#103 - Danny Miranda - When Success Looks Right, But Feels Wrong

Danny Miranda didn’t hit rock bottom. He hit “this should feel better than it does.” On paper, life was working—money, freedom, San Diego sun—but internally something was off. He unpacks the ego phase marked by gambling and fear, the meditation practice that brought it into the light, and the vulnerable confession to his parents that changed his trajectory. We explore the synchronicities that followed, walking away from a thriving podcast, and what it means to surrender to the next step life is asking you to take.

Timestamps: 
00:00 Giving Thanks 
02:00 A Message From Your Mom
04:26 Pre-Transformation 
10:20 Danny's Relationship With Gambling
14:48 Starting Meditation
19:15 Meditation Can Be Stressful & Scary When You Begin
26:26 Working Through Fear
28:42 Stopping Meditating 
36:49 Changing Environments Changes Who You Are
41:12 Danny's Chapter In Life As A Successful Podcaster
49:46 Becoming A Hypnotherapist
1:00:44 Living The Next Step In Life
1:04:11 Past Lives
1:16:53 Understanding Soul
1:19:23 Connect With Danny Miranda

Thank you so much for listening. I truly appreciate your time and support. Let me know what you thought of the episode and what you would like to see in the future. Any feedback would be awesome. Don't forget to subscribe for more exciting content on YouTube, and leave a review on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or whatever platform you are listening on.

Connect with me below:
Instagram: Tim Doyle
Youtube: Soulture

Transcript

Danny Miranda didn’t hit rock bottom. He hit “this should feel better than it does.” On paper, life was working—money, freedom, San Diego sun—but internally something was off. He unpacks the ego phase marked by gambling and fear, the meditation practice that brought it into the light, and the vulnerable confession to his parents that changed his trajectory. We explore the synchronicities that followed, walking away from a thriving podcast, and what it means to surrender to the next step life is asking you to take.

speaker-0 (00:00.248)

Danny Miranda. Welcome to the show.

speaker-1 (00:04.01)

It is an absolute honor to be.

speaker-0 (00:05.858)

Here. Thank you. I need to give you thanks for three things. One, thank you for just being here today and speaking with me. Two, thank you for showing me what this work is and the way to go about this work. And three, and something that I honestly wasn't expecting. Thank you for showing me the why behind this work for me.

and why it's so important for me and why it lights me up. So for all those reasons, just incredibly grateful and thank you for being here.

speaker-1 (00:45.302)

You're welcome, man. I really appreciate that. And, it's been a real joy to watch your journey unfold. And I find personally the podcast that I enjoy listening to the most these days are the podcast with friends or people who know each other or have some previous history. And so that's a very useful. There's so much that happens when you listen to a podcast that you don't see and

all the time that the host spent looking at the guests and understanding them. But then when they have a personal connection hits deeper. So I'm hoping that that kind of comes through today.

speaker-0 (01:25.43)

Yeah, 100%. I mean, most people know you and the way that I got exposed to you was through podcasting and through your voice. But what I find really interesting is that writing is really your origin story. And I think it goes way, way back than people would ever really realize about you. You would write recaps of your little league baseball games. And it showed you the importance

of highlighting people and covering people and showing them their sense of self and their worth within the world. So I want to share something that actually puts you on the receiving end of that. And it's something that somebody wrote about you. Danny has become an incredible light force. He makes those around him feel loved and appreciated and that not come easily or quickly.

Time has proven that Danny is the real deal. He lives by the principles he teaches. I share this because people should know that transformation is real. The work that Danny has done on himself is impressive and his talent for helping others is special.

Do know who wrote that?

speaker-1 (02:39.758)

Shout out to my mom. man, that brings tears to my eyes.

speaker-0 (02:41.686)

I love that.

December 2024. She tweeted that out.

speaker-1 (02:47.726)

Yeah, I just was speaking to her on the phone for the last 15 minutes.

That's really special, thank you.

speaker-0 (02:55.916)

What do you think that highlights about you?

speaker-1 (03:00.462)

think the people who know us closest, the people who we spend the most time with, the people who raised us, the people who saw every part of the journey can reflect the truth of who we are deeper or have a greater context. And so it's just really beautiful to hear my mom say that.

speaker-0 (03:27.33)

The phrase that I love, she says, Danny is the real deal. What's the real deal mean?

speaker-1 (03:35.106)

No, what's the real deal to you?

speaker-0 (03:39.565)

authentic, aligned, but I think what real also means is that, like she said, it's a transformation and real doesn't mean it's always real. And if she's saying, Hey, Danny went through this transformation. What did that pre-transformed stage of your life look like?

speaker-1 (03:58.986)

Yeah. Yeah. That pre-transformed stage of my life, I could see looking back that there was a lot of ego in my behavior and a lot of ego in.

just subtle little ways, you know, how there were moments when I was in college where my family would text me and I just wouldn't text them back. I wasn't proud of the life that I was living and I wasn't proud of the person that I was. And so that's kind of how it showed up.

but I think the pre-transformed version of me was living more in ego than soul. And that's why I'm so grateful to be on this podcast.

speaker-0 (04:44.398)

I mean that was huge for me. Obviously just changed the name of the show and it felt so incredible. Where do you think that ego phase for you came from?

speaker-1 (05:02.518)

I know. I think a mix of conditioning with just society at large. I didn't have a meditation practice. And so the ego for me comes, can come if I don't have one. And it can get stronger and I can become less aware of the truth of why we're here and what we're here to do. So, yeah, I don't know why that ego was there.

but it was and it still is. Like, it's not like I've crushed and killed my ego. I definitely have an ego today as well. I just think it's in its proper place and with a greater sense of wholeness.

speaker-0 (05:48.258)

So writing, like I said, played a crucial part in your life, especially as a kid and blogging and the sunny times and really finding that creativity within you and that creative stimulation. you kind of lost that and you found stimulation in other ways that maybe didn't serve you or that greater purpose. What was it like finding that good stimulation?

but then having it be crushed by something else.

speaker-1 (06:21.313)

What do mean by that?

speaker-0 (06:23.212)

by the stimulation, guess, whether it was in college or sort of that ego phase where

focus on things that were more consumption based and sort of took you over rather than something that you were creating where you were releasing something that was helping you in a way.

speaker-1 (06:37.634)

Yeah.

speaker-1 (06:46.53)

Yeah.

You know, I'm really, I'm trying my best in this moment in my life to...

speaker-1 (06:59.394)

be able to hold that version of me. know that there's a tendency right now for me to have, be like, I judge that person. I judge that person because that person wasn't living up to his own standards and

And I'm trying in this moment and like just in general in my life to be like, it's all good. Like that was a person who was actually doing his best and didn't know any other way to do it. And was actually really scared. He was scared to do what he thought was right. And was scared to take that jump. And a lot of my behavior was because of fear, because of this, the sense of.

I don't want to be here in this situation and I don't know what to do. And I'm scared to make that jump of, know, when you're in a situation you don't like, when I was in a situation I didn't like, in that moment, I didn't know, I didn't know how to actually take that step forward and have the courage to. And so all my behavior, drinking, gambling, smoking, drugs, all of that,

was just as a way to hide that I didn't want to take a leap. I didn't want to take a bet on myself. I mean, I had an idea in 2014. I discovered this recently. It's a blog post I wrote on a forum that was saying this summer, and I was in college at the time, this summer what I want to do is I want to record a hundred podcast episodes and I want to interview people who are in social media and I want to learn from them and understand them.

I never did that. I did do that six years later, but that was in me and I was scared to take that jump and actually do it. And so I have a lot of compassion for anyone who's dealing with that amount of fear. And I think often the behaviors that we don't like are as a result of living in some fear and we can get upset at the behaviors and get upset at the person, but really it's just being scared. I was just scared.

speaker-0 (09:13.55)

think that goes to the real deal as well. Because if you're saying, I want to have compassion for myself. I don't want to judge myself. Like that's what that realness looks like. Because real is a process. Real doesn't just mean, this is something that I'm proud about. This is something that's good. This is something that, you know, I'm proud to talk about myself now, but real is like, hey, this is who I am. This is who I was. And this is sort of that process of

working through that, what was it? I'm interested about the gambling component. What was it that I guess lit you up? Maybe even if it was coming from fear, was it that really stimulated it for you?

speaker-1 (10:01.55)

Like why did I go into gambling? When I was 12 years old, I started in my first fantasy baseball team. so betting on sports, watching sports was something that I was interested in since I was five, four or five. I was watching the Mets and the Yankees playing the World Series. And then by the time I was 12, I was like, oh wow, I can pick these players and then we could have a prize pool at the end.

And so I just think it was something that was programmed into me and it was enjoyable to me and brought me a lot of fulfillment and fun. And then it, just got bigger and bigger. The bet sizes got bigger. the, the games that I would bet on got bigger. And before I knew it, it was out of control. And it was just something that I was doing on a random, just like

graduating college and feeling like I'm still betting on games. I don't know why I'm doing this. I don't want to be doing this. And, and so, yeah, I don't know. I think that's why it, what was so stimulating was it was programmed into me to, to do that.

speaker-0 (11:14.606)

What was the way of, I guess, deprogramming yourself?

speaker-1 (11:18.25)

Yeah, I mean, it took a lot of consciousness. often talk about the moment that was most significant to me was I had been out of college for a couple of years and I was in San Diego and I was betting on sports and I didn't want to be. I want to be done with that kind of chapter of my life, but I knew that I was hiding it from my parents. And so I told them, said, this is what it was very difficult for me to do in that moment of telling them.

Hey, I'm betting on sports. I don't know why I'm doing this. This is really painful for me. And my parents, God bless them. They were just so loving and just there for me. They didn't judge me. They were just like, okay, we're going to get the help that you need and we're going to help you do that. And that was really impactful for me. So I think that's the, that was the first moment of actually addressing that this was a problem. And once it had the light, then I could start actually taking steps to.

be done with it. And I then saw a therapist and then I just, it just became less and less appealing to me as time went on. And it's really beautiful to be in a place where I love watching sports today and I have no interest in betting on them.

speaker-0 (12:34.606)

So what year was that when you thought like, okay, this is something I need to get out of my life?

speaker-1 (12:43.502)

2020.

speaker-0 (12:44.302)

2020. Yeah. Okay. So you started meditating in 2019. Yeah. So that's fascinating. So what was that year like where you're meditating, but still gambling and then getting to that point where, okay, I'm meditating, but now I have this out of.

speaker-1 (13:01.824)

Yeah, I think the ego of it, Like the ego, the meditation for me helps me see my own ego. And the ego says, this isn't a problem. There's no big deal here. Like it's fine. It's fine. Like I've been doing this forever and it's not a big deal. The soul says, yeah, but is this really in your highest good? Is this really serving you? Is this really helping yourself get to where you want to go? And, and the soul is like,

Would you like to receive help? Would you be okay being helped in this way? The ego's like, no, I don't want help. Don't give me help. And the soul is like, be open, it's fine. And so I started meditating in September, 2019. And I had that conversation with my parents in February, 2020. So.

speaker-0 (13:53.164)

and in your mind.

speaker-0 (13:57.966)

Do you think there's a correlation there or that you were able to have that conversation? Do you give credit to meditation for that?

speaker-1 (14:04.992)

Absolutely. I had greater awareness of myself than at any other point in my life.

speaker-0 (14:12.758)

Absolutely. And what facilitated the start for meditating?

speaker-1 (14:17.324)

I was working a job that I didn't like. I had everything I wanted. I was working from home in 2019. That was not like a thing that people could do very easily. I could work from anywhere. I was making six figures. I was living with my friends. I was working out twice a day. I was living in the sun. I was like, life's good, but how come I don't feel good? And so that

juxtaposition of my life should be good. I should be the happiest I've ever been, but I know I'm not led me to say there's something off here. And I don't know what exactly it is, but I'm going to figure it out. And that, that led to me to start to meditate because my friend Tej Dosa, he had been meditating for 10 years. She was a 26 year old guy had been meditating for 10 years. man is a living monk.

And, and I knew there was something different about him. He had less fear. He had more love. He would tweet about, I talked to this stranger and, I was able to make a conversation with this homeless guy. And I was, I could never do that. I'd have too much judgment, too much fear, too much anxiety come up. And, and he was, and he was different, but there was something different about his energy, his way of being. And I said, okay, I don't think meditation is going to work.

I grew up in New York. New York is very known for the culture of

speaker-0 (15:52.491)

Not meditating.

speaker-1 (15:54.102)

It better be real. You better prove to me this shit works. Like, I don't believe you. And so I grew up in the, like, when people tell me like, I don't believe any of this woo woo nonsense. I'm like, dude, trust me. If there was anyone who didn't believe anything, it was me. And I'm very grateful for that part of me that is skeptical. is, give me the real deal. Exactly. That's what thought was funny too. And so, so I didn't think it was going to work. mean,

speaker-0 (16:13.902)

The real deal.

speaker-1 (16:22.922)

You're telling me you're going to close your eyes for 20 minutes a day and that's going to make an impact in your physical reality.

speaker-0 (16:29.322)

It's funny that that's where your mind and head went to though. Is that where you went to right away?

speaker-1 (16:35.884)

Absolutely. What makes it interesting to you?

speaker-0 (16:38.636)

I just find it interesting that.

you have these feelings of like, Hey, life should be good. Like making a lot of money living in San Diego. Great job living with my friends. And I don't know if a lot of people, especially a lot of people from New York, sort of with that cultural background.

I don't think they would go right to, me try meditating. Maybe that's something that is going to help me.

speaker-1 (17:06.826)

Yeah, it wasn't, I mean, it, likely was not the first thing that I tried. Yeah. and there, there was also the practical element of at that time when I, did 75 hard for the first time as well. And so there was the practical, let me hit it from both angles. You know, I didn't know I was hitting it at both angles, but it, made sense to me, warrior monk, warrior monk and combining the two. so

It wasn't just like, me meditate. was let me meditate and let me do something about it. I don't, I, if meditation doesn't work, that's okay. If 75 heart doesn't work, that's okay. But I think doing both will give me a sense of purpose and meaning that I've, I maybe have not experienced before.

speaker-0 (17:50.958)

What did those first, if you can recall it all, exposing yourself to meditation, those first times, like what exactly did that look like? Because I think that's what challenges people or stresses them out when it comes to meditation. can, I think you could honestly even make the case, like if somebody starts to meditate, like it can actually be kind of a stress inducing process at the start if they've never done it before and can be very uncomfortable.

So what did that beginning phase look like for you?

speaker-1 (18:23.648)

Yeah, it is definitely a stressful process and it's similar to go to the gym for the first time. Yeah. You go to the gym for the first time. know for me, I was like, I'm a 140 pound soaking wet kid and I'm here. I am at this gym. I don't know what to do. I don't know how it works. I'm what, what is going on? and so I think the same thing happens for people when they meditate for the first time. It is,

speaker-1 (18:51.17)

I always say to people, it's very important that you do it for a set period of time without judging the results. Because if you meditate for a week, that's not going to make meaningful impact in your life over the long term. And the same thing, if you go to the gym for a week, it's not going to make meaningful impact for your life over the long term and just the way it works. And, and so for me, those first few were like, I'm not going to judge.

I know my tendency is to want to figure out if this is real, if this works, whatever, but let me just do an experiment for 75 days or 90 days and let me see if this actually works. And, and what really got me, what really said, this is weird. I don't know what is going on is when the divine moments, the magic started to happen in my life that had previously never happened that I was not aware of. And that

that I didn't attribute it in that moment to meditation. Looking back, I definitely totally 100 % do, but this ability to recognize the magic that was unfolding and not just like little moments of like, I'm so grateful for the light and for this podcast, which is very beautiful to do as well, if you actually can feel that. big moments, big moments of I'd read something in a book and then my friend would text it to me.

or I'd be doing 75 hard and I want to be a personal trainer and decide I'm going to do that. And then I go to the gym and that the owner of the gym is doing 75 hard at the same time. And it's not a program that's widespread in 2019. It's just a random little thing. And so these moments never happened to me before that told me this is right. Keep going, keep doing this. and they scared me. They scared me and filled me with awe at the same time. And so.

Yeah, man, mean, those beginning stages of meditation, for me, what told me it was real was the divine moments, the synchronicities, the magic of life. And I was noticing that I was becoming less ego-driven in my day-to-day life.

speaker-0 (21:01.302)

Why'd those moments scare you?

speaker-1 (21:04.462)

Well, in one situation, it was super confronting. So I've told this story before, but basically this was the first moment of magic that happened to me in my life. And it was, I was.

speaker-1 (21:23.022)

I've been meditating probably for a month or maybe it was a week. I don't even know, but

I decided in the beginning stages of that, that I'd just quit my job and I was like, okay, what am I going to do now? And I decided I wanted to help creators with online courses. And so I messaged a hundred people. One of them responded to me right away. We got on the phone, we spoke and I was like, this is amazing. This guy with a hundred thousand followers I'm getting on the phone with, I'm going to create a course for him. He's pumped about it. I was like, what, what is going on? And then,

either in the next day or the next week. I go to a coffee shop in San Diego. I go to the bathroom. I come back from the bathroom and a woman looks me straight in the eyes. Says, hey, how's it going? This woman's probably 40s, 50s, 60s. And I started a conversation with her and within five minutes of talking to her, I'm standing up while this is happening and she's seated down. She says to me, I think you should come to my church.

And I said, why, why should I come to your church? She said, well, there was a guy that spoke there last weekend who you would love. He was a guest speaker and you guys have great energy and he has great energy and be amazing. She said, the guy, his name is Charlie. It's like the guy that I spoke to on the phone, like yesterday or in the last week, his name was Charlie. It's the same guy. And that to me was so scary.

because I'd previously never experienced anything like that. And I, it was scary because I didn't want to go to church. I was a guy who was raised like with a Jewish mom and a Catholic dad. And I didn't really have a strong religious faith and I wasn't going to church and it was confronting to go to church. And so that's why it scared me because it showed me my fears.

speaker-1 (23:31.598)

And I think that's what these divine moments do. They can show you your fears in a deeper way and allow you, if you choose to go into them. I did not. And it's one of the biggest regrets of my life, not going to that church. And I wasn't ready for it, but it's beautiful thing to kind of witness it looking back. Where today, going to a church is, and someone tells me to go to church. I'm like, great, let's go. But then it was just a very confronting thing.

speaker-0 (23:56.75)

Knowing you, I'd probably think today there's, I'm not going to say I guess a 0 % fear, but it's probably 99 % on excitement.

speaker-1 (24:07.938)

Yeah. For that thing, absolutely. know? But there are fears that exist within me that have not been uncovered, alchemized, gone into yet. And it's so cool to see and reflect on that because I have fears today around starting a family and making enough money in order to do that and living the life that I want that is true to me in that way. Those are my fears today. But, when I get confronted with those fears, it's scary.

And when synchronicities point for me to confront those fears, I'm like, come on, you know? But the fear around the church doesn't exist. And I hope that in five years, the fear around the family will also not exist. But it will require me to go into that. And it will require me to unfold into that process if that's the way I'm supposed to unfold. So.

speaker-0 (25:02.456)

So guess when you are faced with those fears or I guess any fears within your current life, what's your way of working through them?

speaker-1 (25:11.308)

Right now it's to get quiet, to listen to the still small voice within. It's to remember the other moments like this that I'm describing of the thing that I was so scared of and going into it. It's to talk to a friend who might have good insight on this specific fear. It's to be with it. I mean, it was so interesting. I was on the phone with a good friend of mine in the last week and I normally have this habit of biting my nails and

for a week or two, I hadn't bit my nails at all. And I was like, wow, this is awesome.

speaker-0 (25:47.054)

Like you're saying when you get nervous or just in general you do that.

speaker-1 (25:50.102)

I, in general, I do it and it, it wasn't something that I associated with nerves. It wasn't something I associated with fear. And it had been two weeks since I had bit my nails at all. And I was proud of myself and we were on, we were talking on the phone and she started to ask me about home and family and creating a life. And I started to bite my nails unconsciously and I looked and I was like, my God.

I just did that without awareness. And because I had two weeks of not biting my nails, I could see that really clearly. And I told her, was like, listen, I just bit my nails and that was, wow, like that forced me to go into the fear and allowed me to recognize the fear was so real.

speaker-0 (26:37.528)

Well, that's fascinating that I immediately went to nervousness because I'm the exact same way with, don't bite my nails, but I picked my nails. And I guess it was probably similar to you. didn't realize it all the time, but I realized, like, this is a nervous tick of mine. Like when I get stressed out or whatever, like I need some type of. I mean, I think it's actually kind of interesting because you're like, okay, I want some type of physiological reaction where I'm focused on the physical and it's.

keeping myself away from those fears. At least that's way that I see it.

speaker-1 (27:12.973)

It's a way to

speaker-0 (27:13.582)

So you started meditating in 2019, but then in 2021, you stopped.

speaker-1 (27:27.298)

Yeah.

I thought I was good. I thought I was like, I meditated more in this year and a half than some people have in their entire life. It was my thought process. Like, of course I'll be good. Like I put in the work. I did a year and a half worth of meditation. I should be good. And the ego is a strong force, you know, for me at least it's a strong force. And I wanted to see, I wanted to experiment.

Like, I really need to do this? Is this something that isn't necessary for me or is this just something like that's nice to have and is helpful? And I judge the results after a year. I had gotten back with an ex from college. I took a job that I didn't want. I was living in a noisy place. Okay. Okay. This, if I can look forward, my reality a year ago is not stronger than it is today. And it's actually much weaker. And I feel like I.

my soul regressed is how I felt. There's nothing wrong with that. It's okay. I love that. And also if I have a choice, I wouldn't choose the same thing again. So in 2022, I started meditating. And in 2022, I moved from New York to Austin. And in 2023, I kept meditating and I had more success with the podcast than I've ever had. And in 2024, I kept meditating and

I stopped thinking of myself as a podcaster and in 20, you know, like it just, my life maybe didn't get better from the outside perspective, but inside I knew my soul was growing and I can only attribute that soul growth to meditation.

speaker-0 (29:15.082)

Isn't it fascinating though, that you needed to step away from meditation to see the power of it. Like you needed to get a taste of it. Then you needed to remove it. Yep. And by not doing it, you saw the power of meditation.

speaker-1 (29:24.429)

Yeah.

speaker-1 (29:34.347)

And I think that's, that's makes it more real. You know, I feel it right now. Like I feel a presence and it's, it's fascinating because

speaker-1 (29:46.862)

The way that I talk and think and act today is something that the 2016 version of me would have laughed at, shat on, and just been like, there's no way. But it's all true and from my lived experience. And I love that. And I love that it is, it's real, man. Like it's real that I tried not to do it because I don't want to sit down for 20 minutes a day. My ego does not want me to sit. Then just be still.

but my soul actually craves it, needs it, and it helps myself and the people around me when I do it. So I just have to keep doing it. It's not a choice.

speaker-0 (30:28.686)

the real deal. It's yeah, I feel like I've had a really similar experience with it as well. And I think something that's actually helped me when it comes to meditation is not putting a clock on it of just let me like what I've said, think meditation can be really stressful for people. People don't know what it is or why I'm doing this.

And what I've learned from my own experiences and what's really helped me, especially like within real time, just within the last, would say six to eight weeks is like, all right, I'm just closing my eyes with intention. That's all this is. And whatever comes from this comes from this because I think

speaker-0 (31:21.454)

People think, there's gotta be a light bulb moment. There's gotta be some type of like, boom, I got it.

And that's the exact opposite. like, feel like meditation used to be like, all right, let me get really in touch with my mind. Like, let me get deep into it. And now it's become more of a.

soothing effect, quieting the mind, let me actually get more in touch with my body more so than my head.

speaker-1 (31:53.39)

And I completely agree. And I think where meditation goes wrong is your expectations with it. Where I've gone wrong is my expectations with it. And if I expect it, the expectations people place on meditation are so high and this idea that I'm doing it wrong is so prevalent.

And people say to me, okay, but I'm thinking thoughts. How could I be meditating? And I say to people, well, thinking thoughts during meditation is the same thing as sweating while exercising. It's a sign that you're doing it right. And

speaker-1 (32:39.726)

If you went into it with no expectation, I don't suspect this will do anything for me. don't suspect I'll have some divine moments, some flash of inspiration, some depth of whatever. And you just go, okay, I'm going to try this as an experiment for my soul's evolution. Or that probably wouldn't have resonated with me in 2019, but I'm going to try this for more peace in my life, for more a felt sense of appreciation and connectedness with things.

for just more joy and happiness. Try it, you know, for 90 days, 20 minutes in the morning, just close your eyes and just see what happens. Make sure your back is sat up straight, like you're not doing it laying down, just to start and see what happens. You could do it, put a blanket over you, like make it comfortable, make it an enjoyable experience, as enjoyable as you can. Make your legs out, you don't have to do it. I think what stops a lot of people with meditation is doing it right.

I'm not doing it right. I don't know what the right way to do is. The right way to be with yourself is to be with yourself. And we've spent so much time. is so easy, myself included, to get sucked in, sucked into the phone, sucked into what other people's thoughts are, what their beliefs are, how we can, what is this communication and connection with people I want. And I think all of that is beautiful. The fact that we can connect with anyone, any place, anywhere, anytime is amazing. And

Before we do that, let's connect inside. Let's see what is true for us. Let's see what arises. What is the feeling that's deep beneath our conscious awareness? What comes up when nothing is present? And that to me is what it's all about. And that to me is from that place, we can then connect with others in the deepest, truest, most real sense.

speaker-0 (34:30.53)

think taking a lighthearted sense with it as well. If you're talking to somebody who hasn't done anything before and they're in that beginning stage, I think almost like in a comedic way, it's like, well, you haven't been doing anything. So just by doing something, you're going to be doing something right that you weren't doing before.

speaker-1 (34:48.61)

Yeah, totally, totally. It's just like spending some time with yourself can never be a bad thing. I have that fundamental belief. Getting more understanding of yourself, getting more connection with yourself is from that place that you can then connect with someone else in a deeper, truer, realer sense. And I don't know if that's true for everyone. I believe it is, but I also believe that's

been 100 % my experience and so that's what I'm allowed to share.

speaker-0 (35:24.91)

So you were in San Diego and then you moved back to New York and then in Austin, three different environments. How was those three different environments changed you as a person?

speaker-1 (35:41.696)

Yeah. Yeah, man.

There was a part of me in New York where it's very hustle focused, very go, go, go like that. Let's get it. Let's get it done. Let's get shit done, which I love that aspect of me. And then when I lived in San Diego, it felt like a

deep breath, like, I can go to a yoga class. I can train outside. I can go for walks with the sun. People are more relaxed. People are happier. People are more tan. People don't care about working as much. That's not as much of a status symbol as it was in New York. And then I think Austin, for me, has been the perfect mix of both. It's been the perfect mix of, yeah, I friends. We get stuff done. I get stuff done. I love getting stuff done. And I love

just being in the presence and just connecting. You got to find what works for you, but Austin for me is the perfect middle ground of the two.

speaker-0 (36:46.69)

Did you feel that pretty quickly?

speaker-1 (36:48.878)

I mean, I felt it right away. I'm happier here than anywhere I've been is what I felt when I visited Austin. And then I visited again for other podcast guests. And then it's like, wow, I have more people to talk to and more people I want to talk to. And then I visited again. was like, okay, I'm going to move here. I'm going to do that. So it was a process and it built on itself. And I love Austin today and I love how

how much, how organic that whole unfolding was. And that was four years ago that I visited for the first time. So it's wild how these things kind of unfold and expand and I'm grateful to witness that journey.

speaker-0 (37:32.468)

similar experience. Yeah. I mean.

almost like the airplane hit the tarmac and I was like, we're here. But, now, it was, it was very quick sort of first couple of days here of that first visit. I was like, but it's weird that before I got here, there was like an inkling of like, I think this is good to work. Yeah. Which is weird because I've never, I've never been in the state of Texas before. Never been to Austin. Wow. But, yeah.

speaker-1 (37:55.714)

You know.

speaker-0 (38:06.046)

It's been an incredible environment for me as well. And yeah, you.

You feel it physiologically as well. Like there's just a deeper feeling behind it.

speaker-1 (38:17.1)

Yeah. And here's the thing. You know, when you, when you say, had this inkling, I had this knowing there's so many inputs that we are unaware of that are happening at a deeper level. If you listen to a podcast with me in Austin, and then you listen to another and you're like, this guy lives in Austin, this guy lives in Austin, this guy, and I resonate with all of these people. Okay. And then

this person moved here and then, I actually am really interested in this person. Wait, they're also not like you get those sense and then you come here and go, this is interesting. This is really cool. So my vantage point is that is to trust that trust those little nudges, inklings, those sense of, don't, I don't know why this is the way it is, but it feels right. And I'm just going to go with it because typically you can kind of feel it and make it make sense after the fact, after it's all over.

And so, yeah, just that's a little PSA for people to just follow their feeling a little more. that's going back to meditation. Meditation allows you to tap into that and feel that in a more real way and a truer way.

speaker-0 (39:33.356)

Yeah. And then actually following through with it and being like, this is a, this is a good feeling. Like allow myself to feel this and then allow myself to make a change if I actually wanted to make that change rather than, let me just put that away. Right. right. So, I mean, I got introduced to you and started knowing you through your podcast. And that's a lot of people in the world knew you as a podcaster and would love to.

dive into the backstory behind the birth of that. But I guess my first question is more so.

few chapters ahead of that, because I feel like I would hear a lot of people ask you, Hey, like, is there any part of you that wants to bring the podcast back? like the answer in my mind that would come to me, it would be like, well, if I wanted to, like I would. So I'm not going to ask you that. And I think the more pertinent question is.

Do you feel now or was there ever a point where you did feel like, man, I wish this just continued to feel aligned and like the thing.

speaker-1 (40:50.826)

Yeah. Yeah, I do. There definitely was a part of me that felt that it's hard to change. It's hard to build up this identity, to be so confident in loving something and then say, no, actually this isn't it anymore. That's a hard thing, man. I have empathy for people going through that, whether it's in relationship, whether it's in work, whether it's in friendship, it's hard, man. And, and there's a part of you that part of me that is saying,

speaker-1 (41:21.974)

It would just be easier to explain to people. It would be easier to explain to myself. So absolutely, to answer your question, yes.

speaker-0 (41:36.386)

So then going back to the start now with the podcast, I it started out as phone calls and it ties back to what we were talking at the very start of.

covering people and highlighting people and showing them their self-worth. What was the evolution of why you wanted to start it and then how it continued to unfold?

speaker-1 (42:01.982)

Yeah. Well, I mean, really the podcast started in 2014 when I- With the blog post. With the blog post of writing what I wanted to do. I did not start in 2014, but I did start in 2020 and I started it in 2020 because I would have conversations with people on the phone from Twitter. I posted on Twitter who wants to talk on the phone. had amazing conversations with people, maybe 20 of them.

I said, I probably should record these. is really awesome for me and this is enjoyable for the other person it seems like.

Yeah, that's how it started. I remember so clearly it being August, 2020. I rented out a cabin in the woods for five days just to read, reflect, meditate. And that experience, I'll never forget coming back from that experience because I had written a hundred people, if, if not more of people I wanted to reach out to, to interview for the podcast.

And I was, I know what to do and I'm going to do it. You know that feeling when you know, you know, you're going to do something, you know, your path. I had a client I was working with recently for hypnotherapy and, uh, and they were like, I just want that feeling back where I was studying German and I knew I was going to go to Germany and I knew I was going to do it. Didn't matter what anyone said. It didn't matter the circumstances. I see that energy you have right now.

Like that energy is so infectious. me about it.

speaker-0 (43:37.595)

It's... It's... It's... It's... It's... It's... It's... It's... It's... It's...

speaker-1 (43:39.438)

That feeling. That feeling of like, making progress every day on the goal that I want that is so true to me, and I'm gonna work at it.

speaker-0 (43:49.006)

That was a, I'll give you two of those things.

speaker-1 (43:50.222)

Please. Yes.

speaker-0 (43:55.17)

And that's why I love the podcasting. It's cause it gives me that feeling and that obviously not like physically, but I'm like, there's like a taste and two instances that have transpired.

Bill Schufelt, he's the co-founder and CEO of the brand Athletic Brewing. And this was probably a year or so before I even started the podcast. And I was just on a walk and I'm like, this is the first question I'm gonna ask him. This is the first question I'm ask him. I was literally on a walk, not listening to anything. But I was in that part of

speaker-1 (44:36.585)

You were listening to him on a podcast?

speaker-0 (44:44.096)

I want to start a podcast. This is a guy that I want on it. This is a question that I'm going to, this is the first question that I'm going to ask him. And to pull up my phone again, and this is the second one that has transpired. So that tweet from your mom, I screenshot that.

I screenshotted it.

speaker-0 (45:10.604)

the day after she tweeted it, so December 8th, 2024.

speaker-1 (45:14.328)

Wow. Wow.

speaker-0 (45:16.682)

And so I guess it's a, it's, it's two things. It's being long-term focused, but also like, doesn't even feel like patience because I'm like, Hey, like I'm on the path. Like I like walking the path. So that day I'm just going to be, I'm going to get to. So I completely understand where you're coming from.

speaker-1 (45:39.854)

Yeah, man. And it's like when the little actions line up to the place you want to go. It's just, it's the best feeling. And so I'm so happy you shared those and fill me with joy to hear that you've also had that experience of like,

speaker-1 (46:01.474)

I'm going to interview this person and this step is the exciting part of how it's getting formed. And, and I think it's worth pointing out that you can have this feeling towards anything. doesn't have to be podcast related. And I'm sure you felt that you've talked to me before about at the gym, the gym was like this moment of like, I'm going to the gym. I know where I want to get to. And that feeling of putting in those reps and thinking about what's that workout going to be like, and how am I going to attack this?

What's the food that is such a fun?

speaker-0 (46:32.302)

And that's why I knew it about this. Yeah. Who like, wow, same exact feeling. Yeah. Yeah. From the get. Yeah.

speaker-1 (46:37.038)

Yeah. Yeah. And, and so I was in this Airbnb and, I was coming back and feeling, I know what I'm going to do. I know what I'm about to execute. And, and that, that led to the start of the podcast. I mean, I did, I started recording, let's call it April 15th or April 20th of 2020, approximately. And I

Recorded 20 episodes in 30 days by the time I launched September 23rd, 2020. was okay. Okay. I now have a backlog of 20 episodes. love doing this. This is fun for me. I haven't released a single thing. I'm excited to execute and, and it just kept going from that, that place. And what a beautiful journey of my, my soul growing. This is the best way for me to put it today.

of just more understanding of myself, more curiosity, being a better listener, being more connected. And it was coming from an organic place. So that's how it started.

speaker-0 (47:52.322)

You feel like you still hold that pretty close to you, like in the present moment, or does it feel more memorable?

speaker-1 (48:00.798)

the feeling feels like a beautiful chapter, a beautiful chapter of my life that I'm sure will come back in some way, but in a different form.

speaker-0 (48:21.998)

any idea on what that new form would be.

speaker-1 (48:25.548)

I want to interview people's subconscious minds.

speaker-1 (48:30.734)

I've spent the last six months doing hypnotherapy training and spending the last three months doing 143 hypnotherapy sessions. So in the first three months of doing the podcast, I recorded probably 50 episodes, 60 episodes, which was like three a week. In the first three months of doing hypnotherapy, I've done 150 sessions, 143 sessions.

And so that's three X the output. Um, it's very similar. It's an hour and a half conversation. It's less than an hour and a half. Uh, it's an hour conversation with someone's subconscious mind. I take you to a deeper, relaxed meditative state. And from that place, we have a conversation about the truest, most important things in your life. And for me, that process is so fun. Um, and I think doing interviews like that would be really interesting.

Um, that's one idea I have. The other idea I have is to do, how did, how did this, how did this happen exactly? You know, there was a journey that unfolded where in 2024, I stopped podcasting really in the way that I was 2025. Didn't really podcast at all 2026. Here I am. What happened since 2019? How did this kind of unfold and what I'm going to do or what I feel excited by in this moment is doing, um,

sharing the book notes of all of the books that have kind of impacted me in a deep way. And so someone could say, okay, I see you read this book. This is why he had this experience. This is why he went down. And for me to be able to kind of talk to the books in a way similar to David Senra, but just in my own way, that is true to me. So that's what comes to mind today. What I'm excited about.

speaker-0 (50:25.486)

Another fascinating angle, and this would be wild, is if you went through every single podcast guest again, but with the hypnotherapy session. You'd just be like, all right, we're just going to run it back, but it's going to be from this vantage point.

speaker-1 (50:37.144)

Wow, yeah, that would be very,

speaker-1 (50:43.31)

Yeah, that would be fascinating. That would be fascinating. mean, what's cool, hypnotherapy feels deeper. And it feels like something that is for some people, it's not ready to be public. You know, when you're watching someone or listening to someone on a podcast, it's like the, it's the version of themselves that they understand. It's the version of themselves that based on the accomplishments or the things that they've done or the things they're interested in.

Hypnotherapy is these are the things I don't understand. And that's very confronting and very, I'm very hesitant to just blast that out to someone who's not ready for that and who doesn't want that. So.

speaker-0 (51:29.934)

So how does meditation and hypnotherapy differ for you?

speaker-1 (51:33.378)

That's a great question. To me, when I started meditating after that first year of meditation, it was 2019 and after September, 2020. So September, 2019 to September, 2020. said, this meditation, this is the most important thing that I've ever done. How do I get paid to help people do this? But how could I get paid to help people do this? It's doing nothing. You know, I was like, my brain was not computing. So I said, I'll try a podcast. Let's see how that goes.

So meditation to me is going into a trance like state. It's going into a calmness and relaxation and exploring the mind by yourself. Hypnotherapy is being guided into that place and then having a conversation in that meditative state that you're in. And with the aim and intention to get some specific outcome.

speaker-0 (52:35.426)

So do you have your own hypnotherapist as well that you work with when you're in that state being worked on?

speaker-1 (52:42.926)

I've worked with maybe five or six different hypnotherapists over the past year.

speaker-0 (52:50.222)

Yeah. Wow. And so from that vantage point, being the one who's in that seat, how does that experience between meditation and hypnotherapy differ?

speaker-1 (53:01.678)

The way I feel as the client is that I'm going into a meditative state. They're helping me get to a meditative state. And then from that place, we're talking and they're asking me questions. They're, they're helping uncover the aspects of me that are, are supposed to come out in that session based on what we discussed.

speaker-0 (53:24.79)

And do you think, I know we're talking about earlier, like don't focus on like the outcomes of things when it comes to these types of practices, but do feel like there's a, you've experienced a different outcome from hypnotherapy versus just meditating on your own?

speaker-1 (53:43.212)

Absolutely. Yeah, I mean...

Meditation is beautiful because it gets you comfortable with the place of peace. gets you comfortable with what your thoughts are. gets you comfortable with yourself. Hypnotherapy, you could do a hypnotherapy session on getting comfortable with yourself, or you could do a hypnotherapy session on, want to be a better speaker. Or you could do one on, I want to be the type of person to be more confident. Like there's so many different ways in which you could do a hypnotherapy session and

I love it because it kind of bridges the East and the West. The East says, just be here now. The West says, let's get some goals. Let's get some things done. And I try to be a bridge between those two worlds. And hypnotherapy is a great bridge for a lot of people to get into a meditative state and also to get something done.

speaker-0 (54:41.656)

So to recap, when it came to meditation for you, was when you were in San Diego, life was going good, but it didn't feel good. And your friend Tej Dosa is really the one that showed that like, meditation could be a thing that could help me here. When it comes to hypnotherapy, what was that? I guess similar factor started that for you.

speaker-1 (55:01.752)

So...

speaker-1 (55:05.868)

I read this book, Many Lies, Many Masters by Brian Weiss and the book made me question my reality that I was living in, the assumptions that I had about the world. I'm really excited to reread it and talk about it because it's been two years and I don't have. Yeah, exactly. You know that feeling. It feels like a new book.

speaker-0 (55:27.382)

feel like a new book.

speaker-1 (55:34.734)

I read that book. That was pretty cool, but I wasn't like, I'm to be a hypnotherapist. Then a year later, I read a book called you were born to be together again by Dick Sutfin. It sold over a million copies in the seventies or eighties and no one has heard of it today. And it's a book about, 16 different cases of a hypnotherapist taking clients through past life experiences where they connect.

with their current partner and see how they lived in past lives together. This is something, know, 10 years ago, I'd been like, what the, what did this guy just say?

speaker-0 (56:17.59)

It's great that you still have that to you or like you're able to experience or appreciate the, you know, higher sense of self, but still on a very grounded way.

speaker-1 (56:27.95)

Yeah, I appreciate that. mean, I, I'm, it wasn't a choice that to be a hypnotherapist. So I read that book and then I said, okay, like this feels like my path. This feels like something I'm supposed to do. I don't want to do this. It's not my, my ego East coast mentality, New York.

speaker-0 (56:49.536)

And this is something that you would felt with the podcast or completely new feeling?

speaker-1 (56:57.484)

I would say it was slightly different in the sense of, you know, the podcast, there were fears that came up and in this fierce came up. I don't know. It's a great question. I haven't considered that. I haven't considered whether it was a different feeling or the same feeling. It might be similar. Okay. Okay. This is, this is a route, a road that I want to travel. And, and I said, who do I know that's a hypnotherapist?

I remembered, there's this woman named Grace Smith who I really enjoyed interviewing on my podcast. I spoke to her twice. She has a school. So I started to look into the school and I was like, wow, this feels right. And you know, this isn't a past life hypnotherapist. That's weird. You know, I don't want to do that, you know, but like a regular hypnotherapist, people go to hypnotherapists for smoking or weight loss. That's very common. Let me try that. And even though I'd read these two impactful books,

I was not in the place of I'm going to be a past life hypnotist. That's too much for me. though I... So... And that was like six months ago, you know? And so then I started to study and I loved it. And I was like, wow, I love school now. All of a sudden, I never liked school in my life. Now I'm loving it. Then I started taking clients on in last three months. And I was like, wow, I love doing this. This is so fun.

Then some of those clients have had past life experiences unprompted. And it's like, I really want to do, I want to be a pathotherapist. And I'm like, what is this? What is going on? But, but I know that that's the ego. I'm talking right there from an ego level of like, what is, I don't want to do this without making me, but the soul is saying, this is your path. You know, this is enjoyable. This is fun. This is.

speaker-0 (58:36.206)

So.

speaker-1 (58:55.306)

actually very useful for people. This is useful for yourself. And I don't know if I'm going to be a past life hypnotherapist for the rest of my life, but I know that hypnotherapy as a modality is very near and dear to my heart and it's very useful and it makes me feel useful and it helps people. So I'm just going to continue doing that and continue walking that path wherever that takes me.

speaker-0 (59:20.598)

Something I've heard you mention in a conversation of ours a while back is that, and it goes to what you're saying right here of, I don't know how long I'll be doing this. that you say you live in the next step. How does that, I guess either.

help you with your fears, or just sort of guide you through life.

speaker-1 (59:47.766)

Yeah. When you read a book like the Surrender Experiment by Michael Singer, which I'm rereading now for the fifth or sixth time.

speaker-1 (59:58.146)

You get the sense of someone's life and the sort of life that is exciting for me to live and is not for everyone. The sort of life that's exciting for me to live is, don't know. I don't know how this will unfold. And I'm open to seeing how it might, and I'm open to seeing how life is guiding this process. It's a scary way to live for a lot of people, and I don't recommend it for everyone. It's just, this is my experience and this is what

how I desire to go into this thing called life. When you realize from reading a book like the surrender experiment is.

speaker-1 (01:00:37.656)

This guy could have never predicted how his life was going to end up. Never. life was showing him something that was infinitely greater than what he could have imagined for himself. But...

He starts through a circumstance of events. starts a construction company. And then there's just a guy who shows up to one of his meditations. Who's like, I have a housing license. And then the next day someone comes up to him and says, Hey, could you build me a house? And it's then how is that guy supposed to be a guy who does coding 10 years later and who then works for WebMD? Like it, it doesn't make sense.

And if you look at your own life, could kind of see that for anyone. Let's say it doesn't make sense. I couldn't have predicted that I'd be in this moment with this boss 10 years in the past. And so.

speaker-1 (01:01:44.13)

By focusing on the next step, by focus on what life is showing you right now and showing you, okay, I can walk this one. I could step here. I can go to this podcast episode. can surrender to being a past life hypnotherapist. I can just see what is going to happen. Don't know what a year from now is going to hold. I spoke to a really wise friend of mine on the phone. said, I have no idea where I'm going to be a year from now.

They're like, yeah, I couldn't predict that for you either. And that to me is exciting and scary, but also exciting. so I just, one step at a time.

speaker-0 (01:02:23.842)

The exact same way. Yeah. Where.

speaker-0 (01:02:29.806)

truly don't believe in goals anymore, seems like. Where what feels right in the moment, continue to follow that. Because if you continue to follow it, it's got to lead somewhere good. And then just taking it from there. So taking things in the exact opposite direction where we're saying like, okay, next step, mindset through life, surrendering to the future.

phrase that you just used here when it came to hypnotherapy, being a past life hypnotherapist, for many people don't know exactly what that is. Explain what past lives are and all that work when it comes to hypnotherapy.

speaker-1 (01:03:13.036)

Yeah.

speaker-1 (01:03:16.618)

So for full transparency, I have not conducted a single past life hypnotherapy session yet. so it's very much something that I'm excited to step into. The idea of past lives, came to me through the book, many lives, many masters, and you were born to be together again. And, journey of souls by Michael Newton. And basically what these hypnotherapists do is.

They take people into a trance, into a theta brainwave state. And they start asking questions about regression and regression means, okay, if I asked you right now, what your fourth birthday was like, you have any idea where you went or what happened?

speaker-0 (01:04:11.532)

I could take a guess, I can't remember if it's my fourth or not. Right. But... No.

speaker-1 (01:04:15.736)

What about your first? No clue. Okay. So that will be the case for a lot of people, right? They have no clue where they were on their first birthday. And people often say, okay, well, past lives can't be real because I don't remember them. And so that's a very common thing that comes up and it's like, okay, what happened on your first birthday? Most people will not be able to tell you, which is understandable. So basically,

What they did was they took people to their first birthday. They were able to tell you exactly what happened on their first birthday, who was there, how it went when they're in this subconscious theta brainwave state. Then they say, okay, what happened before your first birthday? What happened in the womb? What happened?

before the womb and that's where it got interesting. And what I found from doing my hypnotherapy sessions is that some people will spontaneously go back to lives that are not their own life. And so let's say that somebody has trouble speaking and using their voice. I mean,

I've been in a hypnotherapy session as a facilitator where the person is remembering being persecuted for using their voice and crying so viscerally that it's

speaker-1 (01:05:50.252)

I've never seen someone cry like that. What's going on there? So it just raises questions and it raises curiosities. what I know from my reading is that.

If you're listening to this podcast, you've probably experienced the past life at some point.

speaker-1 (01:06:14.092)

That is such a trippy thought because I don't, cannot recall right now specific past lives other than the ones that I've uncovered while doing hypnotherapy.

speaker-1 (01:06:28.536)

But.

Yeah, it's an exciting thing that I'm excited to dive deeper into because I think our past, there are some kids who they have specific personalities and specific ways of being. So what is that? It's like, how could some kid be so good at basketball and some kid be so good at the piano? And yeah, their parents are that way, but sometimes their parents are not that way. I don't know, those are some thoughts.

I'm not attached to any of these ideas and also I genuinely believe them in this moment.

speaker-0 (01:07:10.37)

Well, it's unpacked, huh?

speaker-0 (01:07:17.218)

And would you say?

speaker-0 (01:07:23.95)

purpose of wanting to dive deeper into that work. I'm not saying you as the hypnotherapist, but for somebody to be like, yeah, I want to have a past life hypnotherapy session. it.

speaker-0 (01:07:39.886)

Just wanting a greater knowing of who you are or what is, I guess, the deeper purpose behind it.

speaker-1 (01:07:45.944)

think you go to a past life hypnotherapist either to explore yourself in a deeper way or there's some issue that doesn't make sense and that you're really trying to solve or work through or figure out that you've tried talk therapy with or you've tried, it just won't go away. So I think that's why someone would try it out if they weren't interested in just the broader sense of I'm trying to understand myself more.

speaker-0 (01:08:15.83)

And so what does that work look like for you right now in real time to be the person to be able to do that?

speaker-1 (01:08:23.318)

In real time, this is me reading a book called Past Life Awakenings by Mark Beall at the end of last year and feeling that same feeling of I'm supposed to learn from this guy. The questions that he asked people while in this hypnotic state are so good. And he, I really appreciate his presence and I really appreciate how he's helping guide people and he knows something that I want to know. And so.

I reached out to him, started my training on Sunday and he's got a bunch of videos that I'm going through and he has assignments for me to complete. And so that's what I'm currently doing in this moment is just studying and learning. then in the next couple of weeks, we'll be taking on a couple of clients as well. So that's the process where.

we're going to do a session and then he's going to be able to review it or review my notes from it and go back and forth on that. So that's what I'm going to be working on.

speaker-0 (01:09:27.426)

You think purpose comes from past lives?

speaker-1 (01:09:30.059)

I do. I do think they're connected. I think that, you know, I've, I've experienced past lives as a teacher, where like the road has led me to teaching and sharing with others. And how else could a 13 year old kid start a blog on helping people to live better lives? Like that's a rare thing. So I didn't, my parents,

were not like that. They didn't have self-help books around the house or you know what I mean? So to me, it makes perfect sense that I was a teacher at some point in a different life, in many lives. And so I think that's also the case for other people as

speaker-0 (01:10:12.536)

The reason why I bring that up is because I'm Catholic. I go to church every single week. I'm very faith-based, but not to the point where I know much about scripture or the history of Christianity, but

there are lines of scripture to Timothy and.

In chat GPT, like I just said, like, what do you think there's some good, cause like there'd be times where I'd be in mass where I'm like, man, like this passage to Timothy like just hits too close to home or like aligns too closely. And that's why I asked about like the relationship between past lives and purposes because it was like, there's just too much of a correlation here. And I asked chat GPT like,

What do you think are some other good lines of scripture to Timothy that you think I would like? And there's one passage of scripture where I'm like, this could literally be my life. And I got, I literally just got chills saying that. And I'm like,

speaker-1 (01:11:25.9)

Wow.

speaker-0 (01:11:32.258)

Like, does that come from? Like there were like four or five like specific parts within it as well from scripture where I'm like, this aligns directly with things that I've experienced in my life.

speaker-1 (01:11:46.254)

What about it?

speaker-0 (01:11:52.024)

There was, there's one part of it that talks about,

speaker-0 (01:12:01.196)

you know, not just the focus on physical work, but godly work. And that

transition aligns correctly where, you know, we have spoken a lot about like the gym was my thing. Like my focus was the physical. Like that's all it was for me. And then there was this.

pretty quick shift it seemed like where at the start it was probably almost like with you kind of like a feeling of fear and discomfort of like, whoa, like this is, this is weird. Like what's going on here? Like this just doesn't hit like it used to. And I think it went to that component of, I'm not just focused on the physical anymore. And then also with the podcasting because I was like,

It talks about your hearers. And I take that as podcasting. Your hearers.

speaker-1 (01:13:01.88)

You're what was? You're. Yeah. Like the people who hear you. Yeah. Got it.

speaker-0 (01:13:07.276)

like you're speaking and so like you're here. And I was like, there's gotta be a component of this for like why the podcasting feels so good, like from this passage. So that's why I was asking about that. Cause I think it's so fascinating and the fact that it's my name.

speaker-1 (01:13:10.082)

Got it. I've never heard that word.

speaker-1 (01:13:25.93)

Yeah, yeah, that's true. I actually didn't think of that. Cause I see you as Tim, but wow.

Yeah. And it would be interesting to take you to that state and see what comes up and, you know, ask you about where were you on January 1st?

50 AD or something like that, you know, like.

speaker-0 (01:13:51.15)

I think what really sunk in for me when you were just saying it right here of like, where were you on your first birthday? And you go, well, I don't remember, I don't know. And so it's like, well, remembering shouldn't be the factor for you then.

speaker-1 (01:14:07.854)

Remembering cannot be the factor of what is real and what is not. Yeah. And that is a trippy thought. If you just spent an hour meditating on that thought, you would get to some wild places because our memories are something that we hold so near and dear to our hearts. Like the way I'm describing to you the story, in 2019, this happened, in 2020, this happened, in 2021, and this is all not who I am.

I am the one witnessing the story unfold. I am not the actual guy, Danny. Danny is a name that my mom and dad gave me, but I cannot be that. That could change at any time. I can't be the height that I am. I can't be the weight that I am. I can't be any of that because all of that changes and what changes is not real. yeah, I...

It's very-

if you are interested in diving deeper into this.

speaker-1 (01:15:16.312)

To recognize that you are not your thoughts, that you are not your memory is a weird but true thing to realize and to connect with.

speaker-0 (01:15:29.428)

Word that you used a lot throughout our conversation. Soul, which I love based off of the name of the show now. it. What is the soul mean to you?

speaker-1 (01:15:43.628)

The soul means the part of ourselves that we can't see that is actually witnessing the entire journey. If a person, a soul is connected to the personality, a soul is the part of you that's connected to God. A soul is the part of you that's connected to love. If you look at a human body, which I've not done, but

the human body has a life and then it doesn't have a life. So like you walk in on someone who has recently just died. I have not experienced that to my memory. don't know, but the difference, what's the difference between those two? The difference is that the soul has left the body. Everyone would say that. And so,

The soul is the part of yourself that animates life.

And the part of yourself that animates life is connected to light and connected to God.

speaker-0 (01:16:57.966)

question to go on the inverse of that. If you're saying the soul is connected to light, would you say identity is connected to dark? Would you go that far or no?

speaker-1 (01:17:06.818)

I don't think so. think identity is what we create, is what the soul creates when they're in the physical body. Identity makes you feel comfortable. It's not true. It's not true that I was a podcaster. It's not true that I'm a hypnotherapist. It's true that putting and trying on those identities were useful and helpful to make me feel more at home in my body.

It's the same thing as a home itself. An identity is like a home. If you have a physical home, makes you feel good. It makes you feel good, I can go to sleep at night. I know where I'm gonna, if I travel, I can come back to. It's not true that that's who you are. You're not your home, but it makes you feel good. That's how I think about identity.

speaker-0 (01:17:59.266)

Danny, it's been great talking with you today. Where can people go to learn more about you? Any other info you'd like to share?

speaker-1 (01:18:08.002)

Yeah, so you can go to dannymoranda.com and send me an email danny at dannymoranda.com too. I'd love to hear from you. Love to hear what you thought about this episode. I also, I'm very excited because I just finished today a confidence hypnosis and I'm going to give that away to everyone that signs up for my email list. So check that out at dannymoranda.com and

Yeah, man, it was an absolute pleasure. Love talking to you. Love talking to you on the the mic, off the mic. I appreciate all the insights, the wisdom and the questions. It's awesome.

speaker-0 (01:18:48.27)

Awesome. Great talking with you today.