April 30, 2025 • 57 mins
Join Ed Watters on the Dead America Podcast for an inspiring conversation with Richard Tierney, the visionary behind Trauma Recovery Anonymous. In this heartfelt episode, Richard opens up about his personal journey of overcoming childhood trauma and addiction, highlighting the transformative impact of the 12-step AA program.
Now residing in Thailand with his family, Richard shares how his own healing experience led him to develop a unique trauma recovery program that has already helped over 100 clients break free from the chains of their past. Combining holistic practices, visualization techniques, and a strong spiritual foundation, his approach provides a comprehensive path to healing and growth.
This episode dives into the struggles and triumphs of facing trauma, the power of community support, and the role of spirituality in fostering long-term recovery. Richard’s insights will resonate with anyone seeking to heal from emotional pain, find strength, and reclaim their life.
Whether you're on a personal healing journey or supporting someone who is, this episode offers actionable insights and hope for a brighter future. Tune in to explore the intersection of trauma, recovery, and resilience.
00:00 Introduction to Richard Tierney and His Background
02:09 Richard's Personal Journey with Trauma
03:39 The Turning Point: Embracing the AA Program
06:22 Living in the Present: Richard's Daily Routine
08:54 Understanding Trauma and Recovery
11:47 Finding Your Tribe and Spirituality
18:52 The Power of Dream Prayer and Manifestation
20:30 Accepting God's Role in Life's Challenges
22:29 Labeling Trauma as a Loss of Innocence
26:47 Letting Go of the Past
27:08 The Twelve Step Program for Trauma
28:09 Understanding and Identifying Triggers
28:51 The Challenge of Victim Identity
29:34 Support for Veterans and PTSD
36:03 The Healing Event and Holistic Practices
50:11 Conclusion and Call to Action
51:04 The Power of Visualization and Dream Prayer
Links
https://traumarecoveryanonymous.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:54):
Today we are speaking with RichardTierney, he created a program
called Trauma Recovery Anonymous.
Richard, could you pleaseintroduce yourself?
Let people know just a littlemore about you, please.
Okay, I'm Richard.
Really great to be here.
Thank you for having me, Ed.
Uh, really cool.
I'm loving these podcasts.
(01:15):
I just, before I start, I wanna thankpeople like yourself who wouldn't have a
chance to speak if it wasn't for peoplelike yourself who started these podcasts.
So for that first of all, Iwanna say thank you very much.
Um, my name is Richard Tierney.
I'm originally from Ireland.
I'm living in Thailand.
I'm now married, I've got two teenage,well, they're young adults now,
they're both going to university.
One is twenty and the otheris just turning seventeen.
(01:35):
They're both in university.
Um, I, I came from Ireland originally.
I, I suffered, I'm sorry, Icut myself shaving tonight.
I should've left thebeard on, but I shaved.
And I've got two wounds on either sideof my lips here, so please forgive those.
It's not a, it's not a camerathing, it's me cut myself
shaving in two distinct places.
Seems crazy, I totally cutmyself once and I got two.
(01:56):
Anyway, anyway, that's, that's, trivial.
And I come from Ireland originally,I'm married now, I've got two
teenage, uh, young adults now.
I keep thinking they'rechildren, but they're not.
Um, so, uh, I, I live here.
And I suffered a trauma whenI was twelve years of age.
And it, it, really ruined,ruled and defined me.
And I was a victim for
most of my life.
(02:17):
Most of my, for fortyyears I was a victim.
Hated of the world, afraid ofeverybody and everything, and, uh,
pushed my family away, put my friendsaway, fear of intimacy, of anything
at all trying to have it reach me.
And I got involved in addictions,just trying to escape.
It wasn't that I wanted todie, I didn't want to live.
I felt so ashamed of myself and Ifelt I must have caused my abuse.
(02:38):
I must have sent some signals.
So all that kind of stuff as a child whodoesn't know any, how to deal with this
stuff, was blaming myself for everything.
And I got to stage four in AA, Igot a, what they call a sponsor.
It's like a mentor, someone who teachesyou how to become normal again, how
to deal with and interact with people.
I used to always be going on about myvictimhood, and he said to me one day, he
(02:58):
said to me, Isn't it time you let that go?
I was, I was highly offended.
Who do you think you are saying Ishould let go of this victimhood?
This is who I was, this ismy, my identity, you know?
But it had come to a stage whereI'd actually really got comfortable
having a, a mentor, someone outsidewho was able to like be a father
figure to me and direct me in my life.
(03:19):
And I didn't want to throw that away.
Although normally I'd runfor the hills when someone
would, would challenge me, Ed.
It wasn't like, so they weresaying I'd run for the hills
and they'd never see me again.
But I kind of wanted to keep thisgoing because it's the one kind of
sanity I had in my life was thisperson calling my shots, you know,
calling me on my crap or whatever.
So I kind of decided I'dtry and find some solution.
(03:39):
I love that the AA twelve step program,this spiritual aspect to it, that we're
trying to heal a hole in our soul.
That my trauma, no one can see my trauma.
They can see how it manifests mentally,physically, emotionally, but they
cannot see that hole in my soul.
You know, that I can be looking atyou here today and you can think, Oh,
Richie looks like, apart from his,his cuts and his, from his shaving,
(04:00):
he looks like he's, he's sane.
But inside, it's a holethat's eating away at me.
I can be feeling insane on the inside,but outside, look, look normal, you know?
And that's where I was most of my life.
I was going through my life, people lookat me thinking I'm a normal kind of guy.
Where inside, just eating away at me.
Ulcers, cancers, disease, dis-easewith myself and the people around me,
in conflict with the world around me.
(04:21):
And that's where I came from.
Yeah.
Well, I can really relate inmany ways to that, Richard.
I myself, went throughlots of trauma early on.
At nine years old I was addicted to drugsand alcohol, and that's pretty early.
I went to Alateen, you know, and thatAA twelve step program sure does come
(04:47):
in handy if, if you use it properly.
And there's, there's a lot of us out here,that we've went through a lot of trauma
and we don't know how to get rid of it.
And it, it feels shameful anddirty and, you know, heavy.
It gets really heavy on us.
(05:09):
After we find the light, and I reallythink this communication is part
of that light when we can actuallysit down and have a conversation
without feeling the guilt and thetrauma behind the conversation.
What was the first step for you torecovering out of this childhood trauma?
(05:39):
I love your question.
I, I've been blown away by podcaststhat seem to have wonderful ways of
expressing questions that just, justreally kind of open up the whole story.
So, so I, I, I knew from, from speakingto this man that I was living a lie.
So, so, so from my understanding was,I, I, the A, the AA program took about
twenty-four hours, one day at a time.
(06:01):
And that never sunk in untilthis whole trauma thing.
So I'm sixty-three years of age, I I,I'm a husband and, and I'm a father.
I've got two grown children, I call'em children, I, I think they be
fifty, I'd be calling 'em children.
My two grown children in university, youknow, and my mother-in-law in the house.
We've got two dogs and whatever,
and I live in Asia.
(06:22):
But I only have these twenty-four hours.
So my day to day was I get up at6:00 AM in the morning and I go to
bed at 10:00 PM at night, normally.
I'm on at midnight with you tonight'cause of the time zone, but
normally it's 6:00 AM until 10:00 PM.
And then at 10:00 PM at night,I give my whole day to God.
I mean, I'm not preaching.
I'm not a religious person, I don't dochurch, I don't do manmade religions,
(06:42):
I'm not a member of a denomination.
But I made a decision that at nighttimeI'd say, Okay, God, here's my day.
Here's the good of it and the bad of it.
My, my successes, my failures, mywins, my losses, my challenges, what
I failed to do, and what I shouldhave done, and what I didn't do.
Take all of it and give meeight hours of peaceful sleep.
And when I say I have theconversation at night, for some
(07:03):
reason it all leaves my head.
I put my head on the pillow, I close myeyes, and I sleep like a fucking log.
Wake up the next morning andit's a case of a whole new day
of sixteen hours in front of me.
And I do from six until ten, eighthours of work and eight hours of play.
And I've committed to livingin those sixteen hours.
And that's the AA program, gave methe gift of sixteen hours in a day.
So I only live insixteen hours in the day.
(07:23):
I don't think the past is thepresent anymore, I don't think
the future is the present.
I may not wake up tomorrow so the future'snone of my business and the past I've
realized isn't anything to do with me.
I'm sixty-three years of age.
I'm in my life today as a parent, anda husband, and a father, and a, and a
trauma therapist and a member of recovery,and I'm here on a podcast with you.
(07:44):
This is my life, this is thecomplete totality of my life.
What happened fifty years ago didn'thappen to the sixty-three-year-old man.
Because if what happened to me as achild, if that happened to me today,
I'd be big enough and old enoughto say, No, that's not happening.
Get back, fuck off.
I'd kill you.
It wouldn't happen to me.
So I came to realize that I'mcarrying the memory of what
(08:06):
happened to my younger self, andI'm carrying sympathy pains for him.
But he went through it, not me, you know?
Like, I'm a sober person here.
Thirty-eight years, thirty years,years ago, I was a chronic alcoholic.
Today, I'm not a chronic alcoholic.
I'm sober today, I'm ahusband and a father.
Thirty-eight years ago, you wouldn'ttrust me with your own children.
You wouldn't trust me in ajob, you wouldn't trust me
(08:27):
behind the wheel of a car.
But today, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'mtrusted behind the wheel of a car.
I'm trusted with my children, otherpeople's children, I'm trusted
in my, in my daily routines.
You're having me on my, on your podcast.
If this would be thirty-eight yearsago, you wouldn't leave me near the,
the camera for fear I'd make some show.
Or, you know, so I can't be, Ican't be in two places at once.
Either I'm here with you today or I'm atwelve-year-old child, fifty years ago.
(08:52):
But I can't be in both places at once.
So, so that was my trauma.
My, my understanding of trauma was,I only exist today so what happened
in the past didn't happen to me.
So it's not my job to get vengeance orjustice for what happened in the past.
It'd be like, it'd be like, I alwaysthink of, Ed, if you and I were close
friends and if you broke your leg andI decided to put my leg in a cast and
(09:14):
take medication for your physical pain,what benefit would that be to you?
I'm walking around with my good leg in acast, taking medication for your physical
pain, medication for your emotional pain.
How is that helping you recover?
And then six months later, your legcomes out of the cast and you're fine.
And ten years later, I'm still walkingaround with my leg in a cast, still
taking medication for your physicalpain, and your, your past, it's over.
(09:36):
How is that helping you in any way?
And then the worst question is, when isthat no longer about you and all about me.
That's happened with my trauma, it was nolonger about the twelve-year-old child.
I had taken ownership of itas though it happened to me,
and it hadn't happened to me.
It couldn't happen to me becauseI'm a, I'm a grown adult.
If that person came near me as agrown adult, I killed the fucker.
(09:57):
He wouldn't get anywhere near me.
That was a twelve-year-old childwho lost their innocence, not,
not a sixty-two-year-old man.
So that, for me, was a turning point.
I realized I had to find some wayof teaching people how they could
separate from the past and givethe past back to the younger self.
That, that's interestingright there, Richard.
You know, the comment, uh,I had to teach someone.
(10:20):
How big is that?
When we actually develop the skills tobe better in ourselves, is it a natural
thing that we want to help others recover?
Well, I, we're, we're human beings.
We're, we're, we're, we're, okay.
The A A program gave me anunderstanding of God, which is
(10:42):
completely different to the God I, Iknew growing up as a Roman Catholic.
And even I, I tried joining aBaptist church, didn't work for me.
I tried joining a Protestantchurch, didn't work for me.
Tried to go back to my RomanCatholic faith, didn't work for me.
Went to a Jesuit church,didn't work for me.
Went to a Presbyterian, organizedreligion doesn't work for me.
I just, I just realized that.
It's like in AA, there's somemeetings that work for me, some
other meetings I can't stand.
(11:04):
We're all personalities,we don't all fit in.
There's people who can't standme, people who just like me,
and there's people who like me.
That's just the way life is.
Not everyone's gonna like me,everyone's gonna love me, Ed.
The same way certain normalpeople, I cannot handle.
Other normal people I love, you know?
And other addicts that I don't likeand other people I just, I love.
(11:25):
I'm great with other AA members,I'm not quite with members
of other twelve step groups.
We're just different people, we justthink different, we do things differently.
So I don't get on well with addicts,and addicts don't get on well with me.
I never did drugs.
I don't, I'm not the same mindsetas someone who uses drugs.
And that's not saying anythingbad about someone who does drugs,
we're just different people.
You know, it'd be like different tribes.
(11:47):
It's like, I, I love thisconcept of, when I was born, I
was born into my parents' tribe.
Now, because I'm born into myparents tribe, it doesn't mean that
my parents are my tribe, you know?
My parents were hardworkingfamily people in Ireland.
Now if I want to be a dancer, or aa, a songwriter, or a footballer,
or a sports player, I'm not a memberof my parents' tribe, you know?
(12:10):
They may want, want me to be adoctor 'cause all the family were
doctors, and I wanna be a dancer.
Just means, it's not that I, I'msitting wrong, I'm not in my tribe.
But when I find my tribe, I fit into it.
And in AA, I found my tribe.
I am not a tribe member of the NATribe, or the GA Tribe, or the OA
tribe, a member of the AA tribe.
And I feel at home.
(12:30):
Again, I tried Roman Catholicfaith, didn't work for me.
I'm not a member of that tribe.
Not a member of the Baptist tribe,or the, or the, uh, Anglican, or the,
or the, or the, the, the Partisan,
they're just not my tribe.
Nothing wrong with them.
They work for some people and for somepeople they're their, they're a God send.
But for me, they're not my tribe.
So I like the concept of having myown understanding of God, but I, I,
(12:53):
again, I couldn't, I couldn't allowmyself to be in control of the process.
So having my own understandingcould only go so far.
I had to understand that I accept theGod of the Bible, just the, God the
Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.
Accept they're, they're, they'rethe God that I'm talking about.
And they have my concept of them ratherthan my concept of my understanding.
If I go with my understanding ofGod, my brother has be nice to me,
(13:16):
stand on my side of the street,fight for my battles, and you know,
that's not, that's me being incontrol like a go-gettcha God.
So I had to pick a God outsideof me, just the God of the Bible.
It is proven, proven by historiansand geologists that it's true and
that everything in it is true.
(13:37):
So I accept that's my God.
Christ, He's my God.
Now, I don't have to go to manmadereligion, don't join a denomination.
But I can accept that the Godof the Bible is my God, and
that's what helped me get over.
'Cause what I needed to do isI needed to perform a miracle.
I need miracles.
And to defeat a traumamemory, we need miracles.
We need a change of attitudeand perspective and that comes
(14:00):
with a miraculous change in us.
So I like to tell my clients thatwhen they do my program, they're
gonna experience seven miracles.
For me, there were threemajor and four minor.
For, for another guy, they were all major.
Again, it's, it's how it affects you.
You'll know whether it's a big,big miracle or a small miracle,
but you're gonna perform miracles.
(14:20):
Manmade solutions don't work,medications and therapy don't work.
But solutions, spiritual solution does.
Sorry, go on.
No, that's fine.
Uh, it, it's a good conversation.
Uh, God is the center of everythingin many ways to a lot of people.
And I really see those that deny God,they, they tend to have problem lives.
(14:50):
And that's my own opinion,I'll, I'll stick with that.
And I, I think we all need a higher power.
And when we step into a manmadechurch, there's always worry about
how the rent's going to be paid.
You know, how many members I have?
(15:13):
Am I saving?
You can't save anybody,that's not your job.
You're not the savior.
And a manmade church always bringsinherent problems along with
that because of the financialdifficulties in our world.
So I, I really think that spiritualityis a personal thing between you
(15:36):
and God, whoever your God might be.
And you know, to me there's one God.
You have to really find that, andit's a journey within your life.
I remember young, being young, andI would go from church to church
(15:57):
looking for, well, what's insidethis building that everybody needs?
Why are they a, acongregation, if you will?
Why does everybody have to feel thisis meant for you, this is meant for
me, but on the other hand, we have allthese different, uh, denominations.
(16:24):
So there's a division there also.
So when we talk religion, I, I reallyget hung up on it when people want
to say, You have to go to church.
To me, you are in church every day.
And you're responsible for your actionsevery day, every minute of the day,
(16:49):
and it's really about owning up toyour responsibility as a human being.
You're not gonna be perfect.
But if you make a mistake, it's all right.
And knowing that, you have tobe accountable for your actions.
I really think that finding thattruth beyond religion is where
(17:15):
you're going to find comfort.
What do you think about that, Richard?
I'd like to talk about,uh, the, the, the religion.
I don't talk too much aboutreligion because it's not a
religious thing that I do.
But there's, there's I, about, I'd like tomention about God and Jesus for just, for,
for a moment to give you an understandingof how I came about my, my whole idea.
(17:36):
Um, I, I used to thinkthere was good and evil.
I really believed there was good and evil.
You know, that Satan's out to getus and he, he's trying to tempt us.
It's always good and evil.
And I like the concept that, that, that
God lives within us, the King of God,God king, kingdom of God is within us.
It's not out there in the clouds.
Not some guy dressed like a Thorsitting in, in a, in an armchair
in the clouds looking down here.
(17:57):
It's actually inside us.
It's in our imaginationthat we're the image of God.
We are the I am.
If we, anytime I use the words Iam, I'm invoking God in my life.
So if I'm saying I am depressed, and Iam PTSD, and I am hated and no one likes
me, I am inviting that into my life.
I am creating that scenario andmanifesting that into my life.
(18:17):
So I have to watch how I use God's name.
So I need to be saying, eventhough I'm feeling, it's like, I am
gloriously happy, joyous and free.
And if I say it enough,it, I'll manifest that.
So I will change.
It's like that miracle, we said changing,we said changing what we say, everything
starts changing first, you know?
But the, the guy who built out of the,the talk about the guy who built the San
(18:38):
Francisco Bridge, he had an idea first.
He imagined what the bridge would looklike, and he had its idea in his head
and found that he drew plans, and nowthat, then they got the, the bridge.
But the bridge came outwith someone's imagination.
And everything in our livescomes from someone's imagination.
So if we wanna have a good life,we have to imagine a good life.
So there's a practice called the dreamPrayer, and it's basically manifestation.
(18:59):
When you go to bed at night, there's atime just before you sleep when your,
your, your conscious mind switches off.
And in that moment, you can dream a dream.
And dream the most beautiful dreamyou can think of, of the future,
but as though it's happened already.
It's your dream of how you're, you've gotrid of your trauma memory and it's gone.
And you're a normal person where youcan fit in with your family and go to a
(19:21):
party and feel comfortable and relaxed
talking about the mundane, stupidthings that normal people talk about.
That they can talk about and havea long conversation, relaxed.
Where we're all hyper about thepoor me, what happened to me.
To be relaxed and comfortable in thatspace or public speaking, as yourself,
speaking publicly at an event whereyou're calm and you're confident.
And you have this dream prayergoing to bed for about five or
(19:42):
ten minutes you do every night.
And then every time you have afree moment, like you're driving
the car, or you're sitting on thetoilet, you go back and revisit
the dream as though it's happened.
And the idea behind a dream prayeris, God hears you having this dream.
He believes it must have happened alreadyso He makes it happen in your life.
And He manifests it, He creates it.
And certainly the event comes down withyour public speaking and you find you're
(20:02):
an ace, you coach your family too, andyou're not all uptight over yourself.
You are able to enjoy the conversation.
You realize, I've had this dream,I dreamed this dream in, in, in
the future and it, it's come about.
This, a dream prayer is,it's basically manifestation.
If we learn to dream prayer, we cancreate whatever we want in our lives.
So that was the first part of it.
(20:23):
The second part was to, to, to,for me, I had to accept that
there's no Satan, there's no evil.
That God is responsible foreverything, good and bad.
And everything I go through, He,He, it's like the book of Job.
If you ever read the book ofJob in, in the Bible, it's,
it's, yeah, it's powerful.
This guy had everything and theneverything was taken from him.
(20:44):
And then there's, they're talking aboutSatan tempts and to see if he really
loves God and he does all this to him.
And at the end of it, God says,I let this happen because I
wanted to make you stronger.
And I'm gonna give you back yourten wives and your twenty children,
and multiply it by tenfold.
I like that concept.
But the fact that everything thathappened to me, I went through my
sexual abuse, um, addiction, terriblebullying in school, really very bad
(21:08):
bullying where I suffered in school.
Was horrific bullying that would've killedan elephant, would've flawed an elephant.
But I survived all these horrificthings in my childhood, and then into
breakups and rejection, and bullyingagain as an adult, and all this kind
of stuff, and not being misunderstood.
All this kind of stuff thathappened to me on my journey.
And certainly here I am, sixty-twoyears of age, married with two teenage,
(21:31):
well, I keep saying teenage children,two young adults going to university,
on Ed Watters Dead America Podcast,creating a trauma program helping
people break free of a past trauma.
And I wouldn't be here today if I hadn'tsuffered all those things in the past.
And I saw myself suffering them.
God gave me each of these challengesto make me the person I am today.
(21:53):
I couldn't see it all along, I thoughtSatan's at, at me, or evil's at me, or
someone's trying to block me from God, oryou know, trying to stump me, whatever.
And looking back, I see there's no Satan.
God wants to make me stronger by sufferingall these events, so I become stronger.
But what I went through would haveflawed an, flawed an elephant.
I really believe another, anotherchild would've probably killed
(22:15):
themselves than go through what Iwent through, I, I suffered some
horrific stuff.
I don't wanna triggeranybody by talking about it.
I don't like talking aboutwhat happened in the past, I
don't wanna trigger anybody.
So now when I work with a client,I tell the client, we don't want
to talk about what happened to you.
The other person's going to heal you.
What we do is we, we label what happenedfor every person that's been, one
label, that's a loss of innocence.
(22:37):
So twelve years of age, Isuffered a trauma event that
caused me a loss of innocence.
Thirteen to nineteen in boarding school,I suffered numerous losses of innocence.
Nineteen to twenty-five in earlyrelationships and being dumped
and being made a fool of, Isuffered a loss of innocence.
And then twenty-five to thirty-five,again, bullying in the workplace,
that kind of stuff, I suffered.
So it's all a loss of innocence.
(22:58):
So we can't compare our traumawith anybody else, that's
the worst thing we can do.
And if you tell people aboutyour trauma, they'll judgment
against what they've heard before.
Again, it's, so you just labelthat thing as a loss of innocence.
And my loss of innocence, and so maybeif you were a veteran and, and you
look back at your, your younger selfat the age of eighteen, enlisted to
fight in, in the armed forces in, ina foreign war, their loss of innocence
(23:21):
is whatever happened in the war.
It's just called the loss of innocence,before they, before they grew up
knowing that man couldn't harm man.
And then they experienced an event withsome men performing horrors on other
men, that was their loss of innocence.
Mine was a sexual one.
Someone else might have married intoa narcissistic abusive relationship,
that's their loss of innocence.
We just use the label loss of innocence.
(23:42):
I know what that means to me.
So I'm not feeling threatened or triggeredby saying loss of innocence because
I know exactly what it was for me.
When you say loss of innocence,you're not comparing with me.
You know exactly what yourloss of innocence was.
And same with someone else who, who was,who was a veteran, someone else who was in
a relationship, someone else who saw 9/11,they just labeled it a loss of innocence.
(24:02):
And by admitting a loss of innocence,they're not triggered, they're
not going back into the trauma.
It's just a loss of innocence, you know?
So that's the idea with the God thing,it's a case of if we can accept that
God's in charge of everything, then it,it helps us to, to break free of this.
Because we realize what happened inthe past was part of my learning curve,
(24:23):
was part to make me stronger today.
But it isn't meant todefine me, who I am today.
So what happened in the past is notmy job to get, get vengeance for, get
justice for, it didn't happen to me.
But like me getting vengeanceor justice for you, having
your leg broken by some fellow.
That happened to you,didn't happened to me.
You can fight your own battles.
Not for me to go around fightingEd Watter's battles 'cause he,
(24:44):
he was attacked and mocked,
none of my business.
I can cheer for you.
It didn't happen to me in the sameway it happened to a twelve-year-old
child, didn't happen to me.
The thirteen-year-old childor the eighteen-year-old
child, didn't happen to me.
It happened to other people and Ihave to stop fighting their battles.
And they don't even wantme to fight their battles.
They're thinking, What thefuck are you doing coming in
trying to fight my battles?
You go off.
(25:06):
I've sacrificed so much so that you'llbe free today to have a life with your
wife and your children, and Ed Watters,and, and everyone else in your life.
Would you please fuck off and leaveyour life and stop coming back
into the past and taking my shitand giving it life in the future.
That's kind of the idea behind this.
Yeah.
(25:26):
So you talk about there can be noeffect when the cause is removed.
That, that's basically whatyou're outlining right there
then, cause and effect.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, that's the science.
Science tells us that if, if,if, if there's no cause, then
there can't be an effect.
(25:47):
If you, if you look at modern, modern,uh, therapy today, we treat the effect.
We treat people for PTSD, or depression,or, you know, or any condition,
any disorder that's, the disorder,but not the cause of the disorder.
You know, if, if we're treating the,the disorder, not the cause of it, we're
gonna be treating the disorder forever.
(26:07):
We've got something like, in this dayand age, there's something like, in
the last eighty years, we've got 1.4billion people diagnosed with PTSD.
That's nearly a quarter ofthe world's population.
Another eighty years, it'sgonna be half of the population.
We're treating theeffect and not the cause.
But if I treat your cause, so ifI work with you, Ed, and I get you
to give your past back to, to youryoung seventeen-year-old Ed, or young
(26:27):
twelve-year-old Ed, and you have thisspiritual experience of outer body,
you see it giving it back to youryoung Ed and young Ed saying, Thank
you for giving my shit back, Ed.
I'm gonna fuck off and leavethis plane of existence.
And they leave the plane of existence andyou feel the weight leaving your body.
But once it's gone, it's like, allthis stuff you've been doing with
your therapist for the last ten yearscertainly is no longer, let me ask
you, How does that make you feel?
Sorry, it's nothing to do with me.
(26:48):
What happened to Ed's leghas nothing to do with me.
It doesn't make me feelanything, you know?
It's not, what happened to my youngerself doesn't affect me, it has
nothing to do with my life today.
My life is the sixteen hours with mywife and my teenage, adult children.
And my mother-in-lawand the dog, you know?
And when we can separate from thepast, with the cause gone, there's
no longer any reason for the effect.
So then we did the twelve stepprogram of trauma, recovering from
(27:12):
doing all that learned behavior.
Yeah, I, I kind of like the, uh,K.I.S.S. Keep It Simple Stupid.
Because when we, when we really keep itsimple instead of piling all of these
thoughts and traumas on top of us everyday when we wake up in the morning and
(27:34):
our feet hit the floor, it's your choiceevery day how you want to, number one,
respond to anything that comes your way.
And number two, how, how are yougoing to make your day better?
Because if, if we wake up andsomething automatically triggers us,
(28:00):
we have to work on trying to makethe day better from the very first
instance of whatever triggers us.
How do we, how do we locate and identifyour trigger points so we can be on top
of those negative feelings that thosetrigger points can actually put us into?
(28:26):
Sorry for smiling, I love these questionsthat, they're, they're, they're wonderful.
I, I wish I could think of these questionsbefore and then give 'em to you and say,
Ask this question, Ed, when we get there.
But like, you're coming upwith these questions that are
just mind blowingly wonderful.
You know, very simple,but, but very astute.
So the, the thing is we have tounderstand, if the past didn't happen
to us, then we can't let it trigger us.
So all the, we could do a list ofall the things that were triggered
(28:48):
from and say, None of my business.
None of my business.
Again, I have to be very careful herebecause you, you can't just say to
somebody, Okay, it didn't happen to you.
Ignore it, let it go.
Because if you, if that is how you'vedefined yourself for the last ten
or twenty years and you, you becomeyour identity and you're going to the
support groups on it, maybe the veteransupport group, or the narcissists
(29:08):
support group, or the, and you've beena member of that group and you've been a
speaker of that group and a voice and achairperson and all that kind of stuff,
and suddenly I say to you, Yeah, thisdidn't happen to you, walk away, it
can be very hard to walk away from youridentity if your identity has been victim.
It's nearly impossible.
It, it really, so this is thebig challenge we have because the
(29:29):
whole world says, You're a victim.
Celebrate victimhood.
I mean, social welfare give you all thesebenefits for the veterans, for PTSD,
and for all these different conditions.
And a part of that life of veteran is youget all this social welfare benefits for
PTSD and therapy and, and all this kindof stuff you have coming on top of it.
And there's a huge, and there's ahuge dependence upon the state to
(29:53):
remain in that status, you know?
It, it kind of stops you from being anormal person in a job doing nine to
five if you don't have to ever work.
Because now you're getting all thissocial welfare benefits, that means you
need to never work and you can be retiredas part of a really strong, supportive
network of support groups kind of stuff.
But you lose yourself, your sense of self.
(30:15):
But the payoff is almost like, okay.
And I'm not knocking veterans.
I think any, anyone who's servedtheir country at any level should
be entitled to all that socialwelfare, whether they stay as
a, as someone who's beendamaged or they recover.
So if you've been diagnosed with PTSDand you are receiving benefits, and
(30:37):
then you do this program and you, andyou're healed, you should still be,
receive those benefits the rest ofyour life because you've volunteered
to be of service to your country.
I don't think they should say,Well, if you stop doing PTSD,
you lose all that income.
I think anyone who gives their lifeto, for the benefit of their, of their,
their, of their, their country or theworld, Army, Navy, Air Force, police,
(30:58):
emergency workers, nurses, doctors,if you serve your country or your,
your world with distinction and yousuffer for it, you should be able to
have it for the rest of your days.
You can still get a job, but you don'tlose the benefit of, we're not paying you
just for the, for the years you workedin the Army, we're gonna pay you for the
rest of your life because you gave up youryears, your good years for the Army, or
(31:19):
the Navy, or the Air Force, or emergency.
We're gonna continue to pay youlong after, till the day you die.
We're gonna make certain you neednever work again if you don't want to.
But if you do want to work, youstill get this benefit as well.
We're gonna readjust your tax,we're gonna increase your insurance.
So that's what I believe should happento anyone who's been diagnosed with PTSD.
So 1.4 billion people outthere diagnosed with PTSD.
(31:41):
If you kick your PTSD, youshould still get those payments
for the rest of your life.
That's something I feel very strongly,but it, it's not my, my position to say.
But I want you to know, Iunderstand it can be scary.
The idea if I clear my PTSD, I'm gonnalose all these payments and I haven't
worked in twenty years and I've beendependent on state for twenty years.
So certainly I'm going to step out ofthat comfort zone and try and find a job.
(32:03):
And there's no jobs going, and I'dbe kicked out of my, my, my home,
or where I have my, my wellbeingor my welfare, you know, I'll lose
all my, my network of friends.
It's almost safer.
The pain we know is safer thanthe pain we don't know, that's
the biggest problem we have.
For anyone with a condition, it'ssafer to stay in the pain you know.
(32:24):
Uh, a friend of mine in AA, a veteranof, uh, Korea, lovely man, it's
one of my sponsors I have in AA,eighty-seven years of age, he is.
And he spoke about the fact that
if he did this program, and he, hewouldn't do it because if he did this
program he'd have to get, he'd have, he'dlose all his benefits and all of his,
(32:46):
and he's too old to get a job.
He's too old to try and findsomething to live without the
support, and that's a huge problem.
You know, I, I would love to seesome government, Donald Trump is god
saying anyone who's ever served thiscountry gets their social welfare
for life, whatever happens, you know?
I think that would be, hands down, thefirst thing they should do is say, anyone
(33:08):
who has served their country, Army,Navy, personnel, ambulance, emergency
workers, social welfare, social carers,whatever, walking the, the, the, the
human, the, the, these super crossingwith this, for kids walking across
the road, school wardens, whatever.
Whatever your situation is, you get socialwelfare for life on top of you got a job.
(33:28):
And we reduce your tax on your job soyou'd be, never have to run for anything.
I think on a, on a, on a,on a, that should happen.
I'm not American, so I don't havea say in your country, but that's
what I'd love to see happen.
And if anyone is to do anything, DonaldTrump's the one who would do it and I
wish he would do something like that.
So anyway, that's what I needto say first and foremost.
Because it's, the idea of saying tosomeone with PTSD or depression, Let's
(33:50):
cure you of the past trauma memory andthen you can be free of your depression
and PTSD, there's a catch in this.
Because if they're free of the PTSD, theymay feel, the people I've worked with,
with PTSD, they're the most honorablepeople I've known that can't live a lie.
They can't claim PTSD benefitsif they don't have PTSD.
(34:11):
You know what I mean?
They're not someone who wouldbe willing to cheat the system
even though the systemdoesn't take care of them.
They've, they've got loads of moralsand honor that they wouldn't dream
of, I think most young men who gooff and fight in the war are this
very moral, kind of honorable youngpeople who suffer the horrors of war.
And then they, they, they still havetheir morals and their ethics about them
(34:35):
and they wouldn't dream of committing anycrime or, you know, that kind of stuff.
And so you, you're talking aboutdoing this program and in two hours
having your trauma memory gone.
Do the twelve step program,have your PTSD gone, and step
back into, into the human race.
It's almost like, the price is too high.
Yeah, yeah.
It's kind of interesting.
(34:59):
You know, we, we think about trauma a lotin our lives and it, it's really one of
those big highlights that get overlooked.
You know, uh, we, we, we find asolution, and that's the answer.
(35:20):
And it's, it's one fits all.
And, and I, I think we really need toreexamine that whole mindset of how
we look at trauma in the first place.
Because like you stated a little earlierin your conversation, my trauma is not
(35:41):
the same as somebody else's, your traumais not the same as somebody else's.
So we all kinda live our livesand we experience traumas
daily, but they're not the same.
And we really have to rememberthat in a lot of the ways.
(36:03):
Let's talk a little bitabout your program, Richard.
What is it and how did youactually come up with it?
Okay.
Thank you, again.
I'm loving these questions.
Uh, I got to work in, in an addictioncenter in Chiang Mai in Thailand.
(36:23):
Can I mention the name?
Uh, it's called The Cabin, it'sthe first addiction center in Asia.
Uh, a group of four, uh, Englishlads that got together and organized
the center, and a huge success.
At one stage, it was 120 beds.
The biggest center probably in the world.
A huge success rate with,with, with addiction primarily.
And I, I worked as a support staffand then I, 'cause I, I'd done,
(36:46):
uh, practice like EFT and Reikiand whatever, I got to change over
to a, uh, holistic practitioner.
To huge, and getting work from clientsand also holding, uh, twelve, twelve,
twelve step spaces and, and the likes.
And I got to run some meditationgroups and I really enjoyed it,
it was really, really powerful.
(37:07):
And when I got to working with clients,and I got to work with clients who, I
think because the center primarily lookedat addiction, there were some clients kind
of slipping through the cracks and theyfelt it'd be a good idea to give them a,
a, an induction to, to holistic practices.
Maybe that would give them some,they weren't there for addiction.
(37:27):
They're more there fortrauma or that kinda stuff.
So they tried different breath like TRE,and Miseph, and other Reiki, and whatever,
just something that might help them.
And they got to try some different things.
And I got to work with about,about a hundred clients.
I had huge success, absolutelyfantastic success with, with them
all using this healing event.
So the idea of the healingevent is, it's basically a
(37:49):
visualization, it's all holistic.
First of all, I need, need toprobably, I stand, I, I hold
really strong in my mind is I thinkthere's two forms of mental illness.
In my early, early years, I had twomental health professionals who worked
with me, and they were the most kind,caring, loving, empathetic people.
They were really powerful.
(38:10):
And now I think mental healthprofessionals are qualified to
work with mental illness, and I'mnot a mental health professional.
I couldn't help you when itcomes to mental health, it's
a matter out of my depth.
I couldn't help you.
But I believe that mentaldisorders are caused by us
bringing the past into the present.
They cause a dysregulation in ourthinking and in our feeling, whatever.
And that's what a disorder is.
Whereas a mental illness is somethingthat you're born with, or you
(38:33):
suffer in an accident, or somethinghappens that affects your brain.
So mental health professionals arequalified and they go to college
to learn how to deal with that.
But the mental disorders, that'swhy life coaches, and holistic
practitioners, and cognitive therapistscan all help with mental disorder.
Because it's, it's a dysregulationof our emotions and our feelings
and our thought patterns.
(38:54):
And that's why so many peoplecan help in this regard.
So my idea was that, well, again, if it'scause and effect, and if we can get rid of
the cause, well, then like a twelve stepprogram like AA would be fantastic if you
create a twelve step program for trauma.
To do the twelve steps to get rid ofthe, the learned behaviors of depression,
PTSD, whatever that disorder you have is.
(39:17):
They're learned behaviors.
When, when we're suffering withsomething like PTSD or depression, our
behavior towards our family and friendsbecome distorted and dysfunctional.
We're pushing people away who aretrying to get close to us, who love us.
Because we're so scared of empathyand kindness that we're hurting the
people we love and we're gettingdivorced from our wives and husbands.
And that's all that learned behavior
we have to change.
(39:37):
So we do a twelve step program similarto the twelve steps of AA, but different.
But it helps us to undo allthat learned behavior that was
so dysfunctional in our lives.
So there's two parts, one is thehealing event I call The Healing Event.
It's, it's trauma, it's howto heal any past trauma now.
So I take the clients to foursections of this healing event.
(39:58):
The first section is SevenFoundations, Spiritual Foundation
Stones for Performing the SevenMiracles for Changing our Attitude
or our Perspective around the Past.
That the past didn't happen to us,it happened to our younger self.
And we need to give itback to our younger self.
And those, and those sevenfoundations, cornerstones, we actually
laid the foundations where we'reactually ready to give it away.
(40:21):
And then the next two sections, the nextone is clearing, clearing our heads of
the stinking thinking, faulty feelings.
And then we have to also clean our handsof all the negative energy in our hands.
In, in the Bible, Jesus healedby laying his hands on people.
We've got so much energyblocked in our hands, you know?
You know, that, that they talkabout the thumb holds your anxiety.
(40:42):
So you suck your thumbto release your anxiety.
Your middle finger is for anger,give the middle finger, yeah.
So you have four fingers forfear, your ring finger's for
sadness and grief, and the littlefinger's for trust and boundaries.
The center of the palm of your hand is forpanic, the side of your hand is stress.
So there's all these emotions thatget locked up in our hands, we have
(41:03):
to cleanse our hands of this energy.
So we do this practice also, we getrid of the energy out of our hands.
Clearing the, this stinkingthinking, faulty in our head.
And then we get to the torso.
We actually, in a visualization,we give the past the bag that
we carried on our shoulders.
We give this bag, we take it off ourback and we give it to our younger
self and we see them taking it from us.
And in that moment we feel thisrelease in our bodies, mentally,
(41:25):
physically, emotionally, spiritually.
A great weight's lifted off our shoulders.
And in that moment you knowwithout a shadow of a doubt
that it's gone from your body.
It'll be like two hours ago you weresuffering with nightmares and flashbacks,
now you're completely in a peace of mind.
It takes about two hours, it's quitemind blowing when you see it happen.
And each of these clients I worked with,I, I had a, I had a shorter version for
(41:47):
about forty minutes, and at the end ofthe forty minutes, they would be free
completely of the past trauma memory.
But I hadn't got a twelvestep program created.
So I did the trauma, the healingevent, but I hadn't got a twelve
step program for follow up.
And that, so I spent the next fouryears working on a twelve step program.
And, uh, when I finally got a twelvestep, and I, I looked at AA and I knew
I couldn't use the twelve, AA twelvesteps the way they were written.
(42:09):
This wouldn't suit for trauma.
And I, I looked around to see ifthere's any twelve step programs
created for trauma and people werejust taking the twelve steps of
AA, taking out the word alcohol andreplacing it with the word trauma.
And that wouldn't work.
Because in, in, in AA and inother twelve step programs,
we're abstaining from a behavior.
We're abstaining from drink or drugs,or sex or porn, whatever it is, okay?
(42:31):
But in trauma, because we'vegiven the past back to our younger
self, it's gone from our psyche.
So we're not abstaining fromsomething that we don't have anymore.
We have the memory, wedon't have the details.
This is the crucial point.
Um,
we're human beings, we have everymemory going back to childhood.
You may have suppressed memories,but we have all our memories
back to when we were a child.
(42:51):
I remember at the age of eight,being in an egg and spoon race.
I thought I was in the Olympics runningdown a field with an egg, an egg and
a spoon with my friends in a race.
You know, this kind of stuff.
I'm sixty-three, but I rememberthese, I remember these events.
Now, I don't remember the details.
I don't remember if it was a sunny day,I don't remember if the wind was blowing,
I don't remember if it was raining, Idon't remember if I was hot and sweaty.
But I remember I did, I ran inthis egg and spoon race at the
(43:11):
age of eight, or nine, or seven.
But I don't have the details.
When we bring a past event into thepresent, we carry all the details.
We can remember exactlythe details of the event.
When we give the event away toour younger self, the details go.
And then we only havethe memory of the event.
So I have the memory today of somethinghappening to a twelve-year- old child.
And I can tell you what it was,but I don't wanna trigger anybody.
(43:32):
But I don't have the details of it.
I, I, I don't, I just don't have them.
They've left my psyche.
It's almost like one minute I had allthese details of what happened to the
twelve-year-old child and I could describethem in detail, and now they're gone.
And I can't explain how they're gone.
But when I gave the baggage backto him, the details went with him.
And that's what happens in the event.
So the details gone.
It's almost like if I talk about whathappened to that child, I know I'm talking
(43:54):
about that child, not what happened tome because I don't have the details.
I can't own the details, that's the idea.
So the event gives that away, andthen we do the twelve step program to
clean our side of the street becausewe're not, we're not abstaining from
anything because we've given it away.
Now we're just cleaningour side of the street.
Does that make sense?
(44:15):
That's the whole, that's theprogram in, in a nutshell.
So, so Richard, uh, when you're,when you're talking about the
energy zones in the body, is thatbringing that Reiki into your
Yeah.
Well, I, I, I love, uh, uh,EFT, Tapping, and Acupressure.
(44:39):
They're the two that made the, the most,but again, I've got a friend of mine who
does Tai Chi and his stuff is wonderful.
I've got another friend of mine who's,who's a yoga instructor, and his, his
breathing practices are wonderful.
I think there's so much more outthere that I haven't tapped into.
And I can see this program I've createdis powerful, but I can see someone
else coming along that has EFT, andReiki, and Acupressure, but also has
(45:01):
Tai chi and Yoga and steps into thisspace and creates a program that's
even ten times better than what I have,
you know?
The one thing thing about holisticpractices and spiritual practices is
there's a huge whole frontier out there.
I've, I've, I've createdthis program that works.
Uh, it, it works, I just know it works.
I've worked with 105 people who haveall broken free of their trauma, PTSD,
(45:26):
depression, whatever it was, they've,they've broken through their loss of
innocence and they're free and livingtheir lives now as normal people.
So, but I know that there's peopleout there who could probably take
this a step further, you know?
I, as much as I, I say I haveGod in my life, I think that
probably there's some Christian outthere who could probably perform
miracles.
You know, who could, who could talk to youin such a way that would give you such a
(45:48):
sense of calmness that after you've spokento them you'd feel this sense of calmness.
Like they, they've workeda miracle on you, you know?
And again, holistic practitioners,my friends who do Tai Chi, I think if
they could learn my stuff and their TaiChi, they'd take it to another level.
I have no doubt that other peoplecan do a better job than me.
But I know what I've done andwhat I've achieved so far.
(46:09):
This program works.
And if you have a past trauma memorythat's, that's, that's ruling and
defining you and you wanna be ridof it, you do this program and
you're free in, in three hours.
Interesting.
You know, a lot of that goes back tofinding that tribe that you talked about.
You know, feelingcomfort in where you are.
(46:29):
That, that's really truly what we'reall seeking is the comfort of where
we are and finding others in the same,maybe not same, but similar situations.
It can really help alleviatethe trauma in our lives.
I found podcasting.
And podcasting, I, I say, it's therapyfor myself because it gives me a way
(46:54):
to express myself, listen to otherpeople express themselves, and then it
also helps me clarify my own feelings.
So really, I, I'm, I'm wondering, thefirst part of healing is to really
(47:16):
find a place where you're accepted.
Is that correct?
I love it.
Yeah, yeah.
But I, I think, but what I like to thinkis that, is that somewhere We're having
this podcast today, you and I, okay?
We haven't met each other before,it's our first time working together.
I like to think that somewhere,maybe one of your audience will
(47:40):
listen to this podcast, they'llget hope for where they're from.
Maybe they're, they're ready to give upon life, they just have so much PTSD, and
so many therapists and medications, andthey're just ready to kill themselves.
And I hate to use that word, but they're,they're at the end of their tether and
they come onto this podcast and theyhear this message and it gives them hope.
And then they go on, they embracelife, and they get past their, their
(48:00):
trauma and their PTSD, and theyget to have this wonderful life.
And they get married, they have kids,and down the road in three or four
generations, one of their childrencreates a cure for cancer, aids.
Now no one will ever know that youand I played our part, you know?
We won't get the accolades orthe recognition for it, but
God will know we did our part.
You know, maybe in four generations,someone watching this, one of your
(48:21):
audience, there are children wouldcould come up with a cure for cancer,
aids and people talk about them andtheir parents and their grandparents,
but no one will know that, me inThailand and you in America, whatever,
we had this podcast that, midnight inThailand and whatever, 12 o'clock noon
in, in America, and we played our part.
And again, and beyond that is,you, you started this podcast.
(48:42):
If you hadn't started this podcast,you wouldn't have invited me on.
If I hadn't started this twelve stepprogram, I wouldn't have been invited on.
We've all done something in our livesthat got us to this stage that one of
your audience in the future will oneday create a cure for cancer, aids.
It's all connected.
So I think that whatyou're doing is fantastic.
I think the fact that you're holdingthis space and you're allowing people
(49:03):
to come on here and share somethingthat's just against the, the norm, like
I, I, I, I mean, I can't, I can't speakhighly enough of you and the other
podcasters who have had me on their shows.
I thank you, from the bottom of my heart.
Grateful gratitude I havefor what you do here.
Well, well, we do thank you for that.
You know, it's really why we do it.
(49:23):
Because we feel the same way, younever know who you're going to affect.
So always be on your bestgame when you're doing it.
And if we're willing and ableto do that, you'll never know
how many lives you changed.
And that's the beauty of what youand I are doing right here today.
(49:45):
And it, it keeps me going.
I, I'll tell you many times Iwanted to say I've had enough
of this, it's just enough.
But that particular pointkeeps me on my game.
And I hope, like you stated,somebody listens to this today and
(50:07):
finds new inspiration and hope.
And that's why we do it.
Richard, uh, our timeis coming to a close.
It, it seems like it just startedand I could go on for hours with you
and possibly have you back on foranother conversation at a later time.
(50:28):
Do you have a call to action for people?
Or a bit of wisdom for people?
I do, I actually do.
I, I'm really glad you asked becauseI'm, I'm really excited about this.
Um, again, I spoke about how I thinkGod is the source of everything.
Uh, I think it, it's a wonderful, it'sa wonderful out for all of us to accept
that God is the source of everything.
(50:49):
All your hardships, all yourchallenges, and all your glory,
all your good, good days.
If we can accept that God's thesource for everything, we're
so far ahead of the posse.
There's so many people out therewho are disillusioned and hopeless
and giving up, and if we canaccept that God has a plan for us.
So what I would say to your,your audience is, make a decision
to give God a second chance.
(51:10):
We all deserve a second chance.
I want a second chance of being, atbeing a husband and a father, and a
brother, and, and a nephew, and a,and a son-in-law, and a neighbor,
and a member of AA, and whatever,and, and a trauma therapist.
I want a second chance of improvingon the mistakes I've made in the past.
As much as I want a secondchance, give God a second chance.
Try that dream prayer justtonight for the hell of it.
(51:31):
When you go down to bedtonight, close your eyes.
And before you sleep, get into dreamingsomething that you want to happen and
have a dream of it actually happening.
In that sleep of almost falling asleep,
have a dream of it actually happening.
As though it's happened already.
And then in the morning, we dreamthat dream has happened already.
And do that for about three weeks.
(51:51):
And in three weeks time, lookback and see if it's happened.
You, honestly, when we give Him achance, He's just waiting for us.
I, I love this thing about, Godgave us free will and a book of
instructions on how to use it.
I remember someone posted, I thinkon TikTok, they said, God created us
so we could enjoy life on this earth.
(52:12):
He's just shocked that we're choosingscarcity and poverty, and pain, depression
rather than choosing abundance oflove and life, and happiness and joy.
You know, we're going around thinkingthat we're meant to be scared.
And the churches are telling us thatwe're meant to be poor and scarce
and we're meant to be sinners.
And that's a load ofbullocks, in my opinion.
God wants us to behappy, joyous, and free.
And if you want abundance,think abundance.
(52:33):
If you want to be a millionaire,think of being a millionaire.
In your dream period tonight, ifyou've got no money, you've got
no job, dream of someone offeringyou a job in the next three weeks.
In dream time, someone's gonnaoffer you a job with the money
you need for the job you want.
And dream that state in the jobyou want to do and whatever.
And dream, and keep dreaming it morning,noon, and night, five times a day.
And in three weeks time, you're gonnafind someone's offered you a job.
(52:53):
You're gonna go, This is easy.
I've gotta do dream, dream state,I'm gonna dream, pray every
fucking night and every day.
And you need never go to, toa church in your lifetime.
Just dream prayer asmuch as you can, okay?
And if you do that for, for thirty days,by day ten, you won't know yourself.
Twenty times a day, thirty times a day,just every time you got a waking moment.
(53:13):
In the office, after your office,you're not busy on your, on your
desk, or the kitchen, or something.
Just, we, we, we visit that dream asthose happened already, really invoke
that it's actually happened already.
And you, before you know it,He'll make it happen for you.
Sorry.
I've gone on, I can't stop.
Ed, thank you.
No, that's all right.
(53:34):
That's good.
You know, the Bible, BasicInstructions Before Leaving Earth,
uh, I believe it a hundred percent.
And, uh, in, in the book ofJeremiah, it does tell you,
God wants good things for you.
And He has good things for youand you, you have to believe that.
(53:56):
And if you live it, it works every day.
Richard, it, it's always greatto speaking with people like you.
How can people reach outand get involved with you?
Well, I'm happy to say, my, myseventeen-year-old son, he's just applied
to go to university and now in his freetime, he's going to design my website.
(54:18):
It'll be called Trauma RecoveryAnonymous, and I hope to have it
up in the next two or three weeks.
I have my books on Amazon, uh, the trauma,How to Heal Any Past Trauma Memory.
About the book, when you dothe healing event, you need to
have someone read it to you.
If you try and do ityourself, it won't work.
Because it's, it's like directions.
So you might, you might buy a copyand read your copy to somebody
(54:39):
else and then they might buy acopy and read that copy to you.
So you have to take the directions fromthe other person for the event to work.
But the twelve step programyou can do on your own, okay?
So, so if, again, if you wanna work withyour therapist, work with your therapist.
But you may have someone in, inyour support group who also, like
you, wants to, wants to break free.
And your recovery buddyand you can work together.
Fellow veteran, whatever it is, or, orelse your therapist, have your therapist
(55:03):
read it to you and do the process.
But be open to, just be opento it and it'll work for you.
And then the, the twelve stepprogram is on Amazon as well,
they're both on as Kindle books.
And they're also on, on a, a,a website called Draft2Digital.
They have them in print anddigital on most bookstores.
You'll get them there.
But you'll definitely get themon Amazon as a Kindle, okay?
(55:26):
And I'll, I'll send on to you,Ed, my details so you can put
them on the post when you do itso you have the details, content.
I have an email address, it's, uh,richard@traumarecoveryanonymous.com.
If you'd like me to work with youone-on-one or ten on ten, or I work,
I work with ten on ten at a time.
Wanna do Zoom or something?
I can set up on Zoom todo a session if you want.
You're afraid of coming on your own, youwanna come with somebody, or I can take
(55:48):
you through the session on your own.
So it'srichard@traumarecoveryanonymous.com.
Ed, thank you very much.
Richard, yeah, it's been a pleasurehaving you and all of your links
will be in the show notes section.
And I wanna say thank you for beinghere today and sharing your wisdom and
(56:12):
techniques with the Dead America Podcast.
Thank you, it was a pleasure being here.
I, I know for me it's 10 o'clock,it's midnight here, one o'clock now.
I've loved every moment of it.
Maybe, maybe I'll become a night person.
Ed, thank you very much and thankyou very much for listening, folks.
I hope you were able tounderstand my fast speech.
I get excited when I talk aboutthis stuff, so thank you very much.
(56:34):
It's always good.
Thank you for joining us today.
If you found this podcast enlightening,entertaining, educational in any way,
please share, like, subscribe, and joinus right back here next week for another
great episode of the Dead America Podcast.
(56:58):
I'm Ed Watters, your host, enjoyyour afternoon wherever you might be.
Today we are speaking with RichardTierney, he created a program
called Trauma Recovery Anonymous.
Richard, could you pleaseintroduce yourself?
Let people know just a littlemore about you, please.
Okay, I'm Richard.
Really great to be here.
Thank you for having me, Ed.
Uh, really cool.
I'm loving these podcasts.
(01:15):
I just, before I start, I wanna thankpeople like yourself who wouldn't have a
chance to speak if it wasn't for peoplelike yourself who started these podcasts.
So for that first of all, Iwanna say thank you very much.
Um, my name is Richard Tierney.
I'm originally from Ireland.
I'm living in Thailand.
I'm now married, I've got two teenage,well, they're young adults now,
they're both going to university.
One is twenty and the otheris just turning seventeen.
(01:35):
They're both in university.
Um, I, I came from Ireland originally.
I, I suffered, I'm sorry, Icut myself shaving tonight.
I should've left thebeard on, but I shaved.
And I've got two wounds on either sideof my lips here, so please forgive those.
It's not a, it's not a camerathing, it's me cut myself
shaving in two distinct places.
Seems crazy, I totally cutmyself once and I got two.
(01:56):
Anyway, anyway, that's, that's, trivial.
And I come from Ireland originally,I'm married now, I've got two
teenage, uh, young adults now.
I keep thinking they'rechildren, but they're not.
Um, so, uh, I, I live here.
And I suffered a trauma whenI was twelve years of age.
And it, it, really ruined,ruled and defined me.
And I was a victim for
most of my life.
(02:17):
Most of my, for fortyyears I was a victim.
Hated of the world, afraid ofeverybody and everything, and, uh,
pushed my family away, put my friendsaway, fear of intimacy, of anything
at all trying to have it reach me.
And I got involved in addictions,just trying to escape.
It wasn't that I wanted todie, I didn't want to live.
I felt so ashamed of myself and Ifelt I must have caused my abuse.
(02:38):
I must have sent some signals.
So all that kind of stuff as a child whodoesn't know any, how to deal with this
stuff, was blaming myself for everything.
And I got to stage four in AA, Igot a, what they call a sponsor.
It's like a mentor, someone who teachesyou how to become normal again, how
to deal with and interact with people.
I used to always be going on about myvictimhood, and he said to me one day, he
(02:58):
said to me, Isn't it time you let that go?
I was, I was highly offended.
Who do you think you are saying Ishould let go of this victimhood?
This is who I was, this ismy, my identity, you know?
But it had come to a stage whereI'd actually really got comfortable
having a, a mentor, someone outsidewho was able to like be a father
figure to me and direct me in my life.
(03:19):
And I didn't want to throw that away.
Although normally I'd runfor the hills when someone
would, would challenge me, Ed.
It wasn't like, so they weresaying I'd run for the hills
and they'd never see me again.
But I kind of wanted to keep thisgoing because it's the one kind of
sanity I had in my life was thisperson calling my shots, you know,
calling me on my crap or whatever.
So I kind of decided I'dtry and find some solution.
(03:39):
I love that the AA twelve step program,this spiritual aspect to it, that we're
trying to heal a hole in our soul.
That my trauma, no one can see my trauma.
They can see how it manifests mentally,physically, emotionally, but they
cannot see that hole in my soul.
You know, that I can be looking atyou here today and you can think, Oh,
Richie looks like, apart from his,his cuts and his, from his shaving,
(04:00):
he looks like he's, he's sane.
But inside, it's a holethat's eating away at me.
I can be feeling insane on the inside,but outside, look, look normal, you know?
And that's where I was most of my life.
I was going through my life, people lookat me thinking I'm a normal kind of guy.
Where inside, just eating away at me.
Ulcers, cancers, disease, dis-easewith myself and the people around me,
in conflict with the world around me.
(04:21):
And that's where I came from.
Yeah.
Well, I can really relate inmany ways to that, Richard.
I myself, went throughlots of trauma early on.
At nine years old I was addicted to drugsand alcohol, and that's pretty early.
I went to Alateen, you know, and thatAA twelve step program sure does come
(04:47):
in handy if, if you use it properly.
And there's, there's a lot of us out here,that we've went through a lot of trauma
and we don't know how to get rid of it.
And it, it feels shameful anddirty and, you know, heavy.
It gets really heavy on us.
(05:09):
After we find the light, and I reallythink this communication is part
of that light when we can actuallysit down and have a conversation
without feeling the guilt and thetrauma behind the conversation.
What was the first step for you torecovering out of this childhood trauma?
(05:39):
I love your question.
I, I've been blown away by podcaststhat seem to have wonderful ways of
expressing questions that just, justreally kind of open up the whole story.
So, so I, I, I knew from, from speakingto this man that I was living a lie.
So, so, so from my understanding was,I, I, the A, the AA program took about
twenty-four hours, one day at a time.
(06:01):
And that never sunk in untilthis whole trauma thing.
So I'm sixty-three years of age, I I,I'm a husband and, and I'm a father.
I've got two grown children, I call'em children, I, I think they be
fifty, I'd be calling 'em children.
My two grown children in university, youknow, and my mother-in-law in the house.
We've got two dogs and whatever,
and I live in Asia.
(06:22):
But I only have these twenty-four hours.
So my day to day was I get up at6:00 AM in the morning and I go to
bed at 10:00 PM at night, normally.
I'm on at midnight with you tonight'cause of the time zone, but
normally it's 6:00 AM until 10:00 PM.
And then at 10:00 PM at night,I give my whole day to God.
I mean, I'm not preaching.
I'm not a religious person, I don't dochurch, I don't do manmade religions,
(06:42):
I'm not a member of a denomination.
But I made a decision that at nighttimeI'd say, Okay, God, here's my day.
Here's the good of it and the bad of it.
My, my successes, my failures, mywins, my losses, my challenges, what
I failed to do, and what I shouldhave done, and what I didn't do.
Take all of it and give meeight hours of peaceful sleep.
And when I say I have theconversation at night, for some
(07:03):
reason it all leaves my head.
I put my head on the pillow, I close myeyes, and I sleep like a fucking log.
Wake up the next morning andit's a case of a whole new day
of sixteen hours in front of me.
And I do from six until ten, eighthours of work and eight hours of play.
And I've committed to livingin those sixteen hours.
And that's the AA program, gave methe gift of sixteen hours in a day.
So I only live insixteen hours in the day.
(07:23):
I don't think the past is thepresent anymore, I don't think
the future is the present.
I may not wake up tomorrow so the future'snone of my business and the past I've
realized isn't anything to do with me.
I'm sixty-three years of age.
I'm in my life today as a parent, anda husband, and a father, and a, and a
trauma therapist and a member of recovery,and I'm here on a podcast with you.
(07:44):
This is my life, this is thecomplete totality of my life.
What happened fifty years ago didn'thappen to the sixty-three-year-old man.
Because if what happened to me as achild, if that happened to me today,
I'd be big enough and old enoughto say, No, that's not happening.
Get back, fuck off.
I'd kill you.
It wouldn't happen to me.
So I came to realize that I'mcarrying the memory of what
(08:06):
happened to my younger self, andI'm carrying sympathy pains for him.
But he went through it, not me, you know?
Like, I'm a sober person here.
Thirty-eight years, thirty years,years ago, I was a chronic alcoholic.
Today, I'm not a chronic alcoholic.
I'm sober today, I'm ahusband and a father.
Thirty-eight years ago, you wouldn'ttrust me with your own children.
You wouldn't trust me in ajob, you wouldn't trust me
(08:27):
behind the wheel of a car.
But today, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'mtrusted behind the wheel of a car.
I'm trusted with my children, otherpeople's children, I'm trusted
in my, in my daily routines.
You're having me on my, on your podcast.
If this would be thirty-eight yearsago, you wouldn't leave me near the,
the camera for fear I'd make some show.
Or, you know, so I can't be, Ican't be in two places at once.
Either I'm here with you today or I'm atwelve-year-old child, fifty years ago.
(08:52):
But I can't be in both places at once.
So, so that was my trauma.
My, my understanding of trauma was,I only exist today so what happened
in the past didn't happen to me.
So it's not my job to get vengeance orjustice for what happened in the past.
It'd be like, it'd be like, I alwaysthink of, Ed, if you and I were close
friends and if you broke your leg andI decided to put my leg in a cast and
(09:14):
take medication for your physical pain,what benefit would that be to you?
I'm walking around with my good leg in acast, taking medication for your physical
pain, medication for your emotional pain.
How is that helping you recover?
And then six months later, your legcomes out of the cast and you're fine.
And ten years later, I'm still walkingaround with my leg in a cast, still
taking medication for your physicalpain, and your, your past, it's over.
(09:36):
How is that helping you in any way?
And then the worst question is, when isthat no longer about you and all about me.
That's happened with my trauma, it was nolonger about the twelve-year-old child.
I had taken ownership of itas though it happened to me,
and it hadn't happened to me.
It couldn't happen to me becauseI'm a, I'm a grown adult.
If that person came near me as agrown adult, I killed the fucker.
(09:57):
He wouldn't get anywhere near me.
That was a twelve-year-old childwho lost their innocence, not,
not a sixty-two-year-old man.
So that, for me, was a turning point.
I realized I had to find some wayof teaching people how they could
separate from the past and givethe past back to the younger self.
That, that's interestingright there, Richard.
You know, the comment, uh,I had to teach someone.
(10:20):
How big is that?
When we actually develop the skills tobe better in ourselves, is it a natural
thing that we want to help others recover?
Well, I, we're, we're human beings.
We're, we're, we're, we're, okay.
The A A program gave me anunderstanding of God, which is
(10:42):
completely different to the God I, Iknew growing up as a Roman Catholic.
And even I, I tried joining aBaptist church, didn't work for me.
I tried joining a Protestantchurch, didn't work for me.
Tried to go back to my RomanCatholic faith, didn't work for me.
Went to a Jesuit church,didn't work for me.
Went to a Presbyterian, organizedreligion doesn't work for me.
I just, I just realized that.
It's like in AA, there's somemeetings that work for me, some
other meetings I can't stand.
(11:04):
We're all personalities,we don't all fit in.
There's people who can't standme, people who just like me,
and there's people who like me.
That's just the way life is.
Not everyone's gonna like me,everyone's gonna love me, Ed.
The same way certain normalpeople, I cannot handle.
Other normal people I love, you know?
And other addicts that I don't likeand other people I just, I love.
(11:25):
I'm great with other AA members,I'm not quite with members
of other twelve step groups.
We're just different people, we justthink different, we do things differently.
So I don't get on well with addicts,and addicts don't get on well with me.
I never did drugs.
I don't, I'm not the same mindsetas someone who uses drugs.
And that's not saying anythingbad about someone who does drugs,
we're just different people.
You know, it'd be like different tribes.
(11:47):
It's like, I, I love thisconcept of, when I was born, I
was born into my parents' tribe.
Now, because I'm born into myparents tribe, it doesn't mean that
my parents are my tribe, you know?
My parents were hardworkingfamily people in Ireland.
Now if I want to be a dancer, or aa, a songwriter, or a footballer,
or a sports player, I'm not a memberof my parents' tribe, you know?
(12:10):
They may want, want me to be adoctor 'cause all the family were
doctors, and I wanna be a dancer.
Just means, it's not that I, I'msitting wrong, I'm not in my tribe.
But when I find my tribe, I fit into it.
And in AA, I found my tribe.
I am not a tribe member of the NATribe, or the GA Tribe, or the OA
tribe, a member of the AA tribe.
And I feel at home.
(12:30):
Again, I tried Roman Catholicfaith, didn't work for me.
I'm not a member of that tribe.
Not a member of the Baptist tribe,or the, or the, uh, Anglican, or the,
or the, or the, the, the Partisan,
they're just not my tribe.
Nothing wrong with them.
They work for some people and for somepeople they're their, they're a God send.
But for me, they're not my tribe.
So I like the concept of having myown understanding of God, but I, I,
(12:53):
again, I couldn't, I couldn't allowmyself to be in control of the process.
So having my own understandingcould only go so far.
I had to understand that I accept theGod of the Bible, just the, God the
Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.
Accept they're, they're, they'rethe God that I'm talking about.
And they have my concept of them ratherthan my concept of my understanding.
If I go with my understanding ofGod, my brother has be nice to me,
(13:16):
stand on my side of the street,fight for my battles, and you know,
that's not, that's me being incontrol like a go-gettcha God.
So I had to pick a God outsideof me, just the God of the Bible.
It is proven, proven by historiansand geologists that it's true and
that everything in it is true.
(13:37):
So I accept that's my God.
Christ, He's my God.
Now, I don't have to go to manmadereligion, don't join a denomination.
But I can accept that the Godof the Bible is my God, and
that's what helped me get over.
'Cause what I needed to do isI needed to perform a miracle.
I need miracles.
And to defeat a traumamemory, we need miracles.
We need a change of attitudeand perspective and that comes
(14:00):
with a miraculous change in us.
So I like to tell my clients thatwhen they do my program, they're
gonna experience seven miracles.
For me, there were threemajor and four minor.
For, for another guy, they were all major.
Again, it's, it's how it affects you.
You'll know whether it's a big,big miracle or a small miracle,
but you're gonna perform miracles.
(14:20):
Manmade solutions don't work,medications and therapy don't work.
But solutions, spiritual solution does.
Sorry, go on.
No, that's fine.
Uh, it, it's a good conversation.
Uh, God is the center of everythingin many ways to a lot of people.
And I really see those that deny God,they, they tend to have problem lives.
(14:50):
And that's my own opinion,I'll, I'll stick with that.
And I, I think we all need a higher power.
And when we step into a manmadechurch, there's always worry about
how the rent's going to be paid.
You know, how many members I have?
(15:13):
Am I saving?
You can't save anybody,that's not your job.
You're not the savior.
And a manmade church always bringsinherent problems along with
that because of the financialdifficulties in our world.
So I, I really think that spiritualityis a personal thing between you
(15:36):
and God, whoever your God might be.
And you know, to me there's one God.
You have to really find that, andit's a journey within your life.
I remember young, being young, andI would go from church to church
(15:57):
looking for, well, what's insidethis building that everybody needs?
Why are they a, acongregation, if you will?
Why does everybody have to feel thisis meant for you, this is meant for
me, but on the other hand, we have allthese different, uh, denominations.
(16:24):
So there's a division there also.
So when we talk religion, I, I reallyget hung up on it when people want
to say, You have to go to church.
To me, you are in church every day.
And you're responsible for your actionsevery day, every minute of the day,
(16:49):
and it's really about owning up toyour responsibility as a human being.
You're not gonna be perfect.
But if you make a mistake, it's all right.
And knowing that, you have tobe accountable for your actions.
I really think that finding thattruth beyond religion is where
(17:15):
you're going to find comfort.
What do you think about that, Richard?
I'd like to talk about,uh, the, the, the religion.
I don't talk too much aboutreligion because it's not a
religious thing that I do.
But there's, there's I, about, I'd like tomention about God and Jesus for just, for,
for a moment to give you an understandingof how I came about my, my whole idea.
(17:36):
Um, I, I used to thinkthere was good and evil.
I really believed there was good and evil.
You know, that Satan's out to getus and he, he's trying to tempt us.
It's always good and evil.
And I like the concept that, that, that
God lives within us, the King of God,God king, kingdom of God is within us.
It's not out there in the clouds.
Not some guy dressed like a Thorsitting in, in a, in an armchair
in the clouds looking down here.
(17:57):
It's actually inside us.
It's in our imaginationthat we're the image of God.
We are the I am.
If we, anytime I use the words Iam, I'm invoking God in my life.
So if I'm saying I am depressed, and Iam PTSD, and I am hated and no one likes
me, I am inviting that into my life.
I am creating that scenario andmanifesting that into my life.
(18:17):
So I have to watch how I use God's name.
So I need to be saying, eventhough I'm feeling, it's like, I am
gloriously happy, joyous and free.
And if I say it enough,it, I'll manifest that.
So I will change.
It's like that miracle, we said changing,we said changing what we say, everything
starts changing first, you know?
But the, the guy who built out of the,the talk about the guy who built the San
(18:38):
Francisco Bridge, he had an idea first.
He imagined what the bridge would looklike, and he had its idea in his head
and found that he drew plans, and nowthat, then they got the, the bridge.
But the bridge came outwith someone's imagination.
And everything in our livescomes from someone's imagination.
So if we wanna have a good life,we have to imagine a good life.
So there's a practice called the dreamPrayer, and it's basically manifestation.
(18:59):
When you go to bed at night, there's atime just before you sleep when your,
your, your conscious mind switches off.
And in that moment, you can dream a dream.
And dream the most beautiful dreamyou can think of, of the future,
but as though it's happened already.
It's your dream of how you're, you've gotrid of your trauma memory and it's gone.
And you're a normal person where youcan fit in with your family and go to a
(19:21):
party and feel comfortable and relaxed
talking about the mundane, stupidthings that normal people talk about.
That they can talk about and havea long conversation, relaxed.
Where we're all hyper about thepoor me, what happened to me.
To be relaxed and comfortable in thatspace or public speaking, as yourself,
speaking publicly at an event whereyou're calm and you're confident.
And you have this dream prayergoing to bed for about five or
(19:42):
ten minutes you do every night.
And then every time you have afree moment, like you're driving
the car, or you're sitting on thetoilet, you go back and revisit
the dream as though it's happened.
And the idea behind a dream prayeris, God hears you having this dream.
He believes it must have happened alreadyso He makes it happen in your life.
And He manifests it, He creates it.
And certainly the event comes down withyour public speaking and you find you're
(20:02):
an ace, you coach your family too, andyou're not all uptight over yourself.
You are able to enjoy the conversation.
You realize, I've had this dream,I dreamed this dream in, in, in
the future and it, it's come about.
This, a dream prayer is,it's basically manifestation.
If we learn to dream prayer, we cancreate whatever we want in our lives.
So that was the first part of it.
(20:23):
The second part was to, to, to,for me, I had to accept that
there's no Satan, there's no evil.
That God is responsible foreverything, good and bad.
And everything I go through, He,He, it's like the book of Job.
If you ever read the book ofJob in, in the Bible, it's,
it's, yeah, it's powerful.
This guy had everything and theneverything was taken from him.
(20:44):
And then there's, they're talking aboutSatan tempts and to see if he really
loves God and he does all this to him.
And at the end of it, God says,I let this happen because I
wanted to make you stronger.
And I'm gonna give you back yourten wives and your twenty children,
and multiply it by tenfold.
I like that concept.
But the fact that everything thathappened to me, I went through my
sexual abuse, um, addiction, terriblebullying in school, really very bad
(21:08):
bullying where I suffered in school.
Was horrific bullying that would've killedan elephant, would've flawed an elephant.
But I survived all these horrificthings in my childhood, and then into
breakups and rejection, and bullyingagain as an adult, and all this kind
of stuff, and not being misunderstood.
All this kind of stuff thathappened to me on my journey.
And certainly here I am, sixty-twoyears of age, married with two teenage,
(21:31):
well, I keep saying teenage children,two young adults going to university,
on Ed Watters Dead America Podcast,creating a trauma program helping
people break free of a past trauma.
And I wouldn't be here today if I hadn'tsuffered all those things in the past.
And I saw myself suffering them.
God gave me each of these challengesto make me the person I am today.
(21:53):
I couldn't see it all along, I thoughtSatan's at, at me, or evil's at me, or
someone's trying to block me from God, oryou know, trying to stump me, whatever.
And looking back, I see there's no Satan.
God wants to make me stronger by sufferingall these events, so I become stronger.
But what I went through would haveflawed an, flawed an elephant.
I really believe another, anotherchild would've probably killed
(22:15):
themselves than go through what Iwent through, I, I suffered some
horrific stuff.
I don't wanna triggeranybody by talking about it.
I don't like talking aboutwhat happened in the past, I
don't wanna trigger anybody.
So now when I work with a client,I tell the client, we don't want
to talk about what happened to you.
The other person's going to heal you.
What we do is we, we label what happenedfor every person that's been, one
label, that's a loss of innocence.
(22:37):
So twelve years of age, Isuffered a trauma event that
caused me a loss of innocence.
Thirteen to nineteen in boarding school,I suffered numerous losses of innocence.
Nineteen to twenty-five in earlyrelationships and being dumped
and being made a fool of, Isuffered a loss of innocence.
And then twenty-five to thirty-five,again, bullying in the workplace,
that kind of stuff, I suffered.
So it's all a loss of innocence.
(22:58):
So we can't compare our traumawith anybody else, that's
the worst thing we can do.
And if you tell people aboutyour trauma, they'll judgment
against what they've heard before.
Again, it's, so you just labelthat thing as a loss of innocence.
And my loss of innocence, and so maybeif you were a veteran and, and you
look back at your, your younger selfat the age of eighteen, enlisted to
fight in, in the armed forces in, ina foreign war, their loss of innocence
(23:21):
is whatever happened in the war.
It's just called the loss of innocence,before they, before they grew up
knowing that man couldn't harm man.
And then they experienced an event withsome men performing horrors on other
men, that was their loss of innocence.
Mine was a sexual one.
Someone else might have married intoa narcissistic abusive relationship,
that's their loss of innocence.
We just use the label loss of innocence.
(23:42):
I know what that means to me.
So I'm not feeling threatened or triggeredby saying loss of innocence because
I know exactly what it was for me.
When you say loss of innocence,you're not comparing with me.
You know exactly what yourloss of innocence was.
And same with someone else who, who was,who was a veteran, someone else who was in
a relationship, someone else who saw 9/11,they just labeled it a loss of innocence.
(24:02):
And by admitting a loss of innocence,they're not triggered, they're
not going back into the trauma.
It's just a loss of innocence, you know?
So that's the idea with the God thing,it's a case of if we can accept that
God's in charge of everything, then it,it helps us to, to break free of this.
Because we realize what happened inthe past was part of my learning curve,
(24:23):
was part to make me stronger today.
But it isn't meant todefine me, who I am today.
So what happened in the past is notmy job to get, get vengeance for, get
justice for, it didn't happen to me.
But like me getting vengeanceor justice for you, having
your leg broken by some fellow.
That happened to you,didn't happened to me.
You can fight your own battles.
Not for me to go around fightingEd Watter's battles 'cause he,
(24:44):
he was attacked and mocked,
none of my business.
I can cheer for you.
It didn't happen to me in the sameway it happened to a twelve-year-old
child, didn't happen to me.
The thirteen-year-old childor the eighteen-year-old
child, didn't happen to me.
It happened to other people and Ihave to stop fighting their battles.
And they don't even wantme to fight their battles.
They're thinking, What thefuck are you doing coming in
trying to fight my battles?
You go off.
(25:06):
I've sacrificed so much so that you'llbe free today to have a life with your
wife and your children, and Ed Watters,and, and everyone else in your life.
Would you please fuck off and leaveyour life and stop coming back
into the past and taking my shitand giving it life in the future.
That's kind of the idea behind this.
Yeah.
(25:26):
So you talk about there can be noeffect when the cause is removed.
That, that's basically whatyou're outlining right there
then, cause and effect.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, that's the science.
Science tells us that if, if,if, if there's no cause, then
there can't be an effect.
(25:47):
If you, if you look at modern, modern,uh, therapy today, we treat the effect.
We treat people for PTSD, or depression,or, you know, or any condition,
any disorder that's, the disorder,but not the cause of the disorder.
You know, if, if we're treating the,the disorder, not the cause of it, we're
gonna be treating the disorder forever.
(26:07):
We've got something like, in this dayand age, there's something like, in
the last eighty years, we've got 1.4billion people diagnosed with PTSD.
That's nearly a quarter ofthe world's population.
Another eighty years, it'sgonna be half of the population.
We're treating theeffect and not the cause.
But if I treat your cause, so ifI work with you, Ed, and I get you
to give your past back to, to youryoung seventeen-year-old Ed, or young
(26:27):
twelve-year-old Ed, and you have thisspiritual experience of outer body,
you see it giving it back to youryoung Ed and young Ed saying, Thank
you for giving my shit back, Ed.
I'm gonna fuck off and leavethis plane of existence.
And they leave the plane of existence andyou feel the weight leaving your body.
But once it's gone, it's like, allthis stuff you've been doing with
your therapist for the last ten yearscertainly is no longer, let me ask
you, How does that make you feel?
Sorry, it's nothing to do with me.
(26:48):
What happened to Ed's leghas nothing to do with me.
It doesn't make me feelanything, you know?
It's not, what happened to my youngerself doesn't affect me, it has
nothing to do with my life today.
My life is the sixteen hours with mywife and my teenage, adult children.
And my mother-in-lawand the dog, you know?
And when we can separate from thepast, with the cause gone, there's
no longer any reason for the effect.
So then we did the twelve stepprogram of trauma, recovering from
(27:12):
doing all that learned behavior.
Yeah, I, I kind of like the, uh,K.I.S.S. Keep It Simple Stupid.
Because when we, when we really keep itsimple instead of piling all of these
thoughts and traumas on top of us everyday when we wake up in the morning and
(27:34):
our feet hit the floor, it's your choiceevery day how you want to, number one,
respond to anything that comes your way.
And number two, how, how are yougoing to make your day better?
Because if, if we wake up andsomething automatically triggers us,
(28:00):
we have to work on trying to makethe day better from the very first
instance of whatever triggers us.
How do we, how do we locate and identifyour trigger points so we can be on top
of those negative feelings that thosetrigger points can actually put us into?
(28:26):
Sorry for smiling, I love these questionsthat, they're, they're, they're wonderful.
I, I wish I could think of these questionsbefore and then give 'em to you and say,
Ask this question, Ed, when we get there.
But like, you're coming upwith these questions that are
just mind blowingly wonderful.
You know, very simple,but, but very astute.
So the, the thing is we have tounderstand, if the past didn't happen
to us, then we can't let it trigger us.
So all the, we could do a list ofall the things that were triggered
(28:48):
from and say, None of my business.
None of my business.
Again, I have to be very careful herebecause you, you can't just say to
somebody, Okay, it didn't happen to you.
Ignore it, let it go.
Because if you, if that is how you'vedefined yourself for the last ten
or twenty years and you, you becomeyour identity and you're going to the
support groups on it, maybe the veteransupport group, or the narcissists
(29:08):
support group, or the, and you've beena member of that group and you've been a
speaker of that group and a voice and achairperson and all that kind of stuff,
and suddenly I say to you, Yeah, thisdidn't happen to you, walk away, it
can be very hard to walk away from youridentity if your identity has been victim.
It's nearly impossible.
It, it really, so this is thebig challenge we have because the
(29:29):
whole world says, You're a victim.
Celebrate victimhood.
I mean, social welfare give you all thesebenefits for the veterans, for PTSD,
and for all these different conditions.
And a part of that life of veteran is youget all this social welfare benefits for
PTSD and therapy and, and all this kindof stuff you have coming on top of it.
And there's a huge, and there's ahuge dependence upon the state to
(29:53):
remain in that status, you know?
It, it kind of stops you from being anormal person in a job doing nine to
five if you don't have to ever work.
Because now you're getting all thissocial welfare benefits, that means you
need to never work and you can be retiredas part of a really strong, supportive
network of support groups kind of stuff.
But you lose yourself, your sense of self.
(30:15):
But the payoff is almost like, okay.
And I'm not knocking veterans.
I think any, anyone who's servedtheir country at any level should
be entitled to all that socialwelfare, whether they stay as
a, as someone who's beendamaged or they recover.
So if you've been diagnosed with PTSDand you are receiving benefits, and
(30:37):
then you do this program and you, andyou're healed, you should still be,
receive those benefits the rest ofyour life because you've volunteered
to be of service to your country.
I don't think they should say,Well, if you stop doing PTSD,
you lose all that income.
I think anyone who gives their lifeto, for the benefit of their, of their,
their, of their, their country or theworld, Army, Navy, Air Force, police,
(30:58):
emergency workers, nurses, doctors,if you serve your country or your,
your world with distinction and yousuffer for it, you should be able to
have it for the rest of your days.
You can still get a job, but you don'tlose the benefit of, we're not paying you
just for the, for the years you workedin the Army, we're gonna pay you for the
rest of your life because you gave up youryears, your good years for the Army, or
(31:19):
the Navy, or the Air Force, or emergency.
We're gonna continue to pay youlong after, till the day you die.
We're gonna make certain you neednever work again if you don't want to.
But if you do want to work, youstill get this benefit as well.
We're gonna readjust your tax,we're gonna increase your insurance.
So that's what I believe should happento anyone who's been diagnosed with PTSD.
So 1.4 billion people outthere diagnosed with PTSD.
(31:41):
If you kick your PTSD, youshould still get those payments
for the rest of your life.
That's something I feel very strongly,but it, it's not my, my position to say.
But I want you to know, Iunderstand it can be scary.
The idea if I clear my PTSD, I'm gonnalose all these payments and I haven't
worked in twenty years and I've beendependent on state for twenty years.
So certainly I'm going to step out ofthat comfort zone and try and find a job.
(32:03):
And there's no jobs going, and I'dbe kicked out of my, my, my home,
or where I have my, my wellbeingor my welfare, you know, I'll lose
all my, my network of friends.
It's almost safer.
The pain we know is safer thanthe pain we don't know, that's
the biggest problem we have.
For anyone with a condition, it'ssafer to stay in the pain you know.
(32:24):
Uh, a friend of mine in AA, a veteranof, uh, Korea, lovely man, it's
one of my sponsors I have in AA,eighty-seven years of age, he is.
And he spoke about the fact that
if he did this program, and he, hewouldn't do it because if he did this
program he'd have to get, he'd have, he'dlose all his benefits and all of his,
(32:46):
and he's too old to get a job.
He's too old to try and findsomething to live without the
support, and that's a huge problem.
You know, I, I would love to seesome government, Donald Trump is god
saying anyone who's ever served thiscountry gets their social welfare
for life, whatever happens, you know?
I think that would be, hands down, thefirst thing they should do is say, anyone
(33:08):
who has served their country, Army,Navy, personnel, ambulance, emergency
workers, social welfare, social carers,whatever, walking the, the, the, the
human, the, the, these super crossingwith this, for kids walking across
the road, school wardens, whatever.
Whatever your situation is, you get socialwelfare for life on top of you got a job.
(33:28):
And we reduce your tax on your job soyou'd be, never have to run for anything.
I think on a, on a, on a,on a, that should happen.
I'm not American, so I don't havea say in your country, but that's
what I'd love to see happen.
And if anyone is to do anything, DonaldTrump's the one who would do it and I
wish he would do something like that.
So anyway, that's what I needto say first and foremost.
Because it's, the idea of saying tosomeone with PTSD or depression, Let's
(33:50):
cure you of the past trauma memory andthen you can be free of your depression
and PTSD, there's a catch in this.
Because if they're free of the PTSD, theymay feel, the people I've worked with,
with PTSD, they're the most honorablepeople I've known that can't live a lie.
They can't claim PTSD benefitsif they don't have PTSD.
(34:11):
You know what I mean?
They're not someone who wouldbe willing to cheat the system
even though the systemdoesn't take care of them.
They've, they've got loads of moralsand honor that they wouldn't dream
of, I think most young men who gooff and fight in the war are this
very moral, kind of honorable youngpeople who suffer the horrors of war.
And then they, they, they still havetheir morals and their ethics about them
(34:35):
and they wouldn't dream of committing anycrime or, you know, that kind of stuff.
And so you, you're talking aboutdoing this program and in two hours
having your trauma memory gone.
Do the twelve step program,have your PTSD gone, and step
back into, into the human race.
It's almost like, the price is too high.
Yeah, yeah.
It's kind of interesting.
(34:59):
You know, we, we think about trauma a lotin our lives and it, it's really one of
those big highlights that get overlooked.
You know, uh, we, we, we find asolution, and that's the answer.
(35:20):
And it's, it's one fits all.
And, and I, I think we really need toreexamine that whole mindset of how
we look at trauma in the first place.
Because like you stated a little earlierin your conversation, my trauma is not
(35:41):
the same as somebody else's, your traumais not the same as somebody else's.
So we all kinda live our livesand we experience traumas
daily, but they're not the same.
And we really have to rememberthat in a lot of the ways.
(36:03):
Let's talk a little bitabout your program, Richard.
What is it and how did youactually come up with it?
Okay.
Thank you, again.
I'm loving these questions.
Uh, I got to work in, in an addictioncenter in Chiang Mai in Thailand.
(36:23):
Can I mention the name?
Uh, it's called The Cabin, it'sthe first addiction center in Asia.
Uh, a group of four, uh, Englishlads that got together and organized
the center, and a huge success.
At one stage, it was 120 beds.
The biggest center probably in the world.
A huge success rate with,with, with addiction primarily.
And I, I worked as a support staffand then I, 'cause I, I'd done,
(36:46):
uh, practice like EFT and Reikiand whatever, I got to change over
to a, uh, holistic practitioner.
To huge, and getting work from clientsand also holding, uh, twelve, twelve,
twelve step spaces and, and the likes.
And I got to run some meditationgroups and I really enjoyed it,
it was really, really powerful.
(37:07):
And when I got to working with clients,and I got to work with clients who, I
think because the center primarily lookedat addiction, there were some clients kind
of slipping through the cracks and theyfelt it'd be a good idea to give them a,
a, an induction to, to holistic practices.
Maybe that would give them some,they weren't there for addiction.
(37:27):
They're more there fortrauma or that kinda stuff.
So they tried different breath like TRE,and Miseph, and other Reiki, and whatever,
just something that might help them.
And they got to try some different things.
And I got to work with about,about a hundred clients.
I had huge success, absolutelyfantastic success with, with them
all using this healing event.
So the idea of the healingevent is, it's basically a
(37:49):
visualization, it's all holistic.
First of all, I need, need toprobably, I stand, I, I hold
really strong in my mind is I thinkthere's two forms of mental illness.
In my early, early years, I had twomental health professionals who worked
with me, and they were the most kind,caring, loving, empathetic people.
They were really powerful.
(38:10):
And now I think mental healthprofessionals are qualified to
work with mental illness, and I'mnot a mental health professional.
I couldn't help you when itcomes to mental health, it's
a matter out of my depth.
I couldn't help you.
But I believe that mentaldisorders are caused by us
bringing the past into the present.
They cause a dysregulation in ourthinking and in our feeling, whatever.
And that's what a disorder is.
Whereas a mental illness is somethingthat you're born with, or you
(38:33):
suffer in an accident, or somethinghappens that affects your brain.
So mental health professionals arequalified and they go to college
to learn how to deal with that.
But the mental disorders, that'swhy life coaches, and holistic
practitioners, and cognitive therapistscan all help with mental disorder.
Because it's, it's a dysregulationof our emotions and our feelings
and our thought patterns.
(38:54):
And that's why so many peoplecan help in this regard.
So my idea was that, well, again, if it'scause and effect, and if we can get rid of
the cause, well, then like a twelve stepprogram like AA would be fantastic if you
create a twelve step program for trauma.
To do the twelve steps to get rid ofthe, the learned behaviors of depression,
PTSD, whatever that disorder you have is.
(39:17):
They're learned behaviors.
When, when we're suffering withsomething like PTSD or depression, our
behavior towards our family and friendsbecome distorted and dysfunctional.
We're pushing people away who aretrying to get close to us, who love us.
Because we're so scared of empathyand kindness that we're hurting the
people we love and we're gettingdivorced from our wives and husbands.
And that's all that learned behavior
we have to change.
(39:37):
So we do a twelve step program similarto the twelve steps of AA, but different.
But it helps us to undo allthat learned behavior that was
so dysfunctional in our lives.
So there's two parts, one is thehealing event I call The Healing Event.
It's, it's trauma, it's howto heal any past trauma now.
So I take the clients to foursections of this healing event.
(39:58):
The first section is SevenFoundations, Spiritual Foundation
Stones for Performing the SevenMiracles for Changing our Attitude
or our Perspective around the Past.
That the past didn't happen to us,it happened to our younger self.
And we need to give itback to our younger self.
And those, and those sevenfoundations, cornerstones, we actually
laid the foundations where we'reactually ready to give it away.
(40:21):
And then the next two sections, the nextone is clearing, clearing our heads of
the stinking thinking, faulty feelings.
And then we have to also clean our handsof all the negative energy in our hands.
In, in the Bible, Jesus healedby laying his hands on people.
We've got so much energyblocked in our hands, you know?
You know, that, that they talkabout the thumb holds your anxiety.
(40:42):
So you suck your thumbto release your anxiety.
Your middle finger is for anger,give the middle finger, yeah.
So you have four fingers forfear, your ring finger's for
sadness and grief, and the littlefinger's for trust and boundaries.
The center of the palm of your hand is forpanic, the side of your hand is stress.
So there's all these emotions thatget locked up in our hands, we have
(41:03):
to cleanse our hands of this energy.
So we do this practice also, we getrid of the energy out of our hands.
Clearing the, this stinkingthinking, faulty in our head.
And then we get to the torso.
We actually, in a visualization,we give the past the bag that
we carried on our shoulders.
We give this bag, we take it off ourback and we give it to our younger
self and we see them taking it from us.
And in that moment we feel thisrelease in our bodies, mentally,
(41:25):
physically, emotionally, spiritually.
A great weight's lifted off our shoulders.
And in that moment you knowwithout a shadow of a doubt
that it's gone from your body.
It'll be like two hours ago you weresuffering with nightmares and flashbacks,
now you're completely in a peace of mind.
It takes about two hours, it's quitemind blowing when you see it happen.
And each of these clients I worked with,I, I had a, I had a shorter version for
(41:47):
about forty minutes, and at the end ofthe forty minutes, they would be free
completely of the past trauma memory.
But I hadn't got a twelvestep program created.
So I did the trauma, the healingevent, but I hadn't got a twelve
step program for follow up.
And that, so I spent the next fouryears working on a twelve step program.
And, uh, when I finally got a twelvestep, and I, I looked at AA and I knew
I couldn't use the twelve, AA twelvesteps the way they were written.
(42:09):
This wouldn't suit for trauma.
And I, I looked around to see ifthere's any twelve step programs
created for trauma and people werejust taking the twelve steps of
AA, taking out the word alcohol andreplacing it with the word trauma.
And that wouldn't work.
Because in, in, in AA and inother twelve step programs,
we're abstaining from a behavior.
We're abstaining from drink or drugs,or sex or porn, whatever it is, okay?
(42:31):
But in trauma, because we'vegiven the past back to our younger
self, it's gone from our psyche.
So we're not abstaining fromsomething that we don't have anymore.
We have the memory, wedon't have the details.
This is the crucial point.
Um,
we're human beings, we have everymemory going back to childhood.
You may have suppressed memories,but we have all our memories
back to when we were a child.
(42:51):
I remember at the age of eight,being in an egg and spoon race.
I thought I was in the Olympics runningdown a field with an egg, an egg and
a spoon with my friends in a race.
You know, this kind of stuff.
I'm sixty-three, but I rememberthese, I remember these events.
Now, I don't remember the details.
I don't remember if it was a sunny day,I don't remember if the wind was blowing,
I don't remember if it was raining, Idon't remember if I was hot and sweaty.
But I remember I did, I ran inthis egg and spoon race at the
(43:11):
age of eight, or nine, or seven.
But I don't have the details.
When we bring a past event into thepresent, we carry all the details.
We can remember exactlythe details of the event.
When we give the event away toour younger self, the details go.
And then we only havethe memory of the event.
So I have the memory today of somethinghappening to a twelve-year- old child.
And I can tell you what it was,but I don't wanna trigger anybody.
(43:32):
But I don't have the details of it.
I, I, I don't, I just don't have them.
They've left my psyche.
It's almost like one minute I had allthese details of what happened to the
twelve-year-old child and I could describethem in detail, and now they're gone.
And I can't explain how they're gone.
But when I gave the baggage backto him, the details went with him.
And that's what happens in the event.
So the details gone.
It's almost like if I talk about whathappened to that child, I know I'm talking
(43:54):
about that child, not what happened tome because I don't have the details.
I can't own the details, that's the idea.
So the event gives that away, andthen we do the twelve step program to
clean our side of the street becausewe're not, we're not abstaining from
anything because we've given it away.
Now we're just cleaningour side of the street.
Does that make sense?
(44:15):
That's the whole, that's theprogram in, in a nutshell.
So, so Richard, uh, when you're,when you're talking about the
energy zones in the body, is thatbringing that Reiki into your
Yeah.
Well, I, I, I love, uh, uh,EFT, Tapping, and Acupressure.
(44:39):
They're the two that made the, the most,but again, I've got a friend of mine who
does Tai Chi and his stuff is wonderful.
I've got another friend of mine who's,who's a yoga instructor, and his, his
breathing practices are wonderful.
I think there's so much more outthere that I haven't tapped into.
And I can see this program I've createdis powerful, but I can see someone
else coming along that has EFT, andReiki, and Acupressure, but also has
(45:01):
Tai chi and Yoga and steps into thisspace and creates a program that's
even ten times better than what I have,
you know?
The one thing thing about holisticpractices and spiritual practices is
there's a huge whole frontier out there.
I've, I've, I've createdthis program that works.
Uh, it, it works, I just know it works.
I've worked with 105 people who haveall broken free of their trauma, PTSD,
(45:26):
depression, whatever it was, they've,they've broken through their loss of
innocence and they're free and livingtheir lives now as normal people.
So, but I know that there's peopleout there who could probably take
this a step further, you know?
I, as much as I, I say I haveGod in my life, I think that
probably there's some Christian outthere who could probably perform
miracles.
You know, who could, who could talk to youin such a way that would give you such a
(45:48):
sense of calmness that after you've spokento them you'd feel this sense of calmness.
Like they, they've workeda miracle on you, you know?
And again, holistic practitioners,my friends who do Tai Chi, I think if
they could learn my stuff and their TaiChi, they'd take it to another level.
I have no doubt that other peoplecan do a better job than me.
But I know what I've done andwhat I've achieved so far.
(46:09):
This program works.
And if you have a past trauma memorythat's, that's, that's ruling and
defining you and you wanna be ridof it, you do this program and
you're free in, in three hours.
Interesting.
You know, a lot of that goes back tofinding that tribe that you talked about.
You know, feelingcomfort in where you are.
(46:29):
That, that's really truly what we'reall seeking is the comfort of where
we are and finding others in the same,maybe not same, but similar situations.
It can really help alleviatethe trauma in our lives.
I found podcasting.
And podcasting, I, I say, it's therapyfor myself because it gives me a way
(46:54):
to express myself, listen to otherpeople express themselves, and then it
also helps me clarify my own feelings.
So really, I, I'm, I'm wondering, thefirst part of healing is to really
(47:16):
find a place where you're accepted.
Is that correct?
I love it.
Yeah, yeah.
But I, I think, but what I like to thinkis that, is that somewhere We're having
this podcast today, you and I, okay?
We haven't met each other before,it's our first time working together.
I like to think that somewhere,maybe one of your audience will
(47:40):
listen to this podcast, they'llget hope for where they're from.
Maybe they're, they're ready to give upon life, they just have so much PTSD, and
so many therapists and medications, andthey're just ready to kill themselves.
And I hate to use that word, but they're,they're at the end of their tether and
they come onto this podcast and theyhear this message and it gives them hope.
And then they go on, they embracelife, and they get past their, their
(48:00):
trauma and their PTSD, and theyget to have this wonderful life.
And they get married, they have kids,and down the road in three or four
generations, one of their childrencreates a cure for cancer, aids.
Now no one will ever know that youand I played our part, you know?
We won't get the accolades orthe recognition for it, but
God will know we did our part.
You know, maybe in four generations,someone watching this, one of your
(48:21):
audience, there are children wouldcould come up with a cure for cancer,
aids and people talk about them andtheir parents and their grandparents,
but no one will know that, me inThailand and you in America, whatever,
we had this podcast that, midnight inThailand and whatever, 12 o'clock noon
in, in America, and we played our part.
And again, and beyond that is,you, you started this podcast.
(48:42):
If you hadn't started this podcast,you wouldn't have invited me on.
If I hadn't started this twelve stepprogram, I wouldn't have been invited on.
We've all done something in our livesthat got us to this stage that one of
your audience in the future will oneday create a cure for cancer, aids.
It's all connected.
So I think that whatyou're doing is fantastic.
I think the fact that you're holdingthis space and you're allowing people
(49:03):
to come on here and share somethingthat's just against the, the norm, like
I, I, I, I mean, I can't, I can't speakhighly enough of you and the other
podcasters who have had me on their shows.
I thank you, from the bottom of my heart.
Grateful gratitude I havefor what you do here.
Well, well, we do thank you for that.
You know, it's really why we do it.
(49:23):
Because we feel the same way, younever know who you're going to affect.
So always be on your bestgame when you're doing it.
And if we're willing and ableto do that, you'll never know
how many lives you changed.
And that's the beauty of what youand I are doing right here today.
(49:45):
And it, it keeps me going.
I, I'll tell you many times Iwanted to say I've had enough
of this, it's just enough.
But that particular pointkeeps me on my game.
And I hope, like you stated,somebody listens to this today and
(50:07):
finds new inspiration and hope.
And that's why we do it.
Richard, uh, our timeis coming to a close.
It, it seems like it just startedand I could go on for hours with you
and possibly have you back on foranother conversation at a later time.
(50:28):
Do you have a call to action for people?
Or a bit of wisdom for people?
I do, I actually do.
I, I'm really glad you asked becauseI'm, I'm really excited about this.
Um, again, I spoke about how I thinkGod is the source of everything.
Uh, I think it, it's a wonderful, it'sa wonderful out for all of us to accept
that God is the source of everything.
(50:49):
All your hardships, all yourchallenges, and all your glory,
all your good, good days.
If we can accept that God's thesource for everything, we're
so far ahead of the posse.
There's so many people out therewho are disillusioned and hopeless
and giving up, and if we canaccept that God has a plan for us.
So what I would say to your,your audience is, make a decision
to give God a second chance.
(51:10):
We all deserve a second chance.
I want a second chance of being, atbeing a husband and a father, and a
brother, and, and a nephew, and a,and a son-in-law, and a neighbor,
and a member of AA, and whatever,and, and a trauma therapist.
I want a second chance of improvingon the mistakes I've made in the past.
As much as I want a secondchance, give God a second chance.
Try that dream prayer justtonight for the hell of it.
(51:31):
When you go down to bedtonight, close your eyes.
And before you sleep, get into dreamingsomething that you want to happen and
have a dream of it actually happening.
In that sleep of almost falling asleep,
have a dream of it actually happening.
As though it's happened already.
And then in the morning, we dreamthat dream has happened already.
And do that for about three weeks.
(51:51):
And in three weeks time, lookback and see if it's happened.
You, honestly, when we give Him achance, He's just waiting for us.
I, I love this thing about, Godgave us free will and a book of
instructions on how to use it.
I remember someone posted, I thinkon TikTok, they said, God created us
so we could enjoy life on this earth.
(52:12):
He's just shocked that we're choosingscarcity and poverty, and pain, depression
rather than choosing abundance oflove and life, and happiness and joy.
You know, we're going around thinkingthat we're meant to be scared.
And the churches are telling us thatwe're meant to be poor and scarce
and we're meant to be sinners.
And that's a load ofbullocks, in my opinion.
God wants us to behappy, joyous, and free.
And if you want abundance,think abundance.
(52:33):
If you want to be a millionaire,think of being a millionaire.
In your dream period tonight, ifyou've got no money, you've got
no job, dream of someone offeringyou a job in the next three weeks.
In dream time, someone's gonnaoffer you a job with the money
you need for the job you want.
And dream that state in the jobyou want to do and whatever.
And dream, and keep dreaming it morning,noon, and night, five times a day.
And in three weeks time, you're gonnafind someone's offered you a job.
(52:53):
You're gonna go, This is easy.
I've gotta do dream, dream state,I'm gonna dream, pray every
fucking night and every day.
And you need never go to, toa church in your lifetime.
Just dream prayer asmuch as you can, okay?
And if you do that for, for thirty days,by day ten, you won't know yourself.
Twenty times a day, thirty times a day,just every time you got a waking moment.
(53:13):
In the office, after your office,you're not busy on your, on your
desk, or the kitchen, or something.
Just, we, we, we visit that dream asthose happened already, really invoke
that it's actually happened already.
And you, before you know it,He'll make it happen for you.
Sorry.
I've gone on, I can't stop.
Ed, thank you.
No, that's all right.
(53:34):
That's good.
You know, the Bible, BasicInstructions Before Leaving Earth,
uh, I believe it a hundred percent.
And, uh, in, in the book ofJeremiah, it does tell you,
God wants good things for you.
And He has good things for youand you, you have to believe that.
(53:56):
And if you live it, it works every day.
Richard, it, it's always greatto speaking with people like you.
How can people reach outand get involved with you?
Well, I'm happy to say, my, myseventeen-year-old son, he's just applied
to go to university and now in his freetime, he's going to design my website.
(54:18):
It'll be called Trauma RecoveryAnonymous, and I hope to have it
up in the next two or three weeks.
I have my books on Amazon, uh, the trauma,How to Heal Any Past Trauma Memory.
About the book, when you dothe healing event, you need to
have someone read it to you.
If you try and do ityourself, it won't work.
Because it's, it's like directions.
So you might, you might buy a copyand read your copy to somebody
(54:39):
else and then they might buy acopy and read that copy to you.
So you have to take the directions fromthe other person for the event to work.
But the twelve step programyou can do on your own, okay?
So, so if, again, if you wanna work withyour therapist, work with your therapist.
But you may have someone in, inyour support group who also, like
you, wants to, wants to break free.
And your recovery buddyand you can work together.
Fellow veteran, whatever it is, or, orelse your therapist, have your therapist
(55:03):
read it to you and do the process.
But be open to, just be opento it and it'll work for you.
And then the, the twelve stepprogram is on Amazon as well,
they're both on as Kindle books.
And they're also on, on a, a,a website called Draft2Digital.
They have them in print anddigital on most bookstores.
You'll get them there.
But you'll definitely get themon Amazon as a Kindle, okay?
(55:26):
And I'll, I'll send on to you,Ed, my details so you can put
them on the post when you do itso you have the details, content.
I have an email address, it's, uh,richard@traumarecoveryanonymous.com.
If you'd like me to work with youone-on-one or ten on ten, or I work,
I work with ten on ten at a time.
Wanna do Zoom or something?
I can set up on Zoom todo a session if you want.
You're afraid of coming on your own, youwanna come with somebody, or I can take
(55:48):
you through the session on your own.
So it'srichard@traumarecoveryanonymous.com.
Ed, thank you very much.
Richard, yeah, it's been a pleasurehaving you and all of your links
will be in the show notes section.
And I wanna say thank you for beinghere today and sharing your wisdom and
(56:12):
techniques with the Dead America Podcast.
Thank you, it was a pleasure being here.
I, I know for me it's 10 o'clock,it's midnight here, one o'clock now.
I've loved every moment of it.
Maybe, maybe I'll become a night person.
Ed, thank you very much and thankyou very much for listening, folks.
I hope you were able tounderstand my fast speech.
I get excited when I talk aboutthis stuff, so thank you very much.
(56:34):
It's always good.
Thank you for joining us today.
If you found this podcast enlightening,entertaining, educational in any way,
please share, like, subscribe, and joinus right back here next week for another
great episode of the Dead America Podcast.
(56:58):
I'm Ed Watters, your host, enjoyyour afternoon wherever you might be.
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