Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal - Les Stroud on Bigfoot, Orbs, Filmmaking, and Creativity

Episode Date: October 9, 2021

Les Stroud is the creator of Survivorman. Sponsors: https://brilliant.org/TOE for 20% off. http://algo.com for supply chain AI.Merch: https://tinyurl.com/TOEmerch (valid until end of Oct 2021)Patreon: https://patreon.com/curtjaimungal Crypto: https://tinyurl.com/cryptoTOE PayPal: https://tinyurl.com/paypalTOE Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOEwithCurt Discord Invite: https://discord.com/invite/kBcnfNVwqs iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/better-left-unsaid-with-curt-jaimungal/id1521758802 Pandora: https://pdora.co/33b9lfP Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e Subreddit r/TheoriesOfEverything: https://reddit.com/r/theoriesofeverything00:00:00 Introduction 00:03:13 Bigfoot and Survivorman series inception 00:07:19 Similarities of investigating UFOs to investigating Bigfoot (Curt owes Les) 00:08:46 Les' poor upbringing in a drug ridden neighborhood 00:12:48 The trappings of fame and being treated like a monkey 00:15:16 What drives Les' output? Is it pure "creativity"? 00:17:27 The peace in not mattering 00:18:51 Altered states 00:21:19 It's okay to be a multitasker 00:22:06 Wim Hoff method 00:23:52 Elements of filmmaking that were purposefully NOT included in Survivorman 00:27:12 People stealing Les' style (Bear Grylls, etc.) 00:29:49 Ratio of filmed footage to what's edited in 00:31:12 What art has (largely) become 00:34:42 How meticulous filmmaking is 00:40:20 Techniques for making episodes engaging 00:44:24 Having permanent mild existential crises (and Les' relation to TOE) 00:49:57 Is anything separate from God? 00:54:51 Bigfoot and consciousness 00:58:08 Les' Bigfoot experience with orbs 01:03:53 Interacting telepathically with Bigfoot 01:05:56 Never before told story about a being speaking to Les 01:09:09 Orbs 01:11:20 UFOs and Bigfoot (story by Les) 01:16:14 Alien intentions, evil, good, and love overcoming in the end 01:18:27 [Crepitus s] Has Les ever considered doing an urban survival show? 01:19:34 [Boukm3n] Limits. I would like to ask him about pushing personal limits. Doing hard things is tough, but controlling the mind is tougher. How has survival shifted his mindset? 01:21:05 [Paul V] When times are hardest what gives you the strength to carry on? 01:21:53 [@StanAlister] Wim Hoff applied to harsh survival conditions 01:22:43 [James McKevitt] Any long term damage from the extreme survival outings? 01:23:41 [Jimi Lee] The great reset 01:25:41 [Some Guy] Being comfortable alone is the most important skill? 01:27:15 [Phillip Wareham] Prepping, especially for climate change and EMP / solar storms? 01:29:42 Will Les do a "survival" online course? 01:30:44 [Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Comacho] Bigfoot being interdimensional and low tech? 01:31:29 Lost time while camping

Until the end of October 2021, there's the first ever Theories of Everything merch at the link in the description, or you can visit tinyurl.com slash toemerch, T-O-E-M-E-R-C-H. the writer, the cameraman, and the host of the television series Survivorman, which has now been uploaded to YouTube via the Survivorman channel, and the links are in the description. At Les' heart, he's an artist, and thus we touch on what originality is, what art is and isn't, at least subjectively, and the positive and impugnant underbelly of what it feels like to have one's work mimicked. We also touch on Bigfoot experiencing orbs, and how Les' attitude has influenced my approach on not only the UFO topic, but topics that are despised in general. Click on the timestamp if you'd like to skip this intro.

For those new to this channel, my name is Kurt J. Mungall. I'm a filmmaker with a background in mathematical physics, dedicated to the explication of what are called theories of everything, from a theoretical physics perspective, but also delineating the possible connection consciousness has to the fundamental laws of nature, provided these laws exist at all and are knowable to us. If you enjoy witnessing and engaging in real-time conversation with others on the topics of psychology, physics, and consciousness,

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something to be feared to a delightful experience of guided discovery. You can even learn group theory, which is what's being referenced when you hear that the standard model is based upon or has local symmetries of U1, SU2, and SU3. Visit brilliant.org slash toe, that is T-O-E, for 20% off the annual subscription.

And I would recommend that you don't stop before four lessons. Give it at least four lessons, and I think you'll be greatly surprised at the ease at which you can comprehend subjects you previously had a difficult time rocking. Thank you, and enjoy this digressive conversation with Les Stroud. Do you mind giving the audience an overview of your Survivorman series, and then how it led up to the Bigfoot series? Yeah, years old. I mean, if you think about it, Survivorman started, so here's the overview. I guess Survivor Man started for me in the year 2000, even 1999, because that's when I pitched it. And 2000 is when I did the first pilot version for it. And then 2001, I did the second pilot. And 2002 or 2003 is when I launched it into a full series called Survivor Man. So it predated all of the, I mean, basically it was the zeitgeist

for the genre known as survival TV. And I know that sounds like a horrible boast to make myself, but history would bear me out on that. Without Survivor Man, you don't get Naked and Afraid. You don't get Alone. You don't get Man vs. Wild. You don't get any of these other shows without Survivor Man having sort of been there first.

And I can also say that, you know uh case in point is that nobody wanted survivor man when i first tried to pitch it and not nobody uh it took a while before i found somebody who gave me the opportunity in fact i was told on one occasion no one this is from a this is a quote from a network executive no one will ever want to watch people surviving on television that was a quote right so and i said no i will ever want to watch people surviving on television. That was a quote, right? So, and I said, no, I think you're wrong. And of course, now look what we have, you know? And so really Survivorman then, you know, continued on all through the 2000s for a good 18 years, really. Now, along the way, when you said what led up to Survive Man Bigfoot, so to fast forward to that situation, is that eventually, at some point, I got, you know, a bit tired of it. I was looking for variety in my work. I love variety. I love, I don't want to

do the same thing all the time. And at the same time, also, the shows that came out started copying what I was doing. Of course, they couldn't actually do it. Let's be clear about that. They were not actually surviving. None of them were, with the exception of now Alone. But Alone is also very produced in the edit suite. So you're not getting the story that actually happened. So no one, even to this date, has ever done what I did with Survivorman. And that was actually survive and actually film. But the problem with that is I couldn't deliver a lot of episodes. It's too hard on me. So then they came along and they wanted to have more and more episodes, more and more episodes.

So they just basically started up with Bear Grylls and all the rest of them. Well, seeing that, I wanted, you know, I said, look, I want to go off into some other directions. I did Beyond Survival, which was my series going out and surviving with Indigenous cultures and taking part in all kinds of ceremonies. So that was still to date the best work I think I've ever done. And then the Bigfoot thing happened because normally I try to work creatively on things that come out of my own brain. So it's not already out there.

In other words, I'm inventing something. But every once in a while, I do adopt the Richard Branson version, which is basically build a better mousetrap. When I saw what Finding Bigfoot did, I just thought, no, they blew it. They completely screwed that entirely. And it could be so much more potent than what they did. So I created Survivor Man Bigfoot. There. It's hard to ask me a question about something that happened over 20 years and have me answer it in one sentence. That's for sure. Totally fine. Okay. And so what was survivor man bigfoot edition so survivor man bigfoot edition was basically me producing what ended up being a 10 part now an 11 part i did an additional one

documentary series uh exploring the phenomenon called sasqu, called Bigfoot. And so I would go out and place myself in these various situations, not in a sensational way, not in a campy way, and certainly not in a scripted way, but your uncle would say, no, I've seen one. I've seen them a couple of times. They do come through my valley in my backyard. And I'd say, okay, do you mind if I camp in the valley in your backyard? And then let's see what can happen. I want to see what's possible here and that's it was going in as a skeptic uh with eyes wide open and a very open-minded skeptic and then filming what I thought

were were solid and strong documentaries on the phenomenon that's all it was really yeah I've unconsciously modeled myself after you and and I have, well, the channel has a great deal to owe to you, because, much like yourself, where you didn't go in with too much credulity, nor dismissal, you were playing the middle ground. I, too, have done that when it comes to the UFO topic,

where I'm not believing whatever is told to me, but I'm also not dismissing it just because it sounds outlandish. And I think a part of your appeal is that you're not a cryptozoologist, similar like I'm not a ufologist. And so people actually like that, that someone from the outside is going in and investigating this. Well, oh yeah, absolutely.

I think that's been my, I mean, it's certainly not a shtick and it's certainly not a gimmick, but it's my thing and always has been all the way along. Look, I didn't come out of a privileged background. Um, other than my, maybe my skin color, I didn't come out of a privileged background. My background was very low income. There were gangs in the neighborhood, lots of drugs, a dysfunctional family. So, um, I came, you know, I came from a, an alcoholic background. Um, I've had my own issues, you know, when I was younger. So I have all that in my background. I've had my own issues when I was younger. So I have all that in my background. What does that mean?

It means that I'm not that guru guy for survival. I'm not that TV celebrity for my face on camera. I'm just a person who used to load boxes onto crates in warehouses as a job. I came from many blue collar jobs and that's all of that kind of background. And it means, am I relatable? I suppose you would say I'm relatable, but why? Why am I relatable? Because I'm just like you. I'm not, I'm not, you know, but here's the difference. The difference and the chasm that I place between myself and, say, my past is that I seek to find a life that is filled with edifying components that I'm trying to expand my brain. I'm trying to correct, to connect

the synapses, synapses in my brain. I'm trying to make new connections. I'm trying to be smarter. I'm trying to learn, you know, when someone corrects me on my grammar, I'm one of the few people that will not get mad about that. I'm like, Oh my God, I'm saying that wrong. Thank you for telling me, you know, you know, and I seek to learn from larger minds. So if I approach a subject matter that is seemingly in the genre of like, that's, oh, that's for like, I know, rednecks down in Alabama who likes to ask, well, no, I'm going to say no, let's let's give them some credibility here. Let's sure, you know, it seems, you know, that like, it should be relegated to people with nothing more

to do with their time than sit around and read conspiracy theories or talk about Bigfoot. But you can elevate certain things to a place of respectability where you can actually research them. You know, that's been my goal. And so, look, I've hung out, let's say, and lived and grew up with enough of the other part of society that I am the other part of society. But I also seek to be the the very successful side as well. What do you mean? Whether my filmmaking? Well, I mean, well, this is a this is a not a conversation we're planning on getting into, but I will say that I just knew there was always going to be something better for me. Yes, I did say to myself at 20 years of age, I know I'm better than this.

And that didn't mean I'm better than them or better than you. I just knew I was better than this, this shitty, alcohol-strewn, cigarette-smoking life I'm living. I'm better than this, and I just always knew it. And so I've always sought to achieve something. It took me until I was 45, you know? So, case in point. When did Survivorman, the first episode, come out? I mean, how old were you when it first came out?

So the pilot, and here's a great way that you ask that, because the pilot was when I was around 40 years of age. Wow. And I was 42, I think, when I landed the series. I was now on air for four more years. So now I'm 46, right? I've been on air with television, on television with Survivorman for four years. I'm now an international TV celebrity. I'm doing interviews. I'm on Jimmy Fallon and Ellen.

And I'm still making, at the age of 45, $46,000 per year. That's my take-home revenue. When I was 45 years old, I'd already been a TV celebrity. I'm already there. I made it with Survivor. Yet I was still only making about $46,000 a year. The next year is when, for the first time in my life, I broke the poverty line. So now I'm a man of 46 years of age.

I have two children at home and a wife that doesn't work. And at 46 years of age, because of Survivor, and it was the first time I ever broke the poverty line, all of that goes back to saying that, you see, that's where I come from. So I'm not a highfalutin, you know, I'm not, I was not a dancing monkey, like Mr. Grylls wanted to be. I was not a TV star, like almost so many reality people want to be. with an inquisitive mind and hopefully some quotient of talent. I don't know if that's true or not, but I just never let myself stop. You mentioned this monkey aspect. And when I think about celebrities, like I was watching the Met Gala and I was seeing Billie Eilish, if that's how you pronounce her name,

and a few of the other celebrities. And then the paparazzi were saying, turn here, turn here, Billie, turn here. And then she turns and then over here, over here. And it just made me think, oh my gosh, do you not feel like a monkey? I wonder how much they feel like they're just being pulled and prod like a puppet. And you mentioned that you don't want to be like that. Did you ever feel like you were being pulled in that direction?

Oh, I was very often. They attempted very often to pull me in that direction. And, you know, I was very much a fish out of water. When I was down in Los Angeles, let's say, doing Jimmy Fallon, and then the next day going on some other interview radio thing, and maybe, you know, the next week on Ellen or something like that. I always thought that paparazzi Hollywood celebrity lifestyle to me, I'm just a guy from Canada, man. And it was just, I always felt so outside watching it thinking, oh my God. And you look in the vacant eyes of the paparazzi or the person asking you the interview. Sometimes you get beautiful people interviewing you, but a lot of times they're, they're on a treadmill of what they think they're supposed to ask you. And, and so these Billy, maybe not her, but, but these different people who they, you stop and you pose. I walked the

runway a few times. I rocked, walked the red carpet. And I remember being told, Hey, turn over here, last turn. And I did it, I think, twice just to get through. It's like, well, it was the only way in. I had to go along that carpet. I mean, one time I literally stuck behind everybody and just kept going. Fortunately, I wasn't a big enough star that nobody cared. If I had Brad Pitt, they would have stopped me. Of course.

So when you achieve a certain level, you know, I've always said jokingly, but not that I'm just a C celebrity. I think for a brief moment in time, I achieved B level status, maybe B minus status as a celebrity for a brief moment in time. And as I got closer, as I saw that, I just thought, this is not me. I just, I'm not this, you know, I'm a creator. I believe myself to be an this, you know, I'm a creator. I believe myself to be an artist, a mediocre one, I will say self effacingly, yes, but I still have always believed that somewhere inside me as an artist, and that's what I try to be not, there's a big difference between being an artist and a celebrity. Uh huh. Uh huh. Okay. When I'm looking at some of

your new series, you have this Les Stroud's Wild Harvest, and you have a podcast series, and you have, I think, another series coming up or out. So what's driving this? I assume it's not money. You said that you're a creative person. Is it pure creativity? There's more than that this yes is the short answer because i desire to be creative but not only that i desire to be a prolific creative person a prolific creator i've always admired artists like david bowie frank zappa you know uh I mean, back in the day, people used to do albums,

two, three, four albums a year. So I just love an artist who is prolific. That's number one that's driving me. Number two is my need to feel relevant. And when I say relevant, let's be careful about that. How about my need to produce works that matter, which I'm sure sits on the shoulders of me hoping to matter myself as a deeper fluff, that's not to say I haven't produced shitty work. I probably have, but I try not to. And I just can't, I'll give you a quick story.

I was on the telephone with a producer one time and we were brainstorming ideas. And I said, oh, I've got this one idea. And I said, oh, but you know, I mean, I mean, we could knock it out of the park in just like three months. And it'd be, I know we would make a lot of money with this. But that's kind of why I don't want to do it.

I want to work on this other stuff over here that's more challenging. And she started laughing. She goes, oh, my God, Les, that is so like you. You just told me you've got a project that you could do quickly and it would be worth a ton of money. And that's why you don't want to do it. And she was laughing at me. But it's like, yes, that's why I don't want to do it. I want the challenge, you know. I like to do stuff that inspires other people, not just entertains.

You mentioned that personally, you may feel this sense of mattering or this lack of sense of mattering to the world. And partly what you do is driven by that. I'm curious if when you visit the wilderness, do you think there's that drive? Because when you're in the city, you're one among a million or millions. And then when you're visit the wilderness, do you think there's that drive? Because when you're in the city, you're one among a million or millions. And then when you're in the wilderness, there's this calm. There's a sense that you matter just as much as anyone else.

Is that a motivator there? No, actually, it's not a motivator at all. I'll tell you why. And the answer might surprise you. Firstly, in the city there is much more pressure to matter around people there's much more pressure to matter I think or in my opinion I'd come across as being quite selfish in my existence but when I get up into, when I'm in the wilderness, I don't matter in the most wonderful way. I've never been asked that question before,

and that seems like a funny way to answer it. Out in nature, I just don't matter anymore, and it's absolutely wonderful. And so that's why wilderness and nature will always be my escape you know that's my my safe place do you ever get into altered states while you're in the wild not because you've ingested something well because of the experience itself let's say it's meditative well or perhaps maybe because I've been justice as happy but um we can talk about that yes yes i have yes i have altered states as deep uh as when i invoke the use of say plant medicine or something like that no not not as deep but i blame my own personality for that i'm a stubborn i can have a bit of a stubborn uh angle me. And so I've never truly really gone into great altered states through meditation.

I know that it's incredibly valuable and many people can. I've tried for many years. I'm sure a teacher's out there going, I could show you how to get into an altered state. I get it. I totally get it. No, I think my altered state in nature is more of a gentle one where I just feel at peace. So see, to me, rather than practicing a technique of meditating while in nature, I'm just allowing myself to be in nature.

And that is the meditation, if you will. You said that there's some stubbornness that prevents you from using meditation to get to an altered state. What do you mean by that? I don't know. Maybe it's like you started asking questions about filming Bigfoot, and I said, you know, I like to go in as a very open-minded skeptic. I mean, through any seeking I've done spiritually in my life, the prayer side of that and the meditative side of that

has never been one that truly affected me the people who have that affect them all the time say oh you're just not fully giving over you're just no that's not it you know it's like that's great it affects to you great but i've tried very hard and it's just not and that's why eventually later on in life, when I went down the road of working with plant medicines, that broke through in a massive way, in definitely a life-changing way. So meditation and I were not a perfect fit.

And let's be careful on this. See, the thing is, people can listen to motivational speakers or spiritual speakers. A lot of times what those speakers forget is that we all have these much different personalities. And a speaker often speaks to you like you should have their personality, right? All the type A's, the Tim Ferriss's and the Tony Robbins of this world speak to you like, here's what I do. And every morning I get up and I have my journal and this is what you've got to do.

You really want to be a success? Just let's go. Can I get an amen? Cold shower. I'm like, you know, well, I do do the cold showers, but that's different. I like the feeling. I recognize that, for example, I'm a multitasker.

I cannot be of a singular mind. I cannot be singularly focused. And I'm 60 years old this year. I bloody well know my own personality. Don't tell me that that's my best way to go. Because you know what? I'm better when I multitask. And every time I say that in a room, you should see the people go, thank God he said that. Oh, thank people.

Thank me for saying because they feel pressure. Okay. Yes. Because they feel pressure from the other motives. I'm not a motivation. From the unitaskers. Yes. And that's not me never will be me yeah you mentioned cold showers wim hof have you followed him at all do you find any of his practices i did my breathing this morning um however i gotta i'd love to ask him about this and i i saw it in a faq but i was doing the wim

hof method very successfully really enjoying it and then one morning while doing it, just like that, I got hit with tinnitus and I've had it ever since. Then I checked his FAQs and people have been asking about tinnitus after the Wim Hof Method. And it says, don't worry about it. It goes away. Guess what? It hasn't gone away. Okay. Now 60 years of age, I just for the first time in my life have tinnitus. So if anybody's into Wim Hof, yes, it's brilliant. Yes, the cold showers are brilliant. And his meditation teaching is probably great, though I haven't gone down that road.

But the breathing in me, do I know it caused it? Well, let me say that it happened, bam, right in the middle of doing the breathing. So as far as I'm concerned, I stirred something there. And yeah, I don't want to diss the Wim Hof method. Believe me, if you haven't heard, if people listening haven't heard of it, it's brilliant. And I like the cold shower thing. It really does zip me up.

But that happened to me. Anyway, I'm venting a little on that because it's unfortunate because I really enjoy the breathing. Whenever I do the Wim Hof exercise, if I'm doing it properly around that second or third time that I hold my breath, then I get some tinnitus, but it goes away after about a minute. Mine didn't go away. Did you ever have temporary tinnitus? Or you just had only permanent tinnitus? It just kicked in and never left? Kicked in once and never left. Oh, boy. And I've never had it in my life. So know I might funny you ask because I actually did the method very brief I just did a short version of the method

this morning first time in about three months because my ears have calmed down you know and that's back oh boy I'm sorry about that okay when it comes to filmmaking you know people who aren't filmmakers don't realize how let's say

when I watch a movie I notice plenty of what they don't do than what they do. So what I mean by that is that they chose not to show a shot reverse shot, that they chose to have it at two shots, at a two shot. And to me, I'm like, okay, that's an interesting choice. Most people notice the presence of something, not the absence of something. And in yours, I remember you talking about you didn't want to include so-and-so element in Survivorman. What's some of what you could have chosen to include that you chose to exclude? And why? Well, first of all, all of the cliches of television filmmaking. So all of the cliches that other producers rely on as a crutch to make up for the content they didn't get. So the coming up next moment and the here's

what you missed before the commercial moments, all of that is a device. It's a device that just basically says, oh, you don't have enough content to fill an extra 60 seconds. So you're going to do 15 seconds before and after every commercial to fill up that time in your show. That's what I really think is being said there. I think it's a cheat. Certainly within the filming of Survivorman, there's two levels here, right? There's the filming and then there's the editing, two different worlds. And in both cases, Survivorman enabled or rather demanded of me that I do things that no one else had ever done because of necessity. The necessity was there's nobody else there. I'm alone. And so I was doing things with the camera that if you watch in history i can i can as a brag say i was the

first person to do that there's about six things that i was the first person to do i did them out of necessity because nobody was else was there with me other shows picked up for stylistic look as if they are alone but really there's a whole freaking crew there so they don't give me an example to do that well for example um uh uh walking across a field I'll set up a camera at the halfway point. I'll walk across the field. Now my editor would pick up on that because again,

in the edit suite, he's working now with footage that is not shot like any other show. So now he has to do new editing techniques. And here you would see, so I would come in and I know you can see me. So I would come into frame

and then it would be like, I would disappear, but I would show up in the middle frame and then disappear and show up at the end frame well i had to do that because i did not have a camera person following me and panning me everybody else can just follow and pan they're out there with a big crew i see but they set it up and they do it anyway to make it look like give you that illusion that oh he's alone you know no he's not alone at all he's got a crew of six people with him right whereas mine was necessity or how about the selfie if i patented the selfie i'm the

rich man today i mean when i did the selfie in survivor man no one we didn't even have iphones when i started that and and so there i was holding a camera on myself that had never been seen before ever until survivor man and now it's ubiquitous right so i'm not gonna go on i mean that's that was one of the beauties and the things I loved about the filmmaking side of this was I was tasked with inventing methods that would work for a person who's alone for seven days filming himself. Lots of things I had to develop. My editor, likewise, had to come up with ways of editing footage shot that way. And you sit back and look at our show and everything else that was on TV in

2004. And we're doing all kinds of stuff. Nobody else is doing. And then by 2008, everybody else was doing it and they're not alone. That's the funny part. Does a part of you feel resentful about that? Or do you feel flattered?

That no, no, there's what I feel resentful about is having my my my um format ripped off by the networks absolutely i'm very like screw them they they written me off i should i was asked if i wanted to sue them they were still airing my other works i was like it's like suing your mom i was like oh don't worry about it let it go and no one's ever won a format lawsuit by the way so no i'm not going to sue them so i resent i'm resentful about that but the other stuff that we're just talking about oh gosh no that makes me prouder than punch to look at something and go and not arrogantly just you know just like i know where that came from yeah you left your mark this is see that exact i'll tell you i'll tell you a quick story that was one of the very proud moment for me i was uh talking with a discovery producer who's actually was the head of production sport discovery and we were over

there talking goes you know less goes and i didn't see him in a long time i gotta tell you something he goes your series beyond survival is in opinion, the best documentary series that Discovery Channel's ever aired. And he said, I use that series to teach my field shooters how to film and my editors how to edit. And then he started quoting the classical editors and filmmakers that my editor was influenced by. Like, oh, he studied, you know, Hossenheimer from the, from the 70s, from the, from the 40s, and like stuff like that. And he was right, actually, because my editor is Barry Farrell's a brilliant man was was very schooled, you know, so our craft that came out of necessity, myself in the field and Barry in the editing suite, that craft has been the people

who know, know, you know, they get it. They go, okay, you know. And again, it sounds like a brag coming out of me, but hell, it happened and history bears me out. And I'm prouder than punch when I see stuff. If it's man versus wild, which was a direct ripoff, no, that stuff was just like, you idiots. You had a crew. You didn't have to do any of that stuff, you dorks.

You're just trying to look like Survivorman, you know. That was, but we're going back 15 years to get that feeling it's still there because you asked me about it but by the same token that's like 15 years ago when i was pissed off at them i mean i'm not pissed off at all anymore what's that ratio the ratio of filmed footage to what actually airs and i'm sure it's changed over the year has it changed first of all well it has loosely but if it's done right um it really follows the classic example years ago national geographic was the bar they were the ones who put out the bar on the standard on lots of different things including ethics and filming it's very interesting and you used to always say well what does nat geo say about it oh they say

this that's that's gone that's blown out of out of the water they their filmmakers have no accountability for ethics whatsoever anymore. They don't give a crap. They're just doing reality TV and that includes Nat Geo Wild and all the rest of them. But years ago, they were the standard, right? And the standard years ago was for a documentary film was 40 to one,

40 hours to a one hour documentary. And I got to say it, I pretty much held to that. Sometimes I was 60 to one, sometimes maybe 35 to one, but I always much held to that. Sometimes I was 60 to one, sometimes maybe 35 to one, but I always hovered around that 40 to one. And, and, and, you know, the filmmakers, if they're filmmakers listening to this right now, especially younger filmmakers, when I say younger, I mean, in your thirties, you know, even in your forties, um, is that craft really matters. It really does

matter just being, you know, as a friend of mine says, just cause you know how to run the software, it doesn't mean you're an editor, you know, and just because you can cut something doesn't mean you know how to tell a story. So 40 to 1 is about where I hover to answer your question more succinctly. Why is it that you emphasize that craft matters? See, it seems obvious, but it sounds like what's underneath that is that you believe or that there is this trend of that craft doesn't matter now when i was speaking with jonathan blow he's a video game designer he was saying hey kurt right now there's this the ethos in the industry is that skill matters less and less he's citing contemporary art when he says that if you go to an art gallery contemporary art

it's more about the statement that the artist is making rather than the craft behind it. If you look at a Renaissance painting, it just makes you, well, you're in tears looking at how much artistry went into it. So is that behind what you're saying when you say, look, craft matters, or is it something else? I think that it's a shame if the bar is lowered. I think that while it may seem to have a place, delivering pablum to the masses is a shame and a sin.

I think elevating people, enabling them to elevate themselves through having the kind of craft that enables you to elevate your own storytelling, your own art, then in process elevates them. You just gave me the perfect example of looking at, you know, a Renoir, you know, or Picasso. A serious craft there. you know, or Picasso, a serious craft there. Today, you know, I'll give you the alternative example. We heard the story recently about the whole fans only thing and how, you know,

it's like a semi-pornish kind of site and how that people were making lots of money. And this woman who was once a nurse was, well, in the article, she called herself a content creator. Technically speaking, she's correct, I suppose. But do not conflate content creator and producer and artist anymore. And that's what's happening is we're conflating artists with content creators by having a woman who's making $250,000 a month doing what? Pictures of her TNA. That's content creation now? I've been doing this for 30 years and I'm up against a woman showing pictures of her TNA and then in an article stating stating i'm a content creator and i have a right to blah blah blah no so i don't want to so it's coming from i don't want to see the bar tiktok and youtube

clips and instagram stuff and the bar comes down hey i'm not against entertainment you know i'm really not against a chuckle and a laugh and i'm not against lowbrow entertainment even. That's fine. But don't, what is it? Don't piss on my back and tell me it's raining. You know, you're not a content creator. So I'm actually going to have to, I'm going to have to relinquish that term because I'm losing that battle. So fine, you're a content creator, but you're not an artist. You're not a film producer. You're not a storyteller. You're not even really a creator, capital C. Don't do a TikTok video of you punching your brother in the nuts and call it art. So I'm not up against that, but I am kind of up against it

because I'm still putting stuff out. I want to ask you a specific filmmaking question. Yeah, yeah, please. That's why I'm here. Great. In one of your Survivorman series, at times, you would cut in, you would put the black bars. Now, it's already a low resolution show in the sense that it's 480p in 2004, 2005, and

so on. And I'm wondering, and i have a specific clip here just as a filmmaker i'm interested why did you choose to put yeah i have it here can i just link it to you so that you can you show it to me yeah okay i'm getting an ad of course that's it it's your own doing you make a couple of cents right there ah that's funny hang on let me turn that off let me turn that off let me go there no actually you're highlighting a um a glitch in the uploading to, that's funny. Hang on, let me turn that off. Let me turn that off. Let me go there. No, actually, you're highlighting a glitch in the uploading to YouTube.

That's all that is. That was supposed to be fixed. That's nothing more than a glitch that was supposed to be fixed. You see, even after all these years and 30 years of filmmaking and everything else, stuff gets done

and then you come back and look and you go, wow, why is that there? And you go, and then you call, hey, Luke, why is it? Oh, that's a glitch. Sorry, man. Okay, can you re-upload it, please? That's just something that needs to be fixed. there and you go and then you call you hey luke why why is it oh that's a great story man okay

can you re-upload it please that's just something that needs to be fixed but i thought there's this artistic choice there's a reason because i've seen it in more than one place i know and it has how the heck is that a glitch i well still to this okay recently i was working with um team rubicon and cleaning up at hurricane ida and I was with the four filmmakers there, the media team. And it was a lot of fun because they were all young and they did listen to things I had to say, which was fun for me. But right in the end there, the guy delivered the final cut we were working on for that week. And he said, oh, I'll shoot it over to you, Les. Now, I could have said, fine, I'll watch it when I get back to the hotel.

But I was sitting right there and I said, oh, I'm going to put it on now. I watched it. Absolute, total, big faux pas audio glitch. He completely missed it. It would have gone up to YouTube. And I said, John, is that supposed to be like that? And he goes, what do you mean? And he looks and he goes, oh, shit.

Then he's like, because he'd already uploaded it to YouTube. So, you know, hey know hey yeah we all make mistakes as well as the short answer there but um but that i'll tell you another story on that you know we'll go back to this whole thing about content creators and artists and so on so i am i also was working with an individual and we had a lot of broadcast delivery to do and he'd never done broadcast delivery before okay and it was a year of conflict because he had been used to only uploading to online under his own control no broadcast delivery well you've got to understand when you go pro you know there is a difference between uploading to vimeo and and sending your work to discovery channel

and filmmakers need to understand that just because you could be a YouTube star. When you go to deliver to A&E or Discovery Channel, National Geographic, you better bloody well have every frame in the right spot, every color, every audio. It's very specific and very detailed and very tedious and a lot of hard work. And I think a lot of filmmakers don't understand how intense delivery to a broadcast network, like my deliveries right now to PBS stations, American Public Television for the Wild Harvest series. You know, there's three sheets of specs and you have to be bang on on every single one of those specs because they're giving you money and it's important no i was gonna say this is this is vital personally i find it annoying because there's no creativity there what i've done because i have

a documentary that i gave to itunes i used a distributor and then they take care of that and then they send me back these pages of notes. Why is it that in this frame there's a small black line over here? Why is it that the audio does so and so it peaks over here? Well, peaking is a simple issue to fix. So I find it annoying. Is there artistry in that? In meeting

the distributor's requirements? No, there's two ways to answer that. If the glitches are real glitches... You want them to be known. You want to solve them. Shame on you. They've got to be fish.

I've never... In all my years with Discovery Channel, I never delivered a show with glitches. Because we... No way. We would not. This recent round of deliveries, there was a whole bunch.

And that's why I was saying I was working with an individual who wasn't familiar. Because with Vimeo or youtube right it's like that and just put it just upload it it's fine it's not fine when somebody on quality control on the other end is looking um this is different from notes on your content those are that's a whole different level of interaction with the networks when they're picking apart your work and they're giving you creative notes.

And for people who can't see this, I'm doing air quotes around creative. So yes, I mean, I don't think the tech specs hurt the artistry at all, though. That's, you know, deliver it, deliver it right. It's going to a network, which I think people should follow. So this stuff I just did with Team Rubicon, we're uploading that to a, only to social media, but I went in and I, and I, and i and i and i remember saying hey john you know the handle on this little shot you should the handle's a bit long you see me getting ready to talk you don't see me talking and john said oh yeah took it out ago now doesn't that smoother yeah it's way smoother right so

there is a craft in there you you know, you know, craft. My editor will, my Barry Farrell will often say like, you know, if you see that an editor has done a cut on a blink, so that, so the person on camera has blinked, that's a self-taught cutter. That's not an, that's someone who does not know the craft, you know. Razor blades are like diving boards. The longer the board, the more the wobble, the more the wobble, the more nicks, cuts, scrapes. A bad shave isn't a blade problem, it's an extension problem. Henson is a family-owned aerospace parts manufacturer that's made parts for the International Space Station and the Mars rover. Now they're bringing that precision engineering to your shaving experience. By using aerospace-grade CNC machines, Henson makes razors that extend less than the

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add them to the cart. Plus 100 free blades when you head to h-e-n-s-o-n-s-h-a-v-i-n-g.com slash everything and use the code everything. slash everything and use the code everything. What are some of the techniques you use to make your footage or your episode more engaging when there was a lack of, let's say, engaging activities on screen? Well, engaging is an interesting word. Story, story, story. You know, you hear that content is king, story will always be king.

So that's mainly done during the editing? No, no, this, no, no, no. This know, you hear that content is king. Story will always be king. So that's mainly done during the editing? No, no. This, no, no, no. This is me filming in the field. You know, I have, see, you know, good in, good out. Bad in, bad out. If I deliver my editor crap, he's got nothing. It doesn't matter how good of an editor he is.

Now, not enough shows think that one through because they take crap from their field and they just edit it any old way they want. My guy had to edit really intense stories, but I had to bring him intense stories. So one of my ways was to make sure I brought him a very strong story. But to answer your question, I'm in the field. So let's go there. I'm in the field and I'm lacking in content. Let's say I'm lacking. I have to really, there's two things I did. One is I have to either rack my brain to think, what can I pull out of this area?

This next thing, what have I got here? Where's my story here? And sometimes I would just start filming stuff because you never know. here. And sometimes I would just start filming stuff because you never know. The other side of it is I would go in, I'm going to go in the desert today, let's say, and I would have a list of things that I know I want to capture for this particular story I'm going to tell. Well, it's the desert. I should tell a story about eating strawberry pincushion cactus fruits. Okay. But the problem is in my situation, if it's day three and I haven't been eating, I forget. So I pull out a crumpled old piece of paper out of my pocket and say, oh yeah,

pincushion fruit. Oh yeah. Okay. I got to film that. I'll go in. Now I go and I film it. So I keep myself on track with a short list of don't forget to film this kind of list. And I also, you know, and then maybe I just have a good eye for looking around going, okay, well, there's a little bit of story just in this next moment right here. Let's capture this. Now, what's the difference between a story and just filming an event?

So for example, that strawberry pin cushion, if it's written on a paper as a bullet point, you say film myself eating strawberry and finding strawberry pin cushion. Okay, is that the story? Or do you somehow add some elements around that to make it a story? How do you take an event, make it a story, essentially? I think what I do is I say, oh, well, what's the story? First of all, it's this guy. The guy

happens to be me. And he's going to do this thing. Okay. The big one for me would be how. How is he going to do this thing? What are the hows that I can answer? The first how is how do you find these bloody things? Okay. Second, how is all right. How do you, how do you harvest these things? Do you know? Okay. Now there's two ways to harvest it. Which one looks the best for camera? Because you want things to look great on camera. because you want things to look great on camera. I could just bend over and pick up a pincushion cherry, right? Or I could get down on all fours.

I could talk about avoiding rattlesnakes. I could talk about avoiding the spines of the cactus. I could show a tricky little method for being able to use a pair of tongs to pull off the fruit rather than getting your finger stuck. Both situations, I'm just picking a cherry off of a bush. Forget that it's a cactus thing, but both situations, I'm doing one thing, I'm picking something.

But one situation, I bend over and pick the other one. I've just given you three pieces of information over how to do it. That's how I get the story in something. How is this all going to going down? What are the nuances that nobody at home would ever guess on their own of their own accord? You know, what do I need them to know? Fill them in, fill them in, tell them it's all interesting. And what isn't interesting, you can pull from the edit, you know, but fill it, fill them, fill in the story. Some people will be wondering, well, what the heck does this have to do with theories of everything?

Now, as you know, theories of everything have to do with physics, it's gravity, and then there's the standard model, how do you unify them? But it's also like, what are the fundamental laws that govern us? So consciousness may have a role to play. And if someone was to ask you, what does what you do have to do with the theory of everything? How would you answer that? No, look, here's one way. Theory of everything has the word everything. So no matter what, if I'm drinking tea, it's technically theory of everything. But is there some other way? So the way that I position theories of everything is theories of everything is an investigation into theoretical physics, free will, consciousness, and God.

Because I see those as intimately tied. Okay, using that as your jumping off point, if someone was to ask you, how the heck does what you do, maybe it's your mission, maybe it's your shows, how does it relate? Most of the time, I jokingly say I walk around in a mild form of constant existential crisis.

It's almost a slight addictive habit of mine. it's almost a slight addictive habit of mine. And yet, I've learned to befriend it over the years. It doesn't stop me. It doesn't spiral me into depression or anxiety. Because if you're constantly going, what's this all about? Why? How?

You can really get bogged down in the muck and the mire of that. I use it to, in many ways, calm me down. Because we have this tug of war, this battle for our consciousness of, I need to matter, I need to be relevant, I need to create, I need to be part of this big picture, and what's going to happen when I die? And am I really a piece of energy floating through space? Is this just simply a biological thing that my spirit and my energy have occupied at this moment? We have all of that versus I'd really like that piece of cheesecake. And I've been in between those for so long in my life.

When I'm really frustrated, it bothers me to be in between because why am I so dumb that I just really want this piece of cheesecake? And yet over here, I'm thinking about God. And so I've been able to let go of my existential crises when they are detrimental to my own step forward and say, look, I am this physical being. All I really have. And that's even wrong there, I was going to say all I really have is this flesh and this blood, these muscles, this brain, but of course, I'm happy to say that I'm quite certain we could do so much more with the energy of our minds

were we to be a little more advanced and a little more skilled. That in the end, I try to bring it back to, now here's where it's going to sound almost woohoo-y, but I still think in the end that expressing love and not hating, express giving

and not just taking, all I know is that my concept of the ethers and the great grand beyond and God and spirit and energy and life force feels like it lands in a proper place if I am not being selfish, if I am not all about myself,

which I can be very easily. And so my work moving forward, I believe, has to somehow fall into that same place that my reasoning is falling into, which is, yeah, yeah, of course, there is something greater here. Of course, there is an energy that is part of all all things and it's whether people name it or orthodox it or box it up or not it's not the point that it's as far as i'm concerned there's that yes there is the biological sludge that came from the swamps of so so sure i will not I do not feel that I'm just biological because if that was true, I wouldn't give a crap about anything. So it brackets what I do because it causes me to say, okay, if I'm going to create something, it's got to mean something. It's got to give.

It's got to be from love, if you will. Have I ever done things just for money? On occasion, I have, sure, because I needed money. But I'm not in that place anymore. So yes, how does it govern? It governs by reminding me how big everything is. But my touch, this goes back to our first part of the conversation. But my touchstone with everybody watching is that I still want to have that part of the conversation, but my touchstone with everybody watching

is that I still want to have that piece of cheesecake, regardless of this bigger thinking. No matter how big our thoughts are, I still want to go home and be with my wife and have a glass of wine. No matter how existentially I meander, you know? Why do you see that as being against what you just said? Because to me, let's say the example of wine with your wife, that's an expression of love. You're sharing a moment. Cheesecake alone, facing a wall, scarfing it down, that's different.

And you know, just so you know, it's not as if it's clear that that's different because some lines of thinking is that this universe is fractal-like and that these patterns repeat. So if you were to investigate any phenomenon to its utmost degree, you'd still end up with a reflection of the entire universe. And that's why some people say you can study mathematics, you can study logic.

If you do it properly or do it to its extreme, you can find God. If you study even these headphones to its extreme, because it's a creation of God in a sense, it's a reflection of God. Then you can find God. But then I would ask you then, can math explain then, and I'm sure it can actually, but then where does the math rest when you look at something like, say, having a cheap piece of cheesecake while staring at the corner of a wall, that you know that in the end it is not a positive maneuver.

It is a negative element. And it is not a positive maneuver. It is a negative element. It is an energy that is not even instinctually in keeping with everything that's rolling on it. In fact, it's a pullback to the proper outflow of love. Man, have you heard of non-dualism? I've heard of it i couldn't explain it to you but okay so the non-dualist would say i what i have to do is i have to i have to go listen to more some more sam harris and then i'll get back to you all right so non-dualist would say i don't think sam

i don't think sam likes non-dualism because he had he believes in morality objective morality so the non-dualist would say i'm not saying i'm a non-dualist i'm just being a mouthpiece that there is no two non-dualist right there, I'm not saying I'm a non-dualist, I'm just being a mouthpiece, that there is no two, non-dualist, right? There is no two, there is no up, down, there's no evil, there's no good, that it's all the same. It's like the atoms of the universe are love, because God is love, the atoms of the universe are love, so that even in a heinous act like what Hitler did, there was love in that. I'm not saying I believe this, but certain lines of thinking would say that. did, there was love in that. I'm not saying I believe this, but certain lines of thinking would say that. Well, I watched too many Marvel movies to think that everything... I don't think I agree with that. I think that... What do I know, right? But I think that hate is hate, pain is pain, anger is anger, intent to harm is intent to harm. And, you know i i don't see i mean i know i don't see where you can derive the love out of those things i i think they are the lack of love you know in

many ways and they certainly exist we don't there's no question about the examples of how they exist but you asked me about how this questioning of everything, you know, and understanding of everything, how it monitors my world. So what you're really asking me in many ways is what do I believe, you know? And I don't think it's a belief, by the way. I think it's more what have I studied or what do I feel I've learned enough about to have at least an opinion on. In my own life, I was a seeker when I was younger. I do not hold with orthodoxy or church orthodox. I'll go a step further, and I feel that there is a place for it,

but I believe what that is is the kindergarten of spiritual seeking. I think it's a good place for people to go if they need rules and regulations and if they need rituals and traditions and if they need colorful trinkets and colorful light things. Then just like kindergarten, that's a good place to go to start. To start there, you know. But I like being a seeker. I like being a seeker. I like being open and searching. And in my process now as a 60-year-old, still feeling like I could listen to one podcast from a great thinker and go, God, I'm an idiot. But I don't really think I'm an idiot.

I have felt enough that whatever the answer... Here's the thing. You and I can't... Nobody's going to answer this until they die. None of us know until our breaths leave this body. None of us really know, regardless of altered states. Even with an altered state,

it still can be certain, but not quite that certain. And then when we die, we say, oh, oh, it's like this. And there's plenty of stand-up comedy routines to have fun with that. I've seen enough to basically say that I do allow it to guide my life. I don't need to be in a selfish state anymore if I have over time. So that's how questioning everything... I won't stop. I won't stop questioning everything, trying to seek the understanding of everything. I wish we all would.

What do you see as the connection between consciousness and Bigfoot? That's a big question. The Bigfoot phenomenon is a rabbit hole. It's a rabbit question the Bigfoot phenomenon is a rabbit hole it's a rabbit hole covered in ice with grease poured over top of it it's really slippery and once you go down that rabbit hole it leads off to a hundred other rabbit holes

so the question you ask is interesting because the journey of someone who wants, who's interested in that phenomenon starts off looking for a big hairy ape. That's really smart. If you dig deep enough, you leave that school pretty quickly. It's no longer gigantopithecus, the big hairy ape. That's really smart. And instead you start going, wait a minute. And then you keep having a whole bunch of, wait a minute, with attributes, various attributes,

including potential telepathy and cloaking and all sorts of various versions of manipulating energy and so on. So I think consciousness in Bigfoot, where it lands, first of all, nobody has a freaking clue what these are. But the phenomenon is big enough. Hundreds of years to thousands of years, hundreds of cultures, all saying the same thing, by the way,

and tens of thousands of anecdotal references, including sightings. Something's there. My question is, never mind just Bigfoot. If that species is out there, and I can come back to them, what else is out there? I mean, you can't just go, okay, so there's Bigfoot. I'm going home now. Say, well, if there's Bigfoot, what else? And a lot of possibilities open up. For example, I think that the potentiality is there for this species nicknamed Bigfoot, but for example, Sasquatch

and whatever the different names are, to be a culmination of all of these attributes people talk about, which would include psychic abilities, the ability of telepathy, which would include cloaking abilities. Now, one gentleman had a theory that I still think holds some weight. It was simply a species of intensely savant autistic individuals, and their savant autism gave them such extraordinary ability of hide and seek.

And on top of that, a savant ability of telepathy and a savant ability. And they had the, they understood how to manipulate their own energy, their own life force energy. To me, all of that's possible if we're talking about the potentiality of the human mind,

but the minute you throw a Bigfoot into it, Oh, that's just nonsense. How do you know it's not a species that's potentiality of the human mind. But the minute you throw Bigfoot into it, oh, that's just nonsense. How do you know it's not a species that's way ahead of us? Okay, they don't compose symphonies. They don't build airplanes and cars. I get that. That doesn't mean they can't do all these other things.

So I didn't really answer your question because I don't know the answer to the comparison of consciousness and Bigfoot. What I'm suggesting is if they exist, they are in a realm of existence that we are far from grasping or understanding. And they're farther ahead than we are on certain levels, just way behind us in other levels. Why I'm asking is, Les, you don't disparage the Bigfoot topic. I don't disparage the UFO topic, even though plenty of the scientific community would. And I'm pretty sure I was inspired by you,

but either way. So sorry for stealing that from you, stealing your- That's okay. Okay, either way, when I was listening to, I believe it was some of your podcasts or your commentary on some of the Bigfoot episodes before,

which I'm my bone to pick with you, man, which I'm going to put as an aside right now. I'm going to tell you that as I fall fall asleep i used to listen to your shows and and then right and i have insomnia and right when i'm about to fall asleep you'd play the harmonica and i'm just cursing you and i'm just wishing man i wish someone would time stamp when those harmonicas are so that i could start it from right after either way bracket that I was listening to you and I believe you said something like, okay, I went out into the woods filming for Bigfoot. I think this was way after the series. You're filming for Bigfoot. Didn't occur. So you thought, you know, there are stories that they can hear what's going on with the

cameras or sense it in some manner. So why don't I turn the cameras off, perhaps even do some meditation exercise, which is why I brought up consciousness, some meditative exercise. And then you saw orbs. And then I think when I was listening to you said, I can't talk about it yet, because you had just gone through that experience and you were processing it. Now, am I correct? And if I am correct, can you just reiterate to the audience correctly what I just perhaps incorrectly stated? No, that was all correct. That was from the Portland episode. It was the last thing I all correct. That was from the Portland episode. It was the last thing I ever filmed. It was outside of the full series, but it's on YouTube now.

Yeah. What occurred? Can you talk about it now? Well, yeah, I don't mind really. It's not that difficult to be honest with you. But the full story, it's really, it's of of um the potentiality of mental telepathy and this particular species you see when i was in tennessee in the episode in tennessee and you want to go back and watch that episode for example uh and i've told this story uh i told it just

recently on sasquatchatch Odyssey, a podcast. Bottom line was that I was walking on the trail on the way out, and never ever before in my life have I ever experienced any kind of psychic or telepathic phenomenon of any sort whatsoever. And I wasn't high, and I wasn't drunk, and I wasn't tired. And I'm walking out, and I just had this powerful voice speak to me inside my head. And so much so that after the fact, I actually went in to see a counselor to make sure I wasn't schizophrenic because it hit me that hard. I thought, I got to know what's going on here. And the counselor reassured me that, no, you're far from schizophrenic. Don't worry about that. What you received was a

gift and you should just celebrate that fact and be really aware of that and then it happened another two times and then for the portland one that you're referencing what happened there was i'm not i don't think i said this in the show but um first of all i put my energy my thought energy out there telepathically to the sasquatch in that area that i was told were there by a woman who has a telepathic communication with them she says so i i you know said i you know i'm coming to meet you and i did this for about a week ahead of time and i started to uh at one point feel like i was getting an answer if you will in my brain okay fine so now I

yeah so now I go up there and I go out in the bush and I'm the orb thing had happened and later on I'm just sleeping on the ground and I'm starting to doze off and a little crackling fire going

and all of a sudden I felt a very warm and actually it felt a bit soft and furry. So it could have been anything, but it basically went over my ankle and flipped my ankle enough that it woke me up and I jumped up immediately. And it felt like a nice big warm hand flipping my ankle over and I jumped up immediately. I didn't see anything. Fast forward to the next morning. We're walking out. We run into the lady again.

We were planning on it. Anyway, we see her. I did not tell her this. And she says, she called him guardian. So she's given it. I was speaking with guardian. He told me that during the night he came over and touched you. And what do you do with that?

That was the next morning she said that to me. After it actually happened and I hadn't told her. And those things have happened to me about four times in my life without forcing it. Lots of times, nothing happens. It's the thing you remember too. Sometimes you tell these stories and people think, oh, shit's going on all the time, but most of the time, nothing's ever happening. These are occurrences that have happened over a number of years. I've had four telepathic experiences. Anyway, so that's what happened though of that particular show. And I don't think i i at the time was ready to talk about that on camera and i didn't mention it because if i mention it people go he's losing it right and i just like screw you guys ridicule yeah not so much fearing ridicule no it's not the ridicule

i fear it's their inability to handle the full story and yes i'm belittling them when i say that yes i sound a little condescending when I say that, but screw them. If I just say, hey, yeah, Bigfoot, talk to me. All the chuckles start. It's like, okay, you know what? But I could say that to a lot of people that go, really, tell me what happened.

That's the person I like to share with. Okay, so let's say a week prior to you going out and experiencing that orb, you were doing some exercises where you were trying to contact Bigfoot via intention and meditating, something like that? More via psychic outreach, like specifically speaking. So I've done it several times and nothing's ever happened. But a couple of times I have gotten an answer. One time it was actually rather quite funny.

I would go on a hike. So if people are wondering how to do this, I mean, I would go on a hike, and I would just, if I want an interaction, I would just put it out there. I would just say, you know, I'm coming out. I'm going to be hiking in an area. I don't know if anybody's even there, but if someone is there, I would be welcoming, in love, to have some kind of interaction. And then often it's like, and nothing.

Okay, and I just go, and I just go, hang on. One time, though, bam, in the middle of my head, all I got was, no thanks, we're sleeping. I mean, it's just the craziest thing. And again, remember, the first time this happened, I went in to see a counselor. And I've only had this happen four times in my whole life. Okay. But I'll tell you, it is the strangest thing ever when it happens. It's so strong.

Anyone who has this as a skill in their life will just go, yeah, of course. They would accept this conversation with zero judgment. Now, these four times it's occurred to you, were they each single sentences? Just like, no, we're sleeping? Or were they paragraphs? I'll give you the script. The first time was, we're right over here.

If you want to meet us, stay the night. To which I replied, this is in Tennessee, to which I replied, because it's the first time anything like this ever happened in my life, and I was scared, and the hair was up on the back of my neck. I had never felt that, and I said, I'm not ready. And they said, that's fine, and they walked away. And I, okay, that was in my mind.

That's cool. When they said, we're here, did they give you a location or they said here and it was implied they were near you? Both. The location was basically the hill right over there that I could see from about 150 feet away. That's pitch black. I'm in the dark. And the image in my brain that was seared in my brain was of a large, hulking male figure and a small child. So interesting, man. Both in classic Bigfoot look, if you will. And that really freaked me out.

And then I think a couple of, well, no, actually a few months went by after that. And the next one was a little more menacing. It was during a meditative process on the Texas Bigfoot episode, and that one I never told anybody on camera, but there I did get, during the meditation stage, I got a, yeah, yeah, get ready.

Get ready for this, was kind of sort of the message. And it felt menacing and dark, and I didn't like it, and I just kind of, no, no, no, no, not going here. The third time was in Oregon, and it was the answer in my brain was simply, no thanks for sleeping. And the fourth time is the Portland episode where basically this particular

being said, yeah, yeah, we're here. We're ready for you. And that was a wonderful experience. So am I crazy? Are they hallucinations? is it lucid dreaming is it blah blah blah blah blah i don't know but i know that in all instances i was wide awake very sober very straight and not trying to make this happen in my brain and i've tried many many other times and nothing happens but these times they were just sears in the middle of your brain you just it's just you can't not hear it you know when the

first time you had a back and forth or at least you said one statement which is i don't think i'm ready did you say that in your mind do you say it out loud how did you say it yeah i say it in my mind and so someone's going oh yeah sure they'd sure, they speak English. Sure, sure, sure. No. What they do is it's a process of your mind deciphers for you what you're supposed to understand. And to me, if I was Chinese, it would be in Mandarin or something. So, yeah. So, yeah, it's a... So you gave your intention, like, hey, I'm not ready currently. Okay.

that yeah so you gave your intention like hey i'm not ready currently okay now when they spoke to you all of these times were they instantly understood or were they understood linearly like when you read you understand the first word the next one and the next one and the next one or was it all at once they said that sentence to you interesting question the the sentences were short enough that the distinction would be too hard to make i'm not sure that i can decipher it linearly or in a linear fashion or if it was all at once it was just too short okay as an aside the reason is that some people when they speak to other beings or let's say even they have an encounter with god it's as if all of that is said to them like that and it's not like it's like when all of that is said to them like that.

And it's not like, it's like when you read one word, you don't read each letter, you read the word instantly. If I was forced to make the distinction, that is what I would say. I would say it feels like it's all at once. It's just that the sentences were short.

So same thing sort of thing. Is it all right if I ask you a couple of details of the orbs? Of what the heck happened there? Okay. So firstly, how large were the orbs and what color were they where did they come from when did they come why well you won't be able to answer why well i mean i was uh we were uh devon and i because devon was with me on that one we were sitting and i just heard devon go hey les come here you gotta look at this and i I, something like that. And I get up and I walk over to Devin.

He was 10 feet away, 15 feet away. And about 15 feet away from him were two hovering orbs. One the size of a golf ball, one the size of a pie plate. The pie plate one was much more fuzzy and less distinctive. The golf ball was more focused in, if you will.

They stayed hovering there, and you could see a gentle hover in their movement, but in the same position for, I want to say, a good 15, 20 minutes. Enough for us to look and go, is there a car light splashing off something? Is there a local? I mean, we're in the middle of the forest, right? Our eyes are, you know, I mean, we're all clear.

Again, straight, you know, no, we weren't smoking anything or drinking anything, sober. And I think what's going on there, if this species truly exists, this phenomenon is actually something, is that one of its attributes is its ability to manifest or ability to manipulate its own life force energy. And in doing so, it has a physical manifestation, which is the big hairy creature we see that smells and shits

and eats and screams and throws rocks. And the other manifestation, which potentially could be as light energy, which we would then translate as being an orb. And also the other message that we got the next morning from the woman who is an empath and a psychic with these beings, that she said that she was told that some of the others, not the one guy that's supposed to flip me over at night,

but some of the others came to look at us in the earlier part of the night, and that's when the orbs were there. Okay, what color were the orbs? Both the same color, too? Like your shirt, whitish. Have you heard of any connections between UFOs and Bigfoot? Of course, I've heard people say that often, often, often, often. My first craziest experience was on the mountain in Radium Springs. And there was a scenario that happened there that I do not believe I mentioned on the show because I didn't want to confuse the viewers.

It's the other thing, right? Sometimes you're forced. Before you feed somebody filet mignon, you've got to give them a taste of meat first. All right. And so that night um i looked over in the skies and i saw these four big lights they were massive huge and they were all lined up and they could not have been airplanes but they were up in the sky and they were just there for 20 minutes and then i i went back and i i'm not sure where i went to go maybe i went to

get my camera i I came back. They just, they were gone. They disappeared. And I'd never seen anything like that in my entire life. And I'm just like, oh my God. And I kept thinking, this is, but at the time I'm just like, oh, this is cool. What the hell is, at the time I'm like, what the hell is that? And that was the night you were with Devin or that was a different night?

No, this is the night I'm alone. This is on the mountain, top of mountain, a mountain in Radium springs but i was one of my surviving bigfoot episodes that was the night after those lights where i felt i'd had something come in and sit on top of me while i was trying to sleep and everybody's gonna say that's old lady syndrome that's sleep paralysis i get that i'm familiar with that that is not what i felt that night it felt like somebody was sitting on me with very large buttocks and then that next morning the of these apples i put on a tree they all disappeared and the camera was filming didn't catch anything they just disappeared on camera yeah the whole night was freaked out but my point is that it started with those big four lights in

the sky and you said you know connection of us to Bigfoot. I don't know. I really don't know. The thing about it's the world of the phenomenon of Sasquatch is over on one side here, it's a big hairy ape that's smart. And on this side, it's aliens and everything in between, you know, able to travel dimensions. That's what you meant by the slippery rabbit hole with mud and so on. Yes, although more so what I mean by the rabbit hole is my line of, well, if there is Sasquatch, what else is there? Have you heard of Skinwalker Ranch?

Of course, yes. Yeah, okay. So see, when I was researching a bit about UFOs, then I read about Skinwalker Ranch and the fact that there have been observed portals, whether or not this is true, there's been observed portals, perceived portals, and then Sasquatch coming out, and then this is a place where there's plenty of UFO activity, and poltergeist activity as well. So strange confluence of all these unexplained phenomenon. And, you know, when, as a scientist, when you hear about, let's say, well, what's consciousness have to do with so and so phenomenon, the scientists would always say,

there's this tendency in us to say unexplained phenomenon here, unexplained phenomenon, well, they're related somehow because they're both unexplained. And that's a foolish mistake. But when it comes to Bigfoot and UFOs, well, let's just say Bigfoot and UFOs, it seems as if it's more than just

the connection being drawn because there's question marks over each. In other words, okay, well, you want to riff on that. Yeah, well, no, i no i just think that um what i just think existence is so much bigger than our human little human brains can can can comprehend and and the thing is it doesn't scare me the rabbit hole doesn't scare me It doesn't scare me. The rabbit hole doesn't scare me.

It's just like, yeah, of course. I mean, we've heard so much about UFOs that if a UFO landed in New York tomorrow, everybody would go, oh, yeah, I figured they were there. We get a lot of that, you know, like, oh, it becomes a de facto. Of course, aliens exist. I knew they were there. Who didn't know? I knew. But we Who didn't know? I knew. But we don't really know.

I just think my mind has always been, is this possible? And the answer to every single question that that's asked on in my mind is, could be. Yep. I'm wide open to it. And here's the thing. That doesn't scare me. And the problem is that it scares a lot of people. And certainly a lot of religious people. It really scares them because then you're going to bring Satan into it. And here's the thing, that doesn't scare me. And the problem is that it scares a lot of people. And certainly a lot of religious people, it really scares them because then you're going to bring Satan into it, right? So to me, none of it, I just don't feel a fear. And I'm not being machismo. I just think the possibilities are endless. And isn't that awesome?

Have you felt the fear and then you managed to overcome it or just temperamentally you don't feel the fear when it comes to that? Temperamentally, I don't feel the fear. And also, I'm well aware of the fact that if I was face to face with an alien tomorrow, he's got a or she or it has a huge advantage over me. Of course. Yeah. Right. So what am I going to do about it? You know, what can I actually do?

Go grab my AK-47? Actually, I wouldn't say of course, sorry, I would step back. And the reason I say that is that there's some view that certain aliens have, let's say evil intent or negative intent and that they cannot read our minds. Although you can communicate with them by intending like you did with the Bigfoot but they can't read your mind and and the human capacity for love is what extinguishes Well, it extinguishes hate and so in some sense, let's say there are multiple types of aliens and one is evil Then you do have a power over the evil ones with your love. So that's why I say well

I don't say of course that, that you have a power. Oh, I think that's wonderful, fanciful thinking. But if that were true, then nobody would ever be hurt, would it? Because there's a lot of loving, caring people that have been murdered. Why didn't their capacity for love just stop the human being from murdering them? No, no, I think, you know, I hear about, I think, you know, I hear, I hear about the grays, for example, I hear about the grays and, uh, I'm not, look, when I had my first experience, what did I say to you? The hair was up on the back of my neck and I felt very, very nervous and I was too afraid to

stay. I said, I'm not ready for this. Do I kick myself? Yeah, a little, but I wasn't ready. So there was fear there. I'm saying as a general rule, I don't walk around guiding my life based on fear of the unknown. I love the unknown and embrace the unknown. It's just that there will be aspects of the unknown that could be very detrimental to me

and could harm me. And I don't think my capacity to love is going to stop me if I'm by myself in the middle of the forest and there actually are greys and a grey comes over to accost me. You know, I've heard that Sasquatch are there and often protect humans from the greys. I've heard that's a storyline people say.

I mean, so, you know, I'm just kind of like, you know, when it's my time, it's my time. I don't want to feel pain. I don't want to hurt. I my time, it's my time. I don't want to feel pain. I don't want to hurt. I don't want to be abducted. I don't want to anal probe. But hey, I'll just go on. You know, that's not going to stop me from experiencing any of these things.

Okay, let's get to some audience questions. Crepetus S asks, I've seen almost everything that you've done, Les. And I've appreciated your recent embrace of posting everything on YouTube. Frankly, I've had medical issues and I've watched Les's survival shows when I couldn't eat and I was in pain and it was extremely therapeutic. Has Les ever considered doing an urban survival show?

No, I'll tell you why not. As people ask sometimes, well, you do like almost like a homeless kind of thing, right? My problem with that is every time I get down to the brass tacks of doing it, it feels like I would actually kind of be disrespecting people who are truly hurting and truly homeless to go and do a survival show where I'm digging, what, digging in a dumpster? The other answer to that is I don't give a crap about the city. I'm a nature nut.

I'm a wilderness guy. My stuff is all based on being in nature. I'm not there to teach you survival or do survival tricks like these other shows. I'm showing you survival techniques to facilitate getting you out in the wilderness. So no, I won't do an urban show because of that. Bookman asks about limits. I want to know about him pushing through personal limits. Doing hard things is tough, but controlling the mind is tougher. How has survival shifted his mindset? The rewards are greater. To do the heavy lifting can break your back. But if it doesn't, then the rewards are so much greater. And the survival component of what I've done has been painful at times.

But hey, I'm sitting here right now. I just had a wonderful cappuccino. Some cheesecake. I'm on the other side of it and some cheesecake. You know, so the beauty of pushing through the difficulties is then when you have, you have the perspective. Perspective's everything in life. Travel is so important. I just wish people would do more of that. And pain and struggle give you perspective. If we bubble wrap ourselves and

protect ourselves, we just don't have any perspective anymore. And, uh, so I just always knew that. So that's, that's how I would, that's how it changed. I, I learned that getting to the other side of pain, getting the other side of struggle and survival, traveling and seeing the world, these things give me perspective. And when I have that perspective and I'm in conversation, I don't get caught up in bullshit. Paul V wants to know, when times are hardest, what is the one thing that gives you the strength to carry on? Trying to think of when times are hardest. Feeling like I'm not done

or reminding myself that I'm not done. I don't ever want to finish, ever. I want to be, you know, just putting out a novel on my 97th birthday just before I die or something, you know, just putting out a novel on my 97th birthday just before I die or something, you know. Just reminding myself that I'm not finished and I have more yet to do. Gets me going, keeps me going. It's like, okay, all right, suck it up.

Let's get up and go again, you know. At Stan Alistair asks, have you ever used any of Wim Hof's cold endurance techniques? If so, can these extend one's survival in harsh conditions? If the harsh condition is being submerged in ice-cold water, sure, because that's what it is. Yeah, that'll extend that. You jump out of a boat in Alaska, I mean, that's probably going to help that. Absolutely. But then overall, sure.

I mean, I do believe and agree with the concept of it simply because I felt my own body felt stronger and felt better because of doing the Wim Hof methods. So yeah, I, like I said, notwithstanding our earlier conversation about potential tinnitus from the breathing. Yeah, I think Wim's onto something pretty great. And I do adhere. I haven't gotten into his meditative techniques yet, but the first, I've got steps's on to something pretty great. And I do adhere.

I haven't gotten into his meditative techniques yet, but the first, I've got steps one and step two, definitely. James McEvitt asks, Kurt, in Canada, most outdoorsmen have watched Survivorman religiously. By the way, I'm from Toronto, in case you didn't know this. Did Mr. Stroud ever suffer any long-term physical or mental duress from his extreme survival outings?

Thank you. No, not at all. Zero. Two reasons for that. I've had short-term. I've had parasites. That's the only thing that's really been an issue, but I've taken care of those with some pills, basically. And otherwise, no.

No long-term. No. It's funny because it's the opposite, I think think I'm out in nature. Seven days alone. It's it. Nature heals. Nature strengthens. Nature nature de-stresses. And I get that healing, that strengthening and that de-stressing to the nth degree. So no, I have no long term and no short term, really. I have nothing but benefits. Jimmy Lee says, Okay, I'm interested in what kind of theory of everything does Survivorman has? How does he feel about the Great Reset? And the technocratic neo feudalism, which we seem to be headed for? So how does he feel about the Great Reset? Firstly, what is the Great Reset? And then how do you feel about it? I'm assuming he's talking, when he says the Great Reset, I'm assuming he's talking about right now,

this moment in time with the pandemic, because that's what everybody's calling the Great Reset. And how do I feel about it? What an interesting way to ask that. How do I... More about the technocratic neo-feudalism we seem to be headed for. Just this morning, I was thinking that here's how I feel about it. That I want to turn my back on it and continue creating. Because getting caught up in all of that going on around us is not good for the soul uh if it's your thing okay but i gotta be honest it's never been my thing to get caught up in these big moments in time like this in fact when i was an outdoor guide

stuff used to come and go in the world and I barely even knew. I'm not saying live selfishly, but what I'm saying is I better serve this greater theory of everything, if you will, if I am putting content out that uplifts people,

inspires people, brings about a positive influence in people's lives. I'm better served and i better serve this great thing that's going on we call life if i concentrate on that and i and i'm not copping out from the question i'm saying it's i i turn back i turn my back on it on that question because i i just it'd be a waste of my energy to try to even have a feeling about it right now. Some guy... I hope that's not a cop-out.

Oh, no, no, no, not at all. It's a great perspective. Some guy asks, have you found that being comfortable alone is one of the most important skills to have today? Well, first of all, being comfortable alone is an important skill, but the most important, one of the most important skills to have today, being comfortable alone. I'm going to say, you know, I'll say, yes, that has merit.

For one, if it's forced upon you, then you have that you have that skill set you have that that that uh associated muscle memory with being alone if you're comfortable with it you're okay all right well i'm gonna be alone for a bit okay i can deal with that and some people can't they panic um but is it one of the more necessary skills and more vital skills? It's circumstantial. I think that's a circumstantial skill. And if your circumstances indicate that that may be part of your future, then sure, you better be comfortable with being alone. But if not, then you can cruise. You can cruise without really developing that skill set and concentrate on other skill sets where you're more gregarious and you're more involved with people and so on. So I say it's circumstantial. But yeah, if your circumstances push for it, then yes, it's an important skill.

Okay, two more questions. then yes, it's an important skill. Okay, two more questions. Philip Warheim asks, he may have spoken about this already, but ask him about prepping, especially for climate change and EMP slash solar storms. Yeah, so I'm sorry to burst the bubble here, but I think prepping,

if you see prepping as building a bunker in the backyard, having a set of shotguns and various guns, having your store and being ready to protect your land as the way to prep, because that's what I originally saw as preppers. Preppers now will say, no, that's not us. We're just having good supplies.

All right, well, then we have to define preppers. In my brain, preppers is the guy building the bunker okay so let's just say just go with that i'm not talking about people who are getting themselves prepared see that's how i'm talking about i don't know about this word prepper yeah so no prepper so being prepared of course it's a that's a no-brainer but the other version i think i they're very, very foolish individuals. First of all, whatever goes down, we're not going to be ready for it. You know, you think, oh, I'm going to go out, I'm just going to hunt deer and fish for walleye, and I'll be set. Yeah? And if the lakes are full of acidification and the deer have died because of, you know, radiation,

really? No, you're not um i'm gonna sit here in my bunker and protect myself really so if your 12 year old daughter comes to you in tears and says can my best friend and their family come and live with us because their house was was ruined in the disaster you're gonna sit there with a shotgun and go no stay away no you're gonna let them in so i think a lot of the hardcore prepper stuff is just bullshit and silly and nonsense and small minded. And also, by the way, everybody else who has a bunch of guns also knows who has all the food. And we know you have all the food. So and we have bigger guns.

You know what I'm saying? It's just it's a silly situation. But I think better than being prepared with food on hand. I think better than being prepared with food on hand, I think better than being prepared with spare clothing and equipment, is being prepared with skill sets that enable you to survive through whatever, if you were just there in your clothes. How to be adaptive, how to find things, how to scrounge things. That, to to me is stronger

and then secondarily yes i have a lot of food in my basement yes have you thought about making a course like you hear many youtubers do skillshare have you thought about making a course whether it's on skillshare or whatever it may be on how to survive or is it so different in each environment oh it's vastly different in each environment and And I kind of have, right? Because if you think about it, 20 years of creating survival films with Survivorman and the like, those films read out like a course. I wasn't making a TV show. I was teaching you how to survive. And I just launched the series Surviving Disasters with Les Stroud on PBS stations in the United States and on YouTube here in Canada. And those are meant to teach you ways to survive natural disasters.

So, yeah, I could do the whole online course thing. But, you know, the thing about that, Kurt, is that to me, that smacks of being a businessman, doing something for a business sense. I've been doing courses my whole career and putting them out there in film form uh so i i'm and i'm not into business all right last question comes from duane elisondo mountain dew herbert camacho that's all one name he wants to know regarding the missing apple slash candy on his bigfoot special and bigfoot in general, does he think there could be a species that is both interdimensional and low-tech, that is primitive even?

Yeah, absolutely I do. And that's what I mean by their ability to manifest their own, to manipulate their own life force energy and then different manifestations. So there's a physical manifestation and an orb manifestation, who knows? If we could do it it I'd do it

you know what if I could if I could manipulate my own life energy perhaps I could vibrate to a point where I'm not visible to the eye anymore

right and it'd be cool as hell sub question from him like have you ever experienced lost time while camping do you understand what he means by that

oh I totally do and you know the short answer is no i haven't i know what he means but i have not less what do you have to promote where can people find out more about you what's next for you okay actually i'll do an addendum to that because i did experience last time while in the middle of a car accident so there you go and heard a very strong voice that told me to move and if i didn didn't move, I was going to break my neck. So I moved and I did not break my neck. But I did break three ribs, punctured a lung, and dislocate two shoulders. How old were you?

That was just a couple of years ago. And it happened in slow motion. I mean, it was legitimate slow motion in that role. It was unbelievable. My wife was beside me. She experienced the exact same thing. Slow motion. We watched it happen. No voice. Very fast. No voice for her, though. No. So the biggest thing for me really is my YouTube. I'm really having fun putting everything else, everything on YouTube,

Survivorman Les Stroud. I have a brand new book out for kids, Wild Outside, getting your kids out in nature again. and it's for them by the way written to them um i have a brand new um i'm finally releasing my mother earth album on double vinyl fold out double fold out vinyl album nice nice this year and two new albums after that and uh and then i have my uh two series that are on the pbs stations presented by american public television that is wild harvest local for, turning them into an amazing meal, and surviving disasters with Les Stroud about surviving natural disasters.

So a lot on the go all the time, a lot of this stuff outflowing and getting all the way back to what you originally asked. And I think the reason is because I really don't want to cease this manifestation of my life force right now. I like the flesh and this manifestation of my life force right now. I like the flesh and blood manifestation of my life force.

And that flesh and blood emotionally wants to be a prolific artist. And that's the road I go down. Because you are. And continue to be. Continue to be. Absolutely. And that's what keeps me putting so it's a lot i love having a long list of things to say thank you man it was an honor for me to be able to speak

with you thank you very much love the questions uh and and love that love this podcast so i appreciate it thanks man the podcast is now finished If you'd like to support conversations like this, then do consider going to patreon.com slash C-U-R-T-J-A-I-M-U-N-G-A-L. That is Kurt Jaimungal. It's support from the patrons and from the sponsors that allow me to do this full time. Every dollar helps tremendously. Thank you.