Unlocking the Power of Your Mind with Dr. Hosein Kouros-Mehr

In this enlightening episode, Patrick Bass is joined by Dr. Hosein Kouros-Mehr, a renowned research scientist and cancer researcher, to explore the fascinating concept of the default mode network (DMN) — also known as the wandering or monkey mind. Dr. Kouros-Mehr shares groundbreaking insights into how this part of the brain impacts mental health, contributing to conditions like anxiety, depression, and addiction. He explains how understanding and mastering the DMN can lead to a happier, healthier life by fostering mindfulness, spiritual practices, and emotional resilience.

Listeners will discover practical strategies for quieting the DMN, harnessing the power of the observing mind, and achieving a state of flow where they can be at their most productive and content. Dr. Kouros-Mehr's approach combines spirituality with cutting-edge science, offering tools and insights that are both profound and practical.

Join Patrick Bass and Dr. Hosein Kouros-Mehr for an eye-opening journey into the depths of the human mind. Whether you're looking to improve your mental health, enhance your productivity, or simply understand yourself better, this episode is packed with valuable information that can transform your life.

Transcript

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about the vast sea of news media? You can feel the hot air on your face and smell the bullsh**. Isn't it about time there was someone who was having the difficult conversations and calling them on all their crap? Well, there is. And you found it. This is the Patrick Bass Show. No filter. No nonsense. He sugarcoats nothing. We're America. We deserve much You deserve the truth and this is where you'll get it. It's in your face. It's bold and it's for damn sure patriotic. Fasten up that seatbelt and let's do this. This is the Patrick Bass show and this is Patrick Bass. All right. Welcome back to the Vanguard Radio Network. This is Patrick Bass on the Patrick Bass show. Yeah, so incredibly happy we're with us on this journey that we're taking together into the unknown. We'll be talking today to Dr. Hussein Kroosmeer who is, well, it's got something called default mode network. I don't know what it is. We're going to find out all about it. We're going to take this quick break before we meet him and tell you a little bit more about the program. When we get right back from this message in your face, unfiltered and We're back to it on the Patrick Bass Show. Hi, I'm Kelsey Graham. Wounded Warrior Project supports injured veterans by connecting them with fellow warriors, by serving them through mental health and wellness programs, and by empowering them to live on their own terms. No one should face a battle alone. Join us at woundedwarriorproject .org. Have we forgotten the art of being a gentleman? The modern gentleman. A Guide to Essential Manhood by Patrick W. Bass. It's a powerful and illuminating read that offers a fresh perspective on what it means to be a true gentleman in today's rapidly evolving world. Crafted with the understanding that true character is forged through both trials and triumphs, this book challenges men to elevate their lives by embracing the virtues of integrity, responsibility, resilience, and respect. If you're a man, it's a must -have Pick up the Modern Gentleman, A Guide to Essential Manhood by Patrick Bass. Available at pwbass .com or on Amazon. This is the Vanguard Radio Network. Welcome back. All right. Nothing wrong with Cypress Hill on a Friday. Listen, hey, if you have not liked our Facebook page, please, please log into Facebook dot com slash real Patrick Bass and give us a like so that we can go live on the meta platform and enjoy all that Mark Zuckerberg has to offer. If you want to call in today, our line is eight five five six zero five eight two five five eight five five six zero five talk. We have a really exceptional guest with us today. I've said before that we have the best guest on all of the podcast networks and the guest we have today is going to set that bar even higher. He has over two decades of groundbreaking work in cancer research and drug development, but for him that's just the beginning. He's recognized for his extraordinary implications of a recent scientific discovery called the default mode Often often also called the wandering mind or the monkey mind. I think I have that Please welcome to the show. Dr. Hussain Khrusmeir Thanks, Patrick. It's really an honor to be here. Thanks for having me. And I look forward to telling you and your guests about this default mode network. It's a really important discovery. Well, let's jump into it. Tell us about it. What, is that all And by the way, this is the third book that I just published. It's called Breakthrough, Master Your Default Mode and Thrive, and it is about the default mode network. So what the default mode network is, it is your wandering mind. And you may not have heard the term, but you probably are well familiar with the default mode network. Anytime your mind wanders away from the present, takes you to the past, to something that happened last week, or has you worried about the future, that's actually a part of your brain that turns on and it's called the default mode network or the wandering mind. So we all need a healthy default mode to be successful in life, to be happy in life. But for many of us, this wandering mind is overactive and it becomes the monkey mind. that's always taken us into the past or the future, preventing us from being here, present in the now. And so this default mode network has its hand in a lot of mental conditions like anxiety, depression, addiction, and a whole host of others. But the good news is by understanding this default mode network, you can form a new relationship with it, you can heal it, and you can have this thing work for you and not against you basically. And what's the basics of that? I when I hear the phrase wandering mind or monkey mind, brings to my thought process something that's very primal, very visceral. There's not a lot of thought. It's just, as it suggests, animalistic in nature almost. Is that what we're looking at? Is that in a default situation? Is that what we are? well, so we're very different than other animals. Other animals don't have this. Only humans have this. And I think it has to do with our ancestors and how difficult life was thousands of years ago living in, know, jungles and caves and life was just very difficult. The way we got through those difficult times is by developing this crazy mind of ours that is focused on the negative, right? The default mode network It'll focus on the most negative thing that happened to you. It'll constantly remind you of that. It's a very reactive, judgmental type of thinking. And it's focused on me. It revolves around me. It is actually your ego. And it's the storyline of you that you are creating. and it is our default state. Now, a lot of people ask me, how the hell am I going to control this thing? And you're not going to control it. It's not about controlling it or shutting it off. It's about actually building this other part of the brain. It's called the observing mind. has another name, the central executive. And it turns out that things like spiritual practice, mindfulness practice, and even some basic things like focus exercises, breathing exercises, what all those things are doing is empowering and building this observing mind and quieting the default mode network. And so this book basically puts all of those tools in one place, the tools from spirituality, tools from medicine, from science, and puts it all in one place for really just to help you, to help the reader basically. Chris, I love that because I think my personal belief is we're spiritual beings. But there's also the science of who I am. I've got, you know, I'm energy wrapped in a body and all that stuff. So I love how this kind of combines it all. You said that a lot of this comes from our ancestors and it's all about focused inwardly. Is that from like, know, hey, if I eat that thing, I get sick, I probably ought not to eat that again. Is that kind of the negative influence that we're talking about? that's right. That's right. And, you know, I better avoid that food because it made me sick the last time I better avoid that person. Or hey, that person, I should probably avoid I don't know that person, I should probably you know, that judgmental reactive type of thinking. It got us here. But unfortunately, now today, it's giving us a lot of unhappiness. And so I, but I really like what you said, we are in our core. spiritual beings in our core beneath all of the default mode when you when you break through to the core of who we actually are you find that that spiritual essence that benevolent compassionate essence and that's what happens when you break through your your default mode network what you get to on the other side is the what's been called the higher self the spiritual self and it's sort of there and it's it's been there all along and you're just breaking through the barriers that have built up to sort of giving you access to You know, I can kind of see that and it's proven time and time again because when I think about, for example, I think about like Tai Chi masters or I think about some spiritual guru or a very prayerful man like a pastor or somebody like that, they just seem better put together, more calm, more at ease. mean, it seems like they're operating at a level that's higher than what I am and perhaps something that I would aspire to And so now what you're saying is, Patrick, there's a science that actually proves that that is the case. That is it, you nailed it. The science and the medicine have finally taken a seat at the table with the spirituality and the psychotherapy and the healing and all of that. Finally, science is recognizing the importance of spiritual practice, the actual health benefits. And I'm seeing clinical studies coming out showing that. Forgiveness improves physical health. I never thought I'd see papers like this. And the default mode network is something we can actually see. We can see it on an MRI. Somebody who has severe depression, we can actually see their default mode network on an MRI scan. And we can also see, you mentioned, let's say a Buddhist monk, someone who, let's say meditates, their brain is very different. Their default mode is very silent and they tend to be more in that observing mind. central executive. So the science is kind of all proving all of this, which is amazing to see because when I was in medical school 20 years ago, it was kind of like going to plumbing school, you know, it's kind of like, you know, here, here are the pipes, find the clog, get you know, that's what medicine was very, very simplistic. And now I feel like we're understanding the brain. And we now have a real appreciation for just how complex the brain is. But we're understanding it now. Is part of this really then, and obviously I'm not a research scientist or a physician or anything like that, but I've done a lot of studying. wrote a book, Burn Your Ships, which was advertised earlier. And in that book, we talk about mastering fear and understanding that the fear response is either fight or flight, and there's a lot of chemicals relates in your body during that. And that during that process, it's almost involuntary, a different part of your brain is actually taking over. I guess that's what this is. I don't know. But what I'm wondering is, you it says that you said that there's actually research studies, the MRIs will show that they have a different mind map, if you will. Is that because they've learned how to control the release of those chemicals and really have mastered that fear response? Is that part of it? Is that all of it? Or is there what's going on really? Let's dig into more of the science. I think a lot of our listeners would really Absolutely. So we have in our brain a part of the brain called the limbic system. The limbic system is where we have our emotions. We have our memories. That fear response is made in a part of that brain. It's called the amygdala. It's in that limbic system. And that limbic system, you find it in other animals. And it is a very primitive part of our brain. And there basically when you experience an emotion, it can very quickly trigger, let's say that fight or flight response and release chemicals into the body like adrenaline, like cortisol. And that stress response, we need it to survive. If you're driving down the street and you see a pothole, stress response kicks in, you steer clear of that pothole, but then you keep driving and you get memories from yesterday, memories of an argument. And those thoughts trigger that same stress response. even though you're not in harm's way. So that stress response, we need it to live, but a lot of times it's on autopilot, like you said, and it's giving us all kinds of stress. Cortisol, that stress hormone cortisol can lead to heart disease and can worsen cancers and can cause all kinds of problems. but what's, what's happening in when you're training that observing mind is you're building a part of the brain that's in the prefrontal cortex. That's higher than the limbic system that can basically prevent that limbic system from going haywire and prevent that default mode network from just being triggered all the time. And so I think in your book, we're probably saying something similar when you're building your resilience, when you're building that observing mind, that awareness. And these are all, you know, features of that observing mind. You can quiet that stress response and you will see your health improve. And now the science is showing that. I love what you said earlier too about how even forgiveness has a profound effect on someone's health. And I've said that for a long time, not specifically that, what I've said is that forgiveness isn't really for the other person, it's for you. Because you're not saying in a situation of forgiveness, I'm allowing you to continue to hurt me. What you're saying is, I'm letting go of this and I'm releasing that. So that's profound. And here's the amazing thing. The amazing thing is now the science is actually showing why is it that forgiveness and compassion are good for our health? Well, it turns out, let's say compassion exercises or forgiveness exercises lower that cortisol, lower that stress hormone, can cut it in half. If there was a drug out there that can cut cortisol in half, it would be a blockbuster drug. It would be selling billions of dollars. That's exactly what compassion is doing. And these are actual physical changes in the Yeah. Do you think it's any coincidence that many religious texts advocate things such as compassion and forgiveness? Is that just for being a good person or do you think that perhaps they were onto something back when this was written that's actually good for your body? Yeah, I think they're all saying the same thing and they're all saying the same thing because it is not just good for our body. It is actually who we are in our core, you know, and all the prophets, Jesus and Buddha, they went out to discover, they went inwards to try to understand themselves and understand life. And what they discovered is that we are compassionate beings. That's who we are in our core. And that compassion, that forgiveness makes us feel fulfilled because we go back to that core. We reach that core. Versus let's say, I don't think we were put on this planet to accumulate money because that's, and that's why it's not fulfilling. You make some money and it's not very fulfilling, but you have some compassion and there is a fulfillment there. And I think that's just who we really are. I absolutely agree with you. And I guess that's what ultimately separates us from animals. I've heard it said that, you know, there's over a 98 % similarity between the DNA of humans and apes. Well, that 2 % has to be more than just, you know, a gigantic head and, really long arms. You know, obviously there's something there that science is now only beginning to understand that, as you said, the prophets of old, were dialed into way back when. I'm really curious, and we've got just a couple of minutes before we've got to take a break, but what prompted you to begin studying this? And how is it that you stumbled upon this? What's the story there? Yeah, I I've known about the default mode network for a few years now, and I just realized that very few people have heard of it. I have friends who are doctors, neurologists, neurosurgeons. They haven't heard about it. I just, I had to get this message out there. It was also a personal journey for me. I talk about in this book, 11 knots. I don't call them disorders or syndromes, but things like anxiety and depression. And I personally broke through and healed from all of these. And so part of this was also sharing my learnings for my kids, for people out there. I was looking for a book like this, couldn't find it, so I knew I just had to write it. Now you did a lot, obviously a lot of your work was in cancer research. And is there a possibility that, you know, all of this cortisol that's in our bodies is having a negative effect? Could this be the cause of some of these types of cancers and things like that? And if so, then could the default mode network be the key to resolving or preventing a lot of these problems? I 100 % agree, yes. There's a study that followed 70 ,000 women for nine years, and none of them had heart disease or cancer at the beginning, and they tracked the women. They found the women who tended to be the most cynical, pessimistic negative tended to have higher rates of cancer, unfortunately. you look at all the totality of the data, it does suggest that being in that reactive, judgmental, negative state of the default mode does you at risk for disease. does. I think, and so breaking through and healing mentally yourself, I think you can heal physically as well. think that mind and body connection is critical, which we've ignored in medicine until now, finally. Wow, I'm chatting with Dr. Hussein Kruesmaer, who is a research scientist who's done a lot of work in terms of cancer research. He's exploring this thing called the default mode network. And what we just found out is being a horrible person can actually make you physically sick and even cause some kinds of cancer in cases. So I guess there's a lesson to be learned there. We're going to pick up more of this when we get back right after this message. You know what I'd love? A ride when it's time to head out. If you see a buzz warning sign, call for a ride when it's time to go home. Buzz driving is drunk driving. A message from NHTSA and the Ad Council. We're the Goo Goo Dolls. We're fortunate that our daughters have what they need to grow and learn. But that isn't the case for nearly 13 million kids in the US that struggle with hunger. Childhood hunger is a heartbreaking reality that feeding America is working to change. Each year, the Feeding America network of food banks rescues billions of pounds of good food that would have gone to waste and provides it to families and children in need. You can help kids in need in your community by visiting feedingamerica .org. Brought to you by Feeding America and the Ad Council. Okay, welcome back. Patrick Bass show on the Vanguard Radio Network. What an amazing conversation we're having here about the default mode network, the wandering mind or the monkey mind. Learning how you act, what kind of person you are can actually determine if you get sick or have a lot of cortisol in your body. Just really opening my mind to a lot of possibilities. as I'm sure it is yours. If you've got any questions, give us a call. You can chat with us live right now. Be internet famous. Just dial us toll free, 855 -605 -8255. Dr. Korsmeier, we were talking about how you said there was a research study following people and those were that were really bitter and just nasty people had higher incidence of cancer. Your brings together, you said, a lot of different tools. What do we do? How do we turn this ship Yeah, so I lay this out in a very systematic way. And I mentioned earlier, I don't call them syndromes, diseases, disorders. I call them knots, like knots in a rope. They're pretty firm. But guess what? You can untie the knot and that rope, that string goes back to being its original shape. you can heal, the mind can heal from anything at any age. So it starts off with stress. Stress is number one, it's not number one, front and center. In our current environment, is at all time highs. having you really understand stress, what it is, and finding ways of preventing that stress from happening. So one thing that's important, I call it mindful relaxation. When you learn how to relax, but you do it mindfully for 15, 20 minutes, and you let your release what's called GABA. GABA is one of these hormones. It quiets the brain down. You need it for sleep. So finding ways to get that GABA flowing, because that GABA will prevent stress from happening. So you don't reach for that glass of wine, know, Friday when that stress is taken hold. Wine, by the way, also releases GABA, but alcohol, not the healthiest way to manage stress, right? Much healthier to prevent that stress from happening. So stress is numb. Yeah. Sure. a lot like a medication, gabapentin or pre -gabalin. There's got to be, I'm sure you can tell me if there's a connection Yeah, so Gabapentin is something else that is a different medicine, but you can buy GABA. It is a supplement. It doesn't work nearly as well as a 20 minute mindfulness exercise, a 20 minute prayer, a 20 minute walk in nature, being outdoors. All of that stimulates the GABA in a natural way, much better than taking any sort of supplement. So amazing. The mind that we've been given has a greater capability to repair the body than medications that man has made. What a wonderful designed creation we are, isn't it? What's number Number two is emotional pain, emotional pain. A lot of us have it. I had it. A lot of us have unresolved emotional pain from our past that feeds into all the other knots, including addiction, which is number A lot of different ways and what's happening in emotional pain, the default mode network is switching on. You're remembering old memories from the past and it's triggering those same emotions coming back and causing your behaviors and all kinds of issues. So lot of different ways of quieting that default mode network, breaking the connection between that memory and the emotion. You can do that through therapy like cognitive behavioral therapy. But ultimately the ultimate remedy for emotional pain is forgiveness, including self forgiveness and talk about how you can do that in the book, you know, and that you can completely resolve all emotional pain and and breakthrough. So that's not number two. Yeah. keep going because this is, I'm taking notes over Number three, number three is addictive craving. That's my term for addiction. Addiction is a very hard term. Addictive craving. There's a lot of cravings out there, harmful cravings, not just to drugs and alcohol, but to social media, information, shopping, money, you know, et cetera. So walking through that, that, that not and how to break through. how to break through that turns out the default mode network plays a big role in addiction. And another part of the brain called nucleus accumbens. It's the pleasure center. It's what releases the dopamine. So how to overcome addictive craving. may seem impossible, but it starts with intention, the intention to be happy, to be healthy, and the process of surrender, which it's at the heart of a Christian practice. It's, it's at the heart of Buddhist practice, surrendering. can surrender to any number of things, but it's admitting to yourself, this is not working. I need a higher power to help me, whether it's God, whether it's the Dharma, Buddha surrendered to the reality of now or the Dharma. And people who aren't religious can surrender to their subconscious mind, their deeper mind that will guide them through the way. Obviously surrendering to God is part of AA, Alcoholics Anonymous and other support groups. And so that process of surrender, not just surrendering, but developing insights. insightful awareness, waiting for those messages that will lead you out of the darkness. This is a very hard one, but once you overcome that, it's a lot easier to break through the other knots that come afterwards. Wow. I was thinking about addiction because I think some of these things like chronic shopping and things like that, that's a coping mechanism that people use. It's almost like self -medication. And what you're saying is when that is experienced, their brain is releasing a lot of dopamine. So I'm sure that's very pleasurable. And that just reinforces a negative pattern. And you're calling these knots. I think that's interesting. I'm sure the rest of these are in your book. We don't want to give All the secrets away. want folks to go get the book and read it. Tell us about that book. Yeah, it's called Breakthrough, Master Your Default Mode and Thrive. Came out on Christmas last year. The audiobook just came out last week. It's on Amazon and the website is yourdefaultmode .com. I'll put this podcast there and I've got, you can start reading the book for free there. All my social media handles are there on the bottom of the page and my other books are there as well. But I wrote this really to help you. This book is not about me. It's about you and helping you, you know, be the best you can be basically. Yeah, your defaultmode .com, of course, we put all of our guest resources on our website at pwbass .com. Just go there and click on the radio podcast and then click on guest resources. And then you'll be able to see the links to this and all the other guest resources that we've had on our show. But this would definitely be something that is going to be on my must read list. What else is going on in your life? I mean, this is all very amazing, but you're very multifaceted individual, what else is it that you're really into that you enjoy? What do do for fun? For fun, I have three young kids. So that's my day job. Yeah. No, I, no, they're a lot of fun. Really enjoy writing as well. I would love to write a book about the salience network. It's another part of the brain that actually shuttles you back and forth between that wandering mind and the observing mind. And that's a really fascinating one. That'll probably be the next project at some point. And yeah, I am still developing cancer medicines. We develop cell therapies. These are actual cells that go around and attack cancer, basically. And it's difficult work, but definitely my lifelong mission to help patients with cancer. Wow, that is amazing Dr. Korsmeier. I'm intrigued by this other writing project you have. You said it shuttles us between the two minds. What is happening there that intrigues So it's really interesting that we're like, if you think about it, you're either in your observing mind here and now in the present, or you're in that wandering mind off in the past or the future. You're never in both at the same time. And it's like, well, how does a brain decide? For me, it's when I brush my teeth every morning, suddenly I'm like in the wandering mind. I'm back in childhood, some memories from long ago. And it's, it's actually the salience network that looks at what you're doing and says, okay, he's brushing his teeth, let's just shuttle him over to that default mode. And it's like, why does the brain do that? And how does it do it? How does it decide? And I think for some people, like with ADHD, their salience network has them always in the wandering mind. They have a hard time being present. So it's just really fascinating. It's the cutting edge of science. There's still a lot of research I need to do about it, but it's just super interesting. When you're saying, I can imagine you in the mirror brushing your teeth and all of a sudden you're back in this time of when you were a young child. You know, it's been said that humans, depending on the specific individual, use about 10 % of their brain. Well, what is that other 90 % doing? I have a theory, and I'd love to get your comments on this. I have a theory that we actually, our brains remember everything that we ever experience. And The problem that we have is accessing those memories. I'm a university professor and a lot of times I tell students, you know that feeling you get when you're taking a test and you're like, I don't know why but I think it's B or C or whatever the answer is. I said that you've been exposed to this information. That's your brain trying to get through your psyche to let you know what the right answer is. Don't second guess yourself there and talk yourself out a good answer. If you could figure out how to access all of the memories that you've ever had, what a mind trip that would be. Maybe that shuttle that you're talking about is the key to that. What do you think? I think it is actually. think it is. So. I think the time when you can use most of your brain, it's called being in the zone, right? You've got a basketball player who's in the zone. He's drilling every single three pointer. His mental chatter is off. He's just present in the moment. He's in the zone. Well, he's basically using that central executive, that observing mind and shut off that crazy monkey mind, which gets in the way. So a lot of times what, so for example, you raise a really important point. We may have a thousand memories from yesterday, but which ones do we keep? We tend to keep the ones that are the most negative, that are the most painful, and the default mode network does that. It actually wanders away in the past in order to process these memories, and it decides to keep the ones that are the most painful, the most negative. And so when you learn about your default mode network and you learn how to quiet it and you learn how to heal it, I think you can spend more time in the zone. You can spend You know, you'll be more productive. You'll be more efficient. I can definitely speak from personal experience. That happened to me. It took me about six months to heal all of these knots, but I found myself way more productive, way more efficient and happier actually. I don't know that I've ever experienced this myself, but what I've experienced when I would do, for example, Tai Chi, I would get in this very deep meditative mode where it begins where I'm focusing on breathing. And then at some point, I almost feel like I'm sinking through the ground. And then I feel very, very light. And then my mind, it's like I'm literally thinking of nothing, but I'm also thinking of everything all at the same time. I don't know how to explain Is this what I'm experiencing? I think that's what you're experiencing. It's the state of, it's been called the flow state. It's yeah, being in the zone when you're just fully present and yeah, you're just the glory of reality. You're in it and hard to describe to somebody. And sometimes when I say observing mind, people don't get what I'm saying, but you and I are saying the same thing basically. Yeah. What a mind trip this is. What are some of the other novels that you've written? Are they all about scientific innovation or are you writing any kind of fiction? Yeah, so the other two books that I published, they're actually self -help books disguised as novels. And so the first one, Project Bodhi, is about life in 2029. I wrote it like 10 years ago. But it's about smart glasses, which I do think are going to replace a smartphone by the end of the decade. But it's a book about this guy, Austin, who, yeah, he's not, he's addicted to things. And, and so you see him evolve. You see him awaken in that book. So it is very similar to this book here, but it's a fiction. And then Extinction Six is about life in 2066. It is about climate change. Let's hope that never comes true, but it's a futuristic type of thriller type of book. What are your thoughts about artificial intelligence? That's really a hot topic now. What do think this is going to do to us as a society or as a race of people? I mean, at this point, it's a tool. It's a glorified Google search. And just like with Google, we can use it to improve our lives. We can write to make ourselves more productive. But ultimately, it's the people developing this technology and the values they have that are going to determine where this goes. Actually, I talked about that in the book where they were developing AI for the smart glasses. And they were making this feature where you can basically track things. And the CEO ultimately said, no, that is not who we are. That is not our values. You've got to have those CEOs who say, no, our values are compassion, are caring for each other, and that's got to trickle down into the technology. So there may be some bad actors, but I think ultimately the technology will do us good. I think that's it's just who we are. think that's so I don't have a negative view of AI at this point, like most people. to somebody who's a very bona fide AI expert. And what he was relating to me is that in terms of technology development, where we are with AI right now is if you compared it to the computer revolution, we're kind of at the Commodore 64 level. But that already the AI basically is smarter. than all of humanity throughout all of time, all put together all at once. And it's entering a phase where it's learning recursively. So each time it does an operation, it gets a little bit better. And to me, that's fascinating as a technologist, that's fascinating. And I guess it's something that I hope I can experience in my lifetime. Yeah, well, can I tell you one of the predictions in the book, Project Bodhi was in 2029, we were going to have Google Health, which could diagnose diseases far sooner than a physician, human physician could. And so, and in the book, actually, there's a board meeting. And one of the board members is like, where this is horrible. where people are going to lose their jobs and the Google CEO is like, take a look at the survey of physicians who are using Google health. They're actually reporting positive impact for their practice. just like the stethoscope improved doctors, think AI is going to do the same thing. It's going to make our lives better. Now, will it put some people out of business? It will just as the automobile did, but ultimately we're going to a better place in the long run. but yeah, there may be some bumps along the way, I guess. It's funny that you said that earlier this year I had a pulmonary embolism. It was pretty dramatic. And when I was in the ER, excuse me, I'm in one of those hospital systems where whenever you have a diagnostic test, you get the results about the same time as the doctor, maybe even sooner because they're usually busy doing something else. And so as these results were coming in, I was feeding them into an AI and it came up with a differential diagnosis that Ultimately absolutely correct. So I knew what was going on with me before the doctor came in and confirmed it. It was really remarkable and scary all at the same time. But it did also cause us to have a conversation that led to another test which ultimately confirmed what I had. So I guess in a way it kind of saved me. I live in a really small town compared to most people. And you know, it is what it is, but I love technology, I love AI, I can't wait to see where that goes to, but you know, getting back to this stuff that you do, and by the way, I love these, I love time travel books. Anything that's in the future, anything like that. I'm kind of laughing, because 2029, when you wrote this 10 years ago, seemed like a really far future date, and now it's like five years from Exactly. That's right. Where do you think we're gonna be with in terms of understanding? Well, let me start over. You said that not a lot of doctors, not a lot of medical professionals are dialed into this default mode network. If this became something that was more widely known, what do you think the impact would be for people in general? I think there would be more people signing up to do mindfulness practices, more people doing spiritual practice because they realize the health benefits. A lot of people in the medical field, they... kind of have been ignoring the spirituality and kind of dismissing it. medicine already knows everything. Actually, it's not true. And so I think the data are clearly telling us that mental health is a big driver of overall health. And I think we're going to see people managing their mental health in much healthier ways. And I think it's going to make us a healthier nation, actually. Do you think the mind follows the body or does the body follow the mind? I think the body follows the mind. It all starts in the mind, you know, and the root of thoughts and emotions at the root level. are the cause of our behaviors and why we do things. And for example, lifestyle, I put lifestyle at the end of the book, like diet, sleep and exercise, because a lot of us, let's say we may eat in order to manage some old emotional pain or some addiction. It's all interrelated. I think it all starts in the mind. And we're now, the problem is the brain is just so complex. We haven't really understood it until now, but now things are changing. And actually the AI is helping us understand our brains as well in terms of the science. And assuming that's true, which by the way, I agree with you, we started the show on the premise that we're spiritual beings. And so our bodies are, I believe, designed to operate in a specific way. And so if we can understand that, at least to the point where we're giving the body different inputs or allowing different inputs to enter the body, then we can manipulate the outputs, right? I guess that's the bottom line of what we're trying to do here. is us reverse engineering our body by changing the way we think and approach things. That's right. And understanding that the mind is self -healing, if you give it the right conditions, it'll recover from any sort of, let's say, emotional pain or anxiety, it will recover, but those inputs are critical. And so what you feed yourself, not just food -wise, but in terms of thoughts and the power of exercising some restraint. I think that the more you understand your brain, the more you can control what goes in and ultimately what comes out and how you heal. Because an example of that is it used to be believed like if you had a stroke, if part of your brain died and you lost the ability to control, let's say the left side of your body, that would mean you had an injury in the right side of your brain. That's just the way it was. But what we've now begin to see is that although it takes a significant amount of time, there's plasticity in the brain and our neurons can slowly begin to make new connections and actually not necessarily get repaired, but replace the functionality that was lost where the brain injury occurred. If we can, I guess what you're saying is if we can master that, by forgiveness, by spirituality, by reflective introspection, those types of things, we can really become the masters of our body and of our brain and ultimately have a healthier longer life. guess that's what you're saying. I don't want to put words in your mouth, Yeah, I mean, essentially, but and one of the most important things is intention so that you're right. The brain is plastic, meaning that our cells are constantly renewing every, you know, every day, 1 % of our cells are renewing every six, seven months. We basically have a new, new body, new cells. And so for the brain and the, and the mind and body, It's about your intention. Intention is so powerful. Manifestation intention when you set the intention of where you want to go, not just the goal of what you want to achieve, but the intention, how you want to feel on that journey. That intention is powerful. And obviously, this is nothing new, right? Seek and you shall find, walk and the road appears. I mean, this is all about intention. So there's something about the brain when we set our intention, things start happening. And I think it reflects that plasticity in the brain. Yeah. And it's almost, I think, like you said, intention. Once you set that intention, it almost becomes involuntary. That's why like some of these positive mantras are so powerful. That's also why negative talk is so powerful. But I like how you said one percent of our cells are replaced every day. That'd be a great book, six, seven months to a new you. That's right, exactly right. We've got just a few minutes left. I want to make sure we cover everything that you felt was important. I also want to make sure everybody understands they can get this amazing book at your say it again your default mode default, that's right, yourdefaultmode .com, yeah. What would you like to cover in these last few moments, Just to make the point about some of the other knots in the book, which are things like loneliness, negativity, anxiety and anger. A lot of people think that these are permanent conditions. In fact, they're reversible. Loneliness is something you can actually reverse and recover from. And you can do that by cultivating compassion and doing compassion exercises, et cetera. But some of the other knots dissatisfaction not really recognized as any sort of problem. but it can prevent you from fully awakening and reaching that sort of higher state. So I put that towards the end of the book. And the very last one is resistance to change. Another hallmark of the default mode. It wants things to stay the same. It wants us to stay in the same house and stay in the same job and wants the future, the present moment to unfold in its way makes us very stubborn. So developing resilience, you talked about it, having that resilience ready to go when life throws curve ball, which will happen at some point. But having that resilience ready, very critical as well. And that's the last note of the book. But I'm also, you know, sorry to also to hear what happened to you earlier in the year. I hope you and your family are doing well and your book sounds interesting as well. Definitely we'll take a look at that. thanks so much, Dr. San -Cruzmir. It's been a pleasure talking to you. Again, we're going to link to his website and to his book at pwbass .com. Check it out. This is definitely on my must read list. by the way, I'm getting a lot better. I'm making a lot of positive changes in my life. It was a real wake up call for me. And it was one of the reasons I started this podcast because it helped me to realize what's important. You know, we've all got to work. We all need money. But what's really important for me, it's connecting with people, building people up, mentoring, encouraging, and just trying to be a decent person. And so far, it seems to be working well for me. I think there's a lot of tremendous things that you've said, and I definitely want to dig into it more. I encourage all my listeners to do the same. Thank you again for being on our show. Catch us next time. again, thanks for being here on the Patrick Bass Show. Take care, everybody. Thanks for listening to the Patrick Bass Show. The Patrick Bass Show is copyright 2024, all rights reserved. Patrick's passion is to open up any and all conversations. Because in this day and age, the snowflakes are scared to get real. We'll fly that flag till the very end. That we can promise you. Keep updated by liking our Facebook page at RealPatrickBass. For more information, visit us on the at www .pwbass .com. Thanks for listening and tune in next time for more Real Talk on the Patrick Bass Show.