Locked In with Ian Bick - How The CIA Interrogates Detainees In Iraq, Prisoner Conditions & My Experience With Aliens

Episode Date: September 15, 2024

Drew Bankey, a combat veteran and author, reveals how psychedelics completely transformed his life after serving in the military. Drew shares his personal journey of healing through plant medicine, opening up about the profound changes it made in his mental health and outlook on life. But that’s not all—Drew also dives deep into his experiences and belief in UFOs, explaining why he’s convinced they are real. #CombatVeteran #PsychedelicHealing #VeteranAuthor #UFOsAreReal #PlantMedicine #VeteranStories #LifeChangingJourney #ConsciousnessExpansion #MentalHealthRecovery #UFOExperience Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick: https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en https://ianbick.com/ Connect with Drew Bankey: https://www.instagram.com/drewbankey/ https://www.facebook.com/andrew.bankey/ https://www.sacredjournieswithin.com/ Buy his book: https://www.amazon.com/Im-Perfect-Are-You-collaboration-ebook/dp/B089P1T6V2?ref_=ast_author_dp Presented by Tyson 2.0 & Wooooo Energy: https://tyson20.com/ https://woooooenergy.com/ Buy Merch: https://lockedinbrand.com Use code lockedin at checkout to get 20% off your order Timestamps: 00:00:00 - Mental Health Struggles and Healing Journey 00:05:24 - Finding Healing from Grief through Psychedelics and Modalities 00:11:06 - From Police Officer to Military Life 00:16:47 - Emotional Reasons for Joining the Military 00:22:44 - Life after the Military, Reflections on Treatment of Detainees 00:28:42 - Transporting Dangerous Individuals 00:34:26 - Experience in Iraq 00:40:31 - The Power of Sharing Stories 00:46:00 - The Importance of Creating a Safe Space 00:51:42 - Journey with Ayahuasca and Meeting Spirits 00:57:23 - The Composition of Iasa Vine 01:03:34 - UFOs and Consciousness 01:09:33 - An Encounter at the Edge of Solitude 01:15:32 - The Energy Movement through the Body 01:21:09 - Overcoming the Fear of Death 01:26:53 - A Visionary State of Mind 01:32:18 - Pursuing Your Passion and Mission Powered by: Just Media House : https://www.justmediahouse.com/ Creative direction, design, assets, support by FWRD: https://www.fwrd.co Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There's a lot of similarities from what I found. That's why I like talking to combat veterans and veterans in general, because there's those similarities and they've experienced kind of the same, you know, mental trauma and whatnot. Yeah. You know, that's, you know, I was trying to think, when I was on the plane here, I was trying to think about, you know, what I would say to you and things like that, you know, different things we would talk about.

And, you know, I was thinking about, you know, the prison that I've been in for, you know, the PTSD and mental. health prison that I've been in since, you know, basically birth, you know, my, you know, finding I was adopted when I was 18 that, that turned at that moment, that turned everybody in my life at that point was either, either abandoned me or lied to me, you know. We're, the Banky family was really close. So we would have, you know, family reunions, you know, very, very often, you know, a lot of extended family, aunts and uncles and everybody. And then, you know, to find I was adopted, didn't know that everyone knew about it, you know, all that time, you know, it just turned all those

people into, you know, basically liars to me at that time. You know, I process it and understand why now and, you know, grown, but 18 finding out that, you know, your whole life got flipped upside down, you know, that was, you know, that's basically a lot where my prison started, you know, my, my mental health prison, you know, and just recently, you know, got released out of that, you know, over the past couple of years, out of my own doing. But, But on the plane coming here, you know, I definitely want to talk about that, you know, and bring up that the mental health issue in this country is crazy, you know. And, you know, just proof is into putting what happened yesterday.

You know, this probably got an arrow down the road a little bit, but Trump just got shot, you know, got off the plane and turned on my phone and Trump got shot. It's a crazy surreal world we're living in right now, you know, and I think it needs to be addressed and talked about. And I think that's how we heal. Yeah. And it's bringing it up. Yeah.

And so many people, like the people I've talked to, they all go through very similar things and it brings them down different paths. Some people, you know, it leads to crime or addiction or it leads to mental health issues or it leads to both. And a lot of people don't talk about it open and honestly. So it's so good to have a platform like this that we can do that. Yeah. I appreciate you. Appreciate you having this platform. and, you know, I'm happy, I'm real honored for you to help me spread this message because

I was kind of playing this too. You know, I've done a lot of interviews over since 2019 until now, probably over 100 interviews. And, you know, just looking back, you know, my last suicide attempt was in 2014, 200, round 200's annex and eight ball cocaine. And I was really set on that was going to. to be it. You know, I wasn't expecting to wake up in the hospital, you know, almost a day later, you know, from a coma and have charcoal all on my lips and everything. And I was not expecting

that. And that happened in 2014. And fast forward to 2024, it's been 10 years and reflecting everything that's happened since then. I got two more kids. I published two books, been on a reality show, you know, just the list goes on and on and on. All these books. And blessings and things that wouldn't happen if it was just two more Xanax, you know, if it was just another minute, you know, if it was someone pulled out in front of the ambulance before they got there, you know, it could just been one thing that could have changed that. And all those things that happened over these past 10 years would have changed. Yeah.

I was reflecting on that the other day. You know, it's just getting, you know, in my 40s and I'm 44 now and getting older, you know, just understanding that grader. gratitude is the mindset that I need to focus on now. You know, gratitude of what I accomplish and gratitude for, you know, what's happening now. And it just keeps getting better, man. Yeah. And a lot of people don't even make it to that point that you're able to reflect back on it and sit here and talk about it openly. Yeah. You know, it's affected my family closely. We've having the retreat center and everything that we have out in Colorado. We've had that since 2020.

filed with the state and we've helped hundreds of people maybe in the thousands heal from PTSD sexual traumas you know military trauma you know military PTSD based you know there's all types of different PTSD but and and all different types of things you know sexual trauma is growing up as kids and but we've helped the point is we've helped so many people and you know suicide and addiction has affected our close family members my My wife's two siblings has passed away, one from suicide, one from accidental overdose. And I've had two nephews. And this has all happened over the past like four, you know, four years since 2020.

We've had four deaths in our very close family. And, you know, the question, you know, I'm very spiritual now and very intuitive. So the question was I asked, I'm like, why am I being, why is my personal family being attacked? and there's people coming from, you know, across the country or even other countries to come to our retreat center to heal from psychedelics and different modalities that we work with there. And why is it affecting our family? And, you know, I had to go into the grief and find those nuggets in the grief. And it's been a hard road, but, you know, a lot of the message were, you know, people never die, really. You know, our bodies die, but our spirit, our essence are always there as long as we're.

it's held in someone's, you know, memory or whatever. And, but there's a lot of lessons from all that grief. So it's very surreal, you know, the things that affect you seem to come back around. I recently had an interview and someone asked me, what are the type of, what are the type of people that comes to you? And I said, usually it's people that's went through the same exact thing that I have. because the universe is set up where I can identify with them. They can identify with me.

They can open up to me and trust me because they know that I've experienced the same thing. So the people that come to our healing center are people that's dealt with, you know, addiction problems. I find a lot of people come to me has been adopted, you know, and things like that just out of the blue. And you can tell the universe is working in the background. I call it the whisper of the universe, but it's very, that's probably one of the greatest, that's one of the things I'm most in gratitude now is being able to hear that and know that and follow that whisper. Yeah, and you could just hear the growth and, like, the experience that you've experienced through your words

and through what you're talking about, through what we're going to get into in this interview, that led you to kind of these affirmations and what you've been able to look back and reflect on. And you also mentioned that you wrote two books, and we have those here today. I want to just, you know, show the audience. And if you want to just say where they could find these books, if they want to check you out further. And we'll have these in the link in the bio, too. Yeah, I'm perfect. And so are you.

And find your inner guru. They're both available on Amazon or my, our website, sacred journeys within. com. And I don't think there's any of the first book that's available. But if you do buy them from the website, I will sign them. And you just let me know, like, what? you know, how you want me to sign it and everything. And I've sent you a sign copy if you order from the website, same price as Amazon.

But, yeah, the first book I try to, I put it as low as possible. If it's $5.99, that's the lowest you can put a paperback book on Amazon. So I wanted to put it out there so people could, could digest it. And, you know, they couldn't say, you know, excuses that's $20 or something like that. I tried to make it as cheap as possible for people to get because, you know, it's not about the money for me with the books. Not that I'm rich or well off by any means, but the focus of the books and me being here right now is to share my story and let people know that there is hope after, after suicide, after addiction, after alcoholism, after divorce, you know. There is, after losing close loved ones, there is a light at the end of the tunnel like that you can, you know, move on and be successful and expand and whatnot.

Awesome. Now, you flew today to us from Colorado. Is that where you grew up? No, I grew up in Northwest Ohio. So, you know, growing up in Northwest Ohio around corn and things like that, I grew up on a, basically a hobby farm, you know, all types of animals. animals from emmews to ferrets to cows and pigs and everything in between. And, you know, great.

Pretty happy childhood. I'm exposed to a lot of stuff. Played different sports. You know, it wasn't really an athlete, but, you know, play different sports, Little League and this and that coming up and played baseball and basketball in high school. And got caught smoking weed at the end of my junior year. and I just turned I was turning 18 before my scene

no I just got I just turned 18 at the end of my junior year and I started kindergarten like when I was seven and yeah I got caught smoking weed and got called into the office and they said you can't play sports for the last year you're under your suspension I said well fuck you there's no reason for me to come back

I don't need to come you know I'm not coming back. So I left, guide GED, you know, I ended up getting a GED shortly thereafter, then joined the military. Went to basic training when I was 19. Well, right before I turned 18, that's when I found I was adopted. And then, you know, met my biological mother shortly thereafter. I never got to meet my biological father. He passed away before I could ever get in touch with him.

Yeah, joined the military at 19. went to basic training, come back from basic training, well, basic training AIT. I was in Army Reserves, so in Georgia at this time. This is where my adopted mom and dad moved to from Ohio. Like in between like 18 and 19,

they moved to Georgia. And so I was living with them, went to basic training, come back out of there, and then went to the police academy. and become a police officer. And I was a police officer up until police officer, sheriff's deputy. I worked with a police department for a while,

and then I worked with the sheriff's department. And I actually did part-time work with narcotics, did search warrants, surveillance, weed bus on four-wheelers, following helicopters around the woods, wearing a badge and a gun, chasing down marijuana grows in Georgia. And we're talking, you know, 2002, 2003, timeframe, 2004. 2005, the unit that I was in in the, you know, 9-11 happened.

And I remember I was laying in bed and my girlfriend, my first, my first wife, girlfriend at the time, she kind of woke me up. She's like, you know, you got to turn on the, I work night shift. So it was like 9 o'clock in the morning, got off at 6. And she woke me up. She's like, you got to turn on TV. She's like, something's happening in New York. And no more than I got up and was walking to the TV, my phone rang.

And from that point on, I was at the department. I was working for the police department at the time, just a patrol officer. And they called us in and said, we're doing like 12 on 12 off. You have to sleep at the station, you know, every third day. You can go, you know, you got a day off every third day or something like that. And it was like that for weeks after that. and, you know, I remember pulling over, I remember pulling over a car full of Arab people. You know, it was like a few days after 9-11.

And I remember shake and, like, I was for sure the car was going to explode or something, you know, walking up. Nothing happened. But I remember pulling over a car full of Arabs a few days after 9-11 and remember the feeling walking up that car. It was crazy. Was there a lot of that going on, like, that? that kind of feelings among law enforcement right after 9-11, where you guys were kind of, you know, profiling in a way because of what happened with 9-11?

Well, we're, the mindset is kind of we're being invaded, you know. It was like pro-harbour and, you know, like, you know, maybe the next step is a mass invasion, you know. A lot of people's minds and that's kind of what was being talked about, you know, anything could happen at this point. And it's kind of the mindset we have at the current moment, you know, Like anything could happen. Like we don't know what could happen at the next moment,

especially after what happened yesterday with Trump. Well, when you found out that those people didn't do anything, did you feel bad about it? Not at the time. You know, I didn't get any emotions until 2016 until I drank ayahuasca. You know, like fast forward way forward. You know, I didn't have, I was a dick. You know, I didn't think about any of them of myself.

Like, you know, in high school, I wasn't a popular kid. Um, my parents, I was probably like my family was considered like a lower class family inside the school. You know how school settings are kind of going on how much money your parents make and stuff like that. Well, you know, I would, my, a lot of my clothes were coming from the Goodwill, you know. And I was, uh, you know, while scrubbing up shoes and make them trying to look new for first day, things like that. And being caught by other kids and knowing that they weren't brand new is that type of stuff. So, you know, when I joined the military, I remember, I remember getting to basic. And one of the other people, one of the other people in basic before you even start, you know,

you got a couple days, sometimes weeks before you ever actually start basic training. And a lot of setting around waiting, you know, doing bullshit details and stuff. But, and everyone always talks there's like, I forgot where it's going with that. Oh, they're asked, what do you go about, you know, everyone. everyone's going by their last name. They're like, you know, what's your first name? What do you go by? And, you know, it was Andy all through high school and school and all that. And I wasn't like, I did have friends, but I wasn't, you know, I wasn't in the popular group. But I told him Drew and I've been Drew ever since. I've been Drew ever since basic training, you know, and it's just, I don't know, just I've been different. It's just, you know, thinking about flying here and I was thinking about speaking about speaking. and what my spiritual mission is. You know, basically what I'm doing right in this very minute is of a prophetic or biblical message, intuitive, like, mission that I was told to do.

Speak and spread my word and spread, you know, not the word or whatever, but my story and try to spread my vibration through my words of what I'm trying to speak of, is spirituality and how energy works and things like that. that, you know, on a much deeper level. But when I was in high school, I couldn't get up in front the class and say my, say a report, you know, I was, I had stuttered a lot. And I even, even hear it come out sometimes now when I'm in, when I'm in talks about, I just kind of pushed through it. But when I was in high school, I couldn't even talk to anyone at all. And getting the, the message to spread the message is just, it's really weird for me because

that's not who I grew up like, you know. Why do you think you join the military? Do you think it had anything to do with those feelings? We're almost halfway through the year, and a lot of people are running on empty without fully realizing it. Grow therapy helps you find care that's covered by insurance before burnout becomes the baseline. Whether it's your first time in therapy or your 50th, grow makes it easier to find a therapist who fits you, not the other way around.

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in high school. Well, there's a lot of reasons I joined the military. At that time, dedication to country, a deep call to service in my heart. You know, I wanted to serve something bigger. And, but I also think, you know, just now that you ask that question, I'm thinking back, like, maybe I was looking for a family.

Maybe I was looking for someone to trust, you know, at that time because I was still very much in, trying to figure out why I was adopted and going through that whole process. So, you know, maybe looking back, maybe the military was a lot of trying to fulfill something in me just emotionally because how hurt I was from finding I was adopting and all that. And when you shifted into law enforcement, just regular policing, was that what you were kind of passionate about? or did you really want to just be in the military and that was kind of like a side stepping stone to get to where you wanted to be?

No, it was just a call, really the blanket answer for both those, for both the service and the police work, was just a call to service. I felt a deep, deep burning to serve others. And, you know, I felt so deep that I'd be willing to give my life for it, you know. And it wasn't until, you know, my spiritual awakening and stuff, until I really figured out, like, what that deep burning was, you know, like what it actually was.

What do you think fulfilled you more actually being overseas in combat? Or was it, you know, serving on state side with the police force? Definitely being in Iraq, you know, changed me a lot, you know, seeing just seeing a lot of things. My first deployment was in 2005. I was in Baghdad, Iraq, did convoy security for high-ranking officials and celebrities coming in to do like U.S.O tours, things like that. So I got to meet like Vince Vaughn over there.

I got to meet Robin Williams. I met him on Christmas in 2007. I met him and a couple other people. No, that was in, yeah, that was in 2007. Anyways. At 2005, I was convoy. security we just rode back and forth basically from biop Baghdad international airport which was originally Saddam Hussein International Airport when we took over our rack we renamed it and we would

ride security details basically in between the airport and the green zone or different bases are around Baghdad so there was multiple bases around Baghdad Camp Liberty Camp Victory and and you know all different things outside. And we had also transported high-value prisoners in between a DIF, which is a division interrogation facility. So I also worked at the division interrogation facility for a third infantry division on Camp Liberty in 2005. And that housed Tier 2 and Tier 1 terrorists, very high-value Target's got to CCIA come in, you know, shut off cameras and shit and go and pull people and pull inmates out.

Detainee, we call them detainees. We didn't call them inmates. But they pull them out and bring them into interrogation cells and stuff and turn off, you know, you see them reach up, turn off the camera. So it's really like that, like in the movies and the TV shows. Absolutely. And what are they coming in with like the black, you know, masks covering their face to? Hawaiian shirts and shorts and flip-flops, you know.

That's how they're coming in? Yeah. Wow. Straight up. So it really is like that. Yeah. Man, we could do, we could sit here and talk for days, like on stories, but one in particular, I almost threw up. So they brought the Delta, like Delta, like Delta or Seals or something, like brought this guy in.

And he had been running for a couple weeks. and he had a bullet wound on his side and it was, it didn't like graze him but it didn't like hitting vital organs but it went through his side and it wasn't attended to for weeks. You know, he got in a firefight with him. He was running for weeks and they finally caught him.

And his whole side was just black and like sunken in and everything. And from the bullet wound was, the bullet wasn't in there or anything, but he didn't have any medical attention. He was just basically running and hiding in, you know, palm groves and shit and they finally catch them and they bring him in and like the i can't i remember

if it's delta or seals or whatever it was but they brought him in and right behind him was um like as you like a blacked out SUV and we know we knew that was like cia and they come in and uh they put on a rubber glove like right in front of us like we're checking him in like taking pictures of his wounds and and everything, and they come in and stick his finger right, right in his back. And they're speaking to him in Arabic, and he's given him information about where someone's at, but they're using his finger to interrogate him in a wound in his back. And I almost threw up, like, just crazy shit like that. Do you think that information would have been given to them if they didn't do that?

Like, do you think the only way to obtain that information was kind of in a way torturing him? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I think the quickness that they got it out, you know. I think sometimes it's not valuable to do that because, you know, people make up things just to get your finger, take my finger out of my back, you know. But, you know, I don't know where they did went to information. I didn't know if it was valid or whatever. But there's just wild things I see in 2005 even. Learn to speak Arabic and, you know, just move in the DCA. tainees around, you know, like Yala Mshi, you know, walk fast, Bawajao, like eyes down. We just, and I was thinking about that on the way here. I was like, because I knew we would get into Iraq a little bit. And that's just weird. That's been, that was in 2005 and I still, you know, that I don't know Arabic, but I know the commands that, I can remember the commands, just like it was yesterday. You had to take them out, give them showers.

Like they got showers every three days and stuff like that But we just treat them like shit, dude You know hands behind your back eyes down And I'm talking about like bent over Like bent over at the waist almost in like Upside Down L And that's how they would walk They would look at us

You know they get beat They would get you know we'd beat them Kick them you know not like hardcore But like we push them around Push them in you know push them into walls and stuff and it's all kinds of stuff like that. And do you think that was like an effective psychological type of, you know, tactic? Not at all. Not at all.

You know, there was some that I would talk to after a while and I would see that, I think after being there a while, you know, I was 25 at that time. But after being there a while, I started realizing that they all weren't terrorists. and it really opened my eyes when I went to Abu Ghraub. And we, because that was part of our mission too, we would run prisoners from the diff, the interrogation facility when they were done there. They would get sent to different places.

A lot of times they would get sent to Abu Ghraub prison. And when I went there, that was really eye-opening. You know, their intake process was just how it was described. You know, they got, you walk into a big-ass room. There's a bunch of soldiers in there hopped up on energy drinks and shit. And, you know, haven't had any women companion in a while and stuff and testosterone flying. And you bring in the sworn enemy, you know, and, you know, you hand over a bunch of files to the intake people. Each one has got like a number on top and each one of them's numbered.

And, you know, they got bags over their head. zip tied on the back, and you walk them in there, they cut the zip ties off, rip it off, and they bring the dogs right close to them. And they had these walls where the inmates, they put their hands on the wall, and they had like hands, like fingerprint, you know, hands painted on the walls, and then hands, feet painted on the floor. And the feet playing on the floor was like way away from the wall. So you had to like put your feet on these marks.

lean forward to where your hands are on the wall. And then they would run the dogs like up underneath them. And they'd like barking in their face and shit. And, you know, they would have them down to their underwear or lots of times naked within seconds of them being there. And like those people at the Abu Ghraib, I don't know what it was about that area, but there's so much more hate than what it was at the diff. Like we hated them like, but we treat them with a lot more respect than what they did Abu Ghraub. and that was very eye-opening. And that first trip to Abu Ghraub when we were dropping off,

the front gate got hit by IED. So a V-Bid, a vehicle-borne IE bomb, hit the front gate. And the front gate was like something out of Jurassic Park when you drive through it. It was like 30, 40 feet tall. There's two towers at the top of each side of the gate. And they're like looking down with machine guns and everything. and the walls around the open grove were same you know 30 40 feet tall and it's a big ass city but yeah I remember walking to get chow after we dropped off the prisoners the detainees

and you know our team we had like three trucks and probably nine to 12 guys or so and we were walking to the chow hall when it when it hit and it was just a shockwave you know went across the ground like kicked up sand you know around us We were only, you know, a couple thousand feet from the front gate. Wow. How dangerous is it transporting detainees? Are you guys under, like, were there ever any attacks to try to rescue the detainees from the enemies? No, not well we had them.

I mean, there was, but we didn't experience any of that. And the same way we walked around at the interrogation facility, that's how they rode in the trucks. You know, they would be bagged up, tied up. you know, uh, feet, you know, basically zip ties.

I don't, we're in zip ties or cuffs. I can't remember. But, you know, they were, you know, we had the gunner.

There'd be, we transport him in Humvees. So we have the gunner and his job is basically kick. Keep an eye on him and kick him, you know. And sometimes we have two and they weren't allowed to speak or anything. No, no detainees were allowed to speak to each other at all.

you know, other than if it's just like getting food, they talk and stuff like that. But one of the rules is they don't speak, especially like when they're in the vehicle or something like that. And when we were transporting to Abu Ghraub, like definitely were thinking about that was our proof that they were bad. Like for me, that they were actually a bad guy because they were being transported to Abu Ghraub. Some of them got released, you know, some of them. but yeah just a bunch of crazy times man like we had this we had a sniper come in she was from russia she was a female female sniper from russia had a ton of kills like she was super famous and she would always try to get um she was pretty pretty attractive too and she was she had always

try to get the guards to like you know cross that line and stuff like that and she was dangerous. And she was a detainee. Yeah. So she was working with the enemies? Yeah. And you guys captured her. She was a mercenary, yeah, for Al-Qaeda or whatever.

Holy cow. And yeah, that was 2005. Hit by IEDs. Got my eardrum blown out in 2005. Got my first CAB in 2005. and it was a combat action badge. So I was a Fort Obser... Well, at that time I was a multiple launch rocket crew member.

So my job really wasn't... Really wasn't being used at that time. It was used at the beginning of the war. Like the shock and awe, the things on tracks, and they got like 12 rockets, and they shoot. You've seen them all the time when Iraq first kicked off. But by 2005, you know, they were not using those hardly. at all. And being that you have to have a security clearance. So I had a secret security clearance

in the military to do those jobs. That's why we got tasked with being transport, you know, high value transport. How are the detainees fed? What are they eat? Because it's not like that the military personnel are eating, you know, nice meals either. So I'm curious what the actual detainees eat. Yeah. No, they were getting. I'm, MREs, like we would feed them MREs. And there were certain ones that I remember having to pick through, man, I haven't thought about this in so long. I remember having to pick through MRE bags and take out skittles.

They weren't allowed candy. They weren't allowed anything of pork, you know, Arabs don't like anything with pork. So we had to take out anything with pork or any pork MREs we had to pull. But we had to go through each bag. We had to take out the spoons out of there even because they would make shanks with the spoons. Yeah, but MREs, that's all they would eat. I was talking to one guest on the show who was saying that because he was in charge of

watching detainees too and that some of them would go to the bathroom and wipe their ass with their hands because it's a part of their culture. Yeah, their left hands. That's everybody. So in 2007, I started the first five months was heavy combat. It was in Ramadi, Iraq. and the latter part of that we started training Iraqi Army, the First Brigade, First Army, Special Forces, we were training them doing missions alongside them and everything.

And that's just part of the culture. They don't use toilet paper. And going to Iraqi police stations and stuff when we were training Iraqi police on close-course combat and working with Night Vision, just basic military stuff, you know, nothing. nothing really hardcore, but to them it was like very advanced stuff. But going, so about every three days we would go to a different police station. This was going on for a couple weeks. And every time you go to different police station, they would make food for you.

So they would make a big thing of rice, you know, lamb kebabs or grilled chicken. And they would just cut the chicken and have set it on top. And it would be just one plate. So I remember the first time I ever experienced this. like, they're like, oh, thank you for being here. We're going to make this big meal and everything. And we walk in, there's one table and one plate and like two water bottles and like 20 people. And it's like, okay.

Like, so nobody uses a plate. Everybody uses their hands. Everyone's drinking from the same water bottle. Like, and they're all using their right hand. Like, none of their left hand stays in their pocket or they don't even move it, you know. And they're using their right hand as a spoon or a fork or whatever. and yeah having to you know eating their food and not trying to be polite to them because it's a respect thing you know but they're different bacteria's and everything I end up getting a stomach virus and at an Iraqi police station

there's no American toilets and so they just have a hole they have a little shed out back with a hole in the in the ground and you just squat over top of it and there's water. bottles all over, no toilet paper or anything. So you're trying to find some toilet paper, find a little piece of paper in an MRE bag or something like that. I've wiped my ass with an MRE. If you've ever had an MRE, like the papers like that. I've had to wipe my ass like with a stomach virus with those papers before.

And what are the water bottles for just to like you're shaking it up there or something? No, they watch. So they wash their hands. So the Diorakis, they just rinse off their hand. Any soap or no? You know, probably if you're in different places, but... Wow, so that's just that they're used to that. Yeah.

You know, um... But at the bases, you guys have actual plumbing? Yeah, the porta potty's, you know. Port-a-potty living for a long time. I remember going in 2007, it was R&R, so we got like a day or two off, and they would send us to the green zone in Iraq. And in the green zone was one of Saddam's palaces, but it was for his,

it was for his horse. So there's like this huge-ass hotel complex and super lavish and everything, big-ass pools and spas. And he had over 100 of full-time prostitutes that stayed there, like that just serviced him. And if you threw parties and stuff,

you would take people there. But this place is, freaking immaculate and this is where we get to go for like a break in between breaks so the real break is when you go back home you know you go you know fly to you take a helicopter Baghdad then go from Baghdad Kuwait then Kuwait Germany from Germany to Bangor, Maine and then and then back to the you know Savannah Georgia that's that was my route back and forth and that all took like 14 hours or so. That was a real break and you only get one of those per deployment. So to break it up, they made, they took over this path, you know, they obviously took over this palace and everything

and just set it up as like R and our space for soldiers. So I remember going there and setting on one of Saddam's toilets and seeing his bidet right there beside it. And it was the first time I've ever seen a bidet, but they're both like pure gold. You know, everything in their gold. And You know, marble floors, crystal, you know, sandaliers in the bathroom, you know, just stupid money. Wow. Yeah, when you're getting back to the question you asked like 15 minutes ago, you know, what was more impactful for me, it was definitely Iraq, you know, is being part of a war, you know, that's especially being in the military, being part of a war while you're in the military, that's what most people join the military for. So did you have any thoughts in your mind during this time period of what your mental health and what the effects would be after you got out and you were back stateside? Were individuals ever thinking of that?

Yes. But honestly, I didn't want to come back. You know, I was, I went through a split, a separation and divorce when I was my second employment. Mother, my first two kids. So I did not want to come back a lot of, and I feel guilty of, you know, a lot of my. awards that I got and things that I did and alkalades that I accomplished over there was out of depression and suicide because I was literally volunteering for missions because I didn't want to go home because I knew that I knew how hard it was going to be when I got back and not seeing my kids and going through all that I just didn't want to go through it. So I figured if I could hide it my suicide as a heroic act, nobody would ever know. and, you know, it'd just be over.

Had you, at that point, attempted to take your life while you were overseas? Absolutely, yeah. There was many times, especially when it was getting close to coming home, you know, sitting there, I was a sergeant at that time team leader. I had a couple hundred Iraqi soldiers underneath me and a couple other American soldiers, and we were training, and we were living with them, doing missions with them. kicking doors, taking on doing all types of stuff, almost up until time to come home. And when I realized that I didn't have any more missions left, unless I got hit in between here and the airport, you know, by a huge IED, you know, I was going to make it home.

You know, it was very depressing for me. I had my M4 in my mouth, finger on the trigger, you know, and, you know, someone would knock on the door or something. You know, I'd think about something, and it would stop it, you know. What are the thoughts that walk you back from that ledge in those moments? Just getting from a breath to breath. Just getting to the next breath. You know, you can't think about anything. You've got to break it down to baby steps at that point, you know.

You got to think, you know, my two kids come into mind a lot. They save, you know, see and engage my two older kids. They've saved my life more times than they ever know. But yeah, thinking about them and what it would do to them really. And, yeah, just taking myself out. Just thinking about someone else. I didn't love myself until just recently and realized that was the real key to mental health is finding a way to love yourself, not in an egotistical way,

but in a compassionate way. And sometimes that's a huge battle, you know, fighting with yourself to love yourself, especially in the world of social media. where you're just comparing yourself, not you specifically, but everyone to everyone in the world. And it's tough, man. I have days where I'm like that too. All the time. We all struggle with it.

All the time. You know, just recently we were last year in 2023, we're on a reality show on Discovery Channel, called a Homestead Rescue, season 11, episode one, check it out, like it, should subscribe it. And, but after that, after that, episode aired, I was talking to the guy, like the main guy, you know, we remain friends and his name is Marty Rainey. And I was, he said, I'm going to give you one word of advice. He's like, don't look at comments anymore. He's like, just don't. He's like, they don't matter. Like, just share your story. And it's, it's funny because the spirits or the universe or God or,

you know, source, whatever you want to call it, whatever, whatever your supreme being is, that being spoke to me and said those exact same things when I was given this mission like to speak and share my story and stuff and to give other people hope through my story I was told that exact same thing I was told to share my story and it was going to reach some people and it wasn't going to reach other people and that just means those people that doesn't reach it's not their time to hear this story you know everything has a time and place and even stories or vibrations or whatever. Like, they all have a time in place.

And for each person, it's different. But I was told exactly that. Just share my story and not worry what anyone else thinks. Definitely. And that's probably one of the best piece of advice I give to anybody, you know. We all have a story. We all have trauma. And the way that we heal is sharing it, like sharing it with others.

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Yeah, I'm looking back now, for sure, breaking it down. It's all a buildup. I think what I see now through my work and my path now is we all have childhood trauma, like it went some way for in our fashion, whether they be too rich, too poor, we got assaulted sexually, physically, emotionally, mentally, mentally, spiritually. Like, we all have trauma in some way form or fashion. I think it's part of the design.

And part of our walk here, I think the reason, part of the reason for being here in existence, like the existential question, why are we here, is see if we can overcome those issues and problems because I don't think I'll ever be over it. I think I'm always, I think I're always beyond a healing journey. You know, I think this journey will always be part of, you know, I always be trying to get better, more pure, you know, and digging through all my shit. I think it's, I think the healing journey never ends.

I don't, anyone that says they're healed, I don't, I think they're, you know, I think they're confused of what's going on right now. But I think the reason we're here is to go through these experiences and overcome them, come out on the other side, just like you. The time of prison and all that shit. Like, you're probably sitting there at times, like, I'm going to do this when I get out. But there was definitely times when you were setting in prison like, man, what is my life?

Like, where am I going to do when I get out, worrying about this, that, and the other, and look at you now. I think, and it's the rewards that we get afterwards that show us, like, yeah, this is what you get for going through that. You know, now you get to be a pillar. you get to be a focal point you get to be a channel for other people to share their message like the work you're doing is you know it's some of the most important work out there yeah i've having people on here sharing their stories and that opens up other people it's they experienced the same thing i did they i can i can feel i can feel what they're talking about now i can talk about it you know maybe they talk to their loved ones because one of your episodes or whatever.

But I think the healing journey is part of why we're here. You know, it's not to make money. It's not to see how big we get or how many followers. Now, that's in the background of all this work because once you start doing the work, you know, avenues open up and you start reaching more people. And that just goes to show you that you're on figuring stuff out, you know. you wouldn't be supportive. Like just you, in general, Ian, wouldn't be supportive by the universe if you didn't have a good heart, a good soul, you know?

Yeah, I realized when you focus on your purpose and what you're supposed to be doing, then everything falls in a place. When you're fixated on chasing the money, the social media, like when I started, I never said I'm chasing a million subscribers or I'm chasing this amount. I focused on content and sharing my story and all that came naturally. people will call me and they'll ask me, hey, how do I grow my social media? How do I do this? And, you know, some people find it silly when I say, well, maybe it's not your purpose. You need to focus on your purpose. If your podcast isn't working, if your content's not working, it's because you're not focused on your apps, your purpose. And when I focused on making it about my guest and letting the guest speak, like I did an episode yesterday that'll come out in a few weeks where I think I said five words. I got five words in because the end of the end of the, the guest was they came here with a mission to share their story. And it's my job to give that platform and do that, which is where I differ from other podcasters. And that's what makes us unique, you know. It's just letting the guests, you know, my job is to get the guest comfortable and give them a safe space to share their story.

And then, you know, I put it in their hands. And there are some guests that can't do that. So I have to be there as a guide to help them navigate it. And when I learned how to do that, that's when I realized things come into place. So that's the advice I give to people when they call and they say, hey, how do I grow this or how do I do that? It's not about focusing on what's going to go viral. It's about just creating that space and that'll come.

And it's always the ones you least expect it to. Yeah. Like I don't go into an interview saying this is the one. Like it's always the ones I don't think about that are, you know, the most viral videos ever. Yeah. And I just think that's like the fascinating thing about what I've created and the guests that come and I love these stories.

one's ever just brought out normal people's stories before. Yeah. You know, you have a, you're being supported, you know, you're being just, just from the time that we booked until now, you know, you've gained a couple thousand subscribers on, on, on, on YouTube or I can't, I can't remember which one, but I just see the growth, like, and see, you know, I just see the world different now, you know, after, after my experiences, like, with healing and everything, but everything changed in

2016 when I drank ayahuasca, you know, from 2014 after that suicide attempt, um, that was the catalyst that got the VA involved and finally I got diagnosed with PTSD because before that I didn't have anything. You know, I wasn't diagnosed with PTSD.

I just thought I was depressed and I didn't really realize that, um, even though I did have depression and things like anxiety beforehand definitely being in Iraq, especially my second employment, you know, heightened all that stuff up a lot. And that was really my PTSD. And I didn't find that out until 2014. So 2014, 2016 was medications, group therapy, counseling sessions with VA, you know, every different type of modality that you could think of,

I went through and we had moved to me and my wife now, girlfriend then had moved to Florida. And I just felt this deep depression, this deep suicide like depression like on my back. And I knew like if I didn't do something, like very quickly, it was going to get me. And eventually, you know, I was going to succeed in killing myself.

Scared a shit on me. And around that time, The conversation come up with a friend who just got back from Peru, done a few ayahuasca ceremonies down there. And, you know, it totally changed his life. You could just hear it in his voice. Everything about him was, it just seemed like a different person in the same body. And from that point on, I was like, whatever that is, like, I have to try it.

Like, I had, because nothing, nothing that, my viewpoint then, nothing, what I, that I was doing, no types of counseling or anything from the VA was helping me. And I was at the end of my rope and started looking for ayahuasca ceremonies, spent weeks, months looking for him. The only thing I could find was in South America outside my budget. And so kind of gave up. You know, it was just outside of my realm of getting down there. And my wife was looking for a ceremony in the States in the background.

one in Florida and she came up to me and she's like you got to stop drinking coffee we got to stop having sex um you know we got to stop eating red meat like all this everything you know got to stop drinking alcohol that time I was drinking a handle of a crown every two or three probably like two a week and I had no idea I was an alcoholic you know I was drinking like two or three Yetty cups every night of crown and coke every you know every night starting at like four o'clock till like like nine o'clock, two or three mixed drinks every night on the weekends more. And, yeah, it was just crazy. That was one of the craziest things to stop drinking alcohol.

Like, to me, you know, it was just out of my realm then. And she's like, we got two ayahuasca ceremonies in like six weeks. You got to go through this, you know, this diet that they have for it. So, all right, you know, followed it pretty close. And time come up. drank the first cup of ayahuasca on a Friday night and drank the second cup, was in the bathroom and didn't throw up, didn't see anything, no special colors or anything. Woke my wife up on the morning of the second day and she was there to, went through the

ceremony, went through her first ceremony and I asked her how it went for her and she said the same thing. Didn't see anything in the bathroom, horrible, you know, felt like death. And I was like, let's go. Before everyone gets out there, you know, there's like 23, 20-something. people there, the shaman's asleep, everyone's asleep, let's just get in our car and go. She's like, we already paid for a second night. I was like, I don't care. Like, they can keep the money. I'm not going through that torture again. And she's like, hold on, let's just talk to

someone. Like, let's just see what it is. And they had integration circle come up like nine, nine, 10 o'clock that next morning, that Saturday morning in between the two ceremonies after the first one. So every ceremony they had an air integration circle the next morning. And that first integration circle like going around

I was like one of the last people and I was hearing people like talk to it. It was like you know, meeting God. Someone met Buddha. Like someone's just going through all these different things and just beautiful experiences

get around to me and they're like Drew would you like to share? And I'm like I shit 15 times like and I don't want to do it again. You know? And they're like just buckle up because the way it works like the first night could be bad

but the second night use the exact opposite. And it could be no more true, man. Like, I drank that second cup, the first stayed, end up staying. And that first cup, the second night, 20 minutes into it, I felt like I was taking my last breath. I was setting Indian style and I was like my head was almost touching the ground. I was like folded over and I really felt like I was about taking my last breath. And I look up and there's three people standing in front of me and they're like singing.

And I'm like looking at them. And I realize like they're not people, their spirits. And I just die, you know. I was like, I guess I'm dead. And I just, in my mind, I was like, I give up. You know, I guess I'm already dead. So I just gave up. And I look up and there's this light, like coming across the field.

And my first thought was someone had got so messed up on ayahuasca. They went out to the front yard, got it. their car and they're driving around the backyard. Everyone parked in the front of this big house in Orlando, Florida, and someone was driving their car had come around the house and they were coming at me. They're about to hit me. And as it got closer, I realized it was one big light. And next thing my mind process is we crossed the railroad tracks like a mile before

here. It's like, I got messed up. I walked down the railroad tracks. I'm sitting on the railroad tracks down. It's like about to hit me. I just give up again like I'm dead you know I can't move I'm like paralyzed and as it gets closer to me the light just overtakes me and it just disintegrates my body and basically my my spirit goes through this tunnel that they talk about and um you know that's what I experienced and I was as I was going

through the tunnel there was like pictures to the left and right as I was past them and they were like different pictures of different faces and some of them were not even on this planet you know like alien faces but some of them a lot of them were different you know black white all different type of ethnicities but as I seen each of the pictures I realized I would see like the eyes and I would I could see my eyes in that you know so I felt like um I felt like that was like past lives at that time and I saw like thousands of them. I went down in this tunnel, got shot out into blackness, and like far off in the distance of blackness, I seen this object.

It was like the only object in the blackness. And as I floated over to it, it was the spirit of ayahuasca. And we met, she said I was sobbing, like even in that space, like in the spirit space or whatever and in the physical space, I was sobbing of gratitude. of just having that moment and also sadness of knowing it's about to be over. She's like, don't be sad. She's like, you know, we're going to, because even though I wasn't saying anything, she could like feel me, I guess, or whatever.

And she's like, don't be sad. She's like, you'll see me again and you're seeing me as soon as you want to see me again or as soon as you're ready to see me again. And I was like, bet, you know. And basically come, that was basically the end of the experience. I met the spirit of cannabis too at that point. And it's been with me since about nine years old. I found a leaf in a encyclopedia Botanica while doing a project in school that my dad had grown.

And he put a couple of leaves hide them in our psychopedia and found them, rolled those leaf, you know, just fan leaves. And probably did nothing for me. I probably didn't smoke real weed till I was like probably 15 or 16. But I was smoking those fan leaves for a while and thought I was hot shit. But come out of ayahuasca, experience and yeah it just changed my life forever you know what exactly is ayahuasca for people that don't know what it is so iawasca is a it's a tea that's um known in based out of peru like uh it was basically

originated in south america peru columbia um a bunch of different tribes make it it's the it's the main component of many South Americans' tribes' spirituality. It's the focal point of their spirituality, a lot of them. It's a psychedelic. It's a mixture of two plants, the Bisterious Kappi, which is the vine, ayahuasca vine, and that contains an MEOI inhibitor, which allows the DMT, which is in another plant. So ayahuasca is a mixture of two plants. It gets mixed together in water and cooked, you know, three, four days is the typical process for cooking ayahuasca.

And they do washes, but we can get into all that particulars. But it's a mixture of these two plants and Bacier's Kappi, which is ayahuasca vine. And traditionally, like in Peru, mostly and stuff like that, they use chakruna. which is a bush that usually grows in the vicinity of the vine. The vine usually grows on a big tree, goes up a tree in the Amazon, and the bush, chakruna, usually grows close to it. So those two plants mixed together makes ayahuasca. The 4N-N dimethyl tripoline is contained in the chakruna,

which is also contained in many other plants, including our own body. We make DMT, 4NN. and in demethylotripline in our body and we store it in our lungs, brains, and things like that. And it gets released at time of death or if our body thinks it's dying, DMT, endogenous DMT will get released in our body. So we actually, each and every one of us, whether we live in Colorado or not, because now Colorado, 4N end dimethylophthalmline is legalized, especially particularly for therapeutic use in

Colorado. But in any other state, it's 4NN DMT is illegal and we actually make it in our body. So each and every one of us is a walking DMT factory and we don't even know it. No, I've seen like in the vitamin aisles that they have like ayahuasca gummies. Are those kind of similar and are those effective? Those are probably made just with the cappy. So mysterious, the ayahuasca vine. And that's, they say, you know, the old ones say that's where the spirit is from the vine. The spirits contain in the vine itself and then the visual effect comes from the

chakruna, the DMT. But those if you see micro doses and stuff like that that's probably just the vine because the divine is completely legal like it holds no DMT or anything and you can you know you can buy that and

grow it you know down in Florida you can grow it and grow it in Hawaii. They have they have farms in Hawaii where they grow it. And, you know, there's, but that doesn't, that's not illegal at all. It's the DMT, the end in the Chakuna plant. That is the actual illegal substance.

So a lot of people you can microdose with just, just a vine. And you can do it either in gummy or tincture or whatever, you know, whatever. But it's also very powerful. You know, there's, I guess it all depends on how much you believe in plants, you know. And that's really the question when it comes to, once you drink ayahuasca, then you really understand how powerful plants can be. Yeah. But, you know, someone was asking me, actually the Uber guy was asking me. He's asking me about ayahuasca.

And, you know, I told him, because we only had like a 10-minute ride from the hotel over to the dining. minor over here. And he was asking me about ayahuasca. I was like, how can I explain this very quickly? I was like, ayahuasca kind of gives you, you know, a God experience or a mystical, spiritual experience that you can't deny. And it would change your life, you know. But I've seen, this is something that's interesting about ayahuasca. You could be in a room and there would be 20 people in there. You know, some of them believe in Buddhism, some of them believe in Christianity, believe our Native Americans, you know, they believe in, you know, sweat lodge and things like that. Each one of those people are going to have individual, specific experiences, and the visions that

they have are going to be attuned to what their belief system is. So one person, I've seen this, like, in person, while running ceremony, I've seen one person see Buddha, the person right beside them see Jesus. And it's not about Buddha or Jesus. It's about the medicine, like, it's about ayahuasca, letting you know the level of importance of this vision, you know, and it will work with your language, you know, whatever your language is for spirituality, whether it be Christianity or Buddhism, it will adjust itself and give you that vision. I was reading an article recently that they were saying how psychedelics are a great resource and tool to help with PTSD and traumatic events, especially for,

service members, even folks getting out of prison and how they're working on legal, they legalized, I think, a certain level of psychedelics or they're working towards that. Yeah, ketamine is, ketamine is widely being tested by the FDA and all that stuff right now for its therapeutic use. I got a buddy of mine down in Florida. If anyone's ever in Florida, look up my self-wellness in southern Florida. It's ketamine clinic. And they work with high dose in ketamine.

So they induce a mystical experience, you know. And it can be done. What I've realized through working with these medicines for a while is they're vibrational tools that raise our vibration to where we can experience a different plane of existence. And I explain this like, people ask me, like, how can you explain that to me? Like, okay, like a dog hears a tone that we can't. But does that mean that tone's not there? Hell no, that tone is still there. That tone is above where our ears and are tuned to hear.

But it's still there. Now, how far does that spectrum expand on the hearing level, the seeing level, you know, the sixth sense or whatever? The answer is it expands to infinity. on all levels and even senses that we don't even know we have. You know, we have telekinesis.

We have telepathy. You know, the government's finally admitting over these past years about UFOs and it's also brung out a bunch of other stuff about consciousness, remote viewing, them using LSD and using consciousness and experiments. Just wild things that they're finally admitting to

that a lot of people just stumble on. Like when, you know, my second, my second ceremony of ayahuasca, I stumbled upon the spirit world looking for relief from a physical ailment, depression, suicide, this, that, and the other, I stumbled upon a truth, you know, that I, it was a whole world that was way bigger and way, you know, I'll never understand it. And that's, that's what intrigued me so much of my, for my second ceremony. So you just mentioned UFOs. Do you think that UFOs and aliens are real?

Absolutely. And you discovered that all through your experience using ayahuasca. Like, did you believe in that beforehand? No, not at all. I didn't have any experience. I've had experiences. Anyone that, you know, you can look up my name anywhere on YouTube. There's 100 interviews out there telling my stories.

Yeah, you are very well known for UFOs and diving into. that topic. Yeah. You know, the psychedelics, that was just a tip of iceberg, you know, finding out about the spirit world and then starting to have experiences, you know, my own experiences. I think maybe I had experiences before, but just didn't see

them or didn't, you know, recognize them. But, you know, after psychedelics is definitely turning me on. I didn't have, people always ask me, now, like, especially after writing the books and stuff, it's like, what was your experience like as a child? Like, did you have any, like, supernatural experiences? And the only thing I can really remember is one time, about eight or nine years old, I had a BB gun, set in my backyard, looking out across the cornfield, you know, just me out there. And I set up a fort with, like, old

bricks and, like old, like a playing army, you know. And I had a BB gun. I was pointing out towards the cornfield and there's this storm cloud that was coming. It was huge and I knew that it was going to start raining. I was going to have to go inside. My dad was going to call me inside and make me go inside. So I started shooting at it with a BB gun. And it split. It split and went around our house and everything.

And then I had a recurring dream that falling through space and land on this big net. But that's the only things I can really remember. I remember when I was a junior in high school, I had, we all had an IQ test. No, it was a freshman in high school. We all had a freshman year. Everyone had this IQ test. And after it, I got called to take another one. And when I went and took the other one, it wasn't with the teacher anymore.

And it was with two guys, I don't recognize. I didn't recognize I never seen him before that or after that. but I had to do a different IQ test. It was much longer. And it was like five hours on. The first one was like an hour. The second one was like much longer. It took like all day.

And that was just some weird experiences like growing up that I remember. But yeah, not seeing the UFOs and everything didn't start until after ayahuasca. And seeing a lot of them in Colorado, where we live at now, we live in a very well-known. known place for UFOs. It's called the San Luis Valley, which is in southern Colorado. It's by the great sand dunes. You know, it's one of the hot spots of in the world for UFOs. And then had a face-to-face encounter in 2018 near Chaco Canyon, which was very crazy. It was not on any psychedelics or anything. Me and my wife were,

went to Chaco Canyon, and Chaco Canyon is a monument that has petroglyphs, a Native American petroglyphs. And this is after ayahuasca and everything, had started. And so it was our first wedding anniversary in

2008, 2017, in 2018, maybe it was our second anniversary. It was 2018. We went hiking through the canyon, seen a bunch of petrocliffs. A lot of the sketches and stuff like made sense to me for some reason.

You know, I could just, I could tell what they were trying to, what the message was between, by some of these symbols. And I sung a Native American prayer song in Lakota in the canyon with my drum. And that night we, and then left. We went back to the B&B. We stayed in Cortez, Colorado,

it was like an hour and a half away. and had dinner, went to bed that night. I woke up about 2, 3 o'clock in the morning. My ears ringing and like a vibration, like it felt like a vibration in my body. But it was a really deep like tinnitus ring, you know. And at that time I was still smoking tobacco. I woke up my wife. I was like, I'm going to go outside and have tobacco.

She rolled over, didn't even pay me any attention really. And I walked outside, lit a cigarette, and took like two steps. the back deck and as I'm walking out the back door they're ringing like it almost feels like it went from my head to like in my chest area and it started like vibrating here but it was like pulsing like I could feel like pulsing through my skin like it's shaking my shaking my fingers it was just and it kept getting and we're talking two seconds you know of time maybe less of me walking from the door to the edge and from that time it just I felt like I was walking close.

Something was vibrating and it was making me vibrate really hard. And I felt like I was getting closer to it. And I kind of made me cough and spit. So I hacked up a lugie, like spit it and walked over to the edge of the deck and spit. And as I leaned down, I looked. There was two feet standing beside me. And they were facing the same way as me, only like 18 inches away from me or so. And I like stood up.

And, you know, I live out in the middle of nowhere now. We have a homestead and we're on solar and, you know, no streetlights or anything like that. And so we were in a town at a B&B. So I thought maybe it's a street light, you know, I'm just not used to streetlights. So I turned around and I seen no streetlight. And, man, my fear went from like zero to a million, like, because I was losing all reasoning of what this. thing was like it was a shadow of of me but there was no light behind me and as I turn around this being it's like the same size as me just black um with no features or anything but as I

turn back around this what I thought was a shadow like starts to open its eyes and all I see is stars in its eyes and like galaxies and things like like just an universe you know in its eyes and it's just like blinding light as it opens up. And I guess it kind of like pulled my spirit out of my body or my soul or whatever, my essence, my energy out of my body. And I went through its eyes. That energy went into its eyes and I was just like flying through space. And a lot of things were told to me and shown to me and like the beginning of time. And, you know, I got a whole creation story I write about in the first book that I share from that moment.

and not to plug my book or anything but no that's what we want you to do no I do plug my book but uh um yeah come out of that and um I kind of felt like my heels like hit the ground like maybe I wasn't like off the ground and maybe I was like you know on my tiptoes and I felt my heels hit the ground that like that like shook me back into reality and I realized what was standing in front of me like, I realized, I didn't realize what was standing in front of me, you know? And I ran inside, locked the door, woke my wife up. And her first reaction, she just starts laughing. She's like, is this surprising for you?

And she's like, and why did you lock the door? Do you think the door, you lock in the door is going to do anything? If this is what you say it is, like, do you think that door is going to do anything? I'm like, yeah, you're right. And you weren't on psychedelics at all during this. How can you be sure it wasn't a dream? Like a vivid dream? Like I've had vivid dreams where you think it's a real thing.

She remembers all this. And she remembers all this. I've had had dreams like that where I come out of them and, you know, things are different than what the reality. But this, it just changed me, you know. It took a while for me to go to sleep the night. I think I'd take a bath, you know, shower or whatever. Eventually went to sleep. and the conversation you know I babbled about it for a couple days the first day was great you know

that's all I babbled about second day half babble third day you know I could tell my wife's getting sick of hearing it I got to stop talking about this and um you know eventually just stopped talking about it with her and just kind of stopped thinking about it you know it'd come up and like wow you know that was crazy but um about a week or two after that is the catalyst is the catalyst is the real moment that went when everything really his when um i had a dream and in the dream i'm like on this other planet and i see this like flash and all of a sudden i'm on this deck and then i see me walk out light a cigarette like drew i see me from another perspective walk out light a cigarette go through everything i just explained and like spit and that's when i realized that

you know, I realized a lot about multidimensionality, biolocation. I understood how bilocation was. I realized that was me, I had a future version of myself, like millions of years from now. And it was coming back and seeing me go through this awakening and helping push that awakening a little bit by just being there. And that's what I realized out of that dream. And I had, you know,

that changed my life forever. And ever since then, you know, I've had different abilities, you know. I was on the way to the airport in Colorado, halfway to Denver Airport. I was like, damn, I forgot my pendulum. I was going to bring a pendulum. I was going to show you some stuff that was really going to blow your mind. But for some reason, I forgot it. But if you have a pendulum, I could show you either off air or on air,

some stuff that would really blow your mind. Yeah, I don't even know what a pendulum. It's like one of those things that's swing back and forth. Anything. It could be anything on a string. Because some people, you know, a lot of times it's a crystal or something like that. And the first thing people are saying, well, it's the energy from the crystal. You know, I could do the same.

I could show you exercise. I've done it many times on remote interviews about how to the start of telekinesis and proving to you that your mind can move things. but you can use anything for a pendulum it can be a beer a beer cap on a string you know on a twist tie for a bag of anything you know it could be anything on a string so it doesn't matter what a pendulum does it shows you energy and you know our meridian we have a chakra system most people have heard about a chakra system our chakra systems like our main energy line up and down our body you know crown chakra all the way to root shocker system and all the ones in between. And then we have meridian lines. And this is what Reiki healers heal with and things like that. They know about this and they use energy that's coming out of their hands.

So in our hands, we have a meridian point in the center of our hands. And this is one of the big reasons why Jesus was crucified the way he was, or at least his story is told why he was crucified that way, because we do have meridian points in our hands. And that's why he was crucified in his hands and his feet, because we have meridian points in our feet. So this meridian point, it goes down our arm, and it crosses at our sacral chakra,

which is our belly button. And the reason our sacral chakra is in the area of our belly button, because that's our sacred chakra, that's where we entered into this life at. That's why it's called the sacral chakra, the sacred chakra. But that meridian point goes from our right hand to our left foot, and then from our left hand to our right foot,

so it crosses. So this is the energy that's been scientifically proven that we have in our body. This is how it moves through our body. It comes out our hands, especially if the more in tune and conscious that you get, you can start to use, push energy out of your hands. And think of the terms of like a positive and negative battery terminal. So it's like positive and negative. So your left hand would be positive.

Your right foot would be positive. Your left hand would be negative. your left foot would be negative. So, you know, that's what Reiki healers do. They've closed, they basically visualize moving energy from hand to hand and put an object in between that. And that's, that's kind of the basis between Reiki. But, you know, I was never, before my first cup, ayahuasca, I was never this spiritual guy or anything. You know, I was never talking about anything like this.

And all this is from, started with ayahuasca, it turned me on to a different reality. And once I realized there was a different reality, I started to dive into that, you know. Do you think about how different your life would be if you never discovered? Absolutely. Psychedelics in this type of treatment? Absolutely. You know, 2006 in between deployments, April of 2006, I went to Special Four. of selection. So Greenbred went through the first phase, had shin splints, all types of stuff,

you know, didn't make it, didn't get, didn't get selected. I think about the all the time, like, what if, what if my runtimes were 30 minutes, 30 seconds faster? You know, what if I did two more pushups? And I got selected. And I stayed in the pipeline and, you know, become a Green Bray and come out and, you know, had a contract in business and, you know, had a gun range and all that shit, you know, whatever, you know, whatever would happen. I think about all the time. But I know that none of that stuff could ever happen because this is where I'm, I firmly believe in everything happens for a reason.

Every one thing leads to another, you know, and nothing is out of place. That's what my first book is about. I'm perfect. And so are you as it talks about the. talks about the divine nature of the universe and the divine truth of the nature of the universe, that everything happens for a reason. Everything is in perfect alignment all the time. It doesn't matter what happens or what your perception is of that moment.

It happens like any of the most horrific stuff. You know, people ask me, how can you just, how can you say that when kids are getting raped or murdered or this or that, the other? You know, all this horrible stuff that's happened. And how can you say that everything's in line? Well, let's just break down one situation. What if a child does die, you know, at birth? Let's say a child dies at birth, minutes after he's born. What did that child do to deserve that?

The child didn't do anything to deserve that. It's about the lessons for the parents. That child's soul is a soul that never dies, just like we all are. I learned this out of a near-death experience in 2019. I was dead for five minutes and come back. And the best, what was really confusing about it, I didn't know I died until someone said, call 911, he doesn't have a pulse.

And that's when I realized I died. I did not, because I never left, you know. The lights never went off. There was never a millisecond in a break in consciousness or awareness. You know, my awareness never left me. I was completely there the whole time. And that was a big eye-opener for me.

Even after all the psychedelics, I realized, like, okay, we don't die. You know, we are always here. You know, all our loved ones that's past, my loved ones are right here with me right now. Your loved ones are behind you, you know, people that want to see you do good. That's past, whether you know them or not, they're right, you know, they're right here with you, helping this be pushed forward. And the same is true with anyone listening. and I firmly believe that. And yeah, that took away the fear of death for me.

And I realized that a major construct of the human existence is based around the fear of death, especially now and especially in the West, how we deal with death. You know, India, things like that, Buddhism, they believe in reincarnation, things like that, and death is not treated like it. is here in the States, you know, it's not, oh my God, let's cry forever. And, you know, we're never going to see them again. It's, it's like, it's just looked at in a different way. And other than my first

ayahuasca ceremony, that near death is probably one of the most, I've had a lot of transformative moments. But that's definitely one that helped me out a lot to realize I was being controlled by fear of death and then and being able to not have that anymore. Even though joining the military ultimately led you to your life purpose and healing and everything you do now, looking back on it, would you tell your 18-year-old self not to go down that path if you had the opportunity to? No, I'd shut my mouth. Because everything, everything up until that first cup of ayahuasca, the second cup of ayahuasca,

not the shit cup, the division cup. The second ceremony, all the way up to that second ceremony, everything that led up to that, you know? And this come out in my third ceremony. So it's funny you're talking about this because it kind of segues into my third ceremony. My third ceremony was a daytime ceremony. It was the next week. So I went back the next weekend and, you know, I was like,

come back when you're ready. I was like, I'll come back as soon as they let me. And because I got more questions. You know, I had a million. You know, it just everything that you have. ever want to ask like this is it you know this is a genie in the bottle so i go back that that uh next weekend to do another ceremony is daytime ceremony and went into that i i talked to the medicine person beforehand and i was like what should my intention be you know you go into these

ceremonies with an intention like basically a question or a prayer or whatever what should be what should my question being it's like well what do you really want to know and when he asked me that i was like why am i here you know this the number one question everyone's what burns in people's minds like why were you born why are you here why are humans here why are you alive you know just why and um go he said go in there and ask why you're here you know your particular mission ask what it is and I didn't see anything for a while first couple hours of the ceremony I'd say and I was in the grass

I was setting in the grass and really dizzy and stuff not really seeing anything maybe flashes of colors here and there but this ant bit me on the finger like bit me right in between the finger on my left hand I went to go smack it and I felt something physical

grabbed my arm and it said you can change the course of your life or you can keep on doing what you're doing. You know, you can smack this ant and this is how you deal with problems, you know, big hammer, you know, hits the nail. That's your mindset now. You know, being in the military that was just who I was. And it said, or you can give compassion, you can just let this ant go and realize it was just trying to protect itself, just trying to protect its home or whatever it was. But you can have compassion for it and just let it go.

And what you're going to do, even though you don't realize it, you're going to, even though that's just one aunt, you're going to change that ant's like perception on reality. Like you're going to give it a paradigm shift in its reality because of what you're doing. And I was like, okay, it's like, I could do that, you know. I don't even feel to buy it anymore. You know, I could let it go.

So I let the aunt go. And at this time, I'm talking to ayahuasca like fully, like telepathically. Like, there's a voice in my head, you know, whatever you want to call. There's a voice in my head. And I said, is that the message of me changing someone's life or just changing one person's life? And it lit up all the ants in the yard. And there was like millions of ants in the yard.

And they were all glowing green. And it said, no, this is how many people you're going to be affected in your life. lifetime. And I said, how am I going to do that? And then I went out of my body, you know, into this, I walked as the ant for a minute, a second. Actually, my consciousness went out in that same ant that I went to. I could see how much I changed this look on reality and everything about how I did, how I treated it. It just was totally blown away. It was going to go back and like tell the colony and stuff about what happened. Like I bit this dude. I was totally expecting to die and he let me go crazy, you know, blah, blah, blah.

So I went, then I went from that point on I was, like, out of my body. I was, like, in a visionary state. And I went from basically that aunt into this, when I ask of, like, am I just supposed to change a couple lives or am I supposed to, like, who am I supposed to help? That was really my question. I was like, who are you telling, I'm supposed to help one person? Like, who is this one person? I'm supposed to help?

They're like, no, you ain't getting it. So it's like lit up all the ants out there. So I showed I was supposed to be talked to a lot of people. And I had this vision. I was up in a podium. And I seen an energy come from the sky. Like I was going into my body. And it was going through my body and it was being translated.

So I was like translating like a language or translating the words from the universe or God or whatever you want to call it. Basically, I was given a prophetic message that I was going to be translating a vibration from the universe. And I saw that vibration turn into words from me. And I seen the words go out into the crowd, like, in a wave, like going through the crowd. And there was, like, tons of people in this crowd. But I seen it go past some people. I seen, like, my words go past some people. And then some people, it hit and went into their ears.

And I've seen their heart, like, their heart start to glow. I seen them like start to glow and change. I seen like multiple people out in the crowd that this was happening to. But some of the people I just went past. So it was telling me like, you know, just what I was telling you were like, speak your truth and don't worry about where it hits. That's how that message was given to me through that vision. Yeah, I think it's always fascinating seeing how people discover their life purpose. You in an incredibly different way than most individuals.

But that brought you to your purpose and your journey. and you just hear, you know, it's so fascinating the universe how you have to go through these traumatic, terrible situations to bring you to do. If you could survive all that, then there's just this whole other side of the world out there. And it brings you to exactly what you're supposed to be doing. And I love that I have the opportunity to talk to these individuals because it makes me reflect on my life and what I've been through and kind of put that energy back into the world.

Absolutely. it's um you know the way i see things now um you know we're we're all source i think that um whether you call it god brahma uh jesus or whatever whatever spiritual entity that you want to call it but when i ask what this voice was like eventually i asked what this voice was i can't remember when it was when it actually was but i was like what what is this voice you know what is this voice you know what this thing talking to me. I said, well, what do you want to call me? I said, I want to call you like what I'm supposed to call you.

Like, what am I supposed to call you? It said, people call me source. Like, source is the most untitled thing you can call me. And I said, why source? It says, because I'm the source of all creation and you are the creator through the power of manifestation. And it says, step back into your power to facilitate the upcoming evolutionary shift. And, you know, that's, that was my answer for what it was to be called.

But that's why it's called, that's why a lot of people call it source. You hear in source more and more and more and not people calling it God or, you know, because God is like a name or gives it certain different aspects. Source is just the purest thing you can call it while still calling it some type of word. Well, Drew, thank you so much for coming out here from Colorado and coming. on the show today. Definitely a very interesting and insightful conversation. Yeah, man. And I'm sure the audience is going to love it because it's something different. I love every episode. We have a different person, a different face, and a different kind of topic of their

life story to be shared. And safe travels back. And again, thank you so much for coming out here and sharing. Yeah, thanks for having me. You know, like I told you before, when we've started, you were my top three for a while. So thanks for, you know, being part of my dream, man, you know. And you got two more to go. Yeah. Rogan, if you're listed, I'm coming for you. Yeah.

Actually, my buddy was just on there. Billy Carson was just on there a few weeks ago. He set a record for $1.6 million views in 24 hours, talking about the same thing that I'm talking about right now. Yeah, you know, Rogan is very well known for having just individuals that are not famous on there. So I think that's awesome And that's a very obtainable goal It's not hard because he does like what four or five interviews a week

So he can't just sit there and interview celebrities all the time You're not going to have enough So he's got to interview the regular people like yourself And myself, you know So that's a goal. It's a fair goal. Thanks for having me. Maybe we're both be on there together.

That would be awesome. That's definitely a dream of mine. I think if I could ever tell my story on Rogan Then you know that'll just be That'll be awesome. I'd love to connect with him. Well, if you're telling your story, and that's your, that's your passion or your mission, you know, Rogan, there's, you know, that's the cream of the crop, you know.

Absolutely. Well, thanks again, man, and safe travels back. Yeah, thanks, brother.