Redeeming Disorder

Why does one decide to change his life? Why does one play music and sing for a new dawn?

In this (primarily english) interview Glenn Clayton, a longtime expat and Vilcabamban, reflects on the decision to move here. For his own life and for the many waves of foreigners who’ve similarly changed their lives, Glenn speaks to the value of this valley and the hope it offers. He acknowledges that it may be naive to believe in a new dawn, but he chooses to do so anyway rather than living as many addicts, conspiranoids and nihilists of Vilcabamba do. He chooses hope, whether correct or foolish, because that hope inspires him to play music and to live.

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Hello, listeners! Goodbye, Redeeming Disorder.

I’m ready to fully focus my creative energy in one direction, which means it’s time for my first major creative project to end. Worlds of thanks to Tamar — legend in my life, lead producer of Light & Shadows, and the woman for the job of turning the page.

We talk herbalism, Kambo medicine, medicine at large, creative flow and beginner’s mind. We also talk about our personal growth through this past year of knowing each other. This past year… these past months, weeks, days… What a time.

As great swathes of Latin America burn, the Vilcabamba valley has been filled with smoke these past seven days since the Light & Shadows team returned from filming in the jungle, and we’re slowing down our pace of releasing videos. Forty-nine days after beginning our Friday releases and planning to release a pilot episode on December 20, we have to say that the pilot will come in 2025, and that no plan is surefire in these fiery times. Nonetheless, we’ll continue doing our best.

I’m grateful to have already filmed some beautiful places that have recently burned down. In right time, I’ll be grateful to bring you “Epic 1” (“episodes” are so legacy-TV) of our genre-bending docureality series. And, in the meantime, I’m grateful to uphold our commitment to bring you at least something every Friday.

As many of the world’s unnatural orders break down, and as we go through personal breakdowns (breakdown-breakthroughs, more aptly), life can feel entirely chaotic. Upholding our true commitments can feel challenging. Maintaining order in our lives can feel impossible. Our plans are jokes to God-Goddess, paradoxes to the reality of the present moment, which is all we can ever know for sure. Yet, we make plans to bring our intentions into being, and we return to our truest intentions.

Creating Light & Shadows is a calling for us — an intention to which we’ll continually return, an order from God-Goddess themself. Our pilot epic won’t adhere to the order we had in mind, but Light & Shadows will continue. We will continue to create for you.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit reiman.substack.com

Venus and Her Lover: buy the book here, visit the site here.

Rebecca Tzigany returns to Light & Shadows as she says goodbye to Vilcabamba and as we begin releasing our content regularly, every Friday.

We hope you continue to get to know us every Friday, leading up to the release of our Pilot Epic (episode) on 20 December, 2024.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit reiman.substack.com

Counseling session from December 2023 with one of Vilcabamba’s longest-time wise women.

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Buenas noches. Disfruta esta conversación entre mi vecino y yo.

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Nykia Herron Ash is a U.S. expat living in England who decidedly answers the call to help people, whether through reiki work or in the nail salon. We discuss the unlearning necessary for relearning authentic ways, Nykia’s empowering perspective on anxiety and our perspectives on fear and faith.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit reiman.substack.com

Links:

* Wayra Vibra Instagram

* Catherine’s Instagram

* Please Pass the Bliss

* People of the Sun

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit reiman.substack.com

Links:

* Zeus the Husky channel and video:

* Hofstede Cultural Analysis: the three countries discussed, the general tool.

* The Authentic Observer youtube channel.

* Cultural Map of the United States.

* The book that the map is based on.

* Documentary called Quantum Communication / Mind Science Kept Hidden:

* Autobiographical stuff.co.nz article series by New Zealand author Catherine Dolan about the toxicity and brutality of NZ society.

* Global Innovation Index 2022 global map visualization.

* Mark Passio's Presentation Playlist on his youtube channel.

* Nick’s youtube channel.

These links are included per Nick’s request; I endorse nothing, and trust you to make your own judgments.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit reiman.substack.com

Please enjoy this (possibly final) episode of Redeeming Disorder, featuring my first friend in my new home (Vilcabamba, Ecuador), Maya Choi. Maya has lived quite an adventurous life, growing up in Korea, spending over a decade in New York City and living now in Ecuador, where she’s also been for over a decade. Her experiences shifting between cultures have taught her how to relate to the identity of the self, as has extensive meditation, through which she’s always maintained a “beginner’s mind.” From her exposure to Zen monasteries as a child to her personal practice today, meditation has always been a way for Maya to, rather than escaping or merely transcending the world, relate to the world with more joy, gratitude and generosity. That spirit and those qualities are reflected at the site of our interview — the Sukkha Wasi cultural center she started — as well as in Maya herself.

~

Video of Our Conversation on YouTube

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit reiman.substack.com

Edit: Substack has failed to import Redeeming Disorder from its previous podcast host, so I’ve moved all episodes back to that previous host. All episodes will be playing smoothly on Apple and in podcast apps by 12/25/21, but this is the only episode that will play on Substack.

~

Please enjoy this (possibly final) episode of Redeeming Disorder, featuring my first friend in my new home (Vilcabamba, Ecuador), Maya Choi. Maya has lived quite an adventurous life, growing up in Korea, spending over a decade in New York City and living now in Ecuador, where she’s also been for over a decade. Her experiences shifting between cultures have taught her how to relate to the identity of the self, as has extensive meditation, through which she’s always maintained a “beginner’s mind.” From her exposure to Zen monasteries as a child to her personal practice today, meditation has always been a way for Maya to, rather than escaping or merely transcending the world, relate to the world with more joy, gratitude and generosity. That spirit and those qualities are reflected at the site of our interview — the Sukkha Wasi cultural center she started — as well as in Maya herself.

~

Video of Our Conversation on YouTube

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