Latest / The Christian Reeve Podcast / Exploring Spirituality with Josh Leonard (Part 1) | The Christian Reeve Podcast #335
Transcript
- 0:00Welcome, Welcome back to another episode of the Christian Reed
- 0:03podcast, Jesus Christ, episode 335 today.
- 0:07I've got very special guest. It is of course, Josh Leonard of
- 0:10the Pursuit of Infinity podcast. Now he's been on this show quite
- 0:14a few Times Now. I would say it's around the four
- 0:19or five mark now. I don't know, I've not been
- 0:22counting, but I do remember that the shows that you were on will
- 0:25always like feel good and they're always like big occasion
- 0:30ones. Like you were on episode 200.
- 0:32We did a bunch of like alien conspiracy stuff, which was
- 0:35quite fun. And then also just kind of
- 0:38exploring even like the first time you were on the show that
- 0:41was, I remember that was quite a heart warming kind of show.
- 0:46It was quite a unique straight insight into your mind from the
- 0:50get go, you know, which was really cool.
- 0:54But here we are, you're back on the show after maybe a year.
- 0:57I think it is. How you doing?
- 1:00How you feeling man? I'm good man and it's it's great
- 1:03to be back. I always enjoy talking to you so
- 1:05I really appreciate you having me back on man.
- 1:08It's a pleasure to speak with you too, man.
- 1:10There's there's obviously, you know, you do you do a podcast in
- 1:16pursuit of Infinity podcast. I, I know that you, you do like
- 1:20the show with your brother, but then you also kind of have
- 1:22guests occasionally. And it's like, you know, guests.
- 1:26I think what I've learned over the years is that you can have a
- 1:29conversation with anyone so long as they're willing to have a
- 1:32conversation. But having repeat guests
- 1:35indicates that like you've got like a bit of rapport.
- 1:39You know, I, I see it in much the same way as, as just like if
- 1:45you're going out with a friend that you find quite interesting,
- 1:47you know, it's going to be a good night.
- 1:48It's the same kind of thing. It's like, alright, cool, let's
- 1:52say where we can take this. Let's see where this is going to
- 1:54go. But I, I also kind of side note
- 2:00of this podcast speak, but I was editing old shows and I started
- 2:04doing clips again. I embraced AI even though I've
- 2:08been combating it for years. I but more as I kind of used it
- 2:12as like an editor assistant kind of thing.
- 2:16And it's been invaluable, to be honest with you.
- 2:21And, you know, I was throwing up old clips as well as new clips.
- 2:25And that's when I kind of came across the stuff we'd done in
- 2:29the past. And I was like, damn, yeah, it's
- 2:30been a while since Josh was on the show.
- 2:32Like, we should do that again. Like, I wouldn't feel that way
- 2:36again, you know? Have you have you dabbled of any
- 2:43AI stuff with podcasts or just in general?
- 2:46A little bit I've used it just to help with like wording
- 2:53certain things like when I record intros and stuff like
- 2:55that. If I want to get a certain idea
- 2:57across and I don't know exactly how to say it, I'll throw it
- 3:00into a chat bot or something. But I haven't used it so much in
- 3:05the like actual content creation aspect or even like the art
- 3:09aspect. I was like looking to try to
- 3:11maybe redo the the logo a bit for our podcast and I was using
- 3:16AI for that, but I just didn't like anything it was spitting
- 3:19out at me. And I kind of like, I like
- 3:22creating my own art. Whereas with AI it's like it
- 3:25feels like it's just too easy and you can almost tell that
- 3:28it's AI when you try to do too much with it.
- 3:31I think kind of the way that you're trying to use it as like
- 3:33an editing tool or as just like an assistant is a better way to
- 3:37do it than just like straight up, this is the art spit out
- 3:41directly by AI and just like posting it.
- 3:46Yeah, I so I don't know if it's because I'm an artist or, or if
- 3:51it's just my own personal opinion, but I kind of agree
- 3:56Like that whenever you try and use it for something like that,
- 4:00like for example, I was I for a hot minute, I was, I was in a
- 4:03band recently and you know, they were throwing ideas about band
- 4:10logos and they look cool, but like something about it just was
- 4:13off to me. It's like, well, this wasn't
- 4:14made by a person, so it just lack soul.
- 4:18And I didn't say that. I just, you know, I just was
- 4:20like, yeah, that's cool. And then whatever.
- 4:22But if it's my own thing, I feel like enhancement is useful with
- 4:29AI and that's, you know, it sounds like we're kind of using
- 4:31it for the same sort of thing. Like it's like, OK, let's say I
- 4:34just go into a show and I just, I don't know what to say.
- 4:37I don't know what to do. And it does happen sometimes you
- 4:40get shows like that where I don't know, there's, you just
- 4:43can't find anything online about this person or you're just stuck
- 4:47for questions. You don't really, you like a
- 4:49starting point. It's great for that.
- 4:53And often I'll, if it's really good, I'll use everything.
- 4:56But often it's just like tweaking or taking a few ideas
- 5:00here and there. But I feel like with a good,
- 5:02with a good podcast, you, you want to kind of ad Lib really,
- 5:08you know, you have your questions and that's like your
- 5:11starting point. But you know, we, we've, we've
- 5:13had it on each other's shows where you just don't even touch
- 5:16the questions because you're just having a good time and, and
- 5:19it's flowing naturally. And I do appreciate, obviously
- 5:23everyone does their show a bit differently.
- 5:25Like some people have a very structured, rigid show and it's
- 5:28like question after question, just hitting your marks.
- 5:33But I always wanted my show to be just kind of like a relaxed
- 5:37conversation that was heavily prepared, you know, just like,
- 5:43like, yeah, it feels like I've just not bothered.
- 5:45But actually, you have no idea. You're like, there's so much I.
- 5:49Really agree, man. I completely agree.
- 5:52Often times I'll have a huge list of questions that I'll just
- 5:54like, I've been slaving over for two weeks and then I hit the
- 5:58very first one because I like to try to, I, I, I find that the
- 6:03first question with a guest, especially someone that you
- 6:07haven't talked to ever, is usually the hardest one to come
- 6:10up with. Like how do you launch the
- 6:11conversation? How do you begin?
- 6:13So a lot of times that's the one that I'll plan and like, I'll
- 6:15use that one. And then that's the only
- 6:17question I'll get to. The rest of it is just all ad
- 6:20libbed. You know, it can, it can work
- 6:23the wrong way as well. Like I agree, it sets the tone
- 6:26and it's it's like a, it's like a if I kick the let's say I
- 6:31don't know. This is such a weird analogy.
- 6:34You ready for this, Christians? Weird analogies?
- 6:37Let's say we're on a football field and I've got a football
- 6:40and I've never seen you play, so I don't know what your skill set
- 6:42is. I just kick the ball your way
- 6:44and within about a minute I'm going to know your skill level.
- 6:49And that's not to say we can't play football together, But if
- 6:52it's like I kick the ball to you and you trip over the ball and
- 6:56you fall on the ball and now you're injured, I know we're
- 7:00probably not going to play football today.
- 7:03You see what I mean? Whereas if you start doing kick
- 7:05UPS, you do like a bicycle kick. I'm like, alright, cool.
- 7:09The point being, you know, there are people that have done this.
- 7:14There are people that just need a bit of encouragement and then
- 7:17there are people that just just won't give you anything, like,
- 7:20you know, a tough crowd, tough audience, whatever.
- 7:24I mean, I don't know, I've always seen your show as one of
- 7:27those ones that just kind of knocks out the park every time.
- 7:31Have you had, I mean, it seems that way.
- 7:34I don't know. I've not heard you talk about
- 7:35any bad guests. I guess it's not something you
- 7:37always publicize if you do. But have you had anything like
- 7:41that? Like just something where you it
- 7:43was like throttling the chicken, like you just can't get anything
- 7:46again with analogy. Yeah.
- 7:49Well, yeah, I definitely have. And I do love the analogy of
- 7:52football or soccer in my country, as we call it suck
- 7:57because it is like a game. You know, it's like a, it's like
- 7:59a dance. You know, you're, you're, you're
- 8:01kicking the ball and you're seeing if they can defend and
- 8:04then you know it, you're passing the ball possibly too, if you
- 8:07have more than one person on it on your podcast, you know, I've
- 8:10had episodes where I'm interviewing two people at the
- 8:12same time, which is interesting. It's like a, a different
- 8:15dynamic. And I have had interviews where
- 8:18like I have had to actually go back to my questions that I
- 8:22wrote because we've gone through 5 questions in 5 minutes because
- 8:27their answers are just so like to the point, so short.
- 8:31And I'm just like, oh, I was hoping that, you know, I asked
- 8:33this one question and we could have a 10 minute conversation
- 8:36about the topic, but then they, they wrap it up too quick.
- 8:40And I'm like, oh crap, now I got to move on.
- 8:41And that's, I think the the stage where I have issues.
- 8:45It's not necessary that I've ever had any like bad guests,
- 8:49but sometimes you have guests where you're hoping that they'll
- 8:53elaborate a bit more on a topic and they just kind of fall flat.
- 8:58Isn't that kind of the whole point of a podcast and also kind
- 9:03of a conversation like, you know, like it's like you feel at
- 9:06the dinner table and you're like, oh, Christian, tell me
- 9:09about that time that you did XYZ and I tell the story.
- 9:13But it's a minute story. You just kind of sit in there
- 9:16like, yeah, no, but where's all the pizzazz and the the the
- 9:22meat? You know, like I don't want you
- 9:23to give me a clinical fucking explanation.
- 9:26I want the innards. The what am I?
- 9:29How are you the full? Course, like when you have to
- 9:34ask the questions you had, like you have to poke and dig deeper
- 9:37and force it out of them. And that can be fun sometimes
- 9:41too, because then you can sometimes get things out of them
- 9:43that they didn't normally or like they didn't prepare for.
- 9:46Because every guest usually has like their one home run topic
- 9:50where like you ask them a specific question about a
- 9:52specific event in their life. And like that's the thing that
- 9:55they talk about all the time on every podcast.
- 9:58But sometimes you can get people to like really share some things
- 10:00with you that they normally don't talk about.
- 10:02Like I've, I've had a few podcasts where like one in
- 10:05particular that I haven't actually released yet.
- 10:08And this is like a like a goal of mine sometime.
- 10:11And like, it might sound like a weird goal, but like I like this
- 10:13guy like cried on the podcast, you know, like he like like sort
- 10:18of shed a tear and like got choked up.
- 10:20And I think like that's really cool when you can bring the
- 10:23emotion in like from a topic out of someone, something that they
- 10:28feel so like deeply for. I think that's a really special
- 10:32moment. And sometimes you really get
- 10:33those. Absolutely.
- 10:36And yeah, it's it's it's pretty powerful when that happens
- 10:41because I've discovered that you'll get what the fuck is this
- 10:47live stream chat? Oh, mad.
- 10:51Oh, OK, so I don't have to have that open, right.
- 10:53I've learned something cool. Hey, Vilma, what's going on?
- 10:59I just, I just discovered that I didn't have to keep YouTube
- 11:03open, which is great because that's cool.
- 11:06Cane it cane. It just causes problems.
- 11:09So wicked. All right, there you go.
- 11:10So for anyone, whoever does a stream and a podcast at the same
- 11:15time on Riverside, this is how you do it.
- 11:18But yeah, going back to to what you were saying, I mean, those
- 11:23are powerful moments. You can't script those.
- 11:26I've had a few people cry on my show.
- 11:28I've cried on other people's shows.
- 11:32I think it's good, You know, it's good to show emotion.
- 11:37I've said this before. There's been surprising episodes
- 11:39I've done where, you know, like you say, you asked the right
- 11:42questions, you probe in the right way, and then you get
- 11:45something really powerful. Like, I remember one guy told me
- 11:48about his alcohol addiction, which was completely unrelated
- 11:52to what we were talking about. It just kind of came up, and I
- 11:54said, are you comfortable talking about that?
- 11:57And he was like, yeah. And he just tells me this, like,
- 12:00really powerful story. And I was just like, wow, this
- 12:04was quite early on in the podcast.
- 12:05Like I'd say the first year of the show, I was, I was really
- 12:09trying to kind of figure out what this is, you know, And I
- 12:15think over the years, what I've realized is it's, it's the art
- 12:17of interview. It's trying to adapt to each and
- 12:22every guest and find common ground, but also get the good
- 12:27conversation, you know. But I will say, going back to
- 12:30what you said before about pushing till you get asking the
- 12:33right questions, I don't think it's all on the host.
- 12:36I'd say it's like 7030. I've had guests show up before
- 12:39and there's just nothing. Nothing.
- 12:43Yeah. And I'm like, come on, man.
- 12:45Like, did you come here for a conversation or did you just
- 12:47come here to just piss me off? Because if you did, it's
- 12:51working. Yeah.
- 12:53Like that, responsibility percentage changes depending on
- 12:56who the guest is for sure. I mean, don't get me wrong from
- 13:00the from the guest perspective, like if the questions suck, the
- 13:02questions suck if their host has not done their work, you know,
- 13:07like I get it. Like it's, it's like when you're
- 13:10in an interview. And I mean, I think they do on
- 13:15purpose. But when the interview is like,
- 13:17so tell me about your experience.
- 13:20What have you done? And I'm like the CVS right in
- 13:22front of you, bro. Have you not read it like that?
- 13:26Isn't that the point? You know, I remember one time I
- 13:29was doing a marketing marketing interview because I was thinking
- 13:32about getting back into it and this guy asked me, oh, sum up
- 13:38your marketing. And I was like, well, which part
- 13:41do you want me to talk about? There's like, I don't know at
- 13:44that point, like 5 years experience, different fields.
- 13:47I was like, I don't know, pick a part, like which part do you
- 13:49want me to expand on? Because it could take me like an
- 13:52hour to talk about my time doing this particular project.
- 13:56And he was just like, oh, just sum it up.
- 13:58And I'm like, and so I do. And like he, he was very old
- 14:02fashioned. He just wanted me to just, you
- 14:05know, say the right things at the right times.
- 14:07And I'm like, bro, the world has moved on.
- 14:08Like this is not read the read the CV Stop wasting my time.
- 14:13Like, do you know what I mean? Ask me something to buzz me.
- 14:18I don't know. And.
- 14:19I feel like what you do is more difficult than what I do because
- 14:24what you're doing is like, you're interviewing like every
- 14:28kind of person about every kind of topic.
- 14:31So you have to do like a very specific amount of research in
- 14:35order to, you know, to, to get yourself well versed in whatever
- 14:40they're doing and who within who they are.
- 14:41Like for me, a lot of who I interview are people who are
- 14:44interested in like specific topics that our podcast revolves
- 14:48around, like spirituality, psychedelics and science, like
- 14:51all kind of stuff like that. So if I ever like run out of
- 14:55questions or I don't know what to say, like I can always just
- 14:58kind of reference back to like the interest point, which is the
- 15:01topic at hand because it's always the same type of topic.
- 15:06Whereas with you, like you're always interviewing, just like
- 15:09the gambit man, like all kinds of people.
- 15:14Yeah, it is. It's hard sometimes.
- 15:18There are, there are times when I'm like, did I make a mistake
- 15:21by bringing them on like, but no, I mean, it's fun.
- 15:25It's a challenge. I mean, if you turn around and
- 15:28say, hey, this is the art of interview, you got, you got, you
- 15:32got to stand up to that challenge and really like throw
- 15:34yourself in. And I don't know, I mean, I
- 15:37think sometimes I'm, I'd say more often than not, I'm able to
- 15:41get the best out of people. But yeah, I'm not Superman.
- 15:45Sometimes it's impossible. But like I've always said, if
- 15:48you come willing to have a conversation, we can have a good
- 15:52show, you know, because I get a lot of people that reach out and
- 15:57that I oh, I, you know, I would come on, but I don't feel I'm
- 15:59interesting enough. And I just think that's just
- 16:01such crap, man. Like angry.
- 16:03Like, yeah, everyone's got something to bring to the table.
- 16:06And, you know, a lot of the time people don't even know what they
- 16:12have to bring to the table because they just never really
- 16:15thought about it. You know, like, yeah, I was, I
- 16:19was chatting to my girlfriend on the the other day and I was sort
- 16:23of joking that like one day I'll just have like endless stories
- 16:26for like us and our kids and stuff like that.
- 16:28And then I started thinking about the fact that like, there
- 16:31are things you just forget, like decide that like I've, I've
- 16:35worked like every job you can imagine.
- 16:37And it's, it's getting comical at this point, like how many
- 16:39jobs I've had. But like, it's, you know, you
- 16:43forget about things and then something obviously triggers it
- 16:46in your mind, you know, some random memory or a person or a
- 16:50thing. And then you're like, oh, yeah,
- 16:52oh, yeah, that thing. And then it's like, you know, 15
- 16:56other memories come on the top of that.
- 16:57And then it's like, oh, you know, and then it's a whole
- 17:00thing, you know. But yeah, maybe I guess the
- 17:08point I'm trying to make is, I guess it comes from tapping into
- 17:13that. If you sit down and look at your
- 17:15life as a whole, there's a lot that you can unpack, learn from,
- 17:19talk about and and then from there, it comes down to just how
- 17:25you tell the story, you know, how you lay it out.
- 17:29I think a lot of the time people kind of think, oh, I'm not
- 17:31interesting, but it's not that they're not interesting.
- 17:34They're just maybe not great at laying out their story.
- 17:37And it's like, you could work on that.
- 17:39You can become a good storyteller.
- 17:40You know, it doesn't have to be grandiose, it just has to be
- 17:43like real and you paste, I guess, you know.
- 17:50And from the heart, that's the main thing.
- 17:52You know, if if you're genuine about the story that you're
- 17:55telling and you're expressing the way you felt in the moment,
- 17:58then it doesn't matter if you're super articulate.
- 18:01If you're you know, if you've read a million books and you're
- 18:03able to like, you know, yeah. And you have this vast
- 18:06vocabulary, it doesn't necessarily matter because some
- 18:08of the best episodes are like some of the best podcasts.
- 18:11Actually one of my favorite podcasts I've listened to in a
- 18:14little while, but I used to listen to it all the time is the
- 18:16Shawn Ryan Show. And he's not like this like
- 18:20insanely smart, articulate guy. Like he's definitely a smart
- 18:24guy, but his his questions are very basic.
- 18:26And that's OK because you're again, like you're trying to
- 18:29extract the like emotional state of the person during whatever
- 18:33moment they're trying to share with you.
- 18:35And I think that's the the main focus.
- 18:39Yeah. And you know, I always say to
- 18:41people that like for me, one ethos I live by is less is more.
- 18:46You know, you can ask really complex questions or, or delve
- 18:50into complex matters, but that's not necessarily the mark of a
- 18:53good conversation or, or even a smart person.
- 18:56Like I've met, you know, on paper smart people.
- 19:00And then there's just nothing. There's no substance.
- 19:03There's no, you know, it's just book smart.
- 19:06It's it's like, yeah, OK, that's impressive.
- 19:08You've committed all this to memory, but what does it mean?
- 19:10What's the significance? You know, I'd argue life
- 19:14experience a lot of the time is worth its weight in gold in
- 19:17comparison to academia. You know, obviously it depends
- 19:20what we're talking about. There are some things that are
- 19:23invaluable to life. Like if you're like a
- 19:25mathematician, you're literally using the building blocks of
- 19:27existence, you know, so that's obviously going to be really
- 19:31important. But if we're like, oh, I'm, I'm
- 19:34new, I'm an expert in like, I don't know, business or
- 19:38something. Anyone can learn that, you know,
- 19:41it's not, and real business is not study.
- 19:45It's, it's, it's about doing, it's about psychology and, and
- 19:48timing and there's all these different elements that you
- 19:51learn in life. Yeah, I remember my first
- 19:54marketing job like, nothing I learned that university was in
- 19:58any way used in that job. I had to start from scratch.
- 20:03And I realised like, oh, so this is what marketing is.
- 20:06I don't know what that thing we they taught us at uni was, but
- 20:09that's not marketing, that's just bollocks.
- 20:13Anyway, Speaking of bollocks, let's talk about spirituality.
- 20:20I'm scared. Believe it or not, we've got a
- 20:25topic today. So we were thinking, yeah, we
- 20:30were thinking about talking about something, obviously
- 20:33talking about something. And but I just didn't have any
- 20:36ideas. Like I I could talk to Josh
- 20:38about anything. As you see, we've just talked
- 20:41for about 20 minutes right there.
- 20:43And it's quite, you know, but there I, I didn't know what to
- 20:46talk about because we've already covered quite a lot.
- 20:48What's up, Joseph? I do.
- 20:50And then you pitch the idea of spirituality.
- 20:53And I was like, we've kind of skirted that issue a little bit.
- 20:56We've covered a little bit, but we've not done like a sort of a
- 20:59deep dive on it. So I'll throw the definition in
- 21:04and I'll get into my next question for you.
- 21:06So I got, I got like two different definitions because
- 21:12when I started just delving into this, I mean, it's, it's a real
- 21:17rabbit hole. And it really depends on what
- 21:19angle you're coming at because there's the religious side,
- 21:22there's also just spirituality on its own.
- 21:25And then there's like a litany of different theories out there.
- 21:29And also it's difficult, from what I found to come across
- 21:34reputable links. There was a lot of just like
- 21:36random websites. I found that, you know, there's
- 21:39no scientists or, you know, people that are in some way
- 21:44studying the field. It was just like random
- 21:47websites. And obviously you have to be
- 21:48really careful in this particular topic because you
- 21:52just get a lot of people that are just chatting nonsense or
- 21:58are like charlatans and they're trying to sell you something.
- 22:02So the definitions I have here, the first one is spirituality is
- 22:06the quality or state of being spiritual or of being attached
- 22:12to or concerned with religious questions and values broadly
- 22:16conceived? The term is also frequently used
- 22:20in a non or even anti religious sense.
- 22:23Interesting to designate a preoccupation with or capacity
- 22:28for understanding fundamental, moral, existential or
- 22:33metaphysical questions, especially regarding the nature
- 22:36of the self or soul or person, depending on what you believe,
- 22:40the meaning of life, the nature of mind or consciousness, and
- 22:45the possibility of immortality. Now that one comes from
- 22:49britannica.com and I've got another little short one here.
- 22:53Spirituality is a broad concept with room for many perspectives.
- 22:58In general, it includes a sense of connection to something
- 23:01bigger than ourselves. And that's from taking charge
- 23:04dot CSH. It says Edu.
- 23:07So I was like, OK, there's some studies there.
- 23:10There we go. There we go.
- 23:12So my first question to you, Josh, when did you first become
- 23:16aware of spirituality? Great question, great question.
- 23:21I would probably say for me it was around 2013, fourteen,
- 23:28something like that. Because before that, well, you
- 23:32know what, maybe not, it may have been earlier.
- 23:35Because I think spirituality, as all those definitions has laid
- 23:39out, is such a wide-ranging and broad potential topic that it
- 23:43ranges from like religious people all the way to, you know,
- 23:48scientific atheists. Because in my opinion, like even
- 23:51scientists and people who value that perspective, like that's a,
- 23:57that's a form of spirituality because it includes something
- 24:00that's higher than yourself, whether it be the process of the
- 24:02universe or what you know, whatever it may be.
- 24:04So I feel like without knowing about it, like without actually
- 24:08acknowledging it, I was delving into the spiritual world through
- 24:12science because I was like a staunch atheist for such a long
- 24:15time. And then I, I, I stumbled upon
- 24:18this book and it was called Biocentrism by a guy named
- 24:22Robert Lanza. And it talked about and a theory
- 24:28of reality where consciousness is fundamental as opposed to
- 24:33space-time. Because currently under the
- 24:36scientific paradigm that we all kind of learn in school and
- 24:39we're all brought up in generally space and time, just
- 24:43like the, the relationship of space-time is fundamental to
- 24:47reality. All of all the physical reality
- 24:49exists within this realm of space-time.
- 24:52And this theory really got my mind going of, you know,
- 24:57consciousness actually being fundamental and space-time being
- 25:01a layer above that. And that really catapulted my
- 25:07spiritual thought processes. And, you know, that led me to
- 25:13sort of the spiritual philosophies of the East and
- 25:19some of the more odd spiritual philosophies where consciousness
- 25:24is fundamental and they talk about the soul and the spirit
- 25:27and that type of thing. And it also, I, as an atheist, I
- 25:31was the kind of person that really did not have any room in
- 25:35my mind for religion. And it got me to soften that up
- 25:40a bit enough to the point where like now, like, I really respect
- 25:43religions and I, you know, I understand, you know what, like
- 25:47what they're pointing to. We can get into that too, if
- 25:49you'd like. But yeah, my, my spiritual
- 25:51journey, I feel like now looking back on it, maybe it started
- 25:55when I was a baby and it just continued all up until now.
- 26:00And I just didn't know it until I I knew it, yeah.
- 26:05It's a little bit to unpack there.
- 26:06I think with the religious side of things, you can't talk about
- 26:11spirituality without talking about religion.
- 26:13They kind of come hand in hand for myself, just like you,
- 26:19atheist for many years. I would say I sit agnostic now
- 26:23because like yourself, I've seen in religion elements that I
- 26:28like, respect, etcetera. I don't, I don't like organized
- 26:33religion as concepts. I'll just say that now.
- 26:37It freaks me out. I like the positive things it
- 26:42can give people on an individual basis, you know, the power to to
- 26:48like, you know, believe in oneself to keep going, to push
- 26:51through hard times, structure. Sometimes it can save people
- 26:57from themselves. You know, there's a lot of
- 26:58positives to it, but there's also a lot of negatives.
- 27:03And, you know, I always point my finger more at like, people
- 27:08rather than the concept itself, you know, because it isn't
- 27:12inherently bad or evil. It's, it's all about the
- 27:16direction people take things in. Sometimes it can be really
- 27:18positive, sometimes really negative.
- 27:20Like I worked to an event the other day and it was for a
- 27:24charity, I think. I wouldn't necessarily say they
- 27:28were a Christian charity per SE, but there was like music that
- 27:32was being played that was Christian stuff.
- 27:35And, you know, clearly a big religious theme in it.
- 27:38I think it was like an American family put money into a trust or
- 27:42something and then it'd become like a global foundation or
- 27:44whatever. And that's great, That's fine.
- 27:47But the, The funny thing I've found over the years is it's
- 27:51always like whenever I'm dealing with like really difficult
- 27:53clients, like awful, awful clients, a lot of them are
- 27:57charities. It's like just some of the worst
- 28:00people work for charities honestly, like really horrible
- 28:03people. Not everyone.
- 28:05There's some really good people out there.
- 28:07And the same is true in organized religion.
- 28:09Like, you get a lot of people who, quite frankly, are not good
- 28:13people. You know, they preach it you
- 28:16about how you should be living and what you should or shouldn't
- 28:19be doing. And I always kind of looked at
- 28:22that like hypocrisy, like, you know, practice what you preach.
- 28:27You know, you're going to tell me I'm a bad person and then
- 28:31look at how you're treating people.
- 28:33You know, I'm pretty sure in in your book or your religion, it
- 28:36doesn't say anything about like, you know, disrespecting people,
- 28:41looking down on people and so on and so forth.
- 28:45But anyway, my point with all of this is that because of those
- 28:51feelings, I've always kind of looked at this and gone.
- 28:54All right, it's it's not something I could fully ever
- 29:00commit myself to believing in because I just don't agree with
- 29:02the concept. I don't agree with how it's
- 29:04handled. But when it comes to things like
- 29:07spirituality, that's a whole other thing.
- 29:12There's we spoke about it when we were talking about near death
- 29:15experiences that that kind of came from all around the world.
- 29:21And naturally there would have been a lot of like religious
- 29:23experiences as well. And they all kind of followed
- 29:26the same be if you like, they all had the similar story,
- 29:31similar feelings, similar vibe. And that to me suggests that
- 29:35like spirituality is almost like a concept beyond religion.
- 29:40Like religion is this man made thing and spirituality is this
- 29:44thing beyond our understanding. This, you know, for, for
- 29:47religious people, they say it's a connection to God or, or
- 29:51feeling that they've maybe had this ethereal experience,
- 29:55something they can't explain. But it must be that I can
- 29:58understand why they would feel that way because it's not
- 30:01something you could explain within our world as being
- 30:05anything logical. You know, some people try to
- 30:08explain it away and say, oh, this person hallucinated or, you
- 30:11know, it was just, I don't know, temporary brain wave or
- 30:16something. And it's like, I get what
- 30:17they're saying, but I think sometimes you have to be open to
- 30:20the possibility that maybe these things are beyond our level of
- 30:23understanding when it comes to the relationship between
- 30:30religion and spirituality. Like, what do you think the
- 30:34significance of that is? Like why are they so tied
- 30:39together? Well, I definitely think that
- 30:42spirituality is or like the spiritual realm is like the
- 30:46underpinning of our physical reality.
- 30:50I think it's more foundational than physical reality is.
- 30:53And what religion seems to me to be is the human endeavor of
- 30:58trying to map out the spiritual realm.
- 31:00And with any human endeavor, there are many errors involved.
- 31:05I feel like each religion is pointing to the same thing but
- 31:11doesn't actually get the answer right because the answer is
- 31:16unobtainable. In my opinion, it's the ultimate
- 31:18mystery and that's kind of what makes it interesting.
- 31:21That's what makes spirituality spirituality.
- 31:23It is. It is an endless mystery.
- 31:26And when you start to go down the rabbit hole of discovering
- 31:30it, First of all, I, I think that the right way to go about
- 31:35it and like what religions do is like a lot of them, at least on
- 31:39like a, like a basic level, they try to ask the question like,
- 31:43how can I worship the ultimate? Like, how can I worship God?
- 31:48But I think a better way to go about it is just to strictly ask
- 31:52yourself like, who am I And investigate who you are?
- 31:56And then what you find is that you are that thing.
- 31:59You are God and everyone is. We are all connected in that
- 32:04way. And I think that's the best way
- 32:07to start your investigation and to continue your investigation
- 32:10is to keep that in the back of your head.
- 32:11Like who am I? What am I?
- 32:13Because that is the foundation of the answer, or at least
- 32:16beginning to answer some of the questions.
- 32:19Because as you get, as you answer some, some of those
- 32:22questions about spirituality to yourself, the only thing that
- 32:26happens is the the number of questions that then arises from
- 32:29that answer just multiplies. It's just question after
- 32:32question after question. It gets more complex the deeper
- 32:35you go. This is why I sometimes get
- 32:38frustrated talking to religious people because I feel like to a
- 32:42point their mind will close and they'll be like, well, I don't
- 32:46believe in any of that. Or, you know, this is what I
- 32:50believe. It has to be this.
- 32:51And I'm like, shouldn't you always keep your mind open?
- 32:56But then, but then the point is, and like ourselves, they have
- 33:01accepted a certain way of doing things and a certain belief
- 33:05system. And within that belief system,
- 33:08there are limits. And that was maybe the biggest
- 33:12reason why I couldn't accept any religion and like follow it
- 33:15because I can't deal with like limitations and restrictions.
- 33:19To me, you have to keep your mind open at all times because
- 33:23you can then you can always receive new information and you
- 33:27can always, as you say, question everything.
- 33:29And perhaps that's the most important thing about being a
- 33:33human is to never lose that ability to question things.
- 33:39You know, like even just something simple, like, OK, now
- 33:42I know this thing, but why do I know this thing?
- 33:44Why is it that it's this way? Why is it true that just because
- 33:51they tell me it's that way, could it have been something
- 33:53before you? I mean, like there's a litany of
- 33:56questions and it's great to be in that mindset where you can
- 34:00just continually question things.
- 34:02And I think that then helps you to understand more about
- 34:05yourself and the journey. Because if you start getting
- 34:09into that mindset, you will question literally everything in
- 34:12your world and suddenly your world changes.
- 34:16Like, I wasn't going to bring this up, but I just, I just say
- 34:19it like I don't like the way the world is right now.
- 34:23I find it, it's kind of feels like we're living in hell.
- 34:32I'm not saying the world has always been perfect by any
- 34:34means, but when I look at like people's behavior, the lack of
- 34:41compassion in society, all the things that like when we were
- 34:47younger were there, I like missing.
- 34:49And you could argue that's generational differences.
- 34:52And obviously like the state of the world then has an impact on
- 34:57people, much like, you know, people in wartime were of a
- 35:00certain ill can built a certain way and that then affected them.
- 35:03Like that much makes sense, of course, but we've gotten to a
- 35:06point now where it's almost like a lot of the time the world is
- 35:11devoid of compassion and people were just attacking each other.
- 35:15And it it just doesn't feel very safe or comfortable or like a
- 35:21like a world that I even really recognize anymore.
- 35:24And I'm not saying that everyone is like that.
- 35:26Like if anything that makes you appreciate the people that
- 35:30aren't like that, like, you know, makes you appreciate good
- 35:33people, good times, good experiences.
- 35:35But I feel like a lot of the time it's like you're trying to
- 35:38search for those moments that feel like beautiful, that feel,
- 35:44I don't know, to my mind, like normal And everywhere you go, a
- 35:49lot of the time you just don't see it.
- 35:51Like, I don't know if that's just city life or if that's just
- 35:54the times we're living in or whatever.
- 35:56But when I, when I think about, you know, the concept of
- 36:00spirituality and people's belief systems, I'm not saying that
- 36:06like that's necessarily the answer, but I do think that
- 36:09believing in something bigger than yourself, having something
- 36:12to work towards, being in this mindset where you can keep
- 36:16pushing forward and growing, it gives you purpose.
- 36:19And when you have purpose, you have a direction, you, you can
- 36:23get through a lot of things, you know, like, if I take like my
- 36:27life as an example, I'm not in a position I want to be.
- 36:33I've had so many failures over the years, so many setbacks.
- 36:38It's affected me emotionally, physically, in every way you can
- 36:41imagine. And at this point in my life
- 36:45now, the only thing that's really left is to just keep
- 36:49going, to keep seeing where the tunnel leads, you know?
- 36:55But there's this part of me that's like, never give up.
- 37:00That's not an option. And maybe that's stubbornness or
- 37:05maybe that's a belief in something bigger.
- 37:08I don't know. But I just, when I think about
- 37:10that, it just feels like that can never be the option because
- 37:16like that would be true defeat and that would be like almost
- 37:22like a cardinal sin. I don't know, like it.
- 37:23This feels like just it's out of the question.
- 37:35Where do you stand on on all of that?
- 37:37Like what? What drives you, Josh?
- 37:46Man, that's a great question. I do sort of feel the same as
- 37:51you. There's like sort of this fire
- 37:53in my soul or something like that that keeps me going.
- 37:58And I think it's like a love of life itself.
- 38:03And a lot of it is gratitude. When I wake up in the morning
- 38:08and I see that the sun is out, I just feel so grateful to be
- 38:12alive. And I just feel so grateful that
- 38:14I get to look up at this beautiful sky that's in front of
- 38:17me and that I have like, my dog and my girlfriend and like, you
- 38:21know, all the people in my life and things like that.
- 38:23When I start to get caught up in thinking of myself as a failure,
- 38:28that just sort of it brings it back, you know, to gratitude.
- 38:33And I think the spiritual experiences that I've had are
- 38:41where that is grounded from because I was at a point before
- 38:46I had any sort of spiritual inclination, where again, like
- 38:50the atheism breeds nihilism to a degree.
- 38:55Nihilism just sort of manifesting itself as you
- 38:59looking at the world as if nothing matters and there's no
- 39:02meaning. And I've already achieved
- 39:04everything that I'm capable of and I'm worthless.
- 39:06And you know, this like weird, like mechanistic judgement of
- 39:14yourself based upon like the rules of the societal game or
- 39:18something. You know, if I'm not, you know,
- 39:21if I don't have like this massive career with all this
- 39:23money that I'm a failure or something.
- 39:25And you know, the, the spiritual experiences that I've had
- 39:29brought me back into myself and who I am and what I am and
- 39:32appreciating that I am connected to everything and everyone.
- 39:37And I can go outside and I can look at a tree and I can say,
- 39:40this might sound weird, but I can say like that tree is me,
- 39:43You know, like the, we are all just like manifestations of, you
- 39:49know, the universal intelligence of creation or something, You
- 39:52know, a scientist would say the, their, their phrase for this is
- 39:55we're all made of Stardust. We're all made of the same
- 39:57stuff. And there's different ways to
- 40:00say it. Science will say it one way,
- 40:01religion will say another. My flavor of spirituality will
- 40:05say another way. But I think it comes down to,
- 40:08you know, to gratitude. And I would like to go back to
- 40:11something that you said before where you say, you know, people
- 40:14sort of like. We feel like we know already.
- 40:17We like, know everything or something, you know, like we
- 40:20have answers. Like religion likes to claim
- 40:22that they know they have the answer.
- 40:24And if you don't know what they know, then you're wrong.
- 40:28And I like to ask myself like, what does it even mean to know?
- 40:32Because I don't feel like you can know spirituality.
- 40:35You can only be it. And there are different methods
- 40:39of being it. And I think that's when you
- 40:41truly can get a grasp to begin to understand what it is, when
- 40:47you can be it through spiritual practice.
- 40:52Well, let's explore that a little bit.
- 40:53I mean, I've always thought it was more of a belief system.
- 40:57You're saying it's something you can be.
- 40:59So what does it mean to be spiritual exactly?
- 41:02Well, I think that depending on your preferred flavor, you know,
- 41:08that's definitely going to change.
- 41:09There are, and I think spiritual practice is just the basic
- 41:13undertone of like what you would need to do.
- 41:15Some people, they go to the ashram in India and they
- 41:20meditate there for months and months and they only eat rice
- 41:23and, you know, they do their thing and they sweep up the
- 41:25ashram until they've touched God.
- 41:28You know, for me, I like to take psychedelics.
- 41:33And to me that that brings me to the experience of God.
- 41:37It almost puts you in the room with God, so you feel it, you
- 41:41become it. That's sort of the essence of
- 41:44meditation. When you meditate deeply enough,
- 41:47you start to merge with and become the thing that exists
- 41:51beyond your physical reality, whether you consider that your
- 41:54soul or consciousness itself. But I think that's the essence
- 41:59of it is finding a practice that works for you that allows you to
- 42:04merge with the thing and become it.
- 42:06As opposed to just like reading about it is that it's kind of,
- 42:09as you said earlier, you know, you can read about something.
- 42:12You can like in terms of academia, you can, you know,
- 42:17study all you want, but the real life experience of something is
- 42:22what's gonna gonna get you there.
- 42:23And most people don't believe it's possible to experience God
- 42:28or to experience spirit. And I just use the word God
- 42:31because that's like the word we all use for it's, it's, it's the
- 42:34best word. I think maybe source is a good
- 42:37word for it too, but a lot of people don't believe that you
- 42:41can actually become that thing. They just think that you got to
- 42:43sit in a Pew and have somebody that's at the helm tell you
- 42:47about it. But in reality, when you start
- 42:49to ask yourself these questions of who am I, What am I, what is
- 42:53really going on here, that's when you can actually start to
- 42:57adopt the practices that allow you to feel it and to be it.
- 43:05The closest thing I could compare that to is when there's
- 43:09been moments in my life where I've even pushed through like a
- 43:15really dark, difficult time or I'm struggling with something.
- 43:19Could even just be something as simple as like a really tough
- 43:21shift to workplace. And you know, you're, you're
- 43:27drained, you're, you're just exhausted.
- 43:31You know, you're running on reserves, you're falling apart.
- 43:33And then you just start talking to your kind of inner self and
- 43:37you're like, come on, push through this.
- 43:40Come on, just dig deep. We can, we can do this.
- 43:43And then you find that you actually do it.
- 43:48Or like, maybe you're running in a race and you somehow find what
- 43:55you need to get through it and finish it, you know?
- 43:57And, and it's like, I think moments like that are maybe
- 44:02tapping into that higher thing that was sort of discussing or
- 44:05trying, trying to explain in so many words.
- 44:08But the most like powerful example for me was sometimes
- 44:12like when I'm on stage and I'm performing and I'm really just
- 44:18feeling it and with the music, like I forget where I'm at.
- 44:22I forget what's going on and I'm just, I'm just in the feeling in
- 44:25the moment, you know, And it just feels like I'm at 1.
- 44:29I know it sounds like a really kooky and stuff but like I'm at
- 44:32one with the music and not at. All man.
- 44:35Not at all. I think you've nailed 2 huge
- 44:39methods of spiritual practice, physical like physicality,
- 44:42physical competition and music. Music probably being like one of
- 44:46the absolute peaks of spirituality and like that flow
- 44:50state you're talking about. You know I got.
- 44:52Flow state, yes. You know, I'm not very musically
- 44:55inclined. I love music, but I, I don't, I
- 44:58don't play music, but I, I can relate to the first example of
- 45:02like, you know, running and like pushing yourself, you know,
- 45:05'cause I was a wrestler in high school or, and you know, from
- 45:08elementary on up. And I competed in boxing after
- 45:11that. And I remember like being in the
- 45:14ring looking at this guy in front of me who like, wants to
- 45:17hurt me and I want to hurt him. And, you know, we're pushing
- 45:20each other to the Max and I'm getting hit and I'm hitting him.
- 45:23And like you have to dig so deep in yourself to pull out like
- 45:30what it takes to continue on and to like to fight a person who's
- 45:36trying to hurt you. It's like they, it takes you to
- 45:39like the depths of who you are. And that's the same thing like
- 45:42with the running. And like you were talking about,
- 45:43like you're telling yourself like, come on, like keep going,
- 45:46keep going. And it's interesting to ask
- 45:48like, who were you talking to? Like who's who's talking?
- 45:51Like who's asking the question? And like, who are you asking the
- 45:53question to? Who's calling the shots?
- 45:57It's a big one. Yeah.
- 46:00Because there's lots of theories, isn't there?
- 46:02There's like, oh, it's like The Sims and someone's controlling
- 46:04us or, oh, it's all predetermined and we decided
- 46:08this in the clouds or other people are like, it's in the
- 46:12moment. You know?
- 46:15One thing I wanted to comment on that you said earlier, right at
- 46:19the beginning was about, like, space-time and our understanding
- 46:21of it. So I'm a nerd.
- 46:25Sorry I was rewatching Star Trek recently and I'm still for I
- 46:32think I'm like 2-3 seasons in. I love next Gen. it's probably
- 46:36my favorite. They had a lot of pretty out
- 46:40there episodes, but some of them really delved into belief
- 46:44systems and understandings about space and time.
- 46:48And there's it is one in particular that I thought kind
- 46:53of fits in quite well with our conversation.
- 46:57So they come across this guy called the traveller and
- 47:03basically Wesley, this younger impressionable kid, like starts
- 47:10taking an interest in him and he's he's described as being
- 47:13like quite a really, really smart boy picks things up way
- 47:16too quickly. He ends up being like sort of a
- 47:19semi part of the crew, the comic acting and some, but he's he's
- 47:23like constantly working on engineering stuff and and like
- 47:28flying the ship, stuff like that.
- 47:29So you know he's part of the crew anyway, he is talking to
- 47:38the traveller and the traveller is kind of in disguise.
- 47:41He's like pretending to be this assistant, but actually he's
- 47:44running the show. He's like using it as a, as a
- 47:49method of travelling, but not in the traditional sense.
- 47:55And he starts like the best way I can describe it is, is like
- 47:58phasing in and out of reality. And they have a dialogue at one
- 48:02point where Wesley kind of says to him like, oh, is it because,
- 48:06you know, space and time and everything is not as we think it
- 48:10to be. And it's actually like this and
- 48:12the travellers, like you shouldn't know that yet.
- 48:15What? Like, how do you know this?
- 48:18And basically it wraps up with them saying like, look, he, this
- 48:24is a special boy, keep this to yourself, but push him in the
- 48:27right direction. One day he'll be ready for XYZ.
- 48:31Anyway, the thing that I took away from that episode is, is
- 48:34that concept of how we understand space and time.
- 48:39So to have fun with it, what if I told you that the past, the
- 48:46future, the present don't exist and they've all either happened
- 48:51at the same time or are not happening.
- 48:54Or, you know, this idea of time itself that we have just is non
- 48:58existent. So like in a technical sense,
- 49:03you could traverse between them, but it's not in the way that we
- 49:09think it is. It's not like the old movies,
- 49:11like Back to the Future. We could just go back and forth,
- 49:13like you could travel, you could do it, but not in the way you
- 49:20think. That brings about 1500 other
- 49:25questions. And I think it really comes down
- 49:27to what we actually are as human beings.
- 49:33It's an experience, but this is not what we are.
- 49:36I don't think this is just a form of existence.
- 49:41I'm not sure entirely what the purpose is, though.
- 49:44To me, being a human at this stage feels very primitive.
- 49:51I feel like it's quite frustrating to watch, really,
- 49:53because we're at the precipice of, of huge things.
- 49:56But if you'd compare it to like all the movies you've ever seen
- 50:01over the years, it's like we've chosen all of like, the bad
- 50:03outcomes rather than like the good ones.
- 50:05It's like, yeah, let's just destroy ourselves and fight over
- 50:09bits of mud and, you know, let computers take over.
- 50:13And like, that's great. And I'm like, but why?
- 50:17What's the end goal here? Like, sure, it would just be us
- 50:23dying out really realistically. And but then that suggested a
- 50:29deeper point, like if that's the if that's the case, if if those
- 50:33that run the world want things to go that way, then that
- 50:35suggests that they know something that we don't.
- 50:38And this obviously delves into conspiracy.
- 50:39But if it was one big thing where we're all working towards
- 50:45similar goals, you know, it would be more like a Star Trek
- 50:47universe where we'd work to better ourselves and, and move
- 50:50forward and travel the universe and discover what's out there.
- 50:54But it doesn't seem that way. It seems like we're just very
- 51:01obsessed with material things, energy in particular.
- 51:12When you hear about, and this is a big one that I wanted to
- 51:15discuss with you, how energy is used.
- 51:19Those that run society, those that control the world are
- 51:23obsessed with that. So if it's like a big scale
- 51:27celebrity, like I heard this years ago and this, this kind of
- 51:30got me thinking. They said that your major
- 51:33performers, people like say Madonna, someone performing in
- 51:37front of a crowd, She, she said to me that they she's doing that
- 51:41because of what she feeds off from the crowd.
- 51:44She's feeding on their energy. And I was like, well, that's
- 51:46quite a cynical view, isn't it? But then it's true.
- 51:49You get a buzz, you get a high I suppose from the experience and
- 51:55everyone leaves tired from your gig, but they feel elated, they
- 51:59feel reinvigorated. Maybe even it's a life changing
- 52:04experience potentially. Same thing can be felt watching
- 52:10a movie in a cinema. You can walk away with, you
- 52:13know, just feeling different about life.
- 52:17So that suggests that perspective and also the way
- 52:21things are presented can affect our energy and, and the way that
- 52:25we experience things. But there are different types of
- 52:31people in the world. You meet them every single day
- 52:36and everyone has slightly different energy.
- 52:38So like, I've struggled a lot in life.
- 52:41I've had, I don't know, I've lost count of how many difficult
- 52:44times, difficult experiences. And I would say the last year of
- 52:54my life has been the most challenging for quite some time.
- 52:59And you do eventually get into this headspace where you're
- 53:02like, is this karmic justice? I mean, do I deserve this?
- 53:08Like, where is this headed? What's going on?
- 53:11Like, will it ever end? And I started finding myself
- 53:14asking those sorts of questions and, you know, I started looking
- 53:18into some of the stuff that was coming across my path, like just
- 53:24stuff I'd see online and whatnot.
- 53:26And something that was really interesting that I saw said
- 53:30something along the lines of maybe if you're going through a
- 53:34lot of tough things in life, it's building you up to be this
- 53:39strong person that the world needs.
- 53:42Like they need that strong person who can deal with XYZ,
- 53:46you know, situation. Because I'll say this, when I
- 53:52was younger, I, I was clueless. I'd felt very weak, like I
- 53:58didn't know what the hell I was doing.
- 54:00And I think most young people feel that way to be fair.
- 54:02But for me, I felt like it went a bit deeper than just like not
- 54:06knowing what to do. It was like I felt like I wasn't
- 54:10able to survive in this world because I was lacking some key
- 54:16things, you know, like some, some fundamental things,
- 54:21fundamental strength, maybe call it what you will.
- 54:25And over the course of my 20s and now into my 30s, I've kind
- 54:30of built up this sense of strength and resilience that
- 54:37mostly just kind of sits on, on the experience really.
- 54:44It's, it's like, OK, well, I went, I got through all of this
- 54:48stuff like I'll be fine. Like I don't know how, but I'll
- 54:53be fine. Whereas in the past I'd always
- 54:57like just have a breakdown the blue, you know, But like now
- 55:02it's like, it's like the, it's like the GTA, me, my, oh shit,
- 55:09here we go again. Like it's that crap, but like
- 55:15I'd, you know, I can always deal with it.
- 55:19And then that's new. That wasn't like that before.
- 55:21And I think that I guess my point with this is that that
- 55:25comes from experience and a level of strength that you have
- 55:28to build to. And then when it comes to like,
- 55:33and this, this is the thing that makes me laugh, right, is when I
- 55:37find myself giving advice to people, people ask me for
- 55:40advice. I'm like, you're asking me,
- 55:43asking me for advice. But then I realized that like
- 55:46that my, my life might not be perfect, but like, I am a strong
- 55:50individual. Like I've dealt with a lot.
- 55:53I've built myself to this point where I feel confident in myself
- 55:57to deal with anything at this point, Not because I'm special
- 56:01or anything like that, just because I went, I went through
- 56:04it. Like there's I'm running out of
- 56:07things to have gone through at this point.
- 56:09Like it's been there, done that on the T-shirt and you have a
- 56:13choice in life. You can either choose to be
- 56:17victim or you can choose to be a survivor, right?
- 56:21I don't know, it sounds very cliched, but like, that's really
- 56:24your choice. And I think people have
- 56:26misunderstood me over the years when I've spoken about bad
- 56:28things. They assume that I have like a
- 56:30victim thing. Like I'm complaining, like
- 56:32everything sucks, everything's rubbish, you know, worries me.
- 56:36If that were the case, I wouldn't be doing any of this.
- 56:38I would just be walking around begging people and be like, oh,
- 56:41please help you meet. Like, I don't believe that I
- 56:43wake up every single day. I try hard, try to push to, to
- 56:48make things happen to, you know, and some days are better than
- 56:51others. Some days I'm full of life and
- 56:53I'm more like me. Other days it's a struggle.
- 56:58But I never, I never adhere to that victim complex thing
- 57:02because it doesn't get you anywhere.
- 57:04And more importantly, it's just kind of effect.
- 57:07Like, you know you're going to experience bad things in life.
- 57:12You know, you could be the nicest, most well adjusted
- 57:14person ever and you're still going to experience bad things
- 57:17because that's life. But it doesn't mean you won't
- 57:20experience good things either. I think what life is trying to
- 57:23teach us a lot of the time is not how to avoid bad times or
- 57:28hard times, but rather how to find the strength within oneself
- 57:33to deal with those hard times and come out of the other side
- 57:36and have learned something, have grown, having just weathered
- 57:41this storm. Like the old saying goes, what
- 57:45is it like? Only hard seas build sailors or
- 57:50whatever it is, you know, Strong sees, you know what I'm saying?
- 57:55Yeah, and you know, the The thing is like there's, there's
- 57:58only one Christian Reeve. You know there's only one
- 58:01person. There's many.
- 58:03I'm going. I get your point.
- 58:06I get your point. Yeah, You know, there there's
- 58:08only one person who has experienced everything that
- 58:11you've experienced. And like when someone asks you
- 58:13for advice and you have that like imposter syndrome, like,
- 58:17why would you ask me for advice? Like who am I?
- 58:19Like you're the only person who has what you have to offer, you
- 58:24know, like no one else can offer what you have.
- 58:27And in terms of advice, like that's what people are seeking,
- 58:30like they're, they're seeking advice from the the only
- 58:33Christian Reeve that there ever will be and that there ever was.
- 58:36You know, and you have something to offer just like all of us do
- 58:39that no one else has, you know, based on upon the experiences
- 58:43that you've that you've gone through.
- 58:45And it's like this hindsight is 2020 thing, you know, it's like
- 58:48you, if I look back on my life, I've had a lot of hard times
- 58:51too, but I wouldn't change a second of it because I wouldn't
- 58:54be here right now. You know, the conversation that
- 58:56you and I are having, like I could be having a conversation
- 58:58with anyone, but I'm having a conversation with you and you
- 59:01have something that no one else has to offer a conversation, you
- 59:05know, So I like to look at things in that way more so.
- 59:09Just go back to your point about the whole imposter syndrome
- 59:12thing. Like I don't have it in the
- 59:14moment now, but sometimes when I think about that, I had giggle
- 59:19because I think about like who I was like, say 10 years ago, like
- 59:22that 1010 years ago, that guy, no chance, you know?
- 59:28And like, I think about like people who used to be, who were
- 59:31my age that I looked up to giving me advice.
- 59:33And I always thought like, oh, I'll never be like that.
- 59:36And then here I am. And like, you know, it's I got
- 59:41older. I learned a lot, experienced a
- 59:44lot, and you know, here we are. And I guess the irony is I
- 59:52became what I needed from life without realizing it.
- 59:58And that's kind of amazing, but also kind of scary because I saw
- 1:00:03it happen in real time, but I didn't notice straight away.
- 1:00:09Like I can, I can pinpoint the day that I remember thinking
- 1:00:14that's a man. I was like 26 or something.
- 1:00:18I think it was during COVID. I was just looking in the mirror
- 1:00:22one day and I was like shaving or something.
- 1:00:25And I just remember just like stopping and staring for a
- 1:00:27second and then just thinking about everything that had led me
- 1:00:30up to that point. It was kind of like a
- 1:00:34bittersweet moment because I was looking in the mirror and I was
- 1:00:36thinking, you're not a boy anymore.
- 1:00:40You're not a young man anymore. You're just, you're just a man.
- 1:00:46But it also felt affirming because it was like, yeah, yeah,
- 1:00:51I am. But it comes down to belief in
- 1:00:56oneself. But also like realizing what
- 1:01:01that means and accepting it and trusting oneself.
- 1:01:07I've always said this whenever I've given people advice.
- 1:01:09It's the most important thing you can do is trust in oneself.
- 1:01:13And that is the thing that I think kind of gets you through
- 1:01:18your life. Bringing it back to
- 1:01:21spirituality, like people talk about it being this out of body
- 1:01:24experience, this thing that's a bigger than oneself.
- 1:01:28Like I think it actually is both in the body and out of the body.
- 1:01:35I don't know, not maybe not the body, but like it's, it's within
- 1:01:37you and it's also outside of you.
- 1:01:40And it's all of the things in your life that you couldn't
- 1:01:43explain in a logical way. The things that when you somehow
- 1:01:49reach the level that you didn't think was possible for you or
- 1:01:54indeed anyone, you just kind of knew that it was a special
- 1:01:58moment, something powerful, and you embraced it.
- 1:02:03That's the most important thing. You embraced that feeling,
- 1:02:06whatever it was, and if you continue to do that, I think
- 1:02:10that's when the amazing things happen, maybe.
- 1:02:16Absolutely, yeah. And you know, to your point
- 1:02:19that, that it's in the body and out the body and all of that,
- 1:02:21you know, my, my teacher says it's whatever you want to call
- 1:02:25it, God, divinity, spirit, whichever word you want to use,
- 1:02:28it's in, through and all around, You know, every molecule, every
- 1:02:32water droplet, every wall, every microphone, every hair,
- 1:02:37everything. It's in, through and all around
- 1:02:40everything. Because I think that one of the
- 1:02:43things that we are forced to do when searching for spirituality
- 1:02:47is go outside the body. And the only reason I think we
- 1:02:50have to do that is because we are so centralized within the
- 1:02:53body just naturally as biological beings, like we're
- 1:02:57forced to survive in this world of danger.
- 1:02:59You know, we've got to feed ourselves, we have to drink
- 1:03:02water. You know, there's all these
- 1:03:03things that we have to do to maintain our biological life and
- 1:03:07our sentience. And that forces us to look
- 1:03:10externally outside of the body to verify something that exists
- 1:03:14beyond us, even though it does exist within us as well.
- 1:03:17It is US, you know, that's why I say that like I think everyone's
- 1:03:20true nature is peace, because I, I do believe that, you know,
- 1:03:24divinity or God, whatever you want to call it, is just in,
- 1:03:26through and all around everything.
- 1:03:28And it exists. It's within us.
- 1:03:29We're part of it. What's the significance of the
- 1:03:36soul? Man, what a deep question.
- 1:03:41The significance of the soul, it changes for me depending on like
- 1:03:45the day, you know, like depending on whether or not I
- 1:03:47feel like I want to believe in. OK, what's what's what's
- 1:03:50Sunday's soul? Then if I want to put on my
- 1:03:55kitchen hat, but I don't know, to me, like if I right now, I
- 1:03:59feel like the significance of the soul is like the way I like
- 1:04:04to look at it is like consciousness being fundamental.
- 1:04:08What our soul is, is like a piece of the collective
- 1:04:12consciousness or the collective unconscious that learns through
- 1:04:17the biological being and the experiences that we have.
- 1:04:21And I think that what our soul learns, what nourishes our soul,
- 1:04:25are all of the things in life that produce love.
- 1:04:28And I feel like what happens then is what, you know, our, our
- 1:04:32soul consumes all of that love and learns from it.
- 1:04:35And then it ascends after we die to the collective.
- 1:04:40And then it adds to the collective consciousness.
- 1:04:43And that's sort of the sole goal, you know, is to manifest
- 1:04:49and experience love and then add that to the collective
- 1:04:52consciousness and that piece of our consciousness.
- 1:04:56Then if you believe in the reincarnation hypothesis, which
- 1:05:00does seem kind of cool to me, I, I like it it, you know, it's a
- 1:05:04cool flavor to me. I, I tend to kind of believe in
- 1:05:06that and you know, that piece of your soul, then we'll Incarnate
- 1:05:10into another life and do it all over again.
- 1:05:13Because I do think that the meaning of life is to learn and
- 1:05:16to to explore and to understand. Do you think we ever truly die,
- 1:05:25or does the soul simply traverse across existences?
- 1:05:30Man, this is one of those like paradoxes because the the person
- 1:05:35that I am, like when I die, I believe that me, Josh Leonard,
- 1:05:39my personality, who I think I am, who I define myself as, will
- 1:05:43die utterly and completely. But there is something deeper
- 1:05:48like that deeper. I am my higher self, whatever
- 1:05:51you want to call it, the witness, you know, the person
- 1:05:54that you're, that you're talking to when you're talking to
- 1:05:55yourself or something. I think that the soul does go
- 1:05:59on, but I think it forgets who it was when it was in me and the
- 1:06:07person I define myself as. And then in my next incarnation,
- 1:06:10my soul's next incarnation, I will.
- 1:06:14I'll be defining myself as whoever that is.
- 1:06:18And then that person will die. You.
- 1:06:21Used a very interesting word that I'd not even thought about.
- 1:06:24You said witness. Are you trying to say that like
- 1:06:29the soul is separate from the person and is, well, that's the
- 1:06:37word suggests, witnessing what's going on, almost like shadowing
- 1:06:42or observing in some way? In a way, yes.
- 1:06:48I think that we understand the soul by separating it from who
- 1:06:52we are because that's how we understand everything.
- 1:06:55You know, if you think about science in any way, you know,
- 1:06:57we, we separate ourselves from what we're observing, observe
- 1:07:01the patterns within it, put it back together, and then we think
- 1:07:03we have, you know, ownership over it because we understand it
- 1:07:06quote UN quote. And I think that's how we
- 1:07:07understand the soul too. Like the only way to, to
- 1:07:10analytically think about it is to separate it from ourselves.
- 1:07:14But in reality, I don't necessarily believe that it is
- 1:07:17separate. Again, I always it sounds like
- 1:07:20an like a like a cop out. But I always use the word
- 1:07:22paradox because I think a lot of things are and aren't at the
- 1:07:26same time. So I think it is separate from
- 1:07:28us, but also not at the same time, if that makes sense.
- 1:07:33I mean, I completely agree with with what you were saying about
- 1:07:35the idea that like we any, any human element, this, this person
- 1:07:44that we've created on, on Earth, it definitely dies because it
- 1:07:49wouldn't, it wouldn't be useful. Like how is my experiences in
- 1:07:54like, I don't know, customer service, marketing, music or
- 1:07:56whatever going to be useful within the context of the
- 1:08:00universe? Like it's, it's just not.
- 1:08:03But then that's why they talk about soul work, isn't it?
- 1:08:07They talk about the things that you do on this planet while
- 1:08:10you're here versus the little life you've made for yourself.
- 1:08:15Like, I don't for a minute sit here and think that like
- 1:08:18anything I do is important within the deeper context of
- 1:08:23life. But I do recognize the
- 1:08:25importance of what it means to work towards things, to have a
- 1:08:29sense of purpose, to work on the things that you're passionate
- 1:08:31about. And for example, like I write
- 1:08:35and create music because I love to perform music.
- 1:08:39I love how music makes me feel. I love how music makes other
- 1:08:43people feel. I love the experience that we
- 1:08:46get from like just listening to something.
- 1:08:49Like I can't tell you how many times I listen to like Pink
- 1:08:54Floyd's Shine on You Crazy Diamond, Like I've heard that
- 1:08:58like a million times. And I feel the same way every
- 1:09:00single time about it. It feels like an out of body
- 1:09:03experience. It changes my perception of
- 1:09:06reality almost. And it's, it's just a song that
- 1:09:09some dudes wrote in the 70s, but they managed to capture this
- 1:09:14feeling that you can't put into words.
- 1:09:20It's just like an amazing feeling.
- 1:09:22And I've always wanted to do that with music to just make
- 1:09:26people feel, you know. And then I look at like other
- 1:09:31things, like I want to make a career out of this, but I don't
- 1:09:36care about money or fame or anything.
- 1:09:39I, I care about doing this because I want to wake up every
- 1:09:42day and do the thing I love. To me, it makes sense to, to
- 1:09:46make that your life because you're going to get the most out
- 1:09:48of your life. You're going to tap into the
- 1:09:51very things that make you, you. And when you find yourself
- 1:09:55hating your life, it's because you're not doing what you enjoy.
- 1:09:58Like when I do that customer service stuff, like I do my
- 1:10:02best, you know, I do a lot of bartending work.
- 1:10:04I take a bit of pride in like how I present things, but it
- 1:10:07doesn't, it doesn't fulfil me. It's just like I'm a creative so
- 1:10:12I and I have a good work ever. So like I, I pour myself into it
- 1:10:16in that sense. But like I don't wake up in the
- 1:10:19morning and get excited about the fact that I'm going to be
- 1:10:21doing that for like 9 hours. Like, but if you said, hey
- 1:10:25Christian, you got to spend 9 hours talking to Josh, I'll be
- 1:10:28like, let's go. I'll talk all day, baby.
- 1:10:31Like, you know, like I'll get something from that.
- 1:10:34I'll be excited about that. And that's the difference.
- 1:10:39When you talk about the wider significance of that, again, I
- 1:10:43think it's, it's what you get from it, what you give to
- 1:10:47others, you know, how much you give to the world, You know, if
- 1:10:52you did become rich, surely it should be about how much you
- 1:10:55give and not how much you get. I feel, you know, but again, we
- 1:11:06all get a different choice in, in, in how.
- 1:11:10And obviously our personalities are going to affect these things
- 1:11:13massively. Yeah, for, for me, I grew up
- 1:11:18quite poor and I, I never really placed a lot of importance on
- 1:11:21things because everybody seemed that important.
- 1:11:25You know, like, oh, I've got the latest phone, I've got this new
- 1:11:29game. I just didn't care.
- 1:11:31I was like, well, I'll just get it when it's cheaper.
- 1:11:34I'll still have the same experience as you.
- 1:11:36I just won't pay full price. And I don't really get anything
- 1:11:41out of like, I have this new thing.
- 1:11:44Do you have the new thing? Because like every time someone
- 1:11:46had the new thing, like 2 weeks later, someone's got the new
- 1:11:49thing. And now the, the old, the, the
- 1:11:52new thing is now the old thing. And to seem pointless, you know,
- 1:11:57to seem, I mean, I guess that's the whole point of materialism.
- 1:11:59But it just doesn't in the context of what we're talking
- 1:12:05about, it seems especially unimportant.
- 1:12:08Like you like things, you know, like that when you look at the
- 1:12:13things that are precious to you, for me, it's always things that
- 1:12:17elicit memory that to me is like sacred.
- 1:12:21But like the things themselves are like not worth anything.
- 1:12:25Like at least in my life. I don't know, like I remember
- 1:12:30hearing Johnny Depp talk about like it was I think he was doing
- 1:12:34his court case and he said he had to like go back into his
- 1:12:37apartment to get some things that meant something to him and
- 1:12:40there was something it was. Is it Hunter Thompson?
- 1:12:45Is that the name of the guy that wrote the story that would
- 1:12:50become fair and loving in Las Vegas?
- 1:12:52I think Hunter S Thompson. That's right.
- 1:12:56So he'd, he'd met him and apparently he made quite an
- 1:12:59impression on Johnny. And he was quite a young man at
- 1:13:03a time when he was talking to him and learning from him.
- 1:13:07And there was something that he gifted him and he saw that as
- 1:13:11really important and wanted to get that thing because it was a
- 1:13:15connection to that man who's obviously no longer with us.
- 1:13:18And I thought a lot about that, like the meaning of certain
- 1:13:22things, especially when someone's no longer here.
- 1:13:26That's, that's even more powerful.
- 1:13:30Go back to what you were saying before.
- 1:13:31Like if that's true, then they truly have died forever.
- 1:13:36And so that's like a small because they say that you die
- 1:13:38twice. Don't you want you die once on
- 1:13:40this world, then you die twice when no one utters your name
- 1:13:44again? I guess by that logic then some
- 1:13:49people live forever, like because we're still talking
- 1:13:51about people like Mozart and stuff.
- 1:13:53But you get my point. Yeah, and talk about energy,
- 1:13:57it's it almost feels like some objects can carry the energy of
- 1:14:02a person because they have the effect on the owner of that
- 1:14:05object, you know, And I think in that Johnny Depp case is a good
- 1:14:08example of it. Well, let's talk about some like
- 1:14:12scary stuff for a second. If you believe in that.
- 1:14:15Do you believe that like objects can become evil or containing
- 1:14:19them like negative energy? That's a hard question because
- 1:14:25if I'm being honest with myself, I feel like in order to believe
- 1:14:29in like the paranormal, you have to have a paranormal experience
- 1:14:33because it's one of those things kind of like a a spiritual
- 1:14:36experience. Like if you don't have the
- 1:14:38experience, it's hard to believe it because it's something that
- 1:14:42exists outside of normal language and description.
- 1:14:46Like you can't describe a spiritual experience.
- 1:14:48You can't describe a paranormal experience to someone else and
- 1:14:52personally I've not had a paranormal experience so I don't
- 1:14:57have that level of investment in my belief in it, but I'm my mind
- 1:15:01is open to it completely. I just talk about it because
- 1:15:07I've heard a lot of stories, especially in the UK, we've got
- 1:15:09a lot of old haunted buildings and there are like famous
- 1:15:12examples of like things like chairs that are like you can't
- 1:15:17sit on it and if you do you die. Or is another thing with is it
- 1:15:21the Annabelle dole in states? Something like if you remove the
- 1:15:26dole like it's it's really bad energy, like it will kill you or
- 1:15:33something. I don't know, something like
- 1:15:35that. Like they just never move it.
- 1:15:36They always leave it suspended. Does their yeah.
- 1:15:43I, I don't know. I, I believe in that.
- 1:15:45I, I, I try not to like, I try to avoid that stuff, but I think
- 1:15:48one day I'll probably will delve into it and like, I won't.
- 1:15:54Mess with the Ouija board because I've received.
- 1:15:56Hell no. Possibilities, you know, like I,
- 1:15:59I have, I guess what I could say is I have respect for the things
- 1:16:03and the objects that people would claim to be haunted or
- 1:16:06whatever. I won't go into a house that's
- 1:16:07haunted. Like I, I I respect that realm
- 1:16:10even though I haven't experienced it.
- 1:16:14I think with things like a, a Ouija board is it's almost like
- 1:16:18mocking the dead because if you go into like a home and there's
- 1:16:21bad energy, all that will happen is it will try and get rid of
- 1:16:24you, you know, Whereas A Ouija board, it's like you're mocking
- 1:16:29the dead, you're playing with the dead, You know, I don't
- 1:16:36know, just seems. Like this?
- 1:16:41Seems like you're not. Yeah, But this is just, like,
- 1:16:43not smart thing to do. Like, once one person years ago
- 1:16:46told me when I was living in Europe, they were a psychic.
- 1:16:49And they said the way it works is like, once you open yourself
- 1:16:52to that, it's almost impossible to close yourself to it.
- 1:16:56You open that things. She said that she was constantly
- 1:16:59having conversations with people who were dead.
- 1:17:02And she said that like, it was as though she was being harassed
- 1:17:07by the dead. She said, like one time there
- 1:17:10was a guy who had like, I guess like died in a car crash in the
- 1:17:17street that she lived on. And he kept coming up to her and
- 1:17:22being like, what's happened? Where am I?
- 1:17:23I don't understand. And she's like, I don't, I don't
- 1:17:26know. And then she asked him questions
- 1:17:28and she understood that he had lived there and I guess been hit
- 1:17:33by a car or something. And then he just had no memory.
- 1:17:37Stuff like that terrifies me that you could be like a soul
- 1:17:40stuck in dimensions and you and you don't know what's happened.
- 1:17:43But that kind of speaks to what you were saying before.
- 1:17:45Because if that's true, would that then mean that your soul
- 1:17:49gets trapped? But your soul doesn't have any
- 1:17:51memory because you've died. Do you see what I mean?
- 1:17:57So the witness, as you put it, gets stuck.
- 1:18:01Yeah, or like it's even like it could be stuck in it.
- 1:18:04It's like holding on to the the darkness of the situation that
- 1:18:10got it stuck. Like, that's a scary thing to
- 1:18:12think about too. Maybe that's what purgatory is.
- 1:18:17It's like souls that can't escape because they've they've
- 1:18:23become detached but holding on as you as you put it, but they
- 1:18:27don't understand why they're holding on.
- 1:18:30That's unfinished business concept well.
- 1:18:34Yeah, but like deep deeper than that though, like, yeah, because
- 1:18:38I think it happens for different reasons.
- 1:18:39Like in media they would say that it's like some a lot of the
- 1:18:43time injustices or tragedies, stuff like that, you know, like
- 1:18:48a child dies in AI don't know, drowns or something.
- 1:18:51And then the ghost forever, like, haunts the place, you
- 1:18:55know, or as some people describe ghosts as being like, echoes of
- 1:19:01what has been. Like there's a place in
- 1:19:04Manchester called Lock 91, which is like a bar above locks, but
- 1:19:10it's like a really old building. And there was a girl I was
- 1:19:13talking to who was running me through like, everything that
- 1:19:18happens though, on a regular basis.
- 1:19:20There's a really striking room right at the top that has like
- 1:19:24an unbelievable amount of taxidermy.
- 1:19:27I hate taxidermy, for those who don't know what it is, stuffed
- 1:19:32animals, stuffed dead animals. And the saddest one was little
- 1:19:36chicks, little little ducks. That was really sad.
- 1:19:42Yeah. But basically the energy feels
- 1:19:46off because there's all these dead animals.
- 1:19:49It just feels like. And she was explaining that like
- 1:19:54she said, there was like an innkeeper type dude that would
- 1:19:58walk around and you could hear him whistling and his keys
- 1:20:01rattling. There was a little boy
- 1:20:03apparently that would run around and a mother or something.
- 1:20:06But the scariest one was she was like in the bathroom and there
- 1:20:10was this constant banging on the door and she couldn't like open
- 1:20:15the door because of this, just the the sheer weight of it, but
- 1:20:19also just the endless banging. And there was no one in the
- 1:20:22building apart from her, that one guy downstairs, apparently.
- 1:20:29And like, I again, like, I respect that type of stuff.
- 1:20:32I don't like to mess with anything because like, honestly,
- 1:20:35I don't want to have a paranormal experience.
- 1:20:37You know, I seek out spiritual experiences, but I don't want to
- 1:20:40have a scary paranormal experience, man.
- 1:20:43It's just not an alley. Here's an interesting question.
- 1:20:47How about the idea of a small part of a soul has remained in
- 1:20:50that place, but the rest of the soul has moved on.
- 1:20:52So we kind of touched on it a little bit, but I guess this is
- 1:20:55sort of saying like soul fragments, could it be possible
- 1:20:58to split the soul almost like the Harry Potter deal, You know,
- 1:21:04when his, his soul is like split into different objects?
- 1:21:07I guess that would be possible. Interesting.
- 1:21:11Yeah, that's an interesting hypothesis.
- 1:21:14I mean, I guess it yeah, it could be possible, you know, but
- 1:21:18it's like, I feel like if some kind of unnaturally tragic event
- 1:21:22happens, like you said, like if a like a child drowns, it's just
- 1:21:25sort of like biologically unnatural for like parents to
- 1:21:29have to bury their children type of deal.
- 1:21:32And it's possible that like the trauma that surrounds that type
- 1:21:35of event could like hold a fragment of the soul of that
- 1:21:40being there potentially because we don't really understand like
- 1:21:45the the power of darkness and like the power of tragedy.
- 1:21:48You know, again, going back to energy, you know, like the
- 1:21:51energy that people like give off when they have experienced A
- 1:21:57tragedy like that, like there's almost no amount of healing that
- 1:22:02you can get. Well, there is no amount of
- 1:22:04healing that you can do or get that is going to take that away.
- 1:22:07So it's almost like this imprint that it leaves on yourself and
- 1:22:11your soul as a person who experienced it.
- 1:22:13So I can only imagine it's possible that there could be
- 1:22:16like an imprint left on reality, you know, and both the physical
- 1:22:21and the the spiritual dimensions in that case.
- 1:22:26Yeah, I think, I think Imprint is a great way of putting it as
- 1:22:29well. Like I remember this farm that I
- 1:22:32lived on years ago in in Estonia.
- 1:22:35It apparently had had owners on it previously who had hung
- 1:22:40themselves. Now, I never really felt
- 1:22:45presence or anything. I definitely felt uncomfortable
- 1:22:48in the dark, as most people do. But I do remember, like in the
- 1:22:52winter when it was like really cold and dark and the wind was
- 1:22:55blowing. Like, I remember just getting an
- 1:22:57eerie kind of feeling. And again, it wasn't like the
- 1:23:03ghost ship, but it was kind of, you know, I always used to joke
- 1:23:08that, like in Estonia, in Europe, like winter is like,
- 1:23:11everything's dead. And literally it is, but you
- 1:23:15really felt like you're in hibernation because everything's
- 1:23:17dark. It goes dark at like 3:00 in the
- 1:23:21afternoon or whatever. But like in the most rural
- 1:23:25places, it really just felt like everything had died.
- 1:23:31And you really felt it in places like that.
- 1:23:35I got to say, you just kind of, there was that feeling that you
- 1:23:42couldn't really explain exactly, but it was always there.
- 1:23:49Yeah. And like places where you
- 1:23:50experience all Four Seasons, like truly you get to like first
- 1:23:56hand witness the death of the biosphere and then like the
- 1:23:59rebirth of it. And I think that does something
- 1:24:02to you. Like it, it maybe not negative
- 1:24:05or positive, but it it just, it kind of gives you a broader
- 1:24:08perspective of like what's happening because you can
- 1:24:11understand death in a certain way.
- 1:24:12You know, all the leaves are off the trees, everything is kind of
- 1:24:15bare and quiet. And it just, it feels like the
- 1:24:18death of the biosphere. And then like when spring comes
- 1:24:21around, you see it start to like begin to spring to life again.
- 1:24:25And it's, it's like a beautiful thing to be able to witness the
- 1:24:28cycle of like death and rebirth right in front of your eyes.
- 1:24:33So we're coming up on two hours, man, 2 hours chatting.
- 1:24:39It flows by, isn't it? Do you think you'd be up?
- 1:24:43You'd be up for a second part. Is that?
- 1:24:45Absolutely, man. Yeah.
- 1:24:46Do you reckon? Yeah.
- 1:24:50I got a lot of questions for you.
- 1:24:51Still listen to questions. I keep it going, but I just, I
- 1:24:56don't know, like it's, it's, it's a deep dive.
- 1:24:59It's always a deep dive with you and it's always a joy.
- 1:25:03But I, I, I'd like to do another part because I think there's,
- 1:25:05there's more we can delve into with these questions,
- 1:25:10potentially other directions we can take this.
- 1:25:13Yeah, let's do it, man. All right, Thank you so much for
- 1:25:19joining me, Josh. It's been an absolute pleasure
- 1:25:21and I can't wait to get you back on the show.
- 1:25:23And we'll continue this to to Vilma.
- 1:25:27Thanks for dropping by. Thanks for all your questions.
- 1:25:30We will address the questions you sent in next time.
- 1:25:34I'm going to use that as kind of a basing starting point for our
- 1:25:37next episode. So apologies that I didn't get
- 1:25:40through to them today. But it's, you know, it's like
- 1:25:44that with with us, Like we we, we take the conversation where
- 1:25:47it needs to go and you let it flow.
- 1:25:49And I think that's always the best way with these things.
- 1:25:53But yeah, once again, massive thank you, Josh.
- 1:25:55It's been a real pleasure. And yeah, I'll see you all in in
- 1:26:01the in the next one. God bless.