Sacred Encounters: Carlos Duran's transformation "from gangster to healer"

Carlos Duran, shares his inspiring story, from the turbulent streets of Wheehawk, New Jersey, to the mountains of Costa Rica. His story is a testament to the power of transformation through nature and plant-based medicine, and the resilience of the human spirit.

Growing up, Carlos faced the challenges of a violent and abusive household that left him feeling separate, disconnected, and profoundly alone.

His journey took an unexpected turn when he found himself in the serene landscapes of Costa Rica. There, fate led him to a Shaman who introduced him to Yagè, the Colombian form of Ayahuasca. The transformative power of this ancient plant medicine became evident during a 45-minute trek up the side of a mountain to his first ceremony. In that sacred space, he underwent true spiritual healing and a radical transformation that altered the course of his life.

Under the guidance of Taita Juanito, Carlos has spent the last decade immersed in the study and practice of Yage, evolving from a hustler to a healer.

Co-founder of Four Visions, founder of Savage Encounter (a men’s retreat) and Operation Purify (a veteran’s retreat), he passionately shares the profound healing potential of this sacred medicine with the world. 

Carlos Duran is a living testament to the transformative power within each of us, and continues to inspire others to embrace their own path to healing and connection.

Carlos Duran Social & Website:

• Carlos Duran's Website
• Instagram @carlosduranlive
• Savage Encounter (Men's Retreat)
• Operation Purify (Veteran's Retreat)
• Cycles of the Moon hosted by Grandmother Jairsagua Farutiva Gacheta

Nina Rodriguez Social & Website:

• Instagram: @griefandlight
• Threads: @griefandlight
• Website: griefandlight.com
• Ways to Work with Me
• Subscribe to my newsletter

Full Disclaimer: griefandlight.com/safetyanddisclaimers

The information shared in this episode does not constitute real medical or legal advice, nor imply endorsement of programs, products, or methodologies. If you are concerned about your health in any way, always consult a medical practitioner. You are responsible for your own decisions and actions. 

#griefandlight #griefandlightpodcast

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

And that's in the last 12 years of my life. There's been this journey learning why forgiveness is for me and not the other person. And learning how to really understand that forgiveness is many layers and it takes time. And learning how God has left us many tools, not just the hey, there's so many spiritual tools that are here on this planet to help us move beyond grief, move beyond depression and despair into a life of real happiness, of real joy while still honoring and memory or love, still honoring everything that came before us, but giving ourselves the permission to be in the present.

SPEAKER_02 0:34

You just lost your loved one. Now what? Welcome to the Grief in Life podcast, where we explore this new reality through grief-colored lenses. Openly, authentically, I'm your host, Nina Rodriguez. Let's get started.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

Spiritual gangster, hustler turned healer. Today's guest, Carlos Durán, shared his inspiring story from the turbulent streets of Oehawk, New Jersey to the mountains of Costa Rica. His story is a testament to the power of transformation through nature and plant-based medicine and the resilience of the human spirit. Born into an immigrant family, Carlos faced the challenges of a violent and abusive household that left him feeling separate, disconnected, and profoundly alone. His journey took an unexpected turn when he found himself in the serene landscapes of Costa Rica. There, fate led him to a shaman who introduced him to Yahe, the Colombian form of ayahuasca. The transformative power of this ancient plant medicine became evident during a 45-minute trek up the side of a mountain to his first ceremony. In that sacred space, he underwent true spiritual healing and a radical transformation that altered the course of his life. Under the guidance of Taita Juanito, Carlos spent the last decade immersed in the study and practice of Yahe, evolving from hustler to healer. Co-founder of Four Visions, founder of Savage Encounters, A Men's Retreat, and Operation Purify, a veteran's retreat, he passionately shares the profound healing potential of this sacred medicine with the world. Carlos Duran is a living testament to the transformative power within each of us and continues to inspire others to embrace their own path to healing and connection. Thank you for joining us today and welcome to the Grief and Life Podcast, Carlos Durán.

SPEAKER_00 2:30

Thank you so much. It's a pleasure to be with you. For you listening or watching, thank you so much for being here with us. May this be a journey in your personal evolution and healing.

SPEAKER_01 2:38

Take us to the beginning. You are, it's young Carlos in a turbulent household that included some abuse, poverty, instability, all the things that in theory would throw one's life out of balance. Where exactly that took a turn to the Carlos that is sitting in front of me today.

SPEAKER_00 2:59

No, I'm happy to share. It's just it really does become a lot to unpack. The greatest thing that I could say at the end of the story is how God came into my life. Not in a religious way, not in a particular way of doctrine and dogma, but in a way of spirit, and how that changed me. So I grew up, my parents came from Cuba, they met in this country. Um my dad never finished high school. My mom just finished high school in the US. A lot of instability, my dad was a very violent man. My mom was just emotionally unavailable. I mean, she was getting beat on the rig. So it was hard to be emotionally available to me and my sister. Eventually, my dad became a very successful criminal. He he had quite uh an organization in the white-collar crime, I hype finance crime, um, that still had connections to the underworld. Um, as they say, follow the money. And so that's the world that I grew up in. Um, first we were very broke. Um, and then my dad had a certain level of, you know, you could perceive as power. And then I grew up in that world that I was being groomed to to take over. And it was a family business. You know, and eventually, you know, I I learned that there's no retirement plan for criminal. Very few actually get out alive with a bunch of money and disappear somewhere. That's usually not the case. Usually the case they end up dead or in prison. You know, the the law came to our doorstep, and the entire world came crumbling apart. I had family members in prison, hiding. I'd suffered a massive psychotic rape. Eventually, I started coming back. You know, one of the first things that I find to help us deal with grief, help us deal with depression, with that absence, because we have three bodies, the ancestry came. So we have three bodies, the mental body, physical body, spiritual body. And sometimes the impact is so heavy on the spirit and so heavy on the mind that that the only thing to relate to immediately is our heart. So I started working out again. Um actually became a personal trainer throughout process. But I have found that every time in my life when I'm off center, when things are chaotic, when I need to go back in and heal, when there's there's a grief that's taking place in, I love to see where my attributes are keen in. Because that's the one thing that we can do right away. I can go for a walk right away. I don't need to go to the gym. I can go for a 10, 15-minute walk, I can do a few push-ups, I can do a few punches, I can do a few squats, I can do a few leg raises, you can make movement. And so I did that. Anyway, that led me to the Kabbalah Center, where I had an amazing time to study with an amazing rabbi, Rabbi Shimon Safati, who in essence became my first chirurgical teacher. And there, life took me to Costa Rica, where I started working uh with indigenous leaders and killers, quiet medicine, which took me to an encounter on the side of a mountain with ayahuasca, Yahe. And that's in the last 12 years of my life. There's been this journey learning how to for why forgiveness is for me and not the other person. And learning how to really understand that forgiveness is many layers and it takes time. And learning how God has left us many tools, not just Yahe. There's so many spiritual tools that are here on this planet to help us move beyond grief, move beyond depression and despair into a life of real happiness, of real joy while still honoring the memory of our love, still honoring everything that came before us, but giving ourselves the permission to be in the present. And so that's been my experience with Yeah, hey. It's been a liberation of the mind, the body, and the spirit. And over the years, I've seen how it has helped thousands and thousands and thousands, over 10,000 people in the last 12 years that have seen this plant medicine bring healing to, you know, I use the word miracles loosely, but sometimes it's it's just a miracle that happens. It brings it and it helps people organize their lives. And so that's been my dream.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

I'm very curious. A lot of people, some people are very resistant to other ways of thinking. So, for example, when you mentioned Kabbalah and that your first mentor was a rabbi, for example, maybe not how you grew up, right? You didn't necessarily grow up with these forms of belief. So, were you always open to exploring a different way of thinking, or was this more of a result of that breakdown that you said you had and you were like, I'm just gonna be open?

SPEAKER_00 7:28

That's a great question. I'll tell you where it started. One of the things, because my dad was cruel in his punishment. And and one of the things that my dad would do is he would isolate us in our room on our bed, but nobody come into the room. My mother can't come in. We couldn't eat, we'd have to ask permission to go. And and these these punishments would last days and sometimes over a week. And so my mom taught me about this character named Jesus. Tell them about two, three years old, and she would teach me to pray to this Jesus, and that Jesus would help me, that Jesus. So as a little kid, what do you do? You do what your parents say something, and you know, and she had like a little picture of Jesus in my room, and I'd be in done bed, and all I could do is pray to Jesus for hours because I had nowhere else to go. And there was a time in my life when I was a very bad man. I wasn't evil by action, but I was sinister by trade. My trade required to conduct my life in a certain way and sustain a certain perspective. For survivability, when my mom does that as a child, I equate it to she put in a homing peak inside of my heart. When I go through this journey of life of crime, it's incredible and all the and a successful life of crime when I comes with it. When all that blows up and everything starts to crash, at one point, just after I started doing exercise, just as I started to coming back to my body, there's an awakening that happens. I meet this character who was also my mentor, and he was a life mentor. His name was Gary Hopper, an amazing copywriter, one of the world's most amazing marketers, communicators, and he taught me about communication. And he took my understanding of marketing and business to a whole nother level. He showed me how everything that I had learned could be applied in a legal and a successful way. More importantly, he told me about communication. In that journey with Gary, that homoom beacon activates. And I remember that that there's a guy, and there a thirst begins. And now I'm open. Now I'm reading books, I'm reading books on uh esoteric books, books on the Egyptian mystery schools. I I mean everything that I could get my hands on, sameri tablets, thoughts, I mean everything that I did get my hands on. The Bagabati Gita, Quran, I'm reading these like simultaneously. I've just re-rekindled and researched. We we grew up in um there was a Catholic, there's a central Catholicism in our home after the divorce and separation, I'm on forensic Christianity. And I got to see how these churches work, how they gotta, and and when you look at, I'm not saying every Christian church, I'm not saying every Catholic church, I'm gonna say the ones that I was exposed to were terrible in the underlying, right? In the delivery of what was promised wasn't really there. And the people that ran it were more, in my opinion, of self-interested nature rather than service. And not everyone that was unfortunately the ones that were controlled, and this is various churches, I think it's like one or two. So I'm like, well, it's not there. So where is it? Where is this God? And that's what happened. So that it was that homing beacon that my mom put in there. When everything crashes around me, it turns on. I remember this, and now it starts searching. And that led me to Kabbalah, it led me to Costa Rica, it led me to La Yahweh.

SPEAKER_01 10:43

Thank you for that. I'm always curious about that particular journey because you meet people that are either very close off to that or just relatively open and they explore, like you said, reading maybe the Bahava Gita and the Quran and you know, the Bible and all the things at the same time, looking for answers, looking for that truth at different cultures and different religious things to have, right? I love that you mentioned the three bodies that we have. Uh so you have the body, the emotional body, and the spiritual body. I really discovered that through grief after losing my brother, I was surprised at how physical it was of an experience that I was expecting the emotional, I was expecting maybe even the spiritual, but not the physical. I don't know why that really caught me off guard. So when you say the one thing that's in your power when everything's crumbling around is your physical space. You can argue that a lot of other things are, but just that bringing it back to the basics, go for a walk, go outside, step outside of yourself and start coming back home to your body. And I think that's very powerful. So thank you for highlighting that. Let's go to Costa Rica. You're on this journey, you get to this beautiful country, beautiful land, and you go on this 45-minute, let's call it a hike, right? So you go on this 45-minute hike, and that's really bringing it down to its elements. But this hike changed your life forever. Take us there. What were you feeling? Were you apprehensive or were you just completely surrendering to the experience? What was that like?

SPEAKER_00 12:05

So in Costa Rica, when I go to Costa Rica, I go there to work on a test bed project related to sports directive, financial insurance mechanism for sports-related business. The company that gets me there, part of the promise was the building of a spiritual retreat center. So that's what gets me. And through my journey there, I opened up an organic farm and I start the first online organic farm-to-table business. Through that journey, I find myself on a 45-minute hike up the side of a mountain. The first thing that happened was I started working with my hands in the soil. That's why I tell people, if even if it's just for spring and sun, if you have land and you can put a few raised beds, you know, it's okay. The first year that you farm, you're going to farm simple. Second year, you're going to be a little bit more developed. And third year you're going to be more developed. You'll see how to create more space, how to create more food for yourself. But when you put your hands in the earth and you begin to work with the soil, you begin to work with seeds, like there's powerful exchanges that take place. When we use scientifically, we have to talk about an ion exchange that happens when we make contact with earth, when we make contact with water, going into time to come aware of it. Ion exchange takes place in the body. And I was reading this amazing series of books that I highly recommend. It's called The Ringing Cedars of Russia. It's a 10-volume war. The first volume is called Anastasia. Now I'm I'm reconnecting. So this kid from Jersey is now discovering organic food. And he's discovering the earth. Now I'm seeing that God isn't something that just exists in the spiritual philosophy, but God is something that exists in the earth world. And how I get there is a journey. But I basically start seeing that there's God in everything. And so I get invited to this, to the ceremony. And I thought I'm like, oh my God, a shaman. These guys are snake oil salesmen. What if they try to, you know, they do like a black spell and they be attached to my soul. And I live, I had this whole story. It was a two-night event. I only stand up for one night, but I hid the money for a second night. I don't want the shaman to help us steal my money. And when I get there, we have the first ceremony changes. Every ceremony is different, every encounter is different from everyone. It's a unique experience we can. I got what I needed, and I was blown away by how I got it and how it was given to me. And it's just it was just so beautiful. So of course I stay for the second night. 12 years later, yeah, right. But I'll tell you something that's curious because people talk about spiritual paths. For 10 years, I traveled with my teacher. I was a secretary, his translator, his organizer, his personal chef, his pursuits. In the government, they called it the bad man. It was my job to, to, to liaison with his family, with speaking engagements, with everything. And during that time, I had the opportunity to share with many grandparents, grandmothers, and grandfathers from the Amazon. And for a long time, about seven years in, eight years in, I started noticing, wow, there's just a lot of love and attention that's being given to me, a lot of energy, really, because to be sat down by these elders, to be given instruction and have them repeat it and repeat it and repeat it to you again and again. And you know that they're important something. My question was why? I wasn't, I would tell my teacher, okay, listen, I I just want to be honest with you, I see what you guys are doing, and I'm not sure this is my path. I love what we do, I love how we help people, right? I'm here today, but I don't I can't tell you, oh my God, yes, I feel this calling that I'm here for no. That wasn't it a year seven, that wasn't it a year eight, that wasn't it a year. And all my teacher would tell me was drink more yeah, hate, drink more mess. He would just laugh. Year 10, I have this amazing encounter. Well, the medicine would finally tell you, this is your path, and don't forget it. But I've felt it in my heart. So sometimes we we have to have patience and perseverance and persistence. And what you said at the beginning is the right word. We surrender to the moment, we surrender to the experiences before. If everything is always a no from the mind, is it a possible that there could be a yes from the heart, a yes from the intuition, and then we pull back out of fear? I'm gonna I would assert that based on your vocabulary, you read the book, The Surrender Experiment.

SPEAKER_01 16:08

I know the book. I I know the book, but and it's on my list, but I have not yet. I I am familiar with some of its teachings though.

SPEAKER_00 16:15

That book is such a beautiful guide. Surrender experiment by Michael Singh is such a beautiful guide on step by step, the mental, because it is the part of our body is the mind, right? So, how do we educate the mind to have the positive thoughts? Because the mind runs wild because it's unpained, right? It's always you know projecting in the future, it's always attaching to the past, and it's robbing you of the gift of the present, the moment. So that's a great way on how to train the mind to see salonia, to see the opportunity. The grandparents teach that really the the idea is this the heart is the one that's connected to the spirit. So the one is the one, the heart is the one that should be making decisions. Once the heart has decided what we're gonna do, the mind charts the course on how we're gonna get. And then the body executes it. And that's the alignment of mind, body, spirit.

SPEAKER_01 17:03

Thank you so much. That seems to be completely different than the way that we operate here as a more business-oriented mindset. We lead with the mind usually. And I have recently found, like you said, if you make that subtle shift, that I would guess also came from the elders, you said that something that people that are very connected to the earth and to spirit, they understand this at a deep level. But when you're a newcomer listening to this information for the first time, it's like, what do you want me to lead with the heart? What does that even mean? Right. And I also love that when you were apprehensive, that part of you that's like, I don't know, I'm just, you know, I really enjoy this. I get a lot out of it, but it's not like I'm it's not a forever thing. It's not you, it's me kind of thing. And they just laugh with the wisdom that they probably had at that point and said, keep taking the next step. Just okay, great. I hear you're angst about this, but just take the next step. Don't worry. And 10 years later, which I also want to highlight because everybody has their own timing. So a lot of times we want to make these changes, but my goodness, it's been uh that almost a decade later is when it finally Year 10.

SPEAKER_00 18:06

No, it was a year 10.

SPEAKER_01 18:08

It was year 10. It took 10 years for you to have that realization that no, this is a forever kind of thing. So we shouldn't also be harsh on ourselves about the timing. I want to backtrack a little bit because you said about your teacher, and I'm assuming this is Taita Juanito.

SPEAKER_00 18:22

Yeah, he was my first teacher in the world of Yahe. Taita Juanito represents the Ngano Sionga language, Uncle Yahe tradition. The word Taita in our culture means father. Like literally, it's it's what a child would call his dad is taita. In in the spiritual path, it means guide. It's the person that's there to guide you. You're they're the mat, but the steps, the decisions are yours to make. We represent a 5,000-year-old culture. In our culture, the woman and the man are very sacred elements of creation. They're the mother and the father of light. And God, the divine, is in everything, from the rock to the water to your heart to mind. In our culture, we teach that anything that keeps you separate was an evolution. And everything that brings you into human humanized state, a state of evolution where you see that everything is one, from you to myself as the same being, and you and myself are the trees and the orange and the ocean are one. That's that's how we measure spiritual relief. And Tata Widow is an amazing healer, uh, an amazing ill mind, and spirit, and he has produced and is producing an amazing school of healers that are studying under him and with him. And the grand parents that he drinks like like my Dan Paris, who have come and done some hotel book class now, no wheels in the astro. We offer this opportunity to to come drink in Colombia. We have uh mis retreats at Tete Guanito's farm thing and Briwasi. We have men's retreat at my brother John Freddie, who's also a disciple of Tevito's farm. It's called Savage Encounter, no as like. And we have veterans retreat for men and women's veterans to also come to the jungle. And all this has come because of the vision that Tetewanito had had brought into the world for as just one avenue. You know, there there's many cultures, there's many traditions, there are many tribes who are doing the exact same work that we're doing. And we're doing it because about 30 to 50 years ago, a big calling came out from the medicine where where she told all the elders of the different tribes that it was a mass communication that it was time to bring around to the Western world. And so we were creating centers, us and our brothers and sisters around the amateur in Brazil, in Colombia, in Costa Rica, to have these pillars of light where people can safely travel to receive their medicine and have these experiences and then have the support to continue to integrate into bringing this healing into reality, not just something, because somebody has to go to a retreat and all the magic stays at the retreat. Now, the point of this is to manifest it in the day of exit. So receive those gifts, receive that thing to remove those blockages, and then to do your work and be responsible for your aspect of your co-creation with God. Empower yourself as an image of the Creator on earth to live an excellent, beautiful life and see take that experience and you make it happen here. And that's that's what we that's what our culture teaches and offers.

SPEAKER_01 21:18

And there has been uh an openness about plant-based medicine and it's gaining more popularity as people become more educated about it. But there's still the people that think, like you did in a way that first time going through the mountain, like I'm gonna pay for a day one out of curiosity, but maybe not day two in case this is a scam, right? How do you have that discernment? If I'm brand new, I see your program, I'm curious about it, but I have my apprehension. What would you say to those people? What surety could you give them that this is really guided, like you said, you have the guide with you, and that this is not some crazy mixture that's gonna harm you. This is an actual plant based medicine. And following that, maybe also talk about the difference between Yahe and Ayahuasca.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

So that's a that's a great question. I'll be very specific and I'll be more general. So specifically, you can just reach out to me. I typically take between 24 and 48 hours to respond, depending on my travel schedule. But I'm available on Facebook and on Instagram, Carl Stran Live. So you can just reach out to me. I'd be happy to answer them what I do. In a more general sense, when you feel called to a plat medicine, and again, it's good to have a curiosity, right? Because it's good to have a character of a child. That's how we learn new things and explore new things and you write new things. The elders teach that when it comes to plat medicine, you want to first feel the calling in your heart. And many people say, well, I'm not ready. My life is too messed up. I have too many issues. That's exactly what you, you know, and it could be the plat medicine that's calling to you. Maybe it's a ceremony with a sacred mushroom. But whatever's calling to your heart, it's important to go and connect. Now, how do you find the right place? It should be recommended. It's good to find places that, if and if you don't know someone that can recommend a place by asking in circles, trusted friends and family, then researching online places that have good references, asking in different community groups about this place or that place, and who's been there, who hasn't been. Because you want to play, pick up place that has a good reputation. It's really, really important because just like everything else, full disclosure, there are places that offer a variety of plant mass medicine that are not properly trained in the culture. It's a new age new vote, new age mix where they're in it for another reason, meaning you're in it for the money, all the power, um, the control. So, and that's not everyone, but I'm just being clear that that that exists in this community as well, in the plant medicine community, just like this in every spiritual community I've ever seen. So you want a place that has a good reputation, good references, hopefully it's recommended by someone you know who's been there and knows them. Um, and in the absence of any of that, just reach out to me. You know, I'll happily read clear communication and support channel connecting to a place that's right in your heart. So that's the way to do that. And all, you know, and what I like to say always when I talk about this is if you ever get somewhere, it doesn't matter if it's another country, it doesn't matter. You get to ceremonies, you get to a retreat, and it doesn't feel right leave. But the the facilitators that are there, if they're doing this from a space of love and service, they're not gonna get offended if you got there and you realized it wasn't. It's really important to go in with that permission to your stop. You know, no matter where I'm going, if I get there and it doesn't feel right to me, I'm gonna leave. If you go to a foreign country, maybe wait a day, because sometimes, you know, it's just the travel and you're in your jungle, it's just a weird. You know, give yourself a day or two and you didn't want to participate. You know, like we'll us in our community, everything is free will. You can come, you know, you can people come from Europe and they're they don't want to put the sets up, maybe have the achievements that we have within. But it's important to have that free will when you get to a ceremony space that you don't feel 100% there where you can leave and more true service oriented organizations. I mean, so the the difference between ayahuasca and your hay, the way that my my elders teach it is that in some regions, the medicine is called ayahuasca. And let's talk about what it is. In most places, it is a bark, it is a vine, and and it is a leaf that are literally brewed together as if it were a tea. The preparation process is a ritual, there's prayers. You know, harvesting it is labor-intensive and it takes days to prepare. But in the end, outside of the ritual and and the energy and the amount of work that it takes, what you have is a vine and a leaf. And those are brewed and then they're put together and you're reduced. And that's basically that's all you were drinking. Some cultures had other plants, um, other leaves and things like that, but most don't. And so it has a different name in every region. Well, Ambiwaska, Runi, Kapi, Yahe, Ayahuasca. What the elders teach is that each form of the medicine is a trail up the same mountain. And so no matter what trail you take, it brings you to the same point. It brings you to an encounter with yourself, with creation, and with one of the things that is distinct about Yahe is that it's it is considered to be a very potent form of ayahuasca. And many of the other forms of ayahuasca are very visionary from my academic understanding. Because all they drank and the studies that I have in the shared other cultures is they're very visionary. Yahe is a visionary plant, however, its main purpose is to act as a purgative, it purges the mind, the body, and the spirit of what? Of emotional blockages, energetic blockage. There's a great book out today called The Body Keeps the Score. Remember, my grandparents were talking about this 5,000 years ago, that inside the body, memories from impacts, traumas, stresses are stored in the body. And they create a way of thinking for you. They create a certain perception, they create limiting beliefs and limiting reactions. And so the height purges these emotional, physical, and spiritual blockages from from your body, from and it purges them through the vomit and the diarrhea, through the tears, from the sweat, and the laughter, through the yawning, urine. It's all being purged in your body. So that those limiting beliefs, those blockages, that old way of being that was keeping you from experiencing your greatest life, your greatest self, from showing up in your greatest way, those things are removed and now you're fear. You know, it's not a it's not it that sounds very romantic when I say like that, but it's not a magic bullet. You know, depending on how much ancestral trauma there is, generational trauma, because there's an epigenetics for the spirit, just thinking there's an epigenetics for the physical body. And if you don't know, epigenetics is just a fancy way of saying what's passed down from one generation to another in the DNA. But that also exists in the spirit. You know, that's why we call it ancestral trauma or generational healing, ancestral dealing, because there's a memory there from around and there's a memory there from Allah. You know, and if you expand into lifetime, there's a memory from relaxing as well. Open to that to that understand. These lifetimes create baggage, it creates emotional baggage. And what the yeah does, it begins to discard that baggage. The more emotional baggage, well, the more work, not just with the yeah, but the more work you have to do in your daily life, your meditations, your prayers. You know, what are your spiritual practice? What's your relationship with God? And all that plays into the healing. It's not just come take a cup and boom, oh my God, everything is unicorns and rainbows last two weeks. No, no, this is real spiritual work. You know, the elders say the Yahe will give you 50%. She will clear the road, she will mend, she will heal, and then it's up to you to give the other 50% in how you choose to live your life and express the gifts at the ceremony.

SPEAKER_01 28:36

I also heard you say in another podcast that I heard, Yahe is a culture to be shared, not a religion. Can you say more about that?

SPEAKER_00 28:44

Yeah, I'd be happy to. You know, from a legal standpoint, it it is a religion. If if you if you wanted to establish a Yahe church in the US, it would meet all the legal requirements to be considered a church. But it is a culture. Truly, at the essence, at its origin, we we in the jungle we didn't have churches. In the jungle, we didn't have religion. So we just had a culture. What did we cultivate? What was the culture for? And so our ancestors cultivated uh a mutual respect between man and woman. We cultivated a reverence for the mother, a reverence for the grandmother, a reverence for the daughter. We cultivated a reverence for strength of the man and the fire of the man. We cultivated reverence for family. We cultivated connection to the earth, a relationship and balance between the earth around us, and we cultivated a knowing that the divine exists in every breathing and living. And so we should honor all life because the divine exists in all life. And so this is what our culture has developed. Through the use of Yaheg, it is the principal pillar. Through there, we learn about the harvest. We learn about other medicinal plants, something as simple as blazing or ginger. Um, we learn how to cultivate medicines from the earth. And we learn how to place our life on the altar of the creator in service of the great designer we're creating. And so that's that's the culture that we have, and that's the Yahy culture. In its origins, it was never a religion. In modern day, for sure, if you were to say, hey, we want to establish a church in the U.S., Yahweh culture would have all the prerequisites because we have the teachings, we have the history, we have the ritual practices. From its origin, it's a culture that we'd share. And why do I say that more than anything is because there are many religions that come to us. We have Mormons that come drink, we have Christians that come drink, we have a few Muslims that have come from jank along. We have Buddhists that come drink, people from new age churches that come drink. So we I never want to make someone think or feel that they're somehow cheating on their church or cheating on their religion because they're not, we're not offering you. If you have your religion, we're not offering you. We're offering you a poultry. It's a supplement to your spiritual path. You can drink medicine once, twice in your life, three times in your life. Maybe you come once or twice a year for what I call a spiritual oil change. But you have your path, you have your yoga or your tai chi or your Christianity, and you hold that as your as your as the central pillar. And then the plat medicine becomes a supplement to support you along that journey.

SPEAKER_01 31:26

It's not trying to replace what you already believe in, it's trying to supplement it, and it's trying to help you in a different way that also involves the the physical aspect of it from the sounds of it.

SPEAKER_00 31:37

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 31:37

And I keep hearing you refer to Yahya as she. You say more about that.

SPEAKER_00 31:43

Sure, of course. So in our culture, and you find this in in in several ancient cultures, the energy of the feminine vessel has a higher vibration than the male. So she she spiritually is more mature than the man because she's the vessel of life. So for us, Jahe is mother. So it's actually a marriage, but there's a masculine property and there's a feminine property between the leaf and and the vine, and that creates a marriage. But the manifestation of her is mother. She is the womb, she is the center from where life is born, she is the darkness that brings us to light, she is the milk that gives us light. She is mother, she is Yahhe.

SPEAKER_01 32:26

That's beautiful. I want to let that statement breathe a little bit. That's beautiful. It stayed with me that you said it's also a calling. Like it starts off as a calling, and it people are called to different modalities. You said some people maybe it's whatever, you know, different practices there are. Can you say more about that?

SPEAKER_00 32:45

Depending on your circle, right? Something always comes across, as you say, it comes across your desk. It comes on your radar, right? It's in your field, right? Somebody mentioned something online, going down one of those rabbit holes and you're Googling things. But somehow, a plat medicine comes across your field of know. Or maybe a couple, right? And you could be curious about this and curious about that. But somewhere in your heart, your heart will say, That's the one. That's let's go find place that can offer us this medicine. In a safe, culturally traditional way. And so your heart will call you. Your heart will say, This is the one. Because the mind's very curious. Like I said, that's very good. But in your heart, you will know. And the worse you are at in life, the more stuck you feel, the more important it is to come drink that. Don't put it off. People, oh no, when I get better. No, that's not the point. The point is to help you when you're not well. You know, come now. There's no judgment.

SPEAKER_01 33:38

You talk about it having both feminine and masculine energy. And I've heard you say in other talks that you've given that uh it's important to balance out the masculine with the feminine, even within men. And from that we'll segue into your savage encounter. No S at the end, savage encounter. Um, so talk to us about the importance of balancing out the masculine and feminine, and then how that translates specifically to your savage encounter men's retreat.

SPEAKER_00 34:05

This is for men and women, right? We listen, whatever you believe is what you believe. This is the conversation we're having now. It's based in a 5,000-year-old culture. So, in our culture, like in many spiritual cultures, we believe that every man and every woman has a balance of masculine and feminine energy within. Okay, since you're talking about the man, we'll start with them. In in the society that we've grown up in, men are very masculine. From the time you're a little child, don't cry, man up, suck it down, suck it up, you know, don't be a whim, you want blah blah blah, and all and all the other adjectives that go with that, right? Creativity is very limited for men. There's no clear way in the world today for a man to both experience his physical strength, his aggression, his bruteness, and the feminine nature of his creativity, which we're very cut off from. And so there's a huge inbound point. So in our culture, for example, men at an early age learn to weep, they learn to hunt, they learn to build fires, they learn to build homes, and they learn to weep, they learn to sleep. You know, but some do it and some don't, that's different. But that the culture offers the lessons and the grandparents all the tradition so that a man can be balanced in his full expression. Because when I can connect to my own feminine creativity, I can connect to my my softness and gentleness, I can relate with more compassion and kindness to my children, to my partner, to my wife. I can listen to my sister better, I can provide better counsel, better guidance, better protection. When a man is able to be gentle and soft, he doesn't live in fear of not being a man because he he's confident in himself, he's bound, and then he can show up in a sacred way for himself. He can hold himself in love, he can hold himself in compassion and kindness, he can hold himself accountable. And because he's able to do that for himself, he can do that for others, he can do that for his community. That's the foundation in our culture of the balance of what of what a man works himself to become and nurtures himself consistently and constantly through all the years is working in his inner field to have that balance, to be both strong and empathetic and sensible and to bring that safety, wow, that readability into the environment or out.

SPEAKER_01 36:38

And that's something that that you work on with the participants.

SPEAKER_00 36:42

Yeah, we have we have Teachings of My Ancestors, which is our online men's course, and we have Savage Encounter, which is our 14th-day retreat in the jungle. That's a pretty amazing container because the the first 30 days we do online prep. So you're actually in Zoom classes with me, with the group that you're going to be attending with, and we're actually preparing you for this encounter in the jungle. And then once you get there, there's a continued prep. It's not that you get there, you drink on day one. No, we again we continue to prep. We do mud baths, we do fire rituals, we cleanse, we purge, we do plant baths. It's a whole preparation before the actual climate medicine ceremonies. And then there's continued work, there's workshops, there's weaving workshops. There's there's connections to the mother of the water, there's connections to the mother that's the earth, to the father that's the sky, to the brother, that's the wind. We connect to our ancestors because after our relationship to our creator, the next big missing in our world is a relationship to our ancestors. That memory is very much alive in the butt. But what's the technology to connect? How do we do that? And so we cover that in savage account very well. And then once the guys go home, we have a five-week live integration. Yeah, we don't just drop you off. You have five weeks, we have weekly calls for check-ins, actual prompts, protocols that you go through to integrate for those five weeks. And then we have a lifetime brotherhood network on Telegram where all the guys that have been in teachings on my ancestors and all the guys that have been a Savage Encounter are going to a brother, but it's actually called The Brother. And we're there all day, you know, sharing jokes or you know, even it goes from something serious, like we have guys that are recovering addicts saying, Hey, I'm about to use was available. You have five guys jump on, somebody will call him to a guy saying, Hey, I, you know, I want to try a new chicken recipe, and five guys dropping, you know, YouTube links, you know, to a couple of guys dropping jokes of the day. It's it's a guy thing, you know. We just we go from like, hey, I'm having issues with my chains with my wife to yo, I need a new workout to yo, here's a joke. So it's it's really beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 38:50

There's so many different people and groups and organizations that offer events, but the the real power of the event is integration and implementation after that amazing experience. The amazing experience needed and the catalyst.

SPEAKER_00 39:05

Then what?

SPEAKER_01 39:06

But then what? So the fact that you have this very important answer to the then what that is, I think you just said five weeks. In that time, you go back to your normal routine and you're back in your, I gotta go to work, I have to go do this, and the kids and the family. And that's when people start losing that awe that you experience in this amazing encounter. So the fact that you are providing a space dedicated for that same group that just spent X amount of time, 30 days online, the 14 days in Colombia or Costa Rica?

SPEAKER_00 39:41

Yeah, in Colombia.

SPEAKER_01 39:42

Colombia, in Colombia, having these amazing experiences that are probably very hard to explain to the family when they come home. And then having that same group translate and integrate and talk about it afterwards and have the lifelong group that's comprehensive and powerful because that's how how real change is created. It's not a one-time thing, like you said. It's a it's a continuous thing. You were called to do this particular men's retreat, and we'll talk about the other one in a second, but we were called upon to do this one for men only. Can you speak a little bit on that?

SPEAKER_00 40:14

Yeah, it's like that's a pretty cool story. About two years ago, to give you the whole story, everything in my life is a story. I come Cuban, everything's a point, everything's a story. Whether it's real or not, I don't know, but it's a story. It's fantastic. I promise. So so two years ago, I'm going through massive transformation. I'm stepping away from socially conscious multi-million dollar business that I that I had uh built. My my my son's mother was a partner helping me build that business. The brunt of it was I got to carry that, I had the opportunity to carry that, and that was amazing. And there were changes between me and my community, my spiritual community, my I was losing my family, everything was just everything was being pulled out from under me. And it really turned out to be an amazing massively karmically. But the long story short is my teacher looks at me and he looks at John Freddy and my partner, and he's like, Listen, you've been here 17 years, you've been here 12 years, there's new kids coming in, you know, this house is full of healers, so unless you guys are gonna start just cleaning the bathrooms, you know, and sleeping rooms, what what are you guys doing around? You know, what he was saying to us was it's time for you to go and prove that the cop, the wisdom, the authority that has been given to you was worth something. Go out there and make it worth something now. Yeah, it's time for the for the for the boys to leave the house and become men. Go out there, make us proud, that kind of thing. And so John Freddy and I, we we drank medicine, we prayed, and we were asking for something different. We were asking, and it's funny because if you look at it from uh from a financial point of view, like 70-something percent of my followers are women. So it doesn't make sense for me to do a program that's just from that. I mean, that's not that wouldn't make sense, but that's what came through in the medicine for me, that's what came through in the medicine for him. And then in one ceremony, I get this message, called it Savage Encounter, and I called him a goal. We're gonna call it Encuentro Sagby. That's it, that's the one. And so we called it Savage Encounter. Obviously, 23 was a year. In one year, just so you see how the power of God, two years ago, I have nothing starting from zero. Now, a year and a few months, what have we done? We've done four Savage Encounters, one operation purified. We launched Heaven and Earth Ancestral League, which is our nonprofit, which captures at this time, it captures funds from a grandmother's retreat center that she's building, a John Freddy's Retreat Center. It captures funds to offer scholarships for our veterans. Right now, we're fully funded for the veterans retreat in March. We're getting funded to the next one in July through our nonprofit. We established uh Toma teachings with my ancestors. We've done two 10-week men's groups from that. And and all that has been the year in just a few months, from starting from zero. And I just want to testify that's the power of God in your life when you really surrender and really give you create.

SPEAKER_01 43:07

Very impressive. I'll link everything that Conn Musl just said, I'll link in the show notes. I saw one of the preview videos for Savage Encounter, and it just looked very authentic, very powerful, very grounded. It's less about the lights and bells and whistles, and it's more about like getting to the core of what you really came here to do as an individual. And you could feel bad, you could feel bad, you could see it. There's testimonies from men that have gone through the program. And if you are, if you resonate with anything that has been said so far for this particular one, you're a man, then you could benefit from that. The second one is Operation Purify, which is specifically for vets, and this one's a co ed one, so it's for men and women. So tell us a little bit about that one.

SPEAKER_00 43:50

So Operation Purify uh who's almost some maybe from year three, and one exaggerate, year three, most year four, when you Going eight, nine years back. I had a calling that I wanted to work with vets in the medicine. And again, it just took that long to manage. In one of the savage encounters, this amazing man called Ryan Carey, cap 30 tied from the Canadian Ips and Tree, who served in Afghanistan is a former Canadian Football League player. Just an amazing guy. Comes to a savage encounter, and we met there in the medicine said, That's your guy. That's the guy that you're going to build your veterans program. And Operation Purifier was born. You know, we had our first one in August. Nine military personnel from eight, no, we had 11 military personnel from nine different countries come attend. And that's a 15-day retreat. And all retreats are limited to 15 participants. And it's combat, non-combat vets. If you're a veteran from any military of any nation state in the world, you're invited to Umpage Parkway Sheet Purify. We actually have scholarships available for our March retreat. You have about seven scholarships left. So if you go to operationpurified.com, you book a call, right there. She says, Book a call. You call Ryan Carey, it's a free call. You guys have a conversation. And if you feel that Operation Purify is a fit for you, and Ryan says it's a fit, and you both agree, then we move on to the next step, and we can help you get a scholarship to help you come be there. I I am not pro-war. I'm very much against the killing of humans. Yet I under I understand the sacrifice of the war. And I understand that there's a duplicity that takes place when these young people are brought into the military. The basic human directives are used and manipulated, including the creation of tribe. And then the rotation is done, their duty is done, and that tribe is taken away from immediate. And that causes a huge impact. So one of the things we do is we give that tribe back. Um, the Operation Purified veterans have their own veterans channel. They have their network, and it's the same thing as the Brotherhood, it's just for the vets. And they're always welcome to come into the Brotherhood. You know, a lot of vets just like to deal with vets and have that community because it is a shared experience, no matter what military you serve, and it's a lot of things that that become part of the shared trauma and part of the shared healing as well. So we do that for our veterans, out of love, out of respect, out of gratitude for all those that put on a uniform and somehow or some way stood somewhere that said, this is in defense of my brothers and sisters, my fellow citizens. And we honor that. And so that operation purifies their friends. And it's again, it's the same thing. It's a 30-day pre-container, it's two weeks in the jungle, a five-week post-container for integration, and then lifetime access to the Telegram. And I want to say this, Nina, for for my sisters. I just started working with my grandmother. We just did Cycles of the Womb, which was a four-week course on wound cycles, menstruation, and menopause. If you go to mywombhealing.com, I'll put up a little newsletter there so you can, you know, if you want to want more information, because my grandmother in March will be having a woman's retreating column because we are doing something for the women. I'm just not doing it directly, but supporting my grandmother in that.

SPEAKER_01 47:04

Please, I would love to. What is your grandmother's name?

SPEAKER_00 47:07

Mama Yaisa.

SPEAKER_01 47:08

Mama Yaisa, I would love to uh share her information as well. Men, women, we could all use a dose of all of this goodness that the healers in Colombia and Costa Rica and wherever the rest of them are are offering. We are in a time when healing and self-exploration and being attuned to that sacred site is important to how we move forward as humanity, but that's a separate conversation. Heard you say that the best way to get a hold of you is through the link to book a call and then get it started from there, correct?

SPEAKER_00 47:40

So best way to get a hold of me, fastest way is Carlos Duran Live on Instagram or Facebook. If you're really interested in Savage Encounter, you can go there, book a free call with me, SavageEncounter.com. If you're interested interested in Operation Purify, you can go there and call Ryan Carey. If you're interested in the woman's work, you go to mywoundhealing.com. And about by the time this is up, we'll have a little newsletter thing. You can just put your name and email there, and we'll be in contact with you about the women's retreats and programs.

SPEAKER_01 48:11

Beautiful. And we're going to wrap up. I'm going to open the floor for you to say any last thoughts and also ask you what ripple effect do you want your work to have in people's lives?

SPEAKER_00 48:21

I appreciate that, Nina. The dream is that every single human being on this planet will give themselves the opportunity to open their heart to have an intimate, personal, and romantic relationship with their creator. A direct one-on-one relationship with Noam Intermediator. And that this relationship be the core of your life and that you'd be a true co-creator, living your greatest life possible, and leaving the blueprint for our future generation. That when we return to a life of our creator with the earth, where we value and respect one another and love ourselves. That's my that's my prayer and that's my hope, and that's why I do. That's my why. My final words let nothing hold you back. So many times we let fear or feeling hold us back from our heart's desire. And you'll never know what it was like. You may know what it was like to fail at that, but what if you don't? You'll never know what it was like to attempt it to experience. So what's in your heart that's based on love, kindness, and respect to love and value yourself. One, two, three, four, and five. Do not allow anyone to shame or guilt you find your freedom first in loving yourself and then turning that love towards loving life. May God bless you, may divine mother protecting, may the love of the Holy Spirit always feel to you and through you. May you always have divine awareness of his presence in your life. God bless you and God protect you always. Thank you so much. Thank you, Ina. Your loving day.

SPEAKER_02 49:46

That's it for today's episode. Be sure to subscribe to the Grief and Light podcast. I'd also love to connect with you and hear your thoughts and your stories. Feel free to share them with me via my Instagram page at grief and light, or you can also visit griefandlight.com for more information and updates. Thank you so much for being here, for being you, and always remember you are not alone.