Imagine lacing up your skates for the very last time, knowing that the sport you love is slipping away due to the invisible injuries plaguing your brain. That's the reality Daniel Carcillo faced, but from the ashes of his NHL career, he's emerged as a beacon of hope for those grappling with mental health challenges. This episode takes you on a ride from the chilly rinks of Ontario to the hallowed grounds of the Stanley Cup, and into the boardroom where Carcillo now leads with a mission to innovate mental health treatment. We share the ice with Daniel as he recounts the thrills of playing with legends and the pivotal moments that forced him to hang up his jersey and tackle life's next chapter.
Transitioning from the rush of professional sports to the calm of parenting isn't a path tread by many, but it's one that Daniel Carcillo skates with grace. We uncover the profound impact a coach can have on the development of young minds, both on the ice and in life's daily shuffle. The episode isn't just about hockey; it's a heartfelt exploration into the strategies and emotional investments of raising a family, where every day is game day, and every moment with your children is a chance to coach for life's biggest wins.
Hear first-hand how Daniel faced the darkness of post-concussion symptoms and discovered a light in the form of psilocybin therapy—a journey that not only transformed his health but inspired a movement. We traverse the landscape of natural medicine and the promising horizon of psychedelic treatments, detailing Carcillo's role with Healing Realty Trust and the push to bring these therapies into the mainstream. It's a story of resilience, innovation, and the pursuit of healing that can change the game for concussion survivors and beyond. Join us as we celebrate the victories, both with the Stanley Cup and in the ongoing battle for a healthier mind.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Good evening everybody and welcome back to
the Podolsky Method podcast.
I'm your creator and host,coach Ilya level five USA hockey
, a master coach, lead hockeyinstructor for the New York
Junior Rangers, and I run andoperate Skate Shopping Shop and
called Sharp Skate New York.
And, of course, I'm a certifiedpublic accountant by trade.
(01:05):
Um, just wanted to mention acouple of sponsors before we
jump into our show.
Uh, print only with us a fullprinting shop here in new york
city for t-shirts or anythingyou need, signs, they can do it
all.
Uh, wargate hockey.
Uh, protection for your teeth,for those guys that love their
visors and play hockey, you canget 10% off with Wargate with 10
(01:30):
P O D O L S K I Y.
That's the code.
How is hockey, oh, dear friends, with 10% off with them, with
the code P O D O L S K I Y 1 0for your tape or any other needs
that you may have.
And, of course, last but notleast, check out the New York
Rangers youth hockey community.
(01:53):
As you are thinking to put yourkids into youth sports,
definitely give us a try.
Under 300 bucks you get 10lessons and full gear.
So it's a great way to enterthe game and tonight I have a
wonderful guest with me, danielcarcillo.
For those of you guys that don'tknow who daniel is probably
(02:13):
everybody does, but if you don'tin the nhl player over a decade
in the league, two-timestanding cup champion and also
now founder and CEO of VisanaHealth.
So he's converted from NHL tobusiness.
But, dan, maybe you could tellfolks a little bit about
yourself.
What was it like growing up andhow you ended up in the NHL?
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Yeah, thanks for having me, man, and thanks for
all you do with the youth aroundNew York and coaching, and
always need those skatessharpened.
So a little edge work I um yeah.
So I grew up in king city,ontario, which is a small town
just outside of toronto, um,about 40 minutes north, and
(03:01):
everything revolved around thehockey rink.
So as soon as you could walk,you put skates on in canada and
I wasved around the hockey rink.
So as soon as you could walk,you put skates on in Canada and
I was drawn to the gameimmediately, just for the simple
fact that there were differentrules and everything else seemed
to fade away.
When you're at the rink andthen you're pulling on a rope
with you know, a bunch of otherguys that had one shared mission
(03:23):
and I was really drawn to thephysicality of the sport, the
fact that you could hit peopleyou know with when they were
touching a rubber puck, the factthat you could test their will
to play, test their um workethic, and I just it was drawn
(03:44):
to it immediately.
At a young age and at 15, I hada decision to make in Canada,
you know, single A, double A,triple A, triple A being the
best and I decided to make ajump to triple A.
I grew up with two brothers.
My parents, just you know wewere all in hockey so they
couldn't put all three of us intriple A the whole time, all
three of us in AAA the wholetime.
(04:05):
And within three years I wasdrafted to the OHL and then
moved away at home at 16,drafted to the NHL while I was
in high school 72nd or 73rdoverall I should probably know
that to the Penguins.
And I graduated high school at19 and I was in the nhl well,
(04:28):
the ahl for a year and a half,the minor league system and then
the nhl.
When I got traded to thephoenix coyotes, um and wayne
gretzky was my first coach inthe nhl, which is pretty cool,
grant fuhrer, cool grant fuhreroff samuelson and it's a nice
(04:51):
little boys club and I, you know, fast forward.
I fought 164 times in in 10years in the league and, you
know, had four cracks at thestanley cup with three different
teams.
I went to the stanley cupfinals four times my last five
years in the league and wontwice with the Chicago
Blackhawks and retired early dueto concussions and I was being
(05:13):
told that I had mild dementia orthis brain disease called CTE
that comes on with repetitivehead trauma repetitive head
trauma and doctors are tellingme that.
You know, I had a new normal tolive and I didn't listen to
them and I fought for my healthand I found medicines that are
(05:35):
emerging now that are four timesbetter than what doctors are
prescribing right now, and Ihave fully immersed myself in
this emerging medicine spacebecause it saved my life in 2019
.
And I've seen it save a lot ofveterans' lives and athletes and
people suffering fromdepression and anxiety.
(05:55):
And so grateful for the game,had a really nice run with the
Rangers and I'll never forget it.
It was a pretty amazing teamand it was a pretty amazing year
, and I imagine you know mostpeople watching your show or
watching the game right now, but, uh, you know I'm here in
Florida now and and so me and myson are kind of conflicted, but
(06:19):
the only Jersey I have to theright of me is my Ranger jersey
framed.
It was a really amazing time tobe in MSG and playing in front
of fans that are so passionate.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
So, yeah, I've had a very, very, very blessed life
for sure yeah, I'm pretty surethat all the guys I play hockey
with, when I told them that youwere going to be on my show,
they were convinced that youwould have won the Stanley Cup
that year with the Rangers ifthe refs didn't get that call
wrong.
And you know, with the gamemisconduct.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Oh man, I don't know if they got it wrong, but that
was a tough one, you know, goingout, luckily I got another
crack at it, but going out likethat was difficult.
And then, you know, I wasplaying really good hockey and I
just remember Coach kind ofcoming up to me.
(07:15):
He's like we want to put you in, but we don't know if we do, if
it's going to hurt the team.
And so I completely understoodlike the last thing that I would
ever want is to affect, youknow, the team or how the refs
were going to call a gamebecause I was in it and because
I just made contact with a ref,even though he deserved it, um,
you know so, uh, but yeah, itwas, you know, pretty, pretty
(07:39):
amazing run great guys on thatteam, like they, immediately as
soon as I got to the team,midway through the year I think
it was in january when dorsetgot hurt, who's an awesome guy
too.
Um, they just brought me in andit's funny because all samuelson
was the coach, uh, one of theassistant coaches and so, and he
was so different than when Iremember him in phoenix because
(08:01):
his job was to try to get me tolisten, you know, uh, off the
ice and on the ice, which was atall order back then, but it was
cool to kind of be reunitedtowards the end of my career and
and be surrounded by just agreat organization.
You know the Dolans, they knowhow to, they know how to treat
their players and they get themost out of their players, as
(08:23):
you're seeing with this run nowyou know?
Speaker 1 (08:25):
yeah, no, absolutely so.
Speaking of coaches, I wantedto ask you who was you know in
your career?
Who do you think is your wasyour favorite to play for, and
why?
Speaker 2 (08:38):
uh.
So quinville was my favorite,for sure, because he was a man's
man, you know he loved thestogies and and he he didn't lie
to you, he didn't beat aroundthe bush as a coach.
He told you why you were out ofthe lineup and he told you how
(09:00):
you could get back in it.
And he was very straightforwardand he was energetic and brash
and rough.
But he was also a guy that youknew.
He wanted the best for you andthe team and there was this
trust factor with him that wecould go to his office and we
(09:22):
could, you know, you could talkto him.
He had an open door policy andlove joking around and he loved
the game of hockey, superpassionate about the game,
really smart, really smarttactician, and his views about
the game never changed as far as, like you know, defenseman, I
would always laugh, he would.
(09:43):
If anybody took a snapshot fromthe blue line.
He would lose his mind, and hewould.
He said you know, defenseman, Iwould always laugh, he would.
If anybody took a snapshot fromthe blue line.
He would lose his mind, and hewould.
He said you know, I don't care.
If you don't think you're goingto get it through, then try to
break an ankle, but little stuff, uh, little details always
would always have.
You know, knew when to when topress the button, to do a tough
(10:03):
practice, when to pull back, togive us rest was really attuned
to the little and finer detailsof the game about how to get the
momentum, especially in aplayoff series.
It's all about momentum.
And then if you have themomentum, how do you keep it?
And if you lose the momentum,how do you get it back quickly,
(10:33):
back quickly.
And so you know a real tappedinto type of guy when it came to
the, the finer details of thegame that not many people know
about or talk about, and youknow his resume speaks for
himself and you know, regardless, I don't think anybody really
knows what happened with thatsituation, but he's taken the
bullet for it in Chicago and asa person, as a man, in all of my
(10:57):
interactions, he was amazing tobe around and I I hope he gets
another crack at getting back inthere and and teaching men, you
know, and and gets anothercrack at winning, because I know
, I know how much he loves thegame, I know how much he cares
about it.
I also know how much he caresabout people, you know, and I
(11:17):
have to believe that, regardlessof the situation he's, he's
always thinking of the personfirst.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
I love that.
I think those are suchimportant qualities in a coach
that even at the youth level wealways try to think about how do
we impact these young minds notat the professional level, but
it kind of goes all the way downto coaching mites and babies.
And I always tell parents thatthey are smarter than they think
(11:47):
they are, or give them creditfor it, and a lot of times you
talk to them like adults andthey'll completely understand,
they'll listen and internalize alot of the lessons that you
just talked about.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Absolutely.
Yeah.
I mean, I have four kids fromnine to a year old and I talk to
them like adults.
I've talked to them like adultssince they started talking
around three, four years old.
And no baby talk in ourhousehold, for sure.
(12:22):
Baby talk in our in ourhousehold, for sure.
And, yeah, I don't think, Idon't think we give kids enough
credit with how in tune they are, because they're so innocent
and un unfazed by what whatdisconnects adults, so many
adults right, which is you, thestresses of life.
(12:44):
And so I love being around kids, especially my own kids, and
just acting like a kid, like I,I come down to their level.
I, you know, I don't expectthem to come up to mine.
So, yeah, I love, I love beinga dad and you know, it's one of
the one of the one of thereasons, along with my symptoms
(13:04):
and how bad I was suffering, ofwhy I decided to stop.
You know, I didn't want to beon the road all the time, 186
days, and miss out on what'struly important, which is, you
know, recreating and, you know,fostering and hopefully creating
(13:26):
an environment where you cangrow a life.
You know, it's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Do your kids play sports now.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Yeah, so my oldest, austin, he's nine.
He did learn to play and thennow he's in rec and he wants to
go into travel.
But I've got a deep year aheadof me of traveling back and
forth to Oregon to get ourclinic set up and and helping
people, and so I I kept him outfor one more year and he'll
he'll play travel next year.
(13:55):
He made the team but hecouldn't commit to it.
And then um Scarlett's insoccer she's my third, she's
five and Layla's in gymnasticsand she's my third, she's five
and leila's in gymnastics andshe's um she's seven.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
And then edith just turned one, and she's just,
she's walking.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
She's up to like six steps, so that's a sport all in
itself it's the best man I it'sso cool to watch nine-year-olds,
seven-year-olds, five-year-oldsinteract with a baby.
It is, it's so cool, like it'sjust hard to have a bad day.
You know, and don't get mewrong, it's tough, it's
(14:39):
stressful.
You know kids, they don'tnecessarily want to listen.
You know kids, they don'tnecessarily want to listen and
you know, um, but it's, you know, you're lying in bed and uh at
night and reading them storiesand they're just, they're just
so innocent and, um, theirbrains are so formidable.
(15:00):
You know, and I think workingin the space that I do now right
, which is helping peoplereshape or give them a new
perspective on life, essentiallyreturning their brain back to
like a childlike state so thatthey can make better decisions
and habits and behaviors.
It's amazing how similar thedichotomies are.
(15:26):
And you know, I just, yeah, Ilike to be a big kid around my
kids and you know, hopefullywhen they grow older, they'll
want to come back and take careof me, you know.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Absolutely.
I have three boys myself.
They're 13, 11, and 6.
And all hockey players.
Because once the first one went, you know, I put my first one
on skates.
He was four and my wife washolding my
two-and-a-half-year-old in herhands and he was crying for an
hour because he wanted to be onthe ice too.
He said you either take both ofthem or you don't take either
(16:02):
of them.
So I was like all right, we'llput them both on the ice.
So I've been skating ever sinceLove it.
It's kind of like one of thosethings where they really like it
and you know, we have like ahockey family situation going on
where we all kind of traveltogether and do all these things
together.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
It's an amazing sport , it's the best sport.
If you're willing to work itand if kids are drawn to it as a
parent, you should feel lucky,because it's not easy.
It's going to turn them intoreally hard workers.
There's a lot of attention todetail and angles and
(16:47):
creativeness and and criticalthinking and creative processing
and cognitive product Like.
There's so much of how itdevelops a human being into,
into owning skillsets that youcan then use in life.
You know that's what I'm usingin business now is, are these
methods or these, uh, habits orcharacteristics that I picked up
(17:09):
with hockey?
You know being able to managepeople, being able to lead, you
know by example and, um, just,you know trying to be the
healthiest version of myself inorder to, you know, be able to
show up every day and be in thepresent moment.
And I think that's the reason Iloved hockey so much, because
(17:33):
once the puck dropped,everything else faded away and
you had to be present in orderto win.
And that's very much like lifeand and it's very much like
business.
You know you're making all yourdecisions and gathering all
your information in that momentand if you're too far stuck in
the past or too far into thefuture with fear of what if, um,
(17:58):
you're going to fail.
So it's pretty cool how I'veseen you know those skill sets
transfer over into into business.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Yeah, no, very true.
I, I, I, I, you know I have aprofessional day job where I'm
doing compliance work and then Ihave, you know, my second job
with coaching and everything.
And you're so right in terms ofthe transition of those skills
and just being I think that'sthe hardest part is finding
yourself present in the moment,so easy to get caught up in what
(18:30):
I should have done, what Icould have done, right in those
terms.
And I love how you just saidthat, because I don't think we
talk about that enough.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Yeah, it's.
You know, when we talk to a lotof people that are suffering
from concussion or just lifestress, Talk to a lot of well
people too right, who aren'tsick but need help to get
(19:00):
unstuck or to learn a lesson orto figure out where they need to
put their time or sharpen upthe skill set that they already
have that they're proud of, youknow.
Or some people that are justlost, that may need to
(19:22):
transition, athletes that needto transition into something
else and rediscover who they are, away from their sport or their
identity.
And it's pretty amazing to seea transformation happen when you
give somebody medicine thatallows you to go inward and be
introspective and then, in analtered state of consciousness,
(19:43):
be able to be more connected tothe things that have happened to
you and the, and then be ableto look into the, into the
future and be able to gaininsight into what you may want
to do, what, what will make youfulfilled, what will make you
happy, and then doing it.
(20:06):
You know, coming out of theseceremonies there, you know the
what if brain or or that, thatlizard brain that says, well, I
know, I need to, I need to getup at 830 tomorrow.
You know.
Well, in my case, an LOI to geta property to open up a clinic.
You know across the country andit's like, well, what if this
(20:37):
happens?
What if that happens?
All of these fear-basedthoughts that those aren't
present after a mushroomceremony, those you're, you're,
you're operating off of thisintuition or this gut feeling,
and we've all felt it when you,when you innately know that you
need to do something and sothat's a it's a pretty cool
(20:57):
space to operate your life from,uh, which is, you know, just
zero fear and, although you careabout the outcome, you don't
necessarily have like anemotional attachment to the
outcome and and your identitydoesn't get caught up in it.
It's just something that youknow you need to do and, yeah,
it's a pretty peaceful place tolive I love that.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
And for those folks who don't know what cte is, uh,
it is a chronic, uh traumaticencephalopathy, right there's,
you know, right, yeah and uh,you know, I was looking up some
statistics before I show and Irealized that, you know, in
youngsters, in young kids ages15 to 24, uh, the cat trauma is
(21:41):
actually second only to caraccidents it's pretty prevalent
and a lot of times it goesundiagnosed because we just
don't know.
You know, in football kids smashtheir helmets together.
In hockey you hit the wall andwe kind of shake it off.
You're okay, count backwardsfrom 10 and you're good to go.
A lot of coaches don't know howto even examine a concussion or
(22:05):
know what a concussion protocolis.
So that's an issue in itself.
But you know I was reading.
You know an estimated 300,000sport-related brain injuries
occur every year and somestudies say it's as much as 40%
in kids participating in sports.
(22:27):
And so you know, maybe youcould talk a little bit more in
detail about your experience.
I know I've seen a lot throughyour posts and through the
information you've put out andyour journey.
You know after NHL and how youended up, you know getting cured
virtually through this methodas opposed to the conventional
(22:49):
doctors and medicine, and I lovethat.
But maybe you could talk alittle bit about that.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Yeah.
So after my seventh diagnosedconcussion, I had symptoms for
three to four weeks where Icouldn't be around any screens
or look at my phone or be aroundbright lights a lot of light
sensitivity.
My slurred speech really wasprevalent, I was experiencing
(23:18):
some pretty bad insomnia, a lotof anxiety, I had some pretty
bad headaches, brain fog, brainfatigue, head pressure, head
pressure, some impulse controlissues, some depression and I
(23:39):
had some balance issues.
So it was becoming prettyapparent that it was going to be
hard to do my job if thesethings didn't go away.
And when they did go away, Ijust wasn't confident enough in
myself to try to get back in thelineup.
I stayed around the teambecause I I still had a big role
and you know, setting up theplaylists and just being around
the guys and a good teammate tomake sure that you know some
(24:03):
guys like one of the best thingsabout being in a hockey room
and being in a tight-knitcommunity is like going in there
and telling the boys like, kindof, you know what you did last
night and just talking, andobviously you know when you're
playing you're not doing much atall, right, you're just
hydrating.
And so there was still a bigrole to be played and and I,
(24:26):
when I was able to go back tothe rink, I quickly knew that
this was going to be the last goaround and I was only 30.
And so I'd made a decision,especially after my friend's
death, steve Monador's death,where he had a lot of the same
symptoms and then it came outthat he had stage 4 CTE, or
(24:46):
stage 3, which is prettyprogressive for a 34-year-old,
and I just had my son inNovember.
I was like man, I shouldprobably stop.
And so I made that decision.
And when I stopped, that's whenI really realized how bad it was
(25:07):
, how sick I was, because youknow you pull yourself out of
the environment where you'repretty much always I was,
because you know you pullyourself out of the environment
where you're pretty much alwayshave a brain injury, you know.
And then you put yourself intoreal life and which is much,
much slower and different.
People act differently, talkdifferently, move at a much
(25:27):
slower pace, and you know, thesesymptoms just became
overwhelming.
And luckily I had means.
I had all the best money in theworld, or I had money to access
all the best doctors in theworld, and I just remember going
there and just listening to alot of them, right, and some of
(25:48):
them were prescribing mepharmaceuticals and some of them
were doing eye tests on me andbalance tests and some of them
were cracking my neck and otherswere sticking needles in my
forehead and across my skull and, uh, others were talking about
the glymphatic or lymphaticsystem or drainage, and it was
(26:09):
pretty exhausting for four yearsjust going to everybody trying
to figure it out.
Right, hyperbaric chamber, moxa, acupuncture, float,
deprivation tanks, reflexology,cranial sacral hormone
replacement therapy, stem cells,peptides you know everything.
You name it, I tried it and Iwould find relief, but like I
(26:31):
kept hearing the same thing.
Where, well, this?
It seems to me that I've doneeverything I can and you know
there's a new normal that you'regoing to have to get used to
living, and I didn't.
I didn't want to accept that asan answer.
In 2017, I remember seeing astudy under fMRI of two brains
(26:53):
under fMRI, one withoutpsilocybin, which is the active
ingredient in magic mushrooms,and then one with psilocybin,
and what I saw?
I actually just posted it todayon my Instagram.
I posted a lot these right andleft brain hemispheres
communicating under fMRI at arate that's never been seen
before, and I just thought, well, this is what the doctors were
(27:13):
telling me that they were goingto identify an area that was
shut down due to trauma and thenthey were going to wake it back
up again by.
You know, our critical motorskills are held in one area of
our brain.
Like, so, if that part of thebrain, my lower right cortex,
you know creativity or language,etc.
Their memory, we would work onmemory tests or creativity tests
(27:37):
to wake it back up.
And here I was looking at abrain being woken up by
mushrooms and I was like, well,how do I get some of those?
And so it took me to that till2019 to actually access it,
because it's a schedule onesubstance and it's illegal.
And so I waited till a statewas decriminalized in Colorado,
(28:00):
and then I went and took it andI took some diagnostics before I
left and then, and then sixmonths after and I did that
because there's such a stigmawith these medicines and I
wanted to if it worked like.
I wanted to be able to showpeople like data, not just
obviously you can see that I'mhealed in here, but I really
(28:21):
wanted to be able to show peoplethat this could work for them
too, and words aren't enoughsometimes.
And so six months in, Iretested my brain.
I did a QEG before and afterand then I did blood work.
My QEG came back with noabnormalities and my blood work
came back completely clear.
And there's no concussion drugon the market.
(28:45):
Or if you have depression, theyprescribe you Wellbutrin or all
of the antidepressants SSRIsthat they don't ask about the
head trauma.
So that was in 2019.
Fast forward to today.
I founded a drug developmentcompany.
I took it through the FDA, theprotocol that I used.
I created a drug developmentteam.
(29:05):
I raised tens of millions ofdollars.
I took it public on the CSE.
I then sold that program to aNASDAQ listed company.
I owned and operated threepsychiatrist led clinics,
inclusive of med management,psychotherapy and ketamine in
Illinois, sold that and windingthat business down.
And then now I'm the COO ofHealing Realty Trust, which is
(29:26):
building out the infrastructurefor these medicines.
Because when you do thesemedicines through the FDA or if
you go to Oregon, which is alegal state, you go to a clinic
and you sit there for six toeight hours to experience this
medicine.
You don't take it at home andthere's no real estate
infrastructure in the healthcaremarket that has that right now.
So we're building that.
(29:47):
And then I have a clinic I'mopening in Oregon where you can
use a full spectrum medicine, soa totally natural form of
mushroom, and it's regulated.
So there's licensed facilitieslike the one I'm opening.
There's licensed facilitatorsexperienced people that can sit
with you during this experiencethat has healed my brain.
(30:09):
And then there's licensedmanufacturers that grow the
mushrooms to a, and then there'slicensed manufacturers that
grow the mushrooms to a certainspecification, and then there's
licensed testing facilities.
So, and there's 27 other statesthat are have active
legislation for psilocybin.
It's the safest substance knownto man.
It's been around longer thanhumans and it's coming online
pretty quickly and not quicklyenough, in my opinion.
(30:31):
And there's also online prettyquickly and not quickly enough,
in my opinion.
And there's also threecompanies out there going
through the FDA that havesomething called FDA
Breakthrough Therapy Designation, which means that it's been
identified as being impactfulfor an intractable indication.
Indications meaning depressionor anxiety or
treatment-resistant depressionindication indications meaning
(30:52):
depression or anxiety, ortreatment resistant depression.
So, um, I've been able to dothis in five and a half years
and I just feel like I'm justkind of getting started and and
so I'm just really excited forthe future and I was saying to
myself today and I made a postabout it I was thinking about
(31:13):
how grateful I am to have myhealth and to have these
opportunities to be with my kidsalone, because I was so bad
that my wife didn't trust me tobe alone with my own kids.
And not to say that I was, I wasjust.
I was just, I was really sickand I just wouldn't have been
(31:34):
able to handle all thisstimulation, you know.
So I was sitting here thinking,you know I, I woke up, you know
6, 30, got them off to school,and you know I do this often.
And, uh, I was just thinking ofhow grateful I am to have my
health to be able to do that, tobe able to have those
opportunities and to be able tobe present, you know, to like
(31:57):
enjoy their lives and enjoy mylife.
Now, you know I mean it soundsreally messed up to say, but I'm
definitely living my best lifefor sure.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
I love that.
I love that and kudos to youfor not taking no for an answer
(32:34):
when you know a lot of folks.
Do you know if they had cte orhad trauma?
But if they were athletes theyprobably did at some point,
right, and they don't know.
You know, I think thosesymptoms kind of escalate as you
get older, right, and then youknow, I love that you're, you're
finding a real solution andit's not like another chemical.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
Yeah, and we're going to track this right.
So it's not just enough for meto open up a clinic in Oregon.
We're going to partner with anacademic institution.
We're in talks with three ofthe major academic institutions
and we're going to track thisbecause obviously, most of the
5,300 people I have on this waitlist are they're concussion
survivors, and there's so manyof them because there's nothing
else out there.
(33:14):
Or most of these people on thislist have tried everything and
they've been following me andand they're now starting to come
around to like, all right, yeah, no, this guy's talking about
the exact same thing, the exactsame way.
He looks even better, and it'sbeen five years.
And then now people are gettingthe confidence, even though
they still don't understand andthere's a lot of unknown.
They're like, yeah, man, I wantto try it, and so we'll track
(33:37):
it, you know, and we'll makesure that we collect data so
that we can then, you know,influence and help more people
make that decision and beconfident enough to come.
And I will say I have cte.
Like there is no doubt in mymind that I do not have cte.
I have it for sure.
These are tau entanglements thatessentially strangle dendrites
(34:00):
and areas of our brain and ifyou've ever seen an alzheimer's
or dementia patient orparkinson's is different types
of tau entanglements, buttauanglements nonetheless which
rob you of motor skills,language, all of these things
depending on where it'shappening in your brain.
I have that.
Am I going to die from it?
Right?
No, I'm not.
(34:22):
Number one because of mymindset and number two because
of mushrooms.
Mushrooms mainly containingpsililocybin, as well as lion's
mane, and reishi, cordyceps,chaga, garicon, turkey tail all
of the mushrooms that you can goto whole foods and buy, that
all have neuro anti-inflammatorybenefits that increase bdnf,
(34:43):
lion's mane specifically, whichis like food for new neuronal
pathways that you're thencreating with these mushrooms
containing psilocybin.
So, yeah, I just you know I'mcompletely natural.
I don't put synthetics orstatins in my body.
I work out, I make sure thatI'm very mindful of the thoughts
(35:07):
that I think, because thethoughts I think I think become
my reality, uh, which I've, I'vefelt and I've been tapped into
that type of system.
I focus on recovery and sleep.
I watch my alcohol and andsugar intake, which are
neurodegeneratives and alcoholmainly and I, you know, spend as
much time as I can with my kidsand positive people, you know I
(35:29):
love that.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
And you know, my aunt is actually in the waist weight
stages of alzheimer's now andshe's pretty much immobile at
this point, unfortunately, andyou know, um, you know so, so,
and it's not.
You know, she was not, I thinkshe was a physics teacher
throughout her life, but but itwas.
You know, that's also an aspectthat, uh, I think people fear,
(35:54):
even if you're not an athlete,but it, you know, that's
something that could prolong, uh, the symptoms and possibly even
, you know, stop thatprogression to, to a point that
that's amazing absolutely so.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
I've, you know, stopped and reversed.
I caught it early enough 34 ish, 35 I.
There was a, an individual whotexted me the other day.
They wanted another connectionto a supply which I connected
them with and, and, and I said,oh great, like you're liking
(36:34):
them.
You know these are micro doses,so sub perceptual, you don't
have to hallucinate.
And and he's like, no, they'refor my mom.
I'm like, oh, really.
And he said, he said hold on,I'm going to pull it up because
I don't want to, I don't want tomisspeak, don't want to, I
(36:55):
don't want to misspeak.
Hold on one sec.
She said my mom is benefitingfrom them.
She has advanced dementia andis now beginning to speak again
after a year of almost totalsilence unbelievable like, and
I've seen parkinson's patientsbenefit from this.
I've, I believe and I've seen it, and this is why I believe it,
or I know, I know it, believingthere's there's you know there's
(37:16):
doubts.
Those are learned behaviors.
I know, because I've seen itand I've experienced it myself,
that this can, then this canreverse and stop the progression
of neurodegenerative diseases.
I'm not a doctor, but and don'ttake this as medical advice but
I've been around so many peoplethat have had brain injuries
(37:37):
over 350 people that we'vehelped in six years that are
five and a half.
It's coming up on six years thissummer, which is crazy, uh, to
think about.
You know, in july was the firsttime I got better, 2019.
It just works, you know, andyou know some people are like
(37:59):
well, how it's like well,there's no neuroscientist on
earth that's ever going to beable to tell you how right We've
got over 12 billion neurons,and you know if people want to
sit there and think that theyknow, that's fine, but just look
and either believe it or not.
You know if people want to sitthere and think that they know
that's fine, but just look andeither believe it or not.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
Yeah, so you know.
Again, I think the work thatyou're doing is unbelievably
meaningful.
I love talking to you know,listening to these stories and
actually seeing and believingthat there is a better way.
My wife has gone through somethings with autoimmune and she's
(38:37):
still dealing with some ofthose issues.
She's still pretty muchundiagnosed.
Some folks are saying she hassome arthritis, some are saying
it's autoimmune, some are sayingsomething else, but it's never
concrete and saying here's whatyou have and here's how you
treat it.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
I've seen a lot of people with Lyme disease,
autoimmune disease, undiagnosed.
Nobody knows what's going on,but they're going to call it
something and they've gottenbetter at something, um, and
they've gotten better, likeafter one treatment.
You know, um, what I like to tocall.
(39:18):
I like to say that it's um, youknow, putting your body, your
mind, body and spirit backtogether in equilibrium, back to
homeostasis, even if you don'tknow what is happening.
That's the intelligence of themushroom.
That's why why I like to takefull spectrum mushrooms, because
there's different alkaloids andtryptamines in the full
spectrum as opposed to just justpulling out psilocybin.
(39:39):
There's like over a hundredother tryptamines and alkaloids
and they all do something.
They all take you on a trip andthey take you on different
trips.
Some feel more heart opening,some feel more heart opening,
some feel more, you know,ethereal.
Some are more visual inhallucinations.
So, and if you know that it'smore visual, that's hitting your
(40:01):
more of the frontal lobe,frontal cortex, and that's good
for concussion, you know,because that's where we find a
lot of the cte.
So you can get really prettyspecific.
But you know, I look up, um,I'll send you some of the john
hopkins studies for your wife tolook up because, um, uh, I'll
(40:21):
send you an email with the linkand just tell her to go look at
the publications.
You know, um and uh, the thefirst studies that john hopkins
did was on end-of-lifeterminally ill cancer patients
and and it was on end-of-lifeanxiety.
And you know, a lot of thesepatients came back saying that
(40:41):
that was the most meaningfulexperience of their life because
it helped them realize and getconnected to, to being
comfortable enough to know thatthis isn't the end, you know,
and so, and there's a lot ofthese experiences right, where
people who have depression gointo a ceremony, die, die, a
(41:05):
part of them dies, but it feelsvery much like you're dying and
that's why you have to havesomebody in the room to make
sure that, um, you know thatthey can ground you to say, no,
like, go through this experience, but you're here, here and you
know it's very, very safe.
Nobody's actually passed away.
On psilocybin, um, you have totake over 1500 grams, you can't
(41:28):
eat that much, and um, but thenyou come back to this body and
you have these realizations,right, you have, like, what was
I stressed out about?
Speaker 1 (41:38):
you know, a job.
Speaker 2 (41:40):
You know, uh, you know most of the thing.
You just have theserealizations that most of these
anxieties or some of thedepression is caused by, you
know, maybe, things that havehappened, but you have these
realizations or go through thesetraumas again so that it
doesn't govern the rest of yourlife, or you let go of these
(42:00):
anxieties because you realizethat they're they haven't
happened yet, you know, and itjust kind of puts you back into
the present moment, where it's,it's bliss.
You know it's that, you knowit's.
That's where you know gratitudeis and that's where I just like
that moment that we just shared.
That's like the special,special stuff you know.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
Yeah, absolutely.
I actually have a littlequestion coming in from a friend
of mine, alex, here he's asking.
He says history of Shaman useSalasibos as a tool for healing
emotional and mental alignment.
Have you experienced any shamanrituals or know anyone that has
?
Speaker 2 (42:41):
Yeah, so a lot of the music that we use has shamanic
ties, shamanic ties and rituals.
I haven't experienced liketaking mushrooms on native
American land or anything likethat.
Um, I have done ayahuasca in,in the high jungle of Peru,
(43:02):
tarapoto, peru, and that was,you know, with the caros, and
that was very traditional Uh,but we have, I have experienced,
you know, psilocybin toobviously heal and and fix my
brain and it was the next daywhere we used, where we did,
(43:23):
like these, um, indian sweatlodges, uh, and so from that
sense you know, there was of, Iguess, story arc that tied into
the Native Americans becausethey would do something very
similar the day after Sweat, youknow all the toxins out.
But you know a lot of the musicis rooted in kind of tribal
(43:45):
beats or you know kind of thesame hertz that they would use.
Speaker 1 (43:55):
Hopefully that answers your question.
Yeah, and I mean, I've had verylimited experience with
mushrooms myself, but tounderstand in terms of when it
comes to um, using it on along-term basis, I know you
mentioned microdosing, but soyou also go through these, I
(44:19):
guess, events where it's youcould do like major dosing right
and you could do more, butcontrolled.
So how does that work in tandem?
Speaker 2 (44:30):
Yeah.
So some people like tomicrodose over longer periods of
time, where they're introducingthis medicine at low doses so
they're not hallucinating butthey're still getting the
neuronal benefits.
You know the neuronal benefitsand other one of those back um
(44:57):
big doses are good because theyhelp to reset the system and
they help individuals who may besuffering from, you know,
depression or anxiety or PTSDreliveive this trauma so it
doesn't govern the rest of theirlife or see the things that are
holding them back or kill offparts of them that no longer
(45:20):
serve them.
You know these types of egodeaths and so in large doses
you're in an altered state ofconsciousness and you are very
much facing the, the issues thatare holding you back, whether
you want to call that depressionor anxiety or stress, the death
of a loved one, making sense ofthis life.
(45:42):
You know, for any realparticular reason you can, you
can bring pretty much anythingto the ceremony and you'll
likely get the answer.
That's the inherentintelligence of this technology
that some people call it.
With the microdosing I justknew, and people know, like
(46:02):
nothing gets fixed in five hours.
So you know, from a neuronalstandpoint, I've been hitting
kids since I was four, so for 26years.
So I just knew that I needed alittle extra and I wanted to,
you know, little extra.
And I wanted to, you know,continually and habitually take
this medicine.
Now, that being said, I take 60days off every year.
(46:25):
I also take weekends offbecause you don't want to build
up a tolerance to anything andcurrently, right now, I'm not
microdosing.
I haven't been microdosing forthe last like four months and
I'm feeling, you know, feelingreally good with just the bigger
doses.
I did a large dose two weeksago where, um, we're doing a
follow-up to with a documentary,to the HBO special I did with
Brian Gumbel, and so, and thenthere's different ways to
(46:46):
experience the larger doses too.
Right Not to confuse anybody,but you can do it with your eyes
open.
You can do it with your eyesclosed, which is much more
inward.
You can do it with music.
You can do it without music.
You can do it with your eyesclosed, which is much more
inward.
You can do it with music.
You can do it without music.
You can do it in pure darkness.
You can do it in groups.
You can do it one-on-one.
There's many, many ways, but ifpeople are interested in this,
(47:10):
then there's lots of informationout there.
The number one thing that peoplehave to understand is this
isn't a miracle drug, it's not apanacea, and once you do the
medicine and you have therealizations, then it's your
responsibility, with the groupor community of people that
you've done this with, or theperson that's taking you through
it, to guide you and toimplement those realizations
(47:31):
into that you had in an alteredstate of consciousness, into
your life.
It's time to take action,because if you don't take the
action, then why did you takethe medicine right?
So the miracle comes when youstart to make the decision to
get up, when you don't reach forthe bottle even though you
(47:52):
might crave it, when you feellike yelling or snapping on
somebody that you know maybecuts you off in traffic but you
don't.
When you break destructivethought patterns and turn your
negative self-talk into maybesome positive self-talk, when
you create new habits, when youstart to exercise, when you
(48:14):
start to eat better, when youstart to really create this
relationship with yourself andchange.
These are like catalysts thatcan help you do that, because
after a big dose, your brain andyour heart are open for new
possibilities for the firstthree weeks and you can really
(48:35):
change your habits and and yourthought patterns and your
behaviors.
That's the miracle of thismedicine.
In a big dose, the smaller dosesafter that three-week period
can help maybe remind you, andthen they can also obviously
help flush out you know,neuroinflammation.
That's been proven.
And if you have Alzheimer's mygrandmother also died of
(49:00):
Alzheimer's, so I have that.
That runs in my family as wellon top of the head hits, um, if
you have that, you know, it's agood idea to to take some of
these, some of these mushrooms,and, if people are interested,
go to Johns Hopkins Um, they'vedone a lot of studies and then
also go to Johns Hopkins They'vedone a lot of studies.
And then also go tomushroomreferencescom where
(49:20):
there's all clinical trials thatare associated with things like
lion's mane, reishi, cordyceps,chaga, garrican.
Speaker 1 (49:26):
These are different mushrooms that are legal and go
to Whole Foods and, you know,start to implement them, you
know, um, and you'll see abenefit yeah, I love it, and so
these, um, I guess, events thatyou go to, you guys hold them,
uh, that people could sign upfor, or how does that work?
Speaker 2 (49:48):
yeah.
So if people are interested inlearning more, they can go to my
website, danielcarcillocom, orjust hit me on Instagram or even
toss me an email.
I put them up on socials prettyoften on my posts and get on
the webinar.
We do a free webinar every weekat 7 pm on Thursdays.
(50:12):
Time pending, we may switchthat up.
I'm going to kind of re-ask,because now there's 900 people.
We just started doing this,probably like a little less.
I think we're up to six or sixweeks ago, six or seven weeks
ago.
So the response has been greatand people are very interested
and I just freely talk and givepeople information.
(50:33):
Bring on some people that havedone some of these retreats,
they give their testimonials andthen I answer questions and
then if people want moreinformation, then I send them
the decks and until our clinicsopen in the next 30 or 45 days,
then we partner with a clinicand I bring small groups, four
people with me to Oregon andeverything is, you know, paid
(50:57):
for accommodations, food, airbnband, you know, create this kind
of community.
You're entering into acommunity and you're entering
into a space to be able to growand, you know, people have had
some really transformativeexperiences.
Um, thank you oh my gosh, I loveyou, um, people have had some
(51:37):
really, really life-savingexperiences already and it's
only going to continue.
It'll get easier on mepersonally when you know the
facility's open just becausescheduling, et cetera, but you
know, I'm willing to take timeaway from my family and I'm
willing to to take the flightsover there in order to, to
(52:01):
influence lives and to showpeople, you know, what this can,
what this can do for for them.
Um, so it's been going reallywell and there's so many signs
or God winks, I call them that Ishould continue doing this,
because people keep coming intomy life asking about it and then
committing to it, which isreally important.
(52:22):
And, yeah, you know, it's mylife's work.
So we just, you know, we got tokeep charging ahead.
Speaker 1 (52:32):
I love that man.
That's such an amazing storyand I really appreciate all the
information that you're givinghere, because I think, uh, you
know, even the guys that I playwith now just adults
recreationally, you know, man,grown man struggling with some
of these things.
So I love to bring some moreawareness about this topic to
(52:54):
the folks and you know it'splaying hockey.
You know I'm always worriedabout you.
Know what happens next.
You know it's great to knowthat there is something out
there that can help, whateverthe journey takes them Right.
Speaker 2 (53:07):
Yeah for sure.
Yeah, it's um it is.
It's a really amazing tool tobe able to make you a better
person.
You know, like that's prettymuch it, like it doesn't get
much more complicated, you know,than that.
(53:28):
It can really improve your life.
Speaker 1 (53:31):
So absolutely, and I know we're coming up on the hour
here, but I did want to bringyou back a little bit to your
hockey days and ask you what itfelt like winning those Stanley
cups.
Speaker 2 (53:44):
Yeah, I mean it's, you know, the culmination of a
of a very long career that yougive up your youngest years for.
You know, I mean you move awayfrom everything that you know
family, friends at young ages togo and pursue this thing.
You're a boy, dressed up like aman and you're on top of the
(54:08):
world.
You know, you're the besthockey team in the world.
Nobody can touch you after thattest and it's a test game in
the world.
Nobody can touch you after thattest.
And it's a test, uh.
Sailing cup playoffs and regularseason and playing 82 games
over 186 games, traveling, andit's a grind and it's uh, it's,
(54:31):
it's worth it.
It was.
It was amazing to be able tocommit my life to that and to be
able to come out on top.
It was pretty magical.
Hold on, I'm almost done, baby,please, please, please.
Austin's calling Anna.
(54:53):
Okay, that's fine, I'll be outin five minutes.
That's okay, I'll be out infive minutes, okay.
You guys gotta get ready forbed.
Um, my nine-year-old's got uh,he's got an apple watch and he
uh, he's got a girlfriend.
Speaker 1 (55:12):
So that's some serious business.
Speaker 2 (55:16):
Nine, I don't know.
I think we were passing notesat nine, right, I don't think I
was calling anybody.
But yeah, it was cool.
The first Stanley Cup that Iwon, I was single and didn't
have a kid and all that stuff.
And then the second one our sonwas born so he sat in it, stuff
(55:37):
.
And then second one, our sonwas born so he sat in it.
So those it was cool to to, youknow, win twice and different
points of my life and share thatwith with my wife and with my
son and then my parents likeseeing my parents, my brothers,
my hometown, everybody comingout, that was uh, it was pretty,
pretty special that's amazingand and and you know to your
point.
Speaker 1 (55:55):
I think that from my, from personal experience, I
know that you know I'veexperienced things before kids
and then with kids it's almostamplified right, like if you go
talk medieval times, for example, and you watch it and you're
like, oh, it's cool.
Speaker 2 (56:19):
And then you go with kids and you see the way they
watch it and it's like you justunfolded that experience.
Yeah, oh yeah, it's.
It's much, much different.
You know, I, I with kids, Ijust um, I think you know the
innocence of it all and, likeyou know, the the wonder is just
, it's great, you know, and Imean he was so young he doesn't
remember sitting in the cup oranything like that.
But, um, you know, I wouldalways look at guys that had,
(56:40):
like older, older kids.
Oh yeah, fuck me, I don't knowhow you guys do it.
I never really wanted a wife orgirlfriend or kids while I was
playing, cause it was it's hardenough to keep this thing in
line, you know, rather than tryto um, um, take care of a family
(57:00):
, but uh, no coincidences inthis life you know it all.
Speaker 1 (57:03):
It all comes when you're ready, right?
Um, so I know we're on top ofthe hour.
I always like to close out theshow with a couple rapid fire
questions.
Cool, you ready for it?
Uh, just a couple questions.
First one is what motivatesathletes?
Glory, love that.
(57:23):
Second one if there's threetraits, character traits that
you notice in successfulathletes, what are they?
Speaker 2 (57:31):
Yeah, yeah.
So attention to detail, workethic and then a sort of blind
faith that you're going to getit done Awesome.
Speaker 1 (57:44):
And then if you could name three things that can hold
an athlete back.
Overthinking, not beingprepared mentally, physically,
spiritually, and overconfidencedid you have a pre-game routine
(58:05):
that you always did to getyourself?
Speaker 2 (58:06):
no, well, yeah, I mean like, yeah, like in the nhl
, for sure, rolling out, etc.
Like there was always the same.
Every guy's routine is alwaysthe same stretches.
Uh, I had the agility ladderwith just music and I would do
it on my own.
Uh a bunch of guys would do like, you know, kick the ball around
that sort of stuff.
I was more.
I was always very internal.
(58:28):
We're just kind of visualizingas I'm doing the warmups and
stretching like first shift,second shift, fourth shift,
fifth shift, if this happens,that happens, and just like
getting in, getting in, beingready.
You know, guys are alwayslooking at me like Jesus, like
it looks like you just played aperiod, but I had to be like
ready to, you know, tearsomebody's head off and get the
(58:49):
crowd into it and get the boysinto it.
So, so yeah, my, my warm-uproutine was pretty involved, but
it was also just a nice time tovisualize and, you know,
attract, you know what you wantto happen to come to you, you
know.
Speaker 1 (59:07):
Awesome.
Well, I know you got to go getyour kids ready for bed.
Speaker 2 (59:12):
I'm yelling right now , yeah.
Speaker 1 (59:15):
Thank you so much for coming on the show.
Again, guys, if you want tofollow Dan at danielcarcillo13
on Instagram and then hiswebsite is danielcarcillocom for
those that want to learn moreabout everything we talked about
today and potential cures toCTE, and if you want to get more
(59:37):
information from Dan, please doreach out and you could always
message the show and I'll behappy to pass on your questions
or comments.
Again, thank you so much fortaking the time.
This was absolutely wonderful.
Speaker 2 (59:51):
Yeah, buddy, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (59:54):
Awesome.
Thank you everybody and have awonderful night.
Let's go Rangers let's start.
Good evening everybody and welcome back to
the Podolsky Method podcast.
I'm your creator and host,coach Ilya level five USA hockey
, a master coach, lead hockeyinstructor for the New York
Junior Rangers, and I run andoperate Skate Shopping Shop and
called Sharp Skate New York.
And, of course, I'm a certifiedpublic accountant by trade.
(01:05):
Um, just wanted to mention acouple of sponsors before we
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Rangers youth hockey community.
(01:53):
As you are thinking to put yourkids into youth sports,
definitely give us a try.
Under 300 bucks you get 10lessons and full gear.
So it's a great way to enterthe game and tonight I have a
wonderful guest with me, danielcarcillo.
For those of you guys that don'tknow who daniel is probably
(02:13):
everybody does, but if you don'tin the nhl player over a decade
in the league, two-timestanding cup champion and also
now founder and CEO of VisanaHealth.
So he's converted from NHL tobusiness.
But, dan, maybe you could tellfolks a little bit about
yourself.
What was it like growing up andhow you ended up in the NHL?
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Yeah, thanks for having me, man, and thanks for
all you do with the youth aroundNew York and coaching, and
always need those skatessharpened.
So a little edge work I um yeah.
So I grew up in king city,ontario, which is a small town
just outside of toronto, um,about 40 minutes north, and
(03:01):
everything revolved around thehockey rink.
So as soon as you could walk,you put skates on in canada and
I wasved around the hockey rink.
So as soon as you could walk,you put skates on in Canada and
I was drawn to the gameimmediately, just for the simple
fact that there were differentrules and everything else seemed
to fade away.
When you're at the rink andthen you're pulling on a rope
with you know, a bunch of otherguys that had one shared mission
(03:23):
and I was really drawn to thephysicality of the sport, the
fact that you could hit peopleyou know with when they were
touching a rubber puck, the factthat you could test their will
to play, test their um workethic, and I just it was drawn
(03:44):
to it immediately.
At a young age and at 15, I hada decision to make in Canada,
you know, single A, double A,triple A, triple A being the
best and I decided to make ajump to triple A.
I grew up with two brothers.
My parents, just you know wewere all in hockey so they
couldn't put all three of us intriple A the whole time, all
three of us in AAA the wholetime.
(04:05):
And within three years I wasdrafted to the OHL and then
moved away at home at 16,drafted to the NHL while I was
in high school 72nd or 73rdoverall I should probably know
that to the Penguins.
And I graduated high school at19 and I was in the nhl well,
(04:28):
the ahl for a year and a half,the minor league system and then
the nhl.
When I got traded to thephoenix coyotes, um and wayne
gretzky was my first coach inthe nhl, which is pretty cool,
grant fuhrer, cool grant fuhreroff samuelson and it's a nice
(04:51):
little boys club and I, you know, fast forward.
I fought 164 times in in 10years in the league and, you
know, had four cracks at thestanley cup with three different
teams.
I went to the stanley cupfinals four times my last five
years in the league and wontwice with the Chicago
Blackhawks and retired early dueto concussions and I was being
(05:13):
told that I had mild dementia orthis brain disease called CTE
that comes on with repetitivehead trauma repetitive head
trauma and doctors are tellingme that.
You know, I had a new normal tolive and I didn't listen to
them and I fought for my healthand I found medicines that are
(05:35):
emerging now that are four timesbetter than what doctors are
prescribing right now, and Ihave fully immersed myself in
this emerging medicine spacebecause it saved my life in 2019
.
And I've seen it save a lot ofveterans' lives and athletes and
people suffering fromdepression and anxiety.
(05:55):
And so grateful for the game,had a really nice run with the
Rangers and I'll never forget it.
It was a pretty amazing teamand it was a pretty amazing year
, and I imagine you know mostpeople watching your show or
watching the game right now, but, uh, you know I'm here in
Florida now and and so me and myson are kind of conflicted, but
(06:19):
the only Jersey I have to theright of me is my Ranger jersey
framed.
It was a really amazing time tobe in MSG and playing in front
of fans that are so passionate.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
So, yeah, I've had a very, very, very blessed life
for sure yeah, I'm pretty surethat all the guys I play hockey
with, when I told them that youwere going to be on my show,
they were convinced that youwould have won the Stanley Cup
that year with the Rangers ifthe refs didn't get that call
wrong.
And you know, with the gamemisconduct.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Oh man, I don't know if they got it wrong, but that
was a tough one, you know, goingout, luckily I got another
crack at it, but going out likethat was difficult.
And then, you know, I wasplaying really good hockey and I
just remember Coach kind ofcoming up to me.
(07:15):
He's like we want to put you in, but we don't know if we do, if
it's going to hurt the team.
And so I completely understoodlike the last thing that I would
ever want is to affect, youknow, the team or how the refs
were going to call a gamebecause I was in it and because
I just made contact with a ref,even though he deserved it, um,
you know so, uh, but yeah, itwas, you know, pretty, pretty
(07:39):
amazing run great guys on thatteam, like they, immediately as
soon as I got to the team,midway through the year I think
it was in january when dorsetgot hurt, who's an awesome guy
too.
Um, they just brought me in andit's funny because all samuelson
was the coach, uh, one of theassistant coaches and so, and he
was so different than when Iremember him in phoenix because
(08:01):
his job was to try to get me tolisten, you know, uh, off the
ice and on the ice, which was atall order back then, but it was
cool to kind of be reunitedtowards the end of my career and
and be surrounded by just agreat organization.
You know the Dolans, they knowhow to, they know how to treat
their players and they get themost out of their players, as
(08:23):
you're seeing with this run nowyou know?
Speaker 1 (08:25):
yeah, no, absolutely so.
Speaking of coaches, I wantedto ask you who was you know in
your career?
Who do you think is your wasyour favorite to play for, and
why?
Speaker 2 (08:38):
uh.
So quinville was my favorite,for sure, because he was a man's
man, you know he loved thestogies and and he he didn't lie
to you, he didn't beat aroundthe bush as a coach.
He told you why you were out ofthe lineup and he told you how
(09:00):
you could get back in it.
And he was very straightforwardand he was energetic and brash
and rough.
But he was also a guy that youknew.
He wanted the best for you andthe team and there was this
trust factor with him that wecould go to his office and we
(09:22):
could, you know, you could talkto him.
He had an open door policy andlove joking around and he loved
the game of hockey, superpassionate about the game,
really smart, really smarttactician, and his views about
the game never changed as far as, like you know, defenseman, I
would always laugh, he would.
(09:43):
If anybody took a snapshot fromthe blue line.
He would lose his mind, and hewould.
He said you know, defenseman, Iwould always laugh, he would.
If anybody took a snapshot fromthe blue line.
He would lose his mind, and hewould.
He said you know, I don't care.
If you don't think you're goingto get it through, then try to
break an ankle, but little stuff, uh, little details always
would always have.
You know, knew when to when topress the button, to do a tough
(10:03):
practice, when to pull back, togive us rest was really attuned
to the little and finer detailsof the game about how to get the
momentum, especially in aplayoff series.
It's all about momentum.
And then if you have themomentum, how do you keep it?
And if you lose the momentum,how do you get it back quickly,
(10:33):
back quickly.
And so you know a real tappedinto type of guy when it came to
the, the finer details of thegame that not many people know
about or talk about, and youknow his resume speaks for
himself and you know, regardless, I don't think anybody really
knows what happened with thatsituation, but he's taken the
bullet for it in Chicago and asa person, as a man, in all of my
(10:57):
interactions, he was amazing tobe around and I I hope he gets
another crack at getting back inthere and and teaching men, you
know, and and gets anothercrack at winning, because I know
, I know how much he loves thegame, I know how much he cares
about it.
I also know how much he caresabout people, you know, and I
(11:17):
have to believe that, regardlessof the situation he's, he's
always thinking of the personfirst.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
I love that.
I think those are suchimportant qualities in a coach
that even at the youth level wealways try to think about how do
we impact these young minds notat the professional level, but
it kind of goes all the way downto coaching mites and babies.
And I always tell parents thatthey are smarter than they think
(11:47):
they are, or give them creditfor it, and a lot of times you
talk to them like adults andthey'll completely understand,
they'll listen and internalize alot of the lessons that you
just talked about.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Absolutely.
Yeah.
I mean, I have four kids fromnine to a year old and I talk to
them like adults.
I've talked to them like adultssince they started talking
around three, four years old.
And no baby talk in ourhousehold, for sure.
(12:22):
Baby talk in our in ourhousehold, for sure.
And, yeah, I don't think, Idon't think we give kids enough
credit with how in tune they are, because they're so innocent
and un unfazed by what whatdisconnects adults, so many
adults right, which is you, thestresses of life.
(12:44):
And so I love being around kids, especially my own kids, and
just acting like a kid, like I,I come down to their level.
I, you know, I don't expectthem to come up to mine.
So, yeah, I love, I love beinga dad and you know, it's one of
the one of the one of thereasons, along with my symptoms
(13:04):
and how bad I was suffering, ofwhy I decided to stop.
You know, I didn't want to beon the road all the time, 186
days, and miss out on what'struly important, which is, you
know, recreating and, you know,fostering and hopefully creating
(13:26):
an environment where you cangrow a life.
You know, it's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Do your kids play sports now.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Yeah, so my oldest, austin, he's nine.
He did learn to play and thennow he's in rec and he wants to
go into travel.
But I've got a deep year aheadof me of traveling back and
forth to Oregon to get ourclinic set up and and helping
people, and so I I kept him outfor one more year and he'll
he'll play travel next year.
(13:55):
He made the team but hecouldn't commit to it.
And then um Scarlett's insoccer she's my third, she's
five and Layla's in gymnasticsand she's my third, she's five
and leila's in gymnastics andshe's um she's seven.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
And then edith just turned one, and she's just,
she's walking.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
She's up to like six steps, so that's a sport all in
itself it's the best man I it'sso cool to watch nine-year-olds,
seven-year-olds, five-year-oldsinteract with a baby.
It is, it's so cool, like it'sjust hard to have a bad day.
You know, and don't get mewrong, it's tough, it's
(14:39):
stressful.
You know kids, they don'tnecessarily want to listen.
You know kids, they don'tnecessarily want to listen and
you know, um, but it's, you know, you're lying in bed and uh at
night and reading them storiesand they're just, they're just
so innocent and, um, theirbrains are so formidable.
(15:00):
You know, and I think workingin the space that I do now right
, which is helping peoplereshape or give them a new
perspective on life, essentiallyreturning their brain back to
like a childlike state so thatthey can make better decisions
and habits and behaviors.
It's amazing how similar thedichotomies are.
(15:26):
And you know, I just, yeah, Ilike to be a big kid around my
kids and you know, hopefullywhen they grow older, they'll
want to come back and take careof me, you know.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Absolutely.
I have three boys myself.
They're 13, 11, and 6.
And all hockey players.
Because once the first one went, you know, I put my first one
on skates.
He was four and my wife washolding my
two-and-a-half-year-old in herhands and he was crying for an
hour because he wanted to be onthe ice too.
He said you either take both ofthem or you don't take either
(16:02):
of them.
So I was like all right, we'llput them both on the ice.
So I've been skating ever sinceLove it.
It's kind of like one of thosethings where they really like it
and you know, we have like ahockey family situation going on
where we all kind of traveltogether and do all these things
together.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
It's an amazing sport , it's the best sport.
If you're willing to work itand if kids are drawn to it as a
parent, you should feel lucky,because it's not easy.
It's going to turn them intoreally hard workers.
There's a lot of attention todetail and angles and
(16:47):
creativeness and and criticalthinking and creative processing
and cognitive product Like.
There's so much of how itdevelops a human being into,
into owning skillsets that youcan then use in life.
You know that's what I'm usingin business now is, are these
methods or these, uh, habits orcharacteristics that I picked up
(17:09):
with hockey?
You know being able to managepeople, being able to lead, you
know by example and, um, just,you know trying to be the
healthiest version of myself inorder to, you know, be able to
show up every day and be in thepresent moment.
And I think that's the reason Iloved hockey so much, because
(17:33):
once the puck dropped,everything else faded away and
you had to be present in orderto win.
And that's very much like lifeand and it's very much like
business.
You know you're making all yourdecisions and gathering all
your information in that momentand if you're too far stuck in
the past or too far into thefuture with fear of what if, um,
(17:58):
you're going to fail.
So it's pretty cool how I'veseen you know those skill sets
transfer over into into business.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Yeah, no, very true.
I, I, I, I, you know I have aprofessional day job where I'm
doing compliance work and then Ihave, you know, my second job
with coaching and everything.
And you're so right in terms ofthe transition of those skills
and just being I think that'sthe hardest part is finding
yourself present in the moment,so easy to get caught up in what
(18:30):
I should have done, what Icould have done, right in those
terms.
And I love how you just saidthat, because I don't think we
talk about that enough.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Yeah, it's.
You know, when we talk to a lotof people that are suffering
from concussion or just lifestress, Talk to a lot of well
people too right, who aren'tsick but need help to get
(19:00):
unstuck or to learn a lesson orto figure out where they need to
put their time or sharpen upthe skill set that they already
have that they're proud of, youknow.
Or some people that are justlost, that may need to
(19:22):
transition, athletes that needto transition into something
else and rediscover who they are, away from their sport or their
identity.
And it's pretty amazing to seea transformation happen when you
give somebody medicine thatallows you to go inward and be
introspective and then, in analtered state of consciousness,
(19:43):
be able to be more connected tothe things that have happened to
you and the, and then be ableto look into the, into the
future and be able to gaininsight into what you may want
to do, what, what will make youfulfilled, what will make you
happy, and then doing it.
(20:06):
You know, coming out of theseceremonies there, you know the
what if brain or or that, thatlizard brain that says, well, I
know, I need to, I need to getup at 830 tomorrow.
You know.
Well, in my case, an LOI to geta property to open up a clinic.
You know across the country andit's like, well, what if this
(20:37):
happens?
What if that happens?
All of these fear-basedthoughts that those aren't
present after a mushroomceremony, those you're, you're,
you're operating off of thisintuition or this gut feeling,
and we've all felt it when you,when you innately know that you
need to do something and sothat's a it's a pretty cool
(20:57):
space to operate your life from,uh, which is, you know, just
zero fear and, although you careabout the outcome, you don't
necessarily have like anemotional attachment to the
outcome and and your identitydoesn't get caught up in it.
It's just something that youknow you need to do and, yeah,
it's a pretty peaceful place tolive I love that.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
And for those folks who don't know what cte is, uh,
it is a chronic, uh traumaticencephalopathy, right there's,
you know, right, yeah and uh,you know, I was looking up some
statistics before I show and Irealized that, you know, in
youngsters, in young kids ages15 to 24, uh, the cat trauma is
(21:41):
actually second only to caraccidents it's pretty prevalent
and a lot of times it goesundiagnosed because we just
don't know.
You know, in football kids smashtheir helmets together.
In hockey you hit the wall andwe kind of shake it off.
You're okay, count backwardsfrom 10 and you're good to go.
A lot of coaches don't know howto even examine a concussion or
(22:05):
know what a concussion protocolis.
So that's an issue in itself.
But you know I was reading.
You know an estimated 300,000sport-related brain injuries
occur every year and somestudies say it's as much as 40%
in kids participating in sports.
(22:27):
And so you know, maybe youcould talk a little bit more in
detail about your experience.
I know I've seen a lot throughyour posts and through the
information you've put out andyour journey.
You know after NHL and how youended up, you know getting cured
virtually through this methodas opposed to the conventional
(22:49):
doctors and medicine, and I lovethat.
But maybe you could talk alittle bit about that.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Yeah.
So after my seventh diagnosedconcussion, I had symptoms for
three to four weeks where Icouldn't be around any screens
or look at my phone or be aroundbright lights a lot of light
sensitivity.
My slurred speech really wasprevalent, I was experiencing
(23:18):
some pretty bad insomnia, a lotof anxiety, I had some pretty
bad headaches, brain fog, brainfatigue, head pressure, head
pressure, some impulse controlissues, some depression and I
(23:39):
had some balance issues.
So it was becoming prettyapparent that it was going to be
hard to do my job if thesethings didn't go away.
And when they did go away, Ijust wasn't confident enough in
myself to try to get back in thelineup.
I stayed around the teambecause I I still had a big role
and you know, setting up theplaylists and just being around
the guys and a good teammate tomake sure that you know some
(24:03):
guys like one of the best thingsabout being in a hockey room
and being in a tight-knitcommunity is like going in there
and telling the boys like, kindof, you know what you did last
night and just talking, andobviously you know when you're
playing you're not doing much atall, right, you're just
hydrating.
And so there was still a bigrole to be played and and I,
(24:26):
when I was able to go back tothe rink, I quickly knew that
this was going to be the last goaround and I was only 30.
And so I'd made a decision,especially after my friend's
death, steve Monador's death,where he had a lot of the same
symptoms and then it came outthat he had stage 4 CTE, or
(24:46):
stage 3, which is prettyprogressive for a 34-year-old,
and I just had my son inNovember.
I was like man, I shouldprobably stop.
And so I made that decision.
And when I stopped, that's whenI really realized how bad it was
(25:07):
, how sick I was, because youknow you pull yourself out of
the environment where you'repretty much always I was,
because you know you pullyourself out of the environment
where you're pretty much alwayshave a brain injury, you know.
And then you put yourself intoreal life and which is much,
much slower and different.
People act differently, talkdifferently, move at a much
(25:27):
slower pace, and you know, thesesymptoms just became
overwhelming.
And luckily I had means.
I had all the best money in theworld, or I had money to access
all the best doctors in theworld, and I just remember going
there and just listening to alot of them, right, and some of
(25:48):
them were prescribing mepharmaceuticals and some of them
were doing eye tests on me andbalance tests and some of them
were cracking my neck and otherswere sticking needles in my
forehead and across my skull and, uh, others were talking about
the glymphatic or lymphaticsystem or drainage, and it was
(26:09):
pretty exhausting for four yearsjust going to everybody trying
to figure it out.
Right, hyperbaric chamber, moxa, acupuncture, float,
deprivation tanks, reflexology,cranial sacral hormone
replacement therapy, stem cells,peptides you know everything.
You name it, I tried it and Iwould find relief, but like I
(26:31):
kept hearing the same thing.
Where, well, this?
It seems to me that I've doneeverything I can and you know
there's a new normal that you'regoing to have to get used to
living, and I didn't.
I didn't want to accept that asan answer.
In 2017, I remember seeing astudy under fMRI of two brains
(26:53):
under fMRI, one withoutpsilocybin, which is the active
ingredient in magic mushrooms,and then one with psilocybin,
and what I saw?
I actually just posted it todayon my Instagram.
I posted a lot these right andleft brain hemispheres
communicating under fMRI at arate that's never been seen
before, and I just thought, well, this is what the doctors were
(27:13):
telling me that they were goingto identify an area that was
shut down due to trauma and thenthey were going to wake it back
up again by.
You know, our critical motorskills are held in one area of
our brain.
Like, so, if that part of thebrain, my lower right cortex,
you know creativity or language,etc.
Their memory, we would work onmemory tests or creativity tests
(27:37):
to wake it back up.
And here I was looking at abrain being woken up by
mushrooms and I was like, well,how do I get some of those?
And so it took me to that till2019 to actually access it,
because it's a schedule onesubstance and it's illegal.
And so I waited till a statewas decriminalized in Colorado,
(28:00):
and then I went and took it andI took some diagnostics before I
left and then, and then sixmonths after and I did that
because there's such a stigmawith these medicines and I
wanted to if it worked like.
I wanted to be able to showpeople like data, not just
obviously you can see that I'mhealed in here, but I really
(28:21):
wanted to be able to show peoplethat this could work for them
too, and words aren't enoughsometimes.
And so six months in, Iretested my brain.
I did a QEG before and afterand then I did blood work.
My QEG came back with noabnormalities and my blood work
came back completely clear.
And there's no concussion drugon the market.
(28:45):
Or if you have depression, theyprescribe you Wellbutrin or all
of the antidepressants SSRIsthat they don't ask about the
head trauma.
So that was in 2019.
Fast forward to today.
I founded a drug developmentcompany.
I took it through the FDA, theprotocol that I used.
I created a drug developmentteam.
(29:05):
I raised tens of millions ofdollars.
I took it public on the CSE.
I then sold that program to aNASDAQ listed company.
I owned and operated threepsychiatrist led clinics,
inclusive of med management,psychotherapy and ketamine in
Illinois, sold that and windingthat business down.
And then now I'm the COO ofHealing Realty Trust, which is
(29:26):
building out the infrastructurefor these medicines.
Because when you do thesemedicines through the FDA or if
you go to Oregon, which is alegal state, you go to a clinic
and you sit there for six toeight hours to experience this
medicine.
You don't take it at home andthere's no real estate
infrastructure in the healthcaremarket that has that right now.
So we're building that.
(29:47):
And then I have a clinic I'mopening in Oregon where you can
use a full spectrum medicine, soa totally natural form of
mushroom, and it's regulated.
So there's licensed facilitieslike the one I'm opening.
There's licensed facilitatorsexperienced people that can sit
with you during this experiencethat has healed my brain.
(30:09):
And then there's licensedmanufacturers that grow the
mushrooms to a, and then there'slicensed manufacturers that
grow the mushrooms to a certainspecification, and then there's
licensed testing facilities.
So, and there's 27 other statesthat are have active
legislation for psilocybin.
It's the safest substance knownto man.
It's been around longer thanhumans and it's coming online
pretty quickly and not quicklyenough, in my opinion.
(30:31):
And there's also online prettyquickly and not quickly enough,
in my opinion.
And there's also threecompanies out there going
through the FDA that havesomething called FDA
Breakthrough Therapy Designation, which means that it's been
identified as being impactfulfor an intractable indication.
Indications meaning depressionor anxiety or
treatment-resistant depressionindication indications meaning
(30:52):
depression or anxiety, ortreatment resistant depression.
So, um, I've been able to dothis in five and a half years
and I just feel like I'm justkind of getting started and and
so I'm just really excited forthe future and I was saying to
myself today and I made a postabout it I was thinking about
(31:13):
how grateful I am to have myhealth and to have these
opportunities to be with my kidsalone, because I was so bad
that my wife didn't trust me tobe alone with my own kids.
And not to say that I was, I wasjust.
I was just, I was really sickand I just wouldn't have been
(31:34):
able to handle all thisstimulation, you know.
So I was sitting here thinking,you know I, I woke up, you know
6, 30, got them off to school,and you know I do this often.
And, uh, I was just thinking ofhow grateful I am to have my
health to be able to do that, tobe able to have those
opportunities and to be able tobe present, you know, to like
(31:57):
enjoy their lives and enjoy mylife.
Now, you know I mean it soundsreally messed up to say, but I'm
definitely living my best lifefor sure.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
I love that.
I love that and kudos to youfor not taking no for an answer
(32:34):
when you know a lot of folks.
Do you know if they had cte orhad trauma?
But if they were athletes theyprobably did at some point,
right, and they don't know.
You know, I think thosesymptoms kind of escalate as you
get older, right, and then youknow, I love that you're, you're
finding a real solution andit's not like another chemical.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
Yeah, and we're going to track this right.
So it's not just enough for meto open up a clinic in Oregon.
We're going to partner with anacademic institution.
We're in talks with three ofthe major academic institutions
and we're going to track thisbecause obviously, most of the
5,300 people I have on this waitlist are they're concussion
survivors, and there's so manyof them because there's nothing
else out there.
(33:14):
Or most of these people on thislist have tried everything and
they've been following me andand they're now starting to come
around to like, all right, yeah, no, this guy's talking about
the exact same thing, the exactsame way.
He looks even better, and it'sbeen five years.
And then now people are gettingthe confidence, even though
they still don't understand andthere's a lot of unknown.
They're like, yeah, man, I wantto try it, and so we'll track
(33:37):
it, you know, and we'll makesure that we collect data so
that we can then, you know,influence and help more people
make that decision and beconfident enough to come.
And I will say I have cte.
Like there is no doubt in mymind that I do not have cte.
I have it for sure.
These are tau entanglements thatessentially strangle dendrites
(34:00):
and areas of our brain and ifyou've ever seen an alzheimer's
or dementia patient orparkinson's is different types
of tau entanglements, buttauanglements nonetheless which
rob you of motor skills,language, all of these things
depending on where it'shappening in your brain.
I have that.
Am I going to die from it?
Right?
No, I'm not.
(34:22):
Number one because of mymindset and number two because
of mushrooms.
Mushrooms mainly containingpsililocybin, as well as lion's
mane, and reishi, cordyceps,chaga, garicon, turkey tail all
of the mushrooms that you can goto whole foods and buy, that
all have neuro anti-inflammatorybenefits that increase bdnf,
(34:43):
lion's mane specifically, whichis like food for new neuronal
pathways that you're thencreating with these mushrooms
containing psilocybin.
So, yeah, I just you know I'mcompletely natural.
I don't put synthetics orstatins in my body.
I work out, I make sure thatI'm very mindful of the thoughts
(35:07):
that I think, because thethoughts I think I think become
my reality, uh, which I've, I'vefelt and I've been tapped into
that type of system.
I focus on recovery and sleep.
I watch my alcohol and andsugar intake, which are
neurodegeneratives and alcoholmainly and I, you know, spend as
much time as I can with my kidsand positive people, you know I
(35:29):
love that.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
And you know, my aunt is actually in the waist weight
stages of alzheimer's now andshe's pretty much immobile at
this point, unfortunately, andyou know, um, you know so, so,
and it's not.
You know, she was not, I thinkshe was a physics teacher
throughout her life, but but itwas.
You know, that's also an aspectthat, uh, I think people fear,
(35:54):
even if you're not an athlete,but it, you know, that's
something that could prolong, uh, the symptoms and possibly even
, you know, stop thatprogression to, to a point that
that's amazing absolutely so.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
I've, you know, stopped and reversed.
I caught it early enough 34 ish, 35 I.
There was a, an individual whotexted me the other day.
They wanted another connectionto a supply which I connected
them with and, and, and I said,oh great, like you're liking
(36:34):
them.
You know these are micro doses,so sub perceptual, you don't
have to hallucinate.
And and he's like, no, they'refor my mom.
I'm like, oh, really.
And he said, he said hold on,I'm going to pull it up because
I don't want to, I don't want tomisspeak, don't want to, I
(36:55):
don't want to misspeak.
Hold on one sec.
She said my mom is benefitingfrom them.
She has advanced dementia andis now beginning to speak again
after a year of almost totalsilence unbelievable like, and
I've seen parkinson's patientsbenefit from this.
I've, I believe and I've seen it, and this is why I believe it,
or I know, I know it, believingthere's there's you know there's
(37:16):
doubts.
Those are learned behaviors.
I know, because I've seen itand I've experienced it myself,
that this can, then this canreverse and stop the progression
of neurodegenerative diseases.
I'm not a doctor, but and don'ttake this as medical advice but
I've been around so many peoplethat have had brain injuries
(37:37):
over 350 people that we'vehelped in six years that are
five and a half.
It's coming up on six years thissummer, which is crazy, uh, to
think about.
You know, in july was the firsttime I got better, 2019.
It just works, you know, andyou know some people are like
(37:59):
well, how it's like well,there's no neuroscientist on
earth that's ever going to beable to tell you how right We've
got over 12 billion neurons,and you know if people want to
sit there and think that theyknow, that's fine, but just look
and either believe it or not.
You know if people want to sitthere and think that they know
that's fine, but just look andeither believe it or not.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
Yeah, so you know.
Again, I think the work thatyou're doing is unbelievably
meaningful.
I love talking to you know,listening to these stories and
actually seeing and believingthat there is a better way.
My wife has gone through somethings with autoimmune and she's
(38:37):
still dealing with some ofthose issues.
She's still pretty muchundiagnosed.
Some folks are saying she hassome arthritis, some are saying
it's autoimmune, some are sayingsomething else, but it's never
concrete and saying here's whatyou have and here's how you
treat it.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
I've seen a lot of people with Lyme disease,
autoimmune disease, undiagnosed.
Nobody knows what's going on,but they're going to call it
something and they've gottenbetter at something, um, and
they've gotten better, likeafter one treatment.
You know, um, what I like to tocall.
(39:18):
I like to say that it's um, youknow, putting your body, your
mind, body and spirit backtogether in equilibrium, back to
homeostasis, even if you don'tknow what is happening.
That's the intelligence of themushroom.
That's why why I like to takefull spectrum mushrooms, because
there's different alkaloids andtryptamines in the full
spectrum as opposed to just justpulling out psilocybin.
(39:39):
There's like over a hundredother tryptamines and alkaloids
and they all do something.
They all take you on a trip andthey take you on different
trips.
Some feel more heart opening,some feel more heart opening,
some feel more, you know,ethereal.
Some are more visual inhallucinations.
So, and if you know that it'smore visual, that's hitting your
(40:01):
more of the frontal lobe,frontal cortex, and that's good
for concussion, you know,because that's where we find a
lot of the cte.
So you can get really prettyspecific.
But you know, I look up, um,I'll send you some of the john
hopkins studies for your wife tolook up because, um, uh, I'll
(40:21):
send you an email with the linkand just tell her to go look at
the publications.
You know, um and uh, the thefirst studies that john hopkins
did was on end-of-lifeterminally ill cancer patients
and and it was on end-of-lifeanxiety.
And you know, a lot of thesepatients came back saying that
(40:41):
that was the most meaningfulexperience of their life because
it helped them realize and getconnected to, to being
comfortable enough to know thatthis isn't the end, you know,
and so, and there's a lot ofthese experiences right, where
people who have depression gointo a ceremony, die, die, a
(41:05):
part of them dies, but it feelsvery much like you're dying and
that's why you have to havesomebody in the room to make
sure that, um, you know thatthey can ground you to say, no,
like, go through this experience, but you're here, here and you
know it's very, very safe.
Nobody's actually passed away.
On psilocybin, um, you have totake over 1500 grams, you can't
(41:28):
eat that much, and um, but thenyou come back to this body and
you have these realizations,right, you have, like, what was
I stressed out about?
Speaker 1 (41:38):
you know, a job.
Speaker 2 (41:40):
You know, uh, you know most of the thing.
You just have theserealizations that most of these
anxieties or some of thedepression is caused by, you
know, maybe, things that havehappened, but you have these
realizations or go through thesetraumas again so that it
doesn't govern the rest of yourlife, or you let go of these
(42:00):
anxieties because you realizethat they're they haven't
happened yet, you know, and itjust kind of puts you back into
the present moment, where it's,it's bliss.
You know it's that, you knowit's.
That's where you know gratitudeis and that's where I just like
that moment that we just shared.
That's like the special,special stuff you know.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
Yeah, absolutely.
I actually have a littlequestion coming in from a friend
of mine, alex, here he's asking.
He says history of Shaman useSalasibos as a tool for healing
emotional and mental alignment.
Have you experienced any shamanrituals or know anyone that has
?
Speaker 2 (42:41):
Yeah, so a lot of the music that we use has shamanic
ties, shamanic ties and rituals.
I haven't experienced liketaking mushrooms on native
American land or anything likethat.
Um, I have done ayahuasca in,in the high jungle of Peru,
(43:02):
tarapoto, peru, and that was,you know, with the caros, and
that was very traditional Uh,but we have, I have experienced,
you know, psilocybin toobviously heal and and fix my
brain and it was the next daywhere we used, where we did,
(43:23):
like these, um, indian sweatlodges, uh, and so from that
sense you know, there was of, Iguess, story arc that tied into
the Native Americans becausethey would do something very
similar the day after Sweat, youknow all the toxins out.
But you know a lot of the musicis rooted in kind of tribal
(43:45):
beats or you know kind of thesame hertz that they would use.
Speaker 1 (43:55):
Hopefully that answers your question.
Yeah, and I mean, I've had verylimited experience with
mushrooms myself, but tounderstand in terms of when it
comes to um, using it on along-term basis, I know you
mentioned microdosing, but soyou also go through these, I
(44:19):
guess, events where it's youcould do like major dosing right
and you could do more, butcontrolled.
So how does that work in tandem?
Speaker 2 (44:30):
Yeah.
So some people like tomicrodose over longer periods of
time, where they're introducingthis medicine at low doses so
they're not hallucinating butthey're still getting the
neuronal benefits.
You know the neuronal benefitsand other one of those back um
(44:57):
big doses are good because theyhelp to reset the system and
they help individuals who may besuffering from, you know,
depression or anxiety or PTSDreliveive this trauma so it
doesn't govern the rest of theirlife or see the things that are
holding them back or kill offparts of them that no longer
(45:20):
serve them.
You know these types of egodeaths and so in large doses
you're in an altered state ofconsciousness and you are very
much facing the, the issues thatare holding you back, whether
you want to call that depressionor anxiety or stress, the death
of a loved one, making sense ofthis life.
(45:42):
You know, for any realparticular reason you can, you
can bring pretty much anythingto the ceremony and you'll
likely get the answer.
That's the inherentintelligence of this technology
that some people call it.
With the microdosing I justknew, and people know, like
(46:02):
nothing gets fixed in five hours.
So you know, from a neuronalstandpoint, I've been hitting
kids since I was four, so for 26years.
So I just knew that I needed alittle extra and I wanted to,
you know, little extra.
And I wanted to, you know,continually and habitually take
this medicine.
Now, that being said, I take 60days off every year.
(46:25):
I also take weekends offbecause you don't want to build
up a tolerance to anything andcurrently, right now, I'm not
microdosing.
I haven't been microdosing forthe last like four months and
I'm feeling, you know, feelingreally good with just the bigger
doses.
I did a large dose two weeksago where, um, we're doing a
follow-up to with a documentary,to the HBO special I did with
Brian Gumbel, and so, and thenthere's different ways to
(46:46):
experience the larger doses too.
Right Not to confuse anybody,but you can do it with your eyes
open.
You can do it with your eyesclosed, which is much more
inward.
You can do it with music.
You can do it without music.
You can do it with your eyesclosed, which is much more
inward.
You can do it with music.
You can do it without music.
You can do it in pure darkness.
You can do it in groups.
You can do it one-on-one.
There's many, many ways, but ifpeople are interested in this,
(47:10):
then there's lots of informationout there.
The number one thing that peoplehave to understand is this
isn't a miracle drug, it's not apanacea, and once you do the
medicine and you have therealizations, then it's your
responsibility, with the groupor community of people that
you've done this with, or theperson that's taking you through
it, to guide you and toimplement those realizations
(47:31):
into that you had in an alteredstate of consciousness, into
your life.
It's time to take action,because if you don't take the
action, then why did you takethe medicine right?
So the miracle comes when youstart to make the decision to
get up, when you don't reach forthe bottle even though you
(47:52):
might crave it, when you feellike yelling or snapping on
somebody that you know maybecuts you off in traffic but you
don't.
When you break destructivethought patterns and turn your
negative self-talk into maybesome positive self-talk, when
you create new habits, when youstart to exercise, when you
(48:14):
start to eat better, when youstart to really create this
relationship with yourself andchange.
These are like catalysts thatcan help you do that, because
after a big dose, your brain andyour heart are open for new
possibilities for the firstthree weeks and you can really
(48:35):
change your habits and and yourthought patterns and your
behaviors.
That's the miracle of thismedicine.
In a big dose, the smaller dosesafter that three-week period
can help maybe remind you, andthen they can also obviously
help flush out you know,neuroinflammation.
That's been proven.
And if you have Alzheimer's mygrandmother also died of
(49:00):
Alzheimer's, so I have that.
That runs in my family as wellon top of the head hits, um, if
you have that, you know, it's agood idea to to take some of
these, some of these mushrooms,and, if people are interested,
go to Johns Hopkins Um, they'vedone a lot of studies and then
also go to Johns Hopkins They'vedone a lot of studies.
And then also go tomushroomreferencescom where
(49:20):
there's all clinical trials thatare associated with things like
lion's mane, reishi, cordyceps,chaga, garrican.
Speaker 1 (49:26):
These are different mushrooms that are legal and go
to Whole Foods and, you know,start to implement them, you
know, um, and you'll see abenefit yeah, I love it, and so
these, um, I guess, events thatyou go to, you guys hold them,
uh, that people could sign upfor, or how does that work?
Speaker 2 (49:48):
yeah.
So if people are interested inlearning more, they can go to my
website, danielcarcillocom, orjust hit me on Instagram or even
toss me an email.
I put them up on socials prettyoften on my posts and get on
the webinar.
We do a free webinar every weekat 7 pm on Thursdays.
(50:12):
Time pending, we may switchthat up.
I'm going to kind of re-ask,because now there's 900 people.
We just started doing this,probably like a little less.
I think we're up to six or sixweeks ago, six or seven weeks
ago.
So the response has been greatand people are very interested
and I just freely talk and givepeople information.
(50:33):
Bring on some people that havedone some of these retreats,
they give their testimonials andthen I answer questions and
then if people want moreinformation, then I send them
the decks and until our clinicsopen in the next 30 or 45 days,
then we partner with a clinicand I bring small groups, four
people with me to Oregon andeverything is, you know, paid
(50:57):
for accommodations, food, airbnband, you know, create this kind
of community.
You're entering into acommunity and you're entering
into a space to be able to growand, you know, people have had
some really transformativeexperiences.
Um, thank you oh my gosh, I loveyou, um, people have had some
(51:37):
really, really life-savingexperiences already and it's
only going to continue.
It'll get easier on mepersonally when you know the
facility's open just becausescheduling, et cetera, but you
know, I'm willing to take timeaway from my family and I'm
willing to to take the flightsover there in order to, to
(52:01):
influence lives and to showpeople, you know, what this can,
what this can do for for them.
Um, so it's been going reallywell and there's so many signs
or God winks, I call them that Ishould continue doing this,
because people keep coming intomy life asking about it and then
committing to it, which isreally important.
(52:22):
And, yeah, you know, it's mylife's work.
So we just, you know, we got tokeep charging ahead.
Speaker 1 (52:32):
I love that man.
That's such an amazing storyand I really appreciate all the
information that you're givinghere, because I think, uh, you
know, even the guys that I playwith now just adults
recreationally, you know, man,grown man struggling with some
of these things.
So I love to bring some moreawareness about this topic to
(52:54):
the folks and you know it'splaying hockey.
You know I'm always worriedabout you.
Know what happens next.
You know it's great to knowthat there is something out
there that can help, whateverthe journey takes them Right.
Speaker 2 (53:07):
Yeah for sure.
Yeah, it's um it is.
It's a really amazing tool tobe able to make you a better
person.
You know, like that's prettymuch it, like it doesn't get
much more complicated, you know,than that.
(53:28):
It can really improve your life.
Speaker 1 (53:31):
So absolutely, and I know we're coming up on the hour
here, but I did want to bringyou back a little bit to your
hockey days and ask you what itfelt like winning those Stanley
cups.
Speaker 2 (53:44):
Yeah, I mean it's, you know, the culmination of a
of a very long career that yougive up your youngest years for.
You know, I mean you move awayfrom everything that you know
family, friends at young ages togo and pursue this thing.
You're a boy, dressed up like aman and you're on top of the
(54:08):
world.
You know, you're the besthockey team in the world.
Nobody can touch you after thattest and it's a test game in
the world.
Nobody can touch you after thattest.
And it's a test, uh.
Sailing cup playoffs and regularseason and playing 82 games
over 186 games, traveling, andit's a grind and it's uh, it's,
(54:31):
it's worth it.
It was.
It was amazing to be able tocommit my life to that and to be
able to come out on top.
It was pretty magical.
Hold on, I'm almost done, baby,please, please, please.
Austin's calling Anna.
(54:53):
Okay, that's fine, I'll be outin five minutes.
That's okay, I'll be out infive minutes, okay.
You guys gotta get ready forbed.
Um, my nine-year-old's got uh,he's got an apple watch and he
uh, he's got a girlfriend.
Speaker 1 (55:12):
So that's some serious business.
Speaker 2 (55:16):
Nine, I don't know.
I think we were passing notesat nine, right, I don't think I
was calling anybody.
But yeah, it was cool.
The first Stanley Cup that Iwon, I was single and didn't
have a kid and all that stuff.
And then the second one our sonwas born so he sat in it, stuff
(55:37):
.
And then second one, our sonwas born so he sat in it.
So those it was cool to to, youknow, win twice and different
points of my life and share thatwith with my wife and with my
son and then my parents likeseeing my parents, my brothers,
my hometown, everybody comingout, that was uh, it was pretty,
pretty special that's amazingand and and you know to your
point.
Speaker 1 (55:55):
I think that from my, from personal experience, I
know that you know I'veexperienced things before kids
and then with kids it's almostamplified right, like if you go
talk medieval times, for example, and you watch it and you're
like, oh, it's cool.
Speaker 2 (56:19):
And then you go with kids and you see the way they
watch it and it's like you justunfolded that experience.
Yeah, oh yeah, it's.
It's much, much different.
You know, I, I with kids, Ijust um, I think you know the
innocence of it all and, likeyou know, the the wonder is just
, it's great, you know, and Imean he was so young he doesn't
remember sitting in the cup oranything like that.
But, um, you know, I wouldalways look at guys that had,
(56:40):
like older, older kids.
Oh yeah, fuck me, I don't knowhow you guys do it.
I never really wanted a wife orgirlfriend or kids while I was
playing, cause it was it's hardenough to keep this thing in
line, you know, rather than tryto um, um, take care of a family
(57:00):
, but uh, no coincidences inthis life you know it all.
Speaker 1 (57:03):
It all comes when you're ready, right?
Um, so I know we're on top ofthe hour.
I always like to close out theshow with a couple rapid fire
questions.
Cool, you ready for it?
Uh, just a couple questions.
First one is what motivatesathletes?
Glory, love that.
(57:23):
Second one if there's threetraits, character traits that
you notice in successfulathletes, what are they?
Speaker 2 (57:31):
Yeah, yeah.
So attention to detail, workethic and then a sort of blind
faith that you're going to getit done Awesome.
Speaker 1 (57:44):
And then if you could name three things that can hold
an athlete back.
Overthinking, not beingprepared mentally, physically,
spiritually, and overconfidencedid you have a pre-game routine
(58:05):
that you always did to getyourself?
Speaker 2 (58:06):
no, well, yeah, I mean like, yeah, like in the nhl
, for sure, rolling out, etc.
Like there was always the same.
Every guy's routine is alwaysthe same stretches.
Uh, I had the agility ladderwith just music and I would do
it on my own.
Uh a bunch of guys would do like, you know, kick the ball around
that sort of stuff.
I was more.
I was always very internal.
(58:28):
We're just kind of visualizingas I'm doing the warmups and
stretching like first shift,second shift, fourth shift,
fifth shift, if this happens,that happens, and just like
getting in, getting in, beingready.
You know, guys are alwayslooking at me like Jesus, like
it looks like you just played aperiod, but I had to be like
ready to, you know, tearsomebody's head off and get the
(58:49):
crowd into it and get the boysinto it.
So, so yeah, my, my warm-uproutine was pretty involved, but
it was also just a nice time tovisualize and, you know,
attract, you know what you wantto happen to come to you, you
know.
Speaker 1 (59:07):
Awesome.
Well, I know you got to go getyour kids ready for bed.
Speaker 2 (59:12):
I'm yelling right now , yeah.
Speaker 1 (59:15):
Thank you so much for coming on the show.
Again, guys, if you want tofollow Dan at danielcarcillo13
on Instagram and then hiswebsite is danielcarcillocom for
those that want to learn moreabout everything we talked about
today and potential cures toCTE, and if you want to get more
(59:37):
information from Dan, please doreach out and you could always
message the show and I'll behappy to pass on your questions
or comments.
Again, thank you so much fortaking the time.
This was absolutely wonderful.
Speaker 2 (59:51):
Yeah, buddy, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (59:54):
Awesome.
Thank you everybody and have awonderful night.
Let's go Rangers let's start.
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