What If Your Symptoms Are Your Soul’s Curriculum

Doctors told Dr. Jonathan Locus Jr. he’d be on medication for life and on paper his career was thriving, but internally he was spiraling. That collision of success, depression, and a terrifying diagnosis sends him in the opposite direction of quick fixes: deep research into holistic healing, meditation, and the mind body spirit connection. What follows is one of the most intense stories we’ve hosted, a 24-day water fast guided by intention, reflection, and a willingness to face the hidden roots of pain.

We get specific about what fasting looked like in real life while working as a university vice president, how he built up to longer fasts, and why he now practices intermittent fasting as a steady baseline. Dr. J also shares the spiritual and psychological side: what surfaced during meditation, why forgiveness became non-negotiable, and how “find the lesson” reframed his entire healing journey. If you’re curious about autophagy, trauma-informed self-inquiry, or using stillness to hear your inner voice, this conversation delivers both meaning and mechanics.

Then we name a harder truth: the spiritual marketplace can be unsafe. We talk scams, why vulnerable seekers get targeted, and what real discernment looks like when there’s no universal accreditation for healers. That gap is exactly why he built Conscirise, a platform that vets practitioners and connects people to hypnosis, breathwork, sound therapy, meditation, fasting groups, and other supportive modalities. We also bridge science and spirituality through his work in psychometric research and behavior modeling, including a fascinating example of how bias can shape legal outcomes.

If you’ve been looking for grounded spiritual growth with practical tools, listen through the dream interpretation and active imagination segment and try it for yourself. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s navigating healing, and leave a review so more people can find the show. What part of your own journey needs a clearer lesson right now?

https://www.conscirise.com/

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Until the next time - stay gritty you badass! 

Transcript

Welcome And Defining Grit

Venessa 0:17

Today we welcome Dr. Jonathan Locus Jr. to squats and seances. Dr. J is a researcher and the founder of Conchi Rise, a platform for helping people heal and grow through community and self-awareness. After overcoming personal health challenges and people on the path to becoming a university president and serving as a vice president, he now guides conversations about awakening, purpose, and the deeper meaning behind work and life. His message blends science, spirit, and strategy to help others rise in the wholeness. Welcome, Dr. J.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Thank you. I appreciate the invite and thank you for everything that you're doing to just contribute to consciousness and provide this space. So thank you.

Venessa 1:09

Before we begin and learn all about your background and history, I have one specific question I really enjoy asking every first-time guest on the podcast. If you've listened to any of the podcasts, you'll know it's coming. And that is what does gritty mean to you?

SPEAKER_00 1:30

What does gritty mean to me? I would say what that means to me is really the ability to continue going, the ability to not stop, not give up. But I think there's also a a space to where you kind of look at it to see what you've done, to see okay, what are adjustments that can be made to then progress the next attempt?

Venessa 1:57

I love that. I think refinement. So to give a little context here, the Squats and Sciences podcast is all about exploring the intersections of mind, body, and spirit, the connection between our physiology, psychology, and spirituality. So can you provide us a little detail on your personal backstory?

From Academia To A Health Crisis

Venessa 2:20

How did you wind up where you're at today? What led you down your own path of self-actualization?

SPEAKER_00 2:29

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'll give I'll be as brief as possible and then let me know if we want to dig in a little bit more to some things. I would say for the most part, I I grew up in a very religious household. My father still to this day is a Pentecostal bishop. So very more kind of strict religious upbringing. As I really kind of went on and worked and progressed, I was really on a path of being a university president, which that path, you know, really you meet a lot of different people, opens you up to a lot of different things. And once I took this vice president position at Winona State University, which is in Minnesota, there were a few things that were converging. The first one was I had a health issue, and it was something that really kind of took me off balance, I would say, for the most part. I had just finished my PhD, I had just got this job in the Minnesota system, and things were looking awesome on the outside. And during that process of this health issue, where doctors pretty much said I had to be on medicine for the rest of my life, it was really, I would say, probably the worst experience. Like depression, like probably the lowest that I had ever been or ever experienced before. I was engaged at the time, already had a child, and we wanted to be able to have another child. And so I got to the point where I just started, you know, researching other ways in which people could go about healing themselves and already being interested in cultures. I consider myself to be like this, almost like an anthropologist, so they'll say. So I've always been interested in culture, but then how those cultures achieve higher levels of consciousness became very interesting to me. And as I started to research that and investigate that, I learned a lot of different things, which culminated too under a 24-day water fast with meditation and uncovered a lot of different things that had happened to me when I was a child that was linked to that health issue, forgave some folks, and then I ended up healing myself. But it was really, I would say, that path of understanding of how much information that kind of traditional medicine didn't have. And I think there was kind of this trust that a lot of us have that I I naively had going into it. But even then, parallel to that, when I did start to look at other mechanisms of healing, meeting folks who are not service to others oriented, people who just tried to scam me and take advantage of me. So I'm having all of this stuff happening. I'm reading different things. I'm also hanging out with the with indigenous people. That was part of my work. So I'm learning about their spiritual perspectives. And I come across the book, The Law of One. All of these things are happening. And that was really my path. And then a few pat a past life regression later, a life between life session. Yeah. Just really trying to understand who I am.

The 24-Day Water Fast Story

Venessa 5:28

I have so many questions. I cannot wait to get into this. So, first, I want to start with the water fast. 24 days on nothing but water.

SPEAKER_00 5:38

Correct.

Venessa 5:39

Okay. And was this something that you felt called to do? Did you have a guide or mentor suggest this to you? I'm guessing that this did not come out of the diagnosis playbook from Western Medicine. So yeah, can you set up the stage why do this? And what happened during that process?

SPEAKER_00 6:03

I started to, as I started to learn about like more holistic ways of healing, I started to look at a number of different things. And I had already been used to fasting from a, I would say from a religious context, but not necessarily more intentional. Even when we more were did more passive for religious, we would miss a few meals, but then we were kind of eating like that, either that evening or something like that. And then there was something I had read in the book, The Law of One, is that every experience that we have is linked to a lesson. So if there's an experience that we want to be able to progress through, if we can find the lesson, then that's the connection piece. So for me, that was like, ah, you know, that was the light bulb. It was like, okay, that's just a research question, right? Then if I can just research these things. So during a water fast, that was really the intention that was set to be able to understand the meaning of why I had my health street, and I'll share it.

Venessa 7:07

Please, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

But one of the things that I was going through was I had had herpes, which you the kind that you cannot get rid of.

SPEAKER_02 7:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:13

I was like in that process of fasting, it took me back to when I was a child, I was 10 years old. I was sexually molested by older women. And I that was something that I knew, of course, I knew it happened, but I never connected of me being introduced to a high vibration of subject like sex in a lower vibrational manner. It was done in a very sneaky manner, just in a very kind of negative way.

SPEAKER_02 7:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:43

I had to forgive those people who did that, forgive myself for people, for things that I did, lies that I told. And then that was all these things were uncovered during the fast. Uh, another thing that I would say that I experienced was a level of connectivity that I've never really experienced before. Like, I mean, I felt connected to everything. Like I felt like a connection to plant life, uh, animals more than than ever before. And then the last part is just kind of on a physical body point, because I understand the spiritual physical connection, right? On the physical sense, you know, when you fast, the body starts to consume itself. And the first thing to go are the things that are no longer needed. So as it's consuming things with intention, I had to set them forth the intention to find out why I had acquired herpes, what was the reason, what was the rationale, how can I go about healing myself? And then also directing that to that with folded up food for just greater connection and greater understanding and forgiveness. So all of those things kind of came together. But I could say after I finished the fast and tested, I had already set in my mind that my wife and I were going to have another child, that I was gonna heal myself. And I was already prepared to do the full 40 days. I was already doing research on the full 40-day fast and what that meant because it was difficult because I was a vice president. So I'm getting invited to lunches and dinners, and everybody's like, What you gonna eat? And I'm having to tell people, like, yeah, I'm fasting. They're like, You're not Muslim as a Ramadan, just all these different things that you don't necessarily think about on a consistent basis that you have to deal with when you're going to these bank quads, stuff like that. So it was something that really was an adjustment, but the outcome of that was that I really knew at that point that what the mind points itself to, the body will follow. And any question you ask yourself with patience, with time, with intention and will, you'll get an answer. That's just that you'll get an answer, you can figure it out and you can heal. So that was the thing that really came together with my fasting. It's something that I intermittently fast pretty much on a daily basis. Now I typically don't eat until dinner time, but then at the end of each month, I do like three to five days at the end of every month, and I do that as just more of a cleanse. The last thing I'll say was the reason I started doing that. One of my mentors, who was the first person who even told me like what a past life regression was, and was one of my research mentors. He is in his 70s and he still looks like Chuck Norris. Like he was like one of my mentors, but he does this fast, he's been doing this fast since he was my first research. I was his first research intern when I was a shopler in college. He's been doing this and no health issues. Like I was at his daughter's wedding, he was at my 40th birthday party, and still looks as I said. So just seeing that, like the impact there of what a continuous and consistent fast kind of reset looks like for people.

Daily Intermittent Fasting In Real Life

Venessa 10:57

I'm also a nutritionist, and so I like to tap into sort of the that side of things too. Are you OMAD one meal a day, or are you more of an intermittent fast, like 16, 8? What does that look like for you daily?

SPEAKER_00 11:10

So I'll do like water and then I'll do non-caffeinated green tea. And I'll have water, at least a gallon, gallon and a half of water a day, and I'll do dinner with my family. I do that pretty much on a consistent basis. Weekends, maybe a Saturday, maybe be a little different if we decide we're going to the grill or something. But mainly what I found was like intermittently, intermittent fasting work for me, especially if I had like speaking engagements. I wouldn't eat beforehand because I could feel a little sick. So I just felt like I'm I always felt a little sharper not eating. And then, too, you know, I learned from a lot of the indigenous people about how we used to eat. And we didn't used to eat these what we would just kind of have these short meals. So I've kind of thought about these mechanisms of how we've been psychologically trained to do certain things of just eating in these patterns. So, but that's how I've mixed it up. We typically eat around six o'clock in the evening, and that'll be my first, typically my first meal.

Venessa 12:04

Okay. Yeah, I know it does wonderful things, especially with autophagy and cell renewal and all of that. So it's really interesting to talk to somebody that practices it. I have had periods of my life where I have definitely practiced the intermittent fasting. Was there a reason that you picked 24 days for the water fast, or did you intend to go that long, or was that like I made it that far and then I needed to stop?

SPEAKER_00 12:28

Yeah, you know, that's a really good question. So while I was doing it, and I had actually kind of worked my way up to that. So I had did like a seven before that, I did like a 10, then I did like a 14, then I was like, okay, because it's pretty much it for me, after I get past like day three, it pretty much all becomes the same. So if that's what I have found, like kind of just doing these kind of small tests. Uh once while I was fasting, I was also meditating to know when I needed to be done. I kind of knew that I was going to go at least 20 days. I think it was a response from from the meditation of for uh understanding to know like kind of when's enough. And then plus, I was still like I was still working out.

SPEAKER_02 13:14

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 13:14

I was still in workers. So I had lost a ton, like I was making like 160 pounds. So some of my friends are like, Are you okay? Like, I'm like, no, I'm just it'll come back. I'm good.

Venessa 13:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:25

Yeah. So yeah, that was that whole process, but it was just me kind of just meditating and asking for understanding of when will be an appropriate time of when my body had reached that point of healing that I have been seeking.

Venessa 13:37

I love that you mentioned meditation, whether I'm talking to CrossFit Games athletes, or I'm talking to CEOs of companies, people that work in uh drug and alcohol rehab. Everybody meditates. And that is the gateway to finding your inner voice, connecting to the source, to the spirit, to God, whatever you want to call the universal energy force that everybody comes from. I love that you said that. And as soon as you said meditation, it's always this affirmation of yes, this individual is what I was supposed to talk to. We're all finding the same information. So we did this 24-day water fast essentially reconnected to source, reconnected to yourself, healed. And what did you learn during this process?

Discernment When Healers Exploit

Venessa 14:34

What happened in that light that made you aware that maybe not everybody had your best interest, even those working under the label of healing, right?

SPEAKER_00 14:48

Yeah, so that's a really good question. So it was really at that point to where, again, when you're going through certain things, like I mentioned, I was very upset. I'm always careful with language about trying to, you know, do act outside of my expertise. But as far as I could tell you, I could tell you how I was feeling, you know, like how I was legitimately feeling. So, you know, I think a lot of times when we are in these spaces, our guards are maybe down a little bit more than normally they would be. So as I started just coming across and looking at other practitioners in regards to holistic medicine, healing, and these different things, or even like in regards to psychics and things like that, like what these things mean. I really just saw that there was really no way in which I could see if these folks were true, real service to others, or any because the first few were just, you know, well, first off, you know, I think a lot of these things that we pick up on once we become more susceptible to energy, we kind of can tell when the vibes may be a little off. But I know when I was first better understanding my intuition, I would get like a spider sense, but a lot of times I would just ignore it because I'll be like, you know, that's crazy.

Venessa 16:05

I don't know. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:07

Like I saw a few times as I started trying to work with these individuals, it will be things that they will be asking me to do that would be not in alignment with any type of philosophical or theological premise. Because I'm a person, I mean, so I'm like, I understand like shit. Yeah, so it's like especially and again. I'm coming from being very, very heavily religious. That's not even a word, but I just made it up.

Venessa 16:39

So I was raised in the same sort of situation when you walk away from organized religion in a sense to find what path works for you. You you I think it comes with a level of, I don't want to say skepticism. You just you do your research, right? Like you don't just buy into something because somebody tells you so.

SPEAKER_00 16:59

So I found that a lot of the folks that I would be talking to, like not being able to answer those types of questions. And not in regards to because I understand, like, even someone like you're doing rapey or something like that, I understand like that is coming through up first. So I always get like even with conceivers, we do like a five-step vetting process for practitioners. So it's like I get like the people being able to do spiritual and beautiful work, but that was a thing that I went into it with thinking that there was a lot more credibility than these things would have, especially when I worked in higher education, I worked on accreditation, so we would be a part of going to make sure the different institutions were doing the things they were supposed to do in accordance with accreditation, or even with the health industry, you have the joint commission. So knowing these different processes that exist to keep consumers safe, I went in naively thinking that this existed in that regard. And then went on to see that because there's nothing like that, there's there's people being scared. Just in lawsuits, there's been over eight million people scammed out of over a billion dollars, and that's just in lawsuits. So I noticed how big of a problem that became this thing of people going through something, seeking something outside of something that may be new to them, and then there not being a mechanism that connects them with trust, and then people take advantage of that.

Venessa 18:19

Yes, and you're spot on about all of that. There was a gentleman I was speaking with last week who we just talked about this in regards to plant medicine and the use of it in sacred ceremonies, and needing to find somebody that had a lineage. And I asked him in that interview, I said, is there something that exists where there was a directory or there was some sort of vetting process so that some conscious consumer could go and find a reputable help and not just someone with a YouTube channel, not just somebody that sells themselves really well on a Zoom call on this platform. Everybody's selling something more or less, whether they're selling themselves or they're selling an idea or they're selling an ideology. I have to listen and lean very heavily on my intuitive feeling about an individual as well. Because sometimes it can be easy for someone that presents one way and then I sit with it and I'm meditating and I'm like, something just doesn't feel right. I put together questions before I talk to every individual. I do my work, make sure everything looks good. And I am trying to do that vetting process so that the listeners know the people I talk to are

Building Conscirise And Vetting Practitioners

Venessa 19:28

legitimate. So let's transition into talking about this platform that you created that.

SPEAKER_00 19:33

Yeah. So it was really during my process of going through a health challenge or going through an issue and just looking for, first off, knowing what's available. Like if I would have known possibly that past life regressions were available and hypnosis is something that you could actually utilize for your flexible spending account. A lot of these things just aren't null, right? It's education. So for me, it became a way to say, okay, what are the the ways in which we can have a process that we can vet all of our practitioners and to really figure out, like, okay, what is a detailed process? So our goal is not at all to have like the most practitioners, but to have the practitioners who we feel are that are service to others oriented that are really at the top and expertise of what they're doing. So they go through two interviews with myself and the person we have over practitioner relations. We do a background check, we verify all of their certifications and things like that. We have them upload copies of them. So everything that all of that accreditation stuff that I was doing in higher education, we put forth the team the platform as far as vetting our practitioners.

Venessa 20:49

I love that. So on this platform, do members pay or do the people that want to get listed pay? How does that work?

SPEAKER_00 20:58

So we allow like our practitioners who are on there that are on there for absolutely free. So we don't charge them anything to be on our platform. As the services come through, we take 15% of what the practitioners actually break through from our platform. So that's how we've been doing it. We have practitioners like monk shamans, for example. So, you know, the monk community who practice some that practice Christianity, but some that practice shamanism. So we have monk shamans, but we've really been focusing on those modalities that are like well researched that are kind of already in the hospital system or available. So whether like hypnosis, music, sound therapy, meditation, breath work, those have been like the services we've been really focusing on. We also have different communities that people can be a part of. So we have free events that are for everybody where they can come. And then, as well as we just started our different memberships. So people can come and have like a we have a $20 meeting. Membership all the way to more of a concierge plan. For $20, you're able to join all of our fasting experiences. We have a fasting experience at the end of every month where we have community check-ins and a community middle at the end of our fast. It's a really good way to fast with people if you're new to fasting. It also includes some sound experiences, extra stuff with practitioners. So we have different kinds of structure packages for folks that, if they want to be able to grow, a more trajectory of growth is more of a concierge type space for folks who may say, I want to be able to tackle a number of different things, but want something that is more structured but more on call. So these are folks who may want to be dealing with the practitioner weekly, where we'll basically design a survey to figure out what it is they want, what their preferences are. We'll give them the option of three to five different practitioners, and then they can decide which practitioner they want to deal with or if they want a combination of different ones. That way we approach it almost as a more executive conscious leadership board that can be able to help you on your particular journey for folks from all different types of modalities of expertise.

Venessa 23:08

What a brilliant idea. I know Crunchyers Management is popular, but to take this spin on it and create it in the holistic and the spirituality side a little bit more. Sounds like you have hypnosis. I'm assuming you have past life regression work on theirs. It sounds like that that's something that's really served you well. Meditation, breath work, sound healing. Is it limited by location? Is it mainly in your direct area? What is the geographic area that it covers?

SPEAKER_00 23:37

Yeah, thank you for saying that. So we have 35 practitioners. The majority of those practitioners, so 30 of those practitioners are in the US. The rest of those are overseas. So we have a few in India. We have like uh a front therapist in New Zealand. She leads some of our retired from the New Zealand Symphony, and she goes to ICUs and plays for people who are in Thomas, and she's doing that work. Beautiful heart therapist. So this regardless of location, where we make sure that the practitioners that can do things can actually do things online. Even now, I would say something that is more new that we're growing, that is growing when we see a mechanism. Because for us, and I'll say this on here, and you'll get this because this is a spiritual podcast. But like as I look at constant rise and the goal, we look at as the vibrations increase, what are ways that we can insert spirituality into specific processes to elevate that process, to elevate that to the next level of where we're going? So a lot of the things that we're looking to do is to provide like education, access, and then experiences for folks. And last thing I'll say before I turn it over, you mentioned part of it this season being about authenticity. So the services that are being offered are all things that I've experienced to help me on my past. The fasting, right? We got a monthly fast, hypnosis, my past life regression is being a white porn farmer or being indigenous before that. Like those experiences, hypnosis, meditation, I say, has been huge for me. And even silent music therapy, like that's something that I utilize on a consistent basis. So it's all been things that I've been rooted in, and kind of on my path of authenticity, but it's also parallel with services and things that we see a benefit to be able to share with people and educate. And then the last one is animal communication. We've been seeing a kind of an uptick on folks who may want to communicate with a previous animal or current animal. There are a few people who are doing that work that we're gonna be looking to not only let that be one of our core focuses, because we see some strategy to be able to do that, but also we see that as a way to be able to introduce, maybe introduce people to spirituality because of the love we know folks have for their pets, the love that I have for our dog or the two frogs that I have for 10 years. So also animal communication too.

Venessa 26:06

Are you still at the university as well, or is this your full-time gig now?

SPEAKER_00 26:12

Yes, it's my full-time. So I still teach a class, strategic communications, which is a master's level class. I teach that every semester to keep my relationship with the Minnesota system. It's about 80% of what I do. And as that's growing, it's still in startup mode, but it's growing. On the other end of that, I have a research company that I sell research, and then that's what funds my family life, and then even funds the growth that Constitution Rise is having.

Venessa 26:44

Yeah. Wow. Oh, this is such a neat, neat

Psychometrics And How Bias Shapes Decisions

Venessa 26:47

story. It's a little bit of a segue, I think, but still related. Your background in psychometric research, you said you have this research company and behavior modeling. I'm guessing that's what you're referring to. I loved this question from how do science and spirituality actually complement each other in human transformation and as it relates to that. So, could you talk about what is psychometric research and specifically what is the behavior modeling that you're working in?

SPEAKER_00 27:15

Okay, thank you. So, this was when I mentioned at the beginning, the gentleman who first told me about the past life regression, and I started doing market research. These are things that fortunately, because of him, I access to like my sophomore year of college, and we were running sentiment analysis to be able to sway certain populations to vote a certain way. I mean, even though this stuff wasn't possible. Psychometric research is really looking at psychometric to brain and things like that, and be able to understand what are the particular circumstances and habits that will get a person to act a certain way. And there's ways that you can be able to work, there's ways that you can be able to research that. Now, there are certain ways that we can measure that. And I could give examples in regards to when we utilize it in regards to jury outcome prediction. So let's say we're predicting a jury outcome. Each case that we're working on is going to have a minimum of 10 variables that we're measuring. So we're going to be measuring the, if we're looking at the jury pool, we're going to be measuring their political affiliation, right? Whether they're, we're going to be measuring their occupation, their religion, all of these different things, but we then break it down to the point to let's say if you identify as Christian, we're going to break subcategories to the specific Bible you read. So you may read King James Version, you may read the New International Version. So we can get very specific to understand not only why a person would make a decision, but what will be that driving force of experiences they've had that would go a certain way. And these are all things that you can provide a measurement to, provide a numeric value to, and then you can do quantitative analysis to then be able to really understand the probability of certain things being said or not said.

Venessa 29:17

Wow. Do you use AI in this as well?

SPEAKER_00 29:20

Now, yes. Before, no, like it was all like I'll say, like my mentor, he knows like he knows these equations in his head. So he's putting these equations into Excel, doing these equations. But now with AI, the thing is about really research design. Like, how can you design it, design something to be able to get a particular outcome? And what's great about it is which I really enjoyed is, and I'll give you an example. We had a case where there was a bank that was being sued. So a lot of times, depending on the circumstances, we don't know who we're working for. So we don't know whether it's the planet for it to defend it that way. It's a it is a true blind analysis. Because I'm looking, we're looking at these specific case information, and I see, and there was no video for this one. So I'm looking at these transcripts, but I noticed that it's a female banking attorney. And then just kind of knowing the demographics of that case and that county, I just know there's not many female banking attorneys in that county, probably none. And that person is not from there. So I started just thinking about my experience and these different things. So I was curious as to what the woman looked like. So they sent over a picture, and let me say before I say this, this woman was brilliant, like probably the smartest person at that moment. Okay, brilliant. But the woman honestly looked like Mrs. Claus, like in regards to facial features. From the picture, the hypothesis was she may not physically fit the profile of what people believe a banking attorney looks like. So I know I may unit times may not feel like I fit the profile of what a PhD researcher looks like. So just knowing that people get treated a lot of times based on other people's biases, the question becomes then what does a banking attorney look like? Specifically, what does a banking attorney look like in correlation to the demographics I discussed earlier of the current jury pool? Because this case was already going on. So we were able to then get what these basically these physical demographics of what people thought a banking attorney would look like. And we got responses like tall, white male, pinstriped suit, cul-de-sac hairstyle, you know, bald with the hair on the side. So we basically ended up, we basically when we once we got to the point where we presented our research, that's a lot of times we'll meet who it is we're working for, and they can ask questions like, How did you all figure this stuff out? So they thought it was brilliant, and they're like, okay, what we're gonna do is we're gonna keep her working on the case, but keep her in the background and put the guys who look like that at the front of the case. And they kind of say that, like, we're gonna take your advice. And I'm like, well, first off, I didn't suggest that. I'm like, because that's just perpetuation of a false stereotype. So what needs to be done is, and then I'm like, plus, you're gonna have other problems if you just try to explain it that to her. There's no way that you can logically explain that, and that makes somebody feel good. So I'm like, you need to keep her at the front of the case, but get like 10 or 11 of the white guys who look like that, let them bring books and briefcases and just pass paperwork back and forth. That way, we kind of just provide theater Rebrani. And after about two years, they close that case up in about two and a half months after that.

Venessa 32:34

That is incredible. I had no idea. Is this the work you're still doing then?

SPEAKER_00 32:42

I'll do stuff like that, also do stuff with education as well, higher education. I like education better because talking to attorneys all the time is not necessarily my favorite.

Venessa 32:51

And imagine why not.

SPEAKER_00 32:53

So it has been a way for me to be able to. What I've learned is there are biases in these systems. I look at me being able to be of help and be of service to correct some of these wrongs. But yeah, it's fun and I learn a lot, and it keeps me understanding how culture moves and culture changes and things like that.

Venessa 33:11

That's fascinating. I had no idea that was even a thing, and I absolutely enjoyed that. Thank you for sharing.

Reconciling Evangelical Roots With Spirituality

Venessa 33:17

I had a question, and it might be a little bit personal, but I do want to ask it. You mentioned growing up in a very evangelical religious household, and I did as well. So I really relate to that. But then I know also that spirituality can be a personal path and it's ever-changing. And you've probably stepped outside of some of the boxes or labels that you were raised in in terms of traditional religion. How did you bring those things together or did you not? And what did your family think about all that?

SPEAKER_00 33:51

Yeah, that's so I would say the way I've kind of brought it together was I really realized, I would say, after first reading Journey of Souls, after going through hypnosis a few times, that we're all on a path, and we reincarnate in these different bodies and things to have particular experiences for particular lessons. So there's certain lessons that I've kind of just came away with that people are that are on their learning path, and there's some that intersect with mine, and there's some where they go opposite ways. And so going into it, I'm okay with that, with that being a foundation. I would say, in regards to the religious aspect, I also realize that from doing research, after something gets interpreted and passed down and passed down and passed down, traditions get added. Well, things that get just get added on because somebody liked it that didn't really make any sense become tradition. So there's certain things that once you get the whole gamut, you start to be able to, there's not a lot of correlation. You when you start to kind of pull back some of the layers. So I looked at it that way was you know, the Bible actually said kind of one thing, and there was a certain way it was interpreted in our church that had cultural and racial and all of these different overlays that I know impacted what I was receiving. And so I understand that. The second thing I would say, even after I did how they've been able to come together, pretty much my my family all know where I'm at now. Because I'm I'm not a person I don't like feeling uncomfortable. I never really liked feeling uncomfortable. And I'm not gonna be going to the family function feeling uncomfortable. And my kids are not gonna be feeling uncomfortable, you know? So, not that I don't think uncomfortable is for growth, but I'm gonna be sure that people at least know where I stand. I like guidelines and guard rims. So I would say that the one thing that really kind of solidified that after I finished my past life regression, my first session under hypnosis, on the way back, I had about a two-hour drive. So I had a nice kind of while to think about it. But while I was on the way back, I was like, you know what, I'm gonna actually call my dad right now. Because if I wait, I probably may not do it. Right now I was so raw. I I figured the longer I waited, that rawness may deteriorate. And which would then impact the message, the wording, the intention, all of these different things. On the way back, I basically shared the shared the experience, kind of shared everything that happened during that experience. And one of my things my dad said was just like, you know, you know, I don't, I don't really believe in any of this stuff, but you know, you went through it, you know, what did you learn from this? Like, what is this whole thing that you you've learned? And I was like, you know, one of the things that I did learn was the value of communication, which is why I'm even calling you now. Because I had an entire life as a corn farmer with no family, no friends. I didn't even have a funeral. Like, no people didn't even know I died. So that's how lonely that life was. So I understand that even through conflict, conflict allows a level of feedback loops for greater levels of understanding, empathy, and so forth. And not necessarily having that in that life, and maybe opportunity, but having an opportunity in this life. So I explained that to my dad, and he thought that was pretty cool. He said it made sense. He said that actually made sense about the communication thing. And then he said that even though we're not doing the same thing, the outputs, this is not how he said it, but I'm I'm just kind of shorting it out. Basically, the outputs, the outputs of my life are the same outputs that he would expect of any religious Christian man. So since those outputs are the are the same, I'm taking care of my family, I'm married, and all of these different things, then he cares about output. So that's kind of where where we left it to be able to find our middle ground.

Venessa 38:32

I love to hear that because that's always the danger, right? Or the fear, I feel like, in speaking your authentic voice is to say, I know we don't have the same belief system, but I love you, I respect you. Here's mine. And to have somebody say, Okay, well, I don't get it, but I accept it, and you do you, and I do me, and we're on the same, we're on different fields, but we're playing the same game. And that's awesome. Oh, I love that.

SPEAKER_00 38:59

The thing that he really couldn't digest was I was able to talk about specific people in that life that he knows in this life, and the purpose they the purpose they served in that life, the lesson, and he couldn't, he thought that was really. I'm how do you say it? I don't remember how he said it, but he was like, Wow, I don't know what to say about this.

Venessa 39:23

I mean, it's some powerful stuff out there when you really get into any of that kind of work, tapping into subconscious past life regressions. I believe what you were describing earlier. I have also described as soul contracts, these ideas that things keep coming up in lifetimes that you just keep repeating the same lesson over and over again until your soul, which carries through all of these different lifetimes, and finally it gets it or it meets that particular need in that one lifetime, and then something else that comes up for the next. So fascinating stuff.

Key Takeaways On Fasting And Dreams

Venessa 40:01

Okay, I think what I would like to ask about next and sort of last around the full circle is that since this is the second season, it is all about the choices that we make to elevate our experiences in this particular lifetime that we're experiencing. If you were to choose one of the main things that we've talked about so far today, and we've covered a lot of ground, that you would recommend for listeners is sort of this is a key takeaway. When you think of Dr. J in this conversation, think of this, what would it be?

SPEAKER_00 40:38

Oh man, that's a really good question. I would say fasting, no matter where you start, is going to benefit you, especially if you're doing it with an intention. So do that. And the second part I would say is if you're trying to figure out like where to start on your spiritual path, and let's say you're having dreams and you're not, let's say, taking your dream seriously, you're doing yourself a disservice because our unconscious, right? So we would know like there's a veil between our unconscious and our conscious self, right? But through dreams and active imagination, this is, you know, Carl Young talks about a lot of these things, is the way our unconscious can communicate through dreams, right? And there's a process that we can do to interpret our dreams, or through the process of active imagination, right? And then that starts on the process of then being able to integrate specific parts of yourself that may be showing up in particular ways where you'd be like, man, I don't know why I act out, acting out in that way. I mean, I can give specific examples of how these integrations start to help. I mean, I did an active imagination before this because there's active imagination, and this is for your viewers, of course, like active imagination allows a way for you to consciously and actively communicate with your unconscious, while in the dream state, right? You have to wake up, remember your dream, try to write them down. It's like imagination allows the process of being able to do that. So you you may be a person that said, you know what, I really don't want to do the journaling thing, which I like journaling, so journalists great, but you must say I don't really like journaling. If you want to start somewhere, I would start with trying to understand dream interpretation, understanding what your dreams mean, and then active imagination and a pretty a quick process of acting imagination, being able to have some type of thing that you do before you go into going to that state of communication with the unconscious. So for me, what is it for you? I have a bracelet that I put on, and I have a crystal. Yep. So these are the two things that what a crystal is that what you're doing. Yeah, so this is actually I actually saw something like this and talked to something like this in my enacted imagination, so it's a reminder. These are things that basically is indicator to your unconscious that you're getting ready to enter into conversation. And then when I'm done, I take them off. But let's say you're you're having an issue, for example, with either you're feeling lonely, and let's say you're just feeling lonely. So, what you could do is you can go into a state where you just kind of tell your unconscious you want to talk to them, have something, whether it's a robe, a hat that you put on that signifies you're going in to have that conversation, and then just open up because you're doing act of imagination and you're typing or you're writing, just start typing what you say, but you want to come vulnerable to say, look, I'm here. This is what I'm experiencing. I'm open up to for you to say whatever it is you want to say. And then that feeling of sadness, start to put a personality on it, and it will communicate with you. You'll start to hear it started to say certain things and to be able to understand where that feeling of loneliness is coming from. But what are ways that you all can find Find a balance so that doesn't come up to when that feeling of loneliness doesn't come up, that can negatively impact your day. Dream interpretation, um, active imagination, know the things to be able to just start the communication with your unconscious to start really blending the unconscious and conscious self. And I guarantee you start doing that, you'll start to feel more unified.

Venessa 44:24

Yes. Oh, absolutely. It is a form of meditation. It's talking to yourself with an open mind. It is almost reminiscent of like internal family systems, which you're probably familiar with as well. Love that. Are you good at dream interpretation? Is that a little niche for you? Do you know a thing or two?

SPEAKER_00 44:44

Yes, I know some. So actually, for I did it a few times, and I can go through the process, but I was going on TikTok sometimes like coming people with their dreams.

Dream Interpretation And Active Imagination Demo

Venessa 44:53

I have the most random dream. I'm gonna ask you if you don't know, it's okay. Um I often have certain animals come to me in my dream that I've never seen before. My dreams I am a very, I don't think it's lucid because I'm not aware that I'm dreaming per se, but I have like my dreams are intense and they make no logical sense, but they're always very meaningful when I wake up and I think about them. So in this particular dream, I was in a space and there was this majestic and terrifying large gray, dark gray timber wolf on the other side of this enclosure. And we're talking fur, it was so dark, it was almost black, which is beautiful. And I saw it and my heart skipped a beat, and I was instantly glued in place and terrified, which was weird for me because I love animals, and my natural reaction isn't fear, but this guy was like something, and it it got out of its enclosure, it came at me, and I stood there and I'm like, it's gonna attack me, and it did, and it bit me on the right hand right here between the thumb and the index finger, and it sank its incisors into my hand and it didn't let go, it just bit down and it just held me and I couldn't move, and it couldn't move or it wouldn't move. And we were like in the standoff in my dream, and I woke up and I thought that is the most bizarre change.

SPEAKER_00 46:25

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I always say one of the things that it starts with the environment. One of the things that Carl Young talks about is the environment, and who owns the environment that you're in? What's the energy of that environment? So I know you said it was like an enclosure. So was it like a zoo?

SPEAKER_02 46:41

Was it like a public space?

SPEAKER_00 46:43

Okay, so that's interesting. So typically, like public spaces and things like that then are associated with certain types of energy. So you would then be able to the sort of process for your listeners that way they at least know as far as the dream interpretation, you start with the association. So everything she said in her dream, you will write that down and then go through very quickly to be able to say what are things that come off at the top of my head. So you mentioned gray being the color, you may think of I'm feeling gray today, and gray is the color of my car, all these different things, and you write those out, then you will go through each of one to say which one of those feel like they resonate. And which those feel like you resonate, then you go through the next step, which is dynamics, and then talk about how they are then showing up in your life at that particular time. So if it's gray, how gray may be showing up in your life, all these different things, and then after you have a I mean, it takes a you write out a lot, and after you get that, you get to the point of where you then have a meaning. But for you, I would say what find what I find interesting is for one, is binding you in your hand opposed your right hand, opposed to like your your left hand, or opposed to to your leg, or so it's I guess my my first kind of question would be I don't know if there's either something that dreams could be something that is either currently happening that could change that could help to change your perspective, or there's dreams that they talk about that could be more foreshadowing dreams, dreams that could be talking about something. So there may be it may be talking about something that could be maybe coming up in your life that you may you may either want to take action on because not taking action on that could lead to I don't know, I don't could lead to something like that, but I'll give an example they give about a future dream. So there was this one guy in the book, he had a dream that he was driving, he had a new car, and he was driving his new car downtown, and he drove it straight into this corporate building. Oh, and he woke up. And one of the things that he ended up finding out during the dream was for one, he had been applying for jobs, so it was more foreshadowing that he was going to get gonna get a job, but it was basically leading to he was going to have an ego crash because of the ego. So it was more of a forewarn, more of a forewarning type dream for him in regards to an ego crash that was coming, if he didn't start to then be able to change certain certain things. And he then, because of that dream, he was doing interpretation, he started to see like his basically having an administrative assistant and how he started treating that administrative assistant because he never had an administrative assistant before. But going through specific things of how it was played for certain parts in his in his in that light, but it was more of a dream that was more foreshadowing.

Venessa 49:26

Yeah, well, if I figure it out, I will email you. No, let me know. I intuitively I feel that it was foreshadowing for something. I'm just not sure what yet, but it was interesting. So I figured I would have to mention it.

SPEAKER_00 49:40

And one thing I'll say lastly, they do talk about this in the book and specifically for you. They talk about if you have a dream that you want to be able to figure out, then go into active imagination, go exactly where you ended off in your dream, and then I would start to communicate with the telepathic communicate being and say, like, why is it that you bit me? And you'll get a response. So they talk about that being another way. If your dream ends where there's a point you don't understand, going into active imagination at the last point of that dream and continuing the conversation.

Venessa 50:14

I am gonna do exactly that. Thank you. I would not have even thought to do it.

Where To Find Dr. J And Conscirise

Venessa 50:20

Thank you so much, Dr. J. Before we end, where can people go to learn more about your platform and what you're doing to help raise the collective consciousness? Where would you like them to go?

SPEAKER_00 50:32

Absolutely. So you can go to our website, that's c o N S C I R I S C dot com. From there, you could sign up for a membership. You can join the community for free. We have a number of different things that you can be able to do for free. Or if you want something out that's more structured, we got something for you too. Also, if you want to follow me personally, I'm on TikTok and Instagram at J-L-O-C-U-S-T-J-R. That's J Locus Jr. And also on LinkedIn and Facebook. You just type in my name, I'll pop up. I love talking about this stuff. So if you're in a talk about these things, let me know if you have any practitioners. If you're wanting to be on Concierizer as a platform, would love to be able to interview you and see if we're a good fit for each other. Synergies aligned. Awesome.

Venessa 51:15

Awesome. Thank you so much, Dr. J. It's been a pleasure. And I really appreciated having you on the show today.

SPEAKER_00 51:22

Oh, it's been my absolute pleasure. Thank you so much. And again, wonderful questions, and thank you for providing this space for consciousness to live and to

Closing Message And Listener Invitation

SPEAKER_00 51:31

grow.

Venessa 51:31

You're welcome. In closing, I want to offer a reminder that your voice matters. And I would love to connect with you. If you feel called to contribute to this community, please reach out. You can email topic ideas, suggestions for interviews and feedback to Vanessa at squats and seances.com. That's Vanessa with an E, V E N E S S A at Squats and Seances. You can find new episodes of Squats and Seances on all major podcast platforms and the adjacent vlogcast on my YouTube channel. Find and follow me on social media at squats and seances. I'm on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. Until the next time, may you continue to live well, embrace authenticity, question everything, and of course, stay gritty.