"Authenticity and sexual expression VS the impact of shame and repression" with Patrick Prohaska.

Chapters
00:00
Introduction and Personal Journey
04:45
Spirituality and Consciousness Expansion
09:14
The Shift from 3D to 5D Thinking
13:45
Authenticity and Sexual Expression
17:47
The Impact of Shame and Repression
22:19
Cultural Taboos and Their Consequences
26:06
Exploring 3D vs 5D Consciousness
26:59
Future Outlook and Societal Change
28:13
The Importance of Empathy in Society
31:31
Awareness and the Anti-Fascist Movement
35:55
Cultural Differences in Attitudes Towards Sexuality
37:59
The Impact of Shame on Creative Expression
40:33
Personal Growth and Business Success

In this conversation, Patrick Prohaska discusses the evolving landscape of sexuality and consciousness, sharing personal experiences that highlight the challenges of tolerance and acceptance. He explores the differences between 3D and 5D consciousness, emphasizing the importance of authenticity and the detrimental effects of shame and repression. The dialogue also touches on current societal challenges, the role of empathy, and the hope for a more connected future.

Bio:
Patrick Prohaska is an author and life coach specializing in sexual healing, personal empowerment, and consciousness expansion. Patrick has a bachelor’s degree in philosophy of science and a Master’s degree in the religions of ancient India, and developed the Light Bridge system of healing and personal transformation. He’s the author of Brain Cells: Escape Your Mental Prisons and Dream Yourself Awake: The Power of Lucid Living, as well as the forthcoming book Myths to Stop Living By. Patrick lives in Colorado and is available for lectures, seminars, and workshops around the globe.
 
More info:  https://www.sexpowersoul.com/

To contact Wilkinson: BecomingWilkinson@gmail.com

Transcript

WILKINSON (00:02)
Patrick Prohaska, how you doing buddy?

Patrick Prohaska (00:04)
I am doing good. It's so good

to see you on the screen. Yeah, it's been a while since we've hobnobbed together in person.

WILKINSON (00:11)
Well, we've we're always talking, but that's different. No, no visuals. You're in work. Your Colorado Springs, no.

Patrick Prohaska (00:14)
Yeah. No visuals, yeah.

I am in Colorado Springs now and from Palm Springs to Colorado Springs and that was a shock. I went to Kansas first, but I try to forget that. yeah, yeah. Yeah.

WILKINSON (00:26)
You did not. You went to Kansas first.

Well, I'm not gonna lie to you. So let's see, you

were on our first, one of our first episodes. We're trying to figure that out. What, about three years ago, maybe?

Patrick Prohaska (00:44)
Yeah, that sounds about right.

WILKINSON (00:46)
So what are you going to talk about today?

Patrick Prohaska (00:48)
Well, today I would like to talk about sexuality and spirituality and the shift that's taking place in consciousness across the world and the consequences that's having for people who don't want that shift to take place and how certain groups of people are getting caught in the crossfire. So there's a lot to talk about here and yeah.

WILKINSON (01:14)
All right, let it

rip, dig in, start where you wanna start. Just wanna go from there.

Patrick Prohaska (01:16)
And, you know, I think I think I'll

start with that little stint in Kansas that you mentioned, because that was a very, very difficult experience for me. I was living in Palm Springs, which I loved. And then I moved back to Kansas because I knew that there was somebody in my family who was on the verge of illness and that if I didn't go back and help, somebody would die.

WILKINSON (01:23)
Okay.

Patrick Prohaska (01:43)
And this was just a feeling that I had, but it was a gut feeling that was so strong that I actually took action on it and moved back to Kansas where most of my family is. Now, I thought I was going to be my sister, but then it turned out to be my brother who was homeless, ended up moving in with me, ended up having me take care of him, ended up having me rush him to the hospital for two major crises.

either which would have killed him. And all the while that was difficult for me because he is an ultra conservative religious right wing nut bag for, you know, I love him because he's my brother, but he would rather me be locked away in a concentration camp for the good of society. So there I was in this situation. It was like a test of tolerance. Yeah.

WILKINSON (02:22)
you

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Did

he tell you that or are you just assuming that?

Patrick Prohaska (02:38)
No, but I've

overheard things. He says things without thinking about it. He reveals his true intentions. He supports agendas that would lead to that. I remember, you know, like all arch conservatives won't shut up about freedom, about how freedom makes America great. And, you know, I live in America where I know I'm free and freedom this and freedom that.

It's a fetishization of the notion of freedom. But then I'll hear him say things like, what's destroying America's individuality? All this individuality is just destroying America. So freedom doesn't mean freedom. It means he wants to be free to force everyone to look and think and pray and act and eat exactly like him. That's what freedom is. And if you don't go along with that agenda,

WILKINSON (03:19)
you

Patrick Prohaska (03:30)
You are an outsider, you're marginalized, you're an outcast. And ultimately you get separated from society. What does that mean? You get killed, you get rounded up and thrown in a concentration camp, you get imprisoned, you get institutionalized. So that's the agenda. He doesn't realize just how that impacts people who are in the marginalized space.

So there I was, this is kind of my spiritual workshop, I guess. Taking care of somebody who I know if the shoe were on the other foot, he wouldn't give a damn if I died. So I was there for two years, for like a year and a half. And then he was stable enough to be on his own, so I left. And I feel good that I did it.

I feel good that I was there. He is family after all. There's a possibility if I had intuitively known it was going to be him rather than my sister, I probably wouldn't have gone. But I'm kind of glad that I did, because, you know, he's still around and maybe he can learn something, you know, it's not lost forever. Maybe he's learning something about the impact of marginalization because.

Now he's kind of like everyone else in the right wing. They're all kind of getting swept up in all of the chaos that's going on as well. It's no longer this chaos will be directed at outsiders and marginalized people and I'm safe. Now it's the chaos impacts everybody. So maybe he's beginning to learn something about that. And maybe me being there challenging him on his beliefs, maybe that planted a seed as well.

So then I moved to Colorado Springs and I'm much happier here. I have this nice view of Pike's Peak out my window. I see deer and turkeys walk by and yeah, it's kind of nice to be here. But I'm motivated, I'm energized to try to make a difference. And when terms of sexuality, once again, I find myself in a fairly backward city.

This city is dominated by evangelical Christians. And so infused through the society here is just suspicion of people who are outside the norm. And that means that there's a lot of suspicion and marginalization of gay people, definitely trans people, people of color, and anyone who just looks different, you know.

And I hear that it's not nearly as bad as it used to be.

WILKINSON (06:09)
We'll have a lot of those organizations left.

Patrick Prohaska (06:10)
Yeah.

Yeah, a lot of the organizations have moved to Florida and a lot of them actually made a lot of noise on the way out the door going to Florida, which is kind of funny. It's like, you you'll regret that I'm leaving because of the financial impact and everything. Meanwhile, there are gay communities that are feeling more safe and they're flourishing and economically the city is doing much, much better than it was before.

WILKINSON (06:20)
You

Patrick Prohaska (06:37)
It's not doing great, but it's definitely on the upswing until we'll see what happens with current policies. And so what I think is going on, like on a grand scale spiritually, because that's where my work is. My work is in consciousness expansion, turning inward to find that interior source of power that drives everything that happens in your life.

What's happening is that we are shifting out of the old three-dimensional capitalistic limited resource view of the world and people are expanding their consciousness and realizing that they have tools of power inside them that they never really realized exists, that they were never told exists, they were never trained how to use.

but they're discovering them and it's really exciting. So what do I mean by that? What I mean is that when you get into an awareness of higher dimension, which I know you have because I know you've had lots of mystical experiences and consciousness expansion experiences. When you get into that frame of mind, you begin to realize at a very clear level how

the circumstances and events of your life are generated in part by the energy that you put out. You create your experience in the world through your thoughts, your beliefs, your judgments, your expectations, your fears, your biases, your traumas, and all the rest of that. And that means that there is a certain amount of power if you are able to

take control of what your expectations, your thoughts, your beliefs and biases are. Most of us go through our lives expecting the worst, bracing for impact, being suspicious of all sorts of other types of groups who are considered outsiders. So we have a kind of a negative pessimistic viewpoint on life. We try to do our best, but we still have that negative bias. And because you create your experience in the world through your expectations,

and other things, you get what you expect. There's that old saying that seeing is believing, but that's not true. Believing is seeing. You will see what you expect to see, at least at first. So there's a power inside you that people are beginning to tap into that comes from that expanded consciousness, higher dimensional awareness, then

We don't really live in this three-dimensional reality with limited resources and subject-object distinctions. In the old way of looking at things, the belief was that there are limited resources. And if I want power, if I want to make a change in the world, I have to manipulate external circumstances.

WILKINSON (09:36)
right?

Patrick Prohaska (09:36)
and have

to move things around on the chessboard in front of me and have to pit different people against each other because if they're distracted fighting with each other, I can swoop in and take power. There's the belief that if I have power, that means I have to take it away from other people. If somebody else has power, that's a threat to me because that means there's less left over for me. And then the...

that zero sum game belief that's just really, really stupid that's popped up in the last 20 years or so is that if that group of people over there has rights, that means that I have fewer rights, which is just ridiculous. So somebody that you have never met that is not in your community, that you never deal with on a day-to-day basis, if they have the right to marry whoever they want to marry,

WILKINSON (10:17)
Right.

Patrick Prohaska (10:30)
That doesn't mean that I'm losing any rights whatsoever. I mean, it's just ridiculous to believe that. So it's all that zero sum game, three dimensional thinking. And when you expand into that, yeah.

WILKINSON (10:42)
What is it? What's

the difference between 3D and 5D in your opinion?

Patrick Prohaska (10:46)
Yeah,

so in 3D, everything is separate and distinct and there's individuality and you and I are completely and utterly separate from each other. We can interact, but we don't interpenetrate, you know, unless you want to. But, know, there's all this, everything is categorized in boxes. Everything is separate. Everything is hierarchized. So you come up with lists of

WILKINSON (10:48)
and

Patrick Prohaska (11:09)
you know, what order things are in, what's superior, what's at the pinnacle of society and who the dregs are, and all of that. So it's all that subject-object distinction.

WILKINSON (11:19)
plus it's fear-based.

Patrick Prohaska (11:22)
Yeah, and that's basically the fear of if somebody else has more, that means there's less for me. You know, that person over there has more money than there's less left over for me. And the real sickness of it all these days is you have people who have more money than they could ever possibly spend in a thousand lifetimes. And they still want more. They're still threatened.

by people like you and me thriving financially, somehow that's a threat to them, even though there's absolutely no way they can spend all that money in a thousand lifetimes. So, you know, let's build rocket ships to Mars. That's one way to spend the money, but, you know, it doesn't help anyone. But in higher dimensionality, and you've had this experience, we've talked about it. I know that you've had your mystical experiences.

WILKINSON (11:58)
Right.

Yeah.

Patrick Prohaska (12:17)
All that subject object separation and distinction breaks down. And there's still some awareness of individuality, but there's also a feeling like we're connected and that somehow there's a part of me in you and there's something in you in me and we can commune with each other and that I'm a part of nature and part of the planet. And therefore anything that I'm doing

to hurt the planet is ultimately hurting me because of that connection. Anything that I'm doing to hurt you hurts me because we're intimately connected with each other in that higher dimensional realm. So I kind of describe when you really, really get into the depths of that mystical experience, it's interpenetration, just a feeling like we just kind of fold in on each other and we're one.

And so there's no separation there. So all of those tools that imply that in order for me to do better, I have to marginalize you. Those make no sense because you're marginalizing yourself. So like in that old hierarchy and by the way, there are lots and lots and lots of people who are deeply invested in keeping things the way they were. That's why there's so much chaos right now because

there is this massive surge in people all around the world expanding their consciousness and recognizing that they have power inside them through their thoughts, beliefs, expectations and so forth, rather than moving and manipulating things in front of them. There are lots of people who for financial reasons or

you know, family ego or whatever, they're deeply, deeply invested in keeping things the way they were. So that's why you have all these, this movement to like return to the fiscal policies of the 1950s and so forth. You know, we need to go back to the foundations of modern capitalistic society. But of course,

Capitalism breaks down when you get into higher dimensionality because capitalism is based exclusively based on the notion of limited resources and how you manipulate the flow of limited resources. So like in this camp of people who are deeply invested in things staying the way they used to be and therefore they're working really, really hard to marginalize and then punish people who are marginalized.

Any type of authentic self-expression is inherently a danger. So it's like my brother saying, freedom is the greatest thing about America, and yet individualism is what's destroying the country. Individualism is what is threatening. So I think this is why at this current point in time, trans people are the number one punching bag, is if trans people are the

or the reason for everything wrong in society. We have rampant inflation because there's a trans girl in Maine who wants to play basketball. That's sort of nonsense. What makes trans people a threat to people in that old order is just the bald-faced authenticity that a trans person has. It takes a lot of courage

WILKINSON (15:32)
Right.

Right.

Patrick Prohaska (15:55)
for somebody to say, this is who I am, even though I know you're going to hate me for it, even though I know you're going to call me names, you might attack me, you might even kill me, I am going to stand up and say, this is me. And I'm gonna reveal my authentic self. I'm gonna take off my mask and I'm going to live my life as me. So that type of authenticity, there's power in that.

Therefore, people who are threatened by that power want to squelch it and kill it and drive it underground. And the tool that they use is mostly shame and humiliation. like trans people and gay people in general, they've been shamed their entire life. We've been shamed constantly. I don't know how many times they've been called faggot.

and so forth. And the message there is you should be disgusted with yourself. I'm disgusted with you, you should be as well. So the tool, the main tool that is used in belittling and marginalizing people is to humiliate them. And maybe if we humiliate and shame that person enough, they will kind of

crawl into a shell and never be seen again, or they will put on their mask again and start living pretending to be something that they're not in order to make me comfortable.

Well, I do think that for people to really thrive, they need to get in touch with their authenticity. And part of authentic human expression is healthy sexual expression. Because, as I said, we've been shamed into pretending that we're not sexual, we've been shamed into hiding our true sexual desires and so forth. We need to strip away all of the shame and humiliation

that gets directed at people simply saying, am a sexual being. It's embarrassing for a lot of people to talk about their sexuality. And so they hide it or they repress it. And when you repress something, especially something as important as sex, when you repress your sexuality, it doesn't just go away, doesn't fall asleep. It gets compressed inside you.

until it explodes outward in unhealthy ways. So like I've always been struck by, in recent years, there's drag shows are considered the thing that destroys youth and it's grooming children to have a drag show as if every drag show involves ritualistic sexual abuse of minors or something like that. I have never heard a case in which somebody was sexually molested

or abused at a drag show. But when people look at drag shows, they see raunchiness, they see dirtiness, they see, you know, open expression of sexuality and so forth. And that's all like dirty and disgusting. So there must be something seedy going on underneath the surface. Meanwhile, you have these church organizations, Catholic Church in particular,

trying to have a squeaky clean image and purity and we're above sex and we're above all of this and we're close to God, we're God's spokespeople, intermediaries between God and humanity and therefore we're pure. And it's just sexual scandal after scandal after scandal after scandal, never ending nonstop. And I think that's because of the repression.

WILKINSON (19:12)
Right.

Patrick Prohaska (19:34)
The shame and humiliation causes people to repress their sexual desires. Their sexual desires fester and expand and they turn into a cauldron, a pot that's ready to explode because of all that repression. And then it explodes outward. And it's also no surprise that the victims of most of that sexual

WILKINSON (19:50)
Right.

Patrick Prohaska (19:59)
violence or children because they're the most vulnerable. They're the easiest targets. They're the easiest to manipulate. And also they're the easiest to shut up because you make them feel like, you you're going to burn in hell for all eternity if you tell anyone what happened, you know, that sort of thing. So the hypocrisy is rampant. And I firmly believe

that we are never going to clean up or purge this sickness of child molestation in religious organizations until the shaming and the use of self-disgust as a weapon and so forth is eliminated. We should be celebrating the sexuality of people. We should be celebrating when somebody discovers their sexuality.

And when they're exploring their sexuality and learning what really makes them happy and spreads joy in the world. Sure, there are diseases and so forth, but those can be managed as well. yeah, sexual shame is just the scourge on society, I think. Yeah.

WILKINSON (21:07)
It's weird you were mentioning the fiscal policies of the 50s, but they actually want the sexual policies of the 50s. Remember the TV shows where they have the twin beds, the married couple.

Patrick Prohaska (21:10)
Yeah

They had the twin beds and you

know, I remember the massive scandal, the very first time on Archie Bunker and all in the family when you could hear a toilet flush and how that was like the whole world was ending and you know, it's all this. Yeah. And the first time I think it was a Lucy where she was, they were forbidden to use the word pregnant. So she, yeah, she was pregnant at a certain point, but the executives

WILKINSON (21:32)
Bye guys.

Roy.

Patrick Prohaska (21:45)
forbid them from using that word. So because that's a dirty word. Yeah, it's just incredible how, how much repression there's been over the years. And I think part of the reason why there's so much more violence and anger right now is because people have shattered a lot of those, what do call them taboos.

You know, it's no longer taboo to have a gay couple in bed on a TV show, you know. So, yeah.

WILKINSON (22:19)
Well, of course, I come from that background, the Christian conservative. I was just thinking, this is so funny, a little embarrassing, but kind of funny. So my parents never said the word penis. I actually was so repressed that I didn't know what that was until I was a teenager and read an article in the Buffalo Evening News. But my parents used to call it, ready?

Patrick Prohaska (22:33)
You

Wow.

WILKINSON (22:46)
A go-go.

Patrick Prohaska (22:48)
my God. my God. I

vividly remember my sex ed, which was done in the Catholic catechism because I went to a public school, but I had to go to catechism classes for my Catholic family. And the sex ed was taught by a nun.

And she had a slideshow and she flashed up an image of the statue of David. And then she flashed up an image of the Venus de Milo and said, when these two get really, really close to each other, that's how a baby is created. So that's like all the details I got. It's like, so you have, when they get close to each other, then a baby is created. And like for months, I was horrified.

WILKINSON (23:20)
You

when they get close.

Patrick Prohaska (23:38)
Because I thought, oh my God, if I hug my sister, she's going to get pregnant. Yeah, it just did more damage than good.

WILKINSON (23:38)
you

or you're walking through that crowded store and all the women, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, they're all getting pregnant as you walk by.

Patrick Prohaska (23:55)
Yeah,

that that's like Elon Musk stream Yeah

WILKINSON (23:58)
That's like, that's power baby. Wow. Huh.

Well, where do think we're going in the short haul here with everything going on?

Patrick Prohaska (24:07)
Well, the short haul is

things get worse before they get better because the power structures that are in place need to crumble. They need to be shifted and replaced with something else. And part of what's going on right now is the people who have long been in positions of power and authority over politics, economics, the medical system, everything else in society, they feel their power being

WILKINSON (24:11)
Right.

Patrick Prohaska (24:37)
you know, undermined and they they're so invested in that form of power that they're doubling down in it. So I think things will get worse before they get better. Something has to come to a head because Elon Musk is not going away unless something happens. And Trump is already indicating he has no intention of going away. He's not he's not joking about a third term. So.

There's something I feel like it's unfortunate. I don't want it to happen, but it feels like there's almost no choice. We're kind of backed up against a wall. It's either rise or get thrown in concentration camps at this point. Yeah, it's a scary time, but I don't want to be overly pessimistic either.

WILKINSON (25:21)
Right. Yikes.

Ha!

Patrick Prohaska (25:28)
because people like Donald Trump, Elon Musk and so forth, they're their own worst enemy. They're not thinking strategically, they're thinking emotionally and they're making bad decisions and things blow up in their faces. And things only need to blow up in their faces so many times for them to eventually be recognized for who they really are. So I think that will help us out quite a bit there.

WILKINSON (25:53)
Well, they should have been recognized by now,

Patrick Prohaska (25:56)
You think? Well,

lot of us have recognized it, but a lot of others have not. Yeah. Yeah.

WILKINSON (25:58)
Wow.

So you think,

wait a minute, so do you think that we can actually live in a 5D type of situation? Or are we limited to the 3D, because that's where we are now?

Patrick Prohaska (26:13)
Well, think, well,

the thing is the physical world that we inhabit is a three dimensional structure. And the human body is a three dimensional object. And we will always have our egoic personas. I'll always have my understanding me as an individual who's distinct and separate from you.

and so forth. So we'll always have some of that. But we'll also have a deeper awareness of the existence of higher dimensionality and what you can accomplish through consciousness expansion. So I kind of see us moving in the direction, might sound weird, but all of us will actually

get to the point where we're living in a waking lucid dream. So we're still inhabiting this three dimensional world, but we have more power, more control, more ability to change things with our mind and so forth. A deeper sense of empathy with other people, more compassion and connection with other people.

and therefore a deeper willingness to do what's in the best interest of everybody rather than just me, me, me. And, you know, I think that notion of empathy is very, very important. I don't think it's a coincidence at all that Elon Musk is on this attack against empathy, saying that empathy is like the worst characteristic of Western society and it's

And other people are kind of coming on and saying empathy is unmanly. You know, it's inherently wimpy. You know, only pussies have empathy, that sort of thing. Whereas I think empathy is absolutely crucial for developing a world that uplifts everybody. You you have to be able to recognize when you're causing pain to somebody else and take action to fix it.

WILKINSON (28:13)
You know, but

Musk is on the spectrum, right?

Patrick Prohaska (28:17)
Yeah, he's on the spectrum. I'm on the spectrum as well. So, yeah.

WILKINSON (28:20)
However,

one of the things from a past relationship I was in, we're dealing with that. One of the things is, I don't know where you have to be on the spectrum, but I'm like, for example, Asperger's, it's like, they're not empathetic, they don't know how to be empathetic. That's one of the things of being there.

Patrick Prohaska (28:39)
Yeah, but you know, the problem

is, it's entirely true that he may have some sort of misconfiguration that makes it so he can't have empathy. And empathy is in fact hardwired in the brain. We all have these neurons that are called mirror neurons. They developed through evolution in order to protect us because these mirror neurons

WILKINSON (28:48)
Right.

Patrick Prohaska (29:02)
Imagine that you're in like a group of people in prehistoric Earth and you know, there are like 20 or 30 of you in a group and you're all relaxing and one person on the edge of of the group notices that there is a jaguar headed headed your way. OK, so that person can scream and then have everyone else hear the scream and get up. But empathy is another tool if people around them can feel.

the fear that that person suddenly has washed through them, then there can be a reaction that's instantaneous in the group that leads to protection. So that might be an extreme example, but empathy allows you to understand when somebody else is in pain. If you're a mother taking care of an infant and you don't have empathy, you might not recognize when your child's in distress right away. But if you have the empathy, you'll feel it and you will react

WILKINSON (29:56)
Right.

Patrick Prohaska (29:59)
before you have the actual evidence that something's wrong. So more babies survive, more people survive. So this is evolutionary. But in some people, those mirror neurons for whatever reason simply don't work. Therefore, they don't have empathy. But what happens if you don't have empathy? are two outcomes to that. There's sociopathy and psychopathy. know, a sociopath

has no concern whatsoever for the impact. But the difference between a sociopath and a psychopath, psychopaths are very calculated. They make plans. They think things through. And a lot of times their cruelty is intentional to create an outcome. Whereas sociopaths tend to be spontaneous and they don't plan things in advance. They just do horrible things.

WILKINSON (30:30)
Right.

Patrick Prohaska (30:53)
They're agents of chaos and so forth. But that's the end product of not having empathy. Now, Elon Musk thinks if you don't have empathy, that means that you are going to amass greater wealth because you're not going to be worried about the people you step on and crush on your way to wealth and power.

But that's horrific. He has no ability to understand what it feels like to be one of the people that's being crushed. Sad.

wow.

WILKINSON (31:27)
Mmm.

So tell me something good. Yeah.

Patrick Prohaska (31:32)
something good, something good.

Yeah, well, consciousness is expanding. Power is rising. Awareness is expanding. A lot of people who bought into the MAGA movement and so forth without even thinking about it, you know, just felt right to them said, okay, this, this person seems powerful. And that person over there seems wimpy. So

I like the power. People who got into MAGA without thinking about it, they're getting slapped into awareness right now. So there's this broader sense of awareness that's developing right now. And there's a worldwide phenomenon that's taking root right now. This anti-fascist movement that's out. Yeah.

It's so weird, brother, that brother that I was talking about, he used to call me Antifa, like that's some sort of insult. know, he said, you Antifa moron. know, Antifa just means you don't like fascism. You know, you're not Antifa, that means you're pro fascism.

WILKINSON (32:37)
Wait, did, did, I'm sure,

did he say that to you while you were giving him a place to live? Wow.

Patrick Prohaska (32:42)
Yes, yes, he

homeless. I took him in. I paid his bills. I took care of him. I drove him to the hospital and all the rest of that. And meanwhile, you, you know, you communist asshole. This is what I got him returned part of the time. You know, yes, is good qualities as well. He's not 100 % evil, but and I do think a lot of his misguidedness comes from pain and insecurity.

think a lot of cruelty that people have comes out of pain. But that doesn't make it any better from my perspective. So, yeah.

WILKINSON (33:22)
course

there are there are those hearing that that say why did you do that yeah when he's

Patrick Prohaska (33:26)
Why did I do that? Because a family member

was on the verge of death. But yeah, and you know, I got away as quickly as I could. So.

WILKINSON (33:34)
Two years ain't quick, baby.

Patrick Prohaska (33:36)
Yeah, I know, but still, but still, yeah, and

I sacrificed a lot. I mean, I put my life on hold. I put my career on hold. I didn't do any work writing or podcasting or interviews or anything for two years. Lost connection, lost like my entire audience almost. Yeah, would before I moved, had a very, very substantial mailing list and

When I got back into it again, my mailing list had shrunk to 10 % of what it was before. So, yeah. So, yeah, I'm rebuilding and it feels good.

WILKINSON (34:06)
Wow.

in a state in Colorado.

Patrick Prohaska (34:17)
I don't know. I think I want to be mobile. think I can make Colorado a home base and then just travel the country, me a car, a notebook computer, because, know, it's self-employed. I can live anywhere. I can, I can write, I can do podcasting from anywhere I want. So I might as well embrace that. Portugal. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well,

WILKINSON (34:35)
Portugal, Spain, Italy. Yeah.

Patrick Prohaska (34:43)
Probably not in the current political environment. I have a feeling that it's not gonna be fun to travel abroad for a while. Yeah, I remember, it's like 2015, I traveled to Vienna and everywhere I went, people were gracious and loving and they wanted to know about where I came from and they would like buy me coffees or whatever.

and the hospitality was really off the charts. Went back to Vienna in 2018, and everywhere I went, I got the cold shoulder. So maybe that's partly my perception. yeah, so when we're in a state as a country of wanting to have open relationships with everyone and uplift the world, and that's one thing.

WILKINSON (35:24)
Wow.

Patrick Prohaska (35:36)
When Trump's around, get isolationism and you guys are leeches and why are we helping you, you ungrateful, all the rest of that. And the people feel that. think that's like the, I don't know, we're getting into some political stuff. Maybe I should pull back. So.

WILKINSON (35:41)
Right.

I actually don't usually go into that here in this space, but.

Patrick Prohaska (35:58)
Yeah.

Yeah. So let's talk about it in terms of sexuality. So

WILKINSON (36:04)
Eh, I tried it once. Eh.

Patrick Prohaska (36:06)
Yeah. Yeah. But like, I remember having conversations with Europeans who were just absolutely befuddled by the notion that abortion should be illegal in the United States. Like, it just didn't compute. Just the idea that

WILKINSON (36:08)
Just kidding. What about it?

Patrick Prohaska (36:30)
that women's reproductive freedom was controlled by the state or there were people that wanted it to be controlled by the state simply did not compute to a lot of people that I talked to in Europe. And they, know, some of them even thought that I was like making it up or lying about it. The attitudes towards same sex marriage or, know, just marriage.

WILKINSON (36:53)
Right.

Patrick Prohaska (36:54)
Yeah, a lot of that simply did not make sense. Why would somebody be opposed to that? So it kind of makes when I'm traveling abroad, kind of makes me feel like I'm an alien or an outsider or I'm this really bizarre creature from a bizarre place where they do stupid things. And that's kind of the attitude that I get sometimes.

WILKINSON (37:09)
Right.

Patrick Prohaska (37:16)
I love just look. It is true, yeah. I mean, I remember just the open embrace of all forms of human sexuality when I was traveling in Europe.

WILKINSON (37:17)
Well, isn't that kind of true?

Patrick Prohaska (37:29)
Yeah, and a lot of times people would say, well, that seems kind of weird. I wouldn't do that myself, but I don't, know, who's who am I to decide what you can do? I got that attitude quite a bit. I never I never once, not once when I was traveling in Italy or Australia, did I encounter somebody who rejected me because I was gay. Get that all the time here.

WILKINSON (37:39)
Right.

Patrick Prohaska (37:54)
So, know, yeah.

Hmm.

WILKINSON (38:00)
We're a little weird.

Patrick Prohaska (38:02)
Yeah, we are. are. Now, here's where like human health, physical health and so forth comes into play. I have in my life systematically received a lot of messages that say that I should be ashamed of myself, that I would be justified in having self-disgust, that I should not talk about sexuality because

It's inherently humiliating that I jeopardize my career if I talk about being gay and the gay experience and so forth. So I get all these messages that basically tell me I should hide it, pretend to be somebody that I'm not. If I were to internalize all that shame, and I'm sure I have to some degree, but I'm sure we all have. But if I were to internalize all that shame,

WILKINSON (38:30)
Okay.

Patrick Prohaska (38:51)
and that self disgust and that self hatred, then I wouldn't function very well in society. It's catastrophic how much lost and wasted potential there is among people who have been marginalized and humiliated for being gay. Lots of like

WILKINSON (39:09)
All

Patrick Prohaska (39:12)
Creative ventures just got shut down. Now, on the other hand, some of that repression for people who fight against it and they say, I am going to prove you wrong. You know, I am gay and I'm proud of it and I'm not going to let you shame me into thinking I'm something less. A lot of them have like this explosion of creative energy because they want to express that to the world. So I think that there's a wellspring of creative energy.

that often goes untapped, but if you tap into it, it's amazing what you can produce and share with the world to uplift it. So yeah, it's like all this creative expression, you know, coming through the throat and through the sexual center of the body. It's amazing what people can create. Yeah, and you've got that lovely painting on the wall behind you. Did you do that?

WILKINSON (40:05)
no, I don't pay.

Patrick Prohaska (40:06)
Okay, yeah, but it's

WILKINSON (40:08)
That's

a, well I bought it like eight years ago and the guy was I think 90 or 91 that painted it. So I'm thinking that he's probably not with us anymore, but who knows. But you know, love my

Patrick Prohaska (40:14)
wow, okay. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, yeah, you've got some great art. Got some great art.

WILKINSON (40:28)
Huh. So what are you actually up to lately?

Patrick Prohaska (40:33)
Well, my business has exploded. I I pick. So I am a life coach and the energy healer. I help people with sexual trauma, consciousness expansion, personal empowerment, that sort of stuff. And since I've moved here to Colorado Springs and kind of reestablish my footing, I'm actually

WILKINSON (40:40)
What is your business?

Patrick Prohaska (41:03)
probably doing better than I have in many, years, business-wise. Just in the past week, I picked up about 50 new clients. So yeah, it's been pretty dynamic. I'm trying to maintain my energy as well as I can, but some days I'm exhausted. Kind of see it in my eyes a little bit. They're a little bit puffy. Yeah. What I'm missing out on though, that I think is really, really crucial,

WILKINSON (41:11)
Wow.

Right.

Patrick Prohaska (41:28)
I haven't recently had much social interaction. So I when I was in Palm Springs, it was super easy to meet people. was super easy to find places to go to where I felt like I fit in. Don't really have much of that here. So I need to carve that out for myself.

WILKINSON (41:46)
my God, you're boring me. No, I'm just kidding. No. Wow. Well, you could come back to pop strings.

Patrick Prohaska (41:48)
Yeah, I know it's sad. just drone on and on.

I could. I think my adventure there is over. think that fate is driving me someplace else, but I will definitely come back to visit.

WILKINSON (42:03)
So I'm going to see you there later this month.

Patrick Prohaska (42:06)
You'll be

here later this month. Yeah, well, we'll explore Denver and the mountains and Colorado Springs, Garden of the Gods. Yeah.

WILKINSON (42:16)
sounds like fun to me. Alright, any parting thoughts for my peeps?

Patrick Prohaska (42:18)
Yeah, yeah, you'll love it.

Well, I always like to tell people to be gentle with themselves. Just be gentle with yourself. You get enough finger pointing and blame headed your way and the implication that you're what's wrong with society and so forth. Just let all that crap go and be gentle.

WILKINSON (42:45)
It's great because I'm made with all the shit going on in the world right now. Still, I feel pretty hopeful because I see a lot on the energetic level that's happening. It's like just bam. So we'll see how it all turns out. All right, server.

Patrick Prohaska (42:57)
I feel pretty hopeful as well.

Yeah. Okay.

Well, thank you so much. It's always awesome to connect with you.

WILKINSON (43:10)
We'll put some links down below on the episode so people can find you. All right, buddy, I will see you lot later this month. And in the meantime, cheers.

Patrick Prohaska (43:15)
Okay, wonderful. Thank you. Okay. I'll see you then.

Cheers.