In this episode, I stop trying to “manage” the conversation and let it unfold, because control is exactly what we’re talking about.

So many of the symptoms we label as anxiety, stress, or burnout are often downstream of something deeper: the quiet obsession to keep everything under control. I share real examples from parenting, leadership, and my own relationship with substances to show how control tends to create resistance, while influence creates movement.

We’ll explore why we can’t even reliably control our own minds, how letting go can paradoxically return power, and a simple parenting shift that works better than pressure. We end with a Dao-inspired metaphor (water and sand) that might change how you hold everything you care about… and a preview of the next conversation: when influence becomes manipulation.

📌 Next Steps If you’re serious about your growth, don’t just watch this. Work with it.

🤝 Private Mentorship Application + details here: ➡️ https://ericsosborne.com

🌿 Psanctuary For spiritual community, teachings, and our broader work: ➡️ https://psanctuary.org

🎧 Podcast Archive Previous episodes and conversations: Not Your Guru https://open.spotify.com/show/3dLRKggqqJrva9Tru4p8Fv?si=81c39a0e186d41a7

The Psanctuary Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/4Bf3MfYDCLduPkDYKOHQ09?si=60e0a1da19bc4920

The Psilocybin Chronicles 1 https://open.spotify.com/show/4zNQ9ropmnTNilxQiDrr0o?si=40190dfa6a0c43ae

The Psilocybin Chronicles 2 https://open.spotify.com/show/0ZBK3wxMQRV64pta0RO4sj?si=bba56f83c5e7434f

I don’t have answers in this episode — and that’s the point.

This is a conversation I avoided for a long time: God, consciousness, free will, and the mystery at the center of existence. Not from a place of belief or disbelief, but from lived experience, deep questioning, and decades of watching what actually transforms people. I grew up religious.

I became skeptical. I walked away entirely. And then, slowly, the questions found me again — through nature, science, psychedelics, and moments that couldn’t be explained away. This episode isn’t about religion. It’s not about convincing you of anything. It’s about reopening a conversation many of us closed too early.

If you’ve ever felt torn between faith and reason… If certainty has stopped feeling honest… Or if you sense there’s something worth exploring beyond what you were taught… This conversation is for you.

Stay curious. Embrace the mystery. And see where the question takes you.

📌 Next Steps If you’re serious about your growth, don’t just watch this. Work with it.

🤝 Private Mentorship Application + details here: ➡️ https://ericsosborne.com

🌿 Psanctuary For spiritual community, teachings, and our broader work: ➡️ https://psanctuary.org

🎧 Podcast Archive Previous episodes and conversations:

Not Your Guru https://open.spotify.com/show/3dLRKggqqJrva9Tru4p8Fv?si=81c39a0e186d41a7

The Psanctuary Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/4Bf3MfYDCLduPkDYKOHQ09?si=60e0a1da19bc4920

The Psilocybin Chronicles 1 https://open.spotify.com/show/4zNQ9ropmnTNilxQiDrr0o?si=40190dfa6a0c43ae

The Psilocybin Chronicles 2 https://open.spotify.com/show/0ZBK3wxMQRV64pta0RO4sj?si=bba56f83c5e7434f

In this episode, Eric Osborne moves beyond diagnosing the problem of post-success suffering and into something far more practical: how to restore balance in a life that’s grown complex, demanding, and outwardly successful.

Rather than chasing a static idea of balance, Eric reframes it as a living practice, one that requires awareness, ownership, and courageous action.

Using a mixing-board metaphor, real stories from his own life, and decades of experience guiding others through transformation, he explores balance across three essential dimensions:

• The material / physical world

• The emotional world

• The spiritual / energetic world

You’ll hear what true balance actually looks like in each area, how external validation quietly signals internal imbalance, and why neglecting even one dimension eventually shows up as dis-ease in the body, relationships, or work.

Eric also shares a striking story of a successful engineer who reclaimed his life with one unforgettable act, along with personal reflections on boundaries, cannabis, health, relationships, and the cost of living out of alignment.

This conversation is for entrepreneurs, creatives, and leaders who sense they’re standing on a plateau and know, deep down, it’s meant to be a launchpad.

If you’ve been asking:

• “Where am I out of balance?”

• “What am I using to validate my worth?”

• “What would a more integrated version of me look like?”

This episode is an invitation to explore those questions honestly, without shame, and with hope.

Where do you notice imbalance showing up in your life right now?

If this resonated, please like, subscribe, and share so these conversations can reach others who are ready for growth.

We all have a choice: remain comfortably unconscious, or step into the discomfort of becoming whole.

If you’re serious about your growth, don’t just watch this. Work with it.

Private Mentorship Application + details here: ➡️ https://ericsosborne.com

Psanctuary For spiritual community, teachings, and our broader work: https://psanctuary.org

🎧 Podcast Archive Previous episodes and conversations:

Not Your Guru https://open.spotify.com/show/3dLRKgg...

The Psanctuary Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/4Bf3MfY...

The Psilocybin Chronicles 1 https://open.spotify.com/show/4zNQ9ro...

The Psilocybin Chronicles 2 https://open.spotify.com/show/0ZBK3wx...

Most of us understand suffering when it comes from obvious hardship. But there’s another kind of suffering that doesn’t get talked about much, and when it does, it often gets dismissed or discredited. It’s the suffering of the successful.

If you’ve achieved a lot in life… if you’ve built the career, the family, the discipline, the reputation… and yet there’s still a quiet whisper (or a screaming voice) inside telling you something isn’t right… this episode is for you.

Not because you’re ungrateful. Not because you’re broken. But because success without fulfillment is often a sign that you’ve reached a plateau, and that plateau is calling you into a new level of development.

In this first episode, I talk about why so many people confuse achievement with self-actualization, why the “next level” isn’t outward but inward, and why real fulfillment requires balance between two worlds we’ve been trained to separate: The material world and the spiritual world.

Neither one on its own is enough. And when they’re out of balance, suffering is inevitable, no matter how good things look on the outside. This conversation isn’t meant to solve a problem. It’s meant to name it, acknowledge it, and give you a place to begin.

Because acknowledgement is the first step.

I’m Eric Osborne. For over 25 years, I’ve worked at the intersection of personal development, spirituality, and psilocybin, helping people translate profound experiences into lived maturity, coherence, and self-leadership.

I’ve administered nearly 3,500 psilocybin doses, helped establish modern psilocybin retreats in Jamaica, and co-founded Psanctuary, a spiritually grounded community where sacred mushrooms are held as sacrament.

Along the way, I’ve learned a simple truth: Insight alone doesn’t mature us. Experience doesn’t automatically become embodiment. This channel focuses on personal development influenced by psychedelic insight, without making psychedelics the destination.

These are short, focused conversations about inner leadership, emotional coherence, identity, and what it actually means to live an integrated life. You’ll find episodes on:

• Why capable people still feel incomplete

• The difference between willpower and coherence

• Integration as a lived practice, not a concept

• Maturing beyond achievement and peak experiences

Whether or not you work with psychedelics, this content is for people who sense there’s a deeper way to inhabit their lives. New episodes are intentionally concise, designed to be listened to and carried into daily life. If this resonates, you’re in the right place.