TrueLife - Matt Simpson - Next level Transformation

Episode Date: December 8, 2023

One on One Video Call W/George https://tidycal.com/georgepmonty/60-minute-meetingSupport the show:https://www.paypal.me/Truelifepodcast?locale.x=en_US🚨🚨Curious about the future of psychedelics? Imagine if Alan Watts started a secret society with Ram Dass and Hunter S. Thompson… now open the door. Use Promocode TRUELIFE for Get 25% off monthly or 30% off the annual plan For the first yearhttps://www.district216.com/It has been a wild ride.8 years ago, I was at the height of my self-abuse . The walls of truth were closing in on me.I was sick, scared, stuck, misguided, lost, insecure and in a lot of pain.By all societal measures, I was a success and living the American Dream.I followed all the rules and never asked any questions, this way of life almost killed me. I followed others and rarely thought for myself.The childhood sexual trauma that I held closely was eating away at my soul, I was slowly poisoning myself with negative thoughts and erroneous beliefs that I lacked the courage to examine and address. My heart was closed off and nearly broken, beaten down from a lifetime of self-abuse and self-betrayal.I was completely fucked. I lived dishonestly and my word was mostly undependable. I tried everything multiple times to break my patterns to no avail…But something shifted.And then I found meditation.Poof…Presto Chango!This daily practice helped me to LET GO of what didn’t serve me and has now created abundant opportunities for inspiration to flow from within.It i s surprisingly simple, let go to let in.Break down to build up.These are natural cycles that I have found to align with Universal law. I was missing the mark and unable to see how my wrong thinking was causing all of my heartache and dismay.I am motivated to share for those that don’t have a voice. My life has changed for the better after committing to serving and helping others push through challenges that I’ve been blessed to move through. Why do I kick the covers off every morning? For the more than 1.5 million US veterans needlessly struggling with PTSD and Depression,40+/- million American adult survivors of child sex abuse suffering in silence,43% of American women have sexual dysfunction,Viagra Sales are off the charts as our warped definition of masculinity now requires a blue pill for the flaccidly impotent,  I walked away from the money—my soul wasn’t for sale. All of this is for LOVE . All of it.My personal story has been a savory combination of Stealing Fire, Sex at Dawn and Tribe. Three impactful books that have rocked and shaken my belief systems to its deepest core. I now believe anything is possible, that anything can happen! Even peace.I am truly grateful for all of life’s blessings. Everything on my path has served as a lesson for growth, for the evolution of my soul and being. All that I needed was an earnest step in the direction of my dreams. It all starts with just a step.nltrans.org One on One Video call W/George https://tidycal.com/georgepmonty/60-minute-meetingSupport the show:https://www.paypal.me/Truelifepodcast?locale.x=en_USCheck out our YouTube:https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPzfOaFtA1hF8UhnuvOQnTgKcIYPI9Ni9&si=Jgg9ATGwzhzdmjkg

Darkness struck, a gut-punched theft, Sun ripped away, her health bereft. I roar at the void. This ain't just fate, a cosmic scam I spit my hate. The games rigged tight, shadows deal, blood on their hands, I'll never kneel. Yet in the rage, a crack ignites, occulted sparks cut through the nights. The scars my key, hermetic and stark. To see, to rise, I hunt in the dark, fumbling, fear. Hears through ruins maze, lights my war cry, born from the blaze.

The poem is Angels with Rifles. The track, I Am Sorrow, I Am Lust by Codex Serafini. Check out the entire song at the end of the cast. And I don't know. Go ahead. Sorry. Yeah, no, it's all right. If you have a link for sharing, you can put it up before or after or during.

No matter. It's just an extra link that I like to give to people. It makes me feel as if I'm providing them with more things, even though just like it on the link, you know, it's good. Okay, cool. Good enough. Yeah, I didn't set it up ahead of time, but I will, once everything's put together. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the True Life podcast.

I have a great show for you today. But before I get into my great show, I hope that those people listening are aware that we live in, profound times and times of change. And even though times of change can be tumultuous, it's filled with opportunity. And for those of you listening out there right now, I hope you know that today is going to be a beautiful day. I hope you understand that the opportunities are around you and that these are transformative times. And I'm bringing hopefully to you, the transformative people that I see can help you out. I got the incredible Matt Simpson today. He's a, speaking of transformative journeys. He's someone who's gone from self-abuse to self-discovery. He was ignited

by meditation and psychedelics, fueled by love. He walked away from societal norms to become a voice of the voiceless, offering inspiration for those seeking healing and growth. He's a testament to the profound possibilities that unfold when one takes an earnest step towards their dreams. He's written multiple books. He's been an avid speaker. He has his own podcast, and he's full of awesome information. it today. Matt, thanks for being here today, my friend. How are you? Doing wonderful. Thank you for that gracious introduction, George. Appreciate you and the work that you're doing. And thank you for having me on your show today. I'm excited to hear. You know, it's, it's worth the fight, Matt. It's worth the fight. Maybe you could give us a little bit of a background. Maybe you could talk

a little about who you were before you became who you are. Yeah, I appreciate that, that question. You know, before I've come to this path of service, and I've only written one book. I'm going to be working on the second one. Okay, all right. You know, I was, I did the corporate America thing in Chicago, and, you know, I was seeing some really disturbing trends. The more that I followed our societal definition of success, the sicker I became. It was my 35th birthday, which was October 16th, 2014. I sold a business that I was working on for seven or eight years.

And immediately, while I was supposed to be hooded and hollering and staying out late with this new national company and supposed to be thinking about all the money and responsibility and all of the possibility on my career path, all I could think about was this path of service that I'm on right now. Two months later, I was down in the jungles of Costa Rica. Costa Rica having a huge heart opening, breakthrough, healing journey with ayahuasca to get into my nervous system to heal the childhood sexual trauma at root of my depression, my addiction, my drinking, my materialismitis. I used to be a big kind of suit and tie boss guy and where I had this air of superiority

and kind of, you know, I'm better than you. And I was disconnected. inability to really connect on a heart and soul level with intimate partners. And that drove me to the jungles of Costa Rica for a healing ritual with ayahuasca. And that, you know, set in motion this wondrous path that I'm on right now. And from that, that healing retreat weekend, late 2014, early 2015, I had a visionary experience where I could see the path, I could see a way out of the personal hell that I'd created.

And, you know, I'd worked for, all of 2015 to essentially leave corporate America on good footing and to untangle myself from the mess that I'd created so I could walk away. There was a buyout included, so I kind of had to, you know, so I'd get my money. And then I walked away from corporate America in my career on December 9th, 2015, and I haven't looked back. And that led to an 18-month travel journey where I traveled around the world with, with virtually nothing but a backpack. And in month 17 of this 18-month travel journey, I came across, in the healing journey, really,

I came across this veteran collective soul healing mission. And I just knew then and there that this is my life's work. This is the work that I'm here to do. And that has inspired worth the fight. And yeah, the rest is history or the present. I love it. It's interesting. When you look back, and you've been really honest,

I appreciate that. when you look back and you see the form that you were, you had mentioned like this air of superiority and this idea of materialism. And it seems on some level, like we follow the path of the caterpillar, or we just consume as much as possible, and we feel like this, we deserve to have this. And we have this because we're better than these people. And obviously we've made better choices. That's why we have more money than them, right?

Because we're smarter than them. We go down this path of like consumption equals success on some level. And sometimes when you go and you have that journey and you break open, you look back. And what is the feeling when you look back on that? Sometimes I get mad at myself because I had my own similar journey where I went through all those same emotions. But at some point in time, you get to this place of radical acceptance where you're like, you know what? That was necessary. That had to happen that way so that I could become the person I am today.

Is that insight that you had? When you look back on it, what are some of the things that you feel? Yeah, I've given a lot of thought to this. Love the question. And, you know, I was lacking gratitude. All this, I've had to learn peace. I've had to learn patience. I've had to learn gratitude.

I didn't have that in my former incarnation as a corporate America suit and tie guy. You know, it was, it was, I made money. very easily, way more money than like, you know, the corporate America positions versus, you know, teachers and law and, you know, the people, the medical professionals, the frontline workers, et cetera. And there was, there was very little gratitude. And all of that was a projection of unheeled trauma. And, you know, I've had to reconcile that. And that's been really hard. And, And yeah, I had this big, big buyout and hundreds of thousands of dollars in the bank. And, you know, in all honesty, I gave away a good portion of that.

It just felt like blood money. And I was like, you know what, I'm going to give this away to veteran healing. And here we go. This is going to sponsor a hundred or 150 healing retreats. Yeah. That was a little bit reckless. And maybe I overestimated my ability to make this path of service sustainable. But I had to go broke, too.

I had to run out of freaking money. And the last 10 years or really since then, and I'm in a really good place right now. I love my, love my work. I'm an empowerment life coach, a psychedelic integration coach, a microdose mentor. And I'm starting to thrive, you know, and but it's been a long freaking journey to get back to this position. And yeah, I had to lose it all. And it almost felt like, you know, that scene in Game of Thrones. where I think Siri is her name or the she gets dragged through the mud in front of everybody and and like that's kind of like been my last many many years and granted I'm in a really good place right now business is good my impact is is is growing and but but it felt as though and this idea that you know the universe doesn't excuse ignorance I thought that that hey you know I'm doing this

I have good intentions, good aspirations, but it's like, you know, that saying that debts need to be paid. And, yeah, that again, you know, my mistreating other people and, yeah, those things, I had to confront those. And it was a much longer, I guess, arduous path than I would have ever envisioned. That's why a lot of people don't take it, I think, because there is a surrender that comes. comes with like, I'm going to take some beatings right here, but I need them or I deserve them or I'm willing to take them. I'm willing to take the hits because I believe in the bigger mission. I'm going to listen to my heart and I'm going to take these hits. I got to, you know, there's something to be said about a scar. You know, if you see somebody with a scar, like that

guy's got a story, you know, but unfortunately, before things become a scar, they're an open wound and open wounds hurt a lot and you don't want to show them to people because you're embarrassed by him, but ultimately those wounds become scars, scars become stories, and stories become the light in which other people can follow. So it's just that journey that happens. As someone who is also been abused as a kid, I spent a lot of time blaming my, my behavior in my early adult life on what happened to me in the past. It was an easy way to rationalize poor behavior. And that's something that I had happened to me in a brief. Like, wait, what am I doing?

I'm just blaming that. Like, okay, look, you know, at some point in time, I need to come to terms with what happened and get away from the anger out of it. Maybe if you're willing to talk about it, can you explain the way in which you were able to integrate these things that happened to you earlier in life through your, was it through an ayahuasca session or multiple sessions? Or maybe you can explain the integration process of what was going on in your mind and how you figured out how to move, you know, move through it.

Yeah, this first thought comes in mind, hurt people, hurt people. And until we address our traumas, we're going to perpetuate these on and project these on to others. Yeah, it's been a long, arduous journey of healing. I guess it all started in my early 30s when I confronted my family about the childhood sexual trauma that happened to me. I was tired of my parents, like, you know, living this kind of fantasy about a childhood, that just wasn't accurate with my experience. It was kind of a confabulation. So I got everybody together saying, hey, let's have a real raw conversation.

I got my parents together. And they had been in the same room for 10 or 20 years since they got divorced. And it was just a real like, hey, this is my truth. I don't want to carry this. This is our family's burden. We can all carry this together. And so that really set in this journey of truth and committing to the truth. and being open to accepting whatever consequences,

just knowing that, again, I don't want to carry this. And years later, you know, profound healing with psilocybin. That started this journey of introspection and meditation and then, you know, feeling safer to, whoa, I didn't know there was something stronger than psilocybin. I'm on the next freaking plane to Costa Rica to see what's up. And that was kind of my mindset and to be rewarded with an incredible healing journey. And the integration was so gosh darn challenging that that ultimately has inspired me to write a

308 page psychedelic integration book. My book, Worth the Fight, Acting for a Better World, a Guide to Spirituality, Psychedelic Medicines, and overcoming trauma. Because I struggled so much. And I was thinking, geez, there's going to be a lot of people coming to the medicine. and we have to integrate these experiences back into our day-to-day lives. And there was just a big gap with integration. So, again, that's been my what and why to help kind of point out the predictable pitfalls.

And, you know, hey, that we can have this incredible psychedelic journey and this visionary experience, this deep catharsis, letting go. But then, you know, like Jack Cornfield says, after the ecstasy, the laundry, how do we integrate this again back into the day-to-day? And what are the practices that we can do on a day-to-day basis? Because we can't go to Costa Rica every six months or every three to six months. Or maybe we shouldn't be blasting off. These medicines are so sacred that I think that having a,

you know, again, holding them with deep, deep reverence and knowing that there's other ways that we can access this, these states of consciousness, through meditation, through prayer, through mindfulness, through contemplative journaling, through time out in nature, through a transformative breathwork, the Wim Hof method, and cold exposure. The list goes on and on. There's so many different integration modalities that are further healing modalities that I think that the psychedelic medicines are trying to teach us, trying to inform us that, that we have other ways to access this.

This is just a doorway within. And the psychedelics are a powerful way to access that doorway, almost on command. But, but again, there's other ways that might be more sustainable. Yeah. Yeah,

it's fascinating. And, you know, I think I would do, I got to send a shout out here to our friend Randall Hanson Heel. When we talk about, we start talking about different modalities and psychedelics and forest bathing and,

breath work. Like there are a lot of different ways in which you can access a different perspective on the things that happened in your life. I think for both of us, we have a relationship with psychedelics that has been transformative. Do you remember what it was that that called to you from psychedelics or what you were attracted to or what did it, did your relationship with them begin as like a recreational use as a young guy? Or what was your relationship with them like? Yeah, yeah. The, you know, I didn't just. feel safe having psychedelics in my 20s. I was around it. My friends, they were doing MDMA, and I was even in the same house, and I would like walk by their parties and everybody's all bliss out. And I'm like,

a guy that's like working 50 hours a week. And, and like, it just, I didn't feel safe. And, you know, maybe that would have been an amazing time. Maybe that would have opened up, you know, my nervous system to do some deep healing earlier. That could have changed the whole trajectory of my life. But it didn't happen. I never felt safe to do that. Had some really profound experiences with cannabis that were like, I mean, that weren't good, you know? So it's like, I was just like, all right, this is too much. In my early 30s, I think I was 33 when I first had psilocybin, 33 or 34, and I felt safe.

I was with, you know, my friends, you know, Molly and, and, uh, tea. And, uh, we were, we were out on a boat and, and, and this, you know, a person I knew from a prestigious business club was, you know, like, all, it felt aligned. It felt safe. And so, so having that first handful of, of, of mushrooms and having this mystical type experience, um, coming out of the middle of nowhere when, you know, It felt like I had an extension cord coming out of my hip that was plugged into the earth. And I could feel for the first time in my life.

It was really profound. And I always joke about the set and setting. And because that same night, my friend T, and he took the same amount of, we all took the same amount of mushrooms. And he was obsessively cleaning his fridge on his boat. And while I'm sitting here like bathing in this mystical goodness, And I remember like looking up, I'm like, me, like, dude, that's the night time you've wiped down the ketchup. Like, shh.

Freaking beat. Like, take a breath. And, and, and yeah, of course, there was something that had to emerge that night that did. And that was on September 4th, 2014. And I had, I had 15 beers that day. It was a Monday night. It was a Labor Day. It was, that's what we do.

We're out on the water. It's beautiful. the, you know, the Mexican beers were going down so soon. But still, there was this emergence that had to happen. And then from that, I've taken my path, you know, the spiritual path. And then I started meditating more. And but yeah, the recreational use, that was a big part of coming to the path and going to concerts and the foster the people on mushrooms.

Like, oh, my goodness, was that amazing. And we're talking probably a gram or a gram and a half. And but but yeah, you know, Trey Band, Trey Anastacio and like, holy snap. And some of these these experiences that I had that I might not do if the same scenario were presented, I might pass on that. Maybe I would take a half gram and foster the people came out of retirement. And I was like, you know, I don't know.

But I just have a lot more. reverence for these medicines now and and yeah that's that's my thought process but recreation is a huge part of people coming to this path and i think that that sometimes that that has this emergence of healing that where it's not going to affect everybody and that can be a catalyst and be a time because it's such a big part of our society it's so pervasive people are doing these medicines recreationally at parties at at concerts at music venues all over the all over the nation Yeah, it's on some level, while there's always potential for abuse in anything or people to use things the wrong way, it's been my experience that recreational use on some level is medicinal as well. It just gives you a different perspective.

And like you said, if you're with a handful of friends that you feel safe with, there's this camaraderie that builds and the idea that you're sharing this thing together on a level that you don't normally get to be at. It's, it is, and I think it speaks to the relationship, the maturing relationships as we move through life. You know, when you're younger, you're going to concerts. When you're younger, you see the world a certain way. So perhaps the medicines, the mushrooms, perhaps those particular substances influence us in a different way, a more playful way. And then as we get older, the deeper contemplation begins to set in so as do the changes and preparing us for later parts of our life. It's an interesting cycle to think about. I'm always curious to hear people's perspective on it.

Yeah, I think your insight is profound. And this also this aspect of maybe getting burnt. Yeah. And, you know, a really potentially, it was, it was traumatizing experience. I went to the Grateful Dead show. They came back here in Chicago. First night, we were, I mean, both nights. We were eating mushrooms.

And this is before I was, you know, did my research and really, really, really knew what the heck I was doing. We were eating mushrooms like potato chips. And, you know, I go to the, you know, Soldier Field and the dead in company, playing this incredible, you know, just feeling this, this level of bliss and euphoria and this taste of enlightenment that I never felt. And the next night to have a night that was as beautiful as the Friday night, was that Saturday night was as hellish as the Friday night was heavenly and you know learned not

to take a hit off of people of random strangers. They just don't do that when you're on four or five grams of mushrooms and and that set in motion what had the potential to be a very psychologically damaging event. We were just ignoring set and setting in the directives that are so much a part of our society right now. But that experience. kind of scared me straight. Like that was a horrifying experience to be incapacitated and stuck. And, you know, so in my head for these many hours amiss like half the show. And, yeah, you know, to, again, playing with fire when we're kids, we get burned.

We put our hand on the stove. We learn. And, you know, sometimes I think that that's the case also with psychedelics. is that we need to have a pretty harrowing experience before we'll get the message and be like, all right, yeah, I do need to actually listen to my intuition and respect these medicines on a deeper level. Yeah, it's interesting to find yourself in those spots because you begin to have empathy, not only for the medicine, but for other people, like, oh, I could see why someone would lose it right here. Like, I want to lose it.

Like, I don't even, I can't stop thinking about this thing that I hate. It makes me want to do horrible things. Like I just, you know, for me when I get in that spot, like I, and I think that that spot is, on some level, it's a sweet spot. Not because it's pleasurable, but because it forces you to sit with pain that's very uncomfortable. For me in that spot, I found that saying something along the lines of this two shall pass and just trying to hold that thought, no matter how horrible it is. just trying to hold it for me. Okay, this is, I'm going to think about this for a while. Okay.

Yep, that's true. I did do that. Mm-hmm. I'm not proud. You know, but like if you can, and that's hard to do because you think horrible things sometimes, you know. But if you try to push it away in that state, it just intensifies it. What are some tips or some tricks or what, what was it that you use in order to get through those tough zones when you're in a psychedelic state and it's pushing on you like that? I think that the breath, of course, is so important.

And that's the focus now. And I can't say that I was consciously, like, leveraging my breath at that time. I think that just learning from that experience and looking back and isolating the gaps of awareness and realizing, whoa, that wasn't safe. That wasn't good. That could have been a really, really bad outcome. And, you know, that was something that. And then potentially reevaluating the people and the environments in which, where there was once a vibe and an energy and a party, maybe I had outgrown that.

And other people, you know, that like I'm describing from that time, like we've drifted apart. You know, there's a growth path that I'm on. And maybe, you know, they're on a fixed path or a growth path or the growth path is just a different path. I don't know. And and I think everybody comes around in time and everybody's on their own path and and but but not beating my head against this wall to try to change people and just accept like, hey, and maybe I've changed and and sometimes these medicines turn into poisons too. So being mindful about like, all right, this this doesn't align with my values right now. This doesn't align, you know, getting together and and not leveraging these, these medicines and these insights.

in an intentional manner, I think was a big part of me drifting away from some of my other friends and going all in on this path of service. Yeah. And knowing that I couldn't really have it both ways. And there's no right or wrong. I'm not saying that I have the right way. It's just this is what works for me. And this helps me sleep at night.

And yeah, I drifted apart from some old friends and made new friends that are more aligned with my values, my vision, my earnest aspirations to be of service to our collective awakening, to our global human family. I love the idea of the global human family and getting to see the similarities and people with whom you spend time with. Let me ask you this. In going to Costa Rica, it sounds like you've probably traveled quite a bit. However, when you go to Costa Rica to be involved in ayahuasca ceremony,

is there a feeling of anticipation or maybe a feeling of unknowing or uncertainty or you're going to a foreign place to ingest something that you know you've heard is going to be a transformative journey like what are the benefits and maybe some of the consequences of going to a foreign place to have a transformative journey yeah i've given a lot of thought to this and how much of the transformative journey is just getting out of the country. Getting out of the busy day to day. And, you know, Mark Manson, I think, says it best that travels the most powerful self-development tool because it extricates us from the values of our culture.

And we can see another culture living in harmony without the same values. And it makes us question our values. And I know for me, my journey that my European travels has been, I mean, that spirit of old world romance in Europe, that is totally, and that lights up my heart just talking about, just thinking about that, because we're out of balance here in the West. Work-life balance, we're, it's sick, we're sick. You know, half of our vacation days go and use, like, that's fucked up. It's like, use your gosh, start on vacation days.

You work hard for it. And we don't want to burn out and to not feel the worthiness to take that or to feel like we'll be rocking the boat or to be so greedy that we won't. acknowledge that. But yeah, in terms of ayahuasca, ayahuasca is a powerful, powerful, powerful, powerful healing ritual. And for me, it opened up my nervous system and allowed me to access memories from, and traumas from my youth and to process and to re-contextualize those hurts. And yeah, I think that it's a powerful intervention.

Personally, I haven't been back to the medicine since February of 2018. And the phone's not ringing anymore, so I'm not going to answer a phone that doesn't ring. And my last ceremony was really, I mean, Mother Hiawaska roughed me up pretty good. It made it very clear, you don't belong here. You've got enough to integrate for a whole freaking lifetime. And you don't belong. Do your work. Stop bypassing and, you know, being on this hamster wheel of medicine.

Get off the wheel and bravely confront doing the work that you're here to do. But for someone that's struggling in trauma or struggling in depression, this can catalyze a wondrous journey of healing and self-discovery. Re-contextualized. That's such a great way to put it. You know, I hear people say different perspective or different understanding. But maybe you can you maybe unpack what recontextualized meant for you? Yeah, maybe recontextualize, reframe, you know, desperately needed objectivity that we get from these states of consciousness, the healing and forgiveness and the compassion, the energetic catharsis that comes from this helps us look at these experiences differently. The traumas that happen to me and my youth, they're still in my nervous system, but I don't look at them as a bad thing now.

I've created so much expansion from that. And I've actually utilized that. There's a ton of fuel in our traumas, in our past hurts. I love Dr. Gabor-O-Mateh's directive, you know, of inviting us all to liberate the energy of trauma into the energy of life. And we can transmute that energy and use it as fuel. And now I use my trauma and, you know, I still have anger and I still have rage. I channel it, though.

I channel it into my workouts. I channel it into, you know, again, fitness and being the best version of myself. And using that as fuel to level up my game to be, to push my edges. But, yeah, again, you know, changing the way that we look at it, again, reframing, recontextualizing, and potentially even leveraging those past hurts and not staying away from them, but every day leaning into it and knowing that, again, there's a ton of energy in our past hurts. And we can catalyze that to be healthy, happy, and strong.

I believe in my heart of hearts that agree to which we lean into the darkness, our pain, the adversity, the traumas in our life are the very same degree to which we can stand and share and love in our life. So just reframing the whole idea. I think society doesn't want to go near the darkness, doesn't want to go near trauma, but saying, hey, if you want to live your best life, then you don't really have a choice. You've got to go to that place. Yeah.

It's, did you find that that particular instance of contextualization and getting to see the traumas in a different way? Were you able, was it a, was it a sea change in using the idea of reframing? I guess what I'm trying to say is once it happens? happened in that state, were you then able to use that technique in other things? Or were you always able to re-contextualize? Perhaps it gave you a next level of contextualization. Does that kind of make sense? Yeah, I think that there's some empowerment that comes from these healing journeys where we can, if we can reframe one thing, then we can reframe struggles. And this is what Victor Frankles, like, you know, man's last, you know, I'm butchering the quote, but this ability to

to choose, you know, how we approach something that we have the ability. I'm totally butchering the quote right now. But, you know, again, that we have, have the, you know, the attitude that we bring forth, we have a choice with that. And if, you know, Victor Frankel and could bring a positive attitude and a positive spin towards a concentration camp, then, hey, you know, we can always shift the frame on something that we're struggling with. and find the blessing within it.

Yeah, in life, you can't choose what happens to you, but you and you alone get to choose the meaning of that event, and no one can ever take that from you. There's the power right there. It's interesting. Obviously, you're well-read. You help out a lot of people in the coaching that you're doing and with the new book coming out.

What is your philosophy? Do you see us, and by us, I mean, the human species as like a superorganism, or how do you now? navigate the world that we live in. Is that like the underlying, maybe what's your underlying philosophy? Yeah, you know, I do look and see that we're all part of this organism called Mother Earth, Mother Gaia. I think we're all connected at some level. The psychedelic medicines help us feel that, I think, on a visceral level where we can feel our interconnectedness.

And as opposed to it being intellectual, it can be emotional. It can be in our body that we can feel our tie to our brothers and sisters. We can feel a tie to the natural world. Yeah, we're all, again, part of this ecosystem, this place. And of course, the psychedelics, you know, help us see that. And when we see that, we can be a little bit more kind to our brothers and sisters and a little bit more gentle and kind to Mother Earth, too. better stewards.

Yeah. It's interesting, the return to nature on some level. It's almost like the prodigal sun. Like, we're returning home. I know for me, you know, growing up in San Diego in Southern California, I'd never really realize my attachment to materialism until I came to Hawaii. And I began listening to myself talk to my friends back in California. I'd be on the phone and they'd be like, I just got this new navigator, bro.

Dude, I got this new boat. you know and I and that was me too oh I got here in Hawaii but some of my roommates at the time like do your conversations with your friends are so so weird I'm like why like you just talk about what you guys have man I didn't hear you ask him once how he was doing and I remember like when I moved to Hawaii and being out of the world in which I was maybe being out of the conditioning that I had had for so long I really began to see like this idea of wow I just saw everything so mechanistically you know and I the metaphors I use. Like, you know, we're the, the, the cardian machine or, you know, and everything was a number and how well that aligns with monetary gain when we see assets and numbers and

this column and that column. And you start building a relationship with psychedelics in nature, and you realize on some level that when you quantify everything in a number setting, you're really stripping the humanity out of it. You really stripping the natural beauty away from. Is that something that you noticed too in your move from this giant corporate world where things are quantified and looked at it as an asset? Have you noticed that too when you're shifting back to this new natural order of things? Yeah. Yeah. I just, I think that seeing that more clearly what serves my path and my healing and my service mission and seeing what doesn't and isolating what I affectionately call the bullshit.

Incorporated limiting beliefs programs. BS Inc. I love the term coined by Stephen Pressfield. And there's, it's so pervasive. And, you know, there's so much nonsensical programming out there that really only serves to dull our spirits. And, yeah, so much useless nonsense in BS. And I would fancy myself as a minimalist and an essentialist. You know, I like things, but I like things that are useful and that help.

me serve my again bring forth the work that I'm here to do and help me be the man that I'm here to be but again taking that kind of essentialist mindset of if it doesn't serve cut it it's BS it doesn't you know and being ruthless with that because there is so much again nonsense and I used to be so over enamored with material goods and cars and having to show off off vacations and watches and geez, I bought a $4,000 watch so I could get laid. And it was like, okay, it's that. And, and, you know, it's, yeah, just again, realizing that these are just things, they don't, don't either not good or bad. It's the, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's the frame that we have towards them. But a lot of it is, is excess that, that again,

only serves to get in the way and to dull and dampen our spirits. Yeah. There's another quote I like that says, when you're ready, the teacher will show up. And you've been doing a lot of coaching. And I think that people are drawn to certain people for certain reasons. And especially when you're a mentor or a leader, a certain type of people will be attracted to you.

Who are the people that are attracted to you that are coming to you to see? seek out some of the things that you're doing. Yeah, thank you for that. Disenchanted my achievers. You know, the people that are stuck in the BS and, you know, people that have followed obediently the rules of society. And like me, they're finding that the more that they follow the rules, the sicker they become.

So it's kind of forcing their hand. And the pain threshold has gotten to a level where they can call BS on bullshit. Incorporated and our drug war programming. And yeah, as a microdose mentor, I've guided over 100 people on the microdosing journey. And it's been wonderful, truly a sacred honor to meet and greet people that are coming to this path. As a psychedelic author and podcaster myself, I've been, I have a big presence on the app meetup. I've got three meetups that I have an audience of over 5,000 people in the Chicago,

Boston, and Miami area. And I've hosted an insane amount of meetup. since the pandemic hit and a way to serve, a way to get the message out. But I'm learning and growing with my audience. And, you know, I host a weekly microdose Monday at 7 p.m. Central on Zoom every week. And again, you know, meeting people that are coming to this path with curiosity, with bright eyes after seeing, you know, the latest, you know, thing on CBS about psychedelics or the reading up on the studies at Johns Hopkins about what's going on with psilocybin

or the maps clinical trials with MDMA assisted psychotherapy or the inspiring work being done at Stanford and or how to change your mind or the fantastic fungi. People are watching these and it's opening up their imagination of what might be possible. And again, it's been really special to greet them and to, to kind of usher them onto the path and to guide them with best practices around integration. So people can more reliably get, you know, potentially faster healing, but maybe be able to see some of the pitfalls that I didn't see because I didn't have someone there to point out the predictable pitfalls of this path.

Yeah. And you have interviewed James Fateman and some really incredible people in the space. A lot of people, maybe not a lot. Some people are familiar with the Fateman Protocol. Some people are familiar with the Stamen Protocol. I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit about the Simpson Protocol. Yeah, the Simpson Protocol has been just adhering to the Fateman Protocol. He's the godfather of Microdosing.

He's been at this since the 1960s to think, holy cow. I believe it was 1966. He was dosing people with LSD in creativity studies that to this date are the, the most profound psychedelic and creativity studies that have ever been conducted. And yeah, you know, that his citizen science and the way, his, is directed the way that he's been able to aggregate all of this data. I believe over 2,000 reports from 51 countries, ages 21 to 94, what people are microdosing, what they're microdosing with,

and how he's been able to disseminate really a landscape and a container for people to operate and for coaches to operate in. So I'm taking a page out of his book. But I guess I've got a little bit of a spin. And there's the microdosing that people are doing. And yeah, they're finding results. They're overcoming depression. They're deepening their spiritual connection.

They're boosting their mood and energy levels. That's the hallmark of the microdosing experience. But then there's the magic. in microdosing. And that's what I've been facilitating, and I guided over six masterminds the last two years, two and a half years. And again, over 100 people on this journey. And for me, the magic in microdosing is when we're embarking on this sacred journey with a very, very clear intention, why are we engaging arguably the most powerful medicines on earth? What defines a success? what are we seeking to co-create with the sacred plant medicine?

And then putting in the work in the day-to-day with also stacking, in addition to the microdosing, we're also stacking integration practices of an earnest commitment to meditation and stillness, even if it's 10 to 20 minutes a day to start, an earnest commitment to contemplative journaling, even if it's five to 10 minutes a day to start, an earnest commitment to moving our bodies. We all have 37.2 trillion cells that are screaming at us to get a move on. You know, if you had asked me this five or six years ago, I would have said, everybody has to do yoga. And I would have been a dogmatic ass. Yoga is a powerful integration strategy. I love yoga. I did my yoga teacher training,

but it's just one of many. You know, some people like to dance. Some people like to cycle. Some people like to run. Some people do weight training. And however, which way, just move your body and have that kind of mindset around a movement practice. And then when people want to take it to the next level also incorporating some powerful breathing strategies. The Wimhoff method is a powerful, powerful method. So we have this boosted neuroplasticity from the microdosing, and that's going to allow us for the potential of rapid habit adoption. Maybe we adopt a new habit or two new habits in the 10 weeks that we're microdosing.

And maybe we disrupt another habit that is really giving us fits where we're leaking tons of energy. So there's that, I invite that possibility to your audience and to anybody listening that there is that opportunity for rapid habit adoption and to leverage these medicines to deepen into these practices. And I always say if we're doing this work correctly, we won't know where the benefits are coming from. Is it coming from the microdosing or is it coming from the meditation? Geez, there's tens of thousands of papers to support the meditation's good for reducing or increasing focus and reducing stress. we all know that exercise is imperative for physical health,

and now we're talking about it more for mental health. We know that contemplative journaling is good for us. We know that breathwork is good for us, and again, leveraging the medicine to deepen into all of those. So we're stacking all those potential benefits on top of each other. Man, that's so awesome. It's clear to see why the Simpson Protocol can be a game changer. It's, you know, there's something, I'm fond of writing as well.

And there's a weird thing that happens when you get into that flow state. It's almost like you're inviting something bigger than you to co-create through you. It's an amazing feeling. Did you, is that something that you feel? Maybe you can talk a little bit about, you know, worth the fight in the process of writing, be it journaling or be it writing or book or, you know, but just your relationship with writing and how that's affected you. The journaling has been so profound on my,

my path that, yeah, that it eventually escalated into a 308-page psychedelic integration program where I kept the writing, it kept feeling so good, and this catharsis, and getting the thoughts out of my left brain chatter, putting them on the paper, looking at them with more objectivity, with more compassion, and what that is meant to my path is there's just no way to quantify. And I think that the journaling is the most powerful tool, most powerful integration tool that we have. And people are, especially as men in our society, we've been shamed to feel emotions since we were five years old. So I do notice that some men can struggle with this and women too. But yeah, this is a way that we can help to leverage the medicine and the way that the micro-referenced.

and the way that the microdosing and psychedelics, I believe, they take what's on the back burner of our mind into the front burner, and we can feel safe to engage it. I so often hear from my microdosing clients, they can struggle better or do the hard thing. And so again, you know, a little bit each day we're processing whatever our blockages are, whatever's in the way of our mind, our body, spirit, harmony, whatever's at root for our dis-ease is going to come up. It's going to come up during the 10-week magic and microdosing journey. There's going to be an opportunity to process and to work through. And as Dr. Fattenhamen says, awareness heals.

We can bring light into these dark crevices of our heart, of our soul. Yeah, it's on some level I'm enamored by the idea of putting your thoughts on paper. Because it's one thing to hold them in here. It's another thing to see them out here. It's almost it takes us back to the idea of reconceptualization. Like you get to see your thoughts. When you get to see your thoughts, it's very difficult to push him away. I've found that.

Have you found that to be true? Yeah. Yeah. And to your point, this is a great point that I just heard a few months ago from a client of mine, Ryan, who it said himself, he had never journaled before I worked together. And he got to the point where he was doing 10 to 20 minutes a day, sometimes even more of the journaling. And he had said something really profound.

We were unpacking some of his experiences. And he said that if he, when he puts pen to paper and he journals, whatever's going on in his mind, those thoughts become real. Otherwise, he admitted that he can ignore those all day long until the cows come on. You just, they're not real until he puts pen to paper and takes time to slow down and acknowledge them. And I think that that's so true for many of us that we're just, that we, that we, that we, have this capacity to ignore sometimes reality, you know, ignore our reality of what's, what's having and our resistance to want to confront some of these traumas, some of these

pains, some of these tough conversations that might be looming, it might be heavy on our heart. Yeah, we don't want to go near those places. But I think if we're, if we are earnest and we want to do this work and we want to do it right, that embarking on this journey, knowing that the journaling is extraordinarily powerful. We don't have to have it all figured out. You know, we can start with five minutes a day to start, a half page. When in doubt, we lean into some gratitude. And that's not woo-woo anymore.

That's positive psychology. There's loads of scientific data to support that gratitude is good for everything that we're seeking more of and just take time to be present. And to trust that in time, you know, perhaps we can deepen that. and that we could potentially mobilize those answers to those challenging situations. They'll come to us in divine timing, I believe. Yeah. One of the ways I heard it put best was when you talk about it to dream, when you envision it, it's possible,

when you schedule it, it becomes real. And that act of writing it down is like alchemy. It's you're transmutating this thing that's in the ephemeral and you're bringing it into the world, You know, whether it's business, whether it's something in your life, whether it's a relationship that you want to happen. It's a phenomenal process. You know, I've been speaking to a lot of people. And maybe it's unfortunate enough to get to speak to all these people that are on the cutting edge and trying to create this new world we're emerging into. But it seems like there's this quickening.

Like there's something happening right now. Do you feel that same thing, too? Would you say quickening? Can you elaborate? Yes. I feel like the things in which I want to bring into my life are happening at an accelerated rate. And I'm not sure if it's something that I see happening in my life and I'm just projecting onto other people. But it seems to me that I'm seeing transitions happen in a way that I have.

Maybe it's just a perspective I have that's different. But that's the foundation behind the question. I think your awareness is 100% accurate with, our consensive reality. And this brings up Stephen Kotler, who's one of the big thought leaders in the space, he wrote Stealing Fire. He paired up with Peter Diamandis

to write, The Future is Faster Than You Think. And here we are, this lightning quickening of the future. It's here. And there's no turning back. And this brings up, I believe, he, Kotler had quoted in his book or had referenced Ray Kurzwey.

the director of engineering at Google, who's largely revered as one of the preeminent visionaries of our time. You know, geez, he's the engineer at Google. And he's forecasted, I think his forecasts have been almost spot on, like 90%, 95%, something like that. And he's forecasted 200 years of innovation. And this is from starting, I think, that 2020. So 200 years of innovation from 2020 to 2030, packed into a 10-year period. So that's going from the Industrial Revolution and back twice,

that we're going to have that profound of technological advancements. And it's happening now. And we're seeing it with AI. We're seeing it. everything is speeding up and it's fast and it puts a lot of pressure on all of us to make sure that we can regulate our nervous systems and that we're taking time for self-care and and and it's this this technology is likely fueling some of the major challenges that are on our front burner boiling over are the state of our politics uh you know the environmental crisis ecosystems dying

social injustice, all of it, our mental health crisis and all of it's happening at the same freaking time, which is like, whoa, it's all, it's scary, but then also beautiful. Like, hey, this is long overdue. We're trained. We're ready for this. I think the psychedelic medicine, they teach us to be ready for this.

But it does put a lot of pressure on us all to, to take time for self-care and taking time to unplug and taking time to tend to our nervous systems. So we can, because we're playing the long game. We're just scratching the surface here. Yeah. Thank you for that. Thank you for that.

I see radical changes in people's lives. And I think that on some level, the world is pushing people to re-engineer themselves, their thoughts, their lives, and it's inviting them to do it before it forces them to do it. You know what I mean? Like the same, like, when I speak to you and I see. the journey that you're on. Hey, here's an opportunity for you. Like, I think the world is taking to, like, here's an opportunity. Here's one. Here's one. Here's one. When will you have the courage to take that step? It is scary. But I want everybody listening to this to hear this idea

that the world, in my opinion, is conspiring with you. It's showing you these opportunities because you have the strength. All you need to do is just take a baby step towards it. And then the next step, and then the next step. And you will see your life unfold in a way you couldn't imagine. And I think the world's inviting people to do that. And psychedelics are a part of it. And technology is playing a part in it. When you see people that may be afraid of uncertainty,

because that's a big deal, how do you help guide them through that? Yeah, you know, one day at a time. Easing into this process, we can't have it all figured out. We need to snap our fingers. This is a, when we make the commitment to the journey through the heart, it's a long, arduous journey. it's challenging, but I challenge that the rewards are infinite. And there's a depth of meaning and purpose and, you know, the feeling in our bodies that is,

what I read about and worth the fight is this beyond love that I came across in Costa Rica. And it's within all of us. And yeah, it's scary. And it's hard. But, but, you know, just again, like you said, kind of leaning in, taking that first step and then that second step. and then that second step and trusting that the the resources will come to you in divine timing that things will come to us so we can tackle or confront whatever's in our path and just having that trust, having the faith that we're ultimately that we're worthy of what we see.

I think that's the biggest thing that I'm seeing. The common thread that gets in the way of the people I'm working with is, and I struggle with too, geez, I read a gosh darn book about worth the fight. And I still struggle with my personal worthiness, that I'm worthy of my big dreams. But again, all this required is each day we just show up and do our best. And if we get into the habit of doing that consistently, the benefits and what we're doing and is like compound interest, we can't really see it happening while we're in it. We can't see the forest.

We're in the trees. But then we have the haze when we're a month in or two months in and like, whoa, I'm not having that negative conversation anymore. Whoa, I'm having that conversation. I'm handling things differently with my loved ones. Whoa, I feel so much clarity about the work that I'm here to do. Oh, my goodness. I feel so much positive energy in my body that I'm, that I'm, you know,

utilizing towards a better cardiovascular health and I'm just feeling better and I'm sleeping better. All these, I invite all those possibilities. I'm having different relationships with my loved ones. That's a tough one because sometimes. when you find yourself on the cusp of change or changing the way you model reality, you come to the realization that the relationships you're in aren't the relationships you were in yesterday. There's a lot around that. And sometimes it's very difficult for you to explain this new world you have to someone that you've been in a relationship for for a long time. They may

not want to change. You may not be ready to change. Have you ever bumped up against that in your life or see people that have? Yeah. I think that you're getting at something really, really big here. They, you know, yeah, we're having this healing and we're on this growth path. And we have this visionary experience where we can see the best version of ourselves. Yes. And so we have this belief. We have this like kind of seeing as believing.

You know, we have this vision like, all right. If I can see it in my mind's eye, I know that I can create it. It might take some time. I think the book Stealing Fire is the best resource for this in understanding that, hey, yeah, we might have a vision. But it might take you 20 years. to create it. So slow your role a little bit and they cite, you know, I think they call it Jerusalem syndrome that many people that are on this, people that go to the wailing wall and, you know,

they have this experience and, and there's a certain portion of them that it's such a profound experience that they almost have a psychotic break that instead of having this like Christ consciousness of feeling this infinite depth, they think they're Jesus Christ. And it's like they even say that a line, clear the next everyone, I've got work to do, you know? It's like, And that's a dangerous mindset to have because it's a journey. And yeah, we can have this beautiful vision, but we have to ground it into the day-to-day. And, yeah, we're making these changes to answer your question around in relation to our loved ones. And maybe they're on a fixed path.

And maybe they're happy with things the way that they are or their ego is convinced that things are the way that they are. And they're not in any position to want to change or move. and our growth and forward action is threatening to them. Because we're kind of subtly calling them out, even though our actions speak louder than words. And so examine them to take inventory of their behavior and how they're spending their energies. And yeah, I think that that's a big, it's a big challenge.

And I remember coming back from back in 2015 and integrating this into society and into my relationships. And there was a little bit of righteousness. I thought that I'd found the way. I thought that ayahuasca was the way. And there was some dogmatic, you know, that it was really turning off my loved ones. And they called me on that. And I examined that and to realize, hey, I mean, everybody's on their own journey.

And to, you know, again, have the presence to try my best to meet the world. the world's at and my relations where they're at, but also being ready to potentially let go. If need be, if I'm outgrowing a relationship, I've had, had friendships that have kind of fallen off to the wayside and, and, you know, it's painful and it sucks to go through, but it's life. And that, and I invite the possibility that when we bravely do that, we clear the energetic space for new things to come forward that are more aligned. And I'll tell you right now that I, you know, got so much goodness going on in my life. And I attribute that a lot to my inner circle is tight.

And the people that are with me, you know, as opposed to the, you know, kind of not knowing where I stand with people that I care about and then having my inner circle and having people that believe in me and encourage me and, and don't, I don't feel like I have to dull my light and dampen my light in their presence. And that's been really, really powerful. But, but yeah, this is, I think one of the big challenges is that people, you know, because it's really hard, you know, integrating these and having tough conversations and being open and honest and real and raw.

But this can be one of the big challenges of this healing is how do we ground these energies into the day to day into our relationships? Yeah, that's, that's well said. I guess that's part of the journey is understanding that you're always changing and thus your relationships to yourself, the planet, and the people that are around you are changing. Maybe the only thing you can really do is observe, you know, and that's where the learning and the healing comes in is, oh, this is happening now.

Oh, this is happening now. Oh, this is happening now. Yeah, yeah, love that. This is, this is something. And I almost feel a little bit kind of uneasy talking about it. But because I haven't tested this idea. and I haven't really watched outside of 30 minutes on Netflix a few nights ago. There was this new documentary about the Twin Flame and this what appears to be a cult.

They're calling it a cult and it's a love cult. They're praying upon people that are struggling in romance and with breakups and are on this really dark place. They're lending an olive branch for them to come and find community. and a place and they're even promising and guaranteeing that people will find their twin flame and their soulmate and their love, all this stuff. And like, okay, I'm kind of okay with all of that. It's like, whatever, we live in a free market. It's like, do what you will. I don't like necessarily, you know, praying on vulnerable people when people are in a vulnerable position, but this really rub me wrong. The idea that a part of their directive was to,

to have people sign off their loved ones. And they had a system for letting go. This is your new soul family. And you're leaking energy in your business relationship or in your personal relationships. This woman, she wrote a letter to her mom saying like, goodbye. It's like, no, you can't say that to your mom. You should do your mom. And in doing that, you're bypassing this important work.

yes, you're doing this work and yes, you found new friends. And yes, you're feeling love and you're having all this transformation. But, you know, turning your back on and not, I just don't think that it reeked of spiritual bypass. And it reeked of just this, you know, kind of cult-like mindset, which can be really, I think that we have to, we have to be vigilant about that. Jamie Weill talks about, you know, in his book, the, you know, recant. capture the rapture about ethical cult building. And that's not ethical to tell people that they have to give up their friends and family and to shortchange the really difficult challenging relationships of having those tough

conversations with these ones and leaning in and maybe robbing themselves of the benefits of that. You know, Mark Manson, I love the way he says that conflict builds trust. So when we have these real raw conversations with our friends and loved ones and family members, that has the opportunity to foster a deeper intimacy. It's a strange paradox. But it's real raw, like, hey, you know, at least we can trust people afterwards. It's like, hey, I know you're speaking from your heart. I just gave you my best.

And, you know, that could help to foster a bond and a connection or to repair a bond or connection. Yeah. It's interesting that you bring that up. That's another sort of cyclical pattern that I'm beginning to see. And maybe it's because I like to see patterns everywhere because I'm a pattern recognizing machine. But, you know, I was speaking with Dr. Erica Dick not too long ago, who is an incredible historian on the psychedelic movement. And we spoke about the way in which psychedelics were in this medical container in the late 50s before they escaped the lab and found themselves out in the 60s and this explosion of creativity and amazingness. but also fueled the fire to put the genie back in the bottle on some level.

And when you begin seeing, you know, maybe people practicing or these cults popping up in ways, it begins to echo some of the sentiments in the 60s where, hey, look at this thing. And the real problem to me is that these particular circles of ideas that may be harmful to people end up being the catalyst to try to put the genie back in the bottle on some level or they begin, hey, let's look at Charles Manson over here,

look at Jones Town, look at this Colt. You know, on some levels, I'm always livery when I start hearing about these things being put in out there and blowing up on some level, like, oh, is this wave coming? But on another level, like I just wrote a letter to Tesla,

hey, man, what do you think about painting some of these buses day glow and getting some people on here and touring around a little bit? Like, where is that part of the 60s coming? Do you see that particular cycle, maybe moving into the 60s, this explosion of creativity, but what comes with it is maybe some of the nefarious things, too,

as a cyclical part of this wave of psychedelics? Yeah, great, great question. From a macro level, yeah, the, what I see differently here is we've got this exponential science around what these medicines are. They're tied to creativity and how they can help us deliver our, our purpose, how they can help us, how they, these energies can be channeled and catalyzed. We can use them as a catalyst and then we can channel them in the direction of serving others. And that, that's going to, you know, fuel entrepreneurship and that's going to fuel a conscious

business or it has the potential to. And that's beautiful. That's what we need. We need more people that are drawn a line in the sand saying, hey, this is what I'm here to do. And, you know, we've got the science of meditation, the science of breath work. We've got the objectivity of seeing where we missed the mark in the 50s and 60s, 50s and 60s. So we have all of this that are lending for potentially a different outcome.

But yeah, we don't know. They could try to put the genie back in the bottle. And I think that fear, I know for me, and I've taken a little bit of a kind of a contrarian path. Yeah, I'm a microtosing coach. But, you know, the high dose experience. I had three of them around the 2020 election. I was struggling, missing the mark. You know, three kind of three to four gram experiences spread out over three months.

Deeply informative, healing, getting into my nervous system, helped me see where I'm missing the mark. But holding such love and reverence for these sacred medicines that I don't have a desire to blast off. I'd rather be local and do my microdosing and to deepen into my practices, my Wimhoff method, the cold exposure, fitness and weight training, you know, it's been such a blessing to do. It's the first time in my life that I've actually been able to stay with that. It's just like, oh, I feel so good to do this.

And, you know, getting out in nature, long walks. I go for a lot of walks, kind of mental health walks, and, you know, working on my sleep and a nutrition, you know, I've floated with the keto diet after a world brought up, you know, Dr. Chris Palmer's book, Brain Energy, and that was pretty profound, you know, having a Harvard psychiatrist basically called bullshit on the whole field of psychiatry saying, you don't have an effing clue what we're doing with these pills. Sorry, I'm just going to say what we all are thinking. And coming from Harvard, that was like, yeah. You know, and so, so I guess my point is, my long-winded point is that, you know, focusing more on the integration practices and strategy,

and I get such a buzz and high off of serving my clients. And, you know, knowing that there's so much at stake and that all of us, you know, have, I believe have a duty to walk this path with reverence and respect and to be stewards for these medicines. We're on the cusp of massive, massive potential changes very, very soon with MDMA assisted psychotherapy being an approved FDA, gold standard cure for post-traumatic stress disorder.

And what that could potentially mean for the, the millions of veterans that are struggling with mental health and post-traumatic stress disorder and the 8% of our population that has PTSD. So, you know, it's it's a different era. And yeah, you know, but yeah, maybe we need some, some Tesla buses that have, we can have some fun with it too and we can, and it's still happening from a recreational standpoint. Yeah. And, and, you know, you know, maybe not taking it too seriously and being too rigid. But that's just been what I see and how I'm living my life right now. And I feel really good.

I've never had more joy in my heart. And I've never felt better physically. And I sleep great at night. I love what I do. So, yeah. You know, on the on the topic of trauma in the medical container in which we find a lot of psychedelics, I'm kind of torn here. And I'd love to get your opinion.

one level, I think that the idea that everybody has trauma is something that can bring us together. Look, we all have this. What's going on? Is this a symptom in the sickness? Or is this a symptom of the sickness that's plaguing all of us? But is there a hierarchy of trauma? Like this person, watch someone get shot in the face. This person, parents yell at him too much.

You know, I'm wondering, is there a problem with people embracing trauma and wearing it on the same level? What do you think about that? Yeah, great question, great point. We're all struggling with trauma right now, 2023 election season. It's a hard time for everybody right now. And there's no way around that. This comes to mind and why I'm so bullish on our veterans

and I'm all in on serving our veterans. This idea that a subgroup population, part of of our population here in the US that knows honor, integrity, they know courage, they just need medicines that work. All of them are leadership trained. And they're white, they're black, they're Latino, they're indigenous American, they're Asian American, they're male, they're female, they're rich,

they're poor, they're middle class, they're us. And so rallying around, them, empowering them to push this edge so they can reinforce community resilience. If they can heal and get right after being in a real life hell in the Middle East, that's going to have a massive potential ripple effect for them to share their experiences and for them to show what is possible. And again, if they can heal and get right after war, real life hell in the Middle East, then that's going to help us all reframe whatever we're struggling with. And they can show us how to do it responsibly.

And, yeah, again, just kind of enforce that community, resilience. And this could be potentially something that we can agree on. This is something that the left and the right agrees on. This is something that humbles our politicians to check their ego. It's so profound that it allows them to really root into a humanistic, present, peaceful, collaborative spirit that has been sorely lacking in our politics. So there's that opportunity now that this could be a rallying point. And I know that, you know, Dr. Randall Hanson, you know, in his wonderful book, Heel,

you know, he does a lot of work for the Hurrah Cards Project and his first book, Triumph Over Trauma, you know, and you're kind of sharing this, this, parallel path, parallel service mission. And there's a lot of people doing wonderful work here to disseminate this and to show that there's possibility and show that this is potentially a rallying point. This is something that we could come together on. And yeah, you know, we come together over what is shared and build around them and heal them. And maybe some, we can have some collaborative efforts that will stem from this.

You know, and being in psychedelic science, 2023, and seeing Rick Perry on stage, you know, the conservative Texas governor on stage with Rick Doblin and everybody hugging and like in brotherly love and governor Gerald, Jared Polis, Colorado, a gay white man, you know, like see everybody, very progressive thinker. And the liberals and the conservative, everybody's getting along for this common goal. of healing our veterans that are really struggling. It's really bad. They're dropping like flies of suicide. We can do so much better and seeing the potential value here of what this could mean on a different level. Yeah, I love that. And it's nice that we have some common ground.

Like, how can you move forward until we can start agreeing on things? And what a great thing to begin the conversation with. Matt, love the conversation. It's always, it always makes me. feel good inside when I start a conversation. I'm not sure where it's going to go and it this ends up being like a heartfelt hour and a half of awesomeness. So thank you for that. But before I let you go, like what do you have coming up? Can you tell us a little bit more about the book? Where can people find it? Where can people find you? Yeah, thank you. The, my book,

Worth the Fight, you can find at Worth The Fightbook.org. That's my website. I'm on Instagram at Worth the Fight Book. I do host a psychedelics and Limitless Personal Growth Meetup where I do a Microdose Monday every Monday at 7 p.m. Central on Zoom. Everyone's welcome to come and to learn and to learn not just from me disseminating best practices like the magic and microdose thing we were talking about, but to also learn from their brothers and sisters that have gone ahead on the journey. I love it because, again, it's not just me rambling on and on and on about they're getting to learn from people that have gone ahead and gone on the journey and have had positive experiences. And they can speak from the heart about where they've been and how microdosing has helped them. So it's got this really strong community vibe.

Very excited to share heal, of course. You know, Dr. Randall Hansen, you know, was gracious enough to invite me in to write. the microdosing piece and that was an honor, a sacred honor to be able to help. And the former client of mine, Megan, she shares her experience actually while working with me as a microdosing client and about how she used microdosing to call in love and to find her love partner, her intimate partner. And she's in a year, a year and a half later, she's still going strong and she's got this wonderful partnership and she's used microdosing to manifest. love and I love that idea. I mean, it's, hey, this is a powerful medicine. And there's no intention

more aligned than saying, hey, I want to meet my, I want to meet my person and to use this medicine because this medicine wants us all to be healthy, happy, and strong and to be doing the work that we're here to do and connecting on a deep heart and soul level. And outside of that, you know, I've got some other creative ideas that are in the works. I've got a podcast, too, Worth the Fight podcast. We've got 100 episodes in. You can find that on my website as well at worth the fightbook.org. You know, just focusing on, you know, serving the clients that I'm working with right now and we'll let all of these other creative projects. We'll let them unfold in divine timing, probably too soon to talk about them in clarity and depth.

I think on your website, too, I noticed you were giving away. your microdosing manual too. Were you giving that away for free of people? Yeah, there's a five-page magic and microdosing manual. Eight mistakes you don't want to make. I outlined the predictable pitfalls that people make. And it's just a five-page document that can give people a teaser or a taste. And really be a, you know, not everyone's going to have, be in a position to want to

commission my coaching or for coaching. And I wanted to put out some really good content that can help. somebody navigate this journey for free. Yeah, you're like giving him a micro dose of worth the fight for free. Yeah. Yes. Well, hang on briefly afterwards. I'll talk to you.

I want to just talk to you briefly afterwards. But ladies and gentlemen, go down to the show notes. Check out what Matt has going on. He has a really amazing podcast. He talks to some really cool people. Check out Worth the Fight. Listen to his story. And if it resonates with you, jump on the Zoom call.

Check out the meetings and learn from other people in the community that he's building because that's what he's got going on is a really cool community around him and so that's all we got for today ladies and gentlemen i hope you have a wonderful day hello thank you george thank you church the work that you're doing too you know you know you