Know Thyself

Dr. Caroline Leaf is a cognitive neuroscientist and bestselling author who has spent over 40 years studying the relationship between the mind and the brain. At a time when neuroplasticity was still emerging as a field, she was already building clinical tools to help patients recover from brain injuries, trauma, and conditions that conventional medicine had written off as permanent. In this conversation, we go deep into a distinction that changes everything: the mind is not the brain, and once you understand that, you stop being a victim of your own biology.

What We Dive Into:
1. The brain does not generate thoughts. It responds to the mind. Everything you think, feel, and choose originates in the mind and then gets coded into the brain and body.
2. Depression, anxiety, and other mental health labels are not diseases you have. They are signals pointing to an underlying thought that needs to be found and restructured.
3. You cannot change what happened, but you can change the impact it has on your present and future. Through a process of deconstructing and reconstructing toxic thought networks, the grip of the past loosens.

Know Thyself, but not by yourself. A guided space to return home to yourself.
https://www.knowthyselfcollective.com

✨THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS:
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Use code KNOWTHYSELF to save 15% at checkout

___________
00:00 Intro
03:11 The Difference Between Mind and Brain
07:17 Why the Brain-Is-Boss Model Gets It Wrong
12:25 Consciousness Beyond the Physical Body
14:25 Quantum Physics, Microtubules, and the Mind
21:24 Science and Spirituality Converging
23:41 Early Research: Neuroplasticity and Traumatic Brain Injury
28:50 Mind-Driven Change: Telomeres and Cellular Health
31:56 Working in South Africa: Healing Through Mental Frameworks
34:31 The Origin of the Neurocycle
40:13 The Non-Conscious, Subconscious, and Conscious Mind
49:35 How Thoughts and Memories Build Into the Brain and Body
51:59 The Five Steps of the Neurocycle
57:01 Step One: Gather Awareness
01:00:24 Step Two: Reflect
01:02:10 Steps Three to Five: Mindstorm, Recheck, Active Reach
01:09:28 Community Questions: Fear of Losing Your Identity
01:14:32 Working Through Shame, Grief, and Emotional Signals
01:15:46 Retroactive Causation: Changing the Past Through the Present
01:19:28 Intelligent Design, Choice, and the Source Behind Life
01:22:45 Mindsets, Patterns, and Teaching Children
01:25:58 Stress as Intelligence: The New Book
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✨MORE FROM DR. LEAF
↳Website (for books, courses, 1:1 coaching): https://drleaf.com/
↳Neurocycle app: https://drleaf.com/neurocycle-app
↳Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-dr-leaf-show/id1334767397
↳Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@DrCarolineLeaf
↳Neurocycle Certification: https://drleaf.com/certified-strategist

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↳Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/knowthyselfbyandreduqum/
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👁️MORE FROM ANDRÉ
↳Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/@andreduqum
↳Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/know-thyself-podcast
↳Book recs: https://www.knowthyselfpodcast.com/book-list

Join our online community ↓
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Todd Rose is a Harvard-trained social scientist, former high school dropout with a 0.9 GPA, and co-founder of the think tank Populace. His research centers on the gap between what people privately believe and what they publicly say, and the profound consequences of that gap for individuals and for society. This is one of those conversations that reframes something you thought you understood and doesn't let you go back.

What We Dive Into:
1. Your brain estimates group consensus using a simple shortcut: the loudest voices repeated most often. On social media, that is 10% of users creating 80% of content.
2. Belonging means being accepted for who you actually are. Fitting in means changing who you are to be accepted.
3. Authenticity is not about being perfectly accurate about who you are. It is about making choices you genuinely believe align with who you are right now.

✨THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS:
https://www.mudwtr.com/knowthyself
Use code KNOWTHYSELF for up to 43% off sitewide

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___________
00:00 Intro
01:27 What Are Collective Illusions?
02:05 The Cost of Self-Silencing
05:06 How We're Hardwired to Conform
07:40 Why the Brain Is Easily Fooled About Group Consensus
09:13 Social Media and the Amplification of Fringe Views
13:20 What Americans Actually Want in Private
21:01 Who Profits from Keeping Us Divided
23:52 Foreign Manipulation and AI Bot Farms
29:37 The Most Consequential Collective Illusions
36:38 What Authenticity Actually Means
41:15 The Coming Age of Courage
42:14 Belonging vs. Fitting In
49:44 René Girard and Mimetic Desire
59:43 How Collective Illusions Can Shatter Overnight
1:05:58 The Velvet Revolution and the Power of Authenticity
1:12:09 How to Build the Muscle of Living in Truth
1:20:25 Todd's Personal Collective Illusion: Faith and Identity
1:24:34 Spiritual Exploration and Holding Beliefs Lightly
1:32:23 Certainty and Knowledge Are Inversely Correlated
1:41:42 Fulfillment Over Achievement
1:50:31 Small Actions That Raise Collective Consciousness
___________

✨MORE FROM TODD
↳Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ltoddrose/
↳Populace: https://populace.org
↳https://www.toddrose.com/

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↳Apple: https://apple.co/4iATICX
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↳TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@andreduqum
↳Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/knowthyselfbyandreduqum/
↳https://knowthyselfpodcast.com/

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↳Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/@andreduqum
↳Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/know-thyself-podcast
↳Book recs: https://www.knowthyselfpodcast.com/book-list

Join our online community ↓
https://www.knowthyselfcollective.com

This is a compilation episode, and it draws from some of the most honest and clarifying moments across recent conversations on the show. Nine different voices, each approaching the same territory from a different angle: what it means to stop being ruled by the outside world, to understand the patterns we inherited, and to come back to something more real inside ourselves.

What We Dive Into:
​ Thoughts arise whether you choose them or not. The shift is learning to observe them rather than be pulled by them.
​ The nervous system learns what safety feels like early, and it keeps returning to that baseline even when it no longer serves.
​ Your body, your beliefs, your identity, all of it was accumulated over time. Setting it aside, even briefly, creates the space to touch something underneath that is more stable.

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS:
https://www.bioptimizers.com/knowthyself
Use code KNOWTHYSELF to save 15% at checkout

https://www.basedbodyworks.com
Code KNOWTHYSELF25 for 20% off + free toiletry bag!

___________
00:00 Intro
02:12 Shi Heng Yi: Master Yourself, Not the World
11:10 Dr. Sue Morter: The Hidden Truth Behind Your Triggers
19:04 Emily McDonald: Living from Feeling States, Not Outcomes
24:58 Joe Hudson: This is Your Sign To Be More Vulnerable
31:53 Sadhguru: How To Make True Impact
48:20 Henry Shukman: Tasting Awakening for Yourself
1:00:29 Nicole LePera: Your Childhood Beliefs Might Be Holding You Back
1:13:19 Lucy Hale: Remember To Accept Your Own Timeline
1:17:23 Wim Hof: It's Time for Love
___________

MORE FROM OUR SPEAKERS
✨Shi Heng Yi: https://youtu.be/Yg_vu7MelmU
✨Dr. Sue Morter: https://youtu.be/NAdU39m1Oxo
✨Emily McDonald: https://youtu.be/BS80CB3fgS8
✨Joe Hudson: https://youtu.be/vF4R9uDje0E
✨Sadhguru: https://youtu.be/FMoXXb-wKE8
✨Henry Shukman: https://youtu.be/ZMk3ztb66mc
✨Nicole LePera: https://youtu.be/BlpyzG5vV_o
✨Lucy Hale: https://youtu.be/MkNjs5vbG9M
✨Wim Hof: https://youtu.be/yjKoAXOFNqw

MORE FROM KNOW THYSELF
✨https://www.knowthyselfcollective.com
🎙️Spotify: https://spoti.fi/4bZMq9l
🎧Apple: https://apple.co/4iATICX
✨Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/knowthyself/
🎬TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@andreduqum
👥Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/knowthyselfbyandreduqum/
🌐https://knowthyselfpodcast.com/

MORE FROM ANDRÉ
✨Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/@andreduqum
💼Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/know-thyself-podcast
📚Book recs: https://www.knowthyselfpodcast.com/book-list

Dr. Vasant Lad is the founder of the Ayurvedic Institute and the man most responsible for bringing Ayurveda to the West. He has spent over 40 years teaching this 5,000-year-old science of life to practitioners across the world, and in this conversation, we sat down together at SoHum Mountain Healing Center in Asheville, North Carolina, where I had just completed a week-long Panchakarma. What unfolded was one of the most quietly profound conversations I have had on this show.

What We Dive Into:
​ Why unprocessed emotions don’t simply pass — and how grief settles in the heart, anger in the liver, and fear in the kidneys until they’re physically released.
​ How your tongue, pulse, and face reveal what’s happening inside your body, often before any symptom appears.
​ Why your original constitution (prakruti) shapes everything from your digestion to your temperament — and how modern life pulls you away from it.
​ The gap between two breaths, and why Dr. Lad calls it an ocean of awareness available to anyone willing to sit in it.

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS:

https://sohumhealing.com/panchakarma-retreat/
Code AndrePK2026 for $500 off your Panchakarma

https://www.functionhealth.com/KNOWTHYSELF
Code KNOWTHYSELF25 for $25 off membership

___________
00:00 Intro
01:58 What Ayurveda Actually Means
02:40 The Five Elements, Three Doshas, and the Body
06:18 Prakruti, Vikruti, and the Root of Disease
08:00 The Sankhya Philosophy Behind Ayurveda
13:33 The Goal of Ayurveda
15:26 Dr. Lad's Path: Guru, Calling, and Coming West
18:06 Where Western Medicine Falls Short
22:05 Ama, Agni, and the Ayurvedic View of Disease
25:56 Pulse, Tongue, and Face: The Art of Diagnosis
34:29 Reading Psychological Nature Through the Pulse
39:00 The Gap Between Breaths: Awareness and Mysticism
44:37 How Repressed Emotions Crystallize in the Body
47:39 Panchakarma: Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual Cleansing
51:52 Ojas, Tejas, and Prana: The Vital Essences
56:18 Sexual Energy, Celibacy, and the Cultivation of Ojas
1:00:07 Life as Meditation: The Unified Field
1:06:00 The Ayurvedic View of Death and Dying
1:14:56 Dinacharya: The Daily Routine as Spiritual Practice
1:18:48 The Doshic Clock and the Yugas
1:25:22 Relationship, Self-Knowledge, and the Closing Message
___________

MORE FROM DR. VASANT
✨Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drvasantlad
🌐https://ayurveda.com/about-vasant-lad/

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Dr. Mei Rui is a Yale-trained molecular biophysicist, concert pianist, and clinical researcher at MD Anderson Cancer Center, where she runs trials on the measurable effects of music on the human body. In this conversation, we explore what actually happens in the brain the moment music enters it, why the auditory system is the first sense to develop in the womb and the last to go when we die, and how something as accessible as a curated playlist can outperform FDA-approved pharmaceuticals in reducing cortisol.

What We Dive Into:
1. Music is not a supplement to healing. In the right context, it is the intervention.
2. The brain responds differently when you actually show up for the music.
3. A longitudinal study in twins showed that three to four years of musical training reduced the risk of Alzheimer's and cognitive decline by 64%, an effect size found in no other single activity.

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS:
Oneskin — Code KNOWTHYSELF for 15% off - Limited time only!
https://oneskin.co/KNOWTHYSELF

BASED Body Works — Code KNOWTHYSELF for 20% and a free toiletry bag!
https://www.basedbodyworks.com

___________
00:00 Introduction: Dr. Mei Rui
01:44 A Life Between Music and Science
05:26 What Happens When Music Enters the Brain
07:26 How the Brain Processes Sound and Music
11:32 Why Minor Keys Feel Sad: The Science of Tonality
14:37 Live Piano Demo: Matching Music to Mood
19:06 Music in the Operating Room
27:41 Music as Medicine: Clinical Applications
29:10 The 32% Cortisol Study
31:19 The 16 Compositional Elements of Healing Music
35:11 Oxytocin, Familiarity, and the Parasympathetic Response
36:18 Timbre and the Cello's Resemblance to a Mother's Voice
42:31 Cymatics: Sound Made Visible
45:16 The Ancient Roots of Music as Healing
47:09 Listening vs. Playing an Instrument
55:33 The Musician's Brain: Structural Differences
57:46 Music Training and Protection Against Alzheimer's
59:44 Music, Empathy, and Neural Synchrony
1:01:36 The EEG Experiment: Reading André's Brain Live
1:18:21 What the EEG Data Revealed
1:22:26 Music, Flow State, and the Disappearance of Self
1:26:55 Music as Spiritual Medicine
1:30:23 How to Listen More Intentionally
___________

MORE FROM MEI
✨Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/@meiruipiano

MORE FROM KNOW THYSELF
🎙️Spotify: https://spoti.fi/4bZMq9l
🎧Apple: https://apple.co/4iATICX
✨Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/knowthyself/
🎬TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@andreduqum
👥Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/knowthyselfbyandreduqum/
🌐https://knowthyselfpodcast.com/

MORE FROM ANDRÉ
✨Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/@andreduqum
💼Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/know-thyself-podcast
📚Book recs: https://www.knowthyselfpodcast.com/book-list