NL: Hi everyone! My name is Natalie Ledwell and this is The Inspiration Show. Today on the show I have a very special guest. Someone we have actually been trying to get on the show for some time. He has a new book out called Human By Design and this gentleman actually does a lot of work in bridging the gap between spirituality and science. I’m so very grateful to have him on the show. But before I introduce who that is and before we get to the juiciness of our interview today, I just want to remind you that once the show is over, if you click the link below this video please take my 30-second quiz so we can figure out what’s holding you back from success. So, please let me introduce my very special guest today, Mr. Gregg Braden. Hi, Gregg! How are you?

GB: Natalie, I’m great. It’s really good to be with you today. I’m coming to you from my home office here in the Hyatt deserts of northern New Mexico and I’m looking at the wall behind you. It’s a really beautiful, very fascinating wall. Where are you in the world?

NL: I am actually in L.A.

GB: Oh, okay!

NL: I live in Marina Del Rey, I mean in L.A., but I have my bedroom decorated with Native American Indian artifacts.

GB: Yeah. Well, I’m recognizing some of them right now. Thank you for having me on the program. I didn’t realize that you’ve been trying to get me for so long. I didn’t mean to be hard to get. I’m thrilled. I’m absolutely thrilled to talk about this new book. It’s released last week and it’s causing a lot of controversy already, and maybe we’ll talk about that a little bit.

NL: I know. I actually heard a little bit of the controversy that you shared at the Dr. Joe Dispenza workshop. So we are going to touch on that later.

GB:  Alright.

NL: But, before we do that, for those people who may not be familiar with who you are, can you tell us a little bit about your story?

GB: How far back you want me to go?

NL: Well, I think I first was introduced to you when you had written The Divine Matrix.

GB: Oh, okay…

NL: Yeah. So that was around the time… I had also just read The Intention Experiment around there as well….

GB: So, I am a Scientist. I’m a degree geologist. This is the 36^th year that I have done this work in one form or another. (Inaudible) up through the 1990’s in the communications, in the earth sciences and in the defense industry during the cold war years. I was told that I had to make a choice… that I had to choose between science and spirituality, that the two were mutually incompatible. Obviously I chose the choice to continue writing full- time. I left the corporations. Since 1986, I have spent much of my time in the high mountain villages and in remote monasteries researching forgotten texts to understand what our ancestors knew in their time that we either forgot, or we’re only beginning to understand in ours, Natalie. The bottom line for me is that we can learn from our past. We are living a cyclic experience of civilization. Many of the problems we face today, we’ve faced before. If we can learn from our past, I think this wisdom helps us become better people and create a better world. I can’t think of a better way to spend my time than to do that.

NL: Yeah. Well, I agree. I believe- and this I know. I do a lot of reading of indigenous wisdom and I have friends of mine that are working in that area, but you’re- the research that you’re doing is actually going a little bit further back than that. It’s not just indigenous, we’re talking about ancient wisdom, is that right?

GB: This particular book, the new book, is called Human By Design. It took me 32 years to write it because it took 32 years for the science to catch up with what the evidence now is telling us. The book is written in two parts, Natalie. The first part of the book is the science that tells us that evolution as we have been led to believe is not our story. I’m a Geologist; evolution is a fact. I’ve seen it in the fossil record for plants, some forms of life. The evidence breaks down when it comes to humans and the new DNA studies. The new DNA… It’s like a combination of Jurassic Park science and CSI all merged together. We’re pulling the DNA out of the fossilized remains of what are believed to be our ancestors and what we’re finding is that we did not descend from them at all- and it’s giving us new insights into our origin. That’s the first part of the book. The second part of the book is now that we know where our DNA has come from and now that we understand how it has given us the potential - the extraordinary potential given to no other forms of life- how do we apply that in our lives? I’m talking about the potential of self-regulation. Self-regulation of intuition, self-regulation of our immune response, self-regulation of our anti-aging hormones, of our ability to be resilience to other forms of life, self-regulation of emotions in the way that no other form of life has. So we put all these together and it helps us to think differently about ourselves. Here’s why that’s important. Because in the context of our world today… The world is changing and we’ve got to think differently, more so about ourselves than we ever have. We’re seeing our leaders, we’re seeing people in our society than our families trying to solve the problems of today through thinking that they were using 10-15 years ago. It doesn’t work. So we’ve got to think differently about ourselves. For me, as I was writing this book, what I realized, Natalie, is until we get to the root of where these issues are coming from, anything we do is a band- aid. It is a temporary fix. If we’re going to truly solve the problems of hate, if we’re going to solve these problems of the racial divides that are tearing our society and our families apart, if we’re going to truly address the issues that are tearing us apart as individuals, we’ve got to go to the core of where that problem is coming from and it all boils down to the way we think about ourselves. The new discoveries are giving us new reasons based upon fact to think about ourselves differently. So that’s a long answer to a short question.

NL: But that’s one of the revelations that you shared at the Joe Dispenza workshop, was about our origin as humans. We thought that we were descended from Neanderthal man, but that’s not really the case, is it?

GB: No, it’s not. With the DNA- this is so fascinating. The movie Jurassic Park was science fiction and it now has become science fact in that we can now pull that DNA- and in the movie they reconstituted a dinosaur. To the best of my knowledge, we have not reconstituted any ancient beings. But, we have built the human genome. We can compare our genome today, our DNA map, to the DNA map of those who we believe our ancestors. What it’s telling us, in peer-reviewed science as telling us, is that we shared the earth with them. We did not descend from them. There’s not enough overlap in the DNA for us to have come from them. This science goes even further showing that we appeared on earth 200,000 years ago. Scientists have agreed on that we showed up two hundred thousand years ago and we haven’t changed in two hundred thousand years. We have the same DNA, we have the same physical structure.  I believe that we have evolved in consciousness.  I believe that strongly.  But this idea of evolution… Darwin’s perspective of evolution breaks down when it comes to the mystery of our origin. So that would be interesting at any time.  I think it’s important because the old story that we’ve been taught is that we are insignificant beings, that we are powerless beings, that we are victims of our world, victims of our heredity. The new science is showing us nothing could be further from the truth. So the better we know ourselves, Natalie, the less we fear in a world that’s changing faster than we can document it in our textbooks in our classrooms. The less we fear, and the more willing, and the more capable we are to embrace change in a healthy way and thrive…. This is the key. Thrive in the change, not just get by, but actually thrive in a healthy way in this new world that’s emerging.

NL: Yeah and, the thing is, we need this new world to emerge. I think that the current systems that we have right now are not going to sustain for the next 50 years.

GB: No.

NL: Having this knowledge and shaking up some paradigms because we were so structured in how we thought we got here. Shaking up that paradigm so that we can at least go, “okay”. Like you said, we have to step into a bigger consciousness, or a more aware consciousness. So in the book, could you detail some of the changes in the second part of the book of how we can use this information to create a better future?

GB: Yeah. So what the studies are showing is that from the time we emerged two hundred thousand years ago and that’s the word I’m going to use, we don’t know where we came from. I don’t know. But what I do know is that our young people are steeped in a story, a structure that academia is trying to hold on to and all the new evidence they’re trying to fit into this pre-existing story rather than allowing the evidence to lead to the new story. So what the science is showing us is that we are imbued with this extraordinary potential to self-regulate in a way that no other form of life has. And I can’t emphasize that enough. It’s the ability to sit down- consciously, at will, on demand- and awaken these potentials. I listed some of them earlier in our conversation. The ability to trigger deep states of intuition when we choose to have it, rather than waiting for it to happen spontaneously. When I go to pick up the phone, or call my mom sometimes, she’s already on the other end of the phone. That is a cool, spontaneous intuition. My question is: how do I do that all the time? Do I have to wait for the universe to give me that when it wants to, or can I trigger that kind of a deep connection? It’s a subconscious connection. We have the ability to access our subconscious on demand. I think anyone listening to this, our listeners have probably been familiar with affirmations- an affirmation to heal unhealthy patterns in our subconscious. For those to be effective, we’ve got to communicate in a way that’s meaningful with the subconscious. So we are wired to do that. We have the ability to harmonize our heart and our brain, two separate organs into a single potent system that gives us these abilities that I’m talking about. To trigger the longevity enzymes that is within all of us… the powerful immune response. We can sit down and create a powerful immune system when we want to. We can be resilient to the changes in our lives. Now, I don’t know anybody that’s not going through big changes right now, feeling overwhelmed; so we all are. But, the key is we are designed to transcend that sense of overwhelm to thrive in the changes. So, all of these are possible because of our nervous system, and our ability to harmonize the heart and the brain in a very precise way, that was preserved in our most ancient and cherished spiritual traditions. That’s where the science and the spirituality I think come together in a really practical way. We don’t have to go to a monastery halfway around the world, or go into some high desert retreat and leave our families, and our loved ones. You could do this stuff in your living room because science now is bearing out these relationships. The ancient traditions tell us how to apply them and this is where the two come together, I think, in a really beautiful way.

NL: Yeah. Embodying your intuition so that it’s at will, that you can tap into that, and being able to - like you said- regulate your body. So I’m assuming that, with the book, you’re sharing practical practices that people can do on a daily basis to tap them into that?

GB: Yeah. Absolutely. The book is divided into two parts. The first part is the science. It’s not technical, but they’re the scientific facts. I moved all the technical stuff to the back of the book. It’s like a 35- page chapter on references for anybody that wants that. But the science, what I found out that at least people are willing to think differently, if we’re given a good reason to think differently. The science helps us to do that. It gives us a neutral language to help us think differently. So that’s the first part of the book. The second part of the book is now that we know we have these extraordinary abilities, this amazing potential, how do we apply it in our lives? So if I cannot be with our listeners personally, I’ve done the next best thing. I’m sharing with you the actual instructions step- by- step, the techniques, and how we go about achieving some of these potentials for longevity, and intuition, and resilience, and all those kinds of things. It’s the best I could do in the written format.

NL: Yeah. I think it’s a fantastic idea that within groups, if you’re already part of a mastermind group or something, that you actually get to do this together, that you make yourself accountable and start to apply these daily practices. I’m assuming these daily practices aren’t like a whole- like it’s not taking up hours of our time. I’m assuming these are small things that we can just implement fairly easily.

GB: You know what I found, Natalie? This is the 32^nd year I’ve done this work in one form or another. Where people get hung up and where the frustration comes from is when we try to separate a practice from our everyday lives.  A practice that we sit down in a moment and we do this thing and then we get up and then we go about our lives. What I found and what I’m sharing in this work, it’s less about something we do and more about something we become. There’s a little shift that we make when we see the documentation- the science that tells us about our relationship to our body. Something changes in the way we think and that little shift helps us to embrace what we have considered a practice in the past becomes a way of life. It becomes a way of feeling and a way of thinking that we carry with us to the grocery store, into the dinner table, into the office, in the workplace. It’s a subtle, but it’s a powerful shift. And it’s enough of the shift to make that difference in our lives.

NL: Exactly. Well, that’s the thing. Like even with some of the practices that I teach, as well. Like, don’t set aside an hour for it; incorporate it into what you do. You’re right. It changes who you are and how you show up. How you do with conflict, how you deal with relationships in your life and obviously with health, and all that kind of thing. I know that you were talking a little bit, the last time I heard you speak, you talked about telomeres and what kind of a role that they play in our health and anti-aging.

GB: I’m sorry. We cut out just for a minute. So telomeres?

NL: Yeah, the telomeres. I remember you were sharing something really interesting about those.

GB: Sure. I do talk about this in the book and I think most of our listeners are probably hearing about this. The media now has picked up on this word and they’re using it a million different ways. What the science is showing us is that on the end of the DNA, in every cell, there are protective caps that erode and break off with cell divisions over time. Every time our cells divide, we lose a little of those caps they’re called tilomeres, or telomeres. They’re pronounced both ways. Scientists are directly linking these to the aging process. When the cap is eroded to such a degree that the cell can no longer divide, and in a healthy way, we call that aging. If it happens long enough, we call it senescence and death. What the science is also showing, however, is it’s possible to stop those caps from eroding. We can actually stop the degeneration process. We can heal the telomeres and we can actually begin to rebuild them regardless of our age. At any age you can begin to rebuild these caps. So these are a biological marker of age. Biologically, we can actually become younger regardless of our chronological age through certain lifestyle changes. I think most people are aware of those diet, exercise, nutrition, thought feeling, emotion, belief- but we can also do it through harmonizing the heart and the brain. These two organs into a single potent system, as we mentioned before, that’s why I’m emphasizing this in the book. This is the core of so many, the mystical traditions, which have been preserved by indigenous people throughout the world. That was the core of some of the mystery schools from the past. People would dedicate their lives to exploring these principles. So we’re moving very quickly with compressing this information in a way that’s concrete, tangible, and applicable because our world is changing. But we’ve got to think differently than we ever have before. Natalie, I personally- and I’ve been criticized for this as a scientist. My reputation as a scientist went right out the door the moment I began talking about science and spirituality. But, I just want to be clear with our listeners. Here’s where I’m coming from. I’m all about being real and in the real world; we’re living a new world that’s emerging. I think we owe it to ourselves to draw upon every facet and every form of information we have, and to weave it into a new wisdom that’s greater than science can be all by itself, or greater than spirituality all by itself. I don’t know what to call it, but it’s a new wisdom where we tap all of the information and we synthesize it into something that helps us to become better people, and create this better world; this new world that’s emerging. So that’s my belief and that’s what I’ve done in this book.

NL: Well, I am a thousand percent onboard with that. I know that most of our community as well. So, Gregg, where can we send people to get their hands on the book?

GB: It’s wherever books are sold. I know Amazon is carrying them right now, Barnes and Noble .You can go to our website www.greggbraden.com.  The information about my work, where I’m going to be speaking the events, things like that. Natalie, I will let you know how much I appreciate you and your community. You’re a hub for your community and given me just a few minutes of time to speak with your community. I know it’s my community, as well. Just thank you for everything you’re doing to help people to just be the best we can be and make that better world. I appreciate you.

NL: Awesome. Thank you. As do I to you. So I encourage you to share this video. Please do that by clicking the Facebook and the Twitter share buttons on this page. Don’t forget to click on the banner to the side, or the link underneath here to go straight through Gregg’s website. Or just go to Amazon, or wherever books are sold to get your hands on Human By Design. So, guys, thanks for joining us. Until next time, remember to live large, choose courageously and love without limits. We’ll see you soon, everyone.