Bryan Johnson Is My Baba Ramdev
Bryan, Baba and the Billions.
Two men are born—one in the 1960s and the other in the 70s. One in Haryana, and the other in Utah. These two men have nothing in common except the Y chromosome. It would seem like that at first. But they’re more like the iPhone 14 and iPhone 15, from different generations, with a distinct touch but the same feel. And this is a story all about the same.
If you’ve heard of even one of them, congratulations. You are on a journey to self-improvement- at least, that’s the promise. If you consume their content, you are better than the average Joe or Rahul, depending on your location.
It’s 2007. It’s 6:30 am, and the TV is switched on for only one channel - India TV. A man with a long beard in a saffron-clad garment is being live telecasted, moving his belly in and out vigorously and telling you Pranayama will fix all your problems. Seeing this, my parents would move their bellies in sync. I am peer pressured into it, but I don’t give in - at least not yet.
And this was Baba Ramdev. He had a magnetic pull; he would preach to thousands from an ashram in Haridwar.
I hated it. I didn’t get it, I didn’t believe in it, and he didn’t appeal to me. He wasn’t like me or looked like me, at least not yet. And no one in the crowd looked like me either. It was a gathering of all people looking like my parents. And it didn’t matter. My parents loved it; they believed in it, and he appealed to them even though he didn’t look like them.
It’s 2024. It’s 6.30 am, and the laptop is switched on, only for one YouTube channel - Bryan Johnson. A pale white-skinned man with no t-shirt is sharing his morning routine and telling you how his protocol will fix all your problems. This time, I gave in. I loved it. I believed him. He appealed to me. It was cool to follow Bryan Johnson, much like it was cool for my parents to follow Baba Ramdev.
Anything Ramdev Baba said was experimented with at my house within the following hours. That was his command, from having papaya skin on an empty stomach to aid digestion to putting aloe vera on your forehead to reduce acne. This went on for a decade, with hours of free content. Ramdev Baba became a household name and would soon become the household.
Years of free content were about to pay off. Say hola to Patanjali. Patanjali is Baba’s line of products. Patanjali Foods sells everything from honey to dishwashing liquid and even protein powder. It did over $3.5 billion in sales last year- that’s a billion with a B- and is listed on the stock exchange. This guy went from giving sermons to $3.5 billion. Where have you seen this before?
Well, we’re seeing it right now. It’s happening. I heard about Bryan Johnson in 2019 as the Venmo guy trying to improve his health by doing weird experiments. In the last two years, there’s been a frenzy. Bryan’s exploded on social media. The first time I heard him talk about his health protocols on Lex Fridman - it took me back instantly to Baba Ramdev on TV days; the resemblance was uncanny, just like the iPhone 14 and 15.
His videos were well-edited; all his were science-backed. It wasn’t just some guy's opinion; he spent much of his money on this. It was free. And what do we remember about free?
Say Hola to BluePrint, selling everything from olive oil to protein powder to pills. Where have we seen that before? He just launched a product, and it’s speculated to have made $2 million in sales on day one. And I can predict the next step without using AI. It's a billion with a B. BluePrint is poised to become a billion-dollar company in the coming years.
Like Baba and Bryan, my obsession is not the money. It’s the similarities between them and how they’ve managed to embed themselves in the social fabric:
Vibe check
Vibe is Genz lingo for aesthetics. When you say Bryan Johnson, I imagine a pale-white-skinned man standing without his shirt and Baba Ramdev in his saffron-colored aesthetic. It’s distinct and standardized, Huberman, as well. It’s always black shirts. It’s easier to stand out. They preach natural things. They promote a vegetarian lifestyle. They promote themselves for you to believe in them.
Selling you on longevity
The purpose of everything, the content and the products, is only 1 - To make you live longer. It seeps into one of the most profound human desires, to outlive others, and there’s no end. They’re potentially reaping from an endless pit of human desire.
Clout and a cult
When you follow one of them, you are essentially joining a cult. Joining a cult is for clout. You can spot Bryan with almost every relevant internet celebrity. He’s also started organizing a trail run to build the community physically. Baba has a YouTube channel with over 10 million subscribers- more than the entire population of Switzerland. Ramdev Baba used his Aashram to preach, and Bryan used the Algorithm.
4. Products came later
They may have been thought about earlier, but products came much later into the game. In the case of Baba, it was after seven years (2002 was Baba’s first TV appearance, and Patanjali was established in 2006). And three years in the case of Bryan Johnson (2021 and 2024).
Selling without selling
They can teach you Porter's five forces of marketing better than Porter.
See when they’re talking about their health protocols and their Kapalbattis. They aren’t talking about the products. It’s subliminal. They aren’t telling you outright every time you buy their products. They aren’t your run-of-the-mill influencers. They’re the influence. They have a narrative in mind, and they shape things around it. There’s nothing wrong with it. But shows how can make millions and possibly billions. They know how to leverage media.
It’s holistic
They don’t give you information about one part of your life. They give you life. It’s never just eat this and don’t eat that. It’s eat this, workout this way, sleep these hours, do this when you wake up. It’s protocols. They show you how to do it and practice what they preach. You can see their bare-chested bodies. You can see them doing the same stuff over and over again.
I judged my parents for watching Ramdev Baba in the morning, and they judged me for watching Bryan’s videos. They don’t believe him - they have no reason to. Baba meets their desires and beyond.
The fascination for me is the conditioning, how the same content and product packaged differently is being transmitted. What Baba did in 2014, Bryan is doing in 2024. And someone else will do it in 2034. Human desires don’t change, how we fill those desires do.
There’s still this thing regarding belief. You can say that Baba Ramdev’s claims aren’t backed by complex research. There’s nothing to prove what he’s saying is true. What he says probably doesn’t cause harm, and the net gain is a placebo. Bryan shows studies, blood reports, and 100 other tests; you can access it all. So Bryan wins.
Wrong. What you believe as the truth isn’t what your neighbor believes as truth. It comes down to your conditioning. For my parents, Baba is more believable than Bryan. No matter how many science-backed research papers you show them. Baba speaks in a language they are familiar with, in a way they are familiar with. (Consuming knowledge from Babas is an age-old tradition in India; it was how princes got their education.)
On the other hand, for me, Bryan is the winner. I believe in science. I want to believe in science; otherwise, I’ll have an identity crisis. There are no universal truths when it comes to humans. We believe what we like to believe in, whatever lets us sleep comfortably at night.
That’s why I believe Bryan is the Baba (with a B) I wanted.