The Incredible Power of Your Second Brain | Sadhguru

Sadhguru: There is a second brain in your gut. How you think, how you feel, everything is decided by what's happening in the gut. Such a powerful instrument! If you do not know how to handle it, it's a serious problem. Sadhguru: In the yogic culture, generally it is said like this, that you must always consume food which is grown in a land within the diameter, or within the radius of how much a man can walk in a day. From morning to evening, if you walk, you may do 15, 20, maybe 25 kilometers straight-line. So 25 kilometer radius, within that you must eat. What is the logic behind this? What is the science behind this? Well, what is happening in the soil as microbiome activity, and what is happening in the human gut for the same, is very similar, or in a way, a kind of a more evolved, or enhanced manifestation of the same in the gut. After hundreds of years, now modern medicine is talking about… there is a second brain in your gut. A whole lot of things about who you are, I hope it's not so for you, but a whole lot of things as to who you are, how you think, how you feel, your level of balance, your equanimity, everything is decided by what's happening in the gut. It's being referred to as a second brain, or the gut brain. Well, it is true that the chemistry of the body is happening at various levels. One thing is, the… the glandular secretions are very important in managing the chemistry. But gut is the place where the input for the chemical factory that you are is coming – all the food. So what kind of food? If the food is coming from the land upon which you stand, then it has a certain relationship. This whole problem – the human problem – is this that, just because you can prance around a little bit, you think… Some people are even saying they've come from… (Laughs) some other planet, or some other universe, they're claiming. Well, if you were made like this tree, roots sticking into the soil, you would clearly, clearly know that you came from the soil. Just because nature's magnanimity, it allowed you to prance around a little bit, and you're getting all confused as to what is your source. So, being in touch with the source, which is the soil… your evolutionary process itself has been conducted by soil, instigated by soil, the most basic aspect of evolution from where life has evolved into more and more complex forms of life on this planet, in its millions of manifestations. And today, well, we can claim at least, that we are the most evolved creature on the planet. We've yet to become a… "being," still, evolved creatures with enormous capability. This capability, unfortunately, is working against us – our intelligence. Today everybody's talking about gut brain as more important simply because they don't know how to handle this brain. This brain is becoming a serious problem, everybody thinks this is the basis of all mental issues and problems. Yes it is, if you don't know how to handle it. Such a powerful instrument! If you do not know how to handle it – yes, it's a serious problem. So now they're falling back on their gut brain, which is more reliable – at least it's involuntary! (Laughs) So, the gut microbes and what's happening in the topsoil are very similar. And it not only has life-making material, it also has many, many remedies. In terms of… today we would like to call it medicines, but I would call them remedial forces. Like for example, you know, it has been found that… many studies have happened where it has been found, children playing in the soil outside always have a richer gut microbiome. Not because they're eating soil, simply it happens because the… your body and the soil are not two different things – just in two different forms. Whether you make a pot out of this soil, or you make a picture out of this soil, or you make a human body out of this soil – it is all soil. So, the connection and the integration – either through food or being physically connected – is very, very important; and modern lifestyle, the modern lifestyle has completely removed us from the soil. We are living way up from the soil. And well, even when we have to walk on the ground, she wears high heels, which are six inches tall. I'm not against ladies and their fashion, they can do whatever they want. But, being in touch with the earth, and above all, with the soil, is a very important part of healthy and balanced life. There is any number of things, and people have always, for ages, when they want to find peace, when their mind is disturbed, they go into the jungles, into the mountains, and sit quietly. In yoga always we lie down on the floor without any kind of insulations, except organic insulation, because our body should be connected. And also, the electrical negative needs to happen. So, your body gets kind of like an earthing, and the negative – it neutralizes the extra positive charge, which can cause restlessness, which can cause unnecessary activity, neurological activity, which can lead to various kinds of problems; it's like you're keeping your engine all the time at high revs. So people went into the jungles, and forests, and mountains, and they just sat down, and they found they became peaceful. This has got something to do with the connection with the soil. You can think this is a tree, but this is soil! You can think that's an animal – that is soil! You can think this is a human being – this is soil! So, this connection is very important. Today I just heard that, when I was in Los Angeles, they were telling me there is a farm just outside of LA, where, if you pay 50 dollars, you can hug a cow for about half an hour. Oh… because you're trying to connect to the soil, you're trying to enrich the gut microbiome, you're trying to bring some semblance of balance into you. Well, if you had a powerful yogic practice, you could do that yourself from within. But if that is not there, the simplest thing is to be in touch with the soil. And… it is a fact that over 300 million people suffer from asthma. Half of the children in United States develop wheezing by the time they are 3 years of age, and they are on all kinds of medications; people are allergic to all sorts of things. Well, 100 years ago, you had never heard of these allergies, very rare few had that. Today it's becoming like a normal thing, everybody is allergic to something. I've met people who are allergic to sunlight. I've met people who are allergic to rain water. I've met people, of course, the peanut and groundnut allergy, everybody knows about that. It's not like they have to eat it, if you just as much as break this legume, this wonderful legume which is very nutritious that we call as groundnut, and because it grows in the ground… Well, if I open it here, somebody allergic there 50 feet away – they could die. Just see the sensitivity of that! So, these things have happened because we are beginning to think we came from elsewhere. Of course, there are some people suppo