Imagine this, it's the late 1800s, it's France and two brilliant minds are locked in a battle
that could redefine how we fight illness. One says germs are the enemy, invading armies that
must be destroyed and the other counters no it's the battlefield itself. Your body's inner world,
that's what decides the war. Now fast forward all the way to today and this debate is hotter than
ever, especially after pandemics and rising chronic disease. What if the way we've been
chasing viruses and bacteria is only half the story? What if nurturing your body's terrain
could prevent sickness altogether? Well welcome to the Jake Woodhouse podcast, I'm Jake. I dive
into ideas that shape the world all around me. I want to know what's important to me and then the
decision-making I can make as a result. Now as an investor I'm always investing in three key areas
humanistic, intellectual and financial capital. Today's episode and in particular as a homeschooling
dad is going to highlight a key debate and how we might invest in our health and our children's
health. So a topic that broadly is covered by both humanistic and intellectual capital.
Now, like many of you, I'm always questioning, how does the world work? I love to be curious.
And what a confusing world we have today. I'm going to dedicate this episode to my wife Loz,
who mentioned this topic a week or so ago. And I was just like, what are you talking about?
And in I dove. And it's quite incredible what you can find out in a fairly short space of time.
So in an investor's lingo, where is the signal in all the noise?
So what is it I'm talking about?
Well, we're going to unpack germ theory versus terrain theory.
It's an epic clash of ideas on why we get sick.
We'll cover the history, the key players, their strongest arguments, some juicy quotes,
some hard data, and most importantly, how this all plays out in daily life.
Now, whether you're aiming for optimal health and vitality, or you're just trying to teach
your kids about what's best for them, this topic, and it has for me already, could totally
change how you approach healthcare.
Indeed, it's amazing to me that I'm only just digging into the details now.
So stick around, and by the end, you'll have tools to make smarter choices for you and
your family.
Now, as we run through this, if you have any questions, then please do reach out hi at
jakewoodhouse.io is my email. And I'd love to know, like, what's more important in your eyes?
Is it the germ theory or is it the terrain theory? Now, I always encourage people, if you're
listening on podcast player somewhere, switch over to something like Fountain. So a Bitcoin and NOSTA
focused podcast player and hit me up with a boost or a comment on that platform. Or equally, and my
favorite, get yourself a NOSTA account, an mpub and an nsec, decentralized communication protocol.
I love it. Fire off some zaps, I'll send them straight back. So let's jump in. Let's set the
stage. And it's always fun to dive into a bit of history. But this isn't some like really boring,
dusty textbook tale. It's full of a few twists and turns, some drama, rivalry, politics,
and paradigm shifts. And it's still amazingly, it's still incredibly relevant today.
far more so than probably what it should be. So our story kicks off in the mid 19th century,
so around 1850s, and we're in France. At the time, there were cholera outbreaks,
poor sanitation, and there was a scientific revolution underway. And enter a man named
Louis Pasteur. He is the grandfather, the grandfather of germ theory. So born in 1820,
born in 1822. It says, sorry, his title, so to speak. So, Paster was a chemist and biologist
who proved that microorganisms caused fermentation and spoilage. He developed pasteurization,
so heating liquids like milk to kill bacteria, and pioneered vaccines for rabies and anthrax.
Now his big idea, diseases are caused by specific germs invading the body from outside.
This is revolutionary.
No more blaming of the bad air or humors.
Now it was possible to target the culprits.
Now just to spend a moment here, so bad air, this is something called miasma theory.
And so before germ theory, many people believed diseases were caused by miasma.
So foul or polluted air emanating from rotting matter, swamps or unsanitary conditions.
The idea dating back to as old as ancient Greece persisted all the way through to the 1800s
held that inhaling these noxious vapors caused illness like cholera or the plague.
Humors, again rooted in ancient Greek medicine.
So this is Hippocrates and Galen.
the humoral theory claim health depended on balancing four bodily fluids blood phlegm yellow
bile and black bile imbalances caused by diet environment or emotions were thought to trigger
disease i mentioned that because obviously setting the scene as to like what was common at the time
or what was thought of as like perceived wisdom it obviously changes through history right try and
put yourself back in those shoes.
So humours, imbalances caused by diet, environment,
or emotions were thought to trigger disease.
But, and this is where this starts to get a bit spicy,
Pasteur was not the only person alone in the lab.
He had a contemporary and a rival, Antoine Béchamp.
So Béchamp was born in 1816, lived in 1908.
He was a French chemist and biologist.
And he proposed something radically different.
terrain theory. Bichamp argued that microbes aren't fixed enemies, they're pleomorphic,
meaning they change form based on the environment. He discovered tiny particles he called microzymes
or microzymas, I might be saying that incorrectly, in cells, which could evolve into bacteria or
viruses if the body's terrain, i.e. its internal balance of pH, nutrition and toxicity, wasn't
aligned. Now he discovered this using high-powered microscopes and was examining living tissues,
blood and decomposing matter. Now in his studies of chalk from geopolitical deposits,
sorry from geological deposits and living organisms, he observed minute granular particles
that appeared to be alive even in ancient fossils. Now he called these things microzymos
from the Greek small life. These particles, they were distinct from known bacteria as they seemed
to persist across various conditions and transform based on their environment.
Béchamp, he wrote a book, The Blood and Its Third Element in 1869, the quote,
microzymas are the organized ferments, the primordial elements of all organized matter.
interesting right and just to obviously highlight there a certain type of microscopic lens just
didn't exist before this point and hence it was possible to actually discover these things
so pleomorphism suggests microbes are dynamic adapting to the body's condition and may not
always be harmful huh that's very different isn't it disease bachamp said starts from within
not from an external attack. So supporting Béchamp was Claude Bernard, born in 1813,
died 1878. He was a physiologist who emphasized on the internal milleo, i.e. the body's fluid
environment. Bernard's work on homeostasis, aka the body's self-regulation, laid the groundwork
for viewing health as balance, not warfare. Now this timeline, you can feel these characters,
you know they've got very different opinions it really heats up in the 1860s through to the 1880s
Pasteur and Beauchamp they clashed publicly having arguments and Pasteur backed by the
French Academy of Sciences ran experiments showing germs cause disease like injecting
healthy animals with pathogens to make them sick Beauchamp countered with studies on silkworms
claiming diseased terrain allowed microbes to thrive so that they're obviously a bit of a
tit for tat right so what is what which one is going to win here now politics played a role
pasteur's ideas aligned with emerging industries while buchamps were harder to monetize interesting
this sounds slightly familiar to a recent scenario i found myself in we will get on to that later
so in 1876 a man named robert kosh a german physician born 1843 died 1910 He entered into the fray on Pasteur side and Koch postulates four criteria to prove a microbe causes a disease solidified germ theory
So Koch and Pasteur, they jumped into bed together.
A big old hoo-ha.
So four rules to prove a microbe causes disease.
This is Koch's postulates.
find it in all sick cases not healthy ones isolated in a lab infect a healthy animal to
recreate the disease then re-isolate the same microbe so he did some experiments on anthrax
and tuberculosis that absolutely nailed it through this process so 100% of infected animals got sick
zero controls did not and his quote the bacillus is the cause and in this case bacillus anthracis
is what's being referred to so it's the anthrax causing bacteria it led to vaccines clean water
that they managed to slash cholera deaths by 50 percent kosh he identified bacteria for anthrax
tuberculosis and cholera and in 1905 he earned a noble peace prize or a nobel prize so by the 1890s
like germ theory just absolutely dominated it cleaned up basically and and it's unsurprising
when you mentioned that incentive earlier as to like who they might align with in terms of how to
monetize etc uh we'll dig into that a little later but so here is the big plot twist though on his
deathbed in 1895 pastor reportedly said bernard was right the microbe is nothing the terrain is
everything pastor is just admitting that you know on his deathbed what are the things you wish he
did in your life you know what this guy i've been up against my whole career he was actually right
and it suggests of course that Pasteur saw the bigger picture than just focusing on the germ
now is this a genuine admission or just a spicy rumor like we'll never I'll never know right I
can't go and ask either of these dead men what is true but it spices things up a bit right so
historians of course they still debate this it fuels terrain theory advocates to this day
in spite of germ theory and it's still true now it's true in the late 1800s today germ theory is
is the hands down winner.
I don't honestly know many people
that have even talked to me
about terrain theory before.
Now, how did this really bed in, so to speak?
So in 1910, the Flexner Report,
which some of you may have heard of this before,
it was commissioned by Andrew Carnegie
and strongly influenced by John D. Rockefeller.
It standardized US medical education
around germ theory.
And what this meant is they shut down
holistic schools teaching nutrition and homeopathy,
paving the way for pharmaceutical dominance.
this is not an episode about the flexner report or the kind of history of all of this per se but
um go and have a listen to my episode with sarah valentini an absolutely awesome homeopath that we
use and she talks a little about this in our episode and i really enjoyed learning like where
did homeopathics come from and why isn't it more relevant today than perhaps could be when we found
it to be so valuable now going all the way back you know early 1900s rockefeller's got this huge
oil empire and he's trying to figure out like how do i how do i create more products and that's where
synthetic drugs come in right so they're sidelining natural terrain approaches that couldn't be
patented huh so in the 20th century germ theory has absolutely hammered it and it's true you know
antibiotics like penicillin discovered in 1928 have had a huge impact and supposedly save millions
vaccines eradicated smallpox in 1980 or so they claim and terrain theory just kind of lingered in
alternative circles and what's really brought this back up to two major things of the last like 50
years like AIDS really fuels conversation around terrain theory and more recently the COVID-19
scamdemic as I would call it and you know quite rightly so these things have come into question
because when you look back through the history like the guys that are talking about terrain theory
almost 200 years ago now,
we're simply pointing out that
there's a reason, there must be some reason
why not everyone catches a disease.
What can it be?
So, and again, we'll discuss this
as we go through the episode.
So to spend a bit of time on the modern day,
some characters that my wife mentioned,
and again, shout out to Lozzie,
she's awesome at researching the health space
and creating a, what's the right way of saying this?
Oh, just yeah, she's revolutionized how I think about health and what I eat and equally what kids eat and the medications that we take and all the rest of it.
So shout out to her.
This episode is dedicated to you, Lossie, if you ever, ever listen to it.
So the first guy, Dr. Tom Cowan.
Now, he's been a longtime advocate for terrain theory and uses his work to kind of dismantle germ theory.
He frames germ theory as part of a broader, quote, make-believe science disconnected from observable reality.
Cowan challenges foundational pillars of mainstream medicine, particularly virology and genetics, whilst promoting a holistic and environment driven model of health.
So what is his core critique? Well, he's like, he calls it flaws in virology.
But to explain that a little more, so unstable paradigms built on manipulated methodologies like cell cultures and antibody testing that misrepresent how illness occurs.
He argues that viruses aren't proven causative agents, but artifacts of poor science, echoing Béchamp's pleomorphism from 200 years ago, where microbes are symptoms of internal imbalance, not invaders.
Now, of course, it's tied to terrain. It's like disease stems from the body's terrain, not external contagion, i.e. the toxicity, the nutrition, the emotional state of a person.
Now, he's got a podcast. I was able to find a quote from his podcast.
What if the immune system and antibodies are misunderstood concepts? Illness isn't about fighting germs. It's about the body's response to imbalance.
interesting so in terms of genetics and heritability he he really flips this idea of
in terms of nature versus nurture in the debate on he just he's rejecting genetic determinism
i.e cancer genes and that he just calls them fatalistic myths instead heredity is environmental
and educational now passed down lifestyles shape terrain more than dna this empowers personal
responsibility of course that's something that draws me into this this conversation like people
taking responsibility for their choices for their body for their outcomes their results so
carwin would argue that you detach from outcomes and seek truth in health he's got a book cancer
and the new biology of water and in that he even extends this to oncology in general so cancer
isn't a genetic or germ-driven war but a terrain collapse from dehydrated polluted cells
treatable via hydration, minerals and lifestyle, not chemo.
Cowan says germ theory misses why some resist infection.
Like, why don't some people get sick and others do?
I.e. the terrain matters.
Now, the second character from a more modern era, Dr.
Andrew Kaufman, in this case, he's a forensic psychiatrist
and is very much a health skeptic.
So when I was reading about him, he was described as a fire
brand against germ theory. So he insists that it's basically it's a manufactured narrative.
It props up big pharma and is used for control. Hmm. Well, I'm interested in anyone that's putting
those things together. Like that's not the future I want to live in, not the future of my kids to
live in, like more control and a lack of bodily autonomy. So he claims that these viruses don't
even exist. Contagion is a myth and that health is 100% terrain dependent, shaped by toxins,
not transmission. So what's his core critique of germ theory? Well, he repeatedly debunks
virology as a pseudoscience built on dead cells and manipulated microscopy. He exposes how research
uses stained, lifeless samples, creating artifacts mistaken for viruses. And he's influenced by a
I came across as well during research with someone called Harold Hillman and he posed the 47 unanswered
questions to prove biology's house of cards. He was a British guy born 1936 died 2016 a neurobiologist
and professor at the University of Surrey and he was a he was radically critical of cell biology
and argued that much of modern biology relies on artifacts from preparation techniques.
As you go down these rabbit holes, why, who, what's the incentive?
And it's very clear to me quite quickly.
It like germ theory lots of incentive to paint and make money terrain theory individual accountability i know which side i leaning towards right you can make your own mind up but
um if the foundation of modern biology is built on research using dead cells
then the conclusions we've been taught are deeply flawed that seems like a reasonable point doesn't
it it's like what are you putting under your microscope mate and and these these lab testing
scenario is supposedly proving the theory that you're putting forward it's like how are you
actually doing that and i i love these debates right let's get to the truth if we can so kaufman
argues no natural virus has ever been isolated making bioweapons or outbreaks like totally
impossible now there's terrain emphasis like disease for example autism or cancer is environmental
poisoning, not genetic or infectious.
Quote, autism is not genetic conditions like autism and even cancer are the
result of environmental factors and toxins.
Interesting.
So obviously prevention is much more important from the perspective of both
Cowan and Kaufman, and they really focus on things like detox and nutrition.
You know, how patentable is a detox?
Like, mate, go on a water fast for five days, see how you feel.
Now, leaving behind now the history lesson and some of these characters, I want to spend
a bit of time breaking down like, okay, what are these two camps really talking about?
And think of this as like the elevator pitch for each one.
So, to start with germ theory, there's basically three main points, like pathogens are the
primary cause, transmission is key, and interventions target the germs.
So firstly, just to talk through pathogens as the primary cause.
bacteria viruses or fungi invade and multiply leading to symptoms.
Koch's work showed microbacterium tuberculosis
causes TB in over 90 percent of cases without prior exposure.
Okay so some proof right. Transmission is key. So diseases are spread via
contact air or vectors. Pasteur quote I have demonstrated
experimentally that the virus of rabies can be transmitted
transmitted from one animal to another and admittedly this led to hygiene revolutions
and people washing their hands reduced maternal mortality by 90 percent in one particular case
like okay people didn't use to wash their hands maybe there may be some merit to that right
um and so so pathogens are the primary cause transmission is key and finally interventions
target germs so what do i mean by that well vaccines specifically vaccines train immunity
against specific invaders. Antibiotics kill bacteria. And the evidence for this would be,
I mean, the World Health Organization data, how much do you trust that after the last five years
experience? But global vaccination campaigns dropped polio cases from 350,000 in 1988 to 22
in 2017. And it's funny that the Provax camp almost always cites polio as the reason that
vaccines are good. Now, of course, if you question why a child needs to have 60 jabs before the age
of 12, like polio is just one example. And that data sets from 1988 to 2017. Like what's the case
today? And when my wife and I, for example, is researching that topic, there's not one study
on a child with no jabs and a child with all the jabs. It doesn't exist. Every single vaccination
for an infant gets tested independently,
but without them being done
in conjunction with all the other ones.
Like, talk about, that doesn't make sense, right?
How can you tell me that my child is guaranteed
to be safe after all of those injections?
And funny enough, no one has an answer to that.
More on this in a second.
And so to get back to terrain theory,
what are their core arguments?
Well, again, three main points.
The body's environment dictates disease,
focuses on holistic health,
and prevention is done through lifestyle.
so okay well that's very different right so in terms of the body's environment dictating disease
so a healthy terrain so i mean balanced ph strong immunity low toxins prevents microbes from causing
harm bachamps micro isms i'm sure i'm saying that wrong microzymas yeah that's better bachamps
microzymas theory microbes are symptoms not causes they morph in response to imbalance
interesting so point number two so focuses on holistic health disease thrives in bad soil poor
diet stress pollution so bernard said the constancy of the internal environment is the condition for
free and independent life now what data is that to back this up well studies on the microbiome
show that bacteria imbalance like dysbiosis links to 70 to 80 percent of immune issues
that's some research done by the nhi h point number three prevention through lifestyle so you
build resilience with nutrition exercise and detox what evidence do we have this works well 2016
study in the lancet found lifestyle factors aka diet and activity prevent 80 percent of chronic
disease such as diabetes far more than vaccines alone now this is interesting right another data
point us chronic illness in kids jumped from one to two percent in the 1960s to 40 to 50 percent
today now this correlates heavily with processed foods and environmental toxins not just germs
well what's the truth like every story there's probably some middle ground there'll be a bit of
truth in one side but a truth in the other probably but that's what we have to figure out and that's
what i'm going to do for the rest of the episode so a lot of experts they'll say integrate both
right so use antibiotics when needed um but prioritize terrain to to to avoid even being
in a situation where you might need to use a kind of germ theory focused intervention
now just to walk through like what do i think about this and what are some of the
the things we can do so and to summarize how does this ancient debate hit home for us today
especially in light of being a homeschooling dad like what do i want to teach my kids how do i
how do i have to think about looking after my kids to keep them as healthy as possible
and as i did this research i just had so many questions about previous like the experience
the last five years and the covid stuff just it was just wild now like and the questions this
throws up a huge right so how how on earth did the COVID-19 and all those lockdown that crazies how
did it actually happen um well in a sense it's obvious because it's a lot to do with incentive
right but when you look at like the hard facts like who was dying now putting aside the fact that
the the common cold in the data that was collected by the health services of most major countries
common cold disappeared and suddenly there was lots of deaths from COVID-19.
That statistic manipulation conversation aside,
the people that died were A, over the age of 80,
and they had a handful of comorbidities, like three or four comorbidities.
So why in the hell was it the case that a vaccine was pushed as the only solution?
And you take into account this whole camp of terrain theory.
it's like well it's obvious right they were making money out of it and a better piece of advice would
have been like just tell everyone to be healthy aka a terrain theory focus like sort your sort
your sort your lifestyle out sort your your your diet out like do a detox these are far more
effective ways of protecting yourself from anything that you might come across in your life
And the implication obviously is money.
So at the start of this episode, we touched on the fact that when this original germ versus terrain theory debate came up in the 1800s, one side, i.e. the germ theory side, was more easily monetized and the other wasn't.
And so you wonder why today, 150 years later, you've got a government that is the apparatus of a massive industry that has self-regulated itself such that it doesn't get any vaccines.
You can't sue them.
Like, what is that? The government pays out if there's any kind of contraindication. Isn't that extraordinary? So, you know, like the very simple question, okay, there's a disease going around that's a threat to everyone. Is it to everyone? No, it's actually to a handful of people in their later life with comorbidities. Great.
if it was a threat to anyone else what's the most easy entry-level protection for them oh well have
a look at your diet have a look at your lifestyle make sure you're super healthy you'll probably be
safe that doesn't sell right um now and the next thing here is it like really quite comes into
question this whole idea of like informed consent and the the vaccine business is very clever in how
it manipulates the scenario and claims that no one ever has a vaccine unless they have it with informed consent Now how does a three child give informed consent It can right So that already like a
major falling apart of first principles thinking. But then also the very aggressive, like carrot
versus stick approach that was used by governments in lockstep with vaccine businesses to say,
you're not allowed to go and work unless you get this jab. You're not allowed to go to a cafe unless
get this jab you're allowed to go to the sports game that you love unless you get this jab it's
like it just it makes a complete mockery of informed consent like all these people apparently
had informed consent but they couldn't get paid unless they did like again red flags right so
i and and to reflect on myself here i didn't even know about terrain theory really until 10 days ago
and doesn't it make a lot of sense like focus on yourself first make sure that you're doing as much
as you can to be as fit as healthy as possible be balanced as was described as being important and
and then you'll likely be totally fine from any disease well that's the best protection you could
ever get but i guess the problem is is that people don't like taking responsibility for themselves
you know they prefer to pop an asempic pill than get on a treadmill as an example they want big
daddy government to tell them they're going to be safe the whole time it's like no no that's on you
make. Again, difficult to patent motivation, that personal motivation. So where am I going with all
this? So information doesn't travel through markets fairly. And I know that well from an investor
perspective, and in particular, like the bet, if you want to call it anything else that I'm making
on Bitcoin, a lot of people don't even know about Bitcoin, let alone why it's the best bet you can
make. And so in this case, it's simple that the germ theory prevailed as a common wisdom,
because the information about germ theory was better spread, more widely spread. Now,
the incentive is clear, right? You spread this information and then you make money.
But isn't that an interesting thing to come across, right? Now, one core problem I had with
the COVID era was this idea of like public health policy is more important than individual choice.
a classic ethical debate on the collective versus the individual but how convenient that the germ
theory like camp is able to sit in this public health space and be like oh well we know everything
because we've run all these tests and we've used this german guide kosh's four postulits from 150
years ago to prove that we've you know isolated this disease and now we've recreated it and we can
we can solve everyone's like terrifying future by just taking this little bit a little bit of
medicine. And it's something I completely agree with, right? If I can't decide on what goes into
my body every day, which is the ultimate property right, then what is freedom? I don't have a right.
So is public health policy more important than individual choice? Well, that's already a great
debate. But then you throw into the mix this whole concept of germ theory versus terrain theory,
and you're like, huh, well, that throws up the conversation even more, right? Because maybe germ
theory is not even correct and the optimal way of keeping a healthy society is focusing on terrain
theory had terrain theory been taken seriously there'd be no need for a vaccine there'd be no
need for lockdowns there wouldn't have been any disruption like why would you have done any of that
to save a tiny portion of the population that also might just be better off with terrain theory as a
as a way of looking at their health right 80 years old get outside eat a better diet stop taking that
medication see what happens and it's just it's so convenient isn't it the collective is is guilt
tripped by the people making money like you're being manipulated right and and this idea that
ah you know if a car is faulty they've got to recall the car like i literally took my bmw into
the into the workshop this week because they recalled it to replace a part if a vaccine
business gets caught creating a product that creates harm, it's the government that steps
in and pays the bills. Well, I thought the government represented the people. So the
taxpayer foots the bill. So you're socializing the losses. Extraordinary setup. And it's
unbelievable to me that people actually kind of are okay with it. And so much of this stems
all the way back to 100 years ago, and that Flexner report and the oil business getting
involved in modern modern healthcare like you're digging stuff out of the ground and selling it's
an energy product and they were looking for ways of like obviously you know creating more and that's
where it ended up so interesting right oil is in most of these pharmaceutical products perhaps i'll
go into more detail on the flex report in another episode because i think that'd be really interesting
to learn more about um but if you cannot live by my body my choice then what do you have and so
And again, more questions that came up for me.
So first principles perspective.
I always love thinking like this.
You don't need any data in many ways.
It's like, okay, so how is it the case?
Well, ask this question first.
How do I protect myself from sickness?
And the germ theory camp and the terrain theory camp,
it's quite clear to me which camp I would prefer to go down.
It's like, well, hang on.
So you just take accountability for your lifestyle, for your diet,
and you want to try and have as healthy a body as possible.
Those are all things I can work on.
Whereas the germ theory is like, okay, well, I've got to try and isolate this germ somewhere.
And I've then got to trust other people to have the expertise and the product to protect me from it.
The sovereignty aspect of that, it's very clear.
Terrain theory is the way that I would go.
And the same applies with my kids.
But what terrain theory so clearly highlights, which I think makes a complete mockery of the supposed COVID-19 pandemic and the reaction to it,
was that if two people are exposed to the same bacteria,
one gets sick and the other doesn't, why is that?
Like seriously, why is that?
Why can it be the case that,
and even though I see this happening at the moment,
I've got three children, one of them will get sick
and then all three of them have been with each other
the whole time in whatever different locations we've been to.
It doesn't make sense.
Why aren't all three of them sick at the same time?
And it would make much more sense that one of them
was out of sync somehow,
maybe a little bit too tired
or ate something that they didn't agree with.
And they were not pumping on all cylinders
and therefore developed some kind of illness.
And so it's like, oh, all this stuff about,
we're, I mean, here in Australia,
they had a COVID zero policy.
Like how insane was that?
You've got to lock the whole place down
so that not a single person
gets this specific bacteria
that you're supposedly going to save
so many other people from. It doesn't make sense. And especially when it's like, how do you explain
that two people might get this COVID bacteria and one of them be totally fine and the other one not?
Like someone explain that to me, please. And to me, germ theory just completely falls on its
falls in its ass at that point. Because you don't need all these products that the germ theory can
can provide when terrain theories are much more accessible and obvious option to take.
So it's pretty glaringly obvious in that sense. And how convenient that terrain theory is swept
aside. Again, as I was researching this, you learn so much, don't you? But it occurred to me that this
is very similar to what I've witnessed in the world of economics and the discussion of sound money
versus inflationary monetary policy and the Austrian economics of the last 150 years that
was essentially hidden from me by what is the Keynesian dominant economic model of today.
And it's like, hang on, I didn't even know Austrian economics was an option.
What do you mean there's a form of money called sound money that stores value over time?
No, that's not right. No, money is something that the government controls via central bank and they
They have an interest rate and they can increase or decrease the cost of lending, depending on how hot or cold the economy is.
And they help to include unemployment in that.
And it's basically it's all about the government controlling the money system.
But that's that's a Keynesian philosophy of inflationary monetary policy.
We didn't even realize that sound money existed as an option.
And this is kind of the same.
It's like, no, no, germ theory is like that's that's that's what life is all about.
Germ theory, germ theory, germ theory.
And then it's like, no, no, there's this thing called terrain theory.
And, oh, actually underneath it, it's not aligned with the incentives of modern government and big business.
And it's actually far more practical and requires people to take accountability for their own choices.
And they can't just buy a solution from someone else.
Oh, oh, that resonates really strongly and also gives me a lot of power.
Like how empowering is that?
When you go, okay, for me to be as fit and healthy as possible over the next 50 years of my life, I should just follow a terrain theory concept.
It's like keep myself fit and healthy.
I'll be totally fine.
And I've got plenty of friends that are like, I haven't been sick for years.
And they might be like pretty much carnivore.
They might have given up drinking.
They might be, whatever they might be doing, but they're certainly not munching down pharmaceutical
pills following the status quo food pyramid that the government tells
to abide by like it's just it's ridiculous right so a bit of reality check when the insiders for a
particular theory like germ theory make money like what a surprise that that drives everything
now i have to mention this whole concept of a government official standing up on a stage
with a a government approved journalist interviewing them talking about trust the science
trust the experts what an absolute load of bullshit so it really should be like trust the
scientist that is paid by the company that vouches for germ theory that has robustly protected itself
from any cost downside and is due to make gazillions of dollars from you accepting what
you're telling them right and and so from a sovereignty perspective it's like no fuck off
I'm not going to just blindly trust the experts and once again I've come across a subject where
when I dig a little deeper and I hear about this thing called terrain theory it's got an
extraordinarily powerful background to it that has been hidden from the average eye.
Very convenient and it's the kind of thing oh Jake's such a conspiracy theory. Sure maybe in
this case or just when I read this stuff and when I start thinking about it it's like I actually
completely believe in terrain theory over germ theory how is it that i can go into a room be
totally fine not be sick and then one of my family members falls sick from that same experience
that just makes sense anyway i'm going to rely on myself to keep myself healthy going forwards i can
detox i can follow a good diet i can exercise i can work on my lifestyle stress reduction even it
is not anyone else's responsibility but mine mine and mine alone now another serious question that
comes up through this and I think is very valid is this idea of you know using
Kosha's four-point process and you know the end of this process means that they
can then patent a medical product but like and this is where I think this
really came up or flared up in COVID-19 it was very much squashed right you
couldn't find this information what if they never isolated COVID-19 like
seriously was that actually isolated properly and did they genuinely take it
through Kosh's four steps? And if they didn't, and they were doing all those rapid antigen tests,
what were they even testing for? Now, I'll never know the answer to that, to be honest, and very
few of us ever will. But what a scam, you know, stoking up all that fear, flooding the media,
like the eyeballs of the populace just got assaulted. I remember having one morning where
I woke up and I was walking around the local area of Melbourne in full lockdown and people were wearing masks and there was get back signs on the local pharmacists.
There was you can't come into the cafe unless you've been vaxxed at the local coffee shop.
I couldn't go to work because I wasn't allowed.
I pick up my phone and Telstra, the mobile operator, had a let's vax instead of the 4G, 5G sign in the top corner.
You turn on the TV and the AFL will be put on and there'd be a beer advert that involved getting jabbed.
There'll be some kind of government of Victoria advert about getting jabbed.
And you get in the car and you switch the radio on and there'll be some kind of advert
about how you need to go and get your vaccine.
It was just the most extraordinary marketing campaign ever conducted that was like, you
need to be terrified.
You need to be terrified.
But guess what?
We've got the solution.
And not once is terrain theory mentioned, right?
Not once is there the more balanced approach of that.
Well, by the way, there's actually two theories at play here.
One's germ theory.
If you follow that, come this way, there might well be a medicine that you can take.
But actually, you should also take note of terrain theory because in terrain theory, it's much more focused on individual choice.
And actually having a safe and healthy body yourself is the best protection.
That would be informed consent, right?
So what a mockery that concept is.
So I'm going to be much more wary of this going forwards.
I really love this idea of terrain theory.
um now i touched on this very briefly before but like the infant vaccine program today is very
different to what it was when i was a child my wife and i came to the conclusion that we didn't
want to follow what the australian government was recommending us and that taken us down a whole new journey and an unexpected route i do a whole other episode on that If people are interested please reach out and let me know
But what is a more practical approach?
The terrain theory approach where it's like, okay, make sure the baby has the safest possible
pregnancy, make sure it's birthed naturally, make sure it's breastfed, make sure it has
as much parent contact as possible.
Make sure that the mother in particular is as healthy and as vital as it possibly can
be and that's going to keep your baby safe and healthy terrain theory or the flip side of it
germ theory you actually need to infect your child with tiny amounts of these different diseases of
which no one has ever done a study of all of them given to a child together like come on and if it
goes wrong it's not our fault you know like okay sorry and what you're saying is if i don't take
that option i cannot access the publicly funded child care system yes that's correct and it's like
whoa that is crazy right and here in australia there's a policy called no jab no play and you
can't take your toddler to a child care class because you haven't done what the infant vaccine
guideline was so lots of red flags there i'll do another episode on it some other time
But as I said before, I'd much prefer to trust myself than a company or a politician to trust the experts.
And so the final part of this, I want to just think through how this manifests in daily life.
And I'll move on from the rant of the lack of informed consent.
To me, this really just empowers critical thinking and is all about education.
So how do you teach your kids about science?
and is it the case of being like okay well guess what germs are bad and vaccines are good
or one more than I was like okay well guys why do you think your sister got sick and you didn't
and it's a great way to obviously weave in like why eating healthily is so important
now in my case my kids aren't really quite old enough for this but could easily spark some
experiments like you know for other homeschooling dads that might be out there
track the family's health during a week of eating specifically healthy food
versus a week of junk food.
Show your kids the data, right?
Why does a balanced diet have 30% fewer infections?
And it's a good way to weave in a history lesson.
Do you know who Louis Pasteur was or Béchamp?
Which one is more relevant today, do you think?
Can you debate germ theory versus terrain theory?
again my kids a little too young for this but at some stage I'd for sure be weaving this in
and this of course shifts health decisions it's like is getting the vaccine necessary yes or no
and then like the further question is like how else can I protect myself or my kids
from any supposed health threat and now germ theory is you know we do this every day we get
in from wherever we've been and we wash our hands cool so I can use parts of the germ theory camp
to improve my life. And the other side of that being terrain theory and nutrition. And every
single day we are trying to eat as much as possible organic and, you know, organic and whole foods,
right? Home cooked. So we eat lots of meat, we play outdoors, we have almost zero screen time,
we homeschool, so there's as much primary caregiver contact as possible. And as I mentioned before,
we haven't followed the infant vaccine guidelines of the government.
So without realizing it, I was already advocating for terrain theory.
I enjoy quotes.
So Bichon, disease is the crisis of a purifying process.
So when a kid gets a fever, it's not panic mode.
It's actually the body detoxing.
That's a cool concept, right?
It's like when you're sick, it's actually really important to be sick
because that's the healing process.
So you don't want to just get rid of the sickness.
You want the sickness to be there as long as it's necessary.
And so inflammation is actually a good thing in that sense.
You've got to let it play out.
You've got to feel the pain.
And it's all part of the healing process.
So an observation I've definitely made, when I go to playgrounds and stuff with my kids, I've seen how much healthier they actually are.
Now, some of you might be like, what else?
You're biased.
Get over yourself.
Get over the fact you've got kids.
Okay, maybe.
but I go to a playground sometimes and I hear this hacking cough and I like ooh that is a heavily vaxxed child care child and i will i will actively try to make sure my kids don get too close to them
because they get sick from them now that's terrain theory in a sense but also germ theory but
um we are not putting our children into you know 10 12 small children class of kids that have all
been pumped full of specific diseases that they might have never been anywhere near and we did
that for a reason because we don't think it's good for holistic health and and it's interesting like
i sometimes i see kids in the playground that are i can tell that they are you know fully up to date
on their infant vaccine schedule and they're almost a bit like kind of glazed over they're just not
oh they're just kind of sedated it's it's really intense um and for any parent that's chosen to go
down that route you know i'm not saying you shouldn't do it um i just have major major
question marks about it myself an interesting stat to keep in mind so the u.s health rankings
dropped from sixth in 1990 to 27th in 2016 despite it being a germ focused spending program
isn't that interesting so dropping from sixth in the world to 27th and they're focused all around
germs. So why neglect terrain? Maybe that would help to turn that trend. What is the reward for
taking terrain more seriously? Well, a resilient family, you know, my kids will get to self-learn,
they won't be scared, I won't be scared, and I'll be just more aware of the propaganda,
right? It's propaganda with an agenda. They make money from selling this stuff. And so, you know,
when they say you're going to be happy and own nothing well sure bullshit or when they say you
know you're going to have to eat the bugs like no no i'm not and unsurprisingly there are two sides
to every coin and there's different ways of thinking there's different ways of turning up
in the in the world every day final part of this episode and then we'll wrap it up is just trying
of put into practice some of these concepts like how might you you do that um first and foremost
like you know why homeschool etc this proves a point in a brilliant way which is that with ai
i was able to research a discussion and a debate that i didn't know much about and come to a uh
i what i think is a balanced approach in terms of the information provided but then i can make my
own conclusions. And that to me is what education is. It's like collect the information around a
problem that you've got and then make a decision for yourself. And I know that I can help my
children learn to do that from home far better than any teacher ever will that I might outsource
them to. And they can do that themselves using AI on a smartphone. So any information they might
need is at their fingertips. So why would you send them off to a school for 10 hours a day
to sit in a room that they don't want to be in,
where they can't play ever,
and learn a load of stuff
that could be looked up on a phone in 20 seconds.
But that is such a waste of their time.
And if time is the most scarce asset of a human,
then you are wasting your child's most important capital,
which is their time.
Okay, a daily life like tie-in.
So imagine doctors thinking smelly air made you sick.
Spark a discussion on how the science has evolved.
miasma humors germ theory terrain theory and you could have an experiment so you know have kids
track how fresh air i open windows versus nutrition affects their energy or colds and then
blend in miasma ideas with terrain principles some data like studies show good ventilation
reduces respiratory infections by 30 to 50 percent that's a big shift right just from ventilation
and make this into a lesson so you know test ideas balance the idea of hygiene with holistic help
um you know versus more of a germ stuff so another time so playomorphism
is or can be used for a hands-on science lesson so teach kids that microbes aren't just bad guys
right but part of a dynamic system so as an experiment you could grow your own yogurt
right your yogurt cultures at home So safe bacteria that thrive in milk terrain to show how environment shapes microbes and weaving then things around diet so cutting out sugar um keeps the terrain
strong so and good data point here so 2016 study found low sugar diets reduce candida overgrowth
by 60 percent and that's just through tying um through having an understanding of playomorphism
Cowan said illness is the body's attempt to restore balance not a battle against invaders
really good theme there so what would you do were you going to empower your family to focus on
nutrition and stress management and reduce fear of germs another daily lifetime that I want to add
so Kosh we mentioned before his four postulates about isolating etc so it's a teachable moment
it's a science project can we prove a germ causes a cold like why do some classmates get sick and
others don't introduce a terrain theory so track family hand washing versus diet like during the
flu season like what actually happens um you know have you managed to stay sick free through the
flu season so kosh is inspirational quote that i have so the bacillus is the cause we mentioned
this before versus cowan so illness is the body's response not a germs attack so which one's right
uh and tested on yourself um what i really liked about karen and his approach is this idea of
teaching kids resilience rather than fear so using diet and detox as a way of creating a strong terrain
to avoid this idea of like germ phobia everyone's so scared of germs like no don't you don't need
be scared of anything just make sure that you and your body are fit and healthy um you know because
there's no doubt like the trend for chronic disease is massive right like 40 to 50 of kids
have chronic diseases and why well it's obviously a failure in terrain so modern toxins oh it's
absolute madness to be honest and so we mentioned as well kauffman so his questioning of germ theory
it it basically it collapses the medical industry overnight in his opinion like if there's no fear
fear, then why would anyone take any of these medicines? And that's the nefarious side of
it, right? It's playing on fear. So for families out there and homeschools, we want to raise
terrain-based children, unprocessed foods, critical thinkers, free of chronic disease.
And it's clearly possible, right? And so what I learned out of this is terrain theory is
a field of thought that makes a lot of sense that was hidden from me largely I think due to the lack
of information spread by the misalignment of the germ theory camp one must always try to be as
balanced as possible so there's some truth in everything I truly believe that and therefore
you know the the process here is like just make make up your own mind um i believe this to be true
like the terrain is everything and it's probably how i was already living my life i just didn't
really have a phrase for it always ask questions like always we should not be afraid in the slightest
this this concept of like blindly trusting the experts it just doesn't make sense so i will never
ever ever do that um we should of course incorporate experiments do it try them on ourselves
think from first principles like the aim is to thrive and as a homeschooling parent say what is
the what is the optimal 25 year old look like how do we get them there so i hope by sharing all of
this i well first of all it was a selfish project in a sense i was able to completely upgrade my
knowledge uh first and foremost but it's it's it's it's helped me increase or or improve my
capital stock in terms of humanistic,
aka health and intellectual capital.
So I hope it has for you as well.
And as the audience members, as I said
at the very start, what do you think?
How has germ theory impacted you? How has terrain
theory impacted you? Do they make sense?
Shoot me an email, hi at jwoodhouse.io.
If you've made
it over onto NOSTA, then I would absolutely love to
get a zap from you and I'll zap you
straight back. And
for any homeschoolers out there, what works
for you guys? And what am I missing?
That's a general question. I'd love to know more.
So thank you so much for tuning in today.
I really appreciate your time.
Reach out if I can help with anything at all.