Finding a Higher Level Consciousness Through Extreme Biohacking and Spirituality, Part 1 of 2 with Luke Storey

In this Episode

• [02:23]Luke talks about how he and Stephan met, which was by being part of Neil Strauss’ mastermind The Society. Stephan then talks about how he got involved in the group.
• [07:14]The weekend at the intensive Luke has been talking about was the catalyst to Luke living what he believes is his true purpose.
• [11:09]We hear about Luke’s shift away from fashion, which he did for 17 years. In hindsight, he can’t believe he didn’t quit much sooner.
• [15:08]Stephan talks about the importance of getting the right wardrobe and understanding basic fashion principles, using himself as an example of a transformation.
• [16:33]Luke isn’t quite sure how to categorize himself or what to call himself, since he works in the health, wellness, and biohacking space but is more deeply invested in the inner work of spiritual growth and learning spiritual principles.
• [20:16]Luke still does some consulting in terms of personal style.
• [22:32]We learn that Stephan had a moment of realization at a Tony Robbins event when he participated in the fire walk.
• [25:52]Luke responds to the way Stephan has been framing a particular concept. He likes the idea of keeping most of one’s attention in the stillness and present moment, while staying a little bit grounded.
• [27:59]Stephan recommends setting aside the desire to seek the Truth, and instead focusing on what is empowering (rather than disempowering). He and Luke then talk about the benefit of going for what yields results.
• [31:04]Luke discusses the polarization of the world and our culture. He also points out the importance of being able to admit it and adjust when you’ve been wrong about something.
• [34:41]Stephan responds to Luke’s points with a quote from Dan Sullivan.
• [36:00]Recently, Luke listened to Jack Canfield on Oprah’s podcast. He shares his thoughts on Jack Canfield, including his brief thought of wondering why Jack still works so hard when he must be very financially well-off.
• [39:36]After having talked about recycling, Luke points out that he feels guilty about not having a good system for recycling used electronics and batteries.
• [40:44]Stephan shares a story that Tony Robbins tells about deciding who was going to pay for a meal.
• [43:08]Luke doesn’t know a lot about Kabbalah, but was very struck by the book Becoming Like God by Michael Berg.
• [46:29]For the last part of the episode, we move onto the topic of biohacking. Luke digs into the topic of EMFs and offers advice on how to minimize your exposure.
• [51:48]Stephan started taking EMFs seriously at the recent Bulletproof Conference after he saw how dedicated Dr. Mercola is to avoiding them.
• [52:48]Luke shares more of his thoughts on EMFs, including that in this age you’ll inevitably be exposed to some of them. He also describes more habits he’s changed to minimize his exposure.
• [58:54]Where can people find Luke if they want to work with him?

Jump to Links and Resources

Luke, it’s great to have you on the show.

‏‏Hey man. It’s great to be back. Thanks for having me.

‏‏Okay, first of all, I have to say that you are a returning guest. We had you on episode eight, in the very early days in 2015. We had you talking about style and fashion and that was an amazing episode. Now, we’re gonna go in a completely different direction and talk about biohacking. I’m very excited about this because this is something I’m super passionate about. You probably figured out from all the episodes that are about biohacking of the show. We’re gonna geek out on that in a minute. But first, let’s share with or listeners how we met because it’s kind of cool that we met in the Secret Society.

‏‏That’s true. I forget about that sometimes. We met by being members of Neil Strauss’ mastermind group called The Society. I was part of that for maybe a year or so. I think you were perhaps in a bit longer. But I think when you came in, actually the first time I met you, you were one of the speakers. Were you even a member at that point?

‏‏I wasn’t.

‏‏You were one of the speakers that came in and then joined. Is that how it went down?

‏‏Yeah. In fact, I wasn’t even planning on speaking. Just the day before, this is the second-ever of Neil’s intensives. What happened was I heard that he was in the, what was that hotel in downtown Los Angeles?

‏‏The Standard.

‏‏The Standard, yeah. I was there for a book launch party and the bouncer at the elevator said, “Hey, you know who Neil Strauss is? You know Neil Strauss?” and I’m like, “Yeah, I actually do, personally. Ironically. Why do you ask?” He’s like, “because he was just in the elevator two minutes ago.” I was like, “Oh, really? Wow. Okay, I’ll have to text him,” and I did. He said, “Oh, I’m doing an intensive. I’m doing a workshop thing that starts in the morning. Why don’t you come stop in and say hi.” I didn’t know I was gonna end up speaking. I don’t think he knew that I was gonna speak. It was really cool and I had no idea that there’s a Secret Society. It was a pretty secret at that time.

‏‏It was, yeah.

‏‏I loved it so I ended up ditching the rest, I was attending two other conferences at the time that weekend. One was BlogWorld Expo, and the other one was Unleash the Power Within Tony Robbins’ event, and they were both in the same convention center in downtown LA.

‏‏Wow.

‏‏I thought, “You know what? This is actually better than both of those things. Because I’ve done UPW Tony Robbins event five times. I don’t need to go again. BlogWorld Expo, that’s good for business but I actually already did my speaking gig. Let’s just stay the whole rest of the time at Neil’s event, if he’ll let me, and he did. At the end of it, I’m like, “Ah, this is so good. Maybe I should join.” By the time the next intensive rolled around I was a member. I had been a member for five years from that point. I was a long time member. Really, really fabulous. Neil has just so much creativity about the kinds of intensives that he puts on. Crazy stuff like the Urban Escape and Evasion Intensive. Were you there for that one?

‏‏No, but I did one at his house where he had those same guys come and do just a one-day version of it. I got the light version.

‏‏Did you learn how to break out of zip ties and how to pick handcuff locks and all that sort of stuff?

‏‏Yeah, I got tasered.

‏‏Oh, yeah.

‏‏I almost got waterboarded but then it was getting late that day. It was kind of cold. I don’t feel like getting wet. Then afterward, I actually regret, I was like, “When in my life am I ever gonna be waterboarded ever again?”

‏‏Hopefully, never.

I joined as a member and then became a speaker.

‏‏Yeah. Hopefully, never. But maybe once would have been good just to have a bit more empathy for people that it happens to. But, you’re right. Neil’s such a creative mind and he’s one of those guys I relate to him in many ways because he has such varied interest. He has this child-like curiosity about everything. That really shone through in his ability to curate those experiences. I learned a lot, dude. There are still books that I read that were recommended, or speakers that came in that I’ve really been influenced by. They’ve opened up other doors of awareness in terms of just different experts and different practices, especially all the stuff around productivity and organization and entrepreneurship. Those kind of things. I had no idea that that world even existed. I joined as a member and then became a speaker.

‏‏I know. You did a great job too.

‏‏Thank you.

‏‏I’ve attended multiple of your presentations. One you gave about fashion and style and I’m like, “I gotta have you on my show for talking about that.” That was episode number eight. Then there was the biohacking intensive that Neil put on. He had you as a speaker. He had David Wolfe and Ben Greenfield. Who else did he have?

‏‏Jack Kruse and Daniel Vitalis.

‏‏Yeah. Great speakers. You held your own with that. You were as good as all the top names and heck, you’ve actually kind of become a top name. Over a million downloads now on your podcast, that’s impressive.

‏‏You know it’s funny man. That weekend at that intensive is really the catalyst to me living what I believe is my true purpose now. Because at that point, I was just an armchair biohacker and into my personal development and spirituality and all that stuff. But I don’t know, I had a lot of limiting beliefs around my ability to actually do that and make a brand and a business out of that body of knowledge. I actually approached Neil and I don’t think I was a member anymore at that point but somehow, I was on the emails or something, and I just emailed him randomly. I said, “Hey, not trying to step on toes. But I see that you’re doing this biohacking intensive, and I know all the top guys. I could really help you curate it.” He says, “Oh my God, please help us out.” I connected him with some of those people that ended up speaking or else just recommended them and got Bulletproof Coffee in there. Then, as I was sort of contributing my efforts in terms of just being the connector of people which I love to do, I kind of have a knack for it, I remember this moment, I was like, “Oh man. I wanna ask Neil if he’ll let me do a quick little talk in there even though I’m not known like any of these other guys. I don’t really have any credibility to stand on in terms of a history of being an expert, or writing a book or speaking on those topics.” I just had that little moment of courage and I was like, “What the hell. He can say no.” I emailed him and five seconds later he’s just like, “Yeah, perfect! I’ll put you on Friday night right before David Wolfe.” Right before or after, I was like, “Dude, I wanna do quick little thing on Sunday morning as everyone’s heading out.” He kind of just put me front and center.

Then I prepared my first PowerPoint on that topic which really was like a six-month seminar I tried to cram into one hour, basically. I didn’t know that at the time. It was so well received by the other speakers and the guys in there who can be a tough audience. These aren’t a bunch of patsies. These dudes, they are pretty bright, successful guys. I was such a hit Friday night that they asked me to come back on Sunday and complete the talk which I obviously was not able to do on Friday. Then I got, on one of the days I got a standing ovation. When I was well-received by my peers and then encouraged by Neil and even my friend, Daniel Vitalis, who as I said was also a speaker there. Jack Kruse was just really behind me. There’s a lot of guys that I really look up to and respect just looked at me straight out and said, “Dude, you’ve got to do this. What are you doing with your life? This is what you’re meant to be doing.” That was really the moment that I got the courage to branch out and start my podcast and started doing all the stuff I do. I always give credit man. To Neil and Daniel, especially as being two of the guys that really encouraged me rather than being haters and being jealous and afraid of their space getting encroached upon. They were both like, “Yeah, you can do it too.” Even though Neil does something a little bit different, but I think my career model or business model’s a little more similar to Daniel Vitalis’. But the point is neither one of them were like insecure, beta males that try to block me from the spotlight. They actually both really encouraged me to take some of it which is kind rare in Hollywood.

‏‏Yeah, yeah it’s awesome. You did a real pivot there where you were known as ‘the guy’ in fashion and style, especially for men. You styled celebrities like Kanye West, and Foo fighters, Kim Kardashian, Marilyn Manson. You made a real brand for yourself and for your company School of Style, right?

‏‏Yeah.

‏‏Now, you’re not doing the fashion thing so much anymore, right?

My true heart’s desire is being a life stylist helping people to build a lifestyle based on principles of health and spirituality.

‏‏No, man. I feel so liberated. I dressed other people for a living for 17 years. That’s a lot of trips to the mall. I feel good about the work that I did and what I was able to accomplish. I don’t think when I was doing it, I felt like I had accomplished what I set out to. But now looking back, I’ve had a few great projects and I got to work with, you mentioned a few of them, but literally hundreds of really talented, and inspiring people, and a few dozen spoiled brats Hollywood celebrities. It was the good, the bad, and the ugly. But all in all, it was a really great career. But I’m telling you, once I made the decision to stop, and as you said pivot, and really go after my true heart’s desire which is rather than being a fashion stylist, being a life stylist really helping people to build a lifestyle based on principles of health and spirituality and continuing to do that work myself, when I went into the deeper, more meaningful direction in terms of how I wanna spend my time and creating a brand and a business, oh my god. I look back on the days as a fashion stylist. I’m like, “I can’t believe I didn’t quit it 5 years sooner or 10 years sooner.” It was my thing. You kind of get comfortable, I guess, when you become proficient at something. The industry supports what you’re doing but once I got on this, oh my God, this is my real passion. Then, as you know, because you’ve done some consulting for us which I’ve so appreciated. My business, School of Style, has been fully functioning and profitable and doing really well for nine years now. We just made a decision to move that business into 100% online classes and stop doing the live classes we’ve done since 2008. I’m really excited about letting the fashion thing go. That’s been about 1½ years, maybe almost 2 years since I did that. I would never turn back. I’m full force with my podcast and coaching.

Then with the online classes at School Of Style. Now I’m kind of more in online marketing, I guess you could say, than fashion, but then what we teach is fashion, what I do is more about a classic info product online marketing model. Which is what eventually my own business will turn into. I’m still sort of in the content phase of just gaining credibility and building relationships in the health and wellness industry through putting out the podcast. Little by little I’m learning to monetize that through advertisers, and affiliate deals, and being a brand ambassador, and doing some coaching and things like that. It’s fun. It’s much more meaningful now because I get to talk about things that I really, really care about on an almost daily basis. Instead of sitting around talking about shoes and dresses, which is fine, there’s nothing wrong with that, there’s a lot of creativity in that. But I’m talking about salvation and addiction recovery, and mental health issues, and issues on sexuality and relationships. Uncovering this new paradigm of health and wellness that is outside of the traditional allopathic western model and the sick care model and really helping people to empower themselves, and as you said, to biohack and heal their bodies. I can’t imagine going back to spending my day running around to different stores for 12 hours a day. Now, I have to go out and go shopping for myself, and I’m like, “Oh my God, this sucks.” How did I do this for a career for so long? But there was creativity in that and I was an artist. That’s what you are when you’re a fashion stylist in Hollywood or a makeup artist or actor. Whether you’re in front of the camera or behind the camera, there is a real creative flow to that and it’s rewarding. But man, it’s much more meaningful for me to alleviate suffering from someone than to make sure that they have the right matching tie with their suit.

‏‏Right. Although it’s all part of the puzzle. For somebody who wants to remake himself or herself, getting the right wardrobe and understanding some the basic principles of style and fashion, it’s really helpful.

‏‏Totally.

‏‏I dressed horribly before my makeover. If you look at my before photos, go to about page on getyourselfoptimized.com and you look at what I used to looked like, oh my God. I couldn’t have gotten a date to save my life. I had to remake myself from the inside out. Once I got to the outer layers, I’m like, “Okay, I need a stylist to redo my wardrobe,” and that’s exactly what I did. Because I didn’t know how to style myself. Now listeners are inclined to listen to episode number eight which is our first time being on this podcast talking. That episode is fantastic. If you wanna understand how to dress for your body type in a way that looks super cool, that’s fantastic and it fits into the puzzle. Now you’re on your passion and that’s what it’s all about. For some people, they go a whole lifetime just making money, and doing the thing that they think that they’re supposed to be doing because it’s comfortable and you remade yourself. That’s amazing. Congratulations!

‏‏Thank you, man. I’m really, really grateful to be able to do it. I’m just glad that I’ve finally summoned the courage to kind of put myself out there and take the risks that I have. It’s definitely paid off. The funny thing about this, I don’t even know what to call myself, a podcaster, I guess. When I deal with brands, I call myself an influencer. That means if you do stuff other people do it and then brands wanna pay to show other people how to do it. But I hesitate using the word teacher or expert. I don’t quite know how to categorize myself yet, because I do a lot of work in the health and wellness and the biohacking space. But I’m really more deeply invested in the inner work of spiritual growth, and learning spiritual principles, and meditation and mindfulness, and different forms of yoga, and all that stuff. I’m kind of in this somewhat of an identity crisis but I just keep committing to putting out good solid content that I’m really passionate about. The funny thing about taking that chance as an entrepreneur and as an exercise in my own personal development growth is that I made a commitment to myself when I started to do this. Even though the audience was really small at that time. It’s grown and continues to grow, of course. But I didn’t know who was gonna listen so I had to make a decision how real, and how vulnerable, and intimate I wanted to be as a public persona in terms of being the host of the show and being a guest on shows like yours.

I really had to work through a lot of self-doubt and fears.

Early on, once I decided to do it, I just decided whether people like me or hate me, I’m just gonna be real. If I can come out of this new venture with at least people respecting the work that I’m doing from this standpoint that it’s authentic. That was my one goal is to have a level of excellence that I’m trying to adhere to in terms of just production quality of the website, the podcast, the videos, anything I do to make it really topnotch. Also just to be super, super real and vulnerable. What’s crazy about this man, just from my own personal growth, is that the more real and open I am about the things I’m still struggling with, and the challenges that I’m overcoming, the more people seem to respond to the work and it’s almost as if my whole life I was really afraid to show people who I really am and to let my true childlike fun personality come through, because I was afraid people wouldn’t like me. I really hid a lot about myself, and even just my past, my history of drug addiction, and alcoholism and crime. I had a really sorted past and I didn’t know how to be open about that. I just said, “You know what? Screw it. I’m just gonna totally do me.” The more I do it, the more people seem to respond on the positive way. I feel like it was such a timely decision for me, and thankfully, I had quite a few people around me that kept encouraging me. Because I really did have really pretty severe impostor syndrome when I decided to make that change, because I had zero credibility in this industry other than I’m a guy that goes to a lot of conferences, I study all the experts but I’m not one of them. I really had to work through a lot of self-doubt and fears.

Once I started kind of got that momentum going to the point where I didn’t wanna stop then the feedback started coming. That sort of reinforces that I have a unique perspective on some things that I can share with people that’ll really benefit their life whether it be the inner, the deeper work or even just taking care of your health or even as you said, I don’t go shop for someone, but I still do some consulting in terms of people’s personal style, not celebrities but just regular people. It does matter, you do feel better when you are well-groomed and bathed and have a nice outfit on. In fact, I don’t wanna regurgitate episode eight back there that we did in 2015, but when I was prepping for this call, I remembered, “Oh, it’s just on audio there’s no video. I don’t need to look pretty.” I’m wearing my gym clothes basically. I almost changed just because I felt really too cozy and sort of lazy. I had this like rainy day at home, drinking coffee, working on the computer vibe. I’m like, “No, this is an interview. I have to bring the energy.” I almost changed into some nicer clothes even though no one could see me just for the psychological effect. Then, I was screwing around doing some other projects and didn’t get around to change and so here I am looking like a slob but the outside…

‏‏It comes through in your voice, actually.

‏‏The outside, like real scrappy today. The outside does count. That’s the thing, I don’t discount any part of the human experience from what is seemingly the most superficial on the outside of your skin, what you’re wearing, different colors, and shapes, and textures that you can put on your meat suit. It’s just keeping it all in perspective. Just like keeping the actual meat suit of the physical body in perspective, and keeping the awareness that’s not truly who I am. That my self- worth can’t be derived from how ripped I am, and if I have a six-pack, or how tall I am or whatever attributes or how much hair I have left on my head or whatever. Just like I can’t base myself on wearing a Target t-shirt versus a Prada t-shirt. The inner worth has gotta come but then, I think sometimes, the clothes and the outer appearance, they do support that. When you had your transformation, you could have just gained the self-respect and self-love but from watching you, and knowing a bit of your transition, would you not say that the inner self-love is what enabled you to start improving the way you looked on the outside, and that reverberated back to your true or higher self, and that you feel good about all aspects of one’s self?

The inner self-love is what enabled you to start improving the way you looked on the outside, and that reverberated back to your true or higher self.

‏‏Well, there was a point of realization where I was at a Tony Robbins event, Unleash the Power Within, and I did the firewalk, and I realized that I had the capability to reboot my life. I could overcome all these different fears that were holding me back. For example, had not gotten Lasik surgery because I was afraid of going under the knife and so consequently I was wearing glasses. I didn’t like wearing glasses. I didn’t look good with glasses on. But I tolerated it. Do you know what Tony Robbins says? You get in life what you tolerate, what you’re willing to tolerate. I was willing to tolerate a lot of mediocrity. Walking over the 2,000-degree hot coals was this amazing metaphor and my bare feet not burning or getting even a blister. It gave me the confidence and access to my courage to go out there and face my fears.

Two weeks after that, I did the Lasik surgery. Two months after that I did a hair transplant. The outside appearance stuff is really important at the beginning because you need the momentum, you need the feedback to know that you’re on the right path, and when people didn’t recognize me anymore, I go to a conference after my hair growing from the hair transplant, people didn’t recognize me. I’m like, “Woah, this is cool.” I knew I was on the path even though my internal changes by then were so significant, I would say they far eclipsed the external changes with the change in my wardrobe and my look because my hair was fuller and I didn’t wear glasses anymore, and I shaved off the goatee and all. It was all-important and what mattered the most was having that catalyst at the beginning for me.

Now looking back, I’d say that the kind of a framework or the paradigm that works best for me is something I learned from the Kabbalah class where there is the 99% reality and the 1% reality. We live so much in the 1% reality which is the physical realm and we think that that’s everything but it’s just 1% of everything. It’s a fraction of 1% of everything. We have no conception of what is out there. Who knows, aliens, and creator, and angels, and synchronicities, serendipity, and all of these amazing stuff that is outside of our view. Yet it’s still there. We can’t deny it because just because we can’t see it doesn’t mean that it‘s not there. Thinking about being aware, even having meta-awareness, awareness of your awareness, and realize that “Ha, there’s that 99% out there I keep not thinking about.” Yes, the 1% the physical realm is important, dressing nice, and feeling good because I know that I look young and attractive and hip and all that sort of stuff, that’s helpful. Where my energy and my focus needs to be is in the 99% reality.

‏‏That’s cool, man. I’ve never heard a frame like that, I really like that. I’ve never thought about it in that way. But I think of that practice as staying in conscious contact with God creation, whatever you wanna call it. But it’s sort of like that. The principle of wearing the world like a light garment, it’s like one foot on the earth and the other one in the stars kind of thing. But I like that idea of keeping most of the attention in that stillness, and in the space, and the present moment into that the non-linear, the non-physical world but keeping a little grounded, that’s very cool. I never thought about it in that way. That’s pretty drastic teaching too because that ratio is pretty hardcore.

‏‏It is.

‏‏If you think about it that way. This is how I love to look at the universe and that’s why I find, I guess I find them frustrating, but people they’re really skeptical, I guess if I paid more attention to them, they would be frustrated but I just have compassion at their limited, not to sound superior, but I think people that are truly skeptical and think that this is all there is in. In a sense, I feel sorry for them because so many of the richest experiences of my life had been when I tapped into what lies beyond. But a lot of people are just wired with such fear of the unknown that they have this inherent skepticism. I feel really fortunate to have not inherited that gene or picked that up. I’ve always been really curious and open-minded. Because the worst thing is that could happen is you get duped and then you learn your lesson, and you gain discernment, and prudence when it comes to just following along with any particular concept or belief system. I think I’m pretty good at intuiting the true from the false at this point, having refined my ability to do so, but man, there is so much more going on than meets the eye.

‏‏Yeah, and I think if you just set aside this desire to seek the truth because there really is no truth with a capital T that we have access to. Everything goes through our own filters and stories. We’re meaning makers so trying to figure out what the truth is, if instead we just focus on what is empowering versus what’s disempowering. If I have a belief that we live in a friendly universe, that’s an empowering belief. That’s an empowering thought. I could think the other that we don’t live in a friendly universe or that it’s unfriendly, and I could gather evidence to that but that wouldn’t serve me in which one is true. Does it really matter? I believe that we do live in a friendly universe. Miraculously, things just end up lining up for me. All these miracles happen for me. Things that are beyond explanation. Things that you might think, “Wow, that’s just crazy. How can that even happen?” But if you just set that drive to know the absolute truth aside, is this empowering or disempowering? I think that it just serves you so much better.

If it’s makes me happy and it works for me and doesn’t harm other people, I’m all for it.

‏‏Yeah. I’m a huge fan of the 12-Steps, as a spiritual lifestyle, the spiritual practice. There are so many simple yet profound truths that come out of the 12-Step programs. Then I hear them of course repeated in all these other traditions because there’s only one truth. It’s just sort of comes out in different books and from different masters and stuff like that. But there’s one principle in there where it talks about looking at the way in which you live your life and if it’s serving you or not. When you’re up against any decision whether to do something or not do something and I guess, you could say from the perspective of your thought of knowing what’s true and what’s not. You just put everything that you do up to the acid test. Does it work or not? If I believe in Santa Claus and it enriches my life and my life works better when I live by the belief that Santa’s real in some respect, people might think I’m nuts, but if it’s makes me happy and it works for me and doesn’t harm other people, I’m all for it.

‏‏Yeah. You have this idea applied to the world of search engine optimization which is where, that’s my primary business. That’s where I make my money. If a Google engineer coded an algorithm that rewarded website owners who have cats and gave them higher rankings and it served to give better search results to Google users, and Google will incorporate that algorithm into his rankings. Cat owners will get an extra benefit.

‏‏Right.

‏‏Because it’s just very pragmatic. If it works, if it yields better results, then we’re gonna go for it.

‏‏Yeah. I think the world could really use that perspective at the moment because we’re so polarized especially, I don’t wanna get into politics by any stretch, but our culture is in this sort of culture war and this post-modernism marks this politically correct thing. There’s just so much weird stuff going on at the moment. I think, if everyone could put a lot of preconceived ideas to the side and just be like, “Hey, what works? Let’s do what works.” There’s a large portion of millenials, I think I heard it’s 50% of millennials right now would prefer communism over capitalism. Those are clearly people that don’t look at what works. That shit does not, I understand you’re young, I’m 47 and I’m no historical scholar by any stretch but it’s pretty clear that that particular model for society has catastrophic consequences. That’s a macro version of “Well, let’s look at the facts. Let’s give it the old 12-step acid test. Does it work or does it not?” That’s what I’ve used in my own life really. I’ve had so many just addictions, and negative patterns, and relationship problems, and mental problems, emotional issues, neurosis of every kind imaginable in my life. Anytime that I’m sort of faced with a personal challenge, I really just have to be honest with myself and take responsibility and say, “Luke, is the way you’re doing things work or not?” I’m just putting myself under a little interrogation. Is this shit working for you or is it now? I find to find I’m happy and as you said, I’m not living in alignment with my truth and my purpose. I’m going to be dissatisfied. I always have to be willing to reconsider my old ideas. Just doing this podcast that I do man, I’m sure you’ve had this experience, I learn so much from the people that I get to interview. It’s almost as if every episode for me is this new awakening just because it’s weird, the positioning you have as the podcast host especially if the podcast gains a little popularity.

I’m shocked at the people that I get to sit down and have conversations with but I really apply their teaching when something rings true to me and my intuition just says, “Yeah, that’s true. What they’re saying applies to me and I think it’ll work.” Then I go actually use that teaching or practice in my life and it works. Then I have to discard whatever one I was using because it might have even been decent whatever model, say for communicating in a relationship, that I may have been using and it worked at a certain level of development and now I’m different, and I’m gonna be with a different calibration of partners in terms of their own consciousness. I have to relearn a new way of communicating for example and discard much, if not all, of the old way I was doing it. This is what keeps life fun man. It’s being able to admit if you’ve been wrong or you’ve been misled and readjust man and change course and start doing things differently and breaking those patterns. I think, you’re very much the same as me, and that you’re really someone who’s very committed to the personal development and you’re never like, “Okay, I’m good. I’ve done enough seminars and read enough books, and done enough podcasts. I’m just gonna sit here and bake at 350 for the rest of my life.” I think you and I share that desire for more, more truth, and more of an ability to be of service in the world and to really have the energy on all levels to contribute.

When you stop using all the gifts that you have is when the universe starts calling in its parts back. – Dan Sullivan

‏‏Yeah. You know, Dan Sullivan says that when you stop using all the gifts that you have is when the universe starts calling in its parts back. He’s got this crazy schedule where he will push himself to the limits. He’s in his 70s and he, I think, has a goal to write 25 books in the next 25 years, something like that.

‏‏Wow. Wow.

‏‏Yeah, he’s intense and he’s on a schedule. He’s cranking them out.

‏‏That’s so cool, man. That’s so reassuring. Because I feel, at 47 sometimes, I’m like, “Damn, I’m getting old.” It’s just like I have a lot of energy, I’m a really healthy guy but still sometimes… You know what, it occured to me when I realized that I really don’t like driving at night. It actually fatigues me a lot to drive at night. My vision’s gotten a little weird. I just find it to be stressful. I’m like, “Oh my god, that’s what my dad said.” Whatever it was, he was 70. He goes, “Yeah, I don’t really like driving at night anymore.” I’m like, “Damn, I’m probably about three years away from that.”

‏‏Well, you don’t have to drive anymore because we’ll have our robots driving all of us.

‏‏There you go. That’s true. That’s gonna be a bit of a stretch. I have to look at their driving record for a couple of years. But yeah man. I was listening to a podcast, because I am huge podcast fanatic, I was listening to Jack Canfield being interviewed on Oprah’s podcast, and here’s this guy. He’s gotta be worth so much money with the whole Chicken Soup for the Soul. I think he had 30 bestsellers. It’s just insane. I don’t think the guy needs money but yet, here he is doing his online program. He’s still going on podcasts. He just wrote a book. He’s doing public speaking. I was listening to that and I’m thinking to myself, “God, this guy can just chill in his mansion and just hang out and enjoy life. Why is he still working so hard? I don’t get it.” Then, of course, immediately after I go yeah, I get it. Because this is what makes life worth living is to have achieved some degree of wisdom and experience that you can then share with people and pass down, I guess. If you’re not doing that, your guy says you’re on your way out.

‏‏Or if you think about it, either you’re sharing your gifts or you’re holding it tight, close to your chest, and not sharing it and from a philosophical or spiritual standpoint, when you’re stingy like that, the universe does not reward you, karma does not reward you. You end up getting pretty traumatic events thrown at you, just philosophically speaking. That’s what I believe.

‏‏I love that, man. That’s cool. I remember years ago learning from one of my teachers about accepting gifts and accepting favors from people. As I’d walked into his house and I was in the health 20 years ago. I wasn’t going back but I shift in and I walk into his house and he’d say, “Hey man, want a coke?” He’d offer me a soda. I would be appalled. It’s a coke. What planet are you from? Who drinks soda? I’m thinking in my mind, “No, no. I’m good.” He would just relay into me man. He’d say, “Dude, you got such a closed mind. Here is someone who’s practicing the art of giving and sharing and you’re refusing that flow. Why don’t you just take the damn coke and let it sit on the counter? Set it on the table and not drink it.” It was one of those weird lessons from my teacher at that point. He went on to further elaborate that by refusing other people’s service or gifts, you’re actually stifling their ability to work on karma and stifling their ability to learn how to be less self-centered and selfish. It’s actually selfish to turn down someone’s gift unless of course there are some weird co-dependent strings attached. There’s some type of dysfunction involved obviously. But in a healthy exchange, I really learned to do that. Someone will offer me a piece of aspartame toxic gum and I’m like, “Oh, yeah. Thanks a lot.” I throw it in my pocket. The minute I walk around the corner I throw it in the trash. But I don’t wanna stop the inner outpour. Maybe I’ll pass it on to someone else and just give them a disclaimer, “Hey, this is toxic gum. But if you want it, it’s all yours.” I do that sometimes. I pass things o+ff to people because I don’t like wasting stuff. I always think I’m in The Great Depression or something. Because literally, it drives me crazy to be wasteful. I save all my vitamin jar and try to recycle them. I’m a real recycler. I love those contents.

‏‏You’re probably guilty of wish cycling, aren’t you?

‏‏What is that?

‏‏That’s the recycler who throws a bunch of extra stuff and then that can’t really be recycled. They think they might be able to…

‏‏Yeah, I think I probably do. The one thing I really feel guilty about is I still don’t have, I don’t know, I guess a lot of people probably don’t do this unless they’re really on it. But I don’t really have a good system for recycling electronics and used batteries. I’m embarrassed to admit this but I still just put them in the recycling bin because I don’t have it together enough to have a used electronic and battery bin and drive them to office depot once a year. I haven’t gotten that organized.

‏‏Well, you’re gonna go to hell for that.

‏‏But I do. I’m an ardent recycler and someone who doesn’t like to waste but on an energetic level man, the same thing applies. I think that flow of energy feels really good. Now since I’m aware of that, when I’m trying to be of service to someone or give someone a gift or give someone some cash when they’re short and they say,” Oh, no, no.” I said, “No, you can’t say no. You’ve gotta take it. You’re helping me to be less self-obsessed by allowing me to get out of myself and make a contribution rather than being this rapacious taker,” which I used to be and I really do everything I can to not live like that anymore.

‏‏That reminds me of a story that Tony Robbins tells about how he was with some really rich person, I forget who, having dinner. When it came to paying for the cheque, as soon as the cheque came, Tony reached to grab the cheque, and the guy was just livid about that. He grabbed Tony’s arm and stopped him from grabbing the cheque and pulling it to him and said, “You dare to deny me the gift of buying you dinner?”

‏‏Damn.

‏‏Ouch. Tony let go of the cheque and he let him pay.

‏‏That’s great. Well, that’s funny because Tony’s no slouch. I’m sure anyone on the table could’ve probably bought the damn restaurant, cash on the spot.

‏‏But it made such an impression on him that he shares that at so many of his seminars. It really is about the energy flow and about allowing people to give you gifts as well as you giving other people gifts. Another kind of nuance to this that I just learned recently also from Kabbalah is that it matters where you’re sending your gifts. Let’s say I give $1 to a homeless person, that’s good. That’s a nice thing to do. There’s nothing wrong with that. If you give $1 to an organization that feeds the homeless, and clothes the homeless, and provides housing or whatever, that’s a different thing altogether from an energetic flow standpoint. The energy still flows. It doesn’t stop with that one homeless man that you gave the money to.

Because he’s gonna use it for himself alone. There’s a desire to share with others and to share your gifts and so forth and there’s a desire for one’s self alone. That’s such a different sort of thing. I learned the difference in Kabbalah and I’m like, “Ahh, that makes so much sense.” It’s an energetic pipe. I can keep the flow going. A lot of religion believe that you’re supposed to donate 10% of your income as tithing. If you do that in a way that stops the flow, the flow stops with a certain homeless people or people who are less fortunate and they don’t pass that on. That defeats the whole purpose of tithing. Because it’s supposed to go into this pipe and continue to flow.

‏‏That’s really interesting. I don’t know a lot about Kabbalah but I was very struck by this book years ago called Becoming Like God by Michael Berg. It’s kind of a simplified guide to Kabbalah, I guess. It was where in those coffee shops in the valley. They sell books and I looked up on the shelf and that book covered just jumped out at me like crazy. I picked it up. That’s the main lesson that I remember was that ego is about the desire to receive for the self alone. I really, really remember relating to that. It’s the one part of that teaching that I’ve never forgotten.

‏‏Yeah. I saw Michael Berg at the Kabbalah center here in Los Angeles just last week.

‏‏Interesting. Is that Kabbalah center the one in Robertson?

‏‏Yeah.

‏‏Oh, okay. I’ve driven by that for years and I’ve always been curious about it.

‏‏One of my favorite self-development, personal development courses of all time and that includes Tony Robbins and all the stuff I’ve done with him, is Kabbalah One which is a 10-evening course that the Kabbalah Center puts on.

‏‏No kidding.

‏‏It’s $50.

‏‏No way.

‏‏For the whole 10 weeks.

‏‏Dude, I’m gonna make a note of that. I’m gonna check that out. I live really close to that center. In fact, I go to Guru Singh’s yoga class at Yoga West which is right down the street.

‏‏Yeah, he’s awesome too. I actually met him in Israel on my first Tony Robbins’ Platinum Partner trip. Guru Singh is amazing.

‏‏Wow, that’s cool, man. I didn’t know he was in that scene. I just interviewed him a couple weeks ago and it came out on Christmas Day. It was my special Christmas episode with Guru Singh as my guest.

‏‏Oh, nice. He’s on my wishlist of people to interview as well.

‏‏Cool, man.

‏‏Chase up Guru Singh. He’s great. Okay. Let’s say that we cover some of this biohacking stuff for the last 12 minutes because we got off onto an amazing tangent and I don’t have any problem with it but I do wanna get some biohacking tips and tricks in here. Because you’ve been spending so much time researching and analyzing what works and what doesn’t work. Let’s start with EMFs. I know this is something that is pretty controversial. We just get doused with EMFs all the time. I still keep my cell phone near me at night. I haven’t bought into the whole thing of reducing EMF exposure. I don’t even put my cell phone on airplane mode even though I could be putting it on airplane mode and using the Wi-Fi function, I turn on Wi-Fi assist, Wi-Fi calling and all that which is supported in the iOS, the iPhone and it’s great. I don’t even have to have any cellular signal and I could make and receive calls no problem. I don’t even remember to turn that off when I enter the house and turn it back on, toggle that when I come in and go. Convince me, and I know that there’s strong evidence, but convince me and my listeners that this is something that we need to do something about and what sort of something should we be doing.

‏‏Well, I’m not an electrical engineer and I’m not an expert on such matters but I have interviewed a number of people that are world experts on EMFs. Not only just EMFs but non-native lighting. The lighting issues’ another whole thing. But first, I’ll just cover your basic EMFs. you’ve got magnetic waves that come out of the wiring of electronics. As you sit in front of your computer, you sit in front of your TV, your clock, radio, cordless phone, and things like that that are plugged into the power grid of your house and even the wiring in your house, the outlets that are coming through the wall. All of those emit a magnetic frequency into dead space that goes about six feet depending on the signal. It’s widely-known scientifically that has a negative impact on your biology. Now whether or not you can say, “Oh that’s gonna give you cancer, Alzheimer, or heart disease, or any other really debilitating physical issue or not,” you can’t really say in many cases. But that’s one thing to definitely be aware of now. Myself, I have a couple of different things that I do to mitigate the magnetic fields. One is I just try and sleep as far as I can away from the wall where all the wiring is. I don’t have electronics or things like that around the bed with the exception of my cell phone which I use as an alarm.

But I definitely keep that on airplane which I’ll explain with the radio waves. But I would like to not even have my phone in there. If I could, I would actually just turn off the circuit breaker in the bedroom and just have no electricity in there and just be in as natural of a field as possible. But it’s really not practical to do that because I live in an apartment and I have an air purifier that runs in the room to clean the air and also to create a lot of white noise because I live in a really, really noisy neighborhood. The magnetic fields, it’s really with those it’s about distance. If you just think about, if it’s something like an electric toothbrush or a hairdryer, even being near your blender when I make my morning smoothie. There are certain things you have to touch and interact with or your laptop or something like that. But, in all other cases, I just try and stay a few feet distance away from electronics whenever possible. I’m not neurotic or crazy about it. If I can choose one place to sit that’s six feet away from a power outlet or a thermostat or a dimmer switch or something that’s gonna put out a lot of that magnetic field, I just try and distance myself a little bit.

Radio frequencies are shown to be a lot more harmful to human biology.

The other type of EMFs of course is the radio waves. This would be Wi-Fi, cell towers, smart meters. Radio frequencies are shown to be a lot more harmful to human biology. You can just look at the white papers on the effects of radio frequencies especially there’s a lot of buzz about the 5G that the municipalities are trying to roll out and it’s really, really bad stuff man. We’re messing with the natural magnetic frequency fields of the planet. We’re really living in an artificial field of all of these radio waves and microwave. If you just think about it, your cellphone is a little microwave. It’s emitting that radiation and so you’re really talking about radiation when it comes to smart meters and Wi-Fi. Again, that also depends on distance. For example, I love my cellphone, I’m not giving it up any time soon, but I never ever, ever put it up against my head. The only time maybe is if I’m landing in an airport and the freaking Uber calls me because they refuse to text, I’ll text them and be like, “Hey, I know you’re here. I’m watching you on the map. Please don’t call me, let’s just text.” I guess because they’re driving. They insist to call and it’s so loud, I put my phone up to my head. But any other time, it’s always on speaker phone and I hold it a couple of feet away from my head.

There are tons of studies about how dangerous it is to have your cellphone up against your head. I don’t have smart meters in my building. Smart meters are the new digital meters. There are different types and different models and there are different types of grids that the electric company will have their smart meters installed on. Some of the grids are more aggressive than others. Like in LA, we’re not on a grid, they’re still individual meters but some smart meters are really dangerous because they put out radio frequencies equal to 900 cellphones, and some of them just continually pulse the signal to the mothership in terms of reporting your usage non-stop. Some of them pulse less frequently but those are really dangerous. But there’s a solution to that. You pay a small fee to have the company come and remove that. You fight for your rights. You get that shit taken off your house. If you can’t do that there are little guards you can put on. In terms of the cell phone, I just always have it on an airplane if it’s near my body. If it’s in my pocket, I just flip it on the airplane. If I’m expecting a call or when I’m engaged in an email or text exchange or on social media then I turn it on. Walk around for a few but I generally don’t have those radio waves penetrating my organs because they just interrupt your cellular biology.

‏‏I started really taking this seriously at the latest Bulletproof conference when Dr. Mercola was talking about the cellular effects of EMFs. I was like, “Wow, this is real science. This is scary stuff.” He’s not just trying to scare us. When a bunch of us to talk to him after his talk, he made sure that nobody had their cell phone with them in just regular mode. Everybody had to have it in airplane mode to get anywhere near him.

‏‏Wow, interesting.

‏‏There were at least a dozen people surrounding him and he made sure that none of us had our phones in regular receiving mode. We all were in airplane mode.

‏‏That’s actually interesting because if you think about it, you got 15 people that are three or four feet away from you, you’re putting yourself in the middle. It’s like a reverse Faraday cage. It’s actually like a little microwave oven. I think about that when you’re in a crowd. You go to the Staple Center or something and like, “Oh my god, I’m getting so blasted.” But here’s the thing, sometimes you just have to give in and surrender to the fact that this is the age we live and it is what it is. If I’m gonna get cancer next year and keel over it’s just, okay. What are you gonna do? You gotta live your life but I find that if I can just change a few habits and then I keep myself relatively safe because there’s a lot you can’t control. I live fairly close to a couple of cell towers. If I was any closer I would move. There’s one probably 200 yards away, it’s pretty close to have a cell tower, I’m sure if I got an EMF meter, it’ll be going off the charts. There are certain things that you can control and there are things that you aren’t. I try to just get in the habit of controlling things I can just like whenever I pop my phone in my pocket, I just turn on the airplane. It’s no big deal. It’s one swipe on the iPhone X, it’s really easy. At home, for Wi-Fi, I have a router and a modem. The modem’s the thing that transmits the Wi-Fi in the house right?

‏‏Yeah.

‏‏Okay. I plug the modem into a timer, like a Christmas light timer, and I have it set to turn off at 1 AM and turn back on at 10 AM. Because during those hours, I won’t be needing Wi-Fi. My computer that I’m using right now, my big office iMac is hardwired to ethernet. What I did recently because I sick of having to remember to even set the timer and sometimes override the timer and turn it off or on and just dealing with the whole modem radiation issue, and the fact that my Wifi signal in my living room totally sucks anyway, I actually just ordered on Amazon for $16 a 110 ft ethernet cable, ran that out of the router and just got those little cable staples, and just ran it along the baseboard neatly, it’s tucked away, you don’t even notice it’s there and it comes up in between a crack in my couch. When I sit in the living room and I have a good 10 ft of extra cable if somebody wanted to use it or I need to pull it out. I just pull that little cable out from between the cushions in there. I’ve got the fastest, safest great internet and I also don’t have a Wi-Fi receiver sitting on my reproductive organs which is really good. Now, for the magnetic fields of the laptop, I have something called a HARApad and that eliminates, I think it’s 90% of the radiation coming off the bottom of your laptop because that’s really, really not good especially since most of us literally keep the laptop in our laps.

Men and women’s reproductive organs are not being done a good service by keeping your laptop there. It’s even worse if you have Wifi and Bluetooth emitting from and to that device. I think just hardwiring the house and if you have to have Wifi on, make sure that that modem is as far away from where you sleep as possible. I stay at Airbnbs in New York city sometimes and of course, they’re like to size of a dollhouse, and I walk in there and I’m like oh my god, the wifi router will be in the nightstand, next to the bed. That is so bad man. That is so unsafe. The first thing I do is I go and unplug all that stuff if I’m traveling. There’s the fine line of wanting to live your life and go along and be able to use technology and go along with culture and not be a weirdo and be like a downer everytime you’re around someone and make everyone turn off their phones or whatever. But these things have just become automated for me. I also have little grounding pads all around the house. When I’m at my couch I have one I pull out from under the couch and I stay electrically grounded. I have one that my barefoot’s on right now as we have this conversation. That helps mitigate some of the EMFs as well. I think, by just adding a little few little tweaks here and there, it just becomes automatic and habituated and it doesn’t really detract from your quality of life or become such an inconvenience after you’ve gotten used to doing it.

‏‏Yeah. There’s so much that we should go into and this is important and there’s a bunch of other things too, like sleep hacks, spring lauder, infrared beds, mindfulness hacks, and lighting, there’s so many and we’re out of time. I’m gonna have to have you back. We’re gonna have to do a part two.

‏‏Let’s do it, dude. I’d love to that. I’ve been full-on researching for 20 years but especially since I’ve had the podcast because now it’s become my business to really have some degree of expertise in the area of supplementation, and quantification, and testing, and all these different devices that you have. I definitely have a lot to offer and I’d be more than happy to come back and share any of that anytime.

‏‏We’ll have a part two. We’ll do that within the next month. We’ll get that going. Listeners, check the stuff out that we talked about. The HARApad, cutting your EMF exposure through some of these techniques because it’s important and just my bad habits have kept me making a lot of headway since I learned how bad this stuff is just a couple months ago at the last Bulletproof conference. I’m gonna make a change. I want you guys to make a change too. Take this stuff seriously, this isn’t whacko stuff. Just the exposure we’re getting to toxins, it’s all off the charts. We gotta take drastic measures to protect our meat suit as Luke calls it. Take a listen to that episode eight as well while you’re at it, it’s a really good one. We’ll come back with a part two with Luke. Thank you so much, Luke. Where can folks find you online if they wanted to work with you in a coaching or consulting capacity?

‏‏Sure. You can find me at lukestorey.com. Everything that I do and produce is on there. Then, the crown jewel of my work in the world now at this point is The Lifestylist Podcast. I put a show out every Tuesday and sometimes even a bonus show on Fridays. That’s where you can learn a lot about this health and spirituality practice that I’ve been talking about as well.

‏‏Awesome. Thank you, Luke. Thank you, listeners. We’ll catch you on the next episode of Get Yourself Optimized. This is your host, Stephan Spencer, signing off.

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