Could Kindness Be The Ultimate Biohack? A Conversation With Dr. David Hamilton

Listen on iTunes, Spotify, or YouTube.

If you like reading or listening to this podcast, feel free to click the ❤️ or 🔄 button on this post so more people can discover it on Substack 🙏

Once upon a time I was a biohacker.

I measured my biomarkers every quarter, performed targeted supplement protocols, tracked my HRV, sauna’d, plunged, and even sunned my balls in front of red light each morning to increase my testosterone.

I guess I experienced some benefit from all these activities, but it all kind of became less interesting once I began understanding and focusing on my consciousness.

I started to realize and experience first hand that the information in my consciousness is what created and drove the functioning of the body. 

It’s not to say that the physical stuff wasn’t important, but it just felt less primary relative to the ways in which my subconscious emotions, beliefs, consciousness patterns, and the concepts I held in mind impacted my experience.

The truth is both the physical and consciousness inputs matter. 

It just feels like we live in a society that puts far more emphasis on the nutrition we feed ourselves a few times a day, relative to the information we’re constantly feeding ourselves - much of which is subconscious. 

Today’s guest David Hamilton is someone that hopes to change that. 

David was once a biologist developing drugs in the pharmaceutical industry. He became fascinated by the placebo effect and the mind’s power to influence the body. Eventually, his conviction and interest in the mind-body connection became so strong that he decided he needed to leave the pharma industry.

Since then he has been studying the mind-body connection and has written 11 books on the topic. One of the things I appreciate about David is his passion for exploring just how powerful the mind truly is for creating our experience. 

In today’s conversation, we discuss the immense amount of research that undeniably demonstrates how consciousness impacts our bodies. What I loved about this conversation was the vast number of studies David cited, many of which I hadn’t heard of.

For example, there was a group of researchers who tracked how well a wound could heal over an hour time period. Without telling the participants they sped up the clock in the room to create the illusion that an hour had past when in reality it had only been 40 minutes.

The expectation that an hour had past actually caused the wound to heal faster. There ended up being no difference in healing relative to the groups who were there for an hour vs. 40 minutes, thinking they’d be there for an hour.

This episode is full of crazy studies that defy our current model of the way health works.

David’s recent focus has been on how kindness impacts our bodies. What he’s learned is that love and kindness can actually slow down the aging process more so than many other longevity attempts you probably see being hawked on the internet. 

Could kindness be the ultimate biohack? 

You may just have to listen to this conversation to find out. 

Other interesting points from our conversation:

• How visualization can enhance performance and improve physical health by shaping brain circuits and triggering the production of natural healing mechanisms

• The inner workings of the placebo and nocebo effect

• How acts of kindness produce kindness hormones that have physiological benefits, such as neutralizing free radicals in the skin and promoting skin health

• How practicing kindness can also have anti-aging effects on our telomeres as well as lower blood pressure, stimulate the anti-inflammatory response, and promote healing

• Why imagination is a powerful tool that can shape our reality and open us up to extraordinary experiences

I love the ideas that David shares because they point to the deep truth that we have the power within to heal ourselves. In a world that constantly promotes that we must rely on outside parties to heal, I find this to be quite refreshing. 

It’s not to say that other people can’t help us, more so that we have more power and agency than the consensus narrative would have us believe. 

I hope you enjoy this conversation!

-Scott

If you liked reading or listening to this, feel free to click the ❤️ or 🔄 button on this post so more people can discover it on Substack 🙏

Recommended Resources:

• David Hamilton’s Website

• David’s New Book: The Joy of Actually Giving a F*ck

Episode Transcript

• David Hamilton Full Transcript

Show notes:

• 00:00 - Curiosity around the Mind-Body Connection

• 09:07 - Visualization and Alternative Approaches to Healing

• 25:13 - Cultivating Genuine Kindness

• 32:42 - The Power of Kindness: Don't Judge Others

• 41:54 - Imagination and the Shaping of Reality