EP 24: Primal Living, Bioharmonizing & Getting Back to Nature with Christian Van Camp

Christian Van Camp is the co-founder of Bioculture and Maestro Valley, and lives and breathes what he preaches. He's all about primal living - integrating as much of your life as possible around nature - and this episode is packed with the kind of practical, grounded wisdom that makes you want to immediately go outside, eat a raw egg and throw your LED bulbs in the bin.

We get into what primal living actually means and how to integrate it even if you live in a city, why Christian prefers the word bioharmonizing over biohacking and what that distinction actually means, the power of the words we speak and how they're literally casting spells on our lives, circadian rhythm and why your LED lights might be quietly wrecking your nervous system, the connection between creativity and sexual life force energy, why shifting from consumption to creation might be the most important thing you can do right now, and what spirituality actually means through a primal lens - spoiler, it's a lot more grounded and a lot less airy fairy than you might think.

Christian also shares the story of how Bioculture and Maestro Valley came to be, what kind of people come to their retreats, and the beautiful love story of how he met his partner Luana through it all.

This one is warm, wild, funny and genuinely full of gold. 

Find Christian on Instagram and at Maestro Valley.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey guys, welcome back to the Lvolve podcast where we have interesting and insightful conversations. Today I'm super pumped to be joined by Kristen Van Camp.

SPEAKER_01 0:09

Thank you, thank you for having me. So stoked.

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Oh yes. So I've been hanging out here in Guatemala at Maestro Valley at Christian's Retreat. Uh co-founder of Maestro Valley. See?

SPEAKER_01 0:21

Indeed, indeed.

SPEAKER_00 0:22

And Christian is a really interesting person to follow online because he's all about primal living and all about rawness.

SPEAKER_01 0:33

Yes. As best I can in this modern realm, you know, being able to merge the two of like we have this technology we're using now, living primal. It's kind of counteractive in a way, but it works. It works the ways we apply these things.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

What is living primal?

SPEAKER_01 0:45

Man, living primal is simply just integrating as much of your lifestyle around nature, very simply put. Like, for instance, I'll take client calls and I'll do it outside with direct sunlight in my eyes, no windows. I'll integrate that with fresh air. I'll make sure I can get grounding if I can and set it up at a park, like using a hot spot. Like these are things that you can still integrate the technological realm in the primal, you know, ways.

SPEAKER_00 1:08

How did you find primal living? Like what got you here? How did you find yourself in Guatemala, like eating raw meat and cracking eggs every day into your mouth?

SPEAKER_01 1:19

Yeah, right. Very absurd things to most people and taboo, but it all started with a lot of um you know integrations with my family. So my family wasn't always the healthiest. They had a lot of challenges going on. My little sister Nina is one of my biggest inspirations. Uh, she was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, which is basically a three-chambered heart. So most of us have four chambers, and so the atrium and the ventricles would come, or the uh what is it called? The atrium is above. And it would it would basically the blood flow would go right in instead of having an extra little uh little opening for it to go through. So her blood flow was always weak. She always had tiredness, and then eventually that led into when she was around 15 years old. I'm a few years older than her, she had a heart transplant just over 10 years ago. And so through the past 10 years, she's been going through her whole lifestyle, really going through a lot of challenges, you know, utilizing the beauty of modern science, keeping her alive, like a heart transplant from another being in her, right? It's so beautiful. She wouldn't be alive if it weren't for the modern science. And at the same time, what kept her going after that is a lot of the natural health modalities I'm really big on. So I started like researching at a young age, getting into fitness that evolved into nutrition, then spirituality came about. So there's a multitude of things, but a lot of the family challenges that erupted inspired me down more of this primordial, primal, natural living path.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

Wow, that's so cool. What um what had Nina? Did you say?

SPEAKER_01 2:36

Yeah, Nina. Yeah, I love that.

SPEAKER_00 2:38

Nina so sweet. What has Nina brought on board from, I guess, your world? Yeah. That's been helpful for you.

SPEAKER_01 2:43

Nutrition, the foundation, nutrition, right? And so I firmly believe that there's no right or wrong with nutrition, but there's a certain spectrum you can hold within your own bioindividuality. And so for Nina specifically, integrating more foods that help out with her iron, her blood flow, foods that help out with the antioxidants to help counteract a lot of the immune stuff she's going through with anti-rejection pills she's on for her heart, like things just to boost it naturally in a way that is merging with what she has in her life path, which is, you know, having this heart, having these conditions, constantly going into the doctor's offices. So it's being able to, you know, really get her online with the the healthy nutritious supplements, not all the crazy 90% of the industry being imported chemically adulterated stuff. So, you know, a lot of the nutrition foundation is the biggest thing for Nina for sure.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

That's like a a bit of a problem. Hey, like people are so disillusioned by thinking that in order to get good health, something outside of them is required.

SPEAKER_01 3:38

Right. Yeah, exactly. That's actually one of our discussions here recently, too, at this retreat is like we look outside of ourselves for something that is getting this deeper knowing when really everything's right here. We have all this magic right here. So when we tune into intuition, which you know could be obstructive in some ways too, like intuition for some people may actually not be intuitive funny enough, but they use that word. So, but yeah, most of it's related to like how do I connect with what my soul needs? Like really asking myself right now, like, what does my body lean into this food or does it lean away? Or does my gut rumble when it thinks about this food, or does it feel good afterwards? Am I energized after eating? You know, all these variables asking yourself, especially connecting with nutrition for sure.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

It's like self-awareness too, right? Like actually tuning into those little sensations and those senses to notice the feedback. Guys, by the way, if you're hearing a bit of background noise, it's a lot of play going on for sure.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

A lot of playing. A lot of content creation, a lot of fun things, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:29

Yeah, lots of fun. So just be aware that's what's going on.

SPEAKER_01 4:32

Cats a vibe, big vibe.

SPEAKER_00 4:33

Yeah. So um not a lot of people have that. When did that come on board for you? Like that, that, that deep awareness of like, oh, this feels good, oh, this doesn't. A lot of people are just going. Yeah, a lot of people just like fucking around, blindfolded, like flailing about, like just doing life and not actually stopping and really being curious about what's happening for them, like in their body and what it, what it could be communicating to them.

SPEAKER_01 4:56

Yeah, I think it's so fascinating. Like I started listening to the signals. My body was holding up like little signs at first and whispering to me, and eventually those whispers became screams, whether it was just like constant bloating or getting constipated for almost seven days. When I was when I went on a float trip down a river with my dad, one of these Father's Day trips, we were having a lot of fun. I was like 17 at the time. I was just exploring little beers with him. We had a lot of potatoes and like just like very overcooked meat, by the way. And I remember just after that, it wasn't just the food that affected me in that circumstance. Constipation also is a deep, like, I'm holding on to something. So it was a very spiritual connection I had over time. But I was tuning into that. I'm like, my body's giving me signals. Like eating these foods makes me bloat it. Eating these foods makes me break out in acne. And I was connecting the dots of like, okay, like, do I have to completely eliminate them? No, but for a period of time, I'm gonna, I'm going to for a period of time. I went into it that way and then swapped it for other foods and did some form of elimination dieting, you know. Also, just like I had a funny story I mentioned recently. I would make like these smoothies that were just so delicious with all these fruits and everything, and I would completely ruin it by putting a tablespoon of spirulina in it. When I could have done that as like a separate thing or got on the tablet version of it, right? But I would ruin my smoothie and I would just drink it like, oh, this is the bottom of a fish bowl. It's like a very intense flavor. But I would force myself to do these things. And yet at the same time, I was breaking out these really thick pieces of acne under my jawline. I would have these bloating, my energy wasn't the best. So I'm like, I'm doing all the healthy things people talk about online, but for some reason I'm not finding it matching for me. It's not saying spirulin is bad, it's just like what am I pairing it with? How often? So there's like something in my mind that was very neurotic at the time with nutrition of like forcing certain foods. And then I come to realize, like, actually, there is this balance within myself I can tap into and ask myself, like, is this really necessary? Do I really need to get the spirulin? Like, why am I doing it? What's the deeper why behind it? So I would ask why a lot more, and that got me to the what and what to do.

SPEAKER_00 6:44

Yeah, I think a lot of people are just doing what they're saying online, yeah, and they're just following the next craze and potentially doing damage.

SPEAKER_01 6:52

Oh, yeah. Yeah, most of the time, actually, I would say. Yeah, yeah. Trying out all these like crazy hacks and things like biohacking, we were talking a little bit about. Like, that's a huge thing. I think it's got a lot of merit and gold to it, but it's gotten very convoluted over the years. It's just like getting a little too technological when nature provides all we need, you know.

SPEAKER_00 7:09

Right. What does biohacking mean?

SPEAKER_01 7:11

Some people hacking, like the word hack. Like when you think of like a computer hacker, you're trying to get in the system and infiltrate and change something that is already like it is what it is. Why are we trying to hack it, you know? So for me, it's like it's got kind of this derogatory nature to it a little bit. Um, but I like to shift that word from biohacking to bioharmonizing. So, how do we harmonize our body versus like hacking? Yeah, yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00 7:34

Right? Energetically, that feels better, even just the word harmonize. Bioharmonizing rather than biohacking.

SPEAKER_01 7:40

I know that we're gonna hack it. Yeah, it's very like masculine in a way versus AI. Yeah, it's very AI in a way to do it.

SPEAKER_00 7:46

And that's what we're seeing so much of in today's society, like the emergence of AI and why there's great things that come with that. There's also like people really getting kind of buried deep and just going further and further into this kind of simulation mode, right?

SPEAKER_01 8:02

Yeah, AI slop related things, you know, it's just like deep layers, yeah. I have a lot of compassion for those people because deep down they like, I know they're like their consciousness is somewhere, there's a blimp of it that wants to change, but they're just so sucked into dopamine urges and rushes. So it's like, yeah, how do we shift that energy? It's about transmuting it, right? And it takes baby steps, you know, it's not just like one giant leap for mankind. It's like a small step, you know.

SPEAKER_00 8:24

So with the biohacking thing, I guess it's like rather than thinking that you need the next big gadget or you need the fancy trinket and you know, you need all of the, you know, I don't know, the supplements and all the stuff. What do you recommend? Like, what are your best biohacking bioharmonizing tips?

SPEAKER_01 8:43

Yeah, so foundation to everything, and I work with all my one-on-one clients on this, is whenever we start working together in containers, is first and foremost get your mindset right. What are the words you're speaking to yourself, the words you're casting out loud, abragadabra, the words I speak are the spells that I cast on my life, right? They're spellings, and so when we change words as simple as like um by hacking and bioharmonizing. Or even that, yeah, yeah. It's easy. I'm very I'm a wordsmith in that way because I do believe that. And obviously, energetics matter too. So it's like, let's say the word fuck. Like, is it bad? No, I mean just depends on context in some formats, but um, I firmly believe that like the concept around this is really getting into how do we make sure that nature is the foundation to everything we do. And so sunlight, basics, food, nourishment, coming from relationships and social wellness, it's all going back to the basics. And the foundation, the bedrock to transformation is these thoughts, is these words, is where we're going when it comes to how we communicate to others and ourselves. Because if we go into something, let's say, like, I'm going to the gym, I want to start working out. I've been fat my whole life, I'm finally ready for it, right? Some guy like that. If he goes into the gym saying, I am looking in the mirror, like saying, like, I don't like my body, it doesn't feel good, just keep working out. You'll get this. Like, there's a you're implanting deeper layers of shame, shame, guilt, versus going into it like empowered and saying, like, I'm stoked about making this change in my body. I'm going to reframe this, right? It's going to download deeper into your essence.

SPEAKER_00 10:07

Oh my gosh. That like it's even just saying that it feels so much better.

SPEAKER_01 10:11

Yeah, right. Immediately.

SPEAKER_00 10:12

Oh, no.

SPEAKER_01 10:13

But it's not the easiest necessarily, but it is easy. Yeah. So like that's another thing, too, is people always say, like, oh, I understand that's hard, or like whatever it is, and it's affirming something. So, like, you know, we we talk to people all the time in our day-to-day life. Someone may share something like, Oh yeah, my dog died recently, or something maybe like traumatic happened to them. A lot of people respond like immediately, they never said it was hard, but you may say something like, Oh, that's hard. I'm sorry for that.

SPEAKER_00 10:38

Putting that on the moral.

SPEAKER_01 10:38

First of all, it's saying you have sorrow, which is not necessarily bad to have sorrow for someone, but there's a derogatory nature to that. And then there's also a low vibration of saying that's hard. It's emphasizing something that someone is gonna have a challenge getting through versus empowering them, saying, like, oh, many blessings to you, and like I'm here for you if you need anything. Like that, just immediately shifting that into like a positive notion of like, let's move through this together versus oh, I know it's hard, it's debilitated, it's feeding something in people's minds. You know that you're right.

SPEAKER_00 11:03

That is kind of putting them deeper into whatever what they're already in, which is already deep and it already sucks.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

Yeah, right. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

Yeah, so it's like, hey, let me just add a couple more layers of dirt on you, man.

SPEAKER_01 11:12

This is all usually very compassion-oriented, and it's empathetic. These people are really saying, like, that's very hard. But that person may have never said it's hard, they're just expressing something that was hard for them, but the key is to empower them. So, like, my ultimate mission on this planet is to energize and empower people to live a more healthy, playful, and prosperous life.

SPEAKER_00 11:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:29

And so, in order to do that, these words are the foundation.

SPEAKER_00 11:32

I like that. Okay, so words, that's one really good bioharmonizing.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

Mindset, where's that?

SPEAKER_00 11:37

Mindset. What else?

SPEAKER_01 11:38

Okay, so a big thing, of course, is circadian rhythm. I firmly believe that a lot of us are bombarding our eye sockets with these blue lights, these rectangles glowing in our faces every day. Totally fine. So there's like harmonizing things you can do at night, which is like dimming the lights down, getting incandescent bulbs, moving away from any like LEDs or uh you know fluorescent lights, things that are flickering when you put it in slow motion. You literally see it flickering. So imagine what your nervous system feels when it's unconscious because it just looks like it's stagnant light. Yeah. But it's actually flickering in a hyper speed. So your nervous system's receiving all this like holy shit, strobe light, right? Yeah, interesting. So that's a really important thing to consider is swap out all your lights at home from LEDs and all these things to incandescence. So incandescence is the classic Edison or Tesla bulb. He created it and it glows with a filament, right? And it's a it's very synonymous to how a candlelight would work or a fire. So that's a really good way to go, or getting some quality red lights that are in a certain wavelength that aren't flickering as well.

SPEAKER_00 12:33

What kind of wavelength?

SPEAKER_01 12:34

Um, there's many different nanometers. So it could be anywhere from like 500 up to like 890 nanometers or 900 nanometers. It just depends what are you utilizing it for because some of them are used for more um, you know, penetrate deeper in the skin. Therapeutic. Yeah, yeah. So but these are more like bulbs you could just use in the house. Like we have them around here, you know. Um circadian rhythm is important. Turn your phone on like red mode or whatever, so it's not or amped up. I call me that hack. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you might have some content on that. I'll say that. It's a clutch one.

SPEAKER_00 12:58

I'm like one, two, three on the side of like red.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

It's so good. Yeah, there's a whole hack you guys can look up. It's triple clicking the home button on the iPhone, and you can set it up in settings. Um, so that's a really helpful one, you know. And also just getting like when you wake up in the morning, sometimes it's a cold out, it's winter time. Still do your best to get outside. No matter where you're at in the world, it's cloudy today. This is a shit ton of light, luxe, energy coming in your eyes right now. And there's a lot of intelligence, and it's telling your body, hey, it's daytime, nighttime will be coming soon. So it's like telling my body in a circuit that by eight o'clock, when the sun's fully set, you're ready to go to bed within that two-hour frame. As long as the indoor lighting's also dimmed. That's why it's important to go sunset, sundown, like you know, living in accordance to that. That's nature, and that's what primal living is, right? Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 13:44

I think I think a lot of people forget that we're actually animals.

SPEAKER_02 13:47

Yeah, just wearing clothes, you know.

SPEAKER_00 13:49

Right. And it's like evolutionary, like we are part of nature and we've become really disconnected from it. Yeah, yeah, and and that doesn't even really clock for a lot of people until you start having like conversations and you like you really go deep into thinking about it. It's like shit, like, yeah, of of course, if we're part of nature, then everything that we need to thrive and and live our best lives, maybe it's in nature.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

Yeah, right. Maybe who would have thought?

SPEAKER_00 14:17

Why don't we just find out? Yeah, like why don't we play with that? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:20

Instead of just industrializing, adulterating, and just like synthesizing and changing all these things, which doesn't mean that synthetic things are bad. Like, plastic is the best freaking invention on the planet. These cameras are made out of plastic. A lot of things in our daily life are made out of plastic. Like, I love plastic when we can use it in a way that's actually longevity-based instead of just uh single-use stuff, for instance. And there's so much waste building up, and like there's ways to make plastic out of hemp, and like there's so many solutions, so it's not necessarily something that's good or bad. It's like it's just is it in accordance to nature long term? Like, is it a net positive for society, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

Something that we kind of touched on briefly was the word spirituality. How would you like throw that in there? And like for some people, I think spirituality can be like this uh difficult to grasp kind of thing, because spirituality for some people is connected to religion, right? And then people are like, I don't know how I feel about that, you know. So I'm curious, like, what's your stance on spirituality? What does it mean to you?

SPEAKER_01 15:20

Yeah, so I was raised Lutheran, very Christian background, and my family's been a devout like Christian family for since I was born. Um, my dad was raised Catholic, and then she married my mom, or he married my mom, and then they we I was raised Lutheran. And so me and my sisters, we had a very like go to church every Sunday, and it was all these things, and it was a very unique, like we had organs in the churches, and it was very kind of like solemn in a way, the way you would approach it, but there would be singing and hymns and stuff, but it was always you know, a very it had some level of uplifting, but it's just very just like serious energy specifically with how I was raised with it. And for me, I think spirituality is playful, you know. Deep down, like I was raised very playful too. My parents did a great job at raising me and my sisters. So after about once high school started, I stopped going to church, and I started really understanding like what exactly is spirituality, and everyone has their own interpretation. It's kind of like the question of like when people ask you, what is God? Right? Everyone has their own relationship with God. And I personally believe that there's this, there's different levels to God. Like there's the capital G, omniscient, omnipotent, like all-knowing God that's connecting all collective consciousness. When I think of something, I think of Ellie. I'd say I'm thinking of Ellie every day. I'm like, oh, I love Ellie so much. Eventually, Ellie probably will feel that. Like she will feel that if she's on another side of the planet in North Korea, it doesn't matter. Like you're just you're out there, you will feel that. And that's actually a really cool thing to bring up is when you take an ant, you take the queen ant away from the ant hill and you put it somewhere random on the planet. The ant workers will continue to work as long as the queen is alive. The second you smash the queen, they will start creating a new queen, no matter where it's located on the planet. Talk about how intelligent that is. These ants can feel the frequencies from around the world. Wow. Birds know when exactly to travel north or south or west or east or whatever when it's a certain time of the year. Why is that, right? That's God in the capital G God working, right? And then there's lowercase g god, which I believe is like my sovereignty and myself. I'm speaking right now, I'm communicating. This is God, capital G God, working with me at the same time it's this lowercase G God that's like me. I'm like much smaller, I'm finite, I'm in this body for a spiritual space suit. I have limitations to some level, right? Um, so I think there's like this for me, it's helped me a lot to be able to interpret God in more of a scientific way. Because I like my brain works that way. And so um, I also think God is very simple, it's just what's making our toenails grow. It's what's making the plants continue to produce avocados every year. It's it's the uh the beautiful scene we have right here. It's just a little ant again creating the ant kingdom. So it's like all these things happening, and it's kind of a mushroom trip for me.

SPEAKER_00 17:51

It's like wow.

SPEAKER_01 17:53

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:53

When you like really go into it and you look at nature and you look at everything that like just happens naturally, it's like what? You know, like even just like the whales knowing when to go where they need to go, and yeah, um it's really is fascinating. What do you think?

SPEAKER_01 18:14

Some laughing down there.

SPEAKER_00 18:15

Yeah. So um, where does spirituality come into primal living for you? Is there a connection there?

SPEAKER_01 18:24

100% because primal living is more based on instinct, right? So instinct is a little bit different, I would say, than intuition or like connection of God in some ways. Instinct is something that's like I have an instinct, let's say, to like like something's falling off the table because the cat is pushing it off, and all of a sudden I grab it, right? What is that instinct? It's not necessarily like some deeper spiritual thing you could say, but it's like an instinct to survive. So primordial living is a little bit more of this survival, thriving kind of energy, and then spirituality and how it merges with that is being able to connect it to something bigger than yourself. So it's like, okay, this finite reality, we're sitting here in this very small space out of all this massive earth, but there's all this stuff happening around us. How do we find like presence here at the same time with spirituality while simultaneously understand there's a bigger thing going on around us? Right. So we're not getting caught up in all you know, riding in our our cars and like getting honk honk and flicking off people and getting mad, and like like those things are just so small compared to what's actually going on in the world that we can open up our hearts to and understand that a lot of people are going through a lot of shit. And so it's having empathy, it's having connection to not just positivity and spirituality is all like roses and butterflies. It's actually the depths of understanding suffering, of understanding a woman protecting her child from something, it's it's bombs and whatever. Like it's really the rawness of life and understanding both is like not good or bad. In my opinion, primal spirituality is connecting that it is what it is, kind of a Taoist perspective, in a way, of like there's no good or bad, it's just it is, period, you know.

SPEAKER_00 19:54

Yeah, and I mean it can't be all good, it can't be all bad, right?

SPEAKER_01 19:57

Yeah, or it's like what uh I think uh Sierra brought this up where it's like it's not good or bad, it's just it's it's good or it's it's good or good good or something she said like that, or more good. Yeah, it's good or more good. And I'm like, that's true, that's true.

SPEAKER_00 20:09

It's good or it's more good, yeah.

unknown 20:12

Yeah, like that.

SPEAKER_01 20:13

It's a good way to look at things.

SPEAKER_00 20:14

It is a good way to do that.

SPEAKER_01 20:15

We just have stuff that happened in our daily life, whether it's like we're having financial challenges, we all have gone through this in our life. Every one of us at some point, most of us, unless we were a trust fund baby, but a lot of us have had financial pitfalls. Do we look at that as like sadness or an opportunity? So it's just how we frame these things, right?

SPEAKER_00 20:33

What would you say for people that I guess they're in they're in the system, you know, they're they're living in a city, yeah, they're working a nine to five, like they're kind of in it, and they're just like fuck it, like this doesn't feel right, like they know something's a little bit off. Where would like what would be like the first step for them that you would recommend?

SPEAKER_01 20:54

Yeah, so if if someone's feeling like stuck in the same monotonous loop of working a job they don't appreciate, they're around people that they don't necessarily vibe with and they're having challenges with their environment being so city developed instead of nature developed, I encourage people to utilize what they have in their hand every single day. Shift from consumerism to creation, right? And so this could be like do you really need more materialistic goods? Do you really need to consume more content? Do you really need another podcast? Do you really need to buy another book? Or do you just need presence and receiving in a way that's like, I already know what I need to know. Now it's time to create something with what I already know. So getting people in a creative mind, and what's the best way to do this? Content. Like what we're doing here, we're having a conversation, we're just sharing something. Start somewhere, like develop something through content. If you're good at music, create content on it. If you love nutrition, create content on it. It could be a lumberjack and you love trees, chopping them down.

SPEAKER_00 21:46

Like someone's wanna wants to watch it. My favorite stuff to watch is like cooking like food. Everyone knows how to cook.

SPEAKER_01 21:55

Yeah, it's great, right? You know what I mean? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:57

Wow, I love that. Let's talk about creation. Why why is creation important to you?

SPEAKER_01 22:02

Man, I mean uh uh sexual energy is creative life force energy, right? So it's not just based on like making the babies, it's based on how can we connect in to ourselves and uh create this level of um uh connection to the capital G God, channel it and then uh put it out into the world, whether it's through our throat and communication, or it's through our hands and art and crafts, or it's be through anything. But I think creativity is like the uh the the the the foundation to the human experience. We're meant with these hands, like they're literally meant to pick up things and do things with them. Yeah, like we're not like most we're not like any creature on the entire planet. Yeah, no one has opposable thumbs except for chimps, right? That's what they say. So like for that matter, like just like creativity is this channeling of something that feels uh deeply nourishing to your soul and putting it out into the world because you know if you withheld it within yourself, it's it's only doing injustice for people. Because it's doing injustice for yourself and it's limiting other people in the process because people could benefit from you. So it's actually a disservice to you and others to withhold something that you want to share. It could be about anything too.

SPEAKER_00 23:08

Yeah. I think that like I think as long as you start creating something and just starting with with something that you enjoy, like eventually you're gonna find your purpose. Like, I think that's probably the pathway to put it. Trial and error, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you it may not be the immediate thing.

SPEAKER_01 23:22

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:23

It might just you might go on a little bit further.

SPEAKER_01 23:25

It's likely won't be. It'll be like either three months for some people or three years. It could be anything, you know.

SPEAKER_00 23:30

But it's all learning, right?

SPEAKER_01 23:31

It is, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:32

You know, and you're gonna pick up some valuable resources along the way, you're gonna learn about yourself, you're gonna meet some interesting people, get in some cool rooms, get in some cool environments, yeah, see volcanoes in the distance, right? Yeah, yeah, totally. Oh my gosh, so good. So tell us a little bit about this retreat. Like, how did you find how did how did this come about?

SPEAKER_01 23:54

Yeah, yeah. Well, it all started with uh just two guys. Well, Dakota initially uh started bioculture. I met him in Costa Rica. He's my uh my homie that we began building this together. I met him at a Costa Rican retreat back in 2023, and then fast forward about six months, I moved to Saile to Mexico, and he was in the penthouse above me, and then I was on the bottom floor, and he had this hookup. I was like, I'm in Arkansas, and I had mold exposure and all this health stuff popping up while I was still coaching and building my business. And I was like, I could live anywhere in the world, right? Why am I still choosing Arkansas? I was looking on Zillow and all these like places to like find more houses to live with my two cats, and I was like, why am I doing this? Because I'm from St. Louis, Missouri, which is a five-hour drive uh south or uh north of Arkansas where I was at. I was like, fuck it, let's go to Mexico, you know. So I hit up Dakota and everything felt very natural. And then we started having a lot of powwows up and down, like having coffee in the morning, brainstorming things, making content, collaborating. And eventually he was on the third retreat, and I joined it as a creator because he was doing all the creator stuff because he's done a lot of uh you know marketing things with different influencers and whatnot. And I was one of them at the time, and I was like, dude, I'm all in on this. Let's do this, I'll help out and support this and like let's build this together. And he's like, Great. And so that's all she wrote. 25 retreats later, we're here in Guatemala now. Got this retreat center that fell in our laps from a multitude of synchronicities and people and connections that just led us into this path of San Marcos, and yeah, now we're growing this together, and ultimately the vision of this is just to continue bringing people together in a fun fashion, a playful fashion, a raw way, and um, you know, getting back to what we really want most, which is genuine social connection and real in the real real world, right? And I know you host retreats yourself, so you understand that so deeply, right? It's so powerful.

SPEAKER_00 25:36

Like 100%. I think retreats, the very first thing that I did, I think that kind of took me deeper into this world was a like Vedic meditation and breathwork retreat.

SPEAKER_02 25:47

Oh, really? Yeah, that's cool.

SPEAKER_00 25:48

I forgot about that. I forgot to tell you about that. Oh, I want to hear about that. Yeah, when you're like, what retreats do you go on? I'm like, ah, all these ones. And then like the other night, I was just like, shit, I did do two retreats before like at the start. But yeah, it was just like learning breath work and doing a lot of yoga and like eating, I think it was like vegan or something at the time.

SPEAKER_02 26:03

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:04

Yeah, I didn't love that. It like really messed with my tummy. Yeah, it was like a lot of flatbread, but I don't think that's vegan. I don't know. It was like vegetarian shit and flatbread, and I was like, Oh my god, I'm so fucking godstipated.

SPEAKER_01 26:13

Yeah, yeah. You're like, okay, time to make changes, intuition kicked in again.

SPEAKER_00 26:18

But yeah, it was like that was that was the start for me. And I've been to many different retreats, and this has been definitely like this has been one of the most unique, and I've taken so many cool things from it. Do you know what I mean? Like lots of things that I can kind of integrate back into my coaching world and my retreats as well, which has been so beautiful. But I had a massive fucking breakthrough at the end of that um last night's ceremony? No, today. Oh yeah, today at breath work.

SPEAKER_01 26:43

Oh, cool, cool, amazing. Yeah, this morning. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:45

I was like lying on the side, like, oh wow, I feel so emotional.

SPEAKER_01 26:48

It was so beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 26:49

Yeah. Did you see what everyone did for me?

SPEAKER_01 26:52

They were holding you.

SPEAKER_00 26:54

Yeah, someone was someone's like holding me and cuddling me. And then every like there might have been like maybe eight people in the room just like all sang to me, and I was just like balling, like all these men.

SPEAKER_01 27:05

That's so beautiful. I didn't catch that. It's so good.

SPEAKER_00 27:07

All these men just like sing it to me, and I'm just like bawling, like losing it. And then like Sky was also in there. Yeah. And then like they just like really let me ride the wave of like what my nervous system was was doing, like just this big release, and just let me like really come down. And I was just like, oh my gosh, like I felt God in that moment. No, yeah, and I think, oh, I'm gonna cry. It was like something I'll always remember. No, you know, yeah, like there are little moments in life um that I go back to when I need to feel good about something, and like that's gonna be one of them.

SPEAKER_01 27:39

Oh my love that's so sweet.

SPEAKER_00 27:41

Yeah, yeah, it was really beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 27:43

It's so profound having these, like the I'm gonna cherish so many of these little moments too. And like last night, so fun, connecting our hearts. Like these are just random people that we just meet four days ago, and somehow it's just like we can act like family and not even act be family. Yeah, it's like I'm so happy that happened. Yeah, it's like amazing these things that can open us up. And when we're open and receptive to it, like and letting receiving, like you were open to receiving, then what happens?

SPEAKER_00 28:09

So, like I had a voice literally say, Let the love in. Oh, and I like like really relaxed and like fully let it in.

SPEAKER_01 28:16

Yeah, it was so beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 28:19

I know it was so sweet, it was so precious. And then after um, Kev's like, Are you calling in a man? Because there's like a lot of men here right now, and I'm like, I am, he's so close. And I feel like so excited after.

SPEAKER_01 28:32

That's been a theme too. This retreat is a lot of um women and men. Like a lot of these guys here, we're all everyone's going through transitions and relationships, you know, and there's so many lessons in all those uh committed partners that we have or you know, lovers, and knowing that we always love them as we did in the beginning, but there's always shifts, and it's really interesting the the shifts in relationships that happen so rapidly, but also so slowly at the same time. And it teaches us so much. I think the the biggest spiritual journey for me has been really intimate relationships. Like it's been so profound. Like uh they also have the the level of um what's that quote? I think it's on like uh you think you're spiritually enlightened until you spend some more time with your family again or something like that. You go back to your family, like yeah. When I go back to my family, all the triggers come up again until you like really know you aren't activated or triggered by it. That's when you've worked through and established those things. So same could be said for a lot of activations and triggers and personal partners and doing your best to commit and vow yourself, but also at the same time, sometimes it just doesn't work. The vibration isn't there, that person's on a different path, you're on a different path, and learning to love that process is it can be very challenging at times and it can also be very fruitful. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:39

Can you just tell us a bit about your relationship with Luana because I think it's so beautiful. Yeah, I think like people listening in. I mean, I've been watching these guys and just like seeing that there was a moment, and it was actually me and Amber that saw this, by the way. We're standing by like the kitchen, and I think it was it was day one, and it was after you guys did that beautiful welcoming for all of us, and you guys sat down there. Oh, yeah, yeah, and you were just like holding each other and just I don't know what you were talking about, but Amber and I are just like, oh my god, look at him. Like, this is so beautiful, and we're like, we are we I'm like, that's for us. I'm like, you know, but I'm like, we could be anywhere else right now. I mean, we could be anywhere else in this friggin' house, anywhere else in the world, you know, and we're here and we're seeing this beautiful couple and we're watching it and being like, oh my god, this is so gorgeous. This is beautiful, right? So, yeah, how did you guys mate?

SPEAKER_01 30:29

Man, we actually met through bioculture retreats. So, um, here on this land, uh Luana's been coming off on and off uh Guatemala for many years, like six years, and she went to one of the festivals they had earlier in uh it was in December or so, about a year and a half ago, and she met actually some of my close friends that were a part of the bioculture team for a while. They followed each other on Instagram and whatnot. She started Luana started seeing content of them and like collaborations, saw my account, Dakotas, and like the bioculture team. She's like, that's interesting. They're in Mexico, because at the time we were hosting live retreats in Mexico on the beach and everything. And so she followed us and then she booked a call with uh one of our guys, put in a group chat, and then she reached out to me at one of these points with a very just like gentle, like just sweet message just saying, like, hey, I'm Luana, like I'm interested in learning more about bioculture and what you guys are doing. I might be traveling to Mexico here soon. I'm curious about what it's like over there. Let me know what it's all about. And then I responded with a voice note just saying, like, hey, Luana or Luana, what how do you spell your name? And just sent a voice note right away. I was like, She's beautiful, like her profile picture, checked her out on Instagram and everything. And so just started a conversation with her back and forth for a bit, and then just gave her a call. And she was in Brazil at the time, so she's like four hours ahead. It was like midnight for her and like 8 p.m. for me or something. And we spoke for like three hours. Wow. Yeah, it was like three hours straight, and just like had a beautiful synchronistic language, communication, and everything. And um, yeah, that's all she wrote. Like after that, she visited me in Mexico, and then she went to four of our retreats last year. Wow, and yeah, and so she got to see immersed in like all of it, and yeah, we traveled a lot last year, and we're just amazing travel best friends, and like she's just such an amazing best friend in my life. Like, we can share everything with one another and just open up our hearts in so many deep ways, so yeah, it's going fabulous for sure.

SPEAKER_00 32:08

Oh my god, it's so cute. I like saw you last night as well, like run over to her with a flower, just like give her a flower. And I'm like, I love these guys so much.

SPEAKER_01 32:16

So good, right?

SPEAKER_00 32:17

So sweet to see. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Okay, cool. Is there anything? Is it I mean, oh, actually, I did have a question. What kind of people come to these retreats?

SPEAKER_01 32:27

Yeah. A lot of people like the vibe here. A lot of people that are very much like they're not necessarily on like a super like healing path, like they're wanting to get like a bunch of healings. Some people are always trinkled in with that. There's always gonna be that. But it's a lot of um, I would say a lot of people that you could use the word quote unquote high level or performers, or people that are like they're they're building something, they're builders, they're people that want to come because they want to build, they want to play. So there's a certain archetype that comes through that's a bit more uh in the digester archetype. Like, you know, you meant Amber. She's a prime example of that. Just like a she's a weirdo and she embodies it and she loves it, right? So there's a lot of that archetype. There's also the I don't give a fuck energy. There's the people who are just getting started on their journey, they've been following me for a while because I have a you know a pretty big audience, and so connecting with those people, they're passionate about nature, all the things we're about, and they've had stories related to maybe overuse of pharmaceuticals back in the day, drugs to their family. Like we heard the stories, right? A lot of people in the sharing circle had a lot of challenges in their childhood, but they alchemized it into something great, so they can relate with the depths of things that relate to like challenges in health, and then it leads into more of the prosperous stuff. So a lot of those kind of archetypes, you know. So I guess if people uh it like I guess maybe even people that are just like explorers and curious, explorers in general, adventures, people it could they don't even have to be passionate about health, or they could be interested. There's a curiosity there here, yeah, yeah. Travelers, explorers, nomads, like create content creators, yeah, people there, business owners of any kind, a lot of entrepreneurs, a lot of people are getting started in entrepreneurship. So it's really interesting.

SPEAKER_00 33:57

Yeah, cool. So I and I guess if you're interested in just like primal living and hearing some like wolves in the background, perfect, perfect timing, then definitely come along. Like, definitely get get down here. Oh, yeah. Go on a bit of a vibe, go on a bit of a soul searching journey, or just like go exploring and then get your ass to Guatemala and hang out with these guys.

SPEAKER_01 34:19

And even just chilling at Maestra Valley, like this is it's a great place just to hang out. You can stay long-term residency and stuff. It doesn't have to be the retreat, but you can really get activated out here because it's it's pretty feral out here. We had the power guard a couple times because our solar, like it's cloudy, and so we're working with things, getting things in order. But you know, it's it's very primordial out here for for sure, as you probably noticed. It's like primal, but also very like we're taking care of things as best we can to keep people comfortable.

SPEAKER_00 34:43

It's beautiful. I think you guys got a really good balance going on with that, and also like um it's nice to it's nice for nature to kind of just take away some of you know the Wi-Fi every now. It's like God wants me to chill.

SPEAKER_01 34:57

Yeah, no Wi-Fi right now. It's just like see eye to eye with someone instead, you know. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 35:02

Oh, Christian, thanks so much for coming on. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 35:04

I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 35:05

Coming on the retreat.

SPEAKER_01 35:06

Thank you, there you go, there you go. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 35:08

Thanks for coming on the podcast.

SPEAKER_01 35:09

Well, this is a mini retreat, you know? Right. Exactly. It's a retreat, it's a treat for ourselves.

SPEAKER_00 35:14

Yeah, exactly. And thanks for having me this week as well. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 35:17

I appreciate you, Allie. Yay, heck yeah. There we go.