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Dr. Stephen Sideroff is an internationally recognized psychologist, executive and medical consultant and expert in resilience, optimal performance, addiction, neurofeedback, leadership, and mental health. He has published pioneering research in these fields. He is a professor at UCLA in the Department of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences and the Department of... Read More
James Strole is the Executive Director of the Coalition for Radical Life Extension, which is the producer of RAADfest, the largest global event of its kind. James is also the the Co-Founder and Co-Director of People Unlimited, an organization that supports people interested in unlimited lifespans. Co-author of the book... Read More
- What is significance of the immortal germline?
- What is your perspective on the trauma of death and why is it important?
- The power of togetherness to advance super longevity
Dr. Stephen Sideroff
Welcome to another episode of Reversing Inflammaging Summit Body in Mind Medicine Longevity. I’m happy to have today James Strole, who’s the executive director of the Coalition for Radical Life Ex Extension and the producer of Rad Fest, the largest global meeting of its kind, James. Welcome to our program.
James Strole
Thank you very much, Dr. Sideroff. It’s great to be a part of this. I’m looking forward to seeing the whole production.
Dr. Stephen Sideroff
Yeah. And I want to say I had a really great time at your event this past year and met a lot of very interesting people doing amazing work in this field. And I also appreciated the range of perspectives and approaches that you had there. So thank you for making this available to the public. It was a really good event.
James Strole
Well, thank you very much and thank you for participating. Both you and Dr. Lufkin both uh added a lot. And uh not only did we cover a lot of ground, right? We uh we tried to bring in, you know, the top people uh in not only uh you know, the best wellness protocols, but also age reversal. And so we had a, you know, a great variety there that I think uh kind of fill some of the gaps between people understanding what longevity is uh compared to super longevity. That’s, that’s what Brad fest is all about is super longevity.
Dr. Stephen Sideroff
Yeah. And you do have a very interesting approach and I, I’d like to start by asking you what got you into this uh field. What inspired you?
James Strole
Well, that’s a little bit of a story, but I’ll try to make it short. So, from a young age, you know, I think like all of us,, when we’re growing up, we, uh, this is part of my conversation a lot now that we’re all traumatized by death. You know, we’re traumatized as by seeing people we care about die. And my first experience was with death. Uh, someone close to me dying was when I was 11 years old and it was my grandmother and I was very close to her. She was a, a beautiful woman raised me alongside of my mother. And, uh, then she contracted cancer and short time, it seemed like a very short time. She was, uh, you know, dead. She was passed and, uh, it was traumatic for me. And because I know I felt this amazing person and how could she just, you know, fade away? And so,, at that time, I was, I was raised in a Christian home and my mother said, I asked my mother, I said, well, uh, you know, when will I get to see grandmother again?
Because I was already, you know, feeling the loss of her. And she said, well, when you die to go to heaven, well, that didn’t, that didn’t really fit well, when we had the time as a child, I had to die that, you know, so I said, I just popped out. I said, you know, well, why do we have to die to go to heaven? Why can’t we have heaven here on earth? You know, why can’t we just end this process basically, you know, it was in my mind. And so I had a very fortunately understanding, I’ll say progressive mother that level very a searcher herself. And she said, oh, you know, that’s a good thought. I don’t know the answer to that. But why don’t you pursue that? So that was always something in me. I mean, I actually think this, I actually think this, I’ll, I’ll call it a primal instinct for life is in all of us. When, you know, when we’re a kid where we think we’re immortal, right? Until we find out different, until we learn, you know, that maybe that isn’t the case from I mean, from what we see around us. But consequently, I, I just through my life then that, that was a major theme in me. I was a major, I’ll say passion and even in school, uh through grade school all the way up through high school, I wrote themes about it. I got into conversation with people about it.
I got into other I studied certain, eastern religions that were, that were into that as, you know, I couldn’t find any science uh fundamentally in it at that time, you know, stating that that was possible or anything. But I pursued that field. And so fortunately that drew me, uh I think we draw to us, we know what we’re, what we’re looking for when it’s the real passion. And I drew to uh me uh people who are thinking the same thing. Uh One of them is my partner now today Bernardine Brown, uh which uh wasn’t a rad fest this year because she caught COVID just before, but she’s always there and an amazing uh she’s 85 she’s an amazing speaker on unlimited uh life on super longevity. And ours has the same passion also at a very young age, she awakened. So I met her and then we began to work together along with another partner. And uh we formed different companies uh to uh help propagate uh to expand this thought of super longevity. And in 1995 and I formed a company called People Unlimited. OK.
And is a company dedicated to uh radical life extension to educate people to connect people to uh the whole science of it and to seek out more uh evidence and more, I’ll say, uh people in the world who felt this way. Well, then uh in 2000, that’s we kept, we formed that company and it was very successful. We traveled the world speaking super longevity. And then in 2014, we got the idea to create the coalition for Radical Life Extension, which is now the producer of Rad Fest. So I became, they uh I formed AAA board on that a committee. They wanted me to be the director. So I became the director of the Coalition and then we created Rad Fest. Interesting enough, I think doctor Well, both of you can probably relate to this. We formed Rad Fest. Hey, oh Jim, you know, please don’t, please don’t create another boring science event, you know, just, you know, because we, we, we, we get, we get bored sometimes at our own events. And so, so we thought, OK, we need to create, we wanted anyway, create some and it was also exciting for the public because we just didn’t want to draw in the doctors and scientists.
We want to draw in the general public because we want to create a mass movement. So we thought, OK, why don’t we create something like a Woodstock for radical life attention, something fun, festive, you know, something that would also interest the public and, and the public would feel comfortable in coming in and that it just wasn’t all about science. So we did that and there was a lot of, you know, I’ll say speculation whether that would work or not. But the first year was amazingly successful. We grew over 1000 people. Uh All the scientists and doctors were very pleased. It was the biggest, became the biggest event of its kind, uh you know, up up until then. And so since then, that’s uh it’s just grown, you know, at, at potentially, of course, the uh pandemic slowed us down AAA bit for two years. But we’re so happy to be back, live, right? Come back, live together this year. And uh that’s, that’s how I got started. And it’s been an amazing adventure challenging, right? Because whenever you’re taking anything out of the box, you have, you have the skeptics and, but you have to keep going if that, that’s uh what you really uh you know, feel deep in your heart.
Dr. Stephen Sideroff
Yeah, I, you’ve mentioned super longevity. I would like you to share with the audience your uh perspective on aging and longevity because it’s, I think a little bit different than some of the other speakers we speak to here.
James Strole
Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for that. Uh Well, uh first of all, super longevity is different than just longevity. And it’s great, obviously, we want to live as long as we can in a healthy manner. But super longevity is about uh breaking what’s called uh what I call the death barrier, going beyond the biological potential uh for a human being to live. Which uh a lot of doctors or scientists will say is around 1 23 1 25 in that area uh up and then past that, we’re gonna need innovations uh to uh you know, and which we already already have and they are using, but they’re gonna be, you know, such innovations as gene therapies, nanotechnology, you know, you name it to get past, to get past uh the limitation there, the biological limitation. I think our bodies have a tremendous ability to regenerate, but we’re gonna need, but we’re gonna need help and we’re already getting help by, you know, uh pacemakers and, and hearing aids, you name it, glasses are all innovations.
And now in this new world though, we’re gonna, and they’re already happening. New innovations and uh such as analytics, you know, stem cells, exomes, gene therapies, you name it are coming now to the table and exponentially this, this new world is moving faster all the time. So as Ray Kwell and Dr. Grossman say, you know, live long enough to live forever. So, you know, you live uh really strong now, be healthy as you can in a couple of years, there’ll be something else to do to add to your toolbox, to live even longer. So uh that’s what super longevity is about, we just keep on getting the next innovation, uh, becoming stronger all the time. And, uh, there’s there and I, I actually feel that we can actually completely stop aging and reverse aging and, and not, and not have to see death and really, like I said, create, uh, what I call would be a heaven here on earth because we can end this tyranny of death that keeps us from really knowing who we really are as human beings.
Dr. Stephen Sideroff
Mhm Yeah. As a psychologist, uh I know that fear of death underlies a lot of people’s anxieties.
James Strole
Exactly.
Dr. Stephen Sideroff
Explain your perspective on the trauma of death and why you feel like that’s something that’s very important.
James Strole
Yeah. Well, let me, let me say too. I, I’m gonna mention this because uh we, we have uh we have an immortal germ line. So uh I think like you probably heard him at uh sure you heard him at uh excuse me, Dr. Michael Rose is talking about the immortal germ line and this is, is what uh I strongly agree with that. His theory is that, well, first of all, we know we have an immortal germ line and so we’re not just looking for immortality out here somewhere. OK? The immortality comes from within, as he would say, Dr. Michael Rose would say, I think it’s a very important point to get because it sets a new mindset that we do have this strength to tap into us to enable us to take this, to take this journey and, and be able to be alive and have the strength and the will to live long enough to live forever, to keep on going. And to like I say, have the strength to do it. Now, one of the factors that you brought up about trauma traumatized by death. Ok. Some people are not conscious of it, maybe, but we’ve all seen death. We’ve seen that, you know, everything from the, from war to you to you name it down through humankind. We’ve been traumatized by it. So constantly, quickly, I personally, uh have experienced and see that uh we haven’t really developed ourselves as the human beings that we really could be if we got rid of this aging and death, this, this, this plague, this thing that has plagued us and kept us to becoming the true human beings we’re meant to be.
And that trauma has in, in essence, as you know, as a psychologist, trauma can, you know, retard can inhibit the real growth and the expansion of your psycho, not only your psychological uh strength, but also consequently your physical strength. Uh I think that this trauma has, well, first of all, everyone I’ve talked to have seen when you really go deep with them, they’ve been traumatized one by one way or another by death. And there’s a fear in that then of really getting close to people because of the fear of losing them. You know, you’re gonna, you, you know, you’re gonna lose them some days. So we never really get close to each other the way we could. And this is another great facet uh or, or I say, asset to be able to get rid uh or say cure aiding or death is that we’ll be begin to get a closeness, not only with each other with ourselves, but also with one another and begin to value human life that we never had before. To me, this is the real answer.
A very physical, real answer to really having peace on this planet because the way it is that now we don’t really value each other. We value all the things we create to have imaginary immortality. You know, after life, you name it that we create and we don’t really value our bodies. We don’t really value each other. But super longevity. Immortality will create a value of human life like we’ve never seen before. You mentioned the immortal line. Can you define that for the audience? Oh OK. Well, I’m not, I’m not scientist Michael Rose explains this very well. Of course, Mike, Dr. Michael West too. But basically, it’s part of the reproduction system. Uh as you know, it’s been proven that if we didn’t have a immoral germ line, you know, then babies would be born older each time they were birthed. Ok. So we know there’s an immoral germ line and, and that, that’s part I think of our lineage. OK. That’s there. That, that really connects us all uh to this uh a lineage that I think super sees uh are a mortal life that we’ve all lived. So, in essence, there’s an immortal lineage that we can get in contact with and I’ve experienced this myself. I mean, what connects us here right now as human beings?
You know, why, why are you and Dr. Lufkin the way you are about, about longevity, super longevity. What, what has awakened in your, in your persons that maybe, you know, millions of others have, haven’t awakened to yet. I connect that with that. There’s an immortal lineage there that we’re connecting in and in that and in that we can stimulate that in other people to that awakening of who they, who they really truly meant. That’s our true, that immortal lineage, that immortal germ line. And uh there was one theory that came out of the University of Maryland uh out of is called a book on Science and immortality that the original human cell was, they had a choice between the propagation of the species or immortality? OK. Well, it’s true. It shows the propagation of the species. This is one of the theories but that, but the same time. So in other words, it shows death, you know, in fear of extinction OK to propagate the species. But that doesn’t mean that, that uh that immortal cell, that immortal seed is, wasn’t there in that and passed down through the lineage, the, the human genetics was there at the time and, and passed down through, uh down to humankind. So that’s what part of what I’m talking about here is that, isn’t that immortal lineage that we can all tap into to uh give us this strength and connects us as you beings like we’ve never been connected to before.
Dr. Stephen Sideroff
Yeah. And it also helps us.
James Strole
I hope I’m not sticking too fast here. I was thinking a lot of things because of the short time, but I hope I’m not sticking too fast, so slow me down if you need to, I get, I get excited about this subject. So I, you know,
Dr. Stephen Sideroff
I can see that and that’s great. That’s great. But the subject also relates to mindset because it is also about a shift in mindset. And I know again as a psychologist, when we take away fears, our minds open to much greater potentials.
James Strole
Exactly.
Dr. Stephen Sideroff
When we’re too connected with fears, our brain control shifts to the lower, more primitive centers of the brain. So this is another way of shifting mindset to really free people to be more creative in their lives. Would you agree with that?
James Strole
Oh, absolutely, absolutely. I mean, this goes way beyond even positive thinking. I mean, I mean, uh I think this is part of what, you know, you’re, you’ve said, even, uh if I remember on your panel, you said something about that. Maybe I, maybe if I interpret you right? But that’s one thing to think positive is another thing to really get that, that conviction set in your body. And when you get rid of the fear, like you said, you, you get it, that, that, that helps set that true conviction to where you become what you’re thinking then rather than just positive thinking, which can be, you know, one day you’re positive the next day you’re negative, right? So, so you know, I, because this, this immortal bloodline and this connection that I have of, of uh super longevity in my body is like, it’s like, it’s like I have a strong conviction that has been I’ll say set in and, and it’s in my body with a true strong conviction because like you’re saying, I face the fear, you know, I face the fear of not only death, but I also face the fear of living forever because some people have a more of a fear of living than they do dying because that’s our culture right now. So, so I face that fear because I face that fear, I feel, I’m able to feel a stronger conviction in my own body of what uh and, and, and it makes me unstoppable in what in my movement that makes it,
Dr. Stephen Sideroff
It’s, it certainly does. You know, as producer of rad fest you have are in a unique position to experience a lot of different approaches to get the newest uh innovations. What age reversal science are you most excited about? Based on what you’ve come in contact with?
James Strole
Yeah. Wow, there’s so many exciting, no new protocols, innovations coming up. But I would say, you know, when I, and, and I think if we are all really honest with ourselves, we say, you know, it’s great to have uh good health. It’s great to have good supplements and we may kind of, but I’m really ultimately excited about the gene therapies uh along with nanotechnology. I mean, we have these and stem cells and exosomes all now they’re really great. We don’t know to what extent uh that uh they can actually slow aging or stop it, but we know they are helping. Uh I like Greg, Dr. Greg Fahey’s work on the thymus to regenerate the thymus. He’s actually proven to reverse aging about 2.5. I think it’s 1.5 to 2 years. That’s powerful. There’ll probably be cascading effects from that. But my most exciting uh I’ll say therapy is one that can actually reverse a Right, that we can be biologically, you know, uh we be, I say chronologically 80 or 90, but biologically 40 or 30 or even 25, you know, uh that to me and those, those protocols are actually whether we realize it or not. When Dr. Bill Andrews for one uh has a gene therapy that can possibly do that. All he’s waiting is for the human trials, the money to do the human trials on it. Ok. He’s already proven it in the lab. And so that to me is like, you know, world changing, mind blowing. I mean, it’s uh to be able to uh have a therapy that can not only stop aging but reverse. It would be fundamentally amazing for all of us.
Especially those who really value human life and value their own life and, and really look at all the things that we would be able to do. That uh we uh we think now, oh I wish I was, you know, in that shape again, that I could have done those or I wish I could do that over again. These will give us opportunities to do things and to expand on those things and to create again, a human race here that is really rich in, in development and creativity. So when we get to this space, what I’m excited about it is that it gets us out of the era, this, when we get out of the trauma too, it gets us into the era of creativity and takes us out of this era of survival that we’re, that we’re all in, we’re all inhibit in survival and in survival. We’re constantly struggling just to maintain. So we never really, we create things, but we never really get into the full creative mode that we could by ending agent and death. So they so reversal is uh and, and, and this, this therapy that doctor Bill Andrews has. He can right now, it’s in a uh intravenous form, but he can actually with, with uh the right funding, he’ll be able to turn that into a pill form that costs less than a dollar to produce. So, so if that, you know, age not do the biologically 25.
Dr. Stephen Sideroff
That’s fascinating.
James Strole
That’s, yes, that’s,
Dr. Stephen Sideroff
That’s tremendous.
James Strole
That’s where we wanna be as long as we’re talking about longevity, we wanna, we want, we can’t just stay in one place. We need to actually, uh you know, you’re, if you’re, if you’re on the fence, if you’re in some neutral position, you have to always get better all the time.
Dr. Stephen Sideroff
Ok. Ok. How it, with all of these new developments, how has rad fest itself changed over the years as a result of these different developments in longevity?
James Strole
Well, from, we had a fest it was uh wow. There was, you know, ideas and, you know, like Dr. Bill Andrews had this uh gene therapy, but he did not have collaborations like Liz Parrish, for example, with Bio diva, since collaborated he met, you know, Liz at, at and I mean, to expand in this gene therapy and, and, and Liz Parrish with bio viva now is doing, using these gene therapies for uh dementia and for al other, other uh protocols and being quite successful at it. Uh And she’s doing more low doses at this point, but she’s having success in it. I think she’s treated uh maybe 10 or 12, maybe a little bit more than that patients already. But that’s, that’s kind of the way it’s been across the board. Now the doctors and scientists have got the first year they got to meet each other.
They got to feel more what’s going on. But from the encouragement that was there at Rad fast, like uh Greg Fang the next year help for this gene. I mean, excuse me, the thymus regeneration and uh since hence forth, he’s been able to, you know, do the work he’s done uh at a higher level. So I’ve seen as we’ve gone along the, the work elevate and get better all the time and come together better and more liaisons, more collaborations happen and consequently, more funding happening from investors that would come in and that’s all important. And then the public getting involved has also been a big uh part of pushing the envelope and getting things moving better. And, but the purpose of the coalition is to create what we call a tipping point. That will create a mass movement on the planet. And mass education inspiration for super longevity.
Dr. Stephen Sideroff
Are you finding that there’s more research funding uh in the field?
James Strole
Yes.
Dr. Stephen Sideroff
Is that growing?
James Strole
Yes, it’s growing. Definitely not fast enough yet. I mean, some people say it’s going really fast. I think it is but uh I’m not always sure it’s going in the directions that we really want to go. Some of these larger companies, uh especially pharmaceutical companies sometimes get caught up even though their titches might be good, they get caught up in creating the next, next, you know, amazing drug to say, you know, pure, pure uh skin emphysema or something. And uh and because it makes money because it makes money. And so, uh I like, I like to see more of these more advanced protocols, aal protocols get funded and some of them are more but, but there needs to be a more uh movement in that, in that arena.
Dr. Stephen Sideroff
What can people do to help promote advance this vision that you’re uh talking about of super longevity and, and I and mortality. How, how, what can you suggest to people?
James Strole
Well, I think the best thing that they can do is uh come to events like, like yours you’re putting on because uh you know, people need to get familiar with what is really going on in and longevity and come to rapid and bolic people who are in this conversation, get involved with people, like minded people. I mean, when we first did the first rat fest and consequently, every year, but I had so many people come to me the first year and say, oh my gosh, I didn’t know there was this many people that felt this way that were really wanting to live and, and want to cure aging. I don’t feel now and I feel supported and since then that has grown. And I think that’s one of the greatest things we can do any of us who want to be uh to strengthen our resolve in super longevity and live life. If nothing else live longer is to get involved with people who encourage that.
And so we have your event, we have Rad Fest, there’s other events, uh Rad Fest is designed as, you know, to really integrate the public with the scientists and, and to it’s, it’s more of a community altogether uh of, of like-minded people. So whenever you can be a part of that, uh you learn a lot, you learn a lot that way too. We found that those type of interactions, people learn a lot, they, they get uh learn applications they can do to get healthier. And so I think that’s the biggest thing anyone can do and help us spread the word uh on, on events like yours and rad fest and, and what’s going on in the world, talk, talk it up to people communicate with people that there’s a new, there’s a whole, you know, people don’t have to die and get sick so fast. They don’t have to be in their later years and be decrepit. There’s all kinds of uh protocols now and innovations that people can uh uh you know, administer to be stronger and healthier as they, as they stay alive.
Dr. Stephen Sideroff
Could you give us the name of your website, how people can connect with you and uh when the next event is going to be held?
James Strole
Ok. So the next rad fest is in September 7th through the ninth. OK. It’s gonna be in Anaheim and they can go on www.RLEcoalition.com. That’s www.RLEcoalition.com. And also uh that’s the coalition uh website which has information on Rad Fest and they can communicate with us through that website. And they can also go on the rad Fest website, which is raadfest.com. OK. RAADFEST stands for Revolution against aging and death. And so, uh they’ll read a lot on there what the purpose is, what our goals are, what, what we uh wanna create, you know, in the world uh is very informative and uh we would love to have them, you know, you know, communicate uh uh explore the website and then communicate with us what their thoughts are.
Dr. Stephen Sideroff
Very good. Very good. Well, James, it’s been a pleasure having you on for this interview. Again, I enjoyed presenting and just experiencing raad fest this past year. So, I’m looking forward to the next, the next one. Thank you for all of your efforts in this field and creating raad fest, which I think is something that attracts more and more people to this whole field of longevity. So again, thank you very much for your participation.
James Strole
Well, thank you doctor. I appreciate it and I look forward to seeing you next year at Raad Fest and, and good luck at this event you’re doing. We’ll be supporting you all the way.
Dr. Stephen Sideroff
Thank you. Thank you.
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