Josh Halu’s Sacred Soldier Mission: How Psychedelics Heal PTSD and Restore Purpose

Josh Halu is the Founder and CEO of Sacred Soldier, an organization on a mission to revolutionize veteran mental health through holistic healing practices.

A decorated U.S. Army aviation officer and former Black Hawk helicopter pilot, Josh served in Afghanistan before embarking on his own battle with PTSD. His journey of resilience and discovery led him to psychedelics—not as a quick fix, but as a doorway to deeper healing. Through Sacred Soldier, he’s creating transformative spaces where veterans confront their trauma, reclaim their stories, and rebuild with purpose.

In this raw and inspiring episode of Pursue Vegas, Josh takes us behind the scenes of his evolution—from navigating the physical and emotional battlefield to leading veterans through powerful ayahuasca retreats. “Psychedelics aren’t the answer—they’re the door that opens your path to healing and truth,” Josh says.

But this conversation isn’t just about psychedelics. It’s about the courage to rewrite your narrative and lead others to do the same. “True transformation doesn’t happen overnight; it’s a process of taking action and showing up for yourself and your community,” adds Dave.

Surprisingly, Las Vegas plays a unique role in this story. Known for its bright lights and indulgence, the city is evolving into a hub for spiritual connection and holistic growth. “The desert teaches abundance and opportunity—Las Vegas is the perfect place to grow spiritually and emotionally,” Josh explains.

Through heartfelt stories and candid insights, this episode is a testament to the ripple effect of healing—how addressing personal trauma doesn’t just change one life but inspires a wave of transformation in others. Whether you’re a veteran, an entrepreneur, or someone ready to take the first step toward healing, Josh’s story will leave you motivated to bet big on yourself.

Key Takeaways:

• Healing as Leadership: Josh’s story demonstrates how personal transformation can inspire purpose-driven leadership in others.
• Psychedelics in Mental Health: Sacred Soldier uses ayahuasca and other integrative modalities to help veterans heal and achieve breakthroughs in mental health.
• Las Vegas as a Healing Hub: Las Vegas is evolving into a destination for holistic wellness and personal growth, redefining its cultural narrative.
• The Ripple Effect of Healing: Personal healing paves the way for creating meaningful connections and building a stronger, more compassionate community.

Resources:

• Sacred Soldier Website
• Instagram: @sacredsoldierretreats
• Book: No More Mr. Nice Guy - Robert A Glover
• Community Groups: Radiance Events, Wolf PAC, Revive Community, 963

Thanks for tuning in to The Pursue Vegas Podcast!

Transcript

0:00:00 - (Josh Halu): Hi, my name is Josh Halu with Sacred Soldier and this is Pursue Vegas.

0:00:05 - (Dave Burlin): All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Pursue Vegas podcast. I'm your host, Dave Burlin.

0:00:10 - (Tawni Nguyen): And I'm your co host, Tawni Nguyen.

0:00:12 - (Dave Burlin): And I'm not even going toa use the word. I am beyond grateful and excited to bring on today's guest because this guy's changed my life. And there's been so many incredible people that I've met in my journey since I've moved to Las Vegas. This is one of the most recent people I've met only in a few months. And the work that he's doing is not just changing lives everywhere he goes, but it's been a direct impact on my life. And I'm so excited to introduce the CEO and co founder of Sacred Soldier, Mr. Josh Halu.

0:00:53 - (Dave Burlin): Josh, welcome to the show.

0:00:54 - (Josh Halu): Thank you so much for having me, Dave. And it is my pleasure and honor to be here with you, brother. And like you said, we've only known each other for probably less than a year, but you are my brother for life.

0:01:05 - (Dave Burlin): I love that, man. I love it. We met on Zoom and then like a week later. Yeah, it was bumble business, bro. Bumble business.

0:01:14 - (Tawni Nguyen): Cal down.

0:01:16 - (Dave Burlin): It was bumble business. No, we met through mutual contacts, Right. A friend of the show, Tori Gordon. Cue the ding. If there is one friend of the show. We met through the wolf pack, in a sense. And we met on a Zoom call. You know, Andrea was really insistent on getting us on a call right away. She did. And I can even tell you the parking lot that I was sitting in, because I just come down from one of the city of Las Vegas breakfast.

0:01:45 - (Dave Burlin): We hopped right into a call and I was like, I can't wait to meet you. And I had no idea I was even going to edc. And then it was like at edc, just like a week later, like, there we were, There we were, there we were.

0:01:56 - (Josh Halu): Yeah. Andrea, who is the wife of my co founder Najib for Sacred Soldier, introduced us. She said, you've got to meet Dave. She got us on a call, she scheduled it. She's very organized. She also does all my marketing for my company. We jumped on a call. I wasn't even sure I was going to edc. That was my first year going. And all of a sudden, there we were together at edc, dancing the night away.

0:02:20 - (Dave Burlin): Dancing the night away. Well, I just barely scratched the surface of your bio, man. Tell us about you, your service, what brought you to Las Vegas and what you're working on now.

0:02:36 - (Josh Halu): Yeah. Thank you, Dave. So, like I said, my company's called Sacred Soldier, and we run ayahuasca retreats for veterans with PTSD and mental illness. And that speaks directly to my story. We mix a lot of healing modalities together with ayahuasca. So yoga, meditation, breath work, sharing circles, a lot of vulnerability, a lot of deep work over the course of about a four day experience right here in Las Vegas.

0:03:05 - (Josh Halu): And that's really important to us to do it right here in Las Vegas. And we try to take veterans who have all sorts of different experiences through the military and through life through these really beautiful programs and facilitate a journey that takes you from whatever place you're arriving at, sometimes with deep trauma, with deep healing needed through an expertly guided program to facilitate the healing journey. So when veterans walk out after day four, we've both helped them heal and equiped them with the tools that they need to move forward in a life full of gratitude, like you're experiencing right now, and love and life and be able to bring that back into their communities and live in a way that is significantly different and improved from what they were experiencing beforehand.

0:03:54 - (Josh Halu): And I got here. Well, I don't want. I won't go too deep into all the twists and turns of my story, but in a nutshell, I was born a child of suicide. Actually, I lost my father when I was. When I was 4 years old. And it kind of set me on a path of a lot of childhood trauma that ended with me getting sent to military high school when I was 14 years old and deciding that I wanted to join the military in a way that I could kind of take control of my life and become a lot more autonomous and independent.

0:04:27 - (Josh Halu): And it's kind of contradictory, but by giving my life to service, to the military. So I decided to go to West Point. I spent four years at West Point, graduated and became an aviation officer and a black HAAWK helicopter pilot and then an Army Ranger. I served for seven years active duty, including deploying to Afghanistan. And when I came home, I was really struggling with deep ptsd, especially when I left the military and finally took off my uniform. I was 28 years old, and I had spent about 14 years in a military uniform. So half my life.

0:04:59 - (Josh Halu): And that transition from soldier to civilian was a challenging one to make, especially once I finally had the time to stop and reflect on all the trauma that I had experienced through war, through loss of friends, through suicide, of my father, of people that I knew. And I struggled for four years, really Struggled and went through a lot of life changes during that time. You know, got into the corporate world, started wearing a business suit instead of a military uniform and trying to find my place in life, really.

0:05:33 - (Josh Halu): And when the pandemic hit in early 2020, I was still married. I'd been married for over a decade. And my marriage started falling apart as a result of a lot of the compounding effects of my depression and my ptsd. And I went to the va. I was diagnosed with PTSD and depression and prescribed antidepressants and therapy, and really nothing worked. And then my divorce happened just at the start of the pandemic, right when my wife and I realized we were both working from home.

0:06:04 - (Josh Halu): It was a really challenging place that I was existing in and a challenging part of our marriage. And I decided to move to Las Vegas shortly after that. I had family in Vegas, and I grew up in Denver, so a lot of my family lives out here in the Southwest. And my job went remote so I could work from anywhere. And Vegas looked like as good of a place as any. You know, what attracted me here was the no state income tax.

0:06:28 - (Josh Halu): It was great. And the proximity to the outdoors and the cost of living. And it just looked like a place that I could start fresh and build community and start a new life. And I moved out here. And actually on my very first weekend in Las Vegas, I had my very first psychedelic experience with psilocybin mushrooms. And my life, I mean, between the move, the divorce, starting fresh, and that experience, I really quickly, overnight, really experienced true transformation. And I went from struggling and experiencing self loathing and self hatred and, you know, all of those other challenges that come with PTSD and trauma.

0:07:07 - (Josh Halu): And I woke up the next morning just feeling unbelievable, infinite gratitude and a zest for life I'd really never experienced before. And I was happy and I was. I was optimistic about the future. And I was blown away by the power of psychedelics as well. And I started hosting other veterans and friends who I knew really struggled, like here in Vegas. They would come and stay with me for a weekend, and I'd take them through experiences and would see just so many lives transformed overnight.

0:07:38 - (Josh Halu): And it was just one incredible revelation after the next. And I continued on that journey for another few years, kind of keeping my shadow life and my professional life completely separate. Until about year and a half ago, I decided it was finally time to live my truth and follow my purpose and my passion. And I went to a psychedelic conference in Denver. It was the largest psychedelic conference in history at that point.

0:08:02 - (Josh Halu): And I met so many other veteran organizations, and I realized that I was doing a disservice to my community and to the veteran organization and the people that I love by not coming what I call out of the psychedelic closet and really living my truth and doing my part to detigmatize what this type of work and this type of medicine really, really can do. And so I founded Sacred Soldier after experiencing, actually an ayahuasca church here in Las Vegas, a legal ayahuasca church who practices providing ayahuasca ceremony and ayahuasca sacrament to their congregation.

0:08:48 - (Josh Halu): And I met them last year, and I had my very first ayahuasca ceremony. And I recognized how powerful it was to heal in ceremony with others. And I became very close with the leader of that church, Najib, who is an incredible trained facilitator. And we decided, once he got to know my story and my mission and my purpose to create these events, these retreats for veterans specifically, and for veterans specifically here in Las Vegas, because we can do it legally. And Vegas is an incredible place full of so much potential and healers and facilitators doing all this type of work.

0:09:31 - (Josh Halu): And Vegas is an easy place to travel to. And as we started talking and ideating on what this could be, we just saw such incredible potential for here in Las Vegas and to transform what we think about Vegas, that it's not all about the Strip and debauchery and gambling and drinking, but it could be about healing. It could be about community and family and living a life of purpose and meaning. And with that, Sacred Soldier was born.

0:09:57 - (Josh Halu): And, Dave, you got to experience it firsthand. And I'm so grateful that you did.

0:10:01 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah, man. I was at the very first retreat, and I thought really long and hard about, where does this all go? How does this parlay into the podcast? But I remember the number one thing I walked away with was that I told you, I told everybody in the group, I can breathe again, and I know what I'm supposed to do. And coincidentally enough, it was the very next day that we had already had the whole first season scheduled out after that ceremony.

0:10:33 - (Dave Burlin): And I was curious, like, what's right? What's wrong? There's so much around this that can be illegal in some places, and there's some things that are taboo in all places. It's so funny, because I look at, compared to what's going on around the world, like, this is not that big of a deal compared to whenever I was growing up, I was at risk. Youth, it was definitely frowned upon back then to see even something like cannabis go legal and see how the world changed post cannabis and then to hear lots of stuff. But all the studies and research is one thing.

0:11:11 - (Dave Burlin): Experience is something totally different. And if there's one thing that I could say after attending the retreat, I. I know what I'm supposed to do. I know that I have a voice that I've used in the past to build community. I know I've helped a lot of people and this was an opportunity that I was so grateful for because I got to be in the first one. To really understand what it is and legalities, all that stuff is always going to be a topic. Taboo is always going to be a topic. But to me, it's like everyone needs to experience this at some point in their life. If. If growth is something that people are open to or something that they've struggled with.

0:11:53 - (Dave Burlin): And we'll go more into that. But I also know that, you know, Tani's experience this too. While she's not a veteran, she went through some of these things on her show with some of the people that she's had before. So it is a loud conversation as I've experienced everything that I have and I've experienced a lot of healing modalities. I've experienced a lot of drugs in my life u growing up the way that I did as well. We have a lot of similar things in our story, but this is the most profound experience I've ever had, which is why couldn't wait to have you on the show.

0:12:29 - (Dave Burlin): And I'm excited for you to be here because if this is one way that people not only understand how you might be able to help someone or help someone they know, because the challenges that veterans face when they come home regardless of their service. I've said this so many times. Not every veteran is homeless. Not every veteran is suicidal. Not every veteran needs a job or needs a handout. And this is one that's really hard for some people. Not every veteran is a combat veteran, but there's something about the job that we took on, the responsibility that we took on that some people will never understand or experience that changes.

0:13:14 - (Dave Burlin): It's a sole contract that we have with the world that costs more than we realize when we make that, when we write that signature and I went in pre 9 11. You went in post 9 11. There's something. Everyone has a different understanding of it and why they did it. But I think healing is something that everyone can experience. Right? You've just created a very amazing container for People that are veterans, but it doesn't. Their. Their journey doesn't just affect them.

0:13:44 - (Dave Burlin): It affects their families. It affects. So there's all these people that could be listening to this show specifically and just say, wow, like that's. We want to connect them with you.

0:13:57 - (Tawni Nguyen): No, I love the way you told your story to. I connect deeply with that, especially on like the early childhood trauma, dealing with suicide and a lot of abuse. And I was an alcoholic most of my life, and I used a lot of drugs, like as a youth to get away from that, to run away from that. Right. So I never leaned into it as a healing modality. I used it as a way to suppress and repress and just not allow myself to live in truth of what kind of childhood I had. So I think now that I'm on my second year on recovery as an alcoholic and like all drugs, it's kind of really enlightening for me to run into people that I'm really glad mental health, especially certain types of modalities, are now more open and there's awareness to why it's being done and not just a bunch of kids doing drugs in the dark. Like how I was back then 15, 20 years ago, you know, experiencing with ketamine and acid and shrooms. And it was just all of these things that were taken out of context because we were using it for abuse and not for therapy. Right. So back then I experienced a lot of that with counseling and, you know, psychiatric evaluations. And it's always like, what's wrong with me? And what do I need to work? Like, I never thought of it as like, in terms of what it could be used for good. So I love the way you told your story. So thank you for one, for your service and just sharing that and putting it into context for the people that always think about this spiritual journey, especially now that it's so mainstream that everyone's developing a different mentality in terms of where the spiritual culture is going. Because now it's mass marketed and now it's mass capitalized and there's always dark and there's always light in terms of like the duality of how any sort of modalities use yoga breath work. You know, we've touched on like deep breath work, like Wim Hofen'like. Anyone that's heard of these terms are like, what the hell is this?

0:15:53 - (Tawni Nguyen): You know, But I was excited, just like, oh, we're in Vegas. We're gonna get talk about sex, drugs and rock and roll. Right? But so it's just very Profound in terms of how we're able to sit here and have the conversation around that. So in terms of where Vegas is going in, like, with you as a fetilitator, like, what is your breakthrough moment of you. I know you were, like, 32 years old, leaning into that very dark stage in your life and deciding, like, hey, I need to do something about it and not be a victim of my circumstances and giving most of my life away in service and not knowing where I'm gonna do with my life and how am I gonna use that and feel that and actually help other people? And where do you see yourself taking that in the direction that this whole entire movement is going in the next, like, 10 years?

0:16:37 - (Josh Halu): Well, first of all, Toani, congratulations on tears of sobriety. That's incredible. Cheers to you. It is not an easy journey. You know, I think when I think about all the work that we do and the spiritual work and the healing work, right? There's. There's certainly addiction, there's ptsd, there's trauma from all sorts of different places. And every day that you make progress on this journey, it's just one day, right? It's one single day at a time. It's one decision at a time. And that's really an important understanding that I've discovered because it's so easy to have setbacks and then just say, let just fall by the wayside and just fall back into old habits and habits and new habits and healthier habits are built with just one at a time.

0:17:26 - (Josh Halu): And kudos to you. So thank you for sharing that. I think that there's so much work that we could do. Back to how Dave described even his journey and the lens of veterans, right? Like, not every veteran went to combat, not every veteran went to. Had pulled a trigger, had a gun in their hand, know, did really dangerous things. But every veteran who signed up to be in military service made that contract with themselves, with their families, with the government, to give everything up to and including their lives and give up their identity, right? You give up an identity when you take off your civilian clothes and you put on a uniform and you confor and you're part of this enormous organization to do your job and adopt the identity, adopt the military values.

0:18:16 - (Josh Halu): And when you give up that identity, well, first of all, when you adopt that identity to begin with, a lot of people in life in general, but certainly who join the military are already searching for something, right? You're already like, maybe you don't have community. Maybe you don't have an identity. Maybe you don't know your purpose. And you take on the military as your identity, as your purpose.

0:18:37 - (Josh Halu): And when you do that, you push who you are as a person kind of to the wayside and you jump all in, because that's the only way to go into the military is all in. And then when you take that uniform off on the other side, it's really hard to figure out, well, who were you to begin with? Who are you now? Like, what are you a part of? When we hosted our first retreat, and maybe over the past year, was really the first time after being out of the military for eight years, that I was with a group of veterans, like, that's powerful. It was powerful to be with a group of veterans and be with people with a similar background and similar set of ethos as yourself, and not just being, you know, the guy that was the veteran. And most veterans don't even know how to tell their story or don't want to or shy away from it.

0:19:27 - (Josh Halu): So when we are able to really bring veterans together and grow what we're doing and keep impacting one life at a time, right, that really aggregates. Cause it's just one. It's literally one life at a time, right? Can talk. We can talk about, you know, mass psychedelics and healing in the pharmaceutical space and, you know, in healthcare, but really, when it comes down to it, what you experienced with us, Dave, was the reality of being in a group of veterans together, having a real human experience.

0:20:05 - (Josh Halu): And when you come out of that right, I remember you night two with ayahuasca coming out and laying on the floor, just deep breathing and saying, I know what to do. I know what to do. Those are the words that you used over and over again.

0:20:19 - (Dave Burlin): And I can breathe.

0:20:20 - (Josh Halu): And I can breathe.

0:20:21 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah. I felt like everything that I've ever tried to do in my life was missing the point. Similar to Ty at Risk youth, growing up in the. In the rave culture, all that stuff, everything was always excess. How far can we push it? U It's funny, somebody had said, like, the. When they talked about favorite movies, they said fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Like, that was a reality for me. Like, in adolescence, I thought that's what art was. I thought that's what expression was, was pushing things in excess.

0:20:57 - (Dave Burlin): And often I've had conversations about my experience versus people that have, you know, went and done the jungles of Peru and things like that. Like, to me, I'll say this like, it doesn't matter where you are. What matters is how you approach that ceremony. With yourself. Because yes, there were very much other people around, but this isn't something where it's like, hey, let's go out on Friday night on some ayahuasca. Like, no, like, then you missed the point. And if it wasn't framed up like it was in ceremony, that said, hey, if you feel like you want to get up before you do, ask yourself why?

0:21:34 - (Dave Burlin): What is your ego telling you that you need to get up and do something right now? That you need to be appear a certain way to everybody around you? No, just sit with it. And I think it's funny ca because people always say, have you sat before? Have you sat in ceremony? It's like it's not. Have you sat. Have you sat and just stayed still and just been alone with yourself? Because even though it safe, safest place I've ever been, there's other people in the room.

0:21:57 - (Dave Burlin): But like you're there with yourself. And like, if you really just let into that. Yeah. What I described on the second night was. And I went past when the ceremony was actually over, I just kept breathing because I felt like everything in my life before that, I was basically just waiting. I'd been doing everything that I could to prove everything I could to the world. I've started all these organizations, I've done all this stuff. I've been a part of all these things and I'm proud of that. And for the first time, I think night one I was able to sit with that and be proud of it.

0:22:30 - (Dave Burlin): But night two, I realized I was like, man, I think I've always just been kind of checking as many boxes as I could because I didn't know when I was going toa die. I thought I was going to catch a metal in the marines. And that would be the story of Dave Berlin. You know, he did. He did everything. He was a kind of a piece of shit grown up. And then he went and caught a bullet or jumped on a grenade and got that metal that said he did something for everybody else around him. And that didn't happen.

0:22:57 - (Dave Burlin): So ever since then, I felt like I was just checking as many boxes that somedy someday somebody's going toa tell the story because eventually I'll die. And I felt like now post ceremony, I felt like I was holding my breath, waiting for it all be over. So that big breath that I took for three hours on the, on the tail end of night two was that rebirth for me to be like, I can breathe again. And then everything where everybody else was sharing, I just said, I know what I'm supposed to do.

0:23:30 - (Dave Burlin): And here we are. Like, it immediately started the next day. The next day, we hit record. We started bringing in all of the people that are making this city great, including yourself. And that's the truth for me. And I don't know that that's the truth for everybody else. It's just. That's my experience with everything that I'd done up to that point.

0:23:53 - (Josh Halu): Yeah, absolutely. And just to say this, brother, you are a hero. Like you military service. And not just your military service, and most importantly, everything that you've done since then, the lives that you impacted, the boxes that you checked, were all part of the Dave Berlin story. And when we got there and we arrived and we went through that whole weekend, you saw all of those pieces knit together, and you. I think you made sense of your life and your life purpose. And when you said, I know what to do, it was because you finally got the opportunity to simmer with yourself in all of that and bring all of those influences and those things that you've done through life together and back to the conversation about veterans.

0:24:35 - (Josh Halu): Every veteran has a story, and every veteran has the ability to make an impact. And every veteran. Veterans are from all walks of life and from all backgrounds, from all ethnicities, and we all have the same set of values, a shared set of ethos and principles, and we care about community. So when we're able to heal in that way and we're able to reflect from that lens and then be given the tools and the modalities to be able to pull it all together and come to peace inside, the ripple effects, this is what you're doing right now. This is the ripple effects of Dave having this experience of Dave being a veteran, Dave going through life, Dave having had that experience with us, and now Dave having enormous impacts on the world, even bigger than you could have ever imagined.

0:25:23 - (Josh Halu): And every single person that I hope you know, I believe every person that comes through our doors that has an experience like you had will have ripple effects on the community and the society. And this is how the world has changed.

0:25:35 - (Tawni Nguyen): Before I ask my next question that I really feel called to ask, I want to start off with something that I want to hear from you personally. It's like, what's your definition of healing? I know that word gets tossed around a lot, and it's a word that people don't necessarily understand, whether they're on this, the side of social media. And just looking at therapy through the lens of what's being posted online or what's Being the tiktokification of therapy words. Right. Like how do you define that?

0:26:04 - (Tawni Nguyen): And then leaning into something that I'm actually really curious about it'as a man using that word and really leaning into like masculine energy. There's a lot of men, especially with their fathers that was in the military or any sort of service. Right. That was a vet. They're pretty much raised by a single married mom. Right. So they are raised through feminine energy to where these women take on masculine role because the father is not home, you know. So how does that take into effect of what happens to these boys in childhood and what happens to these men like later on in life and you know, that parentification of them going through life by themself and for themselves in you know, and just confusion and loss. And then sometimes in 30s or something like that, they wake up one day and they're confused because they don't know who they are as a man. And like now healing and all of these other terms are getting thrown at them. And therapy is not sexy for most people. And I'm really glad that that word is now a lot less terrifying because it's made more accessible for the masses. So I just want your take on some of those issues that's happening in the world.

0:27:14 - (Josh Halu): Yeah. One of our topics that we cover, we had some incredible conversation during our retreat is onuline feine divine masculine and feminine energy. I think that's a really powerful area and it gets a little bit woo woo from the outside and spiritual, if that's how you view it. But when you're on the inside and you actually have these deep conversations, I mean we get the opportunity to really reflect on what it means to be vulnerable, what it means to be a strong man, a strong woman, a strong human.

0:27:46 - (Josh Halu): And it's so much more than what is maybe portrayed. We see a lot of toxic masculinity. We see this in military organizations, we see this in corporate leaderships, in boardroom. And there's a big difference. I like to say one of my daily affirmations or mantras is that my vulnerability is my strength. And I think it is an enormous strength when we're able to really feel our feelings, feel them, experience them, talk about them with other men.

0:28:12 - (Josh Halu): You hear a lot of guys that the way that you have guys, groups or go out is just give each other shit, right? Give each other shit all the time and give people hard times. And if you, you show you a little bit of emotion like that's a bad thing. But we experience the complete opposite and we can role model the complete opposite. More importantly, when we are. When we are kind of defined in ourselves, and we're not trying to live life from the expectations of other people, but show up as our authentic selves. Like, I think that is the most masculine thing or the most feminine thing that you can do is be in your own energy, be in your own alignment, and not trying to be somebody that you expect you're supposed to be, but just be you.

0:28:55 - (Josh Halu): And that is perfect. That will always be perfect.

0:29:00 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah, I'mn toa speak to that, because I went through all of that. Even in ceremony, like, I went through all of that because I know we had talked about. And the great thing about this is that there was so much preparation leading up to it, but there was still so much open, like, hey, we don't know what experience you're gonna have. Like, we can talk about all these things and be ready for it. But I mean, for me, I grew up in a single parent, you know, single parent household. I've never met my dad or anyone on that side of the family, so I didn't have very strong male role models. So.

0:29:35 - (Dave Burlin): And for the longest time, I thought I was alone. A couple years ago, I read a book called no more Mr. Nice Guy. And I found out it's a whole generation of people that were raised with the expectations to make the women in their lives happy. And that creates a. I don't want to say disillusionment. It just creates a byproduct of somebody that's a people pleaser. Right? And I was very much that I wanted to make my teachers happy, so I got good grades because that would make my mom happy.

0:30:02 - (Dave Burlin): Right? And there's all these different things where that starts to play into. And it can bring up a lot of challenges later in life. When a common relationship between a man and a woman, there's a masculine, feminine energy that needs to be leaned into. And like, for me, I just. In some cases, I didn't have that. I always got the whole thing. I was like, hey, you're a really nice guy. Like, okay, great. And then I was like, wait a minute. This isn't great.

0:30:31 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah, wait a minute.

0:30:33 - (Josh Halu): Wait a minute. Do I wa want toa be a nice guy? Yeah, you wanna be Dave?

0:30:36 - (Dave Burlin): Wait, wait. If I'm such a nice guy, why did you stop talking to me? And it's weird. But then what's really interesting about that is I experienced a lot of that understanding. And even in ceremony, because I sat with myself and I realized, oh, like really, when it comes down to it, yes, I'm going to come back into the. And it's not even a dimensional thing. It's like I'm going to come back to this reality that everyone else is common with.

0:31:02 - (Dave Burlin): And in that, like, I realized in being by myself, that's the most by myself I've ever really been. Even though in a room full of people like that is the most by myself I've ever been. There is no help coming. There is. And it's not even that. That that could still be a victim thing where I'm like, no, no, no one's coming. It's like, no, no one's. Like, there is no expectation. There's only myself to lead me and lead my family, which my son. You know, that was the biggest takeaway for me. It's like, you know, now that I know this, I can be a better father than I had just simply because, one, I'm present, but two, like, I can start to teach him what it means to be responsible for yourself in a way that I'm not. It's weird. I'm not sad to say.

0:31:57 - (Dave Burlin): I'm celebrating saying that I found out at 43 years old that that's. That's what I'm capable of.

0:32:06 - (Josh Halu): Yeah. And you get to role model that and demonstrate that. And more importantly, I think for your son and your family and the people around you, you get to demonstrate what making those changes later in life looks like. You can experience that maybe you'not perfect as a father for many years, but you were who you were. And you get to. You don't have to live in shame and regret for how you weren't there for your son in ways that maybe you wish you could have been. But you get to pick up the pieces and do that work and make peace with it all now going forward.

0:32:36 - (Josh Halu): And that's a beautiful thing, right? It's like better late than never. You know, that's that old saying. It's like, when's the best time to plant a tree? Like, 20 years ago. When's the second best time? Right now? Today. Today. And, you know, like, for me, I didn't have a father, my biological father, in my life and that my mom remarried and my stepfathers raised me. But, you know, my parents also sent me away to military school when I was young, and I raised myself, you know, for the last 25 years.

0:33:02 - (Josh Halu): And then when I decided to go down this path, I also had a deep realization that I wanted to heal my relationship with my only living biological parent. My mother and we, in my mind, were pretty estranged. And then we started going down a path of actually doing some psychedelic work together up to. I brought her do an Ayahuasca retreat just earlier this year. We sat for two nights together in Ayahuasca, and I watched my mom pur. And I watched my mom.

0:33:33 - (Josh Halu): You heal her generational trauma. I remember she was crying, looking at me around a fire at the end of the second night in Ceremony. And I asked her why she was crying, and she looked at me and she said she's never been happier in her life. And I asked her why, and she said, because she finally felt free to be herself and love her inner child. And to hear my mom say that, and then to know that I was able to kind of give that to my mom and that she was willing to go on that journey with me and. And heal.

0:34:02 - (Josh Halu): And then the ripple effects that I was talking about before, what do we get to do with that? And now my mom and I are in the process of writing a book about healing intergenerational trauma. Because that is. That's what you were talking about. That's what's missing is the ability to have these real connections with a mother figure, with a father figure who can role model what it looks like to raise a good human in this world.

0:34:24 - (Josh Halu): And then we all have to go through the school of unlearning and deprogramming, you know, and figure life out for ourselves and work through our own trauma. But there are certainly better ways. There's certain, maybe quicker ways to get to a fulfilling life, but we all get to do that work. We're all in the school of life right now.

0:34:41 - (Dave Burlin): Well, you said something, man, and I'm so glad that you got to experience that with your mom. Somebody told me this a long time ago, and it's always stuck with me. It's like, you know, and you're gonna get that to that point where you get to have a. Where you get to have kids. And it's fascinating because my son's 20, and it goes fast. And I realized, somebody told me this long time ago, they said, you ever realize that we don't watch our kids grow up, they watch us grow up.

0:35:14 - (Josh Halu): I love that.

0:35:14 - (Dave Burlin): And it hits on such a weird level because you. Not only did you get to see your mom grow up in that moment, there's a big growth. Step into her growth there, but you got to give it to her. And I think so many times, especially our parents and our generations before us, they were raised, and it's so funny that for any younger generation that's listening to this, when I say raised, we were beat. We were beat into, like, behaving.

0:35:48 - (Dave Burlin): It was like. And our parents especially were beat into saying, I'm the parent, you're the child. And that was the dynamic. And that's what the dynamic would always be. And I think we're that generation where that changes, where we're not. There is a parent child relationship, but that has evolved into, we are both humans having human experience. Let go of the trauma, let go of the pain, and we still have so much life to celebrate. And now it'll start to take that turn in the future.

0:36:22 - (Josh Halu): Absolute. Absolutely. We get to be that change. And to me, it's very similar to the military experience of, like, toxic leadership, right? It's like, I'm the colonel, you're the captain, or you're the private, right? You do.

0:36:37 - (Dave Burlin): You're the captain, though.

0:36:38 - (Josh Halu): Yeah, I'm the. Was the captain. It's like, you do what I tell you to do, right? And you just have to exist in that environment regardless, because those are the rules. But I think that experience gave me a real mistrust of authority and my experience of growing up, of authority, of deference to just blind deference to leadership. And it gave me this a little bit of, you know, desire to go my own way and do my own thing, because I didn't have a trust in parents, in authority, because there's so many flaws in it. And people.

0:37:17 - (Josh Halu): Everybody's acting out their trauma through life, you know, in one way or another. And we do. Once we have that aha moment, we do get to be part of the change and make the difference. And it's beautiful.

0:37:28 - (Dave Burlin): It is. It is.

0:37:31 - (Tawni Nguyen): I love the whole parent concept, right? Because from the beginning of this conversation, it feels like very masculine, because feelers are healers, right? But when we sit here, like, I know that we joke around a lot. It's like, there's not a lot of real men these days taking any sort of leadership role. Because, one, you brought that up. Like, I don't like using the word toxic masculinity, but it is because they're all eagle projecting. They're all insecure because I describe it as, like, they're all ornaments. It looks shiny and pretty on the outside, but they're very fragile, like, the minute you dropped them, because they weren't nurtured and they weren't loved, and they weren't raised from love. They were doing things for love. And that's something that Dave And I had in common. We talked about this a lot. Is people pleasing our way through most of our childhood, because that's the way we have to be defensive, and that's the way we survived, and that's the way we felt safe. But we were never securing love from a place of, like, acceptance.

0:38:29 - (Tawni Nguyen): And through all of that conversation, I think it's really important to talk about when you brought up leadership and just parenthood and just these are the most prominent time to where you can talk to your children about even the movie Inside Out. Like, where was that years ago? Right'mov? And some of these men are watching it. They're like, what the hell is all these feelings? But incapable of feelings feelings.

0:38:54 - (Tawni Nguyen): And when you brought that up, I got goosebumps. And, like, everything that you guys have been talking about, it's just so scary for most people because that's kind of like, ooh, I can't dip my tone into my feelings. I'm like, what are you gon toa turn into a woman? You know, you're notnna get feeling.

0:39:09 - (Dave Burlin): You might.

0:39:09 - (Tawni Nguyen): You.

0:39:10 - (Josh Halu): You'renna become more of a man.

0:39:12 - (Tawni Nguyen): Right. So I really love your perspective on it. Not just out of the experience of using psychedelics to tap into that, but I'm like, does it really take using an experience to actually get into your feelings? And why is it so hard for most people to understand that it's all, like, the internal work and looking inward and going inward. It's so scary for most people because it's a really dark place, and it's scary to be by yourself, and it's scary just to be in stillness. Right? So stillness is gonna show you who you really are. And most people, that's why they're surrounded by a lot of people, because they're always running away from themselves, and they always want to be surrounded by the fakes and, like, let's have a beer and talk about sports instead of like, hey, this thing hurt me. Like, can you support me?

0:39:53 - (Tawni Nguyen): So I just want to really acknowledge you guys for just sitting here with a woman and talking about your feelings. And I really love topics like these because it's not something people like talking about, especially in this world. And we were talking about something so taboo, like psychedelics and da, da, da. You know?

0:40:10 - (Josh Halu): Yeah. I mean, psychedelics are just a door. They are a door to go through that can open up a lot of other things. Right. Psychedelics aren't the answer. It is a magical elixir, but it's not the magical elixir. To solve all your problem. You don't just walking. What did Najib.

0:40:26 - (Dave Burlin): Second night. Second night, it was so funny. It was right after he's like, you guys are all fixed. Right?

0:40:32 - (Josh Halu): And we all just belly laugh.

0:40:33 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah, it was straight up belly laugh. Well, so to that. If you remove the societal responsibility impression, even the laws for just a minute, Like, I wasn't alive when this happened. But if you look at when alcohol was prohibited, there was no alcohol and it was illegal. Like, people still found a way because there was something that they got from it that they, that they wanted. I, you know, I'm so proud to say I'm about to go into my 44th birthday soon. But it's.

0:41:14 - (Dave Burlin): I've been sober this whole year. I stopped drinking alcohol on January 1st. And this has been the most intentional path of sobriety that I've ever had. What's interesting about it is that I realize that it's legal doesn't mean that it's right. If it's illegal, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's wrong. I've often made the joke even on interviews here. I'm like, well, there is a shortcut if you really want to get to the truth.

0:41:41 - (Dave Burlin): It's not. It's not a shortcut. It is'it's work. Like, it is the hardest work that I've ever done, but it's the work that I'm the most proud of because it wasn't in a place where I was. I was trying to do it for excess. I was trying to do it for internal growth and truth. Like, I found. I realized that everything that I had thought about myself, of what I thought I was supposed to do, with every vision I've had of doing the TED Talk to raise awareness for veterans to the different organizations that I've led, a lot of that was out of guilt and shame because of some of the stuff I had experienced in my life.

0:42:21 - (Dave Burlin): But for the first time I was able to look at all of that and be proud of it because. And all of the guilt and shame only held me back from my true potential. Right. It just. It was just this thing that really I was doing to hold myself back. This was something that gave me the permission that I didn't ask for. It's just. I've always had it. I just didn't know it was there. And once you do that work and you go to that place, you know that it's possible. And then I now I look at anyime that anything's kind of come up on Just a regular day.

0:42:54 - (Dave Burlin): The other day I got super pissed about something and it was like in five minutes I was like, I could literally lose my whole day just being pissed about this one thing. And I was like, I don't have to. It was just like, I just don't have to. And I was right back to work. And I've gotten so much done because now I know, I know since I've been there, I know how to get back in my own way. And honestly, man, I don't know if I need to do it again.

0:43:19 - (Dave Burlin): Like, it's one of those interesting things where if you look at so many of the other things out there, like alcohol'really hard to walk away from, but it was time. And then the other stuff, it's like there's people struggling and I think that there's an opportunity for people to really look at all the stuff they've carried for a really long time. You can call it a shortcut or not, but it works.

0:43:44 - (Josh Halu): I'm proud of you, Dave. I'm truly proud of you, brother. What you're talking about to me is the difference between the deep work and an escape, right? And substances can be an escape. Social media can be an escape. You know, we have plenty of things in on the Vegas strip that can be escapes, alcohol, whatever, and intentional use of some of these sacraments, some of these substances, intentional work, those are the opposite, right? It takes effort. Like when we did breath work for 45 minutes on day one, right? That is hard work.

0:44:18 - (Josh Halu): But there's so much revelation that comes on the other side of that hard work, right? We're not just going out, drinking a few beers, trying to escape the realities and go back home and sleep it off, right? We are doing work, we're doing internal deep diving. And we're with the intention to come out better and to come out better not just for ourselves, but, you know, like we talk about when we heal ourselves, we heal the world.

0:44:38 - (Josh Halu): And we have to put ouras our oxygen masks on first, right? We got to put our oygen.

0:44:43 - (Dave Burlin): We're going to say gas masks. We also have to put our gas mask on first.

0:44:46 - (Josh Halu): I was thinking about the military. We got to put our oxygen masks on first, right? Before we can be our best selves for other people. And a lot of times we're just so busy in life, are busy with distractions that we forget to take care of ourselves. First and foremost, our health and our fitness and our mind and our body and our spirit. And then we get to be the best versions of ourselves. We even talked about parenthood a little bit, which I'm not a parent, but I hope to be one day. And I used to not want to be for most of my life because I only saw negative examples of parents in my own childhood. And I didn't want to pass on, know, mental illness to my kids. I made all these excuses throughout my first marriage about why I didn't want to get married or why I didn't want to have kids and why didn't want to get married to again and have kids, you know, and then I am on the other side of that and now I find it just like I can't wait for that opportunity.

0:45:34 - (Josh Halu): Can't wait for the opportunity to bring a child into the world and be able to be a good role model and a good father figure, you know, and teach right from wrong in the positive ways and be able to set the right tone for creating a human mind. Right. That's a huge responsibility, you know, And I do it right here, right in Las Vegas because I love this home and I love what the city provides for us, and I love the community that we have and the opportunities that we have.

0:46:00 - (Josh Halu): And I think it's just a beautiful place to be in life and geographically.

0:46:05 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:46:06 - (Josh Halu): And there's just so much potential here.

0:46:07 - (Dave Burlin): Well, and that's the whole reason for the show, Right. The reason for this show was to connect the people of our city and show the world who we really are. So many people see the lights and the strip and there's a lot of remarkable things that happen there. I remember when the what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas changed to what happens in Vegas only happens in Las Vegas. And it's funny because I think on the commercial for that, it was like Katy Perry, like, standing on a unicorn walking down Fremont. And that could only happen here.

0:46:39 - (Dave Burlin): And I have seen some really remarkable things, but it's behind the curtain at events like Radiance, right. That are. That our friends put on and it's communities like the Wolf PAC and Revive Community. All of these organizations, the 963 Tribe, all of these organizations. You almost would never expect them to be right here and to be such a powerful supernova of healers and stuff like that. And I just have to say this because as you, as soon as you said something about having kids, I was like, I see you with like 11 kids, just like 11 children's real WOL.

0:47:18 - (Dave Burlin): You have your own squad. It's. It's the Hallow Squad.

0:47:21 - (Tawni Nguyen): I justnna start a family band.

0:47:22 - (Dave Burlin): Right. But no. And again, thank you. This is very personal for me. Thank you for deciding to build this in Las Vegas because our paths may have never crossed. I'm so grateful to be able to be connected to as many veterans across so many different communities as I am because of all the work that I've been doing. But now, because you are here, we're just getting started. I think we can really connect those circles and interlock those and bring people here.

0:47:50 - (Dave Burlin): Because, you know, I mentioned. I think the whole time I was a walking quote out of the the Warrior of the Light book. But all that comes from even like the Alchemist, which I've mentioned on the show before, the desert will teach you everything that you need to know. And you are learning it. You've learned it in other deserts, and now you're learning it here. So when it comes to Las Vegas, if you had one piece of advice for veterans that are looking to come here, people that are looking to step into their power and do it through this community here in Las Vegas, what piece of advice would you give to the people that may see Vegas as something different?

0:48:40 - (Josh Halu): I would say that life is abundant and full of opportunity. And it's only that way when you view it that way, when you view life through the lens of optimism and opportunity. And as a creator, not as a consumer, but as somebody who creates, somebody who follows passion, somebody who has purpose and brings that into their life and with the intention of adding value to the world. And I don't believe there is any better place in the world to do that than right here in Las Vegas. To bring your gifts, to bring your abundant mentality, and to know that this is the community, this is the city that welcomes you, receives you, and rolls out the red carpet for you to be your fullest self and bring that out to the world.

0:49:31 - (Dave Burlin): Hashtag, tweeting it.

0:49:33 - (Tawni Nguyen): I love that I was. Should we box up that? No. I think since the beginning, too, Like, a lot of things came up repeatedly. It's not, you know, by mistake. I think a lot of things we've talked about in this conversation is speaking truth, walking in your truth. And you said something about, like, not being in the closet anymore, about this lifestyle. And that's something that resonated with me throughout the whole time on why we're in this room. It's not because of default s, it's by design, like, why we're here having this conversation and the purpose, at least for my life. And now that I'm actually walking in my purpose, because I was confused For a very long time I'm like, what the hell is a fucking purpose? Like, what is the purpose? And I thought it was something so much bigger. It was just so grandiose and it's like.

0:50:16 - (Tawni Nguyen): But it's understanding that you're doing something bigger than yourself and that, you know, it's not about you anymore. And walking. And purpose for me is just to be of contribution to other people, which you've nailed like lovingly. Like, I love the language that we get to sit here and use and just living so integrated and just living fully expressed, like to the most, like fully fully expressed and not hiding parts of ourselves. And the way that we're having this conversation, like, it still like makes me wanna like ask about like funny experiences and stuff. But it's just like, that's a different part too where now I'm thinking, I'm like, maybe we'll microdose and do a part two and really get into like all the fun breakthroughs, you know. So it's like just thank you for just sharing everything and like really connecting with us on a deeper level in terms of how superficial most people will view Vegas and how the people interact, which is transactional, which is the business world. It's just handshakes and then nothing at all. But we're collaborating on a different level and we're taking it so much further than like our own capacity and just being the conduit for all of that.

0:51:22 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah. And that's a perfect segue into when it comes to this community. Right. There's lots of challenges in an ecosystem and everywhere you go, but if you could wave a magic wand, what is one thing that you think would be really powerful to see in this community in the next three to five years? Don't say Wateraburger because we already got one of those.

0:51:49 - (Josh Halu): We do have a Waterger.

0:51:51 - (Tawni Nguyen): Is that his favorite place?

0:51:52 - (Dave Burlin): No, I just, all of a sudden I'm thinking about Waterburger, trying to get those sponsors. It's like people only do things to.

0:52:02 - (Josh Halu): Get paid, you know, I don't, I just don't. There is no magic wand. I think that's really the secret.

0:52:13 - (Dave Burlin): There is no spoon.

0:52:18 - (Josh Halu): Matrix. Oh man. Good Callack. I think it really, it takes intentional effort, it takes contribution and it takes making the day to day effort. You know, there's the change that we want and the change that Wenna see we have to create. If I could wave a magic wand, it would just to be to give everybody the confidence to pursue their dreams. To give everybody the courage and the conviction to live out their purpose. And then this start taking action and making plans.

0:52:56 - (Josh Halu): And in three to five years, the world is completely different. And it's the world that we create. So it's just that it's the mentality of actionable purpose.

0:53:06 - (Dave Burlin): So what you're saying is the world needs you.

0:53:12 - (Tawni Nguyen): Everyone'experienced ayahuasca.

0:53:14 - (Dave Burlin): There it is. I love that. No. So beautifully sad, man. I was anxious, nervous to really understand what this conversation was going to be. It's been in a perfect completion because after leaving ceremony, all of this stuff was already on the calendar. And the funniest thing out of all this is everybody's like, for the first days, o, you okay? I'm like, no, I'm more okay than you'll ever. Than anyone you've ever met that you thought was me.

0:53:45 - (Dave Burlin): Like, it's. It's hard to explain, but, like, I think most people are like, oh, you okay? Even at the thing, people are like, whenever you get back, I was like, I'm here. Like, I'm absolutely here, more than I've ever been. It's something so phenomenal to be a part of, but there is. There's such a unique conversation around it, but here we are. This is the truth. This is the direction that we're going.

0:54:15 - (Dave Burlin): Last thought, when it comes to one piece of advice. Now, in the past, this has always been about people that are looking at Las Vegas and things like that. But because of the work that you do and because of the controversy and the challenges behind it, if you could have one piece of advice for that person who's lost, veteran or not, that doesn't know who they are, doesn't know how to get back to who they are.

0:54:48 - (Dave Burlin): And in the work that you've done in such a short period of time, but such a powerful period of time, what advice would you give to that person?

0:54:55 - (Josh Halu): Ask for help. Ask for help. You know, a lot of us are lost. A lot of us feel utterly alone. And I remember coming out to Vegas, it was the first time I ever lived by myself my whole life. You know, I went from being married for 11 years and having roommates in the army and at West Point before that, and living with my brother when I was a kid and I got to Vegas and I had to learn how to differentiate between being alone and feeling lonely and, like, actually being by myself, and then finding confidence in being by myself, and then finding confidence in starting to build community and rely on other people and find help in places that were outside of myself.

0:55:38 - (Josh Halu): And when you're feeling that way. When I was feeling that way. I remember we have a mutual friend, Brett. Brett, our breath work coach. And he was the first person I called when I was like, do I need a life coach or a therapist? I wasn't sure. I decided to need a life coach and that's how I ended up calling Brett. And that's why he did our breath work at the retreat. But he was the first person that I picked up the phone and called and said, I need help.

0:56:04 - (Josh Halu): You. I don't know what to do. I don't know where to start. I know what I'm coming with. I know I kind of know who I am, but I need help and I don't know where to go to look for that help. So a lot of people when they're feeling alone, I mean, Sacred Soldier, we're a great place for you, especially, you know, for veterans. But we all have people in our lives who care about us, and we all have people in our life who we care about.

0:56:27 - (Josh Halu): And the best thing we can do is to reach for a helping hand when we need it and be there for other people when they need it. And even if people don't ask for help, you know, sometimes people are quiet and they need our help. And the more that we help each other, the more that this tide rises together.

0:56:46 - (Tawni Nguyen): When the student is ready, the teacher appears.

0:56:49 - (Dave Burlin): Oh, that was the common thread that weekend too. That came up quite a bit, bro. Thank you so much for coming. Where can people find you and connect and learn more about what you're doing?

0:57:00 - (Josh Halu): You can find us sacredsoldier.com or @sacredsoldierretreats on Instagram and connect with us. And Dave's wearing the hat right now. Thank you, Dave. Thanks for repping. Want one hat looks good for you.

0:57:12 - (Dave Burlin): Shame one Next time. Shameless Plug T shirts for everybody. Woooo.

0:57:16 - (Tawni Nguyen): With the canon too, right?

0:57:17 - (Dave Burlin): Yep.

0:57:18 - (Tawni Nguyen): Or is that gonna trigger everyone's pts?

0:57:24 - (Dave Burlin): I love it, man. Thank you so much for coming and thanks for coming on the show. And yeah, we're definitely gonna have to bring you back for a part two. It's incredible work that you're doing and I'm honored to be a part of it and help share that experience with anyone who's ready to step into their true power.

0:57:41 - (Tawni Nguyen): I'm honored to be a part of this with you guys. Well, guys, if you like what you've heard, please reached out to Dave and I on Pursue Vegas and let us know how we can help you, how we can extend a hand, connect you to somebody or just. Honestly, just be of. Listen, like, we have open ears, open arms, you know, hugs. Hugs over drugs or drugs.

0:58:03 - (Dave Burlin): Definitely hugs.

0:58:05 - (Tawni Nguyen): Definitely hugs. So'stay in touch.