Exploring Psychedelics and Spirituality with Nate Baumgardner

Episode Transcript
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(00:21):
Welcome to another empowering episode of Strivethree sixty five. Your go to source
for conquering life's challenges and thriving nomatter the odds. Whether you're seeking mental,
physical, emotional, or spiritual growth, We're here to help guide you
toward a better life. I'm yourhost, Justin Arnold, coming to you
from the amazing Rock Vox Studio,and today I have the pleasure of introducing

(00:42):
Nate Momgarter and a good friend ofmine. I'm just a remarkable individual whose
life's work is a vibrant tapestry ofspiritual spirituality, leadership, and personal transformation.
Nate brings with them a wealth ofexperience from a career that has transverse
to various landscapes, including a significantshift from public service. The exploration of
innerspaces through his role as an intuitivecoach and psychedelic guide, his holistic approach

(01:06):
to well being, and his dedicationto guiding others on their past to healing
are just a few facets of hismultifaceted career. We're Poison Delvin discussions that
bridge the gap between the physical andthe metaphysical and exploring how we can all
live more mindfully and purposefully. Sojoin us as we unpack the journey of
a life lived in pursuit of truth, understanding, and the piece that comes
from finding your flow. So let'sgive a warm welcome to Nate. Nate,

(01:29):
thanks for coming on here today andjoining us again. We tried recording
this a little bit ago but hadsome challenges, so we're back here to
do it all again. I knowit's going to be ten times better with
Nate. So, Nate, anythingI left off there or anything I'd like
to share before we get rolling withthe Q and A. Yeah, in
addition to breath work or in additionto psychedelics, breath work is a huge

(01:53):
component of the work that I do. And I'm very grateful to be here
in this space sharing this with youas a part of my own mission and
my own dharma. To have thisopportunity to connect with you and to share
with your audience about the power thatwe all hold when we give ourselves the

(02:13):
space to tap into our inner awareness. So great to be here justin yeah,
yeah, I just thought that wasinteresting and just a little just to
let people know, you know,with everything we talked about, why is
he here? And why is heon here? And and and for me,
it's it's just because of all therecent research that's come out what you
might dive into and bring up throughoutthe podcast on psychedelics and particularly like things

(02:36):
like psilocybin and other things, andit's getting away from necessarily a stigma stigma
of it too and just learning now. I do want to emphasize that all
these studies and things on it arepromising. You know, just approach like
anything with caution and be curious andalways have somebody like a person like Nate
who knows what he's doing or otherprofessional supervision. So I just want to
put that out there as well.But Nate man, this is just awesome,

(02:58):
and you know, I've had thepleasure of getting to know him from
a retreat I went on last yearand even what I love about Nate too
and why I wanted him specifically,there's a lot of people in this space.
What I've loved about Nate is thathe his ability to use this as
a tool, but not the endI'll do all meaning he has been able
to do even some deep work withme purely clean, I think is a

(03:20):
good way to put it, andeven via zoom, which is really cool.
I don't know, you might havea better term, but basically just
myself, no drugs, no nothing, just actually in my gym on my
couch through a zoom call and Iwas just blown away. I think what
we spent like thirty forty five minutestogether, maybe an hour? Yeah.
So anyway, so psychedelic spirituality,like share how these two intersect and influence

(03:46):
your life, your work and such. Yeah. So I first began quote
unquote i'll use this word intentionally usingpsychedelics when I was in high school,
was in a very i'll say lessthan sacred way to be gentle with myself,
and in that I saw a glimpseof the power that psychedelics hold and

(04:13):
how they can tap us into greaterpresence, greater awareness, and also the
dissolving of the structures that exist withinour psyche, namely our ego. And
that can be a very scary anda very fracturing place to be in,
which is why the deep inner workfirst building a foundation of creating safety in

(04:41):
our nervous system, in the foundationof our being, is so crucial before
we go into working with psychedelics anddoing the healing that psychedelics can facilitate and
So some of the work that I'vedone with you has been, you know,
around like how do we build thiscapacity to connect with these different elements

(05:03):
that exist within our consciousness That canthen be the doorway to do the deeper
healing of ego dissolution that can happenwhen we engage with large doses of psilocybin,
of LSD, ayahuasca, eyebo,game, whatever the medicine may be.
It is crucial that we first buildthat foundation of learning and expansion in

(05:29):
our nervous system in our body,so that we can then meet that very
challenging, intense energy that psychedelics canfacilitate within us when we engage with them
in a sacred way. So whatgot you here? What got you to
this point? Like exploring this anddoing what you do? Now, what

(05:51):
were you doing prior to this?We talk a little bit about your journey.
Yes, So I'll start with theexperience I had when I was about
six years old. And so mygrandmother was an any energy worker, So
she did energy work, she didone brain all of these these different modalities

(06:13):
that allow us to work with theenergy flow in our body and how that
translates into manifesting a life that wewant in reality. And so I remember
I was about six years old andshe offered to give me a session,
and I was completely ignorant to whatthat looked like. And she guided me

(06:33):
through this process of being with thechocolates, just being with each of my
energy centers in my body, andthat in and of itself unlocked something and
unlocked a deep curiosity into how thesethings work. This subtle energy. You

(06:54):
know, we have our gross body, we have the subtle energy body,
and then the causal energy, whichis the energy within the universe. You
know, we call it God thatexists in the infinite sense, and so
this subtle energy is where our grossbody meets the causal body. And in

(07:16):
that, you know, I spentthe past thirty twenty nine years in different
relationships with that exploration of that initialspark of curiosity that has taken me many
different places all around the world inthis process of remembering and forgetting my true

(07:36):
calling. And a core point ofthis was in twenty twenty when I was
working for the Department of Homeland Security. I was an analyst, so I
was doing a lot of the afteraction reports and the things that involved with
the pandemic response and was working fromhome, was in lockdown in Denver,

(08:01):
Colorado. And you know, onthe surface, I had this amazing life.
You know, I had good friends, I had this view of the
rocky mountains, and deep down insideI felt absolutely empty. I felt this
deep sense of disconnection from myself.And it was around that time that a

(08:26):
friend of mine gave me some LSDand I had, you know, created
some intentional ceremonial space in the pastwith mushrooms while I was living in Amsterdam.
However, you know, I sawthis as an opportunity to create a
shift. I didn't know what thatshift looked like, and I set the

(08:48):
intention of seeing the blind spots ofwhere I was currently and how to move
through this deep sense of isolation anddread that I was feeling really down,
although I didn't want to admit it, and so I set this intention.
I gave myself about two weeks topurify my body, to fast from.
You know, I had been habituallyconsuming cannabis and nicotine and these different things

(09:13):
that when used out of integrity,can lower our vibration, they can lower
the how we resonate, and soI fasted from those things. I gave
myself the space to really get clearon what it was that I wanted and
to see these these blind spots inmy life that were causing what I was

(09:33):
feeling. And so I get closerto the day of the ceremony that I
created for myself, and I noticedmyself giving myself an excuse, any excuse
to get out of this, youknow, like I'm I'm not feeling good,
my energy levels are feeling low.Maybe I should just push it off.

(09:54):
And you know, I reached thispoint where it was the morning of
the ceremony and I'm sitting there withthe medicine in my hand, and I
realized I had a choice. Icould continue living the way I had been,
in this disconnection from what it wasthat I was feeling, or I

(10:15):
could take that leap, and thatleap was really a leap into the unknown.
And so I, you know,put the LSD under my tongue,
I put my face mask on,I lay down on my bed with East
Force music from Mushroom's album, whichif you haven't heard of it, it's
a five hour album that is specificallydesigned for psychedelic experiences. And I'm not
sure if I can swear, I'll, I'll refrained from swearing, and I

(10:39):
went deep. I saw, youknow, all of the different ways that
through my at that point, likethirty some years, all of the pain
that I had caused people in mylife. And I reached this end point

(11:00):
of seeing all of these visions andfeeling this deep, visceral pain, and
I it come to a stopping pointand I hear this voice that's like,
you can choose to keep punishing yourselffor these things, or you can let
go. And with that I getcatapulted into these different lifetimes, these different

(11:22):
incarnations in which I'm living. Andthen I have a death. And some
of these deaths are really painful,where there's a lot of suffering, and
some of them happened very easily,you know, with a lot of like
surrendering grace. And at the endof those it was about a four hour
period, you know, I pullmyself out of it. I take my

(11:46):
face mask off, and I goto the bathroom and look at myself in
the mirror, and I see myselfas this eighty year old man, having
lived the trajectory that I was on, this trajectory that was fundamentally out of
alignment. With my true calling,with what my soul was calling me towards.

(12:09):
And and in that I I youknow, went out of my apartment.
I went down to this park rightnearby where I was living, and
I sit by the stream and Ijust reflect. I'm like, well,
if if the trajectory I'm on iswrong, then what what? What do
I have the opportunity to choose?Where is the opportunity in this? And

(12:33):
you know, through divine inspiration thatI know now it the you know,
I heard these voices telling me,like, you know what to do.
Become a coach, become a healer, become a guide, support people in
learning what it looks like to usethese medicines in a sacred way and to

(12:54):
learn who they are in truth.And so that, you know, sparked
me onto this the past four yearsof exploration into these deep somatic trauma healing
practices, in doing my own workwith psychedelics, in microdosing, doing macrodoses
of psychedelics, and learning what itlooks like from start to finish, to

(13:20):
support people in learning to work withthe medicines, to work with themselves,
to be in integrity, and touse them as tools to create the lives
that they want you settle out there, but no, I think it was
fantastic and I love his experience andhis journey, and everyone is unique and

(13:41):
he touched some things, and Ithink it's only appropriate to share all that
says experience, and I think everybody. We can go off data, we
can go off research, and it'sgood to know that there is some there's
also you know, again under professionalsupervision, these things can really be great.
For example, a couple of studiesI'll point out John Hopp published something
in twenty twenty about how the Majorhow they were able to use psilocybin,

(14:07):
for example, to treat major depression. N YU had one that came out
years earlier in twenty sixteen significantly usingpsychedelics significantly reduce anxiety, depression and cancer
patients. I just think that's incredible. And then also in Perior College in
London in twenty eighteen, you talkeda little bit about this as well,
and how things like psilocybin and otherpsychedelics may promote neuroplasticity. So that's basically

(14:31):
just crucial to learning memory, especiallyin today's society. And then I'll point
out one more twenty fifteen, therewas a study published in neuropsycho far Pharmacology.
Wow, that was just on.And you talked on this too,
not necessarily addiction, but in away, but treating addiction things like even

(14:56):
just smoking, how it's had thatand this one isn't an addictive and that's
what I want people to like.That's why I wanted to bring this up.
You get away from a stigma.And also I didn't put this one
in here, but I remember readingabout it, and I think this is
important too. Veterans and people withPTSD and severe trauma like myself, there's
been some major like child sexual abuseto really overcome through that and even like

(15:20):
to get completely rid of PTSD.There's doing some studies right now in the
early stages on military veterans with PTSD. I think not too. I think
in like somewhere, I think Northor South Carolina. Anyways, I just
think it's incredible and I wanted tobring some of that up because, like
I said, we're here today totalk about this to educate. We're not
saying go do this, but thiscould potentially be a tool more useful than

(15:43):
a lot of things out there.And it's been shunn away for so long.
Maybe we should get into that.I mean, I don't know if
you know this, well, whydo you think it's been like illegal for
so long and looked at it asa drug? And then people they push
back on, like the hippie movement, and and and and there's like as

(16:03):
if this is a problem. Butthis from what I'm reading that there's more
benefit to this than most things onthe market, as long as it's done
you know, properly, you know. So, do you have anything to
say about that? Yeah, itharkens back to the Nixon era, like
when the War on drugs started,and so there was the Hippie movement,

(16:29):
the Black panther movement, and thesedifferent social movements that were springing up predominantly
in resistance to the Vietnam War.And while you know, the the Nixon
regime, like they couldn't make itillegal to be a hippie or to be
a black panther, what they coulddo was to criminalize the substances that these

(16:53):
groups were using. And there aresome theories that in fact, the CIA
brought LSD into the hippie movement todestabilize it and inadvertently, you know,
created a social shift, not necessarilybecause they were Also there was the mk

(17:15):
Ultra experiments where they were using LSDtwo to see how it worked in terms
of mind control and as like atruth serum. And you know that making
those things illegal while at the sametime supplanting them into their their culture allowed

(17:36):
them to crack down and to yeah, to put these people in prison when
they were like using these substances.And so that LSD and several other d
mt diamethyl trip to mean, whichis the active compound in ayahuasca, and

(17:56):
and n d MT, which isfrom the Mamosa high stills I believe that
are known as the the god moleculed MT in order to it creates deep
transcendent, transcendental experiences. These beingschedule one drugs make them a felony.
And with with Schedule one supp thisis these are substances that have no proven

(18:23):
therapeutic value quote unquote, and withthat, you know, we we have
thousands, hundreds of thousands of peoplewho have been put in prison and have
had their lives taken away from themfor containing, for holding, for keeping
these substances, and for producing them, for manufacturing them. And so we're
even like right now, we're stillseeing the ramifications of that as we move

(18:48):
into really re envisioning what therapeutic uselooks like in the context of working with
PTSD, of working with people likeyou mentioned who have end of life anxiety
cancer patients. But I think it'sreally beautiful like that that we're starting to
see this shift, and I alsoacknowledge that it gets to happen with a

(19:10):
lot more intentionality that occurred in thenineteen sixties as well. Yeah, I
think that's just interesting how you knowthe history of it and where we're at
now, and and you know theresearch that's going into it, and I
just I just think again, likethat's why we're here today and to talk
about this. So, man,you've talked about the shift, you talk

(19:33):
about how it's it changed your perspective. It got me thinking too, Like
you and I had very different childSo like I grew up, you know,
in the city a silver Chicago,and then I worked on the farm.
And to have somebody like that,for you to experience that kind of
education and energy and flow and justto be opened up to that that open
mindedness of it all is pretty incredible. Now, talk about maybe a story

(19:56):
of a client or something that you'veworked through and like some of the experiences
and of it all, and youknow how essentially not just you know how
you work with them, but youknow some of the the positive feedback that's
come from these experiences with your clients. Yeah, So the foundation of doing

(20:18):
the deep inner work that is aprerequisite to doing psychedelic works is like learning
where you are currently having awareness ofwhat you're experiencing in terms follow that back
to where you learned that thing.And so this is at its core ancestral

(20:42):
work in that it's learning where welearned these limiting patterns and learning practices and
tools on how to work with them, on how to work through them.
And there is the big T traumaword that refers to the physical abuse,

(21:04):
the mental abuse, the sexual abusethat different people experience that can create symptoms
of post traumatic stress disorder. However, there are also the things that people
don't really consider trauma, they don'tlabel as trauma, but are even still
have the capacity to create limiting beliefsin limited sensations and sensations of contraction that

(21:30):
can lead to us lacking self esteemor not having received the love that we
needed, or the protection that weneeded in a crucial point, and all
it takes is that one moment ofreaching out for support or help and not
receiving it at a very young agethat can create a pattern that we then

(21:52):
reinforce through what it is that wecontinue to choose unconsciously that leads to it
can be an addiction to cortisol andto these different hormones that are unconscious but
are creating a pattern that is,you know, it inhibits our ability to

(22:19):
show up with an open heart,or inhibits our ability to feel really confident
in what we're doing, or tofeel worthy of the money that we desire
to make, or whatever it is. Externally like, all we really experience
is the external manifestation of these thingsthat is creating a mental or a physical
unwhelness. However, when we tracethem back to the core wound, what

(22:42):
we're really looking at is something ancestralthat was catalyzed by our parents and was
likely you know, passed down fromtheir parents who passed it down from their
parents. And so when we giveourselves the space to tap into the depth

(23:03):
of this learning, there there canbe a lot of healing that occurs.
And I had a client yesterday thatwe we went through one of the somatic
processes similar to the one that Iguided you through, and we were able
to connect with one of her relativeswho had it was there was an aspect

(23:25):
of abuse within that and we wereable to, with the support of another
relative who she felt connected with,move through that experience and rewrite it in
her nervous system so that rather thanfeeling the fear and there was even like
the sensation of this is pure evil, we were able to create safety and

(23:51):
protection within her and her body sothat she can then face that thing.
Because we spend our lifetimes avoiding thesethings that feel uncomfortable and create this sense
of anxiety or stress or tension inour nervous system, and it's really when
we give ourselves the space to lookat them and to feel them and move

(24:12):
through the energy of them and releasethat energy, get that energy out,
that creates the space for us tolearn what's possible, what we want to
replace that energy with, which canbe empowering and which can support us,
and really getting clear on what itis that we want in our lives,
and then moving backwards from that,the action that we can take the simplest

(24:34):
possible action that we can take nextthat enables us to feel that momentum,
to feel that shift in a veryreal and tangible way. Yeah, and
man, I you know, I'mcurious of or maybe you know, like
why these things happen to our psyche, why they happen to our nervous system,
Like, I mean, I imaginethat all this has to be pretty

(24:57):
primal, right like, but today'sexperiences are way different than like ten thousand
years ago. You know, tenthousand years ago it was about you know,
survival, progration, running away fromthe saber through tiger, finding the
cave, you know, the food. But there's a reason these things happen.

(25:17):
But today's experiences so different. Imean to correlate it with you know,
there's a reason why we crave sweetand salty and have these cravings,
right like, you know, there'sthings in nature that are very sweet that
we don't see maybe always are inseason. When we were hunters and gatherers
that if we saw that, wecraved it and we ate up as much
as we could because it would sustainus along the journey and our health and

(25:38):
everything else. But now we havethis abundance of food in us, no
matter what your economical state, wecan get food pretty easily, pretty readibly,
and very high caloric, low density. That's a whole nother podcast,
but similar idea. You know theexperience of it all, Like I guess
what I'm trying to get at,Like, yeah, why do you think

(25:59):
this happened? And you know,how do you know if this is right
for you? This type of experience. So this is a huge, multi
layered, multi causal conversation. Yes, fundamentally, I believe has to do
with how civilization, which speaking verygenerally and very broadly, has brought us

(26:22):
out of contact with our true nature. And whether that be intentional or unintentional,
there are different layers that are designedto pull our energy away from us
and capture that energy so that itcan be used by the system. And
again this is a very general generallyspeaking, it has taken us out of

(26:48):
very literally out of contact with nature, with our natural environment. And I
imagine you being somebody who is veryself aware and who spends time outside.
You've you've been in connection with natureand you felt that deep, transcendent experience
of just being you know, aloneby a stream with your eyes good right,

(27:08):
and it just feels good. IMean, we could base science and
talk about the science of it allway, which I do in my second
book, but it's just it justfeels good. Yeah, I love it.
Joy right. It casts back intoourselves. And there are other like
you mentioned diet. You mentioned thesethings that the food supply, our soil
quality has been deteriorating with factory farmingand with these different practices that are out

(27:33):
of alignment with the land and withnature. And when we learn to how
to cultivate our own food, youknow, permaculture is an amazing practice that
even within a city. I've gota good friend here in Richmond, Virginia,
shout out chopper Dave Robinson, whoas an urban homestead and these these

(27:56):
are things that we can begin doingto realign with nature. Go ahead.
Yeah, So for those that don'tknow what a homestead, I mean,
I know what a homestead is,but what's an urban homestead? Like obviously
I know urban meaning that he's inan urban area. So does that mean
he has no electricity or he haselectricity, but does that mean he's getting

(28:18):
filtering his own water? Like talk? I'm just I'm sorry, this is
this is intu. Yeah, thereare layers certainly, so he is still
very much on the grid and inthe city water system. However, he's
got about thirty rabbits that he like. They grow, they feed, they

(28:40):
love, they and they they sellthem to people and also them harvest them
themselves. They kill them and theyprocess them themselves. They've got about a
quarter of an acre, maybe halfan acre, and then they they have
plants and they have different like anecosystem on this urban maker that has like

(29:02):
different aspects of garden. They've gota little pond, a little ond area,
and yeah, it's it's growing.But it's like it's looking at the
cycles that exist within nature and withinlike how plants grow and die, and
learning to have a closed loop systemso that when something dies it can then

(29:26):
be recycled back into some other processthat is supporting the overall sustenance of the
system as a whole. So it'slike it's systems thinking, Yeah, to
nature and growing your own food.Yeah, whenever I hear homestead, I
trigger in a positive way, LikeI remember learning about Jewel and her Alaskan
homestead and what she grew up inin that environment and everything else, and

(29:48):
so if you haven't learned about heris go check it out. It's pretty
interesting. But I heard you saythat, and I'm curious of what it
urban was, So thanks for sharingthat. But continue with what you were
saying before. And you know,like, you know, how do we
know this is a right for people? And we were talking a little bit
about the primality of it all intoday's society. So yeah, So one

(30:08):
of the things I mentioned was thatwe have this system that is designed to
capture our attention and use it asa resource to make money, essentially to
perpetuate that system. And we lookat social media, we look at these
different things that are designed like toliterally pull us into this liminal space,

(30:32):
this space of consciousness that disconnects usfrom ourselves. And social media is great
for many reasons, like I withoutsocial media currently, like my business would
not be where it's at. Sothere are pros and cons to everything.
And Rudolf Steiner, who is aGerman philosopher back in the eighteen hundreds early

(30:55):
nineteen hundreds, said with each stepforward in tech chnological development, we need
seven steps forward in spiritual development.And so what I advocate for, that's
so true, man, that's sucha great statement and it still holds true
to this day, if not morethan ever. Right, it literally just
saw like an Disney create this AIwalking board, so literally people can be

(31:17):
all in the same room, disconnected, connecting in virtuality. And I'm sure
there's gonna benefits. And I'm notone of these like anti all these things,
but my curiosity and a little bitof my concern is raised when I
see this that we're in such we'vegotten such artificial environments, and we're going
so many steps forward without the spirituality, and we're so becoming disconnected and controlled

(31:38):
and like not having our own Myfear with some of that or concerned.
I don't know if fear is moreconcern as the word is that sorry to
like pause you there. This isjust made me think of that with that
quote. I think it's a thingthat I'm going to post of a wall
as a reminder to myself because we'regoing down a rabbit hole here of like
how far do we go into this? Because these things we have our dream

(32:01):
world, our imagination, our creativity. But if now technology is going to
do all that for us, whatdo we have left? Because the human
mind is the most powerful thing it'swhat has kept us alive, it's what's
made us thrive, and it's what'show we've evolved because there's so many other
things in this on this planet,in nature that is bigger, stronger,

(32:22):
faster, and better than us physically, like elephants, jaguarars, you know,
I mean a moose could trample usto death. Here we are on
the top of the food chain onlybecause of our brain, but now we're
deteriorating that. Sorry to go downthat rabbit hole, but I think it's
all part of this because we talkedabout the benefits of psychedelics, and I'm
wondering for chasing some of this becauseof our mental health, our depression,

(32:44):
our anxiety to chase the endorphin effect. But also like we also know that
like psychedelics can have the benefit ofduroplasticity and things of that nature. So
just got me thinking and I feltI need to say this, but continue
man like for those that aren't thinkingthis already. Yeah, what I see
in this pursuit is a deep fearof death. You know, think about

(33:06):
the transhumanist movement of like eventually we'lljust be able to upload our consciousness in
the AI and live forever. Whereaswithin that there is this fear. There
is this fear of our mortality.There's a fear that we will You know,
we came into this world and wewill someday exit it. They should.
This is a part of nature,This is part of the life cycle.

(33:29):
And to bring it home to psychedelics, like when we learn to connect
with the true energy of psychedelics,we are learning we're practicing our own death.
We have this part of different interconnectedregions of our brain called the default
mode network, and small amounts ofpsychedelics can dampen this. Large amounts of

(33:53):
psychedelics can briefly take it entirely offline. And I talked about my experience of
dying and being reborn. This iswhat we refer to as the ego death,
and in the ego death, itcan be very can create a lot
of anxiety for people who have afear of dying. However, when we

(34:15):
build it into a part of ourpractice, be it through meditation or breath
work or prayer, even of learningto die, learning to face our mortality,
it shows us how we can showup and live in integrity with what
our soul, with what source,with what God is calling us towards in

(34:37):
our life. And there's so muchpower in that because it acknowledges that we
in this physical form exist within thelimitations of our body and within the limitations
of the scope of this this incarnation, this life, and we in that
limited period of time can either chooseto feel fear in that this is a

(35:00):
limitation, or we can feel themotivation of how can I maximize the time
that I have here to share withthe world my authenticity who I am.
And it's really when we learn toclear what it is that is standing in
between us and this ideal that wecan then learn to amplify and to create

(35:23):
and to be in integrity and tobuild community around all of these things.
With the acknowledgment that, yes,we're going to die, it's painful to
acknowledge, and when we feel theresistance to that and work to avoid it,
like you know, the possibility ofuploading our consciousness to the cloud,

(35:44):
like that is not living, thatis that is going, Whatever that is,
I don't even I don't know,and I don't care to know what
that is like. However, thefear that that is based in is to
me that that is a foundational fearthat we can learn to heal through working

(36:07):
with psychedelics. It's just interesting talkingabout death and it got me thinking of
my life and death experiences. Imean, going through what I went through.
There was a time where I wantedto die, you know, and
then I went through a period likesuicide, and I've talked about that before,
and I was horrible at it.And then I wanted to live and
I didn't want to die. Iwas afraid of death. And then as

(36:30):
I became more spiritual, I stillwant to live. But I I am
okay with it because knowing the cycleof life and and and I'm I'm really
grateful and happy of what I've donewith my life and and where I've been,
and knowing that I believe in Godand and for me, I believe

(36:51):
in heaven. You know. That'sthat's where I want to go. And
I believe in that. And Iknow that this is just a shell.
And I've already talked to my kids, you know, when I oh,
I want all this to continue thegrowth of the world. I want a
tree to grow out of what's leftof me and donate what I can to
science for the good of it.Because as we've talked a little bit about
the benefits of science, I wantedto go to some good research not you

(37:14):
know, so I've talked about likeI want this to be utilized well past
because it's just a thing. Idon't want to be in a box,
you know, taking up land inspace. And my oldest daughter, who's
actually in the other room today withme, and I've told you she's the
one that wants the tree in herfront yard, so in a little bench,
they've already talked. So we havelike not that my kids want to
go and they're excited and they can'twait for the tree or anything, but

(37:36):
just that we have healthy conversations aboutit in our house. So to get
rid of that stigma of like youknow, I say, when it happens,
I'm sure you guys will be emotionaland sad, but I almost want
a celebration, think of all thegood moments and the good good times.
And so you know, that's whywe're talking about. This is just a
level of what some people my termis doing the work, the healing process,

(37:57):
the healing work, and I don'tknow if you mentioned that D on
this and it's all part of beingyou know, for me, and maybe
you'll say it another way because it'severybody's perspective. But I do a lot
of things on a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly basis for the betterment
of myself. Yes, for myselfand my own healing process that I know
is going to be a lifelong journey, but so I can show up and
be the best version for everyone,including you. Nate here on this podcast

(38:19):
got in the other room because Idon't want to waste his time because he's
an amazing producer, my daughter who'sin the other room, and all these
different things, and I'm gonna havemy off days just like anybody else.
But that's also why we have thereflection, and that's why we sometimes need
tools like this, people like you, because we can't do this alone.
And I just wanted to say thatbecause there's good people with good intention like
that, and you've talked about it. A lot of us are out of

(38:42):
alignment because we're in these artificial worlds, eating artificial foods, and we're so
disconnected and we don't know why.So we take artificial pills to fix all
the artificial that's going on. Andso I just want to be able to
stop and pause and think and breathe. And we haven't really got any like
your breath work. But we've talkedabout nature. But maybe we get into
that a little bit now too,as far as we talked about the connection
with nature and the flow of life, and you talk about Arego and social

(39:04):
media, and if you haven't,we'll put his social media like he does
a great job on Instagram and thelikes, and but how does your relationship
with nature and the war and thenatural world and your approach to healing and
consciousness And we'll also get into getinto some other things, but how does
that influence your approach to everything?Yeah, I like to think of it
as like, what are the thingsthat I can do that allow me to

(39:27):
be a clear channel, to bea clear channel from source from God through
me that allow me to express mostpurely. And there are these different practices
that I know have been proven toallow this energy to flow through me more

(39:49):
purely. I love the word inspirationbecause you know, think about respiration.
Inspiration is to literally like be breathed, to be breathe by source consciounces to
allow that energy to come in andcome out, to come in and come
out in this flow, and whenwe do that in our own unique expression,

(40:12):
like your expression is going to lookdifferent than mine. As a gym
owner versus a psychedelic coach versus apodcast producer, we each have our own
gifts to share, and when wedo these things that allow that channel to
open up so that we can justlisten. We can listen to our bodies,
We can listen to the is whatwants to come through us and what

(40:36):
life is calling us towards. Thatis a practice. That's a practice that
we can do through moving our bodies, through taking time to connect a nature,
through doing deep breathwork, which isa core part of my practice,
particularly for people who may not wantto connect with psychedelics on a regular basis,

(40:58):
We can achieve these same state throughdifferent modalities within conscious breathing that allow
us to get out of the egomind and into what exists beyond that,
which in my personal belief, isthe soul. We get to connect with
our potential, with this unborn,undying aspect of ourselves that is timeless and

(41:22):
that has a deep wisdom to itthat we can listen to and that we
can as a practice connect with toreceive inspiration and to give us motivation so
that we know what to do next. Because our mind exists within a certain
limitation that is great for problem solving. However, to understand deeper truths about

(41:49):
the universe, those are best donethrough our somatic sense, through our heart,
through our spirit. And so whenwe have an integral practice that come
by the mind, the body,the spirit, and the shadow, we
can learn to build a life thatenables us to be this clear channel of

(42:10):
inspiration and to share our gifts inthis pure form. Yeah, I like
you said timeless, and we're talkingabout breath work, we're talking about shadow
work. We're talking about things thattake time, right And I say it,
and I say it in various ways, but those that are listening right

(42:31):
now and you're thinking, man,where do I have the time to pause
and meditate and breathe? And maybeyou're even using phrases like hippie dippy work,
you know what? That was mefor so long? And then I
started to and I realized, ifyou're saying that that you don't have the
time for this, then you probablyneed it the most because this has opened

(42:52):
up my mind, my world.And I'm not talking about psychedelics, right,
now I'm just talking about pausing intention, you know, mindfulness, breath,
work it because you look at yourbrain as your heart, your gut,
even these things need a break,They need a rest, and no
one in the right mind would workout, you know, eighteen hours a

(43:15):
day. But we push our mindsand our hearts and even our guts,
which are all interconnected right through thenervous system, to extreme limits that they
were never meant for. And thenwe wonder why we're depressed or anxious or
sad or off or sick or overweightor whatever the thing might be. And

(43:38):
there are enough research. Again Icould say this too, but just my
own personal experience, and I'm surea number of people both of us have
worked for or worked with in ourscope of practice, is when we've taught
people how to slow down and justbreathe and meditate and pause, how much

(43:59):
better for one and actually how muchmore productive in a shorter period of time
myself and those have been. SoI want you to at least what's taking
some time to do this? Andif you're saying you don't have the time,
then you need to make the timebecause you probably need it the most.
So I just wanted to add thatto everything, and you talked about
shadow work, and so that mightbe a new phrase. So briefly explain

(44:22):
what that is, and then we'llcontinue this. We got probably about like
ten fifteen more minutes or so.Cool. So the term shadow work really
comes from the psychotherapist Carl Jung,who believe that there were these this unconscious
aspect of ourself that was driving ourbehavior. And this unconscious aspect of ourself

(44:47):
comes from all of the things thatin our experience that are uncomfortable and that
we repress, that we hold in. And like I was talking about around
the trauma conversation, where we havebig TA trauma and little T trauma,
like we can begin to look atthese different facets of our self, particularly

(45:10):
the ones that are most uncomfortable,the ones that there's the most fear and
shame and guilt around, to beginbringing them to the light, to begin
airing them out. And that maylook like having difficult conversations, that may
look like allowing ourselves to create thesafety in our body to express these deep

(45:34):
emotions, these deep visceral anger orto cry or to tremor or whatever our
body needs to do to let goof this energy that we can then move
through and amplify what exists beyond that. So that's that's a brief primer on
shadow work. When it comes topeople who say they don't have the time

(45:59):
to do these practices, I justwant to take you through a simple practice
that I share with my clients calledthe one breath break, and I'm going
to I'll explain it. So it'sbreathing into account of five, holding to
account of ten, and then releasingout of the nose to account of ten.

(46:21):
And if you release out to nosein a hum at the same time,
that activates the vaguel nerve, whichis responsible for the rest and digest
nervous system. So we're going totake a breath in the nose for this.
You can do everybody listening can dothis with us. So taking a

(46:43):
moment breathing in the nose for fiveor three to one, holding for ten,
nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three two

(47:04):
one, and then releasing out ofthe nose of the hum all the way
to the bottom three two one andthen coming back just with a subtle nasal
breath in and out the nose andjust noticing the state shift that took less

(47:30):
than a minute, noticing how muchmore present you are. And that's dude.
Yeah, see how easy it isthat right there. If you didn't
do that, pause, do itand then come back and see if you
even hear this podcast better, likelisten to my voice. I'm slowing down

(47:51):
myself and and just it's it's incredible. And that's even what I've taught my
kids. And if you can't alwaysremember this or it takes a habit,
do what I do. Get alittle weird. I tape stuff like this.
Mine's not five ten ten. Imight borrow that one and give it
back when I'm done with it.Mine. Oh thanks, man, I

(48:15):
appreciate its. Mine's something different.And I say a little mantra while I
do it. You just find yourown. But you know, if not
you do that mine, I tapeit inside my truck. And I have
something very very very similar, justdifference, various vari difference on the account.
And I add a little like asI breathe in, I say something
in my mind. As I breatheout, I say something out in my

(48:37):
mind very positive and uplifting and spiritualconnecting with God for me. And so
yeah, that's that's thanks, man, thanks for doing that. Hopefully many
you did that and found the benefits. If not, I also encourage you
to close your eyes while doing it. If you're driving, please don't do
that though, So man, thanksfor that. So that's great. So
with your program micro Dosing Mastery mentorship, in what core principle do you teach

(49:00):
that people can expect if they dothis, Like, what's some of the
transformations that you hope to see inthe people that do join? And join
that? Did you hear it?So? Yeah, this is a six
month yep, I got you sorry. Microdosing Mastery is a six month mentorship
that I created for entrepreneurs who arefeeling stuck. They're feeling anxious, they're

(49:25):
feeling this sense of lack that theycan't necessarily explain because they're successful, they've
done the work, and they wantto learn to work with psychedelics to do
these things such as gain deeper insighton their long term vision and find clarity
and what it looks like to connectmore deeply with their partner and their children.

(49:51):
And so as we go through thissix month program, we focus the
first three months on doing the shadowwork, the deep inner work that allows
you to look at the aspects ofyourself that you've been avoiding for the past
four decades, the past five decadesof your life, that you know there

(50:12):
are these things that build up thatwhen we work with a coach, that
when we work with these consciousness medicines, we can see in a deeper,
clear way that allow us, inthe processes that I've explained throughout this podcast
to move through, and we spendthe next three months getting clear on what
it is that we want to create, on what it is that we really

(50:36):
truly want in our lives, andcreating principles around that, creating consistent actions
around that, and doing that ina supportive, accountable community, so that
people are feeling like they're engaging withpsychedelics safely, that they're supported and can
ask questions from people who are onthis same journey to self mastery and really

(51:00):
are in these deep and conscious practicesof what it looks like to live in
integrity, to live in authentic lifewith an open heart, sharing who you
are from that truest, deepest placeof authenticity, of integrity, of alignment.
And this this is the work thatI love. I love showing up

(51:22):
and that supporting people in understanding theirdepth, and in seeing themselves in new
ways. So in the six monthprogram, there are a lot of different
tools and practices, but ultimately,like the people who show up are deeply
committed and doing the work, andthat is what enables people to get such

(51:44):
deep results that they see through thisprogram of like getting off of medication,
of finding true clarity and where theirbusiness is headed, in leaving their business,
in quitting jobs that they have been, you know, giving their energy
away to and in learning to listento their deeper wisdom. So that's great,

(52:07):
man, So check it out.We'll obviously provide stuff below in the
podcast notes. But you talk aboutthe importance of spiritual like having a spiritual
practice and creating art, and Iwant to talk a little bit about that
because I look at art as whatmay not everybody looks as art, And
you know, how do these elementscontribute to your work as a coach and
a guide and how do they enhanceyour personal growth? So the practice of

(52:30):
art, like my deepest expression ofart is in music and breath, and
that practice has evolved for me overthe past two years. And what I'm
really leaning into now is leading livesessions with my guitar and breath work.

(52:51):
And I do that like first andforemost by guiding myself through these breathing practices
and taking myself into this deep spaceof recognition, in connecting with that place
beyond the mind as a consistent practiceof listening to my intuition. And so
that's a core element beyond that,like journaling to get my thoughts out on

(53:16):
paper and to create clarity that Ican then amplify into action. Tracking key
performance indicators, the things that Iwant to be doing every single day that
I can look at and say,oh, I didn't do that today,
I'm going to do better tomorrow,or oh I did that today. That's
a win. And even in justshowing up to that key performance indicator sheet,

(53:39):
that's a win because I am holdingmyself accountable. And eventually, even
if I spend the past past fivedays not doing that one thing, that
one checkbox on my list, Iam in looking at that reminding myself of
how I want to continue showing upand sharing myself from this place. Yeah.

(54:00):
Yeah, recently, you know,I talk about like my forms of
art are writing now, which Inever thought was a form of art.
I used to do poetry, butactually writing books. And then you know,
I still play music regularly, butI was I was reflecting on like
how I used to draw and paintand sculpt and I was really good at
actually like clay work and pottery,and I was like missing that. And

(54:23):
I put a little piece in mybook and I posted a quote from my
book and then I wrote on thatand I'm going to share it here real
quick because I was like, itjust made me think of that. So
the quote is for my book,my new book coming out, Joyful Warrior.
Art thrives on humanity. It isour imperfections that make each of us
and our creations uniquely fascinating. Whenwe create, we reflect our true selves.

(54:44):
If insecurity is part of our narrative, it only adds authenticity to our
work. Declining the journey of artdue to self doubt denies the unique voice
that only we possess. And justto say it in another way is basically
like we all are creators. Ibelieve, like I really trulieve we all
create something. We're all built froma creator above in my eyes, so
I believe if we're parts of him, then we and ourselves create just our

(55:06):
muse is going to be very different. And being being open, being vulnerable
and sharing that story only I addsto the authentic authenticity that I said there.
And then so on the caption thatI wrote, it just says,
do you embrace the arts, perhapsas a painter, a musician, poet,
or sculptor, but left this passionbehind in your youth? And so

(55:28):
this is the reflection I was talkingabout. Or maybe you feel a calling
to be an artist, but dismissthis idea, thinking you don't have the
time for such childlike pursuits. Itoo have been there, like many of
you, I've wondered how to fitartistic expression into my adult life, weighed
down by responsibilities, societal pressures,and the endless list of shoulds. Yet
remember the energy, passion and emotionpoured into our creations, especially those from

(55:50):
our past. The joy derived notfrom external validation, but from the process
itself, an immersive journey without pressure, deadlines, or expectations. And then
I go want just to say wenever truly lose this artistic spark. We
often just sideline it, swayed bylife's demands. But what if we chose
to defy these norms? What ifwe reclaimed our creative selves, not for
accolades, but for our own fulfillment. When we do, we often find

(56:13):
that our world and perhaps even thewider world, is better and more vibrant
for it. And I believe that'sparts of what you're doing, and that's
why I wanted to share it.We got a little bit time, and
there's two questions that are going tomake sure that we cover. Talked about
your program, but like, howdo you this has always been a curiosity,
like with everything still and we touchedon it, But how do you
navigate the complex legal and ethical landscapesurrounding psychedelics in their use? And I

(56:36):
would love to hear briefly about that. So my work is for educational purposes
only. I am not a boardcertified therapist. I am not a medical
professional. I offer education and peoplewho are taking action and who are personally

(56:57):
responsible for their own actions are theones that I vet for my program,
and so I give you guidance thatyou can choose to follow or not follow.
And in that container, I allowpeople the latitude to make their own
choices with the understanding that they arethe person who is responsible for those choices,

(57:21):
and give them within the bounds ofthose actions, like what is it
that you want? And ultimately peopleare going to do like what serves them
best, what that is, Soin navigating the legal bounds like this is
still a very big gray area withinthe broader context of the laws that exists.

(57:45):
So I don't give people the chemicalcompounds, the psilocybin, the LSD,
whatever it is that they may bemicrodosing. It falls on them to
find those, to source those.However, I can direct them in different
areas that may be supportive of themfinding sources and so yeah, this all

(58:08):
I do is give people the supportivespace to build the foundation of intention and
clarity and then to integrate their experiencesand give them education on what these protocols
look like and how they can builda practice of engaging with them in a
sacred and intentional way. So ifyou guys aren't picking up this entire like

(58:30):
forty five to fifty minute conversation,it's not just getting high in the woods.
So if you're coming for that,that's not what this guy's for.
He is here to educate you,here to help you, here to teach
you, here to guide you,not just to be some you know,
and if if that's your intention,then he's not the guy for you.
You know, get high on thewoods, go for it, like I
that's that's not what you have anythingto do. Yes, So, you

(58:53):
know, I'm sure some of ourlisteners are curious about integrating those that have
been listening in like peaks some curiosity, you know, integrating psychedelics maybe or
even just the spiritual practices that wetalked about, maybe experience like I had
with you without the psychedelics. Youknow, what advice would you give them
for me the psychedelics or some ofthe things that we talked about, what
advice would you give them about startingthis journey safely and intentionally? Yeah,

(59:17):
learn to listen to your intuition,which I have a very simple practice that
I teach in my program that istaken from Shamandurik's book Spirit Hacking. That
is a practice of learning to listento your intuition. And so if you

(59:37):
have a decision that is weighing onyou, or maybe a big or small
decision, whatever it may be,you can take a second, take a
breath, much like we did previously, and drop in and ask your body
body, show me what a yesfeels like, then you can take note
like I typically get a yes thatis like coming down from my root up

(59:59):
to my throat and back down.Then you can ask your body, body,
show me what a no feels like, And typically I get this emptiness
right in my root, this void, and then you can ask your body
the question, like, body,is it is it right for me to
go eat a pint of ice creamright now before I get back to my

(01:00:19):
work I'm getting you, know,So learning to listen to your intuitive sense
will support you in like both findingaligned sources for the medicine, knowing what
doses are right for you, andthen like doing the research. Once you
learn to listen to your intuition andyou build this muscle of listening to what

(01:00:45):
your physical sense is telling you,you can then align yourself to what is
best for you, not like whatyour mind is trying to tell you what's
best for you, or what yourtrauma is trying to like push you towards
from all of these unconscious patterns,but really like what is true for you.
And so before you even start withpsychedelics, I would learn to practice

(01:01:06):
listening to your intuition so that youcan then modulate towards what is best,
what is most in alignment for you, which may or may not be psychedelics.
I personally don't believe psychedelics are foreverybody, and there are many people
who are feeling in attunement to doingwork with psychedelics. And for those people,

(01:01:30):
I offer these services of showing them, these integral practices of connecting with
them in a sacred and intentional way. Yeah, so as we wrap it
up here. As you know,this podcast is titled Strive three sixty five.
We said why we do it,what we talk about? Who are

(01:01:51):
with anything else you with that conceptin mind, is there anything else that
you'd like to add or leave withfor the guess on whatever we talked about,
or just a nugget of knowledge orsomething to get them striving today in
every day The solutions to what youare facing are likely a lot easier than

(01:02:15):
you think. They're likely a lotmore simple than you think. And it's
I mean, it doesn't mean thatthey're necessarily easy to do, much like
feeling the resistance to doing breath workor you know, taking that fifteen minutes
to do your meditation every morning.However, when we learn to build the

(01:02:37):
consistency in our lives around these thingsthat are simple but not necessarily easy,
that opens us up to so muchand so reclaiming our attention from these things
that are pulling us in all ofthese different directions so that we can focus
them inward in that simplicity is fundamental. Yeah, and I would echo that.

(01:03:00):
I mean, it may not beeasy, but it's simple in all
our healing. I mean, it'sit's like he said, it's not easy
to maybe dedicate five, ten,fifteen minutes of meditation, but it's simple
to do. We're not asking youto climb Mount Everest five times in a

(01:03:21):
row. I mean, it's justlike food. People want me to always
teach them about nutrition and movement,but at the end of the day,
it's not hard. Like we knowthat, like, you know, eating
a vegetable versus a processed fried foodsnack is going to be healthier. But
what's easier in mind, you know, to grab that chicken nugget versus that
apple or you know, and what'sin their mind it's tastier. And we

(01:03:45):
can have a whole episode and whyit really is tastier with the chemicals and
everything. But yeah, and ifyou need help. That's why there's people
like us, real genuine human beings. So reach out to him if that's
something you're looking for to learn more, or just reach out to me and
I can help you and I canconnect you too for that. And this
just question popped in my head andwe do have to go, so make
this a quick answer. But it'slike, you know, if you could

(01:04:06):
snap your fingers like I just did, maybe better and you can wave your
magic wand and have a wish?Is there one out there for you?
There doesn't have to be, butit just felt called to ask you that.
Yeah, because I can tell youare a genuine human being the wants
to do good in the world.That everybody lived in connection with their heart

(01:04:30):
and with their heart sense and wasable to think from their heart space rather
than the mental dominance that we seein our society. And why because when

(01:04:54):
so personally, it's coming from aspace of today. It allows us to
create heaven on on earth. Whenwe're more connected with self, we can
create more of a heaven on earthand spread it out the world. Amen.
Man, Well, thank you somuch Nate for your time today.
It was a real pleasure, realeducation and just man, real, calming
and intuitive and so again we'll puta lot of this in the show notes

(01:05:17):
below, but thank you for allyour listeners and watchers that have been following
us. We are growing by leapsand bounds. We appreciate everybody that's been
tuning into the Strive three sixty fivepodcasts and continue this message and a simple
thing to help the world is justlike share subscribe to this podcast. So
thank you for tuning to another episodeof Strive three sixty five. Take care,

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