Russell Brand FINALLY Opens Up: Escaping A Lifetime Of Anxiety, Addiction & Finding Love! | E260

that's a brilliant evil question it's evil I've asked so many people this question no one's ever wanted to answer it well here I am Russell Brand is one of the most famous comedians in the world he's one of the most unmissable performers on the planet you don't want to be around when the laughter stops your earliest years are particularly hard to read drugs and self-harm your mother's illnesses how do we go on the Journey of changing wow this is proper Diary of a CEO stuff there is deep spiritual appetite within all of us for connection but we have a culture that is predicated upon individualism and materialism my initial solution to feeling disconnected and lonely was to try and become famous if you are using impermanent means to achieve a permanent solution you can only fail but what I would say is is in that loneliness in that sense of I'm not good enough I'm worthless are all the ingredients of success because it is sadly a gift to you what could I have added to ten-year-old Russell's life do you think that would have made him feel valued you are enough you are sufficient we are going to be okay what told you otherwise [Music] Russell Brand is one of the most fascinating individuals I have ever spoken to a former self-harming heroin addict self-confessed narcissist bulimic that craved Fame and attention and was so addicted to sex that he slept with five women a day that married Katy Perry three months after meeting her and then divorced her with a text message have you ever felt that subtle feeling that the way you're living is not quite right that's something somewhere is out of balance that you're not living your life as that human somewhere inside you should be living their life the Russell Brand that sits before me today can relate and he's found a new cure for that feeling a better way to handle pain a new blueprint to live by which he believes that you and me and all of us will eventually realize through failure and frustration we are all addicts searching for ways to feel less pain through porn and screens and sugar and addiction and drugs and whatever our vices might be but maybe just maybe maybe Russell is right and maybe there is a simple cure for all of us right there in plain sight [Music] Russell I read a comment at the top of a YouTube video that um of an interview you did and this was the comment this man is a hero he's truly an example of transcendence across the Spectrum from the archetype of selfishness enthralled by addiction to complete selfness and self-awareness I love this man with all of my heart wow that was a comment left regarding you on a recent interview you've done now I'm going to be completely honest with you I should admit that I wrote that comment I sometimes I do even though I know I've written it when I read it back it still gives me a boost um I said to you before we started talking I wanted to talk about disconnection yeah disconnection for me in my life started early disconnection for me was coming to the UK from Africa as that the only black kid went to Plymouth everyone's richer than me everyone's white um and that pursuit of filling that void of whatever it was that shame that insecurity which is very clearly the reason I'm sat here yeah what do we need to know about your childhood how did it shape the man that sits in front of me today I have had a life that has been defined by addiction and the addiction and in particular the models of recovery that are available for addiction is a convenient framework for addressing the problems we have in our age that are expressed extensively and identifiably through materialism and attachment I'd get attached to stuff I was when I was a little boy I grew up in a single parent family just me and my mum I come from an ordinary background in Essex grays ordinariness normalcy these can be terms that are difficult to Define but I think we all know what we mean when we say a normal ordinary modest blue-collar background low expectations State schools we know what images that conjures my mum was sick a lot when I was a kid and my mum was and it was a defining influence in my life all of us that are lucky enough to have mothers are going to be defined by that relationship as well as the other parental relationship I feel like real early on something in me which I would now because it's almost impossible Stephen not to reverse engineer these narratives isn't it and to thread it through with newly accrued and acquired wisdom but I feel that I was looking for something I feel that there is a deep spiritual appetite within all of us for connection the subject that you have identified as our framing for this conversation that we are having but we do not have a culture that presents us a discourse around connection we we have a culture that is predicated upon individualism and materialism your value and this is I think across the political spectrum and even in more compassionate narratives around identity individualism is still enshrined as the centrifugal point so I felt like that I was in a state of lack I don't know what it is to be a man I don't know what it is to be a success I don't know what it is to have power I don't know what it is I recognize now even to feel at ease even to feel Serene even to feel relaxed is probably only by the time I got clean from crack and heroin and alcohol that I've noticed that I'd been in having an anxiety attack for basically my entire life when I first told my life story in which is an ordinary exercise at treatment centers that help people to get rehabilitated from chemical dependency and I was fortunate enough to go to one when the fella read it chip Summers one of the first people in recovery I ever met when he read it he went ah poor lonely little boy and I was 27 then so I suppose my life has been defined by addiction and addiction is in part a lack of connection an attempt to synthesize the connection to self other and God God of your own understanding perhaps understood as a totality a sense of unity a Unity of force a highest principle when it says in the Old Testament worship no other gods than me the implication I offer is that we are a species that worships and if you do not access the Divine you will worship the Mundial you will worship the profane you will worship your own identity you will worship your belongings you will worship the template Lane Before You by a culture that once you no wants you that gets you distracted and relatively dumb so my initial solution to feeling weak and disconnected and lonely and somehow silently brilliant was to try and become successful was to try and become famous was to try and have resources to try and address all of the problems of my original condition my original condition culturally and socially as I saw it was lack of power lack of value lack of connection lack of influence and what does our culture tell us is the solution to this be somebody and my God I'm talking about a long time ago now I'm talking about in the 80s and the 90s now the culture is amplifying that message 100 fold with a million screens in every direction 50 lenses like the eyes of on the inside of a fly rather than the almost 2D experience of lenses that I grew up with what could I have added to ten-year-old Russell's life do you think that would have made him feel valued 10 year old I reckon mate now that I'm a dad and you can't be a father to anyone else until you're a father to yourself is a sense that who you are is all right you're all right you don't need to worry that you are enough you are sufficient we are going to be okay what told you otherwise all conditions though it isn't the broad cultural message you are insufficient you will not be sufficient until you acquire this body these objects this approval these affiliations I don't even think it's personal to me like whilst like you know necessarily our conversation has to be framed by sort of biographical detail that's particular to me don't you find that when you know anyone's story really that the universal was there waiting for you that there is a ubiquity of this message how many times have you heard people that are hugely successful say I felt inferior I didn't feel good enough I wanted to achieve this I didn't have this or that it's a like it's a else-wise what could a young have achieved else-wise what could Joseph Campbell have achieved were there not archetypes strewn about US maps waiting to be discovered it's true most people that's it here have achieved phenomenal things are it starts with a story of not being enough and you often wonder whether they're driven or dragged driven by their own you know because they're framed in books is driven but in reality they're being dragged by insecurities and shame and all of these things that feeling of not enough um your your earliest years are um particularly particularly um hard to read and I when I I'll be completely when I when I read about the circumstances of your earliest years I do see a story that is very unique in in a sense of self-harm your mother's um sicknesses and her illnesses um and there's that guy underneath there that knew he was brilliant as you say believed he was brilliant hmm brilliant in what way well I suppose and I find this to be quite common to addicts and alcoholics there's this pre-metabolized quality that's waiting to be activated now brilliant is obviously a comparative and relative term and the training I've been fortunate enough to receive prohibits me from leaning too heavily into a framing like that now like Superior to better than but I feel that that I had a sense of a resource that was waiting to unfold I was had a sense that there would be a secondary coordinate that might arrive in the form of a destination all energy the most fundamental level requires polarity it requires polarity and I suppose that word parent in and that word parenthesis another word for bracketing suggests that you need to be held in some way you need something that's going to be able to hold you now if like me I believe in God Stephen so the thing that defines me now is I believe in God and I don't believe that I have unique access to God or Superior access to God or that there's this little set of dances or codes or clothes that need to be worn to access God more primarily or more privately I believe that in an absolute loving God that all of us have the right to be here that I don't need no special adornments or epiphets or epileps or badges or medallions but it's enough for me to be one of everybody else back then though as a little kid when I felt inferior and broken I just wanted to feel a little bit special I wanted to feel a little bit valuable and I suppose the first time that I really felt that was making people laugh doing a school play at my little school grade school Bugsy Malone I'm feeling the overwhelming terrifying adrenaline and the accompanying sense of competence that comes with being able to Corral and direct that energy when it comes a sense of purpose revelation when you ask like you know what could you have added and what do you mean by silently brilliant like I don't want to feel better than no one else no more I don't want to feel worse than anyone else and I want to participate in other people's becoming who they are intended to be there's a beautiful phrase in recovery you may enjoy we recover the person we're intended to be that somehow we can respect individuality Limitless Limitless diversity while somehow accepting that there is something unitive among us something Collective to be realized and achieved so I suppose it was my own savoring of my particularness that I was experiencing even though and this is no fault of my parents although I might analyze my culture I felt that that I couldn't express it and I didn't know what value it had and what its use was it was in util until the culture tells you it can be monetized or it can be mobilized in order to now that framing isn't necessarily one that would ordinarily gravitate to but that's the one that is available to that is the totemism of our culture that's the Paradigm that we are offered so I suppose that's the one that many of us inevitably pursue do you have any emotional sentiment towards that young man's circumstances as you look back on what he the situation he was in and what he was experiencing do you feel you feel sorry for him you know do you feel happy for him what should you feel anything towards laterally due to the principles of recovery due to the fact that I have mentors I have peers I have people that look to me for guidance I have service I have duty responsibility laterally Stephen I come to feel Incorporated with that little boy but if you just spoke to me 10 years ago I doubt I would like to have heard him referred to I wouldn't have liked that Specter to have risen a phantom I'd happily put aside but now like that little boy like hopefully the little boy that you described down there in Plymouth of all places that famous rock from where they depart across the oceans that personal Mayflower Journey he's with me now I love him and he's like he is a great asset when I'm dealing with young vulnerable broken people when people tell me that they want to end their own lives and people tell me they self-harm until people tell me they want to kill themselves that they can't cope with life they don't feel that they're good enough I'm not phased I can stay 100 present with that and that is a great gift no was it was there I think about this a lot with myself was there another path to where you are now yeah probably me probably I mean look you may like you know you've met a lot of people I know a lot of people but for me personally just tell you why I asked that question I believe that I had a belief that was ill-informed by the society I lived in and I believe I had to pursue that belief to find out that I was wrong and have it fail me well it happened now now it has happened so the answer is 100 of course absolutely indefatigably this is the reality that was designed for you internally that your Consciousness is creating this reality this reality is not coming externally at you this Consciousness is unfolding from within you in the moment where else could it be where else could it be but potentially Limitless Alternatives potentially unbridled possibility and for you you think you could have become the man that sat in front of me now with via a different pathway yeah but but or you know also no you know like because like I'm what I suppose I'm saying is I accept this the the path that I've walked and that you know that I'm sort of continuing to walk and I suppose anyone that's in the engaged in the process of recovery has to as a part of that accept the various chapters episodes that that have led to that I mean I think that's part of self-acceptance part of self-acceptance is to appreciate and understand the various steps that have led you to where you are and just again I think to reiterate that that that's why I mentioned addiction and Recovery early on because it provides you with I access to an archetype but this is who I was these were this is the way that I lived this is the way that I try to handle the challenges that life gives you impermanence temporality death inequality hypocrisy destruction all of these things that sort of are pervasive whether that's cultural or simply part of being in an A-10 in a temporal and spatial reality recovery gives you a different set of tools a different a different way to deal with those same challenges which for one of a better word I will call spiritual a spiritual solution to what I regard now as a spiritual problem okay once again tagging that idea of connection that you've helped us set up this conversation using spirituality as a as a as a as a form of connection um you know when a lot of people are put off by the term spirituality because it sounds a little bit exclusive and a little bit but the the you know I've would class myself now as being spiritual that thanks in part I have to say to my my partner who is a breath work instructor and I met in you know in Bali and so on but one of the quotes that I love from you is like many desperate people I need spirituality I need God or I cannot COPE in this world I need to believe in the best in people since I've become spiritual I have found that it's easier to be alive spiritual what is what is that word spiritual literally means not Material that's what it means it's not observable or measurable the problem perhaps that we have nowadays is that we live in a quantitative reality where all things are measurable where all things are base predicated on rational principles but all of us know what love is all of us know what intuition is all of us know as C.S Lewis beautifully outlines in Mere Christianity when we have transgressed against some moral code that appears to have been instilled in us and in spite of the advocacy and campaigning of evolutionary biologists seems to appeal to some newmanistic tendency numenistic meaning simply a sense of or a sense of Oneness a sense of Glory a sense of Glory you might experience at Sunrise or sunset or looking into the eyes of a loved one or even a stranger and knowing that the connection is real knowing that the unitive force is real and that somehow this connection implies a set of Ethics morals and principles it's not just oh wow God is one Let's Lose ourselves in some hedonistic revelry that pleasure is not an end point that service is our way of acknowledging this Unity so spirituality for me is a survival technique you won't get very far in this world without it and if you don't have it in a declared explicit and I don't mean doctrinal way I mean personal but somehow connected and communal way you will try to create God you will try to create a spirituality from your preferences your preferences will become your God I prefer it when people talk to me like this I repel this my aversions and my preferences will become my religion and this is I'm capable of that today if I had that I'm lucky to be such a craving mad smack it and it's nice to walk around the streets of shoreditch where I have used where I've scored where I know the back streets of Brick Lane where there are enclaves where they serve up Muslim men wearing full regalia that would never deal with that kind of business it's against the Quran but serve it up to slip down them rat runs to see it Trace across the silver page to lose myself in smack world and to come back here now with a a different way a different way the city has changed and I've changed and no man crosses the same river twice and no Man visits the same shoreditch twice because the man is different and sure that she's different are we looking for the same thing then I was looking for the same thing then like when I was looking around Ben for smack and crack and all of that I was looking for the things that I'm looking for now and if I'm not very rigorous in my spiritual practices and they're still sort of simple I know I can use a lot of long words it's a thing I like doing I get off on it and stuff but spirituality ain't complicated my Nan's better at it than I am my mum my wife they're all better at it than I may do it natural because they're not like mobilized by this sort of primer primordial yearning that can become my fuel it ain't no easy task to turn all that gunge that swamp gunge that Neolithic jet fuel into love of one another there's been there's people now that are living a life where including me probably too many many respects that are using preference as our God yes you sniff that strangely well because I thought is there chlorine in it really I just wondered what is it water water okay I don't think that's chlorine I hope there's no chlorine those people that are choosing preference as their God now that are living a life maybe where materialism is there is their their savior um what is there's a couple of questions I have here you know that the Russell that was in shortage for other reasons Once Upon a Time and the Russell that's in shortage now you said that they were both looking for the same thing what was old Russell finding and why wasn't the thing he found as good as the thing he finds now I.E what is the outcome of those that are choosing preference as their God like why is that such a bad thing what is the what is the long-term or short-term consequence well I wouldn't suggest that there is but one path uh as they say as Krishna Murray says truth is a pathless land we've got to find it ourselves but that said there are templates paradigms conditions and practices that might help us so I'm not making a judgment on anyone else's path my spirituality is not about you should be doing this and you should be doing that my spirituality is I should be doing this I should be doing that my morality is about my conduct if someone else wants me to judge them or help them or guide them or Aid them and I'm able to then it is my duty to do it but what I would say is is if you are using impermanent means to achieve a permanent solution you can only fail if you are mistaking the vehicle for the self for the essence of the self you can only fail if you have not interrogated who is this in here what is this subjective experience that only I am having how do I deal with the tension of the Paradox and remember all energy comes from polarity all energy comes from polarity that I am infinitesimally small to the point of being absolutely Irrelevant in a cosmic Framing and yet all reality takes place solely as far as I know within my Consciousness quick one before we get back to this episode just give me 30 seconds of your time two things I wanted to say the first thing is a huge thank you for listening and tuning into the show week after week means the world to all of us and this really is a dream that we absolutely never had and couldn't have imagined getting to this place secondly it's a dream where we feel like we're only just getting started and if you enjoy what we do here please join the 24 of people who watch this channel regularly and have hit the Subscribe button means more than I can say and if you hit that subscribe button here's a promise I'm going to make to you I'm gonna do everything in my power to make this show as good as I can now and into the future we're going to deliver the guests that you want me to speak to and we're going to continue to keep doing all of the things you love about the show thank you thank you so much back to the episode one of the things I've thought a lot about recently you mentioned a God in your belly or that person or that signal in your belly that's that's trying to tell you how you feel and we've all become so phenomenally good at tuning out of that and tuning into the kind of external how how you feel like how you should feel based on the job or title status that you have and this is a stronger noise and Signal now than this one um your life has been this you talked about mentors as well your life has been this amazing Journey from chapter to chapter to chapter as this person described as Transcendence the question I'm getting at is like I'm thinking about someone right now that sat in the city and they know they feel like [ __ ] at a deeper level but they've gotten so good to listening to their mother's opinion of them becoming a stockbroker that it's almost hard to hear that feeling of I feel like [ __ ] how do we go on the Journey of changing how do we get there well typically Stephen the Journey Begins With A departure from home interestingly whatever home is you have to leave you have to leave the familiar the place that you are familiar with scary often this is induced by crisis a crisis that you cannot avoid or delay or defer a crisis of some kind may come of course this can be an inner crisis a moment of Despair often a psychic breakdown can be can precipitate change transition Awakening I suppose what you have to earn what one way that you can do it this is the way that I would do it the way that I have done it is firstly to acknowledge the problem of my condition to admit there is a problem and that my life has become unmanageable these are not my ideas what are the signals of that unhappiness sadness like in a sense that's like that one one thing that's good about that is you're trusting your personal Integrity it's not like oh you're Delirious why are you not happy why is this not working for you problem on manageability you're sad I'm using in fact the example you use someone in a city hold up left with the familial and cultural conditioning that has left them at odds maladjusted to a maladjusted world one there's a problem life is unmanageable too you've got to believe it's possible to change if you don't believe it's possible to change you will never be able to Marshal your inner resources towards making that change one way that this change can be made is through mentorship even if that mentorship is in the abstract even if you've just chosen hey this person seems to be able to have done that he says that he used to feel weak inferior incompetent uh impotent and he says now that he doesn't feel those feelings so maybe if I do what they did maybe I can change also so this so this and the third component first one acknowledgment of powerlessness second one belief change is possible third principle it will not come from the same map and rubric that you've been running on up till now you're gonna have to import new ideas you will need help that help I would offer you might be of a divine nature prayer meditation humility to ask for something greater than your my individual want my individual preference is not just some wish list passed up to the cosmic Center it is and it is a acknowledgment that there is a requirement for growth and indeed that I'm no longer prescribing what outcomes I want It's Curious there are often paradoxes in this so for me mate it's like first you admit the powers that the powerlessness and the nature of the problem second I believe it's possible to change and I base that one hang on a minute these people used to have that problem and they've changed so what if I do what they did then maybe my life will change these are all things derived from 12-step ideology the third thing is accept someone else's plan accept someone else's help it's surrender because in the s in the end this is the think perhaps the hardest contradiction at least I find it a very hard contradiction to live with this idea of activated surrender and a return to the original condition activate it surrender Russell is no longer in charge Russell is no longer in charge Russell is a servant there is a master I am in the service of this now in I recognize those words are pretty loaded but I'm saying that this is if you you can envisage a benign and loving mother or father rather than Authority and if you do consider authority to be mostly malign I could not identify more strongly my distrust and my dislike of authority is a deep deep fuel in me I do not like being told what to do I do not like it it is a big big part of my religion I have to stop myself reflexively doing the opposite of what I'm told if someone speaks to me authoritatively someone asked me to help them I will do my level best to help them if someone tells me what to do I find it very very difficult indeed not to do the opposite Anarchist calisthenics break rules every day just to remind yourself that you belong to something higher than a set of systems potentially imposed by a malevolent Force step three there's you reference the first time um was about running basically a new instruction manual for your life like accepting a because the current instruction manual is clearly not producing the results you seek so a new instruction manual for your life and um my brain went but how do I know which one to pick because there's many Temptations For It For A New Path forward you know there's the I could join a cult in Arizona or I could I could I might see seek meaning and surrender and all the in another wrong place from my preferences to something even more destructive or um how do we know you know how do we know what what new instruction manual to run our lives on when we find ourselves in such a situation I'm thinking again about that person who finds himself in a job because their parents have told them to go and get that job and now or they they're working any job or they feel like something is wrong they admit it step one step two is they seek out mentors to provide evidence that it's possible to leave the situation and then step three is this idea of surrendering and running your life on a new instruction manual where do I find that instruction manual is it from my mentors it's interesting isn't it yes possibly yes quite quite likely yeah because I feel we're in a crisis of authority most people don't trust the government most people don't trust the media many people don't trust the Judiciary or state Authority and I would have to confess that I am inclined to agree that we are in a true crisis of authority who indeed would you trust to say I will do what is right I will do what is right for you I'll do what is right for the community and trust that they are speaking on behalf of a set of principles that would could be somehow Universal and truly valid how I have handled this is I've been fortunate enough through crisis and despair to find myself primarily connected to a group of other people the same as me who cannot cope with reality unless they drink or use drugs and those people provide me with a paradigm for moving forward and a program and I like that word program because it's both a sort of very old-fashioned word but also a Ultra Modern word in terms of you know software for example okay thanks mate yeah and and I guess at some point we're going to have to trust ourselves but when embarking on this journey it's not easy to lean into into intuition and it isn't easy to trust others I find trust very very difficult I don't know about you mate I don't know what kind of experiences you've had there as a young man in Plymouth but for me trust ain't my go-to that's not my go-to it takes me a little while my strategy is do not re put yourself in a situation where you require trust why because maybe people are going to let you down bad maybe maybe the the systems will follow you be they educational legal judicial maybe they're going to let you down maybe they can't rely down I mean I was kicked out of school but for you know I was expelled from school I went to University for one day left that oh yeah I do all these things I remember it I recognize it in your story but that that I don't have the same level of I'm skeptical I require evidence to accept things I'm kind of subjective or you know evidence that I but I'm not I wouldn't say I'm distrusting broadly oh well maybe I am to some degree is that yeah it's a critique it's an analytic it's a perspective of until you no but your problem with your your challenges with authority that are Clearing Your Story through school and institutions all these things where does that come from in you that that what is and how would you describe it well now I would describe it as a very deep love of God and a great deal of respect for other people's individual liberty and freedom and the idea that any Central Authority would impose that without clear consent achieved through democracy and Community a community dialogue seems ridiculous to me but obviously it's biographical and interpersonal that the circumstances of my life have shown me that the people one way or another that are in positions of authority on the various scales of authority that most people encounter familial social educational have not been able to fulfill their duties required of them of course as a person that's a certain way down the path now because in the words of Philip Larkin they in their turn were [ __ ] up too that we are just part of a long lineage of people coping with broken broken systems and I would say from agriculture onwards systems of aggregation centralization accumulation that can't enshrine the rights of the individual except for a certain set of individuals that we are living in a system that's about centralizing or centralizing power and increasing Authority diminishing individual Freedom using whatever rhetorical tricks are required safety can be convenience whatever is required to achieve this centralized Authority now so I now feel like you said before how there are other ways that you could have ended up being this man in this chair now I am glad that I have been deeply schooled in mistrust of authority that it's almost like it burns in me I can tell watch them watch what they're telling you watch what they're telling you I give it to my own children and I hope I'm not doing them a disservice question authority question it question it and of course this makes bedtime difficult because who's the person telling them bedtime but it makes schooling because institutions have an inertia institutions have a tendency they might start off with we're going to educate these kids to be creative and individuals but in the end it's going to be about health and safety in the end it's gonna be about fire drills in the end it's going to be a set of a a bureaucratic enmeshment and Maze that prevents individual Freedom the great David Graver God Rest his solo he was a communist so he maybe wouldn't thank me for saying that David Graber says that out one of our great uh dialectics against Soviet communism for example was that they were bureaucracies that prohibited individual freedom but look at the bureaucracies we live within now how do they solve the problem of spying and stealing your data just make someone tap I agree don't stop spying continue to spy continue to accumulate the data just tap agree you agreed to be spied on this is bureaucracy this is these are the observable tendrils and symptoms of a centralized Authority that is not necessarily sent a sentient occultist or overtly corrupt but a tendency to accumulate power to dominate resources that is plainly observable in the geopolitical dramas that play out in our time the ecological crises and the evident mainstream main stage players that occupy our current time that many of whom have not been elected to get there I'm talking about unelected acronym organizations that have a great deal of influence in the world today so the reason I don't trust is not you know I love my mum and dad Ron brand Babs brand in fact like today sat here in shoreditch as an adult man I wouldn't just walk around Essex and go to find some couple of working-class kids and say why don't you and you take responsibility for my Spiritual Development they did their very best they could and I couldn't love them more I couldn't Evermore but my mom she had cancer like eight times in a few years my dad he's got his own deal he's got his own deal and I recognize what it is to feel strong individualistic further I love them I love them when I'm trying to formulate and I know I'll make errors as a parent of course I will we all do and as you will Discover it is our duty to wound our children it's not our duty it is a necessity beyond the duty it is a tendency it's just gonna they're gonna end up wounded they have to they're gonna have to find a second mother a second father they're gonna have to they're gonna have to so it's not anybody's fault it's not even the system's fault I'm kind of grateful to all of it now I'm grateful to these institutions I'm grateful to the mainstream media I'm grateful to these governments I'm grateful that they have set out the instruments required for the change that we will encounter in the coming few decades you you mentioned your mum and your father again there um your father what role what impact was did his departure have do you think on hindsight on your relationship with authority if any at all I would say fatherless men like I don't want to be so solipsistic as to make this entirely about me he says 20 years into a career but I think for and I've experience with fatherless men who I deal with a lot in my uh what I would say my spiritual life is to be around men a lot that are in recovery both being mental bi and mentoring and recovering mutually in support communities broadly fatherless men feel a big burden and they do not feel safe in this world a big burden not safe in this world if they're with the mother I think they feel it is their duty to look after the mother if they are without other parents I mean you know if without I have a parent my God who knows what kind of chaos and I'm not saying there is only one way and that there is only template but one template but I'm because I'm already talking about a subset I'm talking about a subset of people that have become drug addicts and alcoholics in order to deal with these kind of challenges but also I know people that don't identify as addicts in exactly that way and still the absence of the father and that also by the way you know could be through therefore it could be could break up with a relationship or it could be because the father doesn't have the emotional lexicon to connect yeah one way or another because I can think of examples top of my head of all of those I think it feels that you are prematurely invited to be a man in fact when I was thinking about our interview Stephen because you'll be glad to know I thought about you before I felt the significance of anthropology the significance of what the original condition might be I do not use these terms to suggest there is some one template that could be imposed and stamped upon everyone I would never take away people's individual strike rights or struggles particularly those connected to obvious and evident civil rights cultural and identity issues those are their stories for them and I support them in those stories but when it comes to how human beings might have lived for hundreds of thousands of years it appears we do well when we are a connected unit that communicate together in order to achieve a common goal time and time again when anthropologists and even uh contemporary psychologists study these forms of society they discover that there are rights of initiation for both males and females although they're often appears based on what I have heard and as you know I'm not an expert to be particular emphasis on male initiation as the body is not so uniform in the way that it informs a boy that it is a grown-up now not a child anymore and that there are new duties to be undertaken one of the best examples I ever heard and I feel I see somewhere in Freud or maybe in Joseph Campbell is that I feel this is some Australian Aboriginal tribe that they what they do and I think they're doing this now I figure I don't know you know I'm putting this stuff together you know how it goes that the boys at a certain age are dragged away from the mother and they make much of it they wear masks the men of the village all the men apart father all the women are part mother and of course there are categories for other forms of identity too which they honor and Revere often in the form of the shaman who is beyond gender identity incorporating both you see reflections of this to this day even in monotheistic faiths where the priest wears what appears to be neutral or androgynous attire distinguishing them from the rest of the community yet honoring them and revering them and you went through that um initiation way too early in your own words you say that you were prematurely forced to be a man because you've got the duties of care over your over your mother at a young young age your father leaves I think six six months old and then the other thing that happens which feels like a horrible turn in turn you know horrible sense of chances your mother has cancer um and she struggles with it for many many years so you've got this young boy and I was thinking about this when I was doing the research for this conversation you've got this very young young boy who's struggling with a lot of things on his own disconnection coming from all angles and then the stability in his life become gets the the uncertain um horror of cancer come into her life and what that does to that young boy who's already destabilized in sense of like connection these are all interpretations I have from reading a piece of paper you know if I'm just being honestly I just I was putting myself in those shoes and saying I've got this stable figure here in my life my mother and I'm dealing with all this instability over here and then this becomes unstable yeah it's good analysis but you know really my mother struggles them as her struggles she had to go through that and bravely she's done it what life force that woman has in her and to pick up on a point within your question you cannot fake being a man or a woman or an adult let's say a word that doesn't have any cultural load to Bear you can't fake that or you can fake it and I did fake it and that is what people do they fake it they fake it but in a sense maybe it you need another adult to make you that you need to be initiated you need a code you need to know that it's about Duty and responsibility that it's not all just about Swagger and Personal Achievement and like many young men I joined the group of Lost Boys I found men young young men kids kids because if I met them now that's what they were as kids a couple of years older than me that that becomes your tribe unless you have hierarchies and systems of acculturation and inculcation that are based on higher values remember our earlier point about moral Authority and Trust who you're going to give it over to You'll create your own one you'll create your own little Community we're without Elders without Elders that are reliable and trustworthy and dutiful and understand the nature of sacrifice sacrifice of themselves in order to perform them duties so of course yes I feel like when you feel the incumbency of adulthood upon you early due to the conditions of your domestic trial there you will have to as they say man up or woman up you will have to but it won't be real because it can't be real because it's not only a set of endocrineal imperatives it's also a system of instruction as laid out in that as laid out in the previous anecdotes the cambellian analysis of the anthropological conditions of that Aboriginal group there so really until you find other adults Elders that are like I'm I know what I'm doing you don't need to worry I'm stronger than you it's going to be okay I'll look after you it's all right do this that of you know a father a father like a father is you know you're gonna forego this now because in the future this you know without that you will not forgo you will consume now you will consume now you will not understand you will not understand your role Bears repeating you know without shall worship no other gods than me because otherwise you will worship them Gods you will worship pleasure money Fame them gods are greedy little Gods too they're easy little deities to start worshiping and the problem with the worship of those Gods is you lose the principle of the Divine the interconnectivity the pleasure is not the result pleasure is a byproduct pleasure is an inadvertent byproduct please God of doing the right thing I was just thinking then as you're talking about um all of that and the gods we choose to to worship and young men and fatherlessness I was thinking about the Andrew Tate phenomenon as a form of he really seems to have captured a huge amount of young men for some reason and trying to diagnose why why that is is a very multifaceted um process isn't it because there's elements of purpose and meaning and um having a figure in your life that you can can guide you can initiate you into what being a man is that it seems that young men are in search of yes I agree I agree I agree no doubt one of the challenges it feels like we have culturally Stephen is we are unable to observe the difference between symptom and cause yeah symptom and cause and obviously as with matters medical cause is what we must analyze cause is what we must understand there's no point saying you shouldn't do this you shouldn't do that if you have a set of values that are pretty simple I call them Sesame Street values kindness love service that's gonna take care of care of a hell of a lot if you have kindness love service it's going to take care of a hell of a lot are you being kind right now no you've gone off track mate you've gone off track you're not being kind are you being off service no then we can maybe sift through different also with we live in a such a curated space that it's difficult to discern what people are actually angry about sometimes what is it as one of my great teachers says to me what is it don't get caught up in the phenomena the Epi phenomena the distractions the static what is it that you are trying to understand what is it you're trying to do all of these groups then people that are big fans of and Andrew take people that are radically left people that are radically right what is it that they that they are that they are they are seeking or that they are getting from from such a radical Pursuit well a argument might be that we are recognizing that there is nothing in our Evolution to suggest that we live in cultures of 300 million people who live by one ideology that we have to truly respect diversity that we have to acknowledge that many of our most influential and Powerful systems do not have our best intentions in mind that they in fact benefit from ongoing cultural conflagration if we can do one great service in this cultural space I recognize that part of your goal and your mission is to awaken latent potency in individuals in honor of your own journey and it is a great Mission if I may say but part of this Mission must be for us to learn this simple lesson we have more in common with one another than that than divides us and it is our duty to reach out in particular to the people we disagree with in a spirit of love and good faith firstly then identify oh am I reaching out in good faith to people I already agree with no no no no no no that's not it this agree with I disagree with that on this important hot button topic of guns or pro-life pro-choice or Identity or tradition or progression I disagree with them and I respect you're right I respect and I love you and I know that I do not know what you know that I am not God I am not God I do not know I do not have any authority over you but I believe that together we can achieve a consensus and this consensus must be founded on good faith we must allow one another to communicate in good grace and openness we cannot yield to censorship not because we want people to feel the air with toxicity and hate but because we know that if we try to control it who has the right who are we granting the right to now have you investigated any of these organizations have you investigated their funded their affiliations their agenda their imperative because to some degree I am sorry to report that I have and I have found them wanting they will not be getting my consensus for Authority anytime soon and I would offer you this you have more in common with the people you are fighting with those you most loathe whatever Hue persuasion or a cultural garment you've conveniently strewn upon him then the people that are saying that they will protect you the institutions that are saying they will protect you are you optimistic yes God is real you're optimistic that we'll get to a place where we recognize that our similarities are greater than our differences yes and so if I make Russell Brand I know I don't think this is a role you want but if I make you prime minister or president of the world how how do you systemically change things to help us achieve the objectives you've described in connection Community kindness and togetherness what are the things I've asked so many people this question no one's ever wanted to answer it bring power as close as possible to the people affected by it default to decentralization and localization wherever possible of course this will not immediately yield Perfection but have you looked out of your window we are not competing with perfection we are competing with corruption so what do we want most of all we want true democracy all the values that people espouse are the values we should be practicing they say the world does not need more people to believe in God just for those of us that do to start acting like it to start acting like you believe God is real re-distribute the control of Municipal facilities to those that are affected by them do not have water companies in the United Kingdom like Thames water owned elsewhere in China or Canada or Kuwait or Qatar or wherever those facilities are held have Municipal facilities run by the community that is affected by them I'm not talking about re-nationalization I'm talking about Community the community runs its water wherever possible I recognize that there is some complexity when it comes to electricity municipality running roads running hospitals but who Among Us has ever been into a hospital and not marveled at the beauty The Compassion the Ingenuity the commitment the devotion of the people that work there wouldn't it be better if the people that clean the floors in the hospital felt that they were invested in it that it was their Hospital the nurses that worked there the doctors that they have real power that those are their hospitals wouldn't it be better if both sides of our political conversation I'm talking about the United Kingdom right now hadn't agreed already that privatization is the way to go and they're not going to do anything about it I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with capitalism in its uh basic format of we create a product and the people want the product and look at that we made a little bit of money I'm talking about this gigantic metastasized monster devouring everything right down to Spirit we must recognize where centralized Authority is coalescing most and this we must address this we must address whether it is financial corporate or state power wherever it is possible we the people we the people those three magical constitutional words if they were listened to if they were lived by it's already there the Kingdom of Heaven is spread upon the Earth and man sees it not it's already here it comes from inside your Consciousness you awaken you believe it's possible to change you act like it's going to happen that's how these things unfold it's happened again and again the Miracles of transition and change the great beauty of science and medicine and Technology when it is freed from its tendrils when it is untethered from the mendacious objectives of a system that sees all things as Dominion for materialization and commodity when it is freed from that you will see the true genius of our scientists the true genius capable in technology if we can just address the model if we can just have as an agenda an awareness that we are just on one Little Rock in Infinite Space right now that we're all participating in this one centralized idea and yet infinite diversity infinite individual Freedom infinite ways of Being Human we must all take responsibility for becoming the person we're intended to be and if you don't know who that is you find someone who does and you find a system in a program that can help you and we'll all do our best together and it's going to be glorious glorious about Beyond glorious it is necessary one of the things you said within there was about empowering nurses for example in cleaners cleaners in a hospital and it reminded me of a study I read many years ago that showed nurses that were given ownership about the decisions within a hospital had um higher satisfaction there was less accidents there was less um accidents with with misprescribed medications there was um higher retention and when they they leveled out that the payment um the remuneration policy so there was less unfairness in how people remunerated all the standards of the hospital went through the roof because people were empowered they had autonomy and control over their lives and work so I completely relate to that my question though is about step one because it what you described there sounds like it's at the top of Everest and sometimes when something feels it does for even for me it feels like it's a long way away from where we are now so I'm asking what's the first Pebble what's the first Domino that has to fall what's the first thing that I can do as an individual to help us get closer to that world well firstly Stephen people climb Everest every single day yeah they have to clear the litter from that mountain in now once it was considered inconceivable and every time there is an epocal shift every time we say oh it seems that the sun doesn't go around the earth it seems like the earth goes around the Sun oh there are things that are smaller than atoms it appears that these sub particular phenomena that are so small is even difficult to label them exist in a unified field that they are emanating but somehow connected to I'm speaking of course of quantum entanglement if you reverse the charge of a particle thousands of miles away the partnering the partnering particle will reverse its charge also there appears to be some unitive Force what I'm expressing is the most simple practical effortless achievement that we will ever yet undertake it is merely the realization of the truth that we are individual yes but we are connected also that there are goliaths that have incrementally coalesced due to the progression of the great sometimes unacknowledged revolutions I'm not saying loans acknowledge agriculture Industrial Revolution technological Revolution that all of these have been undergirded by principles of dominion that might as well be feudalism in a sense there is no change at all except for the individual change that you yourself can make this is why I think people get a lot of traction when they say you know look after yourself this is part of it eat well awaken pray meditate recognize that it is normal to feel sometimes total Despair and total despondency remember all of these great Journeys that we're describing that you're fascinated we've began with exactly that exactly that that the great sages and secular saints that we have been granted have shown us and told us be the change that you want to see in the world whether it's our Gandhi or our Malcolm X people that are willing to give their life for what they believe in because what they believe in is bigger than their life and you're gonna die anyway you're gonna die anyway but your principles this is eternity that we can touch eternity in the moment so it's not like woo-woo to say meditate wake up this is changing the Prima Materia it is the field of Consciousness this is I suppose what I'm advancing Consciousness precedes matter you have unique individual access to Consciousness you are online you are on the grid you are responsible for whether or not you believe this is possible nobody else can tell you what to do there that is your private Kingdom your private domain where you can be for now for now whoever you want to be in there please do not relinquish that right by not taking it now for I tell you authoritarian forces are abundant and abound they are looking to colonize the very space of attention that exists right now this moment this is what is being colonized attention data data on what you the territory of the self this is fertile this is not nothing it is not nothing to awaken to the reality of who you are in this very moment that is not nothing Stephen quick one as you know Airbnb are a sponsor of this podcast and I was actually in an Airbnb last weekend when me and my friends had a reunion in New York and it's from staying in airbnbs over the years that led me to start hosting my own place I know friends of mine who actually Airbnb their own place in order to pay for the Airbnb they use when they're away on holiday which is pretty smart and maybe you stayed in an Airbnb before and thought this is actually pretty doable maybe my place could be an Airbnb it could be as simple as starting with a spare room or your entire place you could be sitting on an Airbnb and not even know it whether you could use some extra money to cover your bills or something a little bit more fun your home might be worth more than you think and you can find out how much it's worth at Airbnb dot code UK slash host check it out find out how much your home is worth and let me know what you think one of my team members had a question for you I was just chatting to them about about you and they said you know I really want to know how he lives on a day-to-day basis because I know from your books and stuff the Russell that roam the streets of shoreditch Once Upon a Time the Russell I see now is through the lens of YouTube and I see him what it looks like the countryside somewhere he'd like some logs in the back what is your what how do you live your life now I'm glad you've asked this because this is proper Diary of a CEO stuff because this is actual scheduling I have to live sort of like a monk basically I have to be conscious all the time I have to be conscious about what I eat otherwise I'll eat something stupid I have to be conscious about what I say otherwise I'll say something stupid I have to be conscious about what I do I have to familiarize myself with extremes continually so I thank you God have uh access to hot temperatures and cold temperatures I expose myself to them regularly every day if possible do a lot of cold therapy I get right in that cold and while I'm in that cold I think this thing taught to me by Michael Singer and anyone who's willing to watch Michael Singer stuff the moment in front of you is not bothering you you are bothering yourself about the moment in front of you they're now getting very very hot temperatures and I think the same thing the moment in front of you is not bothering you you're bothering yourself at the moment in front of you I do Brazilian Jujitsu because for me it was not natural to tangle like that and I love Brazilian Jiu Jitsu so much cause a Rogan actually was the first person I've ever talk about all that stuff and I do that a couple of times a week I do why I think people to touch one another in a way that is playful and absolutely consensual but sort of assertive it's like kind of I heard a YouTuber say like dance actually and it's very good for me it really puts me in my body it's not cerebral I don't know about you Stephen but I suspect you're the same I am very uh intellectually oriented I live in here I'm if I find it very easy to be self-obsessed and to get caught up in all that stuff so things that put me in my body the body the body holds the key the body the body you've got a body is important the body of Christ it's very important to get in that cold water it's very important to get into that yoga very important these things are important and beautiful and connecting so I do a lot of BJJ I do a lot of yoga I do a lot of other type of exercises calisthenics body weight type stuff to try and stay fit I got you know I got young children I have another child coming I have to stay fit I have to be able to be God willing present for these children going forward and I love it and it's what we're going to do we're animals again this anthropological idea how might we have lived for those hundreds of thousands of years that pre-date the great miracle of Agriculture how might we have lived we've worked We Touch one another we are socializing we groom and we graze together it's nice like the kind of trust you develop up with people in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu like that they'll choke you and what to the point of unconsciousness but then when you tap it's over and this is something that you share between you is there's a trust in that as well isn't it yes trust good to embody the trust that experience the trust as they say if you want to know if you can trust someone trust someone and maybe it's difficult to seek out those kind of opportunities where it can play out you know so microcosmically and practically because I I did a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu lesson or two and that man could have killed me at any moment I really knew he could have killed me he had me like tied up like a I don't know like a like a ball of elastic bands and I knew at any moment he could kill me but I trusted him and I didn't know this man it's lovely isn't it there's something amazing about it and it's an instant bonding that this man has his life in my hands yet he's he's teaching me an art form he's teaching me a discipline um and holding my literally my life In His Hands um it's funny because I didn't know him but I felt like he was my mentor my father my immediately after yeah because I trusted him with so much my life right so absolutely wonderful thing touch very important for us late ape creatures that's why a hairdressers you tell the hairdresser or the barber stuff this is why like and Strictly Come Dancing they can't stop falling in love they're performing these rituals that are designed to elicit a certain States the vulnerability isn't it that's the connection the vulnerability the touch the awareness of sameness but differentness the acknowledgment that we are creatures that we are embodied creatures all of these things I think contribute to that so for me on my day yes every day prayer and meditation first thing every day rigorously ensure that I have done things for other people preferably without letting other people find out that I make myself available to other in my case in particular men that require help with their issues around addiction and mental health that I have checked in with other people that I consider to be peers around the challenges that I face psychology magically that I don't spend all my time Obsession just about what I want like that I have to do quite a lot to not be crazy I have to do quite a lot to not be crazy so the hot the cold the BJJ the yoga uh there's someone I work with Once who said every day I get up I meditate I pray I do exercise I do green juice I do hot cold I attend a support group and then I feel okay okay that's what I get to feel if I do all that then I don't feel like a lunatic a vacillating wild glass of mad vicissitudes that could lash around anything in its search for connection is there not another way at this point this also is attached to another question I've often pondered from doing what I do here which is about how I mean just says Steve Peters who's a psychiatrist I believe talks about these goblins and Gremlins and I spoke to gabo mate as well I know you've interviewed him and I watched that fantastic unbelievable guy but I wonder if the the traumas the things that are hard I use the word hardwired tentatively but the things that are hardwired into us are ever overcomeable if they if we can ever take them to zero in terms of the power they have over us or influence we have over all we will spend our lives managing I was taught from the wound comes the Salve from the wound comes the South the place of the deepest wounding will provide your salvation this is what you must investigate it is not when people love you we always feel it's because of their strength or the capacity or the virtuosity but often it is the vulnerability and the fragility because we all know that this vulnerability and fragility is something we share this is what comedy is to me Stephen is the ongoing acknowledgment everyone's running some game I'm this I'm doing this I've got this going on you're gonna die it's all gonna fall apart it's all going to fall apart except for these permanent principles and a connection to the Eternal achievable through Consciousness this is why I need Ceremony this is why I need practice this is why I need peers and mentors and mentees and from the wound from this place of I'm not good enough nobody loves me I don't fit in the only way that I can achieve trust is through having some uh Authority or value as accredited by a culture that I don't even bloody trust as compared with a metric that I don't even agree with instead of this now and again continual moment to moment I'm not suggesting that I am any better than anybody else just that I'm not any worse than anybody else that's the biggest thing that I'll offer it's ongoing it's continual but the the thing I'm glad of it now I'm glad of the wounding and you will be too whoever you are you will be glad of the wounding too because it is sadly a gift to you that doesn't mean it was right or that there weren't perpetrators or that it's not bad or that the culture doesn't need to change or any of those things all those things are definitely true but from it you we how all of the time you see it Go Great Ormond Street go anywhere watch the Paralympics it's everywhere it's everywhere people overcome and I asked that because so many become frustrated that the wounding they haven't been able to overcome it they become frustrated by that because a lot of the kind of I don't know maybe Spirit reduction maybe whatever says you can take this pill or you can do this exercise you can do this Retreat and then you won't be a narcissist or you won't be a whatever right and then they try it they buy the course then they still are they find themselves reacting in those old ways and being triggered in the mechanic Machinery that you spoke of that comes up when we're triggered it's still there then they go [ __ ] I need to buy another course we do need to be very self-compassionate and I think we have to perhaps recognize that it is not a commodity that can be externally required by an external coordinate can indeed ignite that which is already their dormant and latent and are waiting to be born precisely the necessity for initiation we return to here the initiation is to activate activate that which is already there activated surrender not passive surrender but not passive surrender activated surrender I'm a vessel I'm here for whatever you are I trust myself God I pray to you God not my limited conception of you God with my tiny little mankind mind I pray to you God as you know yourself to be and I offer myself to you God 100 and totally please use me please take away from me everything that is not of use to you put aside all my preconceptions and use me God this this you utilizes the wound the wound becomes a portal you become a vessel I want to stay on how you live so I understand your sort of morning routine there but if I zoom out on where you live why you choose to live there um your relationship with work now now that you have this I think greater Clarity on institutions and how you balance that um well like I have to make a lot of content yeah because every day I'm on Rumble every day I make an hour of content every day we make an additional 10 to 15 to 20 minute video on a news subject that generally encompasses an establishment narratives and a way of explaining that that is hopefully inclusive every day we have other social media content we have a business like that I'm part of a significant business Endeavor that I regard as a movement rather than a business but as you are all too aware if it doesn't function as a business it will not function at all so it has to have good hygiene and housekeeping you're a CEO I literally am here not under the pretense of being a CEO but because it is part of my job and I do have a diary although I don't keep it myself and I try not to look at it but it exists and so I have to participate continually with that and ensure that an organization is around me that is able to facilitate the things that I'm good at and accommodate the many things where I am currently looking to improve I have to make all the other content we try to do this in three days that means a couple of days a week I'm available for different types of expedition and Adventure such as this one this is why for me the spiritual life it has to come first but not not out of a sort of an ethical evaluation spirituality in the end is a survival technique it's not like esoteric it's not like I'm doing this thing like waving around incense or dressing up in a row I'm trying to not go crazy and end my life and damage the life of people around me by devoting myself they say only the really crazy people become Saints only the really crazy people would even consider it you have to need it it has to be Beyond wanting because wanting is just here to keep the blob going how does it feel to be in your mind could you describe it to me that was amazing but sometimes it's very very sometimes it's very very fast sometimes it's very volatile I feel like it undulates a lot this I understand to be very common to add experiences of extreme High extreme low fastness not natural to be Serene evaluating information very very quickly it feels fast sometimes very fast and it has a strong sense of craving and longing which is a type of magnetism I suppose and I suppose magnetism is a longing for Unity connection it's very difficult to discern physical forces because they are by their nature non-anthropological and it's very easy to anthromorphize physical phenomena like gravity or magnetism or whatever so what feels like if me is that there is a great deal to get done that's what it feels like there is a great deal that needs to get done and in order to do it I have to surrender strongly otherwise I will mess it up badly that's what it feels like so that's there's a lot of ceremony that is communing with that which is unknowable you know prayer ceremony with other people acknowledging the sacred not forgetting the sacred that the most important things are difficult to measure and weigh but they are there anyway and so each day there is much work to be done and I am a father of young children and I have a dog that I adore and I have many animals so I have a lot of very simple uh pastoral duties that have to be done and I have a lot of spiritual things that have to be done to hold me together so there's a lot to be done and then often I get to a point where I'm so tired that the whole Enterprise feels like it could collapse inward like a narcissistic semi-gothic souffle so there has to be a lot of caution a lot of caution also I'm a person I perhaps you identify and agree with a sense of purpose and Mission and a deep deep belief that the most profound and significant change is imaginable are possible by virtue of the fact that they are imaginable in fact because the role of imagination we see all around us in every building every object every book every cultural artifact as well as the many flawed and defunct aspects of our culture also imagination is the device that brings the unmanifest into the Manifest this do you ever find yourself because you are a content creator do you ever find yourself slipping in and when you play that game you're dealing with algorithms and metrics and numbers and rankings and I'm trending and I'm not trending do you does that ever trigger your old you know the old Machinery yeah I try to not go near it I try to not go because in a sense Back to Basics for me recovery is somewhat based on abstinence like I I don't have a odd drink or the occasional line or the occasional or the occasional I don't do it I don't do it so I try to practice good hygiene there because if I start it's very difficult to stop and another momentum takes over so yes it is of course it is because these are part of the you know again part of the blog part of the Primal ooze competition is part of who we are status is part of who we are so I try to stay out of the ring as one of my teachers says stay out of the ring stay out of the ring what are you working on what are you working on improving you talked highlighted you set up your strengths and then your things you hope to improve what are the things that you hope to improve for me always patience patience try to be patient because impatience is ridiculous to think I know when something should happen is mental concept so I try to work on patience to be very very patient mostly I work on this there is more to be achieved by surrendering self-will than can ever be achieved by utilizing it and that is a very very very very difficult thing to practice particularly when agitated what does that mean I I didn't understand ah okay we achieve so much through will I'm going to create a podcast now look I did that thing I was going to do now I have to create various sets around the globe but to believe that there is a greater power that will come into being if I Surrender but become intuitive to what one of my teachers calls The Whispers on the wind that I will be directed that I my job is to stay out of my way that my life is none of my business to not look at my day like it's a chunk of thing that I warmed my day I'm going to eat it up this is oh wow this gift I'm alive oh my God what a miracle is incredible and to stay in that feeling of Grace and stay in that feeling of gratitude and to spot as quickly as possible when I inevitably give it up give up your connection to God for a biscuit give up your connection to God because someone has a nice car give up your connection to God because someone says something about you on the internet give up your connection to God because people lie about you or attack you don't give up your connection to God and in order to not give up your connection to God you are going to have to cultivate a very strong connection to God because elsewhere as you say much noise much distraction what a coincidence that we live in an environment that seems to be cultivated in order to distract us from the ever-present Divine when you say God yes are you talking about a religious specific religious deity or are you is there how do you define your God loving unity and absolute respect for individual identity within that do I find this God in a particular book or every book it's up to you mate do you consider yourself to be part of a religion I do yeah I mean this one the only one they're all the same I suppose if you want some help perennialism by Aldous Huxley is a good place to look at where he identified in the same way that Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung it could be said identified respectively that there are Mythic tropes that appear to recur in all cultures he began to write a a famous book which I believe gave the name to the phrase perennialism in which he observed the Eastern mysticism Sufism from the world of Islam and certain aspects of Christianity particularly Gnostic Christianity and what is commonly regarded as first century Christianity had within him not archetypes as in you know the crucifixion which we know occurs in many folk tales and mythologies not just in Christianity not narrative devices or characters that recur but ideologies that require principles values that occur in all of them and many of them them or destruction is Huxley offers are about overcome the self there is something bigger than the self you're not real who are you when you don't have your name they call it the unborn in Buddhism Marcus Aurelius says you are dead your life is over now live the rest of your life properly get rid of it put down the corpse they say in Buddhism in Christianity die that you may be born again the flesh man must die the carnal man of wanting and longing must dive at the Transcendent man be born you're getting in the way you're getting in the way with your memories and your story and your projects and your values and your virtues all but the universal ubiquitous ever-present archetypal virtues that Huxley explains and elsewhere through Jung and Campbell we get the idea that there's some sort of ulterior cultural force not cultural Force beyond that but beyond Way Way Beyond culture culture is what we create indigenous Primal reality trying to ex not trying to expressing itself through us it's still talking to us all the time all the time it's here it's everywhere it's waiting to be discovered by us collectively and individually and what better job could we have than to find it ourselves and help others to find it but I think the reason why is because when people hear the word god they think of a man in the sky well they should stop that unless it helps them that's that's good if you don't behave you're going to go to hell that's and that's an idea that a lot of people struggle to get on board with but that's because people have been lazy because we are in the Kali Yuga we are in a time of Darkness they're forgotten in this darkness that when people say there is a father they mean there is a figure that is more powerful than you that loves you and if you don't do what's right you are going to hell not after you are in it if you don't do what's right you are oh no I'm so unhappy I'm in this bed set that we talked about earlier why because you didn't listen to the father because you perhaps couldn't find the father because as I've eluded to many times you live in a culture that wants to distract you from the father or the mother or whatever word helps you that is there within you waiting to be born that you've been distracted from understandably because of the Primal urges to compete and acquire and eat and defecay all of this is normal ordinary forgive yourself immediately and now move forward to what it truly means will you understand me I understand all the problems of religion religion shouldn't make you hate other people religion should make you love everyone they've all got that written in there that why don't we focus on that bit because if people start doing that you can't manipulate them moving around on a little chessboard and turn them into little consumer blobs obviously obviously well where does love fit into all of that romantic love because I thought about some of the stuff I said about around ancestors and is monogamy is is monogamy the the path forward is is romantic love a framework for stability that we need to find God oh my friend well there is an argument the romantic love is derived from the idea of chivalry which is as the word suggests a kind of late medieval notion that we should focus our Arda on an individual like a knight would attach the colors of their bequeathed betrothed or beloved to their uh Lance as they jousted metaphorically and really though this chivalrous idea is but one aspect of love and they know that many people never had actual conjugal relationships with the symbolic feminine divine feminine figure that they would attribute that quality too romantic love I feel romantic love perhaps as all forms of Love Obsession attachment ultimately I was taught this I didn't make this up uh the inappropriate substitute for the true love of God what is love when you whether you love West Ham United or your wife or your children or your beautiful before it sounds new breath worker girlfriend except for the desire longing yearning to be at one with to be connected to to acknowledge that what's in there is the same as what's in here that we have a shared purpose isn't love the felt awareness of the true Unity that undergirds apparent separation we come into form for a little while all of us were twice twice before we were a single cell you're a single cell then you were two cells in the belly of your mother and way way way back you were an amoeba and there it is in your programming in your coding the unity is there materially and practically forget esoteric theology forget ontology it's there as a factors and observable factors there is a cosmic fact there was a big bang Unity is there love is the felt remembrance of this why does love feel good although love as we know can be very painful when love is not reciprocated When Love is rejected When Love cannot unfold this love is more than a sensation it is a duty and it is the deepest truth of our kind that when we love one another we acknowledge the truth that we're not separate from one another isn't it glorious to move from that position where you think I don't like that person I don't like that person then oh my God they're the same as me I love them I love them because you have recognized the truth and truth and Beauty are one as wild says that there is something we it rewards us it rewards us it's speaking to us I heard it argued that once there was a great unity and the infinite intelligence for its own Amusement lost in the a-temporary spatial Abyss sent all things into fragmentation only to see which ones would awaken and recognize the unity of our origin the Deep Unity of our origin when will we come home when will we come home to love you fell in love then you had two children you've got a third on the way around the corner that's a very special love that you've um you've you've found fatherhood what is what is I'm not a father yet but I'd love to look down the road and get some lessons from you as a father what lessons did fatherhood teach you about life and how we should be living teaches you teaches me taught me there's a lot more important things in this world than me but I learned this lesson in a variety of ways now there's a lot more important stuff in this world than what I want and what I think and what I reckon it don't amount to much amidst the infinite it taught me that love is real that the most miraculous things are accessible and ordinary an animal that you can procreate life into being what a gift and it flows through you and we're part of an endless chain and God has no grandchildren they belong to the world they don't belong to you and it's your job to just stand there and bring out of them whatever's in them and just stand back and Marvel and weep at what's in them weep all right the horror the beauty the horror the Dreadful beauty of what a child unfolds into your awareness that they that they in the best case scenario the best case scenario they are walking into a future that you will not be there to guide them through so I suppose what that asks of you is an understanding of your place in this world and acknowledgment both of your relative insignificance but simultaneous omniscience omnipotence simultaneous is a paradox all energy come from polarity acknowledge the polarity don't hate the polarity don't hate the others don't let them tell you those people are different from you because they wear a baseball cap while they voted to leave Europe or because they identify with these pronouns or because they believe in this cause or that the absolute Unity it shows you that the way you love your children must become the way you level people love as ramdas was told by his teacher tell the truth and love Everyone not easy not easy if you tell the truth to love everyone it teaches you everything it teaches you everything to become a father it teaches you you're going to need other fathers it teaches you you're gonna have to become a father it teaches you you're gonna have to become a father to that little boy he teaches you everything all lessons are there all lessons are there a future you're not going to be a part of why why it was so visible in in your in your body and in your Consciousness that that particular sentence was difficult for you to say as it relates to your children because it's so ordinary Stephen any old lady any old man who's chat to anywhere oh yeah my mum was like that my dad was like that my little girls it's just so beautiful what are the lessons about the future that they um you you try and give them if any at all and are you and how do you feel about the future that they're going to to go into and try my best to arm them I'm trying my best to arm them I'm trying my best to arm them like Sarah Connor or something no I'm just trying to tell them like and also they are them there's I see every day how they're more powerful than me already so you know they'll be all right God has no grandchildren they'll be all right they've got their path I know they're gonna hurt me you know I know that I all we can do for each other Beyond father daughter is become who you are become who you are become who you are become who you are trust that it's going to be beautiful that you're not ugly that you're not hideous you've made mistakes you've done stuff wrong you've had stuff done to make also all of this all of this and yet become who you are become who you are become who you are so all I want is I try to not go this is everything I think don't go unconscious don't go unconscious like stay present stay present things will make you go unconscious it might happen as I leave this room it might happen when the people from the next room come in I don't you can go unconscious at any moment don't go unconscious stay present stay present now God is now may you find God now that's the only place you're going to find God you're gonna find him yesterday you're gonna find him in a week Godzilla Now find it find it absolute and when I say God I mean absolute Unity absolute inclusivity absolute love absolute Duty among us all so me I'm basically look you know I mean I can't live like that with my kids can I like bang and honor them like John Wesley from the pulpit or MLK I just gotta say all right how's it going do you want that to eat I'm not letting you eat that I'll come to why not you know I mean I'm leaving why don't you tell me stuff you've done at school what do you mean you've got a boyfriend I'm doing all I'm saying all the normal chats everyone's happening having but what I'm trying to do is recognize they ain't gonna get a better conduit than me for good enough for real so I better get the [ __ ] out of the way I could get out of the way for them you know Russell thank you so much thank you for um thank you for being a an inspiration to me in so many ways one of the ways that I think I mean you you're completely in a in a league of your own outside of the comedy and all that is the way that you communicate ideas in a way that is so Brit and I know you must be aware of this that is so brilliant and poetic and you said it halfway through this conversation that it's intentional your use of words yes you could you know you could use simpler words yes but you choose the poetry but I can describe it why because why it's not only error diet to talk like that think of perhaps one of the great archetypes of the working class we have nowadays Danny Dyer yeah he's a poet he talks beautifully it's nice to be specific yeah if you can be specific what do you mean what do you mean and to be honest it's uh inner it's always been there it's always there it's there it's funny because as I was observing you today you seem like you're just one step ahead of the thing coming out of your mouth and that's why you're able to string this poetry together in such a cohesive way in a coherent way because your brain seems to just be one step ahead of Mark like of the way that I would speak yours it's wonderful to observe and it's a wonderful talent I observe it as well in your your new show um oh yeah yeah brandemic well done Jesus no no I but no but it was a one it's wonderful I I watched all of the clips I watched the trailer what you managed to do in that show So for anybody that doesn't know Russell has a show called brandemic which is going to be available for just two weeks from June 25th which you can watch online globally you can pre-order it now I pre-ordered it and my partners pre-ordered it so we're even though we're gonna be watching on the same screen so there's two pre-orders but it's this wonderful confrontation of the last couple of years of Our Lives mixed with comedy at the heart of it with also this this permeating really important message underneath there somewhere which you I think you use comedy and such a wonderful way to um if I may say uh inject an important message into me through the through the medium of humor and it's it's a wonderful skill that I've seen in some great comedians some of you know Jimmy Carter to his credit he's wonderful what he does he uses a different form of Comedy but the form of Comedy you use to address very important subject matter is genius it's very very hard to do and in fact when I sat here with Jimmy he said he's trying to do more of that I've seen a few great comedians like the Chappelle's of the world who I saw in New York a couple of weeks ago and um Aziz Ansari he's fantastic at that I saw him at the store do that as well I highly recommend everybody go and get pre-order pandemic it'll only be available for two weeks and if you go check out the trailer and YouTube it is [ __ ] hilarious um it confronts all the things a lot of people are a bit too scared to confront but with a real a real elegance and a real class so thank you for that and also I have to mention Community which is an event that's taking place when is it July yeah July the 14th to July is it polite for me to ask your girlfriend's name Melanie Melanie yeah come with Melanie she's we should be right up her alleys there be at Simpkins there Vandana Shiva proper leaders both in political and spiritual spaces because in the end these are fake divisions there is only one space you'll love it come come and do a turn on a Saturday night I saw I saw a poster for it and I thought this can't be real because of the the people that are there and they're all Gathering I thought it can't be in person it must be online and then I found out it was in person as well so 14th of July to the 17th of July um in hey on way why is there a river that uh like that bifurcates England and Wales or at least separates England and Wales although actually England the world's most conceptual so by the case that bit of land that is currently called England and Wales it's a reverse on a campsite I went to during the pandemic I went there on a holiday in a one in Vans you know that you can do up from within and we're such a lovely time there and we did a small Festival last year and this year we're doing a bigger Festival and the money that we make we give to people with addiction and mental health issues various Charities that we support for the stay free Foundation is proper it's an attempt to live how we might live that that is probably the most compelling thing to me because I literally wrote a chapter in my book called The Journey Back To Human and so it's wonderful to see something called Community that's doing exactly that bringing us back to what it is to be a human and as you say the cause is that the proceeds of this event are going to are phenomenal including a clothian charity I believe which was that it's a charity in Plymouth I think oh yeah yeah yeah Trevi women that's the only Treatment Center we are in the country that is able to take women with imp with addiction issues and complex needs that have kids already because obviously it's very difficult to look after women that are drug addicts that have kids and stuff so that place though they do a fantastic job down in your ends in Plymouth my old neck of the woods so you can heal yourself but also the proceeds will help to heal others which I think is a phenomenal thing so thank you for that we have a closing tradition on this podcast where the last guest leaves a question for the next guest not knowing who they're leaving it for um you can have a 60-second conversation with anyone in your life but it is the last conversation you will have with them no I can't do this is all that's a brilliant or evil question evil I always tell the guests I say because they've all been stitched up by the last question so I say Stitch pay it forward you know what you've already got to know them and it's 60 seconds who huge you call in what you say well but the thing is is that bill can I just break this down a bit you're dispatching them after that yeah so it's in a way and you have to know them is that contained in the connection well it's you can enter it's only 60 seconds 60 seconds and I've never seen him again I mean there's no one in my life that I love that I want to give up on that so 60 seconds I'm never gonna see him again afterwards yeah um God there's some good people that I've met though I know because I'm going to pluck Australia like a virtual stranger a virtual strange interesting because why it's only 60 seconds you're letting go of them oh no you're not I don't think it means that you can never see them again I think the world interpreted it was you run it's your last day on Earth you get a phone call so it's getting worse then there's no more me oh my God this who wrote this question some evil I'm joking um you know tell us it's Anonymous sometimes it so it'll eventually come out on a card that people can play with their friends Hustler every day all right um so just say someone I love I'm going to talk to you for 60 seconds yeah [Music] um but and they're alive already you can't even get someone that's dead back kind of my name back I'd love a minute 100 I'll take my nan okay I'll take 60 seconds of me Nan I love you Nan I'm all right I'm not so crazy you were right about the drugs though why huh because she was so lovely it's actually loved me so much it was so unself-conscious it was so unself-conscious oh you're right darling shame in it a what level West Kai Bush what's that drug she's doing I'll tell you I see on Kilroy it'll lead to worse things 60 Seconds let her know you're okay yes you're okay yes perfect thank you Russell and honor to meet you and thank you so much for being here you could have been anywhere so I really appreciate your time I really really appreciate that thanks thank you thank you thank you so much for having me it was really lovely intense experience the scenery the environment's so gray and the conversation is so colorful intentionally I told you excellent oh [Music] quick one I'm so delighted that we're now sponsoring this podcast I've worn a week for a very very long time and there are so many reasons why I became a member but also now a partner and an investor in the company but also me and my team are absolutely obsessed with data driven testing compounding growth marginal gains all the things you've heard me talk about on this podcast and that very much aligns with the values of whoop whoop provides a level of detail that I've never seen with any other device of this type before constantly monitoring constantly learning and constantly optimizing my routine for providing me with this feedback we can drive significant positive behavioral change and I think that's the real thesis of the business so if you're like me and you are a little bit obsessed or focused on becoming the best version of yourself from a health perspective you've got to check out woob and the team that we've kindly given us the opportunity to have one month's free membership for anyone listening to this podcast just go to join.woop.com CEO to get your whoop 4.0 device and claim your free month and let me know how you get on as you know they're a sponsor of the podcast and I'm one of the investors in the company my relationship with Hill started with the ready to drink range which I have here in front of me on the table why did I choose to drink this first and foremost convenience I'm not the type of person that wants to spend a huge amount of time whisking or mixing things together and I don't typically have a huge amount of time during the day and there are some days not always but there are some days where because of the limited amount of time I have the choices that I would ordinarily reach for aren't necessarily the most healthy choices they're certainly not nutritionally complete so as soon as I discovered who all existed because of a wonderful guy who worked one of my teams in Manchester walked past me wearing a heel t-shirt I inquired what it was he told me what it was and then I bought the ready to drink bottles into the office it was a game changer for me and it meant that on those days where I'm tempted to reach for Less nutritionally complete options or less healthy food options I have something right underneath my desk in the fridge that I can reach for that allows me to remain in line with my health and nutrition goals and Tesco have now increased their listings with hewell so you can now get the RTD ready to drink in Tesco expresses all across the UK [Music] oh [Music] foreign

Channel: The Diary Of A CEO

Views: 2,320,509

Keywords: The Diary Of A CEO, steven bartlett steve bartlett, podcast, the diary of a CEO podcast, life lessons, CEO, russell brand, DOAC, Russell Brand DOAC, Russell Brand diary of a ceo, russell brand anxiety, Russell Brand Opens Up About Escaping A Lifetime Of Anxiety Attacks & Addiction! | E260, Spirituality, russell brand spirituality, russell brand spiritual awakening, russell brand speaking, russell brand podcast, russell brand interview

Id: EXUpMMde51E

Length: 101min 52sec (6112 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 29 2023