Want to explore further? Here are the people who I consider the cream of the crop. If I’d had the list below when I really needed them, without having to wade through all the dross on the Internet and then experiment to find what really worked, I might have saved 18 months of wrong turns and suffering. I hope they do the same for you…
DIET AND BIOHACKING.
Paleomedicina.
Csaba Toth and Zsofia Clemens are doing some amazing work putting science behind the healing powers of zero carb, 100% carnivore diets. Check them out HERE.
Mark Sisson.
If you’re not particularly ill and just want to stay in shape, the one-stop shop is the very entertaining Mark Sisson’s website, Mark’s Daily Apple. Plenty of info on all things paleo – foods, exercise and all the disconnections we have from our genetic blueprint in the modern age, and lots of free recipes etc. Great forum here too. Mark Sisson’s two books, The Primal Blueprint and The Primal Connection, available from his site or from Amazon are also packed with great info and are very well written.
Robb Wolf
Like Mark Sisson, he has written some marvellous stuff on paleo eating, exercise and beyond. He’s very knowledgeable and very entertaining too. His book, The Paleo Solution is also an essential read for anybody looking into this. Find him at http://www.robbwolf.com/
Dr. Jack Kruse.
I have to give a very special mention to the extraordinary Dr. Jack Kruse, neurosurgeon turned paleo healing guru. Not only did he fix himself with paleo eating (among a million other things…), but he has gone on to share perhaps the most progressive system for beating modern diseases and/or getting truly “optimal”. Often considered controversial or just plain nuts, I think history will tell a different story about Jack Kruse. There is so much free info on his website and forum that you can dig and dig for months and still find more. For the serious biohacker, his site is absolutely essential – THE website to retire to once you have the basics down. I cannot speak highly enough of this amazingly generous and knowledgeable man who has had a huge impact on my healing and understanding. His blog posts will blow your mind, as he has taken paleo principles light years further than anyone else. I often feel that his site is the manual to the human body… you don’t have to be ill to appreciate Jack Kruse. Dive in and explore…
Chris Kresser.
Licensed acupuncturist and practitioner of integrated medicine, here’s another great mind thinking alike. There’s wonderful advice on his site and it’s a great resource for biohacking. Lots of good podcasts out there too. Find him here…
Dr. Natasha Campbell McBride.
Another very inspiring source of info is from another neurosurgeon, Dr. Natasha Campbell McBride. Originally from Russia, she now lives in the UK, and cured her own son of autism. She went on, like Jack Kruse, to help many others, and she has put together a system, the GAPS (Gut and Psychology Syndrome) diet, which focuses on rebuilding the damage we cause to our guts that can lead to so many diseases. She is a world authority on understanding your child and how a damaged digestive system can lead to all sorts of behavioural problems – eye opening stuff for all those with kids who think they are giving them a good diet. She is also a very inspiring speaker, and her 90-minute YouTube video LINKED HERE is essential viewing. By the end of that, you will have more understanding of the digestive system than 99% of nutritionists and doctors. Her book, Gut and Psychology Syndrome, also available on Amazon, is another tremendous resource. For free info on mending your tattered innards with a healing diet and probiotics, start at her website here…
Dr. Terry Wahls.
Of particular interest to those with MS, but equally valuable to anybody dealing with autoimmune disease is Dr. Terry Wahls’ site. She cured herself of secondary progressive MS with low carb paleo principles, and she certainly knows what she’s talking about. Her talks on YouTube are very inspiring and her book, Minding My Mitochondria (also on Amazon) will explain exactly why your body can heal when the inflammatory foods are excluded.
Dr. Sarah Ballantyne, the “paleo mom”.
Sarah Ballantyne’s website is another wonderful resource for paleo knowledge. If you’re getting bored with meat, fish, fat and veg, check out her superb free recipes for lots of “paleo cheat” ideas. Lots more great stuff in the form of articles/podcasts etc, and a mine of information for the paleo family and ideas for keeping your kids eating right.
Dr. Joseph Mercola.
I think mercola.com is actually the number one independent health website these days. It’s a great resource for keeping abreast of all the latest developments in diverse fields of health care. It’s well worth getting on his emailing list, as he is quick to spot and write about all manner of new treatments and pitfalls to watch out for in conventional health advice and medical practice. He’s a bit commercialised, as he sells his own supplements (which admittedly are very good…), but he does give away some gems of knowledge for free. He also interviews a lot of interesting people from all fields.
John Nicholson.
If you are vegetarian and think all that soya and wholemeal bread is healthy, please, please, before it does you serious damage, read John Nicholson’s book The Meat Fix (available on Amazon). This book is nowhere near as technical as the above links, but it’s absolutely hilarious, and his rants on the NHS and dieticians alone are worth the price of the book.
Gabi Heyes (Natural Practices Wilmslow, Cheshire).
I just have to mention Gabi Heyes who helped me so much in my own healing and who has become a dear friend. After the horrendous treatment, or lack of, which one often receives in the NHS, my first visit to Gabi’s was a revelation. She unlocked so many doors for me and for my family and friends. She has a vast knowledge of naturopathy, is an absolute pleasure to be with, and I can wholeheartedly recommend booking a session with her if you live within striking distance. Visit her website here…
Honourable mentions in the diet field.
There are so many more that spring to mind, but I will mention just a few more names might be useful… To explore liver flushing, Andreas Moritz. For more on low-carb ketogenic diets, Finney and Volek’s books are superb. For more on probiotics, go and find Donna Gates and Jini Patel Thompson. For more on the Ayurvedic connection, explore Dr John Douillard and Deepak Chopra.
EXERCISE
When I used to own and run a gym in the late 90s, I discovered the wonderfully effective theories of abbreviated training. How can just a few sets per week of a few exercises be enough to transform the body so dramatically? Well, I proved it on myself and many clients, and wrote about it for Stuart McRobert’s great magazine, “Hardgainer”. Stuart brought many of the top minds in training together and they all agreed that short and sharp is best. Now, I am delighted to be able to recommend a book by Dr. Doug McGuff, an American ER doctor who has not only put together all the advice you’ll ever need on abbreviated training, but backed it up by science. His book, available on Amazon, is called “Body by Science” – get it, read it, put it into practice and don’t look back! Getting in shape is not complicated. Here’s Doug McGuff’s website.
MIND/BODY CONNECTION.
Next, and perhaps most importantly, are some ideas on where to start once you want to explore the real root of both health and ill health… our minds and consciousness. Getting the diet sorted will help to keep the digestion and immune system strong to negate the influences of the mind and emotions, and to lessen the symptoms of disease if we are unfortunate enough to trigger one, but it is not the real root of problems. Why do some people stay well even on the worst diets and some fall ill when eating very well? To answer that, we must look deeper, and here are a few ideas about where to start on that…
Louise Hay.
The original – she is well worth exploring. She healed herself and then went on to develop a system of how to read the body’s symptoms to learn which emotional causes might need working on and then correct them with affirmations. Her books, You Can Heal Your Life and Heal Your Body are classics, used as reference books by practitioners of many other systems too. Her publishing house, Hay House also produces some great titles.
Caroline Myss.
To affirm the fact that diseases have their roots in the mind, read some of Caroline Myss’ books and listen to her talks on YouTube. She is a medical intuitive and her books (particularly the ones with Dr Norman Shealy) are packed with case studies that gave me great confidence that this was an area to look at. Start here…
Inna Segal.
Along the same lines as Louise Hay’s work, Inna Segal’s “The Secret Language of the Body” is, as Robert Smith described, like Louise Hay on steroids. This book goes into huge detail about which emotions are connected to certain parts of the body, and from my own experience, they are gobsmackingly accurate – almost miraculous. Essential for any bookshelf.
Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT).
I explored many books/videos on the emotional causes of ailments, and for two years I kept slightly missing the point. EFT was useful, but I just didn’t quite understand how to aim the techniques or what to focus on. It all seemed too vague and overwhelming, so I faffed about and did nothing, staying on the dietary experiments for longer than was necessary. This is still a work in progress for me, but what really kick-started my understanding of this field was discovering the wonderful Robert Smith and his FasterEFT system. Maybe it’s just me, but this one really resonated, and I’ll go out on a limb and say that the following link might just be the most important one I’ve given you (along with the Byron Katie link below. He has literally hundreds of free videos on his YouTube channel, HealingMagic, which will give you a huge head start in deciphering your own emotional issues, and his website will give you access to more. Enjoy!
Byron Katie and “The Work”.
What can I say about this amazing woman and her stunning system for knocking out suffering? Four little questions that take the sting out of any thoughts that might be bothering you and turns them right round so you see deep into yourself and start to unwind patterns that have been causing you pain for decades or more. Could this be the ultimate system for self-improvement? Who knows? For me, at a certain stage, it was, and it has been for many others, so give it a go. It is said that Eckhart Tolle is the “what” and Byron Katie is the “how”. Check her out at her website.
Mooji.
There is a branch of Eastern spirituality, perhaps made popular by Ramana Maharshi, called Advaita, or non-duality. I will not try to explain what it’s all about, as it’s so far beyond words that I’d just mess it up. There are many great masters of this branch of wisdom, and YouTube is a wonderful resource for discovering them, but perhaps one of the most entertaining and charismatic is Mooji. Just search for him and sit back and prepare to be charmed and inspired. Wonderful stuff! Here’s Mooji’s website.
Adyashanti.
Perhaps the most eloquent of all the Advaita chaps out there. He has a way with words that just about… aaaaalmost… points at the absolute. If you have ever had any sort of awakening and get that “I got it, I lost it” experience, please get his book, “The End Of Your World”. I’ve got it as an audiobook and it’s wonderful to listen to as you’re driving, or shopping or whatever. Magical stuff. Here’s Adyashanti’s website.
Buddha at the Gas Pump.
I just had to put a link in here to the wonderful and incredibly addictive interviews conducted by Rick Archer, a TM teacher from Fairfield, Iowa. He talks to “ordinary” people who have “awoken” from many walks of life and all sorts of disciplines (including those who “woke up” spontaneously with no spiritual practice at all). Their stories are absolutely fascinating and inspirational. They are available as free podcasts on iTunes and as video interviews on YouTube and his own website, batgap.com. I was very honoured to be asked to do an interview myelf, which can be found on the website as number 290.
Wayne Dyer.
Wayne Dyer’s YouTube talks and audiobooks were very useful for me in my own healing. Bridging the gap perfectly between the physical and the spiritual, his talks speak directly to the heart and emotions, an area where so many problems and illnesses can be created, and, of course, reversed. Truly inspiring.
Bruce Lipton.
Bruce Lipton’s “Biology of Belief” was so important for me. When we are ill, however much we might believe that that it’s possible in theory to heal oneself, or even to believe the stories of others who have done it, the conventional medical brainwashing runs deep and we doubt it’s actually possible for us. This can be a huge hurdle to overcome, and perhaps the final stumbling block for so many. Bruce Lipton was a cellular biologist and the way he describes, and uses scientific proof of what miracles happen at a cellular level when we believe we can heal goes a long way to dispelling these doubts.
Great resourse
Meidi Goodson.
Last, but certainly not least comes a personal friend of mine, Meidi Goodson. Very experienced in many techniques – hypnotherapy, EFT, reiki, NLP etc, she can help to decipher any emotional areas that need working on, as she did for me. So if you are having trouble understanding any of the above, or yourself, Meidi can help in her unique caring, entertaining and humorous way. If you live in the northwest of England, go and see her, and if not, contact her at her site anyway…
Drug and alcohol problems?
Oh, and a great resource for overcoming drug and alcohol addictions. Find a centre near you HERE!