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From Combat to Consciousness with Neil Markey |297 · Bomb Life

0:00
[SPEAKER_01]: and like you're not at a period in your life where you're like well resource to kind of manage that and then so it could make things worse and so you know people need to be aware of that possibility.
0:13
[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't mean don't ever have one of these experiences but it just means
0:17
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, you're in a category that requires more care and more thoughtfulness and might very realistically have a period afterwards where you're really like going it's tough because you're like rooting this stuff out right for me.
0:29
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a light on the end of that tunnel, you know, but how long that journey is is you know, it's it's really hard to say it's different for everyone.
0:50
[SPEAKER_03]: Welcome to the Bond Life Podcast where fitness, vines, and real talk collide.
0:55
[SPEAKER_03]: This is it just about workouts.
0:56
[SPEAKER_03]: It's about transforming your body, mind, and life.
0:59
[SPEAKER_03]: Get ready for unfiltered conversations, expert advice, and the motivation you need to level up in every way.
1:19
[SPEAKER_03]: Hey everyone, welcome to the bomb life podcast.
1:23
[SPEAKER_03]: I am Melissa Vogel, you're host, welcome to the show.
1:25
[SPEAKER_03]: If you're a brand new listener, I'm so excited that you have landed on this one.
1:30
[SPEAKER_03]: And maybe you didn't land on this one.
1:31
[SPEAKER_03]: Maybe your friend was like, you should listen to this episode.
1:33
[SPEAKER_03]: And they passed it on to you.
1:34
[SPEAKER_03]: Maybe you scroll in and you found us on Instagram.
1:37
[SPEAKER_03]: Either way, you were meant to listen to this episode.
1:39
[SPEAKER_03]: And I'm so glad that you're open to hearing more.
1:42
[SPEAKER_03]: And if you're returning listener, you know you're in for a good show.
1:45
[SPEAKER_03]: Today's show is interesting and our guest is very interesting.
1:49
[SPEAKER_03]: having him on.
1:50
[SPEAKER_03]: And today we're going to be talking about like different things, healings, psychedelics, things like that.
1:55
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a great episode.
1:57
[SPEAKER_03]: And even if you're like, no, never would do that, never would try that.
2:00
[SPEAKER_03]: Or if you have tried it before, you know, a little bit about it doesn't matter.
2:03
[SPEAKER_03]: It doesn't matter where you're coming from.
2:04
[SPEAKER_03]: Today's episode.
2:06
[SPEAKER_03]: I want you to just have an open mind as you hear everything.
2:09
[SPEAKER_03]: I want you to take it all in and know that there are different ways to heal.
2:13
[SPEAKER_03]: It doesn't matter what your
2:16
[SPEAKER_03]: our guests today is a veteran and he offers a very different perspective on things and shares a little bit about his life and his struggles and it's oh my god it's so freaking cool but my whole point of sharing this before we dive into it is I want you to look at where you're currently at and if you are just living.
2:32
[SPEAKER_03]: kind of a mediocre life and you're getting really stuck in the rat race and you're not challenging yourself.
2:38
[SPEAKER_03]: You're not trying to improve your relationship with your family or your sex life or your relationship with your kids or trying to go for that next position at your job and you're letting it take you over and you're not taking over and why you just stop and pause and really think about that because we get one life to live, one you guys, this is it and we want to give them a good show.
2:58
[SPEAKER_03]: I want everyone putting their best foot forward and sometimes shitty things happen to us.
3:03
[SPEAKER_03]: Sometimes we experience childhood trauma and we don't even realize it.
3:07
[SPEAKER_03]: We don't even know what was trauma because we're like, I didn't see anyone get killed.
3:10
[SPEAKER_03]: I wasn't hurt or abused it anyway and we don't realize that what we experienced really was trauma.
3:17
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's stuck with us.
3:19
[SPEAKER_03]: And now it's showing up in our adult life.
3:21
[SPEAKER_03]: And we think that, you know, it's so many other things that's causing this trouble or, you know, this is what's giving me issues because of this.
3:28
[SPEAKER_03]: And we don't realize like, ah, no, that's because of what you experienced was trauma and it's still impacting you.
3:34
[SPEAKER_03]: And there are ways to heal it.
3:36
[SPEAKER_03]: There are ways to overcome, but just living your life day to day and not facing anything.
3:41
[SPEAKER_03]: It's doing you a major disservice.
3:46
[SPEAKER_03]: are you truly going to be able to grow in other areas of your life and truly make a difference and live this incredible life if you just stay where you're at.
3:55
[SPEAKER_03]: The answer is no.
3:56
[SPEAKER_03]: So today's episode is another way for you to just kind of have thought around this.
4:01
[SPEAKER_03]: Again, even if you're completely not interested in psychedelics at all,
4:04
[SPEAKER_03]: And you're like, I would never do that, keep listening, keep listening, because this episode is going to open your mind up to a lot of different things, different possibilities.
4:14
[SPEAKER_03]: And when we stay open to that and possibilities, you never know what that's going to lead you to.
4:18
[SPEAKER_03]: And I don't mean it's going to lead you to doing something or trying, no, no, no, no, but you're going to have an open mind and an open heart.
4:24
[SPEAKER_03]: I sure a little bit about my experience and what I did.
4:26
[SPEAKER_03]: And I hope that helps all of you, but if you're not at least starting at the
4:29
[SPEAKER_03]: base.
4:30
[SPEAKER_03]: The very, very bottom of the base of it all is just having an open mind.
4:34
[SPEAKER_03]: You can't grow and you can't change and your mind can't open to learning and taking in even more.
4:38
[SPEAKER_03]: So pay attention to that.
4:40
[SPEAKER_03]: Today's guest is Neil Markey and he's the co-founder and CEO of Buckley Retreats.
4:46
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, these retreats are a holistic well-being company that merges the science-backed benefits of psychedelics with contemplative practices to support lasting transformation.
4:58
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not just going there and like tripping, no, they help you repattern and reprogram your life and your brain with activities with habitations, activities.
5:08
[SPEAKER_03]: with habits in routine and they put things in place, so you live life differently.
5:13
[SPEAKER_03]: At Beckley, Neal is committed to building a business rooted in integrity, both within the company and across the diverse communities that it serves.
5:22
[SPEAKER_03]: He has a former captain in the US Army Special Operations, Second Ranger Battalion, and Neal completed three combat deployments,
5:32
[SPEAKER_03]: He began a dual MBA and MA program at Columbia University and it was during this time unresolved PTSD and depression surfaced and it was prompting him to explore alternative healing modalities and this marked the beginning of a profound personal journey with mindfulness and psychedelics.
5:51
[SPEAKER_03]: So we're talking about PTSD.
5:53
[SPEAKER_03]: We're talking about transformation and what he went through and how much
5:57
[SPEAKER_03]: Healing can take place again if you're open if you're willing to learn.
6:01
[SPEAKER_03]: So this is a real treat to have Neil on We're covering so many different topics this month that I love it, but this is just another one for you to live your best life ever Now go to the show notes because we're gonna put links to the Two-backly retreats if you want to book a phone call with them.
6:17
[SPEAKER_03]: They said you could talk to you human
6:18
[SPEAKER_03]: You can send them a message on Instagram.
6:20
[SPEAKER_03]: You can send me a message.
6:21
[SPEAKER_03]: You want to have a conversation around this.
6:23
[SPEAKER_03]: And as always, I will put the link in my show notes for booking a call with me.
6:27
[SPEAKER_03]: If you're someone who wants to have more conversation around healing about doing the work, jumping in.
6:32
[SPEAKER_03]: So you can live life differently, book that call.
6:36
[SPEAKER_03]: As always, reach out, please write and review this podcast five stars if you feel appropriate and leave us a review.
6:42
[SPEAKER_03]: It does wonders for the show and I look forward to talking to each and every one of you, follow along on Instagram.
6:48
[SPEAKER_03]: That's kind of my home.
6:49
[SPEAKER_03]: That's where I live.
6:50
[SPEAKER_03]: Shoot me a DM and you can always email the show.
6:52
[SPEAKER_03]: It's Melissa Vogel at gmail.com.
6:56
[SPEAKER_03]: All right, everyone, enjoy the show.
7:04
[SPEAKER_03]: Hey everyone, welcome to the Bomb Live podcast.
7:08
[SPEAKER_03]: Today we have Neil Marky on, welcome to the show, Neil.
7:11
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for having me.
7:12
[SPEAKER_03]: This is going to be a great episode.
7:14
[SPEAKER_03]: I can already tell.
7:16
[SPEAKER_03]: We were chatting before hand and Mr. Neil.
7:19
[SPEAKER_01]: You might drop that bomb a couple times.
7:21
[SPEAKER_03]: too, that I'm just going to come on.
7:22
[SPEAKER_03]: I can't help it.
7:23
[SPEAKER_03]: It's just, I get real passionate about things.
7:25
[SPEAKER_03]: I have a feeling like we're going to dive into some good stuff and it just, it just comes out and I had so many people tell me they're like, I knew I was going to listen to this podcast and I was going to love you when you said, fucking like the first 30 seconds.
7:37
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, okay, we're going to be friends.
7:39
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.
7:40
[SPEAKER_03]: So you are the co-founder and CEO of Beckley retreats and you focus on like holistic while being like
7:51
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, now we have talked about psychedelics on this podcast before.
7:55
[SPEAKER_03]: I personally Do you remember who the companies called mosaic?
8:01
[SPEAKER_03]: They have like the mushroom, the wellness pack that you can get, so if you wanted to micro dose and stuff.
8:06
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
8:07
[SPEAKER_03]: that's the owner we had him on the show and that's because I went on a retreat in February and dabbled in a few different things which I am like such a virgin to like all of that like I hardly even drink let alone like do you know plant-based medicine and everything so that was interesting and then after I was like you need to come on the show so he told us more about like mushrooms and
8:34
[SPEAKER_03]: other than that, that's kind of like the only exposure that I have and I'm really curious as to how this became what you do now, like how backly retreats it came about and I know, I know I told you this before we started like that's a loaded question of like how did you get here?
8:50
[SPEAKER_03]: But did this start back from you being in the army and your deployments and experiencing PTSD?
8:56
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm assuming that's where this journey took you.
8:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's kind of where I started.
9:01
[SPEAKER_01]: I usually start my story.
9:03
[SPEAKER_01]: I was doing my undergrad at University of Maryland and then September 11th happened.
9:09
[SPEAKER_01]: I ended up joining the service, trying to do the right thing.
9:12
[SPEAKER_01]: But by the time I got through school and training into my unit and know my way to Iraq, we had learned that that whole weapons of mass destruction thing was wildly wrong.
9:21
[SPEAKER_01]: If you remember that.
9:23
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
9:23
[SPEAKER_01]: But I did what I could, and I went to Iraq once and Afghanistan twice, and then I got out in 2012.
9:30
[SPEAKER_01]: So 13 years ago or so.
9:33
[SPEAKER_01]: And when I was in graduate school, is when I realized I was having some challenges.
9:40
[SPEAKER_01]: And like,
9:41
[SPEAKER_01]: kind of reintegrating and getting out of this mode that I was in.
9:45
[SPEAKER_01]: And it was in that grade that I got first exposed to this kind of this world.
9:50
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, tell me more about that.
9:51
[SPEAKER_03]: What does that look like because if someone's listening right now, I want them just to be able to hear about that and be like, hear like, oh, that is a warning sign.
10:01
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, I didn't, I experienced that too.
10:03
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, should I be paying attention it?
10:04
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, I kind of want them to learn.
10:05
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, what did that look like when you were like, oh, shit.
10:09
[SPEAKER_01]: This is, my sleep was really bad.
10:12
[SPEAKER_01]: I was very, you know, I would say angry a lot of times, were you married to do you have kids?
10:19
[SPEAKER_01]: I was married, but I went through a divorce during this period.
10:22
[SPEAKER_01]: So that I mean, that was a huge signal too.
10:24
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.
10:24
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.
10:25
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, honestly, I wanted that we're having to figure out or forgive myself for that was probably one of the hardest things I've had to do in my adult life.
10:34
[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, my relationships were kind of falling apart.
10:37
[SPEAKER_01]: I was isolating.
10:39
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I was also in some ways doing well.
10:41
[SPEAKER_01]: I was at a good school.
10:42
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I was putting kind of one foot in front of the other, which is definitely a meaningful,
10:49
[SPEAKER_01]: learning for me now is that you never know what someone's got going on.
10:53
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, there's a lot of people out there that look like they got it all put together and they're really, really, really struggling inside.
10:59
[SPEAKER_01]: And so...
11:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that was me.
11:03
[SPEAKER_03]: I do.
11:03
[SPEAKER_03]: That's so true.
11:04
[SPEAKER_03]: Like Neil and I were talking about this a little bit before about, you know, how much high achievers burnout and they have things going on and what we can dive into that later and stuff, but that's such a good point of you never know what people have going on and what they're suffering with.
11:20
[SPEAKER_03]: And I'm always trying to like tell my kids this too.
11:22
[SPEAKER_03]: It'd be like, you don't know what's going on in their home life.
11:24
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, you don't know what their dad said them before they laughed or what their mom does.
11:28
[SPEAKER_03]: And that's such a good point of like, when people look like they got it all together, you have no idea what they've survived, what they've been through.
11:35
[SPEAKER_03]: And I just, I don't know, it's a great reminder to like give people,
11:38
[SPEAKER_03]: Grace too, but yeah, on the outside, you probably looked like you had you were doing well.
11:43
[SPEAKER_03]: You were acclimating back into things well and on your way to what a new career path at that time, like what do you do when you get out to when you get back home and you're like, I have all these skills, but like, what do I do with them?
11:55
[SPEAKER_01]: Your period, yeah.
11:57
[SPEAKER_03]: I can only imagine.
11:58
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
11:59
[SPEAKER_03]: What did you specialize in the army?
12:00
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, what was your thing?
12:01
[SPEAKER_01]: I had a weird go.
12:02
[SPEAKER_01]: I was an engineer officer, which half engineers do like construction like normal engineer things and then half of engineers do Explosives and demolitions and things like that.
12:13
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
12:14
[SPEAKER_01]: So I put them in demolitions.
12:15
[SPEAKER_01]: But then I never spent a day in an engineer unit.
12:18
[SPEAKER_01]: I had an infantry platoon.
12:20
[SPEAKER_01]: So it was, you know, running missions trying to
12:23
[SPEAKER_01]: keep the piece and I rack.
12:25
[SPEAKER_01]: And then when I was in the Rangers, I was more, I was a captain then, so I was more on the support side of things, but it was coordinating these nitrate direct action missions.
12:36
[SPEAKER_03]: Wow.
12:38
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I can't imagine what you did in what you saw.
12:43
[SPEAKER_03]: So now you're back home.
12:44
[SPEAKER_03]: You're trying to adjust things are coming up.
12:48
[SPEAKER_03]: And did someone say something to you about mushrooms or psychedelics?
12:53
[SPEAKER_01]: No, yeah, I went from it was kind of captain in the Ranger Regiment, which is a,
12:59
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm so thankful to have been there and it is it's an environment unlike anything I've ever been in and then I was in Manhattan, New York and so it was just like a whole different.
13:11
[SPEAKER_01]: world and I was so angry at all my peers because none of them seemed to care that there was a war going on and I couldn't I couldn't come to terms with that.
13:21
[SPEAKER_03]: You mean your peers here like people you were around back in the US.
13:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you might my student here.
13:27
[SPEAKER_01]: People that were in the program because they had been having fun in the last 10 years and like hadn't really been thinking about much of it.
13:32
[SPEAKER_01]: My whole last seven or eight years was very different and I you know was I was
13:40
[SPEAKER_01]: And then I got introduced to meditation was my first thing.
13:44
[SPEAKER_01]: So I tried kind of SSRIs and some anti anxiety meds, because I was just like state of fight or flight.
13:51
[SPEAKER_03]: Right.
13:52
[SPEAKER_01]: Literally and metaphorically preparing for a fight.
13:55
[SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, try to bunch of kind of normal off the shelf type things SSRIs and anti anxiety medications.
14:03
[SPEAKER_01]: And the thing that I found that actually started to show some real benefit
14:08
[SPEAKER_01]: and I got super into meditation.
14:09
[SPEAKER_03]: How did you get introduced to that?
14:11
[SPEAKER_03]: Did a friend tell you, did you see a YouTube video?
14:14
[SPEAKER_01]: There was this guy named Home Nguyen, sweet man who was doing his PhD at the same school I was at and he was teaching this mindfulness for business leaders course.
14:26
[SPEAKER_01]: and he was like a 30 year meditator and I kind of stumbled into this course.
14:30
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think he honestly was one of the first people that could sense the turmoil that I had going on inside.
14:37
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, like he could see right past.
14:39
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
14:40
[SPEAKER_01]: I've business casual attire, right?
14:42
[SPEAKER_01]: And then he was just this really kind person he invited me on like my first kind of long-form program.
14:49
[SPEAKER_01]: And then it is just a sweet, sweet guy.
14:52
[SPEAKER_01]: And so that's kind of how I got into it.
14:54
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
14:55
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, I just, I don't know.
14:56
[SPEAKER_03]: It doesn't surprise me.
14:57
[SPEAKER_03]: But I'm like, how does a bit badass guy like yourself that went through all this?
15:02
[SPEAKER_03]: And now you're back here, like, even we open to meditating, and what a life-changing moment for you, too.
15:10
[SPEAKER_03]: Because you taking that course and meaning that guy, like, I'm sure your life was on this path.
15:15
[SPEAKER_03]: And from that moment, it changed course for you,
15:19
[SPEAKER_01]: It's true.
15:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's true.
15:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, and I think in some ways, I was fortunate to kind of be hitting a bit of a rock bottom.
15:26
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I wasn't like in full crisis, but I was like pretty bad.
15:30
[SPEAKER_01]: So I was looking.
15:32
[SPEAKER_01]: And there's this roomy poem that I love, which is, or statement, which is the fact,
15:49
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh my god, that fades and I feel like I, you know, I've been there too, but so I'm, I was in a really sad place.
15:57
[SPEAKER_01]: I was, I was really disconnected and I was looking for something.
16:00
[SPEAKER_01]: So it just kind of showed up right on time.
16:02
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and that that good enough zone.
16:05
[SPEAKER_03]: It's so frustrating.
16:07
[SPEAKER_03]: Like as me as a coach, I see people in that like all the time and I'm like, man, you're not going to change until like.
16:14
[SPEAKER_03]: you really hit rock bottom are you, you know, and we get so just okay with like not living our best life being fat and overweight, you know, living in like a so so marriage relationship and we're just like it's bad it sucks, but like what am I going to do about it and nothing major's happening so we can just we just live and then like the okay.
16:36
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's so not okay and speaking from experience because I'm a microdoser every single day.
16:42
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, I take my days off and stuff, but you don't realize how bad you were until you can see like you don't realize like, oh, the sky looked blue until you're like, holy shit, the sky is blue.
16:53
[SPEAKER_03]: Does anyone see how blue the sky is that I've been walking under this blue sky forever.
16:58
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, yeah, that awakening.
17:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, no, it can happen over time.
17:02
[SPEAKER_01]: And it, yeah, it just becomes the new normal.
17:05
[SPEAKER_01]: So it doesn't kind of know how different it can be.
17:08
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
17:09
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.
17:09
[SPEAKER_03]: So now we're on this path of meditation.
17:12
[SPEAKER_03]: How in the world did it start from there and start to work.
17:16
[SPEAKER_03]: It's way to you being the CEO of Backly Retreats.
17:21
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's been, I mean, that was 10 years ago for 12 years ago.
17:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
17:25
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, the door is, I was in grad school.
17:28
[SPEAKER_01]: I was getting really into meditation, trying to learn how to take better care of myself.
17:33
[SPEAKER_01]: started a business with my brother and for there was this and then I ended up doing a teacher certification and meditation at Jefferson University.
17:40
[SPEAKER_01]: So there was this really sweet time in my life where I was working with my brother.
17:43
[SPEAKER_01]: I was teaching meditation.
17:45
[SPEAKER_01]: I was living in my hometown.
17:47
[SPEAKER_01]: I was spending a lot of time in nature.
17:49
[SPEAKER_01]: You know alcohol and you kind of do all of these things and life gets a little bit more smooth, you know, less friction and then
17:59
[SPEAKER_01]: There was a bit of a pivot point.
18:00
[SPEAKER_01]: I had been deferring this job offer for McKinsey in Company, which is a consultancy that has some alert and mistake around it, I would say.
18:11
[SPEAKER_01]: I had been deferring a job offer there and I asked them for another deferral because I was enjoying what I was doing.
18:17
[SPEAKER_01]: And they were like, no, we're not gonna be your permanent backup plan so you come now or we wish you the best.
18:22
[SPEAKER_01]: And I went there and was there for a few years,
18:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I learned a lot.
18:26
[SPEAKER_01]: I loved it.
18:27
[SPEAKER_01]: It was kind of very stimulating, kind of solving interesting problems and working with smart people.
18:34
[SPEAKER_01]: But I'm honest, my mental health party started slipping the wrong way.
18:38
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, so I kind of did really well.
18:40
[SPEAKER_01]: And then I went into this environment that just wasn't the right fit for me.
18:44
[SPEAKER_01]: I went to this other corporate environment that was even further from kind of who I am and want to be.
18:52
[SPEAKER_01]: And then at the end of
18:54
[SPEAKER_01]: called six years in the corporate world.
18:57
[SPEAKER_01]: I started to notice that some of my symptoms were coming back that I had worked so hard to get rid of.
19:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Like what?
19:03
[SPEAKER_03]: Like what?
19:03
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm really curious.
19:04
[SPEAKER_01]: I sleep as starting to get a little bit.
19:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
19:07
[SPEAKER_01]: That was good.
19:07
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm becoming more, you know, short in my way, you know, kind of.
19:12
[SPEAKER_01]: a little bit sharp relationships, not as, and then I was looking around at a bunch of my peers and you know many of them had done really kind of well and had gone to good schools and came from really like prominent families and and they were having a hard time too, you know similar.
19:34
[SPEAKER_01]: Symptoms, you know, not as bad as war veterans, of course not, but like in the same bucket of things.
19:40
[SPEAKER_01]: Sure.
19:41
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I just said, I'm done.
19:43
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't want to do this anymore.
19:44
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to go do something different.
19:45
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to I want to be well.
19:47
[SPEAKER_01]: That's kind of first priority.
19:49
[SPEAKER_01]: And then.
19:50
[SPEAKER_03]: And you put like your contract was up like it was okay that you were making the switch.
19:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I mean, that's like a whole story.
19:57
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, okay.
19:58
[SPEAKER_01]: It was time to meet.
20:00
[SPEAKER_01]: It was time for me to leave this organization.
20:02
[SPEAKER_01]: And I knew it and they knew it.
20:04
[SPEAKER_01]: And then I ended up in Mexico and was teaching meditation in Mexico and just trying to kind of like give myself some space.
20:10
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
20:11
[SPEAKER_01]: It happened really, I would say, organically, which I think generally is like a good sign.
20:15
[SPEAKER_01]: Sure.
20:16
[SPEAKER_01]: If it starts kind of flowing, and there's an indigenous people there called the Weecho, and they've been using plants and psychedelics for a long time, and they were super welcoming to me and my friends and my friends were coming down, and I was connecting them to the Weecho, and we were doing meditation, and then I was like, well, maybe I should do something in this world, you know?
20:39
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm really passionate about it, more people are aware of it and interested in it.
20:44
[SPEAKER_01]: And then I met a man in the field and then that's when it all kind of changed.
20:49
[SPEAKER_01]: I met her and her family and her son, and...
20:52
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's kind of how I got from there to here.
20:57
[SPEAKER_01]: I've been running the company now for coming up on five years.
21:01
[SPEAKER_03]: OK. Now was this, like, what happened when you met her?
21:05
[SPEAKER_03]: I was like, no, I'm super curious.
21:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Amanda in fielding, everyone needs to Google.
21:10
[SPEAKER_01]: She passed in May.
21:11
[SPEAKER_01]: She was 82.
21:12
[SPEAKER_01]: She's a most extraordinary person that I've ever had a chance to meet with.
21:16
[SPEAKER_01]: I love her so much.
21:18
[SPEAKER_01]: really just a brilliant and hilarious and kind of renegade personality that she went against the grain for literally her entire life in an effort to help people get access to psychedelics.
21:32
[SPEAKER_01]: And so she was doing international drug policy reform and was one of the kind of
21:41
[SPEAKER_01]: She has two sons and then she has like a lot of you know peeps, philanthropists and supporters around her probably 10 years ago or so said they were seeing that the world was changing there was more acceptance to using these plants and compounds and so they they founded this
22:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Essentially, it was like a family office for them, which was Beckley Waves that was making early stage investments and companies that were going to build the infrastructure teams and programs and things like this.
22:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, the story of how we kind of got connected is is an interesting one a bit long, but I'm actually met the her and her family through a guy that I went to graduate school with and he connected the way they were thinking about it.
22:27
[SPEAKER_01]: And the way I was thinking about it, we're just such kind of perfect overlays.
22:31
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I think we both really wanted to do this work with some heart.
22:34
[SPEAKER_01]: And it wasn't just about maximizing margin.
22:38
[SPEAKER_01]: We kind of both saw that as a fundamental problem of the existing health system.
22:44
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'd like this work that includes kind of spirituality, connectiveness, required, your burn approach.
22:51
[SPEAKER_01]: And so,
22:52
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.
22:53
[SPEAKER_01]: We kind of got started.
22:54
[SPEAKER_03]: Can I ask you a personal question?
22:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
22:56
[SPEAKER_03]: What was your first experience with psychedelics?
22:59
[SPEAKER_03]: Was it a good one?
23:01
[SPEAKER_03]: What did you do?
23:02
[SPEAKER_03]: Was it?
23:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
23:04
[SPEAKER_01]: My first one that I would say is like meaningful was a kind of like a normal clinical type visit that was done on the underground in the United States.
23:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, okay.
23:17
[SPEAKER_01]: you know.
23:18
[SPEAKER_01]: And so there's a long history of veterans getting access to these experiences.
23:23
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I was fortunate to kind of get connected and I was, yeah, essentially in a home in a private room and took a large dose and had headphones and an eye mask and someone who I really
23:43
[SPEAKER_03]: Wow, like you were legit like we're going under like we're gonna do this.
23:47
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, yeah, you were in like a park like like what did you take was it mushrooms or like oh, yes
23:54
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25:29
[SPEAKER_03]: So, my first experience.
25:32
[SPEAKER_03]: What is a Mexico do?
25:34
[SPEAKER_03]: It's so healing there and just amazing.
25:37
[SPEAKER_03]: It was incredible.
25:38
[SPEAKER_03]: I won't go through like my whole thing, but I deal with like a very serious, like morning depression, like no one could give me answers.
25:46
[SPEAKER_03]: And I trying therapy and a lot and I've experienced, you know, some traumatic things as a child.
25:53
[SPEAKER_03]: And then not that long ago, I had a, I wasn't involved in a
25:59
[SPEAKER_03]: And actually just last week on the podcast, I shared a little bit about it and I was really seeking to heal other than just like a talk type therapy.
26:08
[SPEAKER_03]: And one of my experiences that we did, I remember just like laying down and I literally felt like my brain like a Rubik's cube, like going like click, click, click, click, click, just trying to like figure it out.
26:21
[SPEAKER_03]: Not to mention when I opened my eyes everything was cartoon.
26:24
[UNKNOWN]: So
26:26
[SPEAKER_03]: that was something else that wasn't mushrooms and then all the sudden it just was like ding and it was like you're fixed and when I started to come out of it I literally felt like my brain was fixed like it was done and when I had done research it was something of the toad and now I can't think of the name my friends going to kill me she's like how did you forget boofle boofle boofle is that what it's called and that's what it's like.
26:47
[SPEAKER_03]: That was crazy and I'm a lightweight with everything and I took a very small amount and they're like, you sure we don't want you hanging on the edge of like where you're almost so I know I'm a lightweight like give me a just just whatever you guys are doing give me half like then I know I'll be good.
27:03
[SPEAKER_03]: And it, and they had said that, you know, one experience of that can heal your brain and your body, what it would take years to do in a regular therapy session.
27:14
[SPEAKER_03]: And yeah, from that moment on, I was like, I woke up the next morning and I felt like a different person.
27:20
[SPEAKER_03]: And it wasn't saying, and I did this in a safe environment.
27:23
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, we had a guide.
27:24
[SPEAKER_03]: We had like, mats.
27:26
[SPEAKER_03]: I was surrounded by people.
27:27
[SPEAKER_03]: So anyone listening, like, this isn't something
27:32
[SPEAKER_03]: Uh-uh, but it was interesting and I love hearing that there is a place in a way for guys like you for anyone to be supported in this in this way and have access to this and Really heal you know any unresolved like PTSD and other things going on
27:53
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, the world's changing.
27:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's encouraging that there's more awareness of this and there's more availability of these types of programs.
28:03
[SPEAKER_01]: And it doesn't, it doesn't, it's not just for people that are in crisis either.
28:07
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that's a good point.
28:09
[SPEAKER_01]: It's for people that what we were talking about earlier.
28:12
[SPEAKER_01]: that are kind of in that good enough zone or, you know, most of our guests are actually we screen out severe indications.
28:20
[SPEAKER_01]: So like I probably wouldn't have been a good, well, I met a been, I would have been right on the edge, you know, when I was coming out of the service of I would have been a fit for a Beckley program, frankly, because we screen out kind of more severe things so that we, because we do everything in a group and we need to be very thoughtful about the kind of group dynamic.
28:36
[SPEAKER_03]: Interesting.
28:37
[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody's at the right place so we can properly support them.
28:41
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.
28:41
[SPEAKER_01]: But you can go from, you can, you know, people come down and, you know, want to become more empathetic or improve relationships or kind of move through life transitions, like honor, some, you know, event or period of time, but move forward, you know, and not let it hold them back.
28:59
[SPEAKER_01]: So those types of things, these experience is going to be really helpful with, too, like dealing
29:06
[SPEAKER_01]: All those types of.
29:08
[SPEAKER_03]: I've heard.
29:09
[SPEAKER_03]: I've heard several people maybe you can shed some light on this, especially guys.
29:14
[SPEAKER_03]: I've heard more men say this than women that they're like, I know what happened.
29:18
[SPEAKER_03]: That was horrible if I go and revisit it again.
29:22
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm terrified that if I do something like this, it's just going to bring it up again.
29:26
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't want to relive that.
29:28
[SPEAKER_03]: Why would I want to relive that?
29:29
[SPEAKER_03]: How is that possibly going to help me?
29:31
[SPEAKER_03]: And so that's their fear of getting help like this and really diving in because they're like, I don't want to relive it.
29:36
[SPEAKER_03]: That was horrible.
29:38
[SPEAKER_03]: And as again, to make my future worse, if I go back.
29:42
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, I mean, I think it's a very reasonable and rational sure concern.
29:48
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think people would, you know, a couple things to say on that one, you might have it kind of the box and tucked away somewhere that's been kind of helped you manage it.
29:58
[SPEAKER_01]: But I think if you got really still and, you know, really quiet and kind of really, we're honest, they're, it's probably still seeping up through your way in some way.
30:08
[SPEAKER_01]: It's affecting how you're presenting in the world
30:11
[SPEAKER_01]: that's what kind of trauma does.
30:13
[SPEAKER_01]: And these experiences can definitely in some ways kind of open that up and bring it back into your awareness, which can be really challenging.
30:20
[SPEAKER_01]: But then in that challenge, there's an opportunity to kind of process and then let it be kind of like it helped take some of the the staying out of it and allow you to really kind of like move forward with
30:39
[SPEAKER_01]: everyone's different, everybody's history's different level, trauma's different, and there are risks in these experiences.
30:46
[SPEAKER_01]: And I would say, one is that that stuff does come up, and you're not at a period in your life where you're like, well, resource to kind of manage that.
30:55
[SPEAKER_01]: And then,
30:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
30:56
[SPEAKER_01]: So it could make things worse.
30:58
[SPEAKER_01]: And so you know, people need to be aware of that possibility.
31:02
[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't mean don't ever have one of these experiences.
31:05
[SPEAKER_01]: But it just means, you know, you're in a category that requires more care and more thoughtfulness and might very realistically have a period afterwards where you're really like going, it's tough because you're like rooting this stuff out.
31:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
31:17
[SPEAKER_01]: For me, there's a light on the end of that tunnel, you know, but how long that
31:25
[SPEAKER_03]: Mm-hmm.
31:26
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, tell me about Beckley retreats.
31:30
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, now is this an actual place where we go to?
31:34
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
31:36
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, it is, and where is this located?
31:38
[SPEAKER_01]: We do programs in Jamaica and the Netherlands.
31:40
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the two places in the world right now where we can do these psilocybin mushroom programs completely above board fully legally, which allows us to be insured.
31:49
[SPEAKER_01]: And every thing, you know, like no gray area, funky, I didn't know that.
31:53
[SPEAKER_01]: everywhere right now.
31:54
[SPEAKER_01]: My goodness, you know, we run what we would call more integrated health programs.
31:59
[SPEAKER_01]: So obviously, the psychedelic experience is a part of the program, but we're really teaching people these basic well-being practices and ultimately trying to get behavior change.
32:11
[SPEAKER_01]: More often than not, if you give someone one of these experiences you do it in the right way, you know, right environment.
32:19
[SPEAKER_01]: they will have a very significant, meaningful experience.
32:23
[SPEAKER_01]: And for some period of time, after we'll say things like, I just feel more peaceful.
32:29
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, my relationships are better.
32:30
[SPEAKER_01]: I just noticed that the world's so beautiful more often, like all these really nice things.
32:35
[SPEAKER_01]: But if you don't introduce any new ways of being or habits, then you're probably going to go back to old self because there's a lot of momentum there.
32:45
[SPEAKER_01]: And so when we built this program, we kind of really were thoughtful and how we put it together so that we got people to actually live differently.
32:55
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we're teaching meditation, mindful movement, breath work, simple things like gratitude practice, and we do that.
33:04
[SPEAKER_01]: that people can do from anywhere in the world in that roughly month prior to coming down on the rest of the schools.
33:13
[SPEAKER_01]: We get the group together a few times.
33:15
[SPEAKER_01]: They get to meet each other.
33:16
[SPEAKER_01]: They get to meet the facilitators.
33:18
[SPEAKER_01]: and our programs are generally like 15 guests in a program, okay.
33:23
[SPEAKER_01]: And then we have beautiful states and Jamaican and the Netherlands that we use.
33:28
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's an opportunity to have a bit of a digital detox, you know, kind of getting nature.
33:34
[SPEAKER_01]: It's really beautiful.
33:35
[SPEAKER_01]: And then, you know, we're one more together.
33:38
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going a lot of those practices that we taught on the prep.
33:41
[SPEAKER_01]: But now we're done in nature.
33:44
[SPEAKER_01]: So we're done meditations in mindful movement and
33:47
[SPEAKER_01]: And then there's two psilocybin sessions, and those are done in a group.
33:51
[SPEAKER_01]: Those are done on day two and day four.
33:53
[SPEAKER_01]: How long is it?
33:54
[SPEAKER_01]: How many days is it?
33:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Five nights.
33:57
[SPEAKER_01]: Five nights.
33:57
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
33:58
[SPEAKER_01]: Five nights.
34:00
[SPEAKER_01]: And then on the back end, we do a digital.
34:02
[SPEAKER_01]: integration or follow-up period where we bring the group back together digitally at a couple times, you have access to our catalog of content.
34:11
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is where we're really trying to take advantage of that window of neuroplasticity.
34:16
[SPEAKER_01]: So there's this period after these experiences where there's an increased potentiality for change.
34:22
[SPEAKER_01]: And so what it looks like is if you introduce some of these practices and habits and ways of being, they have more likely to stick and then that's how people can kind of maintain that positive benefit.
34:34
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, oh my god, I love this and I love that you're like, you know that how much those habits and actually lived like you said we want them to live differently like for the rest of their life and how important that is and I run into that like with health and fitness too, you know, like people are like, oh, help me lose weight and they want to do like this six week program and they drop 30 pounds and they're like holding their sign on Facebook like I've lost 30 pounds and you're like, that's great, but they didn't do any mental health work.
35:04
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, an identity shift to help support this new body that they have, they're just going to go back to who they were like, they didn't if you don't learn how to grow shrew shop if you don't learn how to eat right if you don't learn how to set boundaries and follow through you're just going to go right back and that's why like meal plans before I was like right me on meal plan I'm like no me telling you what to eat isn't is just a disservice.
35:27
[SPEAKER_03]: You're not going to learn anything.
35:29
[SPEAKER_03]: So I love that this is very, very similar.
35:32
[SPEAKER_03]: Like sure you can have an experience.
35:33
[SPEAKER_03]: Sure, everything's going to be beautiful and amazing afternoon.
35:36
[SPEAKER_03]: It feels so great.
35:37
[SPEAKER_03]: But if there's no lesson or like tools in place, and you don't teach them, yeah, you're right.
35:43
[SPEAKER_03]: They'd probably just go right back to the way they were after.
35:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
35:48
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we're trying to give people kind of tools that they can, yeah, they can, they can use to enrich their lives and they're free, you know, right, right, yeah, what are most of your clients like what is your typical client, do you see more males females or women, it's like 60% women on our programs and
36:10
[SPEAKER_01]: It's kind of a, it's, it's a really interesting mix.
36:13
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it's young to old, we've had the old, our oldest guest.
36:16
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it was 86 and he came with his wife who was 80, so 80 year old, 86 year old couples so sweet.
36:24
[SPEAKER_01]: But there's definitely some, some density around.
36:27
[SPEAKER_01]: It's kind of these like late, career, very successful women.
36:33
[SPEAKER_01]: kind of these like women they might be in members of like chief or something like that or live in you are kind of have these high power jobs and they they want to it's like this idea of burnout and then they like want to have meaning and they kind of want this next phase of their life to be different but they don't quite know exactly what but they're looking for some shifts in their lives that's a big part of who comes on our programs
37:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
37:03
[SPEAKER_03]: What are the guys like, you know, that percentage of males that you have?
37:07
[SPEAKER_03]: Do you see a lot of veterans?
37:09
[SPEAKER_03]: Do you get a lot of other guys that are gone through?
37:13
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, we do.
37:14
[SPEAKER_01]: So we do get a we do get a good amount of veterans down on our programs and it's, it's kind of a thing in the better in community now like there's a very normal thing for veterans to go seek these experiences, but we also get a lot of that kind of high performing white collar professional that corporate burnout on a, you know,
37:33
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, do something more meaningful in their lives.
37:36
[SPEAKER_01]: That type of be more present with their children.
37:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
37:38
[SPEAKER_01]: And then, yeah, we get creatives that are, you know, trying to be kind of more flow and adventures that kind of want to have a peak experience.
37:51
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, these are people that want to interesting climb mountains and do all the things.
37:55
[SPEAKER_01]: But they want to do this.
37:56
[SPEAKER_01]: But they want to do it in a safe kind of controlled environments.
38:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
38:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Really is all different.
38:03
[SPEAKER_01]: And a lot of that.
38:04
[SPEAKER_01]: And it was so cool because five years ago, four years ago, it was almost exclusive of the Europeans.
38:11
[SPEAKER_01]: If you kind of draw a circle around the Netherlands, it was like mostly people there and definitely some, mostly people from the UK because that's where Amanda's from and her family's well family's known there.
38:23
[SPEAKER_01]: But now it's not uncommon for us to have like six or seven different countries represented in another one's program.
38:30
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's countries like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and South Korea.
38:36
[SPEAKER_01]: Really?
38:37
[SPEAKER_01]: So the world is changing.
38:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's unbelievable.
38:39
[SPEAKER_01]: It's really, really cool.
38:42
[SPEAKER_03]: How do you guys market?
38:43
[SPEAKER_03]: How do you find people from all these kind of like all across the world?
38:47
[SPEAKER_01]: people weren't about the board of mouth, but then it's because Google psychedelic retreats and psilocybin retreats.
38:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I'm up and I just think the world is kind of learning about these things.
38:58
[SPEAKER_01]: And then if you're searching for this, we're pretty easy to you're going to find it.
39:03
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm because of the man that mostly.
39:05
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I just I think
39:08
[SPEAKER_03]: Now people are we are hitting that rock bottom.
39:11
[SPEAKER_03]: A lot of people are realizing like, Oh, my God, I can't keep doing this.
39:15
[SPEAKER_03]: I can't keep living this way.
39:17
[SPEAKER_03]: And they're losing people.
39:18
[SPEAKER_03]: They're losing their loved ones like relationship wise, you know, like they're, they can't sustain things.
39:24
[SPEAKER_03]: They don't have to relationship with their kids no matter what they've been through.
39:27
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think people are really waking up of like this can't be it.
39:31
[SPEAKER_03]: There has to be more, there's got to be a way to change this and I love that we live in a world now where people are more open to this and willing to learn and dive in and do the work and see what else is out there besides just, you know, a pharmaceutical prescription.
39:49
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, no, it's encouraging.
39:51
[SPEAKER_01]: When you said it earlier to it's a lot of times some of us will need like a crisis in our life to get our attention.
40:01
[SPEAKER_01]: the divorce or something.
40:02
[SPEAKER_01]: And in some ways, I feel like these experiences can kind of be that wake up call.
40:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, before the crisis, so they can kind of be the like this preventative health chair programs, you know, they had a lot of application, you know, and they're not for everyone and not without risk, but for many.
40:23
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, many people get a lot out of these experiences that they're done right away.
40:28
[SPEAKER_03]: Everything has risk.
40:29
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, let's be real.
40:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
40:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
40:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
40:32
[SPEAKER_01]: It's true.
40:32
[SPEAKER_03]: I could go to the jail.
40:33
[SPEAKER_03]: I would have been.
40:34
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
40:35
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, yeah.
40:37
[SPEAKER_01]: It's, uh, I really, when this has been studied a little bit, but I mean, these experiences, there are risks, but I would say they're not as risky as many things that we do regularly.
40:47
[SPEAKER_01]: Like,
40:48
[SPEAKER_01]: drives our friends on a Friday night or driving a car driving a night on a highway and so it's all about kind of the relative risk and then just you know giving people as much information as you can honest information and then letting them make the adult decision but things shouldn't be in the boogie man bucket and they shouldn't be in the yeah no risk bucket either they're they're
41:14
[SPEAKER_01]: there in between.
41:14
[SPEAKER_03]: I agree.
41:15
[SPEAKER_03]: I agree.
41:16
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.
41:16
[SPEAKER_03]: I have a question for you.
41:18
[SPEAKER_03]: Are you ready?
41:19
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.
41:19
[SPEAKER_03]: What's something that you believe about like healing and trauma or even transformation that most people like resist or even like maybe disagree with you?
41:32
[SPEAKER_01]: Something that I think, I mean, I guess that we're, I mean, this is maybe a bit out there.
41:38
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I think there were spiritual beings that are having this kind of like material world.
41:43
[SPEAKER_03]: Holy agree.
41:43
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I think a big part of our wholeness is that connection with source or God or the oneness or whatever you want to call it.
41:53
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think it's that woo, I think we are starting to be able to kind of see this in physics and you know, so you can develop that relationship a lot of different ways.
42:03
[SPEAKER_01]: But that's a, that's a big part of feeling well in feeling full is this loop is this energetic loop with that thing.
42:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, whatever you want to call it.
42:13
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think it cares what you'd call it frankly.
42:15
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not that important.
42:17
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
42:18
[SPEAKER_03]: It's part of it.
42:20
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a big part of it.
42:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
42:22
[SPEAKER_01]: We are it in some ways, and it, but it's very real, you know, and we, I mean, we take for granted all the time that we,
42:29
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, or on this like rock spinning it a thousand miles an hour and you know we're rotating around this big ball fire and then you know that's all rotating in a galaxy and you add all this up and it's you know looks like we're moving at the speed of light and then we all would take that for granted all the time and then we say oh well there's no way that this other stuff doesn't have any grounding in it that there's no.
42:52
[SPEAKER_01]: There's no way these phenomena can be true and it's like, well, I mean, call this other crazy stuff.
42:57
[SPEAKER_01]: It's happening all the time that we've just become accustomed to.
43:01
[SPEAKER_01]: So just be open to the fact that there's some things that are, you know, outside of our ability to fully rationalize, you know.
43:08
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, yeah, just being open is huge just being open to it.
43:13
[SPEAKER_03]: And I just have to say, like, one, thank you so much for your service and what you did and what you've been through just for our country because.
43:23
[SPEAKER_03]: when you had said in the beginning that, you know, you were getting frustrated with your peers from coming back, people don't realize which you guys go over there and do for us and what you're fighting for and then what that does to you, you know, and what you sacrifice.
43:37
[SPEAKER_03]: So you're not just sacrificing time and
43:39
[SPEAKER_03]: And yes, the potential of getting killed and everything, like you sacrifice so much and for you to be someone that went over there and served and helped and did an experience just so much and probably just perfect things that we can't even wrap our brain around, you know, and we were here in this just privilege life and then you come back and now you've taken all of that experience and now you're teaching others how to heal, maybe not from the same experience of being gone and in war zones and everything, but I just think.
44:09
[SPEAKER_03]: It's amazing what you're doing, Neil, and like you've taken that and that ugly side and that dark side brought it back and like are just helping others in our normal American safe life, you know, to like live from your experience.
44:21
[SPEAKER_03]: I just it just gives me chills.
44:23
[SPEAKER_03]: So like puts a lump in my throat, what you're doing.
44:26
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
44:26
[SPEAKER_01]: No, I love it.
44:27
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's my life's work.
44:28
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm really honored to do it.
44:29
[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't want people, I think it's funny because I don't want people to be thinking about necessarily all the time, all the wars and things going on.
44:46
[SPEAKER_01]: community in your circle and try and, you know, love multiple that are close to you and be aware, be educated, but don't pine on some of these things that are outside of our control.
44:56
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not healthy either.
44:57
[SPEAKER_03]: All right.
44:58
[SPEAKER_03]: What would you leave our listeners with right now?
45:01
[SPEAKER_03]: What's one piece of advice that you would give or any final thoughts that you'd be like, you know, words of meal?
45:09
[SPEAKER_01]: I think meditation is really important and in some ways it gets put into this like bucket of a bunch of other well-being things and I actually think it's its own thing and it's kind of the foundation.
45:21
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I just always encourage people to at some point in your life I would say take a formal course and like it to do on it for a period of time.
45:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and I could I would say that these plants and these experiences, you don't need to be in crisis to get something out of them you could point don't quite well and maybe become more aware or more kind or more connected.
45:45
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, yeah, oh such a good point.
45:47
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, you don't have to be in crisis or necessarily experience something like extremely traumatic.
45:53
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
45:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, or get in front of it, too, you know,
45:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you learn how to take better care of yourself earlier and then you can avoid some avoid some crisis.
46:04
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, exactly.
46:05
[SPEAKER_03]: Neil, where can people find you or follow you or go to a website gather more information.
46:11
[SPEAKER_03]: We'll put everything in the show notes too, but I love hearing from you, too.
46:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, if Beckley retreats, if you just Google Beckley retreats, we'll come up.
46:18
[SPEAKER_01]: OK. You can book calls.
46:20
[SPEAKER_01]: We're super responsive.
46:21
[SPEAKER_01]: You can always talk to a human.
46:23
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's not common for us to have a couple different calls with somebody that's interested in coming down.
46:28
[SPEAKER_01]: So we're happy to do it.
46:29
[SPEAKER_01]: We're really easy to get in touch with.
46:31
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, awesome.
46:32
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, thank you so much for coming on and just spreading the word of just plant based medicine that there is hope that these things are going on in the world, it's not something that's like not realistic or like, you know, something weird happening wherever there that we don't have access to like you're doing it every single day.
46:50
[SPEAKER_03]: So.
46:51
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you again for coming on.
46:52
[SPEAKER_03]: This was this was a true blessing and I just love having more thought leaders and people that have experienced this and are doing this and helping others to let people know or let our listeners know this is real.
47:03
[SPEAKER_03]: This is possible and this could be something for you as well.
47:07
[SPEAKER_03]: So thank you for being part of that now.
47:08
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for having me.
47:09
[SPEAKER_01]: It's really nice to meet you.
47:10
[SPEAKER_03]: New to everyone.
47:11
[SPEAKER_03]: Stay safe.
47:12
[SPEAKER_03]: Stay healthy.
47:13
[SPEAKER_03]: Until next time.
47:17
[SPEAKER_03]: The bottom-life podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only.
47:20
[SPEAKER_03]: The content shared here is not intended as medical, legal, or professional advice.
47:24
[SPEAKER_03]: Always consult with the qualified professionals before making any health fitness, financial, or legal decisions.
47:28
[SPEAKER_03]: The opinions shared on this podcast are personal experiences and insight.
47:32
[SPEAKER_03]: So if you need expert guidance, go find the right professional for you.
47:35
[SPEAKER_03]: Thanks for listening.