TrueLife - Vlad Florian Bodnărescu Cheznoiu - Artistry, Alchemy, Analytical Idealism

Episode Date: April 23, 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/Take a walk through the mind of an original thinker. In todays world  we need people who are willing to be themselves, have courage, and take chances. Vlad Florian is many things, and his many interests … here are just a few: Artist | Alchemy I Philosophy I Physics | Analytical Idealism | Trivium I Quadrivium | Humanism | Rationalism IEmpiricism | Pacifism | Mindfulness ISynergy | Synchronicity | Cat Dad… 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. Fearist 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's having a beautiful day. It is 420. It is a special day for a lot of special. people. Everyone likes to celebrate in their own way. You know, you put on some music. You burn one down. Some

people like to go dancing. I don't know. Do whatever you got to do. It's 420. I'm here with a special guest. The one and only, Vlad, I'm going to have. I need some help pronouncing your last name. It's a mouthful. My full name is Vlad Florian Podnerescu. Casanoi. You can call me Brad or Vlad or call me anything. Just don't call me late to dinner. You know what I mean. I love it, man. It's got a nice ring to us. it kind of flows off the tongue what what what um ethnicity is that thank you uh romanian actually i was i was born there and i guess i guess we're gonna just jump right into it my brother george good morning and thank you for having me on uh i guess a little bit about myself

in a few words i am no one in a few more words uh i was born in 1984 the novel in Romania, which it was a communist dictatorship at the time. So calling it Orwellian wouldn't be much of a stretch, you know. Big Brother was watching and usually through your neighbor's eyes, you know. I was too young to know any of the stuff. Of course, my parents told me about rationing food and having to buy meat on the black market and only one radio station that only played communist propaganda all the time, you know. Anyway, when I was three, my mom left, she emigrated to America on asylum.

And luckily, I guess, in hindsight, luckily two years later, the revolution happened in Romania. They killed the Chowoshescu's on Christmas. And we followed. We came to America, myself, my brother, and my father. I was raised in Woodside Queens. Shout out to Hoodside, of course. Well, normal childhood, you know, I guess when you're young, you don't really, there's no ought. There just is, you know, at least for me.

I don't know if every child goes through that. I suspect that the current generation might not, but, you know, that's another story. You know, there was times when you could call it poverty that we went through, but we didn't know any better. It just was, you know, we didn't care. I had, you know, my brother was my role model still. is, you know, and my parents had a pretty lazy, fair approach to raising us, which I'm very thankful for now. They didn't push any dogma on us as far as anything goes. And also because of that, we started getting into drinking at a young age. We didn't do anything bad. You know,

I smoked a little weed here and there, but nothing crazy. But it wasn't until 2007, when myself and my girlfriend at the time, she was a little bit older than me. We went to Amsterdam. Yeah. And I did what I now realize was a heroic dose of Cilossopi, cyanessence, mushroom. Now, you know, that was world-changing.

That was the epiphany. That was the epiphany. I didn't want to just be, I didn't know what happened, but I knew it was a life. changing moments. You know, I just, I remember thinking about a philosophy class I had just taken not long before that, and the teacher was talking about Zeno's paradox and made perfect sense to me. I mean, yeah, sure, after the fact you learn about calculus and you figure out, oh, it's not really

a paradox, but abstract mathematics, I'm not sure it really represents reality in any kind of objective way. Anyway, that's what got me started on my psychonautic path, so to say. And once you pierce that veil and do it the first time, they kind of have a way of finding their way into your life, at least like once a year, which is what I did. You know, sometimes a little more than that. But they, you know, mushrooms or acid, whatever, you can get your hands on. Never anything hard.

after that point I realized, you know, only the natural stuff is the good stuff. You know, everything that, you know, it's plants and fungus, you know, that we're talking about. Drugs are man-made pills and powders, you know, where we find something good in nature. And then we're like, oh, what's good about this? Let's take that one thing extracted and concentrate it until it kills us. And it's not getting. My dad always says, what's so few is un-gazun, which, you know, too much is not enough, or too much is no good, basically.

You know, every in moderation. Anyway, I'm rambling a bit. I apologize, but the next, it was pretty much business as usual still, though, after that. I was still a materialist, you know, I didn't, I didn't really make the next. step in my spiritual evolution until I suspect it's like this for most people is it was after my mother passed away god's rest her soul and uh that was in 2016 September 30th and uh at the time I didn't realize but I was the only one with her when it happened I was holding her and I was reading her book to her that her novel that she wrote and uh the rest of the family joined after but then

the doctor came and told us the time of death and it was 11 11, which I didn't see the significance of at that time. Later on, you know, I found out that everything, every number has meaning, obviously, so more than others, but excuse me. Yeah, no worries. And that's what really set me on the path. And reading a book also, a book that my buddy gave me, that I never, I just had there on the side that I never started. And I mean, I love reading. I have a lot of preferred authors, but this author in particular, I wouldn't recommend after the fact. I don't know if I should even mention the book. I don't want to disparage anyone. But the book itself was great. I'll mention it's called the Source Field Investigation. It really, it really

it opened up my mind to the ethereal side of life, you know, as opposed to the material. And I guess that was after that, then I started getting into everything as far as the title of this episode, which I love that you made, but based on just my LinkedIn, which is awesome. That's why I really started getting into, you know, more esoteric things as far as, you know, alchemy, idealism. And, you know, as far as art, I've always been artistic. I always loved drawing when I was a kid. My mom would tell us that we had a lot of artists in our family, so it was in our blood. My great-great-grandfather was actually Samson Bodnarasco.

He's a noted Romanian poet. Oh, nice. I'll get back to him later. But what was I saying? I lost my train of thought. Alchemy and like we talked about artistry. As far as art, yeah, definitely. during the pandemic as well

when I had a lot of time on my hands, that's when I really started getting into multimedia art as far as, you know, I got into wood carving and knitting and I'm still drawing. I made a new tattoo design and poetry, which was a weird

one because I never thought I could do something like that. It was on a lark with a couple of buddies of mine. We started in a group text going back and forth with a rap back and forth pretty sure. You know, like gangster rap lines, you know, we used to like when we were kids.

And then, you know, I realized I got in the zone when I was doing it and I couldn't shut up. Like it just kept coming out of me. And, you know, of course, they got annoyed with it by one point. But I guess, you know, speaking of the zone, what are they, you know what I'm talking about? Yeah, the flow state. Both state, sure. You know, tapping into the Akashik record, whatever you want to call it. It's real.

It's absolutely real. And that's what makes me realize that artists, when they say they need to be inspired or they have no inspiration, they can't work, they're not being pretentious. They're not being egotistical. You know, it's real. If you don't have that inspiration, you can't produce, you know, any quality, creative output, anything beautiful or thought-provoking. or, you know, what is beauty anyway?

I happen to think it's just harmony, you know. Humans most easily recognize it as symmetry, but that's what it is. It's harmony. I don't know, but you say something. I feel. I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, that makes perfect sense.

I agree with so much of it. I, you know, I wrote a book a while back, and it was a really psychedelic experience because there was times where like I would just sit down as I just start writing writing and I'm like you know the next day I'd read it I'd be like that's pretty good man I don't even remember putting that down and then at the end tripping when you were writing it I was doing I'm always doing a lot of tripping and so it was a moment yeah it's the only way I think and um it's it was something that I got inspired by you know it's been on my mind it had been on my mind someone asked me a while back hey how long did it

he could write that book. I'm like, 48 years. I didn't even write it until I was 48. He started laughing. He's like, no, seriously, how long? I'm like, seriously, 48 years, man. That's the first book I wrote. And so. Magnum opus. Yeah. Yeah. And it's, I think that, you know, on some level, it's, it's a good metaphor to look at us as a receiver in a way, because some people get to download and they can automatically just stream it. Some people got to get the download for a long period of time, and then it's ready to be streamed. Some people get to download. They like to resurface it.

They like to clean it up and then put it out a certain way. It doesn't matter how you put it out. But the fact is you've got to get in the pattern of receiving it. And once you do, you start seeing it on the wind. You can see it on the leaves and you can hear it in the voice of a child or someone crying. You know what I mean? And that's the inspiration. I get it, man.

I'm with you 100%. Absolutely. You know, it's also a double-edged sword. Well, going back to how just how. it comes through you. There's examples, Mendelayev, who came up with the periodic table,

he said it came to him, it came to him in a dream one night, or John Lennon saying that the songs come through him instead of him writing them. Right. Who's the mathematician? Romanov. Okay.

He saw mathematical formula, you know, appear in his mind's eye. But I was going to say that it's a double-edged sword because it could be taken advantage of also being in a it could be used for mundane purposes as well someone could be on a on a production line doing the same repetitive motion over and they get in the zone also sure yeah they become great workers but for whose benefit you know right only whoever's making a profit at the end of the day that's why like anything else though everything i think it was neil's

bore said every every the opposite of a small truth is a falsehood but the opposite of a great truth is another great truth. It goes to show that everything everything has its extremes and the two extremes really equal each other in all aspects of life. Yeah. Now I'm getting a little. No, it's true. It's like a magnet.

You know, I think about it like a magnet when you hear people say, oh, we're the poles apart. Yeah, but you're still the same magnet, you know. And if you think about the left, the far left or the far right, like they're kind of the same thing, man. They just have different energy, but they're the same thing, man. Only thing, cold and hot. Yeah. You ever turn the sink on and the water is really hot, but you don't know. And you put it in real quick just for a second and it's all due.

Like that first sensation is almost like frostbite, you know, that cold feeling. Being blinded by light or in complete darkness. You know, you can't see. It's the same thing, right? It's, we define everything by what it's not. And then the gradation from one extreme to the, there's no real extremes. It's a gradation. Yeah.

And everything, everything. And even reality, you know, there's the material realm and the ethereal realm. You know, there's a dichotomy. Yeah. And the materials realm itself is a. is a duality also. Yeah. I think the problem's language.

Like, you know, the, one of the basic problems in human understanding is that we inevitably rely on some aspect of language to determine the nature of private experience. And, you know, our whole background, even though you and I use the same vocabulary and language is amazing, it's very difficult to get my point across. And you know what? Yes, semantics, exactly. So important. So important. When it comes to everything, you could be saying, again, we could be speaking the same language, saying something like, I know you understand the words coming out of my mouth, but the same word could have different, completely different definitions for us. And it doesn't even have to be known, you know. You could say something. They could take it completely different than how you meant it. And they won't ever mention that. And you'll think they meant it the way. And they thought you meant it the way they made. It's wild. And it's important. to set these things up when having any kind of, you know, rational conversation with anyone to talk about.

Like before, I would just, I called something beautiful and then I had to define it after the fact. Because it's true. What is beauty? It's like Socrates, you know, he used to annoy everybody. Oh, what is that? Oh, yeah, what do you think that is? You know, that's how you get to any kind of real truth if there is that. Yeah, it's modern discourse. Imagine it would be laborious but incredible if every conversation started with, okay, let's define our terms before we begin this. But this gets us back to poetry, Vlad. Maybe poetry is the only way to thoroughly have a conversation

in which the person can feel what you're saying. Oh, yeah. Poets are the troubadours that are veiling the logo. in the nomenclature of whatever time space they happen to awaken in. Yep. You know, that's one of my tripping ideas that I had. You know, I write down, I didn't really prepare. I just jot it some stuff down.

Let's hear it, man. Let's hear it. Let's hear it. You know, the funny thing is when I'm tripping and have really, well, there's a bunch of things I could say about that. There were times earlier on when I would have these profound thoughts, And I was like, oh, my God, you know, this is, this is this novel concept that I just came up with. And then I'd research it.

I'm like, oh, yeah, this is an ancient thing. For example, like, not ancient per se in this case, but Terrence McKenna's stoned ape theory. I totally thought I came up with that after a trip once. I think before I even knew about Terrence McKenna. I looked it up. And maybe that's what got me into him. Who knows? But also, my most recent trip.

And other times also, there'll be times when I have this profound thought or this vision that I want to either draw or write down and I start doing it, but then I stop myself. And I say, no, no, this isn't meant to be uttered. This isn't meant for the profane unless they reach this level as well, which leads me to initiation rituals, rights of passage. We don't happen anymore. And that's why maturity is lacking. People think maturity has to do with a amount of times you went around the sun. It has nothing to do with it. You know, it's about dying to your earthly self and being reborn.

And that's what, what is it, the, uh, jumping the bull or the Pacific Islanders that bungee jumped before a bungee jumping was a thing or. Yeah. The bullet ain't, the Amazonians that wear the glove of bullet. You have to do something that you think might kill you and possibly could. Probably won't. But to reach adulthood, you know, you have to die to your, your self. And that's a good lead into alchemy as far as the ancient wisdom, the mystery schools.

That was the initiation. It was entheogens. You know, it was like people, it's plant medicine. You come, you get the exoteric knowledge, which is. usually the literal meaning of the symbols or maybe one level of symbolism under that that everyone the general masses know but once you learn enough then you get to take the sacrament and get to the real stuff the real knowledge yeah say out loud you know and uh i guess a little a little background if anyone alchemy everyone thinks it's oh that's where chemistry comes from

used to try to get gold from lead and live forever. No, it comes from Al-Kem, which is, it means the blackness, Al, the Arabic signifier like alcohol, algebra, algorithm. And Kem was the original name of Egypt, which means blackness, because of the black mineral-rich soil along the Nile. It's also about the stages of alchemy, the blackness, whiteness, redness, Negredo, albedo, rubido. There used to be also a citronitis, the yellow stage also.

Again, steeped in multi-layers of symbolism. It could literally mean, oh, this is how you actually do a chemical transmutation, you know, putrefaction and purification. That's how you, you know, turn one element to another. Sure, it could mean that. Or it could mean, you know, again, dying to your earthly self and then being reborn to your enlightened self. for lack of a better word. I don't like using the word enlightened or the word God

because that's going back to semantics. You know, they have so many different, I have my definitions for them, so I'll use them, you know. But if I'm going to talk to anyone else, I have to, you know, be careful. And I could go into the trivium and quadrivium also.

That has a lot to do with the original seven liberal arts called that liberal because free because slaves weren't allowed to read or have knowledge. Knowledge is power, as we all know. The trivium is the threefold path. The quadrivium is the fourfold path. And it's the knowledge you need before the initiation ritual to where you won't freak out. And I was lucky enough. The trivium is grammar, logic, and rhetoric, which, you know, there's, again, there's layers

to that too. It could be seen as knowledge, understanding, and wisdom, or computer terminology, input, program or output or whatever. And then you got the quadrivium, which is arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. So it's basically the important stuff you need to know before you figure out the truth, you know? Yeah. And it's, and the word trivial, the word trivial comes from trivium. And it was, the meaning was perverted, probably on purpose. You know, now, oh, it's a trivial issue. It's not a big deal. Trivial meant of the trivium. It meant common, common sense. Like, you know, because everyone, that's anyone, had to know that stuff at one point. It's like the word magic as well. Now it's parlor tricks and just fake, you know, Western.

and nonsense, but it comes from the magi, you know, the three visitors in the New Testament. And then you got the etymology breaks down to you got major and magistrate and mayor. And you could see how casting a spell, spelling is like writing. So you can see how a mayor spells something. to law. I know I'm reaching with this with this analogy, but use money as an example. In ancient times, sigils for magic rituals. They would have a god on one side and a temple on the other.

What is money, if not the modern version of that, a dead present on one side, a government building on the other? And what is it, if not pure magic? It's this valueless thing that people live for and die for. Because someone spelled, cast a spell. spell on us to be that. And that's the real magic, you know,

not the parlor tricks, not the nonsense. Yeah, I'm always amazed when I go to the store and I walk out with like this giant cart full of things. And all I do is give somebody some paper. I'm like, ha,

just burn this guy. It gives a paper. I mean, get all this stuff. No, but yeah, he's just working there to make some more of that paper himself. Yeah,

yeah. Yeah. Do you think we're breaking through? Like, you think some of that magic is wearing, off like in no no i i don't know i i think it's the opposite i think okay i about this like what the 1600s rene de cart i think therefore i am revolution revolutionized science don't get me wrong but he also really cemented the the dualistic materialism paradigm and since then it's like oh we have to be

enlightened we threw out the baby with the bathwater and i get it you know i I was a staunch atheist when I was younger. You know, I used to be a big Richard Dawkins fan. And now I'm not, you know, I don't affiliate with any of the modern organized religions by any means. Although, you know, there's good people and all of them. Sure, sure. On the whole, yeah. Anyway, I digress.

But, yeah, so, yeah, throwing out the baby with the bathwater, sure. So after that point, you know, it was only, oh, we need proof. We need to, unless, unless, you know, we could derive a theory, unless we could predict something, unless we could falsify something, if we can't reduce it to its, you know, essential elements, it's not, it doesn't exist. And that held sway up until, you know, the quantum revolution, when we realized how important the observer is and how important. how nothing is as it seems, you know.

Strodger's cat has always brought up. That was actually, it wasn't really a thought experiment as much of a joke. You know, he was joking. Look at what this theory is showing. It's showing basically that this cat could be alive or dead at the same time, depending on, you know, if you're looking at it or not. And I think that's the Copenhagen interpretation, if I'm not mistaken. And then you have...

Is that the... You think that that is the antithesis of the Descartes moment right there? Like, is that, is that like a jump-up point? It wasn't instant. I don't think it was instant. No one liked it. Einstein didn't like it. You know, no one liked it.

But he said it out loud and it happened. And then from that point forward, right, it wasn't at the beginning. As soon as he said that, I think the real beginning, you know, I'm not going to be able to pull the date out of my head. But the double split, the double slit experiment is really what. I think that's zero point for, you know, whatever path we're on now as far as determining what is objective reality. Does it exist, you know? But yeah, you can't, you also can't be too open-minded that your brain falls out, you know, because there's so much stuff. It's, there's so much stuff out there for people interested in this.

That's no good. That's black magic, for lack of a better term. And that's trying to exploit some of the ancient wisdom, you know, to make a buck off of someone, you know, as opposed to just trying to use it to go help humanity or the world, the universe. Yeah. I heard a good joke one time about the, that particle and wave. So this guy walks into like a physics building. And he goes, hey, gentlemen, there's three guys in there. And he goes, gentlemen, I just, I need someone to give me the layman.

I's like, what the hell's going on with reality? And the first guy goes, it's all particles. The second guy goes, no, no, no, it's all waves. And the third guy goes, it just depends who we're lying to. Yeah, there's a lot of dogma in science, too. Especially now. How do you trust the science? I think it's like 70% of studies are privately funded by a corporation usually.

but so want a desired result. Exactly. Information bias, you know, on demand. Speaking of the universe, I guess we could get into analytical idealism. Yeah, what is that? I looked it up a little bit, but I don't, I've never heard about it.

Bernardo Castro coined the term, and he's someone that I think everyone is going to know soon. Okay. Paul Stamitz is another one on a side note. Paul Stamitz is another name I think is going to be known soon as well. But Bernardo Castro, brilliant, brilliant guy, two PhDs, one in computer science and one in philosophy. He was working for CERN on AI, I believe, which is, I think, what got him into thinking about consciousness. Like if we're trying to build a consciousness, we've got to know what consciousness is in the first place. It's basically his take, his modern take on platonic form theory.

Idealism, philosophical idealism as far as, you know, the perfect forms existing not in any real way, but in this abstract realm. Yeah, Plato was tripping, too. Plato was part of a club that was ingesting ergot, which is what LSD is derived from. So, yeah, there's no, he definitely knew what was going on. Anyway, analytical idealism is his modern version where he uses rigorous logic to rationally really just drive the point home and show everyone that, no, it's not just a wild theory. It's the way things are. Faisa, I could give you his definition of it. I jotted down and then tell you what I was in the same, I suppose.

Let's see. A theory of the nature of reality that maintains that the universe is experiential in essence, which doesn't mean reality is in your or our individual minds alone, but in a spatially unbound transpersonal field of subjectivity, of which we are segments. It's basically all is mind. All his mind. We are the disassociated alter egos of the universe,

looking back at itself from slightly different perspectives. And I don't want to butcher his theory whatsoever. Definitely look him up in his, he's got a lot of great stuff online for the Ascencia Foundation. But yeah, we are, there is no material realm. I mean, even science tells us that matter is mostly empty space. And there's some anecdotes about, you know, if you take all 8 billion people on Earth and take out all the empty space within the atoms that they're all comprised of,

within the trillions of atoms that they're all comprised of, they'd all fit within a sugar cube. Billion is easy to say, but I think a million seconds is about 10 days and a billion seconds is about 30 years. So that's just to try to, you can't wrap your mind. But we use these numbers as if we can wrap our minds around. We can't, you know. Also, also the range of the electromagnetic spectrum in which we operate, you know, visible light. It's all light at different frequencies.

visible light. We call it visible light because that's what our eyes can see. Not every animal on Earth sees in that spectrum. You know, you don't have to be talking about an alien with a star that shines in a different part of the spectrum. You know, dogs see in a different part of the spectrum. They hear differently. Also, our auditory range, we can only hear a certain. So we know we're not getting the real deal, the real picture. You know, we're surrounded by microwaves and, you know, all sorts of radiation from our devices and whatnot. We know we can't see it. Donald Hoffman also has a great way of putting it

and integrate his own theory as well. It calls it like an interface, like a computer interface. You know, it's not, the garbage icon on your screen isn't actually a garbage. You're not really putting something in it. It's a way to help you get through life. It's, it's,

we evolve to see what we need to see to survive. Not, not what's really there, you know, and that's, it's, I've been reading this book on symbolic modeling. And if everything that you're saying right now is,

can be used and is used, especially in therapy to help people solve problems. You're basically giving them a new interface. When someone is caught up in a negative feedback, loop. You're taking out those old symbols, replacing them with hopefully getting that person to come up with their own symbols and then allowing them to rewrite their own code and then, boom, they're on their way until the next loop happens or something like that. But the way you're describing it is, and it sounds like this same methodology for solving problems, seeing the world,

and if we were, could get our shit together, harmony is all there for us. It's been written down. It's been practiced. It's just for some reason, we tend to find ourselves probably trying to take the easy way out way too much. And then we get caught up in these illusions of Meyer, these illusions that we're doing something right. Right. It's like Led Zeppelin says. It's the, damn it now I can't think of the song. I'm going to say the same old song, but that's not the song remains the same.

There we go. I'm a casual, I'm a casual fan. I'm a big, I don't know if you're, it's a motorhead at all. Oh, nice, man. Nice. Yeah, I'm fascinated by the ideas of the past resurfacing. Now, and you spoke somewhat about the mystery schools. I'm curious to get your thoughts on.

Do you think that I had this idea. I'm just going out and tell me what you think. I don't think anything's ever really learned. I think it's unveiled to you. You know, like people go to school to learn, but you're just, the real learning happens when something is unveiled to you.

And that happens all the time in like a psychedelic trip or in a relationship, but the truths are there. They're just unveiled to you at times and different people at different times. What do you think? Sure, absolutely.

That's why the sages always speak paradoxically. Yeah. They never tell you outright, you know. And then they might tell you one thing, one time, and then contradict themselves. themselves, then you pointed out, you know, oh, you know, they might laugh. That's what I picture in my head of someone laughing, you know, saying a paradox every day, the profound ones, you know.

It's about, again, going back to the extremes and about the balance. Yeah. The universe is always in balance. It's always. We can't help that. Nothing. We, you know, we're insignificant as far as the universe's concern. And we're, you know, super significant also.

know everyone everyone is infinitely special but they they most forget to realize that everyone else is also yeah they just stop at i am you know the ego even though you know i am is very powerful phrase to say if you really know what it means if you know yourself but but yeah the balance it's that's why negativity has to exist you can't i know a lot of people they try to erase it from their lives, they try to ignore people in their lives who loved ones who are going through, oh no, their negativity is rubbing off. I'm like, you can't, you can't, you can't deny it. You have to, suffering is inevitable. You have to choose wrong suffering or the universe will choose it for you. Yeah, it's the greatest teacher, right? Absolutely. But the thing is, it's relative.

It's true. One person's suffering, you know, the rich, spoiled brat, you know, that doesn't get ice cream one day that's suffering for that, you know, hypothetical brat is just as much as for someone that never had anything their whole life and then, you know, having a death in the family, you know, someone that's so humble their whole life and then having something really traumatic, you know, really traumatic is what is, you know, you can't engage trauma. But that's why it's relative. But that's a good thing that it's relative. That means that we could have the negativity without having to really have the worst of humanity come out. And that's not humanity.

Those are animals, people. Because we are animals. We are animals, but we have the potential. We have these transceivers in our head that, you know, tap into the universal consciousness. We have the potential for infinite love, you know. There's no sin in the forest. You know, there's rape, theft, murder. It's a daily occasion for animals.

We don't look down on them as if they're doing anything wrong, but we have the capability to rise above our urges, our animalistic urges, to see them for what they are and to be truly human and to see that we are one organism atop this floating orb in space. How does it not blow people's minds? How does it not make them want to figure it out? But people have been asking these questions forever,

and we ask them, well, I'll speak for myself. I ask these questions from a position. I'm not rich. I'm not any kind of great standing in life, but I appreciate what I have and I realize what I have, you know, growing up in America, you know. What were we talking about? Yeah, well, I was thinking the same thing as far as, when I think about the profound daily lives that we have,

or just the fact that we're on this giant spaceship orbiting around a star that's orbiting around a galaxy, like when you start thinking about how big and limitless the actual thing is, no wonder why we live in such small worlds. Like we live in this small ideological bubble because we're all afraid of what the truth really is. You know, and so we start fighting each other, but it comes down to fear. And I think that you can see if I've been doing this exercise where, you know, it works both ways. You can look at the macro and understand the micro or you can look at the micro and understand the macro. As above so below.

Yeah, man. It's so true. And the sooner you begin to see the patterns there, the more you can make sense and the more you understand. and the more you understand that the answer to everything is in a grain of sand. It's in the trees. It's in the mirror. It's in your computer. The answers are everywhere.

And that's when you begin to understand that, oh, information is not learned at a school. Like we said earlier, it's something that's revealed to you. And the more you experiment, the more you're willing to go out of your bubble, the more you're willing to experience other people as yourself, the more knowledge that you begin to actually encounter. And then you can put it into your life and you can help other people do that. And I think we're on the cusp of that, though, Lad. Like, maybe it's just because of where I'm at and the people moving on it. Do you think we're moving in that direction?

Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, not to get too new agey, but I think it's been happening since 2012. You know, I think it did happen in 2012. I think we are on an upswing. If you want to call it the Caliuga or the end of the Caliuga, you know, these cycles that we're going through. But going back to the fractal nature reality, Nassim Haramane, he's in Hawaii, he's based in Hawaii. He has some far out theories as far as when you talk about the

big and the small, you talk about the Planck scale and then the universe as a whole and make a scale out of it. He says that, you know, life, molecular biology is right in the middle of that scale. So that's why we, as advanced life, you know, advanced as far as this planet is concerned at this epic, you know, but that's why we are the feedback loop of the universe itself, because we inhabit that point between if this Planck scale is the smallest and the universe itself is the largest, the middle of that scale is us. He also says that, speaking of, you know, the earth rotating and revolving about the sun. and the sun revolving about the center of the Milky Way,

the Milky Way itself dancing with Indromeda and the local group and the supercluster and all that. We don't feel any of this motion because like in the eye of a hurricane, how it's complete stillness because we are the center. Everyone individually is the center of the universe. If it is, the center of an infinite space is every point, right? It's the same distance. So that's why we don't realize that we're going like however many tens of thousands of miles per hour through space right now. Who knows?

He's got some far out concepts. But, you know, I listen to everyone. I give everyone, everyone gets the benefit of the doubt. I try to take in as much information as I could from any source, any outlet, any, any, any walk of life as long as it's asking the real question as long as you're getting to the real stuff yeah yeah it's i'm the same way i love to it's a real treat when you get to hear a different perspective that you haven't heard before you know that's like it's like reading a good book or a good perspective that you haven't heard before it can be life changing because it's something

that you can apply to your life to all your theories to all your ideas and it's like it's like the perfect Lego you found to make the thing. Like, yeah, I found the red one. I needed that for the front. Yeah, you get a little stoked. Absolutely, man. What, um, do you have a, like when it comes to psychedelics, like, do you have one that you work with most or do you like certain kinds of them or what's your, is there a, I prefer

mushrooms. Yeah. Salasobi mushrooms. You know, I've never done, um, um, aminita. or any of the other, because I know there's other varieties. Mostly, you know, what I could get my hands on. In New York, you know, it's not, it's not anything that you really go out looking for. Again, you meet people that are like-minded that just, and they just happen, you know,

usually, again, I said earlier, it's not something you need to go looking out for once it enters your life. Yeah, that, you know, it was a, I live in Portland, Oregon briefly. and there, you know, it was big. It wasn't decriminalized. I believe recently it was decriminalized in Oregon and Colorado and possibly California. I'm not sure. But the revolution is definitely happening. And now it's going to be better than the first time around because of the Internet.

You know, the first time around, they did the best they could, you know. Yeah, yeah. That era. I think it's just the, um, You know, when you do mushrooms, it tends to come in waves. Like, you get the first wave and the second wave. I think that this is like the, like, we just started this trip. And maybe the 50s, 50s and 60s was like to come up, like the first little initial wave.

And this is like the next wave. So it's going to go even further. It's probably back off. But we have, I don't think we've begun to peak yet by any means. But this particular wave is going to go deep, I think. Right. Going back to the, to the yugas, the ages, you know, according to that, we're just, We're coming out of the bottom one into the next one up.

Nowhere near the golden age. So the transition is still going to be awesome. We're coming from the worst one into the next one. So that's going to be great. It's going to be awesome. It's nowhere near our full potential that we could leave. And speaking of waves, also, you know, acid is also a great time. I feel like it's a little, I don't know, it's different.

It's maybe a little easier to manage. You know, you could still do stuff. You don't have to just like being a veg-out state. I like to trip by myself. Yeah, I'm with you there. I know some people like, you know, tripping one of the other people. I've tripped with my buddies. I've got a couple of them to do it.

Yeah. Awesome. You know, and no regrets. They loved it. But for the most part, I like to. doing it by myself. I like, you know, I like to think setting all that good stuff. You know, it's, it's, I'm wondering if you get this, this idea from it too, or everybody has different experiences stuff like that. But I feel like the more you do anything, the more you become

comfortable in that environment. And sometimes after I find myself in this environment, like about, I don't know, maybe an hour and a half or two hours in, I feel like I'm in this space where I'm being given ideas that I can try on as my own, you know, and I can live them for a little while and be like, oh, this is good. But sometimes I'll just get an evil one. And I'm like, yeah. And then I'm like, I would make so much money doing that. I just have to take it off. Be like, okay, wait a minute. That's so gross. Yeah, that could. I could totally do that. But that's so wrong, man. You got to give that idea back. You know, it's like, it's like you, like the information, you're like in this room and all these ideas are just hanging on all these racks. And you could

pick them up and be like, okay, I could see that. You know. But it's so fast. You can play devil's advocate. You could say, oh, I shouldn't do this because it's just for the money. You know, you could always say, oh, but I could take that money and then you should do all these. I know, I know. I sit with those ideas, you know. Ultimately, that I come back to him, like, it's a little too tempting, man.

I love it. But no thanks. It's paradoxes, man. Yeah, it's true. You could see everything every way and you're right all the time. The beauty of being in the center of the universe. Exactly. That's why you got to, it's like an RPG game.

That's what life is like. You know, you got to find your party. You know, you got to find your party of like-minded. But in more ways than one, you know, because you are, the ego, I suppose, or the individual. You're the main character of the game, sure. But you're also the player, you know. and you're also the system that is being played on and you're also the game disc

that it exists and you're also your party and you're also the non-playable character right sees you know the the ones that are in the zone for someone else's benefit that are yeah that are you know

pieces in someone else's game instead of instead of building their own reality and being control of like we all should be yeah yeah that's I think that brings it back to the observes. Like if you pay attention, you can see yourself becoming all those people at times, right?

Like, oh, I'm just, I'm just right here to give a clue to this person. That's my role right now. Exactly, right. People get stuck on themselves wanting to do everything. They don't realize that it's just as important to inspire someone maybe. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it's by design.

You know, I really do. ever since like the early 80s I think when the corporocracy it wasn't so much American greatness still mattered but we didn't need to have the smartest people anymore yeah during during the Cold War during the space race you know um we needed consumers we needed programmable consumers that will, you know, just keep making the rich, richer and propping them up. Got Loving dogs. Yeah. That's why, you know, the rope memorization in school like you're saying before, that's

what it's all about. And it's getting harder and harder to, you know, pierce through the veil to try to, but I'm heartened. You know, I'm not, I think there's more people now than ever, again, probably because the internet more people now than ever that are aware of you know that something else exists other than what they've been taught you know yeah and i think again we are in an exciting time i imagine everyone said that at every time in history you know it's it's 1800 you know what's going to happen yeah there's a little bit of that you know sure a little bit of that too but you know

I think it's what we need. I think it's contagious. And I think that when people begin seeing the world full of opportunities, like those opportunities begin to happen. And so when you and I are here talking and we're seeing these things or, you know, there's some people, you know, there's a whole other dimension of people that are like, do we're going to nuclear war tomorrow, man.

You know, there's just these. And like you said, you could switch between those groups as fast as you could change your mind, man. You change the channel. There you are. Change the channel. There you are.

But on some level, I feel that, I don't know, I feel like we're, and everybody probably thinks this, but I feel like we're the good channel, so we're trying to get ratings, you know what I mean? And like, more people on the team over here. Everyone thinks they're a good channel. You know what I mean? I did too. Don't get me wrong.

Yeah, I know. Go for the good channel. Come on, I've thought we are there. It's just, I don't know. I don't know. Those words are, like, what is good or bad? I'm trying to stop using those words, but they just tend to flow out of my mouth. Right.

You know, it goes, again, goes back to the opposites being equal to each other. You know, fear. You mentioned fear before. Fear is a big one because that's really what it boils down to, right? Fear and love. Everything else comes from one of those two, I don't even want to call them, you know, emotions or feelings. These are just the only two modes of operation for humans. fear and love and it's a choice it is a choice you know free will that's a tough that's another

tough debate you know but i i believe free will sure in so far as it resonates with any other conscious agents in your vicinity because you know what's free will if there's a gorilla in front of you and i say i choose for you not to you know yeah destroy me you know it doesn't matter what you choose you know If the gorilla chooses not to pound you, great. Again, insofar as it resonates. Right. That's what it's all about. It's all vibrations.

It's all, you know, in every sense of the word, it's all good vibes, you know. Because it really is. Tesla, people knew it. You know, it's all frequencies, different frequencies. And that's what matter is, too. It's just the energy vibrating. a high enough frequency. I tend to go with

whenever one gives when I do this too sometimes but it seems like there's a lot of situations where you have to ask yourself either or when I find myself there I try to always replace it with both and I find that

that always tries to at least give you some room to be the observer again or trying to pull you out of that dichotomy, you know what I mean? It's almost like the like the improv comic thing yes and you know always going with it you know forcing yourself even if you're not comfortable go go with it you know and add to it and absolutely you know it's annoying a lot of times to my friends so I'll play that makes it more funny

though right absolutely you know I'll sometimes argue a point even if I don't believe in it Just to see if we could get any closer to any kind of, you know, objective truth about anything, whether or not you can, you know, I don't know. But usually by that point, it were a couple of beers in and we lost track of what the point of the conversation was. But, you know, we're still going at it for some reason. You know, just, just everyone is, everyone is you. Everyone is you looking back. it yourself. In that book, that first book that set me on my path. Well, I learned about the Hoopono Pono, the Hawaiian prayer. I love you. I'm sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you.

People have their other versions of it. But also, I think it's a Mayan saying. It's inla Ketch and al-a-kin. It means I am another you. And then the response is what I do to you, I do to myself. which I think it's so so profound because it's true you know the people you don't like or you don't get along with they're just showing you sides of yourself you don't know you have they're showing you aspects of yourself that you don't like about yourself yes you can't see that that's why you don't like something about them you know it's hard to for most people I suppose yeah they're they're showing you what you got to work on but it's like you said it's hard to understand that but once you do it's life changing oh that's what that's what I don't like about myself

because how will you recognize it if you didn't do it right like how could you recognize anything in anybody else unless you who did those things see the thing is the thing is taking anthogens is because it's possible it's possible for people to realize you know meditation or you know being in an incomplete thundiagin's darkness for long enough and letting your melatonin turn into DMT. I guess I don't know if it is, I guess that is natural. But anyway, I have to remind myself, and my one buddy that I turned on to mushrooms, I have to remind him sometimes too that, you know, you join this club now. So people are going to do stuff that seems weird to you now and that you used to do and now you can't imagine

why I used to do it. You know, don't judge them. They know not. They haven't partaken of the sacrament yet. That's what it is. It's the true religious experience. And I think that's what the original experiences were. That's what the communion was, you know, eating the body was eating the actual.

Yeah. Yeah. Now it's, you know, a wafer or something. And even the wine, I think the wine back then, when they say wine in those times, it was way stronger substance, also infused with, you know, plant medicine as well. Yeah. When they talk about Dionysus, you know, drinking wine, it wasn't the kind of stuff, you know, it wasn't yellow tail or something. Yeah, they were drink of powerful stuff. And that's what's another thing that's been

occulted. There's another great word that was perverted, probably unperated. Now, occult is, you know, so what's scary or it just means, it just means hidden. That's all it means. But what was I saying? What was occulted? Something else was the sacrament from Dionysius. Yes, yes. The truth about, you know, how we became humans if you follow McKenna's stoned ap theory, partaking of eating these substances that make us realize we are the oneness.

We are all oneness. And it was occulted on purpose because how can you have any kind of monarchical society or any kind of gross inequality. If everyone is getting together and taking these things as a community

together and experience to get together, I got a couple of cats myself. Yeah. This is Chairman Miao. That's a great name. Yeah, they wanted to hide that from us. So they. You know, that's another thing I hate.

I know they are. I know they are. I mean, you know who I'm talking about. They keep that from us because you can't be controlled if you realize you're, again, I don't want to give away the secret, so I'm not going to, you know, you try it yourself, kids. No, no, I'm kidding. Don't you ever. You have to wait till you 21. I say wait till you 21 to do anything. I lucked out by, I was 22 when I did mushrooms of first. Just, just happened that way, but I lucked out. You know, your brain has to fully develop. Yeah, yeah. You have to learn. You have to learn stuff about the world first, you know, and I was lucky enough that. my path took me to learn basically the trivium and quadrivium. I was interested in astronomy and physics and philosophy and music and math. I was a good student actually, all up until high school when I started cutting the class to try to be cool, like to my brother.

What was I talking about? If we just talk about smoking a little too much on 420, this is my... Well, that's what you got to do, man. You got to give some back to the spirits, you know? Right. And I'm nervous as hell. I don't know if you've noticed. This is the first time I've ever done anything like this.

I know talking about my limited and probably not being coherence. It's awesome. It's awesome. I love talking about the esoteric. I love hearkening back to Plato, the Lucidian Mysteries and sacraments. And, you know, it's funny. because I was just talking to someone about Aldous Huxley, and everybody knows Brave New World,

but he wrote that other book called The Island. And in that book, everyone on that island is eating mushrooms or going through these ceremonies at like a young age. And, you know, when you start reading between the lines and the literature of old, you know that those guys are just citing sources from even older. And so you're getting to read the mystery school literature through the initiates that are putting out the same stuff.

And it's interesting to see that story repeated. And that's probably why they did it in some of those books is so that it could get out to the people who were ready to learn about it. If you have the eyes to see it. But that's the point. It's in everything. It's not just in these hermetic manuals.

It's in everything. There's a golden film. Yes. There's a golden thread running throughout history. But some people put it. it in their creative output on purpose. Some people don't even realize they're doing it. They're telling it. It's like Joseph Campbell's hero's journey. It's right. It's everywhere. And that's the same story too of dying to your earthly self being reborn, you know, leaving, leaving home.

That's the initiation ritual, you know, leaving home to fight the monster, slaying it, but only to realize that the true monster is yourself and you have to face that and learning from that and then returning home to bring back. That's what everything. That's what every song is about. That's what every movie is about. That's what everything is about in one way or another, whether they're trying to relay that message or not.

And that's why it doesn't matter. It'll never be occulted. It'll never be gone. And every, every, you know, the Renaissance, every revitalization of the human race and culture. It's always been because people relearn these ancient truths. Yeah.

And it's happening again, I think, today. And it's beautiful. It is. I love it. I'm a huge Joseph Camel fan. And I recently started looking at the, Nietzsche tells it another way. He tells it about the story from the camel to the child

and how when you're a camel, right? for some reason that one kind of spoke to me probably because I didn't learn it until later in life but you fight the dragon of thou shouts because there's no more scales for you to ride on and once you destroy the dragon then you become a child and yeah it's the same thing you start off as the beast of burden you know the lower self and then but that what's great about his version of it is that the baby is the the final stage you want to reach because you think You're like, yes, I've become a human, but now I got to, that's just, you know, the first step of a whole year. That's not the last step of anything.

And it's beautiful. And it is. It's fractal. Everything is fractal. Yeah. Yeah. It's so awesome. It's so awesome.

Vlad, I got to have you back on, man. What do you think about coming back and having like a group discussion with like a couple more of us? I'd love to, man. I'd love to. I had a great time. This was a blast. I hope. You know, I, I, I tried to cram too much stuff.

stuff not at all but I talk about into into this little thing it's not it's it's per learning experience I thought it was all you know it was great and I thought about making you know starting a podcast too but I couldn't find anyone that wanted to you know be my other person the best bounce things off of just started anyway just that's what I did just just just start recording like just go off start write out like a few notes and then start giving people like go off on Joseph Campbell for 30 minutes or talk about the trivium for 30s. You should be teaching that, man.

You should come on and be like, here's the trivium as I learned it and just go through rhetoric one day. But if you started doing that, I promise you, like, what's that old quote? The things that you're interested in are interested in you. Like, someone's calling you to do that, brother.

You should start it definitely. I'll be your first guest if you want me to. That would be great, man. Yeah. You can start it for free, man. You should totally do that. You'd be great at it. Absolutely.

Thank you, brother. I appreciate that, man. I'm definitely, I'm ready to, you know, make the next step. Who knows? We'll see. Maybe that's a collection of this. Exactly.

It's been a pleasure, brother, George. Yeah, pleasure's all my. I'll shoot you an email in a little bit. But, dude, this is awesome. It exceeded my expectations, dude, you're awesome guy, and we're going to be having some conversations pretty soon. So be ready. Thank you so much, brother.

All right, man. All right. Take care, man. Yep. Chaka. Yeah.