Apr 14 2022
Alex Banach— Near Death Experience, Primal Activation, Florida's Ecological issues, & primacy of consciousness #01
Alex Banach— Near Death Experience, Primal Activation, Florida's Ecological issues, & primacy of consciousness [00:00:00] Show Intro[00:00:00] ken: so ladies and gentlemen, welcome to episode one of potential paradigms. And this is a show where I have deep conversations with individuals who are deeply thinking, feeling [00:00:16] [00:00:16] ken: and acting to answer the call of ushering in of a new age, an age of new paradigms. So I welcome today.[00:00:24] Guest Intro[00:00:24] ken: My guest, a dear friend of mine, Alexander bannock, who is a multidisciplinary artist and photographer. Alex speaks from a unique perspective after leaving a blossoming career in neurobiology research. And he has spent about eight years studying the nature of direct experience through meditation, psychedelics, somatic, breath, work, and creative expression.[00:00:47] ken: . He holds nature to be sacred and embodies mindful acts of simple living. Alex currently lives in Southwest Florida and can be found on the beach, hiking [00:01:00] out in the wetlands or advocating for clean water, mental wellness and human rights and Liberty. Alex is a passionate about personal practice through the pandemic, psychedelics ecology of the ocean and the art of fishing and how to bring people together in divided times. Uh, he's also passionate about raw food diet and breaking quarantine habits. And anything else Sorry. This was the official bio.[00:01:26] ken: So I was reading and I hope I didn't do a too bad a job at that.[00:01:30] alex: no, thanks for having me on[00:01:32] ken: yeah, no, thank you. Thank you for being here. As a matter of fact, it's, it's quite fitting that you are the first guest on this, podcast and we'll see how it evolves, but you know, you were the inspiration and we had this conversation about a month and a half or so ago where I was driving to Joshua tree and I had all this, expansive views from my car off the mountains.[00:01:54] ken: And, uh, I felt, very inspired to talk to you. I don't remember what we talked about, but this [00:02:00] was definitely one of the teams, I think we talked about writing and podcasting. So here we are to thank you for, for inspiring me and my friend.[00:02:08] alex: yeah. Thank you for manifesting.[00:02:10] ken: Well, we'll see, we'll see how this goes. You know, I think it's going to be going to be fun. Wild last. I'm kind of excited to see how this evolves. I've just been very humbled and, energized by the response I got , from my friends and, uh, people, I, I thought it would fit well with the topic of this podcast, as to the interest of they showed.[00:02:34] What is The pandemic zeitgeist and The Potential Paradigms Show[00:02:34] ken: So anyways, coming back, maybe we can talk a little bit about, to begin with, the theme of this podcast and, because that goes so well with, some of the topics that, both of us are interested in, so potential paradigms, and I feel that we live in kind of an apocalyptic, world, dystopia or apocalypse.[00:02:54] ken: And I choose the word apocalypse because it means that revelation of truth. And, uh, [00:03:00] what that means to me is that the false narratives that humanity or this current civilization has held and has used those narratives for a long time to, to create paradigms that are not sustainable, either be ecology or human wellbeing. Uh, you know, we keep hearing of global, global climate change and. Uh, polarity and so many things, war Exeter, et cetera. And now I feel like it's nothing new. It's just, the things have become much more acute. So, so the potential part, I'm just meaning as truth is being revealed, what is new that is going to come and, like many of us and I would like you to speak to it as well.[00:03:41] alex: Yeah, I can't help, but agree about the apocalyptic nature of at least the feeling of it, all the civil unrest and pandemic and all of it combined is. Um, and well, it seems that we're experiencing. A unique kind of [00:04:00] political warfare too, with information, information warfare and, yeah, it's a , really quite difficult time, especially when, when it coincides with climate change and perhaps the denial of all these changes happening altogether.[00:04:17] alex: It's been very, I don't know, to witness it painful, , and, disheartening at times. well, the challenges of life, you know, we, we have our practices, we have our outlooks, we have a way of living that well, life keeps going even in the face of crisis and it's a very unique time.[00:04:37] ken: Yeah, absolutely. It is definitely, definitely a unique time. And. Probably, this is true, for everyone, at least I have not seen, , such a period before, so it's, definitely unprecedented. what I've been, uh, some of the changes or things that have been calling to you, some adjustments that you've made in the way that you, live life or, , and [00:05:00] also what you would like to be different, or, , as in terms of your actions,[00:05:06] alex: Yeah. Well, I really, , embrace the quarantine period of early 2020. That was, , it was a unique experience and it felt that the job was to stay informed and stay safe. And, , I, I tend to do pretty well in isolation. So for me it was, I don't know, kind of a free break in a way. And I got to just simply exists in observe and, uh, maintain awareness and, , continue my own personal practices and, grow certain areas that I can grow , in isolation.[00:05:42] alex: , and, uh, since then, I mean, there's a lot of things I've, I don't know. I, I really appreciated during this time,, a slowing down, diff at different stages. I definitely feel there's less consumerism going on. yeah, and I think that's [00:06:00] all a much needed break for the planet. I think. A slowing down of humanity is a really, really beautiful thing.[00:06:08] ken: Yeah. Yeah, it seems like a, the more human slowed down it's, um, people have been talking about this teams that the environment, the ecology seems to be recovering. The birds are happy., you get to see the whales more often, all, all this, everybody else seems to be happy. And, , some people are seeing the sunshine for the first time in their cities and countries.[00:06:31] The Primal activation of being in the wild nature [00:06:31] ken: , it seems like everybody needed a break. and so, yeah. so maybe let's, I want to check with you on a theme that, that you've been involved with, and that is going out to the wetlands and nature. And, you know, as, as I've talked, this has always been very inspiring for me to see you getting more and more familiar with, , just being out in the wild.[00:06:53] ken: And I think you were, you're a wild character yourself as well.[00:06:56] ken: It seems like you took it to the next level during pandemic.[00:06:59] alex: [00:07:00] oh yeah. I I've always enjoyed nature and to have just yet another reason to spend more time in nature was a bit of a dream come true for me. I mean, , um, There's a part of me that just loves exploring and just being out there and, and also being close enough with nature to understand what life is there.[00:07:22] alex: And I mean, not just see, the landscape and see the trees, but to actually discover the wildlife there, to actually, you know, come in relatively close contact with the animals that live there. And I, , I love that. I absolutely love that. , so I'm always out there. I bring the camera and I bring a drone.[00:07:41] alex: I, yeah. , it's to me, , that's one of my favorite things to do, right. , it's like a primal activation, you know, we have our roots here on earth. And before all this technology, before this busy way of life, this is, , it's closer to the way things used to.[00:07:56] ken: Yeah. , nature can be quite, profound. And you know, I,[00:08:00] I've myself been, been wanting to connect more and more, not as much as, as, as you. So all this. Finally found that inspiring looking at your photos and maybe in the show notes, we can, leave some of your handy photography work of the, wetlands and some of your adventures.[00:08:14] Close animal encounters in the wild[00:08:14] ken: is there any particular adventure that comes to your mind? Uh, one or two that maybe you can describe. I remember you once, uh, talking to me and you told me that you, once you got chased by a wild boar,[00:08:28] alex: yeah.[00:08:28] ken: and one time you, you had mentioned some kind of a wild cat or some had encounter with a wild cat, is that correct?[00:08:36] alex: yeah. , yes. Well frequently where I live, right behind the house. I see Bobcat's, fortunate enough to have preserved space nearby and they, they roam through the area. And so there's a lot of Bobcat's here and so regularly I see Bobcat's and there are Panthers as well. Their Panthers are a little bit more elusive.[00:08:57] alex: Yeah, the wild boar, that [00:09:00] situation was a little bit nerve racking because even if you're making noise as you're hiking, uh, sometimes you can still sneak up on them. Sometimes they might be napping. They literally will fall asleep under a Bush and you can just walk right up to them in this case.[00:09:17] alex: That's exactly what I did. And, yeah. When, when you come face to face with a very large wild boar, it's screaming. I don't know if you've ever heard of a wild boar scream from 10 feet away before, but it's, um, it's kind of a blood curdling sound in person.[00:09:35] ken: it's a battle cry,[00:09:37] alex: Yeah. Yeah. Luckily it ran in one direction. I ran in the other direction. Yeah.[00:09:43] ken: I guess it was as startled as you are.[00:09:46] alex: Yeah, no, I that's quite fortunate. Quite fortunate. , luckily I've never had to, have any encounters closer than that, but, yeah, on the flip side though, , I just, the other night I was fishing under the [00:10:00] full moon and, uh, I caught a rare species of shark and it happened to be a relatively large one.[00:10:06] alex: It was, I dunno, maybe, maybe 40 pounds. Maybe, uh, it was almost between three, three and a half or four feet. And yeah, , the interesting thing about the encounters with the ocean is, um, everything eats everything and you never know what's going to take your bait. You just never ever know. You never ever know.[00:10:30] alex: It might be a small little fish. It might be a huge fish, or it might be shark. And yeah, , to me, it's the lottery of, of being out there. It's, um, what what's going to happen today? Who's going to show up what character of, of the earth is going to appear today.[00:10:47] ken: Wow. Well, yeah, I mean, not a lot of people can say to have hunted a shark and to, uh, you know, face, face a wild boar and all these things in a rather short period of [00:11:00] time. So I, I, I feel like you you're quite the shark hunter now.[00:11:05] alex: They're there, you know, it's really fascinating. I don't think people like to, uh, understand how, how, How they're really everywhere. They're everywhere. And, uh, as the water temperature gets warmer, they're all spread out and they literally are everywhere. The small ones are everywhere. The big ones come out more at night.[00:11:25] alex: but they're everywhere and they're all around us and it's pretty amazing. so I mean, even just fishing for normal fish there, you're, you're, you're going, you're going to catch a shark eventually if you fish a lot of salt water and, um, yeah. And they happen to be among the, the most sporting catches out there.[00:11:49] alex: I mean, there's, there's nothing quite as thrilling as hooking up with something as powerful as a shark. I mean, there's other fish out there too. Like, like the Tarpon has a, they call it the [00:12:00] king, they silver king and, um, it's very, very powerful, very fast. And it's very aggressive and it'll leap at like six feet out of the water.[00:12:10] alex: And, and if you don't, if you're not skilled, there's absolutely no chance of landing it. Sharks are actually a little bit easier than the Tarpon. well, quite a bit easier, but they're very strong and I don't know, it's, it's just something very, very exhilarating to have such a powerful creature. And, you know, once you hook up with one really the best thing you can do.[00:12:37] alex: Carefully remove that hook and set it free again, you know, um, I think some people's intuition might be to just cut the line, but then you leave that hook in its mouth. And I mean, eventually it rusts out and, but it's, it's cleaner to actually bring that, that shark in and, and remove the hook and release it that way.[00:12:59] ken: [00:13:00] Yeah. Yeah. I have a, has a much closer encounter.[00:13:03] alex: yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's um, I don't, I don't know how to describe it unless, unless you're out there and you witnessed it yourself, I mean, especially the bigger sharks, they, you don't, you just don't hook up with them during the day it failed. They come out at night. And so to be out on the beach at night and catch something really powerful and really big.[00:13:26] alex: And I don't, it's just, it's just something really special there's. And to me, it's not just like my personal excitement, but to me, it's like something deep in our, our roots, our ancestry, you know, the, the human brain, uh, is believed to have evolved, starting very quickly when humans began fishing off the coast of Africa 200,000 years ago. And, uh, the omega-3 fatty acids are what fueled that. So to me, fishing is like, it's something [00:14:00] built into the human experience, something fundamental,[00:14:03] ken: Yeah. Yeah. It's definitely quite primal and I don't have much experience with that. Well, I also wanted to say that it seems like, uh, since you used the word, you know, getting, getting together with these fish, maybe it's we need an app. We didn't have these wild encounters. [00:14:21] alex: other arson. There are some fishing apps. That's like Facebook for fishing.[00:14:25] ken: oh, wow.[00:14:26] alex: Yeah. There's a couple of them. One of them is called fish brain. One of them is called fish angler. yeah. They're they're gaining popularity.[00:14:34] ken: Especially during the pandemic.[00:14:37] alex: Yeah, no, it's true. Uh, it's especially down here in Florida, after the pandemic began and Florida never restricted fishing, there was always an acceptable, one of the acceptable things to leave your house for. And, so fishing gear was flying off the shelves. Like he couldn't find a cast net anywhere in town.[00:14:58] alex: there was no boats left. [00:15:00] Everyone bought all the use boats available. Like it was amazing what happened and, there's just been a lot of fishing activity around here.[00:15:08] ken: Yeah, that's a, that's a very interesting, perhaps team in itself is with the pandemic of, of changes in different things that people have gotten into. Like I was recently, for instance, hearing, here in Joshua tree, there have been a lot of people making these very unique Airbnbs and, you know, people are mostly coming from LA, a lot of the, people with a lot of wealth and making, making different things in a lot of this, um, Airbnb kind of like places as well, which the locals aren't happy about, but that is, that is one of the many teams during the, during the pandemic that, um, perhaps it was hard to predict before that.[00:15:48] ken: So it looks like nature, nature, sports and outdoors have gotten really, uh, popular or revitalized with, with the pandemic, which, which may makes sense. Which make [00:16:00] definitely make sense.[00:16:01] alex: Yeah, and it's a, to be a nature is very healing. So it does make sense to during, um, a health crisis, a global health crisis of people are spending time in nature.[00:16:11] Florida's growing ecological challenges[00:16:11] ken: Yeah. And, I just wanted to kind of highlight maybe for the, audience we didn't mention, we're not, as part of these in order to talk to you about this is because you, you're not just catching these, um, fish You're actually losing them back into the wild [00:16:25] alex: because it's, we've had some water quality issues here that are questionable. we've had red tide blooms and, and I mean, red tide has been going on for thousands of years. We know that it's like in the fossil record and, they do seem to start off shore and it's mysterious as to why we get these blooms.[00:16:44] alex: But one thing's clear that, we've never been dumping so much nutrient rich, fresh water from lake Okeechobee down the () Caloosahatchee river, into the Gulf. That's never, ever happened before. It's gotten [00:17:00] worse and worse over time. And the red tide has gotten worse and it seems to be linked to neurodegenerative diseases like ALS Parkinson's and Alzheimer's and yeah, there's something called bioaccumulation theory of brevity.[00:17:17] alex: And it does seem to move up the food chain, but it's not well understood. Um, it seems that most fishermen I encounter, they seem to believe that, the fish are safe and I am not convinced of that yet. In the meantime, I've practiced catch and release. I would like to see the healthiest ecosystem possible here.[00:17:40] alex: And I have enough food. I don't need to eat these fish. and so to me, it's, being with nature and sharpening my skills. I would like to have the skill to catch fish wherever I go, if need be. And, and saltwater once your get the swing of it. if [00:18:00] you have the skills to fish, one location, you can learn any location.[00:18:05] Nature as a tool to transform to Presence and meditativeness [00:18:05] ken: No, that's amazing. And I think, maybe we can touch base on two, two teams that you've been connecting on. One is perhaps the ecological, things that you've been witnessing with the red tide, but also maybe first we can, we can talk a little bit about, of course, you know, you, you, you. Mentioned the thrill of being out there in the wild and these encounters and how they're very primal.[00:18:27] ken: And one of the things in, , both of us being kind of like contemplated and spiritual secrets in a way, using tools on how to get present and be in the moment. And, nature seems to really facilitate that. And particularly in particular, when you have these kinds of encounters, which I haven't had so many, as you, but I can, I can only imagine how they, they bring you in, in, out, out of your thought into what's happening there.[00:18:54] ken: And then, because perhaps you have.[00:18:56] alex: Yeah, no, it's absolutely true. I mean, it's, um, [00:19:00] I mean, I would call it like a, I mean, you're almost, there's nothing else to do, but to meditate through the experience, um, you know, when you're either in nature at, with your awareness at its absolute peak, uh, listening to every little sound around you or out on the beach and.[00:19:23] alex: Keeping track of every single condition changing condition, the wind, the water clarity, um, just, just everything. I mean, on any given day, fish might be biting one bait or a different one, or they're feeding near the top of the water column or the bottom, or, and, it takes a great intuition to understand when the conditions are just right for certain types of anything.[00:19:54] alex: And so to just go out there and, soak it all in and taking that [00:20:00] awareness and be there for, and wait and be patient and, to be ready, right when the fish bites, that is absolutely a practice of, of presence. Absolutely.[00:20:12] ken: Fascinating. I mean, that's remarkable too, to have such a fun and engaging tool to, uh, to train yourself and to transform your mind into something that can stay focused and present. Uh, so yeah. Yeah. I ho hopefully I can, as I said, I talked to you all the ways and I was like, I got a head more in that direction because nature's, there's also a joy to be in nature.[00:20:36] ken: And as you said, you know, healing and how can, and where else can you have all those elements of developing one pointedness, uh, focus presence while at the same time enjoying it and being healed by it? That's like, that's a, win-win in many ways.[00:20:54] alex: I completely agree.[00:20:56] More on Florida's growing ecological challenges[00:20:56] ken: . Yeah, I was just thinking maybe we could, we could wrap up the ecological threat first, which [00:21:00] is what have you been seeing in, uh, as I know you are really passionate about what you've been seeing in the wetlands [00:21:06] ken: and this, by the way is in Florida, maybe you could tell a little bit about the location you were seeing this.[00:21:10] alex: Yeah. So, I'm in Fort Myers, which is right at the base of the Caloosahatchee river, where it empties into the Gulf. And from this point south, all the way down to the Everglades has been strongly affected by red tide. And we see, we see the, literally the color change in the water. It will become red. I mean, if you've taken a glass, a clear glass and, hold it up to the light, it's, it's red, it's red water literally.[00:21:37] alex: and there's fish kills. the fish die off starting with the fish that eat algae, like mullet, mullet, eat algae, and then catfish as well because they feed off the bottom. And it seems like a lot of it appears that this allergy settles in the bottom and the catfish are consuming it along with whatever else they're eating.[00:21:59] alex: so [00:22:00] there's some species like the canaries in the coal mine that go first. And then as the red tide persists, it begins affecting other organisms. And, um, Especially filter feeders and crabs and anything that eats crabs is going to be affected by it. A lot of fish are migratory and they come through areas and they know better than to hang out in bad water.[00:22:22] alex: but often, I mean, when it's really bad, even the smartest, smartest sea creatures are affected. for example, a couple of years ago we saw die offs of dolphins. [00:22:35] alex: We've S yeah. we've seen die-offs of sea turtles and, large, deep dwelling fish like grouper. we've seen now manatees manatees don't seem to be affected the same way other fish are.[00:22:49] alex: most of the fish, basically they end up, losing oxygen and dying because they basically just aren't respirating. but the [00:23:00] manatees, what's happened with them is all this nutrient rich water and the color change of the water has killed off the sea grass at the bottom of the ocean and the bottom of the river.[00:23:10] alex: And, there's no, there's no grass for the manatees to eat and they've gotten skinny and now we're just seeing them wash up on the shores. There's dead manatees everywhere. It's kind of hard to believe that. I just ran into a fishermen the other day, on the beach that claimed he was in Marine construction and red tide is the hoax and he doesn't believe in it.[00:23:37] alex: And he's on the water all the time. It's not as bad as people say it is, but I don't know. I've seen all these animals dead with my own eyes. I've seen a 500 pound group grouper wash up on the beach debt. I've seen dead sea turtles. I haven't seen the dolphins firsthand, but I've seen the reports of them.[00:23:52] alex: And I know where they came up. I know the beaches personally, I've seen the mullet and the catfish, and I've seen all the other [00:24:00] species that ended up with them in smaller numbers. in 2018, when I first got here, it was so bad that you couldn't even really breathe outside. I mean, even driving a car with your, the air set to research insulate, it was like noxious gas.[00:24:18] alex: He recall thing, and it like will make your eyes burn and water. And, it's like one of the most toxic things you can imagine. And as far as the eye can see will be dead fish everywhere, everywhere, everywhere. And, yeah, it's, it's quite gut wrenching.[00:24:35] ken: Yeah, I noticed it sounds, uh, quite serious. And, so as you were saying is, the root cause of that is the nutrient dense, fresh water that's being dumped or is it also[00:24:45] alex: Yes, yes. All of these things. there's some denial going on as to what the role of, of humans has been in this, but clearly it is a manmade. Or, uh, a [00:25:00] man exaggerated problem, I should say because a long time ago, the water used to run from the lake Okeechobee area, straight south into the Everglades and over time humans the last hundred years or so, they dredged canals through all of Florida and drain all the swamp land so that they can use it for ranching.[00:25:23] alex: Originally it was ranching, but now those ranches are being sold off and there's developments being built and other types of agriculture and it's being farmed heavily. or it's turned into golf courses where they're using a lot of fertilizers, things of that nature. the water is no longer flowing to the Everglades.[00:25:41] alex: So it's collecting in lake Okeechobee, but, they have an old dam system and they have to manage the water level. So, come the rain season during the summer, the rain comes heavy and they have to keep discharging in order to maintain the level of the lake to [00:26:00] prevent a great disaster with the dam.[00:26:02] alex: And they just keep dumping it into the Caloosahatchee river and they dump it in when they have to as well, they dump it east as well. but most of it comes, comes west on the Caloosahatchee river now, and it's really unfortunate. they'll dump up to 50,000 gallons per second. I mean, that's, that's a lot of water. That's a lot of water and, yeah, they have, they've begun developing some plans to correct this, starting with some other holding facilities, so they can lower the lake level and move it to another area. But it's only a partial solution and they've done nothing to improve the water quality. It's still going to grow algae and just a new location.[00:26:44] alex: algae in the river or in another holding area is no better than algae in the ocean. yeah. [00:26:51] ken: It doesn't actually end up eventually leading to the ocean.[00:26:56] alex: yes, yes, it, it does. yeah, [00:27:00] so ideally a lot of that water would go back to the Everglades and there's actually been problems in the Everglades because, they've taken away so much of the water over the years. so that would be good to send that water back there. But meanwhile, we haven't seen much action on this problem because, the trigger for what actually triggers the bloom of red tide and the lifecycle of the red tide, we just don't understand yet.[00:27:28] alex: There's the science is still young. We just, we just don't know. And so. You know, no one can really point like a finger at exactly what the cause is when the red tide arises and how long it's going to be there for and how devastating it's going to be this time. No one has any idea. it's really guessing.[00:27:48] ken: But I think that one thing that, that is rather obvious with a lot of these problems that we're seeing today, you know, even with, with the virus, you know, coronavirus and it's very instant such being [00:28:00] associated with the, with the changes in the ecosystem and the ecology. So although the direct reasons might never be known or might be known, we do know. Kind of behaviors or stressing out the ecosystems are, very abnormal to how things are. And I think you have, you've just highlighted a number of those, from the goal golf courses to the nutrient rich water, to a number of other things that are definitely putting a lot of strain and stress on how things used to be.[00:28:28] alex: yeah.[00:28:29] ken: yeah. [00:28:30] alex: Yes. I it's. It's amazing to think. I mean, as a, as a fishery, as a place where you can go fishing, Florida is an incredible place, but to imagine what it must have been like a hundred years ago is like unthinkable. It's just unthinkable. I mean, The numbers of fish have been greatly reduced, greatly reduced.[00:28:51] alex: And, I don't know. It, it we've definitely changed. the oceans. We've definitely changed the ecology we've oh, it's it. The [00:29:00] impacts are undeniable.[00:29:02] Resurrecting the aliveness & sacredness of Earth[00:29:02] ken: One of the themes connecting it to our conversation and your observations of, what's happening down in Florida Is this desire that I've had or in my spiritual journey over the last five, six years becoming more and more articulate, is at some point I realized through different experiences and through my study that the world is a life. that the plants are alive. The trees that I see that they are fixed or not are not fixed.[00:29:29] ken: And there are very many ways to study how that is not the case. of course, even at the scientific level, we know that the trees that are external lungs, solar lungs are not just in the body, they're outside. So , what we're breathing, they're giving out what we're getting out, they're reading.[00:29:42] ken: So it's, it's, it's a perfect symbiotic relationship. Perhaps it was at the advent of colonialism it just became that you're extracting from not just the earth, but other cultures, you know, indigenous people, you just come and it is okay to. to. a takeaway, rape pillage, all those [00:30:00] things are just fine in this way, or paradigm of seeing, which is, I feel like we're just cropping up the results of that way of looking at the world as dead and inanimate. and now I think that the new paradigms are actually even our conversation is about reversing.[00:30:16] ken: The sacredness and aliveness of everything, . So, yeah. Please say, something to that. If, you like[00:30:22] A Transformative Near Death Experience[00:30:22] alex: Yeah. I mean, when you and I met, we met casually through the psychedelic community and, you were hosting your own events at the time, the hacking consciousness events, and I was soaking up everything. There was, I could find in the psychedelic community and surrounding healing community, all plant medicines, all of them.[00:30:43] alex: Meditation and all the, the yoga community and [00:30:48] alex: I was ready to take it all in. Uh, that was generally my reaction to the experience I had when I woke up from a near death experience. yeah. [00:30:58] ken: Perhaps, you know, maybe a little [00:31:00] bit for the listeners that the near death experiences, when you are pronounced dead because of cardiac arrest or some other reasons.[00:31:06] ken: Uh, but yet these people, because they come back because of cardiac resuscitation or some other means to which, you know, their brainwaves are reactivated and they come out of this, uh, comatose, um, like situation, or experience, they have a very rich story to tell. And so they're having this rich experience while they're very much to the outside world or very much dead. , [00:31:30] alex: Yeah. It's, it's interesting. pretty much almost I kind of almost identical to what you just described me. what led up to it was, well, in hindsight, a realization that everything I'd done up to that point was purely an egoic endeavor and little by little after my near death experience. that had become revealed to me that I really needed to let go of all of those identities that [00:32:00] I had built up and was holding onto so strongly and.[00:32:05] alex: That was just in a way, like the beginning of a new journey. but it had opened up just like you said, it was, my experience was rich and deeply meaningful to me. And, you know, in the scientific viewpoint when brain activity stops consciousness stops. But what I experienced was a continuation of consciousness through this difficult ordeal and waking back up and coming back into my body again.[00:32:36] alex: And, literally it was just like that. I mean, literally when I woke up, I almost couldn't move my muscles and, um, I had to almost learn how to use my body again. it was really a strange experience and, very, quite powerful and [00:32:56] ken: Not to cut you off, but, I want maybe a little bit [00:33:00] more about, uh, what happened during that period of, I don't know if you want to share how you, how you perhaps got there and while you were in that particular state, I mean, I would be very curious to hear what was there actually an experience while you were there because as you're sharing people would claim that consciousness or awareness, during this time of death is.[00:33:25] alex: Yeah,[00:33:26] alex: well, I got there by my own actions. It was really No. [00:33:29] alex: one else's fault, but my own, but, yeah, I'd become very depressed and despondent with my situation in life. And I chose to check out and I took, I gave it an honest go and the results were shocking because I didn't go. I continued through this experience.[00:33:49] alex: And, I remember seeing my world drift away from me and, I had this feeling of none of it [00:34:00] matters anymore and I felt liberated. In fact, it, it was actually quite a wonderful feeling once I had let go of my body and my earthly attachments and all the things that I was worried about and completely stressed about were immediately gone.[00:34:16] alex: And then it went into a darker place, a place, I guess, a place in between you could call it a Bardot. I don't know what else to call it. A Bardo Bardo is the best description I can come up with. But, yeah, there were. Soulful entities there. I mean, I, again, it's a personal description of how I, what exactly that was, but the, it was almost like a meeting.[00:34:46] alex: and then in this meeting it was agreed upon that, my time was not up yet. And then in that moment, when that message was received by me, once I was like, like a, it was a grim [00:35:00] message. Like I like, no, I don't want to go back. I came this far, but know that your time isn't up yet. And, and that's when I began to wake up from a coma and, yeah, it was, yeah, I, I, I began to regain my senses and using my hands.[00:35:16] alex: I began pulling IVs out of my arms and pulling the ventilator out of my mouth and I had to be strapped down. And it was a few days later, that I was able to walk around and be totally coherent and functional again. But, yeah. and then, and then just a couple more days after that, they're like, yep.[00:35:35] alex: Okay, go back to your life now. And, and I did. And, uh, but I, it wasn't my, I wasn't motivated the same way anymore. Now I had new questions about life and, uh, I had been getting shown something. Like behind the scenes, you know, something that you're not normally privy to see. And, and I mean, I was [00:36:00] working in the field of neuroscience, so this seems so central and pivotal to my world.[00:36:05] alex: And up to that point, I had a more solid cystic viewpoint, a more agnostic viewpoint. I was always curious about all the big questions and mysteries of life, but they were always held at an, at a distance. And, you know, I was safely surrounded by other scientists who held the same views. And, but yeah, little by little, I just felt like I didn't really belong there anymore.[00:36:32] alex: And you know, it's a tough field to be working in if your heart's not in it. And, so it kind of set me drift onto a different journey altogether. And, yeah, that's when I stumbled into art, meeting other artists and being encouraged to try art and I'm falling in love with that, the creative expression and learning about things about myself that I'd never, never tapped into before I, [00:37:00] I, and through psychedelic healing work, I really learned to love life all over again, to be.[00:37:08] alex: Wondrously inspired and to see the magic and the beauty and the mystery and every single moment of the day, um, that was altogether quite a gift. I would have to say.[00:37:24] ken: Yeah. Yeah, No. no, this, this is, this is like fascinating stuff and I I'm fascinated rehearing it, cause it's such a [00:37:32] ken: powerful theme as I was perhaps almost five years ago. And uh, when we met and we had this first, conversation, so maybe I want to go a little bit back. I think you, , you were talking about, this pivotal pivotal moment.[00:37:43] ken: So this experience for you, it lasted a little bit. I mean, usually, the near-death experiences. I don't know I have, you know, right now if you go to Pub med.com, P U B M E d.com, which is a site of collection of scientific [00:38:00] publications in the medical arena. And if you, look at type in NDE or near death experience, the last I checked a couple of years ago, there were about 4,000 publications, which is a lot on a certain team or topic because this has been a recent theme that people study.[00:38:14] ken: So just for the, for the audience, you can go to pub med.com, which is a medical publications, and you can search this team. but why I wanted to ask is yours seems to
