Open Heart with Lu Leslan

Demons in Ourselves

• Lu Leslan • Season 3 • Episode 1

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EPISODE 1 — DEMONS IN OURSELVES SHOW NOTES

We all carry something dark. Something inherited. Something we didn't choose.

This episode asks the hardest questions:

  • Where do our demons come from — our genes or our experience?
  • Why do our closest relationships bring out our sharpest edges?
  • Is there honor when survival is at stake?
  • What does a collective demon look like across 8 billion humans?
  • Can we kill the demon — or do we need it to survive?

THE EPISODE IN ONE LINE:

The demon isn't our enemy. It is the part of us that hasn't been listened to yet.

IN THIS EPISODE:

  • The inheritance of darkness — genes, memory, and the faces we carry
  • Relationships as mirrors — uncomfortable to be comfortable
  • There is no honor in hunger
  • 120 million displaced people — the collective demon of humanity
  • Emptiness, suffering, impermanence — seeds for future episodes

NEXT EPISODE: State of Mind — Transient yet powerful. No clues for where it is heading or where it will land.

SHARE YOUR STORY: lu@leslancreativestudio.com

CONNECT WITH OPEN HEART PODCAST:

Open Heart with Lu Leslan is for anyone who aspires to understand themselves and the world more deeply. Through honest personal stories, philosophical insights, and practical wisdom, each episode invites you to live with more clarity, courage, and compassion. Subscribe and share with someone ready to open their heart.

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

Lu's first documentary: Take a Bow: The Ingrid Clarfield Story (2011)

SPEAKER_00

And the darkness you carry, does it belong to somebody else? And the part of you that you're most ashamed of? What if it's also the part keeping you alive? And the demon you've been running from your whole life? What if it's been waiting for you to turn around? Welcome to Open Heart Podcast. I am Luleslin, your host. This is a podcast where we share ideas, stories, and questions with an open heart so we can be kinder and wiser to ourselves and each other. Every week we'll discuss a topic where I share my observation, ideas, and questions with you. And I would love to hear your thoughts, comments, and reflections too. Please send them to Lou at LeslanCreativestudio.com. Today's topic is demons in ourselves. Demons in ourselves not the ones in stories, not the ones we project onto others, the ones that live quietly inside us. I want to start with something honest. I grew up watching violence. My father carried a darkness in his eyes, something I could see in his face. I don't know if he knew it was there. I don't know if he suffered from it. But I asked myself, do I have his demons? Did I learn them by watching or did they arrive with me written into my genes? There is no answer. We inherited the full spectrum, the capacity for empathy and the hunger for power, the ability to love deeply and the need to control completely. The same heart that opens closes. The same hand that reaches out can push away. None of us escape this inheritance. None of us is good, none of us is evil. We are both. The demons like to join the party when we're with our friends and relatives. It makes us somewhat uncomfortable to be comfortable. It's highly charged with action and reaction from the mundane to the ludicrous. Relationships are good until they are not. And when survival enters the room, honor leaves. There is no honor in hunger. When it's a matter of live or die, I will do anything to survive. Honor is a luxury for the well doers. They will never understand why we're desperate for a meal. The truth behind every decision is the story we tell ourselves. And the main character in that story is called demons. The world now has over a hundred twenty million people displaced, asylum seekers and refugees. Is that the result of a collective demon in ourselves that manifested in over eight billion humans? So what do we do? Can we kill the demon? Can we lock it in a cage? Can we make it disappear? No. It is here to stay. We need our demons. They are part of what keeps us alive in the world. They are the edge that makes us pay attention, the hunger that drives us forward, the wound that taught us where we are vulnerable. What I know is this. The demon isn't our enemy. It is part of us that hasn't been listened to yet. Each of us carrying our inheritance, navigating the gap between who we really are and what we project ourselves to be. The demon is collective. It belongs to all of us. And it's up to us what we want to do with it. This has been episode one of season three, Demons in Ourselves. Next time, State of Mind. How the weather inside us shapes everything outside us. Thank you for joining me. I love to hear from you. Please share your comments, stories, and questions. Send them to Lou at LeslandCreativestudio.com. This is a podcast where we share ideas, stories, and questions with an open heart so we can be kinder and wiser to ourselves and each other. Take care.