Collective Insights Blog

How to Define Gnosticism: An Interview with Erik Davis

How to Define Gnosticism: An Interview with Erik Davis

Erik Davis is an author, award-winning journalist, and scholar with a wide-ranging focus including the intersection of alternative religion, media, and the popular imagination. Today he talks about the mystic gnostic nature of American spirituality and how essential to Gnosticism is the direct experiential awakening, more than simply knowledge of spiritual mysteries. Erik’s scholarly and popular essays on music, technoculture, drugs, and spirituality have appeared in scores of books, magazines, and journals, and his writing has been translated into a dozen languages. 

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What Years of Being Obsessed With Mitochondrial Health Taught Me About Blue Light: A Q+A With Matt Maruca

What Years of Being Obsessed With Mitochondrial Health Taught Me About Blue Light: A Q+A With Matt Maruca

Matt Maruca, CEO of Ra Optics, shares with us how light drives mitochondrial functions, the science behind blue light blocking glasses triggering melatonin secretion, explores the eye/brain connection, and gives us the 411 on blue light blocking glasses (spoiler alert: they’re not all created equal).

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An Exploration of Religion: An Interview with Brian Muraresku

An Exploration of Religion: An Interview with Brian Muraresku

Founding executive director of Doctors for Cannabis Regulation and author of “The Immortality Key”, Brian Muraresku, joins us today. He shares the inspiration that led to writing his debut book. He also shares an inside look at Jesuit traditions, Kairos retreat experiences, and what triggered his interest into mysticism and accelerated dreams.

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Neurohack Your Vision: A Discussion on Vision Optimization With Meir Schneider, PhD

Neurohack Your Vision: A Discussion on Vision Optimization With Meir Schneider, PhD

Dr. Meir Schneider joins us to share his extraordinary, holistic journey in healing his eyesight naturally and to discuss how our vision differs from our ancestors, the role the brain plays in our visual system, and easy-to-implement exercises to help us neurohack our vision.

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How Stress Can Make You Resilient: An Interview with Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D.

How Stress Can Make You Resilient: An Interview with Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D.

Health psychologist and lecturer at Stanford University, Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D., joins us on the Collective Insights podcast. She is a leading expert in the new field of “science-help.” Today she shares with us a different view towards understanding stress, as she discusses why stress has benefits. It turns out that stress is what allows us to experience meaning, to make a difference in the world, to make progress on our goals.

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What is Vision?

What is Vision?

Vision is the process through which light stimuli received through the eyes are transformed into a mental image by the brain. It is our sense of sight. This process is accomplished by the visual system, the sensory system that enables vision, which includes the eyes—the sensory organ for vision—and the neuronal visual pathways of the brain, from the retinas to the cerebral cortex.

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Things I've Learned After 10,000 Hours of Cold Therapy

Things I've Learned After 10,000 Hours of Cold Therapy

Modern science is only now rediscovering how allowing our bodies to experience this type of cold leads to massive benefits. Read on to learn what biohacker Thaddeus Owen has learned after 10,000 hours of cold therapy.

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The Surprising Link Between Stress Resistance and Mental Energy

The Surprising Link Between Stress Resistance and Mental Energy

Left unchecked, stress can be mentally exhausting, stealing energy away from important cognitive tasks and hindering our ability to perform strenuous mental work. With that understanding in mind, it’s not surprising that the neurohacking community is very keen to understand how to better support stress resilience in order to free up more mental energy.

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What Are Nootropics?

What Are Nootropics?

Nootropics are substances that enhance cognitive function and performance. Nootropics have become increasingly popular in recent years but you might still have questions about the science surrounding nootropics. If so, this article is for you.

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Qualia Mind Ingredients

Qualia Mind Ingredients

When choosing ingredients to include in Qualia Mind, we relied on scientific research and the N of 1 experiences of biohackers and the nootropic community. In this blog post, we’ll share some of the reasons why we included each ingredient and how individually they contribute to the overall nootropic experiences Qualia Mind was formulated to deliver.

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Psychedelic Research at MAPS: An Interview with Rick Doblin, Ph.D.

Psychedelic Research at MAPS: An Interview with Rick Doblin, Ph.D.

Founder and executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), Rick Doblin shares with us the latest news on MAPS main project regarding  MDMA assisted-psychotherapy for PTSD. We explore how we can utilize psychedelics in mainstream medicine to move these powerful tools into wider use.

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Melatonin's Role in Sleep Regulation: The Science Behind The Darkness Hormone

Melatonin's Role in Sleep Regulation: The Science Behind The Darkness Hormone

If you’re among those who regularly reach for melatonin as a holistic option to end an unhealthy sleep cycle, it’s smart to understand exactly how melatonin works.

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Explaining Neurochemistry & Emotions: An Interview with Lisa Feldman Barrett, Ph.D.

Explaining Neurochemistry & Emotions: An Interview with Lisa Feldman Barrett, Ph.D.

Lisa Feldman Barrett, Ph.D., top cited scientist for her revolutionary research in psychology and neuroscience, joins us today as she shares some insights about her book, How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain. She expands on her famous TED talk in this discussion as she further explains how neuroscience reveals how our brains work and construct all of our experiences. She shares that what we see, hear and feel is very different from the way we experience it.

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Debunking Sleep Debt: Can You Really Catch up on Lost Sleep?

Debunking Sleep Debt: Can You Really Catch up on Lost Sleep?

We lost an hour of sleep every night last week because of a looming project due at the end of the workweek. Over the weekend we slept in, in an effort to recoup those precious Zzzs. Is that it? Have we paid back our sleep debt with no lasting consequences to our health? Here's what science has to say.

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How to Make Viral & Ethical Content: An Interview with Tim Urban of WaitButWhy

How to Make Viral & Ethical Content: An Interview with Tim Urban of WaitButWhy

Famous content creator, whose TED talk reached over 10 million views, Tim Urban joins us today.  He is  a writer, illustrator and co-founder of Wait But Why. Today he shares with us his story in finding his niche and discovering his passion for creating content for Wait But Why thru using stick figures as his way of illustration. He also talks about innovative ways to sustain yourself in the world of content creation.

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The Neuroscience of Sleep: How Sleep Works and How to Get More of It

The Neuroscience of Sleep: How Sleep Works and How to Get More of It

Getting a good night’s sleep requires timing and precision of what to release, where in the brain to release it, and when to release it. In a nutshell: sleep isn’t simple. The good news is that the brain can effectively regulate all of these different factors with the right support. But in order to support the sleep process, we must first understand the neuroscience of sleep.

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Neuroscience & Experiences: An Interview with Adam Gazzaley, MD, Ph.D.

Neuroscience & Experiences: An Interview with Adam Gazzaley, MD, Ph.D.

American neuroscientist, author, photographer, entrepreneur and inventor, Adam Gazzaley, MD, Ph.D. shares his dedication to human flourishing and his story of getting fascinated with outer space, inner space (the brain), and nature that led to the formation of his career in neuroscience. We dive into why the brain is such a complex system and how experience is the foundation of electrical or molecular simulation. 

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The Science Behind Using ulRFE Technology to Improve Focused Attention and Make You More Productive

The Science Behind Using ulRFE Technology to Improve Focused Attention and Make You More Productive

Learn the science behind using ulRFE magnetic signals to improve focus and attention to make you more productive.

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3 Of The Easiest Ways to Get Started With Cold Therapy

3 Of The Easiest Ways to Get Started With Cold Therapy

Cold therapy is also linked to improved sleep quality, increased focus, and even an optimized immune response. Here's the best part: getting started with cold therapy is relatively simple. In fact, you likely already have everything you need to begin implementing cold therapy into your neurohacking routine.

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How to Biohack Your Way to Less Stress

How to Biohack Your Way to Less Stress

Lack of sleep, the gut-mood connection, daily exposure to toxins, and even our stress mindsets are all components that tax our body, putting our health, longevity, and mental wellness at risk. The good news is, there are easy to implement techniques to hack your body’s biology in order to feel your best.

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Ethnobotany & Psychedelics: An Interview with Wade Davis

Ethnobotany & Psychedelics: An Interview with Wade Davis

Wade Davis joins Jamie Wheal to share the indigenous practices using plant medicines that are highly relevant to today’s world and are still in use in modern indigenous cultures. There is a long history of psychedelic plant medicines, rituals and shamanic practices. Wade sheds light on the rich history of psychedelics in the Americas and the scientific research that started the ‘psychedelic era.’

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The Brain, Metacognition, and Consciousness: An Interview with Deepak Chopra, MD, FACP

The Brain, Metacognition, and Consciousness: An Interview with Deepak Chopra, MD, FACP

Today we have a very special guest, DEEPAK CHOPRA™ MD, FACP. He is the founder of The Chopra Foundation, a non-profit entity for research on well-being and humanitarianism, and Chopra Global, a modern-day health company at the intersection of science and spirituality, is a world-renowned pioneer in integrative medicine and personal transformation. In this episode we discover how to unleash the explosive power of the brain. We dive into consciousness, metacognition and why the only measure of success is joy.

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7 Easy (And Free!) Ways to Stimulate Your Vagus Nerve

7 Easy (And Free!) Ways to Stimulate Your Vagus Nerve

A healthy vagal tone has become a heightened area of research within the scientific community. Thankfully, there are easy to implement, highly effective, science-backed ways to activate the power of your parasympathetic nervous system by stimulating your vagus nerve.

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Our Favorite Biohacks For an Optimized Mind and Body

Our Favorite Biohacks For an Optimized Mind and Body

Each year we research the latest neurohacking and biohacking trends and when we find a technique or tool that holds promise of increasing peak performance, we test that hack in our daily lives and we're excited to share these tried and tested biohacks with you.

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The Ethics of Technology and the Future: An Interview with Douglas Rushkoff

The Ethics of Technology and the Future: An Interview with Douglas Rushkoff

Futurist media theorist, author, podcast host, and Professor of Media Theory and Digital Economics at CUNY/Queens, Douglas Rushkoff joins Jamie Wheal to share the emergence of crypto fascism among QAnon, left-wing conspiracies, the new thought plandemic, digital memes as occult sigils, and the end of the world.

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