The Return of Jack Carroll Returns

(upbeat music) (upbeat music)

This is synchronicity. This is synchronicity.

This is synchronicity.

This is synchronicity.

This is synchronicity.

This is synchronicity.

This is synchronicity. (upbeat music)

Welcome to synchronicity. My guest this week features the return, the return, the return of Jack Carroll. So many returns, 'cause he was just on like a month ago. He's been on a couple times before that. I love Jack. He is one of the most inquisitive, curious, interesting, interested people. I know he hit me up, slid into my DMs, like, yo, let's do another podcast, man. It's like, all right, let's do it, let's do it. So we did it. We talk about a whole lot of stuff here. Nihilism, sports, spirituality, politics, polarization, how to live a meaningful life, how not to get freaked out by your own mind?

Lots of cool stuff in here. So if you're into that, I think you're gonna enjoy it. Gonna get to some business I've been teasing it for the past couple of weeks. New sponsor alert, can I get a drum roll? Yeah. New sponsors, Ned, full spectrum CBD oil, hemp oil, they call it 'cause of legal reasons, but there's CBD in there, not psychoactive, but it is CBD. Okay, let's get something out of the way right at the top. I firmly believe, after doing my research and a lot of other readings, it's just like, you know how much I love cannabis? You know how much I love weed? I think that 99.5% of CBD companies and products out there are total fucking bullshit.

I just wanna be very clear about that. I think extracts and isolates and all of these things that they're doing for the most part, total fucking bullshit, it's a scamo, it's a money grab. People don't respect the plant, they don't honor the plant, they don't love the plant, and that chaps my ass. That's what it does. But, I got an amazing communication from the Ned guys, the other week, a few weeks, I think it was a month ago. And they're like, listen, let's send you some stuff. You be the judge. After you try it, we'll set up a meeting and see if you wanna do something. So it's like, all right, all right, well, CBD.

Yeah, I gotta, sure, all right, I guess. It's fucking awesome. And not just the product, I take their full spectrum, hemp oil, I use their chapstick, their infused CBD chapstick, and the body butter. I really use the oil as my main product. So if I'm recommending something, that's what it is. But, let me say something else about the actual organization company, Ned, right? I had a long conversation with these guys. It's like 45 minutes, a few weeks ago, trying to get like a sense of where they're coming from. I am very cautious and kind of guarded about people entering the cannabis industry. I think there's a lot of, not people don't honor the plants.

They don't honor the spirit of what these plants can do. And I don't like that. I was blown away by my conversation with these guys, truly. I can safely say that if they weren't sponsoring this show, I'd still use the products, and I would still talk about them fondly. Because you'll hear, I'm having them on in a coming episode, but man, their story is really cool. It started with, you know, one of the founders, mother had cancer, and they were kind of disillusioned with the medical industry and their approach, and CBD kept getting mentioned. And from there, started this journey of them discovering really the medicinal qualities of cannabis, and what this can do for people in terms of alleviating a lot of medical issues that people have.

So that's what I like to see. You know, if you're starting a company 'cause you think it's a hot, cool, trendy thing, and you can make some money, that's great. You can do that, but you're not gonna be a sponsor of this show. If you make a high quality, organically sourced, sustainable sourced, people who give a shit about the plant, they're playing binaural beats to their plants, right? Who does that? They're taking top shelf ingredients that affect their bottom line. Negatively, they're paying more money to get a higher quality product. They wanna be the best in the business, and I respect that.

So, here's the offer. I'm speaking from the heart here. I'm truly happy these people are sponsoring my show, and I really encourage you to try it and check this stuff out. So go to hellomed.com/sync, S-Y-N-C. You can also go to hellomed.com/synchrenicity, but sync and synchrenicity will both work. If you go there, you get 15% off your first order. Now, in addition to that, there are links all over MindPod Network all over. There'll be a pop up on MindPod Network. New site, by the way. Did you see it dropped a new site? Read it the whole thing. It's kinda nice, I'm proud of it. Sync podcast, there will be things in the show notes.

Click the links, tap the links, do whatever you gotta do. Check this stuff out. Again, I use the full spectrum hemp oil. It's phenomenal. If you're a smoker, like me, a weed, and you can tell you like the high sativa, kind of mind-springing crazy shit, try a little CBD oil before you partake and see how that affects you. I found it to kind of clear away a lot of the debris that can kind of get shuffled in with other subconscious material as you're smoking or enjoying cannabis. And it's phenomenal. I really, really, really like these guys. I really like their product. Please support them. If you're supporting the show by supporting them, this is what we like, a win-win.

Once again, it is helloned.com/sync or slash synchronicity, whatever you wanna do. And just thrilled to have these guys on board. Like I said, they will be coming up on a future episode. They didn't, this is not part of the sponsorship. I was just really taken with their approach in these guys in general, and I think you will too when you hear from them next week or the week after. I don't know when I'm gonna release it. So that's it. And that's all we got. That's the sponsorship for this week. What else is going on? Rate and review the show, please. I've made it easier to do. On mindpodnetwork.com, you can find all of your podcasters.

You click on their little picture. There's a little link to iTunes or wherever else. Click that, rate and review the show. It helps with visibility. If you like the show, if you think other people would like the show, that's what you should do, because then it prospers and gets out there in the universe. And I don't know. Yadda, yadda, yadda, rate and review. Yadda. Okay, that's it. How about we get right to the episode with Jack. This one's a good one. I love Jack. Go check him out. Twitter, Facebook, wherever he is. You know what to do. New film, eaten by Alliance. In the UK, it'll be out. Other places, I am sure soon enough.

That's it. Let's get to the episode. Without further ado, here is Jack Carol. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) Yeah, man. Well, I know we're just talking about sports, which is for our own benefit. I listen, here's the thing with sports. I consider sports to be one of my greatest spiritual teachers of my, I would say, 10 years and like up until like my late 20s. Because my emotional attachment to something I had no control over was ridiculous. Like it just absolutely insane psychotic behavior for something that at the end of the day, my input literally couldn't be more worthless to the people making decisions.

And I think over the years, I kind of use it as like a mindfulness thing to recognize how ridiculous I was being to the point now where like you were talking about how your team just lost in the playoffs. But wait, were you saying your team was bad before that? Yeah, it's like, well, it's important to context how bad they were at the beginning of the start of the season, two seasons ago, they had a priest come to bless the picture. They thought we might be cursed. So. (laughing) That's pretty bad. That's not good. Yeah, that should tell you all you need to know about the-- What team do you support?

Lead you like it. Lead, sorry, all right. Yeah. I know, you know, I know nothing about what you refer to as football and I call soccer. I am-- I know, well, that makes two of us in regards to the NFL as well. We're very similar in that regard. We each love our own football and give not two shits of you. (laughing) That's cool. Yeah, that's cool. I can still relate. That's why coaches can't coexist. That's exactly right. (laughing) No, but I do get how bad that is. Yeah, my context for the Dolphins is they've often been that bad, that truly terrible, but they've also been kind of this very soul crushing mediocre for like two decades at this point.

So it's like you can't progress or regress far enough to be good. And it's just like, it's been a real lesson in how stupid I am for loving this. However, I haven't been able to shed it, man. And the NFL is like, at least, you know, at least with soccer, like, it's not bad for them, you know, like when they play it, it's great for them. They're making lots of money. They're running around, they're fit. Everything is great. Like, you know, in American football, they're like destroying their bodies. It's like a terrible pay system. It's horrible. So at least yours is a little more over the top. But I can't even quit the one I know is stupid.

So, yeah.

Yeah, I suppose the British soccer is like morally questionable, as opposed to physically questionable.

Yeah, right. Which I mean, is probably better because American football is both, right? It's both bad things. (laughs)

Yeah, I've got a routine in my standard for better. That's why, that's why you guys get so many of my shootings, though, is 'cause you don't have a proper soccer league. (laughs) 'Cause you need, the basic sort of thrust of the routine is that you need a place you can go to exercise all the horrendous bits of human evolution.

Wow.

And it's that, I think a bit like music festivals and people going to take loads of drugs, it upholds the status quo rather than, you know, destroys it in any way.

Well, this is an age-old hippie sonar conversation I used to get with my early college roommate where he would call sports the opioid of the masses. And I was like, oh man, like, that's true, but also like, what a dick thing to say. Like, it's also, there is value, I feel like, in a lot of these kind of cathartic, you know, giving up the control that you might have or believe you have in your personal life to another entity, you know what I mean? To like something you believe in that, and also like, you can choose it with sports, too. It's not necessarily, like, I'm a Dolphins fan, they're in Miami, I've never, I've been to Miami like twice.

Like, I'm not geolocation dependent at Dolphins fans 'cause I like the players, which I think is really cool. And like, it is a bit weird now, though, because like, we have so much more insight and access to the individual athletes and like the goings-ons of the leagues and stuff. So it's like, now we're in this like hyper, it's almost kind of like, you know, like bachelorette and the bachelor for guys who are in the sports. It's like so drama-filled, like the things I hear myself telling my wife about like the league, it's like, this is gossip, like I'm talking about gossip. It's like crazy.

Yeah, well, that's the thing of like, is that Marxist thing of, if you give the people bread and circuities, then they'll never, you know, rise up to the full potential. But the thing is, like, bread is delicious and circuities are fun and engaged with those two things.

Bread is really, really good. I got to say, I mean, like that.

But it's basically, 'cause I've been thinking a lot about nihilism recently and sort of, you know, what's the inherent meaning of things. It's like, that last night, just sure, my, I can philosophize all I want about things. But it's like my, you can't argue with the physical sort of actions of the heart, really, can you? Because my heart was going and my adrenaline was going crazy. And I was like, there's inherent meaning and value to this. 'Cause it's sort of, I think that's the thing with that I've learnt recently, is that it's behind the locale of intellectual pursuit.

Yes.

You know, there's something else going on.

Yes. This is something that I think comes up more and more in regular conversations I have with a lot of people, just because I think we're in the waning days of the intellect being regarded as the ultimate arbiter of truth and reality. And I think that is both terrifying and liberating, depending on the context, and that can change, you know, minute to minute. So it's not like you're picking a stance and you stay there forever, but when that, something like that happens, you know, you have to be pretty open-minded about how you wanna, you know, engage with perspectives. And, you know, the intellect is just one way, right?

You mean, no, there's intuitive faculties. We know there's the visceral feeling when you're watching something exciting or identifying with something and they do well, and you get, feel it in your body. There's some underlying principle there. As it relates to nihilism, I mean, yeah, I mean, I get exactly what you're talking about. I could also see how it reinforces, depending on how bad your team is, the sense of hopelessness, which I can...

Well, that's one of the journalists for the team put out a tweet this morning, which was, the lesson here is don't love anything 'cause it'll always disappoint you in the end. Anyway, on the bright side, we'll be dead soon.

Right, exactly. It's like a very...

Which I thought for a sports journalist to put something like that out, just showed you what kind of a team they denied, but it's to be honest.

I mean, dude, I love how bad they are because I can relate to that because I have not... And let's be clear, I don't know, it's probably, I think it's like this in your league, it's like there's like a few really consistently good teams and then there's everyone else and that's kind of what it's been in our leagues for a long time and that's not a high percentage hit rate if you're a fan of the sport, and you have to like one of those teams, so yeah. Don't they kick people out of your league though? I think that's one of my favorite things about the English soccer league.

Yeah, but it goes down to sort of those four divisions. So we're in the division below the top division.

Gotcha.

So we were aiming to get into the top division through a playoff system. The top six teams, apart from the top three teams, play each other to get the third promotion.

I see, I see.

Which, you know, heightens the pain of any eventual, especially since we were in top of the league for months on end.

Yeah.

But I do, I think that sort of, you know, back to the Opium and the nastiest thing and general nihilism and all that sort of thing, they remind, those sort of people remind me a little bit of, 'cause like you said, I think you said to me a while ago, if you go quite deep into nihilism, you'll be less afraid of it. And reading it, it does seem a little bit like, you know, when you're in sort of third grade and a kid will, a kid finds out that something causes in real and then goes around telling all the other kids.

Yes.

And I sort of just go, I get that feeling. I get that, there's sort of the intellectual equivalent of that and it didn't seem very imaginative, you know.

Well, and it also, I mean, in that, analogy, we know Santa, you know, is not a guy who's going around and dropping off gifts. Nihilism, you know, basically, staking out the point that everything is meaningless and there's no inherent meaning is a pretty bold claim. And I think one of the things that kind of relates to the intellectual or analytical mind kind of, it's total grasp waning is that a lot more people are getting more into that intuitive aspect of themselves and recognizing the value there. And I think that once you really start to trust that and build kind of like foundational strength in it, then you have, you know, a tricky word in Western culture, but you start building some faith up that this is real, that you don't have to question it.

And then when someone brings up like a nihilistic standpoint, you can recognize that that's their perspective. You can know that you've investigated it and either believe that it's an open question or it doesn't resonate with you personally. And if it does resonate, I mean, I think pursuing it to, you know, and weighing it against as many different viewpoints would be like a pretty fun pursuit. Paradoxically, could provide some meaning to one's life. Who's a nihilist, you know what I mean? I mean, I get it though is basically what I'm saying. Like I've seen myself and a lot of other people go through the stages of kind of, you know, breaking the shackles of even the desire to understand the mystery of life.

Do you know what I mean? Like there's always things that will be revealed to you, but you're never gonna know it all. Like and if that isn't plain, then you're just always gonna kind of be frustrated in your pursuit, like the theory of everything. It's just not gonna happen, like you can't. We know that basically. But if you can kind of just let that go and ride with it, like you'll, there's endlessly fascinating things about where we find ourselves in relation to consciousness and other people and just kind of the world at large. So to me, that's like the antidote to nihilism. But I get if someone is coming from that perspective too, like it's valid, if that's what they feel like.

I think it also relies on just as much guesswork as optimism does, you know?

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I'd argue more just because not that feeling good should be like the thing that determines whether something is worthy. That's a whole other discussion. But like feeling bleak and hopeless and there's no meaning. Like if it doesn't provide comfort for you, that's like, that's not a great thing. Like that's not something that's gonna be helpful to you, probably to the people around you. Whereas if you're not necessarily even optimistic, but, you know, believe in being compassionate and generous and helpful and kind, like that's probably going to make your life in the people's lives around you better, which is to me like, yeah, even if you think there's no meaning to that, it's just like a smoother ride at the very least, you know what I mean?

Absolutely, yeah, absolutely. And that's the thing. That again, we're back to the idea of, you know, intellectual concerns versus actually getting on in the world.

Right, and, you know, I think it's, it's that thing of like, you know, you, I think you look around at certain levels of suffering and you go, well, actually, it's anything I'm going through comparable. And oftentimes it's not. So you may as well just, even if that is the perspective, I just want to say those sort of people, why would you not get on and try and do your best?

Yeah, I mean, it's true. It's a dangerous game though that I have found, I don't have a huge problem with this luckily. I have experienced it, but I know that other people I know and care about have this issue where they compare themselves to suffering elsewhere or other people or blah, blah, blah, blah, any comparing of yourself or your identity or your persona, any relationship you have to pain or trauma or whatever. Like that, that rarely will lead to a better place if you're already not feeling well and you're not experienced with how to deal with that. So that's something that like, it's not that you avoid it.

I mean, I think a healthy comparison and, you know, analyzing your relationship and looking at your relationships is great. But if it's just this, you know, oh, well, there's people who have like no legs and arms and like they are just like torso people and like, how am I to care? It's like, you know, you can go down that road forever. You know, there's the kid who's starving and, you know, Ethiopia, it's just like, it's an endless game. To me, it's like, well, what I'm, I recognize that I've been given relatively speaking an enormous amount of privilege in this world. My thinking is, it's just like, all right, let me just not fuck this up, right?

And it doesn't mean you have to like, run and start a charity and give all your money away and start getting activated. Like, that's great if you can do that. Like, but just, just don't fuck it up. Don't be an asshole. Don't, yeah, yeah.

That's, it's AJ Sopranos, season six, story arc, isn't it? (laughing) So he's watching like the war in Afghanistan. And then he's, yeah, and then by the end of the series, he's driving off in the BMW, thinking that's so bad. (laughing) And I think, I think that is, it's just a way of explaining things, like everything's a way of it. So that's why I like Robert Hunter Wilton.

Yeah.

So it's like everything, you know, that the, to borrow a phrase from NLP, it's, the map is not the territory.

Yes.

And, you know, you can make a better map, I think. But a lot of people, I think it's a, you know, it's a very, we all have certain defense mechanisms, even intellectually, that sort of keep us on a, on a even, even footing. And I think a lot of that sort of pessimistic nihilism is probably an attempt to, philosophically, to explain what's going on.

Yeah, yeah.

Biochemically with the person that's, you know, come up with the theory.

It's an easier world to understand if we stake out the stance that everything is physiological or biochemical, you know, or just kind of an A, B to C to D. This is how stuff works.

Yeah.

The problem with that is all of the evidence that we continue to uncover indicates that's not even, it's like less and less true. And I don't even mean from like a metaphysical sense. I mean, like, we're now discovering stuff about like the gut biome, you know what I mean? Like that the bacteria in our guts of which were made up of like trillions and trillions of bacteria, like that influences our brain almost as much as anything. So it's like who to make this assumption that, oh, well, this is what the brain does and this is how things work and there's no this and that it discounts a tremendous amount of history and kind of cumulative human interest in work and all of the anecdotal evidence, which just because it's anecdotal doesn't mean it's completely invalid of like people experiencing really crazy weird shit that like throws that into complete questions.

So it's, to me, it's like, it's very hubristic. I mean, I guess you could say it's hubrist to say like, yeah, I believe in God or I believe in, you know, some deep hidden unity and other dimensions, you know, the reason I believe those things is I try to examine these as critically as possible, but there's also just the level of like, I've seen so many weird things, you know, with other people by myself, I've explored a lot of things. It's like, there's some things you're just not going to convince me of otherwise and it's not hurting me to believe those things are anyone else, you know? It's not a health and safety issue.

It's just like, yeah, I believe in some weird shit.

Yeah, and I think that that's, you know, like you were saying, it's difficult to quantify a thing that takes place behind intellectual pursuits. Like you can't, you know, how do you quantify that thing when it's based off feeling an intuition and all that sort of thing?

It's a different hemisphere. I mean, it's a different part of your brain that is engaged there. You can make those bridges, right? But it's different.

Yeah, I mean, not to speculate too much because obviously it's an enormous question and it probably does, but what's your, so what's your version of God, man?

Yeah, that's a fun question. So I think of things typically in an archetypal sense, which is just I feel like a pretty good template to view things. And also it's like a pretty good reality hedge. Like you can pass it off as like, oh, this is just consciousness and none of these things are actual realities that exist. But also it could be like, oh no, these are actual places. It's kind of like the Buddhist way of like talking about the Bardo states and like hungry ghosts. Like if that's too woo for you, then you can think of them as emotional and psychological states. But if you're like really digging down here, like no, they believe this actually exists and this is a real dimension one can enter as well as psychological state.

So yeah, man, I think, what was the question again? I forgot to sidetrack.

So what, yeah, we got deep into it.

God, God, God, right, God.

Yeah, your version of God.

So I think what we refer to as God kind of collectively and through the various religious and philosophical questions is essentially like a creative artistic interpretation of a particular energy, right? And I think that energy, again, to put it into words, you're diluting something that can't really be put into words and people would have had this experience know what I'm talking about not to be purposely vague, but you can come relatively close, you know, depending on the language, you know, maybe German could get closer. They have more words for things. But, you know, unconditional love, not in a naive sense, there's a strength and wisdom to the support that you can come into contact with.

I do believe that we get avatars and vehicles and vessels for this type of love. I think everyone is that essentially, but I think sometimes you do get like a Jesus Christ. You do get a Buddha, you do get, you know, someone who knows fit dimensional space beings who are tapped into that, whatever it is, I think those things exist along with what we perceive with our five senses in our reality. And I think we also are a kind of multi-dimensional beings ourselves, but we're only aware of kind of one aspect of that. And that's kind of the fun, I think, of incarnating on earth and in a human form. It's like it's kind of a game that we play with ourselves where we forget this connection and like we want to teach ourselves some things for God knows why.

But I think that it's just kind of an energy. And I think for the most part, I believe that when people are talking about their particular version of God, Allah, you know, God, you know, in Yahweh, whatever it is, non-gods like Buddha and latent people, I think they're kind of tapping into a similar energy. That's my hunch on what God is. And I think it's kind of like a mycelial web, right? Kind of like connections that create this oneness rather than like a big dude in the sky with a beard. That doesn't work.

I think that that's probably right. 'Cause I like, I think, yeah, that would be my idea.

You just did owe to me?

Yeah, I did, I did in the, on the nature of God. Save me a panacea, there's no point I can just get a.

Yeah, imagine that that's great with deep philosophical conversation going on throughout history and then I've just gone, oh yeah, what are those guys, Billy? But I think it's like we could probably project it. I think some, the power of human thought has something to do with it. So we take that, that, that God energy, what would have been God? But maybe that makes Mickey Mouse real in a way as well.

Yeah, I think creativity and the expression of that and the novelty and the kind of deep truths that can emanate from that, that's absolutely God. I mean, I think that energy, that kind of supporting force, and just to be clear, I mean, like the negative aspects of reality also would be God. So I do kind of take this flip side of, you know, Old Testament wisdom into it as well, that like our perspective is very limited. We barely understand how karma works and people have been writing about this and studying this and passing it down for like at least 10,000 to 10,000 years. And like most people don't have any understanding of how karma works, myself included.

So, you know, there's a lot of mechanisms at play here that I think we wanna believe in just like a one-sided interpretation of what's good and what's bad. And God would encompass all of those things, you know? And you know, the shadow negative sides would still be a part of God as well.

Yeah, because that's Alan Watts' thing on incorporating your shadow. And it's like all humor is inherently malicious.

Yeah.

That creates a huge amount of joy for people as well.

Yeah, and I mean, it's malicious in like the people who you love and love you can joke most authentically, which is often the funniest stuff. Do you know what I mean? Because that's a reminder not to take things too seriously. If you're just, like I watched, did you see the, what was his name? The DiPaulo, Nick DiPaulo special?

I saw the post.

Holy shit. I mean, I mean, dude, I have never been a fan of his. Like, he just wasn't my type of comedy, but he never really thought that much. He just went like full, alt-right, crazy right hardcore, like just making racist jokes and just like really, but like missing the mark. It's just like pandering. And I was like, dude.

But there's a lot of money in that now, Dave.

That was the move, I think. He went direct. He went through his website on YouTube. It was, you know, big marketing plan for it. And it's just like, Jesus Christ.

There seems to be more of a tradition of that in the US for some reason. Like I don't get Andrew Dice Clay or Sam Kinnes and it all. I really don't understand it as a phenomena.

Andrew Dice Clay, I liked for a couple of years when I was younger. It was past my time. I wasn't around when he was like super current, but it's so childish. And it's so like the hickory, you know, the limerick stuff.

Yeah.

It's just so caricature-y that once you get, it's not like that's not actually who he is. And it's just kind of a bit, it's a little more funny. But then when you realize like the bit became like a meta-truth, so the fans, you know, like it's one of those interesting things. Sam Kinneson, I listen. I know comedy people who love it and were from that era. I mean, I probably see what you see, which is just like a raving lunatic screaming, which if you're on like a ton of cocaine and drinking, it's probably hilarious. But otherwise, like not cutting edge stuff. So I get it, man.

Yeah. And yeah, I just think there seems to be a lot of people sort of grasping and grappling for identity at the moment.

Yeah.

And that seems to be because the world is in a state of flux and the, I don't want to go all post modernist 'cause I do think politically and ethically, there are a certain set of truths and values that I myself try and live my life by.

Sure.

And the end of the movement are often not successfully, more often than not unsuccessfully. But, you know, I do think that there are certain things that we maybe should be, obviously, in a should thinking trap there as well. But we did certain things that are good for the benefit of humanity.

For sure.

I also then think that, you know, we are in a state of flux and everything's not as constant as it once seemed. - Yeah.

And I think then people try and either, you know, double down on certain things to reinforce their own sense of identity.

And I think that leads to a lot of discomfort for people generally. Not just the people who are kind of going through that, but like the people who are around them too because it can be very disorienting. And I mean, I've learned this about myself, especially with the kid. My biggest trigger point for getting angry, like I used to think it was being impatient, which is certainly one of them, but it's when I'm afraid. Like if I'm afraid that something is going wrong, like if my kid is sick, I am so quickly thrown off just balance for how I normally feel and just start acting really unskillfully, just like an idiot, not well.

And I think that is something that people are experiencing more and more and whatever their proxy for their fear is. So whether that's like, you know, xenophobia or, you know, immigrants or, you know, racism, whatever their choice is to be afraid of at that moment. And that goes for all of us too. Right wing people, Ben Shapiro, Jordan Peterson, whatever it is, that's your proxy for dealing with, yeah, what you're describing, which is kind of our personas and identities, humans are getting ripped away from us as a species and they have to. Just to be clear, like if this didn't happen, if this kind of, let's hope it's the exoskeleton and not just like our actual skeleton, if it didn't get ripped away, we did.

Like we're done as a species. Like this operating system is no longer compatible with our computer. Like it's not how it works. Like I was telling you, like we had to delay the recording of this because I have a late 2013 computer. Like I know, I know for a fact and then within the next two years, I cannot use this the way I use it anymore. It's not like I, oh, I can, you know, just change my behavior and then it'll be fine. It's like, nope, no longer compatible with life as a machine and that's what's going on.

Yeah, the, the, the, which I think is a weird thing about Western occultism, there's like a tradition of downloading operating systems and, you know, trying to bring a back change that way. And I think that's basically a lot of people are living, because I think because of the advent of the internet and, you know, all that sort of thing, people are living more and more in a performative culture. And I've seen it with, we're doing a lot of interview stuff for this movie. Like, we need to, I needed to make an attempt to try and locate the self within that, within that whole thing, you know? And not, not, not just go on autopilot.

And I think it is that idea of being comfortable with the fact that with, well, with my thinking that there are selves and there is, you know, there's plenty of cogent, cohesive selves, but that they are selves.

So you, you are basically questioning whether to go full Jim Carrey and your press interviews?

Yeah, I don't think, I don't think I would do that because I couldn't live with that self, but not, you know, because I think he's, I think he's, he's just like photographing himself with bunny rabbits and saying that everything's fine.

You know, he's, - And he's like, would that guy sort of go, you're not the first or cleverest person to think this stuff, so just don't.

Yeah, well, I mean, I like Jim Carrey because he talks about things that I think people probably don't hear, but I also think it's like one of those things, it's like a Kanye thing. And I really, I still enjoy Kanye's music. I'm like one of the few people left. But I, I think he just, you know, there's a certain type of person and I include myself in this, although I've learned to kind of be more quiet about it is when you find something you believe truly in your heart that you're the first person to really like find it and you need to tell everyone. And I think that's like, that's not an uncommon trait you find in people who have a lot of fame and money and attention because I think in their minds they're trying to, you know, spread deep philosophical truths, but unfortunately in a platform that was built up on anything but that, you know, like I love deep philosophical truths.

I love East Ventura Pet Detective trying to connect those two dots is probably not gonna be an endeavor that is really gonna work most of the time. So like I, I get it, man, but back to what you were saying about the identity and the persona stuff. I mean, yeah, like how, I was thinking about this for the podcast, 'cause I remember like the first few episodes and intros I used to record. It was like, I was like, who do I be? How do I say this? Like, why is, how do I make my voice? Like, how do I talk? And then after a while I was just like, oh yeah, yeah. Just like, I just had to be how I normally am in life pretty much to everyone.

Like relatively consistent of what I feel like is my earth personality, like the way I present myself to pretty much everyone else here.

Yeah.

And I, and again, I think one of the easier things about this is having that be as honest as possible warts and all and also recognizing that again, like you said, it's not as solid as we wanna think it is. So you don't have to like grasp onto an identity and a persona and say, oh, this is like a, like a angsty teenager and say, well, this is who I am world. And I, and we've spoken about this before, you know, social media and a lot of the way internet culture works, like that's exactly what we are being forced to do. I find myself doing it more and more because people are emboldened by having these kind of illusory platforms in which to voice their opinions.

Like I'm tweeting about Game of Thrones dude. Like, what's wrong with me? Like, why am I doing this? I'm to criticize it. I mean, listen, I'll tell you why, 'cause it's fucking stupid now, Jack.

Yeah, absolutely. - I ruined it. I'm sorry.

No, there's no point carrying on. I'm, I'm scared to get to see.

Where are you?

Where are you?

I'm season six or three or something. It's already job the shark, but in a major way, I think.

Well, let me say this, just so we can get where this, this podcast is a very specific audience. Has to follow us across all of these, these wars. But I'm about to finish the book. I'm like five hours left in the audio book of the last one. And I know exactly what happened dude. And my friend who had read these books before told me, he's like, yeah, it's just going to end. It's going to be anticlimactic. And the reason is, it just get, like, you know, you're like, you're supposed to be wrapping something up. You know, like, let's wrap it up, let's wrap it up. He doesn't, George, he doesn't know how to do that.

It just keeps expanding and expanding and expanding. And then the reason I think it feels so false for a lot of people at the end is, these guys were probably like, fuck, we can never end this correctly. Like, we can't even do what he was doing to begin with, let alone end it in a poignant way. Let's just fucking bail. Like, we're done. Like, fuck this. Give us 12 episodes. We were fucking done. And now it just ruined what was one of the most epic worlds ever. But I get it now because, like, dude, he's not finishing these books. There's no fucking way. There's no way. Yeah. There's no way. Yeah.

Well, I think that's the, if you leave, if you leave, that's the way that our great mythology works. He's just going to have to leave it for other people to pick up the pieces. Yeah. And, you know, make their own sense of it without finishing it. I think that might be the best way to end it. But I think there's a thing of that, like we were talking about archetypes and stuff. The first three series of Game of Thrones, there's really consistent archetypes. Right. Sort of representing the various substructures of the human psyche and how they interact with each other. And then as it got into, like, late season five, I was just going, this isn't really working like that anymore.

No, it's... Because the characters cease to become facets of a psyche as honest people. They become chess pieces to be moved around in a sequential order to tie up plot holes. Yeah, it's, yeah, yeah. The more I watched it, the more I was just going, this has turned into professional wrestling. Yeah, that's exactly right. Rather than a deep, you know... You have no idea. You have six, you have no idea. Yeah. You're going to, it's pretty sad. I mean, like, I see a lot of people comparing it to Lost, which I actually liked. I know that season five was brutal during the writer's strike and the ending wasn't great.

I actually liked the last episode of Lost. I wasn't looking for some deep kind of tie it all up, meaning I like kind of the vague, metaphysical, unity, consciousness thing they went with. But like, this is undeniably like one of the worst... They were put in an impossible situation, just to be clear at the writers. Like, I'm done kind of blaming them exclusively, because I'm getting what really happened now, that I see the source material and where it ends and what they were kind of left with. And like, you know, but it's such a hack job. It's so particularly bad that I think people are just like, "Fuck this."

And also people feel entitled to things nowadays, in a way that they probably haven't before in human culture. So they feel a level of ownership over other people's creativity. They do. And I put myself in that camp. I think because, and this is just kind of a human nature relationship thing, you know, people have invested a lot of time into either the show and the books or both. And they feel like they were basically strung along. It's like, you know, a really long marketing campaign that you were enjoying everything aspect of it. And then you just got like exit scammed at the end. And it's like nothing, you know?

And it's like, that's, I get the kind of the rage. But I also recognize there is like three straight days where I'm like tweeting about it. I'm like, "What is it?" I'm like, insane person. Like, this is not appropriate behavior for human being. Actually, I spent the morning tweeting about the football scores and stuff. And I was just like, actually, what I'm trying to do is grasp and make some sense of normality at the chaos. And basically trying to work out what I think about books, sort of hoisting that up on Twitter followers. Well, that's what Twitter is for. That's what, listen, just, I just want to be very clear about this.

In case, I'm sure you follow me, you know this. My Twitter is literally for me. Like, these are my thoughts that I am tweeting for myself truly. There is no consistent theme across it. It is just a stream of consciousness. And I think whether people intend to use it like that or not, that's often what it reflects, which is why I really like it so much is you can like, I really think you can get to know someone. It's not like the only way or always a great way, but it can be a really good way to like sense behind the curtain of what is making someone's mind tick. So I love Twitter man's first best.

Yeah, I do think that the there's an interesting thing that that, you know, we're now thinking in 140 characters or 280. It was 280. Yeah, they doubled it. They doubled it. And it's like, you know, we're, I don't necessarily think that the smartphone is a particularly positive part of human evolution. I think that I was listening to a thing the other day. And it was like, because medicine is such a wonderful technology, we think that all of the technology is inherently wonderful. And I'm not, I mean, I say this now, but, you know, we wouldn't become friends if it wasn't the internet. I wouldn't have done a lot of the work I've done.

If it wasn't for a presence on the internet. But I do think that it's, you know, it's causing this constant engagement with that way of thinking, right, right from a sort of, just a level of staring at screens. I don't know whether, I don't know whether that's the best thing, you know, for humans, the development of human thought and intellect. Yeah, it doesn't, I don't know about best. It's certainly changing human consciousness in an observable way. I mean, I see this just from looking at web analytics and app analytics, you know, for my day job, like, you know, yeah, people are changing. Attention spans are getting shorter, you know, fuses are getting shorter.

The likelihood of getting swayed by media and, you know, presentations is now hyper-acute. It's so much crazier than it used to be, even when it was like only a few sources you could get it from. Yeah, man, I think this is not a great state we're in. I am still trying to figure out this 5G stuff, dude. Like, everyone's telling me now 5G, not everyone. I say everyone, YouTube and various people are very much against 5G. I don't know anything, I know it's, yeah, I don't get it. The only thing I've seen is David Silver run through the door. Oh yeah, yeah, David, David's against it, exactly. And I trust him, so I do trust him.

That is the sort of function of public intellectuals from the David one. It's like, just do my thinking for me, man. No more than me, you're a wise guy, I just, you know. I think that we've probably gone down the rabbit hole for all of the frequencies and waves and like we're already surrounded by them. I mean, if this just destroys the human race, whoops. But I mean, I don't feel like we're stopping this. I mean, 5G is like, that's the next G, man. That's the next one. What are we gonna do, go to 6G? How do we do that? It's gotta be 5G. So I just don't think that, I don't know, I don't see it.

I don't know anything about it. What is it supposed to like kill people? It gives you cancer and it destroys life. I don't know anything about it. I think it just makes, it makes you really need a piss, but the public bathroom is always, is always occupied. Then I'm against it, I'm against it. That's what it's doing and then it'll just slowly send it insane. Okay, I changed my mind. I'm fully against it now. That's, can't live with that. But I do think that like, you know, the human beings, there does seem to be a natural order and therefore a natural resilience to things. And everyone's looking for, that's the, the problem is there is a focus on disaster in human narrative.

We leap to disaster and we're interested. Well, I'm not, I can hate those films with the rock where he's climbing up the mountain to save someone, I fucking hate them. But, you know, there seems to be a market out there for that sort of thing. And we seem to have a weird morbid fascination with it. Well, it's, it's death, right? I mean, that's what most people are turning away from during living their lives because it's viewed as the end of, you know, or at least the mystery to the point where we can't fully have confidence on what's going to happen. And that could be as much a product of our culture as an actual reality of that fact that we don't know.

So yeah, man, I think that's why people, that's always in our psyches for people who, who don't fully, and just to be clear, the majority of people, myself included, like really stare death in the face, you know, like that's not an activity we're encouraged to do. At any point during our lives, except probably right before death, which is probably the worst time to do it because you have no practice. So I think that, that to me is what, you know, whenever you see the disaster or imminent deep dark kind of like catastrophic things, that's an individual or even collective kind of knowingness about mortality and, you know, that can really drive, you know, listen, wars are fought for less, that's for sure.

Yeah. And so, you know, there is an idea that the whole of life is getting ready to have a good death. And I don't know, there's sort of things about like the terror management strategies and that if we really, you know, but I sort of, I also think that the sun's shining and I've got a nice cold bottle of water and, you know, the whole life is particularly bad for me at the moment. Yeah, man. I mean, that's, that's kind of what, I think that's like a hard truth for people to grasp just because it's too simple, you know what I mean? It's like, it's too, too much for to relax into the moment. Like I've been realizing this recently and from a lot of different fronts, but just like really learning to be like, this is awesome. Like, this is amazing. Like, how can I not be thankful and appreciative for what's happening right now in any circumstances, you know, and just being okay with that, you know, like, and really like being okay with it in a deep sense, not having that part of you going, well, there's something bad going to happen. Oh, I don't deserve this or oh, there's other people.

There's nothing wrong with that. I do think, and this is very important thing that like, our cultural reinforcements for modern advertising and capitalism really have a vested interest in preventing that realization. So it's not just that humans are broken. We tend towards, you know, just horrible mind states that deprive us of happiness and joy and fulfillment is that like, there's, there's literally systems, you know, constantly surrounding us that are telling you like, you're not enough, you need this, you need that, you need this, then you'll be happy. And so that's, you know, you have to balance those things together. And I think if you string enough of these moments of being happy, it's not like the rest of your life will be happy always, but you'll end on the whole be happier at the end of your life.

Yeah. And I do think that is, that is a thing that I've learned recently is like, I know when I'm feeling congruent, it's got something to do with how relaxed I am on a physical level. Like, you know, if like, say when I've just had osteopathy or whatever, and I'm relaxed when the circulation is nice and everything's, everything's good, then I feel fine. But if I've done, you know, four hours of YouTube, I'm like, Donald Trump and Brits or Madam and all this. Then I'm going to be in a sort of catatomic stay of chaos within myself. And it's like, oh, no, I do this to myself a lot of times. But I do think that recently, for me, the ego, what I identified as the ego has not been in charge. And this is the thing that like, I was talking with someone about this the other week, it's like, that's sort of my problem with Eastern spiritual is that the ego is something to be outwitted and destroyed. Well, it is and it isn't. That's like a misconception.

So it's presented as such from like interpretations from Westerners, typically, that it's something to be destroyed. Yes, that is the aim just to be clear. But it's also something that's acknowledged as like, it has a function as well. It's not like this. It it it it it arose from a natural evolution of existence and kind of like co-dependence. So it's not that it's some bad thing that needs to be subverted. I mean, that would never be the approach of these Eastern traditions, because they're ultimately, most of them stem from non duality. So there is no good or bad. But I know exactly what you're saying. I just want to make the distinction that like, yeah, that's wrong. If it's just something to be obliterated and destroyed, and you think you're going to lead a normal layman's life, like in the world, like, yeah, good luck. Good luck.

Yeah. Yeah. That's the thing. Because I quite like some of the actions of my ego and I do feel that recently, I've been more into rather than proactive, I've been more concerned with a sort of a surrender to your body rather than a proactive isn't everything great. Let's go and get things done, which I was doing for the last three years. I don't whether that's a that's an attempt to know that everything is seen through a sort of a lens of my consciousness change, no matter everything else's change or whatever. It's certainly been an interesting perspective to ever think. Well, it's healthier because I think the problem with the love and light and positivity and projecting that on to something is ultimately it's not sustainable because it's not for most people to really like live in that state, like you're going to have to be very comfortable with some very uncomfortable states for most people. Things are going to get rough for you if that's how you're beaming out 100% of the time. And I think you see that a lot.

And I think even people who are kind of, you know, the priests or gurus or teachers in those traditions who reflect that also, you see that a lot and you see that with ethical behavior slipping because it's just not an authentic experience for most human beings in the world these days, you know, like it's just it's not. And I think the surrendering aspect of it is when you genuinely do that, it's it's certainly easier in the sense that you have a game plan that you can stick to relatively simply. It's not easier in the sense that some things to be able to surrender to is like the hardest thing you're ever going to have to do in your life, right? I mean, it's same thing is probably like what dying is that's just a surrendering process. You can't fight it.

It's not like you've come up with the right strategy. And then you've beaten it despite what these like computer people think they're going to upload their brains to some Silicon. It's like, what are you doing? I mean, trapped in a full system. What are you doing? You watch Black Mirror? Bad idea, guys, bad idea. But yeah, both of those options are shit. Yeah. Like, you know, the the atheistic idea of being expunged from consciousness forever. And then they also equally atheistic idea of like putting yourself in a robot for eternity. I just they're just both terrible. Yeah. And I, I mean, even if they're terrible, they don't rain particularly true for me in my own direct experience. And through the experiences of people who I trust, what they've relayed to me about just other planes of existence, people who have passed, like, we know when someone dies, we still remember them. We know who they are. That means there's some, whether you want to call it like some holographic crystalline mirage illusion, they're still percolating around in existence and consciousness. To me, that's as real as anything else. I mean, I really am one of these people who believes that if everyone made the firm decision to not believe in the planet Earth, like we no longer believe in this and they're like, we wouldn't exist. That's the type of arts and I am. I don't think anyone can ever really fully do that because oh God, what a horrendous thought. But I really worry about the rest of the day. I'm just gonna be going, don't think about that thing. Don't think about it. I'm not gonna say it because I'm just making me nervous or whatever. It's too funny. I mean, the truth is, is like, I think mass consciousness has a tremendous impact on our reality. And I think when we're describing this phenomena of our personas and identities kind of melting away or getting less tangible, that's why there's so many weird things happening. This is what I think we're moving into. What I've been really interested in, man, and it's like the past few episodes of this podcast and just a lot of my conversations off air have been with astrologers. I don't not planned out at all. And there seems to be a general consensus amongst Vedic and Western, all the right, all the different modalities that I know about, that this is an incredibly acute transitory period that seems to be easing up or ushering into something new around 2020, right? And that to me, just like intuitively before I knew any of that feels very, very right. And yes, we have an election in this country and a lot of other crazy, momentous things coming up in between then. But I don't know, man, like, I think it's just, you got to strap in, buckle up. It's definitely like a roller coaster. You know, enjoy the ride down, recognize that you're strapped in no matter what, and do your best not to freak out if you don't like roller coasters? Well, that's it. Yeah, I'm not a great fan of roller coasters. I'm like, I never like get my picture taken on them. But it's that thing of, well, 2020 is a repeat number.

So there's something there if you want to go into that. But it's also that thing of the way I had it described from a Jungian perspective was when we're dreaming we're on our own operate, it's like an online PlayStation 4 game or something. When we're dreaming, we're on our own operating system. But when we're awake, we're with our own operating system interacting with all these different operating systems. Right. And I would say that when we're dreaming, we're just switching consoles. It's actually the same thing. So like, let's say PS4 is our regular life, we've just moved to the Nintendo switch for dreams. It's a equally valid realm where we actually interact with a whole, the same kind of, not the same, but a similar type of consciousness to people who are here on the planet. And I think that is why, you know, Jung and a lot of other people have looked to dreams and kind of those liminal states as valid at least symbolically in terms of the imagery and kind of impressions that are left on us and potentially as a valid modality for either influence or, you know, glimpses of the future or the past or dead people or whatever it is, because there's that shit. Most traditions recognize the mystical importance of dreams. And while science isn't going to nail it down and say, Hey, yeah, you're going to planet X three four B to meet with your other dream ghosts. You know, like, we know that there's some, some real, you know, experiential wisdom in that too. So yeah, I mean, dreams are fucking, dreams are awesome, dude. It's just, I think it's another way of getting to these parts of our consciousness that you can't get to with your conscious mind. And that's so frustrating, I think, for that again, goes back to the intellectual aspect of this, like that will drive the intellect fucking crazy. You will, you can go in circles chasing your tail, trying to crack that code.

And I've seen people do it. I have friends who have dedicated lots of podcast episodes to trying to question the inherent, what is meaning? What is, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, at a certain point, you can step off that ride and get into the other ride of like, all right, I don't know, I have some ideas of what I think meaning is, but what else is going on here? Because this is fucking nuts. Yeah. That's what that's, um, Len Cohen's thing about, um, praying and it says, sometimes I have an appetite for prayer. Yeah. Where the prayer, where the prayer is answered, I wouldn't dare to comment. Yeah. I think that's like the proper approach to anything you're doing authentically. You don't want to presume anything, but you also don't want to have the hubris to kind of like, rule it all out. You know, and if you feel like prayer is appropriate, I don't pray every day. I certainly pray when things get very bad. And sometimes I pray when I'm grateful and I remember to, but it, I, I'm not presuming to say, Oh yeah, because I pray this happened, that happened, this wouldn't have happened. Otherwise, it's not even a question I'm really concerned with because to me, prayer is a valid modality. It doesn't mean it's a hundred percent hit rate. It just means that like, it's something that I think is a thing that works and has some influence on at least me and potentially external reality. Yeah. And that's where I think magicians and stuff exhaust themselves sometimes with trying to micro because it's like, it's basically, they're trying to do God's admin. You know what I mean? Like, like, God, let God answer his own emails. You don't have to, you know, you don't have to do that for him every day.

Yeah. Yeah. It's a, I mean, it's, it's obviously when you're in the realm of outside of our five senses, there's so much room for kind of corruption and, you know, sketchy motivations and intentions to, and I think we see this in everything. And I think that's where a lot of people would point to that and say, Oh, well, that's the, you know, the dark side of human nature. And I think, I don't know that that is kind of like a malfunction. I think it's something that we can use to recognize either how we don't want to be or potentially how to like, you know, sometimes when appropriate, help people correct that behavior, sometimes just recognize like that's an example of how we don't want to be. So yeah, I mean, it's, it's a harder place to live in. It's so, you know, it's just so much easier to get angry and stake out an opposition dualistic opinion about anything you don't like kind of as a gut reaction, but it doesn't, it doesn't work for tainting anyone's mind ever. No, you know, that's the thing it's not really ever worked. It never, that's the thing when someone says something racist now or whatever. I sort of, I challenge him, but I sort of go, well, you're too far gone out here, nothing I'm going to say is going to, so you're not going to go, oh, sorry, I'm going to stop being racist now because you've said that thing. Yeah, it's like, you know, and I think there's a perspective that would say, well, that's a cop out, you need to challenge every single aspect whenever you need to call it out to be a supporter. So people know that's not appropriate. But if I'm being honest in situations where I've heard people say things that are either overtly racist or sexist, or, and you know, I don't know them well personally, where I can challenge them, I'm more likely to either make a joke if I think they can handle it, or just ignore it in that situation, not because I'm afraid of anything that's going to happen, just because of what you're saying, the general ineffectiveness of challenging someone in a public situation where their ego is on the line, which is probably the thing that's making them say the offensive or callous thing. And yeah, you know, you're essentially challenging someone's identity and who they are as a person because they've wrapped that up into who they think they are. And it's like, that's a very, that's a touchy place to go. But at the same on the same token, like, we got to do something to weed it out, you know, and I mean, we can't like, we see what happens.

Yeah. Yeah. But I think as well, sometimes I sort of see it for what it is really, which is, you know, because there's stuff like that, those sort of opinions always come from the top. And then I sort of see that for what it is, which is just a lack of, a lack of education, or, or an insecurity sometimes rather than a specific hatred of other people. It's a fear. Yeah. All that just been performative and saying it for, you know, yeah, for a shock value and to, you know, to try and dominate a social situation in somewhere. Yes. Yes. Yes. Dominated social situation. Yeah, which I think typically stems from a deep rooted fear, right? I mean, that is what the will and desire to dominate typically is made up of, because if you don't need to dominate, if you don't have that, then that indicates there may be a way to kind of coexist in an equally beneficial way, which is probably the preferred for everyone.

If you think about it. So, yeah, I mean, the dominator culture has been examined a lot, and it gets, you know, conflated with the patriarchy. And I think there's a ton of overlap with that. But yeah, man, I just don't think it's that effective anymore. That's the main argument against that type of, you know, mindset, whether it's in relationship to people or the environment, it's just like, it's not working. Like we know that. You know, unfortunately, due to like capitalism, that's when I feel most congruent sometimes, is when I'm really on in a social setting, and I feel like I'm winning. Well, you know, but that but that's just capitalism.

Well, it isn't, man, I don't think that's accurate. I mean, when I'm in a social setting, and I, and I'm feeling my best, it's, it's usually when I'm feeling like I'm understood or I'm understanding either the situation or the person or whatever it is, the group dynamic. That's when it feels best. So it doesn't necessarily mean that it's like a capitalistic ego kind of, yeah, I don't mean to go, I don't mean to go around same race. No, I mean, I do, but just not. Yeah, man, I mean, listen, I, I, race is something that publicly, you know, I, I have a pretty strict policy of never using any terms or words or things. And I know everyone has different kind of boundaries with what they do. And I think a lot of times it really does stem from the environment you grew up in and kind of your cultural influences. But yeah, like racism is a pretty, but I think the hardest part for people to understand about racism is that like everyone is racist. Like, and if you, the people who tend to think that they're not like very much not a racist, like, those are the people, if you're saying that, oh, that's me, you gotta, you gotta look at yourself super duper fucking hard. Because that, yeah, it's no good. I think that's the, the problem with the right wing though now is that the racist feel so emboldened about saying things in public that are that are boring, that you sort of go, well, 10 years ago, I maybe could have made an off-color joke to a friend. Yeah. Whilst other people were around and we all would have laughed because why would anyone have that ridiculous viewpoint? But now it's on the mainstream news.

Yeah, it's not a, it's sort of accepted as a legitimate stance. Yeah, it's not a legitimate stance. And it speaks to typically when it's, when a term or, you know, a pejorative, you know, hate term is used intentionally, not with an understanding of where it comes from and why it's used. It's like, you, that is very clear. Like it's very clear at the context of what's going on there, even if it's not explicit and overt. And yeah, man, like most people just don't understand how fucked up, you know, and I know people get very mad when you say this, but like, you know, white people from the European nations for many years did very many bad things to many people.

It's not like if you're white, your European descent, you're a bad person. That's certainly not what I'm saying. But you have to be able to acknowledge that and see like, whoa, like no one, no one ever kind of really rectified this. No one was like, Oh yeah, our bad. Let's fix this situation totally. So it's yeah. Yeah. This is the reason. Yeah, that's exactly exactly is the reason. The idea that people who criticize Islam, sort of completely urgent of the implication that US and British foreign policy is played in those regions. Yeah, that has caused Islam to become such a hardline religion. It's like that we don't exist in a vacuum. The two things work work, you know, they're codependent on each other. Well, it used to be that you could pitch narratives to people.

And they would generally believe it, right? We saw this kind of breakup with Vietnam with a strong opposition in the media and just kind of how it was covered, but at least in this country, but yeah, man, like it's the shit is fucked up, right? I mean, this is the key point that we've raised there. It's fucked. It's it's I am generally just to be clear. A friend pointed out it's because I'm having another kid. So I'm gonna have two kids that I have to be optimistic. But I do have faith that there are enough people who understand and share value systems that I think are really aimed towards a sustainable, healthy, holistic future that there's enough of those people that we can carry some seed of the beneficial future for for the people on this planet. I mean, I think there's a certain point where even if you're a hate filled monster, but you know, you're starving and you need food and someone comes over who completely disagrees with you about everything and they bring you food brings you like golem bring you food. You know, that can has the ability to change minds and heart. So I think like just again, continuing the path of trying to deal with our fucked up shit personally and appreciate the good parts of ourselves is really like all we can do at this point and try to enjoy like, you know, that's that's really important regardless of where you are in life. Like that's something that I think a lot of the Eastern religions with their de-emphasis on ego they offer is that if you can just not identify with your yourself, who you are, this eye, you can tend to be pretty damn appreciative about what is being experienced. So, you know, and I think that's the healthy way to look at kind of like not having an ego or getting rid of an ego, not that you want to cut off this thing that can genuinely bring connection. Like, you know, ego leads to many beautiful things. Let's not deny that. No, that's why I am going to go buy a big gold chain and a Ferrari. Yeah, man. Listen, which I think is fantastic. Listen, this is why I buy Bitcoin so I can buy Lamborghinis and private islands and just, you know, do all these things. Yeah, I think that's the thing though that we can take away from all this chaos is that the human spirit seems to just remain regardless of, you know, yeah, circumstance. And I think it remains past death just to be clear. Like think how many people are inspired by people who are no longer here, just not only as like big figures in life, but just like parents and relatives like the human spirit is not just for the living. And I think that's a that's an important thing to recognize. And it should be comforting in a lot of ways. And if you believe, yeah, even if for a second, you look at it from a materialistic, through a materialistic lens, you go, well, at least for the next 200 years, what I do tomorrow makes a difference. Yeah, right. Even if not from the next, you know, thousand five thousand years, like, you know, after and I think that may bring a small crumb of comfort to people who are thinking about this stuff. But I do think that there's, I would say, agnostic err into the side of a more religious sort of a sort of ideal. And I do, I do think that there's there's adequate scope for for for that, that sort of belief. Yeah, I mean, I I find myself on that side. I mean, listen, I essentially lost my mind for three months when you do that, you're either going to come out semi religious and believing in some crazy shit or literally just choose the other route, which is numb yourself to every sensory input in any way you can. And just to kind of live until you die for the only purpose of getting there. And like, that was never an option for me, luckily. So, yeah, man.

Well, thank God, because you've got a great podcast. Well, dude, so you mentioned it briefly, though, but what's going on with your film, Eaten by Lions? Eaten by Lions, yes. So we've we've had four weeks in the big cinemas in the UK. And, and now we're going around a series of independent cinemas in this country, where I'm sort of doing a few question and answer sessions afterwards, which is nice, because I think it's slightly removed from my normal duties as a standard Canadian. And, you know, I'm able to elaborate on points a little bit more and foster a hopefully sense of communion with a sort of grateful audience who just like the work out of them. So it's a really good experience.

That's really awesome. Well, I'm I know I wish it to you, but I'm sure you'll have continued success as well in these departments, because I'm not surprised. You got to get good. Good guy, Jack, or good guy. Let's see is Noah. Thank you, man. Let's do the questions at the end, because why not favorite, favorite color? Well, I said blue last time, and I'm really changed. Okay, that's fair. That's allowed. What's your favorite number? I said, well, I just got the number eight, so I'm going to say eight. There you go. There you go. At least you remember what you said last time. What is your favorite animal? Dog. Dog. Very cool. That's a that's probably the most common answer, I think, just because dogs are pretty fucking awesome. Well, the the serious. Yes, there you go.

You're Robert Anson Wilson cosmic trigger. Yeah, the dog is just God backwards in it, and I don't think that's how I'd like. Well, the more interesting thing is to think that is that not an accident? Because they basically just exude God consciousness. Unfortunately, in this reality, you have to be a bit stupid to exude God consciousness. Well, I mean, if God likes to eat his own shit, then we are totally, this is a great analogy. If eating shit, if eating shit fosters, fosters unconditional love, then, you know, I'm going to write a new diet. Let's do it. I'll go out there. Last question, practical tip that you want to share with people that's helped you in your life.

Well, last time I said, I said working out, which I think has helped me a lot, I would say recently, just taking a day off of intellectual pursuit and thinking too much about stuff and just taking a day to stay in bed and watch something mindless on the television has been a great reset button. I love it. That's really, you know, you don't hear enough people say that, but it's that's just really solid advice. Yeah, it really is. Yeah. Well, that's it. I think hopefully I haven't sort of given anyone the next piece to even if you have lays around. There's this kind of someone who's been listening doing that for like the past like two months. They're like, great. Yeah. Finally.

I knew I knew I was on the path to spiritual. Nailing it. Jack's just confirmed. Awesome. Amen. We will speak soon. Yeah, definitely, man. And yes, I will. Yes, I will be hopefully back on the show in good time regularly. I've just got one other thing to mention to you that I don't think you can broadcast because I don't clip it. Can you cut this out? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Done. So basically, I think I think it's not confirmed yet, but I'm going to do America's Got Talent, the Champions in New York in September. Oh, cool. Oh, amazing. We can hang out. Oh, maybe come to the show. Oh, 100%. 100%. That's great timing. That is perfect timing. Okay, cool. Yes, that's so exciting. Congrats, man. That's going to be fun. Yeah. So I'm getting fully into it. I'm doing the British version in a couple of months time, and then hopefully doing the American one after that. That's really cool. That's awesome. Yeah, so getting a little bit of competitive spirit within. Yeah, yeah. Which I think is the point of all things not. No, it is. That is.

That's what we're supposed to be doing. Competition. Bloodthirsty. Yeah, fire and blood. Yeah, of course. Exactly. Dude, I feel bad that you have to watch the end of it because you probably will because it's hard not to, but they just fuck this shit up. Well, I think it all went downhill when the actors stopped getting naked. That showed a non-commitment. It was a bad part. It was a bad downturn when there was less nakedness. I agree. That was a big point of the early part of the show. I mean, well, that's not just from a sort of standpoint of perversion, but like an authenticity. An authenticity standpoint. It's like, well, are you making art or not? Because if you're making art, then you need to sort of commit yourself to it fully. The show sucks. It's just bad. The writers ruined it. They didn't want to do it anymore. They were supposed to do way more episodes. He never finished it.

It's his fault too. He's fucking out there saying he hasn't even started the last book. It's a shit. It's a shit. Everyone knew this was so like, I had a friend who wrote an article in the Washington Post like three years ago because he had read the books and he was watching the show and he was like, it was like season three, I think. And he's like, yeah, we're fucked. He's like, the book readers are fucked. The show people are fucked. This is going to end horribly. He wrote this whole op-ed and he was everything he said 100% came true. Because once you get-- This is it and it's the new custom and cobbled together.

Yeah, and it's not finished. There's no finishing point to it. There's literally-- I don't know how it ends. Dude, I got the equivalent of 10% of the book left. Less. And Arya is just putting on a face as a faceless person. Like, this is just happening and I'm at the end of the books. So like everything-- Dude, it's just all like nothing. There's nothing. None of this end stuff was-- I don't even think the plot points are accurate. I think what George RR Martin was probably thinking was like, this will go on for like 10 years. It'll be like 130 episodes and if they follow the book without speeding it up, I can realistically get major plot points across without it feeling like totally made up. And then like once it was like a behemoth where like it was everyone was super into it, these guys just took over and they're in over their heads, man. Like they just don't-- They didn't build the world. They didn't understand the world.

They didn't know how to write for TV from a fantasy perspective. It's just like everything got fucked. It sounds like a time chat pitch. It's so bad. Like they've led everyone into a room and then you just find out that the whole thing's-- Yeah, that's what it is. I really like people will analyze it because of where we are and how we can analyze everything now. But like it's I'm hard pressed to find a show that did what they did precisely because there's no like usually source material is finished. You know? Like that's-- I can't think of another example where like they just didn't finish it. Like-- Yeah, you wouldn't have a priest doing a sermon. Yeah, yeah, some guy from Jeff who just wrote something down on a napkin. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like-- This is what I thought-- Well, what I did happen was that he gave him a list of like directions they could go with it but he kept the best and improved self. I've heard so many rumors. I know that he just came out the other day and stunted and was like yo, definitely not done with the books. Fuck that. And I think the more I thought about it, I was like he said this because he wanted to shoot down the rumor but he also wanted to make it clear that this wasn't his ending under-- And like he hasn't even finished the last book. Like the second to last book. So I don't know man, he's not gonna-- The truth is this though. Like he's not gonna finish it. And if he does finish it, it's gonna suck. He doesn't know how to finish a book. Like I'm telling you, it just keeps expanding. It's like a never ending fractal of Game of Thrones. Like dude, there's characters you don't even know about who are never interested in the show, who he's devoted like 20 hours to in this book. It's Victorian.

Yeah, it's crazy. It'll be like, you know, when Mario Cruz died and they've brought the bullshit Godfather not. Yes, yes, yes. On the back of it, that's what it'll be. You'll get basically, you'll be charged for fan fiction. That's what it is gonna be. I mean, it's all, even if he writes it now, it's basically fan fiction. He can't wrap it up. It's impossible. In a satisfying way. It's impossible. You can't-- It's just such a 2019 thing to talk enough. It's so crazy. It's like, it is. It really is. It really, really is. And it sucks. Where's this promise at the best? That's why no show will ever be this promise for me. Yeah, I know.

That's, it's really, it's really fucking good. I can't think of a better drama. And that, and that is a deep archetypical supernatural dimension to it. Yeah, very Buddhist, very-- Well, Chase was very much into Buddhism at that point, I think. And yeah, it's, it's, it's pretty fucking-- I mean, he's, he hit all the right parts and context juxtaposed things in, like, the perfect way. I mean, that one. I just hope, let's just hope the movie didn't fuck it up. Oh, the movie probably won't be good. I mean, there's no way. Oh, can we not, can we not say that? I mean, dude, like, there's-- That's all people are doing now. It's just rehashing fucking old shit. They're making a Sonic the Hedgehog dude. This is before your time. I played the original Sonic on Genesis. There is literally, it's just going fast in golden rings. Like, you can't think you can make a movie. Like, I watched the TV show, the animated show. And there's not enough sources for fucking Sonic the Hedgehog starring Jim Carrey.

If I was picking that, I'd make knuckles into a domestic abuser. Yeah. Yeah. Like, make it cool, make it gritty, make it like fucking kids, but with Sonic. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm with it. Yeah. That would be great. All right. I gotta go, man, but this has been great. This will probably be out next week or the week after. Cool, man. Well, I'm, I'm starting, hopefully starting, of course, with therapy on Monday, so I'll be a little bit more level-handed. I mean, I don't even know what that means. Yeah. Well, that, that's, you know, I will hope that I will have some more interesting hopefully inside. This is awesome, man. This is great.

Nice, man. Always good chatting. Yep. Likewise. We should, we should do this. I'd love to. Yeah. I'm totally down. All right, man. All right, man. God bless. You too. Bye. [Music] Big thanks to Jack coming on. Cool guy. Big thanks to Ned. Hello, Ned.com/sync or slash synchronicity. Go check out their full spectrum hemp oil. Their chapstick is good. Their body butter is good. You're going to hear more from these guys and more from me on them. Go support people who are supporting the show. That's all I can say. Rate and review synchronicity on iTunes, five stars. That would be nice. One star if you hate my guts. Oh, that's all right.

That's it. I will see you next week. The World Cup is on and there's no better place to be than Kalshi, America's number one prediction market platform. Now through July 7th, enter free every day for a chance to win signed jerseys from football's biggest stars. Plus, every entry gives you another shot at the grand prize. Lionel Messi's game worn jersey from the match where he scored his historic 800th career goal. Download the Kalshi app today. Restrictions apply trading involves risk for more see Kalshi.com/regulatory K-A-L-S-H-I. Kalshi, trade the beautiful game.