Spirit Science
Dr. Garret Yount, a molecular biologist-turned-consciousness researcher, had placed Petri dishes filled with human cells into a Faraday cage—a steel-walled room that blocks outside electromagnetic interference. Then he invited in a healer to “treat” the cells with nothing but intention. I know how wild that sounds. But what happened next—measurable shifts in cellular biology and even in a random number generator placed nearby—set the tone for one of the most fascinating interviews I’ve had since launching The DNA of Things.
What are we really talking about when we say “vibes”? That was the question underneath our entire conversation. And by the end of it, I realized something: this wasn’t about debunking old myths or choosing sides between science and spirit. It was about building a bridge between them—and doing so with integrity, data, and wonder
Are Vibes the Next Frontier in Biology?
Like Garret, I’m trained in molecular biology. My instinct is always to ask: Can we measure it? Is it reproducible? But I’ve also spent enough time working with creators—athletes, artists, entrepreneurs—to know that peak performance doesn’t come from logic alone. It comes from the elusive “flow-state”. From synchronicity. From what Garret might call superconscious vibes.
In our conversation, he introduced me to a new vocabulary:
- Conscious vibes—the signals we send intentionally: tone, body language, setting.
- Subconscious vibes—EMF fields, smells, gut reactions.
- Superconscious vibes—the subtle, often spiritual, threads that connect us all.
Hearing Garret describe how he and his colleagues at the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) are using EEGs, gut-brain recordings, and gene expression studies to measure these things—that changed everything. This wasn’t fluff. It was frontier science.
Where Data Meets the Deep End
I. From the Moon to Molecular Biology
IONS was founded by Edgar Mitchell, an Apollo astronaut who looked down at Earth from space and felt a sudden, overwhelming sense of unity—what he later described as a noetic experience. That moment became the foundation of the institute Garret now calls home.
It’s not lost on me that a man who walked on the moon is the reason we’re now immersing ourselves in the steel box to study consciousness.
Garret’s journey there was just as compelling. After years of working at UCSF, publishing in conventional journals, he began collaborating on energy healing studies in his spare time. Eventually, he left the traditional track to go all-in on subtle science—and that takes guts.
II. Tapping, Telepathy, and The Gut as a Brain
We talked about everything from emotional freedom techniques (EFT) to lucid dreaming as therapy. But the one study that still has me thinking is their “gut-brain telepathy” experiment. Instead of measuring brainwaves, they use electro-gastrograms to read the enteric nervous system—the neurons embedded in your digestive tract—to detect telepathic signals between people in separate rooms.
Sounds crazy? Maybe. But the initial pilot worked. They’re now expanding the study.
We also dug into EFT, where tapping specific acupressure points while processing trauma led to measurable shifts in microRNA expression—changes that mirrored what happens after electroconvulsive therapy. That’s not “woo”—that’s biology in action.
III. Practical Tools for Human Potential
Garret’s book, Why Vibes Matter, isn’t just theory—it’s full of techniques that I’ve started integrating into my own life:
- Slow breathing to rebalance the autonomic nervous system
- Gratitude rituals to shift emotional frequency
- Intentional space design to elevate your subconscious baseline
I was particularly struck by his view that elite creators—whether they’re Olympic athletes or startup founders—aren’t just optimizing workflows. They’re aligning frequencies.
It reminded me that personal growth is not about adding more—but tuning in more precisely.
Is This Real or Just Really Well-Explained?
I won’t lie: I wrestled with parts of this conversation.
Can “vibes” be manipulated or misunderstood? Sure. Can people take this kind of work too far into cultish territory? Absolutely. But Garret didn’t shy away from this line of questioning. He grounded every claim in data, emphasized replication, and repeatedly acknowledged the limits of what we can currently measure.
That honesty is what gives the field credibility. It’s what allows us to say: maybe what we once thought was pseudoscience was just premature science.
And maybe “placebo” isn’t the enemy—it’s the proof.
A Vibe Well Worth Catching
As we wrapped up, I asked Garret about the epilogue in his book, where he references Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. Published in 1937, Hill argued that “thoughts are things.” At the time, it sounded poetic. Today, with studies showing that mindset can shift gene expression and that healing intentions can alter electromagnetic fields—it sounds prophetic.
I left our conversation wondering something: If thoughts can change our biology, what else can they change?
Garret’s answer isn’t dogma. It’s an invitation.
He’s not asking us to choose between science and spirit. He’s asking us to integrate them. And to me, that’s what The DNA of Things has always been about—recognizing that the deepest code of who we are might be written not just in A, T, G, and C—but in attention, gratitude, vibration, and belief.
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