Transcript
Speaker: This episode is sponsored by First Home Mortgage.
Speaker: Hello and welcome back to All Roads Lead to Real Estate. I'm your host, Matt Rine. And today i have a client, a lovely lady with me that that I feel, don't know, how do I say this? Spiritually connected to since the day I've met you? Absolutely. I would think that is an accurate ah statement.
Speaker: And so this episode is going to be a little different. It's not necessarily market stats and lenders and all the traditional things that we often speak about on here. But this is more about how, in my opinion, how the convergence of promoting your new book is going to kind of come in with real estate. I feel like it's going to help us connect with how we feel emotionally at home and in our life.
Speaker: Oh, for sure. And um and it's certainly, know, I'll be the first to say i I'm very intrigued by the subject. I'm intrigued by the way that you are passionately um capable of describing your own experiences and the experiences of your patients.
Speaker: And so um I just think it's a really fascinating topic. it' So I'm excited to bring people on in through this journey with Dr. Colleen Quinn and her new book. I'll hold it up right here. Hopefully you can see it.
Speaker: It's Essence Merging. And so Essence Merging, I bought my copyright on Amazon. I know you can go check that out. And you have signings if you're locally here in Maryland. For sure. Tomorrow, tomorrow night. Well, this probably won't be live by then, but yes, tomorrow night at the Ivy. And who knows what's to come? It's a great mystery. That's right. Well, you can check it out if you want to be able to to meet her in person and get ah ah get a signing. I know you'll have you have a website dedicated to the book.
Speaker: I do. And so you're doing the whole promotion tour. So I'm really grateful you decided to come on and join me and and have a discussion that I don't typically get to have on here. I'm so grateful to you, Matt, and I'm grateful that you see your mission in this world to not only help people through buying real estate, but help them in all facets of their becoming. There's a great saying, all boats rise. When we lift one boat, all the boats rise. And This is really powerful because um on my website, I offer nine simple steps to awakening. It's a download that's free.
Speaker: And these are hacks that you can do without adding to your day. You don't have to take time out to do these things. They're really how we approach the moments of our lives and we create it all. So that's really exciting to get that message out. So thank you. Well, and I think, and I want to kind of Bring back, I think, how some at least the way I was raised, we don't talk about our emotions all that much. That's not a subject that you bring up. And I think as an adult, I eventually decided to go into therapy myself as an adult um after I lost my mother. And I did that for a while.
Speaker: And I started to actually explore maybe the way I feel. I don't even think that was an appropriate thought. mean, thought of it. wow And it wasn't something that was brought up. No one ever asked, first of all, and I never really asked myself.
Speaker: and And so I mentioned that because I think if you're listening and you're kind of skeptical when you even hear this this topic brought up, really. I just think that we can all relate to burnout, to stress, to unresolved pain and wanting deeper meaning in our lives.
Speaker: And I think um with the context of artificial intelligence coming into play, i know I speak a lot of about that as well on here. um I think some of these topics are going to be have even more pronounced meanings in importance to us because I think some of what many of us do for a living is going to change dramatically in the next five, 10 years.
Speaker: yeah And so having some some conversation with yourself and understanding who you are and what your meaning is, it might not just be your day job in the future. For sure. And I want to say that these bodies are with us from the day that we're born until the day we die.
Speaker: We are in a primary marriage with these bodies. They're made up of 70 trillion cells. They're made up of these psyches and subtle energies. So you talked about not feeling your feelings, Matt.
Speaker: And the beautiful thing about these bodies, they will faithfully carry it all. that's That's a great gift to us, but it comes with a cost.
Speaker: So if you have dis-ease in your inner landscape, it turns into disease. You know, a great example of that, it's well documented that emotions that are not processed often show up as diverticulosis, these pockets in our colon. So you're stuffing those energies into your colon because You're not digesting life, but you can store them anywhere. Like you might have had a fall as a kid and you really bumped your knee. And if you really didn't feel those feelings related to that, you might carry pain energetically in your knee. So there's a, you are the God of this universe of 70 trillion cells. That's amazing. Yeah. You're responsible for every experience, everything you ingest, whether it's an experience, a substance, it doesn't matter. You are the full creator of what goes into this organism and it's on you to be a benevolent caretaker of it. And so feeling your feelings is the first step of releasing trauma. And the second step is then completing the action that did not get completed at the time.
Speaker: If that action is not completed at the time, then we feel like a victim. But when our nervous system can complete that action, even if it's after the fact, we are back in ah in a victorious mode and we rewrite our nervous system exactly the same way that a software code is rewritten for a computer.
Speaker: I mean, that's that's an incredible way to describe that. and i And before we get to the present day, obviously we're promoting this incredible the piece of work that you were able to write, which by the way, just the idea of writing the book is the most amazing thing. um i can't possibly, there's there don't look for a book for me anytime soon. I can't imagine the process and how how much of your soul you put into it, specifically this book, um because it's so much about yourself and your experiences and and your vulnerability that you shared.
Speaker: which is just unbelievable that you have the capacity to do that and to put that out into the world. um I'm really impressed by that. But but I would love to know a little bit about your background. So I've haven't completely finished the book, to be honest, because ah i i can't get I don't know. I only can ah like watch or read rather for like 15, 20 minutes before I pass out every night. That's a good good quality to have. But I'm trying. um And so it's what's most fascinating is how personal you are in this experience. and And I've gotten to to know you in a much different light, obviously, than than someone that I work with.
Speaker: And so helped explain your background in the sense that I know you are a clinician, you you had a very obviously different childhood and you had your own experiences and traumas. Like how do you how do you start to describe your own your own life and how you led that path into the world that you have in the psychiatry space that you currently inhibit?
Speaker: Yes, psychology, but yes. Psychology, yes. um You know, one of the greatest gifts for me was having womb trauma. So a lot of people think you cannot recover those early infancy or pre-womb experiences when in fact you can. Using breath work as a means to go into our souls it's It's such a gentle healer because you actually come out of your body at the at your ego's pace of readiness. So initially, you're having these beautiful bliss trips. You're connected with all the love in the universe. And you're totally sucked in because it is, in fact, really all love.
Speaker: At your ego's pace of readiness, these stored dense energies come up. ready for healing. And so I saw, I could tell the story of my womb trauma, like I was telling you last night's sitcom, but I never felt it.
Speaker: Well, when in breath work, when you're hovering over your body, you're in a relaxed state. looking through the eyes of love and from that safe space, you're finally able to feel it.
Speaker: And what I learned from that, and I learned subsequently in my training as as a somatic experiencing therapist, is that there are two things that can happen from womb trauma for babies. Now, what's fascinating about this, before I tell you the two things, is we all know that babies have soft spots. That's what gets them through the birth canal.
Speaker: Those soft spots stay open for two years. That's not random. When you hold up an infant, you'll see the infant looking around the room because they can still see those energies. It's actually actually a merciful gift that we get to leave our bodies and go back to that other realm because this is a radical change.
Speaker: So womb trauma babies go back more frequently than other babies, and they tend to be gifted spiritually and gifted analytically.
Speaker: i don't have a lot of gifts, but I have both of those. You don't get to be a psychologist without being analytically gifted. And I always knew that I was a spiritual being.
Speaker: And i it in that experience, through those experiences, because it wasn't a one and done healing, through breath work, I came to realize that if that was the price I needed to pay to know myself as a spiritual being having a human experience, which we all are, that is the truth, that was well worth it.
Speaker: And so I believe what I've seen is that we kind of do sign up for these soul blueprints, these these experiences that are tailor made for us to grow. We each came with different gifts. We have different areas we need to grow.
Speaker: So yes, I had a very challenging childhood. I had a bipolar mother. She got married when I was nine, so I moved out of my childhood home with my grandparents, which was super loving, great foundation. And and therein is the protection, right? So the protection comes so that we can face the challenge. um But I would walk myself to church, not because across a four lane highway,
Speaker: They're like, see you later, see you at dinner. Right. yeah And it wasn't because I believed in the doctrine, but I could feel the energy. i could feel that energy that I had grown up in in the first nine years, this peace, calm, love, compassion.
Speaker: And I surfed the energy. And so I think that's been the foundation through everything that we're given challenges to grow us. But we have everything we need to remember who we really are, which is God. We're all unique manifestations of God. And we're all limitless in every challenge that we think we can't handle. Yeah.
Speaker: We do handle and we're given what we need to handle it to remind us, see, you're way stronger than you thought. That's a great gift. And so you had these feelings at a very early age. So you might not have maybe known the words or or could have expressed what you exactly you were feeling, but you had you could sense it.
Speaker: For sure. And did so did this just blossom in you as you were learning about different subjects that you said, I want to just deep dive and explore this more? Or where or did you have anybody that I mean, were you in, ah you know, ah like any, don't know, we've seen someone yourself so that you could say, I want to follow that foot that path.
Speaker: Or did you ever have counseling at a young age? I mean, what's. Oh, I've had plenty of counseling. I think that the best therapists have all sat on the other side of the couch. we You have to do your own work. There there is no bypass. there's Love will let you bang your head against the wall and go on your own efforts and be like and love doesn't insist on anything. and Love's like, all good luck with that. you'll You'll get to the end of your strength and you'll finally surrender and then I'll be able to come in. Love lets us all do that. So yeah, I've had plenty of therapy, but the teacher has always been love. And I'll tell you, you know, I held a very patriarchal view of God for many, many years.
Speaker: It wasn't until my second near-death experience where I had pneumonia, coughing up massive quantities of blood, gasping to find a single breath.
Speaker: and And that lasted for 10 months. They said this should have been cured in three weeks. It's a common pneumonia. So they tested me for every autoimmune disease. And i was home from the hospital at that point. And they said, you don't have one. Keep taking the antibiotics for another 40 days and you'll be well.
Speaker: Well, that was a pivotal moment for me because that was again, love stripping me to the very end of my strength. when When I realized I'm on gifted time and i I had been a psychologist for years, I'd helped a lot of people, Matt, but who would I really built the bonds with?
Speaker: Who would I made a love legacy with? Because that's all that's going to last. yeah So I fell to the floor crying. I literally was sobbing on the floor. Joe's in the kitchen waiting for the verdict. And I'm like, yeah oh my God, I'm on gifted time here.
Speaker: Let me be love in every moment. And Matt, I've seen in myself and the people that I work with, when we finally get to the end of our strength, when we have no effort left, that is when the clouds part immediately. Love wants us there so that love can come in. yeah It was in short order that I was told about a retreat on the other side of the world in Costa Rica.
Speaker: That was a radical change to my marriage contract. I had never taken a vacation without my husband. he And I think he was so glad that I was going to live. He's like, yeah, yeah, yeah go.
Speaker: Well, the irony that I was struggling to find breath to prepare me for breath work was being the means to my own soul, that's not lost on me. yeah And I think this great playwright writes stories that you know I could never write like that. The great playwright stories are amazing. but i mean it's just how do you like it' i mean That's your journey to get to this level of knowledge. What I'm most consumed with is how do you even start that journey and how do you know you have the capacity
Speaker: to take that on because I'm interested in what you're saying, but I don't I can tell you right now, I don't maybe it's because I have never reached the point of suffering that you were to think about ah the idea of being vulnerable and going to a different place. You've never been with someone that's not your spouse in because it could have been hard. You could have a horrible experience. It could have been just a complete you know waste and you could have been miserable and you were already recovering and sick.
Speaker: Like, how do you know that that like it's I just go back to almost like a leap of faith. It's kind of like you were chosen for this path because I consider myself a quote unquote normal um and I couldn't do it. There's no I just don't know if I could, but maybe I haven't ever been in that experience yet to say I have to do something.
Speaker: Does that make sense? Or do you just think you have the capacity and you've always been that curious? And does that make sense? It completely makes sense. And here's what I want to say. There's no single blueprint for any life. And so we get these hearts, these magnetizing hearts for a reason.
Speaker: That saying, follow your bliss, is probably the best advice you could ever live because what your blueprint is for your life to follow your bliss it's it's never going to guide you in a wrong direction as long as you keep aligned and attuned to your bliss you're walking the right way for you and the truth is There's a million paths up the mountain. Like, isn't it so great that love responds to Jesus, Buddha, Allah, Krishna, on and on and on. Love personally responds to all those names.
Speaker: and meets us right where we are, loves us right where we are, so that we feel safe enough to become more than what we are. that's that's Take that in for a minute. That's beautiful. I mean, how do you, when you have a patient and you're trying to get a connection with them, how do you get them to open up to to be receptive to that type of of message because I just think maybe it's the negativity around most of us these days. I feel like that is an unbound, ah ah very positive, very uplifting message that I feel like would be like you know nails on a chalkboard for many people that just you know almost can't stand it because it's so against what they're, I guess, predisposed to. Yeah. And what we hear every day. Right. And I don't know if that just gets filtered out, like your daily existence doesn't hear that, or can you just not absorb it the way that some of us absorb what we consider our reality?
Speaker: Yeah. So I hear two questions in that. So one, how well how do I talk to my patients? And two, how do I live myself in this world? It's, you know that movie, The Matrix, I don't know, did you ever watch it? Yeah, which pill do you take? Yeah. Exactly. Well, we're all living in the matrix. yeah I mean, that's the truth of it. And yet, we don't have to let the matrix affect us. So, while there are tremendous benefits to breath work, to going and doing those inward journeys and connecting with the cosmos, the other powerful piece is conscious breathing.
Speaker: When you come off the mat and you are consciously breathing, that is the gateway to presence. It is not random that the only function in our bodies that can be done involuntarily or voluntarily is breathing.
Speaker: All of the ancient religions knew it. Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit onto his disciples. The Hebrew word for kiss, neshaka, means to breathe together.
Speaker: Conscious breath is the gateway to presence. I feel it in my throat. Some people feel it in their nostrils or their belly. When you're in your breath, you're out of your head.
Speaker: And so and and that so that's a big piece. If you find the diatribe in your head running rampant, you're in your ego. that That's the tell sign.
Speaker: Your ego doesn't is threatened by your your true nature because your ego feels abandoned. They're all those wounded children from our childhood. Whatever our parents judged in us,
Speaker: we rejected in us so that we could stay aligned with them. we and We had to push those parts of ourselves into our subconscious. 95% of what we do comes from our subconscious.
Speaker: It's breath work that brings the subconscious conscious. But when we're reacting, we're in our ego. That's all subconscious. And people who are wondering, how did I get into the same dilemma again, the same type of bad relationship? How did I get sick again? How did I lose my job again? They are subconscious condition patterns of our ego.
Speaker: And so going in to love those children, love is the only true healer. But a simple hack, if you hear the diatribe in your head, come into your conscious breath.
Speaker: That is a great way to quiet that down. And they they need to be parented. i The most effective parenting is warm and firm. So they're unruly. They're running around in there. sky is falling, right? And so you need to be firm with them and you need to say, listen, I appreciate that you're giving me this red flag and I got it.
Speaker: I got this. So I'm going to ask you to hold a vigil for me and let my true self lead. Our true self is joyful, innocent, curious, calm,
Speaker: Present.
Speaker: And with this knowledge, how do you i guess how ah how do i say how how do you keep from not feeling these feelings? I feel like what you said makes perfect sense to me, but when someone cuts you off in traffic, you don't necessarily... My first instinct isn't love, right? I want to so you know scream. So how how does it manifest itself in ah in reality, in our in our present day?
Speaker: ah do you Does that make sense once you become masterful at these concepts and you start to understand breath work? Does that make sense? ah Sure. Everything's practice. And so when ah when a simple practice, a simple mantra that I do in that example of somebody cutting me off or all of a sudden out of the blue, there's some challenge.
Speaker: I often say, God bless you, and I really send love to that person, and God change me. change me because it's ah it's something in me that rose up that's out of alignment with love.
Speaker: That's good information for me. If I'm in the place of my breath and the witness, I've not reacted to it. I don't blend with it. It's when our egos blend with us that we get reactive and we say and do things we later regret.
Speaker: If I can notice it and I don't blend with it, then I can say, God changed me, but I'm sending love to you. and it's And it's all a choice. Fascinating. And so in practice, when you are sitting down with someone and they want to express themselves, I mean, well, first off, do you still see patients in that traditional sense? Do you still- and Not anymore because of the book. i So i I just wound up my practice this year. Okay. Yeah.
Speaker: So back when you did, because when I first met you, you were still doing that. and I love And so I just was just curious, how do you how do you open this conversation? is it was Was your practice more traditional in the sense of, you know, one of the reasons I stopped going to therapy is that I felt I would just vomit on them. I would just tell them all my problems.
Speaker: They didn't really say a whole lot back to me. There was no inward. It was very much I had to lead the conversation. They were quiet. Woo. And it drove me nuts. I'm like, I know what I'm paying per hour and I'm not, you know, I'm just talking to myself is how it felt. Yeah. And I know people say, well, you have to try a different therapist or go a different route. So how do you get someone to start to go inward? Because I know one of the things when I first met you that I felt just so just so interested, i never heard anyone speak this way, that you could find some of this underlying trauma where someone who had been dealing with issues in their life for years and years and years as an adult, and you help them go deep, deep within, and then you find, and they eventually discover trauma that they have completely locked out of their their conscious mind.
Speaker: And right you've had stories like that where- Plenty. It could be sexual trauma. It could have been child abuse. It could have been these these really immense, challenging experiences. Yep.
Speaker: and But they don't they could not tell you prior to having met you and having done these experiences to to to speak on it. Because they buried it so deeply, yet it was affecting every moment of their lives. Yeah.
Speaker: So, mean, most of my clients in the end of my career knew that I was a trans-personal psychologist, so they knew I was spiritual. But right up to the end, I would have clients that they that didn't resonate with them. yeah So I'm not going to... I'm going to meet you where you are, and I'm going to love you as you are.
Speaker: But in those cases, I talk about the physiological benefits of going inward. So I'm happy to share some of those here. Yeah, please. So the breath work I do is circular breathing. It's very slow.
Speaker: When you breathe slowly, you activate your parasympathetic nervous system. So if nothing else happens, you're incredibly relaxed. That's a good thing. Over time of continuing that practice,
Speaker: You increase the blood flow in your frontal cortex. That's your immediacy, your presence. You increase the actual size of your left prefrontal cortex, which houses your positive emotions. You decrease the size of your amygdala, which is your fear, your fight or flight, all your reactivity.
Speaker: You increase cross neuronal communication. Most of us have, we call it the default mode network. We see it on functional MRIs. It maps directly onto Freud's construct of the ego.
Speaker: They're nine well-grooved pathways. They get us sleepwalking through life, get us very self-referential. Oh, he looked at me funny. that That's all about me. That's the self-referential piece of the ego. That quiets down. Below that is our midbrain, which is the seat of the soul. That's your your emotions. That's your intuitions, all in your midbrain. And then, of course, it it quiets the mental chatter.
Speaker: So, and that's just the beginning. When you really master breath work and you've now had that experience where you're just consciousness, like I wouldn't talk about your energetic body loosening from your physical form with those clients, but the sense of being pure consciousness, that they could relate to that. Well, when you're in that state,
Speaker: you release what lays dormant in your pineal gland, which is a chemical called DMT. Do you know what that is, Matt? Oh, yes. Yes. Most people think it's just in these magic mushrooms or these certain plants. It's most... It's natural. It's most likely in every living being. yeah It lays dormant in our pineal gland.
Speaker: Well, when we're releasing that out of our brain into our cells, you're sending a message of well-being, but also you increase the interstitial fluid in your cells, which allows you to amplify at a higher frequency, a higher energetic frequency that you just spill out into the world.
Speaker: so Is that released during during near death or like is that what some people might refer to as some of the hallucinations or the feeling that you've met God or the some of the end of life feelings that some people describe?
Speaker: No doubt. No doubt. and There's endorphins released as well, but and no doubt that that's released in end of life experiences. i've I've had one. It was very real to me. There's a great Jewish saying, what's truer than truth? Have you heard it? No, I haven't.
Speaker: Do you have a guess? What's truer than truth? i'm not I don't even have a guess. experience. When you experience these things personally and they're visceral, you see the images, you're in the images, you hear auditory downloads, you feel it in every cell, it becomes unrefutable.
Speaker: It doesn't matter what anybody else says. Maybe I'm drinking tea. i don't nate I doubt it, but maybe I am. But so what? like If you could experience that kind of bliss on a regular basis,
Speaker: Why wouldn't you? Well, I mean, there's plenty of podcasts. We were talking about podcasts earlier, or at least my experiences with this one, and there are plenty that discuss DMT and being able to take it, but you can just, maybe it's the cheat code, they just go and they can purchase this, you know, and and have a ah controlled, some of them are in controlled settings. But what interests me is that you're saying that you can release this naturally without having to go down any of those other paths just by understanding breath work and reaching those. Could could you ah do that with patients in ah in a clinical setting? Oh, for sure. It's the greatest thing ever. and you you know
Speaker: For me and most of the people that I've worked with, I could handle pain all day long. I'm going to take your pain. When you leave, I'm going to throw it out the window as fertilizer for the trees. I don't take that in.
Speaker: But love makes us cry. Love just gets to that sweet, tender spot in our hearts and it really makes us cry. And when I see a client sobbing because they realize that they're worthy, if they're lovable.
Speaker: oh my God, there's nothing better than that. It's it's it's like coming back to life. Yeah. It's incredible. Wow, that's wild. So, ah yeah, I don't have that in my day job, but it's, you know, i i can get adjacent to that. can get a really good deal on that duplex.
Speaker: Yeah, I don't get that exact experience, but that map must be incredible and probably one of the reasons why you've ah been able to to affect other people the way that you have and and just being aware that this kind of exists. How does someone, you know if they're interested in this, how do they explore it and become more more aware of of what is possible in their own life? i mean do they like What's the best resource to begin that that journey with someone you know discovering this? Yeah. so If you're really rooted in the mind, steeped in the mind, you might need a guide. I'm part of the International Federation of Breath Workers. I'm a certified breath worker. They have a list of people in all cities that you could pair with.
Speaker: If you're not so entrenched in that world, you can certainly take these explorations on your own. I have videos on YouTube that longer ones and shorter ones that give you the steps of how to do it.
Speaker: The biggest key is surrender. You know, your ego doesn't want to feel vulnerable. Your ego is going to be like, whoa, you're losing control. You're losing control. And you, you've got to be able to surrender through that. And my biggest, um,
Speaker: advice to anybody wanting to take this exploration is to just get lost in the act. You have to take in a full breath. Most of us breathe with half of our lungs. So I like to visualize that I'm moving energy up along with the breath. So I'm breathing in from the base of my spine up, up, up all the way to my pineal gland.
Speaker: That's a full breath till I cannot take in a drop more of air. All in through the nose, out through the nose. With no gap, then I'm going to let that breath fall out.
Speaker: And it's an even longer breath. It's probably an 8, 10 or 8, 12 count. But you shouldn't count. You just get lost in the act. And when you can become energy, you're just following the breath, becoming that conscious energy. That's when you're going to loosen and you're going to have these...
Speaker: trips that rival psychedelics. And the one thing I wanted to say, because you did mention sure people can do psychedelics and I've done them. They've been wonderful healers with me. I've only ever done them with a guide.
Speaker: However,
Speaker: What psychedelics do is they plunk you right into your subconscious. yeah Everything that you've buried in, if you have stuff buried that you, that is traumatic, that you haven't worked on, it can feel traumatic.
Speaker: And that's why I caution people. One, I wouldn't do it without a guide. And two, you really have to know the surrender. You have to feel space, but that's the caveat.
Speaker: Breath work is much gentler. That's interesting. So for the people, so I've never done it because I'm too scared to find out what's underneath the the top surface. So I've never done any of this. I have discussed like maybe that would be amazing experience to go and and try this with a guide at some point in my life because I would i think it would be very beneficial, but I can't be alone because i I would never try many of these because the only times it's ever been offered to me is in ah like a party setting. Yeah. Which I'm getting older, I have kids, I don't i don't have a whole lot of those ah that randomly happen in my day. But the reality is I think even when I have been offered, I'm like, this is not the setting to try this. Because it's loud, it's crazy, you're going horrible experience.
Speaker: And that to me, would it's it doesn't it's not serving anybody. And if anything, you'll have a really bad taste in your mouth, maybe literally or you know figuratively, and you'll never want to try it again.
Speaker: Very wise. I love that you have such a good intuition with your own soul to to choose the things that are going to be uplifting for you. you know People talk about the K-hole that's using ketamine in a party setting or or ecstasy was the term for MDMA.
Speaker: When you're taking those substances in a crowded bar, you're likely to have a bad experience. yeah So, yes, I've only ever done it with shaman healers, and it's been incredibly... Intentionality is one of the strongest energies there is. yeah So what intention you bring to the experience is going to have a huge part in the outcome.
Speaker: yeah How does that DMT experience going to relate to, or maybe it's the same, I just don't know. I've never done any of these, but related to, I know Hopkins has a massive program right now. They do. And so their program, are you familiar with what they're doing? and i am. i believe they've expanded it is what I heard. They have. Help me understand what what Hopkins is doing right now. It sounds like they're leading the whole country in this effort. Well, Roland Griffiths really was the first one to get IRB approval to do any of this research after Nixon banned it. We talked about the matrix. I will say that these plant medicines do not meet the criteria for Schedule I drugs. Yeah. in that it would be addictive. They don't meet any of those criteria. They're not addictive at all.
Speaker: Nixon shut it down for political reasons because people did not want to go to his war in Vietnam. And it was shut down for years. Roland Griffiths at Johns Hopkins got the first IRB approval.
Speaker: Since then, um they have, i i want to say, is it Joe Rogan or one of the, Aubrey Daniels, I don't know, one of the podcasters has put millions into funding his research. Joe Rogan was just at at the White House and they released, because they they took down the scheduling for for marijuana, and But they also increased, I believe, the the ah availability of mushrooms and other psychedelics for testing, specifically for deep-seated traumas, PTSD, ah veteran groups.
Speaker: um I think it's incredible. So they're opening the door to actually allow this lawfully so we can figure out what the best setting is. And so i i I know Rogan was there. I don't know who else was there. Well, I would just like to say that...
Speaker: In psychiatry, we have these Western medicines. They come with a boatload of side effects. Often they get approved when their effect size is 0.05, barely above chance.
Speaker: In psychology, most of the treatments that we offer, we get excited for effect sizes around 0.4.
Speaker: That's a pretty good effect size in psychology. These plants have effect sizes that range from 0.8 to 1.3, depending on... What does that mean? Explain that to those that don't understand what that means. Okay, well, when you're at a 1.3, it is a very... So, you were in the clinical range ah for, let's just say alcoholism.
Speaker: You are out of the clinical range and that is for over, that's for at least 100% of the people are out of the clinical range at an effect size of 1.3. What we know with ah psilocybin specifically on alcoholism is that you might need ah a booster treatment. Mushrooms, mushrooms. yeah Yes, psilocybin mushrooms. You might need a booster treatment after six months, but you've been alcohol-free for six months because of the power of that experience.
Speaker: i' what's the What's the likelihood if I was an alcoholic and went through that experience? What's the the likelihood it will serve me well or I'll be alcohol-free? Do they have that research yet? Yeah, I mean, it's really, really high. It's it's like, I don't know, 85%. Yeah.
Speaker: per say yeah we don't Before that, alcoholism was one of the highest recidivism rates. So the the rates of success were like 10%.
Speaker: That's incredible. People, and heroin addicts, that ah requires a really strong plant called ibogaine. That's something I would probably not try, but you know,
Speaker: they like They want you to be addicted to methadone because there's big pharma money in that. I can tell you, i I learned a lot back when I worked for big pharma. That's where I started my career. I worked for Eli Lilly and I started understanding where the money was.
Speaker: And I learned where all the money, the funding for for MAD, for Mothers Against Drunk Driving and all these, and and for the... for all the groups that wanted to legalize cannabis for decades. they it was all the It was all the companies I worked for and were my competitors and they they fought this and they would have committees and I learned where all this money was going to combat it so it couldn't be legal because I used to sell antidepressants and anxiolytics and um antipsychotics. I sold all of those ah things and
Speaker: And they didn't want this experience because at one point I represented something that's olanzapine hydrochloride, which is Iprexa. It used to be for a long period of time the number one expense item for the government related to all of the pharmaceutical world. Wow. And it was billions of dollars for one pill that we would get. And it had it was pretty effective relative to other things. With big side effects. With big side effects. But we had efficacy rates, we would say around 32 to 43% is what I recall. It's foggy. It's been a while. That's what I remember. And that would that would just be a 30% reduction.
Speaker: Right. Exactly. So a third of the people would have a third reduction. Right. So you're not well- Yeah. the It's amazing to see people actually getting well from one experience into their own soul. Because our soul has everything that we would need. yeah When you learn how to communicate with, which is mostly listening, it's not talking. When you learn how to go in and listen to what your soul has for you,
Speaker: and you see your soul that it is pure and good and lovable, like it it changes your lens for everything. It's radical. That's incredible. That's incredible. So getting back to kind of present day, so you've decided to to write a book and you you you know named it Essence Merging. Can you help me understand how you came up with that title and what that means to you?
Speaker: Sure. So um after I went on to the retreat, I was at serendipitously, this great playwright, decided to send somebody to the retreat that actually lived on the other side of the lake that I lived on.
Speaker: and So I meet him in Costa Rica and he lives across the lake from me here in the States. And our shaman asked us to be breathwork partners. He said, you know, you're so close to the White House. It's a very low frequency vibration. You could raise the vibration.
Speaker: Would you do it? So of course we said yes, right? We breathed across from each other for a long time. Well, over time, following the leading of breath, our own souls, we would sit up and across from each other with our eyes open.
Speaker: I found out later that is the first stage of Tantra, which gets a rap as being very sexual. But what it really is, is the practice of devotion.
Speaker: That's what that tradition is. And so when you're looking somebody in the eye, it's much more intimate. You're looking into their souls. There's a ah connection beyond human form. Well, when you do that long enough and you're both in conscious breath, then there is no you.
Speaker: There is no me. There's just this this experience, which is pure love. And this auditory download came to me, essence merging.
Speaker: And this might be candid, but I think your audience can handle it. We've all, if we're lucky, we've all experienced having sex and we've experienced making love.
Speaker: They're radically different. When you're making love, there is no you, there's no other person. It's one of the most easiest ways to experience that loss of sense of self.
Speaker: And the truth is, when our subtle energy body comes loose from our physical forms, what we call God is the electromagnetic field that runs through every cell.
Speaker: Every cell is 99.99% space. And it is a very coherent, intelligent electromagnetic field that whirls around these nanoparticles. So this table seems so solid. And it is in the material world, but it's 99.99% space.
Speaker: It's all energy. This energy realm exists colong alongside with this material realm. When our subtle bodies come loose, since it is an electromagnetic field, they it magnetizes to the...
Speaker: collective electromagnetic field that's God. When you're magnetized, I believe that there's a remembrance of ourselves back before the Big Bang.
Speaker: When we were all together as part of the One, as unique manifestations of the One, it was all welcome. We're all together. And when you feel that union,
Speaker: When you're in that sense of union, you feel bliss. When you feel the bliss, we call it love. But what's in our DNA, that emptiness, we're really looking for the union.
Speaker: And so it came to me, looking at my breath through in his eyes, really, which is becomes a mirror for the love of my own heart, that I could bring that to any moment.
Speaker: Any moment, folding laundry. I'm one with the cloth. It's soft. It's beautiful. I'm out of my default mode network. I'm not taking it for granted. I'm like, oh my gosh, this is luscious.
Speaker: I cried the other day cutting a lemon because I thought about the tree that birthed this lemon. It's a creation of that tree. And then all the hands that touch that lemon. And that lemon is going to come inside of this body and commune with this body, leave this body, go out to the earth to take on some other form.
Speaker: Like that's intimate. Yes. And it might sound out there, but... It makes every moment precious. yeah So essence merging is the word for that every moment is a conversation with life, with love. yeah I mean, it's so incredible to hear you speak in in that way. I'm actually a little bit mesmerized by it as you're going. I'm kind of kind of lost in my own thoughts as you as you were describing that because um that is not how most of us ah speak and certainly think about. And I think most of us, even if that's not, it's almost...
Speaker: it's almost a It's just so different that it's you know, I'm sure you might not be aware of it or as much as those of us that don't speak that language because it's not something that I normally hear and it's in it in a weird way. It's like I have these three small kids and they've never been exposed to anyone who speaks in that way or thinks in that way.
Speaker: And as you were talking, I was thinking about how I think it might be important to expose them earlier. Because just the idea, of for example, of of like I said, speaking to someone and just trying to understand my own feelings and how I feel about myself and and how I imagine the world around me to be. And I perceive when I think of like, for example, happiness, we have a big sign in our bathroom that says, you know, we choose happiness. Amen. And it felt bizarre, right? It felt almost kind of similar to what you're describing. But it's like when you start understanding that that our life is how we perceive it.
Speaker: Absolutely. And you could you've seen people who you might think are not as successful or maybe don't have all the things in the material world, but they're the happiest people you've ever met. Some of my happiest friends are by far, by most traditional sense, not the most successful. Well, actually the research on that is once you're above poverty level, there is no difference.
Speaker: And wait as you get closer to what we call wealth, happiness goes down. there It is an inverse relationship. Once you have a certain level of comfort, that next dollar doesn't really bring as much. But I think below poverty level, that's all you can think about. That's how I... We talk about wealth on this show a lot. and And I think when you don't have enough to pay your bills or to meet your minimum financial needs, that's all... It consumes your life. Yeah. and the truth is that seeking comfort brings discomfort.
Speaker: If you want to sit in a chair all day, your legs aren't going to work for you. Like that's a simple example. Every time we seek comfort and our brains are hardwired to take the comfortable way. That's where we got to bring that unconscious into consciousness to choose these higher frequencies to remember we are limitless.
Speaker: Well, I know a little bit about you because ah we're selling your house right now, but i I know you believe in cold plunge therapy. I sure do. And I also, last year, we bought a cold plunge and we have a sauna now and I know you have a sauna. And so it's the understanding of, and I want to get your perspective as you discussed getting out of your comfort zone.
Speaker: The reason we did that is because it's uncomfortable. I don't want to go in that thing. It's not something I i seek, but when I do it, I think it it forces you to be present because it is exceptionally cold and it's very uncomfortable and all your thoughts are the bills or the phone call you have to make or it goes away because you are fully present. And I wanted to get your opinion while I have you stuck in this room in this chair. out What are your thoughts on those type of modalities and and heat exposure and cold therapy?
Speaker: Well, the research on them is incredibly strong and they're called hormetic stressors. So they are the kind of stressors that it is a good stress that actually strengthens your mitochondria.
Speaker: The mitochondria is that powerhouse in the cell that turns the light switch on and off to let um invaders out to keep them out. They're going to turn that light switch off to for the to protect the whole cell. So they really are at the root of all disease. Strong mitochondria, you're not going to get the disease.
Speaker: These hormetic stressors actually are like the exercise programs for our hermit for our mitochondria. And beyond that, you're absolutely right. When you're, when I'm in the cold plunge, I'm in my breath.
Speaker: i I do it to find that peace. When you can be in a relaxed state and that's the real key. If you're getting in the cold plunge and you're gritting your teeth and shivering, you're not going to get the benefits. You've got to be able to find that relaxation in the discomfort. And that is a great skill for life. Yes.
Speaker: And I think it does. And that's that first 10, 20, 30 seconds is miserable. i'm not going to lie. I don't enjoy any part of that. But beyond that, you start to deb breathe. And then if you don't know any techniques, if you force yourself in there for three minutes and tell yourself, I know it's worth it. And you can kind of convince yourself it makes doing the other things in your day a little bit easier.
Speaker: It's how I view it and it's been my experience and then I for someone who doesn't understand breath work I haven't practiced it however you start to really understand it when you're freezing because there you have to and then you get you get calm and you you eventually slow your breath and I can only imagine when you actually have the knowledge you have you probably combine the two and are probably have an even more powerful experience.
Speaker: Well, yeah, I start with a slow breath, but what you described is what we call classical conditioning. Your nervous system gets so amped up and then it gets tired and it comes back to calm. And that's that's the premise of all exposure therapy. yeah So you just you can bypass that by starting with those slow breaths before you even dip your toe in. Get yourself in that meditative state.
Speaker: And I do want to say for your listeners considering a cold plunge, it releases your dopamine to a level that lasts for eight hours. None of those drugs you sell release dopamine for eight- Used to sell. Used to sell. Sorry. Used to sell. For the record. Used to sell. No longer drug dealer. Yes.
Speaker: But they don't last eight hours. No. No, and well, don't even get me started on that. The literature came back at at that they're even less effective than what the drug companies originally anticipated. Once you look at the data, because man, boy, was that a good idea in terms of learning how to market. The way that you can look at the same data differently, depending on how you take the subsets out. That's right.
Speaker: Wow. You could show the same study three different ways and look totally different. Yes. and and you know I don't know. as a I've published in lots of scientific journals. what I know what I had to go through as a regular researcher to get my research published, incredibly rigorous, that that would never fly.
Speaker: that's ah that's They don't publish in scientific journals. oh They just do their research in-house, submit it to the government, get the rubber stamp, and good we're all good to go.
Speaker: Well, you need to have a few billion dollars behind your clinical research and you too can get a rubber stamp. I feel like, sadly, that's how I that's how i feel. just a matrix It's Boy, there's a lot of money behind it. yeah We don't want to talk about it too much. The internet will shut us down. But but's it's scary how much when you start to reveal what's going on ah behind us. And I think the fact that even podcast and the internet and the access to information is consistently going up lately. And so for better and for worse, but one of the ways is I think we're starting to understand how the things around us have have been presented to us. And many people are starting to understand that it's not all what we maybe have been told our whole lives.
Speaker: that's That's part of this great awakening. yeah And the fact that we are coming together through podcasts and things these virtual ways that's the high side of it.
Speaker: I think there's a powers that would like us to feel separate and alone, and it's not the truth. It's not the truth of who we really are. It's built into our DNA. We have three instincts.
Speaker: They're all around love. Self-preservation instinct is taking care of this house. belonging instinct. I am part of a greater whole.
Speaker: And then the sexual instinct is one-on-one relating and the power of creation. Everything that we create comes from that instinct that they're all facets of love built into our DNA.
Speaker: That's incredible. So um I've kept you on so long. I want to kind of give it get back a little bit here to kind of wrap this up. But as someone that you know is getting through and starting to explore what you've discussed today, and I'm going to fit them and finish your book because I think it's such an interesting and such a divergent. i just ah Someone like me just reads about business books, finance.
Speaker: It's the driest subject matter I've ever, you could, there's nothing gained, but it's fascinating. I get so deep into it and this is such a breath of fresh air, but um I mean, how would you describe in in a nutshell, like what someone might get from the book in general, specifically maybe my audience who isn't your traditional audience that you might speak to, who's already either familiar with this or, you know, has already been learning and having this experience in their world. So how would you kind of sum it up as to as to what they might get from the book?
Speaker: but Well, I would say that it is a primer on what you can expect when you're relinquishing the ego's totalitarian control over your life, over what you create.
Speaker: It can seem maddening at times, and it can seem exhilarating. And you and it's a journey. to and it But it changes the way the lens that you look at, the energy that you put out and what comes back to you it it it really, it's worth it. it's It's an incredible journey that I feel so grateful that I've gone through. And I want to shout from the roof rooftops, which is why I wrote the book. yeah Like everybody could have this. And there is a ah very unconventional love story interwoven among the book um with my breathwork partner. I've been in a vibrant marriage, you know, Joe for 46 years and i call him the guru of love. And I think that's really appropriate. He's got a very
Speaker: ah a dog-like spirit, that that just happy in the moment spirit, but also I think there's a safety that he feels in our relationship to allow the highest levels of love to come out of him. So when you're in a relationship and you're not trying to control your partner or say, you know, you can't have any relationships ah with the opposite sex or with the sex of your orientation because you're in this relationship, that cuts off half the planet. But when you realize that love begets love, And that if I'm filled with love, then I spill that love. i have more to give. It it multiplies. and And when you're safe in that, it enriches everything. So there's this very unconventional love story. It's all honorable.
Speaker: I'm breathing with this person. But when somebody looks at you soul to soul, Finn knows me in a way greater than anyone ever has. And I believe ever will. I think we've shared other lives and vice versa. So, but Joe is the love of my human life. And so that's all in the book as well. But I would say mostly it's a primer of what you can expect.
Speaker: that's and That's incredible. So um I want to end it on that note because there's nothing that we're going to do that tops that description. So I am so grateful that you came in and I think hopefully folks go and check out Essence Merging. I think it's ah an incredible read and something that ah that you know I think we as a community here locally in Maryland in the Towson area are proud to have have you represent us so well and and get the message out. And it's such a positive, um amazing story.
Speaker: conversation and message to have relative to everything else I feel like we're hearing these days. So I'm so proud to have an opportunity to promote it in this capacity. So I thank you, Colleen, for joining me. And it's been an absolute pleasure.
Speaker: My pleasure. Always my pleasure connecting with you, Matt. You're a bright light and ah and the world is better with your light in it. So thank you. thank you. We're going to put that on repeat to start the show. at Thank so next time everybody And big thank you to our sponsor, First Home Mortgage. You can check them out at firsthome.com.
