Toby & Friends

Toby Ruckert

Welcome to "Toby & Friends" – the podcast for the self-curious. Here you’ll meet creative thinkers and doers who share their knowledge, wisdom and experiences with other listeners and aspiring Polymaths, covering topics relevant to our current times. "If you are the smartest person in the room, then you are in the wrong room." Taking Confucius' wise words to heart, the idea of this podcast series is to exchange with (smarter) friends in a virtual campfire session, without sponsorship and no particular agenda, but in the true spirit of polymathic learning, simply by sharing knowledge and thus coming up with new solutions to the most pressing problems of Modern Times. www.moderntimesopportunities.com

  1. 09/01/2025

    Agni Hotra

    “HEAL THE ATMOSPHERE AND IT WILL HEAL YOU.” More than 20 years ago and while traveling India for the first time, I wondered what could be the reason for the unique atmospheric magic that occurred during the many ceremonial sunrise and sunset fires I happened to witness then. For my first Substack live video a few days back I was therefore particularly happy and fortunate to welcome Prof. Dr. Ulrich Berk, Founder and President at the German Association of Homa Therapy to celebrate this occasion with me by doing Agni Hotra live online. If you just want to capture the essence, you can clearly observe the differences in the atmosphere before and after Ulrich is doing the Agni Hotra (around 30:30 in the video above), however, as several people have asked for more details, I’ve put together this post to go deeper into some of the aspects mentioned by Ulrich. Research revealed that Agni Hotra can clear biological, chemical, and physical pollutants from the air, and laboratory studies even suggest Agni Hotra smoke and ash can dramatically reduce airborne bacterial counts — cutting them by 90% within 12 hours, while leaving beneficial microbes in-tact. Agni Hotra provides a readily available model for decentralised environmental health interventions where and when needed, using ancient wisdom that inspires new pathways in managing airborne pathogens whilst “healing the atmosphere” overall. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.moderntimesopportunities.com/subscribe

  2. 02/25/2024

    The Beauty of Light

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.moderntimesopportunities.com Dr. Alexander Wunsch is one of the world’s foremost experts (as a doctor, scientist, inventor and by personal experimentation) in the field of light, color, sound and the coherence that goes with it, this podcast was originally intended to be all about light and its effect on health and wellbeing. However, and as the listener will undoubtedly recognize — the conversation you are about to witness has taken us much further than we had originally anticipated and includes questions such as: If “higher octaves” of audible sound (Hz-KHz range) can become light (THz range) — is light a sound wave or sound a light wave? How do certain diseases shift appearance and symptoms when being treated? Why forcing them into submission sometimes makes things worse? Does the quality and quantity of the visible as well as the invisible light spectrum ultimately affect our ability to learn, evolve and fulfill our potential? How does light influence and control humans (and other organisms)? What happens when there are no biologically valuable light sources available? Is there an ideal frequency and state of mind for our brains to learn and absorb new information to easily remember them later without feeling stressed? Why are important inventions often made simultaneously, yet by physically distanced independent people? Where is intelligence coming from and how can it be defined? What is life? Must a life form always be confined to having some sort of DNA? These are just some of the incredibly deep subjects raised during our conversation which is why I thoroughly encourage you to take the time and listen to it in full. Enjoy!

  3. 12/15/2023

    Untangling Disease?

    The following episode is a keynote of Dr. Nirlepa who dived deeply into the principles of her clinic “MSVC” — a well established integrated holistic health center, located in the center of Hyderabad. I’m very happy that she has given permission to share her presentation in full and I thoroughly encourage you to watch the video I posted alongside this article carefully, as there are many subtleties on the journey from health to dis-ease and back which could otherwise be missed. Following the Mahāsiddha Tradition of India, she explains how the “Law of Truth” governs different aspects of life, the forces that control or manipulate them and how ancient saints and rishis were able to tune their minds into both the visible and invisible spectrums of creation. Considering that the visible world is a combination of 5 elements: * Earth * Water * Fire * Air * Space — one of the most intriguing questions she addressed was how the invisible world (or spectrum) is the governing principle of these five elements by generating, operating and destroying them accordingly. Purpose of Life and Yoga Dr. Nirlepa first goes into explaining the purpose of life according to Vedas, how this path and the related science of self-realization is linked to Yoga, what are the respective principles that govern it and why in this aspect Ayurveda (as the “science of life”) is assigned a special importance. She emphasizes: “Maintaining harmony between body, mind and spirit is crucial to attain higher self as only with a healthy body, mind and a positive spirit to lead it into the self, we can truly get ourselves ready for the yogic quest.” — Dr. Nirlepa Science of Life and Ayurveda Ayurveda classifies the aforementioned five elements into 3 vital principles which are called as “Tridoshas”: * Vata: combination of the elements air and space — making it a principle of momentum, or “movement”; * Pitta: fire element — representing the transformative principle, linked to a “metabolic continuous change of state”; * Kapha: combination of the elements water and earth — and the main principle of secretions and thereby “regulation of all principles”. The Tridoshas at body level are connected to the mind via three qualities called as “Gunas”, they are: * Sattva: “creative principle”, e.g. via new thoughts or emotions — linked to Vata; * Rajas: “directional force”, i.e. the drive of the creative principle put in a specific direction for manifestation, passion and comparison — linked to Pitta; * Tamas: “resistance”, the ability to resist negative influences but also to be ready for positive changes and transformation while manifesting — linked to Kapha. Every Guna has its own positive and negative qualities and the state of Tridoshas (and with it our constitution) was determined by the state of mind of our parents during conception. This unique combination of the three doshas is called “Prakruti” which is a highly individual fingerprint of our constitution in both body and mind, similar to our DNA. What’s Health in Ayurveda? Good health or “Swastha” is defined with a lot of precision in Ayurveda and goes well beyond the simple absence of disease, which is the norm in most common definitions of “healthcare”. There are various factors which determine the complete health of our multi-dimensional Being called “Human”, for instance: * The three doshas should be in balance with our individual prakruti; * Sama agni (“fire” element) — should be balanced as the transformative principle; * The seven dhatus are in good health and stable condition; * What needs to be excreted (“mala”), is successfully detoxed, e.g. urine, etc. Health and wellbeing of our mind is also equally important: * The discipline and self control of our five senses gives happiness to our mind and health to us, plus: in order to get properly into our 6th sense (which is nothing but the mind), we need to balance our five senses first. All of the above combined is needed for our self-realization. “sama dosha sama agnishchasamadhatu mala kriyaaha|Prasanna atma mana indriyahaswastha iti abhidheeyate ||” — Sushruta Samhita The Cause and Process of Disease Any lack of a guna (“quality”) naturally leads to an opposite quality, just as a lack of good gives rise to evil or as lack of light leads to darkness. * Missing certain qualities (in physical, emotion, lifestyle conditions, etc.) subsequently lead to an imbalance. * Imbalances in turn create disharmony (e.g. between body/mind/spirit) from which a so-called “dis-order” arises. * Disorders manifest certain kinds of dysfunctions and ultimately result in what we commonly call as dis-ease. Essentially what happens is that a naturally balanced flow is disturbed, then accompanied and expressed with symptoms and signs, which are nothing but a misalignment from our highly individual Prakruti. This dis-alignment is called “Vikruti”. Just as our Prakruti is unique to us, so is our Vikruti. Consequently, our “dis-ease” is as individual as we are. Pulse Diagnosis — “Nadi Pariksha” As the depth of the dis-alignment cannot be detected from looking at the mere symptoms of a disease alone, the ancient art and science of “Nadi Pariksha” comes into play. With all of us being highly unique both with regards to our self alignment but also our misalignments (“illnesses”), the main and most simple principle in restoring our health therefore is to fill up those qualities which are (or have come to be) lacking. In order to understand how this works, we have to realize that every cell in our body has an antenna. However there are only two points which are the main receivers for absorbing mind information into the body — “sacs with a fluid” that are connected to the heart and the pineal gland. These fluids have some peculiar properties: they contain piezoelectric crystals which act as the antenna to process the information from mind to body in the form of biorhythm patterns which in turn can be perceived by nadi reading — more commonly known as “pulse diagnosis”. There are many details pertaining to this unique art of untangling disease, some are indeed real secrets which Dr. Nirlepa is sharing in her very special presentation shared in the almost two hour and exclusive video above. I hope you find and take the time to watch it in its entirety as it’s quite rare to get such information from real practitioners of this hidden art and science that takes many years to master. If you have interest in your own diagnosis and how this could help you to untangle your own “dis-eases”, I’m happy to connect you to Dr. Nirlepa directly. Meanwhile, if you enjoyed this post, please leave a like, comment, share or if you can afford it, buy the premium subscription for more highlights like this! I’m happy to give away one free premium subscription to a person of your choice (with or without a Christmas message) for every new paid subscriber. Have a great weekend, Toby P.S.: If you’d like to learn more about Vedic Sciences, feel free to join the Vedience® Community on WhatsApp here. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.moderntimesopportunities.com/subscribe

  4. 10/06/2023

    Family Offices

    Everyone knows about famous and successful billionaire outliers such as Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg etc. — but have you heard of so-called “Hidden Champions” as well? They’re mostly created by a visionary founder and often winning globally (either by market share or in owning certain niches) after one or two generations by keeping their secret sauce and culture together against all odds. The result from such (and contrary to the aforementioned outliers) often very private, very steady and very long term success are generations of families and their heirs, being trained from a very early age on to not spoil the family heirloom. Instead they're encouraged to use their individual skills and unique position at the time to take it to the next level. It is in this context that many years ago I was first introduced to the concept of so-called “Family Offices”. Custodians of extraordinary (but very private) wealth, knowledge, network and experiences, family offices are often created by phenomenal founder personalities who managed to leverage their talent in entrepreneurship, savviness in business and their innovative spirit to create a legacy way beyond their time. Family offices come in different shapes and forms (e.g. single vs. multi vs. virtual family offices, etc.) and the concept goes back (documented) at least two centuries, perhaps even much longer, however they all have one thing in common: they like privacy and they’re destined for purpose. It’s therefore a great privilege to have Katja and Tobias from Prestel & Partner with me, who have been kindly sharing some very personal and humble lessons learnt from founding and running the World’s Leading Family Office Forum Conferences globally for well over a decade now. Please enjoy this very special episode and take this as an opportunity to learn something about a world otherwise closed to most of us. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.moderntimesopportunities.com/subscribe

  5. 07/30/2023

    You Are What You Eat

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.moderntimesopportunities.com We’ve all heard the sentence “you are what you eat” and with the exception of genetic diseases and other pre-existing medical conditions, it’s probably true in most cases. That said we really “consume information” and with it “create our individual reality” across a wide spectrum of life’s manifestations using all of our mind’s senses (not just taste) — including touching, smelling, seeing and hearing. Attention to Attention When reading this article, remember the old saying: Where your attention is, there you are. What your attention is upon, that you become. In fact it’s not only what we choose to focus on. It also includes what we skillfully circumvent, thereby avoiding confrontation with what feeds our inner demons, e.g.: * the emotions we keep taking in; * the fears we simply don’t want to face; * the thoughts we let run idle; * the feelings we rumble upon others; and many more examples, making attention a complex, but cornerstone aspect in the work of world-leading life coaches, explaining why social media algorithms are optimized to keep us addicted and why there are patent filings aiming to commercialize our attention (including subconscious mental activities as well as conscious bodily activities) thereby extracting financial value from it. If trust is the “ultimate currency”, then “attention” is the ultimate “economy”. The Great Poisoning Let’s go back to the original meaning of the sentence though. If we are what we eat, but don’t understand what nutrients (or poisons) our body extracts as essence of the foods we supply ourselves with, what do we really know? You might think — “as long as I can choose the food I eat, I’m still in charge”, but are you? The fluoride in tap water surely isn’t great, yet there are ways to filter it (or buy expensive mineral water instead). However, did you know that: * 5% of the fat contained in chocolate may not be related to cocoa butter at all; * (most) wines contain all sorts of animal products due to fining; * (as of this year) — the EU has given permission to add insects (e.g. house crickets but also maggots, worms and beetles) to baked goods, pasta and other semi-finished products “for the general public” with the only labeling requirement being that they contain e.g. “Acheta domesticus” powder? So you might want to check with your local bakery how vegetarian your organic rye bread really is, or as Tamara Breitschneider puts it on her blog: “The exterminator used to be responsible for insects. Today it’s the chef.” Luckily there are some good initiatives, such as ILBList (Insects Food Blacklist), which is doing an excellent job in trying to keep up with the ever confusing question: ARE we STILL WHAT we EAT? As for the E numbers on packed food items which are used to identify substances such as food additives, the “Zusatz Bot” is a useful tool to quickly navigate what each code is about and what it could mean for your health. That said: What if there isn’t even any labeling in the first place? Modern Times Opportunities is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

About

Welcome to "Toby & Friends" – the podcast for the self-curious. Here you’ll meet creative thinkers and doers who share their knowledge, wisdom and experiences with other listeners and aspiring Polymaths, covering topics relevant to our current times. "If you are the smartest person in the room, then you are in the wrong room." Taking Confucius' wise words to heart, the idea of this podcast series is to exchange with (smarter) friends in a virtual campfire session, without sponsorship and no particular agenda, but in the true spirit of polymathic learning, simply by sharing knowledge and thus coming up with new solutions to the most pressing problems of Modern Times. www.moderntimesopportunities.com