The HighExistence Podcast

Is it possible to bring the level of reverence and integrity that we see in traditional plant medicine ceremonies into our own homes?

Koen and Sebastian, the team over at Portier Supplies have created a product that is doing exactly this.

"Psychedelics deserve a beautiful place in people’s lives, not shoved in a closet, hidden away somewhere’"

There is a lot of shame that many well-intentioned psychedelic users carry around due to misinformed stigma and misplaced projections. 

Initiatives such as Portier Supplies are putting that to an end.

This conversation is a dive into psychedelic healing and the exciting realms beyond, as well as a front row seat to the tricky business of psychedelic entrepreneurship. 

What We Cover:

• 2:40 - The journey that led to the creation of Portier
• 11:35 - What the Portal Box is
• 17:00 - The true meaning of luxury
• 20:05 - What comes after healing with psychedelics?
• 24:00 - Maintaining integrity when combining business and spirituality
• 43:25 - Growth as the accumulation of responsibility
• 44:25 - Practices that support psychedelic use
• 53:55 - Bufo vs Ayahuasca

MUCH MORE...

Please leave a review if you enjoy The HighExistence podcast. 

If you identify as spiritual but not religious, then this one is for you.

In our second interview with John Vervaeke, he urges those who have been traversing the spiritual path on their own up until now to come together and join forces:

“We need the best wisdom we can come up with. The chances that you’re going to get that on your own are very small.”

— John Vervaeke, HEx Podcast #49

What forms as we come together is what John calls, ‘the religion that is not a religion’. 

If you extracted everything that was valuable from traditional religions and left behind what was constricting and harmful, this is what you would get.

“We need to reach deeply into the roots of our traditions in order to grow up into the novelty of the sunlight, if we’re going to grow what we need here.”

Why do we need something like this? And how do we begin to build it? 

Eric and John dive deep into these questions and surface with a stash of nuggets pointing the way to a world of wisdom.

What We Cover:

• Why we need a religion that is not a religion 
• The problems that arise from being ‘spiritual but not religious’
• Why it’s not a religion
• Untangling the supernatural from the spiritual
• How to build up your own community 
• Metapsychotechnologies for curating ecologies of practice
• Yoga’s 4 paths to Union as an example of pluralism
• Western traditions as equally viable paths to wisdom
• MUCH MORE…

Please leave a review if you enjoy The HighExistence podcast. 

“We need to have a deep dialogue between science and spirituality.”

John Vervaeke, HEx Podcast #48

It’s easy to say that science and spirituality are being summoned to sit down together for a deep conversation — but much harder to actually make this happen without things devolving quickly.  

John Vervaeke has taken it upon himself to come in and, not only translate, but provide an entire vocabulary and grammar for both parties to use to allow for deeper understanding and more nuanced agreements.

This is a mammoth task. For this reason, John has an entire 50 episode YouTube series called The Meaning Crisis exploring the past, present, and future of this dynamic between science and spirituality. It is one of the most significant series I’ve seen in a while.

If you don’t have 50 hours to spare, fear not, for we have an exhaustive summary of it all for you right here.

Originally posted on John’s Youtube channel under the title ‘Best Synoptic Overview of The Meaning Crisis & my Work’, this interview is an action-packed call to arms against the spiritual challenges we are facing today, featuring misunderstood vampires and re-spawning Hydra heads.

By giving us a strong foundation to stand on and bringing spirituality back down to earth, John is creating a platform for this crucial merging to take place. 

“We can go from these being terms that are wrapped in mystique and obscurity to being a realizable continuum that we can start engaging in right now right here.”

— John Vervaeke

With the groundwork in place, please enjoy this deep dive into the meaning crisis, stealing the culture, and redesigning religion.

WHAT WE COVER:

• An exhaustive summary of The Meaning Crisis
• John’s own personal meaning crisis and how meaning began to emerge in his life
• The deep mechanisms underlying downward spirals/addiction
• Perennial Problems: the eternal spiritual problems of man
• Jordan Peterson’s role in the reawakening
• Hamlet as an example of over-self-consciousness
• The pros and cons of the scientific mindset
• The 4 ways of knowing
• Psychotechnologies
• Strengths and weaknesses of Eastern and Western approaches
• Ecologies of practices: responses to the Perennial Problems
• An introduction to the Religion that is not a Religion
• Serious play as the bridge between two worlds
• MUCH MORE…

Please leave a review if you enjoy The HighExistence podcast. 

Have you been struggling to keep a consistent meditation practice?

Switching around between different types, trying to find the right one for so long that you eventually forgot why you were even doing it in the first place?

This is a common complaint many aspiring meditators face.

Without a clear understanding of why we are doing what we are doing and a way to know that we are doing it right, we are destined to fall off track.

In comes The Mind Illuminated by Culadasa (John Yates, PhD).

The Mind Illuminated is the result of 50,000 hours of meditation and decades of neuroscience study.

This book is arguably the clearest, most systematic, and well-researched meditation manual ever written.

In this episode of the HighExistence podcast, Jon Brooks and Eric Brown discuss the 6 steps Culadasa recommends in the book to prepare the mind for practice.

But these 6 steps, as you'll see, have far reaching applications beyond just meditation.

“This stuff is not separate. The lessons you learn in mediation are lessons that apply to life. The stuff going on in your life will carry on into your mediation practice.”

IN THIS EPISODE WE DISCUSS:

• Why you should meditate
• Culadasa’s 6 steps for preparation for meditation
• How TMI has impacted not only Eric’s meditation practice, but his life
• Is enlightenment actually possible? What does it take to get there?
• Meditation as a tool for tragedy
• How to find and renew the motivation to do anything
• The first 3 stages of the meditation journey
• Meditation as a microcosm for life
• The importance of posture
• How showing up is all you need to do
• The value of taking a moment to clarify intent before starting anything
• MUCH MORE…

(Please remember to leave a review because it helps us improve the podcast!)

Learn more about The Ascent here.

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In the first podcast I did with Justin, we discussed the secret strategies of super-learners.

In the follow up YouTube video we dissected the best ways to get the most from the books that you read.

In today's episode, my main question was to find out Justin's origin story.

I knew that he had suffered from depression as a teen, and also grew up in South Africa, and was curious how he transformed himself from this state to being a nuero-resilience coach and learning expert living out of LA.

My hope is that anyone who is struggling with their current living situation or feels burdened with an overactive mind can find great inspiration in Justin's story, and of course... we will learn a lot along the way.

• Justin's origins and childhood
• The issues with the traditional school system
• Science proven learning strategies
• The value of learning to think for yourself
• Justin's experience with life-threatening depression
• The power of stillness practices
• How to get over an emotional slump
• Justin's method for interpreting "negative" feedback
• MUCH MORE…

Please leave a review if you enjoy The HighExistence podcast. 

• The Human OS: Part 1 Introduction to the Principles
• Weakness is Strength
• Models of perception: the light switch, the dimmer switch, and the lighting board

It’s not every day you sit down with a shaman to explore their life, beliefs, practices, and opinions.

But today, we’re doing just that.

We have the pleasure of sitting down to talk to our friend Marie Lou of Infinity Retreats. We have worked with Marie Lou and her partner Anke at our Apotheosis Retreats, and it was Marie Lou and Anke who ran the diet that Jon and I discussed in Episode 28.

Marie Lou is a true example of where ‘doing the work’ can take you. Through extensive study, diets, and work with the plants, she moves gracefully through the world with the poise and power of someone who walked the path for a long time.

But this isn’t just an exploration of her work, we get the opportunity to go into much more with her.

And much more ground is covered. This is an up close and intimate look at how one moves down the path from just interested to awakened, what work is required to hold space and conduct ceremonies, and why anyone would do this and what results they can see.

It is an exploration into the world of the plants, the nature of reality, and the purpose of the here and now.

We are so honoured to bring this to you, and hope that this will be the start of many more conversations to come.

If you liked this and want to hear more from Marie Lou + Anke, send us an email or give us a comment to let us know.

• How has the past year with COVID been for you?
• How do you describe what you do?
• Exploring Bufo and how to diet the medicine.
• Understanding diets and how to do the work.
• How did you get started doing this work?
• What’s your definition of a shaman?
• German New Medicine and the nature of illness.
• Does a shaman still feel fear? 
• Infinity Retreats and the path forward.
• MUCH MORE…

Please leave a review if you enjoy The HighExistence podcast. 

The Ascent is the new 8-week online meaningful work mastermind brought to you by HighExistence.

The experience is designed for those who have already some understanding of self-improvement and spirituality, and now want to turn their passion into an opportunity to do what they love, get paid for it, and make a dent in the universe.

We are bringing together a team of online entrepreneurs and facilitators to walk you through every stage of your own project so you can have the freedom to work from anywhere in the world, doing what makes you feel most alive.

It doesn't matter if you want to do online coaching, run a successful blog, start a podcast, or become an artist...

This will be your chance to take bold action and radically change your situation with support from the HighExistence team and a small tribe of individuals who will help hold you accountable.

Learn more about The Ascent here.

In today's Dialogues, I chat with Mike Slavin and Eric Brown about the reason we set out to create The Ascent.

We noticed that when we asked people who attended our Apotheosis retreats what they really wanted to do with their lives, almost nobody was actually pursuing their biggest ambitions.

Instead, many were settling for local, small self-improvement changes. This approach is definitely useful for some things, like building small habits, but for lifestyle changes and following your bliss, a more nuclear option must be taken. 

In this episode, we look at some of the traps of thinking small in life, as well as...

• Why people struggle to do what they love for work
• The WHY that must come before the HOW
• Classic self-sabotaging strategies
• The value of changing your container, not it's contents
• Downsides of incremental changes
• How we can live our own Hero's journey
• What The Ascent involves
• Way more hidden gems... ;)

Please leave a review if you enjoy The HighExistence podcast. 

"Are you the same with your best friend as you are with your boss and your mother and the stranger in the bus stop? Are you the same person in all those scenarios? Because if not, you are dishonest. And that's okay. Because, you wanna know who's definitely a dishonest person? Anyone who says that they're an honest person."

— Dan Munro

"Losing your job is nothing compared to losing your Self."

— Dan Munro

Today I sit down and chat with Dan Munro about his new book, The Naked Truth. 

Dan has been on the podcast before where we went deep into Dan's own story with honesty and authenticity and the tactics he uses as a coach to turn people from socially anxious into socially bulletproof. 

In this episode, we focus specifically on the toxic effects of being dishonest, and the blueprint you need to turn your life around and start being boldly... YOU. 

In this discussion, we cover:

• Essentialism and shiny object syndrome
• Self deception and bias
• The mixed messages from society on honesty
• Dan's own story of how dishonesty hurt him
• The various hidden types of lies
• The link between shame and dishonesty
• How to express authentically without harming people
• The validation addiction detox
• Why it's good to be disliked
• Was murderer Chris Watts spurred by dishonesty?

Please leave a review if you enjoy The HighExistence podcast. 

Down the Rabbit Hole is your weekly injection of wisdom, wonder, and well being sent straight to your inbox from HighExistence.

Each email explores ancient and emerging tools, techniques, and teachers to help you live a more meaningful, adventurous, and ecstatic existence.

Sign up here. 

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In today's episode, Jon Brooks, Eric Brown, and Mike Slavin discuss how to see through your own blindspots so you can achieve meaningful transformation in areas you were previously avoiding. 

Those of us interested in personal development, sometimes use it as a form of productive procrastination. 

We meditate, journal, read, exercise, etc., as a way to avoid doing the thing we REALLY know we need to do... 

Cleaning our room, having that conversation, paying our bills, working on that project, asking that person out on a date, writing that novel... 

Real growth lies more in failure and adventure than in the safety of self-care habits. 

That is what this conversation is all about...

We share our deepest insights on personal development after a combined 30 years studying and practicing on the spiritual path. 

If you enjoyed this episode, why not share it with a friend? 

"Craft over status; art over praise."

The core HighExistence team members, Mike Slavin, Eric Brown, and Jon Brooks are back with another roundtable discussion.

Lockdown restrictions are easing and it's time to reflect on all the craziness that's been happening in the months prior.

Four topics that seemed to interlinked during this prolonged period of social isolation are placed, flow, social skills, and depression.

Play is a vital form of expression that helps one keep their sanity, enter into flow state, ward off depression, and bond with others.

Social skills are just that, "skills" and the worsen when we are not practicing them. When we are out of practice we struggle to flow and we lack a childlike playfulness.

Flow is when the challenge perfectly matches the skill level, and this state is vital for good mental health.

Depression has many causes, one of the most common being a build up of stress that overwhelms the system. Such stress can be relieved by play, flow, and social relationships.

In this discussion, the team explores the intersection of these topics to spark new ideas and provide guidance on how to make sense of the world.

• The impact of coming out of the Covid lockdown
• The idea of the upward vs. downward spiral
• The medicinal power of video games
• How to use emotional reward to increase productivity
• How competition can increase bonding
• The fact that being alive is worth a celebration
• The Stoic approach to being successful
• The secret to being a great friend
• How to handle neediness and rejection
• TONS MORE...