This One Time On Psychedelics
Welcome, fellow explorers of the infinite.
If you’re here, it means you’re ready to step beyond the ordinary and into the great unfolding mystery of existence itself. Because psychedelics? They’re not just substances—they’re a doorway to a new way of seeing reality, a lens that reveals the hidden layers of reality we walk through every day. And that’s exactly what we explore here.
I’m Ryan Sprague, and This One Time On Psychedelics isn’t just about trippy stories and wild journeys (though trust me, we have plenty of those). It’s about the conversations that hold the power to awaken us, to shift our consciousness, and to remind us that there is far more to this reality than meets the eye.
These are the conversations that expand hearts, challenge perspectives, and guide us back to the wisdom that has always been within us. Whether through plant medicines, altered states, or the everyday magic woven into life itself, this is a space where we step beyond the known and into the infinite.
The psychedelic renaissance is here. The future is unwritten. And you, my friend, are a part of it.
So buy the ticket. Take the ride. And let’s see how deep this trip goes.
This One Time On Psychedelics
Ep 210: How The 2018 Farm Bill *Accidentally* Legalized Cannabis (feat. Rand Gifford)
Every episode I do I am excited about, however, this one holds a special place in my heart for a few reasons. First, anytime I get to speak with someone who is as passionate as I am around regenerative agriculture, I geek out like a small school child. This being said, when I get to speak to someone who not only shares that passion, but is creating revolutionary products alongside it that ANYONE in the U.S. can order to have access to clean, organic hemp products, I get even more excited & that is exactly what todays guest & I will be getting into. From his intro into Cannabis & other psychedelics, to his business, Akira Botanicals, which is a hemp company specializing in organic, high-vibe THCA, CBD & CBG products, to name but a few & one of his most powerful psychedelic stories, this episode is jam packed with everything you’ll need to walk away with a clear understanding of what the 2018 farm bill, that federally legalized hemp here in the U.S., allows you to do now that you may have not been aware of.
Sign up for the FREE “How To Cultivate Ceremonial Grade Cannabis” workshop on April 9th at 6pm ET below👇
https://www.highlyoptimized.me/grow-with-cannabis-workshop
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This Podcast was produced by Mazel Tov Media.
https://www.highlyoptimized.com
@therealryansprague
Thank you. Medicines and the impact they've made among the countless psychonauts exploring the last true frontier. Buy a ticket and take the ride with me as we get true first-hand accounts of the experiences, benefits, risks and transformations taking place within the ever-expanding world of psychedelic medicines. On this One Time on Psychedelics. Every episode I do on this show I am excited about. However, this one holds a special place in my heart for a few reasons. First, anytime I get to speak with someone who is as passionate as I am around regenerative agriculture, I geek out like a small school child. This being said, when I get to speak to someone who not only shares that passion but is creating revolutionary products alongside it that anyone in the US can order to have access to clean, organic hemp products, I get even more excited. And that is exactly what today's guest and I will be getting into. From his intro into cannabis and other psychedelics to his newest business venture, akira Botanicals, which is a hemp company specializing in organic, high-vi cbd and cbg products, to name but a few, and one of his most powerful psychedelic stories, this episode is jam-packed with everything you'll need to walk away with a clear understanding of what the 2018 farm bill that federally legalized hemp here in the us allows you to do now that you may have not been aware of. So, without further ado, please help me in welcoming my man, rand Gifford, to the show.
Speaker 1:Rand Gifford, my man, dude, am I excited to have you here. You know, as everyone just heard in the intro, I met Rand when his company, akira Botanicals, reached out to me on Instagram and I had been fast looking for a THCA company that was growing in accordance with what I do anyway regenerative things like that, because I get hit up all the time by people wondering where they can get cannabis and because of the 2018 farm bill, which we can get into, there's a awesome, completely legal loophole that people can utilize, and what's been great about that is that I personally don't believe plants should be illegal on imaginary lines Like, call me crazy, call me insane, but I just don't think that we should have that. So what's great now is that, for those individuals that live places like, I don't know, south or North Dakota I think they're still completely illegal or places like Alabama, they can legally purchase this medicine. It's federally legal. They don't have to worry about trying to get backdoor deals and these things that are really sketchy, to be honest, and so it's been great for me, for people that do breathe with cannabis or are hitting me up asking, hey, where can I get ceremonial grade cannabis for your ceremonies? I just send them all right to you guys now, so it's amazing to have you on Rand.
Speaker 1:Thanks for being here, man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:Heck yeah, dude. And for everyone listening, today's my birthday too, so Rand and I get to do a birthday special. I'm so excited, man. But you know, my first question, man, is how did you first ever get interested in?
Speaker 2:the idea of cannabis, psychedelics, like, how did that all open up for you? Yeah, you know, I think I was probably like 16 or 17,. You know, high school kid, and I had a lot of struggles when I was young, like probably from the age of 10. I really struggled with things like depression, insomnia, all that, you know. Nothing really seemed to help. And then when I found cannabis, it was like, oh, this, this helps, I can sleep, and it made life not so intolerable, I guess, I don't know and so I just actually gravitated towards it and it kind of had a relationship with the plant ever since.
Speaker 2:And, you know, like, as I grew older, I worked out in Humboldt for a little bit, you know, during kind of the golden years, just mostly on the harvest trim side, but I got to kind of see, you know, how they were doing it. And then, in 2019 or 2018, the farm bill got passed that you referred to and it basically, you know, at first and I was already farming vegetables at that point so I didn't really think much of it I thought, well, hemp, that's just, you got to have like 100 acres. You're growing it for rope, and it didn't really interest me. And then I went to this farm conference and they had on one of the display tables just a huge jar of nugs and I was like, well, what's this? And they're like, oh, it's CBD flower. And then, you know, I started learning more about it and so I went home from that conference, I applied for my hemp permit and then, in 2019, kind of jumped in along with everybody else into the hemp industry.
Speaker 1:Dude, that's so wild man. You know it's so funny because I was still working in the industry in 2018, 2019. And you know, I remember, like 10 years ago, people talking about like hemp flower, CBD flower, and everyone was just like dude, it's bunk, it's terrible. I mean. I even think about auto flowers. 10 years ago, even straight THC auto flowers were like laughed at, and these days you can actually get some really high quality auto flower genetics, which is pretty interesting. And these days you can actually get some really high quality autoflower genetics, which is pretty interesting, you know. And so it's amazing to see how fast the industry has evolved and also, just, I mean, continued to be a shapeshifter in a way.
Speaker 1:You know you got to love cannabis ingenuity. You know people that you know connect with cannabis. Most of us aren't exactly the best rule followers, right? I think that's kind of synonymous between all of us, and so what a great way to be like. You know what, like the DEA, slash the feds. They don't understand cannabinoid science like we do, which is honestly shocking. It's pretty interesting.
Speaker 1:But you know, your ability to find loopholes to get around the aspects of life that honestly just make no sense is such a good like I guess you could call it street smart type thing to have in your docket, and so it's amazing to see just all how the cannabis industry has has continued to evolve. I mean, I remember when cannabis was being medically legalized and decriminalized, some people got really shifty and started, you know, being like, hey, you can buy this bottle of water for 80 bucks and it comes with a free eighth Right, and so like, there's always been these loopholes that I just love. It's why I love the world of cannabis, because one thing I'm aware of is that the world is ass backwards and I don't feel as though I should have to work my life ass backwards just because a lot of people lack common sense or the powers that shouldn't be, want to do whatever they're going to do. So it's been amazing to just be in this industry and, you know, be someone who can resonate with so much with why a lot of people get into it, like yourself, I imagine. You know.
Speaker 1:I mean, I imagine for you you're probably similar to me. We didn't want to wear khakis, we didn't want to be at a cubicle, you know. And so where do you go? You go to. You know different industries, you know, like cannabis, that's really cool.
Speaker 2:And I tried that. I out of college I did go into the corporate world and I did like six months and was like I got to get out of here, like I'm losing my mind, you know, and I just couldn't do it anymore. But yeah you're.
Speaker 2:You're right. The genetics have come a super long way in just the past few years. It's crazy. Each year, you know, the first year, the genetics you know a lot of it was very brown. It should have, you know, have more of a earthy hay kind of smell, and now this stuff is, it's indistinguishable from, you know, thc brides. It just just in like you know five short years of breeding. Uh, it's amazing what they have come up with dude really is man and ran.
Speaker 1:I'd love you know for those listening that maybe you're like what is thca? What's this loophole?
Speaker 2:I'd love if you could explain that from a to Z, just like what the 2018 Farm Bill did, what it meant to do, and then kind of what it did accidentally or maybe on purpose. So that was the language they used. So the funny thing is, this THCA loophole has been around since 2018. But the way the industry moves is it's almost like everybody just dips their toe in the water and then sees you know how, okay, okay, can we put our foot in the water, can we? You know, and it's like now it's just kind of the whole body's been submerged and so it started. You know, 2018, 2019, the big talk was like about CBD flour and they were talking about banning CBD flour because cops couldn't tell the difference and that never, you know, that didn't really happen. There wasn't really any traction there. You know, cannabis views have have just shifted so much in the past 15 years, from like even I remember, you know, when I was in like high school and college, it was, it was a big deal, and now it's just it's in every shop, it's in gas stations. Just the view has shifted and and people started to see. It's not just like the culture shifted, it's not just this like Cheech and Chong, like you know, kind of stupid stoner thing. It's like, oh no, like you know, all types of people use this and at all different types of strengths. And there's all these other cannabinoids that have super medicinal properties that we didn't really know about. It was just THC was like the one. It was just THC was like the one.
Speaker 2:I think in like 20, maybe 2020 or so, maybe 2019, delta 8 comes onto the scene, which is just really a synthetic cannabinoid. It's not really found in any. You know, it's not naturally, it's only naturally occurring in very small amounts. So what they're doing is they're breaking down like CBD molecules into Delta 8. And you know the loophole was hey, you only said Delta 9. Like, you didn't say anything about Delta eight. And you know they, the loophole was hey, you only said Delta nine. Like you didn't say anything about Delta eight. So then you had Delta eight, Delta 10, all this HTT, you know whatever. There's just it's like a chemistry experiment at that point and you know, these cannabinoids do have their own effects.
Speaker 2:Like Delta eight, I found is really good for sleep, but when it came to like the flour, I we never did Delta 8 flower. Because to do Delta 8 flower you're taking CBD buds, you're spraying them with Delta 8 distillate and then typically rolling them in some kind of a CBG keef because the distillate makes it so dark that it's not really appealing. And I tried some. You know, my brother and I we tried some and we're like neither we couldn't finish it, we're like no, and I'm just like I'm not going to spray my buds, like I don't spray them when they're growing and I'm not certainly going to spray them after they're done growing. So we did lose off on a little bit of business on that. But that was a short-lived kind of boom, you know. So then I think it was maybe in, I don't know, 2021, 2022, you start seeing THCA flower come into the scene and the thing with that is they're just still like hey, the Delta nine is less than 0.3%. Because you know, even, even in all the dispensaries in California, if you look at the jars, it's going to say it's going to give you the THCA number. It's not going to because it hasn't been decarbed yet. So we'll just have naturally very low Delta nine THC. And so growers have found ways to you know whether it's through, you know basically to prevent that decar before testing so that you can get it under that 0.3% right. And, like I said, I think that's the technical loophole.
Speaker 2:I think it probably also ties into the fact of just like, just you know, politicians want to do what's popular most of the time and so they can just see the writing on the wall that most people are in favor of cannabis and that it's helping a lot of people and they don't want to be on the wrong side of that issue. So there's just not the political will and there doesn't in, like, law enforcement doesn't even really care either, for the most part because they have bigger things to worry about. They've got like real drugs that they're trying to get off the street. So it's like, why are you going to go mess with somebody for some pot?
Speaker 2:So, um, it's been very interesting to see the progression of this industry. It's a little nerve-wracking. I mean it's a little as a farmer. It's a little bit of a tenuous relationship because it changes so fast. So, like what people want and what the industry will allow is always evolving from year to year and you have to really stay on top of it. And, like I, have to plant, you know, in in June, and so who knows, by the fall or next year what the market's going to want. It's, it's just, it's always changing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, it's so wild dude. And thank you for sharing all that because you know I find a lot of people don't know this. You know I recently did a presentation for my coach with cannabis program where I was talking about do you guys understand that cannabis was accidentally maybe not so accidentally, who really knows kind of made legal in all 50 states, or at least I think California banned THCA, which is silly, you can't really ban it, but they tried or whatever. There may be another state or two, but you know pretty much it's federally legal, for lack of a better term. Now it's just called something different. But you know, at the end of the day it's such a scary thing being a farmer dude Like I remember when I worked at the dispensary.
Speaker 1:You know we're talking a vertically integrated indoor facility and so the amount of things that can go wrong with that much overhead as well, when you have, I mean pretty much like if the flour doesn't work out, there's no way to use the lab, the kitchen, you know, and obviously no way to sell anything. So what I try to tell people a lot is like part of the reason why I don't buy from dispensaries. For the most part there are some in certain states. I definitely will main. You know, of course, you guys, you know things like that. But I won't go to like a regular dispensary because I know that their business model will only work if the flower is able to be sold. So we'll do whatever it takes to make sure that flower can get sold. And whether you want to blame them, the industry, the standards, whatever, I don't really know. But for me it's just like, you know, when I can see cannabis getting remediated and you know, essentially, the molds getting pulled out of it and I'm like I don't trust that. You know it's like for me I want to get as close to nature as possible and I want to work with people that I can feel their heart. You know, like when you guys reached out and I checked out your page, I was like yeah, these guys are on the right side of history. They know what they're doing. They're doing it specifically because they understand the intricate components of organic, regenerative agriculture, how good it is for the earth, how negative conventional farming is, not only for the earth but for the people in it, the animals in it, the plants in it. It's really cool, man, that you guys have continued to set yourselves apart with these products.
Speaker 1:I mean, your tinctures are out of control, like they're amazing. Like, yeah, the sleep one. My girlfriend has ridiculous insomnia, like I mean she's tried everything and I gave her I think it was around four dropper fulls of the sleep one, which is an aggressive amount, like I'd take one, you know, and uh, but she's always had a high tolerance. She's a fast metabolizer of many cannabinoids and so I gave her four and she's like I only woke up once last night, which for her is like insane. She's usually waking up six, seven times a night anyway and then taking time to fall asleep. So proof is in the pudding man. I've tested it against the hardest person I know to sleep and it's worked.
Speaker 2:So it's great to hear, man. Yeah, that's what it's all about. When we formulated these last year, I'm like I want these to be really strong, like people need to feel it, it needs to do what it says and and the cool thing is, there's all these, like I was saying, there's all these other cannabinoids that are non-psychoactive but, I would say, are mind altering, you know, in the sense that they just, like coffee, will alter your mind. So will you know something like a THCV or CBN and you know, cbn is great because it just helps you get a really deep sleep. And so a lot of people it's like oh, I can fall asleep, but then I can't stay asleep, or I wake up and then I can't fall back asleep, which is like maddening if you've suffered with that. And so, yeah, I think there's a very big niche there in just let's solve these very real problems that people have and like so they don't have to go to pharmaceuticals, because I've gone down that road and that's a very dangerous road to go down Because they do.
Speaker 2:They really alter your natural brain chemistry, you know. So I you know something like benzodiazepines, for instance, like Klonopin, because they really alter your natural brain chemistry. You know something like benzodiazepines, for instance, like Klonopin or Xanax or whatnot the anti-anxiety meds they relax you, but your brain is always trying to find homeostasis, and so if it's getting it in a synthetic form, it is shutting down its own natural production so it doesn't get flooded. So then that's why you can't just stop these things cold turkey, because it takes a while for your brain to pick up that production again. The great thing about cannabis is that we already have an endocannabinoid system. We're already making cannabinoids, and so when you take these phytocannabinoids, these cannabinoids from plants, it does, it basically just boosts your own internal production, and that's why people could use cannabis every day for 20 years and then not do it, and they're fine. There's no like physical withdrawals that they're going to go through or anything like that.
Speaker 2:You might kind of want it just because of habit, but you're already making your cannabinoids, so you're already you know you're good, and so if we can kind of divert people from going towards pharmaceuticals, give them a natural remedy, like that seems to be more of the mission there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that makes perfect sense. I mean, I think, for everyone that listens to this show. I think you guys would have been turned off by this point if you were in the other boat, but I think the boat that most people are in are, yeah, we're. We are extremely over prescribed in this country, and I don't know about other countries. But you know, again, like, what the pharmaceutical industry has done and continues to do is absolutely abhorrent to me and it's insane because they all they do is they outlaw the natural and they monopolize on the synthetic. That's all they're doing.
Speaker 1:And so for people like my mom, for instance, that were like, oh, I don't know, they were raised in a different time. You know, that's what I've explained to her. It's like, listen, everything you think you're going to get from pharmaceuticals you can actually get from natural medicines. But it won't be at a detriment, you know, because as soon as you start trying to mess with the way nature works, you start to have downstream effects, and that's what we've seen a lot in. You know, the pharmaceutical industry with the opiate addictions, benzodiazepines, like all these medicines that, honestly, I just don't feel are extremely necessary, maybe in very acute situations or, you know, with very specific types of people for a certain amount of time. But that's what it should be. It should be like okay, if we absolutely 100% need something like that, it should be only until we can figure out either what's going on or how to get your body producing something again, or if you have a ridiculously bad injury or something like that.
Speaker 1:But even then, you know, rso works incredible for pain relief. You know, my dad had cancer. We used RSO and it worked incredibly for his pain. He didn't even feel the pain anymore, you know. But also he got to have a very spiritual you know group of experiences that changed him, you know, all through the course of his life before he passed away. But you know, again, like I think that it's, it's interesting that if we think about the quote, how we do anything is how we do everything, then just think about how backwards we are. You know, like I'll jokingly say often that idiocracy is the only comedy that ended up being a documentary. You know, because we're one step away, rand, from feeding plants Gatorade. You know, we're one step away, you need those electrolytes.
Speaker 1:Such a funny movie, man. It's so true, you know so true. But I'm curious for you, man, like I'm just very interested to hear this. Like what have you noticed in terms of the biggest shift in the way the world, or at least the country, has looked at cannabis in the last 10 years? Because I can think of a lot of them. I mean number one I don't have to watch over my shoulder when I'm connecting with cannabis anymore. But I'm just curious, you know, because you're a farmer and these kind of things like did you notice anything like when you first started farming, were they coming to check more often Now? Do they check less? Like anything like that? I'm just curious if you notice anything like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I don't know it's, I guess in terms of just culturally like the, the vibe has shifted right For so long they couldn't even research cannabis, so there was so few studies for them to even turn to.
Speaker 2:And then I think, just you know, I don't know, I think it's maybe with our generation and everything that the view started to change. And I think the big thing that really started to shift it was CBD, because before then it was just THC. So if you're using cannabis, you're using it to get high, and with CBD they were saying no, no, no. Actually, this is very medicinal properties and it doesn't get you high and it's great for all these things, from inflammation to anxiety. It's like probably the best thing for anxiety. And so that started to open it up, then allow it to be studied more, and I think people started to look at it a very different way. And so I mean, I don't know, as a farmer, you know it's basically it's nice the way it played out, because if I was in a state that had like a recreational program, like California, the barrier to entry is very high. I mean there's getting the permits to grow you're looking at like half a million dollars, and then they want to inspect, they want you to have cameras everywhere, they want you to have all this stuff. It's it doesn't really. It basically makes it so that only the deep pockets can get in versus to get into this industry. Like, I think my hemp permit that first year was like 200 bucks and we basically had to get. You know, we had to have somebody come out and, you know, go and test our plants and everything before harvest, and that was about it. And so you know, now it's still kind of in that area and I think you know we still get pre-inspection testing or pre-harvest testing and then post-harvest testing and all that. But yeah, I don't know. It's funny that you know. And then, in terms of just opening a shop, right, there's actually probably less regulations that people have to jump through to open a cannabis dispensary than they would, to, say, sell tobacco, because when you do that, you're now having to deal with the ATF and that's a whole nother you know thing you have to go through. So we've seen a ton of shops just popping up left and right and they're kind of you know it's funny the way the industry goes is it was like 2019.
Speaker 2:It was like I mean, everybody got into it. Like I'm in, I'm in a old tobacco country in North Carolina, western North Carolina. So all everybody back here back in the day. That's what they grew, that's how they paid their bills, so it's in the blood of this area. And so when hemp became a thing, people were like, okay, this is the new tobacco, right? So everybody planted out. You know, some people like 40 acres and I'm like that's, I don't think they truly knew how much that is.
Speaker 2:And then there's a whole like well, you've got to harvest it, you've got to dry it, and like no, these old tobacco barns are probably not going to work for that, because the humidity doesn't really drop below 70%. So you know, that's going to be a tough, tough deal. And since I had worked in Humboldt for a bit, I knew how they did it. So I got to see like oh, this is how some of the best growers in the country are doing it. We need to build out a drying room, we need to be running dehumidifiers and like eight fans and keeping the temperature, you know, at like 60 degrees, and all that and all these little details.
Speaker 2:And so that first year, I think, because I had some of that knowledge, you know, we we were able to win a cannabis cup for our cherry cobbler and that kind of helped, but it was just like it was funny, like I did, I planted it out not knowing where I would sell it. You know, I'd heard people they were getting like $1,000 a pound and I was like, oh, I would love that. I'm used to trying to hustle vegetables, so that sounds pretty good to me.
Speaker 2:And so we did the harvest and I'm in the drying room, I got it all hanging up and my son, who's like three at the time, comes in. He's looking up and he's like like dad, what's this, you know, oh, it's hemp. And he goes, what you gonna do with all this hemp? That's a good question, I don't know. I gotta figure that out. So it was just like going around to the shops and doing my pitch and and handing out samples and um and all that. But it was, you know, trying to like. You know it was a very it still is a very competitive industry, but it kind of was like okay, boom, and then bust, and a ton of people get wiped out, you know. And then with the THCA you've kind of seen a second boom happening and a bunch of shops opening up and all this. And you know again, as a farmer it's tough because, like, the laws are always changing, the regulations are always changing.
Speaker 2:Now I heard that Georgia just passed a thing banning all flour, so even CBD flour. So accounts that I had down there the carrier flour. Now you know that's not really an option. So how long is the THCA loophole going to stay around? I really can't say, I feel like the cat's kind of out on the bag on that one. So I don't necessarily see them making it illegal.
Speaker 2:I could see it happening more like what certain states have done, where they might put in a total THC law and then, you know, because at the end of the day, like they don't care about it, but they want the tax money, they want the permit fees, you know, care about it, but they want the tax money, they want the permit fees, you know.
Speaker 2:And so I could see it kind of moving in that direction where they maybe try to make it so that only the deep pockets can be at the table. But you know, who knows how long that'll take. Like I just don't think it's a priority right now for politicians or, and it's just unpopular, like you're making it hard for your people to have access to the thing that they feel helps them, and so it's like I don't know, I just don't think there's much political will there, but it is always changing and that's why I kind of wanted to develop these new, like you know, these oils, because I don't really see like CBD oil going anywhere I don't think anybody's worried about that and I feel like some of the most medicinal benefits for people is just from you know, taking the extracts and getting some of these cannabinoids into their system.
Speaker 1:Definitely. Yeah, it's. It's a really interesting world and I'm glad you broke that all down because you know I've heard back and forth around whether it's going to stick, whether it's not. You know, I think that if we look at the last four years, it's like how many psyops can they get us in at once? You know, I think they have to play their cards right. They're like, oh, that one kind of backfired on us. We can't just take this away now because you know there's so much literature out now. I mean, I haven't heard.
Speaker 1:Um, very interesting uh thing, that podcast, and I've been enjoying it quite a bit. He does a lot of what I guess the normal public would call conspiracy theories, but he does it with people that have all the evidence etc. And I've been getting into Jack Cruz a lot Part of the reason I wear the glasses all the time the light guy. He kept talking about this guy, kevin McKiernan, who had figured out what was actually in the rhymes with Maxine put it that way. All right, and so I went on to this podcast like oh cool, let me go check it out. Like I already knew this shit was bunk from the get go, but it's nice to know the intricacies of it.
Speaker 1:So I started listening to this podcast and I'm like, before I listened to I was like this guy sounds familiar, but I can't remember where I've heard his name before. Well, the dude lives in Massachusetts, where I'm at, and he's one of the largest cannabis researchers out there. He was part of the Human Genome Project and he imagine, if Phylos did not do what Phylos did, that's kind of what he's looking to do. You know, he's kind of looking to map out the genetic terrain. That way, if someone takes, you know, rand Kush and names it Ryan Kush and is like I got this, he's like uh-uh, no, no, no, this is already over there and it's already named that. So you know, I think at one point we will need that for sure, because some of these clone only cuts.
Speaker 1:I mean, look at like the calculator cut, for instance, it goes for like 10 grand. So you know, again, it's very easy for people to pull the wool over people's eyes especially, and I can't say that I don't want this to happen. But it is a little bit comical to me, these uh msos that are starting the big multi-state organizations that don't know anything about cannabis. They're getting raked through the coals, getting sold bad cuts, you know, for like top dollar from someone in, like you know, humboldt county, like, yeah, this is totally this, you know, and they just screw him over. So I'm not a fan of you know, karma comes around. But at the same time, a lot of these people are, let's just say, not my flavor of ice cream, you know.
Speaker 1:But when I was listening to this guy he was like, yeah, yeah, man, imagine me I'm a cannabis researcher and I accidentally find out what's in the vaccine. Because he was trying to figure out what was happening with a disease he was finding on cannabis and in order to isolate it he needs mRNA. And so he was using his mRNA and he wasn't getting the result he thought he should be getting. So he formed a hypothesis that maybe his mRNA was corrupted in some way. So around this time he was doing a paper with Dr Peter Mikolov, who got a lot of attention on Rogan during the pandemic. And so after he did this paper, twitter followers from Peter just started sending Kevin vials of you know the thing and he was like what am I going to do with this? So he just kept throwing them in the freezer, like I don't know why people are sending me this. And then when he needed this mRNA, he was like, oh, I got pharmaceutical grade mRNA I can use that. And so when he used it, not only did he get the same result he was getting before, and he actually figured out what was happening with the disease, but he figured out a lot of other stuff too.
Speaker 1:And it's worth and just how much things have shifted in such a rapid amount of time. And that's one of the reasons I love what you guys do, because a lot of these minor cannabinoids are so medicinal and because of this like crazy THC craze that everyone's been addicted to for the past 20, 30 years or longer anyway, you know now a lot of these other cannabinoids are accidentally being bred out. You know, like THCP is a good one, for instance, like you know, between four to seven times more activating on the CB1 receptor site. But it's all been almost bred out and it's interesting to think that cannabis has actually lost a lot of its psychedelic properties since the modern hybridization era. So I'm glad there's people like you like creating these really cool blends.
Speaker 1:I mean, I haven't even tried the, the energy blend yet, and I'm really excited to try that because the THCV I've always enjoyed that cannabinoid when I've tried it in the past. And, and you're right, you know, even though they may not be intoxicating this is kind of how I decipher it. I'm like, yeah, they're not intoxicating, but they are psychoactive, you know. Very similar, like you said, you know the same way that coffee or paroxanthin or nicotine or whatever will make you feel a shift, but you're still able to drive a car and be your normal self. Very similar, same same, but different for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely. Yeah, that energy one don't take it after dinner. I always take it maybe early afternoon, but the THC view is so energizing and then, um, yeah, like things like CBD, they're really good for focus too. So playing around with like it's, it's nice to like, I can't really do energy drinks, you know, so that's not really an option for me. So that afternoon pickup, it's it's, it's great for that, you know, and it's like very just, it's energizing and it's focused, but it's not like jittery or, you know, it's not like taking Adderall or anything, it's just like calm, focused and energized.
Speaker 1:It's like a limitless it really is man you know what I would love to make a stack out of.
Speaker 1:Have you tried Parazanthin before? No, I never heard of it. Holy shit, dude, you got to try it. It's a. So the company that's getting very big doing it right now and, for anyone listening, I have no affiliation to them, I just love what they're doing. But it's this company called Update. I found them through my buddy, aaron Abkey, and they sell them down in Austin and I was like, oh, let me try one before a podcast and I was like, holy shit, this is amazing.
Speaker 1:It's apparently an isolate of the caffeine molecule. It's kind of like part of caffeine but it's not the full picture. And Update they make them into like an energy drink type thing, but they're totally clean, like there's nothing gross in there. They have like alpha GPC in there, some B vitamins and then just paroxanthin and the feeling it gives you man is imagine all the mental clarity and focus of caffeine, with literally zero jitters, zero of like the heart rate increase. You could drink them at like 5 pm and still sleep fine, like that's how they work. It's a mystical, a mystical, weird thing. But I've been very curious about combining paroxanthin with something like thcv. So maybe something to look into. I don't know. I mean you. You.
Speaker 2:you have much more you know chemistry skills than I do but it's getting to that point where I keep thinking of it as like meant, like, uh, alchemy in a way, yeah, crafting these things that will give this certain effect, and so that's where I think we're entering that territory, like we're beyond just, uh, this will get you high thing, and it's like we can really dial. And then you combine that with all these other supplements, um, because I've kind of gone down that rabbit hole too and and tried a bunch of different stuff, and it's like, yeah, like like your other podcasts, you, you know, like highly optimized, like how do we optimize our mental states, our physical states, our spiritual states? Because that's what people need right now. They're, they're, they're really suffering, we're just being poisoned from every direction, and so there needs to be something on the other end of that to counter this and help get people to their, their true state, the straight, the state they should be living in definitely.
Speaker 1:I 100 agree, man like we really are getting poisoned from every angle and for anyone listening, this isn't to instill fear, it's just to create observation. You know, fortunately the human body is extremely strong and fortunately nature makes no mistakes. So nature has all the quote-unquote cures we need. I mean, between grounding and getting out in the sun. I mean the sun is probably the most important thing, as I'm learning more and more about light. Also, if you can't be outside using a red light, you know making sure you're kind of protecting against blue light.
Speaker 1:You know utilizing cannabis, because cannabis is incredible at so many different things Number one, killing cancer cells. Number two, keeping them at bay. You know, like all these different aspects of the spiritual component of intoxication, where you're able to go through these experiences, like I went through my father, where all of a sudden you remember who and what you truly are. But what's really unique about cannabis as opposed to other psychedelics and I talk about this often I think cannabis is the only psychedelic I feel that connects me at the same time to my infiniteness and my finiteness, like my spirit and my human. It's like it perfectly synergizes both of those identities, so that I don't feel like I'm escaping or even leaving this reality, but I get to get ideas and downloads from where reality truly is, if that makes sense. You know, like with mushrooms or MDMA is a little different, but it's also synthetic so you got to be careful with it.
Speaker 1:But with mushrooms or LSD or even ayahuasca or something like that, I feel like I go so far away from my identity as a human being. That number one it takes a long time to integrate, which is just not practical for a lot of people. Number two I really enjoy being in the world. At this point, like I've done enough work on myself and fortunately I found what I love to do and I get to talk to amazing people like you and so honestly, like when I'm going to take mushrooms, part of me is like oh man, I don't want to leave the world for that long. You know which. It used to be totally different. But that's why cannabis helps so much, because I can do some breath work, come back and you know 45, 60 minutes and have a complete earth shattering experience in that time. It's amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I get what you mean.
Speaker 2:It's a nice feeling because for so long I was trying to change my mental state, because my mental state was really bad and I think that's, you know, it's one of the things that really pulled me in that direction. It's like, okay, this can kind of flip things and um, but now I, I really just like my, you know, like my natural mental state, you know, and there's, I mean, it took a while to get there, but yeah, I just think I don't know, there's, I've always. I remember when I was really like in high school and I was getting, uh, you know, kind of I was at odds with my parents over this whole thing and they didn't really get it. You know, they're from previous generation where it was, you know, very frowned upon, and I found this thing helping me and I remember my mom saying, well, it's a crutch. And now, like in later years, I look back and I was like, okay, I'll buy that. Yeah, you're right, it can become a crutch, but sometimes it's like you need crutches to get around, you'reled which I was dude.
Speaker 1:It's so true, man. You know and it's interesting you mentioned about the the challenges of having family members that don't understand or don't support. I work with a lot of people that are dealing with shame and guilt around utilizing this plant, and that's why I love doing episodes on cannabis, because every time I'll make sure to mention the fact that what we're talking about here. You know, we may use different language or we may make different products or things like that, but cannabis being utilized as not just physical medicine but spiritual medicine is not a new thing. I mean, it's been happening for over 10,000 years. You know, you can find cannabis residue from hash in ancient Jerusalem and their ceremonial sites. You can find it in Asia, you can find it in Africa, you can find it in North America. I mean it's really like it was all around the Silk Road. It was extremely revered at that time. You know, one of the earliest things that the Scythians used to do was essentially build a primitive teepee. You know, take hot stones that were on a fire all day, throw them inside this tent and just dump a bale of cannabis on there and close it up and all laugh like hyenas inside. So, like you know, I think that the biggest thirst trap we've been given is this idea that by shifting your consciousness as a human being, that somehow a crutch or bad, etc. And, like you said, yes, anything can come into dysfunction. But that says a lot more about the individual and maybe the challenges they're working through than the actual medicine itself. And also, when you've had a medicine that's so essential to human life but has been stamped out, you know people have had to keep secret for fear of prosecution and persecution.
Speaker 1:It's no wonder why a lot of us are ending up in a dysfunctional relationship with it, because we never actually learned what a healthy relationship with it was, because it was always looked at as this thing that was going to get us put in jail, rot our brain, et cetera.
Speaker 1:So it's almost like no wonder so much of this is so sticky, like no wonder why the past generations are terrified of us utilizing it because they think it's heroin. They literally think it's the same thing. No wonder why we feel so frustrated because we've been alive in this new generation where we have this information and we also have seen the other things that the same people that tell us we shouldn't do it for our safety have done to poison us and all these things, and so we're having to still go to Thanksgiving and Christmas, let's say, and interact with individuals that we may love, but we don't get them, they don't get us, and so there's a lot of multiple facets, you know, included into this work that make it otherwise, you know, challenging, not impossible, but challenging. And I think that it's our generation, you know, millennials, maybe Gen Z, but definitely millennials that are starting to really change the game when it comes to education, products we're creating and the whole image of what it means to be a cannabis user. It's a really cool thing that I'm seeing happen.
Speaker 2:It's a cool time to be a part of this industry and to be working with this plant, just as a farmer. It's a fun plant to grow. I love growing all plants, but it's crazy how you can go from this tiny little seedling in like three or four months have like a six foot tree, and this one might smell like garlic and this one might smell like blueberry, and it's just, it's wild, like there's no other crop like that, and it's one of those things where the attention you give it really comes out in the final product. You know, and you know versus like. If I'm growing carrots, most people are just like a carrot is a carrot, you know, and they're only willing to spend so much more for organically grown, hand harvested carrots than they are. You know, just the quote unquote, organic carrots from Whole Foods, and so that's a tough game to play on a small scale. But with cannabis, like, yeah, I mean everything down to the way you grow, the way you prune and down to the drying process and the curing process, like it's really like an artisan product and you know there's levels to this, so you can always get better, you can always improve. And there's something, too, that I mean.
Speaker 2:I've talked about how I started playing music. I have this, this playlist. It's like, um, orthodox chants, it's like byzantine chanting, right and, and I'll play it for like in the drawing room and everything, because I believe that is going to go into the plants. I've grown it in our indoor run and it's like and some people scoff at that they're like ah, the plants don't feel your vibrations and stuff, and I'm like, well, they're mostly water, though they're mostly water and we can tell there's been studies that show that water can sense vibrations and is affected by its environment. So why wouldn't the plants be? And so they're.
Speaker 2:And I I wonder too if, like, if something was grown in a very paranoid setting. You know, I'm thinking like back in the day up in humboldt, where you've got guys like patrolling with 847s and there's so much money around that everybody's like on edge, like I wonder that has to somehow go into the plants themselves. And then you know, you might have identical strains and one person you know one makes you paranoid and one doesn't. You know that's the thing is like you could grow identical genetics in two different environments and get like two different types of flower at the end of it.
Speaker 2:And not really another crop I know of, that's like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, dude it's so funny you mentioned that because that was one of the biggest downloads I got about five years ago that the reason I loved connecting with my own cannabis was it was a great way to understand my own energy and to know about myself and learn about myself to a deeper degree, because I couldn't look outside, you know, of myself if anything made me, you know, feel anxiety or paranoia, and that's what led to the realization that, oh yeah, cannabis is a mirror. It's only showing you what you already have inside of you and I think that's why, like if you look at like the hallucinogen mysteries, or you look at like any of these mystery schools that used to work with plant medicine back thousands of years ago, it was almost like the last thing you did. Like you had to have so many foundational elements down of meditation, understanding how to control your breath, regulate your emotions, take accountability over your life, before you were ever instructed to connect with a plant medicine, because it's so easy for the ego to create projections of like, oh, cannabis makes me paranoid. It's like, really, are you sure that wasn't already inside of you? And then also, if it was already or wasn't already inside of you, are you sure that you know who grew it and are you aware of what energy they grew it in? Because, joe Patitucci, I want to hug this guy when I meet him one day. I want to hug this guy when I meet him one day because, like you, I've had this understanding that I gained from the ether for, you know, quite a few years now.
Speaker 1:Yet it was very challenging with certain people. You can tell the left brain. People were like well, show me the science. And even science says we only see 5% of visible reality. So it's one of those catch 22s.
Speaker 1:So Joe Patitucci created a system called PlantWave, and he actually did this with cannabis too, which is really cool. So what he does is he made this electrode system that you can hook up to plants and you can actually hear the song they sing when someone comes in, projecting hate versus love, very similar to a Masaru Emoto work. But if you go on YouTube and this is for anyone listening too and you look up Joe Patitucci plant wave cannabis, you can find he has a I don't know how long it is, I think it's pretty long, but it's just a cannabis plant growing and it's like the most beautiful music you'll ever hear. Man, it's so wild, but that actually shows that, of course, like I mean, you know, for anyone that's had a big psychedelic experience you come back understanding that you know nothing and you come back understanding that everything is connected, which is obvious if you understand oneness and what a lot of these sacred texts were talking about before they got bastardized by human beings and man in general. But it makes total sense.
Speaker 1:But again, like we live in a world that's kind of split right now between the people that maybe have some access to clear senses, psychic senses, intuition, et cetera, and the people that otherwise do not. Yet you know, and I think that's by design, I think it's all divine, I think that maybe there are many people that aren't meant to access those, those, those senses in this lifetime, just the same way that there was only one shaman in the village, you know. And these days I think that a lot of us are starting to evolve our consciousness and starting to get into what my buddy Aaron would call fourth dimensional consciousness, heart centered, you know, consciousness which is a lot more intuitive in nature. Like you think about women, like women naturally have a more attuned ability to access intuition, and my girlfriend's an astrologer and you know she'll tell me things, and over time I've just gotten used to being like wow, okay, like I guarantee it's going to come true in some way.
Speaker 1:My logical brain may be like that's completely silly. And then it happens and I'm like okay, and so I've had enough of those experiences now where I just know wise is the man who knows. He does not know. I just want to be humble, I want to believe in the interconnectedness of all things, because for me that's a more fun reality. But it is fascinating that plant wave system. I don't know if you've ever heard of that before.
Speaker 2:No, I got to check that out. That is cool. Yeah, it's interesting, man, think about knowing things. You can know things in your head, but then there's another knowing that comes from your heart. You know, and it's like I mean. Knowledge can be derived from either one.
Speaker 2:But, I think our, you know, this was something people knew forever, like every culture across the world. And then, just within the past hundred, 200 years, like we've lost a lot of that. And then you know, science and academia wants to be able to explain everything, and they're not OK with mystery, they're not OK with the mystical, but you know, like that humility says like we really don't know hardly anything. You know, the things we think we know. We probably don't even know, so yeah, life's just one big paradox.
Speaker 1:You know, that's what I found and that's what's beautiful about it. You know, and the analogy that came to me one day as a idea that I love saying these in these uh types of scenarios is were you someone as a kid that wanted to open your christmas presents early, or were you someone who waited until Christmas morning? Like, imagine you find them in the closet, do you look or not? That's kind of what I find a lot of like. This controlling science narrative feels like to me. It's like, no, we need to understand everything. It's like, but why, like? Why do you need to understand everything? It's almost like this maniacal like oh well, show me the science, because do you need to understand everything? It's almost like this maniacal like oh well, show me the science. Because if it's not real and it's not real and it's like, why do you guys have to have that tight of a grip?
Speaker 1:You know and this is just a general question, not a judgment it's just like curious, because for me, maybe it's how many psychedelics I hit early in my 20s or whatever.
Speaker 1:But I just got to a point where I'm like everything is working perfectly.
Speaker 1:I don't need to understand all the intricacies, because to the degree that I'm okay with mysteries, the degree to which I'm able to enter the kingdom of heaven by entering first the mind of a child, like the bible says, and so kids, what makes life so interesting is, even if they've seen the tree outside 10 times, they haven't seen it today, whereas adults, as we get adulterated, we start to be like I'm seeing it every day and it just it happens slowly, you don't really notice it. And that's what psychedelics and one big part do, cannabis included is they help you like, go outside and look at the same things you've looked at for many years, potentially, but with a totally new set of eyes. And once you have that experience enough, you just start to always have that type of look when you go outside, or when you're on a computer, or when I'm drinking water or playing a guitar. I played for 15 years. It's like, like, but I haven't played it today and I think that's a cool spot to get to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a very interesting point, man. Like you know, it's basically like we get stuck in these thought patterns. They develop gradually over time, whether that's these self-limiting beliefs or whatever, but they become so ingrained in us and then, you know, it's our thoughts that basically determine our reality. So reality just is, but then our thoughts kind of color our glasses and then and then everything from that. So when I look back on my past, it was like there wasn't necessarily anything wrong with my life, but my thought patterns were really twisted and that just kept me locked in, and so that's probably what led me to down a path of seeking.
Speaker 2:You know, it's like, well, what is the point of all this, you know, and and like really wanting these deeper answers and not just being satisfied to like go to a job and, you know, do have a little fun on the weekends, like I can't do that. I need. There has to be something deeper here. And, yeah, one thing about psychedelics is they do kind of break those. They can break those patterns and give you a different way. What am I, what am I stressing about, what am I so worried about this thing for? And give you just a different perspective, a different way of looking at things and you know sometimes like people really need that because these, these patterns get so ingrained and it's hard to it's hard to see a way out of it.
Speaker 1:Definitely man, 100%. And speaking of past experiences, I remember you saying you had one you wanted to share on the show and I'd love to give you the floor to share that if you're open to sharing it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, I'd love to. It'll probably be the first time I've shared this story publicly, but this seems as good as a place as any.
Speaker 1:Yes, this is the place, man, so.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So anyway, yeah, I had used psychedelics, you know, mushrooms, lsd, all that stuff for years and early on, you know, in like high school, it was just to see colors and stuff. There wasn't really that much of a spiritual aspect to it. And then, as I got, you know, like into my 30s and stuff, you know, I kind of like, I kind of put it off. When I started the farm I was just so busy. It was a dad, I was a farmer, I was working a hundred hour weeks.
Speaker 2:But you know, 2020 was a tough year for many reasons. I saw things shifting in the world that I didn't like and there was a part of me that didn't understand it really like, didn't really understand. Like I could see things were changing but I didn't quite understand what was going on. And just in my own life at the end of 2020, I kind of found myself. It felt like everything was burning down around me. You know, it kind of was this feeling like you know, I had started the farm and my mindset up until that point was like I'm going to do it, I'm going to make it work, I'm going to make it happen, no matter what. Whatever I have to work, I'm going to do that and, okay, that got me through. But, um, you know, at a certain point I think at the end of 2020 I kind of just I think I became a little humbled and I was like, man, I don't have this, like I don't got this, and I really started.
Speaker 2:It started opening me back up, uh, to where? Okay, I'm just going to take some time in the morning, I'm going to sit, I'm going to meditate, I'm going to kind of try to clear my head right and so, um, around that time you know, this is like going into 2021, somebody I had listened to for years, a podcaster. He started describing 2020 and all that was happening in spiritual terms, and so it actually seemed to describe reality better than anything else. Like I was coming from a libertarian perspective, so I could see the tyranny, I could see all that, but I didn't. I could sense there was something describe reality better than anything else. Like I was coming from a libertarian perspective, so I could see the tyranny, I could see all that, um, but I didn't. I could sense there was something happening on another level here, and so he started talking about in spiritual terms and particularly like, um, like christian spiritual terms, right, um, and this was never him before.
Speaker 2:He was just like an anarchist, bitcoiner kind of guy, and so it started kind of opened me up to like, okay, maybe I need to reconsider some of these things, because I had kind of, you know, I grew up catholic and I kind of went to college, I fell away, I studied philosophy, kind of became a nihilist, you know all that, uh, but you know, I was searching, I was, I was searching, and so I started kind of like I'd say, that door started cracking open a little bit. Um, and so 2021 is going on and I'm, I'm, I'm seeking answers, right, so I get involved with this local Ayahuasca community and I do a two night ceremony with them, and I find it pretty beneficial, um, so then a couple of months later, I go back for another one, and so I would say at that point, like I was, I had the door to Christianity was pretty closed for me, and, and then it started cracking open a little bit over the course of that year. I said, well, maybe these stories have some deeper symbolic meaning that people can gain value from and this, and that it was, like you know, gradually opening, opening, and I'm going to this ceremony and I remember we're sitting in the ceremony, it's about to, it hasn't started yet and I had this terrible pain, like in my neck and in my shoulder, and I was thinking like man, I'm gonna have to sit through this whole ceremony with this terrible pain and this voice in my head. Like I brought this little wooden cross with me. They tell you to bring like an object, and I don't know, I have this little wooden cross I me. They tell you to bring like an object, and I don't know, I have this little wooden cross. I wasn't really Christian at the time, but I brought it with me and some voice, like an inner voice in my head, said put the cross on it. And so I, just I did. And then the next thought was oh, this is nothing for God. Like for God to just heal my shoulder right now is nothing. And literally at that instant the pain vanished and I'm just like, okay, that's. That was weird. Like that's never. We haven't even drank in any medicine yet, like that's. So we're going around the room, everyone's telling their intentions and when it gets to me I said yeah.
Speaker 2:In the last ceremony I had this very strong feeling of being called into battle. I just want to know what that means. I'm ready to serve, and I didn't even really know what I was saying, right? But that was my intention. And so the ceremony starts, we go up, I drink the first cup of medicine, lay down, and it just felt right to lay with that cross on my chest. So I did, and I fell asleep and I wake up halfway through everyone's going up for the second cup and I'm like, okay, dang it. No, I don't want to fall asleep Like now. I should be well rested. Like I need visions, I need answers.
Speaker 2:You know, I drink the second cup, lay back down, with across my chest, and I fall asleep again and I wake up and the ceremony's over, and and so I had no visions, I had no, no, nothing like that, but something shifted in me and like I could feel something had shifted and it was like a 20 plus year heaviness that I had carried with me from like the age of 10 was just pulled off of me. And so the following week, the following weeks, everything I'm experiencing true joy like I've never experienced before. And I'm like I still don't understand this experience. I don't, I don't, I'm like kind of like, but to me it kind of just it blew my mind a little bit, cause I was like there's a real power here that I and and and I'm experiencing like true healing.
Speaker 2:It felt like, and so that's just been kind of the process since, like you know, it took me probably another eight months before I actually was like, okay, you know, like let's check out a church, right, and I live kind of in Baptist country and none of that really ever drew me. But the same person who kind of helped crack that door in the beginning started talking about Orthodox Christianity which I had never heard of, and so I started looking into it and I realized, oh, this is like the original version. So I go and I check out an Orthodox church for the first time and it was like it was like walking into another world, like it was very different from like the rock band kind of. You know all that.
Speaker 2:It was the mystical Right, the incense, the icons, like the chanting. It like put me in another world. And so I'm going there and half of it's in Russian or Greek and I don't even understand it. But I'm leaving 10 pounds lighter and I was like, what is this? And it needed to be mystical because otherwise it wouldn't keep me.
Speaker 2:You know, like I'm seeking something deeper and for me it's been like the deeper I go, the deeper that I see.
Speaker 2:That it is and in a similar way to psychedelics, it's like things are revealed, but almost in a more gentle way, like sometimes on psychedelics it's like drinking from a fire hydrant. It's like so much is coming through and you just it's hard to even grasp anything, it's hard to even integrate anything. And my experience with orthodoxy has been I might be standing there in liturgy and all of a sudden I will get a reason like a realization, and it's usually like something. It's not usually about how great of a person I am, it might be like, but it's almost like I think you're ready to see this about yourself right now. And it's like it's gentle but it's very like direct and so it's just and it's it's permeates everything. It's kind of like it's completely shifted my reality and, um, I don't know it's been, it's, it's still just an ongoing experience and but, um, yeah, that's that's, that's my story, man, that's kind of what's led me to where I am today and, um, I'm still just kind of on that journey.
Speaker 1:Dude, thank you for sharing that man. It's such a beautiful story. And you know, one thing I'm really big on right now the listeners know I mentioned this on almost every episode but that the language of God is simplicity, the language of the ego is complexity, and so like. For me, what I've loved about getting into, let's say, jesus and his teachings is that when you get far enough back, it's super simple. When you get far enough back, it's super simple. When you get like far enough into it, you know you start realizing like, oh, this has definitely been corrupted by man. You know my buddy Aaron is I'm probably one of the world experts on this whole entire like how it happened, all the intricacies, everything. I think you'd like his content a lot.
Speaker 1:He grew up, I think, fundamentalist Christian I'm not positive and then he ended up leaving the church when he had a kundalini awakening. I mean, his parents owned a church in San Francisco, like he grew up being the pastor's child, you know the whole thing then found his way back to Jesus's teachings through A Course in Miracles and through the Law of One, which is a great book in my opinion. To talk about the energetics of what we see here in reality it's a little bit of a dry book, honestly. You could probably look up a synopsis of it and get the idea of it. But A Course in Miracles has been wildly powerful for me. I first found out about that whole area of Jesus's teachings and everything through a book called the Disappearance of the Universe, which I also mentioned on, legitimately, every fucking episode I ever do now because it was such a powerful book I always suggested to people that are open to the teachings of Jesus and non-dualism and things like that. There's a great book that the same author wrote. It's his fourth book in the series. It's called the Lifetimes, when Jesus and Buddha Knew Each Other. And that book, as I was listening to it, it was like idea, idea, idea.
Speaker 1:After that I became very drawn to theanta daime approach to ayahuasca because they include a lot of jesus and like that whole idea in there of christ consciousness. They're also very open to including cannabis with ayahuasca, which for me, as I've listened to this whole like oh, cannabis and ayahuasca are jealous spirits. I'm like that's human projection put onto something that's not human. You know, like when you talk to these different, like plant spirits, they're not at odds with each other. You know, at the end of the day, like, yes, there were intricacies, like should you be smoking nonstop before you go to Ayahuasca? Probably not, you know, like there's, there's definitely some truth there.
Speaker 1:But I remember meeting Hamilton Souther and asking him about that Cause I always called bullshit on it. I was like I don't think that's true. And he was like listen, man, he's like most of these cultures that work with ayahuasca, cannabis was never a part of their lineage. So for thousands of years they've kept the same lineage going For them. They're just like no, we're not going to include it because it's not part of it. And I respect that. I get it. You, each other.
Speaker 1:He's like I mix them together quite often and it's just interesting to see, like, once again, simplicity, you know, it's like thinking these plants are warring spirits with each other. It's just so silly, you know, but it's been amazing to see this resurgence of people getting into Jesus and more of like the unadulterated version, you know, not necessarily having to read all the scripture and have to be anywhere Sunday, but choosing to go because it makes them feel good. Like that's simplicity to me, like what you're saying is I keep going because I feel great when I go. It's like, yeah, that's how simple life can be Just follow what feels good to you and you'll always end up in the right places with the right people doing the right things. And it reminds me of that One of my favorite favorite quotes, which is there are endless paths to reach the same destination.
Speaker 1:The only one that's quote-unquote wrong is the one that tells you it's the only way to get there. And that's what I loved about a course of miracles and disappearance and those books, as they say no, all these systems can get you there. There are some that are maybe more efficient than others, you know, haven't been bastardized as much or adulterated, but they all get you there. You know, whether you want to believe in the flying spaghetti monster, jesus, whether you want to believe in whoever you know, as long as it makes you feel good, it'll lead you somewhere. Good, you know, so cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I definitely see people are searching, you know, and I'm like in Asheville, so it's sort of this, it's a place for people who are searching, right, and that's probably why I ended up here.
Speaker 2:And I think as long as people are seeking truth, like they're not just content to just look what's on the football game, you know they're. They are craving something deeper. And I think today our generation and younger generations, more than ever, because they've seen the trap of consumerism, they've seen this doesn't bring happiness and I think the more you look into it you're like we, we can't just explain everything through materialist lens, Like it's not a, it's not a fitting view for reality. And so you know, if you're putting all your faith in the science, like we saw where that leads, you know we, we've seen so. So people are now they're more open, They've. You know, even the whole thing with the media is like the everything's kind of breaking down and it's being reborn and it's, it's cool to see and it's um.
Speaker 2:I mean, people are just, they're seeking spiritual healing and I think if you just you know that's a good thing, Like if you keep searching, like that's definitely a good thing, that hunger and everything is um, because we know on a deeper level, like there's there has to be something else, know, there's like it's like a piece in us that's missing and it's that connection to the divine and you can't fill that with any material thing.
Speaker 2:So we're we're trying to come up with, like you know, even things like battling depression, like they always just said, oh, this is a chemical imbalance and that. And I was like, well, what causes that? And they're like, well, you know, your chemicals just get a little wonky. And then you got to take this pill and it's like, yeah, I mean it might kind of modulate, that sort of, but that's not really. There's no pill that makes you happy. That's a spiritual state, that's an inner state, and so it's like we're trying to apply a materialist solution to a spiritual problem. And so this has just been my experience, Like I don't know how to explain it, but it's given me a different viewpoint on everything and I don't know, it's made all the difference.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 100% man. I totally agree. And you know, there's another quote that I love, which is what you are seeking is also seeking you, and I think that's what you find when you're a seeker. You start realizing there's like a relationship. I mean, obviously this makes sense, but there is a relationship with this other entity God, source, universe, consciousness, flying spaghetti monster, whatever you want to call it where it's also seeking us. Like, what do you think is making us want to seek? You know it's, it's the feeling, there's something there, and I think that if you can get into the mind of a child and realize that you may never know, but as long as you're on the path and feeling good, that's really the journey is the destination, right. So I think it's funny.
Speaker 1:We hear all these quotes throughout time of like oh, the journey is the destination, follow your fun. Or like live, laugh, love, right. Like the common Hallmark quote that I think a lot of us have just got numb to. When you start experiencing these things, all these quotes make a lot of sense. It's like oh, now, whoever that was. Like the Life is Good t-shirts Remember those from 20 years ago? That dude got it. That guy definitely got something that, once you touch the primordial soup, if you will, you start realizing what this infinite source of joy and everything really is, and it's where we come from, it's what we truly are, and so, of course, we're looking to get back there, and also, I think the goal, if you will, or at least for me the goal has been how do I remind myself consistently of who and what I truly am, while also keeping myself reminded that I chose to sign up to play this really fun game, the only game left in the universe? Once you're the all, the only game you have is to leave the all and become something or someone, and then the pathway back is to reach the all. And so, like I really think that what we're doing here is God experiencing itself in a infinite amount of different calculations, to put it in scientific, of different calculations, to put it in scientific terms, or different expressions, to put it in more of a spiritual lens, and I think that's the beauty of it and that's why, for me, when I go to psychedelics now, I'm not looking to get back there, because I know I've been there. At least I believe and know to my core, subjectively, that I've been there forever and I always will will be there, and I'm still there right now. But I'm here in this dream world for like a micro dose of time, and so I'm like what can I really learn about this experience, while still knowing that when I go home, everyone I've ever loved is there. We're all infinite?
Speaker 1:It's kind of like the amusement park analogy. Can I look at life like I'm at Six Flags and some of my friends, my family members, et cetera, have just chosen to go home before me, but when I go back home they'll all be hanging out, having a barbecue, whatever. Can I stay rested there? I'm still excited to go ride these roller coasters, not literally, because I hate roller coasters, but metaphorically. I'm excited to be at Six Flags. Yeah, I miss the people that have left early, but I know I'm going to see them again, so can I even ride the rides harder for all of them that have already gone home?
Speaker 1:I think that, for me, is where I seek to be as much as possible. That's like the muscle that I'm really developing at this point is can I be here now, but can I also be living for the people that came before me, but still not be trying to like rush home? You know, and that's what I see in psychedelics often and that's where I was for a long time is I just kept wanting to get back there, and then after a while, I started realizing oh shit, I think this is the experience that I signed up for, and so I must want to be here for a reason.
Speaker 2:So it's so fascinating, yeah that's when you realize that there are no coincidences, like I think that's a coincidence, implies that it's just some random event. And when you really start to see things, you're like, oh, like, every event is put in my life for a reason and it's not what happens to you, it's how you react to it. That really, you know, is going to determine, like your, your spiritual state, you know, and your way of being. So I don't know, man, yeah, that's, that's cool stuff, it's really cool man, dude.
Speaker 1:This has been amazing. Rand. I'm so excited we got to do this, man, and so pumped that I get to meet you in person. Give you a big old hug, dude. Can't wait to do more of these episodes as well. We wrap up here.
Speaker 1:I want to make sure people know where they can find everything about Acura Botanicals. I'm an affiliate guy, so I'll have a code in the show notes for you guys to save 15%. But where can they go to find everything about Acura Botanicals? Connect with you if they have any questions and just keep up to date with everything you got going on, man, because you guys are doing some really amazing stuff. And for all the listeners I'll say again, like I've been around, like I've been looking for years now for a THCA supplier, and not just THCA, but also hemp flower, also all the stuff you guys do. I've been looking for someone that does that in a way that I can just tell their heart is in the right place. And this isn't to diss anyone else, like their decisions are wrong, but just to find someone that I identify with, that understands what I understand with regards to regenerative agriculture and guys, I gotta say I found it at akira botanicals. So where can they find everything rand?
Speaker 2:uh, well, you can go to akira botanicalscom. That's our website and everything. And, in terms of like social media, you know akira botanicals at instagram. We try to post there and try to mix it up with you know showing, you know farming videos and stuff as well. Uh, we got a youtube channel with not a ton of content. I'm hoping to put more content up there, but it's like I almost need like a film crew because it's like I can do this thing that needs to be done, or I can film it or it's going to take a while. But yeah, people should reach out. They can also email me, rand R-A-N-D at acarobotanicalscom. I'm always happy to answer anybody's questions. And yeah, that's about it, man, I hope. Yeah, if you're ever down in Western North Carolina, look me up. I'd love to have you out to the farm.
Speaker 1:Just let me know, dude, if we do any more parties at my buddy Mark's farmhouse in Virginia, you should definitely come. I'll get you a spot to come. It's a blast man. He's got a hundred acre farm. He's right in the Amish country so we're getting raw milk and all the good things. We're shooting guns. He's a big AK-47 guy. So his birthday every year in July he has his buddy come out who's a firearms instructor and has a federal license for fully automatic weapons. He's ex-military so we'll shoot off fully automatic AKs. Last year he brought a BAR big-ass rifle AKs. Last year he brought a BAR big ass rifle like World War II. So fun. But yeah, I go down there quite frequently and I imagine we got to be close, pretty close together from Virginia to North Carolina at that point. So I'll definitely let you know when I come down next.
Speaker 2:Yeah, please do. I'd love to come out for that.
Speaker 1:Heck, yeah, dude, it's super fun. And, rand, I got one last question for you, man, and that question is let's say, someone listens to this episode and they're really excited after they hear it to check out and apply psychedelic medicines to their own life. What is the one piece of advice that you could offer them to allow them to use the proper discernment and understanding whether or not these medicines are right for them in their life right now, at this time?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a good question. I would say the most important thing is, I would start small. I would just realize that, you know, psychedelics are opening you up, anything like you're kind of opening yourself up. And then, when I look back on some of my previous experiences like when I was in high school and I would take a bunch of psychedelics and go to a concert and it was just like lights and everything like that um, I'm not, I think I probably did myself some damage.
Speaker 2:Um, because when you're opening yourself up, anything can come through and you know there's it's a very, you know there's a very spiritual element here. So I would say, proceed with caution. You know the set and setting. Make sure you're in a good place going into it, but then, most of all, make sure that you can really integrate the experience. Like that's probably as important as the experience itself. Because, you know, I remember the one of the shamans that I sat with. She said something like if you just want to see pretty lights and stuff, watch a movie, I'll get you a Coke. It's not about necessarily seeing lights shifting or, you know, wood grain or like the real, uh, real revelations come from inside and and so, um, yeah, that's what. That's what I would recommend to anybody who's kind of venturing into this place. Proceed with caution. Um and uh, you know? Be sure that you can integrate everything.
Speaker 1:Dude, I love that. Random guys. I am so excited that random I got to do this episode. As I already said before and I'll say again, please make sure to check out Akira Botanicals if you or someone you know is seeking high quality medicine, If you're in the US and Rand I forgot to ask this. I'm pretty sure the answer is no, but do you guys ship outside of the country anywhere? Are you allowed to do that? I don't think so, right?
Speaker 2:you allowed to do that? I don't think so. Right, yeah, I have. I had some people reach out from like the UK and Canada and I just haven't. We might be able to but we currently don't. I think it's just you know customs and all that. And then I've talked to other people that do it and they just say the shipping time and people don't like waiting two weeks for their package to show up, but there's, there's just not much you can do about that. So unfortunately, just just the 50 states right now.
Speaker 1:Gotcha, gotcha and you guys reach out to me often from a lot of places in America asking where you can find stuff. Just like I grow, and Rand is who I am teaming up with, akira Botanicals because they do exactly what I do and they do it in an incredible way as well. So make sure you go check them out. Go down to the show notes. I'm going to have all the links there and until next time, guys, may the source be with you to infinity and beyond Peace, guys.
