“Time to pray”- a True Riches to Rags to salvation Addiction story

In this compelling episode of the Crackin' Backs Podcast, we are honored to host Robert "Cord" Beatty, a man whose life reads like an epic tale of triumph, despair, and redemption. Cord's journey from a successful retired Marine to working alongside the iconic Stan Lee of Marvel Comics sets the stage for an incredible narrative. However, it's the dramatic shift from these remarkable highs to the depths of addiction and homelessness that captures the essence of human resilience and the power of transformation.

With stark honesty, Cord recounts how his life spiraled out of control, leading him to lose everything to drug addiction, ultimately finding himself without a roof over his head, living out of his car. It was not until hitting rock bottom at the age of 46, being told by Doctors to Pray, as his body started shutting down. 

Agfter surviving the night, he asked his parents for help and they sent him to Tibet.  In this unlikely place, Cord found a new beginning, working for mere dollars a day, but gaining something far more valuable: clarity and a path to recovery.

Cord's return to the United States marked the beginning of a revolutionary chapter in his life. Drawing on his experiences and newfound knowledge, he founded an addiction clinic that employs unique methods involving magnets and brain work to assist others battling addiction. His innovative approach has since blossomed into over a hundred centers nationwide, each dedicated to helping individuals reclaim their lives from the grips of addiction.

Throughout the episode, Cord delves into the formidable obstacles he's faced, from confronting his own mortality and overcoming addiction to scaling metaphorical mountains (He actually climbed MT. Everest while living in Tibet, that tested his resolve and determination. He reflects on his purpose, the profound lessons learned through his journey, and his proudest achievements, offering listeners an intimate glimpse into the mind of a man who has lived through extremes of human experience.

Moreover, Cord shares his nuanced perspective on addiction, challenging conventional views and advocating for a broader understanding of the term. His story is not just one of personal victory but also a beacon of hope for anyone fighting their own battles, making this episode a must-listen for those seeking inspiration, insight, and a testament to the indomitable human spirit. Join us on the Crackin' Backs Podcast as we explore the life of Robert "Cord" Beatty, a true survivor and innovator in the field of addiction recovery.

We are two sports chiropractors, seeking knowledge from some of the best resources in the world of health. From our perspective, health is more than just “Crackin Backs” but a deep dive into physical, mental, and nutritional well-being philosophies.

Join us as we talk to some of the greatest minds and discover some of the most incredible gems you can use to maintain a higher level of health. Crackin Backs Podcast

Transcript

Dr. Spencer Baron: 0:01

Welcome to the cracking backs podcast where today we sat down to talk about the extraordinary journey of Robert "Cord" Beatty, from the disciplined life of a retired Marine to the dazzling heights of working with the legendary Stan Lee of Marvel Comics. Cord's story is at one of unparalleled highs. Yet, it is also a tale of harrowing lows, losing it all to addiction, becoming homeless, and laying on death's door as organs began shutting down with the doctors giving up and leaving him with one word, pray. He woke up after surviving the night and at 46 with nothing but a few dollars from his parents. Cord's quest for change led him to the serene mountains of Tibet, where he embarked on a path of self discovery and recovery, even climbing to the top of the world, Mount Everest. Returning to the States with a renewed purpose, CT had revolutionized addiction treatment, opening several treatment centers to help others find their way back. Today, court shares his insights on conquering life's Everest, finding purpose amidst despair, and redefining addiction. Join us as we explore the depths of human resilience and the power of transformation with Robert"Cord" Beatty.

Dr. Terry Weyman: 1:25

Right. All right, thank you, Cord, for being part of our show for hanging with us today off air. I was talking to our current episode guest Matt Blanchard, and he goes, dude, you've got to talk to this guy. My jaw was on the ground. He's a great storyteller, but what what a ride this man has had in his life. So I can't dig into this incredible colorful painting that we're going to call your life so thank you for agreeing on such short notice to come on board and share your journey with us.

Robert "Cord" Beatty: 1:58

Pleasure to be here guys. Pleasure to be here.

Dr. Terry Weyman: 2:01

So I got to start off before we get into the nitty gritty of the show I got stuff because I'm a huge Stanley fan and I heard that rumor has it used to work with the man and you know when the Colts men on the planet this great man called Stanley at Marvel Comics. And can you tell us before we go into this just tell me what that was like working with that kind of a genius and what you did for him

Robert "Cord" Beatty: 2:28

Stan, Stan was the man you know I used to I used to kid around with Stan a little bit I used to get around that he was not from this planet like I figured the man would never die and we use I remember walking down Santa Monica Boulevard going into the his office over there because I hung out down there power entertainment a lot and and he wasn't there and I went over to Starbucks to get a Starbucks and I turned around and stands walking down the street he's like 94 years old he's walking down the street with a roll of toilet paper in his hand heading towards his office and he's he's I said what are you doing I don't use their toilet paper this is this is how I get my exercise my daily exercises walk from here to see the CVS Pharmacy get my roll of toilet paper and go back to you year math, but I tell you what it was like to work with the man standing I created a superhero series called Legion and five if you Google it and Brighton partners it was was my company and we developed co developed in partnership this the superhero series that was Legion to five classic Stanley stuff just good guys and bad guys and world dominance you know and, and good good overcoming evil that's what his entire persona in life was about. But Stan was a man that I in fact, I I'll turn my camera a little bit so you can see it. This painting that you see on the wall there. That's all the Marvel characters and Stan is in the corner of that painting in I've got a picture of him and I painted this i pro while painting as a gift. And he everything that he did everything that he talked about, somehow, someway had a joke involved in it. And it was it was just almost exhausting to be around him in that you could not have a conversation. There was no meaningful conversation because everything turned into a joke and this painting to give you a scope of this. A friend of mine and I co painted this painting together guy named Chad Bailey and we we paint this thing for Stan we took it down there for his birthday. And Ian gave it to him as his gift. And behind Stan on the wall was this awful, hideous rendition of spider man on a white canvas. And I didn't realize he had painted this. And it was horrible. It's absolutely horrible. And I'm a painter in my part time. And so I was critiquing it one day, I was just going, I don't know who painted this, but it's just awful. And he never said anything. And I didn't know he painted it. So but I painted this thing and give it to him for his birthday. And he puts the painting on the floor. In fact, there's some images, I'll email you, of him doing this for you that you could roll over on his podcast, but he's puts it on the floor in his office, takes it Sharpie. And he signs the bottom of the painting, Stan Lee, and Adam, like, he stood up, and we're standing there and I said, like, Dude, did you just sign are you just sign your name to our painting. And he looked straight at me. And he said, you know, think for a minute that I would let anyone thinks that I didn't paint this. And he took his hideous painting off the wall, and we hung this beautiful painting that you see in my office now behind his desk. And it became quite a joke around there. But everything that he did was in that light, he lived his life to the fullest extent of nothing but joy and happiness. It every single thing that he did. He had the most charmed life of, of living in laughter. That's what I used to say about Stan is the man lived in absolute joy and laughter 24 hours a day, seven days, it didn't matter when he was sick, or he wasn't. He was laughing, always laughing.

Dr. Terry Weyman: 7:03

So how does a journey from working in that environment? Can you talk about how your life started to take a turn. And so we can get into seven the meat of this but you went from this rags to riches thing, but you kind of you're around them out of lace, a laugh and good versus evil? Let's let's talk about your journey a little bit.

Robert "Cord" Beatty: 7:27

Well, I, I for years, I build a career in the in television in the production world, post my military career. I think military career may have had some bearing on on some of it, maybe I could, I could point to some things that that did affect me. But more importantly, what I didn't know about myself in my early adulthood, was that I suffered from a genetic disorder. The and that I had a disease that was prevalent in my in my genetic design, and the disease of addiction was prevalent, and that because of that I had a form of mental illness that I had not really identified or, or dealt with, or, or had to deal with. I never had a drink of really, I never really had a drink of alcohol until I was about 35. But addiction is a real disease. It is a form of mental illness that has co occurring disorders with it. Substance abuse as a co occurring disorder of depression. It has co occurring disorder of of anxiety as CO occurring disorder of behavioral health issues such as OCD or add was prevalent in addiction. And someone who's really truly suffering from addiction from the disease of addiction suffers from a myriad of other disorders that are mental health issues. And, and the downward spiral of that for any addict. I'm no different is a slow progressing, burning downfall till you get to a place that I call the desperation of the dying man. fact I have two books that are kind of written four books on the subject of overcoming mental health issues and substance abuse. One of them is called how free you want to be, which is a spiritually spiritual base book. The other one is called desperation of a dying man. And the desperation of the dying man is an exploration of this ever eluding. This ever eluding bottom that we talked about, you know, you hear people say well he hasn't hit his bottom yet, what is it going to take for him to hit the bottom right? And so, I'm no different I suffered from a disease that was taking me on a journey through my years in film and television and through that career towards a downward spiral that consistent, ever daunting ever, never ending spiral into an abyss of an illusion of the eluding desperation or the the eluding bottom. And for me, everybody's different for me it took you know, I'm a hardcore guy, you know, I'm a military veteran. I'm a Marine, I'm not gonna quit drinking, y'all never quit drinking, you know. And, but but, But jokes aside it for me, it was different because it took me losing my career, losing my family, losing my home, my assets, my livelihood, being, being you know, locked out of my house one day, well, they locked up my home, being actually homeless and and, and it's an interesting thing to go through when you are a real addict when you're in real when you're the real deal. An addict alcoholic, and you're the real thing and it's it is it is a genetic issue. This, this ever eluding bottom that we talk about is is always self medicated through the use of drugs or alcohol, right? And that's the course of business for the addict alcoholic. So, you you instead of hitting a bottom, what you hit is you hit an acceptable new low, that's actually acceptable from the use of a medication of the self medication that helps you cope with the acceptable new low. So losing a home becomes acceptable losing you know, maybe I don't need a home, maybe I can live in a hotel, maybe I'm losing your cars, maybe I don't need my cars, maybe I can take the bus, I got this alcohol and I've got this drug and and I can self medicate, so I'll be okay. And then losing my family. Well, you know, if that's really their decision, maybe I don't really need my family, you know, I can medicate that away and, and losing my health. Maybe I don't really need maybe I don't really care if I'm here or not. And you're on this downward spiral of this acceptable new low, acceptable new low, until you hit ultimately what is called the unacceptable new level. And it's generally something very, very catastrophic. For me, jail was not a deterrent. That didn't deter me. Loss of career didn't determine the loss of family, divorce bankruptcy, none of that deterred me from the ever pressing issue of addiction. And so, as I go down this spiral, over a period of several years, about seven years, two of which I, I was, I spent homeless on the streets of Salt Lake City. Using alcohol, using heroin, using everything I could get my hands on. That I finally hit a place that was an unacceptable, new low, it was a place where where my health had deteriorated. And I'm 190 200 pound guy. I work out in the gym every day, I stay fit, physically fit, and I'm in great shape as a 62 year old guy. But you know, 14 years ago I find myself 130 pounds, emancipated just completely so sick that I have a liver that has completely failed and it's caused a heart attack and then a heart failure, Safa July, it is pancreatitis, and kidney failure, and I am on my way out. So for me, that was the unacceptable new low that had I had never experienced until that day, being in a hospital for the umpteenth time and being in an ICU unit and being hooked up to a lot of gadgets and tubes and draining fluid out of my body and, and listening to a doctor tell me that I would not survive the day that today was the day and you know, you look back on those things and and I remember that day very clearly because the only thing that I had a doctor telling me that made any sense at all. When I said what do I do now? How do I What do I do with this? It Is he said you pray, that's the only advice I can give you. And he walks out of the room. He said, Pray and puts my chart down and walks out of the room leaves me alone. And you know, he had told me to call my children and to bring them to me. And I just, I couldn't do it. I told him, No, it's it's just not within me to do that, to put my kids through that. So at that point, Maddie and I share this sentiment together, we talk about it a lot. He's such a good guy. Because he's been through, I look at his situation, and I go, Oh, he's, he's a lot worse than I am. And he looks at my situation and my history. And he goes, Man, I can't believe he went through all that. And but we jokingly, we had lunch the other day, and we were joking about this very issue of this. This is unacceptable. Low, and in that place. It's the there's a lot of fear in that place. And and that fear is not of dying. It is of living another day. And what is my life like? What am I what is what does this look like? What, what happens to me at this point in my what is my physical life look like? How do I recover from this? And so I don't want to live. But three things happen in that place in the desperation of a dying man. For everybody who suffers from issues like this, it doesn't have to be just addiction. It could be physical issues, like Matt Blanchard happened for him too. And and those three things that happen are our first and admittance of the desperation of that or the powerlessness of that very situation. And then an acceptance of that being your fate mean, what you what you brought to yourself to the fate of that, and then a surrender. Because there's nothing else to do. Right. And so you we surrender to prayer, you surrender to higher power, you surrender to Buddha, oh, Lord Jesus Christ, spirit of the universe, white light energy, it doesn't matter. Doesn't matter what that is, fundamentally, it's something for everybody, even an atheist. You know, when I was in the, in the military, they told me there was, there was no atheists in a foxhole, foxhole, and I can tell you for facts that that is a true statement. And then I've been in both situations. And I can tell you for a fact that that is a true statement that fundamentally, in that situation, we will fundamentally reach for, and grasp for something greater than I, to, to take me off this earth to relieve me of this pain to take me out of this situation. So for me, that's what it took. And, of course, I did fundamentally and the only thing that I could do and, and I pray, and, and I never done that I had never experienced that before. And five days later, I I walked out of this hospital, and I, my my mother was a registered nurse, retired and southern Utah and I called her up and and asked her if I could come home. And of course, she said her if as long as you're sober and you're not using a hedge, I didn't tell her what had happened. She didn't had no idea. And she said, how do you get here, I can't come and get you your five hours from us. And I said, I'll get there and I hitchhiked home. And so, you know, over the next year, I, I, I began to this process of healing I, I knew that I was not going to die. I had a I had a really clear understanding that was not my fate, that I was not going to die from this that it was going to I was going to survive this at least for some period of time. And I ran into a doctor in St. George, the amazing man named Dr. Wilcox may amazing guy. And we started doing intravenous stem cell work intravenous therapies. He has some concoctions that my body absolutely responded to in a way that I had never seen it respond to anything. And a year later, a year past that and I'm I'm running eight miles a day I'm running from New Harmony Utah to the freeway and back is about four miles out and four miles back back, and I'm doing about eight miles a day and running, I'm doing 100 Push Ups 100 setup shoot 100 100 Pull Ups a day, you know, I'm just just in this physical condition that I had no idea I was going to happen. And yet I was I'm still still suffering from, you know, some of the effects of what I had done, but but well on my way. And and from there, my journey took me to Nepal, I went to Nepal and spent an inordinate amount of time in Nepal, studying spirituality studying a lot of Scripture ran into some folks over there that that educated me on Buddhism at from Hinduism, Buddhism and the Christianity that they believed in, which, which lined up with my some of my own core beliefs, but spent a lot of time over there at a monastery in the village of Tommy, and got into climbing and just was on this journey of absolute health and healing and still had no idea what I was going to do. Yeah, I remember this senior Lama at the, at the, at the monastery, and Tommy, which is a beautiful monastery sits up on this cliff at about 17,000 feet. And if you get a picture of it, take a look at it. incredible place. And I was standing out there and there's these little, four years old, five year old six year old monk children, in their red robes, I call them chipmunks. And they were either kicking the ball around with me and the senior law, he came out he was a US a guy that spoke really very good English, he'd gone to educated in the US and went back to take this position. And he said, what's on your mind? And I said, I think I'm going to leave because I'm not getting anything out of being here. This prayer meditation thing, journey that I'm on is not really working for me.

Dr. Terry Weyman: 22:16

How old were you at this time?

Robert "Cord" Beatty: 22:19

4747 years old 46 and

Dr. Terry Weyman: 22:23

you had no money when you went there? Didn't you hear very little Is that why you heard

Robert "Cord" Beatty: 22:27

I will play with $200 in my pocket and, and my backpack and my my sleeping bag and and and wanted to be in the him I don't know why I just always wanted to go to the fall, I wanted to go to the Himalayas i A but I'll tell you something about the Himalayas guys, it is a that place, especially if you're alone. And you're and you're you're able to do that is a very, very spiritual place to be. It's humbling, you know, to be walking amongst, amongst peaks that are that are five literally five miles high. And in being you're walking in, you know, in in between them on your way through the Himalayas, on the way up to Tom a to base camp Everest. And I just, you know, it was a it was a time of my life, it was the best time it was the best, absolutely best experience, best time of my life, because it gave me this time for retrospect, where I could really analyze the, you know, my selfishness. You know, you could I could look I could stare at the face of the dishonesty of my life and what kind of a person I had become. And this awful individual that I had no one wanted to be around. And, and I was alone, and I thought I was the happiest I've ever been in my life. Because, you know, I was alone in the Himalayas connected, spiritually connected through prayer, meditation, and just just enjoying, like every minute of it, and gave me some time to think about what I was going to do as a career. And then I made a decision while I was over there, that I was going to spend the rest of my life somehow someway educating people on a better way to overcome addiction, mental health issues, substance abuse issues, and, and even relationship issues and and other health issues. And that's what I do today.

Dr. Spencer Baron: 24:37

Robert, let me ask you, you've overcome some pretty big obstacles. In reality and figuratively. You climbed Mount Everest. Yes. Is that true?

Robert "Cord" Beatty: 24:53

2012 And we went to Mount Everest 2012 summit. Are some of the sister peaks of Everest of island peak as well gone to Island peak, still have a couple on my radar that I'd like to do. In alma de Blanc, I'd like to go back. Did

Dr. Spencer Baron: 25:16

this serve as a metaphor for overcoming some of the obstacles personally in your life?

Robert "Cord" Beatty: 25:23

Yeah. Yeah. You know, good, great question. Because the, you know, somebody with mental illness, alcoholics addicts, somebody with real alcoholism, real addiction, real mental illness, even to the, to the extreme of mental illness, that, you know, these guys are, are climbing mountains every day, I mean, every day is, is a daunting marathon of trying to climb out of this abyss of the holder. And, and so my thought was, if I can do this, you know, anybody could do this. Like, if I could do this, it's really a matter of setting your sights on something and becoming healthy and living healthy. And not using drugs, not using any, any form of self medication and actually dedicating yourself to a better life and showing people by example that anything's possible.

Dr. Spencer Baron: 26:22

So, after all, that what was what was your, your purpose? And how did you find? How did you come to understand that

Robert "Cord" Beatty: 26:30

purpose? Well, I knew I knew I wanted to do something in addiction services, I knew that I did not want to go back to the film and television world. And so I, I went back to school, why I'd be to get educated, went back to school to finish a master's degree psychology and addiction was the direction that I went. I wanted to understand the psychology of my own addiction. And so I went back to school to educate myself and took an undergraduate course in divinity, in my thought was I'm either going to be a minister or a therapist.

Dr. Spencer Baron: 27:14

Just BOTH Yeah. And I tried both.

Robert "Cord" Beatty: 27:18

And there's what I found out was that there was very little money in the minister. It was, there's a lot of a lot of financial suffering that was going gonna go on there. And so and being a therapist, it was it was a great, he's a great living. But I'm an entrepreneur, and I was not going to sit still very, very long, behind the desk with a clipboard listening to people I knew that. And so it didn't, it was it was a natural gravitation, it didn't take me very long at all to make a decision that I was going to open an inpatient treatment center for mental health and substance abuse issues. And I did that I put the money together with some some people, some friends. And we opened a treatment center in Park City, Utah. And that treatment center was called New Year recovery. And it was a basically a women's only program. And I had a great counselor, lady named Marsha Stafford that was partnered up with me on that and she, he really had a she's a she's a great lady. She really had a mastery at a teaching these people the principles of overcoming addiction. And so I learned a lot from her. We sold that and I, I took my money and I purchased a piece of property in southern Utah, and started a company called the retreat at Zion, right near Zion National Park. And it's an inpatient treatment program that treats mental health and substance abuse. And then I developed I took what I was developing there, refining what I was doing there and developed an outpatient treatment program called the brand new see here Zion healing centers. Then Zion healing centers is a an outpatient program that treats Substance Abuse Mental health issues, depression, specifically were centric to depression and PTSD. trauma related. We use transcranial magnetic stimulation is a form of our therapy modality. We use, cue EEG, brain mapping cue EEG and Neurofeedback therapy as a modality that's part of our program, not one versus the other. It's all part of our program. And we run people through about a seven to eight week course. On the education of mental illness, the education of substance abuse, the history of it, why they have a genetically what is done to them, helping them understand what it's done to them. And then I developed a video course called because of a production background, I developed a video course to go with it called 15 promises to freedom that has 42 educational videos and worksheets, that's very well done that takes an individual from point of no education in this all the way through to a place where they have not only understand their disease, understand how to overcome it, and understand how to live with it, and keep it in remission for the rest of their life. And we use those that technology to to take the underlying depression and anxiety away from them. And because of that, we have an extremely high success rate. And we have currently we have 22 offices nationwide. And we're growing. We're we we market the only behavioral health fully licensed behavioral health franchise in the US. Chairman of my board, and the guy that's helping me lead this is a guy named Jim Amos, who was Jim was the founder of UPS stores and mailboxes, etc. fellow Marine combat veteran hell of a guy just a hell of a guy and, and a wealth of information on franchise and he's he's helping us take this and develop develop it nationwide.

Dr. Spencer Baron: 31:36

What are you most proud of? At this point?

Robert "Cord" Beatty: 31:40

most proud of the fact that I have I have I think it's I would be most proud of not the financial success of it. I'm most proud of the fact that I have been an instrument in 1600s and hundreds of people you know, to freedom watching you know, families come together and children and their and their fan their parents come back together and actually participating in that patient journey has been missed what I'm most proud

Dr. Spencer Baron: 32:13

of. Yeah, that's great. There's positive addiction, there's negative addictions that we just spoke of, and then there's positive addictions like you know, going to the gym or you know, having compulsions to do what we typically would have imagined and positive things that become a compulsion what what is your take on addictions?

Robert "Cord" Beatty: 32:39

Well, it's I mean, addiction I you know, I firmly believe that addiction comes in, in all forms of the disease hoarding shopping you know, sex addictions obsession ality you know to you know, people that become upset very obsessed i watched people go from addicts you want addiction for alcoholism, you know, alcoholism, for instance, to go go into an extreme of, of using steroids and men being competitive bodybuilders in in the gym. And that's still an obsession, ality it's still you know, they're trading one for the other. And so I think that drug of choice for the addict, the alcoholic, the addict, is really drug of choice, no matter what you latch on to, and anything other than good health, spirituality connection, you know, good things that are healthy like prayer meditation, things like that are still obsession, ality is still it's still a piece of your disease that's hanging on, and probably needs to be looked at. Is there?

Dr. Spencer Baron: 33:55

Is there a most remarkable component to how you what you like a protocol that you may have installed in your programs that seems to be working best for you guys?

Robert "Cord" Beatty: 34:09

Yeah. You know, the one of the greatest tools in our history in the history of mental illness and substance abuse, I think one of the greatest assets and the greatest tools that was ever written was written in 1934. And it was called 12 steps. And the 12 steps were never written by Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous. Those organizations adopted the principles of the 16 authors that wrote the principles of that. Then they expanded on it. The principles actually came from a Christian minister named named Frank Buckman in 1909. And they had a they had a concept and the concept was We can overcome any form of mental illness or addiction, through a spiritual connection to a higher power, whatever you call that, right? Whatever it makes sense to you doesn't need to make sense to anyone but you. And it is a it is a tremendous tool. One that is not not available. And it is not taught in any AAA organization in a organization. Treatment centers don't teach it, they teach basics of the principles of that. We don't we we are different. We teach all of it from start to finish. We take people through each individual step as it was meant to be to where they have a spiritual experience, they have an enlightenment, if you will, they have a psychic change, they have a change in the way that they think about their disease or think about their lives. And we go all the way through that we don't bounce around and play with it. We dig in, and we work in it every single day. And

Dr. Spencer Baron: 36:09

oh, sorry. Is it because you started out originally by saying it's a disease? And you would, I guess, imagine it as a genetic condition? And how do you overcome something that's so deeply part of your biology,

Robert "Cord" Beatty: 36:32

we treat it, you treat it like any other disease. If if, if I if I, if I was told by an oncologist today that I have cancer, I'm certainly not going to just live with it, I'm going to figure out what it takes to put that in remission. Right? If I have a doctor telling me I have multiple sclerosis today, and that's why I'm feeling the way I'm feeling. I certainly am not just going to do nothing about it. I'm going to Google, how to put multiple sclerosis into remission. And yet we as a society to do we treat addiction and mental illness different than that as a social issue or a choice, right? It is not. I've had I've been challenged on that a lot. I've had doctors and friends and other therapists that don't believe the way that I believe that they don't believe that addiction is a real disease. And my only response to that guy, it's a simple one. And is that the insurance industry, if you could prove that would pay you a tremendous amount of money to prove that theory that it is not a disease, because then they would not have to reimburse it. And they spent 37 billion reimbursing it last year. So if I had the proof of that, I bet you I could pick up a couple of billion dollars from them, just to make that proof happen. And, and to make that a reality. So it is a real disease. It's that's a given. It's it's been it's been deemed a real disease by the American Medical Association. And it's treated as such. So why do we treat addiction and mental illness any differently than we treat cancer, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, Lou Gehrig's, or any other disease, we need to find a winning to strive to educate ourselves, educate our people, educate the children, educate the people with this disease, that there is a way to put it into remission and keep it there. And that's what we teach, you know.

Dr. Spencer Baron: 38:53

So you've been through quite a few dramatic transitions in your life, you know, the, you know, the rock bottom and the and the high high. What would that superpower be that you have? Now we're channeling Stanley if he was, if he was going to create a character out of you, what would your superpower be to overcoming some of the deepest darkest obstacles?

Robert "Cord" Beatty: 39:24

For me, it's it's prayer, it's meditation. It's, you know, I think that prayer without meditation is like praying for something that you don't really want. And so, I think, I don't know it's not religion. For me, it is not a religious thing. I think that I have a theory on that, you know, I believe I firmly believe I personally believe that religion is for a lot of people that might be afraid of going to hell and, and spirituality is for the rest of us that have already been there. And I So I think that the anyone doesn't necessarily need the four walls of a church to find a connection to something greater than themselves. I think it's through a simple prayer and meditation, written meditation, where you could write down the things that you're receiving in your meditation that you're listening for, you know, I look up the word meditation in the English dictionary, it means to listen in our language. So if I'm praying for an answer, to something that is really troubling me, all I really need to do is take a piece of paper and start writing down what I'm receiving in a silent meditation over a period of time. And then I need the tools to be able to analyze that, and know the difference between what's coming from here and what's coming from there. And I can look at where I need to go. And we teach that principle here.

Dr. Spencer Baron: 40:57

So there was if there was a character that that I imagine you being you'd probably be David Carradine as quite Chang Caine. Hmm. Those of us who that

Dr. Terry Weyman: 41:10

is he just isolated, you know, a quarter of the population, you're right there by that.

Robert "Cord" Beatty: 41:20

Guy's like Stan Lee that didn't believe in God, you know, he would tell you, I don't believe there's a God, I don't believe that there's a heaven after we die. I believe that that's just it. And he would tell you that statement, at the same time that he's telling you and this this magazine called the National Enquirer, everything in his magazine is truth, every single thing that's written in here is absolute fact.

Dr. Terry Weyman: 41:46

Yeah, look at that your journey of and even Matt says, at one point, you were getting paid $3 a day and sleeping on the floor, and Tibet and all that kind of stuff. Look at this journey from a guy who has a hard three pounds, given 24 hours to live to climb it the hardest freaking mountain in the world. The full circle going back to that guy in the bed, besides the doctor telling you to pray, what advice the day before, would you have given yourself

Robert "Cord" Beatty: 42:22

the advice that I would have given me the day before, if somebody would have told me this would have been the same advice I give people over the phone every single day. And that is that you don't need to suffer like this. There's there's absolutely no reason to be suffering, the way that you're suffering. There are there are holistic methods, treatment and methods that that will teach you how to, to overcome this very easily. You know, overcoming mental illness and substance abuse issues, quitting, quitting the use of a drug or alcohol is the easiest thing that anyone will ever do. Putting the disease, the behavioral side of a disease called addiction into remission. takes work, really hard work. But if I could show you a path to a better life, through work, you know, through work and you didn't it didn't come with the suffering, you know, the suffering that you're doing today was left behind? Would you be interested in following me? My answer would absolutely have been absolutely, yes. Like I don't know how to stop this. Somebody who is in a, in a in a. Somebody's in an active addiction, who's using alcohol or drugs every single day to access does not have the dubious luxury of stopping today. They don't they most of them would die from that from just stopping. If they're opiate addict or alcoholic, they would place themselves in great danger. By just stopping the use of the drug or the alcohol that they're consuming. They would most likely be putting themselves at risk of stroke or heart attack, heart failure, potential death happens every day, you know, within a chronic withdrawal. So these people don't have the luxury of that. And I knew that and every alcoholic addict knows that. And so if somebody would have grabbed ahold of me and said, Hey, Cor, you don't have to suffer like this anymore. I have a way for you to stop suffering. I would have said Please, you know, teach me Take Me To what do I need to do? Right? Because I'm stuck. I can't stop the madness of this the chaos of it.

Dr. Spencer Baron: 44:49

Court Let me ask it. The, you know, it's interesting. You've figured out that you had an addiction or the disease and and some people who are alcoholics, they turned to cigarette smoking or eating, you know, as a transition from one addiction to another but we understand that you're extraordinarily successful as an entrepreneur and could that have been another addiction?

Robert "Cord" Beatty: 45:18

i Well, I think it's wasn't the entrepreneurial side that became my addiction I think I think absolutely, I think you're hitting the nail on the head. My freedom really came from changing my addiction from a substance to being addicted to to helping my fellow man, right yeah. So my my passion is no longer the use of a drug my dopamine serotonin release comes from being that guy that's helping somebody and watching their their wife, come back to normality and watching the, you know, that that spirit around them that the happiness in their life watching them smile and be happy, it just, it's just something you don't want to miss, if you have an opportunity to do

Dr. Spencer Baron: 46:03

it. Yeah. Yeah. Good to hear. I love that.

Dr. Terry Weyman: 46:09

You brought up some of the therapy that you're using the magnetic therapy and the brain. Can you elaborate on that for people that don't know anything about that?

Robert "Cord" Beatty: 46:21

Yeah, TMS let's talk about that TMS, transcranial magnetic stimulation, is the most miraculous tool that has ever been developed for the treatment of major depressive disorder. We use a machine called neurostar, from a company called neuro genetics exclusively, because neurostar has 41 patents on this machine and the technology because they are kind of the they are the front runner on FDA approvals on on other markers. So as it's as we speak, the the markers that are approved for by the FDA are major depressive disorder, anxious depression, anxiety, and depression, and OCD. And that machine uses an MRI strength magnetic pulse to stimulate an area deep in the brain called the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex of your brain, where your dopamine engines and the and the the engine that regulates mood resides, in all those receptors coming off of that, of that area of the brain, that motor threshold of the brain are, are not functioning correctly. There's no distribution, there's no flow, there's no, there's you know, you go to a psychiatrist today and say, Doc, I'm in a major depression I got and he says, You got major depressive disorder, you're suicidal, we got to put you on a, we're gonna put you on a dopamine inhibitor. Let me give you this. And it's going to, and you were to take that a step further with him and say, Well, what is it going to do I need to understand this if you were smart enough, so I need to understand this, he's gonna say, well, there's an area of the brain is called the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex, and it's not really functioning correctly, and we're going to give you this drug and it's going to open up these receptors and allow this to function. So the same thing, it's not repairing anything where, where TMS actually repairs, it opens up the blood flow and repairs, it's physical therapy for that that dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex area that regulates mood, depression, anxiety. It's an it's a miraculous tool, and, and one that should be embraced by insurance instead of instead of argued against because it's costly and expensive. The The other thing I love about it, is that there are currently three indications that we know Depression, depression, anxiety, and OCD that are treated with our machines. So an everyday treatment once a day, and you have to have 36 treatments is the protocol. But there are other markers in front of the FDA and some of them if I could tell you what they are, which I can't because of the NDA that I have, but if I could tell you what they are, it would blow your mind that are actually going to come online where TMS is going to treat other areas of the brain using an MRI strength magnetic pulse to just stimulate or provide physical therapy to an area of the brain that needs it to repair itself.

Dr. Spencer Baron: 49:32

You know, it's interesting, I had a pharmacist at one of the universities I work with who was very much into holistic care and she had a friend, it was a medical doctor out in California and this must have been about 15 years ago. That is that uses TMS magnetic therapy on a lot of To deal with traumatic brain injury patients, autism, you know, a DD or ADHD. And he was, they were having remarkable results that in fact, the guy that it was also working for this doctor was added was in a horrible military explosion. And, you know, there was a image of his vehicle and he had all this, you know, he was in and out of jail and, and, and alcohol and drug abuse and everything and he had the magnetic therapy done, and it wasn't like a sudden experience where, oh, I feel so much but it was one day he was talking to somebody at a bar and the girl asked him if he wanted a drink. And he goes, No, no, keep telling the story that you're talking about, became hyper focused. And when he got home, he goes, Wow, I'm not drunk. I didn't even have a drink.

Robert "Cord" Beatty: 51:05

I walked away from it that's abnormal. Right.

Dr. Spencer Baron: 51:11

I'm one of our other shows, we talk about pulsed electromagnetic frequency or PMF. That you know, we use for you know, injuries of the spine and extremities. I starting to explore how PMF can be used for brain trauma

Robert "Cord" Beatty: 51:36

or brain trauma, well, you will certainly the cue EEG can neurofeedback, I gotta tell you, we, when somebody comes to one of our centers, the first thing that we do when they come through and fill out their intake paperwork is we stick them in that chair, put that machine on top of their head, get a good connection and do a brain mapping. And we bring up a 3d image of the brain where we can see the model of the brain that it's identifying, and every single time for anyone with mental illness or addiction, or head trauma or anything like that. The area of the brain that has been that is not functioning or is trauma sighs and show up in bright red. And it's so fun to be able to tell him, when you get done here, we're going to do this again. And that is not going to be here. Because there's your problem. And, and so regardless of whether they want to believe it or not, it gives so much hope to somebody to go, wow, nobody ever told me that I'm suffering from all these issues, because I got a problem with this thing up here. And I always thought it was just my bad behavior, whatever. But we do brain mapping, we've TMS we do brain mapping, halfway through treatment, you can see all that red area diminish post treatment before they leave here, no other brain mapping, show him the report every all levels normal, right, where they're supposed to be every single patient hitting the same goals. And, and we send them on their way and just say, hey, six months from now or a year from now, when you when you fall down, and you have a little bit of a dip or a reversal in this and you feel like you're sliding backwards, the doors open, slide on through here, we're gonna throw you back in the chair, do a few more treatments put you right back on track. Let's go again. And we find that you know, three to five times of doing that if I'm willing to invest that in my patients, without charging them that this is their home. This is their go to place and they haven't gone back to drinking or using but they just slid backwards, came through that door, jumped back in the chair did a few more sessions, three to five times then I don't hear from them. I run into some guy down the street at the Smith's grocery store and Kroger's and I'm going where have you been? Because I've been well man like I'm like, you know?

Dr. Spencer Baron: 54:04

When did when you started the addiction centers? Was that the TMS? Was that your main focus? Or did you discover that later on? And how did you

Robert "Cord" Beatty: 54:16

the main focus was the educational series on on addiction. We added TMS years ago, about five years ago as a therapy modality that could could provide therapy, physical therapy, because we're treating them behaviorally. But we need to treat the brain because the brain has some damage to it. And so we introduced TMS actually, we introduced brain mapping and cue EEG prior to that, using a system called Brain master and started doing the mapping doing theta therapy and doing mapping along with our educational program. We were seeing these great results in patient journey and the outcome. Now He had a TMS and it was like everything went on to a lightning rail. You know, it was like a lightning rod at that point because it was instantaneous gratification which in which someone in that situation is looking for. So within three, four or five treatments, they were bouncing through the door grinning from ear to ear going, so I don't know what's happening. But my depression is gone. And, and I'm here to work, you know, I just, I'm here to dig in, because I don't know what's going on. But I want more of it. And instead of coming in for two days, a week or three days a week, they were here every single day. And, and we were watching the success of the curve of the patient journey go from this up and down to just nothing but success on every single outcome.

Dr. Spencer Baron: 55:49

Corridor, I gotta tell you, you know, you're bringing back some very, very interesting perspectives that when I visited, that doctor I was telling you about, this was a new Newport Beach, California, and they were doing exactly what you were doing on these complicated cases. And I feel it, fast forward to what you're doing can be enormously effective, and changing, changing, changing the way that the brain actually functions. Biologically, I think I'm very, I'm actually now that you're embarking on that I'm even more excited about this conversation is a, I believe, is a hugely viable Yeah,

Robert "Cord" Beatty: 56:35

I wish every treatment center in America was using using neurofeedback, I do because it and they don't because it's expensive to buy the equipment. You know, Betty Ford's different Betty Ford, I believe they have 18 machines that their their center out here in the west. So they've embraced it. There's a lot of big organizations that are hospitals, the VA hospital in particular now, because of a lot of the work that we've been doing with them, they have now they're now installing TMS machines and VA hospitals. And also brain mapping and cue EEG in the in the behavioral health unit. So the hospitals to treat these guys. And everybody shouldn't be doing it, I believe it's it's the right it's the right continuum of care. It's the right patient care. It's it's it's the correct way to do it. Group therapy will only take us so far. Behaviorally, it does not change the way that our brain is functioning. We've got to get some, some help there. And medication in my opinion is not the Hey,

Dr. Terry Weyman: 57:40

Cory, I got asked that question. Because it's been in my head, you know, when you were laying in the hospital bed in Salt Lake City. And they asked you do you want to contact your kids? And you said, No. What's your relationship with the kids now and watching this transformation?

Robert "Cord" Beatty: 58:01

Good. I mean, it's really they work for me. They didn't have anything to do with me for about five years, but now they all work. We're tight. We we have an amazing really I have an amazing relationship with my job.

Dr. Terry Weyman: 58:22

Now, yeah. How was that telling the story of where you didn't want to talk to him? How was how was that conversation?

Robert "Cord" Beatty: 58:32

Oh, they've heard it. I think it was hard for them to hear the first time. But they understand it, you know, seeing because they witnessed what I went through. And so they understand that, you know, they they all they really believe that I had a death wish back in those days, and that my desire was to just get off this planet, which was 100% about 100% Correct. At that time, you know, so they were they were they knew, you know, our children are very smart, very bright. They they hear everything see everything is we don't you know, addiction is not something that you hide from your children. It won't work. They know they're going to know they are addiction is a weed disease. It's not a me disease. And if you have it and you're listening to this, every single person around you is suffering through the chaos of your disease. And they know everything about it. And they've already studied everything about it. And they're afraid to talk to you about it. And they shouldn't be

Dr. Terry Weyman: 59:35

so on that note if you had five minutes to spend with your future self or your past self with which would you choose and why?

Robert "Cord" Beatty: 59:46

I would I would choose my past self. Because there's a there's a there's a big there's a job to do here on this earth. You guys are doctors and so you understand this. And the job to do here on this earth is not have to make, you know, our sole purpose to be on this earth is not to make millions or billions of dollars. The purpose would that we're here is to, is to learn. And what do we learn by focusing 100% of our energy, on gaining wealth just to get more material things I, there's not, there's a limited amount of information that I can learn to do that. And I can become very good at it. But I certainly am not learning anything else by becoming a multi millionaire so that I can buy more stuff. I am gaining a tremendous amount of education, helping other people spending my time, my money, my energy, 100% of my energy, helping my fellow man, through these difficult times, I learned something every single day from every single patient that I help. They teach me something. And, and I can't do that. And so all the years that I spent in my past, chasing the almighty dollar, living on high, high dollar incomes and expense accounts, didn't do anything for me. Other than it made me selfish, it made me dishonest with myself and my family and other people. It made me live in fear of not having more of it. And it led made me live in anxiety, depression, I learned nothing from it, until I hit that, that place of that desperation of the dying man. And then I started my education. And, and I wish somebody would have told me that

Dr. Spencer Baron: 1:01:49

Corby based on time, we're going to enter the phase, the final phase of our conversation, which we always end with our traditional rapid fire questions. If you're prepared and ready for short answers to some of these questions that are about you, I will start with number one. Are you ready? I'm ready. Rapid Fire baby. Here we go describe in one sentence the feeling you had standing on top of the world being Mount Everest looking down.

Robert "Cord" Beatty: 1:02:20

It was it was a short one. All I could think about was was that somebody else had been there before me. And that person must have been the person that said, Look what I've created for you.

Dr. Spencer Baron: 1:02:35

Love that. Cool. Very good. Question number two name one tip that you learned from Tibet that you still use to this day other than meditation.

Robert "Cord" Beatty: 1:02:49

Other than meditation is to be patient. Patience. Is says patience is a virtue. And it's it certainly is. It's not something that you should take for granted. You know, slow down. Why are we in such a hurry? Slow down. Take it all in. Be patient. So good.

Dr. Spencer Baron: 1:03:11

Yeah, you seem you have that? That cool demeanor? Yeah, that's good. Best tip is question number three best tip that you give people who are stuck that you wish someone gave to you, that would have worked.

Robert "Cord" Beatty: 1:03:25

That it is easier, it is much, much easier than you think it is. There is no reason for you to be suffering this way. And there's a path there is a clear path to a cure to addiction. It's a spiritual one. And there is no other way. And if you're willing to open up your mind and have an open mind that that may be the answer that you haven't experienced before. Let me show you something that you haven't experienced before. Nice. Question

Dr. Spencer Baron: 1:03:52

number four, this travel story that makes you laugh.

Robert "Cord" Beatty: 1:03:58

That's true story that makes me laugh. I think it was getting in the back of a cabin in Katmandu, and leaning forward and saying Do you know how to go and pointing at these great big mountains and in broken English said, jewelry is the jewelry trail. And I said, Great. Take me into the jewelry trail, and he dropped me off in the middle of nowhere on the trail digital trail.

Dr. Spencer Baron: 1:04:30

Oh man,

Robert "Cord" Beatty: 1:04:32

and I had my cell phone with me and I was looking at this sign that said Luca, which was this mountain village where the airport is at. And it was a kilometers and I couldn't figure out how to so I googled, you know, miles versus kilometers 127 Miles turned around and there was no I was alone. and you don't call it happened Katmandu he just there's no there's no 911 to call, there's no cabinet but it's all and I'm standing out there in the wilderness, the mouth of this trail. Wow cost me$5 in a cab ride to get there with you know, one foot on the brake and one hand on the horn and brake horn, break horn through that traffic Katmandu. And it looks like Beirut. To get out here, I'm standing. And I'm going 127 miles, how am I going to do this? And I said, Well, I got time. She started walking, and wow,

Dr. Spencer Baron: 1:05:38

that was

Robert "Cord" Beatty: 1:05:39

my most common.

Dr. Spencer Baron: 1:05:41

Good one. All right, since you worked great, Stanley, what is your favorite Marvel movie? Oh, by of all time,

Robert "Cord" Beatty: 1:05:54

and has to be Spider Man, the first Spider Man. And only because I had the privilege of going to the premiere of spider man at the man theater, and being able to watch that movie in his completion with Stanley. And oh, and that was being able to sit there and watch that movie and watch his creation and what he had done in his life come to fruition on the big screen man. It was it was amazing. Yeah,

Dr. Terry Weyman: 1:06:27

that's frickin cool.

Dr. Spencer Baron: 1:06:30

You should have had you should have had Stan one of Stanley's artists create you as spiritual man or something with the resurrection.

Robert "Cord" Beatty: 1:06:44

story about Stan, it's really quite funny. We wrote this CO wrote this superhero series. And it was it was based on a on a concept of super good superheroes, bad superheroes, a mad scientist with this. And there's a fight and then this in a C 130. And this bile of stuff falls down and goes over this high school football game that's going on and out of this football game come these people and some are good, some are bad. And, and I it was really great writing. I mean, Stan was just such a good writer. It was really great writing, and we're going to co develop this thing together. And it was an ice we were sat in his office and he said we got to name this thing. We got to name it. We're going to name this superhero series and and I had a list of a couple. I was you know, I said I'm, I'm at a blank here. And and he said we're going to call it golden gladiators. And I went, No, that doesn't even remotely sound like a Stanley superhero series. This creation that I'm paying for Golden Gladiators, like who's going to buy this? And he said, Well, what would you suggest? And I said, legion of five. There's five good guys on this team of good guys. So we're going to call it legion of five or L five. And he looked up and he said I meant legion of five L That's what this is what we're calling this as a that's what I really meant.

Dr. Terry Weyman: 1:08:28

As he's signing your your painting. Wow. I am so glad. Yeah. So what we're learning about Stan Lee, he likes to take other people's ideas and call them his own.

Robert "Cord" Beatty: 1:08:52

He wouldn't come up with any. Yeah. It was it was an amazing guy. He was somebody that we have everybody on this earth that knew him as miss dearly.

Dr. Terry Weyman: 1:09:06

Just definitely here on mine. All right, Cory, in closing, you have the floor. One message do you want to leave with those who are listening?

Robert "Cord" Beatty: 1:09:16

Yeah, if the message is clear, I mean, if you guys are listening, and you have an issue going on, it's either yourself or a family member, or your child and you feel lost about it. That reach out to it doesn't matter whether you come to Zion Healing Center. It doesn't matter whether you go to a local center where you're at inpatient outpatient center, but but by all means, reach out and come out of that cocoon that you're in for a brief moment and have enough open mindedness and enough courage to just pick up the phone and call and say, Can you help me? It's just a few little simple words. And the person you're going to talk to saying absolutely I'm going to help you. You know, if they say, Hey, you got money or do you have insurance, you know, hang up, call the next person, you know, call call somebody that really cares. And keep dialing, you know, if what you hear right out of their mouth is do you have any money? Or do you have insurance? Don't go there. Just go to the next one. Until you somebody that says, hey, I understand you, I know where you're at. I'll meet you in the middle. I'll meet you where you're at. Let's get together, come down here and let's explore some options. Look at this. Look at this objectively, let's create a treatment plan. I can show you a path. I can show you out of this. I don't have any money. I didn't ask you about that. Come down here. Let's do that. Right. That's great stuff. Then go there.

Dr. Terry Weyman: 1:10:43

Perfect. accord on that note, we're gonna we're gonna close. Thank you so much for everything you've done. And I love the fact that your mission is to help as many people as kind of like the same mission we have in this podcast. So thank you for being a part of it.

Robert "Cord" Beatty: 1:10:59

Thanks for having me, for sure.

Dr. Spencer Baron: 1:11:05

Thank you for listening to today's episode of The cracking backs podcast. We hope you enjoyed it. Make sure you follow us on Instagram at cracking backs podcast. catch new episodes every Monday. See you next time.