TrueLife - Rev. Dr. Jessica Rochester - Power & Attraction 2

Episode Date: November 7, 2024

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/Rev. Dr. Jessica Rochester is the Madrinha and President of Céu do Montréal, a Santo Daime (Ayahuasca) Church she founded in 1997 in Montréal, Canada.She is a transpersonal counselor, she trained in the work of Dr. Roberto Assagioli and trained with Dr. Stanislav Grof.She worked with Health Canada from 2000 until 2017 to achieve an Section 56 Exemption to import and serve the Santo DaimeSacrament (Ayahuasca).She is an ordained Interfaith Minister with a Doctorate in Divinity.From 1986 to 2018 she has been a workshop leader, teacher, and in private practice.She is the author of Ayahuasca Awakening A Guide to Self-Discovery, Self-Mastery and Self-Care, Volume One and Two.She continues to lecture on consciousness, non-ordinary states of consciousness, self-discovery, spiritual development, health and well-being and personal transformationhttps://www.revdrjessicarochester.com/https://psychedelicscene.com/2024/06/20/entheogens-psychedelics-nosc-and-the-search-for-wholeness/ 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, furious 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. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the True Life podcast. I hope everybody is having a beautiful day.

that the sun is shining. I hope the birds are singing. I hope the wind is at your back. I got another great show for you today with if you watch the show, you know who this is, but let me just go ahead and give you a wonderful introduction for a wonderful individual. Reverend Dr. Jessica Rochester is the Mahadrina and president of the Sioux de Montreal, a Santo Dimei Ayahuasca church. She founded in 1997 in Montreal, Canada. She's a trans-personal counselor. She trained in the work of Dr. Roberto Osagio Lian trained with Dr. Stanislav Graf. She worked with Health Canada from 2000 until 2017 to achieve an Section 56 exemption to support and serve the Santo Dimey sacrament.

She is an ordained interfaith minister with a doctorate in divinity. From 1986 to 2018, she has been a workshop leader, a teacher, and in private practice. She is the author of Ayahuasca Awakening, a Guide to Self-Discovery, Self-Mastery and Self-Care, Volumes one and two. She continues to lecture on consciousness, non-ordinary states of consciousness, self-discovery, spiritual development, health and well-being, and personal transformation. We have had an incredible series of talks, and I am so thankful you're here today. Dr. Jessica, how are you? Well, thank you so much. The last time we were together to get a sling on my arm, so I had a PRP surgery, and I'm coming along slowly a bit well from that. I can't lift anything

heavy yet. Hopefully things will normalize. I've got another three weeks before I have a scan and see how successful it was. So fingers crossed. Okay. And it's been busy. It's been busy. Lots of things, shaking and moving.

I guess before we want to start, I just want to say up here in Canada, the leaves have turned magnificently and then the November winds come along and we start to remove them all. And And as we really see the season change, I understand that depending on where you are,

people who have the level of season change that you have. And what's fascinating about it is being close to the seasonal changes makes you more sensitive somehow to nature and to the activities around you. And so, you know, you see all those girls and all the little critters. They're storing up for the winter. and people who live in southern climates, they don't understand it's all about survival up here in the cold weather, you know?

Can't live in a hammock and just lean out and snaps and fruit off the three-year-going full of fish out of the river. I'm not suggesting that people's lives are easy. I'm sure everybody has their own challenges and difficulties, but not everybody has to face the cold winter we have up here. So that's what's coming around the corner of her ass is digging out all the winter boots and the heavy coats until, you can't hardly see us because we're so bundled up. And at the same time, today is an important day for all of my dear friends and colleagues and people south of the border.

You know, our dear neighbor to the south. And so all I want to see to you guys is, may wisdom guide you. May you have peace and respect. And today and in the coming days, may. May those higher qualities be the ones that motivate everybody's words and actions. That's my hope for you guys. My dear neighbors to the South. Thank you for those kind words.

I think we need some civility more now than we ever have. But I have faith in the American spirit and I have faith in my brothers and sisters and neighbors and a force bigger than we know. I'm hopeful that everybody goes out and does the work to become the very best versions of themselves, because I think that that's how we get through these tricky times. Yeah. And however the chips fall and whatever happens, but that is still the same commitment. Yep. But the commitment is, okay, the people have decided, whatever they do decide,

and now we're all going to be the best version of ourselves. Yeah. and that's, I think, the only way that we can really strive to live, the kind of things that we talk about on a regular basis. No point about talking about things and then not living in. So, anyway, we were talking about attraction the last few times we met and we were going to be talking about power. And so just for the case people didn't, you know, have a chance to listen to the other shows,

then, you know, we were talking about attraction and what it is. and that attraction is a universal principle. You know, planet Earth moves in attraction to the sun, the moon moves around the Earth in attraction to the Earth. This whole solar system is moving in attraction to our galaxy. Our galaxy is moving in a try. This is all real, okay? All real.

A few billion years from now, our galaxy, it looks like is going to collide with another one that's aiming for us. You know, this is all, you know, everything is attraction. And everything in our body is, you know, the minerals in our body, you know, potassium is attracted to other, you know, you can take any aspect of the human experience and say that attraction is happening on every level. We're trying to open it up from just romantic or sexual attraction, okay, to help people understand that this is a force of nature. and understanding that may help us with our areas where we can get stuck so we can be attracted intellectually to a person. Just simply on all the levels on which we are human, we can have a deep intellectual attraction to somebody that doesn't, in any way, isn't romantic or sexual or anything else, okay? It's an intellectual attraction.

We admire their mind. We want to spend time in conversations with them. We read their books. We go to their lectures. We have you, okay? We study or train with them because we are attracted to their teachings. We're attracted to their message. So there's an intellectual attraction.

It can be a creative attraction. Artists get together with artists. Musicians get together with musicians, you know, and it's like, hey, let's, you know, you've got your drum. I've got my piano. Let's make magic. So attraction exists everywhere all the time. It certainly can be physical,

it can be intellectual. It can be emotional. It can be a strong emotional attraction to somebody to share deeply. Still doesn't mean it's romantic or sexual, okay? People tend to kind of take you as old and I'm attracted to you, therefore I must need to have sex with you, which is ridiculous. It's just ridiculous, okay? And we need to sort those things out.

And that takes, you know, a little sense of humor, some calmness and respect and understanding ourselves in the larger place. Okay. We'd also talked about the, kind of the, oh, and I've pulled it out again because I really love this quote, okay? And I, in Huff Post by Jenny Mustafa, Shuloch, talking about the law of attraction, the book that we mentioned before and how it needs. hooked a lot of people into believing some things that are actually contrary to the basic principles of either experience in life, okay, or true spiritual traditions. It's easy to cherry pick out a word here and there and turning into, you know, your own story. Anyway, what she said is a playbook for entitlement and self-absorption.

And I think that that's just something that we have to take ownership. Are we attracted to things that tend to boost our image of who we can pay on? Or are we attracted to things that will say, hey, honey, I'm going to tell you some things about you, your great things and your strengths. But you know what? You're real. You're human. You've got some limitations.

Shortcomings going on for you. You know? Can we put that in balance and talk about both the other words? You just want me to sit here and pop up your ego, you know? And so we have to look at, hmm, a lot of attraction is exactly that. What art we attracted to? And that tiny truth in it that we are a co-creator in our experience. So we live in a world of rampant narcissism, self-entitlement,

and it's all about me and what I want and how I want it and what I'm going to, do to get it. Okay. So that's about the attraction. Was there anything you wanted to add to that? I think I've tried to do a little overview of our last couple of conversations. How did I do here? I think you did excellent. It's a great summary of where we've got into not only in the last discussion, but a couple before that. It was, I think we had mentioned prior to going into that last conversation that there's so much to cover an attraction. And so many of those wires get crossed in in communication, whether it's verbal or nonverbal. It's so easy to mix the signals and not thoroughly understand the communication.

But I think you did a great job of summing it up. And if people want to know more, they should go back and listen to that previous podcast because we dive into detail there. Yeah, that's right. And understanding that it's larger than us. Yes. I try to explain to my one of my granddaughters what fear of mons are. You know, and sweetheart, you can't smell it, taste, it, feel it. It's actually, you know, I always use nature.

I'm a great admirer of like David Attenborough and all his series and Professor Brian Cox. So, you know, the little bit of time I have for TV, I'm always on. you know, BBC Earth or love nature and these extraordinary programs they put on about nature and the cosmos and the universe and stuff like that. And it's so educational and so nourishing on a soul level. And some of it tearful, as you see, okay, another endangered species. And, you know, last week we three when extinct and, you know, but anyway. So trying to explain that often the things, you know, first year high school, very, attractive young woman looks a little older than she is.

And all the older guys in high school are following her around. Okay. And so we're teaching her how to manage those situations. And I'm explaining to her what your rooms are. You know, sweetheart, they're invisible. And you don't realize. And then I explain to her, okay, I'll give you an example. A male, a clothing moth can smell a female clothing moth.

kilometer away. That's impressive. Humans can barely smell something next door unless it's burning. Okay, now barbecue a light. So I mean, oh, funny clothing well, okay? A kilometer away. And animals such as, you know, let's say, and snow leopards, they will mark off in their huge territory. be able and they'll be rubbing themselves off there, marking their making their scent on this flock and that outcrop and then trusting as they traverse that there's going to be a female who's going to come along and smell it

and they're also looking for where females left at trail and all of these things are operating in humans so far below our ability to sense them and so we may not even realize that whether it is that we're leaking You may have some feel too. And that's the stuff that we're aware of,

and that's the stuff we're not aware of that's happening all the time. And then what happens when you decide to take your power and use whatever power of attraction you have? What happens then? So let's talk about power. Yeah. So we define power first so that somebody doesn't think that we're talking about hydroelectricity or what's power? Okay.

What's power? What's personal power? What would be your definition? It's such a big topic. You know, on some level, on a surface level, I think power is applied dominance, is your ability to, dominate something on a surface level. But then as you really begin to dissect what power is, it's sort of this amalgamation of attraction and scarcity and ideals and, you know, I don't have a real great understanding of all the forces that come to create power. I wish I had

a better one. And I think I'm going to learn more today. But I think too many people are trapped in the idea of dominance is power. Wow. Okay. I wasn't expecting that. Okay. So that's certainly, you know, some definition of power and that it's dominance. Okay. So, so I have a different view. Okay. A little bit of a map. Okay. The cartography. Back to that. And, you know, cartography is fascinating me. And so those of you who are familiar with my work and in my book, you're going to see that I believe that our personal power is part of our will and it's in your chakra. So I devote quite a bit of, you know, whole chapter to the will. Because in the end, it is our will, our personal will, that utilizes this power.

It may be motivated by thoughts. It may be motivated by feelings. It may be motivated by beliefs. that in the end it is our willpower that engages our words, our actions, our decisions. Does that make sense? Absolutely. Okay, good. So third chakra willpower.

In third chakra is also our sense of self, who we are and who we are in the world. Now, if we dial it down to when we were talking about, children, let's start it right down to the age of two and three, that delightful stage. They're so delicious and wonderful and challenging, you know, as a parent of children and grandchildren, I can say, and having been one myself, okay, is astrologer in the developmental stages, okay? And what we're seeing is the first go around with willpower, no tantrums, okay, don't want. want, won't do, you know, and the best word, of course, being no, which is only second to want.

Want that now. Okay. And how it depends on a person's a child's character and how things are managed in the environment. Okay. It's not just the environment and it's not just the child's character. There's a combination of factors there that are at play, okay, that help the child navigate. you know, the boundaries around what I want and others and what I want and what is healthy for me, you know, what is what I want and what is fair or reasonable to the rest of the family, you know,

and want doggy now. Yeah, but your older sister is terribly allergic. Okay, so you're not going to get you doggy now, okay? What a cold fish. And so you have to navigate all of that, the struggle. with personal power, you know, the children's children in the sandbox and the park, okay? There's always going to be the kid that's going to grab the toy, right? Bob somebody on the head, I want that toy, you know.

You know, the somewhere, you know, the rules of the kindergarten, everything I needed to know I learned in kindergarten, you know, I can't remember his name off the top of my head right now, but it's a wonderful little, people don't know what they should look it up, you know, hold hands when you cross the street, look both ways, okay, play nicely, and don't take other people's toys, you know, it's all right there. Have we kept those rooms, we do just grand as adults, you know. And a big part of it is how to manage our willpower. And part of that is tied up in what is considered in some traditions to be a deep spiritual truth. You know, some dress it up as the ability to resist tentation.

That's very kind of old Christian and others. And declared as the ability to delay satisfaction. The ability to delay satisfaction. But that requires a certain amount of willpower and the church. So we get past the, I want this and I want it now and have a tantrum. Oh, plenty of adults. So do that. Okay.

And so we find that in a healthy environment that we are taught to manage our personal willpower as it pertains to our self-development and our relationship with others. Now, is it a question of character, nature, nurture? is it a question of character and environment and society and religion and the schoolyard and everything that we all have all these layers of influences and experiences that contribute to our understanding about these things. But then how do we we can see that in my book and I talk about the will, we can see that the will can go out of balance. the balanced will, which means that we're using our personal power and balance,

is when we are not willful or willless, we are willing. Okay, so we're not allowing other people to just simply dominate us. Right. And we're not busy dominating other people, but we are willing to work in certain ways that are healthy. So we can work in a team, We can work with a group. We listen to whether people's ideas.

We need to react in a way that's respectful. We're without compromising our values. That makes some sense. Are we still on the same page here? Yeah, absolutely. So that's just kind of the background. Or how do we arrive as an adult with an understanding of our personal power? And I'm suggesting here that what I believe is that it is all connected to our will.

our will power, what I want, what I choose, what I can do, what I won't do, okay, that all of that is part of an action of willpower working with our thoughts, our beliefs, our emotions, and hopefully a level of maturity so that we can live dynamically and wherever we are with whoever we're accompanying and whatever work that we can. And this can be a not just a life experience that we have, but it's one that's constantly being balanced. Because moment by moment we have different, it's like walking. Every step that we take, our body has to rebalance in between the steps, right?

Anybody who's ever had a surgery on the waist down, okay, knees, hips, foot, okay, you're on crutches or walker, whatever, a cast, something like that, you have to learn how to walk again. The first thing you notice is, whoa, there's a whole reorganizing of balance. And so it's the same with our willpower. It's constantly in the process of kind of testing and assessing each situation and seeing where we're at. Now, the more conscious we are at this, that's terrific. Then we can consciously make decisions constantly, consciously assess what's for the higher good.

The more unconscious we are, the more we may act out. the more issues we have with our own personal power and our willpower, the more we may act in. And what are the things that can happen? That was a question. Yeah. I think our emotions tend to be triggers that make us out of alignment that whether it's fear-based or whether it is something based out of scarcity, like, or just greed or selfishness. You know, I think so much of beginning to understand our ability to exercise our willingness comes from understanding that you have a choice.

And I don't know that everybody understands that. Like, it took me a long time to get to this idea that, like, I actually have the willpower to make the best decisions. It's sort of what Victor Frankel talked about, that small space in between, you know, stimulus and response. Like, there it is, right there. If you can see it, but it's slippery. So there's a lot of triggers. It is if you zoom past it, that if you learn very zen, pause in it, then you find the space there. Yes.

Yeah, loving the Victor Frankel quote. You know, full honors to him. Full honors to him. Okay, I printed out some quotes that I felt might be helpful for this discussion. that good for you, George? Yeah? I love it. Let's hear him. Okay. The first one, he who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mighty or still. This is from Lailsu.

It's good. Yes. A little quote from Mark Twain, laws control the lesser man. Right conduct controls the greater one. That's very Buddhist, really. Mark. I didn't realize Mark Twainfo of the Buddha, but it is right thought, right word, right action, you know. Alan Ginsberg, who controls the media, the images, controls the culture. And we start to see, whoa, it's not just my personal, something larger going on here. Boataparte, Napoleon Bonaparte, the battlefield is a scene of constant chaos.

The winner will be the one who controls that chaos, both his own and the enemies. Pretty astute. Of course. One of the greatest generals. Yeah. I mean, we can't necessarily agree with everything. He did, but then... Strategy-wise, strategy on some level.

He was a brilliant tactician. Yes, yes, we agree on that. If only he kept it to little figures on the top. of the tabletop, we could say that about one. Sandcroft once said, there's a way to stop all these wars in the world. What they should have is they should turn them into war games.

Instead of actual people going out and fighting, okay, they should have it like you know, like on the table top and they should have or they should choose like gladiators, their representatives, and okay, whence he loses. And so this was a whole conversation and how do you stop war?

And he was always saying there's too much aggression in the human experience. You're not going to stop war. I 100% agree with him. There's too much aggressivity in human nature. And too much competition and neediness and greed for us to ever think that we're going to get the place where it's going to be gone. All we can do is try and keep finding ways of mastering ourselves and educating others, you know. Okay, here's something for Robert Anthony. The one who loves the least controls the relationship.

Yeah, it's an old one, but it's a good one. The one who loves the least controls the relationship. So we're going to talk about that to me. Why is that? Why is that? Okay, one from Henry Ward Beecher. Greatness lies not in being strong, but in the right using of strength. And strength is not used rightly when it serves only to carry a man above his fellows for his own solitary glory.

He is the greatest whose strength carries up the most hearts by the attraction of his own. Good, eh? That's Henry Wapley-Doo. So do you want to come back to a couple of those? So we're going to talk about power and the right use of power. And that's why I picked these out because they went the gamut of power. You know what I'm saying? Power over armies and power over your own.

So power and personal relationship. And we can see that it's the same thing all the time. And so personal power. Where do you want to start out there in here? Personal relationship? Yeah. I think we should start with the personal relationship. I think we can get there either way, but it's the love of power versus the power of love on some level.

But I think starting with the individual is a good way to radiate outwards. Good. Okay. So if we have a compromised will and enter into a relationship, our compromised will will be leaning us either one way or another, the willful or will list. less means we allow others to dominate us. We go quiet, we go silent, we bury it down inside. We're pleased if we say yes to everything. Or whatever you want, darling, of course, sweetheart, it's your, you choose.

You choose, I don't mind whatever you choose. I'm fine with it. Okay? And then slink away and mash your teeth when you don't get what we want. Okay? Okay, the great teaching there. If you choose to give away your power, you cannot be when somebody does not do what you. you want. How many women I've met in relationships who come to this huge awakening, that they have

been handing power over to their partner. And that happens a lot in heterosexual relationships. I can't really speak so much to other dynamics. Other people perhaps could contribute more fully than I could just simply because of the couple of work that I did the large large percentage of it was you know basically heterosexual couples and it was more often the women conceding to me going along with the male and this is a more deeply rooted experience in human I mean come on women only got the vote here in Quebec in 1940 something? That's not even 100 years ago.

It was, was it 20 something years ago that the law was changed here in Quebec where it was no longer, where it became part of the law that because it hadn't been, it was considered like kind of domestic violence. So a man could basically feed up his woman or rape his life. And it was, there's no law against. Okay, you're married. This is marital. So, society and the laws were in place. Example, in Brazil, up until the year 2000,

and the women in Brazil had worked 28 years in the courts. So some women died without seeing it accomplished. Okay, they worked 28 years in the courts, have equal status to men. up until 2000 it was written into the Brazilian law that the man was the head of a woman and a woman could not make a decision for her own life or her children's life without the man's approval this is all about power isn't it that's a sad little face you got going on there charge yeah it's it's a it's a giant power dynamic there and i i'm just struggling to think of the long-term consequences of identity when a person has been kept in that position for so long. Yes. Yes.

And again, it depends on your character. Some people will shrink down into being the good, you know, the Stepford wife. Okay. Whatever you want, darling, dinner's ready. I put on a cute dress for you or vacuumed. You know, here's your drink. You know, that 1950s image of what women should be. Just by me new oven, darling.

and I'm absolutely thrilled and will bake you cookies. Okay? So what if they were all taking tranquilises? Or you have the opposite. You have the women who rebelled and either didn't marry. How many women in history refused to marry because if they did marry, it meant that their inheritance would be handed over. That still was happening not so long ago,

and it probably still happens in some countries. where individual power is affected by personal power, rights and freedoms are affected by laws, social norms, regulations, cultural norms, religious norms. And so everything that is outside that imposes itself on our personal will. And I use the word impose because there are a rule. that we and laws that we support and agree with that there are for the benefit of everyone. Traffic laws, for example, we can all agree that there should be stop signs and red lights and speed limits and things like that and that people should learn

how to drive and not be smoking a cigarette, eating a hamburger, drinking cup of coffee and talking on the phone while they're driving. Okay, right? So we all agree that laws are necessary and that most laws are good. We should all pay school taxes and income taxes to support the infrastructure of society.

So a lot of that that's good. And then there's this dark area that gives power to one set of people. If we can look back and we can look not to look that far back. Okay. We can see where women couldn't vote

or where certain people had no rights at all, or years of slavery. And so we can look and see, this is all about power, right? And it's about taking away people's personal power instead of empowering people into their rights and freedoms. Did you have something you want to say about that?

Well, it's interesting how we don't even need to go that far back when you start looking at some multinational corporations or some governments. Like we can see that same power dynamic playing out right now in the world. And it's a force that rules us. It's a relationship that we don't, maybe if we're not being conscious of, that plays out in our, whether we're being conscious or not conscious, this idea of power is playing out in our lives right now, families and workplaces and everywhere.

Yes. And we can think, okay, well, we're in a democracy, aren't we fortunate? Like, they can only be here being a Canadian. Okay, please God, may your democracy survive, okay? And healthy, intact, thriving with rights and freedoms appropriately for all, okay? That, you know, I look here at our, you know, people think comedians are dull and Canada is so boring and what have you. But you know what, every morning I get out and thank it. Thank you, Canada. you know, when I look at all the difficult places around the world with struggle, with the abuse and misuse of power, either through religion, society, government, belief systems.

And we can look at the layers and layers and layers of how people develop and build things through the history of the human beings to disenfranchise, some people in order for other people to have what they want. So people use their power game here. Back to Lusu, he who controls other than maybe powerful. So we can look at Napoleon and we can look at all kinds of other. We can look right now around the world that are leaders of countries who are doing their best to inspire their people.

They're doing their best to ensure. that the people in the country, in the nation, have access to housing, health care, education, a good possibility of achieving a good life the opportunities needed, and we can look around and we can see, you know, that there's nations that just want power and control. And they will do whatever they can to eliminate whoever disagrees with them or whoever wants to remove them from power. And so from the individual up to the global level, it's the same dynamic.

So whether it's with a Nana and a White, where one or the other is being subjugated to the other person's will, and it goes all the way up to the global experience where you can have countries saying, oh, God, nuclear power. Yeah. That's what they call it, right?

Nuclear. the threat constantly of power being abused and used. And now, what do we do with this in our own life? Okay, we can look at that large-scale thing and we're going to bring it right back down to us. How do we do this? Okay, right thought, right word, right step, right action. We have to just bring it back to him, this is me, okay,

whoever's mastered himself is mightier. Okay, well, I'm going to do my master me. what does that look that looks like me respecting your autonomy as an individual to be able to make your choices and your decisions have your viewpoints that may differ from mine okay and respecting that there's some boundary there that you can have your beliefs and you can have your ideas and that's okay that I can be open to listen to them and then if I still disagree with them that's okay we agree to disagree it It doesn't have to be problems or fighting and difficulty, you know.

And so how to use our power, personal power effectively is to live the healthiest best life that we can. It's to empower ourselves into good care of our body, good care of our mind, making healthy decisions each day. That's what we use a power for. Or do we use our power to involve ourselves in stories and psychodramas and ridiculousness? and crazy ideas and it takes a lot of energy. Would you agree? Yeah, absolutely. It's the distractions that steal our power, that we give power to.

Yes, we give our power away. We can give it to habits. We can give it to other people. We can give it to activities. How many people spend? How many hours scrolling through and doing doing all kinds of things. Now, all of the things can be healthy and balanced.

Always complaining about that. Is it part of a balance to a healthy life? So do we have a good understanding of power, how to use our personal power, taking care, looking into our life, making decisions? What happens when we encounter a situation where there's an imbalance of power?

And we can sense that there's, you know, you use the word dominance. before. What happens then? What are we doing those circumstances? I think people fall back to their default mode network. You know, they fall back to the argument they had with their parents when they were four, five, or the fight that they saw. You know, it's like we almost fall back into that lower level of consciousness where it's just that default mode with fight or flight. yeah yes absolutely that's what happens you know and we have three survival responses we have freeze flee and fight okay not hard to forget easy to remember and some people freeze when they

are in a situation of conflict or where there's a dominant person around them a person who now you know maybe we better take a moment there. There are some people who naturally kind of because of their personality, their character, their wisdom, knowledge, experience, they're not dominating, do you know what I'm saying? But they have a place. You go into a classroom and there's a teacher. Okay, the teacher isn't dominating the class.

Okay, I just want to make that distinction. Because some people get confused around these things and don't understand it clearly. So if you're in a situation with somebody who knows a whole lot more about you do than a subject or has abilities that you don't hand, then they're not dominating it. You know, maybe they're showcasing your abilities or maybe they're sharing about things that interest them. But it's not a dominating. That is an energetic thing that requires a motive. You understand? Yeah.

Yeah. It's an energetic thing that can become, it can be just body language. You know, if you watch animals, you're going to see like animals will fluff their tail or they'll fluff their fur around their shoulders and make themselves look bigger and they'll strut and they'll growl and, you know, there's all these things to do that this is, I'm now, you know, accepting your challenge. or I'm now looking at you and you're a threat to me. So I'm going to display behavior that might look dominant to you, but it's really because I'm scared. Can I give you an example of this? Yeah, please.

My son and his family have a wonderful dog named Maggie. She's a red golden retriever, and she has been beautifully trained. But she has just got a real beautiful soul and character to her. And we've learned come Halloween, I'd gone over, it was just Halloween, eh, last week. So I'd gone over because I like to see my granddaughter's getting dressed up and going out and doing your thing. And so I hang out with either miss and her daughter, whoever's not accompanying, and hand out candy and chat with neighbors and do stuff like that. And what they've learned is they can't let Maggie out. They need to let her kind of see that it's happening so that she's remembering.

because she reacts to any costume that has big teeth showing. So people have like this skeleton with the teeth showing. And the kids that have these dinosaur, blow-up dinosaur things with the big teeth, okay? It took a little bit of time for us to notice, okay, those are the things she's reacting to. She's seeing the teeth, okay? And so she'd go, like this. And so we've learned that we let her work. watch through the second glass door, all the kids coming.

And so she gets, oh, yeah, okay, it's this thing again. Okay, all the kids in the costumes, and then she can come out. And, but if something comes along with the accused teeth, she's going to start barking and growling and show her feet. All we have to do is, she's not going to hurt you. She's scared. She's scared because she's seeing this. That if we let her approach you, she was, she's going to go back to her belly. She's going to sniff you a little bit.

That's exactly what he does. So if we learn from that, that what we look and see, a lot of it is just fear. A lot of it is a fear reaction. So that's the fight reaction coming in. I'm scared, therefore I'm going to start fighting. Now what scares some people?

They completely not scare somebody else. The threat of loss of phase, the threat of loss of something, is probably the scariest thing. from those people. So power is energetic, the sensation of being dominated. Have you ever been in a situation as an adult where you felt energetically, it's not verbal yet or physical, they're not touching you and they're not saying

things to you, but energetically that they are attempting to dominate you just through body language. Yeah, my wife and I, about a year ago, we were visiting some friends here in Northern California. We drove down to the city and we were having lunch. And this individual came up and was just my wife. And it was sort of an intimate setting. We were out on a patio. And this gentleman comes up. He was, he was homeless. And he came up and he sat down next to us. And he's like, I want you to buy me some food. But before he sat down next to us, like he just stood by us. And you could feel the contemplation going on. You know, it was the uncomfortable presence of the other weighing upon the relationship that we had.

And it was visceral. Like, I could feel him, I could see him walking up. I could, I could anticipate the things that were going to happen before any words were said. And there was this sort of decision point, whether he was going to be physical or not physical. And he, he, I think he felt my presence. And so he stopped. And rather than act out or do something, he felt a little challenge. So he stopped and he sat down, which I saw as a sign of, okay, this is not going to be, at this point, it's not going to be physical.

At least not yet. We've stopped that with nonverbal communication and energy. Like he came into the presence of something that was equal. Oh, what is this? Maybe I shouldn't do that, you know. But I know that feeling well. Yes. And that's something that, you know, we have to actually, we have to learn.

Because it's not something that's taught at school and most parents don't know how to teach. Kiss that, unless you're a smart enough person that you send your kid into sports and you talk about those things. Or you send them into martial arts and you say you're going to learn how to breathe and ground yourself. And you're going to learn how to really be in your body and how to project confidence and strength and not kind of shervle down. Because here's what happens. And that's an excellent example. Thank you for sharing it. of how you kind of affirmed yourself.

Right. You sensed this presence and it's in the person's intention was not, it wasn't clear yet, but it was an uncomfortable vibration that you were getting. You know, and it did the best good. Yeah. In the moment you felt yourself. Yeah. Yeah.

I think that that it comes from. confrontation, the more confrontations you have, be it verbal or actually physical, you begin to sense that vibration before it happens. It's becoming comfortable with the environment. Yes, yes. That would be an non-ordinary state of consciousness, right? Well, the thing is, is we have this ability if we're not so busy in our head or on our phone or, you know, those are all distractions from consciousness. us. And if we are, to the best of our ability, keep ourselves aware of ourselves in our environment. You'd think sitting on your back patio that you should be able to just be comfortable and enjoy your time there.

And maybe you need to put a fence up. You know, up to you. And the reality is, is it's energetic. And we sense it. I mean, the example, I always use is get on an elevator with five strangers. Nobody needs to say a word and you can tell who's in a good mood and who's in a bad mood and it's just neutral. And you can tell it's all there. We're leaking that. We're leaking it. We're leaking so much energy, information energy.

Okay, we're dispensing it the same way that, you know, the snow leopard is rubbing himself. herself on the outcrop, we're leaking information about ourselves all the time energetically. And how do we firm up? So in the presence of uncomfortable energies, in the presence of dominating energies, staying calm, being firm, being confident, assessing what's healthy for me in this moment? you know, what's the next right step in this moment? Now, in the personal relationship, that gets complex. Okay?

In the personal one-on-one relationship, there's the opportunity for, you know, great intimacy. And by intimacy, I mean intimacy, emotional and intellectual and, yes, physical, of course, but don't confuse intimacy with sexuality. Intimacy is the ability to free be yourself, to share. your deepest hopes and longings and fears and that you know you will be cared about loved and received, right? And so, you know, if there's an equality in a personal relationship, then that's the great potential. If there isn't, and because of whatever reasons, social, cultural, religious, belief systems, okay, there's an inequality. or one person is so used to taking the one down position

that they actually unconsciously go out and find somebody who's used to taking the one-up position, the marriage made in heaven, okay? He or she is used to being one-up and he or she is used to being one-down. And so they just keep doing that until somebody cracks. Okay? Yeah.

And when they crack, they crack. So we learn to not give away our personal power to others. We learn to keep our personal power to ourselves to use it wisely. Now, are we ready to take the next tentative step? Yeah. What about abuse of power? What does that look like?

Talk about attraction, that we're going to, attraction and power, how connected they are. They're deeply connected for so many reasons. And what happens? What is abuse of power? What is that? It looks like someone throwing someone around the dance floor. Like you have a partner that just is constantly leading.

And it's not a dance. It's more of like a pulling people around. Okay. Okay. Horrible dance on the dance floor where you're being pulled around. Okay. I wasn't expecting that. That's a great image to work with.

So what does the person who's being pulled around on the dance floor do when there's an abuse of power? I think they enable it on some level. They put on a pretend a painful smile. Yes, that is one area that is far, it happens far too often. And why does it happen? Why does a person in a situation where there is. is an abuse of power happening. And that can happen in many different situations.

You're talking about the personal relationship where there's an abuse of power. It can happen in the workplace. It can happen in the school system. It can happen in religious settings. There is no place that this is exempt. This is a human thing. It's not just a over there, that school,

or over here, that center or something. No, this is a human. dynamic. So you're saying that one of the things that allows this to happen is that on some level the person is enabling it or allowing. Why? I think that there could be multiple factors. One would be a learned behavior.

It would be maybe an unrealized generational trauma that is continuing to play out, the one up, the one down thing that we spoke about earlier. And I think maybe something more genuine might be fear, a person's fear of loving themselves at a level that they deserve to. Yep. Yes to all of that. So at the core can be a number of things. There can be a, and it's all.

all coming back to third chakra. Remember in the beginning I said, third chakra is where I believe our well power lifts and that it is tied up with our sense of self, who I think can am, and my perception of reality. So if we have a healthy, reasonably confident,

reasonably resilient, all of us can get an out-gee in life, okay? And we're not superheroes, we're just people. Okay, but if we have a fairly confident, fairly resilient sense of self, we will be able to recognize when there's something wrong happening, and we will put a stop to it. We will seek help. We will seek professional advice.

We will check our reality. Like, is this happening? Okay? A lot of gas lighting goes on, right? So, is this really happening? You know? And so, but that depends on that. Now, if we have third chakra wounding. In other words, as a child, either we were abandoned, so we developed a false sense of self. I'm unlovable. No one will ever love. If I love and open my heart,

I'll abandon me, et cetera. I will be rejected unless I please people, unless I'm good with people, unless I do what they want, okay? And then the flip side, if you've been invaded, so things happen to you that shouldn't have happened, either energetically, verbally, physically, etc., then you might develop the, I'm not worthy, this is all I deserve.

So if he slaps me around a little bit, well, that's all I'm worth. Okay. And so those are like extreme. Okay, then there's everything in the middle that can be happening. So yes, a lot of the times people will tolerate or enable abuse because of their own inner wound abuse, not realizing that they have the right to protect themselves and stop and say no. Now, what happens in an abuse of power where it's in a situation where it's with an abuse of power

with an authority figure? I mean, we've talked about the personal relationship, the two people in a personal relationship where there's an abuse of power in the relationship, there's abusiveness going on. But what about if it's different? What if it's about a teacher with a student, a doctor, with a patient, a coach with an athlete, a religious leader with a member of the congregation? What about then? What happens? This is a slippery, a slippery place.

You know, we're talking about, you know. Abuse. We're not about power. We're talking about real. We're talking about attraction and how people can confuse attraction and power issues. I think on some level, it diminishes personal, like authority diminishes personal responsibility. And not a whole lot of people, at least in my opinion, or myself have, as a young person, been trained how to respond to authority in a way that allows for a peaceful confrontation. So I think people fall back into this stimulus response, this Pavlovian dog.

You know, I blow the whistle, you begin salivating. Here's this thing called authority. I better do what I'm told. especially if you had the parental upbringing of do what I say and don't you cry I'll give you something to cry about and more of those famous I told you what you made me do yeah look at you made me do okay right now I have you because you deserve it because you're bad all of these things get saying now on the one hand we can understand that yes raising children can be different every parent can get frustrated, but you have to notice that you're doing that, you have to clean it up. Okay?

So having said that, okay? And then you have to help your child be empowered to say no and to say stop and things like that, you know. But if that hasn't happened and child goes up and then gets into a situation as a young adult or is an adult where they're now, you know, a student in the classroom and they're being cajoled by a teacher that come and see me after class and, you know, I see this, but, you know, I can give you

a better mind. That's a serious abuse of power if you, whatever it is that somebody's after, okay, and it's usually money, sex, substances. Right. You know, our issues, those are the common

the usual suspects. And so there's this now the dominance of will in the position of authority. What is it that how do we help people awaken to this dynamic? Because we see it everywhere. And we're seeing so much of it in the anthogenic psychedelic world. I mean, you know, so-called leaders and so-called teachers and so-called shamans who are misusing people for money, for power, for status,

for their own sexual needs. Okay? What is it that we can do to educate? How do we support people? How do we support people to pay attention? I mean, we have an ethics code on our church website. We have an advisory for external events. check the certification. Do they have a code of ethics? What are their principles?

I mean, we do what we can, our little church and I do, to train, educate people so that they are aware that there are problems and they are on the lookout for them and that if they start to happen, that they report them. Okay. What else can be done? I think on some level you can look for those, if you're in that situation, you can look for that nonverbal energy transfer. It may not be easy, especially if you are already in a non-ordinary state of consciousness. But I think that there are warning signs on some level if you're willing to pay attention to that. Power way, is that what you're saying? How am I giving my power?

Yes, yes, thank you. Because here's where it gets really tricky, okay? Sometimes it's an out-of-blue thing that you're not expecting, and you haven't been aware that you've been giving away. away your power, but all of a sudden something's happening. And that needs to be kind of the first checking, which is how am I, what am I doing? And even if it's just, I'm here, then I need to leave. Okay.

I've bought into a belief system. I've bought into this rock star is the greatest person on the planet. Therefore, yeah, sure, I'll go to the actor party and sure I'll take that drink. because I'm with the rock star, right? And so we all need to. There's two sides to this, and it is tricky, okay, because there's absolutely no way that I want any of this to ever be understood as going to be a victim.

I'm absolutely not. Any person in a position of authority and or power who so abuses that position should be removed from office immediately. It's as simple as that. there should be dire circumstances that have consequences. So whether it's a teacher in a classroom, whether it's a doctor with patients, whatever it is, a religious, a shaman, a religious leader

with people in a retreat or a workshop or a congregation. So on the one side, the more, you know, there is the person and the office. And the people can't get this. That there's the person in the office, the office itself of teacher, doctor, religious leader, member of parliament, whatever, okay? Coach to the National Hockey League. The office, the role, the position,

the title president of the United States, that has its own power at seal of power. And that office has its own set of responsibilities, its own moral code, ethics code, and

duties and responsibilities. That's separate to the person. We have, we don't have presidents, we have prime ministers here in Canada. You know, prime minister is an office. I'll use Canadian politics. Prime minister is an office.

You can remove you can remove the current one and whenever we vote again he may go back in or it could be a different person from a different political party every approximately four years we go through a voting process and so it's the office

and anybody who steps into that office whatever it is, foreign minister, president, teacher, doctor, religious leader has to understand that the distinction between their own personal willpower and wants has to be aligned with that office. We don't just get into position of power and it's the three-year-old they want. You have a toy, I want that toy. I want that toy.

I want that. I want them in the tantrum where I don't get it. And so how do we help people on both sides understand this? How do we help people who are in positions of power understand the sacredness of office? That it is that's solemn duty to uphold the dignity of an office and its power. And how do we help people understand that when you go to church or when you go in a classroom or when you join the hockey team or the soccer team or whatever it is, that you have an individual right to the autonomy of yourself

and that you have a right to speak up if you have concerns or questions about that and to trust your instincts and your own inner resiliency. And do your best to make sure that you record any concerns. Does this make sense? It does. It's on some level, isn't there a, I hesitate to say leap of faith,

but doesn't there have to be some leverage and some trust going to somebody? Like you have to give away a little bit of your, like, let's take the word surrender for a moment. We see this word put all over the world of entheogens and psychedelics and ceremony and rights of passages, this idea of surrendering power to the experience. But you're simultaneously reclaiming personal agent did. Yeah, but this is where it's all confused up, okay? Yeah, totally, yes. You're right down into the atomic level of it now, okay?

Right down to the atoms of it, which is you go into a situation that requires a certain level of trust. Can I give you a silly example? Okay. My dear dermatologist of 35 years who diagnosed and saw me through, I had cancer 30 some years ago, has retired last year. And so, you know, she gave me a copy of my file and wished me good luck and I thanked her and wrote her lovely card and wished her well in her retirement. And I have boo-hoo. I got a new dermatologist. Okay.

So I got a referral to one. I thought, well, being a woman and because I had melanoma, I had pathophilic the full body screen, maybe I'd prefer a woman at my age, you know. And so I got a referral and went and had to my appointment to see this doctor. And she walks in and there's, you know, I'm down to the little. gown, okay, and she walks in and there's somebody behind her. There's another woman, but there's somebody behind her. And I say, good morning, doctor, I won't say her name. And it was like, good morning or so I waited. And I looked at the person behind her. And I said, good morning and who are you? There's no way. I was going to have there in that little

blue and night gown thing. I was just going to surrender. allow, you know, I mean, in the back of my head, I'm assuming it's a medical student shadowing her. That's my assumption. But I was putting my boundary very nicely, very respectfully. I was putting my boundary down. I'm going to be like basically naked in front of one stranger is bad enough. Okay, but a stranger I'm not even introduced to. Now, the burden of duty should have been on her.

Maybe she's busy, stretch, whatever, to say, good morning to me. With me today is Dr. So-and-so, medical student, doing her residency in dermatology. She's shadowing me today. That would have been the right thing to do to keep the power balance proper in the room. It fell on me. Fortunately, because of all my work, I have the skills. We experience the tools. have you to make sure that I don't get in an uncomfortable situation without respectfully

doing my best to try and affirm it, you know? And so that's how even small little situations like that, a different person from me might have just felt like, oh, I'm in a doctor's office and they're a doctor and I have to do what they say and I can't question them. And needless a I got a different referral to another doctor. She was so brisk and rough and bright. I was like, okay, thank you so much. Have a great. Thank you for seeing me today.

Bye. I know we're done. So I've got it to be a girl. So, you know, it's those moments, small little things, small little encounters where you just calmly and quietly lean into your confidence, lean into your knowingness of who I am on the person who deserves respect.

The way all people do, I don't deserve more respect than you do, equal respect. So all these little situations where you are unconsciously demeaned, diminished, how do we learn to manage them? With respect, kindness,

and if possible, a little sense of humor, And then when we find ourselves in a situation, do we ask ourselves, okay, what do I learn about how I got here? Okay, maybe I shouldn't have left the club with that rock star and decide to go to an after-party. You know, rethinking our decision process. And I'm not blaming victims. You should be able to be free to go places and walk around the street and, you know, going to a club without someone slipping roofy in it, you should be able to enjoy your life and live.

And at the same time, there has to be some kind of common sense involved in which we're aware of our environment and not in a fearful way, but that we are aware of our environment. We are aware that not all people are acting or acting with the highest of intentions and the best motivations that some people will have ulterior motives or hidden agendas.

Yes? Absolutely. Yeah. On that note, I asked you, before we started saying that there's something it'll probably be hitting,

you know, there's statements being, there's being published about it and stuff like that. I've even written an open, and letter on the situation. And here is a perfect example of the next level of this kind of power, the right use of power, the appropriate use of power,

the responsible use, recognizing our own personal power, recognizing the power of offices and being able to make a distinction of what's healthy and what's right. Okay, a police officer has the rate to stop. you can give you a ticket if you've just gone through a red light, that office, okay, gives them that power to do that. It doesn't give them the power to yank you out of your car and drop you on the floor and put their foot on your neck.

Okay. So, I mean, unless you're waiting it down with them or something. So there's, there's, there's degrees of understanding what office is, it's the office power, it's the personal power, and there's people. who misuse the office for personal power, whatever the offices. So we read about all these scandals, about people who are in a business, and then it finds out they're being embezzling abuse of power. People in different situations where they've taken advantage.

So there's deep learning on both sides about how do we do what we can do to ensure your well-being and the health of ourselves and our loved ones, our communities to ensure ethics and good standards and at the same time be mindful that not everybody's thinking is anything. So we have a situation in there is a church, Central Doming Church in Rio de Janeiro.

As I said, it's already, this information is already being posted in many sites. So I'm not doing any disclosures that are in any way under some non-disclosure agreement. We had a form of affiliation with them until 2002, so that was 22 years ago we closed with them. And we closed with that center

because of serious concerns about abuse of power and what appeared to be on many levels, not just sexual, there was accounts of non-consensual, sexual contact and, you know, other serious issues that were concerned. So as I became aware of them, my neuroticative ethics, I sat down with senior people. I shared my concerns on my complaints and did my, what I felt was in my ballpark to speak up to and speak to. and I had been inspired and I think I mentioned this before by Jack Cornfield's book

The Ethics, not the Xcairman, yeah, the ethics theory, and that's kind of a tale of his book after the X-C, the laundry is Jack Cornfield, so there's two of six books on Abbots. So he'd written his book around 1999, 2000, Reddit, called him up and I said, because he was one of I did training with him when I was training with Stan Brough. So he had been one of my teachers. And I called him up and I said, listen, I've written, I'm so inspired by your book. I've written a Code of Ethics. Can I send it to you?

Can you please read it and see, did I leave anything out or what have you? So he answered me back and said, no, it's just fine way it is as perfect. I hope everybody receives it. So on that note, 2000, I'd taken down this code of ethics saying, hey guys, just because I didn't understand so much about the culture, I didn't understand the language, so it took a while for me to catch on about some of the things that were happening. And this is a reality. I was at an age and have a certain kind of personality. Nobody's going to really try that step on with me. Okay? I also, I'm a single sacrament. I don't take cannabis, and that was another very serious

concern with the misuse of cannabis by people in that center. I'm very much single, sacrament. I'm not against cannabis. It's a plant that has medicinal, certainly medicinal powers to it, and it can be used in many reasons by different people to help them in different situations than with health conditions. Just not with the damey. That's all. It's all. It's the teachings of master are now. He himself said, it's a teaching plant. It's a power plant, but it's not with the damey. We have one sacrament, that's our sacrament. So in 2002, when it looked like things were not going to be changing, we closed with that syndrome. And every couple of years there would be more things coming through here and there, another story and another thing.

And part of the big problem is another problem that just simply has to be spoken of and is being spoken of. You know, in Canada, the abuses of power are no longer being tolerated. but what also is not being tolerated is covering up. The people who cover all the abuses of power should be held accountable for covering them. And there's many stories of this, you know, of people covering up. I mean, you may remember it wasn't that long ago

a number of Catholic bishops resigned. They said, we knew about this and we didn't think. So we are doing what we should have done. We didn't speak up, so now we must. design. I thought that's admirable. They've finally done the right thing. It's not like we did this and we didn't work. And, you know, and it takes us, you know, so finally now, in all of these previous circumstances, some of which I did my very best, even though we were no long affiliated, I did my very best rating at large to the Santa Dian community explaining our culture won't

accept this. These things are crimes. In our country, these things would be crimes. This will be damaging to the Santo Dainini to stop a seven of a sudden. Usually what happens that I would get us, campaign darkness against me, okay, which is fine. You know, I said what I need to say and it's all okay. But finally now, you know, and women would be persuaded not to. It would be manipulated, light to cover up, all kinds of things would happen. A finally one woman, she had enough. And she was a member in that congregation also worked for this particular leader. And she's now got a lawsuit against him.

So finally, finally. So she has our full support. We've written a public letter, open letter, in full support of her and applauding her efforts and encouraging her and trying to let her know and the community know that she's doing the right thing and that nobody should be interfering with manipulations lies and covering up and so it's it's a sad moment but it's been a long time coming and people who think that they can eventually the truth makes room for itself so if anybody here is in a situation If anybody's listening or watching this, and you're in a situation,

we're either on one side of the equation or the other, if you're aware that you are misusing your personal power in an office of responsibility, please stop. Think of the consequences to you, to your family, to the people that you're supposed to be serving. Stop. Clean up. If you were in a situation where you are, are being taken advantage of on some level in any way, emotionally, spiritually, intellectually,

sexually, et cetera, financially. Stop. Ask for help. Speak to people that you trust. Let them know what's happening. And that's the only way this whole movement is going to go forward because I don't think a month passes that there isn't another scandal about money, about sex, about other substances about something.

So it was a bit sad to have to talk about this. Serious and sad. But let's end it on an up note. Okay? Let's end it with positivity. I believe that if enough people are willing to tell the truth and stand confident and resilient in the truth, then over time,

over time, the force of goodwill using good intention and healthy power will bring enough awareness to the entheogen and psychedelic movement that enough people of good intentions and consciousness we will be able to keep the movement alive and healthy and that there will be good results for people, good benefits for people.

You join me in the movement. Yeah, I agree. I think that, you know, there's always a chance of a death and birth. That's why it's a miracle. And when you see a movement, you know, there's always a chance that, you know, it can, it can not be born in the way that you would hope for. And I think that there's a real, you know, trying to keep it on the positive. No, there's a real opportunity that something could happen here. And it's the cult of charisma. It is the call of, you know, the darker forces for lack of a better term, like the greed, the selfishness, the I am, the medicine versus the medicine being the medicine out there. But there are so many good people out there that are fundamentally changing who they are as individuals to become the best person they can be. And that is contagious. That is a fire that spreads to other people. and it brings that light up to a level where other people can find it.

And I believe wholeheartedly that that fire is raging and we can continue to blow on it and create that spark that other people can see. Yes, absolutely. What you just said reminds me so much of a letter that Clarissa Pankola S just wrote. It's called A Letter to a Young Man in Trouble Times. It is so powerful and so beautiful that I've taken excerpts and actually really. read them in difficult moments to our congregation. Because she talks basically about, you know, we're kind of like beings of light,

and it's like we're sailing on a ship through troubled sea, and we're willing to throw out a hand to those in need, but you have to have the will to come on board. You have to have the will to come on board. That's it. And so for all those. Yeah, for all. Yeah, Google it, you know.

I will. Clarisip and Colaste as a letter to a man in trouble, a young man in troubled times. I think it's called this very well-known writing of hers. And it's powerful. And it doesn't matter when she wrote it because there's always a troubled time, you know. Yeah. There's always troubles.

And only as we, you know, we're going to circle right back to only as we decide that the light within us is so precious. us that we will keep it lit and that we will take responsibility for what is ours that includes what I go along with you know what I cooperate with what I say yes to that that's my responsibility and my thoughts my words my actions are mine and so may all people you know may all people keep the light within them lit and be filled with confidence whole resiliency to let troubled days come and know okay okay this was a hard day but it's okay I'm still here I'm so here fighting a good fight yeah living the truth living my truth serving where I can receiving where it's appropriate.

Well, it's always a joy to hang out with you. It was a difficult topic. What? Always a pleasure. Always a pleasure. It was a difficult topic. And I think just one that's needed in this time, you know. And the kind of thing that just needs to be honestly and openly talked about.

We all are human. We all have strengths. We all have shortcomings. And we have to just acknowledge that and work with it. So until the next time, it's been a great pleasure. Yes. Indeed, everybody within the sound of our voice, if you enjoyed the conversation we had today, go down to the show notes. Check out Dr. Jessica's website.

Check out her books. They're like a cartography for the mind. I promise you, you will. not be disappointed. And join us next, the first Tuesday of every month. And before I let you go, though, Dr. Jessica, do you have anything coming up or anything that you are excited for? Well, I'm excited to be able to use my left arm again. I'm hoping to get back into the swimming pool. I get the okay for my doctor. Boy, it's been like six weeks. I've got another two and a half weeks to go before I get the okay to get back in the pool.

So I know that sounds silly, but that's really exciting for me. I was swimmer. It's been so hard to be out of. The other thing that was fun was I spent the afternoon yesterday at McGill. I'd been invited to participate. They have a kind of a one day as part of the, it's the McGill Medical School. And they have a one-day program. I want to give a shout out to Dr. Roger Goss.

And I was with Dr. Harvey Chang, a very good friend, colleague. He worked with our team on Anti-Gens and Psychedelics Proposal in Canada Proposal for New Paradigm. He is a team leader of palliative care at one of our Montreal hospitals. And so there's an interest. So here I get invaded as part of this day on medicine, spirituality, religion, teaching med students how to be, how to recognize their own biases. So this is the first time that an entheogen religion has been invited us to participate in this. So it was an interesting day because we were located in and out,

in and then onto three different classrooms full of students doing the spiel in each, you know, in each one. So that was really interesting. And I have to say that I've never seen so many, because I'm used to lecturing to believe, believers, you know, the people who come to my lectures and, you know, what have you is they know what it's about and they want to hear it, whereas this is a mandatory class. And so what was terrific is that some of this, when I ask them on, are their biases? And you get a patient in, so you do a case study with an imaginary and real, actually real, not imaginary, real. So I had a member of our congregation in Breach Stewart, who had a medical condition and write all about it.

And now she believed what role her faith played in her medical condition. And so we talked about all of that. And I had questions to engage the students. And they were, okay, what kind of bias do you think you might have against a patient that comes in who's actually taking an anthogen as a sacrament and who believes that they're receiving insights about how to work with their own physical body and their illness. How are you going to respond? And what are you going to ask about that?

One of your biases was very interesting, hearing some of the questions. It's kind of like drugs in church. It was a job on the basis of, oh, this is not drug. So trying to cope them into, because I said to them, listen, psychedelics and clinical and research and palliative care, they're going to be used. In the coming years, you're going to find you're going to have more and more patients who have experience with this who might want your support. And you learning to ask the good questions are going to be helpful.

So it's very interesting the avenues that are opening up and the opportunities to educate. Yeah, that is fascinating. See in December, wishing you a beautiful month. Great work. Congratulations on, you know, of the ongoing success and interest in your wonderful podcast is always a joy. Thank you very much. And I will hang on briefly afterwards to everyone within the sound of my voice. I hope you have a beautiful day. And that's all we got. Aloha.