#2529 - Zach Bush

Joe Rogan and Zach Bush discuss how the growing separation of humans from nature has triggered widespread and escalating health problems. Bush labels this phenomenon "nature deficit disorder," noting that disconnection from nature dulls human curiosity, vitality, and immune function. Rogan recounts the observable health and happiness of indigenous Siberian people, showing that close alignment with the natural world brings mental well-being and resilience.

Metabolic Collapse Timeline Correlates With Introduction of Glyphosate and Antibiotics in 1976 Food System

Bush traces modern chronic disease to the introduction of glyphosate and antibiotics into the food supply in 1976. This began an unprecedented metabolic collapse observable over decades.

Glyphosate Cuts Mitochondrial ATP Production By 90% In Foods At one Ppm Concentration

Bush explains that glyphosate, a common agricultural chemical and a potent antibiotic, is now sprayed globally in quantities of three to four billion pounds annually. Its presence at just one part per million in food systems can reduce mitochondrial ATP production by 90% within thirty minutes, drastically diminishing cellular energy. This loss of "light per cubic centimeter"—a metaphor for biological energy—marks the beginning of a widespread metabolic decline.

Obesity in the 1980s: A Symptom of Metabolic Dysfunction From Mitochondrial Inefficiency

By the early 1980s, just years after glyphosate's introduction, rates of obesity began to climb. Bush reframes obesity not as a matter of excessive calories, but as failed calorie processing: mitochondria, damaged by glyphosate, cannot burn all consumed calories. The body's energy engines are poisoned both by disrupted gut bacteria (a consequence of glyphosate's antibiotic effect) and by the damage it causes to mitochondria themselves, which are bacteria-derived organelles.

Diabetes Arises From Obesity Due to Liver Fat Overload

With obesity and poor mitochondrial function, more fat shifts to the liver, leading to [restricted term] resistance and diabetes. Carbohydrates cannot enter energy-depleted cells, further compounding metabolic starvation even as caloric consumption continues.

Degenerative Cascade Emerges From Decades of Cellular Energy Depletion

As humans' mitochondrial output drops, a predictable sequence of degenerative diseases emerges, each rooted in failed energy production and cellular isolation.

Allergies and Food Sensitivities Emerged In the 1990s as Immune Systems Failed to Discern Threats From Harmless Substances

The most energy-hungry system, the immune system, begins to falter. In the 1990s, widespread allergies and food sensitivities appeared as immune cells, depleted of energy, misidentify harmless substances (such as gluten) as threats. Bush argues gluten sensitivity is a symptom of metabolic collapse triggered by glyphosate poisoning, which synergistically disrupts both the gut (via gliadin) and metabolic processing.

Autoimmune Diseases Arise When the Immune System Can Not Distinguish Between Self and Non-self, Attacking the Body

As depletion deepens, autoimmune diseases—conditions where the body attacks itself—develop. This inability to distinguish "self" from "non-self" is a sign of lost cellular identity and breakdown in system communication.

Neurological Rise: ADHD, Autism, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, MS, ALS Linked To Early 2000s Mitochondrial Brain Issues

Concurrently, neurological disorders surge. In children, ADHD and autism rates rise; in adults, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's appear more frequently. Diseases such as MS and ALS escalate. Bush sees all these as consequences of mitochondrial failure in the brain, with rates climbing logarithmically after the turn of the millennium.

Cancer Rise in Late 2000s/2010s From Reduced Cellular Identity and Repair Capacity, Not Carcinogens

In the 2000s and 2010s, cancer rates—initially leukemias and lymphomas, then solid tumors—explode worldwide. Bush argues this is not from increased carcinogens, but from a drop in "life per cubic centimeter." As cellular communication fails, cells become isolated: the essence of cancer is not invasive mutation but profound biological loneliness. When Bush started nourishing, rather than poisoning, cancer cells in the lab, they either reintegrated or died peacefully, mirroring sociopathic humans who become destructive in extreme isolation.

Infertility Crisis Impacted 110 Countries By Early 2010s as Reproductive Systems Required More Energy Than Depleted Mitochondria Could Supply

By the early 2010s, infertility rates became a global crisis, with 110 countries—including the U.S.—falling below population replacement levels. Endocrine and genomic disruptions spread as mitochondrial output further collapses, leaving the body unable to detox or repair itself, leading to conditions labeled as Lyme disease and chronic infections.

Fetal Gender Dysregulation Linked To Mitochondrial Energy Disruptions

Bush attributes rising rates of fetal gender dysregulation to insufficient mitochondrial energy during pivotal development windows in utero. Human sexual differentiation requires multiple large bursts of mitochondrial output, starting 90 days after conception and recurring across developmental milestones into the late 20s. Interruption of these energetic events destabilizes basic biological programming, complicating sex differentiation at the level of behavior and neurology.

Root Cause: Reduced "Biosis"— ...

Zach Bush and Joe Rogan examine how industrial chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and processed foods disrupt biological energy and metabolism. They trace these problems to the chemical manipulation of natural substances, the patent-driven pharmaceutical industry, and the misguided antibiotic era rooted in a flawed war on microbes.

Glyphosate Harms By Chelating Minerals and Disrupting Microbes, Acting "Antibiotic."

Glyphosate: From Pipe Cleaner to Weedkiller For Killing Soil Microbial Life

Zach Bush explains that glyphosate originated as an industrial pipe cleaner due to its remarkable ability to chelate minerals and pull them out of circulation. Patented by a Japanese inventor in the late 1950s, glyphosate was purchased by Monsanto in 1974 and initially used to unclog industrial pipes. However, when glyphosate-tainted wastewater entered rivers, it killed fish and aquatic life. Monsanto responded by diluting glyphosate, rebranding and repatenting it in 1976 as the herbicide Roundup—the most successful weedkiller in history. Its function as a mineral chelator and microbial disruptor made it an effective weedkiller but also significantly destructive to soil microbial ecosystems.

Rogan highlights the misuse of glyphosate, such as spraying it on wheat as a desiccant merely to dry the crop faster, increasing unnecessary chemical exposure to both people and the environment. Bush stresses that this compounds the toxicity already imposed by widespread herbicide and pesticide use, which has collectively undermined the planet's biosis—the fundamental interconnected relationships necessary for life.

The word "antibiotic" literally means "against life," Bush observes. Glyphosate's role is functionally antibiotic, destroying the very microbial life that supports plant and human health.

This Chemical Is a Racemic Mirror-Image Molecule Processed and Not Found In Nature, Allowing Monsanto to Patent It As a Novel Compound, Despite Its Structural Similarity To Naturally Occurring Fructose

Bush describes how high-fructose corn syrup and glyphosate are both racemic, mirror-image molecules of naturally occurring substances not found in nature. High-fructose corn syrup is chemically identical to natural fructose, the sugar found in fruits, except it is a flipped, mirror-image form. This alteration makes it unrecognizable to the human liver as a carbohydrate, forcing the body to process it as an inflammatory triglyceride rather than sugar. The result is an aberrant fat in the bloodstream linked to cardiovascular disease, brain inflammation, depression, anxiety, and downstream chronic illnesses.

Racemic chemical processing creates molecules that do not exist in nature. This is key for patenting; by synthesizing non-natural mirror images of plant or biological compounds, companies can obtain proprietary rights. Monsanto's ability to patent glyphosate, despite its structural similarities to natural sugars, lay in its unnatural configuration.

Flipping Fructose Into High-Fructose Corn Syrup Creates Triglycerides, Causing Cardiovascular Disease, Brain Inflammation, Depression, Anxiety

Bush further notes that when the body encounters high-fructose corn syrup—flipped from normal fructose—the liver cannot process it as a typical sugar. Instead, it converts it to triglycerides, fats that contribute to cardiovascular disease and chronic brain inflammation manifesting as depression and anxiety. The simple process of flipping a molecule creates a host of biological disturbances.

Chemically-Modified Molecules Are Used For Patents Requiring Non-natural Origins

Pharmaceutical Industry Profits From Patenting Chemically Modified Plant Compounds

Bush explains that the pharmaceutical industry is built around finding biologically active plant compounds, chemically modifying them to non-natural forms, and then acquiring patents. This enables commercial control and high profit margins. For example, the chemotherapy drug [restricted term] comes from algae—where it exists in a natural, bioavailable form. Instead of using the native plant system, the industry extracts and isolates the compound, processes it chemically, and then patents it as a lucrative treatment. [restricted term] now sells for $28,000 a gram when industrially extracted and commercialized.

Bush recounts his tenure in academic medicine, where chemists and doctors were incentivized to develop such molecules for cancer drugs. He observes that the same practice occurs with oil: a substance of minimal native value is manipulated and marketed at many times its original worth.

Industrial Complex Reliant on Toxic Substances: Chemotherapy Drugs, Herbicides, Processed Foods

This innovation of chemical modification for profit applies to many sectors. Chemically altered plant-derived drugs, chemically synthesized herbicides, and processed foods with unnatural molecular structures all rely on the same principle: take something natural, change it to make it patentable, and commercialize it as a solution to manufactured problems.

1910 Flexner Report: Rockefeller's Influence on Herbal Medicine and Pharmaceuticals

Bush and Rogan discuss the pivotal role of the Flexner Report of 1910, which was funded by Rockefeller and promoted through his substantial investments in oil and Standard Oil. The report marginalized 10,000 years of herbalism and traditional medicine in favor of pharmaceutical approaches derived from small carbon molecule technology—often rooted in fossil fuels. This shift set the foundation ...

Zach Bush explores the foundational role of biological energy, or "biosis," in the evolution of life, consciousness, and humanity's future potential. He presents humans as complex biological ecosystems and antennas tuned to life's information, with emerging neurological patterns like autism signaling adaptation to an increasingly artificial world.

"Biosis" Refers To Relationships Concentrating Light Energy, Predicting Biological Complexity and Capacity

Bush defines "biosis" as the network of interconnected relationships that enable life’s existence and growth. The history of life is marked by evolutionary innovations that increase the concentration of light energy within living systems, which predicts how complex and capable those systems become.

Evolutionary Innovations and Increased Light Energy Concentration

The process starts with chlorophyll, an innovation "just to the right of the sun." While stars produce energy via nuclear fission and fusion, chlorophyll captures and concentrates light energy at levels surpassing even those cosmic reactions. This concentrated light is converted into chemical energy, passed onto bacteria and fungi, which use fermentation processes to further store and manipulate this energy. Bacteria broke down carbon bonds through fermentation, storing sunlight captured in the chemical bonds of carbohydrates and fatty acids. Fungi amplified this by outsourcing fermentation into the soil, creating expansive mycelial networks that enabled more energy flow and collaboration between organisms.

A major evolutionary leap came with mitochondria—ancient bacteria that merged with other cells to create a new energy system using oxygen and hydrogen, leading to a tenfold increase in energy concentration per cubic centimeter. This innovation sparked the rise of multicellular life, escalating complexity and communication in nature. Each step in evolution followed the pattern of increasing the biosis—strengthening interconnected relationships and concentrating energy, from plants and simple organisms to complex multicellular beings.

Humans Have the Highest Biological Energy Concentration due to the Biodiversity and Interconnected Relationships in the Human Microbiome and Cellular Ecosystem

Humans represent the culmination of billions of years of this process. The human body, especially the colon and its supporting systems, hosts more biodiversity and interconnected life than any other niche on Earth—even more than rainforests or coral reefs. This immense biosis translates into humans holding the planet’s highest concentration of information and light energy.

The Brain Has 2,000 Mitochondria per Neuron, a Concentration of Ancient Bacteria Powering Human Consciousness and Perception

Most human cells contain about 200 mitochondria each, but neurons are packed with up to 2,000 mitochondria per cell. These ancient bacteria act as cellular power plants, giving the human brain an unparalleled amount of energy and complexity, and supporting advanced consciousness and perception.

Humans Are "Biological Antennas"—ecosystem Channels For Life's Information Exchange

Bush compares humans to biological antennas, uniquely designed to channel and exchange information between the planet and the cosmos. The human brain and nervous system can perceive, receive, and transmit vast amounts of information, both consciously and unconsciously.

Human Genome: 19,000 to 25,000 Protein-Coding Genes; 98.5% of DNA Codes For Mitochondria and Microbes, Indicating Humans Are More Ecosystems Than Individual Species

Despite the human body’s complexity, mapping the human genome revealed only 19,000–25,000 protein-coding genes—fewer than a flea and only slightly more than a fruit fly. This is a fraction (1.5%) of human DNA. The remaining 98.5%, once called "junk DNA," is now recognized as likely coding for the diversity of life within us, including mitochondria and the broader microbiome. This means humans are not a single species but an ecosystem—a genetic warehouse for all terrestrial life.

If all the DNA from the average human’s 50–70 trillion cells were laid end to end, it could wrap around Earth’s equator two million times. This underscores that humans are not isolated beings but living records and transmitters of the planet’s life history.

Mitochondria Store Nuclear Genetic Info, Access Genes to Reproduce Every Three Days, Showing Humans As Containers for Collective Biological Intelligence

Mitochondria, with many species variants inside each cell, rapidly change and adapt by drawing essential genes from the human cell nucleus to reproduce every three days. This ongoing exchange further blurs the line between individual and ecosystem, making each human a vessel of collective biological wisdom and adaptive potential.

Humans Perceive Telepathic Communication and Access Collective Knowledge Through Natural Frequencies By Connecting To Natural Systems

Bush proposes that the human nervous system, when open and attuned, enables perception beyond ordinary faculties—such as a heightened sense of energetic, telepathic, or intuitive knowledge. Profound states, including near-death experiences, allow people to "pierce the veil" and sense radical connectivity with the universe, experiencing themselves as receivers and transmitters of vast informational fields.

Autism and Eme ...

Money and Economic Systems Convince Humans They Are Separate From Nature and Not Resourced by Living Systems

Zach Bush argues that happiness and fulfillment do not require money, but rather flow from being resourced by nature. He criticizes the modern belief that money guarantees safety, food, and shelter, and points out that this is an abstract relationship with living systems. Human systems, Bush insists, should be reformed around the understanding that nature is abundant and only knows continuous transformation, not death.

OED Definition of "Nature" Excludes Humans, Institutionalizing the False Belief of Human Opposition to Nature

Bush and Rogan highlight the Oxford English Dictionary's definition of "nature," which explicitly excludes humans and anything humans have made. This institutionalizes the belief that humans are fundamentally opposed to nature. Bush observes that this sense of separation reinforces an internalized feeling of abandonment, fostering a mental and cultural distance from the Earth's living systems.

Humans Felt Abandoned by Nature, Fostering Poverty Consciousness and Scarcity Mentality Amidst Abundance, Driving Empires, Colonialism, and Ownership Systems

Bush connects this abstracted worldview to a collective abandonment disorder. Feeling cut off from nature’s abundance, humans developed a poverty and scarcity mentality, which then fueled colonialism, the drive for ownership, and the construction of empires. He notes that ancient peoples saw themselves as part of the earth, but the arrival of settlers and colonialists—who viewed themselves as abandoned by and separate from nature—brought with them a scarcity-driven, predatory mentality. This, says Bush, broke longstanding relationships of abundance and led to cycles of conquest and exploitation.

Money Doesn't Create Life; Women Birth Life, Nature Provides Abundance; Money Is Just a Societal Symbol Humans Think They Need Over a Relationship With Living Systems

Bush emphasizes that money does not create life or abundance. “Women birth life; money does not.” Nature and biology are self-perpetuating, always moving toward more complexity and beauty, without requiring abstract systems. Humans, he says, have become convinced that money is necessary for survival, but life and provision come from nature, not economic symbols. He urges recognition that nourishment, shelter, and interconnected relationships are provided by nature, not by economic or government systems.

Industrial Revolution and Pharma Complex Disrupted Traditional Knowledge, Created Chemical Dependency

Bush attributes much of humanity's modern disconnection from nature to technological progress, especially from the Industrial Revolution onward. Advanced technologies, processed foods, and pharmaceuticals have broken people’s reliance on ancestral lifeways, creating dependencies and loss of health.

Boxed Apple Juice Introduction Shifted Achuar Tribe From Abundance To Poverty Consciousness In 30 Years

One stark example Bush provides is the Achuar tribe. For 40,000 years, the Achuar lived in abundance without money, maintaining diverse gardens in the Amazon rainforest and constructing homes with no external materials or currency. In 1996, missionary-run schools introduced boxed apple juice containing high fructose corn syrup. The taste, and the artificial neurochemical stimulation it brought, confused the Achuar’s relationship with their environment. Suddenly, children and parents began seeing themselves as lacking—poverty consciousness replaced a history of confident provision. Within a single generation, the tribe adopted artificial foods, motor technology, smartphones, and Western schooling. What had been a system of intergenerational skill and abundance became one dominated by external dependencies and scarcity thinking.

Introduction of Modern Systems to Indigenous Cultures Disrupts "40,000-Year History of Provision and Abundance," Breaking Their Relationship To Nature and Affecting Biological Health and Social Coherence

Bush describes the Amazon jungle itself as a managed, manmade forest: hundreds of nations intentionally shaped it into the most biodiverse ecosystem, thriving through relationships with cycles of death and rebirth. The loss of these stewardship practices, and the introduction of foreign goods and abstractions, erode these carefully balanced systems. Breaking from nature leads not just to ecological decline but also to spiritual, biological, and societal instability—what Bush calls a shattering of both physical and energetic fields.

Educational Systems Designed For 150 Years to Train Children to Be Machine-Like Workers, Not for Human Flourishing

Further cementing the abstraction, Bush and Rogan critique that for the last 150 years, education has programmed children to become reliable, machine-like office workers, not curious or creative humans. Schools prioritize obedience, memorization, and test-taking over experiential learning, making ...

Pyramids and Ancient Structures Were Built Through Biological Mastery of Frequency, Waveform, and Consciousness, Not Mechanical Labor or Monetary Systems

Zach Bush posits that ancient wonders like the pyramids were not products of conventional mechanical labor or monetary incentives, but rather the result of a living system—an advanced biological mastery of frequency, waveform, consciousness, and connectivity with the energetic field of the earth and cosmos. He argues that the energy to create such structures came from human bodies acting as antennas: not merely receiving but also transmitting energy and information. This biological process was understood and employed by ancient builders, who “organized” material through energetic intention and frequency instead of physical force.

Pyramids "Organized" Via Energetic Transmission and Frequency Manipulation, Employing Sacred Geometry and Forgotten Biological Antenna Principles

The construction of pyramids and sacred structures, Bush contends, relied on the use of sacred geometry and the understanding of humans as universal antennas. These structures mirrored the cosmos; for example, pyramids were built at angles corresponding to Orion’s belt, and temples in Peru incorporated Pleiadian star patterns. Ancient peoples acted as conduits between earth and the universe, feeling and organizing matter through direct energetic manipulation. Bush describes this as an “emergent reality” shaped by biology sensing and working with the field, leading to outcomes like anti-gravity phenomenon and architectural marvels inconceivable by today’s mechanical standards.

Hieroglyphics Transmit Biological Info to Recalibrate Human Biology and Reduce Inflammation

Bush further explains that Egyptian hieroglyphs carry more than symbolic meaning; they transmit information through their shapes. When viewed, they can trigger physiological changes in the human body, such as reversing inflammation. The form itself communicates with human biology, recalibrating it in real time through resonant frequency and energetic imprint.

Ibrahim Karim Uses Egyptian Geometric Shapes to Enhance 5G Networks In Switzerland, Suggesting Ancient Knowledge of Wave Transmission and Biological Resonance

Dr. Ibrahim Karim in Cairo exemplifies the contemporary remembrance of this ancient knowledge. He is employed by Switzerland to improve the biology and vitality surrounding 5G networks by encoding them with Egyptian geometric shapes—practices derived from ancient understanding of wave transmission and biological resonance. Karim, according to Bush, is not inventing new technologies but “remembering” and rediscovering the principles encoded in nature and ancient culture; his intuition and antenna-like awareness allow him to recall and apply shapes for healing and technological harmonization.

Global Amnesia: Human Consciousness Disconnected From Direct Perception 5,000–7,000 Years ago, Operating Through Abstract Symbols and Hierarchies

Ancient Civilizations—Aztecs, Mayans, Incas, Egyptians—Shared Simultaneous Population Collapse, Knowledge Loss, Indicating a Coordinated Consciousness Shift

Bush identifies a significant amnesia event 5,000–7,000 years ago where human consciousness shifted away from direct perception and networked awareness. Civilizations including the Aztecs, Mayans, Incas, and Egyptians experienced simultaneous collapses and loss of knowledge. This suggests not isolated tragedy but a coordinated global change in awareness.

Amnesia Predates Writing, Money, and Hierarchy, Creating Abstractions That Separated Humans From Nature and Telepathy

This forgetfulness and break from nature predated writing, the invention of money, and hierarchical systems. The resultant abstract systems separated humans from direct connection with their environment and each other, reducing intuitive abilities such as telepathy and perception of plant, animal, and cosmic consciousness.

Renaissance 500 Years ago: Rediscovery of Lost Knowledge and Innovation Explosion

Bush points to the Renaissance of 500 years ago as a moment of partial remembrance. This era saw an explosion of innovation and rediscovery, but only a faint signal of the deeper, ancient connectivity and direct perception experienced before the global amnesia.

Biological Renaissance: Ancient Tech Revived, Autistic Individuals Show Telepathy and Perception

Bush contends that we are on the cusp of another “biological renaissance,” a phase of remembering, not inventing. Researchers and healers employing natural frequencies, sacred geometry, and biogeometry are drawing from the memory encoded in nature, with perception and intuition—not just analysis—restoring access to information once lost.

Researchers and Healers Using Natural Frequencies, Sacred Geometry, and Biogeometry Are Not Creating New Systems but "Remembering" Ancient Knowledge Encoded In Nature, Accessing Information Through Perception Rather Than Analysis

These individuals, Bush asserts, are not producing new technologies, but rather “remembering” and tapping into information that already exists in the natural world. They access this wisdom through perception and intuition, resembling the ancient process by which temple architects or shamans once operated.

Indigenous Elders With 100,000 Years of Knowledge Show Perceptual Capacities Like Autistic Individuals—Telepathy, Reading Animal and Plant Consciousness, Sensing Natural Frequencies

Bush describes how indigenous elders, for example among the Khoi people of Africa (with a documented, unbroken lineage spanning 100,000 years), still possess capacities akin to those seen in autistic individuals: telepathic communication, readi ...