[00:00:01] Luke: All right. Welcome to Episode 626. Can you believe I've sat here 626 times and had conversations?

[00:00:11] Alyson: I'm starting to get more used to it. For a while every time I would hear that, I'd be shooketh, but now it's clicking in.

[00:00:18] Luke: It's a lot of hours.

[00:00:21] Alyson: Those amount of hours obviously add up to many years. What? Almost a decade?

[00:00:26] Luke: It'll be 10 years in June, 2026.

[00:00:32] Alyson: Just around the corner here. This year's really zipping right on by.

[00:00:36] Luke: Oh my God.

[00:00:37] Alyson: It's like it's been zippy, but then it also has gotten time warpy. I feel like it's morphed all over the time, space, reality zone.

[00:00:53] Luke: For me time is going so fast. It's mind blowing. Yeah. I can't believe how quickly things go by, especially our recent trip. We were out in California, in Nevada City for five, six weeks or something, and I couldn't believe it was over. It was just bizarre. It felt like we were there for two weeks.

[00:01:18] Alyson: It did go by fast, and we even extended on four days or something like that. And just because of what you said and then even with tacking the other four days, that didn't feel like we added anything on. Yeah, it was really interesting. I know we planned to really do a more dedicated episode soon to that trip because there was just so much richness. And for me, my word for the trip was clarity. So I know we have a lot to share. But is there anything you want to touch on, not give too much away?

[00:01:58] Luke: Yeah. So for those unfamiliar with the geography of California, we were in a small town called Nevada City, which is in the realm of Sacramento, Lake Tahoe, up in the Sierra Nevada mountains. And it's somewhere that I used to go to as a kid, Grass Valley, which is the neighboring town, with my grandmother. But I don't really remember it.

[00:02:30] I just remember there was a lot of woods and we would go camping and things like that. But when I went to Holon for the neurofeedback training last December, that was in Nevada City, and I didn't see any of the town. I was just at the center, and we'd take walks in the neighborhood, and it was rainy at that time, which is not my favorite weather. There's no sun.

[00:02:55] But I just felt really good there to the point where I was on Zillow, like, what's up with this place? And did quite a bit of research and found that there's a lot of like-minded people there. So for me it was interesting because when we left California in 2021, I never looked back.

[00:03:16] I never thought I would ever go back to California, and I consider that to be where I'm from, even though I was born in Colorado. But things got so nutty in 2020 in Los Angeles and I guess all cities in California that it was a wrap. And the state is so mismanaged and just is so-- I don't know. There's--

[00:03:40] Alyson: Lots of corruption.

[00:03:41] Luke: Institutional government corruption to the point where it seems like their intent on destroying a really beautiful state, full of a bunch of amazing people. But Nevada City got my attention. So I think one of the main things for me was just feeling finally at home somewhere in California, because the trips that we've taken there don't really feel that way.

[00:04:08] So that was really nice for me just to go, "Oh, there are places in California that are still enjoyable, viable, and populated by people with whom I resonate on some level. So I think that was the main thing for me. And then recorded a couple podcasts there, which is really fun.

[00:04:30] The one that will probably come out soon after this was recorded in a dome called a Geoship. I've been wanting to meet those guys for a long time. It just so happens they're based in Nevada City. Totally unplanned.

[00:04:44] I was on their website and was just looking at their contact info. I was like, "Wait, Nevada City. We're about to go there." So that was really cool to be able to sit in one of their little demo domes and get to learn more about their mission and just feel what it's like to be in a more biocompatible living space, which I really enjoyed.

[00:05:05] Alyson: Yeah, they're doing some really cool stuff there.

[00:05:08] Luke: Yeah.

[00:05:08] Alyson: I'd fun getting our warehouse tour and just touching the things, understanding the intentionality. I had some questions that sparked up, and yeah, they've got some really cool stuff happening there.

[00:05:22] Luke: How did you feel energetically in the demo dome?

[00:05:27] Alyson: Yeah, it felt really great for sure. The energy in there felt very, very clear and centered, and there was a sense of groundedness. My only thing, which we chatted about, and I know it's probably easily rectified, again, just with my such high attunement and sensitivities, the acoustics.

[00:05:49] Especially if you're sitting in a certain area, which it can be great, and I think he even mentioned before he knew who I was. He said something like, "When the shaman finds a certain area on their drum and-- which is true. There's certain areas where it can amplify in a cool way. But if I'm living there 24/7, I would want to get that all squared away.

[00:06:12] Luke: Yeah, yeah. It's an easy fix. And then the other cool thing was that we chose to stay in five different Airbnbs in five, five and a half weeks. So there was a lot of moving involved. And the last one that we stayed in was also a dome, but this was a wooden, '70s geodesic dome that was--

[00:06:40] Alyson: A little more hippie-like.

[00:06:42] Luke: Yeah. It was like walking into a time capsule in every way. It's like you just unsealed a dome built and lived in the '70s. So it just had all the accoutrement that you could ever dream of having, like a movie set. I think if you were an art director and you wanted to create a '70s hippie dome in the woods, it would be that. So that was really fun just to get the experience of living in a shape other than a box

[00:07:14] Alyson: Yeah, that did feel nice. It really did. I saw a TikTok recently, which I know we've talked about this and you've been talking about this for many years, but hearing you say that just flashed me to that video I recently saw. And a guy was-- I don't follow him, so I don't remember his handle, but he was saying that somebody had mentioned to him that everything God created is round and everything that humans make is square.

[00:07:43] And then he started looking around his apartment and he was just like, "The square doorways, the square windows, the square TV, the square--" and he was just like, "Ah." The thing, once you see it, you can't unsee it. And he was just tripping out and this maddening, like, what is this? What are we doing? What have we done? Why?

[00:08:02] Once you start to see just all these harsh right angles, and then when you think about, yeah, nature, which is obviously also what we are, all the cells in us around the blood platelets, even the insides of bones, and the flowers, everything in nature is more round.

[00:08:26] Luke: Yeah. We talked about that in that episode with the founder Morgan, the Geoship founder. And I forget the exact phrase, but part of their motto is something like live outside of the box. So we went down this whole thread.

[00:08:41] Alyson: Oh, cool.

[00:08:42] Luke: But thinking about-- most of us are born in a hospital. A hospital room is a box. You're put in some crib or incubator, another box. You get in a car with your parents. They drive you home in a box. You go into a room in your parents' home in a room that's a box inside of a bigger box, and so on and so on.

[00:09:02] School buses, school rooms. It's like our entire life. And then for many of us, unfortunately, we end up in a hospital room and die in a box. So it's just like your whole life, you're in these little squares and also staring at them. Our phones are boxes. TVs are boxes. Most windows are boxes.

[00:09:20] Alyson: It's trippy.

[00:09:22] Luke: Yeah, it's a super strange thing. So if you think of--

[00:09:24] Alyson: It's just like, where did that begin? I guess we could easily answer that if we knew about architecture in different times.

[00:09:31] Luke: It's easier to design right-angled boxes, and it's cheaper and easier to build them. It requires less ingenuity and skill. So it probably has something to do with just taking the easier, faster route to building.

[00:09:51] Alyson: Because that was one of my favorite things. And again, I promise at some point we're going to pivot from Nevada City and save all the good treasures for the next episode. But one of my favorite things about that town is that they've maintained the charm in some of the older aesthetic and architecture.

[00:10:09] And it's like an old gold-mining town. And in Nevada City proper, that little town, you're not going to find a CVS and billboards and the more square-type buildings that we're talking about. You find things with, yeah, aesthetic and character and more roundness.

[00:10:31] Luke: Yeah, totally.

[00:10:33] Alyson: More round things.

[00:10:35] Luke: One of the things about California that's generally terrible is that there's so much bureaucracy that you need permission to take a leak in your backyard. But sometimes when it comes to historic preservation and heritage, it works in your favor.

[00:10:58] So in Nevada City, there's all these city ordinances that prevent you from building atrocities, and it's cool. So all the houses there are, for the most part around the town, old Victorian homes. And the whole downtown is very quaint, has a lot of personality.

[00:11:16] So in cases like that, I don't know that I would still be down for the restrictions, but it's good they prevented-- our friend, Rinnett, was telling us a story how they prevented 5G from getting installed in the town. I only saw two cell towers the entire time we were there, which is amazing.

[00:11:33] Which I'll throw out a couple of good travel hacks that proved to be useful there. One being the flight hack of NuCalm.

[00:11:45] Alyson: Yeah, that was really supportive for me. Without going down too much of a rabbit hole, one of the explorations, shall we say, I've been intending to-- since I had the electrocution near-death experience a couple-- what was that? A couple of years ago? One thing that revealed after that, which I had never dealt with before, at least not on a conscious level was struggling to be in small, confined spaces, because where this electrocution happened was in a chamber of sorts, a healing chamber.

[00:12:28] And so very unexpectedly, I'm someone who's pretty well traveled, used to fly all the time to Bali by myself to just go all over the world alone in planes. And then in the last of couple of years, I've been really shockingly, no pun intended, faced with having some anxiety surges when I'm on a flight.

[00:12:54] And so I've been really trying to find my way with that and crack the code because the first time that really surfaced and revealed I was going to The Bahamas for my side of the family, my sister's 50th. And you needed to work on your book. And so I made those flights solo. And let's just say, I don't know how I actually made it to The Bahamas.

[00:13:19] I think it was because I knew the trip was very meaningful. But then once I got there I was like, now I have to figure out how to get on these flights and get back. And so it's been a very trying journey. And one thing that I realized in this last flight to Sacramentos for us to go to Nevada City was putting on repeat the NuCalm app, the PowerNap. I think I'm sure any of would've helped.

[00:13:47] Luke: Yeah. The PowerNap is strongest one. Yeah.

[00:13:50] Alyson: I also do-- just want to express and keep the energetic current going in this positive direction that I am noticing this improving, this situation has been improving flight by flight, thank God. So I'm hoping that I'm hopefully now or soon going to arrive to a place where I'm good to go and don't have to find my way, the way I have been working so hard to.

[00:14:15] But yeah, I felt a bit of a surge start to happen on our flight, and I was able to wrangle it. But for anyone who has dealt with these waves of anxiety or panic, when they start to surge, it's like there's a very crucial, epicenter point where if you can wrangle it and catch it and do something to pivot just enough to calm your system down, then you can maybe get ahead of it. But if you don't find that sweet spot and it takes over, it's not that fun.

[00:14:51] And by not that fun I mean horrible. So that kind of epicenter point presented. I could call myself enough. I went to the bathroom, then came back to the seats and told you that I had a bit of a surge, and my phone wasn't connected to Wi-Fi, but thankfully yours was, and you could crank up the NuCalm app. I just put your headphones on and hit the 20-minute PowerNap over and over and over.

[00:15:18] I think I did like solid hour and then I felt for sure stabilized enough that I could then just watch a part of a movie or just get back to "normal" flying mode. But yeah, I was really grateful to know that moving forward, that seems to be a very supportive option to keep my brain in a certain zone so that it has less room to feel or experience other things that are not as favorable.

[00:15:54] Luke: Yeah, it really works. It's funny because I don't feel like I can ever do NuCalm justice because on its face it sounds like another meditation app or something. But it's highly sophisticated neuro acoustic software. For those that haven't, I've done a number of podcasts about it.

[00:16:15] So yes, there is an app, but the tracks that are on an app are really effective at dropping you into-- well, it depends what you're trying to do, but alpha or theta brainwaves. And so that one that you listen to the PowerNap is deep theta, and it takes about five minutes to drop in, and you're just in La La Land. And I don't have the same type of anxiety expression that you have flying, but it's one of the most uncomfortable things that I do on a semi-regular basis.

[00:16:50] Alyson: It's very hard on your body and your brain in different ways.

[00:16:54] Luke: Yeah. It's the EMF, the noise, the whole thing. So I do NuCalm usually for an hour to an hour and a half, sometimes two hours on the plane. I put an eye mask on and I'm just out, and I find it's relaxing, but also when I land, I'm much more energized because I haven't used resources to try to get comfortable. It just drops me into a place of comfort.

[00:17:20] But even maybe more so for me is, and it's not something they even talk about a lot, but are the focus tracks, which I listen to nonstop when I'm working, when I'm working on my book or doing any focused office work, emails, whatever. And it is like the best nootropic in the world. It locks me in. You see me. I go into my office and I'm just like, last night I went in there and put it on and worked, I think, for three or four hours straight without even blinking.

[00:17:52] I'm not saying that's healthy. I should be getting up and jumping on the trampoline or doing some squats and not sitting for that long, but I just got locked in, and NuCalm is really helpful for that. So that's a great resource for people, for travel, and otherwise. And speaking of resources, the show notes today, folks, are going to be lukestorey.com/6-- was it 626?

[00:18:15] Alyson: Yeah.

[00:18:15] Luke: 626. So anything we talk about on here that's linkable, like Geoship or NuCalm or anything else that people might want to look into further, it will be there in the show description on your podcast apps and so on.

[00:18:29] Alyson: Also side note before you cover some of the other travel hacks, like that shower filter.

[00:18:37] Luke: Oh, yeah.

[00:18:37] Alyson: But I did want to mention what pinged in super small side note, is I'm not directly naming the healing chamber because it has been reported to me a number of times that they have fully rectified that issue, what happened to me. Yeah, I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy in any lifetime.

[00:19:06] And like I said, they have supposedly fully fixed that. And I pray that's true and that it's not supposed to happen to anyone else again. Because I could just hear some of your listeners being like, "Well, what tells the chamber so we don't get electrocuted?"

[00:19:24] Luke: Good point. That's taking the respectable high road, and yeah, I'm quite confident that it has been remedied. Unfortunately, it took that experience for you to sound the alarm.

[00:19:40] Alyson: Yeah.

[00:23:30] Luke: Okay, so another issue with travel is contaminated water in hotels and Airbnbs and things like that. So this company Canopy had reached out to me about their shower and bathtub filters, and I looked into it, and it looks to be legit and up to my standards.

[00:23:58] So knowing we were traveling, I was going to have them send these to Nevada City. But then I realized after an Airbnb or two, that all the houses we were staying, because they were all remote were on well water. And so I was like, "Oh, no chlorine smell, no chemicals." So we didn't end up needing them. But for those watching the video, this thing is super rad. So this is a bathtub water filter. And I've been waiting for years.

[00:24:33] Your spigot goes in here and then the filter's here and the water comes out here. I've been waiting for freaking years for someone to come up with one of these that isn't a piece of garbage. I've always just bought them on Amazon and they're like a little ball, and you try to-- it's got a rubber string, and you try to hang it on the thing and it falls off and they're just garbage. So these guys have figured that out, which I'm really excited about.

[00:24:57] And then they've got a shower head here that has quite a bit of filtration in it. And then I just opened these when we got back. And then there's also one of those--

[00:25:08] Alyson: Nice, little sprayer. A little handheld--

[00:25:10] Luke: Handheld vibes. Yeah. Which I never used, but it's cool that they made that so there's a filter inside it.

[00:25:16] Alyson: You can get in the crevices better with that.

[00:25:18] Luke: Yeah, exactly.

[00:25:19] Alyson: Little spritzing.

[00:25:20] Luke: Could get in the nether regions without putting fluoride and chlorine all over you. So that's a good discovery that I thankfully didn't have to use. But that's always an issue when traveling, especially if you're used to purified water at home, which we thankfully are here, you really notice it when you travel.

[00:25:44] So every time we travel or I'm staying in a hotel, I'm like, "Oh my God. The shower's like a freaking gas chamber." The other thing, of course, that's difficult with travel is lighting. And I'll admit I'm a little extreme with this, but I've just found so many benefits to my health and sleep and mood, etc., from eliminating crappy LED and fluorescent lights wherever we stay. So you know half my suitcase is full of Bon Charge red lights. They also make lights that have three different settings from no blue, yellow, to a medium to a bright daylight.

[00:26:25] Alyson: So you can pick your--

[00:26:26] Luke: Yeah. So if you need more light, you can turn on the yellow one, and it's not so dark.

[00:26:30] Alyson: I also want to quickly interject. This memory just flashed in. A couple of few years ago, I remember there was, I don't know, someone on social media or one of your listeners who said, "There's no way that Luke actually does that with the light bulb." Because I think you had explained the light bulb changes.

[00:26:50] Maybe I was somewhere and they said-- no, actually, I think I was somewhere at a gathering and the person said that to me and I was like, "well, I'm his wife, so if anyone on the planet would know the accuracy and truthfulness, it's me. And I can indeed confirm that he does that. So much so that I want to say on this trip, we were gone for six weeks.

[00:27:15] My husband brought one pair of underwear, about three t-shirts, one pair of sweatpants, and then the other two humongous suitcases were filled with nothing but light bulbs and biohacking. I don't even know what all you brought, but it was hilarious once we got there.

[00:27:35] Luke: It's called wellness technology.

[00:27:37] Alyson: Okay. But it was just so funny because the last trip to Indiana, we realized that you didn't bring hardly any clothes too. So we're like, "What is this new trend you have going?

[00:27:48] Luke: I'm having issues packing. The clothing part, that was a huge fail on this trip. I get there.

[00:27:57] Alyson: Six weeks. He was going into the creeks in-- every place we stayed at typically would have a pond nearby or a creek. And he was washing his undies.

[00:28:06] Luke: I was like a little villager out there.

[00:28:09] Alyson: I'd find him down in the creek scrubbing his one pair.

[00:28:11] Luke: I'm doing laundry in the river.

[00:28:13] Alyson: I offered you mine at one point.

[00:28:15] Luke: Yeah, I'm not going to do that. So that was a fail. So I need to address that admittedly. I seem to have lost my ability to pack clothing like an adult.

[00:28:27] Alyson: This is a new trend.

[00:28:28] Luke: Yeah, it's really weird. So I need to make a packing list apparently. And also, a couple of places didn't have washing machines, so by the end of the trip I'm down to one clean t-shirt. So yeah, it was the thing.

[00:28:40] Alyson: All that to say though, you really do bring all of these light bulbs.

[00:28:44] Luke: Yeah. And it's a little bit of a pain in the ass at first. But like any habits, whether they're habits that are counterproductive and not great for you, or habits that improve your life, it doesn't take long to habituate yourself. It just becomes automatic.

[00:29:07] So for me, it doesn't feel like extra work to check into a hotel room and change out a few of the light bulbs. I don't change them. Some of them can't be changed. But in terms of the bedside lamps and things like that, it's just a no brainer. And it really does make life better.

[00:29:26] I find that I sleep better. It's easier to wind down at night. You don't have that annoying sub-perceptual flicker that's wrecking your nervous system and all of that stuff. Also, people that might not believe that I actually adjust the lighting everywhere I go, there's a misconception out there that I've seen on social media that all LED lighting is trash.

[00:29:52] And I would say 99.99% of it is, but there are companies like Bon Charge and also Shielded Healing at the Shielded shop that manufacture LED Lights to have no flicker and no harmful spectrum of light, and also, that don't produce a bunch of dirty electricity and EMF, which is also an issue with-- especially those curly Q CFL bulbs. You don't want those anywhere near you. They are terrible for EMF, horrible for light, and they're just bad for the environment.

[00:30:25] They have mercury in them. Yeah, they suck ass. So contrary to popular belief, there are high-quality, health-supporting LED lights. Now in the house here we have mostly incandescent lights, but those are not very easy to travel with because they're heavier and they break. The LED lights are super light and they're easy to travel with. So that's what I do. And then another one is bringing a little roll of black electrical tape to cover up all of the freaking indicator lights all over the place.

[00:30:56] Alyson: Yeah. All the new modern appliances have the brightest lights that are on for just no reasons. Some of them obviously are like a clock, telling you the time. But the smoke detector-- or, no, the air conditioning unit in that third house. Just this one dot, but it would light up the whole room. It's so weird.

[00:31:19] Luke: Yeah. So the lighting is a huge thing. The other one is EMF, which is really difficult to handle when you're traveling. So I'll do things on the energetic level. Like I'll activate Quantum Upgrade or FLFE on an address.

[00:31:37] It's a little difficult to remember if you're moving a lot like we were, like, oh, I got to update the address. But those are both helpful. But on the more physical and practical level, I always travel with a big long sheet of EMF-shielding fabric. Maybe like, I want to say, eight feet by four feet or something.

[00:32:01] It's really light and compact. So I'll just cover behind the headboard of the bed with that whole strip. And then I have a little alligator clip that has a grounding plug on the other end. So I clip the metal clip to the shielding fabric and then plug that in the ground outlet on the wall because shielding fabric doesn't work for electric fields unless the field has somewhere to dissipate.

[00:32:28] And so it has to be grounded. So essentially, when you're sleeping in any room anywhere and there's electricity in the wall behind you, which there always is, there's outlets for your lamps and things like that, the entire bed is getting radiated. You're getting fried with 60 hertz electric field or AC current, which is really not good. Not to mention dirty electricity if the house isn't wired right and so on.

[00:32:55] So that's another thing that would seem neurotic. I'll give you that extreme maybe, but super easy to do and totally worth it because you don't want to be sleeping in an electric field. Now that doesn't do anything for the radio frequency cell towers, smart meters, cell phones, etc. That just blocks the electric fields.

[00:33:16] But even just doing that is a huge upgrade. And there have been times-- I didn't do it this trip because I knew we'd be staying in the woods where there's no cell service, thankfully. But if I go to a city, I'm going to use the Faraday Labs full tent to cover the entire bed.

[00:33:34] And then you're sleeping in a Faraday cage. And that takes care of the radio frequencies. I sleep like a baby when that thing is covering the bed in cities where I would normally be pretty agitated by a high-EMF environment. So that's a really good hack. Oh, and then I always bring the little Blushield scaler, wave generator to harmonize--

[00:34:02] Alyson: I never understood that thing. I just see it like always everywhere with us in the kitchen. I'm just like, "I've never understood what that black box is.

[00:34:12] Luke: Well, that helps your body be more resilient to EMF because it sends out a harmonic frequency into the environment. And so that's why I keep one in the car. Also have the Leela Quantum block in the car. I admit I'm psycho with this EMF stuff, but it's not born out of--

[00:34:34] Alyson: Even when you do all this, your body is just so sensitive to EMFs. Even when you stack all this stuff, you still feel it on long drives and stuff here. You didn't feel it on the long drives in Nevada City, which was interesting.

[00:34:46] Luke: The fact is that our world is littered by military grade weapons that we think are cell towers. Anyone listening, ask yourself this. Does your phone work better now than it did 10 years ago? Do you download things faster than you did 10 years ago? The answer is no. I can already answer for you.

[00:35:12] There's a cell tower every fucking half mile in any urban or suburban area. They are not for communication. I'm sorry. They're just not. I've done episodes on it. I'll do more. So we're in an energetic war, essentially. And so I'm pretty hardcore about the EMF issue because unfortunately I know what's going on and I know the effects it has on your body.

[00:35:38] And also because I was inadvertently radiation poisoned from unknowingly living under a cell tower. So it's one of those things about which I am such a strong advocate based on personal experience.

[00:35:56] Alyson: Maybe that's partially why you are so extra sensitive to it now after what happened.

[00:36:03] Luke: Yeah. That really was extremely detrimental to my health that three-year period. I got tinnitus. I just start wearing glasses. Extreme brain fog. I remember there was a period, it was brutal. I lived in LA for 30 years at that point. I knew that city like the back of my hand.

[00:36:22] And I would go to run an errand and I would get lost. I would just be like, "Where the fuck am I? In my own neighborhood? My brain was just fried. As soon as I moved, it started to clear up. But there are some residual effects of that. So I know radiation sickness is a very real thing, and I've had it, and it really sucks.

[00:36:40] Most people aren't going to be that sensitive to it, but I think if the inverse square law is how EMF is measured in terms of its effect on you, distance is everything. So right now we live-- I think the closest cell tower is about a mile away. But if there was one next to our house, anyone staying in this house would get sick no matter how sensitive you are. So just happened to be that I'm super sensitive and I had very acute proximity exposure.

[00:37:13] Alyson: It just so happened you randomly found that tower that one day because it was hidden.

[00:37:19] Luke: That was a God shot. We can thank Dr. Jack Kruse for that because he was getting on me about sun gazing, and I was only doing the morning, the sunrise, and then he is like, "You got to do both. You got to do the sunset." And that's what led me to the top of that building. Anywho, for people that want to learn like a lot about EMF testing and mitigation, we'll put a link to my EMF Home Safety masterclass in the show notes here at lukestorey.com/626.

[00:37:47] And it's a completely free course. It's about five and a half hours of video showing all the ways you can test all the different mitigation techniques. And also there is a downloadable PDF in there of all the different things that I've ever found to be useful for EMF.

[00:38:04] Alyson: Yeah, because if somebody wanted to do that travel hack, if you don't do that stuff right, you can actually make things worse.

[00:38:10] Luke: In some cases, yeah. Really the easiest one for travel is getting the EMF-shielding fabric. I got mine on Amazon. They're all basically the same. Get a little alligator grounding clip. The best tape to use, by the way, if you don't want to harm the place you're staying and their furniture and stuff is surprisingly packing tape, the clear packing tape you use to pack up boxes.

[00:38:34] It sticks well and it comes right off and doesn't cause any damage. That one's pretty easy. Now, depending on who you travel with, they might think you're nuts, but they'll sleep a lot better.

[00:38:46] Alyson: Speaking of sleep, for anyone watching this episode if I seem extra fidgety and rolling my eyes, my eyes are so, so heavy, I was up from about 2:30 until I don't know when going through one of the wildest shamanic healing processes, journeys, interdimensionally being healed by giant blue beings and native friends, and a TP and some Peruvian allies. It was an incredibly deep and long spontaneous journey that I was thrust into.

[00:39:31] And so I told Luke, I was like, "You got to take it easy on me this episode. I don't know how long it can last." So I just want to say that for anyone watching because I'm doing the best I can, and I'm just trying to stay awake and alert and here and present, but I'm feeling the effects of my long, deep healing journey.

[00:39:52] Luke: You're a very unique creature. I remember when we first started dating. I don't know if we were dating. You just moved right in.

[00:40:00] Alyson: That's true.

[00:40:01] Luke: When we first became a couple, I guess.

[00:40:02] Alyson: We had three dates, then I moved in with Jellybean.

[00:40:05] Luke: Yeah. But at that time, I was much more frequent with plant medicine work and things like that, especially than I am now, which is pretty much non-existent at present time. But I remember you would often say to me like, "You don't need to go do these journeys. Everything that you're unlocking by using psychedelics is already within you. You can do all of that work without actually taking medicine."

[00:40:33] Alyson: It's true.

[00:40:34] Luke: And I'd be like, "Wow, you obviously haven't taken a big enough dose of medicine because the shit that's been happening for me at that point--" The shit being beautiful experiences. I can't manifest that. At least I don't know that I can--

[00:40:49] Alyson: Yes, you absolutely can.

[00:40:50] Luke: Without that kind of help. But over the years of living with you now for five years, I can attest that I think that's true. And you're very, I think, uniquely gifted in the ways that you have these journey-like experiences just on the natch, and they are usually in the middle of the night. And that makes sense because of the cosmic energies--

[00:41:22] Alyson: The witching hours.

[00:41:23] Luke: Yeah. And also your body's making a bunch of melatonin at that time. So this is why sadhana, the tradition of sadhana usually happens at 3:00, 4:00 in the morning.

[00:41:32] Alyson: That's always when these happen.

[00:41:34] Luke: Yeah. That's when you're really tapped in. So you're having these unintentional sadhana practices without taking any plant medicines. So now I see why you used to say that to me. And it's inspiring to know that someone can get to those places and do that kind of work without taking the hit on your nervous system and sleep and things like that, that usually come with plant medicine journeys.

[00:41:57] Alyson: They're just at-home, spontaneous feelings.

[00:41:59] Luke: Yeah. It's just weird. I never know what I'm going to hear from you when we get up in the morning. "Oh, how'd you sleep, honey?" And you're like, "Oh God. Last night I went on these journeys." I'm just like, "I'm passed out." I take so many sleep supplements. I'm doing all my things. I'm like, "I have no idea you're--"

[00:42:16] Alyson: They're so beautiful and so profound. Over the years when I've on other podcasts shared healing stories or journey stories, oftentimes people want to know like, what plant medicine, or where were you? And I'm just like, "No, no plant medicine, and I was in my studio apartment in Brooklyn." It's just the vast majority of these experiences just happen naturally.

[00:42:41] Luke: Yeah. I've had very--

[00:42:41] Alyson: Which I'm super grateful for.

[00:42:42] Luke: I've had very few deep experiences on the natch. There's been a couple. Okay. On the topic of sleep, and we can get into some of the other questions, I did some Instagram post about this because I was just so thankful. But one of the challenges in travel for me, and I'm sure many people, especially in summertime, because we-- one of the reasons we left Texas was because July and August are just historically just untenable here.

[00:43:13] Alyson: In the triple digits.

[00:43:14] Luke: Yeah, brutal. I didn't know it was going to be also really hot in the 90s in Nevada City. So I was like, "Ah, we made it out of Texas." We land there and I'm like, "Okay. Hot as shit here too."

[00:43:24] Alyson: The sun is really strong.

[00:43:26] Luke: Yeah. But it's a dry heat. I don't know if that matters. It was still very hot. So personally, I do not sleep well if I am hot. And most crappy mattresses are all synthetic and don't breathe properly. Here at home we're fortunate to have the Essentia mattresses, which don't have that issue.

[00:43:49] But when I travel, oftentimes my sleep sucks. And it's just because I'm overheating. When I'm sleeping with you, it's exacerbated because you are a human radiator. This woman, you guys--

[00:44:06] Alyson: I don't feel inside of myself.

[00:44:09] Luke: This woman puts off so much heat. It's like you have a BioMAT, a full-sized BioMAT next to you.

[00:44:27] Alyson: You got a little oracle, BioMat wife. Cozy.

[00:44:31] Luke: Yeah. It is cozy at times, but not during the sleep. So I've been using this thing by a company called ChiliSleep for years. They start out. They had a thing called the Chilipad. I'm sure many people are aware of it. And then they made their elite model, which is called the Dock Pro. And we use those here at home, or at least on my side of the bed we use them.

[00:44:56] And I can set the temperature and it keeps me perfectly cool and I sleep like a baby. But traveling is difficult when I don't have those. So knowing we were going to be there for such a long time, I brought one of them and then realized the pad that I brought is a full-size pad that covers your side.

[00:45:15] So then Alyson started getting too hot because she's on this synthetic fabric pad without any cooling going on her side. So I ordered another one, and then that was when we really cracked the code. So they make these pads where each side has its own controlling unit and its own temperature.

[00:45:37] So she could choose hers and I could choose mine, and you can also set it so that it gets really warm and cozy in the morning, like an electric blanket, but there's no electricity going through it to make EMF. It's just hot or cold water. And so I wanted to give--

[00:45:52] Alyson: It's nice to get it toasty in the mornings.

[00:45:54] Luke: It's amazing. Yeah.

[00:45:56] Alyson: Cozy.

[00:45:56] Luke: And you can use their app to set it where it's timed. So say 6:00 AM it starts warming up, etc. I just never do that because to set the timer, you have to turn on Wi-Fi. Turn on the Wi-Fi on the units, and then set it. But I like to keep everything on airplane mode, so I never do that.

[00:46:15] But I just want to say that whether you're traveling or not, if people have poor sleep, you might want to look at the temperature because it's an issue you don't realize is trashing your sleep because you just are restless, but you don't necessarily wake up sweating, but you just don't realize your body temperature, your core temperature's too high for you to get into deep sleep.

[00:46:37] Delta sleep requires lower body temperature. So it's like mimicking nature. If we were hunter-gatherers sleeping outdoors, the ground would be pretty cold when you go to sleep and then as the sun comes up, it would start to warm up. And so you're just kind of mimicking that. So that was a massive lifesaver, a bit of a hassle and expense to ship them. Admittedly, they're pretty heavy. But for me, I don't really care what the hassle or cost is when it comes to my sleep.

[00:47:06] Alyson: Well, mic drop. Okay. All right.

[00:47:09] Luke: Non-negotiable. Quality sleep when-- I'm freaking going to be 55 next month. Soon. Yeah. When I was 25, 35, 45, sleep, not that important. 55, major issue.

[00:47:25] Alyson: Yes. I will agree that is true for you, I'm saying. All right. You ready for some listener questions?

[00:47:33] Luke: Mm-hmm.

[00:47:34] Alyson: All right. Apologies in advance if I butcher your name. This one is from Abashek on Instagram. And this person is asking, "What are some difficult lessons you've learned in business?"

[00:47:49] Luke: Oh, let me count the ways. Ah, there's so many. This is a great question.

[00:47:59] Alyson: Where to begin?

[00:47:59] Luke: Yeah. Well, the first thing is I think some people are more innately geared toward being an employee than an employer. And there were years of my life I was working in fashion. The first few years I was an assistant. Assistant fashion stylist. I was dressing celebrities and things like that.

[00:48:24] But I was in the third tier, then second tier, then what's called a first assistant. And I did that longer than most people do who are really trying to make a career at that for the simple reason that you have less responsibility when it's not your show. Not your show like a TV show, but just it's not your game. You're just a player on the game. You're not the coach kind of thing.

[00:48:50] So I enjoyed being able to leave work and be done with work and not have to think about it or put any energy into it. I would just pay my dues and do my hours and go home, and my boss would the one that's getting emails at midnight and having much more accountability. That wasn't a corporate office job. Obviously, it was still a creative and fun job.

[00:49:19] But I think many people look at entrepreneurs or people that are in business for themselves with a sense of envy that they have it easy. But owning your own business comes with a lot more responsibility. And if you're someone who really likes to turn work off and go live your life when work's over, owning a business might not be for you, which is the case for me.

[00:49:48] I don't really ever feel like I'm completely done with work for the day or for the month. Or something like vacation is not the same experience as someone who works for someone else. And when they go on vacation, they're really on vacation. There's no work to do.

[00:50:07] Alyson: I've said to you so many times in all of the years we've been together, I still to this day don't think we've ever taken a real vacation because you're either weaving in podcast interviews. You managed to get a couple in in Nevada City, and hopefully we will be able to have our friend and teacher Swami on at some point, but that was one that you couldn't get in. But yeah.

[00:50:33] And I've been in more hibernation, semi-retirement mode, although I'm emerging out. So there have been times in my life where when I go on trips, I'm in this similar mode. So this isn't a critique, it's just we have talked about that we haven't gone to the ocean and just been at the ocean. There's always been these work factors woven into every trip we've taken.

[00:50:56] Luke: Yeah, totally. Or if there's not like actual task related work, there's social media presence to tend to. And oftentimes travel is fun and exciting and interesting and something that you want to share. So then sharing experiences and things you discover while traveling on social media is another kind of work.

[00:51:23] Back in the day you'd go on vacation, and I used to love-- well, I guess I do love photography, but I used to have an actual film camera, and I'd take a trip, and I would just want to document everything by photographing it. And then at the end of the trip I'd realize like, wow, I need to come back here without a camera and just have the experience without documenting it.

[00:51:41] And it's the same with social media. So back to the question, I think first and foremost is self-awareness and self-analysis, self-honesty in the fact of whether or not you want to have your own business or if you just want to support someone else's business and have less responsibility and accountability.

[00:52:05] So one of the mistakes I think I've made is thinking, yeah, I want to be an entrepreneur and do my own thing and not realizing that there are benefits to that, obviously, if you build a company and you have a successful exit, if you're acquired or something like that, that can be life-changing.

[00:52:25] For me it wasn't life-changing, but it was nice to have some very small pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. But I think thinking about life in terms of your long-term goals and the quality of life you want to have, and the kind of schedule you want to have, and the sort of freedom, it's definitely something to consider. So while there's more freedom in owning your own business, it's also more restrictive. Because if you take your hands off the wheel, it could very easily--

[00:52:54] Alyson: Could fly off the cliff.

[00:52:56] Luke: Run amok. That said, I wasn't born as a person who's good at having a job and the monotony of having a job, which I did have a job once, working in a clothing store for a year and a half, two years. And I went absolutely insane. Going to the same location, in the same room, in the same box every day at 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM. Just walking in circles in this little store, I was like a caged animal.

[00:53:29] So I figured out then I'm not very good at working for other people, and especially if it's very redundant. One way is not right and the other wrong, but I would say before going into business for yourself, you got to really assess whether or not it's going to suit you. For me, it suits me. There's a lot more freedom in it.

[00:53:56] I don't have to usually be anywhere in the morning. I wake up and I'm like, "Oh, cool. I got a two or three hour morning routine before I got to do the things." But at the same time that freedom comes at the cost of if things fall apart, it's your responsibility.

[00:54:14] So if you have a team of people, which thankfully right now, God bless the people that work for me, if things start falling apart, it's nobody's fault other than mine because there's been something in my leadership or management that's broken something or I'm not supporting the people that work for me in a way where there's clarity and systems in place and things like that.

[00:54:44] So there's a lot of freedom and a lot of responsibility. Some of the mistakes that I've made that come to mind are in terms of building said team, and that is in hiring people based on rapport that I share with them. In other words, hiring people that are cool people that I want to hang out with. They're fun. They're just like me. We think alike.

[00:55:09] Alyson: You feel like you can be yourself and not have to--

[00:55:12] Luke: Exactly. The problem with that-- that's important too. You obviously want to be around people that you enjoy, but the problem that I've had that I took a long time to learn was essentially hiring people that are just like me and have the same strengths and the same weaknesses. So I would duplicate myself.

[00:55:39] So I'm not very good at administrative, very detail-oriented work, and I'd need someone who was good at that, but I would hire someone who's good at the things I'm good at and just replicate myself basically. And then those things are still left undone. So really paying attention.

[00:55:57] Of course, there has to be company culture and personal value alignment, especially with the work that I do. Someone who is super woke is probably not going to be a good fit for helping me with my podcast and things like that. So there's a worldview and a general system of what you value that's important.

[00:56:23] But what I've had to learn the hard way is to hire people that have completely different skill sets and strengths than myself and making sure that they are in a role that supports their strengths and doesn't frustrate them by giving them projects, tasks, responsibilities, etc., that are not natural and enjoyable, and to some degree that they can be successful in doing.

[00:56:53] So it's like if you hire someone to do a job that is really not within their skillset, they're going to be very unhappy and the job's not going to be done well. So I think team building has been a huge lesson for me, and that has to do with really identifying an org chart, what the different roles are, and really drilling down on those roles.

[00:57:17] What are the tasks and responsibilities of each role? And not clumping all of those into one and just trying to get one person to be a jack of all trades, but to really be willing to take the time to hire a number of people who are specialists and to keep them siloed in the area of expertise that best suits them.

[00:57:40] So the mistakes I've made have to do with not properly vetting people, not having automation and systems in place so that when you have to replace someone, whether they quit or it's just not working out on your end, you don't have to reinvent the wheel of every single thing they do.

[00:58:01] So at this point within my company, which is funny-- I don't even think of it as a company. It's just like a motley crew of people that create content basically and get the content out in the world. But if anyone were to leave today, I won't say that they're replaceable because I love everyone that works for me right now, but the role is replaceable.

[00:58:23] It's like everything is documented. There's a workflow for every single task. So if for any reason someone had to leave, it's very easy to plug a new person into that role and train them. So there's all kinds of training materials and-- so yeah, the most key person in my organization gave notice a month ago or two months ago. And it's all on good terms. She just wants to do different stuff. Bailey. Some of you know Bailey, which I'm super happy for her.

[00:58:59] Of course, when she shared that with me, I was like, "Oh God." She's such a key player. Old friend, John, is stepping into the role, and thankfully so many of those workflows have been documented that it's pretty seamless to just phase her out and phase him in. Now we've had some time to do that. So I would say personnel, human resources has been something that I've struggled with over the years and have gotten much better at. The other thing is--

[00:59:34] Alyson: Have you ever any bad investments?

[00:59:37] Luke: My first venture capital investment a few years ago. Thankfully it wasn't a lot of money. The company has not been acquired, and so that's just floating in the ethers. I don't know if that's ever going to happen at this point, but I know very little about investing. And especially at that time, I knew nothing about it.

[01:00:05] I was just like, "I got a little extra cash." So I threw some money into this company. But I think people that do investing are pretty aware of the fact that you're not going to win on every one. I don't know what the ratio is.

[01:00:21] But if you've got some money in five things and one of them goes big, it makes up for the four that did nothing kind of thing. But I haven't had-- actually, early on I did one real estate investment where I just completely lost the money. This is, I think, before we met. Yeah.

[01:00:42] Alyson: But what were you--

[01:00:44] Luke: This is when me and my brother Andy-- there was a huge real estate boom in LA, and so we started going to these boot camps and seminars and we were going to learn how to flip houses and do all this stuff.

[01:00:55] Alyson: Oh, I forgot about that.

[01:00:56] Luke: And I realized I'm just not good at that kind of work. So I didn't do it, but Andy became a real estate broker, and so we were partnered on that. He was working with these guys who did commercial real estate investing, and there was a property, I don't remember what it was, Arizona or something.

[01:01:12] It was going to be this hot property with a great return, and I put some money into it. At the time, it was a lot of money, probably 10, 20 grand or something. I put on a credit card actually. That was also dumb. And then it just fizzled out. And I don't even know what happened, but we didn't get our money back and it just went away. It was just like, yeah, it didn't work out. Good luck.

[01:01:37] Alyson: See you later.

[01:01:37] Luke: So I had to pay the credit card. So that was a mistake. But generally not-- let me think if I can think of any other. Well, just another, I don't know if it's mistake, but something that has served me is it took me a long time, and it wasn't until I started this podcast, but I would never personally want to start a company just because the company could make money.

[01:02:07] And I talked about this recently on the episode that I did with Elizabeth, which is a great episode about this topic. I think some people can probably be motivated by just making money and be fulfilled and happy and secure and all that. Me personally, I can't do work just for money.

[01:02:32] So I haven't really made that mistake in a very long time in terms of that specific question, but I think what gives me staying power in terms of doing this for 636 episodes for, going on nine and a half years here is because I have passion for what I'm doing. I really enjoy what I do. Yeah, sometimes it's a bit of a slog. Every week I'm just saying, "Oh, I got another podcast." It's a lot of work.

[01:03:05] It's not that I don't work hard, but I know that the work I do is of great service to a certain number of people because I meet those people and they share with me how this podcast and other things I do in the world positively impact them. So it's like having an impact-driven, purposeful business for me is the only way I could do business because I would not be fulfilled, and I would feel like I had a job if I was doing something that was solely based on making money.

[01:03:40] So I think finding a way to align your skillset and your talent with your passion is one of the major keys to success. Because there are a lot of people out there who are really good at something, but they're not passionate about it. There are a lot of people that are passionate about doing something, but they're not that good at it. So it's like you need to have an equal share of passion and skill, I think, to be successful. And the times in my life where one of those was lacking, I was either unfulfilled or unsuccessful.

[01:04:20] Alyson: Okay. Those are a lot of good tips.

[01:04:23] Luke: Oh, another two principles is integrity and competence.

[01:04:30] Alyson: Right. Yeah. As primary factors for hiring.

[01:04:33] Luke: Yeah. And we've run into that a lot. Just hiring people to do things in the house. There's someone who's really good at what they do, they're very competent, but they have no follow through or integrity just in terms of doing what they say they're going to do when they say they're going to do it, and so on.

[01:04:52] Alyson: Hence we still have to fix the last part of these windows.

[01:04:54] Luke: Exactly. Yeah.

[01:04:56] Alyson: Five months later.

[01:04:57] Luke: Yeah. And then you have some people that are very trustworthy and have very high integrity, and they're very responsible--

[01:05:02] Alyson: But their quality of work--

[01:05:03] Luke: They're that skilled at what they do. So that's a rare find in an employee or contractor or anything like that. So if you're a business owner and you find someone who has both of those qualities in equal measure, you're winning.

[01:05:21] Alyson: Great. Okay. How about Ninka? This is a good one. I can't wait to hear what you have to say about this. I might toss in a couple of things. What are your thoughts on the tsunami of ex-new age spiritual leaders and health influencers coming to Christ? Because that's been going on for a long time.

[01:05:43] Luke: Mm-hmm.

[01:05:44] Alyson: And maybe Ninka has also been observing it for a long time, but to me this isn't a brand new thing. We know people personally who-- I guess I'll just speak for myself, but I know quite a lot of fellow metaphysical teachers, priestess teachers, fellow shamans, oracles, who have "defected" from the spiritual space and are now Christ only.

[01:06:19] And even Doreen Virtue, she probably was the starter of this wave in some respects years and years and years ago. She's an OG. I think almost all of her books and decks were through Hay House. But if you're old enough or if you've been devoted to the spiritual path long enough, you know who Doreen Virtue is. She was a staple in the industry. Gosh, I wish I would looked it up. I bet she authored more than 200 card decks.

[01:06:52] Luke: Really?

[01:06:53] Alyson: Yeah. In fact, Jarrod, could you Google how many card decks Doreen Virtue-- or how many books and card decks? I just be so curious. She was just cranking about-- and I don't know her story exactly and I also don't know her personally, so don't quote me on this. But at some point, years and years and years ago, she said no more, and I believe told Hay House like, do not sell any more of my hundreds of products through you guys.

[01:07:25] And she started to view even-- she does like angel card decks and archangels and all sorts of really beautiful work. But she started to feel or firmly believe that that was of a, I don't know, I think a darker nature or not a true pure spiritual transmission.

[01:07:46] So she just went Jesus-only. Oh, 50-plus. Okay. Really? Are you sure, Google's it right on that. I swear she's done more. I don't know. We'll put that fun factoid in the show notes because she wrote a lot. Even 50-plus is a lot of books at card decks. That's a big library from one person. So she did it a long time ago.

[01:08:11] Luke: Writing one book, I've learned, is-- oh my God.

[01:08:16] Alyson: Yeah.

[01:08:17] Luke: People that crank out a book every one or two years, I'm in awe having now been doing it myself.

[01:08:24] Alyson: But as we've covered a lot, it's a whole big different thing. If you have a ghost writer, you're not even writing the book.

[01:08:30] Luke: True. We and I have learned that many people whose books I've read and enjoyed didn't actually write them.

[01:08:39] Alyson: Exactly. And you and I chose to write our own. But anyways, so back to Jesus. What are your thoughts? Maybe I know more people personally who have made this pivot, but have you noticed this?

[01:08:52] Luke: I know a couple.

[01:08:55] Alyson: What about Daniel?

[01:08:56] Luke: Uh-huh. Yes. Daniel Vitalis. I don't know that he was ever a big new ager, but he's definitely found Christ.

[01:09:06] Alyson: She also says health influencers.

[01:09:08] Luke: Yeah. There you go. It's interesting. I see the point on one side of the issue is that new ageism has historically been imbued with or infiltrated by forces that seem to be of something other than light. And so I think going back to the hippie movement of the '60s and the emergence of psychedelics into the subcultures and all of that that happen, there seems to be distracting belief systems and theologies that draw people into the realm of Maya and fantasy.

[01:09:59] So getting into all of the alien stuff in Atlanta. No offense, if that's someone's path, I'm on board for whatever brings people to their own relationship with God or consciousness or whatever.

[01:10:17] Alyson: And also there are some very authentic people in that space. And your point is there are some that--

[01:10:23] Luke: I think that spiritually, and this has been true of myself at different times, people that have a hunger to know God or people that are spiritually curious are oftentimes very naive. And mystical, phenomenal, esoteric things are, I think, sometimes a way that those dark forces distract us from core principles and core truth. It's like the simplicity of spirituality on its face is so boring.

[01:11:12] Alyson: Yeah.

[01:11:13] Luke: There's not a lot of bells and whistles. When you get into the new age, what did David Hawkins used to call it? Something like the new age circus or something in that way.

[01:11:27] Alyson: There's a lot to distract yourself in. And touch on this in different ways before, but then it becomes very easy to not face yourself. When you've chosen to incarnate specifically on earth and specifically to become a human being, there's a reason you chose that, and one is to sort out how to be a good fellow human, how to figure out certain relational dynamics. Very earth-based, not glamorous, mystical, soaring with the unicorns things.

[01:12:00] And so, yeah, some people then can find it very easy to get completely swept into that upper realm and completely forget about the whole point. And being grounded and also being human and figuring out how to be a good human too.

[01:12:15] Luke: The astral circus. That's what Hawkins used to call it. He lived in Sedona for a long time, so he was around a lot of that. And he used to warn of, not that it was demonic or something like that, but just that it's so easy to get distracted on the path. And there's so many different teachings and theologies that are really attractive to spiritual aspirants, but ultimately lead them down dead ends.

[01:12:49] And so I would guess that in regard to this question, that many people who have been spiritual teachers or on a spiritual path have ended up at many of those dead ends and been left dissatisfied or discovered that they've been spiritually bypassing with the best of intentions and losing sight of what's real and true.

[01:13:16] Alyson: And it also, speaking from very deep personal experience, and this even came up in the Nevada City trip and maybe we'll cover it more next episode we do together, but I am very much embodied in my oracle at this point. And a fellow Oracle was explaining from her perspective one way you can view what is an oracle is it's someone who's gone through a wide array, over a long duration of time, most likely of various different rites of passages and initiations, and you get to a certain point on your path for some people that you have this really wide tool belt.

[01:14:02] So for me, some of those medicines and archetypes would, of course, be the shaman. Some perspective on what I went through over the last three years in that total dark cave was high priestess, high initiations, which I didn't sign up for in some respects, but clearly my soul did. The seer, the magician, the chief.

[01:14:26] There are various areas on the spiritual path, and when I started to realize who I have been becoming and getting more clarity around that, there was a texture of-- I don't know if overwhelms the right word, but it's like you start to garner so many different dimensions and arrays of capabilities and gifts and tool sets that it can just feel almost too much at times.

[01:14:55] And so one question that did come up for me was, what does that mean for my relationship with Jesus? Because he's always been my main guide since my awakening. And I've shared about this in countless interviews. You can find a past one where I explain I don't come from a religious background, so I don't know Jesus through the Bible.

[01:15:21] I don't know Jesus through going to church, like a lot of people do. I know Jesus through him presenting in my life through that divine intervention. And he has been my main guide since. And so as all these different dimensions and multi-facets of my gifts open and expand and ascend and expand and ground and embody, I think it's really good that I personally choose to keep asking like, how does Jesus fit into this now? How does Jesus fit into this now?

[01:15:54] And there was some perspective shared to me. Because again, I don't know Jesus through the Bible and through the ways other people do. But this one person was sharing that, of course, he didn't have just the apostles, many highly initiated high priestesses, benevolent, high priestesses, walked with him, trained him, taught him things.

[01:16:18] Of course some of the lineages from Africa and Egypt, that he was trained in different rights, the death rights, the resurrection rights, all of these things that I can relate to and have also gone through myself. And so it helped to inform this expanded clarity of who I really am in relation to where Jesus Christ fits in when I started to be vulnerable and brave enough to ask the question or concern that was arising in me, have a trusted sounding board of a person to move that energy through to then get situated again.

[01:16:59] And I'm not saying what's good, bad, right, wrong, but I think some people might reach that space of feeling just the infinite nature of the spiritual realms and dimensions and the gifts growing inside of you. And there is that urge for some, and I had it too, where you just want to take it back to just so simple and "easy."

[01:17:22] Like just, you know what? I've got this huge toll belt. It would probably just maybe be better or simpler if I just Jesus alone. And I'm not trying to say that every person who has made this pivot, that that's why. But I know that has come up for me. And I know that that has come up for a lot of my colleagues and friends who have been doing this work for a very long time. It's just like, you know what? At this point, let's just Jesus alone.

[01:17:48] Luke: Yeah, yeah. Totally. It's like spiritual overwhelm. Especially now because there's so information widely available because of the internet and social media.

[01:18:03] Alyson: Everyone's a reiki master and their dog's are--

[01:18:07] Luke: You can get very lost.

[01:18:10] Alyson: Yeah.

[01:18:11] Luke: For me, I find these esoteric teachings and paths interesting. I don't think I've ever been really led astray in any meaningful way because I just find that there's a set of core principles that were instilled in me by the 12 steps that it's all you need and the rest of it's just, oh, that's interesting.

[01:18:39] But the thing about those core principles is they're probably inherent to any valid religion or theology. But in the case of Alcoholics Anonymous, the origin of the 12 Steps, they were biblical Christian principles. When that organization formed, they realized that church didn't work for alcoholics for a number of reasons that would take a long time to explain.

[01:19:06] But they saw the value in the core principles of the Bible and the teachings of Jesus. So they made a non-denominational organization where you could choose your own higher power. It's a God of your understanding, which is one of the most brilliant aspects of the 12 steps.

[01:19:20] But all of those principles, and I'm no expert on Christianity by any stretch, but I do know the origin of those principles, at least where they've been most utilized and popularized in Western culture have to do with the teachings of Jesus. So it's like the shortcut to self-realization for some of us can just be drilling down to those core principles. And applying those is probably more effective and faster than some of these other threads that we can get lost on, forgiveness, unconditional love, turning the other cheek.

[01:20:04] Alyson: There's always something to look out, figure out, tend to, heal.

[01:20:07] Luke: Yeah. Making amends. There's just like basic, fundamental things that you can learn and very easily-- well, not easily apply to your life, but you can easily grasp them as a intellectual idea, a construct, apply them in your life. Being selfless instead of selfish, easier said than done for some of us. It's been a long road for me.

[01:20:26] Alyson: That can be a life [Inaudible].

[01:20:26] Luke: Right. Being of service to others. All of these just basic principles. And so I think probably a lot of us get spiritual fatigue and we're just like, "Dude, bring me back to the core."

[01:20:40] Alyson: Yeah, yeah.

[01:20:41] Luke: Just like, all right, let's just get this down to the blueprints of this thing and just keep it simple. But also, for me personally, in the past few years since 2020, just seeing the anti-human, anti-life, dark forces that control most of the world and all of our major institutions to see them attack and vilify Christianity and Jesus made it more attractive for me.

[01:21:16] We did a couple of podcasts on this a couple years ago, to the point where I bought us a family Bible and we even went to church a couple of times. Even though I've never really been interested in religion, I became interested in the teachings of Jesus because those that oppose me and my wellbeing also oppose Jesus. So it's the old, what is it? The enemy of my enemies is my friend.

[01:21:46] So some people probably share that with me, where they're like, okay, if these dark forces are so anti-Jesus, there must be good in that. They must believe in the power of Jesus or the power of Christianity. If they're trying to stamp it out, and they're going to such lengths to do so, they wouldn't do that if it didn't have validity or power.

[01:22:06] So that makes me draw more closely to it. Now, it turns out I find the Bible very difficult to read. I don't feel compelled to read it on a regular basis. Went to church a couple of times. It was nice. But still, I'm like, I don't know if I'm a church guy, but if I can distill the things that are attributed to Jesus as teachings, I'm 100% in.

[01:22:31] Alyson: Yeah. Ninka, I'm grateful you asked this question because I think it's just healthy and wonderful to talk about this. There's been humans and religion and all these spiritual possibilities on this planet, some since the beginning of time and others for hundreds of thousands and thousands of years. Just a lot that's been going on.

[01:22:57] There's a lot that's currently going on, and it can feel very cycloney at times. And so, yeah, I think the more we just flush things through and talk things out, it's helpful. And the last thing I'll share is it also pinged for me when Maryanne Williamson reached out a year, whatever ago to me, just for us to do something together here in Austin.

[01:23:22] And we ended up having that beautiful dinner with Carl and Peyton. And Peyton also had a beautiful event at their home for Marianne's book, which is about Jesus. Gosh, it's a--

[01:23:35] Luke: The Mystic Jesus, I think it's called.

[01:23:36] Alyson: Yeah, yeah. Maybe Jarrod could look up the exact title. It's her most recent one, but it's a great book. And the thing that I probably love the most about her and I and all of us coming together in those few days was that dinner where at that large dinner table, all walks of life, all different nationalities, and also just pretty much everyone coming from a different path and vantage point with their experience of Jesus, some having that deep religious wound.

[01:24:15] Even trauma with some, which I'm not going to go into your stories. Don't worry. But those very vulnerable shares of what they endured and their process of getting to know Jesus and then exiting out of those abusive terrains of that path, finding new pathways for them. But then in a certain point, I think a lot of them start to wonder, is there a new way for Jesus for and I to connect?

[01:24:50] Is there like a different way to get to know Jesus? And it's one of the things I'm most grateful for on my path, is that I know Jesus through direct relating, through direct connection. And I didn't have to. There's plenty of other stuff I'd heal and work through, but thank God that wasn't added to the list of having to disarm and decode. Because he's incredibly powerful, obviously.

[01:25:16] So is Mother Mary, Mary Magdalene. They're always in the mix with him. But this is just such a rich conversation. And while it's been going on for quite some time, there are more and more people that were spiritual teachers of different things. Okay, this will probably be the last thing I say. I think the thing that is intriguing for me though is when they start to get in that very harsh-- I don't know the word for it.

[01:25:53] Luke: Dogmatic.

[01:25:55] Alyson: Maybe that's the word, where they start to then view that like, you or I are the devil. And again, I won't share this personal story. Don't worry, I'm not going to say your name, but a very close friend of ours recently experienced a really hurtful situation where this person found their way back to Jesus and got very strict and-- I guess that's the definition of dogmatic in some ways, about it's Jesus only, and then started to view the beautiful, pure, heart-centric work that this other person's doing as dark and all sorts of stuff.

[01:26:35] So that's where I'm just-- I don't think that Jesus operated like that. He helped the wounded and the sick and the abused and the addicts and the gamblers. So that's where I'm just like, oh, the rigid unfollow, speak negatively publicly about the people that you were once very close friends with, almost family with. And then all of a sudden they're the devil?

[01:27:07] Luke: Yeah. Religiosity is not necessarily spirituality.

[01:27:15] Alyson: And shout out to my childhood best friend, Nikki. When I went through that initial awakening and divine intervention, she was one of the first people that I called, and she knows Jesus from a very devoted religious path for the most part. But she really helped usher Jesus into my life, and we've remained best friends through all of these years since I was like, I don't know, sixth grade or middle school.

[01:27:41] No, eighth grade, I think is when we met. And we found our way. She does not at all veer into the realms and lanes that are my calling, and I don't know Jesus the way that she does, but she doesn't view me as the devil, and I don't view her as weird for-- you know what I mean? We both love Jesus. Period. Great. Jesus is awesome.

[01:29:23] Alyson: So yeah, I think that that's my sharing on this note. Yeah.

[01:29:30] Luke: La próxima pregunta.

[01:29:32] Alyson: Okay. I was like, "Where are you going with this?" Got it. I understand enough Spanish. I know what you're asking or saying.

[01:29:40] So this is Faye on Telegram. Oh boy.

[01:29:45] Luke: Oh yeah. For those that want uncensored Luke Storey content, you can find me on Telegram, and we'll link that in the show notes. That's where I post memes and news that would get me kicked off the censored social media platforms.

[01:30:01] Alyson: Do you feel like answering this? If not, we can go to the iboga question. But Faye asks, "Are we living in a simulated reality created by an evil deity or a "divine" matrix holographic simulation?"

[01:30:15] Luke: Oh, that's easy.

[01:30:16] Alyson: Oh. Because I'm just like, "I ain't touching that one."

[01:30:18] Luke: No, I'm just kidding. That's the question, right? It's like the existential Question, capital Q. I wrestle with this one a bit myself. I think where I've arrived now that feels workable, and it's not even-- I think working with 5-MeO-DMT has helped me a lot with this because I've had experiential insights into the nature of this reality that I don't know that I would've had otherwise that have helped me reconcile the existence of good and evil.

[01:31:09] On one hand you have this energy harvesting recycling system of reincarnation where this free range slavery realm called earth parasitically siphons energy off humans as we're born again and again and again.

[01:31:31] Alyson: Quick question because that's a very, very strong statement, because this planet is miraculous, incredible--

[01:31:39] Luke: I haven't gotten to that part yet.

[01:31:41] Alyson: Awe-inspiring. Okay.

[01:31:43] Luke: Yeah. I said on one hand.

[01:31:45] Alyson: Oh, okay, okay.

[01:31:48] Luke: On the other hand, to your point, we live in a magical realm of abundance, beauty, love, connection--

[01:32:04] Alyson: Learning, expansion.

[01:32:05] Luke: Yeah, and opportunities for growth and evolution. So we're in a duality. And the more I come to accept that, the better am I able to understand its purpose. And so to the question, my perspective at this point is not that it's either or. It's not just this parasitic recycling system controlled by dark forces.

[01:32:42] And it's not this utopian, God-centered place of love and light. It's both, and they both keep each other in balance. And so it seems to me that consciousness itself, which you could call God, the supreme, the Godhead, the source of all creation seeks to experience itself in an infinite number of ways, which include both sides of the polarity that we would term good or evil.

[01:33:25] And that part of what we have here on earth is a perfect playground or schoolyard for our soul's evolution. And so God wanting to know itself through us and wanting to find itself through us and us find our way back to the Godhead, back to consciousness, gives us an infinite number of choices that we can make throughout our lives.

[01:33:54] So if there is no option to fall for the temptation of selfishness, darkness, evil, etc., if that temptation wasn't there, we wouldn't have the benefit of choosing love. And so we need both here in this realm. And I think that it is a simulation because when you dream or when you meditate, or even when you close your eyes, or especially if you work with plant medicines and things like that, the world as we know it, the physical world is gone.

[01:34:28] It doesn't exist anymore. It only exists when we're back in our body and our senses give us a material experience with which we can touch, feel, taste, smell, etc., like there's a you there right now. And you seem separate from me, but we're actually just expressions of one single thing.

[01:34:51] So there is oneness that's based in love, but part of that love is providing this realm that we call earth where we can come and have the perfect circumstances by which we as individual souls can evolve along with consciousness as a whole. So if I look at things from that way, it makes it easier for me to reconcile the existence of darkness, the existence of evil, because I know that it serves a purpose and that it's in one way, or maybe in every way, also an expression of God or an expression of consciousness.

[01:35:34] But I don't look at it so much as. We're in a battle of good and evil, that is its own reality. It's more like the simulation. The plane of Earth is a simulation wherein there's a battle of good and evil, but in a higher order, in a higher plane, all there is is good. All there is is love. But this is part of the process by which we remember who we are and why we're here.

[01:36:02] In other words, if we arrived on earth and we knew who we were as divine beings of pure love, there would be no reason for the earth to exist or for us to come here. There's grist for the mill here. Every time I'm wronged and I want to hate someone, it's a beautiful opportunity for me to practice unconditional love and forgiveness. If no one was offending me, then I wouldn't have the opportunity to do that.

[01:36:29] Alyson: It evokes for me that quote that I'm about to butcher. It's such a beautiful one too, so I might need your help again, Jarrod, but it's that quote that says, I'll meet you out in the field beyond right and wrong.

[01:36:43] Luke: I don't know that one.

[01:36:52] Alyson: Beyond the ideas of right and wrongdoing, there is a field, and I'll meet you there. Rumi quote, thanks Jarrod. For some reason your share evoked that for me. And also one of the primary throughline thread teachings of my cave three years, the equanimity piece too.

[01:37:12] Luke: Yeah. It's funny, speaking of things being connected and being one, the very sub-chapter that I'm writing in my book right now is about-- it's in the final chapter and it's about perception. And that chapter opens with a Shakespearean quote. It goes like this. There's no such thing as good or bad. Only thinking makes it so.

[01:37:34] Alyson: Mm-hmm.

[01:37:35] Luke: And that's the trick, is living as though duality is not real in a simulation or a realm in which duality is very real. That's the paradox. It's like there's a higher knowing where we know that in the field of consciousness, there's only one thing there. There are no opposites. There's no polarity. It's just one thing.

[01:38:06] You can get that at certain times in life. Some of us experience that and know it to be true, yet we wake up, we come back, our meditation's over whatever, and like, oh, I'm back in a body and now everything's in separation again. So it's like the separation is an illusion, but it's a necessary illusion for us to do what I think we're here to do.

[01:38:26] Why I think we're here to do that is because the more I set my sights on remembering and integrating that radical acceptance, surrender, open-mindedness in my life, in other words, existing in a way that is as close as I can get to a non-dual sort of perspective is the very thing that enables me to be able to operate and thrive in a totally dualistic realm. It's a massive paradox.

[01:39:00] So it's like accepting that, yeah, this body's going to die. My dad died. There's evil people trying to kill us every freaking day. It's like the entire world is built to poison us by these anti-life entities and beings, this parasitic system in which we live. There's so much darkness and so much love, so the reconciliation for me is just understanding that above and beyond that, none of that exists.

[01:39:32] And if, I don't want to say work really hard, but if I'm committed and devoted to my relationship with God, I got to believe that there's going to be some point in my soul's evolution that I will merge back to that place of totality and won't exist anymore in the realm of opposites and polarity like we do here because it's very difficult.

[01:40:00] It's really hard living in a dualistic world. There's a lot of pain and suffering involved, even if you're doing your very best. I think even more so, if you're on a spiritual path, because there's so many of these existential questions that beg to be answered, when we endeavor to find the answers, a lot of what you uncover is very difficult truth to swallow and accept.

[01:40:25] Alyson: Very well said.

[01:40:27] Luke: Yeah. Spiritual bypassing exists for a reason. It can soften the blow of--

[01:40:33] Alyson: And also just--

[01:40:34] Luke: The experience here.

[01:40:35] Alyson: --choosing to keep your pineal gland calcified AF to just stay in that-- and I'm not saying all people who work in cubicles are this, but I'm just saying to stay in those more just monotony, roboticized ways of experiencing this earth experience where you're not allowing your soul to communicate with you, and you're not allowing the full spectrum of earthly human emotions to be felt because-- I'm sure there can be many parts of us that are just like, you know what? If we just stay as tight and closed off and constricted as possible, then we don't have to face and smell and deal with and feel all that other stuff.

[01:41:22] Luke: Yeah. Non-player characters. It's a path. I do my best not to judge non-player characters in the stimulation. NPCs for short. Because God only knows how many lifetimes I've squandered as an NPC myself.

[01:41:37] Alyson: Sure. Yeah, and everyone has a divine purpose.

[01:41:41] Luke: We don't know. Those of us that can remember our past lives, I guess do, but it's like in this life I've looked at the fact that I became a drug addict and an alcoholic in a really profound way, and I surrendered and asked God for help, and I got the help I needed. And my life is forever changed as is the entire trajectory of my soul's evolution.

[01:42:07] But I've often wondered how many lifetimes have I burned through where I didn't learn the lesson and I died a drunk? Maybe I was in Scotland in 1500 and they put me in a catapult and dunked me in the river to try to cure me.

[01:42:22] Alyson: Old souls at this point, we've been at all. We've been murderers. And side note, I myself have worked in cubicles when I worked in television, and I'm sure there's other jobs that I forget.

[01:42:32] Luke: I have too.

[01:42:33] Alyson: I've worked-- I've done it all.

[01:42:35] Luke: I got a job as a telemarketer. I worked in a cubicle when I first got sober.

[01:42:41] Alyson: I tried to learn how to work in the mortgage industry.

[01:42:45] Luke: It's hard to imagine, see, but what we're talking about with business, that is a terrible job for you based on your skillset.

[01:42:54] Alyson: Indeed, it was. It did not last long. Yeah, I don't know what was going on with that time in my life.

[01:43:01] Luke: Paperwork.

[01:43:02] Alyson: Numbers.

[01:43:02] Luke: Administrative--

[01:43:04] Alyson: Tech and paperwork. You literally could not formulate a worse crafted job for me.

[01:43:09] Luke: I agree. I want to share something about the book that I forgot to mention earlier that was really fun.

[01:43:29] Alyson: And I want to let Basil know that I loved your question so much that I'm going to weave it into the next episode that he and I do together, because my answer to your question pertains to one of the biggest epiphanies I had in our Nevada City trip. So you're not forgotten. We have your question.

[01:43:49] Luke: What's the question, but we won't answer it?

[01:43:52] Alyson: Do we want to spoil-- this is spoiler?

[01:43:54] Luke: Yeah. I'm just curious. Yeah.

[01:43:55] Alyson: Oh. It's, "How do you manage living your truth, and what do you compromise? We're still living in the matrix of the programmed world."

[01:44:01] Luke: Oh, great.

[01:44:02] Alyson: It's that kitchen epiphany that I had that I feel ties into that.

[01:44:07] Luke: Yeah. That's a good one to cover next time. Selling your soul.

[01:44:12] Alyson: You're not supposed to give it away.

[01:44:14] Luke: Well, I didn't say--

[01:44:15] Alyson: It was my epiphany to give away.

[01:44:17] Luke: People have different interpretations of what that means, so we can unpack that. But one thing I wanted to share that goes back to our trip that was just interesting to me and beautiful, I'm always looking for-- it's actually pertinent to the question that we just unpacked-- is the interconnected nature of all things in space and time.

[01:44:45] And I'm always looking for reinforcement of that knowing that reminds me that there's only one thing and that everything is connected. And it's really top of mind because my book, A Horse named Lonesome, which comes out next year, 2026, I think in November--

[01:45:05] Alyson: Shout out.

[01:45:06] Luke: I'm almost freaking done with it. Oh my God, what a journey. But the book is about loneliness and connection and existential separation and things of this nature. So it's something I'm thinking about, writing about, unpacking, contemplating on a daily basis for many, many hours for the past couple years. Cookie, listen girl--

[01:45:27] Alyson: Papa's almost done.

[01:45:28] Luke: We're almost done, sweetie.

[01:45:29] Alyson: So hungry tummy. I know. We know.

[01:45:31] Luke: Just chill for two seconds. Okay, Mike Tyson. She's up here punching--

[01:45:36] Alyson: I'm like having to block punches.

[01:45:39] Luke: Yeah. So it's this. It's, where are the synchronicities? And it's a great practice not inventing wishful thinking moments of connection but being on the lookout and being able to identify and celebrate them when they occur.

[01:46:00] So when we were in Nevada City-- my book at this point is 10 chapters, and I had just finished Chapter 9, which was a really difficult one because I was tackling a topic that was just so vast, it was just hard to wrangle it into a manageable word count and so on. And so I outlined the conclusion chapter, Chapter 10, which hopefully brings it all home and is able to summarize a lot of the other themes and things throughout the book.

So I'm always looking for synchronicities. So I start the final chapter of the book. I outlined it, and then the next morning I was set. Page one. What am I going to write? And so I sit to start that chapter, and the opening of that chapter is a reflection on my dad's death earlier this year. Then I realize as I'm writing it, it's August 31st. It's my dad's birthday.

[01:47:11] Alyson: That was wild.

[01:47:12] Luke: Out of thousands of hours, hundreds of days, hundreds of pages written, how is it possible that just randomly the day that that particular passage was going to be included in the book was on his birthday? I don't know how much meaning to attribute to that, but I'm always looking for what are the odds of X, Y, and Z happening?

[01:47:35] So that happens. I get through that as a little-- it's a difficult thing to write about, obviously. The next day I go to the post office in Nevada City, a town of 3,000 people, just random time, 2:00 PM, whatever, walk in. I don't have my glasses on, so I can't see faces clearly past--

[01:47:53] Alyson: And we had tried to go the day before, but it was Labor Day, so we couldn't.

[01:47:57] Luke: Yeah, yeah. So it was a Tuesday. I walk in. I'm like, "Oh man. Big line. Shit." That's the thing with small towns. One post office, longer line than you would get in the city in some cases. So I go. I step in line. All of a sudden hear, "Luke, Luke." And I look up and it's a woman talking to me. Oh, I don't have my glasses. How embarrassing. And I'm like, "I got to come closer. I don't have my glasses. Who are you?" It's my freaking agent, Jaidree. A town of 3,300 people. I'm in the post office. That one 20-minute window of time and I walk into my agent, who I haven't even seen in person through the--

[01:48:37] Alyson: Yeah, you've never met in person.

[01:48:37] Luke: Well, we have met in person once at an event, but that was five years ago or something before we worked together, and we've had no in-person contact. So I write that thing. It's my dad's birthday. It's a pretty heavy day of writing. I'm like, "Man, can I do this? How am I going to bring this thing home and finish it? My deadline's looming." Walk in the post office. She's like, "Dude, you're doing a great job. You're almost done. You got this. It's great so far."

[01:49:01] Alyson: Definitely God-orchestrated or your dad-orchestrated.

[01:49:06] Luke: Yeah. I'm sure all of us have experiences like that, but I think it's really important to look for the interconnectivity of life, to find where things join forces.

[01:49:20] Alyson: I call that the web of totality.

[01:49:22] Luke: Yeah, the web of totality. I think it's really important because we live in a world of separation and it's so convincing because we're in a body and the body needs to have the experience of separation so that it can be itself and do what you're supposed to do here. But the solution to so many of our problems is in the awareness of, and the acceptance of, and the celebration of the fact that we are all connected to one thing.

[01:49:50] Alyson: And what's that one thing?

[01:49:53] Luke: D-O-G.

[01:49:55] Alyson: Backwards. Cookie, is it time for dinner?

[01:49:58] Luke: Yes. She's ready to go.

[01:49:59] Alyson: Beautiful note to end on. Thanks again for having me. We'll come back together again next month where we'll share the mini epiphanies of Nevada City time. In the meantime, we're going to feed our dog who's about to keel over from hunger.

[01:50:17] Luke: Thanks for joining me again, sweetie. I appreciate you doing these episodes with me. It's so much more fun than doing them with myself.

[01:50:25] Alyson: Wonderful.