Navigating The Griftoverse
Wellness Culture is a grift. Here's how to fight back against it.
In this wellness world, I have been grifted more times than I can count.
I have done IVs where I have nearly passed out. I have taken supplements where I promptly vomited in my kitchen sink. I’ve been run to the hospital after Kratom overdoses. I have stabbed myself so many times with needles for subcutaneous peptides that I truly believe I have caused some serious injury to my body.
There is no world where I could sit here and say every single wellness thing that is being promoted right now is healthy.
In fact, I believe the majority of the things that you might see on social media are probably not healthy, and are outright dangerous.
Wellness Culture is a grift.
At one point, the wellness world was a place where people could unite and join together to fight the forces of Western medicine and the allopathic community, and reclaim our health and our vitality.
That still is true, but wellness has been grifting way too much to be shitting on the western medicine model.
Allopathic medicine is for a purpose. It has done wonders for our society.
Think about what would happen if we didn’t have access to heart surgeons and antibiotics and even advanced vaccines. Shocker, I know.
At the same time, there is a lot of grifting in allopathic medicine. We know all the scams with the pharmaceutical companies. In fact, the United States is the only place besides New Zealand that publishes and markets pharmaceutical ads.
We’ve heard about doctors prescribing oodles of amphetamines and Ozempic to people who don’t need them, loads of anti depressants and anti acids, as well as many other drugs. In some cases, people could take a more holistic approach and become healthier.
I’ve done both sides.
When I was fighting an autoimmune condition and had loads of chronic disease and toxicity due to mold and heavy metals, I felt like I was an 80-year-old in a 23-year-old body. I was in college at the time, and my brain just felt so off. I had energy for maybe two hours a day. My libido was disastrously low, which shocked me because at 23 you’d think you’re in your prime time. I felt like an absolute frail human body, and I needed help.
So I went the full functional medicine/biohacking route. I’m so glad I did, because I got to learn so much about the body, toxins, and healing from a comprehensive approach. I was able to fix my issues. And now I’m able to share that with you guys, and that excites me. The fact that we don’t have to take a prescription or go through surgery or go through a misdiagnosis and feel in pain for years there’s a wealth of knowledge out there that can help us find amazing foods, supplements, or practices that will restore our body to a baseline and really thrive. At the very least, it can help us see what we need.
And I am glad I got to experience everything that biohackinghas to offer.
But enough is enough.
There is way too much grifting going on. It breaks my heart to see, and as a guy in love with biohacking I have to stand up to what is right, and what is real.
After listening and studying the amazing work of Scott Carney, who is on the forefront leading the investigation behind all the grifters in the wellness community? I have been fully convinced that there is so much BS.
There is too much grifting. Way too much information. And not enough truth.
Definitely look into Scott’s one, because he was the one who also showed me the scans behind AG1 and all the disastrous things going on with Mark Hyman right now, as well as the dangers of Wim Hof Breathwork. His work is crucial to this space because we need to be safe. Scott was the one who coined Griftoverse, and I am glad to say I’m an astronaut within the universe that he created.
Long story short,
we have to be extremely careful with wellness.
Throughout the past five years, I have dealt with:
Black mold toxicity
CIRS autoimmune condition
Lyme
Heavy metal overdose and mercury toxicity
I’ve been through the wringer, and I’ve tried everything in order to fix it. I have been grifted. I have been healed, and I can truly tell you what has worked for me.
These 5 realizations I’m going to share are the ones that really work. They’re anti-gryphs that are rooted in holistic health and functional medicine. They don’t cost you a freaking dime. There’s no drifting here.
These are things you can do every single day that will dramatically impact your life in a multitude of ways. It’ll make you feel freaking incredible. No affiliate codes, no subscriptions needed.
I’m not one to say crazy things, but if you try some of these, your life will ultimately get better.
1. Walking
Let’s start with something as simple as walking.
On terms of a biohacking score, I’m gonna give this a freaking 10 out of 10 because walking helps us with so many things.
Let’s just start with the fact that our ancestors were hunter-gatherers. You’ve probably heard that everywhere: “hunter-gatherer, hunter-gatherer.” All the people are saying “primal” this and “primal” that.
If we descended from Africa and moved around everywhere, we probably walked.
It’s within our DNA that walking is promoting health and well-being, because it’s something we’ve always done.
The science is showing that not walking causes serious issues like obesity and heart disease and all these things. It most likely is true, not to mention the anecdotal evidence: after you walk, you always feel better. Sometimes you might feel worse in the moment, but the walking served you right.
Besides, it lets us get out into nature and do all the “biohacking” things you hear about, like grounding and circadian rhythm. In fact, we are just becoming simply more human, and that is profound.
It also:
Boosts our metabolism
Helps us burn fat
Activates our lymphatic system
Activates our creativity
Improves brain health
Improves longevity
There is nothing you cannot do without WALKING.
My suggestion: walk more.
Try to walk as much as you can. Try to park far away from places you need to go to. Try to walk every hour and a half, whether it’s getting up from your job and going to the water fountain or walking to errands that you could drive to.
You can walk with your friends, walk with your partner, walk during business calls, or walk any time you want to experience wellness, because that’s what walking is.
I can say confidently that walking is not a grift. It will never grift you ever, and I am a pro walker now, and I’ll hold to that until the day I die.
2. Breathwork
Breathwork is not grifting. Breathwork has changed my life.
It is not grifting because the moment I finish a breathwork session, I feel better. I know breathwork isn’t grifting because it’s free, and I can do it of my own will without having to go to a biohacking clinic. Everyone I do it with ultimately always feels better as well.
There are certain types of breathwork out there, like Wim Hof breathing, that have caused serious injury. There have also been breathwork tribes that have tried to capitalize on breathwork and make you pay a shit ton of money to learn about this special breathing technique.
Yet the thing that they are missing is the fact that doing something as simple as breathing in for two seconds and slowly breathing out for six seconds is super healthy. Breathing is one of the first things we do when we’re born, and it is a biological necessity. It helps us navigate through tough times.
Breathing is not a grift. It is something that could serve you in any situation ever.
If you are stressed, if you are low energy, if you are feeling insecure, do some breathwork. I’m not saying hyperventilate or do any crazy breathing like you see in the holistic circles. I’m saying do proper, safe, controlled breathwork in a safe environment, with maybe a blanket and some nice headphones, and you’re slowly breathing in and slowly breathing out a little bit longer than the inhale to activate your parasympathetic nervous system.
That is breathwork, and there are some amazing breathwork people on YouTube. Breathe with Sandy is one of them, and I do his breathwork every single morning. It has led me to feel amazing, really ground my day in positivity and peace, and lower my stress levels, something that we all need in life.
Breathing, is not a grift. It will be something I promote till the day I die.
If you ask me on my deathbed, Jack, “You still promote breathwork,” I will say yes. I will probably be even doing breathwork as I lie on my deathbed.
Come join me.
3. Meditation
Of course, once you do a breathwork session, you are so relaxed and so at peace most of the time (not always, but most of the time) that you want to meditate after.
Meditation is not some complicated practice that you need to work with a guru on; it is simply the art and practice of being present, learning how to relax and do nothing.
When you look into it, there is profound science on the art of doing nothing, mainly because we are always doing something in this crazy, social media-filled, work-filled, material-filled world.
The act of nothing seems to be doing something amazing for us.
Meditation is profound. It helps us activate inner peace. It helps us be more present, which allows us to have more positivity in life. We feel better about ourselves, feel more relaxed, more secure, more safe.
There is no grift about meditation, but there is grifting.
There are meditation communities that certainly want to take money from you, but meditation is free. You can do it right now. You can go to a park and simply lay in the grass, and you are meditating. The more you meditate, the better you will become at it, and once again, it is absolutely free and doesn’t require anything on your end but yourself.
This is not a grift; it’s a biohack. You are hacking your biology, and you’re not hacking it. I really believe you’re just activating systems that are always there; you’re just reigniting them.
How to do the anti grift meditation.
Meditate when you can. I like to do it in the mornings after my breathing session. I simply lay down and just practice doing nothing. That’s the one meditation hack
I will give you: the art of doing nothing meditation.
There is nothing you need to focus on: no candle flame on your forehead, no inner shoulder roll work. You are simply laying there and taking care of yourself, and there’s something beautiful in that. Please meditate more. It is not a grift; it is here to serve you. It’s here to connect you, and it is here for your ultimate well-being. Now go meditate. I’ma join you later. Peace.
4. Fasting
Fasting.
The simple act of doing nothing when it comes to nourishment on a caloric plane has become grifted.
Somehow people have made juice fast, bone broth fast, meditation while you fast, this fast, and OMAD fast. In fact, fasting simply means restraining. Everyone has been doing it for thousands of years, and it is just an act of withholding stuff and letting your body do what it knows how to do. Our bodies are incredibly smart; they do not need all these crazy supplements and gadgets. Sometimes we just need to give it space to do what it does, and fasting is a profound way to do that.
Benefits of anti grift fasting.
It is free.
It does not take much effort; you just have to not do anything and see that it knocks out a bunch of things at once.
It improves your cognition.
It improves your metabolism.
It improves your stress levels, because, believe it or not, when you are not eating constantly and putting things in your body constantly, your body can just relax and say, “Ah, I have a break now.”
There is no grift about that. You do not have to join a fasting group. You do not have to pay to fast. You can simply fast.
How do you do it?
Eat dinner. Let’s say you finished at 7 p.m. Just do not eat till 7 a.m., 8 a.m., or 9 a.m., whatever feels comfortable. BOOM.
You have done a 12-hour fast, even if it is just 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., and that has amazing, profound effects on your body! You do not have to fast till 2:00 p.m. either to activate autophagy and boost stem cells. You do not have to do any of that. Forget that advice; simply just fast!
Yes, you can drink some black coffee or some green tea or some non-caloric things; they will help with your fast. You could even biohack it, but I do not even want to go into that, because I’m not here to grift you. I’m just here to say, “Don’t eat for a bit.” You could even try not drinking water, but I recommend just starting with not eating longer than usual and seeing how you feel.
Do you feel like you’re about to pass out? Eat!
I’m not here to grift you and say this is a fix-all solution, but it can help a lot.
It has helped me reconnect with my relationship with my food. It has helped me have more energy in the mornings. It has helped me become more intuitive, and most importantly, it has helped me learn about balance in life, and that’s really important.
Fasting is not a grift. It will never be. Try it out. Try postponing your first meal by one hour and a half and see what happens. You might feel good; you might not. It’s for you to decide, but once again, it’s not a grift. I don’t have an affiliate link, and I never will. It’s something you can do, and it’s amazing.
5. Nature
Oh nature, how we’ve taken this concept and materialized it. Who the fuck has the audacity to grift nature?
What once was just the idea of going outside, the biohacking world somehow capitalized on it, which is debatable. I don’t blame them; they have incredible intentions. Some of the greatest inventions through this major component have been PEMF therapy and red light therapy. We’ll stick with those two. All the other things, like the random crystals to ground in and the frickin’ random grounding mats, as well as the EMF harmonizer things, are when it gets muddy and they are so expensive and you don’t see the benefits. I have bought so many of those things to mitigate EMF damage, only to be disappointed when my chronic illness was not getting better.
Yes, it’s true: we’re inside a lot these days, and it’s harder to get outside, even for me. It’s hard to get out sometimes. Things like grounding mats, essential oil diffusers, and crystal energy chakra things have come in, and yes, they work. Some of them. But most are grifts.
Nature is not a grift. Nature is everywhere, and the more we expose ourselves to it, the better we will feel. There is no protocol for nature. There is no science or practice, and certainly nothing you need to buy.
Anyone can get out, and I would say it’s the greatest biohack of all.
There is so much science simply because we are being more human, and I think that’s the whole point of this whole article: getting back to being human. Nature, get out there.
It helps all areas:
Sleep
Mood
Inflammation
Metabolism
Every single component of your body
It reconnects you to you and to life. You get to see cool animals, hang out and play on trees, and it makes you feel like a kid again. Go out, get more nature. Take off your shoes. Grounding is real. Grounding is not some crazy grift; it’s simply connecting with the earth. That’s where we came from, and it will forever be where we came from. Please go outside when you can. Don’t tortureyourself about it; just get out there, have some fun, take off your shoes, and hang out in the sun.
You don’t need eight hours of it; just enough to feel really good.
Final word on wellness grifting.
All right, we have demolished the grifters.
No longer do we have to be obliged to do all these biohacks and take all these supplements because someone told us we’re going to die if we don’t take them.
We’ve said no. We are reclaiming our health. We are reclaiming our vitality.
That’s by doing these things. It’s by getting outside more. It’s by incorporating some fasting, walking more, and breathing deeper. All this stuff is anti-grift. You will never be charged for it. No one will ever tell you you are doing it wrong.
There are no techniques, practices, or modules you need to do, and there are no modalities surrounding this stuff. It simply is life.
This is health. This is well-being. This is everything I’ve always wanted to promote, and I’m glad I can now, so thank you for listening.
This is exactly what we’re going to be doing from here on out. Hope you took something out of this. If you did, subscribe. I’m not gonna grift you ever.
Peace.
-Jack