Spirit of the Deal
Spirit of the Deal is where sales meets soul. Hosted by Brandon Handley, this podcast explores the deeper currents beneath high performance and success—what happens when spiritual alignment, intention, and purpose converge in business. While rooted in the Superhuman Selling framework, each episode goes beyond tactics, tapping into the inner work that unlocks outer results. We’re not just closing deals—we’re opening portals to our highest potential. Tune in for unfiltered conversations, practical tools, and transformative insights designed to help you sell with power, presence, and purpose.
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Kokoro The Ancient Secret to Anchoring Your Success
08/12/2025
Kokoro The Ancient Secret to Anchoring Your Success
1. Introduction and Context * Purpose of the Podcast/Discussion * Association with "Superhuman Selling" and Elyse Archer * Speaker's (Brandon Handley's) role: Running a men's mastermind * Current theme: "Grounding the Leap" 2. Understanding the "Leap" and its Challenges * Definition of the "leap": A breakthrough, a new baseline, a significant shift. * The problem: Leaps can fade into memory without grounding. * The goal: Locking in the leap, stabilizing the "new you" to become the new baseline. * Breakthroughs are exciting but initially unstable. * The nervous system, mind, and body need time to adapt to the new state. 3. The "Being" vs. "Doing" Paradigm for Grounding * Common misconception: Securing a leap through more efforting, habits, and hustling. * The speaker's past experience: Stuck in the "doing more" mindset. * The key principle: 95-98% of locking a leap is "being," only 2-5% is "doing." * The importance of understanding what it means to "live in this new state." 4. The Union of Heart and Mind (Kokoro) * An ancient principle from other cultures. * Concept introduced: Union of heart and mind. * Historical influences: Alan Watts and the concept of "mushin." * The Japanese term: "Kokoro" (written with the character for heart). * Definition of Kokoro: The union of heart and mind, working as one, not in competition. * Western civilization's separation of heart and mind: * The head as the CEO. * The heart ignored or relegated to a passive role. * Consequences: Leaps don't stick, trying to live breakthroughs in the mind while ignoring the body and emotions. 5. Scientific Basis for Heart-Mind Connection * The heart's intelligence: Not just a blood pump. * Heart's neural network: Approximately 40,000 neurons. * Information flow: Heart sends more information to the brain than vice-versa. * Pre-cognitive reactions: The heart reacts milliseconds before conscious thought. * Research backing: Harvard, University of California, and others. * Implication: The body "feels" the terrain before the brain maps it. * Ignoring the heart/intuition leads to reverting to the old baseline. * Tuning into the heart and mind together makes the new terrain familiar. 6. Alignment and States of Being * The principle of "alignment first, action second." * Transition from "contraction" to "expansion." * Defining "contraction": * Physical sensations: Chest caving in, shallow breath, racing mind, heaviness. * Psychological association: The old baseline, fear of the unknown. * Defining "expansion": * Physical sensations: Open chest, deep diaphragm breathing, relaxed shoulders, clear mind. * Psychological association: The new terrain, confidence in the new identity. * Leading with expansion allows "doing" to flow naturally. 7. Practical Exercise: Locking in the Leap * Purpose: To ground the leap in the present moment. * Step 1: Identify Contraction. * Think of things put off since the leap. * Feel bodily sensations of tightening (contraction). * Recognize this as the "old you" trying to keep you "safe." * Step 2: Imagine Expansion. * Visualize the desired outcome of the task being done. * Notice bodily sensations of opening and softening (expansion). * Recognize this as the leap being grounded. * Step 3: Future Action Protocol. * Do not act from contraction. * Pause, find expansion. * Then, move forward. 8. Reinforcing and Stabilizing the Leap * Keeping the leap "unshakable." * Training the mind to spot evidence of the leap. * Recognizing new responses vs. reactions. * "Proving the leap in real time" (Price Pritchett's concept). * Looking for proof while living it, not waiting for external validation. * Past leaps may have been unrecognized. * Opportunities appearing in unexpected ways ("ways that you know not of," referencing biblical phrasing). * "Trusting the unknown" (Price Pritchett's concept). * Recording and acknowledging this evidence in real time. 9. Anchoring the New Frequency (Heart-Mind Lock-In) * A guided breathing exercise. * Technique: Slow, easy breaths through the nose, belly expansion, shoulder softening. * Focus: Calling up the feeling of already living the leap and expansion. * Anchoring the feeling through bodily checks (shoulders, neck). * Establishing the new "home frequency" as living from expansion. 10. Making Choices for Stability * Every choice either stabilizes the leap or slides back to the baseline. * Key check-ins: * Feeling state: Contraction or expansion? * Heart and mind connection: Working together or split? * The power of choice: Choosing expansion, choosing Kokoro, choosing to live in the new state. 11. Invitation to Further Support and Community * Offering help with grounding leaps, experiencing leaps, and identifying leaps. * Mention of the "Superhuman Selling" mastermind. * Format: Bi-weekly, within groups and communities. * Benefits: Support from others and the opportunity to support them. * Concept: "A whole rising tide lifts all ships." * Call to action: Reach out and check it out. * Ultimate goal: Making leaps "sticky" and establishing them as the new baseline/reality.
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Share Your Scars, Not Wounds: Authentic Power for Overflow
08/04/2025
Share Your Scars, Not Wounds: Authentic Power for Overflow
The Aftermath of Live Events and the Importance of Integration The shift that occurs at live events (e.g., Superhuman Selling Live Event in Portland). Recognizing the feeling of an "inner snap" or "click" after an event. The distinction between exciting breakthroughs and the essential nature of integration for lasting power. The goal of grounding the leap and locking in a "new normal" of ease, wealth, and power. The risk of losing momentum, collapsing frequency, or talking oneself back into smallness. Core Concepts: Identity, ROI, and Faith The focus on identity shifts and their impact. The concept of Return on Investment (ROI) in personal growth and business. The role of faith, particularly faith in oneself. The Parable of Talents as a Metaphor for Personal Gifts Introduction to the Parable of Talents as a framework for discussion. The parable's interpretation as representing gifts, capacity, and vision. The contrast between investing and multiplying talents versus burying them. The master's expectation of growth and utilization of what is given. Applying the parable to personal calling and potential, and one's unique frequency. Overcoming Resistance and Recalibrating to Higher Frequencies The concept of an "activation" experienced at events. The idea of speaking without scripting and selling from pure alignment as a "home frequency." The "crabs in a bucket" analogy (specifically mentioning Kukui crabs and Robert Kiyosaki's book) to illustrate external resistance. The nervous system's tendency to pull individuals back into old patterns, urgency, and metrics of worth. The common fumble point: not anchoring the "upgrade." Experiencing feelings of being "off," slow, or uncertain after growth periods. Defining this as "recalibration" rather than regression. The nervous system adjusting to a "new altitude" or higher consciousness. Embracing discomfort as a sign of moving beyond the known. Brandon's Personal Journey of Holding Back Gifts Brandon's realization of holding back personal gifts, not due to disbelief, but fear of being "too much." The self-imposed limitations of protecting others from their full voice or light. The subtle impact of holding back, slowing down progress in unproductive ways. The connection between hesitation and the obstruction of overflow. The Wisdom of "Share the Scar, Not the Wound" Introduction of the adage: "Share the scar, not the wound." Brandon's initial misunderstanding and later realization of its meaning. The underlying reason for not sharing wounds or scars: fear of doubt from others regarding current strength. The realization that people need the "true version" of oneself, not a perfectly polished one. The importance of showing healing and the learned path, rather than a lack of past struggle. The role of integration in stabilizing transformation for serving from it, not bleeding from it. Connecting Personal Growth to Tangible Results and ROI The dual desire for the "woo" (spiritual or mindset work) and tangible results. The impact of meditation and nervous system regulation on decision-making, retention, and creativity (citing Harvard and Stanford research). Higher EQ, closing rates, greater retention, and bigger deals as outcomes. The significant advantage (e.g., 20%+) that can be gained. Operating from identity versus operating from performance. The benefits of identity-based operation: faster selling, smoother scaling, attracting loyal clients. The work is about functioning better, not just feeling better, without burnout. Community Support and Ongoing Integration Mention of resources within the "Superhuman Selling community" (e.g., guided recalibration, audio meditations). The ongoing process of integration and achieving "Overflow" as a new normal. Brandon's community coaching and mastermind discussions on "grounding the leap" and "not collapsing frequency." The importance of a "container" or additional space for integration after events. The consequence of lacking such support: loss of momentum and feeling drudgery. A call to action to create such support if not already available. Final Call to Action: Investing Talents and Stopping the Leak A direct question to the audience: are they investing their talents or burying them? The need to stop hiding behind mastered strategies and address where energy is being leaked. Identifying areas of shrinking from what is rightfully theirs. Recognizing the pre-existence of calls and tools. An invitation to reach out if ready to stop burying talents and to discuss the next steps for their gifts. The process of grounding the leap and making overflow the new normal. Shifting from chasing sales to becoming a "signal voice."
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From Student to Mirror: A Superhuman Selling Revelation
07/21/2025
From Student to Mirror: A Superhuman Selling Revelation
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The Shift to Superhuman- Redefining What It Looks Like to Win in Sales
07/14/2025
The Shift to Superhuman- Redefining What It Looks Like to Win in Sales
1. Introduction to the Theme: Superhuman Selling Collaboration with Elyse Archer: The focus on superhuman selling and celebrating personal/professional evolution. Not everyone celebrates your progress, and that’s a sign you’re on the right track. 2. Redefining Winning in Sales and Business Moving beyond tactical changes to deeper transformation (“changing your source code”). Three pillars of true winning: Alignment, energy, and identity. 3. What “Superhuman” Really Means Clearing misconceptions: It’s not about superpowers. Referencing pop culture (Superman old and newfE movies) as a light-hearted segue. Emphasis on authenticity: Shedding the mask, stopping the act, and remembering your true self. 4. The Sales Shift: From Forcing to Attracting Moving away from scripts, tricks, and hacks. Selling becomes about inner frequency, presence, and fully believing in yourself. Transition from chasing prospects to attracting them. 5. The Crucial Difference: Identity vs. Mindset Mindset is not the main lens—identity is. If you’re still hustling or trying to be liked, you “leak energy” and repel prospects. The exhaustion of wearing a false persona. 6. Personal Growth Analogy: The Lobster Story Lobster’s uncomfortable shell as a metaphor for outgrowing your former identity. The necessity (and discomfort) of shedding what no longer fits to allow for new growth. 7. The Identity Upgrade and Its Effects Upgrading identity causes a sudden, noticeable shift (“snap into place”), not just incremental change. Importance of alignment: Doing the necessary work from a genuine place rather than effortful striving. Referencing Yoda and The Matrix: Moving from trying to simply doing—making selling second nature. 8. The Challenges of Transformation Acknowledgment that the journey isn’t easy or always positive. Your nervous system and old connections may resist your change. Social consequences: Some friends may distance themselves or subtly wish for your failure. 9. Emotional Realities of Growth The temptation to shrink back to your former self for comfort and acceptance. Powerful encouragement to resist this temptation (“Don’t you dare”). The discomfort of growth as proof of real progress (“receipt that you’re doing it right”). 10. The New Paradigm: Becoming the Win Shifting from chasing external wins to embodying the win internally. Your state of being (sale), presence (pitch), and alignment (close) are key to sustainable success. Letting go of “faking it,” and selling from wholeness rather than lack. 11. Support and Next Steps Recognizing and validating listeners who are navigating their own shifts. Teaser for something new and exciting coming soon in partnership with Elise Archer. Share the episode with others going through their own transformation and stay tuned for upcoming announcements.
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Ditch the Script: How Authenticity Sells More Than Perfection
07/05/2025
Ditch the Script: How Authenticity Sells More Than Perfection
Welcome back to Spirit of the Deal! In this episode, host Brandon Handley shares insights from a powerful breathwork session he recently led at Redemption Alcohol Treatment Center alongside as a guest of Brandon Novak's. With fresh reflections from Independence Day, Brandon explores the theme of liberation—what it really means to break free not just from addiction, but from limiting scripts, old patterns, and the relentless grind mode so many of us operate in, especially in business and sales. Through vulnerable stories, practical tools, and wisdom from sources like the I Ching and David Hawkins’ “Power vs. Force,” this episode invites listeners to let go of fear-driven action and perfectionism. Instead, Brandon encourages us to stand in our authentic selves, align our actions, and approach both life and business from a place of inner freedom and truth. Tune in for thought-provoking ideas on detaching from outcomes, rewriting your personal and sales scripts, and letting your true essence do the work—because, as Brandon reminds us, liberation isn’t something to chase; it’s already within you.
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Spirit of the Deal - Introductory
07/02/2025
Spirit of the Deal - Introductory
After a two-year break from Spiritual Dope, I’m back—with a new vision, a new name, and the same soul. Spirit of the Deal is the next evolution, where spirituality, intention, and aligned action meet real-world results in business, sales, and life. This podcast explores how inner alignment creates outer success. Expect plenty of solo episodes where I go behind the scenes on mindset, meditations, energetic practices, and sales flow. We’ll also bring on guests who embody this integrated approach—leaders and creators who’ve built powerful lives by tapping into their purpose and spiritual connection. This isn’t just another podcast. It’s a return to the work that wouldn’t let me go. We’re talking breathwork to bottom line. Energy shifts to deal flow. Woo with proof. Welcome to Spirit of the Deal—where soul meets strategy.
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Choosing Proactive Wellness: Avoiding Mental Breakdowns on the Spiritual Dope Podcast
10/18/2023
Choosing Proactive Wellness: Avoiding Mental Breakdowns on the Spiritual Dope Podcast
Welcome back, spiritual dope! It's been a while since our last episode, but I'm here, Brandon Handley, ready to dive into some thought-provoking content just for you. But first, let's set the record straight - your well-being is our top priority. Spiritual Dope is still going strong, hosting a treasure trove of interviews and discussions with individuals who have embarked on their spiritual journeys. What makes our podcast unique is that we approach spirituality through the lens of integrating it into our daily lives. Trust me, you won't find another podcast quite like this. Today, we're exploring the idea of awakening to yourself - growing into your spiritual being and realizing the vastness of your spiritual body beyond just your physical form. It's about creating a new model for living and doing so intentionally. Many people wait until they hit rock bottom before making this shift, but why not choose to awaken sooner? It's like proactive wellness - focusing on mental health and well-being to prevent falling apart down the road. We've been taught to hold it all together, to suppress and repress our emotions, but that's not the path to true happiness. What if you could learn to find joy and contentment in your current circumstances? That's the shift we're discussing today. We'll delve into the misconception that happiness has to look a certain way, driven by media and marketing. The truth is, happiness already exists within us, waiting to be realized. And hey, even an old beat-up car can bring just as much happiness as a shiny new one! Join me as I share personal stories and insights, discussing how embracing our true selves and acknowledging our experiences can lead to genuine happiness. We'll explore the interconnectedness of all living beings and the energy that binds us together. Get ready for an episode that will uplift your spirits and challenge your perception of happiness. So sit back, relax, and let's dive into this spiritual dope together!
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Navigating the Creation Process: Insights and Inspiration from the Spiritual Dope Podcast
09/05/2023
Navigating the Creation Process: Insights and Inspiration from the Spiritual Dope Podcast
Welcome to another episode of Spiritual Dope, where we explore all things spiritual and delve into the creation process. I'm your host, Brandon Handley. In today's episode, we'll discuss the concept of trusting the creation process and the power of intentional creation. From cooking a delicious meal to trying out new recipes, we'll explore how focusing on the desired outcome and aligning our intentions can lead to a fulfilling creation experience. Join me as we uncover the beauty in chaos and the importance of designing and organizing our creations. Let's dive in and discover the magic of the creation process. Stay tuned for an enlightening conversation that will inspire you on your own creative journey. Welcome to Spiritual Dope: The Creation Process.
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Colleague Questions and Burning Man Regrets
07/30/2023
Colleague Questions and Burning Man Regrets
On this episode of Spiritual Dope, our guest Arcturus Eden takes us on a journey of self-discovery and spiritual awakening. We delve into their initial perception of drugs and how it shifted after a profound experience with LSD. We explore their role as a peacemaker in their family dynamics and how human design has helped them understand their experiences better. Arcturus shares their experiences at Burning Man and how it shaped their spiritual journey. We also dive into their belief in the divinity of Burning Man and their connection to a higher intelligence. In addition, we explore the significance of their new name, Arcturus, and how it ties into their mission for world peace. We discuss the system of human design and the importance of being true to oneself. Arcturus shares their fascination with dreams and the divine connection they see between their childhood dream and their current work. We also touch upon their experiences with ayahuasca and the spiritual and emotional healing it brought. Finally, we explore their belief in the Arcturians, an alien civilization, and their mission for harmony and world peace. This episode is a deep dive into spirituality, consciousness, and the interconnectedness of all beings. Connect with Arcturus: https://worldpeaceceremony.com/bonus-mission/
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Transformative Journeys: Healing Trauma and Overcoming Addiction with Psychedelics
07/30/2023
Transformative Journeys: Healing Trauma and Overcoming Addiction with Psychedelics
On this episode of Spiritual Dope, host Brandon Handley welcomes guest Jahan Khamsehzadeh to explore the transformative power of psychedelics and their role in spirituality and personal growth. They delve into the cultural changes of the 1960s that brought about the use of psychedelics and discuss how these substances have been used in tribal ceremonies for centuries and are now being integrated into Western psychotherapy and recreational settings. The episode emphasizes the importance of having the right container to navigate these expansive states of consciousness safely, as well as the necessity of education and strategic planning for safe psychedelic use. Jahan shares their personal journey from a former atheist to experiencing a profound shift in consciousness through psychedelics, leading to a complete transformation in their perspective and the trajectory of their life. They also touch upon the challenges and rewards of working with psychedelics in therapeutic settings, including the processing of past trauma and the potential for healing and overcoming harmful behaviors. The episode highlights the need for set and setting and emphasizes the importance of having someone present to support individuals experiencing disorienting effects. Jahan and Brandon also explore the deep history of psychedelic use worldwide and the ongoing movement to decriminalize these substances. The episode concludes with a discussion on the therapeutic benefits of psilocybin mushrooms and the potential role they played in the evolution of human consciousness. Drawing from various psychological models and the work of pioneers like Stanislav Grof, they explore the different stages of the psychedelic experience and how understanding these stages can aid individuals in navigating challenging experiences and embracing personal growth and transformation. Tune in to this episode of Spiritual Dope to deepen your understanding of psychedelics' role in spirituality, healing, and human evolution. Connect with Jahan: https://psychedelicevolution.org/
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Unveiling the Profound: Near-Death Experiences and Spiritual Insights with Nicole Kerr
07/17/2023
Unveiling the Profound: Near-Death Experiences and Spiritual Insights with Nicole Kerr
On this episode of Spiritual Dope, host Brandon Handley is joined by guest Nicole Kerr, who shares her incredible near-death experiences and the profound spiritual insights she gained from them. Nicole begins by recounting the emergency surgery she underwent after a car crash, which led to multiple near-death experiences due to fluid in her lungs. She vividly describes feeling suffocated and believing her oxygen was being taken away. Thankfully, a diuretic was administered as a last resort, saving her from suffocating to death. Nicole woke up with a ventilator after one of the surgeries, deeply realizing that there is no pain at the moment of death. Nicole shares her belief in a dimension where angels and deceased loved ones exist on the other side. She encourages listeners to ask for help from these angels and develop a relationship with them. As a self-proclaimed recovering people pleaser, Nicole delves into the fear-based roots of people pleasing and how it was exacerbated by her time at the Air Force Academy, where she faced constant hazing and harassment. Nicole opens up about a traumatic car accident where she was pronounced dead at the scene but revived, leading to her struggle with an eating disorder and self-blame. She speaks about her strained relationship with her father, who blamed her for the accident and has not forgiven her. However, Nicole also shares a powerful incident where an angel saved her after another car accident, referring to the angel as "Casper the Ghost." In her soul form, she overheard a conversation between angels, who emphasized the importance of asking for help and promised that help would come. Describing her near-death experience, Nicole explains being engulfed in a white light that exuded love, comfort, beauty, and unconditional love, struggling to find words to fully convey the experience. She advises listeners to find what works for them, whether it's prayer, talking to their guardian angel, or journaling to reflect and connect with their soul. Nicole emphasizes the need to expand emotional literacy and express emotions instead of suppressing them. Nicole's personal experience of abuse at the United States Air Force Academy deeply influenced her focus on the spiritual dimension of health and her desire to change society's negative perception of death. She believes that death is often associated with doom, gloom, and negativity, and urges listeners to address their fear of death, as preparation is essential. Furthermore, Nicole highlights the importance of both spiritual and physical preparation for death and mentions how belief systems shape our relationship with death. She shares a poignant story about a six-year-old girl who had a negative concept of God due to fear of hell, underscoring the need to examine and change beliefs that no longer serve us. The episode touches on the speaker's reunion with a former roommate after 39 years, the blame they both carry surrounding the crash, and the importance of communication and rebuilding relationships. Nicole also details her struggles with soul loss after the crash and the subsequent physical and emotional issues she faced, including compulsive behaviors and chronic health conditions. She advocates for soul retrieval as a healing tool, especially for veterans struggling with soul loss, as it is often absent from their treatment. With her profound near-death experiences and spiritual insights, Nicole Kerr delivers a captivating episode full of hope, healing, and a deep understanding of the spiritual dimensions of life and death. Tune in to this enlightening episode of Spiritual Dope to explore the transformative power of near-death experiences and the importance of connecting with our souls. www.nicolekerr.com - Introduction to Nicole Kerr and her near-death experiences - The speaker's experience of emergency surgery and multiple near-death experiences - The speaker's belief in a dimension with angels and deceased loved ones - Encouragement to ask for help from angels and develop a relationship with them - The speaker's journey as a recovering people pleaser and the fear-based nature of people-pleasing - Recollection of the speaker's time at the Air Force Academy and experiences of hazing and harassment - The speaker's panic attack and struggle with fear of failure and shame - The traumatic car accident and the speaker being pronounced dead at the scene and revived - The speaker's fear of God and punishment due to religious upbringing - Overcoming fear of death through near-death experience - The speaker's eating disorder and self-blame for the accident - Strained relationship with the father and his lack of forgiveness - Experience of an angel saving the speaker after a car accident - Soul form and conversation between angels emphasizing the importance of asking for help - Description of near-death experience as being in a white light and the struggle to define it - Suggestions for connecting with guardian angels through prayer, dialogue, and journaling - Reflecting on the soul and understanding its communication through the non-dominant hand technique - Historical context of diseases brought by missionaries to Hawaii - Importance of breathing for regulating panic and anxiety attacks - The four domains of health: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual - Importance of healthy eating and proactive stress management - The need for emotional expression and expanding emotional literacy - Personal experience of abuse at the Air Force Academy and its impact on spiritual health - Changing society's negative perception of death and the importance of preparing for it - The impact of lack of preparation and communication on families and relationships - The need for spiritual and physical preparation for death - How beliefs about God shape one's relationship with death - Experience working with a child with a negative concept of God - Sabotaging goals and unhealthy behaviors due to belief systems that no longer serve us - Personal story of reuniting with a roommate after many years and working on their relationship - Attempts to leave the hospital and the speaker's growth from the experience - Experience of soul loss after the crash and its symptoms - The speaker's struggle with soul loss and chronic health conditions - Soul retrieval as a healing tool and its relevance for veterans and preventing suicide.
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The Impact of Energy: Desire for Change and Personal Growth
07/11/2023
The Impact of Energy: Desire for Change and Personal Growth
Join us on this episode of Spiritual Dope as we explore Ken's reflections, experiences, and insights that will leave you inspired and questioning your own spiritual journey. Ken traded in his corporate life and expat lifestyle overseas for a new adventure. He now travels the country with a microphone, a van, and a jar of questions, sharing his experiences. This epic trip may seem crazy to some, but to Ken, it is a brave decision. It is not the first time he has taken a bold step in his life, as he previously uprooted his family and moved from Los Angeles to Hong Kong for a two-year job opportunity at the age of 39. Returning back to his home country may not be as extreme, but it is still an exciting and unconventional choice for Ken. (connect with Ken here: Topics covered in this audio session: - Reflecting on a successful leader who built a company from scratch - Description of the leader as an evangelist with exceptional communication skills, strategy, and ability to connect with others - Acknowledgment of similarities with the leader but not achieving the same level of success - Vulnerable moment when the leader asks who fills their cup - Referencing emotional support and inspiration received from others - Reflection and frustration about someone's actions - Discussion about the impact of energy on desire for change and personal growth - Journey overseas and facing challenges when family and connections were no longer present - Difficulties of constant transitions and inability to establish deep relationships - Desire to return home and reconnect with family and friends - Mention of starting to write and taking up the guitar at the age of 52 - Importance of finding ways to receive appreciation and gratitude from others - Recognition of love and kindness shown by others - Balancing receiving and giving, comparing it to filling one's cup - Emphasis on finding motivation and practicing self-gratitude - Warning against people who expect others to fill their cup - Experience of someone approaching the speaker after scanning a QR code on a van - Discussion about making a positive impact - Desire to make a positive impact when the speaker is 80 years old - Appreciation of food, family, and friends - Desire to contribute to the world, society, heart, and soul - Acknowledgment of not knowing the answer yet, but valuing the question - Encouragement to meet curious people and recognize signs of curiosity - Love for music and appreciation of songwriters - Return to photography as a serious pursuit - Intentionality in writing, playing guitar, and doing photography - Realization of the impact these activities had - Challenge of the speaker's title preventing them from speaking in certain settings - Writing letters to God turned into a podcast - Purpose of hearing people's stories and giving them a platform - Fulfillment in listening to people's stories - Specific experience meeting a woman in a trailer park with a difficult backstory - Appreciation of being listened to and having her story valued - Reflection on taking a break after working for eight months straight - Limited time off and constant uploading and editing of content - Realization of a common theme in the work: mental health - Faced with a decision among multiple outcomes, excluding the red one - Captivation and confusion regarding the red one in a crowded room - Confidence gained through advice received - Friendship formed with a guitar teacher in Bangkok - Writing songs together using material from a book called "Dear God" at first, but eventually running out and having to write new lyrics
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Martin Theis, Shamanic Journeys: Guided Pathways to Self-Realization and Spiritual Awakening
07/06/2023
Martin Theis, Shamanic Journeys: Guided Pathways to Self-Realization and Spiritual Awakening
Martin Theis stumbled into shamanism by chance when his best friend attended a workshop at the urging of his girlfriend. Intrigued by the concept of finding one's spirit animal through a totem animal journey, Martin embarked on his own spiritual journey. Prior to this, he had no involvement with spirituality and felt disconnected from the world. Martin specializes in drum-based shamanism, without the use of medicinal plants. He recognizes that there are various approaches and traditions within shamanism, such as plant or medicine-based practices. His mentor, who practices Southern American shamanism from the Peruvian Andes, introduced him to a different interpretation of the medicine wheel. Despite the variations, Martin found resonance in the teachings from the Lakota and chose to remain with that lineage. After returning to Germany, Martin continued to learn and grow under the guidance of his original mentor, who he has been with for over ten years. https://www.lighttrails.co/webinar-series/ On this episode of Spiritual Dope, host Brandon Handley welcomes guest Martin Theis to discuss their unique approach to life coaching through shamanic journeys. Martin explains how these journeys connect with the subconscious, higher self, and guidance, allowing clients to receive answers, guidance, and healing. Unlike traditional coaching, Martin emphasizes that they do not give instructions but instead focus on the client's stated intention. They believe strongly in this transformative work, as it helps individuals find their own solutions, tapping into the answers they already possess. Martin shares their own spiritual journey, highlighting the struggles and disconnection they experienced before discovering shamanism. They delve into the different approaches to shamanism, including plant-based or medicine-based journeys and the use of a drum. Martin's specific teachings come from Southern American shamanism from the Peruvian Andes, which incorporates unique power and transformational processes. They also touch on the importance of self-care for empathetic individuals and how to hold space for others without losing energy. Martin discusses the significance of shamanism in reconnecting with nature and spirituality, especially in Western cultures where spirituality has been lost. They emphasize the importance of breathing techniques in dealing with negative events and sensations in the body. Martin also shares their webinar offering, the 16-week system they use to work with individuals on specific intentions and shamanic journeys. Through their personal story of struggle and self-doubt, Martin highlights how shamanic journeys have the potential to help individuals in profound ways. Join Brandon and Martin as they dive deep into the transformative power of shamanic journeys on this episode of Spiritual Dope.
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Unveiling the Power of Oneness: Stuart Adam Discusses Plant Medicine and Personal Transformation
06/12/2023
Unveiling the Power of Oneness: Stuart Adam Discusses Plant Medicine and Personal Transformation
Unveiling the Power of Oneness: Stuart Adam Discusses Plant Medicine and Personal Transformation Hosted by Brandon Handley, featuring guest Stuart Adam In this episode of Spiritual Dope, Brandon Handley interviews Stuart Adam, an explorer of plant medicine and spirituality for 15 years. They delve into the importance of finding spiritual harmony in a chaotic world. Stuart emphasizes the significance of intuition, oneness, and understanding the duality of the shadow and the light. He opens up about his personal journey, including struggles with drug addiction and a lack of understanding in how to treat women properly. Stuart has since found solace in his engagement to a supportive partner who has helped him confront his own darkness. The key takeaway is the necessity of working through personal darkness to ultimately discover the light. Discovering Oneness through Plant Medicine Stuart's experiences with plant medicine have revealed the interconnectedness of his shadow and light aspects. He passionately embraces the concept of oneness, emphasizing that we are all connected and part of a divine existence. Verbal explanations fall short; true understanding comes through experiencing this profound connection. Stuart's spiritual practices involve working with powerful plants like ayahuasca, fire, and water, building relationships based on gratitude and respect. He engages in daily prayer, receiving guidance from these sacred entities. The focus is on being present and transcending mental obstacles, creating a meditative and experiential practice. Prayer: Balancing Masculine and Feminine Energies The conversation explores prayer as a blend of masculine and feminine energies. The masculine aspect involves taking action, asking, and doing, while the feminine aspect centers around receiving, being present, and surrendering without striving for specific outcomes. Trust and letting go are essential elements. Stuart acknowledges the challenges faced by white males in the spiritual realm, but encourages rising above negativity. Surrender and the power of feminine energy, symbolized by yin, are further discussed. The conversation also touches on religion and Kabbalah, highlighting the pursuit of an individual spiritual path, navigating the ethereal realms, and surrendering to the infinite. Healing Ancestral Burdens and Finding Oneness The podcast acknowledges the speakers' Jewish lineage and their struggle to feel connected to it. They delve into the complexities of Kabbalah and how it has contributed to many Jews feeling disconnected from their bodies. The importance of personal healing, releasing ancestral burdens, and finding individual paths to oneness is emphasized. While recognizing the potential benefits of plant medicine, it is stressed that integration and inner work are necessary to fully experience its transformative effects. The discussion also addresses concerns about unqualified individuals serving plant medicine, underscoring the importance of finding a trustworthy spiritual teacher. Embracing Personal Sovereignty and the Power of Prayer Stuart highlights the need to stop relinquishing power to others and start trusting oneself. Connecting with personal sovereignty is essential to becoming one's own navigational system. Prayer is presented as a tool to cultivate trust and create a container for self-discovery. Stuart offers an eight-week journey, guiding individuals on how to pray and trust themselves. The focus is on living one's prayer and witnessing its manifestations in everyday life. The ultimate goal is to develop a profound sense of personal power and sovereignty. Throughout the conversation, the hosts pose various questions to Stuart, including inquiries about his preferred dishes to cook for friends and who should reach out to him. Stuart mentions his garden and growing tobacco for spiritual addiction clearing. Listeners are directed to visit his website, , to embark on a personal spiritual growth journey. The conversation maintains a relaxed tone while offering thought-provoking insights.
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Breathing Away the Shadows: Unleashing Inner Power through Breathwork in Recovery
05/30/2023
Breathing Away the Shadows: Unleashing Inner Power through Breathwork in Recovery
Welcome to the Spiritual Dope podcast, where we dive deep into the realms of spirituality, personal growth, and transformation. I'm your host, Brandon, and I'm excited to embark on this journey with you. In today's episode, we have a special treat as I step away from the usual group format and share a personal experience that left a profound impact on me. Picture this: I rented a car and drove an hour just to share the practice of breathwork with a group of individuals in recovery. And here's the kicker—I wasn't getting paid for it. This got me reflecting on the question, "What would you do if you had a million dollars?" or even more importantly, "What would you do purely out of love, passion, and the desire to make a positive impact?" During this episode, I want to delve into the incredible power of breathwork and its potential as a tool for healing and empowerment, particularly in the context of addiction recovery. We'll explore how breathwork can help us connect with our inner power, find comfort and safety within ourselves, and tap into a space that's often sought through addictive behaviors. Join me as we unravel the beauty and significance of this transformative practice and its ability to bring light into the lives of those on the path of recovery. So, whether you're new to breathwork or a seasoned practitioner, whether you're in recovery or simply seeking personal growth, get ready for an enlightening conversation that explores the depths of the human spirit and the power we possess to create positive change in our lives. Let's dive into the world of Spiritual Dope and uncover the magic that lies within each and every one of us.
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Carlos Tanner: Addiction to Ayahuasca Enlightenment
05/15/2023
Carlos Tanner: Addiction to Ayahuasca Enlightenment
Spiritual Dope Podcast: Carlos Tanner's Ayahuasca Journey In this episode of the Spiritual Dope podcast, Carlos Tanner, founder of the Ayahuasca Foundation, shares his incredible journey from addiction to enlightenment through Ayahuasca. He discovered the power of plant medicine after hitting rock bottom and receiving a life-changing email from a friend inviting him to experience Ayahuasca in Peru. Carlos Tanner's Transformation Carlos ventured to Peru and became a student of Don Juan, a healer who taught him about plant medicine. After four years of learning, recording, and documenting his experiences, Carlos realized that he could have learned faster with the right educational materials. This realization led him to start the Ayahuasca Foundation and create a retreat center to share his knowledge and help others learn about plant medicine safely and effectively. Founding the Ayahuasca Foundation Despite facing numerous challenges, such as living with Don Juan's large family and adapting to a different culture, Carlos persisted in his mission to share his knowledge. After meeting other shamans and finding a mentor in Don Enrique Lopez, Carlos finally established the Ayahuasca Foundation to teach others about plant medicine. Life in Peru and the Plant Medicine Community Although living in the Peruvian Amazon isn't for everyone, some people have made it work by starting businesses in agriculture and joining the community of retreat centers like the Ayahuasca Foundation. The plant medicine community is not just about getting high; they are serious about exploring the depths of healing through Ayahuasca and other medicinal plants. The Importance of Cleansing and Respecting Ayahuasca Carlos emphasizes the importance of cleansing your digestive system before taking plant medicines and ensuring good digestion and nourishment. The purification process is crucial for removing toxins and purifying various systems in the body. Ayahuasca has become popular, but sustainable harvesting and respecting the sacred nature of the plant should be a priority. Carlos can be reached through the Ayahuasca Foundation website or social media platforms. Action items: Consider questioning more and not being afraid to think differently. Look into the Ayahuasca Foundation and the healing tradition of the Amazon. Insights: The world is slowly waking up to what some already know inside. The Ayahuasca Foundation was founded to spread the science of plant medicine back into the world. Practical applications: Embrace questioning and thinking differently. Research and potentially explore the healing tradition of the Amazon through the Ayahuasca Foundation.
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Troy Hadeed: The straight-talking yogi, serving up cosmic insights
05/04/2023
Troy Hadeed: The straight-talking yogi, serving up cosmic insights
Troy and Brandon are talking about the power of breath extension in their lives, and how it makes them feel so connected to the big man upstairs. And let's be real, who doesn't want to feel connected to God? But here's the thing, folks, manifestation is just a fancy new age word for prayer. It's all the same damn thing. So if you're out there trying to manifest your dream life, just know that you're really just praying for it. It's mind-blowing. So go ahead and check it out, and you'll be like, "f*ck yeah, this is some good shit." Connect with Troy over at: - Troy: When we create space in our life to actually quiet in mind and be with the breath, that space transcends into our life. He says it's important for listeners to set time aside to be with themselves and their breath. Troy: For it to be loving and holistic, quality time and intimacy is essential. - The only thing that can tame your mind is your breath. We aren't often in relationship with the mind, so we're often a puppet in mind. If we can cultivate a relationship to mind, we can reprogram our conditioning. How do we make sure we're working from a place of love and not as complete robots? - How did you find yourself fulfilling your purpose? You've been doing this yoga practice for 15 years. How have you been able to find yourself as being successful? By following your passion, your bliss, et cetera. - When we talk about purpose, we think of a larger dream or a larger vision for our lives. But to make that dream and vision a reality, you have to be in your purpose in each and every moment. If you get overly obsessed with that larger dream, you're going to miss your purpose.
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Breaking the Monotony: The Power of Vulnerability
04/27/2023
Breaking the Monotony: The Power of Vulnerability
Hey there, Spiritual Dope! How's it going? I'm out here in sunny California, ready to drop some truth bombs. So, let's get real for a sec. How many of y'all are having surface-level conversations? It's time to cut the bullshit and start having some authentic, vulnerable chats. I mean, who wants to hear the same old shit over and over again? Not me, that's for sure. And let me tell you, there's nothing more liberating than sharing your true self with someone and feeling heard and understood. Yeah, it can be scary as hell, but trust me, it's worth it. I recently had a heart-to-heart with a friend who was going through some tough shit, and it was a game-changer. We both felt more connected and empowered after that conversation. So, don't be afraid to open up and let it all out. You might just strengthen existing relationships or create new ones. And who doesn't want that? So, go out there and have some real conversations, and don't forget to share your experiences with me. Peace out!
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How Nico Lagan Uses Meditation and Self-Inquiry to Transform His Life and Help Other Men
04/19/2023
How Nico Lagan Uses Meditation and Self-Inquiry to Transform His Life and Help Other Men
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BJJ and Beyond: How to Enhance Your Well-Being and Awareness with Martial Arts
04/16/2023
BJJ and Beyond: How to Enhance Your Well-Being and Awareness with Martial Arts
In this podcast episode, Brandon Handley from Spiritual Dope reveals how Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) can transform your life in more ways than one. You will learn how BJJ can help you develop resilience, humility, and curiosity by exposing yourself to different challenges and situations. You will also discover how BJJ can improve your mind, body, and spirit by enhancing your discipline, focus, energy, community, and spirituality. You will also find out how BJJ relates to other practices such as spiritual coaching and breathwork that aim to improve your well-being and awareness. This is a valuable podcast for anyone who wants to grow beyond their current limitations and potential through BJJ.
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Find Your Own Path and Set Your Own Standards
04/08/2023
Find Your Own Path and Set Your Own Standards
TL;DR: Everyone has their own struggles and challenges, no matter their size and success. Ryan Michler, a military man with a large following, recently shared his struggles with alcohol and divorce, which surprised many of his followers. We learn to be aware of the impact our actions have on our family, as well as be willing to adjust our behavior if it's having an adverse effect. He also learned from his own experience with Adderall to be aware of the impact of substances on his family. Practical action items: be conscious of the impact of your actions on your family, be willing to adjust your behavior if needed, and be mindful of the impact of substances on your family. The takeaway from this podcast is that everyone, even famous people, has their own issues and struggles to face. We can't always live up to the standards set by others, and should instead set our own standards and live by our own code. We have to be able to recognize when we are in alignment and when things feel right and know that it's okay if we don't reach others' expectations.
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Beyond Religion and Dogma: Amrit Singh’s Quest for Authenticity
03/29/2023
Beyond Religion and Dogma: Amrit Singh’s Quest for Authenticity
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Joshua Bloom: Reflection and Intention, Unlocking True Potential
03/22/2023
Joshua Bloom: Reflection and Intention, Unlocking True Potential
Welcome to another exciting episode of our podcast, where we explore spirituality and personal growth with industry experts. In today's episode, we are thrilled to have an enlightening conversation with Brandon Handley and Joshua Bloom. They discuss the importance of embracing one's spiritual identity, integrating spirituality into everyday life, and understanding quantum energy healing. Joshua Bloom is a renowned expert in the field of spirituality and quantum healing. With his vast experience, he has helped countless individuals unlock their potential and achieve personal growth through spirituality. You can find Joshua online through his website at and on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Join us for this insightful conversation and embark on a journey to deepen your spiritual growth and discover new ways to overcome life's challenges. Listen in and let us know your thoughts in the comments below! Summary Introduction of the episode. 0:00 What does quantum energy transformation mean? 0:43 Being the giver and the giver. 7:51 Finding a location for furniture. 12:37 Turning over a new leaf. 19:10 What is the power of choice? 24:06 How do you know what you need to change? 29:54 The bell curve of love energy. 34:16 What is the quantum energy scale? 38:43 What are we also afraid of? 43:16 Intro Guy 0:00 Your journey has been an interesting one up to hear you've questioned so much more than those around you. You've even questioned yourself as to how you could have grown into these thoughts. Am I crazy? When did I begin to think differently? Why do people in general appear so limited in their thought process? Rest assured, you are not alone. The world is slowly waking up to what you already know inside yet can't quite verbalize. Welcome to the spiritual dough podcast, the show that answers the questions you never even knew to ask, but knew the answers to questions about you this world the people in it? Most importantly, how do I proceed? Now moving forward? We don't even have all the answers, but we sure do love living in the question. Time for another head of spiritual day with your host Brandon Handley. Let's get right into today's episode. Brandon Handley 0:43 One Hey, there's spiritual dope I'm on here today with number one best selling author Joshua bloom, he's the author of the ultimate answer is inside. Creator of quantum energy transformation, mastery of the quantum shift and founder of quantum energy center LLC, as the internationally acclaimed trusted authority on quantum transformation number one best selling author and the executive producer of the ultimate answer is inside movie with upcoming companion book. And the creator of quantum energy transformation. Josas sold Joshua's sole purpose and passion is to empower and pass and Intuit is to unlock and own their authentic power and turn their potential into lasting paradigm shifts. Josh was so great to have you on as we were just talking before we got going here with this has been there's been in motion for a while. So so glad we can finally get together in person. Joshua Bloom 1:37 Yeah, thank you for having me. I'm excited. Absolutely. So Josh, Brandon Handley 1:41 I usually like to start these with the whole idea, right? That, look, you and I were like universal conduits for just like the energy, right? It's just flows through us. And the people listening to our conversation, right? They're gonna hear something that you and I aren't even finally even talking about, right? You and I will have our conversation, and somebody tuning in is going to hear something else entirely. There's gonna be a message that's coming through you being delivered by the universe right now to that person's tune. And what's that message person today, Josh? Joshua? Joshua Bloom 2:16 Well, that anything is possible that we have the ability to create change at the quantum level, to allow ourselves to, in a sense, upgrade or up level ourselves to a new possibility that maybe we haven't even discovered yet or thought about yet. And allowing ourselves to reach potentials that we never thought we'd be able to do during our lifetime. Brandon Handley 2:43 I love that. I love that. And I think that those people who go through certain shifts, they find that for themselves. And my guess is that you've you've kind of got you've got a process and how we get there, and how can people reach that in a systematic way? When you say Quantum? So what do you mean, because I think a lot of people hear quantum and they don't know what to do with it. Joshua Bloom 3:06 I totally agree with you. People use the word Quantum. And they actually use it in a way that doesn't actually mean what quantum means. I'm glad you asked the question, because a lot of people are putting the word quantum on to things because it either sounds cool, or it's gonna make the money. But the truth of the matter is that quantum means cellular. So that means when you're talking about quantum healing, or what I call quantum energy transformation, that means we are making a shift making a change at the cellular level of the body. And we're doing so at the smallest part of us, that has consciousness. And when you make that shift, when you make a change, at that level, it upgrades or up levels, your identity. So when I work with a client, for example, they might come in as one person and leave at the next level of who they get to be. Yeah, Brandon Handley 4:01 yeah, that sounds great. I would like that machine or that capability, right? Like, let's walk in. Let's walk in here. I'm gonna need a 2.0. As I walk out the door, the better improved version of myself, as we were talking a little bit to, you know, your best selling author, congratulations. I mean, it's it's no small feat to put a good book together. I think anybody can put a book together and just slam it out there. Right. It's another thing to get, you know, be well received and actually help people with it. You mentioned too, that you did some work with us, Bruce Lipton had endorsed your book is, is he a part of your story on how you got to where you are today? Give me a little insight there. Joshua Bloom 4:46 Well, he's definitely part of my story in the sense that I was having a lot of anxiety, so much so that most people would have been on medication for like years. I was having so much anxiety that I would, it would be fearful for me to even like walk outside and walk around my house outside. At times, it was like, you know, 21 years ago. And when I was in this place, it was it was really difficult to determine how was I going to get out of this place? Is this going to be the way that I was gonna live my life for the rest of my life? Or was this going to be something that I could shift and change should actually never believe that I was going to be able to change this, I thought, actually, this was it, this was the way that I was going to be. And I was gonna either have to deal with it, or try to get help. So I worked on learning, that was my main mode for moving myself forward, I learned so much, I learned about 20 different healing modalities, most of which I became certified in. And still I couldn't shift my issues. And it was very, very difficult, until I started to work at a Hypnosis Center. And I Well, the reason I went to the Hypnosis Center in the first place was for them to help me but I had learned so much that I had surpassed what they were doing in the hypnosis session with me that I realized they were not going to be able to help me at all. But I thought, well, maybe I can help them. So I started to work for the Hypnosis Center. And I started to do sessions. And I was getting these really amazing changes in people that I was seeing right before my eyes. So somebody would come in with anxiety, and all of a sudden, their anxiety would be gone. I'd go home with mine, but they would leave without theirs. And I'm like, wow, I must know something because I mean, something is happening. And I would see people that would come in with things like fibromyalgia, migraine, headaches, pain, all sorts of things like this. And they would be leaving without their issues. And of course, it was really difficult for me, because I was going home with my issues every night, saying, I must, this must be a disconnect here. I'm obviously getting it for other people, but I'm not getting it for me. So after a while, I started to realize I could use the same understanding the same quantum understanding that that I learned from Bruce Lipton, because that's one of the that's one of the learnings I got was with Bruce Lipton taught me so many powerful things that led me to understand how to make those changes with those people. And I understood the science behind it all, I never would have been able to create a quantum energy transformation or create the changes that I've helped people do so profoundly. Yeah, I think the biggest one was me. I mean, I was my most definitely my most difficult client. Brandon Handley 7:51 So it's interesting, right? I always make this line about the being the giver and the gifts, the gift and the giver type of thing. And so you were able to give this gift to everybody else, but you weren't able to give it to yourself or like I'm just thinking like, again, we talked about being conduits of energy for like everybody else, you were able to receive it and deliver it for others. But you didn't have an awareness of how do I apply this to myself? Yeah, Joshua Bloom 8:22 well, I was able to help them shift the energy at the cellular level of the body to create that change. And I taught them exactly how to do it. And they were able to do it. But when I did it for myself, I was too disconnected. So So here's the thing, Dr. Bruce Lipton says that if you are in growth, you can transform and heal. And if you're in, if you're in protection, you can't. Brandon Handley 8:50 So the anxiety was asking as a barrier, the anxiety, Joshua Bloom 8:53 he put me in protection, like 24/7. Even now, when I work with other people, I was able to help them get into growth, not the problem. But getting myself into growth, I needed another Joshua to Brandon Handley 9:09 kind of like tickling yourself, right? Like you can't, it's really hard to tickle yourself. There's no Joshua, like, I got you. Joshua Bloom 9:16 But I finally did, I finally learned how to get into my body, how to connect with myself, how to move that energy at the cellular level of the body for myself, which was much harder than helping other people by the way. I did it. And I released all of those things. But I definitely say that Bruce Lipton helped me understand the science behind the cellular transformation. So that it let me create such amazing shifts for people. Brandon Handley 9:46 Not as powerful and I think that I think that's really important. There's always the it's almost always easier to help others with their problems and what they're going through and because you're Though you're, you're not attached to their shit, right? You don't have their emotional, you don't have their baggage, right? So you can be like, Look, I actually see you as you actually are. And here's the reflection of who you actually are like, Oh, well, thank you so much. I can go now I'm good, I think right? And but looking at yourself in a mirror, you see the same thing like all the time you never really see the truth of who you are. Joshua Bloom 10:24 Yeah, when we get in our own way, really easy. Brandon Handley 10:27 Yeah. So you, you're just anxious character. You finally figure out like how to heal yourself. And you're taking the show on the road? Right? Where's where's the I guess transition where you said, Alright. I can roll out of this Hypnosis Center. We've helped each other out well enough from here. I'm good to strike out on my own. Tell a little bit about that story. Yeah, Joshua Bloom 10:55 well, I was working for hypnosis. And I was making lots of money. I was helping people tremendously. I was still holding on to a lot of my issues. I had made it a little bit better, but not really at that time. And so that I that I had this argument with the lady that owned the center. I mean, never had an argument before. But she got into this energy that I didn't like, and I didn't think she was being fair. And I look at it now as the universe was saying, Joshua, you need to get out of this place needed to open up your own center. Sure. So but I didn't see it. At that exact moment. I thought, you know, this lady is just being unfair to me what's going on? And then, when I decided to leave, which was after that argument, I didn't have anywhere to go, I went home. Brandon Handley 11:49 It was gonna take my thing and leave now. Joshua Bloom 11:52 Yeah, exactly. So I took my stuff with me. And I had a lot of stuff there. And I took my, you know, modality they created with me to take everything with me. And I went home. And I looked for a place in which I could rent to see if I could rent some space. But I had no luck with that I couldn't I couldn't find a place in which I could rent that I could afford. I mean, I didn't have a whole lot of money. Because I was living on the money that I was that I was I was getting. And I was living in an expensive area. So it was costing a bit of much money at the time. So what ended up happening was one of my clients called me, and I see wanted to see me and I said, Well, I can't see you there because I just left. So I don't know what we're going to do. I don't really have a location to see the one. And I said, I've been looking for one for the last couple of days, and I couldn't find a location at all for anything. They're all too expensive. She says, I'll call you back in 20 minutes and hung up the phone. And I'm like, What is she talking about? So she called me back in 20 minutes. And she says, I want you to meet me at this address. And I'm like, what, why? And she says just made me there. I said, Okay, so I get in my car. And you know, now I'm anxious. Because my client for I don't know why. Brandon Handley 13:14 She picked out right, yeah. And we Joshua Bloom 13:17 get out of the car at at this location. And she says they have they have three rooms for rent for a price you can afford. And I'm like, really? So I went in and I spoke to the owner, and of the building. And he said, Yeah, we have three rooms for rent and a waiting room. They had like an office. And then they had a room where I could do classes. This is like crazy. Because I've called everybody searched everywhere did everything. And all of a sudden, here it was Brandon Handley 13:45 what you know, I mean, I know that you'd mentioned to, you know, studying a lot of things that turned out to be BS, right? What I found in this space, law of attraction, energy work, whatever. All this effort that we put out tends to get in our way. It's like, hey, universe, I don't trust you, even though you've done the rest out there to handle my shit here. So I'm just gonna go ahead and do it without you because you're not helping me. And then as soon as like, we're doing it. We're frantic, right? We don't know what I can't find a place. What am I gonna do? I can't afford where I'm at, right? This is you right? You're in a scenario. You're like, you know what universe? I fucking I give up right? Like, what I'm not gonna deal with it right now. Client now we can't get together. It couldn't possibly happen. Right? Couldn't couldn't possibly, and she's like, it's happening. And the University says, Why don't you trust me? Joshua Bloom 14:45 Yeah, and the universe provides so I took that I took that place and I didn't know who was gonna pay the next month but I figured I was just going to be able to just do this thing. I put the deposit down and I paid for it. And then I needed furniture. So I didn't have any purchase, I thought I could rent furniture that that was like, oh, yeah, I just rent it no big deal. So, I don't know if you've ever rented furniture, but it's really, really expensive. And you think, Oh, it was gonna be like $10 a month, isn't it like hundreds and hundreds of dollars a month. And so I got really stuck. And I went to a meeting to help somebody else that was going to actually meet with a weight loss clinic, who asked me to come and give them advice about their clinic and what I could help them with their with their business. So I went over there, and I walked in, and all of a sudden, I got this intuition that I should ask them if they have any furniture, which I thought was really a weird question to ask somebody, because Hi, do you have any Berger, you know? Sure. I did. And she said, I can help you with that. And then I'm looking to see behind me to see that she's talking to somebody, like, like, that was a real answer. And she said, Yeah, I can help you with that. So I came with a van to her house, and had all the furniture I needed for my, from my from, from my office. And so I got, you know, a bunch of friends. And we, we loaded up the truck. And I said, Well, what do I owe you? She says nothing. Like, if I unlocked my legs, you know, sure, Brandon Handley 16:16 ya know, Joshua Bloom 16:17 you've you came to help me that day. And then I've helped you. So Brandon Handley 16:22 I love it. And I would have an interpretation of it. But I'd love to hear kind of like, you know, as you've looked back, what, what are you feeling? What is what's the universe telling you at this point? Oh, well, everything Joshua Bloom 16:32 was falling into alignment. So it was, it was, you know, the universe had me have this argument with this woman, and who owned the Hypnosis Center. And I left for that reason. And then, you know, I mean, I don't have anything negative against this woman that at the center, we never had an argument before that, that moment, but it got me it got me to take action. So I knew it was, you know, a spirit in the universe, saying, This is what you need to do. And then everything fell into place. I got all the furniture I needed. I got the clients just came, everything just started to happen automatically. For me. I didn't have to work very hard. When we are in alignment. That's how it looks. Brandon Handley 17:13 Yeah, it is, right. I mean, I got, you know, little little tingles and goosebumps because it's so true. And it's so it's so hard to impart that was somebody that's not even looking down that alley. Right? So somebody's not looking down that alley at all, Joshua, like, what do you start? Where do you start to direct them? Joshua Bloom 17:36 Well, I direct them inward, we tend to look outside of ourselves to find our answers. And of course, my book is called the ultimate answer is inside. Instead of instead of us looking inside, we tend to look at, you know, reach searching for someone for help, or we tend to look outside of us for an answer. And truthfully, the answers are all inside of us. So when we point the arrow back at ourselves, and we say, Okay, I'm gonna now look and see what's inside here, and connect with ourselves, we start to have situations where we become in alignment like I did, where everything just start to happen, and all this goodness start to happen without a lot of effort on my part, I'm gonna walk in, again, intuition here. Do you have furniture kind of questions? Sure this happens automatically. These are the kinds of things that happen when we're in alignment. So how do you get into alignment? Well, first, you got to be connected to yourself when you're disconnected from yourself. We have all sorts of issues. First of all, anxiety like I had, some people may have depression, some people have both. Some people might have the experience of being scattered or, or not really knowing what's going on in their life. And they feel disconnected. No add today is an epidemic...
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David Florence - Optimizing Your Life with Breath Work
03/15/2023
David Florence - Optimizing Your Life with Breath Work
Welcome to the show, I'm excited to introduce Dave Florence, the man who was driven by a bang to the head to search for better psychological and physiological health. After years of research and practice, much of which was chronicled on his YouTube channel, 'Evolution of Dave', he has created practices and protocols that have improved his mind and body and those of his clients. He is here to talk about how you can add these same methods to your daily life for more energy, a clearer and more efficient mind, a stronger body and a life experience that is in flow. Connect with Dave here: Intro Guy 0:00 Your journey has been an interesting one up to hear you've questioned so much more than those around you. You've even questioned yourself as to how you could have grown into these thoughts. Am I crazy? When did I begin to think differently? Why do people in general appear so limited to this thought process? Rest assured, you are not alone. The world is slowly waking up to what you already know inside yet can't quite verbalize. Welcome to the spiritual dough podcast, the show that answers the questions you never even knew to ask, but knew the answers to questions about you this world the people in it? Most importantly, how do I proceed? Now moving forward? We don't even have all the answers, but we sure do love living in the question. Time for another shade of spiritual dub with your host, Brandon Handley. Let's get right into today's episode. Brandon Handley 0:42 One, there's spiritual stuff. We this is the first podcast I've recorded in the New Year. Welcome. I'm not sure when it's gonna be out there. But David and I have been trying to connect here for a bit now had to push off a little bit in December. But I've got David Florence, who I found through YouTubing and looking for 20 minute breathwork sessions, because that's all I wanted. That's all I could really tolerate in my daily day, day to day. Turns out David, you know, had some great sessions. I listened to him today, like, so it's been like six months, David, I've been listening to your stuff. So thank you for putting it out there. And he's also a Soma breath practitioner Wim Hof breath practitioner. Evolution of Dave is is your YouTube channel. And you know, you've got some really great content that's so helpful, practical, applicable to us in our current state of the world. So thanks for being on David. Hey, there's spiritual dope. Today, we change the format here just a little bit. Dave, and I got done with our conversation and some other stuff came up. And I was like, You know what, this, let's just go ahead and put this in the beginning. So it really gives you an introduction of who Dave was. Before he is who he is today, super pertinent to the listener, super pertinent to me, him the journey. And to anyone in this space, take a listen, weave it in, and then we'll jump into the regular beginnings. Right, you're saying Did you drink where you were pretty heavy drinker before doing all this stuff? And that world upside down? Vaca Dave? So you found so let me let me just I want to read this in there somewhere. So vaca Dave, and again, it's the similarities are so striking. And because when we say I used to live in a really nice neighborhood, and we owe them a nice neighborhood now, but like where I used to live, you know, nice community, we all hung out with each other all the time, we all drank and partied with each other all the time. And I used to make my own beer and my own wine, whatever. And nine times out of 10, you would see me with a beer in my hand. Right? It didn't really matter what kind of time it was or whatever. And it was. I had a water in my hand one morning, Saturday morning, neighbors like, what are you doing? Are you drinking water? I was like, Yeah, drink of water. And I was like that that was a point for me where I was like, I don't want to be known as the dad that's drinking beer all the time. Yes. You know. Right, as like, that's not that's not not what I'm about, like, so what needs to change here again. So, again, so let's just, I want to rewind a little bit there. So tell me a little bit date about bought vaca? Dave? Dave Florence 3:40 Hmm, what could Dave if I talk about him in the third person? Because that's how people would talk about actually so especially when I was living in London, people would, let's say there was a party, or some kind of event people would come up to me and say is vodka Dave coming? I go, Yeah, of course. And this is this is the thing, you know, I think people considered me boring unless I wasn't. So unless I was vodka, Dave. And I had attached that appreciation to my own psychology to a point where if it was a party or some kind of event, I could only be vodka, Dave because that was the mask that I needed in order to feel comfortable. Now luckily by today was a very fun character. He was always happy never got into any negative trouble only positive trouble. So you know, Brandon Handley 4:44 there is a certain describe positive trouble to me, Dave. Dave Florence 4:47 Well, there is a certain posh club in London that did have a very large chandelier hanging And they probably have a replacement chandelier. But at one point I was swinging from it. So it definitely was not at what you wouldn't do that anywhere anyway, let's face it, but yeah, that was my do. Yes. Yes. Yes. So yeah, I think cycle. Brandon Handley 5:25 Do you know the bank that I had? Was this a vaca? Dave incident? Dave Florence 5:31 Yes, I think it was if I know it was, but I don't know how it happened. I don't know if I was beaten up. I don't know if I fell down some steps. I have no idea. And if that five hours the night are totally lost to me. I don't know what happened during that period. Brandon Handley 5:47 Yeah, well, it again, just goes to show I think how you know, you hit on spirituality, you hit on like, you know, who we are now. Right? You and I, who we are now isn't who we've always been. There is a pathway there that not everybody wants to take. Right? You don't have to take you know, Baca days route, you don't have to take, you know, you know, Brandon, you know, drinking beer all the time route. There's a path to to this space without having to go there. But a lot of times we've been that person, we've gone through that space. And we come out we're like, and we're here now. Yes, we're very evangelical about breath, work, exercise, read, learn all you can ah, but at one point, we were gargling, you know, in the morning with Vaca, or Jim Beam or something else. And so I put that out there. Because if vaca Dave can do it, if I can do it. And I'm not saying you have to go out and stop drinking or stop from continuing doing what you're doing. But just know that that's not the end product. Right? That? Yeah, that's right. Dave Florence 7:05 I know. And also, I think, you know, there's a reason why you're doing it, you're doing it because you're unhappy with who you are. You're not You're not you haven't accepted who you are, and you're willing to present who you are to other people, there's something that needs fixing. So if you can be a drunk, and be totally happy with who you are, then maybe that's your journey, maybe that's your path. Most of the time we do this, because we don't want to be the other person. Because the other person is either too boring, or maybe hasn't got anything to say isn't fun. So yeah, that's all it really, isn't it? I think it just comes down to who do I want to be? And am I happy with this person? Do I know who this person is? Because that's what the work does. That's what the pressure. Thank you. I appreciate being here. I'm very grateful. Thank you. And thanks for your kind words. Brandon Handley 7:56 For sure, and the other the other piece I'll share with everybody before we get on David also has a Scott, a space on Facebook's got a 90 day YouTube challenge that I took and went through 90 days, I think that they've suggested that they be consecutive mine, we're not all the same. It was a great space and a great experience to be in there with Dave, as he, you know, encouraged me and many others along through the 90 Day Challenge. So David, I'd also like to thank you for that while we're here. Dave Florence 8:29 No problem. It's an interesting experience, isn't it? So for those listening? Yeah, it's I think it's actually good for anybody to do the whole idea, the premise of it was to see if we can get more people interested in putting their work out there breath work out on YouTube. But when you think about the practice itself, of committing to uploading and creating, or going live in a video every day for 90 days, the commitment itself is the crucial bit that has a knock on effect with your psychology in that you, you start to develop the real authentic, you're in front of the camera. And this is what I learned when I did the same exercise that went in front of a camera I think we all have a tendency of wearing the mask, you know, the actors masks the presenters mask. And by committing to doing this video every day, you eventually become the real authentic genuine you. But I think also what people's some people find with doing this. This exercise is yes, they start to hopefully create ideas for their content. But sometimes also people start to get a better understanding of themselves. Because once you get to a point where you no longer care, what you say, and what you look like. Often then The spilling out in this stream of consciousness flow of rambling chit chat is that you start to reveal to yourself some of the inner work, you know, you start rambling away and then it veers off in in a direction because you don't care anymore. You're not thinking about the listener and whether they find you interesting you do, you're just flowing with it. And so I think that's great. If you are creating a YouTube channel, but it's great, I think, from a psychological perspective as well, I think it can be, you know, a sort of a healing tool, if you want it to be. Brandon Handley 10:37 Sure, sure. And I love it. Everything that you're saying there resonates with me, I think one of the things that I think of when you're saying that is Bob Proctor has rip Bob Proctor. I'm not sure if you're familiar with him. But um, you know, he had this exercise, that he would say, hey, the, the problems that I have right now, I like to get them all out of my head and onto this piece of paper. Right? And so he would say, all right, are all my problems in my head? Or are they on this piece of paper? And he would, he would do this exercise until all of his problems are on like this piece of paper he gotten everything kind of dumped out in there. And and I think that I think that's that's really similar process with this, right? Like, here's, here's how I want to communicate, here's what I want to say. You've been on you. Listen to me ramble plenty of times people on this podcast have listened to me ramble plenty of times, you've got Dave Florence 11:27 beautiful rambling. Brandon Handley 11:31 I appreciate it. I appreciate it. But you find that like, there's this other tangent, like, Oh, but wait, there's just one more piece that will help make this whole. And similar to kind of what you're saying there. Right? You, you get this opportunity to to let things out that have been contained for so long. And you're like, wow, hold on a second. Not only that sounds good. Wait, did they hear what I got to say next, right, or, here's, here's who I actually am. And it's all it's all unfolding right here. So again, appreciate you creating that space and making that a possibility had had a blast. I literally just finished it at the end of the new year, as promised. So, David, let's just jump into it a little bit, right. You've got a breathwork practice. You've been doing it for quite some time. I've got a breathwork practice. I'm fairly new to it. You've got some stories I'd love to dig into. Let me just ask you. Where did you first find breathwork for yourself? And you know, what made it something that you wanted to know more about? Hmm. Dave Florence 12:35 So I had a dramatic entrance into the breathwork world. In the in 2017, I had a bang to the head. It was quite literally a bang, you know, literal Bang to the head. During a drunken night out, I lost about five hours in the night I was found by the side of the road taken hospital. It wasn't that bad, but it was enough of a bang. The next day, I wanted to do something to optimize my mind and my body. I had this, this thought of hang on a minute. I'm a father of a young child, I'm a husband, this is not how one acts, you know, and it was I was berating myself and I you know if I often say to people, you know, if I was a Catholic back in the, you know, in the Middle Ages, I would be there with my flail whipping myself, you know, it was that kind of psychology I wanted. And luckily at the time, although he wasn't that popular at the time, Wim Hof was putting out videos on cold therapy, and I thought, that's what I need. It was December it was minus 10 outside. So I went in the garden, grabbed the garden hose, poured cold water over me, was naked as well. And that's exactly what I needed. And I'm sure my neighbors did do for amusement. So, along with the cold therapy, obviously with the Wim Hof Method, they do promote breathwork and that's when I got into it. So late 2017 After two months of doing the Wim Hof Method breathwork I was hooked. So hooked, I was going through the highs that you all go through when you start doing this practice with commitment and discipline. And I was screaming from the rooftops I was telling all my friends about it. None of them would listen, obviously, I was being very evangelical. And that's when I created my YouTube channel because I wanted to tell people I was you know, I was in such a great state. I think everybody should do this is amazing. So that's when I created evolution of Dave because I saw this as being a catalyst to change. You know, I saw this as being this is me putting a stake in the ground. And I'm now going to optimize my mind and my body. Initially it was with breathwork and then a whole load of practices after that, but that was really my entrance into breathwork you know, this thing that I'm now able to look back and think that happened for a reason. You know, that was one of life's messages I needed that in order to be this. So I'm grateful for it now. Brandon Handley 15:06 I get it real similar kind of line in the sand I guess, in terms of enemas timeline of stepping into these practices myself similar, I did not fall down with a bang that ahead, but I drank enough. And I was like, Is this really? Is this really who I want my children to see? Is this really the like, I've got two boys I was like, and if they are going to use me as their model, that is just a model that I should have in front of them. And it was it was really around 2017 It's funny. But I said, you know, what? Time, you know, how can I? What changes do I want to make so that I can be a better model? If not, you know, I'm not the best. Right? But how can I be a better model offer for my children? And that was a starting point for me. So let's talk about the highs that you mentioned. What do you mean by that? Like, you know, the highs from breathwork? Or some of the other stuff? Dave Florence 16:11 Yeah, so akin to the kind of highs I would have experienced when I was a raver back in the day, you know, we're talking early 90s. You know, I would, I would do all the things without putting it into words, I would do all the things that you did when you would spend 20 hours dancing. Brandon Handley 16:37 I'm super familiar. Dave Florence 16:40 There's a lot of us out there. And so whilst they weren't necessarily the same intensity, some of the highs that I was getting, were this very elated feeling. Sort of, you know, when I was saying, you know, shouting from the rooftops, that's what I felt like doing, you know, I wanted to get outside the front of the house and go, everybody, you should do this amazing, you know, I was in that state, I didn't care what percent. But also, obviously, when I've started to push the rounds into four or five round territory by then I was doing so my breath, which I preferred, because I, you know, it was the music, the isochronic tones that enhance that experience. And I love the music because of course, that still took me back to the days of raving as well. Not that it's all like that, but you know what I mean? Some of it is with a very specific rhythm. And when you start doing the four or five rounds, you do then get these out of altered state experiences. So, you know, as you describe it like a high that that is quite a good descriptive, I suppose to that experience. You know, you're left afterwards going okay, yeah, you know, you're in a beautiful floaty state, you've had some visions, or at least visuals, albeit light, you know, during the sort of fourth and fifth round maybe. And you've you come out of it almost as if you've just been given some insight sometimes as well. Not always. But you know, sometimes you think Ah, okay, yeah, I figured something out, I think. So. Brandon Handley 18:20 You've got you've got you've got a really nice you've, I forget which one of your summer breath works that you do. But you talk about, you know, whatever is coming to you, in this moment, use this for today, what do you want this day to look like? And, you know, there are visualizations that come through, or a lot of people like to call them downloads, but these insights that they kind of come when we've been so we've been putting so much effort into life, right? And then when we sit down and we do these breathwork moments, or these breathwork, meditations, and then something comes to us, and it's so easy and effortless for like, like you said, it's like, why isn't everybody doing this? Why aren't we all talking about it? I share this breathwork with a group of guys at a sober house. i One of the things I talk to them about is say, say well imagine, you know, like you talked about going to the party doing the rave all night dance for 2020 hours or whatever. Imagine you kind of get a super similar feeling to that. But then you can get back up and go back to work. Right? Yeah. For four to eight hours, right? Like, you know, so. So I always make that joke with those guys. And like you said, these altered states of experiences. When we talk about that, and you and I've been in this rave scene, I always liken it to like, yeah, it's an altered state, but some was better, right? Because it's hyper clean. We just created it within ourselves. We are Chemical Dave Florence 20:00 factory unit pharmacy. Yeah. Brandon Handley 20:04 Yeah. And so being able to be able to do that and kind of come out of it. It's amazing. I love being able to do it, when the How are you using this to, you know, optimize your own life? What are some of the what are some of the benefits that you've received after you found it? Dave Florence 20:22 Well, interestingly, I would say three months in, of doing this kind of intense breath work every day, I realized I was beginning to develop this insatiable appetite for learning. And also, it felt like my memory had improved. At the time, I thought that was something to do with the bank to the head, you know, I genuinely thought I've had one of those, I think they call them the sort of idiot several moments where, you know, you have a bang to the head, and all of a sudden, you become this incredible artists. So I was thinking, Oh, maybe that's what's happened, something's been knocked in my right hemisphere. You know, the creative bit. But then after obviously doing more research, and that's what my journey has been about since 2017. It's you know, it's it's learning practices research, playing with it, that's crucial, from my perspective,...
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Brandon Novak
03/08/2023
Brandon Novak
I had the opportunity to meet with Brandon at one of his homes in Wilmington and ever since then he has been open with me (everyone) about his work and he agreed to do a quick sit down for this interview. Find out more about his work at Summary Brandon’s introduction. 0:00 What it’s like to not have cell phones. 1:09 Skateboarding as a drug addiction. 4:56 Praying to god to end my addiction. 9:12 Being accountable for your actions. 14:14 How to get out of your own way. 18:26 The Novak House and how it started. 23:22 The place where the misfits fit in. 27:39 Do you ever think about spiritual practice? 31:45 Dealing with death and loss. 36:25 Transcript by otter.ai Intro Guy 0:00 Your journey has been an interesting one up to hear you've questioned so much more than those around you. You've even questioned yourself as to how you could have grown into these thoughts. Am I crazy? When did I begin to think differently? Why do people in general appear so limited in their thought process? Rest assured, you are not alone, the world is slowly waking up to what you already know inside yet can't quite verbalize. Welcome to the spiritual dough podcast, the show that answers the question you never even knew to ask, but knew the answers to questions about you this world, the people in it? Most importantly, how do I proceed? Now moving forward? We don't claim to have all the answers, but we sure do love living in the question. Time for another hit of spiritual Joe with your host, Brandon Handley. Let's get right into today's episode. Brandon Handley 0:42 Right now, when you come to mind, I did a series that was called like, sinners in the saints. Right? And I can't think of a better person, really that, you know, is that a sinner? Like missing the mark on life? Kind of right, you know, and that now you've turned it around and into something else. But let's share your journey. And for the people that don't do my kids don't even know what MTV is. First of all, right? Like, how mind boggling is that? Brandon Novak 1:09 Yeah, yeah, it's it's literally two different worlds, you know, their kids will, will grow up not even knowing or couldn't even imagine what it's like to not have a cell phone, right? Like we went for that. That juxtaposition from no cell phones, like nothing, you know, wireless internet, to literally anything in the blink of an eye at the touch of our fingertips. So it's this, there's quite a transition. That's crazy. But I think we're blessed to have experienced both of those worlds. Brandon Handley 1:47 Well, yeah, I love it. I love where we are, right, having had not had all this technology and stuff where we can just reach out to what we're doing right now to having it like, because we I would say we appreciate it that much more. Right? Brandon Novak 2:01 Absolutely. And you know, we have the ability to shut things off and slow things down, because we remember what it was like to not have these resources so readily available that the 1314 1618 year old kid today couldn't even fathom not living without. That's right. That's right. Well, Brandon Handley 2:24 let's uh, let's jump into it. Man, let's jump into like, I just kind of the addiction part, right, like jumping straight into there. Like, when did you kind of first get involved with any drugs? And when did you realize that you had a problem? Or when did it start taking over your life? Brandon Novak 2:48 I believe I was my story is my story. And we all have our own stories and our own journeys. And although the specifics may vary of each person's story, I think the endings remain the same. And my story is that my mother is not an addict or an alcoholic, my brother or sister who from our by a different man are not an addict or an alcoholic. But my father was an addict. His father was an addict. So I believed that I was genetically predisposed. I didn't really have much of a say so in the matter. And my story I don't think is much different than any others to be honest with you. I was groomed I was raised in the world of a fast life. My father never held a job a day in his life, he taught me one thing if and when I go to prison, how to conduct myself or the Hells Angels, he was a rather unsavory kind of fellow, he is no longer with us. He was diagnosed with a disease of addiction and and ran with it untreated for many years until, you know, I always talk to people when I say this, the issue will be addressed like the issue 100% will be addressed and either you choose to address the issue, you go to treatment, get your life back things that you have no idea that exists in life, or the issue addresses you and I get a phone call from your people saying thanks for trying to help him. But he didn't make it. And my father's issue was addressed, but not on his terms. And he's dead and he's no longer with us. But my mother was very successful. She was a nuclear physicist on the board of Mercy Hospital. My brother's an attorney in the White House practices, benefits. You know, so that's where I believe my, you know, I was groomed I was raised for that world. My father and his biker buddies would come to the house and grow a lot of herbs, smoke, a lot of drugs, sell a lot of drugs, fast play fast women. You know, I kind of absorb that coming up Brandon Handley 4:59 with Yeah, well, I mean, you're a product of your environment. Right? All right. It's really hard to escape that. Being a father and just seeing how much of an impact what I do rubs off on my children. It's like it's mind blowing just the small things that you don't think that their pickup they're picking up every detail all of it. And so, yeah, being being caught up in that and seeing that as you're growing up. That's that's pretty, pretty insane. Do you think? Like, you know, parlaying some of that nuclear physicist some of that success? Like was that like, your skateboarding success? Do you think? Like, Brandon Novak 5:38 Well, I think, you know, thank God for skateboarding, skateboarding raised me and skateboarding made me who I am today, all year in all areas of my life, including recovery? I have because I know then that I know now is that skateboarding weeds out the quitters? Or is that really the kind of guys that will, will go dry, try a trick. And if they don't make it, just say, I didn't really want it anyways. Right? Like, I will try a trick for for hours for days for weeks for months, occasionally years if need be until that one, you know, stroke of, of ingenious alignment, and everything makes sense. And I make the trek and that instant gratification. I'm on to the next. For sure. For sure. And that's where my recovery came from. You know, I refuse to accept failure, no is not an option. And so I was just I believe we all have these God given talents. You the best ping pong player in the world, but God might not see fit to put a paddle in your hand. I was blessed with the ability to have a skateboard, put my hand at the age of seven. And then that boards has my hand. I knew I was going to be a professional skateboarder. Alright, that's awesome. Brandon Handley 6:53 Yeah. That's awesome. I'm still trying to figure out how to get a kickflip to land Brandon. After all these years actually, my son wanted to pick up skateboard. And so we went out and got a board and we went out to the local park. So love that story. You're right, like your you'll never quit that. You know, trying to get that trick and then just keep going for it. And you never quit trying to get sober. Right? Like 13 tries. Brandon Novak 7:21 Yeah, right away many more tries, but 13 attempts at checking myself until facility. But I remember, like, during the era of filming, Viva la bam, right? Like we'd be filming all day. And after we were wrapped the cast and the crew would go to the bar in town and pour I'd go meet them at the pub, I would go to an AAA meeting. And I would end up meeting them at the bar to get fucking annihilated by the band was like, What is wrong with you, you go to these meetings and then you come get loaded with us. Like it makes no sense. But to me, it made a lot of sense because I knew that one day it was going to end one of two ways. Either I was gonna get sober, or I was gonna die in the process of trying. But I was never the kind of guy that that accepted the the outcome to be a forever thing of my addiction that I like, fuck that. Brandon Handley 8:17 What do you mean by that? Like, Brandon Novak 8:19 like, I never was the guy that was like, I'm gonna die with a needle in my arm I inactive addiction. Just leave me be this. All that I want. Brandon Handley 8:28 Yeah, yeah. You always see yourself getting beyond it or getting, that wasn't going to be your story. Brandon Novak 8:36 I didn't know what my story was going to be. I will my story was going to end one of two ways. Either I got sober or I died in the process of trying. Right? Brandon Handley 8:46 And, you know, your journey wasn't like you know, just kind of a backyard addiction. Like I mean, you are you breaking the houses stealing stuff getting caught. I was listening to a podcast earlier about like, people literally putting hits out on you. Right. It's been pretty crazy. What was like, share a story or two about the, you know, your addicted life. Something that gives a glimpse into the seediness of it. Brandon Novak 9:17 Yeah, well, my mother, you know, in the beginning of my alcoholism, she used to pray to god please God, don't let tonight be that night that I received that call that my son has sir came to his addiction and he's no longer with us. She used to pray not to get that call to the end of my addiction praying to God, please let tonight be the night that I find Steve that call just so I can know he's safe once and for all. You know that's kind of depravity in the depth that my addiction took me to my mother who is my number one supporter and would do anything for me the job was to die went from praying to please never receive a call that I had died to at the end. Praying to God pleased Let me get this call already, you know that that I think sums it up in itself man, like, that's the nature of my disease. The progression is fast. It's rapid. And it's very drastic. Brandon Handley 10:15 Would you say like, was that the end her misery or yours? Brandon Novak 10:19 Fuck both. Yeah, as in, you know, after, you know, 22 years of active addiction 13 inpatient treatment centers, lost count of our patients in detox, as my mother had already bought me a plot. People were taking life insurance policies out on me, okay, you have to be in a life support for seven days, at the same hospital on mother's a nuclear physicist at, she sold three homes to pay for two different treatment centers. I was kind of that guy that was deemed unhelpful and uncaring incapable of ever getting sober. Right. Right. So I'm sure both my misery and hers. Brandon Handley 10:54 Oh, no doubt, no doubt, you know, I was able to join you with your sober house and how to say hello to her for a quick moment. And she just mentioned that right now. She's just so happy that you're able to be around for the holidays, right? That you're actually a welcome guest for the holidays. And I thought that that was a pretty cool thing to hear. Brandon Novak 11:19 Give me one second my my iPad was about to charge and Ubers. Well, yeah, that's the end as the funny thing about sobriety is that like, and I tell all the guys that live in Novak's house, and anyone else does early in sobriety for that matter. Be careful what you ask for, cuz sometimes you just might get it. For sure. And now I'm a sober guy, and I'm Coming up on eight years, and that I have a lot of responsibilities. And a lot of people depend and rely on me and, and, and some of those people are my family members. So my mother, God bless her soul is my favorite person in this world. She probably calls me 10 times a day. Here, and, you know, that's, it's a blessing. And sometimes I can perceive it to be a curse. Or sir, but that's, that's all I ever wanted, in the beginning was like to just feel humanized and normalized again. Like a member of society, not an outcast, not a not, you know, not something or someone to be discarded because I had a, I had a deeper seated issue. Because before for a lot of years, when people saw me they would like cross the street, and that they didn't see me or walk the other way, rightfully so. Or if, because if you told me you love me, then I had you. If you told me, you love me, then I equated that to $10. So people had to love me from a distance. So now it's, it's it's really a beautiful thing to be part of my family's life. You know, I wasn't for a long time. And nothing to do with them. It was all me. Right? And I had even when I was around physically, mentally, I had been checked out for so many years. So, you know, it's it's nice, man. It's, I could go on for hours. But Brandon Handley 13:35 yeah, no doubt. Right. Well, let's, let's hop into the one part that I think is a little key to the Novak house and you doing what you're doing right now, let's just tell a quick story of the 13th check in, right, I guess we'll call it when you when you, you know, you go in pocket tripped out, you tell the story. Brandon Novak 13:57 Oh, well, you know, I may 25 2015, I found myself in a position where for the first time in my life, the pain had become so unbearable that I was willing to do anything in order to finally get myself out of the position I had created for myself, right. So all of a sudden I started becoming accountable for my actions, and realizing that my very best thing in place me here, and that I am the common denominator in my problems. And if I get the fuck out of my way, everything was i i And I can no longer deny the severity of my disease, the depravity that it takes me to and every attempt at every one of those 13 facilities prior to or 12 prior to they didn't tell me anything different than the other one missed out on, you know, like 13 was no different than 1211 10 98765432. The only difference was The pain had become so great that I was willing to finally become open minded just long enough to ask for help, and and more importantly, be able to follow through with the suggestions that people like yourself and others gave me and you know. So my thoughts are always ingrained in me and I'm very, I'm not the one people call for sympathy or a lighter, softer way. Because my sponsor always told me you never get between an alcoholic and their bottom. And I don't. And I will not, I believe there has to be repercussions from our actions. By the repercussions from my actions became great enough that again, I was willing to do anything that was suggested I went to that facility number 13. And, and literally, as a sponge absorbed anything that anyone told me to do, you know, I was tired, I was just hired, I was tired, I was bored. All these seeds had been planted unbeknownst to me it each one of those attempts at each facility and, and facility number 13. It's like the skies parted and I walked across the sea and everything just made sense from all previous attempts. You know, not to say things won't change. But to this point today, coming up on a year sober, my sobriety has been fairly simple. Because I've stuck to the basics, they told me the basics, you never have to go back to the basics. Yes, I've had heart aches, I've had deaths, I've had troubled times. But knowing where I came from, and the pain that I felt as a direct result of active addiction, like there's, to me, the allure and the illusion of a drink or a drug being a great time has wore off so fucking long ago. And I adhere to, to the suggestions that my mentors and my sponsors and, and the 12 steps and Alcoholics Anonymous have given to me, you know, and I can honestly say today right now, it is it is physically impossible for me to have a drink. Now, Brandon Handley 17:22 somebody put a drink in front of you just couldn't do it. Brandon Novak 17:24 Oh, it's impossible for me to even put up a ball of heroin in my hand right now. And my very first thought would be like, I need to flush this before my cats get to it. Because I've had that psychic change. Yeah, let's talk about that. Right? Like the definition of a spiritual experience is simply a psychic change. Meaning I've read no back today no longer think how I thought walking into treatment center number 13. Eight years almost. You're able to see things differently. Now. I'm a completely different man. I'm rewired. Yeah, and that but that's because you know I'm not people might listen to this and be like oh that egotistical Fuck no, I have a very very very healthy respect for my disease is I'm well armed with the facts I finally understand the opponent that I'm up against. And and most importantly, I suffer with a disease called alcoholism. Not alcohol wasn't meeting so well yesterday sobriety? Sure. Brandon Handley 18:27 I love that. I love that. Um, so you know, you go in to 13th Place your hot mess. You finally get flipped around. I think what's kind of funny about your story too. You didn't share it here but like I've listened to listen to it plenty of times so like where you go in and they tell you you gotta get a job even though you've got like money coming in right in one way or another. You've got to go you're bussing tables waiting tables here you are Brandon Novak guys got, you know, celebrity. He's got endorsements and all that all this good stick on for him. And you're in there bussing tables and waiting, waiting on tables to make your money. pay your own way out of your pocket. And this was the path that kind of opened up for you. And since you found a way that worked for you, you decided to find a way to share almost that exact same path with others sued Novak house right? Absolutely. Brandon Novak 19:23 You know, it's funny. Yeah, totally. But the funny thing is, is I didn't understand any of the any of the journey that I was on, I never realized along that journey that I was discovering these paths that were on lead to a much broader fucking scope or a grand scheme, you know, or big picture. I simply was just beaten so bad that I got out of my way follow suggestions of people that actually knew what they were talking about. And I always say this thing works when I don't work it right as long as I stay out of it mentally sure your suggestions fit physically, you know, if you continue to bring the body, the mind will follow. Right? If I found myself in a position where the pain was so great that I was just willing to do anything. It's physically it defies logic that I can use that very same brain that thought me into that terrible place to then think me out of it. If I could have done that I wouldn't be in a fucking 12 Step Program wouldn't have ended up in AAA, that's not my lifelong dream or goal, believe it or not. But so I'm a firm believer now because again, I was beaten so bad, I knew that my way no longer worked. I got out of my way, had some great mentors followed their suggestions. They said, Go, I said, Sure. They said, when I said what time, you know. And I just brought the body I brought the body, I brought the body and one day, the mind just followed Brandon Handley 20:51 some of that, would you? Was there ever, like a light clicking on for you a moment that like, I don't know, kind of like when you're first riding a bike, or like, oh, look, I'm doing it. Brandon Novak 21:00 Yeah, like put, but everything I've learned in my life is all in retrospect, my life is it forward and learn backwards. So the very first moment that that took place, when I was in my treatment center for my 90 days, and I had in 90 days, I had made it to my eight step, and not one step made any difference, or any more or less sense than the last one to two, two to three,...
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From Addiction to Advocacy: Darren Prince's Inspiring Journey to Recovery
02/28/2023
From Addiction to Advocacy: Darren Prince's Inspiring Journey to Recovery
Darren Prince, International Best Selling author of his memoir Aiming High, is a prominent sports and celebrity agent and global advocate for addiction/mental health recovery. Through his agency, Prince Marketing Group, he represents icons Magic Johnson, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Jerry West, Dominique Wilkins, Chevy Chase, Charlie Sheen, Denise Richards, Carmen Electra, and many others as well as having worked with the late Smokin’ Joe Frazier, Muhammad Ali and Evel Knievel. As a leading authority in this space, Prince’s insights have been featured in WSJ, NYT, USA Today, CNN, Fox and Friends, Chris Cuomo, Tucker Carlson, “On Purpose” podcast with Jay Shetty, Extra TV, Dr. OZ and many other top media outlets. Darren has experienced what life is like in the celebrity world but also seen the dark reality of addiction through his own personal struggle with opiates. With over 14 years of sobriety, it’s now Darren’s mission to help others avoid and break free from addiction and mental health struggles. He had a God awakening on July 2, 2008, and believes in a spiritual higher power and that anyone can turn their bottom into a new beginning. Connect with Darren here: https://officialdarrenprince.com/ Summary Introduction to today’s episode. 0:42 How did you end up with addictions? 1:36 The turning point in his life. 6:39 It's better now than it was then. 12:24 Where's the drugs when the drugs wear off? 16:32 The miracle of calling out to god. 21:03 The power of choice. 25:09 Finding your purpose in life. 29:05 The importance of taking care of your health. 35:44 Getting a call from the White House. 39:01 Darren's message 45:22 Intro Guy 0:00 Your journey has been an interesting one up to hear you've questioned so much more than those around you. You've even questioned yourself as to how you could have grown into these thoughts. Am I crazy? When did I begin to think differently? Why do people in general appear so limited in this thought process? Rest assured, you are not alone. The world is slowly waking up to what you already know inside yet can't quite verbalize. Welcome to the spiritual dough podcast, the show that answers the question you never even knew to ask. But you the answers to questions about you this world the people in it most importantly, how do I proceed now moving forward? We don't even have all the answers but we sure do love living in the Question Time for another decade of spiritual dub with your host Brandon Handley. Let's get right into today's episode. Brandon Handley 0:42 One Hey there Spiritual Dope I'm on here today with Darren prince. He is an international best selling author of his best of his memoir. Aiming High is a prominent sports and celebrity agent and global advocate for Addiction and Mental Health Recovery. There was agency Prints marketing group who represents icons Magic Johnson, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Jerry, West, Dominique Wilkins, Chevy Chase, all these guys are greats. Right? And, you know, I didn't meet him getting autographs or anything like that. Darren, I met recently at an event with Brandon Novak and Novak house. And I think that's somebody that you're fairly close with, through addiction and recovery. So I said, You know what, I don't want to miss this opportunity to chat with somebody and share your story about all that you're doing. It's so great out there in the space. So Darren, Thanks for Thanks for coming on today. Darren Prince 1:36 Thanks for having me. Brandon Handley 1:38 Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, let's let's just kind of dive right into it. You know, you You're, you're well known you've done. You've worked with all these greats. But you've started like, with an addiction at a pretty young age, right? You started with an addiction at a pretty young age, and it caused a lot of havoc in your life. And now you've kind of translated that and transmute it into something good let's start at the beginning man like how did you end up with with some addictions Darren Prince 2:09 I you know, I grew up you would have thought just a normal childhood which I'd say for the most part i i had great loving mother and father and sister but I was always verbally to use for things so called Special Ed and small classrooms and back then, which probably more add whatever I was interested in, I gravitated to them most of the stuff I didn't. And I think just that did a number of my psyche and my self confidence, my self esteem. So at 14 When I was in sleepaway camp, and I had terrible stomach pains one night, the nurse gave me the scream liquid and having no idea what it was for the pain I took it and walking back to the bunk within a minute I felt like Superman like all those feelings of inadequacies and low self worth and self esteem. I knew I felt just as good as everybody else just as popular just as smart and went to bed then I think nothing of it. But I did all the activities that camp that next day, and I remember just lying in the bunk bed next night obsessing on that feeling and I wanted more of and I did that for a couple of weeks until mom and dad came up with visitation day and found that I was taking liquid Demerol. Yeah, I don't know what is Demerol and emeralds in OBS general problem most likely something that gives you a hospital like more but heavier opiate and back then the opiate epidemic wasn't anywhere near but you know, it was today. And you know, I had a way about me to assist innocent kid that was just in a lot of pain. And you know, she was probably just trying to come a relief every night or I was getting his bed stomach cramps and just, you know, played it to the hill just like I did when I had my wisdom teeth removed a few months later and my mom gave me these white pills that were called extra sent by cannons and that same feeling came back and you know, when I saw the bottle had two pills left I put on the crocodile tears fry it and said I've got to go back to the dentist have a bad infection. I know it's something's wrong and you know, panicked as a loving mother took me back and gave her another dozen bills, whatever it was. Brandon Handley 4:15 Yeah, it's crazy. It's crazy to us and it's such a young age. Right. And those are like those are some that was your thing, right? Like kind of like Demerol and opiates and Darren Prince 4:27 cocaine, ecstasy, you name it. Sure. And I he became an age and opiates were the ones that taught me up and it took me straight to the bottom. Brandon Handley 4:37 Sure, sure. Let's let's walk our way into the agents. Phase two. Right. So here you are. Age 14, you're kind of you're already like, you know, a script chaser. Right. But you've also got some cool things going on. You may mention that you're you were in like these quote unquote special ed classes. You know, you need a little bit extra attention to get through teaching you how to chip on your shoulder. But that actually led you on to something kind of cool. Right? Talk a little bit about that. Darren Prince 5:06 Yeah. So I started a mail order baseball card company long before the internet boom, and became nationally recognized, doing trade shows all over the country. First person, I think in the state of New Jersey, I have a cell phone, it was called Bell Atlantic, it was in a big leather carrying case with a battery pack, the phone cost me about $3,500. That's how tough we were to get about $3 a minute to use the phone. And the dumb idiot that wasn't going to go anywhere in between class was going into his locker room dealing with stockbrokers and a bunch of guys from ESPN. Were buying from me some of the big commentators that were big collectors and I would just broker deals of it. I had an incredible network database of dealers around the country, I was advertising because trade shows I would go to the best convention to get the best location. So I was spending 1000s a week on advertising myself, I became a very well known figure in the baseball card hobby and the boom of the 80s. So for any collectors that are listening now, it actually started in the 80s, which is why there's an industry there is today and by Tom, I'm 16 years old man, I'm probably making a quarter of $1,300,000 Ask us globally mean anything to me, you know, I came home from school. And it was about, you know, the hustle of laying out my ads for the next week and filling orders and hiring. You know, some of the so called friends that were were calling me, idiot and dumb. They were now calling me boss at 16 and 17 years old. And you know, and then from there, eventually I sold that company in 19. I dropped out of college, my freshman year of Bridgeport and went full steam ahead into the memorabilia business. So it's booking autograph signings from Muhammad Ali magic chevy chase to Frazier. Pamela Anderson. And by the time I was 24, built, built that business had some legal issues. And it was kind of at this turning point in my life where first time I ever had some financial difficulties and magics dip on my side and said, Hey, I know about making mistakes he had he was coming up with his HIV announcement, the anniversary of that was November 7 on Monday. And what do you want to do now? And because of my dad giving me the inspiration of explaining that to you know, like, not what you know, we work with the most iconic people in the world. You know, go speak to magic, you supported you and first client for my agency. Brandon Handley 7:33 That's pretty that's pretty awesome. I love that. Well, give me a moment here. Like how did we translate from, you know, in first of all, like, I'll just in my mind, I'm thinking like, mail order catalog. I thought you were just I thought you were just going in and setting up setting up the tables doing the shows you were. Darren Prince 7:51 Yeah, but we had a big Yeah, I have people taking orders. We're going on clothing and buy the stuff on the weekend, sell it during the week and knew exactly what I needed to find on a weekend to follow orders, mark it up and make a profit and get it out next week. Brandon Handley 8:05 That's awesome. And you were making what you're making? This is a what is the 80s? Is that right? Like mid 86. So I mean, I'm just gonna I told my son right now he's 10. And he's already feels like he's done with school. And I told him like, you know, when he makes his first million, feel free to drop out, right? Like, you know, go ahead. So, so you go from you go from this card business bit, and it's working out really well for you, you sell it how do you make the translation over into, you know, signatures like what? Darren Prince 8:34 What happened, and it's funny because one of my agents here Matilda was telling her the story older I think the sexiness and the coolness of being around like some of the biggest stars that were doing these autograph signings at conventions, it drew me to it. And, you know, again, that insecurity brokenness, like no cards are cool and making money but the cards, and I kind of just more or less went into the autograph signing thing, because I was like, wow, I've an opportunity to book my first autograph signing with Muhammad Ali, the most recognized human being on Earth. And, you know, for somebody with low self esteem and you know, was always high and to be around that environment. It was just unbelievable. And then I just think my appetite grew. From there it was same sort of thing. Well, autograph signings are kind of cool and hanging out with them but I won't be this autograph fucker for shinies I want to do big things. I want to do endorsements commercials, you know, when that's how that evolved. Brandon Handley 9:28 You wanted to level up and this whole time you know, you're you're you're popping pills, right? You're you're doing whatever. Darren Prince 9:35 You're on the autograph signing era, which the company was called prints of cards. That was the same name as the the big card company. You always partying whatever it was you name it, I did it. But when I became an agent, I learned real fast with magic when a morality clauses when the lawyers put together an agreement I was like, Alright, I gotta play this straight. Sciatica had anxiety and hey, like any good drug out If you junkie, I played it to the hell, you know how easy it was to get any script that I needed when I'd get them on the phone with Joe Frazier or bring him a Magic Johnson signed jersey or go like this guy's got it all together and a lot of pain, go get an MRI, go get an x ray, let's see how we can fix you. Let's do medication management. And for the first five, six years, man of my ancient life, you know, it worked really did. I became a rock star with networking. But I also say like this, like what was once living to us turned out to using to live. Yeah, and I just don't know when it turned. And I do remember that night I lost my superpower. So I remember when the oxycottons didn't work at an example, Joe Frazier in Dallas, Texas, and probably for a good six or seven years. I was trying to chase that high after that. Yeah. Brandon Handley 10:52 And you talk a little bit about this insecurity and brokenness, right. Like where do you feel like that stemmed from a little bit that was encouraging. Darren Prince 11:00 Like, I can't blame my mom and dad for it. And my mom and I came from a family with a lot of love. You know, my dad had tough love bugs. That was my biggest supporter. My mom gave me way too much. I think some people could understand that because that cause anxiety, it'll leave the house and I'll be around them all the time. And you know, those two were on there's too much and she was she overwhelming. With love were a kind of, you know, like I said, causing excess amount of anxiety with the over coddling knowing that I was special ed and need special attention. And I think it just can be very uncomfortable and how to deal with life. If I was in, you know, attached to her at home with her and my dad, and we get homesick a lot if I'd sleep over at friend's houses or birthday parties or weekend getaways. I remember it just a horrible feeling in my stomach just not being comfortable being away from mom and dad. And you know, you take all that into the real world with the verbal teasing and you don't speak up about those words a dumb an idiot I think using the word that begins with our from mentally challenged, I heard all these things. And when you absorb that, and those developmental years, guess what, you start believing it especially now put it out. And I didn't have the courage to speak up. Brandon Handley 12:14 Yeah, and the 80s You know, I grew up in a suit. Like they weren't kind. They were not. They like yeah, now I think so it's, you know, gratefully for my children a lot. It's better, right as different than than what it was then. But there was there was very few teachers really stopping that from happening to right. Oh, hell, it could be the teachers. Darren Prince 12:37 Back then, like I had a teacher. I won't mention her name, which she's not even alive anymore. US history. 60 kids in the class. I remember like yesterday, and you know, it's a level of psychological trauma, nothing that you know, it's something I've been healed from but you remember it. And she bought the first 90% of the class their test. And I'm in the bath with for six kids. My friend John Angelo gave squirrel joy. I'll never forget my crew, Carmen. And we called ourselves the our only group. People can figure out what word I mean. joking around about it. But again, I'm actually taking this in Stoke, right? Handed everybody else their tests. She's shouts in front of the entire class, I'll get to you guys in the back row with your test in a minute. Let me just take care of everybody else first. And even the tone was speaking to us in a way that we're less than we're not as smart or not as good. And you remember that? Yeah. Here we are. 40 something hours later, and I'll never forget it. Brandon Handley 13:43 For sure. So when you're when you're, you know, drugging when your pill pop and when you're drinking. You're trying to forget that piece of who you are. Darren Prince 13:54 I'm trying to forget that piece of who you are. But I'm also there's a great revelation on Jay Shetty. He's a dear friend of mine. I was at his place on Sunday that I made it to the top. But I'm looking backwards at all the people that said I wasn't going to make it. Usually when you get to the top or somebody to fake top there's a lot of smoke and mirrors still it I didn't feel worthy of being at the top of the industry around the biggest stars in the world. And so my thing was always look backwards. Look at me look at the dumb ugly one to one no doubt that I'm Swanee one that wasn't going to make it look, I mean, I look at it, you know, and it was that way when I was 16. I remember when I would just go to bed at night laughing because my dad was like, you're making more money than most of your friends fathers that are that are lawyers that have real crown like the bed like, you know, celebrating this and Brandon Handley 14:53 what kid wouldn't right at that age for sure. That makes sense. Darren Prince 14:57 And that was all that deep rooted. insecurity that that verbal teasing and just that feeling of less than and, you know, my mom thought it was funny sometimes when she would hear me on the phone like buy and sell this person backwards and forwards and she thought it was hilarious, but it came from a deep place of insecurity and resentment. And I was like, How funny is that this guy is going to go to college mom for the next four years paying off loans for the next 10 years when he gets out, and already have more millions put away and she'd be like, I'm so proud. It wasn't like a corrective thing. I was just, you know, so I think all of that though, when I looked back, it was just such a deep level of brokenness and inadequacy that I just always had approved. And then now here I am at the top of the industry with magic and you know, Ali and Frazier and you know, Pam, Pamela Anderson and Chevy Chase and smokin Joe Frazier. So it's a recipe for disaster, man, you know, and the luck started coming. And I started developing and working out and the girls start comping left and right. I'm just frickin doing whatever the heck I gotta frickin do to uphold this image that my entire class is like, holy shit. Darren prince made it bigger than every single one of us is this world famous agent that's on the sideline of the Superbowl and, you know, backstage passes and walk in the red carpet at the MTV VMAs and all these big award shows, and I just ate it all up. I thought that's what what my calling was meant to be. And, you know, I need I needed a lot of driving force. I needed the expensive sports cars to be driving an Acura NSX, souped up at 21 years old that cost me $200,000 First person to buy a house and you know, the jewelry and the diamond Rolex is and now I look now and this is me. I could go on buy a new Rolex tomorrow. It's not what makes me happy. Brandon Handley 17:00 Sure. For sure. Sure. Well, let's get there. Right, like so where where's the drugs wear off? Right? You realize you'd lost your superpowers on one night, right? You go to pop the oxys and they're not doing what you need them to be doing? What happens then you panic. I mean, what where's it all got panicked. Darren Prince 17:21 I went down to this corporate event in the conference room this ballroom and I couldn't figure out for the life of me what was going on. And the next day the same thing happened and I'm in Florida by myself two days later, and I found a different way to ingest it. That gave me a little bit of a buds I started snorting my oxys my Percocet and my bike and it's, you know, I kind of mostly live that way. For another four or five years had an overdose and Las Vegas came back...
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Spiritual Dope Confused About Microphone, Blames Dark Forces
02/17/2023
Spiritual Dope Confused About Microphone, Blames Dark Forces
What is going on spiritual dope? I have no idea which microphone this is even using. Is it using the microphone on the phone? Is it using the microphone from the car? I don't know. What I do know is that it is dark out. I was trying to think it was funny because I was going to be like a dark AF. Finn was telling me that on YouTube if you swear within the first 8 seconds or 8 minutes, 8 minutes seems like a really long time to not swear. But if you do that then they won't cut you off. They are like no, you can't do that. You have some type of strike. It wouldn't be the first time I have gotten a strike. It is dark out man. It is winter. Before 6 o'clock was up the break of dawn for something to change. This morning I headed up to New York from the Philadelphia area for work. The train station that I am using today is right across from this really nice kind of like, you think of Shakespeare and the homes that were built then with the big timbers and the stucco plaster. Really cute little community like that. That is right across from the train station. Some 20 odd years ago there was also a Dunkin Donuts there. At this hour we were actually dropping people off and headed home. That was my first, I think, I want to say my first rave, air quoting rave party. Where did we go? We went down to Baltimore from the Philadelphia area. I went to a club called Rise which was in some CD part of Baltimore, warehouse area. I had to chuckle because here we are 20 odd years later where today, this is the same place, same time of day, different functions, different things going on. On my way here today too, on my way to this, I was also thinking about an ex-co-worker of mine who I learned recently had passed away within the past seven days. That is a lot to take in. We always wonder whether or not we are kind of on our path. Are we living our best life? Are we living the highest and best versions of ourselves? Are we being of service? Are we doing all the things? Are we the perfect parent for our children and all this other shit? Most of the times was probably not. I also thought about the fact that this gentleman, he died of cancer. He had a really rough run of it. What is it like, I don't know more but thinking, this isn't always fun and games in our lives. What is it like to know that you are dying and that there is nothing you can do to stop it? There is nothing you can do. You are not in a condition to accelerate it. To have your family watch it as well. The family even of itself has had these roughest challenges. Such a nice person, at least a great co-worker, a nice guy who is going through his own stuff. I can't help but think about how the body keeps the score. I read about so many other things about how the body retains this emotional stress. This energy, if it can't go anywhere, it gets trapped in the body. The things that this gentleman was going through in his life that I was aware of, to me would indicate, yeah man, that is absolutely the case. For so many of us that we are going through things and we don't release, we don't share the pain. We don't share the anguish. We don't release it in any way and we do everything that we can to contain it, to restrain it, to do anything, anything other than let it out. Nothing, we are not doing anything. I think even coupled upon that, going through that, trying to do your day job so that you don't lose insurance, so that you can keep trying to save yourself in some kind of way. To me, it just seems wrong. If I knew that I was headed out, I knew that I only had a limited amount of time. Even if I thought that I could beat the odds, I would have to say, I would want it to be YOLO. I'd want it to be YOLO well before I found out I was fucking dying. I'd want it to be YOLO well before I knew I had a problem. I'd want to be living my life because I live only once, because I am only living once, to its ultimate right, to the best that I could be doing. I don't know that I am. I know that I haven't been recently. This is me being honest. I know that I do a lot of things that a lot of people aren't willing to do, pressing record, sharing this, going out, finding people to put on the podcast, having in-depth conversations and having real conversations around spirituality and sharing that across the globe. To me, that's something a lot of people aren't willing to do, getting up at 5 o'clock in the morning, going and doing exercise and participating in other things. But am I living my best life? Am I doing as much as I could be doing? No. I know I've made a pledge to myself recently, even before that, to kind of get back to it, to get back onto it, and at least put a little more effort into it. I think that even that one degree variance is enough to separate us from so many things. If you've ever read the Atomic Habits, then you're familiar with, I don't know which bicycle team it was, but they look to make 1% of a change in their overall, and it was that 1% that won them world records. If you take a look at flying from across country, like I just flew from San Francisco to Philadelphia recently, if those calculations had been off by one degree, then it would have been a different trip entirely. So 1% difference is what I'm looking to make, to change the trajectory of all of my life, and so in saying that, look for me to put 1% more effort into all the things. It doesn't have to be everything, guys. It doesn't have to be all or nothing. It can be 1%, which is enough of a change. 1% is about five minutes a day of breath work that I talked about for you to do, for me to do. I too need to do these things. Look for coming up at least a monthly breath work session on spiritual dope. I'm looking to do Thursday evenings. So look for that in the coming weeks. If you catch this after, where are we? Sometimes it's Valentine's Day. Happy Valentine's Day, y'all. It's Valentine's Day 2023. If it's after that, then be on the lookout for breath work on Thursday evenings. Head over to Spiritual Dope on Facebook or Instagram for more information. Reach out to Brandon at SpiritualDope.co for more information. I will, with guest answers, will honestly come from Spiritual Dope on Instagram or Facebook. Take it easy
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Nick Wingo - Gateway to Breathwork and Healing
02/14/2023
Nick Wingo - Gateway to Breathwork and Healing
Nick is able to share his story of being a firefighter, which has taught him many core values, such as gratitude, resilience, intuition, and tenacity. These values have allowed him to persevere through difficult times and find his true identity. Through my struggles and hardships he has learned that it is possible to overcome and find joy in life. He is now dedicated to helping others and provides an open ear to anyone in need. Enjoyed the episode? Find out more about Nick here : Summary Introduction of the episode. 0:00 Spiritual Tip of the day. 0:43 The importance of opening up to help. 2:40 When you go digging for gold, you're not digging for dirt. 7:55 How did you deal with death? 11:38 How vulnerable did you feel when you needed help? 17:49 Let’s look at the light. 20:28 How did you get into the world of breathwork? 25:30 The feedback from the men. 29:39 The importance of marriage and marriage. 36:26
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Learn to Trust Your Intuition With Shawn Murphy
02/05/2023
Learn to Trust Your Intuition With Shawn Murphy
Shawn Murphy is a spiritual teacher, author, and podcast host dedicated to helping people find their spiritual paths. He has written two books, has a podcast, and gives online courses. Murphy’s teachings are focused on helping people become more connected, compassionate, and mindful. He also works to help people learn to trust their intuition and create a life full of meaningful and fulfilling experiences. BRANDON HANDLEY Hey there's, spiritual dope. I am on here today with Sean Murphy. Sean Murphy reached out to me in an email, and I couldn't resist as he reached out and said, hey, let's collaborate. And the information that you shared with me that you're hoping to share this message of hope for people that have been suffering from mental illness to new parents with children. You and I spoke a little bit on the front end of this. I think that you've got a great message for children or for parents that are raising children. How do we do it in a spiritual way? You can call it whatever you want, but I think in a way that allows for children and humans to grow up believing in who they are, which inherently allows for, I think, faster, quicker, easier spiritual process. Right. In addition, you also do some mentoring with clairvoyance mediums, and specifically those that do not have a good spiritual support system. Love to hear more about that. And you share quite a bit more. And I just said, you know what? This makes sense. And you come from a business and engineering background, too, which is always, I think, a challenge. And a big part about what this podcast is about to begin with is how do we blend the two worlds, right? Like, we've got this. You're either spiritual and you're out in the woods and you're hugging a tree sean. Or you're this materialist who's cutting down the trees and shoving the spiritual people out of the way. But I think what you found is something that a number of people have found or are looking to find, is that you can have both worlds exist at the same time. SHAWN MURPHY Yeah. One of the papers that I wrote is called A Return to the Times of the Founders of Science and Religion. Essentially, if you look at the time between Homer and Socrates, 3000 to two and a half thousand years ago, this is a place and time that Galileo went back to, that Erwin Schroeder went back to, to rediscover a holistic view of science and religion, science and spirituality, essentially. And as an engineer, as a scientist, I am drawn to that and finding out that Pythagoras was a spiritual healer, he was a musician, socrates was a sculptor. Besides being the father of logic and that harmony that exists at that time between spirituality, science, logic is just a major draw in my life. And I try to bring that out to other scientists, other engineers who want to find logic in spirituality. And that's the connection that I have with business people and with logical thinkers, is there is a lot of logic behind spirituality? BRANDON HANDLEY Not for sure. I appreciate that, and it's amazing. Like you're saying, we go back thousands of years to the time of Socrates and Pythagoras, and we learn a lot of things about those people that we certainly weren't taught in school. Right. The spiritual elements and some of their actual philosophy. We learned a couple of things that they think the education system thinks that we should know. This will help support you and your education in certain ways, but they leave out some of these, I think, larger elements. If you didn't go, unless you went to some type of private school or Catholic school or what have you, spiritual element is ignored right. In the education system. So, Sean, I usually like to start these off with the whole idea that you and I are merely vessels for universal energy, and it's expressing itself to and through us and generally for somebody's highest and best. Good. Right. Hopefully. And to that end, the conversation that you and I are going to have, you and I will understand. Right. And we'll think we're having that conversation, but there's going to be somebody who tunes in, and they're going to hear a completely different conversation that's meant only for them. What do you think that message is for that person? What's coming through you today? SHAWN MURPHY Well, I think the most important message that I try to portray to people, and it's what inspired me to start writing was that we are, as you said, we're all spiritual beings. We existed before we came into this life. We came into this life for a reason, for purpose. And as I said, discovering that purpose is the most important thing you can do in this life for me. People talk about spiritual awakening. I've had five in my life peeling back the onion, as it were, of my material life and understanding what my original spiritual meaning was. And anytime you can peel back one of the layers of that onion, you have this opening up of a world that you didn't understand before. It's scary, it's different, but that's what we're here to do. We're here to learn and discover. It's been a scary road for me at some times, but more recently, it's been really enjoyable to peel back another layer and find a new part of me. BRANDON HANDLEY Perfect five awakening five. So let me ask you this. If you've experienced one, I think a lot of people feel like the awakening in of itself is enlightenment or the end of the road, like, hey, look, I'm working on my awakening. And then, as I'm sure you experienced for yourself, the awakening is or an awakening is kind of like the beginning, which is almost annoying. You're like, what do you mean? I just got here. I've worked my whole life and we got here. This is amazing, but this is just the beginning. And then to have five, I'd love to hear more about that because it's like you said, an awakening can be scary in of itself. But to have multiples is, it kind of like it gets easier as it goes along. Is each one of them like this roller coaster? Tell me a little bit more about that. SHAWN MURPHY Well, the first one was when I was 14, when I was a child. People always said, he's going to be an engineer because he takes everything apart. When he puts it back together, it still works. So I was kind of indoctrinated in this idea that I was an engineer. And I certainly had a very logical mind. It was an excellent mathematician. But every Sunday I went to church and it didn't make any sense to me. Right. And and and I had this question in my my mind and said, if God created this, why can't I understand Him? And at the age of 14, I embarked on a mission to try and answer that question. I left the Catholic Church. My parents required me to go to church every Sunday, so I still went to church. I went to the Baptist church, I went to the Jewish services, I went to Hindu services. I just looked around and tried to find an answer. If there is a God, then I should be able to understand Him, because he made this according to you. Right. And so by the time I graduated from college, I had looked at 18 different religions. The one that appealed to me the most through that journey was was Buddhism. And I kind of gave up the search after I left college because I really didn't find an answer to my question, original question. And it wasn't until I was 30, I guess 32 or 33, that I had the second awakening, which was an inner drive, forcing me to study everything I could about spirituality. And then a year later, my daughter was born in the 28th week. She was about that big. She was 1300 grams. And then I realized why I spent so much time learning about spirituality, because this test that was given to our family was one that I needed support with. And my studies had helped me to be optimistic and positive about this tiny little girl who came into our lives and helped me to become the right father for her. BRANDON HANDLEY Absolutely sounds like that was definitely a challenge. But I mean, even to have kind of this awakening at an early age or I think the yearning for an answer at the age of 14 and the idea that, hey, if I'm created by God, then there should be some type of innate understanding of this whole system. And that makes sense, right. I think that I can buy into that. I love that. You dove into, like, 18 different religions, so you just kind of went through each one of these, and you probably had a lot of seeds planted at that point in time, right? Each one of those kind of imparted a thing. And I'm certainly curious to hear more about what you found was similar throughout all of those. SHAWN MURPHY Well, that's interesting. You asked the question. I use this image in my work. It's the image of the three blind men and the elephant. If you know the image and the study of all these religions, maybe take a step back, and it's one of the gifts that I've had. It's one of those double edged sword gifts. But I see things from 50,000ft. I see the big picture, and it causes me a lot of traumas on a lot of times, believe me. BRANDON HANDLEY Sure. SHAWN MURPHY But I started looking at all these religions I was studying and looked at the commonality, as you said, between them, and likened it to if. Here's the truth. It's an elephant, four legs, a trunk, a tail, and I've got all these blind men walking around a bit. One of them thinks it's a tree, one of them thinks it's a wall. One of them thinks it's a snake. That's how I see religion. There are all these prophets sent with the same message, and they were understood differently by different peoples. BRANDON HANDLEY Yeah. SHAWN MURPHY And there can only if you believe in a spiritual world and if you believe in Creator, there can only be one truth. And by looking at all those religions, you can maybe understand essentially what it might be. BRANDON HANDLEY ...
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Returning Home
02/04/2023
Returning Home
Brandon Handley 0:00 What is going on spiritual dope, we are where we at. We're on the West Coast, some call it the best coast and we're getting ready to travel back home to the east coast from hasn't been super sunny, hasn't been super warm as this area of California is not apt to be. And I'm getting ready to go home. But I've been away for about a week and, you know, doing what I can to make sure I get stuff posted to the interwebs. And getting back into the swing of things getting back into my regular daily habits that fallen off a little bit. Such as doing the breath work, such as getting the meditations and such as taking the time to read and do my gratitudes in the morning. Really what a difference they make. And those are ones that when I think about this guy, Tom, that I was seeing that did the energy work that he sat down with me and we were talking and he goes Brandon, how does a fish know? That it needs to been living in water that it needs needs water. And that's what gives it its life. And I was like Tom Tom, I don't know. And, and he goes, you take it out of the water, right? And then we put it back in it realizes Oh shit, this is this is what I need. This is this is the life this is this is this is my breath. This is my oxygen. This is this is what's necessary. And I think that that's what I'm when I think about the wakening process. And when I think about awakening and getting connected truly to your spirituality, and for me, has been my experience. But again, as I relate and review what so many others have encountered and shared, this is what I believe the experience to be, right. Your mileage may vary YMMV. When you're when you can't breathe, right? What's, what's the other one? You know, how do you how do you know, you know, if you really want to be successful, and I think there's the story of somebody being held on your water. And when you want it as much as you want to breathe. That's the same thing with like spirituality, when you get connected with source when you get connected with this ultimate. You stop worrying, right? It's not that you don't care that you are care less, and that you care less. So that you understand, Dan, that you are not alone. You will never be alone again. And there's a there is a salvation. And I think you know the word I was thinking of it, there's a salve. There's the South because you've been hurting, and you didn't even know it. There's, you know, there's I guess there's, you know, everybody suffers, you've been suffering. And you weren't aware of it. So I liken that to the obviously the awakening experience. And then with the breath work, that's another spot and you get the opportunity to not suffer for a moment. And to tap into that for a moment. And to realize that is possible. It's possible not to be anxious, it's possible to let your guard down and not get killed, murdered and maimed. And if that's possible for 10 seconds, it's possible for 20 if it's possible for 20 It's possible 30. If it's possible for that length of time, you can extend that and we have extended periods of feeling safe. Wherever you are. You become aware of your opportunities, you become aware of what's possible, you become aware of the fact that the limitations have begun to erode and I'm thinking visually of chains that are beginning to just dissolve and it happens effortlessly. It happens in a way that you wouldn't believe. If I told you what I'm telling you right now, but you have to experience this for yourself. Amen to sales cycle this year right now. And what's funny is what I sell does exactly that. But there's so many people that have sold snake oil Over the past that you have to, you have to, unfortunately, you have to, you have to be honest. And you have to let others experience it for themselves. You can't tell them what they're going to experience. You can't can I'm doing it right now. But they won't understand You won't understand unless you've experienced it for yourself. And when you experience it for yourself, and this is this is not a stepper. To that that is the 12 steps. But I understand that the 12 step is that when you experience this for yourself, you're going to run out and you're going to extol these virtues as these virtues which are strengths, you're going to extol these things to everybody going to share, you're going to shout from mountaintops, people gonna look at you like you're a fucking maniac. But you know, and that is the knowing. That is the knowing and that is the living your truth. And people are like, Meg, Meg, ping me the other day, somebody said, you know, you can't live your truth. There's only the truth and you know, don't be an asshole. Don't be an asshole about it. What you what you think, you know, may not be so right. That's the the who's a tom sawyer writer. All right, Mark Twain. Who who wrote that? You know, it's not what I think it's not what I know. For sure. Because you don't you don't know anything for sure. You know, what you've experienced? And then you look for ways to share that and then I think that that's where the quibbles come in. I had a conversation. Well, she's so she's, you know, she saw something that said that just pissed her off. Just because this person doesn't know you can't tell us to my truth, the truth. And you can't and it's rude to do that. It's it's it's a well, it's not rude, right? You just don't know any better. And I go with I side with my Angelou on this one, Maya Angelou, whatever. Do do do your best until you know better. So I said to her, I said, You know what it's not it's not so much that the person's be be grateful for the Sangha, which is the community that you're in. Or, again, I would say, for me right now be from this place of knowing from that place of experience. So be grateful for those that are on their way. Somebody would make a post saying, you can't experience your truth, you can only experience the truth type of thing. Yeah, that's maybe somebody's on their way to that community. Maybe they're on the way to this community. And this is the this is the line where we're all just walking each other home, like rom das said, so a lot packed in there. But it's eye opening. When you experience returning home, people often talk about the awakening or awakening rebirth, whatever, as returning home. Right? Like, I've just, I've come back to the place that I've, it's always been available, right? It's always been here, just like the fish out a fish out of water. When you get thrown back in. It's always you always been there you just you haven't been aware that that's exactly what you needed. And, you know, I often write in my journal as I got back then getting back into my practice. You know, I'm grateful to be in the perfect place. It's the perfect time to become I'm grateful to have what I have to say I've got my wonderful family loving wife and healthy children with grace and ease an imperfect ways. And I hope that you know, wherever you are in your journey, maybe you have gone through an awakening yourself. And maybe you are recognizing some of these truths for yourself. And you're curious what that journey is like for others and that you've tuned in and you found alright, I'm not fucking losing my mind. Alright, I found somebody else. Here's another person because we need this validation because nobody's talking about especially in the Western civilization. That we you know, because historically, historically, you you got burned at the stake historically. You were heretic, you were tortured, right? Historically, in western civilization, you shared that you felt this this way. You It wasn't much longer for you. And now what we need to be grateful for now is that we live in a civilization Times have changed and that the more that this awareness spreads to and through others, and it's safe to share. The more that you're able to lean into it and really feel it. It's an expansion of that awareness and it's a beautiful thing. Transcribed by https://otter.ai
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