Change Your Brain Every Day - The Traumatic Brain Injury That Changed Gary Busey’s Life- Pt. 1 with Gary Busey

Episode Date: June 4, 2018

In a series focused on head trauma and brain injury, Dr. Daniel Amen and Tana Amen are joined by Academy Award-nominated actor Gary Busey. Gary describes the brain injury he suffered in 1988 from a horrific motorcycle accident, as well as how his life’s challenges have given him a unique perspective and method of defining what means the most to him.

Welcome to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. I'm Dr. Daniel Amen. And I'm Tana Amen. Here we teach you how to win the fight for your brain to defeat anxiety, depression, memory loss, ADHD, and addictions. The Brain Warriors Way podcast is brought to you by Amen Clinics, where we've transformed lives for three decades using brain spec imaging to better target treatment and natural ways to heal the brain. For more information, visit amenclinics.com.

The Brain Warriors Way podcast is also brought to you by BrainMD, where we produce the highest quality nutraceutical products to support the health of your brain and body. For more information, visit brainmdhealth.com. Welcome to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. And stay tuned for a special code for a discount to Amen Clinics for a full evaluation, as well as any of our supplements at brainmdhealth.com. So welcome. We are so excited to have Gary Busey and his partner, Stephanie, with us for the whole week of podcasts that we are going to talk about Gary's story. We're going to talk about Gary's new book, Buseyism's Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth.

This is Gary's Bible. I couldn't be more grateful. This is fantastic. You are here. Me too. It's a miracle and a blessing to be here for me and Stephanie. Thank you. And Stephanie, I probably wouldn't be here.

I wouldn't be here. You definitely wouldn't be here. Okay, she puts it in the right place. Definitely wouldn't be here. I wouldn't be here. You definitely wouldn't be here. Okay, she puts it in the right place. Definitely wouldn't be here. And the miracle and the blessing I received from Dr. Daniel Amen is beyond the description you can give that on earth. Because I didn't know

what happened to my brain after I had the motorcycle accident December 4th, 1988. And Dr. Amen told me, your skull is here and it doesn't move, but the brain goes, whack, whack, whack, whack, whack, inside of you. I hit here. My skull was split all the way up to the top. I had a hole in my skull as big as a 50-cent piece,

and that's where I terminated the injury to be. But the injury was over here. And this part of my brain is dead. But I've chosen the word dormant. Because I talk to my brain every day and my brain talks to me. Your best friend is your brain. And what the brain has in it that you don't realize is your best, best, best, best friend is your mind. And M-I-N-D stands for making it new daily.

Oh, I like that. Isn't that a good one? I like that. And Buseyisms, your new book coming out September 4th, is loaded with these acronyms or buceisms. And Stephanie actually wrote the book by interviewing Gary. I'm the ghost writer. It's all his words.

But he would tell stories and go off on a tangent. So I'm the one who deciphered everything and made it cohesive. And you did it in a beautiful way. That's so sweet. The book is inspiring. It's easy to get through. It's hysterical.

Can I say something? I first saw you in the Buddy Holly story. And it was awesome. I was pretty young and I saw this movie. And I've seen you in so many movies, as most of our listeners and watchers have, and you're amazing. And my daughter's going into Hollywood and we see so many people from Hollywood, but what we don't often see is the spiritual component. And I'm so excited to see this in your book. So you've actually titled this your Bible. And I love this. It's really, that's your acronym in your book. So you've actually titled this your Bible.

And I love this. It's really, that's your acronym for your book. Basic Instructions. It's not an acronym. It's a beautism. I love it, though. Okay. But it's really a spiritual book. You're very spiritual.

Yeah, I've been the other side twice. Once death after the motorcycle wreck and the brain surgery. I was surrounded by angels in an unlimited space of time. But there's no time, distance, or thought on the other side. It's all feeling. And it's a beautiful place to be, to find out who you really are. Well, and before his head injury, so as I read the book from a psychiatrist standpoint,

it sounds like clearly you had ADD as a child. What was the one story where your mother actually had to take the playpen and turn it upside down to try to keep you in? Try to keep you in. Captured you. But that wouldn't work. And then you played football in high school. Yeah. High school, junior high, high school, junior college, college, and university.

And when I was playing in university, Oklahoma State University, I hurt my knee. My knee took me out of my athletic scholarship, so I moved to drama. But here's the blessing of the injury. It kept me out of the Vietnam War. Interesting. Thank you. And it kept you out of the pros, which would have damaged your brain even more. I don't know how much more damage it could receive.

Yes, that's true after the accident. But so having ADD, playing football, you had an acronym. What was it, STS? STS, yes, it's abusivism. And I was a linebacker, and they would have blocking dummies lined up, one, two, three. And on the other side of the blocking dummies would come a pulling guard. Behind him would be a halfback with the ball. The pulling guard picked which dummies he would go through,

the blocking dummies, big pads of canvas, and I would have to move, get the guard away from me and hit the back. And I was so quick in those little steps I could get past the guard then I would hit the halfback right here with my forehead boom then I slide my helmet up and loosen his teeth and when he fell down I'd help him up and say I'll be right back oh no well the STS means snap the sternum. Oh, my gosh. Here, real hard. Do you want me to show you? No.

Please don't. Okay, so before the accident, ADD, playing football, then drama, which worked out really well for you, and you were very persistent if you read the book and you had really great training there was some drug issues it was before the motorcycle accident oh yeah yeah before and after before and then he had a long period of sobriety and then he had a really quick relapse Yeah. Yeah. Before and after. Before and after. Then he had a long period of sobriety, and then he had a really quick relapse,

but the relapse was after the motorcycle accident. After the motorcycle. What changed for you after the accident? Oh, the understanding that life is so special. And L-I-F-E stands for living in forever eternity. The word death stands for D-E-A-T-H. Don't expect a tragedy here. Because I've been to the other side twice.

And it's a great trip. A guide takes you. You don't feel a thing. You don't see a thing. You don't feel a thing. You are just there thing you don't feel a thing you are just there in that spiritual place of nothingness but everything is you feel like there's nothing here but no everything is there and you're in a place of achievement and accomplishment and you get to know who you are that's so cool and i found myself very happy with me. And the angels, I was this long and that wide.

And that's your soul. And your soul is housed in the column of your spine. And my soul was there. And the lights were this big all around me in the air. They were orange, gold, magenta, amber. And three of them came up to my essence. And the light on the left was Abelone, Mother Pearl, that spoke to me in an androgynous voice and thought.

And it said, you're going in the right direction. You're having a lot of good things happening to you, but what you need because of your responsibility to mankind, you need to look for help in the spiritual realm. You can come with us now return to your body continue destiny it's your choice and when you hear the truth when you're on the other side you go right to it and they've word truth TRT or UTH stands for taking real understanding to heart.

And your heart holds the answers. I love that. To every question you don't know you have. And your heart is the face of your spirit. That's lovely. These are gifts I've been given from the supernatural, the spiritual realm. You told me another one before we turned the camera on that I really want everyone watching and listening to hear.

And you told me the one about faith and simple. You told me two of them. Can you repeat those? Faith, F-A-I-T-H, stands for Fantastic Adventures in Trusting Him. The word, let me give you two more. Hope, H-O-P-E,

that stands for heavenly offerings prevail eternally, which they do. They do, they do. Just have to look up and catch a miracle and wrap around you and the miracle will be yourself. And the word simple, S-I-M-P-L-A stands for see

it manifesting precious loving energy. Oh, wow. And simple turns to sweetness. Sweetness turns to a hand contact. Hand contact turns into an eye contact. And the feelings you have when you're meeting a spirit and a soul that you've known for 3,000 years, you're meeting a soulmate. Your past life regressions come to you in thought and feeling, not in words and descriptions.

So after the motorcycle accident, which was without a helmet, which was wicked, you were hospitalized, they actually ended up putting you on a psych ward because they couldn't control your behavior. Let me express that. That's in Cedars-Sinai where they took me for the brain surgery. And a male orderly came up to my brother, David Busey, and said, you've got to get him out of here. They have him chained onto a metal table without clothes on. And they have him under 12 layers of drugs which is

what we do i'm a neurosurgical icu nurse and let me that's not uncommon well let me tell you this that's got to change i agree with you because you're not considering at all the patient i totally agree with you soul and spirit they moved me to daniel freeman which is not there anymore dr barry ludwig and dr ro Roger Light were my doctors in the hospital. Right. And they took him off the drugs and let him go through that agitation period. Well, one of my favorite stories in the book is, because Gary's an actor, is they actually let him act being a doctor on the ward.

Oh, that was his wife's idea. She was very, very wonderful to help him through this. Because they were separated when he had the accident. And she came to his side. And it was her idea. And she said, he's an actor. He needs something to do. Let him go with you on rounds and tell him he's preparing for his next role.

And give him a smock to wear to the flipboard. That's amazing. And I would go in there and start going through the drawers of the patients. This is how his first buceism was ever created. Yeah, I realized the socks were all messed up and not in order. So I straightened them all up in even, nice, balanced rows. That's funny. And said, that's really neat.

And neat to me stood for nice, exciting, and tight. That's funny. That's funny. That could be a drive-in movie, teenagerism, too. What did you and your loved ones... How you doing out there? We'll get you some popcorn later. What did you and your loved ones notice was different

about you after the accident? And we'll show people, with your permission, of course, what his brain looks like. I mean, you can see the hurt. Traumatic brain injury is what I had. And it's harder on the family than it is the patients.

Oh, it's terrible. I. Oh, it's terrible. I saw that. I promise you, it's terrible. Yeah, yeah. For the people that love you, it's heartbreaking. The best thing you do at a funeral and with a person with a traumatic brain injury is celebrate life.

I told my family I will come back from the dead and haunt them if they go and play sad, somber music. I want them to play Def Leppard, bury me in my gi, and throw a party. Yes. Def Leppard? Yes. Leppards you can't hear? Yeah.

The point is I want them to party like rock stars. All right, let's get back to the topic. Yeah, let's do it. What happened? What differences did you notice? And what differences did your family notice after the head injury? Oh, you don't know anything when you have a head injury. He went back to work like he was healed.

And for 25 or what, 30 years, didn't really even consider he had any issues at all. No. My brain surgery was over. I had recovered. But they don't tell you that you're going to have a problem. Wait a minute. My brain surgery was over. They had me in occupational therapy, speech therapy, physical fitness therapy. And they noticed, they thought I was had ADD, but I proved them wrong on that. And they realized that Gary Busey was born with the energy of 10 men

who have normal jobs. I'm still with that energy, and I'm 73. This is my 73rd trip around the sun. And there's no stopping for me. I just keep going. That's awesome. And after, was Point Break the movie right after your head injury? That was the first movie I did, yeah.

Yeah, Point Break. Wasn't it Predator 2 and then Point Break? No. No? Point Break, 1991. Okay. Yeah. No, you were great in that.

So, you didn't notice any changes in your memory, your focus, your acting ability? I was better than I was before the accident. That's how I felt. Because I'm alive. I'm out here doing it. Hey, what do you want to know? Right. I got all the answers.

You had been to the other side. And many people tell me when they've been to the other side, their level of anxiety goes down. Their depression goes down because they have hope. Oh, all that's gone. All that's a resource that your brain has for the part of you that loves to be in fear. And the word fear, F-E-A-R, that stands for false evidence appearing real.

So the person in fear creates it themselves. Like the word doubt, D-O-U-B-T, that stands for debating on understanding bewildering thoughts. Well, when you debate with yourself, there's never a winner. Right. Not no winners. You got to be free of that. Free of your own identity. Free with your own. Use the code podcast 10 to get a 10% discount on a full evaluation at amenclinics.com or on our supplements at brainmdhealth.com. Thank you for listening to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. Go to iTunes and leave a review and you'll automatically be entered into a drawing to get a free signed copy of the Brain Warriors Way and the Brain Warriors Way cookbook

we give away every month.