December 14, 2025 • 81 mins
Ep 220 One World in a New World with Darren Jewell
❓ What if everything you were told about your limitations… was wrong?
In this extraordinary episode of One World in a New World, Zen Benefiel sits down with Darren Jewell, whose life began with a devastating fall at 15 months old—a traumatic brain injury that left doctors certain he would never live a normal life. They predicted he would be unable to learn, unable to work, and unable to thrive. Darren proved them wrong in every possible way.
From surviving childhood trauma to retraining his body, overcoming bullying, mastering multiple careers, completing more than 50 online courses in 16 months, and ultimately shocking neurosurgeons with MRI results showing that a previously non-functioning third of his brain had become active again—Darren’s story is a living testament to human potential, neuroplasticity, and the power of belief.
This episode dives deeply into:
✨ Neuroplasticity & self-healing
✨ The inner conversations that shape resilience
✨ Spiritual and intuitive awareness
✨ The courage to defy prognoses and expectations
✨ How mindset, effort, and curiosity can rewire destiny
Darren’s journey is a beacon of hope for anyone facing obstacles, uncertainty, or the feeling of “not enough.”
If you’ve ever wondered what’s truly possible when the human spirit refuses to quit—this episode will change how you see yourself and what you’re capable of.
Connect with Darren: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darren-jewell-neuroresilience-coach-96178054/
Darren's website: https://darrenjewell.com/brain/
#Neuroplasticity #BrainHealing #DarrenJewell #ZenBenefiel #OneWorldInANewWorld #Resilience #HumanPotential #TraumaRecovery #InspirationalStory
__________
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:18):
Namaste and in La Queche and welcome to this episode of One
World in a New World. I'm your host, Zen Benefiel.
And as always, do like, subscribe, share, make some
comments because it benefits youin getting your thoughts out of
your head and others in being able to hear them or at least
read them. So thanks so much in advance.
(00:38):
Also, I ask you to please visit planetarycitizens.net where you
will get a free download of my 43rd book called Planetary
Citizens Awakening the Heart of Humanity and I guarantee you it
will touch your heart as well asyour head.
(01:00):
So thanks for much for that in advance as well.
So this week's guest is Darren Jewell.
Darren is a really interesting individual.
He's one of those babies that got dropped on his head, I think
and to put it slightly, and really had some challenges in
life as a result. He's turned into a gentleman
(01:23):
that's able to help others rear,rewire their brains after
traumatic brain injuries. He is an inspirational speaker,
he's a course creator, and he isup to his neck or let's say up
to the top of his head in neuroplasticity.
So we're going to get into a great conversation about what
(01:46):
his life has been like and how he's made that interconnection,
like all of my guests. So stay tuned, we'll be right
back. You know, there's a lot of chaos
and confusion in the world today.
There doesn't have to be for you.
You can turn that chaos into clarity.
Now, how can you do that? Well, first of all, by talking
(02:07):
to me, your coach, integral, transformational, whatever you
want to call that, I can help you figure out you so that you
can put you in order and then create some action plans to
achieve your dreams, whatever those might be.
You can achieve anything that you put your mind to with the
(02:30):
attention, intention and interactions that go along with
that. And that's what we discover in
the process. You know, you might have some
great times with the DIY stuff that's online now using ChatGPT,
all of that. That's great and it might serve
a purpose to a point. However, you don't get the
(02:52):
empathy, the understanding, the real ear that you would from a
coach. So I invite you, schedule an
appointment. Let's have a chat and we can
find out what's in it for you. Have a great day.
So Darren, it is so great to have you here.
(03:12):
Welcome. And I'm looking forward to a
wonderful apocalyptic chat. We're going to unveil some
knowledge and have a great time doing it.
Thank you for inviting me, Zen. You're welcome.
Well, you know, I do my best to have a cross reference of pretty
(03:33):
much every type of person and place and and activity in life
and bridging these inner and outer worlds.
Because we're generally bereft of having the conversations
about what's going on inside of us.
And it's usually kind of bizarre, maybe even a little
wild and weird. So others, when we explain
(03:55):
what's happening inside of us, often kind of step back and look
at us like we are a little weird.
Well, I like the weird flag and I wave it high.
So in that I know you had this very interesting introduction to
life and and an event that happened young.
(04:18):
Could you begin with describing what that was and how you began
your life in this world? So, yeah, I was like born in
1969 and at the age of only 15 months, my family lived in a
(04:44):
ground floor flat in North London.
And there was a spiral staircasethat led up to the, the, the
flats that were above. And there was 2, two floors
above. And my dad was at work.
I've got two older brothers. They were at school and just had
(05:09):
like lunch with my mum, with my mum.
And she was, she turned to do the dishes and I went out, I
crawled out, out the back door or toddled out the back door,
climbed up this spiral staircase.
(05:29):
And at the time bars on spiral staircases and balconies were
not caught with and so I they they've no idea how far I
climbed but the first thing my mum heard was a FUD as I'd come
(05:49):
down, landed on my head and got rushed into hospital.
I was in a coma for about 3 weeks, which I say to people
doesn't seem like a long time but I lost the 1st 15 months of
my life. My parents were told and this
(06:15):
was like so 1970 is like a few years I think 7 years before the
world had the technology of Moi scanners.
So all they did was a CT scan and injected die to see my
veins. And they just said to my parents
(06:38):
he's not going to have a good life.
His brain won't retain information so he's not going to
get a good job, he's not going to do good at school.
Basically I was going to, they said I was going to sit around
and do nothing. So, so.
Prognosis. You know, you fall off something
which is traumatic enough, and then your parents are given this
(06:59):
horrible prognosis about what your life's going to be about.
Now that to me is a disservice, right?
Because anything's possible, as you have found out in in the
realms of neuroplasticity, you can rebuild yourself.
You just have to choose to do so, right?
And how did this as you grew up and your parents and I'm sure
(07:25):
you had discussions about what they were told, what was that
like and and how did you navigate through that or were
you able to as a youngster? Like, so I I actually damaged
the left side of my head, so it weakened the right side of my
(07:46):
body. So as I was growing up, if I had
an accident that it's I hate theword I hate the word normal.
But what? Is it right?
What is really what's normal? I don't think there's any such
thing. I used, so I used to break, I
used to break bones a lot. I broke my arm, my leg.
(08:06):
But with this so many times playing football and I overused
my left arm because my right armjust stayed down by its side.
So I did most things with just one hand.
I could catch balls with one hand.
(08:27):
My dad used to be a boxer and weused to have like macaron
sparring sessions. And he actually said to me that
my my left punch was one of the hardest punches he'd ever had.
So you adapted quite well with the situation you were given.
Yeah. And my dad actually was the
(08:51):
first person who bite. He didn't know what, he didn't
know what he was doing, but he tied my wrist together.
So when my hand went, my left hand went up to catch a ball or
a Frisbee. My right hand would go up as
well. So it was getting the, it was
(09:12):
getting exercised. So he was one of the first.
Yeah. So that was kind of like the
first steps of neuroplasticity because I was noticeably like
different. I was so quiet.
I was and everybody knew there was an issue.
(09:36):
So at school as at Junior School, so between like 7:00 and
11:00, I was bullied. And if if somebody hit me, I hit
them back. And left.
And you probably knocked them onyour butt, right?
(09:58):
Yeah, and they actually said like one punch of the one punch.
It's they'd say no, you're my mate, I don't want to fight you.
Yeah, so. But isn't it funny how cruel
kids can be still today? You know, there's especially
when someone's different becausewe believe everybody ought to be
(10:18):
like us. Yeah.
Right. And it's that diversity, not
just the neurodiversity, but it's the diversity that really
gives life its richness. Yeah, and I, I must have, I must
have, I must have hurt a pupil that's at Junior School.
(10:42):
And my parents were called in tospeak to the headmaster and I
just decided myself that I wouldnot fight back.
Yeah, I would put up with the whatever they did.
So when I got to secondary school, most like the people
(11:04):
that I hit in the the school theyear the school before might
have gone to another school. So for some reason, the ones
that who were at school had seemed to have forgotten that I
had got this hard that this hardpunch, and I decided that I
wasn't going to fight back. So I went for like, I went
(11:26):
through 4 1/2 years of being punched and I would just, I
would get upset because I thought, I know that I can end
the bullying but raising my fist.
But I said I wasn't going to do that.
(11:49):
So I went, yeah, I went through like 4 1/2 years.
And then one day I was in a class and I was sitting next to
a teacher who wasn't very good. And I was sitting next to
supposedly the strongest boy in the school.
And he punched me on my left armand something just like switched
(12:17):
on in my head and I looked at him and went, if that's the
hardest punch you've got, leave me alone.
Yeah, punch me harder or leave me alone.
And he punched me like 5 times, each time harder.
But each time he punched me, I said if that's the best you've
got, leave me alone. And at the end of the lesson, he
(12:43):
walked out and he just went up to everybody.
And I heard him say leave Damon alone.
I think he knows that if he raises his first, he could hurt
someone. And that's why he's not fighting
back. So he's putting up with 4 1/2
years of bullying. I'm saying now leave him alone.
And I bumped into him years later and he, he told me he was,
(13:08):
he told everybody, he said called me over and I was in a
pub. And it he just told his friends
and family what happened. And I said, I actually heard you
say the reason why I didn't fight back was because I could
hurt someone. And I said, you hit the nail on
(13:30):
the head. I could do that.
Yeah. And I didn't want to do that.
That's why I didn't fight back, right?
And and. Well, and you took the higher
Rd. in spite of of all the nonsense from the bullies.
And you know your friend, I'm assuming he convinced they
became her friend, right? He was wise enough at that age
(13:54):
to have the wisdom and understanding to to see that
right? Which most teenagers don't.
No, he actually said like when he walked out the class, he he
he said something that we say inthe Uki don't know, but you have
(14:16):
to watch the quiet ones. You had the quiet ones are the
people you've got to watch. And he said to he said to his
like the people that he was with, he was the quiet 1.
He was a quiet one who could just he could end it with one
punch and. So what was going on?
(14:36):
That's wonderful that you had that finally that kind of
recognition from your peers right now.
What was going on inside of you during that period?
Because I know similar in school, there was a lot of inner
conversations that I had about what was going on and the
(15:00):
ability to rise above it somehow.
So what was what were those kinds of conversations in your
head? I I, I just, I've was just going
like everything was like, I'm going to be like kind.
I'm not going to. I'm yeah, everything I do is out
(15:24):
of kindness. And I did actually give that,
that that day where I, I ended the, the, the bullying without
raising my fists, I actually called out my, my Rocky, my
(15:46):
Rocky moment, my Rocky Balboa moment because, yeah, because I
hadn't even watched the films. I hadn't seen any of the films.
But in like Rocky 3 where he's fighting clubber lying Mr. T and
he's going come on in like harder, harder.
And that's that's what I did. I was just like just, yeah, I, I
(16:13):
was, I was talking everything I talked about was like like
energy and energy around me and stuff like that.
And yeah, that's, that's basically it was, yeah,
everything I did. You recognise how those inner
conversations were making their way into your outer world.
(16:36):
I know that there, you know, wasthe situation with the bullying,
but it would seem to that there were other things that imbued
your life with a greater sense of being connected with that
kindness. What was that like?
(16:57):
Right. I, I could, I couldn't, like I
was so quiet, but I could make, I could make friends.
Yeah, quite easily. And, and people who have like I
lost contact with and then I've reconnected with and they didn't
(17:18):
know like almost all the stuff they didn't know about, like
they went through five years with me at school.
They didn't know that I had this, Yeah.
They were going through their own life, right?
How often do really, especially at that age right that we're so
mono focused on ourselves, We don't really care about anybody
else other than thinking they ought to be just like us?
(17:42):
Yeah, yeah. And I, I, I, I got AI got a
Saturday, I got a Saturday job in a, in a restaurant and which
was like pretty amazing because like they were because of what
(18:02):
my parents were told and what I was told like growing up, that I
would not get a good job. Yeah, not amount.
Of much I wouldn't yeah, I wouldn't be able to do this.
I wouldn't be able to do that. And I'm not saying like my
parents, but like, that's what they were told.
So they said yeah. And.
(18:24):
They want to believe the experts.
Right. Yeah.
Or supposedly experts. Yeah.
And so when I get a job in a restaurant, I, I did that for
like a year. I was, I was still at school,
just started the, the final yearat school.
And I said that when I leave school, I'm going to go to
(18:49):
catering college and trained to be a chef.
And everybody was going like, well, like he's, he's going to
go to college. He's saying he's going to go to
college. And I, I went, I completed the
course. I, I got a job in a I got a job
(19:13):
in a restaurant. And being a chef is probably
like one of the hardest jobs. Yeah, because it's it's well.
It's you got to keep track of it.
Yeah, that's amazing how it's like you blew all their previous
(19:33):
anticipated results away. Yeah, you like you're standing
on your feet all day for like maybe like all, all day.
There's no part of the day whereyou can sit down.
Oh yeah, it's not 6 or 8 hours, it's more like 10 or 12.
Right. Yeah.
And, and you could be cooking 5 or 6 different styles of cooking
(19:57):
at the same time. I could be grilling fine.
And so I was multitasking like abig time for someone who was
told who like was basically toldyou wasn't going to.
Now. What did you realize and
acknowledge within yourself that, hey, these blokes are like
(20:21):
full of, you know, bullocks, right?
I mean, their projection. You took the opposite approach.
Yeah, John, I didn't really think about it that much.
I just went and done what I had to do.
(20:44):
I just went and done the job andgo home and then relax.
Sometimes I would be like, like just so tired because I was
putting so much effort into whatI was doing.
And basically it wasn't until like I was 32 years old and I
(21:10):
suddenly started falling over and I went to see AGP and he
asked me to like just with my hands just push him away.
And he said like I was like had weakness in both arms and like
my legs weren't that weren't that good.
So I had my very first MRI scan at the age of 32 and that was
(21:41):
like where I just thought, Oh myGod, these like whatever these
people were told my parents because this MRI scan revealed
that I've got pressure of my spine in two places.
That's why I was I was falling over and I like in my lower
back, it would make my legs go into spasm, one leg go into
(22:02):
spasm and fall over and I've anda third of my brain wasn't
actually functioning. And I just thought like, I just
went like, wow. It's like, how am I doing all
this? And that was the first time I
just thought, like, how have I been able to like, do this job
(22:27):
with a third of my brain not working?
And I'd like I actually retrained.
I could so 32 I found out at 20 at the age of 26, I started
thinking this job is not giving me me like a social life.
So I went back to college and I retrained as a plumber and, and
(22:55):
I couldn't in the end, I couldn't do, I had to pack up
doing both of them because it was, it was too physical.
But I was like, and I, I knew that I knew that I was a a right
brain thinker because it was theleft side of my brain that was
damaged. And I didn't really know about
like the left side is logic. The right side is the creative
(23:19):
side. And well, when you go.
With all of the the details and being a chef that you know that
it's a lot of things that are very sequential and, and logical
and a lot of analytical thinkinggoes into that.
So the compensation that you somehow were able to manifest
(23:41):
was just spectacular. Now, when, when this was
happening, did you recognize that perhaps the patterns that
you had engaged in your own thinking, in your own physical
activity and and even your emotional activity that allowed
you to rise above what those conditions could have been?
(24:08):
Yeah, I think that like everything I was doing,
everything I was doing, it was like creative and, and I was, I
was thinking that sometimes I would think I can't do that
because they told me I can't do that.
(24:28):
Yeah. But then I start, yeah, I
started falling over. And that's where I started doing
something that was actually tapping into the logical side
because I thought, what happens if what happens if they and
(24:48):
someone actually said this thing?
What happens if you get told in 15 years time you're going to
end up in a wheelchair? And without thinking, I just
said that will give me 15 years to be able to learn something
and do a job where I'm sitting down.
(25:13):
And then it was a little while later, I just thought, OK, I've
what happens if that does happen?
So I went on to something else that was creative.
I started doing website design, which which is using part of the
logical side of your brain as well.
(25:35):
But I wasn't doing any like any coding.
It was just, it's not really thewebsite design.
They don't. They say it's not really like
using the logical side, it's using the creative side.
I'm not so sure about that because I've, I've been a web
designer for 30 years and, and built my first site, you know,
(25:58):
just before the turn of the century.
And there's a lot of thinking that goes into the, the design,
the spatial orientations, the, the look and feel.
Now granted, right, the coding that that gets a little heavier
into it. I haven't gone so deep into
(26:19):
that. However, when you begin to work
with the the user interface sideand the back end, then that
really increases your capacity to connect the dots between the
two, which is a logic flow. Yeah.
So, yeah, around about 2018 I thought, OK, I'm going to Start
(26:48):
learning a little bit of JavaScript.
And I actually, it's the, the people that run the Internet is
WW3. I think that's what it's called.
And I did their JavaScript program and, and passed that.
(27:12):
So I, I started to, there was some logical thinking that I'd
started to do. And yeah, you're right, because
I did, I did say only recently, because I was, we were talking
about like activities that use both hemispheres of the brain.
(27:34):
And I did, I did, I did. At one point website design
didn't even come into it. But then at some point I said
actually website design is. So we.
Yeah. So 2000 up.
(27:55):
So from 2001 until like 2000 and1819, I had routine MRI scans
which showed there was no changein my brain.
It was still 1/3 of my brain wasstill non functioning.
(28:17):
And yeah, and I just thought that was good.
I thought that was good because I thought as you get older, your
brain is either going to stay the same or degenerate.
That's just how I thought. And then when the world, the
(28:43):
world changed in 2020, I was, I'd been in, I'd stayed in this,
this my last job. When I started falling over, my
manager said go, don't resign, go front of house, you can sit
down sitting on the till. I was serving people and I did
that job for like 19 years. Then when COVID appeared locked
(29:06):
down, I eventually got made redundant.
But from day one of lockdown I thought there's nothing to do.
Isn't Yeah, there's nothing. So I just thought I'll enroll on
some more online courses. I actually did AI was doing a
course in 2019 which talked about it was neuropsychology
(29:31):
because I was interested in how the brain worked because I think
I've done, I've done quite a lotwith my brain.
Oh. Absolutely with.
What I was told my life was going to be like, and this
course, it touched on neuroplasticity, and I kind of
(29:52):
lost interest in the course because I thought to myself, my
brain is like 50 years, is 52 years old.
Yeah, it's been damaged for 50 years.
Neuroplasticity, if people don'tknow that, you hear a lot of
people say like rewire the brain.
(30:14):
I thought to myself, I'm not going to be able to rewire a
brain that's been damaged for 50years.
So I put it to one side and I was doing some other courses.
I was doing courses on coaching courses, coaching on happiness
and emotional intelligence, and I did some more programming
(30:41):
courses. I did like so, so many.
I completed 50 plus online courses in 16 months.
That's phenomenal. Now, those kinds of things being
able to put to pour yourself into that kind of work, that's a
(31:02):
lot of brain power, right? And regardless of your inability
to use part of it, it sounds like you've compensated and that
with that neuroplasticity capacity that you've gone beyond
that. So have you thought about, well,
maybe it's not just my brain, maybe there is a a bigger part
(31:25):
of me that's connected as well that I haven't really recognized
yet that allows me to do the things that normal people can
do. Yep.
I remember, I remember one day and it was during lockdown,
(31:45):
during the first lockdown, and Ijust thought to myself, the
world is going to change and I need to change as well and I
don't want to go. To the attitude.
Yeah, I don't want to go back into catering.
I want this this like to be a life changing.
(32:13):
Right. How can I repurpose the skill
sets that I have to something that's enjoyable and profitable?
And I was, I, I, I got, I got a job, eventually got a job.
And it was like sticking stuff in ovens.
It was in a bakery. And I was like using some of the
(32:34):
coaching skills that I had learnt with some of the, some of
the other members of staff. And they were going and I told
them my story and they were going like, you can help so many
people. And then, then I after, yeah,
(32:56):
after sick, I could complete AI,could complete a course in a
week because I, I wasn't working.
So I could spend all my time I Icould do a 50 hour course in a
week. Now, when you were doing these
courses, I, I got to ask the question, what kind of catharsis
was happening within you as you were developing the courses?
(33:20):
Because in order to do that, you've got to reflect on the
things that you've learned, how to apply them, what difference
it made to you, how you translate that that articulated
to others so that it's understandable and usable.
Whereas I was like, as I've saidthat, like I was told that, you
(33:47):
know, you won't be able to do this.
You won't be do that. I started to think that no, I'm
not going to say I can't do that.
I'm going to say I'm going to give it a go.
And I and I started saying to people that in life you have
(34:08):
hurdles thrown in front of you every single day.
And you, you ever think that youthere's like some people think
there's only three ways to get food at past that hurdle over
it, Like in athletics, round it,under it.
(34:28):
And I went, I said my way is it's not there.
Yeah, it's the hurdle is in my head.
It's. Like that, Jeff, in the Fourth
Way, right? And, and I just go through it
and obliterate it and they go, Oh my God.
(34:50):
And then I went, I had a, a routine Moi scan and after 16
months, that's why I mentioned that about 16 months after the
start of COVID to go for a routine MI scan, thinking
nothing of it because I've had so many.
(35:11):
And then I get a letter in the post saying I've got to go to
the UK's National Neurological and Neurosurgery Hospital to see
have an appointment with a neurosurgeon.
And that scared me because I've never been there before.
(35:37):
I've never spoken to a new US surgeon.
Ever. Why would they?
Why do you think they've waited so long?
If you've had the same results for, you know, time after time,
now all of a sudden, oh, wow, maybe we can fix you.
It was that their premise. Yeah, so, well, that's what like
I was either I was thinking there's an issue, they want to
(35:59):
they're going to want to do an operation.
And I was thinking like, I feel good.
So whatever they say, I'm going to say no.
I go, I go, go. I get to this get to this
hospital, go into the room with the neurosurgeon, neurosurgeon
and he puts up this MRI scan. And my dad was with me because I
(36:21):
felt if they say I've got abnormal operation, I might like
breakdown soft. Like they'll have my dad with
me. And we he puts up this MRI scan
and both me and my dad like lookat it.
And we say that's not that's notmy scan.
(36:45):
And he said it is your scan. I mean, it's not my scan.
And after a while he was around.Yeah, it is.
And I mean, I got agitated and Iwent, it's not my, it's not my
scan. It's not my scan because that
scan and I went, I said it, I'm going to say it again.
I hate the word normal, but thatbrain looks normal. 1/3 of my
(37:10):
brain doesn't work. It's clearly visible in all the
scans that I've had before, maybe like at least 10 MRI
scans. And he said, he said, well, this
is the interesting thing becausein 35 years of me being a
(37:30):
neurosurgeon, I've only seen this three times at this scale.
And you are #3. And he said, by the sound of it,
I told him about the courses. I told him about the, the, the
attitude of the, the hurdles running through them and he
said, actually, I've never seen anybody with such a positive
(37:55):
attitude. So it could be a mixture of two
of two things, the intense learning programme that you put
your brain through or the positivity that you're that
you're now showing. But what you've actually done is
(38:16):
you've stimulated blood vessels in your brain that has pumped
blood to the non functioning part and made it function again.
And who thinks that's possible? Yeah, nobody, nobody's talking
about this. Nobody says that this.
(38:40):
There's not that many people like like important people
talking about neuroplasticity and what it can do.
Right, well, they're starting toright.
They're, they're I know, you know, we had a little
conversation before coming on and, and with what I went
through with my spiritual awakening at 18, there was no
(39:01):
listening for 45 years. It was like I was talking to,
you know, idiots. And now, as with you are finding
out as well, because of this, I would, I'll just call it an
evolutionary leap in science andunderstanding as a result, where
(39:26):
I believe quantum mechanics, quantum physics has crossed into
the science and medicine realm and the understanding that, OK,
we're all energy, we're all ableto Co create.
This is that interconnection that I was alluding to earlier,
(39:48):
that they, we have this capacityto re engineer ourselves when
necessary. The factor is, first of all, you
got to believe it's possible, orat least you have to believe
that you're going to make the effort no matter what, right?
(40:08):
You put yourself into that. And then there's three factors
in that that come about where your attention is, how focused
you are, what your intention is,which is to become that greater
whole. And then the interaction which
(40:30):
you were doing as example in allthe coursework, right?
You were putting yourself through all of this, not
realizing what it was doing to your brain physiologically.
Now, what was it doing to your spirit?
What was going on in that connected spiritual place that
we don't talk about because it generally gets into trouble,
(40:53):
right? How?
How did you relate to your connectedness to a greater
source of energy that you're connected with?
And, and I hesitate. I don't want to use the word
God, right? In this case, it's more like a
giver of data, right? Where we have all this
information available, we just don't know how to use it.
(41:16):
So how did you figure out that connection and, and what
difference or did you make that interconnection with that
greater consciousness that you have access to?
It's. Just.
That's a pretty deep question, Iknow.
(41:37):
Yeah, it when when, when I like on the way home, I was using
public transport on the way home, like me and my dad were
just going how is this possible?Who thinks it's possible Now the
the Euro plasticity is that the plasticity part is saying that
(42:02):
your your brain is they're saying like plastic and it can
like remould itself, right. But we have like.
It's well known our body replaces all of its cells in
seven years. So if that's taking place, then
as you can be almost specific asto where you're going to have
the cells regenerated, right? I would think you'd have at
(42:25):
least some conscious, maybe unconscious, and just the pure
intent and the energy you put into it actually causes the
change. Yeah, I for a few months
afterwards, I would wake up and I would think, was that a dream?
(42:48):
Now this neurosurgeon said, haveyou got any goals?
And I went, I just said like to carry on learning to get more
information. And as I just said, like now I'm
thinking my brain is a sponge soaking up knowledge.
(43:09):
And then it was like the the UK had a national mental health
week and I contacted my old school, which I left in 1985.
So this was 2022. So it was a good few years since
I left school, contacted, contacted somebody and just said
(43:34):
I feel the need that I've got tocome into the school, into any
school. But I'm saying this one because
it was my, it was my school. I had so many issues with that
school that I need to come in tospeak to the children and like
(44:00):
try to put a little bit of positivity into their lives and
I. In in the college years, and I'm
sure you experienced this too, right?
We feel so much pressure. We're not good enough, we don't
know enough. We're constantly afraid of
failure. So there's all this negative
(44:22):
entrapment that many fall into, and they need somebody like you
to come in and say, wait a minute, OK, yes, this is going
on. However, there's a silver lining
in this if you just look for it.Yeah.
And I did 4, I did 4 assemblies.I didn't talk to the final year
because they were doing their exams.
(44:44):
And at the end of my last, the last assembly, I was actually
the the person who I was dealingwith, she only attended the last
one, and she said that she'd gotfeedback all the way through.
And from the the first one, I was really nervous to start with
(45:04):
because I thought if I say that a third of my brains are
working, someone's going to laugh.
Yeah. And they didn't.
And they just got better and better.
And then as I walked out, my goal, my goal for the whole of
the four assemblies started withif I can affect one pupil, I
(45:27):
will be happy. Yeah.
I if I can change, put some positivity in one person, I will
be happy. When I walked out of there, I
thought, I'm not going to know. I'm not going to know if I've
done that. Yeah, unless I bump into one of
(45:48):
the kids in the street, which was.
Well, The thing is, even knowingthat you still did it, and this
is, you know, as servant leadersin the world, we don't know.
We're not attached to the outcomes in any way.
(46:09):
All we do is show up, give our best, and intend for it to have
some effect positively. Yeah.
And before I did, before I did the talks, there was a local,
(46:29):
there's a local Facebook group and they asked me to put my
story on their, on their Facebook group.
And weeks after I did the four talk, the four assemblies, a
parent joined this Facebook group on the day because it
(46:52):
tells you when they've that whenthey've joined.
So she she she joined the Facebook group.
And on that day, she found my post and she sent me a message,
private message. Are you the man who went into
the school to talk to the children?
And I went, yeah, I am. Was that OK?
(47:16):
And she went because I was like nervous, thinking maybe I've
done something wrong. Right, right, right.
Yeah. And she said, I have to thank
you, Darren, because my daughterhas come home and told me your
story and said if he can do thatwith a third of his brain not
(47:39):
working, if I work hard enough, I can achieve any goal that I
want. And I just went it's, it's
emotional. It really is emotional.
Yeah, I would imagine you probably shed a tear or two.
Yeah, because, you know, a neurosurgeon deals with brains
(48:04):
every single day. And for 35 years he'd only seen
this three times. And I think to myself like, I'm
not, I'm not special. Why is this only like well?
Here's the thing though, Darren.You are special, right?
Not only did you survive that horrible incident when you were
(48:28):
a kid, you were able to thrive as a result in ways that not
only made your life better, but you made the lives of others
better because you've had the proof.
You didn't just talk about, oh, yeah, we can do this, right?
You're kind of the Joe Dispenza of the neuroplasticity realm,
(48:50):
right? Where you totally retrained
yourself. You rebuilt your brain.
You didn't even know it was happening.
All you did was you had the drive to do and to be something
without regard of the results. You just kept showing up.
Now that example, the showing upled to the giver of data being
(49:18):
able to present demonstrably with the brain scans that this
actually happened, right? You've proven this now with that
kind of proof and the belief that you had in yourself beyond
the the awareness. So I can't do this is that I
(49:40):
don't know right here, here's that tremendous key.
You didn't know and you did it anyway to find out, right?
Instead of saying, well, I can'tdo this and just withering away.
So I don't know, let's try it and find out, right?
If we could key on that one thing alone and inspire others,
(50:06):
imagine the kind of world that we might have in just a few
short years. So after this, after the phase,
it's, it really is emotional. Oh, I'm sure.
The after the, the, the mother said like, thank you, my
(50:29):
daughter's come home and said this.
I I just said to her right now Ihave to thank you because when I
walked out of that, I said lot the final assembly, I didn't
think I would know if I've affected that one person.
And I said, now you've told me that I've affected your
daughter. So I have to say thank you
(50:51):
because like I could go through the rest of my life thinking,
did I do it? But my but you didn't.
Was. Right.
You, you had that thought when you came out of the assembly and
then you let it go and you continue doing on.
Well, then it eventually caught up with you to reflect that.
(51:12):
Oh yeah. Not only did you do it with this
person that their mother recognized it and reached out to
you as a result. That's a tremendous
synchronicity. And we were talking about
spiritual connections, right? These unknown Ways and Means
that communication takes place to edify what we've done, not
(51:37):
necessarily to put us in a placeof oh, look at me, see what I've
done. Yeah, yeah.
Just the opposite, because it's tremendously humbling.
I, I, I understand that. And that's, you know, the tears
of joy that you were able to express and have that effect on
that one person. And no doubt you had effects on
(51:59):
everybody in that assembly. And someday you may hear some
others reflect that as well. But I know it doesn't really
matter to you. Just the fact that that one took
place was enough. Yeah, the actually, she said to
me, Darren, you have affected more than one person.
(52:21):
I know the parents, they want tothank you, but they haven't
found you. And yeah.
And, and that is that is, yeah. And that is, that is, that's
incredible. And that is just motivated me
(52:43):
now even more. So it's not just like kids, it's
adults I talk to and they, they just say to me like I start if
I'm actually talking to someone face to face, I can see their
jaw drop when I say I fell off abalcony.
(53:03):
I was in a coma for like, and I and I, I can do I have to do
this in like 2 or 3 minutes? Yeah.
And I and their, their jaw dropsby the time I finish.
By the time I finish, their eyesare alight.
Yeah, their faces glowing and saying, wow, this is this is
(53:27):
amazing. And you said just a minute ago,
like, look at me, look what I'vedone.
Yeah, I do say that. I I but I say I do not.
If you don't do it with a tremendous amount of ego, you do
it with a very humbled if I can do this, you can too attitude.
(53:49):
Yeah, what I, what I say is I don't do this to say look at me,
look what I've done. I do this to say, look what is
possible if you've got the rightmind, if you're in the right
mindset, because my mindset was in the right place.
(54:11):
Absolutely. And not just your mindset, your
entire being. You know, often times we refer
to the spiritual side and a lot of times it gets into the
metaphysical and the woo woo andall that kind of stuff.
We get lost in it. However, it's the living of it
that connects everything and you're the perfect.
(54:32):
You're a perfect example of that, where all the things that
you had stacked up against you, right?
It was just energy. It was just thoughts.
It was just people projecting stuff of what, you know, the
probabilities they thought your life was going to have.
What what you did is you're like, oh, that's nonsense.
(54:55):
It's all energy. I'm going to figure out what to
do with it and I will find something that works for me.
Yeah, I, yeah, I've, I've, I've actually sat down because I'm
writing a book and I've got stuck and I've only got a few.
(55:18):
Like I've done like like half the book and I started thinking,
OK, when have I shown resilience?
I must have shown resilience when I fell off the balcony.
Your entire. Life spiral staircase, spiral
staircase. And I, I, I wrote down and I had
(55:40):
like 6 things. And one, one thing that I've
told somebody recently that people didn't even know I had
gone out. I was going, when I was doing my
plumbing course, I was going on a, a week's intensive plastering
course like about 100 miles away.
And I went to the bank to get some money at night, which was
(56:04):
stupid. Two guys asked me for directions
to get somewhere. And I, I told them the
directions. And then I, I sensed there was
an issue behind me and they werefollowing me down the road.
And they waited until I, like I,I walked down this road that had
(56:28):
like houses on both sides. They waited.
And it was, it was quite Rd. You didn't have many cars go
down here. And they waited till I got to a
road where there was only houseson one side.
They didn't know the area. I knew a car could come round
the corner and they run up at meand they pulled a gun out on me.
(56:48):
Yeah. And this is like 30 years ago,
pulled a gun out on me and said give me your money or we shoot
you. And I just stuff that was going
around in my head, you're not having my money.
I work hard for that. Yeah.
So I'm dithering around like moving on the spot and they're
(57:12):
going give us your money or we're going to shoot you.
And I just thought when a car, acar is going to come round the
corner and I've, I'm, I'm thinking, is it a real gun?
Can they shoot me if a car comesround the corner?
What do I do? A car came round the corner and
(57:32):
I jumped in front of the car there and he stopped.
The guy stopped and he was with a passenger.
The lady, lady passenger, She goes, are you OK?
Annoyed. No, those two guys and she goes,
what are those ones running off?I mean, yeah, they just pulled a
gun out on me and we didn't havemobile phones then.
And she we went, she went and knocked on someone's door and
(57:56):
said, we need to call the police.
And the police said to me, why didn't you give him your money?
And I went, my brain was saying you're not having it.
And they and and that that is like like I can't put words to
it is that is that that was justshowed.
(58:20):
Oh, you were locked and tight that none of this was going to
happen. That, that, that energy that
they were presenting just wasn'tgoing to affect you.
And the I don't know if it was aprecognitive kind of experience
where you thought about this carshowing up and, and knew that it
(58:41):
was going to be there. Because I do believe that we
have that capacity that we don'trecognize.
We have that sense of knowing, right?
Can't explain it. We just know, right?
And like you did right, you justknew that you were tired.
For that money, you'd be damned if you're going to give it up.
Yeah, and it was, it was at night time as well, so the car's
(59:03):
coming down the road. Yeah, total wasn't, you know,
worst possible. Scenario you could have right
and I'm and I'm just thinking a car will come round the corner
and just like moving on the spotthinking like and trying to like
confuse them a little bit because most people are going to
say OK, there's your money yeah and and this car came round the
corner it wasn't going fast and I just went like jumped too fun
(59:26):
and and they ran away and like people like still say to me like
that was like. Brave or stupid, right?
That the real, that the reality is you, some part of you knew
everything was going to work out.
(59:47):
Yeah, yeah, I just knew. Yeah.
And and. Now that's a gut sense.
OK, so you trusted that this is,if I may.
So this gives evidence to that three brain system that
indigenous ancient traditionist culture, traditional culture
(01:00:09):
talks about the first brain being your gut.
Right. That's the knowing place.
The second's your heart, which is where you discern, and the
third is the quantum computer ontop of your shoulders.
That when you process in that way, then your actions and your
behaviors and your thoughts are more aligned with the reality
(01:00:32):
that is not the one that is presenting itself, that wants to
be right. Because that's the false belief
system, right? Like people would say, you know,
why didn't you just give your money up?
Well, I'm locked into this is mine.
I'm not going to, I'm not going to give my power away to someone
(01:00:54):
under such pretense, right? You had been through this with
your life experience on a continual basis in building
yourself up that you just knew better.
Now, if we win, we, because I know everybody has these kinds
(01:01:15):
of experiences that we just see them as either a random
incident, right, a coincidence or something that allows us to
dismiss it somehow. What if we chose to look at
that? And I'm sure that this is
(01:01:36):
probably maybe you could answer this, do those kinds of things
bring you to a more secure, safeunderstanding and place of
knowing within yourself that whenever you're presented with a
challenge that you will get through it?
(01:01:57):
Yeah, I, yes, Before I didn't have this.
I didn't like even like like before COVID, the lockdowns, I
would think, yeah, what happens?What if this, what if this
(01:02:19):
happens? What if that happens?
And now, now I just everything, like anything that is thrown at
me, I'm going to overcome. And like somebody said, somebody
(01:02:43):
said to me like a little while ago, there was a reason why you
survived falling off the balcony.
Yeah, of spiral staircase. Absolutely in your life you've
affected thousands by the way that you've lived your life and
and talking about it right. You were given the opportunity.
(01:03:07):
Now if we think, you know, back again to the all the potential
in these spiritual configurations of how reality
works, if you consider that, youknow, when you come into this
life, you've chosen it already. There's one school of thought
that says, OK, I've agreed to all this.
I've set it up beforehand. Now I just got to go through the
(01:03:29):
process of living it, right? However excruciating or
challenging or devastating it might be, the outcome is going
to be a +1. So I'm going to go through it.
And then you maintain that attitude throughout your life to
be that example, not necessarilyknowing it was all.
(01:03:55):
I don't want to say predetermined, but that's
possible, right? If anything's possible, we don't
know, right? So we just look at the reality
of what's been taking place and look at all the patterns that
exist and the patterns that exist in in the redevelopment of
your brain and the neuroplasticity that you've been
(01:04:15):
able to manifest as a result. Now, in this process, what have
you been able to ascertain as being a a prime piece of advice
that you give to others to fire their own willingness to face
(01:04:37):
challenges? That like I would have said that
what I have actually done beforewas impossible.
(01:05:00):
And a lot of people, a lot of people actually say that's,
that's impossible. Now I'm saying that I'm, I'm,
I'm now saying to people anything is possible.
Yeah, I actually, I've got this.I'm going to quickly say this,
(01:05:23):
but there's this this guy, he was, he was a some part of a
film, some part of the film. He wasn't an actor.
He was like a writer coming and he he had he had bladder cancer
(01:05:51):
and they took the, the, the cancer was removed and it come
back again and he's talking withhis wife and his wife.
He said to his wife, I want to do something that is a little
bit out there. I don't want to go through like
(01:06:18):
the the, the like the chemo if he if he's had to have that.
Horrible experience. Right.
Yeah, I don't. I don't want to do that.
So what he did, he actually every day he would go somewhere
in the house, in the garden and just visualize the the, the
(01:06:40):
cancer getting smaller and smaller and smaller.
And at some point he's got to goback to the hospital just to get
a scan. And he goes, he goes back to a
scan and they said that this is,they get, they call him in and
(01:07:09):
he they say he's gone, the cancer was gone because he
visualised it getting smaller. Like who would think that's
possible? But.
Happens. It happens over and over again,
that kind of healing, the self initiated, even Jesus said it
(01:07:34):
right? You know, anything is possible
to those who believe. And it wasn't about him healing
others. It was about them giving
permission to be healed, right? We attach ourselves to these
prognosis or prognosis that thatshit's going to happen.
(01:07:58):
Yeah, right. And we just give up our power to
it. Instead of doing like this
gentleman that you were just talking about, go back inside
yourself, know that you've got the power and visualize, intend,
do the work. That's the, it's the discipline
that we lack. We're so distracted by the outer
(01:08:20):
world and all the different things and, and especially
social media now, right? Three to five.
It used to be the five to seven second rule.
Somebody size you up and you walk into a room, right?
That's all you have. Well, now that's about 5 to 7
seconds and you're being distracted to hundreds of or
maybe even thousands of different things in a matter of
(01:08:41):
moments when you're scrolling through stuff.
Well, how can we anticipate being able to focus when there's
that kind of distraction unless our brains are developing
differently because of that in order to incorporate and still
be able to get beyond it. Now, that remains to be seen.
(01:09:04):
I have a feeling that we were going to that we will see that
as we progress because all of this stuff, it is brand new,
right? The quantum physics, the
neuroplasticity, the emotional intelligence, all of these
things that from a science base in quantum computing even,
right? This is so ever present that we,
(01:09:26):
it hasn't had the time to develop into anything yet.
And yet we can see these patterns of possibility based on
what our direct experience like yours has been.
And if you can do it and you know at least semi how you did
(01:09:49):
it, right? Because the idea is I, I would
imagine you didn't know, right? You had ideas, you had curious
thoughts, ideas would come, you'd explore them rather than
dismiss them. Am I correct in that?
Yeah, exactly. And yeah, well, I, I had a Zoom
(01:10:15):
call with a, a professional soccer player.
I'd say soccer player. We say football, but soccer
player? Thanks for Americanizing it.
And he could. If I said football, you'd think
of like, like what we call. Yeah, stadium stuff.
(01:10:37):
I used to work for the Arizona Cardinals.
So this, I had a Zoom call with this guy who's on LinkedIn and
he's he's down as a he's he's, he's put on his profile,
Paralympian. And I think Paralympians are the
(01:10:58):
most amazing people in the world.
Yeah, because they overcome their their issues.
But I always let the person talk1st and he told me that he was a
professional soccer player for apretty big London team, not like
(01:11:26):
your Chelsea. It's called Queens Park Rangers,
QPR. Some people might might know it
know it and he was 26 years old in and it was 2006.
He was out with a teammate. His teammate was driving a car
(01:11:49):
and they had a crash and he wasn't with the guy that I'm
talking to, wasn't wearing a seat belt.
The the driver, he died on the spot.
The guy that I'm talking to, he went through the windscreen and
hit his head on the ground as helanded and he said that he's got
(01:12:13):
some brain damage. As you talked to him, I wouldn't
have thought he'd got an issue. My, my talking was like really,
really bad. There were lots of booms and
ours and stuff. And after he's after he spoke,
he said, so that's now, now you,now you start.
(01:12:34):
So then I told him my story and he just said, thank you so much.
Do not stop what you're doing because you give people like me
hope because my injury is, is like 19 years old and you've
(01:12:56):
just told me that you've healed a brain injury that was 50 years
old. Do not stop.
And I and I, I, I feel like humble because this guy who must
have had thousands and thousandsof fans, it took the time to
(01:13:19):
speak to me, but he was saying, no, what you're doing is so
important. And I've got people, I've got
people like on LinkedIn, I've got neurosurgeons in America on
my LinkedIn as connections saying to me, please carry on
(01:13:40):
doing what you're doing because it's amazing.
I can't actually see what I'm what I'm doing.
Do we ever right because we're we're forging ahead, failing
forward a lot of times, if you will and we're not really
cognizant of the effects. And, and I, yeah.
(01:14:01):
And I just, I just think if one person out of say like 100
people, if one person says, do you know what, I'm going to go
and do something that might help, then I can then I can just
pat myself on the back. And it doesn't matter.
It, it doesn't matter if I know what the, yeah, I just, if I can
(01:14:24):
just imagine that there's, that someone is doing it and the
people are, you know, I, I had, I was interviewed on a, on a
local UK news channel and they put, they said, sent me a
message saying you can't see what people are saying about you
(01:14:46):
because you're not in this area.So we're going to put a 32nd or
62nd clip on their TikTok page. And this was two years ago.
I am the most viewed interview on their TikTok page.
Be in like like actors, actors who like live in this county and
(01:15:17):
it's had for just just that county 660 something 1000 views
and the last time I checked 45,000 comments so that that is
(01:15:38):
now that's. An example of going viral,
right? Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah. Well, Speaking of going viral,
I, I really would love this episode to do that because I
think it's a worthy 1. It's very practical, it's
pragmatic, and it shows by example what 1 can do, not just
(01:15:59):
for themselves, for others at the same time.
So I really appreciate what you've had to go through and
it's humbling for me to be able to talk at this kind of level
and and to share you with our audience as well.
(01:16:20):
So I thank you so much, Darren. Thank you so much.
It's it's been, it's been a pleasure.
Yes. Yeah.
I just like want to like just let everybody know what was
possible. And can I quickly say something
that I am doing it now that I would never have thought I'd be
(01:16:45):
able to do? Yeah.
Wonderful. We, we've talked about, we
mentioned using both hemispheresof the brain when like the
website design and stuff. I went to a networking event and
the network, it was a speed network event, but the goal was
to arrange a one to one with someone.
(01:17:07):
A lady pointed at me, you and me, one to 1 and I went well,
that was easy. I thought that was to be harder
than that. And she's actually, she's
actually a, a music teacher. She teaches piano, violin and
Viola. And she said, I know about this
neuroplasticity. Yeah.
If you learn to play an instrument, it will strengthen
(01:17:28):
your brain even more because you're using both hemispheres
and. Absolutely.
My wife is from originally Leningrad, USSR.
She was trained as a piano pedagogue.
They got her when she was five years old, went through the
entire system, graduated from Massorgsky College, which is one
(01:17:50):
of the most prestigious music colleges in the world.
And not that she's that specialist.
She just had the opportunity andshe is special and so well aware
of the hemispheric and, and she teaches still to this day.
She got 26 students. Now imagine 10 fingers having to
(01:18:11):
do different things and you're aware of the science involved in
the music theory, which is what she learned, as well as the
mechanics and the timing, which is the math involved.
And so you're feeling the music as well as understanding the the
(01:18:34):
mechanics of it. So you've got that combination.
Well, we already know that musicinstruction increases math and
science scores in school, right?It's given.
So when we can further understand what this discipline,
(01:18:57):
training, learning of the music in whatever way piano happens to
be, I think one of the most difficult and challenging,
especially with the classical pieces that she had to learn
and, and all of the temperamentsof this society at the time, as
well as the, the composers and, and just the, the richness of
(01:19:22):
the education that she got in that in Russia or the USSR,
right? It's far different than any
other place in the world. From what I have gathered so
far. I I don't know of any place that
has that intense of an educational process that's
that's so expansive. But you're right.
You know, that music teacher that said, you know, I get it,
(01:19:46):
right, that we often don't get things until we hear it in a
certain way that aligns all those dots in the moment, Right.
Yeah. So Speaking of dots and
alignment, we are at the close of our time together.
(01:20:09):
So again, Darren, I, I just really appreciate and empathize
and am grateful for you and whatyou have to go through.
Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure.
It really is. Thank you.
You're welcome.
Namaste and in La Queche and welcome to this episode of One
World in a New World. I'm your host, Zen Benefiel.
And as always, do like, subscribe, share, make some
comments because it benefits youin getting your thoughts out of
your head and others in being able to hear them or at least
read them. So thanks so much in advance.
(00:38):
Also, I ask you to please visit planetarycitizens.net where you
will get a free download of my 43rd book called Planetary
Citizens Awakening the Heart of Humanity and I guarantee you it
will touch your heart as well asyour head.
(01:00):
So thanks for much for that in advance as well.
So this week's guest is Darren Jewell.
Darren is a really interesting individual.
He's one of those babies that got dropped on his head, I think
and to put it slightly, and really had some challenges in
life as a result. He's turned into a gentleman
(01:23):
that's able to help others rear,rewire their brains after
traumatic brain injuries. He is an inspirational speaker,
he's a course creator, and he isup to his neck or let's say up
to the top of his head in neuroplasticity.
So we're going to get into a great conversation about what
(01:46):
his life has been like and how he's made that interconnection,
like all of my guests. So stay tuned, we'll be right
back. You know, there's a lot of chaos
and confusion in the world today.
There doesn't have to be for you.
You can turn that chaos into clarity.
Now, how can you do that? Well, first of all, by talking
(02:07):
to me, your coach, integral, transformational, whatever you
want to call that, I can help you figure out you so that you
can put you in order and then create some action plans to
achieve your dreams, whatever those might be.
You can achieve anything that you put your mind to with the
(02:30):
attention, intention and interactions that go along with
that. And that's what we discover in
the process. You know, you might have some
great times with the DIY stuff that's online now using ChatGPT,
all of that. That's great and it might serve
a purpose to a point. However, you don't get the
(02:52):
empathy, the understanding, the real ear that you would from a
coach. So I invite you, schedule an
appointment. Let's have a chat and we can
find out what's in it for you. Have a great day.
So Darren, it is so great to have you here.
(03:12):
Welcome. And I'm looking forward to a
wonderful apocalyptic chat. We're going to unveil some
knowledge and have a great time doing it.
Thank you for inviting me, Zen. You're welcome.
Well, you know, I do my best to have a cross reference of pretty
(03:33):
much every type of person and place and and activity in life
and bridging these inner and outer worlds.
Because we're generally bereft of having the conversations
about what's going on inside of us.
And it's usually kind of bizarre, maybe even a little
wild and weird. So others, when we explain
(03:55):
what's happening inside of us, often kind of step back and look
at us like we are a little weird.
Well, I like the weird flag and I wave it high.
So in that I know you had this very interesting introduction to
life and and an event that happened young.
(04:18):
Could you begin with describing what that was and how you began
your life in this world? So, yeah, I was like born in
1969 and at the age of only 15 months, my family lived in a
(04:44):
ground floor flat in North London.
And there was a spiral staircasethat led up to the, the, the
flats that were above. And there was 2, two floors
above. And my dad was at work.
I've got two older brothers. They were at school and just had
(05:09):
like lunch with my mum, with my mum.
And she was, she turned to do the dishes and I went out, I
crawled out, out the back door or toddled out the back door,
climbed up this spiral staircase.
(05:29):
And at the time bars on spiral staircases and balconies were
not caught with and so I they they've no idea how far I
climbed but the first thing my mum heard was a FUD as I'd come
(05:49):
down, landed on my head and got rushed into hospital.
I was in a coma for about 3 weeks, which I say to people
doesn't seem like a long time but I lost the 1st 15 months of
my life. My parents were told and this
(06:15):
was like so 1970 is like a few years I think 7 years before the
world had the technology of Moi scanners.
So all they did was a CT scan and injected die to see my
veins. And they just said to my parents
(06:38):
he's not going to have a good life.
His brain won't retain information so he's not going to
get a good job, he's not going to do good at school.
Basically I was going to, they said I was going to sit around
and do nothing. So, so.
Prognosis. You know, you fall off something
which is traumatic enough, and then your parents are given this
(06:59):
horrible prognosis about what your life's going to be about.
Now that to me is a disservice, right?
Because anything's possible, as you have found out in in the
realms of neuroplasticity, you can rebuild yourself.
You just have to choose to do so, right?
And how did this as you grew up and your parents and I'm sure
(07:25):
you had discussions about what they were told, what was that
like and and how did you navigate through that or were
you able to as a youngster? Like, so I I actually damaged
the left side of my head, so it weakened the right side of my
(07:46):
body. So as I was growing up, if I had
an accident that it's I hate theword I hate the word normal.
But what? Is it right?
What is really what's normal? I don't think there's any such
thing. I used, so I used to break, I
used to break bones a lot. I broke my arm, my leg.
(08:06):
But with this so many times playing football and I overused
my left arm because my right armjust stayed down by its side.
So I did most things with just one hand.
I could catch balls with one hand.
(08:27):
My dad used to be a boxer and weused to have like macaron
sparring sessions. And he actually said to me that
my my left punch was one of the hardest punches he'd ever had.
So you adapted quite well with the situation you were given.
Yeah. And my dad actually was the
(08:51):
first person who bite. He didn't know what, he didn't
know what he was doing, but he tied my wrist together.
So when my hand went, my left hand went up to catch a ball or
a Frisbee. My right hand would go up as
well. So it was getting the, it was
(09:12):
getting exercised. So he was one of the first.
Yeah. So that was kind of like the
first steps of neuroplasticity because I was noticeably like
different. I was so quiet.
I was and everybody knew there was an issue.
(09:36):
So at school as at Junior School, so between like 7:00 and
11:00, I was bullied. And if if somebody hit me, I hit
them back. And left.
And you probably knocked them onyour butt, right?
(09:58):
Yeah, and they actually said like one punch of the one punch.
It's they'd say no, you're my mate, I don't want to fight you.
Yeah, so. But isn't it funny how cruel
kids can be still today? You know, there's especially
when someone's different becausewe believe everybody ought to be
(10:18):
like us. Yeah.
Right. And it's that diversity, not
just the neurodiversity, but it's the diversity that really
gives life its richness. Yeah, and I, I must have, I must
have, I must have hurt a pupil that's at Junior School.
(10:42):
And my parents were called in tospeak to the headmaster and I
just decided myself that I wouldnot fight back.
Yeah, I would put up with the whatever they did.
So when I got to secondary school, most like the people
(11:04):
that I hit in the the school theyear the school before might
have gone to another school. So for some reason, the ones
that who were at school had seemed to have forgotten that I
had got this hard that this hardpunch, and I decided that I
wasn't going to fight back. So I went for like, I went
(11:26):
through 4 1/2 years of being punched and I would just, I
would get upset because I thought, I know that I can end
the bullying but raising my fist.
But I said I wasn't going to do that.
(11:49):
So I went, yeah, I went through like 4 1/2 years.
And then one day I was in a class and I was sitting next to
a teacher who wasn't very good. And I was sitting next to
supposedly the strongest boy in the school.
And he punched me on my left armand something just like switched
(12:17):
on in my head and I looked at him and went, if that's the
hardest punch you've got, leave me alone.
Yeah, punch me harder or leave me alone.
And he punched me like 5 times, each time harder.
But each time he punched me, I said if that's the best you've
got, leave me alone. And at the end of the lesson, he
(12:43):
walked out and he just went up to everybody.
And I heard him say leave Damon alone.
I think he knows that if he raises his first, he could hurt
someone. And that's why he's not fighting
back. So he's putting up with 4 1/2
years of bullying. I'm saying now leave him alone.
And I bumped into him years later and he, he told me he was,
(13:08):
he told everybody, he said called me over and I was in a
pub. And it he just told his friends
and family what happened. And I said, I actually heard you
say the reason why I didn't fight back was because I could
hurt someone. And I said, you hit the nail on
(13:30):
the head. I could do that.
Yeah. And I didn't want to do that.
That's why I didn't fight back, right?
And and. Well, and you took the higher
Rd. in spite of of all the nonsense from the bullies.
And you know your friend, I'm assuming he convinced they
became her friend, right? He was wise enough at that age
(13:54):
to have the wisdom and understanding to to see that
right? Which most teenagers don't.
No, he actually said like when he walked out the class, he he
he said something that we say inthe Uki don't know, but you have
(14:16):
to watch the quiet ones. You had the quiet ones are the
people you've got to watch. And he said to he said to his
like the people that he was with, he was the quiet 1.
He was a quiet one who could just he could end it with one
punch and. So what was going on?
(14:36):
That's wonderful that you had that finally that kind of
recognition from your peers right now.
What was going on inside of you during that period?
Because I know similar in school, there was a lot of inner
conversations that I had about what was going on and the
(15:00):
ability to rise above it somehow.
So what was what were those kinds of conversations in your
head? I I, I just, I've was just going
like everything was like, I'm going to be like kind.
I'm not going to. I'm yeah, everything I do is out
(15:24):
of kindness. And I did actually give that,
that that day where I, I ended the, the, the bullying without
raising my fists, I actually called out my, my Rocky, my
(15:46):
Rocky moment, my Rocky Balboa moment because, yeah, because I
hadn't even watched the films. I hadn't seen any of the films.
But in like Rocky 3 where he's fighting clubber lying Mr. T and
he's going come on in like harder, harder.
And that's that's what I did. I was just like just, yeah, I, I
(16:13):
was, I was talking everything I talked about was like like
energy and energy around me and stuff like that.
And yeah, that's, that's basically it was, yeah,
everything I did. You recognise how those inner
conversations were making their way into your outer world.
(16:36):
I know that there, you know, wasthe situation with the bullying,
but it would seem to that there were other things that imbued
your life with a greater sense of being connected with that
kindness. What was that like?
(16:57):
Right. I, I could, I couldn't, like I
was so quiet, but I could make, I could make friends.
Yeah, quite easily. And, and people who have like I
lost contact with and then I've reconnected with and they didn't
(17:18):
know like almost all the stuff they didn't know about, like
they went through five years with me at school.
They didn't know that I had this, Yeah.
They were going through their own life, right?
How often do really, especially at that age right that we're so
mono focused on ourselves, We don't really care about anybody
else other than thinking they ought to be just like us?
(17:42):
Yeah, yeah. And I, I, I, I got AI got a
Saturday, I got a Saturday job in a, in a restaurant and which
was like pretty amazing because like they were because of what
(18:02):
my parents were told and what I was told like growing up, that I
would not get a good job. Yeah, not amount.
Of much I wouldn't yeah, I wouldn't be able to do this.
I wouldn't be able to do that. And I'm not saying like my
parents, but like, that's what they were told.
So they said yeah. And.
(18:24):
They want to believe the experts.
Right. Yeah.
Or supposedly experts. Yeah.
And so when I get a job in a restaurant, I, I did that for
like a year. I was, I was still at school,
just started the, the final yearat school.
And I said that when I leave school, I'm going to go to
(18:49):
catering college and trained to be a chef.
And everybody was going like, well, like he's, he's going to
go to college. He's saying he's going to go to
college. And I, I went, I completed the
course. I, I got a job in a I got a job
(19:13):
in a restaurant. And being a chef is probably
like one of the hardest jobs. Yeah, because it's it's well.
It's you got to keep track of it.
Yeah, that's amazing how it's like you blew all their previous
(19:33):
anticipated results away. Yeah, you like you're standing
on your feet all day for like maybe like all, all day.
There's no part of the day whereyou can sit down.
Oh yeah, it's not 6 or 8 hours, it's more like 10 or 12.
Right. Yeah.
And, and you could be cooking 5 or 6 different styles of cooking
(19:57):
at the same time. I could be grilling fine.
And so I was multitasking like abig time for someone who was
told who like was basically toldyou wasn't going to.
Now. What did you realize and
acknowledge within yourself that, hey, these blokes are like
(20:21):
full of, you know, bullocks, right?
I mean, their projection. You took the opposite approach.
Yeah, John, I didn't really think about it that much.
I just went and done what I had to do.
(20:44):
I just went and done the job andgo home and then relax.
Sometimes I would be like, like just so tired because I was
putting so much effort into whatI was doing.
And basically it wasn't until like I was 32 years old and I
(21:10):
suddenly started falling over and I went to see AGP and he
asked me to like just with my hands just push him away.
And he said like I was like had weakness in both arms and like
my legs weren't that weren't that good.
So I had my very first MRI scan at the age of 32 and that was
(21:41):
like where I just thought, Oh myGod, these like whatever these
people were told my parents because this MRI scan revealed
that I've got pressure of my spine in two places.
That's why I was I was falling over and I like in my lower
back, it would make my legs go into spasm, one leg go into
(22:02):
spasm and fall over and I've anda third of my brain wasn't
actually functioning. And I just thought like, I just
went like, wow. It's like, how am I doing all
this? And that was the first time I
just thought, like, how have I been able to like, do this job
(22:27):
with a third of my brain not working?
And I'd like I actually retrained.
I could so 32 I found out at 20 at the age of 26, I started
thinking this job is not giving me me like a social life.
So I went back to college and I retrained as a plumber and, and
(22:55):
I couldn't in the end, I couldn't do, I had to pack up
doing both of them because it was, it was too physical.
But I was like, and I, I knew that I knew that I was a a right
brain thinker because it was theleft side of my brain that was
damaged. And I didn't really know about
like the left side is logic. The right side is the creative
(23:19):
side. And well, when you go.
With all of the the details and being a chef that you know that
it's a lot of things that are very sequential and, and logical
and a lot of analytical thinkinggoes into that.
So the compensation that you somehow were able to manifest
(23:41):
was just spectacular. Now, when, when this was
happening, did you recognize that perhaps the patterns that
you had engaged in your own thinking, in your own physical
activity and and even your emotional activity that allowed
you to rise above what those conditions could have been?
(24:08):
Yeah, I think that like everything I was doing,
everything I was doing, it was like creative and, and I was, I
was thinking that sometimes I would think I can't do that
because they told me I can't do that.
(24:28):
Yeah. But then I start, yeah, I
started falling over. And that's where I started doing
something that was actually tapping into the logical side
because I thought, what happens if what happens if they and
(24:48):
someone actually said this thing?
What happens if you get told in 15 years time you're going to
end up in a wheelchair? And without thinking, I just
said that will give me 15 years to be able to learn something
and do a job where I'm sitting down.
(25:13):
And then it was a little while later, I just thought, OK, I've
what happens if that does happen?
So I went on to something else that was creative.
I started doing website design, which which is using part of the
logical side of your brain as well.
(25:35):
But I wasn't doing any like any coding.
It was just, it's not really thewebsite design.
They don't. They say it's not really like
using the logical side, it's using the creative side.
I'm not so sure about that because I've, I've been a web
designer for 30 years and, and built my first site, you know,
(25:58):
just before the turn of the century.
And there's a lot of thinking that goes into the, the design,
the spatial orientations, the, the look and feel.
Now granted, right, the coding that that gets a little heavier
into it. I haven't gone so deep into
(26:19):
that. However, when you begin to work
with the the user interface sideand the back end, then that
really increases your capacity to connect the dots between the
two, which is a logic flow. Yeah.
So, yeah, around about 2018 I thought, OK, I'm going to Start
(26:48):
learning a little bit of JavaScript.
And I actually, it's the, the people that run the Internet is
WW3. I think that's what it's called.
And I did their JavaScript program and, and passed that.
(27:12):
So I, I started to, there was some logical thinking that I'd
started to do. And yeah, you're right, because
I did, I did say only recently, because I was, we were talking
about like activities that use both hemispheres of the brain.
(27:34):
And I did, I did, I did. At one point website design
didn't even come into it. But then at some point I said
actually website design is. So we.
Yeah. So 2000 up.
(27:55):
So from 2001 until like 2000 and1819, I had routine MRI scans
which showed there was no changein my brain.
It was still 1/3 of my brain wasstill non functioning.
(28:17):
And yeah, and I just thought that was good.
I thought that was good because I thought as you get older, your
brain is either going to stay the same or degenerate.
That's just how I thought. And then when the world, the
(28:43):
world changed in 2020, I was, I'd been in, I'd stayed in this,
this my last job. When I started falling over, my
manager said go, don't resign, go front of house, you can sit
down sitting on the till. I was serving people and I did
that job for like 19 years. Then when COVID appeared locked
(29:06):
down, I eventually got made redundant.
But from day one of lockdown I thought there's nothing to do.
Isn't Yeah, there's nothing. So I just thought I'll enroll on
some more online courses. I actually did AI was doing a
course in 2019 which talked about it was neuropsychology
(29:31):
because I was interested in how the brain worked because I think
I've done, I've done quite a lotwith my brain.
Oh. Absolutely with.
What I was told my life was going to be like, and this
course, it touched on neuroplasticity, and I kind of
(29:52):
lost interest in the course because I thought to myself, my
brain is like 50 years, is 52 years old.
Yeah, it's been damaged for 50 years.
Neuroplasticity, if people don'tknow that, you hear a lot of
people say like rewire the brain.
(30:14):
I thought to myself, I'm not going to be able to rewire a
brain that's been damaged for 50years.
So I put it to one side and I was doing some other courses.
I was doing courses on coaching courses, coaching on happiness
and emotional intelligence, and I did some more programming
(30:41):
courses. I did like so, so many.
I completed 50 plus online courses in 16 months.
That's phenomenal. Now, those kinds of things being
able to put to pour yourself into that kind of work, that's a
(31:02):
lot of brain power, right? And regardless of your inability
to use part of it, it sounds like you've compensated and that
with that neuroplasticity capacity that you've gone beyond
that. So have you thought about, well,
maybe it's not just my brain, maybe there is a a bigger part
(31:25):
of me that's connected as well that I haven't really recognized
yet that allows me to do the things that normal people can
do. Yep.
I remember, I remember one day and it was during lockdown,
(31:45):
during the first lockdown, and Ijust thought to myself, the
world is going to change and I need to change as well and I
don't want to go. To the attitude.
Yeah, I don't want to go back into catering.
I want this this like to be a life changing.
(32:13):
Right. How can I repurpose the skill
sets that I have to something that's enjoyable and profitable?
And I was, I, I, I got, I got a job, eventually got a job.
And it was like sticking stuff in ovens.
It was in a bakery. And I was like using some of the
(32:34):
coaching skills that I had learnt with some of the, some of
the other members of staff. And they were going and I told
them my story and they were going like, you can help so many
people. And then, then I after, yeah,
(32:56):
after sick, I could complete AI,could complete a course in a
week because I, I wasn't working.
So I could spend all my time I Icould do a 50 hour course in a
week. Now, when you were doing these
courses, I, I got to ask the question, what kind of catharsis
was happening within you as you were developing the courses?
(33:20):
Because in order to do that, you've got to reflect on the
things that you've learned, how to apply them, what difference
it made to you, how you translate that that articulated
to others so that it's understandable and usable.
Whereas I was like, as I've saidthat, like I was told that, you
(33:47):
know, you won't be able to do this.
You won't be do that. I started to think that no, I'm
not going to say I can't do that.
I'm going to say I'm going to give it a go.
And I and I started saying to people that in life you have
(34:08):
hurdles thrown in front of you every single day.
And you, you ever think that youthere's like some people think
there's only three ways to get food at past that hurdle over
it, Like in athletics, round it,under it.
(34:28):
And I went, I said my way is it's not there.
Yeah, it's the hurdle is in my head.
It's. Like that, Jeff, in the Fourth
Way, right? And, and I just go through it
and obliterate it and they go, Oh my God.
(34:50):
And then I went, I had a, a routine Moi scan and after 16
months, that's why I mentioned that about 16 months after the
start of COVID to go for a routine MI scan, thinking
nothing of it because I've had so many.
(35:11):
And then I get a letter in the post saying I've got to go to
the UK's National Neurological and Neurosurgery Hospital to see
have an appointment with a neurosurgeon.
And that scared me because I've never been there before.
(35:37):
I've never spoken to a new US surgeon.
Ever. Why would they?
Why do you think they've waited so long?
If you've had the same results for, you know, time after time,
now all of a sudden, oh, wow, maybe we can fix you.
It was that their premise. Yeah, so, well, that's what like
I was either I was thinking there's an issue, they want to
(35:59):
they're going to want to do an operation.
And I was thinking like, I feel good.
So whatever they say, I'm going to say no.
I go, I go, go. I get to this get to this
hospital, go into the room with the neurosurgeon, neurosurgeon
and he puts up this MRI scan. And my dad was with me because I
(36:21):
felt if they say I've got abnormal operation, I might like
breakdown soft. Like they'll have my dad with
me. And we he puts up this MRI scan
and both me and my dad like lookat it.
And we say that's not that's notmy scan.
(36:45):
And he said it is your scan. I mean, it's not my scan.
And after a while he was around.Yeah, it is.
And I mean, I got agitated and Iwent, it's not my, it's not my
scan. It's not my scan because that
scan and I went, I said it, I'm going to say it again.
I hate the word normal, but thatbrain looks normal. 1/3 of my
(37:10):
brain doesn't work. It's clearly visible in all the
scans that I've had before, maybe like at least 10 MRI
scans. And he said, he said, well, this
is the interesting thing becausein 35 years of me being a
(37:30):
neurosurgeon, I've only seen this three times at this scale.
And you are #3. And he said, by the sound of it,
I told him about the courses. I told him about the, the, the
attitude of the, the hurdles running through them and he
said, actually, I've never seen anybody with such a positive
(37:55):
attitude. So it could be a mixture of two
of two things, the intense learning programme that you put
your brain through or the positivity that you're that
you're now showing. But what you've actually done is
(38:16):
you've stimulated blood vessels in your brain that has pumped
blood to the non functioning part and made it function again.
And who thinks that's possible? Yeah, nobody, nobody's talking
about this. Nobody says that this.
(38:40):
There's not that many people like like important people
talking about neuroplasticity and what it can do.
Right, well, they're starting toright.
They're, they're I know, you know, we had a little
conversation before coming on and, and with what I went
through with my spiritual awakening at 18, there was no
(39:01):
listening for 45 years. It was like I was talking to,
you know, idiots. And now, as with you are finding
out as well, because of this, I would, I'll just call it an
evolutionary leap in science andunderstanding as a result, where
(39:26):
I believe quantum mechanics, quantum physics has crossed into
the science and medicine realm and the understanding that, OK,
we're all energy, we're all ableto Co create.
This is that interconnection that I was alluding to earlier,
(39:48):
that they, we have this capacityto re engineer ourselves when
necessary. The factor is, first of all, you
got to believe it's possible, orat least you have to believe
that you're going to make the effort no matter what, right?
(40:08):
You put yourself into that. And then there's three factors
in that that come about where your attention is, how focused
you are, what your intention is,which is to become that greater
whole. And then the interaction which
(40:30):
you were doing as example in allthe coursework, right?
You were putting yourself through all of this, not
realizing what it was doing to your brain physiologically.
Now, what was it doing to your spirit?
What was going on in that connected spiritual place that
we don't talk about because it generally gets into trouble,
(40:53):
right? How?
How did you relate to your connectedness to a greater
source of energy that you're connected with?
And, and I hesitate. I don't want to use the word
God, right? In this case, it's more like a
giver of data, right? Where we have all this
information available, we just don't know how to use it.
(41:16):
So how did you figure out that connection and, and what
difference or did you make that interconnection with that
greater consciousness that you have access to?
It's. Just.
That's a pretty deep question, Iknow.
(41:37):
Yeah, it when when, when I like on the way home, I was using
public transport on the way home, like me and my dad were
just going how is this possible?Who thinks it's possible Now the
the Euro plasticity is that the plasticity part is saying that
(42:02):
your your brain is they're saying like plastic and it can
like remould itself, right. But we have like.
It's well known our body replaces all of its cells in
seven years. So if that's taking place, then
as you can be almost specific asto where you're going to have
the cells regenerated, right? I would think you'd have at
(42:25):
least some conscious, maybe unconscious, and just the pure
intent and the energy you put into it actually causes the
change. Yeah, I for a few months
afterwards, I would wake up and I would think, was that a dream?
(42:48):
Now this neurosurgeon said, haveyou got any goals?
And I went, I just said like to carry on learning to get more
information. And as I just said, like now I'm
thinking my brain is a sponge soaking up knowledge.
(43:09):
And then it was like the the UK had a national mental health
week and I contacted my old school, which I left in 1985.
So this was 2022. So it was a good few years since
I left school, contacted, contacted somebody and just said
(43:34):
I feel the need that I've got tocome into the school, into any
school. But I'm saying this one because
it was my, it was my school. I had so many issues with that
school that I need to come in tospeak to the children and like
(44:00):
try to put a little bit of positivity into their lives and
I. In in the college years, and I'm
sure you experienced this too, right?
We feel so much pressure. We're not good enough, we don't
know enough. We're constantly afraid of
failure. So there's all this negative
(44:22):
entrapment that many fall into, and they need somebody like you
to come in and say, wait a minute, OK, yes, this is going
on. However, there's a silver lining
in this if you just look for it.Yeah.
And I did 4, I did 4 assemblies.I didn't talk to the final year
because they were doing their exams.
(44:44):
And at the end of my last, the last assembly, I was actually
the the person who I was dealingwith, she only attended the last
one, and she said that she'd gotfeedback all the way through.
And from the the first one, I was really nervous to start with
(45:04):
because I thought if I say that a third of my brains are
working, someone's going to laugh.
Yeah. And they didn't.
And they just got better and better.
And then as I walked out, my goal, my goal for the whole of
the four assemblies started withif I can affect one pupil, I
(45:27):
will be happy. Yeah.
I if I can change, put some positivity in one person, I will
be happy. When I walked out of there, I
thought, I'm not going to know. I'm not going to know if I've
done that. Yeah, unless I bump into one of
(45:48):
the kids in the street, which was.
Well, The thing is, even knowingthat you still did it, and this
is, you know, as servant leadersin the world, we don't know.
We're not attached to the outcomes in any way.
(46:09):
All we do is show up, give our best, and intend for it to have
some effect positively. Yeah.
And before I did, before I did the talks, there was a local,
(46:29):
there's a local Facebook group and they asked me to put my
story on their, on their Facebook group.
And weeks after I did the four talk, the four assemblies, a
parent joined this Facebook group on the day because it
(46:52):
tells you when they've that whenthey've joined.
So she she she joined the Facebook group.
And on that day, she found my post and she sent me a message,
private message. Are you the man who went into
the school to talk to the children?
And I went, yeah, I am. Was that OK?
(47:16):
And she went because I was like nervous, thinking maybe I've
done something wrong. Right, right, right.
Yeah. And she said, I have to thank
you, Darren, because my daughterhas come home and told me your
story and said if he can do thatwith a third of his brain not
(47:39):
working, if I work hard enough, I can achieve any goal that I
want. And I just went it's, it's
emotional. It really is emotional.
Yeah, I would imagine you probably shed a tear or two.
Yeah, because, you know, a neurosurgeon deals with brains
(48:04):
every single day. And for 35 years he'd only seen
this three times. And I think to myself like, I'm
not, I'm not special. Why is this only like well?
Here's the thing though, Darren.You are special, right?
Not only did you survive that horrible incident when you were
(48:28):
a kid, you were able to thrive as a result in ways that not
only made your life better, but you made the lives of others
better because you've had the proof.
You didn't just talk about, oh, yeah, we can do this, right?
You're kind of the Joe Dispenza of the neuroplasticity realm,
(48:50):
right? Where you totally retrained
yourself. You rebuilt your brain.
You didn't even know it was happening.
All you did was you had the drive to do and to be something
without regard of the results. You just kept showing up.
Now that example, the showing upled to the giver of data being
(49:18):
able to present demonstrably with the brain scans that this
actually happened, right? You've proven this now with that
kind of proof and the belief that you had in yourself beyond
the the awareness. So I can't do this is that I
(49:40):
don't know right here, here's that tremendous key.
You didn't know and you did it anyway to find out, right?
Instead of saying, well, I can'tdo this and just withering away.
So I don't know, let's try it and find out, right?
If we could key on that one thing alone and inspire others,
(50:06):
imagine the kind of world that we might have in just a few
short years. So after this, after the phase,
it's, it really is emotional. Oh, I'm sure.
The after the, the, the mother said like, thank you, my
(50:29):
daughter's come home and said this.
I I just said to her right now Ihave to thank you because when I
walked out of that, I said lot the final assembly, I didn't
think I would know if I've affected that one person.
And I said, now you've told me that I've affected your
daughter. So I have to say thank you
(50:51):
because like I could go through the rest of my life thinking,
did I do it? But my but you didn't.
Was. Right.
You, you had that thought when you came out of the assembly and
then you let it go and you continue doing on.
Well, then it eventually caught up with you to reflect that.
(51:12):
Oh yeah. Not only did you do it with this
person that their mother recognized it and reached out to
you as a result. That's a tremendous
synchronicity. And we were talking about
spiritual connections, right? These unknown Ways and Means
that communication takes place to edify what we've done, not
(51:37):
necessarily to put us in a placeof oh, look at me, see what I've
done. Yeah, yeah.
Just the opposite, because it's tremendously humbling.
I, I, I understand that. And that's, you know, the tears
of joy that you were able to express and have that effect on
that one person. And no doubt you had effects on
(51:59):
everybody in that assembly. And someday you may hear some
others reflect that as well. But I know it doesn't really
matter to you. Just the fact that that one took
place was enough. Yeah, the actually, she said to
me, Darren, you have affected more than one person.
(52:21):
I know the parents, they want tothank you, but they haven't
found you. And yeah.
And, and that is that is, yeah. And that is, that is, that's
incredible. And that is just motivated me
(52:43):
now even more. So it's not just like kids, it's
adults I talk to and they, they just say to me like I start if
I'm actually talking to someone face to face, I can see their
jaw drop when I say I fell off abalcony.
(53:03):
I was in a coma for like, and I and I, I can do I have to do
this in like 2 or 3 minutes? Yeah.
And I and their, their jaw dropsby the time I finish.
By the time I finish, their eyesare alight.
Yeah, their faces glowing and saying, wow, this is this is
(53:27):
amazing. And you said just a minute ago,
like, look at me, look what I'vedone.
Yeah, I do say that. I I but I say I do not.
If you don't do it with a tremendous amount of ego, you do
it with a very humbled if I can do this, you can too attitude.
(53:49):
Yeah, what I, what I say is I don't do this to say look at me,
look what I've done. I do this to say, look what is
possible if you've got the rightmind, if you're in the right
mindset, because my mindset was in the right place.
(54:11):
Absolutely. And not just your mindset, your
entire being. You know, often times we refer
to the spiritual side and a lot of times it gets into the
metaphysical and the woo woo andall that kind of stuff.
We get lost in it. However, it's the living of it
that connects everything and you're the perfect.
(54:32):
You're a perfect example of that, where all the things that
you had stacked up against you, right?
It was just energy. It was just thoughts.
It was just people projecting stuff of what, you know, the
probabilities they thought your life was going to have.
What what you did is you're like, oh, that's nonsense.
(54:55):
It's all energy. I'm going to figure out what to
do with it and I will find something that works for me.
Yeah, I, yeah, I've, I've, I've actually sat down because I'm
writing a book and I've got stuck and I've only got a few.
(55:18):
Like I've done like like half the book and I started thinking,
OK, when have I shown resilience?
I must have shown resilience when I fell off the balcony.
Your entire. Life spiral staircase, spiral
staircase. And I, I, I wrote down and I had
(55:40):
like 6 things. And one, one thing that I've
told somebody recently that people didn't even know I had
gone out. I was going, when I was doing my
plumbing course, I was going on a, a week's intensive plastering
course like about 100 miles away.
And I went to the bank to get some money at night, which was
(56:04):
stupid. Two guys asked me for directions
to get somewhere. And I, I told them the
directions. And then I, I sensed there was
an issue behind me and they werefollowing me down the road.
And they waited until I, like I,I walked down this road that had
(56:28):
like houses on both sides. They waited.
And it was, it was quite Rd. You didn't have many cars go
down here. And they waited till I got to a
road where there was only houseson one side.
They didn't know the area. I knew a car could come round
the corner and they run up at meand they pulled a gun out on me.
(56:48):
Yeah. And this is like 30 years ago,
pulled a gun out on me and said give me your money or we shoot
you. And I just stuff that was going
around in my head, you're not having my money.
I work hard for that. Yeah.
So I'm dithering around like moving on the spot and they're
(57:12):
going give us your money or we're going to shoot you.
And I just thought when a car, acar is going to come round the
corner and I've, I'm, I'm thinking, is it a real gun?
Can they shoot me if a car comesround the corner?
What do I do? A car came round the corner and
(57:32):
I jumped in front of the car there and he stopped.
The guy stopped and he was with a passenger.
The lady, lady passenger, She goes, are you OK?
Annoyed. No, those two guys and she goes,
what are those ones running off?I mean, yeah, they just pulled a
gun out on me and we didn't havemobile phones then.
And she we went, she went and knocked on someone's door and
(57:56):
said, we need to call the police.
And the police said to me, why didn't you give him your money?
And I went, my brain was saying you're not having it.
And they and and that that is like like I can't put words to
it is that is that that was justshowed.
(58:20):
Oh, you were locked and tight that none of this was going to
happen. That, that, that energy that
they were presenting just wasn'tgoing to affect you.
And the I don't know if it was aprecognitive kind of experience
where you thought about this carshowing up and, and knew that it
(58:41):
was going to be there. Because I do believe that we
have that capacity that we don'trecognize.
We have that sense of knowing, right?
Can't explain it. We just know, right?
And like you did right, you justknew that you were tired.
For that money, you'd be damned if you're going to give it up.
Yeah, and it was, it was at night time as well, so the car's
(59:03):
coming down the road. Yeah, total wasn't, you know,
worst possible. Scenario you could have right
and I'm and I'm just thinking a car will come round the corner
and just like moving on the spotthinking like and trying to like
confuse them a little bit because most people are going to
say OK, there's your money yeah and and this car came round the
corner it wasn't going fast and I just went like jumped too fun
(59:26):
and and they ran away and like people like still say to me like
that was like. Brave or stupid, right?
That the real, that the reality is you, some part of you knew
everything was going to work out.
(59:47):
Yeah, yeah, I just knew. Yeah.
And and. Now that's a gut sense.
OK, so you trusted that this is,if I may.
So this gives evidence to that three brain system that
indigenous ancient traditionist culture, traditional culture
(01:00:09):
talks about the first brain being your gut.
Right. That's the knowing place.
The second's your heart, which is where you discern, and the
third is the quantum computer ontop of your shoulders.
That when you process in that way, then your actions and your
behaviors and your thoughts are more aligned with the reality
(01:00:32):
that is not the one that is presenting itself, that wants to
be right. Because that's the false belief
system, right? Like people would say, you know,
why didn't you just give your money up?
Well, I'm locked into this is mine.
I'm not going to, I'm not going to give my power away to someone
(01:00:54):
under such pretense, right? You had been through this with
your life experience on a continual basis in building
yourself up that you just knew better.
Now, if we win, we, because I know everybody has these kinds
(01:01:15):
of experiences that we just see them as either a random
incident, right, a coincidence or something that allows us to
dismiss it somehow. What if we chose to look at
that? And I'm sure that this is
(01:01:36):
probably maybe you could answer this, do those kinds of things
bring you to a more secure, safeunderstanding and place of
knowing within yourself that whenever you're presented with a
challenge that you will get through it?
(01:01:57):
Yeah, I, yes, Before I didn't have this.
I didn't like even like like before COVID, the lockdowns, I
would think, yeah, what happens?What if this, what if this
(01:02:19):
happens? What if that happens?
And now, now I just everything, like anything that is thrown at
me, I'm going to overcome. And like somebody said, somebody
(01:02:43):
said to me like a little while ago, there was a reason why you
survived falling off the balcony.
Yeah, of spiral staircase. Absolutely in your life you've
affected thousands by the way that you've lived your life and
and talking about it right. You were given the opportunity.
(01:03:07):
Now if we think, you know, back again to the all the potential
in these spiritual configurations of how reality
works, if you consider that, youknow, when you come into this
life, you've chosen it already. There's one school of thought
that says, OK, I've agreed to all this.
I've set it up beforehand. Now I just got to go through the
(01:03:29):
process of living it, right? However excruciating or
challenging or devastating it might be, the outcome is going
to be a +1. So I'm going to go through it.
And then you maintain that attitude throughout your life to
be that example, not necessarilyknowing it was all.
(01:03:55):
I don't want to say predetermined, but that's
possible, right? If anything's possible, we don't
know, right? So we just look at the reality
of what's been taking place and look at all the patterns that
exist and the patterns that exist in in the redevelopment of
your brain and the neuroplasticity that you've been
(01:04:15):
able to manifest as a result. Now, in this process, what have
you been able to ascertain as being a a prime piece of advice
that you give to others to fire their own willingness to face
(01:04:37):
challenges? That like I would have said that
what I have actually done beforewas impossible.
(01:05:00):
And a lot of people, a lot of people actually say that's,
that's impossible. Now I'm saying that I'm, I'm,
I'm now saying to people anything is possible.
Yeah, I actually, I've got this.I'm going to quickly say this,
(01:05:23):
but there's this this guy, he was, he was a some part of a
film, some part of the film. He wasn't an actor.
He was like a writer coming and he he had he had bladder cancer
(01:05:51):
and they took the, the, the cancer was removed and it come
back again and he's talking withhis wife and his wife.
He said to his wife, I want to do something that is a little
bit out there. I don't want to go through like
(01:06:18):
the the, the like the chemo if he if he's had to have that.
Horrible experience. Right.
Yeah, I don't. I don't want to do that.
So what he did, he actually every day he would go somewhere
in the house, in the garden and just visualize the the, the
(01:06:40):
cancer getting smaller and smaller and smaller.
And at some point he's got to goback to the hospital just to get
a scan. And he goes, he goes back to a
scan and they said that this is,they get, they call him in and
(01:07:09):
he they say he's gone, the cancer was gone because he
visualised it getting smaller. Like who would think that's
possible? But.
Happens. It happens over and over again,
that kind of healing, the self initiated, even Jesus said it
(01:07:34):
right? You know, anything is possible
to those who believe. And it wasn't about him healing
others. It was about them giving
permission to be healed, right? We attach ourselves to these
prognosis or prognosis that thatshit's going to happen.
(01:07:58):
Yeah, right. And we just give up our power to
it. Instead of doing like this
gentleman that you were just talking about, go back inside
yourself, know that you've got the power and visualize, intend,
do the work. That's the, it's the discipline
that we lack. We're so distracted by the outer
(01:08:20):
world and all the different things and, and especially
social media now, right? Three to five.
It used to be the five to seven second rule.
Somebody size you up and you walk into a room, right?
That's all you have. Well, now that's about 5 to 7
seconds and you're being distracted to hundreds of or
maybe even thousands of different things in a matter of
(01:08:41):
moments when you're scrolling through stuff.
Well, how can we anticipate being able to focus when there's
that kind of distraction unless our brains are developing
differently because of that in order to incorporate and still
be able to get beyond it. Now, that remains to be seen.
(01:09:04):
I have a feeling that we were going to that we will see that
as we progress because all of this stuff, it is brand new,
right? The quantum physics, the
neuroplasticity, the emotional intelligence, all of these
things that from a science base in quantum computing even,
right? This is so ever present that we,
(01:09:26):
it hasn't had the time to develop into anything yet.
And yet we can see these patterns of possibility based on
what our direct experience like yours has been.
And if you can do it and you know at least semi how you did
(01:09:49):
it, right? Because the idea is I, I would
imagine you didn't know, right? You had ideas, you had curious
thoughts, ideas would come, you'd explore them rather than
dismiss them. Am I correct in that?
Yeah, exactly. And yeah, well, I, I had a Zoom
(01:10:15):
call with a, a professional soccer player.
I'd say soccer player. We say football, but soccer
player? Thanks for Americanizing it.
And he could. If I said football, you'd think
of like, like what we call. Yeah, stadium stuff.
(01:10:37):
I used to work for the Arizona Cardinals.
So this, I had a Zoom call with this guy who's on LinkedIn and
he's he's down as a he's he's, he's put on his profile,
Paralympian. And I think Paralympians are the
(01:10:58):
most amazing people in the world.
Yeah, because they overcome their their issues.
But I always let the person talk1st and he told me that he was a
professional soccer player for apretty big London team, not like
(01:11:26):
your Chelsea. It's called Queens Park Rangers,
QPR. Some people might might know it
know it and he was 26 years old in and it was 2006.
He was out with a teammate. His teammate was driving a car
(01:11:49):
and they had a crash and he wasn't with the guy that I'm
talking to, wasn't wearing a seat belt.
The the driver, he died on the spot.
The guy that I'm talking to, he went through the windscreen and
hit his head on the ground as helanded and he said that he's got
(01:12:13):
some brain damage. As you talked to him, I wouldn't
have thought he'd got an issue. My, my talking was like really,
really bad. There were lots of booms and
ours and stuff. And after he's after he spoke,
he said, so that's now, now you,now you start.
(01:12:34):
So then I told him my story and he just said, thank you so much.
Do not stop what you're doing because you give people like me
hope because my injury is, is like 19 years old and you've
(01:12:56):
just told me that you've healed a brain injury that was 50 years
old. Do not stop.
And I and I, I, I feel like humble because this guy who must
have had thousands and thousandsof fans, it took the time to
(01:13:19):
speak to me, but he was saying, no, what you're doing is so
important. And I've got people, I've got
people like on LinkedIn, I've got neurosurgeons in America on
my LinkedIn as connections saying to me, please carry on
(01:13:40):
doing what you're doing because it's amazing.
I can't actually see what I'm what I'm doing.
Do we ever right because we're we're forging ahead, failing
forward a lot of times, if you will and we're not really
cognizant of the effects. And, and I, yeah.
(01:14:01):
And I just, I just think if one person out of say like 100
people, if one person says, do you know what, I'm going to go
and do something that might help, then I can then I can just
pat myself on the back. And it doesn't matter.
It, it doesn't matter if I know what the, yeah, I just, if I can
(01:14:24):
just imagine that there's, that someone is doing it and the
people are, you know, I, I had, I was interviewed on a, on a
local UK news channel and they put, they said, sent me a
message saying you can't see what people are saying about you
(01:14:46):
because you're not in this area.So we're going to put a 32nd or
62nd clip on their TikTok page. And this was two years ago.
I am the most viewed interview on their TikTok page.
Be in like like actors, actors who like live in this county and
(01:15:17):
it's had for just just that county 660 something 1000 views
and the last time I checked 45,000 comments so that that is
(01:15:38):
now that's. An example of going viral,
right? Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah. Well, Speaking of going viral,
I, I really would love this episode to do that because I
think it's a worthy 1. It's very practical, it's
pragmatic, and it shows by example what 1 can do, not just
(01:15:59):
for themselves, for others at the same time.
So I really appreciate what you've had to go through and
it's humbling for me to be able to talk at this kind of level
and and to share you with our audience as well.
(01:16:20):
So I thank you so much, Darren. Thank you so much.
It's it's been, it's been a pleasure.
Yes. Yeah.
I just like want to like just let everybody know what was
possible. And can I quickly say something
that I am doing it now that I would never have thought I'd be
(01:16:45):
able to do? Yeah.
Wonderful. We, we've talked about, we
mentioned using both hemispheresof the brain when like the
website design and stuff. I went to a networking event and
the network, it was a speed network event, but the goal was
to arrange a one to one with someone.
(01:17:07):
A lady pointed at me, you and me, one to 1 and I went well,
that was easy. I thought that was to be harder
than that. And she's actually, she's
actually a, a music teacher. She teaches piano, violin and
Viola. And she said, I know about this
neuroplasticity. Yeah.
If you learn to play an instrument, it will strengthen
(01:17:28):
your brain even more because you're using both hemispheres
and. Absolutely.
My wife is from originally Leningrad, USSR.
She was trained as a piano pedagogue.
They got her when she was five years old, went through the
entire system, graduated from Massorgsky College, which is one
(01:17:50):
of the most prestigious music colleges in the world.
And not that she's that specialist.
She just had the opportunity andshe is special and so well aware
of the hemispheric and, and she teaches still to this day.
She got 26 students. Now imagine 10 fingers having to
(01:18:11):
do different things and you're aware of the science involved in
the music theory, which is what she learned, as well as the
mechanics and the timing, which is the math involved.
And so you're feeling the music as well as understanding the the
(01:18:34):
mechanics of it. So you've got that combination.
Well, we already know that musicinstruction increases math and
science scores in school, right?It's given.
So when we can further understand what this discipline,
(01:18:57):
training, learning of the music in whatever way piano happens to
be, I think one of the most difficult and challenging,
especially with the classical pieces that she had to learn
and, and all of the temperamentsof this society at the time, as
well as the, the composers and, and just the, the richness of
(01:19:22):
the education that she got in that in Russia or the USSR,
right? It's far different than any
other place in the world. From what I have gathered so
far. I I don't know of any place that
has that intense of an educational process that's
that's so expansive. But you're right.
You know, that music teacher that said, you know, I get it,
(01:19:46):
right, that we often don't get things until we hear it in a
certain way that aligns all those dots in the moment, Right.
Yeah. So Speaking of dots and
alignment, we are at the close of our time together.
(01:20:09):
So again, Darren, I, I just really appreciate and empathize
and am grateful for you and whatyou have to go through.
Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure.
It really is. Thank you.
You're welcome.
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