Quantum Time Traveller

Ep 15 From Homeless in London to Healing in Brazil: David D'Ambrosio on Plant Medicine, Addiction & Transformation

• Emma Bushell • Season 1 • Episode 15

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David D'Ambrosio, a nomadic human behaviour specialist, shares his transformative journey from sleeping in London bus shelters to guiding plant medicine retreats in Brazil, revealing how his brother's addiction taught him unconditional love and shaped his approach to healing.

• Escaped his small hometown's "conveyor belt" life at 21 with a one-way ticket to Europe
• Travelled to nearly every continent developing a fascination with cultural differences and human behaviour
• Views human dynamics through balance rather than good/bad polarities
• Coaches clients to transcend emotional charges by finding balance in every experience
• Created a comprehensive plant medicine retreat program with his brother in Brazil
• Focuses on preparation before ceremonies and integration support for months afterward
• Experienced profound shift in his relationship with his addicted brother through ayahuasca
• Learned to embrace his brother completely rather than merely accepting his struggles
• Limits retreat groups to 8-10 people for personalized transformational experiences
• Combines multiple healing modalities including ayahuasca ceremonies, sweat lodges and nature immersion

If you're interested in learning more about David's work or the retreats in Brazil, you can find details in the episode description or contact him through social media platforms linked below.

Retreat link
https://the-integrated-human-infopack-2025.my.canva.site/

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/david.dambrosio.37

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/_d_dambrosio

 #PlantMedicine #AyahuascaHealing #TransformationJourney #HealingRetreat #SpiritualGrowth #InnerBalance #ConsciousLiving #EmotionalHealing #NomadicLife #AlternativeHealing #HolisticWellness #SelfDiscovery #IntegrationSupport #AddictionRecovery #MindBodySpirit 

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Quantum Time Traveller, where we journey beyond time and space to unlock the universe's deepest secrets. I'm your host, emma Bushall, and together with my co-host, susie Edwards, we'll guide you through channeled experiences and soul truths revealing ancient wisdom and higher dimensions. Ancient wisdom and higher dimensions. In episodes, we'll also welcome invited guests to share their own spiritual revelations and cosmic insights. Prepare to expand your mind and elevate your spirit as we uncover the mysteries of existence. This is the Quantum Time Traveller, where the universe speaks, and we're so excited for you to join us on our journey. So welcome to this episode of the Quantum Time Traveller. I'm your host, emma Bushall, and we have the most amazing guest expert speaker, who is David D'Ambrosio. Have I got that right?

Speaker 2:

he said it correctly.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you got it right, you got it right cool, uh, who is a renowned human behavior specialist, and he joins us actually on vacation, so thank you so much for your time, um, and he's coming with such a wealth of knowledge, such a traveler and pure spirit and he's going to enlighten us on his journey of finding his own strength and wisdom and resilience through his own traveling. He's nomadic of nature and welcome welcome, david. He's nomadic of nature and welcome welcome.

Speaker 2:

David, thanks for having me. I appreciate it. I've been looking forward to the conversation.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so the quantum time traveller. This is very apt for you because nomadic in nature and travelling well, pretty much all continents apart from Antarctica, is that right? Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2:

Yep.

Speaker 1:

Apart from Yep.

Speaker 2:

Antarctic. I've been everywhere.

Speaker 1:

So what actually spurred you on to do such a massive traveling at such a young age?

Speaker 2:

Ah well, I come from a. I come from a relatively small town and where I'm from, when I was growing up it's like when you leave school you get to like 18 you've got a few choices to make. You either go into the public service or work for the government. There's a lot of public servants where, where my town is. So you work for the government, you go to university or you get a trade. Now those are your three options. And then you marry the girlfriend that you're currently with in a few years and then you get. Then you get the mortgage in the house and it's just like a conveyor belt that seems to take place over there. And look, when everyone else was doing all of that, I just I didn't know what I wanted to be. When I grew up I thought I wanted to be an astronaut and everything like that. I just not really, but I was just like I didn't know what I wanted, but I knew I didn't want that. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And so I thought in my head I'm like there's more to life than this fishbowl experience in Canberra, so more to life than this fishbowl experience in Canberra. So I packed up my bucket and my background is Italian as well. Like all of my family is Italian. I was a second generation of Australian, my mother being the first, and so I hadn't met any of my family either, so I didn't feel like I knew who I really was. Okay.

Speaker 2:

So I packed up my bucket, got a one-way ticket and went to Europe with nothing. I had never been there before, never caught a train before in my life, never done, seen any of these things before. I went with my friends for about two weeks, then they went home and then that was it. I was just kind of like, well, I guess I'm in london now this is pretty iphone by the way, this is also sharing, revealing my age as well but there was no iphones back there neither. So, yeah, that was it, just make it work. I had my nokia 3210 and that was it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, trying to make it work, but, uh, so, and I had in my head as well it was kind of like, no matter what happens, I don't want to be relying on anybody and I don't want anyone to think that I'm not having the best time of my life.

Speaker 2:

If it doesn't, if I'm having troubles, I will work it out. And so, yeah, you know, I slept on the street, ran out of money pretty quick, is sleeping on a bus shelter, yeah, um, you know, there's a homeless, there's a, there's a dude that was given. There's a guy who owned the Nero Cafe near Oxford Circus, who was giving out his sandwiches at the end of the day to all the homeless people. And some of the bums told me where to go, so I went over there and I remember it was like relish and cheese was always what they gave me, so I was like the one that no one else wants. So I had that and I stole food for the first time as well, just to kind of make ends meet and everything, until I got a job, which I lied to get. So, yeah, no, it set me off. It was very informative. It set me off on an adventure.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, amazing, but it helped me grow, but I loved it. I loved it.

Speaker 1:

And how long? Sorry, how long did you travel for?

Speaker 2:

Well, that stint, I mean I've kind of been running around ever since.

Speaker 2:

That's, yeah, I kind of haven running around ever since, um, that's yeah, I kind of haven't stopped, so that was as soon as I turned 21 I'm 40 now um, and yeah, I left, and that stint was for four years came back to australia, um, had a significant moment that grounded me there for a little while, and then it was just move around australia. And then it was us, south africa, um, south america, and until last year it was just kind of just bouncing around all over the place, all over the world. So, yeah, amazing, so what?

Speaker 1:

what warranted you then to go into the area that you're an expert in now. What actually drove you into that the human psyche and behaviour of people in such passion? Because I feel that from you You're very passionate about that and what you're doing. We'll go on to that in a minute. About what you've created with your brother. But what's your? Passion behind all this. You know what's driven you here.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, well, there's a few things. I have one of five kids. I didn't really feel like I stood out in my family, like I didn't. Really, I was very observant and I had very, very like I had existential questions from whence I was a little kid. In primary school, I was thinking so, what do I do, what am I meant to do with life, what does life mean and all this kind of stuff. And I want to understand people. I felt like I was very there was just something that was kind of disconnected. I was very observant of people but I wanted to understand them so that I could connect. And that was that had been playing in the back of my mind just shoot for as long as I can remember really. And once I started, once I took that initial step to go traveling, I wanted. It wasn't enough for me to go visit a place, I wanted to stay in a place. So when I moved to like Spain, I didn't want to just go. You know, do a Contiki. Three days here, three days there.

Speaker 2:

I wanted to stay in the place, get to know the place, understand the people, understand the culture. And that's what I love doing immersing myself. So I enjoyed these immersive experiences because I want to understand culture and it just it grew from there. Because I could, just I started. I became fascinated with how different people view the world yeah in such close proximity.

Speaker 2:

I remember going to see my auntie and my uncle in Italy. They're in a place called Baresi. I had the first time of meeting these people so loving, so warm, everything. But they're right on the Swiss border. You could walk to the Swiss border from their place and I remember going and doing that walk. And you go there and the architecture just changes all of a sudden and the way that everyone behaves just changes all of a sudden and the way that everyone behaves just changes all of a sudden and there's just an invisible line right there, but 20 minutes in this direction. You go to sleep at a certain time and things stay open at a certain time 20 minutes on that, just over there, everything's completely different, different mindset.

Speaker 2:

So I just became fascinated with people and wanted to understand them. I became fascinated with people and wanted to understand them and that transferred into my brother and I. Our eldest brother had issues with mental health and addiction and every drug addiction and I always wanted to try and help him.

Speaker 2:

I wanted to understand him and I wanted to help him and I also wanted to help myself, and so I went and I also wanted to help myself and so I'd learn all these different modalities. It motivated me to learn all these different modalities about the mind and about transformation. I was very attracted to people that were seemingly creating transformations in others and I wanted to do that for my brother and I wanted to do that for my brother and I wanted to do that for myself. And, yeah, that just let me down. That led me down a completely different path of education, into all these different experiences working with the homeless.

Speaker 2:

So she disconnected yeah in and mentally disabled like the mentally disabled inmates of prisons and all this kind of stuff to try and understand the mind and understand what's the difference that makes somebody shift from the inside out. So it was like it was a journey. It started with exploration of the world and culture and then went into healing, wanting to understand healing for myself and my brother and then it just grew from there.

Speaker 2:

It's turned into a bit of an obsession yeah until, yeah, I've gotten to the point now where I've been chasing down different mentors to study under and to learn from in the space and a whole wealth of um very renowned um mentors as well.

Speaker 1:

I just want to go back to a minute the fundamentals of this, because I think the fundamental that I feel from what you're saying is connection. It's connection of people um, wherever you are, whatever circumstance you're in, and understanding where, not just where you're placed in it or where I'm placed in, in who, who are we, but it's also the connection of others within that structure, um that makes up humanity, that makes up the bigger picture, right yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2:

I mean. One of the things it was like one thing that my brother really taught me through his addiction was the way that people viewed his addiction.

Speaker 2:

So he was very disconnected from a lot of us but he was using um the drugs like the heroin and all these kinds of things as his point of connection with other people yeah you know, I mean, and so what he really taught me me was to really get beyond a lot of stigmas and a lot of different things like the way that we view these sorts of things, and just to try and understand what is it that helps somebody heal and to remove the moral indignation from a lot of stuff.

Speaker 2:

And so that was a great lesson for me, and it just led me to really be curious about how do you really get through to a person, how do you get a person to really connect? How do you get a person to shift their circumstance but not demonize whatever vehicle they're using? And there's just so much stuff out there that is just disempowering to people. How do people become empowered? But yeah, it really came down. It came down to a lot about seeking connection and understanding what that meant, understanding the roadblocks between it, and then that my brother stimulated me for connection and really to understand life for just really one time or so Amazing.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for sharing that there and on amazing. Thank you for sharing that, um, and the fact that you, your other brother and yourself, um, have gone on now to do profound work in peru and that you're going to in april. Sorry. In Brazil. In Brazil. Sorry, that's okay. You're going in April fall and May immersion, Is that right? And again later possibly in. October.

Speaker 3:

Yep, so we have an immersion in the first week of May. The program actually starts in April, but we work with people for a month before they arrive in Brazil and we have a $7 million in Brazil, and then we work with people when they get home.

Speaker 2:

So we do one in the first week of May, and we've got one in October as well.

Speaker 1:

Fabulous and then so I just want to touch on that in a minute, but I'm just going to go back to your thought leadership on human behavior, because I know you've sat with so many mentors and thought leaders and all of the things, before we go into your amazing retreat that's happening in May. That sounds phenomenal and it is a retreat that isn't just like a two week situation. It runs from six weeks to nine months, depending on what level you want to go into, and in all the rest of it, however, I just want to talk about your, the way you lead your thoughts, your thoughts on your work, in particular, because you work in a specific way that only David will work and understands. It's separate to your brother at the moment. So I'm just concentrating on yourself and I just really want to understand that from you, in the way that you see things with human behaviour and the way you work in your unique way of doing it oh look, but I've been, um, my ideas have been shaped and formed with by multiple different mentors and things like that.

Speaker 2:

From in the personal development space, I'm into the healing space and just understanding different healing modalities and also the fact that I've been exposed to so many of these things from young age from my mother yeah well, okay, is a big influence as well.

Speaker 2:

Um, because we, because we grew up with eastern and western healing modalities. I've been having acupuncture since I was a toddler, you know what I mean and acupuncture, kinesiology, but also going to the GP, you know what I mean. Like we're open to everything. Just everything has its place whenever it needs to. I grew up with that. Has its place whenever it's used. I grew up with that.

Speaker 2:

But the way that I see human behaviour and everything, I see nothing missing or out of place. It's just whether or not you're aware of the dynamic that you're caught in. So if you go into a situation that you've labelled all good or something that's labelled all bad, these are just misperceptions, because I come from a perspective that everything is inherently balanced and that the morality construct that we superimpose onto events is completely dictated by the individual. Because you know what's right in one part of the world is what is wrong in another part of the world. You know you've got completely different ways of perceiving reality. You know what I mean what's right in one part of the world is what is wrong in another part of the world. You've got completely different ways of perceiving reality. You know what I mean, and we're going to react based on that. So I come from a place of neutrality when I'm listening to people talk and they're telling me their story about what it is that they've lived through, and yeah. So I'm just looking for, objectively, what took place. So if you tell me that you've just been, if you've got an emotional charge on somebody and say that they've criticized you, and I hate that dude, he comes in here and he's just fucking criticized. All I did was open my mouth and he just shot me down, great. Now you say that to somebody else and they might pathologize the other guy and go, oh well, he's just an arsehole, blah, blah, blah. And then they're going to reinforce your story.

Speaker 2:

I don't, I look at, okay, what did you say to instigate that reaction within them, because they don't just magically come out with it. Yeah, it's like what are you doing? What are you doing that's instigated? Now, that's not blaming you, it's under. What are you doing? What are you doing? That's insta-graded? Now, that's not blaming you, it's under understanding the interaction in human behavior.

Speaker 2:

What is the dynamic that you're in with this, with this individual? Did you say something to? Did you project down? Did you talk down on them and lift yourself up and start and start telling them what they should do and shouldn't do and everything like that. And did they have a reaction to that of you telling them what they're, what they shouldn't do and everything like that? And did they have a reaction to that of you telling them what they're meant to be doing? Because when you don't, no one just criticises you.

Speaker 2:

You're attracted through some behaviour. Do you challenge the value structure? Someone challenges my value structure. I'm probably going to become critical, tell them to back off. Yeah, but these are things that are natural dynamics in human behaviour. But these are things that are natural dynamics in human behavior, but we say one thing's good and the other thing's bad, yeah, and so, yeah, I don't come from a perspective, when I'm working with a client, of good and bad. I come from the perspective of everything's balanced. Your perception that you're superimposing onto an event is making it unbalanced in your mind. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And that is having an effect on you emotionally and physiologically. Yeah, if you don't like those symptoms that you're getting emotional and physical we need to neutralise those charges. Yeah, and so that's the way that I view human behaviour. Nothing's out of place Now I get my buttons pushed. I'm a human being. I get my buttons pushed, so I still get triggered myself. I just know what to do with it and I don't walk around with a fear of getting fired up. I just know I have a process that I go through and that I practice.

Speaker 2:

I have people that I employ to look at my own stuff to keep me accountable. Yeah, and that's it. It gives you good, but at the same time, in every situation that you think is all good, there are drawbacks to that, and any situation you think is all bad, there are benefits to it. And to the degree that we infatuate with the good or we resent the bad, we can be only partially conscious of what's actually going on in the reality. Yeah, so I try to help people to transcend their biases, to make them fully conscious of these specific, like significant, emotional events. That's the kind of perspective that I bring to human behaviour. A lot of it's not popular. I'm informed from one of my teachers, dr John Demartini. He's one of my biggest mentors, someone I still study with now and I still learn from now every day, and that's really informed a lot of where I'm at right now as well. So a lot of what I say will have resonance to him as well. Yeah, phen, as well.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, phenomenal, yeah, thank you Now I have to touch on the. We discussed this actually before we went live recording on a really poignant subject that we want to well, I want to cover with you, david, in the fact of the immersion that you're building.

Speaker 1:

You know the momentum with your retreat and there's such wealth of knowledge and wisdom from so many people that are going to be there facilitating, and also with your brother, which is that's symbiotic to you and your brother, because you work in conjunction with each other. I know that your brother has completely different exploration that he, he, you know from high performance professionals. He, he, he's a health and lifestyle coach, is that right? Yes, so you're working in synergy with each other, which is beautiful as a family as well, which is lovely, right. Um, but I want to touch on the subject of plant medicine, because I know you have a lot around this and I want to bring to light and depth and the dark about plant medicine and how you use it in your retreats.

Speaker 2:

Well, plant medicine from our perspective, plant medicine is a tool. What we've created is a container where we find, through our observation and years of experience, we've found the most effective way to get somebody to have the results, that last and that stick, that they really want from the experience. So you go to a lot of places out there in the world and well, most places really, I don't, I don't, I haven't seen. I'm not saying that nobody does it the way we do, um, but I haven't seen it. So you see a lot of places out in the world that will be like okay, come along and you just take the, have the drink and you'll stay in the place and you'll have the drink. You have a couple of ceremonies and that's it. They might tell you to create um, a whatsapp group. With the drink. You'll have a couple of ceremonies and that's it. They might tell you to create a WhatsApp group with the people that you drank with and off you go. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

They'll send you a PDF, likely send you a PDF before you get there, maybe have one conversation just to give you some rundown of things in terms of the dieta and stuff like that before you get there. But that's the extent of it and I found that to be unsatisfactory for myself. So did my brother because it's like through every experience, like personal development and I'm going to put this together with personal development it's like some people create a shift and some people don't. So what's the difference that makes a difference? When I had my first ceremonies had, I was running a um, a retreat program. My brother and I were invited to run a retreat program for some ex-israeli special forces people on the island of florianopolis, so we're already doing coaching work with people. Then we got introduced to the medicine and we used all the stuff that came up. Now the other people that we sat with didn't. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

We have very profound shifts. They didn't. So what was the difference? We all had the same drink. We all had the same experience. It's not the experience that created the change. It's what we brought to the experience that created the change, because otherwise all you'd need to do is just have the drink.

Speaker 1:

Yeah that makes sense. Yeah, yeah, it does. It does for me yeah, so yeah yeah, no, so what I?

Speaker 2:

found, yeah, so what I found is that there are people that can have this experience and they can really shut down and it can rock them and they can go to complete opposite and have this aversion and go that was the worst fucking thing that I ever had and feel traumatised by the experience. I'm like, okay, so how do you mitigate the risks of this? So that's why, paul and I, we go okay, well, what did we have that they didn't initially. Well, we had already done the self-reflection. We have very deep intentions for the medicine. There's a lot of people out there that don't have intention when they get there. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

You would not take a headache tablet, you wouldn't take a Tylenol or a Panadol or an ibuprofen without an intention. Yeah. I have a headache. My intention is to alleviate the headache. Yeah. But people approach the medicine experience and think that it's some somewhat spiritual to not to be like I'm just going to surrender and just have no intention. Just show me what I need to see, I go okay, you get if you can. You can turn up that like that and think that that's really elevated of you, but it's yeah from my perspective.

Speaker 2:

From my perspective, it's it's just, it's a lack of awareness into what it is that you really want to go get from that experience. So the way paul and I can keep people accountable and help guide them is we coach them for a month before they get there yeah my brother.

Speaker 2:

My brother would give you practices. He would tell you about the dieta specific diet before you get there. Again, we looked at every negative review that we could possibly find on ayahuasca on the internet and there's a lot. Yeah, I wanted to find out and read through and find out. What were they doing that created that perception. A lot of them were not prepared. Um with the with the specific diet.

Speaker 2:

Ayahuasca works on your stomach acid. It changes your stomach acid and binds to the serotonin uptake receptors inside the brain, gets straight into your bloodstream. But if you've got anything any medications and things like that that either affect the serotonin receptors in the brain, like ssris, antidepressants and such, or any medications that affect your stomach acid, because the monoamino oxidase inhibitor that's in a? Um in the ayahuasca vine changes your stomach acid so that it doesn't break down the dmt. So anything that affects that is going to give you a pretty strong pain experience. It's going to give you a bumpy ride. So there's a reason why you have a specific diet before you get there. But people aren't given this information and you've got to think about it as well. It elevates your heart rate, so you're not meant to have any stimulants. No chili, no oil. Um, no red meat again, because the amino profile is contraindicated with, with ayahuasca, like all these different nuances that a lot of people just aren't exposed to.

Speaker 2:

They're not held accountable to that either yeah so foley guides through the body and I guide through the mind by going through a history analysis with you before you get there and we can identify certain patterns through your life and people and emotional charges that are really significant to you and we get to work on them before you get there. You get to work without the medicine with me and the intention behind that is twofold. One, it's to give you a breakthrough without the medicine, to show you that you do not need medicine to have a breakthrough, and it's, and it can be, profound profound when you do the work and we work on and we identify what's the biggest charge yeah so if somebody's had like a rape experience or an incest experience or things of this nature that are really highly charged, that's what I'll work on with you before you get there yeah

Speaker 2:

there's two things we either completely get a breakthrough on that and then it's no, there's no longer any kind of trigger on that, or we've lowered the charge to such a degree that if it comes up in the ceremonial space when you ingest a drink, you're not going to shut down and freak out and go into some crazy state and become really ungoverned and have a psychological split on that, because it does happen. These things are not toys. So, yeah, there's a real safety component with that. But also, when you're setting intentions going through your, your history form, which is guided, you're setting intentions that really mean something to you. So it's like you could say, because it's a plant, medicine is a teacher yeah absolutely a teacher, a doctor, whatever.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's an intelligence that you're ingesting. Okay, now it's like going to the doctor. You don't go to the doctor and say I've got generalized pain, just fix it. You just go to the doctor and you say, hey, I've got pain in my knee, okay, now you have to have a level of self-awareness to direct the doctor's attention to your knee yeah and so what we're doing in, in the same way what we're doing with the history form, is direct the doctor, direct the intelligence to the spot.

Speaker 2:

Now, the knee pain might not actually be from the knee, it might be referred. It might actually be pain in the toe that's giving you referred pain in the knee.

Speaker 2:

So this is when you say you surrender to how the package comes yeah but if you do that reflection and you say, okay, I can see that there's all these different fears in my life, great, teach me about my fear and you just, and you're open to fear being shown to you in any which way, but fear means something to you and you understand what it means to you. Or you teach me about my, teach me about anger. Teach me about my anger. Yeah, because you've got all these different angers that are going through.

Speaker 2:

It's those, but anger to you and anger to me are different things yeah so it's like when you understand that you create the context for the experience that you have. Yeah, absolutely, and that gives you the context to interpret what comes up. Yeah. Without that context it can just be a bunch of gobbledygook. Yeah, yeah. But the context matters, and when we're integrating and again integration means integrating information. It's integrating parts of the mind, conscious and unconscious, is an integration. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

When I'm supporting people while they're away. So it's like we do the pre-work. You establish a relationship and a familiarity with me and my brother. We have a community and we do classes as well, teaching about concepts of human behaviour and about health not just theatre, but also you know, just different aspects of health, so that people have an understanding and an education. They get to Brazil. They already know what I look like, they know what my brother looks like. There's a familiarity, we've established a relationship and some trust already there we go into seven days worth of experiences. That's four ayahuasca ceremonies, one one day on, one day off. We we've split. You treat the whole thing as one giant ceremony, but it's split into four quarters. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And you go like that little bit by little bit, and you go a little bit deeper, a little bit deeper, a little bit deeper. The doses will, it depends You're developing a relationship with the medicine, so it also removes the pressure of you to get it all in one go. Yeah as well. Well, so it's like okay, things can reveal over the week we also have like a tamasca sweat lodge as well, that we do that and we go for yeah really and then we go, yeah, and we go for a walk um in nature as well, with a very low dose of mushroom.

Speaker 2:

But, um, it's just a homeopathic dose, but it's more about so. It's not necessarily it's not meant to be overly psychedelic, it's just a homeopathic dose but it's more about so. It's not meant to be overly psychedelic. It's more about having that low dose and going off into nature and being able. It's eyes open ceremony, but it's more about grounding. We've also we have hape, which is a tobacco. Yeah, so it's a tobacco mixed with ash from different trees in the Amazon. It's a Brazilian tradition. We're affiliated with two tribes, iwanawa and the Huniquin.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and we use Ape for grounding, for getting clear on intention, and so in between each ceremony we'll have a circle, We'll have some shares on Ape and then we'll share, yeah. So we're grounding everything as we go. So we go up, we get the information, we come back down and we ground, yeah. And you know the way we treat that seven-day container. It's a cultural experience. It's not just for self-development, but it's a cultural experience. So you eat Brazilian food. You know what I mean, and it's not just for self-development, but it's a cultural experience. So you eat Brazilian food.

Speaker 2:

I mean, it's all different from all different regions of Brazil. Everyone that's there is just local people that we employ. This is all they do for their work. This is their occupation Amazing.

Speaker 2:

He is running the space. Yeah, our head facilitator, ivan. He does not like to be called a shaman because he said he doesn't. He's done all the initiations. His um, godfather to chief nishika's eldest son in the yohanowar tribe, who's next in line for for um to take over. You know like he's very well respected. He's a liaison between Indigenous groups and NGOs and things like that in Brazil. He flies around Europe running ceremonies for dignitaries with tribal leaders. Very well respected man. He's our head facilitator, speaks five languages as well, so he runs our ceremonial space. Okay, At the end of all of that.

Speaker 1:

That would be phenomenal as well. Yeah, he's a wealth of knowledge.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, it's a beautiful space and a very consciously created container. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

I mean, people are very well held. We've got helpers that are walking around and they are just, they're experts in what they do, and we're, we're, we're by a little fishing village on a sparsely populated area of the island, um, and it's, it's just a beautiful spot, you know. And then at the end of that seven days and and through that as well, you can go with myself or my brother and we can sit down and bring your journal, sit down. We'll have conversations to help ground and get you clear on intention and any messaging and everything like that as well, because asking questions will bring things out. Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2:

So we do that. And then the thing is when you get home, so it's all well and good to have this experience. You've gone and you've done all this work and you've gone over to Brazil, you've had this heart-opening space and you've gone and experienced all these wonderful things. And then you come home and you go send fucking emails and no one gets you. No one gets you. That can be really disconcerting for people. It's like they don't know what to do with it. It's really hard to ground.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, they get very people can get very overwhelmed. So that's why part of our baked into the program, even at the most basic level, is touching base with everybody when they get home and being that connection point. Paul and I consider ourselves bridges, so I've got one foot in brazil and I've got one foot in central london with you, you know, I mean, and so you can tell to me about these things, and having that live, open line of communication, but having that formalized as well. And then we've got the community aspect as well. So just to connect, keep people connected. But it's these were the things that we thought were missing within the space. Now you can extend that as far as you want with, like I said, we've got like um one month or six weeks, three months and nine months. Yeah, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1:

So, yeah, you can go deeper into, deeper into the integration and deeper into the work yeah, and I think it's fundamental depends on how, yeah, you want to go, and I think that's a really poignant part because I I strongly advocate that as well for support of integration. When you come out of that environment that you've captured everybody in that container and then you come home to your environment and the fact that that support is there for people to bed in to their environment, like you said, and I think that's a really important part of this and the work you do, because so many things, so many people just left sort of just sort of transcended in nothing and actually that's it. I I've had that experience in my lifetime. I'm sure other people listening and watching have had these experiences where they're just going around in loops and just left in this transcending space of nothingness where they feel completely out of themselves because they're having to regulate an environment a different environment.

Speaker 2:

So it's really you think about it this way.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

It's like you created an environment, your house, and a social environment through through with friends, based on a psychological profile that you were before you went and had this experience yeah and now you've changed your.

Speaker 2:

You've changed internally. You've had all of these experiences that have changed the way that you view the world. But nobody else in your environment they know you as something else other than what you are. So so what are they going to do? They're not going to understand you and they're going to be trying, they're going to be wanting you to be what's familiar to them. And you've got this environment that you created with the level of conscious awareness that you're at prior to this experience. Now it doesn't match. So you just plonked into this creation of your previous self and now you feel completely different. Now, if you don't do anything consciously, if you don't have the support to be able to make the shifts around you, that environment will just slowly, you'll just re-adapt to what that is. Yes.

Speaker 2:

And then that experience you had this is not just with ayahuasca, but it could be with anything- but that experience that you had, if not integrated and if not acted upon with physical actions and levels of awareness, so that you can communicate more intelligently to people and also meet people where they're at. It could just be a really vivid dream that you've had and it's like, yeah, well, that was've had. And it's like, yeah, well, that was an experience, but it doesn't do anything, so, yeah, we want to.

Speaker 1:

We endeavor to help people. So, conversely, you can just you can sit in a space of a void that actually you're in between worlds of where you were and where you're not quite being or becoming or reached yet, and you're in this space of a void that actually you're not slipping back and you're not actually going forward.

Speaker 2:

So you're in this sort of fucking horrible space that actually you need, yeah, pour in yes, absolutely, you know, have somebody hold your hand, but also somebody who's somebody who gets you. You know what I mean by this point. By the time you get home, you and I have been through so much stuff that you can trust me. I sit with each person. I drink the drink with everybody. You know what I mean. I'm in the tummestow with you. You know what I mean. I'm on the walk with you. I'm with you every step of the way.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we've developed a pretty deep relationship because the conversations are deep. Yeah, you know, I mean. So it's like it's it's not just that, it's like you've got somebody in your corner when you get home, who's who is on your thing, yeah, trying to help you ground these things, holding your hand as you ground, okay, okay. So how do we strategy? How do we create a strategy? If that's what we need strategy, um, how can we? Yeah, because it's going to bring up different challenges. You know, I mean. Do you think about the hero, the classic hero, just journey from joseph campbell? You know, I mean. It's returning, it's not just facing the dragon, it's returning home with the treasure.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and then now, when you complete the loop, it's a full level of conscious awareness and development. But for every and here's the thing you won't get a pleasure without a pain.

Speaker 1:

Yeah absolutely.

Speaker 2:

You will not get a one-sided anything. Even if you have all these breakthroughs in any modality, they come with new challenges baked into them. Now again, people get sold on this idea that I go there, I have the drink, um, and then my problems are solved. No, they're not. Even if you do solve the problem that you came there with, it creates a new problem when you come home because, yeah, now you can't fucking talk to people. Now, now you're going through that transition of of actually finding new tribe now, finding new people that you connect with. Yeah, it can be really challenging, yeah, really tough. Like you said, you're stuck in this. I'm not who I was.

Speaker 1:

Well, it's like a twilight zone. I'm not who.

Speaker 2:

I'm moving to. Yeah, it's like I'm stuck in this middle ground now and I don't quite know where I fit. Yeah, so that can be really disconcerting. So that's why we advise people to stay within the communities long term, because it ensures that we all keep doing the work together and that you have a place. Yeah, and you also have somebody in your back pocket, which can be a nice feeling, knowing that if you do get overwhelmed and you do have challenges when you face these challenges, that you have somebody that you can speak to, that you've developed a trust with who gets you. Yeah, you know what I mean. I just think that's invaluable.

Speaker 2:

But I don't see too many places doing that because it doesn't scale. That's the thing.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and also I mean we can carry this. We could carry this podcast on for ages and I'm very aware of the whole concept of holding people in spaces of induced trauma or trauma that comes out whether you're taking a plant medicine or not. But actually you know that whole bullshit societal belief that you've got to fix somebody to do X, whereas taking the radical responsibility for people and holding them in the space and actually integrating them and grounding them in in their own new neuro pathways in their brain that they've had to restructure, not just because you're driven by your own experiences and your own what's happened in your life and how you fundamentally put this into your retreat, but also you're making new ways of being in a different state, of being in a retreat space that actually holds people properly.

Speaker 2:

Can I give you a story that encapsulates this? Yeah. Can I share a story? Of course it's the inspiration behind the retreat, yeah, but it also informed the structure. So that brother that I spoke to I mentioned earlier with the drug addiction and everything like that. Your brother.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, my brother, when I had my first experiences with ayahuasca it was my third experience and I was just about to go back to Australia. I'd been in Brazil for six months or something like this. I was about to leave and come back and I had one last experience and I saw him in the experience and I felt like I saw all the men in my family. The previous experience, I'd seen all the men in my family. This one, I saw the men and I felt like I could see his soul and I could feel it and I saw him and it was kind of like I saw this dark cloud and all this thunder hitting him, but I saw this loving face looking down on me.

Speaker 2:

And then, all of a sudden and I had a lot of resentment for my brother, for the drugs and everything like that, for the pain that all of these things had caused and the turmoil it caused in our family. I loved him, I wanted to help him, but I resented that part, I resented it strongly and I was seeing it as a deficiency and everything like that and in that moment, boom, all these memories started flooding in and it was Anjul teaching me how to ride my first bike, teaching me how to climb my first tree when he got his first car and me being amazed about how he could save up the money for it like he's disciplined in doing that, and him taking me. I went, I bought this michael jordan signed photo when I was a little kid, in primary school, and my pocket money is five dollars a week, and so I used to go to this basketball shop and I'd give the man my five dollars every week. My brother would take me and so you know, obviously that's going to take a thousand years for a kid to pay that off. But yeah, that was my thing and so it showed my brother doing that and I had all these tears coming out, just tears, tears, tears, and I go wow, angela was both.

Speaker 2:

He was a really good big brother and he showed me he was such a teacher and I had a recognition that the drugs were not the issue for him. That was the solution to his life. Life was the problem for him. That was his solution and he had chosen that and my judgment dropped. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Now, when I left that experience, the final messages dropped in and I was sitting outside the Malacca and I was looking up at the stars and the final medicine was still in my system. But it was just kind of just landing out and it was just like you need a showing, you need to tell him what you've seen, because it's all well and good to have this experience, but you need to ground it, ground it and that came in really strong. So I sent, I wrote a message, I sent it to my mum. I go show this to Angelo when he is in a position to hear it, because you don't know what drug he's on or whether it because he had periods where he's not right. He's cognizant. So show it to him when he's cognizant. She does. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

I get back to Canberra, but straight away we had a moment and I told him that I loved him, exactly where he was.

Speaker 2:

I told him I loved him with the drugs or without the drugs, it didn't matter to me, and I meant it yeah and he and he felt that we had a moment and he thanked me for it, like, and from that moment forward, I told him that I loved him. We still had, you know, moments where he triggered me and everything like that. But I love you were the last words that ever came out of my mouth to him every time that I saw him. If I had to take him home with a needle, because he had a needle in his arm, I had to take it out, pick him up, take him home, say you know you can't do that in the house. I love you and that's it and and that was it. But I could see the perfection of my brother and the role he played in my family. Now he died about a month later. Okay.

Speaker 2:

And when I found out that he had died, I didn't have grief. I didn't grieve and the police came and told us accidental suicide I didn't have as a result of a large amount of drugs taken. I didn't have grief, I had relief it was out of his pain. Yeah. And when I spoke at his funeral I didn't cry, I didn't go into sorrow. I felt love in my heart. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

I had gratitude because I had gratitude for my brother as he was, yeah, while he was alive, through that experience, and he shared that. He died knowing that his brother loved him. There was no question on it and I felt it and he knew it and what came up from within me was like how many people are walking around with all this stuff? If he had died, if I didn't have that experience and we didn't have that connection, he'd have died and I would have had regret, yeah, and I'd have been judging myself and I'd have been grieving and then regret and all these different things. Why didn't I do this, that and the other and everything like that? All those years of trying to fix him?

Speaker 2:

I stopped trying to fix him and I didn't just accept him. I saw him for his role and I could see the balance of perfection of who he was. It wasn't just a blind acceptance. I accept you even though I wish you're doing something different. I didn't. I stopped wishing for him to be any different. Yeah, that was the kicker and I was like going. You know what this experience, what I just experienced, how do help, how do I serve that to people? That is what I've been wanting to do. How do I serve that to people? And that's why I feel so strongly my brother and I feel so strongly about the levels of support, the levels of integration, using the information and grounding it in your physical reality.

Speaker 2:

You know what I mean doing something with it. That's what makes the shift, that's what makes the change and that's what transformed. That was transformative for me and I was so grateful for that experience. You know what I mean, so that was the inspiration for the retreat.

Speaker 1:

That was what we've been thinking about. You've walked that walk so that you can walk it with others that are going through those really key points in their life because of what you've been through, and that's all part of the evolution of what you're doing, isn't it?

Speaker 2:

yeah, that's healing, that's love. Yeah, yeah, that was, that was love without condition from yeah yeah, absolutely, you don't have to, you don't have to do what I want you to do unconditional love of pure acceptance

Speaker 2:

no, not acceptance. No, not acceptance. I didn't just accept it. No, no, I embraced him as he was. There wasn't a um. I just accept you for as you are, because acceptance implies that he's still not doing what I want. I'm just accepting you for it. I'm just accepting that this is the way you are. I'm embracing because I see the benefit of you being exactly as you are. I see how you're serving me being exactly as you are. I see how you're serving my family exactly as you are. Underlaw being exactly as it is. It gave me a purpose in my life. It stimulated me to have a drive and a purpose that I did not have in other things, because I wanted to to understand him. It dropped all of my judgments around people that take drugs, yeah, and so now I can talk intelligently about it, but I can also. I don't have a judgment on anyone who takes him. I wanted to understand, yeah that's helped me help other people.

Speaker 2:

You know what I mean. He brought my family closer together when we tried to help him. I saw my parents never give up on him until the day he died. That was a level of commitment and love that I didn't. It's not a question in me, it it's. I've seen the display. You know Angela was a teacher and I don't get. We don't have the dynamic that we have in our family if he's different and I like the dynamic we have in our family.

Speaker 2:

So, instead of just blindly accepting and passively accepting him as he was, yeah, I embraced him and loved him and had appreciation and gratitude for him taking the drugs.

Speaker 1:

And that can sound like deluded to some people and everything like that, but you know, look at it he helped me grow up yeah, and and the purpose that you're now providing for others is, you know, yeah is evident and just so that people can hear, and and and, watch and listen about this and find where david is actually all of your, all of your um social platforms are going to be part of this podcast so that people can find you and embrace your retreat with your brother and brothers actually, because it's not. We're talking openly.

Speaker 2:

This is a family of brothers yeah, and a little sister got my little sister as well and actually he sat with us.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, it's amazing, isn't it? And you can find David on. You know, on all of these platforms that I'm going to put together with the podcast, you can find him and where the retreat is being held and the space is still available, right?

Speaker 2:

For this upcoming retreat, we have one more space. Oh good, that's for for me but yeah, but we're yeah spaces are filling up for october and we're even booking into next year now as well, so people are starting to approach us, so the spaces are limited. We keep the groups intentionally small yeah, good okay, so it's eight to ten people maximum. Yeah. They're very small groups by intention, yeah, so spots are limited. So if anybody wants to, if anything about what I've said appeals to you, yeah, yeah, contact us and let's get the ball rolling.

Speaker 1:

Cool. So the question I'm going to end with, which actually you've revealed so much david, because you're such a beautiful, open, free-spirited person, to actually reveal something unique about yourself, it sounds really irrelevant now, because I think you've kind of kind of touched on so many levels, anything that is a bit secret that you haven't revealed.

Speaker 2:

I don't know if it's a bit secret, I've got different elements to my personality. Put it that way. I like to say to people I'm part barefoot nature, hippie man who likes to sit under a tree with his feet in the dirt. I like to say to people I'm part barefoot nature, hippie man. He likes to sit under a tree with his feet in the dirt. But I'm also part meathead. He likes to lift heavy things in the gym and listen to loud music and stuff like that. There's an inner fat child in me that just wants to. He's always hungry. I'm a food person. I will eat nonstop. There's a kid also inside me. I like to food person. I will eat nonstop. There's a kid also inside me.

Speaker 2:

I like to watch cartoons. I can sit there and so people will share. We'll go into these really like really intense sessions and everything like that, and then I'll be like all right, well, time to switch my brain off before bed and everything. So then I'll put on like the Simpsons or like just anything. I like cartoons. So I'll put on some cartoons and I'll sit there and watch my cartoons for a little bit, just to, just to, to, to get out of it and everything like that. So oh, yeah, that. Or I like watching break dance videos on the algorithm. The algorithm's got me, but um, yeah, and art. I love art and sport. So, yeah, I'm a weird mishmash of all these different things. So if there's anything unique about any of all that, then that's where I land with it, I think.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, but that makes sense I tell terrible jokes as well.

Speaker 2:

I'm told every day that my jokes aren't funny. So it's. Yeah, I tell missed, poorly timed dad humor constantly. So yeah, I tell a lot of shit jokes I and I think they're funny, but like everyone at the table, like girlfriends, are habitually saying, david, your jokes are not funny. I think they're funny and they're like, and you're not no, it's obviously laughing david.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, I think, I think, I think I'm pretty hilarious, so I don't know what the big deal is, man, but yeah, that's, that's just me, so, yeah, cool okay, so I will pop everything here for everybody to find david.

Speaker 1:

It's been an absolute pleasure we've run so much over however, it's so invaluable, so invaluable and, just for the record, this is 2025 and you know david is and his brother is going into 2026 with his retreats and also one-to-ones that he offers on top of everything else, so it's not just the retreat, so just want to point that out for people that are listening um, such an inspirational person to have as guests. Thank you so much, and I'm sure.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for having me yeah and if anybody's got any um questions or anything that they want to ask direct message to the Quantum Time Traveller, but also to David directly then please do. Yep, it's been awesome yeah absolutely, absolutely.

Speaker 2:

It has been awesome. I appreciate it. Thank you for your time and thank you to all the viewers anyone? Who stayed on this long and listened to me ramble. No, no, no.

Speaker 1:

It's all relative and even in this transmission or this transformation could have helped somebody in itself, and that's what the awareness is about and the consciousness that we provide for people that are listening and watching. So thank you, brilliant. Thank you. Until next time. Thank you very much. Thank you.