Ep. 65 - Matt Xian [TIMEWHEEL]

So it was like a map to exploring your consciousness, you know, like these different artists, these different visual effects are all kind of intertwined by the fact that they have like this higher frequency attached to it. This is synchronicity. This is synchronicity. This is synchronicity. Welcome to episode 65 of Synchronicity. I guess this week is Matt Zion from timewheel.net and a wonderful band called Something Fiction. I'm going to get to Matt in just a second, don't worry, you know the drill. First things first, listen or question episode will be coming up soon. If you have any questions from me or any previous guest who's been on the podcast, send me an email at noah@synchpodcast.com. We're going to do an episode where those questions are answered.

You can also join the Facebook Synchronicity group. There's a link on the website and you can ask the questions in there. And I will put them together in a document, figure out how to do that. So there you go, that's coming up. Another quick note, some of you have been asking where the music comes from for the beginning of the episodes and the end of the episodes. That's my music. Thank you. If you enjoyed it, if you don't, I don't care. But if you have a few people about where can I listen to this in one place? So there was no place that you could do that up until last week. I created a Dropbox folder with all of the clips, all of the songs in one convenient place.

I'm going to be releasing that next week. So stay tuned if you're someone who wanted to listen to those things. I really appreciate it. I love the positive feedback. It keeps me going. It's been especially helpful as I am forcing myself every day to make music for at least one hour a day. It's going pretty well, so can't knock that. Also, again, thank you to everyone who participated in the survey I sent out for this creativity project that I'm working on. It's going really well. I got some incredible feedback. I'm going to be reaching out to some of you specifically in the coming weeks to get some more feedback.

I'm really looking forward to this project. I think it's going to be something that's very beneficial. It's already been helping me, so I hope it helps the people who would be engaging with it. Okay. That's it from my side. Let's talk about Matt. Matt Zions. I stumbled across something on Facebook a few months ago, maybe even a little longer, which was just, I'm a big fan of cool gifts. I like things that are cool, psychedelic, kind of trippy, cool, make you think gifts, something I enjoy on Facebook, when they added that feature, I was very happy. I started seeing a few from this place, Time Wheel.

Then I met Corey Allen, and then I met Michael Phillip from the Astral Hustle and Third Eye Drops podcast, respectively. They both kept mentioning Matt and Time Wheel. I don't know. I think I know what you're talking about, but not really. Then I started connecting the dots that this stuff I had been seeing on Facebook and social media were Time Wheel. Matt was a co-founder of this, and he actually came, the impetus for how this stuff got created. I reached out to him. I said, "Hey, man. Come on the podcast. I want to find out more about you." Truthfully, I always am in awe when people who are in their 20s are so well put together and centered and kind of doing what is important to them.

I find it incredibly inspiring, and Matt is certainly one of those people. He's a musician. He's an artist. He's a creator. He's a curator. He's doing a wise business runner. He's really quite an extraordinary person, and you'll hear in this episode why that's the case. We talk about the value of the psychedelic experience, how that influenced his life. We talk about some of his techniques that he uses to get into his body, if his mind is racing a little bit too much, which I think is a wonderful tip. I've noticed since I've been doing regular exercise every day, when you're sometimes in a negative mind state, just getting into your body, whether it's jogging, running, exercise, even breath work, can be incredibly potent in terms of shifting your state of mind.

We talk about music. We talk about some of his influences. I think he's a guy who will continue to offer quite a bit to the world as he discovers more. He's subsequently after this podcast reached out and had some questions about Buddhism and Bardo states and life after death and things. I sent him a wonderful book called Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Seogail Rinpoche, one of my favorite books. I think it's one of the best introductory and comprehensive looks at Tibetan Buddhism and the cosmology behind that. So yeah, definitely check that out. Maybe next week we'll do a book giveaway for the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying.

How's that sound? We're going to do that. So yeah, Matt, great dude. Love this episode. Thank you to everyone who has subscribed to this podcast, who has donated to this podcast. Holy shit. Thank you. Awesome. You can do that on syncpodcast.com. If it floats your boat, that'd be cool. And to everyone who has rated and reviewed the podcast, really easy to do. You can do it from the website. You can do it on iTunes. It helps. It helps me feel better and I think it actually helps with the ratings. Synchronicity, this podcast, is going through a tremendous growth spurt. And I'm incredibly grateful to everyone who has made that a possibility.

That means you specifically, because that's when I'm talking about growth spurt. I'm talking about people listening to the podcast. So yeah, definitely thank you to everyone. Things are going great. I'm moving in less than a week will be New Yorkers again in the Hudson Valley. If you're up there, if you live in that area, if we're anywhere close, let's hang out. We need some new friends. We're going to go meet people up there. So yeah, really looking forward to that without further ado, guys. How about that? Without further ado, here is Matt Zion. [MUSIC] Yo, yo, what's up, man? What's up? How you doing?

Good. How are you? I'm good, busy, but good, I'm sure you can relate. Yeah, you're based in Austin? San Antonio. San Antonio, I do a lot of client and partner work out of Austin now. So cool. Yeah, I mean, we'll find out in the episode, but I'm like super stoked to find out more about all of your endeavors that you have going on. I see you are a multi-disciplined type of guy. I can appreciate that. Cool, man, thanks so much for coming on and doing this. I'm really excited. Mm-hmm. Yeah, me too. Thanks for having me. Yeah, of course. Moving to the mind meld you did with Michael on Third Eye Drops, and it was very illuminating, but I purposely kind of kept my intake of you speaking or finding out more about you because I wanted to do it on this episode, but dude, I'm so totally impressed with the community and the platform you created with Time Will, especially.

It's so fucking rad, man. Really cool. Awesome. I appreciate it, man. It's been a dream come true to do this. Absolutely. Okay, let's just get started. Let's start with Time Wheel just because, like I just mentioned, it really is a very impressive outlet for a lot of different types of media. But the unifying factor that I've been able to notice just tuning in is that it seems to really be conscious thought-provoking, vibe-inducing content. You know what I mean? It's not. There's a clear distinction, and I'd like to also start and say, "You know this from building communities online, especially on Facebook and social media.

There is so much stuff being put out on a daily basis. So similar. A lot of it is very derivative, and a lot of it can be kind of lumped together in this new form of media that's coming out here. But I personally believe, and I've had a lot of conversations on this podcast recently, that it's not the actual finished product that communicates what actually is going on, but it's the intention and the essence of what was going on when the media was being created or put out that actually is what determines its resonance with other people. So I mean, I guess we could start, let's tell me a little bit how Time Wheel got started.

I also just want to know, tell me about yourself, man, I'm genuinely interested in how you got into this. I know you're a musician. I know you do a ton of other things, but I'd love to start with Time Wheel because that's kind of how I got tuned into what you're doing. Sure. Yeah, so to go in to talk about me, I'm an artist, I'm a musician, I'm a curator, I'm a writer of sorts, and I've been a musician my whole life. I know my earliest memories are me playing on a piano. And also taking piano lessons when all my friends were out at recess, I was held back into this kind of little closet pretty much to take piano lessons with an elderly woman, and she was pretty nice.

So then it was fun getting that kind of early jump into the music world, but I mean, it took many, many years, even though all the time I was playing music, I was always playing on the piano, I was always singing. It took forever for me to really embrace it and to realize, like, I am a musician this lifetime. You know, I don't know why that was. I knew it was the one thing I really enjoyed, but you know, society, school, influences, friends, parents, everything kind of pushes you to want to want the same things everyone else wants. You end up wanting to have financial security, a wife, a kid, this education path that everyone seems to be on.

You want to like go along with your friends, you don't want to get left behind by then if they go to some university, so all these things started, you know, becoming the forefront of my life for some weird reason in high school, even though music was really where my heart was from being a kid. And so that is kind of, you know, the high school time is generally when people learn to experiment with consciousness and that was what happened to me. You know, I took a long time, I was kind of really gun her about my sobriety for a long time and I would say things like, you know, on my, on the history list of this life, I don't want to be someone who does drugs, I don't, you know, I want to live this pure life or whatever.

I was definitely influenced by Christianity growing up, I was raised Catholic. Of course, once the internet came around and movies like Zygay started, you know, penetrating the social circles, all that stuff was kind of quickly, I started to become a skeptic about religion, which I kind of grouped all religions into the same kind of religion that Christianity was, which was informed of me because now I get many religions in the world after having studied a lot of them and saying, Hey, those are actually pretty cool. But to come back to experimenting with consciousness, you know, I was probably 18 or 19 before I ever really had an altered state experience.

A lot of people maybe do that when they're 14, 15, I always thought, well, that's a way to go. Yeah, I did it when I was 15 and I took LSE. Yeah, I was like, I couldn't fathom having this experience at that age, but at the same time, I think waiting so long really made it that much more powerful. Right. Broke through. And when I broke through all of those things that I was just talking about, like the hopes and dreams of that are the same as all my friends or all my contemporaries kind of were just shattered and I was left with what is it that you want, you know, like what is it that defines who you are and those few things are the things that I love and those things that I love were music and performance and also visual art, companies, music.

And I realized this all in an afternoon, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. Yeah. It was like I'd spent 18 years looking for myself. I knew the whole time because it was right in front of me, but I never embraced it. And so that's kind of how I found out who I was as a person or, you know, and realize that I have this role as an artist or as a musician or as a curator of sorts because I think my arts and musicians are curators. They're curating what they want to create. It just so happened that I also became good at curating other people's work as well, which is really a big part of time wheel. But the early part of time wheel came with me and my band, something fiction, we've been together for probably nearly 10 years, not really officially, but not really in the public for 10 years, but you know, we have been playing together, been a band for that long.

And it wasn't until these kind of psychedelic experiences started creeping their way into my life that we really started recording and really putting music out and wanting to follow that career path. And my van was, I guess, the first artist on what people, you know, now know as the time wheel label and we kind of started wanting to connect with other people, but we're here in San Antonio. And it wasn't really a big music, well, there is a music scene, but especially not a music scene that has to do with like transcendental thinking. Great. Yeah. So we started to look for this few and far between artists that resonated on that level with us.

A lot of it was done through the internet, communicating, networking. You know, slowly we gained contact with all of the best artists in San Antonio that are all on this level of thinking and we just decided to create a collective and that collective was time wheel. We call it time wheel from the beginning. Previous to that, it was a production company, which is, you know, I've been building this in a production company for quite a while, but now it's kind of all under one roof because I also shoot film, if I had to say what kind of film artist I was, I would say a documentary filmmaker. Although I haven't made a documentary yet, I've only assisted in creation of documentaries, but I certainly shoot like a documentary filmmaker.

It's always about capturing what's around me, things that I find interesting, presenting things in a cool angle and a cool light, again, it's the type of curation. Right. And you know, so gradually we made contact with all of these artists, banded together, created this platform, and we hosted our music, our art, our curations on our blog on timewheel.net. And eventually it kind of created a life of its own and that all the content and stuff that we like, the things that inspire us to create, ended up going well with our audience. Right. The audience we started building based around our music and our curations, and you know, I'm probably going to say music art and curations.

That's okay, man. That's kind of what my life is about too. So. Yeah. That's how it started. And then, you know, we made contact with some really influential people on the psychedelic sphere, and I've always, you know, ever since that first experience, my first psychedelic experience, I did nothing but research, online research, you know, Terrence McKenna, Dennis McKenna, you know, Ron Doss, Alan Watts, you know, I just would download all this stuff constantly, like, like googling, what is mystical experience? Because I just had one. Right. And I don't even know what it is. Right. And I learned from zero, like, what, what is this experience that I had on psychedelics, because it wasn't just a drug experience, like.

So what year was that experience that you had? Good question. Let me take a look at, I think about 2010. 2010. Okay. So you, you, you are lucky in a lot of respects that you had a transcendental experience that could be validated through the lens or mirror of the internet, right? Like, Arrowhead was in full fledged back in. You could, you know what I mean? And it was when I was, so I had my first experience when I was 15, which would have been, that was in '98 or '99, you know, the internet was around and there were, Arrowhead I believe was up, like within a year or two after that, if not then.

But it was pretty damn hard to validate experiences. And you would get what you'd usually have to do is talk to other people who had done it and you know, obviously, if you've done psychedelic since then or in the community, there's a huge spectrum of experiences one can have on the exact same substance. So if it's LSD, there's a whole range of experiences you can have depending on set and setting, you know, personal psychology, karma, there's a whole lot of factors in there. So it wasn't always the best way to try to have to figure things out. Luckily, this is why I'm so encouraged and I love where we are with the internet and, you know, it's, to be clear, I think the internet is a neutral platform.

I don't think it's inherently good, I don't think it's inherently bad. I think it could be used for good things and it could be used for bad things, much in the same way money it can be, you know, it's a, I used to think money was the root of all evil. No, it's not. You can use money to help people in like a really substantial way. It's a form of energy that we have ascribed value to. But anyway, so with the psychedelics, like it's good now that people when they have these experiences can quickly validate and experience and there's pitfalls to this, of course, too, but you can kind of get up to speed and be like, okay, I didn't just lose my mind.

I didn't just experience something that no one knows nothing about. There's actually enough here that I have an idea of what's going on, which is useful in the sense that I'm sure as you were validating this to yourself, you're like, okay, now I can kind of align myself as I am now with this experience that kind of fundamentally changed my outlook on life. And I think that's like an amazing beneficial thing that's helping a lot of people in this day and age. Totally. It is. And I want to say too that it takes people, it takes a certain type of person, people like you and me, perhaps to, to even kind of hear that calling to want to research it because just because you have that experience doesn't mean you're going to want to follow through with learning about it and integrating it and putting that as a normal part of your daily life, you know?

Well, it goes back to what you were saying about kind of this culture game. And it's funny as you're checking off the list of like what people are doing, you know, get married, have a kid, get financial security. I mean, these are the things that I, I married, I just had a kid. I'm aspiring to financial security, but in this weird way, you can pursue what you're really defining here. And it sounds like the genesis of time wheel is is this is the hero's call, right? This is Campbell's hero's journey. You have to get in touch, find what it is you're really about in this life, right? And then you have a choice.

And people forget this when they talk about the, the monomyth, the hero's journey is you can turn down the call. You can say, nah, I'm good. I kind of like it here. I'm going to stay. I don't really need to do that. And that really is defined, you know, by Campbell and a lot of people, that's very psychically damaging. That's kind of how you then get a culture that's built up around things that aren't actually important. And you know, there's, there's so many factors why people desire the things that they desire or think that they desire. We'd be remiss if we didn't, uh, point out like, you know, media and cultures influence on, you know, advertising and how that gets people to kind of aspire to something that maybe they don't actually want, which is why I go back to what you're doing.

You're talking about curating and music and following your calling. Like, I'm sure you got this at some point, but you must to realize like, okay, I really love making music. And I, you know, I went to, I graduated from Berkeley College of Music. Music is a huge part of my life. It's one of my, it's, you know, it's right up there with anything else. But I'm sure you realize like, okay, there's a lot of shit coming out from a lot of different angles. I really like this stuff. I seem to be able to be relatively good at building communities and curating certain things that I think vibe with me and other people.

The best thing we can do is just continue to put this out in the world, amplify the signal and allow people to tune in as they come across it. So that's our kind of medicine for all of these other ways of being. And you know, as a testament to how well you've done and how well this stuff can work, like I independently tuned in to Time Wheel about a few weeks before. And I remember when I got in touch with you, like several people had mentioned your name to me. And it was like a, you know, synchronicity, I don't know if we play that word on this, but like I was like, okay, like this is, this is a pretty potent and powerful thing that's going on here.

And like I said, like I don't want this to be lost, like I come across, I want Facebook a lot. And I come across hundreds, thousands of pieces of memes and media and gifts and music and art on my Facebook stream every day. And I can immediately tell when there's something qualitatively different and I'll even, you know, go as far to say like I've seen the same GIF posted by 25 different accounts, but I can tell the accounts who like actually understand what this is and why they're communicating it rather than the people are like, well, I just want to get shares and likes and then I want to sell advertising on my new sponsored post for media, like there is something there.

And what I'm so encouraged about seeing and I especially in talking to Michael Philip about this about you, there seems to be an increasing number of people who kind of get what this is about. This isn't a game to make money. This isn't a further expansion of the digital economy to enrich people. It's really is about tuning consciousness or providing kind of the template for allowing people to tune their consciousness, consciousness, both with psychedelics and endogenously as Bruce Dammer would put it. So yeah, I'd love to hear your take on that. Absolutely. I think that that was the initial goal, you know, because time will before it is before it was the site that it is now, it was a very kind of simple site and all it was was a place for us to go listen to the things we wanted.

We almost thought of it as like a map to, it was like a map to exploring your consciousness, you know, like these music, these different artists, these different visual effects are all kind of intertwined by the fact that they have like this higher frequency attached to it and that is kind of what started to bind all the media together, you know, all the media that we put out has this quality to it that it's progressive in nature. It's forward thinking, which is, you know, what progressive means. And it's also quite beautiful to listen to an altered set of consciousness, you know. So I think that that is what we were tuning into very early on in creating and curating and I think that also, well, did I lose you there?

Are you there? No, no. I'm here. I'm here. Okay, great. And also a lot of the artists that we involved ourselves with really saw that in our music, you know, like early on we started working with Salvia Joy. Are you familiar with that? Yes, I am. So, you know, he's a very friendly social media friendly guy and so he was easy to network with, talk to, collaborate with and the worlds that, you know, he's creating are the spaces that our music is emanating from. And I don't know, I think that that's kind of why we're both a music and art label. Right. And I think that it's cool that in today's day and age, you don't necessarily have to just be one thing.

That's right. You can kind of take everything that you like, bring it all together, present it in a nice way that it all makes sense and it's all cohesive. And you know, spread it as much as you can as well as you can. Yeah, I mean, and it's interesting this, the kind of nebulousness that goes along with being able to do anything is both a potentially scary and frightening thing, but also it's so laden with opportunity, right? I mean, this is something that I'm sure every, every digital entrepreneur in whatever form that takes has to deal with this question of like, what am I doing? Why am I doing it?

That's the, you know, what are the tools and, you know, resources I'm going to use to create what I'm doing. And I think this is with the lowered barriers to entering into this realm also just comes the more effort that needs to be exuded because you keep mentioning something. You've used words like binding, cohesion. This is what I think ultimately kind of separates, um, collectives from each other from both, you know, really doing it and coming together and creating something and having an impact and just kind of like this loose assembly of people who are together. Not that there's anything, one is better than the other, but if your intention is to create something that's going to resonate with a lot of people, cohesion and focus really starts to come into play.

So I mean, let me ask you this, like in your personal life, like, are you the type of person who quickly kind of sees how to enact things, um, you, you plan things out there kind of, you know, you, you have a strategy in mind, or do you also do kind of follow the path of intuition and synchronicity and resonance? I, I know in my life, and I'll just preface this, like I do a bit of both, but I've always leaned towards kind of the resonance and, you know, the synchronicities of the world. I am now specifically in the past, you know, two, three years, especially trying to cultivate this more, you know, strategic planning and allow that to kind of fuse with the intuitiveness because I think we are at this place in time where those two in tandem are just incredibly beneficial.

But I'd love to hear kind of how you operate within this space and it's because, and primarily, I'll say this, like, this is for me, like I operate in a very similar space kind of in maybe a different slant, you know, through a reflected slightly differently through the prism of the internet, but I am fascinated by how many people I've met who are doing something really fucking cool, aided and embedded by the internet, but also with a grander intention of actually like bettering people's minds and thereby the world. So I'd love to hear kind of like how you function in this space personally. Sure.

So, you know, about intuition versus strategy, I would say a lot of it was intuition early on. A lot of it was just wanting to do something cool, you know, just wanting to do something for us. In our small group of artists, we had no plan for it to get, you know, big. And the fact, and then maybe that is honestly what helped it to get big. Of course. Yes. Because we were all just about the presentation. We wanted to present all of this, this content and the right light. And so that people understood, you know, what it was here for. And also, we knew that it wasn't for everyone because some people would come here and they might like a completely different type of art or music or identify with a whole different culture.

And we're okay with that. And then we're not trying to please everyone. You're not, you're not evangelicals in the sense you're trying to convert people to like what you like. You want people to naturally and organically resonate with it. Exactly. And we keep it that way and we've kept it that way. And we don't really, you know, while we have experimented with different types of artists, especially more recently, some that don't necessarily fall into a psychedelic field are absolutely still pushing boundaries and seeing art as music and music as art. And the way that they intertwined, you know, and so that to us, we back stuff like that.

And so I think that has mostly been intuition, you know, and it's mostly been, I will almost say luck or synchronicity as well. Because I don't know, we could have never planned for where we are now. We would never would have thought that we would do this as a job. You know, this is how we make our living and it's amazing. And that's why I say it's a dream come true. Because, you know, up until that first breakthrough experience, I thought that I would just be working for some computer company or something because I was always drawn towards technology. Sure. And it makes sense that, you know, we operate on a, you know, like a technological level with this social media, with these types of sites.

Yeah, you're in the digital domain. Totally. Yeah. And I was always good at that. I was good at computers. And how computers worked. So, you know, my plan was to go to college for pretty much computer science. But, you know, eventually I just left school because I knew that I didn't need school for what I wanted to do. Which was this. And it's not like I think school is inherently bad or anything, but it's just like if you know who you are and what you want to do, just be true to that. Because no one can teach you who you are. You know what I mean? That's right. And I also think, you know, the other thing with school is like just my personal opinion and having gone to college, you know, many other people have like, I think we send people to college at the totally wrong time.

Like when you're 18 to like your young 20s, like you shouldn't be in college being inundated with all this stuff. And some people should who want to, but like now I'm like 33. I would love to go to college now. Now I could actually appreciate like the wisdom someone has who's been doing this for 30, 40 years, communicating things to me that I know I want to learn. Not being like, hey, I'm in college with a bunch of other young people doing shit loads of drugs and learning. You know what I mean? It's just like, it's a weird time that we send people through this rigorous program of regimented, like standardized testing and AP curriculums and all these things and then just place them in this weird, free kind of institution where you're supposed to be like learning the tools and skills.

And we don't even need to get into the fact that it like severely handicaps people financially most of the time because of the debt that people accumulate to get, you know, go to a college. But I will say like, man, like you have tapped into one of the cheat codes for life, which is when you hear the little voice inside your head, your conscience or your soul say something, you're listening and you're saying, hey, this isn't like something I need to push aside and not paying attention to because that doesn't fit the paradigm of the consensus reality we live in. You're saying, you know what, this is a big, I mean, because you were talking to you alluded before, like you said, you and me are types of people do this, you know, investigate those things.

And if you have a transcendent experience, truthfully, a real transcendent once you've transcended your reality, I think it's crazy. I think this is insane that you wouldn't investigate what the ramifications or implications of that experience were. How could you ever go back? I mean, this is the, you know, for people who haven't done psychedelics, the question they're usually concerned with is, well, here it changes you. I hear you're a different person after which is a terrifying thought to someone who thinks their ego is their entire basis for reality. You don't want to lose that. It's like basically dying, so you're losing your identity, lo and behold, when you actually go through any experience where you lose your identity, it's actually a pretty incredible thing.

Not to me. It could be very scary. I'm not denying that fact, but it loosens the rigidness that can come with thinking things or a certain way without actually knowing what is going on. So I mean, you seem to have this ability that propels you forward. And I'll tell you like why I love speaking to people like you and seeing what you're doing in the success that's coming your way is you validate this idea that if you follow your calling, success will find you. And I don't mean success necessarily in the sense of you're going to be rich or you're going to be able to quit your day job or you're going to be able, but you will find the real successes and riches that actually propel you towards actual happiness.

And if money comes later and you have a way to do that or you have some other things that fulfill certain desires that make you feel happy in a, you know, not in a pejoratively superficial sense, but in a way that is comfortable, that's great too. But you know, I think we hear stories too much of the failed, not practical artist mentality. And we see this validated like I always look at the political situation because I think it reflects things that go on also in the artistic communities. And one of the things that I think this narrative that of immersion, I went to a music school man, like everyone kind of thought like this, because you would see really talented people just burn out and fail for a variety of reasons is you can't be a successful artist, you can't pay the bills, you can't have the life you want.

And I think the real reasons for that is if you look back to the commoditization of art and music, music in general, it's not that it's not a viable income or career or you can't make a living. It's that the main sources of control that kind of dictate the commerce of the platform and media have totally fucked over artists and musicians forever, like that's literally been the operating system this shit has been built on since it's been commoditized. So again, a parallel I see and kind of what we're doing. I'm trying to do this with MindPod Network and so many things you're saying about your artists and the people you brought in, even when they don't match stylistically necessarily, there is this unifying factor of these people who are communicating this stuff.

But yeah, I mean, the parallels between it are very obvious to me because we're trying to create platforms and collectives that allow people who are doing meaningful and good things, not for themselves. It might be a little bit for themselves, but not in a bad way, but really for the benefit of people who'd be tuning in, creating platforms that are successful and can sustain. That's the best thing we can do right now because to expect it to change from the top down, like all of a sudden Sony or I was going to be like, "Hey, guess what? We're going to really fairly support artists. That shit ain't going to happen."

I mean, it's encouraging, it's validating, and I love to see that it's going on. I would love to hear your take kind of on how you view time wheel or collectives kind of enabling artists and people who have creative impulses to kind of pursue those desires. Sure. Yeah, I mean, I think that, and I mentioned this on my podcast with Michael Phillip, that time wheel has been pretty much an incubator of sorts. We really want to invite people in that we feel share the aesthetic and the same philosophy about music and art that we do. And a lot of times we just become friends, and so it's almost like a friend and network and job, you know, so it's, I don't know, it's easy, but we really feed off of each other because when you have 30 artists around you, which is the rough number of how many artists we have on our label that are constantly sending you their latest music, their latest album covers, their latest release dates, and their latest aspirations and ambitions it doesn't, it fuels you, it helps you get your own artistic vision in order as well.

So it's like I built this life around me to help support me through my own. Isn't that funny? Yeah. Isn't that funny, man? Yeah. And at the same time we're helping other people, so it's great. It's what I call like a win-win-win. It's like the ideal, I think it's truthfully the way the world can work and every sector business, art, life, relationships, it's just not how it hasn't worked like that to date. Most people are operating with this scarcity model. For good reason too, like I don't want to say like there's anything wrong if you're thinking like I got to pay my bills this week or there's not enough, like it's a very real situation for a lot of people, myself included, like truthfully, but if you're operating from the place that there's not enough, that you have to do things a certain way, you're not playing by your rules even if you think that you are and that is a very disempowering things.

And I love that you describe it as like, I mean, because this is what I feel like this podcast has really taught me more than anything. It's that I've created this channel and mechanism that is obviously people are finding benefit and you know, my numbers continue to surge like every episode, every month to month, but I'm really doing it for myself because it propels me forward into conversations, reading new people, my own creativity, I've been putting my music in my podcast, I've been doing more music than I've ever been doing because I feel obligated to for the episode. And so it's like you unknowingly are serving yourself while serving other people.

And that to me is like the goal of life, whatever you tune into and however you want to kind of manifest that, that's it right there. And I want to be clear when we're talking about like the goal of life and all these things, it doesn't mean your life is perfect, like, you know, five very shitty things happen to me yesterday at the same time, like very shitty, like worst day in a long time. And I was the craziest thing that happened to me, the fucking craziest thing that happened to me is I didn't freak out. And I am Mr. Spaz number one, like I am number one, like I will freak out, I'm the best at it.

But I didn't. And when I realized why I didn't, it's not because I meditate because I rarely meditate. It's not because I read about all this stuff and finally it's sinking in. It's because I've created a world for myself that reinforces what's important to me. And it's not necessarily the five shitty things that happen and the inconveniences or, you know, disasters potentially that those were. But it's that I'm really rich in the people I've gotten to know over the past three years. And that means more to me ultimately than any other bad thing that's going to happen. And when you really like start doing that and realize you're somewhat responsible for doing that, also let's not like you said, let's not overlook the factor and importance of grace.

Like I don't understand that. I love the and Lamont quote where she says, I don't know what grace is. I just know it when I see it basically like, sure, that is clearly something at work. But like when you're somewhat responsible for creating your reality and it's something that you really know is serving other people, like there's no better feeling in the world than that. Like that is actually like what I believe. I think this is the primary reason we incarnate on earth, right? And we can get into the whole metaphysical stuff in a second. But I mean, dude, like I'm just I'm blown away in speaking with you because I didn't have any real expectations of what you would be like.

I mean, we'd haven't known each other for that long. We've just been tuning each other into Facebook. But it is exactly kind of what I would have expected if I had expectations. Like you get it, you're intuitively creating systems, environments that not only benefit other people, but you recognize that you're helping other people by helping yourself and you're helping yourself by helping other people. And that's like what it's all about. Totally, man, you know, and it's amazing. You know, I feel like I can't even take the credit. Right. That's the that's the mark. That is the mark of someone who gets it.

FYI, because if you can't when you just like what the fuck I can't take credit for this shit and you realize like what that is it like that's when you tune in to what is actually going on. And that's where I really believe like magic starts to happen. Like the things that don't that transcend the luminal boundaries between logic and magic. That's when you tap into that state. Now, and I'll also point out here's one of the funny interesting things I've noticed about that state. When you experience it, this flow state when magical things are happening, if you're like me, you want to stay there, you want to live there forever, right?

And the curious thing is, which everyone knows, I haven't met anyone yet who can do that. I've met people who can do it for long periods of time, sometimes I can. But the the true curiosity of being a human is there's these oscillations between really magical, amazing, beautiful states. And then just very like, what the fuck? What the fuck is this shit? Why is nothing going right? So I'm curious, when you encounter those states inevitably, what what are some things that you do to kind of help propel you through? I mean, I'm sure this is manifested in your life in any number of ways. But when things aren't going smoothly, like what do you do that kind of helps shake you out of it or remind you to what's important?

Or you could just be like me sometimes, I just totally forget and freak out. Yeah, I think it, you know, remarkably, it all still starts with that, that initial altered state experience because you have that etched into your memory. You remember at any time, you know, if you've taken it seriously and you've integrated it into your life properly, you remember at any time the vastness of that and the larger scope. And so almost instantly, you know, it's not like I don't feel doubts or I don't feel you know, negative emotions because certainly I do, but it's like within a matter of seconds after feeling it, I recognize, well, hey, you know, let's look at the bigger picture here.

Be patient, calm down, you know, you know what you can do to get out of this or at least make your body feel different, you know, because I practice yoga, I go on runs quite a bit. Yeah. So the whole thing that's just I feel like is like constricting me internally, like I realize that there's many different aspects of techniques you can use to get out of that. But you know, going on a nice run, if it's a day suited for it, it helps, you know, so I would say getting into the body, having patients with yourself, practicing your own type of self, self love and self gentleness, I would say is definitely key meditation as well, breath work, you know, because it's all in the mind.

It's all these mental projections. It's all fear and it's not real ultimately. It's all what if it's all just like stories, right? Yeah, it's all the computer of our mind just making up things. And once you have, you know, come to realize that after so many times of you realizing that whatever you were afraid of, it never happened anyway. So why were you afraid of that? Isn't that weird that like it's, it's both weird that that is usually the case and that we forget it like almost every time like it's just learn from it, you know, pay attention to the cycles of your mind become a mindful person if it's, you know, in your path.

And I would hope it was in everyone's path, but it's not and I think that sometimes even people that aren't that mindful can be successful, so to speak, and even be happy. Absolutely. And I think, yeah, I mean, it's a very interesting thing and trying to understand how other people process, you know, being mindful or happy or what they're bringing into the world is always a slippery slope because even the best of us who are great at shifting our perspectives to kind of empathize or experience or view the world from someone else, we always miss critical details usually, like we're not 100% telepathic or claircentian or clairvoyant.

So I mean, I get that mean dude, like I love your suggestion of running and getting into the body because if you're a heady type of person, like I am, and you've had these, you know, crazy experiences that are mind based, the body can be overlooked. Like one of my favorite philosophers is Socrates, right? This is, I think he's a fucking one of the best Plato's teacher, but Socrates hated the body. He thought it was like some useless fucking organic mechanism that was like getting in the way of actual like understanding what the world is. There might be a kernel of truth to that, but the fact is we're in bodies.

So we might as well use them as tools to physiologically and neurologically aid us in what we're trying to do and experience the world. And I can tell you, I got a Fitbit in March of this year. And I am also a mentally disturbed person who is ultra competitive. So all of like, I have to be number one on my weekly steps. Like it's a real sickness is not healthy, but it's gotten me, it's shown me, especially this year. And I have an exercise since high school. It's shown me the importance of just how moving your body, getting the blood going, getting the breath going can just shift your mental state as much as anything else.

And it's so easy to overlook that when we talk about, you know, especially when you start getting into the psychedelic realms, like I don't, I mean, I'm sure people do this. Maybe you have, I don't know anyone who said this, but I've never met someone who like takes a bunch of psychedelics and it's like, I'm going to go for a long run. It's not something that you intuitively would probably gravitate towards because it's such an overwhelming psychological state, but I bet it's a fucking awesome thing to do. I think you just met someone. Yeah. I knew it. I totally done that type of stuff and it's, it's amazing.

It makes you feel like the timeless human. And you feel like the archetype, I don't know, you know, like you're running through a field of grass and you say, what a timeless experience this is how they did it thousands of years ago. Right. Right. Same with breathwork, you know, a lot of times, and I, and I don't do psychedelics as much these days as I have in the past. Right. Neither do I. Right. Yeah. It's, it's ingrained now. And, you know, every now and then you got to go recharge your battery, but it's, it's not that exploratory, like, experience that at once was, and maybe I will have another string of months of, yo, let's explore the deepest death and, you know, and, and the cosmos.

But, you know, right now I'm, I'm feeling, you know, relatively centered and understanding on what my path is and everything. So, you know, I feel good, but a lot of times what my journeys would be, would be, would have to do with either, uh, mountain biking to what I saw as like my mini spiritual pilgrimage, you know, on this trip, uh, even though it's only five miles away, um, uh, you know, bike to the spot, meditated the spot, do breath work at this spot. And, um, the, the actual act of breath work bringing lots of oxygen into the brain, you know, I'm sure maybe you've heard of polytropic breath work.

Um, these types of things, uh, can drastically change the psychedelic experience to something very powerful, very sacred, very holy feeling because it just activates those parts of the brain that, that are active when meditation happens and when you have a meditative state, uh, going on in your brain while you're on psychedelics too, you really tap into the spiritual aspect because I think people can have psychedelic experiences, but, but not really pierced through that spiritual aspect. That's right. They can still trip out and say, whoa, that branch just turned into a rabbit or something. And that was tripping cool, but they don't quite, uh, have that altered state experiences that, that helps them transcend the ego.

Um, so being in the body, I feel, uh, and what psychedelics have helped me realize it is in a way, the body is the physical manifestation of the mind. And I would say the whole universe is a physical manifestation of a mind, a larger mind, it's right. But our body is controlled by our mind. If our learn for health, it's probably because our mind isn't for health because it's, we're not, you know, being conscious enough to even think about what we're eating, what we're putting into our body. Um, or the fact that we need to flush the system out sometimes, you need to use it because if you don't use it, you might lose it or whatever.

Yeah. Yeah. And those types of things like, you know, if you think about your body as a manifestation of your mind, like you're choosing what you're eating. If you're eating water burger seven days a week, you're going to be in poor health and that's going to reflect on your mind. That's right. It's going to change, you know, the way you're living to a cleaner lifestyle, a more holistic and, uh, you know, um, uh, what sort of, yeah, a more holistic lifestyle, you know, you're taking your health into account because it's not all about the health of the body or the health of the mind, but it's, it's about both and then those two together create like spiritual wellness as well.

Yeah. And I mean, that's where, you know, when a lot of people think about yoga these days, they think of the asanas and the poses, but there's, this is directly connected to the thinking and psychological and spiritual aspects of what yoga is doing too. That's why it's connected to the breath, the body and the mind. What you're saying is, is totally spot on. Um, and I mean, I'll even underscore the point, I had like, uh, a, a nerve issue or something like a couple of years ago and I couldn't figure out what it was. Went to the doctor and they're like, Hey, you know, it's a herniated disc. Like some, some steroids and some Valium.

I never really want to talk. You talk it. So I did this. Nothing got better. Nothing got better. Three people within the span of like three days recommended this book by this guy, Dr. Sarno, who's essentially like, um, you know, his whole thing is he was a clinician. He studied like 10,000 people, uh, you know, patients and he essentially identified what he views as an unconscious process by which the mind creates physical pain in the body to process emotional pain that's not dealt with. And this is why, and he is a whole, it's fascinating stuff. I mean, there's a whole exposition on back in the day and like the 40s and 50s.

People didn't really have lower back pain or neck issues, but they had ulcers. Then as soon as the 70s and 80s rolled around, ulcers have kind of vanished and now was all of a sudden back pain. So he has all these very interesting, you know, theories, but also as a clinician, he did this with people. So the broad point is is that it was unconscious and I'm, I'm more of a Jungian. I'm a big Carl Jung fan, not a huge Freud guy, but this guy's stuff is based on Freud's unconscious mechanisms. And you know, I did his stuff is basically just acknowledging what could be going on and lo and behold, two, three days of doing this, the pain started moving around my body and then it was gone.

Right. It still comes back once. It was amazing. The reason I bring it up is one of his broader theories was is that he believes all, all conditions, and this is not close to being validated, but all conditions, immune conditions, like cancer, all of these things are actually their basis is within the mind and that this is some interaction of some emotion or psychological disturbance that is being processed through the body in that way. And I think we're probably not in our lifetimes going to be able to validate that. But in my mind, having experienced the profound effects of just with a pain sensation, that to me is accurate.

And I think what that means is, well, that's pretty fucking cool, of course, but it behooves us to understand that connection and kind of nurture and cultivate both a mental outlook, a spiritual outlook, and a physical outlook on how we want to be healthy in our lives because then like people want to know like when they hear about like magical things or synchronicities, like when I talk about like when I had a trip and it lasted three months and my whole life was one giant synchronicity, I know people hear that and they're like, I want to have that happen. And I think there are lots of ways to kind of promote those experiences.

And one of them is just taking account of what you're doing with yourself. That means the way you're thinking, what you're putting into your body, the way you're treating other people, your world outlook, your spiritual outlook. And if you could just take stock of what's going on as kind of like a mindfulness practice just in that way, like a very overt intellectual one, you could potentially gain insights that are going to radically alter not only your internal life, but your external life. And that's, you know, I think if there was a common thread for what you've been talking about like with time wheel and just your life and how psychedelics is that you kind of tapped and tuned into that in that one transcendental experience your first time.

And that kind of served as a blueprint for how to kind of lead the next chapters of your life. So yeah, yeah, man, that's I agree, that's totally what happened. I do think that there are these channels within our bodies and it's not like I have necessarily discovered them for myself and every facet that they exist. But you know, I've certainly read about things like the chakras, the merdians, the nadis. Yeah, sure. Yeah, the nadis, all these types of things that I do feel on when I'm in an altered state, I can feel an energy, a very subtle energy, absolutely, an energy nonetheless. And I, and I do feel like there is a lot of weight to it because there are so many things going on around us at any given time that we just don't see and we're not able to process because it's not vital to our survival.

That's right. That we really don't know anything, you know, it's a small sliver. Yeah, we're seeing like, I'd say, you know, five percent or less. I'd say way less than five percent, like, right. So, you know, the fact that we don't, we're not able to see, like, let's say even this auric energy field around us and I don't mean to get too new age on us on you guys because I'm not a huge new age person, but I do think that they tap into some ancient wisdom that does have a lot of, I don't know, validity to it once you enter altered state experiences, you know? Well, the meditation even, it takes a long time to quiet the mind to the point where you can have an understanding the way psychedelics are you to glimpse.

But it's certainly possible. You know, I meditated one time for probably six, six or six and a half hours, which was the longest I've ever done. And probably for four days after that, I was in an altered state experience, which I loved and it's pretty surprising that I haven't meditated for that long again since because it's probably been one or two years since that six hour meditation and I still meditate daily, but it's generally 10 to 30 or 40 minutes, you know, but six hours of investing and sitting down with your eyes closed for days, letting your mind be compressed, you know, okay, can I have some powerful results?

Well, it's interesting. This is getting back to the oscillations that we experience as humans because you, I mean, it's wonderful you have a daily meditation practice. I've maintained one on and off for maybe like a month or two months at times, but I'm inundated with this stuff. I work in this field. A lot of my clients and have been, you know, leading meditation teachers and just like huge luminaries in the field. I don't meditate every day. I have my practice. I do the Hanuman Chilisa, I chanted so I adhered to something, but it's not because I don't know the benefits and reasons to be meditating, but it's easy to kind of fall into a trap where the things that you know are good for you that you don't do.

Investigating the reasons behind that, I think is probably the antidote to that, but I mean, when I find it fascinating when we have these incredibly transcendent experiences that we know are powerful and we don't replicate them, not because, you know, we just want to get that feeling again, but because we know it's beneficial. There's some tension or resistance there that ultimately I think is there to promote some type of insight or change that's consciously integrated in because if we just naturally did it, it might not be processed in the way that's really going to be beneficial. And I always want to say I also hear you with, hold on one second, what is that?

I'm hearing a truck, but that's, I think it's outside my window. No, it's like Siri just came on, on my phone, so weird, hold on, let me go get Siri. She wants the chime in. She wants the fan psychedelics. Oh man, that was super weird. Just Siri came on and started asking about movies. It's like, I don't know why that happened. I have revolution as- Yeah, yeah, this is the beginning we've heard of here first, this guy Ned is coming. So I mean, I wanted to shift gears a little bit and go back to the music stuff because I, like I said, this is, that's where my original passion is, as much as I've tried to play the game of, I'm going to be, you know, making money as a digital consultant and, you know, a web strategist, which I've made money in, I've built a career and I'm good at it.

I can't shake this music bug, right? I continue to make it, I continue to do it, I continue to connect with people. So I'd love to just kind of come full circle here and ask, you know, what are some of your musical influences? What kind of music do you like or enjoy making? It's totally okay to be eclectic and not get pinned down in any area. I'm just curious as to your musical tastes and proclivities. The grind mentality represented in hip hop really resonated with me because I feel like a lot of people listen to hip hop, it's the new pop in a way. But not everyone grinds like the way that these hip hop artists talk about grinding.

Right, right. As far as, you know, they often talk about, you know, like achieving their dreams and doing things that they, like, they would only have thought about before and now it's their reality. And I would always listen to that and say, wow, these guys are practicing like a form of magic. Yes. Yes. I know. You know, five years ago they put out, you know, an EP or a mixtape and then five years later it looked where they are and it's like they called it. So I don't know. I started to really respect rap music, especially after these experiences of just opening my mind and really absorbing the positive things and, and then as well.

I know a lot of rap songs have really like negative kind of messages as well. I love that you touch on this man because I also like I, for a lot of reasons, I, I've listened to hip hop over the years, but I also, you know, I've had people in my life who are from, you know, like the one I was living in New York, like my roommate was from the Bronx and a lot of people from very like shitty areas in New York City. And they love, you know, hip hop music is a huge part of their lives, you know, especially trap music and all this stuff. And of course, so many of these songs are talking about drugs and selling drugs and misogynistic things and shooting people and killing people.

But when you're able to pull out the essence of what is actually being communicated and why you could still appreciate it, that's such a fucking skill in life. I mean, it's no surprise you like so many different types of music because you fucking get it. You can get tune into the, the energy that's being communicated and kind of drop the, the words and drama around it. I totally get it. Man, that's awesome. Yeah. You know, a lot of my time has spent listening to electronic music, alternative rock, progressive rock, you know, hip hop, pretty much, pretty much everything. Even some Eastern music, you know, I do a lot of yoga and meditation to really Eastern sounding things that couldn't really give you artist names per se, just go to YouTube and type in like, you know, I feel you, but I appreciate even that type of music, just really laid back flutes and, you know, I like, I like all kinds of music.

I think that it's, honestly, it's a good thing because I'm able to, I feel like we're kind of trying to push the boundaries for at least locally or in Texas, like what labels have done before and that I want to intertwine rap artists with, you know, progressive rock artists and metal artists and stuff and in a positive way. And that's what we've, you know, I've been trying to do actually, we've put out, like, I think one rap artist so far and we are about to put out two more, so stay tuned for that. It's going to be fun. That's really awesome, man. I, and I, I'm telling you, I'm calling my shot in advance, I'm going to send you some music, I think you really enjoy, because I think your taste would do it.

All right, man. So I want to ask you the ending questions that I ask every guest, three relatively quick ones and then a more meaningful one. Oh, no, they're all very meaningful. I'm not going to shit on the three questions. They're great. What's your favorite color? Growing up, I would have always said red. Now I say black. A lot of people don't really think black is a color, though. It is. It's all colors, isn't it? I think so. Where's the absence of color? Yes. The absence of color might be black, from what I've heard from some people, you know. Maybe it's white. Who knows? I'm very drawn to black.

If it had to be anything other than black, I would say red. Okay. Good to know. I'd like, both of those are excellent colors. What is your favorite number? Um, I guess a lot of it. Oh, very cool. Yeah. Interesting, syncretistic experiences with a lot of that. I'm sure a lot of people have. Yes. Yes, of course. Have you touched on that on your podcast? I love my life because it happens a lot. I haven't touched on it. It's something that does happen a lot. I find it to be incredibly meaningful. One of my secret reasons for asking all of these questions, you know, I was like, this will probably be like in the sixties of the episodes here.

When I get to like a hundred to hundred, I think the database of people's numbers and animals, which is the next question, and colors is going to be something that's a little interesting. But yeah, I mean, I would love to, hey, man, like, first of all, before we get to the next few questions, I would love to have you on again where I plan on staying in touch with you. I consider your new friend. Dude, this is like, it's really been a pleasure getting to know you and we can talk about synchronicities relating to numbers. It's one of my favorite topics. Sure. Yeah. Numbers are archetypes. Maroo Louise von Franz considered numbers to potentially be the primordial archetypes, be meaning the basis of all others.

Okay. But enough of that. What is your favorite animal? A wolf. Cool, man. Yeah. That's really cool. Yeah, boys. The podcast, it'll already be out when people are hearing this, but I'm having, I'm releasing Simon Haiduk today, and the picture I chose for his episode is that cool wolf. Oh, right. Oh, it's so rad. That's so cool. Cool. All right. And the last question here, what is a practical tip that you could share with listeners that has helped you in your life? I would say, love yourself. I mean, you don't have to say anything else, man. That's perfect. That's perfect. Dude, thank you so much for coming on.

I'm really happy we got to connect and we're going to do it again. Oh, yeah, dude. Thank you. It's been awesome. It's been awesome. I'm really happy we got to connect and we're going to do it again. I'm really happy we got to connect and we're going to do it again. I'm really happy we got to connect and we're going to do it again. I'm really happy we got to connect and we're going to do it again. I'm really happy we got to connect and we're going to do it again. Thank you for listening to that show, I thought it was pretty good. How about you? Yeah, don't know why I did that. Sometimes my phone gets in front of my face and I just lose all semblance of how to act as a person.

I hope you enjoyed that episode, Matt, totally cool guy. We're going to have him back on relatively soon because we have some other stuff to talk about relating to numbers, archetypes you heard in the end of the episode there. Really great guy. Again, thank you to everyone who has listened, rated, reviewed, donated, all of those things. Check out other cool stuff at syncpodcast.com. Also check out, if you're listening at this point in the episode, mindpodnetwork.com gave it a little facelift last week. There's a new version of the site. Go check it out. Go check out some of the other podcasts on there.

I am a guest on Zach Leary's podcast. It's all happening. It should be out in a couple of days. Give that one a listen, give some other ones a listen and yeah, that's it. I'll see you guys next week, bye-bye. Lincoln Tech provides career training that keeps America working. At Lincoln's Maawai campus, you don't just sit in the classroom. You train in fully equipped labs, work with industry leading technology and learn the skills that hiring managers are looking for. With personalized support and connections to top employers, your future in fields like advanced manufacturing with robotics, automotive, electrical, HVAC and welding starts the day you enroll.

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