From Fields of Dreams to Spiritual Realms

Imagine realizing a hidden trait within yourself through your child's eyes. That's exactly what happened to Dan Ramsay, Major League Baseball scout and talent evaluator, who discovered his highly sensitive personality through his daughter's experiences. Tune in as Dan takes us on his transformative journey from professional baseball coaching to a more introspective path, fueled by the pandemic. He shares how this revelation reshaped his relationships and self-awareness, and how hosting a foreign exchange student from South Korea broadened his family's cultural perspectives.

Ever had a dream so vivid it felt prophetic? Join us as we explore the significance of dreams and their dual meanings, with Dan recounting his own profound experiences. From escaping volcanoes to encounters with great horned owls, every dream carried a unique message, guiding personal insights since childhood. We delve into the spiritual journey of connecting with nature and the practices that promote health and wellness, like gardening and self-sustainable living, emphasizing the importance of living a clean lifestyle free from modern additives.

What if trusting the process could lead to profound personal growth? Jeffrey and Dan reflect on their bond, underscoring the importance of vulnerability, genuine connections, and continuous personal growth. They discuss the impact of environmental factors like solar flares on health and the need to reconnect with nature. With heartfelt exchanges and compelling insights, this episode encourages embracing change, overcoming fear, and maintaining an open heart and mind on the journey to personal and spiritual enlightenment.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:22

Hi everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Everyday Shaman. My name's Jeff Brunk, your host and my guest today is Dan Ramsey. Dan's a great guy with an amazing story of transformation to tell, and he's currently employed as a Major League Baseball scout and talent evaluator, grading the on-field ability of high school and college athletes, as well as evaluating their off-field character traits. Prior to his time in professional baseball, he worked as the field manager in player development with a different professional organization. So in other words, dan was a professional baseball coach Before professional baseball. Dan was the head baseball coach at a small Christian college for nine years, while also serving as an adjunct instructor in the kinesiology department.

Speaker 1: 2:09

Dan earned a Master of Education in Administrative Leadership and during his undergraduate work, studied secondary education with endorsements in kinesiology and English as a second language. Dan has long had a passion for other cultures, and English as a second language was a great avenue for him to learn and create relationships with those who might be different than himself. He knew within himself that he wanted to be able to work in a profession that put relationships at the forefront. Dan has been happily married for 13 years and has four children two girls ages 8 and 11 and two boys ages 6 and 4. Oh, and let's not omit the two golden retrievers. So, basically, dan and his wife have six children.

Speaker 1: 2:50

He and his family live on a small one-acre farm in the beautiful Pacific Northwest and raise chickens, grow plums, pears, apples, raspberries, blueberries and strawberries, as well as cultivating as many vegetables as they can in the family's garden. All of this seems like a lot, but it's just the tip of the iceberg. Like so many others, 2020 drew a line in the sand between the old Dan and the new Dan. The global pandemic opened his eyes to the corruption of evil in our world and caused him to embark on a journey that has enlightened him in ways he'd never imagined, including increased curiosity and thinking for himself, while gaining an incredible amount of knowledge. So welcome, dan, to the podcast. Glad to have you here.

Speaker 2: 3:33

Awesome, jeff. Thanks for having me. Super excited to be here, sure.

Speaker 1: 3:37

You've got said tip of the iceberg. There's so much to your story outside of baseball and I'm really interested to hear more about how 2020, the pandemic it changed so many people, opened so many people's eyes. And it's especially great to hear that coming from a male, and I've said this in my debut podcast that it's not a common thing for men to come forward and admit they started seeing things in a new way. It's a form of enlightenment In a lot of ways. People see that or hear that word and they think new, agey things and that's not the way it is and I know how it was for a lot of others and I imagine it was sort of the same way for you.

Speaker 2: 4:20

Yeah, very, very much so and I think, as part of that, maybe being male, being a little more insecure about being vulnerable with others, but for me it really started just prior to 2020. You know, you mentioned earlier, I have four children my oldest daughter, my oldest daughter. We were having a really difficult time with her. She was highly emotional, highly sensitive, struggling to cope with many things that we didn't think it didn't come across as normal and we were struggling for answers. My wife and I, we came across a term and I'm not big on labels but we came across a term called the highly sensitive personality trait and, as we've read about it, as we researched it, a lot of what we were reading and I'm sure we've seen a lot of them A lot of times it's a hook to try to get you to give them an email address for a product or whatever it happens to be.

Speaker 2: 5:31

But this quiz was a quiz about the highly sensitive personality trait and I sat down with my five-year-old at the time and asked her a lot of the questions and some of them I had to answer for her because she couldn't really articulate it. Her a lot of the questions and some of them I had to answer for her because she couldn't really articulate it. But I started to see this pattern of things where I thought this has got to be some sort of gimmick because I would answer the same thing to just about every one of these. So I went to my mom, I called my mom and said Mom, I'm going to run some questions by you real quick and just curious what you're going to answer. And I gave my mom the same quiz and it was a 20 question quiz and it basically said that if you answer yes to more than nine of the questions, that you likely have the highly sensitive personality trait.

Speaker 2: 6:17

And, like I said, I think I answered 19 out of the 20 to yes and I thought that's interesting. My daughter was the same, but when I asked my mom she only answered four of the 20. Yes and it I was taken aback. And then I went to my wife and I asked her the same questions and same thing. I was dumbfounded. I didn't realize that other people weren't affected by things the same way that I was, and this is, as a 35, 36-year-old man, learning something new about myself. So, as I said, it kind of- it came about in such an offhanded.

Speaker 1: 6:55

I mean, you're doing this for your daughter, trying to figure this out, and then you find something out about yourself. The way these things happen sometimes is amazing, oh and yeah.

Speaker 2: 7:06

So that was kind of what got the ball rolling to this idea that maybe there was more to me than I knew, if that makes sense. You know, shortly after that my wife and I decided that we wanted to bring a foreign exchange student into our home. You mentioned earlier that I had a passion for other cultures and my wife does as well. So the idea of bringing a student from a different part of the world into our home was really exciting. We thought it would be good for our children. So we had an exchange student from South Korea. She was awesome, we had a good time with her.

Speaker 2: 7:42

But I recognized really, really quickly that I had some pretty unhealthy traits in regards to people pleasing. I think when you're in your own home, under your own roof, you kind of can be yourself, and then when you have a stranger in the home, we tend to sometimes maybe put on a mask or act in a certain way that we want others to perceive us. And I recognized really quickly with a stranger in our home that I was being two very different people in public versus in private. A lot of that centered around trying to please others and it became to the point where it was quite unhealthy because I wasn't taking care of myself and this is something, jeff, you and I have talked about in the past. But the ability to retreat, to disappear when you might need to, to seek out solitude in those times where maybe the energies are just a bit too high and really all you need is some time alone. And this is still a challenge of mine. I have four kids, so obviously my house is packed and there's also some shame and guilt involved when you just want to say, hey, I'm out, guys, I need a break. Honey, you can hang out with all four of them for a bit. So always continuing challenges and obviously I feel like I've experienced so much growth in this process.

Speaker 2: 9:20

But kind of back to that story. I started to really dive into who I was and kind of what made me tick and started to realize that I had some ugly traits. I had some good traits and some positive traits, but I had some other things too that I needed to face and you know, that's kind of how the process started for me. I stumbled across the meditation and journeying and shamanism in a much different way, but it all leads back to my daughter, and it was actually how I was introduced to you, jeff.

Speaker 2: 9:54

You know we were struggling with her behavior and her sensitivities and some of her high emotions and again I was starting to uncover some of this in myself. My mother-in-law she's a bit of an esoteric thinker I guess you could call her that but I mean she does like remote healing and muscle testing and some things like that, so she's more open-minded. She just reached out and said hey, maybe you should try to have somebody do a shamanic journey on your daughter's behalf, and the man she recommended was you. So I emailed you. Yeah, yeah, I emailed you.

Speaker 1: 10:36

Curiously. How did she find me?

Speaker 2: 10:39

You know what I have no idea, I have no idea, but obviously it was divine. So, yeah, I reached out to you, you did a journey on her behalf and I was it was. I didn't even know what a shamanic journey was. Honestly, it was right around the time that there was like the January 6th capital deal and there was a shaman on TV who had like US flag. So it was the first time I'd ever even heard the term before. I hated that. I hated that. I do now.

Speaker 1: 11:12

You know, like you, I'm not big on labels and when it was my editor when I was writing my memoir that wanted to call the book the everyday shaman and I didn't want to call myself a shaman. I think it's a very revered profession and there's a history to it. Just like I eschew titles, I don't want to be called a Reiki master. It's an ego thing to me.

Speaker 2: 11:40

Yeah, I'm right there with you, I agree.

Speaker 1: 11:42

Yeah, but it's at the same time what people search for when they're looking for help. So, yeah, I'd really be interested to know how, how she found me across country like that. But yeah, yeah, I've had other people and actually stories across borders because she's Canadian.

Speaker 2: 11:59

So, oh, wow, yeah, yeah. So she, she found a tie and we needed it at the time and I needed it. I was amazingly fascinated by your time and I needed it. I was amazingly fascinated by your response and what you shared and I, shortly after that, had asked you to do a journey on my behalf because I had experienced some things and some dreams that I couldn't quite make sense of and I thought maybe your insight in the spirit realm would help that. And what you came back to me with was I mean, to this day, there's no way. There's no way you could have known.

Speaker 2: 12:40

The landscape that you entered when you went into your journey was the landscape that I've had reoccurring dreams about from the time I was 10 years old and you described it to a T and it just blew my mind Like it was. I mean I, this was a, a reoccurring dream. I've had most of my life along a beach with a rock pier going out into the ocean and it's. It's a spooky dream for me, but it's happened multiple, multiple times and you journeyed on my behalf and you described that place to me and it just.

Speaker 2: 13:18

It was one of those moments where they say like you become a believer in something, if you want to put it that way, it was just like man. There is absolutely something to this, because that man, this stranger, could not have known that about me. And then to take it even further, you know, as you encountered some animals and some different things in that dream, they very much resonated with me and what I was going through and experiencing at that time. So, yeah, but at the end of the day, it was all confirmation that I was on this path. It wasn't necessarily by a choice, but I'm so incredibly grateful and happy to be on it.

Speaker 1: 14:00

Well, I appreciate you sharing that with me. I don't have many people that share with me things like that. It's like sometimes I ask my wife you know it'd be nice to get some validation, you know sometimes because I don't know, from a lot of times. So it's nice to hear that. So I appreciate you sharing. And this all happened after you had done the test. You know you had first with you with your daughter doing the test, and so you were already opening up your, your insights to yourself. How long had the dreams? I mean, have you always had really vivid dreams and or prophetic dreams or whatever? Yeah, you know, it's. It's pretty fascinating actually, or prophetic dreams or whatever.

Speaker 2: 14:45

Um, how did that lead you? You know it's. It's pretty fascinating actually. Like, uh, dreams have always been a very significant part of my life. I mean dating back to as long as I can remember. I mean I remember waking up in the morning and recalling dreams with my dad almost daily, where they started to kind of get interesting. Interesting is interesting is, I mean, some of the earliest ones.

Speaker 2: 15:07

I had, like I said, these reoccurring dreams, where I had one where I was basically running from a volcano and my only escape was this rock pier out into the ocean, and it reoccurred many, many times in my life. I've had reoccurring dreams where I'm in a different time period, but they don't I've kind of talked about this before they don't necessarily, they don't feel like a normal dream. It's almost an experience Like you're living in a story, yeah, like I'm living in a story and I'm. I can feel what the characters are feeling and it feels like I'm there, but I don't really. It just there's no connection to it.

Speaker 2: 15:49

And then you know back in it's been 10 years now 2014, I lost a dear friend of mine in a plane crash. It was, it was prominent news, it was all over ESPN. He was the assistant scouting or the assistant athletic director at Illinois State University and he died after the final four in a plane, a private plane crash. Oh, I remember that. Yeah, just a dear friend of mine.

Speaker 2: 16:18

And about a month after his death I dreamt that I met him in a cafe and he talked to me for a long, long time and I woke up from that dream and I wrote everything down that we had discussed. But he said some things that just didn't make sense to me. He talked to me about enjoying mirror. He said you're going to really enjoy mirror. And I didn't know what that meant and I wrote that in my notes on my phone. Like I don't know what that meant, and I wrote that in my notes on my phone, like I don't know what that means. And three months later a close friend of ours contacted me and said hey, let's go hike Camp Rainier, we're going to go Mount Rainier, we're going to hike up to base camp. And I said cool. And we got up to base camp and it was named after John Muir and we went to Camp Muir and there's no way that I could have known. I didn't even know what that was. I didn't know what that even existed, so.

Speaker 1: 17:17

Do you research the dreams after you have them?

Speaker 2: 17:20

You know, I hadn't at that point, but I started to. You know, the most prominent dream I had and I honestly, I kind of I say this is the one that was the awakening dream, the one that really got me was it was 2019. I was summoned by a great horned owl in my sleep and it spooked the daylights out of me. I mean to the point where I didn't sleep for a couple of days following it because it just felt so real. And in that dream, I let the, I let the owl. It was in my hotel room. It was in my hotel room just terrorizing me, and I let it out and it flew out and I watched it fly into the pine trees, me, and I let it out and it flew out and I watched it fly into the pine trees. And immediately after that I just felt the need to research it. And this is kind of, I think, where this whole path started for me.

Speaker 2: 18:15

But the more I dug, it was like you know, google, right, like I don't use Google anymore. I used to use Google, but anyway, google. Like, hey, what does an owl dream mean? And it's like well, native Americans think it means death and this culture thinks it means wisdom and darkness, and it was just like I kind of found myself gravitating toward what I wanted to hear, you know, like oh, that's a positive thing, I'll just stick to that. It means a good thing, or it means the death of this or whatever it happens to be, and I kind of didn't think much of it. I kind of wrote it off. I joked about it with a few friends, a few family members. My dad jokingly said that it might be your grandma Theta spirit, and maybe, maybe it was.

Speaker 1: 19:01

But Well, those dream, dream interpretations, you know I after I do, you know after I after I do a shamanic journey and I write up a summary and I make it as detailed as possible and I ask that the recipient read it, reread it, reread it again. Let things resonate. Research, research, research. You know colors, animals, anything in there that led to research, and let things resonate. And animals like any sign. They have flip sides to them as far as meanings go. So they'll have a positive attribute and a negative attribute. So it's letting. Google is terrible about this because I know how, you know what you mean, you know you go and you want to go to the best meaning possible. You know, oh, this, this must be great. Or if it's a, if it's an animal or a color or a dream about death, it's automatically fear that's instilled as all that's that's horrible, I'm going to die, and that's not necessarily the case.

Speaker 1: 20:06

But in your dreams you weigh both and look at, okay, what was the rest of the dream about? Or if, during your daylight hours seeing an owl, okay, what was going on when I saw the owl, what was I thinking about? It's messages? You're given messages through animals, through your dreams. Apparently, you get a lot through dreams. I don't. Most you're in. You're ending up in a in a hoot owl's nest, in a barn in the middle of the Pleiadian council or something like that.

Speaker 2: 20:51

Hey, I've been. I've been to many of those, so that's okay.

Speaker 1: 20:55

In the younger days.

Speaker 2: 20:56

I mean, you kind of say it, you say it perfect, like it started as a dream and then they started to manifest in my natural world. You know, I'd know I'd be out on a hike and I'd see an owl, and I'd go oh man, I'm not used to seeing owls, that's cool. I'd snap a picture. Or I'd wake up at four o'clock in the morning and look out the window and there'd be one silhouetted on our, our fence. And or they wake me up talking to me in the middle of mesa, arizona, or tucson, arizona, when I'm sitting in a hotel room. And it's just kind of gotten to the point now where I've just accepted that it's a guide and a helper and something, a reminder that I'm not alone in this.

Speaker 1: 21:37

So that's what I was going to say. It's a reminder when you need it, and it's usually exactly when you need it is when these type things happen, or they appear, or you'll hear them yeah, no doubt.

Speaker 2: 21:51

Well, and, as you can imagine, like it's funny looking back at it now. It's funny at the time it was devastating because I thought I was losing my mind. You know, I thought I was absolutely losing my mind that I was having this experience and that if I brought it up to people they thought I was a whack job. So I just kind of kept quiet about it and just kind of went along my way and you know, coming to find out it was a huge gift.

Speaker 1: 22:17

So yeah, and being you know to score a 19 out of a 20 on a test like that, which I don't know how they quantify that, but still that's doggone high to be in the traits of being sensitive like that. They tend to run within families. So to be sensitive like that it's you. You can't help but notice these things come up and, unlike a lot of people, you take notice and heed the sight or the sound and think this means something instead of just looking at it as being a coincidence.

Speaker 2: 22:54

Yeah, no doubt. Yeah, there's no more coincidences. I used to think there were, I used to think there were. Like I mean, you know, Jeff, you reached out last Saturday and just said, hey, I'm really kind of feeling a push and a call to, to get this thing rolling. And I didn't share it with you, but I've been, I've felt the exact same way, you know. So to hear that and have that confirmation or that synchronicity or that coincidence that we were both kind of feeling that nudge is how I kind of follow truth, you know that's. It just feels right.

Speaker 1: 23:32

So yeah, and I don't think I mentioned to you that when I was reaching out to people and I mentioned to you about the other person that I used to work with at organization media organization the day I reached out to her, she had her phone in her hand reaching out to me at the same time.

Speaker 1: 23:52

My message came through and she's never reached out to me. I mean, we're Facebook friends and all this, but she's never messaged me about things and for her to do that, I've had that happen so many times, even with trying to get people interested in the podcast or people contacting me. Everyone hears about the stories of oh, I picked my phone up to call you right before you know you called me and that's not a coincidence. There's a reason and we don't always know what the reasoning is. It's like for the podcast for me. I don't know what the end game is for it, but I know there's an urgency behind it to reach people like yourself who haven't actually people that haven't come as far as you have, and a lot of them being younger 20s, 20s and as young as your daughter.

Speaker 1: 24:45

Hey, they're misunderstood and it's frightening for them.

Speaker 2: 24:52

Yeah, well, it scared the dickens out of me. I needed somebody normal like me to be able to share about these things, and I hate to say it in that regard, but I think you know what I mean when I never had anybody to lean on in this whole process. I still don't feel that way at times. I'm fortunate, Like I mentioned, my mother-in-law earlier.

Speaker 2: 25:20

I'm fortunate that she raised her daughter, because when I brought a lot of this to my wife, you know, I think a lot of times when people go upon this path and I know you and I have discussed this they tend to lose a lot of their loved ones, they lose a lot of friends and they lose a lot of family because of how they're perceived and because my wife was raised with a mom who was more open-minded and more of an open thinker, I think my wife valued those traits. So when I brought these things to her, my wife valued those traits. Um, so when I brought these things to her, she didn't see them in a negative light and I just I feel incredibly fortunate. Um, you know, these are a lot of what I'm discussing with you and I shared this like being very vulnerable here, Like I haven't had a lot of these conversations with some of the people closest to me in my life. Um, for that fear, um, for the fear of of losing them, but I'm being vulnerable now. So here we are.

Speaker 1: 26:19

I looked at it and I understand that fear and I think it's absolutely necessary to have at least one person that understands and I'm curious about with your wife as far as people are afraid or they, I don't. It's not a believing in what's unseen, but it's when you start talking about things that are unseen and you know on whether it's on this realm, which I call the now, or the upper realms, lower realms, wherever it may be.

Speaker 2: 26:49

So she's open to understanding that or, having a con, she's not just automatically blocking it out yeah, no 100 and and, like I said, I think it's because I mean it's, it's, it's fascinating really, but just some of the stories I can share with my mother-in-law. Like when I first met my mother-in-law and I hope kathy listens to this podcast but when I first met her I thought she was batshit crazy. I just did, I just thought she was nuts. Um, I mean she was. She was doing some testing on us to make sure that certain supplements would be okay for us and she was balancing her hands and I just thought it was insane.

Speaker 2: 27:30

But I went along with it because I love my wife and you know.

Speaker 2: 27:43

But I went along with it because I love my wife and you know, over time, like I was the crazy one for not seeing it and not recognizing it for what it was, because I mean you had to be ready wizard, like man. That guy's a wizard, he's got some, he's got some magic to him, like my mother-in-law is that way and she's she's fascinating and what she's able to uncover and what she's able to help with, and I mean she's a healer, she's a light worker, I mean whatever you want to call it. Like she's it and and I see that now, but my wife's known it and seen it all along. So I think when I brought some of these things to her, this different way of thinking this, that in many, many ways was like completely opposite of what both of us grew up seeing and believing most of our lives. She was open to it and, you know, fortunately I've been able to maintain a connection to my faith. If you want to call it faith, you know I like to call it a knowing.

Speaker 1: 28:36

Now, that's what I call it. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 28:40

But it's, you know, it's just this. I have this knowing and understanding that a lot was manipulated. You know, there is many, many truths and I was brought up in many, many truths but there was a lot that was manipulated and changed. And I think when I learned that, when I learned that, it really flipped the script for me because you know, I was, I read the Bible from cover to cover in 2018, every single day and I journaled on what I read every single day. And then, in 2020, I learned that the Bible was canonized by the Roman Catholic church and it was edited many, many times prior to that and after that, and it was just like I started to just thirst for this knowledge of what was hidden and I wanted to know why it was hidden. And I don't know it all and I still don't, and, but I'm sure, interested in finding out. So I'm just going to keep digging and keep following my curiosities.

Speaker 1: 29:44

So well, you know where I stand on this. I mean, I grew up in the church too.

Speaker 2: 29:50

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 29:51

And I searched and searched and I always wondered why people came out all happy and happy and, oh well, they've given their life to Jesus and so their sins are forgiven. And I remember for years and years I mean since I was a small kid trying to get that feeling that I saw on the faces of people coming out of the church, and years later I started seeing a lot of the hypocrisy behind it. It wasn't okay, they're happy. There was a mask in church.

Speaker 1: 30:24

You look at the actual ceremonial things or the rituals in church. It's basically a show, but behind the curtain and scenes it's not pretty and I was part of that, just trying to find that same thing and watching the people sitting in the pews reciting the Lord's prayer, but doing it as Father in heaven. It's just sort of going through the motions. And with what I do and with what the things that you do, you know how important intention is. And so focused intention is is. It doesn't matter if you're healing with singing bowls or Reiki or shamanic work or whatever it may be, or just sitting in church and praying for someone. If your intention is focused, you get results.

Speaker 2: 31:16

You are so spot on man.

Speaker 1: 31:18

That's awesome and it's setting everything else about yourself aside Say you're praying, or if I'm working for someone else on their behalf, setting all of that aside for however long it is for, say, a shamanic journey or a Reiki session or still human, it comes back. Still have to live in this world, but setting it aside. But to watch the people in church just kind of go through the motions and for me it was watching the first 20 minutes of every church service being about the financials.

Speaker 1: 31:51

And then going to the plate. Before anything else, before the first hymn. It was so eye-opening and I know there are good people that are very spiritual, that go to church and I'm not going off on that. But there's so much too, like so many that wear those masks and that go home after church and just kick back and play bunko and get drunk and you know. But they've done their duty, they've gone to church for an hour or two and Right, well, and I think their new dresses and suits and I think I'll I'll.

Speaker 2: 32:27

I'll leave a couple of comments here and I think it kind of ties back to where you're at with everything, I think. First I was fortunate I had a father. My dad was a man who he talked about faith in a manner of relationship. It was all to him it was about relationship and he lived that out and to him, you know, going to church made him a Christian just as much as standing in a garage made him a car. You know, that was just kind of how my dad operated. So I was fortunate to have that. But on the flip side of that I had a very spiritually devout mother who you know, believed that angels entered the room when someone was dying and she could see him and hear him singing. So I kind of had some different perspectives there.

Speaker 2: 33:16

In regards to the quote unquote church, you know I have a. Really, even though I grew up like this on the surface I look like this just, you know, white country boy, because that's how I grew up on a wheat ranch and cattle farm. Like that's what I look like on the surface, but like I have some pretty fascinating diverse background experiences, whether that be in the Dominican Republic with voodoo or that be in the hypocrite Catholic church. When I went to my first couple of years of college because I went to a Jesuit school my father his entire side of the family is LDS or Mormon, so I have a lot of different perspectives.

Speaker 2: 34:00

My very best friend in life is Native American. He's a Spokane tribe. So for me, I've had these wonderful experiences. I've sat in a sweat lodge in the Lakota tradition experiences I've sat in a sweat lodge in the Lakota tradition. I've had these wonderful experiences that have allowed me to see that all of these different spiritual practices are an avenue to connect to our Creator and to recognize common ground in that and to not fall for the divide and conquer that is thrown at us in every way, shape and form bunker that is thrown at us in every way, shape and form.

Speaker 1: 34:37

That's a great way to look at it, and it's the best way to look at it, because it's no matter the religion or the ceremonial aspects of it at the heart of it all is the divine. Whether it's Native American Christian, whether it's Islam, there is a central aspect of everything, and to see the division that's caused by oh well, you're not Christian, you're going to hell, or you know Native Americans, look at the world. The earth is their church.

Speaker 2: 35:03

That's the way I look at it.

Speaker 1: 35:04

The link outside.

Speaker 2: 35:05

That's my church there's so much I love about it and here and, yeah, I resonate.

Speaker 1: 35:10

Native American traditions resonate very, very strongly with me. But the underlying tenets and as far as organized religion goes, that is where, like you, were mentioning the Bible and the many times it's been edited. There's a reason for that and I think you'll agree control power and money and power and money.

Speaker 1: 35:33

And if you look at even today, if you look at it, everything that's said coming from a politician is either based in the first half of the Bible, which is the Torah, or the vengeful God, the wrathful God, or it's revelation. So the red words that Yeshua, as he's presented himself to me, spoke, they're overlooked. The acceptance, the love which I love to me is a four-letter word, because you can love pizza, you can love people, you can love a car, you can love anything. Acceptance is a better term for it. But that's all overlooked. It's more of going straight to say Isaiah or something from the first half of the book, the Old Testament, and then capping the whole book off with pure fear mongering. Even though it wasn't written to be taken literally, it does instill fear in so many people. So to take the New Testament, which is so much you know, it's the flip side of the Old Testament, but end it back on an Old Testament note, so to speak.

Speaker 2: 36:39

Yeah, well, I mean, you know what it comes back to for me. Is this? Simply, if we're going to take the story of Christ, is the Son of God right? If we're going to take that story? I'm a father, I have children, I know what it means to love, and if my creator loves me like I love my children, there's no way I could ever condemn them to hell. So that's just. That's where it comes back to for me.

Speaker 1: 37:06

Yeah, I believe that creator lives right inside of each of us.

Speaker 2: 37:10

Oh, there is no question. Yep, there is no question, I'm right there with you. Oh, there is no question. Yeah, there is no question, I'm right there with you.

Speaker 1: 37:17

We're on the same page. I've even read where Yeshua was considered a shaman in his time.

Speaker 2: 37:26

And a lot of what he did was left out of the New Testament. I'm actually digging in on that stuff right now. I'm reading about the lost years of Jesus and it's so fascinating and it makes so much sense and I have so many synchronicities or coincidences where this idea of Jesus as shaman or Yeshua as medicine man or witch doctor or whatever you want to call it, you called me a witch doctor.

Speaker 1: 37:52

Hey, you're a wizard, whatever you want to call it.

Speaker 2: 37:55

Like I said, it's to me it's all in the same. I mean it's. We're healers, you know.

Speaker 1: 38:02

and Christ says that I think it was in John Like he says we're going to do greater things than him, and I think there is a time coming soon where we're going to have to and I believe that's part of the reason you are emerging very quickly now and so many younger people are, and for my doing this because I am not one to like to speak and have my photo taken even so to step outside comfort zones. I step big, big time out of my comfort zone writing my book because I thought the same thing. People are going to think I'm nuts. This is not the Jeff of old. You know where's that, that guy, you know totally different. It's like I told you. I didn't become pious by any stretch of the imagination, but everything sort of shifted in perspective for me and I believe you, the the same has happened for you. It's like you were saying a lot of your interests had changed and things that seemed to be important or you thought were worth pursuing suddenly just weren't.

Speaker 2: 39:09

Yeah, so much. So, yeah, it's a smack in the face really, I think, just kind of. What it comes back to is is you start to value things in a much different way. You know, like I value my health so much differently now than I used to and I just see it in such a different perspective. I was thinking about this as I was going on to the podcast, like I would have never imagined I'd been on a podcast like this not in my entire life, you know. I just never. I'm so happy to be because it's it feels like this is what's worth pursuing. You know, and I have no idea how I'm ever going to make money doing this and I'll probably have to continue to find a way to survive in the regular world. But man, this is like it's all I.

Speaker 1: 40:00

I'm just so fascinated by it and I'm so interested in it and it's, but you have so much you have the trust, you know, you know the difference between trusting and wanting and or needing and wanting, trusting and wanting and or needing and wanting, and that what you need will come to you one way or another. You have that trust and that stems, I think, from both your faith, from your lifetime and what you know, the knowings that you have now, yeah, and but it doesn't ease the anxiety, not anxiety necessarily, but the concerns about how I can't do this full time. But maybe you can. You just never how things play out. We don't know.

Speaker 1: 40:46

I wish I journeyed and asked a direct question, I'd get a direct answer. But they don't work that way. I mean either way, and it makes sense, because if they gave direct answers, if we knew everything, then what's the point? But you never know where to lead you. Now, when you started doing the farming they're doing, you know, growing the vegetables, doing the gardening was this after all of this had happened, or you had? You've been doing that before, so you know, yeah, great, great question.

Speaker 2: 41:14

So in 2019, like November 2019, I don't know why this is, but I was always fascinated by, like quote unquote, conspiracy theories, but I never really delved into them too much, but I remember reading one, like in 2015. I used to get up in the morning, I'd get on Yahoo and I'd go look at like conspiracy theories on Yahoo and I remember reading one that said the world was going to be masked. And I remember reading that, thinking to myself yeah right, there's no way in heck anyone would ever go along with that. And I just remember brushing it off. Heck anyone would ever go along with that. And I just remember brushing it off. And then, when covet hit and they started to institute that stuff, I I just I remember it like it was, like I just just read it and I thought, oh, my goodness, what's going on here?

Speaker 2: 42:12

And I started worrying about World War III and the end of the world and I fell down all those tough rabbit holes where I fell for the fear right, the fear porn, I guess you'd call it and I thought you know what I've got to learn to be self-sustainable. So I planted carrots in my backyard that was the extent of it and I'd read a meme somewhere that said if you want to show your children a miracle, plant a garden. And I thought that was kind of cool. I thought the idea of that was cool. So I planted carrots and lo and behold, when they all grew and I pulled them out of the ground, I was amazed by it. I saw the miracle. I ate them after I washed them and they were the best tasting carrots I'd ever had. And I, the next day, I completely cut up half of our quarter acre lot and put in four planter boxes, without my wife's permission. The next year we had raspberries and cucumbers and zucchinis and carrots and.

Speaker 2: 43:17

I'd never done anything. It was just a complete experiment. I didn't know what I was doing, it was just me fooling around with it. And then a year later we sold our beautiful brand new home in a cookie cutter neighborhood with a quarter acre lot. In my little tiny garden, were you on a cul-de-sac.

Speaker 2: 43:35

We wanted to be but we weren't. But we were right next to a park and we sold that and we bought a 1950s farmhouse on one acre. That has been nothing but headaches in regards to the work it's caused, but I've learned so much we went from hiding one chicken because, um, because of our HOA, to now we have 20 of them. Um, you know, we feed our kids healthy food. They're connected to where their food comes from. Um, and I think, honestly, I think that's so essential when it comes to our health and when we want to be spiritually connected, because it is a mind, body, soul thing, when we want to be spiritually connected, because it is a mind, body, soul thing.

Speaker 2: 44:17

It's a native american thing too. It is 100, and so being connected to our food is is a priority for my wife and I when it comes to raising our kids. Um, you know, we are fortunate to live in a place where our water is clean. Um, it's free of fluoride, which we're thankful for. We're fortunate to live in a place where we can still purchase raw milk. So being able to go to the grocery store and purchase raw milk and then drive 45 minutes and show my kids the dairy farm where it came from, I think there's something really important in that, and I want to make sure that those are traditions and those don't die with my generation, because in a lot of places they already have. Oh yeah absolutely.

Speaker 1: 45:04

You know, money drives everything and unfortunately, because I remember when we were traveling around the country, going through I believe it was Texas, and just seeing the cattle yards and the small calves that had been, you know, I said there's the veal and there's the beef and just it was almost brought tears to my wife's eyes, but it was just so disheartening. But to do things the old way I know I have friends here that do that, not just with food but with building different types of shelters, or they use the old tools and that's the way they live, I think it's so cool.

Speaker 2: 45:46

I think it's so cool I don't know that I'm quite ready to go full blown homesteading. I'll be honest. I've jokingly said I think the Amish have it figured out, but one of these days we might make that move. I don't know. I have this little itch, this little desire to do a retreat center someday in Costa Rica or something. But I'm sure there's a lot of other people with that pipe dream. So we're going to start where we are for now.

Speaker 1: 46:16

You had mentioned wanting to be because you've gone through the first two levels of your Reiki training. Yeah, yeah, I got my attunements in Reiki one and two, so and mentioned possibly wanting to do a retreat or not do one, but to actually open one.

Speaker 2: 46:32

Yeah, yeah, I think it'd be fun. I or not do one, but to actually open one, yeah, yeah, I think it'd be fun. I feel a call to that. I mean, I think my greatest call at this point in life is I just I want to help people reconnect to nature because I think it's so incredibly important for our emotional, physical, spiritual, social health. We need to be connected to nature and I've learned that just through experimentation. Like I said, you know I was having, I've had so many injuries in my body throughout the years that you know, even though I'm still rather young as a 38 year old, I feel like I'm 60. So I've, you know, grounding and trying to wait a minute.

Speaker 1: 47:15

I'm 60. What does that mean?

Speaker 2: 47:16

No, no, I didn't mean that. Age is just a number.

Speaker 1: 47:22

So that's right, I'm 16 on the inside. There you go. No, it's um. You know the oh, where was I going to retreat? That's one of the reasons when we, when we were traveling the country I believe I mentioned that my wife had always, everywhere we stopped, we went 24 states and every time we went across state lines she was on Zillow, looking, looking, because we had lived in Virginia and she had lived in Virginia for over 30 years and I was a little under 30 years. I didn't want to come back to Virginia and I didn't want to go to North Carolina. I grew up there and I thought, okay, been there, done that.

Speaker 1: 47:57

And I believe it was California where this house kept showing up, the one that we ended up buying sight unseen on a Thanksgiving day in Biloxi, mississippi, and it had it checked all the boxes and, oddly enough, tying into the dreams, two or so years before we'd even traveled, we'd each had a dream not in consecutive nights or the same night about this house in this land.

Speaker 1: 48:22

I had one about the land bridge it goes over a creek, driving over that, and she had one, because we live on a cliff, it's over a river. She had dreams about that and this is the exact house and it's on Native American land, the Monacans, and it's nearby where what's called Point of Fork, where the Cherokee and the Seminole and Iroquois and all these. There were ceremonies held half a mile from where we are, I believe on the land where we are. Don't know exactly what the ceremonies were, but we were drawn here and my wife has this gift of the land calling to her, and it's not the first time it's done that You're sort of taken to where you need to be, when you need to be there, sort of like getting the signs, and then when it's time to move on, you know it.

Speaker 2: 49:09

Yeah, it's like we say it's coincidence, right?

Speaker 1: 49:13

Yeah, we're looking to make this place a retreat, slash, refuge as well and for me to teach, and I don't want big groups, I don't want big circular groups of people sitting around and trying to teach generic things. I want it to be more of a individually focused type teaching session, because everybody's needs are different, everybody's further along on their pathway or further behind and they need something different. So going over a lot of basics is really just kind of skimming the surface. So I want to keep it small and still be able to have people comfortable, because we don't have a big place but it's very doable. And what would make it such a great thing for you is having it in your head that that's what you want and the knowing of what you have to offer, because a lot of people they kind of know who they are, in a way they think, but what they have to offer they're not so sure of.

Speaker 2: 50:14

Right.

Speaker 1: 50:15

And so you're a rarity In a lot of ways. You're even more so a rarity because you're a guy who is doing these. You know that is doing these things and experiencing these things and admitting them, and that is and I think I told you hundreds of people I've worked with across the world. Two hands I could count. And out of those 10 fingers, not even five of them came to me willingly on their own. They were pushed or prodded by a spouse or significant other and they weren't open really to receiving. And so some I could work for, some I couldn't, most I couldn't because they were too proud. Yeah, gotta be strong.

Speaker 2: 50:59

You know that'd have been me, probably pre 2019, for sure. Either that or just scared of it, so yeah.

Speaker 1: 51:09

Yeah, the scary part is is when you start recognizing the things about yourself and accepting them and it starts changing you. It's scary. Change is scary for everybody. But to change as a person and start questioning everything you thought you knew about yourself and the world and what it's taught you, and looking at it differently and seeing it for what it is, as opposed to what you've always considered it to be, even if it was considered at all at the time.

Speaker 2: 51:40

Right.

Speaker 1: 51:41

It's a scary thing and on the flip side of that you have sort of a knowledge that it's going to be all right. You know, when you accept that truth about yourself, it really sort of settles you.

Speaker 2: 51:57

It does.

Speaker 2: 51:57

Yeah, I mean I can't, I can't even begin to worry. Wart is like the, what I used to get called. I mean I, I feared everything my whole life, my entire life. I mean up until I was 35, 36 years old, up until I started to have these experiences. It was, you know. My parents are coming to pick my kids up, to take them out to their house, and I'm thinking about the car accident they're going to be on the way out to their place. Like that was just how I operated and it just was so unhealthy and I never even I didn't even recognize that about myself until I've kind of made the shift. And now, when I and again, I'm not perfect, so when I find those thoughts starting to pop up into my head or whatever, it's a little easier for me to go whoa, where's that coming from? This ain't me. And having to look at it, recognize it, yeah for sure.

Speaker 1: 52:54

That's very important, that you recognize it and you stop it and then you see it for what it is and I say you embrace it. I call it the shadow.

Speaker 1: 53:04

The darker parts and you embrace them and you use them to face the even darker things that may come your way. Because these fears, I call them what ifs and when we first moved in here I had you know. We're down in the woods on a cliff, quarter mile driveway surrounded in the forest, and I had the what ifs. It petrified me to think a tree is going to fall across the driveway. How are we going to get out? We're 30 minutes in any direction from a supermarket or anything, you know, and I was paralyzed by it.

Speaker 1: 53:38

I was brain extremely tired because it was a whirlwind trip around the country and we moved in here and right after we moved in COVID struck and the quarantines started. So the timing was not coincidental. We got in here when we did, but it still was scary. And not long after the quarantine started is when I started getting the and I wasn't really advertising. I don't advertise myself, you know it's like I know people will come and find me somehow. I had business cards made. I didn't. I never give them out. My wife did, but it wasn't COVID that people were contacting me about. None of them had COVID.

Speaker 1: 54:18

It was emotional and stressful. It was like they were starting to without everything going on, without all the chaos and static of life, going to work and sitting in traffic, whatever it may be. They were starting to hear those little whispers that are always there. Instead of hearing the outside world coming at them, they were hearing the inside voices and it scared the crap out of them and some did have physical issues because of it. And any, any type of dis ease causes disease and I think I've told you it's like stress causing ulcers. It can cause anything.

Speaker 1: 54:56

And the longer you go, the longer you hold onto things, longer you hold on to things and you understand all that. And you're lucky that you haven't gone through the boot up the keister clean podcast. So I'm not going to say it like I normally. You didn't fight it, you went with it and you had someone there. I was lucky in that regards too.

Speaker 2: 55:19

But I will say this, too lucky on that in that regards too. But I will say this though, too, I I had some pretty pretty significant physical uh things come about uh during all of this onset. I had a vasectomy that was botched um. That, to even to this day, I'm still in physical pain. You, you know it's five years later now, so actually four and a half. I lost 65 pounds during that that year and a half span. When COVID hit, um, a lot of it was intentional Um. I started recognizing, uh, the effect that fasting had on my connection to source, my connection to God. So fasting became a pretty regular part of my life, and it still is to this day, and it's mainly for spiritual purposes, and when I say spiritual purposes, it's like the desire to eat. That's a reminder for me to connect to god, or connect to source, or connect to my creator. Um, and then I also giving up.

Speaker 2: 56:27

It's like giving up um something that you feel you need in order to receive something from the divine that you really yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, and I don't know if you want to call them upgrades or downloads or what, but I do think that God operates in ways that we think we can try to understand. But sometimes the answer is within. In fact, I think a lot of times it's within and we just need to get out of our own way. When I don't eat, I get out of my own way. I allow my body to restore and regenerate and recoup and do the things that God intended for it to do so and that, like I said, I think that.

Speaker 2: 57:12

So, as part of that path we talk a little bit about, like some of these transformations I went through, but like I've suffered from migraine headaches most of my life, from the time I was in second grade, I never knew what they were caused by. As I started to pay a little bit more attention to my diet, I did recognize how certain toxins played a role in that, but I also pay attention to different things, like electromagnetic fields and the resonance and some of these things that most people may not even know about, and I have recognized how solar flares and electromagnetic fields play a significant role in my migraine headaches, and I still don't know what they are. I don't know if they're upgrades or downloads or whatever maybe they are but I I do recognize they play a role and I think it's related to my pineal gland, but it's part of my sensitivity, uh, that we talked a little bit about that high, high sensitivity, yeah, so yeah, and that's why I'm wearing these blue light glasses, blue light blockers, for that very reason, because I won't sleep otherwise.

Speaker 1: 58:22

So it's. I imagine you had some headaches during the solar flares. You know you had. You saw the Northern Lights but I wasn't lucky enough to. We had cloud cover. I know people here in Virginia that did. But I have a app on my phone that shows the intensity of solar flares and it's on a scale from zero to nine and I saw the highest at eight one day, and nine would have really been devastating for the earth if it had been directly, even if it had hit satellites in its path but, it could have taken down a lot, but to have it at an eight at the same time that the moon phases were changing.

Speaker 1: 59:05

I imagine you had some headaches and you probably felt that I saw animals. You know where we are. We feed the animal, we feed all the critters and the squirrels were fighting like I've never seen them before, just so territorial and fighting, screeching and screaming, and it was during the solar flares, in the magnetic fields. You know the way it was impacting the magnetic fields. In addition to the full moon that was upcoming.

Speaker 2: 59:34

Right, yeah, I feel all those energies. You know, it's one of those things where when I, when all this stuff first started happening, I would tell myself, like you're just going crazy. It's like you're losing your mind. Man, this isn't the case, but I could feel it, like it, it was happening. Because I could feel it happening, you know, I I wasn't making stuff up and that's kind of where it just it went, from thinking I was weird to being like I don't care because I'm experiencing this and that just kind of what it came back to. And I tell my wife all the time it's like I might this probably sounds crazy, but that guy gave me some funky energies, or that gal had some great energy. We need to definitely partner with them later, whatever it happens to be.

Speaker 1: 1:00:28

So, because I experience it, I feel it, I know it. So, yeah, that knowing again and it's a truth. And then when you feel it, that knowing that truth, it's sort of you know it's hard to describe it sort of reverberates through your body and it's like undeniable no doubt I tell you, I think we could talk, I know I think we could talk, I know. I know we could talk for hours and hours and hours, but we probably should wrap this up. But I'd love to have you back on.

Speaker 2: 1:00:50

Oh yeah, we'll do it for sure.

Speaker 1: 1:00:51

I don't even think we I know we didn't touch on a lot of these talking points that you wanted to but there's a lot of them on here.

Speaker 2: 1:01:16

But before, before we do, is there anything else you'd like to add? Same front use your discernment, because there's some garbage out there, and I kind of learned the hard way. Sometimes you go down certain rabbit holes that just pull you into stuff that again it's taking away from what matters. So just be cautious in that regard. Use your discernment, trust your gut. And then I think the other piece for me is just like I talked about earlier find a way to reconnect to nature, whether that's just getting out and putting your feet in the grass, getting out and experiencing the sunshine on your bare skin, without clothes or without sunscreen, or any of that. Just live as we were supposed to. We're so far removed from how we were called to live this life, and a big part of that is getting out and experiencing nature and experiencing others through relationship. And I think if we can start moving back in that direction, where we start to rely on one another a little bit more, I think we're going to be heading in the right direction.

Speaker 1: 1:02:15

Absolutely. It's a great point with nature, especially that there's such a disconnect. Everything's indoors, Everything is thrown at you through the media, through television, through electronics, and going outside and listening to the wind or hugging a tree that sounds hippie-ish and not going to look like you know. But it's.

Speaker 2: 1:02:38

There's something to that.

Speaker 1: 1:02:40

There's something to putting your feet in the grass without shoes and socks. Some people now man, when I was a kid that was spent my summers barefoot, you know oh yeah, calluses like crazy and oh, mine too.

Speaker 2: 1:02:53

My kids know how dirty my feet are kids now will take their shoes off.

Speaker 1: 1:02:59

You know they it's gross, it's all this dirt and like it's sad. It's really sad. In a lot of ways it's funny and it's sad, but it's absolutely. You're absolutely right, you know connecting.

Speaker 2: 1:03:11

Yeah, try talking to a deer. Next time you're out in a deer, holler at him. See what he says back. You never know, yeah, so.

Speaker 1: 1:03:22

I do that.

Speaker 2: 1:03:23

I played with a Black Widow spider one time and even named it. You can catch me doing that, though I'm not there yet. I'm not ready for that medicine.

Speaker 1: 1:03:27

I don't think and snakes you know I overcame a lot of fears of I was. I was afraid of spiders and afraid of snakes. And now you say I've got a snake tattoo all the way up my arm. It's where the owl is your guide and protector. The snake is for me, and every home we've ever lived in, my wife and I, when we first gotten there at the door, has been a black snake. Oh, wow.

Speaker 2: 1:03:49

That's sweet.

Speaker 1: 1:03:51

Yeah, moving things in, there's a black snake. That's cool, whether it was Northern Virginia or here in Central Virginia, where you, of course, more prominent, but I don't see them all the time but it was right there and so I took notice of that. Going out in nature is the only way to do that.

Speaker 2: 1:04:09

Yeah, Well, it's got medicine. There's medicine free and everything, whether it's plant, whether it's an animal, whether it's I mean you and I talk about it. Like you said, we keep going on and on. But, like, whether you hear it in a song lyrics or name it, there's always a message out there for you, but you just have to be present enough to listen.

Speaker 1: 1:04:28

Yeah, that's the key is being open enough to catch it. Song lyrics, song that you've heard a million times in your life and sang along to, and all of a sudden you're singing or you hear the song and there's that lyric always been in there, cause it really means something right now.

Speaker 2: 1:04:46

Yeah, that was direct, that was really direct, yeah, it means something totally different, that's.

Speaker 1: 1:04:52

That was a big one for me when I was. I wasn't lucky to come through unscathed, like you, you know, with Right no, we've talked about that, but songs played a huge role and lyrics played a huge role in my understanding of what was going on, just like the animals do now. Back then it was music, and it could be anything from Jimmy Buffett to bands I never heard of at the time, like Cedar, and a song called fake it, you know, spoke to me big time. If you ever listen to song, you'll probably understand why. But we'll let this, uh, we'll let this rest here. But, dan, I appreciate you coming on if people want to reach you. You'd given me your x address.

Speaker 1: 1:05:36

Yeah, twitter yeah is that a way that?

Speaker 2: 1:05:40

Yeah, yeah, it's at Farmstead Dad. Farmstead Dad is two words. Don't combine the D's. There's two separate D's there in the middle. So Farmstead Dad on X is probably the best way. I mean, I've got Instagram and stuff, but be honest with you, I don't even check it. So X is the main place. If someone wants to jump on there and shoot me a direct message or whatever, I'd be happy to connect.

Speaker 1: 1:06:05

So yeah, so anyone listening, you have questions or you're resonating with things, dan saying he's open to receiving your messages or your questions, and I know for a fact that he will be genuine and honest in his responses and provide as much help as he can. Take him up on that.

Speaker 2: 1:06:25

No doubt. Well, Jeffrey, thank you. Thank you so much. I really appreciate the opportunity to come on here and be a little bit vulnerable, but also just sharing a love, a passion and a desire to continue to grow. So thank you.

Speaker 1: 1:06:41

Yeah, man. Well, thank you. I you're more than welcome and I'm very fortunate to have found you as as a friend. I consider you a friend because it's I have a million acquaintances, but finding someone that you can confide in and talk about these things is not that easy. And it's a. It's a, it's more than a brotherhood, it's like. It's like being a family member.

Speaker 2: 1:07:04

Yeah, I'm right there with you. Feel the same way.

Speaker 1: 1:07:07

I'm grateful for that. So.

Speaker 2: 1:07:09

Awesome. Thanks, Jeff.

Speaker 1: 1:07:10

All right, thank you, dan.

Speaker 2: 1:07:12

All righty.