All language subtitles for S01E12 - Triggering Self-Healing.en

[THEME MUSIC]

My name is Gregg Braden.

I'd like to welcome you to
this very special presentation

of "Missing Links," the deep
truth of our origin, history,

destiny, and fate.

In the last episode,
we only began

to scratch the surface of the
extraordinary potential that's

available to us
through harmonizing

our heart and our brain,
marrying these two organs

together.

In this episode,
we're going to apply

what we learned to life
itself and to the secret

of an extended lifespan.

We'll also discover how
our advanced nervous system

triggers and
actually supercharges

our anti-aging mechanism so
that we can have long, healthy,

and vital lives.

We've often heard it
said that from the moment

we're born we began to die.

Now, I know what the
intention is around that.

And I know where people's
thinking comes from,

because they're referencing
the aging process.

But I want to tell you,
there's a consequence

to thinking that way.

And it's a consequence
that we probably

would never consciously
inflict upon ourselves.

Because our bodies respond
to those kinds of thoughts.

The new science is showing us
something very, very different.

It's actually more accurate
to say that from the moment

we're born, we begin to heal.

Here's where that
thinking is going.

There is a huge difference
between thinking of life

when we come into this world as
a finite amount of experience

that we use up
gradually over time.

There's a big
difference between that

and thinking of life as a
living entity that is always

constantly replenishing,
rejuvenating,

and healing itself.

If you think about it, this
is a huge, huge difference.

Because when we think about
life as a finite quantity,

we have set into motion
an expectation, maybe

a subconscious expectation,
that every day, every year,

every decade we're
using a little bit more,

a little bit more,
a little bit more.

And I'm not saying it's
right, wrong, good, or bad.

I'm saying it's all about how
you choose to live your life.

If you choose to live a healthy
and vital and a productive life

well beyond what is typically
accepted of the years

that we see today, the
70 to 100 years that

is the average in the
Western world today, then

that thinking has to change.

This explains why when we
see people that are typically

of advanced age, they look
like they are of advanced age.

You ever thought about this?

You ever thought about
why is it that someone

when they are 100 or
110 or 114 years old,

which is right now the
oldest living person

is recorded in the Guinness
Book of Records, 114 years old.

When we see someone
who is 114 and that

their eyes appear dull.

They don't have that
sparkle anymore.

Their physical coordination
has begun to wane.

Their skin has lost
that elasticity.

And we look at them and they
look like 114 years old.

If we allow the
mechanisms in our bodies

to do what they're
designed to do,

there is, as I mentioned,
this huge difference

between thinking that
we're using up life

as we're going through
life and embracing

the fact that we are
constantly replenishing

the cells of our bodies.

We know that the
organs of our bodies

heal and replenish the
cells different rates.

The stomach lining
happens every day.

The heart tissue, for example,
happens less frequently.

But we know that
this is happening.

What I want to talk
to you about today

is the mechanism that allows
this replenishing to happen.

What we know about it,
what it means to us,

what it has meant in ages
past, and what it could mean

in your life in the future.

And to do this,
I'm going to begin

this conversation in Tibet.

I've had the opportunity,
I was blessed

with about a decade of travel
throughout Tibet in the time

when it was very accessible.

It was very easy to go
into the Tibetan Plateau,

and into the monasteries
and nunneries that

have the wisdom, the
records, the texts that

record the wisdom.

And also to be with the people
who live the wisdom that's

recorded in those texts.

So there are 12 monasteries
in two nunneries

between the capital
of Tibet, Lhasa,

and the highest
portions of the mountain

ranges where I
would routinely go.

And I had the opportunity to
lead small groups of people

into these places.

And we would go into
monastery after monastery

after monastery and
nunnery after nunnery

and be with the people.

Through the translators
we could sit with them

in the chanting halls when
they were doing the prayers

and when they were
doing their chants.

And for me, this is
the value, once again,

of being with our indigenous
family is something that we

simply cannot get from the
hieroglyphs on a temple wall

or from the words in
an old crumbling page.

Because it's only through human
interaction, heart to heart,

mind to mind, eye to eye,
god the god, human to human

that we can have the
kinds of conversations

where I can witness
in them something

that I may not understand.

Their ability to create
a miraculous healing

in their physical
body instantaneously.

Or to regulate their body
temperature, to raise and lower

that temperature instantaneously
when it's 15 degrees Fahrenheit

outside, they can go and
sit outside and consciously

raise their body
temperature to a point

where that cold
doesn't affect them.

I wasn't taught about that
in my life or my culture.

And so I can say to these
people, how did you do that?

How did you do what it
is that you were doing?

And they will answer me through
the translator in Tibetan.

And if I don't understand
what they've just

said through that translator, I
can go back and ask them again

and again and again until I
understand what's happening.

And that's something I cannot do
from the hieroglyphs of a Mayan

wall or an Egyptian temple wall.

That's why it's important
to be with our family,

our global family,
and to preserve

the wisdom in our time.

It's disappearing
so very quickly

that they've preserved
for hundreds,

some cases thousands of years.

So it was in Tibet.

And it was in the 2000s,
in this case in 2008,

where I had the
opportunity to go to one

of the most remote monasteries.

It took six days out of Lhasa
just to get to the monastery.

And once we were there, the
only way to get to the monastery

was through the local mode
of transportation, a yak.

Which is an amazing
way to travel

if you've never traveled
by yak up the mountain

trail to the monastery.

And it was in this
place where I first

encountered some of the nuns who
I sensed were of advanced age,

but I didn't know for sure.

Because on the one hand, they
looked like they might be,

but on the other hand, they
didn't look like elderly people

that I had encountered
in the West.

Their skin was taught.

It wasn't baggy and saggy.

Their eyes were
bright and clear.

They had teeth.

They had hair.

Sometimes they shave their
hair, especially the women

shave their hair for
convenience, for hygiene.

But it's still growing.

And so it was in this
particular monastery

where I asked one particular
woman, how old are you?

And I asked because
the Mother Superior

was able to provide the papers.

Now this is one of those places
in this program I cannot show

you her face for security and
to honor and respect her privacy

and her safety.

But I'm going to
tell you about her.

And then we are going to look
at a couple of other examples

where I can show you
their faces and you're

going to see the same thing.

But it was in this particular
woman, it was the first time.

This is my tip off, my clue that
longevity is possible in ways

that we simply don't
embrace in the West.

We discount it.

We call it a hoax or
we call it a fake.

But it's like those
out of place artifacts.

So many examples of
advanced age are cropping up

in so many places of the world.

The anomalies are now
beginning to tell a story,

and the story is very
different from the story

that you and I
probably have been

led to believe in the past.

The Tibetan nun that I'm
talking about right now,

when we saw her
papers, what we saw

is the confirmed date of her
birth was 1885, all right.

And the year that I was
with her was the year 2005.

We went back again in 2008.

My first contact
with her was in 2005.

1885 to 2005, that
means I was looking

in the eyes of a woman
who was 120 years old.

She did not look
like 120 years old.

She lived in a single room.

She walked to the river
every morning down

a hillside to
bring up the water.

She grew a lot of her own food
in the vessels and the vases

that were available to
her, basil, tomatoes,

herbs that she would eat
every day in a very, very

minimal diet.

She was good, healthy
strong, and vital.

And that told me
that something is

happening with her that maybe
is happening with other people.

Well interestingly, I asked
her what was her secret.

And she looked at me
through the translator

and she said one
word, compassion.

She said that's what we
learn in these monasteries.

That is the essence of
our Buddhist teachings.

It's all about compassion.

We'll see in a moment
why compassion would

have an effect of longevity.

Before we do that,
I want to show

you a couple of other cases.

Because I want you to see
this isn't an anomaly.

It wasn't long after I
met this Tibetan woman

that the national media
ran a story about a woman

in the Palestinian territories.

And you're seeing her
face on the screen

right now because she
made national news.

This was on the
Associated Press.

This woman, when
you look at her,

ask yourself how old
do you think she is.

Because here's her story.

She went shopping one day.

She hadn't been out for a while.

She had to go through
a military checkpoint

that she didn't have
to go through before,

didn't exist before.

They looked at her papers, they
said your papers are expired,

you have to go to
the authorities

and get some new papers.

And that's when
she made headlines.

Because when they checked
back through her records

they found her date
of birth was 1888.

And the woman you're
looking at in the year 2008,

she is 120 years old.

I'm not saying that she
looks like she's in her 20s,

but I think she looks really
good for 120 years old.

Her eyes are bright.

Her skin color is good.

Her teeth are good.

She still has her hair.

And I wanted to know
what is her secret.

And she said the secret
for her was the love

that she had for her family,
her children, her grandchildren,

her great grandchildren, her
great-great-grandchildren.

She said, they
need me every day.

What would they do without me?

She says, I fix their meals.

I help them with
their schoolwork.

I help them everything
they're doing in their lives.

I work in the garden so that I
can prepare the food for them.

She feels needed and she loves
her family and she feels loved.

That is a heart based
experience, all right.

So that's two.

And these are women.

And I wanted to find an
example that was of a male.

And it was only
through the research

I was able to find what I'm
about to share with you.

And I'm sharing
it with you, and I

believe this is
factual because it

was documented by the military.

And it was also documented in
an article in "Time" magazine

early in the 20th century.

The man that you're
looking at right

now has a very
interesting history.

His name is Li Ching-Yuen.

The image that you're
seeing is a photograph

that was taken of him in
1927 by the Chinese military.

He was at the residence
having a meal with an army

general at the time.

He was born in Sichuan China.

He spent the early part of
his life as an herbalist.

He was a high
altitude herbalist.

And he's also a martial artist.

So he lived in high
elevation, thin air,

a minimal diet of very
specific kinds of herbs.

And he learned about the
energy of the human body

through martial arts.

He enlisted in the
Chinese military

at a relatively late age.

He was 72 years old when he
enlisted as a cartographer.

And he is documented
as enlisting

in the Chinese military
in the year 1749.

Now the Chinese keep
meticulous records,

and that's why I trust
these records, 1749.

He left the military.

And he went back to his
home in the mountains

after he served as a
cartographer at the age of 97.

And three years later,
the military records

sent him a congratulations
on his 100th birthday.

That was the year 1777.

They sent him another
congratulations

on his 150th birthday,
and the records

shows this very clearly
in the year 1827.

And this is where it gets
really, really interesting.

They sent him another
congratulations

for his 200th birthday
in the year 1877.

He died May 6, 1933.

His birth date, now there
are two different dates.

He said that his
birth date was later.

He said he was
only born in 1736.

The military records, however,
show that he was born in 1677.

So either one of
these is showing a man

of tremendously advanced age.

His age at death was
either 197 or 256.

And this borders on what
are called biblical ages.

When he died he was
seven feet tall.

He had accomplished 14
marriages over 11 generations.

And by some estimates, had
as many as 180 children

that were attributed
to his marriages.

"Time" magazine wrote an
article on him, on Li,

and actually did an
obituary May 15, 1933.

They acknowledged the
validity of his longevity.

And in this article,
they asked what was

the secret to his long life.

Before he died he had
shared that secret.

This secret, he said,
was all about the heart.

The secret was to
keep a quiet heart.

Now this is not typical.

I don't think it's the oldest.

Because the time that
I've spent in Tibet,

the monks and nuns
have told me that there

are yogis that are much older.

I'm not sharing
those with you here,

and here's the reason why.

I cannot document it.

I cannot say to you factually
as a scientist those yogis are

actually 400 and 500 years old.

And the truth is, that the
lives that I'm told they live

don't sound like
very exciting lives.

They lived lives of ascetics,
very little clothing.

They don't move very much.

They spend a lot of
time in meditation.

And their bodies, their bodies
are strong and they're healthy,

but they're not as
engaged in everyday life.

If I'm going to live
200, 300, 400 years old,

I'd like to be very
engaged in everyday life.

From the time I
was five years old,

I told my mom that I
would be in this world,

I'd be on Earth for 200 years.

I'm on the 200 year plan.

And while mom used to laugh
when I would tell her that,

she later in life began
to take it very seriously.

And she would say that
to me when it came time

to wish me happy
birthday, she would say,

I could wish you happy
birthday, she said,

but you're on the
200 year plan, so I

have a lot more opportunities
to do just this.

The point is, can we live beyond
this traditional 70 to 100

years?

Would we want to?

And a lot of times
when I ask people

if they want to, what they say
to me is they don't want to.

Because to them, old age
equates to suffering.

Old age equates to
the body breaking down

and the things that they've
seen in their lifetimes.

And I want to say
to you right now,

it doesn't have to be that way.

The science is showing us this.

And the indigenous traditions
are telling us this.

What was the common
link between the three

people of advanced age
that we just talked about?

The Palestinian woman,
the Tibetan nun, and Li,

what was the common theme?

And I gave it away
already, because I'm not

good at keeping secrets.

I gave it away.

Each of them had a feeling.

The Palestinian woman
felt love for her family

and she felt that she was loved.

The Tibetan nun felt the
feeling of compassion.

That's a heart based experience.

Li said the secret
was a quiet heart,

feeling the feelings of calmness
and serenity in his life.

So the common thread
for all of these?

All of them are linked to
a heart-based experience.

And you say, well, why would
a heart-based experience

create this kind of longevity?

And the answer to
that is the secret

to where we're going right now.

It probably comes as no surprise
that a heart based experience

would have some effect
on our longevity.

But the mechanism is what I want
to talk to you about right now.

Because what you have just
learned in the last episode,

the ability to harmonize
your heart and your brain

in a very precise way, in
addition to all of the benefits

that we've already shared,
is the underlying trigger

to unlock the potential
of longevity and vitality,

healthy longevity in your life.

And it all begins,
not surprisingly,

with our DNA and the
chromosomes that we have talked

about earlier in this program.

Each time our cells divide,
something really, really

interesting begins
to happen among

the many interesting things that
happen within the chromosomes

themselves.

In the earlier
episode, I described

how the tip of every
chromosome, the DNA

at the tip of every chromosome
has a special component called

a telomere at the end.

I didn't talk a lot
about those telomeres

then because I knew
I would right now.

A telomere you can
think of in just the way

you would think of the shoe
laces on your tennis shoes.

If you look at the ends of the
shoelaces on your tennis shoes,

they typically have
a little plastic cap

over the end that
keeps them from fraying

and makes it possible
for you to lace them

through the eyes on your shoes.

Well, the ends of your
DNA, your telomeres,

are the equivalent of
those little plastic caps.

And every time your cell
divides, the chromosomes

in the division
process, they are

incapable of completing
division all the way

to the end of the DNA.

So what that means, is
with each cell division,

a little piece of
the DNA breaks off.

Its brittle, it breaks
away and its lost.

That is what the telomeres do.

They are the buffer so
that what breaks off

is the telomere and not the
information of the DNA itself.

So when one cell
divides in the two,

you lose a little bit
of telomeres at the end.

That's OK, you've
got a lot left.

Two divide into four, you
lose a little bit more.

You've got a lot left, but
not as much as you did before.

And you see where this is going.

It goes on and on for
a finite period of time

until we reach a point where
the telomere is so short

or it is so weak it
can no longer protect

the rest of the DNA.

And when your cell reaches that
point, we call it senescence.

We call it old age.

And eventually,
we call it death.

Because the cell cannot
preserve the information,

the DNA cannot preserve
the information.

And because of that, it
won't allow itself to divide

with bad information.

All right, so that's
the mechanism.

Telomere shortening,
it's directly

linked to stress in our lives.

And I want to say
this to you directly.

I'm going to read directly
from the scientific documents,

so you know it's not my opinion.

I want you to hear
exactly what it

is they're saying about this.

In the proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences,

the title of this
research article,

it tells the whole story.

Listen to the title.

"Accelerated Telomere Shortening
in Response to Life Stress."

What they're saying is chronic
stress erodes the telomeres.

It impairs the DNA replication,
and it accelerates the aging.

So this is peer reviewed science
saying in open paper what

we're talking about right now.

It is the stress,
the stress of life.

It can come from many places.

It can come from the
job, come from work.

It can be emotional stress.

It can be environmental stress.

It can be psychological stress.

It can be a healing crisis.

There are all kinds of stress.

So it's not the stress.

It's about how we interpret and
how we deal with that stress.

When we are born, we have a very
high complement of telomeres.

What scientists tell
us is when we're born,

we have about 8,000 base pairs
of telomeres to begin with.

By the time we're in our 30s, we
have maybe half of that number.

And by the time we're in our
60s we have maybe about a third

of that number, typically.

But the good news is,
all that can change.

And you can direct how
it changes in your life.

The lifetime of a telomere
and the lifetime of a cell

are generally accepted to be
about 40 to 60 cell divisions.

So 40 to 60 cell divisions
is generally the lifetime

of an average cell.

And this is what
scientists tell us.

It is the limit
of that lifetime.

And the limit
actually has a name.

It's named after the man
that discovered the limit.

It is called the Hayflick
limit, Hayflick limit.

That is the number of
times, the Hayflick limit

defines how many
times our cells can

divide before they reach the
point where the telomeres

aren't working any longer.

Interestingly,
that Hayflick limit

equates, if you take that
number of cell divisions

and how long they live, that
equates to about 120 years

of human life.

So we're beginning to see why
we do see people living up

to 120 years.

We don't see a lot after
that, because they have

reached this Hayflick limit.

The question is, can we
increase that Hayflick limit?

Are we bound to that limit?

And the answer is
yes, or we wouldn't

be having this conversation.

And a discovery in 2009
tells us why it's possible.

In 2009, the Nobel Prize
in medicine and physiology

was awarded to three people,
to Carol Greider, Elizabeth

Blackburn, and Jack Szostak.

They all worked
together to discover

an enzyme in the human body.

Now think about
this, this is 2009,

that was just a few years ago.

And they're still discovering
things about the human body

that we haven't
known in the past.

This new enzyme was
mysterious at first.

They found the enzyme,
they weren't sure

what the function was.

But the only place
they found the enzyme

was hovering near the
end of the telomeres.

So they theorized, maybe
this enzyme has something

to do with the telomeres.

And if it does,
maybe the enzyme has

something to do with long life.

So their discovery
of this enzyme

is what the Nobel
Prize was awarded for.

The name of the enzyme tells the
whole story, it gives it away.

OK, the telomeres are what
determine how long the cell can

live and divide.

The enzyme they discovered
is called telomerase.

And the purpose of this
enzyme, the only purpose

of the telomerase
in our bodies is

to heal and repair the
telomeres at the end of our DNA.

The thing is, often
our telomerase is not

actively engaged in
its greatest potential.

It's dormant or if not
completely dormant,

it is not as active
as it can be.

Well, what scientists
found after they discovered

the telomeres,
they began looking

into the function
of the telomeres

and the telomerase
working together.

And once again, not my words.

I want to share with
you the exact words

of what it is that they found.

The National
Institutes of Health

produced a series of
articles in the year 2011.

I'm just going to share with you
two direct sentences from that.

Number one, they're saying
that the telomeres shortened

with age.

They say "telomere length
shortens with age."

That is a fact.

OK, the next
sentence is the key.

Because they say "The rate
of telomere shortening

can be either
increased or decreased

by specific lifestyle factors."

What that means is that
you and I have the ability

to make choices in our lives
that will either accelerate

the aging process,
senescence, old age and death,

or we make lifestyle
choices that breathe life

and activate these anti-aging
hormones and the telomerase

in our bodies.

And some of these
factors you already know.

Of course, diet,
exercise, lifestyle,

you know about those things.

But there's another factor
now that you already know,

but you may not
realize it is impacting

the duration of your cell life.

And that is the technique
of heart brain harmony

that we just learned
in the last episode.

Because that technique
of heart brain harmony,

as you activate that in
your life, what it's doing

is it setting up
the communication

between your heart
and your brain.

And your breathing
is telling your body

that you're in a
place that's safe.

And that is
redefining any stress

that you may feel in your body.

Remember stress is one of
the key factors to decreasing

the length of the telomeres.

So it's not just
about meditating,

and it's not just
about saying a chant,

although those things can help.

But it's about creating this
environment in our advanced

and extended neural network
that signals to our bodies

that we are in a
safe place where

it is OK to put all the
energy into the body

into the healing
regeneration and rejuvenation

rather than sending
that energy in defense

of the world around us
through the stress of cortisol

and adrenaline.

I know it's a big, big idea.

The bottom line is,
heart brain harmony

is a trigger for longevity.

Now what you're seeing
on your screen right now,

I didn't want you to
just take my word for it.

I want you to see this.

You're looking at telomeres.

These are photomicrographs
of telomeres.

I'm going to show you
a before and after.

This is a photograph
of telomeres

that are of advanced age.

There aren't many of them left.

They are the little pink areas
that you're seeing looking down

at the end of a strand of DNA.

And this is through
the aging process.

Now the next image
that you see is

going to be precisely
the same telomeres.

However, the telomerase
has been activated.

And when it's activated,
it will heal and reverse

the aging process.

And now you're
seeing it right here.

Look at this.

That is the same telomere
that now is rejuvenated.

What you're seeing
is anti-aging.

You're seeing it
real time in the DNA.

And this is human DNA.

What's possible in this slide
is possible in your body.

So modern science
is now revealing,

it's solving one of the deepest
mysteries of the greatest

truths of human existence.

We are literally wired.

I'm going to be personal.

You are wired to thrive
in life and to begin

healing of your body.

You begin the moment
that you're born.

And you can embrace that
at any time in your life.

In our next episode,
we're going to take

this idea of personal healing
to an even deeper level

with a bigger picture.

And in doing so, we'll
discover that the leading edge

science that tells us
our personal choices are

the key to global
cooperation and peace

are available to us in
our lives right now.

Thank you for joining
me for this program.

And be sure to tune in for our
next all new episode "Missing

Links," the deep
truth of our origin,

history, destiny, and fate.

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