Latest / Booker Scott: Truth Be Told / A Gold Star Dad Talks About His Purple Heart Son

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A Gold Star Dad Talks About His Purple Heart Son · Booker Scott: Truth Be Told

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: It's 6 Eastern, 3 o'clock Pacific.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: He's literally the former director of the FBI.
• 0:07
  Speaker 3: He knows exactly what 8647 means.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: From coast to coast and around the world, from America
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Out Loud Talk Radio.
• 0:15
  Speaker 3: But I'm sick and tired of the fact that our
• 0:17
  Speaker 3: president has been targeted over and over again with rhetoric
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  Speaker 3: that clearly calls for the assassination of this man.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: It's time for Truth Be Told with Booker Scott.
• 0:34
  Speaker 4: Memorial Day is more than just hot dogs and hamburgers
• 0:37
  Speaker 4: and family and friends, and all of those things are
• 0:40
  Speaker 4: great and important, and the three-day weekend is great. It's
• 0:44
  Speaker 4: not really about the veterans. That day comes later in
• 0:47
  Speaker 4: the year, and we don't want to take them for
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  Speaker 4: granted at all. We thank them so much for their service.
• 0:53
  Speaker 4: But even the veterans know that this day, Memorial Day,
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: it means something else. It means that the oath that
• 1:01
  Speaker 4: some took to sacrifice their life, they actually did that.
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: And tonight, this hour is going to be about that.
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: About that Memorial Day. Because that's what this day is about.
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  Speaker 4: And we really shouldn't lose sight of that. To do that,
• 1:20
  Speaker 4: and to help us remember what this day is for,
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  Speaker 4: I'm going to introduce you to a Gold Star Dad.
• 1:27
  Speaker 4: He lost his son in Afghanistan. He's been a friend
• 1:30
  Speaker 4: of mine for several years now. His name is Carl Porfirio,
• 1:34
  Speaker 4: and he actually wrote a book about his son. And
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  Speaker 4: we'll get into that. But first, Carl, welcome into the program.
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  Speaker 4: I've never had you here, but I should have. And
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  Speaker 4: I'm so thankful you're here today.
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  Speaker 3: Well, thank you, Booker. I'm honored to be here. I
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: really appreciate the invitation. And any time I get to
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: talk about my wonderful son, it's always an honor and
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: a privilege for me. Yeah, he was Senior Airman Trey Porfirio.
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: And yeah, he was shot in Afghanistan in 2009. He
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: didn't die right away. I don't know how he didn't.
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  Speaker 3: He was shot three times point blank in the back.
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  Speaker 3: And he spent the next year of his life in
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  Speaker 3: Walter Reed pretty much. And he just it was it.
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  Speaker 3: And he just laid down and didn't get back up.
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  Speaker 4: And he was never able to recover. But you were
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: able to you were able to spend some time with him,
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  Speaker 4: I guess, in Walter Reed.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, yes, absolutely. I went many times. Some compliments of
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: Luke Swings. I don't know if you're familiar with Luke Swings,
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: but they're a wonderful organization that provides air travel for
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: families like myself and to, you know, to visit their
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: loved ones at Walter Reed and, you know, to keep
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: us together. And they were just wonderful about it. But, yes,
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  Speaker 3: I went several times. to Walter Reed. And it's, um,
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: if you've never been to Walter Reed or any of
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: your listeners have never been to Walter Reed, it's, it
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: will change your life forever. I mean, when you're, you're
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: seeing children, you're seeing 18 year old men and women
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  Speaker 3: that are critically, critically injured. You know, they talk about
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: that's where the presidents go to get their checkups and yeah.
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: And things like that. And Trey was in the last
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: Walter Reed right before they built the new Walter Reed,
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: I think in Bethesda, I believe it's across the road. Yeah. Um,
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: he was one of the last presidents, patients in the
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: old Walter Reed um that place was almost haunting it
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: was just yeah it was you know there was there
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: was parts of it that were just um very archaic
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: and um it kind of worried me but the doctors
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: and a lot of them were were residents so to
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: speak but he the chief of surgery actually was one
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: that kind of hooked up with Trey and kind of
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: took him under his wing and um He was a
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: guest at the Hope and Love Ball. I don't know
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: if you're familiar with that. It takes place in Miami, Florida,
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: I think, every year. And at the University of Miami
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: Medical Center, it benefits them. And it's called the Hope
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: and Love Ball. And he was the guest of honor
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  Speaker 3: in 2010, February, I think, 2010 at the Hope and
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: Love Ball. And, um, the doctor accompanied him, of course,
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  Speaker 3: and he went along with him and, you know, Trey
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  Speaker 3: could speak, he could walk. Um, people didn't see him undressed.
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: He looked like Frankenstein. He was, he was just cut everywhere. And, um,
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  Speaker 3: I mean, I don't want to, you know, gross any
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  Speaker 3: of your listeners out, but, uh, you don't know the
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: true meaning of exit wounds until you see an exit wound.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, it just, and my son was very tall
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: and thin, so it really devastated his body.
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  Speaker 4: Let's talk about what it felt like as your son
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  Speaker 4: was serving in Afghanistan before he got shot. As the
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  Speaker 4: father of someone in the service, what does that feel like,
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  Speaker 4: knowing that they are in Afghanistan the area where battles
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: are taking place and lives are being lost, and you
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  Speaker 4: know that that phone call could come, the phone call
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  Speaker 4: that you eventually got, it could come at any moment.
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  Speaker 5: What was that like?
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  Speaker 3: It was horrible. My son always wanted to serve in
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  Speaker 3: some capacity. He either wanted to be a law enforcement
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: officer or be in the military or something like that,
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: and then he said he would go on to college
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: during or after. And you know, he, he went straight
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: from high school. I mean, I actually signed him in before,
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: you know, I had to sign on the dotted line.
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  Speaker 3: We were still 17 and we went to the recruiting station.
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: Now we lived, we lived in South Georgia at Kings Bay.
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  Speaker 3: So we were used to the military and he was
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: in NJROTC and, you know, we were surrounded by military,
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: you know, so mariners and all that down there. And he,
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  Speaker 3: like I said, he was very familiar and he, he
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: wanted to serve and, um, selfishly, I mean, I had
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: this– it's funny you say how does that feel because
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: I had this big sigh of relief. When you're in
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: the Air Force, you don't get shot. You don't go
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: to battle when you're in the Air Force. Typically, you're–
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: they jokingly call it the chair force and it's the
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: brains versus the brawn and whatever you want to put
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: it that way. So– He said, Dad, I can't. My
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: son was like 6'3, when he was 18. And he goes, Dad,
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  Speaker 3: I can't join the Navy. He went on a sea
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: cruise with that shirt. He goes, I keep banging my
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: head on the gangways. I can't join the Navy. I'm
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: too tall. So if you're ever around Navy personnel, you'll
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: know what I'm talking about because most of the guys
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: are short.
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  Speaker 4: He's also too big to be a jet fighter pilot.
• 6:45
  Speaker 4: Those are normally pretty short as well.
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  Speaker 3: And so I just took this. So lastly, we were
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: in Brunswick, Georgia, actually, and looked at the recruiter stations.
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  Speaker 3: And he goes, let's check out the Air Force. And
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  Speaker 3: I mean, I got this big sigh of relief. Oh, yeah,
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: the Air Force. He'll be safe in the Air Force.
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: So actually, Booker, I didn't. I actually felt like he was,
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  Speaker 3: even though he was in a combat outpost. So what
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: they do is the airmen don't usually go as a group,
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: as a flight. They go online. the company, the army,
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  Speaker 3: he was a company, an army unit. So he was
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: in what was called the combat outpost in the middle
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: of nowhere in Afghanistan.
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  Speaker 5: What was his job, Carl? What did he do?
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  Speaker 3: He was a communication specialist. He was an 88th communication
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: squadron at Walter, Walter Reed, listen to me at Wright
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: Patterson air force base. That's where he was based out of. So, um,
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: I didn't get, I just, I don't know why. I
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: just felt very confident that he would be okay. And, uh,
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: So it was a shock on top of everything else
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  Speaker 3: when I got the phone call. And I didn't know
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  Speaker 3: if he was going to make it through the day.
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  Speaker 3: I didn't know if he was paralyzed. I didn't know
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: how badly he had to be airlifted from there. An insurgent,
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: they call it an insurgent, but it was actually an
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: Afghan army guy. And we had a certain president that
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: was at the time and You know, he would never
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: speak about things like that. You know, he always wanted
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: to make them look very good and well. And no,
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  Speaker 3: I mean, my son was shot for one reason. He
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  Speaker 3: was an infidel. That was it. He was a Christian.
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  Speaker 3: He was a non-Muslim. And that was this guy's motive.
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  Speaker 3: And he. they went out patrolling and, you know, they
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: have the razor wire around the little camp. And I mean,
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: it was horrible little camp. It was just, I saw him,
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  Speaker 3: I would Skype with them and it was just, it
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  Speaker 3: looks like something out of the mash, the TV show mash,
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: you know, one of my favorites. Yeah. And it was
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: just this horrible little, it looked like something that we
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: would put together as kids book or, you know, the
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: little forks we used to make. That's what it, that's
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: what it looked like. And, uh, but he could Skype me.
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  Speaker 3: So his job was to keep the communications running for,
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  Speaker 3: you know, out in the middle of the desert there.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, he was, that's what his job was. And
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  Speaker 3: I heard that he did it very well. And so
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  Speaker 3: the guys went out patrolling and this guy, the Afghan army,
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: their unit was just, you know, they could see it
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  Speaker 3: from theirs. And they, I guess they were allowed to
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: come in because we were supposed to be on the
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  Speaker 3: same side. So this guy just waited until everybody else left.
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  Speaker 3: And he came in and he shot my son in
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  Speaker 3: the back. I just lost it right then.
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  Speaker 4: And here we are on Memorial Day, and you got
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: to go visit your son's grave over the weekend.
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  Speaker 5: Glad for that.
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: I want to talk, as we wind up here, the
• 9:37
  Speaker 4: story that you wrote, because I believe this is so important,
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: and we have mutual friends that are on social media
• 9:44
  Speaker 4: that help sell this book. Not only that, but I
• 9:47
  Speaker 4: know several that have actually bought multiple copies of the
• 9:50
  Speaker 4: book that you wrote, and they have donated them to libraries,
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: which is a great idea, because The youth in our country,
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: they don't... understand this sacrifice that we celebrate today and
• 10:04
  Speaker 4: this story the book that you wrote is called my
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: daddy's heart is purple it's available at Amazon it's only $ 18. 65
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: tell us a little bit about that book as we
• 10:16
  Speaker 4: get ready to get into this break Well.
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  Speaker 3: My son left behind a son. So he was eight
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  Speaker 3: months old when my son passed and Booker, it just,
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: it just came to me like almost in a dream.
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: And I think, Oh, how old was my grandson? So
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: the book's been out what? Five years now. So I can't,
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: I can't even keep track.
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  Speaker 5: Amazon says 2018. So maybe six or seven. Right. And so,
• 10:38
  Speaker 5: you know, my grandson just turned 15. So, uh, what's
• 10:39
  Speaker 5: 15 minus six, 11, 10.
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: I don't know. He was, And I, I just like
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: dreamed it up and I went out on my patio
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: on my screen porch and with my laptop and I
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: just hammered out this book and it's a children's book.
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: So it's not very long, you know, five, five minutes
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: of reading, whatever. And I did it for my grandson
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: to leave him a legacy about his father. That's why
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: it's called, you know, my daddy's heart is purple. And
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: you know, it was a play on words. A lot
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: of people don't know what a purple heart is or
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: why you get a purple heart. And, And so it's
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: a story of a grandfather, me, explaining to a grandson
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  Speaker 3: what a Purple Heart is. And then in the book,
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: he says, did my daddy have a Purple Heart? Or
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: he says, is my daddy's heart purple? And I started laughing.
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: I said, yes, your daddy has a Purple Heart. And
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: so because he sees the emblem there. on a car. And,
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: you know, you've seen that on, on tags and things
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: like that, you know, and we say tags, don't we, Tennessee? So,
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: so for, for, for your listeners out there, that, that means.
• 11:50
  Speaker 5: A license plate.
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: Okay. So, and that's what it's about, you know, seeing
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: the tag and explaining to a child what the purple
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: heart is and, and about a sacrifice. And so, uh,
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: I never dreamed, Booker, that anybody would see the book.
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: I just didn't. I'm not Dr. Seuss. I just never
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: dreamed that anybody would see it. And somebody sent me,
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: and it was on Twitter, actually, and they had sent
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: me a picture of their little girl holding the book.
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: And it just slapped me in the face. I'm like, oh,
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: my God, there's a perfect stranger there. that just read
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: my book. And I just wasn't prepared for that emotionally.
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: I just really wasn't. And I'm very grateful for the
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: people that have donated to libraries. My dream before I
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: died would be for it to be in every children's library.
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: So like you said, they're not learning about the sacrifice
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: or the services about our military. Moms, dads, aunts, uncles, grandparents, brothers, sisters,
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: all of them. So somebody... know somebody and people don't
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: know what a gold star means they don't know what
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: a blue star means and it's really sad that they
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: don't know this and they like you said that a
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: lot of them don't don't appreciate what memorial day is
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: right you know it's not just a picnic and i
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: have to be honest you know when i was young
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: yeah it was it was a day off it was
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: let's go to the lake.
• 13:21
  Speaker 4: Let's fill up some beers and let's get them in
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: the cooler and let's go have some fun Nothing wrong
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: with any of that stuff either, Carl.
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: No, nothing wrong with it. But then when it happens
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: to you, and then you realize there's more to it
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: than that. We've got to stop. There used to be
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: more Memorial Day parades, I remember as a kid. And
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: people would celebrate it.
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: And that's one story. But the graves across this country
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: are full of all of those stories. Hundreds of thousands
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: have given their lives through the last 248 years so
• 14:00
  Speaker 4: that we can be free. So this day means more
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: than just hot dogs and hamburgers and a cooler of beer. Remember,
• 14:09
  Speaker 4: remember these men, these women that have paid the ultimate sacrifice.
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: Absolutely. And thank you so very much again. I really
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: appreciate it. And I hope you enjoyed your Memorial Day,
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: and I hope everyone of your listeners enjoyed their Memorial Day.
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: But I just want them to take just one minute
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: to think about our men and women in uniform.
• 16:56
  Speaker 4: And welcome back to The Truth Be Told here on
• 16:58
  Speaker 4: Memorial Day. I hope you are having a great one,
• 17:00
  Speaker 4: celebrating the lowest gas prices in four years. No coincidence
• 17:04
  Speaker 4: there that Joe Biden leaves office, Donald Trump comes into office,
• 17:08
  Speaker 4: and we have lower gas prices. But whatever you're doing,
• 17:10
  Speaker 4: this Memorial Day, I hope you are having a great,
• 17:13
  Speaker 4: great three-day weekend. As we get into this segment of
• 17:17
  Speaker 4: the show, we're going to stay here with veterans. I
• 17:20
  Speaker 4: know that it is Memorial Day, as we just talked
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: about with Carl. This day is specifically to remember the
• 17:26
  Speaker 4: fallen on battlefields around the world that have given their
• 17:29
  Speaker 4: lives for America. But another part of that also is veterans. And,
• 17:35
  Speaker 4: you know, we are losing veterans at just a terrible clip.
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: I think the number is over 30 per day now
• 17:42
  Speaker 4: that are committing suicide. I have brought you people in
• 17:45
  Speaker 4: the past that are working to lower that number. Another
• 17:49
  Speaker 4: part of that is what we're going to talk about now,
• 17:52
  Speaker 4: and I'm going to bring on to the program now, Bradley.
• 17:54
  Speaker 4: He goes by The Awake Coach. You can find his
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: website at theawakecoach.com. Bradley, thank you for joining the program
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: here on Memorial Day.
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: It's a pleasure, Booker. Thank you so much for making
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: the time for me.
• 18:05
  Speaker 4: Absolutely. Great to have you. And I think we should
• 18:08
  Speaker 4: probably start our conversation maybe with your background, because I
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: think there are similarities between you and me. I may
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: be a little bit older than you, but I sort
• 18:17
  Speaker 4: of found myself the same spot that you were at
• 18:21
  Speaker 4: the age of about 40. And this was back in 2010.
• 18:24
  Speaker 4: And it seemed like your life after a couple of
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: marriages and a career that you couldn't stand changed. it
• 18:31
  Speaker 4: needed a change and let's talk about that change and
• 18:34
  Speaker 4: let's talk about your life there.
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: It's, it's a, um, it's a familiar story. I'm sure to,
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: to most people, you know, it feels like we go through, um,
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: quarters in our lives a lot, like a football game. And, um,
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: oftentimes these quarters end and we really don't know how
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: to start the next one. You know, the, the end, um,
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: often comes by, um, either the hands of others or
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: the hand of God, right? When we're supposed to be
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: done with something, we're supposed to be done with something.
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: And I found myself at 40 years old in Los Angeles, California,
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: after being there for a little over 15 years, found
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: myself with an eating disorder, an alcohol abuse disorder, and
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: actually found myself homeless after a divorce. It was very,
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: very clear that whatever was left of my old life
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: was ending and ending quickly. And, you know, I went
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: through a series of experiences in the early 2000s, in 2006,
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: with a couple of spiritual teachers that very much changed
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: my life. I was traumatized as a young teenager by
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: I was actually kidnapped by my parents, which, as you
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: can imagine, creates some trust issues, if you will.
• 19:59
  Speaker 4: I was going to say we all have issues probably
• 20:01
  Speaker 4: with our parents, but I don't know that many of
• 20:03
  Speaker 4: us deal with that particular issue with our parents kidnapping us.
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, it was quite singular. I've told this story
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: a couple of times and everybody kind of looks at
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: me like, oh. And so I found myself at 40
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: years old, very much at the end of my rope.
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: And I had always been a different kid. I was
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: reading books. Sufi poetry when I was 12 years old.
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: I was reading, you know, Erich von Däniken' s Chariots of
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: the Gods when I was 13, 14 years old. I
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: was just always a very different kid. And so, you know,
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: I found myself at the end of something. And, you know,
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: over the next 20 years, I did everything I possibly
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: could to educate myself, to repair myself. And one of
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: the mottos of my work is that reinvention is possible.
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: And I went through a very long reinvention process. And
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: out of the back end of that, I hate to
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: use the word enlightened. because there's a lot of baggage, Booker,
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: with that word that goes along with that word. And
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: it can be taken as very egotistical. But I found
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: myself deeply changed and enlightened, very different than when I began.
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: And so, you know, when President Trump began his run
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: for the White House, it just changed me.
• 21:45
  Speaker 4: Would this be in 2016 back in the first term?
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: Well, when I saw him come down the escalator, um,
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: I remember sitting with my roommate at the time and
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: I looked at him and I looked at the TV
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: and I said, there's your next president of the United States.
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: And I knew, and I knew, and, um, you know,
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: I had always been moving towards conservatism. Um, but You know,
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: if you would tell me that 15 years later, I'd
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: find myself on the outskirts of conservative politics and working
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: with patriots, working with conservatives, working with veterans. Honestly, sir,
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: I would have laughed at you. I never was political
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: and I never found myself really caring. I worked in
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: the entertainment industry. And, you know, the gap between the
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: entertainment industry and politics is massive.
• 22:37
  Speaker 4: So let's go back to something you said a few
• 22:39
  Speaker 4: minutes ago. A couple of things.
• 22:40
  Speaker 5: I want to go back.
• 22:41
  Speaker 4: Number one, you said that you felt like a different kid.
• 22:43
  Speaker 4: I can relate to that. A lot of times I
• 22:46
  Speaker 4: felt through my life and as an older adult, I
• 22:50
  Speaker 4: realized that for most of my life, they were trying
• 22:53
  Speaker 4: to put me a square into a round hole. And
• 22:57
  Speaker 4: it just never really worked for the person that I was.
• 23:00
  Speaker 4: And I realized that I needed to embrace who I
• 23:04
  Speaker 4: was as being different and that it was okay. And
• 23:07
  Speaker 4: you mentioned then the Enlightenment. What was that enlightenment for you?
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: So, you know, there was a moment, um, I had,
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: I started to meditate in, um, in college. Now, strangely, I, um, uh,
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: one of the, one of the fallouts of the early
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: traumatic experience of, uh, of my parents was they forced
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: me to go to a private Baptist high school. And
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: at age 14, uh, they made me pay for it. Now,
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: mind you, this was 1983. So tuition for this school
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: was roughly $ 4, 000 back then. And I had to go
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: get a job at a public library shelving books in
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: order to pay for my education. But because I am
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: resilient with a good sense of humor, I took to
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: it very quickly. And at age 14, age 15... my
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: teachers were surprised that I took to scripture very quickly.
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: And they said, Bradley, you're going to make a heck
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: of a pastor one day. And I never quite understood that.
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: I never quite understood that. And after high school, I
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: kind of let it go, but still chased God. And
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: in college, that turned into meditation and some study of
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: Buddhism and some study of Hinduism. I kind of been
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: around the spiritual block. And in 2006, I ended up
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: getting invited to sit with, I guess, what you could
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: call a spiritual master. And one night in a private
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: house in Brentwood, California, near UCLA, to make a long
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: story short, I watched a man disappear.
• 24:54
  Speaker 5: Excuse me?
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: It's, it's a, it's a great story. And one, one
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: day I'll tell you the full story.
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah.
• 25:01
  Speaker 5: You'll have to come back and tell us.
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I, um, he, he changed form. He, um, he
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: turned into a brilliant white light and, uh, I was
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: about three feet, four feet away from him. And, um,
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: and at the end of this experience, he worked his
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: way around the room And the Hindus have a laying
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: on of hands that they call Shaktipat. And this gentleman
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: who's still teaching and still practicing today, he looks like
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: a he's a white guy. He looks like a high
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: school football coach from Muncie, Indiana. You'd never know. And
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: he walked up behind me and he put his thumb
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: where in kind of the area of my center of
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: my forehead. massaged it for about 15 or 20 seconds
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: then ran his thumb up to the top of my
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: head and hit me hard booker hard on top of
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: my head and he quite literally sir cracked me open
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: like i was an egg and um i got back
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: in the truck and uh went to drive uh back
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: to my place in the fairfax district in los angeles
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: and uh And I had to pull the truck over
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: three times because I began to weep uncontrollably. And to
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: be honest with you, sir, that day in June of 2006,
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: that was the beginning of the end of my old life.
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: And that was the end of my marriage. That was
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: the beginning of the end of my career. And four
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: years later, I was divorced, homeless, enlightened, and drunk. If,
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: if that's possible.
• 26:52
  Speaker 4: So how do you go from there to where you
• 26:55
  Speaker 4: are now? What is that story like from being homeless,
• 27:00
  Speaker 4: from being an alcoholic to being the awake coach with
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: that enlightenment?
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: It is, um, let's put it this way, not to,
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: not to get too deep into it. It is, um, patience.
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: It is perseverance. It is, um, it's a lot of
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: God's grace. If I'm, if I'm being honest, I think
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: that I think that we, we come back here to
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: this planet, to this existence over and over in order
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: to learn different lessons each time. And it's, it's very
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: clear to me that there are no accidents. There are
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: no coincidences that everything is happening exactly as it should be,
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: whether we like it or not. And I don't think
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: in the big scheme of things that at age 13, 14,
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: I was forced to go to a private Christian school
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: and learn scripture. I don't think that it was any
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: mistake that I ended up sitting with Buddhist masters and
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: Hindu teachers. And I've attended... every single kind of church
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: you can possibly imagine. And I think that because I'm
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: a stubborn SOB, I think that God was trying to
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: talk to me in a lot of different ways. And
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: that because I was stubborn and not listening, I feel
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: like there was lessons in humility that had to be learned.
• 28:34
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I can relate to that. I absolutely can. Let's
• 28:38
  Speaker 4: weave some of this together. you're 13 or 14 years old,
• 28:42
  Speaker 4: you were forced to go to a Baptist school, and
• 28:45
  Speaker 4: you were forced to pay for it, $ 4, 000 a year,
• 28:49
  Speaker 4: and you took to the scripture real well. And now
• 28:52
  Speaker 4: you talk about this spirituality and Hinduism, and I actually
• 28:56
  Speaker 4: did a paper on that subject and reincarnation myself as
• 29:01
  Speaker 4: a senior in high school. Didn't do very well because
• 29:04
  Speaker 4: there weren't enough resources in the college library that I
• 29:06
  Speaker 4: went to, so that's a different story that I'm not
• 29:09
  Speaker 4: going to get into, but I did manage to graduate anyway.
• 29:13
  Speaker 4: But talk about weaving your belief in God. And I'm
• 29:18
  Speaker 4: assuming you're also a Christian if you also knew the scripture.
• 29:23
  Speaker 4: So how does that work together? Well, that is interesting.
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: You know, at the end of the day, the most
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: basic and most important prayer you'll ever have for the
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: most um, important mantra that you'll ever be given is
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: simply four words Booker. And that is God is, and
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: I am. And I had a series of what I
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: call ecclesiastic seizures back around 2009, 2010, when I was
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: going through all of this. And, um, a couple of
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: ideas were given to me during meditation and prayer. And
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: one of them is a fish does not understand that
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: it's wet and humans don't understand that you're literally swimming
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: in God.
• 30:13
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: And you know, it, with enough, with enough space, with
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: enough time, with enough distance, you begin to understand that
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: if you seek God, You'll find him. You'll find it.
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: It is everywhere. Again, you're in the middle of it.
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: You are a red blood cell in the body of God.
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: And with that comes different responsibilities and, of course, different problems.
• 30:44
  Speaker 5: Yeah, good stuff, Bradley.
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: It doesn't make sense, or do I sound like a heretic,
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: or do I sound insane?
• 30:50
  Speaker 4: No, you don't sound insane. I think that that's what
• 30:53
  Speaker 4: Scripture teaches us as well, that God is— And that
• 30:58
  Speaker 4: we are, and I believe that as a Christian, I
• 31:01
  Speaker 4: believe that's exactly what the Scripture teaches us. And we're
• 31:04
  Speaker 4: taught things by Jesus. His commands are really simple, to
• 31:09
  Speaker 4: love God with all your heart, and like that, love
• 31:12
  Speaker 4: everybody else. And with that, if everybody were doing that,
• 31:15
  Speaker 4: then we would actually be living in heaven and earth,
• 31:21
  Speaker 4: just like Jesus prayed. When they asked, how do you pray?
• 31:24
  Speaker 4: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
• 31:26
  Speaker 4: Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as
• 31:29
  Speaker 4: it is in heaven. And if God's will is to
• 31:31
  Speaker 4: love him and to love each other, then we would
• 31:34
  Speaker 4: all create that heaven on earth. We would create, you know,
• 31:38
  Speaker 4: what Adam and Eve were given at the beginning of
• 31:40
  Speaker 4: the story in Genesis. That's the way I believe as
• 31:44
  Speaker 4: a Christian. And I believe that they both can coexist
• 31:47
  Speaker 4: with one another. We are listening to Bradley. He is
• 31:50
  Speaker 4: called the Awake Coach. and you're hearing some of his story,
• 31:54
  Speaker 4: you can go to TheAwakeCoach.com or also AlcoholFreedomProcess.com, either one
• 32:00
  Speaker 4: of those websites, to connect with Bradley. We're going to
• 32:03
  Speaker 4: connect a little bit more when we come back from
• 32:05
  Speaker 4: this break because we want to get into specifically what
• 32:09
  Speaker 4: he is doing now for the veterans since it is
• 32:12
  Speaker 4: Memorial Day. That is coming up right after the break.
• 34:26
  Speaker 4: And again, we're visiting with The Awake Coach, and that's theawakecoach.com.
• 34:30
  Speaker 4: His name is Bradley. I'm Booker Scott. This is The
• 34:33
  Speaker 4: Truth Be Told here on Memorial Day. I hope you're
• 34:35
  Speaker 4: having a great three-day weekend, enjoying it with family and friends.
• 34:39
  Speaker 4: But let's not forget what this weekend is really about
• 34:43
  Speaker 4: and what this day is about. and that is for
• 34:46
  Speaker 4: the fallen soldiers that have given the ultimate. They gave
• 34:49
  Speaker 4: the sacrifice so that you and I can have the
• 34:52
  Speaker 4: freedoms and the liberties afforded to us according to the
• 34:56
  Speaker 4: Constitution and given by God, those rights of freedom and liberty. Bradley,
• 35:02
  Speaker 4: let's pick up the conversation where we were when the
• 35:05
  Speaker 4: break happened there on us, and let's talk a little
• 35:08
  Speaker 4: bit about what you are doing here for the veterans,
• 35:10
  Speaker 4: because I want to get into that.
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. You know, the, I had a very
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: long struggle with alcohol, very long struggle with alcohol. And
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: it is, it's a very old and sticky problem. And,
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: you know, I attended, I went three go rounds with
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: Alcoholics Anonymous. I also went through several other programs, including
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: Celebrate Recovery, which is 12 steps plus, plus the Bible program.
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: There's a wonderful program out there called Refuge Recovery, which
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: is a Buddhist path to addiction recovery. I went to
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: Smart Recovery, which is basically recovery for the highly intellectual.
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: I mean, I tried everything, one-on-one therapy, group therapy. I
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: even went so far as to experiment with psychedelic therapy,
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: which is a fascinating topic in and of itself. But
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: I found, honestly, Booker, that none of these programs gave
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: you the full story. Alcoholism or alcohol abuse is a
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: 360-degree disorder. It is mental. It is physical. It is spiritual.
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: It is emotional. And none of these groups will give
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: you the full story. You know, there's an old meme
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: out there that says that No one is going to
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: give you the education that you need in order to
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: overthrow them, right? And the same thing goes with these
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: recovery groups, unfortunately. Alcoholics Anonymous has done a great service
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: to a good many people, but it's now 90 years old.
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: I mean, honestly, sir, 90 years ago, we were using
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: leeches as a medical modality. We knew nothing of diet, nutrition, supplementation.
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: We knew nothing about the treatment of trauma. We knew
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: nothing that we know now. And so at a certain point,
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: you begin to ask questions. Unfortunately, I'm a deep researcher
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: of history and conspiracy. And at a certain point, you
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: begin to ask yourself, well, why? why has this program
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: never been updated? And when you begin to dig into
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: it a bit, you find that like all of Western medicine,
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: Alcoholics Anonymous is Rockefeller-based medicine. Back in the late 30s,
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous took a $ 5, 500 loan, a
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: grant from the Rockefellers. And after that, sir, it was
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: the beginning of the end. I mean, Alcoholics Anonymous was
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: beginning to integrate what's known as orthomolecular medicine, which is
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: the study of diet and supplementation for health. Once the
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: Rockefellers got involved, that ended relatively quickly. My goal with
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: the alcohol freedom process is to give the addict or
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: to give the drunk a full education on the how
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: the why we drink and how we can cure ourselves.
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: But you do have to change your diet. You do
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: have to take some supplements. You do have to examine
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: the causality behind why you're drinking. Not only that, you
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: got to look at the hormones because alcohol affects us
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: on multiple levels. So what I've done is I've come
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: up with a very succinct 90 day program addict, everything
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: that they need to know, everything step by step on
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: how to remove alcohol and keep it gone. And it is,
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: it's unlike any other program I've ever seen. And I
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: have chosen one to make it incredibly affordable to civilians.
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: But for the next, at least the next year, I'm
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: going to be making it free of charge to military veterans.
• 39:40
  Speaker 5: And that's awesome.
• 39:41
  Speaker 4: And you know, we have a suicide problem with veterans
• 39:44
  Speaker 4: in this country. You know, the number that was thrown
• 39:46
  Speaker 4: out a lot was 22 per day. And I have
• 39:49
  Speaker 4: seen numbers higher than 30, and there are a lot
• 39:51
  Speaker 4: of great organizations that are doing something. I've had them
• 39:54
  Speaker 4: on this program before, and one of them, he mentioned, again,
• 39:59
  Speaker 4: both of the guys that I've had on the program
• 40:01
  Speaker 4: before that are doing something within their organization for these
• 40:04
  Speaker 4: veteran suicides. They both were Marine officers. They were both
• 40:11
  Speaker 4: Marine officers, and they both had tears in their eyes
• 40:15
  Speaker 4: at the end of our conversation. And when we finished
• 40:18
  Speaker 4: our conversation and continued to talk, the tears became more
• 40:21
  Speaker 4: than that because of what is happening with these veterans.
• 40:24
  Speaker 4: What we do is we take these 16, 17, 18-year-old kids.
• 40:29
  Speaker 4: We teach them how to kill. We provide for them
• 40:32
  Speaker 4: the food and the shelter. Basically, we create a socialism
• 40:36
  Speaker 4: type of system for them. And then when they're 21, 22, 23,
• 40:40
  Speaker 4: we are done with them. They're back into society. And
• 40:44
  Speaker 4: the only thing they know is what they were taught.
• 40:47
  Speaker 4: which was to kill people and to be taken care
• 40:50
  Speaker 4: of for killing someone. And somehow these people, these veterans
• 40:56
  Speaker 4: end up on the street. And in some cases I
• 40:58
  Speaker 4: have learned that that is also what they want because
• 41:02
  Speaker 4: they are back together with a unit where they watch
• 41:04
  Speaker 4: each other's back. And, you know, unfortunately, some of them
• 41:08
  Speaker 4: end up taking their own lives. I have seen that
• 41:12
  Speaker 4: there's data that shows that, that, Some of these organizations
• 41:16
  Speaker 4: are making a dent and lowering that number of veteran suicide.
• 41:20
  Speaker 4: But then alcohol and drugs is a part of it.
• 41:23
  Speaker 4: And I want to go back to something you said
• 41:25
  Speaker 4: a few minutes ago to find out a little bit
• 41:27
  Speaker 4: about you. You went through three different treatment programs. None
• 41:31
  Speaker 4: of them worked. I guess they probably worked for a while.
• 41:34
  Speaker 4: But then you fall off the wagon. What was it
• 41:36
  Speaker 4: that finally made you get to where you are?
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's interesting, right? I get that question fairly often.
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: And I can tell you that the answer is all
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: of it. All of it. Every single bit of it
• 41:53
  Speaker 2: had bits of it stuck, right? Bits of it stayed
• 41:57
  Speaker 2: with me. And so, you know, I never disparage anyone
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: for trying what it is that they try, Booker. It's
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: important that you try everything. If you are currently attending
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: AA and it's not working for you any longer, keep going.
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: Buy something else. Please continue. Because it takes what it takes.
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: You know, we are the sum of our parts. And
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: what we're being asked to do, especially during this period
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: right now, both as individuals and as a collective, is
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: we're being asked to let go. Let go. Let go
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: of what no longer serves us, both again, individually and
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: as a collective. So much more. this reality is either
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: broken outdated or outmoded it just doesn't work anymore and
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: it feels as if especially since coven that we're all
• 42:54
  Speaker 2: being asked to reassess what's vital and what's important what
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: is truly essential to our being and that process of
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: letting go is individual to each addict But with drinking,
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: it's especially difficult because we're constantly, every time we re-dose,
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: every time we re-intake this spiritual elixir that we call alcohol,
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: it drags us backward. It doesn't allow us to go forward.
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: Alcohol is, for lack of a more nuanced phrase, it
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: is spiritual quicksand, sir. And you won't be allowed to
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: move forward in a truly meaningful way. Change will be
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: prevented from happening in your life as long as you
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: make that conscious decision to stay stuck. And because God
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: is the ultimate father, sir, he will let you. He'll
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: let you. He looks at it as if like, okay, well,
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: if Bradley's okay with this, I love Bradley. unconditionally, and
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: I'll let him do this if this is what Bradley wants.
• 44:14
  Speaker 5: You have your own will.
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: You do.
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: You do.
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: And again, I know a great many people who have
• 44:22
  Speaker 2: tried to pray their way out of addiction. And with
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: all due respect, sir, God didn't create the mess.
• 44:33
  Speaker 5: Yeah, you're right.
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: So God's not going to clean it up for you.
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: But the cool thing is, if you take the first step,
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: you remain committed, and you walk the path, regardless of
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: how difficult it is, God will support.
• 44:50
  Speaker 4: And I know a lot of 12-step programs are, you know,
• 44:53
  Speaker 4: they pretty much all include the higher power, whatever that
• 44:58
  Speaker 4: higher power is for someone. But let's talk real quick
• 45:01
  Speaker 4: about your personal shame. when you were going through AA
• 45:05
  Speaker 4: and other programs, when you fell off that wagon, because
• 45:08
  Speaker 4: I know that's a huge part of it for so
• 45:10
  Speaker 4: many people that are going through that addiction.
• 45:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 45:14
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 45:15
  Speaker 2: I mean, you know, there let's, let's put it this way.
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: The shame and the disappointment in self is arguably one
• 45:25
  Speaker 2: of the biggest issues with, with long-term addiction. It's like,
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: Every time we go back to the liquor store, every
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: time we go into the 7-Eleven and the clerk looks
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: at us because he's seen us there for the last
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: six months every day. And he gives you that look
• 45:44
  Speaker 2: and you nod and you smile and you pay for
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: it and you walk out. It's like sandpaper to the soul.
• 45:51
  Speaker 3: It is. It is.
• 45:53
  Speaker 2: And the disappointment in self is what really kills us.
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: And it's sad because we end up in the end,
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: we do it to ourselves. We do it to ourselves.
• 46:06
  Speaker 2: You know, one of the things that I speak about
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: all the time when working with people with alcohol disorders,
• 46:14
  Speaker 2: the timing, Booker, has to be there. The timing has
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: to be there statistically. The numbers are terrible for medical interventions, right?
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: You know, the addict feels like they're being ambushed and
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: it doesn't work. Literally, there's less than a 7% to
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: 10% success rate with medical interventions. The addict has to
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: be at the right place at the right time and
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: really be at a place where they're like, okay, I
• 46:46
  Speaker 2: am done. I cannot do this any longer. I don't
• 46:51
  Speaker 2: want to do this any longer. When you find someone
• 46:55
  Speaker 2: in that place, and that doesn't necessarily have to be
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: a low or a bottom, but when you find them
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: at that time, that's when you can get a great
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: deal done in a very short period of time. You
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: can lead a horse to water and hit it with
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: a Louisville slugger until it drinks. But in the end, Booker,
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: all you got is a dead horse and a broken bat.
• 47:19
  Speaker 2: And who needs that, man? Yeah.
• 47:21
  Speaker 4: So many people say, well, why don't you just quit?
• 47:24
  Speaker 4: Whether it's addiction to drugs or alcohol, just stop. Well,
• 47:29
  Speaker 4: it just can't be done that way. People need help.
• 47:33
  Speaker 4: They have to make the decision that I'm going to
• 47:36
  Speaker 4: be different. And by being different, it doesn't mean stop drinking.
• 47:41
  Speaker 4: You talked about your life and your journey earlier about
• 47:45
  Speaker 4: your parents kidnapping you and what you went through with
• 47:48
  Speaker 4: the Baptist school. And then into Hinduism and learning about that,
• 47:53
  Speaker 4: there was a total process and a metamorphosis of you
• 47:57
  Speaker 4: as a human being and a person to get to
• 47:59
  Speaker 4: where you are. And that's why you just can't quit,
• 48:03
  Speaker 4: because you have to find all of that out, don't you?
• 48:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, every single step mattered. Every single step mattered, man.
• 48:13
  Speaker 2: There were no looking back on it, especially with kind
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: of who I've become at the end of this process.
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: And I'm by no means perfect. I'm by no means done.
• 48:24
  Speaker 2: But I am now in full acceptance and understanding that
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: all of this mattered. All of this was necessary. There
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: were no missteps. Every time I relapsed, sadly, it was necessary.
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: It was necessary. It was like every single time there
• 48:48
  Speaker 2: was more of the old me that needed to be
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: stripped away so I could go and turn into the
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: guy that I am now. When I wanted to mention
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: something to you, you know, you use the word quits.
• 49:02
  Speaker 2: Use the word quit, and I'll pass along a wonderful
• 49:07
  Speaker 2: bit of advice to your listeners who may or may
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: not be in a position where they're ready to take
• 49:15
  Speaker 2: their substance of choice off the table.
• 49:19
  Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: I'll say this. No one likes a quitter.
• 49:23
  Speaker 5: No one likes a quitter.
• 49:26
  Speaker 2: And so I will say this to you. It is
• 49:29
  Speaker 2: of the utmost importance that no one quit any particular
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: substance called turkeys. And that is one of the foundational
• 49:38
  Speaker 2: ideas behind the alcohol freedom process. We do not quit.
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: We taper. We taper down.
• 49:45
  Speaker 5: That's interesting.
• 49:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Right?
• 49:48
  Speaker 2: Because honestly, we know that any kind of repeated substance
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: abuse changes us physically. And by, quote unquote, quitting, it
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: can be very painful. very dangerous physically, mentally, emotionally, right?
• 50:02
  Speaker 5: It can kill you.
• 50:03
  Speaker 4: A lot of people don't know that, that depending on
• 50:06
  Speaker 4: your alcoholism, you will pass out. You could possibly even
• 50:10
  Speaker 4: die if you quit cold.
• 50:11
  Speaker 3: Seizures.
• 50:12
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, no, absolutely. Like I said, you know, it
• 50:15
  Speaker 2: changes so much about our physicality and, and the way, um,
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: the way our bodies function. And so, um, depending on
• 50:22
  Speaker 2: where the student or client is at, um, we will
• 50:27
  Speaker 2: take number of weeks and document our drinking and taper down.
• 50:33
  Speaker 2: It's a lot like the game show. Let's make a deal. Right.
• 50:38
  Speaker 2: If a client is like, Hey, I'm, you know, I'm
• 50:39
  Speaker 2: drinking a 12 pack a day. I go, okay. Can
• 50:43
  Speaker 2: we agree today? You'll only drink 11.
• 50:46
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 50:49
  Speaker 2: And they all laugh at me.
• 50:51
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 50:51
  Speaker 2: They all laugh. They go, Whoa, 11. Yeah.
• 50:54
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 50:54
  Speaker 2: I can, I can do 11.
• 50:55
  Speaker 5: I go, great, great.
• 50:57
  Speaker 2: Let's do 11 for the next three days. I'll talk
• 51:01
  Speaker 2: to you in 72 hours. We'll see how you do.
• 51:04
  Speaker 2: And they come back to me and they go, yeah, no,
• 51:06
  Speaker 2: it's no big deal. I did 11. I go, oh man,
• 51:09
  Speaker 2: that's fantastic. Well, do you do 11 for me for
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: the next two days over the weekend as well? And
• 51:16
  Speaker 2: they go, yeah, Bradley, of course it's, it's no problem.
• 51:19
  Speaker 2: The next week we go down to 10 and to
• 51:21
  Speaker 2: nine and to eight and to seven. I once weaned
• 51:27
  Speaker 2: a fantastic mother of three from Saskatchewan, British Columbia. She
• 51:33
  Speaker 2: was drinking a case of Coors Light a day, sir.
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: We took 45 days and weaned her down to zero.
• 51:45
  Speaker 2: Doing this not only guarantees your physical safety, it takes
• 51:51
  Speaker 2: the risk way down, but it also... establishes self-control. It
• 51:58
  Speaker 2: also gives you a little ego boost, brings a little
• 52:03
  Speaker 2: bit of self-worth back.
• 52:05
  Speaker 4: You know, instead of shame, they are feeling positive, like
• 52:09
  Speaker 4: they are accomplishing something.
• 52:10
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 52:11
  Speaker 3: Correct. Correct.
• 52:13
  Speaker 2: And, and you know, it's, it's wonderful. I can't tell
• 52:16
  Speaker 2: you how relieved people are when they begin to work
• 52:19
  Speaker 2: with me. They're like, Oh, I don't have to quit.
• 52:21
  Speaker 2: I go, no, no, no one likes a quitter.
• 52:24
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 52:25
  Speaker 4: Maybe changing when someone, maybe you're listening to this right
• 52:30
  Speaker 4: now and you have someone in this situation, instead of
• 52:32
  Speaker 4: telling them to quit, maybe you should suggest let's start
• 52:36
  Speaker 4: anew and maybe look at it that way as opposed
• 52:39
  Speaker 4: to quitting. You're listening to Bradley. He is the awake coach.
• 52:43
  Speaker 4: And now you're offering this service free for veterans. Is
• 52:47
  Speaker 4: that correct? If you go to the alcohol freedom process.
• 52:50
  Speaker 2: I'm so excited.
• 52:51
  Speaker 5: Yeah. Talk about that quickly.
• 52:55
  Speaker 2: Well, the drinking culture within the military is toxic. It
• 52:58
  Speaker 2: is the only it's the only pressure release valve that
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: those men and women have.
• 53:05
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 53:06
  Speaker 2: It's what they do. They drink. It's the only kind
• 53:10
  Speaker 2: of stress relief that they have. And unfortunately, when they
• 53:13
  Speaker 2: get out, you know, consistently drinking, especially under the stress situations,
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: it changes the neural pathways of the mind. then you
• 53:25
  Speaker 2: add on trauma to all of that. And at first, um,
• 53:30
  Speaker 2: you know, alcohol seems like a pretty good solution. It
• 53:33
  Speaker 2: kind of numbs you, um, you know, shuts off the
• 53:36
  Speaker 2: voices in your head. Uh, but unfortunately, as most people
• 53:40
  Speaker 2: who have experienced some kind of alcohol abuse, uh, will
• 53:43
  Speaker 2: tell you, um, booze will turn around and bite you.
• 53:47
  Speaker 2: It always turns on you. And I am, um, I
• 53:53
  Speaker 2: think I'm one of the people who understands more than
• 53:56
  Speaker 2: most because of the trauma that I survived when I
• 53:59
  Speaker 2: was younger. I understand what they've gone through. I never served.
• 54:06
  Speaker 2: I never saw combat. None of that. But I, as
• 54:11
  Speaker 2: a patriot, as a conservative, I deeply understand that you
• 54:15
  Speaker 2: and I wouldn't even be having this conversation if it
• 54:20
  Speaker 2: weren't for the service that that these men and women gave.
• 54:24
  Speaker 5: That's right.
• 54:25
  Speaker 2: We, we wouldn't be having this conversation, man. We wouldn't be,
• 54:29
  Speaker 2: we'd be in gulags. We'd be hosting radio shows in
• 54:33
  Speaker 2: the gulags.
• 54:34
  Speaker 5: That's right.
• 54:35
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 54:36
  Speaker 2: And so, um, my, my mentor and I were talking
• 54:38
  Speaker 2: about a year and a half ago while I was
• 54:40
  Speaker 2: putting this program together. Um, I was running a very
• 54:44
  Speaker 2: basic version of this called the sober Patriot a while back. And, um,
• 54:50
  Speaker 2: I wanted to go deeper. I wanted to get into
• 54:55
  Speaker 2: alternative therapies like hypnosis, like EFT or tapping. I really
• 55:01
  Speaker 2: wanted to bring on a trauma specialist who could work
• 55:06
  Speaker 2: with my patients, work with my clients, and really get
• 55:11
  Speaker 2: down to it. My mentor said, Bradley, if you want
• 55:17
  Speaker 2: this to to be as impactful as you want it
• 55:20
  Speaker 2: to be, you need to give it away. Now, mind you,
• 55:26
  Speaker 2: you know, I have a car payment, I have a mortgage,
• 55:29
  Speaker 2: you know, I have a family, et cetera, et cetera.
• 55:31
  Speaker 2: And I was like, well, wait, hold on, give it away.
• 55:35
  Speaker 2: What do you mean give it away? And so after sitting,
• 55:40
  Speaker 2: after being in prayer, after really, really asking, who, how,
• 55:46
  Speaker 2: and why, I should give this away, the message came
• 55:49
  Speaker 2: through one evening very clearly. And that, again, given the
• 55:54
  Speaker 2: toxic drinking culture within the military, the veterans were the
• 56:00
  Speaker 2: most logical choice. And so it's dirt cheap for civilians.
• 56:08
  Speaker 2: My accountant, My accountant grimaces every time I tell him
• 56:14
  Speaker 2: how cheap I'm making this.
• 56:16
  Speaker 5: Well, you do it at scale. You make it up
• 56:17
  Speaker 5: with volume. That's what you do, Bradley.
• 56:20
  Speaker 4: The name of the website is alcoholfreedomprocess.com. If you know
• 56:25
  Speaker 4: a veteran in your life that you would like to
• 56:27
  Speaker 4: have this free service to maybe start a new life
• 56:31
  Speaker 4: for them and put them on a different path, go
• 56:34
  Speaker 4: to alcoholfreedomprocess.com. You can also find out information at theawakecoach.com
• 56:41
  Speaker 4: as well. Bradley, thank you so much for coming on
• 56:44
  Speaker 4: on this Memorial Day.
• 56:46
  Speaker 2: Oh, man, what a blessing. Really, I can tell you
• 56:48
  Speaker 2: that the work that I do, there are no real
• 56:53
  Speaker 2: coaches that work with conservatives, patriots, veterans. There's not a
• 57:00
  Speaker 2: lot of us, man. Most of them are quite liberal.
• 57:04
  Speaker 2: And so to do this kind of work with The
• 57:09
  Speaker 2: people that I work with is honestly, Booker, it's more
• 57:13
  Speaker 2: than I could ever ask for. It's truly a blessing.
• 57:17
  Speaker 2: It's why I get out of bed every day. And
• 57:19
  Speaker 2: for you to notice, for you to give me this time,
• 57:25
  Speaker 2: I'm quite grateful, sir. Thank you.
• 57:26
  Speaker 4: Well, thank you for coming on. And you may not
• 57:28
  Speaker 4: know this, but this is the way I end my
• 57:30
  Speaker 4: show every night. I'm going to do that here in
• 57:32
  Speaker 4: just a second. Before that, I want to tell you
• 57:34
  Speaker 4: that Unleash the Political News Hour is coming up next.
• 57:37
  Speaker 4: The National Security Hour will be after that, and then
• 57:40
  Speaker 4: After Dark with Robin Andrew comes up at 9 Eastern,
• 57:42
  Speaker 4: 6 o'clock Pacific. My name is Booker Scott, and this
• 57:46
  Speaker 4: is the way we ended because of my belief in
• 57:48
  Speaker 4: Jesus Christ. You were told 2,000 years ago that you
• 57:52
  Speaker 4: are the salt of the earth, and salt without flavor,
• 57:54
  Speaker 4: it just has no value. So keep being salty.
• 57:58
  Speaker 5: Get busy. Do something. Make a difference in your life.
• 58:01
  Speaker 5: Have a great night.
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: There is only one truth. You've been listening to The
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: Truth Be Told with Booker Scott on America Out Loud.