April 28, 2025 • 26 mins
Join me as I share my past life memory as an 18th century Japanese hermit. You might be surprised what you might have in common with a solitary monk and by how this story ends.
From a childhood on a rural farm to creating a remote mountain sanctuary, I reveal how trauma led to isolation and artistic recognition, culminating in a profound after-death realization: wisdom hoarded is wisdom wasted.
This experience fundamentally shaped my understanding of the power of human connection and why sharing knowledge matters.
#pastlives #reincarnation #consciousness #japan #spiritualawakening #soulmemories #alternatetimelines #youtube #podcast
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Hey, I’m Ian Vogel—host of Alternate Timelines. My journey started on a small farm in the midwest, where I always felt a little out of place. After years of skepticism and even a stint as an atheist, a near-death experience changed my perspective on everything. Since then, I’ve explored plant medicine, past life memories, and the mysteries of consciousness. Now, I’m sharing those experiences to help others navigate their own awakening. Through real stories, deep conversations, and wild explorations of the unknown, we’re building a community where it’s okay to question reality. You’re not alone in the unknown. 👽✨
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
HypeMiC & FaceTime HD Cam (00:00):
Oddly enough, the first thing I
remember is floating up in theair, looking down at my own dead
body.
My corpse was laying on a flatpiece of granite out in the
open.
There were a handful of candleslit around it, and seven people,
and it was at that moment whereI realized that I had made a big
mistake.
(00:24):
What is up?
I'm Ian with alternatetimelines, and today I'm gonna
be sharing a story of a pastlife memory.
This is the very first memorythat came to me the very first
time I did a self-guided pastlife regression meditation.
We have all lived past lives andI'm very certain that most
people have no idea just howmuch the experiences and the
(00:47):
things that we've learned in ourpast lives influence us today
from how we think to how we act,to how we relate to one another.
Our unique personality traits,our quirks.
These things didn't just appearout of nowhere.
They're all a result ofexperiences that we've had in
past lives.
I have a very clear and distinctmemory of being a Japanese
hermit back in the 1700s Now, mylife back then and my life now
(01:11):
are very different.
But there are some strikingsimilarities, I believe that
there is a very good reason thatI remember this past life and
other past lives because thereare mistakes that I've made that
I do not wanna repeat.
So make sure that you listen allthe way to the end because you
might have more in common with aJapanese hermit from the 17
hundreds than you think.
(01:31):
If you resonate with thiscomment, I invite you to like,
share, subscribe, leave acomment, and leave a review on
whatever platform you're on.
It only takes a couple secondsand every little bit helps, the
powers that be and thealgorithms definitely don't push
this kind of content.
So I greatly appreciate anysupport that comes my way.
After my funeral scene.
(01:52):
The next thing I remember wasbeing eight or nine years old
and going to the city for thefirst time.
I was born on a small farm in avery rural area.
My family basically lived inabject poverty.
My father was a hired hand onthe farm, and my mother helped
out when she could, but shespent most of her time looking
after myself and my two youngersisters.
(02:12):
This farm that I grew up on wasincredibly beautiful.
It was away from any denselypopulated areas or metropolitan
centers in a very lush andserene place full of natural
beauty.
I absolutely loved it there.
We grew vegetables, had ricepatties.
There were oxen to help withsome of the field work.
(02:34):
We had chickens As a smallchild, I just loved being
outside.
I loved being in nature.
I loved being with the animals,and although we didn't own the
farm, there were other peoplewho worked there as well.
So there were children that weremy age that I could play with
and that I basically grew upwith and we were like family
(02:56):
although the environment in thefarm were amazing within our
family dynamics, things weren'tso great.
My father was a degenerategambler and drunk, and there
were always issues.
He always owed people money.
He was always getting in troublefor being late to work.
It was always something withhim.
(03:17):
Whenever he made money, he wouldspend it on things he didn't
need for himself whileneglecting my mother and myself
and my sisters.
It was a really unfortunatesituation.
And God bless my mother.
She was our anchor.
She looked after the childrenand helped out on the farm as
she could.
She was an incredibly strongwoman and just an anchor and a
(03:38):
pillar of strength within ourfamily.
She was basically all that mysisters and I had.
And all in all, there was a lotof perks to being on the farm.
It was a clean and peacefulenvironment and we were able to
live a fairly happy existence ina happy life.
But at some point that allchanged.
Around the age of eight or nine,something happened.
(04:00):
I'm not entirely sure what itwas, but my father got us kicked
off the farm again.
He was a, a degenerate andalways getting into trouble and
causing mischief.
Not an honest man.
He did something that reallycrossed the line with the man
who owned the farm.
(04:20):
And although I knew that thatman loved us, my mother and
myself and my sisters, he had nochoice but to make us leave.
So we packed up everything thatwe had, which really wasn't
much.
We lived in a one bedroom shack,all five of us, the entire
family.
And yeah, everything went intoburlap bags, and we carried all
(04:44):
of our belongings with us intothe city.
My memories of going to the cityfor the first time are very
vivid because it was shocking tome my entire life was spent on
that farm.
I think we traveled to a littlevillage that was nearby once in
a while.
Again, my father didn't haveanything to sell, so we didn't
really have a reason to leavethe farm.
(05:07):
There were some communitygatherings that we would go to
off the farm, but for the mostpart, up until that point, my
life was contained in a verysmall area.
I hadn't ventured far from thefarm whatsoever.
It took us three or four days ofwalking along this road to get
(05:27):
to the city and.
I will never forget it because Iwas completely shocked by the
amount of people, the hustle andthe bustle.
And really the, the first thingthat blew my mind was seeing a
two story house.
I had never seen a two storybuilding and it completely
(05:48):
shocked me.
And, and it had never occurredto me that you could stack two
houses on top of each other.
It was totally a foreign conceptto me.
I'd never seen anything like it.
The other thing that reallystood out from the very
beginning, the first time I wentthere were the horses on our
farm.
We had oxen and I think waterbuffalo slash oxen, something
(06:12):
like that.
We had chickens.
And I really loved all theanimals.
And I'd seen, I think, donkeysonce or twice traveling
merchants would come by with,uh, with donkeys or, or very
small horses.
But when we went to the city,they had enormous, tall, strong,
and muscular workhorses.
(06:33):
And to me it was just amazing.
I couldn't believe how big thesecreatures were and how people
were utilizing them to do somuch work and to pull heavy
loads and carts and all of thosekinds of things.
I, and the reason we had to gointo the city was because my
father needed work.
The farm that we were at was nolonger a place where he could
(06:56):
stay.
And everybody in the area, allthe surrounding neighbors, I.
They all knew about my fatherand the trouble and the mischief
he caused, so nobody's willingto take him on as a laborer.
The next best option was to goto the city because the city was
at the mouth of a river, whichled to the sea, and there was a
(07:17):
big harbor there, and there wasa large port, and there was
always work on the port, whetherit was working on fishing boats,
offloading fishing boats,helping to offload cargo from
different boats.
There was always something goingon and people who needed manual
labor.
One thing that I recall veryclearly is having intense
(07:40):
emotions of absolutely detestingthe city.
I hated it.
I missed the farm.
I missed the animals.
I missed my friends.
I missed my way of life.
To me, I felt so out of place inthe city.
All the people, the dirtiness,the pollution, people didn't
respect each other's spaces, andpeople didn't respect nature.
(08:04):
They were polluting the river,which was polluting the sea.
The air was dirty.
It smelled bad.
There was absolutely nothingabout the city that I liked.
Because of our situation, formaleducation was basically out of
the question.
So as soon as I got there, Istarted working on the docs.
I helped fishermen and all kindsof merchants.
(08:25):
I did odd jobs.
I did whatever I could to gain alittle bit of money so that I
could help support the family Astime went on, I grew to resent
my father, the city, and mysituation more and more and
more.
I knew that I had to get out ofthere, despite not having a
formal education.
My mother did the best she couldto educate us, and she did that
(08:46):
through storytelling andparables.
And growing up, my favoritestories were all about this wise
old sage who was a hermit wholived in the mountains.
I was captivated by the idea ofliving out in nature, in peace
and quiet in tranquility,spending my days in meditation,
tending my garden, and justbeing one with nature.
(09:08):
I.
My longing for the farm and thatsimpler way of life never went
away and actually only gotstronger over time finally at
the age of about 15 or 16, I hitmy breaking point and I decided
that I was going to go live inthe mountains as a hermit.
I wanted to taste the samefreedom that the wise old sage
(09:28):
and the stories got toexperience.
Nobody telling me what to do,not needing anything from
anybody.
I wanted freedom from allresponsibilities.
I didn't need anything.
I didn't want anything.
I didn't want anybody to tell mewhat to do.
I wanted to be in charge of myown life.
This is a feeling and asentiment that resonates within
me today.
I feel it very strongly.
(09:50):
I am here to be on my own path,and I believe all of us are here
to be on our own paths.
And that our families, oursocieties, our communities, they
mold us and they try to keep usin these small boxes.
But somewhere inside of all ofus is a larger version of
ourself that wants to beexpressed that doesn't fit into
(10:11):
anybody's box.
That was what I wanted, completeand total freedom to be whoever
I wanted to be.
Back in that time period ofJapan, I believe it.
There was a cast system and Iremember feeling very
restricted.
The fact that I was born on afarm meant that I was a farmer,
(10:31):
and that other vocations andways of life were out of my
reach.
I was told that, and that was myexpectation.
That was my lot in life.
To be a farmer, to be a manuallaborer.
I.
And while I believe being alaborer and being a farmer is an
incredibly noble pursuit, itwasn't all that I wanted to do.
(10:55):
I felt like there was so muchmore to me than just working on
the docs and getting a few coinshere and there for my sweat and
my blood and my tears.
In addition to the stories ofthe sage on the mountain, there
were traveling monks who justwandered around playing their
flutes, and I figured if theycould be free, I could be free
(11:18):
too.
So at 16 years old, I came upwith a plan to escape the city
and live out my life in peaceand solitude on the mountain.
the city I lived in was built onfairly flat ground around the
mouth of this river, and thisriver led into a bay, and the
bay opened up into the sea.
The mountains that I wanted togo to were visible.
(11:41):
They were fairly close, but theywere closer to the sea.
They basically butted right upagainst and came out of the sea.
Not many people tended toventure out into the mountains
simply because there, therereally wasn't much there.
Down where the city was locatedwas much more hospitable.
The climate was fairly nice.
(12:03):
Because it was inside of the baythe weather that would come in
from the sea, it wasn't so harshwhere the city was and the
weather was a little bit morewarmer and temperate.
But when you got out of the bayand went up into the mountain,
the situation and the climatechanged considerably.
(12:23):
The higher you climbed up themountain and the higher you got
an elevation meant.
There were fewer resources forpeople to live off of.
but I really had no idea where Iwas going or what I was going to
be doing.
the only thing that I knew wasthat I had to get out of the
city.
My move out of the city and upto the mountain didn't just
happen overnight.
(12:43):
It was a very gradual processthat took about two years to
accomplish.
I told my mom and my sisterswhat I had planned.
I still felt like I had aresponsibility to my family, to
my mother and my youngersisters.
I was quite estranged from myfather.
I didn't really want to haveanything to do with him at that
point, but I did still love mymother and my sisters.
(13:06):
I also had a couple of cousinsand I'd met, made some friends
and had some acquaintances frompeople that I'd worked with and
people that I knew locally.
My mother was totally against myidea, believe it or not, uh, of
moving up to the mountain.
She thought I was crazy.
She thought I was dangerous.
She thought I was gonna get hurtand she thought something really
(13:27):
bad was gonna happen and that itwas completely inappropriate for
me to leave the family and moveoutta the city.
That being said, she knew howmiserable I was and wanted the
best for me, and she didn'tfight too hard and didn't put up
too much resistance when Istarted taking little excursions
(13:47):
and taking little treks up tothe mountain, and that's how it
started.
I didn't know exactly where Iwas going or where my Hermitage
was gonna be.
I just knew that I needed toget.
Far from the city.
So over the next year I startedexploring the area and the
mountain and taking little trekshere and there and trying to
(14:09):
find what the best locationwould be, trying to find a place
with water and shelter.
I knew I was gonna have to buildpretty much everything that I
would need.
As far as living arrangements,including a hut and whatever
else I wanted.
So I really had to take my timeand find a location that was
(14:30):
going to suit my needs.
As the search for my new homeintensified.
I worked less and less and spentmore and more time up on the
mountains, scouting around.
Initially, I would leave earlyin the morning and come home
late in the evening, and then Iwould be gone overnight, and
then I would be gone over twonights, and then I'd be gone for
four nights and then a week.
(14:51):
And during those times, I wasconstantly searching and seeking
to find the right place.
I'd spend a little time here andsee if that was suitable, spend
a little time in anotherlocation to see if that was
suitable.
And I just looked around and Ibelieved that when I found the
right place, I would know Afterabout a year, I found my future
home.
The place where I had decided toset up camp was not easy to get
(15:14):
to, so I was not worried aboutbeing bothered up there.
And the views and the nature upthere was absolutely
breathtaking.
From the city where I lived, Iwould take a road heading south,
and at a certain point it forkedoff and I would take the Western
fork and I would be on that roadfor about three hours.
(15:37):
Basically, it wound around thesouth side of the bay and headed
towards the sea.
At a certain point, that roadbecame less and less of a road
and more of a path for carts.
And then even further down, itbecame more of a footpath.
Until eventually, there was nopath.
From there I continued onsouthwest along the coast, which
(16:00):
started to go up into themountains and there was really
no path there.
I was just out on my own bushwhacking and exploring and
making my own path.
Once I left the road, it was asix hour uphill climb to my
spot.
It wasn't exactly a treacherousor really dangerous climb, but
it certainly wasn't for thefaint of heart, and people
(16:22):
wouldn't be going up thereunless they had a good reason
to.
I, Once I found the right placeand made up my mind as to where
my hermitage would be, I startedpreparing by carrying soil up
there for several months on mydays off.
In between work, I would go outthere, walk three hours to the
bottom of the mountain, gathersoil in a burlap bag and carry
(16:46):
it up the mountain.
I wanted to have my own littlegarden up there, and I found a
place with a rock overhang wherethere was adequate sunlight,
where water didn't run through,and I basically made a little
garden.
There was no soil up there.
I had to carry everything Ineeded up there.
So I made many, many, many tripswith these burlap bags full of
(17:12):
dirt up the mountain.
But eventually I had enough soiland had enough material up there
to be able to plant a decentlittle garden.
I also had to carry all thematerial for my hut.
Now this hut was very basic, andthe spot that I found it was
very convenient because therewas.
(17:33):
Kind of a little cave that Ijust started to occupy and built
out around the front of it.
So it wasn't a lot of buildingthat I had to do, but there were
some things that I had to patchup.
I had a little thatch roof andbasically it was a, just a one
room shack that was built intothe side of this mountain.
(17:53):
there Was a natural springnearby, so I didn't have indoor
plumbing, not even close, but Ididn't have to go all that far
to get fresh water.
Fresh water was always availableto me when I wanted it.
I just had to go get it.
This process of building out mygarden and the shack took a few
months.
But once I found the spot, theprocess of building out my
(18:15):
hermitage took probably lessthan a year.
And the more and more I got myspot built out, the more and
more time I spent up there.
So it was a gradual moving awayfrom the city.
I would go back here and therenow and then when I needed to
for a little bit of money or tosay hi to my family and let them
know I was all right.
(18:36):
But for the most part, it was avery gradual movement towards my
place up on the mountain.
I didn't tell anybody exactlywhere it was.
I wanted this place to be on myown and I didn't want to have
guests come by unannounced.
Uh,, I think it was a coupleyears.
I didn't tell anybody where itwas.
(18:57):
I.
But at a certain point, Ibrought my sister and I had two
sisters, the youngest sister.
She didn't really understand meas well, and she didn't
understand why I was doing whatI was doing.
She felt more hurt that I wasleaving.
She didn't have such a deep, uh,affiliation to the farm and to
(19:19):
nature, not as much as I didbecause she was still quite
young when we, when we moved tothe city.
So it was more natural to her.
My, the middle sister, sheunderstood me more and I was
closer to her.
So she was the first person Ibrought up to my little shack.
Over time, I brought up a coupleof my cousins and a couple of
(19:41):
friends and acquaintances thatI'd made in the city, but in
reality, I didn't really go downto the city very often.
Once I was established up there,I only made one or two trips
down to the city every year,when I really needed supplies, I
would go into town, but I wouldspend as little time there as
necessary because I really justdid not like it whatsoever.
(20:03):
I would get what I needed.
I would stop to see my family,briefly say hello to everybody,
and then I would continue on myway back up to the mountain and
that's how I lived.
Occasionally my sister or acousin would come up and they
would bring supplies, but that'sessentially how I lived for the
rest of my life.
Coming down to the city aslittle as possible and spending
the majority of my time up inthe solitude and peace on the
(20:27):
mountain.
The life of a hermit wasn'tnecessarily easy.
It wasn't necessarily full ofjoy and good times, but I did
find it incredibly rewarding anddeeply fulfilling.
I spent my time doing exactlywhat I wanted to do.
I drank tea.
I tended my garden, and Imeditated.
I had different meditativepractices.
(20:48):
I would do sun gazing.
I would play my shaku hachi, andI would draw For those of you
who don't know, a Shaku Hachi isan end blown bamboo flute.
It's no coincidence that I havea deep love for flutes and
particularly end blown bambooflutes.
Admittedly, I don't play myshaku hachi that often, but when
(21:09):
I do, it just takes me to adifferent place.
(21:31):
I grew up on a small farm inrural Minnesota, and by all
means, I should be listening tocountry music and classic rock.
So is it any coincidence I.
That I love Chakko Haji music.
Probably not.
It's amazing what we can findout about ourselves when we get
really curious and start to doinner exploration.
(21:53):
My creative impulse went beyondjust playing the kochi.
I would get big rolls ofparchment paper and use charcoal
to create these large, expansivescenes of nature, often
including mountains overlookingthe ocean.
initially started creating thesedrawings just because I loved
doing it.
But after a while I found outthat I could take these drawings
(22:13):
into town and sell them, andthat was ultimately how I made
all the money that I needed tosupport myself through selling
my artwork.
I would either go into town andsell it myself, or when somebody
would come visit me, they wouldtake my artwork down with them,
sell it, and bring me upsupplies or whatever I needed on
their next trip up.
I had a nice little system goingof people who would come visit
(22:36):
me and bring me things so that Iwouldn't have to make as many
trips down to the city.
And that suited me just fine.
Eventually, my artwork gotpretty popular and I got to be
well known as the hermit up onthe mountain.
And spending as much time as Idid in solitude on the mountain
in meditation.
I actually became quite wise andlearned quite a few lessons.
(22:59):
Nature is the greatest teacher,and I spent a lot of time being
taught by nature.
As I got older, people wanted tolearn from me.
People that I didn't know wantedto come up and spend time with
me for different reasons.
There were quite a few peopleover the years who sought me out
for advice.
In a way, I became a bit of alocal legend.
But even though people wereseeking me out, I still fully
(23:22):
rejected and in my heart ofhearts held resentment towards
civilization.
On some level, I have to admit,there was a sense of guilt and
shame.
I looked down on humans, onpeople.
I could see the, the pollution,the way people didn't respect
nature and they didn't respectthemselves.
(23:45):
And by the fact that I was ahuman, I held resentment towards
myself.
I also deeply distrusted people.
There was a wound from myfather.
That never got healed in somesense.
I ran away from healing thatneeded to be done.
(24:05):
I, I guess in a sense, you couldthink of it as spiritual
bypassing.
On one hand, I did grow wise andI learned a lot.
On the other hand, these hardfeelings that were inside of me,
they didn't get resolved, andthey festered and they hardened,
and they turned me into acrotchety old man.
I was often dismissive and rudeto people who were kind to me
(24:25):
for no reason other than thefact that I had this old grudge
against my father.
The longer I lived up on themountain in solitude, the fewer
opportunities I gave myself towork through those old patterns
and those limiting beliefs.
And this was how the later partof my life played out.
Fast forward to the scene whereI'm looking down at my corpse
(24:46):
floating up above my body.
At that instant, I had a massiverealization that I had made a
huge mistake.
It didn't matter how much wisdomthat I gained, what mattered was
my ability to share it withpeople.
My ability to use that wisdomfor good, my ability to share
the gifts that mother natureimparted on me with others to
(25:08):
make the world a better place.
I hoarded my wisdom and Ihoarded my knowledge as if there
was something special about me,as if I deserved it and nobody
else did in that life.
I had a massive opportunity tomake a big impact on a lot of
people, but I chose to staysmall.
I chose to stay in my comfortzone upon the mountain and not
(25:31):
put myself out there, not stepout of my comfort zone, not be
around people, and put myself insituations that were challenging
to me in one way.
It was challenging to be on themountain.
But after a while, that justbecame my normal Knowledge and
wisdom only matter when they'reshared.
And to share those gifts comingfrom a place of love only
(25:53):
amplifies that knowledge andwisdom.
We all have the ability to havea positive impact on the world.
Sure Isolation can bringmastery.
But connection gives thatmastery a purpose.
What is your purpose?
Why are you here?
What is that unique, specialthing that spark that's inside
of you that you can share withthe world that would make a
(26:15):
difference for everybody aroundyou?
Life is such a precious gift,and we have an incredible
opportunity to make the world abetter place and to learn more
about ourselves, and in doingso, helping others along the
way.
Exploring our past lives is onlyone of many ways that we can go
inward and learn more about oursoul's journey.
(26:36):
If you're curious about your ownsoul's journey, go to this video
right here where I talk aboutreincarnation.
Give solid evidence for it, andgive you tips on how you can get
started on your own journey ofself-discovery.
Oddly enough, the first thing I
remember is floating up in theair, looking down at my own dead
body.
My corpse was laying on a flatpiece of granite out in the
open.
There were a handful of candleslit around it, and seven people,
and it was at that moment whereI realized that I had made a big
mistake.
(00:24):
What is up?
I'm Ian with alternatetimelines, and today I'm gonna
be sharing a story of a pastlife memory.
This is the very first memorythat came to me the very first
time I did a self-guided pastlife regression meditation.
We have all lived past lives andI'm very certain that most
people have no idea just howmuch the experiences and the
(00:47):
things that we've learned in ourpast lives influence us today
from how we think to how we act,to how we relate to one another.
Our unique personality traits,our quirks.
These things didn't just appearout of nowhere.
They're all a result ofexperiences that we've had in
past lives.
I have a very clear and distinctmemory of being a Japanese
hermit back in the 1700s Now, mylife back then and my life now
(01:11):
are very different.
But there are some strikingsimilarities, I believe that
there is a very good reason thatI remember this past life and
other past lives because thereare mistakes that I've made that
I do not wanna repeat.
So make sure that you listen allthe way to the end because you
might have more in common with aJapanese hermit from the 17
hundreds than you think.
(01:31):
If you resonate with thiscomment, I invite you to like,
share, subscribe, leave acomment, and leave a review on
whatever platform you're on.
It only takes a couple secondsand every little bit helps, the
powers that be and thealgorithms definitely don't push
this kind of content.
So I greatly appreciate anysupport that comes my way.
After my funeral scene.
(01:52):
The next thing I remember wasbeing eight or nine years old
and going to the city for thefirst time.
I was born on a small farm in avery rural area.
My family basically lived inabject poverty.
My father was a hired hand onthe farm, and my mother helped
out when she could, but shespent most of her time looking
after myself and my two youngersisters.
(02:12):
This farm that I grew up on wasincredibly beautiful.
It was away from any denselypopulated areas or metropolitan
centers in a very lush andserene place full of natural
beauty.
I absolutely loved it there.
We grew vegetables, had ricepatties.
There were oxen to help withsome of the field work.
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We had chickens As a smallchild, I just loved being
outside.
I loved being in nature.
I loved being with the animals,and although we didn't own the
farm, there were other peoplewho worked there as well.
So there were children that weremy age that I could play with
and that I basically grew upwith and we were like family
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although the environment in thefarm were amazing within our
family dynamics, things weren'tso great.
My father was a degenerategambler and drunk, and there
were always issues.
He always owed people money.
He was always getting in troublefor being late to work.
It was always something withhim.
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Whenever he made money, he wouldspend it on things he didn't
need for himself whileneglecting my mother and myself
and my sisters.
It was a really unfortunatesituation.
And God bless my mother.
She was our anchor.
She looked after the childrenand helped out on the farm as
she could.
She was an incredibly strongwoman and just an anchor and a
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pillar of strength within ourfamily.
She was basically all that mysisters and I had.
And all in all, there was a lotof perks to being on the farm.
It was a clean and peacefulenvironment and we were able to
live a fairly happy existence ina happy life.
But at some point that allchanged.
Around the age of eight or nine,something happened.
(04:00):
I'm not entirely sure what itwas, but my father got us kicked
off the farm again.
He was a, a degenerate andalways getting into trouble and
causing mischief.
Not an honest man.
He did something that reallycrossed the line with the man
who owned the farm.
(04:20):
And although I knew that thatman loved us, my mother and
myself and my sisters, he had nochoice but to make us leave.
So we packed up everything thatwe had, which really wasn't
much.
We lived in a one bedroom shack,all five of us, the entire
family.
And yeah, everything went intoburlap bags, and we carried all
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of our belongings with us intothe city.
My memories of going to the cityfor the first time are very
vivid because it was shocking tome my entire life was spent on
that farm.
I think we traveled to a littlevillage that was nearby once in
a while.
Again, my father didn't haveanything to sell, so we didn't
really have a reason to leavethe farm.
(05:07):
There were some communitygatherings that we would go to
off the farm, but for the mostpart, up until that point, my
life was contained in a verysmall area.
I hadn't ventured far from thefarm whatsoever.
It took us three or four days ofwalking along this road to get
(05:27):
to the city and.
I will never forget it because Iwas completely shocked by the
amount of people, the hustle andthe bustle.
And really the, the first thingthat blew my mind was seeing a
two story house.
I had never seen a two storybuilding and it completely
(05:48):
shocked me.
And, and it had never occurredto me that you could stack two
houses on top of each other.
It was totally a foreign conceptto me.
I'd never seen anything like it.
The other thing that reallystood out from the very
beginning, the first time I wentthere were the horses on our
farm.
We had oxen and I think waterbuffalo slash oxen, something
(06:12):
like that.
We had chickens.
And I really loved all theanimals.
And I'd seen, I think, donkeysonce or twice traveling
merchants would come by with,uh, with donkeys or, or very
small horses.
But when we went to the city,they had enormous, tall, strong,
and muscular workhorses.
(06:33):
And to me it was just amazing.
I couldn't believe how big thesecreatures were and how people
were utilizing them to do somuch work and to pull heavy
loads and carts and all of thosekinds of things.
I, and the reason we had to gointo the city was because my
father needed work.
The farm that we were at was nolonger a place where he could
(06:56):
stay.
And everybody in the area, allthe surrounding neighbors, I.
They all knew about my fatherand the trouble and the mischief
he caused, so nobody's willingto take him on as a laborer.
The next best option was to goto the city because the city was
at the mouth of a river, whichled to the sea, and there was a
(07:17):
big harbor there, and there wasa large port, and there was
always work on the port, whetherit was working on fishing boats,
offloading fishing boats,helping to offload cargo from
different boats.
There was always something goingon and people who needed manual
labor.
One thing that I recall veryclearly is having intense
(07:40):
emotions of absolutely detestingthe city.
I hated it.
I missed the farm.
I missed the animals.
I missed my friends.
I missed my way of life.
To me, I felt so out of place inthe city.
All the people, the dirtiness,the pollution, people didn't
respect each other's spaces, andpeople didn't respect nature.
(08:04):
They were polluting the river,which was polluting the sea.
The air was dirty.
It smelled bad.
There was absolutely nothingabout the city that I liked.
Because of our situation, formaleducation was basically out of
the question.
So as soon as I got there, Istarted working on the docs.
I helped fishermen and all kindsof merchants.
(08:25):
I did odd jobs.
I did whatever I could to gain alittle bit of money so that I
could help support the family Astime went on, I grew to resent
my father, the city, and mysituation more and more and
more.
I knew that I had to get out ofthere, despite not having a
formal education.
My mother did the best she couldto educate us, and she did that
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through storytelling andparables.
And growing up, my favoritestories were all about this wise
old sage who was a hermit wholived in the mountains.
I was captivated by the idea ofliving out in nature, in peace
and quiet in tranquility,spending my days in meditation,
tending my garden, and justbeing one with nature.
(09:08):
I.
My longing for the farm and thatsimpler way of life never went
away and actually only gotstronger over time finally at
the age of about 15 or 16, I hitmy breaking point and I decided
that I was going to go live inthe mountains as a hermit.
I wanted to taste the samefreedom that the wise old sage
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and the stories got toexperience.
Nobody telling me what to do,not needing anything from
anybody.
I wanted freedom from allresponsibilities.
I didn't need anything.
I didn't want anything.
I didn't want anybody to tell mewhat to do.
I wanted to be in charge of myown life.
This is a feeling and asentiment that resonates within
me today.
I feel it very strongly.
(09:50):
I am here to be on my own path,and I believe all of us are here
to be on our own paths.
And that our families, oursocieties, our communities, they
mold us and they try to keep usin these small boxes.
But somewhere inside of all ofus is a larger version of
ourself that wants to beexpressed that doesn't fit into
(10:11):
anybody's box.
That was what I wanted, completeand total freedom to be whoever
I wanted to be.
Back in that time period ofJapan, I believe it.
There was a cast system and Iremember feeling very
restricted.
The fact that I was born on afarm meant that I was a farmer,
(10:31):
and that other vocations andways of life were out of my
reach.
I was told that, and that was myexpectation.
That was my lot in life.
To be a farmer, to be a manuallaborer.
I.
And while I believe being alaborer and being a farmer is an
incredibly noble pursuit, itwasn't all that I wanted to do.
(10:55):
I felt like there was so muchmore to me than just working on
the docs and getting a few coinshere and there for my sweat and
my blood and my tears.
In addition to the stories ofthe sage on the mountain, there
were traveling monks who justwandered around playing their
flutes, and I figured if theycould be free, I could be free
(11:18):
too.
So at 16 years old, I came upwith a plan to escape the city
and live out my life in peaceand solitude on the mountain.
the city I lived in was built onfairly flat ground around the
mouth of this river, and thisriver led into a bay, and the
bay opened up into the sea.
The mountains that I wanted togo to were visible.
(11:41):
They were fairly close, but theywere closer to the sea.
They basically butted right upagainst and came out of the sea.
Not many people tended toventure out into the mountains
simply because there, therereally wasn't much there.
Down where the city was locatedwas much more hospitable.
The climate was fairly nice.
(12:03):
Because it was inside of the baythe weather that would come in
from the sea, it wasn't so harshwhere the city was and the
weather was a little bit morewarmer and temperate.
But when you got out of the bayand went up into the mountain,
the situation and the climatechanged considerably.
(12:23):
The higher you climbed up themountain and the higher you got
an elevation meant.
There were fewer resources forpeople to live off of.
but I really had no idea where Iwas going or what I was going to
be doing.
the only thing that I knew wasthat I had to get out of the
city.
My move out of the city and upto the mountain didn't just
happen overnight.
(12:43):
It was a very gradual processthat took about two years to
accomplish.
I told my mom and my sisterswhat I had planned.
I still felt like I had aresponsibility to my family, to
my mother and my youngersisters.
I was quite estranged from myfather.
I didn't really want to haveanything to do with him at that
point, but I did still love mymother and my sisters.
(13:06):
I also had a couple of cousinsand I'd met, made some friends
and had some acquaintances frompeople that I'd worked with and
people that I knew locally.
My mother was totally against myidea, believe it or not, uh, of
moving up to the mountain.
She thought I was crazy.
She thought I was dangerous.
She thought I was gonna get hurtand she thought something really
(13:27):
bad was gonna happen and that itwas completely inappropriate for
me to leave the family and moveoutta the city.
That being said, she knew howmiserable I was and wanted the
best for me, and she didn'tfight too hard and didn't put up
too much resistance when Istarted taking little excursions
(13:47):
and taking little treks up tothe mountain, and that's how it
started.
I didn't know exactly where Iwas going or where my Hermitage
was gonna be.
I just knew that I needed toget.
Far from the city.
So over the next year I startedexploring the area and the
mountain and taking little trekshere and there and trying to
(14:09):
find what the best locationwould be, trying to find a place
with water and shelter.
I knew I was gonna have to buildpretty much everything that I
would need.
As far as living arrangements,including a hut and whatever
else I wanted.
So I really had to take my timeand find a location that was
(14:30):
going to suit my needs.
As the search for my new homeintensified.
I worked less and less and spentmore and more time up on the
mountains, scouting around.
Initially, I would leave earlyin the morning and come home
late in the evening, and then Iwould be gone overnight, and
then I would be gone over twonights, and then I'd be gone for
four nights and then a week.
(14:51):
And during those times, I wasconstantly searching and seeking
to find the right place.
I'd spend a little time here andsee if that was suitable, spend
a little time in anotherlocation to see if that was
suitable.
And I just looked around and Ibelieved that when I found the
right place, I would know Afterabout a year, I found my future
home.
The place where I had decided toset up camp was not easy to get
(15:14):
to, so I was not worried aboutbeing bothered up there.
And the views and the nature upthere was absolutely
breathtaking.
From the city where I lived, Iwould take a road heading south,
and at a certain point it forkedoff and I would take the Western
fork and I would be on that roadfor about three hours.
(15:37):
Basically, it wound around thesouth side of the bay and headed
towards the sea.
At a certain point, that roadbecame less and less of a road
and more of a path for carts.
And then even further down, itbecame more of a footpath.
Until eventually, there was nopath.
From there I continued onsouthwest along the coast, which
(16:00):
started to go up into themountains and there was really
no path there.
I was just out on my own bushwhacking and exploring and
making my own path.
Once I left the road, it was asix hour uphill climb to my
spot.
It wasn't exactly a treacherousor really dangerous climb, but
it certainly wasn't for thefaint of heart, and people
(16:22):
wouldn't be going up thereunless they had a good reason
to.
I, Once I found the right placeand made up my mind as to where
my hermitage would be, I startedpreparing by carrying soil up
there for several months on mydays off.
In between work, I would go outthere, walk three hours to the
bottom of the mountain, gathersoil in a burlap bag and carry
(16:46):
it up the mountain.
I wanted to have my own littlegarden up there, and I found a
place with a rock overhang wherethere was adequate sunlight,
where water didn't run through,and I basically made a little
garden.
There was no soil up there.
I had to carry everything Ineeded up there.
So I made many, many, many tripswith these burlap bags full of
(17:12):
dirt up the mountain.
But eventually I had enough soiland had enough material up there
to be able to plant a decentlittle garden.
I also had to carry all thematerial for my hut.
Now this hut was very basic, andthe spot that I found it was
very convenient because therewas.
(17:33):
Kind of a little cave that Ijust started to occupy and built
out around the front of it.
So it wasn't a lot of buildingthat I had to do, but there were
some things that I had to patchup.
I had a little thatch roof andbasically it was a, just a one
room shack that was built intothe side of this mountain.
(17:53):
there Was a natural springnearby, so I didn't have indoor
plumbing, not even close, but Ididn't have to go all that far
to get fresh water.
Fresh water was always availableto me when I wanted it.
I just had to go get it.
This process of building out mygarden and the shack took a few
months.
But once I found the spot, theprocess of building out my
(18:15):
hermitage took probably lessthan a year.
And the more and more I got myspot built out, the more and
more time I spent up there.
So it was a gradual moving awayfrom the city.
I would go back here and therenow and then when I needed to
for a little bit of money or tosay hi to my family and let them
know I was all right.
(18:36):
But for the most part, it was avery gradual movement towards my
place up on the mountain.
I didn't tell anybody exactlywhere it was.
I wanted this place to be on myown and I didn't want to have
guests come by unannounced.
Uh,, I think it was a coupleyears.
I didn't tell anybody where itwas.
(18:57):
I.
But at a certain point, Ibrought my sister and I had two
sisters, the youngest sister.
She didn't really understand meas well, and she didn't
understand why I was doing whatI was doing.
She felt more hurt that I wasleaving.
She didn't have such a deep, uh,affiliation to the farm and to
(19:19):
nature, not as much as I didbecause she was still quite
young when we, when we moved tothe city.
So it was more natural to her.
My, the middle sister, sheunderstood me more and I was
closer to her.
So she was the first person Ibrought up to my little shack.
Over time, I brought up a coupleof my cousins and a couple of
(19:41):
friends and acquaintances thatI'd made in the city, but in
reality, I didn't really go downto the city very often.
Once I was established up there,I only made one or two trips
down to the city every year,when I really needed supplies, I
would go into town, but I wouldspend as little time there as
necessary because I really justdid not like it whatsoever.
(20:03):
I would get what I needed.
I would stop to see my family,briefly say hello to everybody,
and then I would continue on myway back up to the mountain and
that's how I lived.
Occasionally my sister or acousin would come up and they
would bring supplies, but that'sessentially how I lived for the
rest of my life.
Coming down to the city aslittle as possible and spending
the majority of my time up inthe solitude and peace on the
(20:27):
mountain.
The life of a hermit wasn'tnecessarily easy.
It wasn't necessarily full ofjoy and good times, but I did
find it incredibly rewarding anddeeply fulfilling.
I spent my time doing exactlywhat I wanted to do.
I drank tea.
I tended my garden, and Imeditated.
I had different meditativepractices.
(20:48):
I would do sun gazing.
I would play my shaku hachi, andI would draw For those of you
who don't know, a Shaku Hachi isan end blown bamboo flute.
It's no coincidence that I havea deep love for flutes and
particularly end blown bambooflutes.
Admittedly, I don't play myshaku hachi that often, but when
(21:09):
I do, it just takes me to adifferent place.
(21:31):
I grew up on a small farm inrural Minnesota, and by all
means, I should be listening tocountry music and classic rock.
So is it any coincidence I.
That I love Chakko Haji music.
Probably not.
It's amazing what we can findout about ourselves when we get
really curious and start to doinner exploration.
(21:53):
My creative impulse went beyondjust playing the kochi.
I would get big rolls ofparchment paper and use charcoal
to create these large, expansivescenes of nature, often
including mountains overlookingthe ocean.
initially started creating thesedrawings just because I loved
doing it.
But after a while I found outthat I could take these drawings
(22:13):
into town and sell them, andthat was ultimately how I made
all the money that I needed tosupport myself through selling
my artwork.
I would either go into town andsell it myself, or when somebody
would come visit me, they wouldtake my artwork down with them,
sell it, and bring me upsupplies or whatever I needed on
their next trip up.
I had a nice little system goingof people who would come visit
(22:36):
me and bring me things so that Iwouldn't have to make as many
trips down to the city.
And that suited me just fine.
Eventually, my artwork gotpretty popular and I got to be
well known as the hermit up onthe mountain.
And spending as much time as Idid in solitude on the mountain
in meditation.
I actually became quite wise andlearned quite a few lessons.
(22:59):
Nature is the greatest teacher,and I spent a lot of time being
taught by nature.
As I got older, people wanted tolearn from me.
People that I didn't know wantedto come up and spend time with
me for different reasons.
There were quite a few peopleover the years who sought me out
for advice.
In a way, I became a bit of alocal legend.
But even though people wereseeking me out, I still fully
(23:22):
rejected and in my heart ofhearts held resentment towards
civilization.
On some level, I have to admit,there was a sense of guilt and
shame.
I looked down on humans, onpeople.
I could see the, the pollution,the way people didn't respect
nature and they didn't respectthemselves.
(23:45):
And by the fact that I was ahuman, I held resentment towards
myself.
I also deeply distrusted people.
There was a wound from myfather.
That never got healed in somesense.
I ran away from healing thatneeded to be done.
(24:05):
I, I guess in a sense, you couldthink of it as spiritual
bypassing.
On one hand, I did grow wise andI learned a lot.
On the other hand, these hardfeelings that were inside of me,
they didn't get resolved, andthey festered and they hardened,
and they turned me into acrotchety old man.
I was often dismissive and rudeto people who were kind to me
(24:25):
for no reason other than thefact that I had this old grudge
against my father.
The longer I lived up on themountain in solitude, the fewer
opportunities I gave myself towork through those old patterns
and those limiting beliefs.
And this was how the later partof my life played out.
Fast forward to the scene whereI'm looking down at my corpse
(24:46):
floating up above my body.
At that instant, I had a massiverealization that I had made a
huge mistake.
It didn't matter how much wisdomthat I gained, what mattered was
my ability to share it withpeople.
My ability to use that wisdomfor good, my ability to share
the gifts that mother natureimparted on me with others to
(25:08):
make the world a better place.
I hoarded my wisdom and Ihoarded my knowledge as if there
was something special about me,as if I deserved it and nobody
else did in that life.
I had a massive opportunity tomake a big impact on a lot of
people, but I chose to staysmall.
I chose to stay in my comfortzone upon the mountain and not
(25:31):
put myself out there, not stepout of my comfort zone, not be
around people, and put myself insituations that were challenging
to me in one way.
It was challenging to be on themountain.
But after a while, that justbecame my normal Knowledge and
wisdom only matter when they'reshared.
And to share those gifts comingfrom a place of love only
(25:53):
amplifies that knowledge andwisdom.
We all have the ability to havea positive impact on the world.
Sure Isolation can bringmastery.
But connection gives thatmastery a purpose.
What is your purpose?
Why are you here?
What is that unique, specialthing that spark that's inside
of you that you can share withthe world that would make a
(26:15):
difference for everybody aroundyou?
Life is such a precious gift,and we have an incredible
opportunity to make the world abetter place and to learn more
about ourselves, and in doingso, helping others along the
way.
Exploring our past lives is onlyone of many ways that we can go
inward and learn more about oursoul's journey.
(26:36):
If you're curious about your ownsoul's journey, go to this video
right here where I talk aboutreincarnation.
Give solid evidence for it, andgive you tips on how you can get
started on your own journey ofself-discovery.
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