Midlife Mastery - with Daniel Wagner
Midlife - the main words associated are 'crisis' and 'spread'. But what if we challenge the societal narrative and make midlife the opportunity of our lifetime? What if it was our invitation to become more intentional, live more purposeful, and use our accumulated wisdom to contribute to the world around us? In Midlife Mastery we'll explore ways to do that. So that the best is yet to come.
Midlife Mastery - with Daniel Wagner
Gregory Reece-Smith: A Time for Renewal: The Midlife Journey to Self-Discovery and Planetary Harmony
Embark on a profound exploration with Daniel Wagner of Midlife Mastery as he and Gregory Ries-Smith, broadcasting from Portugal's vibrant Villa Luz, engage in a stirring dialogue on the transformative power of midlife. This episode promises to leave you with fresh perspectives on personal growth and the continuous struggle for human rights, drawing parallels with historical revolutions. Gregory's insights on these correlations to modern-day challenges are not to be missed, as we question whether we are honoring the legacy of our forebears or falling short of the lofty ideals they set forth.
As our conversation weaves through the fabric of humanity's purpose, we touch upon the profound interconnectedness with our Earth and the cosmos, suggesting that the journeys we embark on as individuals are critical to the collective consciousness. We consider how embracing 'follow your bliss' can be more than just a mantra, but a way to catalyze growth that transcends the personal and impacts the world at large. Midlife emerges as a pivotal stage for reinvention, where embracing one's core desires can harmonize our existence with the natural world, pointing towards a future where our relationship with the planet is not just sustained, but transformed.
Finally, we venture into the enigmatic realities of the fifth dimension and soul exploration, hypothesizing on the shifts our planet may be undergoing and their implications for our spiritual and karmic journeys. The chapter concludes with a reflection on authenticity, the potency of self-love, and the pursuit of joy as guiding principles in navigating life's unpredictability. Join us for an episode rich with philosophical musings and practical wisdom, ready to inspire a deeper appreciation for your unique path and the collective voyage we share.
Daniel Wagner here, founder of Midlife Mastery, and in today's chat, podcast interview or conversation, I have invited a good friend of mine, gregory Ries-Smith. He sits out in Portugal on what it looks like to be a satellite internet connection, so I really hope we have enough bandwidth to do this. Call Gregory. I know for about seven years and we had some beautiful adventures when I was out in Porto and stayed with him and he's got a very unique perspective on things. If you look at his bio, if you read his articles, you immediately know he's a man with very strong and very distinct knowledge, visions and opinions on pretty much anything you can think of, and I'm really happy to have him here. So let me bring him on to the stage, gregory, welcome.
Speaker 1:Well thank you again, Daniel.
Speaker 2:It was a pleasure to be invited to talk to you and hopefully provide something of assistance during this period of, I think, fundamental transition for humanity as a whole, let alone the midlife element which I think could be the major issue for many, many people across all of humanity at the moment.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Let me pick up on the word you said. I hope I can help or support. This is how I got to know you, just so willing to give, to help, to support, and the whole setup you have there in your House of Light, the Villa Luz, with literally having an open house for people to come and stay and learn and work, and it's just incredible Thankliness that you exude. I don't know what goes on on the inner side, but from the outside you seem to be very much witnessing what's happening in your world. But that's just my first conversation with you. I remember distinctly I shared with you a venture back then where we wanted to bring real education to young people and weirdly enough, we're now flipped to the other end. I moved from adolescence to middle-essence.
Speaker 2:Not the other end, the midlife.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's true, not yet the end, luckily but I moved a little bit higher up in the age bracket, but the desire was the same to give information and knowledge and education that is not commonly available. And I remember that you literally willingly said look, I have a piece of land here. If you can use it for this, that's what it's here for. And I was like, oh my God, we just met online and you offered me the opportunity to possibly use land that you've bought, and this is how I flew out there and stayed with you and the friendship developed and true friendships they don't need every week nurturing which is when we meet, we carry on what we left off.
Speaker 2:Absolutely so talk to me about is the beauty of being human. Sorry, Daniel.
Speaker 1:I think the little black time. I want to make sure I leave enough space after I speak. So let's do the old Charlie Foxtrot over, over, okay, over to you, okay, okay.
Speaker 2:Over To me. As I just said a few moments ago, we are in a fundamental transition. I could do a whole lot about astrology and where we are, where we've just moved to literally weeks ago, as the return of 248 years ago. And if we look at the human history 248 years ago, then that was the American War of Independence, which led then to the Declaration of Independence. At the same time, slightly closer at home, we had the French Revolution, and then within that Revolution that was overthrowing the monarchy, the traditional rulers of France, and then it spun out from France to not only just Europe but a much broader spread as well. And what was interesting is that within a month of the Bastille being stormed and in that sense, the empire, the structures being knocked down, the National Assembly in France had issued this declaration of human rights. And if we look at what's going on in the world at the moment, I think human rights are fairly near the top of the agenda, and so that's why I find it interesting from this broader perspective, we're coming back to issues that were initiated, as I said, 248 years ago, take, and so they're coming back. And so my question for me and anybody else I'm interested in talking to is is it going to be another move forward in terms of human rights? Because we could say, yes, there were all these nice decorations and I include the Declaration of Independence from the USA and that but have we actually implemented human rights as was set out in those documents?
Speaker 2:I think there's been a lot of talk about it, but not actually too much action. And so we are at this crossover point, the tipping point of do we move forward into really human rights being an essential part of everyday life for everyone, or do we slip back to where it was and so that's using that as an illustration of, I believe, the issue that we face in midlife. Do we go back to where we believe we were when we were a teenager, a youngster, growing up, establishing a family, etc. Or do we move forward into something else that is more about our purpose as an individual that we create and therefore our individual actions ripple out to create humanity as we desire it? So that's where I see where this very interesting, interesting transition point for everyone. So that's where I start from, daniel.
Speaker 1:Thank you. I find it fascinating that you refer back to the Declaration of Independence, because there have only been a handful of what I call enlightened leaders, and Abram Lincoln and some of the people who sat around the table. They definitely had a vision for freedom of speech. The pursuit of happiness, I think, is one of these written in those scriptures and uniting the idea of a united place with every human having the same rights. We're definitely still not there, right? You could argue that, with just more people with the same issues. What is fascinating, though, if you read those, they still absolutely ring true today.
Speaker 1:You cannot argue with the prayer, the desire, the intent I feel and this is my personal, I mean when you say are we going back? I don't think that's possible right, even our own lives. I think that's the problem of midlife, that we're realizing. The models of operation we used don't serve us anymore, but because we don't know what's coming next, that creates this friction, this uncertainty, this scrambling. And I know that you have a deep faith, not a religious expressed faith, but a deep faith in the intelligence of the universe and in connections to the unseen powers that really move things.
Speaker 1:I feel that's what's required that people learn to intuit more, trust more, feel guided more. But of course, that's not so much a brain function. This is more in other realms. One of your subtypes is the shamanic CEO, so would you want to speak to what I just opened, to this idea of moving into a flow, a trusting and intuitive state where we just sensing that we're okay, essentially, that we're doing okay, that we have purpose in what we do, that we make sense, instead of chasing on the hedonistic treadmill, the next short-lived dopamine hit. Do you want to talk as Victor now?
Speaker 2:I agree with you, danville, and, as you correctly say, I'm an optimist because I enjoy what I can see in history in terms of there are cycles, and the cycle we're moving back into is the same one 248 years ago, and that was in its Pluto moving into Aquarius, and Aquarius, as a star sign, a zodiac sign, is about the individual, however, the individual being collaborative and cooperative, not being controlled, and if we look through the last, well, simplistically, the last couple of hundred years, it's basically been about the center controlling.
Speaker 2:If we look at what's happened to governments, etc. And so, yes, from an economic point of view, there was globalization, which spun out in the 60s or so on, and so the local was lost, whereas now I see what were happening is we're moving back to more local. And if you look at the problems in the Red Sea and so on, what are they doing? They're stopping the global transportation of goods and services, and so that is bringing us back to more local, whereas we've had a couple of hundred years of centralization, and so, with local, it's exactly the same. We're coming back to. Being a wisdom keeper is the way I would describe it If I put my shamanic hat on. We are looking to work with earth rather than just extract resources from earth, and so, as we move back to work with earth, we are going through the cycles of the earth.
Speaker 2:So simplistically again, we have spring, just moving into that, then the summer comes along, and then the autumn comes on and the winter comes on, so those are the basic cycles, rather than seeking to control everything, because there are these cycles that are going to play out for us, like it or not, and so if we come back then to the midlife, it's the same. So we've gone through that birth cycle as a child, grown up, want to create our independence, teenagers independence, and then we have these, these let's say 20 to 40, something like that where we're creating a family, creating a job, creating an industry, and then the family goes. So what do we do then? We're back to what's my purpose, and my belief is that this is the question humanity is being asked at the moment. What's the purpose of humanity?
Speaker 2:The purpose of each human is to expand and evolve and grow. How do we do that? We do that through being connected to the greater whole, rather than just, in your words, the pursuing the hedonistic hamster wheel and so that's what I see is the opportunity is not a challenge, because we are far more than we believe we are, and so what we've been told we are, we're separate, we have to be ourself, we must look after ourselves, whereas if we now accept that we are all one, so we work with Earth rather than try to take from Earth. Therefore, we apply the same to the cosmos. We are part of the cosmos rather than separate from the cosmos, and so that's how we are going to grow, which I believe is going to be far more expansive, because we're the horizons. There are none. The only horizon is what we think up here rather than actually exists, and so I can see a vast number of opportunities arriving for everybody that is incarnate at the moment on Earth.
Speaker 2:And so where do we go? What do we seek to do, etc. And so my approach is to look curiously at what is unfolding, and then, with that curiosity, then I pick up something that gives me personally joy, not what I'm told I should be doing. If I feel joy in doing something, that's what I will be doing, and that's been my approach quite a few years now. So what gives me joy? Coming back to your kind comments about what we've established here at the Kinta, the joy is coming in to see people expand, evolve, change, heal, whatever, and so they then go out and they create their own opportunities. And so what does that do? That expands all of humanity, and so that's the purpose I see for myself is helping everyone to achieve the same.
Speaker 1:Beautiful. A lot to unpack here. Let me see what I would say. No, seriously, there was a lot here. So what I pick up from what each has said and obviously the bits that I resonated agree with are the ones that are the strongest with me right now. So the idea that we're all here to grow and evolve and this is not a choice, this is not like, oh, I want to evolve. Evolution is taking place, like the seasons are changing, the Earth is turning, if you believe in that world model, right, the cosmos is expanding, so we are expanding with it because we're part of it.
Speaker 1:I'm a great believer that we are at a specific time in history where our consciousness moves from the individuation, the locked in, egoic I am me and I have to fight for me to having energetic tentacles move to all over and understand we're part of something greater, we're not ourselves and therefore the shift you speak about that we are noticing. We are part of Earth, I am Earth. I cannot take from myself. It's not anymore a concept or a wishful thought and it's definitely not anymore with the 70s and the hippies Right. This is, this is a real concern for real. I really like that.
Speaker 1:I love to speak to you about this concept of You're curious and then when something lights you up or gives you joy, as you call it, you follow that. This goes back very much to Joseph Campbell's follow your bliss greatly misunderstood, but this is really what you're saying and from what I know as well. I mean you, you're not a spring chicken anymore, but your curiosity keeps you fresh and keeps you young and the joy, of course, is an energy. There is also healing and reviving right. So there's a lot in this, a lot in this. And do you think people over complicating? Are the the purpose question, kind of what? What should I do? What should I do? What should I do, you know?
Speaker 2:And that's why I personally don't like using the word purpose, because it has so many associations with it, whereas it to me, it's quite simple. My purpose is to Expand and evolve, and that's true of every soul. Doesn't matter what your job is, where you've come from, which group you come from. Every purpose of the soul, so sorry. The purpose of every soul is to expand and evolve. Now, how I do that is where we differ. What, what gives me joy, is different from you and from different from everybody else is watching, and so it's finding the joy element in what I do and is that?
Speaker 2:going to change over time, guaranteed because we've once we had the experience. Do I want to move on? Am I curious to move on to something else? Yes, it may be connected, but there will be different aspects of what I am curious to now expand and learn and experience. And so, if I come back to the midlife element for a moment, daniel, do you know how old the Oldest recorded person was when they died?
Speaker 1:No, I don't. I mean I Are you talking the mystical people like Abraham and recorded, recorded, I think, 127 or something, no, double 250.
Speaker 2:No, yeah, really had 20 wives and 200 children give or take. Okay, that's a village Chinese, chinese herbalist. He died in 1934.
Speaker 1:Maybe I'm slightly wrong, but it's so he would have started his midlife until he was 140 years exactly that's where I was going.
Speaker 2:So Because if you shift up here, what's midlife? Is it when I'm a hundred or is it when I'm 40? So just interesting.
Speaker 1:And it's really fascinating. Yes, great, great. You're definitely messing with with my concept right away here. I know that one of the books have been studying, jonathan Rouch beautiful book, the happy look curve In here in. In the inside back cover he shows four very beautiful images of an artist in the 1860s and he depicted the four ages of man. He calls it the voyage of life. But in that age, I mean, he died, I think in his early 60s.
Speaker 1:Back then, in the mid 1900s, people didn't experience midlife. It was literally. It was like infant, youth, grown man, old man, done right. So our life expectancy. I know people are getting ill as well, but we have 20, 30 more healthy years as we speak now. So I think you're right, midlife is much more flexible, but it's definitely for me indicated by, or not defined almost by, a a little bump in the road, a Wake up call, a quake, a shake.
Speaker 1:Something happens when you realize and I think that's a healthy thing it feels uncomfortable, as Often growth or the beginning of growth does. But I really feel like you, I'm an optimist. I think this is the opportunity of a lifetime To become the person we were meant to be, to actually say what do I actually want to do. If I, if I stop caring, but everybody else wants for me, if I stop caring, what they think, what I do or not do, all of this Seems to fall away. This chatter in midlife or a certain point is different for everyone. Then the journey begins and and here is where my curiosity is to speak with you what, where are we moving towards? I mean, what are we moving from to? What is the? The holy grail of living? What? How does the the wisdom people? How do the wisdom people spend their day?
Speaker 2:Okay, just to come back for a second, daniel, with regard to the 19th century, as you quite correctly say, the average age of death was somewhere around about 40 to 50. Now, why is that? That's because, basically, industrial revolution, pollution, and so the water, the, everything that people were eating, etc. Was polluted. So what happens to the body? So well, we have anybody says about Climate change, etc. Etc. We're far better off than we were 200 years ago or whatever it was, in terms of the industrial revolution. Well, if you, if you look back at some of those, those photographs that might be in the book, the chimney stacks with smoke and everything pouring out and then everything going into the water. So, for example, I'm sure you know the Bronte sisters and their writings what, what age did they die? They're all dead before 40 and, because of where they were living and the pollution that their body was accepting, knock them off. So, as you say, there was no midlife potential, the way we would look at it, that they might have had a child and then they were gone, whereas with, with the way we have evolved and To then come back. That's why I I'm a strong Holder to. We need to establish this Earthkeeper attitude up here so that we are working in harmony with earth rather than seeking to extract and control earth. And that leads me, then, to answer the.
Speaker 2:The question you just put, which is how do we in essence and keep the wisdom, is because we connect to everything and so we recognize we are part of everything and so we are part of earth. So how do we connect? Maybe you take a walk in in the park or along a road or another hill or whatever it is, but you're aware of nature, you connect with nature, and that's what I see is part of the. The new era is we are going to create a brand new connection with nature, and a few days ago, I was channeling something about how our evolution is moving at the moment, and the words that came through were on the, on the lines of the hue in the sky is going to be changing, and and I thought, well, game, that's very interesting. So how's the sky and change?
Speaker 2:And then I Played with it a bit more. It's going to change because of the attitude of humanity changes. Therefore, the earth is already in the fifth dimension, humanity is moving towards the fifth dimension. Therefore, earth is going to is well we know. You just have to look at the seismic activity. Earth is going through a restructuring, therefore the amount of light that's reflected from earth is going to increase and Therefore the hue in the sky is going to change. And I'm talking Probably less than a year before people in in, should we say, in the mainstream media are aware the sky looks different, and so that's how I see we're beginning to unfold. So it isn't, we're at the starting point, it's already started and Therefore, how is it going to be? Talk to me more about the fifth dimension.
Speaker 1:I hear a lot about it, but before I let you share some of that, I noticed some double rainbows recently and it looked like that. The rainbow at the end of the seven colors, the color start again and eight to ninth color appear. And this is just me observing. Is this part of what you speak into things exactly? And so that I'm being told is big.
Speaker 2:If you look right, so interesting.
Speaker 1:But you see, that's it because you've had that observation.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's interesting I haven't seen many double rainbows, and so that's part of the transition that's underway. So, as we change our attitude, I'm talking about, humanity changes its attitude towards earth. So earth is already moving ahead, so it's going to be ready to move forward. It's already moving ahead, so it's going to be reflecting back to us the, the dimension that's in and that's where it is, and it moved On the 21st of december last year to the fifth dimension, so it's adjusting. It's not as though it happened years ago. It's, it's fairly recent, so there's a just going on, which is why I come back to this, this channel comment. The hue of the sky is going to change, and you, you are saying that you already begin to see it. Therefore, that's where we're moving. Beautiful, it's, it's, it's no.
Speaker 1:I don't want to go there. No, you are going there.
Speaker 1:Interesting. Yeah, I mean this is, it seems, the way you describe it, and from my own experience, we can't resist if we want to. It won't do much good, apart from our own personal suffering. It will still. Whatever it's going to happen is still going to happen, were you resisting or not. I think the smart person tries to Get a sense where flow is and then stay there. Right, if I know evolution is going there, I might as well go there too, because it's going there.
Speaker 2:I come back to. There is a choice, because there's always a choice for each one of us. The choice, in the context of what you've just outlined, is to leave, and if you look at the death rate, it's higher. Interesting, because really interesting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, this is truly controversial what you're saying right now, but I have a similar Believe. You know, if you, if you, if your job's done here, if you don't want to be here anymore, uh, you know, people seem to just disappear, it's true, and die, yeah, well, that's it.
Speaker 2:Put from the personal perspective. Sorry, Daniel, what I was going to say from a personal perspective.
Speaker 1:No, no, you go.
Speaker 2:I choose to leave. Why do I choose to leave? Because I believe when I come back next time it's going to be easier for me Because all the transition will have gone through and I'll come back, let's say, 20 years time, and all this this is settled down and so I'll come back and have a nice life, etc. That's not the way soul evolution works, because we all come to this life to gain some experiences. So if we haven't gained the experience, what are we going to do in the next one?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we have to read. I mean, this is what what Indians say is karma right, you can't just outrun it. You know if you, if you leave now, you come back with the same task because you haven't done the job yet, you haven't completed the assignment.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and that's why. So, talk to me about astrology and so on, daniel, but this period we are in, it's good if you don't hear much, I know yeah, it's the biggest opportunity each human soul, each soul, has ever had to clear out all this karma and stuff, so that we enter a new era without all this baggage. And so that that's again to me the beauty of being incarnate at the moment and why we've been quotes allowed to so we can clear out.
Speaker 1:So now I feel I need to ask. I feel I need to ask a different question before I go back to the three, four, fifth dimension question. The question is the following what, how can we, how can I in my personal life, assist? I create a new word for me. I call it shift assist. So what is the shift assist protocol so that if I get in touch with somebody who resonates and comes into my field of influence, however I choose to do that, how can I help him assist in the shift? What's your spontaneous, immediate download or answer to that?
Speaker 2:But my response to that, daniel, is that you disconnect from their story and what you do is you sense what it is that they're, what's the experience they're looking for, and so, unfortunately, the way we humans work, we hold on to the story and that becomes our identity, whereas what we don't see is actually what's the experience? Okay, have you done that experience? Tick, move on. Whereas I don't know how many people I've spoken to they're stuck in the story. The story is no longer, it's not valuable because we've come for the experience and the experience that what we have experienced yesterday is different from today and will be different from tomorrow, and so it's just broadening the horizon that we have that we see that actually, all of these we have attracted, we've attracted for a reason to gain the experience. Have we? Have we learned the lesson? And I can make this slightly personal, daniel Many people I've spoken to have been to see me in the context of.
Speaker 2:I haven't been able to establish a solid relationship with a partner. I've always been bouncing from one to the other, to the other, to the other. So what does that tell me? That there's something within me or within that person? Because they're not loving. I mean, I'm simplifying, but they're not loving themselves enough to actually allow another person to step into their relationship with unconditional love, etc. Etc. Working both ways. And so it's what's the experience I'm looking to experience loving myself. That's the experience. Have I done it? Yes, no, no. Therefore, I keep going round and round.
Speaker 1:So once we have experienced those, does it just carry on with just moving into wider, higher realms, without trying to give it dimensionality?
Speaker 2:I wrote an article, I would say about a year ago, in which I said that actually, everybody that's incarnate on earth at this moment is being given the opportunity to enter into a new soul contract, so a soul contract entered into before we incarnate. This says I have these six experiences. Whatever it is, I'm looking to learn in this life the way evolution has moved faster than it was thought when we incarnated. Then we now have the opportunity to thank you very much. That one's closed. I now enter a new one, and so what it is? This is the individual choosing. I now choose to whatever, and so that to me is a nice closure point and opening the door to what it is that I personally, which is why I come back to what gives me joy. What gives me joy, therefore, my sole contract is now to expand, explore, etc. Etc. Those areas.
Speaker 1:Got it. So let's talk about the fifth dimension. It's been banded around as a term. I personally don't know much about it. People talk about the third dimension. Is this what we talk about? The 3D existence? The third dimension Is the fourth dimension time and the fifth one is a space that is beyond time and space.
Speaker 2:Is that that's broad? Yes, the difference between the.
Speaker 1:So what does it mean from experience? Because how do we experience life differently once we moved into that experience of the fifth as our six, five dimensional beings?
Speaker 2:Right. Principally, the big difference is between the fourth where humanity is at the moment and the fifth is that in the fourth one's leaving the third. It's a transition dimension rather than a major restructuring. So we're leaving the third, we're in the fourth and we're moving towards the fifth. Now the big difference between the fourth and the fifth is that the fifth accepts we are part of everything.
Speaker 1:Rather, than the fourth, because we're feeling that, because we're sense feeling this right, yeah, I got it. So is it possible that I already have experiences of being in this fifth dimension? Because, when you, I believe that I have clear experiences where I am beyond time and space, feeling myself to be part of everything and the source of all creation, and I is the same, exactly.
Speaker 2:That's my experience. You've been playing in the sixth as well, Daniel.
Speaker 1:Okay, cool. What's that like? What do we do there?
Speaker 2:Well, again, the sixth is a transitionary one between the fifth and the seventh. The seventh is the bigger jump, and so again I wrote what do we do?
Speaker 1:in the seventh, when we're clear that we are the creator of the found reality in all aspects, we become a Wow, okay, cool.
Speaker 2:The sixth is yeah, let's pull that curtain away, yes, and so it's fascinating, that's the passage that I see happening. At the moment. I don't like giving predictions, but my suspicion is that humanity will move into the fifth, probably next year or 26. Because I already say, humanity is always gradual.
Speaker 2:Exactly. And then there is so much awakening of people at the moment and it doesn't need 50.01% to actually make the shift. It needs about 35% to make the shift, because then everything ripples out. And if you look at the media not that I'm a great follower of the media, but even there there are references to what we are all one and we need a different attitude it comes back to human rights. We need to be respecting the individual but recognizing actually we're all part of the same thing, rather than controlling and directing, etc. So that's why I come back to my optimistic view. We're moving and some stage, as I say next year or 26, is when I believe we'll make the final move into the fifth. And so, coming back to Okay, having had your experiences in the fifth and played in the sixth a bit, daniel, what role would you say you're going to be playing?
Speaker 1:The way I. Okay, one of the messages I received is that all I have to do is be true to who I am so that I can be an example for others to do the same. Almost like a permission thing, right, because they will recognize that it's okay and allowed and this is the ripple. I don't have to do anything particularly complicated, just be.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:You just be. But in that sense, I'm changing your words slightly to say that you will be seen as the leader because you've been there, or you are there, and therefore do people wish to follow you? And the answer is they will. And so I come back to what's the purpose of this podcast. You're leading people to help them transit, to create a how are we phrase it? A better life, a more fulfilled life, whatever it is for themselves, and that's your leadership role, which is why it's coming from what you have experienced, not what you have gained as a certificate on the wall in the way I would describe it.
Speaker 1:Got it very, very, very touching. One more question that came out of the blue self-actualization Maslow. I got great respect for his work. I now know that he's been greatly misunderstood, that he actually reached states of transcendence and became very spiritual as a scientist in the later time of his life. How would you define self-actualization in your words or from your experience? What is a self-actualized human being?
Speaker 2:That means I am coming back to a word you used, I think, towards the beginning, Daniel, about being authentic, and it's also knowing myself. And so how do I know myself?
Speaker 1:Okay, I lost Gregory there for a second.
Speaker 2:We start, from my perspective, with the belief that we are part of a greater whole. Where are you? And so, with the greater whole, we have the acceptance acknowledgement Right. This is unexpected as Gregory being on a satellite connection in Portugal.
Speaker 1:Under a mountain somewhere, let me try to bring him back one more time and see if that worked. Now, Gregory, are you back? I'm back, Good. I thought I had to end the podcast all by myself. So the question was self-actualization, and you were just starting as the connection.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 2:My view on self-actualization, Daniel, is that if we and I know I step away from that, but what we need to know ourselves, we need to be, as I said and you use the word authentic way back in the beginning of this conversation we need to be authentic.
Speaker 2:So that means we need to understand who we are, and at the moment, most humans don't understand who they are. They see themselves as a separate individual with the identity that the family, the generations, the position you know, whatever it is, it's given them. What they don't see is that they are a soul that is part of the greater whole, and that greater whole is the truth that we need to take on within ourselves so that we understand we are, in that sense, part of all of creation, and so that's self-actualization. It can only come from within each individual that they understand who they are and therefore the role that they have, which is to continue to expand and evolve, and those individual expansions and evolutions then drive all of creation's expansion and evolution. So in that sense, we see ourselves as part of the whole rather than separate from.
Speaker 1:Beautiful Very much what I believe, but you put it in very succinct language and I feel with you every time that this comes from your own lived experiences. It's not book knowledge, a quiet soundbites from others. This is really who you are and have become. I really enjoyed our conversation. We could go on and on and on. There are so many topics I'd love to explore. Maybe we do it in another time. Talk about wisdom, talk about our role, talk about shifts. That's been really fascinating. I also know you have very deep knowledge on astrology. You're a weekly newsletter that comes like clockwork into my inbox, always gives me insights into what's happening out there in the stars that influences life here on earth. I want to just open that if anybody wants to find out more about you. Gregory, what's the best way to stay connected with you? What kind of link should I put with you?
Speaker 2:The easiest way is probably to use my website, wwwchermanicceocom, and then one can sign up there for anybody's interested in hearing my pearls of wisdom.
Speaker 1:Beautiful. So any last words. I had a question that popped in earlier, and the question was what would you like to tell people that they have to hear right now?
Speaker 2:I come back to what I was just talking about, daniel. You have to be yourself. Do not expect anything to unfold in the way you think it should unfold, because I guarantee it won't. What is the most important aspect for each of us is to be oneself, and that means understanding oneself and, in that sense, not be triggered by all the identity, issues, the beliefs, etc. That we have built up around our lives. If I myself, what am I? I'm love, I'm creation, I'm exploring, I'm looking for joy and fun, and wouldn't that make life far more enjoyable?
Speaker 1:I leave that standing in the ether for everyone to listen. Gregory, thank you so much for spending time with me today. I hope that many people have an insight how meaningful this information can be for them. Until we meet again, take care, my friend. Thank you, daniel.