My Experience with Psychedelics

What follows this introduction may be the most vulnerable and personal presentation I've ever done in my life. Recently, my wife Katie and I went to Rhythmia in Costa Rica, which is a life advancement center and an ayahuasca retreat. If you're not familiar with ayahuasca, it is a 4000 year old plus Amazon healing technology made from plants. A lot of people refer to it as a plant medicine, and over the past five years I've experimented with psychedelics and plant medicines in a very intentional way. I haven't shared a lot of this publicly because I felt like I was so early in the learning student stages that I decided to hold off and wait. But I'm now at the point where I'm not only willing to share, but I want to share my experiences and how absolutely life changing they have been for me as an entrepreneur. Now, I know a lot of people listen to my podcast with kids in the car, and this is not by any means an explicit podcast. However, there are discussions of psychedelics, plant medicines, and some discussion of sexual patterns in my life that may not be appropriate for younger children. So I just wanted to give you that warning. And with that, I'd like to share with you a presentation I made to the people that are on our email list and in our Facebook group just recently and let you hear the audio sharing my experience of how life changing psychedelics have been over the past five years, how I got involved, what I've done, and my experience with ayahuasca, which was by far the most transformational week of my life. And this is coming from someone who's done over 24 years of trauma therapy and tons of personal development and has literally spent millions of dollars on life improvement and personal development and events and coaching. And this is the pinnacle of it all, and I'm excited to share it with you.

I'll start first a little bit with trauma theory, some of which we learned a couple of weeks ago when we were at Rhythmia in Costa Rica. But, you know, for us as human beings, there's this theory that the best theory that I've heard so far is that some time in our lives between about zero and five years old, we come into this world perfectly formed human beings. We are open, we are aware, and something happens. There's trauma, there's something that happens to us. There's a judgment that we feel maybe we feel unsafe. Maybe it's something that feels insignificant, but it causes us to start behaving in a way that's different from who we're really meant to be. It causes us to start building this alternate personality, this alternate state of being that really is not us. And I think so many entrepreneurs have this feeling that something happened in their past and they're trying to process it and understand it and know what that is. How many of you have had that feeling in your lifetimes? How many of you have had that nagging feeling that something has happened? Thank you for the information. I appreciate it. And I've always had that feeling. And, you know, through trauma therapy and EMDR and through processing and through working with people and through talking to other people about this, I've learned a tremendous amount about what's happened for me. And like I said, I've been doing this work for about 26 years. But for me, my journey with psychedelics started about six years ago. I have a good friend here in Austin. His name's Mike Dillard. How many of you are familiar with Mike? Sweet. Okay, so Mike’s really well known, he's one of the most intense marketers out there.

And a really exceptional human being. Mike and I have been friends since we moved to Austin in 2009 is one of the first people that I became friends with here in Austin. And there was just this week where Mike called me on a Monday or Tuesday, and he's like, “Hey, you know, we need to get together. I want to share something with you. And it's important and you should make the time to come over. And so let's set something up”. So I went over to my house and there was this bizarre moment when Mike opened the door and I'm like, “Wow, Mike feels different”. There's something that shifted. There's something that's changed. I've known him for so long. At that point, I had known him for a very, you know, a lot of years. And there was something profoundly different about being in his energy that day. And I'm like, What is going on here? And so he brought me into his house and he shared with me that he had started or he had done MDMA therapy. How many of you have experience with MDMA? Not like I had experienced when I was younger. Not the club experience. I think a lot of us that were born in the seventies and eighties probably had and then and later had had the club experience with MDMA. I certainly had that when I was younger and when Mike first started talking about it, you know, this was something that I was totally and completely closed off to because I did abuse alcohol when I was younger. And I did use drugs in a really unhealthy way when I was younger. And so I had kind of my shields up against anything that felt like going in that direction. But there was something very important about that day. There was something about being around Mike and feeling him be fundamentally changed. There was something about the way that he sat me down and he explained to me, you know, that he had done MDMA therapy and it really had helped him to process a lot of what had gone on in his life. And he had realizations about who he was and he had clarity about who he was and. And it changed at that moment. Sitting there talking to Mike, I thought, okay, like, I want to try this. And so I think it was 2017. I did my first therapeutic MDMA session with a practitioner here in Austin. I was also highly encouraged by my friend Tucker Max. I don't know how many of you are familiar with Tucker, but he's then become really well known in the psychedelic space, and I think he's even become even better known as something that is really putting a lot of time into. And so I did this, this session, and at the time I had already been exploring and doing trauma therapy and doing work for a couple of decades. And in a six hour session with MDMA, I felt like I did five years of therapy in one day. Within 10 minutes of. The medicine kicking in, you know, to give you all a description of what it feels like to do MDMA therapy. If you haven't done it, I'll give you my personal experience. There was a practitioner here in Austin and went to their home, lay down on a bed, took MDMA, waited for the medicine to kick in. You put on a blindfold. I was listening to music. I've heard there's different ways to do it. This was my experience. And you basically go in with an intention of what you want to discover. And my intention was like, What happened? That conversation that I was having with you earlier, like what happened in my childhood? Why are there things that I'm so reactive [about]? Why do I get triggered so easily? Why are there times where I feel like I can't control my response or reactions to things? And then it's only in retrospect that I realized that I wasn't really present or in control. And within 10 minutes of the medicine kicking in, I remember maybe 10 minutes, maybe it was different. But I remember I might have been just kind of timeless. But I remember lifting up the blindfold or the mask and saying to the practitioner and Katy, who was with me, that. I was seeing some really traumatic and disturbing things from my childhood, but they weren't bothering me. And I said, like, I've seen really crazy stuff, but it's not triggering me like it normally does. And the woman that was helping me said, The medicine's working. Just put the mask back on and process and allow it to process. And you know, the way that Mike described MDMA therapy was to see events in your past with the empathy of God. And I know that sounds grandiose, and I know that sounds over-the-top, but when I was at that point in the MDMA session, I'm like, this is exactly what Mike talked about. And to give you just to be somewhat vulnerable and share some of my childhood with you, I grew up in the seventies in what was a pretty sexually charged environment in the United States. There was a lot of, like pornography in my house. And I was prematurely exposed to a lot of sexualization of women and a lot of those types of things. And I didn't really understand or know that until that day in therapy. Where I started seeing memories, in remembering how uncomfortable it was and remembering how confusing it was and remembering how troubling it was for me as a child to reconcile like having a mom and then having women be sexualized and having all that go on. And in that session, I was able to process so much of that day coming out of the other side. I felt like I had an entirely new understanding of who I was. And since then, I've done two additional MDMA sessions, and each time I was able to process more, each time I was able to understand more. Each time it gave me more insight into what was going on for me. And that's this specific psychedelic MDMA. I've also done five clinical ketamine sessions, and so for any of you who are curious about psychedelics and you want to do things that are only legal and not like cross any barriers or boundaries in almost every state in the country, ketamine is a legal psychedelic treatment now, and there's ketamine centers all over the place. There's a ton here in Austin, they're in California, they're really all over the country and doing so. Jim Feliciano says he does ketamine therapeutically. Where are you, Jim? Where are you located? I just want to understand where it's legal. Oh, sorry, Jim. I'm so. The ketamine therapy to help me process and understand and come out the other side in a different way. And really the work that I've done with psychedelics, the work that I do with MDMA, the work that I did was with ketamine. And then the sessions that I've done with psilocybin have all had a similar effect of helping me understand what's happened, process it in a way where it feels safe and where it feels like I'm being supported and coming out the other side with the following things always happening. For me, I'm less reactive and there's things that would typically trigger me that no longer trigger me anymore. I feel more grounded and in my body after each session, and this isn't something that I would go back to every month. You know, it's definitely something that I've done in measured time. I feel like you do psychedelics and then you have some time to integrate. And the integration part is really important to me. I think the one challenge that I might see out there is that you do one of these sessions and it feels so good. People want to go back over and over again and you find people that are doing that every weekend are doing it all the time. I have not been one of those people. I've done it in measured doses with a tremendous amount of space in between. But the outcome has been to feel more grounded, more cared for, like I said, way less trigger able, way less reactive. And it's interesting because the people who have known me for a long time that maybe haven't seen me in a while will comment on it. They'll say things like, You don't seem as angry anymore, or a comment that I've gotten more than once is you don't seem as scary as you used to be or as intimidating as you used to be. And I think, you know, for a lot of us as entrepreneurs, what has happened to us in our lifetimes, the trauma that we've experienced, the discomforts that we've experienced all add up to make us more reactive and more intimidating maybe, and more pressure filled to the world around us and the people around us, whether they know it or not, they feel it. And for me, you know, it's not just what you say. It's not just how you say it is. How are you making people feel? And since I've been doing this work, I feel like I know based on responses from the people around me, that I've been able to be in a place where I can connect with people at a much deeper level. I feel way more gratitude and joy in my life. I think one of the biggest challenges for us, challenges for us as entrepreneurs, is that the recognition of gratitude, the celebration of an accomplishment is very difficult for us. How many of you have a hard time? Celebrating your accomplishments and recognizing when you do something? Well, you know, that's one of the biggest challenges we have as entrepreneurs, because what we celebrate will amplify in our lives and what we put attention to will amplify in our lives. And I think that as entrepreneurs and my theory as evolutionary hunters, we are almost hardwired that as we approach the achievement of a goal, it loses importance to us, importance to us, and we are on to the next to do. And when doing this type of work has helped me do, is recognize those accomplishments, recognize those moments where I should have gratitude, where I should rejoice, where I should be excited about something, where I should celebrate. And it's not like I'm forcing it anymore. You know, I've known forever the science behind gratitude, where if you recognize that you're grateful for something that is going to amplify your life. So I used to force it on myself. I would say, okay, what am I grateful for? And then I would like force myself to come up with things. And a lot of times it felt contrived. And doing this work has made it so that it no longer feels contrived. It actually feels genuine. And that genuine recognition of what is. Important and what is something to celebrate and what is something that is exciting has been life changing for me and has brought so much more. So much more to be grateful for in my life. And Jeremy, I totally agree. Jeremy Page in the comments that gratitude under tension isn't the same as open insight. And I would say even more gratitude on retention actually kind of makes things difficult, makes things frustrating. That makes it so. The recognition of gratitude feels like work. And it shouldn't, it should feel like flow, It should feel exciting. It should feel connected. And by doing this work and by having these experiences, that's the outcome that I've had. And two weeks ago, Katie and I, you know, we've been working with psychedelic therapy. I've been obsessively researching this stuff, talking to anybody that I can about it for six years. And I haven't really shared a lot publicly because I'm one of those people. If something's brand new in my life, I don't feel like I have the license to go tell everybody about it, to go do webinars on it, to go share about it. Until I really understand enough that I feel like I'm in a place where I can answer questions, where I have experience, where I can share knowledge, where I can share understanding. And so I'm there. I feel like I can now start talking about it as a student, not as an expert. Still. Absolutely as a student, six years is not a lot. There's people out there that have been working with psychedelics and plant medicines for decades. Those are the experts. But I know that for the people that I work with and for the people who follow me, yeah, a lot of you feel like you are that entrepreneurial personality type, that highly reactive individual, the person you. I define us as momentum based beings. We are physiologically sensitive momentum, basically ones that are highly reactive to constraint. And if you know that when there's a constraint in your life, you have that reactivity come up. These therapies, these modalities are something that can help you in such a tremendous way and have helped me not have that reactivity be as on tap as it normally is, just under the surface as it normally is. And in a lot of cases it's just gone, you know? And I think for us as entrepreneurs, some of the unhealthy behaviors we have is unhealthy comparison. We have a lot of resentment, we have a lot of unhealthy competition. And a lot of my life was driven by resentment, unhealthy competition and comparison. And what would happen over and over in my life is I would create what most people would consider a success. But then I was in the chair of supposed to be the successful one, and I wasn't in a place that I really wanted to be. I made a lot of money. I built large companies, but I still wasn't in a place where I felt good about it. I wasn't in a place where I was happy with it. I was in a place where I was forcing a lot and understanding myself better and being able to recognize gratitude. Celebrate wins has made it so that now I'm deliberately building the life that I want and bringing the things that I actually want into my life. And that's something that I want for every entrepreneur. Because when you look at the world today, there is so many things that need our energy, that need our visionary abilities to fix, that need us to go out and really change the world for the better and the better we know ourselves, the more grounded we are, the more present we are, the more we can actually do that in a way that's sustainable and a way that will continue growing. And so two weeks ago, Katie and I went to what I now believe is like the ultimate psychedelic therapy. And we went to a place in Costa Rica called Arrhythmia, which is the only licensed ayahuasca treatment center in the world. And we spent a week there and we participated in four ayahuasca ceremonies in a row, four nights in a row. And I feel like everything else that I've ever done was a warmup for two weeks ago because ayahuasca was psychedelic therapy, plant medicine therapy on an entirely new level. The very existence of ayahuasca is a miracle. When you look at the Amazon, where this comes from. This is a 4000 plus year old intervention that was was created by shamans in the Amazon, and they use two specific parts of two different plants Out of 150,000 plants in the Amazon prepared in a very specific way that that if they didn't prepare it perfectly and use exactly the right parts of the plant, it wouldn't work. And so how can you possibly get there to try now trial and error? I don't believe you can. When shamans are asked how did ayahuasca come about and how did this plant medicine come about? This therapy come about? They shared that. The Spirit told them. The Spirit told them to take these two parts of plants and to prepare it in a very specific way. And yet, Jeremy said 100 million to 1 chance. I started doing some math on it. Jeremy If you look at the different parts of plants and the number of plants and the different types of preparations, I think you can get into the trillions because it could be boiled, it could be mashed. And I mean it's it's mash and it's boiled and it's combined with other herbs and, you know, it's a certain amount of time. There's no way you could possibly get there 4000 years ago by accident. And that's what a lot of people say. It's like, oh, you know, they're trial and error and they finally got this concoction and there's just no possible way. It would take many, many lifetimes. It would take thousands of years to even try that. And I don't think you'd get there and. When you look at the modern world, the modern discussion of trauma and the effect on human beings, the effect on our nervous systems is really only a few decades old. You know, in the 1980s, we were still operating on infants without anesthesia. In 1973, I had surgery as an infant without anesthesia. And I feel like that's actually come up for me in psychedelic sessions because the modern medical science didn't believe that kids, that children, could feel pain, didn't believe their children process pain. And so the modern ideas around trauma are really only about 40 or 50 years old. And when you look at the Amazon, they've had this incredible trauma therapy for human beings for over 4000 years. And that's what it is. It's this plant medicine that when you take it out, it gives each person what they need, gives each person something totally different. And we went down to Arizona, where they have three intentions that you take ayahuasca with. The first one is to show me who I become. The second one is to merge me with my soul at all costs. And the third one is to heal my Heart. And I'll explain each one of them so that they show me who I've become and show me that separation from who I am, from who I am now to who I am, who I was supposed to be. Show me. What are those things I'm carrying around? What is that shield, that veneer, that that, that false avatar I've created that I think I need to be for the world so that I can let it go. And that happened for me last week in a sorry, two weeks ago, in a very profound way, like in a way that I haven't had to come up in therapy, come up in any other session or at any other type of psychedelic session before. And for those of you who feel called to this work, I think you should definitely lean into that. For those of you who don't feel called, I don't think you should let me persuade you or sell you, because that's not what this call is about. I think, you know, if you've had the question in your mind, if you're curious if this is something you're moving towards, then I think that this is something you should definitely pursue. But it's not easy work. And what we did last week or two weeks ago, sorry, I have trouble with time, right? I've always had trouble with time. It's exacerbated since we went down to go to America. But what we did two weeks ago was hard work. The first night that I had it read to me, it was an incredibly challenging night. We went into a ceremony, we took ayahuasca, and for the whole night I had like racing compulsive thoughts and kind of OCD type behaviors and thinking. And I was frustrated with the people around me. I was frustrated with the environment I was in. I felt like it wasn't, quote unquote, working. I kept thinking that to myself, like, this is working for everybody else, but it's not working for me. And the beautiful thing about going down to raise me is that there's a process you go through. They've combined 4000 year old plant medicine with modern entrepreneurial process, and I'm so glad that Katie and I went through it in that environment in this process, because they had classes before. You take the medicine, they had integration classes afterwards. There's yoga, there's breathwork, there's all these things to support this work that you do. And after our first night, we went into an integration class where one of the women shared, You know, I don't think things worked for me last night. I was irritated. I was frustrated with the person next to me. The music was too loud, the smoke was too much. It was just annoying and overwhelming. And I don't I don't know that I want to keep doing this. And the instructor simply said, so. In your life today, do you feel like you're somebody who is frustrated and annoyed with people around you and triggered easily and reactive and you can see the recognition on her face where she's like, Oh, maybe it showed me who I've become. And at that moment I was like, Oh crap. It showed me who I've become. I've become this obsessive compulsive kind of OCD, like worried about things, thinking what's kind of single track mind. I'm not really open to experience and stuff around me because I'm always in my head thinking about what's going on and what are the people thinking. And I had this realization in that moment that, like, that's exactly why I'm here. I'm here to learn that lesson, the lesson that I just saw firsthand. And so the second night I went into the second of four ayahuasca ceremonies and down there just share the experience with you. It's a different shaman each night, a different energetic each night. And here we were there with like 70 or 80 people, which sounds overwhelming, but it was actually beautiful. I'm one of those. I'm an introvert. I don't spend a lot of time outside of my office with a lot of other people. My summit events are stuff I can go out and do some people in for a while and then I have to come back and recover. And being at Arrhythmia with that many people was actually extraordinary. And I feel like the energy of having all those people there actually helped and listening to other people reflect and. Talk about what was going on also helped. And the second night I went in with the question I didn't have. The intention was, if you show me who I'd become, then merge me with my soul at all costs. And that's that second intention. And so I went in and we drank the medicine that night. And the process each night is the same. You have one cup and then you go lay down for about an hour and a half or 2 hours. And when the shamans feel like the energy is right, they call you up to have a second cup. I had the second cup and then I went and lay down and I'm like, the first night it started working, I started seeing some really subtle visions and kind of some entertaining visions in my head. It's hard to explain, but they were like neon signs being made in 3D and it was kind of pleasant and interesting. And then it started getting more intense and really intense. The visions that I was having got more intense and kind of overwhelming. The sounds in the room of people breathing and ayahuasca are purgative. So sometimes you vomit, sometimes you have to go to the bathroom urgently. And there were people around me that were running to the bathroom, that were moaning, that were crying, that were breathing, and there's music playing. And they bring smoke through the room. And all of this is on purpose to change the energetics of the room. And for me, at that moment, it started getting massively overwhelming. I had an eye mask on, just like you would with MDMA therapy only there's no headphones because you're listening to music in the room. You listen to other people and there's a team of 70 people that we were with there, pretending there's a team of 15 or 20 people that are working the ceremony. So there's always people around watching and making sure everything's okay. And I was laying there and the visions and the intensity of the sounds, the intensity of the smoke, the intensity of what was happening for me was feeling like it was too much. And I'd been through other psychedelic experiences. So I thought, you know what? When things get to be too much, you just change your state, you change your body position, you take off the mask. So I whipped off the mask and nothing changed. Whether my eyes were open or closed, everything was the same. And I'm like, Oh, I'm trapped. I don't know why I'm trapped, but I'm trapped like I, and I lay down and I was panicking and I felt this feeling of like, there's like, how do I get out of this? And I remember on the wall of the room and read me. And when you check in in your room, it says, the fastest way out is through. And I'm like, How do I get through this? What do I do? And right when I was at the point of. Feeling completely and totally panicked. One of the people working the ceremony was in my ear. And she said, you know, breathe, brother, you've got this. You can do this. Surrender the medicine. What? Surrender? And one of the things that ayahuasca teaches is surrender. I heard this incredible quote there, that the stance of a spiritual warrior is surrender. So I get a little emotional talking about this because it's just been so life changing. And for most of my life, not only was I not a spiritual warrior, I was just a warrior. I showed up to everything that I ever did. I was in a fight and I fought my way through most of my life. How many of you can relate to that feeling of fighting your way through most everything and like being ready to fight? And I was actually proud of that, of myself. I remember when I was younger, I had a sales company. We were a contract sales company, manufacturers, reps and consultants. And I used to tell people, we won't just win for you. We will kill your competition, we will annihilate for you. Like if you hire us, we'll make sure nobody else eats. And I was proud of that kind of stuff. And it actually went really well in the industry I was in. But I look back now and I cringe at like, that's how I approach the world. And so when this woman came out to my area and said, you know, breathe, surrender, like it was the perfect time, I remembered some of the breathing that the shamans taught us. And I started breathing that way. And I told myself, hey, there's no way out of this other than surrender. So this is like going to be the time in your life where you surrender everything. And so I started breathing and I told myself to surrender. I breathed in.

And it went from the most terrifying experience in my life and one of the most overwhelming moments I've ever felt to one of those most validating and incredible and comforting and grounding times I've ever felt in my life immediately. And when you take ayahuasca, they tell you one of four things happen. You will see visions which they call Peter. You will have body reactions like I was having your body get stiff and tense and like maybe tremors and feelings in your body for no other reason than you're just feeling them. You get consulta, which is like downloads Consulta is advice in Spanish or consultation in Spanish. So you get downloads. You either in your own voice or somebody else's voice. You hear downloads. And then the fourth possibility is called the nada, which in Spanish means nothing. And that means you take the ayahuasca, you fall asleep, and it feels like nothing happened. But the medicine put you to sleep on purpose so it can work on your lineage or your past lives. And it's too intense for you to be awake. And I feel like I had all four happened when we were there. But that night I started getting consortia and these clear messages about where I have been holding back and where I have been holding myself back and where I have been not sharing what I should really be sharing and where I've been letting fear drive, like doing this webinar three weeks ago. Would have been something that I would not have done. You know, my friend Shawn Stevenson passed away a few years and he used to tell me all the time, Alex, when you start sharing what scares you, that's when everybody will really start listening. That's when you will have what you really want. And I remember him saying that when I was setting up this webinar, because this is something that is, you know, separates you from other people who are out there talking. It makes it, it's vulnerable for me to share this. And the voice that I heard that night told me all kinds of things. But the thing that stands out the most was when I heard not in my voice, but in a female Latin American voice, which ayahuasca is a feminine medicine. It has a sense of humor. It said, you already are the person you're trying to become. And. At first I tried to deny it and I said, like, “Oh, I would tell myself that that sounds like one of the affirmations I would use. Like, This isn't real. That's not, that's me”. That's me steering this. That's me telling me what I want to hear. And the voice was again in the Latin marriage. And I had said, This is not you steering. This is what you need to hear. Once you accept this, you will have what you want in life. And it was extraordinary. It was like one of the most intense and exceptional experiences I've ever had. And still, like you can tell, the emotions are right on tap because it was so opening and awakening and I felt like my heart was wide open. I felt like I had been merged back with my soul. I felt like my heart had been healed. I could have left on Tuesday and had everything that I wanted had happened already. And the next day we went to our integrations classes, we went to yoga, we went to breathwork and had some of the most intense yoga experiences I've ever had, incredible breathwork experiences. The people who were with us in this group or from all around the world and like you, almost immediately feel this connection to them, that almost immediately you immediately feel a connection to them. Because ayahuasca is like a networking medicine. The light connects you energetically to the people you're around. The reason that there was a helper in my ear right when I needed it was because they feel it. They can sense when you need it. They're not just scanning the room visually, they're scanning the room energetically. It was absolutely incredible. And so I thought, Well, my week is done. Like I've had the three intentions filled. I'm going to go to the next two ceremonies. But like everything that should happen has already happened. I was so wrong. I went to the next night ceremony where the first two nights were led by men. The third night that raised me. Are they called ladies’ night? Kind of tongue in cheek, because it's led by all female shamans. And it's all about the exploration of the divine feminine. Oh, gosh. I told myself I was going to, like, stay grounded and non-emotional on this call, but there's no way that's going to happen. So I would apologize necessarily normally, but I don't think this is something I need to apologize for. It's just very real and very emotional and on. The night of the Divine Feminine, I started getting these messages that there's a reason why I have been surrounded by the Divine Feminine my whole life. As a kid, I had three three younger sisters and my mom was a stay at home mom. And my dad traveled on business. So I was surrounded by feminine energy. As an adult dating, I've had two kids and they're both girls. And we have every dog we've ever had as a girl. At one point when I was single and not with Katie, I tried to buy a boy dog and it turned out to be the most feminine male dog you've ever seen in your life. It might as well have been a girl dog. It was more feminine than the girl dog that I had at the time. So like I've always been surrounded by the Divine feminine. And I got these downloads that night and like some of the most vivid visions that I've ever had, some of the most intense feelings that I've ever had, that there's a reason I've always been surrounded by the divine feminine, that it's part of who I am. It's how I help people. It's what makes it so that I can communicate with people in a way that they hear. And it was so validating and so confirming and so extraordinary. And at one point I was in a place where all of this was coming through and it was getting really intense and my body was kind of tightening up and I was getting the visions and the consulter and the body all at once, which some people there said that had happened. But it wasn't everybody's experience. And I was kind of tensing to the point where I was lifting my shoulders and my head off of the mat and starting to get a little uncomfortable. I'm like, I can get through this. I'll just breathe through it. I'll be okay. But it wasn't really feeling that way. And right when I needed it again, one of the helpers was in my ear and she came over and she said, You know, Breathe, brother, you're okay. This is what you need. This is exactly what you need to hear. Like, she knew what I was hearing. And she pulled the blanket that I had on me down in my arms and took some lotion and put her hand in my shirt without asking them like, that's interesting. They just do what they need to do here and rubbed lotion on my shirt. And then she leaned into my ear and she's. She was Latin American and said, Such a strong white warrior. You are. And. And then she was gone and my body relaxed. And I was able to receive and understand what was coming through and felt so much validation and so much appreciation that it was like, again, one of the most incredible moments of my life. And that was just the third night.

The next day. I had, like, still consultations coming through that I needed to heal the relationship with my younger sisters, that I needed to forgive My mom and I had an incredible mother. But there's like any parent child relationship, there were things that were challenging with my mom, and one of them was that she let me spend a lot of time with my dad where I didn't really spend time with her. And I started working when I was eight years old. And I kind of was like, I think we broke every child labor law that there is. And it was a very challenging childhood and that I needed to forgive my mom and that it was part it was all meant to be. It was like who I needed to be. And so it brings me, I'm texting my sisters and getting messages back from them and making connections that I haven't made in a long time and again, validating and confirming and calming and grounding. And then Thursday night, each night, at Rhythmia the same. It goes from about 530 till midnight to 2:00, and you don't really need dinner. You just go into the ceremony and you don't really sleep. But for those of you who are familiar with a lack of sleep, as we were there, we weren't sleeping. And as I was getting less and less sleep, my resting heart rate was going down and my HIV was going up. The inverse should be happening. So my nervous system was calming as I wasn't sleeping. Bizarre was offloading all of this psychic and intellectual and energetic and body baggage. And it was happening at this accelerated rate. And as somebody who's done trauma therapy for over two decades, it really felt like doing 5 to 10 years of therapy in a week. And the fourth night we went in and it was different. The fourth night at Rhythmia of the psychedelic therapy. I was get therapy. The ceremony starts at 730 and it goes all night, which I haven't stayed up all night since I was in my twenties. And even then I didn't do it that often. And it's not something I like. I really value sleep. I'm kind of obsessed with sleep. I think it's one of the most important things we do. And so I was really apprehensive about that night. But once we started the ceremonies, I started to open up to it more and more and we went in and we took not normal ayahuasca, a mixture called Yak, which is more intense and thicker and stronger. And it started at 7:30 and again, the same protocol. We took the medicine, then went in an hour and a half, took it again. And that night was extraordinary. There was this overwhelming feeling of bliss. And I was getting consultations and downloads and I had incredible feelings of of pleasure and almost ecstatic feelings running through my body the whole night. And there was this. Moment, and I can't share all of it because we need a ten hour webinar because so much happened. But the highlight of Thursday night was pretty extraordinary for me. And I'll give you a little background to understand why. I grew up in a family that my mom was not religious, my father was Catholic, and as a kid I was a member of the Catholic Church. And if anybody is Catholic, I'm not saying anything bad about the Catholic churches was only my experience. And so I don't want to offend anybody. But I had a really challenging time being in that church. I was the kid who in Sunday school I was asking earnest questions, but I was seen as a kid who was just trying to cause problems, and I was seen as like the smart ass. But it wasn't me being smart. I said it was me really trying to figure out what was going on. And I was like the troublemaker and the kid that was looked down on and said, the other families were talking about it, and I knew all of that. And so my relationship with religion was challenged from a very young age. And as a result, my relationship with a higher power was challenged from a really young age. And my whole life I've studied the life of Jesus Christ. Because if you know anything about my background, you know that I've studied. And if you don't, I'll share with you that my whole life I've studied successful people ever since I was a kid. I wanted to understand what success was and how you can create success. And, you know, I read self-help books, but they all started to contradict each other. So I started writing, reading autobiographies and stories and third party accounts and articles. Anything I could get my hands on. Like what were the commonalities with successful people? And as part of that, I had to study Jesus because he's one of the most successful people of all time. Like, if you look at how many people in the world know him, arguably he is one of the most successful human beings there's been on this earth. He left a massive impression. And I always, now I know, that I always studied him from an intellectual pursuit, from an arm's length distance, because I was interested in what he did. But I didn't want to associate with Christianity because my impression of Christianity and religion was that it was judgmental and shut people out and judged people and didn't accept a lot of people and made people feel less than. And there was, you know, you look at history and there've been so many people who have fought wars over religion, and we still fight wars over religion. And we still, you know, Christ came and told us all that to accept each other and take care of each other. And then almost immediately people picked up swords and killed in his name. And it was like one of the most frustrating things for me, like reading this intellectually and trying to understand it. And about four or 5 hours into the ceremony, I had this experience where Christ was there. And it was an extraordinary feeling. It wasn't a visual. I couldn't see him, but I could feel him. And I was communicating with him. And he gave me these messages that he was just like me. And he said, I'm more like you than you think. And, you know, I had a human experience and I learned who I was through meditation and contemplation. And I'm a seeker just like you. And it's okay to believe without having to buy into anything else. We can have a relationship. They can just be you and I. And it was the most incredible feeling I've ever had. And. I realized, you know, just how much I had been holding off on having that relationship with somebody who is extraordinary. And, you know, the same way that I have a relationship with Tony Robbins or a relationship with Dr. Wayne Dyer. I mean, I kept Jesus further out than those two guys and having him come to me that night. And at one point he allowed me to embody him and feel and understand the world through what he felt and understand the world. And it was absolutely extraordinary. It was one of the most incredible things I've ever experienced. It's one of those experiences that I will never forget. And as you can tell, like, the emotions and the feelings are right there on tap. And not once did he say, Hey, you've got to go to church. And not once did he say, hey, you've got to go believe all the dogma in the world. He just validated me and who I am and how we were so similar and how I can believe in the way that I want to believe, which is a child. I always thought that, like if God's all knowing when he be okay with all the questions that I asked and if guys on an impotent Wendy already know that I'm not trying to do the wrong thing, I'm trying to do the right thing. And it was extraordinary. And, you know, I shared earlier that I grew up in a highly charged sexual environment when I was a kid, and as a result, I developed a relationship with pornography as a way to, like, let off steam and let off frustration and change my stay as a way too young, like prepubescent, probably around eight or nine years old. And that has been with me my whole life. It's something that has always been there. The advent of the Internet made it way easier, I think. You know, I never really for a long time thought that there was anything wrong with it or that it was doing anything wrong to me or changing my energetics at my age. And I was just like 90% of men use it. So. So that was always part of my life. And it was always kind of like this background obsession. My dad had talked about that first night, that obsessive compulsive thinking that came up and since we've been at WrestleMania. That is completely gone. And I never thought it would go away. I've been working with therapists for years to just make it easier and to make it so that I could cope and to make it so that it wasn't as prominent. And since we've been there, that feeling of addiction, that feeling of compulsion just hasn't been there and it has completely transmuted and transformed. And, you know, for any of you who deal with addictive tendencies, which I think every entrepreneur does, right. How many of you would admit there are some addictive tendencies? And we can. Yeah. I'm with you, Jeremy. If I could hold my feet up, I would. You know, throughout my life, I've been addicted to something. It was cigarette and alcohol and drugs at one point. And sex and women and pornography and all kinds of different stops. And those addicted tendencies. Like, that's always in the background. It's always pressure and noise in the back of your mind. I just didn't realize how much pressure and noise it created until it's been gone, until it's not there. And it's disorienting a little bit not to have that driving me in the background, but it's also the most liberating feeling I've ever had. And having that go away and having the capacity that was being used for that. At my disposal has made it so that the last two weeks feel like probably some of the most productive time I've ever spent and things that previously felt really difficult, feel much easier. And this is not to say that it's not without work. I want everyone to know I'm doing a tremendous amount to integrate. I'm doing signing cold lunches every day and meditating and doing breath work and working out in a really specific and caring way where I'm no longer just trying to break my body all the time and, you know, be the warrior against everything. And so I'm doing a ton of work. This isn't just something that you cakewalk through, but it's a massive accelerator to growth and. I feel like my mission on this planet and it's gotten stronger every year since I wrote the entrepreneurial personality type of. But my mission is to help visionary entrepreneurs who know they were put on this planet to change things, to be able to do that, to be able to understand themselves better, to be able to get the help they need, to be able to communicate with the world around them in a way that their vision becomes reality because it doesn't matter what's whatever's happened in the world throughout the entire whole of history. Doesn't matter how bad the crisis was. It doesn't matter how bad the situation was. Somebody just like us. Through contemplation and meditation, through seeing opportunity around them, figured out an idea that would change things. Got that idea into momentum and took the rest of the world with them. And I feel like so much of my mission is helping all of you do that and helping entrepreneurs around the world do that. And the reason I'm sharing from such a vulnerable and exposed place is because. I feel like this can help all of you. And I feel like it's one of those messages that needs to get out there because these therapies are something that is absolutely life changing. But when you experience and 4000 plus year old technology, that in and of itself is a miracle in an environment with shamans who have dedicated their lives to learning this stuff, to to working with people that come from a lineage that is literally thousands of years old to a culture that has been healing trauma in this way for longer than human beings for thousands of years, more than human beings have understood what trauma is. It is one of the most massive accelerators you can ever have. And so that's why I'm here today, and that's why I'm sharing this. And I have nothing to sell or nothing to promote. And I just wanted to do this for myself, to be able to to memorialize this, to to put this on a recording, to to be able to share with all of you. But also, I wanted to do this for all of you, because if this is something you've been thinking about, if this is something you feel called to, I wanted to share my experience to help you maybe make the decision to accelerate the timeframe with what you with what with which you do this in your life. Because I think I know now there is a before and after for me of using psychedelic therapies, but there is a profound before and after for me of experience in ayahuasca and this incredible life changing therapy and medicine. And so. Thank you, everybody. I really appreciate the comments. If there's any questions that anybody has. I'm happy to answer questions if you want to unmute yourself and ask questions. You know, I wanted to bring this in within an hour. Normally, I'm working off a slide deck. That's a much better that way. And so I took more time than I thought. But I've got the next half hour after the hour open and I'm happy to answer questions or have any conversation anybody is interested in asking. Mitch if you want, you can just go ahead and unmute yourself and ask.

Hey, Alex, thank you so much for doing this. I've been researching places now for the last 90 days. I'm definitely called to this work. I'm also part of a foundation that I both supported and are structurally part of a foundation of veterans who are out to save the lives of those who are unfortunately killing themselves using Ibogaine and ayahuasca and DMT as well. So for me, having never been to war, I don't have that type of trauma. There was a part of me that was reluctant to admit that I had enough trauma to seek treatment in this way. So you sharing this today made such a huge impression and difference to me. I just want to say thank you for doing this. And I also was trying to decide where to go because there's so many choices and I would prefer not to leave the United States. But after listening to you speak about arrhythmia, I only have one question. Yeah. If you would have done the first night and left, do you feel as if the integration from that one night would have brought you to the same place? Or do you feel as if you missed anything by not integrating beyond the distance time, distance between each of the four ceremonies? No, actually.

I think it's the opposite. You know, one of the reasons that it took me so long to try ayahuasca is that I've talked to so many people who've had challenging experiences with it and felt like it was frustrating and challenging and they purged and really nothing improved and they didn't feel like anything moved forward. And in retrospect, when I think about the people who had given me that feedback, typically they had only done one night ceremony somewhere here in the U.S., You know, ayahuasca is everywhere now. They're doing it in yoga studios and in hotel conference rooms and, you know, behind closed doors, it's like, oh, yeah, we're doing some energy work. And then they close the doors and hand out the cups. And I think that, you know, the thing that this medicine works in a very specific way. Those three intentions were created through discussions with the shamans in the Amazon of what does this do and how should we approach this? And I think what happens for a lot of people is they go to one ceremony and they get to show me who I become and they don't get the opportunity to go through those other milestones, through those other gates. And by being at arrhythmia, where there is telegraphing of what your experience will be. There's integration afterwards in discussion in a group that the reason that I didn't leave because I left at first and I think I would have left frustrated and never done ayahuasca again. And it wasn't until halfway through the second night where I had that breakthrough to get into the other side and saying, like, “Wow, this is the most profound experience I've ever had. And so I think. I love that place because I'm such a huge fan of entrepreneurs and what we do and what Jerry I'm forgetting his last name, but the guy who founded it is super available. He sits at lunch every day and we'll talk to people and answer questions. And he's just there. And what he's done is he's taken 4000 year old technology with entrepreneurial process and structure and repetitions and insights. And so those two things combined. Redmi has a 97% plus miracle rate. And here's how to qualify that on your way out. They give you a survey and you check a box that says, did I have a miracle this week? And 97% of people who go to read me, I checked the box. It said they had a miracle. And we watched it. We watched it in this massive group of people and so on. You know, if you have the image, if you're interested and you drop your email in the chat, my wife will connect you with the contact that we have at Red Mia that will expedite any questions and your application process if you're interested. And there's no there's no you know, there's no pressure on your part. They are not a high pressure sales company whatsoever. They know that the people who are called to the medicine will come and they will answer questions for six months and then finally book your trip if you're interested. So just go ahead and drop your chat. There you go. Email and anybody else who is interested, drop your email in the chat and Katie Connect can connect you directly with the person that we work with there. He's extraordinary like everybody at Rhythmia is incredible. You know, how many have you ever seen at a Ritz-Carlton? You know how because we have a place at Eretz and you know, the service of Ritz-Carlton is extraordinary. But sometimes the people at Ritz-Carlton, they're like, my pleasure. And you can tell what they're really saying is like, screw up. You know how you hear My pleasure. But you feel screw up? Well, do it with me. It's crazy. The entire staff knows they're doing God's work and you can feel it. They are there to take care of you. The number one value of that place is safety. You feel so safe. In fact, one of the shaman on the first night, Ronnie, this guy who I felt this incredible connection to, and he said, you know, I just want to I want to give thanks and gratitude for read me, because it's the safest place in the world to do ayahuasca. There are doctors on staff 24 seven. If anything happens, there's a medical team there. There's a you know, you're on a compound, so there's like nobody coming in to take your stuff. You're half the time killing. I forgot to lock our hotel room door and we weren't really even worried about it. It is. It may be one of the safest places I've ever felt in my life. And so it's just. It's extraordinary, Mitch.

I really appreciate that. And I know I'm going to be going. I also put it in chat. There's a book called The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name, written by Brian Mariscal. He describes how ayahuasca was the foundation of almost all religions, including the secret that Jesus used to unlock his pathway to what he believed to be his father. I mean, that is, again, this is a researcher who had taken the ancient texts in the Vatican and constructed proof by proof this complete story. So if you're interested, it's a great book. It's worth it, the audio book is fantastic, by the way. So I just mentioned it.

Thank you, Mitch. It's funny, when when I was with Jesus that night, well versed, the night of the Divine Feminine, everybody read me. I said, Mother Ayahuasca. They call it Mother Ayahuasca because it's a feminine medicine. It's like a mother energy. And that night, the night of the Divine Feminine, it was an extraordinary night. I was taking a cup of ayahuasca and I said, Mother, Ayahuasca, show me what you need to show me. Because at that point my intentions were fulfilled. I'm like, I trust you. Show me what you need to show me. And the first thing I heard again in a female Latin American voice was, I'm not your mother, I'm your sister. We've walked this path many times before, just not in this lifetime.

And now I'm getting Mitchell's. I loveit. It was so incredible, Mitch. I mean, I cried. I was like, I cry when I. When I repeated. Because I'm like, Yeah, like, how incredible to hear that. And then the night that Jesus was with me, the next year, my Cadey, I had this crazy thing to tell you. Like, I think somehow Jesus got ayahuasca. Like, I don't know how it got to Israel and I don't know how it might have been in Egypt, but like, I had this feeling that he was part of that same energy. And so I will definitely check that book out. I appreciate the recommendation, Mitch.

Of course, enjoy.

Thank you.

Yeah. My pleasure. Is there anyone else who has a question or would like to admit? Oh, we do. Oh, Tristan. Right. And then Pam, I'll come to you.

Hey, Alex, I was just wondering. If you had ever, had much experience or not or knowledge of microdosing.

Sure. Yeah. So Cadey and I have microdosing on and off with psilocybin, and that's mushrooms and. It's a pretty extraordinary experience. I don't do it all the time. I'm not a consistent micro doser. I think I have a fear of doing anything so much that it becomes something that I need. But in the periods of time where I have microdosing with Simon, what I find is I'm a lot more conscientious. I know that sounds crazy, but it's true. I get a lot more done. I feel a lot more open. I communicate better and. And yeah, I think it's a strategy that works really well. The key is figuring out what a micro dose is for you. There's been a couple of days where Katie and I thought we were taking micro doses and then we ended up seeing colors change in our office and stuff. So it goes from a micro dose to a really interesting day, really quick. But the the microdosing is is a pretty incredible strategy and it's something that, you know, when I look at what is happening today where people are being given basically methamphetamine in the forms of prescription drugs like Adderall, and, you know, you break down the chemical makeup of those drugs and they are there's the same chemical makeup almost identical to the street drug meth. And, you know, the difference is you take this plant medicine that has a totally different mechanism of action and has a lot of the same result, increased focus, increased empathy, increased compassion for the people around you, a lot more motivation to get things done. I would highly recommend, if it's something that you're interested in, that you look into doing it trust in. Thank you. And our plans are to get our hands on some ayahuasca and start microdosing. Ayahuasca? There's actually a protocol for microdosing this medicine and keeping it in your system so that you're in that energetic, which is definitely something we're looking at doing. Pam, you had a question, and then Eddie, I lost count of the chat because it kind of got crazy there for a second. If there's anybody else who had a question, can you let me know?

First of all, thanks so much for being just the story and how vulnerable you were in telling it. And I'm as always, I always think I can't love you and Katie more and then you just keep me away. But do you feel like that you kind of worked up to it and that, like, people would need to start with like, and have, like, a smaller experience First, it would be almost too overwhelming or, you know, is it something that fits nicely in isolation all by itself?

You know, it's hard for me to answer that from personal experience since I had the experience I had. But we talked to, I talked to more than one person who was there that this was their first time with psychedelics, the first time with any type of psychedelic. And in fact, one person was like, I've never had a cigarette, I've never drank, I've never done anything, and I'm coming to Arrhythmia because I have friends who've done it and I can see what a difference it made in them and they had extraordinary experiences. One guy that Katie and I spent some time with is a very successful entrepreneur in Las Vegas. He owns a door to door solar sales company. He has sales reps that are making $1,000,000 a year. He's doing extraordinarily well, really well. And he was really vulnerable with, as he told us, as in his adult life, he's been in and out of rehab like 15 to 20 times. And every day, no matter what he's done, he said. And by the way, my experience with like sex in that like metta program in my head around pornography and objectification and all those things is similar where even though I've done therapy, even though I've done all this other stuff, like it was always there and he said the same thing. He's like, I've been in rehab, I've been in therapy, I've done all types of interventions, and I get up every day and I just white knuckle through not wanting to take a drink. And if I go to bed at the end of the day without drinking, it's a good day and terrible things don't happen. And on the fourth day we were in the gym where they have a really nice hot plunge and cold plunge and mud baths. And we were in the sauna with him and he's like, you know, this is so life changing. This is the first day I've ever had in my life where I'm not wanting to take a drink. And he's like, And I can feel it. I don't want to take a drink. And I'm like, I know that feeling. Like I don't feel the same compulsive feelings that I always feel. And it's like this release. And I actually ran into him when we were getting ready to leave. Like he was one of the last people that I saw. And I just walked up and said, like, So how are you doing, man? He's like, Dude, it's incredible. It's gone. It's like it just, it hasn't been there. And I know how it's, you know, And so and that was his first psychedelic experience.

Oh, okay.

He hadn't done psychedelics. And so I think it's one of those things, Pam, that I'm having, having an explanation like this from somebody you trust will help prepare you for it. I think that, yeah, the way that their process is set up, it's really meant to get anybody through it with an extraordinary experience. And so I wouldn't discourage you from finding somebody who does MDMA therapy or psilocybin therapy. I wouldn't say, “Hey, don't do that.” But if if you're called to do this work of it sounds like something that is that is piquing curiosity for you and it's something you're leaning towards, I wouldn't find any barrier not to go because we witnessed over 70 people from all different walks of life from all over the world with all different types of challenges, have incredible life changing, miraculous weeks when we were there.

Wow. Well, thank you again. This was, I was wrapped. I think I'd been quiet and glued to a TV like this forever.

Well, Pam, thank you for being here. Cadey, do you want to add something?

Yeah, I wanted to add something because I think that what's beautiful about it for me was that there's a couple of things. I think it's a great bridge to point medicines because it kind of blends this Western medicine with this deep reverence for this spiritual and medicinal process. And so they have you, you know, preparing your body before you get there. So there's a protocol called the DEA. They have doctors that are there 24 hours a day. There's a 24 hour clinic. So if something's happening, you know, the shamans pretty much had it. But if there was something that was happening, then there's like in the back, we're you know, we're from Western cultures. We like, go to doctors and, you know, we see people in lab coats. I mean, a lot of us do. Alex and I kind of opted out of that a while ago. But, you know, we, there's a lot of people that do. And so I think that it creates this beautiful bridge for. You're mine. For you to feel safe and to actually surrender to the medicine. And so for me, I knew that doing ayahuasca, because we have a lot of friends who were psychedelic facilitators, you know, a lot of our community does, you know, medicine, you know, medicine work and stuff like that. And so I've heard about experiences with ayahuasca that are very confronting. And I knew that if I was going to be doing something that was very confronting, that I wanted to have all of my needs taken care of. I wanted to sleep in a bed. I wanted to have a toilet. I wanted to, you know. I wanted to have my food taken care of. I just. I wanted luxury accommodations. I wanted at least accommodations that I felt comfortable so that I could surrender to the medicine. And I wasn't, like, sleeping in a tent in the jungle somewhere. And so I think what they do, the food is amazing. You know, you're getting a massage during the week. They have breathwork classes, they had yoga classes, and the community there is amazing. The staff is amazing. And so what I think Arrhythmia does is create a bridge to psychedelic medicine. I think if you're called to this work, then there's no place where you're going to feel that type of safety. I think set and setting are extraordinarily important. You have to absolutely trust that the people that you're in the experience with, you have to feel safe and held. And I think that there's a lot of people that are getting trained in psychedelic therapy and just like Alex said, like doing it in their living room or, you know, doing it, you know. In hotels and in like there is something very different about being with the people who this is their culture. This is, you know, how they were born, how they were raised. This is they've spent their lifetimes and generations studying this work. And so I've never felt so held and so safe in an environment doing psychedelic therapy. And I've done psychedelic therapy with people who I absolutely love and trust.

Yeah.

And so, you know that I understood that I was held, that I was safe because they are very close friends of mine. And so that's what I think the difference is. Pam and I also like that there is there's doctors on staff. So if you have like underlying medical conditions or, you know, something that could potentially feel like a risk for you, like, you know, you're held in that space. There was a woman that was in the first night of the ceremony and she was purging like a ton. She was like 24 years old, cute as a button. And, you know, we're staying in touch with her. But she was purging so much that she was even going back to her room and still purging. And she had a beautiful experience. But she had two shamans and a paramedic in her room with her and her husband that night that stayed with her through the night. And they said, look, we can give you medication, but you can't take the ayahuasca for the rest of the week. She was in ceremony with the rest of the week with us. She took a tincture and tincture, another blend, so that she was like in the energetic of the space. But she got exactly what she needed in the week through being in community, through being in ceremony, very being very safe and held. And so I think that is the difference between just going to somebody's house and doing the mayor or something like that and being kind of in this experience. If that makes sense.

That does. Thank you for really going into all that. That's really, really helpful. Thanks, Cadey. Good to talk to you.

It's good to see you, too

I think there was another question, wasn't there any?

Yeah. Okay, I'd just jump in.

Hey, Ben.

Sorry, I couldn't unmute myself. I was trying to give you my experience, but. What? Ketamine. But no worries. Thanks for having us here. One of my biggest fears of doing ayahuasca because I feel like this call was necessary because I had actually been thinking about it. Then to hear about the stories of the guy that, you know, on six minute IVs, he did ayahuasca once and then realized he didn't want to be an entrepreneur anymore. So that's like, that's kind of like my fear. But seeing that you had a completely different outcome and controlled environment, it makes me feel better. Did you have any like, doubting thoughts about, you know, about your business or anything that kind of made you want to like, I don't know if I want to do this anymore.

Totally contrary, Jim. You know, the last couple of years have been adjustment years for me. My kids are 13 and 16 and they've been adjustment years for me and Katie. And about a year ago. Well, I'm bad with time. So sometime around a year ago, I made the decision to lay off most of my team and run the business myself for a while and lower the noise around me and get really focused on, like, what did I want to do and how do I want to do this? And that has been something clear that has been a lot clearer recently. But I've gotten a lot of the motivation back up and a lot of the excitement back. Eddie came back to our team after talking about, how long was, Eddie? About six or seven months.

Like six months. Six months off. He went to work with a friend of mine. He came back. So going down to raise me, I was starting to get things back in place and starting to get really excited about it again. And did. Coming back. It's like I'm way more motivated about my business than I ever have been. But I don't feel the restless agitation like things aren't going fast enough and I don't feel like I'm not enough. I feel like I have 100% certainty that within a year what our business is doing is going to be way bigger than it is now. But I also don't feel like I have to be paranoid and like freaking out and upset with people and irritated with myself. And it's like I've found a totally different level of motivation. And, you know, Jim, they say that, like, the medicine gives each person what it needs. And I think maybe the guy who was doing six minute abs needed to take a different path in life. But I've always known my path is to help entrepreneurs, like that's something I've always been convicted of. And and so what I got from the medicine was validation that, like, you're in the right place, You you already are the person you're trying to become you in that if I'm if I'm vulnerable and I share and I'm real with people, that I will have everything I've ever wanted and be able to help more people. And so if anything, that week made me ten times, 100 times, 1000 times is committed to what I'm doing that that ever happened, but not in the same way, not in the place of punishing myself through it, but in the place of like being excited, going through it and feeling validated, going through it.

That makes sense.

Yeah, that's my personal experience. And, you know, I think that I want to share my personal experience. That was mine. And so I wouldn't I wouldn't be afraid of it for those reasons, you know? By the way, I was apprehensive about taking ayahuasca. I've heard stories of like, you know, you hear people going into the jungle and they end up throwing up all night and they're like, and **** themselves in the bed and like, you hear all these really nightmare stories. And there were a couple of nights where I purged were like in bed with me. I gosh, it looks like it's such a setup for a cult. You walk into that, to the plaza and there's all these mattresses perfectly lined up and there's like a roll of toilet paper at the end of each one and a bucket, and there's a pillow and a blanket. And I'm like, “Oh, come on, this is. Jonestown, look at this. It's like, it's so funny walking in. I tend to get it. I'm like, Tell me. This does not look like we just walked into a cult room, but this is how they've been doing it for thousands of years. Everybody together, everybody close, everybody in the same energy. And there were a couple of nights where I did some significant purging, like vomiting. And I hate vomiting. And I'm also sympathetic. Like if somebody near me starts vomiting, I'm done. Like, I have to run away or I'll start throwing up. There's when you're on ayahuasca, the vomiting that you're doing is actually purging negative energy. And it feels incredible. It was like nobody who's ever, nobody's ever. I've had so many friends who have done this, and none of them have said like, “Hey, dude, when you're vomiting, it's actually amazing.” And when we were down at Rhythmia, I actually talked to other people they, like, threw up a ton and they're like, Yeah, it's like they tell you when you vomit, ask the vomit, “What is this?” And I was vomiting, resentment and unnecessary competition. And I'm like, Bring it on. This is amazing. And so, like, the experience is extraordinary. And I'm. What? What I got. What I needed was validation and recommitment to what I'm already doing.

That makes sense. And probably I don't go out and say that I you know, I do ketamine therapeutically, but I space and setting is critically important. The ketamine helps me disassociate myself from my body. Yeah, there are moments where I'm like, ******* my life is incredible. I have everything that I want and I've made all this money and I have so much to show for it. Like, why am I being so hard on myself? Yeah.

Yeah, it's so good. I, you know, what happens? Happens, happened every time that I did ketamine is I would have this recognition just like you just said, like that recognition of accomplishment. By the way, I got so much with the ayahuasca as well. And then I would always be super stoked that I was married to Cadey. I would always come out of every ketamine session and be like, I love you so much. I'm so glad we're together.

You know. It makes you recognize what you should be grateful for. That disassociation and coming back.

Now, as some people, including me, have, like a negative association with ketamine, like there have been times where I've been at a party and like, I had a girl come up, Oh, my God, I'm so keyed up. I'm like, Go over there, take the candle. Right. So I'm very grateful that my beloved is supportive of me throughout this experience, because just by shifting my perspective, it completely changed my perspective, my life. Yeah.

I'm totally with you. I had the same experience. The people who I was around when I was younger, they did ketamine always where it felt unsafe. Like I didn't want to be around them. Their energy felt unsafe. They felt they felt like they were completely out of it. But in a clinical setting, it's a totally different thing. So is there anybody else who had a question or did you see any other questions in the chat?

There was one question about costs, and I know Cadey just mentioned that price is according to accommodation. And I don't know if you wanted to speak to that at all.

Yeah. So you're in a five star all inclusive resort. So the room, the food, everything that you need that when like literally coconut water and fresh pineapple juice on tap. That was one of my favorite parts. The cost is around $6,000 a person, depending on how, how, what type of room you have. And then there's about a 400 and something dollar fee for the medicine that you bring cash because you take cash down there and the cash goes directly to the tribes that create the medicine and that makes everything happen. It goes to the shamans, not the resort and so on. Depending on what type of room you have, you're probably looking at like 5000 high 5000 and change to like 6000 and change for the entire experience plus your flights. But once you're there, you pay for nothing else. It's just everything's included. They do upsell some stuff. They have a follow up program that you can buy for $1,000. They have, they do stem cells there. If that's something that you're interested in, they do it on site and. They also give you an incentive to, like, buy another trip when you're coming back, which, by the way, when you read the reviews of Rhythmia, that's one of the things that people really trash. And I'm like, “Dude, five core functions lead gen nurture, conversion, delivery, retention, reselling, upsell”. They're crushing all of them. And I was impressed that they had upsells and like retention and trying to get you back. I think other people look at it as like, “Oh, they're trying to sell on” like, of course they're trying to sell. It's a business at the end of the day. I spent some time with Jeremy, the guy who founded it, and it's been around for ten years. It's not profitable, like it's barely breaking even. And he's doing this as a mission. He was a self-made millionaire and had a huge exit from a company, and he spent a tremendous amount of his wealth creating revenue and maintaining it to get it to where it is today, where it's almost breaking even. And in the conversation we had, he's like, we're so close. Like, I know it's going to be black clients black line some months and it's not black like another month. He's like, it's really incredible. He's like celebrating the fact that he's no longer writing the check every month. And so it's a pretty extraordinary place. By the way, when I sign out of here, I'm going to be able to see all these comments. And I just want to thank everyone who was so kind and shared personal reflections and shared insights about what this did for you. I'm going to read them slowly, but I was able to catch a lot of them coming through. And while I didn't thank each of you individually, I just really want to thank you for the comments and for the feedback. It means a lot. So if they're okay, Do you want to add something?

I will just say to everyone who dropped their email in the comment, I will do separate emails tomorrow, starting tomorrow morning. With our connection Daniel there. So yeah. So wait until, well, e-mail from Cadey waiting to get the e-mail from Cadey. We've got kind of like a person who will help us through this. And there is a qualification process for arrhythmia and there's an application process you go through and not everybody goes like I actually asked them, like that qualification process, do you turn people down? And every person who I asked it because I was like, I want to make sure this is real. And they all said there's definitely people that they turned down. And so I wouldn't worry about it, like still go and ask them the questions. And by the way, they're an incredible source for information about ayahuasca. And so whether you do it there or not, you can still ask them all the questions that you have about it. And even if you end up going somewhere else, that's okay. They're on a mission to help people come to this medicine. And so I don't even think it even bothers them when that happens. They much rather see you go to Rhythmia. But we will make sure that all of these emails that Katie does, individual emails to connect you with Daniel so that you can all get into the process. And with that, I just want to thank everybody for being here. And I'm so glad to have been able to share this with you. And I appreciate all of your support. Thank you for being on our list and for following me and for showing up to these types of days and listening and for all the validation and kind words and feedback. I can't wait to go read it all. And thank you all. And and here's the one asks that I have in exchange for us doing this is if you go to an ayahuasca ceremony, if you end up going arrhythmia, if you end up doing some of this work, please, I'm super available on social media, on Instagram and on Facebook. Shoot me a message. Let me know what happened for you. Let me know how it went. I'm excited for you all to experience this, and I'd love to know how it goes. So thank you, everybody. We will make sure you get a recording of this call. If there's anything that you want to review. And thank you for being here, Grace. I appreciate that last comment. Thanks, everybody. I appreciate you.

Thanks for listening to this podcast. Like I said in the presentation that I did, I'm sharing this information because it's been so incredibly life changing for me and I feel like it could be life changing for others. Like I said in the presentation, also, I certainly don't want to sell you on any of this, but if this is the direction you're leaning, if this is something you're interested in, then hopefully this episode can give you some information and some validation and some ideas based on my experience. And if you're interested in going to arrhythmia and you'd like us to connect you with our direct contact there, you can send an email to support at Simple operations dot com and we will make sure we personally connect you with the person we've been working with and we look forward to hearing from you. If you've been listening to the podcast for a while, I would truly appreciate it if you could pause now and leave us a review on either iTunes or Spotify. I would really appreciate it. And I look forward to reading your reviews. I read every single one. Appreciate it and thank you in advance. We'll talk to you soon.