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Nothing Happens To You, It Happens FOR You, with Clark Nesselrodt
964 Plays5 days ago
**Sign up "Fluid Conversation", a series of guided talks and topic-based discussions, beginning May 27, weekly through June 25: https://calendly.com/robertbrookscohen/fluid-conversations
Welcome back to the second half of my interview with Clark Nesselrodt! We finished up talking about his book before diving into the spiritual meditation work he facilitates, plus some talk about abundance and the reciprocity of the universe, and finally we chatted about the current political climate, how to engage with it spiritually (and when to tap out and take care of yourself), and what this period of disturbance could transform into.
One of my key takeaways is that nothing is ever happening to us -- it is always happening FOR us. This shift in perspective has been so powerful for me recently, and I hope it is healing for you, as well.
Stay tuned for more episodes throughout Pride month!
10 minutes of bonus content with Clark (about the spirituality of AI), plus full video episodes, on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/robertbrookscohen
Clark's website: https://www.clarknesselrodt.com/
Clark on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@keyofclark
Clark on IG: https://www.instagram.com/keyofclark
Clark on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@KeyofClark
Rob's Website: https://www.robertbrookscohen.com/
Sign up for a free intro call with Rob re: individual coaching: https://calendly.com/robertbrookscohen/25-minute-free-intro-call
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction with Clark Nesselrote
00:00:12
Speaker
Hello everybody, welcome to 2BiGuys. Coming up in a moment is the second half of my interview with Clark Nesselrote. We got into some fascinating stuff, stay tuned. Just a quick announcement before
Fluid Conversations Series Announcement
00:00:24
Speaker
we get to that. I am hosting a discussion series through Pride Month called Fluid Conversations.
00:00:30
Speaker
I've noticed how much there is to talk about around this concept of fluidity and related topics. people really want to talk about it and share with others. It's going to be five conversations, one hour each only, and it's totally free to sign up and join.
00:00:45
Speaker
They're all on different days of the week and at various times so that it's flexible for people to join regardless of your schedule at least once in a while.
Coming Out vs Inviting In Discussion
00:00:54
Speaker
So the first one is Tuesday, May 27th, which is the day that this podcast comes out. So it's today, if you're listening on time, at 4 p.m. Pacific, 7 p.m. Eastern. The topic for this one is coming out versus inviting in, and the idea that you don't owe it to anyone else to share this, but you might owe it to yourself. On June 5th, Thursday, June 5th, we're talking about...
00:01:19
Speaker
Fluidity, really understanding what fluidity means and finding your unique place on the spectrum of sexuality and maybe other spectrums. On Saturday, June 14th, the topic is integrating fluidity and queerness into our daily lives.
00:01:36
Speaker
The question often comes up, what does this mean? So I've noticed this attraction or I've come to this identity. What does it mean? And it can mean different things for different people and it can be integrated in different ways. So we'll talk about that.
00:01:48
Speaker
On Sunday, June 22nd, we'll be talking about navigating the spectrum of relationship styles from monogamy to non-monogamy, polyamory, swinging and everything in between.
00:02:00
Speaker
That one is already quite popular and has a few signups. I expect that might be our most popular discussion. And then on Wednesday, June 25th, we'll talk about being visibly by, living proudly, and creating community in a world that erases fluidity.
00:02:17
Speaker
So how can we be more visibly by as a community during Pride Month? So come check it out. Each of these sessions will only be one hour. Everyone will have a chance to drop in and share what brought them to the session and how they connect with the topic.
00:02:32
Speaker
I'll then give a short talk, 10 to 15 minutes, about my thoughts on the topic, and then we'll use the rest of the time for a group conversation. This isn't coaching. This isn't therapy. It's not a support group. It is just a friendly discussion group, and it's free designed to create some community and get these conversations
Inspiration from Clark Nesselrote
00:02:50
Speaker
going.
00:02:50
Speaker
And this series is in part inspired by Clark, today's guest, because he has started doing something similar, monthly talks on a topic, and they're wonderful, and I love it. I love attending them, and so I'm starting slightly different version of my own thing.
00:03:07
Speaker
And if you connect with what Clark has been talking about, go check out his discussion series to check out his website and his social media in the show notes, and you can join his series of talks as well.
Clark's Book and Meditation Work
00:03:18
Speaker
So now here is the second half of my chat with Clark. We continue talking a little bit more about his book, wrapping that up on kink. Then we talked more in depth about the meditation work that he facilitates and the stuff that he and I have connected over.
00:03:35
Speaker
Still a little bit in vague terms, so feel free to message either me or Clark if you would like to find out more. We also talked a bit about abundance and the reciprocity of the universe. And finally, we talked a little bit about the politics of the day, the dark times that might be ahead of us or that we are living through right now, and how to navigate that from a spiritual perspective and from a grounded place for you personally. And there's a little bit of bonus content on Patreon. We talked about ai and really interesting stuff about that. I mean, we started with just how we use AI, but then it really morphed into like a bigger conversation and there's some spirituality involved with AI as well that we got to. So check out patreon.com slash Robert Brooks Cohen for the bonus content and for full video of all of these episodes. And whether you're listening there or elsewhere,
00:04:30
Speaker
Enjoy the rest of this interview
00:04:41
Speaker
Any final thoughts on the book before I want to get to some other stuff?
Challenges of Writing a Book
00:04:45
Speaker
Any final thoughts or like, what are you learning as you write the book? um I want to bring it. I think we've made this point, but it's coming through right now. And I just want to say it at the bottom line, learning to control our urges, learning to, I'm feeling like doing this, but I know it's not my best interest. So I will choose not to becoming someone that has the muscles strong enough to be able to make those calls and choose to do this. Not that.
00:05:13
Speaker
I think it's one of the most important things we're here to do. i hear, hear, men in particular, and this runs rampant in the gay world, and this opens up a whole nother episode we should do together. Well, I'm i'm conditioned to spread my seed.
00:05:27
Speaker
You were conditioned to spread your seed, absolutely. And you are here to evolve and transcend by learning how to keep your dick in your pants. And none of this is puritanical.
00:05:39
Speaker
As I say in the book, all of this has led to the best and most meaningful sex of my life. So it's not that any of these things are bad. It is just whether it is sex or food or drugs or codependency, whatever it is, when you don't have the ability to to to transmute an urge and not act upon something just because it is showing up in your field, that is true vulnerability in this life. So it's really not about the wheelchair or the sex or anything else. It's about gaining self-control.
00:06:12
Speaker
Yeah, cool. I love that. That really, that really resonates. And I'm learning that writing a book is hard as shit. um you You can, you can have all the insights, you can, you can know these things, you can have a skill with words and writing as I do.
00:06:28
Speaker
And just the volume of information and the editing process, like it is just it has it takes a lot of persistent effort and um it it can take you into the heart of your self-doubt.
00:06:39
Speaker
I had a Wednesday last week where I scanned through the book and I thought it was the worst thing I had ever done and that I had wasted the last year of my life. And the very next day I was in ecstasy going, this is just the best thing ever. yeah.
00:06:50
Speaker
It is like being in a mental breakdown at all times. And I love it. And I'm so grateful to be where I am with it. And I'm really grateful that something shifted for me in this last, I would say, two weeks. It's been very recent where the book has gone from this thing that if I'm lucky, I might get to pull off. Or if someone deems it worthy, then it might be able to come into the world.
00:07:15
Speaker
this train has left the station. The bullet has left the gun. It's part of why I wanted to talk to you. This story is in its vitality in my life is its vitality to help others.
00:07:29
Speaker
Ain't no publisher agent going to stop me from getting this thing out there. And so I'm grateful to be in that place of confidence. And I'm heading to Hawaii for a few weeks to finish. And, uh, look forward to, i sent my first, uh, agent query yesterday.
00:07:44
Speaker
And I'm looking forward to getting into the era of this that is not seeking permission to tell this story, but just being out there telling the story. So thank you for giving me a venue to do this publicly for the first time because um metaphysically, energetically doing so marks a huge moment in the journey. So I'm honored you're a part of that with me.
00:08:04
Speaker
You're very welcome. it's a I love that this is this the space where you're sharing it for the first time, and I can't wait to to read more and for it to be shared widely. you'll You'll have to come back later when it's published or maybe many times in between them because there's so much that I want to talk about that we're not going to get to today.
00:08:21
Speaker
But um yeah, I mean, I know like ah writing a book is so hard, and my book was mostly other people's words, and it was still so much work. Mm-hmm. to wrap my head around. um But I just hear the confidence and clarity in you about it. And I'm glad a lot of, a lot of that came through in the last few weeks right before this.
00:08:42
Speaker
um Yeah. You can feel that stuff when, when you're working on something that you, really feel deeply inside you. And that just has to be out there. It's different than when you're writing.
00:08:54
Speaker
And I know this from experience, it's so different from writing what you think will sell and what you think other people want to hear versus what you know you need to share.
00:09:06
Speaker
um It's just a different energy. Yeah, 100%. I was getting so caught up on like, well, I want to write it this way. But you know, this person that read it thinks I should say it this way. And I had the insight on Sunday of just like, those are all just choices.
00:09:21
Speaker
Like, like none of that is actually going to affect whether or not the story gets out there. So just do what you like, move on. Yeah, love it.
00:09:37
Speaker
So let's get into the stuff that we've we connected over when we first met and this work you're doing now. And I know like we don't we're not going to talk about too many details and people can go to your website and learn, you know schedule calls with you if they're interested in learning more.
Clark's Spiritual Journey
00:09:56
Speaker
But um you know you you've had a history as a spiritual leader. And you know i know you've told me like, you found this work or it found you and it and it's felt right, but that you've been doing things like it in the past too. So tell us about like your your sort of career and and how it's led you to what you're up to now.
00:10:19
Speaker
Well, I think that it's interesting to frame it as a career because i I've always wanted it to be that. And then that's been the part that didn't ever really seem available to me. It's really felt more like a calling to spiritual vocation or ah calling to spiritual mission that's been kind of the underlying drumbeat of my entire life. Yeah.
00:10:41
Speaker
So it began in a good old-fashioned Presbyterian church where, as a kid, I dreamed of being the one in the pulpit. And, you know, all of my other friends were doing kid-like things. I was, like, imagining running for, like, the church, like, governing board to, like, be the first, like, 10-year-old member of the church council or something, is just... just Wow, interesting.
00:11:04
Speaker
um and then when i was about fifteen sixteen my best friend's mom was an episcopal priest and they invited me to church with them and i'd always wanted to become catholic i just like i loved and in hindsight i have always been drawn to ceremony i've always been drawn to pageantry and where that ceremony and pageantry meet up with those divine frequencies, like I have just always been in awe of all of that. I mean, even watching the Pope die right now, it's like watching these these ceremonial rites, like it really lights something up in me. Yeah.
00:11:38
Speaker
And the Episcopal Church gave me a much easier access point to all that because they didn't have to convert to Catholicism and go through all of those things. And um the Episcopal Church brings all of that to accessibility without some of the unpleasant aspects that I have found tied to Catholicism. So um as always, when I go, I go deep. I instantly decided I was going to be a priest and went off to college as a pre-seminarian and had no greater aspiration than to be a priest. But um, sex in the city had a deep impact on me and I decided to be Samantha Jones instead. So I went off and had a career in public relations in New York city.
00:12:15
Speaker
Um, but all the public relations, not having sex with that room. and yeah It was a blend. I guess it was a blend. Um, I was never that bad. Um, but then in my mid twenties, after, uh, uh,
00:12:29
Speaker
I had my seven-year relationship that spanned from college into my early 20s, and I had another like little six-month fling. And my best friend handed me a copy of Marianne Williamson's Return to Love.
00:12:42
Speaker
And that book had a tremendous impact upon me. And if you're not familiar with Marianne Williamson, her seminal book, A Return to Love, is a reflection of what she learned practicing ah Course in Miracles.
00:12:56
Speaker
And A Course in Miracles is ah is a very well-known, very sort of infamous in the spiritual New Age space book. It is a channeled book. It was channeled by a Columbia University psychiatrist, Dr. Helen Shookman, who was an atheist.
00:13:14
Speaker
So the fact that this atheist sort of began channeling teachings that she was being told were coming directly from Jesus um is of note. And, you know, however many however many decades later since the course was published, millions and millions of people consider it to be there their spiritual path and how they found truth and all of these things.
00:13:35
Speaker
And Marianne Williamson in A Course in Miracles was what sort of blew the top off of my traditional Protestant Christian beliefs and helped me understand, oh, there is this deeper metaphysics under all of this. And many of the things we've already talked about come from and that understanding and that knowledge. So...
00:13:55
Speaker
um i I wanted the whole time to find a way to monetize and make career out of what has always felt like a um natural gift, talent, and joy in talking about these things and making them accessible to other people.
00:14:11
Speaker
um I have to admit, even as I've been sitting here talking to you, it's like, wow, I really feel the benefits of having just immersed myself in these frequencies and in these concepts for so long because there's I'm able to speak to them with with ah with an ease. that is the great My greatest joy is talking about these things, which is how it's what I know it's part of what I'm here supposed to be doing.
00:14:34
Speaker
um But you know nobody wanted to put me on Oprah yet, so that was problematic. So I've always just been bouncing in and out of this to try to make the long story short. In the midst of my cataclysmic divorce, um I went deeper in the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda.
00:14:52
Speaker
And Yogananda was an Indian mystic, a Hindu from India, that came to the U.S. in 1920 teach something called Kriya Yoga.
00:15:03
Speaker
And Kriya Yoga is a very specific, scientifically-backed meditation technique that... um was expounded in the great ah Vedas of India. like Thousands and thousands of years ago, the Rishis were bringing this forth as like a truly potent ah meditation technique to to help save humanity and link us back to the divine.
00:15:25
Speaker
And that's what Yogananda was here to share. And I'm sure I'm butchering some of those details, but take the spirit of it, not the details. um And, you know, practicing Kriya Yoga for seven years, stone cold sober, just living half my life as a dad and half my life as kind of an ascetic monk practicing this meditation practice.
00:15:44
Speaker
It has given me the it has recoded me and elevated my vibration and given me access to those higher frequencies, which is how I have done everything else we have talked about in this interview so far.
00:15:58
Speaker
Wow, beautiful. And like i I'm reading Yogananda's autobiography, thanks to you. Oh, amazing. Oh my God, fascinating. And like I'm believing in stuff that I didn't used to. i like think it's real. like I always thought of God as an idea. And like I believed in God in the sense that I believed in this idea.
00:16:22
Speaker
But i I view it differently now. Like, I don't think it's just an idea. I mean, it's there's real stuff happening. And I was just at actually the self-realization center on Mount Washington on no twenty two days ago.
00:16:38
Speaker
And you didn't come by. How dare we live five minutes away. And it's why it's why we live here. And and I feel a devotional obligation to say Yogananda is not just the author of this book that I like or the the teacher of this meditation technique that has served me. He is my guru.
00:16:54
Speaker
and in this And guru is a word that our society does not understand. And if I hear one more person bill themselves as a technology guru, like we should not be using this highly sacred word in a worldly context. A guru is a divine being and that exists between the divine itself
Role of a Guru in Spiritual Evolution
00:17:15
Speaker
and humanity that is here not just to teach us good principles to live a better life.
00:17:21
Speaker
They actually take responsibility for us. They actually say, I will not rest until this soul has made it all the way back. And this is not about salvation. This is not about not going to hell.
00:17:33
Speaker
We're in hell right now. But there is an element of when the divine fractured itself out into all the infinitesimal pieces that have made the planets and the stars and and the animals and the birds and the humans...
00:17:49
Speaker
we As I understand it, and this is highly reduced down to simple terms, we are on a mission back to wholeness in that divine being. We are trying to organize all those scattered pieces and put like with like, and we're on this billions of years divine cleanup mission to get back to all just, we're all back one with the divine.
00:18:10
Speaker
And gurus like Yogananda say, I'm not stopping till every single one of my people is back there. And, you know, Yogananda says that when you attune yourself to a guru and you offer that devotion and you have that connection, life becomes easier because 25% becomes your right now. It's all on us. Like we got to when you don't believe in this stuff, when you're just out here, white knuckling it on your own, it's all on you.
00:18:37
Speaker
when you form when you When you come into awareness of these things, when you have the courage to trust them, when you offer them your devotion, all of a sudden it's 25% your effort, 25% the guru's effort, and 50% the grace of God.
00:18:52
Speaker
So now you can really pick up some some steam with your efforts because you're having to do so so much less to actually get so much more accomplished in terms of burning karma, gaining higher frequencies, all of these things.
00:19:07
Speaker
Interesting. Yeah, I used to look at, you know, the altars of these gurus and think it's like idol worship or something. And I've really come to a different understanding, especially being in your home and seeing how much of that there is and feeling something different, especially lately when I saw Yogananda up there when when this weekend that it, you know, it I didn't think idol worship at all. I felt this connection and the smile like went into me in some way.
00:19:37
Speaker
And so I've shifted in that respect and in terms of that thinking, but also, you know, you can speak to that. And also what you just said, it reminds me of your talk. We'll get to the work you're doing in a second, but reminds me of your talk last month about abundance and about the like putting, get you know, giving what you can give and then trusting that there will be reciprocity in the universe and that you don't have to do everything yourself.
Universal Reciprocity and Faith Experiments
00:20:06
Speaker
And that actually like, I mean, it's still, it's not easy to do that and to trust it. And that's what I've been working on the past month.
00:20:14
Speaker
And I've started to see it play out a little bit, but I'm still in the mostly trusting phase. And it's, it's not easy, but I do believe now, that the universe works that way. Can you tell us a little about like what you shared in that talk?
00:20:30
Speaker
Oh gosh, where, how do I dive into, it feels like a bit small pivot. um it It is. Cause I want to get, I want to get into the work too, but that we're doing, but like, I don't know, just that idea of abundance.
00:20:43
Speaker
We live, why would they have put us here and then not give us everything we need to do the work? You know, it's, they didn't send us here to punish us and make us homeless and make us run out of money and go bankrupt. They sent us here to do good works. And wonderful.
00:20:59
Speaker
We're so many generations out from the establishment of these cultures, of a worldly culture, not a divine culture, that has been created to make sure that we remain slaves.
00:21:10
Speaker
And it's a hard thing for a white guy to sit here and say, but there's plenty of African American folks that have have claimed to use these words that have that affirm for us that slavery didn't end. Like, they...
00:21:21
Speaker
they They took it away at at like on ah on a level of like, oh, you're shackling people and making them work for free. They just got very smart and said, okay, we can't lot them up anymore. But if we create this corporate structure and, oh, let's make sure they only get health insurance here.
00:21:36
Speaker
And let's build a whole system of thought where if, oh, if they run out of money or don't get a paycheck, they're going to die. It's like, oh, now now we are just slaves once again, but the handcuffs have taken a more um ah like a more abstract form. So ah we have to begin to understand.
00:21:56
Speaker
And it begins like you just said. you know You begin to cultivate faith by just running these little experiments. And oh, that little experiment paid off. I'll try this one.
00:22:07
Speaker
I've lived a life where 41 years later, I've run so many faith experiments that The fact that I am sitting here alive, having put my hand on that stove as many times as I have.
00:22:17
Speaker
I mean, i in the days after my divorce, I could not buy a sandwich. I was teetering on the brink of homelessness. And it was driving an Uber where a woman got into my car and I said, well, what do you do for work? And she said, well, I'm a PR firm, vice president. And four months later, I was her boss.
00:22:35
Speaker
You know, it's like these are the miracles. So it is hard when you're in that place where you're on your last dollar and you don't know where it's going to come from and you're scared.
00:22:46
Speaker
My heart goes out to you because I have been there and it's hard to imagine that there's just some magical force that is to take care of you. I'm just here to tell you it's never not taking care of me. And the reason it's so tricky is the minute you believe it's not possible, it's not.
00:23:01
Speaker
It's that free will thing. If you're sitting here going, that can't happen. It cannot happen. But the way the universe works is, even if everything I'm saying is complete bullshit, the fact that I believe it has made it true.
00:23:15
Speaker
And if you choose to believe it, it will be true for you too. And I believe that no matter what I do, no matter what I spend, no matter what happens, I am not going to run out. I am always going to be totally taken care of.
00:23:27
Speaker
And as I have evolved from Only three years ago, um honestly, only a year ago thinking, oh, my God, if I give up this last freelancing job and this check stops showing up, I am going to end up homeless.
00:23:39
Speaker
Somehow, a year ago, i cut off my financial income and I still have plenty of money in the bank. Like it's all just continued to sustain itself. And And those channels get greased and this whole process gets facilitated as we are also rising into our highest purpose.
00:23:57
Speaker
The universe is not going to send you magic etheric checks for sitting around jacking off be eating Doritos all day. I'm here doing the work to transform humanity. so I'm covered. Like I'm on a divine pension here. And there's a deep responsibility that goes into maintaining that flow, but it's out there.
00:24:14
Speaker
And, you know, it it begins with the simple notion of we we have to get out of victim mentality. This notion that any external force could come and take something away from us or hold us down or keep us from getting, that's the piece we've been conditioned to believe. And so I'll give you and your our listeners ah ah tip Step one is to say out loud, I recognize nothing is ever happening to me. It is always happening for me. You have just totally changed the vibration of your life by acknowledging there is purpose to all of this.
00:24:47
Speaker
And if everything is always happening for me, I trust everything is always working out for me because everything, even if I have to walk through a very dark forest to get there, I've only ever gotten through the forest, even through my bumbling idiot efforts.
00:25:02
Speaker
And so you There's a whole process for beginning to recode your vibration around these things. And then it's like, oh, the week my marriage ended and I couldn't buy a sandwich, I hadn't worked in PR for 10 years, and yet I got a random call offering me 5K a month for a PR job.
00:25:20
Speaker
And it's like you just, you you my my dear friend, George, one of the great saints of our times and a real expert of this kind of thinking, um he just calls it your thimble. You're always just filling your thimble with these grains of rice of like, oh, it worked out. Oh, I tried and it worked.
00:25:36
Speaker
And slow enough, you fill that thimble and now you just trust. Now it's like, I might have a dark day where I stop believing and listen, I am Mr. Abundance. I'm the one that gets paid to help people with all this stuff.
00:25:47
Speaker
I had a couple of days last week where I was convinced we were like all heading down south, like it was not going to work out. The whole gamble had and you know, and my talk tonight is about recognizing there's no difference in that thought that pops up and the, Oh, maybe it'll be with a guy in a wheelchair thought that pops up. It's just like conditioned habitual thought.
00:26:07
Speaker
And you learn to recognize that not as some voice of truth, but as a voice of bullshit that is just on repeat in your head. And now you just objectively learn what, Oh, when those thoughts begin to arrive, i do these things and these things raise my frequency. And as I raise my frequency, These lower vibrational thought forms literally get pushed out of my field.
00:26:29
Speaker
I learned to breathe deeply for a few days until that cloud passes and now I'm fine again. Yeah. Interesting. all All of that. It's this trust of like that these, you know, things happen for a reason and that we're meant to learn from them and grow from them. And that was like one of the deepest insights I've had in a ceremony with you is like,
00:26:52
Speaker
feeling this energy of the universe and that it's holding me and that it's supporting me and that it's always, always there, even at the darkest moment. And that I've never fallen yet. Like it's held me there somehow this whole time. And to just trust that that is there no matter what happens, no matter how dark it gets.
00:27:24
Speaker
Okay, I want to get to that darkness in a second because like it's a crazy time in the world. But ah but i but i I pivoted and I want to ask you to share however much you want to share about like the the ceremonial meditations that you currently facilitate.
00:27:40
Speaker
um Yeah, tell us about that, however much you want to share. Sure, sure. um You know, one of the things that has always resonated with me and I have come to learn is so important in this work that we hold is reverence and respect.
00:27:55
Speaker
And, you know, I think one of the things that we kind of get wrong in our culture is just we blab our mouths about everything. And part of what makes this work so magic and makes it so potent is it's not the kind of thing we talk about in mainstream media.
00:28:09
Speaker
It's not the kind of thing we talk about on the airwaves. So give me some grace as I now talk about this in very broad terms, because if this work is called for you,
00:28:20
Speaker
there's a calling in your heart that you can feel right now and you've already found yourself
Sacredness in Spiritual Work
00:28:25
Speaker
uh... with access to two guys robin part i can tell you everything about this world and these are conversations that want to be held privately because the con the the frequencies and the energies that are flowing through these deeply expansive states that we have access to they're so personal and so i've learned that part of how i hold that frequency high is to speak about things in a very broad way that are applicable to anyone.
00:28:51
Speaker
And then if you feel a resonance, if you feel a call to learn more, that information is totally out there. And my prayer is you won't be finding that on someone's podcast, because if you are, the energy is probably a little bit off for you. Because these are things, this is wisdom that has been imparted by word of mouth handed down elder to to to to generation for generations without end around campfires.
00:29:18
Speaker
And part of how we keep it sacred is to maintain that. And so I'm going to speak about it in these terms. ah But, you know, I have been very blessed to find myself working with um elders and wisdom keepers and lineages that understand um techniques for reconnecting to source and reconnecting to spirit, leveraging um the the spirits and the wisdom of nature.
00:29:47
Speaker
And there's been a beautiful intersection between that work and my work with Yogananda because You know, all those worlds collide. And so I learned a lot about meditation and holding that kind of space in my years, in my ongoing life with Yogananda.
00:30:03
Speaker
And I learned a lot about how to call in different spirits and different allies um through my work in the jungles. And I've, you know, cultivated a practice of meditations that we facilitate,
00:30:16
Speaker
ah where people are able to tap into these frequencies and whether you have, you know, a lots of experience, you've done yoga, you've read these things, what we're talking about isn't foreign to you or you're completely new and foreign, but something we're saying resonates, you know, it's, it's for everyone.
00:30:31
Speaker
And, um, These are nights of deep meditation that, you know, take you into the heart of who you are and the heart of nature and allow for tremendous insights and empowerment to flow through.
00:30:43
Speaker
And also it can be very, very challenging. You know, this is part of my resistance to talking about these things broadly in mainstream media is it often sounds fun and sexy and like it's a fact there's nothing fun or sexy about this. You know, clearing away the cobwebs and looking into the heart of who you are and why you are this way and where you came from.
00:31:03
Speaker
It isn't always easy. A lot of shadow can come up. um But just as we're talking about with when the fear comes up, allowing that storm cloud to pass, um I've never yet seen someone be forced to face those shadows in these meditations and not be delivered out to the other side of beautiful insights and sweet energy and incredible awareness and light. So um there's a lot ah lot of this requires one to trust the process and to trust that unfolding. And and and again, there it holds true.
00:31:33
Speaker
If it is coming up for me, it is for me. And so I can trust that in having the courage to look at that something beautiful is going to be allowed to flow. Yeah, well said. If you're feeling called by any of that, contact me or Clark and you can learn more.
00:31:50
Speaker
it's i Yes, I always used to think this stuff was just like, oh, it'll be fun, a fun time, like hang out. And like somebody even said this Sunday, like that's what he thought.
00:32:01
Speaker
And then he did it and participated any he sees this like, oh, there's actually a whole other world. And that is exactly how I felt of just like, I lived in this reality for basically 39 years and I had some ideas about other things and i wanted to believe things, but now I do Now I know that there is more than what we consciously experience most of the time in our daily lives. Like there is something else out there.
00:32:34
Speaker
And I've had so many experiences insights during these and the many of them I've shared on this podcast, but at the same time, putting them into words never does it justice. And you've even said this, it often dampens what you felt and what you know from the meditations and, and it's so different for each person. And so there's really just like no full way to share it without actually understanding
00:33:06
Speaker
sharing it. Can you speak a little to the music and the Icaros during this if if you want to? Because like when I meditate alone, it's quiet. I'm silent. Or I sit outside and I hear some birdsong or something, which actually is...
00:33:24
Speaker
I'm lovely integration into meditation, but when we do the group stuff, there's some amount of silence, but then there's a lot of singing. And these are like songs that have been passed down and for generations.
00:33:38
Speaker
How does that work? And why, why, how does that get us into the frequency of like finding these truths?
Music as a Spiritual Conduit
00:33:46
Speaker
Yeah, and I'm very honored and happy to speak a little bit about this. And I think it's really important to respectfully acknowledge um I'm no expert on any of this. I consider myself your peer brother in our journey of of learning about these things.
00:34:00
Speaker
um the The type of wisdom that we are talking about here is so ancient and so old. um The wisest of the elders I work with are absolute babies and novices too. And so if they're a novice, I don't even know what to call myself.
00:34:16
Speaker
And yet, um throughout all of my meanderings through spirit, everything I've described, plus the stint in the Jewish church, which remains, I still actively practice aspects of Judaism that I haven't mentioned yet and you know about, um there has been an underlying connection to to music and and music of worship and music of spiritual connection that has always been at the heart of it for me.
00:34:42
Speaker
um And it goes back to what we've talked about throughout this podcast, sound frequency. This is the foundation of the universe. So um there is an aspect of connecting through silence and listening for those frequencies. And there's an aspect of helping carry those frequencies through.
00:35:00
Speaker
And as I've referenced, at the heart of this work is holding a space where we are calling in of fear experience beings entities that are that are this support system that have the ability to I'm not doing anything when I facilitate these circles but holding open an energetic space where these spiritual beings can flow through and do their work and inspire you and inform you and give you visions and give you ideas and purify your thoughts and all of these things and they can't speak they can't sing they don't have physical form
00:35:35
Speaker
So we can support that process and build a container around ourselves to enable those spirits and those insights to best flow by allowing our voices to be that conduit.
00:35:47
Speaker
And so you can think of it less as singing and more as allowing your voice to be used to impart a frequency. And through many years, thousands and thousands of years and generations communication,
00:36:00
Speaker
you know the first shamans beginning to ah be guided by spirit of how to do this work and how to be it make it available to others so that it could spread around the world, um they heard certain seek frequencies, they heard certain songs, and those are the songs that have been pulled down from the realm of spirit and embodied and shared. And you can't write them down. There isn't sheet music for them. You have to just hear them and embody them. And because And these are, it's like, you know, there's a reason we are the world lights everybody up. It's a specific sound frequency that we've all heard so many times.
00:36:40
Speaker
And we've heard it so many times while feeling good things. And so there is a a golden chord of frequency that is we are the world in this universe. And when we sing it, when we hum it, when we watch the documentary about the night it was made,
00:36:54
Speaker
we are tapping into that golden chord and that's the power of sound of music. So these Icaros, each one of them represents its own golden chord shooting off to eternity and infinity because a sound vibration never stops. It only increases in its magnet, magnet, magnificence as it travels through,
00:37:13
Speaker
When we call in these songs that have been spiritualized through the ages, um we're tapping into that. And I consider myself very blessed that just as in high school, when I walked into a Spanish class and two years later it was fluent, my ear just got it.
00:37:30
Speaker
i was I felt the conjugations in my mouth before they were taught. Maybe it was a past life thing. I don't know. when I began witnessing the bringing forth of these Ikeros early in my work in this space, um I knew them.
00:37:46
Speaker
and i And this is doesn't make me special. I see it all the time. People come into our circles with no experience. I start singing an incredibly obscure song they couldn't have possibly, and they're singing it with me. It's like, oh, their soul knows.
00:37:59
Speaker
Their soul knows. um And I get to have so much fun because I love these songs so much. i've I won't even get into the power of these songs. They're big. They're powerful. If you think Harry Potter has some magic, wait till you hear these songs.
00:38:14
Speaker
um And I'm very blessed because I have new songs that flow through me. Every, everyone that, you know, well i wouldn't say everyone, I don't know that, but some that do this work and carry this work.
00:38:26
Speaker
um the the the spirits will speak through them and give new songs because there's a personalization to it. um I might be a little bit off in my next statement, but you know just take it for with a grain of salt.
00:38:39
Speaker
I'll never be as powerful in my ability to support someone in their process singing someone else's song that I've learned as I will be singing my own song that spirit has given me And in two years doing this kind of work, I think I've downloaded like 50 of my own songs to the point that I can't even keep track. like I'm just like trying to teach. They all came through me, but like I'm trying to learn them now so I can actually hold on to them and repeat them when we're working together. Yeah.
00:39:07
Speaker
Um, I just love them so much. And it's, it's a, it's a really, and you know, as someone who has aspired to record music and be on stage, and I thought I was going to be a country star for a while. And even now I'm writing music and like indistinguishable about what role my voice is wanting to play in that process.
00:39:25
Speaker
Um, it's really cool to be like, Oh, all of that was just getting me ready. to do this. And whereas I wanted to like use my voice in this big, powerful, it's it's like, no, it's it's that's the quiet.
00:39:38
Speaker
it's yeah It's allowing that frequency to come without all that ego that allows that real purity to flow. Interesting. There was actually a song that was stuck in my head the other day and I mentioned it to your partner and he was like, and I was like, why didn't we sing that one? And he was like, oh, that's, you know, that's one that came through for Clark.
00:39:56
Speaker
And I didn't even know that. I had heard you sing it, but I didn't know it was like one that, came through you and it and it stuck with me. So that's interesting that you say that the ones that come through you specifically have that power.
00:40:09
Speaker
And yeah, the so I mean, the songs are magical. Like every time I'm just like, there's always a moment or many moments where like the songs click something into place.
00:40:20
Speaker
You don't even have to try you if you just sing and folks you know, do that stuff comes through it. And I'm always so amazed that that happens.
00:40:33
Speaker
And only more recently have I started realizing and connecting that like music can be that in general outside of these meditations. And maybe not every single song a guiding light to the truth.
00:40:47
Speaker
but But that's what music can be. And there's so many people, I think, who may never do the kind of work we're doing, but who feel something when they listen to music or who how who are musicians. And that it's coming through them in the same way, regardless of how they get to that connection. And that's and that's what music can do in this world.
00:41:13
Speaker
Yeah. I'm friends with a big time real deal recording artist and I go to her shows and I watch people worshiping at an altar. I watch people that are probably in this lifetime, maybe not going to be inclined to to go deep in spiritual practice the way we're talking about.
00:41:32
Speaker
But that is their church. And there's no difference in the power of that sound vibration being healing and transformational for them in in their life, where they are in their karmic, dharmic path.
00:41:47
Speaker
That's the upper threshold. And that's why they're that's why we have fan culture. you know yeah ah Hyper fans of of pop stars are no different than spiritual junkies. you know They're just worshiping at a different altar.
00:42:00
Speaker
Yeah, totally. Exactly. and it and And not just music, but all sort of forms of art and expression and probably other things too are allowing people to find that frequency and attune to it and yeah go down that path. I do believe that sound...
00:42:18
Speaker
And maybe you could make the case it's all the same because if I'm looking at art in a museum, that's still light vibration flowing, but sound real that we live in a sonic universe. You know, we come from a big boom.
00:42:31
Speaker
There is a rolling thundering sound of Ohm that is holding up this universe as it, as it expands. And so there is something about music and I'm not, not to make one better than the other, but music's music's where it's at, man.
00:42:46
Speaker
I always keep lately keep returning to that. Oh, like something about it has been calling to me and like stuff's come through for me about the finding the baseline. Like, and as you know, maybe that's unique to me or where I'm finding my role. like I sometimes actually, i i realized this in the ceremony, like in my coaching practice, like some of my clients when they speak,
00:43:12
Speaker
there it's like this kind of scattered melody and some of it kind of makes sense and others, some of it is a little dissonant. And I've realized when i i will reflect back what they've said sometimes, and I'm kind of like, in a way I'm just like finding a low note, you know, and just got this thing.
00:43:32
Speaker
Like,
00:43:35
Speaker
and I'm kind of, when I reflect back, I'm going like, is it that? And then they'll talk and I'll go, oh, maybe it's this.
00:43:46
Speaker
And like, and like, I felt found that like, maybe that's sort of my role. And maybe in coaching, maybe in a bigger way, is it like, is it that does that fit with what you're talking about?
00:43:57
Speaker
And I don't know, that metaphor has come to me. And it's really resonated of just like, hearing what's going on and finding the baseline and making it fit in some way. And then that can help people kind of go, okay, yeah, this, this is it. And then continue the melody with that solid baseline there.
00:44:19
Speaker
Does that make any sense? It makes perfect sense. It's great.
00:44:32
Speaker
You'll have to come back because like I'm loving this and we could probably talk for so many more hours. But I do just want to touch on the world and the politics of it. And I know we can't do it in a few minutes, but I want to hear your thoughts on...
00:44:48
Speaker
you know, scary time. Like, yeah, I, I used to be obsessed with MSNBC and I'm control. I'm like controlling that impulse in me and realizing that it's not always good to indulge in that every day. But, you know, I'm, I, I stay still stay up to date and it's scary and I have a better perspective on things now, but,
00:45:09
Speaker
shit's going down and like stuff's happening that doesn't always feel in the same vibration I'm in at the moment. Like, how do you look at that deal with that? Like, how can we approach this stuff that's happening and that's coming? Cause there's, there's dark stuff coming.
00:45:32
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, no, it's a we we have chosen if you're listening to this right now you your soul chose a really potent and fascinating time to be incarnate on planet Earth. And i think it would be kind of ah a little egotistical to think that it's the first time this has happened, because this has been happening for a time immemorial, we just weren't around to see it.
00:45:54
Speaker
and And history has not chosen to record things within in this kind of a lens. But these cycles of destruction that lead to transformation, it's it's it's the contraction that leads to the expansion that we see in childbirth that has been happening from time immemorial. Things have to break down.
00:46:12
Speaker
to break through. And we're going through a major breakdown right now. And, you know, I choose to have the perspective. um Let me say this, when my divorce was happening, and it would have been so easy to blame my former spouse for what was going on, though I was deeply angry and deeply hurting, a deeper spiritual knowing within me knew from day one and was always whispering in my ear, you cannot blame her for the role the universe has asked her to play in your life.
00:46:43
Speaker
And this all links directly to this core foundation of whatever this is, it is happening for us, not to us. And my biggest ah beef with what I'm seeing out there in culture right now, when I dip onto social media or I walk by a TV where the news is playing, it's all just blame. It's it's it's all victimality. It is all like these oppressive forces are here doing these things they should not be doing. And so I and we and they are suffering.
00:47:10
Speaker
And that is true at face value. I'm not questioning any of this. And please let me be very clear. I don't condone support or like anything of what I'm seeing happening out there.
00:47:22
Speaker
And yet I am someone for whom it is easier and more accessible for me to look at this at the level of the metaphysics that is happening under the hood than to get involved in what's happening in the car.
00:47:36
Speaker
And so there are people whose karmic dharmic path in life right now is to be very much involved in what's happening in the car. They're in the media, they're in politics, they're leaders, like they are in a productive place to be able to take on these challenges at the level of the effects of them.
00:47:54
Speaker
I'm a cause guy, and the cause has a me under the hood looking at the metaphysics and the light and sound vibrations. And so what I see is a process of destruction where systems and processes that just like we talked about with the the labels and identity that it served us for a long time and were good and and necessary, no longer make sense. Like they held us, ah it's like having a broken leg in a cast and then the cast but really served us for a long time.
00:48:26
Speaker
But wouldn't it be nice to walk without the cast now? And so we're so used to the cast as they come to cut it off. It's like, you can't do that. I've always had that and I'm counting. Well, you don't know what's going to come next. And so it's really hard to be looking out further ahead at where this
Global Challenges and Transformation
00:48:43
Speaker
is going. But I know in my deepest core of truth that all of this bullshit that is happening right now It's part of a destructive process that leads us somewhere absolutely incredible.
00:48:54
Speaker
And so I make the bold choice. to not diminish myself and to not diminish the process that is unfolding by getting, by taking the bait of how dare they do this to us.
00:49:08
Speaker
We're just playing the role the universe's hand of them and they're complete assholes and we can't stand them. And yet I know this, and this is the most important thing to say. And this is what I really think we are being a chance to figure out this time.
00:49:22
Speaker
so that it doesn't happen again. Because this keeps happening. i think what's happening right now is no different than what was happening in Europe in the 1930s and forty s And i think we have a chance to play it out differently this time.
00:49:37
Speaker
And to me, the bottom line of what we could do differently that we have not yet figured out is... getting out of the you shouldn't be doing that to I am so compassionate for whatever madness or torture you are going through that would cause you to think this is the right thing to be doing.
00:49:54
Speaker
You know, this, i hesitate to go to a Christian place because it's so triggering for so many people, but we cannot deny the fact that over a billion people on the planet choose to listen to what Jesus of Nazareth had to say.
00:50:06
Speaker
As he was being murdered, he said, forgive them, they know not what they do. And so, like it or not, under that hood, looking at the metaphysical vibration of all this, if you really want to affect change,
00:50:22
Speaker
Call your congressman if you want, but you are so far back on the trunk of the car. like it would take eons for that and to make an impact right now. Because the real issue is everyone is holding anger and contempt and blame for these forces when they are longing for compassion, tenderness, and care.
00:50:42
Speaker
And it's one of the hardest things you will ever have to do. But I am convinced that if 10% of people buckled down right now and prayed for the madness of these fools, we would just poof into utopia instantly.
00:50:55
Speaker
So that's where I'm choosing to hold my energy um It is a time for great hope. I pray that Americans will find something to be proud about in this country again. um I'm actually writing a song right now that came through in one of my meditations called We the People.
00:51:10
Speaker
And it's all about like reigniting a patriotic spirit right now because... In our anger, in our division, in our blame, we've lowered the potency of the ah of the energy of this country.
00:51:24
Speaker
And so we cannot expect to rise up if we don't raise that frequency. Yogananda said, America has such great good karma. We have done so much, and we haven't gotten it all right, that's for damn sure, but we have done so much good for so many in this world.
00:51:40
Speaker
The karmic imprint of this country will not allow us to do anything but rise in glory. So we're going through challenging times, just as we did in the Civil War and the Revolution and the whole, it just keeps happening over and over again.
00:51:54
Speaker
Let's do the one thing. They've always talked politics. They have always been battling it out. That's not new. Let's do something revolutionary and radically different.
00:52:05
Speaker
Let's choose to pray for these motherfuckers. Let's choose to have compassion for it and sit back and watch it be a new day. beautiful and what you said is true it's so hard it's so hard to do that right now and that's why we have to I think i like I you know it resonates with me so much that like that's the work and the it shouldn't be easy to do this stuff like of course it's going to be hard and I and And I do think we are at a pivotal moment or a turning point moment of some kind. And that's when it's going to be the hardest. And like when you say that to meet these people with love, it's like I feel the conflict in me going, fuck that.
00:52:52
Speaker
No. But I also know that that's what it is because to, you know, not saying we shouldn't speak out and speak up and stand for people who are hurting, but like, that's not going to break us out of it.
00:53:06
Speaker
ah That's going to harden them too. And we've seen that happen over the last 10, 20 years. And it's, and it's building. And like, you know, what you're talking about is a radical transformation. And I, and I believe that is what's necessary. And, know,
00:53:22
Speaker
It just reminds me of the fires in LA. Like it's, you know, that was a big moment here. And interestingly, it happened just before the inauguration.
00:53:33
Speaker
And I've been thinking about it so much. It was really like, really affected us here in a, in a big, I mean, it affected me. It affected so many people I know in a, not just in their minds, but we really felt something. And it was,
00:53:50
Speaker
Yeah, and continue to. And it was really scary. It was quite scary. um Both that day and also just... the aftermath and the energy. And I'm in a place right now of trusting that like these fires are necessary to, to allow space for something new to grow.
00:54:10
Speaker
And that's how fires work literally. but like, that's, that's maybe what's happening here on this earth right now is that something new is going to grow out of this. ah But we have to let the fire rage a little. And yes,
00:54:25
Speaker
and understand what it's doing. And somebody said and at your place the other day that there's some monk or somebody in deep meditation who has predicted eight years of turmoil and then a global Renaissance golden age beginning in 2033.
00:54:45
Speaker
And, you know, he he also said all of these predictions are just probabilities. They're not necessarily the truth, but like, you know it may be dark for some time and to just trust that something's coming out definitely going to be i mean the the writing is on the wall and it doesn't even scare me that i mean i have moments i i have my moments where it's like fuck well where is how bad is this gonna get and what role am i gonna have to play and i've got yeah You know, I've got all the courage in the world, but I've got two kids in the next room. Like, what's it going to be like navigating this with them and all of these things. So I'm a human. I get it. And i i get to show up in my power on a podcast and talk confidence. But like I melt down to get it is scary.
00:55:31
Speaker
um But but therein lies the faith. And, um you know, it's, it's, these are not random isolated things happening. There is a single wind of change blowing through our world right now. That is the fires and the politics of it all. Like it's all linked together.
00:55:49
Speaker
And I just, I've, I've done enough and I have seen enough to know that wind never doesn't then carry away the clouds and bring around the rainbow. It's like the, the story of the flood These metaphors are there for a reason. They really mean something. And the rainbow always comes. And we gain so much for ourselves. And we do so much for the future of humanity when we recognize all we have to do is, no, it's not an accident. It is actually happening for a reason. It is happening to you, not for you.
00:56:22
Speaker
And here's the thing. Be gentle with yourself and start small. Yeah. It's the people like me that have been working at this for 40 years will be the ones praying for Trump.
00:56:33
Speaker
If that's too hard for you right now, if that feels impossible, do not feel any shame for that. Do not feel bad about that. Let yourself feel good to be where you are because you cannot cultivate compassion for another until you have it for yourself.
00:56:48
Speaker
So if that feels difficult, cool. Why don't you try being compassionate to your partner or your mother or your neighbor Again, you build these muscles slowly trying to pray for the government right now is like walking into a CrossFit class and like trying to deadlift the heaviest thing. I don't know where that metaphor came from.
00:57:07
Speaker
You would have to take a smaller weight and build up to that. So, you know, let me be the the kind of inspiration for what that could. let Let me set the tone for where it would be good to head one day.
00:57:22
Speaker
But just take this, what can you do to be more compassionate to others in your life, in your world today? That will cultivate the skill to then be able to raise that to the level of the darkest darkness that we're facing right now.
00:57:37
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Well, and it goes back to where we began this conversation and I i feel like you've invoked RuPaul, so I'm going to say it.
Self-Love and Media Critique
00:57:44
Speaker
If you can't love yourself, how the hell are you going to love anybody else? yeah And that's where it begins. And maybe many people are at that place. And like, that is, you got to start here and then it can go outward and, and it will. And a lot of the work we've done has shown that there are so much bigger things than our government, our president.
00:58:08
Speaker
You know, I used to think this was like the worst thing that could ever possibly happen to reelect this guy. And like, and it's not good, but there are bigger things happening, much bigger than, than him. And that gives me a little space to have some compassion and caring to realize that like,
00:58:28
Speaker
he's not in control of all this. He's like a tiny piece in a giant, giant puzzle um yeah it is that is holding us and unfolding as it always has and will.
00:58:41
Speaker
And one of the unfortunate effects, beautifully said, and I totally agree, one of the unfortunate ah byproducts of the so of of of the media, of sort of the cable news media and also social media is, it keeps us hyper-focused on something 24 hours a day that is meant to float across our awareness a few times a week.
00:59:01
Speaker
And you know we actually over-index on our compassion and concern for others to the detriment of our own self-focus. um There's a principle I like to invoke. When the building is burning, don't stand and stare at it. you know And so right now, a lot of people are unknowingly using...
00:59:22
Speaker
the darkness in our country as a scapegoat to ignore their own problems. And if you're standing there worried about Trump and what's going to happen in our country and feeling indignant about all the people that are being affected by the things he's doing, and you haven't first cleaned up your own house,
00:59:42
Speaker
That's where the work is for you. There are relatively few numbers of people in this country right now that are actually meant to be focused on this problem. Let it play out.
00:59:54
Speaker
Over here, live your life here. Check in on it from time to time. Dip in once a week. get an up I'm not saying to become ignorant and ignore it. But if you're just, oh my God, this is so bad.
01:00:07
Speaker
There are worse fires erupting in your own life that you're not going to be aware of. And focusing here is going to give you the empowerment to actually make a bigger difference over here. Right, right. Focus on what you can affect and control. Yeah.
01:00:21
Speaker
And trust that the rainbow will come, as you said. Amen. Well said. ah Nice place to end. There's so much more we'll talk about in the future. You'll have to come back. ah Good luck finishing up the book. Keep us posted. Thank you.
01:00:37
Speaker
Thank you. Yeah. Thank you so much for being here, Clark. um Stick around for a second, but ah i I love you. I appreciate you. love you. You're doing great work. It's fun to see you in this element.
01:00:50
Speaker
Yes. Thank you for bringing me into this world and I look forward to the continued journey. Amen. Thank you.
01:01:02
Speaker
Two Bye Guys by One Bye Guy is produced and edited by me, Robert Brooks Cohen, and it was created by me and Alex Boyd. Our new logo art is by Caitlin Weinman. Our music is by Ross Mincer. To help support this podcast, visit patreon.com slash robertbrookscohen. You'll get full video episodes, early access, and bonus content. Visit robertbrookscohen.com to learn more about my coaching, my book, and my stand-up comedy. And thanks for listening to Two Bye Guys by One Bye Guy.
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