Masculine and Feminine Energy with Michael Ravenwood

Welcome back to the podcast. Oh, nice job Travis, that’s quite the mean scout you have going on.

I am your co-host, Carol Carpenter, and this is Travis Johnson, the one that was making the scowling face in the beginning, and we have them as our special guests on the podcast today, Michael Ravenwood. Welcome.

Michael is a performance artist who has traveled all over the world with his company, Sky fire Arts while wearing a protective suit that becomes electrified by a Tesla coil that can wield 10-foot-long arcs of electricity. That must be spectacular. 

He’s a speaker, meditation, and dance instructor, and he aids others in personal empowerment. Welcome, Michael. 

Thank you so much, Carol. Glad to be here.

You know, I saw a video of Michael doing his thing, and I got to say, it’s outrageous. It’s absolutely bananas, and based on the look on Michael’s face, he gets that a lot. I want to know because obviously, you wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t safe. Or maybe you were electrified the whole time. I have no idea.

Well, we like to say that we do extremely dangerous things safely, and you know there’s a whole reason why we’re doing it. We’re risking our lives for a purpose that we feel is worth it: to draw attention to ecological awareness and renewable energy. 

It is essential, history of using this technique shows, Nikola Tesla himself used to electrify himself during the science tours that he would do, and that was to draw attention to the technologies that he hoped would benefit every living human like he wanted the whole world to benefit from his inventions. 

And he would just wear cork shoes and not even wear a suit. He would just do like a really low- thing and turn down the lights, and people would see the aura of electricity arcs coming off of him, and they’d think he was a freaking magician because, you know, it’s the 1900s. That was just like what!! you know. 

And you know, once he had their attention, he would, you know, tell them about his inventions, and he actually would object that would one day fit in your pocket. That would have all the world’s knowledge in it, and everybody at that time thought he was totally, crazy! Like library in my pocket, like, how does that work? And now you know they proved me right. But, you know, he used to do that to promote his technology.

And we want to promote the idea that we’re all connected. You know, ecology, biology, and quantum physics have all demonstrated that everything is interconnected, and so we want to help people understand that that’s been scientifically proven and begin to act like that’s true because you can sort of know it’s true. 

But then we act as if it’s not true, and we end up in deep (you know what)

Deep **** You can say it

You can say whatever you want, yeah, yeah

There’s a difference between knowing it in your head and knowing it in your heart like I can read a book but not in my head. But until I start doing things like that, I don’t know it in my heart, so that’s cool. 

I wanted to have you on the show, and I know the amazing things you do, but I want to know what you think about yourself that makes that possible. Are you a Titan?

What makes me a Titan? 

Wow well. I will say that my understanding of the nature of motivation is that you know, motivation is really how all human energy gets conducted, right? Like, what creates motivation? It’s your values, after all. 

If you believe that something is valuable, you’re going to do a hell of a lot to go after it and get it right. So where do our values come from? They come from the stories that we believe. And so, I’ve had some incredibly powerful stories in my life. I believed in life and used it as a guidepost for how I lived my life. 

Part of what makes me a titan. I guess you know which stories I believe. I feel like my mom; you know, she passed about 17 years ago now. She was just an epic human being, and so I think that you know a lot of what my mom taught me has helped me become everything that I am. 

Let’s see, you’re familiar with my friend. I couldn’t have done what I’m doing without the help of a lot of people who know a lot of stuff that I don’t, like my friends and family members who have come to support me. So, I appreciate the support of others and the faith of those around me. You know, I could probably go on, but…

Well, so you talked about other people, right? But what that quality comes down to is that you’re a person who’s willing to take guidance, accept feedback, and accept help from your friends. There are a lot of people that we talk to every day, we talked to each other. that they give and give and give and give. And only give. It’s not a. It’s not an open-loop system; it’s a closed-loop system. They only give; they never receive.

And they don’t realize that the problems that they create in their own lives are not because they’re givers but because they’re unwilling to allow others to bless them, and you fully embrace that.

I salute you, sir. All of you Titans who are willing to receive are on your way. Give blessings to others.

You are willing to give and receive. I think it’s a gift both ways. And for people who aren’t willing to receive, I don’t think that you can learn more. I mean you can’t gain more knowledge if you don’t receive it.

Yeah, amen to that.

I’m learning that the trauma response is that they have to be so self-sufficient. No one can help them because so many people have let them down, and it’s a trauma response. They’re still in it, and they don’t realize that they’re still operating that way.

And vulnerability is a quality that not a lot of people want to portray or show because it’s a weakness, and I think that’s a mistake.

Ah, but it’s different. Being vulnerable and open is different from actually being weak.

Absolutely, but people see it as the same, and that’s the reason why they don’t accept help or they’re unwilling to ask for it.

Yeah, well, I just think of you when you say that, and I’m fully on board with you. I just think about how stupid is the average person, right? Then you realize there are another 3 1/2 billion people.

Yeah, I think that this is one of the major sorts of paradigm shifts going on in our culture right now: the understanding of what might be called the power of the feminine. I think that there are a lot of feminists who don’t recognize what feminine power truly entails.

And what I teach in my workshops, I’ll use this amusing example. What if you had meat grinders all around you? Just whirring and spinning and chewing? Is that the time to be decisive and act? No, now is the time to be very still and very silent. And if you wait and watch, you might notice that all these whirling meatgrinders, open up at some point. And then there’s a spot where You could pass through, and then they would come. You’re back, and you’re like. Uh-huh, so there is a moment, and then you wait and maybe chamber your legs and get ready, and then the moment opens up again. You leap through, and it might look like the leap is what saved you. But in fact, it was the willingness to observe, wait, and be patient.

And a lot of people, you know, say, “Oh, the feminine is the passive one as opposed to the masculine, which is active, and therefore the masculine is the powerful one and the feminine is the weak one.” 

But in fact, they’re misunderstanding the nature of what power is. And that you know that the ability to be what might be referred to as “passive” is just as important, if not more so, in certain cases than the ability to be “active” at the right moment.

Well, have you ever seen the movies with the samurai, and you know the samurai are warriors are right there as masculine as can be, but you know what they taught the samurai to do in acts of connecting with more of their feminine side? They would make them sit down and make little rattan dumplings, right? Because it requires patience. You must be a warrior. But you also have to learn patience because winning wars requires both. 

So, you have to be connected to the masculine and the feminine, and I don’t know what nationality you are, Michael, but you know we can get into that. But, you know, I’m Chinese, so, everything is yin and yang, male and female. And so, if you took The Meridian runs down the middle of your body. Half of the population is male, while the other half is female. It’s the joining of the two in one body.

Yes

“I’m looking at Travis.” And he’s got this smirk on his face. Right now, he’s going to be a ***** ***.

I just imagine, like, I’m one **** in one ball. Like, I’m not on.

That’s why, Travis, I phrase it this way: as if it were to be divided it would be like, “OK if this is male and this is female.” You know, a male should have both a masculine and a feminine. You know that a female should have a masculine and a feminine aspect.

And it tends to be that women have more of a feminine aspect than men do more of a masculine aspect, but that doesn’t necessarily play all the way across. There are very feminine men and very masculine women, and so for each individual, regardless of gender, to have both masculine and feminine energy and be able to put those together in harmony. That’s really what makes you, you know, powerful and ultimately happy in your life, because you’re capable of doing the things you need to do.

Right, right? It’s also accepting that we’re all different to varying degrees. We have the right, and I think people in our society are supposed to be manly men, right? And women are supposed to be feminine. And who said that? Whoever puts that out there—I mean, you can be whatever you want to be. If you want to be like a masculine female, be a freaking masculine female. If you want to be a more feminine male ******* be a more feminine man and there is no such thing as right or wrong. Everyone is a unique individual. Why can’t we celebrate that?

Yeah, that’s a really interesting point. You know what the right or wrong thing is.

I view that as one of the, you know, sort of primary paradoxes of life knows, sort of primary paradoxes of life is that there is no right or wrong, but there is a right and a wrong meaning, just as you said there is no right or wrong way to be true to yourself. If you are a more, you know, masculine woman, then there is nothing wrong with that. 

And now for another paradox. Let’s say you’re in 1942 and a Nazi knock on your door, asking if your neighbor is a Jew, and they are a Jew. The best thing you can do to do the right thing is to lie, and normally we think of lying as being a bad thing. Right, and so there is that weirdness, like, oh, OK, you know, this strange universe from which we are apart? You know, call it whatever you want—a god, reality, or just the universe. But it’s Trixie, you know; it doesn’t let you just kind of hold onto it. Like, well, lying is bad, and I’m just going to hold onto this truth and say lying is bad all the time. But then you run into situations like, “Well, wait a minute.” If I don’t lie in this situation, some terrible things will happen, so it’s just very interesting the whole right and wrong thing. I would view that as kind of an interesting point.

There are no true black-and-white options. I mean, let’s be honest. There are always circumstances that make us sway

I’ll tell you. Honesty is the best policy. I told my son that honesty is the best policy, and it’s a lot easier to be honest if you’re not being a **** bag

I hope your son is of the same age as

He’s three; no, I’m kidding. I’m kidding. He’s in high school. He’s in high school. I wouldn’t do that to a 3-year-old. A 3-year-old would remember. Anyway, he was four. I’d be in trouble, but he’s a gentleman. He’s a teenager.

Travis, keep up the excellent parenting! Great parenting. 

I will tell you about everything I’ve done. Well, parenting is probably in the bottom 5.

Here comes. 

So what nationality are you, Michael I?

So, I was born in Tokyo, Japan, but I am half Vietnamese, and so, you know, I’ve got some, you know, cultural interest in both realms. I studied ninjutsu for a while and read a bunch of books about the ninjas, and I’m tremendously inspired by both them and the samurai. 

I’ve read these books, like the hakurei and the book of the five rings and so on. You know the samurai. My codes fascinate me odiously as a culture, you know. And then there are all the samurai. When you said, “Have you seen samurai moves?” I’m like, “Yes.” I have seen samurai movies.

In the Vietnamese realm, my mom introduced me to quite a bit of that culture, and you know the whole thing. I wrote my wedding ceremony, and in the wedding ceremony I included elements that were from my wife’s culture, which is, you know, Indian and then also from Vietnamese culture, and they have the whole thing about the dragon and the phoenix and how that represents the masculine and the feminine coming together in harmony. And that is ultimately what marriage hopes is yes, so that’s my cultural background, you know. And my dad is Caucasian, which includes Irish, French, Scottish, and German.

Holy crap! You are an international person all in one.

That’s a very nice way to say what I was thinking. 

That I am a mut?

No, it’s like My Heritage.

Paternal grandparents. He is 100% Norwegian. She’s 100% Danish, so my dad is half Norwegian and half Danish and my mom is from Minnesota, right? So, there are only two things to do in the winter, and one of them is snowmobiling. Do you know what I mean?

Her side is English or Irish. I want to speak a little bit of Spanish, but I’ve heard I can’t. I don’t have any proof, so anyone that’s listening is going to get your panties in a bunch. I heard that I have some Native Americans, but I can’t prove anything. 

The majority of the men in my family are 6 feet tall, blonde-haired, blue-eyed, and have large ears and noses. Oh, yeah, I don’t look anything like any of the men in my family. Yeah, all of it. I met my uncle. He’s like, “Who the hell are you?” It’s like I’m Dave’s kid. He’s like, “No You’re not” because you could take my brother, my dad, my uncle, Earl, and my grandfather, Alvin, and it would look just like a time-lapse photo of the same person. 

And then here I am, with dark hair and dark eyes, ears tucked where they should be dead, I’ve got a sexy nose and eyes that don’t quit, but I’m not blonde or blue-eyed.

Isn’t that funny? Oh wow. 

Yeah, genetics. 

Who knew? 

Did you do a 23 and me or anyone else who knows how to type? I’m not sure about that. Genetic testing to determine your ancestry, nationality, or whatever.

not yet.

Yet I’ve been thinking about it.

You know and

The military was still in the Navy. They came up with a policy that said we couldn’t do it, and a lot of people did it anyway. 

Why?

And the reason is that one of the legal releases you receive when those things are completed is that they own the rights to your DNA. 

What!

I don’t need any stupid company to own the rights to my DNA.

No way. I didn’t know that.

Yeah, that would probably be very profitable for them. 

I mean, if they were giving people this service or that, you know, they could make more money, probably from using your DNA to do experiments or whatever, than they could from receiving money from you to do the actual tests.

I don’t need some lab somewhere having my DNA replicate me as a person, committing crimes, and leaving my DNA at the scene. I know that’s crazy, right? That is insane, but so is even more insane. The fact that we have all the knowledge of Earth in a phone in our pocket. 

Right, right? 

So, who’s to say what they will or will not do? If someone is listening to this and likes Travis, That’s not accurate. Maybe it’s not as accurate as what the actual text says, but either way, I’m a little nervous.

You know, my brother went and did it, and then he came back. I never did it, but he did it, and he came back with all these different tests. And he goes. You know our family’s been lying to us, and I’m like, “What do you mean he goes?” We are not 100% Chinese, and I’m like, “Oh.” OK, well, that’s what everybody told us. 

You know, and then he goes, “There’s a certain percentage.” That’s Japanese; there’s this weird percentage of us being Dutch, and I started laughing. They’re a *******, to be sure. Somehow got there.

Because not only did they

Not only did they get there, but all the women in our family have Auburn hair streaks. And when Everyone liked them when they were small. Oh, did you? dye your hair and such? Now you know. So we are. Laugh about it now. But you’re aware of the possibility, right? And what? That was the other thing I was going to say. This is mommy brain because since I had children, I’m

Don’t know. It turns out that I’m not in charge of you

It’s funny if I don’t write it down now. I can’t even repeat it, because my brain just goes in one direction, and then whatever was going to come out in the other direction, is gone. 

I tell you; I don’t do anything anymore; it’s just whatever my calendar says I’m doing. This is what I’ve got to do, and so, like, right here, if anyone listens to this, like if you hack into my accounts and you put something on my calendar, I’ll just start doing it halfway through doing it. How did this thing get added to my calendar? I won’t even know; I’ll just do whatever thing pops up. Whatever it says, I’m going to do it, because there’s no way in hell, I remember; I guess so, but I guess I’ll read everything, like Carol, you own like, what, 19 companies? Michael, you do a lot of things correctly; I don’t have time to remember things like that, so it comes up. 

I’m in Oklahoma City, and I get a 30-minute warning from anywhere in the city. I can essentially get anywhere else in town, right? So, if I’m across town, yeah, 30 minutes. But I’m doing something across town when the little thing appears, and I’m like, “Oh sh*t, I have to go home. “I’ve got enough time to make it home, flip on the camera, and do whatever I want. 

Hey, glad to see you today. I’ve been here all day.

I made it on time with a holy look on my face.

Yeah, it’s like, “it popped up this morning.” It’s like, “Haircut” is like, “Well, I guess I’m getting a haircut, and I’m.” Getting a haircut, I’m like, “Why was I getting a haircut today?” Oh yeah, I’ve got this thing later tonight. I’ve got to be looking. So yeah, all sexified.

So, tell me a little bit about what else you do besides Skyfire arts. 

Sky Fire Academy is, you know, where I teach workshops about personal empowerment and flow arts. 

In essence, got my degree in psychology many years ago while studying quantum physics, comparative religions, spirituality, and body medicine, which I took in a class long ago, which is called self-health and culture. Do you already know we’re talking about the placebo effect? Is this an interesting thing? We like to account for it in every single scientific study about any kind of medicine, and we like to remove the effect that our mind has on our body. These healing effects.

But, you know, we don’t explore. Well, wait, wait. What was the part about our minds? Is it capable of performing the majority of the healing that any medicine can? And so, you know, in that class, they talked about that, and it always struck me as strange, arguably the most proven scientific fact is that our minds can affect our bodies when we’re fooled by being given the sugar pill or whatever. 

You know, it has always occurred to me, “Well, what if we could just not have to fool ourselves?” What if we could just intentionally go like, “I’m going to have less pain?” And then you just have less pain, or I’m going to, you know, activate my immune system now, and then your immune system just kicks in.

And so, there’s a guy named Doctor Joe Dispenza who’s doing a bunch of workshops all over the world. You know, we’re teaching people how to do this now, and you know what? where I’m not quite as far as he is I’ve been practicing yoga since I was in college. And since I was even younger than that, I’ve been doing meditation since I was about 10. I started doing meditation in karate classes, and so anyway, I teach, you know, meditation breathwork and personal empowerment visualization. 

You know how wild it is. How come simply imagining that you’re experiencing something similar to your body can’t tell the difference imagining that something is going on, and it’s happening to you, so you’re Yeah, so if your body will e physiological effects just by imagining things, then that’s one way to use the placebo effect or whatever it is: just get in a really came and then visualize things happening. So anyway, visualization and whatnot. 

So, I teach Fire Academy via Skype. You’re aware of such things, and then what is called clow arts they’re essentially movement practices that empower us to enter flow states. And there was a guy, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi who had been a kind of father figure in positive psychology for a long time.

Travis is like, “Oh yeah, I know him. “I know him, so you know he is”

Essentially, you know, identified. So, there’s this flow. People get into situations where they are most effective, and lo and behold, they are the happiest they have ever been in their lives. And I start all my classes now. 

Like, OK, you know, welcome everyone who wants to be more effective at everything you do. OK, all right body’s OK, and how many people want to be happier? Like every day, do you want to be happier? Yeah, it sounds good, right? Well, some things are scientifically proven to get you there, and I’m happy to share some of them with you.

And then, you know, “flow arts” specifically refers to spinning instruments, or “object manipulation,” to put it another way, or whatever. You know, in essence, I spin chains and swords and stabs to wield the lightning bolts that we produce with the Tesla coil and, you know, fire and whatnot. 

And so, I teach people how to do that, but not necessarily because they want to be fire spinners or lightning dancers one day. I teach them that because It kind of informs them about the masculine and the feminine.

As we were discussing earlier when spinning a staff, there will be a point where it will spin, and you must guide it at that point. Or else you’re going to, like, hit yourself, right? You have to guide it one way or another. But then there’s a moment where it’s in exactly the right position and traveling in exactly the right direction. So, you shouldn’t do anything at that moment. You need to allow it to continue to move until the moment comes. 

Allow – guides – allow – guides, and that is the beginning of getting your body and mind into the mode of “oh,” I understand that life is not just about trying as hard as I can or making things happen. It’s about, you know, definitely trying. It’s involved, but It’s well worth seeing.

Forcing it. 

Exactly

That, I believe, is the difference with that wonderful flow state. You’re not forcing anything to happen. It’s naturally going to happen. 

But, at some point, you must also guide it to get where it is. It must be correct, so Yeah, I love that. We’re talking about, you know, masculine-feminine energy, because when you earlier, alluded to the fact that we’re coming into this more feminine age. I love it. It’s been a long time since we’ve shifted towards it, but then I think there’s a danger in shifting too much as well. You know, just like anything, anything in excess is bad; in moderation, it’s good.

I believe that everything has its time. There is a time for access, but it is very rare. 

There is this property. Some friends of mine bought some property in Oregon, and on it is this 40-foot-tall statue of Padma Sambhava, this amazing Tibetan saint / mythological character, and the entire sort of tradition of the monastery that is or was on that property, roots can be traced back to a specific event involving a monk who was part the order was where they took a vow of nonviolence. 

But then there came to be this kind of absolute tyrant. This person was a horrifying plague on his people, ruinous, you know, and this monk eventually realized like … But this tyrant would have these monks as servants because they had taken a vow of nonviolence, and so he would, like, you know, allow them because none of them would ever hurt him. You know.

And the monk eventually kind of grasped it, like, “Oh, that’s the most peace and compassion and love and beauty and truth that I can bring to this world.” can only happen if I assassinate this guy, and so the monk breaks his vow, but only this once, so only this once I’m going to break my vow, and then the rest of my life. So, you know, that’s how that whole order, sort of, and the entirety of Tibet completely transformed at that time. So, it’s interesting to know about excess and moderation. But I agree with you that 99% moderation and 1% excess are appropriate.

Well, I feel like that is being followed, but at restaurants in the US, it’s 99% excess. 

Yeah, pretty much. 

So where are you located? You said you had this academy?

Yeah, I’m in Encinitas, and actually, it isn’t like a physical location at this time because we don’t have to have physical locations anymore to have institutions or whatever. 

Yeah, yeah, so it kind of travels to events. I’ve seen them at local dance studios or circus schools. I do it in the park, and I also do it at home on occasion. We just have these classes wherever we want, you know, I like to travel to events, so you know where it is. 

I’m currently in Encinitas.

I imagine someone spinning fire in my living room and it is going wrong

I’ve got two questions for you. Yeah, how. How good is your ventilation, and how high are your ceilings?

Either is good enough for what we are talking about

That is a backup question. Yes, and also, no. I have. I have insurance, so You’re good. You’re good. 

Either way, as long as I get paid, I’m going to be happy we didn’t resolve this here.

So, like, were you always this person, and is this the culmination of your lifetime? Tell us some things about Michael that sucked along the way.

OK, yeah, I’ll hit that up. 

I was put into school a year early. You know, intellectually, apparently, I was ready. But emotionally and psychologically, they didn’t like testing for that stuff back then, so they’re like, “Oh yeah, he can do it.” Put him in kindergarten at four years old. It wasn’t the best for me because I was a year younger than everyone else, so I was a year smaller than everyone, and I’m thin. I’m a thin person.

I’m probably going to get in trouble for saying this, but this is the reality of my situation: whenever sports were done and a team was picked, it was me and the fat kid we were the last ones picked, the hefty, not very athletic person and me. And that was just—it kind of sucked.

I even got to the point where one of the things that I’m most ashamed of in my life is that there was this one point where there was somebody who was actually kind of a friend of mine in high school. He had a sort of amusing accent. And then, like, somebody found his folder on the ground, whatever, and I started making fun of his accent, and then he was like there. You know, and I just realized later on that it was like that. I was like, “Why did I do that?” like what, and I realized how desperate I was for some sort of attention, yeah, and some sort of validation that I was OK with, like, just making fun of this kid. I didn’t know he was there. It wasn’t like I just did it to his face or whatever, but still, that sucks, you know? And, as you know, that was now my most glorious moment. It was among my weakest and most pitiful.

And I and I had more weak and pathetic moments.

Well, well, but before we jumped on, did you realize you were being ******* at the time? Or what was that like? realized many years later.

Yeah, yeah, I realized that I was ******* at the moment, but I kept making fun of him. I was kind of like, “Oh man, you know.” And then, on reflection, I got deeper into it because I had this thing where whenever I thought about it, it would make me cry. The fact that I had done something and made the person feel a certain way or think a certain way, my stomach would hurt from wanting it so much. I would just have a lot of anxiety, and it came from the fact that I didn’t experience any love from my parents. 

Now that I’m older, I realize that my parents did love me, but the way that they showed their love for me I had no idea what the word meant. For me, there was always something more I could have done. There was always something more I should have done. There’s always something more I could do, you know? And so, it was always out of my reach. You recall the carrot and the whip. You know, like the carrot is always kind of out in front of me trying to catch up, and then the whip if I lag too far behind, Carol, I can see you nodding like this is a very It’s also a very Asian thing, like the whole driving us like yeah, and then my dad was a New England Irish Catholic, you know, raised there was a lot like the guilt. There were also beatings.

Yeah, so when you got beat, did you—I don’t know, my family used bamboo, so we’d get that thin bamboo and tie him up.

Yeah, yeah. 

We would’ve got spanked, like, seriously whipped, so every lash was 10. So I would get it across the back of my legs and my ***, you know? The whole thing was extremely painful. 

Yeah, yeah, there was one, and it would sometimes appear out of nowhere, like a smack or something. Then there are times when it would be like, “Go to your room, and we’re going to come and spank you later.” So, I got to just sit there with my shame and impending doom.

Pretty messed up.

The bottom line is that for me, it was just this, which I didn’t expect… I had plenty of food, clothing, and shelter, but I didn’t have that sense of love or acceptance. So, you know, I talk about this in my Google Doc or whatever that is. I just got to a place that was so dark. That is, I considered doing some of the worst things you hear about people doing, and I was rolling those around in my head, wondering what if I did these? Or what if I did those? 

Read American psycho or whatever, and, you know, yeah, I don’t want to go into it here. I’ll just say that there are some really bad things that people do to each other in this world, and I was so deprived of love that I was like, “Well, what could they do to me?” Like, what if I did all these horrible things? What’s going to happen? It couldn’t get any worse. To me, it couldn’t get any worse than that, right?

It is internalized suffering. “Yeah, well, it stinks,” but now that you’re older and you’re probably apparent too, right? And you sit, and you go. 

You know what? There’s this realization that they were only doing their best in the circumstances they were in with the limited knowledge they had. So, if you accept that, you will mature. You know, as you mature, that’s how you kind of get to that place. If you accept that, you can forgive. All of that. 

I would have to say that having been to that place is the greatest gift of my life. life because I can feel compassion for people who do heinous things as this has then been the basis of one of my most profound life realizations: the difference between judgment and discernment. 

Because everybody is born with certain qualities and characteristics. Six, everybody learns to express those or not in given ways through the course of their life, and everybody is doing the thing that they think is the right thing to do, or else they wouldn’t be doing that. And in that way, we’re all the same, and the more that you judge another person, the more you create an atmosphere of judgment in your mind. 

Eventually and inevitably, when you cross your lines, all that judgment gets turned on you, and it leads people—including myself in the past and probably today; to go into rationalization and denial. 

Oh no, I didn’t do that thing, or oh, I did that thing, but I did it for a good reason. Or for this or that reason over there. Instead, if we can just recognize him, oh, I’m just doing my best, like everyone else, and then you can get a level of like moving past judgment, which is saying I am this way or somebody else is this way and they’re bad for it versus discernment, like, “I am this way,” which is just what it is, and you have to have discernment because you don’t invite somebody who is a known child molester into your home to spend the night when you have kids. That’s just not done. You know you’ve got to show that kind of discernment, but at the same time, you don’t have to judge. 

You can even be like God. It must be horrible to be that person who must be miserable, and you know what I would do in that situation? Would I kill myself? What exactly do you know? What options does that person have? 

So, you can just sort of be there in the space of, well, I have to discern. But I don’t have to judge. and it frees you. I have been freed of so much tension in my life by just not having judgments for people or ever speaking ill of any human being. 

I can just skip all that, and it’s pretty amazing.

I love that you use discernment as the other word. 

In the past, people talked about judging, and the quote from the Bible comes up: “Just not lest you be judged.” We talked about this before on the show, and my response was that you judge everything all the time. I judge the speed of the car coming towards me. If it’s safe for me to pull out into traffic.

But really, what I meant to say based on what you’re saying now is that I use my discernment and my experience to understand whether that is or is not a good idea. So, I appreciate you bringing the D word on the show today so I can. Level and upscale the things that I’m doing. I mean, intellectually, obviously, we’re still making jokes on the show, so, you know, it’s like I’m mature, if you want to say that.

But don’t you think, Michael? Aside from that, yes. 

Say you don’t want to judge people like that, but you also have to realize people make choices, and if people chose to be child molesters, given their circumstances and however haunted they were, didn’t they make that choice right? And so maybe that’s the reason they’re haunted so much. I’m not sure there.

There’s a fine line, you know, when we start talking about, you know. They’re not that different from us. Well, the difference is the choice that was made.

Yeah, and that, and, you know, strikes to the whole, like, all right, where do you draw the line? 

Because we all make decisions that aren’t always the best ones, and there’s a whole scale of consequences on this level, right? Like, oh, I chose kind of roll that stop sign or whatever, which might have endangered somebody or

Anyway, I’m just telling you, that’s a California roll.

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

Yes, I am; however, even if I am, a person has these kinds of impulses that they choose to follow.

That’s where we, as people who recognize all rights, are. If we were them, we’d all be in the same place. If we were born with their qualities and characteristics, we would have learned to behave the way we do through experience. We would think that’s what they’re doing. You know, we would think that we were doing the right thing, and then that’s what happened. That’s all they’re doing. 

So, once you understand that that is the reality of our situation, then it’s all right, I don’t have to, but even if I had to, for example, protect my family, I would do so without hesitation, reservation, or doubt. a threat to us, but I don’t feel obligated to pass judgment on the individual. 

In ninjutsu. One of the things they share with us is about killing with compassion. It’s like, “I’m sorry about that.” Life has put You know, you on the other side of this war for me and your daimyo, who is trying to, you know, assault and take over our entire land and destroy all of our people, and I’m so sorry, but this is what I have to do to protect my loved ones.

And yes, you can’t kill without having to hate or judge, which is what creates hatred and judgment within us. It requires attention that I just don’t think I need, not even to be a protector of my family.

You know, I like that a lot. 

I like that you said to kill with compassion. It kind of gives a new definition to that song about killing me softly. Next time I hear that song, I’m going to be like I want a picture of two ninjas on opposing sides to say, “I’m doing this for my Family”

You can’t. You can’t envision two ninjas. You’d never see him.

Did you notice? Did you see what it was? Oh my God, this was like a meme before memes existed. I saw that it was the 10th annual Ninja Parade, but it’s just a picture of an empty Street.

That’s fantastic; I love that. Classic

 Yes, the first three lessons were taught. Me, how to properly walk and run, and why? Why would you teach someone how to properly walk and run as the first thing in ninjitsu? Well, as a beginner, just start now. You don’t know any martial arts. You better learn how to run. If you’re going to survive because everyone is better than you, the first thing is to learn how to run. 

The second thing is how to fall and how to roll, because they’re going to kick the crap out of you for however long you can make it through the training, and so when they throw you to the ground, you have to learn how to not, you know, damage yourself. 

The third one was unarmed sword evasion, in which the other person has a sword, and you don’t, and they try to whack you, and you have to use one of several different evasion techniques depending on where they’re attempting to strike you from.

Hopefully, you don’t end up in that situation ever, but if you do, that’s one of the most difficult ones that you can ever be in.

You want to start practicing that right away.

No, you don’t want to get whacked over and over.

Only for those who keep the score at home. I want to just remind you of the list of how to walk and run, how to fall, and then unarmed sword evasion that escalated quickly. 

it’s like the difference between MP3, MP4, and MP5. Do you guys know what the difference is?

No, not actually.

An MP3 is an audio file that’s just music; talking with an MP4 includes video, and an MP5 is a SOCOM seal-like assault weapon that they used to shoot. So, everything I see is a picture of an MP3, MP4, or MP5. You see the gun and you’re like, well, that escalated quickly, I guess.

Yeah, yeah, that’s hilarious.

So, I always ask our guests, “What is something about you that, let’s just say, most people wouldn’t know?” That would be interesting if they did.

Don’t come up with some dull ****.

Yeah, well, we’ve had some really good ones. That sent us down the rabbit hole because there’s too much of it.

Yeah, Jessica Muse was. discussing aliens, ghost hunting, and ****

Oh yeah, it was fun.

that most people wouldn’t know about me. That would be me talking about everything interesting. The only thing I can think of is that I keep boring things to myself, but, uh, yeah.

We appreciate that, yeah.

No Oh well, I can tell you. I mean, I’ll tell you what, I can tell you what moment defined the rest of my life, uh?

OK, all right, so I was on a bus. Oh my God, this is the perfect moment. OK, I’ll tell you this part of the story. So, I’m not, and I don’t usually share this part of the story because it’s a little like God. I should share that, I think. I should, I think.

Yeah, share it. Just come on.

Girl talk, 

you’ll regret it later; I could end it, but you signed a waiver, so.

I think that you ‘re not going to do it. Edit it out. We’re going to be just fine. 

So, I went for it. I was on the bus, and I was riding to school. I was going to College of the Redwoods at the time, up in Humboldt County, and I was rubbing my face early in the morning. I was. trying to wake myself up. And something reminded me that I had made love that morning. Something in my senses.

“Oh yeah, you know, I made love this morning,” I thought. And then I looked out the window, and I had a warm, comforting feeling about how lovely it was. And I was looking out at the massive redwood trees swaying in the wind. And then there was something about the bus rocking and the trees swinging, and all of a sudden, boom… I was on the bus and the people on the bus. I was the road, the earth, the trees in the earth, and the wind, and the wind was the trees in it. And then I was back in my body. 

And three distinct things happened out of that experience. 

For one thing, I realized that every moment of my immortal life is tinged with a tinge of fear. Fear that something outside of us is going to hurt us or feel that something we have is going to be taken away. But at that moment, I recognized something viscerally, like through an experience and not through some intellectual concept. I realize that that’s only half the story we are telling. We are all separate and distinct beings, but we are also intimately connected to every point in time and space. We are everything, or there is only one being here, and it’s us.

And so, I just realized, “Oh, there is nothing to fear like I am the thing that is both giving lives to me and eventually destroying me”, And so. all of a sudden. The year just fell as a curtain dropped, and what replaced it was this radiant bliss as if I were penetrating and being penetrated by every point in time and space, and eventually I studied quantum physics and holographic theory, and I was like, “Oh, that’s actually what’s happening. And so it was that radiant bliss became. An anchor point for me for the rest of my life, like, “Oh, this is what it is to be in total acceptance and Oneness with life

Then the second thing that happened was that I went from being a rabid atheist to someone who you literally couldn’t convince that there isn’t a God because previously, words are just a noise we make, and when I say the word God, we could have made that noise mean anything. And if it meant a vessel. Millions of aluminum cans are scattered throughout the soda storage room. You know, waiting to be recycled, but you know, if you use that word to refer to an old man in the sky waiting to punish me for my sins and throw me in a lake of fire forever, I still don’t believe in that concept, right? 

But I felt like I was experiencing everything as myself, and I was like. This is like God’s whole idea of punishment and judgment and jealousy is perfectly acceptable.

As if it were an individual or an entity of some type that went away. It was this sense of unity.

This one is this being of which I am a part, you know. And so, I came to equate the word “God” with reality, and no one could ever convince me that there isn’t a God because you might as well convince me that we’re not talking here on zoom or whatever. As if it were natural. It’s an obvious choice. I’ve just redefined that word.

And when I talked to a lot of people about that, they were like, “Oh, OK,” like, “I can see that,” and you know, but I still don’t like the word “God,” you know, because a lot has been done in the name of God that is not to be, you know. 

Yes

loved or respected in any case, but that was another shift for me, and it was a big shift. So, first of all, I got to experience You know, total primordial bliss? Another thing I came to become: You know you believe in God because I redefined the term. 

The third thing that happened for me was that I realized that, like, 99% of human culture would look different if people realized this, they would no longer be at odds with one another, and the only competition would be friendly, as in, “Yeah, let’s see who can get there first for, you know, “Oh, you did it first. “Oh, awesome! Good for you!” You know, I like that kind of competition. I’m not going to stomp on you. No, that person is you

Are you likable? For example, for me, the thought of hurting another person is akin to hitting myself in the face, and it is? In terms of defending myself, the ultimate, you know, kind of the edge of that is what I mentioned earlier. What I think is happening when somebody comes to me like that—if somebody were to come to me like that, it would be like God asking me, “Do you love?” yourself and your loved ones enough to protect yourself at this moment? Even though this is another aspect of you, do you like it? Can you have that courage? 

So, in any case, I believe that will suffice. I wanted to transmit that experience to as many people as I could. You know, the will that I have to do that came from that moment, and that’s what you know. Sky fire Arts are the name of our academy. Like, that’s what my whole life is about trying to share that experience.

The closest thing that I’ve come to is. You know that. Plant medicines, whether plug-and-play or otherwise, I believe are tremendously valuable and have brought so much healing and grace to so many people’s lives. 

And I truly appreciate the role it has played in my life. But what I’m emphasizing now is more of the integration practices that people can use where those inspirations can take root in their lives and create change. 

So, in any case, I’m not sure if that’s a secret that people don’t know about me.

It’s an amazing story. It is. 

And before I say my next thing, I want to say how beautiful that is. Because when I write notes the whole time I’m doing these interviews, and if you don’t take the notes in context or take them in their entirety, like shorthand, like if you write them and you read them out of context, it looks like it says “I got penetrated on a bus, and that’s what changed My life” is what you said.”

Ha ha 

Right, it’s what you said, but the story is so much more beautiful than what I wrote. Do you know what I mean?

My God, Travis

Yeah, or it got even better. God penetrated me on a bus, then. changed my life or Whatever—yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s great.

This podcast went somewhere.

I hope this was meaningful for everyone who was listening, as well as funny and tickled your inner teenager and you’re like.

Ha ha. 

But—or whatever you know.

We were talking about, you know, being able to be feminine even if you were a man. So you know this is going in line, to some degree, with the previous conversation.

Accept all aspects of yourself as you go with the flow.

So, I do want to talk about plant medicine. 

For I am a product of the “DARE” age, and we’re told drugs are bad. I believe that for many, many years, until my neighbor was injured in combat, he smokes a little weed every night before he goes to bed, and he was able to, you know, kind of convince me that this is only within the last few years. “Look, man,” he says, “he had this display, and he goes and speaks to people. “He had this display where he had this enormous zip-lock bag full of pills. Full of pills, as it were. Look, man. I’m with you. I was just like you not too long ago, and he lifted this enormous bag of pills. He’s like. This is the number of pills I would take each week, or I could smoke two joints throughout the week. He smokes about half or a third depending on the day.

And so, that conversation opened my eyes to some of the different things that are available and exist because, you know, growing up in their generation. And then joining the military as if none of these matters to you. You don’t get the chance to do that sort of thing; even I think the Native American service members can’t go back and do things like pay OT on their vacation. Like, you can’t do that stuff. 

And then I’ve been noticing in the last few years that I’ve got friends, especially with PTSD and all those things, who are exploring and practicing plant medicine and going on these journeys. And I know we talked in person when I was able to visit in person. In real life, at a restaurant. I could hardly believe it. I got to see people again. And we were talking about ayahuasca and some different things, and I would love to talk about what that stuff is, and what it can do.

How is it valuable? How can you get a hold of some of this stuff? I know we’re in. a different kind. of the drug, era doesn’t have to go to the corner and be like you are. He then says, “Fifty dollars, little man, put that **** in my hand.” like a different scenario for getting all those different things. What does that look like?

Well, I do have to say that, you know, in effect, it is still not a legal thing for me to do. You can, for example, share where it can be acquired and all that kind of thing. However, some are legally held. Other countries hold plant medicine ceremonies as retreats and things like that, which I can share with you as a link, I’ll have to figure out what link that is so I can share a link with you that you can associate with this podcast later on and where that would be the best place for that to happen.

I’ll freely enter the other aspects of it because that is how I feel. You know, as I said, I want to honor the fact that it has had such a profound, transformative impact on my life and offer it to people you know. It’s something to think about, especially if you’ve had a lot of trauma, but it’s not for everyone. I don’t want to get into it. But in it, you know very deeply in a certain way, because I’m not, like,

a doctor from any specialty

That’s right, so I’m doing all the appropriate legal backtracking here before, and then all the caveats they got. 

You’re right. 

I do all the years, yeah, and so.

I’m not a lawyer, but this is what I would do if I were. I would say yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, so I’m just going to. I’m just going to say that because you know that I’m not. You know, you should not make any suggestions to anybody about what they do for their mental health. I’m not making any medical suggestions, and it has a profound, transformative effect on my life to use plant medicines,

OK, so can you give us one?

and I had a great time.

Example of, like, how? Because you keep doing it. It has had a profound effect on you, but there is nothing is said about what one example of that profound effect was and how you applied that insight and made something tangible come from

I can give you fifty, but I’ll start with one. 

I have had the honor of being brought into a couple of indigenous peoples’ churches. One of them, in particular, is that you stay up all night praying. And you always pray for a certain “cause.” There is no going to church on Sundays just for the sake of going to church. There’s always something very specific that brings everyone together

And there’s a person who is a sponsor. Who is the one who pays for the items There’s a person who knows that there are different officers of the church who hold different roles within this space? It’s very interesting how being tested in that way, like staying up all night praying for something, is not easy, you know, and it will test your concentration and endurance. 

One of the profound things that it will do when it’s putting you up against yourself shows you the ways that you are thinking about things. One could argue that this would happen even if you just sat up all night staring at a fire, but I can tell you that you know in this case. Spiritual tradition. There are simple things that come to you. I kept seeing myself. 

Somehow, I kept coming back to this image that I was receiving Accolades, and I was getting them in the form of props, or whatever we call them these days. You know, receiving people telling me how wonderful I am or whatever. 

And at a certain point, I noticed that it was. It was something that kept me from praying several times during the night. And I needed to think, so I just allowed myself to kind of step back and say, “Why?” Why is this? The thing that is distracting me. Why am I wanting to imagine this, what came to mind was something that should be obvious to anyone who has studied psychology—is that I? 

I had an unmet need. I had an unmet need for some form of validation from the people around me, and you know, I wanted to experience that, so I was kind of drumming that up in my head or hoping for that or wishing for that, and so being able to recognize that that was an unmet need that I had had an impact my life in several different ways, one of which I recognize I better learn to give myself the kinds of validation that I’m looking for from other people, or else I’m just going to keep having to chase it. I’m going to keep hearing about it from other people. I’m going to need to recognize what I need to do to do that, and you know it. 

Over the course of a year, it came to me this was just an insight, right? And this is what I mean by integration: for example, journaling that insight and then having that in your head as you’re going through it and continuing to journal what you’re going through and using that reflection to guide you. You can’t buy it. You earn self-respect, and the only way you earn self-respect is by choosing to do something difficult and then doing it

And so, it’s like being dragged along, kicking and screaming, and then being able to do that thing eventually. Because you can think to yourself, you gain some validation or self-esteem. Wow, at least I was able to do that. But it doesn’t have the same impact as choosing is like accepting what I refer to in the academy as a quest. 

Every human being needs a quest. If they have a quest, then they’re putting themselves up against something. They’re challenging themselves in some way, shape, or form, and people want to be part of a quest, not just on their own, people want to be part of a community that all have at least some similar value. You don’t have to share every similar value, but you have enough in common that you feel like all of your goals are aligned and you’re all working toward the same goal for the same purpose, and you know it. 

So, these are the ways that You know, I’ve been able to attain a certain level of self-respect in my mind and in my life, which I believe a lot of people are looking for today. And that, to some extent, stemmed from the insight I gained during my medical journey. 

Other insights include, um, things like the way I am afraid, as we all are, is what is primarily preventing us from reaching our full potential, right? Like most of what? What’s holding us back is our mindset or our concept of who we are or what we’re capable of. 

And, as you know, simply believing that you can do something does not guarantee that you will do it. But it opens that door, right? Because if you don’t believe you can do it, you won’t even try. You’re not even doing it. You immediately like to shut the door, right? 

But if you believe that it’s true, then you know you can open up, and what usually holds us back from believing that it’s true is our fears. If you look at it like, “Oh, actually look,” there are all these other people in the world who had a tougher life than I did growing up, some of them have done a lot more than I have with mine. 

How can it be that I am incapable of doing, you know, whatever it is, and so it’s just, you know… Anyway, I’ve recognized the kinds of fears that I have and can laugh at them. I’ve been able to, like, look at my life with this beginner’s mind. That’s like, “Oh, I’m the fool.” I am a fool, and my life is one big joke, and one time I told this to a messenger. I had this realization like, “Oh, what if I looked at it?” What if, instead of trying to prove myself to everybody, I tried to prove myself to myself? What if I just said no? What if I take the low road and say I’m a fool and my life is a big joke? Reduce the bar to the point where I recognize that I will always be the fool for something, that there will always be something that I don’t understand. 

And if I can just accept and embrace that, it completely and unexpectedly lifts a weight and empowers me in a way that… All these other People are trying to be better, do better, and be whatever they want to be outside of the game. I’m just stepping right out of that game, and I’m laughing at the whole thing. Someone, including myself and life, is included.

Because now you can be a spectator, right? You don’t have to be a participant anymore. Now you can spectate from a different perspective. Simply say, “Hey, that doesn’t look right.”

Oh, yeah, that was funny as hell, you know?

You get to do that. So, may I ask you, is there ever because I know someone who does? These journeys are frequently correct. They go and keep doing ayahuasca, or they do peyote-E journeys. I don’t think he’s ever going to reach a point where he’s going to be happy. He isn’t—I don’t think he is happy. Which is why he keeps doing it. So, do you ever think that, at a certain point, it is no longer helpful?

I feel like there is a period of integration that is the healthiest to take place. 

I can’t say like… Maybe after? After years of doing that, suddenly they’ll wake up and just not do that anymore. And so maybe all those years were just them figuring it out. So, I can’t say whether that’s the right thing or the wrong thing in this case.

But I will say that there is. Between right and wrong, there’s an optimal, and I believe that the optimal use of plant medicines is very judicious. You know, not only in the dosage—not taking so many results in their minds being completely blown open—but also not taking too little, where you’re just kind of going. Oh well, that was cool.

But it’s like you’ve got to take the right dosage and take it in the right kind of rhythm. And in fact, It is rather amazing and magical, and I’d love to talk about magical experiences a little bit later because I’ve had some real zingers in my life.

But it’s magical. When the time comes for a journey, it will just sort of come up or someone will invite you to one. Or whatever. It’s just very interesting.

It’s not coincidental, ever.

That’s correct in that case, you know.

 Because the amount of marijuana I smoke a week, for example, could fit on half of my pinky fingernail; I smoke one to two hits of marijuana every week, and it takes me on a journey because I do so little of it. But when I do it, it’s like Whoa, it opens, and I get super creative. I get all kinds of amazing ideas. It’s just incredible, you know?

Part of your brain, and I know that the reason why they do these plant-based drugs is that it taps a different part of your brain, and they’ve scientifically shown that. So, I agree with that. 

But then there You get to a point where you’re like, “OK, are you just doing it to fill a void? “You keep doing these things just to fill a void, but you never really face the consequences.

Well, let’s talk about addiction for a second. 

Because that filling of the void is, I believe, what you’re referring to, that is the point at which plant medicine no longer becomes or is no longer useful. Having unmet human needs leaves a sense of emptiness. 

When you say I’m happy, another word for that is “I’m fulfilled,” right? It’s the sense of feeling fulfilled. You’re not empty, or you know you have a hole inside, but when your needs aren’t met, there is a hole inside, and that, to me, is the problem with addiction…

 Gabor Mattei has a lot of different dimensions and is amazing. You know, doctor, that has talked more about you, the addiction, and whatnot than I can cover here. But I’ll just say that you know his work is amazing. And, yes, trauma is a factor, but it’s an addiction to me. You know, the present money relates to unmet human needs, and what is unfortunate for a lot of people is that in school we don’t learn what human needs are, even though we’ve kind of scientifically proven it now with a lot of psychological studies that show that these are the things that people need. 

You must understand the fundamentals of biology: food, clothing, shelter, and so on. But the need for self-respect, like I was mentioning earlier, is the need for at least some validation from other people. Now, people, you know very well that some people can gain almost all of their validation from themselves. Other people sort of need it more than other people, but there are dangers to both. Leaning too far in each direction, right? However, there is an emotion. Needs the need to feel connected. You know all these things. 

You also know about the physiological need for touch. We don’t talk about the physical, including food, clothing, and shelter. But what about getting hugs, making love, or things like that? Those are human needs that we have, if we’re not getting them met somehow, we’re going to feel like we’re not getting out of life what is supposed to happen to us 

You’re not connected. With other people up there, human beings, you don’t feel that connection. There’s a separation.

Yeah, and so addiction is a defense mechanism where we’re trying to numb ourselves or cover up the feelings of that emptiness inside us. We either don’t know what we need or can’t get what we need because we don’t know. I’m not sure what it is. Is it or are we unwilling? Well, we know what it is, but We’re unwilling to do what it takes to get what we need, yeah.

FEAR, it all cycles. Back to fear. I mean, the truth is, a lot of our problems have that as a source, right? Fear.

 You know, I remember seeing a shirt for several years. Ago, it said. Hugs not drugs, and it sounds like what you’re saying is hugs and drugs.

Wait a minute, wait a minute, hold the phone.

I will say that I heard it was an interesting study. 

There was an interesting study that looked at the incidence of cancer and alcohol, and it turns out that if you don’t drink alcohol every day, your chances of getting cancer are lower versus having one or two drinks or whatever. You have a little less cancer, and then you have more. If you have like 2,3,4 drinks a day, 5 drinks, even so, having a few drinks a day is like, you know, people tend to have less cancer if they have something in their life that they use to relax. 

Now I’m not saying that it has to come from there; it could be. come from meditation or breathwork, which is what I like to do. I don’t drink, but occasionally I’ll have one if someone has a birthday or a real celebration, but you know, the way I get those needs met for relaxation and stuff is through other, techniques.

But if you’re a person who loves a cocktail. If you keep it at that level and get hugs now and then, you’ll probably have less cancer than someone who doesn’t drink at all.

I notice that you didn’t go through your, uh, standard, like legal. drawdown. Because you said that, so take it.

I’ve already done that. I’ve already done that.

Take it from Michael. He says one cocktail per weekend hug; you’ll get less cancer.

So, you’re cancer-free now.

Oh, my goodness! Oh, my goodness! I just am picturing someone on Twitter being so mad at what we just said. You know, I had a friend who drank all the time and had cancer up the wazoo. I can legitimately say that they are terrible. 

Great, have a cocktail and a hug.

It’s OK; we’re getting off the rails, and we’re getting close to the end of the show here. 

So, Michael, you’re talking about that great stuff, and we love having you, right? 

And what piece of advice would you have for someone who’s struggling? And then, where is the one place you want us to go and have people connect with you? After the show

Well, one piece of advice, I would say, boils down to, appreciating what it is that you already have in your life because you could take everything in the world and put half of the beautiful things on half a newspaper and all of the evil things on the other half. And if you take your face and zoom it in close to this newspaper on this side, you’ll see the truth. You’re going to be seeing things that exist, but you’re warping your sense of what exists is affected, and that’s what the news tends to do to people you know. 

You’re warping your experience of life into something, and you know that is wholly negative. 

The same is true over here; if you look closely, you’ll notice, “Oh, everything’s peachy keen. “I don’t need to change a thing. Everything is wonderful, whatever. 

But what tends to happen, particularly these days, is that people tend to be like, “The world is just going off the rails and it’s insane,” and so to me, this is a regular practice. Just remember what it is that you already have to be grateful for; that is the first step toward a more balanced viewpoint, followed by the second. Once you achieve a state where you’ve accepted, like, you know what? For all its warts and, you know, horrible things the world still has beauty and still has wonder in it. 

And actually, my life is—you know, has things to be thankful for when you’re in that situation. You can start to imagine what and how it’s like. What else would I like? It’s not like I need this, or else bad things will happen. 

It’s like trying to manifest things or try to get things out of that state is going to be kind of like Putting that state as a seed in the thing that you get. If you want to get esoteric or whatever, or if you’re in a state of “wow, my life is already great,” use inspiration to be like that, and this would be nice as well. And that would be awesome. I love that. Yeah, that sounds Oh yeah, what about that, that excites me. That’s like being motivated. I’m like, “I’m filled with energy and inspired to do that

And then take a little while to completely let go of all your goals and all your plans and just sit in utter silence and stillness.” Allow your consciousness to grow. Allow your awareness to grow. So, this is like a three-part suggestion. Write a letter of gratitude, the intention and the stillness or meditation. 

Because there’s a practice called Tantra, and in Tantra, you know, they talk about how. If you just keep praising yourself and praising yourself as if you don’t even want to, we all know about the bull ice cream, right? like we eat a bowl of ice cream. The first 5,7 bytes Or, like, the most exquisite thing we’ve ever had in the next 10,15 bytes are just good, but by the end of the bull ice cream, you just feel like you’re eating a big bowl of ice cream. You kind of just shovel it in there, trying to get done with it. What is that like? What’s the difference? It’s because of our perception. Does everything have a purpose? Ice cream

So, if we can use the first part of our day right when we wake up, I mean, I do breathwork right away to wake myself up, and I do. gratitude, intention, and meditation to give my body and mind this experience, where the baseline of my experience is utter silence and stillness. 

Then there’s the counter-argument. Everything is pretty spectacular and bright and amazing, and I feel really pleasant.

And then where’s the one place you want people to connect with you?

What I would encourage people to do is go to skyfirearts.com/mission, and the reason why I think that’s the best place for people to go is that’s where we, or where I am in the video, explain, you know, the mission of Sky fire arts.

In essence, we’re looking to use this spectacular performance where we’re lighting lightning bolts. You know, and if we have, yeah, a couple of minutes, I want to tell one other story, one where we’re acting labels and using that to draw attention to ecological awareness and renewable energy.

And I’m not sure if people get it, like, “Oh, there’s this spectacular thing. I want to see the spectacular thing in and of itself”. But then they realize, oh, and it’s used to reap humans come back into harmony with nature. You know, I think that they might be inspired to go to skywars.com/subscribe and get our newsletter, so the bottom line is, like most people ask me, “How did you even get into that?” Like, how did that even happen for you, 

If you have it right here, it says you got penetrated on a bus.

At every point in time, his face was no less grave.

 So, it’s a lot. Yeah, I know, right? It’s a lot of things.

Mangeur levels. 

Yeah, yeah. 

So, I was a fire dancer for a couple of years, and I was saying to myself, “God, how I love to spin fire like the roar, the flame, and the line of shadow.” What would it be like to dance with electricity? It’s a primal energy that’s both thrilling and dangerous, as in, what will it be like two weeks later I’m standing in line, and the guy standing next to me is Jeff Parisi. He starts talking to the woman over the counter about his Lightning project, and I’m just like,

Oh, F off!

Yeah, that’s very strange, so I’m like, Listening. I turned to him eventually. Excuse me, I couldn’t help myself. I don’t mean to eavesdrop, but I will tell my story. And he’s looking at me like it’s really strange that you’d think those thoughts are running to me because I build some of the world’s largest Tesla coils. 

I own a Tesla Coil

No way, no way.

Many people tell me that I have not only designed a high-voltage protective suit in which you can dance. I’m like, Throw lightning bolts at me! “Can I get your number?” That was like the start of this whole journey of my life, and I thank you both so much for inviting me to it. It’s been a pleasure getting to know you and talking with you getting to know you better.

Thank you for being on the show.

We understand. The same way, Michael, and thanks again from my co-host Carol and myself thank you.