In the pristine forests of Estonia, where Viking warriors once roamed, a quiet revolution is taking place. The country’s ancient relationship with functional mushrooms, particularly the powerful chaga that grows on birch trees, is being transformed into a modern wellness movement with global implications.

Silver Laus, partner and CEO of mycotechnology company Shroomwell, is at the forefront of this revolution, combining Estonia’s historical resilience with cutting-edge extraction technology to produce some of the world’s most powerful mushroom supplements.

The wellness sector, fuelled by preventive healthcare and a generational shift in consumer behaviour, is growing faster than the healthcare industry. Biohacking industry on the other hand is growing 4x faster than the pharmaceutical industry.

In this article, Teemu Arina the curator of HOLOLIFE Summit unveils his ambitious vision for holistic wellness that transcends self-optimization by a move towards self-actualization.

The ancient monastery rose from the mist-shrouded Thuringian Forest like a forgotten dream, its weathered stone walls bearing silent witness to centuries of secrets. The location was no ordinary religious retreat but a hidden Rosicrucian sanctuary: one of seven built across Europe by the secretive Brotherhood of the Rose Cross.

The health & fitness industry is undergoing a major transformation, evolving from traditional workout models and emergency clinics to a sophisticated ecosystem driven by data, personalisation, and longevity science. This shift represents not just a trend but a fundamental shift in how consumers approach health and wellness.

The repurposed windmill-turned-laboratory loomed against the twilight sky, its massive wooden sails silhouetted against the fading light. Nestled on the outskirts of Leiden in the Netherlands, near a secretive network of canals that ultimately connected to the North Sea, this forgotten structure had become the second sanctuary of the Hololife Movement: a photobiomodulation fortress where light itself became medicine.

In the shadow of steam-driven cities, where crumbling medieval kingdoms reluctantly yielded to the hissing valves and grinding gears of a new age, the first members of the Hololife Movement gathered.

Their meeting place: an abandoned factory in Estonia created on the Viking lands by a German medieval industrialist, whose stone walls concealed a secret laboratory unlike any in 16th century Europe.