Alcibiades tells a story about Socrates while on campaign in Potidaea:

Immersed in some problem at dawn, he stood in the same spot considering it and when he found it a tough one, he would not give it up but stood there trying. The time drew on to midday, and the men began to notice him, and said to one another in wonder: ‘Socrates has been standing there in a study ever since dawn!’ The end of it was that in the evening some of the Ionians after they had supped—this time it was summer—brought out their mattresses and rugs and took their sleep in the cool; thus they waited to see if he would go on standing all night too. He stood till dawn came and the sun rose; then walked away, after offering a prayer to the Sun. (Symposium 220c-d, tr. in Loeb 1925)

What made Socrates motionless? What kept him standing there in place for so long? What problem was so great that he couldn’t figure it out for an entire day and night? I do not know. I only know the Sun released him. It was not the embarrassment of being made a spectacle by other men that caused him to finally walk away. It was the Sun. Whether it was a religious duty to offer a prayer, or the gift of a new day brought about by the Sun rising—I only know that the Sun was the mover of Socrates.

I believe the Sun deserves a prayer. It is virtuous to love those things which ought to be loved. The Sun has given you so much, and will continue giving you so much more. It deserves your thanks. You should even expose yourself to the Sun. You should expose your bare chest and back to it. Why? To show thanks. At the very least it will increase testosterone by roughly 120% in the male body.

We are entering strange times. Testosterone and who has it is going to play a vital role in how things play out. Unfortunately, the Overton window is accelerating leftward. Iconoclasm is the order of the day, and any statue whether abolitionist, conquistador, or confederate, is being identified as one of “whiteness” that must be destroyed. The feeling in my gut has been described best by renowned cyclist Alex McNabb—it feels like a rollercoaster, and we’re going over the edge. We’re going to need a lot of testosterone to deal with this new world.

Tucker Carlson had an exceptionally thoughtful monologue about our current state of affairs. He discussed the implications of anarchists and BLM getting their demands met by circumventing the legal process by simply rioting instead. He bluntly noted for millions to hear, “Violence works.” What do you do when you find yourself in a country where the most popular cable news host says that out loud? I believe the answer, at the very least, is to start with the basics. If society is decaying to barbarism, you have to meet that challenge. You must improve yourself proportional to the decay that’s setting in.

We must increase our health, strength, and spiritual well being. Now, more than ever, strong men are needed. We have to be the lighthouse in the storm. We need to be paragons of health and virtue. We must make the Sun and Earth our allies in this fight. I recall a page in Bronze Age Mindset where BAP suggests he is like a scientist interested in a bestiary of nobler forms of man. We must be these beasts worth studying. We will be Sun kissed, barefoot, and invigorated with testosterone. We must throw away our conception of “hippies” and their weak forms and instead insert a more powerful image of a man that is unified with nature—a man-beast.

This man-beast will be bare foot when possible. He will be powerful at all times, and when he has a little privacy, he’ll be completely nude—in his most natural state. And what good will come of that? Even more testosterone to invigorate the man-beast! From the Boston State Hospital:

The next series of irradiation was applied solely to the genital region and its immediate vicinity, the remainder of the body being carefully protected from all rays. After 5 irradiations during 6 days, the androsterone excretion was raised from 70 to 205 i.u., nearly 200%. Five more irradiations during the next 5 days did not further raise the hormone output, but it persisted at nearly the same level. After another 10-day interval without irradiation, the hormone output went back to its ‘normal’ level of about 70 i.u. per liter. 

Let me say this simply. Exposing your balls to the sun for less than 20 minutes every day will increase your testosterone by nearly 200% (covered here). Is there any reason you shouldn’t let your boys out? How many naked Greek statues do you need to look at before you get the picture that you are meant to be blessed by Apollo’s rays? At the very least, find a west facing window or an east facing window and open it in the late afternoon or early morning and let the rays come bless you in the privacy of your own home. Perhaps you could just take advantage of our libertine times? Sun your groin for all to see unapologetically.

If we’re going to be man-beasts in an age where “violence works,” increasing testosterone is paramount to become this man-beast. I don’t need to spell out why you need more testosterone, so let’s dive into some of Logan Christopher’s work in Upgrade Your Testosterone for increasing that blessed hormone (or at least stopping things from interfering with it’s uptake).

Testosterone is the “success hormone.” It’s released when you do something successful; it is down-regulated when you fail. Obviously you can’t “succeed” all the time, but the name of the game is to be a winner. Testosterone production also responds to body posture. Sit and stand in “power poses.” It’s best to always present a dominant posture, ie, expanded, limbs outstretched, chest out. This will not only keep your T levels high, it’ll be enough to improve your mood. If you don’t believe me, sit in a “beta” position with your shoulders slumped, body withdrawn, and a scowl on your face for a few minutes and see how you feel. Your body responds to its own posture. Feedback loops are created. More testosterone encourages dominant poses, and dominant poses encourage testosterone.

Limit endocrine disrupters. Avoid xeno-estrogens that can be found in chemicals in sunscreens, shampoos, laundry detergents, deodorants, pesticides, and plastics. A good rule of thumb is: if you’re not comfortable eating it, it probably shouldn’t be on your skin. Unfortunately this means buying more “natural” products. You can certainly make soaps and things yourself, but it’s easier to just seek out healthier products (like soap from Mighty White Soap Co), though I do encourage any DIY project you or your woman are capable of. Finally, you need to have good drinking water. Alex Jones is right, get a filter for your tap water.

It may seem obvious, but man-beasts don’t need soy products. Beer is fine occasionally, but the hops in beer have an estrogenic effect. The reason why so many microbreweries offer IPAs is because they can just add hops and more hops to hide a bad batch. I know men who drink beer everyday thinking this is a manly endeavor. It’s not. They have small breasts and a beer belly. Flax seed and licorice root should be avoided likewise.

Eat your cruciferous veggies. These have a detoxing effect on endocrine disrupters. These include kale, collard greens, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, broccoli, cauliflower, radishes, etc. Now I get it, veggies leave you unsatisfied. If you avoid the xeno-estrogens mentioned above, you can afford to eat less vegetables, but the plastic film covered world we live in means that you will need to make an effort in this area.

You need to lower cortisol and stress overall. Walking, meditation, laughter, are all beneficial in this regard. Make sure you can unwind everyday with something truly leisurely that isn’t just mindless screen stimulation. Stress hormones such as cortisol, adrenal hormones, epinephrine, and norepinephrine are all catabolic in nature. They work against the anabolic nature of testosterone and other androgens.

Get enough cholesterol. It’s the building block of all hormones. This can be gotten through animal fats, cheese, eggs, beef, pork, poultry, etc. Make sure you’re getting enough micronutrients such as zinc, iodine, and boron. Zinc needs a special mention. It’s a powerful aromatase inhibitor (prevents T from being converted to estrogen) and can be gotten through things like oysters, pumpkin seeds, and legumes. If you feel like you need to take a “magic herb” to help you along, the closest you’ll get is with pine pollen tincture and tongkat ali. You can make pine pollen tincture very easily yourself. I’ve tried this, and it works. And finally, exercise regularly and get good sleep (absolutely no screens an hour before bed).

My best advice, and the advice of Logan Christopher, is to pick a few things you can improve on, and go from there. Never mind if you’re leaving some T on the table. A small improvement is better than none at all. You can get blood or saliva samples taken to measure T levels and other hormones to keep track of progress… or, as Logan points out, just keep track of your morning wood. If any changes to your diet, lifestyle, or supplement program have a positive effect on your T levels, you’ll find out in the morning. And if you’re not ever experiencing this supposed “only a teenage” phenomena, that means you have some improvements to make. 

Now if your testosterone is through the roof, it might be worth tackling some inflammation with Mother Gaia. Wild beasts don’t wear shoes and neither should you (all the time anyways). “Earthing,” as it’s called, is basically when you make contact with the Earth and are grounded to it. The Earth’s surface has a slight negative charge and when you make contact with the Earth on your bare feet, you are then “grounded” like a wire. Wearing shoes prevents this grounding from occurring as well as many surfaces inside buildings (concrete is an exception). Grounding is crucial to your immune response and interfering with this process can have tremendously bad effects. To sum up this theory I’ll refer to the Journal of Inflammation Research:

Our main hypothesis is that connecting the body to the Earth enables free electrons from the Earth’s surface to spread over and into the body, where they can have antioxidant effects. Specifically, we suggest that mobile electrons create an antioxidant microenvironment around the injury repair field, slowing or preventing reactive oxygen species (ROS) delivered by the oxidative burst from causing “collateral damage” to healthy tissue, and preventing or reducing the formation of the so-called “inflammatory barricade”. We also hypothesize that electrons from the Earth can prevent or resolve so-called “silent” or “smoldering” inflammation. If verified, these concepts may help us better understand and research the inflammatory response and wound healing, and develop new information on how the immune system functions in health and disease.

To illustrate some examples of what Earthing can do, we’ll start with an example of 33 year old woman who had chronic knee pain after a gymnastics injury she had at age 15. She had a history of “chronic right knee pain, swelling, and instability, and was unable to stand for long periods. Simple actions, such as driving, increased the symptoms. She had to sleep with a pillow between her knees to decrease the pain.” Over the years she sought medical treatment and physical therapy that provided little relief. After 30 minutes of grounding the patient reported a slight decrease in pain. After six days of grounding she reported a 50% reduction in pain and improvement in pain while standing and driving. After 4 weeks, the patient was able to play a game of soccer for the first time in 15 years. By 12 weeks, her pain had diminished 90% and she was able to waterski. The patient contacted the doctors office at 6 months and reported she did a half marathon.

If anybody reading this has dealt with chronic pain (I certainly have), this story is nothing short of remarkable. I’ve had tremendous results grounding with patella femoral pain syndrome, and my 80 year old grandmother overcame a chronic shoulder injury after I talked her into grounding just a half hour every day. Grounding has also shown great benefits for wound healing. An 84 year old woman with an 8 month old open non-healing wound had her wound close after 2 weeks of grounding for 30 minutes every day. A Tour de France athlete was treated with “grounding” for accelerated wound healing after a chain wheel gouged his leg. He was able to resume the race the day after the injury (though the wound was obviously still there).

Besides wound healing, grounding improves sleep. One study found that “1) grounding the body during sleep yields quantifiable changes in diurnal or circadian cortisol secretion levels that, in turn, 2) produce changes in sleep, pain, and stress (anxiety, depression, and irritability), as measured by subjective reporting.” You will sleep better if you’re grounded.

For anybody who has seriously lifted, the recovery time between exercising is crucial. Over training is always a concern, but what if grounding speeds up muscle recovery allowing you to lift heavier more often? This next section from the same Journal of Inflammation Research is too interesting to summarize:

Grounded participants in the study had a higher pain tolerance and less DOMS than sham grounded participants. Grounding reduces DOMS and likely improves recovery time after exercise. Two more interesting findings with grounding: Earthing (grounding) reduces blood viscosity—a major factor in cardiovascular disease. Grounding improves your mood.

I suppose it’s reasonable for someone to make the objection that these studies have small sample sizes, and that’s fine. But don’t let that stop you from at least trying it. Simply kick your shoes off outside and enjoy the grass between your toes. Concrete will suffice, but it’s not as enjoyable. Preferably your shirt should be off, and ideally you’ll be naked. Neo-Wandervogel. But again, small improvements are better than doing everything all at once. You can buy “earthing shoes” and grounding blanket systems if you look for them. Try what’s free first before you get suckered into buying something.

Grounding should absolutely be practiced by the man-beasts of the new world. Take advantage of the Earth. Take advantage of the Sun. These things are here to help you, just remember to be thankful. You should also make an effort to eat well and pray over food that improves your well-being. BAP wrote something that intrigued me. He said, “Animals walk around in a state of permanent religious intoxication.” Can we not achieve the same thing if we lead healthy vigorous lives as man-beasts? 

At the absolute bare minimum you will need to be healthy for things to come. You can do this naturally, and you will feel better than if you pursue modern medical interventions (and it will be a lot cheaper, too). We need testosterone laden man-beasts, not only for our future, but for our present.