa, Loma Linda,
those places where people livepast 100.
SPEAKER_00 (09:28):
Precisely.
In those zones, it isn't justdiet, it's the community, the
socialization, the relationalhealth.
The retreats are basicallyartificially creating that
environment where the collectiveenergy supports the individual
shift.
SPEAKER_01 (09:40):
The implication here is it's profound.
It fundamentally challenges theWestern idea that the mind and
body are separate things.
SPEAKER_00 (09:48):
It absolutely challenges Cartesian dualism.
Dr.
Patel argues how you think, act,and feel isn't just an influence
on your health, it's a majordeterminant.
SPEAKER_01 (09:57):
He points out that even a fantastic doctor can
maybe only impact about 20% of apatient's long-term health.
SPEAKER_00 (10:02):
Right.
The other 80% is behavior,environment, mindset.
The science is now quantifyinghow your consciousness is
literally writing theinstructions for your physical
body.
SPEAKER_01 (10:13):
Which raises the big question about the mechanism.
If the mind is changing thebody, something must be carrying
that intention.
SPEAKER_00 (10:19):
An information carrier, yeah.
Early findings suggest thatinformation created during
meditation can be transferred toother living systems, causing
changes.
It implies there's something,some carrier we haven't
identified yet.
SPEAKER_01 (10:32):
And that takes us into the hardest problems in
biology and physics.
Dr.
Patel is exploring consciousnessas an energy state linked
directly to our mitochondria.
SPEAKER_00 (10:41):
To the cell's energy factories.
But when you talk about quantumeffects in biology, you run into
the warm and wet problem.
SPEAKER_01 (10:48):
Can you explain that?
SPEAKER_00 (10:49):
Sure.
The warm and wet problem is justthat biological systems are too
warm, too watery, too noisy tomaintain the delicate state of
quantum coherence for very long.
SPEAKER_01 (10:59):
But he connects this to the microtubules hypothesis,
the idea from Penrose andHamarov that these tiny
structures in our neurons arewhere consciousness happens.
SPEAKER_00 (11:08):
And he pointed to a study where stabilizing these
microtubules made animals harderto anesthetise.
It suggests that when thephysical structure for
consciousness is more stable,the system is more resilient.
SPEAKER_01 (11:19):
Fascinating.
But Dr.
Patel's ultimate conclusion isthat consciousness is
fundamentally an energy state.
SPEAKER_00 (11:25):
Yes.
Think about it.
When someone dies, their DNA isstill intact.
What changes instantly?
The metabolism.
The flow of energy.
He argues consciousness is thatdynamic flow, the vital force of
biochemistry.
SPEAKER_01 (11:39):
And to measure that, his lab used tech from NASA
studies to create somethingcalled the MI screen.
SPEAKER_00 (11:44):
The mitochondrial efficiency screen, yeah.
It's a consumer test thatassesses mitochondrial health
from a few drops of blood.
It looks at how efficiently yourcells are using energy.
SPEAKER_01 (11:53):
So it's an unbiased look at your core health, your
ability to generate that lifeforce.
SPEAKER_00 (11:59):
It's the ultimate measure of that energy state he
thinks is synonymous withconsciousness.
SPEAKER_01 (12:03):
What a monumental body of work.
I mean, from navigating ancientprophecies to leading this
global research, the keytakeaway really is this idea
that consciousness isn't just abrain function, but an energy
state.
SPEAKER_00 (12:15):
And for the next generation of scientists looking
at this, Dr.
Patel's advice is really clear.
Curiosity drives discovery, biasjust mutes your ability to see
the reality that's right infront of you.
SPEAKER_01 (12:28):
That is the essential message that this deep
dive confirms.
But here's the final thought foryou, the listener.
And it circles back to thatincredible 70 to 90% statistic.
If a badly managed vacationcauses biological dysregulation
and an intense, demandingpractice that causes massive
positive change in just sevendays, you have to ask what
(12:48):
choices are you making daily togenerate that good stress, that
focused intention, to optimizeyour own cellular energy flow.
If this kind of rapid directedchange is possible, what is
stopping you from initiatingthat shift in your own biology
right now?
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