When one experiences a new product, a new treatment, or a new idea, there’s little that compares to the feelings of excitement and hope that rush in, fueling one’s faith in the upright direction of humanity. I just recently attended the 8th Annual Biohacking Conference hosted by Dave Asprey in LA and like each biohacking event, I left feeling inspired to say the least. Everything I saw, every person I met, and every biohack I experienced, further fed my appetite to share these great ideas and practices with the world, a world hungering for the opposite approach of industrialized medicine. Now, of course, not every biohack is exactly 100% proven. Suffice it to say, there are many that are still in the process of collecting data from studies and clinical trials. However, those that have stood up to the modern pill-popping regimes and have adamantly supported their ideas on the foundations of strong scientific data, are truly examples to be held in high regard. I was impressed with the many products and companies at the conference that held a mission of dedicated service to fellow mankind. Yes, like in any startup industry, or even industry for that matter, there are those who are looking to push some falsehood to scheme people into buying their product or services. But as we know, the companies that rise to the top are those that stick to the cardinal virtues that make up all of us, Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance. The Biohacking Industry is outgrowing its mold and soon a new layer of enthusiasts will be added. This is something that should enthrall us, but it shouldn't permit us to lose sight of the foundational attributes that make and will continue to make us biohackers for the rest of our lives. Essentially, we are all after freedom - freedom from disease, freedom from injury, freedom from hysteria, and freedom from aging. Responsible Biohacking is perhaps the best way towards that freedom, and we must continually adjust our sails to catch the winds that stem from truth and service. That is what we at Biohackers Magazine strive towards - serving the community through the provision of information carefully discerned and attuned to the values of sincerity and science.

The world and the humans share a special bond together. The world is a place full of vibrant life, unpredictable events, and a sort of beautiful, self-sustaining chaos. The Human being’s journey on this Earth is one that is corporeal yet also deeply spiritual. The world presents so many things into our lives that often we forget that we are more than just what invokes responses from our physical senses. What separates man from every other creature is his ability to think rationally. What man lacks in survival endowments such as long claws, fur, etc., man makes up for in his ability to know. Man can think and know that he thinks. Man can eat and know that he eats. Man can speak and know that he speaks. The human being is able to conquer and have dominion over the creatures and the world itself, because of this unique ability to know rationally. There are many different areas where the human being shows this separation of pure intellect. One would be his tool-making ability or homo-Faber. It is true that some monkeys can make tools, but it is the only man that makes these tools not just as an extension of their bodily reach, but as direct fruition of their thoughts. Community, Language, Science, Arts, Religion, Death, and Culture are all elements that show man’s rationality, his intellect. The intellect exists in the soul of man and animates the body through the influence on man’s free will. Too often we focus on the superficial parts of ourselves and get lost in the mainstream’s constant influential assault about how we should be physical. While of course we are composed of the body, we must remember that it is the soul that also makes up our life, and its health must also be taken into consideration in everything we do. We can define a human being as a rational animal, a composite of both body and soul. Its soul is the subsistent element, and its powers involve the knowing intellect and the will to do good. With free will aiming toward good, and knowledge aiming towards the truth, the human being works towards becoming more beautiful in the sense of intentionality, of culture. Biohacking in its deepest sense must look beyond the temporal world of physiological and temporal matter and adhere to the health and the growth of the human soul. We are all on this Earth together and as biohackers, we have the mission of increasing our knowledge every single day to feed not only our bodies and brains but most importantly our souls. When one chooses to take the time to explore such questions as who they are and how they act, and where they are going, and what is their purpose, they increase their value as a person through this continual development. Their soul becomes more of a master over their temporal body and they can live life with perhaps more peace and happiness because of their continued growth and development of their soul, which acts through their body.

There’s nothing quite like the feeling of a clear mind. Clarity can never be taken for granted. We’ve all suffered moments in our life when our mind felt clouded, inefficient, sluggish. As biohackers, we know how important it is to have a clear mind is and how it affects every other aspect of our life. Our mind is where we hold our foundations of knowledge, and also where we build on it. There are aspects of the body, mind and spirit triangle found in countless dogmas, ideologies, philosophies and the such, over the course of human history. Spirit guides us and acts through our body. Our Mind is where we can receive what the world is showing us, actively or passively, and apply this learned knowledge to serve our spirit in a mutually beneficial way towards growth. Because of this, it cannot be overstated enough that what we put into our minds, passively or actively, has a correlative impact on where we are going in our lives. Its easy to let the world shape our mind. The more difficult path is a narrow one, and involves choosing, each and every day to be the gatekeeper of what enters your mind. Awareness is the shield of any great student of life; without it, we become subject to the vast thoughts of destruction that eat away at and destroy the mind, leaving us feeling lost and in despair. The way to high road is acting as an always alert and aware sentry to your mind’s gate, only allowing thoughts, ideas, and other inputs that relate to creation and life. It all starts in the mind. The battle can go on for what feels like forever, but the battle is lost or won in the mind. Put your attention there and rest assured that you will be well-equipped and prepared to handle the toughest of obstacles that life and the world throws your way. Don’t ask for your life to be easy, ask for you to be better, to be stronger, and to be WISER to tackle and overcome all of the learning experiences. When we see what happens to us in life as an adventure, full of unpredictable events and experiences that forge our armor to be more effective, we go into battle with a clear and set mindset - To come out on top and wiser, after all the ashes of the battlefield fall. To loves wisdom, we must first become aware of what contributes and what attacks our wisdom. Make your mind aware and walk confidently into each challenge life presents you.

Progress. It’s a word with meanings of advancement, improvement, and a clear change towards a goal or objective. From the moment humans have inhabited this Earth, our whole existence as a species has experienced Progress, as well as Decay. Civilizations had flourished and progressed for many years, and then decayed slowly and rotted over time until there was little to nothing left. What is left however are usually things that we following civilizations have studied and learned from. The remnants of civilizations are usually the teachings, technologies, and tools that outlast them. History does love to repeat itself and leave the following generations wondering what their marks on the world and human progress will be. Going beyond the terminology and historical examples, one can ask some more insightful, profound questions. The first is, why is there progress or decay in the first place? There is of course no clear answer to this, but I suppose it can be best summed up with the phrase, ‘First there is time, And then there is what you do with it.’ By that I mean that there is a natural order to the way things are and that to accept that there is life given to each and every being, also means one’s acceptance of this law of progress and de- cay. We, as humans, are bound to grow, just as we’re bound to shrink into old age. Although we cannot change this supernatural law of the universe, we can in many cases choose how fast we progress or decay. We can use our rational human brain towards the consistent progression of ourselves, our community, and our world. We can do this through sustained faith and steady discipline. In turn, this decreases the decaying rate. On the other hand, through the coddled comfort of selfishness and endless pity, we can do just the opposite and plateau our progress while accelerating our rate of decay. One of the main reasons I like Biohacking is because of its communal camaraderie continually focusing on progress. In fact, many famed biohackers discovered and healed themselves through biohacking after finding themselves in a deathly sick cycle of decay and depression. Biohacking, when used safely, conservatively, and respectfully can help us determine what it is that we need to progress in, how we can do it, as well as how we can measure it, and why we should progress and become the best version of ourselves. We as individuals, families, and communities can learn a lot through our experiences with decay and use these dark fragments to build a brighter picture of progress overall. And while history may indeed repeat itself as it continually proves, we as individuals have the power to choose our rate of progression and decay. Choose wisely.

At the end of our lives, do we not all have the will to be able to say that we fully lived our life to the extent of our abilities? In other words, deep down, I believe we all have the desire to leave this the world knowing that although we make mistakes and had some pitfalls, we did our absolute best to be the highest level of the person we were made to be. The reason we all have this desire is not a selfish one but in fact an unselfish one. This is because when we are optimizing ourselves to function at our premium versions of ourselves, we are providing a stronger, more efficient individual to the benefit of the community as a whole. Then the question arises, how do we know who we are at our maximum level, and better yet, how do we reach this utmost level of attainment and fulfillment? The answer can be summed up to one word: Wisdom. Wisdom is our best friend. It guides us and protects us. It strengthens us and nourishes us. There are many other words for this – Discipline, Knowledge, etc. - but Wisdom is perhaps the word with the most meaning. When humans make it their mission to grow towards something higher, something more transcendent than their baseline selves, they are undertaking the process of acquiring wisdom. Wisdom can be sought in many ways - books, orators, experiences. Biohacking in a most fundamental sense is for all intents and purposes an avenue to acquiring wisdom about ourselves both subjectively and objectively, and taking this knowl- edge to optimize our entire self (soul, mind, & body) for purpose of healthy growth and prosperity. In our forever increasingly busy world full of languishing and slothful distractions, we must continually fight back the urge to give more of our time to these easy, mind-numbing diversions and instead see the present and long-term benefits of allocating our time towards to pursuit of wisdom and optimization, essentially the pursuit of happiness. Prioritize your biohacks and self-growth habits in your life and continue leveling up!

The importance of continual self-improvement and development cannot be understated, especially in the world of biohacking. But there is also something that cannot be overstated in this same realm of personal health and growth, and that is the vital role that women play. Often argued (and affirmed as) the more intuitive of the 2 sexes, women have and continue to push themselves and their community towards their health, wellness, and wisdom goals. In a lot of ways, men have it easy. Our bodies’ instruction manual is comparable to a generic IKEA coffee table’s guided instructions; not a lot to decipher. But some could compare women bodies’ manuals to NASA’s rocket construction directions; a lot of steps, and A LOT to understand. Granted, the woman’s body is easily the more attractive of the two in my opinion and I want it to be clear that although this statement is bias, I mean this as a more aesthetic, art-like manner. The symmetry, the intricacy, the mysteriousness, the gracefulness, just the way everything connects. Perhaps its because of this clear advantage in the beauty category, that it takes a lot to master all the processes within it. It once was said that in the beginning God first made man, but then afterwards he took a long look at him and then told himself, “I can do better than that”, and then made woman. Women are at the forefront of biohacking and its clear that the industry would not be where it is today without them. Due to women having to figure out all of their complexities, but also having the tenacity and courage to do so, they have stood side by side with men and helped to share the helpful and needed knowledge of health optimization with the world. It is with great pleasure and respect that we dedicate this issue to all of the women in the world striving to promote good health, strong lives, and clearer minds. Although we have had and will continue to have female authors and subject matter in past and future issues, every article contained inside this particular issue is either written by a female author or purely feminine in subject matter. This is our way to take a moment to highlight and thank all those women out there doing their thing. At Biohackers Magazine, we believe, - no, we know that every woman’s thought and word is just as important as every man’s. And we are here to provide this magazine as the ontic evidence to that. Without further ado, enjoy your new ‘woman-ful’ issue!

First impressions seem to always get the better of us. Quick judgments about others, ourselves, and our communities never seem to cease making their presence known in our minds. Psychologically, these initial assumptions and impressions that our mind receives are tactics our mind uses as a means of survival, sometimes aligning with our intuition to help us determine what or who is going to be helpful or harmful. But we must be careful here. Our mind is equipped to handle countless sensations and thoughts, and due to this, we sometimes get so bogged down by this demanding, busy world that we take the easy way out and make a judgment based solely on superficial knowledge, without any deeper reflection or analysis. The world is fast-paced, and although our mind does well to keep up, it needs to be able to consciously recognize that our health, both individual and as human beings, is dependent on the strive to understand oneself and the other with empathy and compassion. COVID-19 has shed a new spotlight on the increasing mental health crisis that is facing our world, and I believe that one of the main causes is careless thinking that leads to quick assumptions, to save oneself the time of research and contemplation. Don’t let others think for you. Yes, respect those with the authority to offer professional opinions, but don’t be a follower, be a student and learn from every experience. When your health seems to suffer, don’t assume the worst. When someone comes at you the wrong way, don’t write them off as a heartless soul. When you have a tough interaction with someone representing another community, don’t assume that everyone else is like that. Instead, look for the best in yourself, others, and the community. There is the power behind the phrase “Love thy neighbor”. When we treat every person that we come across as our neighbor, we break down the prideful barriers that ABOUT DALLAS MCCLAIN Born in the USA, Dallas is a passionate reader of theological and personal development books. He is a devout Catholic Christian and enjoys time outdoors while being a tennis enthusiast. He is the Chief Financial Officer and Editor of Biohackers Update Magazine and the co-founder. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences, as well as a TEFL level 5 certificate in teaching English. He is currently living in Orlando, Florida with his wife, daughter, and son, where he enjoys writing, sports, and nature hikes in his free time. Dallas can best be reached at his email: [email protected] lead to alienation and instead open the gates to continued togetherness and participation in a loving community. I think too often we, as biohackers focus more on the physical side of things, which is, of course, important but does not truly define what it means to be human. The human person is a compositum of both mind and body. Spiritual and Corporeal substance. When biohacking ourselves, let’s remember to start with the intention of acting out of love for thyself, of thy neighbor, and of thy community. There will always be disagreements between people, but when we see the other person as our neighbor, as another one of us, so to speak, we offer respect and extinguish any hatred and sinful intentions from the relationship, thus creating a peaceful, happier, and more vibrant environment to foster a healthy mind that’s prepared for whatever the onerous world throws at it.